Temple Square Lights with the Roomies!

I am convinced that I have the best roommates in the entire Universe!! Every single one of them are absolutely amazing. I love them all! This past Sunday (Dec. 11,2011), my roommates and I went up to Temple Square to see the Christmas Lights. Since all 6 of us went up, we had to ride in different cars. haha but since my little delorian is leaking gas it smells SO bad!! haha so everybody rode in the other car except for my dear Lindsey. I must say, that was probably the most exciting ride of my life! Nothing to crazy happened except for the fact that we felt high the whole ride up, slurring our words, and laughing uncontrollably. haha it was great!!!
It took us about 20 minutes to find a parking sport cause there were SO many people. We eventually found one and got to walk to Temple Square. It was Lindsey's first time seeing Temple Square during Christmas, so it was super fun!! The lights, as always, were INCREDIBLE!!! Every year I always look forward to seeing the floating candles in the reflection pond, the nativity scenes from all around the world, and the families walking around with their little children. There is such a special spirit that is always present whenever I go to Temple Square. It was such a great night to be with the roommates! We all had a fantastic time! I wish I could express just how much fun I had and what a testimony builder it was for me to go.
I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I feel SO blessed to be a member of this wonderful Church.

Thank you roommies for being so amazing!! I love all of you SO much!! Thank you for blessing my life with your smiles, laughs, support and love. I do not know where I would be without you guys. This semester was filled with laughter and adventure, thanks to you all. Seeing the Christmas lights with you guys now adds to the list of great memories I have with you all.
I love you all so much!!!

Tis the Season to be Jolly!!

Happy Holidays!!

It is officially December 1st and to celebrate, Lindsey and I took a lovely picture in the Chemistry TA lab. :) I also would like to thank Lindsey again for making my blog super cute looking. You are the best linds!!! Anyways, I absolutely love December! Not only does it mean school is out in two weeks, but that snow is coming!! I love snow, cuddling up in a nice warm blanket, drinking hot chocolate and watching a movie!!! Oh! and spending time with the family.
Life is great!!! :D

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It has been quite awhile since I have last posted on my blog. Life and school just got incredibly busy keeping me away from sharing my amazing experiences. Well to sum up the past 2 weeks, life has been absolutely amazing!! School is going great! I now have about 2 weeks till finals and then winter break. I just keep on telling myself to "Endure to the End" and it will all be worth it! So much fun stuff has happened and one of these days I will take time and post little blurbs about everything I have done. But as for now, I will just post about my wonderful Thanksgiving break!
It started Tuesday night (Nov. 22) hanging out with some very good friends Noelle Boss and Chad Harris. These two people are absolutely incredible!!! The next day, I got to see a friend of mine, JM Bercerra, whom of which I met while I lived in Argentina. My family hosted him for a basketball and volleyball SAAC tournament that was in Chile. I missed that kid so much! He came over from Boston to visit Austin Argyle for thanksgiving. So I hung out with them on Wednesday. Quick funny story...JM has never had a Wendy's frosty!! So I told him that it is a must to have a frosty, so I took him in my cute little spaceship (Ford escort). I'm honestly an incredible driver, but JM would say otherwise. haha that was such a great and funny experience!! I just couldn't stop laughing! JM I had such a fun time hanging out with you and hope to see you again my friend!
The next day was THANKSGIVING!!! Sooo much fun! My favorite cousins, Courtney and Nat, came down from Idaho! I absolutely love the Lusk family!! Instead of writing about everyday, I will just sum up everything we did. Every time the Jones's get together there is automatic laughter, games, smiling, adventures, etc. We call ourselves the Jonestroops! So here is just a taste for what we did this week! Thanksgiving football game (I pretty much could be the next Riley Nelson with my QB Skills), thanksgiving dinner, mad-gab, Foosball tournament, Black-Friday shopping, volleyball, racquetball, swimming, family slides (Susie: "am I a boy?"), ice skating at the Gallivan center, Joseph Smith movie, Temple square lights, and JcPenny Shopping. Wow! that was a mouthful to write. Thinking back on this fun holiday I can't help but feel for my family! I am constantly reminded on how important family is. Not only is family one of the central themes of the Church it is also one of the main things to have to fall back on. My family is and will always be there for me! I cherish the relationships that I have with my parents and siblings. I absolutely love them and pray that they know that. Below are some fun pictures to show what great fun that I had this thanksgiving break.

