Year in Review

This year has been a busy one for our small family. 

In January we bought our very first house. In the beginning it was a love/hate relationship with the home. After the first six months though, only love remained in my heart (except when I have to clean it). 

In February we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. It was celebrated among boxes and chaos, but it didn't matter. We had a marvelous time and decided that we're still madly in love. 

The end of April was another busy month for us because we got to move into the upstairs of our house! After five months of waiting for the painting to be completed we were finally able to move upstairs to live and decorate in our new house. 

The beginning of summer was a learning curve for us and our relationship. I decided that I would quit my full time job and find another one. This was hard for both of us because at this point in time I was making more money than Brysen was. When I stopped working we had to learn how to budget all over again and how to communicate about finances. The last part was the hardest for me; in my mind, if I didn't see it then it wasn't as big of a problem and we were doing okay. It took months for me to finally be able and willing to communicate about finances with Brysen (and he was beyond relieved when I did).  

I ended up getting a new job in July, which messed up our entire schedule. I went from having the same schedule as my adorable husband to the opposite schedule. I was now working evenings and nights, which I loved because I got to avoid traffic, but I also hated because I rarely got to see Brysen anymore. 

In October I ended up getting another part time job in the mornings, which has been fun but hard. Brysen began teaching boy scout classes once a week as well. 

Over the summer we went on our very first camping trip with some of our closest friends in Aston, Idaho. Yay!! I decided that this was something I would love to do much more often. 

My little sister Megyn decided she wanted to go on a mission and left for the MTC in late August. I'll be the first to admit that at first it wasn't that weird not having her around since we had lived on opposite sides of the state for several years. But as the weeks stretched on her absence became much more obvious to me. We are both proud of her and are always excited to hear from her. 

We celebrated our third meet-aversary on October 15th. We have now known each other for three years, which is awesome. We both agreed that it was a good thing we met each other and that Brysen decided to give me a chance. 

We spent Thanksgiving with my family for the first time as a married couple this year. It was a fun experience for the whole family, even if Brysen didn't want to go Black Friday shopping with everyone. 

This year we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my wonderful in-laws, and even though I was nervous I was excited to be able to participate in their traditions. 

Now the year is almost over and I am looking forward to what the new year will bring. 

Making a House a Home

After months of late nights, running to Home Depot for supplies, calling friends and family over, we have officially finished the first part of our house renovations. We actually finished about 4 months ago but life has been rather hectic so I'm just barely getting around to writing about it. 

When we first saw our house both the Hubby and I liked it but we weren't in love with it. However, when our bid was excepted we were both thrilled beyond words that we were getting our first house, even if it wasn't our most absolute favorite one we had looked at. 

As soon as we moved in we started fixing the place up. We put in a new kitchen floor, replaced all the moldings and painted the entire upstairs. Now that our major repairs have been done we have been living happily in our cute little home. I am beyond excited to decorate it for the upcoming holiday season!!! :)

My dining area before the remodel

My new, pretty dining area

The front entrance

Old front room painted a light tan with a brown accent wall

My new, beautiful front room (we did a darker tan and an Aztec red for the accent walls)!

New Adventures

A lot has happened since my last post. Our biggest adventure (which is still ongoing) was buying our first house and giving it that special, homey touch. This involved ripping up the linoleum in the kitchen and putting purgo down, repainting the entire upstairs, destroying the garden so we can fix it and a few various other boring things (I'll be posting before and after photo's later). We lived without a stove or a fridge while the house was getting painted for about 3 months. I do not recommend this. It was not pleasant by any means. But, we survived and now we have a pretty house!

Our next big adventure was celebrating our one year anniversary. We're still in love and super happy so I guess this marriage is going to be a success. We celebrated the day before by going to Maddox and having one of the best meals ever. Brysen bought me flowers and we kissed a lot and were both happy. The next day, our real anniversary, we spent the day sleeping in and relaxing. We had a fantastic meal at home and cuddled a lot. It was perfect. 

For our anniversary I bought both of us concert tickets for the Killers in May. I convinced my sister and her hubby that they wanted to come to California with us, making a party of it. Thursday morning we all went and walked to Downtown Disney and saw all the neat things there. Then we went back to the hotel to sleep for a few hours because we (and by we I mean the boys) spent all night driving to Anaheim. Then Brysen and I were off the LA to see the Killers! It was a fantastic concert and we had way too much fun. We ended up getting lost on our way back to the hotel and ended up somewhere in Santa Monica. We laughed a lot and after buying a map we were able to make it back to the hotel. 

Brysen with his new t-shirt

Waiting for the concert to start

"I'm so excited to be here!" pose

Tia and Eric spent the next 2 days in Disneyland so Brysen and I went to the pool, saw Iron Man 3 in Downtown Disney, walked around and saw the sights and were lazy. It was magical. I was jealous that I couldn't go to Disneyland too so I made Brysen promise to take me next year. Sunday we all went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and saw some neat things before we all piled into the car to head home. All in all the trip was fantastic and we all had a grand time.

Brysen petting the big sting ray

This fish was HUGE

Waiting for the Disney firework show to start

Me being brave and petting the sting ray

Now it's summertime and I'm trying this whole stay at home wifey thing and I'm not too big of a fan. I'm impatiently waiting for our next big adventure to start. 

Brysen & Britt