Happy 2 years together!

2 years, 1 baby, 2 apartments, countless road trips and adventures later,
and I'm happier than EVER because I married this babe 2 years ago!

He really is my best friend and has been exactly who I want by my side through the eternity.
I am so grateful for our relationship and how it has helped me grow and want to be a better person.
I couldn't be more grateful for his desire to take me to the Temple to be sealed together forever as well as to seal our future family together! He is an amazing father and husband!
We are just what each other needed!

He makes me laugh and deals with my crazy ways. We keep each other grounded and help each other manage the stress of this life.

I love this man and our marriage!

There is nothing better than to love so deeply and be loved equally back. The desire to give up literally anything just to make them happier is an amazing feeling. It creates a relationship stronger than anything I have experienced before!
Wow, words can't even describe how I feel and how grateful I am for us!

 

 

So with our crazy schedules we won't see each other from 7:45am until 8pm tonight so I decided to stretch out the celebrations until we get a chance to really celebrate on Saturday ... and so I created our anniversary week!

So for day #1, before the sun was up and the frost was still on the windows, he woke up to this:

Yup, thats 731 of his favorite candies, sour gummy worms, for the 731 days since I "hooked" him!

Stay tuned for the rest of anniversary week shenanigans!

I do, and always will, love him and our decision to get married, so much!

Park City

So this weekend was spent on a trip to beautiful Park City to support family running in the Pink Series Marathon and to just spend time with family we haven't seen in a while.

This was Nora's first trip away from home and she actually did a lot better than I expected during the day, the nights, however, were totally shot. I guess that was to be expected, but I think it's going to put a major setback to our sleep training that we have been progressing with.

I really had a blast this weekend! I've always loved Park City and of course Kevin, being the die-hard skier he is, loves it too!

We started the weekend with a 2 am arrival at the hotel (since we couldn't leave til after 8 when Kev got off work) and stayed up talking until at least 3:30 am with family we missed so much!
Bright and early the next morning we were up to make it to the start of the Pink Series to cheer on the runners. Katie, Kevin's mom, ran the half marathon for the second year in a row and cut about 30 mins off her time! Lara, Morgan, and Elizabeth - Kev's sister, cousin, and aunt - all ran the 5k like champs! Kev, Nora, Mike, Jenny, and I, along with other friends and family, bundled up at the finish line all decked out in pink to cheer on the runners as they came in.
(And yes, for those of you who know how I am about pink, I was wearing pink too! Mind you I didn't own a single piece, but I was wearing it nonetheless. Thanks to my bestie Koryn for the helping hand!)

I think I will at least run the 5k next year, depending on where we end up. I'm pretty excited!

Matching Cheetah print ladies!

After the marathon we went to lunch and then back to the hotel for some down time, and recovery for the runners.
Later that night we all went to dinner, and in the tradition that is the Bezak sisters (Katie, Margie, and Elizabeth - Kevin's aunts) we had more than our share of laughs!
Apparently it's a family "thing" to pick an unsuspecting victim to get the birthday treatment, and I couldn't have been more unsuspecting, and the "treatment" at this mexican restaurant is a large fudge sundae and a huge, heavy sombrero! Hence the following photo;

I had not even a smidgen of an idea of what was happening and I think we were all laughing so hard at my reaction, there were tears!

The next day was spent at the Olympic Park zip-lining, watching skiers jump into pools, and riding the lifts and an attempt at the Alpine Slide, but the rain thought otherwise. We had a blast nonetheless!

In front of the olympic ski jumps. Kevin is in heaven!

The end of a super fun zipline down the ski jumps!

Family photos in the rain came next. A huge thank you to Amy Worthington for taking them for us!

Then the evening was spent having a real birthday dinner for Jenny's mom with her whole family. It was of course another fun filled night of cake and laughing.

Then our weekend was over and we headed home :(
Nora's a champ on car rides! Especially when they are at midnight ;)

It was a much needed weekend and one to remember! Now back to real life and responsibilities.

Crock pot meals!

So we live busy lives with work and school and usually come home later in the evening, and top it off with a baby, and you've got one mom that struggles to make meals all the time.
So I thought I'd try out the great idea of freezer crock-pot meals! Thank you Pinterest!
If you're interested you can find the recipes I used here.

Now we should have meals for most of the month for under $200 and way easy preparation with the help of a baby carrier ;) I'm excited to see if this works! A lot of these recipes just need some veggies on the side or to be thrown in a tortilla.
I'll keep you updated on the results!

Along with the beginning of many wintertime meals, comes the best potato soup ever!
Here you go:

It's so easy and so comforting - and not one bit healthy! Haha you will thank me later.

One of my best friends introduced it to me via Pinterest as well. Gotta love it!

I'm currently contemplating freezing it to add to my collection.

Hoping all these experiments will help me feel a little more domestic and like I am doing a better job being a wife and a mom now that I am out of school.

I really am finding a new outlook on life and what I want to be doing with it. Now that my life is no longer school, I feel like it is finally mine! I'm anxious to see where it takes me and how I can grow from this new situation :)

Happy, happy, happy!

The man in my life

Yes, this hunk is all mine!

So I cannot express how obsessed I am with him! He is so amazing and I love him more and more every day, especially seeing him as a father :) So I thought my appreciation and recent thoughts deserved a blog post.

He's working so hard in the Mechanical Engineering program and spends his spare time taking care of his girls and working custodial at nights on campus.

He's also working on our next step, GRAD SCHOOL! The GRE has been taken and the applications are started! We're working on applying to places all across the country so who knows where we'll go next!

