We've been bursting with excitement... LITERALLY!

For your entertainment, here's a comic Christian and I have been giggling about for a while:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally Why do some people - even civilized adults - still not know how to use the term "literally" properly? LOL. Anyway.

Since last time, we've had a few special days - the first of them being Christian's birthday!!! Christian is now 23 years old! He had a good-ish birthday. For his present, we ordered a nice voice recorder (he's been wanting one for a while now). Too bad it got shipped through Illinois, and then Illinois experienced a giant blizzard with 4 feet of snow, delaying the package. It was supposed to arrive on his birthday, but ended up coming a week late. But he still loves it! He used it today to record himself playing his audition piece for the music education program and it worked like a charm! We ordered a huge double-decker pizza from Papa Murphy's for his dinner that night, and as a bonus gift I gave him a few Cadbury Creme Eggs (he LOVES them). We baked a cake for him (his favorite chocolate cake that his dad used to have for his birthdays) and sang Happy Birthday. Sadly, we realized we had no candles, so we lit a match and hurriedly sang to him while it burned, and then he blew it out at the very last possible moment before it burned his fingers (quite gleefully - he is a pyro). We also had his favorite dinner, cheesy potatoes, to celebrate a few days earlier (at Mary and Derek's house), and they gave him some great-quality steaks and some ice cream. All in all, I think he enjoyed his birthday.

For Valentine's Day, we went and saw a show at the BYU planetarium called "Romance in the Stars". It was very romantic to lay under the entire night sky (even if it was simulated) of stars and hear about all the romance stories in Greek mythology. The stars actually looked very realistic, and it was awesome how we could see almost every single star there was. Afterwards we were going to go out and look through the telescopes on the roof of the planetarium and see the real stars, but unfortunately everyone else who attended the show had the same idea, and they all got out there first. We decided waiting in that hugely long line wasn't worth it. So we went home. It was still romantic though :)

A while ago we and Mary and Derek worked out a deal where we have Sunday dinners together, alternating houses. It's been very fun, and after dinner we play games and talk and stuff. We've really enjoyed spending time with them and having another couple our age around to hang out with, especially since it's family. We are excited for their new baby who is due to arrive next week! We have already claimed the privilege of feeding their baby its first pickle.

Christian finally has a calling! We've been in the ward since last August, and it's taken this long for them to get around to calling him to something. But he has been called to be a Primary worker. They still haven't told him which class he'll be helping with, but they have sustained him in sacrament meeting, so hopefully they will tell him soon.

Christian has been applying for the Music Ed program, and part of what he had to turn in was a videorecording of himself teaching a basic musical concept to a group of 4 or more people. We recruited our friend Chris, Mary, Derek, my aunt Laura, her daughter Kira, and my grandpa to come be the audience. He chose to teach about duple-time rhythm. It went very well and I think he did an awesome job of teaching the concept. He finds out in April whether he is accepted into the program. We're crossing our fingers!

Christian has been really excited about NCAA this year. The Cougars have only lost twice this season, and yesterday they beat the #1 team in the conference, so now we are #1!!! BYU should end up doing really well in the March basketball tournament. Go Cougars!!!

The recipe we have for you is called Zucchini Stuffing Casserole.

2 lbs zucchini (6 cups), sliced

1/4 c chopped onions

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 c sour cream

1 c shredded carrots

1 8 oz. package herb seasoned stuffing mix

1/2 c butter

Cook sliced zucchini and onion in boiling, salted water for 4-5 min. Drain. In a bowl, combine soup and sour cream. Stir in carrots. Fold in drained zucchini and onions. Combine stuffing mix and melted butter. Spread 1/2 of stuffing mix in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Spoon on vegetable mix. Cover with the remaining stuffing. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.