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The last 4 months of our life have been the busiest, most fulfilling and yet I don't have anything written down. With only few weeks left of student teaching, I was telling Bryan a story about one of my cute students and  he turns to me and says "Now, you're writing all of this down right?".  My stomach dropped. I had not kept a journal about ANY of my experiences. I was always too busy or tired to take the time to reflect on what I had been experiencing. During that time I complained about never having any time for myself, and now I'm sitting here at 6:30pm on a weeknight with absolutely nothing to do….  The grass is always greener right?

I have decided to make a few goals for my self this year. I know, I know. New year resolutions that no one ever completes. But really, I am going to do this. I don't have any excuses anymore. I'm done with school, I need to still lead a productive life outside of work. I'm not going to be a Netflix junky!

Personal Goals
1. Write in my Journal/Blog twice a week
2. Go to the gym at least 3 times a week
3. Find a hobby and purse it
4. Read at least 3 books a month. One should be somewhat educational.
5. Ready my scriptures everyday
6. Say a meaningful prayer everyday

Couple Goals
1. Read scriptures every night together
2. Pray together every night
3. Pray in the mornings together at least on the days we get up around the same time.
4. Go to the temple every other week
5. Save 10% of every paycheck, more if possible.

I'm not going to play catch up and try to fill in all that I missed these last few months, because that will never honestly happen. However, I am going to try and put down the important moments and lessons that I learned. My future kids should know that their momma wasn't always perfect ;)

Here's to making and attaining my goals!

Birthday Boy

Massive Breakfast

Happy Birthday to Hubby hubby!

Morning of this guys birthday I made him breakfast. Surprising him was tough because waking up earlier than him is not something I am very good at! After we ate breakfast, we got ready for the day!

We then went down to see my Grandparents. I felt bad because it was Bryans birthday, but it was the best time we could stop by to see them. The visit ended up being really good! We talked for 45 minutes or so and it was great. My grandpa is probably the cutest guy ever.

We hurried on up to the ice skating rink and made it just about on-time, which is a miracle when I'm involved :)

Naturally I take a selfie of myself. 

A lot of people showed up as they do every year. Emily and her kids, Rosanna, Darrell, Amy and Brett. Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen, Velyn and Monty, Karalynn and her cute kids and probably a few others! Everything was really great! We even got Erika to skate all on her own! It took some time, but we got her skating all on her own! Until that point, we all took turns holding her arm and skating with her. Little Jackie also did awesome! She was skating all on her own so quickly! She is probably the cutest little thing ever! I do remember why I don't go skating very often though.... skates hurt! Once a year is worth it for this guy though!

After skating we went back to the Frandsens house. Maribeth picked up Grandma and Grandpa Theuson, and Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen came over as well. We played games most of the rest of the afternoon. Rick made Bryans favorite, Bacon Burgers. From what I hear, most of his family can't remember a time that they didn't have Bacon Burgers on this boys birthday! I've never met someone so obsessed with Bacon. Naturally we went around the table saying our favorite things about Bryan, and ended the evening with cake, ice cream and presents! Bryan got a lot of great gifts, but I still think mine were the best of all! This year I got him a new hoodie, and a baseball display case for his baseball collection. I'm not usually very creative, so this was pretty good on my part!

Lastly, let's not forget how awesome Grandpa Frandsen looks while wearing Bryans new sweet headphones, and his fabulous shopka. This is a priceless photo... so it belongs here to be remembered and loved.

Bryans birthday was a success overall! It is crazy to think that just last year we were only engaged. And the year before that I was wishing he was home. I am grateful to have this guy!

Our First Christmas

Christmas is a beautiful season. At times Christmas was a bit rough for me growing up, but I could not wait for my first Christmas with my Husband. It took us quite some time to figure out how we wanted everything to work out between when we would be with his family, my mom, or my dad. BUT we finally got it resolved and figured out. I think what we came up with ended up working out wonderfully!

