It's Incredible

I am extremely blessed. I'll tell you why. I am surrounded by incredible examples. I have incredible friends. They support me when I don't feel like I deserve it. They listen when I am down or I just want to talk. They have strengthened my testimony so many times. One such time I was feeling pretty down and I got a text during the day that simply said "How are you Jess?" These days, this particular text has been my favorite. This tells me a couple things, the Lord is mindful of me and watches over me, I am blessed to have such caring friends, and I am not alone. I can't thank them enough for their support. I can be entirely too stubborn sometimes in asking for help but I am working on inviting help when I need it. One of my great friends reminded me that the Lord has blessed me with tools like my roommates, them, family and others to help me and support me. I love spending time with them. It boosts me and I only hope I can be there for them like they are for me.

New Years

As tradition for New Years, we always get take out Chinese food. We play games. At the old house we would go outside and run around banging pots and pans at the corner. This year M's friend B came and played games and ate with us. We went outside and lit sparklers. It was sooo cold. It was hard to start the lighter when we couldn't feel our fingers. It was 10 degrees outside!! 2015 was a great year and I hope 2016 is even better. Happy New Years!!

"Be of good cheer, the future is as bright as your faith." - Thomas S. Monson

Us Girls

I was ready to take the picture and Mom joined in. These are my sisters. From left to right we have C, A, and M. (and mom on the right in the top one) M is the oldest. She loves to travel and is super skilled at sewing and loves to plan (and is great at planning) parties. She just graduated from BYU-I a couple of weeks ago. We sew together and watch movies like North and South, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion. A is going into graphic design, she is super talented at drawing and lettering and cute things like that. She is my "Adventure Time" buddy. We watch it together and anytime I'm in the car with her going anywhere, (D.I.s) it is always an adventure. We usually rely on the gps, sing to the radio and then laugh when we realize the signal was lost and we try to figure out how to get home. C is the youngest. She loves playing games (especially Ticket to Ride these days). She loves doing hair and wants to go into Cosmetology. Definitely more put together than me. She enjoys hanging out with her friends. Love my siblings to pieces!

Sleepover

Just missing A

M, C, and I went to S and T's place for a sleepover. It was probably the only and last time in that place since they will be moving here soon. Jack was there and boy is he a cutie. We picked out the movie "Princess Bride" but it was more background noise while we played games. The best game we played was Wackee Six. I love this game now. Most of the time while playing I kept thinking how fun it would be to play at my apartment back at school. As the game went on, it usually ended up with all of us standing hovering over the table. It was pretty fun and pretty intense. We ate brownies and had so much fun.

That's Christmas to Me

I love Christmas! These are pictures of Christmas at our house. Last night was of course Christmas Eve. My grandparents are here. It may sound super cheesy but we turned off the lights and sat in the glow of the Christmas tree. We talked about our most memorable Christmas. Grandpa remembers getting a train set and a bike another year. Grandma remembers her mother giving her a radio. Dad remembers putting a big piece of plywood on top of their pool table downstairs and setting up trains on them with his Dad. His Dad would fill the trains with liquid smoke so when it went, it looked real with smoke. Mom remembers getting baby dolls with her sisters. It was beautiful because the curtains were open and snow was falling outside. Then we were listening to the 12 days of Christmas and we spontaneously decided to each get a number or two of the days and when it said our number we would act it out. I got 2 (turtle doves) and 9 (ladies dancing). Mom and Grandpa and Grandma joined in. Grandpa was THE BEST partridge in a pear tree. It was hilarious! We ate pizza for dinner and made Christmas cookies and Mom made the traditional Carrot Pudding dessert. (It sounds worse than it is) It's one of my favorite things. We wrapped presents and Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma watched "A Christmas Carol". M and I wore our matching Batman pajamas that we got on Black Friday. We normally get Christmas jammies but this year is different. I didn't realize I was so tired but I guess I fell asleep on the couch by the tree and Mom woke me up at 3 am to head to bed. This morning we slept in and at 10, C came in to wake me up to go open presents. It didn't take long for her to come back down and tell me I didn't need to hustle because we were waiting for Dad. He got called into work. So instead, we ate breakfast first and he headed out. He'll come back and we'll have a good time. I'm excited about how much snow we have. I remember last year we didn't have any until Christmas Day.

