Greg Whitney & Baby Charley

Charley JoAn

2011-05-24T19:28:00.003-06:00

Our little miracle is here! She was born on April 6th at 12:11 am. She is absolutely beautiful and healthy and strong. She weighed 7lbs 3 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.

Before we left for the hospital

She decided to come a little earlier than planned, which is just her style... It is crazy to think back on how everything happened. The day was so normal and I had so much planned for that evening. My water broke around 7 on Tuesday night and since I was having a C-section, that meant no waiting around for labor, I was having that baby. I didn't want to believe it and struggled with the idea that I could be having her that night. Greg was at work and I refused to call him. Instead I went around the house doing all kinds of chores; laundry, vacuuming, dishes, etc. I waited until he called me on his break before I told him, and even then I almost didn't. He was excited and rushed home early from work to take me to the hospital, but not before I repacked my hospital bag, finished the laundry and tested out the car seat one last time. When we did finally get to the triage the nurse was pretty positive that my water did break but we had to wait for the results of the test. We asked the nurse while we were waiting if they got a lot of women in there with false alarms. She told us all the time and that most likely the girl next to us was one of them. I was so jealous of that girl, and prayed that I would have the same result. It sounds so silly now, but I did NOT want to have my baby that night. I was scheduled for the 14th and that was when I wanted to have her, not the 5th, nor the 6th. But I of course, do not get to choose how these things work out. After the tests were confirmed, the doctor came in and double checked that baby was breech and in less than 15 minutes I was in the O.R. I had decided not to tell any of our family that we were going to the hospital until I heard them say for sure I was having that baby, because, remember, I was praying I wasn't. Everything happened so fast once we found out, that all I was able to get out between the preparation was a text message to my sister before they wheeled me away. We thought we would have plenty of time to let everyone know what was going on once we found out because hospitals always seem to be so slow. Not the case. Greg walked out for a quick phone call and they almost wheeled me away without him. Everything happened so fast, and I was is such a daze that nothing felt real to me, but the second I heard my baby cry everything became real. You always hear people talk about how they feel when they see their baby for the first time, but it is even better than what they say. It was such an incredible experience and the feeling of love was overwhelming. Before my baby girl came I would have mini anxiety attacks, "I can't be a mom, I don't even like kids!" is something I would frequently tell Greg. That night I didn't want to go to the hospital because I didn't want her to be here, I couldn't possibly imagine taking care of another being. But here I am doing it and the hell I imagined it would be like while pregnant and before I even got pregnant is not hell, not even a little bit. It is pure joy. I always think how amazing it is that I can love this little one so much! I've only known her for a few weeks. I now have mini anxiety attacks when I am away from her, all I can think about is her. My husband and my baby are my world.

Here are some of Charley's first moments..

Her debut

Our first family picture
My favorite facial expression.

**I wrote this so long ago, it took me a while to finish it. .. . more exciting pictures and posts to come!!!**

2011-03-17T14:43:00.007-06:00

Baby's due date is sneaking up on us! We had another weekly appointment today, this one I had been looking forward to for a while now, because we finally got to have another ultrasound! Unfortunately, our child is a stubborn one and was facing down and breech and we could not get a very good view of her. All we could really see was the back of her head and her spine. I didn't even get to bring home a little picture. It was actually really disappointing. My doctor wanted to check her and make sure she was growing well, since all the complications before usually cause babies to not grow like they should. But, once again, she shocked us all when we saw that she already weighs more than 6 1/2 pounds, has a head the size of a full term kiddo, and of course, was Frank Breech. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised, she has been full of surprises since day one. My doctor is guessing that she will be at least 9 lbs come d-day and the size of her noggin may trigger the need for a c-section, which I will most likely have anyway because she is heads up. There is still about a 5% chance that she will turn before she is due, but I will be scheduling my c-section at my appointment next week. I am a little bummed, I wanted to try to have her naturally. I wanted the freedom of moving around, dislike the idea of the use of Pitocin and I wanted the experience of delivering. But, I guess one plus will be that we will know when she is coming and be able to plan around Greg's test schedule at school! Next week we should know what day this little one is coming! I cannot wait!
I also cannot get over how big she is!! I don't know where this child came from. I weighed about as much as she does now and I was way past my due date. Greg was a little bit bigger, but dang! 9 pounds! I was hoping for a tiny baby. :) I guess I shouldn't be complaining, I don't have to push that out.

Everything else has been coming along nicely. We have everything we need for baby, and the nursery is almost completed, I just need to get the decorations on the wall and finish the rug for her floor. School is going pretty good for both of us too. I am trying to get as much done before she comes. I just am so easily distracted by things I could be doing around the house and getting ready for Charley, that I am not as far ahead as I would like to be. Having a baby is just too much fun! :) Once her room is done I will post pictures, because it's adorable! :)

There's a Baby in there?!

2011-03-13T20:53:00.000-06:00

It is really starting to hit me that we are having a baby! I am getting so excited (and a little bit nervous) I know it will be one heck of an adventure and I look forward doing it with my sweet, adorable husband.

Over the last 8 months, I have done a crumby job taking progression pics. I really wanted to do them frequently, but failed. I do, however, have a few. So here is what I have looked like during various times of my pregnancy:

My first belly shot at 20 weeks. I didn't really show, I just looked pudgy.

26 weeks. Still not showing too much.

30 weeks. Yea! I finally had a baby pooch!

34 weeks.

I have been quite lucky so far in my pregnancy, I feel great and I love being pregnant! It is an incredible experience feeling a little one inside you. I am going to miss it, but I am sooo excited to meet this little one!

I also had my shower. Thanks to my mom and sister, it turned out great! I was even surprised by my good friend Jenny, from Utah! I couldn't believe all the fantastic things I received. I am now pretty much all set for this baby to come!

Project Complete.

2011-02-14T15:59:00.005-07:00

I have finally finished Baby Charley's room! (and a few other things) And I must say it looks fantastic! It feels so good to have it done and to check something off my long 'to do list.' I am hoping that this good feeling of accomplishment will help motivate me to continue to work on the rest of my projects around the house, but at 8 months prego, it just doesn't really sound that fun. . .

My first home improvement project was the hallway. I still need to paint the trim, but I think it looks good so far.

Before:

After:

(please excuse the dresser. I am going to be refinishing it and it just happened to be here when I took this picture)

Now onto Baby's room. I am very proud of this room! I am so pleased with the way that it turned out. At first, this room was an ugly shade of nasty with cheesy butterfly and dragonfly cut out stickers. I started by removing those lovely stickers and puttied the wall. I have never seen so many holes in my life! I felt like I refinished the wall with putty. .

(the wall color here looks white, but it was not! It was more like a yellow/brown/gray mixture, trust me, it was hideous.)

I then painted the walls an adorable pink. The white in this picture is more joint compound. I used it to hide lines left from previous wall paper and old baseboards.

I love bead board! I think it is so pretty! I wanted to do it for baby's room but I figured it would be too hard considering our walls are not perfectly straight and I am not that patient. Instead I found this wallpaper (seriously, wallpaper! I'm not usually a fan, but this stuff is great!) It looks just like bead board, although you can't really tell from this picture.

For a finishing touch I put up a chair rail to separate the bead board from the pink.

I love the way this room has turned out! I cannot wait to get all the furniture and wall decor up! I especially can't wait for Baby Charley to get here and use her new room!

As you can probably tell from the pictures above, our house has been decorated with all kinds of tools and equipment. We are slowly making our way around the house and finishing little things here and there. We are currently working on the basement. We are getting so excited for it to be finished. I have been painting all the walls and this week we will be getting new carpet! So stayed tuned for our next home improvement adventure update!

Labor and Delivery..

