President's Day 2009

Last week was LOVELY at our house . Not only did Jeremy have Monday off of school for President's day, but he also had the entire WEEK off of school because of "spring" break! We were so excited to have him around to play with us and spend time with us. It was bliss....

Here's Isaac's new trick - eating a bottle with no hands. :) Can't you just hear him thinking, "Look Mom! No hands!" Anyway, Tuesday through Friday Jeremy still put in 8 hours or so studying at the Law School - BUT Monday and Saturday (and the weekday evenings) he was ALL ours!! It was wonderful! We so enjoyed having him around. And, as always, when he is home he is SO helpful. It was fabulous. He watched Isaac on several mornings so that I could sleep in - yay! And Jeremy and I had time in the evenings to get together with several good friends who we hadn't seen in AGES. We also had time to play cards together (we love Hand & Foot and Nertz) and watch a few movies. Ahhh.... relaxing. We even had time to just read and talk in the quiet of the evenings. Yum. All in favor of eternal spring break???
Fun times at home. :)
On Monday we went on a family outing to the BYU Art Museum. There was a modern art display (which Jeremy and I really love) so that was fun. Isaac just loved getting out of the house and getting to see new places and things.

Our family in front of the balloon collage at the BYU Art Museum.

Next we took Isaac to the "Duck" pond (aka Botany Pond) just south of BYU campus. The weather was pretty enough for us to get out and we were surprised by how much Isaac enjoyed it. He loved staring at the ducks! In fact, we couldn't even get his attention away from them - hence the "artistic" pictures of us looking at the ducks.

We had a great time. To end off that family outing with a BANG we went out to Panda Express for dinner. Then we went home and curled up to watch a History Channel special chronically the lives of all of the Presidents of the USA. Yes I know, we really know how to celebrate - now don't we? :)

One more random picture... Isaac's new "favorite" activity is "rolling" this small soccer ball back and forth. We sit across from each other and I say "Ready, Set..." and he screeches and squeals (hence the funny expression on his face) as I so "Go!" Then I roll the ball into his lap and he giggles and squeals and laughs and smiles and pats that ball with his hands until it rolls away (in my direction). I clap and say "yeah!". Then we repeat. He LOVES this - and so do I. It is fun to be able to play together. :) I sure love this boy a TON. Oh, and if you look closely at the picture you can see his teeth (he just has two on the bottom so far).

That's what we've been up to. And it has been bliss....

Valentine's Day 2009

We had a wonderful, enjoyable and memorable Valentine's Day this year. Typically, Jeremy and I haven't made that big of a deal out of celebrating Valentine's Day. We've given each other small gifts or exchanged hand written notes (my favorite!) - but nothing big. We haven't even usually gone out to dinner because of our different schedules, and because we didn't want to run into huge crowds and long waits at restaurants. But this year we decided that it was time to do it "right" and really go all out in our celebration of lots of love and a happy marriage. So... here's what we did.

First, we spent the day at home together. Yeah!!! We lounged around, Jeremy made me some breakfast, we relaxed, we played card games, watched some television, etc... It was lovely. Then I made an excuse to sneek out and surprise Jeremy with this...

a large heart shaped pizza with EVERYTHING on it, a 2 liter of root beer, AND wacky bread. In Jeremy's world... this was a sign of the depth of my devotion to him (because I like cheese pizza and he likes pizza piled high with every topping available). Anyway, I actually REALLY liked the pizza (go figure) so maybe we will eat more "everything" pizza in the future.

Well, Jeremy went ALL OUT for Valentine's Day this year and I LOVED it!!!! He surprised me a week before Valentine's Day with the plans for our evening out on February 14th (see... I don't do the best with surprises... so he decided to "surprise" me a week early so that I would have time to be excited and get ready for the event - but he chose the event and had all the details (including babysitting) worked out a week ahead of time - what a guy!). And get this... it was every girl's dream come true...

My prince charming took me to a BALL for Valentine's Day!!!!!
It was SO much fun to get all dressed up for the event. (p.s. thank you to all of my wonderful friends for letting my try on and borrow their formal dresses so that I could find something to wear!)

Jeremy and I have never been to a "formal" event together - and it felt like I was going to Prom again - only better because I had the BEST date ever!!!

Anyway, the event we attended was called the Vienna Ball and it was held up in Salt Lake City. At the event we had an Austrian style dinner (remember that I studied abroad in Vienna, Austria for 4 months a LONG time ago so I particularly LOVED this - what a sweet and thoughtful husband I have). Then we listened to a performance by the Salt Lake Symphony, watched a performance of the BYU Ballroom Dance Team, ate fantastic chocolate cake for dessert, and finally (this is the BEST part) danced the night away to the music of the symphony! We (attempted to) waltz, Viennese waltz, fox trot, quick step, and swing dance. We decided that we would really enjoy taking some social dancing classes together as a couple. We both like that style of dancing, but are not familiar enough with it to be truly confident on the dance floor. It was so much fun to dance with Jeremy - I look forward to learning more about it in the future.

Oh, by the way, I learned 2 important life lessons...

1. Wear comfortable (or at least tolerable) shoes when you attend a Ball... not just "pretty" ones. Cinderella was obviously living in a fairy tale to be able to wear glass slippers to such an event. I have 6 blisters from all the dancing. But it was worth it!

2. Wear a dress that you can MOVE in. The dress that I wore did not have a very full skirt, and it also didn't have a slit in it... so I had to either hold it up or take teeny tiny baby steps while dancing. Oh well, live and learn. :)
The BYU Ballroom dance team (we had GREAT seats - nothing like watching a performance up close - it was AMAZING).
Yummy dessert.
Dancing the night away...
And that was our Valentine's Day.

It was a great day full of happiness, love, and celebrations. I feel so blessed to have my wonderful husband in my life and to have the opportunity to work together to improve and strengthen our eternal marriage throughout the year. Most of ALL, this Valentine's Day I am thankful to be married to my BEST FRIEND. Thank you for a wonderful and romantic evening, babe. I love you!

Jeremy's trip to Washington, D.C.

February 5-8th Jeremy traveled to Washington, D.C. to repressent BYU Law School in the 2009 National Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition. Moot Court is a mock trial team where you argue appellate cases as if you were in front of the United State's Supreme Court. He had been preparing for this competition with his teammate (fellow 2L student Spencer Brown) since November. They researched, prepared, wrote a 35 page brief (with over 100 citations) for the competition, and practiced their oral arguments. Anyway, Jeremy was excited to participate in a National Moot Court Competition and, as an added perk, he had never been to our nation's capital before and was excited to travel there and see the sites. Here he is enjoying some of the highlights of the Washington, D.C. experience... The Supreme Court
The Capitol Building
The White House
By the way, while Jeremy was there he saw President Obama and Vice President Biden drive by in their armed vehicle escort. Pretty cool.
The Jefferson Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial

They were also able to see three of the Smithsonians. Anyway... last but not least... the best part of Jeremy's trip to Washington, D.C. was WINNING the National Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition!! Yep, that's right. Jeremy and his teammate took FIRST place at the competition!!! We are SO proud of them!! Their brief also took SECOND place among all of the briefs submitted for the compeition. Here they are proudly holding their winning plaque....

Anyway, Jeremy loves participating in Moot Court and is really enjoying the classes that he is taking this semester in law school. We are so grateful and feel so blessed to be here at BYU law school. It has been a great experience so far and we can't believe how fast it is all going!! Well, we are SO proud of you Jeremy! And we are SO glad to have you back home! Thanks for all your hard work in our behalf! We LOVE you!!!!