Harry Potter is my LIFE

As a warm-up to the Harry Potter marathon, Lindsey and I got together about a week before and made this super awesome gingerbread house! It was a big project and took us about 4.5 hours. Soooooooooo long.......... BUT it was totally worth it!

The beginning when we still weren't totally sure how to make it

Cute little walls: graham crackers and homemade royal icing (I think that's what it's called...)

We made a TON of walls

We mostly used hot glue to put everything together

Towers: toilet paper rolls and waffle cones!

It was definitely a two-person project. I don't know how it could have been done alone. And doing it alone would be so boring!

Not too much more to do!

Still in process (but notice that there is another building added!)

Of course it wouldn't be complete without the characters!! So we have Lucius and Draco Malfoy...

Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom (who is totally trying to flirt with her)...

Dumbledore...

We even frosted the back!

It's finished!!!!!

The trio :)

So happy to be done!! And thinking about entering it into a contest next year!

Harry Potter marathon!!!!!! (Only takes 20 hours :D) I think my mom took this during Order of the Phoenix.

And this is the beginning of Deathly Hallows part 1!!! So this was around midnight... amazing that we all look so energetic after sleeping for only 5 hours the night before and at this point having watched for around 15-ish hours!

In other news, my mission papers are in!!! These are the maps in our house with everyone's guesses on them. So excited to find out where I'm going this week!!

Christmas and Skiing!!

It's winter!! And that means SKIING!

This is Michael when we tell him to make a nice face

And... this is pretty normal

Our cousins on my mom's side all came over the Saturday before Christmas. We had dinner, played games, and exchanged gifts. I was with the two littlest girls, Serenity and Jade, playing with dolls in my room all day.

So much snow! :D

Christmas Eve dinner. Brittney, Lindsey, me, Jacob, Matthew, Justin, Caroline

John, Halle, Matthew (M-Dog), David, Joshie, Jordan, Hank

Grandpa, Nana, Ali, Dave, Brad, Cindi

Lisa, Kib, Mom, Dad

I was already in my costume for the nativity when Santa arrived

Caroline decided to jazz up the role of shepherd and bring dynamite as her gift to the stable.

The Three Wise Men and an angel. David doesn't like to smile normally in pictures.

My cousin Jordan and I take turns accompanying the carols. I did it this year since I will be on a mission next year.

Since Michael wasn't here, we switched the order going down the stairs. Which actually makes more sense, since I'm the shortest and David's the tallest. I was pretty happy about it, Caroline was just super excited about Christmas (and her spot in the line didn't change), and David was not too thrilled about having to go downstairs last.

Classic David face

David got a Vuvuzela for Christmas. It is very loud. And it never stops. He likes to wake up the neighbors with it. For more on Vuvuzelas, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrv6_CUyF0

It's kind of funny, for the gifts that are for the entire family, we always open it together. No matter how small it is.

We got a PS3 :D

Michael sent us these sweet little boxes that we had to figure out how to open. The parts of the box slide around in a certain order until eventually you find a key, and then you can unlock and open the box.

Of course my mom had to get me some missionary clothes :)

Our Christmas family picture!

BYU is the place to be

Being in college makes it really hard to do stuff like update your blog... So here's my life at BYU in a nutshell before I go back to studying for finals!

I was hired by the Church to be in a photoshoot for the New Era magazine during General Conference and was actually put in the Ensign magazine instead! (If you go to http://www.lds.org/ensign?lang=eng and click on "download this month's pdf", I'm on pg 105). I came home from my choir concert to find that my awesome roommate Anna and our friend Tara had printed it out a ton of times and put it up all over the hall!!! It was EVERYWHERE!! There was a copy on every door, on the bulletin board, the mirror in the hallway, the mirror in the bathroom...

Missionary week at BYU!! Anna and I both took "The Missionary Challenge" in which we had to do what full-time LDS missionaries do as far as scheduling and rules go. So every night at 10 we had companion scripture study, went to bed at 10:30, got up at 6:30, had a half hour personal scripture study, and then went about our day as normal. We also had to be in best dress all week long (never have I appreciated leggings more than that week) we couldn't hug boys or get on facebook or anything like that. It was hard at first, but I ended up loving it! It was an awesome experience to have a chance to kind of be a missionary.

"Read our book....."

And this is the lovely Bridget, Tara's roommate. :)

I have SO MUCH money on my meal plan. I have to spend $22 every day for the next 10 days. It'll be hard. So Anna and I went to the store and got $115 worth of food. (mostly treats to bring on the trip to st. george, candy canes for ward choir, stuff like that) 

This is Tanner and Taven. Two days before Tanner left on his mission, we went to Tiny Tots so that he could say bye to Taven. It took Taven a little while to understand that Tanner will be gone for two years, but he was pretty excited when we told him that going on a mission means that Tanner is going to Mexico to help Jesus. :) I'm pretty happy with this picture, lots of the time Taven won't smile for pictures. oh and we also had a pretty awkward but really funny experience with a guy who decided to pull his pants off. It's always an adventure at Tiny Tots! :)

My American Heritage class is really hard, but probably one of the most entertaining I've had this semester. My teacher, Dr. Karpowitz, likes to do lots of demonstrations. Once he brought in the cheerleading squad and helped them do a lift, once he auctioned off donuts in class, the list goes on and on. Well right now we're learning about Yippies and Hippies and the Summer of Love and all that fun stuff, so he dressed in these clothes with this awesome wig. Sorry it's blurry, he kept moving.

And then the TAs started a revolt in the class! They all stood up and started playing "Gangnam Style" really loud and had signs and got people to lay in the aisles and stuff. One TA even swore! (big no-no at BYU). Another TA took his pants off (don't worry, unlike Tiny Tots, he had underwear on underneath) and then proceeded to crowd-surf. It was a pretty entertaining day.

This is one of the TAs screaming with her sign. It says, "If you agree, lay in the aisles!"

Finals next week, I'm so scared!!! And then the Hobbit comes out! (totally going to the midnight showing :D)  and then CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!!!

AND only 6 months till Michael comes home!