Us right now...

Him: Tay has been in school both Spring and Summer semesters this summer. He's an Exercise Science major, pre-optometry. He works at the Missionary Training Center as a security guard (yes, believe or not, security guards are needed at a church-owned facility!) He is FINISHED with taking the OAT (Optometry Admissions Test--equivalent to the MCAT, LSAT, etc.) and I am so very proud of him (not to mention the score he got...prayers really work!). He will graduate in April, and we get to walk together (we'll be walking with my college....his has too many people!). Currently he loves home-improvement shows (we love "Love it or List it" on HGTV) and as always, Costco is his favorite errand to run (we love instant rebates and samples!). He's very excited to be in Hawaii for a couple weeks. That boy loves his Hawaiian food and the beach.

Me being the crazy wife I am, I made Tay pose for a "before" pic before his test! 

This might as well be my application for joining the paparazzi...Just had to capture every moment! Note: this is why my high anxiety began. For FOUR hours! 

Naturally, I had to get an "after" photo as well. This is Taylor talking to his dad after he finished and got his score! I don't understand how the exact numbering of the score works, but Taylor scored in the 96th percentile! I am one proud wife! 

Her: Basically I've just been working a LOT all summer. I'm not in school (thank goodness), so I'm just bringing in the money while Tay goes to school and only works a few shifts a week (per my request so that he can have time to study and get good grades :). I currently work at the Information Desk at the Missionary Training Center, which is fun because I get to see Taylor once in a while at work. I never realized how much goes into taking care of all of those missionaries, and I just love seeing the missionaries all the time as they give up their time to serve (blog post to come about my experience so far there!). I also worked part-time for SOAR, the camp that Taylor and I met at, teaching the English portion of their ACT prep classes. It definitely helped me to see if teaching is what I want to go into (still not sure about what I'm doing with my life). My Etsy shop is on hold right now while I revamp some things, and I'm also in the works of getting a SECOND Etsy shop up and running. Not to spoil the surprise, but I've fallen in love with graphic design, specifically with designing invitations, so that's what I'll be doing with my second shop. I need to create a few more example invites so if anyone has any ideas (specific themes for birthday parties, showers, etc.) I'd love to hear them! Also, if you have an event you actually need an invitation for let me know and we can work out a good deal since I need more for my "portfolio"/shop. Basically I'll be designing invites and selling the PDFs to customers (customers will print them themselves).  I only have six more credits until I can graduate (taking 12 this coming semester though---hello clothing construction class! So excited!). I won't walk until April because I hate the idea of walking in August and pretending I'm done, and then going back to school.

One of my best friends Lauren got married this summer and I got to make her invitations! She had a lot of events so there were many different parts to it. Clockwise from left: invitation (on shimmery bronze paper!), invitation to a family/close friends dinner prior to the reception, photo, invite to the sealing, invite to welcome them out of the temple/take photos (for those who aren't members, etc.), and in the center is the band the held them all together! 

I loved Lauren's classy style and how it really showed through with her invites! 

Invite for a Baby Boy nautical-themed shower. (obviously a shot from my screen. it wasn't printed yet) 

Travel-themed bridal shower :) (blog post on that later) 

"Ketchup"

Since I'm trying to keep a current blog as well as trying to catch up, I'm just adding a little "catch up" section aka "Ketchup" (see what I did there? :) 

February: February was a fun month! We celebrated our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. We both had school so it was a pretty chill day, but we carried on our annual tradition we started when we were engaged by eating Burgers Supreme and watching a movie at home. We don't really like the price or hassle of trying to get reservations at a crowded, over-priced restaurant. We're both kind of homebodies so a burger and movie staying in is just fine with us :).

Taylor's birthday is also in February, and his dad and his dad's wife were going to be in Vegas during Tay's Birthday so they were very generous and flew us out for the weekend. I've never understood what is so fun about Vegas, especially since we're LDS (we don't drink alcohol and we don't gamble), but we actually had a really fun time. We did a lot of shopping (Taylor got to go to the Nike outlet), we ate lots of good food, including Fogo de Chao, a restaurant that was so delicious we'll probably never get to eat at again and probably never be able to afford ourselves haha. That was Taylor's dad's gift to Tay for his birthday. We visited the Coca Cola and M&M factories, and we rode the New York New York rollercoaster. We realized that really no one looks good in photos taken on a roller coaster, sadly. Taylor's dad got us ticket's to a David Copperfield magic show that really was AMAZING. But I was so bugged that I couldn't figure out how any of it worked....which is the point of the magic show, I know. Taylor was picked to go on stage to help with one of the acts. I was sad that he, too, couldn't figure out the trick. The main actress from the Nickelodeon movie Fun Size was in the audience when we were there which was kind of fun. We later watched that movie, which is now one of our favorite Halloween movies (the little fat boy is so cute!). We decided to get a couples massage at the MGM which was amazing and it included an entire day free at the spa...which we didn't know about until we got there and already had plans the rest of the day. Again, something we'll probably never get to do/afford again! We saw the Broadway show Jersey Boys, which I really liked, minus the 45852952541 'F' words used... :(.

