Breathe

Someday when I have more time (when school is finally over) I will have a real blog and update it when we actually have cool things to say besides talk about all the school and homework we are doing right now! But for now I will just post another video of Taylor Swift because I love her music!!! This song is so awesome and she is singing it with Colbie Caillat (what could be better???!)

Did I mention I love this song?

P.S. Only four more weeks of class and then finals...that makes me so happy!!! :-)

Thug Story

I love Taylor Swift!

"I was right there beside him all summer long..."

I can't believe that summer is coming to an end! On Monday we will start our final semester at BYU. Todd has already applied for December graduation and he will be taking 15 credit hours and working this semester. I'm signed up for 20 credits (yikes!) including my internship at Utah County Health Department which will leave me with a couple online classes to finish before I officially graduate in April! We will both walk in April for graduation...so cute, I know! Haha, but seriously I cannot wait until we are graduated and some money can finally come rolling in. That is...until Todd goes to grad school which will probably be sometime next year. It has been a little bit stressfull with both of us going to school full time...all the time...but we have been able to take classes together every semester since we have been engaged including History, Humanities, D&C, New Testament, Accounting, Flexibility, English, and we will be taking Marketing Management this fall at 8 in the morning! I have the best study partner ever.

So I have a feeling that with both of us being so busy and with Todd's calling we are not going to see each other very much this semester! But we have done a lot of fun things this summer. We got to go to Priest Lake this year and spend time with my family! It rained every single day but it was still so fun just being with everybody. My least favorite part of the trip was riding in the car for 24+ hours in the backseat between my nephew Max and my sweatheart. Max liked bossing me around the whole trip..."Chris, get my waterbottle, get my shoes, get my color books, can I have a treat?" and so on. But Aaron and Todd made it bearable by reading the 6th Harry Potter book to us. After we got home from the lake we were invited to spend a day at Bear Lake with some of Todd's cousins which was so fun. Tomorrow is Todd's birthday and our last hurrah of summer! Mmmm...Tucanos here we come!!

Fiddle Chick

Recently I have been thinking that I really need to start practicing the fiddle again. I know, I'm a geek but its my hobby. This picture was taken over two and a half years ago when I was in a celtic ensemble at BYU for a semester. It was so much fun! I just think that my life is better when music is a part of it. I have had so many special memories playing music. I'm also going to try and convince Todd to learn an instrument because I think he would really enjoy it. I dug up these videos from forever ago...they aren't the best quality or anything but its just fun to remember when I was apart of the ensemble. And I guess our name was "Corn Beef and Cabbage"? I can't remember but that is a really silly name...oh well. The videos were taken by someone's dad so I'm not the center of attention or anything. I love celtic music! Now I just need to practice and get really good so that I can teach lessons someday. :-) The last clip is an awesome song called David's Jig by Natalie MacMaster. She is my hero.

Lately

So here are some random pictures we have taken lately. I guess the biggest news from us is that we moved to Orem and we love it. Now we are within 1 minutes drive from Hauni and Aaron and Max AND we have air conditioning. Its amazing.

Max snuggling with Sealy and watching Baby Einstein at our new place

Preston and Alisha just moved out of Orem! Sad day. We will miss them! Doesn't Preston look official in his new gear?

Christianne, Alisha, and Clara

We were also able to attend Todd's mission reunion last week. Todd loves his mission president and he was really excited for me to meet him.

Washington Trip and Will goes into the MTC

Near the end of June we were able to take a short trip to Washington to watch Will give his farewell talk. It was great to be with family and it was a neat experience to be there during his setting apart. He is now Elder Casper and is serving in North Carolina! He already seems like a different person. It is really fun to read all of his letters. We miss having him in Utah!

We did a session at the Salt Lake temple the day before he went into the MTC.

Will with Max in front of the MTC

Dropping him off!! See ya in two years Elder Casper! If you want to read his letters, check out eldercasper.blogspot.com.

Anniversary and Marathon

We celebrated our first anniversary on June 12. I can't believe it has already been over a year since we got married. Todd got me some beautiful flowers and surprised me with a picture book of our wedding day. He also took me out to a fancy dinner at The Roof on temple square. So romantic and fun! We loved eating there. It would have been perfect if we did not have to wake up at 3:50 a.m. the next morning to get ready to...

run a marathon! Yes, a MARATHON as in 26.2 miles. Todd and I started running in February to prepare for the Utah Valley Marathon. Hauni and Will also ran and we had a great time doing our long runs every saturday. Well...we all crossed the finish line and that is what matters. We were in pretty bad shape the next couple days! We couldn't move because we were so sore. It was a great experience though. Meg even made a trip to Utah to cheer us on. I don't think Todd or I will ever run that far again.

