we got our WEDDING PHOTOS!!!!

I love these pictures so much. 

If anyone is getting married, they need to ask

Val Dahlin, with Valory Jean Photography

to take their pictures pictures. She is AMAZING. So nice, so fun to work with, and she takes amazing pictures.

Today was so fun to go through these photos, and to relive the best day of our lives so far.

I cried.

Tears of joy, of course.

Here are a few, to give you a taste of what I am talking about..

indulge....

I could not have asked for a better day.

It was perfect.

and I am going to treasure these pictures for the rest of my life.

Autumn Time

It's autumn time,

It's autumn time, 

The leaves are falling down!

I LOOOOVE this time of year.

Jared has to suffer with me telling him every fall about all of the things that I LOVE about this beautiful season.

just to name a few:

kneaders pumpkin bread

kneaders pumpkin steamers

General Conference

the leaves changing on the mountains

driving the alpine loop

smelling the air (this is a true one)

shopping at thrift stores for Halloween costumes

Halloween!

candy corn

(Jared hates candy corn... too bad.... more for me!)

stepping on crunchy leaves

Gilmore Girls

(for some reason, I only watch GG during the fall)

Oktoberfest!

Hot Chocolate

soups

watching Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow

and Hocus Pocus

my Mom's front porch

and all other fall decor 

My Halloween decor this year WINS!

Meet: The Ghost Family

from left to right: Boo Jr., Spirit, Casper, Donna, and Boo Sr.

Yep, those are dryer sheets that you see hanging over my living room. Why, might you ask, would you hang dryer sheets up?? They're GHOSTS, guys. C'mon! A whole family of ghosts!

Can you guess where we got Boo, and Boo Jr.'s names? Yep. I just barely learned that Jared's whole plan while naming our ghost family, was to name all of them Boo so he wouldn't have to remember which one was which...

 Booooooooooo, you whore! (name that movie!)

note my awesome throw on the back of my couch

my Great Grandma Coleman made it

my Beautiful Aunt Becky gave it to me as a wedding gift. I love her so much for giving that to me. She is such a sweet auntie.

Trick or Treat???

I hope that y'all have fun doing your favorite things of this beautiful time of year!

Happy Autumn Time!

Deutschland

Holy Guacamole.

I feel like I've dropped off the face of the planet earth for the last month...

September 3rd, we got married, then went on our honeymoon.. (Bow-chic-a-wow-wow!)

Then on September 15th through the 30th we went to Europe!

It has always been a dream of mine to go there, and it was everything I had hoped it would be.

And here is a little taste of our trip:

Day 1

• Flew to Frankfurt. Rented a giant black van/bus that I named, Georg. Drove to Rothenburg, Germany.
• Got to Rothenburg. Wandered around the Disney Fantasyland city. Went into a massive Christmas Store, and looked longingly at Black Forest Coo-Coo Clocks.
• Went to Dinner. We ate Sauerbraten, red cabbage, and bread. Lots, and LOTS of bread.
• Night Watchman's Tour!

Day 2

• Ate a hardy breakfast with more bread, meats, cheeses, nutella, jams, and hot chocolate.
• walked around the city a bit more
• drove to Neuschwanstein Castle (the Disneyland Castle) (side note--I made sure to make Disney references every day of our trip)
• checked into our hotel
• HIKED up to the castle, and took a tour of said castle. It was sick-nasty!
• spotted a frog on our way down.

can you see the frog?? 

Day 3

• drove to Salzburg, Austria. 
• left 10 minutes after arriving because of stressful traffic reasons :)
• decided to drive to Halstatt, Austria instead.
• arrived in Halstatt, walked around. This place is soooo pretty! It was probably one of my favorite cities of the whole trip.
• ate dünors.
• drove to Wald Im Pinzgau, Austria

Day 4

• Woke up in Wald Im Pinzgau
• drove up the mountain to Gretlholf
• took some Sound Of Music pics. see below..
• listened to the moo-cows and their cow bells
• walked to the church, went inside, and drank some trinkwasser from the fountain.
• drove to Venice, Italy
• rode the water taxi into Venice
• Explored Venice in the pouring rain
• ate margarita pizza -- Jared ate a whole fish..
• went to St Mark's Square and put on my glare face to all of the weirdos that hand you flowers, and then want 5 Euro. Stinkers.
• Went on top of our little apartment that we stayed in and watched the eeriness of Venice settle in. It was a pretty cool place to see.

