Showing posts with label Cousins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cousins. Show all posts

April Showers Bring May Flowers

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A lot has gone on in our family over the last two months.  April brought us General Conference, the end of another semester, a girls weekend {for me} in Santa Barbara, BYU Graduation, my former roommate's (McKenzie) wedding, our anniversary, and a trip to Disneyland! May brought us my twin sister's wedding, my older sister's birthday, my 5th and final semester at Utah College of Dental Hygiene, a total of 2 trips to Santa Barbara, a Bar Mitzvah, studying for boards, a new nephew, and so many more little things that it's hard to think of them all.  In these past 2 months, we have really come to see how blessed we are to have such incredible friends and family.

The beginning of April was General Conference.  We had the most wonderful time listening and watching the prophet and the apostles speak.  If you're curious to know what General Conference is or what is talked about in General Conference, watch the video below.  I promise you your life will change for the better if you choose to listen to General Conference.  I have watched it every 6 months for my entire life and my life continues to get better every 6 months.  I have learned so much and I can't wait to learn more from the prophets, seers, and revelators of this time.




April 14th-16th brought me finals week at school.  My second to last finals week ever! I can hardly believe it.  When Kurt and I got married, I had just finished my first semester of dental hygiene school.  I have learned so much over the past year, and I can't wait to become a Registered Dental Hygienist with my Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene.  All the hard work will pay off in August when I graduate!


April 17th-22nd brought a girls weekend for Christine and me.  Kurt had to stay and work in Utah, and Christine was already going home so I decided to have a little "last hoorah" with her before we would both be married women!  We did a lot of wedding stuff :) I had a wonderful time with my parents, although I definitely missed Kurt and we really missed not having Elise there as well.


April 24th-25th was Commencement for Brigham Young University.  Christine & Payton were both graduating in Marketing from the Marriott School of Business.  We are so proud of them!



The happy graduates!


Ignore the fact that one person in this picture has no shoes.  We have a little story in my family that fits with this picture.  When Christine and I were in 1st grade (in Manhattan Beach, CA at Meadows Elementary School) our teacher, Ms. Valpredo, walked around the classroom without shoes.  Being 6 years old, we all wanted to do the same. She said she was the only one who could do it because she had a college degree.  Lo and behold, Christine now has a college degree and can do anything she wants, with or without shoes! 


Dad, Christine, & Mom 
Dad, Christine, Payton & Mom
The Sienicki Family {minus Elise :( }
Twins
We are all so proud of Christine and Payton! Congratulations!

On April 26th, my dearest friend, McKenzie, married her sweetheart in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple.  I am so happy for her!  She was a beatiful bride, and I hope she has an even more beatiful marriage!

The bride getting ready with the help of her sister.


Love these girls! (From L to R: Amber, Alyssa, Lucy {bride's sisters}, McKenzie, Lindsey {bride's cousin}, Christine & Me)
At the dinner & open house in Salt Lake City.  It was such a perfect day for McKenzie & Ryan!


April 27th was our 1 Year Anniversary of being married for time and all eternity in the Los Angeles LDS Temple.  You can read all about it here. We had a wonderful time celebrating.  We have learned so much in our 1st year, we can only imagine how much we will learn in the 2nd!



On April 29th, we went to the Happiest Place on Earth!  Disneyland was such a blast! It was Kurt's first time and we definitely plan on going back for him to go a second time because we had so much fun while we were there.  It wasn't crowded at all, and the longest wait we had was about 1 hour.  But we walked on to most of the rides.  I used a Disneyland Crowd Forecast to try to predict what the crowds would be like.  And it was pretty spot on. Overall, we had such a great time and can't wait to go back.





Waiting for World of Color.  Kurt and I had never seen it before and it was incredible.  Watch the video below if you want to see how incredible it is!



We stayed with Kurt's cousin, Nathan, and his wife Laura and their adorable little girl, Penny in Costa Mesa.  We always have fun when we are with family and we hope to visit again sometime soon.

