Time Flies When You're Having Fun!!

Spring is here and we are ready for it!!! I can't remember the last time I was so excited for Spring and Summer. I have some serious plans for Summer.... Sheehan and I babysat for my cousin who gave us some VIP and Platinum passes for Seven Peaks, Trafalga, and much more!! I am so looking forward to using those passes ALL the TIME!!! Additionally here is our to-do list for our Utah outings (think of it as our "bucket" list for the summer of 2011): Timpanogos Caves with camping and eating a smore (yeah a smore is THAT important), Hiking the Y, summer festivals, This is the Place, the Living Planet Aquarium, Alpine Slides, a weekend in Park City, Olympic sites, tube down the Provo river, and last but not least...KEYS ON MAIN FOR MY 21st B-DAY on 7-11!!!! I can't wait for that...

Sheehan and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary! We can hardly believe how quickly time flies. We enjoyed our Saturday off and just lounged around all day. No obligations to anything or anyone. It was so nice to relax! I cooked and baked to my heart's desire. Sheehan gave me some very well thought out gifts. It was so sweet! I could hardly believe it! He was listening!!! He gave me a giant bottle of my favorite perfume that I had ran out of months ago.The box alone is one of my favorite things. It was really hard for me to throw away the box and part with the cheetah print. To go along with that he gave me a gift certificate to go get a manicure and pedicure! He made me a very happy wife!

Sheehan got a new job at Real Estate Investors Club and we LOVE IT!!! It is perfect and exactly what we were looking for. Sheehan is so happy, loves what he does, and what he is learning.

My parents came to visit for a quick weekend trip in March.

It was so nice to visit with my niece, little Kiley girl and see her so grown up! I miss being so close to my family but it's nice to have grandma, my brother, and cousins still close by.

My parents treated us to dinner at Tucano's and it was fantastic as usual!!

Devin and his fiance Julianne

I love that place. It is a tough pick between Tucano's and Buca Di Beppo's for my favorite restaurant.

The chinchillas are fat and happy. Do they have a sweet life or what? If I could be any animal, I'd want to be one of my chinchillas. Milly had another baby boy chinchilla on March 4th. We are giving him to Devin and Julianne. They named him Bruce...Baby Bruce. :)

He is about 3 weeks old in this picture. He is a cutie.

He looks just like Milly with his cute gray coloring. (That's the momma, Milly)

We've been to the orchestra with Grandma and Norm, spent many nights hanging out with Devin and Julianne, visited with friends, made many cookie batches :), enjoyed a wonderful conference weekend, changed jobs, and enjoyed every single day. We are looking forward to this coming year. I've been amazed at how much has changed since we moved to Provo June of 2010. We knew this was the place we needed to be and we have been so blessed in such a short time.

Valentine's Day 2011

We had a great valentines weekend this year. It was so much fun!

First off we started with a Valentine's dance with our Stake with food, pictures, dancing, and a live band and everything! It was a lot of fun and great to see everyone in our ward and enjoy their company.

We took some pictures together.

I thought the backdrops were really nice and the pics turned out cute.

On Monday, after work, we had a nice dinner with Devin and Julianne. I got home around 4:30 and immediately got to working on the main course while Julianne was providing the items for the homemade dressing and red velvet cake. (our favorite!!!)
I got red necklaces that were mandatory for everyone to wear.... :).Throughout dinner we played a game called Mars and Venus on a Date: A Question Card Game. It was so much fun! It was hilarious hearing the answers and discussions for some of the question presented. Sheehan was constantly trying to change Devin's mind and convince him that he chose the wrong answer as to what he (Devin) would really do. It went something like Sheehan saying, "I've lived with you for a year and all I've heard you saying is ......." then Devin laughing, "No, I wouldn't do that. I thought about choosing that but I went with this answer because......" then Sheehan, "No, You didn't do that before. I'm right and I know you better." It was like an old married couple except Devin was cracking up the whole time.

