Improve and Do Better

So this year, our New Years Resolution is to just improve who we are and do better. With that said, below is a list of what we will do better and improve at.

 - Attending the Temple: We don't take advantage of this blessing hardly at all and it makes me sad just thinking about it. We always say we need to go but that doesn't mean we do. This is when the whole, "It's easier said then done" shouldn't even be a problem. It's REALLY not that hard to go to the temple and this will be first and foremost on our list. 
- Time Efficiency: I admit we waste our time. There's a lot of time's after work when we will just sit and do nothing because we can, not because we should. We will try to spend this time visiting friends & family, getting something done on the 'List' of things to do, spend quality time together, going to the temple, etc. I'm not saying siting and doing nothing is bad. We just do it a lot it seems.

"Lost time is never found again."
- Benjamin Franklin

- Cooking: There are many nights when eating out sounds so much easier than cooking a meal. It may save time and sound more convenient but let's be honest, is it the cheapest? NO... Time for me to be a better wife and cook. Maybe setting a menu each week will help.
- Finance: This kind of goes along with eating out. We want to pay off the Nissan and put more money away in savings. We want to set a goal to pay off all our debt and put more money away in savings.

All in all we want to be able to feel like we are overcoming our weaknesses and doing the best we can and improving each day instead of feeling like we are falling behind. I'm sure there are other things we can do better and improve at and when things come up, we will do our best.

Here's to trying to do better and improve!

Meet Owen

Owen is the newest member of our family! He's a Miniature Australian Shepherd. He is 8 weeks old and has been so much fun! He's a very smart pup. He already knows his name, how to sit, and is potty trained. We absolutely love him! 

 His favorite spot while I'm working

 The first night he whined unless he was right next to me or Justin so our good friend gave us this teddy bear and said that it may help. It did help and he loves that bear! Thanks Carrie! He even play's hide and seek with the bear. 

Kunkel Fam!

I LOVE having a BIG family! It's hard getting everyone together to take pics but I managed to find some of everyone!

Parents and Kids

Alsop Family 

(Chris, Heidi, Alyssa, Kendra, Christopher, Zachary)

Kehl Family 

(Craig, Shannon, Bryston, Asia, McKayla, Austin, & McKenna)

Morgan Family 

(Eric, Mindy, Eli, Chase, Lucas)

Sisters

 (Mia, Kaylee, Mindy, Shannon, Heidi, & me)

Brothers

(Jared, Jacob, Jason, Jarom)

Comstock Fam!

We recently took pics with Justin's side of the family. Justin's dad took them himself and I must say he did an AWESOME job!

The Whole Fam!

Us

Jord & Christine

The Bodell's (Tanen, Kylie, Talen & Easton)

 Love these boys!

Jake (Isn't he a stud?) He will be in high school next year. 

Hello Again!

So I am going to start being a better blogger! I look at other friends and family blogs and they are so fun! It's nice reading them and looking at their pics so I have told myself that I am going to get better. Now to just play a little catch up on the past 4 months. Here goes...

We have lived in our townhome for over 4 months. We got a calling in our ward to teach the CTR 4A class. Yes, there's 2 CTR 4 classes and like 3 sunbeam classes and who knows how many others there are. Our ward is HUGE but it's mainly because of all the kids. LOTS and LOTS of kids. Babies born here and there and everywhere. It's a GREAT ward and we've loved it. I absolutely love teaching primary! We teach 7 of the cutest kids (5 girls and 2 boys). They love coloring, playing games and making things so our lesson's are usually 5 minutes and we do something fun that goes along with the lesson. They have colored us the cutest pictures that we have put on our fridge. They had the primary program in October and I enjoyed being a part of it! Hearing little kids sing is the cutest and I felt the spirit so strong during the last song, I am a Child of God. A couple of the kids in our class sang solo's/duet's and it was adorable. We're sad we won't be teaching them when the new year starts but excited to get a new class!

In September we went to Goblin Valley with our friends. I can't wait to go next year! We also hiked Little Wild Horse Canyon. We hiked the full 8 mile loop. The first 4 miles was so neat! But the last half wasn't as cool. I don't think we will hike the full loop again but at least we can say we did it once. The first night we were there, it was really uncomfortable. I told Justin we should bring an air mattress but he said that the ground would be soft enough to not need anything but our sleeping bags. WRONG... It was miserable. It was so bad we drove 45 minutes to the nearest town to buy a ridiculously priced air mattress. It was well worth it though! The next 3 nights were great!

