What I'm Grateful For

This past month has been an excellent time for me to really think about what I am truly grateful for. I am eternally grateful for my sweet, caring, hilarious husband. He is my best friend, love of my life, soul mate, and rock.  

I am grateful for my family, both mine and my husbands. They are always there for us whenever we need them. I have been blessed with incredible in-laws who accept me and are supportive of me and my man. 

I am grateful for the opportunity I have to go to college and to get a better education. I'm grateful that I am able to receive scholarships so I don't have to pay my full tuition....let's face it. College is expensive. 

I am grateful for my loving Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. Without them I wouldn't be the person I am today. I am grateful that I am able to attend weekly church meetings, even if I do struggle with getting up on time. 

Now it's time for me to go and cuddle my amazing husband in front of the fireplace and play a game of Yahtzee. 

Love,
Britt

Our Life

It's been a while since I've posted anything, and I'm sure someone out there, somewhere, is wondering what is going on with the Spencer Family. Here is a short review of the last seven months. 

Brysen turned 30 this past January! I'm not sure who was more weird-ed out by this, me or him. He took all of the teasing in stride and had a good time....or at least that's what he told me. :) We celebrated by going bowling and out to dinner before returning home to just spend some time together. 

Brysen's "Awesome" Present

We celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary in February, which was a blast. Brysen was in charge of the evening, which was perfect for me. He took me out on a progressive dinner date since I had never been on one before. We had our appetizers at Applebee's, drinks at Jamba Juice, dinner at the Brick Oven, and dessert at Coldstone. It was such a fun and amazing evening, despite the fact that I was sick to my stomach by the end of the night. 

My amazing big sister found out she was pregnant with her first baby in February as well. I was beyond excited for my sister and her husband, knowing how long they've wanted this baby. However, at the same time, I felt guilty because I was so incredibly jealous of them. I wanted my own baby honestly struggled with her pregnancy for a while. My sister being my best friend and one of the most incredible people I know, supported me through my emotions and helped me come to terms with everything. Now all I focus on is being the best, coolest aunt to my new niece!

The Expecting Parents

Brysen celebrated his one-year anniversary at his job in March. I began to have some struggles with my job around this time and would joke about quitting, mainly during midterms. In May I finished my Junior year at USU and was placed for my practicum. I was one of the lucky ones who got their number one choice of placement! I officially start my practicum in August at DCFS and I couldn't be more excited!

-Britt

New Years Resolution

This year I originally came up with the resolution to lose weight just like most people. However, after many tried and even more failed attempts to do just this for almost all of 2013 I realized that I needed to come up with a new plan of action. 

On Christmas my mom and three of my four sisters and I were all sitting around on the couch jokingly complaining that we had all eaten too much and were gaining weight from all of the meals and candy we had consumed in the past month. The sad thing? None of us were really joking. 

We came up with this wonderful plan that we would all try to lose the weight together and that we would be one another's support system. We created our own Facebook page and blog. All of us were excited to get started. All of us except me. 

I am the kind of person who needs someone to go to the gym with me to motivate me, to hold my hand as I go through the process of losing weight. Setting a goal is great, but if I don't think I can accomplish the goal then I don't even really start. If I do accomplish my goal then I completely let go and put all the weight back on in half the time it took me to lose it. So when my family and I decided to lose the weight, I honestly wasn't that into it. 

Here was my plan: "I have been too stressed out with work and school which has made it more difficult to lose the weight" or "I have anxiety and depression which makes it more difficult to lose weight". 

Yep. Excuses. I'm ashamed to admit that these thoughts not only crossed my mind but I was already planning on using them. 

And then something strange and wonderful happened. I had a realization as I was sitting and talking with some close friends at a party on New Years Eve.

We were going around and talking about what we wanted to accomplish for 2014, and the most common theme between all of us was to lose weight. And then  Brysen's cousin said something that seemed so obvious to me. He simply said "I want to live healthier." 

Now I know for some people that this might go hand in hand with loosing weight, but that was never the case for me. Sure, the thought had crossed my mind every now and then but I never really realized what it meant. I figured that as long as I was losing the weight then I could still make Brysen take me out to eat several times a week where I could binge and then I would watch what I ate the rest of the time. 

If I can learn to not just go on a diet and then go back to fast food multiple times a week and learn how to eat properly, to find ways to stay more active instead of watching t.v all night and to make it a habit, then not only will the weight stay off but I will be a happier person overall. 

My new resolution is to become a healthier person; losing weight will be an added bonus. 

Now I am much more motivated to lose the weight and to keep eating apples when I am craving french fries. 

Until next time,

Britt

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

Happy Holidays!

First off, I am very sorry it has taken me so long to blog about my wonderful little family. To get things started, I am finally posting the pictures of our amazing cruise.

As I'm sure you can tell, we had a grand time! I am constantly bugging Brysen when our next cruise will be and where.

We spent Thanksgiving with Brysen's parents in Las Vegas. We woke up early Thursday and set out on our adventure. We got to the hotel, ran around for a bit (Brysen Ginny and I went and played games while Bobby and Ida checked us into the hotel), cleaned up and set out to find our feast. We ended up waiting for two hours to get into the buffet but we had a lot of fun. We found this amazing spray paint artist and watched him create his magic for far too long. Once dinner was over we went back to the hotel and crashed. We were all pretty tired. 

The next day we went shopping and ran around Vegas. It was basically awesome. We also went to a Beatles Tribute Show, which was a lot of fun. I surprised everyone, even myself, with how many songs I knew. Hooray! Then we went back to the hotel after walking the Strip for a few hours and went to bed. The next day we went to St. George where Ginny and Ida took me shopping for several hours. Ginny and I had much fun running around and looking at all sorts of neat things. Then we went and saw the Nativity play at Tuacahn, which was really nice. Then, Sunday morning, we headed back home. 

Then we celebrated my 22nd birthday. I had to work but Brysen bought me roses and then took me out to a fantastic pizza dinner in honor of tradition. I was beyond spoiled and my amazing husband made sure that everything was as close to perfect as it could be for me.

Once my birthday festivities were over we were in Christmas mode. We went shopping for presents, decorations, a tree and all the other things that come with Christmas. I was having the time of my life while Brysen was clutching his wallet to his chest and trying not to cry. 

We went over to my Grandparents for the annual Rushton Christmas Eve Feast, then to my parents house for games and jammies before we headed home. We drank hot chocolate and cider while we watched "The Polar Express", which has to be the greatest Christmas movie ever created. Then we finally went to bed to wake up at 5:20 am to open presents! Once again I was overly spoiled with things from my amazing husband. Brysen seemed to enjoy his gifts as well so I guess we can count our first Christmas as a success. Yay!

Now that Christmas is over Brysen is back at work until the New Year. I'm off work until the 2nd and classes start again on the 7th. The next big adventure in our lives will be finishing signing the paper work for our new house in Layton! I'll post more when that's officially official. 

Happy Holidays!

Brittney & Brysen