ABC's

So I just saw this post on a blog I love to follow and I thought it was such a cute idea so I am re-creating it. My life has been SO chaotic lately with work that I need a little break to relax and unwind. Last week I worked 50 hours which is a lot for me! I absolutely hate working Saturdays because they are my days to get everything done. But I made a honey to-do list and things went on at home without me. Typical life of a busy season accountant - now I just can't wait till the end of April. I am hoping to take a nice relaxing trip to soak up a little sun in Arizona with my beautiful mom. 

But anyways, here are my ABCs:

Age: 24

Bedsize: Queen (but my husband wishes we had a California King)

Chores that you hate: Cleaning the bathroom

Dogs: One day when we are not in an apartment

Essential start to your day:  Breakfast

Favorite color: Turquoise

Gold or Silver:  I'm kind of partial to gold lately or rose gold, even better

Height: 5 feet/4 inches.

Instruments you play: Man, I can't think of one!

Job title: Accountant

Kids: Not yet!

Live: Draper, Utah

Mother's Name: Lisa

Nicknames: Mike calls me "stinky" (just to clear it up, it is not literal)

Overnight hospital stays: Never

Pet peeves: Nail picking, and rude drivers

Quote:  "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be 

continually fearing you will make one." ~ Elbert Hubbard

Right or Lefty:  Righty

Siblings: I'm the oldest with one younger sister and two younger brothers

Time you wake up:Too early-6am.

Underwear: haha

Vegetable you hate:Avocado

What makes you run late:Picking out what to wear

X-Rays You've Had: Never

Yummy food you make:  Chocolate Chip Cookies (Mike claims they are

 the best he's ever had)

Zoo Animal: Baby Bears

Happy Sunday Night!

Needing a change

So I am in desperate need of a change. I think I have had the same hair for as long as I can remember and I want to change it. I keep seeing all these moms at church with their cute ombre hair style and I just love it! Do you think I could pull it off? I found these pictures online and Whitney and Drew have the closest style I would go to. I am so nervous though cause I am definitely a blonde but I think I could maybe, possibly, still pull it off. What should I do!?

Back to the grind

I am offically NOT a blogger. I never have the time and I can never think of anything I really want to blog about. A real blogger would make the time and always want to blog about everything...definitely not me. But my husband is busy watching football and I am procrastinating on my homework as long as possible so I decided to enter a post about our new busy life. Okay, maybe not so new but definitely busy!

The holidays have come and gone already..they always go by WAY too fast. My family and husband spoiled me for Christmas, as usual. I got a new 700-Northface puffy coat that I never take off. If you know me, I am always cold no matter how many layers I wear. My new puffy coat never comes off and my hubby doesn't have to listen to me complain about how cold I am anymore. I also got a heart-rate monitor I can wear biking. Now I only have to wait 6 more months until bike season. Okay, maybe not 6 whole months but it feels that way. I stare at my bike sitting up against our backdoor in our living room everyday waiting for bike season to come back. February 1st we can sign up to enter the raffle for the Little Red, our annual 100-mile all women's race up in Logan. I can't wait!

January 3rd I started my new job at HJ & Associates downtown. I love working downtown. I get to take the trax to and from work everyday and feel all grown up like every other adult going to their adult jobs in Salt Lake. Everyday, 8-5 now you can find me at HJ working away. I am on salary and get benefits and everything. Wow, when did I have to become such a grownup? I love it though. It keeps me busy and I love the professional environment. Wait until March-April 15th, I might not love it so much working 65+ weeks, but for now I really enjoy my job. I still have class on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Only till August and then I am offically finished with all my schooling. Yay!

Mike is just as busy this semester working still at the Greenwood University of Utah clinic and taking more classes. This is the year he gets to apply to the physical therapy program at the U. He is working hard and building his credentials so we can get into the U and stay in state. He gets home earlier than me most days now though, so he officially gets to be on "dinner duty" from now on. I am training him little by little :)

We've had some exciting news over the past few weeks. 3 of our best friends are pregnant and we couldn't be more excited for them all! Now everyone is asking when it is our turn...well, not quite yet. We love it just the two of us for now, and we have too much to do before we become parents. But it will happen one day, don't worry. For now we get our baby fix from our cute little niece. We just adore her.

Well the game is over and I have Mike's full attention back. Hopefully I'll get distracted again soon and get to post again before the next few months of our lives fly by as usual.

Festival of Trees

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Date night with friends

Ice skating with all the wives!

October gone, November in the making....

Over two months!! Wow, I just cannot hit my once a month goal but I am getting closer. Where do I even begin in October? I feel like the month flew by! It was such a fun/busy month. And the trees and their leaves---oooo I could go on about the leaves forever. I LOVE living in Utah. And now we have SNOW!! I love the snow only because it means the holidays are almost here. These next few weeks means Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Christmas. What could be better!?

