Picture update!

  After our vacation, I ran a 5K:

Robert & Camille & co. visited Utah for a week or so, and they came down to Provo to have dinner with us:

While the Provo temple was closed, we attended the Mt. Timpanogos temple:

We saw The Music Man. Thomas' former roommate was in the band:

I went to a couple of baby showers. While I was at one, Thomas and his dad went to a barbecue and got some neat pictures:

We tried escargots at home, which we found at Walmart of all places:

We spent part of a weekend at the cabin with Thomas' dad. Thomas and I had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant before going to the cabin for the night. The next day we spent some time at Cascade Springs.

After baking some molasses cookies to take to the party, we headed to Bountiful for a Bradshaw family get-together. We ended up taking a different route than usual, which provided some magnificent scenery.

Then, we spent the evening with all of these wonderful folks:

I was excited to learn that Thomas' aunt and uncle who hosted the party have a couple of apiaries in their backyard. Beekeeping is something I would love to try.

On our way home, we saw this beautiful sunset:

The following weekend, we both got a chance to see former roommates. My roommate Natalie came down to Provo and we ended up going to the Latin American festival that was happening on Center Street.

For Labor Day, since Thomas had to work, we got together at his work for brunch. I brought McDonald's breakfast and we ate together. After he got off work we went mini-golfing.

We've been keeping fairly busy with full-time work and our church callings. I was recently called as a counselor in the Relief Society presidency in our ward. Life is pretty good and we're in love :)

oxox

A few more things that happened last week

Last week was good but busy.

On Saturday, we went car shopping. I have a new position at work with less flexible hours, so a second car has become somewhat of a necessity. We bought a 2007 Hyndai Sonata that we're quite happy with!

Sunday was the whole chicken fiasco :)

Last Thursday I was able to meet up with our friends the Childs. Thomas was taking care of car stuff so he couldn't come.

On Friday I got to go to a baby shower for my old roommate Megan! Our other roommate Natalie also came. It was so fun to see them, and Megan and Evan will be fantastic parents!

Yesterday we participated in a ward service project and got to enjoy the beautiful weather as we did yard work in the neighborhood. It was a really nice relaxed day!

oxox

February 2013

At the beginning of February my family came out for a few days to drop Morgan off at the MTC. It was a little hectic because Morgan had a lot she wanted to accomplish but there was not much time! I think the essential stuff got done.

Dad, Sister Paulson, Mom, me. Thomas had to work. This is across the street from the MTC.

Our little missionary - she left the MTC last week for Louisiana.

Here are some other things we have been up to:

We got a great deal on strawberries, which made for some perfect pink smoothies.

Valentine's Day:

For Valentine's Day, Thomas got me some beautiful Peruvian lilies. I made truffles and a candy box for him. On top of that is a rose I crocheted. I also made some crocheted heart garlands but we didn't get any pictures...

On Valentine's Day, a couple in our ward invited us to a dinner activity for the Special Needs Activity Program (their church calling). This is Sister Johns and her son Micah. We had a great time and loved learning about the "SNAP"!

This was our 5th Valentine's Day together-- crazy, huh?

Other stuff:

I started reading The Infinite Atonement, a gift from a friend in our ward.

We took a walk the other day when the weather was nice last Tuesday and snapped a picture of the Provo City Center Temple construction progress.

We also stepped inside the new Provo Convention Center. We might have explored a little but there was nobody around.

We checked out the Covey Center for the Arts gallery for the first time in ... probably a couple years, sadly.

Last Wednesday a special and much-anticipated package arrived:

A graduation gift from Thomas' parents!

Now I need to decide on a good break-in project :oD

Thomas' dad came for a couple days last week. He was in town for a presentation.

After the temple, we had pizza and root beer floats together (with Samuel, too).

This weekend, we made it up to BYU campus:

We went to an indexathon hosted by the Vineyard (BYU chapter) that Samuel invited us to.

On our way home we briefly checked out the new venue in the Wilk, The Wall. It's a project Thomas' uncle worked on.

Other than that... well... we've been working and doing the usual stuff. I'm back to full-time hours. Work for both of us has changed buildings so it's been hard to establish a normal routine this year. We've been trying to eat healthier and exercise - I do my Leslie Sansone walking DVDs and Thomas has been playing basketball on Saturdays.

We still teach the 14-15-year-old Sunday School class. We've been implementing the new curriculum, Come, Follow Me. Today, we had a lesson on Doctrine and Covenants section 76, "the vision" of the post-judgement degrees of glory. The best part for me was when one of the students read verses 103 and 89-91 and testified that God is merciful and loves His children because even those who do wicked things ("liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers") may receive a glory "which surpasses all understanding". Very very awesome.

oxox

Might as well blog again...

...since the weather is back to cold and wet.

The past week or so has been so nice. We've gotten several walks in, without jackets, even.

Urban Deer

Provo Tabernacle, and in the foreground, the foundation of the original Provo Tabernacle

BYU Archaeologists are excavating the site and finding pioneer-era artifacts like buttons and stuff

Downtown is really changing

our friends, Beth & Cody, on a walk!

Construction on BYU campus

But today it's been snowing.

What we've been up to lately:

Thomas
growing out a beard again
updating his dad's website

Lisa
school
sewing (for school)
reading (for school)
scanning & transcribing old letters (sort of for school)
family history research (for school)
indexing

Both of us
planning summer activities
going to the temple
working 

This weekend we got to go to a Vineyard activity that Thomas' brother invited us to.

We were only there for the last hour or so, but I got some indexing done and Thomas worked on translating.

We also went to a ward "Green Dessert Party" for St. Patrick's Day.

We brought green milk... It's funny to think we've been in this ward for 2 years now.

oxox