My 21st birthday!!

My husband along with some of my friends planned a surprise party for me, the weekend before my birthday.


It was my 21st...so we had to have some "mixed Drinks". No worries...ginger ale and sprite replaced the alcohol.


Me and my sister-in-law, Kim, mixing some yummy drinks.

This is one of the cute kids that were at the party...she was loving that cupcake.

Some of the men at the party.

Some of the great purchases my husband made for the party.

My AWESOME birthday cake that Kim made me...she's pretty much professional.

"Look at that camera..."

Getting excited while everyone sings happy birthday to me.

Blowing out my candles right after I made a wish about the sweetest present I already recieved. I guess you could call it an early birthday present.

Little Grant...he wanted to get every crumb.

This is Grant' twin Cole...he loved the cupcakes too.

Some of my favorite women in my ward...Donette (mother of that cute little girl and the little baby down a few pictures), Sue (prego with a little girl and the mother of those cute twins) and Carol...who hosted the fun party.

My sweet little guy Dryson, with his dad Jeremy.

Our new couch!! We've had the option of sitting on the floor pretty much for the last 5 1/2 months. We love our new couch...my favorite part is the HUGE Ottoman...it's mostly why I wanted the couch.

Made surprised me and made reservations to a great restaurant that one of his patients recommended to him called Beaches. He made a reservation and told them it was my birthday, so they put my name on the board. By the way, earlier that day when I got done with classes I stopped by Matt's office to say hello, on my way home. When I got there he was working on a patient and he pulled the stuff out of her mouth and pulled down his mask and they, along with his assistant, sang happy birthday to me. It was very cute. My husband's pretty sweet.

There's my name!

At the restaurant they gave me the lae(sp?)the crown to wear. They even gave me that yellow paper with all the specials for the night and it says "Happy Birthday Kelsey" at the top. Pretty cool!

Some of the cool atmosphere at the restaurant.

I stole the camera away and made Matt pose for a picture. What a stud.

My husband did a wonderful job to make my birthday special. He even came home int he middle of the day to surprise me and brought me flowers...his real plan was to stop home to check out my class schedule and surprise me at school with flowers...guess I kind of ruined it for him. It was still very sweet to see him in the middle of the day. I sure love my husband and I had a great birthday!

Busier and better times!

Alright, so it's been a while since I've updated our blog. I have two reasons for that. 1. No time. 2. No pictures. So I still don't have any pictures, but I guess I can still give an update on what's been happening in our lives. Well seminary started about 3 1/2 weeks ago. We have a huge class...30 students. We love teaching seminary. It's a TOUGH calling though. It takes hours of our time every evening to prepare lessons. I don't think I ever realized how tough it must have been for my seminary teachers. Now, I was usually a really good kid in seminary, but I talked like every other high school student. The most kids we ever had in my seminary class was about 15. haha It's funny how in just 3 weeks Matt and I both can feel such love and concern for each of our students. We really do think about them all the time. We've been trying really hard to come up with activites and teaching methods in class that will keep the students attention as well as help them learn gospel principles and feel the spirit. Things get better just about every day. Matt and I have truly felt the blessings of this calling and I'm certain that they'll continue to be poured out upon us. Our marriage feels so much stronger. I feel like we enjoy eachother and are more grateful for each other than before. And that's not to say that things weren't really great before...but the Lord sure is blessing us. I've also started school. I'm not taking as many credits as I had originally hoped. I had to drop a 5 credit class because it was at the same time as the Jazz Choir that I'm in...and well...I'd be too sad knowing I passed up being part of the jazz choir. So far I love it! There are a lot of talented singers and we're doing some really fun pieces this year. We're even singing a song by Barbra Streisand, whom I love. (It's called A Quiet Thing)I'm also in the Women's Choir which focuses on classical pieces. So I get the best of both worlds when it comes to singing. Going to school at a non LDS college is a little different, but I'm enjoying it. I've never been afraid to open my mouth and let people know about my standards and my religion. I always wanted to go on a mission and I'm sure I'll have a lot of missionary opportunites. I'm in a History class called Women in History and it's full of feminist women (who maybe don't know the real definition of feminism) who are very liberal. But the class is already aware that I'm LDS and I don't feel a bit uncomfortable, like I thought I might at first. It's a small campus, but I'm enjoying it. I like going to school and being busy, for the most part. Matt's doing great. The practice is continuing to grow which we're very grateful for. He is such a great husband and such a great seminary teacher. He studys so hard to prepare great lessons for the students. And he's so good to me. We're really loving life. We love our ward. We've made some great friends whom we just enjoy so much! I've already told Matt that when we move out of our appartment and into a house, that we have to stay in this ward. Life's great. I love reading your comments and your blogs! So keep posting and keep commenting. I'll try to get better at updating my blog. I'll take some pictures and put them up soon! And if you have any fun suggestions for seminary or good teaching tools or methods for us to use...don't hesitate to suggest them! Share the love! Thanks so much!

