..the king family Christmas letter..

..we decided to sent out the traditional Christmas letter with our Christmas cards this year. it's pretty simple. nothing really happens in our lives outside of work and school. that's actually why I avoid talking to people sometimes. i hate the response i tend to give to people when they ask "so, what's new?" i can't say "well, just turned in this beast of a paper and Matt is sleep deprived." so everyone just gets the usual answer of "nothing much. just work and school, work and school." like I said..not much happens in our lives. BUT don't get me wrong..i LOVE how my life is. simple and busy..

..anyways if you click on the letter it'll get bigger so you can actually read it. don't worry they're in the mail. so if you want to wait for the real thing you can..

..to send? or not send?..

..this is it..
our first family Christmas card
..now here's the question..do i send it? is it too late? i can't decide..

...christmas miracle #17...

..theraflu..

there is nothing left to say than that. i've developed a terrible head cold and between wanting to tear my ears off and pull them through my nose..i feel like dying. i hate being sick. i hate how whiny i get when i'm sick. i hate how mean i am when i'm sick.

i hate being sick.

but theraflu has saved the day. my steaming hot cup of medicated lemon water every 4 hours has been a bounty of goodness. i wish i could hook it up through an iv and have it as a constant flow.

..theraflu..my christmas miracle..

..christmas miracle #16..

..pizza delivery..
who ever came up with that idea...sure genius! i've been feeling a little under the weather. and by a little i mean 6 ft. under. it's horrible. pounding headache. stuffy nose. sore throat. plugged and hurting ears. no bueno. anyway, today being thursday means that matt and i take our regular trip to slc, ut for school. (gotta love night school) lucky me though, i'm done with finals. matt unfortunately had to take 2 tonight. total pits. and due to my lack of energy and desire to be around people i opted out and stayed at the casa. but as many of you know i'm sure when you're sick you just don't feel like cooking not even for yourself. so for maybe the second time ever i chose to order a pizza. i'm cheap and would rather pick food up rather than pay the extra fee to have someone drop it off. plus i don't tonight though, it was totally worth it. i picked what i wanted, someone else made it, and someone else dropped it off at my doorstep. ahhh..the epitome of laziness.
..thank you pizza delivery lady for my christmas miracle..

..oh, christmas tree..

..i love this time of year..

i love the decorations, the treats, giving presents, shopping, crafts, and the snow. i especially love that special Christmas Spirit that seems to be in the air. everyone's hearts seem softer and more open to love of our Savior. what a special time of year.

i'm also a HUGE fan of decorating the christma

s tree. growing up we would have a family meeting about what our christmas tree was going to be like every year. we'd pick a theme and go to the store to get the things we needed. we'd do snow

men, silver and gold, cinnamon sticks, gingerbread men, candy canes, you name it we did it. i loved spending that time with my family. it was always fun to make the ornaments, watch my brothers hang them on the tree and then watch shannon go through and fix them.

..obviously this year was a little different because matt and i have our own tree! matt humored my excitement and before thanksgiving was even here we went and bought our tree. we picked out 6 ft. skinny alpine. i love it! we went with a traditional green and red theme. i th

ink it came out pretty cute. it was fun to spend time with matt and decorate OUR home for the holidays. we even decided that as a family tradition we would get a new ornament every year symbolizing something significant that happened in our family that year. this year we got married so it was only fitting to get an ornament at disneyland while we were on our honeymoon..

..last year matt bought me the first piece to a nativity scene that i really really wanted. each year he plans to get me the next piece until i have the set completed. we also had the traditional pine cones and santa claus figure. i love having the words like "joy" and "believe" around our home and i'm thinking about keeping up all year. i like what they signify and mean. i think we could all use a little joy in our lives year round and believe a little more in the things we love and know to be true..

..needless to say i'm pretty excited for what the holidays will bring and spending our first official christmas together (even though it's really our third..)..

..bathroom blessings..

..i've decided that i really like it when i have to use a public bathroom and the toilet water is still the color of cleaner they've used. as weird as it is i'm glad that my bum is sitting on something that hasn't been used by a hundred other bums yet..

..random. i know..

..Christmas Miracle 6-"Called to Serve"..

