The Calls

11.20.10

2011-08-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

...was by far the most amazing day of our entire lives.

It was absolutely perfect from start to finish!

When reviewing all the events that took place, we honestly cannot think of a single thing that could have gone better. (This does not include the flights on our honeymoon or all of the reception pictures that our photographer lost....Ugh)

Jon's mom made some delicious Mexican food for our pre-wedding dinner party. All of our close friends and family where there, everything was so wonderful.
(except we all forgot to take pictures. Duh)

My family stayed at a hotel near the temple that night since our wedding was early the next morning.

I figured getting any sleep the night before the wedding would be pointless because I was so anxious and nervous but I slept like a baby, I was shocked!

I woke up at 3:30am for my hair stylist and make-up girl to fix me all up. I was so calm that entire morning and believe it or not I even had time to spare before we had to leave, so I helped my mom finished getting ready. Anyone that knows me well would laugh because I am NEVER on time and everyone is always waiting on me.

My sister is the best, she woke up early to take pictures of the entire

process while I got my hair and make-up done.

Linsey's turn to get pretty!

As I walked with my family from the parking lot towards the front doors of the temple I could see Jon waiting for me on the front steps. We both smiled at each other from a distance, no matter how hard I tried I could not stop smiling. My first thought was "This is exactly why I am marrying him, he can always make me smile."

Soon after we were announced husband and wife, and sealed forever and ever. I wasn't even nervous and didn't cry once. This growing up stuff must have turned me into a new woman, I cry about everything. It was such an amazing experience, we were so glad to have our close family and friends with us in the temple to share that moment with us.

I can't help but laugh when I see this picture.. Linda (my mother in law) laughing at her 4 children.. Once you get her started, she can't stop.

After a quick photo shoot with everyone we went to the park across the street from the Temple for an easy lunch before everyone had to rush up to Flagstaff to set up for the reception that night. The weather was so perfect!

J and I enjoyed our drive as husband and wife back to Flagstaff talking about how perfect everything had gone and how many things still needed to be done for our reception in just a few hours. We laughed and smiled all day long, we couldn't have been more happy!

Once we got to my parents house there were people rushing everywhere finishing the food and setting up the tables. J and I helped set everything up until the very last minute then we hurried and changed back into our wedding clothes so we could greet all of our guests. Our reception turned out better than I could have ever imagined, it was perfect. Everything from the cold weather, delicious food, winter wonderland decorations, and our very favorite "hot chocolate bar".

We had our reception outside in 32 degree weather and that is EXACTLY how I wanted it! Everyone was bundled up with warm jackets, gloves, hats, scarves etc. We had a bonfire in the middle of all the tables, hot drinks when you first walked into the reception, tiki torches, heat lamps, and another small bonfire next to J and I as we stood in line.

The two hours standing in at our reception was the fastest two hours of our lives. We never left our line once, several people brought us some food while we stood there. Once 7 o'clock came around we changed out of our wedding clothes and ran out the door to leave for our honeymoon. Someone quickly reminded us that I still needed to throw my bouquet and cut our cake. Umm.. How did we even forget that? Thus the reason all of our cake cutting and bouquet throwing pictures are inside my parents house with very few people.

My best friend Amber caught the bouquet and J's best friend Scott caught the garter belt. Although they were some of the only single people still at the reception. We secretly hope that they will fall madly in love some day! :)

On our way out, we were pelted with rice. This was a bitter sweet part of the night. It was such a relief to have all the months of stress finally be over, but so sad for the night to end.

We should have known better and hid our car. I'm still wondering what "3 pump chump" means? :)

When we left the reception, it was still chilly outside, but little did we know that the weather was about to shift. Within one hour of the reception ending, a blizzard started and this is what my parent's yard looked like the following morning!! We were extremely blessed that the weather stayed perfect for our reception.

Baby You're a Firework...

2011-07-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

This year we celebrated 4th of July in Gilbert which was a whole new experience for me. I've always spent this holiday in Flagstaff where the firework shows rarely happened due to all the fire restrictions.

Friday night my parents and brother came down early and surprised me for my birthday.

Saturday night we had a bbq with some friends of ours that live behind us. My friend Brook and I were talking one day and we decided to set her sister up with my brother. So Derek and Ashley were able to have a blind date at the bbq.

Sunday after church we had our friends over again and we played games at the house including some intense rounds of ping pong..

We spent the holiday doing some shopping and met up with our friends again for dinner at Outback, afterwards we had the boys put on a firework show for us. They were so much more entertaining than any firework show I've ever seen. :)

Derek and Kyle getting the fireworks show started

The girls enjoying the fireworks show put on by the guys

My cute husband

Derek and his blind date Ashley

My cute friend Brook and her husband Kyle

Happy 4th of July!!

Home Sweet Home

2011-05-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

My goal for the last few months has been to post ONE blog post. Yes, only ONE. I knew that was all I could handle and obviously that was even too much for me because it has taken me way too long to post this.

Now that I have finally moved down to Gilbert and started my new job, I have found there is no time for blogging or facebook. I've always done all of my blogging from work, now that I have a new job I just can't seem to find the time for it when I am home. Hopefully I can find a way to blog more.. Until then, here are some pictures of our house taken over the last few months. Sadly, I don't think Jonathan and I have taken a single picture together since we got married but we will work on that.

Front of our house now that it has grass

J loves to BE organized and although he won't admit it, I'm pretty sure he really loves to "organize" anything and everything possible. I came home one day and found all of this stuff that use to be thrown in a box, hung nicely in our garage.

I've been made fun of a few times for this but for some reason I am obsessed with decorating our laundry room. Everywhere we go I always find something I want to buy to decorate the laundry room with. Jon keeps reminding me that nobody ever sees it so it doesnt matter what it looks like. So for now it will stay like this until I finish decorating more important rooms in our house.

Our laundry room didn't come with cabinets and my parents had just remodeled their kitchen so they gave us their old cabinets, we stained them and put them in our laundry room.

For the last few months Jon has been mowing our neighbors lawn because they didn't have a mower. In return they gave us their pool table... I guess being kind to your neighbors really does pay off.

One of the first things we wanted to get done when we moved into our house was landscape the backyard, as you can see the dirt is not pretty to look at. We finally had it landscaped last month.

Our landscapers were so awesome, they surprised us by planting a garden on the side of our house. We really wanted one so we were really excited to see that they had planted strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and orange peppers. Plus they did it for free!

It's a Boy

2011-02-24T16:01:00.000-08:00

This cute little arrangement was delivered to Jon while he was at work today.

He received a call this afternoon at his desk from the security office

letting him know he had a delivery waiting for him downstairs.

The first thing that came to his mind after the phone call was

"What did Keli send me now?"

(As if I send him a lot of things at work)

Okay, I did once but I had to for scavenger hunt purposes...

I SO wish I could have seen his face when he saw the big balloons

and the edible arrangement waiting for him, i'm pretty sure he needed

a change of pants after reading what the balloons said.

Lucky for him there was a card attached to the edible arrangement

that gave him some relief.

{This is probably the part where I should stop telling the story and he

should start, or maybe he should have just told it to begin with?}

Jon buys the materials to build the Apache helicopters, one of the

suppliers that he buys the parts from gave two of his co workers a

calendar as a Christmas gift this year. J gave them a hard time about

not sending one to him. They asked him how they could make it up

to him, so he told them he wanted food in place of the calendar.

Instead he got Punked!

Long story short, we are both very glad we are not pregnant :)

Valentines

2011-02-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon before the big V day I was driving the typical long boring drive back to Gilbert after working in Flag for a few days. I had just talked to J on the phone and told him I was down the street and would be home in just a minute. After I turned the corner onto our street I noticed the garage door was open with my handsome husband standing next to his car, patiently waiting for me. He had a big smile on his face and his arms were folded. I knew at this point he was definitely up to something...

After a sweet welcoming hug and kiss he opened the car door for me and told me we were leaving. We drove approximately 200 yards to the end of our street and parked. Jon opened the trunk of the car and pulled out a blanket with homemade shrimp pasta, Caesar salad, garlic bread, asparagus, and sparkling cider.

{Yes I am lucky, he is romantic AND he can cook}

This is the pretty lake at the end of our street where we had our picnic, we love our little neighborhood.

After our fun picnic I went upstairs and found our room like this...

Can he be any sweeter?

I think not.

If you can't tell from the pictures all of the signs say, "I LOVE YOU!"

There were signs on every door, wall, light fixture, drawer, and closet.

One Hundred and Forty One signs to be exact.

I never wanted to take them down. Ever.

I even made Jon sleep without the ceiling fan on so non of them would fall down.

The sweet-ness never ends... Next to the bed was a bouquet of flowers

and a humorous valentines card (of course)

with lots of sweet words written inside.

Notice the heart suckers laying in front of the card?

I told J when we were shopping at Walmart a few days previous, that the one and only thing I wanted for Valentines Day were those suckers -Glad he listened.

I wasn't kidding when I said there were a lot of signs

bathroom included

plus all of my drawers

oh, and the closet too. {He is always making my life so much fun}

I'm pretty sure I out did him this year by making him this awesome card and cupcakes.

Okay, maybe not. I gave up long ago trying to compete with his cute creative surprises.

For our actual Valentines Day we went dinner at Texas Roadhouse. –Most delicious rolls EVER. We wanted to beat the lovers rush so we left around 5pm and couldn’t help but laugh that we were the ONLY couple in the restaurant under the age of 60. It was fun to see all the cute senior citizens out celebrating the day of love. Luckily we were seated within five minutes and we were done eating before 6pm. We had the rest of the night to spare so we went next door and had our favorite frozen yogurt then spent the rest of the night relaxing at home.

Oh, I almost forgot. Jon also bought me a "Spa Package" gift card which includes facials, body wraps, massages, manicures, pedicures etc. Or you can use it as a "couples package" for a full treatment together :). I definitely chose the couples package, hopefully we can use it soon!

