Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me??

So when you find the right person, get engaged and finally get married to the man of your dreams all you think about is spending forever with him! You think about everything that you'll do together, what you will share, where you will go, where you will live..........together. But no one ever sheds any light on the fact that for some reason you will be physically apart for a few days, weeks, for whatever your situation is. Well let me tell you about it.

It is LAME!!!

I don't like it one bit! Granted, I was the first one to take a little trip with my sister's and lovely Mother for the weekend at the beginning of the month and leave Spencer all by his lonesome in our apartment, but now he keeps leaving me!! Either way, it's sad. For some reason life for me has worked out like this.....

I was single for the majority of my first 20 years in life and was very good at being independent. I loved doing things myself and being in charge of me. I was never bothered that I did not have a special someone to share my life with until around Christmas time 2008. Only a few weeks after these strange feelings started who did I meet but the one and only Spencer Hill and the rest is history. Now after being married for four months, I seemed to have forgotten what it was like to be quite independent and having to rely on only myself when things need to be accomplished. When Spencer leaves its like I don't function right...

I DON'T REMEMBER HOW TO LIVE BY MYSELF!

This was a strange realization that I had a few days ago and it makes me just that much happier when Spencer gets to come home. :) But this time I get to travel and meet him in Arizona for Thanksgiving! I am so excited to get a few days off and spend it all with my hubby and family.

Although Spence has been gone a lot this week, I am so proud of him for working so hard all these years to practice awesome studying habits and maintaining amazing grades so that he could fulfill his dreams of being a dentist. We have been so blessed to have been invited for some interviews and now its just the waiting game. And luckily when he does become a dentist... he probably won't have to travel very much! ;)

The Happiest Day of My Life

We got our wedding pictures back a few weeks ago and it has been so much fun looking through them and remembering our wedding day.  It wasn't very long ago, but these are some of my favorite pics because it reminds me of the little details of the day.  I married my sweetheart on July 17, 2009 in the Portland, Oregon temple.  It was such a beautiful day with perfect weather and the day even ended with a gorgeous sunset!  Talk about my dream wedding day!  The day included the wedding ceremony at 11am, a wonderful wedding luncheon, amazing reception, friends and family from afar, a bride dressed in white (ivory I should say...I know it's not white, but ivory matched the wedding better and I liked it on me better than bright white!), and a handsome groom. 

Pictures with all of the nieces and nephews (minus a few that were still in Utah and Texas).  This was the start of a crazy little photo-shoot!  But with 20+ little ones... they did fabulous!

 

My bridesmaids Monica and little sis Rebekah

I love this one!  We look like were in the jungle!

Spencer's brothers.... SO funny

My man is such a stud :)

All in all it was the perfect day and the definitely the happiest day of my life.  I love you babe!!

Family Pics!

Ok Family....

I'm going to try to call all of you today to let you know that our family pictures are finally here!  There is a preview of them on Mckenzie's blog... 

 http://photobymckenzie.blogspot.com.  

Mom will be getting a cd of all of them and we will figure out from there how you all can see every single one of them! :)  They look so awesome!  I'm really excited about them if you can't tell.  Love you all!

Home Sweet Home: Part II

So if you haven't read the post, "Home Sweet Home," I would suggest you do so first.  This Part II will make much more sense if you do so.  

Ok so I forgot that there were more pictures that I downloaded into my photo library to show you all!  So here are the rest.... hence, part II.

I could totally paint my kitchen this color yellow.  It's not too bright, but not too faint that you can hardly tell it's yellow.  I want a happy kitchen that has a lot of sunlight coming in, and the yellow helps. :)

I really like the drapes!!!!  So cute!  I don't love the pattern so much, but I totally dig the bunchy type of drapes.  I think they add the personality that I like to the kitchen.

So I think the backsplash in this kitchen is hideous!  But If you move your eyes up just a little, you will notice a lovely open cupboard displaying some adorable dishes ( and the dishes are even the right color).  That is what I love.  I really like the open cupboards that are at the end of the cupboards that kind of have a rounded edge... I don't know if you can imagine what I am trying to explain but it kind of reminds me of an old house.  That's a really bad way to describe it but I guess it's kind of a little hint of vintage.  And I think Spencer thinks I am crazy because I like vintage/antique things sometimes... he always double checks to make sure that I want a new looking house... not one that looks really old because I am always pointing out the houses to him that are older and have a lot of personality to them.  I always reassure him that it can look new but I want some pieces that give it some kind of personality that makes it a little different than the normal modern decorations that you see these days.  Well... all of that made sense to me so I'm just going to leave it at that haha sorry!!  Oh and I like the cabinets in this picture too.

