the amount of food we eat together...

Did I ever tell you about Jess' fabulous birthday lunch?
We chose La Jolla Groves...
which has become one of our very favorites. 

Our meals and appetizer were all absolutely fabulous,

as was the conversation. 

Then came time to give her my ghetto-wrapped gift.

Let me tell you a story. 

Do you remember when my mom cleaned out her closet this summer?

Well, Jess apparently doesn't stalk my blog good enough, because she forgot. 

...and was subsequently in slight shock when she found out mom gave me that purse.

Apparently she had wanted it for forever, and there may have been a slight pouty-face involved.

She jokingly stated that if I were a good sister I would give it to her. 

I, being so wonderful and kind,

said heck no. 

Little did she know.....

I had ebayed her a birthday surprise! 

The beauty of technology :)

Also, I love her. 

That's the real point of this blog post. 

....just like the 934752364 other jess-loving posts I have on here.

Hope you've had a wonderful day.

Love Always,
Taylor Ann

christmas day: featuring lolo

I got so many darn cute pictures of this little one 

so many, in fact, that I thought I'd dedicate a whole post to her ;)

Lolo is my girl. 

fiesty. 

independent.

 smiley.

I love all my little cousins, but I think this is my kindred spirit.

 

 

 Don't worry, all of her siblings are just as adorable and will for SURE make an appearance here soon.

Can we just say that kids are the magic of Christmas these days?

I just loved sitting back and watching them. 

On another note though, I'm finally reunited with Jess and it feels so good.

She blogged about our lovely reunion today. 

Love Always,

TaylorAnn

Birthdays are the best thing. ever.

Yesterday was such an exciting day!

You see, we had the chance to celebrate my sister's birthday.

ALL DAY LONG.

But.. I mean.. she is sooo incredibly cute,

and thus celebrating her being on this earth for 23 years is nearly as fabulous as she is!

So, for her 23rd birthday I feel like a list would be appropriate.

23 Things for my Best Friend's 23rd Birthday:

1-We eat cupcakes together. [only Sweet Tooth Fairy though...]

2- She makes me Sunday dinners at her house.

3- She has the ability to make me feel beautiful when nothing else can.

4- She loves to cook, and experiment with said cooking.

5-She has quite the silly side.

6- She has a love for anything vintage.

7-She also has great taste for expensive things, and knows how to work a budget.

8- She has quite the sense of honesty. [is blunt the word?]

9- She somehow pulls off whatever the heck she wants.

10- She wears heels with socks.

11- She is a kindred spirit to Audrey Hepburn.

12- She has the cutest marriage ever with her hubby.

13-She rocks the orange lipstick-- who else does that? [or rather does it well?]

14- We share a love for old movies.

15- We share passion for food. all food.

16-She has great freckles.

17- Her fashion confidence is ever growing.

18- She is quite mischievous.

19- She has my back.... no matter what. [to the point of assassination]

20- She is often compared to Mary Poppins.

21-...cutest kindergarten teacher. ever.

22-She is crafty.

23- She is my bestest bestest friend. yep.

I can't wait until I tell you about her surprise party :)

Love Always,

Taylor Ann

Lovely People on Lovely California Mornings.

I have this lovely sister, who I play with all the time

[to see our latest adventure, go here]

At the end of this summer we spent a blissful week in Coarsegold .

Most of the week consisted of eating Frostys, listening to country music, and driving in trucks.

And before we came back to the great state of Utah, 

she wanted me to take some pictures of her and the hubby in that wonderful town of ours.

So, naturally, I obliged.

I love practicing photography when I have a spare minute [which lately isn't very often],

and I only wish that I had the time to learn more.

I suppose someday soon I'll have to make the time.

These were just a few of my favorite pictures of the morning.

I think mostly I like them because the lighting almost reminds me of this early morning scene.

Aren't they beautiful people?

Well, I obviously haven't been around for the past....week?

I've been in Provo for a week. a full week.
but have I had time enough to do anything more than unpack a meager fraction of my things?
no.

Explanation:

I got here and went on a leadership training retreat.

 and rode the alpine slide in Park City.
it apparently is impossible to rip those puppies off the track.
so, naturally, I tried.
great fun, great fun.

 and we might have driven a little too fast on dirt roads.

