Early Birthday Hair Cut

I always like to change up some things when my birthday rolls around. One year I went to Disneyland...another we went out to a fancy Tournament of the Kings Jousting and dinner. This year I started with a whole new hairstyle. I went really short this time....with my hair being so thick, it gets really heavy the longer it gets. So I chopped it all off and got a cute pixie style haircut with highlights. Here are a couple of pictures:

The reaction I've gotten from my friends and family have been pretty positive...and I love it. It's a very no hassle style. I can towel dry it and go....and my hair for the first time feels weightless.

I think I'll keep this style for awhile.

New Years Resolutions

I'm really not one to make New Years Resolutions but this year I was feeling like I had developed some bad habits that need to be fixed, since moving in with my grandmother. The first bad habit was not getting up when my alarm rings...I'm not a morning person...so I tend to snooze a bit. But my first resolution was that I would get up with my alarm and study the scriptures and then exercise. I had stopped doing daily exercises the day I moved in.

 

 My next resolution was to get out and walk with my mom everyday after work. She is an avid walker and jumps at the chance to go. This goal gets me outside everyday and lets me work out all the stress I get from work.

 Next one is for exercising my mind. I plan on studying something new everyday for at least an hour. I've missed learning so I've set up a schedule of sorts: Monday - Astronomy, Tuesday - Folklore, Wednesday - Ancient History, Thursday - Geography / Travel, Friday - Art History / Architecture, Saturday - Middle Ages History, and Sunday - American / Church History. I've already started and am having a blast.

Next I have gotten in the bad habit of moving from the couch watching TV to my bed watching stuff on my kindle...so I've decided I'm only allowed to watch stuff on my kindle when I am working out on my elliptical. This gets me to fall asleep at a decent time.

I also set some weekly goals for myself. One being that I am going to cook two meals from scratch each week. Since moving in with grandma it has been a little difficult finding things we both like to eat and I like to cook...so my mom has taken over trying to get food for grandma and I'm just going to relax and cook what I enjoy....I miss cooking.

And my other weekly goals are that I'm going to try and paint or work on crafts a little bit. And I am going to try and find at least 1 hour a week to work on my novel....we shall see if I can do it....To really motivate myself I wrote these all down and taped them to my closet door so I see them every morning when I get up.

I've almost made it six days and have managed to keep all my daily goals so far. I'm very proud of myself...here's to the rest of the year going as well!

More Arts and Crafts

This year I'm hoping to do more arts and crafts. So to start with here are a few things I've worked on these last couple of weeks. One of my co-workers gave we a coupon to the Wood Creations shop here in town. So I went and bought this neat welcome sign for my front room. It turned out pretty good.

First I stained the wood

Next I Mogpogged some paper to the front

Then added the "Family and Friends" letters

Added some ribbons

Then I painted some brown around the edges and cut the ribbons a little bit and it was completed:

And it matches the reds in my front room.

The second project was with maps....I had seen how someone on the internet had taken some maps of where they had lived and framed them. I took the idea and put my own twist on it. Since I've lived in so many different locations from California to Oregon to Washington and Idaho, Hawaii, Utah and finally Nevada...it was pretty fun.

I bought a cheep road map book of the USA and cut out the maps I needed. Then I crumpled them up and tore the edges. I tried antiquing them but since they were color it didn't work quite like I thought...Then I cut out some pictures out of an old calander and did the same with them. I took three flat canvas and painted them black. Then I laid my cutouts on top and mogpogged them to the canvas.

 

Then after they dried I bought matching frames and got them framed and hung up in my front room. They turned out way better then I thought. And it is a fun memento to everywhere I've lived.

Sacramento, Martinez, Concord, CA and Hillsboro, Oregon City, Mulino, OR

Rexburg, ID; Laie, HI; Tacoma, Lakewood, WA

Orem, Lehi, American Fork, Beaver, UT and Las Vegas, NV

All hung in a row

Here is to a whole year full of more fun and amazing arts and crafts.

