GRADUATION

As of right now Burke and I have both earned a degree! I have finally earned my Bachelors Degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development (MFHD). I thought this day would never come and yet it has not really hit me yet. I am currently looking for a full-time position so if anyone has heard of anything let me know because I am interested:)! Burke just finished his last final with the high of the whole class! I wish I had his brain! He has now received his Associates Degree. I keep telling him that it is a huge mile stone to get an Associates Degree. We are both very relieved to have our finals over and done with. We can now finally begin celebrating the Christmas Season!! Thanks to all family and friends for supporting us in our education and we are excited to see you all!!

White Thanksgiving at the Ranch

I apologize for such a late post!
This year for Thanksgiving we went to the Ranch! It was so much fun and nice to be away from all the busyness of city life! We were surprised to arrive to fresh snow falling because there was no snow up until we got to the ranch. Here are a few pictures of what we did at the ranch. Burke and I made a little snowman the night we got there. The snow was so amazing and it really wasn't that cold at all.Here are the two nieces of the Bess family Annie and Sophie! They are so cute and so much fun to be around!
Kate and Clo preparing for the Thanksgiving Dinner.
Burke decided he wanted to make another snowman. This time Bigger! It didn't take too long for all the boys to join them! It was quite the process to finish it but here is the finish product! If you can tell...the top three layers are from the snowman the night before :)
We took advantage of the beautiful scenery and went on an excursion--
The next day we went down to St. George for a few days! I went out with all the girls in my family and had a little contest of who could find the best deal, most Christmasy, most outrageous item. It was a lot of fun and if you look closely, a few of them are hilarious!

Satisfaction

This new term at the elementary school Burke and I got asked to do a Ballroom Club for the After School Program! Of course I immediately accepted while Burke was a little hesitant. I went to a training the other week and it completely overwhelmed me. The program is really intense and the students can even compete against each other at the end of the term if they want. Luckily most of our students are third graders which does not qualify them to compete...so the pressure is off! We have only taught the class three times but yesterday we finally finished the warm-up routine with all 30 students. Once they finally got over the fact that they would have to actually hold a girls/boys hand and that it is okay for Mr. and Mrs. Bess to dance together, they got into it and everyone can hardly wait until the next dance class. Because we were a little reluctant on accepting this challenge, it brings great satisfaction that the club is turning out this well.

HALLOWEEN--SO MUCH FUN

This Halloween was a little different then all the others we have had! First of all it was our first Halloween together as a married couple. And second, all of my family, well almost all, decided to come to Provo for the festivities. We had a blast going to the "Trunk or Treat" in my sister's ward and just spending time with family that we don't see too often!
They all looked great in their costumes!
My nephew got tired of carrying his tail...so he asked Burke to :)
This is my oldest niece who is almost taller than me! She is Great!
All the boys in character
Grammy and Pa of course are loved!
Saturday was also so much fun! We got to go to the Salt Lake Temple for a family sealing! It was so much fun and the kids looked like Angels. It was our first time to the Salt Lake Temple and we are definitely going back to do a session! Saturday night my sister put together a Halloween dinner! It consisted of brains, blood, and bones (Spaghetti, jello salad, and bread sticks)! She is so creative. I am sure it will probably be posted on her blog soon so take a look! Thanks for coming family, it was fun to see you!

Fall Is Here For Good

I wish I had a picture of what the roads looked like when I drove to school today. It reminded me of 100 S. In St. George on a fall day on my way to Dixie State College. The color of the trees are so gorgeous and we have the brightest red bushes right out our parking garage. I love everything about Fall except the cold weather that comes with it!

This past weekend we went to St. George over Fall Break. It was definitely a break! I seem to enjoy being with the students I work with when I have had a little break from them :)...sound familiar to any of you Moms? Anyways we had an absolute blast! Burke had projects to work on so I made a table runner with my mother-on-law which turned out great (sorry for the lack of pictures. I seem to get lazy now that we lost our good camera...that's right, we still can't find it.) and went shopping with my mother to spend her gift card from her birthday! It was such a blast to do things that we normally can't do on other visits!

