Ok I admit. I have been a bad blogger. It has been so long since I updated the blog. There are many reasons why. The top three reasons are:
1. I have a PC that is as slow as a SNAIL. It takes 30 minutes (without exaggeration) to start up and Brandon has worked from home all summer, so he is always on his computer. So I can't use his.
2. This summer has been so busy! I go to work, go to the gym, get home and eat, then go to bed. Not really anytime to sit down and download pictures and update the blog.
3. I will be honest, no one ever comments on our blog. It gets discouraging when I spend time on a blog post and no one comments.

So anyways, I will try this out again. I am going to make it a goal to update the blog more often and make it exciting for all of you! But make it worth it for me! If you read a post, let me know you did!

Here goes nothing...

It was my brother's 22nd birthday on April 3rd. I still can't believe that it has been 7 years since he has been gone. Sometimes I feel like my memories of him are slipping away. My sisters and I were talking about this. So we decided to create a book of memories so we could always remember the happy times we had with him. So we gave my parents a book of memories from the 3 of us on Brian's birthday.

I am very happy with it.

The cover.

Example of the inside.
My Daddy while he is reading it.
We miss you Brian.

I have been a super duper bad blogger. They blocked all the computers at work, so I cannot access it from there anymore. And let's face it, blogging becomes last on the priority list after a long day of work. Besides, I have no motivation to do it when I get home. Tonight I promised Brandon I would make him Funeral Potatoes (he helped me with a project this week) so I have to wait an hour and a half for them to finish baking before I can go to bed. So here I am.

Let me summarize our lives lately:

1. Easter is the best time of the year. My favorite candy, Mini Eggs, are available! Every year I stock up on these delicious things, put them in the freezer to try to last me the whole year. Well they end up lasting to about June or July. But all the stores are out! Seriously? What am I gonna do!!!

2. Brandon is still busy with school. He got home tonight at about 9:30pm.

3. I still have a job (please hold applause until the end).

4. I have a 3 week break from Activity Days. Is it bad that I am happy about that?

5. Brandon and I spoke in church last Sunday. A guy in the ward came up to us afterwards and asked us for a copy of our talks. It made us feel special.

6. Gunner is "stressed." For those of you who do not blog stalk us, Gunner is our gray cat. We took him to the vet because he has this thing lately that he likes to pee on anything and everything. The vet did some tests and decided it is because of all the animals that live around us. They are stressing him out. He put Gunner on Prozac for cats. Then he told us how to really fix it: move. Sweetness. Now to find another apartment that allows cats, but doesn't have a zoo below us... good luck to us.

7. I have been busy working on a project that I cannot disclose until Saturday. But I am proud of it and glad that I am done with it.

8. Vampire Diaries is playing new episodes again!

9. We are counting down the days until Glee is back on! 2 weeks from yesterday!!

10. We have watched one episode of the 6th season of Lost. We are finally on the last season, but we are behind.

11. We went to the Festival of Colors at the Spanish Fork Hindu Temple. We got dirty.

Pre-dirtiness.

The results.

Close ups are very flattering.
The crowd.12. We are going to Mexico in a month from tomorrow!!!!
We are staying here.

13. We went up to my Grandparents' house. We went sledding and snowmobiling.
We found a moose antler
Cousins.Their animals love each other.
14. Brandon went to St. George with his family to play golf. He left me love notes. I really enjoyed them. This one I discovered when I pulled back the covers to go to bed:)


Please notice Brandon's sweet golfing pants. They have golfing penguins on them!15. We like to mini-golf. We went this past weekend. Brandon likes to mini-golf to practice. I like to mini-golf because I win every time :)

I won!

We went with cool friends DJ and Kyra.
Tough shot?16. Brandon and I decided on our first boy's name. But we will not disclose it until we actually become pregnant. Maybe we think about this subject too often?

17. We got gym memberships. But yet, we can't seem to put the ice cream down!

18. We are still waiting on my work to decide about Africa. So no update. Just waiting.

I think that is all. Peace, Love and Harmony.... Steph and Brandon.

We had a fun weekend! I stole Brandon from Big Bertha (Brandon replaced Bessie, his computer, with Big Bertha... an even bigger computer who is his second girlfriend), and we spent a lot of time together. This is rare since he is so busy with homework, so I REALLY enjoyed it!

