The Cornelius Family

Olivia 1 Week Old

2012-02-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

Al's 80th Birthday

2012-02-12T08:36:00.000-08:00

On February 8th, 2012 Al Cornelius turned 80 years old! Roberta planned a dinner out with the family and so John, Julie Johnston and Al and Roberta went out to eat at Applebees. I stayed home with baby Olivia, but they all stopped by afterword to visit with me and Olivia.

Olivia's First Doctor's Appointment

2012-02-12T08:29:00.000-08:00

On Monday, Feb. 6th we took Olivia to her first doctor's appointment. She weighed 7 pounds even, which meant she had lost 14 ounces since she was born, an unusually high amount. She was 19.5 inches long (up half an inch from birth) and her head measured 14 inches around (up 1 inch). When being weighed on the scale, John had been making jokes hoping she wouldn't pee on the scale since she needed to be naked to get an accurate weight. Well, everyone was surprised when she didn't just pee, she pooped all over the scale! The nurse and John both were just shocked and I ended up cleaning the scale since they were both standing there totally grossed out.

Because Olivia had lost so much weight from birth to this appointment 5 days later, we were advised to start supplementing formula with breast milk to help add more calories and nutrients. That worked very well because we took her back into the doctor's office 2 days later and she weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces, up a whopping 6 ounces in 2 days! We have a growing girl on our hands!

Olivia's First Day Home

2012-02-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

We arrived home late the evening of the 3rd from the hospital, so Olivia's first full day at home was Feb. 4th and her Great-Grandmother Mary Lou Kendall came over to meet her for the first time.

Olivia's Visitors at the Hospital

2012-02-12T08:04:00.000-08:00

The day Olivia was born there were many people who came to visit her!

Grandparents Albert and Roberta Cornelius

Grandma Roberta Cornelius

Grandparents Douglas and Carol King

Grandma Carol King

Grandpa Doug King

Grandpa Al Cornelius

Aunt Karen Wold and Cousin Katie Karr

Aunt Karen Wold

This little girl sure does have a lot of family that loves her!

Welcome Baby Olivia

2012-02-12T07:29:00.000-08:00

Olivia Luanne Cornelius was born to John and Michelle Cornelius on February 1, 2012 at 10:35 AM weighing 7 lbs 14 oz and 19 inches long at UW Valley Medical Center in Renton, Washington.

Maternity Pictures January 2012

2012-01-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

My amazing cousin Katie Karr was willing to take some photos of John and I to remember some of the joys of pregnancy with our first child. Here are what we considered the best, although there were so many to choose from!

Obviously we are partial to black and white photos, and I had fun using Photoshop to make them that way! We are very excited to meet our little bundle of joy in the next month or so. These pictures were taken when I was 36 weeks pregnant.

Wilton Cake Decorating

2011-05-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

For the month of May 2011, each Tuesday I went to a cake decorating class:

Wilton's Gumpaste and Fondant Course.

It was super fun, and I went with my friend Emily Robison. We learned how to manipulate and handle fondant and gumpaste, make several different kinds of flowers and for our final class, we each made our very own cake covered in fondant! I was very excited and really enjoyed going to class each week. It's a skill that I know I'll use a lot in the future, since I LOVE the look of fondant and I wasn't so great at all of the buttercream flowers and such. Here are some pictures of my work.

These are the flowers we learned to make, a lily, carnation, daisy, rose and mum. My favorites were the lillies and the daisies.

This was my final cake, which ended up being John's birthday cake since his birthday is this month, it was just a few weeks late!

Dinner Calendar

2011-02-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

I've had some questions about what I use for a dinner calendar, and this is what mine looks like:

As you can see, I usually follow a template, a certain kind of food on a certain night. It's obvious we eat Mexican food A LOT (it's my favorite!), usually on Tuesdays, and Pasta Night is Thursdays. It just helps me pick recipes to make sure we're not eating the same thing ALL the time, although there are some favorites that come up pretty often. This is my no means set in stone, we certainly don't eat every single thing specified on every single day. You'll notice that there are no days that say "Eat Out" or something like that, and we usually eat out once a week or so.

There is a lot of room for flexibility, and we always have leftovers, sometimes a meal will get knocked down simply because we don't feel like eating it that night. The only 2 consistent things on this calendar that are almost 100% of the time set in stone, are Sunday meals (I use the crock pot pretty much EVERY Sunday) and Monday night Soup Night. This is something that we put into place because a can of soup is less than a buck and in an effort to consistently save money (and to have enough money to eat out once a week) we eat canned soup. John LOVES this because he's a major soup eater, but me, not so much. Usually my soup is Top Ramen or a can of Chili. John has never turned a soup down, and when I don't feel like cooking he'll more often than not say "Soup Night?" with a hopeful little-kid expression on his face.

Anyway, most of our meals have several shelf-stable ingredients in them that I buy in bulk at case-lot sales or at Costco, so side dishes and special dinners get thrown in based on what's on sale that particular week at the grocery store. I usually get to Costco about once every 2-3 months and Winco once a month after I've made my calendar and have a basic list to shop for. Then we'll just stop by the local grocery store when we need a few fresh things, usually milk (I only cook with powdered milk, we don't actually drink it) and fresh fruit.

Taking half an hour once a month to plan ahead, then going to the store as few times as possible in a month definitely saves us time and money. One of my favorite things to do is grocery shop, and I LOVE a good sale... it's hard for me to say no. This way I'm comfortable going Costco with a list, and NOT dropping a small fortune on bulk items (we've all spent a good $300 at least once in our lives at the magical world of sample ladies...) , and gives me a game-plan each week (I don't spend 20 minutes every day trying to think about what we are going to eat, then having to run to the store to buy things we don't have to prepare it).

PS - John still wants another plug for Soup Night!

Recipe: Taco Soup

2011-02-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 cans pinto beans (1 cup dry beans soaked overnight)

2 cans corn, un-drained

3 cans diced tomatoes with chilies, undrained

1 packet taco seasoning

1 packet ranch seasoning

1 pound ground beef or turkey, browned and drained

shredded cheese, green onions & sour cream for garnish

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in crockpot, cover and cook on low 8-10 hours, or high for 4-5. The longer the better!

The Verdict:

I didn't put enough water over my beans when they were soaking, so they took longer to cook the next day than they should have, but 9 hours in, they were perfect! Because my cans of tomatoes had really hot chilies in them, I only put in half of the taco seasoning, and it was perfectly spicy for my taste. This made a HUGE batch of soup, probably could feed 6-8 people with large portions. I ended up freezing 2/3 of it for another day. It was so yummy, and a great way for us to add some beans into our diets. The beef gave it a good flavor, but I could see using a can of chicken instead for a completely shelf-stable meal. I've made this several times before with just using canned beans and it's one of our favorite meals, especially on Sundays in the crock, ready for when guests come to eat after church! (PS it's hard to wait the whole time because it makes the house smell so delicious! but it really is like chili, the longer it cooks in the crock, the better it tastes!) Even people who don't like beans that much, have said they enjoyed this soup.

Food Storage Spotlight: Dry Pinto Beans

I was trying to find a good recipe that I knew we already liked that used canned beans, to try to use dry beans. I've had a #10 can of pinto beans in my pantry for over a year that I used once on a test-batch that failed miserably. I just don't know how to cook beans. After a lot of research online, I decided to give it another go, only using a little bit of dry beans, just in case it didn't turn out again, the meal would still be salvageable. Luckily, this one turned out great!

It is recommended that you eat beans 3 times a week, and I have found it to be a great source of protein, especially combined with some rice or whole-wheat rolls. It makes sense to keep these on hand, especially when we can't always afford to have meat on the table, because it is SO inexpensive! It does take a little prep-work (which is why I use a dinner calendar as a rough outline each month of what we're going to eat-it helps with remembering what to thaw in the fridge and what to pull out the night before) but in my opinion it is totally worth it! Dry beans aren't so scary anymore, and with more practice I think we'll be eating them a lot more often now instead of canned beans. (Not that there's anything wrong with canned beans, I still keep them in my pantry!)

California Trip 2009 - Day 9

2011-02-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

Friday July 31, 2009

Today John and I went to John's sister Jeanne's house in Redondo Beach, California. There we met up with Jeanne and Tom Hansen, Alicia and Stephen Nielson, along with their son Ben, Heather Hansen, Michelle Hansen and her boyfriend Matt, and Bill Cornelius came up to have dinner with us! It was so fun to get to see everyone and hang out for a couple of hours. Alicia had to go to work so we only just saw her for a moment, but we had yummy hamburgers for dinner with deviled eggs (Michelle's favorite!) and root beer floats!

Jeanne's house was about 45 minutes away from our condo in Anaheim, and we didn't go to their house until the afternoon because everyone was working. Before we headed out, we went to Disneyland again for a couple of hours just to make sure we didn't miss anything!

Here is cute little Ben Nielson, Alicia and Stephen's oldest son.

This is Bill Cornelius with Ben.

The siblings: John Cornelius, Jeanne Hansen, and Bill Cornelius

Almost the whole gang, Bill, Michelle, Heather, Tom,

Michelle, John and Jeanne.

John and Michelle at Bear Mountain in Disneyland

California Trip 2009 - Day 8

2011-02-04T10:11:00.000-08:00

Thursday July 30th, 2009

Today we spend the day in San Diego, California. It was about an hour's drive from our condo in Anaheim, and we had to make a pit stop at a rest stop on the freeway south because I really had to go to the bathroom! I know, I couldn't even make it an hour, silly me! Anyway, we had two major activities today:

1 San Diego Wild Animal Park
2 Cozy Quilt Shop

My favorite animal in the park was the white goose that is standing like he thinks he's a flamingo in the lower left of this picture. I just thought it was so funny and decided he deserved to be my favorite!

Here are Doug and Carol King being silly at the entrance to the park.

While I was looking at the flamingos, Dad and John had fun hopping from lily pads, who knew kid's toys were so fun!

If you wanted to spend some extra money, you could buy a ticket to ride in this GIANT balloon thingy. There was no way you'd get me up that high, it takes you WAY up so you can see the whole park. Mind you there are acres and acres of land reserved for all of the animals.

We were waiting under a covered area that had misters (thank goodness because it was SO hot that day, it helped to keep us at least a little cool) and we studied the map of the park waiting for the tram to take us around the reserve and see all the animals... note to self, don't go in the heat of the day when all the animals are sleeping and make sure to bring a super zoom lens for your cameras! Mom was obviously not amused that I was taking their picture!

We got to see lots of animals on the tram ride, Mom and John's favorites were the giraffes. There were actually quite a few in the park! Dad's favorite animals were the lions right at the end of the tram ride, you couldn't see them from the walkway, only inside the tram because they were behind some trees. I wasn't quite quick enough to get a picture of them. Dad liked that they looked as though they were not caged, because there were trenches around them.

I always love a good petting zoo, and the park had a little area where there were some deer just hanging out in the shade. I got some food out of the little dispenser and got to hand-feed them some treats!

There was a new area in the park called DINO MOUNTAIN where they had these life-sized animatronic dinosaurs. They were pretty cool, they moved and made noises and everything. A lot of little kids were totally freaked out, but you could tell the older ones really enjoyed looking at them and seeing how big they all were.

This park is so beautiful and I could have spent several days there, but we only had half of a day. Next time I am definitely going to take 2 days to do the WHOLE park. There is a LOT of walking, nothing too tough, but in the heat of the day you definitely need to take ice water bottles with you. You can take in any food or drink into the park, but they had lots of good food inside too!

Like I said, lots of walking, and by about 2 we were all pretty hot and ready to head out to the next stop: Cozy Quilt Shop!

I didn't take a single picture of the store or anything, and I'm kicking myself for it! We actually met the owner of the store Daniela Stout and when she found out that we were from out of town, she gave us some free patterns for taking the time to come visit her store! She was so nice, this was the store that the 2 1/2 strips, or the Stripper's Club originally began. If you're into sewing and quilting, you know what that means! If you ever go to San Diego, make sure to stop by the Cozy Quilt Shop! They'll welcome you with open arms!

