A New Year....

Oh man, I'm so far behind. I need to get caught up though and then maybe someday I can be on top of this whole blogging thing. I used to be so good at it! Oh well....Let's start with the beginning of the year. :D

January came and went with lots of crazy things.The biggest of all of these was finding out for sure, positive that Allan wouldn't be deployed later in the year with his brigade. This was bitter-sweet for us. Sure, we're really happy that Allan ISN'T gone to Africa for a huge portion of the year, but the monetary benefits from him being deployed would have put us in a really good place. We're not super crazy poor by any means, but it just would have meant a more sure financial security and we're a little sad that we don't get that now. The whole deployment also would've come at just a really good time in our lives, but oh well. I'm happy he's home and not off in Africa!

Anyways! Pictures!

We still had Lindy on New Year's Day so we went down to the South Salt Lake Valley and met up with BreeAnn and her family and went to the Aquarium. It was REALLY busy there that day, but it was still fun! Lindy wanted to hold Rusha over and over again and they were SO CUTE together. It was fun times. :)

Selfies at home!

Sammy LOVES his cousin Lindy!

Lindy loves Rusha!

And Rusha loves Lindy!

Rusha and I

Lindy, Sammy, and BreeAnn

Sammy, Lindy and Rusha!

Crossing the rope bridge!

happy baby!

Happy Sammy!

playing in the playground area!

Cousins help each other. :)

The rest of the month was fairly uneventful. We went to the annual Utah Lindy Exchange. Before going to one of the dances we went to a sushi place for a friend's birthday. :) Allan's sushi was really pretty

Allan's Sushi

Us at ULX

 Continuing our home ownership saga we decided to take the water heater closet that was horribly organized and put in some shelving we found at Costco. Here's the Before:

 And the After:

 We also bought a new bookcase to help out in our bedroom. I'm in love with it:

 At the end of the month my ballet students were able to get pointe shoes:

 And I went to the dentist and had to get a periodontal cleaning. It was NOT FUN. and I have severe anxiety when it comes to the dentist and this didn't help matters. We do have a really great dental office and I love that they're committed to helping me get my mouth in a good place, it's just no fun at all and I struggle with it.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..... NOT!!!

For the past three days I have woken up to ugly, gnarly, snowy conditions. It took me over an hour on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get to work. It was nasty and not so much fun.

However, today, the roads were clear. I got to work with minutes to spare. :) And looking at the forecast for the next week I am one VERY happy camper:

Sunshine! Temperatures above 20 degrees! What more could a girl ask for? (well...lots, but I'll be happy with this!)

In other news I've slowly started moving to the new place and this weekend is THE BIG MOVE of everything else. I am excited to get everything set up in the new place and to make it a home. :-) It will be fun times.

Also, because everyone keeps asking me - no, I do not know when I am getting married yet. I have a working date in late March, but we're still waiting for everything to go through. We met with our Stake President last night and he is dedicated to help us finish everything out and have everything in place so we can get married as soon as possible. I left that meeting last night with a lot of hope.

I was reminded of this quote by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles :

“To any who may be struggling to see that light and find that hope, I say: Hold on. Keep trying. God loves you. Things will improve. Christ comes to you in His ‘more excellent ministry’ with a future of ‘better promises.’ He is your ‘high priest of good things to come.’ ” - Jeffrey R. Holland, “An High Priest of Good Things to Come,” Ensign, Nov. 1999, 36

Isn't that just lovely? Hold on. don't give up. It will be okay. That is my mantra for this next month. January has been hard one for me in so many ways and I am glad that it is ending today. February will be a challenge to get through, but I have a feeling it will fly by like a blink of an eye. Which more than I can say for January. :)

Before I know it will be March. March brings my birthday, our wedding (hopefully) and warmer temperatures (at least, one can hope for that!). Life is good. It's going to get better. I just need to live one day at a time.