Better Late Than Never...

Wow, I am horrible at keeping up my blog! I vow to do better this summer. But for now, I have so much to fill you all in on! Christopher and I's lives have been EXTREMELY busy since I last blogged in January.

First, WE MOVED! Yep, we moved out of Provo (finally!) and moved to Highland, UT. Highland is about 20 minutes north of Provo.  We actually moved in to Christopher's grandmother's basement. It took us about a month or so to clean it up and fix it up, but it is now homey and cozy!  I would like to give a HUGE shout out to my parents-in-law for helping us out so much with that.  There were quite a few things that needed repair, so Christopher and Paul were our trusty handy men! They did a wonderful job.  Neener and I did a lot of cleaning and painting! I honestly was very skeptical at the beginning of this journey, but I must say that it has turned out to be a huge blessing.  I think that it looks really great, I get to decorate how I wish, and we are saving A LOT of money by living there. I also want to give a big shout out to those of you who helped us move: Whitney, Griffin, Emily, Ben, Neener, Paul, and our cute nephews for entertaining us the whole time.

Neener actually had a great idea to surprise Christopher! The Saturday that we moved, Christopher had drill for the National Guard.  Neener thought it would be nice to surprise Christopher by everyone moving our stuff while he was at drill, that way we wouldn't have to do the moving late at night or on a Sunday. So, after Christopher left for drill I hurried as fast as I could to pack our whole apartment up into boxes or whatever I could put things in.  By the time the troops got there, I had about half of the apartment packed! I was so stressed out. So, why the men were carrying things down to the cars, the ladies helped me to finish packing. It worked out very nicely.  Once Paul's truck, Emily's van, Whitney's car, and my car were all full we made our trip down to Grandma's.  We unloaded everything into the house, and I immediately started putting things where I wanted them to go. The boys had to make another trip back to Provo to get some bigger furniture, so the girls and I stayed at Grandma's and put things away to make room for the furniture that was coming. When I picked Christopher up I told him we had to go to Grandma's because I had left some things there. He was not happy about that because he was tired and just wanted to go home. Little did he know he was going home! When he saw what everyone did he was so happy and extremely grateful. The look on his face was priceless.

Another part of the reason for moving there was because Christopher's grandma needed someone there who could help her out with some things.  Christopher and I have found true joy serving his Grandma, and I think it has brought us closer together as husband and wife. Also, I think Christopher loves being around his Grandma all the time!



Second, I am done with my second to last semester of college! This past semester I had my practicum experience, which is like a mini student teaching.  I was assigned to a school (which was luckily 5 minutes away from our place in Highland) and a grade to help teach at 3 days a week.  The elementary school I was assigned to was called Deerfield Elementary School, and I was in a first grade classroom.  My mentor teacher's name was Miss Jones.  Let me just tell you, I LOVED THIS EXPERIENCE! Even though I was petrified to teach my first few lessons and had to be there at 7:30 in the morning, I grew to love those kids, become great friends with my mentor teacher, and become comfortable and confident in my abilities as a teacher! My next step is student teaching in the Fall. Then, I GRADUATE in December...the end is near!

Third, I've become an aunt to two more nieces! Two of Christopher's sisters, Amy and Emily, had baby girls! They are SO cute. Also, my sister Whitney is preggers! She is having a baby girl in September! YAY!

Fourth, Christopher had some military training recently called Warrior Leader Course or WLC. Luckily he did not need to go very far for it, it was just at Camp Williams here in Utah which is about 20 minutes from our house.  We thought he was going to have to stay there every night for 3 weeks, but since he lives close by they let him come home for the night if he wanted to (which made me very happy).  As explained on the U.S. Army website, " WLC, formarly call Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC), is the first leadership course Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) attend.  WLC is a month-long coiurse that teaches Specialists and Corporals the basic skills to lead small groups of Soldiers. This course is hard hitting and intensive with emphasis on leadership skills and prepares Soldiers to advance to the rank of Sergeant." Yea, that does not sound funat all, and according to Christopher it wasn't.  But, I think he learned a lot.  As it says in the description, WLC is for Specialists and Corporals, but Christopher was selected to go as a Private! How cool is that! He was 1 of 2 Privates out of everyone that was tehre. He has obviously impressed his Sergeants in his battalion.

