Finals finally ended and the break began with a bridal shower for my MTC companion, Chelsea Longhurst. Woo!! It was very fun and I'm sooo excited for her!! I can't wait for their beautiful ceremony in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on January 3rd. I've never been to that temple either so I'm really excited!!
Then came a trip up the Mountains with Trevor's family. It was way fun! Full of games, relaxing, movies (and when I say movies i mean lots and lots and lots of snow mobile movies.... and then some more snow mobile movies, since there wasn't enough snow to do it in real life). Ha!
There was enough snow to make you cold! And ice fish!!! Just not for snowmobiling. I never went down to the ice fishing, but they had a lot of fun doing that I think. We four wheeled and went shooting one day. It was a great start to Christmas break!
Then Christmas Eve came and Julie, Nick, Molly, and Johnny arrived from Reno. Wooo! We even had Santa make a surprise visit! He burst through the front door after we finished the nativity, performed and presented by the grandchildren, and it scared me (since no one told me he was coming) and I screamed at the top of my lungs. haha! But after sitting on his lap, we each got a giant candybar like Grandma and Grandpa Davis used to always give us. Mmmm! It felt like Christmas eve again!
The cemetary was beautiful as usual. I love the cemetary lighting!!! I think every city in the world should do this on Christmas Eve. It's so beautiful!!
After Christmas we went to the ranch while there was still snow and went sledding down the hill.
It was lots of fun! Trevor tried to get me to wear a helmet... HA! But it ended up that he stopped wearing his, our family is corrupting him. I don't think I'd ever worn a helmet four wheeling until I went to the cabin with his family.
Milo had a crash worth bragging about. It's left a mighty cool mark on his face. Hmmm that probably could have been avoided had he been wearing a helmet...
Princess Molly is pulling her princess smile here. I tried to mimic it, but clearly you can tell I don't have it quite as good as she's mastered it.
This video shows the fun Molly and John had staying at our house. I've trained all the other grandchildren to stay out of Aunt Alli's room, but John and Molly haven't quite grasped that concept.
It was so much fun having them here though. I missed them so much when they left!! Here is Molly pulling her "bad guy" face.
It's been fun catching up with friends over the break too. One morning I went to breakfast with some girlfriends from Highschool (L-R) Me, Haley Darling Wilson, Lexy Buffo Ward, Hillary Searle, and Crystal Call Melander. Tonight I'm going over to Emily's to watch the latest Harry Potter movie. Woo!! I can't wait! And earlier today Shannon Griffiths Baily and her husband Jake came over to visit. I just love friends!!! Yesterday I went to Ari's to see what her adorable baby girl Alivia got for Christmas and to drop off a loaf of bread and visit. At the beginning of the break we all (Ari, Liv and I) had a girls outing and went to Brick Oven too. I just love my friends!!!
Skyping has been a part of the break too. Christmas was fun skyping with Sherry's fam and Ben's fam! Tonight Sherry interrupted my blogging and we skyped. Here's some photos
I'm ready for them to come to Utah!!! Calvin is getting so big and he's so adorable. I think all of Sherry and Trevor's children are a perfect mix of them. I think Calvin looks like Trevor, and then I change to Sherry, and then back to Trevor and that's how all their babes have been!!! I love it!!
I love my family! I stink at talking on the phone with you all, but I do love you all!!
It's been a fun break! It's been fun playing with Trev's fam too. Trevor got a new game for Christmas, Betrayal At House on the Hill, and it's been a popular play. It's fun if you're looking for a board game. It's different every time you play and it keeps you on your toes.
Well that's life so far. I'm sure I've missed a lot, but I'll have to update some more later because it's time to go to Emily's house. Wooo!! Oh and her parents just left today for their mission. Hooray! I'm so excited for them. They'll be awesome and they're CES missionaries, so that's exciting. Emily and her sister Megan now run the house, that's why I'm going over to Par-Tay!!!
Ariel is now Mrs. Don Baker, and what a beautiful ceremony it was.
Papa did a great job marrying the two together, and the Chillon looked great!!! Ariel also look gorgeous with her hair done, by Amberlee of course, and her beautiful dress. They've re-modeled the Chillon and I liked it a lot. Ariel got to walk down a spiral staircase before meeting up with Stan to walk her down the isle, which I thought was way fun. I wanted Todd's job though, rolling out the white carpet for her to walk down, but I just sat back and enjoyed the show. It all was very nice!
I finally found my camera charger and charged up my camera to get some updated photos. Here's me and mom and before I'd let Todd take my picture with Ariel, I had him practice on me and aunt Karen.
He passed the test. Then I caught Trev and I before I dropped him off to continue the adventures of studying for finals. You'll notice my hair changed. haha! I was tired of my hair so Amberlee so kindly squoze me in between the wedding ceremony and reception and high lighted my hair. I like it so much better! I've been debating on whether or not to go darker... but I gave in when I saw mom who also just high lighted her hair. I just like being blonde I guess.
Only 5 more days and we're done with this semester. Woohooo! I can't wait! I'm very ready to have a break! haha actually I sort of have had a bit of a break over the weekend because I went home on Friday to attend the Fairbanks party at mom and dad's house and I was only going to sing in their program, then go back in my room and study.... but it was just too much fun talking to everyone, so I ended up not getting to bed until 1:30 a.m. and then Friday night repeated itself a little more than it should have. I did do some homework, but mostly I did what "I" wanted to! I'm not complaining though, I've been doing HW nonstop all week, so I deserved to do what I wanted to.
