Merry Christmas!!

It's great to be home and I've had so fun celebrating these past few days! My grandmother joined us on Christmas Eve for dinner...

And we exchanged presents!

Santa's little helper :) Ever since I was 8 years old, Kersti and I have always done my mom's stocking! It's one of my fave Christmas traditions and it's always so much fun to get her everything and see how much she enjoys it!

Hung by the chimney with care :)

My mom opening her stocking!! Action shot :)

I love my nativity set and every year I get new figures to add to it! This year I got the three Wise Men!

You can see some of the nativity set! I need to take a better picture that has everything in it. p.s. My favorite kind of nativity sets are with Mary holding baby Jesus, it's just so sweet and loving

Just chillin' :)

Opening my precious Christmas package from Dan!! I love him sooo much and can't wait for him to be home next Christmas!! I LOVED getting to talk to him, that was the best part of the day!!XOXOXO

Dan sent lots of classic Christmas movies for our collection!! I can't wait to watch them, thank you sweetheart!!

And then we went to my Aunt Linda's Christmas party! Good times with everyone :)

My favorite Christmas saying is "Wise Men Still Seek Him", which beautifully reminds us what the true meaning of Christmas is. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!

I'll Be Home For Christmas!

It feels soo good to be done with the semester and to be home! Kersti and I got in about 2am yesterday :) Before we left, we got to attend the dedication of the BYUI Center. President Eyring, Elder Bednar and Elder Neilson were there and it was soo awesome to hear them speak. The center seats 15,000 and it's cool because I'll be graduating there next December :)

Elder Bednar speaking! (I was sneaky/naughty and took a pic)

On the shuttle!

The gas station/ Arby's where we stopped. It was snowing so I was a little worried it would get worse and delay our flight, but luckily it stopped snowing. The saddest part of the trip was when road divided and "To Reno" was on the left but we took the right to the SLC airport :(

On the plane! It was Kersti's 1st time flying across the country (since we drove out to school). I'm soo glad we made it home safely!

10 Days Until Christmas!!

I just wanted to post a pic of my cute little Christmas decorations!! I'm soo excited that Christmas is almost here :)

Oh Christmas Tree...

Dan and the other Elders he lives with got a Christmas tree yesterday and his mom forwarded me some pics and I wanted to post them so everyone could see!


Love the Santa hats :)

Thanks for Thanksgiving :)

I've been meaning to post Dan's Thanksgiving journal entry and I finally am! Enjoy!

