I know... another picture update...

My cousin Riley got his mission to Portugal!!!

Went to Ash's game at Maple Mountain and then hung out with our favorite cousins at McDonald's till 11:00. This was also the coldest we have ever been in our whole entire life. 

I took this amazing picture of my hilarious Primary class. I'm going to send it to Austin ;) 

Went to Zoo lights with these crazy people. 

Made a paper chain for my mission. On this day there were 101 days. Today there are 100. :) 

Cutest money ever at the zoo. He was staring at me and putting his hand up on the glass. 

More zoo lights. Apparently I look like a man.  

Eating cold stone after zoo lights :) 

Merry Christmas 2012!

Here is my family's Christmas letter :) we thought that we'd put it online to save money... no... really it's just because we are too lazy and didn't get it done in time.

Well we figured that since we are kind of known for being late that we wouldn’t break that streak!

This year has been full of surprises and fun for us!

In April we finally fulfilled our dream and went on a Caribbean cruise! We loved every second of it, even though it was very last minute. We flew to Florida and headed for the Bahamas on Easter morning. We were able to go to the Bahamas, Jamaica, The Cayman islands, and Cozumel Mexico. We gained a lot of weight, spent a lot of money, parasailed, went snorkeling, hiked a waterfall in Jamaica, went clear bottom canoeing in the ocean, laid on the beach, took a wind tour through the everglades, held alligators, and even swam with dolphins! Let’s just say, we had a LOT of fun! In June we went to Moab and did a lot of hiking and swimming! We then took a sudden and quick trip to Arizona for our Great Aunt and Uncle Floyd and Karin’s funeral.  We had a girl’s weekend at a million dollar cabin in Bear Lake with Duane’s side of the family. We laughed, cried, ate, got sunburned, and had some much-needed girl talk. In July we had our annual Flaming Gorge trip and had a blast as always. We also fulfilled another dream by going horse back riding for Ashley’s 18^th birthday in September.

Nicole (19)- Started by finishing her fun year as Miss. Saratoga Springs in March. Then fought her way through her third semester at BYU. She working for WDS and is currently serving as a Primary teacher for the 5 and 6 year olds. She also submitted her mission papers 3 weeks after the announcement of the age change! She was called to Tampa Florida on November 14^th and is entering the MTC April 3^rd! Her favorite event this year was taking her endowments out with her family in the Mount Timp temple. 

Ashley (18)- Will be graduating this year from Westlake high. She was planning on attending Utah State or SLCC, but has now decided to put that on hold and serve a mission as soon as she can. Her life has basically been basketball for the past several months, as she is the captain of the varsity team, but she, as well as all of us are loving every second of it. She has averaged about 12 points a game and is thinking about playing college ball. She is currently the Laurel’s second counselor and the Humanitarian Specialist.

Karly (16)- Got her license in June, and is now dating. She is busy with school and enjoys physics, astronomy, and pre-calculus. She loves to spend every second with her friends; her family might be a little too crazy for her ;). She got to see Mumford and Sons (her all time favorite band) in concert and will not stop talking about it even to this day. She is in FCCLA and is pleased by it… most of the time. As you know she is the only musically talented person in our family and can play piano and sing like an angel. She was the Mia Maid president but in June moved on to be with Ashley in Laurels.

Katelyn (14)- In about one week Katelyn will be driving! Adding to that she started 9^th grade and out here that means High School! She is playing basketball for Westlake on the freshman team. She plays a point guard on the team and starts every game. She loves her team and coaches. She is learning a ton and getting so much better! She is always with her 100+ friends, keeping us on our toes, and making us laugh. She was the Beehive president, but has moved on to Mia Maids.

Kristin (we won’t go there)- Is still working with UPS, doing hair, and a full time mom. She spends most of her days running things back and fourth to Westlake for the girls, grocery shopping to feed the neighbors, and going to basketball games. She is still dating and having a blast going to singles activities, but mostly loves just being home with all of us.

Dad- In June it was 4 years since he has passed away. We are sure that he is up in heaven having fun with his dad and uncles, but also teaching and preaching the people in the same way he did down here. We miss him more every single day but we have a firm testimony that this is our plan and we try and make the best of it J 

Sandee, Mandee, O.J.- I know. Big surprise that our dogs and rabbit are still alive. We are pretty sure their time is coming… especially after Nicole left Sandee on the roof in the 90 degree weather for 4 hours… 

Ash's (almost) broken nose

Ashley got hit in the face at her game against Payson on Tuesday. The thing is, it was her teammates head... 

