My happiest place on earth

(I spent a good portion of tonight telling a story, but after fighting with this site for longer than my patience is allowing, I'm over it. So, here are some cute pics of us.)

We're getting sealed March 7th at the Las Vegas Temple. We really wanted to go to the Calgary temple, but it won't be done within our time range. Manti, Salt Lake and Cardston were also considered, but we liked the thought of our home temple.

We are so excited for this event. Temple worthiness is something neither one of us takes lightly (one of the many things we adore about each other). It sure did take us a while longer than most people, but we are stoked to be able to go and take on this new part of life.

It's been amazing how much the gospel can effect you. Our bishops through the last few years have been fantastic. Each one expressing to us what we need to work on to make our friendship, relationship and marriage work. All giving us great counsel. Jason was ordained to the office of an elder. How exciting. It was great to have his dad perform the ordination, and to have his grandma and great grandma along with my mom there. My joy came from knowing that after 15 years, I finally live in a house that has a priesthood holder available 24-7. You never know how much you miss that, til it's gone.

The Forgotten Carols

Two years ago, Jason and I were part of the choir in The Forgotten Carols show by Michael McLean. That was the last year that Jeff McLean was performing. He went on to bigger things like Spam-a-lot and Legally Blonde. We had such a great time doing this by ourselves and together, that when we heard he was doing it this year, we were elated to be part of it again!

This year was just as great as last time. We showed up, had our dress rehearsal, had some dinner, got ready for the show, and then, it was Showtime! Jason and I shared a room with Kristi. But we had many people stop by. Kjerstin and her hubby Steve, Nicole Nelson, all the boys from the boys dressing room across the hall. We even had a surprise visit from Jason's dad who nonchalantly snuck in back stage. It was also brought to my attention that Jason and I matched. Now... here's the story that goes with this. I don't have too many nice dress outfits. I have work clothes. I wear those work clothes everywhere because I'm in them most of the day and don't want to get home from work, change into after work clothes and then 2 hours later, change into jammies. So, I went out shopping to find a "jewel tone" top to wear for this event. I also went to find Jason a shirt because most of his button ups are white (for church) and the one or two other ones he has are too small and baby blue. I went to Penney's and got Jason's shirt and 2 different ties for him to choose from. (A poll was taken and everyone said he should wear the blue and black tie.) I had picked out 2 shirts from Penney's (blue sweater and purple top) and 1 from Lane Bryant (red ruffles). Since I was standing next to Nicole and Phil, I verified what they were wearing so I wouldn't clash with them. Nicole wore a fuschia top and Phil was in his suit, so it really didn't matter. I thought the fuschia would look great next to the blue sweater I got, so I wore that one.

As we were inthe boys dressing room awaiting Michael's arrival for our preshow "talk", everyone was pointing out that Jason and I were matching. One girl, I don't know her name, asked if it was a given that when you get married, do you always match? The majority of the answers were, "No. Only when you marry Jessica." Now, I'd just like to put it out there that Jason is a free man. He is able to do quite a bit on his own and doesn't need me to make his decisions (lol). Even if I did try to make him match me, he could have me change or go find soemthing else to wear (cause he did bring a black button up to wear - which I refused due to the black suit that he was already wearing and fading and blah blah blah). So, I do not try to make us match! Disclaimer: I was sent a thank you card a couple days after this performance from a wedding we attended in November. In the photo I was wearing my green wicked dress my mom made for me, and Jason had on a white shirt and a green tie. Ok... so what. I do like us to match. It says we belong together. LOL

O Tannenbaum

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, why do you bring such misery?

K-Not really. I love Christmas! It is probably my favorite holiday, for all the reasons everyone else loves it... PRESENTS! LOL Just kidding. The first year Jason bought his house, he went and bought a Christmas tree and his roommate decorated it... horribly. I will not mention how, but I will say I took the decorations off immediately and dressed it appropriately. The following year, Jason and I went on a hunt looking for a tree. We went to Q'doba for some stamina, and then set off. We drove to Rancho and Craig to a tree lot we'd seen quite a few times. I asked Jason if he had cash and he assured me he had $40, plenty enough for a Christmas tree. I giggled a little and explained, "Honey, Christmas trees are at the cheapest $60." He assured me that he got the tree from last year here and it was $40. We got out of the truck and as we entered the lot holding hands, I went left and he went right.

