Family Pics:]

This past year at BYU, these boys were my "family," aka, my FHE group for the year. We were VERY disfunctional at times, we had a fun year! These were the people we hung out with the most and spent most of our non school time with. They are all leaving on missions in the next few months and they will all be umm...amazin! Haha....so as one of our last fun things we took Family pictures! These pictures are like the epitomy of how our year has been - everyone doing their own thing, a suggestive comment {or two}, and lots of fun!

This is what half of our pictures look like!

Group Hug.....well sort of! As close as we are gonna get!

Me, Kacie, and Alix...the three girls :]

Yeah I don't even know what was goin on in this one!

Our "Mom" and "Dad" and the six kids :]

It was a great year! Now only six finals to take and next week at this time my mom and Taya will be up here to take us home!

There's A First For Everything!

I have nearly survived my first YEAR of college! Only 7 days of classes, two "reading" days, and then a week of Finals and I will no longer be a college Freshman! Woo hoo! I have had an amazing first year: good classes, grand adventures, and wonderful roommates! Me and my roommates have been awesome together! We have gotten along well and we have an excellent food system, if I do say so myself. We take turns cooking so we have meals together three times a week. The other days we are on our own. I love the days that we cook together, cause 1) I dont have to cook, 2) It is cheaper, and 3) It is legit food. We like never eat out either, but tonight we had an epiphany and decided to do something different for dinner. We ordered pizza and are having it delivered to our dorm! I know, I know, not that big of a deal, but this is the first time we have done it here and we all thought it was amazing that we all survived so long without doing this! We could have been having pizza on the weekends without ever living our dorm this whole year! Oh the things you forget about when your world becomes a little bubble in which the only things that exist are the places you can walk to.

Deliciousness...

Today all of my roommates and a bunch of guys we are friends with are going over to my roommate Kacie's house for dinner. The guys were in charge of a dessert (they made an apple pie that smelt DELICIOUS in the oven) and we were in charge of a dessert. I kind of got all over that one because I love to bake but haven't done much baking while up here. So I made this little beauty. The first layer is a giant chocolat chip cookie. This is followed by a layer of peanut butter flavored frosting. This is followed by a layer of chocolate cake. The entire thing is covered in chocolate frosting. And to top it off...Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Can you say YUM?! I am so excited to devour this thing - but I will restrain myself and share with everyone tonight. This is my little pride and beauty at the moment that is proudly being displayed on my kitchen table untill it is time to go. Take note - there is not one crumb or smear of chocolate on the platter. I may or may not have spent a good twenty minutes wiping the platter so as to match the presentation of the cake to the deliciousness of the cake :]

Conference Challenge

Yesterday in Sacrament meeting, my Bishop stood up and gave us all a challenge in leading up to Stake Conference next week and General Conference next month. He asked all of us, for the next five days, to read a talk from the October 2009 General Conference, write down our thoughts and feelings after reading the talk, and then email it to the member of the Bishopric we were assingned to. The Bishopric member will then respond to us with their response to the talk they had chosen to read for the day. This challenge was again emphasized by a member of the Bishopric during Relief Society. Today was the first day of that challenge -and I already love it!

I generally don't read Conference talks after Conference. Occassionally I might when I am bored, but generally it just isn't something that I make a priority to do. But today I decided to read the talk that I remembered the most from General Conference, and that was Elder Holland's talk entitled "Safety For The Soul." I loved reading this talk and being reminded of Elder Holland's undeniable testimony of the Book of Mormon. Here are the thoughts and feelings I had after reading the talk that I sent on to Brother Markham:

I was in the conference center when Elder Holland gave this talk. I remember a change occur in the feeling of the room when he began speaking. It seemed that everyone started listening more intently and they were truly absorbing what Elder Holland was saying. Elder Holland delivered this talk with such intensity, anyone who witnessed it could testify that he was speaking truth and bearing testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. Reading this talk nearly six months after I first heard, tears came to my eyes as I read Elder Holland’s words proclaiming that Joseph and Hyrum would not have died defending the Book of Mormon if it were not the word of God. While I was reading that paragraph of the talk, I kept thinking to myself “Would I be willing to die in defense of the Book of Mormon and in defense of my testimony?” And the answer to that is YES! I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Christ lives and that He died for me. That is something that I cannot deny, and I cannot imagine myself ever denying that. Elder Holland said, “For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history.” The Book of Mormon is one-hundred percent doctrine of Christ. It was not fabricated. It was written for us in this day and age. It was written for me. As Elder Holland said, I too want “it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true.” For me, this was one of the most powerful talks given at the last General Conference. This is the talk that I want to strive harder to live by, because I never want myself or anyone else to question my testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Book of Mormon.

I already love this challenge and it is only Day 1. It is going to be a wonderful week! :)

Totally worth it...

