Annalies Keate

So many requests...so here it is

2011-06-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

I have had so many people requesting me to post how Derek purposed to me...so here it is everyone. Don't get too excited it wasn't a airplane flying over with a banner saying "will you marry me?" or anything big....which is just perfect for me. So here it is... First off, I totally knew it was coming. We had talked about getting married before then I was just waiting for it to be official. The night before we went to my parents house and talked to my parents and while we were there he asked them for permission. They of course love Derek and said they couldn't have picked anyone better. The next day Derek took work off early and we went around town looking for rings. I didn't really find anything that I absolutely loved but we were both getting hungry and decided to stop ring shopping for the day and go eat. We went to Robertos and shared a smothered burrito ( how romantic right?) After that we decided to just take a drive. Derek started to drive up Cedar mountain for our drive. He pulled off about ten minutes up the canyon to this overlook where we have both been repelling before. We climbed to the top of the overlook (which is gorgeous) and he got down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him. Of course I said yes and its history from there. Again nothing big, but just perfect for both of us. The next day we went down to St. George and went ring shopping some more. We went to Kay Jewelers and right off I picked out this gorgeous ring that I absolutely loved. I tried on about 35 other rings after that bug came back to that original ring I found at the beginning and we bought that. I guess every kiss really does begin with Kay. Ever since then we have been planning like crazy for wedding and reception, scheduling dates, looking for a place to live, etc. We are so excited and just can't wait to be married. We will be getting married August 20th and our reception is August 19th (the night before). Here is a picture of right after Derek purposed.

And this isn't the greatest picture of the ring but its the only one I've got.

Now besides getting engaged and wedding plans I have had TONS going on. I have had a ton of things in my life happen in such a short time. First... School ended. This was our last day of preschool and I miss my little preschoolers so much. Those cute kids were such a huge part of my life. We also had a end of year party the next day... there are some pictures from that as well.

Here is a picture of me and my most amazing assistance. I love them!

Me and cute little Evelyn. We got along so well. She started to cry on the last day of school saying she would miss me. I miss her too... I'm having withdrawls from this cute girl.

Antonio and me.

Girls night! Cicely, Sadie, Cassie and I had our regular as possible when we are all in town girls night. We try to get together as often as possible. We are blowing out candles because all of our birthdays are close so we did a combined birthday/girls night.

Here we are devouring our homemade "Never on a Sundae" ...so so so so good!

On May 26th my Grandma Lyman passed away. It was a bitter sweet day. She was in a lot of pain and needed to go on but we sure do miss her. What a blessing it was to help take care of my grandma in our home before she passed away. A special spirit and experience I will never forget. Her and Grandpa finally got to be reunited after 14 1/2 years. We will miss grandma.

Exactly 12 hours after Grandma Lyman passed away little Dresden LuAnn Keate was born. This is my older brother Justins little girl. She is darling.

After seeing Dresden at the hospital me and my two cousins Kelli and Karen ran the St. George midnight 5k run. Since it was the midnight 5k they gave us glow in the dark stuff to run with. It was a lot of fun. I will be doing another 5k July 15th.

A couple days later we drove up to Delta and had my Grandma Lymans viewing and funeral. My grandma looked gorgeous. She was 91 but sure didn't look it. These are all my uncles and aunts and mom around my grandmas casket at the viewing.

When we got back from Delta Derek and I went on a double date to hike Kolob Canyon with ...

... this lovely couple. Cicely and McCabe. They are getting married exactly one week before Derek and I...which is kind of funny becausue Cicely and I have been best friends all our lives and always jokingly planned a double wedding... what are the odds we would be married a week apart from each other. We have so much fun with them.

Since then we have been shopping for wedding stuff like crazy. Derek and I were taking care of my two nephews but also needed to do some shopping for the bridesmaid outfits... SO ... basically I shopped and Derek and the boys hung out patiently in the store waiting for me to be done. Good male bonding time.

Well...thats what has been happening in my life. Its been a crazy roller coaster with lots going on but its been a great ride! I'll keep you updated!

Did I tell you the news...?

2011-05-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

I have had some pretty huge things happen in my life lately that I would share with you all if you haven't already heard. Did I tell you that...

I moved out of my parents home into a town home? Yup...here it is. It's pretty dang cute. I love it! Me and my cousin Kel are roomates and we also have two other girls that live with us. It's been a blast.

I'll give you a tour of our house... This is our front porch...

After you walk in the door you come right into our living room.

And then head into our kitchen ...

Then we head upstairs to where our room is. Me and my cousin share the master bedroom. It doesn't even feel like I'm sharing a room because it's so roomy. P.S. Kel is probably one of the funnest roommates ever. We've already had a blast.

This is my corner of the room...

The part of our room with our little desk/TV/ and walk in closet.

This is our bathroom...my all time favorite feature is how big our shower is. Sometimes I take an extra long shower just to take it all in. I love our shower.

And this is our walk in closet. I love having a walk in closet. We have tons of space between the two of us.

Now on with the other exciting news...

I turned 23! Not really all that exciting. I feel the same I did as at 22. But people say one year older and wiser too... This is me and my nephew Gavin at my party my family had for me.

Me opening presents. Derek came too and made my birthday a great day! :)

Did I tell you... I bought my very first and very own piano!?! I love love love love love it! It is cherry oak wood and looks just gorgeous in my new home. I now have my students come to my house to teach lessons. And I got a great deal on it!

I got a new job! I will be teaching FULL TIME (Yay!) out at the Three Peaks Preschool next year. I am so excited about my new job! I went and met the 3 other wonderful preschool teachers out there and they are just fantastic. I'm so excited. And its only 5 minutes away from my new apartment (we are right by the hospital).

Since I moved out of my house I also moved out of my ward (which means I am released as Relief Society President) and I also moved into the 2nd stake. It's a pretty fun ward from what I can tell.

I also am taking some classes through Utah State. Most classes are online and I will probably go up occasionally to some in person classes. I'm getting a special education degree. When I'm done with that (which will be in a year and a half) I will have earned my Masters in the duel major of Elementary Education and Special Education Early Childhood Education. Some people would find that bad news...but I don't mind still going to school while teaching

... I love to continue to learn.

And finally here are some pictures that I just haven't posted. For Easter weekend we had a big hunt and also went to the aquatic center for the first time. This is the cake I made for the Easter festivities.

I think thats all the updates so far. It's been a crazy past month and a half but I'm doing great, I'm loving life, and I'm blessed to have all these wonderful things come into my life. Til next time...

Gettin' Lucky in Kentucky

2011-04-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

I was able to go to Lousiville, Looavul, LouEville, Luhvul, Looeyville (who knows how you really say it... we asked several people and they all gave us different answers) Louisville, Kentucky. Anyway... I was able to go therefor 5 days for a work conference. I had so much fun. My friend Cassie came and kept me company. I only went to conference for 2 days for a couple hours each day and the rest of the time was ours to explore life in Louisville. Here are a whole load of pictures of our trip.

The very first picture of our trip I made Cassie take. For those of you who love LOST... I kept talking about how us waiting to get on the plane reminded me of all the flashbacks on LOST where it shows all the individual lives of all the characters. WELL...right after saying that I looked over and saw a John Locke look alike! For those of you who don't know John Locke he is one of my favorite characters. I had to get a picture with this guy without letting him know what we were doing. You can be the judge but I thought it was a sign we were going to be the

next flight 815.

My very first taxi ride ever (Man are they expensive... Good thing the district gave me their credit card...buses are much much cheaper.)

As you all know they have the Kentucky Durby in Kentucky...therefore ALL OVER

Lousiville they have horse statues about every block. You will see several of those in this blog.

These are our cool shirts that we bought... "May the horse be with you" and "I used to be cool"

...and a couple more horse pictures

The view from our hotel was looking over the Ohio River. The river is about a mile wide and on the other side of it is Indiana. One night we went out on the open space they have to overlook the river and took a bunch of pictures. It was beautiful. They also had random statues here that we took advantage of taking several pictures with.

This is a random statue of a guy with a gun and dead ducks... they

have some pretty weird statues in Lousiville...but we liked them.

This is 4th street live. It's famous in Louisville because it "comes alive" at night. You can only get in with an ID after a certain time and they have tons of entertainment. It is a really cool street and we had a lot of fun. We went and ate at Hard Rock Cafe too... Mmmm.

This are just some random pictures taken throughout our many adventures.

