Actress Katherine Heigl was recently featured on the September cover of Good Housekeeping magazine. She discussed her life as a wife and mother from her secluded ranch in Utah.

"We had big dreams of expanding our family, moving to the mountains and having a quieter life," she told Good Housekeeping. "Utah is spectacularly beautiful, the people are wonderful and kind, it's an easy commute from L.A. — and there's no traffic!"

The actress best known for her role on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" has always had a tie to the Beehive state, having been raised in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints while growing up in Connecticut.

Although Heigl is no longer practicing the religion, she credited her family's faith for giving her a strong foundation.

"That structure and discipline was really good for me," she told Good Housekeeping. "I had a childhood that was a childhood. I listened to my parents. I respected the rules."

Heigl also explained that it was because of her upbringing that she had certain standards with her husband before they were married the day before Christmas in 2007 in Deer Valley, Utah.

"I ... didn't want to live together before we were married. I still have enough Mormon in me — not a lot, but enough — that I wanted to keep that a little bit sacred," Heigl told "Vanity Fair" in 2008.

She has also credited the Mormon faith for helping her family through a difficult time after Heigl's older brother was killed in a car accident when she was 7 years old. Heigl's father was Lutheran and her mother was Catholic, prior to their son's death.

"Both my parents felt a great desire for answers, and they found an answer in the Mormon church," Heigl said. "But I give my parents unbelievable credit for pulling it together, and I give the Mormon church a lot of credit for helping them to do that."

Heigl recently explained that her decision to spend more time with her husband and two adopted children also came from her upbringing.

"I felt like my priorities were messed up," she told Good Housekeeping. "I was putting so much time and energy into just my work, but I was raised (to believe) that family comes first."

Heigl is set to star in a new series this fall, "State of Affairs."

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