I love christmas!!

Last night for FHE we watched the Christmas Devotional and it was neat.  I'm sad we missed it sunday night, but we got to watch it anyway:) After that we baked some cookies, watched "The Christmas Blessing," and then went to wal-mart and got our cute little white tree.  We decided we wanted to be different and get a white tree! and I love it.  It lights up our whole apartment, and it's just cute! haha.  Anyway, Tanner and I are so excited for christmas we can hardly wait! 

I have the best hubby ever.

                                        21 more days!!!!

Lots to be Thankful for!

This year for Thanksgiving, we went to Ashton to my husband's parents house.  All Tanner's siblings came up except for Jess :( But we still had fun! Tanner just bought a gun recently, and so he was super excited to shoot it with his brothers.  It was fun to see him so excited to whip it out and shoot it! When he got it, he made this deal with me:

If I shoot a elk or a deer, he will buy me one band for my wedding ring.
If I shoot a moose or a bear, he will buy me 2 bands!!

So....I think I might just try it :) You never know right? Dynamite comes in small packages! hahaha I will keep ya'll informed I'm sure if I shoot a large animal.

So let's see, we were up there Wednesday night until Sunday night, and we just had a blast.  We went target shooting, shot some skeet, all of us girls made a adorable craft, watched some christmas shows, played balderdash, settlers, the newlywed game, put up the christmas tree, and more!  Here's some pics of our wonderful thanksgiving:

            Here's my studly hubby excited to shoot his fun for the first time!

    On Black friday we woke up at 5 to stand in line for my bosche!!! We got it for $130 off!                                                                 
                                                   We were so tired....

We got matching hats! His aunt Bonnie gives away hats on black friday to people. such a wonderful lady.

                                                      shooting skeet!

                         Our gingerbread house was very creative this year...haha

hahahahahahahahahahaha!! Tanner and I bought the moose a beard and a wig.

   Cute craft I made with my sister in laws and mother in law :)

This thanksgiving was truly wonderful.  It was so fun to spend it with the Stevens Family, and I am so grateful for them for raising such an amazing son.  I am so blessed to have Tanner in my life, and I don't know where I would be without him.  We have gotten through some tough times together, but it has made us closer together, and continues to strengthen our relationship.  I am grateful for trials, and for how they make me stronger.  I have had many trials in my life, and I have just realized that so does everyone else, and I am not alone.  I am grateful for family, and for the knowledge that I have that families can be together forever. I am so excited for Christmas!! I can't wait to see Tanner's reaction to what I got him... :)

God is here for us all

Today is Halloween....happy halloween! I've never really been a fan of halloween.  Anyway, today my heart is full.  As I was reading in my scriptures this morning, I came to a great appreciation of trials.  I have had many trials in my life, and continue to have trials each and every day.  They are never easy.... ever.  And sometimes it seems that giving up is the best option.  Today I realized that it's not, however. Giving up is a horrible option, and one that Satan puts into our minds.  Satan is real- and he is trying to attack the family. Quite honestly and frankly- I hate satan.  Saying that makes me really happy. hahahaha.  He is so dumb, and I wish he would just go away.

As I was reading an article for class today, I came across these 2 quotes.
"Thought is the Father of an act."  
This really hit me hard today- it was just exactly what I needed to hear.  Our thoughts really do control our acts, and it is up to us to control our thoughts, and to act accordingly.  In this world, there are so many temptations and so many false facts that influence our decisions, and our thoughts.  I have realized that I am in control of my life, not Satan.  Satan is only trying to make me miserable, so that he can be happy. And it is never going to work- and today I realized that.
"Always pray for the power to resist temptation."
This also struck me hard because I realized that God is always there.  He is just waiting for his children to turn to Him, and to ask Him for help.  He knows what we are all going through- and he is there to help us all.
I know that God is there for all of us, and He is just constantly waiting for us to turn to Him, and to converse with Him. He made many things clear to me today, and I am so grateful for that.

It's fall time!

So, I love carving pumpkins.  I like it because it is one of the only things I like to do around Halloween time. I don't enjoy cold weather, I never have, and I don't know if I ever will. I love fall time because of the pretty leaves and pumpkins, and dressing up weird for halloween. hahaha. I think that's about it, though. Anyway, my best friend Becca Willmore is getting MARRIED in December, so we invited her and her fiance Mitch over to carve pumpkins.

