my garden

I'd like to preface my next post with an apology--an apology to my family in the great white north who occasionally look at the place where there garden grows and says, "planting will have to wait until the ground thaws and the snow is gone."

That being said, I planted my garden yesterday! Strange, huh? I have a few little garden plots in my backyard, and planted a few things to start us off.

I planted some strawberries, even though I can't eat them.

Here, in the short rows, are carrots, and green beans in the long rows.

Over here I planted some watermelon, zucchini, and summer squash.

from the land of endless summer

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't figure out where January has gone. I figure it has absolutely flown by because the weather has been so marvelous here. At home, January would drag on for ages and ages because the weather was so terribly gloomy. Here, though, the weather is just like Idaho summers, which makes for some pretty good days. Since it's been forever since we've posted anything that has been going on (except for the strange event in the nighttime), I thought I'd catch you all up on the happenings in the land of endless summer.

We had a great Christmas. We drove up to Idaho and spent the week of Christmas with my family. Because I'm really cool, I didn't take any pictures. None. My mom did, though. Mom, will you send me some of your pictures? Thanks. Anyway, we had such a nice time. It was good to get together with my family and do the things we love doing around the holidays. On the way there, we drove over the Hoover Dam:



But the Hoover Dam Bypass that is under construction was much cooler looking than the actual dam itself.



One of the days we were up in Idaho, we got to go visit my great grandma McKenzie. She has congestive heart failure, and it getting frailer (she's a McKenzie, so this doesn't mean much) in her old age. My grandma is great. She lives in an underground house and has the hottest, loudest wood stove known to man. It was good to sit with her and talk. Matt had never been to her house, so it was good for him to see a basement house. : )

Matt surprised me with some pretty neat things, and I hope he wasn't too disappointed with mine. Santa did bring him a remote control helicopter, thought, which ended up being kind of dangerous as it nearly sliced Jane's finger off, and got stuck in Katelyn's hair. Disastrous.

I opened one of my presents to find a Phoenix Suns shirt, along with this letter:

My mom and dad got me the coolest thing ever---A Silhouette! If you don't know what a Silhouette is, and you are still using a Cricket, you should really come watch my toy in action. FABULOUS!!! And so much fun.


I was surprised with a trip to here: (Thanks to grandpa Serafine for letting us use a week of his time-share!)

Where we'll get to look at this everyday:

And get to see some of this:

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited.

I had a birthday, and since Matt was the only one to take a picture, here's me having Jane help me blow out my candles. We also went to dinner with my mom and dad, Hannah, my uncle David and aunt Lisa, my uncle Rob and aunt Coleen, and Jeremy. It was fun to have my family in Utah for my birthday.

Since we've been home, I made a bed skirt and pillowcases for our extra bed.

And made a picture wall with some vinyl words. I'm having a hard time thinking of things to make with my Silhouette. It does so many things I'm coming up with a writer's block of sorts.

Coming up next: Gardening in January!

A strange event last night

So, to set this story up. I like to sleep with the window open and Stacy likes to sleep with it closed, but sometimes allows it to remain open to be able to "cuddle" with me. Well I wake up this morning at about 5am and notice the window is open and the shade is pull up a bit, and I think to myself Stacy must have wanted to cuddle last night. I asked her if she had opened the window during the night, she said no. I also told her that I had not opened either. We checked the window and the screen was still there untouched. I thought for sure that she had opened the window and did not remember doing so because I definitely didn't open the window. We both recalled that the window was closed and locked before we went to sleep. So, I begin to think that maybe there is someone in our house. So I grab the pole that I have under my bed, a rather unintimidating piece of wood (this is where Jake's gun would have come in handy). Its a pole used for attaching paint rollers at the end and painting ceilings. In a cowardly manner I check all the rooms and closets. Thank goodness there wasn't a burglar or I would have had to take action with my paint stick, maybe I would have painted him to death from a distance.

Well, the only thing that we can think of is that one of us sleepwalked during the night and opened the window. Why we would do this, we don't know. If there are any other ideas as to what occurred, please give them to us

4 pies + 5 people = yum.

Every time I hear the word, "hockey," I hear Sarah Palin's voice.

Over Thanksgiving, the Phoenix Coyotes were playing the Dallas Stars. The hockey stadium is a stone's throw from our house, so we had to go. My dad is a hockey fan, and it was fun going to the game with my family. Although Matt and I don't watch a whole lot of hockey at our house, or any hockey for that matter, we still had a blast. I've never seen people get so excited about a goal, and my favorite part of the whole thing was the incredibly loud siren they sounded after every Phoenix goal.


