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We got Annie!

I grew up watching and loving the original Annie musical. I also loved seeing it when local schools or theaters would perform it. Obviously, none of the remakes can compare to the original, but when I saw the preview for the new one I was so excited!

Turns out, my friend also is obsessed with this musical so we saw it on opening night! The theater didn’t have many people, except for more girls who were our age reliving their childhood haha!

My thoughts on the movie? I loved it. I mean, it was cheesy and there were dumb parts for sure. But overall, the music was really enjoyable! And the new Annie was ADORABLE! I love her so much. Probably more than the original because she’s not as obnoxious. Her voice was so sweet and seeing her a modern kid in NYC really tugged at my heart strings. Jamie Foxx was also a huge surprise. I really liked his voice, who would have known? And my favorite part? The end when they’re singing together just about a mile down the road from where I live! That was pretty awesome to see them out at Liberty State Park and on the river path I walk on! So, if you grew up loving the musical… go see it! It’s not better than the original, but it’s still a fun movie that brought me to tears a couple times and made me want to stand up and dance and sing!

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Eva’s Turning 3, Join us under the sea!

Here are the photos from setting up Eva’s little birthday bash! I really wanted to try and make this cake (actually, don’t click on the link because it will REALLY make mine look like a pinterest fail haha!) but I made some fatal flaws. 1-I didn’t carve the outside of my cake to make it even. 2-my buttercream wasn’t thick or cold enough. 3-I had no idea what I was doing, except for watching one 3-minute youtube video. But other than my fatal flaws, I don’t think it came out terribly! Eva is my biggest critic and she liked it, so that’s a win in my book! We also made a batch of my favorite sugar cookies (click here to get the recipe, it’s the third one with sour cream)! Oh my, they are so tasty!

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Eva’s Birthday Party

Eva turned 3 on the 8th and we threw a little birthday party for her at our apartment. Our place is very teeny, so it was a bit cramped but I’ve decided I’m not going to let a small apartment get in the way of throwing parties and having people over anymore. It was modest, but we had a great time and I made it through the whole thing without crying about Eva growing up!

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Pioneer Day Video

I was importing my videos from Disneyland off of my phone and computer when I realized I never uploaded my Pioneer Day trip video on Youtube! It’s terribly edited, just tons of little clips but I still love it. We had a great trip to Utah back in July to visit family… enjoy! Better late than never, right? Oh, and the clips of TJ and Dustin on the trampoline with their little girls kind of melts my heart!

Here is my 4th of July video. It turns out we are big fans of parades and sliding into pools.

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Newport, Jersey City – Christmas Tree Lighting

Our little neighborhood in Jersey City had a cute Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony with Santa, Olaf, and even the Mayor. I’m learning how to do things out here… this year, we immediately hung out right next to where Santa would be sitting as soon as they lit the trees. Perfect. We didn’t have to wait in any line! I think my favorite part of this evening was how Santa had a thick Jersey accent. It doesn’t get any classier, folks!

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Chasing Eva

Chasing Eva with the 70D Autofocus from Christopher Swainhart on Vimeo.

I was going through old videos and photos and came across this cute one my dad did more than a year ago to test out his new camera. She’s such a cutie, walking around Cincinnati like she owns the place.

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Eva is 3!

I have put off writing this blog post for a couple days now because I am still in denial that my little girl is growing up. But it’s also very exciting. A new age, a new stage! New experiences, new emotions, new memories… it’s going to be a good year. I’ve heard three is harder than two, but I say bring it on!

Age two wasn’t “terrible.” There were terrible moments but overall, it was the best yet. There were tantrums, but there was lots of hugs and cuddling. There was major attitude, but there was laughter every day. That girl. She knows how to have fun, and boy, is her laugh contagious.

Eva, Happy Birthday, my beautiful girl! We love you and are so proud of you!

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Christmas Window Displays + Rock Center

I mentioned that I went to see the window displays in the city and the Christmas tree at Rockefeller center. Those were two things I didn’t get to do last year. We had planned to do it the Saturday night before we left for Christmas break, but Eva and TJ had food poisoning from the infamous Jersey City Church Christmas Party disaster of 2014.

Ashley and Brooks came along with us. It was a great afternoon, in the low 40s, so it wasn’t awfully cold yet.

I think my favorite display was at Saks. They had different fairy tales in each window but displayed so creatively, like an enchanted fashion week! They turned on Christmas music, so you could hear it all around the block. Macy’s also had a really cool display of Santa on all the different planets.

The Christmas tree was amazing. I have always watched the special on TV each year where they light the tree, and am a huge Kevin McCallister fan. So, seeing the tree in person for the first time was really neat!

Here are my pics: most of them were taken on my phone and are poor quality, but I just had to share the windows from Saks!

 

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Share the Gift

I heard about Provo setting up the largest live nativity in the world and I immediately thought… of course, Provo would do that! It’s kind of a cheesy world record to break. But also, so awesome and so Provo, Utah. And my next thought was, why didn’t they do this five years ago when I was there at BYU and could have participated?! But then the video of the nativity with The Piano Guys, MoTab, David Archuleta and others came out today and I lost it. I seriously love the video SO much. First of all, Angels from the Realms of Glory / Angels We Have Heard on High has always been one of my most favorite Christmas hymns. Every Christmas Eve growing up, we went to Catholic Mass to hear my Dad play trumpet and they would always sing that hymn. So hearing that song which reminds me of Christmas with my family, mixed with my favorite LDS artists… it was wonderful! Watch the video and share it with others!

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