Funny story: I got 3 pumpkins- a huge one, a medium sized one, and a teeny tiny one. My neighbor that I don't even know saw them and she asks me, "Oh how cute, is that your way of announcing your pregnant?" hahaha I laughed my head off and said "Oh! No, I didn't even think about that! But that would be clever if I were!" I thought it was so random, but hilarious.
So Becca and Mitch came over, and we carved some pretty saweet pumpkins.

Here's some pics of the lovely evening:
                                                       
                                         Mine and Tanners pumpkin:

       
 Becca and Mitch's pumpkin.  They carved their wedding date on the side...haha so cute

           
   yes, yes...we were trying to imitate our pic in the background :)

I'm not sure why we did this.  But it's kinda funny.

The cute engaged couple:

It was super fun, and they are now sitting in front our cute lil apt. Oh yeah, of course we roasted the seeds and ate them! yummy in my tummy.  Happy Halloween times!

What a blessing

So, I just had a tender mercy happen to me about 10 minutes ago, and I'm just feeling very blessed right now. I just got home from work at 11:00, and work was very interesting tonight.  Very ornery people, I was stressing about homework and cleaning my house, and not going to lie I was getting really frustrated and kind of annoyed.  Well my cute cute husband did all he could to try and stay awake for me, but instead I walk in the house and it is S.P.O.T.L.E.S.S.  I mean- the shoes were straightened!  What man does that?  So the shoes were straight up against the wall, everything was dusted, our dresser was decluttered, the sink had zero dishes in it, all our clothes were put away, funny sticky notes were left everywhere, the couch cover was straightened haha, counters were clean, and I could just keep going!  But I won't.  Anyway, I just am so grateful to have a loving spouse.  I feel like Tanner and I both know when each other needs something, and we don't even have to communicate about it.  It is so neat.  Who knew that I would come home to a spotless clean house, and have no more stress once I got home?  I just want to testify of the power of marriage- that God really does know each of us, and he is mindful of our needs.  I know I have said this a billion times, but God really knew what he was doing when he sent Tanner and I to each other.  It was at a interesting time, but looking back it couldn't have been more perfect.  Tanner is so special to me, and I love him dearly.  I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful spouse :)

I still can't get over how he straightened our shoes...AND our couch cover!! haha i love him.

One year down......eternity to go!

