hello 2014

Happy New Year!  I love the feeling of the start of a new year.  It feels like a fresh start, another chance to set new goals and improve yourself and make it a better year than the last.  It was fun to look back at this post and cross off some 2013 resolutions that I feel I achieved, or mostly achieved.  I am excited to see what 2014 brings.  Dustin will be graduating!  We will have a {somewhat} normal Utah summer.  We will both be busy working and our sisters will both be coming home from their missions!  Can't wait. :)

2014 resolutions:
-Read the Book of Mormon.  (I am following bofm365 on instagram - everyday they post the scriptures you should be reading to finish it in a year.  It's only about 15-20 verses a day - totally doable!  So far I am on track!)
-Create a harp website.
-Build muscle, lose fat.
-Pay off my car.
-Save money.
-Do good - find more ways to serve daily.
-Attend the temple twice a month (once with Dustin, once on my own).
-Take a trip to Europe!
-Cook 3 {healthy} meals a week.
-Be more proactive and make things happen.

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. 
- Oprah Winfrey

"best of" christmas 2013

• Christmas shopping date at City Creek!  I love living 4 minutes away.
• We sent out Christmas cards for the first time.  
• Quinn fit in perfectly with my woodland creatures Christmas decor.
• Humongous, as in 7 feet tall, gingerbread house at the Grand America.
• We saw The Hobbit.  It was ok, not my favorite.
• Lots of Christmas classic movies including White Christmas, Elf, Christmas Vacation along with the cheesy Hallmark romantic holiday comedies that I kind of love.
• Christmas Adam celebration with just us two.  We went out to dinner then opened presents from each other.  Dustin got a new blue suit. He totally surprised me with a little blue box.
• Santa came to my grandma's on Christmas Eve!  Sadly I was *not feeling well* and missed him. ;)
• Skyping both of our sisters!!!  Shayna in Ukraine, Korinne in Idaho.
• Christmas get together with some of my best friends, and their husbands, and precious babies!
• Lots of time spent with each other and our families.  

guess who? 

(yes i was santa! i was volunteered! no one else wanted to do it! the littles never knew it was me though haha)

last year                                                                          this year

i LOVE these girls!

harpy christmas!

December was crazy for the hubby and I!  He had intense finals, projects, papers, and presentations, and I had a bajillion harp events, concerts, gigs, and church performances.  Dustin survived another semester of business school with all A's and one B!!  And I survived another harp Christmas season.  Though it was a lot of work learning new music, having 6am rehearsals, and moving the harp everywhere in the snow, we both loved the spirit of Christmas that we felt in our hearts because of the music.  Music truly is powerful and can lift hearts like nothing else.  I am so grateful for my talent and the many opportunities and blessings it brings to both mine and Dustin's lives.

holiday diamond party!  i was hoping i might get paid with diamonds but sadly no ;)

harp & bells christmas concert.  

my students played with 4 other teacher's students totaling 40 harps on stage!

 seven harps! 

we accompanied the salt lake vocal artists on their two christmas concerts

 me and my boss/harp teacher/friend/mentor/wardie ShruDe

 a few of us accompanied the salt lake choral artists again at their assembly hall performances

my best harp mover husband