Cake, Smores, Chi Chocolate...I'm A Local!

This has to be the cheesiest picture I have but I couldn't resist getting one for posterity. As you can see it is FREEZING here and I leave the apartment everyday in layers and layers of clothing! This picture was the day of our opening! it was the most amazing feeling onstage...I had chills the entire night and the entire cast was giddy the whole show!

I stole a wish from Donny's Opening night B day cake! shh...!

at our opening night after party! This is just a few of the cast members but they are the best! I'm the baby of the family so I'm always on my toes and trying to keep up! So much talent on stage and a fun little family off stage:)

John Boy took me to a sushi restaurant (which was divine) and they had smores for dessert! Who would've paired the two together! I was in asia and then i was in the Mountains roasting a smore! woah... I will be honest though. The smores weren't as good as the ones I used to roast up american fork canyon...

I really feel so cool running around the city with John Boy! He's showed me some of the greatest local spots! We stopped at a chocolate restaurant called Max Brewers and ordered some hot chocolate! This is not your average hot chocolate... It pours out of the pot into your cup once placing the bottom of the pot on the rim of the cup! Neat huh?

Thank goodness for John Boy!

Simply...

Gordon B. Hinckley, "“Be Not Faithless”", Ensign, Apr. 1989, 2

"To all who may have doubts, I repeat the words given Thomas as he felt the wounded hands of the Lord: “Be not faithless, but believing.” Believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the greatest figure of time and eternity. Believe that his matchless life reached back before the world was formed. Believe that he was the Creator of the earth on which we live. Believe that he was Jehovah of the Old Testament, that he was the Messiah of the New Testament, that he died and was resurrected, that he visited the western continents and taught the people here, that he ushered in this final gospel dispensation, and that he lives, the living Son of the living God, our Savior and our Redeemer."

I was reminded today of my Redeemers love as I was a visitor in a New York City, Union Square ward. I'm so grateful that the Church of Jesus Christ is universal and can be found wherever my adventures take me. The speakers touched my heart as I was reminded of my testimony and the power of the Holy Spirit. During this busy Holiday season it gets easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas and our responsibility to love others. Especially at this time of year.

so...

simply believe...

simply take this time and think of Christ. Treasure family and friends and come to know Christ this holiday season. Believe that He is real. Believe that his love is real. And believe that we are entitled to that love! So many reasons to Believe this holiday season:) just a lil sunday holiday inspiration i thought i'd share:)

~Jessie Ann

Utah...Vegas...and now...NYC!!

Today was my first day in New York City!

I woke up in my Jersey apartment to a light snow and a beautiful view of the city...

Attempted some "do at home" yoga...not as successful as I had hoped.

Bundled in layers, a scarf, hat, and boots and made my way to the Path Transit Train.

Kenzie, Jamyz, Karl, Rich, Kelene, and I blindly walked onto the wrong train but after figuring our first train experience out, we walked out of the humid, underground station to the cold streets of New York City just blocks away from Time Square!

This was our first view of the walk we would be making everyday for the next month!

I was all smiles as I registered the fun sites around me and made mental notes of every place I wanted to see and eat! Before you know it, I'll be a polished NYC local:) Although the walk was cold, it went by very fast and I found my self lagging behind the group due to the amount of picture taking that was going on.

and then...BAM! ON BROADWAY! I was slightly freaking out and couldn't stop giggling...

This is one of those moments that I need to cherish forever. Take in this whole experience and enjoy every second. As a young girl I always dreamed and even prayed to be on Broadway. Someone pinch me! I can't believe the crazy turn that life has taken. Blessed...All I can say is blessed. Grateful for this exciting experience and grateful for a family that sacrificed so much to help me get here! I'm giddy, excited, and nervous for them to see the show and experience the city with me. Hopefully I can do them proud!

xoxo

~Jessie Ann

Broadway? What?!

Check out this little sneak peak of what it is to come!

I CAN NOT WAIT! this is something ive been dreaming about since I was 3!

Donny and Marie on Broadway in Time Square!

eeekkk!!!! I'm most excited for my family to fly out and be apart of this incredible experience:) My little siblings haven't seen New York so it will be neat to show them around! Christmas will be a little different with out my family but Carson is flying out to spend it with me! I'm such a lucky girl:)

I fly out of Las Vegas on Dec 5! I get to spend a whole month in NYC and experience the holidays in the Big Apple:) I just bought a camera with a nice little vegas sale and i promise to document my NYC adventure!

~Jessie Ann

Living The Dream

It's amazing to me how life happens. Sometimes life leads us where we want it and other times we want to run from it. How did I luck out to be right where I want it?

