One of the highlights of this weekend was getting to see Elinor, Bethany, & Clark. These three kids are such a joy in my life and each one is so unique. Clark is "all boy" and loves bugs and animals of all kinds. Bethany is our "princess" and loves make up and playing dress up. Elinor is the "mischievous one" and is very independent and has a great sense of humor! One of the joys of life is the differences of each individual personality. It is learning to love the unique parts of yourself.

Pictures from the funeral and the birthday party have been added to the gallery.

Life is so short, and I was reminded of that this weekend. I have been thinking about how we take for granted each precious moment that is given to us here on this earth. If we were to die tomorrow would we have done all the things that we would have wanted to, said the things we wanted to say, and been the people we wanted to be?

Reorganized the gallery ... I had everything alphabetical and now it is done chronologically so things are a little easier to find.

I added new pics from bowling on Saturday night and family home evening last night.

I hope everyone loves our new layout!

Surprisingly, I am out of words today, and so who better to fill that void than the amazing C.S. Lewis: "Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."

HAPPY CUPID's PASSOVER! (aka Valentine's Day, Single Awareness Day, and anything else you want to call it) I hope that everyone is having an amazing day! And because I feel that Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate all forms of love, I want to let all of my friends know how much I love them and am grateful for all that they do. It's the little things that matter the most. The emails, the smiles, the words of encouragement, etc. It means a lot!

Enjoy this funny story by Dave Barry.

Love you!
-Ali

P.S. New pics can be found here and here.
P.S.S. New layout & full site will be up tomorrow!

1. Been kissed: Yes.
2. Eaten sushi: No ... not really a seafood person.
3. Gotten hyper: Heck yeah!
4. Been dumped: Not officially dumped, but I have had my heart broken.
5. Eaten an entire pizza by yourself: Almost, but not quite.
6. Been a rebel: Not really ... I am not a very rebellious person.
7. Been drunk: No ... but I have seen many people drunk and passed out in their own vomit. (isn't that a pleasant visual)
8. Gotten in a car accident: yes unfortunately ... 2 of them and they were both when I was sixteen.
9. Ever liked someone older: Yep
10. Seen the white house: Yes
11. Hiked a mountain: Kinda ... not a full blown mountain and even that might not be considered hiking more like tripping up it.
12. Stayed home on a Saturday/Friday night just for the fun of it: Yes, because sometimes those nights are needed, but I would much rather spend them with my friends.
13. Thrown up or passed out on an amusement park ride: Nope
14. Made home made cookies (from scratch):  That is the best way ... might have to do that this afternoon.
15. Made out in a Love Sac (or something of the like): Nope ... just cuddled, but that was very nice.
16. Gone skinny dipping: No, but have always wanted to.
17. Traveled to Europe: Yes ... I lived there for three years and had the chance to travel all over from Germany, England, Netherlands, Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Lichtenstein, etc.
18. Gone bungee jumping or skydiving: Been bungee jumping once, but I doubt you would ever get me to jump out of a plane! (unless it was going to crash)
19. Done a spontaneous road trip: Yes ... down to Ephraim for a week for some much needed time to myself.
20. Been puddle jumping: Oh yes! One of the funnest things to do when I was at Snow College and on my mission.

I have the best friends! They are so fun and really make my life a lot more interesting. And in honor of them and their fabulousness (is that even a word?) I have redone the friend page.

I am a worry wort. It's part of my personality that at times drives me nuts. I guess it is part of my insecurities coming through. My most recent one is my photography. I have been taking pictures with my new camera and they aren't turning out as well as I think they should. So it is causing me to second guess my abilities. Maybe I should reconsider majoring in photography. Maybe I should just be a member of the paparazzi and follow people around taking bad pictures of them.

I decided that since it's almost Valentine's Day that it was time to do a new layout ... this year it features Gilmore Girls' couple Lorelai Gilmore & Luke Danes.

This past weekend was full of fun activities with my friends ... friday night found us at the institute playing volleyball and basketball and Saturday brought us to the movies to see "Phantom of the Opera".

And for those of you who didn't see me this past weekend, I dyed my hair to a dark brown with red highlights. Something new for me ... still getting used to it.

It has been a while since I have done this and I thouhgt it would be fun to add a few more to the list. Here you go:

Last night as I sat with two of my girlfriends we discussed how we treat others and how they treat us. The one thng that really stuck in my mind was that how we let certain people treat us one way when we would never let others do it. I have a few people in my life that aren't always the nicest to me and I let them treat me that way even though I would never let anyone else do it. This is not their fault ... yes they could be nicer, but I am the guilty party because I allow them to get away with it even though I know that I deserve better. The question I am asking myself now is "How do I change it?"

The small things in life are what make it so great! From clickable sharpies to diet coke with lime to a new cd to orange post-it notes to a candy bar to laughing with friends to puddle jumping in the rain to a walk with a friend.

I am in real need of some change in my life and the first place is going to be here. Any suggestions? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think I should do with the site? Anything you'd like to see added? Thing I should get rid of, etc...?

Anyone who knows me (even just a little bit) knows that I love my camera. I love taking pictures and I love sharing those pics with everyone (heck - if you didn't know this go check out the gallery!) Well as I previously mentioned I received a new camera for Christmas. Well this past weekend I bought a new compact flash card that has 512 MB of storage space and I decided to test it out. Let's just say I went CRAZY! I did a photoshoot with Katie on Saturday at the Draper Park, took pictures at lunch on Monday, and did a ton of shots at Family Home Evening. I know that I am probably driving all of my friends crazy taking all of the pictures, but through their pain I hope you find even just a little bit of enjoyment!

