Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my wonderful mother's birthday!

She is the most patient and loving person I know (with 5 kids how could she afford not to be). She would sacrifice anything for any one of her kids, and she's done just that more times than I can count and more times than I even know. She is such a saint, even if her sometimes stubborn children (a gene they inherited from their father) refuse to believe that simple fact.

We love you mom and pray that we will be moving closer to home very soon!

Here's me and my mom in Wilmington, NC.

Brittney, mom, and me at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house

my mom, her dad, and her sister at our wedding in May

We hope your day is absolutely fantastic!

Happy Birthday Courtney!!

Twenty-one is a pretty big birthday. It means I'm legal in every sense of the way. One of my brothers texted me yesterday to wish me a happy birthday and to inform me that I could now buy beer ... completely legal.

Well, maybe not completely legal. My driver's license expired yesterday because the state of Tennessee requires that you get a new one once you turn 21. I couldn't renew it online because I have to change the last name on it and I'm way too proud to get a Utah license so I just won't be driving until December when I can go home and get a new one.

I had a wonderful birthday! I had class pretty much all day (that wasn't so wonderful) and it rained (that was wonderful because it wasn't blazing hot like usual). After class Brad and I walked home together and I got to open presents from him and David and Susie.

 

Here I am opening my first present from David and Susie.

 

 

 You don't fit in the Andersen family unless you have some kind of Polo something. Now I'm definitely an Andersen.

This is right after I ripped off the wrapping paper of my second David and Susie present. I'm a little obsessed with Vera Bradley. I didn't even know what was inside this box, but I knew I would LOVE it!

So, what was inside the Vera Bradley box? A new glasses case! A much needed new glasses case! Before: (the inside was coming off the outside hard part and the hinges were breaking making the case unable to open and close properly)

After:

Brad got me a curling iron (I didn't have one and really wanted one) and a giftcard to get a pedicure!

Sara and Steve got me a rotary board and cool measuring thing (see picture below) that I haven't learned to use yet. Sara also gave me a "coupon" for lessons on how to make a t-shirt blanket, which is something I've been wanting to learn for a while (hence the rotary board and the cool measuring thing).

 Brittney got me white sunglasses to replace the ones I broke last time I was in Georgia and Big Cheez-its (another thing I'm kind of obsessed with).

And Blake got me my favorite candies!

Brittney also made me a delicious strawberry shortcake! (She made it at our house the night before and I seriously had no idea it was for me! She's sneaky!)

This is us after we got back from Cafe Rio for dinner!! YUM!!

My visiting teachers brought me chocolate covered strawberries, bless their souls. They didn't (and still don't) know I don't like chocolate. I'm so grateful for their kindness.

Brad thoroughly enjoyed that birthday present.

The Relief Society presidency surprised me with a sweet note, a Kit-Kat (Brad also really enjoyed that), and some cute stationary.

At the end of the day I got to just relax with my wonderful husband who made sure my birthday was absolutely fabulous!

Thanks to everyone who made my 21st birthday the best one yet!!

Happy Birthday Curt!

Happy Birthday Curtis!!

 We hope your day was fantastic and that your birthday travels will be a blast!

last day of summer and school

On Friday, our last day of summer before school started on Monday, we decided to have some fun. So, that night we went black light mini-golfing. We were the only ones there, which was really nice and we had a blast!

Here's Brad inside a whale's mouth!

We tried desperately to get more pictures while we were inside, but our little camera just didn't know what to do with itself. So in all of our other pictures you can just see our shirts, which makes us look armless and headless.

 But once outside we did get a picture of the winner (and her second-place husband)! It was a really close game. Brad got ahead by one on the third or fourth hole, but I kept right up with him and tied us up again. Before we putted our balls down the last hole which would take them away we HAD to have a tie breaker. We ended up playing the three hardest holes again, but I came out victorious!

School started last Monday. We usually start after Labor Day, but I guess they figured another week off was too much. On Wednesday we were already burnt out and had really bad sweet tooths, so we went to Magelby's for dessert.

I had the Strawberry Shortcake and Brad had the four layer Chocolate Cake! Needless to say, we got to-go boxes and three days later we finally finished all our dessert. 

Here's what we'll be working with this semester (we're still missing three books, which should be arriving in the mail shortly).