Special Time of Year

I love Christmas time. One of my fondest memories as a child was watching my dad put up the Christmas lights on our house. My dad is a professional putting-Christmas-lights-on-the-house-guy. I think he should've majored in that because he is that good. He's a lot older now, so it's not as easy for him to put lights up on the house, but when he did, he was something special to watch. Kelli and I sure thought so, as you can see from our very immersed expressions. My parents always made Christmas a special time for us. But, as children, my focus was inevitable on toys and "what is Santa bringing me this year, hmm?" For instance, on Sunday, Will and I were sitting in the back row of the chapel and lots of families with their youngens sit in the back row, for easy access in case one of their little people decides to throw a tantrum of great magnitude. Don't worry, Will and I knew what we were getting ourselves into. Anyway, we sat behind a very well behaved bunch of kiddos. One of the little girls was getting anxious for the sacrament to be over. She kept whispering kind of loudly to her mother, "Mooooooom, can I please play my game?" Her mother looked her in the eyes and whispered, "Not right now, right now you need to think of Jesus." Her daughter persisted, "But, I can think of Jesus while I play my game!" Her mom shook her head and the little girl gave in to her mothers wish. See, children are so little and aren't able to bask in the gloriousness of our Savior, but it's wonderful when you can see the pureness in a child's eyes. Will and I were observing this little family and how they were focused on the Savior and striving to be reverent. Even though it's unbelievably hard at such a young age when your attention span is the size of a pea. I just didn't realize how important the Savior is to me until I got a little older and wiser. Presents are very special, thoughtful, and make you feel so good. But, they are also temporal. The gifts you receive under the tree that is. But, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the gift of the Atonement, the gift of the gospel...there are so many gifts that come from our Heavenly Father in the form of the spirit. There is nothing on the face of the earth that compares to the power of the gospel and what our Father in Heaven offers us. True happiness, that's the gift I choose to appreciate most around this time of year. Even though I rarely post, and maybe no one will see this. I hope everyone has the best Christmas! Oh and take some time to read, Shepherds, Why This Jubilee?

Three. Zero.

I'm married to a thirty year old. Will does not act like a thirty year old and I mean that in the least pubescent way possible. To celebrate his momentous day of birth, I fed his face full of pretty scrumptious food. All Will really wanted for his birthday was to get his car tuned and that is exactly what we did. I love Will because he doesn't like attention. He wants the spotlight as far away from him as it can get. The problem with marrying me is, I love to shine the spotlight on him because he is someone worth celebrating. At the end of the day he made sure I knew that he liked being celebrated by me. I told him, "I will celebrate you whether you like it or not!" I mean, thirty years is a great success and he is unbelievably healthy, so why not celebrate making it this far. Happy Birthday, lovee-o-mine!

hear say

I have a routine. Every morning I have to check my blogs. The blogs that inspire me. The blogs that make me hunger. The blogs that make me wish I had a entirely new wardrobe. The blogs that poop on my writing skills. Sounds like I spend my entire day reading blogs. Have you this all takes place all under 15 minutes. It's something I do to relieve my brain from all my studies that I partake from each day. Anyways. It gets harder to blog when there are so many creative blogs out there that I can just read. I don't have to type up a gianormous paragraph, all I have to do is read and let my fingers relax. But, I was looking at ancient posts here on my blogaroo and realized...this blog is for me. I mean, I love to write to update whoever on the happenings taking place in my life. The thing is, I shouldn't use this blog to appeal to an entire population, but rather use this blog for a place to relieve thoughts that are pent up in my noggin'. Or, to record how I got through nursing school (which I am still in the process of doing). Or, express how happy I am so that when I am in the dumps or need a pick-me-up I can look back and smile at all the good times I've had. I love writing and most of all I love memories. I am so glad my mom made me write in my journal as a youngen. I look back at all my entries and sometimes I can scratch my head, and think, "Glad I wrote in my journal today, because I would not have remembered how I hit my brother in the nose with a bat for tickling me until I had to pee!" I promise, I wasn't an abusive sister and I did not break his nose. I just didn't know what else to do. I don't need to defend myself to the public. He deserved it, and anyways he's fine now, all growed up and working for Microsoft in Charlotte, NC. I think that bat did him some good. Just thought I'd write some thoughts down since it's been ages since I've written on this thing. And the format of blogger has changed, looking a bit...new. Thank you peasants for reading my blog. I wish thee well. Oh, I ran a half-marathon. That was a pret-ty good day, why can't I have that day over and over and over...oh wait. I think that was my last one. They are hardcore, man.

As you can see from my distasteful expression.

