Island Jams Playlist

everybody has that playlist they make specifically for the beach/pool. well here is a few songs from mine! 

Beach Days

my sisters...

these two.... love them so much. we couldn't all be more different and simliar at the same time. so fun being back all together for christmas break.

this trip we have been lucky enough to have the company of my sweet grandpa. he is 89 years old and my grandma passed away this past november. he is the cutest thing. tonight at dinner we were asking my grandpa his favorite memory of my grandma. he started talking about her birthdays and when they first met. they were married for over sixty years. i can't believe it. that is love and those two are an example to me. i hope i will be lucky enough to find someone i can share my life with for that long. i am jealous of my grandparent's relationship. i am jealous of it not because they were lovey dovey and acted like the perfect couple all the time but because i saw them go through their life together. those two fought so much but you know what, they stayed together! through the good times and the bad times. he was by her side when she was diagnosed with cancer and stayed with her through all her surgeries until she passed away. he loved her so much. they were each others everything. 

there is no place that makes me happier than the beach. hawaii over christmas break is perfect. it is cool at nights but the days are so pleasent. i hate extreme heat and i don't like extreme cold either. this trip has been so fun with my family. my parents are a riot without even trying and being back with with my family seriously makes me feel like a kid again. tonight my sisters and i were watching high school musical 3 in our hotel room after we got home from dinner. the three of us were laughing our heads off.   i just love that we can go away but come back and it is like nothing has changed. 

we have completed our second day of the trip and i am seriously hoping it never ends. we go to the beach, lay out and swim everyday...it is totally my kind of trip. i have never been one to make very many plans on vacation, especially a beach vacation. my family gives me crap because i am perfectly content with spending my whole day on the beach with my book, ipod and magazines. 

i can't get enough of john legend and people magazine.  

Aloha

The Day After Chrismtas

the day after christmas is the worrrrrst! not just because it is the day after christmas but because it is pretty much the last day of the holiday season. i guess there is still new years but besides that we have january to look forward to... yuck. i am just happy i am still on winter break. that means no school and homework for another week and i am going to enjoy netflix and sleeping in. it is weird because this is my last winter break. next year i will no longer be a student. i will be entering my last semester EVER at utah state this year. i have a total of 4 credits before graduation. i don't know what i am going to do with all my extra time. maybe i will find another job or pick up some service hours! who knows however i do know that this coming semester it will be time to focus my energy on applying for jobs after i graduate. i am not quite sure if i am ready for all of this. 

college has been my little safety net which is why i extended my credits into spring semester instead of completing it all fall semester. i am just not ready to grow up yet. i feel like there is so much pressure after you graduate to find the job of your dreams or to make something of yourself. for me, i know i am not going to find the job of my dreams right away and i don't think i even know what the job of my dreams is. all i hope is that whatever i end up doing it is something that i enjoy. i hope that wherever life takes me, i am happy and i am learning. i feel like you find life by living. so... no pressure... no expecations on myself i am going to accept whatever life brings. obviosuly i still have goals and aspirations. there are things i want and i will defintely work towards that however i feel like i am the happiest when i accpet life for what it is not what i wish it would be. 

i think me like everyone else is a little scared of disappoinment or rejection. believe me, i have had many of those in my life and sometimes i regret trying but then i think disappointments are what really help you apperciate success. this last semester was so great but i experienced a lot of disappointments. it was hard but its also okay because i know i learned a lot from it. i got the most frusturated when life didn't go EXACTLY like i thought or planned.... oh well what are you going to do? you just have to keeping going and know that good times are always ahead. 

Christmas Morning

this weekend since i have been home my phone battery has run out twice as fast as any other time. i just want to capture every single moment. maybe this is how parents feel when their kids are growing up. they want to get everything on camera. they just think everything their kids do and say is the cutest thing. well now that i have grown up and my parents are getting older literally everything they say and do cracks me up. i have a whole album in my iphoto library of just my dad. i have been blowin my social media up with my family home videos and pictures. one of the christmas presents my mom gave us all this morning was a story book of our family. it had pictures and stories of not only my immediate family but of my grandparents. as i was looking over the pictures and reading the stories my heart was full. it is amazing to see the transition of people over time. i saw pictures of when we were babies and growing up through elementary and highschool and also of my grandparents at the same ages. pictures say so much and they bring back so many memories. this is why i always have my camera on me it's like a visual journal. there was one thing and one thing only that i wanted for christmas this year (referring to presents) and that was a video camera. i am always taking videos on my iphone but i wanted an upgrade. i want to start making real family home videos that i can upload and have to look back on forever. my mom was the absolute best when it came to catching moments on camera when we were growing up. i love nothing more than to go up to her computer when i am home from school and rewatch these videos. i just laugh so hard and it is a way my brother and sister and i bond. 

this morning was just like the years before. my mom STILL has us sit on the stairs before we open gifts. yes i am 22 (almost 23) and we are all above the ages of 18. 4 adults sitting on the stairs while our mommy and daddy film us open gifts, that's how we do things at the thatcher house. yes i am older but when i am with my family there is so much of me that still feels like a little kid. it is that feeling of going away and growing up but when you come back it is like nothing has changed. my family truly makes me happy and i love spending time with them. i feel now more than ever in my life i have a real apperciation for them. maybe it is because we fight less and enjoy each others company so much because we are harldy ever all together. this morning my mom made her christmas belgium waffles and we watched last years choir broadcast. we read a couple verses of the bible and my parents told us how much they love us and each other. what a blessing it is to be a part of a loving family. the rest of the day i plan on watching holiday movies and eating. my two favorite things. food and movies, oh i guess three because i love the fam. 

when it comes to buying gifts for my dad, i have no idea!!!!! he loves expensive things like apple electronics and hello i am just a poor college student that makes $8 an hour. so no.... i can not buy him the latest ipad but there is one thing i do know about my dad, he loves sentimental things. i know how much we both enjoyed our trip to scotland and ireland this summer so i thought i would give him pictures to remind him of the time when we really got close. even putting the gift together got me a little teary eyed. we really did have such a good time together. a time in my life i will truly cherish forever. as he opened the gift and read the card he started to cry. he told me the gift meant so much to him. sooo.... booooya my gift rocked (yeah it costed me a penny) but i got my dad to cry and that is more than any apple product can do. 

jen & stace 

this is was my mom's gift to my dad. she is so cute and fuuny.

of few weeks ago i was in h&m with my sister stacey and i saw this adorable bag. i wanted it but it was $50 and i was like that is way too much for a purse. i said to her "tell mom and dad i want this for christmas" stacey being her thoughtful self didn't let this request fly over her head but remembered and got it for me for christmas. what a sweatheart. i love it so much. can't wait to sport it around. 

The Night Before Christmas

although our family christmas traditions have change through the years there is one thing that has stayed the same since we were kids and that is that we still, without fail get christmas pj's from our momma. she is the sweetest and even though we are all older she sometimes still treats us like we are little kids. i really am okay with it because in so many ways i still feel like a little kid. none of us are married yet which just means that we all have more time to spend with just each other. 

 sisters