35 Days.

Last weekend we had a nice little teaser of some springtime weather.  Ste and I took advantage of it and went up to Rock Canyon Park and hiked up a fake little trail.  It was so nice to be in the sun!

 Later that night we went on a double date with his roommate up to the Y.  I never thought I would enjoy hiking at night as much as I have. It is so much fun!

I had a job interview on Monday for a summer job. The interview went really well and at the end of it the interviewer told me that if she can get a hold of at least 2 of the 4 references and things check out, I have the job.  About two hours later she called and said I had the job! So I will be working kind of as a mentor for kids who have a hard time staying at home or who need to get out of the house during the summer. I will be working with a wide range of ages and disabilities, behaviors, and life situations.  Pretty much you do fun things with them but work toward certain goals. It goes perfect along with my major.  I have done 12 hours of training this week already and have 15+ waiting for me next week and the week after.

Tuesday night was the NIT basketball game. Thank you, Sherry, for letting us use your parking pass again! Also, thanks for letting us use your tickets for the Gonzaga game. It was so much fun!

The game was sweet. Ste's friend saved us seats on the 3rd row and we even made it on ESPN. Definitely worth not finishing my project for.
Thanks, Nick, for going back online to get a picture of us when we were on TV! You're awesome!

It is so unreal to me that the wedding is in 35 days! My mom, dad, sisters, friends, cousins, aunts, and whoever else have been awesome with getting all the invitations and decorations done since I am absolutely terrible when it comes to choosing those kinds of things. So thank you everyone!!
Also, my bracket is so bad. I am in the 1.3%. And it is ranked the 8,000,000 bracket. Good thing Ste and I made a deal that the winner takes the loser to dinner of their choice! haha Even though he made a bogus bracket so I am going to win in the group.

"I want to play my gps..."

The last few weeks have been insanely busy but so worth it!

First, we got our engagements done and the invites finalized! Now we just need to order them, address them, and send them to all you wonderful people.

Now, Valentine's Day.  The day that I have never really been a fan of until this year. I never thought I would say something this cheesy and actually mean it but it is definitely different when you are in love with the person who is doing all the cute surprises and thoughtful things.  Ste surprised me with Zupa's for lunch. SOO good! He had used the car to go to "work" that morning and since we were going to Boise to see his family he told me I might want to clean it out so we have room for everything.  When it was about time to pick him up so we start our little trip together I went down to my car to clean it out.  I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't the kind of "clean out" that I was expected.  He had bought me white roses, boxes of chocolates, three 12 packs of Mt Dew, two bags of Hershey's kisses spread out throughout my car, and a sweet note.  It was awesome.

I then went and picked him up to head to Boise to see his sister and her family and finally meet his wonderful parents.  One of the first things his mom told me reminded me of Grandma Helen (having your future mother in law remind you of Grandma Helen at the very start was comforting. haha).  She said that she did mine and Lori's husband's genealogy and guess what! We are fourth cousins! haha

We had an awesome weekend.  We went to the open house and wedding for his cousin (the reason that everyone was in town), rode horses, did some work on their land, played with his nieces, and got to know his family a lot better.  He had told me before that my mom reminded him of my mom and I can definitely see that too.

The next weekend was the Ragnar Relay!! WOO!! To be completely honest, I think I only ran three times in  February before the race.  And I didn't die! Yay!!! I did get some color that's for sure. Mostly on my right side.  I never in my life thought I would enjoy running 14.3 miles within a 24 hour period without proper training and running your first leg of 7.8 miles in the sun in the middle of a desert.  But every single part of that trip was super fun! I loved the time with family that I haven't seen for awhile.  I am definitely looking forward to it again!

Last Wednesday we were in the dodgeball championship game... again.  And guess what!!! WE WON! WE WON! WE ACTUALLY WON! After four years of playing intramural sports I finally got the coveted t-shirt!! A girl commented on one of our pictures and said "There are only two reasons to go to BYU 1) Get married 2) win a shirt." Who knew I would be accomplishing both in one semester? I still have to graduate though...

This past weekend my mom and Ryker came!! It was tons of fun going to Chuck E Cheese's, getting wedding stuff planned/purchased/decided, and spending time with them.  

It was fun seeing Ste interact with little Gyker... even if he was quickly worn out from all the fuss...

The moment you have all been waiting for... but me mostly

So, I want to take a step back and give a brief background of our story before I get to the proposal. It might get a little long so you can skip to the proposal if that's all you want to know :)

Senior year in high school I got the news that I got accepted to BYU in Provo... but for summer.  Sorta bummed, okay so I was pretty upset, I was talking to Shannon Toolson at church one day just kinda telling her how I was feeling and she told me that her thought about all of it is that I am gonna meet my husband that summer, he is going to go on his mission and I will kind of forget about him then he will come back, we will date and eventually fall in love.

