Fresh New Starts

 Look at my beautiful niece! My sister had her first child and the first baby on my side of the family. I have nieces and a nephew on my husbands side but this is much different. I am so glad to have a niece. She is beautiful. My sister let me be there for the birth and it was so spiritual feeling. Seeing her for the first time was so special and seeing Tessa and Jon was just...words beyond I can say. I wanted to cry. I was about to have tears roll down my face. haha. If I am crying and its not my child I am definitely going to be crying with my children. They named her Jocelyn Johanna Brimhall. Johanna is after my great-grandma. I remember my great-grandma and its special to have that name in the family still.  These are a few pictures that I took. Tori was doing a photo shoot of Jocelyn for the longest time and I got into the action sometimes. 

The first time I got to hold Jocelyn. She was just minutes old. I have always wanted to hold a brand brand new baby. They are so soft its crazy. The first time there Jon stayed but the next night he decided to go to his brothers house and sleep. I chose to stay with Tessa and Jocelyn. It was so fun to stay and just get to hold Jocelyn pretty much all night. You can't help but wonder where they came from and what they are thinking of. :) 

Tessa and I took shifts. I would stay awake with Jocelyn and then when she needed to be fed I would wake Tessa. Tessa would feed her and I would sleep. Then Tessa would wake me up and I would take her. We decided to stay up with Jocelyn because she was spitting up amniotic fluid and would choke on it. We wanted to make sure she would not choke on it. Let me tell you. By the time the end of the next day came I was beat. I am going to have a hard time with my kids. I think everyone has to go through a major adjustment. It didn't make me want a child any less though. I can't wait to have one of my own!

I was going crazy being at the hospital that long. I felt way bad for Tessa because she was there the WHOLE time of course. I can't imagine what that felt like. I was itching to get out and I was not there nearly as much. One of the times we got out I saw a McDonalds. I know. Why is it so cool to see a McDonalds? Scroll down and you will see.

A dinosaur! It was standing right next to McDonalds. Still not that cool? I know. It has major memories for me though. Despite it being totally random to have dinosaurs next to McDonalds, when I was younger I had a dream that involved T-rex and McDonalds.  I had a dream that a T-Rex was chasing me. He was wanting to eat me! So I ran into my favorite McDonalds because this place had the ball pool that was so awesome. I jumped into the pool and then the T-Rex saw me. So I climbed up the jungle gym and the T-Rex saw me still and chomped down on the place I was at. I woke up before I knew if I died. I was so super freaked out. So that is why I thought it was weird to have this McDonalds to have a T-Rex next to it. 

Talk about quite the dream to have a child huh? As a result of that dream I can't watch any show with dinosaurs with out being scared. It does not really matter how cheesy it is like Land Before Time I still get freaked out. Jurassic Park...don't get me started. haha. My brother got me the whole set of movies for Christmas one time as a joke. It was funny but I don't know if I will ever watch all of them. 

Here are a few things I have made for dinner. 

I make Green Stuffed Peppers often but wanted to post this picture because I tried to make it look decorative with the corn. haha. 

 This is Eggplant Parmesan  with Sausage. It was tasty. I thought I would HATE it. I have never tasted eggplant before. It was actually quite good. It was weird because it feels soft on the outside but it is really hard on the inside. I will make it again every now and then. It does not look good but it was. :)

 This is Skillet Mexican Zucchini. It was way way super super good. I was nervous to try it because it has Feta Cheese and I didn't know if I would like it but I do! If you want a surprise in every  bite this is the meal. There were so many flavors popping out in my mouth every bite I was saying, "Oh, this is good!"

Cody and I went camping by ourselves. We thought it would be an adventure to do it ourselves. When we got there I took pictures. It was so beautiful so see the pretty yellow and purple flowers everywhere.

 These ...flowers? look like they should be in the ocean or something. 

 Here is Cody in the tent. The first picture is funny to me because he is holding toilet paper. When I was younger and went to Lake Powell for 4-5 days my parents had what was called the bathroom tent where the port a potty was stationed. So it kind of looked like Cody was in the bathroom tent. haha. I took another picture with out the toilet paper in the picture. 

 If you look really closely you can see a deer. There was a momma deer, baby deer, and a daddy deer. I think just the mom is in this picture. 

 There's us. :) 

 There was such a beautiful sunset that night. Behind us it looked like the woods were on fire. It was such a gorgeous night. 

 I was so worried that this fire wouldn't start. One of the first things Cody and I did was collect wood and break it in half. After the last piece was broken 10 min later it started to sprinkle and then rained a bit harder. We took refuge in the tent and played skip-bo for a little bit. The rain stopped after about an hour. If got so chilly after that. It was time to start the fire. It seriously took a long time to start it. The wood we broke was now wet from the rain. We tried for 30 min to start the fire. Eventually it took after we gave it one last shot. If it didn't go we probably would have left.

 We had fun talking, relaxing, eating hot dogs, and eating for the first time ever roasted star bursts. To be honest, I am not a fan of roasting star bursts. I much rather roast marshmallows. I like the pictures I took of the fire. 

After my friends wedding reception was over Cody and I went to the Mount Timpanogos temple and took pictures. The flowers were so beautiful there. They have so many varieties with their flowers. 

The next week after the Arizona Trip I stated school. I go to school at MATC in Lehi, UT. I am taking the Pharmacy Tech program there. I absolutely love it! I am the 2nd oldest in the class but that's cool right? haha. I will be done in december with class and get to start my internship. I will hopefully be working as a Pharmacy Tech in march. Its a really short program which I like. I finally have settled on something for school!

I also started work at WinCo in Orem. I like it alot. There was a down in the dump kind of day (that made me cry) one day but mostly there are positive kind of days at that store. It was hard to start school and work at the same time. All of a sudden I was super busy and the house work went down the drain and I don't get to try new dinners as often. Its okay though. I will get back to it when I can get a job as a pharmacy tech in the morning hours. Some others news is that I am happy with the line up for Americas Got Talent for the most part. Don't really like Jimmy Rose but the others I like and Dancing with the Stars is starting up. My husband and I don't have internet or TV so we go to his brothers house sometimes and catch up on shows we like to watch. Since we don't have internet or TV we watch a lot of movies. Sometimes the library has really good ones. Sometimes interesting ones. haha. 

So that is my life as of now. School, work, husband, movies, and MUSIC!

I almost forgot. I love to make arrangements of church songs. I have made a Praise to the Man and now have done If You Could Hie To Kolob. I have just completely finished If you could Hie with cello part added to it. It is beautiful. Maybe I can add it to the blog. Let me see...Nope I can't. Maybe I can figure out a way later. :)