"monday, mondayyyy...

...so good to meeeee."

yep. that's all I remember from that oldie. haha.

last monday was lee and carrie's last day here for the weekend.

so before they left we went out to lunch!

we ate at pizza hut. om nom nom.

my dad picked out lee's license plate for him.

he's never going to live it down. ;)

carrie is my first ever sister-in-law and we don't have enough pictures together. so I fixed that.

then we ate deliciousness!

 

then before saying goodbye, we tried to take some nice pictures together.

(neal is missing in these.. he was working that day!)

but unfortunately our inherent smithson awkwardness got the best of us..

 please notice carrie's stance.

 this is what it's like to be a smithson, folks.

you might wanna think twice before trying to marry danny or me.

at least we got some decent ones.. kinda..

"A" for effort I guess.

I will say though that this one is a keeper...

I love making a lee sandwich with carrie,

cuz it's lee with his 2 best girls. :)

why my dad is awesome.

1. he wants us to be happy.

I always get super excited to watch home videos when I come home.

well a few nights ago I went to do just that... but the VHS tape that we put our little camera tapes into was broken. :(

after trying for probably 15 minutes to fix it... my dad told me he couldn't and I said okay.

he went back upstairs, then came down a few minutes later and said that he looked it up online and was going to buy a new one at best buy the next day. :)

and he did just that.

except he ALSO bought this awesome thing which lets him transfer the home videos to the computer so we can make DVDs out of them!!

and he's been working on those ever since.

he's actually doing it right now.. I can hear home videos coming from his computer.

now we can more easily appreciate my elvis-like hair as a baby.

2. he cooks.

and every time he does he presents it so it's all pretty.

and he says stuff like "your chinese feast is ready!"

and you feel like you're eating fancy even though it all came from the freezer. :)

3. he believes in bigfoot.

I know, right? I should just stop there. AWESOME.

I feel like every time I come home, we end up watching these history channel specials on bigfoot. 

(I may or may not be watching monsterquest as we speak.... except my dad says it's not a monster, it's just an animal. duh!)

he just said, "there's something out there. there have just been too many sightings for there not to be."

I love my dad. :)

sweet home alabama

ah, that cliche title never gets old!

I arrived here a week ago late at night and came home to a house already asleep.

(a friend who landed the same time I did drove me home.)

I was sad because my oldest brother lee wouldn't be there, since he's married now and lives 3 hours away in huntsville.

I texted him about my sadness.

he said something along the lines of, "awww gurl. it be aight."

WELL.

when I started pulling my luggage out of the van...

I saw a figure moving out of the corner of my eye..

and it was LEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I squealed in excitement. :) he and carrie had driven down just for the weekend! my heart!

and THEN!! a REALLY SUPER ADORABLE FLUFFY PUPPY appeared behind lee!!!!!

and then ANOTHER ONE!!!

lee and carrie had just gotten new puppies and they brought them along.

I was so happy. so naturally, I took pictures before even stepping inside.

just guess what perfect mix of puppy they are.

CHOCOLATE LAB AND GOLDEN RETRIEVER MIXES.

um, yes, you are allowed to die from cuteness overload now.

 when I got inside I continued to be extremely happy.

parents and neal were asleep, but I knew the pets and danny would be awake!

I ran downstairs to shower all my loves in love.

I was a happy pappy. :)

the next day, sunday, was christina's 23rd birthday!
christina is the lucky lady marrying my brother neal this friday. :)

hooray for birthdays and marriage!

later that night carrie, lee's wife, and I played with the puppies and made BLUEBERRY MUFFINS!.

cutest and tiniest pregnant lady ever? yep I think so.

carrie had the genious idea of looking up a recipe for crumbly topping.
ohhh. I will never make muffins again without adding that topping!
dee-lish. <3

the rest of the night was spent chilling on the couch cuddling with puppies and watching america's funniest home videos.

'tis good to be home. <3

"It's always winter, but never Christmas..."

-from the relient k christmas CD.

I love having a blog because when I'm contemplating whether or not to write a certain facebook status...

I can just come write it on my blog!

sometimes I get weirdly emotional and write statuses I later wish I hadn't... because they're just so in whatever mood I'm in at the moment.

but blogging them instead? psshhh. no regrets. this is my blog. my journal. we safe here. :)

I was just thinking about how it always amazes me how fast christmas goes by. it's here.. and then it's gone. and I hate to admit it but each year it's less magical and feels less like christmas. it makes me really sad. and every christmas night I feel like I sit in regret that I didn't spend more time focusing on Christ. or even more time connecting with my family because that's what He would want me to do. we did have some fun today though watching old home videos and laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. but I feel like christmas will never be as magical again as it was when I was little.. and it's hard for me to accept that. but I'm learning that it requires 100% true genuine effort to make things special like you want them to be. if no one plans the birthday party, it's not going to happen. if no one says "let's have family prayer tonight," it's never going to happen. good families require work (I'm a family studies major.. that's all I learn!), making holidays special requires work, and faith requires work. and after that work you get what only seems natural to everyone else, but YOU know how much work it required. I feel like this is my "coming into adulthood" speech, haha. but I'm realizing that I'm no longer just the consumer of magic, I have to be the producer of it too. (another thing we learn in my major... consumer vs. contributor mentality). so now, before I go to bed, I'm going to put forth a little effort, read the christmas story from my bible, and hope to feel a little bit of that TRUE christmas spirit before it's over. <3

check out some more christmasy photos on my photography blog.

my butt hates me.

I am so behind on blogging!

what does that mean anyway?

technically I'm not behind... 

I never set a certain date and time I was supposed to blog

I never made a goal for how often I was supposed to blog

I guess it just feels like I haven't in a while,

and I know there's some things I want to document before they leave my brain.

basically, my blog is my only form of a journal right now

and I do intend to print it one day

(crap that's gunna cost a lot.)

so... I've decided that the reason I consider myself "behind" is because the way I felt when certain events occurred will soon be a distant memory, and I need to write them down while they're still fresh.

not because I have an obligation to keep the world entertained with my life.

oh crap I'm getting deep. why jennie.. stop!

basically, I was going to start this post with something like "Sorry I'm so behind!" but why am I sorry? why do I assume you care? that is so silly. I'm so silly.

um... so back to my butt.

I took my last final on december 16th.

when I got home that night, I crashed on the couch and shamelessly watched hours of say yes to the dress.

the next morning, my bottom was sore.

from a week of sitting down and studying, and hours of concentrated TV viewing.

 this would be fine, except that I was flying home that day...

we all know flying home = sore butt!

flights, layovers, flights.

sitting sitting sitting.

that was a week ago today.

well, this week all I've been doing is sitting sitting sitting again.

I'm either editing pictures or watching TV to take a break from editing pictures.

my butt hates me.

last night it hurt so bad that I seriously couldn't sit still for longer than 10 minutes. I kept getting up and walking around.

I went to watch TV with my parents except I stood next to the couch and laid my torso down on the top of it.

it hurt baaad! and like, my thighs too. just.. uncomfortableness. soreness. ow-ness.

remarkably though, I don't hurt so much today!

thank goodness. because I still have so much sitting to do.

why didn't I get this sore in high school? or like... my whole life? I don't feel like I've been sitting THAT much more than normal recently.

but it could just be my psycho body that gets hurt so easily.

leg runs into the rounded slightly cushy corner of a couch... OW.

arm gets pressed against the corner of the car door when I'm getting out.. OWW.

both of those are guaranteed to leave a mark.

but this is the worst of all...

a couple of days ago my cat was sitting up on my lap.

she seriously probably weighs 4-5 pounds. she's tiny.

but the pressure of her front paws on my leg was actually hurting my leg.

like.. HER TINY FRONT PAWS!!!

her little itty bitty kitty paws that weren't even applying that much force... were hurting my leg.

and I just kept moving them to different spots on my leg to ease the pain.




-_-

it's really fun being 70 when you're 21. lemme tell ya.

birthday, taylor, and anberlin

things as of late:

we celebrated allison's 21st birthday! she doesn't actually turn 21 until the 21st (ahh it's her magic birthday I just realized!) but we needed to celebrate before all of us went home for the holidays.. so we did!

we surprised her with a cake when she got home from her play, and then we dragged some mattresses into the living room and watched a muppet christmas carol! we hung balloons and it was magicalness. :)

they looked so cool from down below!

sadie and I with the birthday girl.

it was a glorious time. I love birthday parties!

we also planned to do it last night because it was the last night that all of us would be together in the apartment... since taylor left today and will be in london next semester. :(

I love taylor. she's so genuine and sweet and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. plus she's my hug buddy... so I need to find a new one next semester. she's just a random freshman that moved into our apartment and that we fell in love with. I love her with my whole soul. sigh.

she is taller than me, thus making hugs perfect.

our last hug...

taylor I love you!! and I'm so happy for you because you're going to have the TIME OF YOUR LIFE in london. :) but we will miss our tall red head. :(

thankfully I had a good distraction tonight to keep me from too much sadness..

bronwyn and I decided to go to the free anberlin concert in SLC!!

we were a little hesitant since we probably should have stayed home and studied..

but IT WAS SooOOOoOOOOoo worth it!

even though we got there late and were only there for like 5 songs haha.

 

 please notice the upside down legs in the above picture. haha.

 we ran into amanda! (in our apt. complex/ward) 

such a small world. she was like the first person we stood next to haha.

bronwyn got free head phones!

it was a glorious night.

afterwards we watched the ice skaters for a little bit,

mainly to creep on all of the adorable children.

oh my. this little girl was SO CUTE!!! her skates were so tiny and her leggings were so teal and her leg warmers were so fashionable. <3 she looked like a mini adult haha.

basically, watching children (try to) ice skate is the most entertaining thing ever.

so now.. we are home.

and because of the fire pits we smell like camp fire. 

mmmmmm.

and it is time for slumber (AKA it's time to drag my mattress back into my room..)

crazy how much time flies. jeesh. semester's over.

love you all. <3