Surprise Weekend!

Last weekend Bryce surprised me by asking if I wanted to go to Provo for the weekend to see my family and friends. Of course I said yes! He didn't have to work Saturday or Sunday so we headed down Friday evening.
When we got in we went to dinner with my old roommate Beth at Zupas. Bryce and I love that place and whenever we are in Provo we try to go since we don't have it in Logan. We got to catch up with Beth and it was really nice :) Then we head back to Grandma Joyce's and waited for Jenny's surprise: our friend Michaela coming to town! Michaela goes to school at BYUI and wee surprised Jenny by having her come down. It was a blast!
Saturday morning we went shopping with Jenny (my awesome older sister!) and Michaela. Bryce was a good sport and he even helped jenny find the perfume that she liked. Trooper ;) Then we had a sibling lunch with all my sibs down in Provo and their families. It was really fun seeing everyone and we had yummy Halibut Lasagna, caesar salad, homemade rolls, apples, and cookies. YUM!
That night we had a double date with my best friend Jasmine and her fiance Josh. We went to Texas Roadhouse and had a blast! It's always fun spending time with them. And as Bryce calls it, I got my "Jasmine Fix" until I get to see her again. What a goober!
Sunday morning we went to church with my brother Dustin, his wife Cortney, my niece Maddie, and nephew Ben. Here's a picture that sums it all up :)

Maddie had a cute headband on for church. She pulled it off and then tried to put it back on herslef and this was the result. She was quite pleased with herself and it was adorable. I tried to not laugh at how cute it was, but it was really hard not to. I'm gonna miss that little girl when they move to Texas this summer, but I'm looking forward to them coming to Ketchikan for a few weeks this summer before they go!

After Sunday dinner with all the family, it was time to had back to Logan. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the sunset was beautiful!

Michaela insisted on us girls taking some pictures together for the weekend. So from left to right its Jenny, me, Michaela, and Maddie. An airplane flew over so Maddie was acting like it. Can you say cute? Yes, I know I'm a little partial to her..but look at her, she's adorable.

Of course we had to take a silly picture too!

It was nice seeing Michaela this weekend. She's from Juneau and we hadn't seen each other in a while. Hopefully we'll get to see each other again soon!

That was our weekend in Provo, and I LOVED it. I have such a great husband that loves me enough to take me back to see everyone on a regular basis. We'll be back down there again next weekend for Bryce's training for the summer job. My sister in laws, sister and I are all planning on having a girls day. I'm excited :) Also on a very positive note, Bryce and I got our car repainted! We should be getting it back soon so before and after pictures will be soon to follow! Can't wait to see it, I just know it's gonna look 20 times better :) All in all, great weekend and great start to the week!

Home Sweet Home

Here are the pictures as promised! This is Bryce and mine's first apartment together! We live in Aggie Village, which for those of you who don't know, it's the married housing here at Utah State.  We have a nice little 2 bedroom cinder-block place as you can see from the photos :) Let me take you on a tour!

First things first here is our living room/family room.  You can see the entryway in the background and the door to the patio on the left.  Our lovely $20 DI couch has been covered and we added pillows to it to clean it up a bit courtesy of some wedding gift cards.  Then there's the blanket that my mom made me of all my high school shirts and hoodies from sports and music that's always there too.  We got a nice little ottoman that is the storage for our blankets and Bryce's foot massager.  (The massager and ottoman also courtesy of wedding cards-Bryce is in love with his massager! That's all he wanted to get, silly boy haha) We also have some pictures on the wall but the one behind the couch is still bland.  We're planning on putting up a wedding picture and maybe some other decoration as well to spice it up some.

This is our cute LITTLE kitchen.  And let me tell you, that oven is itty bitty. We can't even fit some pans and dishes in there, good ole' old fashioned ovens.  The cupboards have taken some getting used to since they slide open and you can only get to half the cupboard at a time.  But hey, anything beats sharing a kitchen with 5 other girls that is about this same size.  Having that much fridge for just us is WONDERFUL. We got our pots and pans, dishes, utensils, and a microwave as wedding gifts and THANK YOU to everyone who helped get us started in this room. We really appreciate it (p.s. still working on the thank you notes but we will send them!) The kitchen table is a little card table courtesy of my Grandma Joyce and those flowers are from my wonderful husband for Valentines Day.  He was so smooth they were on the table when I woke up in the morning.  Nice work sweetheart :) STUD.

This is our bathroom.  We are lucky enough to have our own washer-we bought it on KSL for a nice deal and now have the luxury of doing laundry whenever we want inside our own apartment.  Sure beats paying quarters and walking 5 minutes to get there.  Quaint little bathroom but definitely works for the 2 of us :)

This is our bedroom-the master suite ;) We upgraded to a Queen bed (THANK YOU UNCLE BARRY). The full was working fine, but Bryce and I both like our space when we sleep so this has been wonderful. We got our bamboo sheets of course (we're both spoiled and love them) and then we purchased the rest of the bedding with wedding money, as well as a new memory foam pillow for Bryce.  Now he won't steal mine ever, yay! We got a bedside table and lamp from my Uncle Barry as well. When Bryce found out that Uncle Barry got it in 1989 Bryce immediately bonded with it since he was born that year.  We got the dresser from Bryce's parents and the pictures (like a lot of those around our home) our the pictures we used as centerpieces at the reception. Gotta love reusing things :)

This is our second bedroom.  We are using it as an office, and hey! speaking of wonderful husbands, here mine is! He's working on math, what a trooper.  As you can see we also have a mattress and box spring temporarily stored in here...I'm not the biggest fan of it but it won't be permenant.  We just have some strict rules of what can be put on our patio and how so we are in the process of rearranging things some.  And also in the office we have...

