MLK Day 2015

Two weeks ago for Martin Luther King day, my family came down to Provo and we went to the service day BYU holds every year! We had a great time on campus making and stuffing (until they ran out of it) fleece heart pillows for kids with heart transplants.

My brother decided to put a pre-stuffed heart on his head ;)

After heart-stuffing we went to eat a Brassas (a delicious Mexican street taco place in Provo) and then they went home. :(

It was a pretty good day off and that night for FHE a bunch of us in the ward went on campus and made a music video to "Shake It Off" for the upcoming ward talent show. I'm currently putting the video together and will post it here when its all done! I guarantee it's gonna be pretty great to watch!

Video Stuff (like the 4th of July and Dancing)

I'm not really sure why I'm sharing this video with you, because the dancing in it is not good. I had thirteen years of ballet training but I was never as good as most of the other girls, and my last ballet class happened five years ago so now my skills have diminished greatly since. Needless to say, my dancing skills are not at their current best.

Buuuut I still love it and I'm in a contemporary dance class right now at school, so sometimes I go find an empty studio on campus to practice in and just let myself do what I love. I made this totally on a whim, so nothing is choreographed and I'm can't help but criticize my technique as I watch it, but I think the video concept is fun so that's why I'm sharing it. Maybe I'll try something like this again with some actual choreography, we'll see. Anyway, let me know what you think...be nice to me!


Also, who cares if we aren't good at things? Does that mean we shouldn't do them or share us doing them with other people? Definitely not. I'm going to do the things I love, whether I'm good at them or not. :)


Next up, is a video of Stadium of Fire from the 4th of July! Yep, that was four months ago, but I'm extremely happy I waited to make this video until now because it meant I got to use Premiere Pro with it and make it look really cool. I love this video and think it's way fun, so feel free to spend a minute and a half of your life watching it.


What do you think? Of both videos! I'm having so much fun making movies lately, I do it so much!

I am hoping to get a nice DSLR camera soon so that my videos will look way more professional. Right now I use a Nikon L320 (basically a nice point and shoot) and it's super great and takes pretty good video, but I'm ready for the next level! Who's with me?!

Do you like making videos? If so, you should comment and link up where they're at so that we can be video-making friends! All of my videos are at this link on vimeo.

Memorial Day 2014

Look at me, being so good at posting! Yay haha! I was reading a lot of my old blog posts the other day and realized how awesome it is to have my life documented here. So I'm going to try and be better at it. Don't take those words to heart though..

Memorial Day this year was great. Not gonna lie, my family (this includes relatives that live nearby--like my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle and their kids) is crazy. And sometimes it drives us cousins crazy. A lot of my mom's side lives close so we get together with them for Sunday dinners a lot and for holidays and stuff. It's fun and I love them to death, but it gets crazy I tell you. My mom and her family are from Guatemala but have lived in the US for a while (like 30 years or more than that) so I think problems arise when hispanic tendencies happen in an American culture. That doesn't really make sense but it happens.

For instance, they (the parents) have a hard time making decisions. And they also like not spending a lot of money. So we'll spend like ten minutes discussing different places that we can eat at with a coupon, and by the end of it, no decision will still be made, and in the end we often end up eating at a place with no coupon and everyone is just starving because they spent so much time deciding. Every year, Memorial Day is like the worst. Okay, not the worst, but definitely not the best ha. We try to go on a hike or do a picnic, but nobody can make decisions so it takes forever and just ends up being lame. One year, no joke, we couldn't decide where to have a picnic and at some point everyone was so hungry that we ended up just eating our food on the grassy area next to a building. Ladies and gentlemen, my family. ;)

But this year was maybe the best Memorial Day we've had! We got tickets ahead of time to ride the Heber Creeper, a fun train in Heber Valley. We did it like 15 years ago so I was a little kid and remembered having a blast, so it was fun to go again. Of course, we did end up being the last people on the train because we all got there like two minutes before it was about to leave (another thing about our family haha), but it was fun.  We ate a Dairy Keen afterward and had really good burgers and shakes. I'd definitely recommend eating there, it's so good! Oh and it's also been fun that our cousin Alex is now in Utah going to school here so we get to see him pretty regularly, I love it.

