YiPpEe!!!

I just found out today that I graduated with HONORS!!! I had no idea and I was quite excited!!! Yippee!!!

Now that life has slowed down a little....

Do you ever feel like it takes a lot out of you to go on vacation? You spend so much time preparing for the trip and then when you get back life catches up with you all over again...it almost feels like you're working double time to catch up!
Anyway, since we've been back we've been very busy. First, we basically finished our basement last week and our renters moved in. I say basically because there are still a few finishing touches to do, but it's most of the way done. We finished the kitchen, closet doors, base boards, door trims...and I'm sure there was more:)

Did I mention that we painted a lot of doors....The bathroom was cleaned and looks a hundred times better! Thanks to Annie I only spent 2 hours scraping and scrubbing the tub instead of 4! There was some type of thin film all over the tub and it took forever to get off. You saved me girl! (If you notice, the toilet paper is folded in a triangle like they did on our cruise ship...Jeffery was pretty excited about that:)The kitchen went from looking like this:To this beautiful thing....in a couple hours!And if you don't think that's a good picture...here's what it looked like not too long ago:

Besides the house...we had a fun New Years Eve party with some of my family that was in town. Of course since we were already up late we ended up staying up until 3am painting:) We also had a family dinner with Dad and Ruth at Kim & Mark's on Sunday, watched a couple movies (Star Trek, Transformers 2, & Avatar in 3D), and I took Annie back down to college with Mom on Monday while Jeffery started school for his LAST semester. Today mom and I drove up to Salt Lake to turn in my nursing license application (since my degree was officially posted, yea I'm graduated!) and spent hours making these cute baby booties (cupcakes) for a baby shower Erin was throwing:Oh and...Diana and I started P90X....wish me luck :S

Christmas Cruise

Merry Christmas everyone!!

We went from being hot in Mexico to freezing in Utah today! But we had a blast and will miss all our family! My grandparents decided to take the entire family on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera where we stopped in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. After my graduation on the 18th we drove all night to board our ship in Los Angeles, CA. On the way we stopped in Yorba Linda to drop Grandma Horne off at my Aunt and Uncle's house. I'll just let you enjoy my story through pictures...BEWARE...this is a long post but I must document it since this is our family journal:)
We had a LONG drive all night to get to California and we were all very tired. We arrived in LA at 6am, slept for 2 hours when dropping Grandma off, then met up with Grandpa and Grandma Call and everyone else at their hotel before getting on the ship. Brandon and Devin were great and drove our car all night, Jeff was very tired in the back seat with almost no sleep...my poor baby:(That night we ate lots of food and enjoyed exploring the ship. Jeff and I stayed in a room with Brandon and Diana and we had a blast. We all decided to take a nap around 7:30pm before the welcome show at 9:30pm...we slept right through it and didn't wake up until Sunday morning!
Sunday we were at sea all day so we did lots of eating, exploring, watching shows, and more eating:) My Grandpa and my Dad also got permission to hold our own church service on the ship so we got to have Sacrament Meeting!! They first scheduled us in a chapel on the ship but it wasn't big enough to hold our entire family so they moved us to the Stardust Theater (the main theater which seats like 500) and put our meeting in the daily program! Our meeting went from being just our family of 30 to 185 people in attendance! It was a big surprise. Erin, Jeff, Grandma, and Grandpa all spoke and they did a great job! It took us a while for them to pass the sacrament since we only had one tray but it was great to have the spirit with us and be able to remember our Savior at this special time of year.
Monday we had our first stop in Cabo San Lucas where Jeffery and I went Scuba Diving. Because they didn't have a dock big enough for the ship we had to take little boats to get to shore. Because we had to take boats we also had to wait our turn...

Darren loving his time on the shipKayleen, Me, Annie, and Erin all ready to go!Brandon, Diana, Me, and Jeffery on the ship ready to go to CaboErin and Wade (it was SO fun to see Wade because he is such a busy man and we haven't seen him in years!! Jeffery had never met him and we found out that they have very similar personalities)Me holding cute little Aubry...she loves to cuddleIn Cabo we got Tacos while waiting to go scuba diving, they were SO good!

Tuesday we stopped in Mazatlan where we went to Stone Island on an ATV excursion. IT WAS THE BEST EXCURSION EVER...even better, it was free for us because my parents paid for our immediate family to go:) First they took us in a taxi to get to a boat...the taxi was a pick up truck with benches in the back to sit on...and they drove VERY fast. Then we took a boat to the island...