My sister and her husband and I all flew out to visit my mom over the first weekend in October. It is so good to see my mom and she always pampers us when we visit :) The weather in Arizona was still in the 100's! I just love the hot, dry heat. We went boating and jet skiing the first day we were there which was perfect. The rest of the trip we just hung out and enjoyed the time we had together. I wish we could see her more but she loves it in Arizona and we love it in Utah. I also got to visit my friend Holly while in Arizona. We had our normal lunch at La Grande and shopped our little bums off at Last Chance. I bought like 10 pairs of shoes!! My size was on sale for 1/2 off the already discounted price so most of my shoes were only $9 a piece!! I just couldn't help myself! Not that I need anymore shoes and I have no room to put them but o well! It was a surprise to Mike when I got home that I had a whole bag just for my shoes on the plane haha. Mike wasn't able to make the trip because he had school so I really missed him.  Two weeks later though was Mike's spring break and we headed off to St. George! We hadn't been back to the new house since May and we couldn't wait to go. Zac, Jordan, and baby Samantha were down there and Mike's friend Parker and his wife Bri and our friends Shawn, Ashley, and baby Cooper all joined us too! It was such a fun and well needed weekend! Jordan and I got to go on our bike rides and do a little shopping and we played LOTS of games! The week went by too fast but the next weekend I was making my way down to St. George again for our Wish 100 bike race with the girls. It was just a girls trip so I left Mike at home for the weekend once again. It was so much fun just being with all the girls though.

Halloween was next! I was an oompa loompa and Mike was, well, he didn't have a costume so we threw something together at last minute. He thought he was going to be in class all night so we grabbed a hippie costume from my dad.

And then November.... and we have officially marked 1 year of being married! Happy anniversary to us!! We spent the weekend up in Park City and stayed at the Chateau at Silver Lake.  It was so much fun just spending that time doing nothing again...just the two of us. Life has been so busy lately with school that we forget how much we love having nothing to do and hanging out just us two. Our anniversary also was the day my dad and my little brother won their first little league championship football game. We were so excited! My little brother is such a stud. Even though we drove down from Park City to West Jordan in a blizzard it was worth it to see them win and we wouldn't have missed it!

Last week Parker and Bri got married. The wedding was beautiful and we are so glad they are finally married! All of Mike's friends are starting to make the big move and get married which means more couples to hang out with!

I saved the big news for last. I got a new job at a public accounting firm in Salt Lake! No more Orem!! It is bittersweet but I am SO glad I don't have to go down to Orem in that construction anymore. It was making me insane! Mike and I are keeping our place in Draper until our lease is up in May but then hopefully we will get into a place of our own. I have house fever right now :) Our next few months will be just as busy, if not busier with the holidays and now my new work busy season but we look forward to every day of being together.

We did much better at taking pictures these past couple months :)

Taking a nap with Sam in St. George

Planet Play

Mike over coming his fear of roller coasters

Girls weekend in St. George

Happy Halloween!

Frightmares!

another new chapter

So I am finally posting again! I know that only took me like what? 3 months or more? This summer flew by. I can already feel the fall season and I love the fall, but I am not so sure I am ready for it. Mike and I have had some fun changes during the past few months though so I guess I should just look forward to what is ahead of us.

This is my catch up post where I am going to post about all of our summer adventures (since I failed to do so until now). So it may bore you and please feel free to move on :) Anyways, Mike and I didn't make it on all of our adventures we had planned on our last post (New York, Lake Powell, St. George), but we did make it to CANCUN!!!!! We had so much fun just laying around on the beach and reading our books. I loved spending that time alone with Mike, it was like our honeymoon all over again...just the two of us. We had the most perfect weather, perfect beach, perfect company, everything was perfect (except the food...we started really craving American food). I think I needed a vacation from the vacation when we got home because we literally did nothing but soak up the sunshine everyday.



Our favorite part about the trip was the excursion we took to Tulum and our cave snorkeling adventure. It was amazing!! I have never seen something so cool.  It really was the most perfect vacation to start off our long journey of continued school. Mike has 5 years still ahead of him for school. No breaks now...he is going to go all year long from now on until he finishes so we had to take a nice vacation before he went back. And this fall I just started my master's program up at Weber State. Seriously, I cannot believe I am going back for another year of school again...but at least it is just 1 year and then I will be finished. I just keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end!
So school is already keeping us busy again...we usually don't see much of each other except on the weekends so we live for our weekends together.

Although the summer went by so fast we have some new additions in our lives that make looking forward to the fall so much better. Shawn and Ashley brought Cooper Shawn Allen to our lives :) We already love him so much!!!! He is the cutest little boy and we can't get enough of him. Mike went from never holding babies to always wanting to hold Cooper when we are around him. We love Shawn and Ashley and we are so excited for the third addition to their family. AND..... 3 weeks early but Mike and I are officially an aunt and uncle!!! Samantha Joy Smith is now a new addition to our family!!! She came 3 weeks early but couldn't be a healthier and happier baby! I am OBSESSED! She is the tiniest little thing, and pretty much all she does is sleep still, but I can tell our family is already so much happier with her in it. We look forward to all of the new adventures we are going to have with her in the family.