After the meal and game we watched the movie, "Valentine's Day" which I thought would be appropriate for the day but turned out to be kind of a dumb movie.... oh well. It had it's funny moments but I'll probably never watch it again. In the end though we had a fun night all together and we enjoyed our Valentine's Day for 2011! Here is Juleanne and her beautiful, delicious cake.

New JOB, I've arrived!!

I am so excited that I finally got a pharmacy technician job that I love!! I feel like finally my schooling and hard work has gone to something and I can move on satisfied. I was on the job hunt for weeks and was having no luck. Then I applied at the place that Katie got her job at which was MedSource pharmacy. We thought it would be cool to get a job at the same place so that we could carpool. So I applied and I didn't hear anything.
On January 22th, Saturday, I went to Target to apply to their open position and they said they would be doing interviews the following week and they'd let me know. The previous Thursday I had received my first pre-interview phone call from CVS pharmacy in Salt Lake City. Then on January 28th, Friday afternoon I got a call from MedSource. It turns out that Katie recommended me to the HR people there and my application email had gone to the junk mail and would have been lost forever!
So they found my poor lost resume and called me in to interview the following Monday. I interviewed and it seemed like a perfect fit. By the end of the interview I was told, "Well, you seem to be great and I think you will be able to hit the ground running so we are ready to get you started as early as tomorrow if that works for you." YESS!!!
So that's the story and here we are. I love it and I can't believe it has finally worked out. Later I got calls from two pharmacies (including Target) but they were part-time and I am very happy with the position I have now so I declined. (it felt really good to say, "Ummm, I already have a job...thank you anyway"...*fist pump*) So Sheehan is still working at Wells Fargo full time right now and doing BYU courses through BYU independent study and I am just working and doing what I love. I have the best schedule. I thought I wouldn't be able to handle it but Benjamin Franklin may have been right when he said,

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

Needless to say I start my day off at 5:45 am. I get ready the night before by picking out my outfit, showering, and making lunch or else I would be hopeless at getting to work on time. I cannot make decisions, like what I am going to wear today, that early in the morning. I get ready and out the door to meet Katie at 6:30 am where we carpool the last half hour to South Jordan to work. I work until 3:30 pm with a half hour lunch and I make it home about 4:15. Just in time to make some dinner and feel like I have been home for a while before I'm off to bed to start all over again. The perfect night is when I can enjoy good ol' American Idol with the latest batch of judges who I actually really like!

Well it may seem pathetic but don't judge....Sheehan and I are going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I for the first time tonight! Sad, but true....it has taken us this long....what can I say? Poor, student, young, married people have to wait for movies to go to the dollar theater.... hahaha I've heard mixed reviews on the new movie but we will see how we feel about it. I hear there is a whole lot of camping and wandering...

Sheehan bought a desk off of KSL for $25 bucks...sweet deal! On top of that...they delivered. I am slowly beginning to love Utah. (I never thought I'd say it)

For Christmas Alyssa gave me the best gift! It is a set of mini cake pans that are so cute! This was my first attempt and creation. :) I just loved how cute and little it was! I couldn't get enough of it!

SUPERBOWL!!!!! We had our first superbowl party which was awesome! I've always wanted to have one just so that we could eat all of the food! SO we did and WE DID!. We had taquitos, steak quesadillas, pizza, buffalo wings, salsa, breakfast biscuit muffins, oreo casserole, and cupcakes. It was awesome! Here are the cupcakes I made. I was pretty proud of myself....

Last but not least, Katie had her 21st birthday so Gina, Katie, and I had some Birthday breakfast together on her birthday January 29th. We had chocolate french toast and a fruit salad. It was awesome!!

So we are enjoying the good times and we are looking forward to more from 2011!

