Thanksgiving 2010

This Thanksgiving was our first together as a married couple! We have decided that we are going to try to spend every other holiday with Sean's family, so Easter was with the Szekely's which meant that Thanksgiving was with the Davis family. My parents had originally decided to go to Syracuse to be with Peter and Erin for the holiday, but Peter wanted to come to MI. So my parents and Peter and Erin flew into Detroit and drove over to Kalamazoo the Tuesday before.

Wednesday was a fun-filled day of wrestling, shopping, getting nails done, and baking! Peter and Sean went to Paw Paw wrestling practice in the morning, then Erin, my mom, the Krenk girls, and I went to get our toes beautified! Then home to bake cookies, cheesecake, and these really yummy tarts!

Thursday I cooked the turkey all by myself! Sean had to work at Sear's in the morning, so before my family came over I set the table, made broccoli casserole, and made sure the rolls were rising properly. Then I met my family and Sean at Sweet Water's donuts (yes, they were actually open!) for a quick breakfast before dinner. The other things that we had were sauteed veggies, corn, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, Sean's yummy rolls, apple salad, and of course, TURKEY!! Then we went to Sean's parents' house for dessert!

Friday morning Sean needed to at Sear's by 3:30am!! He had a filling fall out, and he woke me up in a panic thinking it was part of his tooth. After that I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to do some Black Friday shopping. I got my first pair of snow boots for $15 at Burlington Coat Factory!! The women's sizes were too big, so I had to get the children's size, but hey it saved me $5 which I then used to buy some DVDs at Target where were on UBER sale! But I'm not going to post about Christmas presents here because they are a secret! I had to work Friday night at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum so the family came in to see the Race: Are we so different? exhibit, and see our Pink Floyd laser show. They got to see about 20 minutes of the laser show and then the cooling system in our planetarium broke so it wouldn't work anymore!

Saturday, Peter went to wrestling practice again, and then we chatted some at the hotel before the family headed back to Detroit.

It was a wonderful visit, and as Sean said, it was really nice but too short!

Pictures will be posted soon, or you can see them on Facebook, Sean and I are tagged in a few that my mom posted!

So I have been horrible with my new goal of writing something new about once a week... I haven't even posted once a month!

Anyways, Sean and I are very excited for Christmas which is just around the corner! It's been so fun figuring out what traditions we should have as a family! We have decided that we should make sugar cookies (which we will be doing with this super cute family that we have become friends with over the past month or so), and go caroling together. We have our Christmas cards almost finished, we're just waiting to hear back on some news before we officially print out the Christmas letter.

We have our home all decorated minus the tree because Skyler thinks that the tree is her personal jungle gym! And since we don't want all of our ornaments to get broken we just have lights. And I'm really mad at Target because they don't sell nativity sets in the store anymore, AND when I asked a worker about them she didn't even know what a nativity was!! I mean, what is this world coming too!!

We are excited for the Christmas concert that the KUB is putting on tomorrow night at 6:00. And this Sunday will be our last at the University Branch and we will be moving to the family ward (Kalamazoo First Ward).

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season, and that you are staying safe! Our next few posts will be about Thanksgiving dinner, and hopefully we'll know soon about the exciting news and we'll post about that too!!

New Goal!

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to let you all know about my new goal. I am always reading everyone else's blogs, and NEVER updating mine, and then when I do it's from things that are months ago and are super long. So here it is...

My new goal: to post more often (like once a week?? that might be too ambitious though) and have the posts be shorter!

Honeymoon

Our honeymoon was so much fun!! Sean and I really enjoyed being able to relax and spend some quality time alone together! We had not been able to spend too much quality time together because of my graduating and finishing up my last quarter at K.

Our favorite part I think was staying at Embassy Suites. We were there for 3 days before we left on our cruise. Our first day, I had a hard time walking from being in high heels all day the day before, so we just stayed in our room for most of the morning. Then we decided to check out the pool area. We then ate a late lunch at BJ's Pizza, and headed to the movie theater to see Toy Story 3. I had told Sean that we could see it during our honeymoon since Toy Story is one of his favorite movie series. Afterward, we wanted more Disney so we headed to Downtown Disney to listen to the different musicians play, and watch the fireworks.

Sunday was Father's day. Again, Sean and I slept in. We went to my parents' home to open up presents and have a Happy Father's Day lunch with the family. When we went back to our hotel, we realized that there was a NCIS marathon so we ordered pizza and stayed in cuddling and enjoying one of my favorite shows (and now it's one of Sean's favorites, too!)

Monday we left Embassy Suites after having a very yummy breakfast. We headed to my parents' place so that they could take us to the port for us to get on the cruise. I must admit that I was so nervous going on the cruise... I was terrified that a rogue wave would hit us and we would be killed. The cruise ended up being amazing. We loved the freedom to do whatever we wanted pretty much whenever we wanted.

Tuesday we ported at Catalina Island, which is a part of LA county. Everything there was so cute a miniature! They even had a miniature FedEx truck! We rented a golf cart and drove around the island on their scenic route that they have. Sean LOVES the Cubs, so of course we had to stop at the memorial there for him. We then ate at Cooney Island Hot Dogs just to compare to that of downtown Kalamazoo. I liked the hot dogs at Catalina Island better because they are bigger! After that we went on a semi-sub ride and we were able to see the kelp beds and all of these tropical fish. Sean especially loved that, and I was surprised at the knowledge that I have retained from my mom always telling me the things she learned in her marine biology class.

