I Love My Family....

...and here is why:

They can be cute

They can be crazy

They play hard

They dress the sameThey eat good food (a.k.a. Granny's Root Beer Floats)

They jump high...("I can run fast")

And last, but definitely not least...they love me for me. (and Papa gives me sweet caps)

Missionary Mania

Every time I receive a letter in the mail from a missionary it, not only makes me excited, but it gets me thinking about all of the other Elders (and even a few Sisters) that are out serving the Lord. Over the last 7 days I have gotten two missionary letters, one from the Provo MTC and one from Arkansas. Reagan got me thinking about this the other day. She told me that her mother-in-law was asking her how many missionaries I knew, Reagan said.."something like 17". So this made me sit down and figure out exactly how many missionaries I know. By the end of the summer I will know: 24 Elders and 3 Sisters PLUS Kallene will be going shortly after, as well as Kaccee and Teresa! Then we get into the friends I have that have just graduated...talk about intense. Because I love where people are serving/going, I will jot down a list of the missionaries I know out in the field right now and where they are serving:

Elder Craig Alder: Little Rock, Arkansas
Elder Scott Bird: Sacramento, California-Laotian speaking

Elder Matthew Anderson: Buenos Aires, Argentina-Spanish Speaking

Elder Neil Wallace: Rapid City, South Dakota

Elder Tyler Deleo: San Antonio, Texas-Spanish Speaking

Elder Zach Miller: Samara, Russia-Russian Speaking

Elder T.J. Ruff: Winnipeg, Canada

Elder Matthew Stoker: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Elder Josh Malmgren: Sao Paulo, Brazil-Portugese Speaking

Elder Jonny Roberts: Tegucigalpa, Honduras-Spanish Speaking

Elder Michael Henneman: McAllen, Texas-Spanish Speaking

Elder Josh Ogle: Santa Rosa, California-Spanish Speaking

Elder Avery Garner: Bengkok, Thailand-Thai Speaking

Elder Mitchell Hatch: Micronesia, Guam-English Speaking

Elder Michael Metcalf: Sao Paulo, Brazil-Portugese Speaking

Elder Brock Cutler: Kobe, Japan-Japanese Speaking

Elder Kurt Workman: Cuernevaca, Mexico-Spanish Speaking

Elder Clayton Welch: Geneva, Switzerland-French Speaking

Elder Paul Manwill: Antananarivo, Madagascar

Elder Shane Stephenson: Vancouver, Canada-English Speaking

Sister Kiku Beaufort: Hiroshima, Japan-Japanese Speaking

Sister Noel Ellison: Donetsk, Ukraine-Russian Speaking

Sister Rachel Briggs: Barcelona, Spain-Spanish Speaking

Sister Jessica Ogle: Nagoya, Japan-Japanese Speaking

So, not that any of you care about that, but I'm just a little bit on the proud side of these people. They have really helped my testimony of missionary work grow so much over the past year and a half when they started leaving. As hard as it is for me to watch them go, I love every second that they are gone...especially when I get letters from them! They are all amazing missionaries and have really raised the bar as high as it can go! I love each of them with all of my heart...they are amazing people, and every place they are serving is very lucky to have my missionaries there! Yes, MY missionaries is what I like to call them...I have decided that I am secretly waiting for all of them. :D

Here are a few pictures of some of these great people

Well there you go. I've just been on a missionary high for the last few months, so this is my tribute to all of my friends out there! I'm so grateful for each of their influences in my life! I LOVE MISSIONARIES!!!!

SYTYCD Top 14 Elimination

Okay so this is officially a venting post about the So You Think You Can Dance results show tonight. All I have to say is WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?! Taylor, Zach and I watched it tonight and, believe me, we've discussed all possibilities that would have been more crowd pleasing, and we decided the best choice would have been to keep BOTH Matt and Kourtni and give Comfort and Thayne the boot.

We've decided the judges have made a selfish decision by choosing Matt and Kourtni for elimination tonight. Just because the judges didn't want Matt anymore, they had to take Kourtni too...all because they didn't know who'd she'd partner with if Matt wasn't there. The order of elimination for the girls has been messed up since last week when they sent Chelsea Traille home before Comfort. It should have been Comfort first, then Chelsea Traille, THEN Kourtni. Kourtni just needed a chance to have a different partner...she has WAY better technique than Comfort, not to mention her background and training is 100% easier to work with. Her solo tonight was amazing...ten thousand times better than Comfort's. In my personal opinion Comfort should have gone home right after Suzie, who should have been first. I think Rayven should have gotten to stay longer, I mean really...she is trained in ballet. I dunno about all of you, but as a dancer I was taught that ballet is the center of all dancing....if you've got ballet training, you've got it all.

So here is the order the female eliminations should have gone...of course this is just my opinion:

Week One: Suzie...really I just never liked her or anything she did...I know at least two people that tried out that would have done 10 million times better than she ever did.

Week Two: Comfort...she's just not impressive to me. I'm not gonna lie, she's amazing at her style of dancing, but with all of the other styles she's never "wow-ed" me. Ew..I'm just a little bitter that she's still on the show.

Week Three: Rayven...she was good, but not quite good enough to be in the top 14. I definitely would have liked to see her continue in the competition for longer than a week.

