Thursday, December 27, 2012

Glad Tidings of Great Joy

 
Are you ready for some extremely AWESOME news?!
 
 
 
Welll this is my cute future MISSIONARY Brother!
Holding his MISSION CALL...
 
 
He [along with all of the rest of us..] sure has been waiting to find out where he is going to be spending the next two years of his life..
 
& When in the world he gets to start this great journey..
 

 
After dilligently checking the mail, making phone calls,
waiting for some good friends to come over..
 
[And calming some of Mitchys nerves and hands shaking of excitement..]


He opened it...
 
AND just guess where this handsome grown up guy is going!?
 
 
 
He is goint to Buenos Aires ARGENTINA!!
& leaves on his adventure in May...
 
So guess who is going to be learning Spanish over the next few months?!
 
Mitchell I seriously couldn't be more proud of you..
You are going to be the best Missionary..
And I know you are going to be so blessed for your willingness to serve the Lord and the people of Argentina..
 
I LOVE YOU!
 
Congratulations you awesome little brother you.
 
 


I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. ~Harlan Miller

 
Everyone..
Merry Merry Christmas!
 


 
There's got to be some sort of rule that says you can celebrate Christmas up until New Years...right?!
 
Because if there isn't.. there sure is in my book.
 
 
 
In fact.. if it was up to me I think that we would celebrate the Christmas Season all year..
 
I looked up the definition of Merry and it is:
Cheerful and Lively.
Now who doesn't want life to be Cheerful and Lively.. because I know I sure do.
[And who doesn't want to eat treats upon treats and gain 5 lbs every month.. oh yeah.. probably everyone but Santa.. maybe we would develop more self control if Christmas was all year..]
 
This Christmas season we got to make some..
Merry Christmas Cookies..
 
 
& Have Merry Delicious Red Hots Time with the Family..

 
& Experience some fun first time Ginger Bread House Making..
[For our sweet visiting neice..]



We were able to have a Merry Time with Friends..
Both in Idaho and New Mexico..
 
 


& I decided to try being like my Sweet Crafty Mother and Giving Neighbor Gifts...
 

 


We had a Happy Happy Time Celebrating Traditions in New Mexico..
[There's no place like home for the Holidays..]
 

 
And OF COURSE..
That included some merry opening of our CUTE
Christmas Pajamas..
 



& We got to have onnnne Merry Merry Christmas..
I'd say.. the happiest/merriest day of the year.
 

 
I will say this last week sure has been a happy one for me..
It's been so wonderful being home with the family and friends that I love so much..
 

 
I think that all of us in these parts have been just about as happy as a kid on Christmas.
:)

Believe it or not..

I hope everyone has been having a great Christmas Break and Christmas as well.
Love you guys.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

O' Christmas Tree O' Christmas Tree

 
So Blake and I made a very important decision this year for Christmas..
Neither of us had ever actually cut down a real tree, and we decided that this was going to be the year to give it a try..
 
 


[Wow.. how do you ever say no to that handsome face.. he melts my heart.]
 
So, doing it the old fashioned way, we loaded up our AXE and my sweet father in law let us borrow his truck and we were on our way to our Christmas Adventure.
 
 
 
After getting our ten dollar tree permit.. and driving for.ev.er in search of the perfect mountain..
 
[Blake was seriously ready to climb Mt Everest.. but let me ask you..
has anyone ever climbed Mt Everest with an axe and a tree?
Yeah.. probably not.. and I was not about to be the first..]
 
We finally found what we thought was THE mountain.
& Let me just tell you I had definitely been picturing hundreds of perfect Christmas Trees in fields..
[Probably because that is the way you see them when you BUY real trees..]
 
So I couldn't believe how all of these trees had their own "personalities" and were not really not full.. or were entirely too large for our cozy little apartment...
 
 
And believe it or not..  when we saw this crooked branch missing tree..
 
We were in love.
:)
 

 
However little did we know until Blake had chopped down that tree with all of his strength and muscles..
 
 That you are probably not supposed to "top" trees...
[yes I know what you are thinking.. what kind of first time tree chopping people are we..]
& For those of you who also didn't know this.. apparently you have to cut down the tree from the very bottom of the trunk and not in the middle..
 
Seriously.. who does that.
 
Now here's the question.. what if the bottom of the trunk doesn't have any branches?
 
