Schwartz Newlywed Adventures

Hair Cut!

2012-01-11T17:12:00.001-08:00

Since the helmets are off, it is finally time to make my kids' hair cute, so we went to Walmart to get Miss Addi some hair ties, bows and clips. Mr. Wesman was definitely in need of a hair trim. His dad was SO sad about it so when he took Addi on a date to the grocery store, we decided it was time!

Before pic.... He kind of looks like he has a little comb over because all of his thin little hairs are all sorts of lengths.

And after.... Hard to get a good pic of the little boy who was sick of being still. He even let me spike it up with some gel! He looks like a little toddler now! I love it.

We even saved the little baby hair for dad... To help ease the pain of the baby son growing up:)

Christmas break and new beginnings!

2012-01-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

We had such an awesome Christmas break this year, we ended up getting to go home for about two weeks. We got to talk to Justin's brother Nik in the Netherlands on his mission, and we are so excited for him to get home in June! We got spoiled rotten by our families and Santa, as did our goofy little kiddos by their Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents!

Goofing off with Aunt Lauren

She was always helping Grandma, when she wasn't with Aunt Grace.

Grace and I making Christmas dinner. A six course Italian dinner.... it was so fun!

The traditional Christmas eve movie goers

The siblings + spouses + kids in our new Christmas eve jammies. There's almost too many of us for the couch now!

Christmas morning with my little family. Santa was too good to all of us this year:)

Cutest kids in the world.

Weston showing his love for Tucanos with his most charming grin.

Addison showing off how she's really good at climbing into things... and on things... and around things.

Stealing her brother's cup.

At least they're best friends.

And last but not least.... Helmets are over! We're excited and if you have any helpful tips for doing a 18 month old's hair.... let me know!:)

Family Pics, Thanksgiving and my little naughties

2011-12-06T10:06:00.001-08:00

What a fun couple of weeks we have had recently, to start, we got the BEST family pictures taken by Jennie.... we love them SO much, and I am so glad to finally have some beautiful family pictures to hang up in my house!

You can see the album of my absolute favorites here on Facebook.

We also got to head home for Thanksgiving for a couple of days this year. I always get excited that we're still students and Justin gets to take time off to head home for the holidays. I'm starting to realize that it might not always be that way, so we enjoy it as much as we can while we get to do it!

Weston having some lunch at Great-grandma Skinner's house. We had to document his first lunch in the high chair that his Grandma Tera used when she was a baby!:)

Ahhh... Turkey! Weston LOVED Skinner Thanksgiving this year.... that kid can EAT! He put away three whole high chair trays of food.... why he never gains any weight, we have no idea;) (Ignore the fact that he is in his sister's high chair.... we decided she needed a turn in Grandma's special high chair)

At Grandma Rachel's house a Christmas present for Addi from Aunt Grace was brought out a little bit early.... everyone said she won't remember the stroller when Christmas rolls around. I beg to differ, every time she watches the video, she cries for the stroller to push... and get pushed around in. Who needs a baby doll when you have a twin?!

We also got to go to Spokane to watch my brother Derek's first game of his senior year! GO BEARS!

It always takes us a few days to get back into the swing of things when we get home again. The kids love being up in Moscow where they get spoiled rotten. But here's what the swing of things looks like for us lately.

Weston LOVES to wrestle his dad. He does it every chance he gets.

My little skinny kid has learned how to wriggle out of his pants. Its not hard when you weigh the amount for the 6-9 month clothes, but you're tall enough for the 12-18 month clothes.

Had to document this moment. From the beginning, Aunt Lauren has called these cute little goofballs "Cheese burgers" it has caught on like wild fire in my family. So of course I had to document the Cheese burgers eating their first cheese burgers. (They're Wendy's in case any of you were wondering.... their dad made sure of that;))

This little darling had loved to find everything that she can do that makes mom tell her "no." She thinks that word is just so hilarious. And now she's taken to teaching her brother.

The other day we were in the grocery store, and I was struggling to find a certain type of noodle. When I finally found them and turned back to the cart, Addi had found the eggs (that I was smart enough to hide.... just not well enough), had opened the carton, and was eyeing me slyly with one in each hand. It was one of those times I was extremely grateful for the fact that it had not taken me two more seconds to find those noodles.

She also loves to throw everything out of the cart, it is her new favorite game. I also can't put Weston in the back of the cart and Addi in the seat, because when she is in the back, she makes sure he has food to throw too. When he is in the back, he returns the favor.... so I spend 80% of our shopping trips trying to keep the food that is light enough for her to pick up inside of the cart. I might invent a cart cage soon if she doesn't stop thinking "NO!" is so hilarious;)

They are starting to love to watch a little bit of TV in the mornings... I LOVE it! It is fun to have my babies snuggle on the couch for a minute or two before they take off and don't let me play with them because they're too busy playing together.

They are loving to play in their room lately. Addi shuts the door to keep me out, because she likes to play with her brother by her self. She's getting a little too independent sometimes for a one-year old.

Weston has found a new love of standing up. We're grateful because this is why we've being doing Physical Therepy with him. He is getting so close to catching up to his adjusted age. But he feels the need to stand up on everything lately, including the slippery tub!

Addi's new love of hiding things has reached a whole new level of inconvenience. At first it was just her brother's binkies in the clean laundry, then it was remotes in the Christmas tree, now it is my keys somewhere that I don't think to look, even while I turn my house upside down for an hour and a half. Got to love those little crazies!

GO VANDALS.... AND BYU!;)

2011-11-15T09:06:00.001-08:00

We've had a great beginning of the month of November! We have had lots of turkey (the kids love it and so does Justin) in preparation for Thanksgiving, we went to the BYU v. Idaho football game, we had Justin's 26th birthday, and the kids are growing like weeds!

Goofy kids in their football shirts:)

Weston chowing down on his turkey... he's been prepping for Thanksgiving... this kid LOVES turkey:)

Addi's favorite place to be at the grocery store, as she yells "HI!" at everyone we pass.

Addi and Aunt Laur P at the BYU/Idaho Vandals game:)

Wes and I at the game:)

Wes and his daddy decked out in their BYU gear:)

Wes loves to kiss on his sister..... to try and get her bottle away after he finishes his:)

Our October

2011-11-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

So it has been a while, I suppose I should just blog one picture at a time when I text them to my parents, that happens almost daily!:) So here is our October in pictures!:)

Wes's new trick, thanks to his daddy.

