Oh the JOY!!!

Can you believe Christmas has come and gone already? Man December is just flying! And speaking of flying....the snow just keeps coming down! When I went into work this morning the roads were just fine and dry, but a couple hours later it was snowing and yucky outside. Luckily I've only got 2 more days to drive to American Fork, then I'll be back up at Gateway and riding the traxs. Though the trax take a couple minutes longer than driving, we get to save on gas, not put as many miles on the car, and plus I get to read 1/2 hr each way (it's an easy way to get your scripture study in).

So this last week has been full of getting ready for Christmas. We decided to make cookies and give them to our neighbors and those who we home teach. I tried some new recipes, and based on how fast Steve and Zack ate them, I guess they turned out pretty good. :) I made snicker-doodles, chocolate cookies w/ white chocolate chips and coconut shavings, and peanut butter cookies w/ recess in the middle.

For Christmas Eve, Steve and I went over to Steve's grandma LuDean's. We met his parents there, along w/ Carrie and Aunt Diane. Jeff and baby Cameron also stopped by for a couple minutes. We had pizza for dinner and watched one of my family's favorite, "Seasons of the Heart." We then made graham cracker houses and decorated them. Steve and I then headed home to pack and get ready to head to Idaho. Since we were getting up early, we decided to open our Christmas gifts from each other. We wanted our first Christmas to be simple yet special, so we got just a couple gifts for each other and tried to focus on others more. I got Steve some slippers from Cabelas, along w/ a hat and pocket knife. He got me a really cool game, Blokus 3D. I love Blokus, so 3D was a slam! We took it to Idaho w/ us and everyone just loved it. He also got me a yoga mat and an oil vile key chain (so I'll always be ready or just in case he's not w/ me). By the time we went to bed it was midnight.


The next morning we got up at 7 so we could get the car loaded and get out the door by 9 so we could have lunch w/ my parents, grandma and aunt/uncle. I made one of Steve's favorite breakfasts, eggs, toast, sausage and orange juice. We then hurried, packed up, and left. We made good time. The road were dry and not many were driving that early, so we made good time; just in time for lunch! It was good to visit and to just be "home." That night we over to my brother Daron's house to play visit and play games w/ him and his family.

On Saturday, Steve went hunting coyotes w/ my dad and brothers, and I helped my mom make pizza. My little brother Dexter just got home from Afghanistan earlier this
week, so we were all glad to see him. He has just a couple more months of service, then he's done w/ the Marines. After lunch we all went down to Grandma's house for our Hegerhorst Christmas Party. We had our program of singing and story telling, then opened white elephant gifts, and had dinner. Riley fell asleep during the program on my dad's lap (so cute). After dessert, we went for a quick walk to see the cows, and Charlotte just loved it! Gotta love the cows ;)

On Sunday, we went to church and enjoyed more time w/ everyone...playing games, visiting, movies, eating, etc. Unfortunately dad wasn't feeling good the whole day. The night before his stomach started to hurt and by the next evening it still hadn't gone away. Steve and Chris gave him a blessing, but by the description he was giving us, we all felt we'd better take him to the hospital. We were all worried it would be his appendix, so we didn't want to chance it. By the time we decided this (since there wasn't any change by the time we were going to bed), it was after 11 pm. My Mom, Steve and I then jumped in the Tahoe and drove my dad to the ER in Boise (1 1/2 hrs away). They got us right in, took his blood, got an IV started, and took his vitals. Not his favorite thing in the world to have done, mine neither, but he survived. He made the best of the situation and were laughing all night (morning I guess it was technically). Dad got a little cold from the IV, so I put his beany on his head and got him all cuddled up ;)The Dr thought if it wasn't his appendix that it was his colon, and it was. He had developed a hole in his colon, which had been irritating him, obviously. It's called diverticulitis. The Dr gave him some antibiotics, but also recommended him going to his Dr a couple weeks later. I'm so thankful that we stayed an extra day and were able to take my dad to the hospital. Both Steve and I had the feeling to stay that night, and who knows if they would have gone in had we not been there. By the time we got home it was after 4 am, so needless to say, we were all a little tired the next day...any maybe still are.

