The beginning of Halloween

According to Lauren Alysa Williams, I need to update my blog. Not much has been happening since I last wrote in September. October of course has Halloween so that's always a fun thing to write about. Halloween is this weekend and I'm still not sure what I should be. I think I will go as a Greek goddess. It sounds easy and I think I can gather some stuff up for it around my apartment. I have a ward and stake party this weekend and I really want to go to some sort of haunted house. Next week will be the beginning of November and I'm super-de-duper excited!!! I get to see Lauren twice in November. She is coming down for the first weekend of November and then I get to celebrate Thanksgiving with her as well! I haven't seen her since June, making it almost 5 months when I finally get to see her. That's the longest time span during which we haven't seen each other. I can't even express how excited I am to see her!!! I also get to see my family at Thanksgiving and I of course miss them too! I will be able to see my Grandpa too but not my Grandma because she will be on a cruise with my cousins down in Georgia. I'm a little sad I won't be able to see her but I still have Christmas.

Last night I got to carve pumpkins with my FHE group and it made me so happy! Last year I didn't really celebrate Halloween so it's fun to do the small traditions that I used to have with my family; carving pumpkins, dressing up, roasting the pumpkin seeds, and going to Halloween parties. Here are some pictures from last nights pumpkin carving:





My pumpkin is a little deformed but the best part is the back. It seriously looks like a butt. That's why I chose that one. haha!

Back to College

I've been back at college for almost a month now. I'm taking 16 credits: D&C, The Living Prophets, Study Smarter Not Harder, ASL 2, Music (voice), and Intro to Special Education. I'm also working for my Aunt. I babysit my three cousins eight hours a week at a minimum. I am also volunteering at an elementary school in a moderate special education class and soon I will start in a high school with a severe special education class. I am doing it for my Intro to Special Education class and it's really fun and I love working with the kids. I actually get to apply for my major, Special Education, this January so I need to start getting everything together. A lot of interesting stuff has been happening since I've started school and I'm sure there will be much more interesting stuff to come. I am singing my first solo in my vocal class this Tuesday and I'm super duper nervous for it. I either have to sing Shenandoah or Salley Gardens. I think I'm going to go with Salley Gardens. I'm also going to be able to see my Best Friend ever soon! She will be visiting me in the beginning of November and I'm going to BYU Idaho where she attends school to have Thanksgiving with her. I am so excited!!! AHHHH!!! Here are some pictures from the
first month of school and the last few weeks of summer.


This is a picture of little Lucy, my 3 year old sister. She broke her arm on the trampoline and became the first kid in our family to have a broken bone.














I got to go camping at Lake Skookum for a few days the last week of summer. It was a nice break right before school.










This is my beautiful room when I first started moving in so it's a little messy.







My adorable Brother and I right before I left for college.









Our apartment got to celebrate Kaitlins B-day right when we moved into our new apartment!

RYLA & Mt.St. Helens!!!

WOW! It's been a long time since I've blogged. A lot has happened this Summer. I recently finished my second job and I cut down to a few less hours on my full time job to volunteer at Adult Day Services. It is an amazing place to volunteer and I couldnt ask for anything better! I mostly help with crafts/bingo time and it's so fun to get to know all of the clients there. Two big things that have happened this summer include going to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) the week of July 3-10 and this last weekend I climbed Mt. St. Helens.

RYLA

RYLA was an amazing experience! I was nominated and sponsored by the Columbia Day Break Rotary Club here in Kennewick, WA. It was for boys and girls aged 18-25 and it was held in Castlegar, British Columbia at Selkirk College. All the staff members volunteer their time for the leadership/motivational camp. I learned so many things by speakers who volunteered their time for us. I learned about leadership skills, types of leaders, suicide, photography, self-defense, family, and so many other topics. I got so close to my group and I will never forget the stuff I learned from the people I meet there. I'm so thankful our paths crossed.


This is a picture of all the girls at RYLA.


This is my Group E! Our junior staff leader is on the far right. This was our winning tower made of straws and tape. We had to have the tallest tower and be able to balance a tennis ball on the top for over 10 seconds. Our group was the best!


