The Bachelor!

Okay, first of all I want to say… I have NEVER liked the Bachelor. I thought it was catty and stupid because what kind of crazy girl would do something like that?! I would legitimately hate it, and I would leave immediately. But, my sister Heather really wanted us to watch it with her, so now I watch it with her, Savana, Jacob, Ian, and Tony. (Why no Dahl, you ask? Well… because when he watched part of an episode with us he said, and I quote, “I could watch the goriest, grossest movie EVER and not feel as crappy as I do now after watching that show.” Dad says he gets his man card back now. Personally, I think he kind of likes it- he totally enjoys listening to me babble about it (?) and last episode he snuck in to “get a break from homework”… and stayed for the duration of the show. So he’s not fooling this girl!)

Ben

I have found that I quite enjoy the drama that is The Bachelor, probably mostly because of how fun it is to watch it with this crew. We have a cheat sheet with names and pictures of all the girls, and a place to put notes, including symbols for crying and kissing. The boys, especially, are very into rooting on their girls as they vie for the love of Ben, who I think is being semi- annoying… but I don’t think it is possible for anyone to not be annoying when they are placed into that situation so I suppose he can be given some lee-way…

Thoughts on the last episode:

Rachel

Date with Rachel= MEGA-AWKWARD!! But at least she was real instead of just falling all over him and telling sob stories.

Courtney

Group Date: HATE Courtney… she’s so freaking manipulative it’s maddening. Ben was so cute with Kacie B (who is being a little more whiny than I like, but I think it’s because she is one of the most genuinely interested girls there) and then Courtney swooped in and ruined it all. I am betting she will stay for a long time, though, because she brings the kind of drama this show thrives on, and we love to hate her.

Kacie B

Also, that was way awkward for Samantha when he sent her home in the middle of the cocktail party, but at least he was honest with her. The boys thought it was hilarious how he shot her down.

Samantha

Date with Jennifer: Adorable… she is so fun and real and she hardly ever whines which I like. And their date was super fun… a little too scary for my taste, though. And Ben- stop trying to make things like jumping into chasms and climbing to sickeningly disturbing heights something figurative and symbolic like plunging into love and overcoming your fears and letting people in… if someone is scared of heights, they should not have to prove their love by doing those sorts of crazy things. (PS I hate heights.)

Jennifer

Rose Ceremony: I love Emily, and I think she is one of the nicest girls on the show, but she was dumb to try to warn Ben about the real Courtney—it totally backfired. However, I think she deserves better than Ben, anyway, so I will be sad when she leaves, which, sadly, looks like it will be soon if she can’t drop the Courtney issue.

Emily

Also, I was sad to see Monica go, but we all knew it had to happen sooner or later… She did bring a great voice of reason to the drama on the show so it will be interesting to see how the dynamic changes among the girls.

Monica

Anyway, right now I am Team Emily/ Kacie B/ Jennifer/ kinda Lindzi C- all the way… and if anyone wants to come over and watch it with us on Monday/ Tuesday nights (I have been watching on both…doubly embarrassing, I know), please feel free :). It’s a party!

Lindzi C

Girl Time!

All my sisters :) When we were home for Christmas we did about 3 sister photo shoots... I have so much fun with my cute sisters! Love them <3

*For the record, none of the pictures featured in this post are from last weekend... they are just random ones of me and the girls featured in this post... and some even have boys in them (gasp!)! *

I am a firm believer in the awesomeness of girl- time. Of course, my cute husband is my favorite person to hang out with ever and I’d rather be with him than anyone else most of the time, but there is something to be said for giggling with girls whilst painting your nails and watching a chick flick. My favorite girls in the world are my sisters (and sisters in law), my mom (and mom in law) and my friend, Amy. I have so much fun with all of them! And last weekend was prime time for girl time! For example:

This is us bull-frogging :)

Last Friday, a big group of us were going to the Pie. I didn’t know most of the people in the group, because it was mostly full of Jacob’s friends, but the van ended up having me, Dahl, Heather, Jacob, and two other boys, Ian and Mitch. Heather and I ended up sitting in the middle seat while Jacob and Mitch sat in the back and Ian and Dahl sat in the front. And we had a BLAST! I seriously felt like I was having a girls night because we basically were only talking to each other and laughing SO HARD!! Half of it was just remembering this clip from 101 Dalmations 2… you know you think random things that aren’t that funny are when you are with your best friend too :)

We have always been BFF!