...Christmas Eve…

Dad came in town for Christmas, he brought the Henstocks along with him, and that was frustrating for my siblings and I. I really wish he would have just come out with Isaac and spent time with us. I am glad that he came out to visit even so. He reserved tickets for Savior of the World, which is a wonderful production done by the church at the Conference Center. The performance was beautiful, but long. Bryan and I looked at each other during the second half and said "Is it Easter now?" because they had moved on to the death and resurrection of Christ. It was quite beautiful and the music was very pretty.

After the show, Dad took us to lunch down at City Creek. We all picked out what we wanted to eat and found a big table for all of us to sit at. We also got chocolate shakes to share. Jordan had to leave to take Josh to work after we ate. The rest of us decided to walk around City Creek a bit more. I walked into stores with the girls. Lauren was a crack up because she was so picky about which stores we went into. She is going to be worse than me when it comes to clothing and shopping. Future shopaholic on our hands. At some point everyone left to go back to the hotel, but Bryan and I decided we would go walk around Temple Square. It was a gorgeous night, and only a little bit chilly. There still was not any snow on the ground either, so walking around the temple was quite enjoyable! I wish we had had more time so that we could watch the nativity at Temple Square, but we really needed to get back to the family.

Back at the Hotel all of the kids were swimming, so we sat down at the pool watching them for a while.
Not a normal Christmas Eve, but I was happy to spend time with them. Dad finally showed up after some time, and we got to talk and exchange Christmas gifts. The kids got tired and began to leave the pool, and Dad was going to go visit with Royd White, so we decided it was probably time for us to leave.

So my favorite part of the night was that as we were driving home, I begggged Bryan for a soda. He caved, so we stopped at McDonalds. As we got to the drive thru to order, we heard the lady say something, but we couldn't understand her. After awhile of waiting , Bryan finally said "Hello?," the lady responded with "I said, just a minute!"........ haha speechless... Finally she asked us our order. We asked for two drinks and two waters. At the window, she asked for the money, we paid, and she handed us two drinks and one water. Which, honestly is not a big deal... But, Bryan then simply asked her if there was a second water, she looked at him and said "NO!" Window. Slammed. Shut. We were honestly shocked ha. But it was hilarious. Bryan wanted to go talk to her manager, but I reminded him that it was Christmas Eve and she was probably super upset about having to work that evening instead of being with her family. I sure would be upset if I was them! Anyway, makes for a funny story.

Next entertaining part of the evening happened after we got back to the Frandsen Household. I needed to wrap a few more presents that evening, so I pulled out everything I needed and got started. Bryan came down the stairs to let me know we had forgotten Erika's christmas present.... We knew that we definitely could not tell her on Christmas morning that we forgot about her... So, to the Provo home we went. I don't want to know how many miles we drove that day!

Somehow we made it back before The Frandsens arrived home. When they got home we made cookies, and hung out. I then finished wrapping the presents that I hadn't gotten to do before we drove to Provo. When it was time for bed, we all got together in the living room to read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible. I know that is such a normal thing for many families to do, but I can't really remember mine doing this. I'm sure my mom tried at some point. Anyway, it was really nice. After that we went downstairs and opened our christmas jammies, which you can see wonderfully displayed here.

Matching Christmas Gift Shirts. Precious little twins. 

Christmas morning was early… so early. The kids woke us up around 7:30 am. Which, is not a normal time for Christmas in my personal opinion! I am happy that we got them to agree to that time, but honestly.. who doesn't want to sleep until at least 8am?

All the kids went to Erikas room, and we waited while Dad (Rick) set up the living room. When we went down, there were designated spots on on the couch for each of us. We got to open all of the gifts in our own piles without waiting for others. This pile had like gifts from "Santa" and a few from Mom and Dad. This was so new to me because my dad made us wait for each person to take their turn. After we finished our opening what was in our piles, we then past out gifts from each other, and took turns watching everyone open their gifts. It was definitely a different Christmas morning from what I am used to, but it was really good. After gifts, Janet brought down Breakfast and we ate together while waiting to Skype with Jake on his mission. Talking with Jake was really great. He looked good, and very happy. It was fun seeing how happy Janet and Rick were while they talked to him. I think we got to talk to him for about an hour, which was very nice for everyone. I wasn't sure what to say really, but I still enjoyed getting to see him again since it's been so long! Oh wait! We got and IPAD :) The In-laws must love us :) :) We also got a bunch of fun games, clothes and useful things like a care emergency repair kit.

