February 2011- Valentine's & Lotsa Bball

We enjoyed starting off the month with Ashley’s baptism.  She looked so lovely and it was a great day!  We felt lucky that we were invited to give the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost.  We have been thick in to the basketball season.  We are die-hard Aggie fans and were very happy to rush the court after beating Idaho and winning the WAC regular season for the fourth year in a row!  The Aggie bracket-buster game against St. Mary’s was also a definite highlight that was an emotional roller coaster of a game that ended positively;) We have also had fun watching Scott and his team do well in their Jr. Jazz games.  Jake has had fun being involved with our ward’s church ball team that plays on Saturday mornings.

We enjoyed listening to Elder Ballard speak at the annual Joseph Smith Fireside that was held at the spectrum.  We also had fun at a French party hosted by the Ambassadors and our ward’s chili cook off party!  Jake’s mom let me steal her mad white chicken chili recipe- and it was delicious! 

For Valentine’s Day we enjoyed a dinner at Element’s Restaurant and the Music Man, which was playing at the Ellen Eccles.  Other than that we’ve been keeping busy with the norm.  Jake is a hard working man putting in 50-55 hours a week doing taxes at his internship at Jones Simkins.  I am trying to keep my grounding despite any senior-itis that may try to creep on in.

We are thankful for the good family and friends we have and for the gospel.  Sending well wishes to everyone!

December 2010 & January 2011- Anniversary & Disneyland

-Written by Jake-

I can’t believe that I have been a part of Kristina’s wonderful family for more than a year now!  Our 1^st wedding Anniversary was on the 11^th of December and we look forward to many, many more.  I can definitely say it has been the best year of my life.

<Kristina’s insert: Here’s how our anniversary went down.  On the 10^th (day before our anniversary) we went to Jake’s company dinner at Hamilton’s.  On the way home I realized that we needed to go get Jake’s car from my parent’s house.  I kept telling him that we should be driving to my parents’ house and not away from it.  I was getting a little frustrated that he wasn’t turning around because it would just be a waste of gas to go get it another time.  Finally, he “heeded” my promptings and got in the left-hand turning lane.  Then I started feeling bad for being so adamant about getting his car.  While I was expressing that we really didn’t have to go and get the car he turned the car in to a driveway.  Within 10 seconds I thought all of the following: Oh, he must be turning back around now and we really aren’t going to go get the car.  Then he kept driving in to this drive way.  Oh my, it is the Anniversary Inn.  Oh, oh, oh!  I get it!  It was all very surreal and such a fun surprise.  So, turns out he had packed me a suitcase and we were going to stay in the Swiss Family Robinson themed room that night.  So we went inside.  The bed was up a story in the top of a fake tree.  There were starry lights that shined through the ceiling in the top of the tree, simulating sleeping under the stars.  There was a huge fish tank in the rock wall on the first level and bamboo furniture, leaves and branches everywhere, and cheesecake in the mini fridge. It was so cute.  What made it even cuter was what was on the table.  Jake bought me a rose (just 1 symbolizing 1 year of marriage), and he had a nativity set up.  I am addicted to collecting nativities and so he had bought me a really neat wooden one.  Also, he got me a funny card and inside was another surprise- a gift card to go buy some new jeans.  I had been wanting new jeans for sooooo long, and so he was genius and got me a gift card for someJ   So,  after all this we decided to go rent a movie.  We should have rented something like Tarzan, but we must not have been thinking correctly.  So, being Christmas time we rented Christmas with the Kranks, plus it was one of the only clean movies we could find.  It’s so hard to find a good, clean movie these days!  It was a pretty good show.  The next morning breakfast was delivered to our door and we ate it while watching the Heisman trophy announcement.  Well, the fun didn’t stop there.  We ran home to change, and then went to the VoiceMale Christmas Concert.  After that we went out to dinner, and then to the Aggie game.  It was such a great anniversary, mainly because I have the best husband ever!>

<Jake again> The holidays came and went so quickly and we loved being around family… LOTS of family.  Almost our entire break was spent running back and forth between Mortensons, Roskelleys, and Petersons, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

I worked during finals week and then took the holidays off in preparation for my accounting internship (which I love!), and Kristina worked 4 hours each morning, Monday-Friday, so we had lots of time to enjoy plenty of fun holiday activities including; Jazz games, company parties, the Motab Christmas Concert, sleepovers with the Roskelley kids, white elephant parties, Aggie basketball games, dinners and brunches, College Football bowl games, family Christmas traditions, and DISNEYLAND!