I had some requests to post more pictures of our house and I will soon, I promise.

In the meantime here are two pictures of my very few valentines decorations. My sister gave me this adorable "LOVE" craft, and my mother in-law gave me the cute vinyl quote on the wall.

I was so excited to finally have a holiday to decorate our new house but I didn't have the time or the money to do much decorating.

Sixty Two

2010-12-30T01:27:00.000-08:00

Today my dad turned 62 years old! I had to work so I missed out on the party. The family went to dinner at Big Foot BBQ, followed by bowling then pie and ice cream.

Happy Birthday to the best dad in the world! I love you!!

Holly Jolly Christmas

2010-12-25T20:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas is most definitely my favorite holiday. I love that the holiday actually begins after Thanksgiving and lasts for a month. Most of our family has several days off during Christmas and New Years which makes it feel like a vacation. Unfortunately my brother had to work AGAIN on Christmas day but we were glad to have him with us on Christmas eve for the annual boys vs girls gingerbread house contest.

The boys beat us again. They came up with the idea of adding food coloring to the frosting which made their house more creative. As far as perfection goes, us girls totally won.

Christmas eve we all get a new pair of pj's, somehow this year we all ended up matching.

This Christmas was extra special, it was mine and Jon's first Christmas being married. I couldn't imagine a more perfect first Christmas. We were all completely spoiled by everyone!

Four more weeks

2010-12-11T07:55:00.000-08:00

Four more weeks and we will Finally be living in our Own house, in the Same city together as a married couple! It's been two wonderful and happy years of long distance but we are more than ready to finally live in the same town, under the same roof :)

Tis The Season

2010-12-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

For FHE this week we went over to Little America to see the Christmas lights. After seeing

the temple lights this was pretty pathetic. I guess it's better than nothing right?

The kids ended up taking a picture with me since Jon wasn't in town. This was my first night

away from him since we got married. Luckily he will be here for Christmas!

Even though the light display wasn't that great our family still had fun. After walking

around outside we made our way into the lobby of the hotel where they had a big

group of people playing violins and singing Christmas songs.

We ended the night with hot chocolate and cookies at my parents house- my favorite!

So Close

2010-11-16T17:41:00.000-08:00

Our house is getting built SO fast we can hardly believe it! It feels like yesterday we were out taking pictures of our dirt lot. Everyday when Jon gets off work he drives over to the house and I call him so I can hear the excitement in his voice when he sees all the new changes. Then I make him send me pictures of the house to my cell phone so I can feel like I am there too :)

So far this week they have put up all the doors, interrior, gargage, front door and back door. They painted the walls on the inside which we LOVE! The outside has been half painted and should be finished this week. We get our key January 11th and we are getting married in exactly FOUR days! :)

I love to see the temple

2010-11-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was a little girl I always dreamed of going to the Temple, today that dream came true.

And in a few weeks I will be sealed to this boy for eternity!

Lately it seems as if all my dreams I had growing up came true all in the same year!

I love all of my family that came to support me on this special day. It was such

an amazing experience and I can't wait to go back.

After the temple everyone met over at Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert. This is one of mine and Jon's favorite places to eat. We love all of their food, our favorite is the bbq bacon blu cheese burger!!

Thank you to everyone that came to share this special day with me! I am

so grateful that families can be together forever!

Halloween Party

2010-10-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

Even in the middle of all the wedding planning craziness we still managed to have some fun.

My family had our annual Halloween Party where we play lots of games and eat way too

much junk food! This year we were WAY too busy to find costumes, hopefully next

year we can get back to the old tradition where everyone dresses up.

Boys VS. Girls Cup Stacking Game

The boys may or may not have beat us at this game and every other game...

The M&M color counting game.

The Cotton Ball Game: Everyone had to put vaseline on their nose and race to the bowl back

and forth five times with a cotton ball on your nose, once you got all five cotton balls in the

bowl the next person on your team goes. Boys won again.

The "Cookie Walk" Winner

Soda Stacking Game:

Girls Finally WON!

Happy Halloween!!

This is the post where we become adults

2010-10-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

Before we were engaged, it seemed like there wasn’t a stress in the world. I always told myself that whenever my time came to be engaged I would make sure the wedding planning would be as stress-free and fun as possible… This idea lasted for about a week.

Over the last few months, life feels like a constant roller coaster for Jon and I and what better way to remember it all than to Blog about it?

May Jon graduated from ASU with his MBA and soon after, he was offered a job with Boeing. He was sad to leave his job of 3.5 years working as a manager for Standard Register and all the good friends he made while working there.
July 1st-29th we searched and discussed hundreds of different options for living arrangements for when we got married. We walked thru what seemed like a million different model homes and finally we signed the papers for this:

07.29.10

8.20.10

09.29.10

10.18.10

So far things seem to be moving pretty fast. Within weeks of signing all the paperwork the foundation was poured, the frame was up, now the electrical and plumbing is almost finished!

If the stress and craziness involved in getting a loan and signing all the papers for a house wasn't enough... The builders made us pick out EVERY single thing that we wanted to go inside of our house...From carpet, tile, cabinets, counter tops, to appliances, blinds, light fixtures etc. I figured this type of stuff would all be decided over the 5 months the house was being built but instead we had to have it all picked out in ONE day! Who knew this could be so much fun yet so stressful?
After making all these difficult decisions we decided the next best thing would be to start preparing for our wedding. Since then I've tried on far too many wedding dresses, made way too many stops at Hobby Lobby (the best store ever invented) picking out stuff for the reception, and most importantly I've realized no matter how hard you try, you will always end up spending way too much money on a wedding.
Being the smart people that we both are we went out and bought expensive cars because we could afford them during the "dating phase" of our lives. Now that we are becoming responsible adults we had to learn that cars are a waste of money. (Yes family I FINALLY admitted that) Next on our list, was to sell our cars and only have ONE car payment. Weeks of searching through Craig lists adds, emails, annoying car dealerships and possibly one of the saddest days of my life we finally traded in both of our cars. Ugh...

I made the car salesman take a picture of us with our cars one last time. I'm sure he was thrilled

but he owed us after we put up with their bidding wars ALL day long...

The newest additions:

The Silver Rocket

The Family Wagon aka "The Marshmallow" or “The Mallow” thanks to my nieces :)

We were sad to see our cars go but we have been more than grateful to get rid of our crazy high car payments and we have definitely been humbled as we try to become adults and learn to better manage our money.
Now that i've written most of this post I realize almost everything I have mentioned so far has been about material/money items which I am not very fond of. However, I do want to document everything possible to look back on someday.

I would also like to add that we have received several comments from people as to how we are able to afford such a huge house? No we are not rich and no our house isn't huge. Our house is average size and because the interest rates are so low we felt it was the perfect time to buy a house at such a good price. Jonathan and I both feel that we are very blessed at this time in our life because we aren't just out of high school or just returning from a mission and trying to get through school. We are well past that point and we look forward to all the new and exciting changes in our lives!!

Currently my job has been kind enough to let me work 3 days a week working 12 hour shifts so I can get ready for the wedding, move, and most important see my soon to be husband on my days off :)
Jon has recently moved back in with his parents which has been a huge help in saving money until our house is finished in January. We are also hoping that by then I will be able to quit my job and no longer have this long distance dating/marriage stuff.
Last but not least, our wedding annoucements should be mailed out next week and we have an appointment with the builder on monday to do a walk-thru of our house so they can start on the drywall. We are so excited and cannot wait for everything to be finished! We will keep adding more pictures of the house once there are more noticable changes.

Party Time

2010-09-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to the best brother in the world!!

These red party hats never get old...

Not only is he the BEST brother in the world, as you can see he is also the BEST uncle.

These kids adore him! Happy 28th Birthday Derek, we love you!!

Love is Sweet

2010-09-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

My amazing sister, mom, and next door neighbor threw me a bridal shower at my parent’s house. It was absolutely gorgeous; they had the cutest decorations and most delicious food! Everything turned out perfect and I had such a fun time seeing a lot of people I haven’t seen in way too long.

(Ignore the weird cropping and strange color changes on the invites, that was just me trying to edit the bad picture I took of the invites… they were much cuter in person)

My sister worked for HOURS making these incredibly cute invitations. She definitely deserves an award for the sweetest most talented sister in the world! She cut out each piece of paper and sewed on every single button! She made at least 70 invitations, not to mention she was sick the entire time and half of them got sent back a week before the shower because they needed an extra stamp. (Dumb post office)

Oh Jonny!

A few of the many wonderful people that helped put everything together

My good friend Michelle who I have known since I was little took all the pictures at my shower. We didn’t plan for her to take pictures but she took over my camera and I’m so glad! I probably wouldn’t have half the pictures if it wasn’t for her. I especially love all the candid ones. Thank you Michelle!!

I originally didn’t want a bridal shower because I prefer not being the center of attention. My sister and mom promised we wouldn't play any games or open any gifts; it would just be a “chill” shower hanging out with good food. I agreed to it and had fun hanging out for the first 15 minutes of the shower…Then my mom and my sister look at each other and start laughing, next thing I know my sister and mom are bringing me all the gifts and gave me no choice but to open them in front of everyone.

As you can see from the above pictures my most embarrassing moment came early when I randomly opened the Victoria Secret box as my second gift (Thanks Lins). After that there wasn’t much left to be embarrassed about and I actually enjoyed opening the rest of the gifts :)

This picture was taken of my sister when I was about to open the above gift.. I should have known to avoid it by the smile on her face.

I can only imagine this picture was taken around the same time as the ones above, or maybe somebody said something extremely funny? (By the way, these are my two moms soon-to-be, aren't they cute?)

Typical boy.. first gift he spots out is the naughty one.

Even this cute little boy joined us for some of the tasty food

This boy is kinda cute too...