Hanging with dad after a nice nap:)

Awesome general conference

He LOVES backyardigans, especially on the iPad or mom's phone.

He's finally eating real food like his sister, grilled cheese seems to be his most favorite.

He really was a lot more excited than he looks about upgrading to his new big boy carseat.

We've finally had the kids home for a year now! They came home October 7th last year. It took everything I had to not throw a second birthday party. Mom mentioned that might be an overwhelming tradition to start. I decided she was right with the way I do birthdays:)

He pushes up to sit on his own now:)

We had family pictures taken, so we took off helmets for a day so we wouldn't have a red spot on our heads for pictures. Instead, both children decided to take their best spills of the year and got matching goose eggs on their heads. I'm sure the pictures will turn out great though (Jennie Kunz is awesome!), we'll see them soon:)

Weston's also included a rug burn.

Addison took a swan dive off the couch. There was no way she was letting her brother out do her!

Justin passed that check ride that he'd been working so hard on from the beginning of the semester, and now he's working hard on his CFI, we're so proud of him!

With Wes moving around more easily, the kids have been getting into a lot more trouble.... and making more messes recently.

They love to go out to dinner with mom and dad.... we love family date nights!

We carved pumpkins the best we could with the kids:)

My pumpkin:)

Justin is a master pumpkin carver:)

See?

Our car hit 100,000 miles this month....

The kids and I before our halloween party outing!

It was a great month and hopefully I can keep up on November a little bit better. We're excited for Justin's birthday, Thanksgiving, and decorating for Christmas:)

My commercial pilot!

2011-09-17T09:44:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my hubby finished his Commercial pilot license! It took over 200 hours of flying and a four hour practical test, but he passed with "FLYING colors";) (Sometimes I really crack myself up)

This is him with his instructor (who just so happens to also be his best friend) in front of the airplane he's been flying since the beginning of the year.

This is the plane he's been flying for the last couple of weeks since he finished. See how this one has two engines? He's almost done already with his multi-engine rating! That is the last thing he needs (besides just hours flying airplanes) before he can fly passenger flights. He's taking all of the classes he needs right now to become a flight instructor so he can get all of his hours. It won't be too long now before you get on an airplane and are welcomed aboard by Captain Schwartz! So proud of him and how well he's done!:)

Weston's Ducky

2011-09-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, Wes started playing with a duck that he found in the toy box. When it was time to run errands he had a death grip on the duck, so I let him take it with us. He protected it through all of the stores we went to, and when we got home he protected it from all of the perils at home (aka- sisterly abduction). He kept it with him through his nap, and took it with us out to dinner on date night. What a little goof ball.

Ready to head out to run errands- with his duck.

At home playing- with his duck.

Protecting the duck from his sister.

Nap time- with his duck.

Date night at Chili's- with his duck.

Recently....

2011-09-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

Life has been going great for us here in Logan. We've just been settling in for the school year, and getting Justin back in the swing of things for his LAST school year.:) Here are just a few of the going-ons recently.

My latest sewing project... most difficult pattern I've ever sewn, looks great if I do say so myself!:)

Addi has learned how to get her head out of her shirt, but not her arms. It happens a lot during temper tantrums.

We got our Helmets last Wednesday. So far, so good!

Oh dear....

Weston on surgery day. He got his eyes straightened out, he's doing great now.

Having helmets requires a bath every day.... the kids sure love it!

Addi now gets into everything, even if it is on a shelf.

Weston is starting to get a lot more active and get his way a bit more often... to his sister's dismay.

Enjoying the last few weeks of summer. We love the splash pad!

Wedding Week!!!

2011-08-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

I think pictures always tell the best stories, so here we go!

Me and my BFC's (Best Friend Cousins;)) at Disneyland with our spouses... and children! We're getting so old!

Family picture on the teacups!

Justin and Wes on the rocket ships at Disneyland!

Grandpa Johnson and all of his granddaughters (over 12) after the cousin baptism trip on Thursday:)

Addi and I at the zoo on Friday

Best babies in the world hanging out at the zoo! Love Addi's face.....

Siblings:)

The darling couple! Love these pics!

With bridesmaids and groomsmen (if you look close you can find Justin and I!)

What a beautiful bride she made!

Couldn't be happier for you two!!! Love you Laur P!

Everyday life:)

2011-07-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures that we have snapped from our cameras recently that just haven't made it to the blog yet.

Addi loves to go swimming! Especially with her dad.

Addi chowing down on a cucumber

She's been so very curious lately.

mmmmmm.... chocolate.

Love this kid

Finally giving in.

She tries to hide behind her shirt when she gets really mad.

My daredevil daughter. She's getting ready for disneyland;)

My little "fashion stowaway"

Weston chattin' it up.

She's getting very mischevious now that she has learned how to open things....

Hmm... Where's Addi go? After I took this picture she shut the door and pulled everything out of her bottom drawers.

Sunday morning snuggles!

Ooops... she got stuck!

Helmet Heads..... and the Splash Pad!

2011-07-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

So the kids have to get helmets to round out their heads. They'll have to wear them for the next couple of months, and we had to get their heads plastered for them this past week. It was pretty traumatic because they had to sit still and have weird stuff on their heads. But we made it through and will get their helmets in about two weeks. (Anyone who knows of a place to get cute vinyl stickers let me know! We need to work on decorating them:D)

She was watching him VERY closely.

Justin had to hold her down!

AHHH! Plaster!

I think it makes him look like a knight without his helmet.

We also checked out the splash pad with all of our friends from our ward last week. It was a lot of fun and both of the kids actually liked it. (That surprised me about Wes.) It was a blast!

The splash pad in Providence.

Wes and Mom

Addi soaking up some sun!:D

Sunshine and summertime in Logan

2011-07-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

Summer time is in full swing here in Cache Valley. We have had a great summer so far! We've made it up to Moscow, to Tyson and Lana's wedding, on lots of stroller rides, AND we've had a birthday. My kids are growing like weeds and I love it. This is such a fun age. They are so interactive and into EVERYTHING;) Addison has turned into the biggest helper. She always wants to see what I'm doing, and then "help" me with it.

