Learning about myself

Hello! We're having a blissfully boring January. It's been really nice to not have much going on! Oh except my sister had her baby a couple of weeks early and I have my first nephew!! So cute.

ANYWAY, I learned something about myself the other night at a Girls Night Out with some friends. We had a book night- bring your favorite books and chat about them and swap. It was super fun, we had great fun conversation that after a couple of hours of books, turned to everything from bashing Walmart (even though we all shop there constantly- out of lack of other choices!) to the pros, cons and alternatives to giving money to bums on the street. What a great group of girls.

But what I learned about myself is this: Many of my favorite books fall under the same specific genre, same basic plotline even! Here it is: The world and governments as we know it have ended. A new, powerful and oppressive regime is in place, usually smaller than the current U.S. And some sort of rebellion is afoot. Here are some of my favorite books, which all follow this pattern:

The Alliance by Gerald Lund

The Uglies series by Scott Westerfield

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

The Giver by Lois Lowry

and these I've enjoyed but aren't in the "favorites" category:

The City of Ember

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Weird huh? I never thought I could be classified in that way, and I can't believe I never noticed the similarities between these books before! But I like it! So if anyone has ideas of books like these for me, let me know! I need to get on goodreads, but I'm WAY too lazy.

Also, FYI, I highly recommend the Books of Bayern series by Shannon Hale. I love the idea of having power inside you, not like Harry Potter magic really( which I also LOVE), but power that you have to learn to control and balance. Also Shannon Hale has written some of the coolest sentences I've ever heard, fun ways to describe things.

Alright that's my post about my love of books.

Christmas Top Ten

Here were my ten favorite Christmas moments this year. Note that I was sick for the last two weeks and kind of out of it so I did not take many pictures! And I think it's safe to say there's something wrong with my camera.

#10-Looking at pictures of Derek on his mission (he sent home an SD card) and hanging out with Jonathan, who's leaving on his mission in a couple of weeks.

#9- Whitney playing with Uncle Ryan and Aunt Cortnee's dogs. She loves them!!
#8- At church in California, Whitney renewed her friendship with her cousin Natalie. It was so cute to hear her little voice calling out "Na-yee, Na-yee". Here's the only picture I got of Natalie, they are wearing their sweet matching shirts that say "chillin' with my people" and have a picture of those old school little people that my mom still has and the girls love to play with. So awesome.
#7- Kate's reaction to her present from Santa "This is JUST what I wanted!!" (Lightning McQueen slippers)

#6- Watching the reactions to the presents we gave our family members. My mom, Eric's mom, and Melissa were especially fun to watch.

#5- Whitney was just the cutest about all her presents. Such a fun age. But probably her favorite thing she got was the Nerds in her stocking!
#4- Katelyn running, with her arms open wide, to give hugs to family members when we saw them for the first time in months. She did it in Fruit Heights and in California, so cute.

#3- Playing the picture game with My mom, Eric, and Jonathan, Melissa and Jenae. SO fun to laugh until you cry. Loved it.

#2- Thinking of as many opposites as possible at Christmas dinner at the Murrays. Katelyn started it, and came up with the best one. We were all like "wet, dry" and "big, little" and then Katelyn said " I did it, and help!" It was so great, what a cool opposite to think of.

#1- Acting out the Christmas story. My Grandparents were here, and they played Mary and Joseph. Whitney was the wise man, and it was the sweetest thing ever. She gave her gift to the baby Jesus, and then started taking off her necklaces and crown and giving them all to him too. She wanted to give him everything she had.

And that was our wonderful Christmas!

Wee Sing and Learn

Thanks for the recommendation, Jenn and Henry. These books/Cd's are fun. We got the bug one and the dinosaur one for Christmas. Yesterday I was treated to the sound of my 3 year old calling out "It's a Pachycephalosaurus, mom!" and tonight the girls were playing dinosaur for a while, and Katelyn was telling me about her claws "I use them for huntin' " and they were roaring at the top of their lungs and chasing the "big dinosaur", dad, around, good times.

Avatar in 3D

Go see it! It's AMAZING! Probably my best movie theater experience ever. No, DEFINITELY my best movie theater experience ever. I was riveted. I walked out and just kept saying, "WOW! That was so cool!" Worth the extra $3. I'd pay to see it again, and I haven't said that in years- I only pay to see about 2 movies a year in the theater! Eric really liked it too. The story was good, the picture was just incredible. Beautiful. Alright I'll stop gushing about it but wow. GO. SEE. IT. :)

Winter Fun

Here's what we've been up to this month, plus numerous Christmas countdowns, illnesses, delicious treat making, and present wrapping. Oh and non-stop Christmas music.

Eric's playing city league basketball, and we finally went to a game because there was finally one at 6:30 instead of 8:30. My camera stinks.

When he was out for a minute, the girls just had to go squeeze next to him on the bench. They loved cheering for him, Katelyn would even groan and slap her leg when they missed a shot. She also cheered when the other team scored. And shouted loudly several times "Go Eric!" Everyone thought she was so funny. I loved watching him play too, I haven't gotten to see him play organized sports much. He's cute when he's all athletic. :) We're looking forward to a few more games after Christmas.
The girls with their current favorite fruit. Whitney especially loves to peel these clementines. Oh and these are my third and final skirts that I made for the girls. I got all the sewing out of my system for a while. :)
We got a foot and a half of snow a couple of weeks ago, and a few days later it was finally warm enough to go outside and play (28* and sunny).
We made this sweet ramp to sled down off the deck! Perfect size for timid little girls. :)
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Something I learned today

FYI: If you try cleaning your windows INSIDE your house when it's only 6 degrees outside, the Windex will freeze before you have time to wipe it off. :)

Thoughts

So my little brother Derek's best friend Landon Gugliemana died in a car crash a few days ago. He fell asleep at the wheel driving back to school from Thanksgiving Break. He was a great, Christian kid, I only met him once or twice but I have heard about him constantly from my family for the last 6 years. Derek's in the MTC right now preparing to serve a mission in Denver, so he isn't going to the funeral, it's so sad. But he wrote a letter for one of my other brothers to read at the funeral. So I'm just sad for my brother and my family and Landon's family, and proud of Derek for the testimony he has. He said in a letter to my family that he loved Landon and will miss him for the rest of his life, but he knows he will see him again and he's excited for that day when he returns home to his Heavenly Father and Landon will be there waiting for him.

So I've just been thinking a lot lately about how grateful I am for all my family and friends, and also how grateful I am to KNOW that death is not the end! Our spirits live on and we will be resurrected! There is a heaven and a life after this one. I am so glad that Derek and the rest of my family, and Landon's family know this.

Also Eric and I talked about never driving after midnight again! We go to California all the time and we just need to be careful, even if the weather is good. Landon was only 30 minutes from his school when he crashed, he probably just thought he could make it, he was wearing his seat belt and everything, and the girl with him in the car was fine, but he died. And it could happen to us. So please everyone I love be careful as you travel for the holidays this year. I promise we will be too.