If you look closely you can tell that this limo is totally blinged out. I don't think there was hardly any of it that was not covered with jewels. Southerners like style I guess...

This is me contemplating why the heck there is a random chandelier hanging at the street corner as if it were a light post.

Now this was by far my FAVORITE place in all of Kentucky. The Louisville slugger museum. The tour was amazing. It had some really cool artifacts in it and then we went on the tour and saw them make all the bats that they make for the MLB. While we were there they were doing an order for Andre Ethier. It was amazing...got me excited for baseball season.

Me and Babe Ruth. They had a really cool actual game bat of Babe Ruth's there that he made a mark on every time he hit a home run in a season. That was one of my favorite artifacts. It was an amazing museum.

Me holding Micky Mantles game bat. That was pretty cool... you have to wear special gloves so the oils on your hands don't get it dirty over time.

The giant bat outside of the Louisville slugger museum. The bat is 120 feet tall!

We went to the Louisville Science center. While there they had a HUGE Star Trek Museum that was going on that we got to tour through. They wouldn't let us take any pictures in the actual museum though because of copyright stuff. All the stuff in the museum was the original artifacts used through the filming of Star Trek. It was awesome. Beam Me up Scotty!

They also had this cool contraption at the science center. You could enclose yourself in a bubble. This is the best picture we could get.

This is Cassie and I at Church Hill Downs. We didn't get to see any horse races but it was so cool to see where they hold the Kentucky Derby. It was beautiful there!

And finally...back home in the Salt Lake City airport. It was a gr

eat trip and I have decided I LOVE the south and back east. Such nice people. We had a great trip! Bye ya'll!

Christmas and New Years

2011-01-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

I know its a little late...I have been meaning to blog for quite awhile now. I have a ton of pictures to share with everyone from Christmas time so I'll just start right in... Before the Christmas break my staff and I decided that we wanted to buy Christmas for all the families that were enrolled at my preschool. For those of you who don't know the preschool program I am in is for low in come families that are either trying to learn English or finish up their schooling. Many of the families have little to no income and they are so hard working that we wanted to surprise them with Christmas! It took a couple months to plan and put together but it was a blast and the families were so appreciative. Here are a few pictures from the project. (Also thank you to all who donated money or took on a family to provide Christmas for! I couldn't have done it with out you! We were able to provide Christmas for 20 families!)

Wrapping up all the gifts!

The big bag of presents for all the families! The office was full of them!

Some of the kids from my preschool before the Christmas party.

This is me and two of my staff members! It was so fun to work with them on this project! It was a lot of work but we did it!

After school got out it was time to get ready for the holidays and family to come...but before we get to that I would like to introduce all of you to Bobby. He is our new cat...against my parents desires. As in mostly my Dad. You see what happened is that Bobby came to our house one day looking really hungry and lost. My parents continually kept saying ... "We can't feed him or he will stay around and we are not having a cat as a pet!" Well, a couple days past and every time I went to the door Bobby was standing there looking at me with his sad eyes and I could tell he was just starving. I couldn't do it anymore! I am too much of an animal lover. I secretly gave Bobby some tuna fish. Then it just went down hill from there. We started letting him in the house so he wasn't so cold and now ... we have a pet cat. Despite my parents not wanting a pet they have actually really enjoyed B0bby. The grandkids all go nuts over him and just love him to death. They decided Bobby needed to have a middle name. So they all call him Bobby Rock.

Im a major dog lover...I never have really liked cats. But Bobby Rock has grown on me.

Now to Christmas festivities... My family had two Christmas Eve celebrations and then waited til the day after Christmas to celebrate Christmas. We did this because my sisters family couldn't make it down because of conflicts with Marks work. So...we did a Christmas eve celebration on Christmas eve...and then another when everyone was able to be there. Anyway here are pictures from all the Christmas events that went on this season.

Some of my nephews watching the polar express after our big Christmas Eve Dinner. I thought it was a cute picture.

Christmas Eve PJ's. We did our first Christmas eve celebration at my brothers house in St. George.

My nephew Eli did a performance for us on the piano. Ha.

Mom Dad and Grandma Lyman enjoying the Christmas Eve happenings.

Now these are the pictures from Christmas Eve where EVERYONE was able to make it...

Acting out the Nativity Scene

Everyone listening to Grandma Keate tell the traditional Christmas Eve story we read of my Grandpa Lyman being born on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve Pajamas #2. Don't I have the cutest nieces and nephews?

The mass chaos of opening presents

It was such a fun Christmas. I'm glad all of my family was able to make it. We had a great time. I brought in the new year with all my friends watching all 3 Lord of the Rings movies in a day plus lots of games and food. It was a lot of fun. 2010 was a good year but I'm looking forward to see what 2011 has in store for me! Happy New Year!

My new Love...

2010-12-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

The new love in my life is...

For all of those out there that are looking for a fun work out... Do Zumba! I went to zumba for the first time about a month ago and have been going religiously ever since. Its so much fun and a great work out! The one I go to is across from Lins on main street.. the gym is called Iron Sports Acadamey I think. Its Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8 o clock and also Saturday mornings at 8 o clock. Anyone who is interested should definitely come! It's free your first time and after that just 3 bucks! Let me know if you want to come...and I mean anyone!
(For those of you who don't know what zumba is ... its a lot of dancing mixed in with some excersize moves. The class I go to we do some latin dancing and some modern music. Its great!)

Beautifying my Bathroom

2010-11-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

My bathroom was completely out dated with floral wall paper and with even more hideous counter tops and more....until now. This was my little project (with the help from my parents) I painted over the wallpaper, we had the countertop replaced with granite, got a new sink, new door handles, took down the floorboards and put up new ones, new light fixtures, and changed the color scheme a bit. Here are some before and after pictures.

Before...

After...

And there you have it. Went from old and ugly to an updated fresh look! It was a fun project to work on.

My Car Accident

2010-11-10T12:40:00.000-08:00

I got in a car accident on Monday night. I was coming up the hill to come home and a guy rolled through the stop sign and didn't even see me. He T boned into my car. I was lucky that it wasn't by my door or I would have been badly hurt. It could have been a lot worse if it would have been a few seconds later so I'm very thankful for that. His truck sure wiped out the front of my car though. He was in a HUGE truck ... it didn't even scratch the truck but it totally dominated my nice new car. I sure can feel the effects of the crash though. My whole body is very very sore from the whip lash and I have some very deep bruises where my seat belt was. I couldn'tbreathe very well when it initially happened because my body was in such shock...the rest of the night I was dizzy and nauseous. I'm doing fine now...like I said before just very sore and some deep bruises. My car looks pretty bad and the tire is even bent inwards... its not drivable but hopefully she will be fully recovered within 3-4 weeks.The guy who ran into me was super nice and very cooperative. He fully admitted it was his doing and so his insurance is covering everything. They are even able to give me a rental car until my car is done being fixed. Thanks everyone for your concern and calls. It means a lot. Here are a few pictures of the damage done.

Halloween is in the Air

2010-10-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

Halloween came early this year for my family. All the family was in town this weekend so we thought we would have a Halloween party. I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, but for some reason the past couple of years I have gotten very very into Halloween. I love it. I've been thinking about possible costume ideas for a couple months now. I think its one of my new favorite holidays. These are a few of the things that we did this weekend. We started out the day by preparing a Halloween feast. We had spooky jello jigglers, pumpkin bread bowls filled with yummy soup (one of my favorite personal touches is the pumpkin bread bowl), and witches brew to drink.After our delicious meal we decorated Halloween sugar cookies and made skeletons. All the boys got to put bow ties on their skeletons and all the girls have hair bows of course. They turned out so cute. All my nieces and nephews loved it...

The rest of the night we watched Halloween movies, played outside, and all the kids had a huge sleepover in the upstairs while the adults stayed up laughing and playing games.

My nieces brought their Halloween costumes to model for us while they were in town since we wouldn't get to see them all dressed up on Halloween.

We had a witch, a fairy ballerina, Minnie mouse, and don't forget out little baby bee.

I think Rachel was getting sick of her Bee costume after several pictures...

Even though my costume isn't complete yet, I had to go get it on when I saw baby Rachel in her bee costume because...

