A random jumble

A lot has happened that need documentation. But I suffer from a severe condition in which I getvery far behind in recording important events and prolific thoughts and loose the ability to actually fix this problem. This is because I'm lazy and catching up is hard and can take a long time (which makes me sound very pathetic). I am trying to combat this affliction, but the going is slow.

I already wrote about Karlie's graduating, but here is some pictures from her party.

If you can figure out why I love this picture you get a bazillion bonus points.

Kelsie, Jen, and I finally were accepted to the adult table!

I spent some time with some of my favorite people.

I watched Ryen and Peyten swim and it just made me sooo proud! I taught them both swim lessons for two summers and seeing how much they learned and especially Peyten's love of swimming is amazing. Seeing Peyten swim now makes all those hours I held her in the pool while she was screaming and crying totally worth it.

I (re)learned how to drive a stick shift. I learned a couple years ago, but never really got the hang of it, so my dad had to reteach me. Brendan was appalled at my skills and became furious when I got to drive my dad's new car by myself to pick him up. It's not my fault I was born 5 years earlier and already have my license.

My dad in the physical manifestation of my inheritance.

And me afterwards. I had no idea my hair could get so tangled...

Brooke just read Thomas S. Monson's biography and she told me that in it, it said something about how his mother liked to spy on people. So, if President Monson's mom thinks it's ok to spy then I'm not going to feel guilty about it at all!

Kar

Beautiful Karlie graduated from high school! I'm so proud of her. (Even though this is a week late, I promise I'm still proud of her.) She'll be heading up to BYU-Idaho in January. (Still far, but 8 hours closer than she is now!) I realize that I don't write very much about Karlie. In fact, to some it may appear as if I only have one sister. But, that is false. It's just that my brown haired sister lives less than 5 minutes away from me and we're going to be living in the same apartment come August. And she calls me and says things like "Kay-Kay I miss you. Come get me," in a very pathetic voice.

We rarely call Karlie, Karlie. She is more commonly know as: Karkey, Kar-Kar, Karlini, Kar, Karkaroff, and basically any other way you can manipulate her name. What can I say, we have weird nicknames for each other. And for every one of those names (except Karkaroff, which Karlie hates, and we reserve for when we want to make her mad) there is a version of it for mine and Kelsie's names. For example: Kakey, Kay-Kay, Kakini, and Kate for me, and Kelkey, Kels-Kels, Kelsini, and Kels for Kelsie. Did you know that my sisters and I all have the same initials? It's true. They're KAS. Katie Anne, Kelsie Alexandra, and Karlie Alane.

Karlie is kinda messy. Which reminds me of this quote by Jane Austen that always makes me think of Kar.

"An artist can never do anything slovenly."

Karlie is also an artist. She is planning on majoring in art and draws on scraps of paper in church.

Karlie is loving. She always comes up to me and hugs me and says "Oh, Kakey."

Karlie is giving. Unlike my brown haired sister, who is stingy. Karlie always shared her Barbie's, Polly Pockets and baby dolls with me, and never hid them under her bed. My mom told me that when she took Karlie shopping for her last birthday when she would pick things up she would always mention how much Kelsie would like that particular item too.

Karlie has blue/green/gray eyes. How is that fair? She is also very tan right now. How is that fair? She gets to look all sun kissed and pretty and I have to look pasty and get a freaking bad sunburn after being in the sun for four hours even with sunscreen slathered on. Not that I'm jealous.

Karlie is funny. She cracks me up. I really don't know where she comes up with the things she says sometimes.

Karlie is a fast reader. Even faster than me. And she's read so many more books than me. I wonder if Dad takes her books away at 11 pm too? I'll have to find out.

Karlie, of all of my siblings, probably looks the most like me. She is very lucky.

Karlie is special. And I couldn't love her more.

I'm coming home, I'm coming home, tell the world I'm coming home

Yes, it's true I am now home in FresYes.

But before we get to that, let's talk about Friday night!

