Mommy for the weekend

Lyndsey (my little sister) is in 10th grade at Northridge High in Layton. For one of her classes they had the students bring an electronic baby home for the weekend. She picked a cute little spanish boy and named him Alexander. He cries, burps, sleeps, and his diaper has to be changed; so he's pretty much like a real baby. According to my mom he's been a pretty well tempered baby and doesn't cry constantly. Last I heard he slept 6 hours before waking Lyndsey up to be fed and then slept another 3 hours Friday night. I don't know how he did last night and hopefully he'll be good tonight. I heard him crying on the phone and he sounds just like a real baby. I think it's so cool! She's enjoying him and being a very good mommy. Tomorrow she will be giving him back to her school. Hopefully she gets a good grade. There's a recording in the doll that records everygthing that happened to him like how long he cried for and what not. Lyndsey would have to run in the shower as soon as he was taking a nap and had to hurry because if he cries longer than 3 minutes then she pretty much gets a bad grade (I don't even think real babies are that demanding haha). Luckily my mom was there to keep an eye on him while she jumped in the shower. Here are some pictures of Alexander that they sent me. I think he's so cute!

Here's Lyndsey feeding him with one hand and playing the piano with the other. Such a multi-tasker!

Rock climbing!

Tonight Karl took me rock climbing at some place here in Provo, I forgot the name of it. It was so fun. A little background about Karl... I met him at the singles ward this summer back home in Bakersfield, CA (or I guess my old home). He and some other guys were selling 'The Living Scriptures' DVDs. He asked me out to go real rock climbing up in the canyons but we ended up not going (that's a long and funny story haha) so he took me out to dinner and miniture golf instead. A few Fridays ago (the 12th) he took me to a cute cute italian restaurant and some guy walked around the tables singing and playing the accordion! it was like we were really in Italy ;) but really it was so cute and the food was yummy. After eating we went hiking to the Y. It was fun and wow am I out of shape! I was huffing and puffing the whole way up. But it was worth it once we got up there. The view was really pretty with all the lights and the Y is huge so you get to climb on it and just sit there. It's a pretty popular thing I guess because there were quite a few people there, it was fun. After, he took me to the Creamer and we had icecream

Here's a picture of the Y off in the distance that we hiked up to (obviously there's no snow on it now. I got this pic on line. I need to take a picture of it now because it's so pretty with the leaves turning colors for fall)

Ok here are some pictures of Karl and I rock climbing at that place. It was sooo fun! but man was I sore after. My poor hands were so limp and shaky! I know I'm going to be sore in the morning!

My first round! I think I did quite well =)

It was pretty high up Thumbs up!Tidu!

Karl

I grew to love that rope through the night ;)

I was very proud (and still am) that I tied my own knot... and I did it myself two more times after that =)

Rock Climbing is fuuun!

I was so tired by this point. I tried and tried to get up this wall but I sadly couldn't so I went to an easy wall so I could get up on my last round. I barely made it on the easy one haha

My life was in his hands... I'm glad to say that I am still alive... he did well ;)

Weekend with the fam

Last week I've been working on a paper for my Human Development class. It's a hard paper and I can't wait for it to be over. I also have 2 exams this coming weekend so I've been pretty busy and a little stressed. So finally the weekend came and although it wasn't very productive as far as school, it was so nice! I have been planning on coming up to Layton to see my family and go to, my friend, Tennille's wedding (I missed BYU's game =( but it was worth it). My family wasn't feeling well so I stayed at my grandma Twede's house Friday night just in case, because I can't take the chance of getting sick. It was like old times. We had dinner watched some movie on Hallmark and had rootbeer floats it was fun =) On Saturday I went to my families house and then a little before 6 I went to Tennilles wedding. I didn't know how to get there but the directions were pretty easy and it was less than 10 min. away so I didn't think it'd be hard.... I ended up driving around for 45 min until I finally found it! I called my dad a million times and thank goodness for him because I would have never gotten there. I missed the ceremony but got there in time for cutting the cake... that's really all that matters right? ;) I said hi to her and she is so happy which made me extatic for her. She thought she was never going to get married but she did. He's a non member and quite a bit older than her but seems really nice and she's happy. Maybe he'll join the church and they'll be able to get married in the temple I hope! After the wedding I went home and spent time with the fam. Today I went to the singles ward that I went to last year when I lived in Layton and got to see some friends. It was nice. After I got back we all went to Firnwood, which is just on the other side of the 89, for Family Home Evening. We walked up the trail and it was a lot of fun. Here are some pics =)

