Porter's Baptism/Easton's Birthday

On February second our sweet nephew, Porter, made the decision to get baptized.

I don't think I have ever known and eight year old who knew with such assurance that he wanted to be baptized into the LDS church.  He definitely has an amazing spirit about him that is unlike any other kid his age.  I was so impressed by how much he knew, and how excited he was.  He is a huge blessing in my life!  The strongest kid I know, for sure!

Brad and I with Porter.  He is such a stud!

We tried to get everyone in the picture, but it was a little hard!  So this is what we got :)

We are so proud of you Porter!

After Porter's baptism we went back to Nikki's house to celebrate Porter being baptized and Easton's first birthday that was coming up!  

Nikki has her boys eat the own cake for their first birthday!  Such a cute tradition, and Easton LOVED the cake!  He was so cute because he broke his wrist a couple days before the party and had to have a huge cast put on his arm!  Poor little guy didn't let that stop him at all though!  He was completely covered in blue frosting by the time he was finished....and I was lucky enough to be holding him when all that blue frosting came back up ;) haha

He was upset because he was tired of being held and getting pictures taken.  I still thought the picture was so cute/funny though!

I seriously love being an aunt.  Especially to the four sweet nephews that I have.

So Brad bought me a huge monkey when we were living on the east coast before we got married.  He got it for me just before he left for Alaska!  Every time we have Easton with us at our house he just loves that monkey, so we thought that for his first birthday it would be perfect to buy him a huge bear!  He LOVED it!  It made me so happy to see him respond to it!  

Nikki sends me the cutest pictures of him sleeping with it all the time now, and it's the best!  It's bigger than him, and so so cute!

He didn't like that Brad was laying on it so he kept trying to push him off haha!

 Did I already mention how much I love being an aunt?  Well, it's the best thing!  I love these boys so much!  They are the sweetest boys in the world!  I don't know what I would do without them!

Jshuaaa

I love my brother.

It's that simple.

Of course we fought when we were younger, but now that we're older we are the bestest of friends.  He makes me laugh so much, and we both have the same weird, dry humor that we both get!  

I love it!

I can just look at him in certain situations, and we will both just crack up laughing.

He's probably one of the smartest people I know, and also one of the most loving.  He'll probably kill me for saying it, but he really is such a caring person.  Sometimes I wish I was as understanding as he was.  He's the best, and I am glad that we have such a good relationship!

We took this picture a few weeks ago when we had a little ski date, and I just loved it because all growing up I have never thought we looked like each other until we took this.  We still don't really, but this is the only time I have ever seen any resemblance.

I have the worlds greatest brother.

That's a fact.

Love you Jshy! 

Cabin Time

I know...I'm a little behind

I always am.

This trip was sometime in January :)

Each year since Brad and I started dating we've gone to Ben's cabin in January.

This year was our third time, and it was so fun thinking back on the very first time we came because it was our first big date!

Ben let us borrow one of his snowmobiles, and we had three other couples with us!

We left at night sometime and drove up to hardware ranch where we left the cars and took the snowmobiles from there!

We got to the cabin, got out of all our wet clothes and hung out!  We always bring a rotisserie chicken up, and it was so good because we were starving by the time we got there!

Everyone finished eating and then we played discombobulation!  It's a way fun game, and we seriously just a laughed all night!  It was so fun!  I always have loved hanging out with Brad and his friends because they are so witty and we always laugh a ton!

We slept in the little cabin, and then snowmobiled the next day!

It's not as scary during the day :) haha, but Brad and I usually manage to crash or get stuck or something at least once, but we usually laugh it off and talk about how funny it was later!

gettin' ready to go!

Tyson and Megan in the cabin!

The girlies 

The cabin!

Tyson and Megan on their snowmobile!

