5 whole years!

It's been 5 years and I can still honestly say that I love you more every day that we are together. Happy Anniversary Kenneth :)

Wintery Mix

Well, I guess it's here. Winter is beginning to descend on Boston. I suppose it's only natural, it being December and all, but I guess I was sort of hoping that all of this global warming would give us a few more days of fall. 

Today's forcast was for "wintery mix." This is something that Kenneth would like to rename "the worst thing that could ever happen," but which actually means any combination of sleet, freezing rain, rain or snow. It only lasted for a little while before it turned to rain. But it was enough to make our happy Sunday feel less than joyous. Winter in New England is seriously the worst.

I have decided, however, not to waste my day feeling sad about the coming winter, and instead think about my favorite things....

#1 Happy Thanksgivings with good friends in boston. 

This has become one of our favorite Boston traditions. 2 years ago it was the first real holiday that Kenneth and I were away from our family and we were really sad. But our good friends Jason and Nadia invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner, and we have had good Thanksgiving memories ever since. This year we spent the day with friends again and we had another great holiday playing Rockband on X-box, walking around fresh pond, and giving thanks for all of the many blessing in our lives. What a great day!

#2 Cute little girls bringing us cookies.

Kenneth and I just got a little knock on the door, and what should we find when we opened the door? This cute face:
This is our cute neighbor Mckinlay. She came to visit and bring us a yummy plate of warm snickerdoodles. They were delicious! It was pretty much the cutest thing ever! Hooray for cookies and great neighbors who share them :)

#3 The Christmas season!

This week is our ward's annual wreath making activity, which for me is really the beginning of the holiday season. Kenneth and I never have a Christmas tree, since we always go home for Christmas. But we don't feel like we are missing anything because our relief society has the best activity ever! We make fresh wreath's every year at the beginning of December. They are so fun to make and they make our house smell fabulous, just as if we were to have a fresh tree. 

This is me and my friend Ginny making our wreath's at last year's party:

I also love Christmas because we actually get to see our families! Lately we haven't been able to go home in the summer - this is really the only time we have with them. We have such great families and it is so fun to spend time with them. This year is even better than most because kenneth gets to go home for 3 weeks and I get to go home for 2 (another reason I am grateful for my new job). We'll have twice as much time to visit everyone :) Even though we have really great friends here and we love Boston - there is nothing better than family.

That was only 3 things, but I am already feeling better. Who cares about wintery mix. I have a lot to be thankful for..

Seriously so cute...

This is my new family. Aren't they so cute? Don't you all wish that you were their nanny? 

Back in the high life again..

Happiness. Life right now is complete happiness. Kenneth and I have had a lot of stress in the past few months. Ever since August it seems like we just move from one stressful situation to the next. Sometimes it was a necessary frustration like moving to a new apartment, or Kenneth starting the PhD portion of graduate school and suddenly becoming super busy, or my last nanny job - which let's be honest - was ridiculous. But now, things have settled down and evened out and we are back to being completely and blissfully happy. 

So, here is an update of our month. Hopefully more frequent postings are coming :)

We are officially moved in to our new apartment! There are no more boxes and all of our pictures and curtains have been hung. It feels like a real home. My sister-in-law Katie has a special gift for decorating - we are so lucky that she and her cute family came to visit us last month. She really helped us get settled in. Thanks Katie!

I've been at my new nanny job for 2 1/2 weeks now and honestly, I have never been happier at work. I spent all 6 weeks at my last job wondering how I could have felt so good about agreeing to something which was such a wrong fit. Those six weeks of frustration were worth it, however because I am so much more grateful for my new job! They really are the nicest people in the world. I love them already and I am so grateful for them. Their old nanny (who has been training me for 2 weeks) spends every day telling me how great they are and how good they have been to her. They are such good people, they love their kids so much, and they are so nice to me. I love being their nanny!  

 

Another reason for our current happiness is that things are going really well for Kenneth at school. He was recently chosen to teach Arts of America at Boston University for the summer. I am so proud of him. He is working so hard and teaching this summer will be a really great opportunity for him. 

