the best ones

Wanna hear a cool story? So once upon a time, when I was just a lowly 19 year-old sophomore in college, I was in a terrible living situation, with a roommate/ex-best friend who refused to talk to me and a desperate need for some friends. I was really lonely, and I cried all the time. One day, out of the blue, my friend Katherine, who was also going to BYU, and a friend from my high school, called me, saying they had an open spot in their apartment and would I want it? I knew most of the other girls from high school too, not super well, but we were friends, and I knew they were all really nice and fun girls. It was honestly crazy, because they had absolutely NO idea what I was going through, they just had the feeling they should call me. It was a no-brainer for me to move out and take the spot. And let me tell ya...it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

There are some friends you hope to stay friends with forever. Some of them you do, and some of them you don't. It's hard to know how friendships will turn out when people move away, get married, and go separate ways.

For a few years, I got to live with the best roommates I ever had. They were the BEST. Our lives were filled with quote walls, road trips, Friday night hang outs and Saturday night movies, summer bucket lists, talking about boys way too late at night, making music videos, and taking a gazillion pictures. When I think of my college experience, I will always think of these girls and the amazing times we had.

Of course, life changes, and at the end of summer 2013, we all kind of went our separate ways. Some got married, the others moved, and I stayed in Provo. Not gonna lie, it was one of the hardest things ever for a few months to not have those girls as my roommates. I missed them all like crazy and it was a big adjustment. I guess I can often be an emotional and sentimental person too, which does not help in situations like that haha.

I think I kind of assumed we might not stay friends after that. Me and my insecurities...always getting the best of me! ;) I was so wrong. Since we've been roommates, we've still found time to get together when everyone is in town, do Sunday dinners with the ones still in Provo, go to mission homecomings, weddings, and be there whenever we can. And every time we do, we have a great time and laugh until our cheeks hurt (haha no joke).




We got together Thursday night, and as I started writing this post, I was just going to link the "goodbye post" I thought I'd written when we all went our separate ways, but turns out I never wrote it! It's a year and a half late, but let me just say... I'm so lucky and grateful to have friends like these. Some of the best years of my life were spent with them and they are the best. We all continue to grow and move on, but the one thing that I hope never changes is our friendship.

LOVE THEM.

Heidi and Travis's Wedding Video! (and using Premiere Pro)

Heidi and Travis got married like three months ago and it took me that long to finally get around to making their wedding video (I wrote about their wedding at the end of this post). This is by far my most favorite wedding video (and possible just video in general) that I've made. I had a lot of fun adding effects and fun things. Check it out! It's eight minutes long, but you'll enjoy it, the wedding was way cute and so much fun.


Also, let me just say this, Adobe Premiere Pro is AWESOME.

It's the video editing software I've been using now and dang its been an improvement, especially since I was just using Windows Movie Maker before. Movie Maker is awesome for small, quick projects, it's free, and it's really easy to use, but on the negative side, it crashes ALL the time, you can't really edit the contrast of videos (so if it's dark, there isn't much you can do about it), the music gets off from the actual videos in the editing process, and the final product sometimes ends up with black spots in the middle of frames. Random stuff like that that really bugs me.

Premiere Pro is a way more professional software and I was super intimidated when I started to use it. I went back to Movie Maker because that was what I knew but then I got frustrated again and decided I was just going to buck up and learn Premiere Pro! And once you get the hang of it, it's really pretty easy. There are endless amounts of tutorials on youtube to learn how to do whatever you want on there, so that's what I did, and it's turned out pretty great so far. You have a lot more control, like over editing lighting and what you want the music to do or where exactly you want your videos, etc. I love being able to add transitions like light leaks (at the beginning of the video above and throughout), split screen (at 6:11 and other places) and cool other effects like making the video look older (one of my favorite parts! Its at 2:53).

Anyway, to say it in a nutshell, I'm so happy with how this video turned out and I'm excited to make more!

Also, if you are getting married and need a wedding videographer, email me! I would love to do it and am super cheap because I don't have a super professional camera or anything and am still learning. I feel like having some sort of footage from your wedding is so important, and it doesn't necessarily have to cost you a ton of money. But seriously, email me and we can work something out. :)

Oh, my friends and I made this music video while we were at the wedding in between the luncheon and reception. So if you want to laugh and see our pretty great (I think)  music video, here it is!

Happy Halloween 2014!

Halloween this year was pretty chill, since I currently don't have a job and I only have one class on Fridays. I didn't really dress up (though I did wear my Hogwarts Alumni shirt throughout the day), which compared to last year at the daycare and two years ago dressing up at work and throwing and going to numerous Halloween parties (won't lie, that was probably the best Halloween ever), it kind of sounds lame! But I think chill was exactly what I wanted and I had a great time!