At Temple square on our anniversary

Wahoo! We did it! I loved training with you guys.

I'm so proud of my hubby! He did so great!

Brett and Amy's Wedding

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from our trip to California for Brett's wedding in May! It was so much fun spending time with the Holbrook family. Congrats Brett and Amy!

Eating lunch after Amy's endowment session. So good!!

The beautiful couple leaving the temple

Awww...

The Holbrook family!

The girlies

At the luncheon

Beautiful reception with beautiful view!

Dancing :-)

Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay)

New Haircut

Not much news here! Hauni chopped off my hair yesterday! I haven't had my hair this length in a really long time! It will be much easier to take care of. Todd is at his meetings and he has a 12 page paper due tomorrow. I hope that he can somehow find time today to finish it! Oh the end of this semester can't come soon enough. Todd has been sick for the last week with a cold and I thought that I might be lucky enough not to catch it...I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick now though. This last week has been pretty hard on us! We've been SO busy with school stuff. On Friday I woke up to get ready for work and I felt everything start to spin! I threw up and realized that I couldn't move my head or my eyes because I would just start feeling so dizzy. Todd called a nurse and she said it was most likely a flu virus that was in my ear and was messing with my equilibrium. Needless to say, I had no problem staying in bed all day long!! I don't really want to get a cold now though!

Back in the Singles Ward...

I thought I would take this chance while Todd is busy with meetings to do a quick update. Life is busy, as always, but we are getting so excited for April and the end of this very long winter semester! Todd received a call to serve as second counselor in the BYU 51st ward and we have been there for about a month now. I feel a little young to be a "Sunday widow" but oh well! I can see how much growth will come from this calling and what a neat experience it will be- especially for Todd! Because of the time change, he had to get up extra early this morning to go to his meetings (6:30...which was really like 5:30). We meet for church in the JSB on campus at 10:20. I love the church time, but I'm still getting used to sitting at desks for sacrament meeting again! We love the ward! Everyone is just so friendly and we are quickly learning names.

Right now we are trying to find internships. Todd has an interview on Tuesday for a BYU rep position that would require him to travel around Utah and Idaho and speak in high schools about BYU. I think he would be perfect for that job! We are looking forward to going to California in May for Brett and Amy's wedding! They are such a great couple and it is going to be so much fun being with everyone! I'm sorry that we are such poor bloggers! Someday I will be better about updating this thing! Love you all!

The month of January!

Looking down our street

Well this month has flown by! Todd and I have been keeping busy. We are in full swing with school now and have our first test this week. We are taking an online accounting class so hopefully that goes well. Todd is still working as a publicity writer for the Performing Arts Management at BYU and gets tickets to all of the fun events at BYU. We saw the Dance Company last friday and will be going to see the young ambassadors perform this coming friday. I work in Special Collections in the library for the curator of the Photographic Archives. As you can see from the picture, we had quite the time shoveling our driveway/sidewalk when we came back from Christmas break. We had so much ice on our driveway! It was good exercise!

I found a fossilized ice footprint when I was clearing the snow off the driveway.

Todd breaking up the ice on our driveway.

ARIZONA- Earlier this month I got to fly to Arizona and have a girls weekend with Meg, Hauni, and my mom! It was so nice to get away from the cold. In our short stay we were able to go see the Lion King, do a temple session, attend a fireside by Elder Bednar, get together with some family, and go bike riding. Thanks so much Meg for all of your planning! It was a fun weekend!

Sisters

Hauni and I at the Cheesecake Factory...mmm!

Meg and I on the temple grounds.

Thanks for the Christmas/B-day present mom!

Todd was excited for me to get home. He had the house all clean, went grocery shopping, taught our sunday school lesson, and got me these beautiful flowers! I love you, babe!

The footprints of our neighborhood bunny on our doorstep.

We got to celebrate Julie's birthday this last weekend. The girls went and saw Bride Wars and then the boys met up with us for lunch at Applebees.

Von got in the way of Julie...

The Holbrook family

Mason and Caleb dancing

What a great smile!