President's Day Breakfast

Since Chelsey actually had a holiday off like the rest of us, we had to take advantage of it and have breakfast together. The Jones came over and we had so much food. Waffles, bacon, eggs, donuts, apples, grapes, and juice. It was a great holiday breakfast. We even had to get the ironing board out to fit all the food!


As you can tell, Ja had fun cooking breakfast which is his speciality.



We were all happy and full at the end.


We love having monday's off. I feel like the weekend is much more fulfilling. That day we played black light miniture golfing with the Alkemas. That was a differnt experience. The golfing, not the Alkemas. I'm sure we did something else that day, but it was over a month ago so I can't really remember. Oh well!

Ja's Fly Back

Ja was accepted to fly back to D.C. for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young. We found out today he will be flying to D.C. this weekend with PwC. He will get in Thursday afternoon and leave Saturday. PwC has dinner and all sorts of activities planned for the interviewers. He's excited. The E&Y interview is next weekend, the 29th. Washington D.C., here he comes!

My Scrapbooking Layouts

ATTENTION: In case you are extremely bored I have a solution for you. Here are my scrapbooking layouts I have finished. This first batch is our wedding layouts.

More Layouts

More Recent Layouts

D.C. Trip- Saturday

Jacob's baptism wasn't until 5 p.m. so we had some time in the morning to go down to the District again. We first walked through the FDR memorial. It was such a nice day out, a sunny 50 degrees. The Potomac river was such a pretty background. We walked along the river on the trails. There are so many good trails around there. Ja and I are excited to go back and ride our bikes around. D.C. is such a good outside oriented city because you can walk around everywhere.
FDR and Jacob were good wheel chair buddies.


Jacob, Ja, and I with the Washington Monument in the background.


The whole family at the FDR Memorial. Did you know President Roosevelt served 3 terms? After him is when the President could only serve 2 terms.


Luc was practicing his letters.


We went to the Jefferson Memorial again, but it was nice to see it without the rain. These are Ja's artistic shots the memorial.


Henry was having a great time walking around. Isn't he so cute?


Here is a picture of the White House taken from the Jefferson Memorial. Ja noticed that the Jefferson statute is looking straight at the White House.


After this we went home to watch President Hinckley's funeral which was very nice. Jacob's baptism was very nice and everyone had a great time. It was a very spiritual experience.

D.C. Trip- Friday Night

After Nathan, Kiersten, and Henry flew in and settled in Greg took some of us on another D.C. run. He was such a good tour guide, always willing to take anyone around. We were very grateful. We drove down to the Lincoln Memorial. Nathan, Kiersten, nor I had ever been, so of course we had to get out and take pictures. The statue is so much bigger than I ever imagined. It was night out so the pictures are a little dark.

This is the whole group in front of President Lincoln.


Here is Ja and me, and Tiffany and me with Lincoln.



This picture shows how big the statute is. Can you see Ja on the right?


Always watching, always watching. Are you being honest?

Washington D.C. Trip- Friday

Our nephew Jacob was baptized on January 2 in D.C. so the whole DeVore family flew in to see the baptism. Ja and I were able to fly in one day before the rest of the family so we were able to see a few more sites that day. Unfortunately it was really raining so we only saw one monument, but we did get a great drive around the city and through Georgetown. It was still a very fun day.
This picture is at the Jefferson Memorial. It's a little dark because it was rainy. We were the only people because we were crazy enough to go outside.


This is the front of the Jefferson Memorial. Everything is huge and beautiful.


This is the Washington Monument. It was so cloudy we couldn't see the top.


After touring the town we went back to Greg and Holly's to hang out with the fam. Ja and Brigham had "Jedi Training" they were busy with all day. Ja would set up different obstacles that Brigham had to run through with and without his sword, jumping over pillows, doing summersaults, and things of that nature. They sure had fun running around. That night we had a good pizza dinner and waited for the rest of the family to come on. The twins flight was cancelled, but we don't talk about that.