I love to see the temple...

Recognize them?....

“I hope that everyone gets to the temple on a regular basis. If we are a temple-going people, we will be a better people, we will be better fathers and husbands, we will be better wives and mothers. I know your lives are busy. I know that you have much to do. But I make you a promise that if you will go to the house of the Lord, you will be blessed, life will be better for you. Now, please, please, my beloved brethren and sisters, avail yourselves of the great opportunity to go to the Lord’s house and thereby partake of all of the marvelous blessings that are yours to be received there” (Gordon B. Hinckley, fireside, Lima, Peru, 9 Nov. 1996).

I love going to the temple. I feel so blessed to have to opportunuty to go, especially with my eternal companion.There's nothing like the peace that can be felt there, especially, compared to such a fast paced chaotic world. We need the temple. I hope this will inspire you to recommit to going to the temple, often.

Seattle with Phil and Summer!

This part weekend Matt and I drove to seattle to spend the weekend with our good friends Summer and Phil. We had a blast. The first night we went to this park and threw the football for a while and then went down to the beach and skipped rocks and just enjoyed the evening. Then we went back to their place and played SETTLERS OF CATAN! We love that game. Then we watched a movie and fell asleep. The next day we had a yummy breakfast and then Phil and Summer showed us around Seattle. We had a blast! We went inside the coolest library I've ever been in. The architecture and color schemes were so cool. We had fun exploring and taking pictures in there. Then we went to the farmers market to look around. Pike Place had the coolest fish market. The guys that worked there were so energetic. They always had a crowd around watching as they shouted out the orders and threw the huge fishes around. We got to ample some smoked salmon...mmm mmm good. Summer had us try these delicious doughnuts that they made fresh right there....sooo yummy. We really enjoyed looking around. After we were done exploring downtown Seattle, we went back and played another game of Settlers before Matt and I got back on the road to go home. What a fun weekend!


The Farmer's market in Seattle.


Summer and Phil took this...it turned out kind of cool.

He's pretty cute.

On our way into the "throat". We called it the throat because it was this big hallway that was all red and dimly lit. It was my favorite part of the library.

He jumped into my arms like a little boy.

Matt was mauling me.

Summer and Phil again. Phil likes to strike a pose...

Matt zoomed in and took this picture of Phil. He showed me the camera and I didn't even know it was Phil so I just kept looking around for him.

I'm just cooler than him, that's all.

Super cool yellow narrow escalators. This library has 5 floors and was sooo cool.

The "look off" pose.

They were cool chairs made of foam.

We saw them playing chess in the library. We thought it was classic. Don't worry, I stood really far back and just zoomed in. I wasn't standing by the table taking pictures of them. haha I'm betting the old man won.

My husband is a monkey. He saw the tree and said it looked like it needed to be climbed.

The best part about this picture is Summer playing on the sea horse toy...she got stuck. haha

oh, isn't he cute. haha

Matt wanted in on the action.

Summer and Phil...so cute.

Me and summer

The boys skipping rocks at the beach

I tried to take a picture of myself with the pretty background.

US!

We stopped at Cascade Locks for ice cream and took some pictures!