Us with our men at Cornbelly's!

The next day, Dahl had to go to the math lab all day (poor baby), so I went to lunch with his cute sister Savana. We talked for like two hours and had such a great time. I love her, she is such a fun sister in law for me. And we went to Zupas which is AMAZING!

Apparently I haven't ever taken a picture with just Bana so this is with Dahl too.

That night was David’s birthday. He is dating Amy, who is one of my other favorite girls, and she was very tired of watching football games all day with him (being a good girlfriend and all), so we left our men to watch another game while she took me to go get soup from Olive Garden. It took 15 minutes each way plus a half hour wait and a half hour walk, so we had the best time catching up and chatting, mostly about the men in our lives… isn’t that generally what half of girl talk consists of anyway?

This is us in Vegas...

And with our men in St. George :)

I had such a fun weekend with my girls, and I am grateful to have such great girl-friends!

Home for Christmas Part 2!

And here we are back for the second half of vacation at home:

This is a random dessert I made... I think it looks better than it tasted but still good.

*I forgot to mention that on Friday we went and visited our elementary, middle, and high schools. We ate lunch with Jacob and Sarah and saw a lot of our favorite teachers from our childhoods/ adolescent years which was really fun. Dahl thinks it's weird that we are friends with our teachers, but we love them :). One of my favorite parts was when Heather and Nicole waltzed right into a Family Life class when they were learning about puberty for girls! The teacher, not missing a beat, said "Oh yes, they have been through it!" and ushered them out. She told them what they had burst into and said, "I can't believe you guys walked in on a Family Life class! You guys are gross!" She was a hoot. Here is Julie with an ESOL sign (English as a Second Language). For the reason for this picture click here. It's kind of a funny story.

1. Thursday: The whole family minus dad went to DC for the Tour de Nicole. We met the little boy Nicole nannied for and his family. We went to the zoo, the Archives, the Air and Space Museum, and saw some monuments at night. Nicole also pointed out other areas of the city she loved as we drove around. Finally, Sarah got pooped on by a bird. And I cleaned her up.

The zoo!

Look at Heather seducing the panda...

A random sign outside the Archives we thought was funny

Air and Space Museum

Washington Memorial

Capitol Building

Botanical Gardens

2. Friday: We took family photos with Kellie Nuss. She took our wedding photos and is amazing! After the photo shoot the girls were not done (of course) so we hurried back to the playground to do a sister photo shoot. Don’t worry, we did about 3 over the course of our time at home. We love us some pictures—mostly of ourselves. Unfortunately, upon arriving, we found that the children at this playground had multiplied! What?! “Playgrounds aren’t for children, they are for adults wanting to do photo shoots!” (direct quote courtesy of Nicole). We managed to run as fast as possible between unused equipment when the kids got bored of them and got quite a few pictures in. Please enjoy this mini break to look at us be goofs:

Look at how much Nicole didn't want to be in this pic...

Afterwards, Nicole wanted to go to the mall, so Heather, Julie, and I agreed to go too. Upon arriving, Julie and I decided we were far too tired to go to the mall, so we slept in the car while Heather and Nicole went in. Nicole brought back Chipotle, and for reasons that no one quite understands, decided I was the chosen one who she would share with. Sa-WEET! Heather brought us frozen yogurt and shared with us all. It was amazing! Then we had a girl party and watched 13 Going on 30. Um LOVE that movie! We had an awesome out-of-this-world dance party afterwards to the credits music. Here's another photo shoot... don't remember when it was taken:

3. Saturday: New Years Eve! We went to Hunan Manor (our family tradition) and it was wonderful (thanks Daddy!). We spent the night hanging out, making New Years Resolutions, and watching Captain America.

4. Sunday: We went to church, and Dahl and I sat in on a Valiant 9 class (our new calling in our home ward!) I am so freaking excited to teach primary J. We went home, packed, played Set, and ate some yummy ribs my mommy made. We also took pictures with the quilts my mom for our baptisms.