...I am one lucky chicken right now and I hate those blogs that brag about how blessed they are but Im going to do just that...so bear with me...

It all started on a Monday morning at my parents house where I was in tears of frustration, complaining to my mom and older sister. Tears due to financial stress and a need to do something more, to experience something different at this point in my life. I left the house that morning feeling defeated and said a quick prayer to help me feel like life was going to be ok. That sounds really dramatic... but I was a stressed out 19 year old:) As I was driving away my phone buzzed with an unknown Nevada number and some news that changed my life. My situation had just gone from dramatic to exciting/craziness in a matter of 15 min....There were still a ton of details to work out but by Tuesday night it was decided that I was moving to Vegas to be apart of the Donny and Marie Osmond Show in Vegas as well as the Broadway run in NYC! What a whirlwind! I had 5 days to uproot my life and get toVegas...

Obviously i just gave the shortest version of all the craziness but it was amazing to me how everything all fell into place. There have been a number of blessings that have come my way. I have a darling friend who is in the Elvis cirque show who is letting crash at her place till NYC! Then hopefully we'll find a place together! Its a

huge financial blessing and if I'm going to be apart of a Vegas show, what better show then Donny and Marie. I know ill never be asked to do anything that makes me uncomfortable or wear anything immodest. The show is dark sunday/mondays and the other dancers are great people.

I've been in rehearsals all week learning the show and tonight is my first night going in! ahhh wish me luck:)

~Jessie Ann

Thriller's on the road!

ODT Tour Cast began our adventure in Park City...

New performance in an old theatre, new city, and a new crowd!

The stage was a little bit smaller than we were used to so we got real close and personal with the audience. Park City loved the show and we sold out for the weekend!

The theatre was nice enough to provide condos for us to stay in. These weren't just any run of the mill condo's....we were living large! I wanted to move in after a few days! Fully furnished with darling decorations and a full kitchen! Better than what I'm living in now:)

Next stop on the road we headed to the Covey Center for the arts in provo! We opened on a wednesday and had 5 shows! We sold out most shows and had a blast. Provo was a success and I had so many awesome friends and family members that made it out to see me!

Jen gathered the cast and we had a night full of good treats and scary ghost stories!

NEXT STOP....

ST GEEZY!

Rehearsals at the theatre are incredible. The largest amphitheater i've danced in and our back drop is a huge red rock canyon! Turn the lights off and it gets real creepy! The Theatre seats 2000 people and our opening weekend is sold out! Cant wait for opening night tonight!

~Jessie Ann

And It Begins...

6:45: Wake up...

7:00: Breakfast of champions
7:10: Pack my little red lunch cooler full of food

7:20: Throw on a Leo and Tights and pack at least three outfit changes for the day:)
7:35: Apply what little makeup I wear
7:40: throw my hair in a bun on top of my head and run out the door...
7:50 arrive at the Pointe and run into the studio
8:00 ODT begins and a day full of zombies, mummies, and panda bears begins:)

I consider myself one lucky girl to love what I do. How many people can say that they wake up excited to go to work? Or that they consider their colleagues a second family?? Not many... I have atleast 3 moms, a whole slew of sisters, and atleast 10 older brothers who watch my back. Its a blessing to associate with these people who make me feel loved and remind me whats important. I never fear I will have to compromise my morals or be asked to do something I believe is wrong. The love and support I feel everyday at ODT cannot be found anywhere else. No amount of fame or money will ever provide what I receive with my second family. Like I said, I'm one lucky girl:)
~Jessie Ann

Growning Pains

At the ripe old age of 3, I was asked...
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Simple answers like, a fireman or an astronaut are the things my friends answered, but what did I say? I told my mom I wanted to be a Star. I told her to enroll me in "How To Be A Star" lessons. I'm not sure how she held back the laughs but now as I reflect back on the 19 yrs of life I can see the many "Star" lessons i've learned....

Growing up is hard and I often find that I'm constantly faced with decisions. Its no wonder they call this the decade of decisions...So much pressure rides on all of my choices and the simpliest one can alter the rest of my life. Most of the time, I'm making a choice between two good things. But which one is the best? I still want to be that girl who does it all, achieves everything she wanted but never at the cost of my happiness. I'm can now see that these things are possible if I really make the decision to chase them and never look back. Im ready to run full force and with no regrets but at what point do i sacrifice the beautiful life I have here? It's a risk taking that step, but I can't let these moments and experiences pass me by because of fear.

Dreams have changed and goals have been reached but that tiny desire in me to be a Star still remains. No longer do I dream to be famous, or a star on broadway (which requires being able to hold a note, and we all know how good I am at that) but I still have big dreams that I get nervous I'll never see fulfilled. What is to hold me back? My own fear? Will I ever see that dream of being a Star come true? Only time will tell but I do know im going to do everything within my power to fight for what I want, and hold to what I Love!

