December 2010 Quick Update

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if I wait until I have time to completely catch up on recording life events on the blog, it will never happen. Thus, I will once again leave a random post--better than nothing I suppose. Gavie did an excellent job decorating our tree; it includes a mix of ornaments from my childhood. (The rest are on my mom’s tree and I doubt she will ever relinquish them to me :)) I absolutely love the glow of Christmas lights at night; it makes the room feel so homey. Furthermore, the tree was one of two beautiful things left to me by my grandma Heaps. The other is shown in the second picture: a lovely Willow-Tree nativity. What a treasure; I can’t believe I get to have it.

Grandma Heaps passed away November 6, 2010. Her obituary can be found here. We spent several days with her in the hospital as she left this life and it was incredible how she was optimistic and sweet right until the end. She didn’t even complain once as all her organs were shutting down. We all sobbed and sobbed but she was so brave! She was even joking with the nurses in the very last hours.

For example, as they turned her over she joked that one nurse had it easier than the other because one side of her body was lighter than the other. The nurses looked confused, but we all giggled knowing that she only had one leg. My throat tightens up even thinking about those last days with her, so I won’t go into too much more detail, but I sure miss her. She was always the very first one to call on my birthday mornings so it seemed strange not to hear from her this year.We also had our very first Heaps family Christmas party without her; those parties made her so happy. She talked about them all year long. However, her aunt passed away this week and before passing she said, “Ila’s coming to get me!”

When her daughter asked her what she was seeing, she said that grandma was running around! What a comfort to know that she’s pain-free and running around up there.Grandma’s funeral was beautiful; the church was packed with many people who adored her. One nurse drove three hours to see her in the hospital before she passed. The talks given by my dad, uncle, and Aunt Kathy were touching and the grandkids sang two nice songs. She would have loved it; I hope she was listening.

Another sad occurrence took place not long after: we lost Gavin’s grandma Nancy “Nannie” Burgon. Her obituary can be found here. She is the woman I took care of this summer as she recovered from a fall. She has been struggling for awhile with various health problems and had one very-near-death experience in the hospital six weeks prior to her death. It was so sad for us all, especially for Papa (Grant). She too had visitors who came to bring her up to heaven. Her funeral was lovely and filled with nice memories. She too will be greatly missed. Sunday dinners simply won’t be the same without her funny and spunky comments.

Well, what a relief it is to finally have this semester over. My mom is doing much better and is working very hard in her physical therapy to regain the use of her knee. She has had a rough few months. I'll try and update more soon on both this blog and my baking blog. If you haven't checked it out yet, the address is: bakingwiththeburgons.blogspot.com. Merry Christmas!

Post Wedding Bliss

I’m finally getting time to update petit à petit and though this may seem like a smorgasbord of pictures with very little explanation, I suppose it’s better than nothing. Sorry for the formatting-I can't get the pictures to stay where I want them to in the text, but oh well. The beginning photos were taken on our honeymoon in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We spent a few days there since I had meetings in Provo shortly after. We enjoyed the beautiful mountain surroundings and one evening got fancy with our grub & grilled skewers, pineapple, and corn outside. We had a great time. A few random other things we’ve done on weekend outings include: a trip down to Las Vegas to see BYU play UNLV-the kissing picture was taken outside the Brio-a fabulous restaurant that Stephanie and Norm treated us to while we were there. They introduced us to Calamari, which is chewy squid, yet pretty yummy. Last fall we also took a jaunt out to Gardeners’ Village during the Annual Witch Festival. Next, I included a picture from Lydia’s wedding-technically it was two weeks before mine but I had to get it in here. She was a beautiful bride and her reception was perfect for her. The ballroom dance team came and performed and her father sang the well known piece from Puccini’s “Turandot” which, in my opinion, has to be one of the most romantic songs ever created. If you’re reading this and haven’t heard it, listen to this rendition by Pavarotti: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr5vpHtJIlg . Now if that doesn’t move you, I don’t know what will. Anyway, back on track, Lydia and Andrew ran through an aisle of sparklers and lived happily ever after, or so it appears :). I had to include a picture of the moment when I finally succeeded at making Madame Julienne’s Mousse au chocolat. Believe me, it wasn’t for lack of trying that my first two attempts went awry. I started over twice so my birthday guests could get a taste, and uncle Kenny was nice enough to say it was good. However, it was a disaster. But, I studied up the tricks (the temperature of the bowl, the temperature of the eggs, the perfect separation of whites and yolks, the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate, etc.) and on my third attempt, succeeded. It was rich and divine and I had my family all take a scoop after I took this photo to send to Mme. Julienne. Before I get too much further, I realized I hadn’t uploaded my last few pictures from Lille because of the rush of the wedding. So, this one I included was taken during my last week, the day that Dr. Lebras came to evaluate me and meet my colleagues. I already described this in more detail in my “home sweet home” blog post, but this picture was taken after my farewell luncheon. I will never forget the restaurant – we walked in and I only saw two small tables; then, the waiter led us down several stairs into a neat cave with dim lights on the rock walls and tapestries hung from iron rods. Besides the unique atmosphere, most of us ordered the special which was a fabulous cut of ham with teeny tiny button mushrooms in a béchamel type sauce. Delicious doesn’t even begin to describe how good it was. Well, we came back for my evaluation with the Dean’s secretary, Cédric (far right) which went tremendously well, and before we went in, a few of us snapped this shot. To the left of me is Stephanie Lecocq, above me is Dr. Lebras, and to my right are: Rosalie Gambino, Bénédicte Lentier, Angélique Derôme, and Cédric Lepoutre. I think back on my time spent in Lille as well as my semester in Paris without fail, every single day. Those six months are so dear to me. Oh dear, now I’m getting long winded. Continuing, I gave Gavin a pair of snowshoes for his birthday which he enjoyed and immediately tried out. We were in Yellowstone over Christmas break so we tromped right out the front door out into the woods and had a blast treading on the powder and jumping around. Now, I don’t mean to skim over the next semester entirely, it was very eventful with my second French class and finishing up my coursework, but I don’t have a whole lot of photos to document it. So, I’ll skip up to graduation which was such an exciting time! I finished my Bachelors of French Studies with an English Minor. Then, all of my family and even some of Gavin’s joined me for a fabulous luncheon my mom put together down at Joe Vera’s, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and I was overjoyed to have all my loved ones happily surrounding me. The day before, my mom and I had made and painted cute little graduation treat boxes to put on the tables. Finally, a few weeks ago my family went hiking to donut falls and laughed as we played games on the trail. Oh and I almost forgot! I finally found a job in an unexpected way. Gavin’s grandmother had a fall a month ago and had to have her shoulder replaced, so, this summer I am taking care of her husband Grant. I cook, clean, and keep him company and he is a sweet little old man. I just adore taking care of him; he’s always so grateful for anything I do and is also very easy to please. If I ever find the pictures I took with my classes both semesters I’ll put them on, but for now, here’s a pretty good update on what has been going on in my life post wedding. I hope to be more consistent with my posts in the future. Signing off for tonight, -Haleigh.