I didn't believe her.

Then.

We met that summer. I saw him come into religion and I thought he was so so so cute.  I even got up the courage to try and talk to him one day.  We ran into each other at the WyView creamery where he pointed out we were actually in two classes together, I felt special because he recognized  me and saw me in two of his classes. I am a nerd, I know. haha

I then moved to WyView for fall and winter and that's where he lived.  We would run into each other a few times and he was best friends with a guy in my ward, Alex Teemsma, and I eventually was cochair with Alex for FHE.  He would always tell me that I should get to know his friend Stewart.  I was kinda shy and felt stupid around the guy (Stewart) so I was always kinda timid when it came to him being around.  I soon realized how hilarious he was.  I honestly thought every word out of his mouth was funny.

This is the only picture we were in together Freshman year. :) haha This is actually the picture that came up when we were FB official the first time.. haha He is behind Chris!

He then left on his mission that summer.  I never expected to write him because I honestly didn't know him too well.  The  letter writing started when I was home and helping with the Brian Burnett for Sheriff campaign.  Stewart had liked the page supporting Brian and would always ask how he was doing.  Riss thought of the clever idea of sending Ste a shirt as a joke.  So of course I did.  We wrote throughout his mission.  Nothing serious.. I didn't know what to tell him in the letters.  I am terrible at writing missionaries because I never know what to say.  I would mostly write him to send him pictures... and part of me just wanted him to know I was single. Is that bad? haha But whenever I got one of his letters I would be in the best mood.  They were so random, on the best stationary, but always included something spiritual.  It was awesome to get to know him through his letters.

I never expected anything to happen. Ever. I wanted it to, yes, but I tried to not think about it or talk to anyone about it because I didn't want to look stupid in the end.

Anyway, he came back July of last year and we talked a little over Facebook and texting.  I really wanted to hang out with him but I was way too scared to ask him to do something but then I saw him on campus the first week of school.  Heavenly Father definitely didn't make us wait anymore time to start our relationship.

So I was walking to a class from the library.  A class that I found out the day before the drop deadline that I didn't need, but I am so happy I was in it for that little bit so I could just run into him.  Anyway, I saw him but he was wearing sunglasses and a hat and I hadn't seen him in two years so I wasn't too sure if it was him or if he would recognize me.. Then he smiled. My heart melted and I got all nervous.  But he didn't even say anything and gave me a hug.

We talked for a bit and I asked if he was going to Junior's birthday party that weekend.  He didn't even know about it! So I told him he should go and he said he would check on it.  He texted me a couple days later about it and asked the details and told me he wanted to go but didn't have a ride because his roommate Brock didn't want to go (later found out that Ste actually told Brock that he couldn't go because he wanted to spend time with me. Little sneaky.)  So I offered him a ride. Fell right into his little trap.

We went to the party then I gave Pepe and him a ride home.. Okay, so only Pepe.  Ste saw my basketball in the back seat and said he wanted to go play.  So we drove around trying to find a stupid court.  I was convinced we wouldn't and I couldn't show off how good I was.  But we ended up going to the Provo High basketball courts.  And played for a few hours.  I won the first, of course.  And when he had two point left to win he said that if he made this next shot he was going to kiss me.  Well, I sorta kinda let him go for the lay up with no defense.  What was a supposed to do? Anyway, our first kiss happened on the Provo High outside basketball courts.

We then hung out and saw each other pretty much every day.. He met my dad like two weeks after that, before we were even official.  He is definitely a champ.  We were able to go on a few dates and get to know each other better throughout September.

KC gave us two tickets to General Conference.  Ste served in West Valley for a bit when he was waiting for his visa so we went and ate dinner at the lady's house he lived at after the session.

A few days before GC I had been wanting to tell him that I loved him.  I felt it so strong but really wanted to make sure before I said it out loud to him and I wanted to see what I learned from GC.

Well, on the way home Ste told me that he could see himself forty years from now happily married to me.  Then proceeded to tell me he loved him.  First off, you CANNOT tell a girl you love her for the first time while driving, you may just be putting yourself in danger because she gets all jumbled and happy and so incredibly distracted that she could crash.  Obviously I didn't, but I don't really remember driving home after that... But once he told him he loved me I grabbed his hand and told him I had been wanting to tell him that all weekend.

