When a Child is in Need

....my Mother is ALWAYS there.

I have been very lucky to see my mom almost every two to three weeks this semester and let me tell you...I have Loved every second of it!!
She came up to Utah because poor John needed hand surgery because he had a bone cyst. She was there every step of the way. And...since she needed to be in Provo she stayed at our place on a blow up bed! and then John did too the next night. I wish I could have taken a picture it was pretty cute. I LOVED having them in my home. Makes me so happy. My mother spoiled us too...got groceries, did our laundry, did dishes, and retaught me the correct way to make scrubbies (Mine were turning out like footballs and I have been getting so frustrated. Turns out I was slip stitching the whole thing instead of single crocheting. This only means something to me, but I have to document this for myself because it is comical if u know about crocheting)...Well she is THE BEST. She seriously is super woman. I am a very lucky daughter. Love you mom

Thanksgiving

It was our year to go to the Dunn side for Thanksgiving with my side of the family and it was wonderful!
We spent it at my uncle John's house and ALL of the Dunn family and cousins were there, (except Kat and Drew). We have not all been together in a long time. No pics from actual Thanksgiving day but it was delicious food and great company, what else could you ask for?

Highlights of the whole trip included:
Seeing Breaking Dawn with Kat and Jenna
Eating food and more food
Baking/Cooking
Picking out a Christmas Tree
Watching Christmas movies
Sleeping in
Good Shopping Deals on Black Friday
75 degree weather
Getting to see the Blessing of our niece Lydia Dunn
Enjoying Family Time and Conversation

Yay for the Holidays!

Family Photos courtesy of Drew Himber
Thank goodness for Self-Timer!

BYU Football

We did it.
We finally went to a BYU football game.
It was the last home game of the season and Stuart got free tickets...so I said I would go for half :) (It started at 8:15 pm and it was freezing)
This was the first BYU game we have been to while being married.
CHECK that off the list of wrapping up our life in Provo.
We even convinced John that he should not be studying on a Saturday night so he came and joined us!
We saw a sweet sack and had a great time

Stuart wanted to try out self-timer because he was looking so fly in his new outfit he picked out and bought for himself. This is BIG for Stuart

Thankful

I am lucky to spend this Thanksgiving with my family in California. I have not been here for Thanksgiving in three years and I am happy to be back. I am loving the constant smell of food in the kitchen, watching movies, shopping, and enjoying one another's company. Stuart and I are so thankful this holiday season for these things,

Marriage

Loving Families

The hope the gospel brings to us

Beds

That Stuart will have a great job upon graduation

Our home

Wonderful Friends

Dessert

JUICE (that is Stuart's)

Homemade food

Being Debt free

Christmas lights

blankets

LIFE

Just a small list of what we are grateful for this Holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Ferris Wheel

A couple of weekends ago Stuart had a flyout for a job interview so I decided to join in on the fun! I flew in later than him on Friday and my mother picked me up to go to dinner with my dad, Kathleen, and Drew. Kat and Drew didn't know I was coming so I popped out when they walked into Claim Jumper! She was surprised but immediately said, "I knew it." My parents and I may have slipped a few times and had bad cover-ups :). Apparently Stuart was the only successful one at tricking her. We ate and shopped and then when Stuart was done with his festivities we met our friends David and Allie at the Spectrum!

I have ALWAYS wanted to go on this ferris wheel at the spec. Seriously I have been wanting to for so long. So the boys humored us and let us go around a few times! It was scarier and quicker than I thought it would be but so worth it :) Then we went to go talk in Allie and David's car and the cops came to our car TWICE. They blared their lights on us and kept making us seem like we were in trouble. They didnt beleive us when we told them that we were just talking because we hadn't seen them in a while and it was cold outside. It felt so weird to keep having to justify that we were just talking. Guess that isn't usually the case when a cop sees all the windows fogged up in a car....

That night Stuart still had his hotel room so I was able to join him for a "mini getaway" for a night. Funny how it feels like vacation as long as you are in a hotel.
That weekend was also my sister's shower! Unfortunately I do not have any pictures because I was the photographer with my sister's camera. It was a very cute shower though and I enjoyed getting to see family and friends, so fun! After that we just relaxed and went in the spa. A perfect weekend. We may have ALOT of California weekends in our near future..stay tuned...

lifestyle change

Lately Stuart and I have changed they way we live. We basically decided to amp up our lives and start living more! We will never get this time back as college students and we realized we need to make the best of the rest of our time here. So we do not stress financially anymore... Okay maybe I don't :). I was kind of a budget freak. In the grocery I would debate for minutes over items that had a 20 cent difference. So instead of trying to save a couple hundred dollars every month on our 18 hour per week minimum paying jobs, we just LIVE. If we want to do something, we do it (to an extent:)). We have been trying to read our scriptures more and see the hand of the Lord in our lives. This life is truly a gift and I am so happy we are realizing this more lately. Life is just oh so good right now and we look forward to our adventure ahead of us!