We were staying at the MGM Hotel during Tay's Bday so I obviously had to improvise. Yes, that is a cupcake with 24 candles! 

Happy because he's at the Nike outlet 

Like father like son (don't worry, they didn't go there dressed like that :) 

Tay entering us in some contest to win a car...because you never know, right? 

Took the boy shopping for his birthday (win-win!) 

At Fogo de Chao

After dinner with Tay's dad and his wife Dee 

The birthday boy :) 

Just galavanting around the city, sober and all :) 

Practically my dream come true! Bumblebee! 

At the Coca-Cola store testing out Coca-Cola products from around the world! My have was watermelon from China

cutest boy ever 

Out on the town after seeing Jersey Boys 

:) 

We had so much fun and I mostly just loved being there with Taylor :) 

I'm going to blog!

You guys. I have been horrible at blogging. {I say that every time}. It reminds me of when I go back and read my journal and every entry starts with "Well, it's been a while since I've written....lot's has happened..." and when I continue to read I notice that it's been like a year, multiple crushes, and a few weight fluctuations... later. {Procrastination is clearly a problem for me.}

I used to be really good at blogging. I loved sharing my life and experiences with others and getting comments about how people could totally relate to situations and such. It was fun building a little community and learning from other people, but over time I've just become really bad at it, and I've started to feel really silly about just putting random stuff about my life on the internet. Obviously I would never put "too much information" (TMI) type stuff on my blog (cue the awkward FB status-type blog posts...i.e. every detail about someone's marriage that no one wants to hear about), but I started to feel silly blogging about real life because everyone on the internet (i.e. lots of "mommy bloggers" and pins on Pinterest--though I do love me some good pin-sessions) seem to live the picture-perfect life. Because of this I starting feeling awkwardly afraid of just sharing my life just the way it is: so much happiness, but just like any other normal person, a few hardships as well. Do you ever feel like this? Anyway, basically I was afraid of putting myself out there and being vulnerable (do you hate that word? I hate that word. They would always use that word in my dance classes and in my head I was always cringing because when I think of "vulnerable" I think of some crazy emotional girl eating ice cream on her couch crying to the boy who just dumped her, telling him she still loves him..and you're just thinking, STOP, girl, STOP!.. Awkward..) ok....sorry for the side note. If you're worried about my possible diagnosis of A.D.D., don't worry, I'm already diagnosed.

So basically I was afraid of being vulnerable to what people would think of my thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc. that I want to share because I want to share the things I think about, my life, my trials, my triumphs, etc. Basically I started finding waaaay too many over-the-top, let's-do-five-giveaways-a-day-so-I-get-free-clothes, perfectly awesome recipe (I'm not a great cook) blogs, and it kind of discouraged me because I'm still working on getting my domestic skills, people skills, work skills....ok basically I'm still working on getting my whole life together. But who isn't?

I was on LDS.org  a couple weeks ago and found this. It kind of gave me a new perspective on blogging and how the church is actually encouraging blogging to help share spiritual/enlightening experiences and just everyday life experiences of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So I've used this as motivation to share my life and my thoughts and experiences. I really do have a great life, and even with the hardships I've had, Heavenly Father has blessed me and helped my husband and me so much so that I want to share those things to help others and to remind myself of my blessings. And sometimes I want to write just for the sake of writing and getting my random thoughts and such out somewhere! So if you're with me and you want to share and hear real-life experiences, a few recipes here and there, pictures, etc. follow me and give me feedback, and please leave a comment with your blog link so that I can follow YOU. I love following fun, down-to-Earth people on their blogs. So please, let me stalk you? Just kidding. Well not really, we all do it.

 Anyway, so here is my commitment (not really to anyone else, but mostly to myself) to do what was mentioned on LDS.org:

1. Write about your day-to-day life

2. Update your blog often

3. Share experiences or what you learn at Church or in your family home evening 

So yes, I'm going to blog! For real! And I'm excited, and that's all. And, please, leave me a comment with your blog link so we can be friends :)

*Kelsey

                                         

                               Some photos from recent happenings that I  haven't blogged about:

4th of July at my Grandpa's house for our family bbq

I turned 22!

I helped throw a bridal shower for one of my best friends/old roommates Lauren! So fun! 

...Christmas, New Years, etc. 2012

Yeah, that's right. I'm kind of behind.

