Ryan Harding is a missionary!!!

Ryan is the last of 12 of my awesome guy friends to leave on his mission! He reported to the MTC this morning, and will be leaving for Fukuoka, Japan in March!

el room

My room is all coming together!


I bought this little beauty...you may remember it from a previous post... now I just need the perfect chair and my computer to go with it!


And a bedspread... which will hopefully be a quilt I want to make with my grandma.

Oh...ignore the elephant on my bed. That's just Carl. Maybe I do and maybe I DO sleep with it every night. haha Austin gave that to me the night before he left... and Austin ALSO installed this amazing chandelier (complete with dimmer ;) haha)

Moral of the story.... keep your eye out for a chair!

The Skousen's

When I first started this blog...it was purely advertisement for my photography. There was NO way I was entering into the blogging world. I was so anti. But since my past 4 posts have been entirely personal instead of business.... I have accepted that yes. I am a blogger. Phew...that feels good to get off my chest. haha BUT I must focus on my original goal! Here is the Skousen Family!

Christmas Time!!

Every year, we have our annual Christmas party with the McKinnon side of the fam where we wear our pajamas, eat Mexican food, read a Christmas story, and sing Santa Clause is Coming to Town that MAGICALLY makes a special visitor appear and give each grandchild a stocking!


From the oldest...
To the youngest....
Oh ya...it's real.
Christmas Eve, we have dinner with the Shaker side of the family, and then we come home and get to open our Christmas Eve present! Which is ALWAYS new pajamas! Then we wake up around 5am....well my brothers do and jump on me and steal all my blankets and call me the grinch until I am awake enough to find my way to the family room to open presents. Then the whole McKinnon side of the family meets at my great grandma's house for breakfast and a white elephant gift exchange. One of the gifts we brought was a frame with a picture of Obama in it. haha My mom couldn't stop giggling. It was a great Christmas though. I can't believe it's already over. Only 1 more Christmas with out my missionary!

It's Winter in ARIZONA!

This past semester, I took gym as one of my classes...requiring me to spend 40 hours working out. Have you guys seen my biceps recently ;) haha jk But really. It was good for me...and now that I'm not forced to exercise...I haven't been. Needless to say my endorphins have been somewhat lacking.... SO tonight, I convinced my mom to go for a walk with me despite this random weather. Since we were both born and raised in the great city of Mesa, we feared the dreadful 50 degree weather outside! We knew if we didn't want to get frostbite or pneumonia, we would need to bundle up. We put on every winter item we owned and stepped outside. What the rain? No big deal... we'll just get our umbrellas. Turns out we only own one. So I improvised with a giant yellow umbrella we used for shade at the boy's football games. Knowing how ridiculous we looked, we couldn't stop giggling as we strolled down the street spinning our umbrellas to get HOT chocolate from the Hot Chocolate Market... aka Chevron.
Little do you know we each have long johns and 2 heavy coats on!

This is us looking "cold"... I think we look like we are about to be sick... haha
My mom couldn't decide if she was Marry Poppins or a gangster... so her accent varied throughout the night.


This is the BEST house on our street. Maybe because it's the only house with lights outside... But they do it every year and it's always awesome.

Thanks for the stroll Mom!

Merry Christmas to ME!

This is my absolute FAVORITE Christmas movie! It always becomes part of my nightly routine this time of year. Imagine my excitement when I found out that it would be playing at the IMAX in 3D! Needless to say....I have been planning this for months! And tonight was the night! My aunt Andrea, my two cousins Joely and Jace, and my little brother Garrison and I all put our pajamas on and prepared ourselves for a night on the Polar Express!

This is me and G baby excited out of our minds!
Joely (still trying to wake up from her nap), Andrea, and Jace
It was so much fun! And I think seeing The Polar Express at the IMAX will now be a part of my holiday routine.

Garrison was a a little tired on the way home..."Did you just take a picture of me?"

Who does that?

Jake does. EVERY time.

The Glenn Girls