One Down, Two More to Go

Yesterday was my brother Andrew's wedding! He married a girl named Analyn who has lived down the road from us since elementary school. They were married in Salt Lake at Temple Square. It was very rainy all morning and then the sun came out right before they came out of the temple, it was perfect. It reminded me of when we were married, it rained all morning and then turned out to be such a gorgeous fall day. I guess they are pretty lucky anyways because I think most of us were expecting a snowy wedding this time of year. We had lots of family come from all over and it was really nice to see them all. They had a delicious lunch in Salt Lake after the wedding and then a beautiful reception at the Courthouse in Provo later that night. It was lots of fun meeting new people and catching up with old friends.

Next month is my other brother Matt's wedding which we are all looking forward to. He left to fly back to China this morning and we'll miss him, but he'll be back soon enough. Andrew and Analyn are leaving back to Jerusalem on Friday where they are going to live for another year or so. We will miss both of them terribly, but we are very excited for them to start their new life together.

Ryan's brother Sean is getting married this fall, I believe in August some time. We are really excited for them too. It seems like everyone we know is either getting married or having a baby! What a crazy year.

Can't Wait Til it's Done!

The last few weeks of our lives have consisted of remolding our master bedroom. We can't stand the years of globbed paint on all the walls, baseboards and doors and have decided to start from scratch. We tried to salvage the old pine baseboards and poor Ryan spent hours stripping off the paint and sanding them. They just have so many dents and dings that it would be hard to make them look nice, so we have decided to get new ones. We are thinking knotty alder would give the room a good look. We are going to texture the walls and paint them an earthy tone, probably a light beige with a green tint. We're also trying to decide on what kind of carpet to get. It's kinda hard to make all these decisions. Don't worry we aren't going to keep that nasty light, it's up for grabs if anyone wants it... Anna? I know it's your style. Jk. Anyways, it's finally feeling like we're getting somewhere. Hopefully we can put in some good time this weekend and get it finished.

Another New Year

It's been a crazy last few weeks. We celebrated Christmas up at our cabin and everyone in my family was able to make it except Andrew:( But soon we will all be together at his wedding in February. Phil, Nicole and Tori came as well as Matt and his fiance Mitra. We all had a blast spending time together and taken it easy at the cabin. Tori was so much fun to play with, she is growing up so fast! Before everyone left we all went out to Five Guys and met up with our Cousins the Carrascos, G&G Clyde and my grandpa Smith with his wife LaRae. It was so nice to have everyone together, it rarely happens.

Anna got us nerf guns for Chrsitmas, lots of fun!

Tori got what she asked for, a computer!

Tori is so dang cute, I can't take enough pictures of her

All of us at Five Guys

Nicole, Tori, Grandpa Smith, Phil

After my family left, Ryan's brother came to town with his new fiance Lindsay. They stayed with us for a few days and we had fun shopping and snowboarding. After they left Ryan and I spent a relaxing quiet New Years Eve together, it was really nice.

We spent the last week working on our master bedroom trying to strip old layers of paint off the baseboards and doors. Anyone know any secrets? It's such a mess.

Yesterday Ryan and I both started back to school at UVU. Ryan's taking a heavy load of classes working on his construction management degree. I am taking a pathophysiology class as a first step towards my bachelors degree. Not gona lie, I'm kinda nervous. I felt a little lost in class, I took physiology and microbiology about 3 years ago and I don't remember as much as I wish. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully get into a good study routine. At least I only have the one class and I'm hoping my experience in the ICU will help out. Wish us luck!

This Next year is going to be busy. We have three weddings in the family and a new baby boy for Phil and Nicole. Hopefully Ryan will get this internship he is applying for at Geneva Rock and we both can continue to work on our bachelors. We have lots of projects planned for our new house, so hopefully we'll find the time for those as well.

Best of luck to everyone and a Happy New Year!

Love,

R n R

What we've been up to

It's been a long time since I've written anything. Things have been so crazy busy for us and I've been meaning to write for a while now. So here's an update...

We moved into our house and it has been nothing but project after project. Ryan's parents came for Thanksgiving a week after we moved in and we were excited to be able to put our guest room to good use. We had lots of fun with them and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner up at our cabin with my family too. It was really nice to see Ryan's parents and catch up, hopefully we can get together again soon.

Shortly after Thanksgiving Ryan and I took a well deserved vacation to Florida. It was so nice to be able to relax and forget about the last few months of hectic house buying. We went to Marco Island which is on the southwest coast of Florida right next to the Everglades.

We saw tons of alligators and birds, my fav were the bald eagles. We went on a airboat ride and kept getting splashed because we insisted on sitting in the front. It was totally worth it though. We also took a boat out on the ocean through what is called the "Thousand Islands" which is just a bunch of small islands with mangrove trees all over them. While we were out there a huge group of dolphins surrounded our boat and swam with us for about a half hour. They were so cute and Ryan and I went camera crazy!

We walked on the beach every morning and night, there were so many seashells it was amazing! One night we went to a local fisherman shop on the dock and bought freshly caught stone crab and ate it on the beach while watching the sunset. It was pretty romantic until Ryan threw a piece of crab to a seagull that had been watching us and then almost instantly a whole flock of birds swarmed around us. Haha, it was still fun. Probably my favorite part was going to an animal reserve of florida's natural animals. My one disappointment though was finding out that their panthers were't black, they look just like our cougars here. The only difference is they are used to the water and live in the swamp lands. They were still fun to see though. We had a ton of fun though and we're kinda bummed to come back to the Utah weather. Our plane got in around midnight and we got off on the wrong bus stop to our car and had to walk forever. Poor Ryan was wearing shorts! It is too dang cold here, I can't wait for summer to come back!

Now we are home and back to work and our house projects. We did however find some time the other night to build a gingerbread house together, which was actually the first time either of us have ever made one. Ryan thought it was going to be pretty lame, but he ended up getting really into it, he's such a perfectionist. We both ended up having some fun doin it together.

We are starting to tear our master bedroom apart, peeling of layers and layers of old paint and striping the original baseboards and doors. In the end I think it's going to be worth it, but right now it's kind of a big pain. Hopefully we can have it somewhat decent before family comes for the holidays.

New House

Ryan and I are buying a house! We have searched all year for the right one and have finally found it. After two long months of dealing with everything that could possibly go wrong (i.e. pain in the neck sellers), we have signed and are planning on moving in this coming week. We can't wait to move in and just start living there.

Things we are looking forward to:

1. A Dishwasher

2. Washer and Dryer

3. Wood Floors

4. Room for family and friends to visit

5. Putting money into our own pockets and not our landlords

6. Big backyard for our future puppy

7. Ryan's own woodworking shop

8. Renting out a basement apartment

9. Projects we can work on together

Here's some pics of the house