Day 5

• Went to a Fresh Fish market in Venice--where I saw a massive Sword Fish. So nasty.
• I also saw nasty fish that were staring at me.
• walked to the water bus
• went to Burano, Italy
• Bought Linens :)
• Came home, took a nap
• Then we went out again that night, and wandered around eerie Venice.

Day 6

• Left Venice back through a water taxi
• found our car at the airport
• Drove to the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera
• Layed out on the beach, and read/relxed
• Walked along the beach, Jared and I also had a rock skipping contest! (I won)
• Hung out in our little city that we stayed in that night--Moneglia, Italy
• Watched the people from the Catholic Church carry around the lit up altar around the streets.
• played Rook with Jared's parents

Day 7

• Explored the Cinque Terre
• went on a hike from Monterosso to Vernazza... It was so hot. And there were soooo many stairs. I thought I would die. Good news, I didn't die.
• Walked through Vernazza, and saw the neat shaped noodles.....(side note: it took me about a minute to figure out what the noodles on the right were... Jared was like, "I dunno.." oh, he knew EXACTLY what they were. We all had a good laugh about the male genitalia shaped noodles.)
• had the BEST GELATO EVER!!
• Rode the train to Manarola
• ate pesto lasagna
• took the train back
• napped
• got pizza from a local store, took it back to the hotel, and then we played Rook again.

Day 8

• Left bright and early and drove 7 hours back to Munich. The boys wanted to go to the Soccer game, and so Jared and I delivered a package to Elder Zach Huff, and went to the REAL Oktoberfest.
• Ate the best food ever.
• Went to a mall, but every place closed at 8, so then we rode to the airport thinking that from there we could catch a bus to our hotel. Turns out you couldn't. So we waited at the airport until the game was over for us to get picked up.
• Went and stayed at a Marriott.

Day 9

• Left Munich, and drove 
• Went to Dachau, Germany, and visited a concentration camp. It was really eerie. I walked into a gas chamber, and that is when I told Jared I wanted to leave. It was hard being there, but good at the same time. I am so grateful to all of those people who suffered there.
• drove back to Switzerland
• stopped in Appenzell, Switzerland
• ate crepes
• lost our passports (we didn't know we had left them at the restaurant at this point)
• drove to our hotel
• realized once we got to the hotel that our passports were missing..
• the nice hotel peeps still let us check in and go to sleep.

Day 10

• called the US Embassy to find our passports
• They told us to call Bürn US Embassy, but they don't open til 2, so we go about our day
• drove this beautiful pass in the Swiss Alps
• saw a Porche gang, as opposed to a motorcycle gang
• 2 o'clock came around, we call Bürn
• The lady says that her co-worker has been working on a case with 6 missing passports
• we talk to that person, they are at the Police Station in Appenzell.
• We drive immediately back to Appenzell
• RETRIEVE OUR PASSPORTS!
• tell the lady in the restaurant thank you.
• drive to Andermatt, Switzerland

Day 11

• Walk around Andermatt--to the church, and by the river that goes through the city
• drove to Lucerne, Switzerland
• ate more crepes
• drove to Aachen, Germany
• Go to Jared's old apartment building
• eat the ice cream he used to eat
• eat the dünors he used to eat
• went to his old ward's party
• came back to our hotel
• walked around Aachen -- just Jared and I walked to the old grocery store that he used to shop at. We got drinks for everyone, and then came back to the apartment, and played Rook again.

Day 12

• Went to church in Aachen. The sweet Elders translated for us. It was fun to sing the Hymns in German
• Drove to Heidlburg, Germany
• went to the Bishop's house for a visit
• ate his delicious ice cream -- ROSEMARY flavored. So good. I will probably crave it for the rest of my entire life.
• left the Bishops house
• Drove to the castle at night to see it lit up

Day 13

• Walked to the Castle--about 3 miles
• climbed 303ish stairs up to the castle
• explored the city
• Went to the Christmas store
• walked back to the hotel--another 3 miles
• took naps
• drove to Jared's favorite Italian restaurant in Manheim -- Vapiano
• walked to the grocery store and bought 12 years worth of chocolate.

