Be Mine.

via: Pinterest

I know it's cheesy, but I really love Valentine's Day. It's wonderful to have a day dedicated to thinking about loved ones. Today I'm grateful for an incredible husband and my loving family. 

Robby's gifts. I can't wait for him to come home and see them! He has the evening planned and I'm excited to see what is in store!

Internship Update: 3 down, 1 to go!

For those of you who are interested, here is an internship update. I finished 15 weeks with Chandler Unified School District in December. I had such a great experience there, doing menu planning, recipe standardization, kitchen design, and teaching more nutrition lessons than I can count.

I guess they liked me too, because they offered me a job during the break I am currently in, waiting for my clinical rotation to start. I am working and getting paid (it has been a long time since I got a paycheck) and having so much fun. I love child nutrition!

I took a 2 week break from my job to complete my Long Term Care clinical rotation at the Beatitudes Campus in Phoenix. They have hundreds of independent senior living apartments, a large assisted living facility and a health care center with 3 floors of residents. There is a floor for rehabilitation and recovery (from surgery, a bad fall, etc), another floor with early memory support, and finally a floor with advanced memory support. I had an amazing time working with the residents on the memory support floors. It is humbling to serve those residents and make sure that they are eating so that they can have the best quality of life possible.

I learned so many things about caring for the elderly in this rotation. I enjoyed associating with them, even those residents who can't speak or carry on a conversation. I enjoyed seeing their smiles and them waving at me every day when I would come up to their floor. I loved serving them during meal times and helping them when needed. I was inspired by their positive attitudes, despite the daily struggles associated with Alzheimer's Disease and other memory-loss situations.  I loved offering support when residents were troubled or upset about something, usually related to their inability to understand what reality is. 

Those 2 weeks flew by and now I am back with Chandler Schools. I'm working in the different schools at lunch time, doing various projects, and now I'm trying to set up a system for recycling food waste in the district, with a company who takes food waste and turns it into fertilizer.

That's what I'll be doing until the end of March when my 11 week in-patient clinical rotation starts at a hospital just down the road. I am so close to being done! One more rotation to complete, the RD exam to pass and I will be Heather Boyle, RD.

Happy Birthday Arizona!

This year is Arizona's 100th Birthday! In honor of that, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came to Phoenix and did a concert in the arena where the Phoenix Sun's play.  We bought tickets in May when we first moved here. The day of the concert finally came! It was on the 12th and we had a blast. 

The choir and orchestra were incredible as usual. They performed all different styles of music and even did a little choreography. That isn't something the choir does at General Conference, so it was fun to see!

Robby & his picture face. Someday I'll figure out how to get him to smile for real in pictures...

 Since we were going in to Phoenix, we couldn't miss stopping at our favorite: Raising Cane's. 

Just me and my boy.

Love and a Wedding

On January 28, 2012, my beautiful sister Megan married Andy Nelson in the Rexburg, Idaho temple.

All I have is the pictures from my camera, but aren't they beautiful?

I couldn't be happier for Megan and Andy! I am so excited for them. It's fun to have a new member of our family and I can't wait to see how their life together unfolds. 

Robby and I met my parents and Olivia in Salt Lake City and then we drove up to Rexburg together. It was fun to be all together as a family again! We had so much fun. Lots of game playing, food network watching, hotel pool swimming parties, yummy food, wedding festivities and family togetherness. I loved every minute of it.

Lunch at Pizza Pie Cafe

Ignore the clothespins on my shirt...bridal shower game!

 Emily gave us a tour of the beautiful BYU-I campus. The snow was so pretty!

 Look who I found in Rexburg! My favorite best friend. 

 Me and Livs...I love that girl!

 The girls... so fun to see Maddie again! 

My favorite husband :)

Me, Emily, and Olivia with Aunt Janice, Maddie and Kathryn

 The reception was so beautiful!

 It was so good to see old friends.

Me and the beautiful bride. 

What a wonderful 5 days it was. I was so excited to be present when Megs and Andy were married. I was such a proud big-sister so see Megan so happy. I love knowing that families are forever!

Christmas 2011

For Christmas, we went to Las Vegas and spend 2 wonderful long weekends with family! We had so much fun. I will let the pictures do the talking!

Robby and I on Christmas Eve in our new jammies! 

We all had Las Vegas shirts, except for Robby. It's okay though, he got one later. 

Christmas Morning! 

I didn't have Christmas boot socks, so Halloween socks had to do...

The kids before church.

We had some fighting words across the table at Macaroni Grill. And some trouble with writing upside down apparently...

Lunch on the strip!

2011 from A to Z

This past year was really good to us!

Here are just a few of the things we enjoyed in 2011.

 

A new semester at BYU began: our busiest and last one ever
Birthdays: Robby turned 24 in March and I turned 22 in June

ate at Raising Cane’s more than we would like to admit
my acceptance to USU’s Dietetic Internship
Enjoying the last of our weekends spent studying and those endless hours on campus

Followed BYU basketball to Las Vegas for the Conference Tournament

Graduating from BYU together  

visiting the Happiest place on earth, at Halloween time

Internship orientation in Salt Lake City
Robby’s Job offer from Dentimax

Used our new free time to read lots on our Kindle’s
Lots of new recipes and learning in the kitchen
Many sewing projects
New friends and memories (and never forgetting the old ones)
One year anniversary weekend in Scottsdale, AZ
Playing lots of games: our new favorites include Ticket to Ride and Tripoley
Quick Arizona summer re-cap: hot, hot, hot!
Returning to Seattle twice in the summer for Emily’s graduation, my birthday, and Ashley’s wedding
Surprising my sisters in Idaho for wedding dress shopping 

a memorable Thanksgiving in Seattle 

 Understanding what it means to be in the “real world” outside of college and loving it!
Visiting the pumpkin patch and the Arizona State Fair in the Fall
Weekly date nights
eXploring our new home

celebrating Christmas and the New Year in Las Vegas
recogniZing our many blessings

Happy New Year!

The Post-Thanksgiving Surprise!

My parents and I tricked my sisters the weekend after Thanksgiving. My mom was heading to Idaho to go wedding dress shopping with Megan. My parents decided to fly me there and surprise my sisters! I was happy to oblige :) My favorite moment was when Megs, Emily and Andy walked into the hotel room not knowing that I was there, turned the corner and saw me. The looks on their faces were so priceless.

I loved being able to watch Megan try on wedding dresses. The dress was made for her and I can't wait  to see her on her wedding day! She and Andy will look so great together. 

Spending time with my mom and sisters was perfect. I only took a few pictures because we were so busy that I just forgot!

Thanks again mom and dad for the amazing trip. It was wonderful!