Halloween is just around the corner! This weekend was just the beginning of the Halloween celebrations. In my preschool on Wednesday all the kids and the staff are going to dress up and have a Halloween carnival. That should be a lot of fun. I guess I better finish up the rest of my costume before then. As for Halloween day... I actually have no party plans. Who knows maybe I will end up just passing out candy in my Bee costume? Halloween Party? Scary movie? I don't know what it will be, but whatever it is I am sure I will have a spooktacular time.
Happy Haunting!

What have I been up to?? Let me show you...

2010-09-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

Oh dear... looks like I'm not all that great at this blogging thing. I need to be better. It's like a journal I always have good intentions to do it but I just never get around to it at the end of the day. It has been on my to do list for several weeks now and I'm finally getting it done. Well there is just too much to share so I better get on with it. School started.. I am LOVING it. The kids are just so darn cute for their own good. I will tell you about school in a minute but to show you some of the things I did before summer ended....

I got a call at about 5:50 on my last week of summer before school started. As I was laying in bed I thought...who in the world is calling me this early ( I am not a morning person ). Well it was Bryan. He was up early, had read in the newspaper that a new cascade falls hike was re opening and wanted to go hike it. I had my first staff meeting that morning so we were hurrying. We got up there just in time to see the sun rise and it was BEAUTIFUL. Here are a few pictures from that little trip. Although I'm not a morning person that was well worth it. We had a lot of fun.

School started a couple days after that and I have absolutely loved it. I haven't taken any pictures of my classrooom yet... I will get some though so that I can post them. But I have taken some cute pictures of a few of the kids. The most kids I have had are 17! It doesn't sound like a whole lot but then if you consider that 10 of those kids were under the age of 18 months I think you understand. The youngest child we have is 6 weeks old. The oldest is 4. Me and one of my staff members are in charge of the preschool part of it while my other two assistants are trying to handle the babies. It can get hecktic but for the most part we have handled it all really well. Here are a few of my kids. I just love them to death...

So far I just love my job. My hours are 8-2 Monday thru Thursday and I have all Fridays off (which is SO nice). I have a great staff and the kids make me laugh everyday. You never know what to expect.

Over labor day weekend my family went up to participate in our annual sale ... Swiss Days. I took a few pictures of what it looked like in case nobody has ever been. Which by the way if you haven't I highly suggest it. Its so much fun and there are so many cute booths!

Mom and Dad loading the truck before we left!

Usually it doesn't look this calm. Usually there are people all in the booth and lines of people waiting to get into the booth as well. Swiss Days is a lot of fun but there are some vicious and crazy shoppers up there! We had a little over 700 stitches going up and came back with about 1/3 of that so we thought we did really well at the sale. For those of you who don't have any idea about this family business and stitching that I'm talking about here is a link to our website so you can understand a little better what it is we do. Plus thats good advertisement right? Thanks to Bryan who designed and put together our website for us. It's a lot of work.

http://www.livewellstitches.com/

After Swiss Days was over I was only a couple hours away from Logan so Cicely and I met up and we made a weekend trip up to Logan to visit Bryan and McCabe. It was a lot of fun. I just love it in Logan. I hope I get to live there one day. Its beautiful. We had fun and will probably make another trip within the next while.

My parents made a quick trip to the temple this past Friday and I thought since I had the day off I would join them. While I was waiting for them to be done with their session I just sat out on the grass of the temple and enjoyed the weather, did some thinking, and did some reading. It was so peaceful and relaxing. It was great. This is a picture I took while enjoying my beautiful surroundings...

Just to mention the other things that are keeping me busy after work everyday:
* I'm taking 6 credits through SUU at the school district so that I can get closer to getting my ESL endorsement.
* I just got 3 new piano students this week filling me up completely taking me to 15 piano students. That definitly keeps me busy everynight after work. It can get pretty hecktic but its good extra income and I love teaching piano.
* I just got called as Relief Society President in my ward. It will also keep me busy but will be a great blessing in my life. I was Relief Society President once before in my previous ward and I absolutely loved getting to know all those girls better. This ward is all new people so it will be interesting.
* I'm still trying to learn some spanish on my own ...its been one of my goals for a long time and I've got a good start. Rosetta stone has become my good friend as I've been doing that.

Most nights I don't get home til pretty late and its always a full and unpredictable day but so far I've loved it all and its been great! Hope everyone is doing great! Until next time...

The latest happenings in the life of Me

2010-06-13T16:52:00.001-07:00

It has been about a month and a half since I last blogged and there has been SO MUCH going on since then that I am now about to catch all of you up on. I have pictures, stories, and news to share so lets get started shall we? I will pick up from when I last blogged. Last all you bloggers knew I just graduated and had a birthday celebration... well, about a week after graduation a few of my friends and I had a LOST party. This may not seem a big deal to most of you, but to us...it was the end of a chapter of our lives. haha. McCabe, Bryan, Cassie and I all have watched LOST faithfully and it was the season finale. To celebrate we got together at my house and watched the finale and had Dharma Initiative food (for those of you who know what that is) and I made this LOST cake to go along with the theme of the party. I thought it turned out pretty good.

That very same week I got a very exciting phone call. I had interviewed for a teaching position for a preschool run through the school district that I had really wanted and I got it! They called me and offered me the job and I accepted right away! The preschool is called Even Start and it is a preschool for kids whose parents are learning English. While their parents are at school, they are at my school learning their ABC's and 123's. I have met some of the parents and kids and I am so excited. I think there will be some challanges (as every job has) but I really think I'm going to enjoy it. These people are so humble and thankful and really hard working parents and I can't wait to help make a difference by helping to teach their kids! The preschool is at North Elementary and I have been going in almost every day this month trying to get my classroom ready and set up...it is ALOT of work. You see, the teacher before me kinda left this program in chaos and I swear some of these cupbords haven't been cleaned out since the 1980's ... So I have spent a lot of hours there and a lot more to come but it will all be worth it!

Along with getting my class ready I am taking some summer classes... I know, I'm crazy. As soon as I graduate college I go straight back to school. BUT it is a great deal and I would be stupid if I passed it up. I am getting my ESL (english as a second language) Endorsement. If you get this you are "more qualified", keep your teaching license updated, and your salary will raise automatically by having this endorsement. Now that I have this job with the school district they have this program where instead of paying ridiculous tuition they will pay everything but the class fee's (which is about $45 per class). So for 3 weeks in June I have class from 8 in the morning til 4 in the afternoon everyday. One week down and two more to go! It is actually not to bad...I love learning all this information but sometimes I feel like the picture of this girl below. I just want to get out and be having fun in the summer, not be in class all day. But hey, it will be good for me in the end.

Now...for all of you who know me I am a MAJOR dog lover. They are my favorite animal and I just love them. I had a dog all growing up but when I was about 16 he died. Ever since then I have been wanting to get another dog but my parents won't let me. I was really itchy to get a pet though...so instead I got the lowest possible mantience pet I could think of...a turtle. Everybody meet Duncan...

At first he was pretty camera shy and wouldn't come out of his shell... but once I got him out walking around in the grass he was fine.

Why the name Duncan you may ask? Well I looked up some names online for some ideas and I had a list of them that I liked...Bryan helped me narrow it down and we both liked Duncan the best. Bryan was so nice...he came and helped me pick out the turtle, then built him a cage, and made it a good home for the little guy. This is the picture of the cage Bryan built Ducan. (The only sad thing since getting Duncan is he bit me one day...I guess I was holding him too much...but let me tell you what...it was PAINFUL. I never wish anybody to get bitten by a turtle. We were reading and some box turtles have up to 2 tons of pressure with their jaw during bites. Yeah... it hurt pretty dang bad. I was screaming and crying and my neighbor heard me and thought I was dying. Duncan is a little guy but he sure can be fistey. He was grounded to his cage for awhile after that but I forgave him. And I learned my lesson.)

And last but NOT least.... our trip to Vegas. My cousin works for the Blue Man Group. He does all the lighting for them. I was asking him about it and said how fun it would be to go so he got me 2 free tickets to go see them. So last night Bryan and I took a trip to Vegas to see The Blue Man Group. It was a ton of fun to see them and we had a lot of fun. Thanks David for getting us those tickets! I highly suggest going to The Blue Man Group someday to all of you have thought about it. It is a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of us right before the show next to The Blue Man group poster.Well like I have said I have been keeping pretty busy going into my classroom this summer, as well as summer classes, and I still teach piano on top of that so I keep really busy but I have fun too! That is my life the past month or so and I will update you again soon!

