18 Months of Love

(Tiffany is on the left)

"Missionary: Someone who leaves her family for eighteen months so others can be with theirs for eternity" -Author Unknown

She's back! :) My sister Tiffany is home from her 18 month LDS Spanish-speaking mission in Tempe, Arizona. 

For a year and a half, Tiffany spent her time away from our family teaching all who would listen about our Savior, Jesus Christ, our loving Heavenly Father, and their gospel which leads us back to them and offering acts of service to anyone she could. 

I love her and am so proud of her. I know it's her love of the people in Tempe and of Christ that inspired her to work so hard for so long in their behalf. She tells me about biking in 115 degree hot Arizona sun to get to teaching appointments and tears up when mentioning those whose lives changed for good when learning of Christ and the hope and direction His gospel brings. 

I know my sister well and she has changed. I will try to change to be more like her. As her older sister, my parents always stressed that I needed to be a good example for her and Candice (my other younger sister)..... but she's the one that's been the good example for me. I love you, Hermana Kerr :)

A Little Disgustingly

The last post was happy, so let's make this one disgustingly. Last night I learned a valuable lesson. When taking ibuprofen-like pain meds, DO eat the recommended food with each dose. And food does not constitute a 6 ounce container of yogurt and a swig of orange juice. I now know this to be true.

Of course, I am in the lightweight class when it comes to over-the-counter-drugs. Benadryl or Nyquil can easily be my personal Ambien, and now I feel like the poster child of those terrible side effect warnings you hear of on commercials for the latest and greatest pharmaceutical...."May cause stomach cramps, vomiting, green finger nails, seizures, blah, blah, blah, ulcers, blah, blah, blah, cancer of the spleen, blah, blah, blah, and sudden death." Though, at least seizures or sudden death would have passed the time more pleasantly than the paralyzing tummy pains that followed me into late morning.

So, in my pajamas at lunch time on my day off I write you a tale of disgusting....romantically disgusting... to hopefully overshadow the sickly disgusting mentioned two paragraphs up.

I'm convinced that the princes and heart throbs we dream about, wish for, and pray for aren't found in fairytales or on the cover of People magazine. Mine is currently at work, not riding horse in shining armor or starring in my favorite chick flick.

Just look what he did for Valentine's Day:

 Daffodils (my favorite flower)

Chewy Sweet Tarts (one of the best kept candy secrets....they're sweet and chewy and for a split second they make your mouth feel cold...kind of like that feeling you get when you bite into a powdered sugar Hostess doughnut) 

And Spiderman Valentine's with sweet notes on the back. Kendall left them all over the apartment...15 in all. I was still finding them the next day!

Yes, I love him, and that's the disgustingly happy truth:)

We're Here!: Recap of Christmas (2 Months Late! Ha!)

We're here! We're here! We've made it into the blogging world! I'm excited to have a new hobby and alternative to journaling. Kendall is supportive and warning me to always post more pictures than words so it's interesting.

Thought I'd share a short recap of Christmas..... a holy two-for-one celebration. I've always thought Christmas should be honored more than one measly day a year, and now being married gave me TWO WHOLE DAYS to celebrate---one with my family and one with my new family (Kendall's family).

Please forgive the photo quality (And family, please forgive the lack of photos. I had many more but am in the middle of a small technical crisis which is making the transfer of my phone photos to the computer impossible...or else many more of you would have been pictured). Someday I'll dig out that fatty smart phone instruction manual and learn how to take non-fuzzy pics. 'Til then, enjoy the happy, dreamlike state of these magical pictures ;)

 Dozens of cookies made for our ward's Christmas Primary Activity

The nostalgic wooden Santa at Sleighbells from Kendall's childhood

 Our first Christmas tree that Kendall cut down and I named Felipe

Christmas Decorations

More decor 

 Felipe in the day time

 We felt like "real" grownups when Christmas cards started arriving in the mail

 Candice on her way down the stairs Christmas morning

 Christmas morning at my parents' house

 Busy in the kitchen

 Hunter barely containing his Christmas excitement

My happy parents 

 Dad

Kendall taking part in a Kerr tradition: Christmas morning we have homemade Belgian waffles topped with strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream.

 Kendall opening his present from me

 Still opening...

Reading the sappy note with his present 

My dad's new hobby/gift 

....

Our first Christmas dinner together

 More dinner

More pics

 The new little niece, Suzie, who calls me Uncle Kristen and is under the impression I'm just Uncle Kendall's "friend"

 The boys playing "Just Dance" on the Wii

 My sister-in-law, Lora, and Suzie

Kendall and Tyler having an intense discussion

 Suzie and Weston

 My sister, Tiffany, who is on a mission in Arizona who we got to Skype with on Christmas day. I miss you, Tiff!