"A weary world rejoices!"

I can hardly believe that it's the 20th of December! I can remember as child thinking how long it took the days of December to pass. Today as I think about it already being the 20th my heart hurts a little. Where did the month go? I feel I've hardly felt the spirit of Christmas and it's been my own selfish fault.
This month I've been so caught up in dating woes, work drama, and trying my best to make it to the end of a school semester, I've hardly even remembered we are in the Christmas season. Although I've missed out on so much of the Christmas magic, one thing has spoken to me all season. Every time I hear the song "Oh Holy Night" the line "A weary world rejoices" has stuck out to me. There have been many times at work that I'm caught up in the hustle and bustle and I will suddenly hear that line, instantly my mind thinks of a new born babe laying in a manger.
I love the picture that the line has brought to my mind throughout the season. I can almost envision lost and weary people needing something more in their lives. Through the birth of our Savior there was hope and something more... I need to personally remember that more in my own life. Although things aren't perfect in my life I do have the greatest gift of them all, a Savior. And for that I'm very thankful.
I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and will continue to rejoice!

ONE HAPPY BROOKE!

I'M DONE, DONE, DONE WITH SCHOOL FOR THE SEMESTER!!!! I MADE IT! :)

Instead of Church....

We....

• watched Tinkerbell & Peter Pan
• snuggled
• laid around in our P.J.'s
• took naps
• bathed
• ate lunch
• blogged
• facebooked
• enjoyed NOT being at church... Can I say that?! ;)
  

Bake Day...

One of my favorite Christmas traditions.... bake day. All the Jensen women get together and bake cookies, bake more cookies, and then bake even more cookies..... Final count 2,025!

Thanksgiving...Marathon Shopping...Work....

Thanksgiving dinner with the Jensen side of the family. As always the Dodee food was delicious, the company was great, and I was thankful to have both! Apparently I'm the giant in the family, I think these pictures prove my point.
A plan was born..... we decided to be crazies and pull an all nighter of shopping knowing darn well that I had nine hours of work the following day. Were we crazy...YES!!!!

First stop of the night... New Moon. I'm in no way into the Twilight sagas, but I choose Team Jacob! HELLO BODY!!!! Our movie ended at 12:30 so we headed to SouthTowne Mall, we had no idea of what we were in for! It was the CRAZIEST thing I've ever seen in my entire life. We didn't really buy anything but it was worth the experience.... I did snap at Jenny and some lady thought I was a total crazy! I even ran into my dear friend Meagan and her man Chris!

After mall madness, we had to refuel our engines at Denny's. Diet Coke was the liquid of choice and a large amount was consumed. I made an extremely intoxicated friend who refused to leave me alone. He was a treat... NOT!!!!

After Denny's we had sometime to kill before Kohl's opened. So what does one do at 3:45 in the morning?! Visit the Temple of course! After the Temple it was off to Kohl's we were on a mission to obtain door busters, so I forgot to take a picture... but it was CRAZY!
Walmart, the definition of insanity! I don't think these pictures even begin to do it justice... this is when I really started to get tired, however being tired was NOT an option!
After Walmart was Target due to the fact that by this point I was delirious, I neglected to document that stop. Next Old Navy, I was so tired sick of shopping that I didn't even look at one thing.... I absolutely hit my wall... and I still had nine hours of work ahead of me!
After being up ALL night, it was off to work for nine hours. We decorated our branch for Christmas, I'll be honest the day was mostly a blur. I don't remember much of work, and I thank my lucky stars that my drawer balanced at the end of the day.
Everyone keeps asking me if it was worth staying up all night. If I didn't have to work the next day ABSOLUTELY, but seeing is that I did, and it was increidble miserable, maybe not.

Really Max? Really!?

"I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything"
"I think the whole university, their fans, and their organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year, and they did a whole bunch of nasty things, and I don't respect them. They deserve to lose."

