Back again for some updates!
Our trip to AZ for Christmas 2014 was a great one! We always feel like the trip goes by so fast since we don’t get to spend a whole lot of time with each family. I think pictures will tell about our trip best.
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| Hiking |
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| Amelia's first time swimming! (5 months old) |
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| Christmas Eve Nativity |
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| Amelia got spoiled! |
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| Amelia's only girl cousin, Macey. |
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| Alex and Ryan, Christmas morning |
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| Ticket to Ride |
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| More presents! |
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| These two are so cute! |
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| Grandpa Black |
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| Great Grandma Frassa |
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| Great Uncle Chuck |
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| Coby got baptized! |
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| All the girls love Aunt Kirsten |
We are really lucky to be living in Utah to be able to send people to the MTC. This past time was the best missionary yet! Morgann left for the MTC on December 31st, so we had the opportunity to take her.
This is Brayden’s last busy semester! Whoo hoo! Next semester he will only be taking about half of the credits he usually does, so we are just trucking through this semester and looking forward to summer. Brayden is taking 4 science classes with a research lab on top of that. It’s a good thing he is smart!
We have really enjoyed having so many visitors the beginning of this year. My Dad retired in early January and they have been up here twice already! Mike, Sozelle and Shannan came up for Rodeo Break to help out also. We always feel bad because we are so busy when visitors come during the school year, but Amelia loves getting to stay home during the day instead of getting packed up to go to the sitter’s house.
Waterpolo just came to an end as we lost our second tournament game, but it was a blast! We are bummed knowing that was the last season we can play, but maybe one day we will buy some tubes and play in our own pool :).
Being in Young Womens always has it’s busy months and not so busy months for me, but the beginning of this year has had a lot going on! We took the youth up Fairview Canyon the last weekend in January for Hillbilly Skiing. I bet you are all wondering the same thing… “What the heck is Hillbilly Skiing?” Don’t worry, I thought the exact same thing when the boys said it. Basically it is just ghetto skiing, snowboarding, and sledding down a decently long hill to be picked up by the leaders and taken back to the top to do it all over again. Luckily for Marci and I (the only women leaders who could go) we got to go down while some of the men drove. It was probably the best time I have ever had sledding.
The following weekend was Stake Youth Conference up in Salt Lake City on Temple Square. Temple Square actually has a program for Youth Conferences which made it easy for us leaders! We drove up Friday night and came back Saturday night. I think the youth had a really fun time and got to dive a little deeper into their personal testimonies. My favorite part of the trip (besides staying up WAY too late chatting with Jessa and Marci) was the Family Search Center. The church has set up an awesome site in the Joseph Smith Memorial Center for family history. They have set it up to allow all ages of people to enjoy learning about their history. The girls in my group had a blast and got to learn more about themselves.
The next weekend after Youth Conference was Valentine’s Day! My parents were in town and had offered back in December to watch Amelia so we could celebrate our Anniversary/Valentine’s Day. It’s always hard to fit our Anniversary in on our Christmas trip, so I have a feeling this will become a new tradition!
We headed up to Salt Lake City where we had reserved a room at Inn on the Hill which is a bed and breakfast. This was the first time Brayden and I have had the chance to experience and bed and breakfast and it was SO much fun. The people who run this bed and breakfast are really nice and the little old lady who served our breakfast was so darn cute! We lucked out and got the room below the pool table on the main level so we were the only ones who had access to it from 10PM to 10AM.
The place is located about a block Northeast of the Conference Center, so we walked down to dinner by passing temple square and going to Brio at City Creek Center. It was surprisingly delicious! In the morning we went shopping for a little bit at City Creek and then headed home to relieve my Mom of her duties. Thanks again Mom and Dad!
While Mike and Sozelle were here we had fun hanging out, relaxing, shopping and watching sports! Travis (Brayden’s cousin) won the AZ State Championship in Basketball, and U of A beat Utah! I love when that happens.
Brayden and I are trying to live a healthier lifestyle these days by making it a point to avoid sweets (with one cheat day) and get lots of exercise in! After Amelia was born I lost a lot of weight, but even though I look skinny, I just don’t feel healthy. I figure it’s better to have muscle, weigh a little more, and feel good than worry about the scale and feel like a weakling. It is a HARD thing to have the motivation to exercise when 1. It’s cold outside, 2. Gym memberships are expensive and you don’t know how to use the machines so you just look like a ding dong, and 3. When you work all day while your baby is at the sitter’s so you just want to come home on those few days you don’t have mutual, scouts, meetings, errands, etc. and play the whole night.
SO, I decided to try some classes out at the gym. I went to a couple for a week and a half and realized it was EXACTLY what I needed. I can’t even begin to tell you how much better I feel even though I am still a weakling. Exercise relieves my stress, makes my day go better, and gives me the motivation to watch more carefully what goes into my body. So I used my persuasive skills on Brayden (just kidding. he actually was the one who told me it would be worth it) and got a gym membership. Is it hard to get up at 6AM or plan around 8PM workouts? YES. But it is totally worth it.
Brayden is lucky enough to have church ball and intramural sports to help him relieve a little stress. He doesn’t have as much time as I do right now, but we are planning on adding him to my membership in the summer so we can play racquetball, basketball, take classes, and take Amelia to the pool.
Speaking of Amelia… HOLY COW! She is already 7 ½ months old and learning/growing so fast. We are close to having to baby proof the house because she can move so fast with her army crawl (really, she can move to the other side of the room within 30 seconds). She loves to look at us while we practice her signs (we are working on Mom, Dad and eat). Her favorite things are Ellie, music, eating, being outside, and face timing. We just love her so much and can’t wait for summer time so we can take her on some adventures!
Also, Emily had her baby! Jonah is his name. Amelia saw him on facetime last night and didn’t quite know what to think, but we will work on it :). We are looking forward to meeting him the end of April. We are so happy the Amelia has a cousin close to her age to grow up with.
Well, there’s my little update. I feel so blessed to be in the position we are right now and can’t wait for Brayden to graduate in December to start a new adventure elsewhere. You would think the feeling of not knowing where we will be/what we will be doing in less than a year is scary, but honestly, I am loving the anticipation!
