An AMAZING Christmas!!

We've had an amazing week! We bought and moved into our 1st home! We had been looking for a house since May and NOTHING was working out. 95% of the homes were all short sales, which makes the whole process of buying the house very slow and difficult. We found a few homes we were interested in but things kept falling through and we kept running into some pretty shady people. For example, we found a home that was a short sale in Springville that we loved. We put an offer in and the realtor selling the house told us we were in first place and we should hear from the bank this week. He told us that every week for two months. We couldn't understand what was going on until our realtor was talking to his secretary and she let it slip that the house was actually under contract with someone else. We were so frustrated!! We had (stupidly) completely stopped looking at homes, assuming this would go through. So we wasted 2 months on something that was never going to happen. We figured his plan was to string us along just in case the financing didn't go through with the current offer. So, we started the process of looking all over again and I was more aggressive then ever. I was so grateful for my patient, amazing realtor that would put up with me sending her a list of 15 homes every week that I wanted more info on. After another month or so of this we became very discouraged and completely drained emotionally. We had found two homes we were really interested in and put a few offers in, but it didn't look like anything was going to happen. We decided that if something didn't happen with one of these homes then we just weren't meant to be in a home right now and we would try looking again in a year or so. One of the homes was a short sale and the other (the one we got) was not. The short sale process for the first home had just begun and we knew it could be several months before it went anywhere, so we put it out of our minds. The other home was not a short sale and had been just recently flipped, so almost everything inside and out was brand new. We were the second offer on the home and figured nothing would happen. Then one amazing morning, I got a call from my realtor saying the people in first position had backed out and we were now in first position!!! 4 weeks (and a new roof) later we moved into our home!! Everything fell into place so quickly and we absolutely love our home!

Pics of the inside to come, once we get unpacked and things get put together. I also want to say a special Thank you to those that came out and helped us with our roof and moving in. We're so grateful for our amazing friends and family!!

Some other amazing things that happened this weekend: On Friday, Tyler and I got to see our friends and their two girls sealed together as a family for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful experience and we're so grateful they let us share that unforgettable moment with them. Also, that day, my little sister's missionary came home from Boston! She got to meet up with him that evening after he got released. She was so happy!!! 2 years went by quickly for the rest of us, but for her it dragged on and I think she still feels like she walking around in a dream.

On Sunday Tyler and I got to pick out our German Shepherd puppy!! As soon as we found out we were getting our house we started looking for a litter of puppies that would be ready soon after we moved in. We found an amazing litter with amazing owners that have let us come over a few times a week for the past couple weeks to play with the puppies and get to know them. They turned 6 weeks old on Sunday and the owners let us officially pick which one is ours. We picked the smartest and cutest of the bunch and named him Dexter. We get to bring him home on Friday and we couldn't be more excited!!! Isn't he so cute?!

  Needless to say this is the most AMAZING Christmas!! We feel so blessed!

Halloween

This post is going up 15 days later than I wanted, but I guess late is better than never. Tyler and I hosted our first Halloween party this year. In my opinion, kids and taking them trick or treating, is what makes Halloween so fun, but since we don't have any kids and our nieces and nephews don't live close enough that we could spend the evening with them, we had to come up with our own excuse to have fun and dress up. So, we decided to throw a Halloween costume party and invited a ton of friends. Tyler and I had so much fun planning and making the decorations. One of my favorite qualities about Tyler is how involved he gets with planning stuff. He was a life saver of a groom when it came to our wedding :) We had so much fun with it that we're hoping to make it an annual party. We had a ton of people show up and we ate, played games and took lots of pictures. Tyler and I thought it would be fun for each couple/family to have a picture of themselves in their costumes, so we made a fun Halloween backdrop and then took individual photos. It was sooo fun and the pictures turned out so cute.

My Awesome little brother as Mr. Incredible. No he's not wearing a diaper and no those aren't his real muscles.....only in his dreams.

My adorable little sister as Bell. Doesn't she fit the part perfectly?

Tyler and I as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen

Our faces were so caked with make up....yuck. But we had so much fun putting our costumes together! That wig would have lasted longer on a 5 year old....Tyler took it off about 2 minutes after we took these pictures and the suit coat and neck tie were gone about 10 minutes after that. But he was such a good sport about all of it.

