Grateful

Lately I have had an overwhelming sense of gratitude, I feel so blessed!!!

When we first moved to Arizona I had a really rough time adjusting, I left everything and everyone I knew. I came to a place with no plan, no one, and nothing. I felt more alone than ever felt before! Looking back I realize what a dark, scary place I was in. Through that time I had so much support from my family- especially my amazing mom! I spent countless hours with her talking through every feeling, emotion and thought. It was through this difficult experience I learned to depend on my Heavenly Father in a way I had never depended on Him before. I learned to not only pray to Him, but to talk with Him about everything. I found myself turning to Him all the time, and leaning on Him in a way I had never depended upon anyone else. I was able to receive Priesthood blessings from my wonderful husband, blessings I know came from my Father in Heaven. It was because of such a hard time that I am where I am today.

I feel so lucky to have that trial behind me, I am grateful for it, but am glad it is over. I am genuinely happy where my life is today, I am grateful to live in Arizona, I am satisfied with my life. I feel so richly blessed to be where I am, experienced what I have and look forward to what's to come!

I have a testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ! I KNOW HE LIVES! I know He loves me! He truly is my Savior and redeemer, it is because of His sacrifice that I can live! I am grateful for His perfect example, that I can strive to follow in His footsteps. I know the power of prayer, and know that God hears us and answers our prayers. His answers aren't always that way we expect or want, but they are inspired and always for a reason. I know the Book of Mormon is true, it is another testament of Jesus Christ! I know that we are blessed with a Prophet and leaders to help us through these latter days, I am grateful for their counsel, I know they are God's mouthpiece. I am so grateful that families can be sealed together forever! I am thankful to have the knowledge that I can return to my Father in Heaven and live with Him, and the ones I love the most forever! I am so thankful that I have such an amazing husband that I get to be with for eternity! I love him more and more each day, and feel honored to call myself his wife! I love the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, and know it to be true!

Camelback, Fountain Hills and Utah

We got back home after our trip to Utah over Christmas and were motivated to get into better shape. We decided to tackle a well known hike in Scottsdale called "Camelback Mountain". I did the hike a few years ago when I came down to Scottsdale with some girlfriends over spring break. I remember the hike being challenging, but nothing serious... I remembered wrong. I talked my friend Stacey into coming with James and myself, telling her it was moderately difficult. The three of us completed the hike in a good time, but I got a much better workout than I anticipated. We had a good time, but I've decided it's a hike I will only do once a year (if that). It was fun, and I'm glad we did it!

Collin, Stace and I decided we need to do more "field trips" and see more local sites. So our first big field trip was to Fountain Hills. It is about an hour drive from us, so we packed the kids up and went to see the fourth tallest fountain in the world. It was really fun to see! It was amazing to be standing 100 yards away and still feel mist from the fountain! It's definitely somewhere I'm going to take visitors!

James' younger brother Ryan returned from serving an LDS mission for two years in Lubbock Texas! We were so excited for him to come home, so we decided to make a surprise visit to Salt Lake! It was fun to be picked up from the airport and go straight to see James' older sister and her kids. It's amazing to see how much kids change over such short periods of time! Julie is at the best stage where she is retaining everything, asking questions, singing all the time, and is just the cutest little two year old! It was so fun to catch up with their little family and see the kids. We then dropped by my house. The best was showing up at my parent's house and walking in to see my mom. I told her to be expecting a package I sent in the mail in the early afternoon, instead I walked in the front door.. it was SO MUCH FUN to see her reaction! I walked in, yelled her name (like we always do when we get home), she came running down the stairs screaming and in total shock. She ran up to me, stopped 2 feet in front of me and just starred. It was so fun to give her a big hug! I got to spend some time with her that afternoon which is always my favorite, I loved catching up and seeing her! She is one of my best friends, so it's never long enough when we're together! We had a lot of fun that night with the Brewsters. We went out to dinner (always my favorite), then had so much fun playing games. James decided to bring a Fogg tradition into the Brewster household, making a consequence for the loser of each game we played. Dad ended up calling the Bishop, telling him he loved him and hanging up, Mom had to act like a chicken for 20 seconds in the kitchen, Ryan had to doorbell ditch the neighbors, and James had to howl like a wolf... all I have to say is I felt bad for the neighbors that night. The next day we went sledding with the family. It was my kind of sledding, a chain pulls you up the hill, you sled down, then do it all over again! It was a blast, and I loved taking pictures in beautiful Utah with the mountains and snow- it is beautiful! That night we spent time with my family, went to Rio then played some games and talked the whole night. It was a blast! Sunday Ryan gave his homecoming talk, he did a fabulous job, it was fun to hear more about his mission! We spent a lot of time with James' family (the main reason we went up). It was so good to see Ryan, he looks just the same as before he left! He is such a light, and it's fun to see how the family dynamic has changed with him being home! It was a quick trip, but we loved every minute! We are so grateful we had the opportunity to go home for that special weekend!