I know that you aren't sitting around thinking "WHERE IS KELSEY WHY AREN'T CHRISTMAS/NEW YEARS POSTS UP???".

However.

I have the intent to print my blog into books as a way to sort of journal-keep (I know handwriting is the real-deal, but for my A.D.D. self, this is what I can handle right now). So for me it is important to keep up with blogging so that one day when my child (NOT PREGNANT) looks through the books I intend to print he/she won't be like, "Mommy, did you and daddy not celebrate Christmas or New Years your first year of marriage?". Okay, like they'd really care. But I would.

SO! Here is what we did for our first married holiday season:

Attended our first "Ugly Sweater" Christmas party. I wore one of my mom's old sweaters, and Taylor wore one of my dad's. Mine was somewhat cute (you can't see it well in this pic..but it was just falling apart :( ), but unfortunately my dad once wore Tay's sweater and unfortunately it used to be good-looking. yikes!

Though I never got to go on a study abroad before getting married, I have flown more being married than I probably ever did prior to getting married. Taylor and I took our THIRD trip to Hawaii in the year 2012 for Christmas/New Years since we spent it in Utah in 2011 when we were engaged (Tay's work didn't let him off for Christmas, but we got to go for New Years, which actually was the first and only time I met his family before we got married!). It's funny because when people hear that my husband is from Hawaii they assume that ALL we do when we go is go to luaus, eat coconut, and surf. Not exactly. However, this trip I convinced Taylor to take me to do some touristy things that made him kind of embarrassed (acting like a giddy tourist anywhere can be kind of embarrassing I guess).

Getting to Hawaii was a little stressful and tiring. We finished our finals on Friday, Dec 14. The next day we had a class Christmas party with our Primary class (so cute!), then we left the following Monday. During this time I also had SOOOOO many orders to do for Just Buttons & Bows. Which was AWESOME but reallllllly tiring. I ended up not even STARTING to pack until Monday morning, and our flight left early that afternoon. Long story (sort of) short, we got to Hawaii. Yay!

                 I seriously can't thank everyone enough for their support with my little shop! I love it so much and I love that I actually have customers :)


The day we left to Hawaii, Utah got a hugeee snow storm! I won't lie, it made me sad because we hadn't had much snow yet, and I was sad to miss a (FINALLY) white Christmas.

However, we got on our plane, and made it to Hawaii.

This post will mostly be pictures, because it was almost 6 months ago, and pictures are how I can remember what even happened. But we mostly shopped, ate, spent time with family, and ate some more. Taylor and I both got the flu at separate times on the trip, which was REALLY not fun, and it led to me losing instead of gaining weight for the first time ever in Hawaii.


Our first day there, Tay and I went shopping at Ala Moana (my favorite mall ever). We didn't want to fly with all our presents, so we did most our shopping in Hawaii. We went to lunch with my mother-in-law (she came shopping with us. I LOVE shopping with her!). We at at BUBBA GUMP SHRIMP! In case you don't know why that's cool, it's the restaurant from the movie Forest Gump. I loved the food and the restaurant was SOOO cute!

My first visit to Hawaii to meet Taylor's family we (our nieces and I) started the tradition of having a "girls night" sleepover where "no boys are allowed". This visit we made salt dough Christmas tree ornaments, watched movies, and did nails. The girls were nice enough to let Tay join in :)

 

Tay and my adorable mother-in-law

Christmas morning. We took pictures of each other taking pictures. Not sure where my pic of Tay is...

{pic is out of order...but at this point I don't care!} Tay and Kaiakea. Love this boy!

We went to go visit Tay's old school {Kamehameha}

Meet "well" AKA Noelle :)

The kids going through Grammy's things

Zacky boy and Kevin on Christmas

Christmas morning we had brunch and opened LOTS of presents. Everyone was so generous.

Anson!!

This little rascals fight over everything (meaning Noelle likes whatever Kaiakea has at the moment)so they got the same thing :)

This trip I taught Peyton how to braid hair. She did really well!

Me being the ultimate tourist, I made Tay bring me to the King Kamehameha statue that is used as the "headquarters" for the show Hawaii Five-O!

Also made him take me to go on a tour of Kualoa Ranch, where lots of big films and shows have filmed (even if it was only one scene...still cool right??)

My cute boy :)

SIGNED by Hawaii Five-0 cast

Signed by the LOST cast!

Sunny +glasses=no bueno

 

 

                                                        New Years Eve with my love!

                                   Probably drinking ginger ale because I had just had the flu :(
                                                                 

Had fun with our friends Matt and Wendy visiting for the week

Saw Wicked with my mother-in-law, Tay, and Tay's siblings. It was SOOOO GOOD!!! Tay even loved it!

Such a fun night!!!

 

We had so much fun over the holidays. It was so much fun spending time with family there.