The countdown

As I count down the days until the kids are here with us again, I have some updates to share.

We've had a couple of snow storms, but as of today, everything has melted. I'm really, really hoping that there is another storm before the kids arrive so they can play in the snow. Weather.com *says* that there will be, but I dunno.

This Friday I will be flying down to get the kids while Tye finishes getting the house ready for their arrival. We have some super plans of sledding, movies and shopping while they are here, and of course, this is Tye's first Christmas with them, and my first in 3 years. It certainly does change the holiday spirit when the kids are around.

Hopefully there will be more impressive icicles that we can play with as well.

Everything is pretty much set for me to start school, and Tye took a tour of the school he would like to attend the other day. Both schools seem like perfect environments for each of us.




We got Emo a cool new house to live in.

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving with some very good friends. 

Only 3 more days until the kids arrive. Then there will be many, many more blogs ;) I'm sure. 

Catch up time

So the time has come and gone again. It's been two months since I've updated this.

Life has been amazing.

We moved in to our new home









We celebrated Halloween

And we have enjoyed the fall (with a snow storm thrown in)

All in all, it's just been a busy couple of months. Tye's parents visited for a few days and that was just wonderful. Now we are anxiously awaiting the kids arrival on Dec 11. :)

I will fly out on Dec 10 to pick them up and they will be in town for 3 weeks to enjoy Christmas with us!

Next week is Thanksgiving. We both have to work, but we will be having a small dinner to ourselves the following day.

I go back to school on January 3. Tye will go back once I have completed mine. There is so much to look forward to over the next year.

This is a very short blog, but I guarantee that after the holidays, there will be many, many updates.

The honeymoon, the guinea pig and the house

We went on our honeymoon. I'm not sure why I haven't written about it yet, but it was quite lovely. We went to a bed and breakfast in Midway, UT called Johnson Mill B&B. We stayed in the honeymoon suite. It was AMAZING.

They had a little pond with a canoe that we took out that night. 

We went to dinner at a local restaurant and then spent the evening together in our beautiful suite. 

T

The next morning we had breakfast brought to our room and we had mimosas, and I just really didn't want to leave...

We then moved on to Park City where we spent time walking up and down the "downtown" area there, which just so happened to have a bike race going on at the time. We had some food and again, just enjoyed each other's company. 

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A couple of weeks later, we decided to get ourselves a pet. So we drove 2 1/2 hours to pick up our new friend Emo. He is the cutest, most emo guinea pig that has ever existed:

 

He loves to eat carrots. They're like Guinea Pig crack. 

And he loves hanging out with his daddy.

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And finally, another praying mantis story. We've been house hunting for a while now. Gotta get out of this studio and have room for the kids. There's a house across the street from our apartments that just under a year ago was trashed by the tenants. We watched as the house was redone and were just hoping that they would rent it out because it was so cute and so perfect for us. Well, the owners decided to put it on the market because they didn't want to have to deal with bad tenants again. That's understandable. So we've watched for almost a year as no one bought the house. I kept saying to Tye: "No one's going to buy it, and they're going to rent it to use just about when our lease is up." Well, I kept saying it and kept saying it. Meanwhile, every day, I'm checking the classifieds for houses in our neighborhood. We had been going to look at them and trying to find that perfect one. One day I found it. There was the house. They had finally put it up for rent! So, of course, we called them and they told us how to get in to take a look. We went over and immediately started making plans on how we would make it our own home. As we were walking around outside, on the door leading to the driveway, there was this: 

 A giant praying mantis. If you've read my blogs, since Tye and I met, the praying mantis has shown up immediately preceding or following a very important step in our lives. It was a sign! Well, 2 weeks later after waiting and waiting and waiting, the house is ours and we should be able to start moving in very soon! So excited to have a yard and a house with our own washer and dryer and dishwasher. :) 

Just a couple more months until the kids come out! We can't wait to see them.

The wedding and the zombies...

For months now we've been planning and talking about all the things that we did and did not want to do for our wedding. We definitely wanted to keep the wedding itself simple and intimate, but then to have a huge reception afterwards. Well, even with making the ceremony simple things just kept not coming together the way we wanted them to. I was stressed beyond belief about everything and there is no reason that a wedding should be so stressful. It's about the love that we have for each other, not about the pretty things that we have to get married with. (parties are awesome, and that's coming up...so stay tuned)

So we made the decision to go to the court and get married. We took our fantastic friends as witnesses and since we're not rolling in money, we went to Wal-Mart the morning of to pick out some rings and clothes to wear. Yep. We had an AMAZING Wal-Mart wedding...on Friday the 13th.  It was perfect.  We drove down to the courthouse and the officiant let us say our vows to one another. It was absolutely perfect in every way. I even managed not to cry, though I came close.  We then went to a local park and took a few pictures and then went to breakfast. Next weekend we are going on our honeymoon. 

Saturday we got together with some friends and got all kinds of gross and bloody and went to the Zombie Prom. It was also an AMAZING time! :) 

I feel so lucky to have the most amazing man in the world for a husband. I love him so much. I am so glad that we are now married and can spend the rest of our lives together. The reception is in the planning stages, so stay tuned for more information. :) 

Future plans: 

New house

Christmas break with the kids. 

Once again, life is beautiful. 

3 months?

Wow. It has been 3 months since I've been on here to blog. It's been a really full 3 months too. I can't let this go that long again. Ouch. ;)

There was...Wyatt's birthday:

my birthday celebration:

He's my birthday kitty, since I can't have a real one. 

Then a month later, we went to Vegas to pick up my kids. <3 

We brought them all 3 back to our tiny little apartment in Salt Lake City. I can't express the amount of joy having them here brought me. We took them to parks, where they climbed trees like monkies,

and were generally silly. 

We had a birthday party for them to make up for parties missed. 

We took them to Park City and actually found them some snow to play in and some rocks to climb. :) 

We watched the fireworks at the park in the Avenues. We got to look out over the entire Salt Lake Valley and see fireworks all over. :) 

Then it was time to take them home...

So we spent some time with my family.

And then we drove them home.

We went to Tucson to spend time with Tye's family. I finally got to meet his brother and his brother's girlfriend.  

We spent some time in the pool practicing our synchronized swimming. 

The next morning, we went gliding. It was an amazing experience, but we all got kinda sick because it was SO freaking hot. 

We had an amazing trip...and once we got back, Tye started working with me. So now we go to work together every morning and life is beautiful. 

We're going to have the kids back in December for their Winter break. I can't wait. By then we should have an actual HOUSE for them to be in, instead of on the couch and the spare bed in the living room together. Oh, and 2 bathrooms. Wedding should be coming up soon too. :) So much to look forward to. 

Life is good.