"I never realized how much I appreciate Jessi . . .

...until now."

--Colby, while dying my hair

Until last November, I was one of those who could tell everyone I had never dyed my hair, well except for sun-in, but that turned out horribly and I was 12, so it didn't count. I decided last November that I wanted to dye my hair a little darker for the winter. Jessi, my best friend and roommate prior to the married life, was all about this life change of mine and hurried over to our apartment to dye my hair. Colby watched tv, having nothing to do with this girl stuff.

Well, I liked the results from last year and wanted to give it another go, but Jessi is way too far away now. That is where Colby came in. He was a trooper and I actually think he slightly enjoyed the task. When I wanted to take the dye away from him for touch-ups, he hesitated to hand over the bottle. I miss my BYU girls dearly, and am hopeful to make it back to see them for lovely Juli's upcoming wedding, but so grateful to be married to a man who is willing to do the girly stuff every once in a while because he loves me.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

I love Christmas and the true reason for the season. Unfortunately, the reason, the birth of our Savior, often gets overshadowed by all the glitz and glamour that comes with the season. I so enjoyed last night where we could take an hour or two to reflect on the birth of our Savior at our ward's Christmas party, "Back to Bethlehem" style. It was glorious.


We all came in Bethlehem styled clothing, listened to a spiritual message and welcoming from the Bishop, then as in old times, went to pay our "taxes" (canned food to be donated to a shelter) and signed in for the "census." We were given our coins to purchase dinner then entered Bethlehem's market. There were turned over our gold coins for plates of bread, meat, cheese, fruits and vegetables. As we ate, we watched a beautiful nativity presentation (please excuse the blurry pictures. Mary and Joseph sat with baby Joseph while angels, shepherds and wise men came and sang. These numbers were wedged between a well written nativity script and congregational singing.




I love being reminded once again why I love this season so much and how grateful I am for the sacrifice of our Savior.

Holiday candy

In the Jergensen family, a holiday tradition is homemade English Toffee. Anyone who has had it understands why it is tradition and why a diet is necessary after the holidays. :) Being away from home I knew if I wanted the toffee goodness I would have to make it myself. After a few calls to my mom, success!


And I have to mention how much I loved making this in my amazing wedding pot from my Dad's siblings. They are the best pots and pans ever!! I also loved doing this in my new kitchen. Our builder was weary of building our kitchen to our request, but I wouldn't want it any other way. It was the main thing we changed from his original plan.

{disclaimer: though it appears I am the only one who worked to make the toffee, Colby helped a ton. You have to stir the toffee for about an hour and he did the majority of that! Thanks, babe!}

Deck the Halls

Thanksgiving has past (and we loved it) so we can now bust out the Christmas decorations. While I had Colby home I coaxed him into putting Christmas lights up on the new house! It was much more of an endeavor than we initially thought, and we had to keep laughing at ourselves. In my dad's terminology they are a little redneck-ish (meaning not perfectly straight) but we can live with that for now. I think just having lights up after being in the house for 2 weeks is quite an accomplishment. Our boxes may still need to be unpacked, but we have lights :)

We are officially home owners!!

...and have been for two weeks now. With moving, blogging has moved down a bit on my to do list. Once I locate to camera with the new house pics we took moving in I will get a few up.

costumes

I have some great past times of dressing up for high school dances, football games, "super cute sunday", 80's roller skating at BYU and many nights in the dorms. I am glad I can force Colby into having fun dressing up as well.

He actually is the one who protested against being costume repeater. And of course I couldn't say no (also couldn't commit to having a new costume ready in 20 minutes to be on time to the party, so we were fashionably late). And, if it wasn't for Colby and his brilliant ideas, I would have been swimming in a size 14 pirate dress, but instead I wore it with staples down the inside so it wouldn't hang off me. Pretty ingenious idea. He probably just saw me heading for the sewing box and knew that would take waaaayyyy toooo long so had to come up with an idea to stop me quick!

{disco dancers at the church trunk-or-treat}

{pirates for a halloween party}

{had to throw this pirate picture in to show Colby's classy earing. I had to remove it before he fell asleep...he had forgotten about it}




the best part---each of these 4 costumes were found at the Wal-Mart Associate/sample store for 50 cents each!!

jack-o-lanterns

I love carving pumpkins, possibly more so for the pumpkin seeds I get from it more than anything (really, last year we carved pumpkins after halloween just so I could bake the pumpkin seeds...), and this year we tried to get fancy with our carvings. We were happy with the outcome.






unfortunately, we learned the hard way the impact Arkansas humidity has on the life span of Jack...



this nastiness was growing out of the witch 4 days later. yuck!!

progression

It has been so fun to watch our house be built. We go out there almost every day. You could say we are a little bit obsessed--we are.

Here are WAY TOO MANY pictures of the progression of the house from Aug 21st through now. Most of you probably don't want to look at all of this, but I wanted it on here for my records.

We can't believe how fast this house has gone up. We could be closing as early as this Wednesday--yes, in 3 days!! CRAZY!





















The only things left to complete are the carpet, paint/stain touch-ups, and the yard! Wowsers...

craziness

This is what my bed looks like right now.



But, considering everything going on right now, I am just glad that we had dinner tonight (lunch however, did not happen.)

I took a full time job and we are building this beaut. I think this may explain the mess on my bed. Sadly, it will probably all be thrown back in the laundry bin so we can get a little shut eye tonight.

first day of work, 6:40 am, uck!

We are so grateful for these exciting changes happening in our life. Yes, life is busy and chaotic, but we really are loving it.

sidenote: we had a lovely trip to California last month that I have some great pictures I need to post. Sorry that was kind of pushed to the back burner. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip!

visitors!!!

We had the greatest time having Mom and Dad Heiner in town over the weekend. It was quite low-key, but we loved just being together. Because they live on a dairy farm, it is difficult for them to get away, but thankfully Kellen manned the farm so they could leave.

We spent Friday afternoon visiting with Aunt Linda in Oklahoma, then headed to Arkansas to spend Saturday and Sunday.

Mom and Dad Heiner-- We LOVED having you here! Thanks for a great weekend. Come back SOON!!

I guess it's official

I think this is proof enough that we are actually enjoying Arkansas. I exchanged my California license and plates for this:



It was a little saddening (especially since I didn't get to keep my license for memories sake! Sad.) and I can't use my out of state plates as an excuse for driving like an out-of-towner, but I now feel like I fit in a little better.

As I have been at work today I keep thinking about my two youngest siblings, each having just started back to school at new schools, and two other brothers starting up at BYU today. I have had a weird feeling and finally realized that it must be because this is the first fall in 17 years that I have not been heading back to school as well. It is kind of a strange realization. I guess without school though I am experiencing even bigger and better things.

Good luck to everyone who is heading back to school!

22

My birthday was a week ago and it was fabulous.

Colby took me to Johnny Carino's, my favorite restaurant and had a small surprise party for me at a local ice cream place. My friend Courtney did most of the planning and it was just great. Thanks Courtney! My friends all pitched in to get me a gift certificate for a pedicure (much needed) and Colby gave me a gift card for a massage (also much needed/wanted). Haven't had the pedicure yet, but I had my hour long massage this week and it was fantastic. Too bad it was the fastest hour of my life. If only work could go by that quickly.

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate with flowers, cards, phone calls, hugs, and facebook messages! It all meant the world to me!

I am so grateful to all of the people who have been a part of my life. I am who I am today because of each of the people I have met. Can't wait to live this next year of life and see what surprises it brings!!

Enjoy some pics from the day.