Epic Blog Fail and Update on Life

Dear family and friends,

I suck at blogging. I love to read all of your blogs, but I never blog my own stuff. I am sorry. Truly, I am. I am not going to make any promises or get your hopes up that I am going to get better, because I probably won't...but accept this update post as a peace offering? Pretty please? Thanks

We have been keeping really busy since my last post in (dare I say it) July. We have spent the summer getting better aquatinted with Southern California by going to the beach, checking out some art museums, driving around Hollywood (it is too ghetto to get out of the car), and checking out the disgusting wealth in Bel Air and the other surrounding areas. 

Due to Keeva being a psychopath anxiety ridden dog, we no longer have a camera to show you lovely pictures of what we have been up to, so the phone camera is going to have to be good enough. 

In August, the Albrecht's came for a visit! We had fun being touristy and hanging out in the beautiful sunshine working on our tans. 

Even little Uriah was loving the beach from his carseat. Isn't he the cutest? 

Keeva got to come play at the beach too. I am not sure she liked being buried, but she didn't get an option. She puts up with a lot: crazy outfits, bows, being hog-tied, buried, etc. 

For Brad's birthday, I decided I wanted to take him to San Diego since he has been talking about going there since we moved here. We didn't realize that is was only an hour drive to get there, otherwise we would have gone sooner. We got to go to the zoo, to the Natural History Museum, all over Balboa park ( an old Spanish settlement that was super cool), the downtown historical GasLamp District, and an artist's village called Spanish Village. We had a ton of fun!

{pictures are on Brad's phone so the have to be MIA until he gets home}

When we got home, Keeva had to go to the vet to get spayed. She was not a happy camper about it, but now we don't have to worry about any little Keevas running around. I think that is definitely more than we could handle. One Keeva is more than enough.  

 Another great thing we found out this summer, is that we are having a baby! Our little one will be here by March 17, yes, St.Patrick's Day, one of the best days of the year! I am 4 months along this week and we just recently found out that our avocado is a BOY! We are so excited and Brad is more than pumped to have a mini-me of him running around the house. He already is making plans for little league, hiking trips, and plenty of other boyish things. I think all of the grandparents are even more excited. This is the first for both sides of my family and the first boy for Brad's family. Needless to say, this little one is going to be one spoiled rotten boy when he gets here in March. :) Look at that adorable profile.

4th of July

As most holidays are to me, 4th of July was all about eating...and some fireworks at Disney to end wrap it up.  We were invited over to our friends house for a barbecue and games. It was a lot of fun and we were so grateful to have someone to spend the holiday with seeing as how we are still pretty new to the area. 

We are loving California and everything to do around here. It seems like every day is beautiful, the sun is shining, and there is always a few butterflies to be seen flying around the palm trees and tropical flowers. Not bad. Never in a million years did we think we would end up here, and never in a million years did we think we would like it. We are grateful to live in this country and have the freedoms to do as we please, live as we please, and live where we please :) God Bless America, home of the free. 

Getting Keeva to leave the bow alone long enough to take this picture was a challenge. 

Mini Cheesecake with gluten free crust :)

Chocolate and patriotic sprinkle dipped strawberries 

Brad trying to keep cool on the porch (check out that long hair and beard!)

Festive food/table

Chicken and veggie skewers, compliments of Jenny

Brad and Brooklind ready for fireworks

Time for an update

Brad and I have been super busy the last few months moving into our new home, painting, starting new projects, going to the beach, etc. Here is what we have been up to: 

A little of this...Yes, that is orange paint you see 

And this...Hide and Seek is fun

And a lot of this...long walks in the sunshine 

And more of that

Which leads to this...Keeva getting tired

And then this...The Getty Museum  

And some of this...relaxing 

And a little of this...hanging in LA 

And unfortunately this...getting Brad new glasses 

Because of this...Keeva destruction 

Due to this...Teething

But you can't be mad because she looks like this

So her and Brad do this...cuddle time

And Brad drinks a lot of this

But we also did this...tiring days at the beach with Sam and Rachel 

And for your viewing pleasure: Some Keeva and Brad dancing, and some vacuum scaring.

That's what we've been up to :) 

Welcome to California

So, our lives have been a whirlwind of craziness lately, and I realize with how fast everything happened, there are quite a few of you who aren't up-to-date with all of our news! So here it is:

Brad and I graduated! WAHOOOOOO! Best accomplishment this far in our lives and we are so happy to be done. I am now a college educated journalist and Brad is a college educated (BFA to boot) graphic designer!

Officially BYU-Idaho Graduates!

Brad's family of supporters

The smallest supporter, baby Uriah Albrecht, born the weekend before graduation!

