February and March

It's been a busy few months around here!

We went to the Jazz-Celtics game at the Energy Solutions Arena:

Kristi's first Celtics game!

We built some furniture:

We watched lots of BYU basketball! Below is the most packed I've ever seen the Marriott Center, hosting #2 Gonzaga. The student section was filled shoulder-to-shoulder.

Spring was cruel:

Nick played basketball and flag football intramurals:

And this one is technically April, but we celebrated our first Easter together!

Bandwagon

I jumped on the trendy-colored-pants-bandwagon today! Nick picked them out because I don't wear a lot of color. I took way too long getting ready this morning trying to figure out what to wear with them for work... and then the thought occurred to me - are my kids going to giggle at this someday? Because I doubt this will stay in-style forever. They'll ask me what was I thinking as I show them pictures, and I'll have to say (much like a certain mother-of-mine has told me before), "It was the style! Everyone was wearing them!"

Feelin' Crafty

This cold winter has prompted a lot of spring cleaning around here. And for me, being stuck inside all winter, I've been slowly turning our little apartment into a more pretty place to live. And I'll be honest, most everything I've made in our house (besides our Boston-lettered wall hanging) has been inspired via Pinterest.

The dressers my brothers and I grew up using - turned into ombre dressers! Inspired by this

And I hung up the cross-stitch of Nick and I. Inspired by this

A new addition to our colorful kitchen. Inspired by this

And our new favorite addition/investment to our house came from Ikea. We went to the store to get this scarf hanger:

And came home with this:

A bed frame!! We are no longer sleeping on mattresses on the floor. There's something about building our own furniture that makes me feel like a grown-up. Definitely the best spontaneous purchase we've made in a while!

Valentine's Day / 6-month Anniversary

We decided since our 6-month anniversary wasn't that far from Valentine's day that we would celebrate them together! On our actual anniversary we added a plant to our little family, and I love it!

Our love fern.

We exchanged gifts the night before Valentine's Day... we're really impatient. I made Nick a ticket stub journal starting with a Tangled ticket, baseball game tickets, and other events we've been to in the last two years, including our wedding invitation. He gave me loads of chocolate with a funny card and my surprise... tickets to see Cinderella by the Ballet West Company in Salt Lake the next day!

After school and work on Valentine's Day, we got all dressed up to go to the ballet. We made a stop for dinner somewhere I haven't been in years - Culver's! It's a Midwest restaurant chain with tasty burgers and amazing frozen custard.

After that, we finished the drive to Salt Lake and went to the Capitol Theatre to see the show. (What Nick didn't know was that the Ballet West company actually had its own reality show last year, and that I watched every episode - so I knew some of the dancers already.) It was so great! It was three acts (and about three hours) long, so Nick really is a saint for taking me. The stepsisters were actually huge guy dancers, which made it so funny. I love watching ballet and I'm glad this guy will stick it out with me! :)

Breaking Pointe - the TV show

Cinderella and her step-sisters

Cinderella and her fairy godmother

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!