Two days after Christmas we headed to Anaheim with the Petersons for a quick three-day visit to sunny California.  Right after landing in Long Beach, we rented a car and drove straight to the Los Angeles temple.  Bill, Angie, Tina, and I did a session while Meghan and Nichole did baptisms and took pictures outside.  It is a gorgeous and HUGE temple and brings our total to 11.  We were grateful to get our vacation started in such a fun way.  After the temple we drove down to Newport Beach to visit my grandparents.  We don’t get to see them much, but they are great people and are always a riot and a joy to be around.

The next two days were spent in the happiest place on earth, Disneyland!  We loved experiencing all of the amazing Christmas decorations, music, smells, and rides.  They even changed the Haunted Mansion and It’s a Small World to be completely Christmas/Nightmare before Christmas rides.  It was magical.  The new World of Color show at California Adventure was quite magical as well.  We recommend it to anyone planning a Disney vacation anytime soon.

Now that the break is over, we have started real life again.  Kristina is busy plucking away at her last semester in college, while continuing to work 20 hours a week at JJ Cole.  We are excited/ nervous to see if she will get a full-time offer there, or if she will bless another company with her wicked skills.  I am now working 50-60 hours a week at my internship at Jones Simkins and I love it!  It is great to have a small break from school and experience the working man’s life.  I am glad to know that I will love to work, no matter where it ends up being.

We hope you all have a very happy February and a romantic Valentine’s Day!

Peterson Christmas Letter, 2010

-THE PETERSONS-                                  

How fun it’s been reviewing my photos to refresh my memory of the events of the past year.  Jake and I have now been married for 53 weeks.  Yes, we celebrated our first year anniversary last week!  We’re so grateful for all the support we received from everyone who came to our wedding, sent cards, presents, called us on the phone, etc.  Thank you.  Our wedding day was more incredible than we could have ever imagined.  We often joke that we want to go back and do it all over againJ  We were privileged to gallivant to Manhattan and Palmyra, New York for our honeymoon.  We enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Manhattan at Christmas and then ended off the trip with the calm and sacred presence that is all about the LDS Church historical sites in Palmyra. 

Over spring break we took a trip to San Diego.  We spent most of the time visiting many of the families from Jake’s mission.  Their company was great and their cooking incredible!  We stuck pretty close to home with our other traveling ventures.  We treated ourselves to a couple days in St. George, including a day at Zions’ Park, as we had a weekend break between spring finals and the beginning of our summer semester.  We enjoyed many outings to Bear Lake with the Roskelleys and the Petersons during the summer, and a fall-break trip to Park City with the Petersons.  Through our traveling, we make an effort to do a session in a temple we haven’t been to before.  We call it “temple collecting.”  This past year we collected 10 different temples!

Now for the low down on our day-to-day lives.  Jake and I have finished most of our general business education classes.  Sadly that means that we no longer have classes together.  Jake is heavily into his accounting major, and I into my marketing major.  We both have one semester left in our undergraduate education.  In July, I started working at an internship that I will stay at through the end of the school year (working part-time).  I am doing marketing and public relations work for JJ Cole Collections- a baby products company.  Jake recently was accepted into a full-time internship program at Jones Simkins Accounting Firm.  He will be taking next semester off of school and working 40-60 hours a week doing taxes.  I am scheduled to graduate this May and he will graduate next December.  My plan is to hopefully find someplace that will take me on full time (fingers crossed) and Jake will likely continue on to get a Masters in Accounting from Utah State. 

