Valentine's Dance

Just enjoying a relaxing Saturday.  We went to the gym this morning (my rear end is a bit sore from sitting on the bike.  Not to mention my legs).  Did some grocery shopping, took a fabulous nap, and have just relaxed.  Now, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are in the oven.  I thought I would add a picture.  This is our vintage look for our Stake Valentine's dance.  It was such a fun time.  I sure do love this man.

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam!

Life is beautiful.  We are Sunbeam teachers now.  Today was our first day teaching our little friends.  It was, a bit chaotic, but good.  We're really excited to get to know these little, funny people and hopefully help them learn more about the gospel.  I'm still trying to get used to the idea of some of the lessons, including I am grateful for Fish, yes fish.  Or I am grateful for insects and bugs.  It will be an adventure!  What a blessing for us to learn from these wonderful kids.  They've got personality and energy.  I love being in Primary once again to sing songs and learn.

Other than sunbeams, life consists of school and work for me.  Busy, busy, but very good.  I'm loving my elementary education classes.  It is still overwhelming to think of actually teaching my own class soon enough, but hopefully I'll get there :).  Word at the testing center is great as always.

We had a lovely weekend.  Friday, our stake had a Valentine's Day dance.  We had fun dressing up from the 40's, learning some dance moves, eating, and dancing the night away.  I absolutely love having a husband that can dance.  He is the best, and I love being on the dance floor with  my man.  We cha-cha-chaed, waltzed, fox trotted, etc.  It was a great night, and my sore feet were evidence of that.

Saturday, we headed up to Bountiful for Paul and Gina's wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful couple.  We're very excited for them!  Their reception was in Provo that evening.  It was a wonderful day.

Perfectly Splendid Break

Happy New Year!! 2012!  It has been a perfectly splendid break for us.  Before we went to Pocatello for Christmas, we had our own Christmas in Provo with just the two of us.   

Please excuse the lack of make up and pjs.
Choco got me a new Ticket to Ride, which I love.
It is Nordic countries and even Christmas-y.  

By the way, my amazing husband graduated for BYU!!
I'm so proud of all of his hard work.
He got this fabulous and official badge from the engineering dept. 

 Pocatello for Christmas:
It was so great to hang out and be the fam.  I love them all so much.

Park is rocking a mustache.  Honestly, I kind of love it!

My mom got sick while we were there :(  So, Dad and I
were in charge of Christmas Day dinner.
Dad's Beautiful Turkey.

 We left Pocatello the day after Christmas.  Tuesday, we headed to Las Vegas to be with the Lopez family.  It was lovely.  We rented a house, ate at too many buffets, played games, went to the temple, and did a lot of shopping.  I love them all!!

Vegas temple was gorgeous! It was so great to
do a session with Amy and Jamir.  

We also drew names and had a gift exchange as well as a little talent show.  Good times. I got a lovely scarf and hat from Josue.

Beautiful Kenia

Oh, Choco

Josue's bride :)

We came back to Provo on Friday.  New Year's Eve was spent at our house.  Mama Lopez made a delicious dinner of pasta.  We played games and barely made it to midnight.  It was a great night spent together.

Happy 2012!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

This semester truly has flown by.  Today is the last day of classes and finals are next week!  I still have lots to do, including two papers and two tests, but the end is approaching.

Thanksgiving was splendid in Colorado.  Despite a cough, it was a fabulous time at Carrie and Kevin's.  Oh how  I love their boys.  One of my favorite memories from this trip is Max singing "Santa Clause is Coming to Town." All of the words aren't quite clear, but it sure is beautiful and loud.  I love them and Jake.  It makes Choco and I hope for amazing kids like them.  Thanksgiving included much feasting, some Family Feud, a few puzzles, reading, relaxing, gingerbread house decorating, and even some shopping.  I also ate the best cold turkey sandwiches of my life, thanks to grandma's incredible homemade rolls.  Yummy, so good.  I believe in a little mayo, turkey, salt, cheese, and pickle on a white roll with classic Lays potato chips.  Doesn't get any better.  Carrie sure know how to throw a party.  It was great!!  It was so nice to have  a get away with my family.  I love them so much.

max!

the beautiful set up for Thanksgiving dinner

Choco and Coco

One of the puzzles we put together

gingerbread houses!

The Lopez gingerbread house.
As you can see, we have six gummy bear children
and we are gingerbread marshmallows. :)

We are both very excited for the upcoming break.  I'm loving listening to Christmas music.  Some of my favorites are currently Jordan Bluth (such a beautiful tenor voice), and SheDaisy (classic in the Thomas household).  Yay for Christmas carols!

The Christmas First Presidency Devotional marked one year since our first date.  It was fun to reflect on an eventful and beautiful year together.  I'm so grateful we can be together forever, because I love him so much!!  I am amazed at his goodness and love.  

The devotional was so good and uplifting.  It is always good to remember where our focus should be at this time of year.  I would like to read Pres. Monson's yearly readings over the break: A Christmas Carol and The Mansion.  I truly am so grateful for Jesus Christ and this time of year we have to celebrate his birth and life and sacrifice for us.  What a blessing it is to know these truths and to have peace from our Savior.  Merry merry Christmas!