A Dream of Mine has been Fulfilled

Friday, Nov. 11, 2011

Today is 11-11-11!! And I must say, it was quite a fantastic day! We had a bridal shower for Stefanie and to make everything better Nate Smith called me telling me about some exciting news. Nate bought a green mini cooper! It has always been my dream to ride, drive or even stand by a Mini Cooper! Nate came stopped by the apartment and drove lyss and I around!! It was probably the best experience I have ever had! Nate even let me drive!! YES!!! I drove a mini cooper on 11-11-11!! And to make things better, it was a STICK SHIFT!! Driving that car was an amazing experience! The shifting was so smooth and the turning was incredible! I honestly can't describe how excited I was to drive a mini-cooper. A lifelong dream has been fulfilled!
Thank you Nate Smith!!!

Bridal shower for the Bride to Be!

Today my apartment and I held a bridal shower for the bride to be, Stefanie Barker. Stefanie is an amazing girl! I absolutely love her! We all made dinner together and hung out together! This was the first time that we all hung out together in a fun setting. Stefanie told us all about her sotry of meeting her fiance and how he proposed. To help celebrate the counting down till she gets married, we made a paper link-chain. On each strip Stefanie wrote what she loves about her fiance. It was so cute!!! I am so excited for you stefanie! I feel so privileged to have met you and call you my friend. You have been and will continue to be such an inspiration in my life. You live a life that I will pursue to live. thank you stef! I wish you the greatest with the new adventure you are about to enter.
I love you!!!

Day 11 and 12: I'm grateful for...

Day 11:

Today I am grateful for the weekend! This past week was absolutely exhausting! I had three tests and a paper. My body and brain were dead by the time Friday came. It was a great week, but exhausting.

Day 12:

Today I am grateful for eggnog! There is not greater drink than eggnog. Some of the greatest memories of my childhood involve eggnog! Eggnog only comes out at Halloween and Christmas. So, I only get to have it 2 times of the year! however, I have to be extremely careful because my holiday weight last year came from eggnog. So my goal this year is to enjoy drinking it, but be cautious at how much I drink.
There are two ways that I love to drink eggnog. The first way is pouring a little bit into a cup and drinking it plain. The second is pouring half eggnog and then adding milk for the other half. This second way of drinking eggnog my favorite!

Day 10: I'm grateful for....

Day 10: Today I am grateful for Greys Anatomy!!! I absolutely love watching this tv show! Every thursday at 8 pm my roommates and I all sit around the tv with our dinners and watch Greys. Today's episode was absolutely amazing!!!! I cannot wait till next week.

Day 9: I'm grateful for...

Day 9:

This morning I woke up to find out that a missionary, Trevor Strong a dear friend to so many, past away while serving an LDS mission. Today I am reminded of the love and strength that comes from the Lord. Today I am reminded of the importance of eternal families and how blessed I am to be apart of a religion where families can be eternal.
Trevor passed away in the service of the Lord, rescuing the souls who are so desperately trying to find peace and happiness in their lives. Trevor taught the people in Texas this message, that families can be together forever. His example will live on through his friends and family.
My prayers are with him, his family and his friends. I pray that they will have the strength, faith, and comfort to help pull through this trial.

Today I am grateful to be a daughter of my wonderful Heavenly Father and to know that families are eternal.

Dear Strong Family,
you will see him again.

Day 7 and 8 I am grateful for.....

Once again, I have fallen behind at posting what I'm grateful for daily. So today I will be making up for the day that I missed.

Day 7: I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to have a living Prophet, President Monson, on the earth today to guide and lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He is truly inspired and is a wonderful man. I know that if I follow the counsel of the Prophet I can become more like Christ, my Savior. I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

Day 8: I am grateful for the opportunity to attend Brigham Young University. I am so bless to be getting the kind of education that I am. Not only am I growing mentally, I'm growing both physically and spiritually. Here, I rely 100% on the Lord and his strength to help get me through tough times. I love this university and I love being here.

Day 6: I'm grateful for...

Day 6: Today as I write this I'm reminded how grateful I am to attend church every Sunday. I absolutely love going to church and becoming spiritually strengthened and becoming closer to the Lord. I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This gospel brings such a happiness and joy into my life. I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and for their constant support and love in my life. Sunday's are the perfect day to prep me for the upcoming week of school and tests.