My baby :) This is our little electric piano that we got from my parents for our wedding.  And yes, I call it my baby.  Poor Bryce put a glass of water on it and I got a little worked up telling him that no food or drink belongs on my baby.  It was a one time offense and now Bryce calls it my baby too ;) I guess my mom rubbed off on me as far as the whole no food or drink by nice things (especially without a coaster!) For Valentines Day Bryce even got me a new piano book to sing and play with. I love it!

This is one side of our balcony-patio-like thing outside, whatever you want to call it! This is where, as you can see, we keep our snowboards.  We also had our hammock chair hanging but we found out that we have to keep it inside since it doesn't follow under the criteria for what's allowed out there.  So, when it gets a little warmer in the spring we will take it outside and hang it up to use, and then bring it back inside with us.  We got it on our honeymoon to Mexico.

This is the other side of our porch-thing-a-ma-jig. Yes, that's the only place the dryer can go because it's where the gas hookup is.  So, we still have to go outside to do our laundry but hey, it still beats the walk and using quarters! We still have to get those boxes in the background taken care of.  Technically they aren't allowed outside either so we need to rearrange those too: fire hazard.  That will be either this afternoon's project or tomorrow's, hopefully.

Now you've all seen our home sweet home.  We hope you enjoyed it because we sure do! And if anyone wants to come visit, please let us know! We have an extra full-sized bed as you saw ;) And we would LOVE the company!

How Did I Forget?

I just realized that Bryce and I never posted our Engagement Pictures! So.....more than a month after our wedding, here they are! Or at least a little sample of them :)

 I am so in love with this boy :)

Valentines Day is coming up, here's a few things I love about Bryce 

Bryce is always there to listen and talk with me

He is always willing to cuddle with me

He supports me in what I want to do and accomplish

He is always willing to do the dishes

He helps me out in the kitchen all the time

He loves me and all of my goofiness

Bryce listens to me blab on and on and on and.....

He talks with me before making big decisions

He kisses my forehead when I've had a long day

He makes me feel special 

He lets me tickle him...a lot!

He always wants to know what he can do to help

Bryce finds the positive in everything

He picks me up when I'm feeling down

He's always a hard worker

His family means the world to him

He makes me feel like a princess, and a queen :)

He always has a shoulder for me to lean on

He swept me off my feet, day 1

He's always up for a new adventure with me

He gives KILLER back massages

He is even willing to watch Chickflicks with me

He married me on New Years Eve

He makes me believe in myself that much more

I LOVE YOU BRYCE MCRAE!

Hope you enjoyed this little post :) I will post pictures of our apartment as soon as I get it cleaned up a little bit more ;) 

Up to Date

Bryce and I have been married for just over 5 weeks now and we are still very much so in love! We moved in to our cute little apartment in the Aggie Village and it's starting to feel quite homey. We bought a washer and dryer for our humble abode and boy was that an adventure! It overflowed 3 times before Bryce was finally able to fix it for good. Or at least that's what I'm crossing my fingers for. I'll try to post pictures of our apartment when we get back in town! That is, if I remember...  
I am currently taking classes at Utah State and trying to get into the El Ed program.  I took the PRAXIS II, did a background check, and took a writing test.  I still have an interview, speech and hearing test, and a Math placement test to pass but then at the end of the semester I should be able to apply.  July 1st is my deadline so wish me luck! Bryce has been the best husband ever during this whole process-being patient and running me all over town to jump through hoops.  We had to get a calender to keep everything straight, but all is running smoothly now. I should graduate Fall of 2016.
Bryce is in the Civil Engineering major at Utah State and still has about 3 years left. Due to the math department at Utah State he is still working on getting his credits straightened out.  He should be back on track Fall Semester once we get back from Alaska.
This summer we are planning on going back to Ketchikan to work and earn money.  I'll be working at my parents Gallery again and Bryce will be driving buses and doing tours at HAPA like he has the last 2 summers. We'll be up the first week of May, just in time for little Ms. Lexi's baptism. I couldn't be happier to be going home with my husband for the summer!
This week we are in California for Bryce's brother's homecoming.  Conner has been serving in Honduras for the last 2 years for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It has been really fun meeting him and spending time with the rest of my in-laws.  I really did marry into a wonderful family. I feel like I fit right in and I have them to thank for that.  Conner gives his homecoming talk in church on Sunday and then I'll get to meet even more of the family during a lunch for him afterwards.
We'll be heading back to the cold on Monday in good old Logan, Utah.  My mom and dad and brother John will all be flying into Salt Lake that same day.  So Bryce and I are going to stay in SLC for a few hours to go to dinner with them.  I am so excited to see them since I haven't since the wedding and I won't get to till May. What a wonderful weekend with family!