5 whole years!

It's been 5 years and I can still honestly say that I love you more every day that we are together. Happy Anniversary Kenneth :)

Wintery Mix

Well, I guess it's here. Winter is beginning to descend on Boston. I suppose it's only natural, it being December and all, but I guess I was sort of hoping that all of this global warming would give us a few more days of fall. 

Today's forcast was for "wintery mix." This is something that Kenneth would like to rename "the worst thing that could ever happen," but which actually means any combination of sleet, freezing rain, rain or snow. It only lasted for a little while before it turned to rain. But it was enough to make our happy Sunday feel less than joyous. Winter in New England is seriously the worst.

I have decided, however, not to waste my day feeling sad about the coming winter, and instead think about my favorite things....

#1 Happy Thanksgivings with good friends in boston. 

This has become one of our favorite Boston traditions. 2 years ago it was the first real holiday that Kenneth and I were away from our family and we were really sad. But our good friends Jason and Nadia invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner, and we have had good Thanksgiving memories ever since. This year we spent the day with friends again and we had another great holiday playing Rockband on X-box, walking around fresh pond, and giving thanks for all of the many blessing in our lives. What a great day!

#2 Cute little girls bringing us cookies.

Kenneth and I just got a little knock on the door, and what should we find when we opened the door? This cute face:
This is our cute neighbor Mckinlay. She came to visit and bring us a yummy plate of warm snickerdoodles. They were delicious! It was pretty much the cutest thing ever! Hooray for cookies and great neighbors who share them :)

#3 The Christmas season!

This week is our ward's annual wreath making activity, which for me is really the beginning of the holiday season. Kenneth and I never have a Christmas tree, since we always go home for Christmas. But we don't feel like we are missing anything because our relief society has the best activity ever! We make fresh wreath's every year at the beginning of December. They are so fun to make and they make our house smell fabulous, just as if we were to have a fresh tree. 

This is me and my friend Ginny making our wreath's at last year's party:

I also love Christmas because we actually get to see our families! Lately we haven't been able to go home in the summer - this is really the only time we have with them. We have such great families and it is so fun to spend time with them. This year is even better than most because kenneth gets to go home for 3 weeks and I get to go home for 2 (another reason I am grateful for my new job). We'll have twice as much time to visit everyone :) Even though we have really great friends here and we love Boston - there is nothing better than family.

That was only 3 things, but I am already feeling better. Who cares about wintery mix. I have a lot to be thankful for..

Seriously so cute...

This is my new family. Aren't they so cute? Don't you all wish that you were their nanny? 

Back in the high life again..

Happiness. Life right now is complete happiness. Kenneth and I have had a lot of stress in the past few months. Ever since August it seems like we just move from one stressful situation to the next. Sometimes it was a necessary frustration like moving to a new apartment, or Kenneth starting the PhD portion of graduate school and suddenly becoming super busy, or my last nanny job - which let's be honest - was ridiculous. But now, things have settled down and evened out and we are back to being completely and blissfully happy. 

So, here is an update of our month. Hopefully more frequent postings are coming :)

We are officially moved in to our new apartment! There are no more boxes and all of our pictures and curtains have been hung. It feels like a real home. My sister-in-law Katie has a special gift for decorating - we are so lucky that she and her cute family came to visit us last month. She really helped us get settled in. Thanks Katie!

I've been at my new nanny job for 2 1/2 weeks now and honestly, I have never been happier at work. I spent all 6 weeks at my last job wondering how I could have felt so good about agreeing to something which was such a wrong fit. Those six weeks of frustration were worth it, however because I am so much more grateful for my new job! They really are the nicest people in the world. I love them already and I am so grateful for them. Their old nanny (who has been training me for 2 weeks) spends every day telling me how great they are and how good they have been to her. They are such good people, they love their kids so much, and they are so nice to me. I love being their nanny!  

 

Another reason for our current happiness is that things are going really well for Kenneth at school. He was recently chosen to teach Arts of America at Boston University for the summer. I am so proud of him. He is working so hard and teaching this summer will be a really great opportunity for him. 

On top of it all, the longest presidential election in history is finally over, and while I am not trying to ruffle anyone's personal partisan feathers, Kenneth and I are happy and hopeful for our country's political future! While I have happily voted in every election of my adult life, Kenneth has often been disenchanted with our political system. For the first time of our marriage we were both energized and excited to fill in our ballots. In fact, we even agreed on a candidate and are sure it was that final piece of positive energy that swung MA for Obama! (okay, maybe it wasn't all us...)

Hooray for happiness!!! 

Home away from home

This past week was so much fun!! Kenneth's sister was in town with her husband (Kenneth's best friend) and her son, who might actually be the cutest ever. 

I was lucky enough to have the week off, and Kenneth was able to do most of his homework and reading for his classes before they arrived, so we got to spend so much time with them.

We visited historic sites, toured Ben and Jerry's, went to the Aquarium and Walden Pond, ate yummy apple cider donuts from Wilson Farms, visited the Joseph Smith Birthplace, went candlepin bowling, had some very cute guitar lessons, and watched the Wiggles more times than we could have ever imagined possible in just one week.

Kenneth hasn't been home in almost a year, so we are so grateful that we were able to experience a little bit of home away from home. Our apartment seems pretty lonely now without our cute family. 

Thanks guys, we had a great week! 

Today's the day!!!!

Hooray! Finally, today is the day our family comes! Kenneth's sister Katie, along with her cute family, are on a plane right now flying to Boston!  

Before we moved here we saw them practically every day. It has been so hard to live so far away for the past 2 years.. and now, they are finally coming for a visit. We are so excited, we can hardly wait! Saturday has never seemed longer.....

Who wouldn't be excited to see these cute faces? 

(We love Court too... we just don't have any recent pictures of him on our computer... :)

My Name is Jonas...

Thanks to our fantastic friends Kristal and Richard, we recently enjoyed a transcendent evening with Weezer and the various inhabitants of Lowell MA. It is hard to describe the iridescent glow of joy that surrounds you as you sing "Buddy Holly" at the top of your lungs with a few thousand like-minded friends. Luckily, a picture is worth a thousand words...

We don't own a digital camera, so you are benefiting from Kristal's trained eye! 

We just finished listening to Angels and Airwaves... their music must make people fall even more in love with each other.

Look how happy we all are! The concert is over, but we can still feel the influence of Rivers Cuomo's mustache.

Richard's homage to the tracksuit-clad rockers.

Well done my friends, well done.