Photo Class, Banana and Valentines Day

This week has been another good one, James has been super busy with wrapping up this semester and preparing for finals. This week he cut a head in half in anatomy, we were eating dinner when he told me all about it... woof! Let's just say I didn't finish that meal. He continues to absolutely love what he is learning and studying. His Osteopathic Manipulation class has also improved his massaging skills which I am grateful for. He has been so consumed with school that I asked him a question recently and instead of an answer he responded "thank you"- haha. He continues to amaze me and even though I only talk about him studying, he does a good job balancing his time and spending time with me.

I just finished my photo class, I cannot believe how much I learned! I thought I loved my camera when I got it... I'm obsessed! There was so much I didn't know, and I'm sure tons and tons I still don't know! I've loved going for walks and taking random pictures of different things. It's been fun to know a little bit better what I'm doing, and get some fun pictures out of it! I need lots of practice to feel comfortable with everything, and hopefully I can get to a point where I can be confident and get several good pictures from a shoot. I have found a passion that I have, and James has been so awesome to provide opportunities for me to learn about photography. First he bought me a camera, then lessons, he's a sweetheart! I've loved it!

I've also loved working! I'm working at a bank close to my house, it's been such a fun change of pace! I've loved having that responsibility, and feeling "needed". I've also felt like I've been pushed to learn a lot at a rapid pace which is always fun to feel that challenge. It's been a huge blessing, I am so grateful for my job!

Early on in the week I noticed our car was smelling funny, later on in the week I noticed my house smelled similar to that foul smell. I was going nuts, I drove with the windows down a few days in a row, and had all our windows open all day Saturday. The smell didn't go away! So I deep cleaned the house and car... nothing! After a few days passed and I had come to the realization that our hygiene isn't as good as I had thought. We were driving to church when I decided to put on my favorite lip gloss, I was digging around in my purse and couldn't find it anywhere... so I dumped the entire purse out in hopes to come across the lip gloss. Low and behold a BLACK banana falls out with my stuff, the seams were starting to rip open. It was instantly that I realized where that foul smell had come from for all these days. I washed my purse, sanitized all my stuff in my purse and I can finally say with pleasure that the smell is officially completely 100% gone!

Valentines Day... neither James or I have ever been big fans of the holiday until we started dating. We went on our first date on February 13th, so "US" began around Valentines and we now celebrate on February 13th. We went to The Olive Garden for dinner because that's what we did on our first date, it was so fun to sit there and talk about all we've done, where we've gone, and the good and bad times together. I then gave James a photo book of all our pictures from 2010 that I made for him. It was so fun to look through that- we both decided we look a lot older now. James was a sweetheart and gave my a massage for Valentines day, I fell asleep and slept until the next morning... romantic right? It was a fun day to reflect and talk about our story.

February 13, 2009- Our First Date

February 13, 2012- 3 years later

Ugly Sweater Party, St George, and HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

We had an awesome holiday season! We spent a lot of time here in Arizona which was fun. We loved having all the decorations up, and celebrating with our friends and ward. It was definitely different then going to all the family Christmas parties, but we loved it. We had a fun Ugly Sweater Party with our "Arizona Family", and a few little White Elephant parties with friends.

We stayed here until James finished his finals, an hour after he was done we hit the road for St George. We met James' family there and spent a few days with them golfing, playing games and just spending some really good family time together. One morning James and Dad B got up to watch the sunrise and take pictures with our new camera, they turned out beautifully- it was a highlight for James.