I can't wait to use all these gifts!!

Last year for Christmas we got each other the same gift and didn't know it until that morning when we both opened them up. It was funny to see we had made each other the exact same book, with our own personal touch. This definitely describes our personalities, we finish each others sentences, say the same thing at the exact same time, and we've even started whistling the same tune at the exact same time. These are the times that make us laugh and smile the most and remind us how perfect we are for each other.

The three amazing girls that made this day so special!!

The "Candy Shop"

Amber drove all the way up from Mesa to be at my shower, she is one of my best friends

and without her Jon and I would have never met... Thanks Amber :)

I'm sad I didn't get any pictures with her but Colleen also put together the bridal shower and did a fabulous job. She has been my neighbor and family friend for as long as I can remember.

(Top right picture in the red shirt)

I love these two girls more than anything! Thank you both for putting so much time and effort into making me feel so special on this day.

Marry Me?

2010-07-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

I feel like so much has happened recently, I don’t even know where to begin! During this week my 26th birthday came and went, we partied all week long! I must admit my actual birthday was sort of a drag because I had to work, but all the surprises definitely made this birthday one of the most memorable.

Jon made plans weeks ahead to fly and see his family during my birthday, he felt bad that he wouldn’t be in town so he took me out to celebrate the weekend before. I drove down after work Saturday afternoon (June 26th) and of course Jon had the entire night planned without my knowledge. We started out with dinner at the Melting Pot (Amazing dessert)!

After dinner he drove a few miles down the street to a resort called the Scottsdale Hyatt Regency. I still had no idea what we were doing until he walked me to the backside of the resort and had a Gondola ride waiting for us... This resort was absolutely beautiful! I had to steal some pictures off the internet so I could remember how pretty everything was. The Gondola ride was very romantic, our (driver?) even wore the striped shirt and hat like you see in movies. Towards the end of the ride he sang to us in Italian. It got a little awkward when he started singing at the top of his lungs but it was definitely a fun experience. After our Gondola ride we walked around the resort for a bit and checked out all the entertainment. Then we were off to the next planned surprise… (By the way, I HATE surprises and Jon is very aware of this… I think he enjoys torturing me, then seeing how happy I am after the surprise is over) :) Our next stop was a few blocks away at another resort called the Scottsdale Fairmont Princess (We like to call this "resort hopping") This place was truly stunning; from the lights, landscaping, ponds, golf course, waterslides, and weather, I couldn’t think of a more perfect place to be that night. When we got to the parking lot, I asked Jon what we were doing. His reply was that we were going to a “function”. This was actually pretty believable because there were a lot of people in the parking lot, I assumed we were going to some type of concert.

Once we got inside he finally told me that we were going to do a Geocache that he had found the GPS coordinates for online. I was really excited to do another one since it was dark outside and it wasn’t on a mountain like the other ones we had already done. We started searching around the golf course and the pond area until our GPS said we were within 9 feet of it. He told me to go check one direction while he checked the opposite direction. I found several areas that it could have been but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Then he came over to help me check and he couldn’t find it either. After a few minutes with no luck, we finally found the area where it was….He let me be the first to find it, then he stepped away and let me claim the prize :)

The box was hidden beneath this bench (except it was at night time, we went back the next day to take these pictures)

Inside the box was a scroll wrapped with a bow (handmade by Jon) and a pen. – I didn’t think twice about it and opened it up to sign it like you do at all the geocaches.

There wasn't any toys in the box so my first thought was that we had been ripped off. Thinking back on this exact moment I remember Jon stepping away from me as I opened the box and he started chewing his gum louder :) (maybe he was nervous?) Once I unrolled the scroll and saw the words I have waited my entire life to hear, I instantly started crying. I turned around and Jon was on his knee holding the ring. I don't even remember him saying the words "Will you marry me?" I remember hugging for a long time and crying like a little girl. After a few minutes he asked if that meant "yes?"

We continued to embrace this special moment while drinking sparkling cider and walking around the golf course. We kept having to dodge all the sprinklers and walk through all the puddles on the sidewalk. We laughed the entire night and talked about our future plans, I never wanted it to end! I felt incredibly happy knowing I had found the person I will be with for eternity! I have never been more excited and at peace in my entire life!!

Birthday Surprises!

2010-07-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

The night before my birthday Jon was suppose to be flying to Utah to see his family (or so I thought), when I got off work at 10 Jon was waiting in the parking lot by my car. I was so surprised and excited to see him! This was the first time I had seen him since we got engaged and I knew I wouldn't see him for another week or two while he was in Utah visiting his family.

He had packed a change of clothes for me and bought 4 tickets to see Eclipes!! My sister and Rich were already at the theater waiting in life for 3 hours before the movie so we could have some good seats. The movie wasn’t as great as I had hoped it would be but everyone else I know loved it. When the movie ended it was after midnight, Rich had to be up early for work and Jon had to leave around 430am to catch his flight in Phx.

Thanks guys for sacrificing your sleep for me :)

This was how I found my room when we got home from the movie. My cute neices and nephew drew pictures and hung them all over my room. I love those little kids!!

My sister has some serious crafty skillz and made this awesome [Happy Birthday] banner and hung it in my room. Someday I hope to be half as crafty as she is :)

The next morning I woke up sad because I knew Jon had already left early to go to the airport, but he always finds a way to make me smile.. I walked into the bathroom and this was the first thing I saw:

The fam took me out to my favorite place for lunch (Olive Garden) before I had to go to work.

Everyone kept joking at lunch that they were all going to show up to my work and have a tailgate party in the parking lot. The joke turned out to not be a joke anymore and 3 car loads of family showed up and surprised me :)

They brought me a Dairy Queen Blizzard, a mini Carrot Cake, and sang "Happy Birthday" to me!

My family cannot possibly get any cooler, I love them!

-Remeber the other post where I mentioned partying ALL WEEK long? Yeah, this birthday party still isnt over yet... :)

Saturday after my birthday our family took the boat out to Lake Mary for some wakeboarding and an actual "Birthday Party".

Caid was brave enough to test out the wakeboard this year!

After all the years of going to the lake my sister FINALLY got out of the boat and tried wakeboarding for the first time. She did SO good, got up after her second try and road around the entire lake! Nice work sis!!

The ending to another perfect Birthday, thanks family!!

Happy Birthday Keli! (Posted by Jonathan)

2010-06-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you that know Keli, you probably know that she is a very funny, clever, sarcastic girl that will always make you laugh. If you know Keli WELL, however, you also know that she is one of the kindest, sweetest, most selfless people you have ever met and she is always willing to do anything for anyone.

Keli and I have been dating for nearly a year and a half now and during this time many people have questioned on a very regular basis WHEN we are getting engaged! I am SO proud to say that the time we have been waiting for is finally here, and I couldn't be happier! The Day Family has welcomed me with open arms from the beginning and it is a privilege to be joining their family.

Keli Day is my best friend! She is one of the greatest blessings I have ever received, I consider myself extremely lucky to be her husband-to-be and I look forward to spending eternity with her!

Thank you Keli for all you do! I LOVE YOU!

(Before watching video below, scroll to bottom of blog and pause music player)

Cruisin' with the Rich and Famous

2010-06-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

We had some extra time before bording for our cruise so we spent it walking around a shopping area in Long Beach. Apparently I don’t get out of Flagstaff much because there were TONS of strange/scary looking people everywhere! I thought it was ghetto but Jon informed me thats how all BIG cities are. (Good to know) Bording the ship only took 30 mins which was much faster than I expected. We got there the earliest they would allow us, so we had most of the day to play before the ship left the doc. As you can see by my half eaten ice cream cone, once we got on we went straight for the food!! We were so excited to go down the water slide but it was never warm enough to get in the water. Next we had a few friendly games of ping pong! Or maybe they weren't so friendly? We got a little crazy but I still hold the offical ping pong champion title!! Then of course we had to get our tan on.... Except it was freezing cold, so we drank hot chocolate while we layed out. At dinner we were assigned to a table with 4 other couples for the rest of the cruise. We were all close in age and had a lot to talk about which made it fun. For our appetizer and main course we would order anything on the menu and as much of it as we wanted. Then for dessert our waiter brought us everything!! The dessert was always my favorite especially the key lime pie and chocolate melting cake with vanilla ice cream. My second favorite thing that I had never tasted before was strawberry bisque soup! It was served as an appetizer and it tasted like a cold strawberry milkshake. The first cruise I went on I got REALLY sick and ended up throwing up the entire last day. So this time I came prepared with a motion sickness patch prescribed by my doctor to put behind my ear. Little did I know this patch was just as bad! I put it on right when we got on the ship, by dinner the first night I felt completely out of it; I was SO thirsty with a dry mouth, I felt so tired, and my vision got so bad I couldn’t see close up (similar to having my eyes dilated). At 8:00 when dinner was over I told Jon I needed to take a nap before we could go do anything that night because the patch was making me sleepy. Once I got back to our room I fell right to sleep and slept for ten and a half hours!! Poor Jon was bored the entire first night and stayed up watching "Wipeout" while I slept. Needless to say I took the patch off the next morning and I felt so much better. The next morning we got off in Ensenada, we planned on staying in town for a few hours but we quickly changed our minds when nobody else stayed in town. We were the only people walking around the streets of Ensenada, so we decided to get on a tour bus with everyone else and go up to the famous “blow hole”. We spent the day bargaining with the Mexicans, taking pictures, and eating some not so tasty Mexican food. -Although we did have a delicious pina colada that we drank out of a carved pineapple. Jon was brave enough to test out the ghetto slide inside the restaurant These were some of the cute towel animals they left in our room every night When we got back from Ensenada we had to hurry and get ready for our “formal” dinner night. It was so much fun to get all dressed up, it felt like prom night all over again! Because I slept the entire first night, we had to go out and have fun the second night! We went over to the auditorium after dinner to watch some dance show, we got there a few minutes before it started and got some really good seats. While we were waiting they were selling Bingo tickets for $10. Almost everyone waiting bought tickets and the winner would receive $500 dollars! There were a few hundred people that bought tickets but we both decided we didn’t want to spend the money because neither of us has ever won anything. After the ticket line got shorter and shorter Jon decided to go get us a ticket anyway, he was the last person in line after being a gentleman and letting another guy get in front of him. Once the bingo game started, the announcer said the game would not be called “Bingo” this time; instead it would be called “B.O” Once someone had all the letters below the B, and the O, they had to jump up and yell “I’ve got B.O”! I’m sure you can guess where this story is going… We ended up winning and we were both so excited; we have never won anything, ever- especially 500 dollars!!! After the excitement of our BIG win, we watched the cheesy dance show we were originally waiting for. We’re pretty positive all the guys in it were gay, It was very similar to watching the kid TV show “Wiggles” The next night at dinner we were famous for being the Bingo winners, the 4 couples we ate with every night were there too and watched us win :) The next day was a fun day at sea. The boat was parked in the middle of the ocean and never moved until late that night. We layed out, ate a lot of food, and just enjoyed our last day!! Each morning we tried to run a few laps around the track to burn off some of the food we ate. This morning we decided to played a game of miniture golf and I believe I won... again :) The cruise was SO much fun, very relaxing, with lots of delicious food! We can't wait to go again!

