Ciao 2012...

So, Here we are. 12-31-12. It's been crazy. yup. 

Here comes a new year!

I'm looking forward to so much in the coming year. I'm terribly excited about it. 

but for now, I'mma take a second and point out a few of my favorite discoveries of the past year! 

Bloggies:

Occasional Randomness

Time Is Passing

The Flybird

Hannah Nicole

These are blogs that I found this past year and that I just love to death. They're all beautiful ladies who's blogs I enjoy every single post. :) I've really enjoyed discovering new blogs and new people this year! 

Friends:

Caitria

Daniel

Abigail

Josiah

Aerial

Regan

These are all people I had "Known" before...ya know, but this year I feel like they're actually friends. Like people I look forward to hanging out with and enjoy being around. I'm so glad to know these people. I love it when God brings new people into my life! I can't wait to see who I'll meet in 2013. Maybe I'll just get to know some of the people I already "know" a little better! 

Movies:

The Avengers

Gladiator

The Illusionist

The Dark Knight Rises

The Bourne Legacy

These are a few of my new favorite movies! I'm pretty sure all of these except "The Illusionist" and "Gladiator" came out this year....anyways. yeah. Epic, epic movies. 

Celebs:

Tom Hiddleston 

Jeremy Renner

Matt Smith

I just, this year, fell in love with these people! They're all some of my top favorite actors ever now. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

I can't wait to see what God has in store for me in 2013! 

I've leaned so much this year. I've been through some rough times, and some not so rough times and some epic times and some not so epic times. They were all worth it. They're what makes life what it is, right? :) <3 <3

I don't have many resolutions....I'm going to restart and get all the way through the 60 day Insanity workout that I started las Summer. i only got halfway through it last year and really wanna do the whole thing this year! :D Plus, I'm going off soda for the year. I'm sure i can do it. I'm not terribly fond of soda anyway, so I figured I wouldn't have soda just 'cause when I can make a healthier choice! So, a year without soda. :) Here we come! 

I hope you had a beautiful 2012, and I hope 2013 is gorgeous. 

Happy New Year

{xx}

{P.S. sweet Giveaway over here. ^_^}

Things that say a lot about people

Saw Noni do this post earlier and  *loved* the idea, so here's my version! <3

My epic Pirate medallion from me bestie for Christmas! Isn't it great??

The way which they treat the waiter/waitress:

How they feel about the weather:

Whether they dog ear pages or highlight in books:

Fingernails:

And hands in general:

Their preferred creative outlet:

How much they dread/enjoy talking on the phone:

Whether or not they drink coffee:

If they ever forget to eat:

How honest they are with themselves (and others):

If they correct your grammar:

And whether or not they get nervous before a haircut:

-Personally, I always try to be very pleasant and polite to waiters and waitresses! I know they have a hard job and I've seen/heard about them being mistreated so much. plus, I love brightening other people's day, Even if it's just with a kind word or smile. :) 

-what kind of weather? Any? I love rainy days. so much. I adore snow. I love 80 degrees and sunshine best. really, there's only one kind of weather I hate...and that's when it's below freezing for days in a row and the sky is gray and dreary for weeks on end and the ground is hard and bare and the trees are skeletons...yeah. That's kind of depressing. It makes me terribly, awfully, antsy and moody...

-I don't dog ear pages...or highlight in books. mostly because I hardly own any books myself and it feels awful to do that to someone else's property. lol. plus, I just never felt the need to...

-my fingernails....um. Well, I keep 'em short mainly 'cause I play the violin and it's impossible to play with long fingernails and 'cause they love to break and that bothers me a lot. so I keep them short and, most of the time, painted. I love painted fingernails. honestly, they're painted more than they're not...^_^ 

-I love hands. I notice everybody's hands. Yes. I love them. I don't know when I started noticing, but I do. It's one of the first things I notice about someone....Min aren't special...not ugly, thank goodness, but I don't have pretty slender fingers or thin pretty hands. I guess....They're ok. lol. I dunno. 

-Creative outlet...I've recently decided that I really enjoy sewing. I'm pretty good at it too! I'm hoping to improve and get a lot better at it over the Summer. and I doodle....I don't call it art. but when I feel artsy, I pick up a pen or a pile of sharpies or a pencil and try to create whatever I know is in my head that I should be able to draw until I get so mad cuz it won't come out of my hands right that I just end up with a pile of scribbles....no, I'm not so artsy. *sigh* 

-I detest talking on the phone. I love text. I love chat. I love email. I hate talking on the phone an awful lot. I dread it like the plague. 

