Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Conner! My little boy has turned 24 years old. I'm so proud to be married to him. He is such a hard worker and a wonderful husband. We were unable to have a proper birthday bash due to Westminster's basketball schedule, but my mom made him a birthday cake on Sunday and we were able to sing the traditional "Happy Birthday" song. After we took the picture, I realized I had forgotten to take of the bandaid that was covering a big zit...on second thought, maybe its better I left it on. Anyway, we were able to celebrate a few days later when we went out to dinner and to the movie, "The Blind Side." It was a fabulous movie and a great night out. I love you Conner- Happy Birthday!

Thanksgiving

My dad took my sisters and me on the traditional Thanksgiving ski day. It was beautiful! When we got home, turkey dinner was waiting...it was delicious! My mom made the best turkey any of us had ever had. I am so thankful for so many things in my life. I am so lucky to have been raised in the gospel. I know that living gospel principles is what brings true happiness. Having Conner help me along the path helps me so much every day. Conner is a perfect match for me. He deals with so many emotions and somehow always finds a way to make me happy. I cry when he leaves even for a weekend. Seems pathetic, but he brings so much joy to my life that I hate to be without him even for one day. I am thankful for my friends and family. I know that I have been blessed with an exceptional family. My parents have taught me how to work hard and be successful in so many different aspects of life. I will be forever grateful for them. The Nielsens have also been a huge blessing in my life. Not only did they raise an outstanding son, they welcomed me into their family with open arms and it has been such an easy transition joining their family. I love my friends. I am so incredibly lucky to have the group of friends that I have. They truly are one in a million. I am thankful for my health. Working in a hospital seeing kids of all ages with chronic illnesses is a humbling experience. How lucky we all are to have healthy bodies and minds. I am striving each day to remember how blessed I am. I am so happy with my life. Even though times can be stressful, I know that I have so many things to be thankful for and I just have to count my blessings.

Memphis

My mom and I stayed in Memphis a few extra days to see the sights! We cruised Beal Street, ate at BB Kings while listening to live Jazz, and we toured Elvis Presley's mansion...it was awesome! (I was unable to kayak in the Mississippi due to the fact that I threw out my back while trying on jeans...but that's another story.)

This is my favorite room...the billiard room. The ceiling and walls are covered in layers upon layers of fabric. I think there was something like 300 yards of fabric used just for this one tiny room. Elvis designed the entire place himself. It was totally personalized and it was awesome.
This is Elvis' raquetball court turned shrine. There were records everywhere! Gold, Silver, Platinum- he had them all.

This is one of his most famous cars. He had it painted pink for his mother. He had quite the collection of cars and he always had them designed exactly how he wanted them. I wouldn't say that I was an Elvis fan before now, and even though I may not be a frequent listener of "Blue Suede Shoes," Elvis seemed like a pretty cool guy.

Nic and Heather's Sealing

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Memphis, Tennessee to witness the sealing of my brother Nic and sister-in-law Heather. It was amazing. I am so thankful that they chose to be sealed for eternity-it will be such a blessing in this life, as well as the life to come. I am so grateful every day that Conner and I can be together forever. There is truly no better blessing in the world.


I made a cake topper for the "after party." It turned out pretty cute except Heather questioned whether I purposely made her look overweight!

World Series 2009

The Yankees won their 27th World Championship as they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 4 games to 2. We watched the entire series while wearing our white and navy baseball shirts. You can see how excited we are...Conner was like a 5 year-old on Christmas morning. Go Yankees!

Happy Halloween

Conner and I went to a Halloween party at Jon and Lisa Crosby's house on Halloween. It was so much fun. We went as the Tortoise and the Hare. We ate soup and salad and played games that made us laugh 'til we cried. It was so great to see everyone there. Emma and Jaden won best costume...Emma went as a swine, and Jaden went as the flu. It was pretty funny.
All the girls sportin' their Halloween costumes.

Carving Pumpkins

Conner and I love carving pumpkins together each Halloween. And due to the fact the the Yankees mad it to the World Series this year, Conner had to show his support!

