April 30-Abby Normal

My mother and I went to Young Frankenstein the Musical at Capitol Theater. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. :)

April 29-DaViS

Firstly, Happy Birthday to Aaron! I hung out with my much missed Davis family today, yes MY family. ;) I kid I kid. Anyway, Andrew and I played the piano (which is my favorite thing to do with him), then I just hung out with that awesome family all evening :D It was great! ...And there was yummy pizza. I hate pizza, so that's pretty impressive. I blame Sister Davis' homemade dough!

Birthday Boy.

April 28-Hunting, Shooting, Dinner

I was hoping that my title would fool you into thinking that I hunted deer, shot deer, ate deer...or elk, moose, even...birds..ya know, whatever. But I didn't! Gotcha! Right? Right? I fooled you, right? Anyway, hunting was job hunting with Dan. SOO that was fun! The shooting was me playing Call of Duty, that was embarrassing. And dinner was Emily kindly taking me out to Pizza Cafe. How sweet, right? :)

April 27-Sleepy the Dwarf

Tired face. Notice the official sleep stamp.

I'm sleepy and I have been ALL day.

April 26-PuRpLe

HOURS I spent on that salon chair! And then...my mom fixed it.

April 25-Jenna :)

Jenna got her braces off today! She's lookin' sezzzzy, if you know what I mean! I enjoyed our hour or two of taking random pictures in my room. I'm going to miss that girl. She's a great friend and full of FUN and PARTYING when I need it. :) She taught me to dance, took me clubbing for the first time, broke into hot tubs with me, hiked mountains with me, drove whenever I didn't want to, gave me fashion advice (sometimes), gave me CUTE stuff, made me a cake, laughed whenever I made stupid jokes...which is all the time; she's a person to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, and a sweetheart. I love her.

April 24-Easter Part 2

Easter is a special holiday. And to celebrate that, I would like to share of story of my friend, Ellie. This was written by her mother, and it's really something special.

On November 7, 1994, our healthy, dark-haired little Ellie Jane was born. My husband, Steve, had just graduated from college and begun his career, and we had purchased our first home. I considered myself a very blessed person and thought I knew genuine happiness and joy. However, not having been through any serious trials, I had never truly felt the need to rely on the Lord and seek His help and guidance. That was about to change.

Five weeks later, on a cold December morning when I had just finished feeding Ellie, her little body began to shake in a very odd way, and afterwards she cried. Hoping it was just a cold chill, I tried not to be overly concerned. During the day, however, her body shook again. I telephoned my husband and told him I was worried. That evening we found ourselves at Primary Children’s Medical Center, where Ellie underwent numerous tests. We were told that our baby had had a seizure, but the doctors did not know why. All of her tests came back normal. We returned to our home unaware of our future.

The medications our daughter took the first year of her life did not control her seizures completely, but Ellie continued to develop normally. She had a beautiful smile, and her big brown eyes would light up when we would talk to her. Her older brother, Zac, loved to play peekaboo with her.

On Ellie’s first birthday we had a wonderful party with balloons, ice cream, and cake. We took a great picture of Ellie with her hand in her ice cream and making a funny face. It was the last time we were able to take a picture of her smiling and looking at the camera. Within two weeks, our beautiful daughter began to lose her mental and physical abilities. Her seizures became more frequent and more severe.

An electroencephalogram (EEG) test on her brain revealed that she had developed hypsarrhythmia, an irregular brain wave pattern. She was diagnosed as having infantile spasms—a hard-to-control seizure disorder that leads to severe retardation. We were devastated. My husband and I were so heartbroken that at times it was too painful to even look at our daughter. She no longer smiled, called out to me, or even moved or made sounds. We grieved over the loss of our child. Zac wondered why his little sister wouldn’t laugh at him anymore. The light in her eyes was gone.

Tearful days turned into months, and months turned into years. We searched every possible avenue for an answer. We traveled to four different states for tests. We sought help from many doctors in various fields of practice. We put her small body through daily shots and strong medication, but nothing helped her. We tried to accept the fact that her daily seizures would never go away, but we so desperately wanted Ellie to be “normal” again.

I quit praying for answers because I felt I wasn’t getting any. I disliked reading stories about miraculous healings because I felt my daughter was being cheated. My husband suggested that I might be praying for the wrong thing. Instead of praying for medical answers for Ellie, maybe I needed to start praying for help in dealing with the situation. I tried to follow his advice. His words brought me comfort, but I still felt that I wasn’t doing enough for Ellie.

