Home for the holidays

So I got to go HOME for Christmas. I definately has a white Christmas. It was beautiful but I am so glad I live in California and don't have to drive in it at all. I drove in the snow for the first time in 2 years. I have to admit even though I drove in it for 15 years I was still alittle nervous but it was like riding a bike....which I haven't done for awhile either.....did just great.





I got to go to dinner with my 4 best friends for our annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange. It was an interesting dinner with bad service but we did end up getting our whole bill taken care of. In the gift exchange I got a Phase 10 hand held game. I was so excited to get it and then ended up leaving it in Utah : (

The baby in this picture is the newest addition to the family. Preston Joseph Stubbs....he is a great baby and it was so fun to finally be able to hold him.

Here is some pics of my family. I had so much fun with them. I was beyond excited to see my nephews and they surprised me by being at the airport with my parents when I got off the plane. I got to hang out with Kaiden more on this trip than all time he has been born put together. I was in heaven.

Carson and Kaiden in a box

My bro in law and sis in law are both Patriots fans and my mom gave them Pat shirts. Mark is behind them holding up a niners blanket.

HERE IS MY GOOFY FAMILY

Sarah Brightman concert

Last night I got to go see a fantastic concert with two of my best (California) friends, Jen and Christina. We went and saw Sarah Brightman. I have loved her music for many years and have been so excited since we bought the tickets like 5 months ago.


She has a beautiful voice. So amazing. I was really disappointed that she didn't sing "Time to say Goodbye" with Bocelli vocals in the back or even with one of the other guys she sang with during the show. She sang it by herself and it just wasn't the same. Phantom of the Opera was amazing though. I have seen Phantom 4 times and have never heard the song sang that great. I had goosebumps. I would definately give the concert "two thumbs up"

I got an A

So I have been trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up....It's about time I do that. I decided to tak e a medical terminology class this semester at Sierra College to see if the medical field is for me. Let me tell you I went to college for 3 years (many years ago) and this is the hardest class I have taken. I don't know if it is because I am older and haven't been to school for awhile or because I work lots of hours and have a primary lesson to prepare every week but it was stressful.

BUT it is over and I got a B in the class. Now you are probably thinking then why does the title say "I got an A". Well I got a C on the midterm so my professor said that I had to get an A on the final to get a B in the class. Are you following? Well I got 90 out of 100 questions right and got an A. Iwas so excited. I studied and studied and studied for hours and hours. And it all paid off.

And the result is I do enjoy the medical stuff but I still don't know what I want to be!!!

Christmas time...

So thanks to my great roommate Athina our apartment is now decorated for Christmas. I absolutely love Christmas! When I walked into my apartment after work today I smelled the tree. I love the smell of a real Christmas tree. Our tree is small but we like it. My moms snowflakes that she tatted are hanging on it and thanks to me and Athina's boyfriend, Chris there are white light around the tree....in an organized way (unlike the way Athina had them) and a star on the top.

All the decorations are mine that I have collected through out the years. Some are bought, some are home made, and some were presents given to me. They all are special in there own way.

The stockings were hung on the TV console with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. We don't have a fireplace in this apt like we did in our last so they went on the console. This is the 3rd year we have used these stockings. I can't believe this is my 3rd Christmas in California. Athina bought these stockings for us and wrote our names on them in glittery paint.

I am so happy it is December. I can listen to Christmas music all the time and make Christmas candy (I made toffee as Athina was decorating) The feeling of Christmas in the air it is the best feeling in the world. It will even be better in 21 days when I can go home to Utah and enjoy it with my family and be around the kids.

And of course I can never forget the real meaning for Christmas and reason for the season. That is the celebration of the birth of our Savior. What a great event! I feel his love every day and am happy I am a member of his true church.

This picture was taken by me at the Laie temple in Hawaii.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Life off, Game on

Basketball season has started and I am so excited. The Jazz are 4 - 0 right now. Yes they have played easy teams so far but I really think they are going to be good again this year. I have got my NBA league pass and I am ready. I love the Jazz slogan this year. It applies to me too well. When the basketball season....more particularly the Jazz season begins life is off. I have to check the schedule before I make plans. I LOVE IT!! Life off, Game on.

The new little ones

3 very special babies were born the last few weeks that I am excited about. First picture is of my new nephew Preson Joseph Stubbs. Congrats Janie, Chris, Zac, and Abby!

The next two are Xander and Alexa Crawford. Congrats Chersti and James! I am so excited they finally get to start their family.

I can not wait to be able to see all 3 of these precious babies when I go home at Christmas.

Hawaii trip

I went to Hawaii from September 27 to October 6 and we had a blast. I went with my sister, Heather, my roommate, Athina, and our friend, Amy. This are just some of the pictures we took. I think between the 4 girls we took 800 pictures and I still don't have some.

The first series of pictures is us in the airport (it took forever to get there because of layovers and late planes) The scenery pic is outside on the balcony of the time share. It was beautiful. I loved Maui!! I am so glad we were there for 5 days. Then there's Skeena and Heath in the kitchen ready to head to the beach.