So a few months went by and our relationship grew.  As most of you know we did break up for a couple weeks.  It was really good for our relationship.  I was able to realize I did really want to be with him.  It gave me time to go home and really think about what I wanted in the man I would end up with and if he matched that.  It was a stressful time but looking back I am grateful for it.  It made me appreciate everything about him so much more.

We got back together the night we got back into Provo. Thank goodness! haha

When I thought about marrying him and asking Heavenly Father if I was really supposed to be with Ste, I always got the same clear answer.  Clearer than I have ever had.  I knew that he would be the man for me that I needed, I just hoped I would be the wife he needed.

So, after Christmas break we went ring shopping.  I knew that it would take few weeks to resize the ring and they said for a few of the designs they may have to actually make the ring because my ring size was so small and that would take 6-8 weeks. Awesome. So I told myself it would probably be until like mid February until we would get engaged.  I didn't read into anything, at least tried not to.  I wanted to be surprised.  I didn't let myself be curious at all, okay, so for the most part. haha

Friday night we were at his apartment and he went outside and saw the cool fog.  We were supposed to be going on a hike the next morning but he mentioned that we should go then.  10:30 pm.  Why not? So we headed up the canyon to Glen park and went up a little trail there.  Half way up I asked him how far we were going. He took that as I wanted to stop so we did haha He brought along a lawn chair for us to sit on. We sat and talked for a bit about the future. I was bawling, happy crying of course,  as you can imagine.  I was too busy wiping the snot and tears off my face I didn't even realize he had slipped to the ground and as now kneeling in front of me.  No, he wasn't on one knee.  He was on both because the lawn chair was even with the ground and he was on a slight hill haha He then looked at me straight in the eyes and started pulling something out of his pocket. He pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him.  I of course said yes.

The proposal was perfect and very personal in every way to the both of us.  I have never been more sure about anything in my life.

The last couple days I have just stared at my ring and thought, "is this really happening?!?" Am I really getting married?!?

Ste definitely makes me happy and I could not see myself being happier with anyone else.  I am truly grateful for having such a great guy in my life.

Happy birthday to my fiance!!! 

22

So far 2013 has been incredible. I was able to come back to Provo a little earlier so that I would be able to spend a little of the break with Ste but also get some of my online Microbiology done.

Sherry was nice enough to come pick us up from the airport even though she was supposed to give the opening prayer. Thanks Sherry for your sacrifice. We got to spend a few hours at her house to relax a bit until people came over for Grandpa's birthday! Sherry's parties are always entertaining but this one was so quiet without all the little kids running around! But it was still great :)

We had talked about going up to the hot springs in Idaho and going  to see the lights at the Zoo but neither of those happened haha We were both just wanting to be lazy and watch football all day.  We did go on a hike at  one point though! So we weren't completely lazy! haha

 We welcomed the new year by watching Les Mis in theaters at midnight.  We didn't know what we wanted to do for New Years because we didn't really want to go to any of the parties here so we thought it would be cool to spend it watching the movie.  I LOVED that movie. And he did too, which I was kinda nervous about.

My birthday was today and it was awesome.  I was able to see Grandpa yesterday morning when I picked up my present my mom had sent there.  THANK YOU! Even though I don't need two ;) Kindle Fire. I LOVE IT.

I got to sleep in this morning.  I usually try to wake up semi early on Sundays because we don't have church until one but I like to read and stuff but this morning I decided it was my birthday. And I was going to sleep until the very last second.  SO nice.  After church I went to Ste's for their traditional Taco Sunday dinner and watched the fireside that was given by Utchdorf.  Afterward Ste brought out jello he had made in a heart shaped pan and inside was a little surprise. Okay, not what some of you may be thinking... It was a wrapped Hershey's kiss with a note he had glued to the bottom.  Clever huh? haha One thing that I love about him is how random he can be and he didn't fail that tonight.  This is after he cut out the kiss...

I was able to end the night skyping with my family.  I miss the little ones at home! It was complete with the boys singing to me and blowing out my candles, Rock singing my name in a rock and roll song, seeing Hudson sit up, Jens standing up, my dad making weird faces at himself, my mom and I planning on what we are gonna do when she comes down, and hearing the loudness that my home is.  I miss it but I am still definitely enjoying my time here too.

Family!

So for Thanksgiving I came home with Riss to Manson! We were home for about a week and a half. Such a nice break from school!

Dad flew Santa into Manson!!

 Ryker wasn't so sure about Santa...

We were able to go shooting, of course. It was awesome! 

There is so much that goes on during Thanksgiving break.  Donut making, cider making, Turkey Bowl, shooting, and setting up for Christmas. I LOVE it! 