We did end up carving pumpkins and It was one year ago this time of year that we did the same thing (I have a picture but it was too hard to find). It was the next visit down after our engagement. Burke and I always buy one pumpkin and then want to do different faces so we decided to split the pumpkin right in half and we each carved half...I know we are weird but it was fun.
Our little niece, Sophie, was staying at the house while we were there. It was so much fun to be around her enough to get to know what she is like! She is such a fun and happy girl and communicates with you like she is five. She knows baby sign language and it is amazing! Our newest niece, Annie, was also blessed on the Sunday we were there! Now we have 8 nieces and 5 nephews all together!
It was such a fun weekend and we are so lucky that we live remotely close enough to visit all the time. Our favorite thing is to be where family is! Thanks for the great weekend!

Conference Weekend

This past weekend was so much relaxing and fun...for some reason it felt like such a long break from school and work. On Friday night we went up to Burke's mission reunion. Awhile ago we got together with some of the Elders and one of the mission couples so it was nice to have known a few (I visited with some of the couple missionaries while he reminisced about the mission times with the Elders :)). Plus, I think every wife can agree with me, it is nice to go to a mission reunion to meet all the people you have heard so much about...after all he did spend 2 years, 24/7 with these people!


Saturday Morning Taren and Michelle Hansen came to stay with us for the remainder of the weekend. Burke and Taren are best friends so it was fun to get to know both of them a little bit more! We really enjoyed having friends stay with us and catch up on things. We went up to the Conference Center Saturday Afternnoon in hopes that we could get some tickets. We got to Salt Lake about fifteen minutes before the session started so it was'nt likely. However, Michelle and I dropped the boys off and within five minutes they called with 17 tickets in hand! I don't really know how they got them but they kept four and gave the rest out. We were left with car in the pouring rain and the boys had to go in to get their seat but left out tickets at the door. To make a long story short, we FINALLY found a spot hoping it was not an illegal one and ran with shoes and umbrella in hand (I really wish we had a picture of us :)). By the time we got to the Conference Center, we got the wrong tickets, got confronted by a man telling us we were foolish for not being inside yet, and saved by a nice host who helped us get to our husbands all safe and sound!!

Following the afternoon session we grabbed a bite to eat and dropped the boys off again for the Priesthood session to hopefully get some tickets. The same thing again happend...before we got to the end of the street we received a call with tickets in hand! They are so LUCKY! They were off to a spiritual evening and we were off to do what girls do best....shopping!

It was a great day all together and we topped it off by meeting Scott and Hilary Curtis at a restaurant (I can't remember what it is called because it wasn't any of our favorites and the service was terrible). It was so fun to see them and to have all the Boys together!


The Hansen's left after the Sunday morning session and we were up to Salt Lake for our final time....thanks Charles for getting us tickets! This time no rain, assigned parking spot and we were on time. We even had time to see this original 1847 log home, which was eventually transported to Temple Square, we had never seen before. Conference in the Conference Center was definitely worth the drive (I seem to stay awake when I am all dressed up and not in the comfort of my home). At the end of the day we went to my sister's house for dinner. Burke gave the nephews a bug catcher thing...so of course he is now the favorite :).



Sorry for such a long post but as you can tell we had a GREAT time being with friends, family, and each other! It was fun to have a little get away weekend in our own town!

Family Home Evening and Nine Month Anniversary

September 29, 2008
As you probably can tell I really behind on my posts...sorry to all those who may have been wondering what has been going on in our lives. Our camera is still lost but we located my dinosaur camera and it is doing the job okay.

The Sunday before our nine month anniversary Burke was making his Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. I like to Clean up as I cook and Burke likes to get everything out and then clean up so I was getting on his nerves a little bit because I hate getting my clothes dirty. To solve the problem Burke went the next day and bought some plain white aprons and paint pens to decorate them with for Family Home Evening and for our nine month anniversary. I thought it was such a great idea...the twist was that I got to decorate Burke's apron and he got to do mine. They turned out so great and now I don't have to worry about messes. Thanks Hun! Here are some pictures: