Letter #5 and Letter #6

Well we have made it over the hump. We got Letter #5 and #6 last week. We are almost there! The first letter that Mike received offered him admissions to

Lewis and Clark College!

Lewis and Clark is located in the beautiful Portland, Oregon. It would be very exciting to go there. I've always wanted to go to the Oregon coast and now I could have the opportunity to live there!

Mike got his sixth letter last Saturday, which is one that we have been really looking forward to getting. He was offered admissions to

Santa Clara University!

It is located in Santa Clara, California which is a little less than an hour from San Francisco. He was also offered a $5,000 scholarship. Mike really likes the idea of going to Santa Clara so who knows if we will end up there.

Family Fun and Letter #4

Over the weekend, we were lucky enough to have Mike's brother and his wife and there two kids, come into town from Houston. We haven't seen them in a really long time (I can't really remember to be honest). They have a little girl who turns 2 this weekend and then they just had a baby boy last October. It was so fun to see them and to spend some time with them and their cute kids.

A couple of days ago Mike received his fourth acceptance letter to law school.

He has been offered admissions to

Quinnipiac University!

It is located in Hamden, Connecticut and they also offered him a $28,000 scholarship. That is a lot of money! And the biggest scholarship he has been offered yet, so of course, that makes us think twice about it. Connecticut is just very, very far from Utah. But, Hamden is also an hour and a half from New York City, and two hours from Boston, so that makes it also pretty difficult to turn down. Anyway, now we are up to four letters and he has been accepted to all of them so far. This is going to prove to be a very difficult decision!

Letter #3

Mike got his third acceptance letter yesterday for

Gonzaga University!

I was especially excited about him getting into this school because I would be more than happy to move there. It is located in Spokane, Washington. He was offered a scholarship of $15,500. We are heading up to Seattle for Spring break with Mike's brother and his brother's girlfriend so we will be driving through Spokane to check it out. Three down!

Baptism and Letter #2

This past weekend we had the opportunity to go to Mike's nieces baptism. We were excited for her and this wonderful decision that she had made. She had asked Mike to baptize her, which was an extra special opportunity for him. For her baptism, we gave her a heart necklace that said, "I am a child of God". I received this same necklace when I got baptized so I thought it would special to buy her the same necklace. I was lucky that they still make them!

Also, we received our second acceptance of admissions to law school yesterday. Mike has now been accepted to

Creighton University!

Creighton is located in Omaha, Nebraska....I know, not quite as enticing as Malibu, California, but still, at least he is getting into schools! He was also offered a $14,000 scholarship. Now Mike has me checking the mail as soon as I get home from work, because I get home before him, so that he knows if he has any good mail to come home to!

Paintings and Letters!

Yesterday was an exciting day in the our home! Mike got his first acceptance letter for Law school, and we were really surprised and totally taken off guard at how quickly it came. So.....Mike has been offered admissions at

Pepperdine University!

They also offered him an $18,000 scholarship! We were really excited to receive this news and can't wait to see what other schools he gets into! Pepperdine would be very exciting to go to because its a great school, and who wouldn't want to live in Malibu, California!! Who knows if we'll even end up going there but its exciting to finally see our future come together a little bit.

Last weekend we had a little bit of fun doing some painting.

We haven't had anything hanging over our bed for over a year now because the painting that we had originally bought to hang there is now in a different spot.

And I have been having the hardest time deciding what to put up there.

I had originally bought some pictures frames and was going to get some pictures blown up and hang them there but I just wasn't sold on the idea.

Then I thought, hey why not paint our own paintings?!

Hobby Lobby was having a sale on their canvases so we went and bought two of them and borrowed some paint from my mom.

Of course I am extremely bossy and OCD so I gave Mike guidelines and showed him the colors that I would let him use because it had to match and it had to be done my way.

I think he still had a good time painting though.

I was very pleased with the final product because it is exactly what I was going for and it matches our bedroom so well.

The Beginning of the End....For Me Anyway....

Today was the first day of school. Yes, I know, yuck....yuck....yuck. And yes, it is just as bad as it always is and will be just as hard as it always is. But there is a small upside to starting school this semester.......THIS IS MY LAST SEMESTER OF COLLEGE EVER!

And can I just say that it has been a long, long time coming. This is my 11th, yes, my 11th semester of college and my last. Nope, no grad school for me, no Masters degree, no MACC. Nothing.

And I am 100% okay with that.

Mike has two more, fully loaded (7 classes each) semesters left and then he will graduate at the end of the summer. And then most likely a week or two later we'll be taking off to Law School for Mike.

And no we haven't decided quite yet where we are headed. We don't really know when we'll actually be deciding exactly where we are going. There is a lot that goes into a huge decision like this. But I'll keep you all posted!

