WELCOME HOME SIS SYD VISH

Dear Sydnee, 

Thanks for being such a great example to us all. 

Thanks for being such an amazing missionary and showing us how to serve whole heartily. 

Thanks for bringing us all together to celebrate your home coming. 

Thanks for making us all realize how much we need you in our lives to make it a heck of a lot better. 

Thanks for being my friend. 

You are awesome!!! 

First Hug.  

Can't you feel the love?

This beautiful girl came home two weeks ago from TODAY! 

If you didn't  know, she was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Ukraine.  

I am so proud of her and the amazing accomplishments she has had.

She has brought back such an amazing spirit and love for the Lord. 

I am so glad I know her and can call her a very dear friend of mine. 

These are some of my favorite pictures from those first moments off of the airplane. I hope you all enjoy! 

All of the signs we made her 

Hand shake? 

With her mission President & his Wife 

We LOVE YOU Sydnee 

Stay tuned for more fun photos from Sydnees first few days home!! 

Hope you all are having a great monday!! 

love,alex&andrew 

Thanksgiving 2012

All weekend I was thinking oh I should blog about Thanksgiving and what not but I kept thinking ah no I'm not in the mood yet.. Well here it is Monday and I should be doing all my lovely homework and studying and what does my mind say, LET'S BLOG! yippie. SO I gave into my mind and decided okay lets procrastinate a little more and blog.

Guys, Thanksgiving was great. It was relaxing but crazy and fun. We played, maybe a little too hard, cough andrew cough, but it was great and hard to come back but at the same time I was excited to come back and finish the semester because then it is CHRISTMAS! Oh happppy day.

Well this year we went to St. George for Thanksgiving. Andrew's family was there. There was his parents and brother, Aaron and two of his Aunts and their husbands, then 2 cousins and their spouses and four second cousins. did i get that right... ha oh well. Lets just say it was fun to have a variety of people and different ages around. Usually the youngest person around is Aaron who is 17 but this time there was two younger boys and I think they added a little spice to the group. I feel that they kept us on our toes!

Do you guys know about geocashing? well one of the boys loves it and was telling us all about it one night and Andrew was getting pretty interested... well I will admit so was I. It is such an interesting concept. So the next day we went and found one and then another and that totally hooked Andrew. I think it is so cool that you can find them all over the world! And if you don't know what it is.. talk to andrew or do a little research :)

While we were there we did a little shopping, went on many motorcycle rides, played with our niece Haizlee, watched movies, played basketball, went and explored where our cousin Katie works aka the ambulance.. place, hiked in Zion, got a sweet deal on movies at BlackFriday, and ATE a lot! great great great :)

I am so thankful for this amazing life that I am living. When I take a step back and really see the amazing opportunities and experiences that I have had and that I am having, I can't help but think wow this is a great life.
I am grateful for the wonderful husband that I have and the life we have built together in the past two years. I can't believe where it has taken us and I can't wait to see where and what happens next.
I am grateful for a healthy body. I feel that with all my experiences with health, I can't seem to express enough, how amazing our bodies are and how extremely grateful I am that I am a healthy(okay to an extent) person. I think that with being grateful for Heavenly Father for this body, I have a responsibility to take care of it and do all that I can to keep it healthy and make it even better!
I am grateful for education. For schools, books, and the ability to learn. There are so many wonderful things in this world and I love learning about them. I am grateful I have the opportunity to go to such an incredible university and learn from these intelligent professors.

I am grateful for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It has made me who I am today and shaped my life to be the wonderful thing that it is. I am grateful that I know that Jesus Christ lives, that he loves me, and that he died for me so that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father again. I am grateful that I was married in a place and with the authority so that Andrew and I can be together for eternity. I am grateful for the missionaries who sacrifice two years of their lives to share this gospel. Especially for my little brother.
I am grateful for a a wonderful, loving family who supports me and loves me.
I am grateful for this time of year. For the love, humility, and service it brings.

I could go on and on but I need to stop somewhere.
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And a wonderful week.
love,alex&andrew

Moving On

I am saddened at how behind I have become at blogging because MAN are things happing around here! I have so much to tell I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will start off with this...

We MOVED. it is done. and over with. We are gone from Rexburg. and let me tell you I never want to move again. It is stressful and exhausting. And of course two days before the actual move I get really SICK. darn you germs. So the whole time we were hauling stuff in and out and out and in I was sick. Let me just tell you that was not good. I do not suggest it to anyone. But it is all over and done with and now it is on to the organizing.

