Grandma Zelda's Birthday Party

The lovely Grandma Zelda; Our Birthday Girl.Last night we had a party at Anderson's house to celebrate--basically we did what our family does best--eat and talk! I LOVE my extended family--they don't feel very extended at all! Words could never explain how thankful I am that we are so close. I am so so grateful for the blessings of a wonderfully, incredible, magnificent, fantastic, brilliant family! :) Here are some pictures of our family time:
The boys: Basically a Cousin Jeff (aka Tater Tot), Tosh, who is leaving for his mission to Arkansas in May, and my amazing uncle Jan. Jan's life is such a miracle to those that have been able to be part of it. His life itself and his character are so incredible. Most people that live through traumatic head injuries have extreme trouble controlling their words and mouths. Jan's righteousness has been such an example to all of us; since the accident he has never had a problem with that--his true Christ-like character has really show through. And my amazing Aunt and her faith has also been such a testimony builder to all of us that have seen what she has had to endure. If anyone has been refined for Eternity and faithful it is her! They are an amazing family--and I am so thankful to be part of it! :)
This is my cousin Mo. He lived in San Diego. I lived in WI. Sad. We didn't meet until we were way older than we should have been. Since then and especially since Provo time, he has become one of my greatest friends. We've had lots of unforgettable road trips, long boarding outtings, cousin time, and even a lake rapids scare. Basically he and Scotty were my entertainment when I got homesick and even when I wasn't. ;) Even though I have yet to pay up on the homecooked meals I owe him, he's still my buddy.

This picture, as requested by Mike, is here for Aunt Annette. You've raised a fine young man! :)

(In case it's too small--he's doing dishes!!)

And here is Grandma Zelda and Grandpa Al--the glue to this family! For me these two define what unconditional love is. They give it freely to each one of their family members. It's hard not to be overwhelmed by it. I hope some day my grandkids admire me as much as I know we each admire them.

This is Kelsey and me! We look like we should be sisters--some days I would have taken her as a replacement of Cody. I'm pretty sure my dear dad feels the same way. Only kidding.

And you may be wondering where my husband is? He is working--but don't feel too sorry for him--he still got fed! We missed him though!

10 Coldest Cities in the US: And I lived in one.

I was just looking at places that I would want to live, waaaay down the road when Bry finishes law school, and I came across this site about weather facts. For all my dear friends that thought I was exaggerating about how FREEZING it was in St. Cloud--now you can believe me. It's number 10 out of all the cities in the United States...and I had to walk to class in that. What was I thinking?!? AVERAGE ANNUAL TEMP OF 41 DEGREES. That's nuts! And the number 2 city is where one of my best friends from HS went--one weekend when I went up to visit we got caught in the worst blizzard of the year. If I remember right it was like 3 feet of snow....anyway a drive that normally takes an hour and a half took 4 hours. OH, the memories of the midwest :)

Interesting United States Weather Facts and Extremes

10 coldest cities
Average Annual Temperature
1. International Falls, Minnesota 36.4
2. Duluth, Minnesota 38.2
3. Caribou, Maine 38.9
4. Marquette, Mi 39.2
5. Sault Ste Marie, Mi 39.7
6. Fargo, North Dakota 40.5
7. Williston, N Dakota 40.8
8. Alamosa, Colorado 41.2
9. Bismarck, N Dakota 41.3
10. St. Cloud, Minn 41.4

Janelle and I working at the good old Student Health Center--not too thrilled about our current weather situation. Where did spring go?!? The snow and rain gets a big thumbs down!

Forgiveness.

My aunt sent me this story and it touched me so deeply. I am in awe at how when we are able to forgive Heavenly Father floods our lives with love. I am also so very grateful that we are never given more than we can bear...even though some times I am amazed at the ablility we are given to bear trials that we never before thought we could bear.

