New Years Eve.

New years eve.  It is a strange feeling.  To think that another year has come and gone, that I am one year closer to leaving the safety of my home and going out there and making it on my own.....*shiver* its a scary thought.  ANYWAYS...we aren't doing much today.  We are going to a New Years Eve party tonight, but beside that...I don't know what I am doing.  There is the New Years Eve dance that I want to go to....but my Dear Wonderful Mother said that I will most likely not attend. :( Oh well.  That's life. lol :D  So I wish the best to everyone, and hope that you are ready for the New Year! :D

McKenna:D

Christmas!

YAY for Christmas!!!!  As you can probably guess, I had a pretty fantastic Christmas.  I had family over and my Mom was home and safe. :D We did Christmas eve differently this year.  Instead of acting out the nativity story, my Dad just read it and the rest of the time the kids were exploiting their talents.  (well....ok.....more like singing and playing the piano as a Christmas gift to my Grandparents.) Christmas day was fun.  We opened presents and played with them and just chilled with family all day.  Well...I hope that all of you our there had a FANTASTIC Christmas!

McKenna

"...Rejoice, rejoice, [my Mom is home]!!!..." :D

Hey y'all!  My Mom got safely home this morning around 3Am.  Yesterday was kind of eventful.  Later in the day my dear Father decided to take a short trip to my Uncle and Aunt's home in Oregon City.  Emmalyn and I decided to stay home.  We thought we might watch a Christmas movie or chat with some friends on Gmail. But alas, our power went out not long after my father was gone.  So we decided o go play outside in the wonderful conglomeration (is that the right word for it??) of snow and ice.  After  a while, Emmalyn brought up the suggestion that we should go to the Gordon's house and sing to them.  Brother Gordon is the second counselor in the bishop brick, and Sister Gordon is in the stake Young Women presidency.  So....we left a note for Dad telling him where we were going, and then started out down the driveway.  They live about 5 minutes away.  So we went to their house and knocked on the door, but no one was home.  So we started to leave.  But as we were walking down their driveway, we see Brother Gordon walking towards us!  He asked what we were doing and we told him that we were going to carol at their house but nobody was home so we were just walking back.  He then said that the reason he was walking down his driveway as opposed to driving the car, was because a great big branch had fallen in the way, so he was going to get a saw.  He told us that Sister Gordon was up at the car so we could go sing our carol. :D  So we walked up and talked to Sister Gordon and helped Brother Gordon get the branch out of the way we sang our carol.  After we finished our carol we were invited back to the house for some hot soup and pie.  The soup was delicious and so was the pie.....we also had Henry's root beer.....yum! :D  After all the food was consumed we talked to them for awhile longer.  We talked about my trip to England and a little bit about how the money works and such. It was fun.  I had a good warm feeling while we were there.  One reason is because they said that they had not ANY carolers at their house ever!...and they have lived in the same house for about 30 years!.....they also haven't had any trick-or-treaters......how sad is that!  So anyways......I felt ver gut, that is very good in German, that we had gone with Emmalyn's prompting and visited the Gordon's.  After that we just chilled at our house until we went to bed.

Well, I hope all of you people's have a FANTASTICALLY, BRILLIANT Christmas!!!!!

LAUGH and SMILE ALWAYS!!

McKenna:D

"....[hopefully you'll] be home for Christmas...."

Well, the snow and the ice have not ceased.  I love the snow and all.....but I'm not liking it so much at the moment.  The reason for this is that my Mother, Grandmother, Uncles and Aunt are in Utah for a funeral, and the weather is not looking to good.  They don't know whether they will be able to make it home for Christmas or what.....so...maybe I'll have to sing it...."...I'll have a blue Christmas without you..."....well...that was exciting...I think I should just stop now. 

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna:D:D:D:D

P.S...I apologize for all the weirdness.... :D

Christmas party!!!!

12:02 AM

WELL!!....what can I say????  The party was AWESOME!!!  I had a blast!  Almost all of the people I invited came!!  We had a spaghetti dinner, played outside in the snow ( which was REALLY fun!!!..even though some people got kind of mean.) and had played some games!!!  *sigh*  It was fun.....the only thing that wasn't the funnest was.......for some reason I wasn't hitting a lot of people with snow balls!!  I usually have a pretty good aim......I think it was because I have used my SWEET Ninja skills to much today..... oh well, there will be other snow days! :D  OH!!!! I think I should write.....I guess I should say TYPE this down.  While we were singing some Christmas songs, MaKenzie came to the door and said that Annie was stuck with their car at the bottom of our driveway.  So three people, including I, decided to go down to the car and push.  At first we didn't think we would be able to do it.  But after we warmed up our "Sweet ninja skills", we managed to get the car SAFELY into our driveway.  Well.......I should probably go.  Its pretty late.  OH! ONE more thing.....GREGORY ABBOTT!! why didn't you come?! We first needed you to help push the car, and secondly! we needed a bass!!!!.......I was very disappointed in you young man!............but.........I have long since forgiven you.....:D

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!!!:D

McKenna!:D

Friday the 19th!

