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.