January 2013

This is why I like Utah - it's really pretty. What I don't like about Utah - it was 8 degrees almost every day the week I took this picture. Brrrrrr.

Somebody was sweet and bought me flowers. :)

I learned how to spell my name...

 And we added this beauty to our house. I love it.

We finally hung up the frames we already had, and added a beautiful painting and picture of the Mount Timpanogos temple with them. We love them! Thank you Lisa & George for our awesome Christmas present! It'll be hanging in our home for a long time. :)

A Very Merry Maine Christmas

We are so lucky to have friends and family who love us enough to wake up at 4 in the morning to drive us to the airport in the pouring rain, or drive to and from Boston just to go to the airport for five minutes, or pick us up at one in the morning in the snow. All of those happened on the course of our trip, and I LOVE these people with all my heart. Thank you Abbie, Dennis, Lisa, and James!

After our long journey on Christmas Eve... we decided to play with our dinner.

Merry Christmas from Nick and Kristi!

We loved sitting front row center court at the Red Claws game. I felt like a million bucks with the owner sitting next to me and Danny Ainge across from me scouting out the players.

We had fun lounging around in our pajamas quite a bit. It was probably a good thing, since most everyone got sick at some point, the last semester took it out on all of us, and we broke two cars when we were out and about. So thumbs up for taking it easy!

We enjoyed New Years' Eve and explored Portland and I saw my first lighthouse! It was so incredibly cold on the coast, but also so incredibly pretty. We had fun partying with some family to ring in the new year. I'll always remember ringing out 2012 with playing Mafia, Gangham Style, Martinelli's toasts, and kissing my husband for the first year of many. 

One of my favorite parts of the trip was snowmobiling! Nick had me screaming as he floored it around curves and over jumps. I was so scared of falling off! But I can understand the thrill of motorcycles now as I hit 50 driving the snowmobile for the first time on an open field.

Other memorable parts of the trip: my first purchase at LL Bean, lots and lots of snow, an Eagle Court of Honor where my cute hubby and his brothers got to get up and show off, an awesome haircut, tasty food, lots of sleep, The Hobbit, Jack Reacher, free tanning, awesome gifts and surprises, church basketball, pushing cars, and lots of hugs and kisses. We feel so lucky we got to fly out and be with so much family over the holidays and we feel incredibly spoiled!!

(Side note: We flew through the O'hare airport, aka "the gateway to my hometown", and I got a little bit (ok, a lot a bit) emotional. Nick humored me and we took a stroll down the main terminal as I reminisced... and we got deep dish pizza and life was good. It's crazy thinking about all the growing up (literally) and changing that happened in the 14 years I lived in the land of Lincoln. It will always hold a place in my heart. I love Chicago, the suburbs that made me who I am, the opportunities it gave me, the life I lived there. And not to mention the amazing people - the kids I grew up with since kindergarten who are still my friends, even though I moved 8 years ago, and thinking about how we had to leave the Woodridge ward breaks my heart. I love that state, that city, the "village" I lived in, the ghetto schools, the amazing people, and how much it made me who I am today. In the end, it still amazes me that my life in Illinois turned into a life in New Mexico, which turned into a life in Utah with a boy from Maine. I am so blessed to have traveled the road that I have. Viva Illinois! -Kristi)

December 2012

This month was filled with lots and lots of work. My work at Vivint has paid off and after 6 months I am now getting a change in position and a raise! I'll still be in the same department, but I will now be in charge of about 100 techs in the Eastern region of the country and making sure that they are licensed everywhere that they work. It's a lot more responsibility, but I'm ready for the change!

I've officially turned into my mom - by inheriting her Bernina sewing machine and turning our extra bedroom into a sewing/craft room.

We had the brothers over a couple of times and played with our Nerf guns, one of our wedding presents, and Steve may have been shot in the eye by his fiance.

We decorated our apartment for Christmas with our hand-me-down Christmas tree, nativity scene, and stockings. I'm pretty proud of Nick's stocking that I made with scraps from a bag of clothes to give away.

We had fun wrapping presents at Vivint's Sub for Santa event. They bought presents for over 1700 children in the state. We volunteered to wrap presents one night and we walked in to see the entire gym filled with tables of presents and ribbons and wrapping paper. It was awesome! My favorite was attaching a few presents to a bike for a fourth grade boy. We love spreading Christmas cheer!

An Enchanted Summer

Here's just a little look back at the very eventful summer of 2012!

It all started with Nick proposing to me...

...and graduation just two days later...

"A ring by spring..."

I walked across the stage wearing my favorite shoes :)

Can you find me sitting on the floor?

...followed by a fun 21st birthday celebration for me at the ball park...

I love this boy!

Our summer was finished off with a trip to the Provo temple...

...a much-anticipated trip to the Mount Timpanogos temple...

...and we finished it off by celebrating Nick's birthday in Albuquerque for our open house...

This past summer will be one that I will never forget!

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!