2010 Recap!

Can you believe it? In less than 10 minutes it will be January 1, 2011! Wow. This year has flown by. And even though I know it's 2011, I'll be writing 2010 on all my school work/letters/anything that needs to be dated, just because I'm awesome like that. No, seriously, it's because my brain finally got used to writing 2010, instead of 2009, about a month ago. lol :D  Don't worry, I'm consistent... it happens every year. ^_^

So after reading one of my blogger buddies' recap posts of 2010 (Katie @ Hello Highlights) I have decided to do my own. :)

--January--

In January, daddy was in the hospital for quite some time.

It also snowed about 6 inches in January! :)
{this is a picture that was taken when it first started snowing, before we got 6 inches}

--February--

In February, daddy was still in the Hospital, but he came home and my sisters and I decorated the house, and gave him a small "welcome home party". ^_^ 

--March--

In March (on the 7th to be exact) I celebrated my blog's 1st anniversary! :)

--April--

In April my aunt, uncle and cousin Nate came to visit for a week! We had tons of fun! :)

 I also met someone very near and dear to my heart: my friend Taylor @ Excelsior! It was our first time to meet (we were/are email pals) and our families went to Six Flags together! We had so much fun! 

 --March--

In March I really got into photography.

Exhibit A:

 --June--

We celebrated my wonderful, spectacular mom's 41st birthday. ^_^

 --July--

My dad was back in the hospital (he was in the hospital in June as well, but I don't have any pictures from that) and he got his Biopsy, which lead to his diagnosis: MS.

We also celebrated the 4th of July and Esara's 13th birthday! :)

--August--

We celebrated my dad's 40th birthday in August.

 It was also my 16th birthday on the 30th of August! :D

--September--

We didn't do much in September, but we did celebrate my 16th birthday with a few of my friends. :)

 --October--

In October I started my babysitting job. 

--November--

Of course in November there was Thanksgiving. :)

--December--

We celebrated Christmas! (left to right: Narthea, me, Esara & Caldirwen)

We also celebrated Caldirwen's 12th birthday, which I don't have any pictures of on this computer, sadly.

And last but most certainly not least, Narthea celebrated her 18th birthday today!!! She got her drivers license this morning with mom. She got a whoppin' 94% on her driving test! Go Narthea!!

(this is a picture of my brownie sundae I made. Narthea has always done brownie sundaes on her birthdays. It's kinda like a tradition ^_^)

Thank you God for the year of 2010! We praise you for the ups, and we praise you for the downs. :)

And thank you for 2011!

Surprised?

Yes, it's me, Eldarwen. You know, the girl you've probably forgotten about, because she hasn't posted in nearly a month? lol

That's right, I've decided to come back. That doesn't mean I'm gonna post so much that I resemble a mad woman when she sees a "50% off" sign in the window of her favorite store...

{not my photo}

...but I figured it was time to let you all in on the happenings of the past few weeks. :)

Where to begin? Well, I guess I should start off with the subject that has basically taken over my life lately: babysitting. (Wow, bet you didn't see that one comin'.) Yes, I am still working three days a week, four hours a day. The last few times have been rough, because Munchkin has [apparently] hit the terrible twos... early. I wonder what he'll be like when he's actually two? *cringe* I have a few battle scars, as I call them. He has started biting and slapping me which, of course, I do not allow, but he isn't my kid so it's not like I can pull him aside and swat him. I usually firmly say, "NO!", but that doesn't really work. So, if you ever think about it, please keep Munchkin and me in your prayers. :)

Let's see, what other news do I have for you? Well, our Church did the yearly Christmas Drama we do in December. I played the [proud] roll of an apostle. Yes, to put it bluntly, I played a man, but my face was hardly ever seen, so I'm still able to walk into our Church with some dignity. :P

My friend Taylor @ Excelsior came to visit me last weekend! We had tons of fun and made some great memories! We went to see Tangled (review coming soon), which was the cutest Disney princess movie ever! Seriously, folks, this movie is the-little-puppy-you-saw-on-the-street-and-wanted-to-take-home cute! Probably cuter. (I have a crush on Flynn Rider. ^_^ ...But you didn't hear that from me.)

{not my photo}

Update on my dad: he's doing really well right now! He had his first treatment of Tysabri at the end of last month (November). He'll get an infusion every four weeks, so he's due for another one sometime soon. :) He's done good on it so far, though he's only had one treatment so it's not like we can really say this treatment is working for him, but we could definitely tell a difference in his speech and other functions as soon as he got the infusion. It makes him really tired for the first day or two, but after that he does pretty good. :) Praise God!

