Christmas Celebrations

I can't believe its already been a month since I posted last, life has certainly been crazy. Having Scott up at the Y and a heavier class load has definitely kept me busy. Before it gets too late though I really wanted to post about some of the highlights during my Christmas break.

A New Addition to the Family
We had so much fun with her when I brought my roommate April home for thanksgiving that when we found out she had no plans for the holiday we insisted that she return home with us. My siblings love her to death, probably because she's willing to play games with them (including the boys' favorite Yugio).

Santa Surprise dinner
Melanie and her friends took a turn hosting our annual Santa surprise dinner. The food was great and it was a lot of fun sitting at a table full of friends I hadn't seen since summer. We also had plenty of neighbor friends over as well with the total number of seated people coming out to almost 30. We were lucky that we all fit into the kitchen.

Christmas at the Sandalls

Since we decided to postpone our usual traditions and present opening until Scotts return, the Sandall family invited us to come celebrate Christmas eve and day with them. We had a blast, the kids had new playmates, there was great food, and I had a great time catching up with Holly and Stuart. It was also great to see how they've picked up on some of our favorite traditions like using code names for the presents, such as toy story, and even better taking most of the day to open them, stopping for the occasional movie or game ;)

The Nativity Scene

This year's was especially fun as we got to act out the nativity with all of the Jackson kids as well as the Sandalls. April and I played the stoic and introspective shepherds :)

Christmas Pajamas

The Jackson family all matching again, we're only missing Scott but he'd join us in just a few days. No my mother didn't sew them all herself this time but I think she still did a good job considering she could find something that came in all of our sizes.

Picking up Scott at the Airport

This was obviously the long awaited event of the week. After three trips to the airport just to find out that his plane had been once again delayed because of a snowstorm in Salt Lake, we finally got to pick up our big brother and bring him home.

Our neighbor/adopted aunt Brenda Jamison recorded the whole thing on camera for us and caught some pretty funny moments in our anticipation, as well as some joyful cheers, screams, and even tears upon his arrival.

Christmas Celebrations
After picking up Scott we had a late Christmas eve dinner and then gathered round to hear some stories from his mission, try mexican candy, and open the gifts he had brought home with him. (Perfume for the girls and nice jackets for the boys)

Christmas morning we started with the stockings, one of my favorite parts, and then enjoyed being together as we spent the day opening gifts and playing games.

Talent Show
The Sunday before Scott and I headed back up to BYU we also had an awesome family talent show in which everyone contributed, with lots of fun piano playing and singing. I need to give a shout out to Melanie for organizing it, she did a great job and also learned the accompaniment to many songs so that we wouldn't have to sing to a CD. Also I have to say that singing and playing duets with my sisters is one of my favorite things in the world, I hope we continue to enjoy making music together for the rest of our lives :) (Thank you mom and dad for all of the lessons and and making us practice)

Count down to Christmas break...

I can't believe that this semester is already coming to a close. Finals are officially here, kinda scary but I feel pretty prepared. I can't decide if being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Christmas break, is making it easier or more difficult. But in order to hang in there a little bit longer I did deck out our apartment with some fun decorations. I brought up my mini Christmas tree from home along with some other decorations, and I downloaded about 10 CDs of Christmas music on to my computer so it almost always playing. Tis the season, I love Christmas and I can't wait to be home to spend it with family! :)

First Presidency Christmas Devotional

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the First Presidency Christmas Devotional at the General Conference center. I'd signed up a few weeks ago for tickets online and was lucky enough to be chosen through their random lottery selection. So on Sunday after church, April, Brock, Andrew, and I headed down to Salt Lake. We got seated just in time, and boy did we have great seats, on the floor in the middle. Once again, being the presence of the Prophet was an amazing feeling. That moment when everything goes quite and we all stand up together as he enters the room just never gets old. All three talks were fantastic. I liked Pres. Uchtdorf's comparisons to the Grinch :) and his reminder of what we should be focusing on during the Christmas season:
1. Rejoicing in the birth of our Savior
2. Pondering his influence in our lives today
3. Looking steadfastly for his coming
I also particularly liked Pres. Monson's story about the housekeeper and her gift of the Christmas star (made of old postcards). He always has the best stories. I have to say though, one of the things I enjoyed most was hearing the Tabernacle choir sing. I've only been to the Young Women's conferences so I have never heard them before. I absolutely loved it, they were amazing and the Christmas arrangements with the orchestra were so beautiful.

