Christmas Eve Dinner

As most of you know, it is tradition in my house to have our big Christmas Feast on Christmas Eve. That way we can just be lazy Christmas day and eat leftovers. Every year we use some of our best china and make everything look beautiful! Well since my mom has been really sick the past few months we had to do everything very simple so she would not over work her heart. This picture will show you just how simple we did things. As a note to my siblings, I hope your jaws do not drop to the floor because you will not believe that Mom actually let us do this!

Yes, no need to double look, we used paper plates and plastic everything else! In the end I was really glad because I was on dish duty Mom added her touch with the Chicken napkins that she got in Europe this summer. Here is a picture of our whole "counter" (dad had the table stacked with student papers)


After eating dinner Danny read to us the Christmas story from two Bibles he got in Georgia. It was interesting to hear. Then we read it out of our Bible. Then we all got together and watched The Karate Kid.

Mom and Danny are making sure the marshmallows on the yam's don't burn!

Fishing

Shannon, Mom, Me

My favorite is the windblown hair.

Yes, Mom caught this fish! isn't he BIG?

My fishie right after I got him out of the water. I don't think he could see me in my sweet camo coat

Today I went fishing with my mom and Shannon on my lunch break. (it was a loong lunch) We caught 4 fish total. We each caught our own. It was really fun but I wish we would have had a man there to do all the dirty work. My favorite part of the trip was the end. My mom hadn't caugh a fish yet and she was sad. She said it was her last cast so I could get back to work. Well, what do you know? She caught one!!! She was so happy. It was worth all the freezing to see my mom's face. Next time I will have to out fish Shannon, that is my goal. I miss the day's of fishing with my dad during the summer.


Mom and me at the end of a FREEZING "lunch"

Thanksgiving Week

Me and Danny


The Gals

Thanksgiving was really fun. My sister Teresa came up with her family and stayed the week. On Thursday my aunt Jaquie and her grandkids came, also a few college students. We ate lots of food but had even more laughs. We played games and watched movies. You know you are at the Mortensen house when at least one child (my siblings or me) is on the floor laughing, and you know they are having a BUNCH of fun when three of them are rolling on the floor at the same time! Yes, Danny, Teresa, and I all ended up on the floor. My poor mom, I bet she wonders what went wrong with us. We played some really good games of Scrabble.
Mom was so tired: our wicked awesome Scrabble game

My poor mom slammed her hand in the van door. I felt so bad for her! It is blue and green. Good thing she is strong. Teresa and I tried making up some new walks. I wish that Coralee and Karl could have been here to celebrate with us, but they had fun at their places. I just want to tell my friends and family that I am so thankful for them and I love them! Thanks for all that you do!


Kylee & Roni after making up some walks

I have been TAGGED!

My friend Samantha tagged me in her blog. What I had to do was go into my photos, then go to my 4th folder and post the 4th photo. Well, in my 4th folder i had 5 folders so I am posting the 4th picture from folder 1 and folder4. Hopefully you understand that.


This happens to be one of my favorite pictures of my dad. We were in Boise at a surprise anniversary party for my sister Coralee. Her husband was surprising her with a trip to Hawaii. Peyton was having a hard time so my dad was trying to comfort him. He would need to get used to us because we were going to watch him and his 3 brothers for the next 10 days! This photo really touches me because you can see the tender loving part of my dad and Peyton is just cuddling to him.


This picture makes me laugh! It was taken during my first semester at BYU-I. I was wearing Arthella's (my roommate) wig and glasses. Everyone who sees this picture says I look like I am 12. They do not believe that I was 18, but its true! Even my own brother Karl didn't think it was me. I had to send him other photographs from the same day so that he knew it was me. I think I should buy me a wig so I can pass as a 12 year old.

Thanks for tagging me Sam! Now I tag:

Holli Child
Jennifer Eckman
Jessie Dallon
Catherine Stewart

And for the rules...

Go to your 4th folder, pick the 4th photo and tell us about it!

A BRIGHT Idea

After the Delta Phi boys pranked us multiple times in a row we decided it was time to get them back. So after much thought we decided to steal all of their light bulbs. Now, we wanted to get every last one so we recruited Danny's help. We needed a male to be able to pass the "Chastity Line", So today while they were all supposed to be in church we went over to their apartment. We took every light bulb we could. We even got the ones in their fridge and freezer. We tried getting the one out of the microwave, but we didn't know how. We made a sign that said "light bulbs for sale .10 cents" and put it on our door.


