our first anniversary :)

Brian and I had a very eventful weekend! 

We had thrown around a couple of ideas as to what we wanted to do for the big one year, but still hadn't decided on anything as of Saturday. Friday night we went on a campout with our ward and that was lots of fun... but then... I got food poisoning.

Ew.

So, I spent Saturday morning ralphing and Brian went and took a practice DAT exam (which he did well on, by the way :)). By Saturday night I was feeling better (and significantly more thin - the only benefit of food poisoning) and we decided it was time we made some plans! So, we looked into a few options and decided that we just wanted to get out of Provo at all costs!

We ended up going to Logan to the Anniversary Inn (yes, you may roll your eyes and gag at this point because of the unoriginality of this idea)... and let me tell ya, it was awesome! Maybe it's because Brian and I are such kids at heart, but we thought the themed room was so much fun! We stopped by Brian's uncle's house (Martin) on the way and picked up the amazing wedding video he made for us last year. We had actually never seen it because our copy never made it from the reception, and it was neat to watch it! I may or may not have gotten a little teary-eyed. He did such a wonderful job - THANKS MARTIN! I tried to figure out a way to post it on the blog, but no luck so far.

Monday we hung around Logan for a while and then headed up to Bear Lake where we had spent the majority of our honeymoon. We took some cheesy pictures: 

I got the idea off of Pinterest (where else?) to take a photo on every anniversary and then it will be really neat to look back and see how we've changed as the years go by. I'm sure we could do that with normal pictures too, but I think it will be really fun to do it on our anniversaries. So, we took a few and we'll decide which one is our favorite later. Probably not the kissing ones, but because this is a blog post about romanticy things, I just couldn't leave them out, right?

We, of course, went and got the famous raspberry shakes that Bear Lake had to offer. We got our two favorites from last time and man alive, they were tasty. I could've probably eaten 10. The first picture is of Brian eating the deliciousness last year and the rest are of this year. Still delicious.

I simply had to pose with the same ferocious bear too... again, last year on top, this year on the bottom.

After hanging around Bear Lake for a while and reminiscing, we headed back to Logan where we ate at the oh-so-delicious El Sol (not to rub it in your face, mom), and then went to my grandma's for a visit and to stay the night. I worked Tuesday so we got up a the crack of dawn and headed to Salt Lake where I put in a full day of work and Brian put in a full day of studying! It was a very eventful day at work, but I'll save that story for another day :).

I really can't believe that it's been a year since we got married. It has been such a great year and I am so grateful that Brian asked me to be his wifey. We have learned a whole lot this last year and I love him more than ever before. Here's to many more years to come! I blogged about our wedding and honeymoon here, here, here, and here

And some wedding pictures for good measure :)

story time... and photos!

It was a fantastic week :)

I am really enjoying my new job. The other girls I am orienting with are just so dang fun and we are able to make the 8 hours of bookwork go by fairly fast and have a good time about it. We laugh and laugh and laugh. I am so grateful that it doesn't have to be all serious and dull. Of course, it is nice to be learning a lot about the babies too :)

It is weird being gone so much, but I am enjoying having something useful to do with my time and I definitely don't mind getting paid for it! Now, don't think this has stopped Brian and me from donating plasma... we went twice this week and racked up $150! I sure wish I had known about this place freshman year. It could've paid for all of my snowboarding adventures for sure. For now, it is going towards the gas I burn to get to the U.

Ok, time for a funny story. Or, at least I think it's funny. Luckily, so does Brian.

So... Monday was President's Day and Brian did not have school (yay!). However, he is a little behind in his dental shadowing hours (not so yay) and so needed to spend the day doing useful things like watching teeth get extracted. Well, one of my best friends (Megan!) has a few brother-in-laws who have a dental practice up in Salt Lake and she was so so nice to ask them if Brian could shadow for a day. They were willing and he set it all up. So far so good, right? 

Well, I had work that day and so I just dropped him off at the dental office on my way. Or, at least I dropped him off where we thought the dental office was. FAIL.

I call him up at lunch and find out that the dental office was not, in fact, on Foothill Drive (that was the office the are renovating and eventually going to move to). Nope, he ended up walking FOUR MILES to get to the real office! Luckily one of his boots for his broken feet was removed last week, but he still had one on. He is such a trooper though. Rather than complain about having to walk forever, he told me about what an adventure it was. He met a guy smoking pot(?) who asked him for a lighter and some other interesting people. He made it to the office about an hour late, but then had such a great day. He really loved shadowing Doctor Dave and learned a whole lot. He is so excited to be a Dentist :). Better him than me! I came in at the end of the day to watch a tooth being put in, and it just made me cringe to see them hammer it in.... It's weird how I can handle nursing stuff but not dental stuff very well! Brian is now thinking about going into oral maxillary surgery because his favorite part of dentistry is all the cutting open and fixing up. Ew.