Even Jenny got to come! Her and brad watching basketball together

My family of supporters

And I won the Newel K. Whitney Scholar Award! Amazing honor :)

During the final semester, Brad had been doing freelance work for a company in Orange County, so after graduation, we decided to make the drive down to meet the owners in person...and make some pit stops along the way :) We stopped in Vegas for a couple of days and had a good time there and then spent time on the beach in California.

After a good meeting with the company, they offered Brad a full time position! Within the next couple of days, we made the decision to move to California, signed a lease on the apartment, and went home to pack our things only to move 6 days later (on Easter) with the amazing help of our friends and family in Rexburg. It was crazy and waaaay fast, but we are so happy with our decision! We live in a beautiful place, Brad LOVES his job, and Keeva and I are kicking it in the sunshine while I figure out my next move in life :)

View of our apartment complex

View from the stairs

Sunset on the beach

Brad and Keeva playing on the beach (15 min from our house)

View of our pool from the courtyard

Pictures of the interior of our home is yet to come. We are still setting things up and getting furniture and things...so we will unveil it all when we finish it :) But until then, feast your eyes on those photo and plan your trip to visit!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Hey everyone! Yes, we do still have a blog, and no, we don't ever update it :) Sorry...

Now that graduation is only 3 weeks away (you heard right, 3 weeks!!!!) I hope to get to my blogging self soon. In the meantime, I will post our St. Patty's Day festivities and introduce the cyber world to our new family member, Keeva, the lab puppy we adopted a couple of weeks ago.

As many of you know, St. Patrick's Day is my second favorite holiday (just under Halloween) and so I have a big party every year. Brad is a good sport and allows me to deck the house out in green and go crazy with the food. This year marked 3 years since Brad and I started officially dating. It was St.Patrick's Day 2008 when it became "official" and now 3 years, 3 houses, 3 weeks till graduation, and a new addition to our family of now 3 later we are still celebrating.

We invited over some family and friends for our party and it was a pretty good time. Here are some pics:

cute and very pregnant Hillary in the decked out kitchen. That adorable shamrock garland you see was made by my awesome sister-in-law Amy, check out her crafts here

Our modge-podge dinner table set-up

All of the cute decorations, mostly made last year along with my Dublin bear from Angie.

Keeva just hanging out in her Shamrock scarf from Amy before everyone got there. As a side note, we tried to train her not to ever get on the couch...that obviously didn't work.

The super cute framed text is from Amy of course :)

These cupcakes were me pride and joy- they may look bad, but the tasted amazing. They are rich chocolate cooked with beer and irish cream frosting. The flags are from Amy.

The traditional corned beef (i had to make a ton because there was 11 of us)

Cabbage soup, one of my favorites

Brad hanging out watching the basketball game on his cell phone haha

By the end of the night, Keeva was exhausted!

And just for fun, here are some more pics of Keeva on a movie slideshow. She is a 3 month-old black labrador puppy. We love having her around (even if she is teething and going through a biting stage). We got her 2 weeks ago and then almost lost her to the terrible puppy virus, Parvo. Poor little thing spent a week in the hospital battling for her life and Brad and I spent a week at home trying not to stress ourselves out with worry. We are glad she is feeling better and back to attacking everything that moves and wreaking havoc on our baseboards.

Well, that is what we have been up to. We are still on the hunt for jobs and we really don't have any for sure plans for after graduation. There are some pretty promising leads, but as of now, it's all up in the air. It is crazy to really have no idea where your life will end up and not know where we will be living in a month, but it is also kind of exciting. :) Wish us luck!

Christmas

So by request, I am putting up Christmas pictures! Yes, I know it was last spring when I last updated! Sorry :)

I love Christmas, and I love decorating for Christmas, so I went all out this year. It was the first year that I was able to decorate because it was our first Christmas at home.

It turns out, I am highly allergic to pine trees. I touched one and my hand swelled up and turned into a rash, so Brad told me that we had to have a fake tree! As disappointed as I was, he bought me this little miniature pine tree for the side shelf. I love it.

This was the garland and bow I got for the kitchen window (sorry the pictures are so dark)

My cute cocoa set from my ward's Young Women's as my wedding present 2 years ago!

My adorable place-mats and centerpieces. Thanks Mom and Sam!

Good smelling pine cones and the cookie jar Brad INSISTED we get. haha

Kitchen (again sorry the pictures are so dark!)

Our record player all Christmased out with our stockings and candy-cane garland.

Our Christmas tree! It was absolutely beautiful in silver and red with a pearl star! Even the presents matched :)

These are the no-bake cookies that Brad and I made for the neighbors. It was fun to continue on the family traditions of baking for the neighbors.

Me, with all of the presents from Brad's family. Thanks you guys I loved it all!

Brad with all of his presents from his family! I think he liked the cooking hat the best!