"Valentine's Day"

As I taught my lesson this past Sunday about choices, I couldn't help but imagine what my life would be like if I wouldn't have made the choice to marry Brayden. When I look back on the past two years with him, I can't seem to think of my life any other way. Brayden has taught me so much about love, patience, forgiveness, happiness, and compassion. He is everything on my "husband wishlist" and much more. I am eternally grateful for the trials we have faced as a team and for the memories we have been able to create.

This Valentine's Day we had Brayden's family in town visiting, so we decided to celebrate on President's Day. I worked until early afternoon and Brayden worked on homework until I got home. I came home to a clean house with the flowers and cards below sitting on the TV stand. We decided to spend our money this year on a fun date instead of getting each other gifts, so it was really sweet of him to do that. And I must add, the card was homemade :). We then took Ellie on a long walk (which I told Brayden I wanted to do).

Then, Brayden took me to a Mexican restaurant called "Maria Bonita" up in Orem. It was absolutely fantastic. I had a friend at work recommend it, and I'm glad! We never would have noticed it. After that we went shopping at a couple stores to let our food settle. Then, Brayden took me to Farr's Fresh Ice Cream which I had been craving for the LONGEST time. We then rented Ender's Game and watched it on our newly mounted upstairs TV. All in all, it was a great Valentine's Day celebration. I am so grateful for Brayden and all that he does for me! He is so busy, yet he always finds time to make sure I am happy. Who could ask for more? I LOVE YOU BRAYDEN!

The Seemingly Uneventful Update

I have been absolutely horrible at blogging lately! But, I have recently been motivated by Sozelle to at least write about something. So, here I am!

Backing up to when I last posted.........

Let's see if I remember all the way back to October. YIKES!

We spent Halloween with our good friends Brennan and Ilce. Decorating cookies, watching Hocus Pocus (since Brayden hadn't ever seen it! I know, crazy.), dressing up last minute, and dressing Ellie up like a football all added up to a great night!

Thanksgiving came and we debated making the trip up to Idaho as we had the previous year, but decided we would save some money on gas and stay at home for the smallest Thanksgiving we will probably ever have! We are so lucky Caitlin is up here in Utah so we were able to spend time with SOME family on Thanksgiving. Caitlin got a free turkey from work for our mini Thanksgiving dinner and it was gargantuan. I don't even think gargantuan begins to describe its size! Let's just say we could have fed all the hobos in downtown Provo with the amount of food we prepared. Luckily, Caitlin invited her friend Cody as well, so we had a little extra company. And, of course, Ellie was able to feast as well.

Then, Brayden finished all of his finals for the semester. Living the poor college student life and not being able to spend much time with my husband, I consider the day after finals are complete a holiday. Quite possibly the best 2 holidays of the year! He had another awesome semester and his grades are going to look great on his dental applications being sent off this summer. Yikes, scary to think about!

Ahhhh Christmas. I start my countdown at day 100 when counting down to our Christmas vacation. I also took my time off from work back in August just to be 100% in the clear to go to ARIZONA!!!!! My favorite place in the whole world!!! Okay, I am exaggerating. But, Utah just doesn't do it for me in the winter. We went down to Tucson a little over a week this year and had so much fun! I need to add- We are absolutely horrible at taking pictures on vacations. This Christmas we actually FORGOT our camera. HA! How does that even happen? So you will need to create your own images in your head as I tell you our Christmas time adventures...

Brayden and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on the 22nd by going out to B.J.'s (It is a must, since there aren't any in Utah!) and then staying at our favorite place, Ventana Canyon Resort. You must hear what happened while we stayed at this hotel so you can all go there sometime! They are great. Before arriving to the hotel, Brayden attempted to persuade me into letting him try the "$20 trick" (Thanks to Mark who told us it works in Vegas). I told him that he should just try to say "Hey, it's our anniversary. Do you have any complimentary upgrades?" So, he did that and the guy at the front desk upgraded our room to a Suite! And, the "suite" puns continued the rest of the weekend for Brayden. So, our Anniversary was great.

We then spent time with my family through Christmas Eve and went to Mike and Sozelle's through the second half of the week. Highlights of the trip for me were:

Going with my family to the dog park
Getting a pedicure with Mom, Lindsey, and Britney
Having a yummy IHOP breakfast with Alyssa
Playing Catch Phrase with our whole family at Mike and Sozelle's house
Christmas Eve dinner with Brayden's family and mine
Taking family pictures with Brayden's family
Eating at Molina's- I always miss eating there with Miranda in high school
Spending time with Grandma Frassa up in Phoenix
Eating at Pork on a Fork with Mark, Kirsten and the Boys- Thanks again!
Playing "Heads Up" with Kirsten's family

Overall, we had a great trip. We always wish we could spend more time with our family and that we could visit with all of our good friends. This is why we need to move back to Arizona. :)

New Year's Eve... hmm.... I don't exactly remember what we did. Ha! Oh! Yes. We did not stay up until midnight, but we did watch Despicable Me 2 and have yummy dinner. That made a great night for me!

Well, that's all for the Holidays!

Since January 6th (the day Brayden went back to school) we have been so incredibly busy I can't even explain with words. When I work 8-4 Monday through Friday and Brayden is at school from 8-5ish Monday through Friday, it makes for a lot of nights that pass by in the blink of an eye. It has been an uneventful couple months for me since Brayden gets home from school, eats whatever I make, and then does HW until about 11PM every night. The small things are what take up our time. Grocery shopping, laundry, Mutual, Scouts, Presidency meetings, lesson planning, BYU intramural sports (right now is inner tube water polo which is fun!), HOA meetings, making dinners, making sure Ellie gets attention, and keeping the house clean all take up the time we would usually hang out. Darn BYU professors who assume their class is the only class Brayden is taking this semester are RUINING OUR LIVES!!! Just kidding. But really, how is one supposed to be at school/doing homework Monday through Saturday from 8:00AM to 10:00PM and be able to study for the DAT which is coming up in May? Suggestions would be appreciated. I feel so bad for the guy.

Despite our busy schedules, everything always seems to work out. I keep telling that to Brayden hoping to relieve some of his stress, but it is hard to know that things will work out when he doesn't even have time to take showers. Haha. We are so lucky and feel so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. The Sabbath day has given us the time we need together and the blessings we have seen in our marriage up to this point from paying our tithing help us to know that it's okay for Brayden to be putting work behind school. We are learning, this semester especially, that having money to do things is not what brings happiness. When I get to sit down with my husband for an hour and just watch a show or play scatergories (which we really love lately) I am able to see the joy that comes from being together regardless of what we are doing.

Well, that's it. This semester is a rough one, but thank goodness there is only 2 more months left! Halfway there!!!