GiViNg ThAnKs!

...Since I established this morning, that Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday in the world, I figured I better have a good attitude, and post some things I'm thankful for. :) Its not the "being thankful for great family and friends" part of Thanksgiving that I don't like, its the cook for 48 hours, eat for 20 minutes a meal, that I don't absoutely love....strange, I know. Anywhoo....here goes.

**I'm thankful for places like Starbucks and Square One. Not because you'll ever find me in there (OK well maybe for Hot Chocolate, or a smoothie, but that has never happened in my short 20 years), but because it keeps my good friends, Megan and Amanda...my friends :) Without it, they may realize what a doof nut I really am, and then....well I'm out a friend or two... :)

**I'm so VERY thankful for laughter, but more importantly, the people in my life who MAKE me laugh CONSTANTLY!!! I know I look like a dork when I'm walking through the aisle of the grocery store, or sitting in a meeting or something, and just by looking at my phone, can not control the laughter. I live in the most hilarious house, and I'm so grateful that even on a not so great day, I come home and can laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

**I'm thankful for "wrinkle Free fabric" Even tho everyone knows, that you totally still have to iron that stuff, its much easier to tackle than just regular ole fabric. . . and anyone that knows me well, knows how I LOVE to iron...and how DARN good I am at it :)

**I'm thankful for the job that I have that I LOVE. Very unique and random, but it is amazin, and I love it.

**I'm thankful for Christmas Music....and the dancing that it inspires. I can listen to it all day every day this time of year, and never get tired of it....even if it plays the same song over and over and over.

**I'm thankful for patience, and that I have been blessed with lots of it. If I hadn't been, there's a good chance I'd be bald. :)

**I'm thankful for good food....dessert type foods. Hot Fudge Sundae's, Banana splits, Coconut Cream Pie, Cookie Dough, and Ice Cream.....all those things I shouldn't like. Someday I'll be thankful for diets. :)

** I'm thankful for Mexican food....and those who invented it. . . Especially Sweet Pork. Very addicting these days.

** I'm thankful for motivation. Don't have much of it, but I'm thankful for what I do have...I figure if I'm nice to it, maybe I'll somehow get more.

** I'm thankful for online shopping. Best invention EvEr....almost

**I'm thankful for my "second family" The good times that I have with them, and the things they do for me.

**I'm thankful for Face book, Texting, my phone, and my computer. All my virtual things.....without them, I wouldn't have my feet planted firmly on the ground. ha ha

** I'm grateful for FAMILY and FRIENDS without them, I would not be the person that I am today. They've made me who I am, and without their example, I would be very lost.

** I'm especially grateful for my MOM and my DAD. My Mom is one of the most selfless people that I know. She is a great example to me. One of the things about her that I love the most, is that she is willing to do anything for anybody. Never once in my life growing up, do I remember her asking anyone to do something, that she wouldn't be willing to do herself. Love her. So much!
My DAD is a great example of kindness. He's always willing to listen to what everyone has to say, before judging anybody. I love him for that.

**I think I'm most thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the role it plays in my life. Without this, I would be lost. I'm so grateful for the understanding that I know I can return to live with my Heavenly Father after this life. I am grateful for my older brother Jesus Christ, and that he died for me. I'm grateful for the plan of Salvation. I'm grateful for the power of the Priesthood, for the blessings that I have received because of this power. I'm thankful that I have always lived a place that I can receive the blessings of the Priesthood. I'm thankful for Joseph Smith and all the sacrifices he and his family made, to restore the Gospel to this earth.

With this being said......HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!!

Sunday Photo Shoot

Macie wanted to play with the camera on Sunday, so I said What the heck. It made her happy, and since I aim to please......

Josh is facinated with how my keys work....some intense conversation going on here.
He's my little prince :)

Kari and Josh

Macie obviously got her Dad's gene in the photography department....oh joy.

