husband.

let me just tell you about my handsome husband here.

he is so caring, thoughtful, forgiving, selfless, loving, diligent, etc. so Christ-like. and just plain amazing.

last week i was really sick with constant fevers, chills, body aches, and a horrendous stomach ache. after 3 days of pain with no improvement, we went to the urgent care and after talking with the doctor, an x-ray, and drinking some nasty stuff, i was told i had a peptic ulcer. (stomach ulcer.) crazy, huh? all those fruits and veggies are making holes in my stomach! okay, not really. it's from the bacteria h.pylori, or heliobacter pylori which i learned allll about in my microbiology class and nutrition classes. nasty bugger. 

anyway, my sweet husband was working so much but doing everything he could for me.  filling up my water bottles, making me drink the water (which was so painful), calling his nurse mom, calling my unofficial nurse mom, taking my temperature, getting me my drugs, making me what little food i could eat, and making like 3 jamba juice runs (oh and lauren and emily each made one for me, too. it was about all i could get down).

things were crazy but this husband of mine was there for me every second. 

his brother, michael, just left town yesterday morning. it was so fun having him stay with us the past few days. steven is so good to his siblings and such a good example. he wins brother of the year award every year. and definitely wins husband of the year and will win father of the year in a few years...not yet.

i love him.

little letters with a few pictures.

dear erin and mike,

your wedding pictures look amazing.

steven and i are so excited to get ours soon.

love,

your sister / sister in law

p.s. we miss you. come visit us.

the new mr. & mrs. santiago

dear anthropologie,

thank you for the fat merchandise store credit. and thank you for having extra 25% off sale so i could get even more with it. now, please send me my new clothes. i'm anxious.

love,

an anxious customer

the bridesmaids and groomsmen with the new mr. & mrs. santiago

dear sisters {that includes you, sara},

remember when we were bridesmaids at erin and mike's wedding? and then remember when you were bridesmaids + lauren & andi when steven and i got married nearly 4 weeks ago? that was fun. let's do it again. steven and i will volunteer to be the bride and groom. i pick up my dry cleaned dress next week, so it's perfect.

love,

heidi hopper

dear steph,

i don't know if you even read this anymore, but luke is so dang cute. thanks for coming to both mine and erin's weddings.

love,

your {favorite} cousin

cousin stephanie with her husband paul and little luke!

dear parents,

i'm excited to see you in about 6 weeks. it'll be the first time we are home to visit, and not get married, or go to a wedding, or get engaged, or anything. okay, i lied. we are coming home for a wedding--katie & kyle's, and we will be involved, but it won't be as crazy since it's not our family. we love you. we miss you.

love,

your favorite daughter

dear waffle mania,

we had you on sunday. mmm, berries and whipped cream! it was so fun using our double flippy waffle maker for our 1st sunday of the month "waffle mania" tradition. a new tradition, since it was our first 1st sunday of the month together. and thanks em and blake for sharing it with us. we'll do it again? in a month? great.

love,

waffle lover

dear dinners,

umm, pardon me for tooting my own horn, but i've been making some so good dinners lately.  like that recreation of stonefire grill's bbq chopped chicken salad? yeah, i just need their exact bbq sauce and it's pretty much the same.  or how bout that mango salsa chicken last week? or the asian stir fry? or that rustic tuscan chicken with the fresh tomato and zucchini spaghetti squash i somehow made up? steven's really loving you. so am i.

love,

happy, healthy, hungry hoppers

dear gym,

it is so good to be back. regularly. we've had some tough, busy months this year, but we are back on track.

love,

gym rat {okay, not really a gym rat, per se}




dear apartment,

i'm sorry it has taken us so long to get you organized. i finally did my clothes. and you are all painted. and today i'll do all the "stuff."  and we'll get the pictures hung in a few days.  and the kitchen will be organized as soon as the bulk of our gifts arrive with the hoppers next week. hang in there.
love,
the hoppers

dear lauren,

we are SO excited for you to come next week!! you'll love it here! 

