Halloween

This year Halloween was a blast! On Friday night we went to a party some friends in the ward were throwing. Since it was after work I didn't have much time to get ready so I decided to go "Goth" since that is easy enough to do quickly. It is a little weird seeing me with black hair.

As for Halloween itself, it was a BLAST!!! We had trunk or treat at the church and then went to the Repetti's to pass out candy. The pics are backwards but I will explain the night with them. This is Ashley! She is my favorite and I want to keep her forever and ever!!!

Andy and the kids had fun with the air gun! It was hooked up to the cannon of our boat at one point and time during the trunk or treat. Natalie and Andy are having fun!

The boys (except Andy) took the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood. Andy stayed behind and scared poor unsuspecting kids with his air gun. (Eventually getting yelled at and having to put it away)

The beautiful blondes stayed behind to pass out candy to all the adorable kids!

Of course all of our friends have children but us (what kind of Mormons are we???) LOL They are all SO cute!

Us girls at the church.

Karina and I! Her husband is in the background giving her bunny ears. He had the coolest transformer costume! He had the talking helmet and 3 foot jumping stilts and all!

Norman, one of our primary boys, was a killer banana pirate! LOL He is our handful in class, but so cute!

I stole the Repetti children as our crew! I hope to be able to have my own family that beautiful one day! I LOVE THEM!

Andy, of course, had to go all out for the trunk or treat and make a pirate ship for the trunk or treat. He wanted to turn the jeep into a moving boat but we ran out of time so this is was the finished product (finished on site of course LOL). I think it turned out pretty well. If you look closely you can see Andy shooting his air cannon. This was a big hit with the kids! :)

All in all we had a fabulous halloween! And I am so grateful to have friends that let us steal their kids and take pictures with them! HAHA! Thanks friends!

Our "roadtrip"

So, my friend, Lauren, moved back to Cour de lene, ID and was planning on pulling a trailer behind her Toyota Corolla. Andy and I both felt that would be a very bad move and we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if they (her and her ex boyfriend, Luke) got in a car accident. So we, being the unbelievably incredible friends we are ;), offered to drive it out for her. Seeing as we have a Jeep it wouldn't be a big deal, right?

The trailer her father had purchased was supposed to be given to us as a "thank you". It wasn't registered so Andy had to stand in line at the DMV for about 3 hours and pay $49 to register it. It also had been really shaky on our trip down to his dads house to store it there until we could get out to ID. So, being safety conscience we put new tires on the trailer $150. As well as the jeep because we wanted to make sure we got out there safely $750.

We start our little excursion and the trailer is still whipping everytime we hit a bump going over 55 mph. We don't have another time that we can take it out so we decide to drive 55 mph. Leaving Cali at 5 pm after work, we finally ended up in Utah (home) at about 8:30 am. Now, I HATE driving sticks but seeing as the jeep is the only big car we had guess who got to drive it anyway! Through Vegas...which just happened to be under construction to make things worse! Well, thank heavens, I made it!!!

In Utah we asked Grandpa Starkey if it would be ok if we took his truck. Seeing as it is bigger and won't be thrown around nearly as easily as the jeep (it was the same size as the trailer). He said yes, YAY!!! It was the best decision we made the whole trip! It was so much easier to drive and we could drive faster then 55 mph!!! :) Around 11 or 12 am we set off again on our adventure. (We were obviously taking turns driving and sleeping.)

We are somewhere in WY and we pull over to get gas, I decided to buy a scratch and win lottery ticket...I won $6! YAY!!! Back on the road, I HAVE TO PEE!!! So we pull over in the middle of nowhere and I am able to go at some random RV place. Trying to get back onto the freeway (thankfully we have gps) it takes us to this road....HILARIOUS!!!! I can't help but take a picture!!! :) Thank heavens for phones!!!