Four years later, my husband and I attended ward temple night. Ellie was again on my mind, and I was praying for comfort and medical answers. It was a very busy night, and we waited in the chapel a little longer than usual. As I was gazing around to see which neighbors or friends were joining us for a temple session, a gentleman caught my attention. At the time, I saw only the back of his head, but his dark, curly hair stood out. I noticed that he did not have a left arm. “How amazing that he is here with the limitations that he has,” I thought. A few minutes later, I realized that his other arm was mechanical.

A powerful feeling came over me at that moment. This man probably had a tremendous amount of faith, but no matter how many prayers he uttered, no matter how many priesthood blessings he received, no matter what doctor he went to, his arms would never grow back. Either this was the way he was born, or something had happened that caused him to lose his arms. But his arms were gone and not coming back. It was then that I received a very personal revelation.

My daughter, Ellie, was as she was for a reason. No matter how often I prayed or how much faith I exerted, she would still have her disability. Yet the Lord loved her. The Lord loved me. I reflected on the past four and a half years and realized the Lord had answered my prayers by bringing me comfort and peace.

I am so grateful to the wonderful stranger in the temple for the peace his example of faithfulness helped bring into my life. I don’t know his name, but through him my prayers were answered.

April 24- Easter Part 1

Happy Birthday Holly!! Thanks Easter Bunny for the basket :)

Me and my bro 4-wheeling :)

April 23-Ke$ha, Gaga, Britney and BIEBER

Shopping shopping shopping. I forced Stephanie, Abby, and Jessica to listen to MY music all day. Score! We eventually grabbed Janessa and our finished the night with ice cream provided by the lovely RA Andrew. 

April 22-We So So Excited

Kara, Jenna, Jessica, and I totally rocked out the night at Studio :) Then, after our failed attempts to break into a hot tub, watched Easy A..I LOVE.

April 21-The COLD Hot Springs

I couldn't get a good picture. It was too dark..so I stole one ;)

Jenna, Kara, Will, my new found friend Skyler, and I hiked to the hot springs in Spanish Fork...at 2 in the morning. Firstly, we were pulled over because there was some mad chase for a white car...like mine. :( Secondly, 3 miles we hiked in the SNOW. With the disgusting smell of sulfur squeezing into our brains through our unprotected nostrils. We finally arrived to the hot springs and they were cold. COLD. What the heck!? So then, we hiked back in the mud and nast. Lastly, I had to say goodbye to Will for two years. I'm gonna miss that kid.

Besides all this, it was an amazing night. 

April 20-The Prettiest Flowers

3 hours and 500 pictures later, and I think Mama and I finally found the winning photo! Can't wait to submit it and get a free membership to Thanksgiving Point! Whooooo!

April 19-The BEST Interview

So I had a job interview today for a Dog-walking company. It was a little different,because the interview consisted of a walking a dog...kinda. But, I'm super great at all interviews. In fact, I looked up 5 steps to a perfect job interview and thought I'd show you exactly why I did SO great!

1. Be Early. I was early...in a cosmic sense. You see, I got super lost...and my car died, but part of the job is driving around finding places with a reliable form of transportation...so I just arrived rather flustered..rather late without explaining myself. I mean early! Because if you think about it the phrase is "Time flies when you're having fun" but I certainly wasn't having fun, so time would stand still. I stopped having fun about ten minutes before my actual interview, and thus I was actually ten minutes early.
2. Greet your interviewer by name. Well I did..but I greeted his dog first. Is that bad? It was SO cute! Come to think of it...so was he..anyway, I eventually said..."hi" I think.
3. Look up. Well I complimented his shoes, not because I was looking at the ground, that's bad, but because I was looking at his feet. AND he really did have cool shoes.
4. Thank the interviewer when you leave. I shook his hands...but my last words were, "bye, Pig". That's kind of like "thank you". Right?
5. Use good manners. I have the best manners! I mean, who doesn't appreciate a girl snickering at their dog's constant grunting? Or staring at a fat dog pooping in complete silence.

...I need to be done now, but yay! Great at interviews....



ugh.

April 18-Yummy.

I made a super yummy wrap today...that's how exciting my day was.

