necessary for christmas in st. george

because of the fact that we can't have a white christmas here in southern utah there a few activities that are completely necessary in order to feel complete christmas spirit. 

1. when you and your friends come across a herd of reindeer in your town it is completely necessary to hop on them and snap a few pics. even if the pics don't turn out the best.

2. every last house that has insane christmas lights must be found and visited in one night. this night may or may not include hot chocolate. 

3. pictures must be taken with all of these wonderful lights.

4. if the garage and front blinds are open you must take the risk and sneaky sneak to the great yard decor. especially if it is a large blow up grinch.

5. do all previously mentioned requirements with amazing and wonderful friends.

update...

we got karstons results back. it may be hard to explain but i will give it my best shot.

the doctor said that there is something in your heart that makes it beat (duh). well karston has two of those things. the doc also said that it is very common to have more than one of those help-your-heart-beat things so there is nothing we should be seriously concerned about..except for the fact that he might pass out on very rare occasions. because he has two of those beating things there is one that is the main one which almost always will initiate the heartbeat, this leaves the other one to just hang out and not do anything. then that second one gets sick of not doing anything so it will just start to make his heart beat. when this happens the number one heart-beat-helper takes a break because the heart only needs one of them to be functioning. that is all fine and dandy until the second heart-beat-helper decides it is done helping and quits. when this happens the first heartbeat thing almost always will pick right back up. BUT..if it doesn't kick it into gear fast enough then karstons heart will miss a beat which can lead to him passing out. the doctor said he can go the rest of his life without ever passing out from that occurrence again so it was just a weird day! regardless...we are glad that nothing scary came back in tests. we love our karsty!

happy as can be...

raspberry pomegranate sorbet+hailey+home alone+hardest finals completed

=happy as can be!

pure talent...

this.

is.

fantastic.

don't you think it is pretty cool that our father in heaven blesses all of us with talents? obviously these two got the singing talent in their little bag when they came down to earth! so grateful that we can enjoy both our own and others talents!

finally...

tonight marks the night that the very last page in this book was memorized.

Dear Human Anatomy, you were great fun but I'm glad you are done!

my dear friend Wyatt and I have spent hours and hours studying for this class together. Final is in the morning, hopefully it all pays off! Hooray for being done looking at dead smelly bodies.

little trooper...

Yesterday Karston had quite the day. To give a brief overview he passed out twice (at home and at school while at recess), spent the rest of the day in the ER getting test after test ran on him, arrived home hooked up to a heart monitor around six thirty and had to stay on the monitor until six o'clock tonight.

So far the tests that have been done have come back negative so we are hoping that the last round (which should come back on friday) come back clear too. He absolutely hated the heart machine but was pretty brave and quite the trooper!

he seemed to be completely normal today so that is a great sign! here is to hoping and praying that it was just a weird day and that nothing yucky comes back in results on friday!

love him.

64 days...

...until a certain airplane lands in Hawaii.

That certain plane will have me and the rest of the Rebs on it.

can't wait to live in a swimmer for a week, eat fresh pineapple and take wonderful naps on the beach. I can fit one person in my suitcase...start fighting for the spot right now!

dear Hawaii...I can't wait to see you!

my november...

This month has been crazy busy but oh so fun.

Get ready for picture overload my friends!!

The very first weekend of the month the Rebs spent two days freezing our bootys off at Sunbrook golf course for a fundraiser. When I say freezing I mean FREEZING!

Pretty sure I consumed more hot chocolate in those two days than I ever have before. Even though it was freezing it was lots of fun to be with the team!

On the second day of the golf tournament we also had to go and perform at our very last football game of the season. We all thought we were going to get pneumonia! Not only were we frozen rock solid from our morning at the golf course but now we had to put on tights, spandex shorties and spandex tank tops. It was pretty miserable but made the memory of the last football game that much better!

My very last football game at DSC. Definitely a bitter sweet day. Love my Rebs to death!

As you can see below...Hailey and I got ourselves into a predicament. We headed bowling with some friends from the basketball team and....well...we did a little bit of trash talking...made a bet...and...lost the bet.

We now owe these boys dinner from a previous bet made AND losing our bowling bet ended with us owing them breakfast too. At least boys are easily satisfied with food right?!

Have I ever mentioned...I LOVE THIS GIRL!!! Seriously she is amazing. Always there for me no matter what the situation!

Hailey has babysat these kids forever and since her and I spend most of our time together I started going over whenever she tended them. Now I have myself some cutie little friends named CJ and Kenz! We went to Fiesta Fun and munches this night. CJ is a little flirt and totally made my day with his cute little comments!

Thanksgiving break was so fun to be with family and catch up with friends from high school that came home! My first visitor was the lovely Jessica Pederson! Seriously love her to death. I will have to get a good picture of us here soon and get it on here. She came over and we talked and talked and talked until her family was ready to kill me because I kept her away from them for too long. Thanks for being such a great friend love!

Then later that night a bunch of us girls from high school met up at Menchies and chatted to our hearts content about every possible subject.

I love Menchies spoons! haha.

