It's been awhile, but now I have a real reason to post!

So here's been our adventures since Christmas... at least most of them... I wish I could video every day of student teaching, but it might bore you... 

 So I made a cheese souffle! I was quite delicious. I haven't ever had one before... so this was quite an adventure. It looked like the picture, so I thought it was ok. :)

Now this next picture. My cousin Heather Stephenson is having a baby! I didn't have any wrapping paper so I pulled out my butcher paper that I use for sewing patterns and drew on it. It was kind of fun.

 Here's our apartment! I know, I know, you have been DYING to see our new apartment. We actually got a new couch with it too, but I haven't really had much time to catch our living room when it's not cluttered with school stuff.

 living room

 Front view of kitchen

 Erick's Valentine's Day roses for me. :)

 Dining room...there's a cool shelf over on the other side that I forgot to take a picture of.

 Office/Pantry

 Bathroom

 Inside the kitchen

So here's my real reason I decided it was time to update our blog. We got a new member of our family! His name is Benny. Erick is a huge Chicago Bulls fan so we named him after the Bulls' mascot. I thought it was appropriate. He's 5 months old Husky/Australian Cattle dog mix. He's really smart! His previous owners house trained him and taught him to sit. He doesn't bark and he loves to play (he's learning how to play in the snow). I'm hoping to train him to be a runner with me. I need a good running partner. So far he's really good on a leash. I'm too afraid to run with him right now since it dumped snow a couple of days ago. We're super excited to have him with us. It's going to take him awhile to get used to being here, but I'm sure things will work out fine. He's been a pretty good dog for our first dog so far. 

Erick is still working hard at his charter school. He's learning how to teach a lot of different types of students and learning how to deal with me. He's looking for another teaching job this next school year so he can be a coach. He misses basketball a lot. Especially now that we don't have cable. So cross your fingers for him!

I'm just finishing up student teaching. 8th graders are fun! They're really at a really interesting age. I'm starting to be reminded of how hard being an 8th grader was. I got a coaching job with Wasatch Front Fish Market this summer and looking for a teaching/coaching job this next year. I'm excited to see what's to come. :)

Well! That's our life so far. It's been exciting. We're coming up on our 1 year in 2 more months! Time flies when you're having fun!

December Adventures

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I thought I would give an update of what's been going on in our lives. So, we moved! We're now living in Draper to be closer to Erick's work in West Valley and my student teaching in South Jordan. It's a great little apartment. We're having fun making it cute apartment (especially since we live 1 block away from IKEA!).

Here's where it all began...

We had to rent a truck since we both drive sedans and Erick decided to put what we needed in it on our chalkboard. He even added a little heart to dot the "i".

We finally moved everything in our new apartment in a record time of 5 hours. We don't have too much stuff, but we did everything on one day. It took about 5 hours to pack things... I was a VERY tired person by the end.

Then, on the 19th, we made a trip down to Angleton, Texas for the Christmas break. It was very much rushed and our apartment was not the most organized when we left it.

So, we got to Houston on the 19th in the afternoon. The next day, Erick and I needed to go in search for Christmas presents. Since I live in po-dunky Angleton, the only good places to shop are in Houston. So we made our trip an hour away. We decided that since we were up there, we'd stop by the temple that we were married in, plus, Erick needed to use the bathroom. I wandered for awhile and took pictures. We forgot, though, to take a picture of us in front of the temple... oops!

The next couple of days we had a birthday party to go to at Chuck-e-Cheese and an alligator experience at Brazos Bend park. 

Then, something crazy happened on the 23rd. My aunt, uncle, and her 2 daughters got hit by a drunk driver. My uncle and cousin Nicole were fine, but my cousin Bethany had a bad concussion and my aunt completely shattered her leg. So, because it was right before Christmas and my aunt and cousin were in the hospital, we got Nicole and her younger brother Josh in our little house for the rest of the week. Boy that was an adventure. My house it barely big enough for 5 people, but then you add 2 more in the mix and it's insane! So in our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house we had me, Erick, my sister, my brothers, my mom, dad, Nicole, Josh, and sometimes our other cousin Zenzo. It was intense. But, my cousin got to spend their Christmas morning at their house, which was nice for them, even though their parents weren't there, my saint of a sister stayed with them. So, here's a picture of our Christmas morning!

The next day, I got to go horseback riding with an old friend, and to escape the chaos of my house, Erick and I decided to go to San Antonio for a night. My dad used some Marriott points on a hotel right on the Riverwalk. It was beautiful. We spent the next day on the Riverwalk, at the San Antonio temple, and at my wonderful aunt Caron's and uncle Lee's house. They're like my grandparents. 

Well, that was an awesome trip. We're thinking about looking there for some jobs when I'm done with school. It would be an awesome place to live!

We had fun. Here's some pictures of the beach the last day we were there. 

 jelly fish or manofwar...not sure which...

 Teddy spent time kick sand

 and Alex digging in it...

my mom finding shells.

 Sam: "Where'd your feet go?!" Alex: "Hahahaha, I dunno?"

 they were still dry at this point.

 so fun.

I love my fam-bam. :)