thankful.

im suppose to be studying right now... but i have so many thoughts running through my mind that i cant concentrate. the last few week have been overwhelming, stressful, tiring, frustrating and at the same time so filled with gratitude, love and peace. I love this country, my family, friends, the gospel, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I don't even know where to start... I feel like there is so much going on right now in my life and there is so much that i want to learn & so much that i want to do differently and do better. I love BYU and yea it probably seems like I am turning into a crazy byu student but i love this gospel with all my heart. i love the scriptures and i love how much Heavenly Father loves us. We are lucky going to school here to have the opportunity to study the scriptures and the prophets on a daily basis. My testimony has grown ten fold since i have been here and i love learning more, i cant seem to get enough. My heart goes out to Mitt Romney and his family and all that they have gone through to fight for this country and what is right. I love him for that, and I know that even though he didn't win that this is how it is suppose to be. I am okay with it only because i know who is really in charge. i love what President Ezra Taft Benson said in his talk "Our Divine Constitution" "I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph Smith. It will be saved by the righteous citizens of this nation who love and cherish freedom. It will be saved by enlightened members of this Church—among others—men and women who understand and abide the principles of the Constitution. I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document. To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God has placed His stamp of approval upon it. I testify that the God of heaven sent some of His choicest spirits to lay the foundation of this government, and He has now sent other choice spirits to help preserve it. We, the blessed beneficiaries of the Constitution, face difficult days in America, “a land which is choice above all other lands” (Ether 2:10). May God give us the faith and the courage exhibited by those patriots who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor." May we be equally as valiant and as free, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." I love this. There is still so much good out there and we need to continue to be that good and to stand up for what is right. We need to pray for our leaders of this country. I cant express enough how grateful i am for President Monson and his counselors and the other general authority. We are so lucky to have Heavenly guidance through them.

FALL

I am not quite ready for winter, and wish that fall would last forever...okay maybe not forever but at least a little longer! please. I love the pretty colors and anticipation of the holidays coming up, school breaks and getting together with family. I love wearing boots and sweaters and cuddling in blankets. I love that fall gives you yet another excuse to bake yummy treats (not that i really need one). I am so greatful for the changing seasons... how beautiful is this earth! I love that the changing seasons give us an excuse to appreciate the beauty of life and death as the earth blossoms and dies right before your eyes. both are beautiful:) Anyways, we went to the park last sunday to try to soak up a little more of this wonderful fall weather and played some football & took some silly pics. Also, Krista turned 19! where is the time going! she is turning into such a beautiful young women and I am proud to be her older sister. She is such a fun girl and such a good little nanny. She is going to be the greatest mom ever. We are so lucky to have Krista in our family! Thanks for being such an awesome little sister. I love you! (she was begging to go to the nicklecade for her birthday, so she insisted on eating cake first and opening presents, going to texas road house 'real quick' for dinner and then finishing the night at the arcade. we had so much fun! Krista and Braydon dominated the games and ended up with So many tickets. Of course they turned them all in for candy. duh.)

life has been crazy! crazy busy, but good. let me give you a little update because I haven't blogged in a while! surprising? no... back in august right before school started and after we finished selling we were lucky enough to go up to Seattle and visit with steve and angie and everyone else was there too!(except for jared :(...It was so much fun! They had a big family bbq for work and we got to play on the big blow up slide and had so much fun having races and competitions :) There is also a blueberry farm right next door to their house, and boy do i love blueberries! :) i was so happy. & I ate so many. and then we made blueberry shakes.YUM

we also got to go downtown and steve and angie took us to the crab pot. IT WAS AMAZING!! thanks again! :) i loved it.

