Finding it hard to believe...

...that 2008 is nearly over.

I know that this is a bit premature, but I was reflecting on the many things that 2008 brought with it and I thought I'd share a few of the major events in my life during 2008.

January:

-I rang in the year 2008 with Morgan at Polar Ice.
-Brad turned 19.
-I went to Utah with Morgan's family. I lost my travel card and got to drive back with Morgan and her mom. We drove through Vegas and I got my foot ran over, which was one of the most hilarious things that has happened this year. No worries, my foot was fine. In Vegas, I saw the Bellagio for the first time. How is it that I hadn't been to Vegas in that long?

-I started my sixth semester at ASU and I started interning with Shelley at Towne Meadows. So fun!
-Brad turned in his papers and received the Melchezedec priesthood.
-President Hinckley passed away.

February:

-I went to Vegas with my mom and Brad for 5 hours one day because we were bored.

-I got stuff for Valentines Day.
-I went to Disneyland with my mom.
-President Monson became our prophet.
-I had a little longboarding accident. It was nothing major, but I still have the scars to prove it. Yikes!
-I went to an awesome 80s party.
-I got called to work in the nursery.

March:

-Jennifer's birthday- I watched the kids. So fun! :)
-Landon's 1st birthday- We had desserts at Jen's.
-Spring break (Disneyland!)
-Easter- which was apparently "pretty low key" according to my journal.... whatever that means.

April:

-Lexie's birthday- She had a combined party with Landman and it was a BLAST!
-I went to Disneyland and saw the Alexanders and the Colemans there!

May:

-We took Brad to the MTC.
-The semester ended!
-Learning Safari graduation. My kiddos were so cute!
-Disneyland with Morgan

June:

-I started my two summer jobs: Swimming lessons, Learning Safari
-Disneyland with Alexis, Landon, and Jen. Jesse and fam were there as well as Morgan and fam.
-Havasupia with my dad. So so so so fun.
-San Diego for Kjerstin's shower. What a fun trip!

July:

-4th of July- We watched fireworks with the Alexanders. It was very fun.
-My "last" Disneyland trip before my annual pass expired. I went with my mom.
-Cabin Trip
-Natasha's wedding (I was a bridesmaid.)
-I got a new phone and a new number.

August:

-Sean's birthday
-Semester #7 started
-California trip- I saw Wicked again with Sage and the beach with the McCleves. It was way fun.
-The Olympics took over my life.
-Cabin Trip #2

September:

-Tanner came home.
-I went to Utah twice to visit Tanner.
-I started interning at Hull Elementary in 2nd grade.

October:

October was a crazy month. Can we leave it at that? ;) Naw, here we go:

-October 8th was a big day for me. Most of you know why.
-My birthday. It was interesting. I turned 22. I got to have lunch at Gecko's with my wonderful family. I got some awesome, awesome gifts from family and friends. I had dinner with some of my most favorite people. :)
-I went to Disneyland with friends, after planning and organizing the trip most of the year. My mom jokes that I had my first true experience as a parent because despite your best efforts, it's inevitable that at least one person won't enjoy the trip. :)
-My cute cousin, Elise, got her mission call to Sweden!
-Halloween - I went to a party at the Ellis household and to the ASU institute dance with Elise and some other friends. It was very fun.

November:

-I went to Utah for one day to hang out with Sage.
-Dad's birthday
-I watched Jen and Sean's kids
-Thanksgiving - We had it at our house for the first time in my life. It was nice.
-I went on a couple of dates. They were fun.

December:

-I went on a few more dates. Fun fun!
-My last semester of actual classes ended.
-Mom's birthday- Disneyland of course!
-I got my student teaching placement at Canyon Rim and met my teacher and future students!
-My sweet Aunt Marianne passed away and I was able to attend her funeral. It was beautiful.
-Christmas parties, which are always fun. There were so many this year! :)
-Christmas! I will blog more about this later, but it was a fabulous Christmas!

So, overall, 2008 was quite the year. I read tons of books, I went to Disneyland a lot, I taught dozens of children, I worked on countless lesson plans, projects, presentations, etc. for school, I attended some wedding receptions and a funeral, I gained a few friends and lost a few friends too, I felt lots of joy and a little heartache, I learned lots about myself and about life, I attended institute and loved it, I went to lots of YSA things and didn't hate them, my testimony grew, and hopefully I grew as a person. I'm excited to see what 2009 brings!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I hope to see pictures soon! I'll blog more about Christmas sometime this week.

Happy New Year! Have a safe one!

Christmastime

This past Saturday, I spent the day in Disneyland. I know, shock of all shocks. We had a great time even though it was crowded as all get out. For more pictures, click here.

In other news, Christmastime is turning out to be pretty awesome. So many little miracles have happened in my life recently. Perhaps our first Christmas miracle was this little incident:

Yes. Our Bethlehem village had a bit of an accident. So why it this a miracle? Well, for one, we were able to retrieve and fix every piece. Well, almost. One girl has a chunk missing from her wrist, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. (Haha, she's actually a beggar too. Ha.) Okay, but anyways, I had fun performing surgery all night and listening to my mom make sacrilegious comments.

