the beck fam

back in august my sister asked me to take some photos of her family but i was given strict instruction not post anything about it until after christmas.
so as to not ruin their christmas letter, here we are four months later.

(and many were taken by ryan because at the time i felt stressed about the low light  so thanks to him for assisting me in my near breakdown)

and there will be one more little beck joining the family soon! 

i wish they would make their little babies forever. 

flyerz

we just wanted to thank delta for the free wi-fi on our flight back to slc right now. 

don't really know what is so pressing that needs to be done on a plane and can't wait till home so i'm doing the only thing i can think of. 

blogging it.

 megan's view.

 ryan's view.

 the view of the person behind us.

(they probably think we are retarded)

aaaaand if you look closely you can see how ryan tried to make the earbuds stay in my ears. i have never been able to keep them in there because my ears are too small. but this little wrap around method is working quite well. 

listening to jonsi, sitting with ry guy (and the sleeping lady next to me), free wi-fi, free movie "delta destinations", free cup of ice and ginger snaps soon to be in my possession (and the free ryan dictionary reminding me how that is spelled...and then reminding me that 'spelled' is not spelled 'spelt') make up for quite the flight. i'm not even mad that the flight was delayed and that they took away my new toothpaste. (they have made up for it in all the free happiness and christmas gifts) 

wait a minute- 

DELTA DESTINATIONS JUST TURNED INTO AN EPISODE OF THE OFFICE!!! 

delta sure knows how to make passengers happy.

next exciting news = when we land we will go to my family christmas party!

 (which is bound to be a big hit with the added flair of ugly sweaters and mom jeans) 

p.s. i will blog about ashlie's wedding at some point (and seeing my cute sister and her family). 

it was definitely worth the short trip!

haha.

three fist pumps for Christmas!

(and this tender mormon message) 

baby!

My sister in law had her baby today!

Lauren Stephanie Sollis

1:04 am

 6 pounds 3 ounces and is 19 inches long

glad i saw this info on facebook. also glad i had no idea they were naming her lauren.

haha

don't really know why i felt so surprised by that. probably because all of my other nieces and nephews have crazy names.

just because it is 7 in the morning, i'm at work, and bored i'll tell you their names. because i know you are dying to know what they are.

ahem.

jackson
emmy
dakota
kloe
gracie
janie
mickayla
haylee
madilyn
hannah
benjamin
samuel
makenzie
braylee
caydance
emmalee
cardston
jett
coy
max
tirk
karter
kaitlynn
kamden
korbin
izzy
lyla
and now.. lauren

28 in total.

(busy much?)

anyways

i just watched this little video. gave me chills.

have i already mentioned missions are awesome?

aaand Christmas is in like five seconds! so exciting for a few minutes and then so depressing. why can't it just almost be Christmas all year long? oh and happy festivus!!


post post thought: i will call the baby aurie.
 yes. i feel great about this.

work.school.narnia.mish.

so, i just did the most retarded thing ever. well actually, i think something like this happens at least once a week. i'm chatting with like 5 to 10 people at a time so it is usually pretty fast and i'm only half paying attention so i often write things like this..

i hope from that he got that it was supposed to say "i can do my best" and not that doing my friends = best. oh no.

retarded? yes. last time it will happen? no.

good news of the day is i'm done with finals!

it should probably feel like this..

but instead i kind of feel like this-

because i have no idea what i'm going to do after i graduate but whatev. i still have a good 5 months before i need to really freak out about it. i should have actually graduated this semester but i wanted to take classes like photograpy and chinese and next semester i'm adding interior design to the mix (yessss) so i don't even feel bad.

anyway.

i forgot to say that last friday ryan and i went to see narnia 3.

it was AWESOME. i'm serious. i don't think it gets enough credit. i loved everything about it (i'm a sucker for mystical shows) and the symbolism just gets me so good everytime.

we can't stop talking about it,

you should go see it asap.

next thought.

today i worked for someone in the morning and saw a bunch of incoming missionaries. then when i came in tonight there were a ton on the floor i work on walking around getting a tour of where they are going to be for the next three months. ryan and i also looked through my mtc photos earlier today so i guess it has just been on my mind.

(note: i usually don't like to write much because lets be honest, i don't really read posts where people write tons but i feel like it so i won't feel bad if you have already stopped reading).

 but anyways, i've just been thinking about that whole time and how it felt and as i walked by all the missionaries today with the little orange dot (indicating it is their first day here) on their tag i couldn't help but relate to the somewhat awestruck look on their face.

this girl had no idea what the next year and a half held for her.

 i was just happy to be there. i had no idea how painful it would be to learn a language (especially a one without an alphabet) or be thrown in a completely different culture. no idea how timid and inferior i would feel. no idea how lonely it could become even though i was with a companion 24/7. no idea how much pain my body would be in from riding a bike all day and being mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhuasted. no idea how much it would hurt to see someone accept the gospel and then suddenly decide they wanted nothing to do with it. no idea how hard it would be to leave home but how much harder it would be to go back. at the same time this completely foreign place became my home. eventually i learned chinese and the gospel in a way i could teach others about it which gave me confidence in myself and the message i was sharing. eventually i really liked having a companion all the time and they became my family when i had no one else.  eventually my saddle sores went away (graphic? sorry) and i could go up a mountain without getting off my bike and walking or being winded. eventually i was still exhausted but i became mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually stronger. it still hurt for people to change their mind about the gospel but my perspective was a little different. i was so happy and so many impossibles became possible. i learned so much and have so many fond memories of my time there. it is a really beautiful process that hurt at the time but shaped me and helped me become what i wanted to be. that is the beauty of a mission and something that was hard for me to understand until i experienced it. 

so as i looked at these missionaries and felt their pain, i also felt so happy and excited for them for the journey they are about to embark on.  

hi pictures.

i took two finals today and also bought international stamps (who thought sending letters and pictures to new members would cost so much. $50 just for stamps. really?). so now i feel like blogging. don't really know how it correlates. 

this week..

macey's had a killer deal (maybe still does?) on chex cereal between. what i bought for me, my mom, and my sisters- it totalled 54 boxes haha. $1.09 a box cannot be beat.

wednesday night we went and saw the lights. i think i took this photo and not really any others but thank goodness nicole did, bless her heart.  

we threw an ugly sweater christmas fest this weekend. i'm glad my collection could clothe ryan, suzanne, and myself!

if you look closely my earrings are clay kittens with santa hats. 

ryan was such a good sport!

(ps I got these off my roommate ashley's facebook so they are possibly crappy quality. sweet thing has all her albums set to private so this was the only way for you to see them)

ryan! haha. the gettinginpeople'spictureswithoutthemknowing thing never gets old. 

i'm so glad she captured this lucky moment.

another lucky moment would be how we went with my mission president and his wife to the temple saturday night. oh those live sessions! it was nice to be there with all of them and ry guy. missions rock. 

(and if you want to know why the hoers are so cool, you can listen here.)

yesterday we finally got to give ryan's dog max this sweater. when i saw it in the store i was dying. i had to buy it for him. who would think up a knit turtleneck for small dogs! genius.

let's be honest, i don't even like dogs.

 but i like him.

wendy put up her tree!

 (i hope i can make a habit of highlighting her decorations in every post).

so much happening, so christmas fabulous. i could stare at it for days.

at my request my mom put up our front room tree too!

(hasn't happened since before my mission haha) 

which is more on the lovely side so i love it for different reasons. i think i could just sit in front of a lit tree for hours and never get sick of it. add some hot chocolate and christmas tunes and i'm entertained the whole break. 

seriously. 

after not having christmas for two years in a country where they only put up decorations at the mall or the mission home, you just can't get enough of it.

aaaand cue abrupt ending.

love!

the end would be the best part.

so. cute.

hair.

so for awhile i was obsessed with my sister becky's hair from her wedding back in the early 90's.

it inspired this

 and this

but not really this

and then i came across this photo..

 and realized becky was actually inspired by ME.

(ha!)

this didn't have a title so i gave it one.

yeahhhhhhh

(dont worry that he came out the other day with this on haha)

this cutie is doing a show with young ambassadors tonight so he has been gone all day doing that business. we are usually together every weekend so i just realized today that i don't really have hang out friends! the worst part is probably that i don't care haha. i figure it is a great opportunity to get some homework done so next week isn't so crazy but at the exact moment of realizing this, i felt a weird urge to blog.
funny how that works. 

 i'm excited december is here. i'm overjoyed i get to look at this all month (i told you i had the calendar!).  who thought a $1.50 purchase could bring such joy?

 i realized i never talk about this but here are what ryan and i do most of the time: 

a) have nice conversations

b) make slash eat food

c) watch community, the office, or movies like "you've got mail"

d) clean my house ha ha 

e) hang out with family

f) go to institute or do other various church things

h) shop (he is a trooper)

i) try to be cultural and do cultural things

j) go to his shows

that last one probably happens a couple times a month if not more. above was this thursday at velour and two below was at ty and lisa's ward christmas party last night.

and sometimes he even gets the privilege of playing with katie and i get the privilege of wearing this awesome all access pass that is even laminated! who knew local artists had such things!

 i really enjoy going and watching him play with nik day. they have a great sound and i could listen to them for hours (which is lucky for everyone because i actually do).  ryan is super talented and he just gets better and better! a perfect example would be how he played jingle bells last night and actually never played it before (but rocked out as if he practiced for days). i'm glad he has enough talent for the both of us.

this picture was taken today at ashlie's grandmas house. don't worry that this is only like half of her nativities. the whole room was covered..she loves them i guess.

we had some nice one on one on one time as i joined her and her fiance earlier in watching dispicable me. really such a great show and a great couple. it was nice being the third wheel, it made me grateful for when i'm not one haha.

aaaaand. to match the excitement on our faces is the fact that i can wear contacts again! sometimes. my eyes still love struggling but i've been wearing them today for like 8 hours now and they are not dying yet!

 festivus miracle.

(ps i also blogged about thanksgiving..found below)

breaks are great(s).

i realized i never blogged thanksgiving and considering i'm still procrastinating getting a head start on next week's homework (oxymoron?) i felt this would be a good time.

my cute sister kim turned 30 so i watched her babies for the day. this was when korbin threw up all over himself so while i cleaned it up he, being topless, watched his siblings play in the snow. such a good time.  

wendy started decorating for the holidays which i love so much! i could stare at all of her santas forever.

and i finally realized santa is holding baby Jesus in that painting! so clever.

ben came for thanksgiving and it was actually the first time i met him ever! you'd think after dating someone for four-ish years you would have met all their siblings before now but somehow it never happened. he was worth the wait though, 

definitely a keeper.

after a long two years absence i got to help my parents put up christmas decorations! this would be the bears (and other random stuffed animals) we put up around the room representing each person in the family. 

so cheeseball, so mormon, so great.

such a treat it was to just hang out with my parents. i love them a whole lot!

i love this guy too.

 ..and this guy. haha so so cute.

the fam. about half of us anyway.

(and you better believe i wore my taiwanese ruffly thanksgiving shirt i bought and wore for both thanksgivings as a missionary)

overall it was a relaxing few days with some quality family time. thanksgiving morning we even saw hp7! i thought it was great except for the whole digitally remastered pornographic harry/hermione moment. 

..what was that?