Ok, back to the trip...We make it there around 11 pm and Lauren has her new "boy toy" and friend there to help us. We got the trailer unloaded in about 20 minutes and sat down and talked for a while. Andy went and took a shower to feel better and we were going to spend the night. The shower woke Andy right up and since I wasn't a big fan of her boy we decided to leave. Finding out that her dad wanted to see the trailer and decide whether he wanted to keep it or not. She said o-well and we took off. We made it to the gas station and I felt guilty. I know my dad would be pissed if he spent money on a trailer and never even got to see it. So I ask her if we should just leave it there. Expressing my frustration with the fact that we spent $200 on it but still knowing that he deserved to at least see it and I didn't want to spend the night. She says yes, but she is gone. So we would just need to leave it out front. We do and leave around 1:30 am. (Oh, Lauren did give us $200 for gas money so at least we made up the difference in what we spent on the trailer I guess)

On our way back home, after about an hour and a half Andy gets tired so we both sleep in the car for about 5 hours. Then we are WIDE awake! We get home around 5 pm and go to Chuck-A-Rama with my family. YAY! We spend the night with my family (aside from a detour to get my truck from JD who is fixing it for us to take back home). $150 on a new battery for the truck. Next morning rolls around. We say our goodbyes and I drive the Jeep and Andy drives behind me in the truck. Hitting Provo Andy tells me (over CB Radio, Yes we have one in both cars) that there is a cop and I need to slow down. So I do...I'm driving along and all of the sudden he is gone...Turns out he forgot to put up his temp registration and got pulled over. The cop let him off with a warning and we meet up again in Payson. An hour and a half into our drive it feels like the fuel pump is starting to go out on the truck. Pulling over in Beaver we head into town and buy a new fuel pump $30. Deciding not to waste the time putting it on until we absolutely need to we head out again.

The truck starts working perfectly again. Yay!!! This time I am behind him so that he can set the speed in case anything goes wrong. About 20 minutes on the road and BAM!!! about 6 blocks of wood come out from under the truck. One of them slamming into my windshield ($155)!!!


Good thing it hit the bottom first because otherwise it probably would have come completely in on me!

Skipping ahead we are now about 13 miles outside of St. George and I have to pee! So I tell Andy and then I decide I want food too. He tells me to go ahead of him so I can choose where to eat. As I am passing him I am making all sorts of silly noises on the radio making it so I can't hear him talk. Apparently he was asking if his tire was wabbling. About 5 seconds after I get past him the tread on his front tire goes flying off and his wheel jerks hard to the left! Good thing I passed him!!! I, of course, didn't see any of it until about 10 seconds later I look up in my rear view mirror and he is gone...again! Time to stop and reverse....
Checking out the damage it took out the fender pretty bad. YIKES!!! I am SO glad I wasn't driving!!! There is NO tread left on that tire!!! We pull over in St. George and go to my Uncles shop. Thank heavens for relatives!!! He sends us to his mechanic and we left the truck there. We have no idea how much it is going to cost us, seeing as the Hubs were overheating. Yikes! And we have no idea when we are going to make it back to pick it up. But the for whatever reason we weren't supposed to bring it home just yet.

We made the rest of the trip home safely and this was the "silver lining" of the trip...
It was a gorgeous sunset even though there is a bug smear where you would be seeing it. All in all it was an adventure to say the least!!! I guess it's those types of experiances that help us grow into who we are today! I am so thankfully that I was able to see my family and all the help that they gave us! And I know the Lord was watching out for us and kept us alive and well! We may be out of a couple thousand dollars but that is much better then our lives and/or health!!! I am so grateful to have the gospel in our lives (even though I may not be the best at acting like it)!

Better Then Sex Cake

Or so it has been called... This is the version that I found. It is INCREDIBLE!!! :) And easy enough I can make it!

Cake:

1 Yellow Cake mix
2 Cups warm water
1 Small pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix
2 Eggs

Blend cake ingredients well. Pout into greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees until done (approx 33 min). Cool to room temperature.

Topping:

1 Stick of butter
1 Cup powdered sugar
2 Beaten Egg yolks
1 8-oz Cool Whip Container
4 Heath or Skor candy bars, crushed

Melt butter. Cool slightly. Add beaten egg yolks. Then add powdered sugar and Cool Whip. Spread over cooled cake. Sprinkle with crushed candy bars. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Store in refrigerator.

I hope that you enjoy it as much as I love it!!! :) MMmm...although it is pretty strong it makes you SOOO happy!!

