More Christmas...

I forgot about these pictures and I decided that they were too good to pass up! I always like to post pictures of my family because they are so adorable and I just love them SO much! I also had to post a picture of my besties in St. George. They are too too awesome, and I want them to know how much I love and adore them. Moe and Jen are the best friends a girl could ask for, even if they ditch you for a husband. I understand. Okay fine, I don't really understand, but I'm good at pretending that I understand. And pretending will have to do until I get a husband and actually understand. But anyway, I love you guys.

The pictures of my family are from Christmas Eve. It is tradition to get new pajamas, put them on, and then all pile in the van that we are too big for and drive around looking at Christmas lights and singing the "Candy Free Christmas Tree" song. It is, by far, the best Christmas song ever.


I didn't even put a list in this post! Yay me!

80's Skating: very fun but very painful.

Reasons Why:
1) Uh, it was 80's night! What is more fun than poofy hair, hot pink lipstick, minis, and leggings?
2) My girls are awesome, and now we are real friends with Amy and Lindsay downstairs. We are no longer just Sunday friends- we made the transition.
3) Classic roller skates are the bomb.com until you fall. That's where the painful part comes in.
4) I fell TWO times. First, I landed on my side and got a big bruise. Second, I fell straight backwards and smacked my tailbone on the floor. It hurt so bad I couldn't move for a minute, and I seriously almost cried. I never cry. We went skating on Saturday. It is now Wednesday. My tailbone is STILL sore. And I swear that I got whiplash from the experience. My neck was killing me afterward!
5) The skates scraped the skin off of my right ankle. That was particularly painful in the shower the next day.
6) Requesting "Billie Jean" and dedicating the song to Ashley and Devon in honor of their recent engagement...
7) Attempting to dance while skating. That may have been the reason for all the pain.
8) Well, that's about it. The night was fun until we put the skates on, and then it was too painful to be fun anymore.
9) But how about this one: when I realized that the 3" silver heels that I was wearing with my outfit were more comfortable than the skates I was wearing. It was honestly a relief to put them back on at the end of the night.
10) Singing in the car on the way to classic skating and back. I always love singing in the car.

PS- I have a shout-out for my Ash Baby. I love you, darling! And congratulations on the diamond! SCORE!!!! I'm so excited for you. :)

The Holidays in the St.G

Nicole, Stephanie, Grandma Colleen, Me, Elise (at the family Christmas Party)

Me and Dax in the center, Elise and Heeather are off to the sides.

Moriah and Andrew. I promise, Andrew really does know how to smile. And Moriah is being a reindeer at the moment. It was a game. She doesn't wear that all the time.

Elise, Daxton, and Me. Daxton was the reindeer on our team- and he did it grudgingly.

Katie Barber, Me, Danielle Wolverton, and Rachelle on New Year's Eve. Those bottles are Martinelli's, promise.

Best things about Christmas and New Years:
1) Family Christmas party and the Reindeer Game.
2) Sleeping in my own bed.
3) Having a bathroom counter that actually fits things.
4) Singing the "Candy Free, Christmas Tree" song on Christmas Eve.
5) Christmas Adam and Christmas Carol.
6) Pretending that we went to several New Year's Eve parties with our other pretend friends.
7) Treating New Year's Eve like not a big deal.
8) Eating Grandma Colleen's peanut brittle. Sorry Andrew, I know you didn't get any. :(
9) Sleeping in EVERY DAY.
10) Going to High School Musical 3 at Flood Street with ALL of my siblings. It was highly enjoyable, and we developed two new lines for our family vocabulary: 1) If you are describing some attractive boy to someone else, but he is less attractive than Zac Efron, you say, "Well, he's no Troy Bolton, but..." Note: This is the situation in most descriptions of attractive boys. 2) "Slow down, Lebron!" Andrew practically fell off his chair when Troy said it to Chad.
11) Going to Pizza Factory and Dairy Queen with Moe and Jen. It was SO GOOD to hang out with them. So refreshing. I love those guys.
12) Um, Presents, duh!
13) My Mom's lasagna.
14) Christmas cinnamon rolls.
15) Staying up and watching TV with Elise every night.
16) NOT worrying about school.
17) Being in St. George- not wearing a jacket some days, hiking in Snow Canyon, sitting on the Sugarloaf, driving around St.G, etc. I just love St. George.
18) The excursion Rachelle and I made to look at the stars and drink hot cocoa. The stars part didn't work out too well, but the hot cocoa did!

Finals Week. A quick synopsis.

