Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving was another hit this year with lots of good food, family, movies, and fun. I love this time of year. Getting together with family (and taking a break from school of course!) and spending time reminiscing about when we kids were younger, hearing about when our parents were younger, and just laughing in general.
Here are a few pics of our time together...

Mom and Aunt Sandy
Grandma Snelson and me
Jill and Blake
Uncle Lauren and Aunt Janet
Uncle Rodney and I playing cards
Uncle Rodney pouring the champagne
Toasting to the newly engaged couple
Newly engaged
His napkin... "bold move" ...haha
The good kids washing dishes
Those NOT washing dishes
The "kids" table
Mom and me
Aunt Sandy, Jill, and Blake
Proof that Jill washed a dish
The men out golfing
Aunt Sandy and Uncle Rodney

Congratulations!

So my cousin Jill and her boyfriend Blake are now officially engaged! I'm so excited for them! He surprised her last night with roses and cards filled with her favorite quotes about love and memories of their time together (they have been together exactly 1 year now...how cute is that?!) and the final card said that he had a special question to ask her, and when she looked up from the card he was down on one knee. They are flying in to visit for Thanksgiving and I'm so excited to take their engagement pictures while they're here! I'll post them soon :)

Ticked Pink...

A few of the reasons I am so happy right now:

1- I am now officially on Thanksgiving Break!

2- It's snowing outside!

3- I'm sitting in the library drinking warm tomato soup.

4- I've recovered from my hangover from last night's frivolities.

5- I will be participating in more frivolities tonight!

6- I'm going to see "Quantum of Solace" at 5:25 tonight!

7- There are only 4 more days until I will eat myself into a coma!

8- I have only three weeks left of school until I graduate!

Life is good.

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it. ~Jacques Prévert

Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. ~Palmer Sondreal

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. ~Mark Twain

If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time. ~Edith Wharton

So close...

Thanksgiving is just around the corner!
I'm so excited to see all my family (minus Jed, Danielle, and Joie sadly) for the holiday. Ever since we were kids we have been getting together with my Dad's side of the family for the holiday, rotating between our house and my two aunt's houses in Seattle and Longview. This year is my parent's turn, and the first holiday to be spent at their new house on the golf course. I'm looking forward to turkey, pumpkin pie, laughter, wine induced giggles, and Christmas movies.
My family is big on traditions and there are certain things that just have to happen for Thanksgiving - and family is number1!
Firstly, the day before Thanksgiving my Aunt Janet starts her baking projects with pies to die for, and gingerbread cookies that are almost too cute to eat! My aunt is an amazing baker, and the holidays wouldn't be the same without a slice of her apple pie. During the day while my Aunt Janet (and usually my mom and Aunt Sandy too) is baking, my Uncle Rodney and I start a game of gin. Years ago he taught me how to count cards and play a number of card games, and although I'm not good at it, its so much fun to sit and play with him. He is an amazing person with an abundance of life experience and is a joy to talk to. Around our 30th hand of gin (seriously!) my Uncle Lauren joins in- we always invite him to begin with, but I think he enjoys just watching for a little while. Once he joins in, it seems to spread that card games are fun and we soon have an entire (or almost entire) family tournament with group solitaire or hearts, spades, or zero going on. We have too much wine to drink and too many sweets to eat and we are all happy, and content, and having fun. On Thanksgiving day the cooking frenzy begins bright and early. My mom and aunts have been forcing my cousin Jill (she only 9 months younger than me) and I since we were little to help with the cooking, but they usually get frustrated with our "laziness" halfway through the morning and we're free to spud with the boys until its time to set the table.
Thanksgiving is a day for movies! We have our traditional ones that we watch when we get together like "Joe Dirt" (yes I'm serious) and "My Cousin Vinny" and we usually rent a few hit blockbusters too. My cousin Jill's (now boyfriend) Blake has a serious DVD burning issue and always supplies us with TONS of DVDs to choose from. (oh my gosh, I just realized that this Thanksgiving will be the first that Jill and Blake will be together. for years Blake has been attending our family Thanksgivings as one of the family since he has been close to my cousin's family for ever, and we have been telling those two that they need to get together, and now they are!) The day after Thanksgiving we have to watch two movies "Home Alone" and "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation"- these movies are our traditional kickoff to the Christmas season!
Anyway... as you can probably tell, this time of year is my favorite. I am very excited to partake in family fun and tradition. The food, the smells, the fun, the laughter...
Ahhhhh, the holidays...
gotta love it!

Am I dreaming...

Or is David singing this song just for me?

If not, don't tell me. I'm enjoying my little dreamworld :)

Grinning like a fool...

So maybe it stems from being lonely, but most likely from watching my favorite movie of all time "Bridget Jones' Diary" tonight, but I wanted to post a compilation of some of my favorite males. Haha, random I know, but I'm wasting time online tonight, and it seemed at least semi-productive at the time I started this project.

Here are a few of my favorite gorgeous and farking hott men :)

David Cook

Colin Firth


Johnny Depp

Gerard Butler

Daniel Craig

Christian Bale

And here is the culmination of them all... Colin Firth and coffee... my two favorite things:

Some great scenes from a great movie:

Over it...