~Jessie Ann

Walk It Off

Ive fallen in love with this song...and i love her voice more than anything! Take a listen and fall in love:)

A Little Weekend Inspiration

This week deserves a little positivity at the end of a crazy ride...

"Dont let anything stop you. There will be times when you'll be disappointed, but you can't stop. Make yourself the very best that you can make of what your are. The very best".

A good friend and I discussed the idea of a negative thought the other day and it got me really interested in it's effects. It is easy to let the negative situations around us define us. Not only does a negative situation or thought effect us in one specific aspect of our daily lives, but suddenly it creeps into all the rest. How easily a smile is turned into a scowl, and good morning turned into a bad afternoon when we let those sneaky negatives control us. Everyday won't be perfect, and everyday won't be filled with sunshine and singing birds, but I believe I have the power as well as the choice to make it the best that I can. To make myself the best that I can. Now if anyone needs to take this little inspiration to thought, it's me:) I've failed at keeping those negatives out this week, but I thought id share my little lesson learned!

~Jessie Ann

SOULESCAPE 2010

I think i may be the luckiest girl alive...

I spent 4 weeks with the most inspiring people...

Reminding me what i love to do, and where my passions will take me...

"There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. " ~Vicki Baum

I Couldn't have done it without this beautiful girl. Haylee gave me a place to stay, many late night fro-yo runs, and a shoulder to lean on!

These lovely ladies were stunning... I learned so much from each of them and they took such good care of me! Even when i was throwing up, they came prepared with saltines and gatorade to make me feel better!

I was so blessed and honored to be apart of the soulescape family!

So Many Good Things!

There is so many fantastic places to eat out here in LA! Im going to be very sad to leave these delicious places that ive grown to love! The one thing that i have appreciated about food choices in LA is that many places are Vegan and all Organic! Many of you that know me, know that I'm slightly obsessed with eating organically. Its Heaven!

We ate at a darling cafe in Silver Lake called Flore. Everything was Vegan, organic, and gluten free! Nat, Hay, and I ordered a pizza, burrito, and a chickpea-quinioa burger. We couldn't decide what we wanted so we split all three...

...and we ate all of it!! Inhaled it actually! So Tasty and im inspired to eat so much better now. I considering going Vegan...hmmm we'll see:)

We weren't finished with our food adventures for the day and discovered a cute place called Baby Cakes bakery. Guess what?! Gluten free and Vegan! Woot Woot! I order a cookie sandwich which consisted of two chocolate chip (Vegan and gluten free) cookies with vanilla frosting in the middle! Again i think i inhaled it instead of actually chewing it. Utah needs to get with the times and start providing this type of stuff!

Needless to say, we were all a little full, bloated, and sick but i think it was worth it...Did I tell you I'm a little inspired to change the way i eat? Im going to do it! Who knew a little LA would do me so much good!

Now this girl has been my "roomie" for the past month. Quite a saint for letting me crash at her place:) I cant tell you how incredible its been to be apart of my best friends life and experience her world! I dont know how we'll cope with out our late night fro-yo runs and yogi tea in the morning.. I may just have to move here:) I can always dream right?

This is the reason ive been so blessed to be in LA for the past month. Ive had the incredible opportunity to work with Justin Giles and the talented dancers on the SoulEscape dance company. These people are like none others:) #1 the talent is ridiculous, #2 they've taken care of me as I'm a stranger out here, and #3 the most positive, and hilarious people ive ever worked with! Rehearsals are coming along great and the show is coming up! The show is Monday August 9th, at 8 p.m at the El Portal theatre in North Hollywood. Cant wait to get on stage!

A Little Piece of LA!

Lets start with pinkberry...Were dating and he is sooooo good to me:) Always there everyday (sometimes twice a day) and never gets old! This is something that i will miss when i go back home..there is a pinkberry at every turn out here! I think i may be addicted. I wonder if they ship pinkberry to utah??

This place is heaven... It's called IT'SUGAR and it's every persons dream. The entire store is filled with any kind of candy imaginable. Each table is divided into categories of goodies. One table is sour gummys and the next is chocolate covered treats and entire walls of jelly beans and M&Ms! I walked in and they handed me a little zip lock baggy and told me to go crazy..well of course I did! I tasted a little piece of it all!

And we cant forget about the beach! We went to Santa Monica to play and relax at the beach! I think it took us at least 30 min to find parking that wasn't $12 but we did our best and took some R&R time:) I desperately wish that utah had a beach! So many fun people all gathered at one place, all enjoying the same sun:) Im gonna miss me some cali!