I'm so thankful for this time of year, especially to give us an extra reason to reflect and think of Christ. I love my family and and so grateful to spend time w/ them. I know it is through the Atonement of Christ that we can return to our Heavenly Father and live w/ our families as well!

We are done!!!!!

So first things first.....Steve and I are officially done with school....well at least until January! We have been sooooo busy w/ school, especially these past three weeks or so trying to keep up on homework assignments and tests. We both finished up all our classes by Thursday last week. It is such a relief! All our grades have been posted now and we both did great! Steve worked really hard this semester and his work has definitely paid off. We're now enjoying our time together to just relax and be with one another.

Next announcement, we got new WINDOWS!!! Our condo was soooo cold before, so we figured it would be a good investment to purchase new windows. We got one for each room and of course our huge sliding glass door. It took them a little longer than expected, but they got it done and they look great! It's quite warmer now that's for sure. We should also be able to get tax credits and some utility rebates as well...double bonus!


Friday I had the day off; it was great! Steve and I got to do some errands, and also went to support Ethan in his preschool Christmas program. We went and ate at "Noodles and Company" first; it was actually pretty good. They were so cute signing. That night Steve surprised me by taking me to "Zoo Lights." I didn't know that the Zoo was open in the winter, let alone that they decorated w/ lights. It was a lot of fun! We got to walk around the zoo and look at the animals, especially the cats were out (Tigers, mountain lions, links, etc), and we also got to enjoy some creative Christmas lights (in the form of animals). There was a good amount of people there, but we still had a blast. On the way back we picked up some hot chocolate at 7-Eleven yummm! Thanks for the great date night honey! ;)

Saturday we had a pretty busy day. In the morning I went over to the church for choir practice while Steve worked on our water heater. The boards were old and moldy, so Steve decided to replaced them. When I got back, I made some pizza dough and got ready for Zach and Rob to come over. They came over around 12:30 pm we could play Wii. As I put together the pizzas, they played games. We played bowling, a board game, boxing, etc. Carrie and Elvis even came over for a bit to play; it was a lot of fun...even if I'm not so good. That night we went over to the McGrath Christmas party. They have it every year at the Best Western hotel in Sandy. It was great to see everyone and catch up a little. I'm still trying to get the "family tree" down, but it's coming.

On Sunday, we had the Verhagen Family over. They are a family from Vancouver, Steve's mission. They drove down from Canada and decided to stop by and visit while they were on their way to Vegas and Disneyland. We took them to church w/ us. It was our branch Christmas program, which was really good. After church, we showed them around our condo, then Steve took them up Little Cottonwood canyon to see the quary, while I went and helped Dave and Joann get lunch ready. They then came back and we had lunch. We then watched the movie, "Only a Stone cutter" which is about the pioneer who carved the words "Holiness to the Lord" on the SLC Temple. It's a great story. We then went up to Temple Square to look at the lights and visitor information. We met Steve's old companion, Hunter Heaton, and his wife. Ironically they served together in the city We were able to catch a tour of the Conference Center, which was awesome! It always amazes me the more I learn about that building. It really is a modern miracle. We then went to the visitor's centers and walked around looking at the lights. Though it was Sunday, there were a LOT of people at Temple Square. It was rather cold as well, so we tried to go quickly. After we got back, we ate some sandwiches for dinner and played "Apples to Apples." It was great spending time w/ them. It's always fun to be w/ people from your mission.

On Monday, Steve took them up to "This is the Place" monument and then over to the distribution center. They had a blast shopping I hear; stayed there for 3 hours or so. They then had lunch and headed to Vegas. It's been snowing today, so good thing they left. That night after work, Steve and I watched "The Christmas Carol" on tv. We then went and drove around the neighborhood and looked at the Christmas lights. It was a lot of fun!