By Gerry Avant
Church News editor

Before the dust settled from the wreck that took the lives of hispregnant wife and two of his children Feb. 9, Chris Williams knew that thefirst thing he had to do was forgive the driver who had crashed his vehicle into the Williams family's sedan.Bishop Chris Williams, whose wife and two children died in car crash, addresses members of the media outside LDS meetinghouse. "As a disciple of Christ, I had no other choice," said the bishop ofthe Crystal Heights Ward, Salt Lake Highland Stake. Bishop Williams spoke with the Church News on Feb. 13 at Primary Children's Medical Center where Sam, his 6-year-old son, was hospitalizedfor injuries sustained in the accident. Bishop Williams, who suffered abroken rib, said that he had been reading the scriptures shortly before the accident and was impressed by the Savior's statement, "Of you it isrequired to forgive all men."
Bishop Williams said, "As I understand that statement, it is not anoption whether or not I forgive somebody. It is a commandment." He said that in the moments after the accident, he looked aroundinside the car and realized that his wife, Michelle, and two of theirchildren, Ben, 11, and Anna, 9, had died in the crash.
He said he remembered the sealing ordinances of the temple. "I wantedto make sure that I would live in such a way that I'll have the right to bewith my family for eternity," he said. "The last thing that I wanted to do in that moment when I realized that my wife and children had passed was tobreak a commandment. Really, as a disciple of Christ, I had no other choicebut to forgive."
At the moment he decided to unconditionally forgive the driver of the other vehicle, Bishop Williams said, he heard Sam calling out to him fromthe back seat. Until that instant, he had not known whether Sam hadsurvived.
As he was being treated at a hospital emergency room, Bishop Williams asked someone to have placed on the temple prayer roll the name of theother driver, a 17-year-old young man. His reason for doing so waspowerful. When Bishop Williams was 16, he was driving to work at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City when two young boys, brothers, ran from between parkedcars and were struck by the vehicle he was driving. One of the boys died. Bishop Williams said that he remembers sitting in the back of a police car, being 16 years old, "all alone, waiting, terrified, not knowingwhat had happened, being in a state of absolute shock, grief, pain andhurting, with nobody around, nobody to support me." "Some lady came up, tapped on the window, opened the car door andsaid, 'Would you like us to put your name on the temple prayer roll?' Being16, I knew what baptism for the dead was, but I didn't know what the temple roll really was. But when she mentioned the word 'temple' I felt peace fillthat car. I said, 'Please, yes.' It brought such a peace and a calm to me;it has stayed with me throughout my life." That was the reason, he said, that he quickly requested for the driver's name to be placed on the prayer roll. "My heart went out towhoever was driving that car — not knowing the circumstances, not really caring about the circumstances, just knowing that this was going to affectthat individual. I was just very concerned and wanted to return such abeautiful favor to somebody else that had been offered to me." Bishop Williams expressed hope that members everywhere will pray forthe young man who was driving the car that hit his family's vehicle. Policesuspect the teenager was driving under the influence of alcohol.
On Feb. 11, Bishop Williams and his 14-year-old son, Michael (who wasnot with the family at the time of the accident), went to their ward'ssacrament meeting. A special day of fasting and testimonies had been scheduled, but Bishop Williams had not planned to attend. He and Michaelhad stayed overnight at the hospital to be with Sam. Bishop Williamsplanned to attend the hospital's LDS branch sacrament meeting, which would allow Michael, who had been unable to rest since the accident, to sleeplonger. When Michael woke up, Bishop Williams asked if he would like to go tosacrament meeting. "Yeah," Michael replied. "I'd love to go hear some of the testimonies." "What hit me by that comment was he was referring to our ward, not this branch here at the hospital, which meets at 10:30 a.m. Our sacramentmeeting starts at 9 a.m. It was 8:55." They went home and quickly changed clothes. The meeting was nearlyhalf over when they arrived. Bishop Williams stood in the chapel's doorway,trying to figure out how to enter without causing much distraction. For a moment, he lost track of Michael. "I looked into the back of thecongregation. There was this row of 14-year-old teachers, wearing whiteshirts, and he was right in the middle. He had such support and love that was exhibited to him right then. That's when it hit me that this was wherehe needed to be."
Stake President James Wood motioned for Bishop Williams to take hisusual seat on the stand. "Immediately, when I did, the second inspiration that I received was that's where I should have been. I felt my wife there,I felt my two children who had passed away were there. It was just as if wewere there, all of us as a family. It was a great strength, less than 48 hours after the accident, to feel of the love and prayers of thecongregation, the visitors who had come, and also my sweet wife and my twochildren. And to know that Michael was in a place where he was getting this wonderful support."
Testimonies were about the Savior and the Atonement. "The Spirit wasso strong. I took the opportunity to address the congregation and talkedabout the strength of the gospel." He spoke about forgiveness, a principle he could teach throughpersonal experience.
To his ward members and during the news interview he bore powerfultestimony of the Atonement. He said that he wants to be among the friends who will visit the young man "for however long it takes" for him to recoverfrom his role in the tragedy. "My wife and my two children are taken care of," he said. "They're ina place of rest, a place of peace — Paradise, as it's been named. The truetragedy of this event, the eternal tragedy, would be if this young manchose not to partake of the Atonement, and if we lost that soul. It's one thing to lose a life, but in the resurrection and eternal families, thatcan be healed through the love of our Savior. This can be an experience ofgrowth, an experience where one day we're very grateful that we were able to pass through it. But if we were to lose that soul, for me, personally, heaven just wouldn't be heaven. I don't know if I could feel celestial joyknowing that there was a soul lost because of this accident."
Bishop Williams acknowledged that he and his family had been "handed a bitter cup." However, he said, a counselor in his stake presidency had explained that not even the Savior drank all of His bitter cup at once. "He said that in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Savior drank of it alittle, and then He went back to His disciples, to His friends, for alittle bit of support, and then He went in and drank some more. He had an angel come and strengthen Him and support Him, and He drank a little more.He went back to His disciples, and was able to have a little bit of arespite. Then He started to drink the remainder on the cross, until it was all gone, until it was finished. I think it's like our lives; we're notasked to drink more than we're able to all at once."
He said that with love and support the cup will not always remain full, that one day it will be empty. "The gospel," he said, "gives us such strength to draw on the Lord and to allow Him to put His arm around us and help us to drink." He added that he hopes he will be able to say, "I did that which was my duty to do. I endured that which was put into my cup, that I drank all that I was asked to drink."

