Home Sweet Home!

Well, here it is! Everyone has been asking for pictures and I'm finally getting around to posting a few. This is our new home! Nick and I were able to meet our goal and close on the 15th (yay!) and after a couple days of cleaning we moved in that weekend. We're still unpacking of course but hopefully it won't be too long til we have everything put together the way we want it. Here's a little tour...

Welcome to our home! It has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (one full, one 3/4 and one 1/2), a living room, family room, laundry room and a two car garage. So, you might be thinking... "That's a big house for just 2 people!" Nick and I thought that at first, too but we actually filled the house with all of our stuff. It's crazy to think it used to all be crammed into our 2 bedroom apartment. I'm sure once we finish putting things away it won't seem as full.

Here's our living room, that leads to the dining room...

and then the kitchen (so much better than the tiny one in the apartment!)

and our table looks so little in the dining area. It leads to the back deck...

We're going to be spending a lot of time outside grilling this summer. I'm sure we'll enjoy this deck a lot.

Here's the master bathroom off of our bedroom. Kinda weird that it's a half bath but it's still nice to have there.

and here's the full bath. It was a lot of fun to pick out new decorations but thing sure do add up fast when you're buying things for a new home.

Well, that's all the pics for now. The other rooms haven't been put together yet so I'll have to save them for another day... We love it here so far! The neighborhood is great and everyone is so nice. I know we're really going to enjoy it here.

Oh, yeah...

By the way, I forgot to mention some wonderful news! Nick and I got an accepted offer on a house. Yay! Right now we're just waiting for the appraisal and inspection to be done so we can close. Our goal is to close by the 15th so we don't have to PAY taxes and then refile for the tax credit. What a pain! Oh, well. We'll see how things go. I'm super excited to have things all done and moved in. It will be really nice for Nick and I to have our own home. Wish us luck!

Family Photos

We had family pictures taken last December and I'm finally getting around to posting some of them. These are some of my favorites...

I've got some good looking men in my family, don't ya think?

And here's the rest of them. One big happy family!

Happy Valentine's Day

To celebrate Valentine's day I decided to make a list of some reasons why I love Nick...

1. He is kind. I don't know if I could ever meet someone who he couldn't get along with.

2. He is awesome with children. Our nieces and nephews just love him to death! (I just know he's going to be a great dad someday!)

3. He puts up with me. He understands that women can be emotional sometimes (generally about once a month for me). He feels horrible when he fails to cheer me up on those moody days, too.

4. He thinks I'm smart. (Silly, huh?) So in turn, he makes me feel smart, too.

5. He is smart. He just gets things... things that a lot of people wouldn't get. He understands why a lot of things are the way they are.

6. He holds and honors the Priesthood.

7. He loves me even with all my flaws.

8. He encourages me to be a better person and helps me to be a better person.

9. He spoils me... not just with things that I want but with his time and the way he treats me.

10. Cause he's just so darn good looking! ;)

Busy busy busy...

That's just life. Especially around the holidays. Nick and I are finally getting back into the swing of things after a wonderful Christmas and awesome trip to Florida with my family. Here are some pics just to show how much fun we've been having...

Here we are at the "Honey, I shrunk the kids" playground.

Us on our good friend Antie

Hangin out with my brother and his cute little family.

Chillin with Lightning McQueen and Mater

Me, Tigger, Eeyore, my sister and nephews

Enjoying Hollywood Studios

and Animal Kingdom

I even tried out for the American Idol Experience!

Don't we look good!

All in all we had a great time! Hangin out with family is my favorite thing to do cause they're just so awesome!

Nick and I also celebrated our 4th anniversary on the 14th. We went and saw Sherlock Holmes in the theater, ate at Chile's (thanks for the gift card Vanae!) and played our new Wii game. I'm so happy to be married to this wonderful guy and I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with him. He is my forever!

Good News

It's been a few weeks but guess what... Nick got his elk! Yay!!! I would post some pics but for some reason my computer won't recognize my SD card. Oh well! I don't really think many people would like them anyway. I didn't get any before Nick's dad started gutting the elk. Kinda greusome. So yeah, I decided to go hunting with Nick for once this year and it just turned out that he got his elk that day. It was my first time being on a hunt where someone got something. I didn't know how it would be to be around an animal that someone had just shot but it wasn't that bad. In fact, I was just thrilled at the fact that we would be able to fill our freezer and I could see a little more of my husband this fall. It's been really busy the last few weeks. I keep thinking that we should have some time to relax but then I think about everywhere I have to go and everything I have to do. I finally have a good night off tonight but Nick is on a camp out with the scouts. I hope he doesn't freeze too bad. Yikes! It's cold outside!
On another note, I have great news! My parents decided that it was time for me to get their piano so on Wednesday Nick and I went to pick it up and it's home now. I was never a pro at playing but I wasn't too bad. Now I'm really out of practice and I feel like I have to start all over again. I also think that having the piano will help me sing more. I don't do that as much as I used to either and it makes me sad :( I'm super excited to have it though. I know that I will benefit from it a lot if I just take the time to play whenever I can.
Well, just thought I'd pop in and give a quick update. Happy holidays to everyone!!

Weekend of fun!

I have to admit that it can get pretty lonely and boring being a hunter's widow. In fact, Nick is out hunting right now. Oh, well! At least it gives me time to post new entries. If Nick were home all the time, you'd never get to hear from me. I got to have Nick home this last weekend and I was so sick of being in the apartment so I treated Nick and I to a fun weekend away from home. I was originally going to surprise him with a trip to Alaska but the flights were full so I took the second best place in the world (where I've always wanted to go) and we went to England instead!!!

Okay, so maybe we didn't actually go to the England across the ocean but we stayed at the Destinations Inn in Idaho Falls in their England suite. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of our way cool room..

When you walk into the room there's a drawbridge that we had to walk up to get to the rest of the room.

We had sparkling apple cider waiting for us. Yummy!

This was the coolest part of the whole room. First you see a regular bookshelf...

...then it opens to a secret passageway...

...which leads to the bathroom! So cool!

We drove to look at the temple across from the river. This is close to the spot where Nick proposed to me.

The next day we were going to go to the Tautphas Park Zoo, but they were closed. What in the world?!? We noticed this huge pumpkin patch on the same road, though so we decided to stop. It was so awesome! I've never been to a pumpkin patch before. We found some really good pumpkins to carve and don't worry, we'll be sure to take some pictures once they're done.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins!! They probably had about 10 acres of just pumpkins!

We stopped in Blackfoot on our way home and went out to dinner with my mom and dad. We went to a Mexican restaurant called El Mirador. Yum! I would definitely recommend it. Make sure whatever your order is "al a creme".
We both had a very enjoyable time. Who knew a trip to England could be so fun?

The weekend wasn't over yet, though. Nick had church meetings all day on Sunday so I spent my time finishing up some projects that I started at Enrichment last week.

This is my countdown calendar for Christmas. It's on the back of a cookie sheet with cute magnets for each day.

See? Underneath the magnets are fun things to do for the day. Too bad I got a non-stick cookie sheet, though. My days are already falling off. I'll have to see if I can find some better glue to fix it.

And this is my nativity. Isn't it cute? I think so.

Doing these projects makes me wish it was Christmas already and it's not even Halloween yet. I guess that's probably a good thing, though because I'm nowhere near being ready for Christmas. There's so much to do! I look forward to all of it though!