I bought these glasses for her at Claire's earlier in the day for $1...aren't they adorable?! A baby with hipster glasses>a a baby without them ;)

I didn't take a ton of pictures...buuuut I of course made a video! since I've been so into it lately. It's only two minutes and it's pretty cute so you should watch it if you want. :)


If you want to see all my other videos, my vimeo profile is here!

Also, I would just like to add that I really do love my family. Unfortunately the Saturday before, my car wouldn't start, and my dad and the rest of my family came to Provo to help me fix it on Monday. It was really great. My family might be crazy, but they're nice. And I love them.

Over and out, K.

Easter 2014 Video

Valentine's Day

I won't lie, it's never been one of my favorite holidays. In junior high and high school I would jealously see girls who had several bouquets of flowers they carried around with them all day, wishing for just one rose, thinking it'd be enough. In college, the town gets overrun by couples, leaving single people to hide away until February 15th comes, so they can go buy half-priced chocolate to eat away the pain (okay yes, that's a bit dramatic).

I'm 22 years old and for 22 years, I've never actually had a Valentine to celebrate this holiday with. It's been nights in my bedroom or "Galentine's" day parties for me. I always used to let myself get so depressed on this day, and then at one point I thought, "why?" What's the point in letting yourself be sad when you can be happy? Valentine's Day isn't necessarily about romance, it's about love. So if the only Valentines I ever get on this day are from my mom, then I'll be so grateful that someone is thinking about me, and I'll worry about what I can control and spread the love to others.

It happened in 9th grade when I anonymously sent a Valentine at school to a friend who I know wanted one and might not have gotten one. I actually spelled her name wrong, but I could tell that didn't matter when I saw the smile on her face that she'd been thought of. It happened last year when I gave homemade Valentines to all my roommates and when I got to read this lovely post by Shelby.. And it happened this year when I got to give Valentines to all the people I loved, celebrated with my toddlers class at work as we made sugar cookies and played in our heart attacked classroom, and went to the movie theater with my roommate last night.

Yep, Valentine's Day is probably more fun for people in a relationship, and it could be better if your engaged roommate and her fiance didn't take over the apartment for just one night...but it is what it is, and it all depends on what we make of it. Love isn't exclusive to people in love. It's for all of us, and sometimes, giving it is even better than receiving it. Happy (late) Valentine's Day. :) --And happy 50% off candy day today!

Merry Christmas!

I hope your holiday was filled with presents, good food, snow, picture-taking, filled stockings, love with whoever you spent it with, and thoughts of what it's all really about. I just wanted to say merry Christmas from me to you, and also to say that I am already making a goal for the new year to keep up this blog!

Jonas Manuel Photography

Merry Christmas, and happy new year!

Easter 2013

I loooove Easter. It comes close to Christmas for the favorite holidays list. Why do I enjoy it? 1) it means spring has sprung, 2) I love the joy of egg hunts (although none of us seem to know the mystery behind why a bunny delivers the eggs--what do they have in common??) 3) Family traditions are the best, but even more so... 4) family is the best, and Easter is all about spending time with them!

We had a yummy dinner of fish tacos and dessert of pineapple cake and resurrection rolls (as per tradition for those). My sisters and I also make a point of doing an Easter egg hunt for all the younger cousins every year, partly because we love them but mostly because it makes us happy seeing those cute kids running around being happy. My four year-old cousin Tayevion was adorable as he exclaimed "This is the BEST Easter day ever!" as he opened all his eggs to find more candy and more money. I love how the simplest thing can make a kid so incredibly happy.

I took lots of pictures, and sorry not sorry but there is an overload of photos of my aunt's children, because let's face it. They're adorable. Especially their new two-week old baby girl Zuri. She melts my heart.

In case you are wondering, I got my dress from Wal-Mart (I know, right?!) for $15 and I love it. So so cute. :)

Most of all, I am grateful for Easter because it celebrates life. The life of Christ and the lives of us that He saves every single day. I'm grateful for His sacrifices and for the atonement. Pretty sure I would be miserable without it. I know that we shouldn't need a holiday to celebrate these things and be grateful for them, but I'm still happy to have a yearly reminder of how important Christ is in my life.