Braydon won a sean white board. he was a happy boy. :)

A couple of weeks ago, we finally went to the temple for the first time in 2 months.. :/ it was so nice. the flowers were beautiful & of course so was the Temple... and this boy was/is handsome :)

Every time i leave the temple i wonder why i don't go more often. On September 18th, I turned 24. yayyy! (i am starting to already be sad to get older.. :( seriously i dont want to grow up!) but brayd and all my family made it so fun! Thanks again everyone for the gifts. they meant a lot! :) my family invited us up to park city for dinner and cake a presents the day before my birthday. They made the most yummy meal ever and they were way to nice and i was overwhelmed by their kindness. I have the best family ever. and i love them so stinking much.

on my birthday me and brayd had class until 7 so after we went to texas roadhouse so i could stuff my face with rolls and honey butter. and then we went to MeCrepes and ordered a biscoff crepe! sooo good! we felt so sick after.

School is keeping us very busy. We are both going full time and doing track... i dont know how this happened but i was talked into trying out for the track team at byu and by some miracle i made it through the first cut! :) soo i have been training with the girls and gettin my booty into shape! i have no idea where this will go.. maybe i will be cut in december or maybe i will somehow make it through and get to compete. never know, but for right now i am trying to enjoy it, & whatever happens i will be fine with :) well until next time... xoxoxo!

California update summer 2012

I cant believe how fast time has gone out here! we have been out in southern california selling since June 4th and it has flown by! we only have 1 week left! Here are a few of the fun things we have been able to do out here :) We went to a Dodgers game, it was actually "mormon night" and Uchtdorf was there and he threw the first pitch! :) the dodgers lost terribly... but it was a fun experience!

As a team we got to go ride go carts, play mini golf and try the batting cages

The LA temple is so pretty (but aren't they all?!) and soo big! After the temple we went to an ice cream/cookie shop in LA that is so amazing! Its called Diddy Reise, & we love it! Im pretty sure I could eat one everyday. My favorite was simple, chocolate chip cookies with cookies n cream. YUM! (im serious, its not just an ice cream cookie sandwich... don't let the picture fool you.)

Our favorite beach that we have found down here is in Malibu, its called Zuma beach and it is so pretty and clean and each time we have gone there we have seen dolphins! This is Braydon body boarding at the beach :)

Around the End of July we were lucky enough to be able to take a week off to drive up to cascade idaho and spend some time with the Bringhurst family! :) it was an awful drive but a very fun week! We left late friday night around 8 and didnt get to cascade until saturday around 4 pm. looooooongest hottest drive ever. (we have no ac) but we survived! and it was worth it! They have a cabin up there so we got to stay 2 min from the lake and just got to chill for a few days. we had campfires, roasted yummy treats, swam, wake boarded, rode the four-wheelers, played on the beach, rode jet skis, did the zipline, ate lots of delicious food, and relaxed.. scratch the relax part haha with Braydon for a husband, we were always doing something... i forgot to mention our 16 mile bike ride and my "run" to try and squeeze a workout in, pulling him on the jetski wake skating and staying up wayyy too late, every night. :)

After Cascade on the way home we stopped in Park City and got to make a quick trip to Flaming Gorge with part of my family and grandparents. it was a lot of fun and we got some good wakeboarding/wakeskating in! we cant wait to go back in a few weeks!:)

Braydon and Krista talked Colton into jumping in if they all did it together...

But colton had other plans... haha I dont know how he got out of both of their hands!

Dont worry though, he ended up going in anyways :)

This last week Krista got to come and stay with us and it was so much fun having her! I dont know if she had a lot of fun but i did! :) I brought her on the doors a little bit selling with me, but for some reason she was a bigger distraction than I thought and I didnt prove to be a very good salesman with a partner. :/ (I promise I dont always suck that bad Krista) Dont worry though, thats not all we did with her, we got to go see some of our family here in valencia, did a little shopping, watched some olympics, went to the pool, and then kelsey and troy came down too for a couple days! We went to six flags, the beach, santa monica pier for dinner.. ate some crab, went to diddy reise and hollywood!

and there you have it... a small glimpse into our summer :)