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!

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

July 2010- Time For Some Summa' Fun!

Dear Family,

I’d like to start off with a disclaimer.  I am sorry that our newsletters are always lengthy.  I don’t expect you to actually read everything.  It’s just that this is the only journaling we do, so I try to make it somewhat thorough.  Feel free to skimJ

 We started the month off with a fun night with Jake’s parents.  We went to dinner at Tandoori Oven (Indian Food!) and went to a Peter Cetera (Chicago lead singer) concert at USU.  The concert was spectacular!  It started off with patriotic songs sung by the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra (conducted by Craig Jessop).  Peter Cetera then came on and continued to light up the concert hall!  I was surprised to find out that many of the older, classic songs I knew, were actually his songs!  The following day, July 2, we skipped class in order to attend Jake’s best friend’s entire day of wedding festivities.  Following that fun, we watched the Logan Fireworks.  The next morning, the Peterson’s had their annual neighborhood 4 of July breakfast.  We had fun helping keep all the delicious food stocked for over 200 people!  Following the breakfast, Heather and I headed down with the Petersons to Stadium of Fire in Provo.  Heather was my date for the day, as Jake unfortunately couldn’t get off work.  I had never been to Stadium of Fire.  I was blown away.  The entertainment, program, and fireworks were absolutely incredible!  I highly recommend it.  The crazy week didn’t stop there!  After church on Sunday, we ventured over to Bear Lake to spend time with my family, Dave and Jen’s family, and Grandma and Grandpa.  We also hit up a round of golf on Monday morning.

Then it was back to school for the last week of our second semester.  Jake had to continue on, but luckily I ended class that Friday.   I was thrilled to find out the last week of classes that I had been offered a job I had been working the last 2-3 months to get!  I am working at JJ COLE COLLECTIONS right here in Logan.  I work 20 hours a week and have now worked there a month.  I had worked in the food industry, and truly done it all- fast food, catering, dining- since I was 16, and I am surely glad to be done with that!  My job is Marketing/PR manager and I absolutely love it.  JJ COLE is a baby products company.  We design and distribute our products mainly to retailers, but do have a customer web site as well.  Our products are primarily in stores in the US and Europe.  Some of the big names we distribute to, are: Babies R Us, Nordstrom, Target (online), Buy Buy Baby and hundreds of others.  I took over for a full time employee.  The goal is to work 20 hours during the school year and then hopefully have a full time position once I graduate!  I hope I don’t mess anything up to big and that the company still wants me to go full time.  It would be really great, as Jake will be staying at USU to get his MACC.  Jake keeps hoping my job will make me baby hungry, maybe someday, but it hasn’t quite hit me yet!;)

On July 8, we had a family celebration for Bill’s (Jake’s dad’s) 50^th .   The Peterson’s favorite saying is always something to do with a monkey- ie: that’s crazier/ funnier than a monkey!  So, in honor, we gave him a monkey present.  It included a monkey card, talking stuffed monkey, bananas, a homemade “50’s Older Than a Monkey!” t-shirt and matching hat!  Two days following the family party, there was a surprise Neighborhood/Friend party at Café Sabor.  Boy, did we surprise him!

I was able to go down for my internship, to the Franklin Covey offices in Salt Lake.  It was fun to get a better feel of how the company functions.  I am just doing any work needed, from up here now. 

Jake continued to endure school through July- good for him!  To my surprise I have learned that I prefer the working life over school.  As fun as school can be, it’s just all too consuming.  I love going to work and then having the nights free; I am excited for graduation!

On July 17, we went to see Guys & Dolls as part of the Utah Festival Opera summer series.  I had never seen it before.  We made a fun date night out of it, and went to dinner first off and sat out by the river at Element’s restaurant.  It was so fun, we felt like we were in Jackson Hole on vacation!  The next day was Scott’s birthday!  We had a fun celebration at the house both Sunday, the day of his birthday, and Monday evening as well. 

Pioneer day was a day filled with festivities as well!  We started it off by attending a breakfast put on by the local Rotary club.  We then went with the Peterson’s on their annual 24 of July hike.  We hiked a grueling 11.5 miles in the middle of the day.  We hiked to the famous Jardine Juniper tree.  The hike really wasn’t all that difficult itself.  However, the 90-degree weather, lack of water, and two dogs that gave up for about half the hike, made it hard.  After cleaning up we headed over to have dinner with my family.  We then headed down to Willow park to enjoy the Peter Breinholt (LDS singer) concert and fireworks show.  The next day, we headed up to Bear Lake following church.   We ended up commuting back and forth between Bear Lake four separate times that week, allowing Jake to squeeze in school and I work.  The Petersons had their annual Bear Lake week and then once they left on Friday, we played with my fam, Brian and Catherine, Dave & Jen’s fam, and G&G on Saturday and Sunday.  While with the Peterson’s we enjoyed the Pickleville Playhouse BBQ and the musical, “Crazy for You,” Wave Running, playing card games, celebrating Angie’s (Jake’s mom’s) birthday, and squeezing in all the Rhino rides we could.  (A Rhino is like Grandma & Grandpa’s Mule on steroids).  Luckily we were in Logan the day that Grandma had a yummy dinner while Laura, Brian, and Catherine were up.  It was fun to have such a big gathering of family!  We loved being with the family up at the cabin as well.  Grandma and Grandpa were so nice and let us borrow their boat for the day.  It was such a fun Saturday on the lake!  The entire weekend was just great!

Well, I think that’s all I have to blabber about.  Have an enjoyable August!  Make sure to squeeze in all the fun you can before school starts!:)                Love, Kristina & Jake

June 2010, Doesn't Seem Like Summer

Dear Family,

Well this is the second time I’m writing this, as my computer deleted the first one after I had completely finished it.

June can basically be summed up by one word: School.  We longed for summer this past month.  Technically it was here, but it sure didn’t feel like it was, as we were stuck inside studying all day.  We finished our first summer semester on June 11.  We then started right back into another semester and just finished this past Friday (July 9).  These summer classes are nice, as you can knock out classes in just 4 weeks, however they do keep you busy!  Every day is equivalent to a week in a normal semester.  Jake is taking twelve credits this summer (he has four more weeks of schoolL as he is taking 12 credits.  I am done with school for two months as I only took 6 credits.)  Taking these summer classes makes is so we can both graduate this May!

Our sixth month anniversary was June eleventh.  We had finals that day (Jake two and I one) and then worked, went to dinner with the Roskelley side, and then to the adult session of Stake Conference.  I had planned to do something big and fun for the day, but we just had too much going on.  So, the following night we enjoyed a little treat I made, and some sparkling cider on the floor of the family room amidst candle light (so (almost) incredibly romantic, I know).  We did love being able to go to the adult session for the first time.  It was especially amazing and we enjoyed having a spiritually rejuvenating weekend!   A couple of weeks ago, we also had a fun ward party up the canyon at Camp Lomia.  We enjoyed hamburgers and fixins, a Fourth of July themed devotional, and dutch oven cobbler.

I started doing some work for my Franklin Covey Internship from home these past two weeks.  I am working in the Education Sector of the company.  They have a really neat program called “The Leader In Me” that has now been implemented in over 215 schools across the globe.  I am so impressed with the program.  It is based off of Dr. Covey’s 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People.  It truly is an amazing, transformation program!  If you ever have spare time, you can check it out at http://www.theleaderinme.org/.  (The videos on the first page sum up the idea quite nicely.)  Happy July! Love, Kristina & Jake