THE GREATEST SNOW ON EARTH

I WENT SNOWBOARDING TODAY AND IT WAS AWESOME!!! Oh yea, Candice came too and she turned into a popsicle...I think the high on the mountain was about 15 degrees...BRRRR! We had a blast and can't wait for the next riding day...

After all there's only 5 more sleeps till Christmas...day

Merry early Christmas everyone! Gosh, Im just getting so excited! So I pretty much LOVE being home! No stress, no worries...its absolutely amazing! I've been eating so much honeycomb its AWESOME! Mom got bugged "Why don't you eat a banana or a nice tangerine? Why do you have to eat That?" and you know my response? BECAUSE I CAN! Isnt that the amazing beauty of being HOME where you dont have to pay 3.70 for a fricken jug of milk or 5 bucks for a tiny box of cereal....ahhh i love being home :)

Anyway, I wish I had something interesting or funny to tell all of you, but sadly I do not. I will say one thing though, Mom bought four boxes of those yummy fiber bars and let me tell you, I made that mistake once, and once was more than enough! No fiber bars for me this vacation...**shudder**

Well everyone, much love! MUAH! Oh and here's the pic we sent out, this is our family, all

nat-ur-al!

~your fav!~

Kris

Well HELLO everybody~ I have started receiving threats from my loving husband if I didn't blog....today we took Brian's 4th graders on a fieldtrip to Red Rock Canyon. It was really pretty. It was also freezing. I am concerned that I might die on our upcoming Christmas visit to Utah. The ranger taught us about how natural springs come about. That was pretty cool. It has finally started to feel like Christmas season - I think because I've been to 2 music concerts this week. Brians' principal has a Masters Degree in playing the Organ (he's even played the one in the Tabernacle) so I went to his concert and one of my girls in primary invited me to her school choir concert - so I went to that too. I really liked them. Our Roomie, Josh has headed back to Cali for winter break between semesters. That's all folks! I love ya! - Candiloo~

que bueno :)

Well family, I miss you all! My roomies are all quite a bit cranky (especially the one i actually live with!) but thats due to the horrifying event approaching all of us, if it hasn't already. What is it you may ask? FINALS. sick. Just the word makes me want to barf. Oh well. Amost done, one school week left then I get to go party with Heather for the night (and possibly Austen and Cassie at G-ma and G-pa's so that might be fun!)
Anyway, WOW CANDICE AND BRIAN YOU ARE GOIN DOOOWN! and i dont mean just down to south america, YOURE GOIN DOWN TO CHINATOWN! ooooh buuuuurn! lol. naw, but honestly, I am so excited to try your wii! It makes me so happy! And Brian, I think you're right:it was meant to happen. And dad, wow. Thats all I can say. WOW. You're entry made me happy. Well not like HAPPY, but happy cuz it was really funny, you crack me up, man I MISS YOU! I am so excited to go home this weekend, I need space from everyone....too many people all the time. My roommate Karli flipped out today and threw a pot across the kitchen because she can't find her syrup.....yeeeah. SO I took my state Literacy test on Thursday, please pray that I passed. With that done I just have a huge paper due tomorrow, a health final on Tues and 50 book summaries due, a music final on Wed, a child lit final on Thurs and a humanities final on Fri...then im done with this semester!
:) well....I think thats everything. I took a break from studying for my music test (i dont think thats breaking the sabbath...its listening to a bunch of opera and classical songs that I have to memorize...) anyway, I took a break and went stadium singing with Scott and Meredith EN ESPANIOL! we go every week, and I LOVE IT! spanish is SO much more beautiful than english, we speak such a cacophonous language.
well everyone, esta mi vida, and now i need to go eat some chocolate before I get cranky again :) LOVE YOU ALL! CALL ME PLEASE CUZ I LOVE YOU ALL!
~your fav,
Kris
ps* marissa! Rudy texted me from church today (which he NEVER does) and he sent me the biggest boldest text exclaiming, "MARISSA SANG SO BEAUTIFULLY!!! WOW!!!! KRISTINA, IT WAS AMAZING!" so congrats marissa! I'm sorry I missed it by a week :( You'll have to sing it for me when I come home :) love ya sis

My lame wife

Sadly, Candice is the only one who hasn't posted a blog. I did say earlier she would face severe consequences if she didn't get in on the action. Well folks, after the swirly, she'll be locked outside naked, and then to top it all off, she'll be tarred and feathered! No doubt she'll be blogging after that. CANDICE - we want you to blog too!