This is the whole RYLA group at the beach in Nelson, British Columbia which by the way is an awesome little town.


I met so many new amazing people and became so close to them in the one week that we had. I was able to present my amazing adventure to the rotary club that sponsored me the week after I returned.

Mt. St. Helens

This last weekend I was able to climb up Mt. St. Helens. Awhile back, I played an intense game of ping-pong with my Grandpa and we decided to make a bet. We decided that if I won, he had to pay for my most expensive text book at school and if he won I had to climb Mt. St. Helens. Well he won but it was a win-win situation for me. I was so stoked to climb Mt. St. Helens! He had to reserve a spot for us a couple months in advance because a certain amount of people can climb every day and it costs about 25 dollars per person. We were originally going to go with my Mom, Dad, and Uncle Jon but they all backed out when they ended up going out of town. We ended up inviting my Aunt Suzy and two cousins Dion and Kyra. It was such a fun hike but it was pretty intense! I was so proud of my Aunt and cousin Kyra when they made it up all the way! Here are some pics to show you the crazy climb I am so proud of completing!


This was the very beginning of the climb. We started with a 2 mile hike through the forest.


We quickly got up past the first layer of clouds.


After we got out of the forest, we came to the the boulder section of the climb which was really fun but very intense. This was only the beginning of the boulders.


This shows the steepness of how the rocks just kept going and going straight down.


The last mile or so was very ashy and two steps up was one step back. It was the hardest part of the whole hike. The altitude didn't make it any easier. We were almost there!!!


We finally got to the very top and this was the inside of the crater. It was huge and the the dome was at the very bottom and was letting out tons of steam!



The other group who came up shortly after us let us borrow their cute little sign. Kyra is asleep in the background. haha!

By the end of the hike everyone was exhausted and our legs were felt like jello. We got back to our cars around 8:30 and after driving for a few hours and stopping to eat a very late dinner, my Grandpa and I got home around 3 am (and we both had to work the next morning at 7). Kyra ended up coming home with us as well for a short visit. The climb was so worth all the effort that went into it and I probably will do it again sometime. But first I want to explore some of the other stuff around the area like Ape Caves!

My family just got home last night from a week and a half trip to California. I was sort of jealous because I have never been to Cali but they brought me back some super cool nail-polish and earrings so it was all good :) Plus I didn't have to miss the climb up Mt. St. Helens. I ended up playing another game of ping-pong with my Grandpa 2 days ago and we of course made a random bet up. If he won I had to clean all 67 window panes in Grandmas house and I won, he had to hang up Grandmas shelf that she had been asking him to do for a few weeks. Well I lost again so I ended up cleaning all the windows for her yesterday with a sore body. Hopefully someday I will learn not to make ping-pong bets with my Grandpa. (He's obviously a better player than me)

June 18th-20th Weekend

This weekend I was able to go up to see my cousins for the first time since last summer. They live in Bonnie Lake about 45 minutes out of Seattle. My family has been able to see them a few times but I'm always at college doing my thing so I was super excited to go down. It was just my grandma, my mom, three of my sisters and me and we went down for Dion's grad party. His graduation had been on the previous Tuesday but we had work, etc. so we decided to go down for the party instead. We drove up after I finished work on Friday and got there around 8. Most of us slept inside on the ground but my Mom and I decided to set up a tent in the backyard and sleep but it ended up raining and it was super cold so maybe it wasn't such a good idea after but it was sort of fun because I haven't been camping in FOREVER! Dion and I were able to talk to each other for awhile that night in my tent which was really nice because we haven't had a personal one on one talk since last summer when he came to visit me at college. The next morning it was raining hard and I was freezing so I woke up and went to take a shower and it was like 6:55 in the morning and I totally thought it was at least 9! haha! We all ended up going to Toy Story 3D for free and got concessions for free too since Troy, my Uncle, had a work party and then we went home to a super fun graduation party that afternoon. We ended up leaving around 6pm. It was a super short trip but it was nice to go down and see them a little. We will be back there a few more times this summer.