Party Time

2010-06-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

We made a quick stop at Joes Farm Grill for Jon’s Birthday breakfast before we headed out of town for California . They give out free breakfast to people on their birthday and an additional 30% off the rest of the bill. Our total was $3.00- can’t beat that!! Once we got to Cali we checked out our sweet hotel! It was on a little island area along the beach a block away from where our cruise ship was. We loved relaxing at the pool in these crazy chairs that sat above the water

For dinner we headed down the street and found a big shopping area with tons of restaurants. Jon chose Bubba Gump Shrimp for his birthday dinner; neither of us had ever been before so we were excited to try something new. The atmosphere was fun but the food was unimpressive and expensive.

After dinner we found our favorite frozen yogurt place (Pinkberry) and ate it around a fire pit that over looked the ocean at the backside of our hotel. Happy 29th Birthday Jonathan, I hope next year is even better!!

Double The Fun

2010-06-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

Happy 3rd Birthday to my two favorite girls!! Sorry I missed your awesome party... again I love you both!!

Memorial Weekend and then some...

2010-05-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon we drove out near Woody Mountain Rd and camped with my sister’s family and some of their friends. We had tin foil dinners that night (one of my favorite things about camping), lots of junk food, then made s’mores later that night.

It was a tough decision to go camping because we knew the suns game would be on. Luckily some people that were camping with us had a fifth wheel trailer and a projector so we could watch the game while we camped… (Then they ended up losing)

Sunday we had an early ‘birthday party’ for this good lookin’ guy! As you can see he was pretty excited to wear the PARTY hat! :)

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly a birthday party, it was more of a lazy sunday BUT we did make him wear the party hat and we sang to him with a plate full of snickers brownies.

Jon’s 29th birthday isn't until this Thursday (June 3rd), since we will be on our cruise then my family wanted to celebrate this weekend.

Can’t have a birthday without a puffy cheek picture :)

Monday morning (Memorial Day) We hiked up “Fat Man’s Loop”. We hiked it a few weeks ago and loved it. The beginning part we hiked/ran, once we got to the haflway point we ran the rest of the way down. This was definitely a good workout- Our new goal is to eventually run the entire thing…. Someday

When we got home from our hike the family came over and we set up volleyball and badminton in our yard. Lins and Rich were the Valleyball champs!

Before it got dark we went hiking again, this time with the family. We tried out “Geo Catching” and it ended up being pretty fun. All of the places were on the hiking trail behind our house- Who knew Flagstaff could be so cool? Do YOU know what Geo Catching is? I didn't know either until this weekend.

We ended our fun holiday weekend hanging out in the backyard by the fire and making home made ice cream. It’s so nice to finally be able to do things outside, hopefully the warm weather is here to stay!

Happy Birthday Linsey

2010-05-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated my sisters 30th Birthday!! My brother and I took her out to Cracker Barrel for her birthday breakfast. It was fun to have some time to hang out with just my brother and sister. That night the whole family went out to Monsoons in flagstaff and ate some delicious sesame chicken!! Then we went back to her house for cake/ice cream and gifts!! Happy Birthday SIS! I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect sister! Thank you for everything you do for me! I love you!!

Graduation Surprise

2010-05-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give Jon his graduation gift in an unusual way… So I had a dozen “congrats” (sprinkles) cupcakes delivered to him at work on his last day of school. Attached to the box I had a riddle that said he would find his first clue the next day…

When he got home from work the next day I had balloons in his room and one taped to his bedroom door telling him where to go next… Of course I was there ready and waiting with my camera :)

There were two clues that I had to help him find, other than that he found all of them!

The final clue was wrapped up with a bow hidden under his pillow...

I made a card to go inside the box that had his graduation gift inside...

In exactly 1 week we will be going to Mexico to do a lot of this... While playing on this... The last cruise I went on was 5 years ago and Jon has never been before. We are both so excited!! :)

"Master J"

2010-05-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today was a VERY long and exciting day! Jon graduated from ASU

(W.P. Carey School of Business) with his Masters in Business Administration.

The beginning of the ceremony was surprisingly-very cool.

As the graduates entered the room they were led by a group

of people playing the bagpipes and drums.

Bill and Linda (Jon's Parents) were nice enough to get there extra early and save us some really good seats!

My parents drove down the night before and went to the graduation as well. After the ceremony Jon's parents took all of us out to one of Jon's favorite restaurants- Tia Rosa's, Yum!! Then we all went over to their house for some delicious pie!!

Congratulations Jonathan! You have worked so hard for this and I am extremely proud that you were able to accomplish this goal while working full time and dating me long distance :)

After all the graduation craziness we ended up scoring some FREE concert tickets that night to see this lovely lady in Tucson! Jon grew up in Tucson and I had never really been before so he was extra excited to show me his "home town". One of his good friends from high school also graduated today and had a bbq in Tucson so we decided to suprise them and show up before the concert. It was fun to finally meet some of the good friends he always talks about.

The concert was awesome and our seats couldn't have been better! We drove back to Gilbert after the concert, by the time we got back we were both exhausted! Such a fun and busy day!!

Mothers Day

2010-05-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

The night before mother’s day the whole fam met up at Macayos for some of our favorite mexican food! When we finished eating Jon and Rich were nice enough to take my sisters kids back to my Aunts house so that us girls could do our annual mother’s day pedicure! (Wish I would have taken my camera) After our pedicures, we stopped by Yogurtland for a little treat before calling it a night. I think I have officially gotten my family hooked on that place. Sunday (Mothers Day) We all went to church in Apache Junction to watch some family friends bless their baby boy. They handed out flowers to all the moms in sacrament but ended up with extra so all the other girls got one too. Lucky me :) Since we were on “travel rules” and didn’t have any food we had to go out to lunch after church. We ate at Red Robbin and it was tasty! Happy Mother’s day to my favorite little lady! I love you mom! It was so much fun to spend time with just my mom and sister. Even though I am lucky enough to see them both everyday, I am still amazed at how perfect they both are. They are definitely the most patient people I know and they would do anything and everything for their kids. I love them both!!

Nothin' But Love

2010-05-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

Today my parents celebrate their 31’st anniversary and they were nice enough to invite the whole family to celebrate with them… We all met up to watch Caiden’s t-ball game then went to dinner at Busters! These two girls love to have their picture taken! Our family has a tradition of coloring signs and hanging them on the wall for almost every occasion. My parents would always leave it up to us kids to color them for each other’s birthdays. This morning my dad made these for my mom… I love seeing how cute my dad is to my mom even after all these years For my parents anniversay gift us kids put together a video of my parents pictures when they were dating, some of their wedding pictures, and some others over the years. It turned out really good and of course made them cry. Happy 31st Anniversary mom and dad!! Thank you so much for your perfect examples and all that you do for me. I am so grateful to have the BEST parents!! I love you both!!

Hippity Hop

2010-04-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Easter was such a blast this year! Conference, Easter, Jon, and family, makes for one good day!! The only thing missing during our egg decorating time was my brother, who went with his friends to Moab on a motorcycle trip. We were all happy when he came home to fly kites with us. In case you haven't noticed, I sorta love this boy...

After Conference was over, we went down the street to fly the "shark" kite. All the kids loved it and all the wind that we hate made it fly even better. I also love all these people!!

Birthday Boy!

2010-03-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today was this cute little boys 6th birthday!! I was so sad that I couldn’t be there for it, I missed out on Del Taco (his favorite), bowling, birthday cake, and presents! Happy Birthday Caiden, I love you!!

The Time Has Finally Come...

2010-03-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

I have anxiously waited the last three months for this VERY weekend… For Christmas Jon got me tickets to a John Mayer concert in L.A. I have been so excited to go ever since! Nothings better than a concert and a vacation to the beach :) We ended up staying in Beverly Hills the night of the concert because L.A was too ghetto. The day after the concert we went down the street to Rodeo Drive and did some window shopping, it was fun to see all the shops that only the rich and famous shop at. Some of the stores had signs out front that said “By appointment only.” Crazy rich people!! Even though we didn’t go in any of the stores we definitely made our way in to get our favorite treat!! If you haven't noticed we LOVE this place!!

After doing some window shopping we drove over to Huntington Beach. I’m pretty sure this should have only taken us 40 minutes but because of construction and traffic it took us 4 hours!! Jon was a stud and drove the entire trip!I may have 'accidentally' fell asleep in the car during this long drive but was quickly woken up to Jon letting me know that I was now famous and my name was on a billboard! Maybe I should start signing my name with a backwards K from now on? Of course we had to stop and see the famous Hollywood sign. One thing we did learn on this trip was that we wouldn't have found half the places we were looking for without GPS-good thing for the iphone! The last day we spent at Huntington Beach shopping/laying out, the water was freezing!!

