It's Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year, how could we not it is Christmas right? Well our Christmas Eve and Christmas day is full of family and fun. Luckily we are so blessed to have our family live so close to each other. Therefore our day is not full with driving but full of family.

Christmas in our house starts early. I love to wake up at the crack of dawn to open our presents. Justin told me that this year I had to wait until 7:00 to get up :(. We need to get kids into the picture so that Justin will get up early without giving me a time limit. We totally spoiled each other. Between clothes and video games we are set for the year. I do have to brag a little bit, all the stuff that Santa brought Justin was either with a coupon or on sale. Cha ching! Therefore Santa could get more for the good little boy.

My cute hubby and the tree.

Me and our tree.

The loot. Yes Justin did give me a kitchen appliance!

After our Christmas it is off to Justin parent's house. It is fun because by the time we get there in the morning no one is awake so I get the opportunity to wake them up! We get more presents and the best part of all is the sausage sandwiches, Christmas tradition. You have got to love the food traditions!

Earlier this year Justin and Ryan bought a boat. So we got boat stuff!

I love popcorn so my mother in law thought that a popcorn machine was just the thing to get.

Then it is on to my mom's house. For me this is the best part of the day. All of my family is there and we get to see all of the nieces and nephews. Seriously without kids Christmas is not the same. The only sad thing about this Christmas was that my sister could not come up from St. George. Sad :( We totally missed them. Hopefully next year they can make it. Also there is more food breakfast casserole and home made cinnamon rolls. We only get these once a year so it is something to look forward to every year.

Can we pass for family??

Now we just need to have some kids to fill up the rest of Family Home Evening.

That's Justin!

Between all three Christmases that we have, we defiantly get too spoiled. We love our families so much and are so blessed to still be close to them.

The GOod, the BaD, and the UgLY!

The GOOD:

Law School finals are FiNaLLy over with. I have my husband back from a three week hiatus of studying and schooling. This means that Christmas is here. The Christmas spirit is finally in our home. Justin is de-stressed and finally able to get some sleep at night and enjoy his time at home with family. Bring on the Christmas sprit.

The BAD:

This year Justin's final schedule was insanely crazy. His first one was on Thursday the 10th at 1:00 to 5:00. The second was on Friday the 11th from 1:00 to 4:00. The third on Monday the 14th from 8:30 to 12:30. And his last one was on Thursday the 17th from 1:00 to 5:00. So he had a back to back final schedule. So he decided that it would be better for him studying wise and sanity wise if he were to just stay down in SLC from Wednesday the 9th to Monday the 14th. This all equalled sad times for me and a very BAD week for Justin.

The UgLY!:

As I was eagerly awaiting Justin's arrival home from his last final on Thursday I had talked to him right after he was done with the final. He told me that this one was by far the worst final that he has taken so far in his law school career. This was also the one that he was the most nervous for. He told me that the best thing was, was that it was finally over with and that he could come home and stay home. I was waiting patiently and cleaning the house for some parties that we had this past weekend when I got a call from Justin who calmly told me that he had gotten into and accident on the freeway. My first thought was he is way to calm to have just gotten into and accident this must be a mean joke. Well sad to say it was not. He also told me that there was a 50/50 chance that he has totaled his car. Are you serious! With the stress of finals and lack of a good sleep and being gone from home Justin just lost focus for a couple seconds. The best thing was he was not hurt in anyway and the lady he hit was ok too. In fact she was able to just drive off. Though on the other hand MiniB was unable to get off the freeway on her own.

Yesterday we went to the repair shop to clean out his car of our personal stuff. When we pulled up I was about ready to cry. You see this car is Justin's dream car. He wanted this car since before he went on his mission. Then when he got home MiniB was sitting in the garage waiting for him. Also that same year he got the car we started dating. So Justin is identified in my family and his by his car. They had not yet gotten a chance to fully look at the car. So the jury is still out if it is indeed totaled or not.

Here she is. Looks horrific right?

So there is the good, the bad, and the ugly of the start of our Christmas of 2009.