Angels we have heard on high literally

Ok family, have I got a situation for you! So, last Thursday, I got a call from the Relief Society 1st counselor asking if I could help out in the annual Relief Society Christmas program. Of course I acquiesed. Little did I know what I was getting into. Come to find out, this is a dinner for both the ladies and the guys. Anyways, they are also having a live nativity reenactment, and I get to be the angel. All good and kosher right? Well, first Mary and Joseph knock on the door and go through their spiel, then a couple of shepherds knock on the door and come in and sing a song. Then the 3 wisemen come and do this huge presentation. They are using the men from the stake Christmas play, so it is long and drawn out. Then finally I get to come into the picture. So, now you may ask yourselves where exactly has Marissa been? Oh I have been isolated upstairs in the hallway listening to the entire program all by my lonesome. I get to descend the staircase while singing O Holy Night while wearing a long white dress. Can we say disaster waiting to happen? Not to mention I do not get dinner or talk to anybody until after this presentation. Let's just hope my stomach doesn't growl louder than the music! Oy Vey...

Marissa

I have to tell you about my harrowing experience today. I left work as usual and was driving through the beautiful city of Riverside when I became lost. I stopped at this little place to ask directions and was invited in. They took me to this small room and strapped me into a chair. Little did I know what was in store for me. After they were sure that I was secured and could not escape, a small oriental man with a mask on entered the room. Soon another person with a mask walked in with a tray of tools for torture. They pried my mouth open and began their tortures. They shoved needles into my head, poked me with strange looking instruments and attempted to drill into my brain through the top of my mouth. I am not sure how I escaped, but I found myself again in my car attempting to navigate my way home. I believe that one day I will recover. If not, I guess that I will chew with a limp for the rest of my life. Well I am headed off to recover. Later

Dad

Brian and Candice,

We cannot wait to come Wii with Woo.

Love Mom and Dad

SWEET!!!

What's happening? Amidst all the action in our lives, one single event stands out above the rest. It took the perfect timing for everything to go down, or who knows what might have happened. It was Saturday evening and we ventured to my prinicipal's house for the annual Christmas party. After eating a smorgasbord of delicious food, we had the pleasure of listening to the beautiful sounds of Christmas songs played on the organ. My prinicipal is a talented musician - he plays for the Lutheran church he attends. Anyhow, I was ready to set off, as we had a stop to make on our way home. Candice wanted to stay for another song, so we did.
Our next stop took us to Bed, Bath and Beyond to take care of the return and repurchase of our dinnerware sets. We received our gift cards from Discover, gaining an extra $5 for every $20 we had in rewards. Upon arrival we explained what was going on and they were glad to help. Unfortunately (but not really as you will see later), they had difficulty ringing the repurchase up in the register. Something about them being on clearance before, but not any longer. Needless to say, it took some time, but they worked it out. Of course Candice wanted to look around. As always, I acquiesced and we browsed for a little while. Just a side note, Candice doubted my spelling ability with the words smorgasbord and acquiesced and looked them up in the dictionary only to find her husband was correct.
Back to the story...It was a little after 9:30 and we were ready to head home. I noticed Best Buy was next door and thought we should take a little jaunt and have a looksy. I'd been thinking about getting Candice a portable DVD player for Christmas and wanted to check them out. She stopped off to look at pictures of Josh Groban and I headed to the DVD players. I actually stopped at the home DVD players to see what they had available (ours skips from time to time).
Then, the man with the magical voice came over the loud speaker. Now, the store was going to close in 20 minutes and we just happened to pop in, so fate was definitely at work. The man with the magical voice says, "Customers we just received 6 Nintendo Wiis. If you would like one go stand by the video game sign in the store." SNAP! I was bursting with excitement and basically sprinted to Candice. "Do you want to get one?" I kept asking and was flat out giddy. Anyways, we went over there, stood and waited for the cardboard to be cut, and were given the console. We are now the proud owners of a Nintendo Wii gaming system. As you can see, staying for the extra song, the delay in Bed, Bath and Beyond, and browsing, all happened for a reason. I am supposed to become the ultimate Wii player in the world. Look out world! And don't call me Pammy.
Brian

IM DONE!

ALL IS WELL!