           Holy cow, so first of all, I can't believe Tanner and I have been married for a year ago today. It is crazy how time flies.  This past weekend was the most amazing weekend I could've asked for.  Let me just give you a brief background story.  So we decided that for our anniversary we wanted to go camping.  So I was all stoked, because he's gotten me into loving camping haha. Building up to Friday, we talked about it often, and he hinted that it was going to be super cold, but he would keep me warm.  Well upon the wekend, I kept telling him I was going to buy a buddy heater because I knew I would freeze my butt off.  He insisted that he would keep me warm, and a heater wouldn't be necessary.  but dang, I was SO close to going and buying one....haha good thing I didn't.
          So Friday rolls around (oct 5) and we start packing everything into the car.  I handed him all the camping stuff, and he went and put it in the car.  Well little did I know he put it in the wrong car.  He put it in our Honda instead of our Subaru.  I had no idea though.  So we had everything ready, and we were so excited to go camping!! We stopped at Albertsons because he said he needed to get all the food he was gonna cook, so he ordered me to wait in the car.  It took him like 30 minutes to get everything, and I was watching the Albertsons doors like a hawk.  He came out with this huge box, and it looked like it was super heavy.  I just kinda looked at him, rolled down the window, and said, "Do you need some help?"  Well I found out later there were only a few things in there, he was just making it seem like the box was super heavy. haha! So we drive to Idaho Falls, and we were singing to our favorite songs.  We stopped at Walmart and got a few things, and went and ate at Jimmy Johns.  Then he said that he needed to find this buddy heater store, so we could go pick one out just in case it was freezing.  Well he turns onto the street where we stayed the night we got married- Destinations Inn.  I looked at him and smiled, and he goes, "What?  The store is just around the corner, I'm trying to find a place to park."  So I looked away.  Then he opens the trunk and starts getting our bags, and says, "How about we go to Venice instead??"  I started crying, but he didn't know it.  I laughed my head off and kept saying, "babe, are you serious??? You are somethin else."  So we walk in to the hotel, and I just was staring at him, and I couldn't stop smiling.  We got up to our room, and it was SO COOL!!  There was a gondola(bathtub) in the middle of the room, with a projector screen right in front of it.  There was a balcony that had stairs leading up to the bed, and there was another balcony thing that had a cute table and chair on it for us to sit.  There was also a sauna, and the bed was huge. I just couldn't stop crying- he totally surprised me, and with VENICE!!!!  It was so cool. We ended up watching the Ringer, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and another one I forgot the name of!
            We both just looked at each other, and stared because this is where we stayed the night of our wedding. (except we were in a different room)  We hugged, and reminisced about memories from a year ago. We laughed our guts out.  Anyway, such a fun surprise, and it was just so fun to be able to spend the weekend with Tanner, my best friend, forever. We spent the weekend basically 'reliving' what we did a year ago.  Tanner kept saying hilarious things that both of us said last year, and it was so funny.  The day after we got married, we went to Park City and shopped there all day.  So, that's what we did.  We went shopping.  We didn't buy anything, but we looked at a bunch of stuff.  Then after that we went to Taken 2, and both fell asleep! hahaha.  Good movie.  Let's see, then after that we ate a pretzel for dinner, and just talked and talked, and laughed and laughed. Then, we were off to our cute little apartment!! yeah, little did I know. We got to Rexburg, and he went to Applebees.  I asked him where we were going and he said Applebees.  Even though we just ate...haha.  So he opened the trunk, and started getting our bags.  I looked at him and I was like, "BABE!!! really????"  A year ago, we went to 2 hotels, one in destinations inn, and then park city.  So we got inside, checked in, and before we opened our room, I heard birds.  I was thinking, oh boy this is going to be great!  hahaha.  We were in Congo! Or the Mayan Islands, we don't really know.  There were hearts all over the bed, a massage table, a bathtub, and it looked like a jungle.  It pretty much rocked.  I cried again, he didn't know it, but I was just overwhelmed that he would even THINK of doing this for me.  Reliving our memories of a year ago.  So sweet.  We went to Applebees for dinner, and just laughed reminiscing about more memories, hahaha. We decided that we are such a crazy couple, but that we have so much fun together.  I can't imagine it any other way.  We watched Clash of the Titans, and Puss N Boots.  We fell asleep at like 11, we were bushed! hahaha. We had a delicious breakfast, and then went to our apartment.
         I just want Tanner to know that he is so special to me.  He has taught me so many life lessons, and he really is the light of my life.  This has been the hardest, but best year of my life, and I can't wait to see what our future brings. I am grateful to have such a hardworking husband- one that worked his buns off to be able to afford this weekend for us. He really does mean the world to me, and I hope I can be as good of a wife to him, as he is a husband to me.  I am so grateful for him, and I want him to know how much I love him- because it is a lot.  Thanks for everything Tantan!  I love you so stinkin much.

Love you sugar!!

Love,
Sugar
                                                             VENICE:

                                                                 

                                                               

                                                              CONGO:

                  I got him some sweet shoes and this was his reaction.  It was so funny! hahaha

     Oh man- I am so lucky to have Tanner in my life.  LOVE YOU STUDMUFFIN!!!

Families Can be Together Forever

               This past weekend, my family and I went to Atlanta, Georgia to give support to the Bestor family for the passing of my uncle, John.  He was such a great man, and an inspiration to us all.  He was diagnosed with tongue cancer about a year ago, they cut it out, and it grew back again.  Well, it continued to spread throughout his body, into his legs, his back, and then into his brain.  Before he passed he weight 115 pounds.  I will always remember him for his goofiness.  He always had hilarious faces, and such a sense of humor.  Since he worked for the FBI, the funeral ceremony was amazing.  The FBI took such good care of Chris and escorted her in his FBI car, and made sure she was comfortable.  I was very impressed with Chris, and how strong she was through all of this.  She was still her happy, bubbly self, but you could tell she was suffering at the same time.  The funeral was amazing, and there were so man family members there to support.  I got to be with all of my brothers and sisters except Jaxon, and it was so good to be with them.  John was such an amazing man, husband, father, and uncle, and I am just so glad that he is no longer in pain, and he is looking down upon all of us smiling, letting us know he is okay.  I am so grateful for the power of families, and how families can be together forever. That is so powerful to me, and I'm grateful I am able to be with my family for eternity.  I can't imagine life without them.  I'm also grateful for the atonement because without the atonement, none of us would be able to get through this.  But since we have the power of knowing that we will be able to get through this, we are all comforted.
             Dad, Mom, Tanner, Aubrey, and I went to Temple Square on Sunday and just walked around and had a good time with each other.  I love the temple, they are all so pretty, and they bring such peace when you look at them and go inside them.  I'm grateful I was sealed to my best friend, Tanner Stevens for eternity.  Ahh I cannot wait to see what life brings us :)  Anyway, here's some pictures of the weekend.

