Hello all! Happy late Birthday to Nicole and Kathryn! Congrats on getting old. Just kidding. I just got back from a road trip to San Diego, for the Utah Sand Diego St. game. It was such a fun weekend. If you want to see something funny go to www.alumni.utah.edu/muss/
Whit, i hope the house thing goes okay. That is very exciting!
Love you all! Have a great conference weekend.
Cami

Happy Birthday to Nicole!!

Thanks Nicole!

I hope you had a wonderful day! I have a feeling that 23 will be a great year. I can't believe it's been 5 or 6 years since our surprise party we had together. Hope the circus was fun and it was great talking to you today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Happy Birthday Kathryn!! 23 today! You are so old! :)! I hope that you have a fabulous day today and that you don't get overworked if you have to be at work! Make sure to have fun and get some fun things! By the way, you need to check out Google because they have a birthday cupcake. They are eight years old today! But just pretend like they knew it was your birthday!! Wishing you all the best today and for this weekend when you will be in town! love, Nicole (your twin sister!)

Sick of work...

I just want to say hi because I miss everyone at home now! I just worked in Washington DC for 3 weeks and then my company shipped me off to Palo Alto, CA to work here for 6 weeks. It has been good to see friends from last summer and the weather is amazing, but I am working 60-70 hrs/wk. I'm going crazy and I've decided that I'm definitely not a workaholic type (and I envy those of you who are not working full-time). So all of you that are thinking you're sick of working so much just be glad it's hopefully not overtaking your life! I'll be really glad in 3 weeks when life is back to normal. So, other than that, life is good. I'm flying home to Utah this weekend for a visit and I can't wait. Yay!

Buying our First Home

Hey all! I just found out some exciting news yesterday. Jake and I are going to buy our first home! As most of you already know, Jake is doing commercial real estate out here so he knows a lot of the right people. Anyway, yesterday he had a lunch meeting with a guy that works for a huge home builder out here. He was told that the company is way under their projected sales for the year and are offering almost 100K off the house and huge incentives! We went and looked at some yesterday and I actually liked some of them.
The only catch is that the company's fiscal year ends Sept 30th, so you have to close the deal before then! We are possibly looking and buying a house in under 10 days!!! Kind of crazy, but exciting at the same time. I kind of feel like we should be on one of those "flip this house" shows or something.
So that's the best I've got to post for right now... I'll let you guys know if the deal goes through and we end up with a house!

Drew is oh so big!!

Guys I have some good news Drew rolled over he is growing so fast!!! He actually rolled over a couple of weeks ago but well this is the first chance I have had to sit down at the computer. I can't believe how quick time flies!!! That is about all the excitment in my life right now, drew all the time. I love it! I am actually helping my sister at work this week so I guess I better go start class. Yahoo!
I hope everyone is great!

Yummy recipe

Hey everyone I have a recipe to share finally! This was one that a girl made for me after I had the baby so it is either really good or I just thought it was because I was tired and didn't have to make it myself.

Tater tot bake
1 bag tater tots (divided)
1 lb hamburger (or however much you like)
1 onion diced
1 can evaporated milk
1 can cream of mushroom soup
oodles of cheese

brown hamburger with onion
mix milk and cream of mushroom
add hamburger to the mix
put one layer of tots on bottom of pan
pour hamburger and soupy stuff over the tots
put the rest of the tots on top
Bake at 350* for 40 mins in the last 10 min add as much cheese as you want

Oh and I think that it would be good with added veggies too just play around.

Finally!!!

I just wanted to express my joy that WE SOLD OUR TRUCK!! We have been trying to sell it since what, March or April I think? Anyway, it has felt like forever that we have been trying and nothing had happened. Yesterday we sold it to a cute little family (they have two little boys-5 and four months) so we felt very good about it.

