January Blues

By the time I get to the end of January, I am looking forward to spring. Unfortunately for me, spring in Utah doesn't begin until April. It makes for one long winter semester. BUT, on the bright side, it means that it is still cold enough to wear my cute jackets, I can still look forward to the possibility of snow, and I can still enjoy a cup of hot chocolate without getting weird looks.

The semester has been going pretty well. I am enjoying my classes, though I am wishing that I only had to take 5 classes instead of 6. Taking 16 credits is just enough to make me go slightly insane when midterms and finals come.

I’m still getting used to writing/typing 2010 on all of my papers. It’s still kind of surreal to me that I’m 21, married, and graduating in a little over a year. Time flies whether I’m having fun or not! But really, I am happy. Life has been pretty great, if not a little stressful.

One of my professors showed us a quote a few days ago that says: “The man on top of the mountain didn’t just fall there.” I don’t know who said it, but I would like to thank them. When times get tough this semester, I hope I will be able to think about this. It takes hard work to make it anywhere worth going.

Happy Birthday!

Well, the holidays have officially ended now that my birthday has passed. Yes, the holidays do not end until I have celebrated my birthday.

I guess I want to back track a little. New Year's was great. We had an awesome time celebrating with Liz and PJ before they left for SoCal. We actually helped them get their moving truck loaded and their storage unit empty. Definitely a bittersweet moment. It's a good thing for them because PJ got a job, but I'm sure going to miss them. Anyway, we had a great time eating dinner, playing games, and drinking sparkling cider. It's hard to believe that we are already in 2010!

Bryan's family invited us up to Ogden the day before my birthday so they could throw a small birthday party for me. Almost the entire family was there and we had a good time. I'm 21! Crazy, eh? I got some movies and games. Bryan got me a new pair of pants and an i-tunes gift card. I'm pretty excited to use it.

All in all, a great way to start off the new year!

Christmas!

I love Christmas. I love everything about the season; the food, the fun, the family, the spirit, the love, honestly the list could go on forever.

So what did we do for Christmas this year?

Well, we went up to Bryan's family's house on Christmas Eve. (We would have been there earlier, but we got the opportunity to work some extra hours and we jumped at the chance.) There were a ton of people staying there (11 of us!) but we were cozy. I don't know what to say about what we actually did. We ate good food, talked, watched movies, and just generally hung around the whole time we were there. Of course we did open presents on Christmas morning (which was tons of fun).

Let's see, I think one of the most memorable things was Bryan getting dressed up like Santa on Christmas Eve night. He had a suit, beard, the whole shebang. So, he went to the Christmas tree and pretended to put presents under it while our two nieces (who are both pretty young) were woken up to "come see Santa." It was pretty great to the the older one get so excited to see him. It reminded me of the magic of Christmas; how exciting it can be.

Something else that was new to me this year was being in a different house for Christmas. It was my first year not spending it with my family. I have to admit that I was a little homesick at times, but it never lasted long because I had an absolutely wonderful time with the Belts. It was fun to be included in new traditions and spend time with that part of our family.

I wanted to find pictures of Bryan dressed up like Santa, but I guess those will have to wait. :)

Two weeks!

One week left of classes and then a week of finals! Woo hoo! I'm so excited to be done with the semester.

Oh yeah, and I'm pretty excited for Christmas too.

We put up our decorations and listened to John Denver and the Muppets. We get to go see the MoTab Christmas concert this week and look at the cool lights on Temple Square.

Have I mentioned that I love Christmas?

Here are a couple pictures that I have been saving up from Halloween and Thanksgiving:
We went to a halloween party as "guitar heroes". We had a lot of fun dressing up for that.
My whole family (seven of us) crammed into our tiny apartment. A little crowded, but tons of fun! Earlier in the morning we played ultimate frisbee at the park near our apartment. We had a great time, but we wore my dad out. He got sick later that night, but thankfully got better so he could enjoy the rest of his vacation.

I just think that this picture is hilarious. Mostly because of the look that Kyle was giving my sister's cat that I am holding. He was terrified of her (the cat). Happy Birthday Liz! We celebrated her birthday on Black Friday. We all went shopping in the morning and then had a party that night. We played Catchphrase and we were really loud. Our neighbors halfway across the complex could hear us.

Overall, we had a great week. Lots of fun and good memories. I'm glad we had a chance to be all together again, especially since Kyle is leaving next year on a mission and Liz and PJ leaving so they can finally be out of the grasp of school. Even Bryan and I are only a year and a half away from moving out into the "real world" Who knows where we are going to end up!

PJ got the job in LA! Bryan and I are pretty excited for them. It's going to be hard when they move though...

Thankful for...

I am thankful for my life.

I am grateful for a year that has been tough but wonderful.

I am thankful for my husband who never fails to amaze me and loves me no matter how weird I am acting.

I am thankful for my family. Especially Liz and PJ. Thanks for making these past couple years so much fun. I'm going to miss you guys!

I am grateful for BYU and the chance Bryan and I have to get a good education.

I am thankful for our jobs. We are truly blessed to have such a great job that pays us enough money and works with our schedule.

I am thankful for good friends, new and old.

I am thankful for the Gospel. I am grateful to know the truth and that I have a testimony of Jesus the Christ.

Ready to Enjoy the Holidays!

I am so ready for Thanksgiving! The fam is in town and I don't have to worry about homework for an ENTIRE week! I'm so glad that all of my projects, papers, and tests are done. All I have to worry about is finals! And that's not for another couple of weeks!

Life is great.

Happy Turkey Day!

Crazy Times

As many times as I have looked at blogspot this past month, I haven't taken the time to post anything.

School has been consuming our lives but thankfully we have been able to have a good time with our friends and family. First off, I'm happy to say that hopefully I will never have to take 17 credits in one semester again. It's been a nightmare trying to keep all of my classes straight and get everything done. There have been so many assignments and tests that I have been lucky to get them all done. I'll be glad when Thanksgiving is here, because after that, all I have to worry about is finals. Bryan has been pretty busy too with his classes. He is glad to be almost done so he can get onto his internship. It's crazy to think that he is graduating in June.

Halloween was a lot of fun. We carved a pumpkin with Liz and PJ on thursday and then we got to carve another one with our friends from the ward, Brit and Devon, the next night. On Halloween night, we went to a party a couple in our ward had and then we invited two other couples (the Burnetts and the Naylors) to come over to our place to watch The Sixth Sense. I hadn't seen the whole thing before, so it was fun to watch it.

Here's a couple picture to commemorate or pumpkin carving with the Burnetts.

AS you might have guessed, ours is the one on the left and the one in the center and on the right are Brit's and Devon's respectively. Hopefully, I will be able to post some pictures of the other pumpkin we carved with my sister and her husband. I also posted some more pictures on the THIS post, so head on over if you wanted to see pictures of horseback riding.