Rexburg Trip

Right after work on Friday, Thomas picked me up and we headed out of town to go to Rexburg to see my newest nephew who was born a week and a half ago.  Little Emmett is SO tiny! He sleeps a ton and is the cutest little cuddle bug. 

Mr. Stinky Pants (Alex) is talking all the time now.  His newest thing is monster trucks.  He loves watching monster truck videos on YouTube.  He'll line up his Hot Wheels cars and then get his truck and roll it over them. Ivan took him to a monster truck show and ever since he has been really into them.

We got to Rexburg Friday night and just hung out.  Saturday Thomas and I woke up and went for a 10-miler.  He biked along side me as I ran.
I had also made a hair appointment for Saturday afternoon and got my hair did.

We had fun singing Glee Wii Kariokee (actually it was really only Briana and I everybody else watched).
It was really nice relaxing and spending time with family. We love our little nephews they are the cutest little stinkers ever.

Weekend Wrap Up

A week and a half left of classes! I have a couple final projects to wrap up and I am done.  Just picked up commencement tickets today for all the family coming in to town. 
We posted our futon and desk and t.v. stand that were in our second bedroom on craigslist and sold them all in one day :) It was kind of random because the person who e-mailed me from craigslist had a familiar name but I thought maybe it was just a coincidence.  When he came over it ended up being someone from our hometown and him and his family have moved her to Rexburg.  Small world :)

And I found out that even though I'm not taking the required 14 credits for an academic scholarship during my student teaching, since it is my last semester they are still giving me the half tuition scholarship.  Phew! I am feeling very blessed this week.  We are still praying that Thomas will find an x-ray job in Boise.  Any additional prayers for him would be much appreciated. 
Speaking of Thomas... one thing I love so much about our relationship is how we can be active together.  Tonight we went to the new indoor track and basketball courts and Thomas played soccer while I ran and did a little Shape Magazine workout (I didn't realize how much that little workout would work me but it did). This past weekend we spent an hour at the gym together.  We kind of do our own things at the gym but when we are both done with our respective workouts we will stretch together and do a little lifting too. 
Also this weekend  I went to my little sister Briana's baby shower.  A girl from her church hosted and the decorations were so cute.  It was a monkey theme and the girls husband is a design major so he created the monkey logo/design.  I tried hummus there for the first time and loved it! I can't wait to make some soon. While Bea and I were at her baby shower our hubbies went out to a place called Big Judd's.  It's a greasy burger joint that has like 5lb burgers and if you eat the whole thing you get your picture on the wall.  The guys came home smelling big time like onions but we forgave them since they brought us ice cream.

Sunday, we went over to Bea and Ivan's and they were oh so kind to let us watch 5 1/2 hours of Grey's Anatomy.  I missed the last season and have slowly been catching up when I can watch it on their NetFlix.

  I finally finished the last season and am all caught up.  We also played a little Yahtzee and ate amazingly tender steaks that Ivan grilled for us. 

Alex is so stinking cute.  Whenever he sees a Yahtzee box he points to the dice and says "Blow! Blow!" Cause when we played at my parents house everybody would have him blow on their dice for good luck before they rolled.

President's Day Weekend

I needed this long weekend.  Friday while Thomas was at work till 8pm I bunkered down at home and got lots and lots of homework done.  I have my final evaluation of my teaching from my Senior Practicum professor tomorrow morning. So this whole weekend I've been having nightmares about that :) I don't know why cause my last one went well. This weekend I've had a sore throat that is progressively getting worse so I'm just hoping I still have my voice tomorrow morning.  But anywho, I feel good about my lesson preparation so I feel good about it, although a little nervous too.
After Thomas got home from work on Friday we headed over to Bea and Ivan's to play some Wii Mario Kart and wait for the arrival of my mom from Washington.  Saturday, Thomas had to work so I went to with my mom, sister, bro-in-law, and nephew to Idaho Falls for a little shopping. While my mom went to Old Navy I headed over to Barnes and Noble to read Kardashian Konfidential.

 I think I got through half the book in an hour.  Really fun, quick read. Thomas met me at Barnes and Noble and we headed over to Famous Daves for dinner.  We got the family meal which was so yummy! There were ribs, brisket, steak fries, potatoe salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, and cornbread.  I love ribs sooooooooooo much! The meal was huge and fed us five adults plus my nephew and we had leftovers. 