Justin has been working and flying like a mad man and we've hardly got to see him at all this summer! Stay tuned in the next two weeks for the announcement that he finally has his commercial license. He is so close! He hit his 200th hour mark last week and we can't believe how much he's done in the last two years!

Weston goofing off on the floor.... he likes to make baby burritos out of himself

Weston in his favorite toy. This one lets him stand up and play with things without sisterly interruption.

Addi loves grown up food now. This is her chowing down on an olive garden bread stick. (At least she has good taste!)

My kids hanging out at the primary slip and slide activity.

Addi loves to see herself in the camera on my phone:)

Quality time playing outside

Weston was more comfortable in the stroller.... there were too many girls there for his liking.

Addi and her friend Hailee at the activity.

Spending some quality time with dad reading books.

A summer of weddings!

2011-07-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in July we went to Justin's brother Tyson's wedding. It was so fun to see all of the family and friends that we haven't seen in a while. The kids were so great and we had a great time at the wedding and reception. We are so happy for Tyson and Lana and so glad they had such a beautiful wedding day!

Family Photo in front of the Rexburg Temple.

Jessa and Addi hanging out

The Hubster and the groom..... what handsome men!

She LOVED all of the attention:)

Weston tried to sleep as much as he could;)

The happy couple!:)

Now we're pressing forward to wedding number two in August. So excited for another great day!

Party time!

2011-06-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

We had a great first birthday at our house! Between mini cupcakes with a delicious orange cream cheese frosting that I found the recipe for online and skyping all of the grandmas and grandpas, it was a great evening. We opened presents and Addi seemed to be more interested in the paper than the presents. Overall, it was a great night and I cannot believe that my tiny tiny babies are now a year old!

My big one-year-olds!

SUCH a handsome boy!

My beautiful, spunky little girl

She demolished her cupcakes

Weston was more careful, he really doesn't like to be messy.

Our DOZENS of mini cupcakes. Who knew that one box of cake mix made 80 mini cupcakes?!

Weston Mark: First year in pictures

2011-06-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

I heard once that Motherhood is the toughest job you'll ever love. It is so true. This year has been such a roller coaster ride for me. It has been harder, scarier and more fulfilling than anything else I have ever done in my life. Here are some pictures of my firstborn on his birthday.

On the day he was born.

First time to be held

Snuggles with dad

Snuggles with mom

Always escaping

Always the best snuggler

Just like dad!

Best facial expressions EVER!

Loves his sister SOOOO much!

He likes his peace and quiet

Love Grandma loves!

..... and still escaping

Silliest boy!

Finally fed up;)

So Handsome!

I just love this little guy. He gives the best snuggles and the best loves. He is always happy, always patient, and always loves his mom. He likes to be just like his dad, and thinks he is pretty cool when he stands up. (The only thing his sister can't do.) He is the BEST son a mother could ask for and will always be the best big brother to his sister. Happy First Birthday Weston! I love you!

Addison Grace: First year in Pictures

2011-06-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm a mom and I get to indulge myself a little bit. Here is Addi!

On the day she was born. One year ago today.

First time her daddy got to hold her.

First time mommy got to hold her

First time she got to snuggle.

Always a princess

Snuggle time with dad

She has always loved him more than anyone in the world.

She loves her brother, even if she doesn't show it the same way he does;)

So glad to be home!

A great little traveler from the beginning.

"Don't you dare take me from my daddy..."

She's such a crazy sleeper!

Best friends with her Momma!

Always has to make sure he's ok.

Such a beautiful girl!

So sweet:)

I love this girl with all of my heart, she is so special. She has enough personality to fill up an entire room already and she's just barely two feet tall. I have loved watching her grow and become such a little person this year. She's a fighter and she's feisty. She has so much love to give and gives it so freely. Happy first birthday Addi Grace! I love you so much!

My goofy girl

2011-06-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Now, looking at all of my pictures, I can tell that I have one child who loves the camera and one who doesn't. My little Addi is such a ham. She loves the camera and loves to show off. Now, Weston is just as cute and even more charming, but he always hides from the camera. Here are a few of the gems from recently.

He tries to keep her at arms length because she likes to take his toys and pull his ears..... she's a sister;)

SHE SITS!

Finally crashing

She rolls everywhere, her favorite thing is to get a DVD, take it back to her brother and hit him on the head with it. It makes a sound that she just loves;)

An afternoon at the park

2011-06-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

We took our first family outing to the park last week. It was such a beautiful day. Weston really loved looking around and playing with his dad before he settled in for a little snooze in the shade. Addison was busy as always and wanting to touch the grass, the bark, the dirt and anything she could get her hands on. She LOVES playing with her dad and swinging on the swings.

Snoozing on the blanket

Playing with dad

College Graduate:D

2011-05-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

Graduation day was so wonderful! My family got to come down and hang out and love some babies. We went out to dinner on Friday night, and then had some wonderful BBQ from my husband on Saturday night. So I now (well, since December) have a Bachelors of Science in Journalism.

Me and my Goofballs!

Me and Dad P

The best parents EVER:)

Had to do it.... once a Vandal, always a Vandal.

Me and the most handsome man I know:)

SISTERS!!!! (if you look close you might see a new addition to my sister's left hand;))

Over Southern Idaho and through airport security, to grandmas' houses we go!

2011-05-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

We got to fly home for a quick weekend last Thursday. Justin didn't have any finals until Wednesday (today) and so he got to come with as well. We had a wonderful flight on Thursday. I'm so glad that my babies are such great little fliers!

Justin and Weston are cute little flight buddies:)

Addi was loving the cookies and juice we got. She only likes big people foods:)

We got to hang out with all of the siblings, and had a bridal shower for my soon to be sister-in-law Lana. It was so much fun! We spent lots of time with both grandmas and the babies' great-grandma and grandpa. We ate lots of bagel shop and enjoyed our quick vacation!

Lazy Sunday afternoons at Grandma Rachel's house.

Photoshoot with grandma. What a goof!


Addi's new talent is taking her brother's binky away. It doesn't matter how hard he tries to fight it, she will always get the binky away from him.

