Last semester of the rest of our lives...

hahaha ya right!  We're pure academia people in this household.  But this semester should bring a lot of things to a close in our academic careers.

Dan will be finished up his bachelors degree!  He will also be participating in a NASA rocket contest.  And hopefully his team will take first place!  He also is almost certain where we are going to grad school!  (Which I will announce when we are certain with what we are doing.) 

I will hopefully be finishing up my Master's program!  I'm very excited for that too!  If I don't get everything done by May, I will definitely have it done by August because I am ready for it to be done!  I am definitely making progress on my thesis right now and will hopefully be having data soon!  Once I get data, then its time to hit the ground running and write out that thesis and show what my data can do!

We are both excited for this semester and it should be a good one that we'll both learn a lot. 

And because my last posts have been very boring and not including many pictures, here are some pictures that we had taken during Christmas break by a friend of mine, Ashley Day.  She did a fantastic job!  My favorite is the last one!  

Happy New Year! Welcome 2012!

We've had a fantastic year.  I would recap what we've done, but I did that on our anniversary post and on my birthday post so I think you've had enough of that in the past month or so.  We are very excited for what 2012 will bring!  Here are a list of things we are looking forward to and goals we have!
-Wendy going to Hawaii for the first time!  (SWE conference!)
-Graduating!  Dan with his Bachelors in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Wendy with her Masters in Environmental Engineering
-Celebrating our second anniversary!
-Attending the temple as much as possible!
-Getting in better shape! (This is a continuation from last year but it's something we are still working on)
-Eating better balanced meals!
-Exploring new foods!
-Going on more vacations and trips together!

We had a fantastic 2011 and are excited to spend another year together!  We are very thankful for all the love and support we have gotten from all our friends and family!

Christmas Letter

 *This is my first attempt at doing a Christmas letter... let me know if you like it or not..****

December Update!

Its been a fun past little while, so I figure its time for my monthly (ish) updates on what we've been up to!  Obviously, since I posted a couple of things this last month, you know some of what we have been up to.  But here is the list of things we've been doing for about the last month or so.

-Dressed up as Doctor Who and River Song for Halloween!
-Celebrated my birthday with my parents and on our own!
-Celebrated our first anniversary!
-Celebrated our first Thanksgiving with my family!
-I went Black Friday shopping with the girls! (And had a fabulous time!)
-We got callings in church!  (Ward organist and chorister)
-Found out that many of my friends are pregnant and most know the sex!  So far there is 1 boy and 1 girl, and we'll know at least two more in the next few weeks!
-Finished up the semester!  (Well, not quite yet, but give us about a week and we'll be done!  Yay!  You have no idea how happy that makes me!)
-Decorated the house for Christmas!   The tree looks fantastic, but it can't be plugged in because there are no outlets near it, so its not lit but it looks great!

We are very excited for this Christmas and to get to spend it with Dan's family!  We have most of our Christmas shopping done already, which is very surprising cause usually it's last minute on some people.

We hope you have a fantastic December!!!

Happy 1st Anniversary!

So Dan and I celebrated our first anniversary yesterday!  We had a great day and enjoyed the time we got to spend together.  For part of the day Dan had to work on rocket team stuff, which was good and bad.  It was sad that he had to go work on that during our anniversary but it was okay because it gave me the time I needed to finish his present!  When he came home (with beautiful roses!), we enjoyed cheese and wine (okay it was really sparkling cider) for appetizers before we went to dinner.  We exchanged gifts and went out to dinner!  We spent about an hour in Best Buy before we went to dinner because Tandoori was really busy.  But we enjoyed a very peaceful dinner together and a nice evening at home afterwards.  (We made a quick stop at the amphitheater first  because that is "our spot".)

For gifts, I made Dan (and partly for myself) a book that included all the poems that Dan has written throughout our time together {special thanks to Mallory for helping me with it!}.  It also included pictures from our times together and all the adventures we have gone on.  And because the traditional gift for your first anniversary is paper, we decided to get each other paper.  By this, I mean we are going to get our passports.  Dan doesn't have one and mine says my maiden name.  We decided on passports because then if we ever wanted to go on any adventures outside of the USA, we could!  I think it is a fantastic idea!

Here are a list of things we have done over the last year!
-We got married
-Spent our first Thanksgiving together with Dan's family
-Spent our first Christmas together with Wendy's family
-Bought our first car!
-Went on our first SWE adventure together (in Palm Springs)
-Went to Vegas!
-Went to the WAC championship game in which the Aggies WON!
-Went on lots of hikes, alone and with lots of friends
-Went to Oregon with Dan's family
-Went to Craters of the Moon
-Spent 4th of July in AWESOME Rupert!
-Went to Bear Lake
-Went on our honeymoon to Zion
-Hiked Angel's Landing and a slot canyon
-Went camping in Idaho
-Went to Four Corners
-Went to Arches
-And many many trips to the ZOO cause we are awesome ZOO MEMBERS!

Happy Quarter-of-a-Century-Day to me!!

Well... I turned 25 today.  And I must say, having a birthday on a Sunday makes for a very uneventful birthday!  Especially when it's also on daylight savings.  That one extra hour was kind of nice though! 

Some fun things that has happened in the last year since I turned 25.
1- Last year on this day, I went through the temple for the first time!
2- Two weeks later, I married a fantastic man whom I love dearly and couldn't imagine life without.
3- Finished my first semester then year of grad school.
4- Got elected as a region position for SWE
5- Went to conferences for SWE in Austin, TX and Chicago, IL!
6- Really got started on my thesis project!  (Let's just hope I can finish it before I turn 26!)

There are many more things that I've done this past year but a lot of them involve Dan, so I want to save them for our anniversary! 

But I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!!!  Seriously, its been crazy! 

Yesterday my parents came to visit and we had a lot of fun.  Mostly we just shopped in Cache Valley but that is okay because we never go shopping here anyways!  And my mom is such a bargain hunter so its so much fun to go shopping with her!  They also brought me a DQ ice cream cake which is my all time favorite cake!  (There is no cake involved in this cake.)  I am very blessed to have so many people in my life that love me and care for me! 

Its been a fun past year and I hope the next one is just as fun!  Maybe I'll be able to say I graduated with a MS degree too! (Seriously though, I better be done by then!)  And who knows where we will be in a year from now.  We could be here or in a number of other places.  I am definitely looking forward to another year! 

Who says being a quarter of a century old can't be awesome?  Cause I sure don't!  I'm gonna rock 25 like no other!

Happy (late) Halloween!