On top of it all, the longest presidential election in history is finally over, and while I am not trying to ruffle anyone's personal partisan feathers, Kenneth and I are happy and hopeful for our country's political future! While I have happily voted in every election of my adult life, Kenneth has often been disenchanted with our political system. For the first time of our marriage we were both energized and excited to fill in our ballots. In fact, we even agreed on a candidate and are sure it was that final piece of positive energy that swung MA for Obama! (okay, maybe it wasn't all us...)

Hooray for happiness!!! 

Home away from home

This past week was so much fun!! Kenneth's sister was in town with her husband (Kenneth's best friend) and her son, who might actually be the cutest ever. 

I was lucky enough to have the week off, and Kenneth was able to do most of his homework and reading for his classes before they arrived, so we got to spend so much time with them.

We visited historic sites, toured Ben and Jerry's, went to the Aquarium and Walden Pond, ate yummy apple cider donuts from Wilson Farms, visited the Joseph Smith Birthplace, went candlepin bowling, had some very cute guitar lessons, and watched the Wiggles more times than we could have ever imagined possible in just one week.

Kenneth hasn't been home in almost a year, so we are so grateful that we were able to experience a little bit of home away from home. Our apartment seems pretty lonely now without our cute family. 

Thanks guys, we had a great week! 

Today's the day!!!!

Hooray! Finally, today is the day our family comes! Kenneth's sister Katie, along with her cute family, are on a plane right now flying to Boston!  

Before we moved here we saw them practically every day. It has been so hard to live so far away for the past 2 years.. and now, they are finally coming for a visit. We are so excited, we can hardly wait! Saturday has never seemed longer.....

Who wouldn't be excited to see these cute faces? 

(We love Court too... we just don't have any recent pictures of him on our computer... :)

My Name is Jonas...

Thanks to our fantastic friends Kristal and Richard, we recently enjoyed a transcendent evening with Weezer and the various inhabitants of Lowell MA. It is hard to describe the iridescent glow of joy that surrounds you as you sing "Buddy Holly" at the top of your lungs with a few thousand like-minded friends. Luckily, a picture is worth a thousand words...

We don't own a digital camera, so you are benefiting from Kristal's trained eye! 

We just finished listening to Angels and Airwaves... their music must make people fall even more in love with each other.

Look how happy we all are! The concert is over, but we can still feel the influence of Rivers Cuomo's mustache.

Richard's homage to the tracksuit-clad rockers.

Well done my friends, well done.

My husband the rock star

Last week our ward put on a musical fireside for our stake. Spearheaded by our good friend Kristal, the fireside gave members a chance to share their testimonies through music which would not usually be played in church. This is Kenneth's arrangement of "Nearer my God to Thee" - video by Kristal Willams-Rowley

Moving on up! - Literally

Hooray! We have finally moved in! And up - literally. Not only did we move from a regular apartment to a great one, we moved from the basement to the 3rd floor! Once we get everything settled we'll take more extensive pictures.  But here is a picture of our living room - our favorite place in our new apartment (it wont look this white for long - we have curtains and artwork to hang, but you get the idea).

This second picture is of the mugs that were awaiting us in our newly painted and spotlessly cleaned apartment on move in day - a gift from our fantastic management company.

I know many of you are wondering why we moved from our old Boston brownstone apartment to regular looking building on a regular looking street. But let me assure you this is the greatest place we have ever lived. We have super awesome friends in our building, we have a parking spot, a dishwasher, and a garbage disposal! (This may not sound so exciting, but most of these things are very very rare in Boston. Disposals for example, are actually illegal in some towns out here...) Kenneth's commute has gone from 45 minutes on the T to a 15 minute bus ride. We have 2 bedrooms, for any future guests that want to come stay with us (hint, hint). Everything is de-leaded (a feature which is hard to find in Boston) - a must if Kenneth and I are ever going to have children. We have a real live eat-in kitchen with an actual kitchen table. And best of all - we have a management company that takes care of us, as opposed to the sinking bathroom floor and flooding bedroom in our old place.

