the big 2.8.

ryan's 28th birthday was celebrated with familia. i made an awesome princess birthday cake. mainly because it was the flavors that he wanted, but we'll just say it was because he wanted a girlyman cake.
 

who wouldn't love that face?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUSBAND!

happy christmas

the holidays were done SC style. in the warmth of sunshine with some scattered rain and snow. i sadly don't have one picture of ryan and i for that day. but i figured i better mention where we were. i spoke on christmas sunday about mary's perspective and cried through the entire thing. though i wasn't too ecstatic about speaking, i'm grateful i did. it brought about the true spirit of christmas for me and strengthened my testimony of the Savior's birth.

the other aspect of christmas brought me a nookcolor which i love SO much. it's dangerous. now with my card on file, all it takes it one click of a button and my books are right before my eyes for my reading pleasure. i think i've done pretty well thus far all things considered. i've only bought cheap $2.99 or $.99 or free books. that's the joy of it. they might not be the new york times bestsellers, but i've found some pretty decent reads worth the two bucks. here's to my nook! go buy one. you won't regret it.

the cut

it happened. i got rid of the locks. and i've never felt better. the woman chopping it asked if i wanted to donate it and i said, it's dyed i thought i couldn't. she then informed me there was one place that took dyed hair...so to top it all off, my hair went to a good cause. awesome!

this wasn't before the woman cut it, but before a much needed cut from my mother. i cut it shortly after that.

much to be thankful for

i was grateful that for thanksgiving i was able to go see my family. we only had five days, but we packed them with fun, delicious food(panda, rubios, in-n-out, not to mention our thanksgiving meal), youtube videos(to name a few-jack black/scotty on yo gabba gabba, marcel the shell with shoes on, double rainbow...) movies(tangled), and bonding time. i even got to surprise a few people, which made the trip that much more fun. the look on holly and jeremy's faces were priceless.(if only i could have surprised heidi and tom and scotty and april!) 

we missed you, christopher, amy, mikko and stacey! i love my family and am very grateful i have a family i want to spend forever with.

SURPRISE

Apparently i'm guilty of neglecting this blog. so here i am to give a long update of the past four months. starting with october. it was ryan's sister, kim's, birthday and she'd being reminding us for awhile about it because apparently every year her birthday gets over looked-people go on vacations, no parties and so on...so my mother in law and i decided we wanted throw a huge halloween surprise party! sadly...the word got out and it just turned into a halloween/birthday party, but it was fun nevertheless. i even introduced the hayes family to a van wagenen tradition of a powdered donut eating contest. woot! 

The best part of the night was when father in law took one bit, putting the whole donut in his mouth...and won.