They were all scrambling for a lose ball and she got hit in the nose. She couldn't even get up off the floor because she was in so much pain. She said she was trying so hard, but just couldn't. Plus when you get hit in the nose you automatically just cry so it's a little hard to see. The game was still going on at the other end. It probably took a whole minute for the ref to actually blow the whistle. And once one of them did, they just stood there. It was the weirdest dumbest thing ever. Then the trainer didn't get over there for that minute as well because the refs were being stupid and he had no idea anything was even going on. It was pretty ridiculous. Then my mom went over and the trainer said that MOST LIKEY she had a broken nose. Everyone else (besides her assistant coach) agreed that she had a broken nose (probably because he nose was swollen and crooked). Plus she had 2 popped blood vessels under her right eye that just looked like either really small bruises or smeared mascara. The sad thing was, my mom and I went down there to laugh at her and then take some pictures. That's our family for ya. That must be why we have a quote on our wall that says the only way to get through life is to laugh. 

She missed the second quarter while they were cleaning blood off her clothes and waiting till the bleeding stopped. We all know Ashley, she went right back in the second half. They sure did need her too, but were also doing really great without her. It started bleeding again at the end of the game. 

We were just going to take her to the doctors the next day to get it checked out, but my mom wanted to get it checked that night so that it wouldn't swell too much more and just so we could get it checked out as soon as possible. We went to the E.R. Believe it or not, there was NO ONE in there! That is a huge surprise to me because I've only been to that place one other time and it did not go well. It still took quite a bit of time. So me, Karly, and Katelyn went and got some Dell Taco. 

But the diagnosis what that she DIDN'T HAVE A BROKEN NOSE! YAY! But also weird because her nose is TOTALLY crooked. I think that they said she might have chipped it or have a hairline fracture. If the crookedness (never used that word before in my life) doesn't go away then she has to go back in the get it checked out. Welp. That's all! Just wanted to share that kind-of-could-have-been-awesome story with you ;) 

But to be honest, with how hard Ash plays and that she's been playing basketball forever I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier than her Senior year :)

The sequel to- If you play with fire you will probably burn something (or someone this time)

Here is the sequel to If you play with fire you will probably burn something

We seriously do not know how to jump a car. Here's the story:

Karly is still kind of learning how to drive the stick. My mom has started making her drive it every single day to school. 

She drove the whole way to school with the emergency break all the way on... I don't know how someone could do that, but she said that she was too distracted to even notice. Ashley even had to tell her to turn on her lights... that one is understandable though. Our other car has automatic lights, and I guess you don't have to put on the emergency break hardly ever either. I asked her if she noticed the bright red light that said break on it... she said again that she was too distracted. 

So they made it to school... both of them said that it smelled SO bad... (the tires were like burning of course).

But Karly left the lights on. 

The car died.

We had to come and jump the car for them after Ashley and Katelyn were done with practice (Karl rode the bus home). 

I called Brock because... well... he was a boy and thought that he could help. I had jumped a car before, but I couldn't remember how to do it exactly. He said that he hadn't really done it except for once a while ago, but we could figure it out.

We got there... started hooking chords up, but the last one sparked so bad Brock couldn't even clamp it. 

So then he called his mom and she said that we were doing it right. We had the Mazda on and were hooking them the right way. So- we did it again and it worked. 

Brock's mom said to let it sit for a while. We did before turning on the dead car. But we wanted to sit in the car because it was really cold outside.
30 seconds later I see Lexi, Katelyn, and Ashley just sprinting from the car... I looked and saw that the chords were smoking!!

Here is it smoking... (Yes, we were taking pictures the whole time. Just like the candle incident )

We ran out there but didn't know what to do because they were hot but we needed to get them off! Brock found a sock and got one sort of off... but it burned through right away... I scrambled and found an ace bandage (don't know why that was in the car...) he wrapped it thick and then got the other chords off. 

They had melted all the way down. Almost all the plastic was off the chords... 

We called our mom. She didn't believe us for a while. 

Brock burned his thumb from when it had gone through the sock. It smelled of beef ramen noodles... 

Then we tried to push start it. 

We pushed it up and down the parking lot at least 5 times. We were so tired! It almost worked twice... then as we were about to go up the hill again a nice man (I think he was a principal or something) asked us if we needed help. We asked him if he could jump the car. 

He had a huge truck and all he did was hook the chords up the SAME way Brock did, but he didn't have his truck on. It started right up and was fine.... 

The reason that the chords melted was because our Mazda had too much power with the car on. Plus it had a bran new battery sooooo that's why the chords melted.

