Great News!!!

This young man is the luckiest son of a gun in the state right now because...


KIMMY IS ENGAGED!!!

I am so excited for her and so stoked to help her plan the wedding! This man better treat her great! But seriously, he is a great guy and is perfect for kimmy. Out of all the guys she has ever dated, he is the only one who I felt actually deserved her...I guess sometimes you have to date a lot of frogs before you find your prince charming!

Here is a good picture of her new bling:

I would like to list some of the things that I LOVE about kimmy.

She is a great sister. I have so much fun with her. We have the same mannerisms and the same silly humor. There is never a dull moment with us!

She finally caught herself a good one!

She likes to go on vacation to wonderous places

Even the mean animals love her

She is silly

She is part of my awesome family

She dedicates lots of time and money to help the orphans

She is super tough!

...But still really cute

She dresses up in creative costumes for halloween even though she is all grown up

She is a trapeze artist

She is a Utah fan!

She tries new things...like guinea pig!

She absolutely stunningly amazingly beautiful!

I love her so much!

Congrats Kimmy!

Christmas in Vegas!

This Christmas Mitch and I had the opportunity to spend christmas in vegas with my family! It was super fun, I hadn't spent christmas with my family in 5 years! We mostly just relaxed and did family things, but we did go out to eat one night and go to the strip.
Here are some pics from the Belagio Gardens:

In other news...one of the best things was that we got to talk to Jeremy on Christmas! It was even better than we expected, because we got to skype! Live video chat and it was free! He already had a slight British tone to the way he talked...and it's only been 6 months! Haha! It was so great to talk to him, although it did make me miss him very much. I am so happy for him and can't believe how grown up he is!

The day after we got back from Vegas we went to Cabo for a week, it was just as amazing as last year! I will post pics of that trip after I get more of them from other family member's cameras!

My 24th Birthday

Ever since I graduated highschool, my birthday has been somewhat an inconvienience. It is always on finals week and there is always studying I could be doing instead of celebrating. However, each year I worry about it but then after I go out, I am grateful I took the time to do something because it is always nice to have a break!

On sunday we did cake and presents. Unfortunatly, I did not get any pictures of that.

On Monday night we went out to eat with Mitch's family at the Garden restaurant in temple square. Afterwards we walked around temple square to look at the christmas lights. It was a very fun night!

We brought our camera, but didn't realize until after we took pictures at dinner that there was no memory card in it...so the pictures werent saving. It was my fault because I forgot to put the card back in after uploading some pics to my computer. Luckily the maxwells took some pictures for us.

This is the only picture we have dinner, taken while we were all looking at my camera that had no memory card. This picture just makes me laugh. At least one of us was looking! haha!

Temple square lights!

My favorite picture of the night

Finals are done for me and I'm finally able to take a breather.

Mitch has been working so hard the past two weeks...pretty much two full time jobs because he is in the process of becoming the new General Manager of the Fat Cats bowling alley in provo. He is driving up there all the time to train, and working extra hours at Pizza Factory to get everything ready for his abscense...he does so much at that place! I'm not sure they realize how much he will be missed!

In one week from today we fly out to Vegas to spend christmas with my family! Then, on the 27th we fly to Mexico to spend a week in Cabo! So excited! This vacation is much needed for the both of us!

I'm Thankful...

So a blog update is long over due, but between school, homework, job, and squeezing a little fun inbetween has taken up all my time!

Thanksgiving was good for me but not so much for Mitch because he had to work open to close on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

I ate thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side of the family, the hamptoms and then brought a plate of food to mitch's work so he could eat some! After that I went over to the Haslam's house (cousins on my dads side) to visit and eat a little pie.

It was a good visiting day for me, I saw lots of family that I have not seen in awhile, it was long overdue!

I just wanted to make a note of 20 of the things I am thankful for:

1~Mitch, who is so absolulty wonderful and perfect for me. sometimes I wonder if I even deserve him. I am very blessed!

2~My parents who are so fun. Going to visit them is one of my favorite places to be. I miss them so much! Everything I have grown up to become is thanks to them. I couldn't have a better mom or dad!

3~My Inlaws. Ever since day one of Mitch and I's relationship, they have been so welcoming and loving to me. I love every moment we spend with them.

4~That Jeremy is on a mission. His weekly letters have been so inspiring to read and I look forward to it every monday morning.

5~My wonderful sister kimmy who I really don't see enough! We have so much fun together and no one else brings out my silly mannerisms like she does! I still think we were supposed to be twins. Love her tons!

6~My silly brother nathan, who is always making me laugh. He has grown up to be such a handsome young man!

7~The maxwell family. I have the best sister in law I could ask for and the cutest little neices in the world.

8~The gospel. I cannot even begin to imagine where I would be without it. I was blessed to be raised in it and i'm thankful to be sealed to my husband for time and all eternity.

9~Friends who give us a break from school and work and allow us to just relax and have fun!