11/26/10- "What a fantastic last mission Thanksgiving! Now onto next year when I'll be home! :) I'll write all about my day yesterday... we slept in until 7:30am which felt soooo good since it was a complete non proselyting day! The 1st thing I did was run to my boxes to open them!!!! Just WOW! I can't describe how grateful I am for all the love that my family sent!!! :) It was such an awesome package! They out did themselves! I'm gonna write about all I got!!! A "Spirit of Christmas" puzzle (gosh, what a surprise!! That was sooo cool to get! I can't wait to start it!! I never would have thought of that! :), a classic advent calendar (just how I remember them!! I can't believe they thought of this idea because I've though of having an advent calendar these days! I didn't even think of it last year. I love this one! I know I mentioned a Toy Story one but don't worry about that anymore because I have this classy one! So magical! It's hanging on my wall now next to my desk! :), a Christmas tree tie (!! I love it! Today is the day they're cutting down the tree!! :( I'm missing out. That's so classic! I'm wearing the tie today in honor of the tree farm :) I can't wait to be there next year! I haven't been there for 3 years! :( I'm even listening to John Denver and the Muppets right now because I always drove up with OE and this is what we always listen to!!! So many memories :/ :), new CDs (!! The new Josh Groban CD! I love it and I've already listened to it!! And the Thanksgiving instrumentals! I listened to that yesterday too and it's classic! Thank you!! :), a back scratcher (feels sooo good! Thank you! I love that! :), classy fall Snoopy hot chocolate mix!! Perfect! I'm gonna make some tonight in my Hump Day mug! Yummy!! :), pumpkin bread made by Jenny (!! so delicious! I put it out on the counter for everyone to share and they loved it and were thankful!! I love this house... they really appreciate nice things! Elder Estes even saved a plate and napkin for his memory box :) and so did I! I put all those classic plates, napkins and cups out with the bread for everyone to use and they're sooo cute and classic! They're so funny and Thanksgivingy too!! :) Thank you for making my Thanksgiving sooo festive!!), new gloves (Man! Perfect timing!! We've been out in the snow and I've been gloveless and so cold! Not anymore! My parents are so on the ball!! Thank you! They fit perfect and are so warm and cozy! Yay! :), Classic chocolate turkeys for everyone here (they actually all loved/ate them! They said "thank you brother and sister Taylor!" :) They were grateful and said I have the nicest parents ever... which is true!!! Thank you for everything and for being the BEST!!), such fun/cute Thanksgiving cards from everyone that all went together (!! That was so fun, opening each one and guessing which Thanksgiving icon could be next! I loved those! :) So classic!!), a Thanksgiving children's book ("I knew an old lady who swallowed a pie"... so funny/classic! I've never read that one! It will be timeless! Thank you for adding to the collection!! :), 2 amazing Hollister shirts (!! I love these!! What a cool idea to put a hood on a button up!!! Who was the one who found these!? They're so festive/fallish/winterish too!! They even fit perfect!! I wore the red one to the turkey bowl football game :) awesome!!! Thank you!!) and last but not least, my niece/nephew/mommy project!!!!! I loved it! It's on my wall now! So classic! I love how I'll have these all forever!! They're so special to me! It's genius! Thank you just soooooo much for all the work you put into all this!!!! Oh my gosh! I can't even thank you enough! Incredible! I then opened my amazing Brita package!!! :) Hmmmm!! I love her so much!! Thank you!!! I already went through each thing with her in the letter I wrote her but I'll write all the fun things she sent!! A Little People Thanksgiving set, stuffing and cranberry sauce, body wash, a Thanksgiving tie, a Christmas Cookie car air freshener, Josh Groban's Christmas CD, a Yankee Candle Be Thankful candle, a Thanksgiving soundtrack, Thanksgiving napkins, nice new socks, M&M's, gum and Vitamin C supplements!! Along with an adorable turkey card she made!! Hmmm! Thank you! Thank you! How did I ever get a girl like Brita!?! She takes such amazing care of me!!! Thank you all again SO much!!! After opening my packages we headed to the turkey bowl missionary football game in the freezing cold/snow. I'm glad I didn't play! Everyone else mostly was pumped about it though. Everyone was going crazy! We pulled up blasting "Eye of the Tiger" lol. Some other Elders and I (who didn't feel like playing) went to the mall (classic!!) and to a church building where I played the piano and the others played games. We all met back at the field after they played for ever 3 hours and then went home. I enjoyed my presents more and spent time organizing it all and then started my letter to Brita. We just chilled inside for the rest of the day and listened to my new tunes! We played Settlers of Catan (so fun!) and then I got ready for our 5pm dinner at the Moon's! I even wore my Brita Pilgrim hat tie!! :) It was such a funny/classic dinner. Tons of people and we were the only white people! I'll never forget it! What a night! Sooo much food! Everything was really pretty tasty but no mashed potatoes!!! :( They had rice instead. Oh well. We had turkey, ham, stuffing (which was actually really good!! I was impressed :), gravy, rolls, veggies, "greens" lol, cranberry sauce, different puddings and yummy candied yams/apples with marshmallows on top! Now that was good. It was overall traditional! Very tasty. I felt very blessed and grateful to be somewhere so generous to share their Thanksgiving with us :). It was so funny! It was a good time and I was stuffed. I had pumpkin pie to top it all off! Nice. I could not move. We shared a thought and took a picture with them :). We made some other visits to families that we know just to say hi and then came home around 7pm. We played Liar's Dice (with Pirate music in the background lol) and i was sooo stinkin fun! We played like 5 rounds. We had a blast. We played Settlers again, listened to more Christmas tunes/ Robby T (everyone loves Rob!) and got ready for bed :(. Thanksgiving was over. It was such a good one though and a classic memory now! It made me so happy but I miss my family sooo much! Pretty soon the tree will be up, Muppet Christmas carol will be on in the family room, the fire will be blazing and they'll be working on popcorn and cranberry strands while drinking hot chocolate ;). Next year! Love you all!!! Bye!!! XOXOXOX"

I'm Thankful For...