Sunday, Thomas and I taught Sunday School on the miracles of Jesus.  Sometimes I get a little tired of teaching cause it's what I do all week and I kind of want a break from it on Sunday but after the lesson I'm always glad we had the chance to study it a little more in depth.  After church we put veggies and a roast in the crock pot and relaxed for a bit till the fam came over.  We played guitar hero for hours and had lots of fun :)

You are witnessing a miracle.  Thomas has always refused to sing and he finally did! To like three songs!

Alex's favorite was the drums.

The Pascual Family rocking it out.  They Rock!

Monday, we slept in and lounged around.  Thomas made me breakfast of whole wheat waffles topped with fruit and an omelet.  Then we headed over to Bea's to play more Wii (Deal or No Deal).  I was feeling even more sick so ended up passing out on the couch while everyone else played.  Then we went home and took an hour nap or so. 
Good long weekend. Ready to take on the week.

More Christmas

My mom just posted some more Christmas pictures so I thought I'd relieve the season for just a little longer.
Sledding:


Mom and I headed up the hill.



Do you see my mom? She biffed it.





Mom and I at the bottom





Ready to race.




Mom thinks I'm a pretty fun sled driver.



Waiting for Dad to get home so we can open presents:

Sister Ashley

Brother in law Mike

Thomas and I passing the time with electronics.



Sister Bea imagining what Santa brought her.

Family:

Grandma and Grandpa Clement



My pretty sisters

My lover and I

The Cutest Little Boy in the World:

Randomness:

My bro-in-law's sister Eunice came from Mexico for Christmas.  She just graduated high school and will be attending college here in the states.

 My mom had a little present wrapped up in a check book box for Thomas and I.  On it was written "Remember the plan."  Apparently I told her that I wanted kids when I was 24 and since I'm 24 now she is reminding me about that.

 It's a little Seattle Sounders onsie :) They are a soccer team that Thomas and I like.  My sister Ashley was like "Is this an announcement!?"  I assured her that it wasn't.

 This big blow up thing my mom got on clearance and we had many a debate about whether it is a bear/reindeer/ or dog. 

Dad, Alex, and dog Abby in front of the reindeer/dog/bear.

Sleigh Bells Ring

We left for christmas break on Sunday night.  Thomas worked from 7am-7pm so I spent the day with my MTC mission companion.  We went to church together and then hung out the whole day.  I picked Thomas up around 7pm and we were off, headed to Boise for the night.  We spent the night at my friend and old roommate Tess's house.  I love being able to see them pretty frequently when we stop over on our trips home.  Monday morning we were off again.  I had borrowed some books on CD from the library to try out for the trip.  The only problem is, whenever I put the CD on I ended up falling asleep and missing part of the story.  This was a bonus too though because the 6 hour trip home, I slept most of the way so it went by super fast.  The CD was actually a huge failure, it took forever to get to the plot of the story and then had a sick twist where the mentally disabled sister runs off to be a lesbian.  Very weird.
Monday night we spent with my parents and played Yahtzee with them and my younger sister and her hubby. 
Tuesday was Thomas' parents day. We had six neices and nephews over there so we were very entertained.  We went sledding and played a million games of Go Fish. Instead of sleds the kids used sheets of plastic to slide down the little hill next to Thomas' parents house.  They worked very well, I was impressed.

Miss Lexie

Miss Katie

Lil' daredevil Savannah

Kayden giving his cousin Katie some hugs.

My lover.  His job was to stop the kids from running into the little pump/rock at the end of the hill.

Mr. Kayden

The little girls and I going down the hill.

Lovers for life

Thomas and the little ones.

We could fit a lot of kids on that little piece of plastic.

Mr. Dillan

At the end of the night we were all in the living room chatting.  Thomas was laying on the couch next to me and got up to go check on the jerky he was making.  Savannah (7) and Katie (4) asked if they could snuggle with me.  They found out a spoke spanish and spent the next half hour asking "How do you make _____ spanish?" I was very surprised how well they could pronounce the words. Especially Savannah.  Another half hour was spend playing name that tune christmas version by humming.  Then another half hour they told Thomas and I there favorite parts of Home Alone.  It was so entertaining and I loved it.