Life is Fragile

I'm having "a moment" right now...as Conner and I like to call it. I'm just so thankful for the life that we live. A man in our ward passed away this morning. He was a young man who has been battling cancer for a long time. He left a brave wife and two teeny tiny kids behind...it just breaks my heart. Being married really opens my eyes to how hard it would be to lose a spouse. I really don't think I could be as strong as his wife has been; she is an amazing example. I have never been so thankful for the Plan of Salvation. I know that I will be with my family forever. I can't think of a more comforting feeling. I'm crying as I think of how lucky we are to have little moments with our friends and family. Conner and I sometimes find ourselves wishing that we were further along in school, or further along in our careers. For some reason, we think this would bring us greater happiness. Our prophet Thomas S. Monson once quoted someone saying,"Live only for tomorrow, and you will have a lot of empty yesterdays today." We are trying to every day to be thankful for all of the many blessings that we have. Being positive about things we have to do today, has really helped us be more positive about the things to come!

The Tetons

Its an annual tradition at the Egbert household to go fishing in Idaho every summer. We listen to 70's music on the drive up, fish the same river, make s'mores (while staying in a hotel), and catch lots of fish!

Pictured here is the frog we caught in the wild. We named him Birch (after the creek on which we were fishing).

The proud fisherman. The fish weren't very big, but we go for quantity more than quality.

Here fishy fishy...

Kenny Chesney

Jon and Jenny came in town and my Dad bought us all tickets to Kenny Chesney (I gave a away the tickets I won). It was a FANTASTIC concert and it was fun to see Jon, Jenny, Rylee, and Bo. My dad was a little bummed we didn't all dress up loke cowboys like he did!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 24 on the 6th of August and I took off work to celebrate. Too bad Conner had to work...Jen kindly offered to take me boating and I was so excited. I brought my Mom and Marissa along. By the time we got out on the lake, there was a storm brewing and we decided to just head home. Thanks to Jen for trying! Marissa and I went swimming when it warmed up a bit and then I cleaned my room at my parents house (just killing time til Conner got home). That night Conner took me to Goodwood-our favorite!

The next day, my Dad took the whole fam to PF Chang's to celebrate. It was delicious!

Grammy was even able to come...what a wonderful day!

Girl's Camp

I have been to Girl's Camp 7 times as a Young Woman, and this summer I completed my first year as a leader. It was a different experience but excellent, nonetheless. I thought I might regret missing the annual trip to Newport beach with the Nielsen's, or going to Marissa's softball tournament in Waikiki...surprisingly, I am glad I went to Camp instead. This is a picture of me sporting our tye-dye pants that we all made. Look at the concentration!

I really got to know the girls a lot better and we had tons of fun. Pictured here is the Bachmann sisters holding our ward Dragon they named Earl. Everyone else had horses...how boring!

One night we had a competition. The winner would be whichever team could make the most creative suit of armor out of tin foil in ten minutes. The winner was the midget with the true breastplate on the right.

Our camp Daddy showed us how to make blue fire by adding copper and rubber hose to the flames. It was awesome-this picture really doesn't do it justice.

Congratulations to the girls for staying up all night and guarding the knight...which we legally stole from another ward. Whichever ward had the knight at the end of Camp, won a "huge prize". The prize ended up being "maintaining your virtue." Pretty lame, but I was glad the girls won it for us in the end. I just wanted the title.
The best part of Girls's Camp is always the testimony meeting. I was blown away by some of the girls' testimonies. I forgot how strong the spirit is when you're up in the mountains surrounded by Heavenly Father's creations. It was a great night and I know that my testimony was definitely strengthened. I love Girl's Camp and was so glad that I had the opportunity to spend time with the amazing girls and leaders in my ward.

Garden Update

As you can see, we are the proud parents of some excellent zucchini...it turned out great! All that weeding, watering, and nurturing was worth it. I make zucchini bread almost every week...I'm surprised Conner isn't sick of it yet. It has been hard work, but we have enjoyed working in the garden together. We have eaten a few ears of corn, our tomatoes are delicious, and our jack-be-littles are growing up so fast. We can't wait for the Fall harvest!

Girls Night Out

The other night I was able to go to dinner with some of my old roommates. We don't get together near as often as we would like to. Everyone is heading so many wonderful directions and it was so fun to catch up. Can't wait for the next one-hope to get everyone there!

Anniversary

Conner and I celebrated our first anniversary! I can't believe it has already been a year. It has seriously been the fastest year of my life. I guess we have just been so busy and so happy that things have just flown by!

For starters, we went to the George Straight concert that I had won tickets to. We drove all the way out to Usana...took about an hour and a half! I was starving so we ordered some dinner, found out it was cash only, and together we only had twelve dollars! We ended up having to share a nasty burrito from Chile Verde. The only seats on the grass we could find were next to some drunken fools. They were funny for about two seconds, then it just got annoying. We waited for George to come out, stayed for a few songs, then hit the road. Guess we're not the George fans we thought we were.