We keep busy with church callings and participation in extracurricular activities at USU. Ironically enough, after being married for one week, we were called to be the Marriage and Family Relations Sunday School teachers in our ward. Due to a ward split, we have also been able to serve in a variety of other callings, including the Young Men, Young Women, Relief Society, and Elders Quorum. Recently, Jake became a member of Beta Alpha Psi, a really great accounting society/club. This year, I have continued to be involved with the University Ambassadors. We have also stayed busy serving as VPs over Huntsman Scholar Committees and being members of the Business School Ambassadors program. 

However, our favorite thing to do remains spending time with both of our families.  We love their enthusiasm and cheerfulness and love being involved in their lives.

We wish you a joyful Christmas season filled with family, friends, and the CHRISTmas spirit.

Love, Kristina & Jake Peterson

November 2010- Thanksgiving & School Fun

Another great month has passed.  We started off November by attending the Nashville Tribute concert and going out to eat with my family for Jake’s birthday (which was just a couple days before).  If you haven’t heard of the Nashville Tribute series (Joseph Smith, Pioneer, Missionary tributes) I suggest you look them up.  They are a great band of LDS artists that live and work in Nashville, but have come together to do a church series- we love them! 

I got to experience the mad JJ Cole Warehouse sale.  The line was probably a quarter of a mile long of mothers camping out for the event.  My work also hosted a late Halloween Bowl.  I was awarded the “Play of the Game” trophy.  This was flag football, however, I completely took a guy out on a carry (not exactly on purpose though).  My leg had a good solid bruise for about a month after the incident.  We knocked shins together, but eventually the bruising got clear down to my foot.  It was worth it though!  Plus, Jake thought I was pretty cool.  Oh, and I am now a brunette, which makes Jake think I’m “doubly” as cool;)

Football season has wound down.  I hosted our last home game in the boxes.  Better yet, Aggie basketball season is in full force.  How we love attending every game and cheering (just the nice) chants.  Jake and I both attended the Salt Lake open house for business ambassadors.  It was fun recruiting people to the business school and Huntsman Scholars.  Also, Jake’s Huntsman Scholar committee threw a fabulous cook out that Jake and his mom slaved to prepare for 100+ people. 

We enjoyed celebrating Miss Heather’s birthday at Texas Roadhouse.  She did a nice showdown of riding the saddle.  Fancy mother also made a homemade Oreo ice cream cake.  The Jazz also gave Heather and all of us a great treat that night with their truly miraculous win over the Miami Heat.  We were so excited to attend the Jazz’s first home game after their incredible road trip.  We proved to be bad luck as they fell to Oklahoma City.

We also loved attending the LHS musical: “White Christmas.”  Jake had been hiding his acting and singing talents from us all this time…they definitely showed through as he sang “Sisters.”  It was fun visiting LHS again for the musical as well as for a recruitment trip.  And in case you were wondering, USU now has their own silly bands!

Thanksgiving was fantastic.  We enjoyed the Roskelley dinner at the Kerr’s home and then a linner at the Petersons.  Everything was delicious and the company was the greatest.  We enjoyed the break…spending time with family, black-Friday Christmas shopping, and seeing Disney’s new animated movie “Tangled-“ (one of our favorite movies of the year).

We also passed our 2-year first date anniversary!  We like bragging about such “big” numbers as we are always trying to get around the newly wed status. 

We wish you a memorable Christmas filled with family, friends, love and a joyful celebration of the Savior’s birth.     

October 2010- Crisp Fall Air

October started off on a high note with a victory from the Aggies over BYU: 31:16.  All the students rushed the field!  We were some of the first ones down there as we had camped out hours before the game to get some front row seats.  It was a momentous event after a losing spell since 1993.

I was able to help out at the USTAR building dedication.  USTAR is a state technology and research innitiative that is expected to bring in millions of dollars, many new jobs, and many well known engineers, chemists, etc from around the nation.  The building, which was dedicated in Logan, will operate in joint function with USU.  The new (very large) building is at Innovation campus behind Lee’s Marketplace.

