Bachelorette Party!

So before my big day, I had an amazing week with some of my favorite girls! I am so blessed to have the friends I do, I had three of my friends from school come out and my three closest and oldest friends from home. On Monday Sarah and Megan drove in from Vegas and Sarah made the long hall from North Carolina to be with me. I truly was so grateful for them coming out. Then Hallie flew in from Colorado on Wednesday and I was so excited for this because I had not seen Hallie for over 8 months! Then Shelby came home on Thursday from Flagstaff for the wedding. Paige and Karissa hung out me the whole week because they were at home as well.
The girls helped with all of the last minute details and even made my garter for me! Then on Thursday was our night of fun! Paige had made reservations for a dinner show at a place called LIPS in Hillcrest. This is a place I have wanted to go to for so long because it was a drag queen bar/restaurant where they put on a show of different Divas and interact with the audience. It was great to be out and just relax with everyone and not worry about wedding plans for a night. It was a great show and we certainly have lots laughs that will last a life time!
When we got home we decided to choreograph a line dance to "honky tonk ba donky donk" by Trace Atkins. It was so fun and performing it at the wedding was a hoot, Kendall thought it was pretty funny! My bachelorette party was such a great way to start off the wedding madness. I am so grateful for all of my girls who came to celebrate with me. I really have the best friends and all of them supported me one hundred percent and made this great time in my life that much better!
I am grateful for my wonderful friends and they sure knew how to put on an amazing party!

All of my favorite girls at my house before we went to LIPS!

The girls made me wear a huge crown and sash to dinner!

Hallie and I, first college roommate and one of the closest girls in my life!

All of the girls and the drag queens from LIPS! It was such a fun show!

A couple of the drag queens, these "ladies" sure had some sass!

Yummy shirley temple with our complementary cup!

Megan and I, this is one of my last roommates before I got married, and one of the best friends I will ever have! 

Karissa and I... inseparable since 7th grade! 

Cute Sarah ready to have a fun time... love her and so grateful she came all the way from North Carolina to celebrate with us!

Shelby and Paige were also part of the game but I didn't have pictures of them :(. I am so grateful for all of those who helped with the wedding and made mine and Kendall's day so great! Thanks for reading, happy day and happy November!

I love to see the Temple!

This weekend Kendall and I had the opportunity to attend the temple, I love every time we are able to go because it is such a strong reminder of how much I love this gospel and why we are here on this earth. The temple is such a place of comfort and a wonderful place to ponder and pray. This semester has had it's trials and after many crazy weeks of school for both Kendall and I, it was so nice to go to the temple and to feel the peace within the Lord's house. The temple is such a safe haven for me and I am beyond grateful that I live in a place where there is one only a few minutes from our apartment, we are truly blessed to go to BYU-Idaho and have a house of the Lord so close to us.

Before Kendall and I were sealed in the temple on August 24th, I had the opportunity to receive my endowments on July 20th. This was such a great day for me because I had my sister, her husband, my dad, Kendall and other family and friends by my side as I made this major leap into the next step of my life. Having my dad with me was such an amazing blessing and an answer to so many prayers, to have him there made the experience so much sweeter. This day was quite a whirl wind before I stepped into the temple but as we were finishing and I walked out of the temple, I felt so loved by my Heavenly Father and at that point I realized that he loves ME and watches out for ME and wants happiness for ME. He is there for each one of us and after I was able to be endowed I realized how important this gospel is in my life and the work of this church is so vital and important.

One of my best friends McKenzie, it was so great that she was able to be with me at the temple, we have come so far since we met so this day was really fun for us!

My amazing family!

My dad, my sister and I. What a sweet day this was for us to all be together in the House of the Lord.

I love my dad so much and was so grateful he came up to Idaho and was able to be apart of this great part of my life!

I cannot explain how grateful I am for my sister, she helped me through the whole process of going through the temple and has always been such an amazing example to me of how to live my life!

This day was so great for Kendall and I because it meant we were one step closer to being sealed for eternity! I loved being able to spend the day with him.

These are all of the people who took time out of their day to be apart of this great experience in my life. 

The next major point that happened for me in the temple was when I was able to be sealed (married) to Kendall for all time and eternity. I had waited two years for this day to finally come and o how sweet it was to make promises to Heavenly Father and Kendall to be the best wife I can be and to start my eternal family with my husband. Being able to be sealed to my husband for eternity is such a great feeling and walking out of the temple hand in hand to greet our families as husband and wife was just the start to our eternal journey together! It is also wonderful to go back and do work for others in the temple so they can receive the same blessings we were promised when we were sealed together.

A picture taken from right when we walked out of temple after being married!