"Jason, the Christmas trees are over here."

"No they're not. They're right here."

"Jason, we want these ones. Those are bushes."

"No Jess. These are not bushes. These are the kind I had when I was a kid."

"Well, these are the kind I had when I was a kid!"

Needless to say, we had our first, not going to give in or budge fight in the middle of a Christmas tree lot. After some much very good debating, we came to an agreement, we would switch every year on what kind of Christmas tree to get. One year his kind, the next mine, then his, etc. Only one problem, "Jason? How are we going to decide who's turn it is this year?"

With his favorite line, "We'll paper rock scissor it."

I lost. No big deal though. I would still get my tree, I just had to wait another year. And THIS WAS MY YEAR!!!

(Yes, we crammed the tree in the LUVMCHN's backseat. LOL)

His voice makes me melt like a popsicle on the 4th of July

One of the greatest things about my husband is his voice. Just talking to him calms me cause he has a voice that compares to those of the voice-overs for Heavenly Father in church vids. His singing voice is so much greater than his normal talking voice. I truly believe that he was in the choir of angels singing at Christ's birth. I have always been a sucker for men who can sing - seriously, I always thought that musically inclined guys or the artsy kind of guys kissed so much better than jocks. LOL At least, that's what my studies have proved.

Anyway, we of course join our ward choir. Jason is one of 3 guys that is in attendance regularly. Though he usually gets stuck singing tenor, he enjoys singing so much, he'll sing whatever is needed (even an occasional soprano). When the ward chorister heard him sing, she insisted he sing in sacrament. I paired him with our good friend Heidi to do a duet. It was absolutely beautiful. Brought tears to quite a few eyes. Larry Taylor in our ward was so impressed by Jason's voice, he insisted that he come over on their family Christmas night and sing the closing song, O Holy Night. For months Brother Taylor said, remember, O Holy Night, my house. He DID NOT want us to forget!

The Taylor Family Christmas Night came and what an event! They had a lot of great food. Cindy and Larry's grand kids sang "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" which was absolutely adorable. Bishop and his family performed many great Christmas and other songs on the piano, violins and harp. Shannon Winkel sang a couple songs, Karla Huntsman (professional story teller) read a Christmas themed story and then it was Jason's shining moment. He didn't do anything frilly to the song, just sang it with Bishop accompanying. And again, my husband was able to awaken and move the spirits of people through song.

A new Tradition in the making!

Jason's dad's birthday is the 27th of November. We crashed his Turkey day in '07 and only felt like it was necessary to crash this years since we would be able to be up there for his dad's birthday too! We set off for New Harmony, Utah as soon as Jason and I were off work on Wednesday. We wanted to be on the road by noon, but didn't get going til about 4ish. We stopped to fill up on gas, and get some snacks. We made it to St George at about 6ish and I wanted Cracker Barrel! So of course we stopped cause Jason can't pass up good down home cookin'! I think he only likes going there to play with the toys.


We arrived at New Harmony and was so excited to spend the next day with his dad. We got him Dancing with the stars for the Wii for his birthday, and we all had a hoot trying to learn it! I was of course fantastic! It must be my amazing dance body that lets me be so flexible. HA HA HA right. The Graf men dance. It's quite awesome how great they are. =)


The weather there always has something to report. I loved how cold it was, but I loved bundling up and snuggling with Jason the most! We decided to leave earlier than planned cause the weather was making a pretty good layer of ice on the roads. After living in Missouri for 3 years and being the only to make it to seminary in the winter (thanks to the Bronco), I didn't want to drive home on icy highways, so we left early. We said our goodbyes and as we stepped out the back door, the backyard, mountains and sky were incredibly beautiful! You can usually see the mountain they call The Hand of God as you are leaving their house, but there were so many clouds so low to the ground that you could hardly see the mountains! It made me want to grab a blanket, a mug of hot chocolate and snuggle with Jason on the back porch for the rest of the day. I was so sad to leave Jason's dads after a great day and beautiful weather. We obviously arrived home safely and on our ride home, we made a decision that Turkey Day every year we will be going to New Harmony.

