Photoshoot Giveaway!

WOW! For any of you who LOVE photography (whether you do it yourself, or just love to look at it- like me) :) check out this site!! There's a free photoshoot giveaway! Check out the website and blog! (Look at those family portraits... SO CUTE!!! Also look at the babies! Don't we all hope our children will be that cute!?) :)

www.brittanyandersenphotography.com

Love yall!

Christmas!

***FIRST OF ALL... a big congrats to my wonderful husband, who found out this week that he got into the Business School at BYU!!! What a big accomplishment!! I'm very proud of him!! The road ahead is looking a little more clear every day! We're excited to see what lies ahead!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since our last post! We'll try to get better at that... :) Well I've been noticing everyone's new Christmas backgrounds on their blogs! It just makes me smile!!! I heard someone say a few days ago that they were not one of those people who "SKIPS Thanksgiving!- They celebrate Christmas AFTER Thanksgiving." I thought to myself, Well, I don't "skip" it either... I eat turkey, I'm thankful for what I have... and I'm especially thankful for Christmas! :) Christmas is just one of those happy wonderful cheerful beautiful times of year! I never thought I'd say this but, I'm actually kind of ready for the snow... mainly because with this sunny, warm weather, the kiddos at school are a little crazy (too much energy!) The snow might calm them down a little. :) Another reason is so my sweet husband can go SKIING! It's one of his favorite things to do (although not MY favorite) and he hasn't been since before his MISSION!!!
Anyway- while changing our background from Halloween to "Christmas", I decided to go with the "Snowmen" and wait for the "red/green/reindeer" background until we hit December. :) I've only listened to Christmas music ONCE in the last month, so I'm doing pretty good at waiting to "celebrate"! But as soon as the snow comes... the Christmas tunes are comin out! :)

Well, a little update on our lives... School is going really well! But I'm DEFINATELY ready for Thanksgiving break!! Tomorrow we're having a "World Tour"! :) We've been studying the 7 major world ecosystems. Yesterday, students designed their ecosystem around their group's desks. In the morning, parents and teachers will come in to watch their wonderful presentations and take a "tour" of the world! (The kids will have passports and everything... it'll be great.) :) (Pictures will be posted later.)
Joseph is doing well with school. He is not working at the MTC anymore! We decided that it was more important for him to be focusing on his school work right now and it's been SOOOO nice!!! We actually see each other most nights and he has time to STUDY!! What a concept! :) I absolutely LOVE it! :)
This weekend will be really fun! Saturday morning the 2 Elders' Quorums in our ward are having a "Turkey Bowl"- football game. Then there's a HUGE BBQ after (steaks and all!!!) And the best part is... the wives are invited this year to watch the big dual! After the fun game and delicious food, we'll be watching the BYU vs. Utah game! We must admit... we're a little nervous about it... but hopefully BYU can pull it off!!!
Well, that's all for now... sorry this was a boring post... w/ no pictures. But, we'll get on that and hopefully have some exciting things after this weekend. I'll get some good shots of Joseph playing football on Saturday! :) To those of you reading this... way to go. ;) Love yall!

OH PS!!! Speaking of Christmas (since I just looked at the title of this post)... we're going to Texas over the Christmas break!!! We're very excited to spend time in Bountiful AND Texas! What a blessing to be able to do both! We sure do love our families and we get to talk to our BROTHERS who are in the West Indies and Slovakia serving missions!!! HURRAY!!!!!!!!! :) (I'm just a LITTLE excited...)

