Christmas Eve...

Christmas Eve this year was spent at the Benavides house,

and let me tell you--the presents are WAY different from my families!! I was cracking up because all Ben's brothers got shotguns. (SO not something you would see at my house full of girls.)
Well I finally got my new camera :) :) and that made me pretty stinking happy. I also got more scarves (you can never have enough), shopping money, and a new luggage bag. Ben got season 3 and 4 of The Office, shopping money, and money for a new car stereo. So, the pictures we have of Christmas eve are from Ben snapping them randomly with my new camera.

Here is Ben and his youngest brother Mark.
Here is Ben's twin Rick playing with his new gun.
This is Ben's other brother Eric with his new gun and Ben's Dad watching.
Here is Rick again practicing....except his eyes are closed....haha.
So we basically had a fun time at the Benavides house. I have grown to love all of them so much, and I am so glad that we got to spend time with them on Christmas Eve!

mmmk so Christmas pics...

So Christmas Day this year was awesome. We woke up, got ready, and went over to the Shumway house. I had my new camera with me so I took the liberty of taking a million pictures. My Dad also supplied me with a very snazzy tripod so that is why I get to be in the pictures!

This first picture is of Ben and I with the gifts we got. Nicole bought me the "Love Letters" book of Joseph Smith and Emma (which I really wanted) and that awesome scarf I have on; I also got money from my parents. Ben got "Guitar Hero-World Tour" from my parents and a Best Buy gift card from Jeremy. Here is Ben, Me, Roxanne, and Preston posing in the kitchen.
Next are a few Sister Pictures. Aren't we hot?? haha.

We Love Each Other. :)

Here's a nice pic of the whole fam (minus the husbands)! We had a very merry Christmas!

I think the best part about Christmas this year was our service projects we did before Christmas. We all had to choose one service project, and then all of us had to carry it out. It was wonderful time spent together, and I am so grateful for my family. It will be hard to top this Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

More pictures later...cause I took a ton...with my new camera :) :)

Im Free but Megan is not!!

Well, I am officially done with my third semester!!

ONE MORE LEFT!!

I am excited to be able to think about the holidays now and really enjoy Christmas! I am pretty pumped about Christmas, its my favorite, and I pretty much have only been thinking about school lately! (another reason for the posting shortage) So yahoo for that!

My good friend Megan recently got engaged and it was fabulous!! I am glad to have more friend join the 'old married brawd' club. How it happened was so cute! She has an annual Christmas party with her friends and during this years party her man walked in the house dressed as Santa and started handing out gifts. Naturally at first she was creeped out because some random guy walks into her friend's house and all her friends seem to know what is going on but she doesn't! And so she's like "Who is this creepy guy handing out stuff?!" and then he gets on one knee in front of her takes off the beard and asks her to marry him!! SO CUTE! It was so adorable to see! Awww. Here is a picture of them right after he popped the question! (she said yes of course)

And as if that wasn't enough...he had all her friends meet at her house for a surprise party. So when they went over to Megan's house after getting engaged we were all there to surprise her! It was so fun and just freaking cute! I am so happy for Megan! Yay!
Here is all of us nursing school gals

Here is Megan right after being surprised and me in the background looking happy for her.

She kept yelling "These are my friends!! I know you guys!!" haha. love her.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Where else could be better for a crazy rant than my blog?? haha

(random picture of Ben and I) So I must say I am pretty freaking sick of school.

Yah, you guessed it, this is definitely a vent post. haha. Aren't those just lovely??

Well, I am just ready to get on with my life already. I am tired of going to school every single day and of all those obligations that go along with that. Studying, going to a million different places to do clinicals, working on floors I hate, stupid computer programs, so much time!! Now I have made some of the best friends I have ever had in nursing school and that has been wonderful, but I'm ready to have more of a life outside of school. Of course there is that whole 'I know this is what I am supposed to be doing, and I am so grateful for my education (last post)' but a girl can complain right? I'm just over it.
People will say to me "Natalie you only have one semester left! You are almost done so just hang in there." And I figure these people mean to boost my spirits but seriously....I know that I only have one semester left!! Believe me I am counting down the days!! And knowing that doesn't make me less ready to be done. Ya know??
Ok, so school really isn't that bad. I have learned a ton...I'm just ready to be graduated. I have the rest of this week and then two more weeks until this semester is over and the slacking off could not be any worse. haha. I'm hoping Christmas break will rejuvenate me and get me ready to do one more semester. I can almost see the end!! Ok, I'm done complaning...for now.... On to other things...like reading my good book and then sleeping.