A little catching up

Obviously I haven't posted in a while. It was nice cutting out things that weren't necessary in my life but now I don't get to look back and see what we did the past few months and my thoughts on it all. And that makes me kinda sad. Which is why I think I am going to start posting again. I have had the ache for it the past couple weeks and just never have. So here we go.

It has been a weird past two months. Not being a full-time student and not working full-time or even part time, err kinda... I have felt pretty lazy. Like I need to be doing more and accomplishing more to fill satisfied with my days. Some days it has been amazing to have no set responsibilities and to sleep in until whenever I feel like getting up and other days it has felt very unsatisfying and depressing.

Last semester being a full time student was hard. The first two months of school I thought I was going to mentally break down. and lets be honest all I really had to do was pass my classes and I would be fine so really there was nothing to stress about. But when I get all the information of what I am supposed to do in a three month period it kinda freaks me out. Okay maybe it freaks me out a lot. and I panic. and its super annoying when you have no idea what the teacher is asking of you or how they grade so you are just trying to figure it all out... Yea thats how September and October went.

Then when the assignments were graded and tests were taken I felt like, ok I can do this. what was I freaking out about? and it turned out to be an awesome semester. The class that I started out hating turned out to be one of my favorite classes.

I learned a ton about families and a little about art and sewed like crazy.

We also traveled a lot... Is that a surprise to anyone? thats kinda what we do.

Andrew's brother Aaron went to BYU-Idaho for his first semester. Lisa, their mom took him up there so naturally we thought we would tag along and see how it went.

The next weekend was Anna's baby shower so of course we had to go to that as well.

When October hit it was time for haunting season. I am pretty sure that is the only thing Andrew misses about Idaho, being able to haunt at the straw maze for the whole month of October. Luckily the past two years the owners have welcomed him back whenever he wants because he is just that good. and trust me I have had enough experience to know that he is really good at scaring people. So we went two more times in October. Hanging out with Anna, Jordan, Justina, Curtis, Taeden, and Caleb, along the way. We even went to the Apple orchard and picked apples.

Andrew was pretty excited about his costume this year!
I think it turned out pretty awesome. 

In October we also welcomed home our dear friend Clayton who was on a mission in New Zealand and we had to say goodbye to our dear friend Chris who left on his mission to Peru. What great guys and awesome examples of leading a Christ like life and having Christ like love. I'm so proud of both of them and glad to call them as our friends.

Of course we went to a ton of BYU Football games. Andrew waited in lines hours before the doors opened to get us a good seat. And he sure did do a great job. Every game we had awesome seats! The BYU vs. Texas game was probably the most crazy game. Andrew waited in line for a few hours and it was pretty hot out. I got there before the gates opened and waited with him. A little before the game started this HUGE and pretty scary looking storm cloud came rolling in. It started pouring and lightning and thunder. It was CRAZY. All the students were dancing in the stands. Then we decided it would be best to seek cover so we hung out under the bleachers for a while. When the rain finally did stop we took our seats and we were freezing and the game was delayed! Our friends Logan and Alex went and got warm clothes so we had them pick us up some. But it was still a pretty cold game BUT BYU did awesome! and we ended up winning the game! YAY. Afterwords, Andrew and I went to our favorite little run down Mexican place. We were riding the scooter home and all of the sudden the tire blew out! Luckily Andrew stomped his foot down saving us from falling over and probably getting very hurt and a lot of road rash! (I sure am grateful for that guy!) We ended up parking the scooter in a lot and walking home.. still being a little wet and cold! Andrew did something to his foot, he never went to the doctor, just wrapped it and was really careful for the next few days. That was such a crazy day though!

Before the game.. notice how clear the sky is! 

The storm coming in! 

After the game! We WON! 

In November our first nephew on Andrew's side of the family was born! Ryder Jay Parson, on November 4th 2013! So of course we had to make a trip to Idaho to see him right away! He is the cutest little guy. I am obssesed with him. We got lots of snuggles in with him that first week of his life and then again during Thanksgiving time when all the Sorensen's went to Idaho for the week. We had a great time relaxing, playing with the dogs, snuggling the baby, snowboarding, skinning a deer and eating lots of food!