DC

So because I took so many pictures of DC I will be posting them on my photo blog with descriptions of what they are. That way you can read all about our trip in segments and I can actually post more then a couple pictures. :) But here is my favorite picture of Andy and I. We are at the DC Temple in the Visitors Center.

Sorry...

It has been a very long time since I have posted and there is A LOT to post on here so I will be catching up slowly. Well, let us begin... Our two year anniversary was on July 19. I can't believe that it has already been 2 years! It is incredible how fast time flies!!! Andy gave me tickets for us to go see "Wicked" which was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! I had NO idea what to expect but I feel in love with it!!! I will be adding one of my new favorite songs on here so you can all get a feel for it :) Here is a picture of us from our seat (we were about 10 rows back dead center). The quality isn't the greatest because it is from my phone.

I gave Andy the option of a tow hitch for his Jeep or something else that I don't remember now...lol...can you guess which one he picked? Obviously the tow hitch. Which ironically already came in handy. My good friend, Lauren, moved back to Idaho about a week and a half ago and was going to be towing her trailer with all her belongings behind her little Toyota Corolla. Now, that didn't sound very safe to Andy and I! So we decided that we would tow it out for her. We will be making that trip at the end of the month (hopefully). I am SO excited to see her again! It is a different world without her here. Here is a picture of us.

My new blog...

I decided to make a photography blog for the fun of it. If any of you want to check it out (there may be pictures of you...unless you specify otherwise)...it is newlanphotography.blogspot.com. I would love to hear your thoughts on some of my fun! :) Love you guys!

4th of July

This Independence Day Andy and I decided to go off-roading since we haven't done it in quite some time. A guy at the bike shop told him about a trail called "Nigger Nate's Grade" which is basically a trail that is supposed to take you up to the cabin where one of the first free black men in California lived.

The trail starts off paved, going through some citrus fields. Then the county takes over and it is just a dirt road doing switchbacks up the mountain. So we are driving up this dirt road checking out all of the scenery and all of the sudden the State takes control of the road and it is paved again. We ran into a 4 way stop and found a beautiful campground!!! Come to find out Nate Harrison's house is on private property and we are only about a mile away from the Palomar Observatory.

We stopped and ate a picnic at the cutest picnic grounds ever and then talked to the Ranger for about a half hour. We then went for a little hike down to "Scott's cabin" which is not a cabin at all but just the base of a little 10'x10' house a person could barely fit in. On the way down we saw a cute deer!!! :) Despite how far away it looks we were only about 30 feet away from the cute baby deer!

We then went to the pond the Ranger told us about and walked around it. I saw a ton of bugs and as much as I am not a fan of them I couldn't help but take a few shots! It was incredible at how close they would let me get with my camera!!!

After our little walk we went to the Fire Watch Tower and looked over the county. It was really smoggy so I didn't get a good pic but it was gorgeous! We will head up on a clearer day.

All in all even without the fireworks our 4th of July was incredible!!!

We are now Endowed!!!

I knew the day would come but I never quite realized how fast it would be here. It was so wonderful to be able to go to the temple with such a wonderful husband!!! I can not imagine going through that without having the past that I have and having gone through the repentance process. I am so grateful for the atonement and all that the Lord and Savior do for us.

The temple...

