Ok one more link

So my sister-in-law just posted a personalized video she made for my niece from Santa Clause on this website. It's awesome! You can even make them for adults so I made one for Troy! I figured I would share the link with those of you who have kids old enough to recognize who Santa is. I'm pretty sure I would have freaked out if I got a video from Santa as a kid.

Check out the one I made for Troy

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/da2555417ef857fe8b01625aba63f815

Ukulele Boy

So my friend posted this link on his facebook and I fell in-love with this little boy! I swear I've watched it like 10 times. He's hilarious and really good! Anyways I had to share it, enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTCzJWrgFbE

Belated Halloween

Here's a very late post on our fun Halloween festivities

First of all we had a family Halloween party over at Troy's parent's place. I wish I would have gotten more pictures of everyone because their costumes really were great.

We dressed as Mimes

Claire the Bumble Bee

Abe the Transformer

That weekend we headed to Nampa, Idaho to visit our friends and spend Halloween there. Friday night Callie and Tyler had organized a really fun Murder Mystery game so we all came in character and were ready to solve the crime!

I was Penny Loafer and Troy was Cal Culator

Trevor and April

Here's a shot of the whole group enjoying some dinner

Our wonderful Hostess Callie starting off the game

Cal and Penny paying close attention

Isn't Cal a sexy beast?? Haha he cracks me up

 Halloween night we dressed up again and headed to a party. Troy and I were your classic KKK and witch. Just kidding, he's actually a ghost. After all these years of dressing up I had never actually been a witch so I was pretty excited about it.

 

Here are the Biggest Losers, Callie and Tyler. Clearly they have a few more pounds to lose.

Trevor and April were April and Michealangelo (sp?) from the Ninja Turtles 

Before the party we headed out for a bite to eat. Here's cute little Ducky Brenda and Creepy 70's Paul

These two stuffed their faces all night long. Sick.

Here's us girls at the party

We can't forget about our adopted children Bryce and Doug dressed as Mario and Luigi

I figured I'd end this post with a disturbing photo of Paul.

Enjoy.

 

We had so much fun that weekend and were sad to head home. Luckily we'll be seeing most of these people again really soon.

*Special thanks to Callie for many of these wonderful photos

Semester Coming To an End

It's true, my semester is nearly over. This is actually my last week of classes and then I have 2 exams next week. Unfortunately I also have 3 papers due between this week and the next that I have not even started. It makes me want to vomit just thinking about it. I really don't know why I do this to myself, for some reason I really like torturing myself. Here's the thing, when it comes to school I really have very little motivation left. I seriously just want to be done SOOOOO badly!! Luckily next semester will be my last and I will graduate in April... I think I just heard a chorus of angels after typing that. I will finally be finished and have a degree in communication. YIPPEE! It really was important to me to finish since I only had three semesters left when Troy and I got married and left BYU-Idaho. I'm not going to lie though, it's been tough. Weber State has this weird obsession with making their students right freaking LONG research papers. I've seriously had to write one for almost every class that I've taken there and I HATE research papers... with a passion.

Anyways, I'll be really proud of myself when it's all done. My dreams of graduating in April were almost ruined the other week when I registered for classes and realized that two of my mandatory classes were at the exact same time and day. I went to go see what I could do about it because one of them was an HR class which I already took at BYU-I, but they told me there was no way they could accept it. To top it all off they told me that they were only offering those two classes during the winter semester which means I would have to wait an entire year to graduate because of ONE STUPID CLASS I HAD ALREADY TAKEN! Needless to say, I was pretty upset about it. Finally I found an advisor that was willing to help me out and I was able to substitute the class with something else. I was so happy it worked out! So for my very last semester I will be taking:

Negotiations
Gender Communication
Acting I - (Fun hey?)
Small Group Facilitation
Senior Seminar
Training the Trainer

It will be a busy semester, but I think it might actually be kind of fun! Anyways, that's my update on school. Maybe I should go get started on those papers...