I hope you had a great Easter (if you wrote an Easter post, link up in the comments, I'd love to read it!)! Happy April Fools today! :)

2012: Another Year in Review

2012 was quite the year...Highlights?

Traveled...to St. George, Florida, a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas and Castaway Cay, the Grand Canyon, spending the summer in Boston and going to Virginia, DC, and New York while I was there (the best summer ever, yes.), St. George again, Idaho, and a quick trip to New York and Boston at the beginning of December.

Saw...awesome movies in theaters like The Hunger Games, Brave, the Dark Knight Rises, Pitch Perfect, the Perks of Being a Wallflower, the Hobbit, and Les Miserables (just saw it and it was really good).

Celebrated...a few of my friends' weddings and engagements, many friends and two cousins going on missions (this also made me sad to see them go), the Hunger Games movie and Halloween by throwing huge parties for them, my 21st birthday, the 4th of July in Boston, and the missionary age changes the church made.

Listened...to music like a new album from Carrie Underwood!!!, new music from Taylor Swift, David Archuleta, Kelly Clarkson, and the Killers; fell in love with artists such as ZZ Ward, Lindsey Stirling, Mree, Phillip Phillips, Kacey Musgraves, Fifth Harmony, and Birdy. Continued to love music from Glee.

Went....to concerts for Demi Lovato, Carrie Underwood, and the Killers.

Received and bought...too many new clothes (haha, though I do love them), my second pair of grasshopper shoes, a new steamer and a dress form, a Carrie Underwood cardboard cutout, the cutest Steve Madden shoes ever, and a smart phone.

Made...plenty of movies with my siblings and cousins, more clothes, headbands with my best friends, my Halloween costume, and new friends in new places.

Watched...tv shows such as Pretty Little Liars, Glee, Modern Family, Friends (favorite show EVER), Lost, Go On, Project Runway, the X-Factor, and Revolution.

Survived...a sprained wrist (that never completely healed unfortunately), getting way too many colds throughout the year, and the end of the world.

Accomplished...moving to the east coast and doing an internship with Anthropologie over the summer, another year of school (graduating in August!), getting into and getting ready to do a fashion show in February, participating in the bible videos the church does, and playing piano for the ward choir this past semester. ;)

Became...closer to my family and my friends, a better self and a better person, healthier, more in-tune with who I am and who I want to be, more confident, wiser, more independent, and happier. :)

After writing all that stuff down, I realize how amazing of a year I've had. I'm so so blessed and lucky to be me and to have my life. I always need to appreciate my life and how wonderful everything truly is.

My only goal for 2013 is happiness. Happiness for myself and for others. I know that if I'm working towards being happy and making other people happy, I'll be doing good things in my life. Happiness really is what it's all about. :)

Merry Christmas!!

Me, sibs, and cousins performing the Christmas program we put on every Christmas Eve

I love Christmastime so much. The best part of it all is spending lots of time with family, giving (and let's admit it...getting) presents, and celebrating the birth of our wonderful savior Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful that we joyfully celebrate someone so magnificent, humble, and loving. I'm grateful that we celebrate His birth--something so simple, but made wonderful by whose birth it was. I'm grateful for the amazing family I have and the great friends I have who are always on my side. I'm grateful for all of you, whether you read this blog as a loyal follower or just as a passerby. Thanks to each and every one of you for just being you, whoever that might be.

Have a very very happy Christmas. I love you, you know that? Truly I do. :)

And in case you want to watch, here's a video we made of what Christmas means to us. (I apologize in advance if I look weird in this video...I fell like everyone always hates seeing themselves on screen because it's not their own perception of how they really are. Take it as you will.)

