this post is a little overdue.

in fact it's a lot overdue,

so much in fact that it includes most all of december and the beginning of january.

which leaves me just the tiniest bit stressed because i honestly do not even know where to start.

so much has happened, both good and bad.

things have changed, i have changed.

so i guess i'll just attempt to start at the beginning.

[be prepared for the longest post of your life, and an extreme amount of pictures.]

after my fun weekend with ryan i was reunited again with my family.

we went to a few farewells and then headed back to idaho.

my mom gave me the job of getting to wrap ALL of the presents this year for christmas. she had told me about her problem of hunter being quite the snoop this year and so i decided to get a little sneaky. i coded all of the gifts this year and so once they were wrapped i was the only one who knew whose was whose.

for example hunter was football teams, i was basketball teams, and mack was baseball teams.

i thought that i was so clever and i could not wait for hunter to come and see the gifts. as soon as he got home he came to snoop and he flipped as soon as he realized that he had no idea which presents were his.

i've also wanted a nice camera for a while. let's be honest i'm pretty extremely spoiled and so there wasn't really anything that i needed or wanted, except a camera. my mom kept telling me that they were too expensive and that it wasn't going to happen this year, and so i was convinced that she was telling the truth.

christmas morning came and my family woke up and headed downstairs to open gifts. i told everyone the code and my brothers started sorting out the presents from santa. i noticed that i only had one gift from santa and it was in a larger sized box. i instantly got my hopes up and just knew it was the coveted camera. i waited  a while to open it and when i did...i was shattered.

it was a freakin' hot cocoa maker!

i was trying to stat positive, remembering just how spoiled i was and how my parents paid for my tuition etc, but let's be honest...a hot cocoa maker? really?

so after all the presents were opened hunter decided to be a real gem and he was like, "hey brin, want to go use that new cocoa maker of yours?!"
my family thought it was funny and then my dad "noticed" a present hidden in the corner.

my hopes rose again.

then hunter said it was for my mom.

shattered.

turns out it was for me, and it was a brand new canon rebel. :)

i'm one happy girl.

after that the family got dressed in their new sunday best and headed to sacrament.

i love christmas on sunday, it was amazing.

and then after church we put on our new [matchy] christmas clothes.

soon after we got a call from my most favorite missionary, elder breshears.

did i mention that he gets to come home june 6th?

i'm pretty excited.

we got to talk to him for a good hour and a half and it was fabulous.

i may have been a slight phone hog, but i really don't feel too bad about it.

so christmas came and went and a few days later i met up with kk.

let's just say we spent the next two weeks being practically inseparable.

it's pretty depressing how much i miss that crazy girl.

but i got some much needed kk time.

we spent our days playing too many card games, staying up way too late, and playing on mack's scooters and new go cart. 

we also went out one night to see just how many church rooftops we could climb on top of.

we were also pretty dumb, one night i was riding the go cart and kk decided that i should drive at her full speed and she would jump over me. i happily agreed.

dumb, but memorable.

new years started out a little rough for me, i was super sick and i mostly just spent my time puking.

i did get caught up on my grey's anatomy though. :)

but leave it to kk to make it pretty memorable.

we got the idea to "streak" in a new year, and sick or not we were doing it.

so on january 1st at midnight we "streaked" in the new year.

[we wore our boots because there was snow on the ground.]

can i just say it was freezing.

having to say goodbye to kk was hands down the hardest part of my break.

other than that my break was spent working for my dad to pay for my new school books, watching my brothers play basketball, and hanging out with the neighbor kids.

pretty perfect if you ask me.

the sunday i was supposed to leave back to school the kids in the neighborhood decided to have a going away kickball party. a half hour game turned into a 2 hour game, but it was so worth it. my team lost by two, but we played like champs.

we arrived back at school to hear one of ky's great stories.

her latest included her buying a new pair of pants .

they arrived in the mail and she was so excited!

she ripped them out of the box only to notice that she had screwed up and ordered a pair that was only 7 sizes too big.

no biggie.

oh we love that girl, she keeps up entertained.

also, riki got to come up and stay the week with us because her school didn't start until the next week.

we probably had way too much fun doing some of the dumbest things.

like staying up until two on photobooth.

here are just a few of my favorites.

if you want to see more look via facebook.

[viewer discretion is advised.]

it was so fun having here there although i wasn't home much.

mel has an easy schedule so she got to be home quite a bit.

now me on the other hand i decided to take the hardest semester of my life. i'm on campus every day until at least 5, most days even later. and when i am home it feels like all i can do is study. no the funnest, but i can do it.

the two who got to stay home and party.

and the two who were stuck at school.

although one day i was home long enough to cook and set off the smoke alarm [again.]

also, thanks to riki we FINALLY met our neighbors, and they are amazing.

last week we hung out with them every single night except one.

and they always keep up laughing.

we play multiple games, go have midnight frosty runs, and laugh until we are in tears.

another fun thing that's happened is bridget came back to logan for a little visit.

it was fun to see her and to be able to catch up!

you have to love these two!

love love love her!

saying goodbye to bridget!

how i lucked out and got these two fantastic girls as roommates i have no idea,

but i sure do love them!

mel is so cute, her schedule is pretty easy and so one day as i'm doing homework she walks into the living room holding this paper and she says, "this is my list. it is going to tell me what to do with my life."

gotta love that one! :)

the neighbors also come over a lot since our new found friendship.

every day to be exact.

we're now on a knock once and just walk in basis.

one day they came in and they say mel, riki, and i's matching tattoos and they wanted one.

so we gave them some real nice ones.

david went with the hip tat with a precious little flounder carrying a rose.

braden on the other hand wanted a "manly" cars one, tramp stamp style.

david had to put it on and the was probably the funniest most awkward thirty second of my life watching david put it on!

so i survived my very busy first week of school.

it was good, just a little more stressful that i had hoped.

my dad is in charge of the ducks unlimited banquet in burley and so he asked if mel and i could work at it for him on saturday. riki also needed a ride home so we said why not.

the ride started out fine and then when we were about fourty miles away my gas light came on.

in the middle of nowhere.

twenty miles later i was on 0 miles until empty. 

oh crap.

i knew that sublet had a gas station and i was just praying the my car would make it.

luckily my car is a champ and we made it.

riki went in to pay for gas and i had to use the restroom so i was going with her.

we got to the door and the sign said baby rattler inside. i didn't bother to read the bottom of the sign because a. i really really had to pee and b. in my head i was imagining baby toys. i opened the door and there was a sign that read walk slowly, no sudden movements. it finally all hit me that they were talking about REAL LIVE BABY RATTLESNAKES! 

i'm completely terrified of snakes so i backed up and shut that door as fast as i could. i turned to riki hyperventilating telling her that there was real snakes in there! i would not go in and we stood outside for a good five minutes. finally she talked me into walking inside and let's just say it was the fastest pee of my life.

and i was walking out the door i saw one of the snake and i burst into tears and just sprinted out of there. i got to the car and mel starts freaking out asking what happened and i try explaining to her through tears what was going on.

it was horrid, i will never go back!

so we made it home and we worked at the banquet. mel and i got 300 tickets apiece and we put all of them into the womens raffle...needless to say we won just about every prize...whoops :) but we got some sweet huntin' stuff to show off at college!

other than that i hung out with my family, watched hunter play cheerios, and played with allie and jaxon.

as you can see this new semester has brought a lot of new things.

challenges, classes, friends.

it'll be a fun experience.

i've been really busy, but i've also managed to have a lot of fun.

it's a new year.

live it up, take chances, have fun.

did i mention i'm a brunette? :)