Then on the way home we HIT a deer! AH! I actually had no idea what happened, I was looking down at my phone and just heard a clunk and saw some things fly up over our hood. I thought maybe it was a small animal but not a deer! Well we pulled over and it was definitely a deer. Andrew said he saw it coming across the road and we barely hit it. The poor thing was almost out of the road and then it hit the corner of the passenger side of the car. We couldn't even find it afterwords! I am glad though that we could still drive the car and that Andrew handled it so well. He didn't swerve or do anything crazy but he was very safe about it. Luckily his parents were right behind us as well so they pulled over and the guys made it so we could still drive the car and not ruin our tire.

In December of course I was crazy with finals and finishing school. We also celebrated Andrew's 24 birthday! We went shopping, saw Frozen, and ate delicious food at Tucano's. That week we also saw Marilee and went to Savior of the World with her and her kids. It was a beautiful performance!! I would love to go every year if we live here!

The end of December we spent with my Family in Kansas. We celebrated Christmas and the New Year by playing games, eating lots of food, shopping, going to a KU game and exploring Kansas. It was a wonderful time seeing family and making life long memories.

Nowadays Andrew is working full time as a property manager, which right now includes helping to move a 16,000 sq ft house. Needless to say he is a busy, hard working guy. I am being a little house wife, cooking, cleaning, blogging, and pinteresting (thats in the description right?). I have been making lots of YouTube videos and trying to start a children's swimsuit business! (I'll talk more about those two later) We are going to all the last basketball games of the season and watching as much of the Olympics as possible, or that I can stand ;) I am also taking an intro to entrepreneurship class. It is wonderful and I would recommend it to anyone! It is inspiring and really opens my mind to the possibilities that are before me.

For Valentines weekend we went to St. George with Richard and Lisa and our friends Logan and Alex to relax and enjoy a little warmer weather. We were shopping, riding, watching the olympics, of course eating lots of good food, and visiting family.

It has been a great past few months. Busy but wonderful! We are certainly looking forward to more traveling and warmer weather!

and if you read all of this good job. That was a long one!

love, alex&andrew

Hawaiian Treasures

So there was this one time on December 25th 2012 that we got on a plane and went to Hawaii for a week. It was simply wonderful. It was so relaxing and warm. Exactly what we needed for the holiday break. We got in at about 12am California time and 9pm Hawaii time. We were all starving and because it was Christmas everything was closed. We searched for about an hour and settled on a 7-eleven. Hot pockets, pizza, and granola bars. It was a great Christmas dinner :) 

Our view from the house we stayed in 

We talked Aaron into running and jumping on this vine. 

I won't flood you with the tons of stories that I could be telling you but I will be showing you a bunch of pictures that I took :) 

We had a blast checking out the island. We went to a couple different beaches and went snorkeling, body boarding, walking, exploring, and finding lots of little treasures. 

We ate lots of great food. Went shopping and found beautiful things. 

Every time we snorkeled I felt that I was one of the fish just swimming right along in the ocean. 

In one snorkel trip we saw THREE sea turtles. The first was medium and then another medium one and the last one we saw was HUGE. it was so cool to see them just swimming along and go up for air. They are such beautiful creatures! One night Richard and Aaron were walking along the beach and saw the biggest turtle we had ever seen, so we all came running to see and it was ginormous and just a beautiful sight to see. Right after we got there the waves came up and he went back into the ocean. It was wonderful to see these creatures in their natural habitat. 

Andrew found this crab

Andrew and Jordan exploring the reef by our house.  

The view from standing on the reef towards our house. 

Treasures that we found

One night we went out to eat and then we were going to go to the movies so we kept trying to find a place to eat but we weren't having luck with something that was quick but good. 

We finally found one that looked like a long john silvers and just decided to go there. 