The rest of the morning we relaxed and got ready for the day. That afternoon we drove to Grandma Frandsen's house and helped finish the preparations for Christmas dinner. Emily's family, and Uncle Darrel's family were there as well. I like how everyone make such a big deal about Thanksgiving food, but Christmas dinner is usually about the same haha. We had a good time with everyone, but we couldn't stay long since we still needed to get to Christmas with my Mom.

Mom decided to have a bunch of appetizers for dinner instead of the normal Christmas dinner. d. This was good especially since we were already so full from eating at Grandma Frandsens. I was barely able to eat any of the food that my Mom had prepared because of how full I was. The appetizers were super tasty. The only thing we all avoided were the stuffed mushrooms haha. I've never been a fan of those things.. their texture is too weirAfter we ate, we went downstairs to open gifts!

Mom had really outdone herself. Especially with the kind of year she has had. She had plenty of sweet and thoughtful gifts for everyone. I was incredibly surprised. She must have really saved everything she could to do what she did for all of the kids. She got Lauren a ton of Art supplies, which I thought was awesome! I had basically picked out all of my stuff (booties, scarves, perfume), but she surprised me with gift cards to Charming Charlies and a gift box from Body Works. It was so sweet of her. She even got Bryan a shirt and a gift card to Red Robin. I really enjoyed Christmas with my Mom. We definitely had a beautiful Christmas with mom! There was no contention at all, everyone was happy and kind to each other, and we felt like a loving family. I'm so happy that everything is beginning to work out even though our family is going through major changes.

After everything, Jordan needed to take Isaac back to my dad. My dad had planned to go bowling with his side of the family and Jordan and Josh were planning to stay for that for a bit. Jordan asked us if we wanted to go. I could tell Bryan didn't really want to go, but I felt like we should. I hadn't really gotten to see my dads side of the family during the holiday, and I wanted to see my dad one more time before he left. We ended up going, and I thought it was pretty enjoyable. I even kicked Bryans butt one round. I was still annoyed to be around Nico, but I had the rest of my family there to make it a bit better. We bowled a game and half. I got to hang out with my Grandpa and  talk to him quite a bit, and I really enjoyed that! I tried to talk my dad into visiting our apartment before he left back home, but he said no. I really wish that he would have.

Well, thats the end to Christmas Day, but it was overall a wonderful day spent with all of our families.

Pizza Pasta Bake

If you know me, you know how much I love love and love pizza. It's not exactly the most healthy thing to be so crazy about… but oh well. It's my fave. I found this recipe on Pinterest back in Junior year of college. I thought it was awesome, especially because you can make a big casserole dish full of it. I would make this, share with my roommates and still have left overs to take to work. Since then, I found a version online that I actually liked better. This one isn't quite as large of a recipe and uses rotini noodles instead of egg noodles. I think this one tastes the best, and I usually have all of the ingredients on hand. It only takes about 40 minutes from start to finish and Bryan loves it!

Source

Girls Night Out

Well! Long story made short, my fun girl friends from my old ward really wanted to get together - so we decided to plan a fun night together. Bryan went up to South Jordan to hang out with Mark and Colton for that night. After I got off of work, I got ready and then drove up to Zupas in Orem. I met up with all these cute girls there, we ordered food and then drove down to the orem baseball fields! Lacey, Kayla and Tierra are on a rec center league, and we decided to watch their last game while we ate!

Our Zupas dinner was way good. I probably should try eating something new there, but ever since I started going there - I've gotten the exact same meal every time. Honey Bacon Club panini and Cauliflower soup mixed with Enchilada soup :) mmmmm yum.