This is my mom and I before starting the hike

Caiden did not want to leave he wanted to keep going so dad had to pick him up. You can tell he's not very happy... poor boy. Lucky for him we ended up staying quite a bit longer

Here's Lyndsey, Caiden, Courtney, and I. The sun was shining right in our eyes. I was tryin so hard not to blink! ha

Studly Caiden

Cool Courtney

Gorgeous mom

Lyndsey and I. Oh and that's our dad bending over in the background... perfect timing to take the picture right? haha

Caiden loved throwing rocks down into the stream

Us kids again. It was really pretty. I can't wait to come back when the leaves turn more

Cute Lyndsey and Courtney

Us kids at the end of our hike. Caiden is crying he didn't want to take the picture. It was a lot of fun going on the little hike. We're going to go back and roast some hotdogs and smores =) it'll be fun!

My humble little abode!

Here are a few pics of my apartment. Enjoy!

This is a little stream right outside our apartment. Very Cute! =)

The stream keeps going and stops in the middle of alll the apartment buildings. Over there, there is a bridge (that you can kind of see), a bbq grill, a bench, and a table to sit at. If you keep walking past the stream there is our pool, jacuzzi, and club house. If you keep walking on the path to the right you walk to some of the parking lot where there are not only cars but a sand volleyball court and a basketball hoop. Kind of weird if you ask me because that's just asking for a broken windshield, but I guess they had know where else to put them... oh well it's worth the risk right? haha (I'll take more pics of the pool and clubhouse area later)

This is our cute little but messy kitchen

Here's our table to eat on which we rarely do

This is our living room which I must say is probably my favorite room out of the whole apartment. Two of the girls (Nichole and Arial) got permission to paint the wall (with a hundred dollar fee =O), got a new tv, and put curtains up. It looks so cute!

This is a picture of Jen and my room. Her bed is the one to the left and mine is to the right. I absolutely love how she decorated her side... I pretty jealous actually ;) Right in front of my bed is our dresser that we share and our closset which is pretty nice sized thank goodness and it has mirrow sliding doors which I love! To the left of Jen's bed is a little nook (that she of course claimed because she was here first) that she has a big chair and there's a window right above it. She's leaving after this semester so when she leaves I'm taking that side hehe

This is Jen and I in our room. She's a freshman and goes to UVU. She's so sweet and very fun. I'm glad I share a room with her =) And I'll get pics of my other roommates another time. They were all out doing their own thing so I didn't bother. Oh and if you didn't notice, my nose is bright red ha! I went to the byu football game yesterday and got burned on my nose, cheeks, chest, and left arm pretty bad. It's my souvenir from the game haha. I tried to take a picture of my sun burns but the flash kept drowning it out so I couldn't get a good pic...

First week at BYU!

School started on Tuesday Sept. 2nd, so this is my second week. It's been really good. Last week was a little bit overwhelming but this week has been so much better. I kind of had a little break down this last weekend because I was stressed about money, needing to get a job, how stressful classes were going to be, and because I didn't really know anyone. So now that I'm not so down right now, I'll let you guys know a little about my classes, roommates, and apartment. First I live at Raintree apartments. They're really cute and a very social place. There's a cute (and green) little stream that flows through the apartment complex. Our apartment has 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms and 6 girls total. Other than the carpet, which is pretty old and sick, our apt is cute. I'm liking it more and more. My roommates names are Jen, Arial, Nichole, Cindy, and Ashley. Three of them are sophmores at BYU and the other 2 are Freshmans at UVU (I'm a Junior which makes me the mama of our apt ;) ) They are so sweet, I'm really happy with them. I'm still trying to get to know them, but it's not too hard, all of them are easy to get along with which is so nice.

Ok at BYU I'm majoring in School of Family Life, which I am absolutely loving. My teachers are so awesome I love all my classes. I started out with 17 credits which is a lot especially for your first year going to BYU. A lot of people told me that that was a lot and I should think about dropping a class. I started getting really nervous and didn't know what to do, if I should drop a class or not. I made the choice to drop my statistics class and I'm going to take that in the summer. I'm so glad I did because my other classes take a lot of time and studying so now I can take more time on those and manage getting a part time job. So school is really going great right now. It's a lot harder at BYU and pretty competitive but I'm really liking it a lot so far. I was probably most bummed because I think I was imagining it to be a lot more social and for there to be a whole bunch of cute guys all over.... well no such luck. Everyone is so busy and rushing to go to their class that they don't even think of meeting someone let alone making eye contact. It was just really different from what I'm used to but I'm getting used to it. All I can say is I'm definitely going to school to go to school, not to meet guys... I'm getting over that now haha. My ward is so great though and it'll be fun to get to know people there. It's very social so I'm excited for that. Well that's what's going on. Things are great and I'm going to try and post pictures as soon as I can. I still need to buy a charger for my camera so I'll work on that so I can take pictures of my roommates and apartment =)

Trip to Utah and getting settled

It was such a fun summer and it went by so fast. I stayed at Brooke and Eric's house for about a month when the rest of my family left to Utah. It was a lot of fun and I loved being able to spend more time with my beautiful niece Alaura. I also had so much fun going to Camie and Juan's apartment everyday for my lunch break. I loved being able to hold my new gorgeous baby niece, Leyna, almost everyday. It was so sad to say bye to them all. (Oh and thank you so much Brooke and Camie for letting me come and stay with you guys!!! I loved it!) After saying my goodbyes to Brooke, Alaura, and Eric I went to Camie and Juan's to take a nap before I set out on my long drive to Utah. After my nap I dropped by to say bye to my bestfriend Brena and then went to my friends apartment Adam, he and his brother all went up to Utah with me. We stopped by the grocery store and got some energy drinks and some candy to keep us up on the long drive, got some gas, and stopped by Carl's Jr. to get some food. We weren't officially on the rode until 10:30 P.M. I drove in my car for the first part and then Adam's brother Mike drove my car to give me a break so I could sleep some. I went into Adam's car to sleep and ended up talking the whole time haha. After my sleeping break was over I got back in my car and drove the rest of the way. I was so proud of myself because I was scared that I'd get tired driving through the whole night but I didn't! =) We got to Provo, Ut at 9:00 A.M. and I wasn't even tired! The office to my apartment wasn't going to be open until 10:00 so I was going to wait an hour so I could pay and everything and then unpack my stuff, but all of the sudden it hit me of how tired I was so I just drove to my parents house in Layton. It was so nice to see them and I talked for them for a bit before I took a nice loooong nap. It was nice! I ended up going back to Provo to unpack and everything the next day which was Thurs. I unpacked and was planning on staying there the whole weekend and then going back to my parents late Sat. or on Sun. so I could spend Labor Day with them. My roommates were so sweet but I didn't want to stay because I had no food, didn't know anyone really, and just wanted my mommy (hehe) So I ended up going home Friday afternoon and spent a nice weekend with them. My mom and I went shopping for toiletries and groceries so I was set to go back and left Monday night. So that's a long book about my trip here and my first few days. Hope you don't fall asleep reading that!!!