Day 14

• Flew home

These are the highlights of our trip. It was definately a trip that I will never forget. I saw some amazingly beautiful places, and will probably wish to go back for the rest of my life.

I'm a married woman

Guys.

I got married last week!!!

It seriously was the best day of my life. 

I am soooo in love with my husband, Mr. Jared Von Keetch.

We got a freaking ton of gifts that were addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Von Keetch.... Not to be confused with..........

Mr. and Mrs. Von Trapp

The Von Trapp Family:

[Gretel, Marta (I played her once in a play), Biretta, Kurt, Louisa, Fredrick, Liesel, Fraulein Maria, and Captain Von Trapp.]

No, no. We are just the Keetch's. In case you didn't know.. That is the KEETCH FAMILY. As in TACO AMIGO KEETCHS. As in KEETCH'S FRESH PEACHES. Ya.... We are pretty cool.

I've been asked about a million times this question:

"How's married life??"

I don't know what it is, but that question makes me seriously cringe. Probably because I have only been married one week, and all I have learned thus far is what sex is all about.. Someone needs to be original and come up with something else to say, like: 

"So, tell me your favorite thing about being married." 

or... something to that effect. 

Now that that is off my chest, I do want to mention one thing that really stood out to me about that day that I want my future kids to know about that day. I still get emotional when I talk about it with other people. Here is kind of a run down of our day:

We got married in the Salt Lake Temple. I was one of 5 brides that day, and I could not have been happier with that! I felt like a princess the whole day.

After the temple, we took pictures, kissed, held hands, etc.

Then we got to go to the luncheon where we met:

NEIL L. ANDERSON

(a member of the Quorum of the 12 apostles)

That was freaking sweet.

During the luncheon My parents gave little speeches, Steff, Aly, and Cam did a musical number. An acoustic version of When You Look Me In The Eyes, by The Jonas Brothers. Completed with their own taco amigo version, When You Cook Me Crispy Fries. It was pretty clever.

Then Von got up and spoke. He told a lovely story about how Jared is the way that he is.

"Lord, make him a boy. And he did."

"Lord, make him like his mother. And he did."

"Lord, make him like me. And he did."

"Lord, make my son eternally happy. And then he met you, Anna."

*tears*

It was wonderful.

After the luncheon, Jared and I went home and took a nap.

We seriously slept. No shenanigans going on at this time of the day, I promise.

Then we got to go to PARRRTAAAAY at our reception held at the beautiful Wadley Farms. 

My sister takes ALL of the credit for everything. The flowers (see link of my bouquet here), the centerpieces, all of the decor for that matter. She. is. AMAZING.

We went on our honeymoon to the Stein Eriksen Lodge, in Deer Valley.

I could not have asked for a better night, or a better day.

Everything was perfect. I am so so so happy, and in love. Jared is my best friend. We are total nerds together, but that is what makes us great. :)

Thank you to everyone who helped out on our special day. We love you!!!!

I don't remember how to blawg

I don't even remember the last time I blogged.

 

I'm guessing it was before the mission. I was looking back, and I was a pretty good little blogger. For a while there, I blogged at least three times a week! Also, props to my older sister, Erin for trying to update my blog while on the mission. It lasted until about September of 2012! That is pretty darn good!

 

#winning

 

Today is my mother's birthday. She is 54. (she probably won't be too happy with me for posting her age), but I just love her so darn much. I will never forget how old she is because she's exactly 30 years and 20 days older than me.

 

Bless her alma.

 

We made a list/mini album for her of 54 things we love about her.

 

Hope she likes that.

 

We get to go celebrate tonight with a little bit of Teppanyaki's, and Catching Fire!!

 

 

He's CATCHING FIRE!

DANG IT, SAMANTHA! Dang it, dang it, dang it!

Fam fam!!

 

What is happenin'!? I Love y'all so much! That is so funny that Dad was in Dallas today! He proably flew right over me this morning while we went running in the park. We seriously live like 10 minutes from the airport and I see a zillion planes every single day. And every time I see one, I think, "I bet that one is my Dad flyin' down to Mexico!" "So close but yet so far! Haha. That's just great! We also live about 6 minutes from 6 Flags. We can see those crazy coasters all the days. One day, we can go there! Hermana Dapper and I have plans to come back one day, and hit up 6 Flags! Haha.