Thanks JC for all the fun trips! You're The Best!! :)

Spring Break

2010-03-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

The trip started out early Saturday morning; we loaded up the cars and left for St George. It was snowing and cold when we left, which made us even more excited to leave town. We stopped in Kanab for lunch and it was SO windy and cold! Once we got back on the road, it started snowing again... (So much for leaving the snow) After we checked out the house, we played some pool, then headed to our favorite restaurant... I know I've said it before, but this place is REALLY good! The pool table was a hot item- we played it everyday. Sunday after church we bbq'd steaks, hung out at the house, then drove over to check out Tuacahn Amphitheater. I wasn't really sure what this place was until we got there, it's gorgeous! Lot's of red rock with a stage in between it all. I didn't realize how popular it was but they actually have cool people perform here, Kelly Pickler and Brian Regan will be there next month. Typically I try to avoid myself the embarrassment of posting any REALLY ugly pictures (such as the one below.) But for the sake of this post I want to make it well known that the weather was crappy and we were all freezing. No there wasn't a flood coming either, my pants were rolled previous to this picture when we went to the sand dunes but decided to leave because of the wind. Yes it was still windy... My hair didn't love it. The next two days the weather was finally warm- we did lots and lots of shopping. (My favorite thing to do in St George) Or anywhere for that matter :) We spent the rest of our time laying out and playing in the pool. My dad being the judge for the boys cannon ball splash contest. We spent our last night treating ourselves to this delicious place.. So so good! Thanks Mom and Dad for another fun trip! Love you both!!

Earthquake Warning

2010-03-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

This story is long but amazing you can find it HERE at this church website. If you haven’t already heard about it, READ it - It's good! Editor’s Note: President Larry Laycock and his wife, Sister Lisa Laycock head the Santiago Chile East Mission and had spent the two weeks prior to the 8.8 earthquake visiting each missionary apartment and preparing them for an earthquake. They brought specific instructions on what to do, supplied water purification bottles for the missionaries, told them how to create a 36-hour kit for emergencies and how to stay in communication should an earthquake strike. They prayed with each missionary and dedicated their apartments. Why? Because of a special experience that alerted them to what was coming. They told their missionaries, “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.” They have 171 full-time proselyting missionaries in this mission. Special thanks to the Laycocks for allowing Meridian to publish this letter that Sister Laycock sent to her family shortly after the earthquake sharing their remarkable experience of kindness from the Lord. They are in Chile with their son, Landon. Dear Everyone,

I am writing to let you all know how very grateful we are for your prayers, concern, and love. Please keep praying! We need the Lord's help and guidance in order to do all He would have us do to learn what He would have us learn from this earth quake tragedy, and to minister in the way He would have us minister.

During the past few days, we have witnessed many events which serve to remind us that the Lord is in charge and that as missionaries and members of His church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are performing His work, and as President Monson teaches, "When we are on the Lord's errand, we are entitled to His help." I want to share with you a few miracles that will help you to understand our profound feelings of gratitude.

When we were set apart for this calling, Elder Scott of the Council of the Twelve Apostles taught us many important lessons. He spoke from personal experience when he was a mission president in Argentina. One message that he shared with us is this: "At times, during your mission, you will be awakened in the middle of the night or the early morning hours with thoughts of specific things you should do for certain missionaries. Do not ignore these thoughts. They are promptings from the Holy Ghost who will communicate with you in the stillness of the night or the peace of the early morning hours. He will speak to you then because that is when you are still enough to hear."

Elder Scott further instructed us to keep a notebook beside our bed so that we could record these precious promptings. He said that by the next morning, we would be likely to forget the promptings if we didn't write them down.

We have been astonished at the fulfillment of Elder Scott's prophetic words. We have received many promptings in the exact manner that Elder Scott described. We are so thankful that Elder Scott taught us how to recognize and act upon these precious promptings. Had he not taught us, we may not have given these promptings the attention they require.

Nearly two-and-one-half weeks ago, I was awakened at around 4:00 AM by just such a prompting. I did not hear a voice, but the thought was as clear as if it had been in the form of spoken words: "There is going to be an earthquake. Prepare your missionaries." I sat up in bed and immediately remembered Elder Scott's counsel. That morning I told Larry what had happened. He immediately set to work organizing our missionaries to prepare for an earthquake.

In talking with our office missionaries to arrange for them to put together a list of everything we would need to prepare...in both Spanish and English...we discovered that the Lord had also let two of our office missionaries know of the possibility of an earthquake (in the form of dreams) and the need to prepare our mission. We set a goal and arranged our schedule so that we could visit every apartment in the mission to check for safety and to review with our missionaries what to do in case of an earth quake. What a wonderful experience we have had as we have met with them and shared scriptures with them about being spiritually and physically prepared. "...if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear" (D&C 38:30).

We instructed every missionary to have a "go-bag" (36 hour kit). We reviewed our emergency action plan with them of where to go and what to do if they had phone service and in case they did not. We gave everyone a paper with all instructions in English and Spanish, and we reminded them that "this life is the time to prepare to meet God" (Alma 34:32-34). We shared with them our thoughts and feelings about the need for spiritual and physical safety. Some of them became frightened and asked us if we knew something they didn't know. We smiled and repeated "...if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." We didn't want to unduly alarm them, but we did want to impress upon them the need to be prepared. We tearfully reminded them of our recent transfer conference where we had shared our feelings about our dear Elder McKay Burrows who was unexpectedly called home in January while serving his mission in Romania...how he was prepared in every way to meet God. We reissued our challenge to "be prepared" in every way. Then we knelt with them in their apartment and dedicated each apartment, asking for a blessing of safety and security to be upon every apartment.

When the earthquake came, we were prepared. We did not experience the panic that many felt. We knew we were prepared. Because of the words of the Lord's chosen Apostle, Elder Scott, we had listened and heeded the quiet, but clear promptings of the Holy Ghost. We were blessed with peace in the midst of chaos. We learned an important lesson: our preparation helped us to avoid panic and fear, but the Lord, in His wisdom, allowed us to experience enough discomfort to know that He has all power. He is in charge. We are nothing without Him. We are dependent upon Him for every breath we take. Only He can save us from death and destruction. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is our perfect example. If we follow Him, we will be saved through obedience to the laws and ordinances of His Gospel.

As the earthquake became more violent, the mission home groaned and wailed. The power died, so the whole city was black. The windows made a hideous screeching sound, and flying objects banged against swaying walls. The printer/fax machine, books, book ends, and fifty-pound television burst from the entertainment center and crashed to the floor, cabinets emptied, drawers flew open, the refrigerator moved, water sloshed out of the toilets, the floor jolted up and down as we ran across it trying to hold onto the walls to keep from falling down, and the piano toppled over like a small toy. As we made our way to the back yard, I remember thinking, "God is all-powerful. He is our only refuge from this horrible mess." I prayed and prayed for Him to still the earth.

When we reached the back yard, we watched in terror. By the light of the moon we could see the swimming pool water form giant waves and crash out onto the rocks. House and car alarms screamed into the night...some from being crushed by falling debris and others, I guess, from the bizarre movement of the earth. I am not sure if the intense rumbling sounds came from the earth itself or from everything else that was shaking so violently. Finally, it stopped.

When the calm came, we had to sit down because our legs were weak and unstable. My legs stayed wobbly all day and night yesterday. Today the muscles in my legs hurt like I ran a marathon. The aftershocks have been extremely unsettling. Each one begins like the one last night started. We just close our eyes and wait to see if it escalates or dies down. .I have never experienced anything like this!

We were awakened this morning by a very strong after shock. Larry jumped out of bed and yelled, "Welcome to another glorious day in Chile!" We just had to laugh. We moved a mattress into the floor in our bedroom and made Landon sleep in our room. He was in his room with the door locked the night before and we couldn't wake him up. He never locks his door, but he was playing a joke on Larry because every morning Larry wakes him at 5:30 AM for seminary by tickling him unmercifully. So Landon had decided to stop him.

When we couldn't open his door, in the middle of the quake, we thought he was trapped, so we screamed and banged. Landon thought that everything was falling off the walls because we were banging so hard on the door. I think we scared him more than the earthquake did!

Today, we attended a strong ward where Larry was invited to speak. The entire chapel and beyond was filled. People were so humble and so teachable. Larry taught the importance of doing the small things. He taught about Jesus Christ and the opportunity we have to love one another and to share what we have with others.

It was a great blessing for us to be with these beautiful Chilean people. Some have lost their homes...or at least parts of their homes. But they are strong and they want to serve the Lord. He taught of the scripture in Luke 21:11,13 which says, "and great earthquakes shall be in divers places...and it shall turn to you for a testimony." He also welcomed the sweet young woman who was in the congregation with the missionaries...her first time attending church...and then he invited her to be baptized from the pulpit. He asked her to please invite us to her baptism, and she said, "I will." The Lord always knows what His people need.

Landon was reading in Alma 15:17 today. He said, Mom listen to this. This is what is happening here in Chile just like in happened in Ammonihah. The people were humbled and "checked as to the pride of their hearts and began to humble themselves before God, watching and praying continually that they might be delivered from Satan, and from death, and from destruction." Our hearts are filled to the brim with gratitude for all of the blessings we have received in the Chile Santiago East Mission. We see miracles every day. In the midst of great pain and suffering, we can always find our Savior. He stands with His arms open, pleading for all of us to humble ourselves and come unto Him. He loves us. He invites us to accept His gift...the atonement. He invites us to repent. He wants us to love one another and to serve one another. He wants us to bring our families and those we love to Him. We can do it. We can do all that He asks, no matter how difficult it may seem. "With God all things are possible"

We are having a devotional tomorrow for all of our missionaries to talk about the last week of Christ's life in preparation for Easter. We want to remind our missionaries to teach and preach with increased vigor of Christ. Last Monday in our office meeting, Larry suddenly stopped in the middle, and said, "During the prayer, I had a very strong impression that March 2010 is going to be our best baptizing month we have ever had in this mission."

