Graduation and "Couple Friends"

I cannot believe it is already December 22nd! FYI Jon and I are in Colorado, which means...

Jon graduated! I am so proud of him and all that he has accomplished. He is one of the hardest working men I know and I am pretty darn lucky to be married to him. 

Jon definitely made a difference at Brigham Young University Idaho and I am confident that he will continue to make a difference in the world!

With finals and moving and everything that was going on, Jon's dad was nice enough to help us move in. He was planning on just helping us move into our apt. in Salt Lake, but Tuesday morning he decided to make the drive to Rexburg to be there when Jon received the Gordon B. Hinkley Communicator Award (another proud wife moment for me). I cannot tell you how grateful we were to have him there and for all of his help moving into our new apt. Thanks to him we were able to move in and get set up in record time. 

Pictures of the new place will come later. :) 

Moving to Salt Lake has been very bitter, sweet for Jon and I. Rexburg was pretty good to us over the years (after all, it is where we fell madly in love). Over the past few months we have made some of THE best friends.  When you are married it can be hard to find "couple friends" because the wives have to like the wives and husbands have to like the husbands and there are just more needs that need to be met. That probably seems confusing, but if you are married then you know exactly what I mean. 

We definitely scored in the "couple friends" area, which is great, but it makes it harder to move to a new place. Luckily we already have like three get-togethers planned. 

You might be wondering where the actual graduation pictures are, but there aren't any. Because four days without seeing our friends feels like too long, so we decided to take a trip to Lander, WY instead. Snowmobiling and hanging with cool people totally beats a long graduation ceremony! Garrett's family is from Lander and they were brave enough to house all of us for a couple of days. Such a great family! While we were in Lander, the Irene's prepared a Crab Boil for us. I am not a big sea food person, but this was de-to-the-licious!

This picture doesn't do justice to the whole experience but it does do a good job of describing Tyler's personality. There were a few rules to this Crab Boil and one of them was that we could only use our hands. It was fun to just put our dippings on the table and eat everything with our fingers. I felt like a little kid again! I knew Jon was loving it when I could hear moaning next to me and had to dodge crab shrapnel flying from his side of the table. 

On Friday we went snowmobiling! Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures. We had so much fun and I can't help but share it with you!

I know it looks like I'm a pro, but I was really just a snowboard transporter. I had never snowboarded in my life until that day and even then, most of the time I just hung out at the bottom of the hill with Hannah. She makes sitting in the snow fun!

When I finally did try to snow board I was almost instantly hooked. My first "run" (I say "run" because it was probably only a 50 yard ride) I stayed up the whole time and could not stop smiling.  Don't make fun of my awkward form. It was first time and no one was there to give me tips.

The second time they took me up to the top of the hill on the snowmobile since climbing up took too much energy. The smile was gone pretty quickly when I face planted. Luckily it was fresh, soft powder so other than a freezing face, I was not in any pain and ready to get up and try again. It was a lot steeper this time and after a few tumbles I was still pretty set on learning how to snowboard. I'm hooked.

It's kind of funny how you can't tell what gender a person is when they are layered in thick, baggy clothing. 

I love that our husbands are all such good friends. I just wish that baby Elle was feeling better so that Madeline could have joined us. She is such a great mom and sacrificed a day of snowmobiling with us to stay in Lander and take care of little Elle. 

Isn't Jon a hottie? ;)

I know almost two years of marriage doesn't exactly qualify me to be giving marital advice, but if it did, I would strongly advise everyone to find good "couple friends" to hang out with. It makes all the difference in the world to have other people who are in a similar situation as you and who you can laugh with.  I can't wait until Jan. 9th when our "couple friends" come visit us in Salt Lake (yes, I am counting down the days!) 

I hope everyone is having fun with all of the holiday festivities. Merry Christmas to all!

"Be a Light to the World."

I was packing again (it's an ongoing process) and found a letter that my dad had written me when I was in high school. This letter has always meant a lot to me and so even though we are kind of on crunch time, I couldn't help but to stop and read it. This whole being a wife thing has made me a tad bit emotional so when I read it I did cry. Just a little though.

In the letter he talked about when they found out that they were going to have a little girl. He listed all of these things that he hoped I would be. He hoped I would be physically strong and look like my mom, not him. He hoped I would have a love for the outdoors, be a hard worker, and a good leader. Most importantly he hoped thatI would, "gain a knowledge of your Savior and that you would understand your great worth to our Heavenly Father. I have always hoped that you would be a light to the world."  

What a great hope he had for me. 

(My dad is the one on the left)

In the Doctrine and Covenants, which is a book of scripture containing revelations from the Lord, it says, "Arise and shine forth that thy light may be a standard for the nations." This is what my dad wanted me to do. To arise and shine forth. To be a light in the world. 

As I have thought about this, I have wondered what I need to do in order to be that light, that standard for the nations. To do good in the world and to touch the lives of others. I think this ability goes back to another hope that my dad had for me; that I would understand my great worth to my Heavenly Father. In order to shine our great light, we must first know and feel our worth as sons and daughters of God, who loves us. As children of God we have great potential to be a light to the world. Just like my dad wanted me to be a light to the world, so does our Father in Heaven want each of us to be. 

 In one of my classes a few semesters ago we talked about light. The question was posed, "Can darkness penetrate light?" As I thought about this, I realized that no, it cannot. There is darkness all around us, but when the sun shines, it's light penetrates the darkness. The light has power over the darkness.

We live in a world where there is a lot of confusion, negativity, sadness, and darkness. There are so many sources of light. We need to seek them out and we need to shine our own light. We all have the light of Christ within us and he is the ultimate source of light.