2011-01-26T12:47:00.003-07:00

Time is going by so fast and Baby is quickly on her way! We are getting so excited for our little one to come and have been diligently preparing for her arrival. Currently I am working on her room. I am so excited for it to be finished! Since moving into our house, everything has needed to be painted and I have slowly been working on the different sections, but by the time I got to baby's room it took everything in me to do it. I officially hate painting! But it needs to be done and it is looking fab! I will post pictures once it is completed. I have also been doing my research on different things like cribs and car seats. We recently took a newborn care class, which was somewhat helpful, and on Saturday Greg and I took a tour of the hospital that we will be delivering at. I know that I am just barely in my third trimester (almost 29 weeks) but I felt we should just in case our little one decides to come early. It turns out it was the perfect day to take that tour.

Yesterday I got to experience the Labor and Delivery Triage at St. Lukes. I am happy to report that I chose the right hospital to deliver our baby girl. The staff there is amazing and so helpful and the place makes you feel so comfortable. :) But why was I in Labor and Delivery? Baby Charley felt she was ready to meet us!! :)

About 3 am yesterday morning I started having horrible cramps which made me so sick! I just figured I had a stomach bug or something and went back to bed to try to sleep. Of course I couldn't and the rest of the morning was spent trying to find some way to relieve the cramping. After much convincing from my husband, I called the doctor. (I think doctors are amazing, but I don't think that people need to go see them for everything.) Turns out it was a good thing I did. The cramps I was feeling were contractions. (I had no idea, I've never done this before.) They were coming quite frequently, and of course it was just too early to be having any real contractions. So after seeing my amazing doctor, I was sent over to Labor and Delivery to be monitored for most of the day and was given shots to stop the contractions. It worked and last night they sent me home, but not before saying my two least favorite words: bed rest. Luckily (and hopefully) it will only be for a few days. If they don't start up again in the next day or two I can slowly start adding in activities. I am excited to meet our little one, but I can wait until she is done and ready, and hopefully I will have to. :) Having the hemorrhaging before puts her at high risk of coming early, but I have a feeling she will make it to at least the end of March. (my fingers are crossed)
Other than that, things are going quite well. Greg has been super busy with school and work. The poor guys is gone practically all day, which I hate because my most favorite thing in the world is to be with him.. I am also going to school, well sort of, I am just taking 2 online classes because baby is due mid semester and although you might think I am super woman, I'm not sure I could do a full load on campus with a newborn. It is unfortunate, because with the combination of dropping my classes last semester because of bed rest and only taking 2 this semester, it puts me back almost a year. I REALLY just want to be done and move on already! ugh.. But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is worth bringing a child into the world.. right? :)

A year in pictures.. and a few words.

2011-01-13T20:06:00.012-07:00

Happy 2011! I know I am a little late, but hey, at least I'm trying. 2010 was an awesome year. Greg and I had many fun adventures together. I found some pictures and thought I could sum up with these pictures and a few words. :)

I turned 23, which was a very hard age for me. I'm over it, but now I'm struggling with 24.
My sweet husband got me this beautiful entertainment center and this adorable cat. We even share the same birthday.

Greg and I camped out in our living room.

We enjoyed St. Patty's with a green meal.

Greg and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary at the Mona Lisa.

Myles returned from his mission in Australia.

We spent a week in California,

and at the beach.

We found out we were pregnant with our little girl.

We started another semester at Boise State.

We visited our nations capital with family and friends.

Watched Boise State football games.

I went to Mall of America with my sister and dad.

Greg and I purchased our first house!

(Which is an investment, there is some work to be done here.)

(The living room)

Greg celebrated his 24th birthday.

We enjoyed the splendors of fall.

Enjoyed a spooky dinner for Halloween.

My gangster hubby..

We celebrated baby's 20th week, get it? Half baked... haha. :)

We went to the winter gardens.

And finally, we celebrated our 3rd Christmas together.

We hope everyone had a wonderful year and that this one will bring much happiness!

Baby!!

2010-12-09T18:14:00.005-07:00

Baby Jensen is a GIRL!!!! I am so excited! I had no guesses before we found out and really didn't have a preference; I was ready for either one.
We had our big appointment yesterday and it was so much fun to see our baby again. It still amazes me how fast baby changes. As soon as baby came on the screen we saw her sucking her thumb! It was adorable. She was shy though. She was hiding her face with her hands most of the time and would not let us see her bum. I had to get up twice to walk around, roll on different sides and poke her so we could find out that she was a girl. She has proven to be a stubborn one. :) Everything looked good with baby, she is growing fast and strong despite the problems we had before. The clot is still there but should not bother her, which is good for me! I can now start exercising again and go back to normal. YEA!
I have been feeling soooo much better! The morning sickness is finally gone and all is wonderful again. :) I am now 22 weeks and starting to show a little bump. I have been able to feel baby since week 15 but the kicks and punches are so much more intense now. It kind of freaks me out thinking how there is a little one inside me doing all of it.

We are anxiously waiting for baby to come and I am so excited to decorate and paint the nursery! Let the shopping begin!!

She is sucking her thumb. :) SO cute!

Oh Snow.

2010-12-01T17:10:00.006-07:00

Today we woke up to find a beautiful site of about 8 inches of snow. I think the last time this happened here was when I was in grade school. I have this love hate relationship with snow. I am sure many others feel the same way.

I love snow because...
It is beautiful.
It makes the nights so much lighter.
It is romantic.
It makes Christmas time so much more exciting.
It is a blast to play in, no matter how old you are.
You can go snowboarding.
It is peaceful and heavenly.
School will be cancelled if there is enough.

I hate snow because...
It is so cold.
It makes the roads dangerous.
Shoveling is a pain in the butt, but I don't really hate it because of that, just right now because I can't.

Now, my hate list is so much shorter than my love list, but sometimes I forget all the things I love about it and focus only on the things that I hate. I suppose it might be because of all the memories it evokes of when I lived in Rexburg and the many close calls I had driving to and from work in Idaho falls and Boise. Also, I am so incredibly in love with my husband and all I can think about all day is him having to drive to and from work and school in the horrible conditions. I guess I am a bit paranoid, but I can't help it. :)
When it snows like this I have to remind myself how much I actually like it. I love to just sit and watch the snow flakes fall. It also takes me back to a couple years ago when we buried my Grandma Tracy. It could not have been a more beautiful day. She was buried in a gorgeous cemetery that overlooks Provo. There was so much snow and it was falling hard. Although many of us could not get up the hill to the site (we had to go back and forth with a couple big trucks to gather people and take them up) it was so peaceful and pure. It reminded me that she was in a better place and I imagined where she is is a lot like what it was like that day. In a way it comforted me and when I see the beautifully pure white snow it reminds me of her.

Pregnancy Thus Far

2010-11-09T16:23:00.004-07:00

I haven't really had a chance to update about my pregnancy. It has been an adventure so far and I want to remember it and be able to compare it to future pregnancies.

It is still weird to think that soon it won't be just Greg and me, but we are so excited to have a little one join our family. I am especially excited to see my adorable husband as a father. He is so cute with kids and will be the most amazing daddy!

