Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas was mellow this year! Whitney was sick during our entire Arizona trip and since I was with her 24-7 I started to feel not so hot on Christmas eve when I got home from seeing the grandparents. We put out jammies on as soon as we could, started a fire and threw in a movie. We got to sleep in nice and late! since we both didn't feel well opening gifts was a slow process. we ended up sleeping the entire afternoon while Christmas movies were playing in the background. We finally cleaned ourselves up and went to my dads house for dinner. As a tradition we always play a white elephant game... since most of the family was sick we played pretty fast and headed home for more sleep.

basically... we slept through Christmas and about 4 days after that! But it was still good to get to spend quality time with family and feel all the love around. 

New Years eve was so fun! Since I had been sick for a week and it always ends up being lame I had no expectations this year. Amanda invited to me to come to midway with some of her friends from cali, and I loved it. There were so many fun people and I loved hanging out with her friends. Tim and Trae, AJ and John came up with us and we all had so much fun!

I think 2013 is going to be a VERY good year!

Arizona and The Bears

We took a quick little trip down to Arizona. Thanks father for the tickets to game that inspired this little get-away! It was soo nice to relax and enjoy some warm weather, sunshine, and amazing food!

 me, whitney, sean, and seans brother-in-law chase drove town on friday morning, got to admire lake powell as we drove past. we ate at some really delicious places with such tasty food! Culinary Drop Out, R & R, a sushi place i dont remember the name of, and Blonco in Scottsdale. Im drooling just thinking about them! We also took some time wondering around old town looking in the little shops. The Bears game vs the Cardinals was really fun. It was so great to go to a game that they won! woot! We got to go in a special enterance and hang out on the VIP level, we even got gift cards with money on them to use so we didnt have to pay for any of the food at the game. it was amazing!

Poor sister was sick the entire trip, she was hurting real bad during the game so we left a little early to head home since we had to drive at least to Vegas and there was a big snow storm coming in christmas eve in Utah. once we got to Vegas we decided to drive all the way home and beat the storm. We rolled in around 2:30 and only had a little snow in provo but still got to wake up to a winter wonderland for the holiday celebrations! 

Graduation Celebration

I did it! I survived the longest/hardest 24 months of my entire life. 

as of today I am officially a graduate of the Utah College of Dental Hygiene with a Bachelors degree in the Science of Dental Hygiene.

That's right... I can now sign a BSDH after my name if I wanted to!

 carli, brittany, brooke, kodi, alyssa, katie, jill, erin, felicia, erin, monica, kalani, lindsey, stephanie, liz child 

 A few of the most amazing friends i made at school. I am going to miss seeing these beautiful faces all day every day as we suffer together! 

 

 erin, whit and mom, dad and mc

the wonderful people who are responsible for me making it to graduation. without their motivation and support I could not have done it. 

 

Its seems so weird that I actually made it. I seriously doubted that I would ever make it to this day but I am excited that I did.  Now to just get a job.... and then what?

ANY...THING...I...WANT!!!!!!! 

Hudson Barry

I just took a quick little glance over my last few posts, all I have to say is sorry! I've been so terrible about posting and have missed many exciting things! 

The most important missed post..... I finally got to meet my adorable little nephew. We are birthday buddies! Meaning, he arrived in style early morning on September 6.... MY BIRTHDAY! It was the best birthday I've ever had. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this guy.

Today was his blessing at our church. I can't believe he is 3 months old. 

Some of my favorite things about him so far:

1. His lower chin would shake before he cries when he was first born, now he snorts! It's so cute I can't even handle it.

2. He is so easy to tickle!

3. That big gummy smile he always has

4. I hope his eyes stay as blue as they are right now

5. The poor kid is so fowler, big cheeks and that butt back is coming in nicely, We just have those nice curves in all the wrong places....

6. He loves to bounce, ALL the time. Big, get your knees into it bounces. He's going to get me into shape!

I could literally list a million things about why he is so cute! I know, I'm obsessed! 

 

 

 

 

I love to cuddle with the little babe. So happy to have him in my life, he always makes me feel better after a long day at school!

....2 weeks until graduation!.... 

Pumpkins and a Murder

Carving pumpkins

 Mike and Brandon

 Emilee and Whitney

 whit, me, and my pumpkin

Mike and Brandon

 finished!

 shawn, savon, sarah, travis, mike, whit, me

 shawn, travis, mike

This year for the annual Fowler Halloween party whitney and myself were in charge. so we planned a 
Murder Mystery Party!!!

it. was. SO. fun! everyone played their characters really well and seemed have a great time. the food was delicious and the costumes were fab. 

catherine and lance                                                  whitney and mike

 me (mermaid) and hudson                                      sean and lauren

 lance and i were killed so we had to figure out who dun it! 

 all the girls: maryanne, mc, teresa, whit, sue, catherine and lauren.

{dont worry.....they didnt wait for me and my costume change i had to make, rude! }

 whit and me (in my new costume!)                          dad and hudson, so cute! 

 mike and rick

they were many shady deals afoot including multiple murders and magic spells

 

prizes:

Teresa made the most money

Mike had the best costume

MC was the best performer

Risk was the only charter to solve the murder

great job everyone! it was a blast. cant wait until next year!

2 months to go!

