Christmas Break: Home Sweet Home

 Well to start, we celebrated mom's birthday!! My mom is such an amazingly strong, kind, understanding, and supportive person. I have always looked up to her and gone to her for guidance and just to vent about my problems. She always listens and tries to tell me enough of what I want to hear and what I need to hear. I don't think I couldn't ask for anyone more patient and wonderful. I ♥ my mom!

One night I even had someone crawl into bed with me and steal all the covers. Normally I would be angry at this, but I guess I was just filled with a lot of love  for my family that day/night. Good thing too or she would have been on the floor;)

I loved being home with the family and just spend time together. I didn't realize how much I missed being with them until I came home and woke up to them every morning. I am so extremely blessed to have been born into my family. They are so funny, loving, sarcastic, loud, thoughtful, and just the right amount of crazy. 

One of my favorite parts of being home was getting to go to a family ward. Oh how I have missed my ward! There were baby's crying, so many people talking to me, and it just felt like home. Relief society even had funny old lady's just like it's supposed to!

Christmas Break: Traveling Home

The semester ENDED!!! JB and I made Lemon Blueberry Pancakes to celebrate! I figured I was going home for Christmas anyways so i might as well surprise my family by coming home a day early! I set up the plan and had my dad as my accomplice. i told my mom and siblings that I would be driving home all Friday, but secretly we drove back Thursday to surprise them that night.

 I was so grateful to go home for Christmas and get away from the cold weather for two whole weeks! I left early Thursday morning and drove back home with a friend from my home ward. We made really good time and only stopped twice the whole way back. I decided to be extra sneaky so I took pictures with my phone on wed to show me packing and cleaning my room so that I could send them to my mom as we drove Thursday. 

She didn't suspect a thing!

The drive was SO LONG, but it was fun and I got really good at coming up with lots of random questions and games to play. When we finally made it to my house I went up to the door and S answered the door. He had almost no reaction to me being there and all he said was, "hi". 

HELLO I CAME HOME EARLY!!   SURPRISE!!

My mom was surprised and so happy that I was home. K's reaction was the best! She was sitting in a chair and I had come all the way in the house and had put my stuff down before she realized that it was me. She told us later that she thought she had fallen asleep and that I was just a dream! I love that kid♥

Christmas is right around the corner...

We heard this in my English class earlier in the year and it gave me a good laugh. Enjoy!
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/24/167716732/david-sedaris-reads-from-his-santaland-diaries

Also in more recent news, ITS SNOWING!!!!! Real snow that sticks and is cold and messy :/ 

Here is the view from my apartment window!

"I'll Be Home For Christmas" has been one of my favorite Christmas songs lately there's only one part that I'd change this year ;)

I am dreaming tonight of a place I love

Even more than I usually do

And although I know it's a long road back

I promise you

I'll be home for Christmas

You can count on me

Please DON’T have snow OR mistletoe

just family round the tree!

Home Sweet Home for Turkey Day!!

Well although it took lots of texts and phone calls to arrange a ride I got to travel home for Thanksgiving! Even 3 short days home was worth all the time in the car to get there and back. I had SO much family come into town for the holiday I barely had time to see everyone!

I got to spend lots of time traveling with my Uncle, Aunt, and Cousins. We drove Tuesday and stayed the night in Reno at Circus Circus. The next day i went home! It feels so good to say and feel that Yuba is home. I was worried after moving that I would never be able to say that and really mean it. The great thing is I DO! I love all the people there and almost feel more at home there. Why? Well my family might have something to do with it:)
I got home Wednesday to my sister texting me every 10 minutes and then riding her bike around the block waiting for me. I sure love that kid!
We went to lunch with my cousins and then i got to hang out with my siblings for the afternoon. What did we do? Watched Netflix shows. I know really special right?? Well after being away from my family for two + months now all I really felt like doing was hanging out with them. We went to the Church building and played bball and kicked the soccer ball around. Then we went to dinner at the Dancing Tomato. I got lasagna...well it was supposed to be anyways...

Thursday THANKSGIVING
The day started out with going to the shooting range with Aunts, Uncles, and tons of  cousins from both sides of the family. It was CRAZY, but in a good family kind of way.
































































































After all the fun out on the range I headed to visit my newest cousin for the first time. She is so so sweet with tons of hair. Her big sister is still her crazy self, but also very involved and attentive to the new baby.

Then we stopped by a 7-11 before heading up the hill. I may or may not have gotten a whole quart of chocolate milk that I finished by the time we got to Grandmas house. We went to my dad's side for dinner this year. We had 4 of the 5 siblings for dinner this year. Tons of fun!!
So even though I'm 18 I was still seated at the kid's table this year. NO not the big kids table, the little kids. I guess I should take it as a compliment if my 5 year old cousin will tell my dad he can't sit down because she was saving the seat for ME! One good thing about being an older cousin is somebody is always trying to be your best friend. Oh, the joys and pains of being so loved:)












On a slight side note my baby brother is not so little anymore. Every year one of my uncles grows out his mustache for No Shave November. My brother decided that this year he would also try and participate. And when I say try I mean attempt....well you can see for yourself.

 Can you see it? No?? Here try this one...













That's better right? Well my mom wasn't a big fan, but I think it's kinda fun! I mean it's only for one month. I wonder what it'll look like next year?!?!

So speaking of my brother...he is on the bball team at school this year. I honestly am not a big sports person so watching sports live or TV has never been something I enjoy that much. However, if I know someone on the team it makes it 10X better. He had a game on Friday and I was so excited that I got to go! We basically took up 6 benches or more with all the family/friends that came to support him. The one regret of that night was we forgot to take a picture! When he came out on the court we erupted yelling and cheering. Both the audience around us as well as his whole team looked a little startled and confused as to why we were so excited. In short it was EPIC and a moment I will never forget.

After the game we went home and spent a little time with my mom's out of town family. I love my family and find it amazing that we get along so well after only seeing each other maybe once every year sometimes more than a year. What do you do with cousins? You find the most uncomfortable positions for pictures and then stack children on top of you while you smile and hold that position for a good 3-5 minutes while the mom's take the pictures. Sigh making memories is had work!

I headed back home Saturday ; 12 long LONG hours in the car. I hated leaving my family and for the first time since starting College I felt homesick. Lucky for me Christmas is right around the corner!
On Sunday I went to church with my cousins in a family ward. This is something I was looking forward to after being in an awkwardly quiet student ward in Rexburg. It was the first Sunday of the month so we had a Fast and Testimony meeting during church. A couple of people bore their testimonies about Christ and the gospel. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of kids who went up to share their small and simple faith in Jesus and families. And then the biggest surprise of all. Batman went up and gave a testimony of his own. Yes BATMAN!!! Ok so maybe he was a three year old dressed up like batman, but still! He was up there with his mom and HAD to speak into that microphone if it was the last thing he did. HAHA I sure miss family wards, but mostly the kids.

After church we went back to my Uncle's house and I helped them decorate for Christmas. I was so grateful to be able to help with that simple tradition. It just put me in the mood for Christmas and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. That night i drove back to Rexburg with 3 other girls from school. It was super windy, but really fun. We talked about school, marriage, dating, kids, the pains of being tall, going to the bathroom, wedding dresses, wedding plans (she is getting married in the spring). I got home to my beautiful roommates who were all excited to be back.

Remember earlier in the month when I made the Thankful jar??? Well I said that when november was over we would open it and read all the things we were thankful for. When I came home Sunday night all the girls were excited to see what what was inside. Some of them were:

DOUGHNUTS     THE RELIEF SOCIETY PREZ.     THE BISHOP     THE PRIESTHOOD

FRIENDS     PEOPLE WHO WASH THE DISHES    WHEN PEOPLE HELP MAKE FOOD

CHOCOLATE CHIPS     THAT ELEPHANTS DON'T FLY     ROOMMATES     TALENTS

WINTER COATS     SCARVES     GLOVES     WHEN THE BISHOPRIC BRINGS US PIZZA

PANTS THAT SAVE THE CARPET FROM EXPLODING HOT CHOCOLATE     THE GOSPEL

LOTS OF COOKIES     THE BOOK OF MORMON     ICE CREAM     FHE SISTERS

TOASTY BEDS     HOT WATER

Well November was fun and full of adventure. We made it all the way through without any major snow and I'm ready to take on December!!