Well family, I wrote a six page paper on what I believe Luke was trying to say throughout the book of Luke and the Acts. And Marissa....I might have pretty much copied and pasted what you said in one of my paragraphs and slightly changed the words...hehe :) Anyway, my level of kindness just skyrocketed like a hundred points. That is one chunk of stress less! AND I did it while watching 300 with my roomies (edited of course!) and yeah....I guess if I actually wanted to understand the movie I should have really watched it. I liked what I did pay attention to, but it wasnt enough to understand the movie or actually say whether or not I liked it. Candice, thank you for the book suggestions. I didn't use any quotes from Jesus The Christ, but it definitely helped my understanding. That is a book I should invest in. I was able to use the book by Elder McConkie though for a good long quote :) You were right, he can be quite wordy!
Well my dear family, I hope you are all doing well. I'm afraid I have to go read the book Skellig now...havent started and I have to have it read by thursday and to read it I actually have to find it LOL!
LOVE YOU ALL!
Kristina~

You people are not very nice

Ok people, only Candice and Marissa are on my good list at the moment. I posted a literal cry for help and they were the only ones that responded. Marissa posted and Candice called me. Until you can learn to be family, you are no longer on my talking to list. Ok fine, I'll talk to you, but thats only because I am a truly loving person-for now.
Anyway, today, up till now has been ok. Then I got to my apartment and we decided that our Christmas tree, Franchesco, should be the quote tree. So we took all our funny quotes from our walls and put them on his little paper ornaments we made. Our apartment actually looks like Christmas! We have a Christmas tree with lights on it, lights around our closet doors and front window, and a red and green paper chain looping around our ceiling. :) It makes me happy :)Well...I'm still stressing over this dumb paper. I think its ridiculous that that I can't use quotes and such but I have found a few. THanks for the imput Marissa, I really do appreciate it. Dont hate me if I pretty much use it verbatum.
Well everyone, I guess I should look up information for Casablanca, we're watching it in my humanities class tomorrow :) Love you all, even if I AM mad.
MUAH!
Kris

Kris,

Look at Luke 1:37, with God nothing is impossible. The Lord wants us to be successful and with His help, righteous desires can be met. Wealth can help the church and the people in the church, if we are unselfish. I think selfishness is the sin, not the wealth. We have to be careful not to allow the pursuit of money and posessions become our goal in life. However, poverty is not a punishment, it makes you rely more closely on the Lord and helps you recognize His hand in your life. Also, it allows those who have money the opportunity to serve. The one thing that the Lord requires from both the rich and the poor is that they both give all they can. That's all that matters, is the willingness to give. Hope that this helps you. Sorry, I am at work so I have no scriptures and I am going off the top of my head.

Marissa

HeLp!

Hey everyone!

OK, I am slightly hitting the panic mode and am requesting backup from anyone available! This Friday I have a 6 page paper due in my New Testament class and writing it is proving to be a LOT more difficult than I ever anticipated. I have to read the book of Luke and The Acts and write a paper on what I think Luke is trying to say about Wealth vs. Poverty. Well, I've read the books and I'm still having a difficult time with this. I'm not aloud to use any quotes or personal experiences (thats how I have survived in religion classes before...) Anyway, the only exception to the no quote rule is if the quote is about the Customs, Culture, or Context of the scripture I am referencing. I cant say that I think Luke is saying that rich people are snobby and then have a quote from Pres. H. saying that rich people are snobby. I can have a quote by Pres. H. that says that during that time period, it was custom for the rich people to hold themselves higher because of the whatever...
Anyway, these are the scriptures that I think I will use in my paper, if I can ever pull out three or four main messages that I think Luke is trying to convey (and those messages can include questions too)
LUKE:
1:53, 4:16-19, 6:20, 6:24, 7:40-50, 8:14, 10:35, 16:19-23, 18:22-25, 19:8, 19:16-23, 21:1-6 (THIS IS A GOOD ONE),
ACTS:
4:37, 8:20, 19:25 (maybe)

Anyway, any opinions would be ridiculously appreciated. I have a few ideas, but I dont really want to sound stupid. I think some of them are to the idea that the poor are quicker to make larger sacrifices, but I'm not sure. Mom said maybe its making us stop and wonder whether or not it is easier for the rich or poor to make those sacrifices, and I think I'll definitely use that as one topic. Anyway, any help at all would be appreciated! Hope you are all doing well! love and miss all of you!
~Kris

Cravings

Lately Kim has been craving chocolate doughnuts and I love it! Now I am just waiting until she starts craving things like wings, ribs, Wendy's etc....bring on some more good stuff!