During the game, Katie, Emilee and I sat and talked about life, summer, school, boys, marriage and work! Mrs. Katie is off of work for the summer since she is a teacher, so she is just living the life! Part of me feels like it would be cool to be a teacher and have summers off, while still being paid…. then I remember that I'd have to be a real teacher all year from 7-3 everyday and work with a bunch of crazy high schoolers. That makes me nervous. I guess it is a good thing I will be student teaching in August, so I will get to find out if it is something I enjoy now, or if I just want to keep it as a back up plan for when I'm ready since I do have a great job that I love right now.

After the game, (they lost) we al drove up to Katie's house to have a movie night! We sat and talked until everyone arrived and then began to decide on a movie. Naturally we had decided it would be a chick flick. When everyone found out I had no idea what the movie This Means War was, they decided we HAD to watch it. I have to say, it was freaking hysterical. I laughed so hard throughout that whole entire movie. It's like a guy chick flick…. if that even exists.. But really, I need to get it so Bryan can watch it with me!

During the movie Kelsie Yeoman showed up, so we finished the movie and then we all sat up and talked for awhile. I didn't end up getting home until 1 or 1:30am.. ha It was weird coming home to a husband for some reason. I think because it's weird to have someone wait up for me, but it was cute :) We talked about each others nights and that was great! I feel pretty blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life!

Bees bees bees :)

Cute heather Soffe invited Bryan and I to go to the Bees game with her, David, Amanda and Tanner. Her family has season tickets, so sometimes we get to go on big group dates there for free! It is kind of the best!

Before the game, Bryan and I had a lazy morning watching TV and doing laundry together. On our way up to Salt Lake, we decided to stop at Ikea and buy the bookshelf that I had been wanting. I was so excited!! :) I have to say, shopping for home appliances and furniture is a crazy and exciting feeling. I know it is silly, but it just made me feel like we were really growing up and was just another reminder that we really are married! We also picked up Ikea's yummy cinnamon rolls, which made me a very happy girl. Obviously Bryan was happy because it was food -very sugary food.

SO we drove up to the game after our adventure at Ikea. I was pretty excited to see friends because I felt like I hadn't seen anyone in awhile, especially Heather! The game was good, If I remember right - the Bees won… ha. We all know I don't really like baseball…. I just absolutely love summer nights, food and friends! 

Honeymoon - Fantasmic

Disneyland Day 2!

Could we be any cheesier? :)

So I woke up still pretty sick this day, but I was finally able to get up and get going that morning and I believe we made it to Disneyland by like 10, which I still think was pretty dang good for how I was feeling! So I didn't think that our first pic in front of Mickey was the best, so my cute husband let me get a new one. This one was much better!  Actually, I think all of our pictures were better after our first day haha. We had purchased cute shirts that said "I'll be your Minnie" and "I'll be your Mickey", so we decided to be dorky love birds and wear them on our last day. I have to say, we looked pretty dang cute together. Matchy matchy, tan and in love! Sounds good to me :) So this day was incredibly hot… like the worst of them all. I'm pretty sure it was like 102 degrees all day. Thankfully we fast passed a lot of things, and got to get in lines with air conditioning. Disney really knows how to make you feel more comfortable than any other theme park. We also found out that they couldn't turn you away if you asked for a cup of water! How cool is that? Free, cold water. No more nasty warm water from fountains. We just kept filling our water bottle with the free cold stuff!
So I decided to let my little girl self come out and ask Bryan if we could go on the Carrousel :) We most definitely were the oldest people on there who didn't have a kid with them ha. Naturally I had to have a picture of myself looking like a little kid on this thing. I felt a little silly, but then decided I didn't care because it is just so great to be a kid :) A nice couple next to us took this picture, and I think we are quite darling :) Yay for being 5 years old together.