She Loves Me!

My lovely roommate went home for TWO WHOLE DAYS!!! so so sad....when she came home she drew me beautiful pictures and put them on my door so I would never be lonely again. ♥♥♥♥♥ Roommates are the BEST!!

The Weather's changin and I'm an adult and a half!

The weather here is getting colder. I am trying my best to not say "cold" yet because I know that 30 degree weather with an occasional high 20 degree day is not even close to "cold" yet. I went with some of my roomies to a soccer game for one of my FHE brothers. I was freezing if you can't tell from the picture. The game was tied almost the entire time, and as if we hadn't been there long enough they went into a double overtime and had to settle who won by a goal shoot-off. 


Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I just love the fall weather and the smell in the air. I love to get together with family and make a big meal so the house smells good all day long. For our apartment I made a Thankful Jar and when we all get back from thanksgiving break we will open it and read what everyone was thankful for this month. 


This month I was thankful to receive a package in the mail! My mom sent it to me for my 1/2 birthday and it was full of fun stuff. Thanksgiving decorations, gum, nail polish, Mormon ads, a leaf, and just random stuff like glow in the dark stickers, skittles, confetti conversation starters. 



I took the thanksgiving window stickies and put them on the window but it needed somethings more...Because last month's Halloween window silhouettes were such a big hit I made another one for this month. A TURKEY!! I used what ever we had in the apartment which meant a Winco bag, sticky notes, and duck tape. :)

JB and I also love to try fun new foods. We have been keeping this on pinterest and finally made it. Hotdogs with noodles cooked through them. We added a mac and Cheese packet to the creation that we now call our "jellyfish" dinner. 

Last month we went to BH's battle of the dance performance and this month she got to go back to her high school and preform again. We were all invited to go the the pageant. I have never been to anything like that before and it was an "experience". Haha, OK it wasn't that bad, but I don't see myself going to one of those again unless I knew more than one girl. 

Another fun thing that happened last week was I ran into my cousins and aunt from utah. They were taking a tour of campus and I just happened to walk by as they were going inside a building. I was so surprised to see them! I almost didn't follow because what if it wasn't them?? Well I couldn't NOT see if it was, so I just stalked them;) I went up behind my cousin L and pulled her hair. She turned around surprised and then they all saw me. We met up that night and went to Sammy's ice cream for the famous Pie Shakes! SOOOOO GOOD!! Then we went to see Austinland, which is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen! I loved spending time with these girls and cant wait until Jan when A will come here for school! 

This month I also got a brand new cousin! She is so cute and not even a squishy old man looking baby :D 

(side note: Don't get me wrong, I love babies and kids. But when babies are just born they are usually gross and wrinkly. I just don't think most newborns are very good looking until they are at least 2 months old, that's all i'm saying.)
Anyways my aunts baby did not come out very squishy and has lots of dark hair! I'm so excited to hold her when I go home for Thanksgiving!!

Roommate Pictures!!

So being from CA makes me feel pretty comfortable talking about drugs in both a serious way as well as making fun of them. I have gone to school with countless "druggies" and have memorable stories.  I know it's maybe not the best thing to talk about, but living with someone else from CA just makes it worse. "Don't do crack" is a common phrase used in our apartment jokingly of course;)

The story behind the picture was KH had a project in her
class to take pictures of people with different backgrounds. I volunteered and we were used the brick wall for a background, but then I saw the crack:) Other than that picture She also got a couple of good ones.

We got really lucky that she took the pictures when she did because the sun and warm weather are just about gone.

And these are the crazy kids from my Family Home Evening group. 

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