Tis the season

A quick post on the last few weeks. With Christmas, my b-day, New Years and everything else there was plenty to post about.

I have been able to go up to The Bird a few times in the past few weeks. They have a tunnel there they opened a few years back to access the back side of the Mtn. it is nice to go back there because this time of year that's where the sun is shining.

The Tunnel

The view is awesome when you leave The Tunnel.

This view is awesome too! Yeah boy!

I got a few sweet gifts for Christmas and my B-day. I got hooked up with a Sonicare toothbrush.

And a sick Jazz hat.

One night we were able to head down to Temple Square and see the lights. I got a few cool shots with my camera.

The gang up at the Bird. Me, Claudi, Travee, Richard.

Brits sister Mel is in town with her family. Their daughter Rachy getting dirty in the kitchen.

Tells got a sweet Telescope from Santa for Christmas, wants to see all 9 moons of Jupiter.

Brit got some accessories, as well as a Grape Vine inspired scarf.

Tommy working on his Mid range jumper.

Brit got 2 cute pea(?) coats. A green one (here) and a black one.

Jake and Tommy doing some "body sledding"

For my B-day we invited a few friends to have dinner at The Rio. I love that place.

Birthday cake, Coley was pretty antsy to blow them out for me, but as you can see there were only two candles. A 3 and a 0 :(

Brit made a sweet Motocross themed B-day cake for me. Instead of saying over the hill, it says over the whoops. Thanks sweetie.

Here are two videos, the first of Cole and shay and their new slot car track, the 2nd is of cole on a sick "twack" I made in front of their house.

Our Wedding! (Just a little late.)

Well me and Ben got married 3 months ago and I am finally posting our wedding pictures from our photographer. Sorry a little late. Some of you have already seen these, but here they are for the others who haven't. It was hard to pick from over 800 pictures. So if you want to see more let me know.

I love the Draper Temple and I'm so glad Ben agreed with me to get married there.
It was a perfect day. Even with the rain and the wind at the reception. At first I was a little nervous that it would be a bad storm, but it didn't ruin anything. People sat in the rain eating and it didn't seem to bug them. It turned out wonderful. It is funny took look at the picture of the temple below and think later that day it stormed. All in all it couldn't have been a better day. What a great experience it was to get married in the temple and be sealed for time and eternity. It is the best way to go!

Thank you to everyone that came that day and supported us. We really appreciate it and love you all!

This picture is great! I love looking at the facial expressions on people's faces. And I love Rachel and Loggan standing in front of us.

The extended Grossen Family

The Grossen Fam.

I love my siblings! They were all wonderful help for the wedding! Thanks!

My wonderful parents! Thanks for everything, and letting me have my dream wedding.
Love you!

My friends are wonderful! I'm glad they were all there for me that day, and it was wonderful to have Coral and her girls there all the way from Japan! I'm sure glad she planned a trip to Utah the week of my wedding.

Ben's side of the family. They are all wonderful, and I couldn't have asked for better in-laws! Thanks for all your help at the wedding and for the wonderful shower you gave me. And a great dinner!

Ben with his siblings.

Ben with his mom and step dad.

Ben and his dad.

Ben with the nieces and nephews. I love being their aunt.

Ben with his friends.



Cousins through cousins.

Now for just me and Ben.

I love these pictures by the windows. Draper Temple has the most amazing windows.

The reception set up. Thanks to everyone that helped set everything up. And to my amazing sister Melanie who planned all my flower arrangements. She did such a great job. I loved them all. Thanks to everyone that helped her put them all together you are great!

I loved our cake. It was just simple and I was glad to not have to throw a bunch of cake away. I love the flowers that Melanie got!

This one reminds me of that American Gothic Painting by Grant Wood. -Ben

My cute niece Rachel and nephew Tommy. I think this picture is great of them.

It looks like Jack was trying to pick Tommy's nose. Gotta love little kid interactions with each other.

We have the best nieces and nephews!

My Fam

Ben's Fam

Ben with the groomsmen.

Me and my bridesmaids.

My other bridesmaids.

And the storm came in.
Thanks everyone for getting the arch to stay up and taking everything in so it wouldn't get ruined. You are wonderful!

This one is for Kara. You have a wonderful husband!

Tons of yummy food! Thanks Grandma, Jill, Sue, Holly, Mom, and to everyone else for the preparation of it all. I heard everyone enjoyed the food.