Now we know why he received that feeling. We are going to prepare to bring many souls to the waters of baptism in March. Please continue to pray for us and for the people of Chile. Please pray for the missionaries to have strength and courage to do all that is being required of them, even in difficult times.

We are so thankful that the tsunami did not turn out badly in Hawaii. Who would ever think that an earthquake in Chile could threaten the shores of Hawaii? Thankfully, the Lord is in charge. He is the one to whom we must turn for refuge from every storm. He has the power to save us.

Editor’s Note:

The letter ends here, but President and Sister Laycock told us:

“We’ve never experienced anything like the earthquake. We have had 90 aftershocks, some stronger than others. Our legs are wobbly. It is a scary feeling to experience an aftershock because it brings back all the feelings we had during the earthquake.

“We love being with our missionaries. Because they were prepared, they were immediately able to turn their attention to helping others. They were never concerned about themselves. They were concerned with those who need help and by mid-morning the day of the earthquake, we were able to dispatch them to help others. We told them to investigate the needs of their neighbors and help in any way they could.

President Laycock noted, “The Spanish translation of Luke 21:13 says that there will be earthquakes in many places, and it will give you the occasion to bear testimony. We met with 10 sisters this morning, and one of them mentioned a neighbor next door whom they always asked if she would have time to speak with them, and she always said no. Yet in the crescendo of the toll of the earthquake, she was speechless with fear and not prepared. When the sisters said, ‘Could we pray with you?’, she answered, ‘I have time to pray with you.’ It opened the door to a teaching opportunity to share the gospel.

President and Sister Laycock said, “Everyone we talk to has been so willing to talk about Christ and God’s power. We’ve been sharing God’s love with them. We are seeing God’s love everywhere. People are reaching out to one another. They are serving one another. The news reports looting. We are seeing a different side. We are seeing people who want to communicate with God, who are sincerely looking for the truth.”

The Best Year

2010-02-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

1 year ago today Jon asked me on our first date.... These gorgeous flowers were delivered to me at work, I stared and sniffed them all day long :)

For our anniversary we decided to re-live our first date.

- Dinner at RA sushi (By far the best sushi ever) - Played the 5 dollar gift exchange game at Wal-Mart - Jesterz Comedy Club

Thank you Jonathan for all the laughs and the BEST year of my life! I love you!!!!

Be My Valentine

2010-02-14T20:10:00.000-08:00

My mom ALWAYS makes us the BEST sugar cookies on Valentines Day and growing up she would send flowers and balloons to the school. I was always so excited to get a note to go to the front office to pick them up, then walking around with them all day knowing how loved I was. The morning of Valentines Jon made me breakfast and brought it to me in bed... I was planning on surprising him with breakfast for once but he beat me to it. He is so cute and creative. That afternoon we went to Saguaro Lake, made fondue, had sparkling red grape juice, and chocolate dipped strawberries, while watching the sunset :)

Jon spoiled me as always and made me feel so loved on the big V-Day. Lucky for me he treats me this way every day not just once a year. :)

My sister is also one of the most thoughtful people I know, no matter what the occasion is she is always giving. When I got home this weekend I had a Valentine "treat" bag sitting in my room from my sister- It made my day!

I have so many great people in my life it’s because of them that I love this holiday!

Snow "Days"

2010-01-22T11:50:00.000-08:00

It has snowed non-stop this entire week, I've never seen this much snow at one time. They say by the end of this storm we should have 6 feet of snow. I am 5'2" so it will be much taller than me! It's still snowing right now and another 10+ inches are expected tonight. Sounds like we will be snowed in for the weekend. This is the walk way up to my parents front door, it looks like an igloo:

My brother pulling Caid, Kort, and Kels on the sled up and down the street: Another sidewalk in front of the house: Some random guy out running in the middle of a snow storm, guess he didnt feel that 6ft of snow was enough to take a day off: The front window of my parents house partially covered in snow:These are videos of us sledding off the roof of my sisters house:

The end of the blizzard with blue Sky's:

"Buckit"

2010-01-15T17:26:00.000-08:00

We drove down to Sedona to listen to “Buckit” my sister’s brother in law’s band play. We got in town early, ate at an Italian restaurant, then headed over to where the band was playing. The music was good but as you can see that company was not. The people were super strange; it felt more like a rest home than a restaurant/bar. (Notice the guy with white hair on the left of the hippie, and the guy in the wheel chair) On a positive note the people watching never got old.

"I don't know how to put this, but we're kind of a BIG deal"

2010-01-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve Countdown

2010-01-03T16:30:00.000-08:00

It seems like it’s been years since I’ve left my house for New Years Eve. Growing up as kids we played games until midnight then went outside and hit pots and pans. I must say that this New Year’s Eve was one of the best. Jon picked me up from work at 10pm then we headed downtown where all the craziness was going on for the famous Pine Cone drop. There were so many people which made it even more fun.My brother in law's brothers band was playing downtown where pinecone drop was at, we listened to them then went outside to count down the seconds until the new year!After the Pine Cone drop we met up with some of Jon's friends that were in Flag for the weekend and listened to another band play. We had a blast and can't wait to start this New Year. I hope it's just as good if not better than last year!

We Love You Dad!

2009-12-30T17:46:00.000-08:00

We celebrated my dad's 62nd birthday today. What can I say? The man is a stud. He wakes up at 430 every morning lifts weights, does a million sit ups, and who knows how many push-ups. He leaves for work bright and early, sometimes skips lunch because he's busy at work or helping someone in the ward. I don't know a harder more dedicated worker than my dad. His weekends consist of doing his church callings or working in our yard (one of his favorite things to do) my Grandma Day was also an extremely hard worker which is obviously where my dad inherited his work ethic. My dad has always been a perfect example of a strong, worthy, priesthood holder for which I am grateful. I have received countless priesthood blessings from him throughout my life and I couldn’t ask for a more perfect dad.

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!

Christmas Bunny

2009-12-25T12:09:00.000-08:00

My family had several traditions growing up; one that I have missed more than anything was having slumber parties with my brother and sister on Christmas Eve. We always made a fort or a huge bed that we would sleep in while dreaming and talking to each other about what we thought Santa would bring us. We would leave out cookies and milk then wake up bright and early hoping our parents would let us go downstairs to see what we got. My parents never let us go downstairs until they brushed their teeth, turned on Christmas music, and had the video camera ready to tape us as we ran down the stairs. It always felt like it took them hours and I’m pretty sure my dad always took his time on purpose to make us stand at the top of the stairs with anticipation. Some may mock that I still live at home with my parents but I consider myself lucky. I love every minute that I get to spend there. This year the traditions continued and our family was fortunate enough to have Jonathan with us for Christmas. Christmas Eve we always eat pizza, open a new pair of pajamas, and watch “A King Is Born”. I had to work until 10:00 that night so when I got home all the fun activities were over. Modeling our new P.J's (sweatpants) Chrismas Eve When I got home from work on Christmas Eve Jon was in the kitchen cooking. He made my families entire Christmas breakfast the night before so all we had to do was put it in the oven when we woke up! He used all of his mom’s recipes and the food was so delicious! I’m still impressed!! He made a hash brown casserole that had eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, and cheese on top. He also made “Monkey Bread” or “Sticky Buns” as some people call it, I wish I had taken a picture of it. He is so impressive he amazes me more and more everyday. Jon and I built a fort, watched “Elf” on my laptop and talked about what we thought Santa would bring us. We woke up at 8:30 and of course my parent’s had to video tape us as we headed downstairs to see what Santa brought. (NO we are not too old for this) :)

I wish I could ignore writing about me wearing this “cute” one piece pink footy bunny pajama suit with ears and let you think what you want about it, but for journaling purposes I think I will write about it so someday I can remember why I am wearing something so ridiculous. Several months ago Jon sent me a link to a website that sold footy pajamas for adults. We both laughed at how ridiculous they were and even more that they came with bunny ears. The pictures on the website showed guy and girl couples wearing matching ones. Come on people do you really wear these things? We kept saying we were going to get them for each other someday. I had forgotten all about them until I opened my first Christmas present from him. Of course he got it for me why wouldn’t he? He loves to embarrass me whenever possible! Especially in front of my family! :) I’ll be honest I loved it and it provided lots of laughs. I can’t wait to order a matching pair for him then we will see who is laughing :) For Christmas my parents bought me a 40" Flatscreen for my bedroom. Since my brother recently moved out I decided the T.V would fit better in his room. So we spent the rest of the day setting up the T.V and moving all my furniture into my new room. After dinner we all went to visit my brother at the fire dept since he couldn’t be with us for Christmas. The next day we all went over to my sister’s house for games and fondue. Jon and I prepared it and decided to make it like “The Melting Pot” So we made a Rachel Ray Chocolate Fondue dip with strawberries, bananas, rice krispy treats, marshmallows, and pretzels.

Holiday Happiness

2009-12-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

- I spent a few extra days down in Gilbert this weekend and as always I loved every minute of it! It seems like every post I start out by saying “Jon surprised me” Well this is another one of those posts where I get to brag about how much he spoils me :)

- Friday night he wouldn’t tell me what we were doing or where we were going. He made reservations at one of our favorite Sushi places in Scottsdale- Such good food! After that we went next door to Yogurtland, neither of us had been before and we loved it! If you haven’t been before GO… You won’t be disappointed!