When we walked in we knew right away it was not a long john silvers. It was something completely different and completely hawaiian. It ended up being verrrry fresh and different.. sea food. We got to test some things and Andrew, Aaron, and I tired octopus, raw salmon and tuna. It was actually pretty good. Aaron loved it so much he got the octopus for dinner. I got this amazing shrimp dish with this delicious sauce on it. Andrew got an ahi ahi Cajun stir fry dish and he loooved it. Then we went and saw Les Miserables. Which, no words can describe how amazing that was. 

The Peacock that we ran into and I wanted to bring home.

Andrew coming out of the water from body boarding

Andrew riding the wave. 

This is just the first a few posts on Hawaii, so stay tuned for more!!

Happy Friday! 

love,alex&andrew  

Christmas 2012

If you are a stocker or maybe you are just our bestest friends you know that for Christmas this year we had the incredible opportunity to go to Hawaii.
Instead of presents on Christmas morning we were all waking up and getting ready to head to the airport. Was that a little weird you ask? Yes.. Andrew and I realized that was the first time either of us had left "the house" (wherever we were staying that year) on Christmas day.. Crazy. But honestly, we were headed to Hawaii so there wasn't much complaining on our part ;)

Andrew and I still spent a little money on each other for Christmas and we still had family come over on Christmas Eve and do a little celebrating. Julie and Val came over and we had a wonderful clam chowder dinner and lots of yummy munchies and then we exchanged presents.

This year Andrew got me a vinyl record player. I had talked about it a couple times and he picked up on it and got me one. Because it was not something we wanted to have to bring on the plane I got it at the beginning of December which I loved because then I was able to listen to some beautiful christmas music. Needles to say it is a beauty. And of course the music is timeless. I love listening to Frank sing :)

Like I said in this post I wasn't really sure until 4 days before Christmas what I was getting Andrew. But after some wonderful shopping I found some awesome things. Like two pairs of vans. two Neff shirts. Some quirky socks and a tie. I even got him a 99 cent mountain dew chap-stick! ha

and he got this beauty.

And he loved his gifts, or at least he says he does and he has worn pretty much everything at least once already so I am pretty pleased with my findings!

Ready to go to Bethlehem 

While we were in California we were able to attend Andrew's home wards Christmas party. It was incredible. They had it in a members, aka the Sorensen's best friends, back yard. It was a sight to see let me tell you. It was made to look like Bethlehem. They had crafts for the kids to do and animals to pet and food to eat and even a manger with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. What a fun night. Everyone.. well most everyone even dressed up like they were from that time.

My little friend in Bethlehem
They had Neff beanies back then right? ;) 

Oh and I almost forgot to tell you that at the beginning of December we went to The Forgotten Carols with Marilee. It was beautiful. I had never heard the story so I did not know what to expect but it was perfect. It was sentimental but still had plenty of humor and really shared the true meaning of Christmas.

I feel that overall we had some really good experiences in basking in the Christmas Spirit. What a wonderful, beautiful, magical time of the year. It is sad to see it go but I know we can keep it around all year and look forward to its magic next year as well.

Merry Christmas from the Sorensen's 

We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season :)
love,alex&andrew

ps- can I have him pleeeease

Wrapping up 2012

Guys I have a lot to talk about and I really just need to get it out of my brain and into this wonderful blog so I can share all the amazing things we have been up to.

How I felt after finals 

Uhm so its 2013?? uh yea I would have never known with all of those Facebook posts ;)
But really when did this happen and when did January just show up and kill off December. I am really not okay with this. But like any new beginning and change I am excited to start this semester and see where is takes me. I learned so much last semester I am excited to dive back in and fill my little noggin with knowledge. And I know Andrew is really excited to find a new job and start working again. (If you have any good leads for us please contact us asap)

We made lots of treats 

Well like most of my posts lets go back a little bit. HA
If you didn't know Dec 10-14 is finals week for BYU. Most classes you can take the final whenever you want. Thats how it was for all of my classes but one and that was just on Monday so it was pretty legit. As for the other 3 I took another one on Monday and two on Tuesday. Did I drive myself crazy...yea I really surly did. It was a stressful, exhausting, not caring, but really caring couple of days. I must say though that I was SO happy to get them over with than to sit around and study my booty off and get the same grades. Overall finals went very well and I am pleased and happy to say that one more semester is behind me.
We left for California on Thursday the 13th so that we could work and earn a little money while we were on break. And can I say that I am really glad we did because first of all we missed the after finals rush and we missed the sky dumping snow all over the place.