Now we're home and getting all ready for my family to come down this weekend for my graduation! Should be a blast to have everyone here in Logan:)

Just happy to be home. I love how much they love each other:)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

It has been a wonderful Easter weekend for us! Friday night we went and watched Justin's cousin Taylor's high school rodeo. It was a blast! The kids loved watching the horses. Then yesterday we went to a BBQ at Justin's professor's house to celebrate all of the graduating seniors in the aviation program.

This morning we got all of the kids decked out in their Easter outfits and went to church. I sure love to make them match!

Here is a wonderfully touching Easter message from Elder Holland. Happy Easter to you all!

Back to the Blogging world

2011-04-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

I've gotten so far behind in blogging about my cute little family's adventures that catching up has just been daunting. I thought there was no way I could catch up during one nap time, and I continued to get more and more behind. So I'm tackling it one nap time at a time. Here is our life since the blog last heard from me.

I had the most wonderful 23rd birthday. If you know me at all, you know that my birthday is pretty much the biggest deal of all biggest deals. I celebrate the whole month, and for the past three years I have been helping my husband with the prep work so that he could learn how to get it just right. This year he took it on all by himself and he rocked it! We went to our favorite restaurant for lunch (Tucanos in Salt Lake), and he took me shopping at my favorite clothing store (Express).

Me and Addi at Tucanos

On the actual day of my birthday he spoiled me with presents all wrapped in princess wrapping, had princess plates and napkins, and a chocolate chocolate chocolate coldstone cake. It was so wonderful. I couldn't have been prouder.

After my birthday the kids and I made the trek up to Boise all by ourselves to meet my fam because my little baby brother was playing at State Basketball. Ok, so I guess he's not a little baby, he's over 6 feet tall and 17, but I still think of him as my little baby brother. I had the kids decked out in red, black and white for all of the games and we went and cheered on the Moscow Bears.

GO BEARS!

After that, Justin met up with us in Boise and we drove home and spent our spring break in Moscow. It was a blast to be with family and have so many people to love the little guys, they get so darn spoiled up there! While we were up there my brother-in-law proposed to his girlfriend and we are very much looking forward to their wedding in July!

We came home for two days before I was off to Provo to meet my mom and sisters for their spring break, and Justin was off to Denver for the yearly boys trip. They got to watch BYU play in the March Madness tournament. They had such a great time and I loved being with my mom and sisters.


Boys at March Madness!

While we were in Provo we got some sister's pictures taken and some with me and the babies. They turned out so wonderfully, I can't wait to get some of them framed and put in the babies' room!

I was glad we got at least one of his cute little smile, he was not loving pictures;)

This is her model face;)

This one just cracks me up!

I think this one is SO stinkin' beautiful!

We came home and had to get back in the swing of life again. The weather is starting to get a little bit better so the kids and I get to go out and go running every once in a while.

Addi is the most charmingly naughty little thing. Now that she and her brother have started playing with toys, she has to have all of the toys that her brother has, even if she already has both of her hands full of toys. She is such a happy little girl and only really cries to get attention. She'll do anything for attention. She loves it when people are looking at her and talking to her and she LOVES to play with her dad.

Weston is usually a very serious little guy and loves to snuggle with me. His dad can always get him to crack up though, and it is his favorite to play with everyone right before bedtime. I personally think it is getting them all riled up right before bed, but he likes to look at it as "wearing them out." Weston is usually very good at occupying himself and just giving his sister whatever she wants.

They are still great sleepers, and they both roll around the floor like crazy. It is starting to make me nervous for when they finally become mobile... I am so not ready yet! But that is an update from us. Hopefully I'll be able to do better now that I don't have to "catch up";)

I found the little goofball like this one morning. I cracked up!

They sure love each other. It is so fun to see them interact!

Sunday Walk

2011-02-13T19:10:00.000-08:00

We love Sunday afternoons for taking walks. The kids are starting to love to look around and take stroller rides. Last week we snuggled them up in their snow suits and took a walk around the neighborhood. We can't wait until springtime when it is easier and we can be less bundled!

growing, Growing, GROWING......

2011-01-25T21:38:00.000-08:00

....is what my children seem to be doing every day! It has been so incredibly crazy. We've had a whole lot of fun with our recent trips, seeing family, and getting used to our new lifestyle with me being at home all day every day.

Mom and Addi on Christmas morning

We had a wonderful Christmas day and break. We ended up getting to go home for a much longer time than we expected and our babies got so spoiled by all of the grandparents, aunts and uncles. The kiddos got lots of Christmas presents and lots of love. Justin and I had a great break and got to go on a couple of dates, go see movies and just hang out. It was wonderful!

Westy with his new aviators on Christmas morning

I was so excited to watch my little brother play Varsity basketball! Poor kid has soooo many sisters to embarrass him!

Then we came home for a week and got Justin started in school. He has lots of flying and class to do this semester and it was good for him to get started. After a week the kids and I took their first flight and headed back to Moscow for 10 days. My parents had a medical meeting in Hawaii and I was sent to watch the teenagers and make sure they studied for finals week.


Weston got a new toy in honor of his first airplane ride. It is a stuffed airplane, and he loves it.

The kids did awesome in the air and hanging out with just me at home. They got lots of love from grandparents, aunts and uncles again, and we were sad to leave everyone, but happy to come home and see their dad.

The kids are really starting to grow up. Little goofballs are growing like crazy. Weston talks non stop, and they both can get to giggling uncontrollably. We started some rice cereal a little bit early because the pediatrician said it would help with their reflux. We get to start fruits and veggies next week; it's time to invest in some high chairs!

This was our first rice cereal attempt:)

Addi has so much personality I can hardly stand it sometimes. When she's happy, she is so dramatically happy it is hilarious. When she's sad, she is so dramatically sad, you would think the world is ending.

Weston is so hilarious. When he talks he'll look at you with the most serious face and act like what he's telling you is of the utmost importance. He is the sweetest little guy. When his sister is throwing a fit he tries to smile at her and talk her out of her fit. He and his sister are both starting to teeth, so they're a little crabbier than usual, but pretty awesome babies.

They don't nap much during the day, but I don't feel like that is the end of the world because they sleep 10-12 hours at night pretty consistently. (Yeah, I do know that I am the luckiest mom of 3 month old twins in the world.) We put them to bed at 10 p.m. and they love to sleep in and don't wake up until 8-10 in the morning. It is starting to make me feel lazy!

