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Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 month by month top 12

i seriously can't believe today is the last day of 2015. it seems like the year was just starting, and now it's over. 

if you've been on instagram the past week you've seen everyone posting their top 9 photos of the year. mine was a little ruined by some popular giveaways i participated in so i decided to do a monthly review here instead. this year definitely flew by so quickly, and these are just a few of the highlights.

in january i started the year by setting goals with friends for the new year. i picked the word focus and chose a different topic of focus each month.
in february i went to the ice castles with tiffany and sage. it was the first time going to the ice castles, and it really was so cool. it was also our first real time hanging out which ended up leading to a lot of fun memories this year.
it actually happened in february, but in march i blogged about build your blog conference. i decided to go at the last minute and found out the night before that some of my friends were going. i had the best time and learned some good things to help my blog continue to grow.
i went to california in april to meet my new baby niece and visit my sister and her family.
in april/may, tiffany, sage, laurann, and i took a roadtrip to mexico. it sounds a little crazy, but we were totally safe and had the very best time. we can't wait to go back.
in june i got together with girls i worked with a BYU forever and ever ago. we have so many memories of our time together in college, and it's always fun to see each other.
i celebrated the 4th of july in hot, sunny california. 
in august tiffany, sage, and i saw the kelly clarkson concert, we enjoyed the late summer evening.
in september i went to the state fair and rode the big slide for the first time ever. it actually was a lot of fun.
in october we made a spur of the moment decision to dress like a herd of animals.
we weren't sure if jeff and chelsea would make it to st. george for thanksgiving in november, but it all worked out. it was a fun time with extended family.
in december i celebrated my birthday with friends and family

this year has been absolutely amazing! i have many great memories of 2015. i am sad to see the year go, but i am also excited to see what's coming in 2016.

how was your year? what was your favorite?

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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

beauty time tuesday...skincare

today is the last beauty time tuesday for a while because the bachelor starts next week. do you watch? what are your thoughts on ben h? i think he's the kind of guy you want to date in real life, but i'm a little worried he might be boring. i'm sure the girls will be entertaining enough, and he can't be worse than some of the other previous guys.

back to beauty time. i've had the same basic skincare routine for several years. my skin is decent-not the best but certainly not the worst. i've spent a lot of years in the sun-many of those years without sunscreen. i am much more diligent about sunscreen now, but i know i've done some damage. now that i'm getting older i feel like i need to take better care of my skin. 

is it really true that not washing your face ages your face 7 days? i don't know if it's true, but i'm scared that it is-scared enough to wash my wash every night. i'm also scared enough to step it up a little.
i started using the clarisonic a few years ago. i swear by the thing. it is the best, and i really love it. my skin has improved so much since using it.

i got the PMD for christmas. i used it for the first time last night. maybe i should wait to post after i have used it a few times, but so far i really love it. it's been a while since i've had a professional microdermabrasion, but i love the way it makes my skin feel. i'm so excited to have an at home option.

what's your skincare routine? is there anything else i need to know about?
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Monday, December 28, 2015

birthday celebrations

sometimes i complain about having a too close to christmas birthday because people are too busy to really celebrate with me. i definitely can't complain this year. i basically celebrated my birthday all month.

i went to dinner with my old roommates. keeping with tradition we went to j dawgs. we had the best time. i sure miss those girls.
i got the most wonderful birthday basket from my running frieds.
i went to rodizio with friends for dinner. laurann made a diet coke cake with a singing candle. we had a delicious dinner, and i was very spoiled with the perfect gifts.




tiffany and sage have a tradition of buying each other a new outfit for their birthdays and included me in the tradition this year. they bought this cardigan, v neck shirt, and another shirt. 
i flew to california the night before my birthday. the kids were so excited, and that made me really excited to be there. they wanted me to open presents first thing. chelsea and i went to lunch and shopping. 
we went to red robin for a birthday dinner. chelsea and i did a little more quick shopping after dinner.
i kind of can't believe how old i'm getting, but i did have a really fun time celebrating this month.
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Thursday, December 24, 2015

gardner village elves

i think we're all pretty aware i hate winter. i am diligently trying to complain a little less this year. in an effort to enjoy winter (and complain less), we created a winter woes list. the idea is we'll be too busy with our list to be miserable about winter. besides the snow storm of the century last week, it's working pretty well.

we never made it to gardner village to see the witches this year so we for sure wanted to see the elves. they are pretty much the same every year, but it is still fun to see.