 
 
Either way topped tree or not.. it was ours our and I loved it.
Then as we left.. happy as ever after our day trek through the woods..
 
We seriously SLID off of the road into the ditch...
can you say crap awesome.
 
Luckily there are some really good people in this world.. a couple of which drove all the way down the mountain to come pull us out and save our LIVES.
[Or at least.. our morning..]
 
& I just want to say how grateful I am for people like that who are willing to put others ahead of what they are doing and genuinely  love and help.
Those are the people I pray to grow up to be like.
 

 
Anyway after we were saved..
I decided that even if this year we may have a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.. this is a pretty awesome Christmas tradition.
& It made for a really fun festive feeling weekend.

And I have to say.. that after we put on the ribbons, decorations, lights, and a new tree skirt that little guy up cleaned up pretty well.
 
I wish I would have taken a picture.. maybe once we are back in Idaho after Christmas I will try to enlighten the world with it's beauty.
:)
 
I hope everyone is having fun celebrating this most wonderful time of year..
& Loving being on CHRISTMAS BREAK..  because there is nothing better than that.
 
Happy Saturday my loved ones.

 

 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

I Thought That This Day Would Never Come..

 
 
But it DID.. hallelujah.
And it was glorious.
 
 
Now I get to share a "graduating class" with my sweet little Brother..
[I definitely didn't see that one coming..]
When we were graduating high school I would always laugh and ask what are you even going to say.. We're the class of.. 12?
Little did I know.. we both would get to be graduates in the class of Twenty-Twelve!
[They made it sound better than I had anticipated it would..]
Thanks for sharing it with me little bro..


[And speaking of my sweet little brother.. haha]
Look at this cake Mitchy surprised me with.
I wouldn't have wanted it decorated any other way from him... funny guy.. this is his way of saying he loves me.
 

 
Annnnd.... my sweet family drove all the way up to IDAHO to see me!
Now that's real love..
 

[However.. I actually don't think this cute guy had to go very far.. ]
 


But it was soo fun having them in our apartment and with me during this fun night!
 



And my handsome little brother who didn't actually have to travel this time... but sat through 4 whole hours of this celebration..
[Yes.. I think he may have thought twice about that..]
What a good sport.
 


 


 
& Something that made the night even more special..
[If that's possible.. after all of those long semesters of College..]
Was that I got to graduate with a lot of my Business friends that I went through the program with for the last 3 1/2 years..
 


I'm sure everyone thinks this about their major but I couldn't believe how fun everyone in the Business program was..
[Even if the program wasn't ALWAYS fun..]
These guys are seriously the best. They have been with me through tears and ice cream and points where we had to actually S TART our OWN BUSINESS together and were ready to rip each others heads off. :)
They have been with me through camping and Business Simulations and countless projects and LATE night Excel problems.. through single life and married life.
[We are missing some of our dear friends.. and I love the ones that haven't graduated/graduated before us just as much too]
But I'm sure going to miss you guys!
Thanks for everything and all the times you had to explain step by step how to do my helped me with homework and the late night emergency phone calls it wouldn't have been the same without you all.


And.. Dun dun duh.. GUESS WHO ELSE CAME!
:)
My supportive in laws.. and my cute niece!
 
Daphne told her parents when they came to bring her back to Denver that
"Graduation was kind of boring.. but it was VERY important."
 
 Haha.. If she remembers that about college she is going to do great.
 

 
Thank goodness for life and these happy moments.
This is what I live for.
 

Daphne absolutely loved my tassel.. if you will notice I think she is holding it in every picture.
Then after I walked and got my diploma she asked me to hold her and grabbed my tassel and was like "ohh... I missed this."
Haha she is seriously the funiest.
 

 
 I don't know what I would do without all of this perfect family.
They really are the greatest & they get along so well
[thank goodness]
 it's so fun when we can all be together.
 

 


 [IEven though after four long hours I'm sure everyone else wasn't feeling this way.. I wish I could graduate more often!]

 
 
& Now on to the next stage in my life..
[Waiting for Blake to GRADUATE.. :) just kidding.. kind of]
But this was a good chapter.. I'm glad it's over it happened.
 
Thanks for everyone who has been so supportive and loving and helped me get here.
[Thanks to my father for your loving financial contribution..and giving me this priceless gift.]
I couldn't have done it alone.

And after almost 17 years.. NO MORE SCHOOL!
[at least for a while..]

hallelujah.