Little ballerina's!

So I'm teaching my little neices ballet. They are SO adorable in their leatards. Right now they're working on all the positions, turn out, and they LOVE pirouette's. It's a lot of fun, and it gets me into it again. I haven't done ballet in a while, I really miss it... I did ballet on and off since I was nine, but I danced all through high school. Mostly lyrical, but ballet has always been my greater strength. I'm hoping to get into it again.

Bangs

So I decided I like my look better with bangs so I cut them myself the other day. I absolutely love them! I just love hair and makeup, and creating new looks.

Lately...

I finally got around to uploading photos from recent activities and outings. Early this winter CJ and I had a great opportunity to go to Mexico for a month during Chrstmas time. We went with CJ's sister Crystal, brother-in-law Ali, and their three lovely girls, Elisia, Breanna, and Isabelle. We flew into San Diego California, where I fell in love with the nice warm weather. For December, 70 degrees was absolutely amazing. Someday I NEED to live somewhere sunny all the time, I get so depressed in the winter. From there, we drove through the boarder to Tijuanna and stayed for a few days with Ali's sister. Then we stayed the rest of the time in Ensenada with his parents along the baja. We spent Chrsitmas day and New Years on the beautiful beach. That was the best.

I really enjoyed playing at the beach. The ocean is one of my favorite things in the world. I absolutely loved riding horses on the beach with my love. <3

While enjoying the beautiful sunset I decided to do some yoga and ballet poses on the beach while CJ photographed me.

Mexico is definitely a different place. I had never had the desire to travel before and now I don't understand why. I absolutely love traveling, and after this trip it made me appreciate the diversity of all parts in the world. I can't wait to visit other places like Europe, Italy, and Austrailia someday.

It was sad seeing the poor side of town. It made me appreciate everything I have and realise how truely blessed I am.

It was interesting watching how these people lived their lives though. It's just a way of life for them...

This trip was such a great experience for me, because I had never been out of the country before this. And it was good for CJ and I. We grew as a couple.

When we got home it was cold and snowy so we went sledding one day! It was tons of fun.

Prada's hair was so long! She had a good time playing in the snow.

We celebrated her first birthday February 10.

I can't believe she's already one year old. It seems like just yesterday she was still a puppy...:(

And last but not least, I had the best Valentines ever...ice cream and chick-flicks. Two of my most favorite things. CJ got me "The time Travelers Wife" which I had been dieing to see. It was really sad, I cried through most of it. Rachel McAdams is one of my favorite actresses. She was perfect as Clair. I'd really like to read the book now.

So thats whats been happening lately...I'll try to keep my blog more up to date. This semester of school at a university has taken most of my time. I'll be glad to be done! School isn't really my thing, but i'd really like to teach kindergarten. I love children and I love helping people.

Best Friends

So I just wanted to write a short post dedicated to my best friend Kelly and share some photos from our recent photoshoot. We have been friends since third grade! Thats like 13 years. And I know we'll be friends for life. All other friends just seem to come and go. It's sad. So anyway, she is an aspiring photographer and I love to model so we set up this shoot last time I went for a visit. We live in different states now. :( But here they are...

Happiness

There is a beautiful quote by Helen Keller that reads, "Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves." Lately I've been pondering what it means to be truly happy. And i've found, that it is not through others that we find true happiness, it is within ourselves. No other person is responsible for my own happiness...I am. I've struggled with this for a while, relying on others to fill an empty void inside me completely. I had to do it on my own. And now i'm happier than ever.

The people and things we love can build onto the happiness we create. I think it's important to spend time with those we love and do the things that fulfill us in order to be happy. And also, remember that the trials we face that bring us down are not here to destroy us, they're only obsticles to get through along the way. They're here to test us and to make us stronger. I love the saying, "life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain." I absolutely love that! Some days when all I can do is cry, heavenly father is the one I always turn to. He is my strenth, and the one who never fails to be there when noone else is when tragedy approaches. He is my best friend.

Nothing makes me more happy than being with my husband CJ. He's been working a lot lately but we went to the theatre thursday night and saw the classic "philadelphia story" together. It was a fantastic night, we had a lot of fun. The Granada theatre was lovely. Saturday night we went out to eat at Olive Garden with CJ's brother and sister-in-law. I absolutely love that restaurant! It's my favorite. I enjoy the simple things in life. Dinner with friends, a walk in the park, listening to my favorite song, watching chick flicks...

I'm so happy with the way things turned out. There was a short time in my life filled with confusion and uncertainty. But through that experience as painful as it was, I learned a lot about myself. I grew stronger as a person and figured out what was most important to me. Sometimes I wish that time didn't exist but I think it's what brought me where I am today.

I cannot change the past, but the future is mine. It's important to remember that it's perfectly natural to make mistakes. The tragedy in the mistake is not the mistake itself, it's failing to learn from the mistake. I really believe that. Holding onto the past can prevent one from having true happiness in life. Just let go, learn from it, and move on. When you fall, pick yourself back up. You can't change it, all you can do is move forward and make the most out of your future.

One more thing I've really learned recently, is I tend to let things get to me too easily and make arguments out of nothing. Life is too short to spend it always mad at someone or letting people put you down. Some things just don't matter. There's so many more important things in life to worry about.

Live, laugh, love.