After St George we went back home to Utah to be with our families. The first night we were there we were lucky enough to help my brother Alex propose. He had us set up a little Christmas tree, candles, and presents at a place they like to go together. We left, he proposed, then we cleaned up... doesn't necessarily sound like the most exciting, but it was a blast. I felt all those emotions and all the excitement of when James and I got engaged. We are so excited for Alex and Kandalyn, we couldn't be more happy about their choice to be married in May! WAHOO for another sister!!!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family, we had a nice dinner, ate Sabigone (a family favorite), had a little "talent" show and enjoyed catching up. We woke up on Christmas morning, went to church, came home and put our pajamas on and opened presents. I surprised James with a photo book I made of our pictures from 2009, it was so fun to watch him open it, and reminisce about all the fun times we had dating! We were able to go to James' house to talk with his brother that is on a mission which is always a neat experience. We loved talking with him, and being with the Brewster family! Being with Uncle Clark on Christmas is magical- his innocence and believing as a child. Watching him brought back memories of Christmas's growing up- writing letters to Santa, not being able to sleep the night before, being excited about opening every single present!! That is the magic of Christmas!

We enjoyed visiting family and friends over the Christmas break- seeing our parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, and friends is what keeps us going on hard days when we are back in Arizona. We loved spending time with those we love most! We are grateful for the wonderful family we have, and for those who support and love us through the ups and downs of life!

Pictures, Ward Party, Lights, Chruch and Getting Ready for CHRISTMAS

This week was a great one, busy but great! 

I took a few pictures of some friends' kids which was a lot of fun and something I would like to get better at, if you want free pictures to give me experience let me know! ... here are a few of my favorites (you wouldn't think these were taken in December, gotta love Arizona weather)...

 one of my favorites, he's such a sweetheart

walking with her mom, precious

James and I were on the ward Christmas planning committee, the party was this week. It turned out great, the decorations, food, program, there was a good turn out. Anyways for part of the party we were assigned to watch the nursery kids so the parents could get a break and socialize and participate in a game. So we just winged it, playing "Follow the Leader", singing, coloring... then we came to a pause. James said "let's go on a bear hunt". I had no idea what he was talking about, so I just directed the kids to look at him and copy what he was doing as I stood in the back of the room. So he was telling this story and having the kids rub their hands together, pad their thighs, use their hands as binoculars, etc. The kids were captivated by his story, then all of the sudden James yelled "AAAAHHHHHHHHH", and lifted his hands up (pretending the be the bear). It scared half the kids to death, they all came running back to my side of the room and a bunch of the little girls started crying. Just after that the parents came to pick their kids up, to find half of them crying and the other half in shock and scared. It was pretty funny because James didn't mean to scare them, he just got into the story... either way I think it's safe to say we won't be getting called into nursery any time soon. 

On Saturday night we got a group of friends from our ward together to go see the Christmas lights at the Mesa LDS temple. We met at Cafe Rio (a Utah favorite) for dinner first, then went to see the lights- they were amazing! We loved seeing all of them because it made it feel like it's Christmas finally. At the visitor's center they had a bunch of Nativities set up from different countries around the world. I loved walking through the display because I collect Nativities! It was a really fun night!

Notice the lights on the palm trees, something I've never seen before!

James and I also spoke in church on Sunday which is always an experience. James spoke about patience and the importance of patience, then gave examples of prophets in the scriptures and the patience they had to learn. He then told a few personal stories of times his patience has been tried. He said "sometimes all you can do it just hang in there and that's ok"! He did an amazing job, I was so proud of him! I spoke about charity and talked about how we need to have charity in our daily lives. Charity isn't only giving to the sick and in need, but it is seeing others as Christ sees them. It is having Christ like love, and representing our church and more importantly our Savior Jesus Christ in the best possible way. Click HERE for a talk President Monson gave on charity that I got my thoughts from.

Lately James has been in the funniest mood, he keeps me laughing all the time! So, I was saying a prayer- James and I were standing on either side of the counter. I finished it, looked up and James was gone! I was so confused and looked around, then realized he probably just ducked down and was hiding behind the counter. I said "duh James", he popped up, said "amen" and started eating. It was hilarious, I burst out laughing and still give him a hard time for not being reverent! 

We are doing well, loving the Christmas decorations in our house (the tree lights are on 24/7) and are loving this holiday season!  

The wreath I made

 ... James' Christmas socks... thanks Ben!

Utah Over Thanksgiving

So we went home to Utah over James' two week Thanksgiving break! We absolutely loved being home with our families and friends, visiting loved ones, and being "home". We loved the mountains, snow and familiarity... BUT we did not like the coldness at all. Reality hit that we have become true Arizonians by adapting to the weather here, anything below 85 is jacket weather, below 80 is pants and jacket weather, and 75 and below is coat, pants and jacket weather. Needless to say we slept in our sweats with three comforters every night, and cuddled together all night every night. 