My Big Accomplishment

My family will probably laugh at me, especially those who run marathons, but I'm still proud. Today, for my first time ever, I ran two miles without stopping! That is the longest I have ever run at one time. My goal was to run just 8 laps, which is more than I've ever done, but when I got to 8 I still felt good, then at 9 felt good, so I decided to run one more lap and make it 2 miles. I was so happy with myself. It's so nice to not have to stop because your lungs are hurting, this time my knees made me stop. I don't know how you marathoners do it!


I would like to thank a few people/things for my accomplishment:
I couldn't have done this without my running shoes, they are so comfortable. Thanks for buying them for me dad.
I also couldn't have done it without my ipod and my workout playlist. Music really pumps you up. Thanks Dorothy!
I would also like to thank Stacie for the red running shirt I took from her dresser. It's so much better than cotton.
My major has helped me learn how important exercising is and how to do it correctly, thanks!
Of course I have to thank Chelsey, my workout buddy. She is the one I was thinking about while running. It took me a week to work up to 7 laps, and when she came running with me on Wednesday she ran 7 laps no problem without working out for 2 weeks! She was so strong, and made me want to try harder. Thanks Chelsey!
Lastly, I would like to thank the old ladies who are at the track walking every morning with me. If they can do it, I can do it!

Maybe this will be me one day!

Ha ha, yeah right.

Best Valentine's Day Ever

Last night was really low key, but we absolutely loved it! We stayed home and made a very yummy steak dinner. We forgot to take a picture of our table, but it looked great. We got out our nice placemats, napkins, margarita glasses, and candles. We kept saying how great the dinner was, and it was so easy! It maybe took 30 minutes to make. We had Parmesan Fettuccine, Steaks with Peppery Onions and Sweet-Sour Spinach Salad. I put the recipes on the side of our blog if you want to make it too. We also made Chocolate-filled crescents for dessert. They were very good. We got some blood-orange italian soda from Target for our special drink. Our friend told us about it and it was delicious. It's a great alternative to Martinelli's.
Last month we had a stake enrichment where we went to different classes to learn all different things. I went to a massage therapy class and learned a lot. The teacher told us to use olive oil with different essential oils in it, I put peppermint. So we tried this last night and that was the best advice! The oil doesn't dry up like lotions, and you smell great. I also learned of a few tips on how to massage which worked great. Ja gave me beautiful roses and a nice card to top the night off. We really had a great valentines day.

Sundance Saturday

Here are more pictures of our Sundance trip. We are really glad we went because this isn't something we would do on our own. I really forgot that we were still in Provo. The snow is so great, it was so powdery and soft. I hardly got wet when I fell down because it was so powdery. I only left with one bruise on my leg, but I have no idea when that happened. Ja had a great time snowboarding, he is really good! He was nice to stay with me on my first hill down (which took almost 2 hours because we went a little too high up the mountain for me so I was scared and went really slow). After that I told him he didn't have to wait for me anymore and could go down more than the easy run. (If the pictures don't load you can click the ? and the pictures will come up.)

This picture is part of the easy hill. It was so pretty. Going up the lift you could see so many mountains, it was just like the postcards.


Here we are with our skis and snowboard. I was really glad my hair looked ok because I was wearing a beanie all day!


Isn't this beautiful? This makes me proud to say I lived in Utah and went skiing.




Our friends Joe and Rozaura snowboarding. Joe snowboarded and Rozaura took the snow mobile :) She wasn't a huge fan of snowboarding.


James and Amy with their boards. Thanks for the pictures Amy!


Shea and Emily, who just got engaged last week. Shea and Ja went on a run with "people who know what they are doing." I wasn't invited for some reason :)


We had such a great time to say the least!

Interview Week

Last week we had the privilege of wining and dining with two accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young. Tuesday night we had a 3 course dinner at the Provo Marriott with PwC. The food was all very good, as well as the company. They sat everyone with a partner and employee of PwC from the city (or near) you want to intern in. Luckily, D.C. is a large office so we had actual Tyson's Corner employee's sitting with us. Before dinner we had break-out sessions to learn more about PwC. I went off with all the spouses where we asked a panel of wives all sorts of questions so we could learn what life is really like with an account husband. It was fun and makes me more excited for Ja to graduate. The next day Ja had his interview with the partner from D.C. and he said everything went well.

