Our Lives This Week!!!!!

Our Lives This Week!

This week we've had some changes in our schedule. Me and my mom, like lots of others, did the cliche new years thing and got gym memberships. It's been weird getting back into the swing of things after miss utah. A lot has changed in what I'm able to do sadly! haha I am back to square one, but it feels great getting back to my healthy self. 

This is my hot gym partner at 6:30 am. She's a champ for getting up with me every morning to go because I definitely wouldn't have as much gumption to go every day without a partner.

Okay, I know it's weird, but I get my fitspiration for working out and staying dedicated with diet lately has been pictures of fit girls and quotes lol I also love the Lose It app on my phone because it helps me keep track of calories in vs. calories out.

 Last Saturday was the lovely miss Shayle's baby shower. It's crazy how fast time has passed. I remember we first found out she was prego on my bachelorette party and it felt far away and now she's moving to Arkansas and having a kid. So weird! I must be getting old.

 It was a cute baby shower and she had a lot of support and got thoughtful, cute gifts. It was fun to see her so happy, but sad at the same time. It's kindof an end of an era for us, she's moving away and becoming a mother and I'm not, but that's ok. Everyone has their own timeline and I'm happy for her and her new adventure in life.

 Our Saturday Date Fun!

Last Saturday our date was making so that someone else could have one. Sounds weird but our christmas gift to Aubrey and Jon was to give them a night out, and at the same time, we had a date too! It doesn't sound like a date to babysit, but we were doing something different, spending time together, and it was really fun. Those are such sweet boys, it felt good to do something for someone else, and it was cute to see Dallin interact with his nephews.

Kensley, Dallin's neice, is turning 3 on Tuesday! This was her family party and she was adorable opening presents and blowing out her candle.

 I love getting my hair done! Desi (the girl who does my hair) is such a funny, spunky gal and we have fun. She also does such a great job.

This was just a hair doo I tried for work that I saw on pinterest which is basically a messy french twist and it was pretty easy to do but it turned out great!

 Rachael and I have been good friends ever since high school. We haven't seen each other in a while, so we got together for dinner. Of coarse, we ended up talking for hours as if no time has passed. She's the absolute salt of the earth and it doesn't matter what I say, she always understands and makes me feel not-so-crazy.

My hot, smart, talented, sweet, thoughtful, hard working, dedicated husband got another promotion! We literally cried when I found out because he's been talking about this for so long. This is what he's been wanting and working so hard for for so long. I'm so, so, so proud of him. He puts everyone and everything before himself, and works harder than anyone I know, so he definitely deserves it. I've never been so happy for him because he went after his goal and finally achieved it.

Sweet Josie Girl is on the mend from her knee surgery in October. The doctor and nurses at Petcare Animal Hospital in South Jordan are so caring and have loved her through the surgery, recovery, and physical therapy process. We went from going once a week, to once every 2 weeks, once a month, and now she's doing so well that we aren't going back for 3 months! Josie knows her way around that place, and she loves them. So cute. So cute. And I feel so much better knowing that she feels better and she can run around and have fun now. 

We are watching The Bachelor right now and we both love it! haha I'm looking forward to next weekend and also hearing about Dallin's days at work with his new job. So far he says it's a big change, but he loves it. 

Wishing you the best!-Syd & Dal 

Livin' the Good Life

Hello!

Okay, 2015 is going to rock. So far, we've had the time of our lives! 

I've noticed that life tends to get away from you if you don't focus on making time to be social and do fun, new things. Since I made it my resolution for this year, I've put in an exiting date in the calendar for every Saturday for the rest of the year. No more sitting around, no more dinner and a movie. I love it! This is living! The best part is, it's easier than you'd think to keep it affordable. 

Here's what we've done so far.

Yesterday, we tried out dinner and painting with Justin and Lexi. It was so much fun, and they're such fun people. None of us were painting prodigies, but we had a blast trying something new and different. The best part was, we had a gift card for dinner, and it was around 15 bucks for the painting supplies. 

Here we are holding up our best work. 

 We all had canvases, but worked on paint paper first to practice. I wanted to make a decoration to add to my New Years decor, Dallin's is a shark, Lexi's is abstract rainbow, and Justin's is a headless horseman on a unicorn.

 

This is a work selfie. I am starting to get the hang of things at work and I'm becoming a regular worker-bee. I really like it! It's a big difference having two incomes now, and I feel like a real adult! (It helps make the social lifestyle possible when you can leave work at work and you don't have papers to grade or homework to do.)

Here was another Saturday night! We got together with Kyle, Becky, Ryan and Shayle for good ol' fashioned dinner and "the board." It was fun playing on the board after all the guests signed it at the wedding. Good time with great people, and we hadn't seen them all in a long time. 

Lately the house hunt has been stressful, but we're staying optimistic. We've been looking like 5 times with realtors and had an offer declined so it's exhausting but we're determined to keep going to find the right thing for us. It is also kindof fun to actually look now that we've been watching HGTV and thinking about it for years.

On to our next Saturday activity so far! We went bowling with James, Sarah and Brandon. Then we went to James' house and he showed us his tons of animal shirts and guns. It was interesting to hear about his stuff, and of course we had to take a picture looking like bad to the bone.