We also had a shoe box with only 4 bulbs in it. They were not very happy when they got home from Church to find they were in complete darkness. ( ; Also tonight my roommates and I set up our Christmas Tree that I stole from my parents house. We didn't have anything to decorate it with so we used fake Gerber Dasiys that were on our table. We also accented it with some of the "stolen" light bulbs. Lets just say it is a very unique Christmas Tree.

I don't think anyone has a tree like ours

A little Surprise at work

Kylee Bug and Roni wearing "nerd" glasses

Thursday my mom drove down to Provo to babysit Kylee while Teresa and Dustin went to Las Vegas for an anniversary weekend. I was pretty sad that I couldn't go because I had to work. Well Friday at work I was busy sorting my papers and Jake (guy in my office) starts laughing, so I look up. I thought I saw my moms head in the door but thought better of it because she was in Utah. I go back to my paperwork and I hear a little girl laughing so I look up and Kylee is running towards me! I was so excited. Because I couldn't go to Provo my mom brought Provo to me! Kylee gave me her school picture to put on my desk so I can look at her everyday. Well, I left work the second I could and Kylee came to play with me at my apartment for a few hours. We built towers with Jenga blocks, ran around, and made Pumpkin muffins. They were good! Today I went out to my house and Kylee and I played with Scarcrow, an adopted cat. He really made me sneeze! Kylee also thought it was fun to fold us up in the hospital bed that moves with a remote. I had lots of fun. Thanks for bringing Kylee up mom! Okay, to be honest mom didn't bring her just for me. Dustin thought Kylee would have more fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house, but I can pretend right?

This is the Hospital bed we were folded in. We are almost bent in half. Can you tell?

Halloween

Nerd Herd

Erin, Catherine, Roni, Tiana, Rebecca, and Michelle

Halloween this year was awesome! For work I was one of the Halloween Costume Contest Judges so I dressed up like Judge Judy. I had a wig and everything. Then I went to my apartment and my roommates and I dressed up like Cute Nerds. We were all part of the Nerd Herd. We were pretty cute if I say so myself. Catherine and I took a dozen pictures of us. We all went to the "Haunted" Straw maze with some of our friends. It was pretty scary. Our group got separated in the middle of it and Erin and I got our picture taken with a scary dude on stilts.

Bailey and me; Erin, Creepy stilts guy, me; Catherine and me

We went back to our apartment and Jason thought it was pretty funny to scary me. I was so mad! We all frosted sugar cookies and goofed around. It was the best Halloween ever! Lets just say we might be "nerds" again!

Me, Jason's tie, and Jason at the Straw maze; Catherine and I being "nerds"

This photo is bacause my mom demanded I have a Judge Judy shot up

Off-roading

Okay, I just have to say that I am officially in LOVE with JEEPS!!! Thanks to Jason Dayley. This semester he has taken me on some really awesome off roading trails. Friday Jason and his brother Justin took my roommates and me to the "mountains". Jason had the Jeep and Justin had the Four-runner. Of course we could do a lot more trails in the jeep. A few times I was a little nervous that we wouldn't make it out alive. ( = we stopped and had a nice picnic. We were having some fun and Jason ended up getting us high centered on a trail. Justin was a little ways ahead of us so he didn't know. We tried to get out but we had to wait till Justin realized we were stuck and come pull us out. We thought he might just leave us to fend for ourselves. They had all the food and no one had cell phone service. Saturday night Jason took some of us down to the river bottoms and rabbit hunting. We only saw one rabbit so we just ended up shooting guns into a log. We plan on going again after we carve our Halloween pumpkins so we can have some target practice on them. Lets just say I might have to buy myself a jeep if I ever get rich and famous and need another vehicle for fun!
Catherine, Tiana, and me are in the Jeep while Jason sees how bad he got stuck

New York

I spent the last week in New York visiting my brother Karl and his family. I had so much fun! I got to play with two of my nephews and have many laughs with Karl and Natalie. Natalie taught me some new recipies to make for my roommates and we did a fun craft. One afternoon we went to a Pumpkin Farm. It was so neat! they had thousands of pumpkins. You just went out in this huge field and picked the ones you wanted and they were only $2.00. They also had a little petting zoo type place. Calvin had lots of fun and William got to ride in the Wheel barrol. We also spent a day in Niagra Falls. It was so beautiful! I would recomend seeing it to anyone! We had a lot of fun getting through security at the border. They sure ask a lot of questions! I was also able to see the New York Temple and visit The Sacred Grove. It was such a wonderful and calming feeling. We played the game Life a few times. Unfortenetly I only won once. I seemed to come in last every time! Calvin and I also got to go flying from a mishap that happened on their new slide we put up. Thank goodness we only ended up with a few cuts and bruises. New England is so beautiful in the fall! I would never get sick of all the pretty sights. I am so glad I had the chance to visit my family!