10:32 AM

Today is my ( ans Emma's I guess....but since this is MY blog I think I'll just say MY...:D )  Christmas party!!!!!  So far it is still a go....but I don't know if the snow that fell last night made ice on the roads or not.... If it is safe for people to drive, my party will be tonight at 5:30.  It is going to be a blast!  I have invited some awesome friends.  We are going to have dinner, then we are going to sing to our hearts content.  After we are done singing, we are either going to play games, or watch a Christmas movie.  FUN,FUN,FUN!! :D:D:D:D:D 

I'll give you an update later..:D:D:D

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna!:D

This made me smile...and laugh!:D

Inside looking out....

Today has been a pretty good one so far. :D  We did our basic school work this morning, and the rest of it has been spent doing various educational things, communicating with friends...and other miscellaneous stuff...:D:D:D  I have been listening to ALOT of Jon Schmidt lately........I'm trying of learn "All of Me".....It is so beautiful!:) I have the first 3 pages out of 10.....I know, I know....SO impressive..... (Heavy sarcasm...:D...lol)  Well...I should probably start on our family Christmas letter.......YAY for me!!!!

Talk to y'all later!!:D

McKenna!:D:D:D

Tuesday December 16, 2008

So....I didn't do much today. I mostly did school work, sang and played the piano!! Pretty fun I must say. :D  Our party last night was really fun.  We had about 4 families over.  The missionaries also came. :D  We sang lots of great Christmas songs.  I preformed o few songs with people. :)

McKenna!:):):D:D:D

Monday December 15th, 2008

The weather is still pretty nasty.  Seminary is cancelled again for tomorrow.  We are still having our caroling party...but a bunch of people aren't coming because of the weather. :'(  Alot of peoples driveways and roads are really icy, so that is preventing them from coming.  :)  

McKenna:)

News flash...

Just a quick new flash...."The Forgotten Carols" is cancelled. :'(  Its sad...I know..  But be HAPPY anyways!!

McKenna:):):):):):)

P.S There is also NO seminary tomorrow.

Sunday December 14, 2008

Church was canceled today because it was snowing a little bit.  So I am going to just catch you up to date of what has happened this past..day...:)  Yesterday I didn't do much.  I mostly played the piano, sang and was happy.  Oh...I was also on the computer.:)  Tonight our stake is supposed to have a Christmas musical "The Forgotten Carols".  But I don't know if they are going to cancel it or not.  I hope not.  My Mom is singing in the choir, my Dad is playing Handel as an angel and Lindsey and Lauryn are doing something.  It should be good.   Tomorrow night we (my family) are hosting a caroling party and we have invited a bunch of friends over to come sing and have a  great time! :)  

Till next time!!:)

McKenna

P.S Here is a picture of us on Christmas day last year.  I know, I know...sweet Pj's right!?!!!?:):):):)

Friday December 12th, 2008

Today was yet another awesome day! :)  Pyramid Project was great!  Great job on your presentation Kayla!!:):):)  We did an hour long core book study.  I was NO WHERE near to being finished......but that is a OK, it was fantastic! :) We, the Pyramid Project students, are marvelous people!!  We get along great, everyone is supportive.....what more can I say??? :) They are phenomenal!!!  

French was gut...oops thats German for good....hehehehe...I should say BON!!  Thats good in French!!!!

Well its snowing right now.  It is supposed to get REALLY snowy....in fact there WAS talk about people possibly getting snowed in!!............well I'll keep you posted!!!

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna:)

P.S  "It's a wonderful life" was pretty good!  I thought it was really cute.  A whole bunch of my friends are in it. :) 

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Today I went to the Temple after seminary with this group of "school homers".  It was really fun!!  I absolutly LOVE going to the temple!!  It makes me extremely happy!!!!!!  We did over 200 baptisms and confermations with about 18 people!!!:):):):):):):) 

Emmalyn and I were supposed to have voice lessons, but my teachers daughter was sick.  At 1:15 Emmalyn and I had an orthodontist apointment....My teeth hurt now....:( For YW's we are going to the high school play "It's a wonderful life".  I'm really excited!! :)  The movie with Jimmy Stewart is AMAZING!!!!!  Anyway......that is my agenda for today!!

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!!

:):):):):)  McKenna!

The Court Jester

OK....so I haven't watched all of The Court Jester yet.....but it is SO good!!!!