Miss these girls like crazy! I think it is pretty cool that we all still keep in touch and can sit down and just talk for hours without ever skipping a beat. Come back home soon girls!!

Thanksgiving day was spent with my parents and my two brothers this year. We missed all our extended family but it was so fun to just chill at home all day with the family! No pictures were taken because all of us stayed in our sweats all day...don't judge us! ha.

The day after Thanksgiving a few of us met up again to go see Abduction. If you like looking at a hottie mcbody for an hour and a half I recommend the movie for sure. Taylor Lautner..so sexy..enough said. After the movie Courtney introduced us to a new holiday activity. We are no longer Tim Tam slam virgins!

hot cocoa + tim tam cookies = yummy!

I could only eat two cookies and a few swallows of hot chocolate before I was in a chocolate coma but it was completely worth it for the experience.

Mini Golf anyone? I love having Karston around because we get to go to fun stuff to keep him entertained. In other words...I went to Fiesta Fun twice this month. I know, I know you are all so jealous ;)

i.love.my.brothers.

whew! Sorry for the novel of a post. Welp folks...that was my November! I'm sure December will be just as crazy so be prepared!

those missionaries...

Today I got to attend a mission farewell for one of my friends from high school. He did AMAZING and the spirit was so strong, as I sat in the congregation simply listening to him had such an impression on me. I started to think about missions and all the friends and people that I have been associated with that have served them, boy am I grateful for each one of them!

Today I thought a lot about how my faith has grown from them and their dedication to the lord. Seriously, even if us girls don't serve missions we have the opportunity to have friends and family teach us some insanely valuable and faith building lessons just by their examples and experiences. I love being able to read their blogs or emails that their wonderful moms put together. There is never a time that I haven't felt the spirit when hearing about one of their experiences.

I feel so blessed to have so many great friends that have dedicated two years of their lives to selfless service for our father in heaven. Keep on keepin' on boys us girls back home miss you but we love so much what you are doing!

my dad...

I have a pretty bomb dad. Want to know why?!

Well I could spend all night listing the reasons but for now I will just say one thing.

He always, always makes sure I know how loved I am. Yesterday wasn't the greatest day in my book and he did everything he could to make me feel better. The day ended and I went to bed and want to know what I woke up to?! My sweet dad standing right by my bed he looked down at me and gave me a kiss on the forehead and said "good morning, you are beautiful. Don't forget it."

The cool thing is that he doesn't just say this when I have had a bad day. He tells me EVERYDAY. There is hardly a day that goes by that he doesn't tell me how beautiful or amazing I am. It isn't so much the compliments that make it so sweet to me but the thought behind it and how much I know he cares each and everyday of my life!

Yeah....he is the man!!

Addicted...

I know, I know...my last post was a clip but I couldn't resist with this one!

The beautiful Hailey Hammer introduced me to this and now I am addicted to it.

Fact: I listened to it ten times today.

If you see me singing my lungs out while driving down the road...this is what I am pretending to sing masterfully.

Mrs. Darcy

For no reason other than the fact that this melts me all the way to the core.

can i get a little more time?...

Beware: This post is more of a "journal" post so it may make your eyes droopy and your gag reflex act up but feel free to read on...don't say I didn't tell you so though!

This week I have had a few opportunities that have really opened my eyes and given me the desire to do so many more things in my life. What might these things be? I shall tell you.

I have always known that I like to help people. For some reason being able to make someone exceptionally happy or even just to help them with a simple everyday task. Helping ease someone's burdens or even eliminating one thing from their to do list really brings a warm fuzzy to my heart. This past week however I had the realization that this is something that I should act on. For whatever reason this desire to help is present

so I have decided I better do something with it!

What will I do? That is still in the works but believe me I will do something. This much I do know..I want to work with people and make it possible for them to absolutely LOVE their life because I absolutely love mine! Yes, things do not go exactly how I want or plan all of the time and yes there are days when I should be shut in the closet because of my attitude. Regardless...I am so blessed and life is such a humbling and amazing journey that I am absolutely loving. So why not help others who may not currently feel this way find a way to get to that point?

Now.........All I need is about ten more hours in the day to be able to accomplish all that I want to do with this life of mine :)

the three little tricksters from p town...

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to go with this post BUT I had a very fun surprise this weekend!! Thursday night around midnight my dearest Jessica called me and told me to come outside my house because she came home for the weekend. Excitedly I ran down the stairs in my pajamas (retainer, turquoise polka dot pj pants and a bright yellow t-shirt from high school....cute right? HA) and out the front door. Upon opening the front door I did not see Jess' little mazda but I saw a truck parked across the street from the Bauman casa. For those of you who don't know...Green Valley is kind of a dicey place..there always seems to be some creepy creepsters roaming around. Because of this fact my first thought when seeing the parked truck was "great Jess is going to show up and there is going to be a creepy person outside too" then my second thought was "wow...that truck looks exactly like Jordan's truck...no Alyssa it's not his truck he is in provo studying in the library."....I was pretty confused!