Celebrate good times come on!

2010-05-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was quite the party! On Friday and Saturday I had my graduation and then the next day was my 22nd birthday! I have tons and tons of pictures to post so instead of writing a whole long post about all the festivities that went on during the weekend I will just post the picture and comment as I go.Two of my favorite girls from the block. Man did we have some good times together. It was good to see them again. Karli (in the middle) was due with her baby any day when it was graduation. She put me in charge of helping her if her water broke during our walk in to graduation. Man am I happy that she was able to hold off on going into labor.

The whole crew from the elementary ed block (at least most of us).

Yay! We did it!

I had some really good memories with this group of ladies! It was good to see everyone again!

Me after just receiving my "diploma"! (Really it was just trick...it was the holder for the diploma with no diploma saying that I would receive it in 6-8 weeks. But let's not get into that... It was still a good day!
Me with my parents after graduation!

Me and My Grandma Lyman after graduation.

My Grandpa Keate and I.

Mark and Krista with me. I was so happy they got to come down for my graduation. Krista just had her baby a week and a half before. They are two of my favorite people though so I was so happy they could come!

My brother Joe, me, and sister Krista. I have another older brother but he couldn't make it to the actual ceremony but he was at the lunch we had after graduation!

After graduation my parents threw a party for me. We had a big lunch to celebrate my graduation and my 22nd birthday!

Bryan came over to my house for the lunch and party! We had a lot of fun!

Anne came over too! I have such good friends!

After the lunch we opened presents and had a little party... This next picture is one of my favorites. While I was opening presents I looked up and saw these expressions on my nieces and nephews faces. Haha... I think they were getting sick of watching me open presents...I think they like it better when they are opening presents on their birthdays!

I have the best family in the world. Haha...nothing can buy these priceless expressions.

Later that night my friends threw me a surprise birthday party for my birthday at my friend Cassie's house. It was a lot of fun.

Josh was so nice and made me an amazing decorated cake with his sister. This is them singing happy birthday I'm trying to figure out a tactic to blow out all 22 candles.

Here I go.... And it was a success! All 22 candles! A lot of smoke ... but I did it!

All the smoke was coming into my eyes...I had to dodge it.

Well folks, there's all the pictures I have. It was a great weekend and I had lots of fun! Thank you to all my family and friends that supported me in graduation and did so much for me on mygraduation and birthday! I have amazing people in my life! It was a great weekend!

I would like you all to meet....

2010-04-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

I would like you all to meet...RUBY!

(that's what I've named this beauty)

On Wednesday I bought MY very own car. Never have I ever had my own car. I have always used the family car and just taken whatever was available and that has been nice but I decided its time to get my own. I love Ruby! She has been good to me so far....and she better be good to me for a long time because geez cars are expensive. I've taken really good care of her thus far and I have a feeling that she'll stick with me for quite awhile through the thick and thin. There is a lot of potential in this new relationship of mine and I just wanted you all to meet my new friend.

Baby Rachel, Logan Trip, and New Adventures

2010-04-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of last week, on April 12th, my new niece Rachel Enid Corry was born. She weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. She is a beautiful little girl with tons of thick black hair. When she was born they put her in the NICU because of extremely low sugar levels and too high of a red blood count. Mark (my brother in law) was able to participate in a lot of the procedures and other things they had to do to help Rachel and even help deliver her. There was one point in one of the procedures for Rachel that Mark was assisting with and Rachel stopped breathing. I can't imagine how Mark felt during that time to see his brand new baby stop breathing right in front of him but they got her back breathing in less than a minute (although it probably seemed forever to him) and she started improving. It seems as if there was problem after problem with Rachel her first week and she had to stay in the NICU and be closly monitered, but now she is home and doing well. I had to go up north to Logan this weekend for some job interviews etc (which I will tell you about in a minute) and was able to make a quick stop to go visit baby Rachel in the NICU on the way. Below are some pictures I took of my visit.

I love my new little neice Rachel!

As I mentioned earlier I made a trip to Logan this weekend. Bryan and Cicely came with me and we met up with McCabe once we got up there. I arranged earlier to go to the school that I have been interested in getting a job with and meet with the principal. We made a weekend out of it and had a lot of fun! I spent all Friday morning at the school with the principal, he showed me around the school, introduced me to some people, had me teach a class for about 5 minutes, and interviewed me for about 2 1/2 hours (it was a LONG interview). Anyway, after it was all done he gave me some feed back on if I would be able to get this teaching position. He said they liked me a lot, I was good with people, impressive, very confident and comfortable in a classroom setting and that he would really like me to teach Kindergarten there starting in August. Now, he has to do a few last interviews before the word is final but he said that I would be very tough competition for the job and to start planning on getting ready. I will get the final word probably by this Friday so I'm trying not to get to excited in case of a slight chance of not getting it, but its looking pretty promising that I will be able to start teaching at Thomas Edison Elementary School in Logan starting this August. Everyone cross your fingers for me and I will keep you updated as soon as I know if I for sure have the job!

After the interview was over it was time to play! While we were in Logan we went to the Logan Zoo (yes, Logan has a zoo believe it or not... there are a lot of birds but they have some other pretty cool animals too. The picture below is sadly the only picture I took while at the zoo. If you are ever in Logan and would like some entertainment the zoo only costs $1.00 and only 50 cents for kids. haha. It was fun ...nothing like Hogle Zoo in SLC, but its a zoo and it was fun).

We also went to Gossner Factory where they make the famous squeeky cheese, flavored milk and all kinds of cheeses. I highly suggest the "Cookies and Cream" flavored milk. Yummy. We also were able to make it in to do some Baptisms for the Dead at the Logan temple (one of my favorite temples ever by the way! So beautiful!) We watched a movie, went to campus, cooked dinner, went out to eat, went to the park, etc. It was a fun trip and I just love Logan!

A lot is going on right now and some big things are happening in my life. It can be stressful and scary at times but life is good and I'm loving every minute! I graduate in a couple weeks and will officially have my diploma. I sent out graduation announcements about a week ago and getting things ready for that as well.

This is the picture I sent out with my graduation announcements.

I just want to thank all of you for your support in everything that is going on in my life right now! Big things are happening and I couldn't do it without the support of my friends and family! I'm ready for life's next adventure for me! I'll keep all of you posted on the job and everything else! Hope all is great for everyone! Talk to you soon bloggers!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well... Easter is a big deal in my family. It is one of the favorite holidays we all look forward too. This is because of a few reasons...

1. We get to hear from our amazing church leaders with a great conference weekend! Man were the talks good this year. I can't wait to get the May ensign and re- read all the talks!

2. Tons of family, food, and games always going on.

I was pretty excited about this Easter bunny cake. I have always wanted to try making a fondant cake and so I thought I would try it out this weekend. So....here it is and I thought it turned out pretty cute.

This picture is of me and my nephews while listening to Saturday session of conference. I love these boys :)

and the last reason is what we like to refer to as ...

3. The mother of all Easter Egg Hunts. Some of you may know this but you see, every year my parents save up their money for this. When I was little we used to hunt for eggs with candy, quarters, and if we were lucky a few $1 and $5 bills. Well, as the years has gone on my parents have made it a tradition to raise the dollar bills a little bit more. Each year the highest bill went up and up and up. We are now at $100 dollar bill being hidden in one egg and down from there. I sure put on my "A game" when it was time for the hunt this year (but really its all luck of which eggs you pick). I felt really good about me getting the big bill this year. Well, unfortunately it didn't happen but my total winnings was $103 so I was pretty happy about that. It is a fun tradition my family does each Easter that they save up for and all us kids look forward to. It was a fun easter weekend and it was fun to have all my family in town.

This is a picture of the Grandkids before the kids Easter egg hunt. I didn't get any pictures of the adult Easter egg hunt. Sorry. If you can't tell those are Easter bunny glasses...it was pretty funny with all of them wearing them.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Spring Break 2010 Adventures

2010-03-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Blogging World. It's been almost 3 months since I have posted and its about time I sat down and did a post. I have had a lot going on in the past 3 months...mostly a lot of work. I have gone up to Logan and interviewed with school districts up there as well as here in Cedar. Job hunting consumes a lot of my thinking time and takes up a lot of time applying, interviewing, researching, etc. so it was nice when this week Spring Break finally rolled around. Now, I am officially not an SUU student so I really didn't have spring break. However, all my friends did....So I justified to myself it should be my spring break as well. I canceled all my piano students, I didn't substitute teach at all, and I basically played all week. Here is a glimpse at my spring break.