And then I had to get a picture of the two of them, cuz hello!! They are just so cute!

Such a sweetheart!! Getting so big! She was so proud of her dress, because it had a bow on it, her boots had bows on them, and I put a headband with a bow on it in her hair. I did her hair in little flower buns, and she couldn't have been happier. . . . If only everyone were so easy to please :)

Hair drama

So. One day, quite a few months ago...like back in March I went and got my hair cut. I walked in the door, and I'm going to guess that from the look on every one's face, it was a lot shorter than they had expected. I knew that, but was trying to get used to it, because once you cut hair...its cut. Right? Right. So I get home, and Whit tells me that since I've already made a pretty drastic change, I may as well change some more, right? So we decide to make me a brunette. So I go to Sally's, find a color, come home.....and walla, I'm brunette. That was fun. I liked it, but I've always had this total desire to be blond. So when it started growing out, and was obviously time for more color, or something, I decided to try blond. So, back to Sally's. *DISCLAIMER* BAAAD IDEA!!!! Got the color i wanted, and we gave it a shot. I knew it was going south, when its 11:00 on a Saturday night, and Whit is putting it in and says "Is this all you bought?" As she only had half my head covered. Well, she made it work. So at least I was all over...Orange. Yes, it turned orange. Whats' worse, is that I had to go to church the next day. Ug. Well, first thing Monday morning I had an appt to get it "fixed" That didn't work either. After being in the salon for 5 hours, I came home WORSE than when I left. Trying to lift a dark color, doesn't work. Well, at this point, I had colored my hair twice in 48 hours and it was fried. I had to leave it alone for at least 2 weeks so that it could heal. That was the greatest news EvEr! During this 2 week span, my family would be visiting, and I ended up going to AZ for almost 2 weeks. SO it wasn't until a couple weeks ago, that I was finally fixed. My friend Panda's AMAZING sister was in town, from SLC, and guess what?? She's going to Paul Mitchell Beauty school. It just so HAPPENED that I texted Panda the WEEKEND Kenzie was in town, asking her if she had any suggestions on how to fix my "Orange skunk hair" cuz guys, that's TOTALLY what I looked like. Yes, an Orange skunk. So anyway... Here's the pics. Kenzi totally fixed me up!

This is My natural color, before any color at all....High school days....

Darker Days. NOTE: Ryan is notorious for just taking pictures, and NEVER getting good ones, so this is about all I have to work with...Sorry.ORANGE!!! I had to go curly forever, because straight just made the orange shine, even WORSE! The orange shirt is definitely not helping my cause in this picture, it was bad bad news.

Finally blond. Its still got some orange highlights in it, because she just weaved the blond in, but we are definitely on our way to a full recovery, I think!

Talk about unwanted stress!!! :) Just kidding. It makes things exciting and fun, and that's just the way I like it :)

2009!

Alright. Its obvious. This blogging thing, has totally kicked my trash. But here we go!

Janurary:

DISNEY CRUISE!!! It was seriously a blast! I came back, totally wanting to get a job with Disney! They have so much fun together, and I just thought it would be awesome! It was SO relaxing, I think my favorite part was never knowing what time it was. It could be 10 in the morning, or midnight, and you just didn't have a clue. I could seriously get used to that life :)

Here is my journal entry that I started, but obviously never finsihed... from the cruise.

Yup. I'm serious. I just had one of the best weeks' of my life. I think I've decided what I want to be when I grow up :)
Last week, Ryan, Whitney, Mike, Stacie, and Kent and Deb and their families, went on an Eastern Caribbean Disney Cruise. It was seriously amazing. I loved it.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday, we were at sea all day. They had tons of stuff for us to do. The kids each had their clubs to go to, they had pools, hot tubs, clubs for all ages with fun things to do, tonnnns of food to eat, all the time, movies playing constantly, in the theatre. We went to quite a few live performances, and they were awesome! You could catch a movie playing in the Theatre almost always. We stayed in the cabins midship, so there were no windows, which was awesome. We could go to sleep and sleep forever. . . never having a clue what time it was, because it was always dark (that, and you were changing the clock back and forth all the time because we were going through so many time zones.) The rocking was so awesome. . . especially when you were trying to go to sleep... Luckily I didn't get too sea sick.

