You Know You're Bored When...

You know how on freeways outside of Utah they have the little circles or reflective tabs dividing the lanes? (They aren't practical in Utah, the snow plows would pop them right off I guess.)

Well this morning me, Ali and Deedee drove to California. I drove the whole way. They slept through most of Nevada, so in an attempt to not wake them up and also find some sort of entertainment on the drive that didn't make any noise, I started trying to change lanes without running over these little things on the road. I was so excited when I successfully changed lanes and not one of my four tires touched a reflective thing. That's when I knew I was bored.

However, I am now happily in my hotel half a block away from Disneyland, and in ten hours, I will be riding "Indiana Jones" while wearing my shorts and t-shirt, because it is 75 degrees down here right now. BE-UTE-IF-FUL.

Talented? Yes.

So anytime I get a new roommate, it mixes the sleep cycles a little bit. For the first few days, I don't sleep quite as soundly as usual cause I'm scared of waking them up or something. However, yesterday Emilie (new roomie) commented on how fast I fall asleep. She was amazed at the fact that I literally fall asleep in within two minutes of laying down. If I lay on my back I might make it to five minutes, but pretty much the second I lay on my belly and close my eyes, I am out. From that point I am completely dead to the world until the alarm goes off. As in I literally do not move a muscle, my sheets and blankets don't even get messed up.

Ever since I was in high school I have deemed sleeping as one of my talents. I can sleep pretty much anytime, anywhere. I have fallen asleep with my eyes open, I have fallen asleep standing, I have even fallen asleep while singing, and yes I was still holding the note when I woke up. Sheer talent. Or maybe I just need to sleep more?

Gooooooooo....

My brain is currently GOOOO. Like, it's about to start leaking out of my ears, I'm pretty sure. I just want you to all know that your relief society president puts so much effort into organizing visiting teaching, so you should do. Ok, you should really do it because it's a calling that we all have and because you are supposed to look out for those sisters, but sheesh....it is so hard to organize sometimes. Today it took Angela and I about six hours to get it all organized. And we didn't even really get sidetracked. It has never taken this long before, but I feel like in the long run, the way we did this time will save us a lot of trouble and confusion. It will be great.

I love visiting teaching, it makes me happy.

We had it so perfect, and then found a problem.

Multiples actually. This is only a fraction of the

cards we had on the floor.

Christmas

Sheesh!!! I cannot believe how long it has been since I blogged, MEGA SLACKER. Not much has really happened, but the things that have I will try to throw down real quick.

Christmas.

I. Freaking. Love. Christmas.

Everything about. And I mean everything!! The two things I love the most about I think are 1. Family time and 2. just having a good excuse to spend time thinking about my Savior and all that He did for me. (Not that you need an excuse for that, but you know what I am saying.)

I actually enjoy Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day probably. We have a HUGE dinner. This year we only had about half the family there because the others were with their in-laws, but it was still good to have the siblings we did as well as Grandma Neiswender, plus...more food for us. I ate sooooooo much. And I didn't even get to everything that I wanted.

Dallin and Me at Dinner

EVERY kid does this instinctively. I think it's what olives

are really for, and Rylee excels at it

Christmas Eve dinner

We woke up early on Christmas morning and tapped in to our stashes of presents so we could be done before Travis called from Honduras. Kristi and I were the only kids there for Santa gifts which is slightly anti-climatic, but we had fun. I got an external hard drive (NEEDED this for my hoards of pictures) and then lots of nice exercise clothes to wear to my internship. Too bad they changed the dress code a week later and I can't wear any of them anymore, but that's beside the point. Then all the grandkids came over and we did more presents and had a blast as usual.

Rylee in her new princess dress

Melanie feels like she needs to dress up her

dog (if you can call it that), Zowie, for

any holiday

Dad with his new pop up book

My mom LOVES to buy him weird

things like this Santa shirt

And then...LITTLE BROTHER!!! He called and we got to talk to him for about an hour and a half. He sounded so great!! He honestly sounded so happy. They had a baptism that night, so we figured that was a good way for him to be spending Christmas since he couldn't be with us. It was so great to hear his voice and talk to him. It was especially great to hear his laugh. Geez I love that kid and I miss him like crazy. My little nephew Timmy was talking to Travis and just in the middle of the conversation says "Trav...are you comin' home?" It was so precious, such a sweet little boy. Trav just laughed it off and said not yet, he handled it much better than I did, that's for sure. But talking to him was easily the best part of my Christmas this year.

Kristi Josh and Dallin talking to Travis

Then we had our traditional breakfast, and I stuffed my face. Following breakfast, we had a break and then headed up to Heber to see Grandma and Grandpa Olpin.

Grandpa and Grandma Olpin

After Heber we headed over to Grandma Neiswender's house to see that side of the family. We don't see them very often so it was nice to hear what's new in everybody's life and how they are all doing.

Overall, Christmas day I just relaxed and kicked it with family all day long. It was so nice, I am lucky to have so many great people in my life to share this beautiful holiday with!

I caught mommy kissing Santa Clause!!