Girl's Trip, Valentine's Day

 Girl's Trip 2011. Shopping, crafting, eating desserts, chatting, relaxing, laughing. We had so much fun on our girl's trip to St. George! Yes, I did go back home to Utah only a month after I got back from Christmas break. I felt very spoiled but it was the only time that all the girls could get together. I left Mitch alone to study for his major upcoming tests for 5 days and got to spend some quality time with the girls. I was sad I didn't get to see my dad, brothers, nephews, for very long, or the Petersons at all because it was such a short trip.

We each brought our favorite things to share and Mindy's favorite thing was crafting. We started making Christmas advent calendars which was a blast and kept us very busy. We didn't get finished, but we made some definite progress.

I brought my fondue pot from Houston and shared my favorite dessert, chocolate fondue!

 

We went walking around town and the weather was so nice! 

One of my favorite parts about the girl's trip was spending so much time with my cutest little niece, Eve. She is the sweetest girl! She seriously did not have one melt down or anything and we did a lot of driving! She just loved being with all the girls. I don't think that cute smile was ever off her face.

I loved spending time with all the girls and miss seeing them everyday. I'm so grateful for how much they do for me and how much I learn by watching the way they live their lives.They are such great moms, wives, sisters, and friends. I love them!

We got back from St. George just in time for our traditional family Valentine's Day party at my aunt Angie's house. Mitch and I miss out on a lot of these Wagstaff family get togethers so it was good to make it to one of them and see everyone.

       
    All of the little kids passed out Valentine's to each other. It was a mad house!

           
                 This is just classic Richard. Won't even stop for a second to smile for a picture.

I made sure to be home on Valentine's Day because how sad would it be to be without your Valentine? We went to the yummiest restaurant we have ever been to- Ruth's Chris. We got a gift card there for Christmas and thought it would be fun to go there for Valentine's Day. We got all dressed up and tried to look like we fit in at such a nice place. We were one of the first couples there so we had like 5 or 6 waiters waiting on our hand and foot. I think it's the first place we've been to that could keep Mitch's water glass filled the whole night. We both thought it was amazing food and such a fun place to be on Valentine's Day.

It was our third Valentine's Day together and I think it just keeps getting better and better! I love Mitch and am so proud of him for doing so great in medical school. We are learning so much together here in Houston and are so grateful for our marriage. Life is so good when you love who you're in it with. 

Severe Winter Weather!!

 This past weekend, we had a severe winter weather watch. Sounds intense right? They even canceled school Friday because of the storm coming. You can imagine our surprise when we woke up WITHOUT a foot of snow on the ground. Growing up in Utah, a huge storm would come through and we would hope and pray that school would be canceled. Even with a foot of snow on the ground, ice on the roads, and kids crying from hypothermia, they would still have school!

I would not call what we had this weekend "severe" winter weather. It was icy, pretty cold, and windy, but it was not severe. I guess the ice is a big deal though because Houston drivers don't know how to drive on it and they don't have trucks or salt to take care of it. I took some pictures of the thick ice around our apartment complex...

The ice on the cars look like it's melting, but it's actually just really thick. It was weird!
The rest of the weekend was really nice. We even took a nap out by the pool because it was so warm. And people say Utah's weather is unpredictable! I'd say going from 20's to 60's in two days is very unpredictable.

The rest of this post is to just catch up on what we've been up to since being back in Houston.

1. Houston Rockets vs. Utah Jazz.
I saw these tickets last September and knew we just had to be there. The game was on January 8, the week that we got home from Christmas break. It gave us something to look forward to after leaving Utah.
I'm not sure which was more intense-watching the game that went into overtime, or dodging security trying to move down from our nose bleed seats to better seats at half time. Both ended up positive- Jazz won with us cheering them on in great seats.

2. Murder Mystery Party
Both Mitch and I had never been to one of these before and we didn't know what to expect. Our friends Jon and Amelia invited us and Mitch wasn't sure if he was cut out for it but we both thought it was so fun! We had a yummy Italian dinner (the crime took place at an Italian restaurant) and Mitch ended up being the murderer.

