Chop Chop!!!

I chopped my hair off!!!!! I have been wrestling with my own thoughts for months now whether or not I should cut my hair. I would ask Joel and he would say well you keep asking so yes I think you should do it!! Then that made me have even more anxiety about it. I have never been one to care so much about cutting my hair but for some reason I had a really hard time parting with my long locks. I finally got the courage to do it with a lot of people's support!! This sounds so funny to me because it's all about hair. I mean it will always grow back right so why not..... My wonderful friend Colin was over the other night and I decided to go for it!! She did such a great job!!

Before:

After:

Who knows maybe I could have gone even shorter but I really wanted to still be able to pull my hair back. Call me crazy but the idea of having to do my hair EVERY single day makes me want to cringe. For some reason girls need change, that's just who we are, and I love it!!!!

The Canyons- We're Back!!!!

We weren't sure if we were going to get passes this year but it ended up working out!!! We are very grateful and excited to have another season of amazing boarding!!! Joel and I went up today and it was so much fun!!! I love getting away with Joel and forgetting about reality. Snowboarding is our way of forgetting about every day worries and getting a chance to relax. It was a gorgeous day up on the mountain and the snow was incredible. We can't wait for all the Saturdays that are to come so we can spend them snowboarding!!!! It is a beautiful thing!!!

Christmas and New Years!!!

I know what you are thinking.....and NO this is not our child. Haha. This is our adorable nephew Brody Owen Jensen. This was at the Hospital the morning after Janelle had their adorable baby. He definitely is a big baby but he is so perfect!! One day Joel and I will have a little bundle of joy ourselves. He looks pretty good as a dad!!On Christmas Eve I cooked everyone dinner. We had ham, mormon potatoes, green bean casserole, and emerald green salad. I must say for my big dinner production it turned out pretty good. I made the dinner that is a tradition every year in my family. We always have our big dinner on Christmas Eve so that we can lounge around all day Christmas. Below is Jeremy and Janelle and Joel's other brother and sister, Ryan and Missy.

At this table we have Joel's mom and dad to the left and my mom and dad and Joel and I.
I thought it would be different spending Christmas and the holidays in our own place because I have always gone home but we really did have a great time and it was fun starting traditions of our own that Joel and I will carry on.

Joel and I have never needed stockings in the past since we always went home. So this year it was so fun getting our own stockings with our names on them and having to buy each other stocking stuffers. It's beneficial having big stockings because I got movies and huge boxes of candy. It was great!!

This is our Christmas Tree all lit up!!

Merry Christmas Eve!!!!

It has been a tradition in my family while growing up that every Christmas Eve we get to open new pajamas to wear that night and Christmas morning. I love this tradition and am definitely going to carry this on with my own family!! Who doesn't like new pj's?

My mom and dad opening their pj's.

Santa treated us very well from both families!!! Joel got exhaust on his truck which he absolutely loves. I kind of love it too!!! It goes vroom vroom!!! And we got a digital video camera!! We are so excited and feel the need to go on a road trip or something so we can use it. Maybe we will go to Disneyland!!!!!!!!!

My parents on Christmas Day

Baby Brody on his 1st Christmas!!!

Uncle Joel and Aunt Monica holding Brody at Janelle and Jeremy's house. We spent Christmas day at Janelle and Jeremy's and Joel's mom cooked an amazing turkey dinner. It was so good and so fun to have everyone together again!!! I love how my family and Joel's family get along so well that we can all spend Christmas together. I get the best of both worlds that way!!!

On New Year's Eve my parents and Joel and I went out to lunch and then went bowling. We had the best time and I must say that I think my mom and I are going to start thinking about being professional bowlers. We spanked the boys by my mom bowling a 172 and I was very close behind with a 168. At least Joel and my dad broke 100 but not by much :) We spent the rest of the night by making cocomotion and chocolate fondue. We ate all night and watched the usual countdown. It is so funny when you get older and it's hard to stay up till midnight.

We had confetti poppers so when the clock struck 12 we all went crazy with our poppers. I'm really surprised that our fire alarm didn't go off. Then we enjoyed an amazing fire work show out on our balcony. The Provo Town Mall had the best fire work show and we could see it perfectly from our balcony.

Joel and I are so excited for the new year and can't wait for all the new and exciting changes that are coming our way. Who knows where we will be next Christmas. It will be interesting to find out!!!

We wish all of you a Happy New Year!!!

I just want to thank my parents for coming to Provo and spending the holidays with us. They would have been alone on Christmas other wise and I am so glad that we were able to spend it with them!!! Thank you for everything!! I want to thank Joel's family too!!! We loved having them in town. I know it was so fun for Joel to have Ryan stay with us and go snowboarding with him!! We are very blessed to have two wonderful and amazing families. In the end family is everything so hold on and cherish the ones that you have. Thank you all for everything!!!

Merry Christmas!!!! December update!!

Wow....where have I been? This month has definitely been a crazy but eventful one. Life is so busy I haven't even had time to blog!!! Let me give you a little update about what's been going on. At the beginning of the month I stopped working at Nuvont and started working at a Law Firm as a case manager. It was really hard for me to leave Nuvont because I had worked there for over a year. But sometimes it's time to move on. I love my new job and it is really stretching me. It is quite the challenge but I'm facing it head on and growing and learning so much from it. Joel has been busy finishing up the semester at BYU and his finals are finally over!!! He will walk in April and we can't wait!!!

I have had so much fun actually decorating a lot for Christmas this year. Joel and I are staying here for Christmas for the first time. Joel's sister Janelle just had her baby last night so Joel's family is coming here for Christmas!!!! Janelle and Jeremy's baby is soooo cute and healthy!!! His name is Brody Owen Jensen and he weighed in at 10.1 pounds!!!!! We are so excited to have him here for Christmas!! My parents are also coming and spending Christmas with us too!!! Both of my brother's will be at their wives houses so I couldn't just leave my parents home alone for Christmas.