I also had to post because I don't like getting onto the blog site and seeing the picture that Karen posted!! Ha ha! Go Cougars :)

how this works

Okay...so maybe I should explain how this all works huh?! I didn't really think about that, but I would agree that it's a bit confusing. I wish there was a link on our website that said "Create a Post". That would be fabulous! But, in order to create a post you have to log in to the main website at www.blogger.com. There should be a link at the top where you enter your user name and password then you will come to a page where you can create a new blog or you can click on this "Friend's Updates" blog and it will take you to our friends blog. To create a post click on the Posting tab and on the Create tab. Then you can type away. To add a picutre there is a tool bar at the top that says Font, bold, italic, etc. There is a little picture after the ABC check and that is how you post a picture. Click on that and then browse your documents to add a picture. That should work. Once you are done you just click on Publish Post and your post is now on the website. Hopefully my instructions are clear! If you are still confused totally email me because I would love to be reading about everyone's lives! :) I hope everyone is doing fabulous! Love you all, Karen

Ohh...I know the BYU/Utah game is quite awhile away...but I still get a crack out of this picture when I see it! I really don't have hard feelings for BYU...but since I went to the U I have to cheer for them all the time! :)

pictures

ok, so I guess I don't know how to post pictures up here.... any suggestions?

Wow!

Hey everyone! Let me first start off by saying that I thought I was pretty good with computers until Karen started this blog thing. Ha ha! Needless to say it's taken me a good while to figure out how to post on this thing! Haha, that's pretty funny if you think about it.
Anyway, it sounds like everyone is doing great. Christine is having a baby, Kati had a baby, Kathryn is a world traveler and living in DC. This is great. I am living in Denver, and I am really starting to love it here. For those of you who have never been here, it's nothing like you would expect it to be. I thought it was going to be a lot like salt lake, you know a Mountain city. But... it's not! People think that we are so close to the mountains here, but in reality we're like a hour from the foothills and two to the closest ski resort. The weather is different too, it rains about every afternoon.
/Users/whitneyhawkins/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2006/Roll 29/CIMG0743.JPG /Users/whitneyhawkins/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2006/Roll 29/CIMG0704.JPGI finally graduated from Utah State, it was great! I finished my last semester online, which I don't recommend, but hey... I did it! But now I am working in an Oral Surgeon's office which has NOTHING to do with journalism or broadcasting in the slightest, but it helps pay the bills.
I feel like I should be sharing stories about cool trips we've been on, but well... We haven't been on any. We may go to Italy next year to visit our two friends that just moved there, but that's really the only thing on the agenda! Well I love you all, have a splendid day!
Whit

Babysitting...

**First of all, if anyone thinks that I post too much, I'm sorry and let me know! I'm not trying to bore you all with my life stories, but right now I have a few minutes, so I thought I'd tell you about my fun babysitting experience!

For those of you who do not know, my job is currently as a personal and administrative assistant for a man here at my company. Currently he is in New York with his wife to celebrate their 15th Wedding Anniversary. He and his wife asked Justin and I to watch their four kids for three nights.

In order to save yourself some time, I'll just tell you about my experience yesterday. First of all I wasn't paying attention, so I left work later than I should've to get to their house because I had to take the girls to art and dance lessons. I got to the home, walked in the door, and the alarm went off. By that time, I should've been at the home for the art lessons for Sidsie (she's the oldest). I finally got all the kids in the van and got Sidsie to her art class at 4:30. Then I drove over to the dance place and dropped off the 4 yr. old, Vienna. Then we drove back to art, played outside for a little while, picekd up Sidsie, then went back to the dance place, picked up Vienna and dropped off Sidsie. I was then told by the lady at the dance place that Vienna wasn't supposed to have come to dance because she only comes on Tuesday, but since I had left, they just let her stay. Oops! And this is how my day went!! The baby kept crying and she doesn't like strangers, so we would have to give her to her siblings and then she would be quiet. But I also think that she was teething, so that didn't make her very happy. I wasn't sure if she would go to bed for us, but luckily she did.

I won't bore anyone with more details, but I just want to say that four kids can be a hassle! I'm so glad that when we decide to have children they'll come one at a time! Hopefully next Tuesday will go better than yesterday did. Lucky for me and Justin we have the weekend off of babysitting duty! The good thing is that it has been a good experience (especially for Justin since he's never done any babysitting in his life and he now knows how to change a diaper!) and it has made us fully aware of what life would be like-to an extent-in that situation.

Guatemala and Life

It is so great to hear about all of your lives!! I got really excited when I saw Nanette's Guatemala pics so I thought I'd post a couple of my own. I was there for 7 weeks this summer with a volunteer organization and I had tons of crazy adventures every day! Between mudslides, out of control bus rides, a kitchen gas fire, robberies, death threats, food poisonings, etc. I am just happy to be back alive. But I really loved every minute of that place.. The first picture is me buying my favorite things in the world...bananas! (which come in many varieties in Guate) The next one we are building a stove out of adobe for that lady. And the last are some cute girls in one of the villages where we worked. So much fun!

