Family Pictures

During the holidays we had both our family pictures taken. Here is my family.
This is my mom and all my siblings.
Todd's family.
Todd and I

Todd's parents and siblings.

Valentine's Goodies

What would Valentine's day be like with out famous sugar cookies?? Well, I know it wouldn't be complete. Tonight I made some cookies with two of my friends Taunya and Sara. We made over 4 dozen cookies and ate a few here and there while we frosted them. And no Sara did not eat raw sugar cookie dough as it looks in this picture.

We even made big lips cookies if you can't tell from the picture. Thanks for a fun night girls. I know our husbands and friends will enjoy these cookies.

A Wonderful Experience....

I had such a neat experience this week that I wanted to share. Our ward has been focusing on a mission plan where all the members are challenged to spread the gospel to our non member neighbors, friends, co-workers, etc. This has been a great experience for me personally because being born and raised in Orem, Utah I hardly ever had non-member friends. So being outside my bubble living here in Ohio I have many chances to share the gospel with many people I am in contact every day. So with this challenge, I have been praying to find those individuals whom I can share the the gospel. This week while at work I was talking with one of our patients about where I am from and she got all excited and said that she LOVES listening to the Mormon Tabernacle choir every weekend. I of course lit up and began to talk about it more with her. She is a very pleasant older woman that is baptist and said she listens to all of the religions. So with that opening I took my chance to ask if I could send the missionaries to visit her. She said yes and I got all her information. I couldn't believe it, I had acutally had myself my first missionary experience in 29 years!!! I was so happy that I was able to give our ward missionaries my first referrel ever. This was such a neat experience for me and I am excited to share this message more with others out there. The gospel is not to be taken lightly and I challenge all of you to put yourself out there and talk with any non members you know because you never know when someone will be interested.

A fresh new look

This week brought us some interesting weather which kept us home from school and work on Wednesday. We got snowed in which made me extremely happy because that meant I got a day off of work. The first thing that popped in my mind after we got to sleep in was to start painting. I wanted to keep in neutral so I went with a darker beige. We love how it turned out. Our next project will be Todd's office and the upstairs bathroom.


I did get to finish my curtains and got them hung up also. Finally our family room is finished.......for now that is.
Todd and I have become pretty good painters.
Here are some pictures of the freezing weather that kept us in our house this last week. Todd's poor car was frozen shut. I have never seen such a build up of ice all over the roads and cars. We had to chip away at Todd's car to get his car door open so we could start it up and get it thawed. We worked on that car for at least 30-40 minutes. We had to get some pictures to show our family and friends back at home to see how insane Ohio's weather can be.
PURE ICE!!!!
On another note here are a few of our friends who are also Optometry students at OSU. The far left is Brandon and Sara Hicks. Then next to them is Ian and Taunya Whipple. We were celebrating Taunya's birthday.

It's that time again.....

What a better way to start the new year off then to run another half marathon. Except this time this will be my first half marathon in Columbus, Ohio and my 3rd half marathon total. The race is on the 2nd of May so it's only about 3 months away. I have a few friends from my ward that wanted to run one together so it will be fun to train together. The weather is pretty crappy right now so we can't run outside for another month or two which stinks because I love running outside ten times better than I do on a treadmill at the gym. Luckily there is a cardio cinema in the gym I go to so I can hopefully just watch a whole movie to keep me distracted while running on the treadmill. I had better get into training mode and get more miles under my feet.

Freezing Winters of Ohio

Well for those of you that haven't heard of Ohio's winters well I will give you a brief idea. First off, because of the humidity here the wind in the winter is so bitter cold that it just burns right through your skin to your bones. Seriously, I can't describe how cold it is. Second, also because of the humidity again when it snows it freezes on the ground therefore causing a nice sheet of ice for all the cars to go ice skating on. The worse part about that is they really don't plow the roads like they do in Utah. They are pretty good about the freeways but for some reason the back roads or in town they are slick and scary. Thirdly, the sun hibernates for about 3-4 months from what I hear so we have very gloomy skies with the cold. Don't get me wrong I LOVE the snow but I do miss seeing the clear skies we have back in Utah.