Then came my sister's wedding! I feel so lame because I didn't take many pictures, but I made the decision not to because I wanted to live in the moment, AND she had the most incredible photographer, so I knew the pictures would be taken care of.  Christine was the most beautiful bride I had ever seen!  She and Payton were married in the Los Angeles LDS Temple on May 3, 2014.
Happy Birthday, Elise! 24 never looked so good!
(Photo Credit: Elise)
Mr. & Mrs. Thompson!
(Photo Credit: Alex Haws)
AMAZING center pieces
TWINS!
I love my sisters so much!
Best Friends


Saying goodbye to my sweet best friend.  She's going to make the best wife!

As of May 5th, I have started my last semester at Utah College of Dental Hygiene.  On August 14th, I will officially be a college graduate (and I don't have to wear shoes if I don't want to)!  This semester is full of all things BOARDS related.  Every class we are taking this semester is preparing us for Boards and life outside of school.  My life currently revolves around case studies, Naional Board review classes, scaling the most tenacious calculus I have ever seen, studying 24/7, knocking my appointment time from 3 hours and 15 minutes, to 1 hour and 15 minutes (at the most), and SO MUCH MORE. I am more overwhelmed than ever, so any prayers you want to send my way will be greatly appreciated.

After my first week back at school, we went back to Santa Barbara. We are crazy, we know.  But we had to go back to attend the Bar Mitzvah of my favorite little man, Brent.  Brent has been my neighbor ever since he was born on May 5, 2001. He turned 13 and became a Bar Mitzvah.  We are so incredibly proud of him for the decisions he has made to get him to where he is at 13 years old. Not only that, but his family threw the most incredible party ever!  We had so much fun celebrating with him and his family.



The party was sports themed, so of course we had to represent our favorite team and favorite player!

May 11th was Mother's Day! Kurt and I have incredible mothers, and we know we wouldn't be anywhere without them.  They gave us life, taught us important lessons, and helped raise us to become the people we are now.  We love them dearly.


Like I said earlier, we have a new nephew! We are so excited for Ryan, Kaylynn & Dallin to have a new addition to their family.  I can't wait to meet the little bundle of perfection.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! We did a lot of shopping, running, and had a little BBQ with Jason, Faith, & Amy on Memorial Day.  Kurt and I are so grateful for the members of our family who have served and are currently serving (especially my sister, Elise!).  We are so thankful to live in such a wonderful country where we have so many freedoms.

May 27th- Kurt played in his final basketball game in the Salt Lake City County League.  It was the final game because it was the championship game! They won! I'm so proud of him and his team. It was the first and last game of the season that I attended.  It was always difficult to find the time to drive up to South Jordan to watch him play basketball, but I decided to surprise him on Tuesday by coming.  Congratulations to these guys!



Salt Lake County Basketball Champions! (From Left to Right: Bryce, Mark, Brian, Danny, Brad, & Kurt)
Wednesday, May 28th, was Ward Temple Night.  We love going to the temple together.  This was our 19th time going to the temple together since I went for my first time last April 3 days before we were married.

May has really revolved around me studying for Boards.  A lot of people have asked about what I've been doing for Boards, what books I'm studying from, how long I'm spending on studying for each test, what each test is like, so I'm hoping to write about that sometime soon. I take my first test on June 7th, so it'll probably be after I take that.

Tomorrow is June 1st! Kurt and I can't believe what 2014 has brought us, and it's almost half way over already.  We are hoping that this summer brings us a lot of fun memories, fantastic experiences, spending time with family, life changing milestones, and much more! Keep checking back here for updates on our amazing life together.

Happy start of summer!