Also, I took Ashley to get her yellow fever and Tetanus vaccines. She was so good that she got Daffy Duck band-aids. What a trooper.

April 17-Morning After.

After a full night of partying, I look like this...whoo.. .and a bit scandalous.

April 16-They say it's your birthday, well it's my birthday too!

Today was my mother's birthday, as well as my own :)

Birthday girls!

I made my mom a "Chocolate Chaos" cake

Jenna made me a strawberry cake with coconut pecan frosting.mmm.

Katelyn, Me, Kara <3

"Ballooned" by Katelyn, Kara, and Jenna ;)

Thanks Sophie, Ana, Chase and Will :)

Thanks to Mama for making a cake! Even though I didn't stick around long enough to enjoy it :/

April 15-Dear Santa

My mom found a letter that I had written to Santa a while back.

It reads:
Dear Santa,
Thanks for giving me gifts. I would realy like a pogo-stick tell Ms. Claus that she's lukly to have you. Tell the raindeer and elves I thank them. I have been good, I think! (arrow pointing to necklace that I had taped to the letter) it broke. Please try to fix it and send it back. From Nikole Love Nikole PS I <3 U

Okay, not the best spelling/ grammar, but Santa still could've at least tried to fix the necklace, right?

April 14-So we had no eggs...

Jessica and I invented "cookies" today...without eggs. Uh....ew.

April 13- Pope & Quail's Special Mission

"Life is about finding your story"
Stuart McGraw


....and then he caused a car accident. Great story.
Anyway, Seth gave Stuart and I tickets to the Jazz vs Nuggets game. It was sweet! And we totally won :)

Our odd couple..

"I...I want one"

"...our tickets were free, where's our free stuff?"

Whoo! We somehow won!

Miserable, rainy, weather...

Thank you, Stuart. You're one of the few truly amazing people in my life :) I love you!

April 12-I Kill You

You know what they say, behind every good facial is a horrid man-eating beast.

April 11- Poopoo Fruit

I made Seth play Kingdom Hearts today, otherwise known as THE BEST GAME EVER. (although he, and many others might disagree). He had the inability to beat Riku and share the Paopu fruit with Kairi..I guess his soul will never be intertwined with her's. Pitiful.




Seth sucks.

April 10-Gilers and Biebers

 Sophie gave a wonderful talk in church today...followed by THREE musical numbers and an ebonic description of the Book of Mormon..it was weird.

Sophie's in the program! She's half way to fame.

Chase and Bieber. His dream come true. Seriously.

That would be the Gilers. That weird wacky bunch...of two.

I really wanted to add some stuff to this post, but I suffer from the ever so deadly disease...writer's block. Soooooooooooo maybe lata'

April 9-Music and TERROR

I went to a wonderful concert tonight. BYU Philharmonic..it was amazing. :)

Super fine conductor. Mmmm.

 But then, for some crazy ridiculous reason, we went to this..Benjamin House. It was really scary looking, had scary stories, and well, I was terrified.

scary.

Anyway, driving scared isn't the best idea. Especially when I got my license from A1 Driving School...

April 8-Confliction

Not all these pictures aren't from today, but they are extremely recent, and today wasn't much good.
With love,
Nikole

I hate this picture. Chase made us take a picture with Rapunzel.

....then he made me get one alone. This girl is TINY! I'm like a complete giant!!

Sophie and My delicious dinner...ramen, chicken alfredo, eggs, and corn..

Jenna finding her frozen bra

Jenna's mysterious frozen bra.

Actually was from today. Andrew won a medal?

April 7- The Next Michelle Kwan

Awesome Ice Skating routines today...I guess. haha I was so happy to see that Anthon, Chase, and Ana had come to support us :) ...oh and my Aunt, baby cousins, and mom. ;)

The girl in all black next to me just decided to get in our picture...no one knows who the heck she is.

April 6-Food, Fun, Friends

Due to something highly unfortunate, I deleted ALL my pictures...INCLUDING a super cute one of Mama, one of Papa enjoying the wonderful meal that was prepared for the famous McGuire High School Lunch, and TJ and Stuart looking completely zombiefied as they play videogames.

Once upon a time, Mama hosted another great lunch part-ay. 

Mama was so proud

Papa thought it was delicious

TJ and Stuart were "zombieafied" due to the magical black box with an x on it.