Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Family Fun

Brandt and I have the best families and I feel so blessed to have them in my life. I thought I would post some of the things we enjoy doing with my family when we all get together.

1. World Tour!

My brother Sammy brought his XBOX home from college and we had hours of good times on that thing. It was so funny when we were playing, baby Kate would come and sit right on the XBOX so that she could be a part of what we were doing. I should post the video of me singing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" that way you would all understand why I refused to join ward choir! But since it's my blog, I can post whatever I want, so I will leave that embarassment off :) So instead, enjoy these other pics and video.










This video makes me laugh so hard!





2. Dominoes!

This became a family game several hundred years ago (ok not that long, but it seems like we've played it forever....and to play the game takes...FOREVER!)


Here's Lindsay showing us her horrible domino. Dang, look at all those dots!



And here's Sammy being weird.



All of us enjoying our game.



And here's me, rising victorious after four solid hours of intense dominoes. Don't mind the manic expression on my face...it was a long night.


3. Ticket to Ride!

This is a new family favorite board game. For those of you who haven't played, it is a good time. We got the game for my dad's Christmas present this year and had fun playing it with him on Christmas Eve.






4. Wii!

Another thing we enjoy when we're at my dad's house. You can get a good workout from it! My dad has this game called "Rayman" that is so hilarious. You perform a series of small competitions like washing underwear until it's clean, but if you scrub too hard it shreds. And whoever has the most points at the end wins. It sounds rediculous, I know, but it's really funny.I love our expressions in this picture. We take our Wii very seriously. Below, Brandt and Craig are dukin' it out with boxing. Brandt was sweating hard core after this. Intense!

5. Guesstures!

We LOVE this game. Brandt got it from his aunt as a high school graduation present and since then we have had so much fun with it. Whenever we go on family vacations we make sure to bring it along. Over break we played it with both of our families. Brandt got the word "laxative" and I nearly died. It was so funny because neither me nor his mom (his teammates) could guess the right word. We kept throwing out "constipated!", "diarhhea!", "enema!", but "laxative" just escaped us.




6. Exercise Ball Balance Challenge!

Not a 'tradition' per se, more just really funny. My mom thinks it's fun to see who can balance on her exercise ball the longest, so we have competitions. I know, we are very random people and are very easily entertained. It's kind of dangerous though because in an attempt to stay on longer you don't catch yourself, you just roll right off and you have to be careful not to hit your head.

So that is my list for now; I may add to it later if I think of more.

Book Review (sort of): Midnight Sun manuscript

Midnight Sun (manuscript)

by Stephenie Meyer

I was reading a friend's blog the other day and she mentioned how she had just finished reading Stephenie Meyer's manuscript of Midnight Sun, which is Edward's version of Twilight. I had no idea she was even working on the book - let alone that it was available to read. That's what this program does to me - I have no idea what's going on outside the walls of the dental hygiene buildings. Now that school is out for a few weeks I learn all kinds of neat things!

I guess several months ago the manuscript somehow was leaked and illegally posted on the internet. Stephenie was so upset about it that she put the project on hold indefinitely, yet put the entire manuscript on her website so that her fans could honestly view her work without looking for the illegal version. You can view her feelings about the book on her website. I thought that was really sweet of her to post the manuscript, especially since she really didn't want her fans to view it until it was complete. To respect her feelings, I planned to wait until it was published to read it and only clicked on the link to "look" at the first page or so and see how long it was...and I got sucked in and read the whole dang thing. I'm so sorry Stephenie! I couldn't help myself. I loved it! Even though it's just a rough draft, it's a very good one. At first I didn't think I would like it because it's basically the same story just from someone else's perspective which could get boring; but understanding Edward's point of view just makes the story that much more complete. I hope she decides to finish it someday so I can finish the story and add the book to my Twilight collection.

One thing I kept thinking as I was reading the manuscript is how I wish Stephenie had written the book before they made the movie "Twilight." That way, they could have meshed the two stories together for the movie. I was a little bit disappointed by the movie. I thought it was good...but could have been much better. Edward was always too intense and seemed mad all the time - I think reading Midnight Sun would have helped the actor play the part more convincingly. Hopefully with a new director and new insight plus a bigger budget the next one will be better.

Happy Birthday Kate!

Today is my niece, Katelyn's, first birthday! Party time!! Woot Woot :) I miss this little girl so much (and you too Linds ;) and cannot wait to see her for Christmas! Love you Kate - even though you probably have no idea what's going on, I hope you have a fantastic day!