I really like that the backsplash wasn't full of just tiling and that it just has a little touch of fancy design on the tile.  :)

Um.... love this idea.  And I really like how everything is neatly labeled and such instead of having all those ugly spice containers that they come in.  This is a narrow cupboard that actually has a door that you can close when you're done.  I like this much better then a spice rack!  And they look so organized!

Home Sweet Home

Spencer and I just moved into our first apartment in Provo and we are so excited to finally have a place to call our own!  And I am especially excited to know that we won't have to pick up and leave anytime soon. :)  And I am even more excited that when I go to the grocery store, I don't have to buy the exact amount of an item to make a meal because I know that we can use it again when I cook whatever I want with ALL of our own kitchen supplies!!!!!  YAY!  Besides all of that excitement, I have been thinking a lot about decorating with this new apartment and all.  I can see far off into the future what I want my kitchen to look like, and what I want our bathroom to look like, etc. but for some reason it has been so hard for me to look at our front room and think that with this carpet, these wall colors, and these pieces of furniture, I can make our little apartment into the cute home that I want it to be.  So in the meantime.... 

... here are some pictures of things that I like and will be considering for our future home.  I spent some time one day in Texas while Spencer was at work copying all the pictures that I liked into my photo library so I can keep them for later. :)  So without further ado, here are the pictures that I found!

I love the colored bowls in the cabinets, and I also love how you can see the bowls and how cute they are because of the see through doors.  These bowls represent some of the colors that I want in my kitchen later on in life.  I would want them now, but I can't want them now because I won't allow myself to buy any of them... you see I don't have anything that color and now is not the right time to start my collection.  Some day.... ( I get excited just thinking about that day!!)

Ok, so I don't really like anything in this kitchen above, it's just not really my style, especially the dog sprawled across the kitchen floor.  But if you look at the light fixture that surrounds the kitchen ceiling.... now that is something that I LOVE!!!  Maybe not that exact one, but something like it.

You may think I'm crazy but I also like these light fixtures... I know I can't really have both these three and the one that covers the whole ceiling in the picture before, but I can't decide yet.. and believe me I have some time. :)  By the time I can decide, I probably will change my mind anyways but I do like these as well.  The main reason for the above picture is because it is the other half of this kitchen below... and I absolutely LOVE the chairs!!!!!

Excuse me, yes, they are beautiful!  I LOVE them... and totally want those bar stools in my kitchen.  They rock and that's all there is to it.  I also really like how subtle the red is in this kitchen.  I like how they didn't have to paint a whole wall red to make it the accent color (even though that would probably be cute too).  The fabric on these chairs is awesome and, well, I love it.  I just really like how simple and chic the kitchen is.

Someday I will have my kitchen and home decorated the way I want it, but for now, our lovely apartment will do!!  Spencer has put a lot of work into making our apartment more cozy and comfortable and I am SO grateful for that. Not to mention... I am loving our new home and am so excited to be there for an entire year!  Yay for finishing school!

Tru Wuv.....

Um.... so there's only 5 more days until Spencer and I get married!  And 3 more days until I get to see him!  Yay!  That's all I have to say :)

It's Been a Long Time Coming....

So I came home from Utah to find that uploading from my computer to post pictures on the blog was not going to be quite as easy, so these pics are have been a long time coming, but now they are HERE! So onto the proposal story, now that the wedding is just around the corner :) Sooner than you know it there will be pictures of the wedding on here! Monday, April 13th, was one of the first nice and sunny days in Utah after a long winter and Spencer and I wanted to go play outside! I was at work and Spencer came up with a brilliant idea to go to a park after I got off at 6 that night. He picked me up from work and we headed out to find the perfect park. We continued driving and pretty soon we found ourselves on the freeway heading towards Salt Lake! So I asked Spencer where we were going and he replied...

" There's a really cool park in West Jordan that my sister-in-law Holly told me about so I thought we would go and check it out"

And in my head I'm thinking... "West Jordan?! There are plenty of parks in Provo that would be perfect and not so far away!" But I said "ok!" and in reality, the drive didn't faze me at all!

