Mingledorff Christmas Party!

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Roy to spend the weekend with Michelle & co., Megan & co., and Brianna. We had a blast! We spent most of the time chatting and laughing and eating. We ate a lot. There was also plenty of piano playing and singing and puzzling.

One night we headed over to the Roy Fire Station to see Christmas lights and play in the snow. Ben tried to snow board on a cookie sheet down a giant hill and made it about 8 inches before the cookie sheet slid out from under him and he landed straight on his behind, breaking (and losing) his watch. We got a good laugh out of it. Ben and Sam went back later that night and miraculously were able to find his watch. Tithing blessing if there ever was one.

There was a scary part involving a phone call informing us that some drunk guy with a gun was in the neighborhood and we needed to lock up and turn off all the lights. That was slightly terrifying. But thankfully everything worked out in the end.

We had a white elephant gift exchange that was a blast! It was really intense. I think everyone came away happy except for maybe Megan and Sam who left with both cans of sardines. Ha.

White Elephant

I think there was constantly someone playing the piano while we were there. So nice.

for the Ohio fam

At the  Roy Lights

Trevor had so much fun with Addison the whole trip. I loved watching them play together.

We really had such a fun time. It was so much fun to see everybody and to hang out together. We've really been blessed to have family so close to us here. We recently decided that we'll be moving to Ohio on January 10th to start in with the Griffioen family insurance agency. We are so excited to get out there and start this new part of our lives, but we are also really going to miss living so close to the family we have out here. It was so nice to be able to spend some of the holiday season with them. Love you guys!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

It's been a while since the last post - sorry Mom. But here I am, once again, with the highlights of the past few weeks. This is going to be the longest post ever...

To start off, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Burt family. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but it was awesome. Ruth made the absolute best turkey I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. I don't know how she did it. We ended the night with a frigid game of croquet in the back yard, which I would have dominated, had we not left in the middle of it. I am very grateful to be able to have family so close.

We got a TV! Ben and I had our first black friday experience this year, and I kind of hope to never do it again. After standing outside of Target from about 2:30 to 4:00 am, and almost freezing to death, and then getting lost in a stampede of insane black friday shoppers, we finally got to the TV, just as the last ones were being claimed.


I am not a picky eater. Especially when it comes to fruit. But Ben introduced me to a new one recently: the mango. I tried to like it, but it tasted like carrots and menthol. Like carrot coughdrops, but with a really sick texture. I am not a fan.


We bought our first Christmas tree. It's real cute and it's still up in our apartment, and probably will be for a while. I'm not quite ready for Christmas to be over just yet.


We finished another semester of school! That last semester was a doozie for the both of us. I was taking anatomy, which I absolutely loved - but it's nice to have my life back. Ben's semester was full of a bunch of classes he did not enjoy at all, so he was relieved when it ended as well. We took the last finals hopped on a plane headed to Ohio to spend some time with the fam.

We were there a few days before we got to drive down to Georgia to see my family for Christmas (thank you so much to Ben's parents for making that possible!!) and had a blast playing games, making delicious Christmas food, going to "the across the street", caroling, and just hanging out. I found out on this trip that I am allergic to benzocaine. I had been using some stuff on my lips to treat, what I thought was a fever blister, and it spread all over my face. It was really gross, and scary, and embarrassing, and painful, and it turns out I was just allergic to the numbing agent in the lip medicine stuff. That was also an embarrassing discovery, that I had been causing it myself. Anyway, we had an awesome time in Georgia with my family. It's always so much fun to see them.




After all the Christmas festivities, we made the trip back up to Ohio where we got to spend some time with the Griffioens. It was really the first time I got to spend any time there with them (the three days after the wedding doesn't really count), and I can honestly say that I have got some awesome in-laws. We had a really great time. We watched a TON of football, learned to play Killer Bunnies, watched the ball drop, Ben played basketball with his brothers, we read a little bit, played "the dice game", and just had a very relaxing, fun time.


I wish I were better about taking pictures, but unfortunately, over the entire break, I didn't even take one. The ones that I put on here were stolen from Shauna and Libby - thanks guys.

Now here we are, back in Provo again for the start of a new semester. So far, classes are going well. I have an awesome schedule - no class monday or friday, and only one on wednesday. Of course, that makes for a pretty awful tuesday and thursday, but I think it's worth it. We're still trying to get back on top of things. In fact, we have yet to go grocery shopping since the beginning of December, so we are currently living off of oatmeal, waffles, and Christmas candy. We're getting there though. It's going to be a great year!