Wow....it has been awhile!! I don't really know where to start! A lot has been going on....but most of that has just been surviving life in general...Studying for midterms, working, doing homework, studying some more, watching 24, trying to have a social life without failing tests, and trying to sleep somewhere in there too! However I was able to have an amazing weekend last weekend without worrying about school, sleep or anything!

To begin this tale, I must turn back the calendar to October. About two weeks before Halloween, Kaitlyn and I were looking at flights to Phoenix to go home and surprise our family for the weekend. However flights were crazy expensive and we could not justify spending that much moeny when we would be going home in just a couple of weeks for Thanksgiving. So we gave up on that desire. About a week later though, Southwest had an amazing "DING" deal! $50 EACH way to Phoenix the whole month of January and the first week of February! We could not pass this opportunity up...and so we bought the tickets! Without telling anyone else.

Last Friday, Kaitlyn and I took off for the SLC airport after our classes. We went down to AZ for the weekend, BUT no one knew we were coming except for our oh so wonderful father! My dad told my mom that he had to pick up one of his friends from the airport so my mom went along with him for the ride. Lo and behold, when they pulled up to the curb, two beutiful young girls climbed into the backseat rather than one large man! My mom was a little shocked to say the least.

She kept accusing of us lying to her the whole week, but in actuality we told the truth (at least I did) and she just read more into it and put words in my mouth. For example, I told her I had gotten asked on a date for Saturday night. I NEVER said I had accepted, I just told her I had gotten asked. :]

When we got back to the house, my parents went in the garage and me and Kaitlyn went to the front door. We rang the doorbell and a few minutes later Mataya opened the door. I wish I had had a camera and had taken a picture of her face when she saw us. Her eyes were huge and she wouldn't fully open the door. We said "Hi Mataya" all sweet and excited....and she said "Hi" quick and fast. It was hilarious.

Noah's reaction was total opposite...he ran to us screaming and literally jumped into Kaitlyn's arms! Wyatt was....well Wyatt. He did give me a hug though!

All in all, the weekend was a complete success! I didn't have to pay to do laundry, someone else fed me, I slept wonderfully, and I got to spend time with my most favority people on earth!

It was totally worth it!

didn't take any pics the entire weekend though...

Disneyland...Here I Come!

As an avid Disneyland obsessor (my family has had season passes twice and not having gone in a year and a half this is the longest it's been in a long time without going to the Happiest Place on Earth) I am a frequent visitor of their website. Last year they let everyone into the park for free on their birthday...didn't make it on my birthday though. This year they are doing "Give a day, get a Disney Day!" All you have to do is sign up with an organization through Disney and volunteer for a day! I signed up earlier this week for me and Kaitlyn to participate in Habitats for Humanity - we show up on a Saturday for 3 hours to help build a house and then we get a ONE day ONE park PASS to DISNEYLAND!!! My family is doing this in Arizona too, so come the end of this semester we will all be enjoying one anothers company in the Happiest Place on Earth that we all miss oh so much! YAY!! :)

Christmas!!

First of all, I officially survived my first semester of college!! Woohoo!! It ended not too horribly and as soon as finals were over I got myself out of Provo and into Arizona! Here are the highlights of my break and life at the moment:

I spent most of the break just hanging out with family and watching movies. One day I made sugar and gingerbread cookies for Santa with Mataya and her friend Sienna. I hadn't made sugar cookies in FOREVER! It was fun to decorate them and Mataya absolutely loved it. Christmas Eve was the traditional Rogers party this year at Sharon and Trey's. We had lots of fun and good food! We played this one that was a race between all of the families and this was the outcome of it:

The four brothers got to wear balloon antlers and sing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" to all of us! It was probably one of the funniest things I have watched in a long time! Mataya put on the antlers too - they were bigger than her!

We also acted out the Nativity with what few kids were there - we were missing tons of the kids this year! :( Mataya was so excited to be Mary, and Noah complained about having to be Noah but the whole time he was up there he was posing for everyone!



The night ended with a visit from Santa. It wouldn't be Christmas Eve party if Emily and I didn't sit on his lap, so we got our traditional picture together!

Christmas Eve, the five of us kids all watched A Christmas Story in Kaitlyn's room and had a sleepover in there - Mataya claims it is tradition although this was only our second year doing it. Christmas morning came nice and early! I got an enV3 from Santa, some books and movies, and my grandparents got some of my quilts quilted and bound for me! The rest of Christmas was spent watching movies at my grandparents with all of the Hatch family.

Also over break, Noah turned 8 years old! How crazy is that?! He was baptized the day after his birthday and so many friends and family came to support him. My mom wanted a picture of him to put on the table at his baptism so me and Noah had a little photo shoot in our backyard. I think this boy is going to be a model! He was coming up with all sorts of poses and ideas of places to take pictures because he "liked the colors of the plants"! Here is a taste of his GQ photoshoot :)

It was so nice to be home and be able to relax, have my laundry done, and food provided for me! The semester has started again and I think it will be a bit harder than last semester, but I am excited for just about all of the classes I am taking and actually want to take them!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! :D