Back to Blogging

Soooo...I haven’t blogged for a month. Haha. Here’s my life summary for the past 30 days…

That night was the party I’d been planning for over a month. It turned out to be a huge success. I decorated when I got back from work, putting cobwebs all over our back patio, setting up a banner, and hanging lights all across. It looked really pretty and I was happy with the result. I made a lot of food for it and had little signs for each of the food items. I had to go to work at 5 so my roommates helped me with making the rest of the food which was great. Party guests started arriving at 9 and by 10 pm, our back patio was super crowded. I was going back and forth replenishing the food and I had to keep pushing my way through everyone because there were so many people there. Someone in our ward brought over gigantic speakers so the music was blasting and everyone was dancing. It was seriously so fun! All the people that came (and out of those people, a lot of them I didn’t know because they were friends of friends. There were some of my friends I saw later in the pictures who I hadn’t even seen there!) told me they had so much fun. Successful night? Yes. Party throwing can be really stressful sometimes and the day of the party when I’m getting everything ready I tend to get super stressed out and wonder why I’m even throwing a party. But then it happens, it’s so fun, and I remember why throwing parties is one of the greatest things ever.

November came and was a busy month. Most of it was spent being busy with school, but the good parts were with family and friends. I went to my really good friend Sam's mission farewell. This girl is one of my best friends and as much as I'll miss her, she's going to do great in the California Palo Alto mission! I went with Lauren, another one of my really good friends, who also just got her mission call and is going to the California San Fernando mission! :)

(l to r): me, Sam, Lauren

The Nutcracker came around again, and this year my sister Sidney was the only one in it. At one point in life, Carina, Sidney, Cee Ryle, and I were all in the Nutcracker and I’m pretty sure that year drove my parents crazy. Sidney did awesome though, she had three great parts as a Snow, Reed Flute, and a Waltz. She’s seriously a gorgeous dancer, so much better than I ever was, and I can’t help but be proud of her and be happy whenever I see her dancing. She definitely comes alive on the stage.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful and much needed break. My dad’s side of the family all came from Wyoming so we had a full house of cousins and aunts and uncles. It was the best. We spent a lot of our time making a music video to none other than Gangnam Style of course (which almost has a billion views on youtube!). On Thanksgiving day we got the whole family, adults and all, outside to dance. Haha and our yard happens to be right on the edge of the road, so cars passed by as we were dancing to Gangnam Style. Our neighbors might think we’re crazy…oh well. You can see the video here.

We also spent Thanksgiving just hanging out, going to temple square, and shopping on black Friday of course.

My roommates and I had a little cookie making/tree decorating party with a few friends. We also made a nativity reenactment haha (sorry for the blurry photos).

I went to the Killers concert with Chelsey and some other friends. It was a really great concert—everything you’d want a Killers concert to be and more.

Bridal Shower for my freshman roommate Kelly!

A little over a week after Thanksgiving, I went on a quick 3-day trip to Boston and New York. We got to fly standby since my aunt works for Jet Blue. It was the BEST. I was in Boston over the summer and just love the east coast, so going back for a few days was heaven. Boston was spent hanging out with family and shopping, mostly. My favorite part of the trip was our day in New York. We did so much fun stuff. This is something that definitely deserves a post of its own so I’ll write more about it later.

Kelly’s bachelorette party, spent painting nails, giving each other massages, eating yummy food, and talking about boys of course.

After that it was basically finals week. In the midst of all the business, I got sick with a cold on the first reading day. I get sick a lot, so I wasn’t surprised, but I still will never get used to the unpleasantness of being sick. Thankfully the worst of it was over by the time I had to start taking finals (which are now done, yay!!!).

No pictures of this either, unfortunately, but I got together with my best friends last weekend. It was the best because we hadn’t all been together since April! We keep in touch a lot though so it felt like nothing had changed. We’re going to be starting a blog together here soon, and I’ll let you know when it’s up. Right now we are planning everything about it and still trying to figure out a name.

Last week my roommates and I hung out (the first time all of us have hung out together this whole semester, sadly) to celebrate finals. We went to the mall and got tons of cute clothes, ate at Pizza Pie Café, and finished the night by watching Step Up Revolution. I love my roommates. I’m seriously so lucky to live with the coolest and nicest girls ever.

That’s the update and now that school’s done for now and everything is caught up, expect more regular posts. Blogging can be so much work sometimes! Love it though. :)