Goblin

Little Wild Horse Canyon

 

Halloween wasn't the same this year. Since it was on a Monday my parents did their yearly party the Saturday before. We had our ward trunk-or-treat the same day we went to. Justin and I dressed up as Mario and Luigi and Justin's brother Jordon let us borrow his big bowser poster and we put it in our trunk. The kids loved it! We had a lot of fun. After, we went to my parents for chilli and hot dogs. The following Monday was Halloween and we went to my sister Mindy's to go trick or treating with the kids and eat taco's. My nephew Lucas who's 1 tried sneaking some more candy. It was so cute!

Justin with Eli, Chase and Lucas

The week after Halloween we had our nephew Talen sleep over. He really wanted to see Justin in his Mario costume since he didn't get to on Halloween so Justin, being the coolest uncle there is, put on his costume for T. As you can see, Talen too has his costume. He put his spider man costume over his batman so he has the muscle's. We had fun having him sleep over! He had the cutest conversation's with Justin. One I loved was this....

Tal: "Just"

Justin: "Yeah T"
Tal: "I love you"

Isn't that the cutest? He also did the BEST impression of the You Tube video 'Charlie bit my finger'. He cracked us up and we sure love him.

We had Thanksgiving dinner early in the month with my family since 2 of my sisters and their families were going to Texas for vacation. We had Thanksgiving with Justin's family on Thanksgiving day. Justin's grandma was here as well! His grandma hasn't been feeling very well so she is staying at his parents house. It's nice having her here for the holidays!

We finally got a Christmas tree this year and it was fun decorating our own tree for the first time! We even have a couple decorations. We got most of our Christmas shopping done on Black Friday. Tonight for family night I think we will wrap the gifts. I love Christmas! Especially when we are able to serve others. I was reading a book and loved this quote, "Charity is the Pure Love of Christ". I want to make something with the quote on it and hang it up in our home.

Our very first Christmas Tree!

Loved this quote

Made these jars to go with every Holiday!
The candy doesn't last very long when you have a husband who LOVES sugar!

Wonderful Story

I saw this on another blog and had to share it on ours. What a cute family and story on adoption! Justin and I want to adopt too (not now) but when we're ready to have kids! =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C_wLYveIaaQ

All Moved :)

We've finally moved into our townhome! We've been here for a week and have most of our things un-packed. If you know me very well, you know I HAVE to be organized. I don't want any boxes. At least that's what I tell myself but we had a lot more things than I thought and I'm having to find room for everything and de-junk. It's been nice having a lot more space. We have loved our cute townhome! Besides not having our mailbox yet and our house number wrong, everything else has been great! I've absolutely loved decorating. We have 3 bedrooms so one of the extra bedrooms is Justin's music room/office and the other is the spare bedroom. Justin's parent let us take his bedroom set he had growing up so that is in the spare bedroom for when our little brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews sleepover.

I keep un-packing and organizing something every day. I think I am driving Justin crazy with how much i can organize and re-organize things. Right now Justin is playing some Jazz music in his music room. I LOVE hearing him play his instrumental songs. Such a talented husband I have! I don't know how he comes up with some of the things he does. Now if only I could get him to sing. This weekend is the 24th of July weekend and we'll be going to Seven Peaks with Justin's family. It is tradition. We didn't go the past 2 years because they wouldn't allow people to bring in their own food but this year we talked everyone in getting the Pass of All Passes so we are all going on Monday.

Who are We?

Justin and I started dating on July 11th, 2008 and got married on June 10th 2009 in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. We have moved 4 different times the last 2 years being married. Our first place was a 103 year old house in Sandy just off 90th S. It was the old tithing home for the church. It was a cute little white house with a white picket fence. We were there for 6 months until we moved into my parents. We were at my parents for only 4 months until we decided there were too many people living under one roof. We moved to an apt complex in South Jordan just right off 114th. It was only a 1 bedroom apt but perfect for the two of us. We really loved our ward! We were there for 8 months. We would have been there longer but they wanted to raise our rent another $200 more a month and we didn't feel it was worth paying that much for a 1 bedroom apt. We realized we could own our own place fore just a little more than what we would be paying so my sister and her husband let us move into their basement to save money and go to school. We've been here for about 6 months and will be moving into a townhome the end of this week! Well at least we're hoping it will be this weekend. We are excited and nervous. Excited because we got a really good deal on it and it's in a great location and we started going to our ward last week and loved it! Nervous because it's a big purchase and I am a little OCD (well maybe a lot) with paying bills on time, being organized and making sure we are doing good financially. I like finding good deals and use coupons all the time! Justin works for his dad and I work for my brother in-law. It's crazy how things work out sometimes. We have been through so much together in just the 2 years being married and I am looking forward to eternity!