*My precious, loving Danny, our relationship and memories, that he's serving his mission (and is more than halfway done :) and the eternity we have to look forward to *My family and their love and the fun times we have and that Kersti and I are roommates *Dan's family and their love and generosity and how they always make me feel so welcome *The people who love me *Being accepted into the Nursing Program and the teachers who help prepare us to be the best nurses we can be *My health and my body that lets me accomplish everything I need to *Having the gospel in my life, temples and feeling the Spirit *My cute room that's decorated just how I like it and always feels so cozy *Having a car out at school so I never have to walk home carrying groceries *Cute clothes, Anthropologie, Hollister, UGG boots and hoodies *Disneyworld and all the fun, classic, amazing memories I have there *Watching movies on cozy couches *Pasta, ice cream, chocolate and all my other favorite foods *LIFE!!! I can't even count my blessings and I am sooo incredibly grateful for EVERYTHING that I have been given!! Happy Thanksgiving!! XOXOXO

Dan's a ZL!!!!!!!!!

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO proud of him!!!!! Here he is with Elder Mathis saying goodbye to Brent Bailey and his family before getting transfered. I'll keep you updated on Dan's new adventures :)

Last Halloween on the Mish :)

Here's Dan's Halloween entry! Enjoy!

11/02/10- "I have had no time to catch up in my journal at all! I have so much to write about! 1st of all a year ago today I was on the plane right now coming out here to the field! We were very tired from waking up at 3:30am but very excited to be leaving the MTC and coming to the real deal. Also Toy Story 3 is on DVD now... I know I've said it a million times but todays the day! :) Ok now onto the rest of Halloween!!! We went home after church for a quick snack and I took just a couple minutes to open a couple more things (the banner my mom made- I hung it up in the Byington's living room! And the candy corn tie from Brita so I could switch my ties halfway through the day! I'm gonna go into details of everything as a whole soon :) We made some visits and tracted until our 5:00pm dinner. It was at the Marshall's. They were nice. We had to get in by 6pm so we did. I was so excited to finish opening everything!! Now I can write about the contents of my spectacular packages!!!!! Oh my goodness!! I'm soooooo grateful!!! WOW!!! I was completely amazed by these. I had such a fun, festive time opening! Leave it to mom, dad and Brita to make my holiday out here so magical! In my parent's package to me I got: my Jack O Lantern tie (love it!! I got lots of compliments for it at church!) Shrek 4 soundtrack (thank you!! I listened to it while I was opening stuff! The cover is perfect for Halloween too! I noticed that detail mom :), "That Terrible Halloween Night" book (!! So classic! Helped bring the magic of home Halloween out here!! That was thoughtful and now I have that special hardcover version for my kids to enjoy someday! :), Pirates of the Caribbean Liar's Dice (!! That was such a cool surprise! I was like "Nooo way!" when I opened it! Very cool! I love that game!), a nice AE sweater and GAP jacket ( I love them!!!! You guys made such awesome choices and they fit perfectly! I tried them on right away! Perfect for fall!!), a dancing/singing Frankenstein (What a funny surprise! Where did he come from? We all got a kick out of that and the Byington's cracked up :) that was funny and festive!!), Halloween plates, cups and napkins (great choice! Is that what the family breakfast had? Thanks for making it more like home!!), Halloween cards (from mom, dad, Rob and Katie's fam! So cute!), fall brownies made by Jenny and Darin (So delicious! Thank you!) and Laurie's Halloween book so I could see it! I love it! I love stuff documented like that! So organized! I'm gonna do all sorts of stuff like that someday! Books, slideshows and home movies on DVD. Very cook! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING MOM AND DAD!!!! You have NO idea how grateful I am!!! It was sooo fun!!! You made my Halloween the best a missionary could ever have! Next year I'll be home!! I love you SOOOO much!! I'm just overwhelmed with love! Now onto Brita's spooktacular package!!!! Brita sent me: a candy corn tie (so cute! I love all the ties that mom and Brita find to go with the holidays! I'll have them for years to come! :), peach salsa (She knows I love that! That was so thoughtful!), gum and mints (I just ran out so perfect timing!), candy corn (such a classic Halloween candy! Yum!), popcorn ball (I've always loved those! :), pumpkin body wash (perfect timing once again! I was actually hoping for some of that! We're so connected!), Bath and Body candy corn hand sanitizer (smells so yummy! That was such a cool idea!), a pumpkin face cloth (I've used it the last couple of days! Thank you! So many fun/festive treats!), a Scrabble card game (I always love new games to play out here! Thank you! That should be fun! We'll probably play it today at lunch! :), crayons for kids to play with while we're teaching (great idea babe!! Thank you!!), homemade by Brita "Boo" blocks blocks (Sooooo cute and just our style!!! She did such an amazing job! They'll be in our house someday! That was such a cool idea! Thank you babe!) and ALL the stuff to make Ghosts in the Graveyard pudding!!! Yay!! Brita was so thoughtful! I've been making that with my fam since I can remember! That gave me something so fun to do since we had to be in! I have the best girlfriend EVER!!!!! Gosh! THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!!! I'm so incredibly grateful for you honey!! I love you all soooo much!! After I was done looking through everything and reading my cards/letters, I started the graveyard pudding! It was so fun and turned out perfectly! Mathis crushed all the Oreos and I did the rest. We all enjoyed it on festive plates I got from mom and dad! It was tasty!! Soooo fun! I even had story time with Mathis and the Byington's, I pulled up a chair in the living room and read them "That Terrible Halloween Night"! That was fun! They thought it was cute. I read it how I always remember mom reading it to me! I organized all my stuff and went to bed early- because we could! That was my amazing Halloween on the mish!! Thank you all again sooooo much!!"