Project By Michelle - Andyn's Quilt

2011-02-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

John served his mission in Argentina, where he made a good friend Darin Martin. Darin and his new wife Jodi had a beautiful baby boy Andyn Pete Martin on October 28, 2009 and I made a quilt for him. I thought all little kids and babies like snuggly blankets so I made his entirely out of flannel, it was so soft and warm! Then I remembered that Darin and Jodi live in Arizona... Well, you can't win them all! Maybe it will get some good use on the floor to crawl on!

Recipe: Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-02-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

John and I decided that this year we are going to learn about and use our food storage. This came up with a plan that every paycheck (which for me is 2 weeks since right now with John in school I am the main income earner) I can purchase one food storage item. I'm trying to keep it on the cheap, less than $20 a purchase, and so far most purchases have been less than $7 so it is working out nicely. With each purchase, I need to find a recipe and use that item within that 2 weeks to try it out, and hopefully find a good use of the product. I'm only going to buy things that we can actually eat/use (no food allergies, and trying to keep it low sugar - that one went out the window this week but what can I say, trying to introduce a new food, always start with a dessert!) and that I can store without it going rancid before we can use it. I had heard so many good things about the first product I wanted to buy, that I was so excited to go out and buy it. First, I'll give you the recipe, tell you how yummy it was, then get into the nitty gritty about what I used and how I used it.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
(using food storage)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs (2T dehydrated egg powder + 1/2 cup water)
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. makes 3 dozen

What I did:

I wanted to try a new recipe showcasing one particular food storage ingredient (this one just happened to have 2, but I was focusing on the eggs for this one. I did end up using dehydrated whole eggs, (which may sound gross, but have a lot of benefits, I'll touch on that in a bit). I like my cookies very soft and chewy, so I baked the cookies for 10 minutes (everything takes a bit longer up here in this high altitude) and then pulled them out of the oven and let them sit on the hot baking sheets on top of the hot oven for another 10 minutes, THEN I put them onto a cooling rack to finish cooling all the way. That way I got the most perfect chewy center and no crunchy outsides either. They have this hint of nutty flavor from the whole wheat flour, which gave it a dimension of flavor that I had not anticipated, but was AMAZING! Kind of like how salt can bring out flavors in foods, the flour totally did it in this recipe.

These were so delicious I wanted to eat them all right then and there! I'm glad I didn't though, they are surprisingly filling because they are made with whole wheat. Usually I feel like I need to eat 2-3 cookies to get my sweet tooth satisfied, but these actually get the job done with 1. With trying to eat better, and be a little more healthy, I have learned that when I want something sweet and tasty, I'd rather have the real thing instead of trying to make something fit into the healthy category (by using artificial sweeteners or something, which usually fails miserably) but to just eat less of it in moderation. It is actually doable with this recipe. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone trying out their food storage, especially with whole wheat flour. This is one of the best recipes that is super easy to follow and a great way to introduce whole wheat to your family.

For a little spotlight on one of my new favorite storage items:
Dried Whole Eggs

What I consider to be the best thing about using dried eggs is that it's not gross (it just looks like yellow flour) and it's already pasteurized. That means that YES, you can eat cookie dough and not get sick from it! (When I learned this, I was fantasizing about making my own cookie-dough blizzard treats because they're my favorite ice cream dessert but could never figure out how they got those little dough balls that wouldn't make you sick!) The other two perks, is that it is cheaper than using regular eggs (as long as you can get a #10 can for less than $17.99, which my local WalMart carries for that exact price, it comes out to about 90 cents a dozen when re-constituted) and they're VERY easy to put into baking recipes. you simply put the dry powder in with your dry ingredients, and the water to re-constitute it in with the wet ingredients. There wasn't any tough thinking to actually use this product which was the main selling point to me (I only want storage items that I can actually USE and not just throw away in a couple of years feeling like I wasted time and money on it). I would never use this to make scrambled eggs or anything (well, maybe as an experiment I would...) but only plan on using this in baking and/or cooking. I am totally sold on this product and plan on having it in my pantry as a STAPLE in my baking items from now on!

PS with friends and co-workers, these 3 dozen cookies didn't even make it 3 days before they were gone! Guess it's time to make more!

$5 Grocery Challenge

2011-01-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

Recently, John and I have been working hard to make some extra money, and save as much as we can. John will be graduating soon from BYU-Idaho and we will be moving, which costs a significant amount of money. We decided that we would try to spend just $5 at the grocery store last week and see if we could use our food storage enough to make it the entire week without going shopping again. I cleaned out our pantry, took inventory of what we have on hand, and we went to the grocery store after going to the gym one morning. This is what we bought:
1 loaf of bread (it was only 79 cents for the really yummy wheat sandwich bread, so I bought it this week instead of making it from scratch), 6 bananas, and 1 gallon of milk (we were shocked at the $1.98 price tag, around here it's usually around $1.60, but has gone up recently and hasn't gone back down).

I made a meal plan for the week that looked like this:

Monday: Baked Eggs with Spinach & Tomatoes
Tuesday: Chicken Bake with Stuffing
Wednesday: Red Beans & Sausage
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Salsa Chicken
Saturday: Michelle's Work Party with Dinner Included
Sunday: Lasagna Roll Ups & Sunny Banana Pie

I work swing shift and so John comes home for lunch each day and that is our meal we spend together. I take the leftovers to work with me to eat for dinner and John usually just has a sandwich or bowl of cereal at home when he is home from school for the night.

We aren't big dessert eaters unless we're having guests over, which we happened to have on Sunday, so we added Banana Pie that night for something sweet after the meal. We snacked on bananas all week, which were so yummy! I made sure that some of them were green when we bought them so they would still be good by Sunday and I did need to supplement our gallon of milk we bought with some powdered milk to make it the whole week, but in the end,

WE DID IT!

I was so happy that we could actually make it an entire week on $5! Each recipe used some sort of food storage ingredient and we were able to make great meals for the entire week! We are thinking that once or twice a month, this may become a regular thing with us. It forces us to evaluate what foods we have in the house and rotate food storage we have. It really gave me the inspiration to learn new skills with cooking (especially with food storage) and being resourceful when we didn't always have the ingredients a recipe called for. It also taught us patience, because our 'eat out night' wasn't until Saturday, and usually we'll eat out in the middle of the week sometime, so this was a bit of a change for us. In the end, we are both so happy we did this challenge, and look forward to using what this has taught us in the future.