When I didn't see car lights coming around the corner I called out "who is out there?!" Guess whose voice talked back?!! Jordan's and Jessica's and Stephen's!! HOORAY!!!!!

They got me good. I had no clue. BEST SURPRISE EVER!!

Some of the weekend events.....

-getting locked out of my house with them because I was too excited to inform my parents I was going outside

-freezing ourselves to death while laying on my tramp at one on the morning where it was proven again that Jordan and Stephen have no volume control haha

-almost killing myself on the Indo board

-Just dance 3

-watching Disturbia....Jordan wanted to watch a scary movie SOOO bad.....not!

-shining "certain" lights at "certain" moving objects from a "certain" backyard

-devouring delicious caramel apples courtesy of Jess and her momma

-watching Despicable me

I had quite the fun weekend with these three little tricksters and the best part is......I get to see them again next weekend! WHOO HOO!!!

did you know I have nine sisters?

ten girls. a small team but it is perfect.

we are all so close and I can honestly say that each and every one of the girls have a very special place in my heart!

here we are at the homecoming parade...

post halftime pic courtesy of the wonderful Marsh Babe Hammer...

we like..we like to party! but we missed our Lucy this night :(

...and yes...we are all WEIRD. Never have I laughed so hard as I have with these girls and that is the honest truth. I spend more time with them than I do with my family and I live at home. Seriously would not trade any of them for the world!

houston...we have a problem

I. CAN'T. SLEEP.

this is a new problem I have encountered.

I used to fall asleep every time I sat on my bed and now I basically have to bore myself to death to fall asleep some nights.

Any ideas to remedy this problem of mine?!

cheers to this...

- getting to spend my weekend with my mom, grandma and aunt. these three are like best friends to me. LOVE them so dang much.

-not having any homework to do tonight

-apartment searching for next year with Hailey dear!

-having some quiet time to ponder and think hard about life

-looking at pictures from last year's dance team trip to Hawaii

-reminding myself that we will be there again in four short months

-remembering how completely and fully happy i was on this specific day snorkeling and swimming with my rebs!

-having a passion for dance and thinking about how much it means to me and how i never EVER want to quit. when all else has failed and people don't help dance has always been there to cheer me up and let me lose my cares

-good music...the kind that can make you smile and cry and laugh at the same time.

-amazing girls that i am lucky to have as friends that are always there to talk to

basically i have been feeling so blessed and grateful today for wonderful memories and parts of life that i can always have with me! and now...i must sleep so i can wake up in the morning and get my booty out of bed and workout! like i mentioned earlier...only four months until Hawaii. goodbye candy and sweets...you will be missed!

one of those rainy days...

technically Hailey came over to do homework........

instead we jumped on the tramp in the rain and laughed our heads off just like little children

who knows why the above picture turned out like this but it is basically AWESOME. It looks like Belles is getting exalted?!

now we are "doing homework"

yes....my pajamas say sweet dreams and have Eeyore on them...and yes they are footed pajamas...and yes I know you are oh so jealous ;)

hails to the belles...

spent tonight with one of my favorite people!!

coldstone-car dancing-karston's football game-i chatting with the peeps in the 480-eating one more breadstick-painting nails-baby mama-photobooth

LOVE THIS GIRL!!

my friends rock my socks!!

seriously though...I could not have been blessed with better friends!! there are many many more friends than are in this post that I am grateful for but these girlies in these pictures graced me with their presence this weekend. After a good night with them I have been going through pictures reminiscing on the times when we all lived in the same town and how many hilarious and awesome things we did together!! These pics are just a very few of the hundreds that I could have added to this post.

Here we are ringing in the New Year! We spent the last night of 2010 extremely well...party on wayne!

One night we all shared a very interesting game of silent football with complete strangers...all thanks to a made up person named Dan Hill. Here are Courtney Brynn and I with other peoples chewed gum on our head as part of Alicia's punishment!

ROADTRIP!! Us Jetettes that graduated in 2010 went up to watch Belle's last year of state drill. We ended the night with this shopping cart in Nikole's apartment!

Gentry and I looking fantabulous after a couple long days of Ambassador training. Yes...we went into public looking like this!

Belles and I on our way to our very first performance together as Rebelettes!

A day of adventure with the two Courtney's!!

Anywhoosers....today I have felt extremely EXTREMELY grateful for how amazing my friends are!! Seriously, we have the greatest times together laughing like idiots but then we can sit down and have serious talks about the gospel. Going to the temple together is one of our favorite things to do! Not only do we have wonderful times when we are together but we all know that every one of us has each others backs and we are always looking out for each other! Being with the Provo gals tonight again made me SOO excited for when I get to move up there and be close to them and have them so close again. Geez...I would be one lost puppy without these AMAZING girls! I feel so honored to call them all my friends!

P.S. this video was taken at the wonderful Stapley Pharmacy. Once upon a time Alicia and I worked together...I know what you are thinking "I bet they didn't get much work done while there together." ...go ahead and watch the clip and then decide for yourself. Yes...we are hiding behind the counter! haha

P.S.S....for whatever reason the computer has the video on this specific part of the clip until you press play?? Lishy girl please don't murder me!