Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

    Hello Bloggeristas! How have you guys been this past week? I have been with family. Christmas eve with some of our cousins, then more cousins on Christmas Day! I hope you had a jolly-filled holiday! I did! For Christmas I got gift cards to Target, JCPenney, and iTunes & a purse that I wanted that was from Target. I got other things too such as a towel/spa set and perfume set. I am grateful for my presents and am thankful for the people who gave them to me. Just remember CHRISTmas is about Christ being brought into this world to save us all from our sins. So, yes, JESUS is the reason for the season; NOT Santa Claus.

     It is December 30 and tomorrow is the last day of 2013! 2013 is OVER? Like, come one! You've got to be kidding because that was pretty fast! I can't believe that it's over! This year was kinda big for me. I started public high school from being homeschooled for 9 years; so yes that's kind of a big deal for me. I graduated 8th grade. I went to Regen (our church's camp that is held during the summer). I met new people from school. It was a good year overall! I do have one specific new year's resolution I want to accomplish is reading my Bible everyday for the whole year. I do have other ones but that's the one I can think of right now.
 
   Hopefully you guys will have a fun new year too! Thanks for reading! See you guys next year! :D

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year from our family to your's!

THANKSGIVING! - Day 5

       Hey bloggeristas! How was your Thanksgiving? Mine was actually pretty cool! Our family//relatives came over to our house. It was SO much fun! My mom had an idea of doing a photobooth. On Wednesday, she went to Target (I think) and got photobooth prop set! It was super cool! I also got excited to take pictures. The photo booth didn't go the way I planned. I wanted to have a background and have a mini table with the props. It didn't go the way I planned, but that's okay. We are Armenian, so there is bound to be some dancing. I filled a little box with the props, and while dancing, one by one people started dancing with the props. It was really funny! I wasn't mad at all, because everyone was having a good time dancing. I'm not going to name all the props, but a few of them were a mustache, glasses with sideburns, and nerd glasses with the big nose. I started dying with laughter when my grandma wore those nerd glasses with the big nose. It was fun watching everyone have a good time. Yeah, I had a pretty good time too.

                                             

Table setting!

 

 

#OOTD

 

                                                          I took some polaroid pix

                                                                         FOOD!

                           My sister wearing some of the props that my parents bought. Isn't it funny? I LOVE photobooths and props.

Family <3

                                                  My cousin in her nerdified face gear

                                                        Other cute selfies of us girls!

                We made so many memories! It's always fun to have family together all in one room. After everyone left, my dad, sister and I went to the mall for Black Friday. We just went to Hot Topic, Forever 21, and Best Buy. I also didn't take any pictures so its not enough to post. Thanks for reading and coming with me for this Thanksgiving Blog Challenge. Hopefully you learned more about me, and what I am thankful for. Also ALWAYS remember that we should be thankful for what we have, EVERY single day.
                                                      <3, Natalie

Girls Weekend Getaway

       
       Hello Bloggeristas! Hope you guys are having a nice day! A few weeks to a month ago, my sister, mom, and I went to Palm Springs (Indian Wells to be exact). We just went to spend time together. We basically shopped till we dropped. Literally. When we woke up in the morning at the hotel, we walked around by the pool area and adventured a bit.

I'll start with when we started driving. It takes a few hours to get to Indian Wells. We left at 6:30 and knew we would get there at maybe 9:30. When we left I didn't eat anything, so after an hour or two my sister and I got hungry. My mom accidentally took a wrong turn on the freeway, so we had to exit. I got a bit happy cuz I was already hungry and I would eat anything by now. This is where this picture comes in. Right when we exited we saw Wendy's and my mom asked if we wanted to eat there and we immediately said "YES"!

                                          The view from the hotel room. It was really pretty!

When we walked more, we saw a bridge, and saw THIS beauty. I took this picture on the bridge. It was absolutely beautiful.

When we were walking back to the lobby, we heard one of the employees whistle to this bird, and it talked back. If you look closely, there is a band around his leg, so the bird probably belongs to the hotel! I thought it was pretty cool, so I took this quick snap.

This scene was also mesmerizing. The hotel pool area was really beautiful. My sister Sarah and I took a photo on that same exact bench the day after when we left. My mom took it with my polaroid, so I can't really show it to you.

                               Another quick snap of the hotel structure. Which was also beautiful.

 

After that mini adventure we were hungry for breakfast, so we went to Mimi's Cafe. I wasn't feeling very good so I got some tea and eggs benedict.