April & May Favorites
New Restaurant: New Thai Cafe in West Jordan, UT
Movie: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Drink: Sonic Slushies (Cherry Limeade & Watermelon with Nerds)
Cousins: Nathan & Laura (and Penny!)
Candy: Now and Laters
TV Show: NBA Playoffs
Witt Family Event: Jason qualifying for Nationals
General Conference Talk: How can you pick one, right?  Here are a couple of our top favorites



 

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Follow my blog with Bloglovin


A lot has gone on in our family over the last two months.  April brought us General Conference, the end of another semester, a girls weekend {for me} in Santa Barbara, BYU Graduation, my former roommate's (McKenzie) wedding, our anniversary, and a trip to Disneyland! May brought us my twin sister's wedding, my older sister's birthday, my 5th and final semester at Utah College of Dental Hygiene, a total of 2 trips to Santa Barbara, a Bar Mitzvah, studying for boards, a new nephew, and so many more little things that it's hard to think of them all.  In these past 2 months, we have really come to see how blessed we are to have such incredible friends and family.

The beginning of April was General Conference.  We had the most wonderful time listening and watching the prophet and the apostles speak.  If you're curious to know what General Conference is or what is talked about in General Conference, watch the video below.  I promise you your life will change for the better if you choose to listen to General Conference.  I have watched it every 6 months for my entire life and my life continues to get better every 6 months.  I have learned so much and I can't wait to learn more from the prophets, seers, and revelators of this time.




April 14th-16th brought me finals week at school.  My second to last finals week ever! I can hardly believe it.  When Kurt and I got married, I had just finished my first semester of dental hygiene school.  I have learned so much over the past year, and I can't wait to become a Registered Dental Hygienist with my Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene.  All the hard work will pay off in August when I graduate!


April 17th-22nd brought a girls weekend for Christine and me.  Kurt had to stay and work in Utah, and Christine was already going home so I decided to have a little "last hoorah" with her before we would both be married women!  We did a lot of wedding stuff :) I had a wonderful time with my parents, although I definitely missed Kurt and we really missed not having Elise there as well.


April 24th-25th was Commencement for Brigham Young University.  Christine & Payton were both graduating in Marketing from the Marriott School of Business.  We are so proud of them!



The happy graduates!


Ignore the fact that one person in this picture has no shoes.  We have a little story in my family that fits with this picture.  When Christine and I were in 1st grade (in Manhattan Beach, CA at Meadows Elementary School) our teacher, Ms. Valpredo, walked around the classroom without shoes.  Being 6 years old, we all wanted to do the same. She said she was the only one who could do it because she had a college degree.  Lo and behold, Christine now has a college degree and can do anything she wants, with or without shoes! 


Dad, Christine, & Mom 
Dad, Christine, Payton & Mom
The Sienicki Family {minus Elise :( }
Twins
We are all so proud of Christine and Payton! Congratulations!

On April 26th, my dearest friend, McKenzie, married her sweetheart in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple.  I am so happy for her!  She was a beatiful bride, and I hope she has an even more beatiful marriage!

The bride getting ready with the help of her sister.


Love these girls! (From L to R: Amber, Alyssa, Lucy {bride's sisters}, McKenzie, Lindsey {bride's cousin}, Christine & Me)
At the dinner & open house in Salt Lake City.  It was such a perfect day for McKenzie & Ryan!


April 27th was our 1 Year Anniversary of being married for time and all eternity in the Los Angeles LDS Temple.  You can read all about it here. We had a wonderful time celebrating.  We have learned so much in our 1st year, we can only imagine how much we will learn in the 2nd!



On April 29th, we went to the Happiest Place on Earth!  Disneyland was such a blast! It was Kurt's first time and we definitely plan on going back for him to go a second time because we had so much fun while we were there.  It wasn't crowded at all, and the longest wait we had was about 1 hour.  But we walked on to most of the rides.  I used a Disneyland Crowd Forecast to try to predict what the crowds would be like.  And it was pretty spot on. Overall, we had such a great time and can't wait to go back.





Waiting for World of Color.  Kurt and I had never seen it before and it was incredible.  Watch the video below if you want to see how incredible it is!



We stayed with Kurt's cousin, Nathan, and his wife Laura and their adorable little girl, Penny in Costa Mesa.  We always have fun when we are with family and we hope to visit again sometime soon.

