SO, I have this fiance, and he asked me about my blog, and I had to tell him...I have not posted in a while! In that while, lots and lots has happened! Tomorrow, my class has been cancelled, therefore, I will stay up late to blog! The thing that I feel that I love the most about blogging, is I feel like I'm talking to myself. As I sit here and try and decide what to blog about, I talk about situations going on in my life, and I feel that I get a lot of them figured out!!

LIFE is going by WAY too quickly! I cannot believe that we are approaching the middle of March! Kyle and I get married six weeks from today folks! YAY!!! I feel like we have done SO much but yet, have done nothing. Hopefully, I'll find out my score on the Praxis, because that determines whether we move to UT or not! and then if we do, then where will we live for 10 days while we're still in Rexburg? Suggestions? Hotel is our best option right now! Fabulous! As a 10 year old, living in a hotel would only be a dream...now that it's going to become reality, not too sure how I feel about it! I am sure that it'll make for great stories to tell our children when we're the weird parents! ;) & Woah! I have been home from my mission for 10 months, and some of the really young ones when I left, are getting ready to come home! I got to see my beautiful friend Jaymee Thurston this last week! She's just one of those friends, that every time I see her, it'll be like we see each other every day! She's fantastic! I love that she's home! and Love even more that she's from MY hometown!! :) Yay for Mini-Cassia Area!! Miss Bailee comes home very soon! well, 19 days to be exact!!!!

LAST weekend Kyle and I took engagement pictures. Our photographer, Carli Hobson, did a great job! I had been feeling under the weather that whole day, and was probably a little more on the drugged up side while we were taking photos, but she made sure that Kyle and I had a really fun time, we're excited to see how they all turn out! I will post those as they come along!

FOURTH grade, in case you are wondering, is the best grade in the world! They have the best content and the students are learning to be independent and they are just at a super fun age. You can kind of tease with them and they understand that you are, and they don't get offended! They love trying to convince me I told them we could play dodgeball in P.E. class, I never did and I never will! Tuesday is Valentine's day and I wish so badly that I was going to be there for that one! This is also the age where they are starting to develop real crushes on each other, and to an adult, they are totally obvious, but they think they are being anonymous. They love to make up songs, right now the favorite tune is to "I'm sexy and I know it.." they make up songs about Harry Potter to that tune, or snakes being deadly...interesting! I love the fourth grade class that I'm in right now. They really are a great great class! I honestly will probably never see a class like this again in my lifetime! They are a one in a million class! No behavior problems, all pretty much on the same page of understanding, all come from really great home and family lives...this is a very odd...BUT I'm not complaining!

WELL, I'm grateful and happy the way things are! I still have to say, I really do live the most perfect life!

I just felt like blogging...

Here it is, about one in the morning, and I am up blogging, why am I up blogging? Great question! All week I just complain about how tired I am, and then when I have the opportunity to sleep, I stay awake and I blog! Don't worry I confuse myself! But I've still got people who love me!
This week was a good one! I got the best calling in the whole wide world! I get to be the mission prep teacher! Could it get any better? I really think not! I spent a year a half serving my Heavenly Father, and I don't think that I fully realized how amazing that kind of a chance is, until you no longer have the chance to do it. Now, I get the opportunity to help other who desire to give up some time and dedicate it to the Lord, and go and preach about Him and His true gospel on the earth again. I about cried when my Bishop asked me to do this! Really really excited!!! All week my mind has just been flowing with ideas of ways that I want this class to go. Grateful for the spirit which teaches us things which we should do. What a gift! So many of us fall apart when we have to make a decision, worrying about if it's the right one, and one thing that I've come to realize, is that there can be a million right ones. There is always going to be a right ONE specifically!! Then we get all worked up about what exactly we should be doing, degrading the fact that we have been given knowledge to choose. Heavenly Father will prompt us through the Spirit on the crucial things, but it's things that pertain to our salvation is where we're really going to feel those strong impressions from the spirit guiding and directing us to the place where we need to be. His purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man... Small tangent, and something I've been thinking a lot about!

Another thing which I have been thinking a lot about is...WEDDING!!! Um...this is crazy! Who knew how many SMALL and not so small details went into planning a wedding!! This has been nuts! Sometimes fun, and sometimes stressful, and sometimes exciting! None the less, it's getting done. Just one small thing at a time! This week we made lots of decisions, we decided on what we want to serve at the dinner, we decided on what type of flowers we wanted, we decided on what everyone will be wearing, we decided on a honeymoon destination...those are to name just a few. Today, we actually got the best news ever! So, Kyle is from AK...yeah, it's far away! His family weren't sure if they were all going to be able to make it down here, but today I talked to Kyle's mom and Kyle talked to his brother Dean, and Kyle's whole family is going to be able to be here for the wedding. Kyle and I were so excited! What a neat surprise! It really does mean a lot to us to have them there. Family really is everything and then a little more!!!

