Merry Christmas!!

     So.  This is our 2nd official Christmas together.  This, however, is our first Christmas spent with other people (well last year we were on a cruise but this is the first year with people we know and care about).  Albert has not yet gone completely insane with so many people around (only 15 people are staying this year as opposed to the 25 people who were in the house last year while we were staying here around the time of our wedding.) for which I am eternally grateful. :)
     But first a little bit of other information.  For those of you who have not heard yet, I'm pregnant!!  YAY!  the baby is due on July 3rd.  I will be 13 weeks tomorrow (the 26th) and both Albert and I are very ready for me to be over the morning sickness part of the pregnancy.  :P  We heard the heartbeat for the first time on the 15th of December and we get to find out the gender right around Valentine's Day. :)
   Anyways, back to Christmas.  So my parents were wonderful enough to fly Albert and I out to VA.  My body switched over to UT time pretty quickly...Albert...well....he sleeps a lot lol.  mostly if I move around a lot at night though...I've been doing that more and more lately.

No, Albert isn't playing the piano...he's on his laptop

     I was quite excited to be coming out because I just knew that I would get to play Mary in my family's Christmas pageant because I'm pregnant....not that I'm really even showing...only a tiny bump. maybe there will be a picture later...maybe...  anyways, so last night dad and I were planning the whole project and we decided to do this year's pageant differently and have everyone as angels and look down at the manger scene  and we got Tiffy, Will, and Katie to set up the barbies into a manger scene...they did a pretty good job I think :)  anyways.  So I wasn't Mary...but I'll be much more pregnant some other year and then I will be Mary. :)
     I have loved watching my nephew, Will, and my niece, Katie, play with everyone at my parents' house.  Their little sister Emily is just 3-4 months old and is super smiley and completely adorable...basically.  I really love watching my dad and brothers play with her.  Will is 3 and completely obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon.  Katie is completely adorable.  she has super curly messy hair and refused to give me a hug when she first saw me...guess I'm too scary.  Wednesday I cleaned out my bins of stuff from high school and I found a wooden model piano.  Katie decided she really liked it and began "playing" it and she started singing along to what she was "playing" and it was just super duper cute.  :)  yep.  My family has so many cute little kids. :)  wish I could see all of them more often.

 Playing...some game...someday I'll remember the name of it.

Christmas Eve dinner. (Shepard's Meal)

    Until this morning I've been able to eat almost whatever I want...not excluding chicken enchiladas...which sound horrible to me right now, but tasted really good when I was eating them.  yesterday we mostly ate bread...which was wonderful because most of it was my mom's freshly made wheat-ish bread. :)  yep. :)  it was lovely.  anyways, so this morning I ate bacon and that was the straw that broke the camel's back...so...I got sick...and threw up...twice...but I've been good since...I'm grateful that I'm not the only married woman here and that the 2 women older than me have both had children. :)  it means that they completely sympathize and my mom completely understands when I tell her that I cannot eat the chicken-noodle soup.  :)  Life is good.
     Found out 2 days ago that one of my super-great friends, Laura Crenshaw, got her mission call to San Fernando, California. :)  Albert and I are super excited for her.

it snowed too much so church was cancelled so we had church at home

Relief Society/Young Women

Playing Ticket To Ride

Sunday Dinner

Puzzle completing is a HUGE family tradition.

     Just realized I haven't talked much about Albert's experience this Christmas...he thinks my family is strange...which is not a surprise because we kind of are...he's had a lot of fun playing dart gun battles and dominating at Risk.  He wasn't too happy when I was up at 5:09 this morning cuz I couldn't get back to sleep, but he loved his presents. :)   What he didn't love was the fact that my mom gave me MORE craft/sewing stuff for the house...baha!   ah well... :)  good thing he loves me.  He's excited to be in our own house and in our own bed...yep...we leave the 28th so that we can split the holidays evenly between my family and his family....also so my family doesn't drive him completely insane lol.  Anyways, yep...that's us. :)  I'll add some pictures later.

Pushing Right Along

          So life keeps going.  Seasons change, it gets WAY too cold, finals rush towards us, and we're still trying to stay sane...Albert's doing better than I am I think.
          Albert's super excited for the first part of the 7th Harry Potter movie to come out. :)  (Yes, we're huge fans...we have all of the movies...and a clear-play player so I can watch them too 8D  )  That's about all the big news that's coming out right now...oh...and we're getting wood flooring in our house sometime this week. :)  (not sure when but the guy is fixing the parts of the floor that need fixing today...he may have also been laying down the wood, but I don't remember...we'll see when I get home eh?)
          We're super excited for Thanksgiving and all of the family-ness and festivities that result because of it.  (though Albert may be a bit apprehensive about the thanksgiving dinner w/ my family because he knows we tend to do some pretty crazy things...ah well :P )  We're also excited because it gives us a good break from school (and work for me) and because we only have 2 weeks after that left of school until we're done and then we don't have to worry about any kind of school work...well...for 3.5 weeks depending on how fast we get our finals done :P
          Things that we are especially grateful for this season: carrots, super pretzels, warm beds, great housing managers, loving family, brothers who come and eat our cookies that we can't finish, being healthy, getting enough to eat, lots of quilts, flushing toilets, cars that run, crock pots, good grades, clean minds, good jobs, wonderful friends, and a lot more which I won't write because there's too much...those are just some of the highlights.
         Anyways.  yep. life is good.  we're happy, we love each other, we love life...though we wish we could have a little more time to sleep and a little less running around to do sometimes, but don't we all?

Halloween

So, this was Albert and I's second Halloween together.

