Love One Another

LOVE: a strong positive emotion of regard and affection; object of warm affection or devotion. So to show our warm devotion we went ice skating for Valentine's day! I love this man, he is truly the love of my life and I am so lucky to be a part of his life. He was so kind to tie my size 4 ice skates as tight as he could to keep them in place.
Even though I know how to ice skate it had been so long it took me a little while to get groove going and he was there with me every step of the way holding me up. He is my pillar and gives me strength to keep going every day. He is so talented at many things. Who knew ice skating tricks would be one of them. On only his second time ice skating he is so amazingly fast you can't even blink or you miss him ;)

After we got done ice skating with the WHOLE family (with the exception of the Josh and Brooke) we went back home and I made this DELICIOUS chocolate cake from Mom Martin's recipe. Jacob and Elaina joined us and I'm pretty sure they were glad they came because not only did we offer them Killer Choc. Cake, but we also watched part of the first season of Arrested Development. Which if you haven't seen, you should and will get hooked on it for sure. We have all three seasons and laugh so hard every time.
~ I just want to take a minute now to say how lucky I am to have so much love in my life. Family is huge, my own family with Alex and my immediate family with mom and dad and my new Martin family. Our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ have given us the example to Love One Another and I am so lucky to have so much love and friendship in my life and I wish everyone to be blessed with the amazing love to share with others. To feel it is to share it, there shouldn't be a day that goes by without telling the ones you love how you feel. We love all of you and are grateful for you in our lives.
:) May love be with you all, always.

Stayin' Warm

Alex and I have recently changed our bedspread from the one Alex's mom made us, while it's in for some repairs, to the one my mom made us. It was a t-shirt quilt from most of my t-shirts growing up. It was hard to sew and to cut out. A huge thanks to Elaina who initially helped cut the t-shirts up and then helped tie the quilt. Also to Brooke who helped tie. The quilt was hard to tie because they stretch so much; who would've guessed they can stretch that much? It turned out awesome and it's SUPER warm, but if you missed it at the reception, here's a few pictures.

The middle row of baby t-shirts are actually ones that my parents brought back for me from cruises and vacations they took when I was really young.

Run, Run Just as Fast as You Can

This post doesn't have any pictures because, well I don't have any to document this. I have begun my journey training for a marathon. For those of you who don't run marathons you may not think a 5k (3 mile) marathon is quite a big deal, and for those of you who do run, know that your first marathon regardless of how long or short it is, is the biggest hurdle. My sweet husband has decided to be my partner in training and is quite the support. I started on Monday and we run, bike and I do pilates throughout the week, taking a break on Sundays. It's quite a different schedule than we've been used to, but he puts up with it. He knows how important this is and how difficult it is for me. My knee isn't the greatest and it's been about a year and a half since I last ran, there isn't a time when I run that I don't get some kind of side-ache, weak knee or loss of interest - running really bores me, and he helps me through all of it. Plus I run at a pretty pathetic slow pace right now and I'm hoping it will improve. I don't know how these next few months will go, but my awesome sister-in-law is going to do the marathon with me so I'll have someone by my side to carry me through. And it's for a good cause, the Race for a Cure, so that makes it even more worth it, if it means I walk through the finish line I will!

New Years Resolution...

My new years resolution is to blog more... we'll see how that goes. Couldn't be any better than our New Years Eve party. Alex, Jacob and dad, VS. Me, Elaina and mom. Us girls beat the guys in EVERY game we played with the exception of a very close game of Mad Gab. But as you can see from my dad's version of a boquet, that the boys were trying very hard. Us girls were just better :) Well, since Christmas had a little silly string, us kids decided to give my parents a taste of their own medicine. They were so not expecting this but when the ball dropped midnight we unleashed the silly string on them they had given us at Christmas. Only difference this time is they didn't have anything to retaliate with!
It was AMAZING!! Not only did we get them so good, but they were such good sports to sit and wait for us to get a camera.... good thing they can dish it out, but also take it.
For Alex's birthday he went shopping and BOWLING!! A favorite of ours, mostly because we both have our own balls and bowling shoes (both hand-me-downs) and it makes us feel a little ... well I don't feel any better. In fact it's actually funny when I come in with my ball and shoes and bowl an 85! You get the looks like, "shouldn't you do better if you're coming so prepared?" I just like to give 'em a shock.
We didn't actually bowl together, but I definitely could have used a little help from Al. He's so good at bowling.

Alex's sister Rayne and her husband Tom sent an amazing gift to Al for his birthday. A nice white collared shirt with a very nice GREEN tie. So when we went shopping with the gift card they also gave him, HE couldn't resist when he saw this awesome green sweater. I PROMISE I did not put him up to it or encourage him in anyway, he picked it all by himself! I am so proud of him. Doesn't he just look so good - that's rhetorical
Just a few of my Resolutions: Run in my first marathon - even with a bad knee
~ resolve to make my life even happier (I'll struggle with that one, but I'll still try)
~ get to know my husband and myself even better
~ learn something new
~ NOT buy a pair of shoes
~ have Alex HELP blogging ;) and I'm going to begin by having him share some of his resolutions for this year: Some of my new years resolutions for the year 2009 include,
~ FIND A FREAKING MAJOR!!!
~ Eat nothing but cereal every morning for breakfast....(oh wait, I already do!)
~ Make 2009 better than 2008 by making our lives happier and more exciting.
~ Try to live a little healthier and not be as lazy.

