Ode to Belle

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Utah trip!!

Last week Brandon and I were able to go to Utah to visit Anne & Stephen and their CUTE kiddily winks! It was so fun! We played with the kids at the park, went snowboarding, went to the SLC temple,saw Nancy and Lance!! (Shout out to Lancy! We love you both so much!), shooting, went to kinko's--a lot. 

I felt bad because Anne was really morning sick the whole time, I was so grateful that I could come and help for a little. Stephen and Anne were such nice hosts, especially Stephen, he made a breakfast every morning.

I love my redneck husband!! Just kidding, about the redneck part...sorta....

Stephen taught us how to shoot his shotgun.

Ezra is going to be on the cover of GQ this month!



We were able to make it to the temple, which was amazing.



We hiked to Bridal Veil falls, I took some scenic shots....tried to..

  

We took the kids to the park, "so toot!" as Charlotte would say.

School is back in session!

This was the first week of school for USF, it was really good to be back on a routine, but at the same time a little hectic and stressful.

For example, on Monday morning, I looked at my phone during class and found 8 text messages from Bran. I immediately got scared and thought, "oh no" turns out Brandon's expensive laptop crashed! He tried everything he could to save it, knowing he would HAVE to get a new computer within the next day b/c we both take online classes at different campuses....blah, blah, needless to say we bought a new macbook pro----its amazing and we dont have the money really, but we did it anyways....its amazing.

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We both have about a year and a half of school left. Brandon is a biology major with the hopes of going to dental school in the future. I am a graphic design major, i decided to put up a couple of the pieces that i made last semester... I would put up some of brandon's charts that he has to memorize but didn't think i'd get many comments on those....no offense bran

For this assignment we had to find relationships between architecture and humans, add text and create a poster.

These were two posters we designed, then had to turn into flash movies.

Our First Christmas!

Brandon and I had a WONDERFUL Christmas! It was the first day of our marriage where I woke before him and the first time I woke up before 9 o'clock! (Yes, I'm going to sleep in as long as I can before I have babies.) Brandon did a cute scavenger hunt for me, the hunt led me to a Wii Fit! It was super sweet of him because they are really hard to find, he had to meet a guy he found on Craigslist at like 6 in the morning downtown. He loves me. I also really liked Christmas morning because when i did a "body test" it said that my BMI was a little below average and that made me feel good cause i've always been on the bigger side! Well not chubby, but not satisfied, you know? Anyways the wii fit game kicks my bum, i sweat, stretch, and its really fun! 

On Christmas eve, we we're at my moms house, with Hebs, Pat, and Elle! Here's a video of the adorable Elle conducting the song! Also, a pic of Elle and Brandon riding her new tricycle that she got for Christmas! 

I also drew a picture for Brandon's mother. It's a tribute to Claire, the McClain family dog of 12 years just passed about 4 weeks ago, Annette asked me to do a portrait of her a while ago and I didn't let it slip my mind! We framed it and i think she loved it? Sure hope so. Love you Claire.

Okay, i know i have put up like 18 million posts within the last 2 days but i can't sleep. i remembered something really funny (well probably only to those of you who know my mother very well). 

So while Brandon and I were on our Honeymoon, we got to Grand Cayman and I was REALLY excited to finally get off the boat cause we'd been on for over 36 hours already! So as soon as we got into a taxi, we were on our way to the beach, we were in a foreign country, I was traveling with Brandon for the first time, I was on a really gorgeous small island, i was a tourist, I WAS ON VACATION! I just had this moment of "ahhhh," I was sitting a couple inches away from the window of the taxi and i looked to see my reflection in the smudged glass, I noticed this oh so very familiar CHEESY, RELENTLESS, UNSTOPABLE smile that was strewn across my round face! And it hit me, "HOLY CRAP I AM DEBBIE!" I just found myself smiling aimlessly, just like my mom does. Happy and there wasn't a darn thing I could do to stop the smiles. I love that my mom is so warm, it's one of those qualities about her that just melts me!

Gosh dang it, i'm tearing up.  Ah, I'm turning into an old lady right before my very eyes. 

I shouldn't brag about this but i'm going to anyways. Brandon and I have been married for a month and spent about $90 dollars on groceries so far! That's nothing! If it sounds like a lot, than you've never seen Bran eat! The man is a carnivous dinosaur! So how do we make it on such a small budget?!? I'm thifty what can i say..............alright, so i'm not. We live 5 minutes from both of our parents! They give us soooo much food it's crazy! We cant keep up! I love it, i'm not complaining! I'm bragging! That's right! Annette and Debster----keep up the good work!! 

 

Honeymoon!

So Muffin and I just got back from our cruise today! We went on a 5 day cruise that left from Tampa then stopped at Grand Cayman, followed by Cozumel Mexico. The cruise was super fun and FATTTEENNNNNING!! Not that I'm a crazy about my weight or anything. It's just that its a little frustrating to work for months and months to lose weight for your wedding day and then in 5 days gain like all of it back! Sorry annoying girl moment. 

This was our first cruise so we didn't know what to expect. Let me demonstrate this in a dialogue between our waiter and Brandon and I at dinner.... 

Waiter: "So I was just curious, did you two pick your cabin number? E1?"

Naive retards: "Yeah....why?"

Waiter (with THICK accent, making me feel dumber): "Well, normally people don't choose cabins at the very front of the boat, because it is really rocky and can make your stay miserable? Have you been feeling sea sick at all?"

Naive retards: "....eh, um...not really..."

                        

P.S. One hour previous, just picture Brandon and I running to the "information" desk to jam sea sick pills down our throats, stumble over to the bar to buy a $4 billion dollar ginger ale, and somehow make it back to the room to lay on our backs, blasting the AC, with green faces. Yeah, not really that sick.

Ha! Anyways, the pills helped and we had a great time! While in Grand Caymen we went snorkeling on two different locations which were gorgeous. We swam with beautiful fishes, the blue one from finding Nemo (Ellen DeGeneres' character), coral, and this ship that sank like 100 years ago!

In Cozumel, Brandon and I went on this excursion at this really nice resort where we got to do climbing walls, which are a lot harder than you think, zip lines, and repel from 60 ft in the air......SCARY!  Afterwards, we snorkeled again, this time all these huge fishes were like 2 inches from my face, we saw a huge school of barracudas!! Unfortunately we didnt remember the underwater camera that day. Brandon's fault, not that i'm bitter. 

We made it to the Temple today which felt so good! We were selfish and indulgent all week long and it felt really good to jump into important necessities!