Puzzling...

Friday night Bryan came home with a Large Papa Murphy's Pizza (Half Hawaiian and half pepperoni--the way we always do it!), Movies: Over the Hedge and Casino Royale, and a Puzzle!! Our families have always done puzzles together for family time so he decided we were going to attempt it too. Yeah but what puzzle did he bring home?!? A Monet--the Sailboats. If any of you are Art experts you know that that painting is all the same color--BLUE! How in the world are you supposed to put together a 1000 piece puzzle that is all the same color? Well Bryan was convinced that we could...
Here are some pictures of our attempts... We worked on this thing for about 3 hours and just got the out line done. I quit after that. This puzzle was toooo much work--my dedication was lacking. Bryan on the other hand kept at it while I watched the movie. :) He only got a few more pieces done after the master stopped working on it. Who knows if we will ever finish it. As for now, it is taking up our entire kitchen table which means we ate our Sunday dinner on the couch :)
Saturday morning I went to the big shade sale with Kristen. We were good wives and didn't buy too much--but got some great deals. In the afternoon we had our ward softball picnic. I got to talk with all the girls while the boys played. Bryan hit a home run, got some nice grass stains on his shorts, and of course is in pain from playing with a bad shoulder. Melissa and I were sitting there and totally called the complaining because her husband has the same situation. :)

Sunday was a bitter sweet day. I got released from my calling in the Relief Society Presidency. I will miss the girls that I got to serve with so much; they were amazing and turned into such good friends. And I will greatly miss serving the women in our ward. It was a great growing experience for me and such a huge blessing. I don't, however, think that I will miss the 8 am meetings :) With our release brought all my other dear friends callings into either the RS presidency or YW presidency. Good luck girls! We are routing for you!

Lastly, for any of you Art Lovers: One of the nurses at work showed me where you can make your own magical creation. jacksonpollock.org.

Shoot thats good chinese! :)

Bryan and I went here for lunch yesterday and it was REALLY good! For $8 at lunch you get wantons, an egg roll, the soup of the day, and your meal. I got the cashew chicken which was delish! Bry got the sweet and sour chicken which normally isn't my favorite--but here it was yummy! So if you are looking for a good date try this place at Riverwoods!!

Happy Birthday Beloy Leloy :)

I can't get over how adorable he was!! The cute blond hair and brown eyes! Now the little boy that hang glided cats off the roof, broke windows, and flushed his GI Joe's is all grown up.