Let Christmas Officially Begin

As of right now my husband is finally free of Law School, well at least until January 11th. This is the best present of the whole year. Also as of right now we are halfway through our journey of Law School! I cannot believe it. A year and a half from now he will be all done with school. On a side note one of my students keeps telling me that Justin should not go to school because he is an adult and and adults don't have to go to school. I would love to agree with him, but as we can all see that is not the case.

Well our festivities will officially begin tomorrow night. Friend party at our house on Friday. Then every year both my family and Justin's get together so that is on Saturday. Then off to the lights on Monday. Christmas movies, shopping, eating, lights you name it we will do whatever we can to get in all the Christmas that we can in the next seven days.

I will post pics of our festive fun as soon as it happens.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Dear Law School,

I am done with you taking my husband away from me. I would just like for you to vanish and never be brought up again. You are hindering my chances of having the job that I so desperately want right now in my life. You are the root of all arguments in our household, about that desired job. You also are the reason that my crying stints are greater in number. You and I have no relationship anymore. Oh wait, we never had one to being with.

Sincerely,

Stephanie

P.S. The only good thing about you is that you are almost half way out of my life! Only three more weeks and that will be true.

1st Annual Run for Ryan

On October 10th in the wee hours of the morning we found ourselves behind Weber High School with some insane short wearing, shirtless people all waiting to run. Well we weren't going to run. The rest of our families were waiting down at the good old NOJH to walk to the fire department. I was going to walk and Justin was going to ride on the back of his brother Ryan's wheelchair. The whole reason we were doing this was for Ryan.

Part of the walking crew. Me and Sydnee. Colton and his Karie.

The Northview Fire Department put together a 5k run/walk in honor of Ryan to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy. Ryan was born with this disease and has been bound to a wheelchair for most of his life. This is a debilitating disease that as you can guess from the name takes away the use of your muscles. Even with all that Ryan lives the fullest life that Justin can help him out with. Seriously these two are two peas in a pod. You can't have one without the other. As one of their friends said to me, "You didn't know that you were marrying Ryan too!" That is true, but not in a bad way at all.

Ryan is the most outgoing, happy, positive, inspirational, loving, you name it person in the world. That is not to say that he has his down days. As my family says you never leave Ryan without feeling up lifted.

We cannot imagine life without Ryan. We pray that that day never comes. We will live each day to the fullest with Ryan and love every minute that we can spend with him.

This was the first annual Run for Ryan so you know what that means there are many more to come. So get your training on. I will post more information on my blog for next year's run when it comes out.

Throwing the First Pitch

So back in the summer time Justin had the wonderful opportunity to throw out the first pitch at the Ogden Raptors game. You might be asking yourself how did such a ridiculously good looking guy like him get this opportunity? Well because he has three kidneys. Two of which are his own, that decided that they did not want to work when he was 14, and the third is a donor kidney that has resided in his body for over 12 years. He threw the first pitch for the donor night at the Raptors. This was such a fun experience for him to do this. The only thing was he had not throw a baseball from the mound to home plate since his teenage years. So he needed some major practice. Luckily there was a ball boy who was more than willing to assist in running after the balls.

His pitch went off wonderfully. Of course he wished that he could have thrown it better. In Law school they unfortunately don't teach you to throw a baseball. A funny side note his baseball coach from his younger years was actually sitting in the crowd.

I really don't remember much about the rest of the game, maybe it was because we didn't stay much. It goes without saying I am not big into sports.

Three years today....

...and we are still together. Today is our three year anniversary of being married for time and all eternity. I cannot believe how fast these three years have flown by. A lot has happened in these short three years. Let me just point out a few:

• Got married October 2006 in the Salt Lake Temple
• Moved to our first place, the wonderful Ogden duplex on first street.
• Justin took the LSAT
  
• Went to Hawaii January 2007
• Justin graduated from Weber State May 2007
• Went to San Fransico for our first year aniversary October 2007
• Justin sent off applications to many Law Schools begining of 2008
  
• I signed my teaching contract with Weber School district April 2008
• Justin got accepted to the University of Utah Law School April 2008
• I graduated from Weber State May 2008
• We moved into our new house May 2008
• Justin started Law School August 2008
• I started her first year of teaching August 2008
• Stayed at home to celebrate our second anniversary October 2009 (since there was no time or money to go anywhere).
• Now 2009 has brought my second year of teaching and Justin's second year of Law School.