We had our first doctors appointment near the end of August. Baby measured at 6 weeks and 2 days. (we thought we were a little more than 8 weeks so that was a little bit of a bummer to be pushed back 2 weeks.) It was amazing to see our baby for the first time. All we could really see was the tiny heart beating away, but it was incredible! That was our baby!! A couple weeks later we started to have a few problems. We went in and found out that there were blood clots surrounding the baby. Our next appointment went really well and baby was doing great! At twelve weeks Greg and I decided that it was safe to start telling people that we were pregnant. Shortly after, at the beginning of October, I was at school taking a test and started hemorrhaging pretty bad. It was a horrible and terrifying experience. I was convinced that I had lost the baby, I couldn't imagine losing that much blood and baby still being okay. I went in the next morning and we saw our little wiggle worm kicking and doing flips. It was such a relief and I was sooo happy!! During the ultrasound they found a large hemorrhage around baby and the placenta, which is a very bad thing. The doctor told me that baby had a 50/50 chance and that I would need to be on strict bed rest. I was now a high risk pregnancy, so I got to have appointments (including ultrasounds) every week. Two weeks after the initial crisis baby was still doing great and growing strong. The really dangerous part around the placenta had disappeared, but the rest had gotten bigger. At that appointment, our doctor told us how amazed she was that baby had survived and how she had believed that it wasn't going to make it at the previous appointment. Our little miracle baby! I was on bed rest for most of the month of October, and am to continue taking it extremely easy. Although it was a scary experience, I have had an ultrasound at every appointment and we have been able to see our baby's growth almost weekly and it has been incredible! Baby changes so fast!

I wish I could say that everything else has been going smooth with the pregnancy. Unfortunately, I am not so lucky. I am now almost 18 weeks. I still have the constant nausea and violent vomiting, though I consider this a blessing because I know that baby is still there and also, I have yet to gain any pregnancy weight. :) I have yet to stop hemorrhaging. I have had a cold and the flu, both of which I have not had in years, and I have also been getting an increased number of migraines. I cannot take my prescription while I am pregnant and nothing that I can take has been working. They will knock me out for a couple of days during which I cannot keep anything down. I have had to go in for an infusion and the doctor wrote me a prescription with a higher dose of acetaminophen. (the med that is in Tylenol.) I am praying that it works. But, at my last appointment baby and I were doing well and that is all that really matters. The doctor let me schedule my next visit a month away! So far the longest we have gone between appointments is two weeks! It will be hard to have to wait this long, we are so use to seeing baby so often. But it will be nice to have a break and enjoy the beginning of the holidays knowing our little one is healthy and strong.

Hopefully soon, I will post a picture....

Happy Fall!!

2010-09-24T13:42:00.011-06:00

Yea! Fall is here! It is my favorite season and sooo much is happening here at the Jensen's. We started school, bought a house, took a trip to DC, and found out we are expecting our first baby!!

Here's our little one. This is our baby at 9 weeks. It is my favorite ultra sound pic yet. We call 'em toad, because he/she looks like the mushroom from Mario. :)

As I am sure most of you know, our beloved Boise State played V-Tech in DC for their first game. We of course needed an excuse to go to DC and this was perfect. We left the Thursday before the game with my family, family friends and the rest of Bronco Nation. It was awesome to see so many BSUers there in Washington. The place was literally covered in blue and orange! There were about 15 people all together in our group, and it was a complete BLAST! We did all the tours, explored the monuments, learned new things at the Smithsonian, and of coures watched the Broncos destroy the Hokies.

They couldn't spell their name right....

For the game we had amazing seats. We had 3rd row seats and could see the game so well!

We had so much fun and are so grateful for the opportunity we had to spend the week with our amazing family and friends!

We Got It!!!

2010-07-30T11:05:00.005-06:00

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!

Well.... Sort of.

The sellers picked us! Out of three people! Woot Woot!

The problem is, its a short sale so now it has to go through the bank, which means we have to wait... and wait.. and wait to find out if they will accept it. In the mean time, I am going to be packing and praying!

I am so excited!

*Update*

The bank approved us. In 5 days! That seriously NEVER happens with a short sale. I am pretty sure it is meant to be. :) At least I hope so. We had to sign an addendum so it went back to the bank, so once again, we have to wait...

I'm in Love!

2010-07-27T17:42:00.008-06:00

Yesterday was a big day for us. We can now check off another 'first.' This weekend Greg and I felt like going house hunting. We found a nice realtor, told her all the things that we wanted in our new home, got pre-approved for a loan, and looked at all these beautiful homes. We told her we wanted nothing older than 10 years with at least 3 bedrooms, a large beautiful kitchen, 2 bathrooms, curb appeal, and everything else that makes a home magical. I am a picky person and I love nice things, I also have to have the best. I can't help it. I was made that way.

We got on the internet pulled up all these beautiful homes that were in our price range and that met all of our specifics. We emailed our realtor the list and she made appointments to see them. The night before our walkthroughs I was browsing and happened across this:
a 1920's house with a small kitchen, 1 bath, a handicap ramp, and in desperate need of some yard work.
But I fell in love.
I have to have it.
It needs me.
And no one can believe it.
Its everything I never wanted!! But its charming and old and rundown and fabulous!! It has so much potential and I want to make it perfect! (which by the way, is proof that I am not so high maintenance after all, ha!)

After we looked at it a couple of times I knew... it was meant for me.
We decided to think about it over the weekend to see if it felt right.
Monday morning came and we found that 2 people had put an offer on the house over the weekend! TWO!!!! I couldn't believe it! My house?? Two offers were on my house?!? I went into panic mode (not really, but it makes the story better don't you think?) We got all of our papers ready and we put in an offer! For the first time! We put an offer on a HOUSE!! I feel so grown up. It was exciting and kind of exhilarating. It all happened so fast. We looked at the house on Saturday and put in an offer on Monday.

We should know by tomorrow whether they accepted our offer or not. It is not very likely that they will, but there is a chance.... And even if they don't it was all very exciting and I can't wait to do it again!!
Did I mention that my heart drops every time my phone rings?
Oh boy...

More fun than sitting at home!!

2010-07-27T09:17:00.024-06:00

I love vacations! Who doesn't? No matter what goes wrong or what kind of weather you have, it is always great! I live for vacations, more specifically, traveling. Someday, when I grow up, I am going to be a world traveler. But until then I will enjoy the sites and attractions of our fabulous country.

This post is about our trip to California. Where the weather is always perfect, the sun always shining and.. where you can't help but smile

This is Brandon and Jenny. Aren't they cute? They are awesome and more fun than watching the office. Jenny and I met in China and have since been great friends and have had many extreme adventures together. We went to california together too.

Warning: this post contains lots of pictures!

The day after we finally made it to San Diego we went to the zoo.

I do love the zoo!!

Here we are at the sea lion/animal show.

I have always enjoyed the different shows at both the zoo and sea world. I don't know if it is just me getting older or things are really changing, but this show was not as exciting as I remember. But it was still enjoyable. After the show we went and saw the animals.

We...

Saw Elephants.

Took pictures with gigantic mammoths and sloths.

Kissed on the sky lift.

Met this creature of beauty.

Rode escelators.

And looked at all the kazillion animals that they have there. I won't bore you with pictures of countless animals. We even went on a bus tour around the zoo which was probably my favorite. I could see the animals much better. After a fun filled day at the zoo, we drove up to Anaheim and checked into our most adorable hotel. It was called the Lemon Tree and it was beautiful! It was so quaint and romantic! And I LoVeD it!!

We spent the next day at Universal Studios. It was the first time for both of us, and we had a BLAST!!

We...

Took pictures with this classic.

Walked the red carpet.

Were frightened by Chucky.

Got attacked by a penguin.

Found our future car.

Reconnected with childhood heros.
Were overpowered by mummies.

Rested by a fountain.

Kicked it with Homer and Marge.Shopped at Kwik-E-Mart....And bought these Lard Lads.

We also watched a murder, found a plane crash, ran from T-Rex, were in an earthquake, survived a flood, and so much much more! It was a blast. If any of you have never been, I recommend giving it a shot. The worst that could happen is coming home and doing something like this:

Mmm Mmm! These were delish! It was so big I got to enjoy for the next 4 days.

The next three days we spent at Disneyland. Oh how I love Disneyland! It really is a magical place. It makes me so happy!