-Me and coffee are inseparable. Can't go a day without it. 

-HA! Me? forget to eat? nope. sorry. not this gal. :P 

-I think I'm honest with myself....I think...I hope! lol! 

-Guilty. ok. seriously. I live in good ol' MO. ya know, rednecks. I cannot stand someone saying "I seen" or "There weren't no..." or "I ain't got no.." ok?? haha. I'm constantly correcting grammar. though I will say, I only correct it to people I know very well and that don't mind so much. and only those glaring awful things. not small grammatical errors. I make enough of those myself to let them go when other people miss 'em. lol. 

-I love haircuts so much!! :D I've only ever been nervous for one haircut ever and that was when I was, like, 14 and was cutting my hair that was down to my waist off to my shoulders. I've never been nervous since. I love them. They make me very happy. 

I had lotsa fun putting this together!! You can do the same thing in the comments, if you like, or in a post of your own using the same questions! :D <3 

{xx}

{P.S. It's almost 2013!! Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. can you believe that??}

whatnot or whatever.

Well, Christmas has been and gone...in just a few days New years will be past. 

Then, Back to life. regular ol' life. lol. I can't say I'm really looking forward to it. I like having nothing to do all day except watch movies, play LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, Read you guys' blogs, eat candy, and be lazy. pft. lol. So, After New Years it's finishing up my senior year of highschool, Studying for my ACT test, orchestra, Work, and such. All those responsibilities and them. -_- ;) No, really. I don't mind getting back to school and stuff. The sooner I get to it the sooner I'm finished, right? :D 

Oh, By the way, I had a really wonderful Christmas. ^_^ I got some really epic/fun/lovely stuff! Also, My Uncle Jared gave my family a gift certificate to SIlver Dollar City so that we can get season passes this year!!! :D I'm so excited! I love that place. and I've missed it this year. Plus, The new ride, {Check it out! --->>The Outlaw Run<---}, is opening!! *squeal* It's gonna be so good. xD

and check this out: 

You've heard me gush about how much better French Press coffee is than coffee from a regular drip coffee pot, right? 

Ta-da!! :D Mum and Dad got me my own single serving French press. ^_^ I'm in love with it. now I don't have to make half-pots in the big one just for me anymore! I've already used it several times. It's amazing. lol. :D oh, and that amazingly adorable owl mug. :D Isn't it *cute*? (Oh, and it has *eleven* "whos" around the rim. coincidence? I think not! lol)

Anyways, good times. :)
My and my siblings are watching an old Kurt Russell Disney movie. These crack me up. ^_^
I hope the remainder of your Thursday is lovely.
<3

*Loki'd*

{xx}

Christmas Eve...

Merry Christmas Eve!

I hope it's been a lovely day for you so far! All we've done around here today is sleep in, clean house, bake, guess what the gifts wrapped under the tree could be, watch old tv shows, and look forward to tomorrow with loads of excitement.

With all the happiness and excitement though I'm feeling so very sad for the families of the two firemen who died in N.Y. today...The world is so messed up. It makes me sick. This country needs Christ *so* badly...

Anyways...

Last night was so nice. Me and my two older brothers, Daniel (21) and micah (19), and my little sister (16), went bowling with a friend and were the only people in the whole alley besides the guy working at the front desk. We bowled a few games and played some pool then went to Starbucks and got coffee. Starbucks closed early though so after we got our coffee the five of us went and sat in my brother's car where it was warm and just talked about anything and laughed so much. It was awesome. ^_^

I'm excited for tomorrow. :D 

Merry Christmas, bloggy people. 

<3

{xx}

I just wanna say...

{xx}

{P.S. In case I'm not on again before Christmas, I hope you guys all have the merriest, most fantastical Christmas ever. <3 }

Gingerbread

Yesterday we had Gingerbread house making day. 

My sister in law makes piles and piles of gingerbread and we bake it and make houses and the little kids decorate them with piles of icing and candy and sprinkles and pretzels and such. :) 

Anyways, Last night, I used the leftover gingerbread dough and made some new icing and made myself a gingerbread house. :D 

BEHOLD!

I was gonna make a gingerbread Doctor to go with it, but ran out of time after I burned the first one. lol. 