(Also, get prepared because this is going to be a marathon post. I just have a lot to say. Luckily, Brooke has been training. Since she got 12 posts behind and then got caught up she is prepared for the longest post ever. You've been warned. But I promise there will be pictures, videos, singing, and wittiness.)

So, this summer there is a series of rooftop concerts the first Friday of every month in Provo. Last night was Megan Smith, who has a song on the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack. It was a lot of fun and it was a beautiful night.

There were so many people we couldn't even see the stage. So I have absolutely no idea what the singer's looked like.

I was obsessed with the paper lanterns they had hanging. I thought they were so pretty. I also got 2 new headbands. People had set up booths outside the concert, and one lady was selling these awesome homemade headbands for $4 each, so I bought 2. Here is Kelsie modeling one of them.

I think this rooftop concert series is such a good idea. It is one more reason why Provo is the best place to spend summers.

Now to the main event.

I am HOME!!!

Kelsie and I drove home to Fresno yesterday.

We're here for KarKar's high school graduation. Isn't she so pretty?

The drive was very uneventful except for the 28 police cars we saw along the way. We made it through ticketless, but there was a couple close calls. Boy, do those cops like to hide! At one point just outside of Bakersfield we saw 16 cops because they were in the middle of a man hunt. An armed robber was hiding out in a vineyard, but luckily they caught him.

This is what 99% of the drive through California looks like.

And this is how Kelsie and I spend most of our time driving.

Would you look at the price of gas in Barstow? $4.59!!! Luckily we've done this drive so many times we know to go a little bit further into the city to get gas, so we ended up getting gas for $3.91. Which is still ridiculous.

The weather was gorgeous until we started descending into the San Joaquin Valley. And then it got crappy fast. And it hasn't gotten any better since we've been home.

Did you know that Tatooine is actually located in Central California?

If you know anything about me, you'll know that I love McDonalds. One of the best sandwich's they have is the McChicken. In Provo, for some bizarre reason, they only have Hot 'n Spicy McChickens. Which are nasty. As soon as we could, Kelsie and I stopped and got regular McChickens.

The best part of the McChicken is the mayonnaise. Which I know is gross. But it's just so good!

After 11 and 1/2 hours of boring driving we arrived home. But we barely recognized our childhood dwelling. In the past few weeks my parents have gotten our house painted and the backyard redone. And it looks amazing.

Right now I'm laying on the couch on the porch while there is an awesome thunder and lightening storm pouring down on us. And it is freaking awesome!!!

So far home has been delightful. I've eaten steak. I've played the piano. I've practiced driving stick shift in my dad's Mustang (more on that later!). I've browsed our DVR recordings and plotted out what I'm going to watch. I've played with Ryen, Peyten, and Camden. And, I've spent time with my family, which is really the whole reason I come home.

Didn't I tell you it'd be a long post?

But wait! You can read more about it at http://kelsie-stuart.blogspot.com/

Some of my absolute favorite people

These are some of my most absolute favorite people.

They just make me smile. And want to jump in my car and drive all the way to California so I can play with them, even for just a few hours.

Its amazing having little cousins who adore you. I've always thought that one of the best things in the world is when you walk through the door and they see you and come running and squealing. Just because they're excited to see you.

Probably one of the best feelings in the world.

Dostoevsky said, "The soul is healed by being with children." This couldn't be more true. They make you laugh and wish you could be young like them again. Plus they let you play with their Barbie's.

Yesterday was Peyten's birthday. She turned 5. It really does seem like yesterday that she was baby and I was a senior in high school. Now look where we are - she's about to start school and I'm about to finish it.

When I called to talk to Peyten yesterday she was at dance class, but Ryen and I had a delightful conversation (more on that in a bit). But when I called back, Peyten answered the phone and the first thing she told me was-

"I'm 5 now!"

And she was so excited. I asked her what she did on her birthday and she said "fun stuff". Now, unlike Ryen, Peyten isn't much of a phone talker. She'll talk to you for approximately 1.59 minutes and then decide she's done and hand the phone off. So after our brief exchange Peyten told me that she was playing a game with Ryen and that she would talk to me later.

And that was that.

You would never guess this when you talk to Peyten in person cause she will just chat with you and tell you funny stories. Peyten says the funniest things. We call them Peytenisms. They include these gems-

"Ryen, you just have to ask Aunt Nancy and she'll buy it for you!"

"Lucifer is not a very nice cat"

"Lasterday..."

"I'm gonna win you!"

"what do you do with your brother?"
"I pinch him."

"She can't marry the mole!"

"We can play Rapunzel!" (Peyten)

"OK, who is going to be Rapunzel?" (me)

"Somebody whose hair touches their shoulders...mine touches my shoulders!"

I can't believe my little Peyten is 5. That's a whole hand!

Ryen, on the other hand, is quite the little chatter on the phone. She'll just talk and talk until either you have to go or her mom tells her she needs to let someone else have a turn. Yesterday Ryen and I talked on the phone for almost my whole trip home, which is 20 minutes.

Some of the best parts were when she told me about how she was trying to make a basket at recess and couldn't. She just sounded so forlorn. And then the absolute best was this question-

"Do you know what your new last name is going to be yet?"

Out of the blue a few months ago Ryen started asking me what my new last name is. I don't think she's made the connection that I'll change my name when I get married, either that or she's just the most roundabout at asking me if I have a boyfriend. I just about die laughing every time she asks me this.

I asked her what her new last name was going to be and she picked Rose. And then she said she was going to name her kids Rapunzel and Sweet.

And Cam, I'm just glad that he warms up to me when I come home. I've been away at school for most of his life and one of the things that scares me the most is that he won't know who I am. But every time I see him, even if he doesn't remember me at first, he does by the end of my visit. This last visit for Christmas was so much fun. Cam would just come over and sit on my lap and play with my fingers for a while. And then he would look up to me and whisper "I wanna go to my room." And then we would go play cars in his room until I had to go home.

I love having younger cousins. They just make everything more enjoyable.

Happy Christmas Harry! Happy Christmas Ron!

I gave Brendan and Karlie Snuggies for Christmas.

It's the blanket with sleeves!

You can talk on the phone!

You can hold a baby!

You can play water polo!

And of course you can have a wizard's duel!!!

"You're a wizard Brendan!"

"I'm a what?"

"You're a witch Karlie!"

"I knew it! Wanna see a spell? 'Sunshine daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!'"

Oh boy! It's started!

Brendan must have been trained by Gildroy Lockheart! Look at that Disarming Charm! Expelliarmus!

Oh no! It looks like Karlie got the best of him in the end...

But its ok because I have this picture of him!

Frosting Fight!!!

For the past several years my siblings and I have made cookies with our little cousins for Santa. We go over for the day and cut out and decorate sugar cookies, and every year we get into a frosting fight. The whole frosting fight tradition is totally my fault.

The first year thinking I was being funny I started to smear frosting of Ryen and Peyten's faces. Of course they loved it and ever since part of the tradition had included a frosting fight.

This year we had a bunch more little kids who came to make cookies with us, so Ryen, Peyten, and I had a little frosting fight, but we didn't want to have a huge mess on our hands so I made them stop after a few minutes.

I only got pictures of Peyten and I after the frosting fight but Ryen looked pretty much the same.

Aunt Michele made a ton of cookie dough. The kids only actively made cookies for about 45 minutes and then went and played, leaving Kelsie, Karlie, me, and the other adults to finish the cookies with sporadic help from the kids. Brendan got there late because he was a practice, but then he pretty much became the punching bag for the kids and kept them busy. As soon as he walked in the door Camden was stuck to his side. It was very cute.

I love having little cousins. They are so much fun to be with and make you feel awesome when you walk in the door because they are so excited to see you.