We had an early morning pass which got us into the park an hour before most people. It was great, although we only made it for the first half hour. The park was open from 8 in the morning until midnight each day. I was so excited! and I was determined to spend all 16 hours there each day. And we almost made it... except for the first day... we lasted only until 5. But we were only going to go back to the hotel for a little nap and be back by 9 to watch the fireworks. That didn't happen. I was asleep by 6 and didn't wake up until 7 the next morning. I know you're thinking 'Wow!' but remember all our adventures before we made it to Cali? We were pooped! I was a little disappointed that we didn't make it back, but we did spend the next two days at the park from open to close! While we were there we...

Discoverd a dead pirate and his treasure.

Got caught in a net.

Chowed on a turkey leg.

Watched them set up for the World of Color.

(the big premier was the day after we left :( I was sad)

Nearly got speared.

And of course screamed our heads off on our favorite rides.

(picture of a picture. I'm cheap.)

The best part about our trip to Disneyland this year was Victoria, an employee of Disneyland. We were waiting in line for Indiana Jones and were chatting it up with the girl who maned the line (Victoria). She liked us I guess, so she gave us a handfull of Fast Passes to the ride. We used them and stopped to talk to her each time. After she got off her shift she somehow found us in the park and pulled out a huge wad of Front of Line passes. Not FastPasses, but front of line passes... to any ride!!! I didn't even know they had those! Each one was for 6 people so on our way up we would grab random people from the line to join us. It was fantastic! We never waited in line for more than 10 minutes! It really changed our experience. haha. So moral is... be nice to the workers... they have the good stuff.

After three long days at Disneyland we drove back to San Diego where we stayed with Brandon's dad in his gorgeous place! While in San Diego, we went to Sea World where we...

Watched the shows.

Fed the sea lions.

(This ones my favorite! :> )

Got soaked by Shamu.

Pet and fed some stingrays.

We also walked under a shark tank, rode their faboulous rides, and watched a man get pushed into the ocean in a giant hamster ball. It was a blast.

Also while we were in San Diego we went to the...

Beach!! How I love the beach!

We played some Botchi ball.

Tried out the Baywatch run.

And caught some waves.

We had such a great time in Cali! And had a blast with our pals Brandon and Jenny! We can't wait to do it again!

California Baby!

2010-06-15T20:14:00.016-06:00

Yup. We went to Cali again. It seems to be becoming a summer tradition. Not that I am complaining. I love the perfect weather, endless palm trees, exciting attractions, and of course, the beautiful beach. If it were up to me, San Diego would be the place where we attend Grad School. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This year we had 10 days of non stop fun and adventure in SoCal (and a couple other places) with our good friends Jenny and Brandon. We met up with them in Provo and the next day started our journey. We drove separately so that Greg and I could have our own car for the two days we were to spend in Anaheim by ourselves. Driving together, and then renting a car made more sense, but since we are not yet twenty-five, the $25 young driver fee tacked on to each day of a car rental actually made driving our own car cheaper, if you can believe that. Since we decided to drive our own car, my dad and sister insisted that we steer away from my rattly Kia and take Taylor's sturdy Honda. We gave in. And I have to admit, it was a much smoother ride than my poor car. Well it was until we were thirty miles south of Mesquite and 50 from Vegas. If any of you are unaware of this area, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, between Mesquite and Vegas and it is HOT!! If you haven't guessed it by now, we broke down. At the Carp Eglin Exit. In case you are interested, the picture to the right is what it looks like. Gorgeous isn't it? I thought so. And I got to look at it for the next 10 hours. :) Naturally we had the a/c on, I mean it was only 108, when simultaneously, the air conditioning went out and the engine over heated. Fantastic right? But the part I think that makes it even better was that it was here, on the Carp exit. :) So we pulled over, called Greg's dad (who by the way knows everything about everything! Seriously, it's astounding, he can literally fix anything!) and followed all his instructions. We had to let the engine cool for a while, at least 20 mins he said, before we could do anything. So while we waited, we played Botchi ball, one of our favorite games, in the middle of the desert. It was actually a lot of fun, and I got to work on my tan. The pic to the left is us getting ready to play. The large rock mound spiced the game up a bit. After the game we got serious and focused on the car. Covering the car and the engine was anitfreeze, so we knew right then that it was the radiator. It kind of looked like one of the hoses came loose and leaked everywhere. So we filled up the radiator with water and prayed that was the problem and were on our way again. It seemed to work, for about 3 minutes. Luckily there was a truck pullout gravel pit thing where trucks could rest or something. Since it was out in the middle of nowhere, there wasn't a building, just simply gravel and dirt. We popped the hood one more time to check it out, and discovered steam coming from a large crack on the head. Boo! We were stuck. So I hopped in Jenny and Brandon's car, left Greg with the Honda and we drove in search of some kind of civilization. Several miles up the highway was sign, with a gas station logo on it! It seemed to be a miricale and that it was meant to be! We took the exit and drove for about a half hour before we finally came across this dinky town with a slightly rundown gas station. But they had what we were looking for so I loved them. We brought it back to the car, tried it all out and it was a failure. Luckily my dad gave me my sisters AAA card to use in case of an emergency. Aparently they dont check to make sure it belongs to you (I know this because I have done it before.) We called them. It took another half hour to explain to them where we were and to get a tow truck sent out. Unfortunatly they would only tow us 7 miles for free. After that it was like 25 bucks a mile. Lame. That's when my dad called. He had been talking to his 'friend' who has a brother-in-law that lives in Vegas who happens to be good with cars and has towing equipment. We cancelled AAA and waited for Lee to pick us up. By this time we sent our friends on. They had stayed with us for the last 4-5 hours and since we had someone coming for us there was nothing they could do. A little while later AAA shows up. The guy was really nice and just wanted to make sure we were OK and then preceeded to tell us that if we were just 13 miles further he could have towed us to Vegas. Bummer. He leaves. An hour later a guy shows up with his truck. Figuring it was Lee (my dads girlfriends, sisters, husband) we introduced ourselves and started chatting it up. As our car was being pulled up on the bed, we get a phone call from guess who.. Lee, asking us where we were at. Uhh...... 'we thought you were already here.' Awkward. Turns out the guy helping us was not Lee, it was AAA, again. I even asked him if he was Lee and he said yes! He must have not understood or something, perhaps his name was actually ironically Lee? I will never know. It was about 10:30 when the real Lee showed up and we were on our way again. About 20 minutes in guess what... I doubt you can guess... well, maybe you can... His huge nice truck pulling our car breaks down... Seriously, so here we are again in the middle of nowhere, but this time, in the middle of the night. (might I add it doesn't cool down there at night... it was still in the 90's.) We sat and waited as they tried to figure out why it had died, and for his brother to come out to help fix it. By the time we finally got going again it was one in the morning. Two our time. But after a long day of sitting in the hot sun, sweating out every ounce of water in our body, being completely dehydrated and exhausted, we had a place to sleep. Lee and his family are probably some of the nicest people I have met. They were complete strangers and he came out and picked us up, a 45 min drive from his house at 10at night, then let us stay in their super nice RV, and the next morning Greg and two of their sons worked on the car. Awesome people huh? I want to be more like them. Since it was Saturday, there was not a radiator shop open, but this guy had a friend. He opened his shop for us, replaced the radiator head, and did it all for free!! Although we had a case of unfortunate events, I'd say we were pretty lucky. Once the boys got the radiator back in Greg and I were on our way again. Well... sort of. For some reason, the a/c not working was not related to the radiator. So we found the only repair shop that was open that worked on a/cs and took the car in. Two hours later we found out that the compressor was shot and that it would cost 1200 buckaroos to fix. Whatever.. we would rather sweat our faces off than pay them that. By this time, my dad was a little nervous to let us continue on our trip in this car he talked us into taking. So he booked us a rental car, we picked it up, dropped the other car off at Greg's aunts in Henderson and were on our way again.. this time for real, at nine o'clock at night. We finally did make it to San Diego, three days after we left from home, and had a fabulous and relaxing vacation!! (I will be posting about it later.)