P.S. I also took some pictures on Friday night when we went bowling at Sandy Lanes. These aren't the best, but hey - you can still tell who everyone is - even if I did cut some heads off. And they call my a photographer!

I have had something on my mind these past few days. Last week I was cleaning out my desk and I found some letters that were written to me by friends from high school and from college. A couple of them said similar things such as that they realized just how much my friendship with them meant to them. These are words we all like to hear and they mean a lot. The thing that got to me though was that all of these were written after we were no longer together. So here is what I have been thinking about: Why do we take for granted the things that are right in front of us?

That is my new goal. To better appreciate the people and things that are apart of my life right now, at this moment. And to start out I want to say thank you to all of my friends. I am grateful that you are apart of my life. I am grateful for the crazy nights watching movies & playing games. I am grateful for the flowers found on doorsteps. I am grateful for opportunities to share Mt. Dew & Lumberjacks and listen to Counting Crows (but not after 8:30 pm). I am grateful for Phelpsie & Kocho and other crazy Animals. I am grateful for lunchtime runs to Siegfrieds to share conversation and spaetzle. I am grateful for seats saved at church and listening to testimonies shared. I am grateful for text (even if it does say you are engaged) and voicemail messages (yes I do have a photogenic behind). I am grateful for sugar shots and pineapples. I am grateful for practical jokes, even when they are at my expense (keep your lips & cologne to yourself). I am grateful for sharing pictures and cameras. I am grateful for emails and blogging. I am grateful for runs to Dee's at all hours of the night (love those Cheese Fries & Bacon). Most of all I am grateful that I get to share this existance with each of you.

I started my institute class night. It is called Christian History and covers the various Christian religions from the life on Christ until present day. It is going to be interesting to learn about various other beliefs and the events in history. I can't wait to learn more.

What a weekend! First off Friday proved to be one extremely hilarious and long day. We all got together at Brenda's house for a winter barbecue and ended up watching Homestarrunner.com's Strong Bad Emails. (if you haven't seen this I recommend going to the link under Right Now) We ended up hanging out until well after midnight. For pics go here.

I had the chance to catch up with an old friend from high school this week. It brought back many memories from the past and sent me on a scavenger hunt looking at my old scrapbooks and my high school video year book. My first thought while doing this was, "Did I really attend high school?" Next I realized just how much has happened in the past ten years and how many things have changed. I realized just how differently my life has turned out then I thought it would and how much I have learned in that time. I used to think I hated how things were and how they've turned out, but one thing I have learned is that everything happens for a reason and that everything happens in Heavenly Father's own due time. And because of these lessons I wouldn't change a thing.

Ok - this was way too funny to pass up and knowing my friends I think that you will all get a kick out of this!

Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?

Once you take the quiz, post your results in the comments section!

Every child has pets, and I was no exception. But the one thing is while I wanted dogs, my mom liked cats. Don't get me wrong, I really like cats, especially as kittens. But as a child the fun wore off when they grew out of the kitten stage, they were too independent and didn't want to play with me any more ... I could never understand why they didn't want to be dressed up in doll clothes and rocked in my baby craddle.

The one cat that I was the closest to was Bailey. I even got to name her (after my favorite cartoon in the Sunday paper, Beetle Bailey) and she was beautiful - a slick black with a white patch on her neck. But back in June, Bailey passed away at 18 years old. This was sad, and so my mom thought we should get a new kitten. Yeah I had done this before, when my dog Riley had passed away we bought me a beautiful dog named Ollie, but Ollie is not my dog, he is my mother's. And this was hard, and I wasn't sure I was ready for another pet. But after some persuasion my mom talked me into going and looking at these kittens that a lady at her work had found outside her house that needed a home. Enter Annie ....

One of the agreements I made with my mom in getting a new cat was that I got to name her. I choose to name her Annie Lou after my favorite photographer, Annie Lou Leibovitz. My mom wasn't too keen on the name and so she calls her Annabell (but just so you know her name is Annie not Annabell). I have never had a more loving cat before. Okay, she is loving to me. She barely will go to my mom, but she sleeps on my bed every night, curls up with me while I am watching television, wants to sit on my lap while I am on the computer, etc. She does the craziest things ... and sometimes she thinks she is the dog. She is my baby and I love her.

P.S. Pics from last night's paint fight (I mean FHE) are up!

Yesterday I came to a realization. I have always been one who believes that every person that is in your life is there for a reason. Sometimes for long periods of times and some for very short ones. Usually though when these people leave my life it is due to moves, deaths, marriages, and breaking of ties, etc. I never realized until yesterday that these people that are in your life while still being there. That not make sense, but let me try and explain.

Usually if you break ties the friendship ends even if you see them regularly, but for the first time I am still friends with a few people, and I still see them regularly but we just don't talk like we did, we don't spend time together like in the past. The important part of my life that they once were isn't what it once was, and I am not sure it will ever be. I am not blind enough to say that nothing happened to cause our friendship to get that way, but it still makes me sad in a way. Because knowing what you had makes knowing what you lost that much more difficult.

I have added two new categories of pictures. One from New Years Eve - went to First Night with some friends. The other is called Pranks: The Butt of the Joke. Kate & I like playing pranks ... just harmless fun. This time it was long over due pay back for my friend Matt. We took a bunch of pictures of people's butts and posted them on a poster board and put, "Hey Matt, how does it feel to be the butt of the joke?" Signed "The perrenial butt of your jokes." We then duct taped it to his front door.