Angel

"All that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother"..... literally. My angel mother. Read this article. It was published in Deseret News by a family friend.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705396141/Our-first-Christmas-after-dad-died-Christmas-traditions-that-healed-our-hearts.html?pg=1

Oh... OKAY!!!!

So I decided that I eat too much out of habit. When I eat... I'm not always hungry. So I decided to tape this sign to the fridge.

A minute later, I realized that my funny husband had modified my angry letter.....

So much for that, I guess....

Christmas Light CONTEST!!!

Bryce and I invited our friends/neighbors Billy and Charlotte to come with us and look at Christmas lights around Rexburg. We wanted to make it a little different than a normal Christmas light evening, so we decided to make it a competition. We gave a prize to the first and second place. As it turns out, Rexburg isn't super into the whole "decorate for Christmas" thing.... There weren't many options to choose from. But i think from now on, people will be more motivated to decorate, because word will get around about our prestigious competition we throw! Bryce and I had SOOOOO much fun doing this!

This is Billy and Charlotte. They are so awesome!

These are the prizes we gave out. My mom helped me make these. So cute!

This house won 2nd prize. When we knocked on the door and gave them their prize, they were thrilled!! They invited us in, gave us chocolate, and asked us all about our lives. It was precious.

This house won 1st prize. An old lady lived by herself at this home. She loved the tradition we were starting. She proceeded to tell us all about the history of her Christmas lights. I won't tell the story on here because it would take forever. But it was fun talking to her!

Then we came back to our apartment and had hot chocolate and apple cider, and we watched a movie:)

I am so happy the Bryce and I established our first family Christmas tradition together. I am excited to continue this fun tradition!

I'm a Loser.

I am a loser. No, literally. I am a loser. A chronic loser. I LOSE EVERYTHING!!!!! ALL THE TIME!!! I think it runs in my family though..... I vaguely remember my sister Mandi writing a similar blog post recently... Anyway. I'm not joking though. Since Thanksgiving, I have lost my iPod, my cell phone, and my wallet. THANKFULLY.... They have all been found. (Ps... this definitely isn't the first time this has happened.... it has pretty much happened my whole life.)

First of all... my iPod. I left at church. Someone found it while cleaning the church the next Saturday.

Second... I lost my cell phone. I left it in devotional last Tuesday. I went later that night while they were cleaning, and claimed my iPod from the lost and found.

On Thursday, I lost my wallet. I left it where I was sitting in the Smith building when I was waiting for Bryce to get out of class. I realized I left it about 10 minutes later, but by that time it was already gone, and the lost and found was already closed. Thankfully the next evening, the office in the Smith building called and told me they had my wallet.

When I was telling my mom all of this, she was very concerned. She believes that maybe Heavenly Father is trying to teach me a lesson so that I can maybe screw my head on right before I lose something even more important... aka a child.....

Anyway. I hope this trend doesn't continue.... I am bound and determined to screw my head on right!!!

Christmas Sleep Over

When I was little, I always wanted to sleep next to the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. I always got this warm fuzzy, relaxing, special, holiday feeling when I would see the tree in our living room as a child. There was something magical about having the Christmas tree up. Of course, though, we were never aloud to sleep in the living room next to the tree, because that is where Santa would come, and we had to wait until morning to see what he brought us. Anyway, yesterday I was looking at our tree in our little apartment, and I told Bryce that I wanted to sleep in the living room next to the tree. SO WE DID!!!!!! We took the cushions off the couch, and made a nice bed in the living room (I'm not sure why we didn't think to just bring our mattress out....:) Anyway. We watched the movie Elf and fell asleep next to the lit up Christmas tree. It was just as magical as I always imagined it would be :) haha.... except for the Christmas Eve part.... :)

New Hair Cut!!

So the other day Bryce told me he needed a hair cut. Then I told him I needed a hair cut too. So we both got hair cuts! I cut 3 inches off my hair.... feels much better!

The Funniest Part of My Day!!!!!!

Rag Quilt

As you probably all know, Bryce and I live in possibly the coldest place on earth... Rexburg, Idaho. Knowing this, my wonderful mom made us a rag quilt so that we have a better chance of staying warm this winter. I love it! it is soooo cute!!!!

A New Chapter

Bryce and I have been so blessed to have such an incredible group of friends as we have gone through high school and college together. I have never known such an amazing group of people who can lift each other up the way our group of friends have. Here are a couple pictures of us together in high school. Not everyone is in every picture, and some pictures have extra people, but I think everyone is grabbed in one picture or another!

Prom 2008

Lunch Bunch

Senior Party

Graduation

Senior Ad

Our man-friends were such great examples, as every single one of them served a mission. It was hard for us to see them all go, but an awesome thing knowing that they were sacrificing two years to serve our Heavenly Father and to build up His kingdom. Just a few weeks ago, Gavin and Stuart returned home from their missions. They were the last ones to come home, and we were all extremely excited to have our group back together again! (except for our now sister missionaries, Emily, Sarah, and Kyli).

It is strange to think back to how we were in high school. Honestly, back then, all these things seemed so far away. The day our friends would start going on their missions seemed ridiculously far away. The day our friends would start coming back from their missions seemed like an eternity away. And the day that our friends would start getting married..... That was, like, an eternity and a half away. But here we are. All the guys are home from their missions. We are all in college (or will be starting soon). Some of us are even married!

I am excited to keep adding to this picture!

Anyway. We are all starting a new chapter in our lives.

But I am convinced we will stay friends forever.

Unwritten Lip Sync

Just having some fun on the way home to Boise this weekend!