It's already November!

Wow! Time is going by so fast! I'm always amazed how quickly the semesters go by! I had fun taking down my Halloween decorations and setting up my Thanksgiving decorations this morning ;)

My cute "Blessed" blocks that I made last Fall

Love baby Indian corn!

My mom sent me this adorable garland! Love it!

And my cute little door hanger. This pic is actually from last year because I haven't hung it up yet, but you can still see what it looks like!

Happy Halloween!!

I made Ghosts in the Graveyard and it was soo yummy! Thanks Jenny for the recipe :)

Soo cute!! It's actually harder than it looks shaping cool whip into ghosts so I called it good after two lol

I had so much fun making Dan's Halloween care package!!

All packaged up!! I can't wait for him to be home for next Halloween!!

I hope everyone had a fun and magical Halloween!! :)

Good Times in Nursing Lab :)

Every week I attend Nursing Fundamentals Lab and I thought I'd post some pics so you can see what I'm up to! Each week we learn new nursing skills like...

Giving shots! We practiced giving intradermal (like what you get for a TB test) on hotdogs :) We also gave each other IM (intramuscular) shots, so I can say I've given my first shot!


Brother Atwood showing how to embarrass your patient while giving a suppository, just so you know the mask, gown and shoulder length gloves are unnecessary, but pretty funny!


Learning about giving asthma medication

Putting in eyedrops

I'm learning sooo much! The program is awesome and keeps me very busy :)

You Know You're Waiting For A Missionary When...

Dan's Hump Day was last week! YAY! I'm soooo glad he's halfway done and I can't wait for him to be home! I've been wanting to do this post for a while and I thought it would be fun to do it now, enjoy :)

*The postal workers know and recognize you and ask how he's doing. You've also memorized all the rates, you know exactly when he'll get you letter and when you'll get his and you go onto usps.com to see if there are any cute stamps coming out.

*You're obsessed with anything related to where he is serving (this is why I have Waking Up in Vegas on my iPod lol)

*You have a bunch of timers counting how long he's been out and countdowns for how much time he has left. Some of them are in months, others are in days and others go by semesters. You always look at all of them to see which seems like the least amount of time until he comes home.

*You check your email 500 times a day on P-day.

*Whenever you're out shopping, you always look for cute care package gifts and ideas. And you're suddenly a lot more interested in ties so you can find awesome ones to send him.