My little goofball....

As for me, I'm trying to adjust to not being in school. I am a student. I have been a student for what feels like my whole life. Now, there's no more school. Most people would find this happy, but I struggle a little bit. To help with my adjustment I give myself a grade for the day...... I get the most points if the kids are happy, fed and played with. The next level of points is for if dinner gets made and I get a shower, and the next is for if I get to work on my to-do list. You may laugh at this, but it is helping me adjust;) In other good news.... Cancer tests came back clear for my 4 1/2 year mark. If all goes well next appointment, I will finish my remission period and be CURED! It was a great 2010, and a wonderful start to 2011!

We call him Houdini

2010-12-15T09:23:00.000-08:00

He was supposed to be having some tummy time on the floor by his sister while I did some laundry. They were laying at the opposite end of this blanket. Even all wrapped up this kid can get out of anything!

ROAD TRIP!!

2010-11-30T14:31:00.000-08:00

We had a great trip home for Thanksgiving this year. The babies did so great and got spoiled rotten by their grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles. The week started with my dad and Grace coming to Logan for the Vandal game. We got our kids all dressed up in Vandal gear and Justin went to the game with dad while the kids and I stayed home with Aunt Grace.

Sunday we headed home bright and early. The babies were great little travelers. They slept most of the way and we got home and the spoiling began. The babies spent lots of time being held and loved and snuggled and just plain spoiled rotten, but what else are grandmas for? We decided that the babies were going to need grandma rehab after we left. Thanksgiving dinner was great as were all of the leftovers. The boys got all of the lights up on their house and I got to go see lots of movies (it has been a long time since that has been able to happen!)

We had the baby's blessing on Wednesday night Grandma and Grandpa Pennington were able to make it up and brought my Aunt Jera with them as well. It was so great to have them and all of Justin's family that are up in Moscow. It was such a special night and my mom did an incredible job with their blessing outfits. They were just beautiful!


Weston being spoiled by his Aunt Savvy

Addi loving Grandpa Steve

There were always so many helpers for feeding times!

Had some good times with my siblings.... Sure miss all being together!

Family picture for the blessing day!

We were so glad they made it through all the nasty weather to come see the babies!:D They deserve the "great" in front of their grandparents!:D

Everyone got a lot of grandma love.

The babies are getting so much more responsive and fun to play with

Gotta love those baby smiles!

He looked so handsome in his little blessing outfit!

Happy 25th!!!

2010-11-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

Birthday Boy!

Happy 25th birthday to my wonderful husband! We had a fun birthday weekend. Last night we went "out" for dinner (Ordered Wingers and brought it home) and then tonight we had his favorite Sunday dinner, Swiss cheese chicken and mashed potatoes, and then we had a Transformers birthday party. Our party consisted of skype-ing Justin's family, facetiming my family, and our friend Marty had just stopped by so we made him stay and enjoy some Coldstone cake with us.

The kids picked it out;)

We have been having so much fun with our little kiddos at home. We are learning more and more about their cute little personalities every day. Weston is the sweetest little kid. He lets us know when he's hungry, but other than that he sits pretty contently all day long. Addi thinks it is the end of the world if she is awake and someone is not talking to her. We recently got a baby bjorn and it has been my lifesaver with that little girl. She has so much personality that it just explodes from her.... sometimes even while she sleeps. :D

This is her new favorite hat from Aunt Laurel. She was very confused at what her dad was doing....

Weston thinks his sister is very loud. He has started learning how to cover his ears when she gets to wailing.:)

4 weeks

2010-11-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow our little cuties have been home for a whole 4 weeks. In that time we have gone through over 4 cases of diapers, boxes of formula, and 4 oxygen tanks. But I think we're finally starting to get used to having them in the house. Since they were on formula when they came home, Justin and I get to switch off nighttime feedings. It is so wonderful to have such a great husband who will get up in the middle of the night to let me get extra sleep.


Halloween

Halloween was fun. We had a good time (well, Justin and I had a good time, the kids not so much) dressing them up. Grace gave us the costumes and they only got to stay on for about 20 minutes before there was too much crying that we had to take them off.

GO VANDALS!!

We've been having a blast watching football with them every weekend and just being able to snuggle them whenever we want without an hour drive. We only ever leave the house for pediatrician appointments. We did have to buy a new car that we all fit in. Pictures will come of that soon. It was sad to get rid of my little Carolla, but it just didn't fit our family any more.

Little cuties off of oxygen

Addison came off of her oxygen completely after about two weeks of being home. Weston has just started coming off of it this last week. We're hoping they're both going to stay off and that will make our trip home for Thanksgiving so much easier!

We're so grateful for them and the wonderful addition that they are to our lives. Yes, we're exhausted, yes, sometimes they are naughty (mostly Addison), but we love having them home. Babies change everything but so far we're pretty happy with the changes!

Home Sweet Home

2010-10-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

The babies are home! We got to bring them home from the hospital on Thursday morning. Although we were sad to leave all of our favorite nurses and doctors at the NICU, we are so happy to have them home and be able to love on them without an hour long drive to Ogden.

He sure loves his little sister

I've had way too much fun dressing them up in all of the fun clothes that we've had waiting for them.

He thinks it is a little bit loud in this place

They're good little sleepers, especially Weston. They are finally getting used to being home and mom and dad waking them up every three hours to eat.

Weston eating his bottle with Aunt Gracie

They were both over 5 lbs when we brought them home, Addison was closer to 5.5 lbs and still growing, we get to go see the pediatrician on Monday.

Photo shoot with Grandma

They love photo shoots with Grandma. We've had a blast with my mom and sisters in town. They've really loved to hold and snuggle the little ones.

Addi's good at posing for photo shoots

The nights are long but we're getting better at them. We've learned how to keep their monitors from going off every couple of minutes. They've still got oxygen and monitors attached to them.

Me with both of the little peanuts

Dad and Weston watching some football.

Schwartz Update

2010-09-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Its been a fun couple of weeks at the Schwartz house (/in the NICU).... here is a quick update on us!