Seven Pounds......of tears!

On New Years Eve, our plans got cancelled so we decided to go and see a movie. It was hard to decide between Will Smith, Brad Pitt, or Jim Carrey but we decided to go see "Seven Pounds" with Will Smith, because we both really like him.

WARNING: If you do not like sad movies, do not, I repeat, DO NOT go see this movie. I cried almost the whole time. It was a really good movie, and had a great, selfless message.....kinda. (Depending on how you look at it.) Will Smith does a fantastic job in this movie, but he pretty much does a fantastic job in any movie. So if you need a good cry, and want to see some great acting, this is your movie!

Yuletide Joy!

Mike and I had a wonderful Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve with Mike's family to celebrate not only Christmas but also Mike's dad's birthday! We always have a good time hanging out with his family and especially the crazy/fun/cute nieces and nephew.

We slept over at my parents house and had a good Christmas morning watching everybody open gifts and getting to see my two nieces get excited about their gifts that Santa brought them.

(Our strange ninja picture in front of the tree)

Then we were able to go home and celebrate our own small Christmas as a family, just me and Mike.

What a great opportunity Christmas is to spend time with family and the people that you love the most.

Our favorite gifts include the amazing trip that we went on to Panama back in August from Mike's parents, and the new TV that my parents gave us. Not too mention the money that we pooled from our Christmas bonus to get ourselves an elliptical machine!

It was a Christmas to remember always and thanks to all those who helped make it so special!

Holiday Update!

I know, I know, its been so long, and to all of our faithful readers (like my sister and Mike's sister), I truly apologize because you have missed out on what Mike and I have been doing for the past month. So here is a quick run through, (with limited pictures because I am at work...yep, I know, getting paid to update my blog.)

Thanksgiving was great. We were able to spend it with Mike's family and we had a great time. We did get a little bit of a football game in early in the day, and the weather was fantastic, not cold at all. Which helped my team win just a little bit easier! Of course, no help from me. I just run around and pretend to play, which gets me some great exercise!

We just finished with finals last week! Hallelujah! That is one of my many excuses for taking so long to update our blog. Now we are just waiting on our grades to come in....I think we check for them online about 20 times a day. One more semester for me until I graduate and 2 more for Mike and then on to Law School!

With finals finally over, we are able to enjoy what is left of Christmas! It was really hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year but I am finally coming along! I still have some shopping to do, of course, and plan on doing that hopefully within the next 2 days, cuz I guess I don't really have a choice. But Mike and I have done a few Christmas activities this year to help us get into the Christmas spirit. We went and saw Kurt Bestor (we go every year!), we went and saw the lights at Temple Square, we built gingerbread houses with some friends, and we were able to go and feed the homeless downtown at Pioneer Park. And this year its supposed to snow on Christmas!! I am so excited for that!

I just have to say how grateful I am for this time of year; the opportunity to be able to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and to be able to spend time with family and friends. I love the hustle and bustle of the Christmas shopping, seeing children at the mall sit on the lap of Santa Claus disclosing their innermost Christmas wishes, going home every day from work and plugging in my Christmas tree and lighting my Hollyberry candle, walking into any grocery store in the valley and seeing the Salvation Army representatives faithfully ringing their bells and wishing everyone a "Merry Christmas", whether or not they donate, seeing the snow fall and knowing that I have a nice warm blanket and dry socks waiting for me at home, turning up the Christmas music at work or in my car and singing along with the carols, watching Elf probably once a day and sending Mike random texts of quotes from it, and just the general happiness that is spread because of the Christmas spirit!

I love Christmas and can't wait to spend a little time with Mike, a little time with my family, and a little time with Mike's family! Can't wait to see you all!

Merry Christmas!

Halloween Weekend!

Mike and I had a pretty fun filled and busy weekend. Of course, Halloween was on Friday night. Mike and I didn't really have any costumes or anything so Mike grabbed a skeleton mask and I grabbed some paint and we ended up with.....well we don't really know what we ended up with. You be the judge. We spent the night eating and playing karaoke revolution. Pretty much the greatest game ever!

I couldn't stand it anymore.....yes, we put up our Christmas tree!

The holidays are the greatest time of the year and I like to make them last as long as possible. We haven't decorated it yet because I want to buy some new ornaments. But its up!

Sunday we had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Calvary Baptist Church for an assignment for one of Mike's classes! Wow, that church is fantastic! So energetic and loud and fun! The choir, of course, was wonderful. And we got the opportunity to see some people get baptized and talk to some of the members. It was definitely a new experience but a great one!

And today Mike and I hit our official one and a half year mark! Not really a super significant anniversary but I was excited! Other than that, life is pretty normal and staying super busy!