it's official

Happy Birthdays!

On Thursday, Jan 22nd it was Melissa, Christine and Leigh's birthday! We had a lot of fun celebrating with them.

For Melissa's birthday a bunch of us went to Brick Oven for dinner and then back to their house for cake and ice cream. They made their delicious strawberry birthday "cake" but its not like normal cake. You'll have to ask Melissa to describe it, but it is delicious and i love it. Melissa is so cute and is such an awesome sister-in-law. She is honestly one of my best friends, which makes it even more fun that we are related and will be close forever!

Christine we missed so much! It would have been so fun to see her on her birthday too but we defnitely thought of her. I love Christine so much too... friends since we were little and sisters now! She is always making me laugh and there are so many things that happen that remind me of her that it makes me miss her so much since she is far away.

Me and Tine on New Year's Eve.

For Leigh's birthday we celebrated it the day after by going out to dinner at Gloria's which was delicious and they gave her the most amazing chocolate cake for her dessert. I had such a fun time being with everyone, it was an awesome group. I'm so glad that i got Leigh as one of my suite-mates in the dorms because college would not have been the same without my little lee lee.

friends - family - fun

This past week Vincent Cline, a friend of Paul and Jeff's from high school came in town to visit from Texas and came up to ski and hang out. The boys had a lot of fun with him satying up late and getting into mischief. We went bowling at the wilk one night and we were like the last ones there. Even though i was horrible as usual, it was fun. Friday night we had Whitney and Morgan over and played some really fun games and then a few more people came over to watch a movie.. "The Housebunny". (Don't judge.. i think it's a REALLY funny movie). Also on Friday night my family got into town after being delayed about 3 hours they finally made it for a long weekend! Cassie just got done with finals and they found really good plane tickets so they decided to come up and visit for a few days.

Saturday we went skiing at Park City! It was all of our first time up this season and it was awesome. This was Paul's first time to go skiing since he broke his back last year. It was crazy as the night before he got all his ski stuff out that we hadn't looked at since we packed it up after his accident. He said he got like a really weird panicky sick feeling just looking at it. I was super nervous to take him skiing but he did really well. He didn't ski hard like he used to at all but he still looked dang good coming down the slopes... way better than a person with a broken back should look. We had a really fun day with my family just cruising around and the weather was so nice too! Then that night we had a ton of people over for hamburgers and games and it was super fun.

Paul with advil on hand ready to start his risky ski day

All of us on the mountain- except for tyler who had school. he was missed!

Sunday morning we went to Jackson Owen's homecoming and he gave a great talk. Then it was my first Sunday in our ward with my new calling: second counselor in the Primary Presidency. I loved it! There were 6 kids there and they were adorable. I think i am going to really enjoy my calling and i will be very blessed by their sweet little spirits. After church we had a family dinner at Chelsea and Tyler's and played an extremely long game of Monopoly.

Monday I worked and Paul did lots of homework and work and studying. Then that night we went to P.F. Chang's with my family. As usual, it was delicious and also as usual, i ate way too much.

Tuesday my family left but in the morning we went to breakfast at Magelby's fresh. I can just never get enough of their syrup.. SO delicious.

My grandma sent me an email at the beginning of the year about setting goals and shared some quotes about being optimistic and enjoying life and achieving things this upcoming year. One quote that she shared was one she heard in a talk and it it something that Elder Wirthlin's mom used to always tell him. I really liked it when i read it so i decided to make it my new motto to live by:

Life Lately

i haven't posted for awhile, so here's what's been going on:

i am working a lot! I work at the Gatehouse 3-4 times a week and then when i'm not working there i work as an assistant to a designer doing a house in Deer Valley! It's awesome! I'm definitely keeping busy with my two jobs but enjoying being out of school!

Paul is keeping very busy with school. He's taking 5 classes and so far miraculously liking all of them. He keeps me in tune with the student life still by "allowing" me to help with homework.. quizzes.. whatever else comes along.

Jan and Bret Allen had their baby! Jan is my sister-in-laws sister so i feel related to her too. She has a cute tiny little girl that they named Isabella Scout. She is so precious and it's way fun to have another baby around to play with when we can!