Me and Bradley on our snowmobile

I love my Bradley

I love that Brad and I can be in any kind of situation and always have a good time!  That's one of the many things I love about him!  It's so fun that we already have little traditions and things that we look forward to each year!  Of course it's up to Ben to invite us each year, but he usually manages to do that:)

Palomaki's

I finally finished writing about our time in Europe!

It took me almost two months...that's pretty bad, but hey it's done now! :) 

I wanted to do one more post just to thank the Palomaki's for all that they did for us!

They are the strongest and cutest little family!  Brad and I are so blessed to have them in our lives.  They showed us so much love while we were there visiting them, and it's hard to have visitors for that long, but they always made us feel welcomed!  We were so impressed by how they have raised their sweet daughter Victoria and we are so excited to hear about the birth of their next little Palo.  They are such great parents!

We would have never had the opportunity to go to places that both Brad and I hold close to us without them!  They are so special and we are so so happy that we were able to spend so much time with them! We had so many laughs and memories that were made!  We definitely will always have them apart of our lives.  

Thanks Aurelie and Michael for being so kind and generous to us!  We love you, and we can't wait till we can see you again!  Next stop...Utah or France?  Or how about both?  ;)

Last, but not least, thank you Victoria.  We love you, and we are so happy to have gotten to know you and play with you!  We are so excited for your little brother to come!

Vi alskar dig!

Sweden 1/7 *Our Anniversary*

Our last day in Sweden was very relaxed.

We made sure we got all our goodies and souvenirs to bring back to the states!  Their chocolate along with Belgium's was so die for!  I'm not much of a chocolate fan, but I really liked the chocolate there!  They also really like salty black licorice.  Weird huh?  I couldn't get myself to like it!  I tried one and that was it for me!  It was pretty funny to watch Brad and I try that for the first time! 

That night we had dinner with the Palomaki's really good friends that lived in the same building as them.  It was so much fun!  They made such a yummy meal, and then after dinner we had an almond cake that had a little figure hidden in the middle of it.  They called it Galette du Roi.  It's a tradition that they do in France (Aurelie is from France, also Belgium borders France) at the beginning of the year.  The youngest person gets to decide who gets which piece of the cake while sitting under the table...which ended up being me haha!  Then whoever's piece had the figure in it is the "king" for the whole year and everyone has to do what they say for the rest of the year.  It was lots of fun and delicious! :)

Sitting under the table deciding who gets the pieces!

The little one's wanted to join me! haha

Winner!  You have the wear the crown, and the little thing in his hand is what was in the cake!

Victoria and her friend Linea playing!

Victoria is amazing at winking, so Brad was trying to get her to wink.   I only caught Brad winking like  a goof! haha  We caught her on video though...it's so funny and cute!

After the Palo's went to sleep that night we celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY with some sparking cider from Sweden!  We felt so blessed to be able to spend our anniversary in Sweden.  I can't believe that one year went by so fast!  I swear it was just yesterday that he proposed to me!  It's crazy how fast time goes by!  And of course I have to mention how amazing my husband is!  I really don't know how I got so lucky!  I am 100% myself when I am with Brad and he seriously makes me laugh everyday!  He knows me perfectly!  He loves me and loves all my flaws!  He puts up with my crazy girl moods and makes me feel important everyday!  He supports me in everything that I do, and he is my #1 support with my cystic fibrosis.  I don't think I could have found anyone else in this whole world that would accept that piece of me and I seriously couldn't be more grateful!  He makes me want to do my treatments and take my pills so I can have that extra time in my life to spend with him!  He encourages me to be a better person and wants me to succeed in everything that I do!  He is so thoughtful, loving, kind, genuine, outgoing, handsome, selfless, hardworking, smart and so much more!  I could go on and on!  Getting married to him was the best decision I ever made!  I am healthier, stronger, and happier with him.  I wouldn't want my life any other way.

I love you Bradley!

One year! <3

Our yummy Swedish sparkling cider!

Liege, Belgium 1/6

Our last day was spent in Liege.

We stayed with the Foniciello's on Saturday night after we were done exploring Namur.