Although I do not agree with the girls eliminations thus far, but I definitely agree with the guys. Tonight's decision is a little sketchy for me, but I'm not to upset about it. I think I'm just done with Thayne...I don't neccessarily hate him, I mean he's a really great dancer, but just not very exciting. So I'm hoping and praying Thayne and Comfort go home next Thursday. I'm just very VERY over Comfort, and I won't be at all devastated if Thayne goes.

On a happier note I LOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEE Chelsie Hightower...just like Mary Murphy said last night she is 'towering' over the rest. She is probably my favorite individual contestant, but my favorite partnership is definitely Twitch and Kherington. I've loved Kherington ever since her audition in California...and I loved Twitch last season. He just makes me almost cry every time he dances. He's just a freestyle dancer with hardly any training, and he busts out amazing routines week after week. My other favorite couple is Katee and Joshua...one word: AMAZING!!! Like really, I have nothing to say other than they give me chills every time I watch them dance.

Well, this is all...I still love this show even with the poor decisions the judges have made this week, and I cannot wait for the weeks to come! We Love You Kourtni!!!

PLAYLIST!!!

Alright, so my goal for my blog today was to create a playlist of songs that I love and bring back great memories...Here's a list and small description of why they are on my blog. Enjoy!



Jeans On by Keith Urban: This song will forever remind me of my first year being a Girls Camp youth leader. My mom was in charge of camp that year, like every other year it seems, and she changed the words around to this song and created our 2005 Girls Camp theme song! I just loved that I got to have my mom and at least one sister with me at Girls Camp every year I went...and sometimes even my dad!

Rockin' in the USA as well as Jack and Diane by John Cougar Mellancamp will remind me of road trips with my dad. All of us children would always want to listen to some Broadway musical or Disney movie soundtrack, but my dad wasn't always the biggest fan of those. Although, he did tolerate it for the first little bit of the trips, eventually we'd be listening to some John Cougar. It would just make me happy to see my dad singing along AND we all learned the words too!

Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis: So earlier this year Ashlee called me up and told me I had to listen to this song and she kept checking up on my to see if I'd listened yet. It did take me awhile to actually listen to it, but when I finally did I was instantly in love with it. AAANNNDD last week on SYTYCD Chelsie Hightower and Mark danced a heart wrenching hip hop to this song. Lets just say every time I watch I get goosebumps and almost cry. Love it!

A New Day by Celine Dion: This song reminds me of a lot of people. Heather Walt, Erin Avondet, and just recently Kherington and Twitch from SYTYCD. Heather can sing just like Celine...and especially this song. Erin and I heard this on a commercial one day and we about died laughing just thinking about Heather singing it. Kherington and Twitch did a gorgeous Viennese Waltz to this song on last weeks episode. They are probably my favorite partnership...but Chelsie Hightower is my favorite individual! :D

No Air: Yet another SYTYCD winner. Katee and Joshua did a tear-jerking hip hop to this song the first week of competition. Once again...a dance that makes me get chills and almost cry.

Walkin' In Memphis by Lonestar: Two words: Kallene Cutler. This is the song she did her dance solo to her senior year. Kallene is one of my best friends and every time I hear this song the memories just start flowing through my head. Love you Kaldawg!

My Front Porch Lookin' In by Lonestar: In the eighth grade, when I started listening to country music, Lonestar was one of the first groups I knew. This song is probably one of the cutest songs I've ever heard...it'll never get old!

Reflection from Disney's Mulan: So Mulan is my favorite of the Disney musical movies so I just chose one song from the movie because I love all of them.

Inside Your Heaven by Carrie Underwood: This song will forever remind me of Garrett Harding...to make a long story short, he is close to obsessed with this song. Also, from the first time I saw Carrie Underwood at her American Idol audition, I knew she was going to go far. AND it was kind of the beginning of my country music days, so I just loved her because she sang country. Haha

Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles: My junior year on dance team was such a fun one. This was our Large Dance song, and I loved this dance so much. The adrenaline that I would get when I performed this dance was insane. I actually loved all of my dances that year...and this was the year we swept the whole Nationals competition in Texas. AMAZING!

Cuppycake from Strawberry Shortcake: Pyper and my mom always sing this song to me. They called me just a few weeks ago with a 'present' for me...they both sang into the phone this song. Basically, Pyper's voice is just like this little girl's, so it's one of the cutest things I've ever heard.

My Little Girl by Tim McGraw: This song is just one of my favorite country songs ever. Also, I always think of Kelsey Peterson because when she came back to the ISI dance competition as the reigning Miss ISI she danced to this and...you guessed it, I bawled my eyes out. I miss dancing and the people I danced with so much.

Stand by Rascal Flatts: This song came out just before my last year of girls camp and I immediately thought it should be a church song. Our Girls Camp was all about being the Light and standing up for what you know and believe, no matter what comes your way. Basically, I fell in love with this song instantly.

Heaven by David Archuleta: Pretty much David is my hero. He is only 17 years old and sounds like this. I'm nearing obsession when it comes to David. And this song is just amazing, so the combination only makes for double-amazingness!

Okay, so here are my current favorites mixed with some of my forever favorites! Hopefully you enjoy at least one of the songs! Thanks for reading!