We had a wonderful anniversary date at our favorite restaurant in Salt Lake. This was our incredible dessert:D (Better than year old wedding cake apparently)

We went to Disneyland for a day to see Garret who just got home from his mission, and Taylor who is soon to be leaving on his. We spent 16 hours at Disneyland and got all of the wonderful rides in and spent so much fun time with my family!

The nursery got all finished. It looks wonderful:) Blue and pink and brown and pink. Airplanes and hearts. Thanks to my mom for Addi's beautiful quilt!

The little peanuts are doing great! They are both just over 3.5 lbs and growing. We're hoping to get them out of isolettes and into an open crib together soon. We are starting to try and nurse them once a day and they are being little champs!

As for Weston, he is pulling more and more hilarious faces every day. We just really love this little man!

Addi is our little princess who has her daddy wrapped around her itty bitty finger:)

Two years...

2010-08-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

Two years ago today I married my best friend. I am so happy for the choices that I made that led to that very special day. He was, and is the best friend that I could ever ask for. He knows about all of my crazy... and puts up with it. My mom told me once that you have to love all of the person's little quirks, because when you get married, they grow exponentially. After two years of figuring out each others quirks, we are still very much in love and looking forward to the rest of forever.:)

Justin will do anything to make me happy. When we were dating and engaged, I dragged him to every country swing night and dance that they had at the institute. When we got married, he could push me around the dance floor with the best of them. He even learned the perfect dip to sneak a kiss..... cutest.

man. ever.

He has the funniest sense of humor. I am constantly laughing with him (or at him.... it all depends;)). I don't think that there has been a day of our life together that he has not had something hilarious to say.... even when I'm stressed and crazy he can still get a smile out of me.

He is so romantic and thoughtful. While he won't admit it.... he is always doing things that make me love him more and more.

Recently I've learned how incredible of a dad he is. He loves our little ones so much. He is so protective and so loving. I am so glad that my little ones get to have a daddy as wonderful as him.

I love you Justy! Happy Anniversary! Two years down, eternity to go....:)

Growing....

2010-08-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the little peanuts are growing like crazy. They are both about 2 1/2 lbs. and eating 8 ml/hour which is about 0.3 oz or 1.5 teaspoons through a tube that goes through their little noses. I know it doesn't seem like much, but they had to work up to it. That amount definitely fills up their little tummies... and their little diapers. They had to move to bigger diapers yesterday from micro-preemie size to normal preemie size. The preemie size is still very big on them, but they were filling up the micro-preemie size. (I've never been so excited about full diapers in my life..... I am definitely a mom;))

Beautiful little Addison is doing so well on her breathing. The way that it works is they push a certain percentage of oxygen at a certain speed up their noses. She has worked her way down from a 6 liter flow (the speed of the push) at 90% oxygen to a 0.5 liter flow with 25% oxygen. (Room air is about 21% oxygen.)

She always has her little pinkies up. It is so cute and dainty, I love it.

After Weston came off the ventilator, he did better on his breathing than he ever did before the pneumonia. He is down to 2 liters on his flow and 30% oxygen. While these numbers to fluctuate sometimes, their tiny little lungs are doing so much better than expected.

I love this little guy. He is so fun to snuggle and he has the cutest little expressions. (His feeding tube is still in his mouth in this picture)

One of the cutest things about them doing so well is they get to wear clothes when they don't have any IVs. They still have a few cords that need to be attached to them to track their heart rate, oxygen levels and breathing levels, but those ones are easy to move to put on clothes. Imagine the smallest preemie clothes you've ever seen, shrink them in the wash and they are still a little bit big for my cuties. But I love being able to get them dressed!:)

A little big, but so darling!

Justin is still trying to tell me her hair isn't curly. I think this picture shows otherwise:)

Hooray for Weston!

2010-07-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

Weston finished his pneumonia antibiotics and has weaned himself off the ventilator. He is doing so much better, and he is such a happier little man when he doesn't have the vent down his throat. He was doing so well today that I got to snuggle him for two whole hours. He just conked out on my chest, it was one of the sweetest moments he and I have had yet. He's such a darling little boy. We are so grateful at how much of a trooper he was through this first infection.

Addi is doing well too. She hit 2 lbs 8 oz. today. We're so glad for the little cutie, she's been such a stable little thing through her whole first 5 weeks of life. We sure love them!

Getting Ready.....

2010-07-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning our cribs were delivered, and last night my wonderful husband agreed to put them together for me. Yes, we still have a while before the babies come home. Yes, when they get home they won't use the cribs at first. But decorating the nursery is important to me. I feel the need to nest even though the babies were already born. The bedding sets are ready, now the cribs are put together, and next I'm going to be painting some shelves for the wall and doing block letters with their names on them.

But stage 1 of the nursery is done. Cribs are up! Here are a few pictures of our fun filled evening putting them together!:D

My cute husband opening the boxes. He's such a cute dad!:D

Assembling.....

And done! Now we just need mattresses:)

Baby Update

2010-07-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

The littlest Schwartzes are growing! Addison is up to 2 lbs. 2 oz and Weston is 2 lbs. 4 oz. They have had a hard week this past week. It started with Weston getting an infection in his lungs that turned in to pneumonia. He had to go back onto the ventilator to help him breathe while he fights the infection. They started him on antibiotics and he's been a tough little fighter ever since. His lungs are looking better after the round of antibiotics and a small chest tube. He's on the upswing and then we look forward to weaning him off the ventilator and seeing his cute little face again.

Addison was not liking all of the attention that brother was getting and tried to get some of her own. She started getting an infection in her tummy, so they stopped her feeds and started her on antibiotics. She didn't want to get poked too many times so she kicked her infection after two days and got her feeds started again yesterday. They've been giving her a little tiny preemie binky to help her work on her sucking reflex too. Hopefully it won't be too many more months before they can try nursing.

She's always sticking out her cute little pinkies and trying to suck on her fingers:)

So we've finally exited the honeymoon period with the little ones and have had our first roller coaster experiences in the NICU. We expected infections and hope that they can keep kicking their infections the way that they have so far. Thanks for everybody's thoughts and prayers! They are much appreciated!

