to my dear sister:

 Dear Em'ii Bemmy,
I know you hate being called Emmy so I spell it differently; I hope you can hear the difference.
Last Thursday evening, I watched you walk across the stage through the lens of my finicky camera and I was proud.  You have worked so hard these past 18+ years of your life, and you have had learned how to suck it up and keep going when things have gotten tough.  You are amazing.  It may be nostalgic to look back and remember all that there is to remember from this year: your last first day of school, your last band competition, your last jazz band performance, your last last day of school.  But I am excited for all that you have yet to experience: your first day on your own, your first day of hard college classes, your first cross country meet, your first hall meeting, your first 9:17, your first roommates, your first lifelong friend. You have ended many 'lasts' but you have so many 'firsts' to uncover.  It's like a scavenger hunt, only it comes to you naturally.  Despite the circumstances, I'm thankful I get to stay here an extra year to be here when you need me, to be here when you need to cry or vent, or for when you want to bake something and need my stove.  I'm excited to be on the sidelines and watch you experience life as yours - not mine, not mom's, not Nathan's - yours.  Your life.  You have so many ways to grow and so many things to learn, and I am pumped to see what your life looks like.  I want you to know and remember that I love you; I am your sister, and I will always be here for you.  Congratulations, Em'ii - ya did it ;) I love you!
One proud big sister,
Jess'ii
(Because I also hate being called Jessie, but Jess'ii is okay)

PS. Your face here is priceless.

{Sister: Emily}

Meet Emily

Sandwiched between my brother and me above, you will see the bright smiling face of my favoritest and onlyest sister in the world.  Emily is super creative, loves to paint, is fantastic at playing trumpet, is very active, loves dry cereal, runs like a pro, hates being called 'Emmy' (so I call her 'Em'ii'); she is 3 years, 11 months and 21 days younger than me and just reaches around 5'1.  Oh yeah, and she'll be joining me at school here next year!!  So proud!!  Her dream is to own her own photography studio someday in a bigger city, and I think she will do just fine there.  God has big plans for her, even if they seem small in the grand scheme of things.  What's the reason for talking about her today?  Today is her 18th birthday!!! "Happy birthday, Em'ii!" I am so thankful for how God has grown her and molded her, and trust that He will continue to draw her nearer to Himself. {God thank You for all You've done to mold Emily; I trust her life in Your hands as You show her where she needs to go.}  For her birthday, it snowed and shut down school, so she got a free day off just because God wanted her to celebrate with relaxing ;)  I love my sister, I am so thankful for her, and I hope I can see you soon to give her a BIG birthday hug!

{Brother: Nathaniel}

Meet Nathan

Meet my only brother, Nathan.  He is 5 years, 11 months and 1 day younger than me.  He is coming up on 6'0 tall, and he is an excellent runner.  On his finest time thus far, he's run a 5:37 mile!  That's crazy!  He loves football, particularly the Bears, and love airsoft.  He's learning more and more about the Bible and has a lot of things he wants to do with his life: landscape architect, professional chef, amongst a few others.  What the reason for talking about him today?  His 16th birthday was yesterday!  "Happy birthday, Nate!" He's very far away from me, but I imagined a big hug from him and felt better.  {Lord, thank you for my brother, and for leading him with wisdom that he needs.}  I love my brother, he's very cool, and if you ever have a chance to hang out with him - take ie.  He'll make your day ;)

{Days With the Sib's}

This is how Frank and I spent the last days of 2013:

We went to the Zoo to see the lights, and played soccer, football, and frisbee, made homemade mashed potatoes and ate fantastic tacos.  I love my sib's, Emily and Nathan, they are the best and I was sad to see them go!  These were our last days of 2013, what a way to go out with the year!

{Cousins: Sarah}

Meet Sarah.

She is very blonde.  She is 4 months and 9 days older than me, which means I look to her for life advice since she's so much older and wiser ;) She's finishing her degree for Teacher Education and has a huge heart for special-needs children.  She loves reading, and people and blenders, and she is shorter than 5'0 tall.  Best of all, she is my cousin!  She and I got to hang out and catch up on life today, while we ate spaghetti and talked about philosophy classes and childhood memories.  While we love the idea of staying in contact, we share the same gene of not being good at keeping in touch.  Maybe we will resolve to change that in 2014?  All the same, she's cute and fun and I love her very much :)

{Thanksgiving With the Fam} Greve Edition

We only had a great time last Friday with my family celebrating Thanksgiving!

We all had a great time!

Emily and I took pictures, Frank and Nathan threw the football, mom was a cripple (Tiny Tim!) and we had some good conversations, catching up on what's going on.  Our meal was BIG with mom's homemade sweet potatoes, Emily's homemade quinoa stuffed green peppers, Nathan's homemade green bean casserole, my homemade mashed potatoes, my homemade cranberry sauce, steamed asparagus, steamed broccoli, and apple cider-ginger ale for drink!  Everything was soooo goood... I'm pretty sure we all went back for seconds and maybe even thirds... We ended the night by watching R.I.P.D.  It was a good relaxing day and I'm glad we were able to spend such a great Thanksgiving together :)

{Thanksgiving With the Fam} Brazell Edition

This is our first Thanksgiving together and we are so excited!  Frank and I are planning on spending the actual day of Thanksgiving as just the two of us having tofurky roast, grilled asparagus, fresh English peas, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade potatoes, and sweet potatoes.  I'm pumped for this Thursday!  

This past Sunday, we spent some time celebrating Thanksgiving with Frank's family!  We had a great time talking and catching up, I helped in the pie making area {apple, coconut and pretzel} and he played in the guitar area.  We watched A Christmas Story (I had never seen it before), we ate potato soup for dinner, we got all of the Christmas decorations down from the attic, Frank shared the Progress of Redemption, played a little football but came inside because it was too cold.  It was just a good and fun day :) 

This is our first Thanksgiving together!