DAY 477... Goodbye 2012

It's safe to say that 2012 has been the BEST year of my life!!! It has also been the worst.... Funny how life balances out like that. So are you ready for all the pictures that you've already seen before, but that I'm going to remind you of???? Here we go.... (anything highlighted in RED will link you to a blog post of that awesome memory!!!)

I started off 2012 pregnant and sick.... This continued throughout the first half of the year.... I got bigger..

 and bigger... (Remember how we chaperoned the Sweetheart's dance at CHHS and we were awesome????)

 and bigger...

 and bigger...

 and bigger...

 and bigger...

and HUGE???

Just realized this.....

Same clothes!!! Haha! The one on the left is like 12 weeks pregnant and the one on the right is about 37 weeks. Saying weeks instead of months when you're pregnant is way cooler in case you didn't know.

Throughout the pregnancy I got sick...

 and sicker....

I spent half of my year sick, and about 1/4 of my year hooked up to an IV!!! That's right... I had hyperemesis before Kate Middleton made it cool.

We learned that we were having a girl and we were so excited!!!

During this time (sick and all) I was coaching cheerleading at Copper Hills High school,

We ended up going to nationals and placing 5th overall in our division! It was a great year coaching!!!

Remember how I was 6 months pregnant at Nationals and I really should have used the scooters????

We also moved to Rexburg and Spencer finished his first 2 semesters at BYU-Idaho! (No pictures here.... but you get a link!!!)

Meanwhile I got 2 news jobs. One as the After School coordinator for South Fork Elementary school,

And the other coaching cheerleading at Madison High School...

On July 3rd, I was chased by a Moose... at 38 weeks pregnant...

Then on THE BEST DAY EVER, July 5th 2012, Aniston Kate Ahlstrom was welcomed into our family!

We think she's (mostly) PERFECT!!!!

In September Ani Kate was blessed in Utah and we celebrated 1 year of marriage!!!

Picture on the left... Wedding Day. Picture on the right... One year married. Sooooooooo CUTE!!!

While in Utah Aniston got to meet both sets of her Grandparents!!!

Aniston and Spencer went to Yellowstone for the first time...

Aniston celebrated her first Halloween as a little pea pod.... SO CUTE!!!

We survived the end of the world and ate Taco Bell to celebrate...

Aniston celebrated her first Christmas and LOVED Santa!!!

And I FINALLY got to see Les Miserables!!!

What an AWESOME year for this Ahlstrom clan! I have never been so excited for a new year to start to see where it will take me and my little family!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

DAY 476... A Couple of Firsts

This week Aniston has had quite a few firsts in her young awesome life...

She obviously had her first Christmas...

She saw Les Miserables for the first time. (Still not over the awesomeness of that movie) This is her favorite song from the movie. She pretty much begs me to sing it to her every time I am changing her diaper... TMI???? Maybe so, but it's my blog so I can pretty much write whatever I want right??? Of course I'm right.

Cutest baby ever??? I vote yes!

Ani had her first visit to the chiropractor. I never went to a chiropractor growing up. In fact, I never went to the chiropractor until I became I chiropractic assistant, and saw all of the benefits that can come from an adjustment. I will admit I was scared to death of being adjusted, but it helped me more than words can even describe!!! I worked for some amazing chiropractors in Utah, and for me I kind of feel like chiropractors are like hair dressers. Once you find a good one, you keep them! But once you move away... it's a little bit of a headache to find a new good one. Well, we got lucky and found a great one here in Rexburg on our first try. He is actually the brother of one of my cheerleaders, and he is AWESOME!!! And the best part is that Ani loves him! Both Spencer and Aniston have been adjusted by him, and when I get time in my life, probably summer break, I will go too. But Aniston is so well behaved for the doctor and lets him adjust her and she even smiles while he's doing it. We've noticed that she's sleeping better, she's spitting up less, and when you're parents.... you appreciate those things greatly!

Yep... I'm still I creeper and take pictures without telling the doctor I'm taking the pictures. Seemed harmless and like he would never know until his sister (the cheerleader) tagged him in a comment below the picture... my bad.

