New 'do'

I finally found myself a hair stylist here in NC! Yay! It had been WAY too long since I'd had it cut. I went in for just a cut, but Angie (the stylist) talked me into some color too...
Whadaya all think? Not much different, I know. She put a few more layers in and blended the old bangs a bit... I think she did a pretty good job, I'll go and see her again (hopefully sooner than the last wait). Thanks, Kim for taking the photo :)

Better late than never?

Well, I finally got around to fixing up the Christmas photos (over a month late...). Here are some of our Utah vacation highlights...

The view from 'The Roof' at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

The fam...




Maybe Chris ate too much?
Presley enjoying the smorgasboard.
Linc's first experience at The Roof
What's a Simons eating experience at The Roof without the great tower of chocolate mousse glasses?

Me and Matt at Temple Square

Christmas Morning...
Eric's yummy pull apart bread
Mmmm... New Year's breakfast, a Simons tradition (usually served on New Year's Day, but oh well...close enough).
It snowed about 4-5 feet on Christmas day. My Dad did this several times during that day just to make sure we would all be able to get out of the driveway. What a trooper!

There were tons more photos, but those were a few of my favorites!

Sorta-cousins

While Tara was here we made a visit to Kristin's house so that Will and Audrey could meet Stella. We decided that they are 'sorta-cousins', even though they aren't actually related, they can pretend to be cousins... Will just ignored everybody and pretended that nobody was there (his usual treatment of me...), but Stella loved little Audrey! She kept touching her and staring at her, so cute. Here's some cute shots of them...


I love the jelly smear on Will's cheek... Maybe someday he'll open up to me... I really am a cool aunt.

great product!

This is a great product (especially if you are lazy like me and only want to blow dry and 'do' your hair once every 2-3 days...). They call it a 'shampoo', but it's an aerosol powder that you spray on your day-old do and it absorbs the oils and your hair becomes light and voluminous like it was the day you actually took the time to style your hair. I give it 2 thumbs up! (I purchased it at Sephora after reading about it in Real Simple mag (thanks mom)).

the same but different

Like our names, our outfits on New Year's Day were 'the same but different'...

Krista+Kristin
p.s. no, we did not plan this...

All Good

Finally! The posts on my photography blog are up to date. Yay!

New Look

I just made my first ever blog background! It's on my daily pic blog. Check it out and let me know what you think. If you want, I can design one for you!

Resolution...

Yes, that is singular, just one. There are many, many goals and other things I'd like to accomplish (like keeping my house a little cleaner, lose a little weight, have a better attitude...) but the only "New Year's" resolution I've made is to use my "big camera" more. I use it a ton professionally, but I mean use it more personally (snapshot-y). The photos just turn out better when you are in control of everything. There have been so many times I was not able to get the picture I wanted because I was using my little point and shoot (which, I do love and think is great and will not stop carrying it around...). This means I'll be toting the big boy around a lot more. So, don't get scared or shy away or freak out if I put it in your hands because I would like a picture of myself, this really is a good thing. To help me make sure this is happening I started another blog (holy crap! yes, I know am the author or 3 blogs... this is getting out of hand). It's over there on the side by my website link, it's called Krista's daily pic. So, enjoy and keep me on my toes.
p.s. yes, I did use the little guy to take a picture of the big guy... hmm...

Let it snow!

While in UT for Christmas I was able to go snowboarding with my Dad, my brother (Brad) and his wife (Amber). It was an interesting experience since it had been about 3 years since I had slid down a snowy hill with a board attached to my feet. Surprisingly it all came back pretty quickly. I'm not professional on a snowboard (I am much more proficient on a pair of skis), but I'm pretty proud at the lack of damage I caused myself that day :)

Me and Dad in the parking lot getting ready...
All together on the chairlift...
(Krista, Bob, Brad, Amber)
Look at Amber go!
Me...

Christmas Cake

This cake was an experiment in taste. I made the 'cake' part from scratch (well the whole thing is from scratch, but I usually just use a boxed cake mix...). The cake was tasty, but the high altitude caused a bit of trouble for me... The icing was another experiment, swiss meringue buttercream. YUMMY! I'm not the hugest frosting person (I just like the cake with just a touch of icing...), but this stuff is amazing! It is the smoothest, silkiest icing. I got the recipe from a you tube video it's definitely a keeper! To top it all off I made chocolate ganache to drizzle over the whole thing. It might not be the prettiest cake I've made, but I think it just might be the best tasting one :)

Puzzling

I couldn't figure it out, but Matt did...

New Year

A Southern tradition...

One should eat black-eyed peas on the first day of the new year to bring luck and wealth throughout the year.