Recipe: Baked Eggs with Spinach & Tomatoes

2011-01-25T13:44:00.001-08:00

Baked Eggs with Spinach & Tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 can diced tomatoes
2 bunches spinach, about 1 pound
8 eggs separated
cheese & crumbled bacon for garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in skillet, add garlic and cook 1 minutes. Add tomatoes and simmer 3 minutes. Add spinach and cook until just begins to wilt (about 1 minute). Transfer to a 2 quart baking dish. Beat egg whites 30 seconds until foamy and pour over spinach mixture. Carefully place yolks on top. Bake at 400 degrees until whites are set, about 20-22 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and crumbled bacon on top before serving. Serves 4.

What I did:
I used 2 packages of chopped frozen spinach thawed instead of fresh (although I have used fresh before and it's just as good) and it makes this a great hearty dish. Sometimes I add mushrooms to the garlic/onion mixture first for a bit more of a meaty texture without added protein (there's plenty with the eggs!).

The Verdict:
We LOVE this combination of flavors and how versatile it is, whatever we have in the pantry and/or freezer makes this really easy to bulk up or slim down depending on how many mouths we're feeding that day. I'm not a huge fan of fresh spinach and this is a great way to get those vitamins and minerals into our diets without feeling like we're eating rabbit food all the time! This is definitely one of our staple dishes.

Recipe: Salsa Chicken

2011-01-25T13:39:00.000-08:00

Salsa Chicken

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 package taco seasoning
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded cheese
dollop of sour cream (garnish - optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken in a 9 by 13 dish. Sprinkle both sides of breasts with taco seasoning and pour salsa over the chicken. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes, remove chicken from oven and sprinkle evenly with cheese. Put back in the oven and continue baking for an additional 3-5 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Top with sour cream if desired. Serve with Spanish rice and mexi-corn.

The Verdict:
We really loved this recipe, I followed it exactly and it turned out great. It's become one of our favorites that we eat on a regular basis (whenever I have good chicken in the house) and it's great for using food storage (we always have salsa from the LDS Cannery as well as dehydrated bell pepper that we add to frozen/canned corn to spice things up a bit).

Recipe: Red Beans & Sausage

2011-01-25T13:33:00.000-08:00

Red Beans & Sausage

Ingredients:
1 lb bulk sausage
1 onion, chopped
1 can red beans
2 tsp red chilies
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 garlic clove, chopped finely
1 Tbs. oil
1 tsp taco seasoning

Directions:
Brown sausage, onion and garlic. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 30 minutes. Serve over rice, sprinkled with cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

What I did: I use 1 regular sized can of kidney beans, and 1 regular sized can of diced tomatoes with chilies in it (so I don't actually add any of the red chilies to it)

The Verdict: The very first time I made this dish, I didn't think it was going to be very good, especially since the sausage was a weird white color (we usually eat ground beef) but in the end this has become one of our staple dishes! We love it and it's so easy, we use our awesome rice cooker which has a delay timer, so dinner is always ready just when we want it to be! So delicious, and so inexpensive!

Recipe: Chicken Bake with Stuffing

2011-01-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

Chicken Bake with Stuffing

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken, cooked and cubed
1-2 cups veggies
1 1/2 -2 cups chicken gravy
2 cups chicken stuffing
2 Tbs. butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a 2 quart baking dish, layer chicken, then veggies. Pour gravy over veggies and chicken. Top with prepared stuffing (combine the water, butter and stuffing and fluff with a fork). Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes until bubbly and hot through. Serves 3-4.

What I did: I used some left over chicken from the fridge, took 2 cups of mixed veggies from the large bag in my freezer and used an entire pouch of prepared stuffing from a box to put on top. I also used just one can of chicken gravy that I had leftover from Thanksgiving.

Verdict: We LOVED this recipe, it was like Thanksgiving in a casserole! There weren't any leftovers to eat for lunch the next day, and I know I'll be making this time and time again using up those items bought around the holidays that I stocked up on while they were on sale!

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

Halloween fell on a Sunday this year so many of us attended parties on Saturday the 30th instead. Our friends Shayanna and Steven Barclay invited us for great food, fun and games at their place here in Rexburg and we had a great time!

Chris and Sadie Freeman came (Sadie is due with their first child in January of 2011) and were festive in fall colors.

John and Michelle came in costume (John as a mad scientist and Michelle as a tie rack). Michelle won the guessing game of how many M & Ms were in a mason jar (there were 900 and she guessed 1200 and came closest).

Steven and Shayanna were in costume as a Sheriff and Hillbilly (so cute!)

We played several games including Mafia and a new one neither John or I had played before called Spoons.

It's sort of like musical chairs but with spoons instead. There's one less spoon in the middle than how many people are playing and you get dealt cards and you try to get a 4 of a kind, then you grab a spoon. The one who doesn't grab a spoon looses. (Michelle was out in the second round!)

This is a video of everyone playing Spoons (minus Chris and Michelle) to kind of give you an idea of how it goes... (John lost as you can tell at the end his reaction!)

Californai Trip Day 7

2010-07-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 29th 2009

Today was a day spent in Michelle's favorite place on earth, Disneyland! We went to Disneyland first and rode our favorite rides: Michelle's is Space Mountain and John's is Indiana Jones. Then we headed over to California Adventure.

We did go on the big Ferris Wheel in California Adventure, but I would only ride on a stationary cabin. They have ones that move and swing as the Ferris Wheel rotates, but that was a little too much for my taste, I have a major fear of heights and that would have just been a little too much!

One of the rides we went on was the Bug's Life ride. It's meant more for little kids, as it was like a baby roller coaster, but it was so fun to see how they made everything larger than life! From this picture you can see they take you through half-eaten watermelon, and how big it is!

My cousin Travis Edwards worked at California Adventure at the time, and he worked the Toy Story ride. We went to go see him, and he was able to get us onto the ride without waiting in line at all! It was pretty cool!

One of our favorite places to go in California Adventure is the Tortillaria. They made fresh tortillas there and give out free samples of them. It was super cool to walk through the production line and see how it's actually done in person, and they were super yummy!

John enjoying his free sample!

I will always LOVE Disneyland, and I am so glad we got a chance to come visit it again, so close to our 1 year anniversary (you'll notice we are both wearing pins the whole time... those are special anniversary pins that we got at the customer service desk for free). I hope to bring our kids here one day so that they can ride the fun rides and meet the characters!