Thank you Max Hall for in turn show us what "classless" means. I've heard for the last year how horrible Utah fans are, well thanks to The Almighty Max Hall BYU became no better then us last night. Aside from he fact that his comments were a total oxymoron, I have yet another reason to loath BYU. One bad expericnce taints an entire Universtiy, it's students, alumni, programs, and eveything else in between?

Apparently Max wasn't thinking of these people when he made his comments.....

Joseph B. Wirthlin
President Thomas S. Monson, President Gordon B. Hinckley, President James E. Faust

Once again, President Thomas S. Monson

Some other notable Alumni....
John S. Hunstman

David O. Mckay

Harold B. Lee

Russel M. Nelson

Stephen R. Covey

Henry Eyring

And last but not least.... BYU's president himself Cecil O. Samuelson

Thanks for keeping things classy Max! You sure proved us wrong.

"Becuase I Have Been Given Much"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Why I love my job!

If you know anything about me, you know that I L-O-V-E my job! There are many reason I love my job, but mostly it's because it comes with it's own entertainment, and I don't think I ever stop laughing! Let's discuss these pictures. The one of the left is Mike and Chris watching the shred man take our documents and shred them... riveting right?! The one on the right is Chris hiding from a member he didn't want to help... I look forward to going to work almost every day, and I LOVE my co-workers. I for sure lucked out with my job, I guess I should thank DFCU for shafting me.

The Furture Mrs. Meagan Johnson...

Meagan Marz has been one of my best friends for about 7 years now... she is tying the knott on December 3rd and I could not be more excited for her! Saturday I threw a shower for her, everyone was able to make it, and boy was it fun. Meagan could serioulsy be one if not THE funniest person I have ever met in my entire life!!!

Being the friends of the bride naturally we had to equip her with all of the "necessities". That's what friends are for, right?! Meagan is one of the more reserved people I have ever known, so opening scandalous gifts was hard for her. Trust me we all got a great laugh and her expense!

I even got Saturday night with my best friends...

It was so much fun to spend the weekend with my best friends. I miss having them around like crazy, but it's always so much fun when we do get together!

Retaill Therapy..

I'm a firm believer in retail therapy. After a crazy, busy, stressful day, I cannot begin to tell you the happiness that this sweater brought to my little heart! :)

Trick or Treat?!

I had an eventful Halloween this year. First off was dressing up for work, everyone showed up dressed up which made for a fun day. Not only did my co-workers dress up, but I had three little darlings show up dressed up as well. Let me tell you, they are pretty freakin cute! I dressed up as Peter Pan, and I did win the costume contest for my branch. Thank you Peter!

Next was Halloween with the Jensen's. Teri spent the day cooking for us, which was very much appreciated. Homemade cream of chicken soup with homemade bread sticks were on the menu. After a delicious dinner we headed out trick or treating with the kiddos. Naturally they didn't last long, but it was so fun to watch them. After trick or treating we watched the end of a nerve racking Utah Football game. Then it was off to Jamie and Mike's house. Now listen hear, usually Mike and Jamie are party animals... not last night. After twenty minutes of watching a psycho show I decided to head.... I still love you both! :)

It was great Halloween! The beginning of November marks the beginning of the Holiday season, which I'm pretty excited about! Let the Holidays begin!

Today....

I may or may not have been asked out by a 50 year old married man! Yuck!

This makes my heart happy!!!

One of the many reasons I love Jacob!!

What am I up to?!... How bout I show you....

My cute little Oakley did my hair for me the other night. Didn't it turn out just beautiful! :)

A bridal shower for Candice...

A beautiful fall afternoon at Mueller Park.

Complete with photo shoot.

And yes.... Ashely and I do like to dress alike...

So life is as busy as ever. I'm still working 40 hours + a week, and doing lots of school. I guess it's a good thing I don't date, uh? Speaking of dating this past week I self appointed myself "The Queen of First Dates". I don't know that, that's a good thing, but it is what it is. :) Overall life is good, I'm glad last week is over, so this week WILL be a good one!