I've been inspired...

2010-06-04T19:57:00.002-06:00

Well sort of. I really like the new design of blogspot and it has inspired me to post more often... or at least think about posting more. We shall see. Wish us luck.

I also like this flower :)

Tomorrow!

2010-05-18T23:27:00.002-06:00

Moe will be home tomorrow!! Woot Woot!!!

Ahh.. :)

2010-03-08T22:20:00.001-07:00

As a woman, I have learned how to work a man. Not in a conniving way, but in a subtle, gentle way, and I have learned this from the many women in my life. For example: The other day some kitty litter spilt on the carpet, (don't worry, it was clean, there was just a hole in the bag) so knowing this was the perfect opportunity, I asked Greg to vacuum it up. After about 40 minutes of repeated vacuuming, dissembling all the parts and putting it back together again, he gave up, grabbed his keys, and told me we were leaving to buy a new vacuum. Yes! FINALLY!

So we purchased our first 'real' vacuum.

And it is amazing!

Oh my goodness! I have so much catch up to do!

2010-01-14T21:50:00.001-07:00

I hope this post finds everyone well and that you all enjoyed the holidays. We sure did! Having a few weeks off from school makes all the difference in the world. We start again on Tuesday, and although I am not quite ready to go back to the endless homework and late nights, the break was incredibly rejuvenating.

I thought that I would do a quick update from the last couple of months. :)

Thanksgiving:

BSU thankfully gives its students an entire week break from school during the week of Thanksgiving. I call it 'fall break' and it is my most favorite part of the fall semester! :) I got to spend the whole week in Utah. Both our families were gathering there. I flew down early with my grandma and we helped my aunt get ready for the great feast. We also planned a surprise birthday party for my father... He turned 50!!!!! On Wednesday, Greg drove down with my dad, grandpa, and Tay. When all the aunts and uncles arrived we sent dad out to fetch some food we had 'forgotten.' Whil he was out we decked the house in old fart decor, dressed down in black, and pulled out the party favors. He walked in and was completely surprised.

Dad with his cake.

The cake I made. It started out fun but took too freaking long and I decided I will NEVER make a cake again. haha. I thought it turned out pretty good, and my dad loved it.

All the Clifford cousins except for Myles, plus grandma and grandpa.

Thursday was spent juggling both of our families. We were lucky that they did dinner at different times, but we were both sick by the end of the day. On Friday Greg and I did some shopping. We went for specific things, but came away with none of them and instead with about 10 movies. Saturday was spent at Temple Square with Greg's family. His aunt has a choir that performs at the old conference center every year so we went and watched them. We had a great trip. It was a lot of fun getting to spend time with both sides of the family, especially those that live far away and that we don't get to see very often.

Christmas:

I love Christmas! The spirit of the season is so exciting! I love the lights, the colors, the charity, the hussel and bussel! I love it all! But most of all, I love the family gatherings! We spent the night on Chirstmas Eve at my dads house. We were up by 6:30 thanks to Tay. She insists every year that we open gifts before dawn breaks because 'it's tradition.' We then headed over to Greg's parents, where we once again arrived before the kids woke up. We came away with some pretty great gifts, including a new grill! We are excited to bbq!! We also received, thanks to my well known love of Costa Vida, $60 in gift certificates! We will never starve! I also got a new I-pod... I have been dying without mine ever since I dropped it in a cup of water. (I have no idea how I managed that.) Myles called that afternoon and we had a nice long chat with him. We are all excited for him to come home in a few months. To top off the day we had a lovely Christmas dinner at the Jensens. Yum!

*****Above is a post that I have had sitting here forever, but never got around to posting. I'll get better...someday.*****

If only I ran the world...

2009-11-05T21:12:00.003-07:00

It's that time of the year again and what a nightmare it has been! Registering for classes is one of the most aggravating, and most definitely, my least favorite thing to do!! Why do they have to make it so difficult to get the classes you need? For example. . I need to take Cell Biology. It is offered only during the spring and there is only one class which only allows 60 students. Now this class is the key that unlocks every single one of my upper division biology classes. But don't worry! I am only number 107 on the waiting list!!! To the apparently uneducated class schedulers, I thank you, because I just absolutely love college and want to stay here forever! And to those who are wondering, my graduation date will be pushed back... only a year.

Gross!

2009-11-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

Why do dead things have to smell so bad? The other day my living room started to get this off smell. I brushed it off thinking that it was coming from upstairs, because let's face it, they stink. After a couple of days it started getting worse and worse. I began worrying that it was my housekeeping skills. I hadn't been that neglectful to my cute little living room, but I guessed it was possible. Then one night I came home, plopped down on my couch, pulled out my homework, took a breath in and started gagging! The smell was overwhelming and revolting. I tried thinking of what could be causing it, but a smell that awful could only come from something dead. That's when I thought of how we live in the middle of nowhere and how we have this cat who loves to bring field mice inside to chase around the house. Well, that is exactly what I found. A dead, stinky mouse under my couch! Ugh!

2009-10-28T22:16:00.002-06:00

This is for my mom... Well, this is my house! I must say that I have been spoiled. Every place that we have settled in has been nice and comfy. It has been nice living in Meridian again. I get to see Tay and dad a lot more often . . . (well, in the summer I got to, school has been turning me into a home body with all the studying I've been doing.) Its also been a lot of fun having a yard. We had lots of BBQ's in the summer, I planted lots of pretty flowers, and my favorite part.. I played on my tramp. (Notice the double oven?... you'd think it would inspire me to cook, I think I got that from you.)

(K, so this isn't a very good picture of our bedroom, but i wanted you to see the ceiling. Oh my gosh..The only downside to this place is having to go to bed starring at a map of Ireland, its not really my thing.)
(My amazing bathroom. I pretty much have a hot tub next to my toilet... which by the way there is a real hot tub on the patio... )

Well there it is. I don't know how I will ever go back to an apartment after this. It will be hard giving up my massive walk in closet, beautiful backyard, lots of kitchen space, extra-large laundry room, and my adorable office. But I can do it, right?

2009-09-11T10:52:00.001-06:00

NEVER FORGET

The Closing of Summer

2009-08-18T23:55:00.002-06:00

Summer is quickly coming to an end. We are a little bummed and a little excited about it at the same time. We are all geared up and ready for a new semester to begin. Our books are bought, school supplies purchased, and schedules set. Some days I get so eager to start, I have to fight the urge of putting all my books and computer in my backpack. Other days I don't want the stress and busyness of school to start. But we have had such a fun packed summer, it is only fair to balance the fun with school. :) Here is a quick recap of our summer, it goes all the way back to May. Since I am such a slacker at keeping this up I think it will just be easier to sum up our adventures through pictures. Who doesn't like pictures, right?

The weekend school got out Tay and I hit up the Taylor Swift concert, she got tickets for her birthday. Neither one of us were huge fans of her before we went but we came out of her concert very much pleased. We couldn't get any good pictures at the concert but here is one in the parking lot, which happens to be in my rental car. The week school got out I was rear-ended at a stop light. Ghetto!The next day I headed down to Utah. A few girls that I went to China with had a little get together before one of them headed to the mission field. It was great to see them again! That night I met up with Greg, Janica, and Daniel and we started our trek down to California. One of my favorite things is driving and stopping at all the pull out thingys along the way. One stop was St. George. We were on the hunt for a Sonic. After about an hour of TellMe, Chacha, and other navigating crap we found it. Unfortunately it was boarded up and abondoned. With much dissapointment and growling tummies we decided to check out the temple and head off to Vegas in hopes of finding an open one, which thankfully we did after another hour search. Why go through so much trouble to find a freakin Sonic, you ask? Because it is the most delicious fast-food restraunt on the planet and when four hungry people crave it, there is no escaping it's grasp. But hey, we got to see many 'fantastic' sites along the way.
The next two days we spent at the highly anticipated Disneyland. If you can believe it, it was Greg's first time! I had a blast showing him around the park and taking him on all the 'good rides.' One of my favorite parts was
talking Melinda into going on the Tower of Terror. She was indeed terrorized. After two fun packed days with Mickey we had a relaxing day at the beach.