      

              After breakfast we started our full day of shopping. We went to numerous places. For dinner we went to Olive Garden. Then we got Starbucks after that, which kind of was a crazy experience. When we got to the hotel the night before, we passed by many Starbucks' and counted about 5! It was after dark of course when we left Olive Garden, so it was gonna be a little harder to find Starbucks. I don't know if our GPS was going bazurkee-cheese-jerky or what, but it wasn't getting us to our destination. So I tried my mom's phone. After maybe 30 minutes of going in circles, we found one. We got there at 8:45 P.M and they closed at 9:00. How perfect was that timing?! So yeah. We were already tired and frustrated when we got to our hotel. I fell asleep after 30 minutes of getting into the hotel room. I was pooped. But it was a good shopping day! I had a fun time and hope that I can do it more with my mom and sister.

                                  <3 Natalie

Sugar Cookies! - Day 4

       
           AHH! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Today I am going to share with you a recipe I have been loving recently. It's a sugar cookie recipe that I found on Pinterest. The recipe is NOT mine. But click HERE for the recipe. I am just showing you what I did AFTER I put the recipe together, so I am not really listing any ingredients. I'm just going to show pictures of the festive turkey-shaped sugar cookies!

 

 

The dough before I put it in the fridge to harden

After it hardened for an hour I got my turkey shaped cookie cutter and put the flour on the board and cookie cut my heart out (I know I am weird). I just used a rolling pin and then cut it out. After I was done cutting all of the cookies, I put them on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven on 350 degrees for 8 min. Here is what they looked like in the end.

After an hour of cooling, you can ice//frost the cookies and do whatever you want to them! I have made this recipe 3 times in the last month. I think that I really like this recipe and it's really easy to make! Hope you enjoy this recipe and try it out! P.S Don't forget to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade TOMORROW morning!

I am Thankful For... - Day 3

          Hello bloggerista's, how are you guys doin'? For today's challenge I am going to write down 50 things I am thankful for. I wanted to wait till Thanksgiving day, but I got a bit impatient. I know 50 things sound like a lot of things to be thankful for, but really it's just a tad bit. Here they are!

 I am thankful for...

1.My parents
2. My crazy siblings
3.Sunsets
4. Night out with friends
5. The public school experience
6. Oneighty club at school
7. BFF'S
8. YouTube
9. Beaches
10. Church
11. My iPhone
12. Good health
13. School friends
14. IN 'n OUT Burger
15. Air to breathe
16. H20
17. My Canon T3i
18. Capturing memorable moments
19. Dainty Notebooks
20. Relatives
21. Grandparents
22. Cousins
23. Cool Pens
24. Fashion
25. Nail Polish
26. The internet
27. Instagram
28. Life
29. Cozy bed to sleep in
30. Small Group
31. Disney
32. Pixar
33. Disneyland
34. Cruises
35. Travel
36. Food
37. Having joy to share with friends and family
38. The little things in life
39. The outdoors
40. Christmas music
41. Family time
42. Snuggles
43. Sweaters & Sweatpants
44. Hot Tea
45. Hunger Games Trilogy
46. Eyes to see the beauty of adventure
47. A roof to live under
48. Starbucks
49. Target
50. I am thankful for Thanksgiving. To recognize what we have and be thankful for even the littlest things in life.

       Thanks for reading through the BIG list of things i'm thankful for. Hopefully you can also be thankful for what you have, even if you have little. BE THANKFUL!

Catching Fire The Movie{sort of not really a review}

          Hello lovelies! How are you guys doing today? I wanted to talk about how amazing Catching Fire was. I can't explain how awesome it was. There might be SPOILERS so be aware of that if you want to see the movie and find out for yourselves. OK. Where do I start?! I guess I'll start with the opening scene. The opening scene is Katniss in the forest, facing the rising sun. The little things I liked that are pretty nerdy of me to like; but it was how they filmed some of the scenes. The positioning of the camera in some scenes were perfect. SPOILER! One of them was towards the end when Katniss is on the floor right after she got zapped after blowing up the dome of the arena. They put the camera on the floor facing the side of her face. Behind the side of her face on the other side is the explosions happening in the background from her blowing up the arena. I JUST CANT HANDLE THIS MOVIE. I'm actually having a hard time explaining this because it's just such a good movie. So, sorry if some things are not very clear.