Livin it up at Macaroni Grill

We love Riverwoods

I came home to post-it's around the house. Oh how i love my baby :)
Here's to living it up!

California Dreamin!

So we were lucky enough to go down to California a couple of weekends ago and it was too good of a weekend not to post about!

Stuart had some job interviews and it is around the time that my family likes to go to Knott's Scary Farm so Stuart, John, and I hopped on a plane and jetted down for the weekend. We flew in really early Friday morning (left Provo at 430 am) and then Stuart went straight to an interview. It just so happened that the office he interviewed at was right by the Irvine Spectrum, how convenient :) So we shopped, ate lunch and got some yogurt before he had to head off for more interviewing and I went home and took a nap.
That night was KNOTTS. It was a great time as usual, scary monsters and mazes and great company. My Dad even supposedly had his FIRST funnel cake, and what was his reaction? "It's good, it is like fried shrimp." What?? haha it was great. We did miss Kat this year, she is just a little too prego to be dodging monsters. Thanks Dad for a great time!
Saturday was the day that conference began and it was so nice to be home and eat a YUMMY breakfast both days and watch all snuggled up on the couch. That day we went to the beach and Stuart even got to get in the water with John and Drew, finally! That night the boys went to priesthood session and we got to have some quality girl time. We got our nails done, ate dinner at Wahoos, and went shopping. SO great!
Sunday we relaxed, watched conference, and ate lots of delicious food....that afternoon I said goodbye to my lover because he had more business to attend to and John and I headed back to Provo. I tried to convince John to have a slumber party with me but he wasn't buying it. I just hate being alone. The only other time Stuart was gone for a few days, my mom came to Utah to stay with me. I know I need to grow up but I just can't. It was a ROUGH night, but I survived and excitedly picked up my husband the next night. We do not do well apart and were very happy to be reunited.

This is how excited Stuart was about his yogurt...

"Give me a normal smile"..this is all I got.

This is my brother Michael trying to catch a chicken at Knott's.

MONSTERS

Always reppin the pumpkin king, Jack

Stuart and Drew

happy boy

I told Abby to wave like a princess. She is such a natural

This was Abby's first time getting her nails done! She did great! So cute..

At the spectrum I let Abby throw some coins in the fountain and make some wishes.

I also got to take Abby on the carousel! The whole time she just said "whee" with a very straight face. I asked her if she was having fun and she said "Yes! I say 'whee' when I am having fun!". you go Abigail

Well...until next time California....

Rachel + Cameron = Wedding

On a beautiful day in LA these two lovely people got married :)
It was such a great day and everything looked perfect! Rachel was just beaming all day and they could not have looked happier. The decorations, colors, and flowers were all so pretty. We are so pumped to have Cam in the family and that he makes Rachel so happy. We love you guys so much and wish you all the happiness in the world!

Just Because

Yesterday was a wonderful day
I came home after work and class determined to clean the house and I found a nice surprise....

bed was made
clothes were picked up off the floor
dishes all done
the trash taken out
floor was vacuumed
and Beautiful fresh flowers sitting on the table that said "I love you, just because"
ALL CLEANED

My sneaky husband came home in between his classes and did all this for me. I must say I got a little teary-eyed when I walked inside, I am one lucky girl.

last night we even played volleyball and watched a movie for our FHE. It was so great and I will miss these kinds of days when life gets even crazier. Love you babe!

Back in P-TOWN

WE are back!

I was telling Stuart that I needed to blog so people knew we were alive, like everyone was frantically worrying about our safety. Then it took me about .5 seconds for me to laugh to myself and remember that I have seen or spoken to everyone that reads our blog since we have been home haha.

We made the long 35 hour journey back and were even more hardcore this time because we did in 3 days. No sightseeing, just getting down to business. I dont have any pictures except for these two taken on the side of the road in Nebraska when we thought Carol, our car, was falling apart. It was just the wheel liner coming undone and since we had all of our belongings in the car, Stuart just whipped out his tools and fixed it right there. He is so manly. Here is Stuart fulfilling his dream of standing in corn fields!