We also found out that my other sister-in-law Shauna is having a girl!!!! We are so excited to finally have a niece. We have three nephews so it will be fun to have some pink around!!!

Below is a picture of my first Nativity Set. Last year at Christmas my mom and dad pulled out this box and said that they had something very special for me . My Grandma Osguthorpe died when I was just 4 years old and before she died she gave my mom her Nativity set and said give this to Monica when she gets married. So 17 years later my mom pulled out this amazing Nativity and gave it to me. As you could imagine I was in tears and I can't even express how much this means to me!!! I was so happy to be able to put it out this year.Here is a picture of our family room at the beginning of the month. The tree is now covered is red and silver ornaments but I didn't upload a more recent picture.

On Tuesday I had my work Christmas Party. We went ice skating and had a very yummy dinner!!! I even got a Christmas bonus and I had only been working there a week. Not to shabby!!!

I don't know if any of you knew this but Joel and I are actually related to Tila Tequila!!! She is our second cousin!!! It is crazy how practically famous we are!!! And no that isn't Bobby below. Apparently that didn't work out so now Tila is dating Carlos!!!

We even decorated Gingerbread Houses at the Christmas party. We didn't fully finish decorating ours but hey I think we were off to a good start!!!

I just want to say Merry Christmas to everyone wherever you may be!!!! Have a great New Year and drink a Martinelli!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Joel and I went to Colorado this year to spend Thanksgiving with my family. We had a blast and a little taste of some snowy weather as well. It was kind of nice seeing how it apparently doesn't snow in Utah this year. Knock on wood...we will probably wake up to a foot of snow tomorrow now that I said that. I didn't have time to blog while in Colorado so I am finally getting around to wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. The first day that Joel and I were in Colorado we went bowling with the family. Jaden, my nephew below, loves to go bowling. Not even to actually go, he was bowling all weekend with water bottles and a volleyball in my parent's house. He is growing up so much I just can't even believe it. He is so cute and I love his shaggy hair. He has moved on from the fo hawk.This is my mom and Jaden at the bowling alley.

Jaden almost got a strike!!!

Thanksgiving dinner....where do I even begin. First of all my mom decorates for every holiday like she owns it. She has so many decorations it is insane. Good thing they have a HUGE storage closet to store it all in. She decorated the dinner table so cute. Jaden also helped by making turkey name tags for the table with his hands. He has done that for the past three Thanksgivings.

Uncle Joel and Jaden

Aunt Monica and Jaden. And Shauna I did not sneak Jaden a chocolate leaf before dinner.....hehe

Most of my family. My mom took the picture and we sure did miss David and Amanda!!!

It was so fun to have snow on the ground!!!

Jaden loved this basket. He kept crawling in it and I think I captured quite the cute picture!!

On Saturday night my parents took Doug and Shauna and Joel and I out to dinner at Macaroni Grill and then to a play called White Christmas in down town Denver. The play was so much fun and got me so excited for Christmas. And then I saw this..... This is the City Hall building in Denver and they covered it completely with lights. This was so amazing and beautiful. I asked Joel how we could make our condo look like this!! Haha!! They had music playing and it really was just like a christmas wonderland.

We had so much fun in Colorado with my family and it was really hard to leave. We wish we didn't have to come back to work and school and reality. Thank you so much mom and dad for everything. We can't wait to see you in Provo for Christmas!!! We love you and miss you guys already!!!

BOOM-O!!!

I am so obsessed with this new game Boom-O that I just learned about!!! We played games with our friends a couple weekends ago and they brought this game. It is like UNO but with bombs. Now here is the catch, they don't make Boom-O anymore so you can't find it ANYWHERE!!! I went on ebay and someone was selling it. I bid, and bid, and kept bidding.......I won't tell you how much I paid for it but I have BOOM-O now!!!!!!!! It came in the mail this week and Joel and I have been playing it every night. It is so much fun. Joel said it's a good thing I don't usually shop on ebay because we would be broke. I just love winning!!! :)

Happy October!!!

This month has been a very busy and eventful month. I haven't posted in a while and thought I should recap on our fun month. Joel's parents came into town for Janelle's baby shower that i put on for her. It was so good to see them and have a fun weekend together. Janelle is having a boy and we are so excited to add another nephew to the family!!!That same weekend was the World Series. Joel and I were sporting our Rockies gear and cheering for them the whole way through. Unfortunately they lost, really bad.....but hey at least they actually made it to the world series. I still love the Rockies!!!

Happy Halloween from Nuvont!! This is the clan dressed up for Halloween. Starting from Left to right we have Micah as an IRS auditor, Dave as God's gift to women, Katie as a pirate, Becca as a carnival cruise line dancer, me as Avril Lavigne, Greg as a corn on the cob, and Andrea as fish food. We had a very fun day at work all dressed up!!! I went to the bank and as soon as I walked in everyone yelled AVRIL!!!!!!!!!!! I guess you can say I pulled it off!!

Joel and I were invited to the Jazz game and we sat in a box. We had a blast!!! To bad they lost but hey I really just enjoyed the loud fan things that we got to slap when the Jazz were doing good. Go Jazz!!!

So that kind of sums up what we have been up to lately. It is so hard to keep up on this blog when life is soooooo busy!!!! It will be nice when Joel is done with school in June and we can have more time to play.......haha I guess it doesn't look like we have a problem fitting that in, but you know what I mean. For some reason having him in school just takes away from so much. 7 more months and then we will be free from School!!!