..if you know me you know i'm a tiny bit addicted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. especially missionary work. nothing melts my heart more than hearing and seeing the stories of others' spiritual experiences especially those that have inspired them to change the very way they live. with that said i got a letter today from a dear friend of mine. elder colton balmforth. he's a gem. and he's serving the Lord in the South Africa Cape Town Mission. he's doing great. he just recently left the MTC there and is loving the plains of Africa. he's learning a new language and will probably have to learn another as he's transferred but his testimony is growing and his Spirit is becoming stronger. one thing i love about elder balmforth is his passion and commitment. if he's going to do something, he's going to do it right. i think we can all be a little bit more like that. especially after a mission you realize how much more you can do as a person. the realization is even greater when you reflect on all you would do as a missionary. i love letters from missionaries and today's letter from him was the perfect Christmas Miracle. we love you elder balmforth. you are in our prayers..

..if you'd like to know more about what elder balmforth is doing and why he's in Africa, click here..

..oh christmas tree..

..i love this time of year..

i love the decorations, the treats, giving presents, sh

opping, crafts, and the snow. i especially love that special Christmas Spirit that seems to be in the air. ev

eryone's hearts seem softer and more open to love of our Savior. what special time of year.

i'm also a HUGE fan of decorating the christmas tree. growing up we would have a family meeting about what our christmas tree was going to be like every year. we'd pick a theme and go to the store to get the things we needed. we'd do snowmen, silver and gold, cinnamon sticks, gingerbread men, candy canes, you name it we did it. i loved spending that time with my family. it was always fun to make the ornaments, watch my brothers hang them on the tree and then watch shannon go through and fix them.

obviously this year was a little dif

ferent because matt and i have

our own tree! matt humored my excitement and before thanksgiving was even here we went and bought our tree. we picked out 6 ft. skinny alpine. i love it! we went with a traditional green and red theme. it was fun to pick out and put up decorations with matt. i'm excited for when we have kids and can do it as a family.

these are some of the decorations around our apartment. last year matt got me the first part of the nativity scene i wanted. i get a new piece every year. i'm excited to get the next piece this Christmas.

matt and i decided that as part of our christmas traditions that every year we'll get a new ornament to put on the tree representing something significant that happened during the year. this year we got married and so when we went to disneyland for our honeymoon we got a mickey and minnie wedding ornament.

now that the tree is put together we're definitely ready for santa to come!

...Christmas Miracle 5-$8!...

..have you ever had something that you thought was just awesome? like certain brand of ice cream? or a certain shirt? or the Facebook set up? just something that really has no real significance in your life but, that you just LOVE? i do. and it's always the pits when it's discontinued. always the pits. well i have some friends that introduced me to the world of "boxers or briefs?" maybe 4 or 5 years ago..before you judge me..know that "boxers or briefs?" is a game similar to "apples to apples". anyway, so this game is HILARIOUS. it's so fun and so funny! at least i think so. well i bought the game as a gift for a couple different people particualary married friends because what else do you get the marrieds when you're single? but, I never bought the game for myself. well guess what! just like my amaretto ice cream (actually it was around the same time. i think the world was out to get me.) it disappeared. they pulled out of print. it was made no more and if you googled it you may have been so lucky to find it online for $150.00. RIDICULOUS. so just like my hope in the ice cream reappearing i would search the walls of local stores in a quest to find the game i loved. no such luck. until TODAY. ladies and gentlemen a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE has occurred. while taking my student shopping at the local wal-mart for some board games for a project they are doing none other than my beloved game sat on the shelf of the toy department. for $8. AMAZING. miracle you ask? i would say you are correct. life could not be better. you'll have to come over and play..

..Christmas Miracle 4..

..I know it's early but I think my Christmas Miracle has already happened. a few weeks a student lost her wallet. besides thinking "aww...that's the pits." it wouldn't have been a big deal to me except for the fact that inside that wallet of hers was my campus credit card that she borrowed to buy some things for her club. a lost campus credit card is bad news bears. after canceling the card, requesting a new one, and having that tough heart to heart about responsibility with the student I needed to start making phone calls to all the stores that she had made purchases at. we get audited every so often and if I want access to my budget I have to submit every single receipt regardless of the amount spent. think about though...would you want to make all those phone calls? NO. of course not. it's busy work. and it's not fun arguing with stupid seasonal temps at the local wal-mart about why it's important to have that receipt, so I don't think it's necessary to say but after 3 weeks I have yet to do this. well folks...we live in a day of miracles...homegirl lost her wallet on trax in the SLC, someone (bless their heart) turned it in to UTA, they called the student, and today she brought me ALL of the receipts I have failed to collect. need I say it?

...CHRISTMAS MIRACLE...