The semester ended well. Ste and I were able to make it up to Temple Square one night.  We were looking for the perfect spot to take a picture and ended up seeing Santa and Buddy the Elf.  We couldn't pass it up.  When we walked up Buddy was like, "Ohhh Santa, I can tell this isn't this couple's first date!"  Then we took this normal picture. 

Then Buddy said we needed to take one more! Then he picked up a stick that was laying right next to that orange bucket. That stick had a mistletoe at the end of it and he hung it over us.  That's why we took this next one for our mothers to enjoy.

I am now home and loving every minute with the little boys and Jensley. So much fun! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I am so incredibly excited or Christmas to finally be here! 

Fall 2012 so far

This semester has been completely different than I expected it to be but it has been wonderful and quite busy! Instead of going through every little thing that has gone on, I will sum it up in a list :)

-I went to the driving range for the first time. And LOVED it! And once I was able to make contact I wasn't too bad!
-Now when people ask if I am a gymnast I can say I'm not but I have done gymnastics. haha I am in a class and I love it! I did sprain my knee Wednesday but that should be good in a couple weeks so I can be back to doing stupid/super fun things on the equipment. My favorite is the uneven bars which was the one I got hurt on.
-Our girls volleyball team made it to the semi-finals. No t-shirt again. Hopefully dodgeball can do that for me!
-I have been spending a lot of time with Stewart and have been enjoying every minute.
-We were able to go to conference for a session thanks to KC!
-Mom, dad, Marissa, Lindsea, Hudson and Travis have all come to visit! Nick, Aaron and his family have yet to make an appearance. What the heck?! It was great to see everyone when they came!
-I have been able to meet two of Stewart's sisters and quite of few friends from his home. And I will most likely be meeting his parents for Thanksgiving when I go to California with him.
-We went to a bottomless pit on Friday and threw more burning things down. The road up there was a little scary. haha One car popped a tire and one got stuck. Our car was safe. Thank goodness!
-I have been able to go shooting down here quite a few times. I got a nice deal with a punch card so I have fifteen more times I can go on that :) so excited! I love being able to go shooting while down here
-My nieces and nephews are growing up way too fast. Parents of those children-slow that down maybe? Or post more pictures and videos :) Please
-My cooking skills seem even worse in this apartment because our oven is messed up. I have successfully ruined five different desserts/meals.
-We hiked the Y with a group of people at night which was a blast.
-We went to Stacey's birthday party. It was a redneck theme. It is a bad sign if every article of clothing I wore that night I wear on a regular basis?
-I will soon be going through a time where I will have to send many girl friends on missions. I heard that normally the church gets 600 applications for missions in a week and last week there were 7000. Now that I am done sending guy friends on missions I have to go through it with girls. So sad but at the same time I am incredibly happy for them and for all the guys who will be able to go sooner. BYU campus is going to look a lot different next year!

We took about 10 pictures and this is the only one he didn't erase. At least he looks good! haha

When Life Gets One Degree Colder

As I get further along in my major I realize more and more how much I love it and how excited I am about doing this for a career. I have had an incredibly stressful last couple days with classes, having to switch classes around and have to catch up on two weeks worth of work. Every Friday we have a class from 1-3:30. At first, I was not excited. I had to take that section so there was no question about changing it. We watched this video yesterday. I love it. I didn't watch when it was first broadcasted but I definitely think it is worth watching. I cried. Actually, I am pretty sure my entire class cried. It reminded me who I need to be in my profession and what all this stress is for. 

Banana Cake Recipe

This is for all of you who wanted to know what recipe I used on Junior's birthday cake.  I got the banana bar recipe off Pinterest from this blog: http://www.320sycamoreblog.com/2012/03/banana-bars-winner.html

I have made them before but not like I did this time.

The actual recipe is as follows...

Combine :

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

2 eggs.

Add & stir until well mixed:

1 ½ cups mashed very ripe bananas (abt. 2 large)

2 tsp vanilla

Sift together and add to above mixture:

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Spread batter in greased and floured cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 18-20 minutes or until light brown.

Cool, frost with glaze:

Melt ¼ cup butter or margarine in glass bowl or on stovetop in a pan.

Whisk in 2 cups powdered sugar

3 Tbs. milk

1 tsp vanilla

NOW, I did not use this glaze for the cake. As I said before, Jun wanted a cream cheese frosting.  I had called Chris and asked him what he thought I should do and he said I can't get store bought because it isn't very good. I wanted this cake to be delicious since I had no idea who or how many people were going to be eating it I went for the homemade. I have never made it before and my mom told me that she doesn't like to make it because sometimes it doesn't turn out. Well, I got enough ingredients to make two batches, just in case the first one didn't work.

