anniversary.

Our 4 year anniversary was perfect for where we're at in our lives right now.  We decided that for this year we'd keep it pretty low-key compared to other years where we've gone to places like Daniel's Summit and gone snowshoeing, Johnson's Mill (where we honeymooned and spent our first anniversary), or the Castle Creek Inn and enjoyed yummy chinese cuisine.

This year, we settled on Apartment #5 in Provo, UT.  We stayed home!  And hey, we've only lived here for a couple of months so far so it's pretty much a new place to stay at anyways.  

We started the morning off with yogurt and granola parfaits (compliments of T) and exchanging gifts.  Every year I expect to give T his gift the evening of our anniversary, but every year he's too excited to give me mine so we end up exchanging the morning of!

This year, T handed me one incredibly thoughtful gift.  An "angel caller" necklace similar to this one.  Baby Girl was kicking at it all day long.  It has the most beautiful little chime/bell sound in the ball and it will be fun to see Baby Girl play with it and listen to the familiar sound when she's outside the womb.  

T does a pretty awesome job with surprising me with thoughtful gifts.  He knows I'm all about the thought behind a gift.

With that in mind, I handed him my super thoughtful gift of running shoes (that he picked out last week!).  At least it was my idea to get him shoes.  He needed some badly.  

We both headed off to work and I rushed home to get some of the house chores done and put up a sign before T got home.

T walked in the house while I was finishing cleaning the toilet.  Yep.  Super romantic, right?  He had a beautiful bouquet of flowers in his hand and I was holding a toilet brush.

Nonetheless, we both laughed and I got to smell my flowers.  He'd put in the order a while ago and made sure there were certain flowers in the bouquet that the knew I'd like.

Man is he a keeper!

Then it was off to Texas Roadhouse for some grub.  We definitely could've gone somewhere a little more romantic, but we both were in the mood for some down home cookin' and some meat!

It was actually pretty busy for a Wednesday night at 6:00, so we were happy we called ahead and got a reservation.  We were seated and served by the nicest waitresses (who got a nice tip from us at the end of the night) and we pigged out on peanuts.

Then they brought out the famous Texas Roadhouse rolls and we pigged out some more...

In lieu of our anniversary (and our very first date where I almost died of embarrassment eating onion rings in front of T), we ordered the Bloomin' Onion Appetizer.

Mmm hmm!  Yum!

Then came our main dishes.  The waitress handed T my order.  I think she saw the stack of ribs and BBQ chicken with a side of mashed potatoes and immediately thought it must be the mans dinner.

Nope, sorry.  Hand it over to the pregnant lady!

[and these were dang good ribs!  I only shared a bite or two with T...}

T ordered the roadkill steak with steak fries.

No worries though, we both ordered our salads beforehand too.  We got our rabbit food in.

We spent the meal laughing and talking about our past 4 years.  It's always fun to review the past and how we both think the years have gone.  Holding hands with T across the table always makes me excited to see where the future takes us.  I know we've had some difficult times that has brought us both to tears, but man oh man have we had some goooood times that we've made incredible memories with!

Happy 4 years to us!  Here's to seeing the exciting changes year 5 is going to bring!

4 years married to my best friend and lover.

Today we've been married for 4 years.

1,460 days to be exact.

4 years ago I arrived at the Bountiful temple with nervous flutters in my stomach, but oh so ready to be married to T.  After a year and a half of dating/engagement, we were pretty ready to just be married.  Our wedding day was perfect.  We kept it pretty simple and basic (due to the fact we got married in the middle of my student teaching and in the middle of the semester). 

The weather was awesome- sunny, cloudy, overcast, light sprinkles, and even a light snow at times.  It was fun to get pictures done with all the different weather going on!  AND props to my cousin who took our wedding pictures after having a baby less than 2 weeks before our wedding.  She rocks.

Our sealing was one of the most spiritual moments of my life.  Kneeling over the altar from my soon-to-be eternal companion and holding his hand was both humbling and exciting.  We were sealed by one of T's family friends in their stake.  Brother Sargeant gave us beautiful advice and made us laugh and cry.  I will never forget the moment we got our glimpse into eternity looking into the forever mirrors.  Our first kiss as husband and wife makes me smile thinking back on it.  T and I had both talked beforehand that our first kiss as a married couple would not be a wimpy peck.  Getting sealed for eternity meant sealing it with a dang good kiss.  At that it was!

I remember walking out of the bride's room in the Bountiful temple and walking out to meet T for the first time in my wedding dress.  He was sitting on a bench, leaning over with his hands clasped between his legs and looking at the floor.  He heard my heels on the floor and looked up and got the biggest grin on his face and just said, "Wow."

Walking out of the temple together and meeting our families was amazing.  We both couldn't stop smiling and laughing!

T's mom did a great job with our luncheon (we just showed up a little late due to having too much fun taking pictures!  Whoops...).  Our reception was fabulous.  My old catering teacher made our 3-tiered cake, my mom along with aunts and grandmas made some dang good food, and we got to reconnect and meet with some of the most amazing people.  One thing about our reception we'll never forget is the fact that we had people coming constantly.  They never stopped.  We never sat and hardly got to eat much!  We were both so grateful for the amount of time and money people spent to come see us and join us for our day.  It made it that much more special.  

