October and November

We've been going to the family history class at church and have been loving it! We started putting our family tree together and even took a little field trip with our class to the temple to do baptisms. Below is a picture of me doing family history, reading the census records on our TV and inputting information into my laptop. One screen wasn't enough! We decided to document this great moment for future generations.

I hosted a craft night at our apartment with some friends and enjoyed putting my Pinterest boards to some use. I made a book of our wedding cards and these cute dessert plates. Unfortunately, the baked-on Sharpie did not hold up to the kitchen sponge. Pinterest fail - but I tried!

We finally got a calling in our married ward! We are the ward building coordinators. Basically, every three months we have to tell people to come help clean the church. And we get to attend snowblower training! Kind of a big deal.

We also celebrated our 3-month anniversary! After work and school, we went out for dinner at Noodles & Company. Then we went to the first BYU Basketball game of the season and watched our Cougars bring in their first win. After the game, Nick took me to see Wreck-It Ralph, which I had been dying to see. I loved it! Then we came back to find that the blizzard that had been going on all day had knocked out our power in our apartment. It was pretty funny when we were trying to find the flashlights we bought for emergencies... and then we didn't remember where we put them.

And our biggest event this month was our trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving! We drove over night and spent four days with all of Nick's family and also my brother's family and my mom and dad! We had a lot of fun playing poker, shopping, eating, watching Red Dawn, playing with our nieces, having a barbeque, making smores, watching lots of football, playing kickball, and taking family pictures. We spent the holiday with about 50 other family members - it's crazy how big our families are! I also got to pick out everything for our wedding quilt with my Mom. It was our bonding time as we waited in a huge Black Friday line at the fabric store. I'm so excited to see how it turns out!

We also met our new niece Elsie! She's a doll and the other three girls just loved jumping on and playing with their Uncle Nick.

 

We also welcomed a new addition to the family... Steve proposed to Carlie! We're so excited to welcome her into the family. She already felt like a part of it, with all of the intramural football games we've sat at together. So, I guess this family picture makes a little more sense now that there's a ring on her finger. :)

We had a lot of fun on our trip - ignoring the fact that we almost hit an elk in a National Forest somewhere in Arizona. We stopped at a cute gas station in the town of Fredonia... and we met Mater. So I can cross that one off my bucket list. It's been a good couple of months!

Behind the Scenes: Planning a Wedding

Here are some pictures that came out of our wedding planning!

This is what we did after taking engagement photos - Krispy Kremes!

Nick helping me at the craft store.  Peek-a-boo!

Ring shopping! The one I didn't choose - and my engagement ring!

My cute bridesmaids who planned my bridal shower!

Thanks to everyone who came to my bridal shower!

We've done some fun things lately...

We got to open all of our presents after our honeymoon!

I got to leave this note on my desk at work, not once, but twice, to get away to Park City and Albuquerque!

We drove through some pretty country on the way back from New Mexico.

Nick has been loving his wedding present - a new laptop! It replaced this one:

I got to see one of my best friends get her happily forever after in the Salt Lake Temple on this beautiful day. Congratulations Mrs. Chelsea Hurst!

We went on a date to the BYU Museum of Art to see some work from two of my favorite pop artists, Andy Warhol and Takashi Murakami!

And, of course, lots and lots of BYU Football! Go Cougars!

And my favorite thing we've done recently - I rode a mechanical bull! We went to the Vivint Company Party and I am happy that I can cross this off my bucket list!

The Appendicitis Story

So here's an exciting tale about how Nick ended up at the hospital for the first time and had surgery!

This is Nick watching Pawn Stars at about 1 in the morning, in pain, with no drugs, waiting for CT scan results.

On Saturday the 6th, Nick went to the Priesthood session of General Conference with his dad and brothers in Salt Lake. Afterwards, he wasn't feeling very good, and I could tell because he went home instead of eating at Tucano's, one of his favorites. He told me to stay and he would go home and try to see how he felt in a while. After we got back from dinner, Nick was having pain in his lower right abdomen and he had a small fever. At about 11pm, we decided it was time to go to the emergency room. We went and got checked in to the ER and sat for a while, Nick got a CT scan, and then we waited. The results came back and sure enough, it was appendicitis! They told us that they'd get Nick checked into a room because he was having surgery sometime in the morning. It was supposed to be a busy day, but they said they would find some time to fit him in.

At about 2:30, Nick got a room in the hospital, got some morphine flowing, and started to fall asleep. I went home to get some sleep and was woken up by my phone at 6am. Nick was calling and he was going into surgery right then! We expected him to have surgery between 8am and about noon, so this was a surprise! I went back to the hospital and waited and the doctor came out after about 2 hours and told me everything went well and gave me a picture of Nick's inflamed appendix - that picture's a keeper! A while later Nick was wheeled out of the recovery room and we spent the rest of the morning in his room recovering, watching Conference, and napping. He ate solid food in the afternoon - and I guess that and a lap around the halls is all it takes to be released from the hospital! They sent us home around 3pm and we took it easy for the next few days.

The doctors and nurses kept telling us how lucky we were that we didn't wait to come in. The nurse in the ER pointed out that Nick was very nonchalant, and that most people are doubled-over and whining, but my hubby is tough and he barely flinched. They reminded us that we were lucky that he was doing so well that he could leave the same day to go home and rest. While life isn't quite back to normal, we're blessed that his appendix didn't burst and that there were no serious complications. We're so lucky that nothing awful happened as a result! Nick now has a good story and 3 scars to show for it, and the picture, of course.

Good news: Recovery is going well!
Bad news: It involves making up homework.