List of Things regarding finals week:
1) Walking to school in the snow. Kind of fun, but not really.
2) 48 hours being academic. 40 hours in the library, and 8 hours actually in tests.
3) Eating two meals on campus most days.
4) Celebrating a day's work by going to bed at 10pm. (Okay, so that only happened once, but it was GREAT! I got 11 hours of sleep that night!)
5) Finishing "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway (Yes, I still took time to relax with a novel, while at the gym anyway). And let me tell you, it was amazing. But very, very sad. I actually almost started crying on the elliptical machine at 24-hour fitness. And I NEVER cry! But seriously, I love good literature. It's so great when you finish a book and feel a ton of respect for the author because the book is like a work of art. So good job Ernest.
6) Easing tension in the library by purchasing a new song on iTunes: "Love Lockdown" by Kanye West. LOVE IT! Oh, and I also found another Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney duet from the early 80's. So, of course, I had to buy that one too.
7) Going to Wilson Diamonds and Zupas for a break on Thursday night with my girls: Ash, Meg, and Rachelle. I can't describe how happy Zupas tomato basil soup makes me. And what about Diamonds?? Indescribable.
8) Opening secret roommate presents.
9) Memorizing random facts about Ancient Rome for the last time. I loved that class. And my new favorite Roman name is Hadrian. He was an emperor of the High Empire. That means he was one of the really good, cool ones.
10) No more sitting in my Shakespeare class with awkward, creepy Shakespeare boy EVER AGAIN. YAY!!!!
11) The Roman look-a-like. ha aha ha.
12) The Neck, Nog, and Snog Party.
13) Laying with Rachelle in our newly arranged living room with the couches across from each other and lots of Christmas lights. It was just like old times. :)

And to my loyal blog readers and faithful friends: Happy Christmas! Happy New Year! Eat good food, get good presents, and please don't die in the snow. :)

Thanksgiving!

My Favorite Things about Thanksgiving this year:
1) Being home with just my family

2) My cheeseball. It's pretty much my new favorite food.

3) Our 5 baby bunnies. My favorite one has red, white, and gray fur. His name is T-Gray, cause it's kind of gray, but is also striped like a tiger.

4) My brother's new car.

5) The swing my dad built on our tree. We finally got it hung on the branch on Saturday.

6) The leaf marks that the falling leaves and rain left on my car. They are going to be a pain to wash off, but right now it looks AWESOME!

7) Helping my mom in her classroom and reading the kids' stories about turkeys.
8) Low gas prices!!! I filled up in St.G for $21.00! It was only $1.54 a gallon. AMAZING!

9) Watching music videos on VH1 every morning. I LOVE music videos. My new favorites are Pink's "So What," and Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold." They are both hilarious.
10) The St. George sun. I loved the warm weather. I loved driving down the street with the windows down and the sunroof open. And PS, if you've never driven around in St.G, you don't know what you're missing. The streets are wide, clean, and peaceful. It's just the best place ever. I love St. George.

I Keep My Promises.

Remember when I said that I would live in Washington D.C. someday? If you don't, read blog post #2 from back in September. I had no idea at the time that my dearest wish would come true so soon! But it will! I am going to live in Washington D.C. for three months this summer. I am going with BYU's Washington Seminar program, and I am currently working on getting hired for a sweet internship. The top 10 things that I am MOST excited for:
1) Living just off Pennsylvania Ave.
2) Actually getting to tour the white house.
3) Eating breakfast at the Eastern Market on many Saturdays.
4) Being able to tell people that I'm a local, even though I kind of won't be.
5) Walking around the mall whenever I want.
6) Actually getting to spend significant time in the Smithsonians.
7) Our excursion trip to Gettysburg, Philadelphia, and Valley Forge. Muy Exciting.
8) Going to the gym and library at George Washington University.
9) Riding the metro everywhere, except to Georgetown. It doesn't go that far.
10) Having a real-live reader's pass for the Library of Congress and pretending to do research for something important.

Doesn't this sound like it is going to be like the best summer of anyone's life, EVER?? I am more excited than I can stand, but I am also very nervous. I am going to have a real job, in an actual professional setting. Weird, right? But it will be the bomb.com.

And remember, I still need to complete the promise to take over Washington. I'll let everyone know when that happens. If it's not already obvious. :)

I love the Beach Boys too!!

I was recently reminded just how great the Beach Boys are. They represent my entrance into the music world- beginning when I was very tiny, and obsessively carried around a walkman and headphones with the Beach Boys' "Endless Summer" album playing inside. My first CD was even a Beach Boys greatest hits CD. And I have enjoyed several others since. And I promise, I can sing all of the songs, and every word to all of the songs. Ask Rachelle. I demonstrated this ability in the car the other day.

As far as their amazingness, according to Billboard, in terms of singles and album sales, The Beach Boys are the No. 1 selling American band of all time. Cool, right? And they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988- The year I was born! What fate!

My Top 15 Favorite Beach Boys songs:
1) Darlin'- My all-time fave. I promise, I will play this song at my wedding.
2) Shutdown
3) Little Deuce Coupe
4) I Can Hear Music
5) Dance, Dance, Dance
6) Do You Wanna Dance?
7) Good Vibrations
8) Barbara Ann
9) Surfin' USA
10) California Girls
11) Wouldn't It be Nice
12)Don't Worry Baby
13) Little Old Lady from Pasadena
14) Do It Again
15) Getcha Back

Yay for the Beach Boys! To all of you who haven't experienced their awesomeness, I suggest that you do!!!! I can burn you a CD if you would like. Because as far as music goes, the Beach Boys were HANDS DOWN my first love.

Oh, and PS, I got to go to a Beach Boys concert when I was in high school. It was muy excellente. Although I have to admit that there is something odd about hearing old men sing about California Girls and surfing and stuff. But still. It was cool.