Devin

And one more thing... I am DIGGING THE BLOG!
Brian

It appears as though the Cool Californians aren't as cool as we thought. Only one of them has posted on the blog. Perhaps the other one thinks she is TOO cool. I know that you talk to your daughters almost everyday, but what about your sweet son-in-laws? We want the skinny too. We anxiously await Lee's first blog. I just finished typing this and realized something...My own wife, who I live with, has yet to post. Just so everyone knows, if she does not become involved, there will be severe consequences for her!
Brian

Kristina,

No intiendo nada de que estas hablando con Brian. Pero te amo de todos modos.
By the way it is a good thing that you all came last week. It is raining hard and has been all day. Sure made for a fun day on the freeway. We took Lucy for a walk and it began to rain harder. We were soaked by the time we got back home. Sorry I don't have any good fat man stories. I am still trying to figure this thing out. I tried to comment to Kristina's latest blog but could figure out how to post it, so her goes with my own blog. Devin I will be thinking about you at the BYU game tomorrow while we are tailgating. Well I guess I better go and wait for the next literary experience to be posted

Dad

Lo Siento Mi Hermano :(

Brian,

I wish I could express the unbearable amount of grief my poor heart is harboring at this moment in time. I wish I could build a time machine and remove the harsh words I spoke, but alas, the world does not take back her time. If I could but rewind....siiiiiigh. I am truly sorry for not recognizing your creative and unique writing style. I knew it was you or my sister, but it is true, it took the hand comment to set my knowledge in stone. I hope that our bonding moments were deep enough to keep the glue of our relationship strong. But, alas, I sit here and await your eternal judgement.
KRISTINA

Um...by the way everyone, I got a 91% on my Literacy final!!! YAY! This means it might be possible for me to pass the state exam, but I refuse to think about that tonight. Tonight is being saved for that huge pan of brownies I made and watching a movie. By the way, if you haven't seen Mixed Nuts, its HILARIOUS! I bought it on a whim cuz it was like three bucks at walmart and I liked the cast and director and the back made it seem hilarious. I have seen it before though...a long time ago, but I know I've seen it before. Anyway, its hilarious! Well...thats pretty much everything for me today. I miss you all and hope you're all having a great day! Hey Kim are you still alive? I Haven't heard from you lately. and Mom and Dad, you are on my SHUUUUUUNN SHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNA list until you blog. Whats the point of this if you wont participate in a family uniting activity??? ARG!

miss you all

Hey guys! This whole blog site is awesome. Devin gave excellent instructions. Lets see, not much going on here in Cali. It's kind of cold and gray, and I miss you all already. Full houses are a lot more fun than empty ones, even if we all have to share bathrooms. I am glad to hear you kept down an entire meal Kim. Mom said you wanted chocolate doughnuts. Why does that not surprise me? Hey Kris, don't feel too embarrassed about bowling over some stranger, just blame it all on the ice. I remember talking to one of my friends while we were walking down a hall and I ran straight into one of my professor's stomach. It was large enough that I just bounced off it about 5 feet. Luckily, I never even got close to hitting his head with my own. (Good thing he was portly.) To this day, I have no idea why he wouldn't just move out of my way when he saw that I wasn't looking and was going to run straight into him. Well, I am at work and I just wanted to check this out. It's so cool. I am glad to have another way to keep in touch with you all. Yea!!!

Marissa

Well, Kristina, while I do appreciate your advice, I am deeply troubled by how minimally you truly know me. How could you not have recognized it was I? When have you ever heard Candice say What up? Hmmm...Having difficulty thinking of a time...Perhaps it's because she never does. I thought me and you was tight. Apparently I was gravely mistaken. I mean, I've had the scar for a reeeeal long time. Plus, Candice and I have much different writing styles. Clearly the story was written by me. Or maybe you recognized the wittiness and creativity of the story and thought it must have been Candice. Well, I too have some wittiness and creativity inside me. I guess now you have a couple of things you know about me upon which you can build, since you don't know me all that well. I think I will get over this eventually, but the pain runs deep. It's just that I thought we bonded at Walmart with the dog lady. Then this...it will be tough to overcome.
BRIAN

EMBARASSING!