Unfortunately, Wayne Gretzky carried a hefty price tag. He used to be the coach of the Coyotes, but was invited to leave once the team filed for bankruptcy. Whatever they are looking at must have been interesting.

Hannah, my mom, and my dad. It was actually surprisingly cold in the stadium.

GOOOOOOAAAAAAAL!

To top things off, every person in our row won free car washes! Because my family doesn't live here, we ended up with 5 free car washes! Matt also caught a t-shirt!

Our neighbors are Ute fans.

All in good fun, our neighbor boys came and chalked a giant U on our driveway prior to the BYU vs. Utah game. They also wrote things like, "BOO BYU!" and "Go Utah!" Later that night, we found more Utah drawings on our driveway, and a sandwich bag with a piece of blue chalk on our front step. The boy's mom thought it would only be fair to let us draw on their driveway too. Well, off we went to express our hatred of the U on our neighbor's driveway. Here's Hannah and Matt drawing on the pavement.

The next day at church, our neighbor's littlest girl, Sariah, came to Nursery (Matt and I are Nursery leaders). That particular Sunday she was a little upset about coming to Nursery and was crying while her dad was trying to put her down. Matt, in trying to distract her, asked, "Sariah, did you draw on my driveway?" Through her tears and while closing her eyes tightly, she wails, "NOOO." Matt asks, "Who was it, then?" Sariah, again with eyes closed tightly says, "It was Byran!"

Hilarious.

Fire!

We wanted to test out our new firepit, so we invited the Bushmans over to help us take it for a test run. We had fun roasting marshmallows and watching UP with them for FHE!

Phoenix Temple

I've never lived in an area where there was opposition to a temple being built. The temple in Idaho Falls was built in the early 1900's, and all the temples in Utah had been there a while, up until the last few were built. There is a temple being built in North Phoenix, not too far from Matt's school. We are excited to have the temple built so close to us, and look forward to the opportunity to go there. Here is a news story about the temple that was posted online. It's funny to me to see how people are opposed to such a wonderful building. Some of the things they have problems with is the traffic that the temple will bring and the lights on the temple. When I see or hear people on the news complaining about the lights on the temple, I can't help to wonder if the think the temple is going to look like a Las Vegas attraction with all the flashy lights. Have they not ever seen a temple?

City council OKs addition to Phoenix LDS temple

A Phoenix City Council zoning meeting has determined the fate of a controversial Valley Mormon Temple.
The Council voted unanimously Wednesday to allow the LDS church to add 10 feet of height to its proposed temple, to be built near 51st Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Rd, adjacent to the church's current building.
The building will stand 40 feet high, despite typical residential zoning laws preventing buildings from exceeding 30 feet in height.
"Being legally allowed to do something doesn't mean you're being respectful to the neighborhood," said Scott Anderson, who spoke on behalf of neighborhood protesters after the vote Wednesday night.
Anderson said a group of neighbors will not give up their fight to get the issue to voters.
According to city leaders, a group must gather 9,798 legitimate petition signatures from registered Phoenix voters within thirty days in order to push the issue towards the ballot.
Supporters, meanwhile, say they are anxious to move forward with their plans.
"We're going to make every effort to make peace with the neighbors," said Paul Gilbert, an attorney representing the temple supporters.
Gilbert said the temple supporters have already made several concessions regarding the proposed addition, including agreeing to turn the lights off at 10 p.m. and changing the color of the exterior paint they had intended.
Residents living nearby have expressed concerns about the proposed 126-foot high steeple which they say will obstruct their mountain views.
On Sunday, November 22, dozens of protesters picketed services at the north Phoenix LDS church.
Thirty people lined the north Phoenix intersection, letting passing drivers know of their opposition to the church building a temple.
"We respect their right to worship, this isn't about religion," said Anderson. "What it's about is a building that's incompatible with the neighborhood."
Neighbors like Don Egigian have also expressed frustrations with the proposal.
"Their impact as far as making our neighborhood better is zero," Egigian said.
Neighbors say, for one, the temple will bring in additional traffic which they claim the roads in the area can't handle.
"Anytime you put a high intensity, large project next to low intensity homes, it creates problems," Anderson said.
Most residents take issue with the temple's height; proposed plans have it at 40 feet with a 78 foot spire with a light on top.
"Lighting is a huge issue, it'll be lit until 11 o'clock at night," Egigian said.
Many neighbors say a building of that height doesn't belong in a residential community. There is also concern the light at the top of the steeple could be distracting.