We're getting pretty excited for Christmas! We're planning to spend Christmas Eve w/ Dave and Joann, then spend Christmas w/ my parents. My little brother Dexter is supposed to be getting back this week from the Marines (he was over in Afghanistan for several months). We're excited to see him and all the relatives this weekend!

BRRRR......

Wow, it is cold outside! It's been in the teens all this week as we're going to work and school, and barely getting above freezing during the day! We got hit with a bunch of snow this weekend, and it's still coming down. The commute wasn't too bad, just had to go slowly. Luckily I left early enough so I was still on time.

Well, a lot has happened since I last blogged, so I'll try to give you a quick update. It's been pretty busy around here with school and work. We've got finals next weeks, so there's been a lot of preparation for them. Steve has been rocking his classes too! He's really enjoying the work he's doing, and recently he's decided he'd like to become a Physicians Assistant. He also met w/ a counselor this week and found out he can finish up with Medical Assistant Degree and associates by next fall. He's pretty excited! He also took a CPR class on Saturday and passed w/ a 100%.

On Saturday evening, we got together w/ the Snow College Ambassadors that I served with back in 2002-2004. We got together for dinner at Johnny Carinos. It was fun to see everyone and catch up over the years. I can't believe how fast time goes by.

For Thanksgiving we went down to Highland to be w/ my mom's side of the family. We helped get set up and make potatoes. After dinner, we hurried back up to Steve's parents place for an honor dinner. This is something they do every year to honor someone in the family, this year it was their grandma LuDean. We went around the circle and said why we appreciate her and gave her a little something that reminded us of her. My dad also came up w/ us and as soon as we were done, Steve, his dad and my dad left to the cabin to go fishing. Steve wanted to go fishing for his birthday, and since my dad was down here, he decided to take him.


They had a BLAST fishing I hear. They slept overnight at the cabin, then went out the next morning and stayed until the afternoon. I heard my dad had a blast, though it took him a while to get the hang of rowing the pontoon boat and fishing at the same time. They all caught something, and even caught a couple BIG ones too!!!!! My dad thought it was going to be too cold to fish, but from the sounds of it, they had to pull him out of the water to leave! ;)

Steve's 24th birthday was the 29th. I made Steve crepes for breakfast and gave him a couple gifts. He already got his BBQ 2 months ago, but since he needed them....I got him a new wallet and some shorts (he won't sleep in pants though it's freezer). We then went out to Rose/Jared's for Sophia's baby blessing. Since it wasn't fast Sunday the Bishop didn't want it to be done in the church, so it was done at their home. Afterwards we ate, talked, and played games. I made Steve a chocolate cake w/ carmel in the middle and whip cream and chocolate shavings on the top; we sung Steve Happy Birthday We then went over to Steve's parents to play games too; Zach and Rob came over to play as well.


The night before I made Steve one of his favorite dinners, Shepherd's Pie. We then took the trax downtown to look at the lights at Temple Square. It was the first day the lights were on, so there were a lot of people there. The lights were beautiful and fun to see.

Last Saturday we had Carrie over. We made stuffed peppers and watched "Hitch." It was good to spend some time w/ her; it seems we haven't seen her in a while. Also, this Friday we had Zach and Rob over. We made fajitas on the grill (soooo good) and watched "Angels and Demons." We then went to the hot tub to warm up. We love having the hot tub...it's huge like 12x8!

Well, we hope all is well. It's Christmas time soon. Steve and I have been married 11 months now, almost a full year. Crazy I know!

Love ya :)

Update....

I just wanted to give a quick update on what Steve and I have been up to these days, besides just loving life ;) For the most part, we have both been fairly busy w/ school and me at work. Steve is on the downward slope for his classed this fall. He's got another three weeks then he's done. Needless to say he's getting pretty excited to be done. He'll then have one more full semester of classes, then his intern per say and he can start working as a Medical Assistant!