It all started with Pi Day. Some of you may ask...who celebrates Pi day?? Well, when you are part of my group of friends it is a must. On Pi day we made a new kind of pie. It was a Sunday evening and we had very few ingredients in my house and very well couldn't go out on a sunday to buy ingredients for the pie. We were going to make apple pie, but there were no apples. The only fruit we did have was...grapefruit. So what did we do? What better day then on Pi day itself to experiement with a new kind of pie. Grapefruit Cream Pie. It does sound gross, I know. But surprisingly ... it is very very good. If you don't believe me there are witnesses. Me, Bryan, McCabe, Cassie, and Cicely all ate it and it was delicious. If any of you would like to try it sometime, I would be happy to share the recipie or make you the pie. Don't be shy to ask.

Ta da ... I would like everyone to pay special close attention to the modern art piece I created in the middle of the pie with the grapefruit rinds. I thought it added a nice touch.

The next couple of days we spent the nights together playing games, watching movies, talking, and planning our next adventures. In past discussions my friends have always shared fun memories of lake qwitchapa (spelling?) just out west of town. I being the apparently sheltered person that I am have never ventured out west of town 10 minutes to visit this infamous place...and this is what it looked like.

You know how most of the time people say that pictures don't give a beautiful place justice? Well... in this case I would have to say that this picture was very generous of its beauty. I really did like the lake...but I don't remember it being this pretty in real life when this picture was taken.

Then came Thursday...we all went down to Zion. Now this may be hard for some of you to believe but I have a confession. I have never been to Zion before either. I always joke with everyone that I have been to Europe on 3 separate vacations but never been east of Utah (which is true) and hardly any places that are practically in my backyard (such as Zion) It's sad, but true. Well we planned to hike Angles Landing. I had heard horror stories of this hike so I was a bit nervous. Especially when I saw this sign at the beginning of the trail...For those of you who can't quite make out the sign it says " Warning! Falls from cliffs on this trail have resulted in death!" ...this is not exactly the happy welcoming I want to see as I start off on the hike.

For those of you who have been on the hike...this is Scouts look out. This is the spot right before it is the time to hold on to all the chains for dear life just trying to get to the top of angels landing.

After most of the chains are done you get to this kind of landing...but no...its not the end of the hike yet... I stayed sitting at this landing for quite some time (which by the way is 99% all the way through the hike) and said I didn't want to go the rest of the way. I was mad at myself for saying this because I wanted to go the rest of the way but I will now explain my reasoning... As I was sitting on this rock almost done with the hike...we were waiting for others to come down the trail where we had to head up to finish the hike. Keep in mind this part we have to climb up is snow covered and very slippery (there were a few parts of the hike with snow but not bad, this part however was completely covered) Well, while waiting on this rock I was watching the people come down this part I had to go up and this guy slips on the slippery snow and starts sliding down not able to stop himself and comes feet within going off the edge of the cliff. Yet again...not a very comforting thing to see. I wanted to finish the hike so badly though, I had come so far. So Bryan, calmed me down, talked me into finishing the hike, and helped me go the rest of the way. He also found a way where we didn't even have to go through the snowy part so it was much much safer. Thanks Bryan! I would have been so mad at myself for not finishing. I guess it was good I was cautious about being safe, I didn't want to be a baby ... but kind of was.

Here McCabe is juggling on the top of Angels Landing. Don't worry he was safe and a safe distance a way from the edge...not many people can say they have juggled on the top of Angles landing though. Amazing hike by the way for all of you have not hiked it ... I highly suggest it. It's beautiful. Not to mention Walters Wiggles gives you quite the work out!

We were all pretty sore from the Hike the next day...but did that stop us?? NO! The next day we went down to St. George and went Ice Skating at the Dixie Igloo! Most of us were beginners or have only gone a few times. It was so much fun ... I would like to say I looked something like this on the ice....

But I think I looked more like this...

Although...by the end we were all getting pretty good. And Bryan and I were even trying to attempt some pretty cool moves. Attempt was the key word there. He was doing pretty good. I still need work. Charles was ice skating backwards by the end (which is way harder than it looks) and we were all becoming pretty dang good. It was a lot of fun. I am going to go again some time soon.

It was a fun week of Spring Break! Now back to reality...

The things I LOVE to do in my spare time

2009-12-29T18:35:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been in the crafty mood. And when I say lately I mean.... my whole life. I have ALWAYS loved doing quilts, scrapbooking, etc. but I never really have had a lot of time to do it. Well, these are the projects I've been doing this last month. I started at the end of November with all of these and been going strong ever since.

This is a baby blanket that I crocheted around...it also has a matching burping pad. I have done several of these over the years that I just save in my hope chest for later on when I need it.

This is a quilt I made today actually. Its not a great picture but I'll tell you a short history behind this quilt. Every year for the past couple of years my grandma gives me a couple doleys for christmas and birthdays. I had so many I didn't know what to do with so I decided to take a lot of them and mount them on a quilt. I am not quite finished with it...but I really like it. Its something I will be able to keep for a long time and always remind me of my grandma and some of the things she has made me. I thought it turned out pretty good.

I've also been making aprons lately. I might end up trying to sell them at some point once I perfect them but I'm not to that point yet. I've just been making some though for me and friends and family. These are a few that I have done over the past couple weeks.

I tied this quilt yesterday. My mom helped me. It went really fast and then I bound it all up by hand while watching Anne of Green Gables. I had never bound a quilt by hand so it was fun. It is a full size quilt but I did it up closer so you could see the pattern better.

I have also been making cards the past month or so. Its been a lot of fun. I have about 180 made now. I also am planning on trying to sell these at some point too ... but we'll see what happens. Here are a few different ones I have done.
Well those are a few projects that have been keeping me busy lately. It's been a lot of fun doing them. I'm always up for some good old fashion craft time.

Hope you enjoyed!

Christmas Project

2009-12-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

My family started a new tradition this year that I absolutely loved! Every year in my family we all get to open one present on Christmas Eve and it is always without fail...pajamas. I know several other families that do this tradition as well and I love it. BUT this year in place of Christmas Pajamas my parents at Thanksgiving time gave each of us kids and our families (but since I don't have a spouse just me) $50 and with it we were supposed to spend it on someone else for Christmas that we know was struggling. As soon as I got my money I knew exactly what I wanted to do....

When I was student teaching in the Fifth grade I really immediately was drawn to this little girl...her name is Lupe. I talked to Lupe a lot everyday and even though you aren't supposed to have favorites...she was definitely one of mine. She told me all about her family and talked to me a lot about anything and everything. This is a little of her story.

Lupe was born in Mexico and lived there until she was about 6 years old. When she was 4 her dad became really sick. He moved to America because he knew that he could get better care here. They could only afford to send him though, so Lupe her mom and all her younger brothers and sisters stayed in Mexico. Her Mom in Mexico, and Dad in America, worked as much as they could in their circumstances until they saved all they could to move the rest of Lupe's family to America. It was pretty much their whole lives savings. They got here when Lupe was 6 and she is now 10. She is the oldest in her family. When she first moved here NOBODY in her family spoke any English at all. She started in school and struggled for a long time because she didn't know any English and she couldn't get any support at home really because her parents don't know any English either. Lupe is one of the sweetest little girls you will ever meet. She has so much life in her and is such a hard worker. She is now the top of her class, speaks great English (even better than some of the kids that have lived in cedar all their lives) and is one of the top readers. She is an amazing little girl. She used to come up to me and say how worried she was how she would do on a test because nobody at home can help her study and she didn't fully understand something so I would work with her a lot one on one to try and help her. She always got top scores. Her parents still don't know hardly any English at all and she basically is the translator for her whole family. She has a lot of responsibility in her family but is such a good example to everyone. I know her family struggles financially a lot so I wanted to at least help her out to have a Christmas that she deserves. In the things I got her there were a few things she could share with her brothers and sisters but I think I would like to get something more for her whole family soon to help them ALL out a little more. It felt so good to be able to help out a little. ... Oh and thanks Bryan for being the knock and run guy. Here are a few pictures from what I got her. (we were supposed to document our experience and tell about it..that was part of the deal). A few of the things I got for Lupe for Christmas.

Me with the Christmas gifts all packaged up!