Craziness, Blessings, and More Blessings

Oh goodness... where do I begin?? Well, it's been a little bit crazy for us these last few weeks. I am still loving teaching (even more than before... I really truly love it now.... the kids are too cute and I laugh pretty hard at least once a day). Joseph is SOoOoO busy with school!!! But he's such a trooper and is working so hard to fit so many things into each and every day.
For those of you who haven't heard, we just wanted to let you know (since we had announced it and mostly to save anyone from asking and feeling bad after we tell you) but a couple weeks ago I had a miscarriage. It was a very eventful Saturday night with contractions, labor pains, a trip to the ER, Joseph getting the flu, and finally arriving home at 4:30 am on Sunday. However, even when life gets crazy, the Lord CONTINUES to POUR out blessings upon us. With both of our families not living IN Provo, we thought we'd have to take care of ourselves for a few days until we got better (or at least until I got better... Joseph went to school Monday morning.) But we have some of the most amazing people in our ward and David and Aleasha (who made an AMAZING meal) and my Aunt who did a HUGE favor for me Sunday!!! (Thank you Kara!!!) We had SOOO many meals brought to us and so many kind deeds done for us. It was such a huge blessing and such a wonderful reminder of how service blesses peoples' lives. (I need to be much better at it!!)
Things are pretty much back to normal now. Joseph is SUPER busy with school and work but we're hoping that will soon change. We LIVE for Saturdays (well, I live for Saturdays) for football games and spending time with each other!!! (Speaking of football games, last Saturday we went to the UNLV game and after the game, we got to eat at the Cannon Center!!! HEAVEN!! I'm tellin ya... I HATED that place as a freshman, but they've built a new one and it's like a palace!!! And when you're married... all the food you can eat for FREE is amazing!!! Thanks Jarelle for letting us use your card, and David and Aleasha for taking us!! We love you guys and are so grateful we have you here so close!! :))
Anyway, so Saturdays with Joseph... It's so fun to actually see each other and spend the day together! :) Last weekend we saw "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with David and Aleasha. Joseph's dad had told us it was "REALLY good" so we went to see it at the Dollar Theater. We were kind of laughing at the cheesiness and wondering why the Campbells thought it was so good??... It was about halfway through the movie when I remembered they had seen it in 3-D. HAHA No wonder they thought it was so cool?! :) We were just in squeaky seats watching the flat screen! But nonetheless, it was a night out and those are ALWAYS enjoyed no matter what! :)
We're looking forward to Halloween on Friday!! Third grade is going to be a blast on Friday!! Elementary Halloween Parties!- You remember!?- the BEST! :) Joseph and I will finally be carving pumpkins THAT night and we're definately excited for that! Saturday we'll be watching BYU destroy (we hope) Colorado!! Go Cougs!
Oh and one last bit of good news... for those of you who DO know my brother Mitch, or are just interested in seeing an AWESOME and BEAUTIFUL mission in the West Indies... check out this slideshow his mission pres.'s wife put together! He's in it a ton!! So fun!!
http://westindiesmission.blogspot.com/2008/10/october-slideshow.html
Anyway, we love you all and appreciate all of your prayers and support these last couple weeks. I promise I'll get better at blogging soon! One of these days I'll be as good as you, Maddy! :)

Love y'all!

Third Grade!

As most of you know, I will be teaching Third Grade this year! Lots of time this summer has been spent getting my classroom ready! Since I am in a portable, there was much work to be done. :) Joseph has been a trooper and a huge help in getting it ready! Mom and Grandma are the women to thank for the cuteness of the room! Especially the "curtain toppers"! :) Thanks to all who have helped! Here are some pictures! Enjoy!

Gotta Love that Shirt! :)

The library is not quite organized yet... can ya tell? :)

So these aren't the best quality photos... you get the idea! :) Notice the little boot on the desk... it's a pencil holder... that was my dad's very brilliant idea!! (They were cups that we never used, so I spray-painted them! :) They go perfectly with the theme! Thanks dad! :)

Star Student board (those are little wooden, magnetic stars that will be moved around for something... I'm not exactly sure what yet...), Birthday board, Jobs, ME :), Welcome board (this will have little cowgirls/boys with all the kids' names) Can you tell I have to use every inch of wall I can get?! :) It's all good... I'm just thankful to HAVE a room!

Lots of desks!! I have 28 students so far! Could be more but we're hoping it stays at that!!

Busy Summer!

Well we haven't posted FOREVER, which Ashley reminded me of the other day. :) I have tons of pictures from when my family was up here, so I will be posting those soon as well as all of the pictures of my classroom!! School starts August 20th! Kind of crazy!! Hope everyone's doing well! ...Stay tuned for all the updates!

CELTICS!!!

We just had to make a post about the Celtics winning last night!! How amazing was that comeback?! We were pretty sad when we thought they'd lose. We actually both missed the end of the game but when we looked online and saw the Celtics won, we couldn't believe it! We're hoping they lose Sunday though so they can win back in Boston! Yeah for the NBA Playoffs! :)

One Year!

Today is our 1 year anniversary!! It's crazy how fast the time has gone! It seems like just yesterday we were setting up for a reception and then driving to the temple, then having an amazingly fun reception and then having an awesome honeymoon and moving into our first apartment!!! I guess time flies when you're having fun! We both feel so blessed to have found each other and to have experienced everything we have in the last year together. It has been amazing and we're so excited for more to come! We celebrated Saturday night by going to The Roof restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake. We got to dress up and it was a ton of fun! Here are a few pictures of the evening... we wish we could have taken some of the food but we thought we'd stand out a little too much. :)

This first picture was the drive up to Salt Lake...