Model Shot

Cute

Since we have been back it has been quite eventful. We went to California for my cousin's wedding, drove back to Utah, moved into our apartment, started work again, first week of school (pile on the expenses), hanging out with Johnny boy, drove to California again for Cam and Rachy baby's wedding (BEAUTIFUL), partied with the fam in La Crescenta, drove back, and now back at school. LOTS of driving but each destination was SOOOO worth it. We just LOVE being around our friends and family so much!

There is so much to catch up on but I will do that later. For now we will do homework and start making adult decisions. Stuart and I both graduate in December which means we are out of Provo and into the real world. Want to know where we will be??!...
I do too.
Some days we want to be in CA with family and soaking up the sun, other days we want to live the East Coast life and have an adventure, and sometimes we want to go somewhere completely different, like Seattle! Okay maybe that is just me, but a girl can dream right? One day I will live in the Northwest. It is an exciting time in our lives and I hope that we can make the most of it and not just let it pass by us.

Goodbye DC

Our last week here has been wonderful!

This past weekend we had our last little adventure. We went into DC and decided to live it up one more time! We went to the Air and Space Museum and got some dinner at Shake Shack (yes more burgers Jenna)...and then our plan was to take our dinner around the corner to a summer outdoor concert that was going on. We got our food and were so excited and then....FAIL. We could not find the concert haha. Typical Emily and Stuart move. So even though it was raining we ate our food on a bench and still had a great time! It was our first time in the Dupont Circle area and it was a very homey place. It made us really like being city people, because three months definitely makes you locals. Then we tried to rush back on the Metro to return our Redbox by nine. We ran in the rain and never found the Giant grocery store, and ended up just having a fun time in the rain :) This may sound like a lame and insignificant night to you, but I had to document it for us. We were so happy and afterward were just wishing we could do it all over again. It is all about the simple life :)

Our last week of work was great! Stuart's work threw him a little party and he had some very promising conversations. My last day was definitely bittersweet. I thought that it would be mostly "sweet" because I was looking forward to being done with the 1o hour workdays, but I was suprisingly sad. I LOVED working with children. It is so rewarding and I am going to miss their joy for life so much!!

DC you have been oh so good to us! We are going to miss you (such mixed emotions we are having) Farewell

Anniversary Weekend!

Our first anniversary will always be very memorable! Stuart planned the main event and some things went as he wanted... and some didn't :) It was all a surprise though and so I was so excited regardless of what we were doing!

Stuart made me french toast for breakfast and it was DELICIOUS! I was amazed, he has never made it for me. Good thing I found out a year into our marriage because I have decided it's going to be a family tradition now!

Right before we are leaving...

So the surprise destination was...ANNAPOLIS! Stuart and I had been wanting to go here. It sits right on the water and has a bunch of old homes and cool antique stores! So I was pretty excited when I learned that we would be spending the whole day and night here.

We stayed at this Bed and Breakfast called the Gateway. It was very cute and quaint! However, there was no way Stuart would have known though that the people that owned this particular Bed and Breakfast were not your usual B&B people haha. The description of this place online makes it sound like an angelic dream sitting on the water. The innkeepers had very "interesting" jokes, humor, and stories that they talked about over breakfast, just a little bit awkward for us. Poor Stuart felt terrible, but it is something that we can laugh and joke about now! And breakfast was really yummy so it all evens out!

These are the flowers that were waiting for me in our room from Stuart! So beautiful :)

Then we walked around all of the shops and the harbor for the day

My east coast man

For dinner we went to the Melting Pot!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it..it was divine! They had this petite summer fondue special that we decided to do. We were a little worried that we would walk way unfilled...boy were we wrong! We were stuffed! It was such a good deal

we ate all that and even got more to dip in our oreo cookie fondue mix

chiilin on the bed

At night we walked around the harbor and it was sooo nice. We loved being by the water and just talking about our lives and how crazy it is that its already been a year!

The next morning we walked around the naval academy and sat by a bench looking over the harbor for a long time. We could sit by the ocean for hours, we love it!

On Sunday it was my turn to do a little something nice. So I made a penne pasta dish, french bread, and fruit! I must say it was definitely anniversary worthy! Then we watched a movie and had banana chocolate cake for dessert, Stuart's favorite!

All in all our anniversary weekend was wonderful!! It was just so nice to look back on our wedding day and see how far we have come. We feel so incredibly blessed to have found one another and be given all that we have. We have had our ups and downs but we would not change a thing! Lots of people made us nervous for the first year of marriage but it has just been the best! Can't wait for the adventures that Year 2 brings!!