Our House

Ok so I've promised several people that I would get these pictures posted and it's taken me a while so I'm sorry. Troy and I moved into our house about a month ago and have loved every minute of it. We're so happy it's finished, Troy put a lot of work into it and it turned out amazing. So here are the pictures

View of the entry way

View from the front door

Mud room

Library

Other side of Library

Family Room

Kitchen

Other side of Kitchen

The bonus room above the garage

That is a little tunnel for kids to run through on the left

Other end of the bonus room and view of the hallway upstairs

Bedroom #1

Other side of the room

Bedroom #2

Master Bedroom

(The color looks better in person)

Master Bathroom

The tub of my dreams

Entry into our closet

And there you have it folks! That's our new home! I didn't take pictures of the other two bathrooms or our laundry room, but you get the idea. If any of you are visiting Utah and need a place to stay be sure to let us know, we'd be happy to have you.

Year One

It kind of blows my mind that Troy and I have already been married for over a year now. It seems to have gone by so fast and yet it seems like we've been married forever. There's one thing for sure, it's been one heck of a year! We've been so blessed in so many ways and have had so much fun together. It really hit me how much we've been lucky enough to do this year as I went through my pictures. We are pretty dang spoiled and have a lot to be thankful for. Here's a quick recap of our year together;

The happiest day of my life

A quick trip to Vegas as part of our honeymoon

(please note that the hotel gave us money to gamble as part of our hotel package so we used it... that's allowed right?? We won $10)

Lake Powell

Halloween

San Francisco

Our first Christmas together

Visiting our friends in Nampa, Idaho

Heidelburg, Germany

Paris, France

Italy

Building our house

4th of July

Trip to British Columbia to visit my family

Hawaii

Looking at these pictures really helps me realize how good we have it and makes me forget how much a cried the first few months of marriage, how bad our home smells after Troy uses the bathroom, how much I hate folding laundry, how many fights we had over building our house, how many times I've had to tell Troy "not tonight honey," and how much weight I've gained in a year. All that aside my life pretty much rocks the house and that's all thanks to my man!

Ok, but in all seriousness I'm so grateful to be married to such a kind, funny, hard working and loving guy like Troy. He makes me laugh all the time, his creativity amazes me and he is such an example to me. His patience blows me away each time I make him late for church, or make him tread through my battle zone of clothes on the floor, or purposely try to annoy and tease him. I truly lucked out. I've loved having him by my side throughout all our adventures this past year and I can't wait for future adventures together.

I love you Troy Boy!

Hawaii

Ok it is about time that I get this post out! Troy and I were lucky enough to go to Hawaii in August, that's right it happened in August and I am blogging about it now. Lame.

Anyways, Troy and his dad needed to head out to Laie because their company is doing th HVAC for the temple renovations there. The wives got to go along and I was SOOOO Happy! Troy just called me up one day and said "hey do you want to go to Hawaii in two weeks?" I love my life.



They have a little house right across from the Polynesian Cultural Center that they have been renting out for their workers and so we got to stay there. It was a really nice place. My sister-in-law Cassie and her husband Mason decided they couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a free place to stay and transportation so they came along too. It was my first time in Hawaii and it was a blast! I fell in love!

This was the view behind the house we were staying in. Gorgeous!

Troy and Mason sportin the farmers tans!

For the first two days we hung out at the Huki Lau beach and the North Shore. Can I just say how much I love the Ocean? Cuz I really really do. The next day we headed to Honolulu and stopped off at the Dole plantation. It was pretty fun except I got really irritated with an asian woman that worked there who said "ALOHA" literally every 5 seconds with a strong asian accent. I finally just had to get out of there. If you heard it, you would understand.

Here's Troy with his dad and sister Cassie enjoying some pineapple treats.

After the Dole plantantion we went on our merry way to Honolulu in hopes of checking out Pearl Harbor and the Swap Meet and the stadium. Unfortunately Pearl Harbour was completely out of tickets for the day so we didn't get to go. We did head over to the Swap Meet though and we all left with a few souvenirs.