So, Joseph got a new suit a couple weeks ago, and since the last time he got a suit was before his mission, he's grown a little since then. He was so excited to have them actually cover his shoes. But, he found that they also made them a little snug up top and they sit ABOVE his hips (this is what the boys and I would always make fun of our dad for) :) So while we were in the restaurant, he exaggerated it a little for a wonderful picture...

Enjoyin' our SPRITE! :)

You can see the amazing view in this one. It was pretty bright so the blinds were down, but you get the idea...

To add to the excitement of the day today, Mom sent us a bright bunch of balloons that made our day!! We love you mom! Thanks again!

Just a quick funny story about something that happened this afternoon.... After one year, my sweet husband knows me very well, and he knows how much I hate being home alone... especially when there are a bunch of men who work for the city working on the sidewalk right outside our house. We had to park on the street like three houses down. I didn't want them to know I was home alone (because I get freaked out- as the Westons well know from previous "caroling" events), because they had seen us both walk in together. So Joseph crawled out the back window (which is barely big enough for him to fit through and covered in gross dust and dirt and stuff from outside) and jumped over the wall in the backyard, into some random person's backyard. So he called me and I asked if he made it ok.... he said the people who's backyard he walked through were sitting on their front porch and saw him run from their backyard, so he said, "Hey I'm your backyard neighbor, just so ya know." He said it was just awkward. Then he said, "And the cement guys saw me get into the car because they were at the corner." I thought "Oh Great!" But I am still alive and Joseph will be home in two hours so I guess it was all worth it. :) As he crawled out the window, he said "Oh the things I do for my wife." :) I have the best husband in the whole world! Happy Anniversay Sweetie! :)

Night in the Mountains

Joseph here....this is my first post to our blog.

The other day David and Aleasha invited us to go up Provo canyon to make a fire and roast mallows. We were more than excited to go considering the fact that we have been so busy with work and school. My plan was to serenade us all with my guitar but I decided that was probably not an option since my guitar has not been tuned for over a year and because I don't know how to tune it.

Originally we were going to have our little escapade at Vivian park, but on arrival we realized that many other people had the same idea. We decided to pursue other camping locations further up the mountain. We found a great site called Big Springs Park. Thanks to the efforts of david finding a fire pit and supplying pocket lint and me leading the mission of gathering buffalo chips for wood, we were able to start a ferocious, but smokless, fire. David and I attribute this success to our eagle scout rankings....way to go scouts!

We were able to lift a massive tree trunk to serve as a chair for all of us, it even included a safety seat for Chelsie!

Despite our efforts to "Keep the fire in the fire", the girls found a way to fling ashes in the air while laughing histerically. We all had a lot of fun, and decided that we ought to plan a camping trip in the near future.

SUNSHINE!

What a gorgeous day it is outside!! I love the sunshine!! So I'm not very good at this whole blog thing. I don't feel like we really have tons of stuff to post on here, but I'm going to make a better effort! :) Here are just a few updates on what we're doing and what's going on in our lives!
-Joseph's first Econ. test of the semester is over and he did wonderfully! Just a few more weeks!!
-I'm done going to the elementary school for the semester!! Now I just have to sit in class, but it's almost over!
-Our swamp cooler has been "fixed" and we can start using it when it gets hot!! yeah!! We've been very grateful for the A/C unit in the bedroom!!
-Joseph's sister, Rebecca, got the lead in her high school's musical!!! They are doing Les Miserables in the Fall and she is Cosette! We're so excited to go watch her!
-One week on Monday until we have been married for 1 YEAR!! We haven't decided what we're going to do yet because things are so busy right now but we're looking forward to a fun date night! :)
-Josephs' family is coming down next Friday to celebrate Sam's birthday!! We're excited to see them!
-My family is coming up in less than a month!!! We're SO excited to see them and have a VACATION when we go up to Idaho and Jackson Hole, Wyoming! We will miss Mitch but we're so excited for him to enter the MTC and prepare to go to the West Indies!

Well that's probably enough of the updates for now. :) We're going up to the canyon tonight with David and Aleasha to have hot dogs and make s'mores so we'll post pictures later!! Joseph is also playing in a soccer game w/ the different departments in the MTC tomorrow, so I'll try to remember to take some pictures and post those! Love yall!