I hope you enjoyed!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Touch the Temple

2009-12-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving break was great! There was lots of food, lots of family, and lots of fun! I wanted to share with everyone one thing my family did over the break and that was go to the St. George temple. A couple months ago in the ensign, my mom found an article that she really liked. It was called "Touching the Temple" (some of you may have read it). If you haven't read it, I would highly suggest it. Ever since my mom read this article she got this idea to do over the Thanksgiving break when all my family was here. It was an amazing and spiritual experience....

All of my family met at the temple on the side where the staircase is that leads up to the big doors. My mom talked to us for a minute about how President Monson has said that as we touch the temple the temple will touch us. She shared her testimony of the temple and how important it is in each of our lives. All the grandkids were there and after my mom talked to us each grandchild walked up the stairs and touched the temple doors and said "Today I touched the temple and one day I will enter the doors." and then we took their pictures touching the temple doors. It was so neat to see all my nieces and nephews do this. You could tell it really got them thinking about the importance of the temple. After all the kids had a chance to touch the temple, we all gathered at the bottom of the stairs again together and all of my family sang

"I love to see the temple. I'm going there some day,

to feel the holy spirit to listen and to pray. For the temple is a house of God, a place of love and beauty. I'll prepare myself while I am young. This is my sacred duty."

The spirit was so strong and it was so amazing to be at such a sacred place with all of my family singing those words. All of the adults were able to go in after our program and go to a session at the temple. (I of course am not endowed yet so I was on babysitting duty...which I love too.) I can't wait to go to the temple someday. Until then I try to go to the temple regularly to do baptisms for the dead. I have had the opportunity to go to several temples and have the spirit touch me in so many ways. I am so thankful for this gospel. I am so thankful for Temples and the sacred work that goes on inside. I'm so thankful for the blessings in my life and the amazing family I have. I'm thankful to know that they are my eternal family and I will always live with them.

"Yes, temples can touch us as much — more so — than we can touch them. When we go to a temple, we touch its solid surfaces, but the temple touches us on a deeper level. It touches the spirit." -Touching the Temple Ensign talk.

Here are a few pictures from our temple trip:

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Christmas ... Here we come!

My Life as of Late

2009-11-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well everyone, I have quite a lot to catch everyone up on. So let's just get right into it... First of all I'M FREE!!!!!!!! I am officially done with college. I have graduated (the only thing that doesn't make it official is the actual graduation which will be in May...but lets not focus on that because I'm done)! I was officially done with student teaching on Friday the 20th and I already have several Subbing jobs at several different schools here in Cedar. Not much of a break but I'm excited and it's finally come to a time when I will actually be getting paid for what I've been working towards all this time. It's a great feeling to be done. Here is a picture of my 5th grade class on the last day I was with them. I will miss them a lot. They are cute kids but I'm excited for whats ahead for me.

Next... I went to my annual cancer check up and I am happy to say that everything is still fine. I'm still cancer free! Yay! The check up went great. It was a quick trip but it was good. Bryan came with me to keep me company.

I made a purchase that I am pretty excited about. I have always wanted to learn the guitar. My dad had a really old one that I tried to fix up but it just didn't have a very good sound to it. So I had saved up some money and I decided to buy this beauty....

Isn't she a beauty? I love it. Bryan has been teaching me how to play. It's been fun.

The next couple pictures are of me and some of my favorite nephews in the world. There is a picture of us at Halloween, one night when we were all in our PJ's together, and them in their brand new church clothes. They are so cute!Other than that life is continuing on as normal. I have been really busy lately but have been very blessed. I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving and everything is going well!

Through the Years ... What do you think?

2009-10-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

So there is all this debate lately about what I should do with my hair. I have had many hairdos in my life and I think its about time for a change. You see... most all of my life I have had short hair. Exhibit A:This was one of the earliest pictures I could find showing proof of short hair through my life.

Exhibit B:The above picture was a stage in my life where it was curlers in the hair every night and take them out in the morning when I woke up.

Exhibit C:Ahh... Exhibit C is very interesting. To this day this picture is the time when my hair was the longest it has ever been. This was in the Second Grade. Now do you see why I say its about time for a change? Its been about 14 years since my hair has been past shoulder length.

Now the last picture was in the second grade and the next picture is from my Junior year of High School. The reason for the big jump is because 1. I couldn't find any pictures on my computer from those times. And 2. There are some times in your life that you just shouldn't make people relive with you. Maybe in some later posts you will see these pictures...it would probably be titled "My awkward years". Just trust me my hair was short.

Exhibit D:
Both these pictures are from my Junior year of high school. It was up at state track. The picture above is of us three team captains. This picture and the picture right below are from the same day. This is the shortest my hair has ever been. This is how my hair was from my freshman to junior year of high school.
Exhibit E:
Not only have I tried different lengths and styles, but different hair colors. I have tried going to really dark hair color.

And finally Exhibit F:This is probably the most recent picture of me. My hair is back to its natural hair color. And I have been trying to grow it out since the beginning of the summer. The real question is....should I continue on with growing out my hair? What do you think?

Grandma Lymans 90th Birthday and leaving the First Grade

2009-10-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

My family (my extended family) had a huge birthday party for my Grandma Lyman. It was her 90th Birthday. We all went up to Delta and had the party inbetween conference sessions. I really love getting together with my moms side of the family. Even though there are 148 of us in all (aunts, uncles, grandkids, and great grandkids) we are all so close to each other and our family gatherings are always a blast. Like I said before her ... My Grandma Lyman is the big 9 0 . Even though that is her age you wouldn't know it. She looks so young for her age, she is still active and her sense of humor has never faded. She is an amazing woman and a huge role model in my life. Here are some of the pictures from the big day!

My Grandma leading us in the Happy Birthday Song.

All the Granddaughters with Grandma Lyman
(we were missing 4 others that couldn't make it to the party but this is most of us).
These are some of my favorite ladies in the world...all are amazing examples to me especially Kayla (front right in the wheelchair).

The three amigos meet again! Two of my best friends and cousins in the world.

Me , Grandma Lyman, Kelli, and Karilynne. Doesn't my Grandma look young for 90?

Grandma and I. Definitely a hero in my life.

My nephew Eli was pooped by the end of the day. It's a lot to take for just a little guy.

My family took a quick picture with Grandma before we had to leave.
I'm so blessed. My family is amazing.

October 2nd (Friday) was my last day with my first graders. I am going to miss them so much but it was so fun to be with them for 6 weeks. On my last day they surprised me with a book they made for me as a class and a root beer float party. It was so fun. It's just a fun age to be with. I wasn't able to take a picture with the class before I left but I took some pictures of some of the pages of the book they made me so you can understand why I'm going to miss them so much. Here are a few of the pictures from the book they made me. I hope you can read their writing and see their drawings well...it shows up kind of light on the camera.

Miss Keate, You are so nice to the class. Thank you for all you
have done. Thank you for teaching us math. Love, Sunny

Dear Miss Keate, Thank you for teaching us about Africa. Love, Bailey

Dear Miss Keate, I love you. You are nice. Thank you for teaching us about Africa. Love, Taz

Dear Miss Keate, You are the best teacher in the world. Love, Karsten

Dear Miss Keate, I love you. Happy Halloween. We are one
big happy classroom. Love Your Friend, McKenna

Dear Miss Keate, I love you. You are my best friend. Love, Brayden

Anyways...I thought those were cute and I would share them with you. Sorry for such a long post but I had a lot going on this week. Hope you enjoyed!

California Fun and More

2009-09-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

I know, I confess its been FOREVER since I have blogged...I'm sorry. But I do have good reasons I'm usually gone from home everyday from 8-7 either at the school student teaching or teaching piano and by the time I get home I have to prep for the next day of school and then I try to squeeze in other stuff and blogging has just not been high priority as of late. But I'm going to get back into the groove of it. For those of you who may not know Bryan and I decided to head to Los Angeles this past weekend for a quick trip and we had so much fun. It was kind of on a whim and totally worth it. We left Friday as soon as both of us got out of school and headed for Vegas. We stayed the night in Vegas with my Grandpa Keate and headed out early the next morning because we had a full day ahead of us. The first thing we did was go to the Los Angeles Temple.

The temple grounds are HUGE! It was gorgeous.

This was one of the tree's on the temple ground. I just thought it was cool.