Love ya Mel!

I love this picture!

It was wonderful to have two full rainbows for our wedding. It made some wonderful pictures for us!

Cute little Jack Jack!

Amazing!

Thanks to some wonderful neighbors for bringing some tents and making sure me and Ben had cover the whole time.

Ben and friends. You guys are great friends!

Ben and cute little Tayson.

Most of the girl cousins on the Grossen side with Ben.

Cutting the cake.

I wanted to smoosh it in his face, but he told me not to. So I thought I would be nice.

After people started telling me to smoosh it in his face and here he is telling them no. It sure is a classic no look for Ben.

Getting ready to toss my bouquet. I think Jen really wanted to catch it.

This picture just makes me laugh.

Ben tossing the garter. None of the boys wanted to touch that.

With our photographer Harmony. She was the best!

One of the reasons I wanted the reception in my backyard. We get some amazing sunsets.

My car with smooshed eclairs all over it. Chocolate is not easy to clean off of your car!

Well once again the day was perfect and it couldn't have been perfect without all your help. We have great families that helped prepare days in advance and the day of. Mel I think you need to start your own company, and mom, grandma, and aunts you need to have a catering business.
Our photographer was awesome and got some great pictures! And I'm sure glad we had her for this perfect day.
Thanks again to everyone!!!!

Also here are some of my favorite Bridals if you haven't seen them yet.

Candy making

So last week Richard made some hard candy at the house and I took some up to Trav's and shared it with them. They loved it so we decided to have an FHE at their place and make some more them to experience. It was fun and I am sure the kids had a great time.

1st batch was cinnamon
2nd batch was cinnamon "glass candy"

Cole's little muscles didn't allow him to stretch the 1st batch too much but was trying his hardest.

Ky lookin her best while stretching out that candy.

Tells with a big smile

Group photo

Once it was somewhat hard we had to cut the strips into pieces. "Watch those fingers Unc Benny"

Getting the glass candy up to 290 degrees, cool color.

The 2 finish products

Where did November go?

Friday afternoon was the funeral of Brian Buttars, a great friend that had passed away recently. I went with some of my friends and really enjoyed the service. His brother Jordan shared an excellent poem that was very touching no doubt to all in attendance. Brian was a stud.

On a lighter note (and I NEVER thought this sentence would ever come out of my mouth) I went skiing today at Deer Valley..... Brit's dad Richard volunteers there a few days every ski season so he gets hooked up with a hand full of passes, so we went up. I wasn't expecting too much due to the low amount of snow we have received so far. I think I got the hang of turning after a few runs had a pretty good time.

Richard and I at Deer Valley, it was cold towards the end of the day hence the face mask.

Deer Valley hooked us up with a pin, they have been the #1 Ski Resort in North America for 3 years in a row.

The Deer Valley Lodge has the best bowl of chilli I have ever tasted, Turkey chilli. Mmmmm Good.

Dec. 8th is the 25th anniversary of my mom and mark, we celebrated sat. night at Jen and Trav's as well as watched the Huskers loose a close one to Texas.

Brit made a cake for them. It was a tasty treat. She is good at making cakes.

A very sad day.

So a lot has happened in the last few weeks since our last post with Thanksgiving and all, but I wanted to talk about a tragedy that happened yesterday (Saturday). I was just hanging out at home and a friend called me letting me know that they were all going to Jordan River Motocross track to ride. With my finger I was out as far as riding went, but I really enjoy shooting photos of my friends with my camera and decided to go to snap some pictures of all of them. As I arrived I followed an ambulance into the facility.... Upon arriving I got out of my car and started to walk towards the track which is a couple hundred yards away. I saw life flight coming our way and I didn't have a good feeling, since there were only about 12 trucks in the parking lot and I knew 6 of them. I started running over to were everyone was and saw a friend walking towards me, he didn't look good and I asked him what had happened. He said our friend Buttars had crashed and was not doing well. To not go too much into detail, our friend Brian Buttars did not make it. It was of the saddest days of my life. I had met him about 2 yrs ago, and Brit and I had only got one opportunity outside of motocross to go out to dinner with he and his wife about a month ago. I feel so sorry for his family. Buttars was a truly great guy, he was always happy and in a good mood. He was one of those guys you just enjoyed being around. I loved riding with him, and will always remember his smiling face after accomplishing something for the first time. Let us all keep his family in our prayers. I love you Buttars.

