It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood..

Sunday was an epic day. A day I will never forget. I have to admit it was even better than Saturday.

Now you might ask how can you get much better than Christmas Day?

Well by a day when you get a chance to shake the Prophet's hand of course!

It's funny because as I've been reading the Work and the Glory, I've thought about what it must've been like to live next door to the Prophet and to have been his friend like he was to so many. To live in the same neighborhood as him where you could be walking down the street and run into him. It would be wonderful!

Well yesterday I got to go to President Monson's home ward and hear him speak. I was amongst those people that do live down the street from the Prophet. And even though it's not the same and he isn't there as often since he's busy traveling the world and what not but they still know him. They still can walk by his house. I don't know, I find it pretty awesome, and it's something I've been thinking a lot about lately. But I guess I am at least thankful that I do live in Utah and that I do have those opportunities to go and hear the Prophet speak in person and shake his hand.

It's an experience I won't ever forget!

And I may or may not wash my hand ever again.. ;)

Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Our activities of the night included:

* My Grandparents coming over to join in our big family party.

* A delicious dinner.

* The little ones acting out the nativity scene. Marcie and I decided to get the kids together and find costumes so they could act out the nativity scene. Pretty sure they all looked adorable and I'm so sad I didn't get my camera out for pictures! And I haven't been able to steal them from anyone else yet.. so sorry I can't share them with you. But it was great to have them so excited to dress up and then have my dad read the story from the Bible so that we can really remember why we celebrate Christmas.

* Watching an old home video of my older siblings when they acted out the nativity scene.

* Getting out the chimes to try and play some Christmas songs. The kids did surprisingly well :)

* Eating ice cream sundaes.

* Setting up our beds in the basement. It's always been a tradition for the kids to sleep downstairs in the big bedroom (which is now mine instead of my brothers) so that we can't hear Santa on the roof. Well as you can imagine, my room isn't big enough for 18 people, so we spread all around the basement.

* Opening the gifts we got for our siblings. We only buy for one sibling since buying 7+ gifts gets really pricey.

* Watching Miracle on 34th Street. I love that movie. If only I could've been as smart as that little girl when I was little.

* Getting all the stockings ready and then getting to bed so Santa could come! We've made a new tradition where we all come up with a stocking stuffer to give to each other. This year I made my own bags of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. I felt pretty clever.

CHRISTMAS DAY

The events of Christmas day include:

* Waking up at about 8 which was surprising. I thought for sure the little kids would wake us up a whole lot earlier than that. But I didn't complain cause I got to sleep longer.

* Watching the kids run into the family room and see all the presents Santa brought is priceless. It's so fun to see how excited they get!

* The morning was just a lot of chaos of everyone opening presents, eating breakfast, and hanging out. My Grandparents came back to spend the day with us.

* My favorite gift I got was my new camera! Now I have a good camera so hopefully I will now take a lot more pictures since I have been lacking good ones lately.

* After my siblings with kids left, Chantell and Jarem brought out Rock Band and we had a lot of fun.. :) (I had a video I was going to show but it won't upload. I mostly wanted to show how great of drum players my grandparents are and how my dad was made for singing in a band.. But I guess the picture down below will just have to do for now.)

* I took a nice 2 hour nap after rocking out and then was lazy the rest of the day. I ended up hanging out with Christal and her boyfriend all night..

And that was my Christmas! I just can't believe it's already over.. But here are some of the few pictures I have from my Christmas weekend.

Trip down memory lane

* I had the biggest crush on this kid in kindergarten and first grade. He was the kid everyone liked. But then he moved away and I hadn't seen or heard from him until two weeks ago when he found me on Facebook. I couldn't believe it. After saying hey and asking how I've been (which is a funny question since that means how have I been over the past 15 years..) he shocked me by asking me out. I mean really? Who moves that fast? Just because we liked each other in kindergarten doesn't mean anything now that we're 20!

* A couple of nights ago I had a dream about Tobin and now I can't get him out of my mind. It brought back a lot of the memories we had together. And strange as it may seem, I miss him a lot. Now don't start jumping to conclusions. I don't think I miss him in the aspect of wanting to date him again. I just miss my best friend.

* Today I went to lunch with my bestfriends from my childhood- Ellen, Marissa, Abbey, and Deedee. It was sooo good to catch up with all of them and reminisce about the good ol' days where we didn't have to worry about anything. I love them all so much and am glad we still keep in touch! :)

* I went to my sisters basketball game today at Skyline and got to see their Drill team perform at half time. It made me sad. I really do miss it. At least the dancing part- not so much the drama that came with it. But I did love dancing and performing. It just brought back all the memories of early morning practices, competitions and how awesome our moms were in the food they provided for us, how crazy our year end shows were, and many more..

I just can't believe that life was 2 1/2 years ago..

Time sure does fly by!

Mi Familia

I have had a lovely break so far. Goodness I love being home!!

I spent last Saturday playing with Christal. We were bums all day until we were joined by Marcie to go Christmas shopping. And can I just say what great luck we had that night! Seriously, I don't think I've ever had a better time shopping because we found exactly what we wanted so fast. It was a very fun and successful girls night out :)

I went shopping again today and didn't have as great of luck which was a bummer. But I got to spend the whole day with my dad so it didn't matter that we didn't find anything! I enjoyed our little daddy daughter day.

Other than shopping, the last few days have consisted of family parties! Last night was my mom's side and it was very different from past ones. I have my two closest cousins on that side and this year one is in the MTC and the other is engaged so her boy was there too. It was just weird to not have the three of us there getting the same gift from the grandparents and hanging out. Instead, I was just the third wheel. Lame I know. But I do love my cousins fiance (I definitely approve Camille :) ) so it really wasn't that bad.

Oh, and I have the cutest grandparents ever who gave me an electric blanket because they must know how cold I get in Logan!

Tonight was the family party with my dads side and those parties have never been the same since my grandma passed away. They are still fun and nice to see everyone- cause it's not like we share our backyard with half of them.. haha but we still have a good time.

I'm just glad that I get to be home to spend all this time with family.

I mean, look at them..

can you blame me?

:)

Halle-freakin-lujah

Finals week is over!!

Pretty sure that was the most stressful and sucky finals week I've had so far. And although all the hours of studying didn't pay off as well as you'd think they should, I still passed all my classes which is all that counts right?

I'm just glad it's break time and I can stop thinking about school for a few weeks. It feels wonderful to actually be able to read my book, watch a movie, sit on my computer and blog, or do whatever I want to without feeling guilty about not studying.

It also just feels good to be home again. I can play with my family without trying to cram it into a weekend. I can go to my sister's basketball games. I can watch my brother's break dancing performance. I can gossip with my mom. I can help and spend time with my dad. I can play with and babysit my adorable nieces and nephews.

Mmm yep. This break is going to be a break that I definitely need.

Menaces to Society..

School is taking up my life right now and I'm pretty sure I've lost my mind. I keep meaning to get on here and post but I feel guilty doing things other than studying. So I'll be back in a week when finals are over. But for now I just want to share this vid with you. I find it hilarious. :)