Photobook 2012

Here are some of our favorite pictures and memories from 2012. It was a great year!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

A Whale of a Brag Wall : 2012

Already?! What have we done already in 2012 that deserves attention? Well, some of it is culmination of 2011 efforts. Here's a list:

• Jessica was awarded a $1500 ORCA grant from the Office of Research and Creative Activities for a research project she's working on as a student research fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy (CSED) at BYU.
• Matt was awarded $500 of an ORCA grant as part of a group project in computational biology.
• Jessica is team lead of an internship group working with Innosight through the Students for Social Entrepreneurship program at BYU.
• Matt got an interview at the University of Virginia (UVA) for February 23rd.
• Jessica is helping to publish a student travel magazine called Stowaway. She is one of the magazine's copyeditors.
• Matt is working on a new bioinformatics tool for the Griffitts lab (where he works) that visualizes transposon insertion data.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Brag Wall 2012!

Jack-O-Lanterns!

Matt brought home a beautiful pumpkin the other day when he went grocery shopping. It was sitting in our kitchen for a while because we couldn't decide what to do with it! We could do dinner in a pumpkin, we could make pie, the options are really unlimited. Then our upstairs neighbors gave us a challenge. They had a few jack-o-lantern stencils and gave us the most complicated one, so we accepted. A little while later, we had an awesome carved pumpkin and some delicious seeds to roast. Awesome!

Stop-Motion Fun (Check out our video!)

Last weekend, we both had a lot of time on our hands. Matt had finished his class for the Summer Term and neither of us had any assignments to do after work. So, we decided to start a project. Neither of us had done stop-motion before, but it is so fun to watch and people get really creative. Here is one of my favorites: Click here to watch. And another one: here. Anyway, Matt is the team captain for BYU's first iGEM team. iGEM is a student competition for synthetic biology. For the project, the team needs to create a team wiki (basically a website outlining all of their project details). Matt wanted to do something fun that would explain their project quickly and be fun to watch. So, our first stop-motion effort and Dr. Coli were born.

Matt's project is a really cool one. The idea came from trying to detect colon cancer using bacteria! The modified e-coli travels through the body and if two indicators are present (both "Reactive oxygen species" and increased temperature must be present for the detection to work), then the e-coli glows! How cool is that? All you have to do is shine UV light on your waste and no colonoscopy! At least, that's the idea, although don't install a UV light in your toilet just yet. The project is officially called E-colinoscopy. Clever, huh?

Since Matt is the only one of us qualified to map out his team's project, all the illustrations are his. The beautiful photography is my contribution. Let me say, it was harder than I thought it would be! Since we don't own a tripod, my arms got really tired. It took us over 2 hours to take all the pictures! Finally, we compiled the video in half an hour in iMovie. Isn't technology amazing? Matt and I are really stoked to find more stop-motion projects. A moving Christmas card, perhaps? The possibilities are endless!

Here is our humble offering to the animation world:

Pictures are finally up!

Ever since we moved into our little apartment, I've wanted to hang pictures on the walls. The walls were so white and boring! Even though we didn't have a big budget for decorating, we could at least put up a few pictures from our wedding and engagement. Well, after printing pictures and buying frames, we finally did it! I love it! Our house feels much more like a home now. Check it out!

Engagement pictures with a Biggs sign from our Aunt Angie and Uncle Richie.

Wedding pictures with the Family Proclamation.

More wedding pictures with a beautiful cross stitch from Grandma Eileen. It says Biggs Family Established December 21, 2010.

Cool African masks from Matt's mission.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Bright Red Backpacks and MREs: 72-Hour Kit Madness

Ever since the devastating tornadoes in the south near our families--mine in NC and Matt's in VA--I have felt pretty anxious about getting something for our little family, just in case. So we decided to put a little money aside for food storage and emergency kits. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get them. First of all, there is a lot less to worry about when you know you'll have something to eat for a few days if you need to. Matt is also excited because he wants to do 72-hour camping trips with just our bright red bags. He has decided that it will help us figure out what we wished we'd had with us. I, personally, don't really want to go out in the wilderness with not much besides MREs and a tube tent. We'll let you know if the 72-hour kit camping trip ever happens :)

Anyway, we spent a night putting our backpacks together and trying to figure out what else we wanted in them. They came with a lot of cool things already. Here is a link to look at the whole ensemble on the website. It has water, food, a small hygiene kit, tents, candles, matches, even toilet paper. We had fun adding clothes and extra toiletries. We even found some old-fashioned hard candies at the grocery store to add. We don't have a lot in our little apartment, but we don't have to worry as much about an emergency now. And we know it is the right thing to do! Here is a great website, Provident Living, with more information about how to prepare for natural disasters or other unexpected emergencies. It is great to just be as prepared as possible.

Also, wedding/engagement pictures are almost on the walls! We finally got the rest of the picture frames today, so I will be hanging them up ASAP. Love it!

Easter Planning

So we are busy planning our first Easter together. We want to make Easter a really special holiday for our family. Christmas always comes with so much anticipation--but shouldn't Easter be just as exciting? It's springtime, school is finished, and we can celebrate our Savior's resurrection. What a wonderful holiday. Since we can't leave out the egg hunt, I've bought some bright plastic eggs and filled them with mini Cadbury eggs. What else?

We are also really excited to plan our Easter menu. Since this is our first major holiday together (aside from Christmas, which we spent with our families), it has been really fun to decide what we want to cook together. Here's what we've decided on so far:

--Ham with an Apricot Glaze

--Potato Latkes

--Flatbread (unleavened bread)

--Asparagus

--Hot Cross Buns

I'm especially excited for the hot cross buns. This recipe has all sorts of yummy spices! It will be our first time using the dough cycle on our bread machine--we'll let you know how it works out! What are some other recipes and traditions that your family loves on Easter?