...and in this instance, procrastination paid off...

..Christmas Miracle 3..

..today's miracle isn't necessarily an event or something great that happened. it was simply a thought that strengthened my testimony. today we woke up to that "blizzard" that was supposed to happen on wednesday and with church at 8:30 AM the idea of not going did cross my mind-don't act like you've never thought that-but, thankfully, immediately after I thought to myself "no. no. no. it's not like it's never snowed before." and I rolled out of bed, threw on my boots, and off we went-there was some additional effort in getting ready in there somewhere. when we got to church-keep in mind, church is at 8:30 AM-we were 1 of maybe 5 couples there. it was awesome. by the end of the meeting about half the ward finally showed up. now getting to church in a blizzard isn't the Christmas Miracle I'm writing about but the fact that we were on time (which is hard enough on a regular sunday) is right up there. our stake president came to our ward today and spoke for a few minutes after the scheduled speakers. I enjoyed his brief words and the phrase that stood out to me was this.."Do not be casual in your church attendance. If you are casual in your actions, you will receive casual blessings." Isn't that interesting? given it's not a new concept or even something I had never heard before but the power of the statement, especially on the morning of those tempting thoughts, was something special to me. he continued to discuss the topic of being a covenant making people. basically in summary, even though someone may have gone to Temple and "made" those sacred covenants with God doesn't mean they have actually MADE the covenant. if you are casual in your covenants you didn't truly make them. if you haven't renewed those covenants through by taking the sacrament or by attending the Temple regularly then what was the point of those covenants that you "made"? a person that MADE those covenants honors them through his or her actions and presses forward in their effort to be obedient. they are not casual in their covenants or actions. interesting thoughts huh? so all in all my Christmas Miracle was the realization of the importance of my actions and effort to be obedient. my gratitude for the power of the Holy Ghost also grew. I couldn't be more grateful for those little promptings Heavenly Father sends us to push us just a little further..

..Christmas Miracle 2..

..I can't decide if today was a day of Christmas Miracles. I think it depends on the eye of beholder. anyhow...I did get an INCREDIBLE amount of homework done. and in thinking about it that truly is a MIRACLE. if you know me and my current view of school work you understand why this is such a big deal. I've developed the art of procrastination and with my grad school burn out level on the rise sitting down and doing homework is quite the feat. plus when you throw in a weekend on top of it...no bueno. thank heavens the byu vs. utah game was on. Matt was preoccupied with that so considering him as a distraction wasn't possible. I'm proud of myself though. this is a busy semester and I got a lot done. now I just have to survive the next 2 weeks. if I can do that it will surely be a Christmas Miracle..

..Christmas Miracles..

..in the spirit of the holidays I've decided to record my experiences on a day to day basis. and because it's that time of year I will call them "Christmas Miracles". I think if it was October I would call them "Halloween Miracles" and maybe if it were February I'd call them "Cupid Encounters". anyways these experiences range from this to that but overall help me to "remember the reason for the season", to "have an increase in faith", have "an attitude of gratitude", or to simply "find joy in the journey". hopefully I'll remember to do this everyday..but I hope to be able to look back and remember all the little blessings or tender mercies that I'm trying hard to recognize more often..

..Christmas Miracle 1: there is nothing better than your favorite treaty..

..during our black friday adventures today, Matt and I decided to get some ice cream from the local ColdStone's at the mall. during my childhood, teenage, and college years I rotated my ice cream choice between 2 flavors. banana ice cream with mini gummi bears or armaretto ice cream with brownies...so good. well, as of a few years ago armaretto ice cream (my number 1 favorite) was pulled from the options. with great sadness in my heart every time I've gone to ColdStone's I have always asked if they have some secretly stored in the back and of course the great let down of a response is "No. We no longer have that flavor." or "No. I've never even heard of that." depressing, I know. well tonight my dear friends a Christmas Miracle occurred. as we stepped in the doors and I gazed through the freezer window I found, to my surprise, a little label with the word "amaretto" printed on it. it was pure bliss. my long time number 1 favorite has returned! I'll be making a regular visit to the local ColdStone's for quite some time I'm sure. if you'd like to join me by all means please do. plus it's the season of giving, maybe I'll treat you to your own favorite treaty..

..oh halloween..

..HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!..

halloween was fun as always around our house.. this year Matt and I celebrated in our simple traditional way. we love halloween. you would never guess it but, we really do. we both hate dressing up-it's just not our thing but, we like carving pumpkins (and by we I mean I like carving pumpkins.) and had a blast at Amanda and Dan's at their "annual fall festival". we ate caramel apples (so yummy!), carved pumpkins, and played games. it was fun for all and is becoming a new family tradition..

..we decorated our house with some new purchases from the local hobby lobby-my new favorite store. it's like robert's and tai pan on steroids. love it. it's been all spooky-like with spiders and pumpkins for the last month. we'll now move onto the thanksgiving decor this week...and then CHRISTMAS. don't worry now that halloween has passed I can begin listening to christmas music and don't you dare leave a comment saying I'm crazy that I'm supposed to wait until after thanksgiving because I just won't do it..

..sadly we missed a halloween party with some dear friends in salt lake due to my place of employment. we spent another splendid evening at UVU watching young single adults toss their standards to the side and get their "groove" on. lucky us. honestly though we did get lucky. I was assigned to be the advisor in the theater for a hypnotist show so I didn't have to deal with any dirty dancing, stinky alcohol, or student who try to sneak in. all in all for me it wasn't to bad. expect for the whole not leaving the campus until 2:30 AM. that part was not fun..

..sunday was super fun though! growing up my mom would always make a big deal about holidays. like valentine's and balloons outside our bedroom doors, green eggs and ham for st. patricks, 4th of july picnics, sandwiches with orange bread for halloween dinner, and of course a month full of christmas crafts and treats. holidays with my mom are some of my fondest memories. so I decided that I want to create traditions of my own for our family so our kids will have memories like that. even though we don't have our own kids we still decided to have a "SPOOKTACULAR DINNER" which we plan to hold every year. we invited Dan and Amanda and ate vampire livers with brains and blood and guts, fresh weeds from frankenstein's garden, bones, and maggots for desert. in translation we had chicken parmesean over fettuccine with garden vegetable tomato sauce with salad and rolls shaped like bones. we had caramel puffed corn for desert (so addicting.) and we played a mean game of killer bunnies (which I openly hate but, secretly sometimes like...don't tell Matt).

..overall...it was a fun halloween weekend. I love the feeling of the holidays. everyone gets so excited. the creative juices get going. and you can't just help but smile..I can't wait for the upcoming holiday events..bring on the turkey!!..

...(gay) mormon guy...

..so a friend posted this link on facebook...

http://gaymormonguy.blogspot.com/2010/10/president-packers-talk-from-gay-mormon.html?spref=fb

..and seeings how this has been quite the topic lately i decided to check it out..you should check it out too..i'm glad i did..

..first of all, it gave me a perspective on sin in our lives and how general authorities in the LDS church address it that i didn't necessarily see before..

..second, it gave me a better understanding of the perspective of someone who struggles with same-sex attraction but who is very active in the church..

..third, it was a powerful spiritual boost..

..now i'm an active follower of his blog. his blog is about faith, the love of our Heavenly Father, and the importance of applying the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives..

..each of us struggles with sins that others don't. we need to be respectful of those around us and not shun them because their choices. i think it's admirable of anyone, regardless of the sin they are struggling with, to take a stand against the advisary and rely on the Lord to provide us with the strength we need overcome them. judging and being disrespectful to someone because they struggle with something and it just happens to be public knowledge isn't right. we each have secrets that we keep and who's to stay they aren't any worse? all i know is that i'm grateful for the example of the Savior and His love for all, clean or not. what a blessing it is to have the restored gospel in our lives..

..grown up purchase..

...do you see that??? that my friends is 5 washers full of laundry. 5. not to mention that fact that 2 of those washers were the rough n' tough, double capacity, gigantic washers! luckily i could put everything in at once to wash and then again to dry. honestly i would recommend the dryers i used to homeless people to use as shelter. they are HUGE. so needless to say that 2 hours and $17.50 later our laundry for the last month or so was done and matt was very excited to have clean under-roo's for the next day since he was on his last pair..
..because of my regular trip to the local laundry mat a few months ago we began a diligent quest of saving and searching for an affordable washer and dryer. we've gone back and forth between new or used and when we think we should make that big leap and buy them. i'm proud to say that we conquered our battle. tonight we went by the local homedepot to buy a couple nails for a project i'm doing and upon walking in we noticed this little beauty..
..please note the sign...and matt's incredibly cheesy excited face..