While he was there, he had many missionary opportunities because many of the other soldiers were from all over the country.  He made one very good friend named Christopher Vo, who they just called Vo.  He is from CA and was a good friend to Christopher.  Christopher started sharing some of our church beliefs with Vo, and he could not believe we live the way we do! (For example: no alcohol, no sexual relations before marriage, 3 hours of church every Sunday, etc.) Vo was interested and wanted to know more.  Christopher gave him a Book of Mormon and Vo said he would read it.  We also invites him to come to church with us. Funny thing is, that next Sunday was General Conference weekend and we had tickets to the Conference Center. So, we took Vo to General Conference with us at the Conference Center. It was awesome.  I think he really felt the Spirit there because he wanted to meet with the missionaries when he returned home.  How awesome is that!

The next training Christopher has is for the whole month of June.  This time it is not so close by, it is in GERMANY!  So jealous he gets to go to Germany.  He is going for a joint training operation with soldiers from the US, Germany, and some other country. He will be leaving at the end of May and returning at the end of June.  I am going to miss him SO MUCH but I am very excited for the opportunity he is getting.


Well, that is all for now folks! We love you all! Stay classy.

Pop-pop

About a month ago, my dear sweet Pop-pop passed away. He was 96 years old, and just full of life. He was a wonderful and loving father, grandfather, and great-grandfather to many. I love him so much!  I feel some regret though because I have not seen him in about 5 years.  The summer after my freshmen year of college, my immediate and extended family went to Ocean Isle Beach to celebrate my Nannie and Pop-pop's 70th wedding anniversary! Isn't that just mind blowing? Anyways, that is the last time I saw him. I have always missed them, and I am sad that I will not be able to see him again soon.  But I know that I will see him again someday!

Life can be so busy ...

My goodness, time has just been flying by!

Lets go back to last month to Christopher's ruck march with the National Guard.  Christopher volunteered for an 11 mile ruck march while carrying a 70 lb. backpack on his back. Kinda crazy, I know.  He was kind of nervous the night before because he had no idea of what to expect. So, he woke at 5 in the morning to head over to Camp Williams.  When he arrived, he found that he was the only Private to volunteer for the ruck march! All of the others were either Captains or Sergeants. So they started walking and about halfway through the march, he began to feel some discomfort in his boots. But he had to ignore it and continue on.  When he got home later that day, he finally got to take his boots off.  When he pulled his first sock off, it revealed a bloody blister that covered his entire heel (not an exaggeration). It looked so painful! Then, he took off his other sock and revealed another mammoth blister. These were not your normal new shoe blisters.  I felt so bad and could not believe he hiked that far with those on his feet! My man is so tough!

Then we had Thanksgiving! We love everything about this holiday.  We really wanted to focus on the things we are thankful for, so for the whole month of November we kept a running list inside our apartment of the things we are thankful and grateful for.  I think we may have found ourselves a new tradition! It was wonderful to reflect and to constantly be reminded of the blessings in our lives.

For Thanksgiving, we got to spend it with friends and family.  We hosted Whitney and Griffin, my brother Griffin, Griffin's brother Seth and his wife Missy, their other brother Ammon, and Missy's brother Matt.  We all contributed to the dinner which was really fun.  Christopher and I made the pumpkin bread, stuffing, cookies, and mashed potatoes.  Whitney and Griffin brought the ham, gravy, and some drinks.  Missy brought vegetables, rolls, and pie.  Ammon and Griffin both brought drinks.  We had quite the meal, and it was SO good.  We all pretty much ate ourselves sick, as I think a lot of people do.  After we ate, we needed time to digest so we watched some football, Skyped our families, and some of us (namely my brother Griffin) took naps. After we were all digested, we gathered for a nice game of Redneck Life. Now if you have not heard this game, you have now and must play it.  It is the most entertaining game I have ever played.  The three couples paired up into teams and the three single brothers were on their own teams.  We all got pretty competitive, but nobody got as competitive as Whitney and Griffin.  They were winning and would NOT let that change.  I think they forgot it was not real life.  They would seriously talk about a decision before they made it as if they were making a life changing decision. It was SO funny.

So now we are in December, and the semester is rapidly coming to an end.  Finals are next week...HALLELUJAH!  I am surprised I made it through this semester and am that much closer to graduation. Christopher and I are so excited for our first Christmas together.  We are happy to spend it with each other, his family, and then see my family for the New Year.  We love this time of year and the reason for the season.  We know Christ lives!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

October FLEW by and here we are in November, and SO much is going on!

October brought a lot of fun of course.  First of all, I turned 23! Not that exciting other than that I am a year older.  We celebrated by going to St. George to go camping with Christopher's family.  That is always so fun.  They are always so kind to get a Dairy Queen cake and they all got me the cutest presents. It was also fun to get a card from my parents and little sis, they are always so thoughtful.

October also brought Halloween! I love Halloween, but Christopher and I did not dress up because we did not plan very well.  That is okay though because we spent our Halloween together and watched Hocus Pocus, which was a perfect Halloween night to me.