In the morning, my stats group and I ended up skipping our class and getting together for breakfast and doing the group assignment at one girl's apartment instead. It was a lot of fun, I love my stats group! They keep me going to class instead of skipping all the time haha.

That night my roommates and I went bowling at the BYU Games Center because it was only $1. Can I just say how much I love these girls? They're my favorite people and I'm so glad I get to live with them and hang out with them, we have so many fun times that I don't even get to photograph.

Bertie Botts Bowling with the roooomies for #Halloween!! #byubowling

A photo posted by Kailee Cristina Brown (@kikicbrownee) on Oct 10, 2014 at 8:59pm PDT 

mid-jump!

Carli was a pirate, Jessica was a nerd (we had her wear pens in her pocket, wear nerd glasses, and tuck her shirt in), Olivia looks insanely a ton like Shailene Woodley so she dressed up like Tris from Divergent, and I was a Harry Potter alumnus, wearing my shirt, gryffindor cardigan, and time turner!

She really looks so much like Tris! (see real actress here)

After that we went to the store to get movie snacks and then went home and watched Fun Size, which is a pretty cheesy movie but that made it pretty funny and it was also Halloween themed. :)

In church today I drew my Halloween story so if you wanna get all the details here it is. A peek into my personal writings haha.

Summer 2014

Guys. It's been nuts, and I have possibly been the worst blogger ever. For some reason, whenever summer comes blogging always goes down the drain (so hopefully that means it'll pick up again in the next few weeks!).

It has been a summer of bandanas in my hair, skirt and dress-wearing, video-making, weddings, cute kids (at the daycare), way too long of drives in my non-air conditioned orange car (kill me!), snap-back hats, traveling, face-painting, and great memories. Honestly, it's been a really good summer and I would like to credit that to me just feeling really good. Life is just good right now and nothing is really wrong, which feels awesome. I know that probably means something bad is coming, but I'm enjoying this good peace in my life for as long as it's here. :) This is going to be kind of a long post, but if you'd like to bear with me, enjoy the rundown of my awesome summer (also, there are many videos, all of which are pretty fun, but if you have to pick, watch the Cali one and the Fancy one--both are definitely my favorite videos I've ever done!).

I don't think I ever posted this video so I'll lump it in. My roommate Lizzie got married back in April and I didn't finish her video until like July haha! I'm really happy with how it turned out, I think I am starting to get the hang of this thing a little better.


At the end of May, Sidney graduated high school...


And the next day or two Cee Ryle had his Eagle Court of Honor for getting his eagle scout award! Kind of a big deal since he's the only boy in the family. We all just love him so much, he's such a great kid. :)

So my sister Sidney and I do face-painting for our aunt's business, which is super fun. Last year we face-painted at an event for Jet Blue and they paid us each with a round-trip ticket to Long Beach, California. They expired a year later, and we never went, and then it was like a month before when we realized, oh crap, we need to go! I might not have gone, except I wanted to get all my fabric for my October Provo Fashion Week show, since fabric is amazingly cheap in the LA Fashion District. Sidney was way too busy with Senior year stuff to go, so Carina paid her for her ticket and we went on a really quick trip (Saturday-Sundy) to California! Super fun! I got a lot of fabric, we did some fun shopping, went to Venice and Huntington beaches, and also stopped by the grounds of the Newport Beach temple on Sunday to get our spiritual fix for the day haha. I had a great time and obviously made a video of it. It's my favorite video I've ever made so if you have the time, feel free to watch!

Sidney had her last ballet recital at Clytie Adams, which was a big ordeal (to me, at least) because it felt like the end of an era. Carina, Sidney, and I all danced ballet there pretty much until we graduated high school, so it was really cool, yet sad, to see her at her last recital. Happily for us, Gracie is still dancing there and since she's only seven, we don't have to say goodbye anytime soon! Gracie was in the recital too, sorry forgot to mention that!

One Sunday I went to temple square (one of my favorite places ever!) in Salt Lake City with my family and that was pretty fun. I always love going to that place.

We went on a fieldtrip to the Hutchings Museum with the daycare kids. I got moved to the preschool/school-age class after being with the two year-olds since June. It was a really good change and I've a lot of fun being with the older kids!

At the end of June, my uncle got married, so we drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming where all of my dad's side of the family lives for the wedding. It was super fun! I don't think I have any good pictures with me in them, but I made a video for this too so feel free to watch. We had a lot of fun at the wedding and so much fun in Cheyenne that we decided to go again in July (more on that later in the post).