Hey everyone!
So I have little embarassing story for you that happened earlier this afternoon. I was walking through the bitter wind and up the ridiculous hill to my study group when I noticed my roommate Meredith (who I absolutely love to death, you all would if you met her!). Anyway, naturally I ran up to walk with her because I hadn't gotten a chance to see her yet today. So I run up and yell "HELLO LOVE!" and of course, only because its me, I totally caught a patch of ice and slid right into her, knocking her completely to the ground into the snow! Thats not even the best part-yep, you guessed it. IT WASN'T EVEN MEREDITH! It was some random girl I have never seen before in my entire life!!! I felt SO bad, you have no idea! Other than the fact that it was absolutely freezing outside, I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. Luckily she didn't say anything rude or anything. She just gave me a really weird look. But, if I were knocked into the ice and snow by some random freak who is accident prone...I'd probably give her a weird look too...I guess I couldn't expect her to reach out and thank me for it. Anyway, that was my story. That and I was eating some cold pasta and Meredith knocked my arm and it fell on the ground...yep..still ate it. Shoot, that box was like $1.20, there was no way I was going to let a little carpet and couch fuzz ruin some perfectly good shell pasta. (dont worry, there actually wasnt any carpet or couch fuzz!)
Well, those are my stories for the day! Oh and by the way, you should sign your name or something after you write so we know who's talking. It took me a minute to determine it was Brian :)
Love you all!
~Kristina~
ps* Here is a video I know you will all enjoy :) Its from this summer when we went to a Storm game as a family and mom oh so kindly volunteered me, her, and Rudy to do a little race dressed in funny costumes. I was the telephone, mom was the tv, and Rudy was the computer mouse...trust me, your in for a treat!

The IV

Hey Fam!!

I thought I would blog about my day since I am actually feeling a little bit better. Yesterday I took off work and went and got a prescription to help me keep food down. The presciption worked to an extent but I still was really sick. Today I went in to the doctor's office and had an IV put in. I was a little scared since I had needles. To be 100% honest, it did hurt some because the nurse pricked me three times total and the needle was kinda long. The medicine made me sleepy and I was there for like 5 hours but I do feel better. I came home and slept but then ate and drank real food! I think I kept an entire meal down today!!! Hopefully I will continue to feel better. Anyway, sorry this post is boring...I just thought I would fill you all in. Love you! Thanksgiving was fun!! I have missed everyone and just seeing you did make me feel better.

What up everybody? I thought I'd see how good Devin is at giving instructions. So, if you are reading this, he is good. If you are not, then I'm typing this to myself. Anyways, we had a blast in Cali (I've noticed that the cool thing to do in California is to shorten words). We watched part of Joseph on the ride home - pretty good thus far. I'm looking forward to Heroes tonight.

Kristina - I had a crazy experience with a larger than life man myself. I'm sorry to admit this to everyone, but the scar on my right arm did not happen in a work accident as I've stated before. No, this pants sagging, belly drooping, scraggly behemoth was seated at a restaurant waiting for his appetizer to come. Well, the waitress made a mistake and so there was a bit of a delay. I was in the booth next to him, and he starts staring at me with a deranged look like something from the Shining. He began to rant and rave, drool spewing from his mouth. He meandered over to my booth, grabbed my arm and took a huge chunk of my flesh. This lunatic started chomping as though he were a grizzly bear who just snared a salmon. I froze up. I didn't know what was going on. All I could see was a giant blob going in for seconds. Luckily, the waitress arrived just then with his ooey, gooey, cheesy chili fries. It was nuts.

Well everybody, until next time. Late!

ho-la

HOLA!

Ok Kim, I will not fail you this time. I am here, staking my claim on this little family blog thingy. SO, hm...whats new with me you may ask? Well, here is the exciting adventure of what happened to me on my epic journey home:

I arrived at the airport, normal and safe, said my goodbyes with no tears-a triumph in my eyes. However, once I got on the plane, I sensed something...wrong. Some sort of...odd tension. I decided to sleep it off, figuring it was just my tiredness. However, that was when I heard the most blood-curtiling scream! I turned around to see the man who occupied the row behind me, the man who weighed not a pound less than 786.242424 pounds screaming bloody murder at the flight attendant for more peanuts!! He said he was starving because he hadnt had lunch yet and all he had for breakfast was a baby elephant!!! Well, the plane was obviously not built for people as large as rhinos, so during his marching and stomping through anger, he made the airplane sway! I swear, I saw my short life before my eyes and knew that would be the end of me. I would never see Tina Jr. :( but then, luckily, the flight attendant (bless her heart!) relinquished the peanuts. The fat man DEVOURED them as if the world would explode if he didnt! But then, to my astonishment, he began to SWELL!!! I thought he would take up the entire plane at the rate he was bloating! Then, just as I was squished against the window, touching the grotesque fat of the nasty hair fat man, I screamed for help and then.....POP! The rhino exploded into a million peanuts! And, yes, I ate a few. I mean, why waste perfectly good food?
hahaha, so, after that I got an early shuttle and made it safely to rexburg where my awesome roomies picked me up. I then unpacked and read all of New Moon :) VERY GOOD! aaaand, now I think Im going to hit the sack. LOVE Y'ALL! hope you all made it home safe! hope you're feeling better kimbo!

Another Attempt

Here is another attempt to start the family blog. Post away!