I've been pretty busy at work. We've been in a campaign the past 8 weeks, so I've been working extra hard to do well. If we're in the top 30% nationally we qualify to receive gift cards of $500-$1500; pretty motivating eh? There's also a trip we could win and other "perk points" which we can use to buy stuff. We just got our last results in yesterday and I'm definitely in the top 30%, what spot exactly I won't know until Friday though. It's always nice to have your hard work pay off. Last campaign I used the gift cards to pay for gas, and we also went to a couple restaurants. Gotta love not have to pay it yourself.

I've also been busy w/ school. We're at our midterms this week. So far so good, I just need to keep pushing through and get them done. I should finish up the second week of December, so just after Steve, which will be nice for the Holidays.

We also bought a space heater recently. Our place gets pretty cold on the bottom floor, but we don't want to heat up the whole place when we're only in one room. We had Dave and Joann over last week for pizza and a movie and Joann got pretty cold, sorry Bojam (We watched the movie "Up" so cute!). We also had a guy come bid us on our windows this week. We need to replace them also since they're letting warm air out and cold air in; that will help w/ heating cost too. Another bonus is our hot tub. We just love it! It's huge too. We think it's 12 feet long and 8 feet wide, almost like a warm swimming pool. We go there every couple days to warm up and it's good for Steve's knee.

Oh, and on Sunday Steve and I gave talks in church. We talked about the Book of Mormon. We didn't have too much time to talk since they were putting in a new counselor in our branch presidency, but what can you do? Everyone said they enjoyed our thoughts at least and we got to study the Book of Mormon more intensely and deepen our testimony of it. We love that book!

We also had tithing settlement right after, and that night we went over to our neighbors (a couple in the branch) and played games. It was really fun to get to know others in the branch and relate to other young married couples. :)

I love the Gospel !!!!

So yesterday Steve picked up 2 copies of "Preach My Gospel" for us to study. We figured that since we have been called as branch missionaries, we should be reading it. Since both of our copies had markings from our missions, we decided to get new ones and remark them w/ different insights and thoughts.

Ironically, earlier that day during class, Steve actually had a missionary opportunity. One of his teachers didn't show up, so a couple of the students decided to stay and work on homework or something. While there, a couple of them started to talk about the "Mormons" and had questions. Since they knew Steve served a mission, they started asking him about the Church. Most of them were just trying to pick on the Church, but one girl was actually listening to Steve's responses and wanted to know more. Eventually the other students left and it was just Steve and the other girl. She then started to ask Steve about our beliefs on the after life; apparently her mother had recently passed away and she was curious to know what would happen. Steve then went on to explain about the plan of salvation, and basically taught a second lesson from "Preach My Gospel." They ended up talking for quite a while. After they were done, she thanked him for his time and being so willing to answer her personal questions. She said never before had her ever felt anyone had actually took the time to answer her questions and that she wanted to know more. Steve of course said he'd love to talk to her about the Gospel whenever she wanted. Right after they were done Steve sent me a text to tell me about it; we were both soooo excited for the opportunity he had to share the Gospel!

We are looking forward to our new callings as branch missionaries and can't wait to be sharing the Gospel again. We almost forgot how much we love being missionaries and sharing this amazing message w/ others. You can't help but be happy when you're doing it!!!

Winter is here!!!

Brrrr it's cold outside!!! It's been snowing all day practically, and I hate to admit it but I think Winter is finally here. This morning it was hard to get out of bed. It was cold outside and nice and warm in our bed, but we had signed up to help clean the church, so we forced ourselves out. We hurried and got dressed, then walked over to the church to help clean. There were 2 other couples that came, so we got done in a hour or so luckily.