Went to a Clipper game while in Cali 

That whole next week we worked our little booties off but not forgetting to relax and enjoy this break time.

Jake looks creepy but it was so cute they were all cuddling! 

I made some jewelry for Christmas presents, and honestly I thought about keeping if for myself ;) 

So you should probably stay tuned for my bunches and bunches of posts about CHRISTMAS! yea you know that awesome Holiday time :)

love, alex&andrew

P.S- Here are some more awesome photos from the Clipper game. We went to The Pantry before the game. It has some a-m-a-z-i-n-g home cooking. We were verrrry satisfied.

GWL & SG

I had forgotten to post this for the past month. Mostly because I had to narrow down the pictures and then figure out how to share them. In the final days of being in Kansas we spent two days at this wonderful place called the Great Wolf Lodge. It is the greatest Lodge to stay at in the Kansas City Area. They have an indoor water park with a couple slides and pools and huge playground. AWESOME! It has become a tradition, kind of, in our family to go there every year after christmas. Great in the winter when you need something new to do outside of your house. 

What a great play place for young and old

I love it. I wish we could go back right now. 

Rexburg is way too cold. and windy. and BORING. can I just tell you how excited I am to leave???

really really excited. I need more. more. more. 

At the last minute this past weekend we decided to travel down to St. George. What a GREAT decision that was. We saw the SUN! WOAH. I have missed that wonderful thing. and when we do have it in Rexburg it is way too cold to enjoy it. I love having a little break from our little apartment. Coming back was hard. Literally. Of course a storm hit so we had to go slow and drive through lots of snow. If you know that drive you know that it is really sketchy when snowy. I was nervous to say the lest. but it all worked out great. Heavenly Father is definitely watching out for us. in a lot of things. Now back to cold, snow, school, and normal everyday life. But sometimes that is nice too :) 

How was your weekend?

love,alex&andrew

p.s- We just ordered a juicer. I am super duper excited to start using it. stay tuned for updates :) 

Christmas in the Land of Oz

Christmas. oh what a wonderful day. 

I think i like the holiday season more than the actual day.. although this year it felt different. 

The whole day was simply wonderful. I actually really like Christmas on Sundays cause then I feel like I really spent the day thinking about what it is really about and not just the gifts. 

We like to wake up early in my house. This year I was so surprised to find that the little children let us sleep in until 9! WOAH. what a deal. and I think that is just because we didn't want to wake up until Taeden did. perfection. Now here is the annual sitting on the stairs waiting to go down picture.

Thats right we don't get to go down the stairs until everyone is up including the parents so they can get this lovely photo every year. and then we run.. yes literally run. to the living room. 

(this year it might have been a nice walk for the oldies.)  

we look great in the morning don't you think? 

i love these photos of the kids holding up their pj's. so adorable. 

the after church photo! 

What a great day. It was so nice to be surrounded by family and to see how exciting it was for the little kids. the older you get I think it looses its excitement but with little kids around it brings it all back. I can't wait to have our own little ones waiting for santa to come. We were spoiled this year. I think i may have to show you one of my goodies later on..once I get it back. so stay tuned for that. I also got this beautiful point and shoot camera. What a beauty it is. So much nicer than my old one. I was thrilled. I have taken a few pictures and lots of videos with it. Andrew was happy to get these awesome head phones and a shaver. welcome to adulthood.


How was your christmas? it is hard to go back to reality after a break like that.

love,alex&andrew