January 2014

Since arriving back in Provo after the busy holidays we have led a much slower paced lifestyle. 

Probably the biggest highlight was Ben starting his first semester of teaching at BYU.

He is teaching two sections of "Economics of Strategy" in the business school. 

He has learned 90% of the students names 

(about 120 total) and says he is enjoying it even more than he thought. 

He has since seen a couple of his students around the town
and I'm sure it will continue to be like this for awhile.

The same day Ben began teaching, I was volunteered to stand in line at 5:45 a.m.
to sign up for an intramural co-ed soccer team. 

We have had two games so far which have been a lot of fun.

Our team consists of my brother, Michael, and his wife Annika, Ben's brother CJ and his wife Taryn, Ben's best friend Aaron, his cousin Landon and some of CJ's friends.
It's quite hilarious.

William and I went on campus a few weeks ago to get an i.d. card.

He enjoyed running around in the open areas and we even saw my old religion professor, Matthew Richardson. He mentioned how William looked "little but busy," and he definitely nailed him spot on. 

The winter weather has not been bad since we've been back. 

We still occassionally go in our backyard for a short slide or swing push. 

We've also taken Will for walks around the block in his new trike.

William has started to enjoy playing with legos and stacking blocks. 

His other favorite "toy" is a photo album of our wedding pictures. 

He loves pointing out dad (of course), as well as "Papa," my grandpa. 

William had a really unlucky week recently. 

His first accident was at the Provo Rec Center pool. 

We had a fun play date with a friend and her three boys. 

One of the boys was playing with Will in the bathroom and accidentally
pinched William's fingers in the fold out changing table. 

I stayed fairly calm but tried holding his bloody finger together.  

That did not go over very well with him.

Luckily there was a lifeguard room right around the corner 

so they helped us get wiped down and bandaged.  

It took about a week to heal but it's almost back to normal.  

Round two was minor but he still has the scar today.

William slipped on a book and fell, 

hitting his cheek on the corner of our coffee table. 

The third involved a toddler girl at the mall playground scratching William's face and eye.

We hope to have a calmer time this week. 

Lastly, we finally hung things in William's room. 

His room is probably the fanciest in the whole house... we're hopefully working on the rest this spring!

Holidays 2013

We had a fabulous Christmas Eve packed full of fun.

We hiked the wind caves with all the babes, played tennis, Tia Rosas for lunch, hot tubbing, sugar cookie decorating contest, movies

Jammies for everyone

Nativity reenactment, with Will the wiseman 

And of course the traditional jammie pyramid.

William woke up at 6:00 ready to go, but we couldn't open presents until 7:30. 

When it was finally time for presents all William wanted to do 

was watch Baby Einstein in the other room. 

(His new obsession)

Later that morning he enjoyed a few presents but ended up taking a morning nap 

(not normal)

I think he'll be even more excited next year :)

After a wonderful Christmas day we relocated to Ben's house in Gilbert. 

Ben's twin brother, Doug, and his family were staying there too, so it was quite the party.

Yes, this is the 30-year-old twins competeing to see who could swing the highest with their son.

They spent one whole afternoon building a Lego castle "with" Callin.

Ollie and Will became little buddies. 

My little baby is growing up too fast!

I think this is the only photo we got of all four of us. 

We had so much fun being all together with our boys. 

We even were able to attend my brother's Eagle Court of Honor.  Way to go Ste!

Ben and I celebrated our fourth anniversary with a night away in Scottsdale. 

We went to Cheesecake Factory, Ben let me go shopping, played tennis, more shopping, hot tubbing and hiked Squa Peak in record time.

(we barely made it back to our hotel to check out with five minutes to spare)

Then we came back to celebrate New Year's Eve with the Lewis family.

William and Oliver wanted to get right next to the fireworks. 

We had so much fun hiking, playing at the park, dinners, movies and much more. 

Til' next time, Arizona... but now we're back in P-town cheering on BYU!

Pre- Holidays

We had a wonderful holiday season this year. 

We sent our first official family Christmas card, as pictured below.

This Thanksgiving we stayed in Utah and celebrated with my grandparents and extended family.

William loved my cousin, Sarah, especially when she played peek-a-boo

The whole gang

It was a beautiful day on Thanksgiving and we even got some park time in.

Over Thanksgiving week I took William to the zoo for the first time.

He enjoyed it, but I'm sure he'll be more into it next spring. 

He met my friend's daughter, Caroline.

Caroline and William were only born one day apart. 

We met one of my besties, Maren, at the zoo (Caroline's aunt)

It was a little tough getting all of us and the zoo animals in the picture :)

Ben and I also went to Catching Fire over the break and loved it!

In the beginning of December we got a picture of William and Santa randomly at RC Willey. Luckily he was not scared and sat very still. 

I put our Christmas decorations up early, and one of Will's favorites was the singing clock.  He would stop whatever he was doing each hour it chimed and clap afterward.

One night we had the Allreds over to watch a BYU basketball game.

Although difficult to see, the babes were sporting their BYU gear

A few weeks before Christmas BYU had its' facult Christmas party. 

We enjoyed their crafts, donuts, games and bookstore coupons. 

One of my best friends got married on December 14th in Mesa, Arizona.

William and I flew down for the event and stayed for three additional weeks through the holidays!

All of my friends flew in and we had a phenomenal reunion.

Brittany made such a beautiful bride.

We got to be friends-maids in our gray dresses. 

Thanks for the fun times, girls.

My sister and her family also flew in before Christmas.  

Abbie, Jackson, and William became great buddies.

Ben flew in the next week just in time for Christmas lights at the Mesa temple.

We had a lot of fun before Christmas, but one of the highlights was the Phoenix Zoo. 

William was trying to talk/yell to the animals. 

He was very lucky, the baboons came right up to him in the window. 

Grandad and the cousins.

The kids had cute matching Christmas outfits and the boys sported their first ties.

A few days before Christmas my brother and Annika flew in and the whole family got to be together.

We also got to see some of our Ithaca friends where William and Miya  were reunited. 

Check out my post above about the Holidays 2013

(more picture overload)