Now this move was not an easy one, and not just because of me being sick.
A few weeks before we moved down we came to Provo and looked for two days for a place to life. We found a cute little basement and it was right by campus so I was reallllly happy.
Well On July 31st we drive down to Provo, Andrew in the moving truck and me in the car. I get to the apartment about 30 minutes before I am supposed to do a walk through with the manager. I sit in front of the house and notice the old tenants are STILL MOVING OUT. I got a little confused at that point. I go meet with the manager and she says they aren't out yet and she asks if I can come back later that day. I agree. We go back a few hours later and she says it isn't cleaned yet can you call me tomorrow at noon and I will let you know when you can move in. I agree. It will give us time to rest up and be ready to move all of our stuff again (Luckily we had the truck for about 3 days).

Next day. I call. She says meet me there and we will do the walk through. We go there, she hands us a paper and says mark the damages and anything you would like cleaned again. We go in and we are in SHOCK! The carpets are still drying from being cleaned. and that was the only thing that looked like it had been cleaned. There were holes and mold and nastiness all over.

I proceeded to freaking out a little. Andrew proceeded to getting mad and frustrated. We don't have time for this.

After not being able to get ahold of her to do more cleaning and try to repair the damages, we start looking for a new place to live. and our stress level proceeds to increase. We have to return the truck by the next day.

Our friend suggests we try the BYU Student Family Housing. We agree even though in our minds we are thinking they have a waiting list and have nothing available immediately.

We go. We take a tour. It is a million times better than the basement apartment. We sign up.
By 8 o'clock that night we are moving into a completely different apartment than the one we had planned to move into that morning.

I feel so blessed. We were so blessed to find a good place to live and move in all in the same day. We had an awesome amount of help and I was so AMAZED by everyones willingness to help and at how friendly our neighbors are. We had people coming over to help or even just to say Hi and introduce themselves. Even though this was such a stressful and frustrating time for us, I believe that it worked out for the best and it is what Heavenly Father wanted for us. We were supposed to live here. We were supposed to learn something from this and I truly believe we have. We have grown. and continue to.

And now Provo is our new home. I am about to start school on the 27th and I am nervous. Andrew has a job interview tomorrow and he is nervous. Here comes all of the new challenges and experiences.

Hope you all are having a great week.
love, alex&andrew

p.s- So this new place we live in, Wymount Student Family Housing, yea I can SEE the missionaries walking to the temple. I can walk out my front door, down the steps, look to my right, and SEE MISSIONARIES. Honestly we haven't been here that long, but it kills me. I want to run over there and see my little brother. We might have to go take a walk around the temple on Sunday (cause that is what the missionaries do, if you didn't know). AND if you are really confused at this point here is the low down, my little brother is in the MTC, aka The Missionary Training Center. He is working to serve the Lord. and I now live YARDS away from him. It kinda blows my mind most days that I am so close to him but can't go see him. I am SO proud though. what an AMAZING thing he is doing for the Lord.

P.s.s- On another side note, we just learned tonight that church will now be starting at 8AM instead of 12PM, starting this week.





DANG IT!

Bitter Sweet Times

I have wanted to blog for a while but didn't really know what to say. and Honestly I still don't.

I want to keep this blog like a journal and write down the good and the bad times. So I guess it is time for a not so good time.

My Grandpa Brown passed away on Thursday June 21st, 2012. It was a shocker. He had had his gall bladder removed and was recovering so I thought he was doing good. But things took a turn for the worst.

Honestly, I know he is in a much better place now and I know that he isn't hurting, and his body isn't causing him trouble. What a wonderful thing to think about! And I know he is there chilling with his mom and dad and brothers. What a great reunion that must have been.

Honestly it hit me pretty hard. It was the first person close to me that I have had pass away and let me tell you I do NOT like it. but I know it is okay and I will see him again. For now I will remember the sweet memories that I have of him.

One of the last times we had a good long conversation was when he took me around his whole house and told me all about the treasures he has collected over the years. It was great to hear his stories and see of his excitement and remembering his life experiences.

And then another one of the last convos was me telling him about Andrew and I going to BYU. He was really excited for us. I am glad we get to go to his alma mater.

Now to make a sad time happy my family was able to drive out here to come to the funeral. So we got to see them all 4 weeks earlier then originally planned.

I got to see my brother before he went into the MTC on Thursday. That was also bitter sweet.

I am so proud of that littler brother of mine and the work he will be doing for the next two years of his life. He is serving in the Salt Lake City - Spanish Speaking mission. So pretty much Andrew and I will be 45 minutes from him for a lot of the time. WOW that will be hard not to just go look for him everyday! ha I figure I will see him at least once on his mission so I am not too crazy missing him but it is just weird knowing I can't call him whenever I want and see how he is doing.

I will miss him but I am so proud and know I can write him whenever I want to! 

Wayyyy to go Elder Brown! 

Cameron the day before he went into the MTC standing in front of the Salt Lake City Valley where he will be serving! 

Grandma & Grandpa Brown on there wedding day. How beautiful are they? :)