A NEW YEAR BRINGS A LOT OF "FIRSTS"

Ni Hao! So this last week I turned 25. Pretty crazy to think that I am only five years shy of turning 30... So at the commencement of my new year I also earned a new title, that of "aunt". My very first niece, Alanna, was born on April 5th, a day before my own birthday April 6th. She was due on March 28th, but decided to wait it out in order to share her birthday with her favorite aunt. I say favorite because I can already tell she likes me the best, which makes her a very smart baby, too. She was born in Tucson about 11:30am Thursday morning, but we weren't able to actually go meet her until the following day. Needless to say, she is the cutest baby, and to prove it, here are some pictures:

She is only a day old in this picture, and already aware of her surroundings. She was looking around and at all the people coming by the hospital to meet her.

Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Dallin holding the baby

I don't know if Dallin has really held a baby before...

and of course her favorite aunt put her right to sleep :)

Now for the other "first" of my 25th year... I now officially own a car. Hooray! Some of you might remember the 1986 Pontiac 6000 I drove in Nebraska, well that really wasn't my car. It was my parents' and slowly falling apart. It got me through grad school (as a result of many prayers), and for that I am forever indebted to the car that wouldn't die. Well now that I am preparing to drive across the country headed for a new job and new life and I needed a car that would not only get me there, but would be reliable enough to not make my parents worry. So...what did I get? With some financial assistance from my parents, who suggested I buy either a truck or mid-sized SUV (in order to move all my stuff), I got a 2001 Chevrolet S10 Blazer. I don't have any pictures, but it is white and in really good condition. I am very happy.

So those are the first two highlights of my 25th year.

IT'S FINISHED!

Ni Hao! Well, I am happy to say that the documentary film Brett and I shot in Taiwan is finally complete! (Actually, we finished over a week ago, but this is the first time I have been able to post since then.) Oh, and for those of you who weren't aware, well, we made a documentary of our experiences in Taiwan. :)

We got the idea from an international film festival we went to in Taichung back in early November. After watching several short films we decided that "Hey, we can do that!" and almost immediately started brainstorming. Filming officially began at the end of the month and the camera kept rolling almost non-stop until we set foot on our various airplanes headed home. As you might have guessed, this resulted in a ton of footage...Over 30 hours to be more precise. I returned home with a box full of tapes while Brett made his way to Fiji for an undisclosed amount of time. About a month or so later he joined me out here in Arizona (after I had copied all the tapes over to the various editing computers) and we then spent the next four weeks editing non-stop. O.k. so maybe somewhere in the middle I went on a cruise...but other then that small detail, we worked pretty hard. Besides, it was quite convenient that neither one of us had a job or really anything better to do. So why not make a movie?

So for those of you who are expecting to receive a copy in the mail (you already know who you are :) here is a preview of what is to come. I have posted below some stills from the film. I will leave out any further explanation or details, however, in order to leave you in suspense until you can watch it yourself!