Gypsy Livin

Its been a very long time since ive blogged! Not that anybody really reads my blog but for the one that does (bryton:) ) here is the update!

Ive been out in LA for about a week now. I had the amazing opportunity to take my Jr Co dancers to Nationals with the rest of Center Stage. It was exciting to be on the other side of things this time around. I was a competitor last year at NUVO Nationals and now i had the chance to share it with my cute little chickens! Needless to say Center Stage swept the competition! I was a proud little mamma sitting in the audience cheering the dancers on. I cant even tell you how great it was to take class again. I was reminded why i love doing what i do!

Nationals ended on thursday and now I'm crashing at my best friends house who I haven't seen in way to long! Thank goodness haylee doesn't mind me tagging along on her crazy LA life! Ill be out here till Aug 10th. Quite awhile huh? I have the opportunity to dance for an exciting show and i cant wait to start rehearsals tomorrow! eeek! hopefully my body can keep up with the insane talent ill be working with...I guess I'm just gonna have to cross my fingers and hope i can keep up! I feel like I'm just going with the flow.... I dont have a car....or a place of my own...so hopefully this continues to work out! like i said...Living like a Gyspy!!

Dads Big Five-Oh!

We celebrated my Dads 50th b day on monday! (His real birthdate is the 8th of June but he was out of town) so we thought we would throw together a little suprise! I think my dad was a little bit sad that no one did anything special on his b day so he wasnt expecting anything at all! Bryton and i started by sneaking into his office at 7 a.m. (with the help of one of dads sneaky colleges) and decorating it with black balloons and Over The Hill decor:) Every two hours he received a cute note with the lyrics of his favorite songs tied into his favorite treats! I even snuck a nummy lunch into his office without him knowing! 6 o'clock rolled around and bryton and i dressed in all black and kidnapped him from the office...it didnt really go as planned due to the doors being locked but we finally got him outta there! after a very long detour we got my dad back to the house and to his suprise, we had all of his fam and friends there! I think he shed a few tears and bryton and I had the time of our lives being so sneaky! I'd say it was quite the success!

More exciting european adventures!!

We ate the best Waffles at Sarahs Pancake house in Amsterdam! (thanks to sarah for an amazing breakfast)

We had some seriously hilarious train troubles on the way to Paris...

its no wonder why the French weren't huge fans of us... running on and off the train like little stress cases, only to find we were indeed on the right train all along, then having to trek from car #1 all the way back to car #8....(walk of shame with all of our bags)...lets just say it was quite the experience!...i needed a carrot to calm the stress:)

This was our first night in Paris when we turned the corner and spotted the Eiffel Tower for the first time! The Paris streets were beautiful and it was the beginning of tons to see!

Ice Cream at the Eiffel Tower with chase!

I asked the nice lady for a "Petite" (small) and she said "No way!"

so i ended up with an ice cream cone the size of my head:)

Nat, Katia, and I in front of the beautiful gardens at Versailles...

It was incredible to see the legacy of Marie Antoinette and learn about her estate.

The amount of Gold in that place was insane! its no wonder the French people raided that place and killed her..she was spending the nations money on building her the amazing estate. It was very beautiful and Im very glad we took the time to tour it!

Making our wishes at the Trevi Fountain!!

We threw our coins in so hopefully we'll be back to Rome soon!

It was a rainy day at the Colosseum but we made it work! Gorgeous at night as well!

Tia and I right before our Vatican tour! i was like a child at Disneyland! i was so excited!!

The Vatican was my favorite part of Rome! these pics are in the Basilica in St Peters square and it took my breath away as soon as i walked in! Favorite part of Rome!

Stole a ride on a Vespa! huge in Rome! I secretly want one:)

Nat and I on the famous Spanish Steps!

We finished our adventures in Interlaken Switzerland...

Its was so beautiful! This pic is right before we flung ourselves off a mountain and paraglided!

it was CRAZY!!!!

The area around our hostel was like a picture from a movie:) Perfect way to end the trip!

Last train ride! We headed back to Frankfurt to fly home exhausted but inspired! so many new dreams and aspirations!..

couldn't have asked for a better European experience

Europe! more posts to come soon

I finally made it home safe and sound! I had THE MOST AMAZING AND LIFE CHANGING experiances that have made me re think life!

It all started in Germany with my ODT family. We did 8 shows all over germany! We would do a show, hop on the bus, eat lots of chocolate, travel to a new city, and start all over. The germans were great audiences and they responded to our shows really positively...although, they werent big fans of Americans outside of the theatres...We even got sushed in public!

Anyhow, we got to spend a little bit of time exploring the cute towns we visited. Here are some of our adventures...