January Temple Visits

So far this year, Jonathan and I have gone to the temple once a week. Honestly, I don't know if we'll be able to keep that up for the entire year. Life has the tendency of getting in the way. I have 2 goals in regard with temples this year. First, I want to go to the two remaining Utah temples we haven't been to yet. Ogden and Brigham City, though later this year we'll have to add Payson to the list! (Sorry Monticello, you are just too far for us to realistically make it out there.) Second, each time we go to the temple I want to take at least one of our own family names. It has been such a wonderful experience being able to take my ancestors to my absolute favorite place on earth. If you haven't taken your family to the temple, do it! It is such a powerful experience and they need you to take them.

Our first temple of the year was the Salt Lake Temple. It offers a unique experience because it is a live session format and you can enjoy the original pioneer craftsmanship that went into the construction of the temple. I love how it feels like you are transported into another era.

Our second temple was Mount Timpanogos. This is the temple we are assigned to go to. I love it because there are some similarities to the Sacramento Temple which I seriously miss. The Utah temples are all beautiful, but they are also huge and I rarely know where anything is. I miss my cute little Sacramento Temple. Anyway, I was having a particularly hard day and needed to feel loved. As you may know, there are 3 different video presentations that they use in the temple. It has literally been over a year since I saw the first one. That night there was a lot of people at the temple, so we missed the 7:40 session and were instead in the 8:00 session. The session started and it was the first video. I felt so loved and that Heavenly Father notices me as an individual.

Our third temple trip was to the Provo Temple. This choice in temple happened accidentally. We had actually planned and driven the entire 15 minutes to the Mount Timpanogos Temple just for me to realize that I had forgotten my temple recommend. I got a little too focused on making sure I had our family names... We drove back home and decided to go the 7 minute drive to Provo instead. (Seriously, people in Utah complain about how long it takes to get to the temple. I have a hard time taking them seriously.) Anyway, we got to seal all of these wonderful ancestors to their parents. In the mix was a pair of brothers born in the 1680s, two brothers and a sister born in the early 1700s, two sisters born in the 1780s, and Theodore born in 1840. When I was making sure that everyone was ready to be sealed to their parents, I realized that I could have been doing the temple work for Theodore's wife as well. I try to take family members and spouses to the temple together, so I was shocked with myself when I saw that she needed to got to the temple as well. I'm not too worried though because she is in the next group of family to take to the temple!

Our fourth temple trip was an especially exciting one. It was the first time Jonathan had names from his own family! I may or may not have been the one who actually found them, but that doesn't even matter. As I've been finding our family, I feel personally responsible to make sure they get to the temple.

Last week, our schedules prevented us from going to the temple together. I enjoy going to the temple with Jonathan, but it was kind of nice to have the opportunity to be there by myself. I used to go to the temple by myself all the time before we were married. It was nice to have the time for me to just ponder about my goals and challenges. I feel so blessed that we live so close to so many temples and that I have the time to find my ancestors that need me to take them to the temple.

Celebrating Birthdays!

Last year, I was pretty lame when it came to making our nieces and nephews birthdays special especially for the California kids. This year I vowed to do better. The idea started simple with just holding a sign that said happy birthday. As I was sitting at work, I started thinking more about what Garrett was interested in. (Garrett has the first birthday of the year.) I knew he is crazy about the Ninja Turtles. Then it hit me. Jonathan and I needed to dress up as Ninja Turtles! I told Jonathan my idea and he was on board!

This picture turned out even better than how I imagined it! I am having so much fun figuring out what we are going to do for each of the kids. For Clara, we went with a Frozen theme since she loves the movie and Utah Lake is currently frozen. Jonathan added in the special effect so I could be a more convincing Elsa.

Here's a very small hint of what we're doing for Kyle. It's going to be amazing thanks to Jonathan!

Oh, Hello 2015

I have neglected this poor blog for long enough! Things got really crazy in November and thankfully it is much calmer now. I'll try to be more regular with posts, but at this point I don't know if that means once a week or once a month. Here are some pictures from my phone of some things we've been up to in the past few months!

We took more of my family to the temple!

We survived a below freezing BYU football game!

I found a bunch of awesome rocks for Ty in Roosevelt.

Jonathan and I met sleepy baby Ruby!

Seriously, that girl is a doll!

Jonathan is still a favorite with Clara. Jonathan's taking a picture a Clara with a toy she's pretending is a camera.

Jonathan and I had our very own Thanksgiving together. That's all of our leftovers!