part of our list was to ride trax, have dinner, and see the elves. we had a fun night doing all those things. 
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Tuesday, December 22, 2015

another year older... and hopefully wiser

happy birthday to me! what a funny way to start a post, but really, today is my birthday. i love birthdays! i love celebrating. i basically love any excuse to have a party. i've complained a lot about my birthday to my friends and family, on social media, here, and basically everywhere. i don't love having a christmas birthday.
birthdays are interesting. when we're young we want to hurry up and get older. when we start getting older, we wish we would stay young. i'm kind of in that wishing i would stay young phase. no one ever guesses my age ever so i kind of forget how old i am. celsey's grandma says just lie about your age, and when people start questioning you, lie better. i'm also considering counting backwards starting now.

as much as i complain about a christmas birthday and getting older, it is kind of fun to have a birthday in the time of year when everyone is happy. there are always beautiful decorations everywhere, and there's never a lack of treats. instead of being a grump about it, i'm going to enjoy the day with family. even if all my presents are wrapped in christmas paper or we run christmas errands all day, i'll be happy for this festive time of year.

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Monday, December 21, 2015

babbling book club celebrates christmas

i LOVE to read, but i rarely make the time for it unless i am on vacation. some of the members of book club are very dedicated readers, and some of us have good intentions. we even joked we should just call it club instead of book club.

a few years ago we started the tradition of having our december book club be more of a christmas party hosted by courtney. her home is beautiful and always filled with christmas. 
aly (and baby mckay), me, kelli, kathleen, mauri, courtney, clarisa
we exchange gifts (often books). this year we did a favorite things exchange. everyone brought such fun things. aly had to leave early so she showed us her gift before she left.
when we started book club, most everyone was single and the marrieds only had 1 kid. we have really grown a lot over the past several years. we may not always talk about the book, but we always have a great time talking. i love these girls and our time spent together each month.

we also picked some of our books for the year so here's the list if you're interested.
january-skip (several girls with new babies)
february-let it go by chris williams
march-undecided
april-cinder by marissa meyer
may-the life changing magic of tidying up by marie kondo
june-tiger's curse by colleen houck
july/august-summer break
september-undecided
october-boys in the boat
november/december-all the light we cannnot see by anthony doerr


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Friday, December 18, 2015

blogger year in review part 3-12 months of blogging

i can't believe we're already at the last linkup for the year. i have a few more review posts for the very end of the year, but this is the last blogging review. we want you to join us. the link up stays open until the end of the month so come back and link up your year in reviews.
this year i was pretty dedicated to posting 5 days a week so it's been fun looking back on my blogging year. i went through and picked one post for each month. i don't go back and read old posts very often, but this makes me want to start at the beginning and read it all.

in january i talked about a few of the perks of being a blogger. i love blogging, and while there are some fun perks like free stuff and money sometimes, the number one perk for me will always be friends.
february was the second month of how we wore it-my favorite fashion post every month. this series has definitely helped me take better pictures and get more comfortable in front of the camera. 
my religion is something that's very important to me. while i don't talk about it all the time on the blog, i do like the opportunity to share my beliefs. in march, i shared some of my other favorite mormon bloggers. in addition to our common religious beliefs, they are really great people and fun blogs to read.
Looking for some new blogs to follow? These are some of the best.
in my for the little tykes series (which took a bit of an unintentional hiatus) april's post was about saying yes. that goes for kids and adults. sometimes it's good to say yes when the logical answer might be no.
in may i posted about my trip to mexico with 3 friends. we had the very best time and talk all the time about going back. driving across the border of mexico was much easier than we feared.
in june i talked about my chat with sharlee and how life really isn't like the movies. happily ever after can be a real thing, but it's usually something you work for not something that just happens to you.
in july, chasin mason and i collaborated on some of our favorite BBQ sauce recipes. she made pizza on the grill, and i'm still drying to try it. our grill is covered in about a foot of snow right now so i think i'll have to wait until spring.
we all know i LOVE summer. in august i posted weekend happs with all the summer things.
in september i ran out of excuses and bit the bullet with online dating. i haven't posted any updates because there aren't any updates to post. admittedly my dedication to it hasn't been 100% the whole time, but it is really hard to be dedicated to something that's not working. i'm planning to try some other things after the holidays.
running has taken a bit of a backseat for me this year. in october i posted about the only race i did this year. i'm trying to make a plan for next year. i almost signed up for a marathon this week, but for some reason i just couldn't commit.
in anticipation of lots of leftover turkey from thanksgiving, kimberly and i talked about our ideas for what to do with that leftover turkey in november. i didn't actually have any leftovers so i kind of feel like i need to make a turkey just for the leftovers.
i don't wear a lot of lipstick, but i love the look of it. i've been trying to wear more when my lips aren't super dry. i love this december post about red lipstick.

i love looking back at the year and all the different things i posted about. i'm starting to look ahead to next year and can't wait to see what things will happen for this little space. 

we want to look back at your year too. copy the image below and link up through the end of the month.


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