My Will-man was there. Waiting at the finish line for moi. Brought his handy dandy camera. Oh and look, I got a medal. Except everyone's medal looked identical to mine. I still believe I won first place. They just gave me the wrong medal, those reets.

Kneaders catered. BEST day of my life.

Then and Now

What happened? I look nothing like I did when I was little iddy person. I guess that's normal. BUT, the man that I love, has not changed a bit since he was a young lad. All you have to do is resize the picture below to a larger size and voila, adult version of baby Will. Okay okay, it's not that extreme, but still, he looks no different. Maybe he has a few crows feet and some beach balls for arms, but that is about it. He ages beautifully. It's not cool and I'm not okay with it. I need to find out his secret. Once I find out, I'll let y'all in on the secret. He was sure cute. I want a Will Jr. Don't worry, we are not naming our future child Will Jr. AND, I'm not pregnant.

(Left to right: Me, My sister Lindsay, and my twin...mesmerized with my dad's shaving routine)

(Will and his brother Joseph)

In a weeeeeeek..

I shall be done with this semester of school. Can I get a hallelujah?! Thank you very much. I'm lacking in creativity with this blog. Because all I do, all day, everyday is study Anatomy or Microbiology. And, I guarantee nobody wants to hear about what I'm learning. No really, your dinner will come right back up to say hello, promise! I love what I learn, it does not gross me out the slightest. I am feeding you full of horse pile. I get grossed out occasionally, but like I said, I will not disgust you with details. All I'm trying to say is, I am done with this semester in a week.

I'm not sure what the plan is for the future, which isn't always my favorite feeling. I am a planner. Plain and simple. Except it's not so simple when my plan goes haywire. Honestly, I'm so lucky I married a feller that is not the planner type. He goes with the flow which has helped me relax a little. I never thought I was a planner kind of girl until I married Will. But, that's been my biggest struggle lately, is just relying on the Lord that my plan will work it's way out in due time (aka the Lord's time). All I have to do is my part by being good and working hard. So, that's what I've been doing.

Life is great! I'm also grateful for the wonderful family Will and I have. We both were raised in strong, loving families. I love the sky. I love the comfy laz-ee boy I'm currently sitting in. I love getting to study right dab next to my husband every night. I love Anatomy (even if I can't wait for it to be over). I love our living a healthy lifestyle. I love chapstick/lotion. I love singing especially when I'm alone. I love the feeling of a car with a full belly of gas. I love a Marci with a full belly of mandarins. I love a lot of things. But, most of all I love the gospel. It brings true happiness into my life.

I'm in like with this Conference weekend

BEWARE: Explosion of Ruby in this post. Ruby is Joseph (Will's brother) and Jen's baby.

Will and I got to spend a short, but sweet Conference weekend with Will's hospitable parents, Joseph, Jen, Ruby and their dog Daisy. I'd say we had a pretty good time. Just lounging around, eating lots of delicious food, as well as being spiritually fed. We listened to some amazing talks that touched me personally and I'm grateful we got to spend the weekend with family.

One of the most fun memories was my mother-in-laws new waffle cone maker. The boys went off to Priesthood while the ladies stayed back. We learned how to make waffle cones and they turned out pretty good. Crunchy to the taste. It was a great weekend and Ruby entertained all of us the entire time. You'd think she'd get tired of being so cute, well, she doesn't. We brought our new camera with us, not expecting to take too many pictures, just enough to bask in the moment. Well, Will and I got a little carried away. We set the camera to high speed continuous mode, because Ruby is currently in the "I cannot stay put if my life depended on it" stage, so it was impossible to get a clear shot if we hadn't changed the setting. We took over 200 pictures of Ruby. She is a star. Here are a few out of the 200 we took:

She's a hoot.

Sunday Bliss

Sundays are probably my most favorite day of the week. The entire day is devoted to my Heavenly Father, delicious food, and I get to spend the entire day with my husband. Seriously, thanks to our Nursery calling, we are never apart from each other. Although, I really do miss Relief Society and most of all I miss having our brother and sister-in-law in our ward. Church is wonderful, but add them to the equation and it's outstanding!

These pictures were taken by Will and me. We got a new Canon EOS 60D during the Christmas season and we love it to pieces. What we have learned so far is all thanks to none other than Will's adorably hilarious sister, Emily.

It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon so Will and I took a drive through Provo Canyon and hiked our little tushies up to Bridalveil Fall. Due to the lack of snow this season, I thought it would be snow-less when we got up there so I wore little Vans. Bad idea. My feet felt as if they were about to fall off when we got done taking pictures. But, I survived and so did my toes. It was fun and we want to do it again come Sunday. If the sun had a face and wasn't capable of completely obliterating me, I'd kiss it. Here are some shots from our glorious relaxing Sunday endeavor: