New Niece!! Baby News!!

Last night at 11:45pm Lon and Kimbalie welcomed their first baby into the world! Emerie Saline weighed 7lbs 5.8oz and was 21 inches long. I haven't had a chance to go see the baby yet (it was almost midnight when they had her, and unfortunately, I am stuck at work until 4), but I am sure she is absolutely beautiful and Jon and I are so excited to have our first niece!!!!

We have another niece on the way - Jon's sister Shaunalee and her husband Beau are expecting their 3rd child, but first girl the beginning of April!

So many babies!! I just love them!!!!

Congratulations Lon and Kimbalie!!!!!!

Malori Reviews All Sorts of Stuff - Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games, The Bachelor, Southern Cookin'

Let's start of with "Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Lightening Thief" - the movie and the book.... I read all of the books and love, love, LOVED them all to pieces! Percy Jackson is such a likable character and you truly want him to succeed and be a hero. You really love Annabeth and the relationship she has with Percy is so cute and fun to witness. Grover is so fun and always doing funny things! Camp Half-Blood is a fun place where everyone wears bright orange t-shirts and train and fight and hang out and just have fun together. It is fun and magical and exciting! I certainly suggest you read the books.

Now, when I heard they were making a movie, I was naturally out-of-my-mind excited! You know how it is when you love a book so much and they make it into a movie. So sweet Jon took me to see it - and during the first scene, I was already a little bit sad. Now, I understand that you can't make a movie exactly like the book because books are much longer and sometimes things happen that are hard to show on film, but there were so many details, so many small little things that would have taken zero time and zero budget to make it more accurate! (ie: in the book, all of the food and snacks Percy's mom makes are dyed blue with food coloring - read the book to find out why - well in the movie, Percy is in the apartment and he pours a glass of lemonade...that was yellow!! A few drips of food coloring and a stir and it would have been perfect, but nobody thought to add that small detail that would have cost less than a dollar).

Still, if you haven't read the books, you will think it is a good movie.

So, watch the movie and then read the books and you will be very happy. Either way, you love the characters and the story.

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Speaking of incredible books, "The Hunger Games" is one I simply could not put down! It was very bad, I couldn't get anything done because I couldn't stop reading!!! Now, it isn't what I would call a "super happy" book, but it is very suspenseful and you grow to deeply care about the characters and the unfortunate situation they find themselves in.

You see, Katniss, the main character, lives is a sort-of futuristic world that has been overthrown by the government. The continent has been divided into 12 Districts - each with a certain trade (ie: District 12, where Katniss is from, is the mining district) and each is under the control of the Capitol. The way for the Capitol to continuously show their authority and to keep the Districts from having an uprising, is with The Hunger Games. All of the kids in the District, ages 12-18 have to put their names in a bowl. One boy and one girl are chosen from the bowls to be the "tributes" and compete in the games.

They are put in an arena - a dense forest, a desert, a jungle - with all of the other tributes from the other districts and their objective is to be the last one alive.

Are you already intrigued? I don't do a great job of describing it, but seriously - it is so great!!

The only bad thing about this book is that there are only 2 out right now. There are going to be more, and the second one certainly lends itself to the 3rd book and I am going crazy waiting for it to come out!!!! So you might want to wait until more of them are out before you start reading this book.....but you must, must, MUST, read it!!!!!!!! There is no choice!!!!

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Alright, this season of "The Bachelor" has been very entertaining. Jake came from the last season of "The Bachelorette" and he is very determined to find the woman of his dreams. He is determined to cut the crap and find his future wife. He has surprised the producers and Chris (the host) by cutting girls early, asking to not give out all of the roses because he knew that more than one girl were not right for him.

Then there was the drama with Roselyn who slept with one of the staff of the show and was asked by the producers to leave.

Not to mention all of the drama with Ally leaving because of her job and then wanting to come back, and Vienna talking crap behind the girls' backs, and this season has been a fun one!!!

Now we are down to 2 girls: Vienna and Tenley......
Here is a picture of Tenley - my favorite from the start. Sure she has had a rocky past (she was married before and the stupid guy cheated on her...even though she is gorgeous!) but she is so genuine and she is so perfect for Jake. She has strong morals (she was a virgin until her wedding night) and she is ready to be in a solid marriage and have children and live happily ever after. She is so cute and their personalities match so well!! The problem is that Jake feels like there isn't as much "physical chemistry" between them - but how can there be when you have a floozie like Vienna around......
Here is Vienna - the most fake and two-faced girl this season. I don't really understand why she is still around, other than that Jake wants to spend time with the "bad girl" type that he would never date in the real world before he settles down and starts a family.

He says that he is really into her, but he also says he is really into Tenley (of course he is supposed to say that) but I don't know how he can possibly want to spend the rest of his life with her............

Drama, Drama!!! I can't help myself - "The Bachelor" is without a doubt my little guilty pleaure...

If you are interested in seeing who is going to win Jake's heart, tune in to ABC at 7pm next Monday! You can bet I will be plopped down on my couch intently tuning in!!

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This weekend we took a very quick trip to Snowflake because Sister Shirley Salisbury from my parent's ward invited my family to dinner, and specifically asked for us.

Now, this normally wouldn't warrant an entire trip clear up to Snowflake, but her dinners are infamous, and for good reason!

We show up and the entire house smelled great!!! She had invited the missionaries and few other people from my parent's ward, so we listened to a nice message from the missionaries while we waited for dinner to be finished.

Finally it was time to see what we had been smelling - and I have never seen so many different main courses at a single house party before!!!

She had made fried chicken and mashed potatoes and pork tenderloin and barbecue beef and shrimp and noodles with a great sauce, and homemade baked beans, and a casserole thing and green beans and deviled eggs and an entire veggie platter and more!!! And it was all soooo tastey!!!! I was stuffed to the brim with such fantastic food, and then it was time for dessert!! She had made like 4 different pies and a chocolate parfait kind of thing and it was all amazing! I had never seen so much food cooked for one dinner party, and Sister Salisbury certainly has an amazing talent for cooking! The sad thing is that she is allergic to gluten, so she couldn't even eat most of what she had made, but she says that that doesn't stop her from cooking and having a great time entertaining and inviting people over, which is her favorite thing in the world to do.

Well, it was a great night with great food - certainly worth the trip!

So the moral of the story is, if you are invited to have dinner at Sister Salisbury's house, you do whatever you can to make sure you can make it!!!

Thank you Sister Salisbury!!

My Sweet Husband

A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting in church and I noticed a pure white hair sticking straight out of Jon's head. I tried to smooth it down, but with no luck. So, I tried to very nonchalantly pluck it from his head (it turns out, the best place to pull hairs out of your husband's head is at church because they can't scream).

When I showed it to him, he immediately said, "Whoa that is crazy - do you have a bag we can put it in?"

I looked at him like he must be crazy - who wants to keep their "first white hair" - but any of you who know Jon, know that he was not kidding. I searched in my purse and all I had was this box:

and this is the white hair....pretty long huh??
This white hair is certainly hard-earned. Jon is one of the hardest workers I have ever known.

This semester certainly proves this. Not only is Jon taking his regular 13 credit hours of law classes (these are not just "show up and get an 'A' classes - all of his professors function as though the student is only taking their class and is doing nothing else, so they must have all of the time in the world for homework), he is also one of 10 students chosen to take a free bar prep course. This is a really great blessing except that the class requires just as much work as any other class. He is also doing an internship with the Attorney General's office, and this requires he take a class a the law school to "discuss it". He is also part of the Moot Court board and is in charge of running an entire competition by himself. Now, if this wasn't enough he is also working on a video and a web site for the law school to earn pro-bono credit, and he is working at ASU's school of business to earn some extra money for us. He also magnifies his church calling - never missing a month of hometeaching and dropping everything he is doing if someone in the ward or family needs his help.

All of this on top of being married to me (which is a full time job) and my sweet husband deserves a white hair. No wonder he wants to keep it in a box for a little while!!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the work that he does. I know that he is doing it for me and for our future family. It takes a toll on him - he doesn't get a lot of down time, and sometimes he doesn't sleep much. He misses family things and he misses spending time with me. He sacrifices so much in order to succeed so he can get a good job and take care of his family and I love and admire him so much for that.

I am so proud of him! Only one more semester to go!!!! YAY!!!

I love you Jon!

Thank You!!

I just wanted to thank all of you who commented for the sweet things you said and your wonderful advice!!! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it and how special it made me feel that you have so much confidence in me! I am so lucky to have such great people who care so much about me in my life.

I'll admit that I am still working on reaching a decision, but a have a few months left to think about it - and your advice helped TREMENDOUSLY!

I will be sure to let you know what I decide when - and I might not actually reach that decision until I have to write it down officially!

Love you all!!!!!

What Should I Do?

As most of you know, Jon will be graduating at the end of this year (Whoo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!) and that means that it will be my turn to head back into the world of academics. I am so excited about this, but I have to admit that I am a little concerned.....because I don't know what I want to major in.

So many people say that I should just start something, and if I don't like it then I can switch - but that is easier said that done. You see, we will be paying for school (hopefully with the help of grants and/or scholarship) on our very own - as most of you can relate to - and I would like to get in and get it done so that I can focus on things like a family too...so I don't really want to start something that I am not sure about, and then switch to something completely different and have to start over with different, expensive classes that will take even longer. I want to start out with a somewhat sure idea of what I want to be when I grow up.

Now, I have a few different things that I am interested in - and when I say different, I mean different. None of them are even close to each other!!! And there are a lot of reasons why I would love to do them, and a lot of reasons why I am not so sure.

So this is where you come in - I am going to tell you what they are and the pros and cons for each - and hopefully you will post with some advice. Everyone who reads my blog is so smart and knows me and so I know that you will be able to give me some really great advice full of wisdom and love.

Here goes (in no particular order):

Law

Pros: I really like the drama of law. I love the idea of being in a courtroom, questioning witnesses and yelling, "I object" and giving very convincing and heartfelt closing arguments to a jury who will eventually find my side victorious.

I also like the idea of being able to give advice to people and help them when they are dealing with the unjust things in the world. And....Jon is almost a lawyer and that means an in-home tutor!

Cons: After witnessing Jon go through law school, and reading some of his books with him and going over some of his papers, it is very apparent to me that studying law is very boring. Jon says it gets better when you can understand the books and the language of law, but I am not sure that stick with it long enough to find out. Also, I don't know that I would be very good at figuring out the puzzles, like finding that one piece of evidence that will prove your case, or asking that right question. And, there are so many policies and procedures to practicing law - I wonder if I am too creative to be stuck in so many boundaries.

Theater/Musical Theater

Pros: I love, love, love to act and be on stage! I also love writing plays and watching plays. I just love being in an auditorium. I grew up doing it since I was little - my mom was a theater major and she let me be in the plays she directed, or audition and be in the plays she was in. It was so fun and it makes up a huge part of my growing up years. It is so fun!

Cons: What do you do with a theater degree? Teach theater in high school? I don't think so! It seems like if you aren't going to make it big-time (which I don't really want to do, since I want to focus more on family) all you have left is teaching. Also, I would be required to do plays - and if I were going to do plays, I would naturally want leading roles and I would work really hard to get them - but how am I supposed to get leading roles when I refuse to kiss anyone but my husband? It just seems like choosing theater would be fun for now, but would lead to a very uncertain future................

Medicine

Pros: Being a doctor has always been something I have thought about doing since I was very little. Now, I will admit that that dream has evolved from being a doctor to being a Physician's Assistant, but it is still the same idea. It has always been so interesting to me to learn how the body works, and to understand why it doesn't work. I love the idea of working in a hospital and saving lives and uncovering mysteries and seeing every day just how amazing the human body actually is! Besides, it would be really cool to have that knowledge when I have kids.

Cons: First and foremost, I am not very good at chemistry and math - 2 very important classes in medicine. I am also not sure that I would be confident enough to make decisions that could cost someone their life. That is a very big responsibility.

Political Science

Pros: Anyone who knows me knows that I am a self-proclaimed "Fox News Junkie". Ever since my dad started listening to NPR (the only talk radio available on the mountain), I have been hooked, and being married to a Political Science major who did an internship for the RNC and is very interested in politics, I have been hooked!! I listen to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity...all of them like a crazy person!! The station in the car never changes from KFYI and if I can sneak it at work, you can bet I will. I was excited to get cable in the house so I could watch Fox News and give Jon the report of what is going on in the world every day (he is in class so he can't hear it as much as I do). I have to ask Jon questions about how things work a lot of the time and I get so irritated with some of the things going on in the world, and I wonder if I could do something to change it.

Cons: Even Jon will tell you that there isn't much to do with a degree in Political Science besides go to law school, teach Political Science, or go into politics. We already talked about law school, I am sure I don't want to teach anything, and I am not so sure I am brave enough to go into politics. It takes up a lot of time and again, I really want to focus on family too.

So anyways, those are my top 4 choices and I am torn between them all! They all have so many good things and so many bad things. One of the main things I am scared of is that I will do one and wish that I had done the others - I want to do them all!!!!

I need your advice - what do you think I should do?

It's The Holiday Season!

The holidays are over and they were soooooooo fun!! We went up to Snowflake the week before Christmas to visit with Laney who was visiting from Florida! It was so great to see her!

On the Thursday before Christmas, we went to Grams' house for our annual "baking day" with the ladies. Here is everyone saying "Merry Christmas!"

The rest of the time I was very bad at taking pictures. For some reason my camera ended up in all the places I wasn't. Oops.

So let me tell you about it...

Laney opened her Christmas presents. We got to get

to her know her Roommate (who I named Roommate, but her real name is Allison) and she is very sweet. The two of them were so funny!

On Friday Laney and Roommate had to head back to Florida so they could go back to work, so Grams, Mom and I drove them to the airport. It was sadto say goodbye, but Laney is experiencing the opportunity of a lifetime!

The rest of the day, we went shopping and went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (yummy)! It was sooooo fun to hang out with the girls!

Sunday we went to Grams' ward's Christmas program

that she is in charge of every year. It was really nice - she does a great job every year!

We spent some time just hanging out with the "Rhineheart" side of the family, an we went to the "Saline" side and spent some time with them! It is so fun to spend time with the families!!

Then, Christmas Eve came!

We headed over the Great Granny and Papa's house to see the entire extended family. I can't believe how big the kids are getting!! They used to be so tiny and now the girls are starting Young Womens! Holy Cow!!

After that we headed to Grams' house for our PJ's and annual Christmas program stuff. The little ones did their live nativity, and I got to be in charge of it in Laney's place (she is usually in charge, but since she was in Florida, I took over - she does a much better job, but it was fun to do it!) Here is a little video of it:

Then, we sang some Christmas songs and opened our "drawn name" gifts. We had drawn Aunt Mindy and Uncle Jason and Jon made a beautiful cutting board that we put in a basket filled with gourmet treats and a pretty little knife and stuff. I thought it looked really nice and I think they liked it

Uncle Sammy and Aunt Reah drew our name and they made us

this amazing picture of the Snowflake temple with pictures of us around it and our names and the date we got married! It is soooo a

mazing!!! And...the wrapping was pretty cool too! :)

After that we headed over to Saline's to play a Bingo/White Elephant game that was so fun! When you got a Bingo you got to pick a present and when someone else got a Bingo, they could choose to steal or get a new present. It was really exciting!!!

Then, Shaunalee, Beau, Keagan and Kaleb all went in and put on their pajamas - here is a picture of the cute little family in their feetie pajamas!! Doesn't Shaunlee's belly look cute? She is pregnant with her first little girl!

Then, we went over the Rhineheart's to do our "Christmas Ever Slumber Party". This year I was outnumbered by boys, so I told Tanner and Jon they could pick the movie as long as they didn't spend the night playing video games - bad decision!! They chose an anime movie called "Princess Mononoke" - it is the strangest, longest, most miserable movie experience ever!!! But it was so fun to stay up all night and watch it together (and make fun of it at every opportunity) so it was a great night!

At 3:30am Christmas morning, we got Mom and Dad up and headed in to see what Santa brought for us!!! Just like always, we got totally spoiled!!

Then around 5:00am we went up to Show Low to visit Granny and Papa and eat some breakfast! Every year Granny makes biscuits and gravy

and it is soooooo yummy!! It was great to visit them!

Around 7:15am, Jon and I headed to Saline's where we set up the rocking chair Jon had refinished for Lon and Kimbalie (who are expecting their first baby - a little girl) and we watched Keagan and Kaleb open what Santa brought them and we opened up our presents. Again, we got totally spoiled!! Especially by JoyLynn who drew our name. She made the most amazing journals! They are covered in leather and it has gold letters (mine says "Memoirs of Malori Jo with a beautiful crown in the middle, and Jon's says "Adventures of Jon Saline" with a really cool compass in it) They are so cool!

At noon, we went over to Grams' house to see what Santa dropped off there, and again, we were totally spoiled!!!!

Christmas was awesome!!!!!!!!! Thank you everyone who made

it so special!!!!!!!!!!

Eventually we came home and tried to catch up on housework and laundry, and then, before we knew it, it was New Year's Eve.

Jon's family all came over to play games and eat snacks while we waited for the clock to strike midnight.

Here are some pictures of everyone playing, the little boys hanging out (Kaleb fell asleep early) and everyone just hanging out. It was really fun!

That night, Shauanlee, Beau, Keagan, Kaleb, Keith, and Shelly all stayed the night at our house. It was really fun in the morning when we got up and ate some breakfast!

Later on New Years Day, we all went to the movies! Most of the "grown ups" went to see the Avatar movie, but Jon and I had already seen it, so we went with Shaunalee and Beau and the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks (and I was singing "All the Single Ladies" for the rest of the night!)

So, the holidays have been wonderful!!! We have had so much fun!! Sadly, we have to head back to work and "real life" on Monday....wish us luck....hee hee hee!!