Jake & I also got to head up to Bear Lake for one last time this season for a Huntsman Scholar retreat.  The program rented out a very nice cabin.  We enjoyed food, fun, and games (and, darn it…had other obligations that required us to leave before the next day’s planning with our committees).  Jake had a service project up the canyon (adopt-a-highway) to attend with his Accounting club.  I was lucky enough to hook up with the Peterson girls and head to Gardner’s Village in the south SLC area for a day filled with shopping, food, and fun!  It was the cutest little area and so incredibly decked out for halloween.  Larger than life sized witches were about the entire village. 

I got to go on my first business trip Oct 11-12.  I flew down by myself to Las Vegas to meet up with others from my company who were there.  We were exhibiting at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the ABC Kids show.  It was mainly attended by retailers of baby, toddler, and kids product from around the country and around the world.  It ran Sun-Thurs, luckily I only had to miss two days of school for it.  I was there Monday and Tuesday to meet with with marketers, advertisers, forum representatives, and editorialists.  It was a great experience- really long days, but lots of fun!  It was incredibly beneficial to actually meet face to face and talk with those I work with often, but mainly through email.

Fall break was an absolute blast!  We went with the Peterson’s to Park City for the weekend.  It was just what we had needed- a relaxing vacation.  We stayed at the Canyon’s Resort- absolutely the most amazing hotel room I had ever been in.  It was much more like a house than anything.  Fall is a perfect time to go, as the rooms are not nearly as outrageous as they are in the winter.  We had fun eating out on Main Street, playing lots of games, spending time at the pool, and had fun at the Park City Ski Resort- alpine slide, roller coaster, and zip line.  Oh, and of course I can’t forget… shopping at the Outlets! 

Recruiting season is upon us.  I spent one day recruiting for Huntsman Scholars at an Idaho Open House (for HS seniors) and another night recruiting with the Ambassadors at the Cache Valley Open House.  Even with USU’s scholarship parameters raised, they have been happy to see ever increasing application numbers.

USU’s homecoming was fun.  I walked Main Street with the Ambassador float in the parade and then gave a campus tour before meeting up with Jake at the football game against Hawaii.  Normally Hawaii does not have a tough football program- probably why we scheduled it as the homecoming game.  Unfortunately, this year was an entirely different story, and sadly, we lost.

On the 26^th we had fun at the Ambassador’s Cowboys and Indians party!  We played many Cowboy/Indian type games…including some scalping… and enjoyed some yummy dinner!  Grandma’s handy dress-up storage containers surely were useful in putting together our outfits. 

After the party we ran over to the pumpkin walk, as it was the last day it would be open.  It’s always fun to go and see what creative things people are able to do out of pumpkins!  Other pre-halloween fun we enjoyed included carving pumpkins with the Roskelleys and a corn maze for FHE.  Jake also finished his two-week Boy Scouts’ Training (a total of 11 hours!). He’s glad to have that done!

On Oct 29^th Jake turned a whopping 24 years old!  We celebrated by going to Café Sabor with the Petersons and opening presents and having cake at their house afterwards.  A couple days later, we went to Aggy’s Sports Grill with the Roskelleys and enjoyed pie and presents afterwards as well.  I gave Jake a football for his birthday.  That night I found him holding it in bed, as he was about to fall asleep- needless to say he was quite excited about it!

At my work we all dressed up on Friday and made a Halloween flash mob dance video- it was quite entertaining!  Jake had to work Halloween night.  I kept myself busy by answering the door for our cute neighborhood kids, attending the first Aggie Bball game of the season, and then went with my family to visit grandparents afterward.  Grandma and Grandpa were, of course, dressed to the hilt!  And, Grandma’s famous holiday sugar cookies were amazing as always!

Happy Fall and Thanksgiving!  Love, the Petersons

September 2010- Back to School

We love the fall!  Football games, falling leaves, General Conference, and Christmas music!!!  Christmas music, you say?  Well I (Jake) am diligently trying to persuade Kristina that Christmas music is permissible to listen to starting conference weekend, it’s an uphill battleJ  It certainly is the most wonderful time of the year!

