Summer...WINTER vacation at last!

I think I'm a bit behind on blogging, so it's definitely time to catch everyone up on what's been happening with us!

YES. Off-track semesters are heaven sent. And lucky for us we get Winter as our off-track (no sarcasm intended). We are so thankful not to be in school right now and not have to walk to classes in negative degree weather, with the icy/bitter cold wind blowing and the buckets of snow and ice on the ground. FACT: Rexburg is one heck of a humbling place. We definitely feel for all those who have to make those unpleasant walks uphill to campus. Ha, suckas! Just kidding. ;)

Let's see...

These past two months we celebrated both mine and Tayler's birthdays. I turned the big 20 and Tayler turned the whopping 23.

We celebrated our first year together since we had started dating back in November 2011. Now in just a little over 2 months we'll be celebrating our first anniversary. Where does the time go?

We went down to Springville, Utah for Thanksgiving and spent it with all of Tayler's family. It was fun to catch up with all his relatives and spend some quality time with the immediate family as well. His oldest sister, Rochelle, taught me how to sew slippers. Now I'm excited to try out all the many possibilities of sewing (i.e. pillows, curtains, alterations). I'm even considering taking up a sewing class one of these semesters. As well as photography for a "cluster"....we'll see.

Finals? Well.... maybe we won't talk about that. Let's just say we finished them off with a bang. It was treacherous and absolutely excruciating. But hey, what's new? It's finals for goodness sake. And praise the day we can finally have a break for 3 months. Hallelujah.

Some of you might be wondering what we must be doing with all this free time now. Tayler is continuing to work on-campus with the online course improvement department. I am still the manager of the ice cream shop I work at, and will be able to focus more of my time helping build the business this break. After all, we need as many customers as we get with this weather.
Tayler has also been helping me with advertising the business and getting its name out there. What a peach:)

Before our Christmas break I helped clean apartments off-campus like I did over the summer. It was only for a few days, but hey--anything to help put money in our pockets and pay off those hospital bills... Yes, hospital bills.

Tayler was unfortunately diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Not the best news right before the holidays. Merry Christmas to us! He had to have a colonoscopy literally hours before we drove 9 hours to Washington. And let me tell ya, he is hilarious coming out of anesthesia.
Anyways, we are grateful for the trials the Lord gives and throws at us. They help us learn and grow to become better. We could not do this without His help and love.

We spent Christmas with my family up in Kennewick, WA and New Years with Tayler's fam in Sherwood, OR. It's super nice only having a 4 hour difference between families during vacations. We watched Les Miserables (amazing/beautiful movie that will bring you to tears), made fudge, decorated our own real Christmas tree, made candy trains, played Just Dance on the Wii, babysat our adorable nephews (or as my siblings would call it--birth control), ate TONS of amazing food, made tons of amazing food, and all around had such a relaxing break with our families. We seriously love them all.




Made this out of 3 dollars at Walmart

My gift to Tayler for Christmas. Sorry if it's TMI. I thought it was hilarious.