So we get off the freeway to West Jordan and as we are driving, we pass about four parks on our way to the perfect park that Spencer had in mind for us. :)

We pulled up to some kind of airport and I turned and looked at Spencer and said, "Spence this is not a park..." He just looked at me and smiled and continued to get out of the car. I was still kind of skeptical at this point, but I followed him as a nice gentleman came over to meet us at our car. Spencer talked to him like he had known him for days already (but he tends to make friends with people super fast so it didn't surprise me...that's one of the things that I LOVE about him :) ). We followed the gentleman, I think his name was Kade, and we walked through a couple of gates to find that a bright orange HELICOPTER had been pulled out for us!!!!!

I know! Crazy! Kade helped us into the helicopter and then we got ready for our first helicopter ride. We flew just past the point of the mountain so we could see both valleys and then came back over the draper temple and headed back towards West Jordan.

Here's the draper temple from where we were...

When Spence and I first started getting to know each other, I told him that riding a helicopter was on my dream list and was definitely something that I wanted to do before I die along with skydiving. Since that day, skydiving has kind of disappeared from my list, but I totally forgot that I had even told him about that! So I was so excited that he remembered and completely surprised me! It was so fun to put on the little headphone sets and be in a real helicopter! It was a beautiful day and was perfect for a ride over the valley.

Spencer helped Kade push the helicopter back into the shed and we continued back to Provo so that I could file my taxes. :) We decided to stop at one our favorites...Panda Express... for some good orange chicken to finish off the night. We took our food to go and we kept driving up the mountain, past my apartment! We finally stopped and got out of the car to walk to a really cool place where you could see Provo valley. We got to the spot and come to find out, Spencer had pulled up a huge couch on the side of the mountain with a table that had been set up with a tablecloth and a little vase of flowers and everything! We ate our chinese food and then opened our fortune cookies. He opened his first and then handed me mine. I cracked mine open and read...

"Will You Marry Me?"

I looked up and Spencer was on his knee with the ring box open and I couldn't believe it! I was totally not expecting it to happen at all before I left Utah because we were getting the ring custom made, but he completely surprised me! It was one of the best nights of my life. Of course I said "YES" and then we watched a slideshow of our pictures that a friend had put together for us...... it was so perfect!

.......and then I had to go do my taxes that night. :)

He is always surprising me everyday with something new and I absolutely love it! It is amazing how I fall in love with him more and more everyday and I can't wait for two more weeks to fly by until we are married and can be with each other always! We'll even get to be in the same state together! :)

EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!!!

When I started this blog a year ago, I decided right then and there that I would never put pictures of me with boys that I was dating on it for a couple reasons. The first is because my whole family will see my posts and everyone would be calling me trying to get the latest scoop on my love life, which I usually try to keep on the downlow unless I can tell things are going really well and becoming more serious, then I will tell them more about this boy that I am dating. Sorry fam! I hope that's ok with you!

The second, and final reason is that I didn't want to make a fool of myself! (that's right Sara, I used the word "fool" just for you.... I honestly almost deleted it because I remembered how much you love it ;) ). Let me explain, when I look at other girl's blogs that have pictures of their boyfriends that they have at the time, I think to myself, "Girl, what if you end up breaking up with this boy?! And then what are you going to do about all of these posts? And how are you going to explain to the blogging world (I guess you don't need to, but people will wonder) what happened to this boy that you seemed to be so madly in love with?!" So I came to the ultimate conclusion that I would only put pictures up of me with a boy if things got to be REALLY serious. :) And by REALLY serious....... I mean that

I'M ENGAGED!!!!

So I finally am able to post about a boy (well he doesn't like it when I say boy..... so a "man") that I want to post about and I am SO excited!!! Let me introduce you all to Spencer and tell you a little bit of our story. :) We met at school this past semester in January and went on our first date January 31st. I'm pretty sure it was the best date I have ever been on and I'll tell you why. Well, first of all, I was super excited about it because I had thought that he was so cute since the very first day I saw him (I know... kinda mushy...but it's true so I'm gonna tell it how it is). So naturally I didn't want to give myself much hope because I thought he was really cute but I didn't think he would even talk to me and I was sure he would never ask me out on a date! So I decided that he was just going to be a cute boy to look at if I ever got bored in class! (I swear BYU is making more girly the longer I am there haha). Well, little did I know that those first couple weeks in class, he had wanted to talk to me, but never found a time that wasn't awkward or stalkerish to do so.... so we finally met on January 27th after class that night which is kind of a funny story in itself.
I was walking home from our class, which was a night class so it was dark outside. All of the sudden, I heard someone yell my name... and it kind of freaked me out because it was dark and I was really really out of it because I woke up sick that day. So I turned around and saw that it was him... but I was so shocked that he was actually talking to me; AND I couldn't believe he knew my name!! So I just stood there not knowing what to say. :) So he yelled back to me, "Don't freak out!... My name is Spencer and I'm in your class... I was just wondering if you wanted a ride home?" I didn't really know what to do because I really wasn't very far from my apartment and I didn't want to look lazy by taking the ride, but I took it anyway :) We drove around and talked for about 45 minutes and it was SO fun! By the time I got out of the car we had set up a date for Saturday night.