love,

your favorite {and only} sister in law

dear students,

i miss you. it's been 2 weeks already! i hope you remember everything i taught you. and i hope you remember that i'll always love you and think about you and pray for you. come visit me at color me mine. i'll give you a discount.

love,

miss kendrick / mrs. hopper {no, you can't call me mrs. kendrick}

p.s. none of you will read this.

dear body,

get out of bed. you read. you studied. you prayed. you checked your email. and you need to be done blogging. run to the gym. now.

love,

heidi hopper

because you're dying to see our honeymoon photos...

life has been a little bit crazy upon our return from our wedding in california, honeymoon in the bahamas, and reception in arizona.

1) i finished my last week of teaching 2nd grade.

2) lots of trips to target and bed, bath, and beyond to get towels, shower curtains, pillows, etc.

3) we are proud costco executive members.

4) as of today, we have been painting our apartment.

5) em works at color me mine and hooked me up with a little part time summer job there.

6) steven's back to work at the mtc. full-time starts tomorrow.

so here are some pictures from our honeymoon.

i know steven and i are like way super attractive, but i am sparing you of our beach photos.

first night's dinner.

the food is amazing.

and it is all you can eat.

um, double trouble.

 the majesty of the seas.

Nassau, Bahamas.

lots of cruise ships lined up! 

ours is the one on the far right.

 we "climbed" the queen's staircase.

the slaves carved a canyon and the staircase with little chisels in honor of the queen freeing them. it took them 16 years. chisels. and a huge rock!  pretty cool.

um, that's the canyon.

chisel? no thank you. how about some dynamite?

{besides me.  i know i'm dynamite.}

it was hot and humid.

i was dyiiiiing.

we walked around nassau and went to the queen's staircase.  went back to the cruise ship for some lunch and to change into our beach garb.

i almost stole this little boy while his grandma was taking a dip.

steven stopped me.  that's why i married him.  well, one reason.

this was the "formal" dinner. we just went with "nice."

should've brought my wedding dress...

Coco Cay, Bahamas.

this was royal caribbean's private island.

they had a delicious bbq.

then we just laid out fat and happy on the beach for a couple of hours.

and for some reason i can't find those beach photos that don't have us in them.

so sad, too bad. they're on the camera still.

here's the majesty waiting for us in the middle of the ocean.

we had to swim to coco cay. it was hard holding my camera above the water the whole time.

and i tried on this hat on the cruise ship that night.

key west, florida.

so cute!

this is where ernest hemmingway had his little hermit hideout.  i took a picture of it as much as i could, but he built up all these walls and we didn't want to pay $30 for us to see it.

we rented bikes and rode all over the little island. so fun. and so hot.

and those photos for some reason didn't load. well, i think they loaded as movies, but i am too tired to figure that out, so you'll just have to wait or never see them.

 i love ice cream.

 arrrrgh! steven be a mighty fine pirate, eh?

oh, we rode to the sothernmost point of the continental usa.

so proud.

i wanted to sneak onto the key west waldorf astoria {thought that was only in nyc!} and go on this little thingy but, no trespassing.

steven has good map skills.

key west. handsome husband.

so every night we had some sort of towel creature and one day it was an elephant relaxing on our bed with my sunglasses on.

and this is us leaving arizona. yes. 4 bags. the red one has my wedding dress in it with like a few picture frames and dvds.  we had a lot of stuff. and now we wait 2.5 more weeks for steven's family to come move lauren up for byu {hoooooray!!!!} and bring us our gifts and a bbq and some crazy piano thing. oh and a tennis ball hopper so steven and i can play tennis. well, so he can teach me. he used to teach tennis, you know. and he is pretty darn good at it. and i told him that i have a power skirt and need to use it for tennis.

i hope that makes you feel a little better until we get our life a little more under control. i.e., our apartment painted and organized.