Environmental Interventions

Sooo.... I have never done anything like this. But in my SPED 310 class, we had to make a video on environmental interventions for students with Autism. Anyway... I came up with our video idea, created it on iMovie and published it to youtube! (all part of the assignment). Anyway. I was kinda proud of myself. Enjoy!

Favorite Snack

Bryce and I both LOVE pickles. So I thought I would share with him my favorite childhood snack, which consists of sliced pickles, thinly sliced cheese, and wheat thins. Then you just make a little stack of all three items, and eat it! This was a snack that I always looked forward to eating after school as a kid. Kinda funny... but we both LOVE it! If you try it, look out. It is addicting!!!

A Badger Weekend!

Soo... One of the first weeks of church, I met a girl named Karlee Moore in Relief Society. Bryce and I thought Karlee and her husband, Kyle, seemed pretty cool, so we invited them over to our apartment for General Conference. When we were hanging out at conference, we found out that Karlee actually worked at Badger Creek this past summer as a counselor. Something cool about working at Badger Creek is that you get to come back whenever you want to with your family for the rest of your life! SOOOOO... Karlee and I decided we would take Kyle and Bryce to Badger Creek for a night. We stayed in a yurt up there. It was way fun!

We built a fire and had hotdogs for dinner....

... and s'mores for dessert:)

In the morning, we had some fun on the Wild Woosey!

Bryce and I did pretty well!

Then we played on the rope swing at Proudy's Landing

This is Kyle!

This is Karlee!

Me!

Bryce!

We all made it over!

Badger Creek holds some of my favorite life memories... I'm excited to continue to create fun memories there throughout the rest of my life!

A Day in a Wheel Chair

So.... today I spent 5 hours in a wheel chair for a simulation assignment in my SPED 310 class (Exceptional Students). I have to say it was one of the most physically challenging things I have done in a LONG time. There were certain requirements we had to meet, including the following:

• use an elevator.
• get a drink from a drinking fountain.
• open a door by yourself.
• use the restroom.
• go up and down a hill.
• get in and out of a car.
• do not tell anyone it was a simulation.

First of all, using a restroom with a wheel chair was SUPER difficult. It took me 30 minutes to get everything figured out. Getting from the chair to the toilet is one thing... but then you realize your pants are still on....and you have zero capability of using your legs. Anyway. I'm pretty sure that was the longest and most stressful restroom experience I have ever had.

Second. Trying to open a door just made me feel like an idiot. The door closed on me 3 times before I was able to enter. WAY EMBARRASSING.

Third. I have never had a better arm work out in my life than when I had to roll myself up the hills on the BYU-Idaho campus. I had to take TONS of breaks, and it literally took me 15 minutes to get somewhere that normally takes me 5 minutes. And I was trying so hard! And going down the hill was super scary! It took me forever to realize that there are actually are hand breaks on the chair, and I didn't have to sacrifice my fingers in order to slow down haha.

Anyway. My experience was very eye-opening. I still can't believe how hard it was! I still have a few other simulations to do before the semester ends. One is I have to wear a mask that gives me a visual impairment, another is that I have to fake a speech impediment all day..... we will see how those go!

True....

These are a couple pictures I found on facebook that made me laugh, and I thought I would share :)

#1:

and #2:

Pumpkin Palooza!!!!

Bryce and I had a fun FHE tonight... we carved our first halloween pumpkins as a married couple! (while watching the movie Enchanted :) Since I am sick, Bryce made me dinner and made the night relaxing and special for me:)

I LOVE MY HUBBY!!!

Funny Email from my Dad :):)

Family (except Kim - because I don't know her home e-mail address),

I may have told you that on my MSN home page a few weeks ago - under the Facebook logo - I received a message that said "You have no friends".

I may have recently gained a boring friend or two, because my page now says "Your friends haven't done anything new lately".

Maybe things are looking up!

Dad

Boise Team Awesome!!!

SOOO... it's another fall semester at BYU-Idaho... which means another Temple to Temple Relay!!! Basically it is just a relay race where a team runs from the Rexburg Temple to the Idaho Falls Temple. It is 33.something miles... AND A TON OF FUN!!!! I decided to be a captain this year, and I put together a team of friends from Boise (me, Bryce, Kenton, Brittany, Rebekah, Nancy, Ted (nancy's bro) and Spencer (Rebekah's bro)) Anyway. It was awesome!

And so it begins.... Pre-race photo!

Just a quick snapshot!

Me... totally kickin that girl's trash! (7.2 miles :)

Bryce finishing strong! (6.75 miles :)

And we all made it there alive and happy!!!! What a good lookin' team!

Marriage License!!!!

The Things I Find...

So.... I mow lawns.... it's probably what I do best, ha ha. I realized today that mowing lawns is definitely not my favorite thing in the world, but what I do LOVE about lawn mowing is the weird things I find in people's yards. In the past couple of months, I have made a mental list of the funny, odd, and random things I have found in people's yards. Keep in mind, these things are probably found in yards of owners who have dogs, children.. etc.... This list is as follows:

The Usual:

• Grass
• Dog Poo
• Water Hoses

The Unusual:

• Antler
• Corn Dog
• Bicycle tire tube
• Left-Foot Flip-Flop
• Canteen
• Matchbox cars
• Tent poles
• Game Boy
• Water Bill
• Stuffed Bear
• Baby Photo Album
• Golf Ball... Tennis Ball... Football....Softball...
• Backpack
• Ethernet Cord
• Pacifier
• Hand Sanitizer
• Duplos

Anyway. I've decided to make it a game; to find and take note of the funny things I see in people's yards :D

Coming to Your Refrigerator Soon.....

Photos taken by Steve Hedges www.fitphotography.com :)