I realized afterward that I look very angry/serious in all the pics.....I think I was just trying to be in character.

Kristin and Mark as a "cowboy" and indian.....very clever.

Val and Lance as pirates. No that's not a glare on Lance's left eye, he was wearing a contact, it looked so creepy.

Gary and Jolene as a ref and witch.

Krystle and Mike as pirates with their two adorable princesses.

Jake and Kara as mexicans. Haha, that hat is so big!

If any of you are Modern Family fans, you'll get this right away. Celeste and John dressed up as Phil and Claire's alter egos Clive and Julianna...so funny! And of course their adorable little pumpkin MC.

Blast from the past with Matt, Laci and Carter dressed up like people from the 70's.

Baby duck Annie, Cowgirl Erika and Michelin Man/Convert/Hazmat Guy/New Dad Blake. Haha, he's actually wearing the suit he got from the hospital when Erika had a c-section and left it as an open interpretation costume. We had fun coming up with all the things he could be.

"BK" for Burger King and Brielle and Kase.

Haha, I love this picture so much! Kevin and Carrie as hicks/farm people with cute Lincoln as their baby duck.

All of the Romney cousins and their spouses.

Next we played some "minute to win it" games. This particular game is moving an oreo from your forehead to your mouth with just your facial muscles.

Next was putting vaseline on your nose and using it to move cotton balls from one plate to another....it got pretty competitive.

Some other games we played were dropping a cd onto a cup and shaking ping pong balls out of a plastic jack-o-lantern tied to your hips.....so funny to watch!

Last but not least, the ice Tyler and I made for the punch. We took a mask and taped up the eyes and nose and filled it with green colored water and then took latex gloves and filled them with the water as well, stuck them in the freezer and had ourselves some cool looking ice!

A few days before our party, Matt and Laci had a pumpkin carving party. Tyler and I had a lot of fun carving our pumpkins.

We had a ton of fun this Halloween and we're already excited for next year's pary! Thanks to everyone who came and helped out!

I also thought I'd add a few pics from last year's Halloween. Tyler and I dressed up as Scarecrow and Dorothy.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures. It was taken last year when we went to see Thriller in St. George.

Shotguns and Adrenaline

This past weekend Tyler and I went down to Las Vegas to visit my oldest brother Josh and his family. We always have a blast with them. This time my brother took us out shooting with his 12 gauge shotgun. Now, I’ve always been terrified of guns. My mother basically engrained it in my head from a young age that touching a gun equals death. So all my life I’ve stayed away from them. Although Josh and I were raised in the same household with the same mother he does not share my fear. In fact, he served in the army for a time when he was younger so he’s actually very educated when it comes to this stuff. Tyler loves shooting guns and finally got me to touch one this summer when we were camping with his family and I kind of really had fun with it. Hitting most of the targets, I’d say I have pretty good aim for a beginner. I didn’t shoot anything bigger than a 9 millimeter so this 12 gauge shotgun was obviously A LOT larger with a bigger kick.  We went up into the mountains behind Josh’s house and the first time they put it in my hands I could barely hold it right, it was so big and heavy.

                      If I look terrified.....it's because I was

I had heard enough horror stories about guns like these kicking back into people’s shoulders and giving them horrible bruises, so I was a little apprehensive. My brother assured me that if I just held it tight in the right place, I’d be fine. He also had me put a backpack on so I could make sure I positioned the gun in the right place by holding the gun up against the strap of it over my shoulder, it also added a little padding which I liked. I insisted that the two of them shoot first so I could see what it was like before I actually shot it. Despite having my ears stuffed with cotton, the sound alone scared me to death. After both Josh and Tyler shot a few times it was my turn. They both made sure I was holding the gun correctly and then told me to go for it.

