Christmas in Utah - 2011

Merry Christmas! This year's Christmas was so much fun. We spent 3 days with the Bagley Family and had the bestest time! I love spending time with them. I really feel a part of their lives. They have done such a great job including me in their family. I truly feel like a real daugther and sister to them. It is amazing! I never knew how much love I could feel from a complete new family. Now I can't imagine my life without them. Ever since our wedding Spencer's parents said that I am now one of their daughters, just like Christie. It meant so much to me! So getting to spend 3-4 days with them during the holidays was quite the treat. We spent so much time playing games like BANG, Ticket to Ride, Dominion, Monopoly and Monopoly Deal, and the boys spent some time on the X-BOX and even got me to try Modern Warfare. Christie and Ben came down with their new bundle of joy, Hayden. He is so cute and it is so much fun having a baby in the family now. I can't wait for my baby girl and Hayden to meet and to continue the grandkid tradition! Michelle, Spencer's mom, was in heaven with Hayden. Everyone was. We all loved having him there and we couldn't get enough of him!

Most of these pictures were taken on Christmas day. The first one is a picture of their tree with presents underneath. Christmas morning we went to church at 9:00am and had a wonderful sacrament meeting listening to words spoken about the Savior and singing many holiday songs. When we came back we opened presents. Spencer got me a beautiful jewelry box and I got him a new Fossil Wallet he has been wanting for quite some time. We try not to spend too much money on each other, especially now since we are saving for a baby. Someday we'll have soooo much money we can go on extravagant cruises and beach destinations for the holidays. That is definitely something to look forward to! We spoke with Brandon at 12pm and could not wait for him to come home just 8 days later. The rest of the day we spent snacking on food, playing games, and hanging out with everyone. We even got a visit from the Bagley grandparents as well which is always a treat. It was a great Christmas!

 

I tried to get some pictures of everyone, but with the excitement of Christmas it wasn't a huge priority for me. Here is Spencer's brother, Michael. He is up at Utah State now with his brother Brandon--the one who just returned from his mission to Fortworth. Michael and I are really close. He is a really sweet guy with a lot of potential. I am excited to see what he ends up doing with his life.

And here is the cute baby Hayden!

Christie and Ben--the proud parents. They live in the Ogden area and we get to see them quite a bit which is so nice! Christie is just 2 years younger than me, but I feel like we are the same age. Ben works at Hill Air Force Base and is a super smart engineer. They just bought a house and are living the good life!

Richard, who is in 8th grade at a competing middle school to mine in West Jordan. His school plays my team in sports all the time, and when we do, Richard cheers on my Kearns Jr. team. That's mostly why he is my favorite. Haha. He got the game Ticket to Ride and we played it like 4-5 times over the break. I love playing board games. I used to hate it until I got to college and realized how much fun you games are to play.

A quick snap shot of Spencer and I and some of our gifts. We got a dutch oven from the Bagley's! I feel so blessed to receive gifts. I love Christmas for the opportunity to be with family and give out gifts, but there is something so exciting about opening up a wrapped present and finding out some of the things we got from people too! That is probably really selfish of me, but growing up the anticipation of Christmas morning and opening presents is always so much fun. On the flip side, I love seeing other people open gifts we make or buy as well. It's just fun! The ultimate gift, however, and the one I try to celebrate the most, is the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ. 'Tis the reason for the season!

I have never really seen Spencer be so excited about holding another baby. He really likes/loves Hayden. I can't wait to see him with our girl. I know he is going to be such a wonderful daddy. Just 3 more months!

Everyone was so concerned about making Hayden happy. This kid loves to be held so much. I don't know how Christie does it everyday! If he is not held, he will most likely cry. I hope my baby will be more independent because I know I will definitely need some down time. Maybe I'm just living in a dream world though. We will just have to wait and see how she deals with every day life. This is just one of the many things I have to look foward to as a mom. Seeing all my best friends and family members with their babies makes me so excited/nervous to have my own.

It is a whole new world and will be such an adventure, but I'm fully ready to take it on.  

Spencer and his grandma Billyleu Bagley. She is just the sweetest person and she reminds me a lot of my grandma Brown. I tell her that since I don't have any more grandmas alive that she is my only grandma.

She fully accepts :)

After being in the house all day, I can get pretty antsy. I told Spencer I really wanted to get out and visit the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, the temple we were sealed in for time and all eternity just 2 years ago! We don't get to visit it often enough because we are in the Timpanogos Temple district, so it was a real treat seeing it up close again. I LOVE this temple. I think it is so beautiful! But just like on our wedding day, this night was really cold so we got a few quick pictures and headed back to the house.