So, about our date. Let me explain why it was the best date I've been on..... He picked me up and we went to Gandolpho's for some yummy food and then headed up to Park City. It was so much fun though because I had no idea where why we were going up there. We were doubling with another couple that was in the back seat of the car and Spencer made them promise not to tell me where we were going so I was really excited because I LOVE surprises! :) So we finally got there and we went to a Ski competition! It was SO cool!!! Now it was the best date because for the first time in FOREVER, I've actually been excited to go on a first date! I usually hate first dates and I can't even tell you the last time that I was excited to go on one. And I got really nervous...usually I get nervous because I worry that it will be awkward, but this time it was a different nervous... it was a good nervous, like a giddy nervous! And that NEVER happens to me! On top of that, he was super cute! AND we talked the ENTIRE night and it never once got awkward, and that's saying a lot because usually I feel like when I'm on a date, I have to struggle to find something to talk about with the guy that asked me out. Anyways.... that pretty much took up our night and we went back to Provo and he took me back to my apartment by midnight and I didn't even say anything about that! Huge brownie points there. :) That's because I had recently been on extremely long dates that I didn't necessarily want to be on... were talking 8 hour long dates that go until 2-3 AM!!!!! Even after I told them multiple times that I needed to be home by 12 because of things that I needed to do the next day. So by that point I had kind of given up on boys.... and I finally found one that seemed normal in all sense of the word. Finally! :)

So after that date we pretty much saw each other everyday since then until now! (because I'm not in Provo :( ). So there's our story of how we met... the story about how he proposed has to come later when I get those pictures too. :) But I'm so excited and can't wait for JULY!

The Wedding.... Part II

The next weekend, Paul, Lindsay, and I flew to Oregon for the reception there.  It was SO fun to go home and see everyone again!  Mom had a few people in our ward decorate the house... and it was AMAZING!  The house looked so beautiful and so did Lindsay...here she is walking down the stairs :)

Yay!  I love girl time in the girl's bathroom. :)  Here we are getting ready for the night!

Aunt Darlene came down to help my Mom with the food... which by the way was so good.  They slaved away all day to make some delicious food for the night.  There were so many treats and appetizers.  Aunt Darlene spent a lot of the time making the groom's cake...which is this really rich chocolate cake that is super tall and yummy!  I wish I would have taken a picture of it after it was all done.

I had to add in this last picture that I should have put in the last post.  This is my absolute favorite picture of the day.  We haven't had pictures with just us kids for a while and I LOVE this one!  Thank you for getting married Paul so we could have a reason to all get back together for a weekend! ;)  I love every single one of my brothers and sisters and I seriously don't know what I would do without them!  

The Wedding.... Part I

Mom and Dad took most of us kids.. at least the ones that didn't have to watch the little kiddos ... to Denny's the night before the wedding after the "bachelor" party. :)  Here is the last picture that I will ever have with Paul and I while we are both still unmarried!!!  Now it's just Rebekah and I!  

Here's little Mikey the day of the wedding!  I had to post this pic because he is just too cute in his little bear outfit!

The happy couple!  Actually this picture is from a week before the wedding... my friend Monica came into Utah to visit me and we went to Temple Square for the day and look who we ran into taking their bridals!!!  It was so fun!

Now here they are coming out of the temple.... Mr. and Mrs. Paul and Lindsay Brems :)  So cute!  We LOVE Lindsay!!!  They are so perfect for each other!

The Brems bridesmaids.... we loved our flowers and dresses!  I love getting to be a bridesmaid so many times with all of my brothers and sisters getting married....its so FUN!

JB and Melinda.... the cutest picture ever!

