happy christmas

Christmas Steve was spent at my aunt's house in Logan. We had a delicious dinner, watched plenty of shows on their 3D tv, and ate a delicious dinner.
Christmas Eve was pretty chill. We just hung around and also had another delicious dinner. Chicken with cheesy potatoes and salad and bread.
Christmas Day was Sunday so we unwrapped quickly, ate breakfast quickly, and headed to church at 10. Then came back and hung out, playing with our new toys. Christmas Day dinner consisted of Rouladen, potato dumplings, spaetzle, German cucumber salad, red cabbage, and sparkling cider. Delicious!

Things I got: 2 pairs of jeans, like 7 shirts/sweaters, Star Wars glasses, Captain America, Star Wars piano book, a picture of my cute missionary, kitchen supplies, jewelry, a printer!, printer paper, and anything else you can see in the picture below. It was a great Christmas! And think about it... one down, one to go!

Some of these photos are from my iphone, some are from my camera so the quality will differ. Enjoy!

presents, presents, presents

Disclaimer. This post is long. And cheesy. But if you're one of those who is interested in my life, please read. There are pictures! You won't be disappointed :)

GUYS.

I cannot even TELL you how happy I am right now!

So I took my first final today... the one I was most worried about. I was a little down until I came home and saw a surprise on my spot at the table...

Guess what it was?

A LETTER. But not any ordinary letter. It was thicker than before and I was rather surprised that I would even get anything on a Monday since he writes on p-days and I get them by Thursday. BUT. It was something that I did not ever expect to come. It was a birthday present! To me! Yes, you heard right. And I know, it may sound cheesy, but it was the best. And it wasn't even that much. But... he sent me 6 pictures!!! YES! 6! I cannot even tell you how happy that made me. I cried out of sheer joy and love while looking through them. He looks sooo good! And then he wrote me 8 little notes, kind of a timeline of our relationship. Starting from when he first started crushing on me. THE cutest thing ever. It brightened my day like you wouldn't believe.

Okay, enough of the mushy stuff.

So as many of you know, I'm putting together a 12 days of Christmas package for him. And I was waiting on one last thing... something that I ordered. It wasn't supposed to come until tomorrow and I was getting worried it would get to him too late. BUT. Lo and behold, the delivery man showed up tonight! And because of this, I scrambled to put everything together so I could mail it to him tomorrow.

I spoil the kid! So much! But I love every minute of it :)

Here's the package! And details to explain it:

So this is the loot! All waiting to be wrapped... I'll tell you what they are next! Refer to this picture to know what the things actually look like.

Now they're wrapped! Here they are:

1. Twirl-A-Tie. It's a circular tie holder that he can hang up in his closet! This was the thing I ordered. It was only 4 bucks! And got here tonight! Made my night :)

2. My mom's cinnamon n' sugar roasted almonds. They are to die for. And she found this cute tag on pinterest that says "reindeer poop" so we put that on them!

3. A rice bag. It'll keep him warm! And help any aches and pains and sick stomachs that he may have while away. My mom took the reigns on making this because she's the only one that can successfully navigate our dying sewing machine.

4. A bag of dried apples. I made those with my mom the day he left! So they're made with extra love :)

5. A mini missionary handbook. It has all their main rules and it's in a cool white case. It also has a place where he can put all his contact information in case something happens to him.

6. A tin of my mom's famous German cookies! There are German sugar cookies in the bottom and then almond cookies on top (you can see those in the above picture).

7. A Belgium flag tie pin! I couldn't find one of the Netherlands flag, so this was the best I could do.

8. Swedish fish!

9. Another tie pin. This one is a circular one that says his mission--Belgium Brussels Netherlands Mission with the Angel Moroni in the middle. It's about the size of a dime but cost me much more than that!

10. Flavor blasted goldfish. Yes. These things are our tradition :) He would ALWAYS bring a bag to me whenever I was sick or upset. The best thing ever. Some serious comfort food right there.

11. A wicked cool tie. I seriously love the colors!

12. And finally... a photo frame with a ton of printables. Some are from pinterest but a lot of them I made myself from quotes I thought would help him. I really like this picture and hope it's a good one to finish off the 12 days of Christmas with!