It was about a hour train ride from Namur to Liege.

The Foniciello family was so nice to us, and made us feel right at home!  I was so lucky to be able to spend time with some members that Brad was able to get to know on his mission!

On Sunday we went to the church in Liege that Brad attended!  It was so fun because I got to meet so many people!  Brad was a little nervous that people wouldn't remember him as well as he remembered everyone else, but everyone was so excited to see him!  Hardly anyone spoke english so Brad had to translate everything for me!

Aurelie, Michael and Brad all bore their testimonies, and the spirit was seriously so strong there!  Every one of them made me cry a little (I had a translator).  I can see why Brad and Michael together were such powerful missionaries!  It was a really cool experience for me.

She fell asleep on Brad during church!  It was so cute!

Standing in front of the church!  Brad has this exact picture from his mission!

A few of the people that I had the opportunity to meet!  

I loved that even though I was an ocean and countries away from Utah, the church remained the same.  Although it was all in a different language, the spirit was felt there, and all the same things were taught! I loved it!  I am so grateful for the church and all the happiness it has brought me in my life!

Have I mentioned it enough that Victoria loved Brad?  

After church we went back to the Foniciello's for some dinner!  It was delicious!  Then we had to drive back to Brussels to catch our plane back to Sweden! 

In the airport!  She had so much fun on Brad's shoulders!

Our stay in Belgium flew by!  It was short but sweet!  I felt to lucky to be able to go back to Brad's mission and meet all the amazing people that he had the opportunity of teaching.  I have a greater appreciation for my husband and his service as a missionary!  It is so fun to look at his pictures now because I view them differently because i have actually been there.  It's amazing to me, it really is! And we wouldn't have been able to do any of that if it weren't for the Palomaki's.  They are one amazing family!  We will forever be indebted to them.

Namur, Belgium 1/5

Beautiful Namur.

By far my most favorite place we were able to visit.

I don't know if it was because they were the pictures I could most remember that Brad showed me of his mission, or if it was just because Namur was so so pretty to me!

We woke up in Brussels...spent 40 euros on breakfast because we didn't realize we had to pay for it, we thought it was included in our stay...oops!  All we could do was laugh about it! Haha one of the many moments we continue to bring up and laugh about.  The most expensive cereal I have ever had in my life...that's for sure!

We then took an hour train ride to Namur.  This is the very first place Brad served when he first came to Belgium.  It was a lot different from Brussels because it wasn't as full of tourists.  Hardly anyone knew english at all, so I relied %100 on Brad to get us everywhere.  The first place he took me to was where his apartment was.

This where he lived!  Notice the nice lingerie shop?  Yep, his apartment was directly above that!  It's so weird because he told me about it so many times, and it was awesome to actually be there and see where he lived.  It didn't seem real.

We were there on a Saturday, and all the streets were full of booths for all sorts of stuff.  There was so many people.  Brad told me that it's only like that on Saturday's and all the other days aren't even like that!  But it was so fun to walk around!

The next place he took me was this pretty park that was super quiet when we were there!  But Brad said that it is usually chuck full of people hanging out!  It was so pretty!

The next place that we saw was another cathedral!  It's just randomly found in twisted roads, and I have no idea how Brad remembered how to get there but he did it!  

I got the exact same picture with it that Brad got on his mission!  We've been trying to get all our pictures together that we were able to take the same!  It's been really fun!

How all of the roads were!  Tall and skinny with cobblestone!  I loved it!

After that we followed a river till we got to our next place!  It was so quiet and so pretty everywhere!  It was so fun to just walk, hold hands and be in awe with everything I saw!  It was cool because Brad told me that whenever he would walk this he always thought how cool it would be to have his future wife with him and walk along this river...and there I was! :)  It was so fun for me!

The River we walked by on the cobblestone behind Brad!