By awesome chance, our Texas cousins happened to be in Colorado at the same time we were in Wyoming so we met up with them for a few hours, which was lots of fun.

We had dinner at the most delicious Italian buffet in Denver called Cinzzetti's that you should probably try if you are ever in Denver! We went years ago and have been begging to go again ever since. It's really good and we had so much fun!

We also had fun upholding our second annual candy poker night. :)

July brought more business and more weddings haha! Katie, one of my old roommates, was in town for the 4th, so she, all my old roommates and their spouses, and I got together at Gurus for some yummy food (like their sweet potato fries!). I always love getting together with my old roommates, it really is the best.

July 4th was an AMAZING DAY because it was the day of Stadium of Fire which Carrie Underwood, my absolutely MOST favorite singer and person in the world ever, was singing at! In the morning I went to our hometown parade and then face-painted with my aunt at a festival for a while and then we all went to Stadium of Fire!

And let me just tell you, it was really soooooo great. Wow. Obviously of course! Carrie Underwood is amazing and I love her! I was dying the whole time. It was my fourth time seeing her live and it was just as great as all the other times. She really is so good. We got a picture with all of us (my family minus Gracie, plus our cousin Shayden, plus my friend Jenna who came and sat by us) and my mom and I had to get a picture because we've gone to every Carrie Underwood concert together. I love sharing that with her.

We went to see Mary Poppins at Hale Center Theatre and it was SO good! We got a picture with Mary (who was actually in my BYU ballet class like five years ago, but the picture taking happened very fast so I don't think she remembered me) and Bert. Gracie especially loved it, she wanted to listen to all the music afterward haha!

Volcano making day at the daycare! The girl in front was in a bad mood at the moment. ;)

Meetup with my best friends at the Chocolate in Orem!

My roommate (well, old roommate now) Stephanie got married on July 22! We threw her a little bridal shower the Saturday before the wedding. Jessica pretty much planned it all, but I did do the decorations! I was especially proud of that star banner.

Stephanie's wedding was beautiful and so much fun. I'm working on a video for it. They were married in the Provo temple, we went to a delicious luncheon at Magleby's, and the reception was really gorgeous in the Provo Library Ballroom! Sorry, not a lot of pics and I only posted the one so you could see a picture of me at the wedding.

Went to Wyoming again with my family for Frontier Days! We had a lot of fun with cousins going into the park, the indian village, and the parade. We spray painted shirts the night before the parade and all wore them the next day. We'd also all won free sunglasses and hats at the park so we were wearing those too.

On July 31st (Harry Potter's birthday!) I ran the Potter Run! It was just a 5k, but my first race that I trained for a total of two times. I walked and ran it, but it was a lot of fun and I'm proud of myself for doing it. I'm only posting the picture of me after the race as proof that I ran it, I swear I look way better than that normally! Also, thanks to my awesome family for cheering me on.

The only picture I got of when Alyne, Jessica and I got henna! I got a really cute flower on my foot and never got a picture of it unfortunately, and now it's almost all gone. I loved it though.

Bowling with some girls from my ward!

My best friend and old roommate Heidi got married two weeks ago in the Manti, Utah temple and it was one of the funnest days ever. It meant getting together with all the old gang again and we just had a blast. Earlier in the week we had a bachelorette party where we went and got pizza, caught each other up on all our m&ms (holding hands) and ice-cream (kisses) stories, and watched Austenland.

The Friday before the wedding, Katie, Meghan and I went shopping for a bit and then ate a lot of big food, I kid you not haha! We got a 24 inch long crepe at The Roll-Up, realized we were still hungry so we went to Slab and got delicious pizza (they give you a quarter of a huge pizza, so also big food).

The morning of the wedding we had breakfast at Kelsey and Scott's and then went to the Manti temple for the wedding, and to Leamington, UT for the luncheon and reception. Leamington is this really REALLY middle of nowhere town like an hour and a half south of Provo. It's cute, but there isn't much to do there. We had two hours to kill in between the luncheon and the reception so we thought, "hey! let's make a music video!" So we did. And it's really great. We did it to "Fancy" because we were in fancy clothes. I know, we're a creative bunch. Really though, the video is quite hilarious if you wanna watch.

And guess what, I'm going back to school this fall! Finally! I'm so SO excited. I'm definitely sad to be leaving my daycare job though. I love all those kids so much. I'm trying to really enjoy my last few days, I will miss these kiddos like crazy.

But man, bring on school. It'll be a new adventure after not being in it for a year and a half. I will hopefully graduate in the spring so I can't wait. :D