After Yogurtland, Jon drove us to downtown Scottsdale where he made reservations for a carriage ride. I had no idea what we were doing until the horse and carriage showed up. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time. It was so fun to see all the Christmas lights and the new/old buildings of the downtown area. I really am the luckiest girl in the world!

- Saturday we did some Christmas shopping and met up with Jon’s parents for dinner in Mesa. We ate at Tia Rosa’s, a Mexican restaurant that I had never been to before but his family loves. I see now why they love it so much!

- Sunday- After church we headed over to Jon’s parents house for an early Christmas party. They spoiled us rotten and fed us the most amazing homemade meal ever! I feel so blessed to know such wonderful people and even more grateful that they raised such a perfect son that I am lucky enough to call my boyfriend :)

Light Parade

2009-12-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

Every year Flagstaff has a light parade downtown. I haven’t been the last few years because it’s either too cold or snowing. Finally, this year our whole family went and it was freezing! We took hot chocolate and it ended up being a lot of fun. Jon- this ones for you :) This Santa one was cool. It looked so real! The feet even moved up and down. My camera died half way through the parade so I missed most of the cool floats at the end...

Temple Lights

2009-11-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

We were able to go see the temple lights the day after thanksgiving with Jon's mom and sister's family who drove here from Oklahoma. I have been wanting to meet them for a long time and I'm glad I was able to this weekend. They are an awesome family. The temple and lights were beautiful!! I always looked forward to seeing them every year as a kid and it’s still just as fun.

Thanksgiving Thought...

2009-11-26T19:08:00.001-08:00

- I found this on a random blog and loved it! It definitely makes me grateful for what I have during the holiday season. There are so many things I take for granted every day…. I am blessed! If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world. If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the United States. If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful ... you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not. If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder ... you are blessed because you can offer healing touch. If you can read this message.. you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Thomas The Train Tent

2009-11-24T20:42:00.000-08:00

While we were over playing with my nieces and nephew they got out their favorite Thomas The Train tent! Jon decided he wanted to get inside of it, and somehow all 5 of us ended up in this tiny little thing! I LOVE these kids! (Jon included) :)

New Moon Party

2009-11-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

After a very LONG year of waiting... The movie we have all wanted to see finally came out! We made plans months in advance and ordered tickets a few days early just to make sure we could see it opening weekend. My friend Amber came to Flag for the weekend to watch it with us. The movie didn't start until 9:30 pm but we wanted to make sure we had perfect seats, so we showed up at 6 to wait in the line outside. Me, Jon, and Amber went to stand in line around 6 then my sister and Rich came to relieve us at 730 so we could go get some hot chocolate and something to eat. We came back around 8 and we all hung out until they let us in the theater at 9. We entertained ourselves in the 30 degree weather with Jon’s I phone game of “Truth or Dare” and lots of candy! The movie was worth every second of waiting in the cold! I figured the movie would be full of annoying little girls screaming at every scene, to my surprise the guys in the theater were far more annoying.

Every Fat kid Loves cake... Even this one!

2009-11-09T15:01:00.000-08:00

I found this cool CAKE blog and I have been obsessed with it. This girl makes the coolest cakes ever! I've never decorated a cake in my life but couldnt resist trying to make one. It turned out far from what the original one on her blog looks like and it took way too many hours than it should ever take anyone to make a cake but I had a blast doing it!

Ps. Tomi these pictures are for you! Thanks for your help :)

Piano Bar

2009-11-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

Halloween Party!

2009-11-02T01:35:00.001-08:00

Pumpkin Time

2009-10-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

This year we switched things up a little... We divided into four teams and had a pumpkin carving contest, while eating some delicious Papa Murphy’s Pizza! PS... (The pictures all look blurry but if you click on them to make them bigger they aren’t as blurry)

Every Pumpkin was so unique we couldn't pick a winner. I think they all turned out pretty dang good!

One Year ago...

2009-10-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at work late on a Sunday night bored like usual playing on my facebook and blog. I started talking on facebook with my friend Amber Rogers:

After a few minutes of conversation I asked her what she was up to. She said “Right now I am sitting next to two HOT guys.” :

I asked her if I knew them, she said no they are my neighbors who just moved in. (Of course I became jealous of her because nothing like that would ever happen here in Flagstaff)

Amber and I continued talking about other things, after a few minutes I got another message saying “Hi Keli this isn’t Amber anymore this is one of the “hot guys.”

Me and the “hot guy” talked for an hour before Amber decided she needed to break up our conversation and take her laptop to go home. A few minutes later I get a friend request on facebook from the “hot guy” We kept talking for a few more hours that night. This guy was obviously good at carrying on a conversation, hilarious, super smart, and his typing skills amazed me. He never once misspelled or mistyped any words throughout our entire conversation which I thought was impossible for any guy. Not to mention Amber wasn’t lying when she said he was a “hot guy.”

The next day I get a call from the “hot guy” we talked for a few minutes and he kept trying to convince me to come down to Gilbert that weekend and meet him. I told him I already had plans down there but that I’m sure we could meet up sometime while I was there. However I failed to mention that my plans down there consisted of going on a different blind date with a guy I had already been talking to for a few months. Long story short I ditched the “hot guy” and I’ve regretted it ever since. This is what we call “Friendship # 1” A few months went by and me and the hot guy never spoke. I eventually apologized to him but he seemed bitter towards me for ditching him.

The beginning of January started “Friendship # 2.” He randomly sent me a text message and we haven’t gone a day without talking since. I’m not a fan of blind dates and it took me a month to build up the courage with lots of convincing from him to finally meet him in person.

Exactly 8 months ago today I met the “hot guy” And i'm so glad I did! :)

"Falling For You"

2009-10-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

My sister took these pictures of Jon and the kids after I left for work. Looks like I missed out on all the fun once again! The weather has been perfect the last few days, we haven’t had to wear our jackets during the day and the leaves are falling in our yard like crazy! My mom and dad cleaned up 17 huge trash bags full of leaves yesterday and as you can see in these pictures they are still everywhere! I love this season! The changing colors, the weather, and knowing the holidays are coming up…Makes me excited!! :) This little masterpiece was a desire of Jon’s for the last few years. Someone gave him the recipe for it and he has kept it in his drawer ever since hoping that someone would eventually give in and make it with him :) It’s called “Rice Crispy Sushi Dessert” It consists of rice crispy treats and liquorish rolled up inside of a fruit roll up. Disgusting I know those were my thoughts too when he mentioned it to me. It was fun, easy to make and looks just like sushi! As far as taste goes id settle for just the rice crispy treat :)

"As You Wish"

2009-10-12T02:52:00.000-07:00

Here are the finished products of our craft date at "As You Wish" They actually turned out a lot better than I thought they would. Although I'm still not quite sure what mine is? It's called a "Spice Pot" whatever that is... Thank you JC for my Vase! :) I love it! If you've never gone before you are missing out. It's fun! You can take the whole family or just as a date- Either way you won't be dissapointed.

Monster Mash

2009-10-07T22:46:00.001-07:00

Click here to see our cool Halloween Video! (=

2009-10-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

My weekend consisted of some of this...

I always love conference for the obvious reason of watching church on t.v at home in your P.J's... But seriously? Holland's talk was awesome! He is never afraid to tell it how it is!

A little of this...

Jon doesnt like my face in this picture of us -so of course I had to post it :)

Never a long enough weekend to spend with this good lookin' guy....

And lastly we finished off our weekend with some D-e-L-i-C-i-O-u-S cupcakes that I have been dying to try. Sprinkles is the name of the cupcake joint. If you haven't been you are missing out! Plus there is only ONE in all of Arizona- well worth the drive to Scottsdale.

-Saturday night after the Priestood session we went out for Sushi at RA! Then Jon suprised me with arts and crafts time (my fave) at "As You Wish" If you've never been you should go its fun! They have pottery that you pick out and paint. I'll post some pics of our finished products later... We are some skilled painters!!

-Sunday we watched conference then made some of the best pasta I have ever had! Jon made a picnic for us in his house with sparkling white grape juice (he’s romantic) Later that night we went long boarding at Tempe Town Lake.

- Monday Jon had to work so I shopped and did homework. We met up for dinner when he got off then headed to Scottsdale for some cupcakes at sprinkles!

Complaint Department

2009-10-02T01:19:00.000-07:00

I have recently received a complaint or two about my blog entries. These complaints were directed towards the massive amount of posts with me a very good-looking boy that you all may know as Jon or Jonathan. However, these complaints are valid so I wont argue there. What I will say is that I have no life other than my two days a week with this boy on the weekends if that. So when we get the opportunity to see each other we take full advantage by taking lots of pictures and making lots of memories :) On a rare occasion, if I actually do something without him I usually don’t take pictures. There you have it. If you have any other complaints, you can feel free to keep them to yourself. Thank you and have a nice day :)

Oh and… Pam and Jim are getting married on the office tonight and I cant wait!!!!!!!!

Twenty Seven!

2009-09-20T20:49:00.001-07:00

For my brothers birthday we stayed at a resort in Scottsdale. We went to dinner, opened presents, and went swimming friday night. Saturday we watched the D-backs get killed... Always fun watching baseball with my family we love it! Sunday we went to church and decided to have a photo shoot before we headed home. The boys left saturday night after the baseball game so my brother could work the next morning. Happy 27th Birthday Derek! You are the greatest brother ever!! We love you!

Route 66'

2009-09-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Route 66' Car Club show in downtown Flag. There were tons of cars some were cool and some were not so cool (Pt Cruisers) They also had a mini carnival set up at Wheeler Park so we got ourselves some good old fashion Kettle Corn and walked around. The pimped out short bus was my favorite.