Diary of a Twin Mom

2010-07-23T13:07:00.001-07:00

So I decided this blog was better used for pictures and fun family updates. I've started another blog that is easier to post to from my phone where I can keep my writing skills sharp while out of school and hanging out in the hospital. It will contain more of my random thoughts and feelings. The link is http://twinmomdiary.wordpress.com/ if you want to follow me there too. :)

My Transitional Issues

2010-07-20T21:40:00.001-07:00

Anyone who knows me well will be able to tell you that I am not a patient person, happiness and optimisim are the things that I do well. Patience is not. It is an issue that I have and I own it. I know that I am that way. Why then does it continue to surprise me then that transitional periods in my life make me feel like this:

I don't do well. Especially when I know (or think I know) exactly what is coming. I want to hurry and get to that point. I try to learn to enjoy the journey and enjoy where I am, but I am constantly looking forward to something. When that something doesn't come fast enough, I feel like I need to control something in my life and that usually turns into the need rearrange all of the plans that I had for my life.

This transitional period in my life is no different, if anything my need to rearrange plans has been worse. Pre-pregnancy and during pregnancy, the plan was to finish my last 12 credits in the spring, take the GRE test, and apply for graduate school. They have the masters degree I want completely online that I would be able to finish in 2 years. Yes that's a lot to take on with twins, but it has always been a "maybe" and only if I think I can handle it.

Since the babies have been born and we have been in the transitional period between being pregnant and actually being a real mom (being busy with my babies at home), my plan rearrangment has gone crazy.... I've researched getting a second bachelors degree, double majoring, getting my MBA or doing all three at the same time. I know all of those things would make me crazy and totally overwhelm me, but I can't help rearranging my plans while my life is in transition mode.... its an issue that I'm working through. Or pretending that I'm working through.... next week I may be looking into becoming an astronaut.

However... the time that my mind isn't spinning crazy thoughts is when I get glimpses of what my real life might actually look like. Its hard to feel like a real mom the way that things are right now. Then all of the sudden I get to experience moments where I feel like a real mom, my mind calms down and I feel like being a mom to my sweethearts is what I was made to do.

This was one of those moments:
I got to give my sweet little son a bath. I've learned how to appreciate every little thing when it comes to my children. I looked forward to this moment for 24 hours when the nurse told us what time they would be doing it. I watched as Justin bathed Addison, and savored the feeling of being like a "real" mom.

We just pray that we continue to get more and more of these moments before the new astronaut dream comes to fruition.;)

Reflections (WARNING- Sappiness ahead!)

2010-07-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

Realizing I had a lot less laundry to do than I thought this afternoon, I busied myself with flipping through old pictures on my computer. I realized how fast this last year has gone, and the further I got back into my pictures, how fast the last two years... three years.... four years.... four and a half years.... (and that's as far as the pictures on my computer go back;)) And I realize that soon, our time in the NICU will be a distant memory. Time goes so fast and trials (which may make days seem like years while you're going through them) really don't last that long.

I was looking back at high school pictures full of friends that I have lost touch with, BYU pictures full of carefree craziness, cancer pictures (yes there are some that I keep to myself), pictures from my U of I institute days, Italy pictures full of new experiences and amazing friendships, pictures of me falling in love with my wonderful husband and marrying him, pictures of our amazingly crazy and fun newlywed adventures, and now pictures of the two little ones that I never imagined I could love so much.

I am feeling incredibly grateful for everything that has happened in my life. I look back in awe at everything I have been through, all of the decisions I thought were impossible to make, all of the happinesses (yes, I've decided it is a word) and all of the days I thought I'd never make it through.

I am also feeling incredibly grateful for everything that is on its way. Before we know it, these beautiful little ones will be running around, and the NICU will be a distant memory that we remember with the help of these wonderful pictures that we flip through, and the journals and blogs that we keep.

Everyone says that as soon as you have kids the years tend to just fly by. I know that they will. I look forward to all of the new adventures that life is going to throw my way, and I am so grateful for the wonderful little family I have to tackle the new adventures with!:D

Twincredible Miracles

2010-07-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

...... before I really start this post, I have to just say how creative I'm feeling this morning with that title..... ;)

Our crazy last month started June 21 when I called in sick to work because I was feeling sick. I started having contractions 10 minutes apart that morning and bleeding. I called the doctor who told me to go directly to labor and delivery at Logan Regional Hospital because bleeding and contractions that close together were not a good thing at just barely 24 weeks.

They put me on some monitors and drugs to stop the contractions. By the time the doctor came in to see me, I was dilated to a 4 and they decided to fly me to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. If the babies came, they wanted them to be at a NICU that could handle them.

I got my first helicopter ride that day. Justin sent me off at Logan, and my mom (who had been in Provo luckily) met me in Ogden while Justin had to drive down. They stopped my labor, pumped me full of drugs that would help the babies survive if they came, and told me I would be spending lots of quality time in Ogden, in my hospital room, in bed. So I hunkered down for the next couple of days expecting a very long stay.

Friday morning at my 2 AM check, I started having contractions again. The second medicine they had put me on to keep labor at bay was not working as well as the first. The contractions kept coming and kept getting more painful, so they transferred me back over to labor and delivery to keep a closer watch on me. This went on for about 12 more hours until I had a placental abruption and they took me back for an emergency c-section.

Within 20 minutes I was on the table and they were delivering the babies. Each baby was met by a neonatologist and a team of 4 nurses. They cleaned them up, intubated them and got them attached to all of the monitors and IVs that they would need. After they finished my C-section and wheeled me to recovery, they took Justin to meet our little cuties.
Addison grabbed his finger so hard that her little knuckles turned white. They were both stable and very tiny. They were both 13.5 in. Weston was born first at 1 lb 11 oz and then Addison at 1 lb 10 oz. After about an hour in recovery, they let me go see them before they took me back up to my room.

I went back to my room to recover. Saturday, the babies stayed stable and the nurses continued to find the right mix of antibiotics, oxygen and IVs to help my little babies survive in the outside world.

Sunday my babies got their first priesthood blessing from their dad and both of their grandpas. They continued to to better throughout that whole evening. Addison's main IV or pic line was finally able to be put in.

Monday flew by as a blur as we spent the day in the NICU and waited to see their head ultrasounds to look for brain bleeds. Their scans came back clear and would be repeated when they were a week old.