       In the end, they stop you at a cliffhanger, where Gale is explaining to Katniss that there is no more District 12; but that there is a 13. Then the mockingjay pin shows up, and then moves its wings to where it is apart from each other, like Jesus on the cross. After the credits, I read that there was an extra scene, but I didn't know about it until after I watched the movie 2 times! I really wished that I saw it, if there actually was anything more. I guess I'll either have to watch it again, or just wait till the DVD comes out. I cannot wait 2 more years for both part 1 and part 2 of Mockingjay to be out. Yes, they are basically trying to kill us by making us wait 2 years!!! I know it's one next year and then one more after that, but I just can't wait that long. I know it's a problem.

Recent Favorites - Day 2

             Hey there folks! How are you guys doing? I'm am doing fine! Today's topic (Day 2) is going to be my recent favorites. It's going to be random favorites from videos to nail polish to many other random things. I'll do my top 5 recent faves. These are all equally my favorites, but I will start with 1.

  1. Recently I was introduced to Tim Hawkins. He is a comedian, and makes me laugh my head off with some of the things he says. He has kid-friendly jokes and he sings a little too! Two of his songs that I enjoy are "Hey There Delilah" and "Homeschool Blues". Here are the YouTube links for the songs. They are also on iTunes, which is very convenient
 Home-School Blues & Hey There Delilah . Just click on them to go straight to the video!

2. There is a movie that came out recently. It's called "Monster's University" and yes, I fell in love with the movie. I saw the movie, then actually visited UCLA for a school field trip a few weeks later. At UCLA the structures of the buildings are very similar to the ones from the movie! I am pretty sure they got inspiration from there. Another movie that I LOVE is "Catching Fire". Yes, I have read the books, and yes I liked them. Actually in a few hours I am going to watch it again with a friend! If I tell you my fave parts I will totally spoil the movie. But overall I loved it and you should go watch it too!

3. A couple of my recent fave apps are Candy Crush and Akinator. Candy crush is self-explanitory, but Akinator is super cool! It's a genie that asks you questions about a real-life person or fictional character that you think of. It's super cool. The only bad thing is that it is $1.99 on the app store. I think it depends on you, if you think it's worth it or not.

4. My fave nail polish for fall//winter is O.P.I's "Planks A Lot". I think it's from a collection that they made a few years ago. It's a purple-ey greyish color. It is not too seasonal, but goes with the darker shade of colors for the colder seasons.

5. AH! My last one?! Ok. A book that I read on my phone recently was The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It is a very emotional book about a teen with stage 4 cancer. I don't want to say much because I will probably spoil it for you. But if you get a chance to read anything, I recommend that book.

                                         Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day!
                                                     Love, Natalie Grace

Thanksgiving Blog Challenge - Day 1

  
            Well, Hello there! Long time no see! This week is Thanksgiving, and yes I know it's come too soon. I am thankful for a lot of things this year and I am also going to challenge myself and blog everyday till the day of Thanksgiving or the day after because I'm probably going to want to blog Black Friday pictures & the day of Thanksgiving! I am going to call it the "Thanksgiving Blog Challenge" I TOTALLY am gonna do this, but hopefully I'll remember to do it everyday. I am not too interesting and I also will try not to be too boring. I might post what was in my day, or a recipe I like, or maybe what I am thankful for. Today I will start by just typing what has happened recently. I just started public school this year and this week is my first WHOLE week of break! I feel so independent because I am not forced to go to school, because there is no school! Of course I did have like one day vacations, but you still have homework for those kind of day offs. I will kind of miss my friends, but I most certainly won't miss school for a week! I use to be home-schooled if you were wondering. Those years were the best years of my life. Of course high school is probably going to be the best years of my life too, but home-schooling is different. You can make your own schedule, and finish school before lunch, which is the BEST feeling ever(for me at least)! I am the type of person who likes to finish their homework first to feel free for the rest of the day, and be assured that I've finished all my homework. I like to have a bunch of free time. Such as going on my phone, my laptop, or spending time with my family. I do miss being home-schooled, but am grateful that my parents decided for me to see how the world is like; the real world. Public high school is as real as it gets, and I'm not kidding. Yes, being home-schooled is very fun. It's not boring at all in my opinion! I was/am social, and I did have a life during being home-schooled. I grew up in the church, and have grown up with most of my friends. I have made a lot of friends in public school who live close to me and am very glad I met them. I really hope I have been a good example at school; to my teachers and fellow classmates. This world is a fallen world in the darkness, and it needs the light to see what truly is important in this world.