Christmas time is here! I can hardly believe it. Where did the time go? It didn't seem like I took a month long break. Hmm. I guess time flies when you're having fun. And I have had fun! I've enjoyed just sitting down and putting together a puzzle, or reading, or watching a movie. I've loved having more free time, even though I've been busier than I anticipated. :) This afternoon we had some friends from our former Church (which is about 2 hours away) come and visit. We had a great time! It's such a blessing to fellowship with some of our close friends, and Church family. I thank God for them all!

My sisters and I received some early Christmas money from some friends of ours and we decided to spend some of it on going to the movies to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (review coming soon), then spending the rest on a gift for one of our sisters (we drew names out of a bowl:). I didn't like this movie anywhere near as much as the first one of the series, or the second. The first is my favorite, and if you thought the second one was cheesy, wait 'til you see the third. lol :D

{not my photo}

Over all I have enjoyed my blogging break! Though I did miss you tons!! I missed reading your blogs, even though before my break I wasn't doing so well at commenting *guilty blush*, and I can't say that's going to be any different. I do read your posts, though, and I will try my best to work on my commenting skills. ;) 

Tomorrow is Caldirwen's 12th birthday, so since I will have yet another SUPER busy day tomorrow (Church, a friend's graduation, then Caldirwen's birthday party) I will do my birthday post for her now. :)

Dear Caldirwen,

Twelve?! Who gave you permission to grow up? Certainly not me. I cannot believe you are going to be 12 years old! Was it not yesterday that you were this knee high, chubby faced, 4 year old who used to ride on my back across parkinglots?

Caldirwen, you are such a sweetie. Yeah, you have your unsweet moments, but you can also be such a selfless, giving, percious little girl. But you're not a little girl anymore. You're going to be 12!! A tween (are you sure?!)! I just wanna keep you little forever!  

My little Caldirwen is growing up....

...but it doesn't matter how old you get. You'll always be my baby sister! :) Thank you God for Caldirwen! I love you, sissy!

Party

{First off, if you haven't read about my birthday, click HERE and HERE otherwise you might get lost reading this post} :)

I haven't posted in two days. Though you might not believe me, I had a very good reason. I was finally able to have my friends over for a party! Yippee! I shall refer to them as my nick names for 'em, Bubbles and Cici. :) I didn't take a lot of pictures at the party that I could show you, but I cropped some for ya, so forgive the blurriness in some of 'em. :)

After we picked up Bubbles and Cici yesterday, we took them to Chili's (my second fav restaurant. Olive Garden being my fav) for lunch. When we got to my house we baked the party cake. We used a recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box. I've made it a dozen times and it's everyone's favorite! I mean, you can't go wrong with chocolate. :)

Left to right:

{Me, Bubbles and Cici} 

{Me and Cici}

{Moi}

They thought I should pose with the finished product. :)

I'm sure this cake has seen some better days, but hey, we had fun. And why does it matter what it looks like, as long as it tastes good?

Presents! :)

Swimming in the dark! *cue scary music*

{Bubbles, me and Cici}

Crafts! These are pics of mine:

{Love this shot!}

They spent the night and we had tons of fun!! I can't wait to have them over again. Bubbles and Cici are so much fun! Love you girls. :)

My Birthday Gifts

Just in case some of you didn't know, my 16th birthday was Monday, Aug. 30th. In my last post I showed you pictures from my day, now I'm going to show you what was under all that pretty wrapping! :D

Previously...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are the gifts from my parents and sisters. :)

Isn't this purse gorgeous?

{Eep!! I love plaid!!}

Shirts and a cardigan.

I know, this looks like a mini dress, but seriously, it's a shirt. For some reason in the picture it looks longer than it really is.

More shirts! :D

Eldarwen like! {And yes, that's the same shirt I was wearing on my birthday. I opened it ahead of time:)}

More shoes!! :D

Accessories! Love 'em! :D

Thank you so much, Momma, Daddy, Narthea, Esara and Caldirwen!! I love you so much! *big hugs*

My Nana and Papa got me $40! {Which I failed to get a picture of.} Thank you! :D

Yesterday my Me-ma took me to the mall to buy me something from her and Pa-pa that would keep for a long time. I picked out this necklace.

We visited [seriously] like 10 jewelry stores. As soon as I saw this necklace I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. :)

Me-ma also took me to lunch at El Chico's, one of my favorite restaurants!! :D She "accidentally" told the waitress that we were there celebrating my birthday and you'll never guess what happened....

