He's Going Where?

My baby brother received his mission call on Wednesday, December 23. As he opened the envelope and began to read "you have been called to serve in the Cape Verde Praia mission", there was a moment of silence, which was followed by a chorus of "Huh? Where?" If you remember the Africa song from 9th grade, you know that Cape Verde is a small group of islands off the west coast of Africa. Cape Verde, Morocco, Algeria... am I the only one that knows this song?

Eric leaves March 24th and will be speaking Portuguese! We are so excited for you little brother! You will be a GREAT missionary!

Merry Christmas!

We just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We love you all and appreciate you and your friendship!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

We got to eat Thanksgiving this year at the Weiss'. Also there was Grandma, and the Arizona Steinacker's. I love Thanksgiving dinner!

We sculpted things that we were thankful for

I am thankful for this here dog...

And this here hubbs... Seriously... hardest working man this side of the Mississippi.

After din din, we took some family pictures. It's been about 4 years since we've taken some, so it was time to update!

And thanks to this here lady for holding my out of control dog so we could take the pictures (she wanted to chase the ducks... I mean Zoey wanted to chase the ducks, not Jenna)

And the reason we're all here!

The cute parents

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Busy Weekend.

I have been requested to give my review of "New Moon" so here you go..

I LOVED IT!!!

Did I love it more than the first one? It is possible. But I do love them both. I did love this one for the fact that Taylor was shirtless for a good part of the movie. Mmmmmmm.... That was my favorite part. I am still team Edward, but I do not object to a naked Jacob. So awesome. I'm ready to see the movie again. Any takers?

It was fun to go with my sisters-in-law and mom-in-law. We paid the mega-buck to go to the "Fangs Movie Event" which, I thought, was totally worth it. We got a gift bag FULL of stuff; t-shirts, nail polish, licence plate cover, cups, treats, coupons... I have never done the midnight release thing, but I will DEFINITELY do this again in June when "Eclipse" is released. Who's with me?! Jenni, Lindsay and Chris, you might as well commit now because you know I'm going to make you come.

Did I take any pictures at the event? No. Why? Because I'm stupid.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brian and I had an eventful weekend. I can't believe I made it on such little sleep. I stayed up Thursday until 3 am at "New Moon", got up at 7 am to go to work. Worked until 5:30. Went to dinner and a movie with some friends. We saw "Blind Side" (SUCH a good movie! I highly recommend it). We got home around 11:30. I went straight to bed. Then got up at 7:00 to take Brian to work. Me and Zoey hung out at my mom's house until 5:00. Then I took the pup to my brother's house so him and the wife could watch her while Brian and I went to Park City with Rachel and John! Soooooooo fun! We ate a delicious dinner of buffalo burgers and "buffalo chips" on Main Street. We then went to the condo up in Deer Valley, which was SO nice. It has a hot tub on the deck... ya, I could have spent the weekend just in the hot tub. We made a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) breakfast on Sunday morning. This breakfast was so huge that all I had to eat for the rest of the day was a caramel apple from RMCF. Can't go to P.C. without stopping for an apple! We shopped the afternoon away, and then when the blizzard hit... that's when we decided to head for home. Phew! I am tired just thinking about all the things we did this weekend!

Did I take any pictures in Park City? No. Why? Because I am stupid.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving (one of my favorite holidays) and family time. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Word Of Advice

Have you ever typed your name into google? Well, I just did it, and my name came up... not under my own blog, but under YOURS! If you want to make your blog a little safer, but aren't ready to go private yet, go to 'settings' then click on 'basic'. A few questions down it will ask 'Let search engines find your blog?' Select NO! If you select 'yes', google will be able to find your name if someone types it in the search engine!

Just Because..

What a cute husband!

DISNEYLAND!

Can you say "slacker"? I would just like to say that it was not entirely my fault for taking so long to post about my fabulous vacation to California with my family. But here are the pictures in all their glory. Enjoy! (These pictures are in no particular order)

This was my family's last 'hoop-la' before my little bro goes on his mission. Brian, Mike and Heather were not able to make it :-( We sure missed you!

Heck yes, I met the Simpson's! We also went on the Simpson's 3D ride at Universal Studios, which was awesome.

Old Town Mexican for Dinner after Sea World. The best Mexican in San Diego! And I would like to point out my SUNBURN in this picture. I could feel myself getting burned all day, and I kept asking my mom "am I burned really bad?" and she would reply "it's not that bad". NOT THAT BAD?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?


After the plummet on the Atlantis roller coaster. I didn't want to get wet, hence my unhappy face. When the lady seating us on the ride asked where I wanted to sit, I replied "I want to sit where ever I will get the least wet"

Um, yeah, that's us on the top of that freakish-ly large drop.

Similarity?

We went from about a million degrees outside to arctic temperatures in the Beluga Whale enclosure.

Yay Shamu! Or as we called him: Sha-moo-moo

Burning to a crisp at the Shamu Show

Eatin' Mickey suckers at the happiest place on Earth!

I heart Mr. Toad and his wild ride

HA! My dad was CONVINCED that these trees at "It's a Small World" spelled something. Sorry Dad.

