let's go fly a kite!

yea! i have been mia due to finals. . . but i am done with the spring semester and just checked my final grades. i'm pretty happy! so now time to catch up.

as part of my management class i volunteered at the kite festival. sara and my mom helped me out. we actually had a lot of fun, especially when our friends and family showed up!

the best was brad's amazing fishing pole kite flying contraption! it makes flying a kite so much easier! check out landon's glasses! he always wears these around even though they are missing one of the lenses. :) so classic!

we had a little hula hoop contest during the down times and i got pretty good by the end of the day!

riding the train with landon and sara! he loved this train!

landon and brad

there were a ton of cool kites there and it was so fun to see all the kites in the sky.

before and after

so i participated in the holt family biggest loser and got second by like a half a percent {damn those cookies that tempted me}. but overall i am happy about what i have lost and am trying to focus on the continuation of the healthy lifestyle afterward. but i will tell you that the before and after pictures are totally noticeable! {if you are my true friend i will show you them :)} if you are trying to lose weight and really go hard at if for a while i highly recommend doing before and afters . . . it kind of makes me sick when i look at the before pics, but totally happy that i can actually see a difference in the afters. i wasn't fat but i could definitely use the toning that i feel like my body got from this little contest so thanks marie! even though you beat me. :) hopefully i can continue and have those washboard abs that i totally want by the end of summer! here's to hoping . . . that someone will hit my hand really hard when i reach for that bowl of ice cream. who's volunteering?

Karen Holt added you as a friend on Facebook...

i love that my grandma just added me as a friend on facebook! she gets this technology thing better than my mom. :) thanks for the add grandma!

pay it forward - handmade

my cutie cousin, meriel, did this pay it forward thing. I was a lucky recipient to it, but didn't follow through with posting it on my blog . . . so if you want something as cute as i got that is handmade, then leave me a comment. i will send something to the first three commenters. but you do have to promise to pay it forward, even if it's not handmade. {but handmade is more fun}

look how cute the label on these were!

abc's fabric covered magnets! these were waiting for me when i got back from disneyland and i have been loving seeing them on my fridge! {i think she sells things like this on her blog so check her out!}

thanks meriel! you are so creative and they are so cute!

the next american idol contestant?

one of the nights in disneyland our family was dancing in the audience of one of the entertainers in tommorrowland and scott pushed michael up to the front when she asked for a solo singer volunteer. we loved it. he loved it. and he did pretty good!

love you michael!

disneyland: part deux

disneyland with the whole family! we had so much fun!

love this sign!

amy and scott surprised us the night before with matching shirts! we did the matching shirt thing in disneyworld, a few years ago, as a joke and i guess the tradition is carrying on. so funny and fun!

notice cami's sweet fannie pack that she was sportin' all three days! and my new hair cut! sue and jared came for a day with their boys and aaron and sabrina were there all weekend too. it was a party!

trying on some hats. me, cami, sara, and amy ended up getting matching minnie hats!

we took landon on big thunder mountain railroad! he was barely tall enough and i don't think he knew what he was getting himself into. cami took all these pictures while the rollercoaster was going. he was so cute to watch! click on it and look at those facial expressions up close! priceless. :)

thanks mom and fam for a fabulous trip!

astro blaster

went to the magical land of disney this past weekend. it's been pretty busy and i haven't had time to post pics but i just saw this in my email and laughed. you get to email this to yourself after the ride! and don't mind the score . . . even though i look like i am way focused i totally sucked at this game. obviously.

happy spring

my first daffodil bloomed today! so pretty! hopefully there will be lots more to come. i planted a ton of bulbs in december. :)

sand mountain

went hiking on sunday to sand mountain with cody and another chick he works with at fitness ridge. it is just past leeds and so beautiful! it was the perfect day for hiking. i was hiking my butt off to keep up with these two professional hiking guides, but it was so fun! the end of the hike is this huge sand mountain that you get to jump down. check out these sweet action shots i got of cody!

funny pic . . . that's the sand mountain behind us!

cody running down it! {sorry it's sideways}




in other news . . . click here to see how festive me, cody and leah are thanks to cody's sister! haha! i love it! happy easter soon!

my mom moved.

so weird.

the house i grew up in is no longer where memories will be made.

i thought that i would take my kids there and have christmas and thanksgivings . . . and after the initial sadness of walking around it's empty rooms, i am okay with it. my mom and the few kids still at home have moved into a gorgeous new home that is perfect for them! she had a HUGE garage sale yesterday and you can only imagine how much was there after 15 years and 8 kids! it was really good for all of us to do some cleaning out and letting go. i have noticed that sometimes we let our stuff define who we are, and by letting a little bit or a lot of it go, it can simplify our lives more than we imagined. so it has worked out perfectly for my mom and the kids . . . a good moving on experience.

validation

love the message of this video! i incorporated it into my management presentation yesterday. it's long, but at least watch the first 4 minutes of it.




hopefully it will inspire you to give out a few compliments today!

slumdog millionaire

i loved this movie. it was all-around amazing! best of all, it made me so grateful for my life.