Friday we went to our friends' cabin near Brighton and went snowmobiling. The machines were so fast and it was all so fun. We got stuck several times which was embarrassing, but overall it was a blast!

Me and Jessica Bingham Kehl

Bryan, Jessica, me, BrandonFriends Austin and Anna

It snowed so much on Friday. Look at all the powder! And this isn't just snow piled up. It is the actual depth!

On Saturday I got to to hang out with my best friend growing up, Leslie! Loved it. We went shopping and had lunch with another mutual friend Shelli.


On Saturday we also got massages! Brandon has never gotten a professional massage. Can you believe it?! So for Valentine's Day I decided I wanted to get him a massage, but then I got sick and didn't have time to get the gift certificate, so I ended up just telling him my plan. Then we decided together to wait 3 weeks so then I could get one too and we could get them buy one get one free! So we went to the Utah College of Massage Therapy and got 2, sixty minute massages for the price of one! Let me tell you... we both were very satisfied!

Sunday we had my cousins over for dinner. My cousins Taylor and Colton are freshman at BYU. And they have been going to school since August, so I am embarrassed to say this was our first time having them over. But I hope they will forgive me! They requested Lasagna and dessert. I was super worried about the recipes I used, but it turned out great... well at least that is what Brandon tells me. He is so sweet when it comes to my cooking. He says everything is delicious :)

Anyways, I didn't take any pictures of the food, but here is the table set up! I just love our dishes.

We played Bananagrams after. It is like Speed Scrabble. Super fun! I think I want to buy it!

Now Brandon is hanging out with Big Bertha again and I am typing this. Can't wait for next weekend with my hubby!

Once upon a time there were 2 boys named Brandon and Chris. Brandon was older than Chris and always gave him such a hard time. Chris, being the youngest and the picked on brother, would sometimes lash out and get back at Brandon. One day, Chris decided to use an innocent children's toy named Elmo to show Brandon he wasn't messin' around. That day, Chris decided to throw that Elmo doll at Brandon. It changed Brandon's life forever. His front tooth cracked in half and fell out because Elmo's hard eyeball decided to hit Brandon's tooth perfectly. He had to get a veneer put on to cap his tooth. Since then, Brandon's tooth has fell out 4 times. Well now it is 5. Apparently I made the pizza crust a little too crunchy. Brandon took a bite and his front tooth went flying!

So now, I am proud to introduce the one... the only... Brandon Marcum! Careful ladies. He is taken!He is still Idaho's Bachelor of the Year EVEN without a tooth! And he is still dreamy to me:)

Oh and FYI, Elmo is not allowed in our house..

I have to admit, I am very jealous of Chris and Julia. On February 13th, they welcomed their first little girl Greta in to the world. She is adorable. And tiny! Chris is Brandon's younger brother and Chris and Julia got married 3 months after us. And they already beat us to the whole baby thing! Anyways, we went to visit them in the hospital. Thought I would post some pictures. We are so happy for them!

So I am sick. How this disease made it in to my body is a mystery to all. Last Wednesday my throat started to hurt really bad. Then the muscle aches came. Then I was super tired. Then my throat stopped hurting and I started to cough. Then my nose became stuffy. I gained a fever and it likes to break mid-day and make me sweat like a freaking pig. I went home from work early last Thursday and I slept for 16 hours straight. But I still have to work every day because some odd reason the mortgage industry doesn't want to go on hold when I am sick. Weird. All of my co-workers have to listen to me cough and blow my nose all day. Yesterday a co-worker told me, "Ew Steph, that is really gross." She was completely serious and I think she wanted me to leave this planet.