Theeeeennnnn...... I went to camp!
Foundations of Leadership is a camp I went to as an incoming freshman at BYU.
I thought it was great, and decided to do it again last year.
and again this year.
I got to help freshman catch the BYU lovebug [[doesn't take a ton of convincing]]
all the while living on cafeteria food :)

and now I'm back in Provo for real, and my schedule is starting to normalize.
aka. I'm back to cupcakes&soda dates with jess.
lovin it.

I'll try and stay around :)

Reasons for loving people, and hating justification.

Life is good. 

A little crazy? Yes.

Finals coming soon? Yes.

Dance Party this Friday? Also yes. 

I have the cutest sister ever? Yes and yes. 

Shoot, I post about her all the time... sorry about that.

You see, the thing is, when you have a big camera.. 

you just don't get pictures of yourself very often.

And Jessica is always my greatest model :)

So thus, again, here are some of the latest.

Opening birthday presents at her cutie little apartment.

Christmas pictures last week. Ohhhhh joy :)

Could they be any more cute? I don't believe so. 

So, two things. 

One: Thursdays are wonderful. 

Temple at 5. Alone time to read for a half hour. 

And because I'm the first one there.....

I always get to do extra baptisms.

Today it was 17. 

For those of you not from Provo, that's alot.

Normally they run on average from 3-5 baptisms per person because it's so busy.
Also, I learned something yesterday.
justification doesn't feel good 
so I decided over Thanksgiving that I didn't want to eat sweets until Christmas.
I just felt so gross from the weekend. Does everybody get like that?
Well, anyways, I've been doing great. But the past 24 hours... not as much.
First, my roommates were all going out to ice cream last night.
They wanted me to come. And you know how it is...
"Are you coming?... come on, please?" Yes? Ok.
It took them a minute, but I told them I would go if we went to Coldstone.
They have sugarfree fat free ice cream. And really, I like it :)
Then I got mix-ins... and a cone.... so, really?
it totally classified as a sweet.
Then today, I went to "Bread and Jam"
[an event put on for Campus Life students to mingle with faculty]
and ate breads that were more like sweets...
really though, the words cinnamon, pumpkin, and peach cobbler come to mind.
i cheated. 
and it doesn't matter that I went to the gym this morning, or that I'll go tomorrow.
i still cheated.
it doesn't matter what it is, big or small, it doesn't feel good to cheat.
but it is good to know that tomorrow morning I can start over.
Just because you mess up and fall off for a second doesn't ruin everything.
As long as you don't give up.
So tomorrow? No sweets.
I really don't have that long until Christmas...

"Nothing can prevent your picture from coming into concrete form except the same
power which gave it birth-yourself" -Genevieve Behrend

whatever it is you're doing, do it.
and try not to justify... because guess what?
it's not worth it.
and take some chances sometimes.
Make some goals.
Map out some dreams.
Do something with life, its flying.

Winnemucca and so much more

The Fall Colors are out and I'm loving everything. 

Thursday Night i didn't get home from school until 6:30 or so. Long day.

Jess called and came straight to my room.

She stood at my doorway with

Butterscotch

Lemonade

And a rose.

And stated simply,
"I hear it's a two cupcake kind of week"

Indeed it was.
We went to Thai Ruby.
My treat.
What would I do without her?

Friday was... wonderful....
for many reasons.
But mostly because we headed off to Winnemucca.
What in the World is in Winnemucca you may ask??
The NSPRA end of the year rodeo finals!
Some of you may still be wondering...
So... I have this dad that's just, well, way too cool.
He competes in rodeo.
I like to support him :)

And plus I got to hang out with the kind of boys I like...

the dedicated kind...

...the innocent kind



the kind who have smiley eyes

and love our country

...the kind that know how to put on work gloves.


and use them...


And did I mention I got to hang out with my favorite kind of Girls too?


the kind who are willing to drive the whole way so the lovebirds can nap in the back seat

and the kind who aren't afraid to be themselves.
(and did I mention beautiful?)

Mostly I love my family.
It was so good to be reunited, even if it was only two days.



And a shout out to my daddy.
who couldn't possibly be more awesome.
Way to win 5 buckles and a saddle in one weekend.

Love, A Cowboy's Daughter