Here are a few photos I took of him over the past 2 years.

KSL Story HERE

Local News Story HERE

And HERE

Halloween Festivities

I can't believe Halloween is over! It went by too fast. I am sad to say that this is the first year that I haven't dressed up. With Ben's injury and me being sick we never really thought about a costume.

A couple weeks before Halloween we carved pumpkins with some of our friends. We really enjoy being able to get together with our friends that we miss at the singles ward.

Here are Jen and Abby showing their finished pumpkins.

Wes working on his.

Ben and I with our finished pumpkins. Ben did a bat, and since mine looked like it had a scar on it I did Two Face. I don't have the best pumpkin carving skills, but I still love doing it every year. After, we took all the pumpkin seeds home and roasted them. That is my favorite part!

Ben was having fun with his camera

Our snow covered Jack-O-Lanterns

The night before Halloween we went to dinner and saw Thriller with our friends Aaron & Krista, and Josh & Jessica. We went last year and Ben enjoyed it, so he wanted to go again. I love it, but it sure makes me miss dancing.
We didn't get a picture with the zombie dancers, but here we are in front of Kingsbury hall.

On Halloween we didn't do too much. We ran errands during the day, and at night we passed out candy to the trick or treaters and watched part of the U black out game. We also went to the old white church near our stake center. They open it up twice a year on July 4th and Halloween. They have been making it into a Haunted house every year. It was pretty good. I screamed a little. Then we watched Young Frankenstein. It's a classic. It was Ben's first time watching it. I don't think he liked it as much as I do.
On Sunday we went to Ben's parent's for dinner. The kids were dressed up in their Halloween costumes, and we forgot to take pictures. Dinner was great and Ben's Mom made my favorite Jell-o. It is delicious. Then the kids made ghost suckers with melted white chocolate and chocolate chips. Ben even joined in on the fun. Ben's Mom always has great "cwafts" (as Cole would say) for the kids (and Ben). I really enjoy being part of their family!

Well I'm sad it is over, and hopefully next year we will be able to dress up.
Now on to Thanksgiving and Christmas the best time of the year!

The past month.

Well on Sunday it was a month since we got married. I can't believe how fast that month went. We sure have been busy. We have done a lot of stuff. Ben of course has been able to go ride a few times. It is perfect weather to go, and he has had a lot of fun going.

Thanks to my buddy A-bag for this photo, nice shot from Tooele last Sat.

My nephew Jack turned one on September 29th. They had an Elmo birthday party for him and invited us all to come. He sure got a lot of presents and loved opening them.

Amy made him a sweet Elmo cake.

We all had hats to wear to celebrate with him.

My sister Brooke and her husband Ethan.

Dan, Jack, and Amy

I can't believe Jack is one. He grew so fast and is such a fun cute little guy. He can entertain all of us. I'm sure glad we got to celebrate with him.

Jack didn't even know what was going on. The candle wasn't amusing to him at all.

He did love eating it and smushing it in his face.

My mom loves celebrating the Holidays. This Halloween she will be in North Carolina visiting my sister and her family. So we celebrated early, last Friday. She made delicious soup for dinner.

I also gave Jack his second hair cut. He is pretty squirmy. He was interested in what I was doing to his hair. He loved it when I would spray him with my squirt bottle. Then I styled his hair. He sure is a cutie.

Then family tradition we always decorate cookies. No matter how old we are we still have fun doing it.

Dan even decorated a cookie as slimer off of Ghostbusters. He loves that movie.

Thanks mom for always throwing holiday family parties. We love them!

Jack even learned how to frost cookies. I think he would rather eat all the sweets than decorate. He had chocolate drool. Couldn't sneak him a treat it would show.

My cousin Stacy plays right full back for BYU Soccer. We have been wanting to go to a game for awhile, and we finally got the chance to go on Saturday. They played TCU. She is awesome and fun to watch. I wish we could have gone to more games. They have one home game left and probably won't be able to make it so hopefully we get the chance to go more next year.

Cosmo always knows how to entertain the crowd.

It was a great game. Those girls are more gnarly than we thought with all the grabbing and pulling. They had some good battles. And BYU won 2-0! (two-Nil)

After the game they come up to the fence and pass out their player cards. So I got a picture with her.

Ben put her player card in his wallet for safe keeping. He is a true fan!