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

breath war!!!

daily deal

trying not to give into this...

(believe it or not I don't have a pocket sized digital camera!)

so maybe if you give in instead, I will be able to feel satisfied through you?

:)

what will you do with it?

I just got home from the last day of my strengthening marriage and family class.

what. an amazing. class. 

 (it's the one I was in when I decided to get rid of a distraction in my life.)

I always looked forward to this class... it's on the smaller side (probably 50 people) and the teacher (julia haupt!) is so incredible.

it was just so, so evident that she prepared spiritually for every single class. she didn't have to do this, but she knew it was right, and she was in tune enough to know that that's what we needed.

at the end of class she shared a story from her mission and of course got teary. that's a regular thing... but this time I got teary too. and when I went up to her afterwards to say thank you, I gave her a hug and she held on for so long and when we pulled apart, I said thank you and just totally started crying. and she continued crying. ahhhh!! I didn't know what came over me, but the spirit is so strong in that classroom. and she told me and another girl that even though she's taught this class for 25 years, there was something different about our specific group of students. she said when she would come into the classroom she could sense a YEARNING for the spirit and for information to better our lives. we weren't just taking this easy 100 level class to get it over with... we wanted and maybe even needed to be there.

I learned soo many things that have changed my life, but I probably couldn't name half of them. they're all so specific but tie together so much. but mainly:

you cannot judge anyone. 

EVER. 

you just don't know what they've been through. period.

the holy ghost will guide you if you let him. be in tune with the spirit always.

the family is soooooooooooooooOOOOOooooOOOooo important.

be genuine and show love. people just need love.

at the end she talked about how so many people have given us the greatest gift ever, which is their sacrifices. she specifically talked about our parents and the pioneers... but the list goes on and on. and she asked us what we're going to do with those sacrifices. she said we can never properly and fully say thank you to them, but we can pass it on and that will be a tiny morsel of the thank you that they deserve.

gahhhhhhhhhhh.

I just didn't want it to end. I ate up every single second of that class.

so if you need an amazing class (the teacher makes all the difference), take strengthening marriage & family with julia haupt. it changed my life!

I'll leave you with 2 things. click here to watch episodes of Real Familes, Real Answers. we watched all of these and they are so good!! they're each 30 minutes long and cover practically every topic related to the family. I know that probably sounds boring, but if you have a half hour to spare and were just planning on watching TV anyway... watch one of these. I will for sure own the DVD one day.

the second thing is this video. we watched it in class after talking about crucibles. a girl in our class who went through some really hard things would watch it whenever she needed comfort. she wrote an anonymous letter to sister haupt and said she could share it with the class. when she was done reading it we watched this video. it goes hand in hand with not judging others... you just don't know what people have been through. but Christ knows and understands completely, and it is through Him that we can find healing.

(this is also the song that made 17 miracles so dang good. this is also the song that made our entire class bawl. :))

okay. I'm done ranting and raving. I apologize that this was more like a journal entry.. but I have to write it down while it's still in me!

goodness.

life is hard, but wonderful.

and I'm going to go do something with mine.

<3

FHE with llamas.

pumped.

read the sentence between his legs. ;)

my 21st birthday!

on november 26th I turned 21!!

(I always want to excitedly type "21" in caps, but then it fails me...)

when I woke up the first thing I did was open sadie's present! (she was in texas but left this for me and told me I couldn't open it til my birthday)

dark kiss body spray (my favorite that I ran out of), chapstick (ALWAYS NEED), sugar ('nuff said) and face masks!!! perfection. :)) (for some reason it won't upload correctly.. sorry for your crooked neck..) sadie's present got me excited cuz I started to feel like it was really my birthday!

then I went to brenna's salon and treated myself to some much needed highlights!

brenna is adorable and amazing. if you need an awesome hair stylist let me know! her salon is so flippin modern and cute!

then I went to celebrate with my relatives. since my birthday always falls on thanksgiving week, my friends are usually out of town.. so I party it up with my family. :)

me and my DAD!! he visited utah for a week to see his parents since he's retired from the air force and has all this free time while he's job hunting ;) it was so so so good to see him and so cool that he could be here for my birthday!

first, we went to chili's!

me and my cousins natalie and michelle!

aunt tamara, dad, aunt amy, cousin will

 faja and I :)

then we saw puss in boots! this is the only picture I have of that experience.. hahaha

then back to grandma & grandpa's house for cake and ice cream!

the classic birthday picture. :) 

21!! bah!!!!!

 time to open presents!

(my dad bought mine in the airport.. hence the bag.. hahaha)

cake and 7 chocolate bars!! yep. my family knows me. :)

 university of alabama shirt from my dad! I guess I'm a fan now. ;)

(he later felt like that present didn't suffice so he got me a manicure set! haha he's so cute :))

then.... tamara's oh so clever idea.

instead of 21 birthday spankings... 

let's have jennie pop 21 already partially deflated balloons!

that sounds like fun!

let's just say I had a hard time and it was way more exhausting than it sounds...

like I said. :)

when I got home, I got chocolate kisses from relief society, a sand dollar from nate, a pomegranate from ryan, cookies from ryan & taylor, and a bumble bee pillow pet from taylor!! (the roomie who let me borrow her adorable shirt that day!) it is basically my official new cuddle buddy.

:)

then, a week after my birthday, my amazing cousin emily still wanted to celebrate so she treated sadie and I to dinner at applebee's!

along with my meal, I ordered a strawberry daiquiri (virgin of course ;))
I may or may not have harassed the waiter about making SURE it was virgin... haha
it was soooo yummyyy! 

then after the waiters sang to me (very loudly!) I got this huuuuge cup of ice cream! thankfully I had friends to share it with..

and emily gave me bath&body stuff!!! free food AND yummy smelling things? she's wonderful. :)

sadie, me, and emily!

all in all my birthday was awesome and I'm so grateful for all of the amazing people in my life who made it special!

3 things

1. <3 this song.

2. my little brother went to school today with a half-shaven face. never been so proud of him.

3. I cannot wait to go home to see my friends and family!!! 2 weeks left....