Okay, so it's 1:23...ha! and I think I'd better get some sleep! :)

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!!

I had great intentions with this whole blogging thing, and it isn't really going the way that I had hoped that it would. But I will continue to blog, even though I'm not too consistent!
I had a great Christmas. I have to first mention that I have the world's greatest parents and they made this Christmas an amazing one! Me and all of my sisters were home for the holidays. It had been a few years, and I think it'll be a few more before it gets to happen again. It was absolutely magical! Poor Holli didn't know what to do when we all came home, and then she got used to us and now she probably doesn't know what to do now that we are all gone again.
There were a few more things that made this last Christmas vacation a great one, and because I am a person who loves to make list, I am going to list the things that made the Christmas Vacation marvelous! It's going to be my surprise list because that is what they all were, surprises...
Surprise #1---
Christmas Eve was fun! We went to have our annual Christmas with the Stockings party. We had soup, played embarrassing games, sang songs, basketball, the usually family gathering type things minus any fights! Then we come home, and of course the first thing that I want to do is talk to Kyle and then watch The Grinch! I'm talking to Kyle on the phone and thinking, "I can't wait to see you in two days!" and then I hear a knock on the door, but yet at the same time Kyle is knocking on someone's door. He was going to his aunts house that day. Staci then comes frantically running down the hall and says, "Heidi, come here!" So, I go up there thinking that some one from the ward decided to play Santa Clause and was bringing us some candy canes, but then low and behold guess what I see... The face that I had been missing so much for the past four months...KYLE'S!!! I couldn't believe that he was there! I didn't ever think in 100 years that he was going to come before Christmas! Grateful for his mom for letting him come down here a few days early to spend Christmas with my family and I. He really was the best Christmas Present, and a wonderful wonderful surprise! I was so shocked when I saw him that all I could mutter out was..."WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"...Grateful he stuck around after my very welcoming comment ;)
Surprise #2---
One thing that Kyle has never seen before is Temple square with all of it's Christmas lights, and when he said that I thought, oh my heck! How is that even possible? So, when he told me that we had to go down to Utah for his cousin's wedding reception, I told him one stipulation was that we had to go to Temple Square at night and see the lights. Christmas lights are probably one of my favorite things about Christmas, just everything they represent it's fantastic!! Therefore, Kyle and I go ring shopping all day in hopes to find the perfect ring. Although, no girl really wants to say, "Oh! I want that one!" because it'll probably end up being like 10 grand, way more than you imply for them to spend. All day, I was stressing out and I just kept telling Kyle, please just pick a ring and I promise you, I'll love it! Little did I know, that Kyle had already bought a ring about a month ago, and was leading me on the whole day. (Although, I do have to say that I got semi even because I kept changing my mind the whole day about the shape of the stone that I had wanted...making Kyle sweat a little;) ) So we shop all day long, and by this time it's about 6:00p.m. and we are meeting his sister at 7:00 in Riverton...I'm getting really nervous thinking that we don't really have time to go to temple square, but I tell him we can only do it in about 15 minutes and then we've gotta get on the road. So we are walking through temple square, I am about three steps in front of Kyle the whole time, pulling him through everything, not stopping at anything, just passing and glancing, because I hate being late! We go over to the north side of the temple trying to avoid the crowds and Kyle starts acting a little funny. He keeps going back and touching the temple, stopping trying to hold me, but I am so worried about being late that I was having a difficult time, just enjoying the moment! Kyle then says, "Heidi, I want to look at the temple from over here..." and in my mind I'm thinking, we really do not have time. That time Kyle is probably figuring, if he's doing to do anything, he'd better act quick, because I'm moving! Kyle then looks me in the eye and smiles and tells me how much he loves me, gets on one knee and ask me to marry him! I DIDN'T WANT IT TO END!!! So, I asked him how long I could make him stay there, it was then that he nervously said, "Heidi..." and I said yes! It was a magical SURPRISE!!
All in all it was a great weekend and I'm very happy for the future, and all the other wonderful things Heavenly Father is going to throw my way!


p.s. it took me 2.5 weeks to finish this post! Maybe I don't have time for blogging ;)

