Happy Anniversary!

I cannot believe it has been a year already. It has literally flown by. I guess they were right that "time flies when you are having fun"! We are having so much fun!

I can honestly say this year has been the most amazing, incredible, fun, hilarious, crazy, loving, and bonding experience of my life!

I am so grateful to have met Taylor at the time I did. He came in at the right moment to sweep me off of my feet! I am more in love with him than the day we were married. And I still think he looks as hunky as the first picture I ever saw of him.I am so grateful for our temple marriage! I would not trade it for anything. It has definitely brought us closer together and I am so happy to spend the rest of eternity with my sweetheart!

happy one year anniversary!

Back to school

Taylor and I are back to school! It's our SENIOR year! We are so so happy to finally be at this point in our lives! We cannot wait for April to roll around and be real life grown ups!

We've had fun again this year with MUSS tickets! GO UTES! We are so happy to have 3rd row seats this year... it's awesome!!We have loved fall time together! The weather has been beautiful [except for the last couple of days- definitely wasn't ready for snow!]

We also have fun hanging out with our wonderful friends and neighbors the Knights & Wilkinsons. We even took a fun trip up to "the farm"! McKensie's family owns a cute cabin up in Eden, UT so we spent a weekend up there playing games and cooking yummy food!

I was happy to have a reunion with my long, lost philly girls! It made me miss home!We also celebrated fall by going on a hayride and carving pumpkins together!

We have loved cooking yummy warm soups like chicken noodle and ginger pumpkin!

I LOVE fall!

Summer coming to an end

So both Taylor and I are back to school. I can't believe we graduate in a year!

It has been an amazing summer just being able to spend time together and take some fun vacations!

The beginning of July we were able to go to Philadelphia with my side of the family. We went to Maryland, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and Virginia ALL in seven days. I couldn't believe it. I was so excited to show Taylor my old stompin' grounds and teach him a bit about where I grew up. We were super exhausted when we got home but it was so worth it! The highlights of our trip were: The shore, the food, NYC, the food, Holocaust museum, the food, oh, and the food... did i mention that?

On July 24, 2010, Taylor's grandfather, Bud Bailey, passed away. It was such an amazing and incredible experience. I personally had never dealt with death before on such a personal, close level, but it was such an enriching and bonding experience for both Taylor and I and his family. It made me so grateful for our eternal family and the blessings the gospel brings into our lives. He was such a great example of what a man should be: he always put his family first, he was extremely generous, loving, fun, happy, adventurous caring, and spiritual. I think he is someone we can all aspire to be. I am so grateful I could know him, even though it was for such a short time, but even so, he had such an impact on me. Love you Grandpa Bud!

We were blessed to be able to buy a new car for Taylor. It's buh-bye Betsy!! Poor little Bets had over 215,000 miles on her, but she treated Tay well since his mission. It was on to better horizons. My company turned over their fleet of cars and so we had the opportunity to buy a 2007 Chevy Impala for a sweet deal! We flew to San Diego, picked up the car, stopped at Trader Joe's (LOVE that place), and then drove to Vegas where we met our friends, The Williams, for a fun-filled weekend! (I was finally legal! Woowhee!). Hilary and I had many adventures that included gangsters, watching security guards get punched out, Austin Powers, Brett Michaels, and sign language. It was great fun. If you are ever bored and want a good story, just ask.

As the perfect wrap up to our summer, we went down to Lake Powell with the Duncan fam. We were able to ski, wakeboard, hike, and TAN. It was truly lovely. I now know why Taylor never really wants to go anywhere else on vacation. It is SO relaxing and beautiful. We found a new canyon called Twilight Canyon. I love looking at all the beautiful creations Heavenly Father has given us as we wend through narrow passageways. It truly is heaven on earth. I also like thinking about how all of the rocks and structures have changed over time through erosion, water evaporation, and such while listening to Enya echo through the slots. It's truly perfect!

Now, sadly, we are back to school. Oh well!! Next summer we will be grown ups and have real jobs and contribute to society! Exciting! I am starting my psychiatric rotation for the next 7 weeks. Wish me luck! I'm sure I will have some great stories!

[PICTURES TO COME SOON]

Okay, Okay, I know. I'm HORRIBLE at blogging.

So we had our year [of meeting] anniversary in April. Tay and I went up to Park City and did some shopping at the outlets and then commemorated our first date by eating out at Cafe Rio. Here's a picture of us up at Cafe Rio at Red Rocks.
Summer has been really good so far! Both of us ended up doing really well in school! YAY! Taylor started summer school and is taking Survey of Jazz... He loves it.... not really, but he's doing well in the class considering it has a reputation for being difficult. In fact, he has gotten "A+" on everything he has submitted.. no number attached. He feels like he's reliving the days of elementary school. I started summer school a couple of weeks ago. I'm just taking a writing class (A GE)... It's kind of nice to have a break from the stress of nursing school.. this class is so low key it stresses me out! I just don't know what to do with myself.

In other exciting news, I decided to high-lite my hair. I have always been TERRIFIED of coloring my hair. But my sweet sister-in-law hair extraordinaire did a WONDERFUL job and now I don't think I'll ever go back.. I'm addicted. Being true blond has been the best! It added that extra va-va-voom. Thanks Ange!!

Another fun thing we have been doing this summer is playing golf with Taylor's frat buddies. It's something we did every Thursday last summer and the tradition has continued this summer! It's so much fun to play mini-golf and I'm happy to say I have slightly improved over last summer! I guess it's paid off! Anyways, for one of the golf nights, we went to Mulligans. A year ago [almost to the day] we played there. Tay and I had taken pictures in front of the sphinx when we were first dating and so we took another one this year. It's so fun to look back and see how much has happened since then. Then we were just dating and now we're married! See for yourself...

