my puppy Buster!

well, I finally got cord for my camera so I could put my pictures onto my computer. I'm excited, so I decided to share some of my favorite pictures from the last 2 months of my life. first off is my puppy! I missed Buster so much while I was in Italy, and it was great to be able to see him again and hang out on our bed. I'm not sure if he was as happy about it or not, but he was at least looking at the camera :)

San Diego Temple

where we went exploring

not long after getting home, I was off to San Diego for my friend Mae's wedding. I went to her house in August, so it was the second time in a year that I've been to San Diego, which is also a first for me. the weather was great, and I got to meet a few cool people.

Carissa and Garrett

monogrammed cup and bouquet

farewell to the bride and groom

our creative nativity

there were a few hours break between the actual wedding and the reception, so I found some cool people to hang out with and we went down to the beach in our dress clothes and went exploring a little bit. I had a lot of fun! both hanging out with Carissa and Garrett, and walking along the beach in such a pretty dress. We got to see seals, and I took quite a few pictures of those, although i didn't put any up here. we also went to lunch, and that was pretty good. I think I had a turkey burger, which was a first. I love having firsts! it definitely was a day of firsts for me. first wedding I was a part of, first time I hung out on the beach with someone I had just met, first time I had walked around in a poofy dress all day as if it wasn't that uncommon, first time I got to drive all the way to California by myself, and first time I rented a car that weekend. I feel so old now that I'm trustworthy enough to rent cars all on my own!

Buster the elf

at Grammy's celebration, Buster was even more excited!

this bouquet lasted a long time!

 and the wedding reception was pretty amazing in and of itself. Mae is basically the coolest person I know, so I wouldn't have expected anything else, but it was still amazing to see so many cool ideas in action. the food was soup and pie in individual pie tins. the bouquets were made out of succulents and hers had a pomegranate in it. and the best part of all was the 3 food long sparklers we lit and then they ran under them when they were leaving the party. with the sparklers being 3 feet long, they definitely lasted for a really long time as well, and after they ran through them 3 times, there were a lot of little kids that ran through because they could as well.

welcoming event of my Provo ward

Think Tangled

That's right, we lit lanterns and set them off

and they were huge!

When I got back home from the wedding, it was time to do all the last minute Christmas-y things. we had to set up the nativity, which actually went better this year than in years past because we had the missionaries over and Grammy, Aunt Laurie, Uncle John, and Ellie. that meant that everyone just had one thing to put up on the piano, and it wasn't quite as bad. except Maggie put up Mary and Joseph weirdly. they were looking down in wonder and awe at a cow.... but at least the wise men were kneeling to the right creature.

I convinced mom to buy Buster a one dollar Santa Hat and collar, for dogs from the Family Dollar we went into, and so on Christmas we put it on him. he didn't like it that much, and figured out how to get it off his head within a minute and a half of me putting it on him. but we managed to get it back onto his head a few more times, for pictures and just because he looked so adorable! I even deigned to wear a santa hat myself so I could pose with him and match. man, I love that dog so much!

later in the day we went to Grammy's to open all the Christmas presents we had over there from her and from the Bergrens. of course we couldn't nor did we want to leave Buster alone in our house, so he came along as well. I was super excited about all the stuff I got over there. there were a few books about Italy, which seems to be the only thing my family could think to get me. except I had also asked for a hat, since I got my hair cut right when I got back, so that my head wouldn't be as cold up in Utah in the cold weather we were bound to have up there. since I've been up here, that's been the biggest lie out there, with it getting up to the 60 more than once! but it is still nice to have the hat, and as soon as I figure out what to wear it with, I'll be wearing it more often. after Christmas, it was definitely time to start packing everything up again and getting ready to move back up to Utah. I hadn't been in Utah since memorial day weekend when we came up for Grandpa Carnahan's funeral, so I was ecstatic to see my friends again, a little nervous to meet my new roommates, and ready to start classes again after about a month of being totally with out anything productive to do. how little I realized that the ward had changed so much in 9 months!

The opening activity our ward did was the first Sunday we were all back in town. I knew a few people, but didn't even know my roommates very well yet, so I didn't know who to hang out with, especially since none of my roommates decided to join in the event. but the ward activities committee, or someone, got huge lanterns, like the ones in Tangled, the movie, and we set them off into the cold winter night air. it was so much fun getting the air into them, since they were nearly as tall as I am and then to light them and let the air inside heat up until it can float off into the night air. we had, I feel like, a hundred but we just kind of let them off when we got them lit and they were ready to go. that means we never got to see how  so many looked in the sky because by the time the last ones were lit and rising, the first bunch were too high to see, or had already fallen somewhere far from us. I think the funniest part though, was the fact that there were so many people who had just showed up, drawn to the lanterns. we started in a nearly empty parking lot, but by the time the last lantern was lit and starting to float up, there were dozens of cars, and there were half again as many people around our ward watching them go up or wondering if there were any more lanterns to be lit, and set off.

I know I already talked about Valentine's Day, but I finally have a picture of my valentine from Jason. he had delivered it at about 3 in the morning, by taping it to the apartment door.  with the roses I got, and the red rose that Ashley got from her nephew, I have come to realize that roses are my favorite flowers. they are just so gorgeous! although, I must say I always like receiving flowers, no matter from whom (as long as I decently like the person giving me the flowers). But that was everything that was on my camera. and now that I have a cord for my camera, I can start taking more pictures and putting them up on here again. and I'll have to start doing more exciting things to make it worthwhile to update my blog. but that's my life up to now. now I need to finish doing homework so I don't have to do it on Monday (President's Day, and the last day off school until finals are over...)

my "secret admirer" valentine