Then came my sister's wedding! I feel so lame because I didn't take many pictures, but I made the decision not to because I wanted to live in the moment, AND she had the most incredible photographer, so I knew the pictures would be taken care of.  Christine was the most beautiful bride I had ever seen!  She and Payton were married in the Los Angeles LDS Temple on May 3, 2014.
Happy Birthday, Elise! 24 never looked so good!
(Photo Credit: Elise)
Mr. & Mrs. Thompson!
(Photo Credit: Alex Haws)
AMAZING center pieces
TWINS!
I love my sisters so much!
Best Friends


Saying goodbye to my sweet best friend.  She's going to make the best wife!

As of May 5th, I have started my last semester at Utah College of Dental Hygiene.  On August 14th, I will officially be a college graduate (and I don't have to wear shoes if I don't want to)!  This semester is full of all things BOARDS related.  Every class we are taking this semester is preparing us for Boards and life outside of school.  My life currently revolves around case studies, Naional Board review classes, scaling the most tenacious calculus I have ever seen, studying 24/7, knocking my appointment time from 3 hours and 15 minutes, to 1 hour and 15 minutes (at the most), and SO MUCH MORE. I am more overwhelmed than ever, so any prayers you want to send my way will be greatly appreciated.

After my first week back at school, we went back to Santa Barbara. We are crazy, we know.  But we had to go back to attend the Bar Mitzvah of my favorite little man, Brent.  Brent has been my neighbor ever since he was born on May 5, 2001. He turned 13 and became a Bar Mitzvah.  We are so incredibly proud of him for the decisions he has made to get him to where he is at 13 years old. Not only that, but his family threw the most incredible party ever!  We had so much fun celebrating with him and his family.



The party was sports themed, so of course we had to represent our favorite team and favorite player!

May 11th was Mother's Day! Kurt and I have incredible mothers, and we know we wouldn't be anywhere without them.  They gave us life, taught us important lessons, and helped raise us to become the people we are now.  We love them dearly.


Like I said earlier, we have a new nephew! We are so excited for Ryan, Kaylynn & Dallin to have a new addition to their family.  I can't wait to meet the little bundle of perfection.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! We did a lot of shopping, running, and had a little BBQ with Jason, Faith, & Amy on Memorial Day.  Kurt and I are so grateful for the members of our family who have served and are currently serving (especially my sister, Elise!).  We are so thankful to live in such a wonderful country where we have so many freedoms.

May 27th- Kurt played in his final basketball game in the Salt Lake City County League.  It was the final game because it was the championship game! They won! I'm so proud of him and his team. It was the first and last game of the season that I attended.  It was always difficult to find the time to drive up to South Jordan to watch him play basketball, but I decided to surprise him on Tuesday by coming.  Congratulations to these guys!



Salt Lake County Basketball Champions! (From Left to Right: Bryce, Mark, Brian, Danny, Brad, & Kurt)
Wednesday, May 28th, was Ward Temple Night.  We love going to the temple together.  This was our 19th time going to the temple together since I went for my first time last April 3 days before we were married.

May has really revolved around me studying for Boards.  A lot of people have asked about what I've been doing for Boards, what books I'm studying from, how long I'm spending on studying for each test, what each test is like, so I'm hoping to write about that sometime soon. I take my first test on June 7th, so it'll probably be after I take that.

Tomorrow is June 1st! Kurt and I can't believe what 2014 has brought us, and it's almost half way over already.  We are hoping that this summer brings us a lot of fun memories, fantastic experiences, spending time with family, life changing milestones, and much more! Keep checking back here for updates on our amazing life together.

Happy start of summer!