Will it end.....

Have you ever had one of those days that you just want to end!? Everything and anything that can go wrong seem to go wrong? When your just bugged beyond understanding? AHHH!!!! It's one of THOSE weeks!

S.G.

St. George is one of my most favorite places on earth... This past weekend some of the family went down for a few different reasons, but holy cow.... we had FUN!!! The weekend was filled with golfing, swimming, marathons, Vegas, kids, shopping, eating, more shopping, and yet more eating.

Dad and I went golfing on Thursday, listen I might not be Tiger, but I held my own. I was surprised how much I liked golfing and can't wait to get out there again. Another big surprise my dad didn't kill me, I was concerned about golfing with someone who takes it serious. It ended up being so much fun, and a great father daughter bonding time.
Oh little Oakley... I'm not even a parent but I looked forward to nap time every day. I seriously don't know how Trent and Amy do it day in and day out. Hats off to them. However their kids are so cute, and made for some good laughs. Four words.... Aiden, closed screen door!!! :) HAHAHA!!!!

Amy and I had some serious fun together. I thought so many times how lucky our family is to have such an awesome sister-in-law. (and come November 11th we'll get another one) Amy and I went to lots of stores together, and laughed until we cried. Honestly I had so much fun with Amy this weekend! I'll probably experience separation withdrawals without her for the next few days.

We made our way South to Vegas to see Jake and Candice's new pad. This is the love birds being reunited. Their house is so cute! And while in Vegas we tired a wonderful BBQ joint, two thumbs up from me!!!

Swimming and lots of it!

Now to the highlight of the trip... Saturday morning we made our way to the finish line of the marathon to watch Trent finish. Honestly he is just incredible! He ran the course in 2 hours 45 minutes, and finished 34 overall. I don't know how he does it, but he makes me proud to be his sister! It was so fun to be at the finish line and watch him finish. (On a side note, I have no idea why anyone runs marathons, I was tired just from watching people run!)

MY FAVORITE RUNNER!

The second highlight of the trip... The Brickoven, now conveniently located in St. George. While the boys were at priesthood and Amy's mom kindly took the kids we made our way to feed our faces... One word... YUMMY!!!! :)

St. George was so much fun, and was just about perfect! I'm already looking forward to the next trip down South.

"We must protect this house!"

For anyone who knows ANYTHING about the Jensen's should know that we take our Utah Football very serious. Saturday nights game was no exception! Utah faced the Louisville Cardinals. Utah redeemed themselves after last weeks embarrassment, and we had fun watching it!

Lulu may or may not have shown up for a cheer or two! I have to keep the racial slurs to a minimum in public!

The game was an absolute riot, and it made it so much more fun that Utah WON!!!

GO UTES!!!


On a side note, we were walking back to our car after the game and we came across a man who had had a heart attack. We watched the paramedics try to revive him but they had no luck. He was just laying on the side walk dead... it was a mildly traumatic experience. I'll probably have nightmares about it, and could possibly need therapy.

HAPPY BIRHTDAY MR. JOSH.....

Josh had a big day today... he turned 5! And boy does his mom know how to throw a party..... We had a "Spooky Carnival" to celebrate.... The birthday boy.
Spooky cupcakes were the treat of choice....
Annie couldn't get enough of them, but what fun would it be to eat a cupcake with your hands?!

Not 1, not 2, but 3 bounce houses the keep the kiddos entertained...

My cute little buddies showed up to keep me company.

Nothin but LOVE!

Aren't my nieces the cutest things ever?! I sure think so.....

Jamie and I, we worked hard to get this picture, turned out pretty good!

HAPPY BIRHTDAY JOSH! I HOPE YOUR DAY WAS WONDERFUL. I SURE LOVE, AND I'M GRATEFUL YOU BELONG TO MY FAMILY! :) CHEERS!