      Whoa, I went pretty deep today. Deeper than I thought. Hopefully you learned something new today, and I am thankful for YOU! If you actually read all of this, I applaud you for actually reading ALL of this (is that weird? Hopefully not). Hope you have a BLESSED day!
        
                      <3, Natalie

High School Football Games

 Last night there was a football game at my high school against Temple City. I was SO excited because it was my first H.S football game! It was so cool being there on the bleachers, and rooting for my team while having hot dogs and churros with my dad (and friends)! I took my big camera and got some cool shots! Here are just a few of them!

BLEACHERS!

 

The cheerleaders with Hermie the Pioneer!

FOOTBALL PLAYERS!!

   In the end we won 55-2 and I had a really fun time! I just wish I got MORE pictures! Thanks for reading! Have a good day!

{Family Pool Party}

  Yesterday we had a mini pool party with our cousins + my grandma. We BBQ'd burgers and had some pasta salad for dinner. I took a lot of pictures , but here are a few of my faves and some of them are just too cute not to post!

My cousin Kegham

And his brother Harout

My bro

Cute little toes <3

My littlest bro smiling for the camera

 

   

                                                           

See Ya Later, Disneyland

   
           Recently, we went to Disneyland and California Adventure for the last few days of having an annual pass. We went for a few days, and of course I took some pictures, but mostly with my phone. Here are just a few of them.

 

Of course I HAD to take a pic of the infamous castle!

                                                                  SMALL WORLD!

                                       

We had to drop by at Aladdin's place!

My sister is on the left, and I'm the one on the right. Yep the one with blue and white stripes.

Paradise Pier <3

 

HOLLYWOOD TOWER OF TERROR!

                                
                        FACT: The Hollywood Tower of Terror is the tallest building in Anaheim!

If you go to CA Adventure then  you should check out the Aladdin show!

Cars Land!

                   If you want to go on Radiator Spring Racers, then I recommend going before the park   opens! It will look busy, but you might only be in line for the ride for 20 minutes! It depends so don't mark my word.

   Hope you enjoyed these pictures! I won't be going to Disneyland for a while, but I'll see ya later alligator!  
                                                                    Bye <3

Vanilla Cupcakes!

On Saturday I wanted to make cupcakes, I knew I wanted it to be vanilla cause I havn't made vanilla cupcakes before! So when I found a recipe, I followed it and when I finished mixing ALL the ingredients together I decided to put food coloring as well. I only had 3 colors left, blue, green, and yellow. So I separated them in 3 bowls and in each one put a different mix of color.

Well at the end it felt like Earth Day cupcakes to me (which I didn't plan on).

Here is a link to the Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

  I didn't add the vanilla bean. First of all I didn't add it cause I didn't have it, and I felt like it was for the look, which I didn't care much about.

 It also called for greek yogurt, but I put sour cream instead.

Instead of heavy cream, it said you can put half & half, so I did because we didn't have any heavy cream.

Comment if you do this recipe!

{P.S I added some fondant}

See, it looks like Earth Day!

Added some fondant

Now that I think of it, I should've added food coloring to the frosting too ;)

 

The finished product!

Burlington Haul

Today my family and I went to the plaza, had Panera, walked around and asked my dad if we could go to Burlington! So I went in looking for a dress, but most of them were short and too open. So we walked around even more and I saw shoes tried the on and found one, so I got it! It was only $13.00!! (shown under)

   Then after I looked at the sale section and found MANY things! But only got 3 of them that I actually thought looked good on me. So here is what I got!

A purple and navy blue maxi skirt! My first maxi skirt ever! This one was $15.00

A beautiful orange skirt that has a little shimmer, but I can't tell in this picture. This one was $15.00

I ALMOST FAINTED when I found this! I needed to have it and it luckily fit! So cute!! It was $11.00! What a bargain!

{sorry for poor quality, I used my phone cause I was so excited about telling you guys!}

Cucumber Lemon Salad

     Dear followers,

Today I have a recipe for you! I am going to show you how to make a Cucumber Lemon Salad.

  

You will need:

a medium sized bowl

4 medium sized cucumbers

1/3 cup chopped green onion

3 Tbs. lemon juice 

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 - 1 Tsp. Salt

Serves: 2

Directions:

First, rinse and dry your cucumbers with a paper towel.

Then when done chop off the end of each side.

 

After that cut each cucumber right through the middle of them

Then after that cut them like so. Yeah, like the picture up there.

Then add the green onion, lemon juice, oil, and salt.

Mix and Bon Appetit!