Winnie the Pooh ride: so stinkin cute

Waiting in line at the Haunted Mansion

You know how when you're on "Pirates of the Caribbean" and there are people sitting on a dock at a restaurant staring at you as you float past? Well we ate at said restaurant and OMG I thought I died and went to Heaven. P.S. if you eat here, get the monte cristo.

New Ride at California Adventure. It's a 3D Toy Story ride. It was so cute we had to do it twice.

Brothers and Sister in line for Soarin'

Brian! You were there! Technically you are in the picture!

We heart California Adventure!

Hiding from the sun at Six Flags. It was 106 degrees that day. I almost died. Seriously though, if you are a roller coaster junkie, you MUST go to Six Flags sometime in your life. SO awesome! My favorite roller coaster was Tatsu, you ride on your belly! While at Six Flags, I also went on the SCARIEST roller coaster I have EVER been on. It's called X2 and it is not for the weak stomached.

This was such a fun trip, I'm so glad I got to go! Let's start planning for next year, people!

The One That Made Me Forget To Breathe

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Yes, I already have my tickets to midnight New Moon. And yes, I am the nerd that payed $40 to go to the "Twilight Event" special edition... Don't worry, I found some nerds to go with me ;-)

The One With All The Humility

I just wanted to write this down to help me remember it. And hopefully sharing it with you will open someones eyes like it did mine.

Awhile ago, I posted about our family friend, Paul Cardall who is an amazing pianist... and an amazing person. Paul was born with a heart condition and has been having heart surgeries for most of the 36 years of his life. August of 2008 he was put on the wait list for a new heart because the surgeries just weren't cutting it. Do the math... that was over a year ago. Well, my mom called me on Wednesday night to tell me that Paul had received a heart that morning! I was SO excited for him. He is such a wonderful father, husband and human being. He is SO close to our Heavenly Father and loves the gospel. I just can't express how amazing he is.

So last night, I got online to read his blog and I was so overwhelmed by how strong and positive Paul has remained through this journey. He looks at his heart defect as a blessing. He says "I've been blessed my whole life to have this heart defect. I am far from perfect and needed this in my life to teach me things I could have never learned without it".

I have been a little down in the dumps lately and as I was reading Paul's previous posts, I became overwhelmed and ANGRY with myself for letting the little trivial things in my life get me down. This man has been dealing with CHD for 36 years and I've never met anyone so positive! The more I looked at his blog, the more I realized how ridiculous I was for feeling sorry for myself. He keeps in contact with SO many cardiac kids who have to struggle with SO MUCH at such a young age. It breaks your heart to read these blogs about these kids hooked up to a million tubes and how their parents are so excited when they can finally eat without a feeding tube at age 3. If Paul can be this upbeat while waiting so long for a heart, I defiantly can be happy even though I don't have the perfect marriage, or the cleanest house, or the most friends.

So I dried my tears and decided that I am DONE with these little things that have been bringing me down lately. Thanks Paul, for helping me get a better outlook on life!

You can learn more about Paul and CHD here.

Paul's cute family: Lynnette, Paul and Eden

Holy Awesomeness!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Did you miss my updates? I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE! Taylor Lautner, you can take your shirt off for me any day. (yes, Cari, I peed again.)

They Feel For Each Other

Are they singing? Are they crying? Are they howling at the moon? Feel free to decide for yourself.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

For those of you who don't know, I am just as obsessed with Harry Potter as I am with Twilight. I was able to ditch work early yesterday and go see "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" with my younger bro. It was totally awesome! Half Blood Prince might be my favorite book in the series, so I was WAY excited for the movie. The movie was awesome, our seats were awesome, I was surprised that the theater was so packed considering we went to the 2:00 show. There was not an empty seat. It was just awesome and I loved it!

This day, however, was somewhat bittersweet. You see, my younger brother, Eric, and I have read the books together, and every time a movie comes out, we go see it together. I buy the movie tickets, he buys the treats, we have a whole system worked out. A few months ago, I was looking into the seventh and final movie in the series (which is actually going to be two movies), and when the movies are released in a year and a half, Eric will be on his mission. I will admit that when I realized this, I cried a little bit. So I'm glad we got to do this one final time! Thanks brother for going to the movies with your dork of a big sister! Love you!

Happy Birfday, Brian!

July 2nd was Brian's 29th birthday... I know, he's getting up there. We celebrated by throwing him a surprise party at his mom and Jeff's house! We had a BBQ, ate cake, and Brian got to open some presents. Thanks to everyone that was able to make it to the par-tay! Happy birthday, Brian, I sure like you!

He was surprised

Showing us some of his gifts

Birthday cake with sparklers! Don't worry, we only ate a little gun powder.

And once again, my unsuccessful attempt to take a good picture with my husband.

My Baby Brother is All Grown Up

Eric, my youngest brother graduated from Brighton High School yesterday... boy did that make me feel old! Way to go, Grickey!

I thought it was so cute that my brothers wanted to hold hands.

So cute!

Don't tell me I'm not strong enough to pick up my brother.

I didn't get the memo about what we were supposed to do in the picture.

Afterwords, we went to dinner
at Good Wood. Be sure to check
out Brian's pose in the picture..


And this is what happens when I tell my husband to take a "nice" picture with me.