Life Goes On

Well, I am happy to report that after being married for 3 months, we have finished the last of the thank you notes! People were so generous when we got married and we are so grateful to be shown so much love and support. Thank you everyone!!! Quite a lot has happened since that happy day in May. If I wrote all about it, it would take too long to read. Since I love looking at everyone else's pictures, I figure I will just post a bunch of photos and you can all guess what we've been up to :)

So, hi all. We know it's been awhile since we last posted and you know of the BIG NEWS. We're getting married this month!!! Thank you all for being such great supports to both Brooke and I. It has been easier to bear with all your thoughts and prayers. Thank you very much. Brooke might have told some of you how I got my blessings restored but for the rest of you let me recount.
I was in Sunday School on April 18th when my Stake President, Pres. Ellgren, pulled me out and said I was approved for my blessings pending my final interview with one of the General Authorities. Sometime in May I would be getting a call from one of the General Authority's secretaries to set up an appointment to have the interview. Of course I was so excited of hearing the news of finally having my blessings restored but there was more to Pres. Ellgren's message. I was not to say one word about my pending restoration of my blessings to anyone. Ugh, not even to Brooke? How can this be? Of all the people that needed to hear that the end was near was certainly Brooke. So I hesitantly asked if I could tell Brooke he said, "No."
For the next 3 agonizing weeks I had to pretend I had not heard from Pres. Ellgren, knowing that I had and knowing I couldn't even hint at it otherwise Brooke would have caught on to me. It was a struggle. Brooke would ask if May 5th or 10th would be a good day to possibly schedule our wedding and I would just have to shrugg my shoulders. Sometimes I would try to persuade her to schedule something in June but Brooke the ever opptamist would just smile and say, "May would do."
So when Sunday May 2nd came and I got a phone call from the executive stake secretary to make an appointment with the Stake President I was almost relieved of my fascade/secret. Brooke came up after work to my house in Farmington and had to wait at my place until after I had met with the Stake President to hear the news. Before I told Brooke the answer we had a quick prayer to thank Heavenly Father for giving us patience during this 9 week wait. We sat down and with tears in my eyes I told her my blessings had just been restored to me by Pres. Ellgren. Of course she was crying too and with the longest hug we just sat there appreciating the momment. Brooke has been the best and I'm sure she was just as relieved as I was.
If you ask Brooke she would say I made the pray to sound as though I hadn't recieved my Blessings but of course that's just her perception of the prayer. :) Anyway, it's now less than 2 weeks away and we couldn't be happier. We've got lots of the arrangements planned and are looking forward to that day when we can celebrate our most happiest day with many of you. Thanks again for being such good family and friends. We love you all and see you soon. Yaya

Happy April!

Well, it's time again to let all of those readers out there know what we've been up to this past month. I'm not sure that there really are readers out there, and this is more for my benefit that anything else, but just so you know we've had a great month :)

A quick summary of events: we got our engagement pictures taken, went to one of Whit's niece's elementary school play (it was adorable and she did a great job!), picked out a wedding cake, got Whit's suit, had a couple of games nights with friends, I had several bridal showers, we went paintballing with our friends Carla and Jeff, went to the U of U/BYU gymnastics meet with Alicia and friends (go Utes!), had dinner at Grandma Fife's again and this time we played kickball, had a regular old date night--dinner and a movie, enjoyed watching conference together, went down to Spanish Fork for the Sunday sessions and had a fun easter egg hunt with my family, and moved a couple of boxes with my roommates who moved out this weekend. It was a busy and fun month.


We don't look cold, do we? Whit thinks that we would make great actors, since we don't show the pain that we were in. If you zoom in, you can see this halo around my arms--it's all of my arm hair standing up on end, since it was about 30 degrees and so windy when we got these pictures taken! I like this photo though, the lake was so pretty. But we do look a little out of place, sitting on uncomfortable rocks in our church clothes. We took the rest of the pictures at the Oquirrh Mountain temple and those look a little more appropriate. We had a lot of fun though, even though it was sooooo cold!


Here is the gymnastics meet. Alicia did an analysis of our persona while we were waiting for the meet to start. Since she did mine several years ago, she did Whit's this time. She had him picture a desert and describe it, then describe a ladder there, and then a box, then a horse, etc. After he was done with all of the questions, she let him know the results. When he was asked to describe how he felt about the horse, he said he had no feelings for it. Well, turns out that refers to how he feels about his partner, aka me. So nice to know he has no feelings for me! At least he didn't want the horse to go away :)


Here is the fun shower that my friends threw for me. They made it an Asian themed shower and had these beautiful cherry blossoms and all Asian food. It was so nice! It was so fun to see some people that I haven't seen for awhile. And great to hear about every one's fun lives and catch up on what they have been doing. I really have been blessed with terrific friends and I appreciate them all so much!






