My Two Best Friends...

There they are... the two greatest people ever, enjoying a favorite breakfast of cheap doughnuts (a liking I will never understand... They like Twizlers too... it's like eating plastic. Ick!)

Peek-a-boo Hannah!

Here they both are... hard at work!

This is how they're giving tours around BYU nowadays.

Just look at that handsome Provider.

He protects too!!
... see?

And Hannah giving some love to the "Love Cow"

Sisters...

AND best friends... by CHOICE! :D

What a lucky guy!

Hannah's so cute!


That's all folks!

How to make Pumpkin Pie

From a REAL pumpkin!!...

Start with a "cooking pumpkin" (who knew there was even such a thing?!)

Did you know that pumpkins float?!

And the things are ridiculously hard to cut! (Where's my husband?)

I've got mad blending skills... it's true.

Pumpkin goop... yum yum!

Bri's famous pie crust


Last step... bake and devour the delicious pie. (It was so good, we forgot to take a picture of it before we chowed down.) :D

Full of Thanks (and Turkey)

We sure had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

The week previous, Mona-super mom arrived to take care of all of us, which was very well-timed, as the day previous to her arrival, Bri was diagnosed with a terrible bug known as the Epstein-Barr virus which unfortunately has developed into Mononucleosis. (Jokes about newlyweds, kissing, or the Y are not appreciated.)

The week of Thanksgiving, Bri's wonderful sister, Kristi traveled down from BYU-I to help take care of things, while Bri was still unwell. We were very happy, because Kristi is a fantastic cook!

Just look at her! Hard at play... I mean... work.

and Bri's handsome prince carving their first Thanksgiving turkey!

Here's the spread... and Grant and Bri (who's been blurred for your viewing pleasure or her vanity... you decide).

We're very thankful for all the loving family who gave of their time, support, and love to us this holiday season! Happy Thanksgiving!!! gobble boggle... whoops! Bri's still a tad loopy.

Owies and Healings

Hey Everyone! I'm healed!!!

For those who didn't know, I've had mono for the last MONTH, which is a VERY long time for someone to be sick, especially someone who's rarely been sick for more than two days in a row her whole life! I've gained quite a lot of empathy for people who do get sick, especially during the holidays. Now to put it to good use! :D

I want to tell you all a story about my wonderful husband Grant. Yesterday, we had just got home from a wonderful dinner out. When he came around to let me out of the car (because he's the most delightful gentleman), the door didn't close all the way. So, he went to slam it shut, but my finger got in the way! :( It was very painful, and I burst into tears. My pain was nothing next to Grant's though.

When he realized what had happened, he turned as pale as a ghost and rushed me inside to doctor it. I was trying so hard to stem the flow of feminine tears because my sweet husband was going to go into hysterics. When he came over with the bag of ice and saw how purple it was, he too started crying. He felt terrible, even though I assured him that it was not his fault in the least, and I'd had much worse, and it didn't hurt at all anymore, and this kind of thing happens to clutzs like me very frequently, and I loved him more than anything in the world. The fact that my pain caused him so much pain was the sweetest testament to his love for me!

I cannot believe how incredibly blessed I am to be loved by the most handsome, charming prince in all the kingdoms in all the world. He works so hard for my happiness. I'd do anything for him. I adore him. I wanted all to know. :)

Grant's Vocal Point Vocal Percussion Solo 2008

This is my fantastic husband performing the most ridiculously amazing vocal percussion solo that BYU has very seen at the Vocal Point concert on Thursday night in the DeJong Concert Hall. The crowd ate him up... unbiased as I am... :)

A long overdue post

Ahem... so since we're now counting down to Christmas, we figured it was an appropriate time to stop procrastinating and put up our Halloween post complete with fun pictures. These photos were actually taken the weekend before Halloween when we got together with some Vancouverites (and one Puyallupite) and headed over to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point for some Halloween festivities.(On Halloween night we went to campus with Hannah to enjoy the old, blackn'white film, "The Phantom of the Opera" complete with organist extraordinaire and cheers and hisses from the costumed audience... that was a blast!). Enjoy!

Here's the line up:

Left to right: Bri the Sheep, Grant the Goat, Hannah the Horse, Ben the Cow, and Maura the Piglett, and Brittany the Cameralady.

Is it just me, or something a little funny about this cornmaze?

Help, help!! We're drowning in corn kernals!

It's like the beach... sort of...

This is the love cow. Oo la la!

Hannah taught us all how to lasso...

Every girl's dream come true -- riding in a horse-drawn princess carriage with their favorite prince.

Then we went home to CARVE PUMKINS!

The finished products!