So, I made two cookie sheets (double recipe, but I made them at different times) and cut them in half. I stacked all four pieces on top of each other and put a little of the cream cheese frosting between each layer...

·         4 ounces unsalted butter, softened

·         4 ounces cream cheese, softened

·         2 cups powdered sugar

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract

  I got it off of allrecipes or something like that. It is a little thinner than I expected, maybe I didn't put enough sugar? But it seemed to do just fine because people loved it. I topped it with walnuts and enjoyed the delicious taste of my own masterpiece :) 

Bronte told me her taste buds were in love, so it must be good.

Lake, helicopter, games and cake

I just realized it had been forever since I updated this thing.  My summer was just too fun to sit down and write a blog post! With that, I LOVED my summer. Having two nephews there to play with whenever and having a niece and nephew born while I was home- I was spoiled. I will do a quick update about my wonderful summer.

This was the first picture I took while at home. Man or man was I happy to wake up to this. Even if it was 6 am.

So, like I said, I was spoiled with how much time I got to spend with family. I haven't had that much family home and been able to spend that much time with them for so so so long!

We went swimming a lot. Rock learned how to swim without his muscles. Such a little swimmer! These other two loved the water too. It was so cute watching Ryker doing what all the kids were doing during their swim lessons. Ah! I miss them!

Fourth of July- on our way down to the fireworks, in the clown car.

Huntin some rhubarb for pie! Speaking of pie- Riss, you should make some while you are here.

I just have to smile and laugh at how adorable these two are.

If you ever want to meet some cute firefighters, have your adorable nephews ask if they can get on the truck. Warning: it will most likely make them 100 times more good looking.

Having these boys sleep over was always interesting.. haha

Baby Hudson! Even though he came later than I would have liked him to come and I only got to be around him for fourish weeks, I still love and miss this little guy! Even though he might pass me up in height by the age of 5.

Mom took a group of us to see Les Mis. I love this play. I would watch it over and over and over again. Thanks again mom!!

I was able to spend some lake time with friends. Even though I thought I was going to die while tubing (but really, doesn't everyone feel that way about tubing??) I still have an amazing time!

We were able to go to three Mariner games, one being where they honored Felix Hernandez. It was awesome.

Marci got married. I don't have a picture with her at the wedding yet, but hopefully it will get posted soon! :) She was beautiful. Chris was handsome. The reception was gorgeous. The food was delicious. 

And they are so stinkin cute together! I couldn't be more happy for the two of them!

We went to the Oregon coast. It as such a wonderful break! Also, I fell in love with the coconut macaroons. Never in my life have I wanted to order some and get them delivered to me in a different state. Oh, and I don't have pictures of Oregon... Mom? Dad? Anyone?!?

We went to the rodeo. The boys put on quite a show, of course!

Dad made sure that we were able to ride in the helicopter as much as we wanted. Well, if I got to ride in it as much as I wanted he would have had to get two 100 hour check ups during the summer instead of just one. 

I did not want to leave home this summer. I was totally spoiled! Before I headed out Aunt Alice taught Riss and I how to make donuts. They were delicious of course. Even though Alice broke the news to us that they weren't the best she has ever had... We will have to practice haha

This was on my way back to Utah. I love my town and miss it so much!

Don't mind the bugs on my windshield. :)

Last night was Junior's birthday. He told me he wanted a banana cream cheese cake. I was so confused and didn't know how to go about doing that because I thought he meant fresh bananas. All that came to mind was trying to recreate the cakes that Chayo gets for birthdays and just put banana instead of strawberries. I knew I would NEVER ever be able to make it that good. Jun let me know he wanted something like banana bread. Thank goodness! So I made to pans of banana bars, cut them in half and stacked them all on top of each other. Between each layer I put a little of the cream cheese frosting. Once it got time to top it off with the frosting... I realized it looked more like icing. Bronte pointed out how this picture would be perfect for the "nailed it" pictures off pinterest. haha And it looked bad. Once we got the walnuts on it that Jun wanted and added the candles, it looked pretty delicious! I had five girls ask if it was a pinterest recipe. You can imagine how proud of myself I was when I told them it was (kind of) my own creation. It may be lopsided but it was delicious! I even had a random guy come up to me and tell me that he was in love with me because the cake was so incredible. I think I succeeded when I told mom earlier yesterday that I wanted to impress everyone with my baking skills. And there weren't any hairs in it! At least no one told me they got one... That is definitely a success!!  Jun's nephew went to the party. He is two and reminded me so much of Ryker and Rock. From jumping around with balloons, to kicking me, to blowing raspberries on me, to wrapping his arms around my neck to wanting more watermelon. I miss my nephews and niece!