December 30, 2013

Highlights of 2013

It has been such an exciting year! I knew 2013 was somethin special but I completely underestimated it! It has been far beyond amazing and I am so grateful for every moment I have had! The highlights listed are just a little speckle of the happiness and joy that Drew and I have experienced this past year. What a journey we have had!! And to think it is just the beginning...
//         //          // 
January- Kate turned 21! Drew bought the ring.
February- Got engaged!!!
March- Kate & Drew managed to go on dates every weekend while living 111 miles away from each other.
April- Attended 3/4 sessions of General Conference up in Salt Lake.
May- Kate graduated from SUU & went through the temple.
June- Kate & Drew tied the knot!!! Got sealed in the Manti Temple.
July- Drew's siblings came to town and we got family pictures. Kate & Drew found an apartment in St. George and moved down!
August- Drew started school at Dixie State University!
September- Kate cut her bangs. Kate & Drew shared their first crepe from Breakfast at Tifiny's!
October- Went to state tennis to watch Kambry! Also went to Thriller.
November- Started a new tradition called "Novemberween" with Drew's friends from Cedar.
December- Got to spend Christmas with both Kate's and Drew's family. Drew turned 23!
//               //              //
What an exciting year it has been! 2013 was wonderful... but I know that 2014 will be EVEN BETTER!!!
Happy New Year!

Love,
Kate

December 29, 2013

Winter // 6 month Photoshoot

Well we just so happened to get snow in St. George right around the time of our 6th month anniversary, AND our friend suggested to take our pictures so of course we didn't oppose!
Enjoy the pics!




 










Love,
Kate

Our FIRST Christmas!

Our first Christmas was wonderful! It was cut a little too short, but it was so much fun and worth the 24 hours that we were with our family.
Christmas eve we drove up to Richfield for the annual Christmas party at Grandma Micki's house. This year Drew and I got a gift together and so we both put on an oven mitt and opened it together! (Tradition goes that you have to wear two mittens while you open your gift from Grandma Micki & Grandpa Doug) So it was much easier to open our gift than in past years ;)
It was a blast to be with all of our relatives and the food was delicious. We stuffed our faces and before we knew it we were already home from the party ready to open our Christmas pajamas!!
We took some fun pics together with all the siblings and then we spent some time around the piano singing some Christmas songs.
We ended the night by watching the Nativity on lds.org and it was absolutely perfect.
That night all five of us slept in the same room together because it's tradition. This year however was a little different because we had a new face with us! Drew brought a different excitement with it all. A new magic. It was amazing! Hardly any of us got any good sleep and we were ready to go down stairs to see what Santa brought us before we knew it! Drew and Konner were the first ones down stairs I'm pretty sure, but us girls were right behind them!
We spent the morning just the seven of us together opening presents and laughing and smiling together. Drew got an actual REAL "big" nerf gun from my parents this year! (last year they got him a temple bag wrapped in a nerf gun box-- he got so excited about he "nerf gun" but it really wasn't that... so of course they had to get him a real one this year!)

 And we exchanged our gifts that we got each other after drawing names. I got Kam an iphone case, Kinsley got Drew his favorite movie: Home Alone, Konner got me some earrings, and Drew got Konner a lego!!
  Konner had told us on the phone that he wanted "a lego" and so we decided to trick him and literally wrap up one little lego for him to open! HA!!! It was so funny. We then gave him his real present-- a lego set. He loved it! It was a funny little joke :) [pictured above]
Later that morning we went to Grandma Carol's house for traditional Christmas morning crepes! I had told Drew all about this favorite tradition of mine and so he had his standards set pretty high. Luckily he wasn't let down at all and he fell in love with the tradition as well!
[the cute sisters]
  Later that afternoon we made it back home but for only a short while. We got to visit with some friends that stopped by to say hi and then we were on the road before we knew it.
We headed to Cedar where we spent the evening with Drew's family!

 We got there right in time for their beautiful and delicious Christmas dinner. We ate and chatted and got to talk to his sister Katie on the phone which was a treat! Then we opened presents and eventually ended the night by playing some games with the fam around the dinner table. It was a hoot! We played "Hedbanz" and it was hilarious!! It was a lot of fun!
  The next morning we just bummed around until we had to leave to get back to St. George in time for work.
 That pretty much sums up our first Christmas experience! We were so blessed to be able to spend Christmas day with both our families!!! 
We got some fun games. 
 Drew gave me some cute nail polish (because I have none) ...he's the best!
 We got Arvo watches which we are both completely in love with.
 And grandma Micki sent us home with some of her homemade divinity! It's heavenly!!
Oh and we are building our movie collection! It is a fantastic sight :) We love movies! 
 Of course I had to take a picture of our nerf guns. I forgot to mention that Drew's first nerf gun (the one I gave him on his birthday) was actually MINE because I knew he'd be getting one on Christmas.
Ha, I have to defend myself somehow! No worries though, although it's small, don't underestimate its power! It shoots pretty fast!!!
 My sweet Grandpa Perry gave us these books for our "family" :) I love it!
 And of course Drew got some things for his PlayStation! 
Drew's parents got us a cute pretzel jar for Drew's obsession with pretzels haha ;)
and they also got us lunch bags so we can pack our lunches to work!
 They also gave us some stackable containers too! They will definitely be put to good use.
 But I think one of our favorite gifts was this bean bag! We have needed one since we got married and now we finally have one! YAY! We love it.
It was such a great Christmas full of love, blessings, family, loved ones, yummy food, and memories. 
Thank you so much to our loved ones who made all of it possible!!!
Love,
Kate

December 23, 2013

Southern Utah Weddings Blog!

Exciting news!!! 
Drew and I are on the St. George Wedding's blog today!!! It's so exciting to know that your photographer loved your session so much that she submitted it to the St. George Wedding blog! 
Drew and I are ecstatic about it! ha ha!
See it here.
Please read it. It sums up our entire photography session perfectly!
If you're from Southern Utah and you're getting married in 2014, you definitely need to look into St. George Weddings
a l s o
AK Studio & Design is amazing and you can't go wrong with Abbey Kyhl as your photographer!
Thank you Abbey  for the beautiful pictures!
Love,
Kate

December 22, 2013

Drew's 23rd Birthday

Drew and his twin brother Mark just celebrated their 23rd birthday! I got them both little nerf guns for their birthday and they both loved them, it was funny!

Mark is home from North Carolina for the holidays and came down to St. George to spend some time with Drew for a while until I got off work. Later we went up to Cedar and went out to dinner with their parents at the Ninja! We had the hibachi grill (we did this for their birthday last year too, I'm thinking it may be an annual thing ;) and it was
a  w  e  s  o  m  e
Seriously if you have never been to a hibachi grill, then go! And if I can suggest anywhere for it I would say go to the Ninja in Cedar City! It's fun and neat and yummy too! It's a japanese restaurant and so of course there is sushi there and Drew's family loves sushi... well this year I decided that I am actually starting to like it!!!!
I can't believe it.

I tried the phoenix roll and it was delicious. Maybe it's not the most traditional sushi roll, but it is pretty tasty! 
It had cream cheese and something else in it with mango on top and yummy garlicy sweet sauce drizzled on top. I liked it :)
[above is a picture of Drew's face when he thought he was opening a nerf gun but it was actually a pair of shoes! hahah surprise!!!]
We threw a surprise birthday party for the twins after dinner and a bunch of their friends came over. We had ice cream and cake and it was a lot of fun! 
Drew had a great birthday and I am so happy he did :)
Love,
Kate