I taught Relief Society on Sunday for my first time. I am 24 years old and the average age of my ward is probably about 85. So I felt a little out of my league. I have only taught primary and my calling is Activity Day Director, but a lady who teaches Relief Society asked me if I could sub for her while she went out of town. I asked her if we had substitute teachers in our ward and she told me yes and waited for my response. Of course I couldn't say no! And of course I had to get sick right before I had to teach. You may think I need to be struck by lightening right now, but just hear me out. The lesson was on Jesus Christ, but the material was VERY limited. It was about 5 paragraphs, so I started to freak out. I had no idea how I would teach for an hour! And the lesson from the previous week covered some of the material and the lesson from next week covers some of the material, so I didn't want to repeat or take away from anyone else's lesson. But then I started to do research and WOW! There was so much. It took me probably 10 hours to prepare my lesson. I had to figure out a way to cut down the material I had. My fever decided to break right before I started the lesson. I was wearing a thick sweater and I couldn't take it off. So pit stains were definitely evident and so were the extremely red cheeks and the sweat droplets dripping from my forehead. Overall, the lesson went really well. I wasn't nervous, and I felt very comfortable in front of everyone. I learned a lot from my research. I knew someone was helping me plan that lesson. I felt like I was supposed to say those things to those women. So I thank her for my experience. It was a great Valentine's Day and I am thankful for it.

And now Brandon and I will be speaking in church in about 3 weeks. Wish us luck:)

Oh and P.S. We did nothing for Valentine's Day. Being sick doesn't exactly put you in the mood for much activity.

My Mom and I went to Disney World. I had to go work to keep my seasonal status, so she decided to join me. We used frequent flier miles, got our hotel for super cheap, and even got the dining plan! It was perfect.

I got to be special friends with Pluto while I was there. My Mom got to come take a picture with Pluto! My favorite story from my adventure of work was when I went up to a table in the restaurant (in costume) and an old man... gray hair, balding, wrinkly, and quite chunky, stood up, started to flail his arms around, then opened his arms wide and gave me a huge hug while telling me, "Goofy, you are my favorite character." I wanted to discontinue the hug immediately. The pup got his feelings hurt! But then I started to feel sorry for this old man who has lived his whole life thinking Pluto was Goofy.Our welcome to our hotel :)Our first day in the parks! Notice my Mom ALREADY has a pop even before we enter the gates.


My heart loves this castle.
When I got off work the park was closed. My Mom was finishing up some shopping on Main Street so I had to walk through the park to meet her. I was the only one in the park near the castle. It was way weird!

Tourist.
Mom loves parades.
They have characters in the park from the movie Up! They were so cute. But I did think Russell was sort of huge.
Space Mountain. We are cute.
Buzz!
My Mom likes Johnny Depp.
Like I said, she likes Johnny Depp. She wanted a picture near him but the large man in yellow decided he didn't want anyone behind him to watch the show. Totally understandable.
Epcot! Spaceship Earth was way different, and way better.We took pictures on Spaceship Earth (totally new) so I made a funny face. But I didn't know it would be displayed and shown to everyone. Click on the link below to see what was played in a huge room after we got off the ride. And the picture is below. Embarrassing.
http://parklink.disney.go.com/parklink/dis/pi/globekioskvideo/2010-01-30/444886af0b071f58
I think my Mom's favorite part was getting free coke.
She wanted to buy this and take it to a gas station to get filled up.
My Mom got to cook with the chef at Teppan Edo, a hibachi grill in Japan at Epcot.
Norway gnome.
Do you think we would fit in, in Norway?!
Illuminations fireworks equal amazing.
My old roommate Alyssa from CSU did the college program with me and lives in Florida still! We got to play with her. We went mini golfing at the Disney course. Perfectly themed of course.

Mini Golfing. Donovan is an LDS photopass photographer I worked with a lot. He took us golfing.

We ate at the Coral Reef restaurant. We sat right next to the fish tanks. See the shark?
See the shark?
We loved our food. Probably the best I have ever had.
Mahi Mahi and Tilapia
We got pina coladas with our meal!Look it is Crush from Finding Nemo!

Me and Mr. Ray from Finding Nemo.

Mr. Ray again.

This is a video of all the fishies following Mr. Ray just like in the movie Finding Nemo. You will see him like 20 seconds in. Pretty cool.

Bug's Life = priceless

We like to imitate things. And set trends.


Us riding Everest! On the ride photos are the best.


They have an American Idol experience where people can audition to perform. No offense, but no one was good.
Toy Story! The best ride ever.We discovered that you can serve yourself with Dole Whip at the Polynesian Resort. So we went there every night. And made it this big every night. LOVE THE DINING PLAN!
We saw these girls and I thought someone should have told them that when you are in college and employees of Disney, you shouldn't wear little girl clothes anymore.


That is it! We had a great time. Thank you Mom!