Love at Home

I love coming home.  Especially after being gone for so long; time makes everything sweeter. All the smells, the pictures around the house, and the family phrases that I used to think were normal and everyday things I now treasure and love to be around. I love just being around my family.  I love to hear them all say the little things that they always have said. I never realized how much I loved those little things until I didn't hear them everyday.  It is also hard to realize that they have new parts of their life that I don't know about. Maybe it is self-centered but I hate to know that their lives go on without me here.  It is so hard to know that they are growing and learning without me here to witness it all.  But it is okay, they are all growing up to be such wonderful people.  For family home evening we had a testimony meeting.  It was so great to hear the testimonies of each of my siblings.  It just made me realize how blessed I am to be raised in the gospel with a family that is so amazing and strong.  I am so thankful that families can be together forever.  I just love it all so much! I especially love coming home because all the love felt in our home rejuvenates me and makes me prepared to go back out on my own again.  I love how every time I come home I grow and become a better person just from the examples of my younger siblings.  I learn something new from each one of them. My parents have done such a good job! I love coming home for all the fun games that we play.  I love coming home for all the fun activities we do as a family.  I love coming home for the relaxation time we have.  Basically I just love coming home!

Bitter-Sweet

So I just hate bitter-sweet things.  I am about to go home which I am super excited about it!  I cannot wait to see my family and just be home with no worries!  Plus some of my cousins are coming into town which just makes it even better!  All of this is way sweet!  But then there is the bitter part.  Why does there always have to be a bitter part?  So while I am at home I am missing so many great things! For example, our stake ice skating activity, Mr. BYU competition, and the Utah vs. BYU game!  All these things are going to be awesome and I am greatly missing out!  It seems like this always happens in life.  I guess it is just important that you always make the decision so that the sweet outweighs the bitter.  Which in this case the sweet does outweigh the bitter, but it sure doesn't make the bitter any sweeter! 

Now the Second Best Movie Ever!

Is that perfect? haha

The Best Movie Ever!

So this movie just makes me so happy to watch!

Isn't she the best??

Perspective

I was just thinking about how time can change things.  It is so weird to look back even a month ago and think about the people that I hung out with, crushed on, and cared most about.  My life has changed so much in such a short time.  It just really got me thinking about how people just come and go and same with joys and hardships.  One year at EFY I went to this class on perspective.  In the class the teacher started out by talking about how old we are in the Lord's time and then the same for President Hinckley.  And we figured out that President Hinckley was only a little bit older than 2 hours.  Then he explained that if we think of our hard times and trials on this time table it will be so much easier to bear.  We can realize that they will all be over soon and just be a small part of our past.  He also told us that we signed up for these trials.  And we looked at them and thought that we could definitely handle them because it was short time.  For example those who have terrible accidents or mental disabilities all looked at the Lord and said sure I can handle that, I mean it will only be a few hours.  And most of us don't have trials that long or that devastating.  This idea really hit me hard.  It made me realize that our trials really are "only but a short time".  If we look at everything this way it makes life so much easier and enjoyable.  And also just treasure time so much more.  I mean time comes and goes so fast!  We just really need to make sure we are treasuring all our time here and love life more!  It is so wonderful! 

The Beatles

I just thought I would do a quick post to portray my love for the Beatles.  They are my absolute favorite music to listen too!  Everyone has some music that takes them to their happy place, and mine is the Beatles. Anytime I just need a little lift I crank up the Beatles and I am already happy! It is wonderful!  If you don't have some music that does that for you I highly recommend looking into it! 

Family Pictures

Celine

Dan

Madeleine

Emily

Marianne

Lauren

Sarah

All of us Together Forever 

Family

So above are the pictures of my siblings that I am going to talk about!

I decided to write a little about my family because I am about to go home and visit them and they are also a big part of my life.  I am the oldest of 8 kids.  Seven of which are girls and then there is Dan, our one and only boy!  I am just going to talk a little about each of them in order. They all really just make me so happy!!

 First I will start at the end, with my littlest sister Sarah, who is 4.  She is about the cutest thing you will ever see!  She is four and just as sassy and opinionated as they come.  She doesn't miss a thing either.  She always knows exactly what is going on around her.  I will never forget the first time I talked to her while I was at BYU the first thing she ask was "How are all the boys?".  Haha She is the definitely the light of our family! 

 Next there is my sister Lauren, who is 6.  She is an absolute sweetheart.  She is really smart and loves school.  I remember one time her teacher told us that she actually ask for more homework!  She also has a wonderful sense of humor and is pretty much the perfect girl.   

 Next is my sister Marianne, who is 8.  She is in second grade and loving it!  She is loves her teacher and is doing well.  Marianne is quite special because she possibly does the best horse noise I have ever heard.  It is awesome! And also she actually thinks she is a horse at times, which is pretty amazing too.   She is very fun and keeps us all in touch with nature.

