My Amazing Wife

There are many times I find myself wondering how I got so lucky.  In fact, a couple of those times have occurred within the last two days, and I just had to share!

1/26/13- Krista and I live for weekends.  Week days are filled with work, class, homework, commuting, you get the picture.  Saturday is one of our only days to relax and take it easy.  On Saturday, Krista spent the late afternoon and evening shopping and cleaning so that I could go play basketball with some friends.  As soon as I got home with my brother Jourdon and our friend Caleb, Krista watched Bourne Legacy with three gross, sweaty boys.  Wow! 

1/27/13- Krista had a headache on Sunday that was pretty bad.  Luckily we had an easy dinner plan for the night that wasn’t going to require any cooking at all.  However, our easy dinner plan completely fell through, leaving us wondering what to do for dinner.  There would have been nothing wrong with suggesting Captain Crunch, but Krista decided she would make one of my favorite casseroles instead.  It was delicious!! 

These kinds of things happen all the time.  Krista has always been so good at the little things.  Things that I really enjoy are important to her, so she’ll encourage me to watch a Thunder game when it’s on, or to go play basketball with the guys.    

I just had to give my beautiful Krista a shout-out and thank her in front of everyone for how amazing she is!   I don’t know exactly what it is that I did to earn her love, but I sure am eternally grateful I have it. 

Snapshots from the Anniversary Celebration

We felt a little jipped on the anniversary celebration because our one year mark fell on a Sunday. So we decided to celebrate on our own the Friday before by going to dinner at Outback (my personal fav) and getting away for a night. On Sunday, our real anniversary, we celebrated with my family. And ate our year-old wedding cake (which had been stuck in a freezer for the entire year). All for the sake of tradition.

I also insisted on adding a candle to the cake. It just feels too weird to have a cake without a candle you get to blow out.

 My reaction to the prospect of eating year-old frozen cake. Yummy....

Drinking sparkling cider with our arms crossed. 

Kissing under the kissing ball. Happy anniversary Shawn!!!

Reflections on a year

A couple of weeks ago marked one year since this:

And oh, what a year it's been. While we have had some amazing times, we've also been hit with a LOT of HARD things that I don't think either of us expected. We've had to move 3 times so far in our marriage. We've had neighbors who smoked and apartments that let in way too much sunlight during a 115 degree summer day. We've faced the struggle of trying to find jobs and trying to find a decent apartment. We've faced moving away from family. We've had the transmission on our car go out (which costs $$$$$$ to replace). We've had a scholarship fall through because of a miscommunication. We've had crazy school fees appear. And many more struggles which are too personal to mention. Sometimes we can't help but feel that it's too much, and that this isn't what we signed up for with marriage.

But in those moments, it hits me- No, this is exactly what you signed up for with marriage. A carefree life full of happiness and fun is what dating is for. Marriage is where you get to choose your best friend and your partner to navigate life with. You choose that person that can help you get through it all. I know Shawn infinitely more than I did a year ago. I know what makes him tick, what his dreams are, and what insecurities he has. And he knows the same about me. And that's what's so incredible about marriage. When we were first married, I thought I knew everything about Shawn. After all, we talked on the phone for hours every night. You find out a lot about a person that way. But I realized now that I didn't truly know Shawn like I do now.

People always say that the first year of marriage is the hardest. At first I didn't believe them, but now I do. But it's important for it to be hard. Those trials cement you together in a way that no other thing can. They force you to be a team and learn to compromise. They force you to have faith. They force you to love harder than ever before. And while this year has been tough, I wouldn't have it any other way. The love and admiration I have for Shawn is stronger now than it was on the day we got married. And I can't wait for it to grow even stronger as we continue on our eternity together. 

I love ya forever babe.

Christmas 2012

So it seems like everytime that I say I'm going to get better at blogging that a bunch of other things come up and blogging gets pushed to the side again. But with the new year I'm more determined than ever to be better at documenting our life and blogging happens to be a great way of doing that.

Not too much happened to us during the fall. Shawn continued school and I continued work. For Thanksgiving break we were lucky enough to go to Branson, Missouri with the Beans! We had an amazing break and saw four incredible shows. After that, Shawn had finals and ended his first full semester of grad school with a 4.0!! Way to go babe! Only one more semester of school and we will be done forever! (Hopefully...)

After finals wrapped up, we headed out to Idaho for Christmas break. We hadn't seen my family for 8 months which was way way too long. I was able to take a lot of time off of work so we were able to be out there for almost 2 weeks. Nothing too grand or exciting happened during the break, but that was exactly how we wanted it to be. Life is always crazy so we loved doing nothing for 2 weeks but spending time with people that we loved and keeping traditions alive.

The girls all dressed up for Church (minus Michelle). It used to be that I was easily the tallest and now we are all close to the same height!! They are growing up way too fast.

My favorite boy EVER. I love him lots and lots and lots and lots.

Reenacting the nativity with my family. We even snuck Cuddles in there as a sheep.

Christmas morning at 6 am. I used to love waking up early as a kid, but as you can tell from my face, not so much anymore. But hey, at least we managed to coordinate our Christmas outfits!

As much as I love the rest of my family, these two girls definitely stole most of my attention over the break!! We're super lucky to be aunt and uncle to these two cuties!! 

Getting ready to make cookies!

 I love how she is so determined to move my hand out of the way so she can stir.