Today is Father's day and my birthday! This is the 4th time this has happened in my life, once when I was 2, then at age 8, and then 13 and now! The next time it will happen will be when I am 30 and I will have to share the day with my husband that time. :) I've gotten quite a few cards and my roommate from college last year sent a letter and some really cute earrings in the mail for me. She also called me last night which totally made my day. Today one of my friends stopped by and brought me a gift and next weekend we are celebrating her birthday! My Mom made me a special dinner tonight and now we are about to have cake and open some presents! I'm excited since my grandparents are coming too! yay!!!

The Beginning of my Summer

I haven't updated my blog in awhile and apparently some people don't like that. (You know who you are ;) ) haha! but anyways, this summer has been super busy! I've been working at my Grandpas law office as a secretary 8 hours a day and i got a second part time job last week. I'm a census enumerator that goes from door to door taking census's from people who didn't turn theirs in. So i'm usually working 14 hour days. I start at 7 and go until 10 sometimes. Tonight my parents are leaving for Hawaii so I get the pleasure of babysitting my 6 younger siblings for the next week. I've done it before so hopefully there won't be any weird surprises but you never know. Last time my parents went to Hawaii and I ended up babysitting, all my siblings got sick and were barfing everywhere and then I started to barf too. The house was a disaster and it smelled so gross! Thank goodness for my Grandpa who came over to help clean up some of the barf that my brothers cannot aim into a toilet or bowl. My Grandma would have helped except that whenever she see's barf she barfs too. So basically my life is a little crazy right now but eventually I'll go back down to one job because my second part time job is only for a few weeks. I'm excited for this next week when I get to go back to Kamiakin to have lunch with the life skill students. I've missed them so much! and i'm excited for my sister to turn 16 on the 7th! She will be able to date and drive, two things she is absolutely excited for. I can't believe I'm turning 19 on the 20th! It feels so old for me...but I know it's not :)

HOME

I've been home for over a week now. I was super excited to be home and I'm really glad that I am but now that I'm home I have no flexibility or freedom whatsoever. It's going to be a long four months but I'm hoping to have a good time along the way. I got to see my new little cousin Giovanni this last weekend. He is adorable! I also got to hang out with a lot of extended family members and friends since I've been home which definitely makes me happy.
I also don't think I updated what happened with Rugby. So we fund raised super hard to get enough money for the plane tickets to Florida and then a week before the officials told our team that they forgot to change our playing time from Saturday-Sunday to Friday-Saturday. Since we are LDS, we don't play sports on Sunday. We had specifically told them to change our playing days so that we didnt have to play on Sunday and they said they would and then didnt. So even though we were supposed to be number one this year, we chose to forfeit the game on Sunday if we won Saturday's game. We won on Saturday and asked Penn State to play us under the lights that night but they of course said no. They were obviously too afraid of us :) By not playing on Sunday we couldn't even get to final four so now we are number five in the nation. But we have gotten tons and tons of publicity because of our choice. I'm really proud of my team.

It's a girl!!!

I have a new baby girl cousin!!! She was born this morning and weighs 6 lbs 15 oz. Her name name is Vivian Cassia Gunter and she is the smallest, cutest thing ever! Her mom got to the hospital just in time because she was born 20 minutes after arriving.

False Alarm

Lately I have been getting home around 2 am on Friday and Saturday but last night I randomly went to bed at 11:30. Turns out that it was a good thing that I did that. My Aunt Lacey is pregnant and I've been on call for the past few weeks. At around 2 am my phone started to vibrate underneath my pillow and after searching for it for a few seconds I accidentally hung up on the person. Turns out it was my Aunt Lacey. I started freaking out and tried calling her back but she wouldn't answer until the second time. She of course told me it was time. I packed my back pack as fast as I could with my church clothes, so that I could take her two little boys to church, and some other stuff. I was way out of it and I ended up running into this one girl from my floor when I was leaving the bathroom. When I got to her house I swear I couldn't sleep because I was so nervous for her. She was having closer contractions and was 5 cm dialated but when she got to the hospital and was put on the machine everything stopped. She ended up coming home and I went home around 8 am. It was a false alarm. I guess my little cousin wasn't ready to come out yet. Unless something random happens my Aunt is going to have her water broken at her doctor's appointment on Tuesday. I'm really excited to see my cousin before I leave to go home for the summer! I guess I will have to make sure to finish all my finals before Tuesday afternoon so that I can watch my cousins. My parents are getting here on Friday and I will be home on Saturday!!! I am so excited!