After the devotional ended we made our way to Temple square, along with everyone else so it was super crowded. However, seeing the lights and temple was totally worth it. There was a heavy fog so the temple looked even more amazing than usual. Thanks to April we captured it in several pictures.

This one's my favorite :)

Thanksgiving ABC's

Yesterday before we began feasting, each of us were given a piece of paper by my Grandma and asked to write down one thing we were thankful for, for every letter of the alphabet. Here is the list that I came up with:
Atonement
BYU
Cars
Dairy products
Energy
FHE family/Facebook
Grandparents
Hot chocolate
Ipod/Internet
Jacob the werewolf
Korea... south of the border
Letters
Missionaries
Novels
Oreos
Pictures
Queen, Oliver (Smallville)
Randomness
Superman/Scarves
Taylor Swift's music
Unicorns...it's so fluffy I could die!
Waffles
XOXOXO
Yellow sunshine
Zac Efron

Whitni's baptism

Whitni's baptism was just as awesome as I expected. The spirit was so strong and she was so happy it just emanated from her. In fact when she came up out of the water she was beaming and let out a little laugh she was so happy. It was pretty funny, but it didn't disrupt the amazing spirit there. At the end of the meeting before the closing prayer she got up to bear her testimony, it was then that I could tell she was truly converted and wasn't getting baptized for anyone else other than herself because she knew that it was true. Afterwards I came up to give her a hug and the water works started. We stood there hugging and crying and it was a pretty great moment. I was just so happy for her and I know that this big step will have such a far reaching impact on her life. It was also fun to spend time with people I hadn't seen since this summer. There was a big group of us high school friends who had all gathered from our different colleges to come to her baptism. It was really great to get back together for a weekend, especially for such a special occasion.

I'm in love... with Jimmer :)

This Friday we had our first home basketball game of the season against Fresno State. We left at about 5:30 in order to get seats for the 7:00 game. That might seem kinda early but the entire Marriot center was packed before it was even time for the game to start. My roommate Alysa and some of our other friends actually began waiting in line outside of the Marriot center at 1:00 pm in hopes to get really good seats. They did really well as they ended up only 6 rows back, but I just didn't have the time to join them as my last class on Fridays doesn't get out until 4:00 pm. Brock, Andrew, Bridger, April and I ended up in seats quite a bit higher but we still had a really good view.

 The game had an awesome start as they turned out all the lights and dropped giant white sheets from the ceiling on which they played a video clip of the basketball team that got everyone pumped for the game, it was way sweet.

And then the game began. Fresno hung on for a little while but they soon gave way to our team as we went on to beat them by almost double their points. It was a great game, we have some really great players this year, especially the up and coming legend Jimmer Ferdette. Let's just say this guy is amazing and I basically fell in love (along with the rest of the crowd) after watching him play, pretty impressive. We play Utah State this Wednesday and I'm hoping the basketball team can redeem our football team's loss to them earlier this fall.

Howl of the Dead!

I know this is a week late but I haven't had a chance to post about my Halloween adventures. Although there were plenty of awesome parties here in Provo, Brock, Andrew, and I decided to make the trip up to Utah State for the legendary Howl (pretty much the biggest, greatest, college halloween dance party in Utah). It also provided us with a great excuse to visit all of our high school friends currently attending Utah State, including Whitni :) We drove down late Friday afternoon and arrived just in time to get ready for a 1920's themed party. My good friend DJ recently was asked to join the Mormon frat at Utah State, Sigma Phi, and got us all invited to their party. We all dressed up snazzy, I lucked out as my planned halloween costume happened to be a flapper dress. The party was way fun, they had a dj and dance party down stairs with a fake bar serving different fruit drinks. Upstairs they had music in the style of the 1920's playing with more people dancing and others sitting on couches with big fake cigars to add to the mood of the time period.