Welcoming the New Year 2010

2010-06-03T09:07:00.001-07:00

For the night of December 31 2009, into the morning of January 1, 2010 we were happy to be in the home of the Satko family, along with some of our friends. We began the wait for midnight with games like "Catchphrase" and "Mad Gab". Once the new year hit, the kids were blowing their horns, adults were banging pots and pans, and we all had a great time.

Emily and Neil Robison

Randy Churchill and the Robisons getting ready for the festivities

Michelle with the princess crown

Camille Churchill and Chris Satko

John and Shannon Willis

Caleb Higueria (I must say, my favorite photo of the night! Of those who are related to the Satko family, they will understand when I say this photo reminds me of Mike Satko - Caleb's Uncle)

Caleb and Emma Willis

Allison Satko, Christina Satko and Josh Willis, getting ready for the silly string fight

Laura and Brian Olsen

Neil and Emily Robison banging those pots and pans!

The Satkos are friends of our family as we go to church together in Maple Valley, Washington at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Satko's are related as follows:

Bob and Chris Satko have 7 children, Beth, Kim, Mike, Emily,
Laura, Christina and Allison.
Beth is married to Josh Willis and they have 3 children
(2 are pictured previously) Shannon, Emma and Hannah.
Kim is married to Bob Higueria and has 2 children Caleb and Isabelle.
Mike is married to Shari (but were already on
their trek back to Utah before the New Year).
Emily is married to Neil Robison.
Laura is married to Brian Olsen,
and Christina and Allison are still at home with Bob and Chris.

The Churchills also go to the same church with all of us and are good long-time friends of the Satkos. Camille and Randy live down the street from the Satkos.

California Trip 2009 - Day 6

2010-02-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

Tuesday July 28, 2009

We all hung out around the condo today and relaxed until Travis Edwards (son of Joan and Louie Edwards) arrived and we all (Doug and Carol King, Jared King, Michelle and John Cornelius and Travis Edwards) headed to Universal City to go see Conan O'Brien on his show Late Night with Conan O'Brien. We waited in line outside and had to be escorted to the bathroom by security personnel. It was serious business!

This is John and Michelle outside the studio where the show was taped.

The episode that we were there for was really good! Heidi Klum and Steve Zahn were his guests that night. Heidi was VERY pregnant (you can't really tell in the picture, but we weren't allowed to have cameras so I had to do some internet hunting to even find this one!) and she brought two barbie dolls of her and Conan.

Steve Zahn did an interview promoting a new movie he was in. It was so interesting to be there during an actual taping of a real TV show. The band was really good and during commercial breaks we found out some cool things about Conan, like the fact that he drinks Diet Coke in his mug that sits on his desk during the show! Conan is very tall and seems to be pretty nice in person.

After the show, we were all hungry and tired, so Doug treated us all to dinner at one of our all-time favorite restaurants Bubba Gump's. This restaurant is so fun because not only do they have delicious sea food, but on the tables are signs that say "Run Forest Run" and "Stop Forest Stop". That tells the waiters/waitresses that you need them to either 'stop' or 'keep on running'!

John and Michelle

Travis Edwards

Doug and Carol (with a Run Forest Run sign!)

Jared enjoying his crab legs!

For dinner, Jared had 1 pound of crab legs, Doug, Carol and John had a big bucket of shrimp of all kinds (coconut, battered, fried, baked, etc), Travis had crab legs too, and Michelle had fish and chips... a classic. It was all so good! Good thing we all enjoyed our special treat since it doesn't happen very often... the total was over $190.00 after tip! Best of all, we just walked home to the condo after dinner since it is only 2 blocks away from the restaurant!

California Trip 2009 - Day 5

2010-02-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

Monday July 27, 2009

We began our day with breakfast at a diner in Mariposa called the Happy Burger Diner. It was so yummy! They serve their ENTIRE menu ALL DAY so we could get whatever we wanted. At 9 AM Carol had waffles, Doug had an omlet (which he said was AMAZING), John had pancakes, Michelle had bacon and eggs while Jared (so true to his nature) had a BURGER! Make sure if you ever stop here at the Happy Burger Diner in Mariposa, you order the 'country potatoes' with any breakfast meal you're getting, they're hash browns that are out of this world!

We began our long drive to Anaheim, and on the way stopped at an amazing Nut store where we picked up our coveted pistachios, yogurt covered almonds and delicious chocolate covered raisins. You drive through many nut plantations going from Mariposa to Anaheim, so it's only fitting to support the local economy!

Our condo in Anaheim

We finally got to Anaheim in the late afternoon and checked into our condominium, after which Michelle and Carol drove to Von's (a grocery chain) to get some grocery staples for the week. This is also where Michelle bought 3-day Disneyland passes for her and John. We had spaghetti for dinner (Jared's favorite) and we watched the fireworks at Disneyland from our balcony window! It was so awesome. There was only one bedroom so John and Michelle slept on the floor on an air mattress (which was actually quite comfortable!)

John going to bed on the air mattress!

California Trip 2009 - Day 4

2010-02-18T11:40:00.000-08:00

Sunday July 26, 2009

Doug and Jared left Aptos at 5 AM to take Aunt Kathy to the airport while John and Michelle slept another hour or so. Carol, Michelle and John left Aptos at 7 AM after saying goodbye to Aunt Vicki and Uncle Wally. Doug, Carol and Kathy left a thank-you gift for Uncle Wally and Aunt Vicki which was a gift certificate to their favorite British Pub, just down the hill from their house.

We all headed to Mariposa, California where Doug's cousin Joan and her husband Louie Edwards live on 100 acres that they are in the process of sub-dividing. They have built their dream home with a garage/shop on the first floor (fit with real auto lifts and everything) and their living quarters upstairs. It's a beautiful barn-style home that fits in perfectly with their surroundings.

The first thing we did after we arrived to their home was go on a ride around their property with Louie. Doug and Jared rode in a little pickup, while John rode a 4-wheeler and Michelle and Louie rode in a side-by-side.

This is a picture of John, Jared and Doug on our ride.
We got very dusty and dirty but it was a lot of fun!

