Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?

We finally got enough snow today to make a good sized snowman! We've been having a mixture of rain, snow, and sunshine so there hasn't really been enough snow or good enough conditions to build a quality snowman. But today was the day. We finally built a snowman, and we named him Snowy. Gideon, Erin, and I got together to create him, but Erin had to leave before Snowy could be fully created. :( Gideon is responsible for most* of  the heavy lifting and chiseling. Snowy is a classy snowman. He even sports a bow tie and buttons. Go you, Snowy.

*all

Going to dinner today, I saw that Snowy had acquired a small army. I even took a picture with a few of the people that were out there creating army snowmen!

Even a snow woman came into being... you can see Snowy in the background with his army. We're pretty sure she's a witch type of snow woman and Snowy has created an army to protect the residents of Helaman Halls.

Graysons Selfies

This is the sequel to Spencer's Selfies, although this time the subject is not Spencer. It's Grayson. And he actually took all of these on purpose. Enjoy.

Devotionals&Temples

Here are just a few pictures with the highlights of the last week or so - the BYU Womens Chorus sang in the devotional on Tuesday and another successful temple trip happened.

Everyone was super excited and willing to take this picture. ;)

One Week Down

One week down a semester to go... the only huge differences between this semester and last semester are that temple trips are now a Thursday thing and there's a lot more reading for my classes. I found a pretty good way to power through all that reading though...positive reinforcement through M&M's.

Back to School

It's the second day back and I'm somewhere between stressed and excited about my classes. They all seem really cool and I like my schedule a lot, but a couple of them also seem like they're going to be very hard. Especially my Spanish class - it's completely full of returned missionaries. Yikes! I did love getting to see all of my friends again though. Oh how I've missed them <3

Spencer and Gideon stringing lights

The fam reunited

Gideon wall sitting like a pro

Christmas Vacation - Mississippi Style

I ended out my glorious Christmas break by spending a week with my family in the cute little town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. I really enjoyed getting to go back and see my fam. I got to see Chase and Ryan play some basketball, and they're pretty good! I like cheering. Loudly. ;) We also got to see some friends and enjoy celebrating birthdays! At one good friends house, we watched Nacho Libre. It was absolutely hilarious. I loved it. I also got to go on a super fun date with a friend who had just returned from his mission to Canada! We had a blast. I loved getting to see my family <3

Chase likes LSU. And smiling for my pictures.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Chase is almost smiling in this one!

Dads nasty smoothie fell out of the fridge...what a shame.

Me and Chris at Moes!

Kaycie was losing lol

Chris, Nathan, and I were challenged to a ping pong shake off game..Nathan won big time

Christmas Vacation - Idaho&Utah Style

When planning Christmas break back in November, being in Idaho was not a part of the plan. Until December 4th, when my amazing Great Grandma passed from this life into the next and plans were rearranged so that we could all be in Idaho for her funeral. So, my family flew from Mississippi out West, and I met them in the airport flying back from Florida. We spent a lot of time back and forth between Grandma Ruth's and Grandma Susan's houses. All 17 of the grandkids on the Black side of the family were together for GG's funeral, and it was a lot of fun having everyone together. I'm the oldest of the 17.

My brothers hadn't seen snow for 7+ years...they were very excited by the small clumps on the grass

One of the days of break, our family went up into the mountains to go tubing! It's basically sledding...but on a tube. It was SO much fun!! I also got some sweet pictures of Chase, my little stud brother.

On the 26th we had GG's funeral. It's days like these that I'm very grateful for eternal familes and the knowledge I have of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so glad that I got to see my entire family this break, and spend some time with those people that I love most dearly.

After the funeral, my family returned to Utah where we got to spend some quality time with my Uncle Kirt and his wife Super Lez. We went to Temple Square, saw Moana, and had some temple adventures. We tried to go to the Provo City Temple, but didn't realize until after we had been dropped off that it was closed for maintenance... so we took our life into our own hands and called an Uber for the first time! Our driver took us to the Provo City Center temple, and honestly it was a really nice ride. It even ended up being free since it was our first ride! Sweet!