Here is a link to a scene from it!! It is AWESOME!!:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6of3kMxV6z4

Hope you enjoy it!!:D:D:D:D:D:D

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna:D:D:D:D

Friday December 5th, 2008

Yesterday was a REALLY good day!!  Seminary was good. (Brother Couch taught the Freshmen seminary class because Sister Swertfeger was sick)  After seminary I did the usual routine.  Go home get ready for the day, eat breakfast and start on school.  Then at 9:45 am my Mom drove me to OYLI.  At 10:00 we had devotional.  Mariah had the devotional.  It was a really good one.  It is a subject that is really quite close to my heart.  She read the story "You are special" By Max Lucado.  It is a really powerful story...at least for me.  

 

It is about the Wemmicks , and how they go around putting stars and dots on people for either there special talents such as jumping high or could sing pretty songs.  The wemmicks would put dots on other wemmicks who couldn't sing pretty songs, jump high or would say silly things.  This was especially hard for one wemmick named Punchinello.  He had many dots.  He would try to jump high.  But when he did this, he would just fall and scratch his wood.  When he fell wemmicks  would gather around him and put dots all over him.  Then Punchinello would try to explain why.  Nut when he did he said funny things, so the wemmicks only put more dots on him.   Punchinello would tell himself that he wasn't a good wemmick because he didn't have any stars.  One day Punchinello met a wemmick named Lucia.  Punchinello had never seen a wemmick like Lucia before.  She had no dots OR stars anywhere on her body....she was just wood.  And its not that people didn't put dots on her, its that the stickers wouldn't stick.  They would fall off as soon as someone put it on.  Punchinello said to himself that he wanted to be like Lucia, with no dots or stars.   So he asked her how she didn't have any dots or stars on her."  "Its easy." She said.  "Every day, I go see Eli."   "Eli?" Said Punchinello.  "Yes Eli. The woodcarver.  I sit in the workshop with with him."  " Why?"  "Why don't you go find out yourself?  Go up the hill.  He's there." Lucia said.  Punchinello goes to see Eli.  When he gets to the workshop, he talks to Eli about the stickers that the wemmicks keep putting on others.  Eli tells Punchinello that the reason the stickers don't stick to Lucia is that she doesn't care what the others think of her.  All Lucia cares about is that Eli loves her.  Eli tells Punchinello that he is special because he made him and Eli tells Punchinello that he loves him very much.

.........I'm not the best at story synopsis's...:D Here is a link to the actual story..:D

       http://www.lollie.com/thinkagain.html

  After devotional we split for classes.  Pyramid Project class yesterday was one of my favorite so far. :D  The first thing we discussed was the devotional we just had.  We talked about how people put "Dots" on others.  Brother Waddell asked us WHY? do people do that to others?  We said that people could do it because hey are jealous or insecure with themselves. We then talked about how we sometimes put "Dots" on ourselves.  Brother Waddell wanted us to ponder these questions.  Do I put "Dots on myself?  If so, WHY?  Can I change it?  Do I want to be that way? Will I have the initiative to change it?  If I put "Dots on others will I stop?  

WE pondered this thought for a few minutes and then wrote down what our feelings were.  We also talked about how NO one is perfect.  We are somewhat like airplanes.  You may think airplanes are always on course, but the truth is they are 90% off course while flying to there destination.  So knowing this, we discussed that in our lives we are never completely on course, but like the airplane pilot, we are constantly looking for signals to help us from ending up somewhere we didn't want to be.  Like in the book by Stephen R. Covey,  7 Habits of Highly Effective people,  we must begin with the end in mind.  

Also in class we discussed that to learn and become better people, we must have Initiative and Submission.  Upon these two actions, we can develop: Vision, Mission, Abilities and Skills.  

After we discussed these serious subjects, Lillian gave her presentation.  It was on airplanes.  It was really informative. (..............NARF!!!!!........DOODLE!!!......sorry..... a sudden outburst of craziness....:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D)  After Lillian's presentation we discussed the book "The Phantom Tollbooth".  I highly recommend this book.  Especially to anyone who thinks that there life is boring and that they don't have any fun learning. :D  *sigh*  Pyramid Project is AMAZING!!!!  O mi palabra!!!!!!!!!  

...........I think I'm going to let you into my head for about 15 seconds.......... MY THOUGHT ON LIFE: My life is so AMAZING!!  I have AMAZING friends and FANTASTIC Adults whom I associate with.  They inspire me to do the best that I can do.  I feel SO blessed to live where I am with the family I'm with.  I am also so grateful  for the gospel.  Without it I feel like I would be a completely different person!!:D:D:D  Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!!!

Till I post again!!:D:D:D:D

McKenna!:D

Christmas Song

Here is a Christmas song from the New Era. :)

http://Broadcast.lds.org/Handheld/Magazines/2008/NE_2008Dec/NE_2008_12_00__LittleBaby__.mp3