After we got back inside and rested for a bit (it was very hot and being out in the sun so long wore us out!) we chatted with Joan and her daughter Samantha. Joan and Sam had to leave at 6 PM tonight to make sure that Sam caught her 6 AM flight out of Oakland and so that Joan would be back in Livermore, where she works, for her work week. Joan spends the week days in Livermore where she words at a laboratory and comes home on the weekend to be with Louie and work on the house.

(Back) Sam and Joan (Daughter, Mother)
(Front) Carol and Doug

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner that Joan prepared for us which was pulled pork sandwiches with cole slaw. I'm not usually a fan of slaw, but her was delicious! (which reminds me, I should get that recipe!) We all began winding down after that and were relaxing around the house watching a little t.v. and visiting. John and Joan had a lot to talk about since John is studying science at BYU-Idaho and was very interested in the laboratory where Joan works.

Jared and Louie hanging out in the living area watching t.v.

John and Michelle after dinner

Jared watching t.v.

Joan and Louie's home is beautiful! They have been doing most of, if not all of the work themselves. It's amazing how far everything has come!

This is the kitchen and dining area, the cabinet doors were soon to come!

This is the stained glass above the kitchen sink that Joan made herself!

Joan has her own studio for her projects downstairs where she makes beautiful pieces of art. She has an amazing talent and inspires me to want to get into something like it! We had a wonderful time spending the day with Joan and Louie and they were gracious enough to let us stay with them tonight before our long drive to Anaheim. John and Michelle slept out in their camper (they had a full hook-up RV pad) while Doug and Carol slept in one guest room and Jared slept in the "Blue Room". It has a beautiful Lonestar quilt that belonged to Joan's sister Sally Carpenter on the bed made with amazing blue tones and suits the room perfectly.

California Trip 2009 - Day 3

2010-02-18T08:52:00.000-08:00

Saturday July 25, 2009

After some MUCH needed rest, Carol, Aunt Kathy (Kathleen Bertuzzi), John and Michelle went to the Cement Ship down on the beach right near Uncle Wally's house on Trout Gulch Road. It was chilly and windy, and so many people were there! We walked out on the pier and saw all the fishermen fishing off the side of the pier with their coolers, bait buckets and fishing poles. Many of them had dogs with them and it was fun to pet some of them.

John and Michelle on the pier at the Cement Ship

A picture from the pier of the Cement Ship

On the way home from the Cement Ship, we stopped at a British Pub and had some pie that was excellent. John had some fun pretending to call home in the phone booth out front of the restaurant.

At 2 PM that afternoon, several people from my family came out to Uncle Wally's house for a luncheon. Dad and Jared made burgers that were to die for... Michelle helped Aunt Vicki make lemonade by going out front to their lemon tree and PICKED FRESH LEMONS! Can you say made by hand or what? There was maybe 10 lemons to make one pitcher but it was so yummy!

Doug and Jared making burgers

A funky looking lemon from Wally and Vicki's Lemon tree

Aunt Vicki making the lemonade

Family enjoying the shade on Wally and Vicki's patio

The people who were able to come out and visit were: Mary Lou Kendall, Eileen Garske, Paul and Judy Garske, Neil Carpenter, Matthew and Bre Carpenter, Andy Garske, Aunt Kathy, and of course, Wally and Vicki, Doug and Carol, Jared and Michelle and John.

Mary Lou, Wally, Eileen (siblings)

Doug, Mary Lou, Kathy (son, mother, daughter)

Hanging out inside: Mary Lou, Paul, Judy, Eileen, Neil, Vicki (front)

Mary Lou, Wally (siblings)

Neil, Mary Lou (great-nephew, great aunt)

Mary Lou, Eileen (sisters)

Mary Lou, Michelle (grandmother, granddaughter)

Almost everyone's cell phones died today because there is no cell service up on the hill where Uncle Wally's house is so the phones are constantly looking for a signal, or 'roaming'. It also turns out that some of the noise we had been hearing were wild turkies! They run around their house and in their fields and a big Mama turkey had just had babies... 12 of them! I never got a picture of them sadly, they were gone by the time I ran back out with it ready to go!

Wally and Vicki also have a new addition to their family, a new cat named "Mama Cat". When they got her, she was pregnant and had kittens soon after. She is very shy, and only came around when all of us were there to eat the kitty food Uncle Wally would put out for her.

California Trip 2009 - Day 2

2010-02-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

Friday July 24, 2009

Friday was a day full of driving for us (and sleeping for Jared!) I got the boys up and into the car at 5:45 AM so that I could start driving at 6AM. Jared slept until I couldn't drive anymore and we stopped in Winnemuca for a sit-down breakfast so we could stretch our legs (no pun intended) and have a break from fast food. John took over the driving at that point since I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and we hit the pavement.

There was lots of construction from the Nevada state line all the say to Colfax. Needless to say, we stopped in Colfax for lunch at a McDonalds to take a break from such stressful driving. The McDonalds had good food, but was super busy and the bathrooms were so dirty it was disgusting. We watched several people walk into the bathrooms and turn around and walk right back out. Pretty gross. We went to get some gas before we got back on the road, and as we pulled into the station, there was a sign that said it was out of gas! We had to drive up the hill into the woods it seemed like to find another station that actually had gas. I guess with all the construction, people were stopping here to fuel up their bellies and their cars! Explains why the restaurants were so busy!

We pulled into Uncle Wally's (Wallace Wilson) house at 8 PM tonight with dinner waiting on the table. It was a blessed sight since we were starving! Doug and Carol King were there to greet us as they came a few days early to attend Sally Carpenter's funeral service. Doug, Carol, Jared, John and I slept in Uncle Wally's studio apartment that they have attached to their house (it used to be a garage that they remodeled into a rental unit which happened to be empty) and us 3 kids were on air mattresses on the floor while mom and dad slept on the queen bed.

All during the night we thought we heard weird noises coming from outside the windows, but we didn't think much of it. Maybe it was some possum or something. Come to find out that something has been killing Uncle Wally and Aunt Vicki (Victoria Wilson)'s chickens! I headed up to check out the chicken coupe that night and visited with the chickens for a bit (when you make noise, they make noise back, like they're talking to you!)