Canada Eh?

Getting married on February 29th was not a surprise to anyone that knows us. Going to Canada for our Honeymoon was no surprise either. We were wanting to learn to snowboard so we could go snowboarding in the great white north, but after a mishap on our first trial run, we decided we'd hold off til the following year. Though we missed out on snowboarding, Banff, Calgary, Alberta, Canada still had a lot to offer us.

We flew from Vegas to SLC to Calgary. What a welcome we got! Customs was very happy to have us there. The rental car company was a little bit of a joke. The gal helping us told us that she couldn't use our debit card. After she insisted we pay with our credit card, Jess asked her to just run the card as a credit (not as debit) and if it still didn't work, then we would happily pay with our credit card. She was amazed when it worked! We got our little "dingo" and were on our way to Canmore.
Canmore use to be an old mining town back in the day. Now that the mine has closed and due to it's location, it has become quite the tourist town. It's located just south of Banff. It is a great location for honeymooners. Close to almost everything!

We stayed at the Falcon Crest Lodge. Though Jess would describe it as friendly and home like, Jason describes it as Mary Poppin's-esk. Everyday we walked past the reservations desk/check-in, they always asked, "How are Mr and Mrs Graf today?" It wasn't rhetorical either, they really seemed to care how we were doing! HOW AWESOME! We had our own little kitchen, living area and balcony that had a BBQ! Not to mention 2 hot tubs that were accessible that you could hang out in at the end of the day and look at all the beautiful stars. Jess was really hoping to see the Aurora Borealis, but even in the little town of Canmore, it was too bright and not the right season. The hotel package we got included tickets to a few different activities in the Banff area. There was...

The Banff Gondola - You take a ride in a little carriage like thing to the top of the world... it was a peak of one of the beautiful mountains, but you could see over other mountains so to usit seemed like thetop of the world. It was absolutely beautiful, and cold. Once we exited the gondola, we saw a thermometer that read -5 degrees celsius. YIKES!!! That's roughly 30 degrees fahrenheit. Then we hiked about 2 miles to the meteor observation site. It was totally worth every step.

Banff Hot Springs was a great place for us to relax one of the last days we were there. Much to Jess' surprise, it didn't smell like rotten eggs. We were told that Banff is famous for it's hot springs. This particular spring has been there since th 20's. They even had 1920 style bathing suits to rent, should you want the whole experience. We enjoyed the nice dip.

There is a little theatre house that we spent one night at on a date. They had the play Snoopy going. Though the show was cute, the food was GREAT!!!

Our First Halloween as Man and Wife

We spent Halloween Eve at Jenny's hollowing out pumpkins and decorating for the big party the next night. There were about 12 pumpkins and 2 and a half hollowers. Surprisingly, it only took about an hour.

Jenny handed me a tablecloth like thing to put seeds in, but when I realized it was a surgical apron thing, I put it on to keep my clothes from getting all pumpkiny.

Jason called me a month before Halloween with his idea for our costumes. At first he said, "We should be Fred and Wilma." I confirmed, "Flintstone?" To which he replied, "No, from Scooby Doo." Then I realized he meant Fred and Velma. My mom made my skirt. She altered a few shirts to make Jason's. The rest we had. Here's what we got------->

Jenny was Wednesday from the Addam's Family, and funny enough, my momwas Morticia. John was a mad scientist. Mike was an airline pilot and his wife, Katie, was a stewardess. Bobby was a hilarious chicken. It was a fun night. There were other great costumes, such as a Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook, Slash and his wife, Pajama Man and a delivery man. All looked spectacular! I can't wait for next year's party!!!