KerMatt

Happy New Year from KerMatt & check out our holiday card

KerMatt’s 2010 Highlights

Keri’s awesome new job raising $ for Primary Children’s Medical Center
Matt’s GRADUATION from BYU with a Bachelor’s Degree in ISys
Matt’s acceptance into the Master’s Program at the University of Utah and finishing his first semester with fabulous grades
Celebrating our first year of marriage in May with family & friends
Fun times with friends at the Boyz II Men Concert in September, Keri’s time with her bud Dawn Stratton, karaoke with Nicole & dressing up as Kia Hamsters for Halloween ... Doo Da Dippity
Keri’s opportunity to sing in a special choir during the October LDS General Conference
Matt competed & placed in the Adobe Web Analytics Competition
Our travels to visit friends and family - NorCal with the Adams for Keri in March, the McGhee Family Reunion in Park City in May 2010 Hoopfest in Spokane with Brad & Sharee, San Diego for the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving & Christmas
Matt accepted a job offer from Deloitte in the Bay Area for Fall 2011
Matt growing a BEARD since he is no longer a BYU student
Our newest adorable nephew, Jackson, & the love of our three other awesome nephews & nine beautiful nieces who make us feel like the coolest aunt & uncle in the world!
Football for Matt, of course, especially his chance to compete in a football-throwing contest at an NFL Monday Night Football Chargers game in November

Keeping Up With the McGhee's

So much we have missed lately in our blogging so here is a quick update from our last post:

Matt competed in a Web Analytics Competition sponsored by Adobe. His team of three won #1 at the University of Utah and went on to compete against five other universities throughout the nation. His team won fourth place along with $1,500 and a very big fake check, although word on the street is that they should have placed 2nd or 3rd.
I started my new job at Primary Children's Medical Center and I love it!
KerMatt got new cell phones - Matt got a Motorola Droid 2 and I got an HTC Droid Incredible. We have been salivating over them for a while and they did not disappoint - they are awesome!
Matt flew out to San Francisco in early November to interview with Deloitte's San Jose office. He ate lots of food, spent time with the Adams Family and then came home to find out he got the job, which will start in August 2011 after he finishes school.
Hence, KerMatt is moving to the Bay Area in 2011!!!
I got called to be the new Choir Director and music chairman for our ward and have been working to put together our Christmas program.
Matt also won tickets to the Nov. 22nd San Diego Chargers game along with a chance to participate in a halftime competition where he would throw a football to win a hot tub.
On the night Matt came home from NorCal he started feeling sharp pain in his right side, which turned out to be appendicitis. He was rushed into the ER where they removed his appendix right away.
Bottom line...Matt was grumpy from the post-surgery pain but was still determined to still get down to the Chargers game so we shipped him down to San Diego where he could recover. While he did not win the hot tub, he did get to spend the whole second quarter on the field.
My sister Tori, had her first baby, Jackson Christopher, who is freaking adorable and my Mom came into town for the week so I got to spend Thanksgiving with her while Matt celebrated Thanksgiving with his family.
We were both thankful for lots of good food.
BYU barely lost to the Utes in an exciting game and I was disappointed.
Matt got a Graduate Assistant job next semester which will cover one semester's tuition. Yay for us!
Chargers beat the Colts - Matt wanted to make sure we didn't leave that out.
My fantasy football team beat Matt's for the second time this season putting me in #1 for our league thusfar. Although Matt has the most points overall he came in at #5. Matt's sister, Bekah, is #2 right now - yes we are the only two girls in the league and we are dominating! Our 10-year-old nephew Dylan is right behind us in #3.
Matt spent another night at the University of Utah Sleep-Wake Center to figure out the best setting for a CPAP machine.
Primary Children's just finished the 40th Festival of Trees which consumed my life for a week but was a wonderful experience.
Our good friend Brad came to visit us while he was out here for the American Outdoors Convention for work and we had a great time entertaining him.
And Matt just finished his semester after a very busy last week of classes and final exams, projects, etc.. and now has a whole month of vacation ahead of him. He is 45% of the way through his Master's program and looking forward to four weeks of relaxing, Xbox, and football.
We are both excited about heading down to San Diego for Christmas where we get to spend a week with family and friends.

Check out our photos of some of this madness:

Matt showing his big check from Adobe. Kristin, Jake and Keri just jumping in to help him hold it up

Matt when he arrived in San Fran

Matt the same day after he cleaned up for dinner with Deloitte

View of San Fran Bay Bridge from Matt's hotel room

Matt and his grandma Dottie during his NorCal trip

My poor honeyhead in the hospital after having his appendix removed

I touched up the photo but you can still see how pale he was :(

Matt enjoying his time on the field at the Chargers game

Matt during his famous football competition

Matt's family enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner

McGhee Thanksgiving dinner cont...