Jeffery and I on the boat going out to the Island (if you notice a lot of my family were wearing BYU T-Shirts, which was not planned, and we had a lot of people notice them...it also happened to be game day:)After the boat ride we got in a cart with benches pulled by a tractor...which made for another bumpy, crazy rideBut the island was beautiful if you can't tell by these pictures...

Then we all got on ATVs and rode around the island, through cattle and houses, and on the beach! We had to wear bandannas, goggles, and helmets because of all the dust so we looked kind of silly.

We also took a break to see an alligator and take a picture of the groupMy family and then everyone on our break on the beach!On the way back from our excursion you could see our ship:

Wednesday we went to Puerto Vallarta where Jeffery, Diana and I didn't do any excursions so we hit a beach and went shopping! (I didn't get any pictures of this place because we used Diana's camera that day and I need to get them from her). I got the cutest new purse (which is a good thing since mine broke months ago and I've just been using my school bag since!), we got a cute glass palm tree to go with my other treasures and breakables, and a serving platter thing (Jeff is excited to host our own Mexican Fiesta soon!)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent at sea so we had fun relaxing by the pool, seeing shows, and eating lots of food (especially ice cream:).

On Christmas Eve they held a late night chocoholic buffet and had a lot of cool chocolate and ice sculptures.Every night we were greeted by a towel creature made by the housekeeping staff. It was always fun to see what they would come up with!

We stayed in St. George last night while Devin and Jeffery drove us safely home:) When we got home this afternoon Jeffery and I got to open all our presents and we were very blessed!

Now back to work!

DONE

Today I took my last final!! I am officially done with school! Whether I get a good grade or not, whether or not I decide to do more school in the future...I am done and it feels GREAT! I have a pinning ceremony on Friday and then we leave on a cruise with my family to Mexico! It's a perfect way to celebrate:)
So lately all we've been up to is being crazy busy with school, work, and trying to finish the place in time for our renters to move in this week! We are just doing some finishing touches now, but here are some pictures of the progress...

Jeff finished laying the tile:Then he had to grout the tile upstairs and downstairs:Downstairs kitchen:Downstairs bathroom:Our new desk and printer/copier for the office/second bedroom!! The room is a little crowded right now because we still have to take the couch and old desk out but it looks great! The desk also has a hutch that we haven't installed yet.On Sunday we celebrated Christmas with my family since we will all be on a cruise for Christmas. Everyone got into pajamas and we had our traditional cinnamon rolls and ovaltine! It felt just like Christmas!

Why Does Heavenly Father Love Us?

Today I was reading in the Ensign for this month which consists of all the talks from October's General Conference. I was reading the message entitled, "The Love of God" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf and I just wanted to share my favorite part with all of you!
"Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount--that is the measure of God's love for you.
God does not look on the outward apperarance. I believe that He doesn't care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may fell lost and without compass, God's love encompasses us completely.
He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our resume but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God's love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked.
What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us."

Isn't that amazing? Our Heavenly Father loves us NO MATTER WHAT!

What are you thankful for?

Today I am thankful for life, my husband, and to have a job in this hard economy. I worked this morning, and although it was one of the hardest days on the job, it made me realize how great life can be. At work today, someone died, 2 people came back from the hospital, one was admitted to hospice, and I sent another to the ER. I have been blessed so much and I can't help but be thankful for all of it:)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Could life be any busier? Most definitely...

Well a couple of things have been going on in the Keller Household so I'll just list the different events.
1. I mentioned that I went to St. George to volunteer with some nursing friends at the Senior Games.

Danica, Lexi and I giving flu shotsEveryone enjoying our time together (Scott is most likely telling one of his stories)Laine, TC, Scott, Lexi, Danica and I

2. Being on the council for UVU Student Nurses Association, we held a trunk or treat as a fundraiser. There were so many cute kids dressed up in awesome costumes!

Danica, Lexi, and ILittle angel that was SO CUTEErin dancing with a cute little girl to our singing tombstoneDanica and Erin (They were a little picture happy)Danica working on her witches brew

3. We passed the appraisal and officially closed on our house. The carpet is in, the painting is done and the tile is on it's way! We had lots of helpers and we couldn't have done it without you! Thanks so much!

We did lots of painting....
Stacey and IJeffMarkAnd Kaden was a big help to his mom with some cleaning

4. Carved pumpkins with family
5. Went to our ward Halloween party
6. My cousin Raeann came to visit from Las Vegas so we had fun with dinner and a movie (that sadly, I fell asleep during...to be expected after getting up at 5am)
7. I started my preceptorship in the OR at UVRMC. I am officially at class, work or the hospital just about every day during the week and I was lucky to get today off:)
8. Had a wonderful Stake Conference this morning!