A few weeks before Thanksgiving, I found out the company I work for was going to be shutting down the Orem office in January. I was kind of in denial about it happening and was taking some time to figure out where I should work. The day before Christmas Eve, I got a job within the same company that will be moving to Lehi next week. This was seriously the best Christmas present I've ever gotten!

Our parent's totally spoiled us this year!

We had our first snow storm on Christmas day and luckily Jonathan cleared the snow off of the car so I could go to work the next day.

Ruby came down to Orem for a quick visit with her parents.

On Saturday, Jonathan and I went up to Park City and just wandered around.

Today has been a wonderfully rainy day. I love winter rain especially here in Utah!

I have a lot more pictures, but they are all on the big camera. I will be sure to share more of what we've been up to!

Our First White Christmas

We literally had a white Christmas this year. It had been weeks since the previous storm rolled through Utah and after I went to bed on Christmas Eve it snowed. After we opened our gifts, we ventured out into the fresh snow. We found a shopping cart in our parking lot and I could resist climbing in it!

As we made our way to the park, I decided it would be a good idea to knock the snow off of the balls that most car dealerships have in Utah.

The park looked beautiful with all of the snow.

After awhile, the snow was really coming down so we made our way back home.

Even though we weren't with our families, it was still a magical Christmas!

Temple Square at Christmas

The Monday before Christmas, we headed up to Salt Lake to see the lights in Temple Square. It was pretty crazy, but it was gorgeous!

After awhile, we went inside the Joseph Smith Memorial building to thaw out along with a lot of other people. We wandered around and took some pictures from the toasty rooms.

We made our way back out to see the nativity.

Temple Square is truly magical with all of the lights and Christmas spirit.

Surprise Weekend

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Jonathan and I surprised my parent's by showing up at my brother's house. They were in town for Thanksgiving and baby Ruby's blessing and were not expecting us at all!

The roads were only slippery in a couple of places which I was very grateful for!

The real highlight of the trip was meeting sweet baby Ruby! She is such a mellow and calm baby. We were able to take a couple of naps together.

Clara took a break from playing to snuggle with Grandpa.

Though to be honest, Clara's favorite part of the weekend was opening up their Christmas present from Aunt Amy and Uncle Andy. It's a cross between a waffle and a cookie maker. As you can tell by Clara's sweet face, they are delicious with a little Nutella!

On Sunday, sweet baby Ruby was blessed. This little girl is named after 2 of her great-grandmas.

Before we left, Chris had Jonathan and I try on a couple of his Giants baseball caps that don't fit him. The one that was just a little too small for him was too big for me. The one that was too big for him was given to him by our Uncle Jerry. Every time Uncle Jerry sees Chris, he gives him his Giants baseball cap. Even now that Chris is an adult, they are still too big for him. We figured that it should definitely fit Jonathan because he has a very large head. It didn't fit. Jonathan needs a BIGGER hat! Seriously, though. Jonathan's head looks normal, but in reality it is huge!

My dad had a bunch of mission buddies that were getting together in Utah, so my parents came back down to Utah with us. We stopped off in Salt Lake and found where my great-great-great grandpa James Davis was buried. It took awhile, but we were able to find him! He served in the Mormon Battalion after his father died in Winter Quarters. 

We Really Aren't In California

At the beginning of October, we thought it would be a great idea to go to a BYU football game. Jonathan had never been to a game and I have never been to a home game. I found a really good deal on tickets for last weeks game against UNLV. Finally the night of the game was here! There was a bitter, Arctic wind that night. Even though we thought we were prepared, we were not.

Between quarters, I had Jonathan sit on me to warm up my legs.

It was a really good game, but honestly I was giddy to see the marching band. I still occasionally have dreams about being in band. 

We stayed long enough to see BYU's final touchdown for the game.

I'm still impressed that we were able to survive three hours in below freezing weather. I am so grateful that the weather has been so mild this January and so far in February!

Adventures

I am grateful for the variety of adventures Jonathan and I go on together.

Since my promotion, we haven't done as much but I truly enjoy our lazy mornings together just as much.

Support

Today I am grateful for the support and love Jonathan is always showing me. It amazes me each time I come up with a new dream or goal for myself  how quickly he is to support me. There is no mistake, I definitely got a keeper!

Snow

Today I am grateful for snow. Now don't think that I'm excited for it to be snowing here in the valley, because I am still in denial that it will. I am grateful for how the snow makes the mountains look so pretty. We were spoiled with green mountain sides through spring and summer and then the gorgeous fall colors. Lately though, they have just been looking brown and dead. The snow is able to cover all of that up.