Our cake was delicious.  The garter toss was rockin' and so was the bouquet toss.  

Then it was onto the honeymoon.  

Suffice it to say, we enjoyed ourselves.

Now, 4 years later, I still get nervous flutters in my stomach when T comes home from work.  Our marriage is soaring and we can't wait to meet this Baby Girl of ours.  It's amazing to look back on what we've done and accomplished together in the past 4 years and even more exciting to look forward to the future and see what's in store for us.  I may not know exactly what the Lord has in mind for us, but I do know I'll be doing it with my best friend at my side.

{engagement #1}

{engagement #1}

{engagement #2}

 {engagement #3}

{first picture as a married couple!}

 {a favorite}

 {we still need to make this one into a canvas...}

 {another favorite}

 {nose kisses}

 {T's hands.  They truly are the best hands. *sigh*}

{love.}

 {jumping.  my feet hurt pretty bad after this one!}

 {a top favorite}

Happy anniversary to the love of my life.  I hold every moment close to my heart.  We've had some struggles, we've been at odds sometimes, but man oh man has the good always overshadowed everything else!  Here's to my patient, caring, loving, and ever attentive husband and soon-to-be father.  

I love you and I always will.

weekend getaway.

I took a day off.

I always do in March around our anniversary.  It's the only time of the school year that I take off for a personal day so that T and I can go relax and not think about work or the rest of life going on around us.

It's a time where we take time for each other and our marriage.

We like it.

This year we took off to Daniel's Summit Lodge.  We go there a lot for hot cocoa in the winter, but we've never actually stayed at the lodge.  We rented one of their queen cabins and stayed overnight.

What we didn't expect was how much snow we'd get on our overnighter!  We said hello to 5 inches of fresh new powder the day we arrived.  

It was beautiful and breathtaking sight.  Literally, though.  The wind was blowing so hard that it took our breath away.

{Checking into our little cabin abode for the evening}

{Cabin Numero Uno}

The next morning we woke up and ate a large breakfast of biscuits 'n' gravy for T and french toast and eggs for yours truly.  

Check out wasn't until 11:00, but we packed up around 10:00, snapped a quick picture inside the cabin, and went out into the frigid wind to start our snowshoeing adventure.

{Quaint and cozy little cabin}

We piled on the layers and set off for snowshoeing around the surrounding area and into Lodgepole Campground just North of Daniel's Summit.  Lodgepole also happens to be where where most of my summers as a child were spent camping, hiking, and roasting mallows).  Props to my sisters who let us mooch off of them and borrow their snowshoes so we wouldn't have to rent.

The snow was as high as most of the fence posts that we saw.  The upcoming pictures don't do the snow as much justice as it truly deserves.  If we didn't have snowshoes on, I'm sure I would've sunk right to the bottom and had the snow covering my head.

 {Super cold.  Super white.  Super windy.  Super fun.}

   

{Snowshoeing King}

{Snowshoeing Love}

And, of course, we had to grab some hot cocoa after our bitter-cold adventure.  See this post for my Daniel's Summit hot cocoa addiction/obsession.  I had cocoa for every meal we ate at Daniel's Summit this time around.  It is seriously heavenly goodness in a mug.

Even T agrees with me.  It is delish.

  An attractive husband, good food, adventures, and lots of warm blankets always make for a great anniversary.

3 year mark

3 years.

36 months.

156 weeks.

1095 days.

They all add up to the amount of time that T and I have been married.

It's been bliss.  It's been work.  It's been passion and love.  It's been happy summers and long school days.  It's been once a week mac and cheese nights.  It's been first-time gardening.  It's been days of service.  

There have been days of frustration and irritation.  We've learned from our mistakes and moved forward through our weaknesses.  Our strengths have added to our relationship.  "Mine" and "Yours" has been combined to "ours."  

I can honestly say that I've never had more fun than I have being married.  T is my best friend.  He truly is my everything.  He knows exactly what buttons to push to make me irritated, but he also knows exactly what to do to make me feel loved and appreciated.

I love him.   He's my dreamboat.  

Today he surprised me with a beautifully sentimental gift that I will treasure throughout our marriage.

It came in this box...

It's something you can wear around your neck...

It's a gorgeous heart charm.  If you look a little closer you can see a special engraving on the inside of the heart...

{freckle neck}

T had it engraved to say, "T's pretty girl."  It's an adorable endearment that T calls me.  I've always been his "pretty girl."  And for a girl that hasn't always been confident about how she looks, he's the best confidence boost.

T woke up to a special gift, too!  

His very own iPod Nano. He wanted the smaller size to wear in a watchband and to run with.  He was one happy and surprised hubby this morning!

T spoiled me even further with fresh tulips when I got home from S.E.P conferences today!  He has classes until 8:30 tonight and he was so sweet to let me know that he was still thinking of me.  Doesn't get much better than that.