The next day we headed down to the L.A. Temple for cousin Katherine's wedding. It was beautiful and we are very excited for them and the exciting adventures that follow marriage.

On our way home we took a few more detours. Katie's reception was in Apple Valley and near by there is Route 66, which is something that I have always wanted to check out. So, we stopped by and toured a museum and took some pics by the sign.

We also spent the night in Vegas. Daniel and Janica came too. We went to a hypmatist show that night which was hilarious, and decided that the place would be a lot more fun if we were partiers.
So we strolled down the strip and checked out all the cool sites and Dan found the Go Pool. (Don't worry Melinda he didn't go in, he's not yet 21)

The next day we drove up Kolob Canyon, which was gorgeous!

For the Fourth of July we drove down to Utah to the weekend. We camped out in Midway againg this year and went boating with the family. I didn't really get any good pictures.

We were tanning on the tramp on the lake.

Hopefully I will eventually get the rest of our summer up and maybe, if lucky enough, some of our new place.

2009-06-16T17:30:00.006-06:00

On May 17, my totally rad sister Whitney and I, went to the Taylor Swift concert. Yeah, neither one of us really liked her or wanted to be there. So the whole time we complained about it. But Taylor got the tickets for her birthday so we had to go. By the end of the night we both ended up liking her, and we're both glad we got to go. I mean how many people can say they went to a concert that sold out in literally twenty minutes.
-Writen by Taylor Rose Clifford.

Year Marks

2009-06-15T12:15:00.001-06:00

Oh my goodness, I have been a slacker at updating my blog! So much has happened since my last post! I don't even know where to start!

In the last couple of months we have hit a few year marks. The first, and least exciting, is that it has been a year since my mom left. I only mention this because I want everyone to know that my family is doing SOOO much better. Things are finally feeling 'normal.' I don't know what I would have done without my amazing husband. He has been there through some of my worst moments and no one could have comforted me more than him. When I found out what was happening at home it was less than two weeks before my wedding and I was going to school at BYU-I. I was devastated. I locked myself in my room and cried for days. I quit going to class, I stopped studying, I didn't talk to my roommates... I didn't do anything. I was a mess. On the Sunday before my wedding I couldn't get up for church. I just sat in bed sobbing. (Greg and I were in different wards at the time or I would have gone for him.) But that morning there was a constant knocking at my door. I refused to answer it. When I finally got the guts to open it with my swollen eyes and red face I saw Greg standing there, with tear filled eyes. He walked in and held me as we both cried together. I don't know how he knew I didn't go to church that day, but I was and am so greatful that he was there for me. At that moment I knew I could overcome anything with my almost husband beside me. The last year has been filled with many more moments like this. Thank you babe, for always making me stronger.

A much happier year mark we hit was our 1st wedding anniversary. Greg took me on a weekend getaway to Seattle. We had a blast! We did all of the touristy stuff, including a romantic dinner at the top of the Space Needle.

Here are some pics of the things we did while we were there:

We visited the Seattle Aquarium. This was Greg's favorite part, he loves sea life! We got to pet different creatures and saw many unique animals.

I really liked the sea urchins, they were so bright and colorful!

This huge Octopus was one of my favorites!

Greg and the sea lion. He would only come out for us. :) We thought this fish was rad.

We hit up Pikes Market. Which was pretty exciting. They had tons of beautiful flowers and I love flowers! Greg let me pick out a bouquet and it took me almost 45 minutes, I had to look at all of them and find the best one. :)

When I walked by this fish in the market, it jumped up and had its mouth opened wide. It scared the crap out of me.

We took an underground tour of Seattle as well. We learned that in the 1800's there was a fire that burned down a lot of the city. When they rebuilt the city they built the main level and streets at the second floor of buildings. We got to go down and explore the old first levels of buildings. While we were getting ready to start, our tour guide's speech started to slur and he suddenly collapsed on the floor. We had to wait for an ambulance. It was pretty crazy and as far as we know, he was OK.

This was in an old bank that they said was haunted. They have had a lot of weird things happen there and even Ghost Hunters did an episode on it. One thing that they said would happen is that any pictures that were taken past that door would be blury. We thought we'd test it out and took a few. Creepy enough, they were all blury.

Here is one of the pictures we took. Coincidence? Maybe.

The Space Needle was a favorite for both of us. Greg surprised me with our anniversary dinner at the restaurant on top of the SN.

Overall we had a blast. Seattle was beautiful. The weather good. And the company couldn't have been better!!

Another exciting mark is Myles' 1 Year Mark! In fact, as of yesterday, he only has 11 months left! He is doing so good! I will have to post some pics of him on here soon.

I have many more exciting events to blog about... Our Cali trip, my car wreck, moving and more but they will have to wait until a later time.

Jokes for the Republican

2009-04-14T17:12:00.003-06:00

I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats,were standing there, so I asked her,'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?' She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.' Her parents beamed.

'Wow! What a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?' I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.' Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

Do you know what happened this week back in 1850, 159 years ago?

California became a state. The State had no electricity. The State had no money. Almost everyone spoke Spanish. There were gunfights in the streets.

So basically, it was just like California today; except the women had real breasts and the men didn't hold hands.

An Israeli doctor said to me at a medical conference, "Medicine in my country is so advanced, we can take a kidney out of one person, put it into another and have him looking for work in six weeks!" The German doctor stood up and said, "Well, medicine in my county is so advanced, we can take a lung out of one person and put it into another and have him looking for work in 4 weeks" The Russian doctor got up and said "My country is even more advanced, we can remove half a heart from one person, put it into another and have them both looking for work in just 2 weeks!" Not to be outdone, the American doctor stood up and addressed the conference, "Well", he said, "My country is so far advanced in medicine, we can take an Asshole out of Chicago , put him in the White House, and have half the country looking for work in 24 hours!"

Enjoy!

Education, WHY!!??!?!

2009-04-04T00:33:00.005-06:00

This semester I decided to just leap into chemistry. I have never in my life taken a chem class, which, by the way, I now regret. I didn't think it could be that hard and I didn't want to waste my time taking a class that wouldn't count toward my major, so I enrolled in a class much higher than most would recommend for someone with my experience. As a result I have to put in double the work than I ever have had to put into a class, but it is worth it when I finally catch on. I actually love chemistry! As a kid I always wanted to be a 'scientist' (along with a million other things), so.. check. One goal down.

"I Have Before Me...

2009-02-15T15:30:00.002-07:00

A Remarkable Document Given to Me By a Young Lady from Rwanda." (The extraordinarily long title of the play that we went to.) I am taking a theatre class to cover one of my area courses for school and we have to go see a couple of plays, which Greg and I both enjoy. So Friday night we headed out to the Boise Contemporary theatre and watched this fabulous play about a girl who survived the genocide. We then went to the adorable Goody's shop in Hyde Park for some
of their amazing ice cream. It is in the historic part of Boise so the shop is old school. I love it!! It was an awesome night to start off our Valentines weekend.

We spent most of Saturday with my family. Greg made me a yummy breakfast and gave me these gorgeous flowers! I have to brag about him because he picked the flowers out himself (he wanted me to make it clear that he did not arrange them, a nice lady did that for him) Didn't he do a marvelous job? Lilies are my favorite too! I'm proud of him. They are just starting to bloom so they will be around for a while. Im excited.