September was wonderful!  We have been busier than ever with school.  Kristina finds a way to work at least 20 hours a week, stay involved in just about everything on campus, and still get an A on every single exam.  I greatly admire her diligence, work ethic, and passion for life.  That good Mortenson blood is certainly in her.  My stress levels have been sky rocketing with the upper division Accounting classes, recruiting season, work, young men’s activities, etc.  I need to exercise more to make sure my heart doesn’t stop.  However, I did receive an accounting internship at Jones Simkins, LLP here in Logan for the spring.  I will be taking a semester off of school while working 40-60 hours a week from January to May.  Hopefully it goes well.

Business Week was a couple of weeks ago on campus.  Kristina and I had the privilege of going to lunch with Ron Labrum, the CEO of Fenwal Blood Technologies, a large medical supplies company.  We were extremely impressed by him.  He has been very successful, but is still entirely humble.  He is currently a Stake President in the Chicago area.  Business Week brought other fun events including; Texas Roadhouse BBQ and concert on Old Main Hill, the Awards Banquet, free Aggie Ice Cream every day, and…the BYU vs USU game!!!  What a thriller!  We got to be part of the human tunnel for the players at the first of the game when they ran out of the locker room, and we were also some of the first to rush the field after the Aggies beat the Cougars.  It was a great feeling, and we love our Aggies!

We have loved being with family in September including the trip to the Real Salt Lake game, which seems like decades ago.  I have started following RSL and am becoming a big fan.  We also celebrated David’s birthday with a lunch at Elements, and Disney Scene It!  David is a Disney whiz, that’s for sure.  I was sure I knew more about Disney than anyone in Logan, but David is proving me wrong.  What a great brother-in-law I have. (Scott too, and Heather is the best sister-in-law I could ever ask for.)  Speaking of Heather, she did an awesome job at being a model for a Re-Design, Re-Fashion Fashion show for a fun class Kristina is taking to fulfill her depth humanities requirement.  She strutted the stage in front of 800 guests in an outfit made out of paper bags and cups from various fast food chains around Logan.

To top it off, we loved General Conference so, so much!  Even though it was in October, we still had to mention it.  Both of President Uchtdorf’s talks were my favorite, primarily because they both focused on things I greatly need to work on.  I also loved Elder Nelson’s in Priesthood, and Elder Eyring’s on Sunday.  Kristina loved President Packer’s, Uchtdorf’s, Monson’s, and many more.  We both felt the theme of the conference was “Follow the Prophet.”  We try to do that always and have strong testimonies of the gospel. 

I am so glad to be in such a fun family.  I love reading the newsletters and keeping up with everyone’s busy lives.  Keep up the good work, and have a wonderful October!

Jake and Kristina

August 2010- Summer Continues

August surely flew by too quickly, and what a fun month it was!  Jake finally ended his summer classes on the sixth; he was quite happy about that.  We went out to Mandarin Garden in celebration.  The next evening we enjoyed doing Initiatories for my first time as proxy work, then had a nice dinner with the Peterson’s at Elements, followed by The Sound of Music at the Ellen Eccles.  I’d only seen it previously as a movie, but it is definitely one of my favorite musicals now.

The following day Jake and I both left for Girls camp.  Jake was a priesthood representative for two of the days, while I stayed all four as my last responsibility in YW prior to the ward split.  The camp went very well and was lots of fun!  It was very different from the previous camps I had been to as a girl and not a leader.  The leaders at this camp outnumbered the girls.  We had two camp leaders, myself, and the two priesthood holders, and just four girls!  We stayed at a nice camp just an hour away, in Idaho.  We did the usual certification, crafts, devotionals, endless games, s’mores, testimony meeting, and hiked Minnetonka Cave.  I arrived back on the 13^th.  Jake and I recapped about the experience over Olive Garden’s delicious soup, salad, and breadsticks.  He then went to work, while I met my parents at the Cache County Fair and then went over to visit the fun Nyman family at grandma & grandpa’s!  It was a lot of fun to visit with them and see Kelly’s cute little baby bumpJ! 