Then we headed to Venice Beach. It was one of the weirdest but coolest places ever. There were street performers everywhere, crazy old guys singing jingle bells, and little shops everywhere. We didn't get to stay for long but we got to get in the water for a little while at least.

We headed to the Dodgers game next. We missed the first inning because the traffic was ridiculous, but hey...everyone else was walking in just as late as us so we didn't feel like we missed out on that much. It was so fun to go to the Dodgers game....I had never been to a MLB game so it was a lot of fun. They played the Giants and the Dodgers totally crushed them... the final score of the game was 12 - 1. I want to go to another game! I'm a new and converted fan of Major League Baseball. Some highlights of the game were: 2 home runs hit by the Dodgers in a row, the Dodgers totally dominating the Giants, this guy purposed to his wife during the game and they showed it on the big screen so I thought that was pretty cool, singing take me out to the ball game with a whole stadium of Dodgers fans, and much much more. We were praying for Bryan to catch a ball from Manny Ramierez but Unfortunately that never happened. Maybe next time.

I know this picture of this man is random...we had to take a picture though for the pure memory of him. He sat behind us in the game. For those of you who want to know more about this I will tell you sometime. haha.Me and Bryan at the game. If your wondering why my hair is all wavy and weird...its because it was. It was SO hot and humid at the game and thats what happens. Oh well...we had to get at least one picture of us at the game.

We had a ton of fun even though it was a quick trip. I had to be back by Sunday morning at nine because one of my best friends is leaving on her mission and she was having her farewell. Anne is leaving on October 14th for the Naga, Philippines Mission.

Yeah, I know this is a forever old picture of us but it works. I'm so excited for Anne. She is going to be an amazing missionary. I will miss her a lot. We have been best friends since we were eleven. She did a great job in her talk and is going to have an amazing 1 1/2 years!

I also just finished piecing, tying, and binding a quilt. I thought I'd post a picture of it. I've been on quite the craftiness roll so I thought I'd keep going and now I'm crocheting around a couple baby blankets as well.Thanks Mary and Bryan for helping me with the quilt and letting me use your house to make it!

I am now up to 13 piano students and am half way through my student teaching! This semester is flying by but I'm absolutely loving working with my cute 1st graders! I will try to post again soon!

Party time!

2009-08-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I thought it was about time for another update. This month has been a good one. I have about a week and a half until I start student teaching! I'm trying to do as much as possible before than because I have a feeling as soon as August 20th comes around I will have very little social life. I have figured my schedule out and with 10 piano students and the contract hours for student teaching I will pretty much be gone everyday from about 8-7 and then come home for prep the next day. It will be good...but 3 hecktic months. Anyways...back to what I was really here to blog about...August Updates. Here are some pictures from the party my family had a couple days ago for my niece and nephew. It was a lot of fun...all the kids played on the slip and slide, we went out to eat, and basically played games all day. Here are a few pictures from the party.All the kids in their swimsuits before the slip in slide started.

Kamree coming down the slip and slide

My cute nephew Gavin...I think he is contemplating if he should go down the slip n' slide.
My nephew Frank and I.

I love this picture...haha I think my nephew Gabe was cold and had had enough at this point.

One of the games we played.

This little guy (Logan) didn't get to participate in the slip n' slide. But he was still happy.
This is baby Eli... He is a little too young to do the slip n' slide. He just hangs around and looks cute.

The stars of the party. It was Scotlynn's birthday on July 26th and Gabes on August 1st so we combined the two and had this birthday party.
I just love this picture of my niece Eliza. She is so cute.

All my nieces and nephews are adorable. I love being around them and my family and spending time with them. They keep things interesting and fun. I am the luckiest aunt in the world.

I have also had a bonfire with a bunch of friends this month but unfortunately I don't have any pictures from it...as well as going hiking at Kanaraville falls with my family home evening group tonight. It was a blast but I forgot my camera in the car. I hope you all enjoyed these pictures though... Thats all folks. But I will be back.

Quick stop at Cedar Breaks

2009-07-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! It was my friend Anne Decker's birthday this month AND she got her mission call to the Naga, Philippines Mission and I am so excited for her! She leaves October 14th ... it will be sad to say goodbye to her because she has practically been my other half the past 10 years...but she is going to do great and what a better way to spend one and a half years of your life? Anyways...she had a party up at her Cabin and on the way up everyone in my car decided to make a quick stop by at Cedar Breaks to take some quick pictures and to look at the beautiful view! It had been a very long time since I had stopped there but it was fun! Here are a few of the pictures from our stop.

Everyone that rode up in our car. We met some nice people from... South Carolina I think it was... that took the picture of the whole gang.

A picture of just the girls.

Annie G. and I

A shot of Cedar Breaks

Mary wanted a picture of us that sat in the backseat of the truck.

I will post again soon. Sorry for the quick post I will update you all a little later! Hope you are all having a great summer!... It's going by so fast so hurry and get that last adventure in!

Some Family Pictures

2009-07-17T23:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! It's been a couple weeks since I have updated my blog. I have been busy and have some other things I will post soon but today I am just going to post a couple family pictures. I was so excited today because I finally got some pictures that we took at my Grandma Keate's funeral today as well as some of my Grandma when she was around my age in her wedding dress and such! I absolutely loved the pictures (especially some of the ones of my grandma) so I thought I would post them. My Grandma passed away at the end of January. We all love her so much and miss her so much! I was so blessed to have her as my Grandma!

My family...and Grandpa Keate of course (in the middle)
on the day of Grandma Keate's funeral.

The whole Keate side of the family on the day of the funeral.

My Grandma Keate...I love these old pictures of her.

This is my all time favorite picture of my Grandma...this is her in her wedding dress. She is right around my age in this picture and I think she looks beautiful! I love having these pictures of her!

This was the last picture taken of my Grandma Keate...not long before she passed away. I still think she looked great!

Anyways ... I thought these were some cool pictures of my Grandma that I am lucky to have and also some family pictures of the day of her funeral that I thought I would post. I will post again very soon!

Footloose

2009-06-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hello all bloggers! I know it has been about a month since I have last posted...for that I am very sorry. It has been a crazy past month. I have been super busy with...well life. On Tuesday my friend thee Krista Felice Isom asked if I would like to come to Footloose the musical with her and her parents and their friends at Tuachan. Of course I accepted the invitation...I am ALWAYS up for a good musical. It was amazing and I am so glad I got to go! I didn't even know the story of the musical at all... I had never seen the original movie and from what I hear I am definitely missing out. The people who were in the musical were very talented and it was an awesome show. I will have to get on watching that soon. Here are a few pictures we took right before we went to our seats. Enjoy! I'll be writing again soon! :)

Don't we look stunning? :)

We were so excited to go!

May Moments

2009-05-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

There has been so much going on this month and I finally have time to write about it all and post some of the pictures. It has been a great month with lots of adventures. Time has just flown by. Let's start with Brian Regan...

My brother Justin and his wife Jen went with me and Bryan to Brian Regan down in Tuachan. It was really funny just like all of Brian Regan's comedy routines are and it was a lot of fun.

DISNEYLAND
All 20 members of my family went to Disneyland for 3 days. It was a ton of fun. The first day we went we all had matching shirts on. So if you can imagine 20 members all moving through Disneyland in a big pack with matching shirts on...yeah we stood out. But it was fun. Here are a few pictures from the happiest place on earth.

Me , My Mom and my sister Krista when we first got into the park. People say we all look alike...I don't see it...maybe you do?

This is the whole gang with Mickey. It is amazing we even got this good of a picture. Trying to get 11 kids to look at the camera at the same time is a real challenge...but we did pretty good. I would name everyone but it would take to long. But don't I have a cute family?

My sister in law Jen me and my very tired nephew Logan on the spinning ferris wheel ride.

This is me praying/closing my eyes waiting for it to be over/wishing my brother and brother in law didn't force me to ride this ride...The Big Shot. I am usually up for faster than the speed of light rollercoasters that drop you and flip you and anything you can imagine...but rides like this one (The Big Shot) and Tower of Terror I absolutely am deathly afraid of. They are just those rides that make you feel like your stomach is going to jump out of your body and fall all over everyone when you are free falling. But I decided this trip to be brave and finally try them and they weren't that bad. This was my first try at those kind of rides. I screamed like a little girl but they were fun.