(I just realized I got way more pictures of the guys then girls, they were just looking so classy)

(Now all I need is a black boa...)

The next we all woke up late and decided to explore Utah State's campus.The day was rainy but we had a blast exploring their different buildings, checking out the "True Aggie" monument, eating in the Market Place, and walking through their cemetery (which is surprisingly large and has the most beautiful trees). Then we made a stop a DI to outfit those of us who didn't yet have costumes. My personal favorites were Whitni and Danny who dressed up as a cheesy tourist couple, they pulled it off quite well.

(Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the two of them together)

The rest of us when back to the dorms to change. Since I'd already worn my costume the night before I decided to go with my classic gangster attire as it's much more comfortable. After some pictures we were on our way.

 (My awesome new gangsta shoes)

Lets just say the amount of people who attend the Howl is insane. I saw people there all the way from BYU I and most Utah colleges. We had bought tickets in advance and still had to wait an hour just to get in the door. The giant ballroom was filled to capacity for the dance. The djs were great and I had a blast in there. Then came time for the We the Kings concert. With the ballroom still full, another huge mass of people was congregated in the field house in order to see both The Format and We the Kings live. We switched over to the field house just in time to see the latter take the stage. They did an awesome job. Overall the Howl was so much fun, even more so because I got to spend all that time celebrating with some of my closest friends. The trip was definitely a success and I can't wait to go back in a couple weeks for Whitni's baptism :)

P.S. One more thing I have to add. Just outside Whitni's bedroom, posted in the dorm hallway is something called the Hot Wall, I thought it was pretty great so I had to take a picture.

Tender Mercies and Other Miracles

I haven't had a whole lot of time to write lately but I thought I'd better write some of the little tender mercies as well as big miracles I've had in my life lately.

• I missed a large chemistry quiz- after majorly stressing out I found out that one quiz score is dropped so missing one won't effect my grade at all.
• I thought I was going to have to pay $100 for a prescription because I hadn't read the fine print on the rebate well enough- I called the Doctor's office and they promised to get it all sorted out for me
• I have a huge new group of friends, most of whom are in my student ward, who are all great people and I love all of the crazy stuff we do together (snowball fights, nickel city, dollar movies, hot tubbing, dance parties, game night, mafia and more)

• I have awesome parents! I have a mom who takes the time to help me edit college papers, give me cooking & shopping advice, and talk to me on the phone everyday. And I have a dad who takes care of things I don't know how to do like buying computer ink online, he gives me father's blessings whenever I ask, and now that he has texting he's always sending me cute texts that give me a boost even if all they say is "hey how's your day going or whazz up? :)"
• And lastly, the biggest one of all has to do with one of my very best friends Whitni Gardner, who is currently attending Utah State. She has been taking the missionary discussions and has recently decided that SHE WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED!!! If you can't tell I'm a bit excited. The date is set for November 20 and I could not be more happy right now. I love her so much and I'm so glad she has accepted the gospel, I know it will change her life.

So even though college can be rough and certainly contains its own little trials, I know I'm very blessed. I am so grateful to be here at BYU, to have such amazing friends and family, and most of all to have the gospel in my life. :)

Halloween at Home: pumpkins, caramel apples, and mandarin spicy chicken :)

Idaho Falls and Provo are the perfect distance away. I get to experience truly living away from home while at the same time it's close enough for me to make a monthly visit. Although a little early, this weekend trip was Halloween themed and it was awesome. When I first got home everyone was already across the street at Sunnyside elementary school's Halloween carnival. My mom was in charge of a booth so I helped her for a bit and also got to see all my little siblings decked out in costumes. Some how I ended up with no pictures of that but Nathan was from Grease, Spencer was a football player, and Michelle was an adorable little witch decked out with a green face and everything. After the carnival we all headed home to watch the new Karate Kid movie. It's been a long time since our last family movie night, I loved it.