 

So still no baby Hawkins?? I will be expecting some great pictures! GOT IT?!??!!!

And CONGRATULATIONS PRESSY POO! Morgan looks just like Candace only Blonde! Haha. I love it, they look super happy! :D

Evan, ASK HER OUT!

Erin, Work hard in school!

Mom, I loved your package!

Dad, Keep up those missionary efforts to your friend in Mexico! (I have a zillion frendz from Mexico!) hehehe

 

So this week we decided to stop by a menos activo familia-- La familia Vasquez. So we stopped by and weren't there for too long, about 30 minutes, but La Hermana told us that she has been talking a lot to her husband (who isn't a member) about the gospel, and He is super interested in being sealed in the temple to his family for time and all eternity! She told us that she wanted us to come by this week and have like a Noche de Hogar with their family! We are going to go teach the Plan of Salvation, but we are trying to think of a fun way to teach it so we can get on the good side of the Hermano. YAY! We are going there on Wednesdee, and are SO excited to go and teach them!

 

We've been using a phrase this week a lot, "Knock til you DROP!" It's great. Because we have been doing a lot of knocking! We found a trailer park that is CHUCK FULL of hispanics! So of course we decided to knock it! We knocked every single door and there wasn't really anyone that was super interested. Then the VERY LAST HOUSE that we knocked we found this way cute family-- La familia Benitez. SO CUTE! They are a young family with 2 kids and we are just so grateful that we were able to find them! We taught the restauration the first time, and then gave them a restauration dvd. Then we went back on Saturday and she said that she watched the dvd, and even TALKED ABOUT IT with her husband! They had a ton of really good questions and want to read the Book of Mormon! Hopefully we can start getting some more members to come out with us so that they can invite them to church though because we had 0 people show up at church yesturday :( It is such a bummer when no one comes! You feel like you've been working your tail off the whole week to try and get these people to come, but then Sunday comes and it rains. (people like to use anything as an excuse to not come to church). NOOOOO!!! NOT AGAIN! Next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

 

Then we have still been teaching Carmen and Delia! They are progressing. Praying about the 29th of September for baptism. We are going to have a family night with them tonight and are Happy little CLAMS!

 

Then we have la familia Dominguez! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! Oh my. We taught la Hermana yesturday the Plan of Salvation and she just started crying! She said that she loves it when we come, and that she can see that we have a different spirit about us. She was like, "You bring so much love in your hearts, and I feel so happy when you all are here!" YES!! So we taught the Plan of Salvation, and told her that we wanted to come back when her husband is there so that we can also teach him. We have only been able to meet him once, but hopefully this week we can get them on the same page and on board to come to church as well!!! Yayayay!

 

I LOVE this area so so much! Grand Prairie is so ghetto, but I LOVE it! Haha. The people, our ward, MY COMPANION!! Oh, I want to be companions with Hermana Dapper for the rest of my mission! (this would never happen, but I can dream!) We have so much fun together and neither of us speak like super great spanish, and so we get a really good balance in our lessons! LOVE IT! LOVE HER!

 

Hmm...que mas? Puedo campartir que lo que se con ustedes?? Y ustedes pueden usar Google Translater! jajajaja.

Primeramente, les quiero mucho! Ser una misionera es la mejor decision que he hecho en toda mi vida! Estoy tan agradecida estar aqui! No puedo imagionarme en llamamientos en el futuro, por ejemplo: una esposa, una madre, sin estar aqui como una misionera. Amo a mi Padre Celestial y el Plan que el me dio. Amo a Jesucristo. Estoy tan agradecida por el y por Su expiacion para que yo pueda arrepentirme cada dia y tratar de llegar a ser mas como el. Tambien, amo al Espiritu Santo! Yo puedo hacer una lista de muchas razones de porque amo a mi Padre Celestial y a Jesucristo, y nunca he hecho una lista de razones de por que amo al Espiritu Santo! Hay muchas razones! Uno es porque por medio de el he sentido la veracidad del Evangelio de Jesucristo, del Libro de Mormon y de la Bilblia por medio de el. Se que soy una hija de Dios y que el me ama y quiere que yo haga decisiones correctas para que yo pueda regresar y vivir con el un dia!

