Dallin's mom, Jordie, and his step-dad, Jim, run a flight school in Arizona. Jim is a pilot and check-airman for American Airlines, and Jordie is the ultimate animal lady. She has three huskies (two of whom were rescues saved from "death row") and three cats.   

Dallin's oldest sister (and only full sibling), Danielle Pace, is a nursing student who is married to Matt, a medical student. They have a toddler, Maverick, and are expecting a baby girl. 

The three Samuelson daughters are Brooke and Brianna (the twins) and Hanna. The twins are in college and Hanna in high school. They love K-pop, and Hanna could make a career for herself in interior design.

With the end of winter semester comes the end of an era. And I mean a LONG era. I am not yet graduated, but I no longer will be taking classes, which means no more homework or exams! Up next: externships. 

Honestly, it was definitely a tough semester to get through. But I tried to strike somewhat of a balance; with my clinic a mere 5 minutes from the German Christkindlmarkt, I made sure to go twice (once alone, once with Rachel, Paige and Nguyen). I even went to Arizona for a quick weekend. Dallin's mom offered to fly me home so she could get family pictures. 

Opening presents early with Dick and Rachel.

My nephew Maverick and sister-in-law Brooke.

My mom's new puppy Lulu.

As an early graduation/Christmas present, Dallin gifted me with a digital drawing tablet. I am over the moon. I have spent the past several days drafting out the first chapters of a webcomic I decided to write; it's the same story I have been working on in novel form for several years. I love the concept of illustrating this story given the intense world-building I have invested myself in. 

In other news, I had to take the Christmas tree down because Atticus kept climbing it and thereby knocking it over. Turns out he's a bit of an adrenaline junkie; not only does he not mind going timber, but he also thinks it's fun to dodge the squirt bottle. Poor Arlo got his nail stuck on the fibers connecting the firs to the base; I squirted him mercilessly with the squirt bottle before realizing he wasn't purposely hanging out within the branches of the fallen tree. Once I began trying to help him, he went into full panic mode and started crying, writhing in my arms, and even dragging the dismembered tree around the house while I tried to find the scissors to get him unstuck. Hopefully next year I can invest in a sturdier tree that can't be knocked over by a 7-pound kitten. 

It snowed for a couple days straight. This photo was taken at 11 PM; the snow reflected the light making it appear earlier than it was.  You can't see the snow blowing in the picture, but we had to walk backwards back to our house!

From left to right: Adam (21), Sophie (15), Eric (17), Mom, Dad, Dallin, me, Rachel (24), and Dick.

 It's official: more of the Lundgreen kids live in Utah than in Arizona! With me, Rachel and Adam up here for school and Olivia on her mission in Serbia, that leaves only two kiddos (Eric and Sophie) back at home (and not for long, since Eric will be moving up here next fall).  So the Arizona crew took a turn making the long drive for Thanksgiving. Uncle Steve and Aunt Sandra hosted the turkey meal. 

It was a fairly casual trip since we three college kids were still busy with classes.  But while Adam hosted Eric in his apartment and gave him a sneak-peak of the college bro life, Dallin and I hosted Sophie on our couch (mostly because she wanted to hang out with the cats). While the family was here we had a game night, went shooting, put cousin Paige's dog in a Tinkerbell costume, and enjoyed Mom's great cooking. 

While hanging out at my house, I discovered that the baby of the family has really come into her own! We took Sophie to an art store on one of her first nights here, and after that she spent the entire trip drawing her favorite anime characters. She has found herself a friend group among the sophomores of her high school, and it seems she considers herself the "mom" of the group. When asked if she wanted to switch schools because of some difficulties, Sophie responded that she needed to stay to take care of her friends. As an oldest sister I have always worried about her ability to thrive in school given her multiple diagnoses (learning disorder, ADHD, anxiety, OCD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, as well as some ticks), but Sophie told me that her friends are just like her--ticks and all--which has been so wonderful for her. 

My brother's girlfriend's dad found a kitten wandering outside on its own, clearly stray. The kitten was sweet, so the most obvious thing to do was send the kitty over to my parents' house, since that is about the most animal-friendly place you'll find in the whole Phoenix suburban area. Despite posts on FB and trips to the vet to see if he was chipped, this kitty's original family could not be found. My family quickly fell in love and kept texting me pics (Dad has long said they won't get another cat after 20-year-old Jasmine passes away). This poor kitten wanted to be friends with Jasmine so bad, and after getting whacked by her a few times he began full-on tackling the poor old lady.

About an hour after I convinced Dallin to let us keep four-month-old "Atticus," my sister-in-law Kaeli found out that a family friend would be taking the last kitten of their litter, about three-and-a-half months old, to the shelter.  There was nothing wrong with him; they had just sold all of the siblings and hadn't managed to find anyone to take "Toothless." I quickly offered to foster the little guy until he could get a home.  Kaeli drove him over. But not even an hour after posting Toothless on KSL and Instagram did I get a text from Dallin's dad saying they wanted to keep him.  Their two cats had died that year, and their dog had died that week, so it was good timing for the girls. 

Arlo being fed-up with Toothless' BS.

At Thanksgiving we did a cat swap--Kaeli drove Toothless to Arizona, and my parents drove Atti to Utah. At first, Arlo was not thrilled about all the new kitties staying in the house.  Although darling with humans, Toothless was rather aggressive with Arlo and would attack him while he was sleeping. Atticus, on the other hand, was completely the opposite. Within minutes, he was OBSESSED with becoming Arlo's friend. It took Arlo a few days to realize that, when Atti attacked him in his sleep, it wasn't to "show him who's book" like Toothless, but to play! They are quickly learning to be friends.

Atticus has left my Christmas tree unravelled quite a few times, despite my attempts at the spray bottle.

Jasmine, who I talked about and drew NONSTOP in preschool according to the 2002 parent-teacher report I found in an old box.