Just Married- not me

My roommates and I were very sad that we didn't have the glorious end to our prank that we thought we would get. Good thing girls know how to cook up plans! We decided to "Just Married" all the boys in apartment #8. It was glorious! We were able to fingure out what everyone drove (with a little help) so Saturday night we snuck over to Delta Phi with window markers, empty pop cans, string, balloons, tape, Oreo's, and crete paper. We wrote on all their car windows and strung pop cans from the back bumper, put cookie halfs on their windows, balloons in their cars. It was great! We almost got caught a few times but we were able to finish the job. The next day after church we drove by to see all our work. Jason had taken everything off his motocycle and drove it to church. All the other boys had riden in Taylor's car. Well Michelle and I decided to get Jason's Motorcycle again. Tiana, Michelle, and I waited in Tiana's car for Jason to come out of church and see it. He was shocked! He couldn't believe we got it again, but he just got on and drove it home. As we were following Jason home Taylor was driving behind us. As all the boys were having fun, getting honked at, and eating cookies off the windows (little did they know Michelle had licked them all!) Taylor got pulled over! We witnessed the whole thing. We thought we would have to pay for a ticket because we decorated his car. Taylor didn't have his licence on him, no insurance, and his registration expired two years ago! And he didn't even get a ticket!!! I still don't know how he pulled that one off. He came over to our apartment and told us thanks for making his 22nd time getting pulled over such a great story. He is now on number 23 and only has 1 ticket on record. The "great" 8 have declaired war on #205 so we are watching our backs... and jumping at every noise.

PrAnKs

Well, as we all know it college towns are full of practical jokers. Erin Clifford, Catherine Stewart, and i went to go visit some of our guy friends from our old college ward. (Catherine and Erin are some roommates) No one was home but their front door was wide open. Now Justin and Jason have lived in the same apatment for a long time and they have this huge Barbie head that sits on top of their TV. They get mad if anyone touches her. Being the mischievous college girls that we are, we decided to take it! So we snuck out with Shenaynay (yes they even named her). The next day all the boys from the apartment come looking for her. We are not the only ones they accused. I think they accused every girl that lives in the Brooklyn Apartments. They were searching the front room closets and everything. They claim they couldn't live without her. A few nights later we blindfolded her and took pictures of her being held captive. We anonymously delivered the pictures with a ransom/demand letter. We demanded a song, dance, and Jason's yummy cookies. The next night we met them in the park. Only half of them were there. Being the naive college girls we are we didn't think anything of it. They had no cookies for us and were "pretending" they had air support to get us back. When we got back to Tiana's car my keys had been stolen! I has so mad! We got back to the apartment to decide what to do to get them back and they had trashed it! All 6 of us girls were screaming which ended up with some concerned neighbors. So we put all the food back in the fridge and marched over to Delta Phi #8 to get our stuff back. We ended up getting the demanded song because they sang "We are the Champions" while we were doing our walk of shame back home.

Sea Side

Last month I went on vacation with my dad. We drove up to Walla Walla, Washington to see my sister Coralee's house. We drove a girl to Boise that needed a ride. Now I don't want to be mean but she was kind of... stupid? about 40 minutes into the trip she turns to me and asks, "so what are all of the fields for?" I about died! I laughed and said, "Have you ever heard of a farmer?" she nods her head and says, "but do they really need all these empty fields?" I am so glad I am smarter than that! I am glad for the laugh though. I had so much fun hanging out with my sister and we had a pampering day. We even got gel maskes that help you relax. Late one night my dad even made me shave his head. He looks different without hair. We all drove down to Sea Side, Oregon and stayed in a resort. I had so much fun playing on the beach and watching my nephews. Coralee and I had panic attackes everytime Michael Phelps swam a race in the Olympics. Yes, watching Michael was one of the highlights in the trip. We went to Tillamook, Oregon and toured the Cheese Factory. The drive back to Rexburg was the worst! It took 14 hours and the roads are not straight. Mort and I were so tired that Coralee thought we were going to die on the way home. She called us and we were so giddy! My dad is a dork and when we ate lunch he had chips all down his shirt! thank goodness we made it home safely at 2 am!