So to protect us we wear A LOT of scarfs and beanies. I guess it's been good to have the ability to make my beanies because Todd wears them all the time here.

The weather was on my mind because it snowed all day long today and by the time I left from work I knew it would take me a while to get home. My normal drive to and from work is usually 20-30 minutes depending on traffic but today it took me an hour to get home!! But I can't complain because Todd tried to leave school at 4 pm and didnt' get home until 6:15 pm. Poor kid was stuck driving the back roads instead of the freeway and he was stuck driving slow for two hours. He too has a commute to school that takes about 20 minutes also. By the time he got home I had shoveled the walks and his parking stall so he could park his car with out getting stuck. I forgot how much of a work out shoveling snow is.......I will be feeling it in my body tomorrow.

What the HAY!!!! I can't be 29!!!

Here I am thinking to myself, "where did the years go and how am I already 29?" I swear I was just 20 years old enjoying the life of being graduated from High School with not too many worries. Now here I am getting closer and closer to 30 and I am freaking out. I do have to say that I don't feel a year older and I sure don't look my age so I have to be grateful for that. I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to blow out all my candles but I did just fine except for one candle....and my brother stepped in to help me out. Thanks Dustin. I hope that next year I won't need your help. I need a bigger lung capacity I guess.

So my adorable little sister Kelsey got engaged over the Christmas break and all my sisters, mom, and I went to look at wedding dresses with her while I was in town. We are so excited for her and can't believe that our baby sister is really getting hitched. She seems so young even though she is 21. I guess it's always hard when the baby of the family gets married. She is getting married to her fiance Lance on April 6th, so only 3 months away!!! I am of course flying home for the wedding by myself because Todd can't miss any school. I am crossing my fingers my work will let me off for only a few days for this special occasion. I feel bad for asking for more time off since I just had 2 full weeks back in Utah. Oh well, this is my sister's wedding and I will be there no matter what!!!!
My cute sister in law Jill got her endowments out in the Timpanagos Temple while we were out for the break. It was so neat to have all of Todd's family in the session together. We are very proud of her to be serving a mission. She will be such an amazing Sister Missionary in the Thailand, Bangkok Mission.

Todd with his 92 year old sweet Grandma Christensen on Christmas Eve.
Jill and I in our brand new pj's. Hot pink is such a fun girl color.
Christmas morning we ate breakfast with my family at my dad's house. It was nice to be together for the holidays.
My cute "short" mommy!! I just love her to pieces, I had so much fun hanging out with her.
My sweet dad who is always a kid at heart. He may be getting a few gray hairs but don't let that fool you he is spunky as ever and still keeps me working hard when we are on the ski slopes together.
Dad and all his girls.
This is my cute new nephew on my side. My sister Jentry had her second little baby boy in October and named him Brayden. He is such a fun addition to the family.
Todd's older sister had her first baby girl a few months ago also and they named her Sienna which fits her perfectly. I made her that cute head band with the flower. I can't help it if girls are so fun to accessorize!!!
Todd's older brother's wife had her first baby boy after three girls a few months ago also. His name is Samuel. We had so much fun having THREE new babies added into our families. I loved all the snuggle time I had with each of them. Next time I see them they will have changed so much.
Poor Scout, we left him back in Ohio for 2 weeks all by himself. We had a friend in our ward stop by to feed him and to bring in our mail which was so nice of her. Thanks again Joni. Scout was so happy to see us after that long time. He has been attached to my side since we got home. He is a good sport.
Just a glimpse of some Christmas decorations at our condo. I didn't put up that much since we were going to be gone for a lot of December but I had to have some up because I LOVE Christmas time!!!
Ohio gets snow here and there but not like Utah. I had to get a picture of us enjoying one of the first snow falls here.