3. Fondue Night
Mitch and I got a fondue pot for our wedding and we had only used it once. We decided we better be grateful for what we have and use it! It was a way fun and yummy night. We did a cheese dip and had chicken, veggies, and bread to dip in it. Then we moved to the more exciting part of the night, in my opinion, the dessert fondue. We had fruit, gummi bears, marshmallows, and pretzels all covered in delicious chocolate.

4. Study Sessions
Since we have a big table that takes up probably 1/4 of our apartment, we tend to have the medical school study sessions over at our place which is great. I start to feel bad for them after they've been studying for 3-4 hours.

At the beginning of this semester, I asked Mitch what I could do to help him with school. He asked me to make flash cards for all of the drugs he has to memorize. I of course said yes but after I saw the long list, started wondering if I would be able to finish them all. I got to work though and pumped out 150 flashcards even got to use my laminator for the first time! Mine was the easy part. Now Mitch just has to memorize what each one does and how they do it. I'm glad I'm on my end.

                                                 You've got to start somewhere.

Christmas Break part 2

Week 2...

The second week of our break felt a little more relaxing after Christmas and all the crazy running back and forth from my house to Mitch's house.

We had a baby shower for one of my friends from high school, Courtney, who is having a baby boy in April! She lives up in Minnesota where it is even colder than Utah (hard to imagine) and is teaching AP Statistics...while being pregnant! She's amazing. We had it at my cousin Emily's (who got married a few months ago) cute new apartment. It's so crazy to see all of my friends grow up and get married and start families and go to grad school and all that other fun stuff. It's great to be able to stop for a few minutes and catch up with them all. They are all amazing girls doing such great things with their lives.We had a little brunch and I was being a little annoying with my new camera I got for Christmas so I think I documented just about every moment...sorry girls!

                      Thanks Ems for hosting the fun get together! Love ya Court!

After staying inside for days to stay out of the cold and snow, we decided to get out and go for a bide ride on a "warmer" day. Mitch, me, Kirstin, and Cory headed out all bundled up (besides Cory) for a ride around the neighborhood. We ended up stopping at the Peterson's old house and Mitch and Cory told some pretty hilarious stories about growing up there for an hour. Just kidding probably not that long but long enough for Kirstin to freeze solid and for it to start snowing again. We headed back on our bikes with Cory on his long board. Not the most likely activity on a December afternoon in Utah but ended up being very memorable.

 We went down to St. George with my family for the last part of our trip and it was so nice to have everyone stuck together in the same place for three days. It was so much fun even though it wasn't much warmer that Salt Lake. The little boys loved the St. George house so much that when they pulled into their house in Salt Lake City, they started bawling and wouldn't get out of the car because they wanted to go back to the St. George house.

I think the boys loved it so much because they had about 10 other people to entertain them all day long. Minds and I love having a niece in the family so we don't have to get shut down every time our nephews see us and immediately ask "where's Brady, or where's Mitch?" Well I guess we'll have to wait till Eve can talk, then we'll see who she's asking for.

 This little crazy boy was on his way out the door to the pool when his dad told him he had to have shoes on so he just put on the closest ones he could find which happened to be Mitch's size 13's. He was dead serious trying to walk out the door in those huge things.

There were some pretty competitive Monopoly Deal games going down and I'm pretty sure I won most of them. But I can't remember now.

And of course, we had some yummy meals, thanks to my mom.

 She had a few helpers...

We also celebrated Tally's birthday down in St. George. He is such a wonderful brother, husband, son, and soon to be dad! We all love him and Johanna so much and feel so grateful to have them in our family. Tal is creative, hilarious, kind, generous, thoughtful, and just fun to be around.

Happy New Year's!! We brought in the New Year's with style...

                                        Ronnie trying out the good old Martinelli's.

The next morning, we went for a little hike/treasure hunt for the little boys that my mom put together. They loved hiking around the rocks by our place.

It was hard to leave our families after such a fun trip, but we got back into school and work and our lives here and we love it! We are just so blessed to have such amazing family!