I cannot believe all that we have accomplished in three years. I am so blessed to have Justin in my life and to be his wife. I cannot wait for what the next three years will bring.

The Final Product

Well since we have been in school long enough for it to be mid-term I thought that it was about time that I posted pictures of the final look of my classroom.

Our own coat/backpack room.

My wonderful collection of teddy bears.

Justin could not believe that I had collect that many over the years,

guess what I still have a few more at home :)

I knew they would come in handy one day.

I decided to arrange the desks in table form so that it would be easy to do centers with.

My clean desk area. Let me tell you no longer does it look that clean.

There is just way to much stuff that I need everyday that covers it now.

Well there you have it. After a couple weeks of being in school you can definitely tell that there are kids in there now. I cannot believe how fast the kids mess up the place.

For me it has been quite an adjustment this year. It does not even seem like I have ever taught let alone have gone through the schooling to get my degree. For all that I went through last year you would think that I would be prepared with the move to a new school. Moving was a challenge and super hard now for me to get adjusted to the new school and new fellow teachers. It seems like I never see anyone from my grade not to mention any other grade. One of my fellow law school wife friends is teaching 4th grade and it is a rare occasion if I see her. How crazy is that.

So not only do I have the school to get used to but also I have my students. I had the wonderful experience of having criers this year. Let me tell you once one started they all followed right along. By the end of the first week I was crying right along with them. Now I am not talking about little tears about missing mommy, no no I am talking about having to rip the child off the parent and making sure that they were still breathing as tears and screams were flowing. Seriously it lasted the first three weeks of school. Every morning I would pray that we could all make it through the day. This past week has been wonderful. There were no tears for missing their mommies. Hurray!! But then I had the wonderful experience of projectile vomit. Oh the joys of being a 1st grade teacher. I am guessing that this week will bring wet pants, no I shouldn't say it because with my luck it will happen.

Here is to another week of teaching! I love it so much!!!!

The End Has Come...

Well folks it is official the summer for me is over. Yesterday I started back to school :( Sad times, because it feels like my summer went way to fast. Oh well at least my summer made me really appreciate my real job- BEING A TEACHER. I love teaching and cannot wait to get back into the swing of things. The only thing is I cannot remember what it was like at the first of the year. What am I going to do? How am I going to teach these little ones? Can I handle the tears, from both the parents and the kids?

Those questions will soon answer themselves, wether I want the answer or not. The first thing is I need to put together a classroom now for the third time, and this is only my second year teaching!!! When I got to my classroom Monday morning this is how it looked....

Nothing has been done. I have not stepped into my room since the last week of school. (Though I did try on three different occasions to go there but to my frustration either the custodians were leaving for the day- at 12:00- or they had already left- at 12:30- . Needless to say I was not a happy camper, especially since I worked my day around going to the school.)

Here we are two days into work and it is at least looking a little bit better.

So hopefully I will get it all together come Thursday for our back to school night. Which by the way I have not yet had the opportunity to be involved in one yet. This will be my first experience with the whole back to school night thing. Wish me luck, because I am going to need it with all of the work that still needs to get done!!

What time is it? Summer Time!

I cannot believe how fast the summer has gone. Between Justin and myself working full-time and taking a couple little trips the summer has totally zoomed by us. So let me update the blogging world on our adventures over these past couple of months.

We had the great opportunity to go to Heber/Park City for a weekend with some of our good friends, and now their little babies. Needless to say having the little babies around put me in heaven. Yes I was the one holding the babies all weekend and I loved every minute of it. The girls took the opportunity to go shopping at the outlet mall while the boys played a rousing game of golf. This has become an annual trip for us now and all couples involved look forward to it every year.

Along with taking a weekend trip with our friends we have had the great time of just hanging out with all our friends through BBQs or visiting them in the hospital after having beautiful babies.