All of a sudden we hear this loud clapping and we're both looking around thinking, "Oh, someone's having a birthday". Then it hit me like a thousand bricks. O_O "It's me," I thought. Er, rather panicked. 

I was seriously so embarrassed I thought I was going to pass out. A dude asked for my name and age then screamed it to the whole restaurant while I'm sitting there covering my face and giving my Me-ma a look of "Why?!" lol :D They then proceed to clap even louder and sing "happy birthday". Oh wow. I seriously think I'm scarred for life. >_< Me-ma and I laughed and laughed afterwards. Thanks for the gift Me-ma and Pa-pa! :)

All-in-all I had a wonderful birthday and I'm so happy with the gifts I got! Thank you everyone for all the beautiful birthday comments you gave me! They meant a lot. :)  And I have a few friends on here who sent me a birthday gift. I won't name anyone, but I just wanted to say thank you and I love you! :)

My Birthday

I had a wonderful sixteenth birthday yesterday. My dad had some doctors appointments in the morning/early afternoon, and mom has to drive him, so it was just me and my sisters from about 7am to 3pm. We had a job to do, though. Quite a big job, too. We had to clean the house. :O  I know. We vacuumed, swept, mopped, wiped counter tops, cleaned the bathrooms, dusted, washed dishes and did laundry. Haha, yes, we were busy bees until momma and dad got home. :) At 6pm that evening my Nana & Papa, Me-ma & Pa-pa came over for dinner. Mmm, mmm. So, here are some pictures I (or sometimes Narthea) took of my birthday. :)

Yesterday morning Caldirwen and I made breakfast.

Bacon!

Pancakes!

They smelt so good....

The finished products.

After breakfast Narthea was finally awake (okay, it was only 9am) and we all got right to work. Narthea was still not feeling well (she has had strep throat for the last week or so), but she's on antibiotics, so they're helping her feel a smidge better (that and Advil). She was able to help out. I was perfectly fine with cleaning. I actually enjoyed myself. :) Which is weird, because I normally hate cleaning. o.O  That's the effect birthdays have on you, I guess. ;)

For lunch we had Chicken Salad.

{this is not the finished product}

I never got a picture of the finished product, but we put 8 boiled eggs and 3 celery stalks (chopped up) in our chicken salad, along with (of course) the canned chicken and a few spoon fulls of Mayo. Mmm!! My favorite quick-fix!

Later that afternoon, after my parents got home, I got to work on my birthday cake. I insisted on making it this year. This was my first time to make Red Devil's Food Cake (my absolute fav!), and making the icing is really difficult, so I opted to wait for Momma and dad to get home, and mom volunteered to help out. :)

Me making the cake.

By the way, the apron I'm wearing, I made it the other day!! :D

This is the cake batter.

While the cake was cooking Narthea set up the morning room table with my gifts and our dry erase board with "Happy 16th Birthday" written on it.

{do you see my converse-look-alikes? Eep!}

"Happy 16th Birthday!!" Aaaaah! I still can't believe it! :)

....okay, I can now, but it just feels so unreal! I've been anticipating this since.... I turned 15 last year! lol :D

These are the gifts from my parents.

Ah, ze cake is cooling and waiting for ze icing.

The reason the icing is so hard to make, is because you have to stand over it while it's on the burner, stirring it constantly, for about 40 minutes. I know. My hand was cramping so bad. See why I took Momma up on her offer to help? :)

After the icing is done on the stove, you stick it in the sink in cold water with ice in it, while blending it with an electric mixer.

Now ze cake is done waiting. :P

Boy, oh boy, I couldn't wait to eat this cake!!

{see how messy I was being? That was my evil plan so I could "clean" it all up. *wink*wink* rofl :D}

When my grandparents got to our house around six o' clock in the evening, everyone gathered around the island in the kitchen to pray and then we dug in! We ate steak (thanks Papa!), baked beans (thanks Nana!), corn on the cob (thanks Me-ma!), rolls (thanks Momma!) and potato salad (thanks Narthea!). Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Word from the wise [Eldarwen]: When putting candles on your cake, try to remember your age. :P

{and yes, I seriously did not switch the '6' and '1' on purpose. It was a total accident. We laughed and laughed!}

Lit candles!

Mmm. Red Devil's Food Cake with Blue Bell's Homemade Vanilla ice-cream? It just can't get any better than that....

....oh wait.... yes it can! Presents!

And that is where I leave you until my next post. :)

Oh yes, I love dragging these things out. ;P