Afterwards, Steve went to help his dad put the tracks on the ATV's and some other things, while I stayed home to do laundry and stuff. Lately I've been looking for some more crockpot recipes, so I printed some off of the Internet. While I was putting them in my recipe book, I found this recipe I got back in college from our bishop's wife, called Taco Soup. Since it was cold outside and warm soup sounded good, I decided to make it. It's sooooo easy and yummy! I just make taco meat like normal, then dumped everything in the crockpot on high for 1-2 hrs and vwala, you're done! Here's the recipe:


Taco Soup

1 lb Ground Beef
1 Medium Onion
1 Pkg Taco Seasoning
1 16 oz can corn w/ juice (I used frozen corn)
2 16 oz can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (I used 14 oz diced tomatoes)
1 8 oz tomato sauce (I used my mom's homemade tomato soup)
1 8 oz green chiles
(I also added 1 can of black beans)

Top w/ cheese and serve w/ tortilla chips. Enjoy! It's soooo easy, anyone can make it!

Weekend Fun!

This has been a fun weekend, full of events. Friday night we invited Eve and Aaron over to make pizza and play games. I made the dough Thursday night after class, then just put it in the fridge overnight. After work on Friday, Steve got the dough out and we let it rise for a while, then put the pizzas together. We made a Canadian bacon w/ pineapple one, and one w/ pepperoni. I also had some red peppers, so we added them to half of each. We also put string cheese in the crust to make a cheese crust, which was so yummy as well. We then ate the pizza and watched "Enchanted." We also had brownies and ice cream, so good ! When the movie was over we went to our hot tub and relaxed for a while. It was our first time going to our new hot tub, and let me tell you what....it's great! It's rather large actually and very cozy; we could fit our whole family in it. After a while, we then went back to our condo and played a couple games...Blokus and pig pile. We were having so much fun and actually ended up staying up pretty late.

The next morning, Steve woke up at 7 a.m. to go w/ his dad to the cabin to get the pontoon boats. Steve decided this week that for his birthday he wants to go fishing, imagine that. So he invited my dad and his dad to go the day after Thanksgiving. My parents are coming down for Thanksgiving this year, so it'll work out just great. Needless to say Steve is rather excited to go.

While Steve was out playing, I was home tiddying up and then went to Stacie's baby shower. It was really fun to see everyone there and especially for Stacie and Phill, I think they're getting pretty excited to have their baby girl come soon. On the way to the shower my "check engine" light came on, but since I was running a little late, I just called Steve and kept going. After the shower I went to Dave/Joann's where Steve was so they could look at my car. I popped the hood and we immediately noticed that the oil cap hadn't been put on properly. It was actually just sitting on top of the oil resevoir, and oil was all over. We then went and took it to Big O'Tires to have them look at it since they were the ones who serviced it a couple weeks ago. While they were looking at things, they also found that when I filled up the day before I hadn't fully tightenend the gas cap, so that would cause the light to come on too. Luckily both were easy fixes and they didn't cause any damage. It was such a relief to me.

A couple hours later, Dave/Joann picked us up and we went to the temple. We met everyone there to do a session. We decided this year for Christmas we wouldn't do gifts, but instead just do service, temple service. After we all got there we went in for the session. It was a really neat session and it was neat to have everyone in the family there together, in the Temple.

Today at church, I lead the music in sacrament meeting again. Then after the 2nd hour, Steve and I went to a rehabilitation hospital where Steve helped bless the sacrament and also gave short talk. Our branch goes over every week to help their even smaller branch. The sacrament meeting only lasted a half hour, but it was still neat to experience. We then went w/ another guy and took the sacrament to those who were in rooms that couldn't attend. We both enjoyed the opportunity to serve and help others experience the blessing of taking the sacrament.

Well, it was an eventful week and this week will be the same. We've actually got talk assignments in our branch this week and of course the normal stuff.....school and work. I'm really enjoying my schedule and spending more time at home w/ Steve. Love ya :)