Taylor and I also are lucky to have birthdays during the summer when we're off from school so we celebrated Taylor's 24th birthday in May and my 21st birthday this last weekend. It was so much fun! We had a birthday celebration with the Duncan family last Sunday... my sweet mother-in-law cooked the most delicious parmesan chicken with home-made rolls, green beans, salad, and yummy cookies and cream dessert! IT WAS AMAZING. I was stuffed to the brim. Thanks Duncans for a fun celebration and all your thoughtful, fun gifts!

On my birthday, Taylor and I went boating with his parents on Utah Lake... It was the first warm Saturday in a long, long time! So, we decided to take the boat out and "wear it in". It was so relaxing and fun to be out on the water and getting a [much needed] tan! Needless to say, Taylor and I accidentally missed some spots with our sunscreen and now have lovely burn lines. We'll spare you the pictures. Moral of the story: When you don't see the sun for close to a solid year, wear >30 SPF. Later that night, we went with my family to the Red Iguana in downtown Salt Lake... they have the yummiest Mexican food... I highly recommend. On Sunday, we had the traditional Fathers Day/Birthday dinner with my family complete with surf & turf... it turned out so yummy. My mom even made her delish corn bread (which is one of my favorites). Then, we had strawberry-rhubarb pie for dessert... Happy Father's day, to my wonderful Dad! Thanks for all you do for me... I really am so grateful!
And, Happy Father's day to my father-in-law, Doak! Thanks for being a great example and father to Taylor!

Okay, I think I've sufficiently updated the blog! I promise I won't go another 2 months! If I do, you have permission to slap me!

One year!

Wow, it has been really long since we last updated, but what else is there to say besides the fact that we are entirely CONSUMED by school and work. I promise, nothing else super interesting is going on.

We have loved married life. I can't believe it has already been six months! Blows me away... every day! Here's what has been going on in a nutshell:

We had our first Thanksgiving and first Christmas together all within the first 3 months. It was fun to hang with the fam and eat 2 dinners each time... BUT I swear I will NEVER do that again. I couldn't even eat for 3 days afterward!
In January, we started The Biggest Loser- Duncan edition. The "love weight", as we like to fondly refer to it, needed to come off. I don't know what it is, but I asked other married couples and they said the same thing (or maybe they were trying to make me feel better)- that they gained weight after marriage. Well, luckily my husband still loves me even though I became a chunker!

In February, we went and visited my Grandma and Grandpa Spear in Colorado Springs. It was a needed break from school and nice to get together with family. We also got to see my Uncle Paul and Aunt Mary and my cousin Jake... He's grown up so much! That night we ate yummy fondue!! Actually, we ate yummy food all weekend! Thanks Grandma :) Love you!Attempting to feed Jake.. He's so cute!

Taylor and I have been working super hard in school... Taylor with his mechanical engineering and me on nursing- I got to do my OB and pediatrics rounds this semester. I LOVED it. I am going to have a very hard time choosing a capstone because I just love babies and kids. They are so fun to work with! Thank heaven this semester is coming to a close.

Disclaimer: here comes the cheesy part.

Taylor and I met on April 24, 2010... tomorrow it will be one year since our first date!
Taylor- Thanks for a nothing-short-of-amazing year! I never would have thought the day I met you that we would end up here. I can't believe we're married! I think I say that to myself everyday. I have loved living with you and learning more about you everyday. You always make me crack up... mostly at the dumb things and I think you like the fact that I laugh at ALL your jokes :). You also really know how to make me feel special and needed as a wife- even when I don't like to fold laundry! I'm grateful we're sealed for time and all eternity and look to many more years and years together. I love you!

New Post: We got married :)

Gratitude

I’m not sure if I would call this a form of “PDA,” because in fact it is a public display of affection (thank you Carly for always making sure we’re behaving appropriately in public haha)… but the past 6 months of my life have been too incredible to not share with the world…

I can’t help but feel gratitude for meeting the most amazing person in the world to share the rest of my life with. It’s an incredible phenomenon when each individual in a relationship becomes a better form of themselves when together. That’s when you know it’s meant to be. Recently Becca and I have been through some pretty stressful and tough times… and I know had I been through such trials before I met Becca I would have handled them completely different.

Since being back in the swing of things with full-time school and part-time work for the both of us it’s been tough to squeeze in our usual carefree fun time. But even being by her side while studying like crazy for Nursing and Engineering school helps me fall deeper in love with her each day.

Now most people who know me well know that I love my Utes. On a number of occasions I have been known to throw some pretty big fits when the season doesn’t go my way, as was the case with the Utes this last weekend when the football team lost for the first time in a couple years to the Oregon Ducks. But when the Utes lost this weekend I pouted for a couple minutes, walked over to Becca, got a big hug and kiss from her, and my world was back at peace. Now that’s magical… really. Ask my family, and they’ll agree that it takes a special person to have THAT kind of effect on me.

Moral of the story: I’m more than grateful for Becca in my life, and it’s crazy to think that in less than 3 weeks I will have made the most important decision of my life. Growing up I always imagined there would be some sort of cold feet or doubt or fear or something! But since the beginning, the idea of marrying Becca has never been anything but the best decision I’ve ever made. I love you Bex and can’t wait to start forever with you!!!

-Tay