The following day we went and played with the Roskelley’s on Bear Lake’s North Beach.  I don’t think I’d ever seen the beach so packed- I guess everyone was trying to squeeze in the fun the last free weekend before school started!  We had lots of fun playing sand volleyball and wave running.  The next day Scott was ordained a Teacher.  It was a very nice ordination followed by a yummy dinner with both grandparents.  On Monday, we met up with the Peterson’s and some other families for their annual boat-racing event!  We ate a yummy potluck dinner and then raced our homemade boats down the river running behind Logan High.  Some of the interesting items on these boats were: a Barbie, Mannequin Head, and a rubber ducky!  The boats were made out of anything and everything, from a plastic diaper tub, a baking tray, to a milk carton.  I’m not sure there was ever an official winner, but we sure had fun racing! 

On the 19^th we enjoyed a fun night out!  We “collected” our 10^th temple- the Bountiful Temple!  It is now one of my favorite temples; it is very gorgeous, especially the Celestial room!  We then had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  We went in reminiscence of my birthday dinner back in March.  For my birthday, we had gone to the Jordan River temple and then out to the Cheesecake Factory where Jake had presented me with two tickets to Lion King the musical for August!  So, needless to say, we then went to the musical following our dinner.  The costumes were absolutely incredible; they blew me away!  What a great, uplifting musical!

We enjoyed a fun surprise dinner for my uncle Kevin on the 20^th as well as attending Jake’s five-year class reunion at Adam’s park.  We had a great morning the following day, going horseback riding with grandpa Neal! Grandpa was great to teach us all about how to get the horses ready.  We went on a pretty trail up past Camp Lomia in Logan canyon. We had an enjoyable time on Chip and Lobo! 

On the 24^th, I had the fun opportunity to go to a cooking class at Hamilton’s with Jake’s mom and grandma.  We were instructed on how to make about 6 different items covering appetizers, entrees, and dessert.  We were given the recipes to each and were even able to eat each item as well! Yum, Yum!  The next day was our 1 year engagement anniversary.  We had exchanged presents a few days prior to our anniversary, because on the day of I worked during the morning and at noon we left for my yearly USU Ambassador retreat.  Since we celebrated our anniversary ahead of time, I was very unsuspecting when I showed up to work and found a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses and a Symphony candy bar on my desk!  It was a lovely surprise!  As for the retreat… we started it off with sandwiches at First Dam, and then played group games on the beach at Bear Lake, enjoyed Café Sabor for dinner, followed by some more fun games.  Spouses headed home later that evening as the next day was just filled with going over our responsibilities and the year overview. 

On Friday of that week, we went to the Logan High Football game to watch Heather dance at half time as part of the Hi-lo mini-clinic.  She was very cute out there “busting a move!”  The game was also very exhilarating.  Logan High won in double over time.  That weekend, I also (FINALLY) finished my Levi quilt I had been working on for eternity.  Now I have that checked off my bucket list and won’t ever have to do another one (right)?  For some reason, I’m sure I’ll get sucked back into it again!  It is fun to see the finished product, though! To make the most of our siblings last bits of “freedom!” we had a fun night with them the night before their school started.  We went mini golfing and then had slushies afterward.

School is back in session and we feel as busy as ever… just as most of you!  Happy September!                                     Love, Kristina & Jake

*I have included a poem that Jake wrote in his spare time to express enthusiasm for his favorite time of year… Autumn!
                                                                              ACT II

The summer cast is at the curtain,
Here comes the final bow.
With the sunburns a hurtin’.
The memories certain,
It’s time they leave us now.

The boats and the cabins,
The wild chuck wagons,
Now seem so long in the past.
The grills and the kites,
The late starry nights,
They came and they left so fast.

Although it seems sad,
It’s not all that bad.
Don’t cry or shed a tear.
The curtain once closed,
Now is exposed.
The autumn and winter casts are here.

From the leaves that fall,
The heroic football,
To the Christmas lights so bright.
The school year has come,
Now no more hum drum.
I’m thinking it will be all right.