And here I am with my Aunt Jo and Grandma Fife. Jo and Shay went to so much work, they had darling table decorations, a fantastic dinner, beautiful cupcakes, and fun shower games. It was so fun to hang out with all of my aunts and cousins while all of the boys were at Priesthood. And they all gave me such nice gifts--I have such a great family and feel so loved by everyone!

I think I've decided that I'm going to blog once a month. The original goal was to post weekly, but that just doesn't seem to be happening! And this way we most likely will have some fun pictures to post :) So the last weekend in February we had another moonlight snowshoeing adventure. Whit's fun sister Linsey came with us, which was awesome! It was a cloudy night and I forgot to bring my headlamp, so it was a little dark at times, but it was beautiful! We had a great time but sadly my snowshoe broke! So I guess that's the last of the snowshoeing for the season. We're hoping rei will have some great end of season clearance sales :)



















That Sunday we went to American Fork to have dinner with my family at Grandma Fife's. We had such a fun time and played a hilarious game of charades. For one of Grandma's words, she lifted up her skirt to her knee and stuck out her leg and made flirty faces. Her word was hitch hike. It was way too funny! I think everyone should have the chance to play charades with Grandma :)

The first weekend in March we went cross country skiing with friends. I didn't take many pictures, but Kasey and Holly did and hopefully someday I can get copies from them (hint hint). But I did get this great one of Whit. :) You can see that it was a gorgeous sunny day, we even got warm and took off our coats! We went up Parley's canyon and skiied at Mountain Dell golf course. It was my first time skiing there and it was a lot of fun. I love being introduced to new places!











Then this last weekend we had our friends Holly and Cody over and Whit taught us how to make sushi. Can you believe Whit and I got to hammer the crab legs and get the meat out ourselves? I know, I touched raw meat! Well, actually it was cooked. But the hammering was a little messy, I got crab juice squirted all over me. But it was fun and tasted soooo good! We all made a couple of rolls and then ate until we couldn't eat anymore. I love sushi! After dinner we played games and I just want it to be known that I won Rummikub and hearts! That was fun for me :) Lots and lots of fun times for sure!

A Month in Review

It's been a busy but fun month! Since we last posted we have gone for a full moon snowshoeing adventure with Whit's roommate Brad.











It was also my birthday! Whit treated me to dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, after we reserved a room there for our reception.










A couple of nights later my dear friend Alicia organized a dinner with some of my friends. We went out for Thai food (yum!) and then came back to my place for cake and games. Good times for sure.














Then for Valentine's Day, Whit went all out and cooked for two days straight and made a Chinese New Year dinner for all of his friends. The food was so delicious, he cooked so much and we all wanted to try everything. He is so talented :)



















We both had President's Day off from work, yay! We had a good laugh when Whit came to pick me up and we were wearing the same outfit! I totally ran up to my room to change so we weren't twinners. We seem to do that occasionally :)













We went bowling that day with my parents who came up to have a late birthday celebration with us. They treated us to bowling and then we all went and worked out together at our clubhouse. It was a fun day.











We also went dancing with some friends! There was a free ballroom dance class at a church and Whit consented to go. We had such a good time, and even though he doesn't like to admit it, Whit really liked it too! :) So you think you can dance, here we come! Maybe... :) We have also been registering, gathering addresses, and looking at venues for the luncheon. Wedding stuff galore but it's so fun to think that it's actually getting closer. Yay! Oh, and here's a home improvement project that Whit did this Saturday. I've been wanting pendant lighting over the island in the kitchen forever. Mom gave Whit a gift card to Lowe's, and I talked him into using it to get this lighting. We came home and he installed it right away. Doesn't it look great? He is such the handyman--I love it!

Snowshoeing Adventures

We had a great time snowshoeing these past two weekends. On the 9th we went up to Guardsmans Pass with Whit's friends and my roommate Azure. Whit's friends included Josh, Pat, and Ryan. The boys and Azure had fun jumping off the ledge into the snow and even Pat entertained us with an awesome back flip which we have included for your viewing pleasure.





Then on the 16th we went down to American Fork Canyon with our couple friends; Holly and Cody, Amanda and Arie with Barkley the pup. We hiked up the trail to a meadow and from there we forged our own trail along the ridge of the mountain. From there we geronimoed down the face of the mountain and ended back up at the reservoir. It was a great time for sure, and we really enjoyed the sushi we had when it was all done :) Looking forward to many more such adventures in the future.