Temple Square Lights

Jason and I went to Salt Lake last night with our friends Erik and Mirjam. The lights were beautiful, as always. It was cold, but there was still a ton of people. We had a great time!!

Thanksgiving Fun

Although it looks like christmas, we went to Colorado for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun having all of Jason's family home. All 9 kids were there for the weekend. Besides stuffing ourselves full on Thanksgiving, we also had a mini Christmas as well. It was great!!
Jason with 3 of his 4 brothers, Jordon, Josh, and Joey. They had fun wrestling, playing video games, and arm wrestling all weekend long! (something I realized I'm not quite used to with so many sisters) :) We had a lot of fun!

All Better

I thought I would give a quick update on my surgery. This is Jason and I before the procedure with the teddy bear my Dad and Peggy sent me. Everything went very well. The hole was the same size as my sister Becca's, 12mm (about 1/2 in.). Pretty good size. I stayed one night in the new hosptial in Murray. The hospital is beautiful and has huge rooms. And, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, being on the other side of things. :) The nurses were great and Dr. Sorensen did a great job. Jason took some picutres after the procedure, but I thought this one of me was a bit better. :) I'm feeling pretty good and am thankful to have it all over so we can move on with life! I'm greatful the Lord helped us find the problem and fix it when He did. :)

Our New Toy

So this is our new toy, a Kymco People 150 scooter!! I never thought I would buy anything close to a motorcycle, but I was wrong! A couple of months ago, a friend of ours bought one and let us ride it...and man was it fun. After much discussion about safety issues, we decided to buy one. Shortly after we decided that we wanted one, a friend of Jason's offered us a great deal on his. He is moving in the spring and can't take it with him. Anyway, we are having a lot of fun on it now before the snow hits. It gets great gas milage (about 80 mpg), so of course that was a big selling point for us. :) We would love to take anyone on a ride, so come visit!!
Don't we look good on it? And don't worry, the helmets are coming soon!

Katie's Birthday

My Birthday was on the 8th and I had a fun day. I actually got to celebrate on several different days, so it was great! My sister-in-law, Jannae, made the cake for me and it was yummy!!
That night we went to the BYU vs. TCU football game with our friends Erik and Miriam. We won, so it was a lot of fun!

I'm married to Cosmo's biggest fan, so we were excited when we got this picture. Cosmo is a pretty big celebrity around here for those of you who don't know!!

Happy Birthday Dave!!

So, it's my brother Dave's Birthday on Nov. 5th and I failed to mail his card on time. So tonight I was looking all over for some cool e-card to send him, but I found nothing! I take that back, I found a really funny cowboy that I put my picture as the face, and had the cowboy singing this really funny song. But after typing my message and all the info, they wanted me to pay an outrageous amount, so I decided to do something a little different...sorry Dave. I decided to do something I saw Melanie do on her blog, and do a little highlight on David and why he's so great.



David is the oldest in the family and the only boy. Some may think it's not too bad, but when there are ten girls, you are a bit out numbered! However, David's always been a great sport about it and has been a great big brother. Although Dave may seem pretty tough having been a marine, a bull rider, a great outdoors man, etc. , he really has does have a tender heart. I've always felt that David would do anything for me. I feel blessed to have a brother who, although he is 11 years older than me, is so fun to be around and has always been very protective and supportive in all I do. David is also a great dad and has a beautiful family. I just wish we lived closer so we could see each other more!! David's also been a good example to me of a hard worker and someone who stands up for what is right and good.

I hope you have a happy birthday David!! I love you lots!!

Here are a couple pictures of the man himself!!

ASD Closure

Isn't this a cool little device? Well, it's going to be in my heart pretty soon. It's a bit of a long story, but I have been diagnosed with an atrial septal defect (ASD). An ASD is a hole in the heart that has been there since birth. There are two kinds of holes that are found in the heart. The first is a patent foramen ovale or PFO, which everyone is born with and closes up in the first year or two of life. In some people this never closes. The other kind is an ASD, which is simply a hole in the septum between the two atria of the heart. They are pretty sure that mine is an ASD, but won't know for sure until they go in and place the device. They did a Transcranial Doppler as well as a bubble echocardiogram to diagnose the ASD. Both tests showed significant flow of blood directly from the right atrium to the left (which is not normal or good). Because of this, there is a high risk for stroke. Therefore, I will be having the procedure on November 20th to have the hole closed. Because technology is so amazing, they will be able to go up through my femoral vein (in my groin area) and place the device through a catheter. I will only be in the hospital for one night and will be back to noramal life very quickly!! I know this is a lot of information and I probably didn't explain it very well, but if anyone would like more info., you can visit http://www.sorensenmd.com/ which is the website of the cardiologist doing the procedure. He is the best in the nation for this procedure and is second in the world. Another good website to look at is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_septal_defect . Anyway, I don't want to worry anyone, I just thought I would fill you in on the latest here!

More Halloween Fun!

Krista Maxwell danced the night away to our Halloween music. She was adorable! Her Dad, Bryce is the blind referee in the background and her mom, Karmen was a great nerd!

Some yummy eyeball cupckes and other goodies
Ben, Kristi, and Logan Parker. Quite the contrast in costumes huh!? Fun stuff!
Steve, Kat, and Savannah Powell all looked great! It was fun seeing you guys!

Halloween Party 2007

We had our first annual Halloween party this past weekend. It was a lot of fun. This picture is my nephew Sam, Me, Jason, my sister Charisa, my brother in-law Kevin, my brother in-law Jeff, my sister Becca, my neice Savannah, my neice Emma, and my nephew Ben. Everyone did a great job dressing up and being creative! We had a good time! Below are a few pictures of the limbo. There was definitely some talented limboers! (The first is Kevin, Jeff, Kristi, then Jason)

A Quick Peek at Our Summer

Jason and I went to Disneyland with my sister and brother-in-law, Falycia and Kirk. We spent two days there and had tons of fun on all the rides and being kids again!!

Over Memorial Day weekend, the parents came to visit and we all went to San Fransisco. We had a very fun filled, action packed day. We hit all the sights and had a blast!

The last thing we did in San Fransisco was going to an A's baseball game. We all had a great time.

We also did a bit of babysitting over the summer as well. This is Shelby, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe's dog. She was our substitute neice while we were away from all of them. She was fun to have around and as you can see, she made herself right at home when she stayed with us!!

This picture was at early morning seminary for the high school age kids. They meet every school day at 6:00am to study the scriptures. They are great kids. Jason and I took them little book marks and pictures of Christ that they loved. It was great!











These were some of my favorite kids! They loved to sit, stand, or be anywhere close to me (probably because of the candy and stickers I gave them). They are sweet kids!












These bags were hand made by one of our favorite Bolivians. Sister Choque cooked for Jason everyday for about 6 months of his mission. She is a very strong member of the church and always serving others.

One of the highlights of our summer was our trip to Bolivia, where Jason served a mission for our church 3 years ago. This is at the Cochabamba Temple. These families drove over 40+ hours in buses and cars to get here. They are incredible people!!












This is the Alanoca family, one of our favorites!! We took them to Dumbo's for ice cream and had a blast. This is one of the nicer restaurants in Santa Cruz.

Intoducing Us

Jason and I (Katie) were married August 18th, 2006 in the Salt Lake Temple. We currently live in Provo, UT where Jason and I are going to school at BYU. Jason is getting ready to apply for dental school this coming spring, and I am going to school part time, working on my bachelors. I also work nights as a nurse on the medical oncology floor at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.