The Holidays (A Recap)

Last year went by so fast and a lot has happened! First we spent Thanksgiving with Grandma Bev, Norm, Auntie Ondra, and Uncle Eddie. It was a lot of fun and the food was awesome (as always)! I made these cute, cute red velvet with cream cheese frosting cupcakes that were consumed before I remembered to take a picture...
I finished my pharmacy tech internship which was SO exciting. I received my license and am officially a Utah Licensed Pharmacy Technician! WOOT woot!! I went by myself to California to spend a few weeks with my family and enjoy the holidays while I waited for my license number to be processed. We were all over and I was exhausted! I forgot what it is like to live at home with MY family!! I couldn't keep up! But we had so much fun. I flew in on Saturday the 11th and went straight to Huntington Harbor where we watched million dollar yachts float past us in a Christmas Parade. We went to a neighbor's parents house (which was in a million dollar neighborhood) and we were so close to the yachts we could have reached out and touched them! It was awesome and I'm glad I had the experience!

Kiley is getting so grown up and is so cute! We enjoy her so much!

Then we went to Disneyland!! One of my favorite places and commonly known as "the happiest place on earth" (I second that) I love Disneyland!!

(My friend Keegan and I in front of the castle)....... :)

...and Lys and I in front of the castle (We actually got to go inside! They reopened it! COOL!)

We looked for all kinds of hidden Mickeys and enjoyed all of the Christmas decorations. We found the hidden Mickey on Peter Pan which was a first.

We went to the California Adventure side too and watched the World of Color show which I have been hoping to see since it came out. It was pretty cool and we were randomly given tickets from some nice strangers to get up close in great spots to watch the show!

The morning after we went to Disneyland we learned some cake decorating techniques. We made some awesome cupcakes, cookies, and decorations! They were so cute. I am so excited to keep learning and making cool desserts. Later we made retro aprons and I finished one of my quilt projects. We went to a tamale party and spent a weekend at the L.A. Temple. It was one of the coolest experiences and I will always remember my experiences with volunteering in the temple. Once again though it was a spiritual high that left me physically exhausted.... we just kept going and going. Everyday there was someone new to visit or somewhere to go. We girls also got some beautiful makeovers.... fun fun!

Eventually Sheehan met up with me and we visited his family for Christmas Eve in Barstow. We were able to visit with some of his siblings and get a quick visit in with his best friend Aaron Craig and his wife Jamie. We got right back on the road Christmas morning after some stockings and breakfast and went to Tehachapi. Opened up gifts with my parents then got ready for the Nelson family Christmas party.

We also had some birthday celebrations for Sheehan's 24th birthday! I feel so bad for him that his birthday is on Christmas. I never feel like we make the day special enough for him. My favorite part of Christmas! I love all of my family and how much fun we all have together. We played our regular Christmas gift exchange game. Sheehan and I got a lot of pretty good gifts this year. Oh and I can't forget!!! We got a CAMERA for Christmas from my parents!! It was awesome!! We have been dying to get a nice camera and now finally we have one! So now we can expect many more pictures on this blog... After Christmas we enjoyed a couple of days relaxing before we were off again. I got a quick visit in with Lauren though! We went to dinner and visited with Sheehan's Dad (David Thomson) and his Grandma Marilyn and Grandpa Pat Hinman. We then went to Sheehan's Grandma Patty (Colleen's Mom). Then we picked up Sheehan's Mom (Colleen) and had Del Taco (which started in Barstow) with his sisters and Mom. After visiting with all of them we were off to Vegas where we visited with Sheehan's brothers Seth and Sheridan and their families. We made a quick visit to the Hoover Dam and on New Year's Eve we headed home for Provo, Some places on the drive were as low as -10 degrees!! I couldn't believe it and I was terrified of black ice. Regardless of my never ending stress and worrying we made it home very safe and just in time for the New Year's Eve show on TV. We had a great trip and wonderful holidays but we were SO READY to be home sweet home! My mom took some pictures of us together after Christmas with our sweet new camera. We haven't taken any of just us since our wedding and I am so happy with how these turned out!

I think this is my favorite picture.... hahahaha

Happy Birthday Sheehan!!! I love you!