Kirsten was such a model that night... this girl is so hilarious and I miss her!  She has such a fun personality and is SO STINKING CUTE!!!  She was totally posing for every camera that came her way!

Melinda and Rebekah getting yummy dessert!

Some of the sisters...plus little Jakie :)

And of course..... the car.... Lindsay's family did a pretty good job decorating for them to drive around in.  

PINK EYE!!!

When Paul, Lindsay and I flew home for the wedding reception in Oregon, we came home and poor little ReBekAh had PINK EYE!!  I couldn't believe it!  It was so sad because the night before we knew that she had it, we were talking about how sad it would be if she woke up with a goober eye :)  Sadly enough, she did!  She was such a good sport letting me take pictures of her.... and I had decided to keep these pictures away from the blogging world, until today.  You see, yesterday afternoon, I kept having weird tons of gunk come out of my eye and I was SO confused!  TONS were coming out and I was so grossed out!!!  Well, sure enough, I have PINK EYE. :(  I don't know how I got it, but I have it!  So for that very reason, I decided to post these pictures of our adventure at home.  (I would post pictures of me except that I don't really know where my camera is right this very second.... Sorry Babe! :) )  So here she is the morning of... after she went to the doctor.

Even with a lazy pink eye.... our little Babe STILL manages to look so beautiful in the morning! 

Here's the rest of us the morning of the reception.  We were making yummy turtle pretzels... and Rebekah was banned from helping with the food at all :)  She just directed us in how to make these yummy treats!

Apparently this is the solution to getting your eye unglued.... Johnson's baby wash.  Since I don't have any of this, water and a Q-tip will have to do. :)

BYU...Here She Comes!!

The CRAZY girl was in Provo!

I know, can you believe it?!  One of my good friends Monica came to Provo at the beginning of January and it was her first time in Utah!  She's going to school right now at the University of Miami, but she had a longer Winter Break than I did, so she came to see what Provo was like and why the heck I loved this cold, snowy place so much! :)  Monica and I basically grew up together in Oregon through gymnastics.  I'm pretty sure we officially met sometime while we were in middle school when we merged into the same work out group in level 7.  At that time there were about 20 girls in our work out group which means we had lots of friends to go play with everyday at gym!  Talk about fun!  Over the next few years as Monica and I started high school, those girls that were once in our group started dropping like flies!  They either got injured and had to stop gymnastics, moved too far away from Portland, or just decided that they didn't like the sport anymore and quit.  Gymnastics is not a sport to just stay in because you like the friends or because you like to go every once in a while.... were talkin four hour practices four to five days a week, multiple injuries at once (not to mention, your body feels like its going to fall apart during and after almost EVERY practice, yet you still have to keep going or hours of conditioning is your fate :) )  and crazy head games from being terrified to throw your body around on a hard piece of wood thats only four inches wide.  But as crazy as it sounds... we still LOVED it!  Monica and I stuck together and starting in probably our Sophomore year of high school became really close friends.  We ended up being the last two girls out of our group of 20 that stuck through the sport until we graduated.  Monica and I have been there through each other's most difficult times during our high school years (and most of those difficult times involved gymnastics because ...well at least I didn't have much of a life outside of the sport).  During those years, we traveled together all over the United States, laughed so hard that we thought our stomachs would pop, cried until there were no more tears, and pushed each other to be our very best everyday.  I honestly don't know how I would have made it through gymnastics without her, especially during the times of my injury.  That was one of the most difficult times in my life so far, and Monica was there with an encouraging word through it all.  We will definitely be best friends for years to come and I am so lucky to claim her as a friend!  So thank you Monica!!!  You are one of the best friends that anyone could ask for... and I'm SO HAPPY YOU CAME TO PROVO TO VISIT ME!!!! 

Wasatch Elementary School...it was FREEZING!!

She came on a PERFECT week!  President Monson came to speak to us in the Marriott Center AND Elder Holland all while she was here!  They were both absolutely amazing if you can imagine.  By the way, I would encourage you all to listen to or read Elder Holland's talk that he just gave at BYU on Tuesday, January 13, 2008.  I don't think it is up yet...but if you can, watch it because it just makes it SO much better!  He is amazing!

This was her first time in Utah so we went to Temple Square and ate at The Garden, which was delicious (my first time), and then we went and watched the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  I think that was my fifth time seeing it and I swear it is just as good every time!  

She is the best!  I think we were asked at least five times if we were sisters... it was pretty funny because we always get that!