 Then there is Emily, who is 10.  She is in the 4^th grade and the smartest one there!  She is a very hard worker and is majorly disappointed if she doesn’t get a 100 on every test!  I wish I had her motivation, and out look!  She is also the one who keeps us all in line.  She is always reminding us of the things we should be doing.  She is a wonderful part of our family!

 Then there is Madeleine, who is 13.  Madeleine is amazing.  I have never received better advice from anyone.  Even though she is younger, she is the most down to earth and perceptive girl I have ever met.  She is also smart and works hard at school.  I mainly love her so much because she is the nicest girl.  She seriously would not hurt a fly! 

 Then there is the boy of the family, Dan.  Dan is 14 and just learned how to drive.  He is also the best boy I have ever met.  He is just so near perfect.  He is a genius that made a 32 on his ACT as a freshman, and is striving for a perfect score!  He also does the best in all his classes.   He also has this dry sarcasm, which is the best to be around.  Mainly he is just the nicest guy ever.  He is very considerate and loving to all those around, even though he is sometimes not great at showing it!  

 Finally there is Celine.  She is 17 and absolutely the best person ever!  She is my best friend and I miss her dearly.  She has gotten me though it all!  She is the rock in my life.  If I ever need anything I know I can call her and just talk to her.  She is always there and if the best advice giver/ comforter around!  On top of that she is smart and just beautiful!  It just amazes me how wonderful she is every time I am in her presence!  And I think about daily how much I wish she were here to be with me! 

Preference 2008

Our BYUSA group = so much fun!

(Me, Ryan, Ben, Liz, Ian's date, and Ian)

yeah we are pretty cool

Haha this is Ben and me trying to take a perfect picture with our legs out behind us... Apparently, I didn't have the coordination!

All of us together

Our High School Musical Picture

(Lance, Chelsea, Jeff S., Me, Ian, Erin, Jeff H., Michelle, Josh, Kim)

We were a pretty intense group...

And we can all strike a pose...

The girls were gorgeous!

So this last weekend was preference!  It was a blast!  On Friday night I took Ben Gardner and had a fabulous time volunteering/ ice skating/ playing break the ice with him!! Then Saturday night some girls in our ward got together and asked some guys from our ward.  It was so much fun!  I took Jeff Skanchy and had an amazing time!  There are some pictures as proof of our fun! 

This was the product of many hours of hard work for the BYUSA "Enchanted" dance!

True Blue Football! Whoot!

This is our sweet gangsta group for Halloween

This is our group after the mud football game! 

Halloween Weekend

So this last weekend was Halloween weekend!  It was probably one of the best Halloweens that I can remember besides the fact that I wasn't able to take my little sisters trick-or-treating.  It is so hard to see pictures of them all dress up and having fun and realizing that I will never get that time back with them.  But it is a great knowing that they are at least having fun!  Anyways our ward had a dress-up dance on Tuesday night and it was so fun!  My roommate Erin and I dressed up as gangsters.  It was so fun because we wore boxers, guy pants, guy shirts, and flat billed hats! I must admit we felt quite manly! :) And the dance was just fun in general to see all the crazy/sweet costumes that everyone had!  Then we also ask guys to preference with pumpkins.  They had to dig through the pumpkin and find pennies with the letters to our name on them and then spell out our name.  It was probably way more fun for us then it was for them!  I asked a guy in my ward.  It was slightly awkward because he is just someone random that I know likes to dance.  Like he didn't even have my number! haha  But either way I think it will be fun (or I hope)!  So on Friday night, Halloween night, we went to a guy's house from our ward.  It was really fun because it was basically a ward activity and we watched an Alfred Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest.  It was awesome!! Then on Saturday I went on a peaceful bike ride up to Orem and back.  I love these Saturday morning bike rides I have been taking.  They are a good workout while also relaxing and thinking.  Then I went to play mud football in a field behind one of the guy's houses in our ward.  It was possibly one of the most fun things I have ever done!! We got COVERED in mud from head to toe!  The mud fight at the end was the best! Then after that extravaganza we had a surprise birthday party for another guy from our ward.  It was also very fun and quite a success!   Next I went slack-lining.  This was so much fun!  I have done it one time before and I have kind of lost my grasp of it a little, but we plan to go back soon!  And then we went to watch the BYU vs. CSU football game at my roommate, Michelle Peterson's house.  It was also wonderful because first off there were a ton of people from our ward there which was so fun! And then second off it was a realllly intense game, where we ended up winning! Not that I would know much of how awesome the game was, because this guy from my ward taught me how to do a backflip during at least half of it! But I can now proudly say that I can almost do a backflip alone on the trampoline after about an hour of work! I am still completely set on getting it down as soon as possible!  Anyways and then we ended our wonderful weekend by watching the movie Hook with a group of people.  And then of course we had fast Sunday which are my favorite Sundays of all! So this was just a near perfect weekend and I love my ward!