Some photos from this week and last...

First day as a real nurse in the NICU!

See that ridiculously GIGANTIC binder? That is what we get to study/memorize. You can see how it compares to a relatively full 1-inch binder. Yikes!

Yes, it is heavy.

Badge! Oh how exciting to get a badge :)

This is the incredible homemade pizza we made with our new pizza stone! Delish!!

This is the day we celebrated Valentine's Day. You are probably wondering what we are holding. Well, it's panini bread (homemade!) that we dyed pink for the occasional - I know, I know - cheesy!

This picture just doesn't do it justice... But this is the INCREDIBLE homemade ice cream we made for valentines day. Quite possibly the fluffiest and most delicious ice cream I have ever had (and I've had a lot of ice cream over the course of my life...)!!

Oh! And Happy 8 months to us! Can't believe it - it's gone by so fast!

formal wedding pictures

Just some "formal" photos outside of the temple. It was such a lovely day! 
oh, and ps... the ice cream was INCREDIBLE! Will post the recipe soon :)

 :)

I love my family!!

silly. what is Dan doing?!

Brian's family.... his immediate family plus a few in-laws, nieces, and a nephew. Just a bit larger than my little family haha!

the kiddos

both sets of parents

big group

our friends! love!

all the grandparents!

beautiful grandma :)

Brian's grandparents - he's so lucky to have them all still around!!

I love my momma!!!

anniversary!

Happy four month anniversary  to us!

To celebrate 4 months of lovely wedded bliss we had a great weekend!

Last night after I got home from working in the NICU, Brian surprised me with delicious pumpkin waffles and we went on a bike ride around Provo in our footie "onsie" PJs...

these are the ones Bri gave me for Christmas :)... they are LIME green!

Today we went to lovely church (love!) and then I surprised him with a new ice-cream maker. We love ice-cream! Yay for wedding gift certificates :). So, as I am typing this, our ice-cream is churning and turning into a delicious treat! Peach chocolate chip. Mmmmm. With fresh peaches! 

our turquoise, pink, and yellow wedding reception

I finally have all of my wedding photos back! That's right... this means that there will be a few photo wedding posts in the near future! This one has loads of photos from our wonderful reception. I just love how the colors came together and I thought the venue was perfect for us! We had an ice cream sundae bar with delicious Creamery ice-cream and loads of toppings. Only downside to your own reception is that you don't have any time to eat the yummy food! 

ice cream sundae bar - yummy!

In LOVE with the centerpieces. We designed them to have floating lemons and candles with my favorite flowers - gerber daisies! They turned out even better than I expected :)

I just loved our cake, too! Brian's cousin, Chad, made it and I thought he did such a wonderful job... and it was seriously so tasty (chocolate with chocolate cream). Brian's aunt Sharlan did the flower arrangement on it. 

Sharlan also made our bouquets! She has talent!

Our rings on the tablecloths. I loved that our venue came with our choice of tablecloths - these were so classy!

Adorable wall-hanging given to us by Megan and Mike Stohl. Love!

Photo sign-in book. It's so fun to go back and read what "advice" everyone wrote! 

Brian's youngest sister, Annette, and niece Addy!

Daddy, Brian, Best Man Russell, and Dad #2

I was SO excited that Megan was able to come out for the wedding. We've known each other since freshman year and were roommates for 3 years and best friends forever!

I love my family!

Dan and Laura - helping to run the show!

Cutting the cake! 

Everyone watching the wedding video/slideshow. It was super fun!

*sigh...*

daddy-daughter dance! 

Ba haha! It looks like I'm going to eat his nose!

...and our first dance as a married couple!

time to get the garter!

guess who caught it? Brian's little cousin, Trevor! 

Best bouquet-catching picture ever!

and guess who caught it? My little cousin, Paige! 

SO happy that my best friends all growing up could come. Dani and 'Lex... we went through all those crazy elementary, middle, and high school years together! I was so lucky to have them.

And what would I do without my BFF Andrea?! She is amazing and I just love her!

mis amigas!!!

time to go on our honeymoon! Sparklers and bubbles along the way.

saying by to my amazing momma

and daddy!

... the beginning of happily forever after!