Another semester ends

Well, another semester has come and gone, and I can hardly believe it! I love my time at the ELC but I am definitely enjoying my time off to just rest and relax. I had a wonderful semester with my AB LinguisticAccuracy class. They were a great group of students! Here we are on the last day of class:

(4 students not pictured...because they were absent)

I will miss them, but I'm excited for the things they'll be doing with their lives. Thanks for a great semester!

Updates

As I looked at my blog today, I realized that it had been a while since I had written anything. Sometimes that happens because of laziness, other times it's because I just don't feel I have anything interesting to say. Well, that all changed this week.

First, today is my wonderful husband's birthday. We celebrated it a bit with some friends yesterday because there's not much one can go do on a Sunday in Provo :) He enjoyed his presents and the time spent with friends. However, I think the best present ever was waking up this morning to a winter wonderland outside! That's right, it had snowed while we were sleeping (and continues to do so now even as I type!). He loves the snow so it was such a wonderful surprise. Happy birthday, baby!!

Second, Thanksgiving was great. We went up to the Noyes' house with Carlos, Paola and Harold. We love them all so much and are so glad to have them in our lives. We had a wonderful dinner after which I was so stuffed I could barely move. After dinner had been cleaned up and put away, we watched "Eat, Pray, Love". Unfortunately, I can't really say whether I liked it or not because I fell asleep after the first 30 minutes!! That darn turkey coma!! Oh, well. I'll just have to watch it another time. It was a wonderful day (despite the bitter cold Utah is having).

Last, but certainly not least, my husband and I received some wonderful news on Wednesday. We're expecting!! We suspected that's what it was earlier in the month, but it felt good to have it confirmed by the doctor. So far, everything is going well and I'm due around the 16 of July. I'm excited and nervous about being a mother...good thing I have an excellent example to look to for help!! I am grateful for this opportunity, though not so much for the nausea. :)

I guess that pretty much covers it! I'll try to keep this updated a little better...now that I have some exciting things going on...whoo!!

The joys of marriage

Yesterday Faiver and I were at the FedEx store making some copies. When it was time to pay, Faiver swiped his card through the little machine. When it had gone all the way through, it made a little *beep* noise and at the very same moment, we both imitated the noise. How I love that guy!

I'm Awesome

On Monday, the Gunnell family hosted a family home evening for the young married couples in our ward. We went through the normal schedule but before we had refreshments, the Gunnell kids wanted to play dodge ball. So we all went upstairs to the play room to battle it out. After a couple of rounds, Daivs (who is 3) ran up to my husband and said, "I got you Faiver!!" He was so excited that he had gotten Faiver out of the game. :) As we were walking down the stairs, he was talking to his dad about it and I said, "Davis, you're awesome". He replied, "Yep. I'm awesome!!" It was so cute!

This is Davis. (picture from http://gunnellfam.blogspot.com/)

I drink LEMONADES!!!

So, I love summer...the weather, the sun, the many activities one can do, and the wonderful taste of the best summer drink ever - LEMONADE...it really is the best! This summer has been great for a few reasons. First, Faiver and I have done some things we have not done in the past (like going to Seven Peaks). I love doing things with him and we have so much fun together. Secondly, there were fireworks! I think they are spectacular and magical and I just love them! Last, but certainly not least, three of my family members came to visit us out here in the dry, hot, lovely state of Utah!! They were able to do lots of things (some of which Faiver and I had to skip because of work..blah!) and it was wonderful to see them. Mom was able to spend some time with her mom as well. Cheryl visited BYU and is considering attending next year. Phillip bonded with Faiver and had fun picking on me with him. What are brothers for, right?! All in all, we had a blast together! Now, sit back, get some lemonade and enjoy some pictures from our adventures...


The very beautiful Cheryl! Taking a break from the slides to have some lunch :)


All of us. This is the slide that Phillip rode...twice!!


Faiver and me after the parade. The missionaries in Provo marched in the parade!


My grandma (who would kill me if she knew this was here)! Yay for BYU!!


Us at the Salt Lake Bee's game. Mom, Cheryl and Phillip waiting for the fireworks.


People sitting on the field waiting....fireworks!!! Yay!

Did you enjoy your lemonade?

More Stuff

Here are some things we've done since the last time I wrote...


It snowed in May... ...but then it got really green!



We went to the park with Toby CHEESE!!!



Our friend, Hyrum, got married and Faiver helped decorate the car

Cheryl (Mom and Phillip) came to visit! Love this little sister!!

We went to the zoo and Toby LOVED the lion on the carousel...I rode the elephant :)

So far, it's been a GREAT summer!

Best Weekend Ever!!

I knew Faiver was planning something for our one-year anniversary, but I didn't know it would be the best weekend of my life! We had such a good time just being with each other, getting out of Provo and celebrating our life together.