California Trip

My parents had planned a trip to Australia for their 30th wedding anniversary and my dad had taken two weeks off work and everything but then they decided it would be too much with the cost of plane tickets and all.  So they decided to include their kids in their anniversary trip and invited us to go to Anaheim, CA with them.  We had been planning this since before fall semester started so from the beginning of the semester I had time to arrange getting homework turned in early.  The plan was to go from Tuesday to Tuesday but I could only miss two of my Tuesday/Thursday classes.  So we left Tuesday after my morning class. 
But let me rewind to Monday night.  About 11:30pm my phone rang and I found out that my sister Bea was in the hospital cause she was possibly having a miscarriage.  We had just dropped our car off at the mechanic and so were carless.  So I looked out the window and saw my neighbor Keli's lights were still on so I called her and she was so kind to take Thomas and I to the hospital to pick up my nephew Alex.  Alex was a little trouper and went right to bed and slept until I got home from my class at 9am. 
We were a little nervous driving 15 hours to California with a one year old but until the very end he was a champ.  It was so sad once he just got fed up with being stuck in a car for so long and there was no way to comfort him.  We ended up just pulling over at the next gas station and letting him walk around for about an hour. 

                                       Mr. Stinky Pants getting all messy with his lucky charms.
The first day in California we took it easy around the hotel.  There was a nice outdoor shopping area right next to the hotel so we went there and ate at Bubba Gump's. 

                                                     Quite possibly the cutest picture ever.

                                                               Mr.Cool and his Nana

                                                     Brother in law Forest I mean... Mike

The next two days we spent at Knott's Berry Farm.  Thomas had only been on one roller coaster his whole life before this!

Our first ride at Knott's Berry Farm.  I screamed like crazy.  The little kids facing us laughed their heads off at me (so did Thomas).

 My brother in law Mike and hubby Thomas wouldn't go on this one with us.  My dad gave them a hard time for it.  The Supreme Scream shoots you straight up and then drops you twice.  The worst part is the anticipation of falling.

 Alex either wasn't happy sitting with me on the truck or he was impatient to get moving.

 This rollercoaster had a good size drop AND you got wet.

 Really wet.  There was a sign as you were leaving that said "Dryer ahead"  but you had to pay five bucks for it!

That's Thomas and I in the blue shirts.

We started out a little too fast for him that first day and he was feeling a little sick after the first couple rides.  But after lunch he was ready to get going again. I love that Knott's Berry Farm has so many adult rides.  Honestly I think that I like it better than Universal Studios where we went for my senior trip.  Everyday we packed a lunch and would eat it in the little picnic area they had outside the park.  The picnic area is filled with roosters and chickens.  At first I thought it was kind of cool but then on the second day one flew right up on our table and scattered some of our food, disgusting. 

                                       My dad was intent on catching one and he was successful.

 The were all over! I guess Knott's Berry Farm started out as a chicken farm and then they added a Ghost town to entertain people and it kept getting bigger from there.

Alex loved splashing in the puddles.

At Medieval Times

Friday night we went to Medieval Times.  Medieval Times is a dinner/theater.  The unique thing about it is that everyone is dressed up in old style clothing and you watch "knights" jousting as they act out a little play.  We were assigned to cheer for the green knight who turns out to be the evil one.  The food was great (although it all came up later) and it was very entertaining.   From the start I was feeling pretty sick.  The feeling came and went throughout the whole perfermance.  Finally when we got back to the hotel I threw up and that continued throughout the whole night.  Luckily Saturday was a relaxed day and we just hung out at the hotel by the pool.  I think my favorite part of the trip was hanging by the pool.  It was perfect temperature and so relaxing. 
We decided instead of leaving Sunday early morning we would drive through the night on Saturday so Alex would be asleep the majority of the trip.  It worked wonderfully and we didn't have a single break down! Vacation was fun but we were glad to be home and back into our routine. 
Thomas started his new job as an ER tech at the hospital and is loving it.  He works 12 hour days, but it's much better than 9 hour days at a job that sucks.  He is my hardworking man and I love him!