So with our summer ending but 2 new additions in our lives we feel pretty lucky to be us. We cannot believe it is already fall and we will be celebrating our 1st anniversary together. One year sure goes by fast!! It has been the best year though. We have had so many adventures and I hope I have posted them all :) I know I say this again and again...BUT I promise I am going to be more dedicated in posting. I just realized with how fast that one year went by that I need to remember all of the little things in our lives so we can look back on them. I am going to shoot for once a month at this point....hopefully it will be more but hey, once a month is better than once in three right!?

This weekend Mike's family is doing their annual family bike race. Breakfast at 7 am on Saturday and the race starts at 8. I can't wait! I feel like I have not been on my bike as much as I would have liked to this summer and we have our 100 mile century next month!! I am going to take some pictures on Saturday and make another post. That is the goal :)

Finally....SUMMER!!

Yay! It is finally summertime!! Well, at least it is starting to feel that way. I love the sunshine everyday! Just a few more degrees and then I can lay out at our pool all the time! O how I love summer. This past weekend finally felt like summertime. This was my first year doing the 100 mile Little Red Riding Hood bike ride with the Smith/Micklos/Sadler family (Mike's family). It was a lot of fun but definitely kicked my butt!! We went up to Logan the night before and spent the night on Friday night so we could wake up and just get going. 5:15 am we were up and getting ready to go! It was a long day, but honestly, it went by so fast! We started at 7:30 and our ending time was almost exactly 8 hours later at 3:30-take away about an hour for stops and lunch, it took about 7 hours total to finish 100 miles. I thought I would struggle to finish but I surprisingly had a lot of energy during the last stretch from 78-100. Thanks to GU!

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and I stayed together pretty much the whole time. It was so fun finishing with them! We have another 100 miler this October in St. George so there is no break for us.

Before the start-all of the family!

 

 

 

 

 

Cute pregnant Jordan and I about to take off!

100 miles completed!!!

 

 

Finished!

Mike and I at the finish line.

It could not have been a more fun weekend with the family. I can't wait till our next ride!

Here are also a few pictures from graduation. I've been done since December but Allyse and I finally walked in April and sealed the deal. It was fun that we were able to do it together. Back to graduate school again this fall....

My cute husband gave me this beautiful watch for Graduation and I am obsessed! I have the best hubby in the world!

Now we get to enjoy the rest of summer together and I cannot wait! Here are a few of our plans for the summer. Happy summer everyone!

New York City

St. George

Lake Powell

Our good friends are having a baby boy in July!

Our first niece is coming in August!

Happy Easter!!

Okay, so I know I am the world's WORST blogger ever! I am so busy, and in my spare time I love to just sit on my couch with Mike and do absolutely nothing! I can't complain though-I love the nights when Mike and I can just sit at home and enjoy some Modern Family (because we are addicted)! Well tax season is over which means I have more free time, but Mike is busy studying for finals week coming up. I cannot wait till school is over for him and we can hang out all summer!! My goal right now is to finish studying for the GMAT so I can take the test next month and apply for graduate school so I can start in the fall. I figure I better finish graduate school now before Mike applies for Physical Therapy school. I am not excited to go back to school, but I know it will be worth it just to get it done! I graduated with my bachelors degree in December from UVU but I actually get to walk this Friday! My mom is coming into town and I am excited to show all of my family that I am officially a graduate!


The past few months of our married lives have completely flown by! We celebrate our 6 months in a few weeks already! We have done so many things but since I am the worst blogger and the worst picture taker now I have hardly any pictures showing what we have done. Mostly school and work has consumed our time but we have been to Jazz games, Real Salt Lake games, went to Arizona to visit my mom and my friend Holly, and I even went to St. George and got to ride my new bike for the first time! I LOVE my new bike! I am riding in the Little Red Riding Hood 100 mile cycle on June 4 with all of the girls in Mike's family. It is my first year and I am so nervous I won't be able to keep up! Mike's mom and I went on a 20 mile ride last weekend and she kicked my butt! haha Talk about a strong woman! Hopefully I will get a few more weekends of some riding in before the race. It has been so dang cold so hopefully it will start getting warmer. Here are just a few pictures of us I have taken over the past couple of months-notice they are all the same angle. We are too lazy to ask people to take pictures of us :)

Jazz Game

Real Game

Arizona

Love Holly!

My new bike!!!

I don't even have one picture of me on my new bike yet-but next time I will take one! And my goal this summer is to take lots of pictures of our adventures.

I hope everyone is having a great Easter Sunday!! I found this Easter message from the First Presidency and it reminded me of what a special day today is so I thought I would share. Enjoy!