The last 4 years and then some...

Here is the shorten version of my life with Josh...

We dated:

We got married:



Then went on our honeymoon to Mexico:

We bought our first place:

We went to Europe (Ireland, Scotland, England, Italy and France):



We went to New York a lot to visit family:

We spent a lot of time traveling for lacrosse and Josh even won a National Championship:

We hiked Zions National Park:
Went to Mississippi for a family reunion:
Hiked the "Y":
Rode dirt bikes in CO, with family on the 4th of July:

We've now been to TX multiple times to visit family:

Josh took me snowboarding for the first time:
We bought our second place:
We went to Spain (Barcelona and Madrid):
We've been camping many times:

We hiked the Narrows in Zions:
We spent the weekend up at Snowbird:
We went to Tennessee to visit Josh's mission:
Now Josh is coaching BYU lacrosse and we went to Vegas this year for a tournament:
We just spent our 5th Christmas together happily married:

How did I get so dang lucky!!

Happy Anniversary!

Better late than never! My brother got hitched this weekend, so Josh and I were in CA celebrating, which is why this post is late :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JOSH!

Josh and I hit our 4 year anniversary mark on

Thursday, December 17.

I can't believe it has been that long, but boy what an amazing 4 years we have had. I wouldn't trade it for the world! I will take you along a journey with pictures, once I get home :) but for now...

Josh, you are the most amazing, thoughtful, loving, fun, perfect husband I could have ever wanted. I love waking up next to you in the morning and going to bed with you at night. You are the most fun and entertaining person to be with and I enjoy all of the time we have had together. You are there for me when I need you and you definitely know me better than I know myself. (Cliche, but so true). You are compassionate and selfless and I love everything about you. I can't wait to see what the rest of eternity brings.

I LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday To Me! I'm 25!!!

Here's a little recap of my birthday yesterday:

Wake up to sweet Josh wishing me a Happy Birthday
Go almost the entire work day without anyone wishing me a "Happy Birthday" :( (except my amazing friend Lindsey)
But then I get home and Josh takes me to Ruby River! I love that place (steakhouse)
I come home to open some presents!!!
Then enjoy the rest of the evening, just me and Josh. I absolutely love him so much! How lucky I am to have married the best husband in the world! It's also our anniversary on Thursday (Dec. 17) and it will have been 4 fabulous years!

Here is what I got for my birthday:

A new cell phone! (Opened on Sunday night.. I just couldn't wait)


Super cute dress:


Shirt and leggings from my incredible mother in law and boots from Josh:


I also got some socks that I really, really needed :) No picture, but they're white. LOL.

The cutest cookie jar ever for our Christmas gift exchange from Josh's sister (obviously had to be opened before Christmas to enjoy and to eat the homemade cookies):



We leave on Thursday to Northern CA for my brother Chris' wedding... it's going to be so great to see the whole family and of course to see Chris and Megan get married. What a happy time of year!

It's Christmas time

Decorating and such...

Lucky 100!

This is my 100th post!

Well, a lot has been going on and I feel like I've been really busy, but honestly, I haven't done that much. :) Of course it was Thanksgiving and we had such an AMAZING time with my family. My parents came to town which is always so fun! We ate some incredible food, played lots of games and watched some football. We also did some black Friday shopping! All in all, it was a great weekend and went by too quickly.

Some of the purchases this weekend include:
A sandwich maker ($3, thank you dad and mom for getting this while you were up at 4am)
A small crock pot ($3, same as above)
A griddle ($12, which I will probably take back, but couldn't pass up the deal!)
A blender ($14, kind of like a magic bullet blender)

Lots of kitchen supplies, but I love all of my new gadgets!

Also, this month, Josh was gone for almost a week in NY for a work conference, but also enjoyed hanging out with his friends, his family and going to a Rangers/Nationals hockey game. I wish SOOO bad that I could have gone, but of course, I had to work, blah blah blah.

Now onto the personal, yet important stuff :) I'm surprised I have shared so much, but I realized this is my outlet to talk about this and it's hard to hold it in and not share. So here is the latest.

I'm done with artifical insemination. Tried it four times and was unsuccessful each time. I was hopeful, but it's just still not our time. The next step? In vitro fertilization (IVF). Let me just tell you, I am SO excited... I feel really, really good about this and feel like we have a great chance.

IVF is much more invasive and a lot more doctor appointments and shots, but I feel this will be worth it. If you don't know the gist of it, pretty much they give me medicine to produce "follicles" (which hold eggs), they go in, retrieve the eggs, fertilize them in a lab with some swimmers, then transfer them back in. It has the best success rates of different procedures but again, much more goes into it.

I thought 6 or 7 shots was bad... try a shot every day for about 3 weeks before the retrieval/transfer process, plus the week just before, I will be giving myself shots 3 times per day for a week. If I am lucky enough to get pregnant (keep my fingers crossed!)I'll be even luckier to continue giving myself a shot in the hip everyday for about 10 weeks, which the doctor said "hurts like hell."

Even through all of this, I'm still excited to get started! Can you believe it? I used to be deathly afraid of needles, but not as much anymore... I'll do whatever I have to.

This next process will start sometime in January or February. I have a lot of testing to do this month before we can get started. Which means, more needles (blood tests). They also will start me back on birth control pills, which sounds like we're taking a step back, lol, but they do it so that they have complete control of the entire process.

Lastly, I'm happy it's December and that Christmas and my birthday and my anniversary are coming up :) Lots to celebrate!

Update

Thanks again everyone for thinking of me and for the nice emails, texts, phone calls. It was so sweet of you all! Here is an update:

The surgery went really well. I am recovering quicker than last time which has been nice! I went to the hospital Tuesday morning around 8am and was in the operation room by about 8:40am. They gave me my IV and some morphine and I got loopy really quick :) I got out of surgery about an hour later and didn't throw up at all afterwards. Much different from last time. Ended up only staying at the hospital probably for about 2 hours and then Josh took me home.

I slept most of the day and rested Wednesday and Thursday. I'm back to work today, but really drained and ready to go home already. I feel some pain in my shoulders from the gas they use during surgery, but not nearly as bad as last time. The worst pain I have right now is probably just trying to sit up. Once I'm laying down it hurts to try and bend at the waist. Also, the incision areas are a bit bloody (sorry for the TMI) and it makes me want to throw up a little bit every time I look at them, haha.

The endometriosis came back and the doctor cleared up as much as he could. I did have 2 cysts as a result from the endo, which were removed and hopefully this is what we need to start the next step. Just wanted to give you a quick update on me and let you know everything went great. Josh leaves for NY on Sunday so I'm going to be pretty bored while he's gone :( He's going for a conference out there for work. Lucky. Wish I were going with him...

Pasta! I did it!

So after a few failed attempts at this a couple days ago, I really wanted to figure it out because we love pasta!! I figured it out today! The previous recipe I was using from the KitchenAid recipe book, was a little too dry, possibly because we are in a dry climate. So I tried it with less flour and a little bit of water and wha-la!

Here is my creation:

Pre-dough


Letting the dough sit for 20 minutes


Rolling the dough




The dough is getting thinner and longer


Cutting the dough


Drying the noodles




Horray! I'm so excited! I'm going to let the noodles dry for an hour and then store them in the refrigerator or freezer for further use. I would make it tonight for dinner, but we just had pasta like 2 days ago. And if you know me really well, you know I LOVE ravioli. That is the next endeavor :) Anyone want to come over for dinner?