It's been a great 3 years.  

I'm so excited to see what the next 3 years brings us.  It's going to be good.

I just know it.

March Madness

March really has been maddening.

It's been a crazy, exciting, exhilarating, and all around fabulous month for us in the Kussee household!

First of all, JaeKaeNae was reunited on the lucky day of St. Patrick's Day! After several months of not getting together and Kae living in another state, we finally got to catch up and talk about where our futures are taking us! It's exciting that we're all headed down different roads and at different points in our lives and careers.

Oh how it's great to be with old friends!

March 19th is one of my very favorite days out of the entire year.

It's the day I was married to my best friend.

It's been 2 years since that delightful March day and I couldn't be happier with my choice in a husband.

Everyone kept telling us that the 1st year would be the hardest.

Then they changed their minds and said that the 2nd year would be the hardest.

I have yet to see how they were "hard." Of course we've had our ups and downs, but there have been an exceptional more amount of ups than the minuscule amount of downs. Forget about having hard years. Wouldn't you rather just want to know that you had loved hard? That's what we try to do here in the Kussee home!

To celebrate our special day, we went to one of our favorite Bed and Breakfasts, the "Castle Inn" in Sandy.

We love it because the rooms aren't decorated too cheesy and the service there is great!

This year, we stayed in the "Excalibur" room.

We liked it even more than last years room.

We stepped into our room and followed the path of scarlet roses around the room.

Of course we had to take a picture in the midst of the roses...

Can't let a great picture taking opportunity go to waste!

One thing we've looked forward to on our anniversary is going to one of our favorite restaurants.

The Asian Star is right around the corner from the Castle Inn and has scrumptious food and a delightful staff. Everything we've tried has been succulent and delicious.

Not to mention that the serving sizes are enormous.

We got smart this year and just ordered one entree for the both of us along with lettuce wraps.

We still had enough leftovers for another meal!

Which really is saying something because my husband sure can eat his fill at the dinner table!

As I've been teaching this year I've been really frustrated that I've had so much going on that I haven't gotten around to doing a lot of science. My schedule is packed with teaching/reteaching the English Language Learners in the 2nd grade, juggling conferences and new teacher trainings, and still trying to keep my students on a relatively consistent track in math and language arts.

Who has time for science, right?

I was already getting to school before 7 in the morning and leaving at 7 at night. I've had a rule this year to get everything done on the weekdays and have time for my family, hobbies, and church callings on the weekends.

It didn't leave a whole lot of time for family, exercising, and sometimes I put off eating!

But here's the real dilemma.

My students LOVE learning and science one of their favorite subjects.

After going to a conference in Vegas with a few coworkers and our principal, I have been determined to get on board and really work towards getting hands-on science in our classroom. It's meant working a little longer hours and doing things at home (which I really hate bringing work home).

BUT it's all been worth it! I love my job and I love getting my little monsters excited for learning.

This week, we started our Moon Unit. They did some awesome artwork with glue and watercolors to make moons and we put together these moon fact displays.

We've never had so much fun watercoloring!

(check out this student's itty bitty space ship going to the moon)

All of their very colorful moons and exceptional artwork. This class is chalk FULL of little blossoming artists!

This is our very own Monsters vs. Aliens door.

My own little monsters will be choosing to decorate an alien or a monster during their free time tomorrow and we'll put them on our door with our rocket!

The thing I'm MOST excited about for this Moon Unit is our class "Moon Log."

Each student gets to take it home one night during the next 30 days. They draw what the moon looked like on the night they took the bag home and get to read out of our special solar system book that goes home in the bag.

It's a fast and easy assignment for them to do at home, but they are so excited!

We start tomorrow!

We're also learning the phases of the moon tomorrow with one of milk's favorite cookies...

OREO's!

Any lesson involving food HAS to be good, right?

(I can't take credit for most of the ideas above. They are all mostly from this site.)

Stay tuned for our butterfly life cycle unit coming up at the end of next week! We'll be raising our own butterflies and releasing them in about a month or so.

March has been so good to us and I have so much energy to finish out this school year! There is NO way that I'm going to fizzle out at the end. We'll be sprinting to the Finish Line and learning everyday until school is officially out.

I should apologize for all of the posts about my classroom.

But I won't.

It takes up my life AND T's life is many ways!

Happy March.

P.s. T started a new blog about some interests he has. Click here to go to it!

Update: Poem Form

There once was a girl who taught in the first grade

and many games she made.
Melinda was a great mentor
And was never a bore

This same girl celebrated one year
with her very sweet dear.
They stayed in a Castle room
and that weekend didn't even touch a broom.
(go here for pictures of our castle)

Misty finally landed back in the states
Thank goodness she wasn't late.
We made lots of pretty signs
and my man looked pretty fine.

Jay turned 22
"Woohoo!"
T spoiled her rotten
with a pair of lovely moccasins.

March and April have treated us well
And next week will be even more swell.
J finally graduates
isn't that so great?!