 

LES AMO!

con mucho mucho mucho amor,

La Hermana eSpencer!

Pastelitos

Hola Familia!

 

How is everyone doing this fine day? I can't believe that the summer is almost over. Craziness. It is finally starting to cool down a little bit. It's been about 92ish this past week. I can definitely start to smell fall in the air! The Library is super crowded today because everyone is registuring for school. I just met a man that really wants to go to church! Awesome! I love being a missionary! Yesturday we had Stake Conference and President Durrant, his wife, and then their recently returned home missionary son all spoke. It was super great. President Durrant shared a story about how he brought 2 pastelitos with him to the office one morning so that he could eat them for lunch. (cookies that his WIFE had made). Anyways, he said that he came into the office and had the pastelitos hidden in his suit coat... and then went into his office and put them into his drawer so that they were EXTRA hidden. Then he said that when lunch rolled around, the Assistents invited him to eat with them, and all President Durrant could do was think about those pastelitos!! He was distrought about what he should do. Option 1: give the two pastelitos to his Assistants, or Option 2: wait and eat them by himself... Then he ends the story and says, "And I'm not going to tell you what I chose to do!" Hahaha. Oh, President Durrant, I love you!

Then he went on and asked us what we would have done. Shared the pastelitos, or kept it all to ourselves. And compared this little story to sharing the gospel.

 

So this week was a really fun week! Sister Dapper and I are finding, finding, finding! It is fun. We meet some of the most interesting people every single day, and it's a good thing that I finding is probably my favorite thing ever! So this past week we had recieved a referral from the English Sisters that are here in Grand Prairie as well. We decided that one night we would go try and meet this referral who lived in an apartment complex. Well, we knocked on the door, and someone answered but it was the daughter of the referral, so we weren't able to teach her. So while walking back to our car I see someone standing out on her balcony holding her baby, and I just had the strongest impression to go and talk to this woman. So I walked over to her and started talking to her about how cute her baby was. The conversation went on and she then asked us who we worked for. I introduced ourselves and then asked if we could come into her house for a few minutes to share a message with her and her family. She agreed. We went in and started asking her about her religious background. She said that she grew up Catholic but that there is a lady that has been coming to visit her weekly from the Kingdoms Hall--Jehovah's Witness (aAaaaaahhh!!!) haha. Anyways, so we are there for about 5 minutes when her husband and their 2 sons got home! I invited them to join us, and he was like, "Well, I'll listen but I don't want to participate." So we taught her the restauration and focused a ton on the Book of Mormon. By the end of the lesson, the husband was sitting down listening intently to everything we were saying, and was like, "I WANT TO READ THAT BOOK!" We then asked if they came to know if this book was true if they would be baptized. They said they would, but that they first want to read it! PERFECT! We all knelt together at the end of the lesson and invited the Dad to pray, but was a little shy about it. So the wife said the closing prayer and it was so so so perfect. We then went back yesturday to go visit this family. The dad wasn't home :( but we were able to explain and read the introduccion with the Mom. Throughout the whole thing she was like, "Wait, this was written on GOLD plates?? That is soooo coool!" Yeah! It is SOO COOL! I was seriously getting so excited because she was SO excited about every part! When we got to the reference in the 2nd to last Paragraph in Moroni, She was like, "lets look up this scriptures!" So of course we look it up with her. She read it out loud and just started crying. The spirit was so strong, and I was so grateful for that moment that we were able to have with her. We closed the lesson kneeling agiain, and Blanca said seriously the most humble prayer that I have ever heard. It's moments like these that really help me to remember how much God loves each and every one of his children. This seriously was the highlight of the week, finding this familia maravillosa! La familia Dominguez: Felipe (Dad), Blanca (Mom), Bryan (8), Kevin (5, and deaf!), and Miguel (9 mo.) Next time we go visit them will be on Friday, and I sure hope that the whole family is there so we can try and set baptismal dates with the Mom, Dad, and Bryan. They are so prepared, and I actually think that the JW's, had a big part in helping preparing her! Way to go JW's! :)

 

Okay, well, that is all that I have time for for today!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!

 

con muchisimo amor,

Hermana eSpencer