Nearing the end

Only 2 more days of school, 4 more finals, and 14 days to go until I get to go home for the summer!

I'm excited to go home to see my family and friends, but I'm not too excited about working all the time and packing up to get there. This past week has been pretty amazing. I was able to see Michelle Cannon, Nick Meng, and Jordan Taylor from back home last Friday night. I haven't seen them in forever! I also went to a relief society sleepover at my Bishop's house. It was really nice to get to know everyone better. Easter was really good as well. My mom sent me a package that I finally got to open except for the fact that I was like 4 hours late doing it since my roommate decided that I needed to join in her family tradition of hiding the "Easter basket." I was able to watch all four conference sessions and I went to dinner at my Aunt Sariah's house for Easter dinner with the Cicotte family members that are down here. On Monday I went to my first concert ever! It was a Muse concert at the East Center. It was pretty much amazing!


Last night (Friday), I went to watch a local band at Muse in down town Provo with my two aunts. We ended up eating dinner at Guru's at like 9 because we were starving. I thought that the waiter was cute so my aunt started to persuade me to ask him out right then and there but that is obviously not something I would do so we ended up leaving my number for him. I have no idea how I ended up doing that. Oh well. hahaha! Tonight I'm going to Kelly Orgill's birthday party!!! She is turning 19! Yay!!! I can't believe that I will be turning 19 this summer! I will be old and decrepit before I know it :)

Rugby

My Grandma Cicotte stopped in Provo for a few days before continuing on her trip to Kennewick to visit my family during their spring break. We were able to hang out a little on Wednesday night and have lunch together on Thursday. It was a good little visit but I really wanted to go to Kennewick with her! Only 3.5 weeks left!!!! YES!

My first rugby game to play in is tomorrow morning and I literally think I'm going to pee my pants. I'm super nervous. I don't feel like I know what I'm doing but it will definently be good experience for me. We haven't lost to UVU in 10 years so I feel like we will be ok with that part but I don't know if I will contribute anything to our win.

Weekend with the Family!!!

So my family came last weekend and it was AMAZING!!!

After fidgeting in my room for what seemed like FOREVER, my family finally arrived Friday evening around 6. I was soooo excited and everyone was hugging like crazy! When Lucy hugged me she was literally freaking out super bad! I thought she was going to cry because she was so excited to see me. Supposedly she had a hard time remembering me before she came thought. We ended up going to dinner at Sakura, since it is my Moms favorite, and it was pretty dang good. It was really funny when the chef came to cook our food in front of us. I sat across from the big hot place between Joe and Lucy, because they begged to, and when the chef lit the fire, our faces burned so bad! Joe was in a cranky mood because he had been driving all day in the car adn was starving so the chef tried extra hard to cheer him up. He had fake bottles with things that would shoot out like ketchup but only go so far. Joe would always jump. After dinner the family and I went up to Lacey and Jakes house (my moms brother) since that is where my mom, Lucy, and the two boys were going to stay for the weekend. My sisters and me went over to Sariahs house where they were going to stay and we watched Josie and the Pussycats which was totally a random movie. I went home around 12 but I was up bright and early for the next day.