I felt my heart start to pound against my rib cage and my legs started to shake. “Ok, here I go, 1..2..3…….” I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger and looked back at my brother for encouragement. He nodded his head in approval so I turned my attention back to the plastic bottle I was supposed to aim for and said “k, I’ll do it this time. 1..2..3…..” All this counting I was doing was psyching me out so I started mumbling to myself that I needed to stop counting and just pull the trigger, I can do this, I can do this. Finally, my shaky hand found the nerve to pull the trigger. It literally took the breath right out of me. I think it was more the adrenaline than the gun but after I fired I took a deep breath in making a surprised noise in my throat (I ended up doing this every time I shot the gun). I didn’t realize until all I saw was dust flying through the air that at the very last second I had instinctively closed my eyes. Obviously, I didn’t hit the bottle but I wasn’t that far off. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t hurt at all, but the powerful kick did send a shock throughout my entire body causing me to shake even more. Tyler loves seeing me try new things like this so he was ecstatic and I think my brother was just impressed that I did it at all. I shot two more times trying to keep my eyes open but failed so I didn’t hit anything. That kinda bummed me out but I was glad I shot it at all and even more glad the gun was out of ammo so I could hand it over and let the two of them go at it. It was crazy to watch them because they were both so good.

Our targets.....yeah, like I'm going to hit something that small.

 It had been kind of over cast all day and when we saw lightning off in the distance we decided we better take a few last shots and go home.  Josh had seen an old closet door lying on the ground so he set it up as the final target.

This time Josh and Tyler both tried shooting from the hip. We were in a hurry but I didn’t want to leave without hitting anything and this seemed like a target more my size, so I asked if I could try shooting at the door from my hip. I think Josh was taken back that I was asking to shoot it again (frankly so was I) and said “yeah, of course”. So he showed me how to hold it down by my hip and then I shot it. The first two times I missed but the third time was a charm and Tyler looked at me and said “you hit it!” I just looked at him and said “...I closed my eyes”, we both burst into laughter. I was satisfied that I at least hit something so we packed up in a hurry to get out of there before it started to rain. After all that, my shoulder was a little tender and did end up bruising but it wasn’t bad at all. I have a feeling this won’t be my last gun shooting experience, Tyler’s already talking about taking me to a shooting range, which I think I’d be ok with.

Josh has an adorable 2 year old, Ellie, that we love spending time with! So I, of course, have to add pictures of her.

She's such a beautiful baby, she looks so much like her gorgeous mama. We love having them close enough that we can go visit for the weekend!

Bowling Champs!

So for the past 14 weeks Tyler and I have been in a bowling league at Miracle Bowl in Orem. Before I met Tyler I bowled for fun every once in a while but never gave it too much thought and wasn't very good. Tyler's been an amazing bowler for a few years now and when he asked if I wanted to be on a summer league with him and his friends Kevin and Tim Schippers, I was just flattered he asked and jumped at the opportunity. I didn't expect it to be so much fun! Now, this was a handicap league (hard to explain but they take your average and then add a certain number of pins to your score each game to even the playing field) which helps explain how it was possible we won 1st place ;) As time went on I became more and more invested and even ended up buying my own bowling ball and shoes....yep I'm one of those people now.

 Tyler had been using a ball he got from a yard sale so we got him a new one too.

When I started out, just breaking 100 was an accomplishment but by the end of league I had a high score of 182! My husband is an amazing teacher, so my improvement is thanks to him. Besides our trophies (pic to come) we got magnets with our high games and series. Our fridge is now littered with them.

I feel like that's pretty good for a beginner in their first league. But, Tyler's blow mine out of the water!

Now for the best part, our 1st place Trophies!!

My favorite part is that mine has a woman on top instead of a man!

The whole team!

I also got one more thing that I wasn't expecting....

I got the women's high score! (with handicap...but still) I got this score the very last game when I bowled my 182+110 handicap=292. Tyler knew I was getting this and I had no idea. Apparently he was so excited all night telling everyone I was going to be so surprised. I was on cloud nine when they gave it to me!

All of our winnings. We did get a little money which was nice but  we were more interested in the bragging rights of a trophy.

We had such a blast! I love that my hubby and I have hobbies we do together. Sharing this with him made it ten times better. How many couples can say they won first place in a bowling league their first year of marriage?

This definitely won't be our last league. Hopefully more trophies to come!!