We got up to Park City about midnight with Conner nearly falling asleep on the way up. We got to our room and fell fast asleep. The next morning, Conner surprised me with the wedding band that matches my ring. It is so beautiful! Almost as beautiful as me when I wake up in the morning!


We ate at a great barbeque restaurant for dinner. It is called the Three Bandits.

We of course had to ride the Alpine slide...but our highlight of the day ended up being the Alpine coaster. It flies down the mountain! I was screaming the whole way. Forget the Alpine slide, we're doing the coaster from now on!

My mom saved the top of our cake in her freezer for an entire year...It was delicious!

These are the beautiful flowers I came home to before we left. Conner is such a romantic. I really never thought I could be as happy as I am. We're busy, and life is sometimes stressful, but Conner takes such good care of me. I love that he lets me cry when "I just wanna bawl", he lets me put my cold toes in between his legs when we go to bed, he wakes up at 5:30 in the morning to make me breakfast and lunch, and he strengthens my testimony by reading the scriptures with me and explaining things I don't understand. I love knowing that we are sealed for all eternity. I can't think of another person I would rather be with!

Logan

Last weekend we made a trip up to Logan to visit our great friends Kylee and Eddie Norton. We had so much fun. We ate Thai food Friday night which was a new experience for Conner and I. We then went to the park to play some wifffle ball. Then we went to get Aggie icecream...Aggie blue mint is my new favorite flavor! We even had a sleepover so we could play more in the morning.

Saturday we ate a big breakfast of pancakes and eggs, and then went to the farmer's market that is held every Saturday in Logan. It was really fun. Then the boys wanted to get back to playing baseball so we went to the sports store so Eddie could buy a new baseball glove. Those boys could play catch forever! That night we went to the Ogden Raptors game. We all wore matching shirts...and the boys didn't even complain (probably because they're basball shirts).

Conner and Eddie decided they have so much in common: Their wives tell them what to wear, they both fall asleep on ten minute car rides, their boy-like love for playing catch, and they are both married to magnificent women. Thanks to Kylee and Eddie for having us over. We'll have to do it again real soon!

Feelin' Lucky

Last week I was on my way to work and I called in to K Bull 93 when I heard the bull tones. Lo and behold I was lucky number 13 and got to play Flip a Penny for George or Kenny. I called heads in the air and won two tickets to George Straight. Whoo Hoo! I had never won anything on the radio before.

As I was driving into work tonight, I called in and again was caller 13! A chicken clucked a Kenny Chesney song and I had to guess what it was. Luckily I got an easy one. When the Sun Goes Down won me two tickets to Kenny. Can you believe it? Two weeks in a row! Maybe I found a new talent.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good:
We had an excellent 4th of July Weekend! We drove down to Ephraim on the 2nd and stayed the night at Grandma Carol's house. In the morning we drove up the canyon to meet the family and camp out. It was great. We went four wheeling, ate great food, painted our nails red, white, and blue, had fun with the family and got to sleep in the pop up trailer (Thanks to Craig and Jerrie). Believe it or not, it was my first camping experience outside of girls camp and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

On the 4th we drove home early and went swimming at my house for a few hours with the Speechly family and Grammy. This has become a tradition and I look forward to it every year. The older we get, the less we see eachother, so it's always fun to catch up. When we had enough sun, we went home to get ready for the Bees game. The game was excellent-although the Bees lost, it went 12 innings and the excitement never ended. Of course, they ended the night with fireworks and we got to lay out in center field for the show. It was magnificent.

The Bad:
We are so sunburned. The weather while we were camping was pretty cool and we forgot that the sun still shines even when its cold out. Conner looks like a little raccoon from his sun glasses, and half of my face and neck is red as a cherry. We were sure to lather up when we went swimming.

The Ugly:
Conner has walking pneumonia. After the swine flu, he developed a cough that continued to get worse and worse. He finally went to the doctor and was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. They put him on antibiotics and gave him an inhaler to use for a while. Poor guy.

I'm sick as well. My throat has been hurting the past few days so I decided to take a look at it last night. My tonsils are covered in pustules and on one of them, I have a white ball that looks a little sketchy...Conner thinks its cancerous. I went and got my throat swabbed and I don't have strep throat. It's probably just the swine flu. What else is new?