Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend! It was my dads 60th birthday and my mom decided to surprise my dad and fly my sister home from Denver to help us celebrate. I have not seen Sadie since my wedding 8 months ago. My other sister and I went and picked Sadie up at the airport Saturday morning and then we headed over to Cheesecake Factory for some sister time. I LOVE that place! We had a lot of fun and we had the most amazing dessert, Red Velvet Cake Chessecake. Oh my goodness was it amazing. We said we didn't care if we gained weight this week because it was worth every bite!

For my dads birthday all of his children and their spouses and children wrote a letter to dad and told of their favorite memory and what they have learned from him. My brother put it all together and made a book with our letters and pictures. It turned out perfect. We were all excited to give it to dad and he was very touched by it. We hope that you had a great birthday dad. We love you!

Nothing else is really going on in our lives. We are just busy with work and school. Shem has a very tough semester ahead of him and so we are just trying to stay on top of homework. It makes me glad to know that I am already done and can just support and help my husband while we get him through!

Biggest Loser

So Christmas eve my dad announced that our family was going to have a Biggest Loser competition with our family. We started January 5th and are going for 12 weeks. At the end of each 6 weeks who ever has the biggest percentage of weight loss will win $100 and the overall winner gets $100. So there is the potential to win $300! There is a little motivation! So Shem and I are trying to become our families "biggest loser" but after this last weeks weigh in I am getting a little nervous! I got 1.4% and Shem didn't gain or lose anything. But my oldest brother lost 5.9%!! My sister created a blog for our weight loss. If you are interested in everyone's percentage you can check it out (it's listed on our blogs we follow). Wish us luck!

Our family has been very blessed lately. Shem recently received a job opportunity for a research group at BSU. He can work 10-20 hours during school and full time during the summer and during other school breaks. He is doing research for his field of study, electrical engineering. This is such a great blessing in our life. Not only will we not have to worry about finding Shem full time work this summer but the knowledge and experience that he will gain will be invaluable. He also found out that he made the Dean's list with honors for this past semester! I am so proud of him. He has put a lot of time and effort into his studies and it is definately paying off. I am so blessed to be married to man who values his education and wants to do the best that he can.

Shem is also putting his new golf clubs to use. We just got back from our date for the week and we went to the driving range. It was a lot of fun to be out there with each other trying to pretend like we knew what we were doing! We both had some really good shots and some really bad ones! But we had fun and we both look forward to the weather getting warmer so that we can stay out longer and maybe attempt to actually play some holes.

So I am home sick with strep throat and thought I'd start our blog. We are new to this so please be patient with us as we try to get everything figured out! Last New Years Eve I was sick and I told Shem that next year I would not be sick so we could celebrate New Years Eve together...looks like I was wrong. When we were at the doctor's office yesterday I promised him next year I will not be sick. I guess that means we have to put off having kids for another year so that we can actually celebrate a New Years Eve together before the kids come!

Christmas was awesome this year. We celebrated our first Christmas being married and it was everything I could ever ask for. I woke up about 3:30 and slept off and on until Shem finally woke up at 7:11. Santa was very good to us this year. Shem got some BSU t-shirts, a knife sharpener, pair of shorts, and a polo shirt. Santa brought me a chair massager, slippers, a bath towel, and an outside thermometer. I even received 5 pairs of hand warmers in my mitten. Santa must know that I am always cold! After we opened our presents we had a simple breakfast of cereal and coffee cake. We went over to my parents later for Christmas dinner and to open up our presents from them. My parents purchased my passport so that we can go up to Canada and I can get back into the States! It is nice knowing that that is done and should be here in the next couple of weeks! Shem got a HUGE surprise from my parents. His very own set of left handed golf clubs. My dad, being the very talented golfer that he is, won a golf tournament this fall and seeing as he has almost everything he could possible need spent his earnings at their club house on new shoes, golf balls and a complete set of clubs for Shem. We are very thankful for this fun gift and for my dads generosity. As soon as we got home Christmas night Shem had the putter out and was already practicing. The next morning we woke up and the first thing he said to me was: "Do you think there are any driving ranges open today?" We ended up going out to Purple Sage with my dad and Zach, Mackenzie, Kathryn, Davis and James came out too. We had a lot of fun going out and hitting some balls. I even hit some. I have not been on a golf course since I was in the 6th grade but I have a feeling now that my husband has clubs I will be out there more often...


My sister has this amazing embroidery machine and so we made our mittens together this year. They turned out great and want everyone to see them. This one is mine. (And no, we are not pregnant. We just put Mom and Dad because we will eventually be parents...)


I asked Shem what his favorite Christmas symbol was and he said a horse (surprise, surprise). So we found this one. I thought it was perfect since it combined Canada, Christmas and his horse!


Right before we opened presents...


Shem checking out his new golf clubs!



At my parents house with our Office calendar and my passport papers!