Good Ol' Times with the Willmore's

Phil and I moved into our first apartment in August 2009 and the first people to welcome us were our next door neighbors, the Willmore's. Since that first encounter, we have become lifelong friends and we have had a lot of fun. Due to the curve balls of life, we are both moving this summer. I think I'm slightly in denial and I'm trying to push off reality for as long as possible. But the other day, the Willmore's officially sold their apartment contract, which made the inevitable feel a whole lot closer. Here are just a few of the fun things we have done over the past almost two years...

One night we were outside talking (not sure how we got outside). Phil and Drew were standing next to each other facing one direction, and Natalie and I were next to each other facing them. Suddenly both of the guys freaked out because they just saw a shooting star. Natalie and I were disappointed that we didn't get to see it. A few minutes later, we saw one coming from our direction. We then realized that there was a meteor shower that night and we were catching some of it. You can imagine how excited we were, so we decided it didn't matter that it was already midnight or that Natalie had to work at 6am the next day...we were going to the park with blankets to watch the rest of the shower. It was such a fun and spontaneous night.

Another spontaneous night once again took place after midnight. Phil and I were at the Willmore's just talking like we often do. I was having a craving for breakfast, so we went to IHOP. Clearly that's what you do at 1 in the morning when you want breakfast right?

I'm sure you can tell, but we are trying to spell IHOP... definitely didn't do a good job. We needed Phil to complete it but he was obviously taking the picture.

Last August, we went on a moonlight lift up at Sundance. It was a fun night where we enjoyed talking about our future plans of having babies together...and plethora of other topics as well ;)

The Girls...

The Guys...

The Gang...

The MOON!

(horrible pic ) In real life it was big and full and beautiful.

The Willmore's are notorious for random jokes. One night we came home to this on our door...

Kind of weird, but it was really funny at the time. The best thing I ever came home to though, was this...

This seriously was so funny! Our ward was having a party and Phil couldn't go for some reason and neither could Natalie. We joked about how Drew and I should just go together. The next night, I came home to a formal asking. I felt like I was in high school again. It was pretty funny. And no, we didn't really go together.

And finally, one night the four of us were going on a walk around the block. Natalie was in a weird mood and wanted to steal a sign of some kind and put it on someone's door. I quickly jumped on board but the boys were a little more hesitant. Natalie and I first tried stealing a HUGE political sign that was three times as big as us. We couldn't get the stupid thing to budge. So we settled with a "For Rent" sign. We were nice and took one that didn't have a number on it. We wrote Ryan and Courtney Clark's number on the sign and put it in front of their apartment (don't worry that Drew and Phil didn't help out at all with this). We found ourselves to be quite amusing.

Oh and we did put the sign back where we found it...

Thanks for the memories!

Sleep Over in the Family Room

On Friday, Phil and I were hanging out with our friends Ryan and Courtney. They told us that on weekends, they often take their mattress off their bed and put it in their family room to watch movies and sleep. I thought that sounded fun but I didn't think about it again once the conversation was over.

Phil and I got home from our General Conference weekend up in Highland last night and while I was on the phone, Phil suddenly started picking up our mattress. I had completely forgotten about our conversation with Ryan and Courtney and my first thought was that Phil was probably rotating our mattress (not like we have ever done that before). I then realized that he was putting it in our family room. We had a fun night watching Chopped All Stars on the Food Network and spending the night in the family room on our mattress!

Yummy Surprise

This past Saturday I sat down and made a list of all the assignments/papers/tests I still have to do/write/take before the semester is over and finals start in just over two weeks. Needless to say, I became very overwhelmed and I once again wished I wasn't a procrastinator and for the billionth time, I resolved to change that habit (we will see). Phil had work today from 2-10 so since he left, I have very studiously been working away on my list (with a minor break to watch 'Gilmore Girls' (I can't resist)). The list is still long but at least I feel like I've been productive and deserving of a blog break.

Since eating dinner, I have been fighting this awful craving for something sweet. As luck would have it, I honestly have nothing sweet in my house. I tried eating a grapefruit but that just didn't do it for me. So I turned to my BFF Natalie! She said they had Nutella and crepes. Before I knew it, there was a knock at my door. Drew was outside holding this...