Weekend Bliss

It's been a early tradition for my family to go to SLC and to go to the Christmas Concert put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. Every year they invite special guest. This year it was Jane Seymour and Nathan Gunn. All together they put on an amazing performance. I've missed the last couple of years because I'd been serving a mission for the LDS Church in Los Angeles, (which was an amazing experience). It was neat to be with a lot of my family. My whole immediate family was able to attend, and so was much of my extended family. Being with family and hearing all of that amazing Christmas music really helped me to remember the true meaning of Christmas and what this time of year really is about. It's about our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His humble birth. It's about the greatest gift that was given to us from our Father In Heaven. It's the time that "God and sinners reconcile" and we dedicate our life to be more like our gift. How grateful I am to have been able to go to the concert this weekend and to have that fire of Christmas spirit lit. I just hope that I am able to keep it burning throughout the week. I know that being able to do this will all depend on my willingness to try, and do...I will update you on how it goes.
Another thing that was great about this weekend is that I was able to go see all the beautiful lights that are on temple square! WOW! What a sight that was. After the concert was over last night, I really wanted to go and look at the lights, because I didn't have time to go see them before the show. Therefore, 10 p.m. and Erica and I do temple square in fifteen minutes. Fantastic, honestly, the best way to do it! We walked through all the buildings, saw many lights, even saw some old friends, and then we were back in our hotel room. Perfect!
This was a perfect way to celebrate ending a school semester, and getting ready to start another one here in a few weeks. Which is my last one!!! HA! Not sure if I could be more excited for anything else...well, I could maybe think of one thing ;)...Kyle ha!

My adorable sister Holli at the concert!



Temple square + Lights = Beautiful

And Here I am...

So, this really has been a long time coming. I've been diligently designing this blog for about a month now, and I've been seriously struggling with how to design it! Then tonight, my wonderful sister, Staci, came over and I told her what I was struggling with, then she says, "Oh, I can fix that!" Five minutes later! It is fixed! So here is my beautiful blog! Therefore, if you feel like you need to comment, say thank you to Staci, because if it weren’t for her, then I wouldn't have a blog.
Alright, I chose the name of my blog happiness happens because IT DOES! Therefore, I only feel that it would appropriate if I were to list the top ten things that make me happy (as of right now)...
The List...
*Knowing that I have a Relationship with my Heavenly Father. Honestly, nothing makes me happier than to know this! I have a way to communicate with Him (through prayer) and He is able to communicate with me (through scriptures & living prophets). Want to know more? Visit www.Mormon.org

*Family! Who doesn't agree? They are the best thing in this life! Where would we be without them? Whether we have good or bad relationships with them, everyone can say that they have learned something from their family. I love that I can honestly say, my beasties = my sisters!

*My favorite person! Aka Kyle DeVaney! How did I get so lucky for find such a catch? No idea! But Heavenly Father loves me! That is about all I can say. I'm always happy when I'm with him...Looking forward to many more happy days with him! ;)

*Learning! I really do love to learn. When I find myself having those moments of this just makes sense, that whole light bulb feeling. It feels good, you always feel happy when that happens!

*Friends! We all have those great friends. Sometimes we see them every day, or sometimes we just see them or talk to them only every once in a while...nonetheless, they are our friends and they make us happy.

*Chocolate! ha! How could I make a list about happiness and NOT ADD THIS!? Let's be honest! I love chocolate, and regardless of the day I'm having, I'm always happy to see chocolate.

*Seasons, really each season bring something new that I always look forward to! Today, it snowed. I was in my room all morning getting ready, and as I opened the door to see the ground covered in snow, I was so happy! Honestly, in about a month...I'll be looking forward to the day when spring arrives and I'll be happy then...so on and so forth! Seasons bring happiness.

* Kids! I am studying education right now as my major here at BYU-Idaho. It's been fantastic because honestly, I get to hang out with kids all day long! They are so stinkin' cute & hilarious! Last Wednesday was my last day in one of my classes & a student sharpened a pencil and gave it to me as a going away present. Was it hard for him to do? No! But, was it sincere? Extremely! Knowing that these are the types of people that I get to work with for the rest of my life! Makes me so happy!

*Shopping! Okay, as awful as this may sound! I love to shop! I love to buy new things, and I love to wear new things! It's just fun. I must admit, it's not lasting happiness; it always dies after it gets washed for the first time, but for a short day, and you are wearing that new shirt, scarf, or shoes...Happiness!

*Drives! Those days where you have nowhere to go, so you just go anywhere, not worried about anything, just thinking or singing as loud as you can to your favorite song playing. Happiness!

Let's be honest, this list could go on and on and on. Happiness is found in so many things that we do and that we have been blessed with. Let's hope that I will be diligent with the continuing with this blog and I am able to continue my Happy Happenings with you!