A reflection on the year

          2014 has been Really awesome/Really not so awesome. I am starting to feel more like I want to be in control of myself and be the kind of person I want to be, not just wait and see if I will become that person. I have struggled with self-worth and liking me. There's been stuff happening that isn't so good, and there's been big, hard changes. But in truth, it's been a good year. I'm super exited to see what 2015 brings!

Big things in 2014!!

-I turned 13!!!! I had my party on my actual birthday. I didn't have a super big party, but I kinda like that better, because it's not as overwhelming. We hung out for a while, then we had an ice cream bar.(For those of you who don't know, I LOVE LOVE ice cream!!) Sprinkles, carmel sauce, fruit, nuts....Yum! After the party, my two best friends Bekah and Patience stayed for dinner. Then we watched Pride and Prejudice, which neither of the girls had seen before.

-Our friends got us cats!!! In the litter there were five cats, three female, one male(And one that died). We fostered three of the girls for a few months. We planned on keeping only one, but Mom decided to let us keep two!! It was hard to give one up, but I am grateful we didn't have to give up two! Our cats names are Hermione(mine), and Farfalee(Kristana's).

-We introduced some friends of ours to the gospel! They had a few of the discussions, and were really loving it. They have since moved out of state, but we are still hoping that baptism is in the near future.

-Girls Camp was SUPER fun!! As a level two, my level was in charge of Flag Ceremony, which was fun but stressful. Giving a spiritual thought in front of the stake leaders would make anyone nervous, I think. So now I am going to dwell on camp, 'cause lots happened!
       -Mom was at camp!!! She served as the assistant nurse. It was super awesome because the nurse    was the mother of my bff Bekah, and they had so much fun!! The nurse's cabin was AWEOSME!!, and often I'd come in to find a bunch of girls in there just hanging out! Yeah, our moms are just that cool.
       -I spent every spare minute at the lake. Literally. I think the total time I spent at the lake equaled eight hours in three days. And that included swimming across the lake many many times, zip-lining, and slide...sliding....
       -We never had to use our CPR and First Aid training, phew! We may have had to when I almost drowned at the lake. Long story.....
       -There was a copperhead by our cabin one night! And we had to find out about it as we were walking back to our cabin in almost complete darkness.
      -I made an amazing new friend at camp. One of those you-are-an-amazing-influence-in-my-life sort of friend.
      -Lots of other amazing things happened, but I don't have time to say.
-I started my Freshman year, and seminary!

-I was Anna from Frozen for Halloween, and I hosted a party Halloween night.

-We spent Thanksgiving together just the four of us and had a nice fun day.

-Had an awesome Christmas, I will tell more about it in it's own post

-I spent New Years Eve at a HUGE(And I mean huge) party with my friend Ashely.(It was hosted by a family in her ward.)

Over all 2014 has been a pretty good year, and of course no year is perfect, but still! I am SUPER exited to see how 2015 will play out!!

Halloween 2014!!!

    So ever since Disney's Frozen came out last year, I have been obsessed with it. I have all the songs memorized, I know some songs in otter languages, and I pretty much have the movie memorized to. Well I decided that I wanted to be Anna for Halloween. So we made an Anna costume.

   Of course you can't have Anna without Elsa, so I asked my bff Bekah to be Elsa. We didn't have much time for a dress for her, as we barely had mine ready, but it was still super fun!!!
  This year I wanted to have a Halloween party, but Mom wasn't so sure. I finally convinced her to let me have a few friends over. We went trick-or-treating ALL BY OURSELVES!! It was fun, except for when Sam would hide behind cars and jump out and scare me. ....Okay that was fun too. Then we went to our house and watched old Twilight Zone episodes. We girls we're getting kinda freaked out, haha.

The party crew

L-R: Patience as an evil fairy, Kaylah as Anna, Sam as the shadow, Bekah as Elsa, and Chris as himself the Scout.

Fun times. I'm super exited for my costume of 2015, but you'll have to wait till then to know what it is!!! mwahahaha!!! Yes I like to plan ahead. I basically have my whole life of costumes planned. Ok well, not quite my whole life. But close.

What stood out to me this week

    Lately I've been having problems with some of my leaders. In the past I've always had AMAZING leaders, and I've kinda struggled with the ones I have now. But then I realized...

    Our Father in Heaven put us on this earth exactly where we are for a reason. The people we meet and know are here to help us in some way. We weren't put with them by chance. This brings to mind a song from one of my favorite Broadway shows.
   