Snippets of our Wedding Dinner Celebration

First, I’ll admit it – I was never one of those “have a line/throw a bouquet/reception kind of girls. As a teenager, I absolutely dreaded going to receptions and standing in line to shake six+ hands, of whom only one I was familiar with. The poor bride always looked ornery from standing still for three hours and bored from saying the same, monotone, “thank you for coming,” over and over. So, when it came time to plan a celebration for Gavin and me, I had big dreams in mind. My poor mother.
I had been offered an internship in Lille, France for the summer so this meant that my mom and I would have to do as much planning as possible before I left and then she would be on her own once I was gone. I must say, she did a spectacular job. We had our dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in the Empire Room. The second we walked in there we knew it was the perfect setting. It was in true European style: dark wood, ornate paintings on the walls and ceilings, beautiful molding. This was it. Once I’d chosen my colors-eggplant, moss green, and orange-they showed us options for flowers, decorations, etc. The color scheme was amazing and I’m glad that for once, one of my ideas came out stunningly. I fell in love with the eggplant calla lilies in the sample book and from there, my mom helped me pick bright orange roses and fun greenery to match. Then, I told her I didn’t want a traditional cake, I wanted a croquembouche/pièce montée – a French cream puff tower. This is common at French weddings and often they build a base of ice cream and then use a crème brulée torch to attach each puff. However, they did a perfect imitation with mine and used a praline sauce and chocolate to hold it together as well as adding flowers to dress it up. On a funny note however, when our photographers asked us to feed each other a cream puff for a picture, Gavin bit into his and the cream squirted out all over his tux! He laughed it off though and it made for a good picture.
We had a social hour before our actual program began and there was a beautiful array of shrimp, vegetable torte, and fruit. Then, the program started with introductions by my dad. Both he and Jim shared kind remarks, as well as Dallin and Hillary sharing some of their favorite memories. Then, Gavin and I sang “You’re Still the One,” by Shania Twain, and Phil Sykes sang a song he wrote called, “On Your Wedding Day.” It was a beautiful presentation! Being able to go around and visit the family members and friends that I love was wonderful. No line, no bouquet toss, and everything just as I hoped it would be. Again, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves since there are several. Enjoy! I hope to eventually catch up on the previous eight great months since we’ve been married. :) Ciao for now-

Wedding Video!

I had asked our videographer if she could convert our video into a file that would play on the computer and she finally did it. I'm so excited to have a copy of it on my blog. There are four songs: one with our bridal/groomal pictures, one with the temple pictures, and two with the dinner pictures. Voila!

I'm going there someday...

As a little girl, one of our family’s favorite movies was Father of the Bride. We would sing along with the background music as it said, “Goin’ to the chapel and we’re gonna get married!” Later, we replaced the word “chapel” with temple and still sang along. Finally, the momentous day came, August 22, 2009, when I, Haleigh Marie Heaps Burgon would go to the Provo, Utah temple to be married for eternity. The man who sealed us is named Jae Ballif and he performed a beautiful ceremony. Every minute of it was ideal; we’re talking dream perfect. The room was filled with our family members and close friends. Afterward,

despite the insane heat (nearly 100 degrees) all of our family members and friends gathered for pictures. I’ll post several of the various group shots along with some that the Shumways took of us. Up top Gavin and I are just exiting the doors of the temple (slightly embarrassed by the eruption of applause). Next we have a picture of my friends who were present at our temple sealing. From left to right we have: Cassi and Drew Barber, Meghan and Collin Barker, Allie Rhae Pixton, Ashley Rogers, Hillary Heaps, and Andrew and Lydia Nelson! Then we've got a big thumbs up from both of our dads, followed by Hilly who was the first one to run up and greet us as we came out of the temple. She enthusiastically welcomed Gavin into the family and congratulated us. Next, we've got the whole group-family and friends! It was so neat to be surrounded by our loved ones. They were all saints to stand out there in the blazing heat - it was hot hot hot! I also included a closer picture of our parents and grandparents, and then of course, the traditional couple and parents' kissing picture. I've got a few more with my darling sister, my absolutely fabulous friends, and my dream groom; so, I'll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. More pictures to come including several from our dinner celebration.