What a great picure of a great man:

                    Tanner, Aubrey, Mom, Dad, and me went to the temple and walked around.  I love them.

I love knowing that Families Can Be Together Forever. See you soon, John.

A spiritual thought

As I was reading my scriptures this morning, I came across a verse that I fell in love with.

D&C 6: 36
" Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."

It is short and sweet, but is filled with so much meaning and power all at the same time.  All of us are dealt with decisions, and we all have the power to choose good or bad. Being a sunbeam teacher, I learn something new from them every day.  Something they have taught me is that it really is the little things in life, that teach us and prepare us for the big things to come.  For example, the song in primary called 'wise man, foolish man.' Think about this song:

The wise man built his house upon a rock,
the wise man built his house upon a rock,
the wise man built his house upon a rock,
and the rain came a 'tumblin down.

The rains came down and the floods came up,
the rains came down and the floods came up.
The rains came down and the floods came up,
and the house on the rock stood still.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand,
the foolish man built his house upon the sand.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand,
and the rains came a 'tumblin down.

The rains came down and the floods came up,
the rains came down and the floods came up.
The rains came down and the floods came up,
and the house on the sand washed away.

Such a cute song, but with so much meaning!  This song is perfect for little kids,  but for adults as well.  If you think about it, if your foundation is built upon the sand (Satan) you are going to fall.  No matter how hard you try to stand, you will sink. Whereas if you build your foundation upon a rock (Christ) you will be able to stand firm.  It is such a simple principle, but complex as well.  As long as our foundation is upon Christ and not Satan, we will succeed. Anyway, that's what struck me this morning.

"Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."

Time for a Change

Let's face it, life is hard.  We all know that, but it all depends on what we do with our life and what we make of it that makes it all worth it.  This semester, I had no idea what classes I wanted to take.  I'm still trying to decide between graduating with an Associates Degree, or if I should go on and get a Bachelors degree.  It is all up in the air for right now. Since I am in the process of figuring that out, I decided I would concentrate on other things in my life besides "figuring out my life" if that makes sense.  I'm taking a Building an Eternal Marriage class, and it is such an amazing class already.  We are required to read in our scriptures for an hour every day, and to write in a 'spiritual journal' while we read.  It is only the first week of doing it, and it has already made a huge difference.  My goals from now until the end of the year, (and for years to come haha) is to develop a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father, and become physically fit.  These are my goals:

1. Read in D&C every day for an hour.
2. Write spiritual insights in my journal every day.
3. Exercise 6 days a week. And to make this even better, i got saweeet shoes yesterday that i LOVE!  There's nothing better than exercising in shoes that you love right? bahaha.
4. Eat better.  More fruits and vegetables. Only one dessert a week.
5. Go to the temple more often.

I know that by achieving these goals, my marriage will be strengthened, my testimony will be strengthened, my confidence will be strengthened, and my relationships will be strengthened.

For now, those are my goals.  I want to change.  I'm going to change, and it is soooo going to be worth it.

" I never said it would be easy; I only said it would be worth it."
Mormon 4:11

And how is this all going to be possible?

Because of this man right here:

There must be something about Logan...

So every time Tanner and I have gone to Logan, we always end up making a big purchase there. We don't plan to, it just happens! Once we got our TV, our Mazda, and now our Subaru. Tanner and I have gone through 2 cars...yes I know that's a lot, and we are done with that, haha.  But we just have been trying to find the car for us.  The passat was a piece of junk, the mazda was good except it got annoying not having cruise and power windows and locks, and the insurance was outrageous.  So... we decided to look for a car once again, and we found a keeper.  We put a list together of the things we knew we wanted, and then we began our search.  The car had to either be a subaru or a camry.  Had to have cruise control and power windows and locks, 4 wheel drive, and a reasonable price. Since winter is coming up, we decided having a 4 wheel drive car would be the best route to go. So we get to Logan, and about the third dealership we went to, I fell in love with this car...except it was $11,000.  Well, that was out of our price range, so we kinda left it in the back of our heads.  Well after test driving, much negotiation, talking them down to a resonable price for us, and much deliberation, we bought the car!!  It always seems like the first car we test drive, we end up getting.  Maybe that's our problem! hahaha no, but we love our subaru legacy and "big blue" is a keeper.  No more getting a new car every 6 months :)  We Love it so far! Here is a picture of our Mazda...haha. It's tradition now, everytime we sell our cars, we have to get a picture with them.  For memories sake ;)

I couldn't find the picture of us with the car, so I will upload that one soon.  But here's our old car haha.