It was so fun to have James done with his first quarter of Medical School, I felt like I had my James back, he didn't have any school to study for or worry about. I loved the fun memories we made! 

These are our good friends, The Browns! We carpooled to Utah with them, what a fun adventure! Between our ghetto life-threatening stop at Burger King in Boulder City, and sticking dirty diapers out the window, it was memorable!

First things first... Rio with Christin.  

 The guys went to the U game in freezing cold weather, so the girls went to Rio...

Visiting Great-Grandma Verna

We got to spend a day with my other boyfriend Tommy, it was so fun being with him again- 

I miss that little guy so much!

Hanging with Kate... always an adventure- I love it!

With the girls, so much fun to reminisce about the good times! 

Thanksgiving dinner with the Brewster family!

 James and me on Thanksgiving

We spent about 50% of our time playing games, Scrabble was the #1 hit!

 on "Black Friday" we hit WalMart at 10, Target at 12, then slept out at RC Willey... we love it!

Shopping and eating downtown at the Gateway

James and Julie playing!

We spent a night eating, playing and catching up with the Webster family- we love you guys!

Put James and Taylor together and you never quite know what to expect... 

this is Tay showing us his planes and what he does- pretty cool!

James and me at the Utah State basketball game

 Some quality G & R time!
We spent a night playing in Logan with our bestest friends!

We were lucky enough to meet our new "niece" Grace right after she came.

We are so excited and happy for Doug and Alicia- we love you guys!

White Coat Ceremony, Book of Mormon & Halloween

October 21st was James' White Coat Ceremony, where he receives his white coat (as if you couldn't figure that one out from the title). It's like a graduation, so James' parents and sister came down to Arizona for the event. They came down and stayed with us for a few days which was so much fun! We played a bunch of games, ate out, swam and laughed a lot! It was so fun to have family here and spend time with people we love so much! Unfortunately I came down with the stomach flu the night before the White Coat Ceremony and wasn't able to watch James get his white coat (seriously heartbreaking), but I heard it was great and they got some good pictures for me.

Danny, James, James & Bryan with their White Coats 

Mom, James, Dad & Sarah after the ceremony

I had an amazing opportunity last week that I am so pumped about! In Phoenix The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is doing a mormon.org campaign. It has been a big deal in our area! The missionaries went to every member in our Stake's house and we had an entire Sunday dedicated to teaching the members about the big campaign. The simplified version is that the church is doing this to clarify and dispel myths, tell the truths about the church and giving people an inside look at what mormon's do- clarifying that we are regular people. It's a really cool and very inspired idea! So we were all asked to create a profile and prepare ourselves for questions about our church's billboards, tv commercials and advertisements all over the city. Seeing that I surround myself with a lot of friends that share my beliefs, I didn't expect I would have the opportunity to share the gospel and talk about this amazing campaign. I was lucky enough to have a guy that repaired our windshield ask me about "mormons" and the church. I was able to refer the man to mormon.org, give him a copy of the Book of Mormon and share my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel! It was amazing! He received what I had to say and the copy of the Book of Mormon really well, I pray he will read it and find for himself that the church is true! If nothing else I hope I helped clarify misunderstandings and planted a seed for the future.

For Halloween we had a few parties that we had to hit up- two of which we had to dress up for. For anyone that knows us knows that we aren't big dresser-upper-people. Last minute we decided on being "Nerd's" (complete opposites from last year's "gothic" costumes)... I think our costumes turned out great, until we started getting comments like "why didn't you guys dress up?"... funny punks!

carving pumpkins with the Boyack's and Gordon's 

awkward...

We also went to a pumpkin patch with some friends to "get in the spirit" of Halloween and fall. It ended up being a lot of fun! We rode some bicycles, looked at animals and did an awesome corn maze!

We continue to do well. James' finals are the next two weeks, and I'm trying to plug along with my schooling. I'm not enjoying my classes as much this time around, but am trying to make the most of them. James was recently called to serve as the Assistant Scout Master in our ward. It's a win-win situation because he gets his camping in, and I'm just happy I don't have to help satisfy that "need" of his wanting to camp. We are loving hot tubbing more now that it's actually cold at night, we loved it before, but are obsessed as of late. We are enjoying the "cold" weather (80's and low 90's), and look forward to Thanksgiving break!