Now onto better news... Andy and I are going through the San Diego Temple on May 9th at 7 p.m. We will only be taking our endowments out since we want all of our family to be there when we get sealed. Hopefully this will bring us closer to God and closer as a family! I am excited to be able to go do work for my ancestors and am lucky to have the true Gospel in my life! I know that had I not been born and raised with this Gospel truth that I would be long past the point of return (in a sense).
Until moving to Cali I never really understood that a lot of people had NO religious background in their lives. In Utah I would hang out mainly with people that were not LDS or were not active in the Church and thought I understood how people could feel the way that they do about the church itself. However, moving out here has opened my eyes to peoples ignorance and/or lack of knowledge.
Being one of the only LDS people that works at the Vista Costco I get a lot of questions and misunderstandings of the church. There is a Jehovah's Witness that I work with which causes a lot of confusion as well. For example, right before Easter I got a lot of "Have a Happy Easter! Oh wait...You don't celebrate Easter do you? I'm sorry" and I would have to correct them. Let them know that it is Jehovah's Witness' that do not celebrate the holidays. I think it is wonderful that they would try to be considerate and apologize, but I just wish that they would take the time to learn a little bit.
I was told by one person that worked there (not knowing that I was LDS) that Daniel had lied to him saying that he was Christian when really he was Mormon and was not a Christian at all. I never thought that I would get so offended by somebodies ignorance as much as I did right then! Asking him to explain to me how a "Mormon" is not a Christian but then him just walking out when I explained it to him and it all started to make sense. How stupid can you be?
I have been trying my hardest to learn of others religions out here...come to find out the only person that actually knows what their religion stands for is Chris, the Jehovah's Witness. I have a lot of friends that were born and raised Catholic. Some of those even going to the Catholic High Schools. When asked about what Catholics believe they can not tell me a single thing aside from Christ. I try to dig deeper by asking more direct questions and they know nothing. It's incredible to me that these people were raised all their lives with this but know nothing. Is it true that our Church is one of the only to actually TEACH anything?
Aside from all of that, here is my dilemma. My good friend was not raised with a religion. Both of her parents were raised strict Catholic and with good intent they decided to let their children choose. They planned on taking them to a bunch of different churches to help them kind of get some knowledge of what is out there. Like most of us, their lives got away with them and never ended up following through with their plan. She now has the Bible and has been reading it, but has no more knowledge then what is in that book. When we start talking about religion I take for granted the fact that even though my friends back home were not LDS, they were still raised around it and had some knowledge of what I was talking about. She has no idea. She is a very smart girl and understands what I am saying but of course it gets confusing and overwhelming at times. I am not a person that explains things very well unless I am in a planned debate. How do I explain things without sounding preachy or pushy? She wants to know, but she wants the knowledge in little pieces and she does not want to meet with the missionaries (which I can understand completely). She is coming to church with me next week and I am going to have my boys teach her the things that they know. Do you have any suggestions of what 10 and 11 year old boys could teach her?
Here are some topics that I have thought of... Joseph Smith, the word of wisdom, Baptism and the Sacrament, the plan of salvation, Tithing, and Families are forever. If you have any ideas I would LOVE to hear them! I will be calling my boys on Tuesday to have them start planning their lessons for her (each boy will take a separate topic and then help each other out).
I will try to do better at posting from now on!

Updates

So, I have been very bad at updating our blog. Things in Cali are good but I have become extremely homesick recently and am trying to get over it. I guess it doesn't really help that I have been forgetting to take my pills either. :O Opps... Anyway, Easter was not Easter this year. We went down to his dad's house and hung out, just like any other Sunday. Nothing fun, nothing exciting. But it was great to know that I have family here.

Here is something fun...I did Makemebabies.com and this is what our baby ended up looking like....Since having an ugly baby is one of my biggest fears (petty, I know) this helped out a lot since I think she is adorable. LOL

Scouts/Pinewood Derby

Andy is the 11 year old Scout leader. We have most of the boys in our Class at church so he is able to check up on them in both areas and see them twice a week. Our Scout troop is actually combined with the 10th ward as well since there are only like 4 or 5 scouts in both wards. Anyway, about two weeks ago was the Pinewood Derby and we both went. It was a blast watching the boys get so excited! Showing us their cars they made! YAY! I love our calling (aside from the fact that it means we only have 1 day off a week since we have to teach)... Here are some pics!

Muddy Buddy

So Heather and I have decided to compete in Muddy Buddy and I am totally Stoked!!! It is going to take A LOT of dedication and hard work in order to be able to do this, and Heather don't expect me to be fast, just expect me to finish ;) LOL...but I am so excited! I think the biggest thing I am excited for is playing in the mud in the end! :) It will be so much fun! Here is my new helmet!!! It is cute, but man do they make you look even fatter than you actually are :( LOL Wish us luck!

24 hour fitness

So, Andy and I FINALLY got a gym memberships and I plan on using it! I will be taking before and after shots, yet I am not willing to put the before shots up until after I have lost all the fat! :) They are opening a new gym right across the freeway from us, which will make it really nice to just head there after I get off work at 10 am. Wish me luck!!!

