December Happenings

The end of the year always seems so hectic. We finished our semester and were so excited to go home. Before driving down to Reno, we made a quick stop in Utah. We visited Leah and her girls and got to hang out with Terri and her family. While we were in Utah we also (cue drumroll).... bought a car!!! WE LOVE IT. Here is a picture of our current pride and joy.

It's awesome having a car with a working heater and air conditioning, a cd player, and 4 wheel drive. We were so happy to find this car and loved driving home in it.

We finally made it to Reno and spent the weekend with my family. We didn't do much because we were only there for a couple of days, but we did get to go caroling and go to church at my home ward which was really nice. After the short visit to Reno we continued on to San Jose and met up with Paul and Jenny. We made a few visits to some families with Santa, and then went out to sushi. Ty had been craving it for months!

A couple days later, we had the opportunity to go to Steven Jensen's wedding. It was so nice and the bride and groom were so happy. Here are some picture from the day. Congrats Steven and Susie! 

After the wedding we headed to Coloma. It was pretty low key and we loved it. We felt like the first part of the break was kind of hectic so it was nice to not really have anything planned and just relax! We spent Christmas Eve at the Peterson's 

and had fun playing with the boys

It was so fun to see how excited the kids were about Christmas! The next day we went to church, but since it didn't start until 1:30 we opened our presents first. Christmas morning pictures are the worst...

After church we went to spend the rest of the day with the Middletons. We had fun watching the kids open their presents and play with their new toys. We also played some games and just enjoyed being with family! 

The day after Christmas we drove up to Reno and spent the rest of our break there. We didn't do a whole lot, but it was so fun to spend time with my family. We went out to dessert with my sister, kicked field goals with my brother, and volunteered at the food bank with my family. I had seen some things on pinterest that I wanted to make with my mom so we did that too. And when I say we, I mean she did it and I sat next to her and talked the whole time. This is a cute ear warmer headband that she made. I love it!

She also made me a really nice cowl which is amazing for this Idaho weather. Thanks mom! 

On new years eve my mom made some Paella which was delicious

and then we took family pictures! For your viewing pleasure...

We had a great break and loved spending time with our families.  Now it's time for another semester. Here we go!

p.s. mom, we finally hung up the sign! we love it :)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving break was a bit different for us this year. For some reason our school decided not to give us a whole week off this year. That meant we got 5 days off, and if we were to go home we would spend 2 of those days driving, which left us about a day and a half to spend with each family. We talked about and decided that we didn't want to spend 20 hours in the car and only see our families for a couple of days, especially after last year's  traveling adventures. So we stayed in Rexburg.

At first I wasn't too happy about it. I've never not spent a holiday with my family, and it would've been awesome to get out of here for a little. But after a few days the idea of staying here started to sound pretty good. I was excited to be able to just relax, stay at home and be cozy for a few days without doing homework, and that's exactly what we did!

Tuesday night we went to the I-center so Ty could play basketball. We were there for a couple hours and just before we were going to leave, Ty rolled his ankle. It was pretty swollen and it hurt him a lot. We iced it and got some Advil for him, and just hung out at home for the rest of the night.

Since walking around was pretty uncomfortable for Ty, we realized that we would be spending the majority of the break in our apartment. So we rented a bunch of movies, got some books, and piled up the blankets in our living room. We spent the next few days on our couch and it was amazing. Exactly the kind of break we needed!

Thanksgiving day I decided to be brave and try to make a Thanksgiving dinner. I didn't really know what I was doing and called my mom a million times that day to ask her how to make things. I should've paid more attention while I was still at home!

Turns out turkeys are pretty hard to mess up, so ours ended up looking pretty good, and tasting good too! 

I made a couple other things and called it good. We ended up having a nice little feast (and way too many leftovers) !

Later that night we decided that we were going to go Black Friday shopping. We left our house around 11:15 to go to Idaho Falls. The mall wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be and it was awesome. I only got 1 shirt and Ty didn't end up getting anything, but it was fun to get out of the house and it was Ty's first Black Friday experience. Don't worry Ty, there are many more Black Friday experiences to come! 

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, watching sports and cuddling. It was perfect! We also went to the cheap theater and watched this movie: 

It was so good! We loved it and we love our cheap theater! 

To end the weekend, we both gave talks in sacrament meeting. Our first time talking as a married couple. I introduced us and everything before I started my talk. When did we become such grown ups? It was a neat experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Kind of. 

All in all it was a good break. We missed our families but had fun being our own little family for the holiday :)

No Punt Intended

Ty played intramural football again this year. His team had some of the same guys on it from last year, but there were a few new guys. Their team was really good this year and it was fun to watch. They went undefeated and won the championship! Ty got another coveted t-shirt and was really excited. Here are a few pictures from the championship game. One of the guys on the team made a highlight video and is making a copy for everyone so hopefully I can post that on here soon!

The boys strategizing during a timeout

After they won the championship 

All the wives (we were quite the cheerleaders) 

The whole gang 

Way to go No Punt Intended! 

It's Been Way Too Long

I don't even know where to start! We had an amazing summer. We loved living at the Riverhouse, it's such a fun place to be in the summer! We spent a lot of time on the River and loved being able to spend time with everyone that came to visit! My family came to Coloma for the day and went rafting. We had a blast! I was so happy they got to come play on the river. here are a few pictures from that trip...

It was an awesome few months, but we were so excited to come back to Rexburg.

This semester has been CRAZY. I'm teaching in the preschool which has been so fun but a ton of work! I've had to write lesson plans and make all sorts of things for my lessons. Ty always makes fun of me because my homework has mostly consisted of cutting, coloring, or using a hot glue gun. It's been really fun but also time consuming and I'm glad it's almost over! I'm also taking 4 other classes which have been kind of crazy as well. It's getting down to the wire for me which means my classes are tough and my motivation is lacking. Just a few more months!