This is Kylie and I, sitting in the window on Beat street on our way to Karoke night. Super fun, and obiously something was super funny because...look at our faces :)


Our boat was the one in the middle. The one that has Mickey Mouse ears :)

CORN ROWS!!! Funny story: Kylie and I went to get our hair braided. Disney does it on the ship, cheaper than you can get it done in Mexico per say. So Whit scheduled us a time, and we went up to get it done. They got almost done with Ky and asked me who was going to come up and sign for us. I told the lady that I'd go ahead and sign. She looked at me and said "Honey, you can't sign. You're Mom or Dad will have to come do that for you." I looked at her and said "Ummmmmmmm how old do you have to be to sign?" She said "You have to be at least 18 dear." Well, I had some news for her.....seriously. She didn't believe me! I seriously almost had to go track Ryan down, to come sign for us because she wouldn't buy the fact that I was 20 years old. When I told her how old I was, she looked at me and said "Oh my goodness. I thought you were 14" I still haven't decided how to take that....somedays people think I have 5 kids, other days I'm 12. What the heck!

Well, thats the most amazing vacation ever...in a very small nutshell. I will get caught up on everything else here....very soon :)

Thanksgiving and Christmas (Finally)

Sisters :)

I know I'm really slow, and very late, but I didn't want to skip right through everything that is happening in 2009 without doing a Christmas post. Its been a busy few months. I was so able to go to Arizona and see my family (Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins unfortunately my immediate family couldn't be there this year) for Thanksgiving. I spent Thanksgiving day and a couple days after with them. I flew down with Ryan and Whitney's family. I spent the nights with his family, and the days with my family. It was so much fun. We made lots of food, ate lots of food, played games, and had a great time. Its nice to know that I can grow up, and things are going to change for me, but my family stays the same. Everyone gets older and starts going their own way, but the love we have for each other never changes. No matter how old we are, we can all get together and laugh and have a great time. I surprised my Grandparents when I knocked on my Aunt and Uncle's door Thanksgiving morning. I was overwhelmed with the love my Grandparents have for me. It felt so good to be with them again. Unfortunately, I didn't get a whole lot of pictures at Thanksgiving, so I may have to bug the Aunts and see if they got any.

Once I got home from Arizona, I was home for 2 weeks and then flew home for Christmas. I spent 10 days at home with my family. Again, it was great to be home and spend time with them. Christmas just isn't the same anywhere but home. I was able to see and spend time with Rachel and Dorothy

They came and we gave each other presents, and then went to the store, and grabbed some food. It would have been nice to be able to do more with them, but Christmas time is hard with every one's busy schedules.

I also got to see Kendra and Doug. I went to their house and we made pizza. Doug called his friend Cody, and had him come over so he didn't have to be the only man in the house ;). Cody got there, and was hungry, so we went down the street to Dee's for breakfast at 11 and some hot Chocolate. It was so fun. Kendra's house is so cute. She is going to be such a cute Mom! (Somehow the camera was not out this night either. . . GRRR!)

Other than that, I spent time with my family, we played games, went shopping and baked a lot :) I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends, and even better an amazing family that has always been there for me. I love you all!

Jex family picture 2009 ( I kind of insist on one of these every year. The boys don't like it much. . .)

Game night with the Aunts, Uncle's and Cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house Christmas Eve

Kari. .. .

. . . Obviously needs to update her blog. Yes, I know. I'll buy 5 minutes off somebody. . . :) I'll get right on that. Christmas is over, and there is still Christmas music playing on my blog. Sorry guys.