Now I'll just have to kick it up a gear and go full speed forward the remainder of this week. I'm actually excited to take on the challenge and collapse on Friday knowing I gave it my all!! Life is just fun that way isn't it? Always so many challenges for us to take on.....
Well I hope everyone who reads this is having a great day and has a great week. You're the only one who has control over whether it is or not. LOVE YOU ALL!
And I can tell you now, because I have once again decided I CANNOT do homework on Sundays... unless I really have to. I don't know why I got back into the habit of doing it on Sundays this last semester... well maybe because my homework load is a lot.... but I will have to make sacrifices and do better on planning out my time, because Sundays should be the Lord's day!!
And a day to write on my blog!
So before I get to Thanksgiving, I just returned from the Christmas Devotional by the first presidency and it was absolutely amazing! Like always whenever we hear from the first presidency. It was really neat because Trevor invited me with his family to go to the program and we were able to sit really close to the front. I was so touched to watch President Monson, President Eyring, and President Uchtdorf interact with each other. You truly can see their love for each other. I also was touched watching them during the songs performed by the tabernacle choir. I especially love the Christmas Hymns and the spirit that they bring about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, but tonight when the choir was singing The First Noel and Silent Night, the first presidency got choked up, and I couldn't help but get choked up myself because, If anyone knows our Savior better, it would be them. So seeing them get emotional about the greatness of our Savior Jesus Christ's life in coming here to this earth.... It was just an experience I'll cherish forever! I'm really grateful for the opportunity I had to witness and go tonight with the Pugh Family!!!
So Thanksgiving break came and left so fast it almost felt like a dream. haha isn't that just how life gets the older we get? And sorry I have no pictures. I really need to charge up my camera and start turning picture savvy again. I'll just be quick:
In the morning I went with Trev's fam up in the North Salt Lake area I think... and it started off with a football game. Eh Heh heh... I learned that I should probably learn the rules to football before I try playing:) Yep! I don't think I need say any more than that....
Then we ate a delicious Thanksgiving meal! Mmmm! I loved the sweet potatoes MmmMmm!! Trev's family really went all out decorating I thought. I felt like I was at a reception hall haha! It was pretty! and then there was the football game on... that made me laugh -so different from our family that never watches sports.
After eating we drove quickly down to Payson for the Muppet Movie with our fam. I liked the movie! It kept me entertained! And afterwards we went to the Doty's house and played DANCE on the Wii. Oh my! There were some pretty funny groups that danced (like Earl, Austin, and Pat haha). My favorite was Mom, Sandra, and Karen.... Mom totally took the gold!! She rocked the house! Dad unfortunately couldn't participate because the night before we went to Austin's school gym and played and he hurt his back.
Playing at the gym was WAY fun too though. We had jump ropes, hula hoops, balls, parachutes, all sports balls, wheely things, and much much more. We had it all to ourselves: Mark's fam, Austin's fam, and me, mom and dad. I learned how to double dutch rope. It was so much fun. Emmalee is way good at it!! She'd just jump right in and go at it. I won the single jump roping though. No one could out jump me. Yep!! I'm pretty proud!
I also got A LOT of homework done so that was super nice. Makes life a little bit easier right now. I need to get to bed though so I can wake up early and do Homework before work. The week starts of CraZinEss!!!! If I don't return calls, emails, or texts..... know I'm not trying to ignore you, I'm just a bit of a stress case starting at 6:15a.m. when my alarm goes off. Wooo!
It's here! The last week of school is next week and then it's finals week! Wooo!!! I have 6 finals to prepare for and who knows how many projects to do haha! I'm just trying to survive and finish everything. Sheesh BYU is one crazy crazy place! I just finished a 6 page paper for Monday (Hallelujah!!!!) and am about to start the rest of my homework. It would be impossible to write down all the assignments that I have, I can't think of it all at once either or it's overwhelming. Just one day at a time.
And what a good day today has been. I woke up, went to the temple, wrote my 6 page paper in Trevor's lab while he played scientist, and now I'm here writing this blog while eating some lunch on campus, and preparing to do more homework.
Did I mention how amazing the temple is? My, oh my!! I can't imagine what life would be like without it! I seriously feel at so much more peace about EVERYTHING since leaving there! I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and stressed last night, but I feel a new and added measure of help and assurance. Seriously, that's how I got that 6 page paper written.
Anyways, so that's life right now: preparing for finals. I have a test on Tuesday in my science class that I'm a bit nervous for, but all I can do is my best and call that good:) Life is way good!!! I love life!!
Oh you know what me and my roommate discovered? I am a super emotional reader. When I read I take the story on in my life. I feel for the characters and seriously get super emotionally attached. I think about the story all day long too (that's sort of easy since I'm usually always reading if I'm not in class or at work), but the last book I just finished was of this boy who everything he did he turned into a poem. It's called "Skate Fate". It's interesting-- But I'm also studying poems in two of my classes right now, so poems are really being pounded into my head. I noticed that in place of my usual tunes that go through my head, everything I do right now I have some type of poem pop into my head..... It's almost like a musical world going on in poem form. MmmHmm! It's nuts! So if ya need a good poem, just give me a shout out. Ha! I should start writing more down, I just keep them stuck in my head--until they get forgotten up there floating around somewhere.
Okay my sandwich is gone. Time to get boogieing with school. Wooo! Oh and p.s. I broke my phone and got a new one, so I have about 5 numbers right now saved into my phone. So feel free to text me and tell me who you are so I can save you. Eventually I'll get to the verizon store and transfer over my numbers from my old phone, but until that actually happens, I can't contact too many people through my phone.....
