A Very Long Catch Up

*** WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF PICTURES. LIKE COPIOUS, OVERFLOWING, ABUNDANT AMOUNTS OF PICTURES. THERE YOU HAVE BEEN FAIRLY WARNED.***        

     Alright. I'm officially annoyed at blogger. It's driving me crazy, its doing something weird to my heading and I can't figure it out. But oh well. I've wasted enough time on it!

         There are several things I've been wanting to blog about, Christmas mostly. And of course I've started a new semester, so I guess thats good. The most exciting thing that I have to say is that I am graduating in APRIL!!! Due to some confusion on what credits I had left, I've been planning to graduate in July. But because of some inspiration that hit me right before I came back up to school for this semester, I realized that I only needed to add one more class to this semester and I would be DONE! So I am really excited for that. It will be so nice to be done with school! Although, I just went to the Academic Advising office here on campus (probably the weakest program at this school--their advising struggles. A lot. ) and found out I'm going to have to take an online class during Spring semester in order to actually finish my credits. I'm really annoyed because I've been into the advising office about 4 times before this, making sure I have all my credits in order, applying for my program, etc. and no one has ever caught that I was missing a science credit. And it's a long story as to why I didn't know that I still needed one more... anyway, this is becoming a long story... I am one credit short in science, so I have to take that class online after I graduate... but I'm trying to be grateful that at least I don't have to be on campus to take it.

     What am I planning to do after I graduate you might ask? Well, that is the million dollar question. I have friends living in Orem that I would like to go live with... but I'll need money to pay rent, etc. and that is in short supply right now! So we'll see. My ideal would be to live with my friends and get a job while I get my photography business rolling. And then do all the exciting things that single people get to do--okay, so I'm really only thinking of traveling. And I can't really picture ever having enough money to travel (I've been a poor college student for so long, it's like I'm brainwashed) but it's a good dream to have, huh?

     Life has been good lately. I'm taking 18 credits--the most I have ever taken, so thats keeping me busy. And yeah, just looking forward to graduating. It has been kind of weird to picture myself not in Rexburg and not a student. There are definitely some things that I will miss from being here. But, life just moves on!

  

     Okay, so I have all these really fun pictures from Christmas to post. We had everyone together for the Christmas season and just packed 2 weeks full of all the fun we could handle. We laughed and joked a lot, watched several movies, got pedicures/manicures (don't worry, just the girls went to that one), played games, went sledding (I think it was 10 degrees that day... we didn't last too long), and went up to Temple Square. It really was so fun to have everyone together. Very busy, but very fun. We had everyone except the Taylors at our house Christmas morning and it was sooo fun to have little kids around again to provide that magic. Amy and I slept in the living room Christmas Eve, since all the married people + children took up our rooms, and early Christmas morning I hear "Mom! I have to check the cookies!" and a little pitter-patter of feet came past my head and a loud gasp "Mom! He ATE them!" We were waiting for all the little kids to wake up and go potty, etc. before we gathered to go down and several times Hunter just broke down into tears and said "I just can't wait, I have to go down now!" Santa always sets our presents out downstairs in the family room so no one is allowed to go down there until everyone is gathered. A little too much anticipation for a little 4 year old!

So I'm just going to post pictures from the whole break and hope they end up being in order... thanks for listening!

We'll start out with the traditional Nativity on Christmas Eve

Hunter played Joseph

Charlotte played Mary 

Laila was the angel (ignore the torn wings... they've seen better days)

Aiden was our loyal shepherd

Mary with Favorite Aunt Amy (she really does say "Amy" if 

you ask who her favorite aunt is. But thats because no one 

else is around to convince her otherwise.)

Faithful Donkey (played by Spencer)

And Joseph also went up from Galilee unto the city of David,

which is called Bethlehem... (Mary brought along her new 

jewelry box that Joseph had given her for sibling Christmas

Eve gifts because she couldn't bear to be parted from it, even to 

ride the donkey.)

And she brought forth her firstborn son...

And the angel(s) said unto them...

And the shepherds came with haste and found the babe.... 

and the shepherd and Joseph were very concerned with the baby's welfare

The best shot of the whole cast... this was the best we could 

get of everyone with somewhat pleasant expressions on their

a faces and facing the general direction of the camera

Angel and the Shepherd

We sang Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and the 

singing got a little boisterous because of all the excitement,

 which, you know, could make anyone nervous with all that noise. 

She comforted herself with her blankie.

Angel and baby Jesus

"Who's coming tonight?" ... SANTA! 

Next comes Christmas Morning...

Our tree was quite overflowing this year with so many

 families all under one tree

"Aiden look, he ATE the cookies!!"

"AND part of his beard was left behind on the door to the chimney!"

Heading down the stairs to see what Santa left

And this is what he left...

Other activities ...

Reading with Grandma

The girls became good buddies

Time for Pedicures/Manicures!!!

Temple Square...

Looking at the Christus

We single people have to stick together...

and we kind of like each other too.

The whole crew.

Okay, all I have left are just some artsy shots I took throughout the break

Thanks for listening all to the end!!! I think there's like 60 pictures in this post. I record for me. I'll try not to make it a habit. But it's Christmas! I couldn't resist all the cute pictures. Obviously we're very family oriented!