Bry turned 24 years old today--how precious. So of course I wanted to make his day special so I get up extra early and make him a big waffle breakfast. I bring it up to him around 8 and wake him up to eat. He opens one eye...goes mmm...takes a tiny bite...and then says "eh can you move that." Don't you want it? "No not right now, I'm sleeping." And proceeds to put the pillow over his head. Yeah--not a morning person.
Bryan called me Friday and says, "Thanks for the birthday present. I love it!" What'd I buy you?!? "Golf Clubs. Your the best honey." Bry got up--at who knows when (obviously not 8) and went golfing to celebrate his birthday. Then we went to lunch at Goodwood! Mmm I love the pulled pork. And here is the birthday boy with his beloved diet coke and pulled pork.
When Bry was driving me back to work I asked him what he was going to do the rest of the day...he says wash windows. WHAT?!? (Well then I remember that on my moms birthday last year we called her and that's what she had done all day--crazy woman) He says, "I just want to be able to understand your mom better." So when my parents called to wish him happy birthday I told my mom that--but she's so gullible she believed him. WOW mom! :)
Then that night we went over to the Pauls place to watch 24!!! THANK YOU Josh, Steph, Mike, and Amy! Bry loves the golf balls and tees--he was way excited. You guys are so sweet! We all sang Happy Birthday to him, he made a wish, and he blew out his candles....on the cupcakes that he made. Yes, he makes the best cupcakes ever--puts mine to shame--so, sadly and pathetically my husband wanted to make his own birthday cupcakes. Oh and I learned that every other family has these cute happy birthday songs that they sang to eachother. Yeah in my family we always joked with the "You smell like a monkey" version...You can feel the love in the Hoggatt home :) Anyway, I think that about wraps up the day--I hope it was good for him because he means the world to me!

First BBQ of the Season

A bunch of our good friends from the ward got together for a BBQ at the park for St. Patricks Day. Carly made a beautiful green cake to celebrate. :) It was so gorgeous out--except we should have started earlier because an hour later it got dark and freezing! While it was nice out it so so fun to just hang out with everyone!





This is Amy's cute little girl Olivia. She should probably be my new best friend because she loves pink as much as me. :)








Bry and little Logan playing catch...kind of ;)






Our buddies from Alabama--his wife is ashamed of the Confederate flag blanket.

And Jesse enjoying his "Buffalo Burger".






Bry and me in the sweet shades.






Amy, baby Ethan, and me freezing to death. And Amy--I'm still devestated that I didn't get those videos at Enrichment. :)






Bry and I went back to the Park Sunday for a walk. On our way in we walked past a family and the little boy was on this plastic tricycle crying. 45 minutes later they walk by us--and the little boy is still doing the pathetic whining cry. His sister who was probably 2 years older was blowing by him on her bike. He scream cries at her "I want to be the leader". And she turns around and say "Bryan's a cry baby" I was laughing so hard because I just pictured my Bryan as a little boy being like that. And then Bryan leans over and says to me "she's obviously not very advanced in her teasing--if she was she'd be saying cryin' bryan." Apparently he's heard that one before...

Office Professionals :)

We had our big OPAC conference this week at BYU. It was nice to have time off to go to some sessions. I got to go to "If you can laugh at it, you can live with it." The speaker was great! He told so many funny and inspiring stories!

One of his stories was used to get across the point that humor can lighten a stressful situation. He told a story about a plane trip gone bad. He said that they were getting ready to land and the plane was shaking like crazy. Everyone was screaming, holding onto the seat in front of them, thinking they were going to die. They hit the run way so hard that the plane thuds and bounces back up into the air. Seconds later the pilot comes on over the intercom and says "Take that you bad, bad runway."
These are some of my favorite girls from work at the luncheon: Janelle, Kelli, and Tiffany. They make each day enjoyable! I'm so sad because Janelle, my support system, :) is leaving for the summer to go to Dallas. Her husband got 2 amazing internships in law firms down there. But she'll be back in the fall to coach me on how to be a law student's wife...scary! Love ya Janelle!

Real Furniture!

Bryan and I went shopping and got real furniture!! We decided that since we are staying here for Law School that we could afford to get a few peices of good stuff. This is our Armoire, but we got really contemporary square pulls. I am in love with it--it's deep cherry wood. And we got a matching kitchen table. It gets delivered in about 4 weeks and as you can tell I'm super excited!

And my husband always keeps me laughing...

He REALLY wants to adopt a little boy from Africa. He was talking to me about it the other day and says "then he can call my mom gram-cracka." ONLY BRYAN :)

It's official, We are MOVING!....

...Across the street....

We are closing on a townhome April 2! We are so excited to have it as our home for the next 3 years since we have decided for sure that we are staying at BYU for Law school. Bry and I got to start shopping for paint colors and new flooring. It is soooo fun! I cannot wait to design my own home! Anyway I fell in love with the colors we picked--a light kakhi, a darker tan, a light blue/seafoam greenish colorish, and a cranberry kitchen! :) The upstairs is yet to be determined.