*During the day you think about what you're going to write him in the next letter.

*You plan out the outfit you'll wear when you finally get to see him again.

*You kiss the promise ring he gave you before he left every night before bed.

*It hurts your heart that all your friends (even those who are younger than you or only dated for 4 months) are getting married before you, but you know your time will come eventually and you don't want to marry anyone else but him so nothing else matters.

*You LOVE picturing how excited he is when he gets a letter from you.

*You take lots of pictures of yourself just to send to him because you know he'll love them.

*You wait to see movies that he's excited to see and you have a list of what you're gonna watch when he gets back.

*You're a little jealous of him mission companion because you wish that you could be with him 24/7.

*Whenever something fun happens, you ALWAYS wish he was there and can't wait to do that again with him.

*Your heart skips a beat when you see his letter in your mailbox and you drop whatever you're doing or need to do to read it.

I LOVE YOU DAN!!!!! I'm soooooooo proud of you for ALL your hard work!! You are the best and I'm the luckiest girl because you're mine!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Updates from Dan!!

Here are some excerpts from Dan's latest journal entries. I can't believe he is just a few days away from being halfway done!

9/30/10- "While we were tracting down the street, two 10 year old kids came up to us on bike. They said 'are you missionaries from a church?' I was surprised! 10 year olds don't know who we are. It turns out that one of them has an inactive grandma that he lives with that we found on the ward list. That kid said 'I really wanna learn more and go to church...' A 10 year old usually doesn't say that! We told him we would come by sometime to his house! The other kid said we knocked on his door one say and he heard his parents say they weren't interested. He was like 'you know people don't like you knocking on their doors' Lol thanks! We said 'we know' haha cool/funny kids though."

10/01/10- "Catherine is really progressing. We pretty much set her with a date! We were there for 3 1/2 hours and it was just amazing. We covered like everything because of all her questions...We talked about Oct 30th as a baptism date but then she mentioned Nov 28th because that's her birthday. But then when she found out that I may be leaving on the 15th if I get transfered, she wanted to set it earlier because she wants me to baptize her! How miraculous is all this!?"

October is spooktacular!!

So this weekend I took all my Halloween decorations out of my holiday bin and decorated my room! Soo fun :)

Candy corn is my very favorite Halloween candy :)

"All Hallow's Eve" The cute garland I got last year!

I made this pillow in homemaking class my first semester out here! It's on my chair right now, but it makes me happy to post a pic of Dan with it! I'm sooo excited for him to be home next year!!

I love Halloween! Fall is such a classic time of year and carving pumpkins and haunted houses and spooky stuff is just soo fun!!

Scrubs :)

Just thought I'd post a pic since I wear these pretty much every other day!!

Dan's the cutest!!

Here are some excerpts from Dan's latest mission journals! He's totally loving it and I'm sooo amazed and happy to see how blessed he is for all his hard work!

9/15/10- "Now onto yesterday the 14th! 11 month mark! Yes! So close to the halfway point! We went to district meeting and it went so fantastic! My awesome district was very involved and everything (all my thoughts/presentations) connected great! The Spirit was very strong and I think we all learned something. I even used the stories that dad sent me about the power of testimony! It went perfectly! Thank you! Zone Leader Ainscough sat in and seemed to also really enjoy it... We booked it to out 6pm dinner with Joa and Steve!!! They're the Mackay's neighbors that became investigators last week!! Ok I cannot describe the personalities of these people or how funny they are. What characters! Soooo sincere though! They requested us so it's something they really want in their lives. We had an appetizer of his famous guac and boy was it amazing. Cooking is his absolute passion and he's so hilarious when it comes to food. Oh my gosh though...this guac had bacon, blue cheese, cilantro, lime, onion, etc and it was just fantastic. We all sat around the table and enjoyed that. We had our lesson and it went amazing! We got up to Jesus Christ, finished talking about him and we'll pick up next time at the Great Apostasy. He needed to get cooking our dinner. Man it was so fun over there! The Spirit was very strong and I could tell it touched both of them! So solid! Just amazing people! Steve even said the prayer and started crying. We had amazing, classy pasta, homemade meat sauce, and homemade garlic bread. He is VERY gourmet and VERY proud of his food. It's totally hilarious. Everything has to be perfect for him. THE funniest (most of the time not trying to be funny) dude ever. They even packed up leftovers for us!"