Tori and Bryan and new little bundle of cuteness, Jackson

I hold Baby Jack anytime I get a chance and here he is modeling an Ewok onesie that Pikey and I made for him at Tori's baby shower.

Love that little guy :)

This is one of Keri's fave Christmas trees being sold at the Festival of Trees this year

Matt's second night in the Sleep-Wake Center

Chillin' with the girls in the bucket seat

Yes, Matt and I managed to put together the most ridiculous costumes this year for Halloween. If you don't know what we are supposed to be, you would be right along with most of our friends and ward members it seems.

First of all, we are hamsters. And not just any hamsters, but the gangsta hamsters on the Kia Soul commercial - only the best commercial ever made. We have included the youtube and attached some pics from the commercial it for all those of you who have not seen it or just need a little refresher.

"You can get with this...or you can get with that."

"Doo Da Dippity!"

We had a ton of fun on Saturday at our friends, Mary & Tyler's Halloween Party. But I think next year, we'll go ahead and make costumes that are not so HOT! We were melting in all that fur and batting. And let me tell how hard it is to put together a hamster costume - I had to hand sew Matt's furry hamster pants and it really pushed the abilities of my sewing :) But he does win the best husband award for going along with my silliness. Love him!

And on another happy note, I'm sure many of you already know but I got a new job at Primary Children's Medical Center and will be leaving the American Heart Association as of this Friday. I am sad to leave the AHA, but also very relieved as I have been itching for a change for quite a while. And what a change it will be!

In my new position, I will be doing design work, media relations, and fundraising - specifically running their Telethon in Idaho. I'm looking forward to being able to use more creativity and learn different fundraising approaches especially from such a strong organization. Primary Children's (and Intermountain Healthcare - the parent company) has a very high reputation here in Utah (and all over the Mountain West) and they put on one of the biggest fundraising events here - the Festival of Trees. With that quickly approaching the first week of December, I am jumping head-first into my new position.

I also love their ingenuity in getting all overhead costs donated so they can say that 100% of all proceeds from their fundraising efforts goes directly to the children at Primary Children's.

And now my work is just on the outskirts of the University of Utah campus which means I'm even closer to Matt. His one request for me taking the job was to make sure they could provide him a dark room with a soft bed, blanket, and pillow for him to be able to take a nap between classes. Sillyhead!

We are looking forward to the rest of the holiday season and hopefully fun times with good friends and family.

- KerMatt

October - last month before cold

We have been slacking on our blog, so here is an update for the past month.

Matt has finally gone to a sleep doctor and has been working with specialists to improve his sleep. As part of this, he did an overnight sleep test at the University of Utah and he sent me this wonderful photo below of him after the techs had hooked him up for the night.

The test basically told us what we already knew - that Matt has sleep apnea among other issues. So now he will be going back to do another overnight sleep test, this time hooked up to a CPAP. We are looking forward to getting him a new CPAP with a custom fitted mask and the proper settings. I think Matt might be the youngest person to wear a CPAP - and let me tell you it is sexy :)

I was given the opportunity to sing in the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference the first weekend of October. My stake, along with several other stakes from Sandy & Draper, put together a special family choir for this session.

I loved the experience and the people that I met while doing it - although I ended up get a nasty head cold a few days before. My favorite part was sitting in the Conference Center after the session ended and watching everybody wave to President Monson as he walked out and waved to the audience. You just should have seen the huge grins on everyone's faces - they looked like little kids on Christmas morning. Being in the choir was a lot of work and a lot of time - not to mention the challenges it posed to me with the strict appearance restrictions - but it was definitely worth it!

Many people missed me as they showed me during the very first song so below is a screen shot from the session. I am in the bottom right with a dark blue shirt - next to a blonde lady.

Keri, along with the other 4 singers from the ward (Sister Rhay - bishop's wife, Brother Houggard, Bro. & Sis. Buhleman). Each ward was only allowed to select 5 singers.

Matt has been enjoying both BYU & University of Utah football this season. Since he is now a student at the U he has begun to appreciate the U and we even went to one of their football games. Below is a pic of Matt watching the game at the Rice-Eccles Stadium. He is sporting his new Steve Young jersey. His friend C-Bass hooked him up with a contact who gets authentic jerseys for cheap so we went ahead and got Matt 4 - yes 4 - new jerseys. He got this Steve Young 49er jersey, a throwback Gwynn Padres jersey, a white Phillip Rivers Chargers jersey and a Dwayne Wade basketball jersey. He is just lovin his new threads!

We are looking forward to Halloween coming up - well I am mostly - since it is my favorite holiday. I had to spend almost 10 minutes this morning convincing Matt to dress up with me again this year. Initially he said no because my idea was "just too crazy" for him but thanks to my relentless persuasion he agreed to do so. I just have a great idea for our costumes and it wouldn't be as good without him. Stay tuned for pics of our fabulous costumes :)