Day 4 and 5..I'm grateful for...

Well this is quite embarrassing, I did not post a "Day 4" so today I'm going to post two! So here I go :)

Day 4: I'm oh so very grateful for my wonderful roommate Laura Braithwaite! Prior to writing this post laura told me that I should write a post about her. Obviously I listened! How could I not write a post about my wonderful roommate laura! She is absolutely amazing with a voice of an angel. She is one of the nicest persons that I know. A day doesn't go by where I don't laugh at a joke she says or something she does. I love this girl! She is such an inspiration in my life. We met while I lived in Chile. I remember meeting her for the first time, it was in Choir class. She immediately came up to me and was like "Hey! I heard you are Mormon! Is that right? and what's your name?" haha from that day forward we became friends! I just love her! Laura! I love you chica! Thank you for rooming with us this year! You are the greatest and I feel very privileged to be one of your friends.

Day 5: I'm grateful for my mother! It snowed today up in Salt Lake, unfortunately we did not get anything in Provo. However, seeing the snow on the mountains got me thinking about when we get our first snow fall. That day will be so exciting and yet dreadful. Having snow on the ground brings the beginning of scraping the snow off my wind shield. Right away I texted my mother and she said "I will go and buy one for you today." My mother is incredible!!! She does SO much for me! Her unconditional love towards me is incredible. I cannot express in words how grateful I am for her. I know that she will always be there to talk to me whenever I need a venting. She also gave me a list of dinner recipes since I have been struggling to know what to make for dinner. I could go on and on about how grateful I am for my mother. She is one of my best friends and counselors. I love her so much! Thank you mom for always being a constant example in my life and teaching me how to be the woman I need to become. Your faith and constant drive to serve others is truly inspiring. I love you mom!!!

Day 3: I'm grateful for....

Day 3: I'm grateful for the gorgeous sunsets that I get to look at every night! Sunsets are probably one of my favorite things in the whole wide world! The colors that are created are indescribably beautiful! The emotions within me run wild trying to take-in such a gorgeous site. I'm grateful for the opportunity to witness such an art.

Month of Gratitude

Halloween has come and gone; it's crazy how fast time flies. Well, the month of gratitude is here! I love everything about the month of November! It's the perfect time for me to truly express my gratitude towards everyone and everything. I have so much to be grateful for! As a goal, I'm going to write on here every day and state one thing that I'm grateful for. I'm going to start on Day 2 since it's November 2nd.
Day 2: I am grateful for my wonderful roommates! They are the greatest and do so much for me! Their love and support in everything that I do is indescribably wonderful!! Thank you for making everyday an adventure! I love you Alyssa, Lindsey, Rachel, Laura, and Stefanie!

This cute pic is of Lyss and I at Rock Canyon! I love this picture for many reasons!
1- It's in the canyon!
2- The colors of the leaves!
3-Represents the beginning of November!
4-Standing next to my best friend/sister Lyssa!

Love You Kristen!

Your blog has been hacked... In case you were wondering :) I just wanted to do a shout out to this amazing and wonderful girl! I don't believe being her roommate was ever coincidence! She does so much for me each and every day and provides so much love and encouragement to me and everyone else around her! Her example is wonderful and I will always look at her with love and appreciation! Love you Kristen! You are amazing and your hard work and determination is inspiring! :) By the way - hope you like the new layout!

First Pumpkin carving in 4 years!