And in his best girl voice he said, "Room service" and walked in to deliver my treat. It seriously was the yummiest strawberry and Nutella crepe I could ever ask for and it definitely hit that sweet tooth. Thanks Drew & Natalie!

Florida Nationals

Since last April, I have been coaching the Lone Peak high school Chevaliers. They are a dance team who works hard and practices all year long for performances like football and basketball half-times and their competition season. State was in February and the girls did great. They ended up taking 5th overall at state which is really good for competitive 5A Utah drill team. They are a beautiful group of girls and I feel so lucky to be a part of their lives.

Last week we went to Florida to compete at Nationals in Disneyworld. On the day we left, we met at 4:30 a.m. to catch our flight. Needless to say, the girls were pretty tired.

After a layover in Phoenix and an unexpected adventure in Nashville, we finally got to Florida. The trip included a 3 day Disneyworld park pass and a full day of competition. We had such a fun time and I can honestly say it wiped me out! It took me like two days when I got home to recover from the lack of sleep. Here is a little scrapbook of pictures.

Look at my sweet Photography skills!

Look at these amazing Toy Story clouds! This was a really happy sight because it was supposed to be raining and thundering all day.

Abbey sprained her ankle at the competition so we got her a wheelchair halfway through the next day. Too bad it didn't help us get on any rides faster ;)

Definitely my favorite princess in the form of a bush!

On one of the nights, Magic Kingdom was open until 3a.m for people staying at a Disney hotel. That included us so of course the girls were ready to play. Megan and I and a couple moms supervised the fun. It really was the best night because it was the only time that we were able to stay all together as a team because it wasn't super crowded. It was definitely worth staying up all night!

This is definitely one of Disney's latest and greatest inventions. Throughout a good portion of the line for Space Mountain, there are big screen TVs on the wall and little control pannels so while you are waiting in line you get to play video games. It honestly was the sweetest thing. The girls would have almost rather stay in line and play the video games than go on the ride. It seriously is brilliant and it makes a 70 minute wait feel like nothing.

While we were in the parks, Emily, Natalie, and Cassie got this brilliant idea to take what they called "Cheater Pictures." Instead of waiting in a long line to see a Disney character, they would sneak to the side and then want me to take their picture. It was actually kind of funny and we even got in trouble once.

Belle is really dark in the background but she is there!

Presidents Day Weekend!

So I've noticed something over the past couple months...taking 20 credits at school and blogging do NOT mesh well together! Well good news, through the English classes I've taken for my English teaching minor, I've realized that I never ever want to be an English teacher! So a couple weeks ago, I finally decided to change my minor to geography teaching. I'm actually really excited about this minor and because of this change, I dropped the English class I was taking this semester. So now I'm only taking 17 credits and I think my schedule might be a little more blogging friendly.

Phil has also made so life changing decisions recently. He has decided to move away from becoming a PA and now he wants to be an occupational therapist! Don't ask me exactly what he will be doing because I'm still unclear. Just know that it is kind of similar to a physical therapist but very different at the same time. That makes sense right? I'm really excited for him and especially excited because we will hopefully stay in Utah while he goes to school at U of U instead of moving out of state for PA school. I think our families like that too! I hate to admit this, but I think Phil and I have been typical college students who constantly change their minds about what they want to do with their lives. I think we have finally figured it out though!

Phil and I had a great Presidents Day weekend. We went up to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho with his family and spent the weekend soaking in the natural hot pools. It was the perfect weekend because neither of us were stressed about school and we could just relax. We stayed at the Alpaca Inn, which was an adorable little inn with cute bedrooms and a full kitchen.

This was our lovely red bedroom in the upstairs part of the inn

Phil looks adorable on the couch in our room. Phil's little brother, Ryan, who is 22 slept behind that red curtain in a tiny cubby/nook thing.

The best part of the inn was the decorating job. All of the picture frames contained alpacas, and everything else on the walls were hung crooked. Let me demonstrate.

Everything is intentionally crooked! You can't even try to straighten them because they are like super glued in their place.