R5 Concert New Years Day

Around about April of last year I discovered a band called R5. Its a group made up of 4 siblings (Riker, Rydel, Rocky and Ross Lynch) and a friend (Ellington Ratliff). The youngest and lead singer (Ross) was an actor on the Disney Channel show Austin & Ally (which is a really cute show by the way.) This last spring they just put out their second album and started touring all over.

I bought their album in August

In October they announced that they would be putting on three shows in Vegas during New Years. I was pretty excited and curious about going. I talked my sister-in-law, Nicole, into coming with me so I got two tickets for their last show on January 1st. They were playing at the Venetian Casino down on the Strip.

Nicole and I headed out around 6pm, we stopped at Jimmy Johns for dinner and made it down to the casino just in time for the show.

 

The theater was very gothic in design...it felt like we should be watching Phantom of the Opera or something...not a rock band. We were seated pretty far back but it was still fun. We got a kick out of watching the very young fans that surrounded us. The average age of R5's fans are about 14 years old. Mostly because of they were fans of Ross, having seen him on Disney.

They had their very youngest brother (Ryland) open for them. He's a DJ. And he was great at getting the audience excited for the show. R5 puts on a great show. They got on stage about 9pm and after their encore, it finally ended at 11pm...but it really felt like they hadn't been on long enough. Their music is pretty good and I would go and see them again in a heart beat. I'm so glad I was able to go.

My new favorite band. :)

New Years 2016

I was able to get New Years Eve off of work. It was nice having a relaxing day to bring in the new year. Mike, Nicole and I went and got new hair cuts in the afternoon. Then into the evening I actually had people to hang out with. My friend Brynne was DJ-ing a single adult dance at my church, so my brother Doug and I went and made an appearance at it. It's was fun hanging out with friends and listening to good music....I even might have danced a little.

Our DJs

Me and Doug fooling around

We left the dance a little early to get home in time to bring in the new year with my parents and Mike and Nicole...we found them out in the backyard roasting marshmallows and making s'mores....it was about 30*F out too, the sillies.

At mid-night we popped open the Martinellis Sparkling Cider....and toasted the new year.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Hope everyone has a great year!

Christmas 2015

I had to work all the way up until 3:30pm on Christmas Eve this year, but it was still a great day. I got home and went over to my parents. I helped make some sugar cookies and other goodies. The Saturday before we had made tons and tons of goodies from Buck-eyeballs to fudge and brownies...Mom and Dad gave out about 14 plates of goodies to neighbors and friends. We got to keep the leftovers. I planned on spending the night on the couch and so I got to help "Santa's Helper" aka Mom set up some of the Christmas things. Mainly the table setting. I folded the napkins to look like Christmas trees. Here are some pictures of Christmas Eve:

 

Then we all went to bed and actually didn't wake up until around 7:00am...We got to open our stockings first then we got dressed and had our traditional waffle, ice cream and strawberries breakfast.

Most yummy breakfast ever!!

Then while we were waiting for grandma to get up and get ready, Dad read his version of the birth of Jesus Christ out of the Bible. Then after grandma had joined us. We started opening presents.

Dad reading the Birth of Jesus

Grandma opening her stocking

Dan had more fun watching others open gifts than he doing it

 

My loot...not a bad year

I was reminded that I was a grownup when I got excited about new matching silverware

Then we spent the rest of the day enjoying each others company and then we had a nice dinner with ham...and then we ended the day Facetiming with my older brother's family in Seattle.

Great Christmas...loved that I got to spend it with most of my family....Merry Christmas everyone!!

Pre-Christmas Fun & Mike's Birthday

Mike and Nicole had a fun idea to have a Grinch themed evening. So they made "roast beast", "Who Hash" and "Who pudding"...with Grinch heads made out of fruit...then we watched the live action Grinch movie.

Here are some pictures of the fun:

 

Then on the 21st was Mike's birthday. My brother Doug took him to see the Star Wars movie while I was at work...then that evening we went to the Magical Forest to see the Christmas lights. It was pretty cool...but very crowded.

Little Dan LOVES teddy bears...so he really liked this guy

 

 

 

 

Then we went home and had Mike blow out candles on an ice cream cake he picked out.

 

Happy Birthday Mike!...Hope you have a great year.