Playing with the Turnbull twins has been SO fun! They are growing so fast and they honestly just get cuter and cuter every day. Taylor and Missy are so nice to let me live through them and be obsessed with their children.

Snow! It has been a shocker ever since we got back from Texas at how much snow there is here. It's finally calmed down a little now but for a few days it was non-stop! It was incredible. I have discovered my least favorite thing about living in the snow: scraping off my car in the mornings. Fo some reason i just really hate it. Luckily i have a sweet husband that will do it for me most times. The other night we went to the Turbull's house in Alpine to watch the championship football game and all the boys (for some unknown reason) decided to strip down to their shorts and go bury themselves in the snow. So crazy! But funny for us to watch!

I'm Graduated!

The new semester has officially started without me. I'm Done! I'm a College Grad! WOO HOO!! (a little anti-climactic being as i won't walk until April but whatever, i'm savoring the moment)

second week of break

When we got back from Florida we left for Austin to spend some time with Paul's family. We had our belated Christmas and opened presents for each other. I got a new camera! i am overjoyed because i was really starting to get frustrated with the quality of pictures i was taking. I LOVE my new camera. Paul also got a spear gun for while he's scuba diving which he was really excited about. Late that night,Paul and his brother and dad left to go deer hunting for a few days in southern Texas. The girls went shopping and watched movies and went out to eat a few times. It was really fun to be able to hang out with Lorraine and Rebekah and Christine since i hadn't seen them for awhile. We had a good time together.

The boys came back New Year's Eve with all their spoils from the trip. Then we got ready for the New Year's Eve party! The pride and joy of the evening was the BALLOON DROP that Paul, Rebekah, Stewart and I rigged up on the cieling of the family room. We filled it with 80 balloons, 9 of which had $1 bills in them (9 for 2009). It was rather successful! As the balloons dropped at midnight mayhem ensued as children and adults alike scrambled to get the dollar bills. The party was fun and my parents and cassie came down for it too! We stayed up late playing games and then played more the next day and hung out and watched more movies.

On Friday we came back to Dallas and watched the UofU vs. Alabama game (only time i have ever cheered for the Utes... but i was proud of them). We also got to hang out with Brittany a lot which i LOVED! I miss her so much when im in Utah!!

On Saturday we went to Six Flags! It was a beautiful perfect day (like 80 degrees) and it was super fun.

This break has been much needed and very enjoyed. I'm so glad we were able to come down to Texas and see both of our families. It went by way to fast but it was fantastic!

first week of break

This year we had Christmas with my parents and younger sister and grandparents. We missed having Chelsea and Tyler with us! But nonetheless we had a great time together. We didn't stay home for too long because the day after we got there we loaded up the cars and headed out!

We drove to New Orleans the first day and explored that night. For dinner we went to this place called the Red Fish Grill and it was DELICIOUS! For dessert we ate a double chocolate bread pudding that was heavenly. The next day we walked around more of New Orleans in the morning and went to the French market to get beignets from Café du Monde. On the way out of town we drove through old town and antique shops and all the restored houses. Then we made it the rest of the way to Destin, Florida.

On Christmas Eve we went shopping at the outlets, went swimming and hot tubbing and went to the village nearby. That night we had a big family dinner and played games. My cousins were there too. We also watched the “Joy to the world” nativity movie and opened pajamas.

Christmas Day we woke up to presents! We had a cute little tree with sea-shell ornaments and also Santa found us! Paul and I got money for getting scuba certified! I also got lots of clothes and jewlry and i gave Paul a juicer which we are both really excited about. We had a big family breakfast then went to the beach! We flew a kite, put our feet in the water, Paul got in all the way and body surfed, built sand castles. The beach on Christmas!! Then we went to a movie (Bedtime stories) and then we got to talk to Mike on the phone! That night we went to dinner at the Marlin Grill.. also DELICIOUS and then played more games and went hot tubbing.
Friday we went shopping a little, then we went Go-kart racing at this place with a wooden track that everyone kept getting stuck sidways but was super fun. On Saturday we drove home. The week went by so fast but we had a great Christmas and a really fun time being in some nice weather!