April & May Favorites
New Restaurant: New Thai Cafe in West Jordan, UT
Movie: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Drink: Sonic Slushies (Cherry Limeade & Watermelon with Nerds)
Cousins: Nathan & Laura (and Penny!)
Candy: Now and Laters
TV Show: NBA Playoffs
Witt Family Event: Jason qualifying for Nationals
General Conference Talk: How can you pick one, right?  Here are a couple of our top favorites



 

December Fun

For those of you who read our blog [okay...MY blog], I am sorry I haven't written in a while.  I know all of my die hard followers are extremely eager to learn about what BK [Big Kurt] and I have been up to.  Our lives are so exciting, it's probably been really hard for you to handle the fact that you don't know much about our lives from the middle of November to now.  But FEAR NOT! I am back, writing a long blog post the night before I take my last 3 finals.  So, for all of you who miss reading about the Witt Family, for my classmates who should be studying instead of reading this (because we all know that Pain Control is going to kick our butts tomorrow), or for those who really are in need of a study break because you're actually a good student, here you go!

Here's a little play-by-play of what's been going on with us :)

November 22-24: Kurt flew to Indiana to watch his brother, Jason, run at Nationals.  Jason runs Cross Country for BYU.  Since he is a senior in Cross Country, it was his last race.  I'm so glad Kurt was able to go.  I, on the other hand, stayed behind to "hold down the fort" in Orem.  It was the first time we had been apart since we've been married.  It was so hard to "hold down the fort" that I went and slept at my twin sister's apartment instead, and then made my way up to Ogden to spend time with Ryan and Kaylynn.  It was so much fun to spend time with family while Kurt was away.  Although I missed Kurt terribly, I'm glad we both got to be with other family members while we were apart.

November 27-30:  I had 2 days of school after Kurt came home from Indiana, and then Thanksgiving break started! I was so excited.  BK and I went back up to Ogden to Ryan & Kaylynn's house and spent the next several days with them.  We always have a good time while we are there.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving together.  Shelly, Will, Alex, Brett & Rachel, and Jason & Faith all came up on Thanksgiving and we had dinner and played games together.  Well, Kurt played games while I got to hold my niece, Rachel.  She has a little special place in my heart (being my only niece) and we had some great auntie & niece bonding time.  It's so much fun to see how Alex, Brett & Dallin are growing.  They are such great boys, and are all so unbelievably smart.  I am quite proud of them!  We spend the day after Thanksgiving setting up Ryan & Kaylynn's christmas tree.  Well, everyone but me.  For some reason, I just watched.  I probably should have helped now that I think about it.  But I had way too much fun watching Dallin waving around branches of the tree saying, "Tree life.  Tree life.  Tree life."  That, my friends, is him talking about the Tree of Life.  People, this child is 2 years old.  I don't know about you, [but I'm feeling 22...kidding] but I think that's pretty incredible.  But Dallin has now learned that it is a "Chri-mas tree" rather than the Tree of Life.  Anyways, we had a wonderful time with them, and we are eager to go back and visit.
That Saturday was also the day we went to the temple for the month of November (I know, I know -- going the last day of the month isn't exactly ideal).  We were able to go to the Bountiful Temple in Bountiful, UT.  It was the 9th temple we've been to, (This week we are planning to go to the Salt Lake City Temple) and I'm so glad we've kept our little tradition of going to the temple every month.

In addition to the exciting things that happened to us, my beautiful twin sister, Christine, got engaged! Kurt and I are so excited for her and Payton, and I am definitely looking forward to having a "brother" in the Sienicki Family.


December 4:  Faith was super nice and invited us to her work party (she works for NuSkin).  We had dinner there, and then had a wonderful time listening to a private concert by Leann Rimes.  It was so much fun and we had a blast spending time with Jason and Faith.  We have also played many Monopoly games with them the past week or so.  Kurt has yet to win a game, but Jason and I are fairly good at holding our own.

December 6: Ward Christmas Party!  We went to a CATERED ward party that Friday night.  The food was sooo good.  I ate my weight in Ham.  We decorated a gingerbread house with our friends in the ward, but we didn't win the decorating competition.  That's okay though, because we had fun with our friends.  But, Kurt and I have come to the conclusion that we are terrible at guessing games.  They had a table with jars full of candy, and you got to guess how many pieces of candy were in the jar, and the prize was that you got to take it home.  We guess on ALL of the jars (about 12 or so) and we didn't win anything.  Nada. Zero. Nothing.  Good thing we have plenty of candy for Kurt at home.