Don't you love this picture of my Mom and Dad. Haha I absolutely love it. It is on the new Toy Story ride in California Adventure. It is a way fun ride very similar to the Buzz ride if you have ever been on that but I like it better. Its all in 3D and we were able to catch this lovely shot of my parents.

Well...thats all for Disneyland that I am putting up. I hope you enjoyed it. I have tons more fun pictures but these were some of my favorites.

After Disneyland I came back and tried to get back to reality. Another big thing that happened this month was I finally got my Student Teaching assignment for the fall! Woohoo! I have 2 placements. Both are at East Elementary in Cedar City and one is in the first grade and the second is in fifth grade. It will be an exciting exhausting fun experience for me. Now that I have the assignments I have to start preparing my big unit for it all. Other than that I have been busy stitching for my family, teaching piano ( I am up to 8 students now ), and even cleaning a house on the side for a small job. It's great and I'm loving life. I think thats all I've got for this posting but I will be back on soon!

The big 2 1!

2009-05-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

My birthday was this past week...May 2nd. It was so much fun. All of my family came into town (not only was it my birthday but the next day my brother was blessing his baby boy Eli) so we had a full house. A house gets pretty crazy with 9 Adults and 11 grandkids...but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love my family. We had a BBQ, opened presents, and played games. I also went to the new x-men movie with Bryan later that night. It was a fun day. Here are a few pictures.

My all time favorite musical is Wicked. I got to see it when I was in London. My parents went to it about a month ago in SLC and they got me this shirt from it. It has a picture of the witch and it says "Defy Gravity" if anyone knows anything about this musical they know that that is one of the best songs there is on it.

I also got a Willowtree statue from my parents. They are the statues you always see at Deseret book that are hand carved. I love them so much and I collect them so I got another one to add to the collection!

A picture with me and 8 of the 11 cute nieces and nephews of mine! Aren't they adorable! I am so glad all of them were able to come to town to celebrate my birthday with me!

It was a great weekend. I had a great birthday and my nephews baby blessing was great!

Delta...my favorite place on earth

2009-04-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

This past week I went up to Delta, Utah. Some of you may think something like "Whoopie, whats so cool about Delta?" Well its these people right here...

I love these girls. We call ourselves the three amigos. I am pretty sure we have dozens and dozens of pictures of us three in pictures very similar to this one from when we were just babies to now. They are my 2 closest cousins and some of my best friends. Karilynne is on the left and she just returned from the Stokholm Sweden mission, me of course in the middle, and then Kelli on the right. We had not been together for almost 2 years til Saturday night when we met at my Grandma Lyman's house. It was so good to all be together again and be able to catch up on life. We had so much fun together and did what we do best when we get together...Laugh. Karilynne did a great job at her homecoming report and we had a lot of fun hanging out with all the family. It was a great weekend!

I'm Back!!!

2009-04-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well it has been almost an entire year since I have last blogged...pathetic I know. I have had SO many people ask me if I blog and telling me I should so I decided I should learn how to blog and start doing it. The real reason I haven't blogged for a year is because I never really knew how to blog and I am probably thee most technology retarded person on this planet. BUT no worries... I have learned how for the most part and I will be blogging a lot more now. Since last I blogged was last may I decided I would catch everyone up on my life for the past year. (I know all of you are thinking "a years worth of blog! Thats going to take forever to read...I think thats my cue to leave") Well you can leave if you want, I dont blame you. BUT I promise I dont have a very eventful life so there isn't much to catch up on but I will give you the highlights. And hopefully it will be somewhat entertaining for you.
Let's start with Summer 2008 shall we?

June and July were pretty packed with catering for weddings. I had tons of fun. I catered with my friend Anne. We had a lot of fun and...

...we usually kept ourselves entertained when not catering too. Superman is always a favorite pass time when things are slow at weddings.

Yup...yet another scar on my body. I can't wait til the second coming and I will have no scars. In July I went for my annual cancer check up and they found something suspicious...SO I had another minor surgery and got this beauty. Good news is that has been the last time of any sign of cancer so I'm doing.

August

My family did our annual Swiss days craft fair. We spent all summer getting ready for it and it usually ends up as a family project every time we get together...here even some of my cute nieces and nephew are helping out. It was a big success and a lot of fun.

September

This however is one guy who didn't have all that fun at Swiss Days, my Dad. He probably wouldn't be too happy with me if he knew I posted this picture on my blog but oh well...sorry Dad. My family almost lost my dad in September. He was really sick all through August and finally at the very beginning of September he went into the hospital and it turns out his appendix ruptured over a month ago and tons of infection had been spreading. They did emergency surgery and its a good thing they did because they say if we would have waited even a day more he would have most likely passed away in his sleep that night. It was pretty serious. This picture is him right after he came out of surgery and when he was in ICU. We are very blessed to still have him around. I don't know what I would do without my dad! :)

October

I was a princess for Halloween...

We had a ward Halloween party. That is actually another thing that keeps me pretty busy... I was called as Relief Society President in my student ward. These are some of the cute girls that are in my relief society. I absolutely love them all and have been very blessed to have this calling and get to know so many amazing girls that are an example to me in my life.

November

Me and some of my friends went up by the "C" in the fall and took some pictures for fun with all the pretty leaves. My family liked the pictures so much they wanted to take some family pictures up there...we didn't get there quite in time to get the fall colors but they still turned out pretty good.

the whole family

Me with my two brothers and my sister and all their spouses. Some day it will be even numbers...some day.

These are five of eleven of my nieces and nephews. The oldest five. Aren't they cute?

December - ENGLAND!!!

The famous Big Ben! My trip to England was great!I went with one of my best friends Anne Decker. Some of the things I got to do were go to the musicals Wicked and The Lion King, travel all around London to see the famous sights, we actually stayed on the London Temple grounds and were able to do some family names with baptisms for the dead in the London, England temple, I went to Jane Austins house, Stone Henge, where they filmed Harry Potter movies, two of the Queens castles, changing of the guard, etc. It was an amazing experience I will NEVER forget.
Me in front of Wicked.

January and February I didn't take any pictures sorry...but I have kept myself busy with being in the elementary education block at SUU and its been a blast. I also teach piano and have kept myself busy with those things

March

I have been so lucky to work with so many children in elementary schools this semester. I had the opportunity to go down to Mesquite Nevada and work with first graders for a week in their school. All of the block students went and we had a blast with bowling, games, teaching, ect. I have had a blast so far this semester!

Some of my kids from Mesquite. We were painting a scene for a play they were putting on.

We went bowling that night. It was so fun. Us modeling our bowling balls.

These are all the people in the block. They have become my second family this semester!

My fourth grade kids at south elementary. I love them!

Well everyone...that is officially thee longest blog of all of history. If this is your first time reading my blog...don't worry they will not be this long always. And props for getting to the end of this if you have...you are a true friend if you did. And if you were one of those that just went through and looked at the pictures...thats probably what I would have done too. I hope you enjoyed them. I have been very blessed in my life in the past year and these are just a few of the things that have happened. Now that I am all caught up in blogging I can check another thing off of my "to do" list. I will be much much more consistent with this I promise. I hope you enjoyed and will enjoy future posts! :)

I have a blog!

2008-05-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! I have loved looking at all your blogs and I love seeing pictures and getting caught up with whats new in all your lives now so I decided I myself would make one.

Here is a quick run through of whats new in my life. For everyone who doesn't know I am starting my senior year of college in the fall at SUU! I love college and going but I wanted to get through with school as fast as I could and start doing what I have always wanted to do...be a teacher to cute little kids! My major is Elementary Education and my minor is Early Childhood Education. I love my major and am excited to start teaching soon! I will graduate next May! Even though Ive only been in college for 2 years and I love it I am ready to to get out and do what I love!

I still live at home while going to school...it saves me the cost of rent so I'm okay with it! I am the youngest in my family and the only single child left. But I have 9 nieces and nephews plus one on the way and I wouldn't trade being able to spend the time with them as a single aunt for anything right now! I love spending time with my family and friends! My favorite pass time is to just talk to everyone! I have a passion for people and getting to know them. Everybody has a story and I'm the one that loves to listen and hear all about them!

For the summer I am taking a couple of summer classes that I needed to get out of the way as well as helping cater at weddings for a side job. Life is awesome and I love waking up every morning to see whats in store for me that day! I am excited to continue to keep up on all your blogs to see whats going on in your lives and I hope this will help try to explain to everyone my life and what I'm all about...however crazy and random that may be. :)