My most memorable Christmas isn't something I got, it's just times that I remember. I remember in our small old house A, C, and I ran up the stairs averting our eyes from the things in the living room. We went up to S's room and we played games, talked, and laughed as siblings. Mom and Dad weren't up yet and we stayed in his room for what felt like hours. We were in our pajamas that we got the night before. We would get so excited when we heard Mom and Dad walking down the stairs. The bathroom was right at the top of the stairs and so we would say that we needed to use the bathroom but really, we just wanted to pass through the hallway to peak down the stairs to look at the presents. We were inside S's room and Mom and Dad were setting up the camcorder. No one was aloud to come down until it was set up. When it was ready, we would walk down and see what we got in our stockings. At the bottom of the stockings there was always an orange and peanuts still in the shells. After stockings were open, us kids always wanted to keep unwrapping but Mom and Dad always had us eat breakfast first. We usually had breakfast casserole and Dad would make omelets. Then we would resume unwrapping the rest after breakfast was cleaned up. Grandma B would join us. Later that night was Dad's side of the family party at Grandma's house.

You always hear everyone's version of what Christmas means to them. Christmas is full of love. The love we have for our family, for our friends, for our neighbors and most importantly the love for our Savior and Father in Heaven. The "Christmas Spirit" can strive with us all year long. It's the love and kindness that is from God. Christ came into this world and his birth spread joy, peace, and hope to everyone. He came into the world to be our Savior. On earth he blessed, healed, guided, atoned and so much more. Because of Him I can live again, be with my family forever, learn and grow through experiences I face. It's incredible how much he really does for us. I have a testimony that He lives. He hears us as we pray. He knows about everything we go through and he understands us. He blesses us and we are His children.

I don't know who reads my blog (if anyone :) ) but I wish you a very merry Christmas. My aunt S would read it but earlier this year, she joined our Father in Heaven. It's really different. I really miss her and even though Grandma left us 3 years ago, it's still never the same without her. Merry Christmas!

Carrot Pudding

Snow in the backyard

Sriracha Popcorn and other small things

Life is an ADVENTURE!! Do we really embrace each moment? This may not be important in the grand scheme of things but literally, you have to enjoy every moment. Find opportunities to have fun and do crazy things. This day was either a Monday or Wednesday. K and I usually had lunch together those days and it was always pretty great. You really can't go wrong with typical college food (noodles or soup). On this particular day my creativity and hunger were driving me to try something new. I barrowed some Sriracha sauce from the men downstairs and I decided to add it to some popcorn. I love Sriracha sauce but I really put too much in it. (yes, there is a think called "too much") and K and I were fire breathing dragons eating it. Boy, I was sweating and I couldn't take it after awhile. We wanted to keep it dry, as opposed to going cold and soggy, and so we turned the oven on low and put it on a tray. I whole heartedly believe that it would have worked but after leaving it in there for a good 10-15 minutes, we suddenly remembered it was still in there and we went flying into the kitchen. There was no way we were now eating burned Sriracha popcorn. It was fun while it lasted.

No Explanations

I am 100% sure that there must have been SOMETHING good that happened the day that these pictures were taken (you'll learn as you read the captions). I am posting these a little late, so I don't remember why it was significant. It's totally fine if nothing was because it's an excuse to say and show how much I am blessed by my roommates. They are the WORLD to me and I would do anything for them. K and I always joke and say that we take the best selfies. I would agree but here is evidence that my other roommates take way better selfies on their own (they are loads more photogenic than I am haha)

I have the most beautiful roommates!!!

M, K, and I went into our room and watched the movie "Anastasia"

while we made the men rice bags. It was really fun.

This was actually the same night we made the rice bags,

we ate R's famous breakfast burritos for dinner.

So I may have not been a part of this picture but I absolutely love it.

They are my best friends.