10~Our apartment. I love everything about it. How spacious it is, our deck thats big for an apartment, the really big trees surrounding it , every season has been beautiful!

11~Our new addition to the family...a Beta fish we named Sushi :)

12~Diet coke. Enough said,

13~Chocolate. Again, enough said.

14~My job. I'm blessed to be able to be working in the medical field doing what I like already while I finish school.

15~Music! All kinds!

16~Mitch's hugs and kisses...makes me feel better no matter what!

17~Runner's high. Nothing can compare to the feeling after a good run!

18~Books! I love getting so sucked into a good book that I can't put it down.

19~That the Utes beat the Cougars!

20~The Utah Jazz...our first date was a jazz game and they continue to be one of my favortie things to do on date night!

I could go on and on, and I knew I would and thats why I set my limit to 20 things.

On a side note, this past month was my favortie season for sports of the whole year because my 3 favorite sports are going on. College football, college basketball, and the NBA! Here are a couple pictures from sporting events!

Georgia on my mind

Today on the way home from class, I was listening to Michael Buble's rendition of the song "Georgia on my Mind." Maybe it was because I was tired and therefore easily moved, but whatever the reason, this moment brought tears to my eyes and I felt I had to share it.

I guess I have always just assumed I would go back and live in Georgia someday and live happily ever after. I haven't thought much about it since recent changes in my life the past couple years.

I have married the man of my dreams and we are perfectly happy here in Utah. We live close to his family. My family has moved from Georgia to Vegas and are only a half days drive away. In other words, I have no reason to go back to Georgia to live. I will likely never get to live there again.

This realization hit me hard. Don't get me wrong, I love my life right where I am. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and wonderful in laws. I am married to a man who is better than I could have ever dreamed of. It is just a hard thing to realize that the place you have always and still consider your home is no longer obtainable. This makes me sad, but I accept it. I will be happy no matter where I live because I have Mitch, and someday we will have kids of our own.

I guess this is my official good bye to Georgia. I will miss the moisture in the air, trees everywhere, Stone Mountain, the Georgia rainstorms, heat lightning, Chickfilas by the plenty, the Georgia Aquarium, the green hills, the hot summers, the winding roads, lightning bugs, Wafflehouse, boiled peanuts, Lake Lanier, being 4 hours away from awesome beaches and warm nights.

Just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind...

Our first Anniversary!

Our first anniversary was great!

The day started with mitch surprising me with TWO dozen roses... :-) and one of the best surprises ever: he made a playlist of songs that remind him of me or times we have had together our first year. The playlist consisted of 64 songs (It took 64 days when we first started dating to say I love you) and also a typed up list of the songs and the reason he chose each song next to it. I absolutly love listening to it and for our whole marriage it will be a playlist of memories of our first year.

Then we went up to park city and stayed at the Marriott. Another bonus for the day: Mitch knew the customer service manager that was working that night because he served his mission with him. Well we didn't even realize that he worked there, so when we arrived he saw us an then upgraded our room to a suite! Score!

Then we went out to eat at the Stein Erikson lodge. It was very romantic and the food was absolutly delicious! They brought us chocolates at the end of our meal :-)

These are the chololates. Two of them were little triangles that said Happy Anniversary on them. (The read and the green are both chocolates as well!)

Then we went back to the hotel and had some of our wedding cake from exactly one year ago! We froze the top of our wedding cake and it was suprisingly pretty good. It was only a little dry, and still was very sweet!

I just had to get a pic of the inside, red velvet cake mmmm!

The next day we walked around main street and there was a porsche convention going on so we got to look at really old porches, all ranging from year 1940s to 1960s. It was way fun!

Then we spent the rest of the day together, ending with going to the temple to do sealings. The whole weekend was perfect, just like my husband is perfect for me :-) I love him so much and just when I think I couldnt be any happier, I am!

Here's to the best year of our lives so far!

Highlights of the past couple months...

Although I am usually slammed with work or school, we occasionally leave some time for fun to keep us sane! Here are a few of the favorites!

THE LION KING!

The show was absolutly amazing!

NEW FRIENDS!

We met Jenn and Leo a couple months ago from volunteering at the hospital. They are a really fun couple! We started talking one day and all became instant friends! We love our friend time with them. :-)

THE BRAZIL FESTIVAL

We both had to work that morning so we were only able to attend the last hour or so, but it was a blast none the less! Also, no exagguration: I was the only blonde girl there...pretty obvious I was an outsider! haha! At least I wore my brazil jersey!

Another very important highlight was that we got to meet Nick Hexum from 311! I thought Mitch was going to faint! We got signatures too.

At the same event we got to meet Chris Carrabba, the singer of Dashboard Confessional. I am currently waiting on pictures of this epic event (long story) but i'll put those up in a later post when I get them!

Our anniversary is this Friday, October 8th. I cannot believe it has already been a year! It has gone by so fast but at the same time, I feel like I have always had Mitch and can't imagine how life would be without him. We are going to park city this weekend to celebrate. :-)