We're Still Alive! :)

Well it's been quite a while since we've made a post on here so I thought I'd write a little bit. Joseph and I are both taking classes this spring. He's working full time at the MTC and taking an Economics class and I'm taking classes and getting ready to be a 3rd grade teacher!! Joseph stays extremely busy with his work schedule and going to class and studying for it as well. I am in the elementary school (where I'll be teaching in the Fall) right now and just loving it! It is so much fun!! But I am definately ready to be done with college classes and start teaching 3rd graders in my own classroom! Joseph and I are still keeping up on the NBA playoffs! That's what we do every night! And most of all we're just loving being married! The weather is getting much warmer and the outdoors are just beautiful here! We are going to visit Joseph's family this weekend for Mothers' Day. Saturday morning, my 2 sisters-in-law and I are walking (we might speed walk and possibly run for a little bit) :) in the Race for the Cure! It should be really fun and we're excited to get a little exercise! We should have some fun pictures and posts after this weekend so stay tuned! (Happy Early Mothers' Day!)

Best BBQ Pizza

One of Joseph's favorite things to eat is BBQ Pizza. But it has to be "good" BBQ pizza. His favorite is San Francisco Sourdough's BBQ pizza... until tonight! :) We found a recipe on campbellsoup.com that we decided to try. We found the dough recipe randomly online but we loved it! So if you'd like to try this pizza... we highly recommend it! (*The key is Bull's Eye Hickory BBQ Sauce*).

Dough:
2 pkg. rapid rise yeast
2-3 tsp. warm water
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 c. flour
1 tsp. sugar
2/3 c. warm water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix first 3 ingredients. Let stand until foamy. In a large bowl, mix salt, flour, sugar and water. Mix together and knead. Let rise 45 minutes to 1 hour. Spread on pan. Top as desired. Bake for 25-35 minutes. Makes 1 pizza (*I had to add way more than 2/3 c. warm water to the dough so just be patient and add as much as you need*)

Pizza toppings/sauce:
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 medium red onion peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup thinly sliced mushroom
1/2 tsp. salt divided
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked skinless, boneless chicken breasts thinly sliced or shredded
1/2 cup hickory-flavored barbecue sauce (Bull's Eye)
2 cups grated smoked gouda cheese or shredded mozzarella

Directions:
Rinse chicken. Pat dry. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper.
Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken. Sauté 2 minutes, or until exterior is no longer pink. (*We cooked it all the way through*) Remove chicken from pan with slotted spoon. Add onion and mushrooms to pan. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Sauté 3 minutes, or until onion is translucent. Remove pan from heat.
Return chicken to pan. Stir barbecue sauce into chicken and vegetables. Place pizza crust on baking sheet. Arrange half of cheese on pizza crust. Top with chicken mixture. Top chicken with remaining cheese.

ENJOY!

Locked IN

It was a beautiful Sunday! After church, we enjoyed the warm weather outside, laying on a blanket and later that night, we had fun making peanut butter cookies! We decided to take a plate of cookies to our hometeacher and his wife. We put the cookies on a plate, covered them up, and walked up the stairs. Joseph went to open the door... I waited... and waited... and waited for a few more seconds before I said, "Is it locked?" He kindly smiled and said, "No..."... So I tried. It wasn't locked, but it wouldn't open. So Joseph lifted the curtains and looked out the window, just in case someone was holding the knob. :) Luckily there was no one there. After a few minutes of laughing about the fact that we were locked in our own house, we got serious and discussed how we would get out.

I called our wonderful neighbor, Virginia, and asked her to come over and help us get out of our house. She laughed and said, "What are you talking about?" So I explained that we were locked in our house and that we needed them to try and open the door from outside. She and her husband, Scott, came outside and just started laughing at us through the window. She said it was like we were at the zoo and she was looking in our "cage". (It was pretty funny... we were laughing pretty hard.) We eventually decided to take the door knob off. We got one half and Virginia got the other!

Scott told us that if we couldn't get out they could just pour water and food through the small hole where the door knob had been. It was a great comfort in our time of need! :) Soooo, normally this kind of thing would not be a huge deal, but since we ARE bloggers now, I had to capture the moment on camera. As you can see, we eventually got the door opened and were able to deliver cookies! :)

These are the aftermath repairs- Joseph the handyman!

New Blog

Well here we are! We finally started a blog! It's a little plain right now. We need those of you that have amazing blogs with tons of pictures, etc. to give us a few tips! We're hoping this will keep all of our family and friends updated on how we're doing and everything that's going on in our lives! :) Love yall! Enjoy!