I have such a strong testimony of the temple and as part of my gratefulness of Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the temple and the blessings we can all reach because of it. Here is a Mormon Message of the blessings of the temple and really how great it is that we are able to have access to have them all around us in all corners of the earth! Happy Sunday and Happy November!

Halloweeny and Kendall's 24th Birthday!

This past week was a little crazy but very very fun! Halloween and Kendall's birthday are right next to each other so it is always a little crazy those couple of days! This year was mine and's Kendall first Halloween as a married couple! We had our ward party the Monday of Halloween and I had no idea what we should dress up for Halloween as a couple. I asked a few friends in my class and one girl told me to be Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter. This became a great idea because Kendall has red hair, which is a major requirement to dress up as Ron. That idea was decided upon at noon on Monday and the party was that night at 6:30. I went to DI to find some sweaters and one of my very awesome teachers let me borrow a Harry Potter tie and scarf! My friends also let me borrow some clothes to look like Hermione! I then printed out the emblems of Gryffiindor and pinned them to sweaters and within just a few hours we were in business with some pretty awesome costumes!

Ron & Hermione (Kendall was playing the part of Ron a little too well with his facial expressions!)

Our "selfies" after our ward party of our costumes. 

Us at our ward Halloween party!

I said something I thought was funny and Kendall didn't think so... hint to his perplexed face!

This is Kendall's Ron "smiling" face & another one of our Ron and Hermione "selfies"

 I also was able to dress up at work with the rest of the secretaries at work on Halloween day and that made it a lot of fun! A lot of people actually knew who I was and Halloween was a fun day with these amazing girls! Kendall and I were also on an Ultimate Frisbee team this semester with some friends, we signed up in the beginners league and were not planning on getting very far but we made it to the finals! The game was on Halloween, it was raining/ sleeting and about 34 degrees. Unfortunately we lost 6-4 but still had a lot of fun!

All the secretaries & Sister Luke on Halloween in the office!

Clearly you can tell we can never be taken seriously!

The next day was Kendall's birthday! He turned 24 this year and this is his third birthday we spent together! This year I made him a cake out of Dr. Pepper cans because he does not like cake and each year I get him the number of cans of Dr. Pepper for how old he is turning and do some kind of gift or design with them. I also got us dinner from Costa Vida and had a camp out in our living room after school on Friday, because Kendall loves to camp but I was not about to camp outside when it was 35 degrees outside. We then had friends over for Angel Food cake (the only kind Kendall likes) and other sweet treats. One of these treats were caramel apple cupcakes with caramel apple frosting from Pillsbury. These cookies were super easy and delicious, definately a must try! We had a lot of fun and I loved celebrating with Kendall after a very crazy week!

My instagram picture tribute to my amazing husband! Pictures from our dating years to now married life.

Kendall's DR. Pepper cake with a cookie and candles on top, along with all the other sweets I made for his birthday celebration. 

The angel food cake had "Happy Birthday" candles all around it, it may look like it is on fire but I promise it isn't!

Happy Birthday to Kendall!

Thanks to our good friend Casey took this perfect picture of Kendall blowing out his candles!

Halloween and Kendall's birthday always happen to fall on midterms week and this year they also were right after we moved into our new apartment! Needless to say it has been quite a crazy few weeks but marriage is very fun and exciting for us and I cannot wait for the holidays and more fun memories together as we start our first year of marriage and an eternity of more! Happy day and Happy November!

I AM GRATEFUL!

This may be a cliche post for Thanksgiving but I am looking at pictures and just thinking and am over whelmed with gratitude for the things I am grateful for. This past weekend was my husband's birthday and I had the opportunity to make his day special! In doing this I was reminded of how incredibly blessed I am to be married to him. My husband is so very patient with me and truly loves me for all of my quirks! He is the kindness man I know! I am so grateful that I was able to be sealed to him for all time and eternity in the San Diego LDS temple this summer.

This is from our wedding day right when we came out of the temple! More pictures coming soon!

I am also very grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So many times I take for granite the immense blessings I receive by being a member of this church. Although, after the world wind of a year my family and I had, I am so glad that I have the gospel as the backbone of my life. I have a true testimony of the atonement of the Jesus Christ and his love and comfort in each person's life, especially mine! The church is true! I know it, I live it, I LOVE it! Below is a video which is part of the "I am a Mormon" video campaign. I love these videos because it shows that we each are different but still can share the same faith and beliefs!

This is an "I am a Mormon" video of Brandon Flowers from the Killers... this gospel is great!

I am grateful for many more things, I will be posting throughout the month of different things and people I am grateful for but today I was looking through pictures and became overwhelmed with gratitude for my loving husband and how we are sealed for eternity, which is only possible because of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Happy November and Happy Sunday!