I have been trying to focus on the Savior and His light more this month as we celebrate His birth. One of the ways I have been able to do this is through music. Christmas songs create powerful feelings within us and as we focus more on the lyrics, we can feel an even greater power as we recognize the significance of Jesus Christ. The Piano Guys, David Archuleta, and thousands of people came together to create this beautiful rendition of "Angels We Have Heard On High." This song is such a great reminder of the Savior's majesty and glory. They actually even broke the Guinness World Record for largest live nativity.

(#sharethegift)

I want my dad's hopes to become a a reality. I want to arise and shine forth and be a light to the world. The more I strive to be like the Savior, the more I can be a light to the world.

Puppy Chow and FHE

Jon and I are moving to Salt Lake in approximately seven days and a few hours. I don't know if I am counting down the days because I am sad to be leaving Rexburg or excited for change and living right by Trader Joe's. If you haven't been there, GO! Just go. You will thank me later.

Since we are still taking classes we have tried to pack over the last week or so. We've gotten a lot done but there's still a lot to do and I kinda sorta procrastinated on my Christmas sewing project so I am trying to get that done before the big move too.

This is what my view currently looks like. Can you guess what my Christmas project is?

Aside from packing, sewing, and doing homework, our #1 priority is to have fun. ;)

At our ward Christmas party for church, Jon decorated this sugar cookie. I was so impressed with how pretty it looked. Aren't you?

For the past few months we have been hanging out with a few other couples multiple times a week. They are pretty much the best and you will probably here me whine about missing them all the time when we move. We do Family Home Evening with them every Monday night and tonight we invited a lot of other couples to join us for some Spikeball. What is family night with out treats, right? So I made some Puppy Chow/Muddie Buddies. 

If you can't tell by the thumbs up, Jon totally approved.

While we were at FHE, our friends tried to hook their daughter up with this cute baby boy. She was totally the one making the moves. P.S. We love this family. Jon has brainwashed their daughter to think he is her uncle. 

We set up three Spikeball nets and played king of the Spikeball. 

We usually play as couple teams but tonight I ended up on a team with Madeline (the cute brunette two pictures up). We were a little too giggly for our own good. Then she switched out with Hannah (the cute blonde below) which was perfect because our husbands ended up on the same team. They are pretty much a Spikeball dream team. Hannah and I worked our way up to the champion's circle where we challenged our husbands. They were probably really surprised when we were within at least two points through out the whole game! 

 And for good measure, here is a picture of Hannah and her husband, Garrett. We love them too.

Don't forget to make time to have fun and eat Puppy Chow!

Why Am I Blogging??

So, believe it or not, I never thought I would ever have a blog. Ever. I have never thought of myself as a good writer and quite frankly I have never felt like anyone would want to read what I do write. More so though, I always associated blogging with organized, crafty, creative women. It was a scene that I never imagined myself in, but I'm here and you are probably wondering where I am going with this.

(I mean seriously, does this look like a girl who spends her time blogging?)

Well, as I met more girls that blogged and found out their reasons for blogging, I thought it was neat... for them. Then, when Jon and I were first married and he was selling pest control, my mother-in-law encouraged me to start a blog. I considered it but procrastinated. I had thought about following her counsel several times but every time I attempted to make a blog, I just never followed through.

So here we are now, on my blog. What finally got me to do it?

This semester I am taking a Family History class. In this class I have learned how to search for my ancestors, create a family tree that goes way, way back, index old records like death certificates and obituaries, and prepare names to be able to take part in the most amazing things in the temple. But what does finding dead ancestors have to do with a blog? Well, in doing all of this I realized that one day I will be someone's ancestor and if I want my posterity to know what I believe then I need to write it down. I am so grateful that many of my ancestors kept journals and wrote down their life history so that I could read them and feel close to them, but most of all, learn from them.

(If you want to create your own family tree and start searching for your ancestors, you can do that here.)

With the advancements in technology today we have so many different ways that we can keep records. A blog is something that is available now, and will be years from now because it will always be floating around somewhere in the internet world. As I write down my experiences and beliefs, I hope that they can be something that someone, somewhere, at some time, can learn from.

(If you don't know what I believe and what is important to me, you can learn more here. And you can read my future blog posts. hehe)

There are many things that I feel very strongly about and believe in with all of my heart. I want my children and my children's children to know what I know and to feel the same joy that I have felt as a result of living what I believe. More importantly I want them to become better than I am. In writing about my daily life, I hope that I can portray those things.

So that is why I started blogging!

It's the Little Things

Jon and I are getting ready to leave good ol' Rexburg and move on to bigger things. Jon graduates in a little more than a week and we will be headed to Salt Lake City where he has landed a great job working at a consulting firm. All of this means a lot of things, but the thing that has been on my mind is packing. 

I am great at packing kitchen supplies and clothes, but when it comes to memory boxes and sorting through papers, lets just say Jon had to ask me several times if I was really packing or just reminiscing. While sorting through old boxes of notes and papers I found several little notes and letters that Jon and I had written each other while dating.

While these little notes glued a constant smile on my face, they also reminded me of how blessed I am to be sealed to Jon for, well, forever. 

Marriage isn't always puppies and sunshine. There is a lot that goes into making a marriage work and I often have these rude awakenings that I am not the world's greatest wife. It isn't the grand gestures that we make toward our spouses that make the difference. It's the little things, like these little notes that Jon wrote me, like scratching your spouse's head with out them asking, or like getting up five minutes earlier to pack their lunch and praying for them.

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Speaking of the little things, it's December, which means it's Christmas time! 'Tis the Season! Jon and I decided to only do stockings for each other this year with the big move and all so I have been thinking a lot about what makes Christmas feel like Christmas; it's the little things. 

Think about it.