I couldn't figure out how to get into the chicken coupe, so I just looked in from the outside and 'talked' to the chickens. The coupe is actually right next to Uncle Wally and Aunt Vicki's garden where they grow lots of good food that we enjoyed while we were there. They also have lots of flowers in there too, and this one was my favorite.

Tonight we are all crashing and getting a good night's sleep here in Aptos, California.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

California Trip 2009 - Day 1

2010-02-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

Thursday July 23, 3009

John, Jared and I packed up our little 1999 Ford Contour and headed out at 3 PM from Rexburg, Idaho with the hopes of making it into Nevada that night. John had finals that day, which is why we couldn't have left earlier in the day. Jared was keen on sleeping as much of the drive as he could, since he HATES driving. John drove the entire trip today, while I sat in the back seat distributing snacks and drinks. This is what most of the trip looked like for me:

We made it all the way to Wells, Nevada today and pulled into a Motel 6 to sleep for the night. We only had to pay $49.99 for all 3 of us, but as I was reading the sign out front that read INDOOR POOL and getting really excited, I realized that I forgot to pack John and my swimsuits! I made lists, packed days in advance, I was sure that I didn't forget anything. I was so upset that I forgot them since it was HOT that day and into the night. To make matters worse, the motel room didn't have air conditioning. Luckily, I had packed a little fan that we put in the window and Jared had blowing on him during the night so he could actually get some sleep. I sent the boys out to get some dinner, there was a Burger King right down the street, so John got his favorite "Angry Whopper". I took a cold shower to cool off and we watched Shanghai Knights on the television in the room and went to bed. You can tell by this picture that the boys weren't too comfortable, but we made it work.

For our first day into the trip, I think we had a successful day. We drove a bit further than I expected to, the air conditioning in the car worked marvelously, and the motel didn't cost too much (and had cable!). I can't wait to get to California and see my family!

California Trip 2009 Overview

2010-02-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

John and I took a road trip to California in the summer of 2009 that began on Thursday July 23rd, and ended Tuesday August 4th. For most of the trip my brother Jared was with us in our car riding along because before and after the trip he was staying with us for a short while job hunting in the Rexburg area. We left from Rexburg and drove to Aptos, California, spending the night in Wells, Nevada. Because it was a 2 day drive and John had finals on Wednesday and Thursday that week, we couldn't make it to the funeral held for my dad's cousin Sally Carpenter. We were sad to miss the event, but were happy to get to see more family that weekend since so many were in town for the service.

We arrived in Aptos on Friday night and spent the weekend with the Wilson/Carpenter clan. Sunday Doug, Carol, Jared, John and I left (in 2 cars) for Mariposa, California to visit my dad's cousin Joan and her husband Louie Edwards. Monday morning the 5 of us left Mariposa and drove to Anaheim, California and we arrived that afternoon to our condominium with World Mark. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Anaheim, Thursday in San Diego, and Friday in Redondo Beach (all the while sleeping at night in the condo in Anaheim). Saturday Jared, John and I drove straight through from Anaheim, California to Phoenix, Arizona where we spent the weekend with friends. Sunday included a day-trip to Sedona, Arizona with Julie and Junior Rodriguez and Monday morning Jared, John and I headed back north to Rexburg, Idaho. We slept Monday night in Cedar City, Utah and made it home to Rexburg safely on Tuesday.

This was our (John and Michelle) longest trip together since we have been married, and our first real road-trip (not counting back and forth to Rexburg and Seattle!) We learned a lot about traveling together, what works, what doesn't... But most importantly, we spent time with family, even though it was mostly my side. (we managed to squeeze in one evening with a couple of John's siblings, not nearly as much time as we had wanted to!) Even though the beginning was bitter sweet with everyone grieving for Sally, I was very happy that John got to meet so much of my family this trip. We both have a LOT of family in California and neither of us get to see any of them very often.

These big trips are far and few between for us, but we love every minute of them (yes, even the long hours in the car) and can't wait to plan another trip! With school, internships, jobs and the like, we don't know when we'll have another chance like this one. Good thing we enjoyed it while we could!

Jared's Visit

2009-10-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

My brother Jared spent the summer job hunting and spent some time with us in Rexburg to see if there were any opportunities here for him. For one day while he was here I dragged John and Jared out to Yellowstone. Once we made the trek out there we had a good time, although Jared and John both hate the stinky places and don't like walking through them like I do. It was my birthday though so they humored me.

We started out by driving the 2 Mile Drive (a little scenic route near some falls and good hiking - this is where we found scuba divers in the river!) and then we ate lunch at a little park. The boys had some fun near the water and were being quite silly!

Then we went to Old Faithful, where Jared hadn't been for maybe 10 years? I had to bribe him with ice cream to get him to take this picture with me. Aren't I a good sister?

A day with family

2009-10-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July John and I got to travel back to Maple Valley and spend some much needed time with both sides of our family. We went to John's parents Al and Roberta's house for an afternoon of tamale making and just some relaxing fun. John and Al spent some time playing horse shoes in the new horse show pit the Al recently made. They have to cover the sand pits or else kitties find it and leave little presents!

That weekend we also got to spend some time with my side of the family, the Neilsons and had a chance to celebrate my grandpa Lavaughn Neilson's 80th birthday! Not too much of the family were able to come out to Ocean Shores to celebrate with us, but we had a good time and got to watch fireworks at the beach! We had a campfire and John got to let his pyro side shine. This first picture is my grandpa with my Aunt Karen holding his yummy birthday cake!

We all sang Happy Birthday and needless to say Grandpa was embarrassed but you could tell he loved every minute of it! We had to leave right after the fireworks at 10:30 PM to drive back to Maple Valley since we had a long 12 hour drive ahead of us on the 5th to make it back to Rexburg in time for school Monday morning. It was a really fun trip and lots of memories were made.

Rexburg Air Show

2009-10-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

Okay okay, so it's been like forever since I posted, so I'm going to try to catch up over the next few weeks - easier said than done!

In June John and I went to the Rexburg Air Show and had a fun time watching the airplanes. We live relatively close to the airport so we constantly hear planes and it was fun to actually see the planes that we hear all the time and some new fun ones too.

There was a Jelly Belly plane that did lots of fun tricks and loops and dives, it was so exciting to watch! Unfortunately my camera doesn't have a very long lens so none of the shots of them in the air turned out too well.