Troy and I stayed in Honolulu while the rest of the group headed back to Laie. We did some boogie boarding at Waikiki and then met up with some good friends Paul and Nancy with their cute daughter Abigail. Paul is getting his masters in Honolulu right now. We grabbed some yummy dinner with them and went and ate it on the beach.

Here's cutie pie Abigail building a sand castle

The Garner Family

It was really awesome catching up with them. We hadn't seen them since they had graduated from BYU-Idaho so it was a real treat, not to mention we were in HAWAII!!

Thanks for the good time guys! Hope to see you again soon!

What a beautiful sunset at Waikiki beach



The next day we hung out at Huki Lau Beach again and there were some serious waves that day. I caught a couple with the boogie board, but they started getting bigger and bigger and I was getting a little nervous. Of course I hesitated a little longer than I should have as a GIANT wave came toward me and I got SLAMMED! I was a mess when I got up and my chest was burning like nothing else, everyone was asking me if I was ok, but all I could say was "Burning, burning!" That salt water is a killer!

The Green Family

Terry relaxing on the beach

The next day we did some snorkeling at sharks cove. We saw loads of fish that day and I really enjoyed it... when Troy was by my side. I didn't like being out there alone and I really didn't like it when the fish got incredibly close to me. They were clearly used to being around people. I know, I know, I'm a pansy. I let fear take over my life!

That day I tasted the best fish tacos EVER, and I don't even like fish, but they were delicious! I topped it off with a yummy snow cone. Did I mention I love Hawaii?!!

Troy and I spent the week driving around in this sweet Mustang Convertable. It was a lot of fun and we thought we were really cool until we saw pretty much every other tourist on the island driving one too...

We still enjoyed ourselves

On our last night we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the luau and the big night show. I was really impressed with that place and it was a lot of fun. One thing that added to the fun was the fact that we got to meet up with Angie and Mike and their adorable kids Brylie and Tyken. It was so awesome to see them, I think it had been almost 4 years since I had seen Angie. They were nice enough to come meet us at the PCC for a short but sweet visit. Brylie and I became best friends for the short while we were together, holding hands and all, but I have an incling she might be like that with everyone. She's hilarious!

We were feeding all the fish some food! And by food I really mean little rocks and the occasional pellet we found on the ground haha.

Thanks for coming to see us Wynes family! It was great to see you!

The next photos are at the Luau. It was a lot of fun.

Here's a few glamour shots of Troy and I

Roasted Pig. Yummy!

I treated myself to a delicious Pina Colada. This is what it's all about folks, hanging out in Hawaii sipping a Pina Colada. I'd been waiting my whole life for this!

Sharesies!

Alright so the M.C. lady called up everyone who was celebrating an anniversary or honeymoon. Troy and I had just had our one year anniversary the day before we left on our trip so we decided to go up. She had us all say where we were from and how many years we were celebrating and then we enjoyed a nice dance together to some hawaiian music.

This is how Troy and I danced together. You can tell we're still newlyweds ;)

Cassie and I got a picture with the guy who performs with fire like a mad man in the night show. Cassie insisted on a picture with him because she thought he was sexy. Don't deny it Cass.

The night show was really really awesome and I'm so happy we went. My favorite were the Tahitian dancers because of the way they can move their butts. It's seriously incredible. I keep practicing in the mirror, but it just doesn't even come close.

On our last day in Hawaii we headed to the beach again. It was a little overcast that day and pretty windy so I passed on getting in the water and just hung out on the beach. Troy, Mason and Craig all went in to do a some boogie boarding and got beaten up pretty bad in the HUGE waves, but still had a lot of fun.

I was able to get a nice shot of Mason's back. This is what happens when you let Cassie put sunscreen on your back. Hilarious!!

We flew back home that night. I had come down with a bit of a cold and took some Sudafed P.M. which pretty much knocked me out for the whole flight.

The trip was a blast and we all had a lot of fun together. I really hope to be able to go back someday.

I Love Hawaii!