Oh what a Wonderful day....

Christmas Day was wonderful. It was more than I could have ever imagined. My family woke up Christmas morning and we opened all of our gifts, all of us receiving more than we deserved. I'm lucky enough to have parents who were able to have the whole day off so we could spend a beautiful day together. And to top it all off I was able to go to the Skousen's house to talk to Conrad on the phone. He called earlier than he was supposed to so Jaimee called me and I sped right over! I was afraid I would only get to talk to him for 10 minutes if not 5. But it turns out that he bought two 30 minute calling cards so he had a whole hour, which I was very appreciative of. I was able to talk to Conrad for about 20-25 minutes, so I found myself very very lucky. Conrad is doing GREAT! He loves the people of Argentina and he loves his companion. He spent Christmas eve with a few other Elders by eating chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and salad and then they played Rooke a couple times, one of which Conrad won. Conrad's doing great with the language, i'd say he's got it down pretty well. It was so wonderful talking with him on the phone, but when his phone card ran out....that was hard. It was like he was there one minute and the next he was gone. So I found that a little hard. Haha, as soon as I left the house I burst into tears. But I am feeling better now, I think it's all just a little shocking still....having my best friend gone. The greatest thing about mine and Conrad's relationship is that we have always been able to talk to eachother. About anything....so now that he's gone I still can talk to him over letters and email which I am so So grateful for, but of course it's not exactly the same. But I know the next year and 8 months (haha) will fly by and soon i'll be able to give my best friend a hug and talk about whatever, whenever! I am so so proud of Conrad and I know that he is doing an amazing job out there, the people of Argentina are so lucky! :) I Love that boy SO much!!

Sampson & Sparky

Here's my fun, loving dogs! We got them all decked out for our family Christmas party by putting sparkly red bows on them, aww aren't they cute! I thought i'd post this pic cause not many people have see Sparky for a while and geez, she's getting so fat! She is so heavy to hold with one arm! After taking this pic I had a cramp in my arm!

It is COMPLETE!

Mine and Megan's room is finally finished! I am so happy! We got our new bed spreads and curtains and it's just as crazy as ever! We call it the happy room, cause there's no way your not coming out of that room with a frown on your face :) And here's a view of my bed with my way awesome Argentina flag on my ceiling!

Professional Bull Riders!

Ashley, Jill and I hung out Friday night and had a mighty good time! It was a lot of fun to have the Three Amigos back together! Life is so busy, Jill and I haven't seen Ash in forever! We chowed down on Red Robin (Mmm yummy fries!) and headed to the Superstition Mall to finish some Christmas shopping! While there we thought it would be fun to ride the mechanical bull, ok ok, so we didn't really ride it, but we pretended we did and we had fun! Plus it was free! Afterwards we weren't quite sure if we wanted to head out to a party or just lay low and watch a movie. But we decided that we needed to go get our groove on and show Ashley how to move her hips! HA, now that was funny! Ashley experienced something she had never done before, Jill and I gave Ash a few pointers on how to dance and she actually had fun! I'm sure she's stoked for the next dance party :)

Merry Christmas!

My mom has been trying to get family Christmas pictures taken forever! So Jill came over Saturday night and dealt with us all arguing over where to stand in the pictures, haha. Thanks so much Jill! She did an awesome job! I Love my family SO much! They have really been such a strength to me with Conrad being gone and I appreciate everything they do for me! Conrad has been on his mission for 16 weeks today! So almost 4 months! I can't believe how fast the time is flying! IT'S CRAZY! Conrad just got a new companion, Elder Jernigan, he is from Sedona, AZ and they get along great, he finds him hilarious, lol. They have quite a few investigators and the language is actually coming along pretty good! I'm so proud of Conrad, he is one of a kind! I can't wait to talk to him Christmas day!!

Olive Garden

So this past weekend the girls and I went to Olive Garden and then headed over to a fun Christmas party where we boogied down and lost all the calories we gained from eating yummy Chicken Scampi! Mmmm...Mmmmm :) Jaimee's cousin Krissy is going to be living with them for while she's going to school down here so we are all so excited to have another girl added to the group! Krissy is so much fun, she's the party animal of the group and is showing us how to really dance! Conrad is gonna be surprised at how well I can dance when he get's home because when we used to go to dances all we would do together was the shimmie and the snorkle! HAHA we're dorks together, I LOVE IT :)

Me and My Boy

This is my handsome little dog, Sampson. Conrad's family gave him to us and we absolutely love him! I think it's been about 6 months we've had him now, Wow! I took these pictures to send to Conrad, just to show him that Sampson will be the only man i'm kissing under the mistletoe this year! HA HA

Girls Will Be Girls

Jill is back, YAY!! Jill came back late Friday night from Montanna after going to her grandpa's funeral, she had some very touching stories to tell and I love that she is so in tune with the spirit. It's so great to have her back, we missed her!! Saturday night Jill, Jaimee and I went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday's to eat from their yummy salad bar. We figured it was time to eat something good for us :) And then headed out to Chandler Mall, rocking out in the car the whole way there. We didn't buy anything (other than a delicious Cinnabon..MmmmMmm) but it was nice just to goof off and look at things we couldn't buy!

Red Robin

Friday night I went out to dinner with Nikki and Doug at Red Robin! Nikki's brother, Tyler, and his date also joined us. While we were there a man had a heart attack and the Fire Department showed up, they ended up wheeling him out and doing CPR on him. It was scary, one minute you're enjoying a nice hamburger and the next you're being given CPR because you had a heart attack. It's so weird to think that your life on earth could end in the blink of an eye, that's why i'm so grateful that I have the gospel in my life and i'm living my life correctly.

Well on to happier things, after dinner we went to Superstition Mall and looked at rings, haha, I found the ring of my dreams! But oh boy it was way too expensive, so I will just keep dreaming :) Jaimee met up with us and we went to see Queen of the Stone Age (the one about Queen Elizabeth) I don't recommend it at ALL!! It was pretty much a biography of her life, it was soooo boring, but hey it was at the dollar theater so it was only $2.

Christmas Work Party

AZ Pediatric Dental Care Staff! (Well...most of them anyway) Our Christmas work party was this past Saturday at Seville. It was so nice! There was tons of yummy food, the best part was the ice cream with tons of choices for toppings! We played games and traded gifts, it was so much fun!