After Faiver was done with work on Friday (April 30th), we grabbed our stuff from the house and headed up to Salt Lake City. He took me to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to the very top floor where he walked into the Roof Restaurant and said he had a reservation for 8:00. The hostess seated us next to the window overlooking Temple Square. It was such a great view and we got to see the sunset. Dinner was wonderful, highlighted by the fact that I got to sit across from the most handsome man in the world!

After dinner, we headed to the hotel. I still did not know where we were going at this point. Faiver put the directions into his GPS and we soon arrived at our destination. It was raining and dark, so I didn't see the sign that said what hotel it was. Only was it when we got inside that I realized this was the Anniversary Inn!! I had only heard about it and seen pictures, and so I was naturally THRILLED when I realized where my wonderful husband had brought me. The special thing about this inn is that they have themed rooms...we were in the Capitol Retreat room. It was awesome! The bathroom was "hidden" behind the bookcase and it was wonderfully decorated to the theme. There was a bottle of cider in the room and rose petals on the floor. It was incredible!

Of course we had some of our wedding cake that night. We didn't eat much of it because we were so full from dinner and it was so sweet. It was amazing how good it still tasted, though :)

We spent the rest of the evening...well...that's just for us :) The next morning we had a yummy breakfast brought right to our door. We had specified a time the night before and they brought it up to us. What service!

We hung around some more in the room, just enjoying the time, and then went to lunch at La Fogata, a Colombian restaurant near Salt Lake. We have been there a few times and it sounded like a great place to have out "anniversary lunch". The owner knows us and since Faiver told her we would come for lunch there, she had a piece of carrot cake for us. It was very sweet! After lunch, we went to the park to play. It was fun!

As we were driving away from the park, we saw signs for an open house. We thought it would be fun to just go by and look. We ended up going to 4 open houses! It was so cool to see what some people had done with their space; we also saw some very interesting things...like a rock climbing wall in the apartment above the garage in a very colorful house (and by colorful I mean bright yellow, green, red and purple with the most interesting layout I've ever seen!).

Then we wanted to go look at these huge cathedral-looking buildings on South Temple street. After which we went to Temple Square to just walk around and take some pictures.

Because it got really windy and cold (just look at the flag in the last picture), we decided to get back to the hotel. We got into our warm bed and fell asleep watching a movie we got from the front desk. It was the BEST weekend ever! I had so much fun spending time with my hubby doing silly, crazy, fun, romantic things all weekend. It was hard to get back to normal life, but this will stay in my memory forever. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness, honey, and for giving me the best surprise of the year. I love you so, so much!!

One Year!!

Today is our one year anniversary!! I cannot believe that it has been one year already. I am sure I'll write more about it soon (because my husband has something planned for the weekend) but this is all for now. I love you, honey!!

so happy!!

Hobby

Faiver recently decided he wanted to start collecting something. He went back and forth with several ideas but none of them really sounded good to him. After a few weeks of not mentioning it again, he decided he wanted to collect coins-more specifically quarters and gold dollars. So, I bought him some books to keep the coins in and he started searching for them. He has almost completed his quarter collection and has almost all of the president dollars that are out right now. He loves it!

Excited about cleaning his coins


working hard :)


so happy with his new hobby :)

11 Months!!!

Yesterday, Faiver and I celebrated our 11th month as a married couple. I cannot believe we are so close to a year of marriage; it has gone by so fast! Since this anniversary fell on a Tuesday, we just spent a simple evening together: after a day of work and class, I came home to make dinner and have everything ready for when Faiver got done with work. I made dinner and arranged the table to be "fancy". I picked him up from work and we drove home to a wonderful yet simple dinner. Faiver opened his present I got for him and we ate together. I had to do some visiting teaching, but then we passed the rest of the night with each other. It was really nice. I love this man so much!!

Our fancy dinner table


Opening his present


Books for his coins

Wells Fargo

My wonderful husband has been looking for a good job for quite some time. He took a job a Brick Oven, a local restaurant, but it was not giving him very many hours and he was getting bored with it. We bank at Wells Fargo and one of the bankers there told him he should apply for a position there. He filled out an online application and promptly heard back from them. After a long group interview in Salt Lake and another interview in one of the branches, he was offered the job! He is now working as a bank teller in the Provo Towne Center branch. He is their Spanish specialist and is loving it. It makes me happy to see him so happy with his job. It's a great opportunity for him.

Happy Day of Love

This year I wanted to do something special for my husband for Valentine's Day. He always does sweet things for special occasions...and sometimes on regular days too...so I wanted to do something unexpected. We decided to celebrate this special day on Saturday since Valentine's day fell on a Sunday this year. It was great to be with my husband and celebrate our love.

presents from me! balloons and a BIG box

Temple bag...much needed

A love monkey! The heart says "Wild about you"

I heart-attacked the door :)

Of course, he still did some stuff for me. We went out to a movie and then dinner with some friends. He also got me these beautiful gifts:

Lilies...my favorites!!

Best shirt ever!!

Happy Valentine's Day, honey. I adore you and love you so much!