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!

a snowy day

It snowed on Thursday, which isn't always welcome to me, because driving in the snow is scary and it just makes everything colder. Thankfully, it was just wet snow, so driving wasn't a problem and by the next day it was all gone. But I knew I had to take advantage of the weather situation so after work I went and filmed this little video. Hope you enjoy it :)

Movie Making!

I've recently found a new hobby of mine in videography. It's a different way to document my life and it's fun to look back and watch them. I kind of wish I'd gotten into it earlier because there are so many things I would have loved to document this way. I'm not professional or anything but I definitely love it and would like to get better. I got a new camera in November and it takes way better videos so it's been fun to use. I figured it was probably easier to put them all in one post, since there are so many. I have a lot of stuff to update on that I might not get to, but these videos sum up the big events, and they may have to do.

At the end of June/beginning of July, I went on a vacation with my family to Moab in southern Utah. We've been on vacations to a lot of places outside of Utah but none actually in the state we live in, so it was fun to go and see all the arches and stuff.


August was a sad month because it became the end of an era for my old roommates and I. A few of us had gotten married and graduated and we were all going our separate ways and moving to different places. So to commemorate it I made a little video to our favorite theme song for ourselves. I love these girls to pieces..I will seriously never have better roommates.


I work at a daycare in the toddlers class and in December we had a little Christmas program. We practiced Jingle Bells A LOT but I knew that once the program came around and my kids were up at the front, they'd freeze and barely sing (I was right). So I filmed them a bunch over a couple of weeks and made a music video to show the parents at the program. It was way fun and the parents (and the todders--they kept wanting to watch it over and over again) loved it! Success. :)


At the beginning of December I went on a trip to NYC and Boston with my family. My aunt and uncle take their family every year since my aunt works for Jet Blue and her whole family gets to fly standby for free. So we decided to tag along this year. We had some trouble getting there, but we had a BLAST. We have relatives in Boston too so it was great to see them.


One of my old roommates and best friend (featured in the 22 video above) Olivia got back from the LDS mission she served in Brazil in December, and since all my old roommates were back in town for Christmas break (a plus of all of us being from Utah) we were able to go get her from the airport! She had a five hour layover in the Salt Lake airport before going home so we took her out to lunch and got to see her before her family! It was definitely one of the best days ever. And now I feel pretty lucky because Olivia is living in my apartment complex and I see her almost daily. Its great.


If you want to see any other videos of mine that I already put on this blog, the link to my youtube channel is here. I am working on getting a link on my sidebar and putting them all in one place for easy viewing. Let me know what you think! :)

2013: A Year in Review

I know everyone is posting these, but there's something nice about completing your year by looking back on everything that happened. 2013 was probably one of my craziest years yet, so for your and mostly my enjoyment, here are my top ten moments from 2013:

10. Became obsessed with making movies and made movies for weddings, trips, and other fun stuff.


9. Went to the Taylor Swift concert, met Taylor's mom, and went from nosebleed seats to the pit.

8. Planned and went to bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and weddings in May for Kelsey and Talya, two of my best friends and roommates.

7. Took a road trip to California with my roommates Katie, Heidi, and Meghan and a trip to Moab with my family at the beginning of July (still haven't blogged about that)

6. Took a trip to Boston and New York at the beginning of December (yet to be blogged about)

5. Lost the best roommates I ever had (because they graduated, moved away, or got married), but got some new great ones.

4. Got my current job at the daycare, which I love.

3. Shared my eating disorder story on my blog, which was one of the scariest, yet most fulfilling things I have ever done. I still can't believe I did that. :)

2. Took a break from school, which caused a crazy and intense year for me filled with a lot of changes. But I found out that not being in school was exactly was I needed, and I also realized that it's okay to follow my own time table and not everyone else's.

1. Designed my first collection and did my first fashion show at BYU in February. Best, happiest, and funnest day of my life thus far!

Yep. Crazy year. And definitely one of the best! I learned that you really can never know what life will throw at you. You can plan as much as you want, but sometimes plans just don't go quite how we want them too. And I also learned that that's totally okay. Because God often has better plans in store for us. :)

Happy new year! I can't wait to see what 2014 brings for us all.

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!