It's Halloween time meaning it's also time to carve pumpkins! It has been 4 years since I have carved a pumpkin. Halloween in Chile was much different than here in the States. So, I never carved pumpkins while I lived in Chile.
My wonderful mother invited Elyse and Taylor, Chris and Staci, and myself up to their house for the annual Sunday Halloween dinner. My mother is absolutely adorable! I come home and the dinner is in the crock-pot, she had the dirt dessert sitting on the counter and the booger punch sitting right next to it. Her passion to always make everything so fun is wonderful! I love her so much! The dinner was incredible! We had cafe-rio burritos with various other goodies.
Carving pumpkins, ever since I was a little girl, has always been something I look forward to doing every Halloween! Every aspect of pumpkin carving gets me excited! I love picking the picture that I'm going to carve. I love digging out the innards of the pumpkin and I absolutely love putting the lit candle inside the pumpkin to see it glow. Carving pumpkins today brought back so many childhood memories. I remember all the times I carved pumpkins when I was little. My father would end up cutting them all because it was to cold outside for us kids. I loved digging out the innards and the squishing the seeds and whatever you want to call it, between my fingers. Below are some pictures of our awesome creations! Personally, mine is the best! However, spencer's Transformers one is pretty sweet!
Spending time with my family today reminds me how grateful I am to have them in my life. The friendships I have with each of my siblings is strong and wonderful! Their support and love is indescribable. I love them so much and thank Heavenly Father everyday to be apart of such a wonderful family. As I write this post, I'm listening to my family cracking jokes and laughing. There is no greater sound to have in a house than laughing. I love my family! and I love coming home. Being home also reminds me how grateful I am for my parents. Words honestly cannot describe my love and appreciation for them. They do SO much for me! I could not ask for better parents. Their love and support has brought me to be the person I am today. They are constantly there for me. I love you mom and dad!
Thank you for such a great Halloween Sunday!
Oh! and I can't forget my carving pumpkin party with Laura Braithwaite! We pretty much made the best pumpkin with toothpicks holding in our moon! :) Laura I love you! and you are the greatest! I'm soo glad you are rooming with me!!

The Joy of having Amazing Roommates!

Everyday I come home I'm reminded at how lucky I am to have such amazing roommates. The 5 chicas I live with are incredible and I love them all! I couldn't ask for better roommates. Each roommate brings their own wonderful personality and humor to the apartment. Rachael, you are incredible! I just met you about a year ago and yet I feel like I've known you forever! I'm SO glad you decided to come to BYU and room with us. I absolutely love you! haha especially your constant happiness and laugh. You laugh when you are happy, sad, stressed, etc. It's truly inspiring! Thank you! Lindsey, I honestly feel like rooming with you was no coincidence. Our parents knew each other when they are young and now we get the opportunity to grow up together! I love everything about you, especially watching Greys Anatomy with you. Two things about you that I love is how you always look great for school and your "Betty Crocker/Martha Stewart" skills! I know if I need to color coordinate, cook, cut, organize, etc...I can always come to you! :) Laura! Oh my, where do I begin?!? I never thought that we would EVER room! You bring such a joy and happiness to my life! I look forward to seeing you everyday when you come home from school. Some of the funniest memories I have of this year thus far include you! haha you know what I'm talking about :) Stefanie, words can't describe the kind of amazing person that you are! You are such an example and idol in my life! I've only known you for 3 months now but I love you muchisimo! I'm so excited for you to be getting married in December! Just, remember to always come back and visit :) I sure hope you do. Alyssa, I absolutely love you chica! Rooming with you and knowing you is an adventure! We have only been in school for 6 weeks and yet SO much has happened! Laughing, not being able to parallel park the car, inside jokes, vamps, are only a small amount of what we have done this semester. The "Lyss and Kris Adventures" will only continue throughout our lives. I wish I could describe how grateful I am for you and all that you have done for me, but unfortunately I can't. I love you chica!
Well! These are my wonderful roommates! I honestly could go on and on about how wonderful they are! I feel so blessed and thank Heavenly Father everyday for the wonderful roommates that I have. I know that whenever I am having a bad day or an amazing day that they will always be there for me!
p.s We have yet to get a full roommate picture so there isn't a picture of Stefanie on here. Hopefully soon I will have one and repost it again.

I'm going to be an AUNT!!!!

The excitement all started when I got an interesting phone call from my brother Jess a couple of weeks ago. He called me and first asked "Kristen, what are you doing tonight? do you want to be an auntie?" haha I was thought to myself, "what in the world is he saying?". I didn't understand! So after a couple of minutes asking him what he is asking, he told me to think harder about what he was asking. Then it CLICKED!! I AM GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!!! I literally freaked out and screamed!! I'm so thrilled for Jess and Corinne to be having their first baby! I'm going to be an aunt for the first time!
Their baby is due in May! There are so many family birthdays that are in May. My birthday, my 1 2 cousins' birthdays, my Aunt's birthday and so many others! Hopefully, there little baby comes on my birthday or around my birthday! I absolutely can't wait!
I'm going to place my guess right now and I'm going to say that I think it's going to be a GIRL! :)