We are seriously so happy here. We have spent every night since we moved here unpacking and arranging things, as well as exploring our new neighborhood. This really is a great place for us to be and we are excited for you all to come visit us!

Special note:

We need to give a very special thank you to Christopher Seely (pictured below with his cute wife Robyn) for his contribution to this project (our move). Because without him, and the 30 other volunteers from our church that came to help us move, Kenneth and I would never be here in our new home. We might actually still be outside our old apartment trying to figure out how to get everything effectively loaded in the moving truck.

Thanks Chris! You're awesome!!

And, for more complete pictures and commentary from our move check out Robyn's blog :)

Also to note - for those of you who have been wondering... I absolutely LOVE my new nanny job. I have never been so happy and I am so excited to be able to get to know this new family. It is so nice to feel excited to go to work in the morning - especially when your alarm goes off at 6:00am.

Everything's changing!

How is it possible that everything in our life would be changing over one weekend?? We are moving to a new apartment, Kenneth is starting his PhD program and I am starting my new job. Seriously, life is crazy. Just look at our apartment:

Here is Kenneth - he is either super tired from packing, or pretending to sleep so that he doesn't have to help... you decide.

The Santi's return in glory!

Finally - the Santi's have returned from their year long adventure in the land down under! I, for one, feel much better knowing that they are on American soil once more (even if they did move back to Salt Lake instead of Boston).

And (as if their return could get more exciting)  who should be waiting for me when I got home from work today but Justin Santistevan! Hooray! We are sad that Katt couldn't come this trip, but it has been so much fun to get to party with Justin this week. 

Now if only he and Kenneth would stop playing guitar hero long enough for us to get some sleep.....

Born in the 60's...

Following the examples of Meghan and Robyn I decided to see which decade Kenneth and I most belonged - we're actually pretty close.. I feel like I am best suited to the late 60's and he to the 70's. You be the judge:

This web site is super fun, and a great distraction from things like packing and cleaning. Try it out here!

Super fun Saturday outing!

I am so glad I have fun friends! My original plan for today was to continue packing and cleaning our apartment for our upcoming move (2 weeks!).. Sure to be a boring day. But Kenneth was working, so I had planned to be responsible. 

That plan went right out the window when Ginny and Robyn discovered, and invited me to, the Peach Festival at Brooksby Farm in Peabody. It was so much fun! 

Here are some pictures from our super fun Saturday outing:

Thanks for the cute pictures Robyn! And thanks for breakfast before hand at the busy bee.. You're great! 

Have you been watching this?

I love the Olympics! I finally have Kenneth as excited as I am - and we have been having so much fun watching together! I hope you are all enjoying them as much as we are :)

Dan the man :)

Today's blog thought is really just a tribute to my awesome brother Dan. It was his birthday this month, so I have been thinking a lot about him..

I have a fantastic family - 2 great parents.. 2 great brothers.. I really could not ask for more. I don't want this blog post to in any way diminish the coolness of the rest of my family - because they really are the best! But today I am just going to focus on Dan :)

And, in honor of his 25th birthday I am going to tell you 25 great things about my oldest little brother:

1. He has the biggest heart of anyone I know.

2. He is always willing to laugh with you or cry with you any time.

3. He has great taste in girls - his wife Sara is awesome.

4. He is super funny.

5. He is strong - both physically and spiritually - he is such a good example to me..

6. He is smart.. much smarter than he gives himself credit for.

7. He spent 2 years in Hawaii and throws really fabulous Luau's.

8. He actually gave up a long awaited trip to see all of his friends in Hawaii in order to spend 4 days driving across the country + 4 more days moving stuff and picking out furniture just to help Kenneth and I when we moved to Boston.

9. He text messages me more than anyone I know.

10. He is really good at keeping in touch, even though K and I live so far away.

11. He is super talented and makes awesome movies - so if you're getting married call him. His wedding videos are awesome.

12. He is always willing to do anything for anyone any time.

13. He is always up for a snowcone.

14. He introduced me to the avalanche.

15. He also introduced me to Guitar Hero and WII Olympics - ok, I probably would have found them on my own.. but I am still grateful.