December 7: Today was the day we planned on going to the SLC temple for the month of December and see the lights at Temple Square.  Well...the weather was TERRIBLE, so we couldn't drive to SLC safely.  Instead, we went to Malawi's pizza and Provo Beach Resort.  I noticed 2 things that night: 1) I can down an entire pizza in 10 minutes. 2) I am terrible at all things bowling, DDR, and Skeeball related.   Good thing my husband's love for me isn't based off of my arcade game skills.

December 11: We went on a triple date with Christine and Alex and went and saw Frozen.  It was such a cute movie! Plus, the opening and closing song of the movie was a song that I sang when I was in the BYU Women's Chorus, so I freaked out at the very beginning.  It was a sign that I was going to love the movie, for sure. I highly recommend going and seeing it.  I loved the music and the fun story line.  Although, I cannot agree with Elsa when she says, "The cold never bothered me anyway." Yeah...sure, of course below freezing temperatures never bother me.  All I have to do is wear a sparkly dress and I'm good to go! Nope...definitely not the case.  Our apartment is 76 degrees everyday and I'm always wearing a sweatshirt or have a blanket.  I'm California grown. Anyways, cute movie and fantastic music (I'm a big Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, and Demi Lovato fan, so the music was my favorite part).

December 13: I went and spent time with my beautiful friend Jana, and was able to catch up over hot chocolate and cookies.  I miss seeing so many of my friends, but it's so fun hearing about what they are doing and how excited they are about their life and their future.  


December 15:  Kurt and I were given tickets (from Jenny) to Music and the Spoken Work and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert on Sunday morning.  It was absolutely incredible.  It makes me miss singing.  I sang in BYU Women's Chorus for 2 years, and it definitely made me miss singing in a Christmas concert myself. Deborah Voigt and John Rhys-Davies were so incredible to watch.  It was such an uplifting experience, and really made me look forward to the Christmas season even more.

After that, we went and had dinner KA (Kurt's cousin) and Clint's (her husband) place for dinner.  They have the cutest, most lively daughter, Kate the Great.  She is so much fun to play with, and can always make you laugh.  Plus, she always laughs at what you do, so she's great at building your confidence.  We had such a fun time playing dominos with them.  As we were playing, we were all really impressed with how quiet she was being, until we turned around.  Kate got into my purse, found my lipstick, and put [almost] the entire tube on her face.  She looked so beautiful.  I had no attachment to that lipstick whatsoever, and I'm sure Kate got a lot more out of it than I ever would have, so I'm more than grateful that she was able to take it off my hands.  She also found my full pack of Starbursts as well.  She didn't open those, but maybe my purse will be the future source of special treats and snacks once she is older.  Thank you KA, Clint, and Kate the Great for the fun times and the great laughs!

Today it is December 16th, 3 finals away from my 2 1/2 weeks of freedom from Dental Hygiene school.  I am so grateful for all that I have been able to learn this semester.  I know the next 2 are going to be more difficult than ever, but I am excited to gain more knowledge on something that I love to do.  Now, I probably should get back to studying for my 3 finals (seriously...3 finals? Who does that on the last day of school?!).  Below is a list of our favorite things about this December, and some pictures from some of the moments written about above.



December Favorites
Christmas Song: Kelly Clarkson- Underneath the Tree
TV Shows:
Kurt- Shark Tank, Monday Night Football
Alexis- The Voice, The Singoff, Project Runway, Once Upon A Time
Cookies: Sugar cookies 
Drink: Raspberry Cheesecake Hot Chocolate
New Gadget: Apple TV
Favorite Thing About the Christmas Season:
Kurt- music on the radio, inexpensive candy, and "watching lots of people think they're getting really good deals when they're actually not"
Alexis- the music and no school
Winter Activity: staying warm inside (Kurt says, "Cuddling and watching movies as we drink hot chocolate.")


This kid just cracks me up!


Rachel and Me on Thanksgiving Day


Happy Birthday, Dallin!


Dallin & the Tree of Life


Leann Rimes concert