Attack!!

I am scary!!

Then we said a teary goodbye and it was back to Utah.

All the sibs!

I had such a wonderful time seeing my family! It is hard to live so far away but it is nice to know we can be together forever!

Home for Christmas Part One!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to blog at least once a week… today is the 7^th so here it goes!

Dahl and I went home to Maryland for Christmas and it was wonderful! Here are some highlights of the first half (some of these details may be out of order or on the wrong days… but they all happened):

1. Thursday: We flew home on a flight that started at 6 AM! Sarah tried to get me to watch Cars 2- I fell asleep.

2. Friday: We went to watch Sarah’s basketball scrimmage. It was incredibly entertaining, especially when she got mad at some girl and shoved her out of the way (but got away with it)! She is an aggressive one! Even more entertaining perhaps, was Heather’s constant attacks on my dad’s eyebrows documented below:

You don't touch my eyebrows!

Just a little hair...

Never!!

Now you stay away from me!

That's it! I'm changing seats!

No Daddy come back! I won't hurt you!!

(Hehe yes I will)

Seriously I promise! Just sit down!

This is my body not yours! You keep your dang hands off!

I will Daddy.

Look at what your husband has to look forward to! When your mother tried to pluck my eyebrows I had a Hitler-stache for an eyebrow!

Alright I'll sit back down but you better keep your dang hands to yourself!

I guess this is a constant plague upon my poor father-- apparently Heather is no longer allowed to sit next to him in church because every time he falls asleep he receives a rude awakening as either his nose hairs or his eyebrows are being forcefully plucked from his face! Also on Friday, I tried to watch Smurfs with Sarah and fell asleep. And Dahl got caught up in an intense match of Stratego with Jacob and Joseph—full of rule-changing and making up—that lasted for hours. Oh yeah, and here's Sarah at her game:

3. Saturday: Christmas Eve. The older kids became Santa’s elves and help mom get everything wrapped up. We followed traditions from both my family and Dahl’s: From mine we listened the “The Little Shepherd”. From his, we read “That Thine Alms may be in Secret” and “A Christmas Dress for Ellen” and watched “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

4. Sunday: Christmas! We performed our “surprise” play like usual- Dahl was an amazing Spanish- speaking Mexican. We opened presents and went to church, and just relaxed together as a family. We had our usual Santa treasure hunt and ate Monkey Bread and Oatmeal for breakfast.

5. Monday: The whole family minus Dad went to Mt. Vernon. I am a huge George Washington fan, so I loved it. We took a tour of his home, went to his grave site, walked around his gorgeous estate, watched a few movies about him, and met Aladdin the friendly camel. We came home and watched home videos (hopefully coming soon to a Facebook near you) and The Help (love that movie!). Mom made some amazing apple pie which we all appreciated immensely!

Haha note how Julie looks like a "little person" (or however the politically correct way is to say it).

6. Tuesday: The original plan was to go to DC for the day, but weather changed those quickly. We in no way allowed that to make it a downer! We opted for a relaxing day at home (if that is even possible considering our household). Dahl and I went on a date to Ledo’s, and because of a mix-up ended up with double the pizza we ordered for the same price, so we brought some home to share. Then we took all of the kids (except for Sarah) to Rita’s.

Ritas!

We also played Just Dance, which was super fun. The second I saw that game I knew it was made for my family! Then we watched Taken and I watched Alias with my sisters (best show ever, hurry up Netflix!)

7. Wednesday: We relaxed in the morning and watched LOTR. I fell asleep, but only for a little (anyone sensing a pattern?). We went to the temple as a family. The kids did baptisms and we did sealings with my parents. We haven’t done sealings since our own so it was really nice. Then we went to the Visitor’s Center to a dance concert. We thought it was doing to be some professional international dance company but it turned out to just be some kids and their teachers (who, it seems, only created the school so they could perform) which was a disappointment but one we found immensely amusing.

Finally, that night all the Connor kids played Nerts! This is a family favorite and it was even more fun that Gina came to join us!

Stay tuned for the next half of the vacation coming soon!