16. He was my personal trainer for a whole year and he didn't even charge me. He even bought be a pink nalgene water bottle with a flower on it. I totally miss going to the gym with him.

17. He sent me 2 books in the mail just because he thought I would like them.

18. He makes delicious sandwiches.

19. He is an amazing public speaker. 

20. He has supported me in all of my crazy ideas for our whole life... even if it meant driving to Boise or walking to the grocery store in the middle of the winter.

21. He plays an awesome Ukulele.  

22. He took me to a Tim McGraw Dixie Chicks concert.

23. He loves a good midnight food run.

24. He has the best laugh, it is totally infectious.

25. He owns a white velour warm-up suit.

Hooray for awesome little brothers!!!

Pageants and Parlors

This past weekend was so much fun! So much fun in fact, that it has taken me all week to write this blog post. Apparently it took us a while to recover :)

Our weekend started with a wonderful day at work with Penny and Ameila, where we had our own beauty parlor day. I brought all of my supplies (nail polish, curling irons, hair clips and some light make-up) and the girls and I took turns giving each other the full beauty shop treatment. They brushed my hair and then I painted their fingernails and toenails. Next I curled their hair and styled them both using fancy clips. They even got to use my sparkly lip gloss! Next we took a few pictures on the lawn. Amelia looks more happy to pose in these than Penny, who was fighting the sun's glare. We ended our adventure at the Paris Bistro for lunch. We had crepes and a fabulous time. The girls were dancing the whole way there to show off their beauty to everyone they passed.

Here is a picture of my beautiful girls:

After work the real adventure began and we headed to New York with our friends the Seely's.
We went to Palmyra to attend the Hill Cumorah pageant - which was amazing! We have been wanting to go since we moved to the east coast and it was definitely worth it.

We spend Saturday seeing the rest of the sites in Palmyra - The Sacred Grove, the Joseph Smith house, and Grandin's publishing. Everything was so great. We had been there once before - but it was day 4 of our drive from Utah to Boston and we were a little tired. It was so nice to go back and spend a little more time.

Then we headed up to Niagra Falls - which was also fantastic! It was raining when we got there - but I think that made it even better. It made the falls seem even more powerful, and it cut down on the crowd because everyone was inside waiting out the storm. We are already planning our return trip. Next time we want to fully experience the Canadaian side - it is much more exciting than our American side. Who would have thought?

Here are some pictures from the trip:







We had so much fun! Thanks Seely's for accompanying us on this adventure! Hooray for vacations!

Tag

Let's see who reads my blog... and who's gutsy enough to comment!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! I guess good or bad, but be nice!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. 

Happy 4th of July!!!

Let's be honest.. I LOVE the 4th of July! I don't know why. Maybe it's because I have always loved to study history and the 4th is full of historical excitement.. Or maybe it's because it's a holiday right in the middle of the summer - so you get to celebrate outside with ice cream and fireworks.. I'm not sure exactly. But no matter the reason I love the 4th of July!

This year I love it even more, because for the first time in the history of this summer Kenneth and I both have the day off together! For the past 2 months I have been working days and he has been working evenings and it seems like we never get to spend time together. It's really hard for us to spend that much time apart.. So, today we are going to celebrate! Granted, the first part of our spending the day together plan started with us both sleeping in, and here is is 8:30 am and I am wide awake working on our blog and he is sound asleep in the other room.. but whatever :)

Tonight is the night that we officially become Bostonians. We are venturing out into the crowds to go to the huge Boston Pops fireworks celebration on the Charles River. Last year we chickened out because of the rain.. but this year we have our umbrella's ready and we are going to make it. Even if we just have to park our car at home and walk there, we will. This is supposed to be one of the best fireworks shows in the country. Hooray!

Besides the 4th of July excitement we have been having lots of summer fun in Boston. We went strawberry picking with some friends last week.. Amelia and Penny don't really look that happy in the picture, but I assure you they loved it. And they were very proud to present their mom with their glorious basket of strawberries when she got home from work.

This is my cute friend Meghan's daughter Mckinlay, also enjoying the strawberry fields:

Hooray for the 4th of July and summer in Boston!