Ty started taking classes for his Communications major this semester. He is loving it. It's awesome to see that he really enjoys what he's studying and is excited to put it to use in a career. He's also taking some classes for his minor, which is Marriage and Family Studies. He took a parenting skills class and is currently in a marriage skills class. I love talking to him about what he learns in those classes.

We're living in the same apartment complex this semester, but we're in a different apartment (on the first floor! Moving in was such a breeze this time!). We've also made some minor changes from our last apartment. We made a little bit of an upgrade from this:

to this:

I love it so much! It is 2398579845 times more comfy than the futon, it's long enough that Ty can lay down on it, and I love the color! I was so excited when Ty said that he liked the red. We are really happy with it.

Ty also got something new when we came back to school. He said goodbye to his long hair and swimsuit that he sported all summer 

and got a haircut, warmer clothes, and glasses!

I think he looks so good in them. He only wears them when he's in class or when he's doing homework, but they've made a huge difference!

That's all for now, I have a few more things to post about and then I'll be caught up!

Summertime

I feel like I haven't posted in forever! I think it's partly because I feel like nothing is really going on in our life right now, and partly because I haven't taken any pictures lately and I didn't want to post without pictures. But alas, I'm going to document our nothingness anyway.

Ty has been going to guide school all week and is loving it. He leaves the house before 8am every morning, rafts the whole river and learns cool things that I know nothing about so I don't understand half the things he tells me when he comes home (which might be a good thing; as of now I have no clue if the things they do at guide school are dangerous or not. I think I'll keep it that way), and comes home around 6pm. These pictures aren't from guide school, but I don't want this post to be pictureless so they will suffice.

He'll probably start guiding within the next couple weeks. Not a bad way to spend the summer huh? He also got a job at Coloma Resort, the campsite across the river from the house, so he'll work there whenever he's not guiding. Ty still plays basketball at the church twice a week, and watches ESPN whenever he has the chance. Now that basketball and hockey are over, baseball will be dominating the tv for the rest of the summer. Go Giants!

I got a job at a restaurant called Gringo's Mexican Cafe. Ironic, I know. I wouldn't necessarily consider it mexican food but people around here seem to like it. It's basically like Chipotle. I like working there; it's really low key, everyone is really nice, and it's only like a mile away from the Riverhouse which is awesome! I'm also taking a biostatistics class online. Blegh. It's hard and annoying and really time consuming, but it'll be over in about 3 weeks and then I will be so, so happy! I've also been able to visit my family a few times which is nice. We're so blessed that our families live so close to each other.

Well, that's about it. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Women's Conference

I went to Women's Conference for the first time this year. I loved it. I had so much fun hanging out with Ty's mom and sisters!

I loved being in the Marriott Center with all the women that went to the conference. I always feel the spirit so strongly when there are a lot of people gathered singing hymns. It's one of my favorite things.

All the speakers were amazing and I loved every class I went to. It was so interesting to talk to everyone at the end of the day. Even though some of us went to the same classes, we got different things out of it. The Lord is so aware of us. He knows what each of us needs to hear and makes sure we are getting the help we need.

After a full day of uplifting classes we headed over to Terri's house to hang out with her and their new addition to the family, Baby Jude. He is so precious!

I'm so glad we got to spend some time with her family

On Saturday we did some shopping and went out to sushi. The weather was a little gloomy but the shopping was fun and the food was good!

The weekend went by way too fast, but I was excited to go home and hang out with Ty. Since I stayed in Reno a little longer, I hadn't seen Ty in over a week! That was a new record for us.

Thanks for letting me join you guys at Women's Conference! Can't wait to see you all again!



The Biggest Little City in the World

After our trip to Disneyland we headed over the mountains to spend some time with my family in Reno. For some reason I was really homesick this whole school year and this is my first time not going home for the summer, so I have a feeling we'll be making trips out to Reno as much as possible. I'm such a baby!

There's not a lot to do in Reno unless you gamble and/or drink and since we do neither of those things, we have to get creative sometimes. My mom thought we could all go to an Aces game, the local minor league baseball team.

No one in my family had been to a game before so we didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be pretty fun!

Of course, no trip to Reno would be complete without a ridiculous amount of fierce winds. We were all freezing, but after almost 13 years of living in this place we've learned that you can't leave the house without a sweatshirt and at least 6 blankets. Ty is catching on quickly too. He brought a sweatshirt AND a jacket to the game.

No one in my family has ever played, watched, or even been interested in baseball. Ever. We quickly realized that we had no business being there, but we still had a good time. Thank goodness Ty was there to tell us what was going on! My dad is a football coach and it shone through that night. Before the game started he vocalized his frustration that the pitcher seemed to be the only one working as the rest of his team watched him warm-up. And after a couple innings he said "so I'm guessing they only have one formation?" It was so funny. We talked and laughed and tried to keep warm, but after 5 innings, we surrendered to the wind and headed home.

The next day my sister had a lacrosse game. This is a recent discovery for her, it's her first year playing and she loves it! We went to watch her play and cheer her on. Once again, the wind was out of control.

After a couple days Ty went back to Coloma and I stayed in Reno a little longer. It was my mom's Spring Break which was awesome because we got to hang out all day, stay up way too late talking, and just catch up on some quality girl time.

I was in Reno for Easter Sunday. My family was going to get together with some friends for an Easter potluck after church, and we were planning on bringing a side dish and dessert. I decided I wanted to help my mom out with the dessert so I got on Google, found these and these and got inspired! Here is my attempt to do something cute. I might have found a new hobby; I had so much fun making these!

It was great to spend some time with my family!