(you can't see mine very well but I'm wearing special fighting gloves)

 I went to lunch with Emma the cute intern from the junior high that I taught at last semester. It was so good to see her again and hear about how her last semester of high school is going. She is such a sweetheart and we had such a good time chatting it up. I definitely miss working with her every day.

 Holy crap! It's finally real! Not gonna lie, a tear came to my eye when I saw it in the mail box. MY DIPLOMA CAME! It's really over. I'm finally done.

I've been reading the Divergent series and I am absolutely hooked! I'm almost done with the second one. It's awesome having the time now to read for fun and not having to just read a text book! I haven't done this in years! (They're so good. If you haven't read them, I highly recommend  you do.) 

 I've been experimenting with braid-doo's lately. I did two that I didn't take pics of but here they are.

 I got together with Bethany for dinner and crafting! It was so much fun hanging out with her. The burlap thing is harder than I thought it would be! I think we still nailed it though and both of our wreaths turned out great. She's such a cool girl and we have ideas for more things we're making in the future!

Dallin with the cute kids! They love watching tv with him. Look at Jakey's weird leg position! He's so flexible he can bend in half both ways. (He had to get an ugly new hair cut so he's not as fluffy anymore) 

 Josie loves him :)

We're loving life lately, and with the plans we've got for the next couple weeks, it will definitely continue. Of course because it's life, it's not perfect. The house is a wreck, the laundry isn't done, and we have to pay bills next week. But I still wouldn't want it any other way.
"Live the Life You've Always Imagined"

Over & Out
-Syd

The Craziest Year Comes To An End

Can you believe it?! 2014 is over!!!!!!!!!

This year has been rewarding, frustrating, stressful, exciting, scary, and beautiful. I wouldn't change it for the world, and I'm glad to have experienced everything I did this year.
Miss Orem, Miss Utah, Getting Married, Student Teaching, Graduating, and now looking for a house and having my first full-time job! It has all been a whirl-wind!

Although I wouldn't change it, there are some things I can learn from it. I notice as I look back on this year that I took on too much (as usual) and stressed out too much. That resulted in not having as much time as we used to to do fun things together. Don't get me wrong, we did lots of fun things together this year, but we've become more practical and driven in our old age ;)
So my New Year's resolution for 2015 is to live it up!
I'm going to make it a goal to not get so caught up in the "have-to's" and start doing more of the "want-to's." I think it is definitely possible to live an adventurous, social, exciting life regardless of budget or time. We're going to do at least one exciting or different thing a week. (i.e. dinner & a movie doesn't count) I'm stoked.
2015 is going to be the best!!!

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Sara gave us three matching scarves! The kids were spoiled for Christmas (we all were). It was such a good holiday.

We went out to Nebraska to the Flanigan household! (Scariest drive ever because of the snow) It was so nice to see family we haven't seen in a while.

Dallin got a Carhardt for Christmas so that now he can be a "real man." His reaction was priceless.

(Dallin is on the right, I promise.)

"Skitching" is our word for a the terribly dangerous activity of riding a sled that's being pulled behind a 4wheeler. It's kindof a tradition to prove your toughness and then regret it later.
I got the big ol' Charlie to ride with me!

Nebraska has a different kindof beauty than Utah. It's a calm, open, free kindof feeling out there. Sounds cliche, but when you're riding a 4wheeler on that much open land it is really relaxing & beautiful.

My dad got a bike trainer thing and I thought it was so cool. I had never seen or tried one of those before.

We went mini-golfing and laser-tagging with Twenen and Kaylynn and it was soooo fun. It makes me want to do laser tag more often! (You can barely see our teeth and my shirt and dallin's hat in the black light of the mini-golf)

I'm used to living my life at the speed of light, so now that things have slowed down it feels weird. At first I loved it, but now I'm getting bored so I'm looking for new hobbies and projects. My mom gave me the "wreck this journal" series and a book so I can work on something when it's slow at work and I'm done writing my articles. I'm thinking about taking up reading, painting, learning spanish, tennis, yoga, redoing the furniture, or photography.  haha Can't sit still for long.

Warning: Kaden Overload Below!

We definitely don't want kids any time soon, but we find being Aunt & Uncle pretty fun! We had a ridiculous amount of fun shopping for Christmas for the little Aaron & Declan, and their reactions to their toys were out-of-this-world. So funny. They both screamed the names of their toys like they had yearned and studied them for years lol
The holiday season was a success; we had a blast. My dad helped us focus on what's important by having us tell a time when we served someone else, and it made me realize that the last time I did that was MO stuff. I don't want to be one of those people who only serves when they have to, so it was a good realization for me that if you don't make it happen, you won't remember and time gets away from you. He gave us a little project to give to money to someone who is in financial trouble, and I'm really looking forward to that because lately I've noticed how blessed we are, and it would be selfish not to give back.

I have sooooo many goals for 2015, and I'm looking forward to so many things. I am excited for everything that's happening in our lives right now.
That's it for now!
-Syd

p.s. I found exactly what I am! I usually never read stupid facebook articles like this, but this one totally summed up my personality. I liked it because now I make more sense to me, if that makes any sense..... http://www.puckermob.com/lifestyle/8-signs-you-may-be-an-outgoing-introvert
(all true except the hating people thing...that's a little intense)