Wednesday we ported in Ensenada, Mexico. Sean and I both loved being in Mexico. Sean was able to use his Spanish - huge plus for him - and we went horse back riding! It was Sean's first time ever, and we were able to ride at the top of the bluffs and over look the ocean. It was so romantic! On our way up there, our bus drove on this high way that turns into I-5. And my house is off an exit from the 5. Then we went back to the ship to clean off from the dusty ride, and when shopping!! We got a few really cute souvenirs.

Thursday was a day at sea, in which it was raining the entire day! So we slept in, ordered breakfast to come to our room, and watched Alice in Wonderland. We then walked around the ship seeing any of the last minute things that we had missed already. We watched a wonderful Broadway type show, and turned in for the night!

On Friday, we flew to Chicago, and spent the night there. Saturday we ventured into the city some and drove back to Kalamazoo where we began our everyday life together.

Wedding Day!

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect!

Sean had been staying at my parents' home, and so we did see each other the morning before the wedding. We both woke up around 6:30 and stayed on opposite sides of the house, then my dad drove Sean to his parents' hotel so we could finish getting ready separately. But before he left I made him promise to be at the temple by 9:15, and NO LATER.

Around 7:10 Coco showed up and did my hair, which was exactly how I wanted it! While she was doing my hair, the kitchen sink broke and my family was running around trying to figure out what the problem was exactly and what was the best way for it to be fixed. I continued to do my hair and make sure I had all my things ready. Then when mom was ready, it was 9:20 when we left the house... oops! Sean and I were supposed to be at the Newport Beach Temple by 9:30 with our escorts. Mom and I didn't get there till 9:45.

Once we were to the temple and inside, everything happened very fast, and before we knew it the time was 11:00 am. The sealer came and got Sean and I from the celestial room, and was we walked in there were 30 people there who loved us, and were all smiling. During the actual sealing, Sean and I were so happy that we both were almost laughing -- ok, it was mostly me laughing and Sean seemed to be holding back tears, obviously we know who the more emotional one in the relationship is! One special side note, Bishop Reedman was working at the temple that day, and I was able to see him before and after the sealing. It was so special because he and I have had so many wonderful memories of girls' camp and other stake activities, and we would talk about my wedding day, and he was actually there!! It was amazing.

Then Sean needed to change back into his suit, and I needed to do some touch ups before going to meet our eager crowd! Then the pictures started... Sean and I took pictures at the temple, then at Balboa beach, and then at Chapman University. All of these pictures, of course, were taken before the reception started. But of the 29 that I have seen so far, they are the best pictures ever, and exactly what I wanted. Pictures will be posted once all of them are available to us.

The reception was so much fun!! It was great to introduce Sean to the loved ones in my life that he had not had the opportunity to meet yet, and to see the in laws interacting with everyone! Then we had Polynesian dancers come before dinner started, and I think everyone enjoyed them very much. Then it was time to eat the best dinner ever!

After dinner, everything went by so fast! The first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, cutting the cake, bouquet toss, guarder toss! Then more dancing!!! I was dancing the night away, having a blast with everyone who was there! By the time I paused to get some water, the room was mostly empty with my family and the servers there, and everyone else had left! And it was 9:30 pm!!

Sean and I decided that it was time to go start our honeymoon. We left the reception hall and headed for Embassy Suites, where we stayed for 3 days.

You all can check out our Wedding slideshow to our song that Colleen Bell put together for us!

Catching up!!

It has been a while since I have had time to post anything about what has been going on in our lives!

Since my busy weekend post:

• I have had two bridal showers in which I received the love and support from many beautiful women whom I have always looked up to.
• Strengthened my friendships with two wonderful young women who helped me get through the stresses of life at K College.
• Got called as 1st counselor in the Relief Society presidency at the Kalamazoo University Branch
• Passed Latin!!
• Graduated from Kalamazoo College
• and lastly, got married!!

More details on things in later posts!

Crazy busy weekend!

Things have been hectic for us ever since Sean has been in the branch presidency. We have decided that we need to be more social and actually spend time with people in the branch. Sean needs to be aware of the needs of our fellow brothers and sisters and how can he do that if we don't see them ever?? This has included dinner at Brian Gilbert's house (which was phenominal!), Friday Night Activities, and recently going to Applebee's with a few of my dear friends.

It has been really nice actually going out with other people. Usually, Sean and I just stick to ourselves whether we go out to Paw Paw for the night or just stay at my place and watch a movie or go out just the two of us. I didn't realize until the past few weeks that I really did miss going out with all my friends with Sean by my side. It seems like ever since this fall that either I've hung out with my friends or I've hung out with Sean... no cross over. I have been happier since we've made a conscious effort to go out at least once a week with others.

Also I have been spending more time with my "Latin girls" Liz and Amelia. We have been getting together about once a week and just chatting and either studying or doing something to de-stress from the week's schoolwork and such. They have been way awesome and it's nice to have a close support system at K, and it also helps that Latin class meets four times a week.

Sean and I are just starting to calm down from a crazy busy weekend, although to me it seems like everyday is just as crazy. Sunday I had my senior vocal recital, and my dad flew out Thursday (March 4) for that and left this morning. We did so many different things: community reflection, meeting Grandma and Grandpa Skinner, art hop, many yummy resturant made meals, rehearsal, Doppa meeting the Szekelys, getting ready for my concert, Sunday meetings, church, break-the-fast, my concert, dinner at the Szekely's and much much more!!!

I want to go more in depth with my recital. I opened my first section with I couldn't be Happier from Wicked.

The group of songs that was most challenging for me were the two spirituals that I sang. This is because my voice just doesn't have that type of sound. Below is an attempt of my singing Nobody knows de Trouble I've Seen and Wade in de Water.

I closed my concert with I could have Danced all Night from My Fair Lady.

All in all, it was a fun weekend, and I am glad that it went well and everything went smoothly!