celebrating again

i know i said i was going to be back talking about goals for the new year, and I am...just not quite yet. time got away from me, and the post isn't done yet. it's coming though.. i promise.

is anyone sick of birthday posts yet?!? ok good because you can never celebrate too much I say. a few friends went to cheesecake factory on friday night for one more celebration. we had a great time and at the end of the meal the server brought out the cutest little treat. such a fun night!

new year's poppers

i saw this idea online somewhere(if i knew where i would totally link it, but unfortunately i did not save it) and literally threw it all together a half hour before i left for new year's eve parties. it could have been so much better if i had more time.

basically i took a wrapping paper roll(if you plan ahead toilet paper rolls would be way easier) and cut into smaller pieces. fill roll with candy, confetti (made from cutting up pieces of shiny paper), whatever. wrap with wrapping paper. make tab from washi tape and homemade baker's twine. seal roll with washi tape. the tutorial i saw actually cut the TP roll and sewed the cover paper so it would tear easier...way too much work if you ask me. these were way cute but didn't work super well. i didn't do the tab very well so pulling it didn't actually open the thing. oh well, at least they were cute right?!?

New Year's Eve

I generally really really love holidays, but I could just skip right over New Year's Eve. I used to get really stressed out about plans, and now I kind of don't care. The more low key it is the better. I started the night off by stopping by a hot chocolate party hosted by Brianna and Byron. Too bad I didn't take any picutres because it was so cute. My friend Laurann has hosted several parties in the past and did again this year. It was so much fun. We ate, played a game (I know. Hard to believe I played a game, but I did), got in the hot tub, and attempted to watch a movie. It was very low key and very fun. Julie and I slept over and spent the next morning watching a movie and being lazy. It was the best! Thanks Laurann for hosting.

playing a game with a made up name. not only did i play, but i actually won.

i saw something similar to this on pinterest or somewhere and literally threw it together. another post coming.

after a failed attempt to watch pitch perfect at 3am, we watched it the next morning.

how was your new year's eve? did you do anything fun?

I'll be back tomorrow talking about goals for the year.

sea world

when we went to sea world earlier this year we didn't really plan on going back even though we had passes for the year. since chelsea and jeff moved to california and i was there for the holidays, we decided to go one more time. it was so nice to be an hour away.

i posted a ton of pictures on instagram (@aubreyzaruba) while we were there, but i also took my big camera.  it was rainy part of the day so i didn't get as many pictures as i wanted but did take some.

first stop...pet show

second stop...snow land. the kids weren't really sure what to think.

 karlee loves rides. karson is a little more timid, but he did go on one ride with me.

 blue horizon show. they added beluga whales to the end since the last time we saw it.

it started raining at lunch and kind of kept raining on and off the rest of the day. we finally decided to leave, but then it stopped for a bit. we decided to go to the shamu show, and of course it started raining while we were waiting for it to start.

 i managed to get a good picture of one of the very few times they jumped out.

even though we got rained on the second half of the day,we had a good time, and we were glad we went.

2012 recap

i am in complete disbelief that 2013 is already here. it seems like just a couple of months ago i was recapping 2011, and now 2012 is already over.

2012 very unintentionally became the year of responsible. even though by the world's standards i have been a grown up for over 10 years, 2012 was the year i really felt like a grown up. it might seem a little strange, but i seemed to spend more time doing grown up things (laundry, grocery shopping, preparing church lessons, cleaning the house, etc) on weekends than having fun plans with friends.

i was responsible at work.

i was responsible at church.
i was responsible at home.

even though i spent a lot of time being responsible, i had a great year. it was really productive, and i did some great things.

january...started the year with a spending freeze. monday night tradish was in full swing.

february...started fat mum slim's photoaday project. did my hair differently every workday. met up with my mom in vegas for a long weekend.

march...wore a hair accessory every day. nettie got married.

april...celebrated autism awareness month by wearing blue all month. spent spring break in st george and vegas.

may...ran the race for the cure and threw a circus themed baby shower with celsey for jenny and lindsey. went to sea world with chelsea and fam. started 100 days of situps.

june...chelsea and fam came to visit, used my 7 peaks pass for he first of many times. youth conference.

july...baby kyler was born

august...spent the first week in vegas 

 september...back to vegas for kyler's baby blessing, gardner village to see the witches with anne and brianna.

 october...vegas for fall break (pumpkin patch, bellagio). dressed up like tetris for halloween.

 november...ran my first post surgery 1/2 marathon. made 1 of many gender reveal cakes. thanksgiving in st george and vegas.

december...holidays in vegas and california

2012 was a great year. i got to spend a lot of time with family and friends. looking back on the year i feel so blessed and look forward to another great year in 2013. stay tuned for my goals for the new year and a more intentional word of the year.

christmas in california

with chelsea and jeff moving from vegas to california right before christmas, i wasn't really sure what to expect from christmas this year. putting up the tree was high on the list of things to do which definitely made it feel more like christmas. santa somehow found us. we got enough groceries to have our typical holiday food. we did our usual traditions. christmas was a lot more normal than i expected.

do these kids just make you want to die or what? kids make christmas so much fun.

another year older

you would think after 30+years i would just accept the fact that I have a too close to Christmas crappy december birthday. well, I don't really. i get so mad about it...dumb i know. this year was really no exception. chelsea and jeff moved to California and the best day to do it happened to be my birthday. so, I spent the day helping them move. the good thing about that is I'm already used to kind of crappy birthdays so i was happy to be able to help them. after a long day of packing, cleaning, driving, unpacking, etc. we ended the day with some awesome presents and del taco for a late dinner (wish I was kidding about that part). it was a little bit of a different birthday, but i'm glad i got to spend the day with family.

pulling away from the vegas house for the last time (sad)

opening presents at the end of the day. how cute are these littles???

looking fab after a day of moving (yikes)

birthday dinner...seriously. we were just happy to eat at this point

we celebrated for real a few days later at chilis courtesy of my mom

i think i'm in a little bit of denial about another year older. oh well, like it or not i really am another year older