A week or so ago I moved to Washington DC. Between work and trying to drive here, I am either stressed or lost most of the time! It's good to be here but I am hoping I won't be out here too long. I miss you all!

Food for Thought

Last night I made Chicken Breasts Parmesan and it was really good. It was easy, and quick to make as well. I'm too lazy to copy the recipe down, but I found it on KraftFoods.com, so here's the link to the recipe if you're interested.

http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=recipe&m=recipe/knet_recipe_display&u1=keyword&u2=chicken,%20bread%20crumbs&u3=**8*12&wf=9&recipe_id=50320

If you haven't been to kraftfoods.com, you should! It's great for people who cook a lot or even a little! I am a member, or whatever, and it is pretty cool. I have a recipe box there and I get emails from them once in a while about favorite recipes, tips, etc. On their website they show you pictures of almost all the recipes, and ideas for side dishes, drinks, and desserts to go along with the recipe. I would also suggest allrecipes.com. I am also a common user of their recipes. The cool thing about them is that they have ratings of each recipe, so you know if it worked and was good, or whatever they wanted to say about it.

So those are my ideas about food! I am the type that likes to mix things up a lot--I like to try a few new recipes each week to make it interesting otherwise I get bored! Enjoy!

Reminder

Hey guys. I'm sure all of you are smart enough to know this already...but I wanted you all to be safe! Christine asked for updated addresses but make sure you email her your address rather than post it on here. This is a website that anyone can look at and you don't want to give that kind of info away! So...don't post anything like that on here! :) I made it so that only those registered for this blog can post comments. But I can't make it so that this website can be viewed by only us. So...keep that in mind.

Also...since everyone is posting exotic vacations I guess I'll post a couple of China! For those that don't know...we went to China in June and had an awesome time. I would recommend it to anyone! Attached is a picture of us at the Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, and Shanghai at night. It's probably the neatest skyline ever! There was even a building that was under construction that had lights on it! It was pretty awesome! So that's our cool trip! Hopefully everyone is doing well. I tried a new recipe Monday night so that I could post it on here...but it wasn't that good. So I won't post it! But if I find a good one I'll definitely let everyone know!
Love ya, Karen

My life

Hi all-Karen, beautiful idea. I actually was wondering if people could update me with their addresses, I am working on keeping that updated, especially as everyone is moving. If you haven't changed it for some time, don't worry about it I am sure I have a current address. Umm, quick update for me, I only have 7 weeks left of pregnancy and can't wait to be done! I am still throwing up every single day and it stinks (i guess it is a little better than the 6 times a day that i was at before). I will be done with work in 4 weeks and that will be great. Seth takes his big GMAT test this week (entrance exam for business school) and that will help give us an idea where we will be in january (Seth graduates in December) anyway, that is a quick update. Talk to everyone later

Hey everybody

Hey guys I hope that everyone is doing great! I am not sure if I am even doing this right, Sometimes the computer confuses me! Karen this is awsome! I don't have much to say except if everyone has a time when we would like to get together for a date night or what not let me know because well I would like to play!
Things are good in my life and I will send cute pics later.
love Kate

Friend's Updates

Friend's Updates

Hey all! Just thought I would say hello. Hope everyone is happy and doing well. Nicole and Nannette, your pictures are awsome. I'm jealous of your traveling. Love you all!

Europe

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Europe in May! As part of a graduation gift my parents took me, Justin, and my sister Emily. We started in Austria and went to Slovenia, Italy, and Germany.

The first picture is Lake Bled in Slovenia. This picture was taken from the balcony of our hotel room! This lake is one of the prettiest I've ever seen (they don't allow motor boats onto it).

The next picture is of us at the Neushwanstein Castle in Germany. This was one of the coolest things that we saw on our trip! The rooms in this castle were AMAZING!!! It is called the Sleeping Beauty castle because it is the castle that Disneyland patterned theirs after.

And lastly is a picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We walked up the circluar staircase to the top. It's quite the experience with your balance feeling completely off as you climb the stairs!

We had a really great time on our trip, besides all the time we spent in the car driving! We saw many museums, palaces, castles, caves, beautiful scenery, churches, and ate lots of gelato!