Christmas 2009!!

Christmas was so much fun this year. We spent it at Grandma and Grandpa Hales house and I loved every minute of it. There were so many fun picture that I wanted to post. It was so hard to choose just a few, so I didn't and I just posted like 32 pictures (yes I counted). Enjoy.


Christmas Eve I curled our hair just for fun.

Christmas Caroling on Christmas Eve
Hanging out with cousins



Christmas Day.
Brooklynn and Grace are little buddies. They are so funn to play with.
This is the blanket I made for Janel's new baby.
Jack
The three little kids.
Grandma and Grandpa, They are holding up a decorative tile that we got them. It says "Some of our greatest blessings call us Grandma & Grandpa"
Our gifts from Grandma.
Me and My cousin Adam. He's a stud.

We did a little bit of shopping, and had dinner at The Gateway before heading to Temple Square the day after Christmas.
Temple Square.


In the Tabernacle
Brooklynn is just so darn cute!
Hale family Christmas party. I want to say we had 70 people there. Kathy and I with our cousin Jon and his wife Amelia.


Playing in the snow!

Sledding
For some reason Ammon likes to grow a beard at Christmas, but I think he only keeps it for a couple of weeks. I'm not a fan of facial hair.



This was fun, but we thought we could do better so....

..we tried for three. This was fun except for the part where we hit a bump and I got the wind knocked out of me.
A day of skiing at Brighton. My whole family went, and both of my dad's brothers families went too (Uncle's Brent and Bob). There were probably about 30 Hales on the slopes that day.
This is My 83 year old Grandpa and Me about to hit the slopes. Grandpa had a 5 by-pass heart surgery 2 years ago. He is an amazing man. I'm lucky to have him for my Grandpa.


Kathy and Andy.
I thought this picture was funny, we didn't plan to do the same thing. If I remember correctly someone had spilled a drink right when the picture was being taken and we both covered our mouth because we were laughing and we shouldn't have been.
New Year's Eve dinner

My Last Days in Tennessee

I don't have many pictures but the last couple of weeks that I was home a lot of fun things happened. The last week of institute we had a Christmas party complete with ugly sweater contest, and white elephant exchange.

Guess who won the ugly sweater contest?
ME!! and let me tell you the pictures do not do it justice. I was like "If I'm going to wear this thing I sure as heck better win." and I did. Kelsey and Jackson were runner-ups they are the 2 on the far right. During the white elephant exchange I got mistletoe :) you know what that means... I was getting kissed by lots of boys haha...jk kinda... only on the cheek.
Later that week we went on a caving adventure. I invited more people but only 2 of my friends came for one reason or another. It was so much fun. HAHA it was snowing when we went, so before we even made it to the cave Megan and I both fell on our butts, and Michael ripped his pants (and good might I add). Once we made it to the cave everything was great, no injuries or anything so that was good.
Megan, Michael, Me, and Dad

Megan and I by the waterfall that is in the middle of the cave.

Big Mama's Karaoke Cafe

On Saturday night a big group from the singles branch went to a Karaoke Cafe. Only in Tennessee will you find a "Big Mama's" Karaoke Cafe. This is a bunch of us girls and Brock singing "I Will Survive"

I sang "No Air" by Jordan Sparks. I love these next 2 pictures because I go from looking cute and kind of shy to....

Rocking out. I think I have been tagged as being shy a lot because I am quiet, but let me tell you I'm not shy. I actually love getting up in front of people. They say it's the quiet ones you have to look out for....haha..All of my friends actually think I'm good at dancing. They crack me up.

We are all singing too each other. I would say cute, but I don't think we actually look cute in this picture. I think special is a better word choice.

Rachel, Jon, Kristine, and Me.

Megan, Amber, Kristine, Me, and Jenny.

Mandi, Jordan, Me, and Melissa


I should've gotten a group picture but I didn't. I love the Knoxville YSA branch. Karaoke is fun, I think everyone should try it atleast once in their lifetime.

Halloween Weekend

On Friday there was a multi-stake young single adult(YSA) in McMinnville. I took a group down from the Knoxville singles ward. It was a lot of fun. I got to be with my new friends, and see a bunch of old friends from McMinnville. Some I haven't seen in years.

I'm and Dora the Explorer and I think Mandi is a teacher.


This is Rachel the fairy. She's also going to be my roommate this coming winter semester. Behind me on the right is Melissa. She is a yearbook photo. I thought that was clever.


Me, Jenny, and Mandi


Peter and Mandi



After the dance was over we went to the lake house. Some of us decided to go for a midnight swim. When we got to the dock we realized that there was about 30 feet of mud to go through before we even got the the water. The mud was knee deep. The water was freezing!! but after we got used to it, it felt really warm.





Rachel and Megan had enough.


Me, Peter, and Jon went back for more.













Since you can't tell in the pictures from the night...


this is what we went through to get to the water. Was it worth it? Absolutely.


We headed back to Knoxville on Saturday afternoon. The Knoxville stake was putting on a YSA activity Saturday night.
Peter, Me, and Mandi


Donut eating contest

Sorry I don't have more pictures.
Needless to say, I had an awesome Halloween. I'm grateful that I had a great group of friends to share it with.