Oh well.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas is almost here, people. 

Then, after Christmas, New Years. 

2013. 

Can you believe that? 

In 2013 I'll turn 18. I'll graduate from highschool. I'll have a job (hopefully. lol). I'll be saving for my own car.  

It's crazy to be growing up. 

Anyways, Back to Christmas. FIVE DAYS! (not counting today...) Are you as excited as me??

{xx} 

Parties and whatnot

I had pretty much the funnest weekend ever....

Parties literally every evening, lots of very good friends, games, hanging out, ect.,. :D <3 

I hope you were expecting pictures! 'cause here they come! :D I narrowed it down to just a few...

Friday night was the party at our house. It was so much stinking fun. <3 <3 

A lot of my epic friends got to come and we had so much fun together! 

We played games and jumped on the trampoline in the dark and got wet 'cause it was raining and chatted about eveything and had loads of caffeine and laughed *so* much. 

I'm sure I have the best friends on the planet. 

Jonni pointed the camera at us and Emmaline (left) and I (right) hid while Ameron was her regular adorable self. haha. <3

here we go. :D 

the littler boys playing x-box in the boy's room...

Trampoline!!

Thayne, Daniel Dean, Me, Jon, and emmaline

Thanye, Daniel Dean, Daniel B., Me, Jonnah, and Hannah

so much fun. 

Saturday afternoon we went to the Springfield Symphony Matinee that they do. It was all pretty good music except I'm never fond of children's choirs, and The opera lady was awful. :/ 

Anywho, Wednesday evening was a party at s friend of ours' house. 

It was awesome! :D We played lots of Ninja, Around the world Ping-pong, Catch Phrase, and Capture the flag outside in the dark. It was a blast. except for that time when I tripped on the gravel road and skinned my hand on a great big rock....:P 

Catch Phrase!

NINJA! I'm not very good at that game, but it's terribly fun. 

I took this today and you can't see it very well, but that's my injury. lol. It looks quite a lot worse in real life...and it hurts like the dickens still...

Sunday afternoon/evening was my church's party. A pretty small party, which is expected since I come from a tiny little church, but it was fun! :D A bunch of us got together and played around on our instruments for a while, and one of the guys from church put together Jeopardy. 

Other than that it was just hanging out and some games and such. good times. 

Jeopardy! :) 

 Good times. Good times. :D 

Today I just babysat my little siblings all day wile Mum did her Christmas shopping.