...in case you can't read it that little sign says the $699.00 washer is available for purchase (only until 10 pm) for $297.00..wicked sweet deal?? i think yes. with that said we are now the proud owners of a washer and dryer set. we were definitely in the right place at the right time. literally. now that mess up top will no longer occur. thank heavens..

...i must say though..i feel that the purchase of a washer and dryer is very grown up..my mom makes those types of purchases..not her baby girl..kind of crazy..

..the blessing of a baby..

..hello king family (minus dan)..

..it's amazing to me how much the gospel of Jesus

Christ blesses our lives. first and foremost families centered on Christ grow closer together. it's the most powerful foundation a family can be established on regardless of if you are me

mbers of the LDS church or not. Jesus Christ lives and provides us with the strength we need to overcome trials and hardships, provides us the hope weneed for the future, and blesses us with bonds and direction we need to grow and become our very best. i'm so thankful that the authority of God was restored to earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith and is available to worthy men today. today our family was blessed because of that priesthood. today our adorable nephew seth hyrum was given a blessing promising him the strength and discipline he would need to overcome temptation and be an example to all he encounters through his life. it was a beautiful blessing. the day was full of the Spirit as we heard the testimonies of some sitting in the congregation. i love when someone bears their testimony of the Savior. it is always a powerful experience. plus at such a young age little seth has already brought about great miracles. because of his birth and his parents choice to have him blessed in the LDS church, his grandparents of course had to be there. because grandpa and grandma king came to visit, grandma king took advantage of the time she had in utah to visit with a family member who she hasn't seen for many many years. this family member was reunited with family she didn't know she had. it was so fun to get to know her and her family and plans have already been made to gather together again soon. so like i said seth has brought unity to a family. bonds that didn't exist before have been established and friendships have been created.

it's an exciting thing i'd say..

..we loved having our family in utah to visit. we had some much fun playing disc golf (which i gladly chose not to participate in), going to dinner, playing games, and of course picking on jared and emily..

..i love this picture. everyone in true fashion. i especially love jared's face..

..do i appreciate this picture? i'm not sure..

..i love my husband..

..uno yearo..

..one year ago today matt and i went on our first date. can you believe time has gone that fast? since that date a year ago we've been pretty much inseparable. i spent many late nights making that wonderfully boring commute from salt lake to provo. in celebration matt took me out on our first date again. an evening full of mini golf, cafe rio, a walk in the park, a little star gazing and of course a little hand holding action. except tonight we only got to the mini golf. we ate a late lunch and so we weren't hungry for the rio and we cruised through the golf course thanks to the byu football game. no one was around for miles. because we went through the course so quick and skipped dinner it wasn't dark enough to walk through the park flirting and looking at the stars. plus we have family in town for our nephew's baby blessing so we took advantage of our extra time and spent it with them..

..tomorrow we will celebrate our first kiss. i wonder what that'll entail?..

..matt's encounter with a set of zoobies..

..i'm not sure why but for whatever reason i can never seem to remember everything i need for the day. on a regular basis matt and i will start our way outside when i remember and blurt out "i don't have my ring!" (that would be my WEDDING ring) and matt says "it's in my pocket", turns around, pulls it out, puts in on my finger, kisses me quick, and says "i love you." and then we hurry off to here and there. we're typically running late because who would i be if i wasn't? lately though in addition to my ring i have this tendency to forget my phone and for those of you that know me i'm pretty much naked without my phone. i blame it on school starting. i have to much junk to remember to gather that my phone just isn't a priority anymore. remember when we used to not have cell phones? weird. anyways..on days like today when i don't have my cell phone my cute husband and i email back and forth. today i went to a meeting and came back to a series of messages. below is our conversation. i laughed. hope you enjoy...

message from matthew king:
So I am sitting here doing my math homework having to listen to some guy and
girl having a DTR. They met for lunch and took notes on what they were going
to talk about and everything. It is ridiculous. Haha. It's so dumb. What's
funny is is that they are in my LDS Marriage and Family class.

message from matthew king:
Now they are talking about the first time they kissed and this girl is
saying that she was prompted by the spirit to kiss this guy. This
conversation is ridiculous. Haha.

message from marissa king:
That's hilarious! Do they seem to be normal people? Or weirdos?

message from matthew king:
Weirdos for sure.

message from marissa king:
That's what you get for going to BYU.