It's what we've been up to...

Alex and my brother Jacob work for the same company and wouldn't you know they picked their bonus night in November on the same night as the BYU vs. UofU game. So everyone had to pick a side - hence why we're wearing the t-shirts, and we ate dinner while watching the game at the Salt Palace. The four of us were on a Rock Band team and we .... ROCKED!! It was a fun night and of course Al and I went home holding our heads high :)

The next weekend Alex and Jacob again showed their dedication to their job by participating in a flag football tournament. It was all the way in Ogden and a lot of fun to watch them play.
Little did we know how cold it would be. Mom and dad came to support them too and were thoughtful enough to bring the hot chocolate.
They were so dedicated they had jerseys made with their names, numbers AND America First colors. I was surprised to see Alex play football. I knew he'd played rugby in high school, but I'd actually never seen him play a contact, team sport. It was pretty cool. My hunnie is just so cute.

One of the best things about Alex is how much he makes me laugh....unintentionally :) One night while going to bed, we were laughing so hard when I realized there was something wet on his shoulder..... so I got up and turned on the light to find that he'd drooled while laughing, so much that his shirt was soaked. Which then of course that made us laugh even harder and to this day we still laugh about the time he drooled on his shirt. It wasn't the first and I'm sure it won't be the last.... just keep the laughs coming Al.
So it was December and time to put our tree up. I had one from college and Al had one from our parents that was unfortunately too tall for our apartment. So we went for the little one and put it on boxes. I'm a huge Coca-Cola memorabilia fan so our tree is all white and red with coke ornaments and .... a moose for a tree topper (I also really like moose) It was fun to put our green and blue stockings up and see our apartment all decorated. Of course some rearranging had to be done and furniture pieces put in storage to accomodate our tree but we loved it just the same. One of our favorite things to do is drink hot chocolate at night and sit with just the tree lights on. We really love Christmas and our whole month was filled with our first memories together.
Christmas morning was so fun to have cinnamon rolls together and then open our gifts. Alex was so surprised when I got him the game of Farkel - one of his family favorites. Only to find out that he'd gotten me the same thing only a travel version. (my dice are green of course :) Alex got me a massage chair for my aching back when I come home from work. It is amazing and he was so thoughtful!! This day is also special for us because one year ago Alex and I became engaged, knowing that we would spend the rest of forever together. It is one of the best days of my life and one of the most exciting for years to come, to continue creating memories together.
Alex and I played Farkel the morning after Christmas and I, well I kicked his trash!! This is a game others may know as Six Dice and it is so much fun. I'm not really a risk taker, but I got a few lucky rolls. This one being a straight, worth 1,500 points!! It was so much fun.
But really I just like playing games with him. He's so funny and we laugh way too much. But most of all we still love each other when the game's over! :)
Holidays rock and I hope everyone got to spend as much time with the ones they love that they could. It may be a while till our next blog. Without internet it's far and few between that we get the chance.... and have the time. But we're still here and we love you all.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Take time to enjoy LIFE!!

Bored Anyone?

So Alex has an imagination and if you give him the time to express it, you might be suprised to see what can happen.... Pretending not to like my pink headband.... I think he secretly wears them when I'm not around. It's the main reason he likes to grow his hair out ;) OR carving initials into my failing fingernail polish with the ink tube from inside a pen, during Sacrament meeting.

No matter what it is, at least we're not bored for long in our house. Thanks for the good times Al!

Happy Halloween

Don't be scared it's just Alex and I. I'm not quite sure what he was, and don't say "Joe Dirt"but I think he was excited to wear the mullet wig. He was so cute with that moustache...not fun to kiss that thing though. Good thing he doesn't really grow facial hair. I on the other hand was a "Team Edward" vampire . . . didn't really have a name just wanted to support my Twilight. :)
My special pumpkin lit up our living room the whole month. I was so proud of his green smile. Alex was a little frightened by my Ghost cookies... BOO!!
Jacob and Elaina had relaxed by the time we started playing guitar hero, but could still rock it out. Mmm mmm good, I like me some... white trash? Alex special made my vampire teeth. The ones we bought were made with only 3 front teeth, well that just wasn't going to work, so he fixed it.
I'm not quite sure what they were trying to do, but Jacob looks like the headless ghost from Harry Potter... good costume improv Jb!! Halloween wasn't complete without Chili and cornbread mm mm good. It's all about the tradition. We hope your Halloween was ghoul-tastic and you scared to your heart's contempt.