Then on Thursday we had dinner at Tucano's with Ernst & Young. Tucano's is a Brazilian restaurant were they serve you all sorts of really good meat, grilled pineapple, vegetables and fish. They also have a great salad bar. We don't go there very often because it is expensive, so we love it when other people pay. We sat with a couple who just finished his internship this summer. This was nice for me because his wife was with him and he is still a student so it wasn't as intimidating as talking with a partner. We had fun talking about the junior core and all that comes with it. Even though it wasn't as informative, it was still fun and really good food. On Friday Ja had his interview with E&Y which also went well.

In the midst of all of this, Ja had exams all week. He studied hard, and hopefully did well, but he also had fun. But to have a perfect ending to a stressful week, PwC took us skiing at Sundance on Saturday. We only had to pay $10 for the lift ticket and rent our equipment. All of Ja's old accounting group was there which I was grateful for because I'm not a good skiier by any means, and it was James and Amy's first time snowboarding so I could go slow with them. We really had a great time, and the weather couldn't be more perfect. It was warm and sunny, without a cloud in sight.

So after all of this we are really loving being a part of the accounting world.

Sugar Cookies

Today I made my first 75 sugar cookies. Well, I've made some before but they aren't considered real after you've tasted these. I got the recipe from the Lion House cookbook, and they are amazing! They are soft and fluffy, and they kept their cookie cutter shape. I thought everyone might try and made them because they are so amazing so I'm including the recipe. I did take pictures of the wonderful things, but as you know our internet won't let us upload pictures so you'll have to wait until I can borrow someone's internet.









Cutout Sugar Cookies

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract
6 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Line cookie sheet with waxed paper; set aside. In large mixer bowl, cream sugar, shortening, and eggs. Add milk, vanilla, and lemon extract, mix at low speed. In separate bowl, mix flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add to sugar mixture until well blended. Roll out 1/8 inch thick; cut into desired shapes. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 minutes, being careful not to overbake. Cookies should be light golden brown around the edges. Frost with icing. Makes 5 to 6 dozen cookies.

Butter Cream Icing
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup shortening
4 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup water

In large mixer bowl, combine butter, shortening, and powdered sugar; beat until very creamy. Add lemon juice and vanilla; mix until well blended. Add water and mix until very light.

Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

I want to briefly share my appreciation for President Hinckley today, the day of his death. We are very sad that he has passed away, and shocked. He was old, so we half expected it would come soon but never actually thought it would happen. He has done so much for this church. He has brought so many new temples to the world and we are especially grateful for the Newport Beach temple. He has traveled to so many countries and meet so many people who will never forget his love and appreciation for him.

He was surrounded by his family while he passed away which is the best way to leave this world. We are very grateful that he is able to now be with his wife, who he has talked about so much since her death. After she died he said that the love of his life once again became the woman of his dreams. Even though we will miss him, we know he is happier now and with those he loves.

He was the only prophet I really remember in my life. I can't imagine what General Conference and the church will be like without him. We will miss him at BYU Devotionals waving his cane and waving to the students. He loved every member of the church, all 13 million members of us.

We will miss you President Hinckely and will never forget you. God be with you till we meet again.

This was our first time!

Once when Holly and Greg were visiting Utah, we met them in the Cougar Eat for some lunch. Jacob, Brigham and Caleb were there eating with us too. Out of the blue, Brigham stands up on his chair and puts his fist in the air and yells, "This is my first time!" Apparently, he thought it was his first time eating at the Cougar Eat, when it really wasn't. We thought that was hilarious (as did the other students in the packed Cougar Eat) and every time we do something for the first time we think of Brigham and say, "This is our first time!" The reason for this story is because Ja and I made ginger bread houses for the first time this Christmas. Our friends had us over to make them and we had fun. So of course, I had to stand on a chair with my fist in the air and have Ja take a picture.



The house was getting old so we wanted to get rid of it, but who can just through a ginger bread house away? Ja wanted to have a picture sequence of him eating our house. These are a few of the pictures. Isn't he funny? He makes me laugh all the time.