2 months until i graduate from dental hygiene school

two. months. people!

its gone by so fast but December 17th will not come soon enough. until then i will continue to be a stressed out/psychotic/basket case mess. pretty sure i cry at least 2-3 times a week due to stress and frustration from finding patients or about not having a patient for boards, about how much i should be studying, and praying that i will pass all my boards tests. yikes!

on the brighter side.... i got some pictures taken for my graduation announcements!

jaci stoddard is amaze-balls! i love her work. to see more of her fab styles {and pretty pics of this old gal} go here. she was so fun, i was afraid i would feel awkward having her just snappin away but she made me laugh and had a great time! 

pray for me to survive the next 8 weeks!

Dirty Hygienist

On September 22 we did the dirty dash once again!

this year i was able to get some of the girls from school to join in on the fun with me.

we started at 8:00am, it was freezing! i will recommend doing it at a much later time next year...or possibly in the spring!

the back of our shirts

{ i may be biased, but i think they are pretty dang cute! }

 me, stephanie fish, jill ward, lindsey primm

it was a 10k, go us! that early and that long for a bunch of hygiene students who sit on their butts all day is pretty impressive i think

{images via Flo-Foto}

 just looking like a total babe.....covered in muddy mud

 made it to the finish line without freezing to death!

 i cant resist a good power jump pic

after we finished a girl walked up to us with bag of color and told us to go hog wild {ok, so she didn't say it exactly like that.... but it just fits!}. the photographers wanted more pictures of us after. fish's teeth are great!

this wins as my favorite pic from the event. 

girls: thanks for being champs and braving it through the 35 degree butt crack of dawn morning! love you guys

get ready friends, im making you all do it with me next year { in the warm, sunny, afternoon}

Temple Day!

I had a very big day yesterday!

usually for most LDS girls the drill goes: meet a boy, get engage,d and get married in the temple. Going through the for first time just kind of fits in with the getting married part. for some girls they decide to go on a mission,

then there is me

i guess i just tend to do things in my own weird way, completely different than everyone else

i promise dont plan it this way! it just happens...

just to be clear, no i am not getting married OR going on a mission!

I have been considering this a lot over the past year.

its been a very hard year for me. lots of tears from a girl who normally doesn't cry. hopefully it has made me stronger, a better person, and more focused on living life in the moment {and not just waiting until school is over}. on one of my many visits to the barton home to see brynns family debbie and i talked about them doing brynns temple work for her. long story short, we decided that since i was thinking about it anyways that it would be a really magical experience for me to do mine at the same time as brynn. i announced it to my best girlfriends at emmas valentines party and started getting to work to sort out a few things to get ready to go. after attending a ward in orem for a while, i was not very happy sitting all alone at church by myself and i though it was maybe just because i was alone. i decided to give it one more try and check out the ward that whitney's house was in salt lake before i just went back to my home ward. BEST. decision. ever! the second i walked into the building of the Madison ward i knew i was home, it was where i was supposed to be. every lesson was exactly what i needed to hear. its like they knew!! i have never felt like that. i was excited for church every week. there was a bishop change right as i started at the new ward so it took a while before i was able to get in and talk to him and work everything out. the bishop at my ward is great! i really enjoyed talking with him and he helped me so much with everything i have been through this year. after i got my recommend from the bishop and skipped out of the appointment and immediately called to set up the meeting with my stake president. since he was out of town i was lucky enough to meet with his counselor, who happened to be the old bishop that was switched when i moved in. he was amazing. walking out of meeting with him i was so happy i felt like i might burst! he was sweet and made me cry {like a baby} tears of happiness. everything had worked out so great i was just holding my breath for something to happen that would mess everything up and we would have to wait longer.... it never did! 

{image via google....dont remember where!}

i really wanted to go through the draper temple. brynn, jelissa and i had gone to the open house and i loved it! we figured that since brynn had actually gone to that temple before and we were doing it together it would be fun to go back to that sample temple. the date was set and i had 3 weeks to wait until July 28th 2012!

Erin Goodman gave me a book to help prepare me for going to the temple. I loved reading it and i like to think it helped me, but i dont know!

Emma was my escort. she did just a fab job showing me how to do everything and trying to explain. there was so much going on i didnt even know where to begin asking questions
My mom took me shopping for everything i needed, which was overwhelming!

Debbie and i got to sit by each other while we waited for the first part, and we talked about how brynn was there with us, dancing! {i dont know why but all day i just pictured her dancing, so happy} Brooke did the second part for her. it was so fun to get to see her do that for her sista. i sware that when i looked at her one time during the session that it was brynn standing there in brookes spot. I know they are sisters and look a like, but it was brynn!

Lauren was able to make it up from vegas so that she and sean were able to be there to support me along with so many others. i am one lucky girl to have so many wonderful and amazing people in my life to help support me. i could have never survived this year without them!

the lovelies that were able to make it included:

debbie and jeff barton, brooke gatti, kristy and bill beck, megan beck, lauren and dan rupper, emma and isaac westwood, sean and lauren fowler, erin goodman, suzie cushing, joshing cushing, brooke gatti, dave and judy fox, dave fox jr, jenny cushing. my mom, whitney and mike met us outside to celebrate! 

{the only jumping pic that my new g's are not showing :( ill have to work on that!}

after the festivities at the temple we went to brio at fashion place mall to celebrate the big event of the day for brynn and i, and debbie's birthday. 

it was such an incredible experience! i feel like i was only able to take in a small amount of everything going so i cant wait to go back and do it again. i just hope brynn was as excited to be doing it with me as i was to be doing it along with her.