My dad took us out for a Valentines lunch at one of our favorite Restaraunts, Red Robin and we then hung out at the house with them. It was a great weekend with some pretty fantastic people!

It's been a while.

2009-02-08T22:49:00.001-07:00

We have started another semester at Boise State and are loving it. Besides the crazy liberal slobs, we like it much better than Rexburg. Although it is keeping us both super busy, we have found some time to play.

We live right next to Camelsback and love to go hiking in the foothills. It has been pretty warm these last few days so we took a stroll.

On Saturday Greg and I spent the night in Meridian and hung out with our families. Taylor and Greg and I wanted to have a video game night. So we set up camp in my dads living room with a blow up mattress, some snacks, a couple of Tvs, and our PS3 and an old N64 (my favorite). We had a blast as we usually do. Tay and I were up until almost 5 playing and laughing.

I LOVE Donkey Kong!!!

Tays new favorite game is Call of Duty.

This is what happens when you drink too much.

What We Did For Christmas. . .

2008-12-30T15:28:00.003-07:00

I can't believe how fast the holidays came and went! We had a fabulously busy time! For those who are interested... We spent Christmas Eve with my family. Grandma and Grandpa cooked their traditional dinner and Tay, Greg and I all shared the same bed, as tradition. We stayed up late playing games and being silly. Taylor tried to get everyone up at 7 to open presents. Since no one can say no to her, we did. It was a lot different this year not having everyone there, but we all had a blast. After we finished opening gifts, we went to the Jensen's. (they still have young kids and Taylor beat them up by almost 2 hours!!) After some more exciting gifts we went back to my dad's for brunch, a 4 hour phone call with Myles... who is doing awesome by the way, and a nap. And finally we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner at Greg's parents.

Here are our random pictures from Christmas time!

This last picture is in Utah. There was a good foot of snow. It was so pretty!

A few days before Christmas we went to Utah to attend my Grandma's funeral. It was the first time I had been to a funeral and it was awful, but at the same time so beautiful! The cemetery was so peaceful. It was up on a hill and was white and snowing. I couldn't have imagined anything more heavenly. I miss my grandma and am so greatful for her example and influence in my life.

SnoW DaY!!!

2008-12-17T10:13:00.003-07:00

It snowed! I wasn't particularly excited when I heard we were going to have a storm. For those who may not know me that well, I have two fears: spiders and snowy roads! When we lived in Rexburg I had a job in Idaho Falls. I would seriously cry to and from work on snow days. Those drives made me sick! Luckily Greg grew up in eastern Idaho where it snows all year round and has taught me some pointers. But hey, the snow is beautiful and it really makes it feel like Christmas. We live in the foothills so it dumped a ton of snow on us. Everyone came out to play! Simplots Hill was packed with sledders. Of course I had to go play in it too. Greg was sick so he just watched from our window. I did make him come out to take pictures with me. He's a good sport. :)

Our Creek. It's so pretty! And there is an adorable bridge that crosses it. It's the reason we baught this apartment.

How Romantic!

Bella wasn't too sure about the snow.

My cheesey pose for Greg.

The Beginnings of Winter

2008-12-16T22:05:00.001-07:00

Our First Christmas!!!!

We are getting excited for Chirstmas this year! We have had a lot of fun decorating and getting ready for this holiday season! It is our first Christmas together since we have been married and a year since we were engaged, so it is pretty freaking exciting! We have purchased all of our presents and are pretty much just waiting for the big day to come around. Whitney and I are going to continue on a Clifford tradition with Taylor this year (because she is pretty much the only one around) of sleeping in the same room on Christmas eve so that we can wake up together on Christmas morning. It will be fun! We are also excited that we are so close to both of our families. Spending the holidays with them will be so much easier because we can simply go from one to the other.

Whitney and I in front of our Christmas Tree!

Our first Christmas tree! We even have presents under it! How exciting!

We got hungry while decorating.
The pretty garland thing Whitney put up. She is quite the homemaker (whether she likes it or not). I guess the whole Young Womens program works! Call the Prophet!

My Hero!

2008-12-14T14:22:00.008-07:00

My father is my hero! He is my example and has taught me everything good. This past year has been hard for my family, but especially for my dad. Through it all, he has been the ultimate teacher. He has shown nothing but love, forgiveness and compassion. Thank you dad for all that you do! I love YOU!!

Random

2008-12-12T21:44:00.001-07:00

As I'm sure the few of you who read our blog have figured out, we are not very consistant with our blogging. I found a couple of unpublished posts just sitting here. So... here are some pictures of what we have been up to since our last post.

I love Halloween time, and I love looking in all the shops! This is what we found....

There was a huge rainstorm one day that flooded the creek right outside our apartment, so we went and splashed around.

I made Asian food and we had a "Chinese Night" I was so excited to finally use my dishes from China, and the food was of course fabulous!

Yea for Sisters!

2008-10-23T20:52:00.015-06:00

It is so incredibly beautiful here in North Boise this fall and we have been enjoying the season! Since we have moved back to Boise we have had many opportunities to hang out with our families. Especially Tay and I, and have we had fun!!

We have gone to concerts....

Cyrina gave us tickets to Sarah Evans.

Secondhand Serenade.

We've entertained family....

Our cousin Paige.

Grandma taught us how to can apples...

Grandma teaching and telling us what to do.

The ancient apple pealer. It was our great great grandmas..I think. It was entertaining.

Grandpa making sure the equipment worked. It didn't.

Dad uh... supervising?

Grandma didn't really like this idea. She thought we were going to bruise the apples. We did.

And we've played in the rain....

We have had a ton of fun being together, and one day we hope we will have the same rights as others and be married. Sick America. Go PROP 8!

Birthday Madness

2008-10-15T15:21:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday was Greg's 22nd Birhtday!!! I was so excited to celebrate it with him. This was the first birthday that I have spent with Greg. I did all the fun birthday things, including decorating the house and breakfast in bed. His birthday was also our 6th month aniversary, Woot! Greg wanted to suprise me with doing sealings at the temple. I figured it out when he told me to get into dress. Later that evening we went out to dinner with our family and friends. It was a lot of fun catching up on the latest family gossip. We ended our evening out with a movie on my dad's big screen. I had managed to secretly decorate our room with balloons, candies, and glowsticks. It was awesome and he loved it. . . being the romantic I am. And what good is a birthday without a little corniness? I also added 22 love notes in some of the balloons, which, of course, he had to pop to read. It was great fun!!

The After Party.

MYLES!!!!

2008-09-29T16:50:00.008-06:00

Every Sunday my family and I wait around the computer for Myles' letter. He has been gone now for almost 5 months!! It has been amazing to see how much he has changed. When he first went out, he HATED it. We all (jokingly) placed bets on when he would come home. He is a lot more positive now, and its so cool to see how much compassion he has for the people he is serving.

Here is a little part of last weeks letter:

"Well i will tell you a little bit about my week here, it has been interesting. we are working with this lady who wants to get baptized but she has to quit smoking, and not just cigarettes but Weed as well, and it is hard to teach her some times cause she told us that she hates my companion, and she said she like me cause she feels i relate to her better, i dont know how the heck i relate to her!!!! but anyway, we started the stop smoking program with her, and when people start it they have to give us all of there stuff. So when we went to take it from her, she gave us 9 bongs and a bag of weed, it was crazy, so me and my comp were walking down the street with a bunch of drugs on us until we found a dumpster to throw it in lol. Also with the program there is a list of stuff you need to buy, well she is poor so me and my companion decided to buy all the stuff for her, but my companion didnt help buy anything, so i spent my last $32 on it, but im not complaining, i will complain if she quits coming to church and doesnt get baptized though lol. we also told her that if she ever needed help with the program to just give us a call, so we got a call at 3 in the morning and so we got very little sleep that night, but she is doing well so it is all good."

I guess the $32 was worth it, She was baptized on Sat. This is their picture...