But for me the best thing that we were able to do this summer was to go and visit these little sweeties:

We went down on Thursday to St. George to visit my sister and her family and got home this morning at 1:30. Justin had to go down for work and so my mom and I went along for the ride so that we could see my sis and help her get ready for her new baby on the way. I felt bad that Justin had to work so much but it was so much fun for me to be with my sister.

The company that Justin worked for before school and a little bit during school has an office down in St. George so he has gone down there a lot. Many times without me because I had to work. So our niece and nephew love him to death. There for a while they would see him at least once a month. The totally look forward to the times when he would come down and it was a great surprise if I could come down and my mom.

This trip we basically just played at her house each day because it was St. George and hot outside. Though on Sunday we did take the opportunity to go to Zions and walk through the park. -While Justin finally took the opportunity to go golfing (he usually takes his clubs with him but never finds the time to golf). Yes, my husband did golf on Sunday and he told our niece that he could not go to church with us because he was going to another one. He is such a bad influence :)-

I have never been to Zions before and I was taken back at the beauty that was found there. Here are some fun pics from our adventure.

Group picture.

Drink time.

Say cheese!!!

Chasing the squirrels.

Look, I am at the edge!

It was tons of fun spending time with my sister. I love every minute that we spend together. I just could not help but take pictures. My nephew got to point that whenever he saw the camera in my hand he would say, "I say cheese."

Our summer has seemed short but it has been tons of fun. I am super excited for my second year of teaching and ready to get back in the classroom again and for Justin's second year of Law School to start. I'll keep you posted on this new year!

The 4th of July!!

I absolutely love the 4th of July. Not only is it Justin's birthday but it is also a great day to get together with family and celebrate our wonderful independence. The 4th of July for me holds so many memories and traditions that I love and look forward to every year.

The main tradition in my family is to attend Cherry Days!! Nothing means more to me on the 4th than going to good old No Town and participating in the good old Cherry Days. For as long as I remember we always sat in the same spot for the parade, right in front of Washington Mutual bank. We would always go early the day before to make sure that we got "our spot". Now that my mom has moved we also decided to move our parade spot. Now starting this year we sit in front of the IHC which is just up the street from my mom's house. It was great we just parked at her house and walked. This way we missed all the traffic. 

This year the parade weather was perfect. The sun kept at bay the whole time. Normally it is so blasted hot that it sometimes doesn't seem worth it. But it is tradition and we do it any way. 

Here is the cute gang:)

Our neices and nephews make the 4th so much fun. We always seem to be out with them in the road catching the candy and making sure that no one gets hurt. 

Me and Justin pausing for a picture moment. What a cute birthday boy!

Here is what the rest of my family was doing as we helped keep the kids in line. 

Our niece Brylee was Justin's pal the whole time. The first thing she said to Justin was Happy Birthday. Latter she said it again and then said "Cake, we eat Justin's cake?" She for sure knows that cake comes along with birthdays. 

After the parade we made our way up to the park. It is so much fun to go up there even though there is not really anything much to do. We just walk around and see so many people that we know. 

After Cherry Days with my family we went with Justin's family to the new Transformers movie for Justin's birthday. It was a great way to get together and be some place cool for the hottest part of the day.

Then it was on to the traditional Justin birthday BBQ. A night full of food, presents (for the birthday boy of course), cake (you can't have a birthday without cake as Brylee told us), and we cannot forget fireworks over at Weber High. I love BBQs and especially this one because of the the fun things that are put into one night. We have family and friends come over to help us celebrate Justin's big day. 

My boy got spoiled, as he usually does each year. He got a car wash kit from my mom, clothes and golf passes from his parents, gift cards from his brother Ryan, a video game for the Wii from Colton, and clothes a volleyball set and Sham Wows from me. 

Justin and his beautiful birthday cake. It is funny because Justin and I have never gotten a birthday cake for each other because our mothers take care of that for us. Thank goodness for mothers. 

We had such a 

 day with our families. Thanks to them we have the wonderful memories and traditions that will live on forever with us. Happy Birthday Justin!