Aniston also sat in a shopping cart for the first time. Basically she was being a pill and wouldn't sit in her car seat without screaming, so we took her out and stuck her in the cart. She did awesome for like the first 10 minutes and then she was over it. She doesn't take well to being restrained. But she's so cute! Except for the fact that she had almost pulled her flower off her hat and it looks a little homeless... Still adorable!!! Also 10 points for whoever can guess what store we're at. There's only one store that I know of that has those blue carts with the obnoxious tall pole on them.

I love love love my chubby cheeked baby! Everywhere we go people stop us and comment on her cheeks! It's very satisfying to know that even strangers think your kid is cute. Knowing that Spencer and I are capable of creating such a cute baby is almost enough to have another one. Almost... not quite though.

I'm loving that 2012 is ending so well for my little family!!! Stay tuned for tomorrow's top moments of 2012!!!

Movie Review... LES MISERABLES

It's no secret that I have been dying to see this movie. I may have even once posted on Facebook that I was more excited and nervous about this movie than the birth of my own child. I'm an honest person and that was the truth. No lines crossed here.... During this 157 minute long movie (worth every second) I cried 6 times more than I did when Aniston was born... I didn't cry at all when she was born actually. I was kind of in shock. Anyway, back to the movie... INCREDIBLE!!!! Many people have looked at the length of the movie and thought it was rather long... Never in my life has 157 minutes gone by so quickly! There is almost no talking in the movie, which is awesome, it's just singing! The singing of beautiful and magical words.

The first thing I wanna touch on is Tom Hooper, the director. He did a FABULOUS (expect a lot of capital letters in this post) job! There were moments during the movie where I found myself not listening to the words of the songs (I already have them all memorized anyway) but just sitting in awe of the direction of the movie. The way Hooper filmed the movie was so raw (very lite makeup, if any used at all) and emotional. He knew what angles to hit and how to film the characters to make the scene even more raw and emotional! I'm sure that he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders when he took on this film, but he sure did deliver! My heart is seriously racing still as I think about the incredible job he did. Well done Tom Hooper, well done.

Let's chat about the music. First of all, the music to this musical is insane! I love to read, and this book was phenomenal  But Schonberg and Kretzmer did such a good job of putting Victor Hugo's incredibly descriptive writing into song.

But what made this movie so amazing when it came to this movie was that the actors sang live while filming. The lyrics aren't recorded before the filming and this allows the actors to really put that raw emotion and feeling into the actual songs. I'll be honest... I listened to the soundtrack on iTunes the day before seeing the movie and I hated it! I actually got really upset about it. But when actually watching the movie, these songs were transformed into perfection! Anne Hathaway as Fantine was inspiring! She was perfection!

Hugh Jackman was also a home run  although I was disappointed when it came to the song Bring Him Home. I guess all I could think about was Alfie Boe.... Sorry Hugh.

Russell Crowe was better than I thought he would be, but I felt as though he lacked excitement and passion. There was a note during Javert's suicide where when he hit it, I clenched my fist and yes... fist pumped for him right there in the middle of the theater. It was pure bliss!

Little Gavroche was wonderful as was Colm Wilkinson as the priest. Colm Wilkinson was the original Jean Valjean. The soundtrack that I listen to the most is actually him as Valjean. I am so happy and satisfied that they found a place for him in this film. He was only in the film for a short time, but he was so invested emotionally in his small role. SO GREAT!

Samantha Barks who played Eponine was just as amazing in this film as she was in the 25th Anniversary play! However, Spencer and I both had a bit of a shock when we saw her tiny waist... This waist could rival Scarlet O'Hara! Tiny, tiny, tiny!

The Thenardier's were casted PERFECTLY! The humor that those actors were able to bring to such a touching emotional story was BRILLIANT!

Everyone else was good. Honestly I didn't love Amanda Seyfried as Cosette... her vibrato was a little out of control, but she did fine. I was a little bummed that Red & Black was missing lyrics since this is one of my favorite songs, but I survived.

The movie was just AWESOME! I really hope that people become inspired to read Victor Hugo's novel because of their love for this movie. I cannot wait until I get to see this movie again!!! Until then I will live off the previews and clips of the movie I can find on youtube.

Go and see this movie! You will be touched and you will want more!!!!!