Livin' The Dream

2009-09-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

This year for Labor Day we went camping out past Lake Mary. We barbequed hamburgers for dinner, made s’mores and hung around the campfire all night. The next morning we had HUGE delicious breakfast burritos, played some waffle ball, rode the “Red Rocket” mini motorcycle then headed back home. It’s been a long time since our whole family has been able to go camping all together. Glad we could all finally go. My sister brought some HUGE marshmallows I’ve never seen these before in my life! They were so big! I have no idea where you even buy these things. They were perfect for s’mores. Jon loves marshmallows so he decided to have a marshmallow eating contest by himself and could only fit ONE in his mouth that’s how big these things were. It was funny watching him attempt the second one.

"What Happens in Vegas..."

2009-09-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

Jon and I happened to get an extra day away from work so we decided to make quick trick to Vegas out of it. It was a blast and I'm so glad we did! We stayed on the strip at the Monte Carlo- Nice place! I would definitely stay there again. Once we finally got into town the first thing we wanted to do was get tickets for some of the shows. This was one of the main reasons we had both wanted to go to Vegas. We ended up finding good tickets deals for Chriss Angel and Blue Man Group. We ate at some amazing restaurants and buffets all weekend long. We also had the most incredible sushi we had ever had! D-e-l-c-i-o-u-s !! The Chriss Angel show ended up being a horrible but we LOVED Blue Man Group!

Our last day we spent shopping in one of the biggest malls I have ever been in! It took us the entire day just to finish walking through it. By the time we were done we were too exhausted to walk back to our hotel so we got a taxi cab to take us back. I had never been in one before and don't plan to ever again.

Anyone who can figure out who this is will win a prize :)

Our last night I talked Jon into going to Serendipity with me because I had heard they had really good shakes. We found this to be true! We got a frozen hot chocolate drink and it was the best thing ever!!

Guy M. Gardner

2009-09-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

Guy Gardner was my great Uncle who passed away earlier this week. A lot of my dad’s side of the family was there that we haven’t seen in a really long time. Let’s be honest funerals are never fun, but they are always a great reminder to me that family’s can be together forever and how blessed I am to be a member of the church. I love my family!

Best Friend

2009-08-25T03:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for making me SMILE :)

2009-08-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Tag! You're it!

2009-08-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

1. What time did you get up this morning? 9am 2. How do you like your steak? Medium 3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Transformers 2 4. What is your favorite TV show? The Office!!! (The greatest show ever invented) 5. What did you have for breakfast? Apple Jacks :) (Caiden picked it out for me) 6. What is your favorite cuisine? Italian… Mmmmmm! 7. What foods do you dislike? The Re-heated kind. 8. Favorite Place to Eat? I have lots! RA Sushi, The Italian place by Jon’s house (don’t know the name), Olive Garden, and many more! 9. Favorite dressing? Ranch-The homemade kind 10.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Black 09 BMW 328i 11. What are your favorite clothes? Cute ones. 12. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Anywhere tropical 13. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Why lie? Half Empty… 14. Where would you want to retire? St George Utah! 15. Favorite time of day? Anytime I’m not at work 16. Where were you born? Flagstaff, AZ 17. What is your favorite sport to watch? Baseball 18. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? EVERYONE! 19. Bird watcher? - Bird killer? 20. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night for sure 21. Do you have any pets? Nooooooo! 22. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Jon is coming to visit tomorrow! :) 23. What did you want to be when you were little? Beautician 24. What is your best childhood memory? Playing Wiffle ball in the backyard of our old house with the whole family and my grandma and grandpa! 25. Are you a cat or dog person? Neither thank you. 26. Are you married? No Sir. 27. Always wear your seat belt? ALWAYS, ALWAYS! 28. Been in a car accident? Yes, I’m not a fan. 29. Any pet peeves? I have a few but my biggest would be having to repeat myself. 30. Favorite Pizza Toppings? BBQ Chicken 31. Favorite Flower? The kind that are given to me :) 32. Favorite ice cream? Ben and Jerry’s – Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup 33. Favorite fast food restaurant? Sonic 34. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Zero 35. From whom did you get your last email? Probably some spam mail…. 36. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Oh I could think of plenty! Most likely a clothing store. 37. Do anything spontaneous lately? I’d say so. Hot air balloon ride, first trip to Mexico, and my first concert! 38. Like your job? Depends on the day… Would I like to do it forever? Absolutely not. 39. Broccoli? Yes please 40. What was your favorite vacation? Family trips to St George and most recently Mexico! 41. Last person you went out to dinner with? Jon 42. What are you listening to right now? Good tunes 43. What is your favorite color? Black 44. How many tattoos do you have? None 45. How many are you tagging for this quiz? 3 46. What time did you finish this quiz 9:31 pm 47. Coffee Drinker? Nope I Tag: Linsey, Taryn, and Cami and anyone else who wants to do this.

Escape Together

2009-07-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

A Day At The Fire Department

2009-07-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

My brother was in charge of “Kid Safety Day” at the Fire Department in Pinewood, so the whole family went out for the day. They had a few different stations set up for the kids to learn different fire and bicycle safety. After that they had a BBQ and water games for the kids to play at the park behind the station. I had never been out to Pinewood before until my brother started working out there. The weather was perfect and the area is beautiful!! Most of the people that live in that community just come up from Phoenix for the summer and have a second home there. Guess I’ve always taken for granted how beautiful it is here.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

2009-07-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

Most of you will probably look at these pictures and wonder if this was really MY birthday party instead of my moms. (Somehow we never get any pictures of her) Her and my dad took us on our family’s annual vacation to St George Utah!! We had a Blast as usual and none of us wanted to come home. We rented out a nice house with an amazing view, the backyard had a swimming pool and Jacuzzi that over looked the valley. The first thing you see when you walk in the front door is this giant tin man statue. Sunday after church Jon and I made a batch of caramel corn for everyone… it was gone in minutes. Friday night we took my mom to the Pizza Factory for her birthday dinner. They serve HUGE breadsticks and the most amazing bbq chicken pizza I've ever had! I highly recommend this place if you are ever in Utah. Other than the extremely obnoxious table of 50 cheerleaders sitting right next to us, I’d say it was a good time. Sunday afternoon we rode bikes, played frisbee, and went long boarding at the park behind the house we stayed at. It was sooooo hot! Even though I didn’t get very many pictures of the birthday girl, I still wanted to express my love for her. I don’t know what I would do without her, she truly is my best friend. I’m grateful to have such a loving mother and hope someday I can be half the mom that she is. My mom is by far the most PATIENT person I know, this is one quality I can honestly say I did not inherit and I wish more than anything that I did. Ever since I was little I would tell my mom I loved her a million times a day to the point where it was almost annoying. I’m sure she assumed it was just a phase that I would grow out of but she was WRONG. Sorry mom but the tradition will continue…. I LOVE YOU!!!!! :) Happy Birthday!! Thank you for everything you do for me! You are the BEST!

Surprise!!

2009-07-01T22:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to me!! So, usually I complain that I'm not a big fan of my birthday, but not this year!! This year my birthday was great for many reasons, but the top two reasons are: 1) My wonderful boyfriend, Jonathan! 2) My Amazing Family!

The weekend before my birthday I drove down to Phoenix to spend a Birthday Weekend with Jon. Friday night started out at the Diamondbacks game - they got whooped by the Anaheim Angels but it was still fun!

Every Friday night after the game there is a Fireworks show. Since the D-backs were losing so bad, we decided it wasn't even worth it to wait around for the fireworks and left in the 8th inning. That turned out to be a GOOD thing! Jon took me for dessert at the Compass Room, which is on the 24th story of the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix right by the stadium. The whole entire restaurant rotates while you are eating so you get a full 360 degree view of the whole city. As we were eating our dessert, the rotation of the restaurant turned out PERFECTLY! Right as we rotated in the direction of Chase Field, the Fireworks Show started. It was a full 30 minutes of the best fireworks I have ever seen! It was amazing to be at the same height as the fireworks as they went off...not to mention, very romantic. :) The next day, Jon took me to get a Mud Wrap and Massage. He even did it with me (no he is not gay)! After that we got my favorite Bahama Bucks drink and watched Transformers 2 - I may have fallen asleep during the movie. After the movie we went out and ate my favorite food - Italian! When I got home from Phoenix, I walked in to see that my family had totally decorated my bedroom for my birthday! It was awesome! Then when I woke up that morning, they had also decorated my car! Next they took me out for my favorite IHOP breakfast - Stuffed French Toast! Later that night my family had a lot of surprises for me! First, they blind-folded me and took me to a nice restaurant on the golf course, which I did not expect. Second, Jon had coordinated with my family to show up and surprise me at dinner! He wasn't supposed to come up until the next day - I had NO idea he was coming and I LOVED the surprise!

After dinner we went back to my house, ate cake and opened presents. Needless to say, I have no reason to complain about my birthday this year!!!!! :)

My name is Keli Day and I LOVE Jonathan Call! (posted by Jonathan)

2009-06-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

This video was one of the many romantic things Jon suprised me with for my birthday! He is so talented and smart. This was his first time ever making a video and id have to say im VERY impressed. He is a stud! :)

PS... Before you watch it, press pause on my blog music player so that you can hear the music that goes with the video.

I LOVE these Kids!! :)

2009-06-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

Mexico!!

2009-06-05T00:51:00.000-07:00

Day 1... Day 2...Day 3...

29 Years ago...

2009-05-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

My cute sister was born! We spent her birthday in Phoenix doing what we do best! Eating, shopping, and playing! Happy Birthday Linsey! Love you!

11 Miles Done!

2009-05-22T01:58:00.000-07:00

After a nice short weekend break without any running, I am back at it! The training schedule I’m following requires you to run 1 long run a week. Then every other day after is a short 45 minute run. Each week the long run increases by one mile. Last week I did 10 miles so this week I had to attempt 11. I started from my house and ran to my sister’s house (5.5 miles), made a stop for some water and played with the kids for a while before I ran back :)… I didn’t have much motivation to keep running without stopping for a long break. Guess it’s the thought and attempt that counts right? Hopefully next week I will be more motivated to run the entire thing without stopping