A New Job and a Valentine's Day History!

Since Josh and I have gotten married, I've been working as a wedding planner at The Canterbury Place in Bountiful. But, as of the beginning of February, I am now working as a wedding coordinator at Aspen Landing Reception Center!

So far, I love my new job. The people that I work with are great, the reception center is beautiful, it's closer and less stressful than Canterbury, and I still get to plan weddings! It was also great because the training to be a wedding planner wasn't as rigorous as it was the first time around. Most of the things I needed to know for this job I had already learned at Canterbury...it was just a matter of learning new pricing and policies and not mixing them up with Canterbury's, learning where everything was, and learning some different processes (i.e. how you record event plans, how to make up payment pages in a different computer system, etc). Josh and I truly believe this job was an answer to prayers!

Josh is still loving his job at Dashboard Accounting! Which is good, because if he hated it, he would probably have to switch his major, and that would set us back a few years! He has been a book keeper with them for almost a year, and his boss is now training him to become a controller! The business has been growing, and they will be moving this month to a larger office space.

Josh and I also celebrated our first married Valentine's Day! It actually makes me think of our first Valentine's Day together, 2 years ago. Josh and I had only been on two dates, and even though I knew we had really connected, I also knew I probably shouldn't expect anything. So, when I found chocolate milk and a pez dispenser left on my doorstep with no name signed, I thought it was from another guy that I had gone on a date with! I was actually panicking a little bit, too, because even though he was a nice guy, I really wasn't interested in him. So I went the whole day wondering what I could possibly say to this guy. But, that evening, I went to hang out with a group of friends at Brett's apartment (Brett was Josh's old mission companion, and how me and Josh met in the first place). Once I was there, I eventually found out from Brett that all that stuff was from Josh! Needless to say, I was relieved and excited. Josh called later that night, and we met up to watch the movie Disturbia. That was also the day Josh kissed me for the first time!

Our second Valentine's Day is also a great memory. On Valentine's morning, Josh brought over flowers and chocolates for me. Then we went with his brother (John), nephew (Johno), sister (Jenessa), and my best friend (Allison) up into the mountains to shoot guns (how very romantic)! We had a lot of fun shooting at different targets. I have zero hand-eye coordination, but I still had a great time and managed to hit a few targets. After we had shot for a while, we had a paintball war with sling shots. Also a lot of fun, but I doubt that I ever hit anybody. If guns were tricky enough for me, a sling shot was even harder! Then, that evening, Josh and I got carry-out from Los Hermanos...we didn't want to have to wait for 2 hours to eat in a restaurant (Provo restaurants on Valentine's Day are ridiculous).

This year didn't involve any shooting! We kept it pretty low-key. Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday, so we celebrated on Monday (we couldn't do the Saturday before, because I had to work that night). Josh worked during the day on Monday, but when he came home, he brought some great surprises: some chocolate, flowers, and the movie "Up!".

Then we headed out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse! I always love eating out, so I was pretty excited to go.
When we got back we watched "Up!" and relaxed. It was a wonderful third Valentine's Day together!

Josh's Birthday!

Josh's birthday has rolled around again, and he is now 24! He feels like he is so old now, but he is getting handsomer all the time!

For his birthday, we slept in since he usually has to get up really early for work and school. Then Josh opened his presents.

For his cake, Josh wanted a cheesecake, so I made him one topped with strawberry!

Josh chose Noodles and Company for his birthday dinner. He had been wanting to see Avatar really badly, so went to see it at the I-MAX in 3-D!

A few days later, my mom came in to town, and we had another little celebration for Josh then. My mom gave Josh some great presents: clothes for work that he really needed! Lindsey is also trying to learn how to do cake decorating, so she made Josh another cake. She definitely out-did me on so many levels! It was a basketball cake with a jersey of Josh's favorite team, the Utah Jazz.

My mom stayed with us at our apartment for a few more days, and we all had a great time! One of the nights we had a fun little party at the Bell's and watched the BYU vs. UTAH game. Even though Josh goes to the U now, he still routes for BYU, since he grew up a fan and lived in Provo.

And BYU won!

So, we had a great time celebrating another year of Josh and visiting with mom. We're excited for the next time one of my parents comes to visit!

New Years in Vegas!

Josh and I decided to take an over night trip to Las Vegas from January 1st-2nd. It was the perfect time because Josh was still out of school, and I had just finished a crazy week of weddings, and needed the break!

Josh left where we were staying as a surprise, and he made a great choice! We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club on the strip. It was an AMAZING hotel, and there was no casino, so it was nice that you didn't walk into the lobby and smell cigarette smoke.

When we got to Vegas, it was already nighttime, and we were pretty much starving. So we hit the strip in search of a food court. We finally found one that was still open in the Venetian, which happens to also be our favorite hotel. We quickly discovered that food courts in Vegas are expensive...but we were starving, so we got some cheesesteaks, and they were way good.

After we ate, we spent some time exploring the Venetian. I love how they make the shops look like they are outside!