I love Christmas trees, real Christmas trees.  So, I was spoiled and we got a beautiful pine from the Home Depot.  It smells so good, like Christmas.  Our decorations include icicle lights from Amy and Jamir's wedding and left over ribbons from our wedding gifts.  It is beautiful!!  I love having it in our home.

Happy end of the semester and Happy Holidays!

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving..almost.  What a beautiful holiday Thanksgiving is.  Time with family, amazing and delicious food, maybe a nap, and a movie.  What could be better?  It is also a great reminder of the need to be grateful.  Our lives are full of blessings, but sometimes it's hard to see them or remember who they come from.  I like to think that I am a grateful person, but let's be honest.  I still have so much to work on.  I, all too often, think that I have the blessings I do because of me.  I think everyone needs a little reminder that all of our blessings, everything we have in this life, comes to us from a loving Heavenly Father.

I have much cause to be grateful this year at this Thanksgiving season.  I have an amazing and loving husband, wonderful family, beautiful home, blessing of being in school, etc. etc.  I am so grateful for the Lord loving me and blessing me.  I am eternally in debt to Him.  So, let's be a bit more grateful and remember who our blessings come from.

Here's just a snip-it of my list of things I'm grateful for right now:
Choco: my wonderful, fun, handsome, and amazing husband.
My fam. Mom, Dad, Brit, Addie, and Park. Plus my extended family and in-law family.  I love them all!
The gospel
Our basement apartment home
Temple so close
Laughing everyday
School
Cooking and usually delicious food
An amazing ward full of wonderful people
Scriptures
Autumn
Health
The Provo Library, it's my guilty pleasure
Naps
etc...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wedding, yoga, etc.

What a lovely weekend it was.  I'm grateful for weekends to spend with Choco.  This one was especially nice.  Friday, we went to our friends', Jacob and Sheliese, wedding.  The Draper temple was lovely, and it was special to be there.  The reception was that night with delicious food and some fun company.  Our table seemed to be full of kids, but we had a great time with them.

Saturday, Choco worked and I slept in.  Then I worked in the afternoon.  We had an Indian night for our date at home.  This included chicken curry, which was delicious thanks to a curry packet we bought at Buy Low.  I found this yoga DVD at the library this week.  It is partner yoga, so we did some yoga together.  It was entertaining.  Luckily no one was around to see us because we are not too skilled, but it was fun.  The twisting triangle was my least favorite move.  We did the tree pretty well and also I don't know what it is called but you basically do a wall sit back to back.  Our thighs were burning, but we were pretty good.  Overall, we laughed a lot, didn't hurt ourselves too badly, and decided yoga may not be our calling.  It was a memorable evening together.

Sunday, we finally got to do our new church calling of ward librarians.  I'm excited for it and to meet wonderful people in the ward by handing them chalk and erasers or crayons, etc.  The rest of Sunday, we just relaxed, ate some crock pot pork stew (which was my first time cooking in the crock pot and was delicious!), took a nap, ate some home-made rolls, and enjoyed being together.  I love Sundays to have some time to cook.  All together, lovely lovely weekend.  Which makes it a bit harder to come back to Monday and a busy week with lots of assignment due, but life is so good.

Thanksgiving is next week!!!  I am so excited to eat and be the fam.  So great.  And especially for cold-turkey sandwiches (my fav from the holiday).

Happy November!

The holidays are coming!!  I love this festive time of year.
Halloween was relaxed and nice.  We hit Krispy Kremes for some amazing pumpkin doughnuts in the morning and then school.  For dinner, I made soup, potato chowder that was warm and pretty delicious.  We waited outside for the few trick-or-treaters to come so we could give away some of our candy.  Then just relaxed eating pumpkin cookies and watching Psych.  I know, we're not too exciting, but it was a nice first Halloween together.  We're excited to have some tots of our own to experience Halloween with.  Tomorrow is Dia de los Muertos, so we might have a little party for that.

It was a beautiful Autumn day yesterday.
Today is kind of a different story.  It is still lovely, but it has been raining all morning and there is snow on the mountains. But with my umbrella, coat, and gloves, I made it home only with wet feet.  We had the amazing blessing of going to devotional in the Marriott Center.  We had a celebrity today... President Monson!!  I love him so much.  He talked about the importance of us being a light and example to the world and those we surround.  It was inspiring and a special treat to hear from the Prophet.

So, now because it is past Halloween Choco I think will let me start listening to the occasional Christmas song!  I've been putting on all of Josh Groban's albums on shuffle, which includes Noel, his Christmas album, and Chris was complaining it wasn't even Halloween.  But now it is November so a little Christmas cheer through song is good!  I'm so excited for Thanksgiving in Colorado with the fam!!! Can't wait to see Carrie, Kev, and the boys and to party and eat and be grateful with everyone.  What a blessing to have such good family.  Speaking of that, Grandpa Bob's 90th Birthday Party is on Saturday in Pocatello!!  We're so excited to celebrate this amazing man we love.

All and all, life is beautiful.