Kien is Too Cute!

Well here is a video clip of Kien answering some questions with no coaching whatsoever.


On Thursdays a little girl named Sophie comes over and I watch the two of them together. It is so cute to see them play. Her dad, Sam, is actually Bret's boss at Sunshine Nutrition. Sam was teasing Bret saying that he figured out Bret's master plan to have Kien marry Sophie so that Bret could stake his claim in their family business. Pretty funny.
Kien is at the age where he likes to do whatever we are doing. Apparently we spend a lot of time at the computer so he will push the buttons on the keyboard any chance he gets. He is so funny and is always making us laugh. We just love the little guy.

Survey Says...

I got tagged!!!!!

What is your husbands name? Bret Thomas HickenHow long have you been married? 3 years
How long did you date? 2 years
How old is he? 26
Who eats more sweet? Bret does. I usually only eat sweets once a month when Aunt Flo comes to visit. Then I will consume anything with trace amounts of chocolate.
Who said I love you first? Oh darn, I did. But he said it right back. I knew he was feeling me.
Who is taller? Bret is exactly 1 foot taller than me.
Who is the better singer? I think I am but who knows.
Who is smarter? Bret is very intelligent. But I beat him at scrabble a lot.
Who does the laundry? We both do it.
Who pays the bills? Bret handles all of that. I do all the grocery shopping though.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me! Because it's the closest to the door and when Kien used to wake up in the night I had to go take care of him.
Who mows the lawn? Bret does. I don't think I've ever touched our lawn mower.
Who cooks the dinner? I do for the most part. Although Bret had spaghetti ready for me when I came home from work yesterday so that was very nice of him.
Who drives? When we are together Bret drives. He doesn't trust women drivers.
Who is the first to say they are wrong? We never admit that we're wrong.
Who kissed who first? Bret kissed me. It was in a parking lot in Vegas. He pulled over because he was so tired and thought he read a sign that said "Free Naps" when it was actually "Free Maps". He really thought the place had rooms where you could take a free nap.Who asked who out? We were just really good friends. I don't think there was an official asking out. We met up in Vegas with two other people from our mission (as seen in the photo above) and we ate at a breakfast buffet at Caesars Palace. Bret paid for me so I guess that could be considered our first date. The other couple got married too.
Who wears the pants? I don't know. We're pretty equal.
Tag??? I tag Mary Sorenson, Chalise Mitchell, Amy Payne, Sarah Pittard, Maria Holee, and Sarah Carter.

Sarah Through the Ages

I just got an email from the Stake RS Prez, Bev Anderson, with this picture. Seeing it made me decide to toss it in the blog. My calling in the ward is Stake Relief Society Representative. It sounds important but basically twice a year I help plan a big event/dinner/party with the Stake RS. This last one was themed "Sarah Through the Ages". I represented Abraham's Sarah or Sarai in the Old Testament. There was also Lehi's Sariah, a Pioneer Sarah, and a Modern day Sarah. An overhead recording was played with the narrative of each of these women and the struggles they faced. Following their husbands through the desert, wilderness, across the plains, and in college! It was neat to see that they all faced similar struggles and that the Lord was there to help them all! I had fun with it.
I was also in charge of the decorations. I decided to make the dinner tables a location (theme) where each of these Sarah's had traveled. It was fun, I made little signs that gave a little bit of insight to their lives. I think my favorite was the Egypt table where I made a pyramid and painted it gold and told the story of how Pharoah wanted to marry Sarai because she was so beautiful but she stayed true to Abram even though he was pretty poor at the time. Anyways, it was a lot of fun for me. I really enjoy serving in callings. I wish we did more than get together twice a year. Oh well!

I Love (Fill in the Blank) Party

So Bret has two cousin's, Brian and Brent, who are about the same age as him. They grew up together and are Best Friends Forever. Here is Bret and Brent when they were kids.Here is Brian, Chris (not a cousin), Bret, and Brent in High School.
Anyways, every once in a while we all get together, along with Brian's wife Amy and daughter Hannah (about the same age as Kien) and hangout or eat. A couple weeks ago Brian came up with the idea of an "I Love Asians" Party where we'd all bring Asian food and eat it. I made Vietnamese spring rolls. It's rice noodles, shrimp, pork, and lots of fresh veggies wrapped in rice paper and then dipped in peanut sauce or fish sauce. I love the peanut sauce but Bret loves the fish sauce so I usually have both on hand.
Brian and Amy brought Sushi and also a Japanese noodle dish. It was tasty!
Brent brought Garlic Bread and Tortilla Chips with a nacho cheese dip. Something tells me he's never been to Asia. About a week later Bret brought home a bunch of frozen Garden Burgers that he got free from work. He's always bringing home expired goods from the Nutrition Store. That gave me the idea of throwing an "I Love Vegetarians" Party, especially since Brian and Amy are 90% Vegetarian.
So we had free Garden Burgers, free corn on the cob from the ward garden, free zucchini patties made from zucchini given to me by Chalise Mitchell, and bread crumbs I made from the left over croutons from the Stake Relief Society Social that I took home. The lettuce for our burgers was also free from Sunshine Nutrition. I love free stuff. So anyways, I was trying to think of other clever little parties we could throw along the same lines. There's the obvious "I Love Mexicans" and "I Love Italians" but I want to be more clever than that. For example "I love Mermaids" and it would be seafood.
So post a comment with your idea for the next party: "I Love (Insert type of person here)" Party.

Kien's Portraits

Well here are the professional pictures I talked about. Isn't he just a cute little guy? I love him.

Trip to Salt Lake City

I went to SLC this past weekend for a wedding. It was for Shannon, my mission companion. We had so much fun together in Annapolis, MD. She just made working fun. I was so happy for her when I found out that she was getting married. I know she's been wanting to start a family for a while now and I'm so glad that she gets her chance. When I was in the Temple watching her be sealed to her husband I was reminded of when Bret and I were sealed. All the promise and hopes at the beginning of a marriage just reminded me of what is really important in this life and it helped me to refocus. It was a beautiful ceremony and I got emotional, I think I cried more than she did!
Here is a picture of Shannon at my own wedding along with Erin, Bret's sister.
Afterwards I went to the Olive Garden and met up with one of my roommates from BYU-Hawaii. Her name is Adrian. I hadn't seen her in years and it was so fun to catch up! We relived our old memories and all the boy drama we had to go through during our college days.
After lunch we called a couple of old friends from Hawaii to say hello. They were so thrilled to hear from us. I really do want a reunion of old friends but it's so hard to get everyone together since we are all in different places. This will just have to do for now. Here is Adrian and I in front of the SLC Temple.
Here is a picture of Adrian and I with our other roommate Jamie at Hanauma Bay in Hawaii, 2002.

Black Eyed Baby

Well Kien got his first black eye on Labor Day. We were in the yard playing when he went to inspect my bike that was leaning against a tree and then he started pulling on it and when he saw that it could move at his will he turned and looked at me and started laughing. I started walking towards him but before I could get to him he gave it one hard jerk and the bike fell on top of him.
Poor thing! On a lighter note, I high-lighted my hair. Get it? Lighter? Haha... I'm such a nerd. I also got it cut.