On a more serious note, I got my student teaching placement! I'm headed to Canyon Rim Elementary, home to the Cougars. I'll be in a 2nd grade classroom and I'm very, very excited! I start January 5th. Wish me luck!

It's become clear to me that miracles happen every day. Life gets crazy and things can seem pretty bleak at times. But I don't believe the Lord ever closes one door without opening another. I'm pretty excited about everything that has been happening in my life and about all the daily miracles I experience.

As Christmas draws closer, let's remember all the miracles we experience. And most importantly, let's remember why we celebrate this day. Because of a small, humble miracle. The birth of a baby boy in a manger in Bethlehem.

I love you all. Merry Christmas!

Smiles

I have a lot of things to be thankful for. A lot of things make me smile every single day. Here are just a few things that made me smile this week:

My family

Friends

The gospel

Playing Clara Barton in a Social Studies lesson plan one of my peers presented. Haha!

WALL-E

Waking up to Landon saying "Emmmm-eeeee!"

Leaving "my" room to find Lexie sitting in the hall, staring at my door, waiting for me to come out and then hearing her say, "Yay! Emily's awake! I didn't even have to pester you!"

Subbing at the preschool and seeing many of my former kiddos.

Grant telling me that I can still come to his birthday party, even though I'm a girl. (Grant is 4. His birthday is not until April)

Knowing that my cute little brother is going to be fed on Thanksgiving.

The Office

Marcus (the "island boy" in my intern classroom... I'll have to explain what "island boy" means I guess. :) ) calling me over to help him, then explaining that he really didn't need any help, he "just wanted attention." (Okay, so one of my professors always talked about "island boy/girl" and he explained it like this: "You know when you walk in a classroom and everyone is sitting in these cute little pods or tables or three or four desks or maybe even long rows? And then there's that one kid who's sitting all by himself in some forsaken corner? Most teachers call him the trouble student, but I like to call him island boy." I found it humorous and use it all the time now.)

Institute

Text messages

Really good jazz music

Pandora (Thanks, Sage! I'm totally hooked now!)

Finishing The Grim Grotto, Book the 11th of A Series of Unfortunate Events

Cheesy forwarded emails

Playing mom for the weekend

And so much more!

Finally

Wow, so my blog is finally up! It still needs work... lots of work... but it is at least up, right? So in the spirit of all things Disney, here are some pictures of my most recent Disneyland trip.

So, Disneyland in October rocks. I LOVE Halloweentime at Disneyland. We drove up early Thursday morning. Morgan and I went to the park on Thursday afternoon at about 3. California Adventure closed at 5 that night because of something to do with High School Musical 3, so we hit that first. It wasn't crowded and we had a blast. Then we headed over to Disneyland until it closed at 8. (Curse you, High School Musical 3: The One Where the Actors Are Way Too Old to be High School Students) But for only 5 hours at the parks, we got quite a bit done. It was fun!

On Friday, Morgan, Britt, Tanner, and I went to Disneyland. We got there about twenty minutes before the park opened. Usually, there is a line halfway to California Adventure by this time. So we were pretty shocked when NObody was there. We thought we got the time wrong and were there an hour and twenty minutes before the park opened. But I guess we were just lucky! We were the FIRST people in line, which has never happened to me before and probably never will again. It was awesome. Tanner had NEVER been to Disneyland, so it was a great first experience for him! Friday was probably the best Disneyland day I've had in ages. The park was totally dead and by noon, we had gone on just about everything. Including Peter Pan. It was a Disneyland miracle. AND we still had about 6 fastpasses to use for later. So we headed over to California Adventure. It was a very, very productive Disney day. We hit all the big rides at least twice pretty much. It was great.

Saturday, Whitney and Jesse joined the group. It was much more crowded, but still fun.

The pictures below are not in order and I'll have to add more later, but for now... enjoy!

Oh Disneyland, you never fail to make me laugh. You don't merely provide me with a hilarious outfit to make fun of. You give me TWO hilarious outfits to make fun of.

Whitney's favorite ride! (I thought I was the only one crazy enough to think this ride is entertaining!)

Billy Hill!

Jesse was not too happy to be a subject in this one.

Ew. I HATE teacups. But Jess and Morgan had fun. :)

Don't they look excited?

Ok. So don't buy Walmart brand Ziplocks. Just don't. Trust me on this one. This is what they will look like after sitting in your backpack all day.

And this is what your backpack will look like. Oh joy.

We love to bring bubbles to Disneyland. It makes the lines much more enjoyable and the little kids LOVE it.

Antonio waiting for the train. I hadn't rode the train for YEARS. It was pretty entertaining.

Tanner getting ready to go on Grizzly.

I love this ride so much! Doesn't Morgan look stylish in her cool glasses?

Mission accomplished.

Woohoo, I win! (Barely)

The guys all love Morgan's attractive new smile!

Aw, precious.

Tanner showing off his new style.

Nice....

Morgan and Tanner sharing a special moment.... haha. Just kidding.

Playing cards on Splash Mountain.

Continuing our card game on Tower of Terror. We're such cheaters!

Tanner's first ToT experience. We thought we'd share the love.

Tanner's first REAL rollercoaster. Ever. You can't really see it, but Jesse is playing with a Rubix Cube, I'm reading, and Morgan is... well Morgan is a very nice person. Hehe.