While my two sisters were still getting ready, all of the rest of us went to get our haircuts and to run errands at Costco and Walmart. We had to go to Costco to order me a new pair of frames for my glasses because my other pair had snapped in two. I was extremely thankful to order the new pair because I was sure getting tired of just wearing contacts and having no glasses at night. All of my family plus all the extended family that lives in town on the Cicotte side went to lunch at Cafe Rio and all 10 of us squeezed into one table. It was a VERY tight fit. While my sisters and aunts went to see Alice in Wonderland at the theaters, my mom, the boys, Lucy, and me went to the Monte L. Bean Museum for the reptile show. My mom thought that the younger kids would enjoy that more than a movie. I was just hoping that I would get to hold a live snake. Lacey, Jake and their two little boys came too. It was pretty boring at first because the lady was like "name a reptile everyone..." but then she brought out a live turtle and then a lizard and then a SNAKE!!! At the end of the show we all were able to put the snake around our neck. I'm pretty sure I was the only kid over the age of 10.





After the reptile show, since the girls were still at the movie and we needed to kill some time, we went down to the creek near the museum and bell tower. It was fun to see the ducks chase after us thinking that we had bread and my mom got some adorable pictures of the kids.




After we went to the creek my siblings and I persuaded my mom to take us to the creamery on 9th which I absolutely love! The sparkle sherbet is amazing!!! After we waited in line forever and squeezed into a very small table and were enjoying our icecream and fries, my mom was like, "What is that nasty smell?!" I couldnt smell it but it was so funny because we were like body to body with the table next to us. All of us at our table denied that it was us and then my mom started cracking up and we all started cracking up and the whole place was probably looking at us but it was so good to laugh with the family again. My favorite times are when the whole family laughs together plus I love my moms hilarious laugh. I can't help but laugh when she does. We ended up blaming the people behind us as the culprits to the horrendous smell but once we left the creamery Joe admitted that he farted. Hahahaha!

We ended up hanging out at Lacey and Jake's place until my mom decided to take everyone ice skating. I hadnt been ice skating in forever! When we got to the ice skating rink, which my parents had taken me to when I was about 4 when we lived in Provo, we got our skates but apparently one of mine was bad. It was leaning really far in like it was broken but I didnt notice until I had gone around the rink one time and couldnt skate. I thought I was really bad until my mom gave me one of her good ones and I was able to skate normal. Don't worry, we traded the bad one in for a good one.


This is me when I had the bad skate on and was finishing my first round. I felt really stupid. Hahaha! Thanks goodness for my mom and her generosity.



Joe was adorable with his little "walker." He was actually pretty good and of course adorable as ever. The kids had a lot of fun skating. Jake and little Samuel ended up coming too and Sam just loved it even though Jake got tired of it pretty quickly.



Sariah was so great taking Lucy out on the skating rink. When we were first getting on the rink, I was ahead of Sariah and Lucy. All of the sudden I hear Sariah say, "Lucy! That's not Taylor!" I turn around and see another red head girl holding the hand of her boyfriend. She had red hair but we did not have the same body build and I definitely don't have a boyfriend. I just rolled my eyes and laughed and went skating. About 20 minutes later Sariah tells the whole story to my mom, Maddy, and me. So a little background information: I taught my family how to do a concho over Thanksgiving Break when I was at home. Basically you stick your finger up someones butt hole. It's pretty funny but I guess Lucy went up to the girl with "red hair" and stuck her finger up the girls butt. When the girl turned around, Lucy had the most terrified face when she found out that it wasn't me. I laughed so hard when I heard the story. That is totally what my family would do :) Ice skating surprisingly makes a person pretty hungry so we ordered pizza and went over to Sariah's house to eat it. I ate 5 whole pieces! I felt like the old high school version of me was back! Everyone ended up going to bed pretty early because my mom wanted us to all attend Lacey and Jake's church at 9am.