Naturally because it was so hot outside, we wanted to go on Splash Mountain. As we were in line, I realized I didn't want to be in the very front because I saw how many people were getting completely soaked! Just my luck, we were seated in the very front… ha I was so worried about our stuff getting wet like our phones and cameras. I hugged our bag like you wouldn't believe! As you can see, there was terror on my face when we went down that big drop! The guys that were behind us were killin me ha. They were way funny, but I was just so nervous about the fact that I was in that log with 5 large guys…. ha. We got SO sopping wet. It felt so good…. until my garments and clothing were sticking to me and chaffing ha.  #mormongirlprobs. I felt bad that I complained so much after that…  thank goodness Bryan can put up with me. I did end up drying and getting much more comfortable again. I was just very annoying for a good hour or two… :)

Naturally we had to take some pictures in front of our friend Mickey and the Castle, so we made sure to get some keepers. The great thing about Disenyland is they always have photographers out and about taking photos with their cameras, but they are also willing to take photos with your camera! How nice are they?

I have to say, we do look pretty  dang cute in our twinner outfits and matching buttons. I'm not gonna lie, the dorky shirts was one of my favorite purchases during our trip!

Disneyland was pretty crowded that day because of senior night,  but after I dried I ended up being lot more comfortable that day than the first day in Disneyland. At one point we asked a worker where the closest bathroom was, and he ended up giving us a fast pass to Star Tours, which was way sweet because it made it so we got to hit all of the big rides with a fast pass even during a really busy day. Once again, the "just married" buttons were doing us a great favor. I feel like we should wear those every time we go… that's fine if our state of mind is "just married" right? haha.

We did eat lots of yummy treats that day. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of our food! I should have. I got to get the tasty raspberry lemonade slushy drink again which is probably the best thing ever! We also tried eating at a hamburger place that was quite filling. I kind of enjoyed being spoiled, however next time we will be packing lunches so we don't waste that much money again!!!

The last ride we went on for the day was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We ended up getting lucky because it broke down earlier during our fast pass time, and so we went on other rides during that time. When we got back to that area they had JUST opened the line back up, so we got through the line way quick!! Here is our last snapshot from the riding a  ride at disneyland :( It was very fun though! I like that ride a lot too! Once we got done, Bryan ran to get himself a chicken leg, and  to get me pizza for our dinner. I then ran to go find us a good place to watch Fantasmic. I have to say, I think I did pretty well!!  While I was waiting I met a nice woman and her cute kids. We got talking, and she was just the nicest, funniest latino woman. She told me all these stories, and let me play with her kids. She also that it was just the cutest thing that I was there for my Honeymoon. I realized it was taking Bryan forever, so I gave him a call and he said his phone was about to die and I tried to explain where he could find me. His phone ended up dying and I was super nervous that I wouldn't be able to find him because he definitely did not have my phone number memorized… I ended up standing up and going to look for him. Thank goodness I found him pretty dang quickly! I was happy :)

So we got back down to our seat and that lady just started talking with both of us again. asking all about the wedding, where it was, what my dress looked like etc. I explained the whole Temple thing really simply to her and she goes "oh! That place is super important to you people, congrats! I'm so happy for you to have made it there!" I was like shocked at how sincere she was. It was super cute. She was a feisty and funny little thing, and told us ridiculous stories like how she hinted for years for her husband to get her a newer bigger ring and stuff. I liked her a lot :)

The show started when it got dark and it was really good! I definitely think The World of Color was my favorite, but I still really enjoyed it, especially when they brought the princesses out :) The fireworks were really great as well! I got sad when I realized we were really leaving and the honeymoon was over. But my cute boy made sure to buy me a pineapple spear. I had wanted one the whole time, but I thought he'd make fun of me for wanting it. I finally caved and mentioned it. He tried to get me one before the show started and didn't, so he wanted to make sure I got one before we left the park. Oh my, it was SO yummy! I even got Bryan to take a bite and he thought it was good. Man how I cannot wait for summer! I feel like summer and tasty fruit just go hand in hand.

So we got on the bus back to the parking lot, and and then we were off on the road again to home. Getting home was a real fun experience.. haha. But our trip overall was so great! I loved having all of that time with my very best friend. We didn't have anyone to bother us, we got to make our own decisions, fall asleep together, make dinner together, travel together,  not think or stress about a wedding, not go to work, go on rides together, talk about our future, make plans, best of all we were able to just be happy and in love :)