I think Myles is absolutely adorable! I am so proud of everything he has accomplished to be where he is. I, and so many others, could not be prouder!

Go Broncos!!

2008-09-26T19:03:00.005-06:00

Greg and I have started our first semester here at BSU and are loving it already. For those who are curious, Greg is majoring in Business Law. He is working toward going to Law School... (fun for me) I am working on an International Health/Biology degree. We have both been very busy this semester and are expecting it to get busier. We are so excited to be back in Boise and to be a Bronco!! Here's to our education!

2008-09-19T22:51:00.000-06:00

Boise!!!

We're back! We recently moved to North Boise and are loving it!!! The abundance of shopping, warm weather, a diversity in people, and family made us realize what we were missing out on in Rexburg.

We had a lot of help moving from Rexburg. It is AMAZING how much crap we have collected in just the few months we have been married! Greg's grandpa let us fill his truck and trailor with our stuff and then drove it to Boise for us. We were so greatful for his help! Greg and I followed with both our cars fully packed.

We were finally able to move into our apartment, but with out the use of Grandpa Jensen's truck it took many cars and trips to get all our stuff there.

We stopped at Craters of the Moon on the way to Blackfoot. (We were returning the hilbilly trailor.)

We have attented a couple of the hippie events that are often held in Boise. They are quite entertaining.

2008-08-08T23:33:00.001-06:00

the OLYMPICS are COMING!!

I LOVE the Olympics! I am excited that they are in China and so are the Chinese! They have certainly been waiting! As you can see... This was from almost 2 years ago! (I can't believe it's been that long!)

2008-08-05T20:50:00.000-06:00

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

This last weekend Taylor, Janica, Bryan and Molly came up for a visit. It was very exciting, we love having visitors! On Saturday we dicided to take a trip up to Yellowstone. Taylor and Molly had never been so we stopped at all the gyesers for them to see. I had forgotten how many there are, but they are still beautiful. We finally found Old Faithful but by the time we got there we had just missed it going off and no one wanted to stick around for the next explosion. Sad, huh? All that way and we didn't even see the most famous monument of the park. Instead we headed back to the town and hit up all the shops. Overall we had a blast!

2008-07-31T11:56:00.000-06:00

The AdDiTiOn!....

This is Bella. (Yes, from Twilight) We found her at Greg's Grandparents farm almost dead. We brought her in and nursed her back to health. Now she is our wild kitten! She has recently learned to pounce and practices on everything!!! Its adorable. She also loves to crawl up onto your shoulder and sleep.

2008-07-22T22:41:00.003-06:00

We just wanted to let you all know that

WE'RE MOVING!!!!!

(In August back to Boise and we are excited!)

Also... there will be a new addition to our family...

2008-07-20T12:39:00.009-06:00

Fourth of July Weekend

We had a blast this Fourth of July. We called off work on Thursday and headed to my favorite city, Orem. We met my family there and took off up the Provo Canyon where we set up camp in the cute little town of Midway. The camp ground was set on gorgeous hills above the town.

We watched the fireworks from our camp site while we roasted marshmellows. That day we drove down to Deer Creek Lake for a day of boating. My dad, sister and grandma came down to join us. It was so much fun to spend the weekend with my family.

Chilling out on the beach. Randomly, a huge gust of wind came and blew the top off our canopy

That Monday we met up with Bryan and Molly and spent the day at LAGOON! We really enjoyed ourselves. Our favorite ride was Wicked. For those of you who havent tried it yet... do it! It's amazing.

2008-06-14T18:56:00.012-06:00

Life In Rexburg!!

Life is going great here in Rexburg. The weather is acutally warming up and we are excited to get the summer started. We have been living here for almost 6 months now. Right now Greg is going to school while I take a nice break from the education process. We are having a great time together experiencing what the married life is like. Overall we are giving it two big thumbs up! We do love the scenary and nature that eastern Idaho has to offer. We went camping over memorial weekend, it was alot of fun! The funny part was that we only had to drive about fifteen mintutes to be in enough wilderness to call it camping (not kidding)!
But dont worry, we have plenty of other adventures planned for this summer. One of the biggest ones being a highly anticipated trip to Lagoon. I know, I know, we live big. But we really are excited for the trip. We have also finally got our home settled down. Thanks to some amazing gifts and wedding money we have been able to get all of the furniture to complete our home. To show our huge excitement we have included a video tour of our first apartment. Enjoy!

2008-05-20T19:38:00.047-06:00

Our Wedding!!

Well, we did it. We finally tied the knot. Greg and I were married April 11th in the Boise Temple. Naturally, it was an amazing day! The weather was beautiful, the reception was gorgeous, and everything went perfectly as planned. We want to thank everyone that was there to support us, it was amazing to see the sealing room filled with our families and loved ones.

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Our Honeymoon!

Greg and I went on a Baja Cruise for our honeymoon. It was a ton of fun! It quickly became the most relaxing vacation either of us have been on. We enjoyed the sites of Cabo San Lucas and

Ensenada as well as the many exciting things the cruise ship had to offer.

Us on the ship as it was departing from San Diego.

This was our favorite part of the cruise. We stopped in Cabo for the day and found an island called Lovers Beach. It was gorgeous! A little water taxi took us out to it. On one side of the island is the Pacific Ocean the other side is the Sea of Cortez.

This was one of my favorite things to do on the cruise. We didn't go broke though, Greg would only let me play the nickle slots.

This old guy offered to take our picture with his donkey, we weren't really thinking and went ahead and let him. He then demanded almost 5 bucks!! Naturally Whit argued and only paid him 2. But we really like the pic. The hats match us well, Whitney is super sexy and the word on my hat means drunk. What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico!

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A Guy, A Girl and Three Years Later!

Greg and I met in High School our senior year. We were in the same math class and a little while later, the same ward. Ironically, we hated each other but eventually fell in love.

Senior Sweet Hearts Dance. Feb 2005

Before Greg left on his mission. Summer 2005

Greg's Mission....

Greg was called to the Arizona Tucson Mission. He left on September 28th 2008 and loved every minute of it. Here are some pics to prove it!

This is how the sunset looks every night

in Arizona! How romantic!

The Molina Family. El Paso, Texas

This is one of Greg's favorite families he baptized.

Greg with his last companion, hiking on P-day in the Santa Catalina Mountains.

Odassis Cheeks. Tucson, Arizona

President and Sister Higham

The city of Tucson.

While on his mission, Greg served in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.

While Greg was gone....

I hung around home for a while working, attended a semester of school at BYU-I, moved to Utah and taught English in China. Here are some pics of my adventures in China!

At the Summer Palace in Beijing

I lived in a city called Guilin. It was the most beautiful place I have seen. There are green jagged hills everywhere! They look like Dr. Seuss hills.

Shopping in the underground mall of Xi'an

Eating 'American Good' ice cream from the Western Street in Yongshou

My Girls! They were so much more fun out of class!

Out side of Tienamen Square, Beijing

(Let me just add that these guys are SOOO excited for the Olympics!)

Hiking the hills of Guilin.

We stopped in Hong Kong a couple of times and on our way out we

went to Disney Land!! It was such a blast!

Reunited...

Two years, a 'Dear John' and a 'Dear Jane' later

We went on our first date and a few months later..

We were engaged!

On Christmas Eve we went to Greg's house to exchange gifts. He had this huge box wrapped for me. Inside were several more wrapped boxes. I finally got to the one in this picture. He used an enitre roll of duct tape to wrap it. It took forever to unwrap! (I'm pretty sure he did it that way so he could have extra time to think about what he was doing) I eventually got to the inside of the box where I found a pink bear and on the bear was the ring. I did'n expect it, but I was so excited, when Greg got down on his knee to ask me I ripped the ring out of his fingers and said yes!