And since Stephanie said this story is "blogworthy" I'm sharing:

When we moved into our current townhome the previous owner left the couch. Since we couldn't afford a new one we cleaned, restuffed, and layed foam for the bottom of this one. We got a cute cover and made it look decent. I personally have despised the thing since the day we moved in. It's the most uncomfortable couch on the face of the earth. And we have to fix the cover everytime we sit on it--not to mention we have to have a wooden dowel holding the dumb thing in place which jams into your back when you sit down. And I am not exaggerating a bit!

We sold our place in one day but not without some throw-ins. When we counter-offered, they sent in another offer that said they would accept our counter-offer only if.....we would leave the couch. HAHA! Bryan and I had looked forward to the day we could burn that dumb thing, but I guess if we have to we can leave it. Oh my gosh--if only they had sat on the thing.

****TUCANOS****

Happy Birthday to My Best Friend Kristen!!

We love you!!!

So how did we decide to celebrate? Tucanos!
I just need to take a minute to be sentimental. I met Kristen one of the first days that I transfered to BYU. I was in a completely new situation, where I knew no one and she took care of me. My first memory of Kristen is when she found out I was moving into our King Henry appartment. She left me this crazy message screaming about how happy she was I was moving in. I could barely understand her because she was laughing so hard--which I later found out was because of my Canadian like accent. We became inseperatable from the very beginning, even though I drove her nuts with my 3 showers a day. :) All of the people around us thought we had been friends since childhood and didn't believe us when we said we had only know eachother a month. Since then we have been through so much together--and I am so thankful for her friendship. She is one of the people in my life that make it so good!

We had to use our free birthday dinners at the best Brazilian Meat place ever! Even though Kristen is 7 months pregnant we still got her to eat lots! After dinner we came home and played ticket to ride. Poor Landen wasn't doing too hot and says, "I'm going no where in life." Yeah and then who won?!? LANDEN...of course.

Green means keep it coming!! And lastly we have the cemetary: SICK!

Calla Lilies

So with everything that has been going on Bry decided to have calla lilies sent to me at work. I LOVE these flowers! I was really surprised and it definitely cheered me up. He is sooo good to me! Sometimes I feel like he can read my mind because a few nights ago I was thinking about how cute it was the first time he sent me flowers at work for my birthday while we were just dating and then he does it again. I'm very, very blessed! And Kelli--great photography :)

Just a funny note: My little sister cracks me up! She decided to come out to BYU in the fall--which I am so excited about. Her and my parents were talking about how normally one of the perks of private school is that you aren't a number. My dad says to Erika, well sorry but at BYU that probably wont be one of the perks with 30,000 students. And Erika says to him sarcastically, "I'm a child of God and I have divine worth. I am not a number."

Life in my Hometown...

Okay people, I need you all to understand what kind of a town I spent my first 18 years in. We got our first stop light when I left for college so maybe this shouldn't baffle me but it did....Last night I was talking to my mother and said "we starting just getting movies from Red Box". She had no idea what I was talking about. When I explained that it was renting movies from McDonalds she about died with disbelief. She had no idea you could do that. Wow--good old Altoona, Wisconsin. And...to top off not having a Red Box they got over 2 feet of snow in one night. That's where I come from...don't judge me :)

Oh Blessed Fondue--How I love you!!

I have found a new love in my life--FONDUE!!!--It is so amazing!!! Words can't even say how good it is. Anyway, as you can see Bryan and I got to go to our first fondue party this weekend at our friends, the Hancock's, house. Melissa made amazing fondue--and now I'm obsessed. We had three courses--the appetizer: cheese fondue and french bread; the main course: chicken and beef with 4 different dipping sauces; and dessert: chocolate fabulous fondue! We dipped Macaroons, strawberries, bananas, and doughnuts. Anyone who knows me can guess which course was my favorite :)

Course numbero dose: the meat. Melissa had it set up so cute! We sat around the coffee table and all dug in! Delicious!
The Group!

Bryan and Me enjoying our chocolate dipped strawberries. You can see little Maddie grabbing for some too :)
How cute is she?!? We had so much fun playing with her!
One thing that I am so thankful for is how beautiful the area we live in is. The mountains are always so overwhelming to me. I am not so thankful for the cold, but the snow really makes them look amazing. I had to take a picture because the sky was so blue, and the full moon--it just looked really pretty.
And to wrap up our weekend excitment...

I have become such a homemaker...my mother and grandmother would be proud. Friday night I made homemade breadsticks while Bryan was at work. His younger sister Megan called and told me how pathetic that was. Then when Bryan got home we made a fort in our family room, watched Pride and Prejudice, and ate the breadsticks. :)