I hate how when I get stressed over something, everything else seems to affect me 20 times harder, and it's impossible for me to let go of the little things. I'm so stressed with school right now, and I'm trying so hard to keep going and not let anything drop. This semester is by far the toughest that I have had so far. I have so much to do in the short time before graduation. The knowledge that I will be so proud of myself for accomplishing this degree, and getting through in spite of all the obstacles I have had to overcome, is the motivation that is getting me through.
I bought my cap, gown, and tassel today, and it was so exciting to try them on in the Bookstore. In some ways I can't believe that it's actually going to happen. All of my family (minus Jed, Danielle, and Joie- because they need to be home with the baby) will be there, and a lot of my friends too. It makes me feel so good and special to know that my graduation accomplishment means so much to my friends and family. I can't wait to celebrate with everyone and enjoy my freedom from the bonds of homework! :)

Presenting...

Miss Joie Lynn Snelson! I know I'm biased because she's my niece, but she really is the most perfectly beautiful baby ever!

Save the ta-tas...

I was in the mall a few weeks ago and saw this hat that had "Save the Ta-Tas " written on it (for breast cancer awareness) and I had to have it! What a great cause, and a super fun way to get the message out... not to mention the fact that the proceeds, of course, benefit breast cancer research. Tre'Von loves to pull whatever hat I'm wearing off of my head and wear it himself. When he was walking around the house with it on, I HAD to take his picture! Later on I was wearing the hat again and Tai'Lan tried to pull it off my head, so I put it on him too :)

I love Saturdays...

It was rainy outside so we had our photo shoot inside yesterday :) The boys were just being themselves, running around and being kids and I caught some moments with my camera. Here are some of my favorites:

She's Here!

Well folks, Joie Lynn Snelson was born yesterday! She is 8lbs, 3oz, and 20 inches long of pure perfection!! My poor sister-in-law was in labor for 16 hours! But she's a trooper and we now have our first addition to the extended Snelson family :)
Jed is going to be sending pictures as soon as things settle down, and then I will be posting them continually :) I have one picture that was sent by text, but unfortunately I have no way of getting it from my phone to the computer, so until then, just know that she is gorgeous with a full head of black hair - she takes after mom, me, and Jed in that respect.

Pure Delight...

I love when you put a lot of work and stress into something, and then it all pays off in the end. I have been working on a group project for a couple of weeks on the book "Evelina," and today we presented. We totally rocked it! The teacher congratulated us three times, and told us that we did an awesome job :) I had a natural high for hours after that today.

A Little Sad, but Hopeful...

So I was really hoping that my next post would be telling everyone that I am an aunt to a very cute and very sweet newborn girl, but alas, she was not born on her due date. I spoke with Jed last night, and he said that Danielle has not had any contractions yet, and the doctors think it may be a couple more weeks before Joie is ready to grace us with her presence. (I think she's a little like her aunt and likes to be fashionably late in order to draw attention to herself) Danielle doesn't want to have any drugs for the birth, so she does not want to be induced. We're all praying that a drug-free birth is possible for her, I know its really important to her.

Fingers crossed that Joie Lynn graces us with her presence soon!!

Halloween Night...

So every year in the past I have HATED Halloween and not looked forward to it coming, but have looked forward to it being over. But not this year. This year I had kids to take Trick-or-Treating! Melisa had to work that night, so we took the boys out early, and then I babysat while she dressed up and went to work. I had such a good time. The boys were pumpkins and super cute of course! We started out at their uncle Rick's (my best friend Richard) house and then headed downtown to hit the big houses in the North End. There were so many kids! It was a good time though. I can't wait to have my own kids to take Trick-or-Treating someday.

Trick-or-Trick Uncle Rick!


Tai was so excited for candy!


The whole gang (minus me)- my friend Saira and her boyfriend Mike came with us too.


Melisa and her beautiful pumpkins... I mean boys :)

Lazy Sunday...

So I have soooo much to do this weekend (homework galore!) but haven't gotten around to doing ANY of it! arghh!

Instead of doing my homework today, I decided to do laundry and clean my room, which was a nice thing to accomplish anyhow. While cleaning my room Melisa (my roommate) wanted to take a nap so I told her that I would watch the boys for her. Tai'Lan needed a bottle, but I didn't have the playpen or crib in my room, and I didn't want him to roll off the bed, so I created a little bed in my laundry basket :) He loved it! He finished his bottle and went right sleep, but not
before his brother decided to climb in with him...After his brother decided to climb back out...He finished his bottle...

And went right to sleep :)

Time Flies...

Wow, is it really November 1st already?! Where has this year gone? I always find it interesting that until around July, I don't take notice of how quickly the months are passing, but once we hit school starting in August I'm thinking "where are my days going?"! These days the days are definitely going to school and work. But for once, I'm completely OK with that. I am more busy than ever this semester with presentations and research papers due each week, and hundreds of pages to read, but I'm realizing that the next 6 weeks of school are all I have left of my career as a an undergrad student. Now don't get me wrong, I'm more excited than ever that that's the case, but I'm really trying to enjoy the time that I have left.

I'm going to be an aunt soon! I'm so excited that Jed and Danielle are going to have their first baby in just a few days (well, her due date is just a few days anyhow- I guess we'll see if baby Joie is on time) and that I'm going to be an aunt for the very first time! I'm hoping to get down to SoCal to see them all soon after I graduate. That's the only bitter-sweet thing about my niece's birth - they live so far away! I guess it will give me an excuse to visit the sunny coast a little more often though :)