Finals and Christmas!

I finished out the semester strong and I was so proud of myself! I can honestly say that I have never worked that hard in school at any point before in my life. It really payed off! I was so proud of myself! I had to wake up at 6 in the morning for a final one day, but it was worth it because I got all of my finals done that day and was able to just spend the next day relaxing and getting ready to go home! Before the semester ended however, my roommates and I took roommate pictures, and they turned out really well, and it was a ton of fun! I really miss those girls!

I was so incredibly excited to go home! mostly because I hadn't seen my mom since September. Being that my mom is my absolute best friend, it is so hard to be away from her. So, to go home and see her was so exciting for me! AND I GOT TO GO HOME AND MEET MY SWEETIE PEANUT! Haha okay, so one of my best friend's from back home had a baby about a week before I was going home for Christmas break. Let me tell you, when your best friend is in labor, and you know your godson could be born any minute, it is sooooo hard to focus! However, she got through it like a champ and at 7:13 pm Steven Alexander Rodriguez, AKA Peanut, was born. He weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20 inches long, and the first picture I saw of him had me balling like a baby. How grateful I was for this little miracle sent to her family from God. I felt so bad, because when I got home I was just so exhausted from working so hard that entire semester that I didn't want to see anybody! Haha add to that the fact that almost everyone in my family was sick or getting sick, and well that doesn't make much desire to go out and socialize.

I bought him this outfit!

Mom and Alex

Already in love

Baby and Daddy! They look soo similar!

Fresh out of the bathtub, nice and snuggly

So, we left Rexburg at 5 in the morning on the 15th, and I was sooo glad to have left that early! I was exhausted from having pulled an almost all-nighter, so I slept the majority of the way. Also, major props to my baby sister Taylor for staying up as late as I did, even later! So that I would make sure to wake up and not miss my ride, because I had done that my freshman year at Thanksgiving. Taylor and Carolina also walked with me to my ride's apartment, so I didn't have to walk all alone in the cold at 4:45 in the morning. Haha I was VERY appreciative! So we left Rexburg and had GREAT weather the entire trip! I was so grateful! It was a blessing from God for sure! We got home around 2:30 or so in the afternoon Washington time.

Oh but we had an interesting experience when we stopped in Baker City, Oregon. We were paying for gas and then we were going to leave when all of a sudden the cashier asked where we were from. So we say we're from Washington, to which he replies, "Are you guys enjoying the new laws over there?" Referring mainly to the legalization of marijuana, and we all just kind of looked at him and had to laugh a little, because here are these three Mormon kids who just left the bubble of Rexburg, Idaho, and there was no more obvious sign of that then this guy asking us if we were enjoying being legally able to smoke weed. Blake, the guy who drove, answered him by saying that we haven't been home much to enjoy it, and I think that was the best answer any of us could really come up with, although none of us smoke. It was just so odd, random, and funny. We were laughing about it for the rest of the trip home. It was incredibly unexpected but very very funny.

I loved being home though. Being so surrounded by my family and being able to just veg all day every day was beautiful. My goal for the break was to read the entire Work and the Glory series. The series is 9 books long and most of the books are comparable to the size of Harry Potter books, maybe a little smaller. I made it through all but 2 of the books! Seeing my grandparents was so fun, especially, it was really sad though because they were really sick while I was there. Thankfully, they've gotten better since, but I was sad that they weren't feeling well. Christmas Eve was spent, as usual at Aunt Lucy's house. The house was CRAZY full of people! There was my family, Lucy's family, Marcia's family, and two of the Winters' family. I think there were around 40 people there. The house was full to capacity of people. It was crazy hot, but soo much fun! It was so fun to see all of my family and to be able to catch up with them! I even got to take a picture with my cousin Megan, who is one of my favorite people!

Me and Megan

Me and my siblings on Christmas Eve in our new pj's!

Christmas day was spent at home, which was REALLY weird! We normally spend the day at our grandparents' house opening gifts, and showing what our parents gave us, and talking and eating and having a lot of fun. However, because my grandparents were sick, we stayed home. Which was fun, but I still would have loved to spend that day with my whole family. I got so many fun gifts for Christmas but the best gift of all was being able to spend so much time with my family. I missed my sister Mallory so much, and my brother Blake. It did my heart a lot of good to be able to be with them. New Year's Eve also brought a break with tradition. We usually go over to my Aunt Marcia's house and play games, eat and wait for the New Year, but this year because my stomach was acting up and Taylor wasn't feeling well, we stayed home. We watched some movies, talked and snuggled and it was so much fun. I absolutely loved every minute of being home. Which made leaving a thousand times harder. The break seemed to go by so fast, and I felt like I wasn't getting enough time at home, that I needed so much more. I think part of that was because I hadn't come back to school last winter, so my heart and in many ways my body wanted to stay. The night before I left I cried saying good night to my mom, and then the next morning I cried saying good bye as she went off to work. She was better about it than me, though. She told me to just act like it's another day and that she'll see me after work, so I tried to pretend but my heart still hurt. To make matters worse, I hadn't slept much that night, and my stomach was hurting when I woke up, and I started to get a fever and chills right before we left. However, I made it through the trip okay, and the roads going back were clear, and the weather was good as well. We got back at around 8 pm Idaho time and I was exhausted! Especially because I didn't sleep at all during the ride back. However, we got back safe and sound, and even though it was sub zero temperatures, I was still glad to be back, in some ways.