The second series is us on the first day taking a drive around Maui and stopping at different locations. We went to the blow hole and to one of the hundreds of beaches.

These pictures speak for themselves. The scenery and especially the sunsets are gorgeous. We tried to see the sunset every day that we were in Maui. The middle picture no joke looks exactly like the picture on my credit card.

On Maui we rented snorkels for the whole week. One of the days we took a boat cruise out to Molakini....which is a crater off of Maui. They stopped at turtle town first and we got to see and swim with the turtles. But it is illegal to touch them so we just watched them. At Molakini we saw alot of different fish and there were even eels. They fed us lunch on the way back on the boat. It was a good time for all. Look at the pic of Heather on the middle right. She fell in love with this floating device and we had to go rent one for her. Before the floaty she was freaked out to go out snorkeling. After the floaty she snorkeled all over. For some reason it was a safety blanket to ward off sharks too because she was all of a sudden not scared of sharks any more. ???? lol

From Maui we then went to Oahu. I was not a fan of Honolulu when we got in. It is an ugly city. It was like a mini San Fran. Too much traffic and scary areas. Too commercialized. It got better when we got to our hotel in Wikiki. Still alot of people but it was beautiful. All these pics are not all from Oahu but the middle pic is us at the hotel and the top left is me and Heather with some turtles on one of the beaches on North Shore. Bottom pics are us at dinner at Bubba Gumps (that was on Maui though)

We went to PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center) We saw shows at a few islands and then went to a fabulous Luau. We all got lei'd there! I didn't want to stop eating the food was soooooo good. We went to the big show after dinner. I would definately say that if any one goes to the PCC go early because there is so much to see and we didn't get to go to much. Some day I will go back though. Hopefully sooner than later.

On our last day we went to Pearl Harbor and the swap meet. I am so glad we went to Pearl Harbor. It was a great experience to see the place where WWII started for the US. There was a film that brought me to tears. So many people died that day. We then took the boat out to the USS Arizona memorial where most of those who died on the battleship are still entombed. The memorial is placed on top of the ship and you can see some of the ship under and on top the water still.

This trip was definately put in my top 3 vacations of all time. I already can't wait to go back!!

Hawaii

Hi everyone! So I just got home from Hawaii today. It was a blast! It is as beautiful and relaxing as I have every imagined it would be. I absolutely loved Maui. Now Honolulu...some parts are pretty, like in Wikiki where we stayed, but I did not like the city of Honolulu at all. As soon as I get all my pics on my laptop and then get my laptop working again (I am on my roommates right now) then I will post pics and blog about where we went.

I am off to do homework and study.

Have a fabulous day!!!

Reunion and Wedding

Ok I am finally finding time to blog about my trip home. I had alot of fun at my family reunion and the wedding. Here are some pics.




Here are pics of the Nielsen Family Reunion. I haven't been able to go for the last few years and it was great to see every one. We went on a hike, had a pot luck, visited. I also played in a horse shoe tournament and me and my dad's cousin's son's wife (no joke), Daisy won the girls tournament.


top left: Robby, Heather, and Lana

top right: Playing in the river

lower left: Mom and Grandma Bates

lower right: Mom and Heather trying to get a signal up in the mountains.... yeah right.

Because the wedding was late on Saturday we had a wedding dinner on friday night. It was at a park in Fruit Heights. It was really windy and we had a hard time setting everything up. But everyone we invited came. It was fun and casual. There was toys for the kids and Robby's sister and brother in law own a sno shack so they brought the machine and made snowies for everyone. I was so excited because in Cali they don't have the little sno shacks/snowie stands on the side of the road like they do in Utah.

They got married on August 16 in the Bountiful temple. Here are some pics of the temple. The ceremony was good and she looked beautiful.

top left - Heather/Rob w/parents and grandparents

top right - Heather and Kaiden

middle left - Dad and grandma and grandpa Bates

middle right - The whole fam

bottom left - Heather and Robby

bottom right - me with my sisters

The reception was held in an awesome backyard of someone Robby's family knows. It was beautiful. If you can't tell her colors were bright pink and black and white polka dots. I don't even like the color pink and I really liked it. The yard has bridges, ponds, fun toys for the kids. There was a continous stream of people coming all night long. Here are some pics

Crazy and Hectic!!

OK so I know I haven't blogged for a while. Life has been crazy and I haven't had more than a few minutes on the internet lately. After being in Utah for a week and a half I then got back to work and to more responsibilities with a new clearance center which has been a night mare and one of my employees decided he did not want to work any more and just stopped showing up to work. I also have been packing to move to another apartment which I did on Wednesday and am now in the process of trying to unpacking it all but have been cleaning the old apartment instead. In between every thing I am taking a college class at Sierra College which I found out today they are out of the book I need and I have a quiz and homework assignment due on Tuesday. When did life get so hectic??? I have never been so busy, stressed, and exhausted.

I can't wait for my Hawaii trip in 29 days!!!

OK so enough complaining I am now going to bed. I will write about my trip home and Heather's wedding when things slow down maybe some time next week.