We finally got to the coolest part of Namur!  Brad called it a citadelle.  The best way he described it to me was it is like a fortress.  It was a big war site because there was two big rivers that ran along side it and then came together in front of it so they had a lot of control over what came through the rivers.  It is beyond massive!  There are tons of tunnels and draw bridges and all sorts of fun stuff.  It was crazy to think that people really fought wars there!  We had the opportunity to walk through it!  It was difficult to get a good picture of all of it because it's so big and full of trees and stuff, but the view from on top of it is so amazing!

The view from the citadelle

Another view from it!

walking up it!  

Places for guns!  I made Brad pretend he was shooting out of them!

When we were going back down it Brad said he knew of a different way to get down.  It had changed a little bit because we were going down way steep, sketchy, muddy hills and holding onto fences to we didn't fall haha!  It was so funny!  We had gone so far already that we just had to keep going...and once again, all we could do it about it is just laugh!

When we finished with our little adventure we were starving and Brad knew just the place he wanted to take me...to another place we could get a mitraillette!  He was obsessed to say the least!  But they were good so i didn't complain!  They were also massive! haha

Namur was my favorite like I said before!  We had a ton of laughs and I really tried to imagine what it must have been like for Brad being there on his mission!  I can't even imagine how it was!  It is still hard for me to think that he was there!  We are once again SO blessed to have been able to go there!

Brussels, Belgium 1/4

We finally had made it to Belgium!

I was so excited, but I can't even describe Brad's feelings!  I can't imagine what it must have been like living there for 2 years, and then finally being back again.  Everything came back to him a lot quicker than he thought!  His french was awesome, and he got us around everywhere he wanted to.  I was very impressed!  When we first arrived we had to hurry and catch a train to get to the heart of Brussels.  This folks was my first site of Belgium...

I have been on many trains...but this one was probably by far the sketchiest one I have ever set foot on! haha Brad just laughed and said "Welcome to Belgium"!

The picture doesn't do it justice!

We got off the train and took a subway to the church that Brad attended when we was there.  We met up with some of the people he met on his mission that were waiting for us at the church.  Veronique, Jhoffer, and one of their buddies are members that we got to hang out with all day.  I was especially touched by Veronique because she was beyond excited to see Brad.  Brad had told me stories about her before, but he is way to humble to have said anything she told me!  Brad is the reason she joined the church and to hear her testimony of her conversion and how she is so grateful for Brad was so amazing!  I was literally holding back tears when she spoke of Brad.  

The church!

It was so fun to be with them all day because they knew so much history behind everything we visited! Also, because they don't know english very well so it forced Brad to speak in french all day.  I was a little bit out of the loop, but it was so good for him to catch up on his french!  It was really fun to listen to hims speak so well.  

Brussels was beautiful, even on a little rainy day.  The pictures I have seriously don't do it justice!  The buildings are huge and so old!  It was in awe all day!

Le Palais Royal

Grande Place eating some frites!  So so yummy!

L'Hotel De Ville with Veronique

La Maison du Roi

Inside Grand Place, the L'Hotel De Ville is on the left side and La Maison du Roi is on the right side!  I'm surrounded by so many tall buildings! 

Touch it for good luck!

Manneken-Pis...a very famous little tiny statue!  It made me laugh when they showed me it!

Yummy belgium waffles! 

Le Cinquantenaire

La Cathedrale St.-Michel

Eating Brad's favorite food that he was looking most forward to.  Some Mitraillette's!  

Our hotel we stayed in that night in Brussels!  We had no idea what it was going to look like or anything, and it was so fun and colorful!

Inside the main lobby!

Our room! The picture lights up and makes the whole place red!

They even had red toilet paper! haha it was so funny!

We had such a great time in Brussels!  It was so fun to come back to the hotel and just hang out for a little bit, especially because our first year anniversary was in a just a few days, and it was a perfect way to spend it!  I can't remember the number of times I thought to myself that I couldn't believe I was actually there!  I felt so blessed and so lucky!