Hannah and Brittany's masterpiece...

Ben and Mara named theirs Spookly.

And this is Brenden the Pumpkin. When mentioning Brenden in conversation we always say his name in a very slow, delibrate, and proper English accent.

Feel free to drop a comment, but please refrain from any corny jokes!

Vocal Point at the Hinkley Center

A few weeks ago Grant performed with Vocal Point at the Gordon B. Hinkley Alumni Center. Thanks to Bob Walker for these videos! Please excuse the low audio quality.

Nicest Kids In Town


Grace Kelly

Grant is the one jumping around a lot in this video.

Family Marching Orders

Just before General Conference, we sat in fast and testimony meeting and listened to Brother Puzzle, our upstairs neighbor and landlord, bear his testimony. For those who are unaware, "General Conference" is a bi-anual, church-wide meeting, broadcast all over the world, in which our Prophet and other church leaders speak to the church and reveal to us those things that the Lord would have us focus on, and "fast and testimony meeting" is a meeting held the first Sunday of each month in the LDS church, where anyone who feels inspired is invited to come up to the pulpit and bear a short, heartfelt testimony of the truth of the Gospel and the Savior.

In his testimony, Brother Puzzle said that he liked to think of the counsel given at General Conference as our "marching orders" for the next six months. The spirit was present and strong. We took his idea to heart and decided to create a list of goals or commitements taken from the messages of our general authorities and call it our "Family Marching Orders" for the following months. We'll continue it as a righteous family tradition. We want to share this list with you!

Family Marching Orders
October 2008 – April 2009

Simplified Lifestyle
We commit to living a simplified life style. We will keep a monthly budget, live within our means, eat healthy meals, exercise often, and keep our spiritual fuel tanks full through personal and couple prayer and study.

Sacrament Preparation
We commit to prepare to take the sacrament each week by going to bed by 11:00 PM on Saturdays, waking up by 7:00 AM, leaving early for church, not talking/texting before and during the meetings, singing the hymns, dressing appropriately, and having a broken heart and contrite spirit.

Study Basic Gospel Principles
We commit to include the Book of Mormon in our personal study and family home evening studies, as well as focusing on strengthening our testimonies and knowledge of the basic principles of the Gospel. We will each take turns preparing a lesson for Family Home Evening.

Hope and Laughter
We commit to inspiring hope in others and ourselves through all our words. We will not speak negatively! We will not be discouraged by the world or the actions and ideas of others. We will laugh often and not “sweat the small stuff.” We will not postpone our joys in life.

Unity
We commit to fostering unity in our family and with others through consistent and sincere prayer, study, family home evening, and inclusion of our testimonies of the Savior in all we do. When we pray, we will focus on joining our faith together, praying for each other, reporting to the Lord, and acting on any revelation we receive.

Deference and Sacrifice
We commit to being slow to judge, quick to forgive and always giving a soft response. We will minimize our personal demands and maximize our personal sacrifice.

World Awareness
We commit to staying aware of what’s going on in the world and local community and making our opinions count by voting.

Building Friendships
We commit to reaching out to those we associate with. We will invite one couple a month to dinner.

We're so grateful for the leadership of the Lord's church that guide and counsel us today. We pray for them continually. We're grateful to be members of that church and for the spirit, harmony, and love that it brings into our home. Hooray for righteous traditions!!

President and Sister Monson

The First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER... itty bitty living space

Welcome to Grant and BriAnne Zabriskie's new home!

What's behind Door Number 1?...

After all, what home is complete w/o a creepy, echoing entryway? No worries though, Bri cleaned out all the icky cobwebs & added pretty candles to brighten the gloom.

... and behind Door Number 2?



Good question. When we first moved in, we thought it was our pantry...

but something's missing!!

Well, stacking our food didn't work so well, as I'm sure you can imagine. So for a family home evening activity, we converted one of the closets in our living room into a well stocked pantry and changed the purpose of the so-called "pantry".

Behind Doors Number 3 and 3&1/2?Who would've thought that a closet could become the perfect office/ recording studio?! That's what I call expert use of space!

and last but not least... (well maybe the least space)

Door Number 4...
In all seriousness, we LOVE our apartment and are very grateful to live in such a beautiful place!

Oh! I almost forgot!!


This is our handy-dandy fire alarm. We're taking suggestions for names. He deserves a name because we put him through so much, you see.

I noticed the other day, (though with my low-resolution camera, it will be impossible for you to see) that on the fire alarm,

right next to this button...

are written the words "Hold to test weekly".

We decided that this is entirely unnecessary in our home as I test the thing every time I make Sunday dinner!