Stuff like this always happens when we hangout with Brock ;) 

It worked :) 

If you're wondering how my mom felt about this... it was also the same as the candle incident... she laughed. Hard. She thought it was hilarious that we almost blew up both cars and could have potentially killed ourselves (if we want to go that far ;)) 

We just know how to have fun I guess... haha 

Saturday MOTAB Christmas Concert

We got tickets to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert on Saturday! We loved it last year and were excited to go again.

Saturday morning was spent playing Phase 10... all the way through. We always finish that game. No matter what. Then we headed to pick up Danny and go to Salt Lake.

We wanted to go somewhere nice for dinner, but everywhere was packed and the wait was too long for us to make it to the concert on time. We ended up eating at Panda Express and this other Chinese place at the Gateway. Not really what we wanted at all, but it was fine.

Then we headed to the concert!

To be honest we didn't really like the music as much this year, but it was still really beautiful and fun! The big surprise was the story at the end of the concert. I can't even try to explain the story because I know I will just butcher it. It touched me so much and I just wanted to cry. They even had the real man from the story that happened a long time ago! He was like 90 years old and still looked awesome! But ya. It almost made me cry. But you know how I can hold in my crying... unlike my laughter. They even dropped parachutes with candy from the celling. It was cool, but like I said also very touching and spiritual. I even ended up sending the story to Elder Miller and some pictures :)

On our way

We got pretty good seats 

After words :) 

I just love my Primary kids!

Only two more Sunday's till my little friends move on to another class :'(
I have grown very attached to these kids! Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy trying to teach them, have fun, be their friend, and keep them quiet, but it has been worth every minute! I teach the gospel in simple ways and they always have questions that I can answer, and I know that is because I pray every Saturday night that I will be able to teach with the spirit and be able to teach them the things that they need to know. I really feel like a missionary when I teach them though! They have the cutest questions about heaven, Jesus, the scriptures, and even things like clothes, candy, and hair that don't even pertain to the lesson :)
They have defiantly taught me more than I could ever teach them. Their sweet spirits and testimonies shine through as they say prayers, give talks, help each other, and always listen close and talk nicely of Jesus. They love and know their Savior and have helped me realize how simple and sweet this gospel is. That is why we are supposed to become as a little child to enter into the kingdom of God. Matthew 18:1-5
Sometimes parents might think that they aren't doing a good enough job, but trust me, I can see it. You are :)


*I really wanted to share this hilarious story that got me laughing so hard in church that I was crying...

They really like to play hangman. A lot.
This is kind of how it goes- They stand on the table. They either whisper a word to me that they want to do, or they tell me to tell them a word. Then I tell them how many lines to draw. Then all the kids will start guessing words. Every round I have to remind them that they need to guess letters. Once they start guessing letters then sometimes I will have to tell them where that letter is on their lines. Believe it or not they are actually pretty good at guessing the words! Zach was helping me teach last week and they all guessed the words even before him! There are 4 words that get used EVERY SINGLE TIME: resurrection (I might have drilled that word into their heads one lesson. Now they all just want to use it), The Book of Mormon (because they think it's long and they know how to spell it), church (they know how to spell it... most of the time... this last time it didn't start with a C), and cat (that story is coming up).
So the last 2 times we have played it was James turn. He got up there and I asked him if he needed help. He says, "Nope! I've got a really good word!" Both of these times he has put up 3 lines. The first time it took a few tries for them to get the word CAT.
The next time we played, he did the same thing. The other kids got it a little faster.
Yesterday was the funniest thing ever, he gets up there and says, "I have one and it's going to fool everyone!" I mouth or whisper to Zach, "I promise it will be CAT." He laughs and then goes, "You're sure? Like, without a doubt?" I go, "he's done it every time. "I KNOW it will be."
James draws FOUR lines!
My jaw dropped and Zach just started laughing.
There was one kid who guessed like P or something.
James drew a head.
Then all in unison, almost every single kid goes, "CAT!"
James sighs and writes CAT....
Yes. I know what you are thinking... there were still 4 lines. But it still was CAT! So he didn't fool the other kids, but he sure did fool me and Zach!!!
We laughed and laughed for a long time. The other kids didn't get what was so funny... I just told James that was a very good word and I was proud of him for doing it on his own. He was still happy :)
But seriously.
If only you knew....

So glad I'm speaking English!

Tonight I was talking to this girl that just got back from her mission in October. I had never met her but I heard her talking about her mission and I just kind of gravitate to those kinds of people I guess... she went to Panama and spoke Spanish (obviously). But she was telling me that I was so lucky to be speaking English because when you learn Spanish she said that they just teach you how to say your testimony in the most simple way. She said because I was speaking English I could REALLY share my testimony in almost a more complex way. I have to say that I feel better about that! That was the whole reason that I wanted to speak English. Whew. The end.