I was so inspired by the Alpaca Inn that when I got home, I decided to do a little redecorating myself!

It looks great right?

Happy New Year!

December was officially the fastest month ever! Things were busy at the beginning of the month leading up to finals and I was looking forward to things slowing down and possibly having time to blog. Things only continued to stay busy and now I'm catching the blog up.

Philip and I had a great Thanksgiving with my family. The food was yummy and it was fun to have a break from school and relax. This is a picture of my mom's beautiful Thanksgiving table.

After Thanksgiving we had fun putting up our tree and getting ready

for the Christmas season.

We had a tradition growing up that my mom would wrap 24

Christmas books and put them

under the tree on December 1. We would then unwrap and read

one book a night leading up to

Christmas. I loved this tradition so I decided to start it in my

family.

Here is our Christmas tree with all of our Christmas books

After finals were over Phil and I decided to spend about a week sleeping over at his parent's house. Phil's sister Megan, her husband Dave, and their little boys, Tyler and Dallin, are in town from Washington for a few weeks so we really wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. Ryan and Aubrey (Phil's siblings) are also down from Utah State so it was a blast to have the whole family together for a while. We stayed up late pretty much every night playing games and then I'd wake up at 6:40 am with Megan to do the Insanity workout. It was fun but I feel like I have a lot of sleep to catch up with.

Christmas Eve with the Lamoreaux's is a big event. They have this tradition where they have an amazing Christmas Eve dinner and everyone is responsible for a part of the meal. Rather than eating the dinner family style, each part of the meal is served by the person who prepared it.

This is the beautiful Christmas Eve table we had to enjoy. However, this picture was taken before the mood was set with all of the candles lit and the lights turned off. The dinner was delicious and we were all so full by the time this dinner was over. The next event in the Christmas Eve program was the Nativity story. However, this was not like any nativity I've ever done. When it comes to costumes, usually we just wrap a bed sheet around someone and call them a shepherd...not at the Lamoreaux's. Margo has bins full of extravagant nativity costumes that she has made. I would definitely call this the most authentic nativity I've ever done.

Meg, Dave and Dallin as Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus

Aubrey, Corrie, Jamie and Tyler as shepherds

Ryan, Philip, and Jim as Wise Men

I played the angel and I got to wear a beautiful white and flowing dress. I actually wanted to be

the shepherd but Jamie insisted that I be the angel even though

she has always been the angel.

I'm not sure I played the part as well as she could've but it was

fun to be in the pretty dress.

The Christmas Eve Elf brought pajamas for everyone. We all got excited about our fun PJ's and

changed into them. The boys got a little too excited, but they

were sure fun to watch.

Yes, these are pajama pants that look like chaps

The hi-light of Christmas Eve was when Phil and I snuck away to exchange our special Christmas gifts for each other. We stole a Christmas tradition from Phil's parents of hand making a special gift for each other. I have loved this tradition so far. I feel like it makes Christmas more special. Last year Phil was so excited to give me the gift he made, he convinced me to let us exchange on Christmas Eve and we decided to keep the tradition going this year too. So Phil and I have either been dating or married for three Christmas's now and his hand made gifts for me have always been amazing.

Christmas 2008--He made me the biggest and most cozy blanket in the world. We still use it everyday!

Christmas 2009--Phil made me the beautiful case to hold my perfumes. He built every aspect of this from a piece of wood (except the glass door). He is amazing!

Christmas 2010--This year he chiseled/carved this out of wood for me. I love it and I can't wait to get it hung.

Ok...so I'm not a wood carver like Phil and I often don't think I'm even creative at all, but I'm good with pictures so that's often the type of gifts Phil get from me but I know he loves them. Last year I made Phil a hard cover book call "100 Reasons Why I Love You." It turned out really well and it basically is a book with 100 reasons why I love him (obviously) combined with pictures to match the reasons. This year I did a type of photo collage to hang on our wall.

This was definitely one of the best Christmas's I have ever had. I am sad to see it come and go so quickly. Oh...another fun Christmas present was that Ryan proposed to his girlfriend, Holly, on Christmas night so I'm going to get a new sister-in-law in May!

I stole this picture from Facebook ;) Congrats you two!