9/19/10- "Catherine came to church with Caylie!!!!!!!!!! :) Yes!!!! We were waiting for this day!!! Sacrament meeting went perfect with GREAT talks, a beautiful piano/singing musical # and topics that all related perfectly to her! I was soooo excited! She was gonna leave after sacrament (even though she was really enjoying it, she felt she had other stuff to do) but her daughter loved learning about God and Jesus and wanted to stay for Primary! So she did and Catherine came to Gospel Principles class!! It went amazing. We talked about Eternal marriage/families and it really hit home with her. It was perfect. It went a lot into the Plan of Salvation as well and she was amazed. She believed those things but never found a church that taught it. She even participated in class by telling stories and commenting/asking questions! I can't describe how perfect everything connected with what we're already talked to Catherine about. She stayed for Relief Society too and absolutely had an incredible time. I couldn't believe how touched she was and it was perfect because the lesson was on faith. That's what she has had the most trouble with- that's why Alma 32 touched her so much. Everything was meant for her at church. God was involved... that's for sure!"

My room!!

Well I finally finished setting up my room this weekend so I wanted to post some pics! Here's my bed and beautiful May Tree!

My picture frames and cute set of drawers! That's where I'll set up my holiday decorations each month :)

I still need to finish my bulletin board actually, but it's getting there

My cute little mums! Totally classic Fall!

I love my cute, cozy room!!

Mission updates :)

The Nursing Program is keeping me sooo busy! I'm so glad it's the weekend and I can finally catch up on life! Here are some excerpts from Dan's latest journal entries...

9/12/10- "We got ready and left for Brent Bailey's baptism!!! :) We have been waiting for his! It was a b-e-a-utiful baptism service. Everything went smooth and perfect and the Spirit was so strong. Brent, I could tell, was feeling it a lot. It was just so amazing to be involved with someone's life like that. Their family is 100% active, wife is active again and their 2 boys will be raised in the gospel and hopefully go on missions someday. What a feeling. I swear Brent will be bishop someday or someone high up :) I love missionary work! I'll never forget this experience. Their lives are changed forever and I know that next year at this time next year, he will be getting sealed to his family forever in the temple! WOW. It's so reassuring to me to know that I'm here for a reason."

9/13/10- "So the final stats this week were... 8 new investigators (Joa, Steve, Catherine, Dale, Justin, Chris, Mike and Scott!), 17 lessons, 66 contacts (we're keeping track of those now since the Zone Leaders started that last Tuesday) and of course 1 baptism and confirmation! What a fantastic week! Man did the blessings just pour out of no where!"

I miss Dan!!

It's been one year ago today since I've seen the one I love with ALL my heart! It makes me soooooooo sad just picturing our last day together and having to leave at the airport. It was definitely one of the worst/saddest days of my life :( This is the last picture taken of us together, my mom took it the night before when we were playing badminton. Haha I wish it were a little less random, but oh well. I'm glad I'm almost halfway done, and then we'll be counting down the months until Dan comes home! I can't wait for that! Even though I'm sooooooooooooooooo proud of him and I know he is doing what he needs to do and we'll be blessed for it, I still miss him every second that goes by and wish I was with him! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH DAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Road Trip!!

My mom, Kersti and I drove out to BYUI so I could have a car for the nursing program. This was my 1st time driving across the country (I've always flown out before) but it was really cool getting to see everything! Here are some pics from it...
All packed up and ready to go!

So I tried to take pics of all the welcome to a state signs, it's a lot harder than it seems lol, but I did manage to get this one and a few others

Mom and Kersti...and notice the Amish couple in line at Burger King behind them :)

Driving past Chicago!

We saw tons of windmills, soo cool!!

For some reason, this house was decorated with a ton of pumpkins :)

We stayed at this fun little hotel full of "regional charm" and it had all these decorations that we took pictures with lol





Good times! I'll do a post on my room once I've finished unpacking and it's all set up!