I also stuck little stickers that say "I love you" or "cutie" or "I adore you" on the outside of a few packages :)

Me and my partner in crime. But I can't forget my mom (who was in bed at this point) because she wrapped all the presents! Dexter, my little brother, chose all the number stickers and put them on each package.

D and our handiwork!

Directions and a little note :)

The finished product! I am so excited for it that I almost don't want to send it. I just wanna keep staring at it... I hope he likes it as much as I do :)

happy birthday to me.

The semi-bad:

Not being with your family until 5 pm because they have church at 9 and you have church at 1 but have rehearsals at noon and right after church.

It's a Sunday.

Your best friend isn't around to help celebrate.

The good?:

Mom's amaaaaaaaazing dinner. Yum!

Presents! So blessed!

Watching the Amazing Race.

Being one year older. Woohoo! Last teenage year, bring it on!

Now go take on finals week.

That's the biggest BAD of them all.

Here we go!

firsts.

There are firsts for everything. First words. First steps. First day of school, and first days of school.

Today was a first for my little brother, the 13 year old, the baby of the family.

He's going to his first birthday party!

And not just any birthday party...

A girl's birthday party!

And he got her a present. Oh, isn't he just so cute? I'm so proud of him. He's beginning to engage with the opposite gender! *tear*

weekly gratitude.

It's been awhile! But here it goes:

{1} My bishop. The Atonement. The Gospel. It's true, folks!

{2} My musical talent. I accompanied for 2 ward choir practices, played the organ in my singles ward, and the piano in relief society! BAM baby!

{3} My best friend. And letters. And his example. He's the best.

{4} My mom's delicious food! Mmmm Sunday dinners.

{5} Mr. Weyand's AP Language class. And the 11 page research paper I wrote for it. Ha.

{6} Good friends that know how to listen.

{7} Money! For gas and BYU bookstore attire. Gotta love BYU sweats :)

{8} The MTC. For taking good care of my man.

{9} My neighbor who I just found out today (as I was helping her in nursery... haha that's what I get for going back to visit my home ward!) that she waited for her husband on his mission! Even though she's married and has 5 kids, I can go over whenever to talk to her!

{10} My family. I love living at home.

midway, utah.

It's probably the most quaint town I've been to in Utah. Nestled against the Wasatch mountains just west of Heber, it has plenty of small trails, streams, cute houses, mansions, beautiful and colorful flowers, and a main street that is to die for.

Today, we headed up there. Our plan was to go for a little walk {which was beautiful, easy, and in the shade} and eat dinner at a small restaurant on main street.

Before leaving, I grabbed my camera, but to my dismay, it was dead. I went upstairs to grab my dad's old Canon and it was also dead. My mom reassured me that my dad would have his new camera with him and so we left.

As we arrived at our first destination {the crater}, my dad informed us that he did not have his camera.

So, after a while into the adventure, I realized that I had my iPod. So I took pictures it! Bear with me please... They're not the best pictures, nor did I take very many. But oh well.

Here are a few shots from the evening!

Go check it out :)

I'm terrible.

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in over a week. BUT, I do have a good reason!

My favorite cousins in the entire world are in town! Minus one, who is off adventuring in the high mountain terrain of Colorado bringing people to our faith. At least the other one, who recently returned from his two-year excursion to the exotic country of Guatemala is here. He's my new buddy now.

Needless to say, we've been pretty busy. Especially late at night, which is when I find time to blog. We play games too much, that's all.

They arrived Friday while I was at work, and surprised me when I walked in the door.

Saturday consisted of Park City, the Alpine Slide, and some wicked sweet deals at Banana Republic. And we played badminton! We had a total of about 8 birdies. Needless to say, 3 ended up on the roof and 4 others were blown to pieces. Haha. And we also demolished two rackets so we sent my aunt to the store to buy more!

Sunday, we attended church. And played games. Of course :)

Monday, we played games. And saw the movie 17 Miracles. Definitely a good one to see. We also barbecued, played some serious badminton, and watched the aerial fireworks from our driveway.

Tuesday, we went to the temple in the morning and did upwards of 80 names total between the 6 of us. And that night we had a wicked rainstorm with crazy lightning and thunder! It was awesome.