Family

So, it's been a very long time since I posted anything on here. Andy and I moved into a two bedroom apartment the beginning of Feb. and we have been trying to get the house together ever since. My family came out two weeks later which was a blast, but we have ended up getting nothing done for the house. Here I am sitting on here writing about getting the house done rather than actually doing it. That's procrastination for ya I guess...

Anyway, I just wanted to get on and write a little something. I will be back on hopefully tomorrow to write about their trip and put pictures up. But until then, we are still alive and kicking! We love you!

New Years

This year New Years was a blast! I had to work until about 6:30 and the day didn't start off that well but then we headed up to Patrick and Wendy's. They rented a huge bounce house and it was hilarious watching all of the kids begging and pulling Andy into that house. They LOVED making him bounce them! Megan's friend, Rachelle, has a little crush on Andy and was completely devastated to find out that Andy and I were married and not just boyfriend/girlfriend. LOL it was SO cute!!! I sat there remembering flirting with Peppers friends and having my little crushes on them. This is a little different seeing as she is 10 and he is 27, but it is so stinkin' cute!
All of Wendy's family was over again and I mentioned that there was a costco New Years eve party that we might go to but I didn't feel like going because I didn't think I looked good. So...Marianne told Tammy (who loves to play beauty parlor) that I needed to get dressed up and she got out all of the curling irons and make up and dolled me up. :) This meant a lot to me since it is apparently really hard to "get in" with their family.
We decided to leave around 11:30 to possibly go to the party, but then I realized we weren't in Utah anymore and all of the drunks would be hitting the road in about an hour....I didn't want to be on the road or anywhere near it. We got home and I put on my little black dress my mom bought me and we turned on tv on the countdown. It was at 5 when we turned it on and I was just in time to kiss Andy :) it was a blast! I got to dress up and spend time with Family.
Today we went for a walk on the pier eating Gelato ice cream...what more can you ask for???

Christmas

This year was very different and hard for me. It is the first year I have been away from home for the holidays and I'm not so sure I like it. I am sure I will when I have my own children, but wow I missed my family and the snow!!! Christmas Eve we went over to Patrick and Wendys (Andy's brother and sister in law). Wendy's family all came over as well and we hung out in our pajamas, ate good food, then they had a little presentation for the kids.
Andy and Patrick made little mangers and Wendy bought little babies from the dollar store. Every child and our little family with no children got a baby and a manger. Patrick read a book called "The last straw" to all of the family (incredible book!) and explained how it depends on all of us to make Jesus' bed more comfortable by doing good deeds. Then we watched the part of "the nativity" movie where Christ is born. After that the children decorated cookies and made their own "gold, mur, and frankincense" for their baby Jesus, as well as colored a nativity scene picture.
It was really interesting how focused on Christ they were rather than the presents and all of the commercialized crap the world has come to. (It doesn't hurt that Wendy's dad is the stake president, lol) It was wonderful actually talking about the savior and the real meaning of Christmas on Christmas Eve. Being with family and remembering why we actually celebrate the holiday. My family was good at instilling the purpose but I don't remember doing anything that involved.
Anyway, Andy and I stayed there a little later than planned so I feel a little bad because "Santa" had to run to the shop WAY later than planned for the presents. :O


Christmas Morning Andy and I spent by ourselves opening stockings and gifts. I got a WII :) yay me!!! As well as a gorgeous necklace and I have to chose between going training with the Dolphins at Sea World or going on the Safari ride in the Wild Animal Park (inside the exhibit). I think I'm going to go with the dolphins. :) Andy didn't get so lucky because about two months ago I got too excited and bought him a 360. He got games and xbox live so he can play with his friends in Utah...kinda lame, but fun for him I guess. I think I'm the one that made out like a bandit. LOL!!!
Then we headed down to his dad's house and spent the rest of the day with him. It was a great Christmas, I just wish I could have spent more time with my family. I also wish I would have remembered to take the camera :( I will be getting the pictures from Wendy soon though and will post them. I am so lucky to have wonderful inlaws that make me feel like a part of the family and not be so lonely on Christmas. But even more lucky to have such an incredible husband!!!