And here is our new subara legacy.  aka "Big Blue"

The proposal...

So I found this video on my husbands laptop, and it is just the sweetest video.  I am so glad he got on camera, so that now we will have it forever.  We can show it to our children, ancestors, everyone.  July 21, 2011 was the day that changed my life forever.  It was the day that Tanner asked me to marry him.  And of course I said yes!  I don't know where I would be right now if it weren't for Tanner.  He came into my life at the most opportune time, and he has made me such a better person in ways I didn't even know were possible. He is such a wonderful, smart, handsome, caring, patient, hilarious, and just the best person that's ever happened to me.  The Lord definitely knew when to put him into my life, because he has made me the person I am today.  I am so grateful that we have almost spent the first year of eternity together, and I can NOT wait for years to come.  Here's the video that changed our lives forever :) Love you so much Tanner. You're the best ever.

nieces and nephews

So....I found these videos and i just think they are so adorable.  I really miss my brothers and sisters, and have really been missing my nieces ad nephews!  Anyway, I don't have a video of Kate of Griffin yet, but I have videos of Courtney, Azely, and Jay.  Oh man, I just love them so stinkin much. I can't wait for the day when all of my siblings will be together.  Love you and miss you all!!

The first video is of Azely.  Every time I watch this I just can't stop laughing.  She is begging for a cookie, and no one seems to be listening to her.  Cracks me up.
The second video is of Jay singing with me.  I love singing with him.
The third video is of Wyatt.  Oh my, this was hilarious.  He was cracking me up!
And the last video is of Courtney when she was younger.  She's just a silly goose. :)
but I love them all so much!!!

gotta love our sunbeams!

So Tanner and I have the best calling ever.  We teach the sunbeams!! Yes, they are crazy little devils, but they teach us something new every day.  I don't think there is a sunday where we don't come home and realize we've learned something from the little tikes.  They are so full of energy, and they are just so excited to learn about Christ, where they came from, church, and many other things.  The Lord must've known what Tanner and I needed when we received this calling.  We both love children, and are so excited to have our own someday.  Having this calling has definitely opened our eyes to parenthood.  I have learned from this calling that parenthood isn't an easy calling, but it is definitely a blessing. These little kids have so much desire to learn, and to do good. Tanner and I try to have a lesson planned out, but usually it doesn't end up being taught completely because the kids have such short attention spans, and their minds just never stop.  We have had so much fun improvising the lessons, and being silly at times, and just having a good time trying to fulfill our calling.  We are so glad we have this calling, and couldn't ask for any other calling.  Here's some pictures from one of the lessons we had.  Tanner and I were laughing our heads off.

                                                            Zander, Brock, Reagan

                                                                  Cam and David

                                                                     Silly David :)

                                                                         Cam

                                                                       Reagan

                                                                          Brock

                                                                           Zander

Tanner and I feel so blessed to have this calling.  It has taught us a lot, and it continues to teach us every week.

A unexpected surprise....

So last Sunday, tanner and I decided we hadn't eaten Sunday dinner just us for a long time. So we had a nice Sunday dinner, cooked by me. While the hubby was downstairs watching the Olympics. When I brought our food downstairs, to my parents house, we heard a strange noise and we couldn't figure it out! I thought it was just a mouse from our mouse detector, but nope! Finally I looked into the fireplace, and I found this little creature...

Oh my heck, it was so funny trying to get this thing out!!! Mom and Dad, you owe us :)

White Fish

 In Ashton, there's a water hole that you have to hike down to, called White Fish.  This is probably mine and tanner's favorite water hole.  It has rocks you can jump off of, and you can also fish.  We love it here.

                                              Tanner and AJ trying to be cool. hahaha.

And trying to be cool...again.  I absolutely love swimming.  Tanner, not so much.  When he was little he almost drowned, and so swimming hasn't been his favorite thing.  However, I appreciate him trying to learn to enjoy swimming, because he knows I love it.  I love my hubby. so. stinkin. much.