The next day, we went to cover all of the rest of the sights on the strip. We started with the MGM Grand, where they had the lions, which I always love to see.

The MGM Grand also has what Josh claims would be in his dream home: about a million TV screens playing pretty much every single game happening in the United States at one time.

Next we headed over the M&M factory!

We even waited to see the 3-D movie. The movie didn't make a lot of sense, and probably doesn't teach ideal morals for children (the red M&M loses the white "M" on his chest while gambling in Vegas), but it was fun.

After that, we went next-door to the Coca-Cola Factory, where we enjoyed a really good root beer float.

There was also the most hilarious polar bear ever that would bite your head and then start laughing.

And then there was an out-of-order Coca Cola machine. At Coca-Cola World. How embarassing.

Then we enjoyed some of the other sites of Vegas:

The Bellagio, as always, had an amazing conservatory. We were there while they still had their Christmas set-up. The houses, polar bears, snowman, everything was made of flowers.

Of course, we had to see the Bellagio fountain show, because that's probably the coolest thing in Vegas.

We finished the trip by eating a delicious dinner at Outback Steakhouse, and then we decided to watch the fountain show one more time. But the Bellagio was farther down the strip, and it was getting close to the half-hour (the fountains go on the hour and half hour) so we pretty much had to run all the way there. We made it about 1 minute before the show started, and it was definitely worth it. After that, we made the 6 hour drive back home, and got back at about 2 or 3 in the morning! But we had a great time; it was our first getaway together since our honeymoon!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

A lot has happened here recently! The biggest highlights were:

• For Thanksgiving, we went down to Provo and spent Thanksgiving with the Bells and Jordan at Nick's sister, Katie's house. It was so nice of them to have us! The food was incredible, and we all had a great time hanging out together.
• 2 days after Thanksgiving, we went to Josh's sister, Jilleena's wedding. She married Chris Meredith in the Salt Lake City temple. The wedding was so beautiful!
• At this reception, I lost my camera, which was a bummer. But, what goes around comes back around. At work, some one also left their camera at a reception and it went unclaimed for months. Because no one claimed it, my boss said that I could have it. So, fortunately, I had a camera to document our first Christmas together! We had Christmas here in Utah this year. Since we were spending Christmas out here, we made sure that our apartment was very festive.

Along with all the dozens of other traits I've inherited from my mom, one of them was a driving need to make the Christmas tree match our apartment. So we decorated it all in chocolate brown and gold.

My parents gave us this adorable angel ornament that has our names, 2009, and "First Christmas" engraved on it. We also got a 2009 ornament.

Every year the Bensons have a gingerbread house building night, and that's where me and Josh made this train. Recently, we also got a new couch and entertainment center, and they've made such a big difference in our apartment.

A few days before Christmas, Josh and I went over to the Bell's. Neither Lindsey or I went to South Carolina for Christmas, so we decided to do our own little get together before she, Nick, and Makenzie left for Oregon. We did our Brown Family traditions: Lindsey made potato soup, and then we all watched The Grinch. We had a great time!

Josh and I had a great Christmas Eve together. I got a roast cooking, and then we left to go see a movie at the dollar theatre. We ended up seeing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I was excited to see it, because I loved that book when I was younger.

After the movie, we headed back to our apartment. It was so nice to walk in to the smell of roast, carrots, potatoes, and onions cooking! Then, once we were back, it was time to start cooking the rest of the dinner: mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, and rolls (but the rolls were easy, because all I had to do was take them out of the bag...).

Josh found a way to keep himself entertained while I cooked (don't worry, he definitely offered to help).

After the dinner was cooked, he himself, The Grinch, carved the roast beast.

Then we enjoyed a delicious meal. We were so full for hours afterward, that we couldn't even eat the cheesecake I had made!

After dinner, we each got to open 1 present. Apparently, Josh and I think A LOT alike, because we both got each other the game "Clue." But one was Harry Potter clue, so I guess they're a little different...
After that, we watched It's a Wonderful Life. That's a Brown family favorite Christmas movie, and Christmas wouldn't have been complete with out watching it. This was Josh's first time seeing it, but he really liked it! Which is good, because he'll be watching it every year for the rest of eternity... On Christmas morning, Josh and I slept-in a little bit and then opened our presents and stockings! Josh had us wear matching pajama pants, because that's what his family did growing up! We also got him a Santa hat.

Here's the carnage... We made a good haul this year!

Once we were done, I called home and talked to my family while Josh made a huge Christmas breakfast! Belgain waffles with Strawberry topping and whipped cream (his topping was even homemade!), eggs, bacon, and cinnamon rolls!

We made a cookie-brownie dessert for the Benson Family Christmas Dinner and headed down to Provo! We had a big dinnner and spent a lot of time with all of the Benson's, and then had a Christmas present exchange. It was so fun to have everyone together! I need to get pictures of everything from one of Josh's siblings. (I'm so bad about taking pictures when there's other people doing it, because I always figure I can get them from someone else later...)

So, all in all, our first Christmas together was amazing! I can't believe it's already over. And now I have to start thinking about taking down Christmas decorations...