Spencer is saying hi to you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! We hope you had just as much fun as we did, if not more! It was sad to come back to reality and head back to school on the 3rd. I guess I can never get enough vacation time. When my alarm went off at 6am that morning, I had the sickest knot in my stomach. I did NOT want to go back to teaching. It was the last thing that made me happy. But just like with everything else, once you try something again it's not so bad. I am now in the full swing of things and enjoying teaching again very much. We just ended our first semester and I will start a whole new set of classes on Tuesday. January has already flown by, so I'm hoping the next 2.5 months will as well, especially since I have something so important to look forward to in April! Hurray for a new baby :)



2nd Anniversary!

Happy 2 years to us! We couldn't believe how fast these 2 years have gone by. We have gone through a lot together, and have learned so much about how to be good spouses to each other. I could not ask for a better confidant and support system. When my dad and grandma passed away he was there for me and let me cry on his shoulder so many times. We have the best time together.

Laughing, playing games, talking for hours, teasing each other, making plans, comforting each other when we're down, fulfilling church callings together, sharing holidays, the list goes on. We are best buds and do everything together!

This anniversary we had a small budget and had the best time nonetheless.We started the evening off with some delicious Cafe Rio. Spencer was nice and let me choose where to go out to eat. I literally would "sell my soul for a pork salad." It is my favorite. Spencer went out on a limb and ordered a steak salad. Good, but mine was still better!

After dinner we went to Jack and Jill's Bowling Alley and had a great time.

I bowled a 160!

I haven't been bowling in at least a year. I couldn't believe how on I was, because usually I can barely break 100. Spencer did pretty good too, but tonight was my night for a record! Maybe it was the baby that gave me luck. I thought since my center of gravity had shifted that I would have a hard time bowling. Guess not! We have been bowling here a couple times together. It's a local place in our town, we love living here!

Love you babe!

Oh yeah! Check out that score. I guess my nick name is now J Dogg. That was Spence's doing of course!

After bowling we had some money left over, so we went to Macey's and got some Tillamook Ice Cream. It was delicious! We decided to make banana splits and rent a movie from Red Box. I heard "Water for Elephants" was really good, so we watched it. Spencer brought the TV into our room and we ate and watched the cutest movie ever, Robert Pattinson did a great job. It was nice seeing him NOT as a vampire for once and Reese Witherspoon is always a cute actress which made for great end to our evening.

I can't wait to see what the next year will bring! Next year's anniversary will be so much different with the new little addition to our family. So exciting! 

Happy 2nd Anniversary Spencer. I love you!

Boys Basketball Team!

Here are a few pictures from my boys basketball team I coached this year. To be honest, this has been my favorite thing I have done so far this year at Kearns. I coached volleyball, and that was fun, but coaching basketball is totally different and I LOVED IT! I was dreading doing it at first because of the time committment and my dad passing right before tryouts started, but once I started coaching I totally dove in and the season flew by!

My boys were completely respectful, hard working, committed, and a blast to be around. I have learned so much about coaching. I was nervous coming in as a first coach. I had coached at camps before, but this was my first head coaching gig. The fact that I was their leader, their mentor, their inspiration during half time and before games was very intimidating. But also very empowering and exciting! Everyday was a new adventure, with new challenges and new things to learn from.

I had two assistant coaches who helped out a ton, and two managers to help with uniforms, logistics, etc. We didn't have a very big winning season, but we improved  A LOT and had a couple of wins.

Here is my Junior Varsity Team. I coached this team and the Varsity team (but we were really one team and practiced as one team). In total we had 22 boys. That was a lot, thankfully I had help.

JV and Varsity. What a bunch of goof heads!

Height was not one of our strong points. Haha.

Winners! We had a great team attitude with great captains. Our goal was to come together as a family. I feel like we really did. We had our ups and downs, but everyone was very positive and encouraging to one another. These guys worked super hard during the season, so I put together a pizza party for them after our last game. They deserved it!

Such great boys!

Coach Bagley giving one of her many speeches.

Although here it looks like I am giving an evil eye to someone.

These boys were very conditioned! Lots of pushups, situps, and suicides every day. They were in great shape though. They said I worked them harder than their football coaches. Good girl.

Last day of practice! We did a lot of rebounding/boxing out drills. Here they are performing.

Dribbling drills. Like I said, I learned a lot. Who knew the internet and "The Coaches ClipBoard" could be my best friend.  I had a lot of help and I can't wait to coach again next year. Thanks boys! You were awesome and I totally enjoyed being your coach.