Wednesday, the adults went to the temple again while I taught in the morning. We played games. In the afternoon, we went to Bridal Veil Falls and then to the Creamery for some awesome ice cream :) And then we played badminton outside again and then games after it got dark.

We convinced them to stay another day because they really didn't have to be home too early. So today, I taught 3 lessons and afterwards we went to the AF Steel Days art show where my sister took 3rd place and got an honorable mention. Great job, Bianca! Unfortunately, I did not take this day off so I had to go to work for 5 hours. Afterwards, we went to Olive Garden where we waited for like an hour and then another hour inside the restaurant. We didn't play too many games after we got back... too tired... yet I'm still up. I somehow can't get to bed!

Anyways, you probably didn't read through all that. But it's okay. Because it's for me and for the future because I really stink at journal keeping and it'd be nice to know what we did while they were here.

This was definitely the best time I've had with them. It's always fun, but this one was especially fun. Even if our missionary wasn't there, we lost Kaile to trek on Tuesday, and then my dad and sister to trek this morning. It's okay though. It was still worth it.

I love my family.

Life lessons and a bag of goldfish.

Dad, just because you replaced your tube in your tire last night doesn't mean that it is exempt from getting holes in it. Yes, please bring extra tubes or a patch kit next time we go on a bike ride. Thank you.

On other notes, today we went on a bike ride! The first one of the season. My dad, my little brother, and I went. The trail starts at the Deer Creek Dam and ends in Midway, but we only went a little over halfway. Needless to say, riding a total of 8 miles up and over hills and against the wind isn't my cup of tea. But I did in fact have fun. Despite the fact that my butt hurts like the dickens from my dad's rock hard bike seat. We traded bikes because my bike wouldn't shift low enough for me to make it up the hills, and his did, so he kindly gave me his bike. I'm not quite sure a sore bottom is worth it seeing as I walked up most of the hills anyways.

Oh, and while stranded and just hanging out along the trail, we threw rocks into the reservoir, discovered a whole deer carcass (yes, we did. and I kicked it for fun), and ate snacks. We sure left our mark on the trail because my dear sweet brother couldn't quite get the goldfish to go inside his mouth.

After waiting about 20 minutes, we were about to head back to the car when a nice couple drove by and helped my dad with his tire, giving him two patches, which didn't work, and eventually just giving him their extra tube. Yes, I suppose there are still good people out there in the world.

Anyways, I can easily say I had a fantastic time riding today! Even if my legs feel like jello and my butt probably is bruised (but I haven't checked... awkward).

Go for a bike ride sometime.

A first for everything.

There's a baby's first steps. Then a baby's first words. There's the first time you ride a two-wheeler by yourself and the first time you ate it because you were paying attention to the sky instead of the road. There's the first day of public education, and then the first day of school for 12 years following. There's the first time you ignored at school. Remember the time you answered the question wrong and got your first bad score on a test? Or remember that first love in junior high that broke your heart a few months later? Or that first kiss you never want to think about again? There's the first time you pulled an all-nighter because the stress was too much to handle and the amounts of homework were piling up. There's the first time you cried over a boy. Or cried over stress or worry from school. There's the first time you cried with a friend. There's the first time you cried yourself to sleep.

Now add these to the list:

There's the first day of summer. Of complete freedom because you know you are free from public education and never have to return to high school. The first day of summer is always the best.

There's also the first day of your first job. That's always a frightening thing to overcome. The first day is always overwhelming and you feel so tiny in a room that's so big and empty. You become swamped. Remember that first day on the job?

And then, there's the first day you attend church and family night outside of your ward and family. That dreaded day that never seemed would come is here. There's the first time you don't wake up early with your family to make it to church on time at 9. Instead, you now attend church at 1. Without your family and by yourself. There's a first for that, too. Then, don't forget, now that you're a part of a new ward, you don't attend family night at your house anymore. There's that first Monday night that isn't spend in your living room but at a church, surrounded by young adults.

Today was the first day of summer. Today was the first day of my first real job. Yesterday was the first day I didn't go to church with my family, but rather to a new ward where I had to make new friends. Today was the first day I didn't attend family night at home. To be honest, I don't like how I'm being forced in to the singles ward. But that's kind of besides the subject.

Sometimes, firsts are good. At this point, I'm just trying to accept them all.