Although I neglected to get pictures of the costumes I did remember to take some of the decorations. Mom and the kids went all out before I got home and there are cute decorations all over the house. The one that creeped me out the most was the portrait of the vampire hanging where our picture of the prophet usually does, lets just say I did a very big double take when I first saw it.

Saturday morning I woke up early and went running. Then while everyone was off doing their seperate activities like sports or dance practice, I wrote my application paper for Book of Mormon. Then once everyone got back together it was time for pumpkin carving!

Look at all the beautiful pumpkins, they're kinda hard to see but there's a Nathan's scary face, Melanie's witch, Spencer's bat, and my skeleton pirate. (Michelle's cat was still being carved in the kitchen)

Here's a close up of my pirate, I decided it was a pretty decent Captain Jack Sparrow look alike :)

And now for the lit up versions...

After pumpkins it was time for making carmel dipped apples, my favorite! We had to dip them super fast before the caramel hardened so some of them turned out a little messy, but they were delicious. My favorite was the coconut with both white and milk chocolate chips, mmm so good. Mom even let me wrap two up and bring them back to college with me.

When all of our Halloween festivities were over my Mom and I took off to eat dinner at my favorite local  chinese restaurant, The Great Hunan. Wow have I missed that place, they have the most amazing mandarin spicy chicken ever! We had a great time and I loved being able to catch up in person. My mom has definitely become one of my best friends, some how even more so after leaving for college, and I love it :)

Sunday morning I got to attend my home ward and see my little brother Nathan ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. I can't believe he's old enough to pass the sacrament now, kinda crazy. Soon after, I was back on the road and headed back to Provo. It was a great weekend though and definitely helped rejuvenate me to face the second half the semester.

Homecoming...Gangsta style

This week was BYU homecoming, honestly some parts of it felt too reminiscent of high school for me but overall I ended up having a lot of fun. On Friday night my roommates had dates to the dance and I didn't so Brock and I decided to go thuggin' around Provo. We went to a bunch of places like the mall, Walmart, and the cocoa bean cupcake place, playing gangster music with our windows down the whole way haha we got some great looks. Then because we ran out of things to do we decided to stop by the outer-space themed homecoming dance my roommates were at. We didn't exactly blend in but we had a blast.

On Saturday I hung out with my roommates and Kenzie all day. We went shopping at Kohls and Plato's closet (the best place ever) and found some great deals, including the most incredible shoes which are shown in the picture below. We had a pizza picnic and then headed to the football game. Keeping with the gangster theme, and because they liked my awesome pink pants, Alysa and Kenzie bought colored pants as well and we all headed to the game decked out.

We felt a little discriminated against at the game as we were some of the only students they requested to see our IDs haha. It was all made up for though when the camera zoomed in on us three and we were on the jumbo screen for a long time, at least 30 seconds. We danced and went crazy, it was pretty awesome. Afterwards we had a bunch of people we know texting us because they saw it and liked our sweet outfits. Oh and we finally won another game, which was also exciting :)

Saturday night however strayed from the rest of the weekend's theme. Brock had previously asked me to the semi-formal dance but since we had ended up at the outer-space dance the night before we decided to do something else. We dressed up real classy like and then drove up to Salt Lake. We ate dinner at the Macaroni Grill which was delicious and had a great atmosphere that added to the night's overall feeling of classiness. Then we headed over to Temple Square and enjoyed the temple and all the other beautiful buildings there. It was fun since we both hadn't been there in quite awhile. Anyway the night was a great success and it was definitely fun to get out of Provo and enjoy the big city.