..i'd have to throw this little couple into the zoobie category and for the record ZOOBIES do exsist. BYU has even confirmed it. check out this article. i personally enjoy this definition provided by urban dictionary when the term "zoobie" was googled-

"A zoobie is a term for a certain genre of people who attend BYU. The term evolved from the word zoo, which was a common nickname for the university in the 80's. Possible explanations for this nickname may include the chaotic, often carnival-like atmosphere of raging hormones and desperate hunting for mates.
A zoobie is the quintessential BYU student. A zoobie is just a member of the flock of sheep. Zoobies don't think for themselves, they are the oblivious morons who roam BYU campus in droves.
You can't tell a zoobie by appearance only, although there is certainly a stereotyped look. Preppy sweater boys and plastic girls are often associated with zoobiehood."

..we're moving on..

..we're moving onto the next bill..

..this little puppy got paid off today..

..and we couldn't be happier about it..

..it's one less thing to focus on and hold us back from financial freedom..

..now as a brief explanation before you judge us..when we got engaged we were both going to school full time, newly returned missionaries, and as poor as poor could get. not to mention prideful therefore asking for help from either set of parental units was not in the plan. thus we financed my ring. we got a wicked sweet deal and started to build some credit for matt so it all worked out pretty well. it's such a great feeling to know you don't owe someone else the buckaroos. simply wonderful. but now that's paid off we're moving onto the next one..

..hello student loans..

..crazy in love..

..every morning matt leaves for work at 3:20 am..i have no idea how he does it. sometimes i miss seeing him in the morning and during the day but i try to keep it a secret because it makes it harder for us both. anyways TODAY in the spirit of love...haha! that was funny to me...anyways i woke up and our apartment was COVERED in post its just like this. cute huh? pretty positive my husband is crazy in love with me..

..i hope we always do cheesy newly wed things..

...sometimes you have to drop the asian...

i'm not sure if it's possible but sometimes i wond

er if life could get any crazier. with that said our home teacher came over tonight and amongst the message of the importance of temple attendance we talked about sometimes it's difficult to find balance in our lives.

he shared this thought...

yes this was the visual that came to mind (minus the asian on the top). but really do you ever feel like you have all these plates and you need to keep them spinning? talk about pressure..once you get one going the way you want you realize the one on the other side is about to fall and then once you get that back up to speed you have to focus on the next. and then before you know it, the asian you're balancing on your head falls off and hits the ground (i'm referring to the picture by the way. in no way am i trying to be racist.).

thats what life feels like right now. i'm not trying to complain because really i LOVE how my life is. i couldn't be more blessed. but honestly between school starting, work getting INSANE with students coming back, matt's work and school schedule, church callings, our little side job, and everything else sometimes i want to smash all the plates onto the ground and run away to an island somewhere or disneyland or even karlie and jenny's houses. it's even worse when family calls and invites you over to a family bbq but you can't go because your schedule is planned out for the next month. literally.

anyways..i feel better now that i got that out. it's funny how the Lord works. that little visual helped my remember the Atonement. weird how an asian spinning a plate could do that but the reality is that we may never find the perfect balance. there may always be a plate that you'll have to pay special attention to but what a bles

sing it is to know we don't have to do alone.

Christ is there to help us.

i personally love this photo and this video...click here!

i personally believe that we tend to forget that Christ not only alleviates the pain of hardship or sin but provides the strength, hope, and assistance we need in ALL things even the positive things of life like work, school, family, etc. etc. because of the Atonement the good things in our lives are made better.

anyways..i'm glad our home teacher was able to come by and as strange as it is i'm grateful for the asian i get to balance on my head.

..12 months have passed..

..well today it's been one year since this..

..weird..

..it went by so fast..

..its hard to imagine i'd celebrate milestones like this..

..in the beginning i thought that 6, 9, 12 month marks would never come..

..and when they did get there, they had come much too fast..

..it's been a long time since i did service and it brought about events like these..

..sometimes i miss spending all of my time with bff's like these..

..they truly are my sisters. we would laugh, cry, pray, wish, hope, and teach together everyday. i learned more than i ever thought possible from these women..

..there are times where i think about my "washington families" and i miss them terribly..

..i couldn't have been more blessed to have my many homes away from home. family truly is forever..

..i began my mission with all of these fine elders..

..and these men taught me more than i could explain..

..mornings were spent in this little corner..

..and afternoons/evenings were spent like this..

..i wish i could put into words the things i learned from miracles like these..

..and these gorgeous spots seem like they were memories from a postcard..

..even though i miss my mission horribly some days, i couldn't be more blessed..

..this last year has been one the best. i got this little catch for heaven's sake..