As a part of the air show, they had the Air Museum open to the public for free so we got to walk trough and look at the planes in there, they were so cool! This red one was our favorite. Needless to say, ever since, John has been talking about wanting to get his pilot's license.... and I sweetly remind him that he should work on one big project at a time - first...graduating!

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-06-03T06:41:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day Weekend, my parents Doug and Carol King came out to Rexburg to visit us. We got to do some really fun things while they were here. The 3 days went by so fast we almost didn't know what hit us!

First we went to Bear World. It was so much fun. You get to drive through the park in your car and see buffalo, elk, deer, weird white goats and lots and lots of bears! They had big bears, little bears, and even little baby bears! After you drive through the park you end up at the gift store and on the other side of that is a little petting zoo and some fun rides for kids. There was a pot bellied pig, deer, chickens and some geese in the petting zoo. It was so much fun to watch the baby bears romp and play after their afternoon nap! Unfortunately my camera was in the car so I didn't get any good pictures of the babies!

After Bear World we headed over to Yellowstone National Park. We got to walk around and see lots of mud pots and paint pots. It was such a beautiful day, we all got a little sunburnt!

Our weekend was so much fun! We wish that we could get to see our families more, but we make the most of it each time we see them! Next big family event is the 4th of July...

Can't wait!

Moving!

2009-05-23T06:43:00.001-07:00

No no no, we're not moving! My brother Jared graduated from the Motorcycle Mechanic's Institute in Phoenix, AZ and made the move to Spokane after landing a job within his first week of looking! Way to go Jared! Our dad flew down to help Jared pack and make the LONG drive. We were lucky and they got to stop by and see us for breakfast here in Rexburg, YUMMY! We were glad to get to see them, and hopefully we'll get to see Jared's new place soon!

Jared HATES driving, so it's kind of humorous that they drove the entire way cramped in the front of a U-Haul. Life's tough, welcome to the real world!

Good luck with the new job!

John's Birthday

2009-05-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

John's birthday is May 9th, and we had a little bit of a celebration.

First we slept in a few hours, then woke up.

Then we went to Sizzler, John's favorite restaurant.

Then John got to open his presents.Then we ate ice cream cake (John's favorite - with a monster truck!)

But even though it was his birthday, John didn't get out of washing the dishes!

Happy Birthday John!

Hum-Drum of Life

2009-04-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

So, a little update since the last post: we still only have one reliable channel to watch on TV. I guess it's a good thing that we don't hardly watch it, only for like 4 shows a week. Thank goodness for HULU!!!!!

We are super excited for General Conference this weekend, since we actually live in a town now where we can watch/hear/see it for free. (yes I know you can get it on the internet but it is just so much more convenient on the TV!) We've had a crazy ride this year trying to find jobs and do well in school so we are in need of a little guidance at this point, or maybe just some warm fuzzies!

We were fooled a couple of weeks ago when the sun was warm and friendly for a few days, all the snow melted and I wore my flip-flops for almost 4 whole days! Mother Nature I guess thought it was a funny joke then to give us a blizzard and we've had snow ever since! At least it looks a little prettier than all the dead grass showing that's been under the snow all winter...

The semester is almost up at school and John and I are excited to take a road trip to Maple Valley to see the family again. John is super excited to see our parents and I'm excited to do a little hair and make some $$. We are ready for a little break and it seems that this trip is coming just in time. That's all for now!

Valentine's Weekend

2009-02-17T08:36:00.001-08:00

Well, first of all you should know that the first thing I did when I woke up on February 14, 2009 was call my brother Jared. It was his 20th birthday! Then our good friends David Hogg and Emily Christiansen came over and we had crepes for breakfast! They were delicious!

They are so cute! David came up from Utah to visit Emily for Valentine's weekend and he stayed with us. It was fun to spend time with them this weekend and get to know Emily. We played board games and had fun watching a Bill Cosby comedy DVD. Since John and I got a new camera, they were nice enough to let me take a few pictures of them while they were here and we had some fun out in the park!

We also purchased our Digital Converter Boxes so that our TV is compatible with the upcoming change to Digital TV. We were pretty excited when we went from only one channel with our rabbit ears to 8 channels with the new converter box! John installed everything and got it all set up for us and we're pretty excited!

Overall, it was a great three-day weekend! We had fun with friends, and eachother.

2009-02-11T20:36:00.001-08:00

Okay, so it's been a while since we last posted. I'd like to say that we've been overly busy but that's not totally the case. John has been busy with mid-terms and I've still been looking for a job. The job hunt is officially on the backburner until the end of the month since we are going to be attending a wedding in Arizona the last weekend of February. We're kind of taking some time just to enjoy being together.

We got the chance to go home (to Maple Valley) for a weekend midway through January, and then we got another chance to meet up with my parents in Ontario, Oregon to do a quick car-switch. It was fun to get to see them, and to get a little time away from our little apartment!

At church we have gotten the chance to take an introductory Family History class and it's been fun to get a little taste of what it entails! We are enjoying our new ward, and have gotten a new calling as well. We are now members of the Small Group Committee... which basically means that we get to have people over for dinner, go out on group dates, play games and have fun outings with people, and it's required for our calling! It's pretty much one of the coolest things ever. It's giving us a good chance to get to know people in the ward, and get out and have some fun.

More to come soon!

About Us

2009-01-16T14:18:00.000-08:00

John and I (Michelle) were married on August 8th 2008 in the Portland temple. We currently live in Rexburg, Idaho while John is attending BYU-Idaho majoring in Human Biology. I am seeking employment right now and hopefully things will work out soon...

We absolutely love living in Rexburg. It's very cold but we're warming up to it more and more every day. We have great neighbors and a fun student ward that we attend each Sunday.

John has a passion for gaming, mostly PC games, although we both LOVE Guitar Hero... He also is really enjoying his studies and learning more about the sciences.

I like to sew, scrapbook and do hair (I am a licensed cosmetologist) and lately have really gotten into reading. Some recent favorites are Leven Thumps and Dean Koontz books.

We are enjoying the newlywed life and are still finding those compromises that everyone must make. I usually cook and he does the dishes :) We enjoy life and are excited to see what is going to be coming next!