Witches Night Out

I came home for the weekend and to my surprise, my whole family was staying for the weekend! My wonderful sister Elyse and her husband Taylor were here to help my father with building a new shed. Then Jess and Corinne came down to spend time and help with the shed as well. It was so much fun to be with them all!! While the men were working on the shed, the ladies of the family went to Gardner Village for "Witches Night Out". It was my first year going and I now plan to make this an annual event. It was so much fun to see all the Halloween decorations! I seriously could have spent hundreds of dollars buying the decorations that were there. :) Halloween is probably one of my favorite Holidays! I love the decorations, the food, the fall air, and seeing all the children dress up in their Halloween costumes! So next year, Elyse, my mom, Corinne, my Grandma and I are all going to dress up as Witches and join in the fun!
We got home to see our manly men working on the shed. They ended up working on it all day long till it was dark out. It looks so great! Eventually, it's going to turn into a playhouse for the future grandchildren of our family!
It has been so much fun to be with my family! I love them so much! They have done so much for me!

It's the Weekend!

Sunday is here once again so this post might be a little long. :)

I love Sundays for many reasons. The main one being able to go to Church. I attend Church on-campus in the back of the Library. My ward is absolutely fantastic! I just recently got called to be the chairman of Compassionate Service. I cannot wait to start working on this calling!
Well, here is a quick update on my past week/weekend. :)

School went very well this week! I got tons of stuff done and learned a lot! Especially in my Human Development class. This is probably my favorite class of the semester. I love learning about the growth and development of children to their adult years. This class is one of the main reasons to why I want to pursue pediatric nursing. I love children, especially babies, and I would love to work with them daily. Many people tell me that it would be way to hard for them see little children go through pain. However, I decided that I want to be the person to bring them happiness through their times of pain. I want to be the one to lift them up when they are down. I find that so exciting!
By the end of the week I was most definitely ready for the weekend. It's always a wonderful feeling when my last class on Friday is over! It's such a relief knowing that the weekend lies ahead of you. This weekend was so relaxing and yet so much fun!! For some reason, this Halloween season I am completely obsessed with doing everything and anything that has to do with Halloween. Our first true "Halloween Activity" was watching a scary movie. We decided to watch it at our friend's (Lyss's Brothers) apartment because they have a sweet plasma screen tv. However, the main reason we watched it at their apartment is due to the fact that our tv is practically an antique and only takes VHS's. Yes! VHS's TV's still exist and to prove it, we have a gorgeous one sitting in our apartment :) So quick funny story before we left for the scary movie. We had so many girls going over that we had to take two cars. Well, I drove my car with Lindsey and Lyss drove her car with all the other chicas. However, when we were about 1 minute away from the guys apartment I get this call from Alyssa asking us if we had Laura. We were like "no, don't you?" haha yes! we forgot Laura at the apartment! Linds and I turned around immediately going back to the apartment to pick her up! It took us awhile to find her, but we eventually did. Poor girl even saw us drove away! haha we were laughing so hard though!! Laura is never going to let us down for that.That was an absolutely hilarious experience!
So the scary movie we watched was called "Insidious." It was SUPER freaky! I have to admit though that my hood was covering my face the majority of the time. I have no idea why I watched a scary movies since I absolutely hate them. But I guess my only excuse is the fact that it's Halloween and it's time for a good scare! :) It was super fun though, despite how scared we all got.

This past week was also BYU's homecoming! So there were many fun activities going on around campus. However, my favorite parts about homecoming is the lighting of the "Y" on the mountain and the Football game at the end of the week. The football game was Saturday night at 8:15 pm against San Jose. It was absolutely freezing! I went with Lindsey and Rachel. haha we all left with 2-3 jackets, hats, gloves, scarves, and blankets! However, Rach and I still got cold. BYU kicked butt! They won their game last night with the final score being 29-16! It was so much fun!

The start of a new era!

Hey ya'll!

So I heard blogging is a fantastic way at keeping friends and families updated on each others lives. However, I also heard that it's a great way to keep a personal journal of my life. Well, it's for both the reasons that I have a blog. I'm absolutely horrible at writing in my journal and I constantly beat myself up for not writing in it. Typing is just so much faster and much less extraneous than writing on a piece of paper. I can't wait to get started! I'm super excited to start posting about this year and all the wonderful things it has in store!
I would also like to quickly thank Lindsey Robbins for decorating my blog! I do not have any artistic talent so thank goodness she is here to help make my blog cute!