Now we are in November, and I only have about 4 weeks left of school. EEK! Let me tell you, it has been extremely busy.  School could not be any busier right now with projects and research papers!  I am excited to get this semester done with because after this semester, I only have two semesters left! THE END IS NEAR!

Christopher has been keeping busy as well with his job as a substitute teacher.  He really enjoys this job (most days). He is also going to be kept pretty occupied  with his new church calling as the Priest quorum adviser.  He is excited about this calling and cannot wait to work with the few young men that we have in our ward. Also coming up for him is his monthly drill for the National Guard.  This is actually his first month of it because he missed September due to the fact that we were getting married that weekend, and he missed October's drill because of the government shut down. He is nervous for what it is going to be like, but excited at the same time.  He really enjoys being in the National Guard and is glad to be fulfilling a life-long goal of his.

So, it is safe to say that we are really enjoying our married life together.  We are so thankful for so many things and people in our lives and we have really been using this month as a time of reflection on those things.  We are greatly looking forward to Thanksgiving break and spending that time with family, friends, eating delicious food, and relaxing!

We love you all!

SO, everyone was right...being married is THE BEST. And apparently, my man can cook! He cooks dinner every night that I have school and it  has been wonderful.  He has made scones, spanish rice, macaroni & cheese and hot dogs, soup, and his new invention, spanish stew.  I also have been having some fun myself in the kitchen with my new Kitchen Aid. I've made some cookies and recently made my first loaf of bread!

Welcome to our new blog! If you have not figured it out by now, Christopher and I got married! It was the most amazing day of our lives, and it was so special.  We were married on September 14, 2013 in the Draper Utah Temple.  Here are the events leading up to it and of that day...

On the Wednesday before our wedding, my Mom, Dad, and little sister flew to Utah. I was so happy that my family got to attend, it meant the world to me.  On Thursday, I went with my parents and Nell to go grocery shopping for the reception. We bought a TON of food, which turned out to be quite delicious.  Later that evening, I had the amazing opportunity to go to the temple and receive my endowments.  I got to share that special experience with Christopher, my parents, his parents, my sister and brother-in-law, his sister and her husband, and his grandparents. Then, Friday rolled around and we went to work! We began to set up for the reception on Friday which was a mix of fun and stressful! Also on Friday, the rest of Christopher's extended family started to come in, and my older sister Hillary and her cute little daughter Natalie flew in!  Both my family and his family were extremely helpful in getting the back yard ready for the reception. That evening I went to get my nails done with my sisters, our mom, and our niece.  We all got pedicures, and our fingernails done. That was so fun! After we got our nails done we went to Whitney's apartment and met up with the Olsons! I love seeing the Olsons, and was so grateful they got to come down for our wedding. Also that night, Christopher and some of his family members went to a Bee's baseball game, which I hear they had a lot of fun at.

WEDDING DAY! I woke up early Saturday morning to go get my hair done! My amazing hairstylist, McKinsey, did an AMAZING job on my hair. She is genius! While she was doing my hair, my sisters came and curled their hair at the salon. We returned to Whitney's apartment and continued to get ready, and then off to the temple! Christopher was already there when I got there.  I was so happy to see him! We got everything ready and were sealed for all time and eternity in the Draper Utah Temple. After we were sealed, I put on my wedding dress and we walked out together to see all of our families and friends waiting outside for us. It was, hands down, the most incredible day of our lives filled with the Spirit and so much love for each other.

We took pictures for a little while and then headed to Christopher's parents house in Sandy to start getting ready for the reception.  Everyone pulled together and decorated for the reception that was held in his parents' back yard.  Everything turned out wonderfully, and it looked like just how I envisioned it. The reception started at 6 and people started to come right away.  Christopher spent our whole night talking to people as they came in but there was food, cornhole, horseshoes, dancing, games, and people to mingle with. We did have two dances, our first dance to "Me and You" by Kenny Chesney and the daddy/daughter and son/mother dance to "I Loved Her First" by Heartland.  Around 9 pm we left the reception and drove away in our heavily decorated car.

We stayed at a beautiful hotel that night called The Monoco in Salt Lake City, and left for Las Vegas the next day.  The next day we stayed in the Luxor Pyramid in Las Vegas which was so cool. The next day we set out for California where we went to the beach and Disneyland!

Needless to say we will NEVER forget our wedding day and were so grateful for everything that was done for us.  We are more in love now than we have EVER been and are having so much fun being Mr. and Mrs. Welcker.  I hope to keep up on this blog regularly, so expect another post soon!