Christmas presents!! She would not stop riding on her horse all night.

Seriously. Love. this. girl.

Matching pajamas!

And finally, Shawn being an incredible uncle and playing pretty pretty princess :)

Just Livin' Life

Today's been a good day :)

1. I had a job interview this morning for a job that is perfect for me! It utilizes all the skills I learned as a bioinformatics major (turns out the stuff you learn in school actually is useful!) The interview went well (even if I did get lost in the parking garage after it was over) so I'm hoping to hear back from them soon. I have another interview tomorrow for a totally different position, so keep your fingers crossed!
2. We went out to lunch after the interview to celebrate and went to Mazio's for a pizza buffet. It was delicious and I even got 3 pieces of Hawaiian pizza. Shawn's dad had decided to go to Mazio's for lunch as well, so it was awesome having lunch with him.
3. I went with Shawn to class again tonight. His classes are 3 1/2 hours long, so I just bring my laptop and sit in the study area and get stuff done. After he's done with class, we have to walk across a forever long parking lot to get to our car. I did not feel like walking across it, so Shawn gave me a piggyback ride across, with our backpacks and everything. Love him :)
4. Our beloved OKC Thunder are currently beating the "unbeatable" San Antonio Spurs 63-48!! It's still too early to call the win, but this is super hopeful. Oh and me and the mister have tickets to the Saturday night game!!!! CAN'T WAIT!!
5. We went to Justin's summer tournament basketball game today. That kid can shoot! His team looked solid, and I can't wait to see them get even better as they get older.
6. My AWFUL sunburn from Memorial Day is finally peeling! Now I won't have to explain to everyone that it is in fact just a sunburn and not leprosy.
7. I got to wear my new grown-up-interview sweater today. I kinda sorta love it.

So Much Change!

We're back! Well at least to the blogging world. Here's the update on the whirlwind of craziness we've had in the past few months: 

First off, I graduated from BYU on April 19, 2012 with a B.S. degree in Bioinformatics! It's been 4 years filled with stressful nights and lots of studying, and I was so excited to see all my hard work result in something. Also, I was selected as the honored student for the BYU Biology department and got to sit on the stage in the Marriott Center at our convocation exercises. My whole family came down from Idaho, and we were able to spend the whole weekend together. Overall, it was a great celebration!

Next, Shawn finished his internship with Tanner LLC in downtown Salt Lake City (right next to the new City Creek shopping center too!- Lucky!). He loved his experience there! He did mostly corporation taxes at Ernst & Young, so this gave him a great opportunity to get more experience with personal and partnership returns. He also made some great work friends who will be friends for life. We miss them already! 

We also completed our first move of our married life, and it was a big one! We packed all of our belongings (which isn't really much at this point) into our impala and a borrowed truck and made the drive all the way to Moore, Oklahoma! It took us 2 days (21 hours or so), so we stopped for the night (which also happened to be our 4 month anniversary) in Denver, CO. I've spent most of my life in the West, so driving through the Midwest was a new experience for me. Shawn thought I was crazy, and maybe it was because I had been driving for so long, but I thought Kansas was actually really pretty. It was filled with gentle rolling hills and perfectly green grass that rustled in the breeze. We also had clear blue skies and an amazing sunset. So maybe I'm crazy, but I really liked the drive.

In the past couple weeks, we've been adjusting to life in Oklahoma. We're staying with Shawn's parents until we can find jobs and then an apartment. Both of those are turning out to be much harder than we anticipated so any and all prayers would be much appreciated. It has been so great living with the Beans! I couldn't have picked a better set of in-laws and I've loved the time we've got to spend with them so far. I also got an Oklahoma drivers license today, so I guess that makes me a true Okie now :)

Shawn's also officially a graduate student! He started classes on Monday and has intense courses for the next 4 weeks. We're glad that it's only for a few weeks, but with 3 1/2 hour classes 4 nights a week, it's going to be intense. I've been coming with him to campus so I can have a dedicated time to work on some research projects I need to finish up. Most of my time is actually spent on facebook and pinterest, but at least it's the thought that counts :)

We've also managed to have some fun in between all of the craziness. For those of you who are not married to a sports loving guy, it's currently NBA playoff season, and we're loving it! We're only 20 minutes or so from the OKC Thunder arena so we're cheering them on to the championships. We also went to the midnight premire of the avengers and LOVED IT. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it! Shawn's decided that it is now his all time favorite movie ever and even wants to go see it again in theaters. 

In the upcoming weeks, we really hope to have a place to call our own. I've been dying to decorate and make cupcakes (random, I know) and just have a house to take care of. Shawn will continue his classes, and we'll hopefully be working soon.

That's the update! Once life settles down even more, I'll try and post more often. We love and miss you all!!

Our Perfect Day

December 30, 2011.

A day that is absolutely perfect, where everything you've ever hoped and dreamed about comes true.

A day when you feel like a princess.

A day when your best friend becomes yours for eternity.

A day when your family travels from far just to be with you.

A day full of precious memories.

A day when little girls think you are "Snow White" and are so excited to meet you and your prince.

A day when everything turns out exactly how you planned.

A day when you get new sisters...

.. And new brothers.

A day when you finally have a castle.

A day when your family multiplies.

A day when you get to be silly, just because.

A day when you get to dance into the night.

A day when your dreams become reality.

A day when eternity begins.

What a perfect day.