     Last Halloween, we dressed up (me as a gypsy and Albert as a pirate I think) and met up with our friend Laura.  We then drove up to where Laura's Nana lives in Orem and went trick or treating.  we got lots of weird looks, but had a bunch of fun.  Near the end I started saying "happy holidays" to people because TECHNICALLY it was a holiday and Thanksgiving and Christmas were so near...that also got me lots of weird looks.  Anyways, once we were done trick-or-treating, we took all of our candy to the hospital in Provo and gave it to the authorities and asked them to give it to the children (those who could have it) who were stuck in the hospital on Halloween.  It was actually a bunch of fun and I was a little bummed that we didn't do it again...

     This Halloween weekend was a little controversial because Halloween was on Sunday.  Anyways, so Saturday morning Albert's mom came over with his Aunt and another friend and had a yard-sale on our front lawn (it was actually pretty fun because they could talk to all of the Hispanic people who came along).  I then had to go to work.  For work we were allowed to dress up as long as it kept within the parameters of work dress code (close toed shoes, nothing really immodest etc.)  So I went as a princess.

 Awesome book about a princess

     As you can see, two other girls came as princesses too...but that's ok...we decided to get along.  

     As you can also see, we met up with Charlie Chapman (quite a nice chap actually haha).  :) but yeah.  

     We only had 2-3 people come to our door Saturday night *disappointment* ...and nobody came on Sunday 

Ah well. Happy Belated Halloween!

Time Flies When Life Is Busy

          So, today is our 10 month anniversary.  CRAZY!!  Life goes on.  We're still good... I'm pretty excited to see my mom and dad who are flying out today and leave monday. :)  Also midterms are almost over and so far so good grade wise. :)  Yep...that's us. Sorry that it's not much...maybe next week...

School goes on...

          So...honestly, the main reason I'm writing this is because a friend bugged me about it...sorry that it took that for me to finally update you all who mostly get my life updates from my blog.

things that some/most of you may not know:

-I transferred over to Utah Valley University.

          -This has been a blessing because the classes are a LOT less stressful and have made my life easier as I take a full semester and as I work.

          -Another blessing is that the El. Ed. program is a lot more laid back than BYU's Program.  THey simply tell you what classes need ot be taken and you take them at the rate that you want to take them.

          -I also have discovered that if I go summer I can have my Associate's Degree by next fall and then I can apply to the Bachelors program. :) YAY!!!

-Albert has taken on Chem 106, Chem 107, and Math 119 (Calculus) all in one semester.

          -he actually is going very well (basically all A's) and is enjoying his classes. :)


Oh!  cute story:
          Last Monday I got out of my car after school and the little girl (whose family had moved into the house that Albert and I were previously going to move into) comes running over to me.
     "Do you have any little boys?"
     I was a little surprised at the fact that she specifically wanted to know if I had any BOYS "Um...no, not yet."
     "Oh," she replied "ok"
           Wednesday (last week still) at the same time I pulled into my drive.  The same little girl came running over to where I was standing.
     "Do you have any kids yet?"
     Laughing a little inside I replied that I didn't.
          Thursday (yes, one day later) when I got home from school she comes RUNNING over to me.
     "Do you have any kids yet?"
     Again, I struggled not to laugh at her innocence. "no not yet"
     She got this look on her face that seemed a little impatient.  "Are you EVER going to have kids?!"
          Kids say the darnedest things. :)


         So yeah, that's us.  We're excited for General Conference this weekend and for seeing family.  I was super excited yesterday when Albert and I's Conference packets (something that my dad puts together for the family) came in the mail. :)  
          I'm super excited to be able to say that we're going to VA for Christmas and I'm super excited to know that during that time I'll be able to see new baby Emily. :)  YAY!! (and congratz Matt and Hailey)
         We have been blessed a lot and we'd like to thank you all for your prayers and all of the other ways that you have helped us.  Love to all!

moving

So. We won't be moving after all. ah well. Saves money, stress of moving, and all the time changing our addresses on everything would take up. So, I guess in a way its a blessing.

Albert finally went to the optometrist today. He had fun getting his eyes dilated...ok not so much...(which reminds me, I was supposed to get mine dilated back in December...oops ah well) and was told that he needed glasses along with his contacts. I really like the frames he picked out...When we get the actual glasses I'll be sure to post pictures. :) So yeah :) Also, he didn't get his eyes "poofed" like when they puff some air in your eye or something...and apparently he's never had it done...is that just a VA optometrist thing?

Anyways, that's us!!! :D

new apartment, new job, new experiences

So, life goes on!! (YAY!!) um...yeah, anyways. So for a bit moving was a "maybe-not-afterall" situation. You see, the lady who owned the houses signed them over to her two brothers (one of whom is the father of the lady who currently manages the places, Diane) and Diane's uncle didn't seem like the kind of guy who would keep a whole house w/ 3 bedrooms and a nice yard at $500 a month...so...we were gonna see if he'd agree to let us sign a 2 year lease and if he did, we'd move and if he didin't we'd stay wehre we are. Long story short, we have signed a 2 year lease for the apartment next door. So, we get to start moving stuff into the new apartment today! The two upstairs bedrooms and kitchen are cleaned out over there so we're gonna start moving things over. we're SO excited. :D Anyway. yeah :) We helped a little with the de-junking of the basement and were amazed at how much random useless stuff Norma (the lady that owned the house) had. But as a result I now have about 6 scenes of red/orange/yellow/white (it fades in and out) yarn. and a bunch of other scenes of other solid colored yarn (reds, greens, yellows, whites, blues). So...that's the news about moving.

So...I got a job promotion and I started working the new job yesterday. And i didn't die...but I also didn't have to answer the phone or call anyone. so yeah :) life is getting better. Excited for school to start next week. :) Hope your lives are also good. :)