     I've heard it said, that people come into our lives
     for a reason, bringing something we must learn.
    And we are led to those who help us most to grow
   if we let them, and we help them in return.

   That one line, "If we let them", really stands out to me. Maybe there is something I can learn from those leaders. Maybe I need to let them teach me, even if I don't get along with them all the time. Not only am I blessed to know them(Yes, I am going to say blessed), but also they were called into Young Women. That shows me that obviously, there is something the Lord wants me to learn from them. Of course in life we're not always going to have an instant connection with everyone we come across, but I think getting along with everyone is possible. With some people it just may take more work.
   I think it's a matter of being humble enough. We need to be humble enough to look past differences and love people for who they are. No one is the same. We're all going to have disagreements, but the problem is when a disagreements turns into contention. And we have to learn to do things in ways we're not used to. And having patience helps.
   It may take some time to really and truly get along with those leaders, but I know that with enough time, we could become just as close as I am with those "instant connection" leaders. :)

It's a little late for ghost pictures........

Lovin' this new effect on Photo Booth!!! It's technically supposed to be a Hologram, without the normal me, but I discovered a way to have both, so it looks like a ghost!!

My life(Plus you can get to know me a little better!)

So I've been really bad at posting. A junior high schooler's life is quite busy. Oh wait, now I'm a Fish....you know, Fish(Freshman) S'more(Sophomore), Junior mint(Junior), and Shark(Senior). Yep, I'm in high school(Well this fall I will be.) Anyway! So I will randomly post stuff from my childhood, since I'm growing up so fast. Btw I feel very grown up right now, haha. I thought y'all would want to get to know me better. Haha seven years in TX and that's probably the second time I've said y'all. Three now. Anyway x2                                                                                 

This was from Labor Day-?- spent at Travis lake. 2011 maybe?  

Look! It's Remus Lupin from Harry Potter! Oh..wait..that's Dad. But he looks like Remus Lupin!

Ah, comfy. I'm reading the young women's camp manuel.

                                                               
                                                                                         This is why you need to            

move to TX!! Because it's beautiful and green and amazing....

....Let's not forget the gorgeous, smog-free sky. Well, when it's not cloudy, like in these first two pics.

Moving on...A trip to Houston with Nana and Grandad. Btw this was at our hotel right before we went to the beach. :D

                                                                           

At the beach. first time in the Gulf of Mexico! 

The San Jacinto monument. The thing is like 150 feet tall! It celebrates when Santa Anna surrendered to the TX army, or something like that.

So Houston is very swampy, and the whole time we were there I was like: Wow I'm in a bayou like in Louisiana! This is so cool! I wonder if there are any alligators! Well, I got my answer...

Yup.

Houston "bayou"

And we can't forget the gorgeous Houston temple

So that was really a fun and spur of the moment trip. But the real reason we went was this:

Easter morning string maze

Aww, we were so little!

Our house is a stray dog magnet.

 Daddy-daughter activity day dance.

We are crazy, but in a really good way! Yeah, we have fun in this house.

 We are also snobbish...

 We are obsessed with our rug. Haha I have no idea way that picture was taken. It looks cool...

And we eat a lot of food. Yeah, now you know how crazy I really was.

So we lost all pictures form 2012, 2013 ect. So hopefully we can find them and I'll make another post where you'll get to see more recent happenings, get to know me way better and so on. Anyway, more recent pics on their way!

Oh! I can post without pics. Ok, does anyone have any questions about me and my life here in TX? Let me know in comments! One last smiley. :D

Padre Island

In June a family(The Halls) moved into our ward; Damon, Andrea, Lydia(3 1/2),and Jaren(Not born till August). We have become great friends with them. They have a tradition of going to Corpus Christi(We were actually on Padre Island off of Corpus.) every year, and they invited K and I to go with them. We had a blast. We took a lot of pictures, so a lot aren't even on here. Enjoy!


We went straight to the beach on Fri, the first day. We arrived around lunch, so after a bit of swimming we had lunch in the tent.

 Yes, it was VERY sandy.

Some random pics from Friday

 The Hall Family.

We went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner.

Saturday we did some sight-seeing before heading to the beach. We visited this war ship...

..We stopped by two gift shops. All these next pics are from the same shop. We didn't go in it..

...We got souvenirs at this gift shop. I very much enjoyed walking in. :)

Some random pics from Saturday.

And this is Jaren, born in August.