I think that's where much of my reflection and appreciation for Kevin has come from - discussing our life together and where we want to go. And I am just so excited for it all and in awe of the trust I have in him and how he comforts me about the future.

He is the example I want my boys to have of the man they should be and my girls to have about what a husband should be.

He is fun, uplifting, hard working, inquisitive, passionate, determined, encouraging, spiritual, and a worthy priesthood holder.

I could go on and on. 

It may seem funny, but I think I know my own importance and even my Heavenly Father's love for me better, largely because of him - how he treats me and how he helps me realize the best me.

And that makes me so grateful for the institution of Eternal Marriage through our access to holy temples here on Earth. 

The fact that he will be by my side not only in this life, but in the life after this, comforts me so much!

Ok I'm done with the mushy gushy.

He is my BEST friend! And I get him forever ;)

"first day of school, first day of school!" - Nemo

Ok, well more like first week.
Kevin is "off track" but talking two of his heaviest classes this semester and I am currently hired on with the university. I help teach a handful of classes in the Animal Science and Vet Tech department and I LOVE it!
We are pretty happy being back to school and work because we were getting anxious just sitting at home for the break with the new babe and all.
We are typically always traveling and doing things with my family and anyone else who wants to, but that was not the case this summer, hence the excitement for school to resume!

Nora did not feel the same.

(you didn't think I'd go a blog post without talking about her did you??)

This was mostly due to the schedule change and the fact that it meant she couldn't be eating 24/7 because mom could no longer be tethered to the recliner to feed her.

(Hence the breast pump that now accompanies my backpack everywhere in the picture up top. That things a lifesaver!)

She really has been a champ tho and besides the mood, she has adjusted and cooperated perfectly for us! As I may have already told the blogging world, she naps through the morning classes and the evening babysitter transitions usually pretty well and she is sleeping all through the night. As long as we keep to a schedule she's pretty happy.

And that means Mommy and Daddy are too!

Our schedules work out so that most of the time Kevin and I can swap between watching baby on campus (and now she prefers sleeping with the hustle and bustle over a quiet nursery!) and when that doesn't work we turn to our amazing Jenny and Mike for babysitting. Then after a school day is over (sometimes after 5:30 or 6) Kevin heads to work until 8pm while I get Nora time. 

This means late dinners that I have not quite figured out how to fit into the routine yet, but we are working at it, and with cold weather coming soon I can turn to a crock pot and soups so that should make it easier. 

I will be a competent housewife one day! I am determined!

So we survived it all and came to a weekend that felt like this:

I'd say we laid around similar to this for most of Saturday and Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, our new ward and bishop, Bishop Sparks, are amazing! Such a welcoming ward and a love as if one big family - something we have been looking for in a ward for a long time up here! I am looking forward to going to church again!

It is also pretty cool that Mike & Jenny and Chris & Koryn Rice are all in our ward too!

(Nora and Capri are still getting used to the fact that 1:30pm church cuts right through their nap times, but they'll adjust)

And now we are onto week two of these shenanigans and I think we're doing great! 

I just have to say I simply love my life, friends, and family right now.

Nothing is perfect by a long shot and we have out struggles, but it is all so great and makes me so happy!

2 month mark

Ok it's a week late, and yes, it's another post about my baby.

But what did you expect?? ;)

Nora is now 2 months old!

The time has flown by and we love her more every day!

She is now sleeping in her own room and she's working on putting herself to sleep. For the past week she has even been sleeping completely through the night! From about 10pm to 7am!!

She can hold her head up and now likes her pacifier (thank goodness!!).

She still loves to Facetime Grandma and she's "talking" to us more and more every day.

again, we're in love!

She just barely moved to size 1 diapers and has long outgrown her newborn clothes so as a mother and daughter we're loving exploring her 0-3 month wardrobe.

We have also just started a new week of school and she's been spending a lot of time with awesome (lifesaving) Aunt Jenny and Uncle Mike (some of the best babysitters out there) because I am back to work and of course Kevin is taking classes. Through all this family time we have also realized that Nora LOVES Michael! Anytime he starts talking to her she calms down and instantly focuses on him. It might be his glasses or it might be his mad skill, but either way it's adorable! 

I cannot say thank you enough to Jenny and the peace and security I feel when she's watching my baby and for how much time she spends babysitting. We could not make this work without her and Mike! We sure love you guys and how much we get to see you now :) Love that we live in the same complex again too!

(some more from 2 month shoot)

transitions

Sometimes babies don't like transitions
and they can be hard on mom and dad too.

Our latest endeavor: moving Nora into her own room!
A little sad for an attached mom, but good for sleep habits.
We started by moving her into a pack n play we have (because our crib is currently in CA waiting for a way to get here) and she was not a fan in so many ways!
so, (re)enter her cradle that she's been sleeping in while in our room - and that went way better!

YAY! 

(and yes I'm aware I have become that mother that has no pictures with anything other than her beautiful baby)

(lovely dress made by Grandma Lissa!)

Next task: letting baby figure out how to put herself to sleep

Translation: crying until I break mom's heart!!

The broken hearted mom and dad doing all they can to stay out of her room while she's crying results in this:

Yes, that is a screen shot of a connection to Kevin's GoPro camera we decided to use as a makeshift monitor! You do what you gotta do I guess.

O ya, and a sleeping baby!!! With the help of some time and advice from friends and family :)

So far she has put herself to sleep for one night and one nap with hardly any crying - cross your fingers we can keep this up!!

Also, I think we even have the pacifier thing down - still have to get keeping it in, but with some help, she likes it!

Next transition to come: adjusting to school/work starting on Monday!