it was boring. and a very long day. but It was nice not to have to get dressed up and prettied for a party. lol. 

~~~~~~~~~

Right now I'm just chatting with Noni and watching Prince of Persia with my family. 

Mum just got home and she brought me foods. goodgood foods! :D 

So I'm gonna sign off. 

Even though this post feels slightly lame...I just can't figure out why. O.o 

{xx}

Lifey Picturey Stuff

I haven't posted any of my own pictures in a while!

They're just not all that pretty. :P ;) Anyways, Here are a few things that have happened recently that deserved pictures of. <3 

I made this "mooshy belly bunny" for the gorgeous little girl I babysit on Fridays. :D I gave it to her as  a Christmas present and I'm pretty sure she loves it. I'm very proud of it. I don't make things very often and this one turned out very good! Here's the tutorial it was based off of: 

http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com/2010/03/tutorial-and-pattern-recycled-mooshy.html

Mine isn't quite the same. With the help of my older sister and my Mum I think it turned out much cuter. I didn't sew the ears on after I sewed the body together. That's a retarded way to do it and didn't even make sense...I just put them on when I sewed the body together. plus, I added a pleat to the ears to make sure they weren't flat when they were sewed on. And I didn't sew the limbs all the way across...we tried that and I thought it looked funny...And I used buttons and a sharpie on the face instead of embroidering it on. Way easier and cuter. Mum added the bowtie around his neck so that it'd be scrunchy like the way the lady has it in the tutorial...and I used a different pompom tutorial that I found on pinterest. easiest pompom ever. 

Anyway. You prolly didn't care about any of that. 

:D 

This is mah orchestra! My brother took this picture at our Christmas concert the other day.

I could name almost all of those kids for you but that might be boring...so we'll not. Me and Jonni are second row back (violin section), 3rd and 4th chairs to the right.

here's our beeeyoootiful Christmas tree!! :D the lights look kinda bunched up in the middle but they're really not. The lights sparkle and those were just all lit up right then. lol. xD I love the sparkly lights. It's not obnoxious at all. just super soft and twinkly. I'm so not fond of obnoxious lights...

My favorite way to look at christmas lights <3 : 

We had our friends over on Monday and I made Pumpkin Spice cookies! they were supposed to be pumkin whoopie pies, but I flopped the filling somehow (still haven't figured out how...O.o) so they were just pumpkin cookies. They were *amazing*. All cakey andn pumpkin-y and soft and warm. 

I'm pretty sure this is the same recipe I used if you're interested: 

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

So, Christmas is eleven days away. 

How crazy is that?? I still can't quite believe it's so close. :D 

We have parties every day this weekend starting on Friday and this afternoon I'm going to do a little bit of Christmas shopping with Mum. It's getting crazy busy these days. 

Anywho, I'm going to go listen to both of Michael Buble's Christmas albums again and try to find something cute to wear to town...

<3 Have a fantastic weekend!! <3

{xx}

12-12-12

Happy 12-12-12! :) 

Did you know, this is the last sequential date of the century?? yup. Crazy huh? 

Anyways. That's all I wanted to say.

Happy Twelfth. 

from me. 

and a baby panda. 

and here's this picture. Just for no other reason that it cracks me up. 

Every time. 

^_^ 

{xx}

'Tis the season t' be Jolly!

There's so much going on these days. I'm excited to bits. 

The Christmas concert on Saturday went really well. most of the performances were good....I felt like the Messiah songs went pretty well. :D It was all around lovely and Christmassy. After the concert a group of us went and hung out at Hardees and laughed and talked and had a fantastic time. :D 

Sunday was church in the morning, and bowling with friends in the afternoon and more hardees and laughing and having a fantastic time in general. 

Today, I had a dental appointment....*ugh* I don't usually mind them...but I did today. You guys all remember that I had braces for about a year and a half. Thank goodness I couldn't find a picture of me in them...'cause I was gonna post one. *ahem* Anyways. Recently, my teeth have grown a mind of their own and decided to scootch to the right just enough that they're not quite perfect....so I had to get a stinking nasty disgusting impression that makes me gag every time, and I'm getting a new retainer at the end of the month that'll move my teeth back where they belong. 

*right now*

It's perfect. :D Our tree is gorgeous. Buble is singing on the television. <3 <3 I *love* him! <3 <3 

It smells like Pine in here. 

It feels like Christmas. 

I can't wait to decorate our tree. We have to let it sit for a while 'cause it was all tied up and it needs to fall and settle. but it's beautiful anyways. I love it. 

Plus. "Blueblae's" bit with Elmo? Yeah. That was cute. :D 

<3 <3 

I'm feeling very like Christmas is almost here. Finally. I haven't felt that way yet. And now I do. 

I love right now. <3 

I hope you guys just love right now. 

{xx}

I Love December!!

We've finally gotten our Christmas decorations up! Or, Most of them anyways. We don't have our tree yet because we always get a live one and since we have wood heat it'll dry out really fast. So we're getting it on Thursday. :D I can't wait. We haven't had a tree for three years or so...

Anyways, here's just a couple pictures I just took of them. :) Cannot wait to put the tree up. 

My baby ornament. I've had it for as long as I can remember. <3 

our garland! Hang it between the living room and dining room. It's so pretty. 

Pretty gold ornament. :D I like this picture.

:D Now I feel terribly ready for Christmas! 

*eep*

I can't wait for the tree. <3 <3 

Plus, there's piles of Christmas parties and events comin' up!! 

I'm gonna start making presents tonight, hopefully. behind? yes. I know. lol. I have a lot to do. :D 

Plus, Tomorrow is the last orchestra practice for the year....That sounds awful. It's not as awful as it sounds....'cause we'll be back in January. but still. Then on Saturday it's the Orchestra Christmas performance! I'm so excited! 

Plus, Our Christmas party is next Friday and I hope a billion people come. It's gonna be epic. we're gonna play games and laugh our faces off and eat foods and maybe have a bonfire and we're gonna have our tree!! 

There's so much that I'm excited about this month. :D I was sitting in my bed earlier today doodling in my notebook and listening to/Singing along with Michael Buble's Christmas album and getting all excited about this month. :) 

Silver Dollar City all dressed up for Christmas. :) I miss that place this year...

<3 Happy December, you guys. <3 

{xx}