My mom ended up picking me up at 8:20 which was really hard because I'm used to church at 10:30 and waking up at 9 am. I'm really glad that I went though because I got to spend more time with my family and it was nice going to a ward with a nursery and old people. After church we chilled at Jake's house and ate some lunch and then for dinner we went over to Sariah's place to have dinner with the Cicotte Clan. Sariah made a famous recipe that the kids loved from when she stayed with us for a summer about 9 years ago. She was super nice and made mine without chicken. Our aunt Michelle had come in from Alaska for a wedding and was supposed to visit us but unfortunately wasnt feeling too well so we she didnt make it. During dinner Lucy threw the biggest fit because she had just woken up and was very cranky. I wanted my mom to have some time with the the aunts and uncles so I took her outside screaming and kicking. We ended up having some good quality sister-sister time even though it took awhile to calm her down. In the evening we played apples to apples and then I brought my mom and the boys to my dorms. Boys can only come up to my room during visiting hours and those are from 7-9 on Sundays and Wednesdays. They were really excited to see it because only the girls had been able to previously. After the night was done and everyone was going home to bed it was sad to think that they were going to leave the next morning.

I woke up super early to say goodbye and hug everyone. It was really fun having them visit for a weekend but it was hard to let them leave too. I'm just so glad they decided to come down because I didn't want to end up not seeing my family for 4 whole months! It was a good visit and if I'm lucky, maybe I will get another random visit :) I'm very excited for the summer when I get to be back in Kennewick and have a lot more fun with the family!

I just can't stop smiling

GUESS WHAT?! MY MOM AND SIBLINGS ARE COMING TO VISIT ME!!!!! I am soooo exicted and I just can't stop smiling. They will be arriving tomorrow night. I never thought that they would come and visit me before the end of the school year but here they come!!! Make way for the Cicotte Clan!!!

Grandparents

My Grandparents came to visit last Saturday and stayed for four days! I had been waiting for their visit for months! I've been wanting my family to come and visit me since I will officially be gone from home the longest time ever (4 months). Most likely they will never visit until they pick me up on the last day of finals so having my grandparents, which are basically like second parents to me, totally made my week! They stayed with my Uncle, Aunt, and their two little boys. They are the only other family my Grandparents have here in Provo besides me. My Grandparents were going to Savannah, Georgia to see my other cousins perform in an all-state choir concert. Provo was just a pit stop for a few days to catch up on other family members. My Gramps and I never got to play a game of ping-pong so I guess we will have to do that when I go home in April. My Grandma and I got to go shopping and play a TON of Quiddler. I thought I was pretty good when I beat her the first time we played, but then she pretty much dominated every other time. We all got to spend some good quality time together. I'm so glad that I have tons and tons of family here in Provo from both sides and I love it when family comes to visit!!!

Today=

no homework done,

me barfing,

and my best friend not getting into BYU Provo :(

Valentine's Day

TODAY IS VALENTINES DAY!!!!

Happy V-Day everyone!!! I've always considered Valentines Day my favorite holiday and to this day, I still do not know why. I was so excited to get a package this week from my family! They kept me included in the family traditions. My Dad always gives all the kids a little box of Russell Stover chocolates and my mom usually gives the kids valentineish socks and a box of little hearts. I got some cute letters from everyone too and my mom also sent me new contacts. Thanks mom!!!
Earlier this week Alina (my roommate) and I got attacked by the secret valentine cupid and got lots of chocolate. Yay!!! Last night I babysat for my cousins Sam (4) and Jer (1.5) while my aunt and uncle went out to an alumni dinner/dance for valentines day. The boys drew pictures on a card for me and gave me a box of truffles. Their pictures were so adorable! Later tonight I get to go to Ada and Logan's house for dinner with all the Cicotte Clan that live out here. I haven't see them for awhile so I'm pretty excited.
The Women's Rugby Team was in Vegas all weekend (none of the new girls went) and I'm excited to hear how they did in their 7's tournament. No practice on Monday because it's a holiday but I will probably still work out so that I don't get out of shape (because I basically already am...)

My First Blog Experience

I'm a little lazy so I was really apprehensive about starting my own blog but I finally did it!!! I hope to actually be able to keep on top of this so that I can keep in touch with family and friends that I don't see as often now that I am at College. I wasn't sure what to put as my blog name but A Little Ray of Sunshine seemed to fit. Sunshine has been a nickname of mine and I also got inspiration from the song "A Little Ray of Sunshine" by the band Axiom. To watch the song go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9QH9bceSZ8