Tuesday I was supposed to be released from the hospital the Neonatologist came to see me in my room that morning and told me that Addison was going to need a heart surgery to be able to help her grow and heal better. I called Justin and he rushed over to give his daughter a priesthood blessing before she went back for her heart surgery. While they had Addison in the operating room, they decided that Weston needed the surgery as well and they took him for his operation when they brought Addison back. Both surgeries went well, and we were very thankful for the wonderful heart surgeon and his ability to operate so successfully on hearts that small.

Wednesday started our daily treks to Ogden. We have been going every day and watching our children fight and do so well for preemies their age.

Thursday they took them both of the ventilators and let them try to breathe on their own with just oxygen blowing into their noses. Addison did so well and has not had to go back on yet. Weston was able to make it for three hours before his lungs got tired and they put him back on. He was able to come off the next week again, and has been doing well ever since.

Friday they repeated their brain scans and they both came back clear. This was a huge relief for Justin and I. Brain bleeds are one of the most worrisome things that can happen to preemies, and our babies had not had any in their first week which is when 90% of them happen.

Every day we go down to Ogden we are so grateful for the wonderful nurses and doctors who are caring for our little ones. We are so grateful for all of the prayers from our friends and family who are thinking of us and praying for us constantly. We have definitely felt the thoughts and prayers and it has been an incredible blessing in our lives.

Addison in her 4th of July bow.

Weston being so darn adorable. He totally has me wrapped around his finger!

Addison and her pink bow:)

Weston snuggling up to Justin

Addison with her brown and polka dotted bows... (I love that they do this in the NICU)

I am so thankful for my little ones. I love them more than I would have ever thought was possible. They are little miracles who continue to teach me every day that life is so precious and it is amazing what a little bit of love and a lot of prayer can do. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father who has helped me stay calm and brave through this trial. I've been through hard physical trials that He has helped me through, and now I'm learning that He can do the same through emotional trials. I am thankful for prayer and how wonderful it is to be able to communicate with Heavenly Father. And last but not least, I am so thankful for Eternal Families and the opportunity that I have to be with Justin, Weston and Addison forever.

OH Brother...... and Sister;)

2010-04-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

Our baby girl's spine

Our Baby girl's bum shot... apparently very obvious to anyone who reads ultrasounds (not me) that she is a girl:)

A spine shot of our little guy.... he was "breathing" through the whole ultrasound which the nurse said was good, because they don't actually have to breathe until they come out, but he was getting some good practice in.... we want STRONG lungs!:)

A profile shot of our little man... look at that cute little nose and mouth!!:D

Face shot of our little guy.... he was much more cooperative for good pictures:)

And a bum shot of our little guy.... again... was supposed to be very "obvious" the nurse said she was 100% sure on both of them.:)

Take your best guess!

2010-04-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

So our appointment to find out what we're having has been moved from the 19th to the 27th which should give us better luck. We're hoping for no crossed legs and really good positioning.:D I added a poll to the top of the page and would love to get everyone's guesses! If you have a guess but also have some really clever reasoning don't hesitate to leave a comment. We'll keep you updated:)

Our little SurprisES:)

2010-02-24T16:23:00.001-08:00

We went to the OBGYN for our first doctor's appointment today and he started laughing during our ultrasound. We knew that wasn't a good sign.... and then he showed us heartbeat number 1 and heartbeat number 2. We were VERY surprised!

Double Date Day!

2010-01-30T07:49:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful day last Saturday full of Tucanos, shopping, Temple Square and..... a wonderfully fun couple that just so happened to be my sister Lauren and her new boyfriend! Just so everyone knows, he is WONDERFUL and we love him. He's a great kid and we're pretty impressed with Lauren's college taste in boys. :)

We started with lunch at Tucanos (me and Justin's favorite of all favorites) and then played at the Gateway mall for a little while. After that, we went to Temple Square and to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. (There happened to be a bridal show that day IN the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and we missed it..... it was so depressing.)

After Temple Square we headed back to Provo for some dinner at In-n-out..... wasn't quite as good as the California ones, but it came close. Then it was off to Shannon's where we played in the game room for the last time, and had a blast spending time with family. We get a little lonely up here in Logan sometimes so far away from everyone.

Lauren and Austin at the Gateway

Me and Justin at the Gateway

Temple Square... we love it!

Hey look! We got married there a year and a half ago!

And the four of us.... it was an incredible day! I love being grown up and friends with my sister:) There's nothing better than that:)

Poor blog....

2010-01-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

We had too much fun over Christmas break and did too much relaxing.;) My little blog got forgotten and neglected for my husband. During this time of year, my husband goes into depression mode. He loves Christmas and when it is over he kind of feels like all happiness is taken away from the world.

Saturday I finally talked him into taking down the Christmas tree so we could bring our new rocker/recliner home. We took down the tree and all of the decorations and set up our Christmas presents. (A BEAUTIFUL new television and blu-ray player) Our living room feels like a new place and we're very excited for our Bachelor/Castle night with the new TV.

School has started again and we're not quite sure how we feel about it. Spring semester always seems harder than fall semester. I have four online classes this semester and two are from the same professor, and I think he has forgotten that he has online classes. I'm debating if I should e-mail him and tell him to get on the ball because I'm paying for these classes, or just wait because I love not having a million things to do when I get home from work.

Justin is finishing his instrument rating this semester. (Cover your eyes and fly an airplane? Yeah... that sounds like great training.... boo. It makes me nervous) He is also taking the dreaded math. He's got 4 semesters of it to finish and I'm feeling bad for him.

That's the update thus far. Hope my husband begins to feel better about 2010 and I can get back to updating our blog.:)

November

2009-12-06T09:44:00.001-08:00

Well November definitely flew by for us. Its going to be nice to have some time to spend together after we finish finals this week. Who knew only working full time could be such a wonderful vacation?:) Anyways, here's our month of November in review:)

For Thanksgiving we headed down to San Diego with my Dad's side of the family to celebrate my grandparent's 50th Wedding anniversary. It was a blast to see cousins who we hadn't seen in a while, and to just get to play and relax. (If you want to see any pictures of that portion of the trip you can visit my mom's blog here)

We forgot to take out the camera for most of the trip. But we definitely did not forget it at the Midway. It was an aircraft carrier that we visited on Wednesday in San Diego before we headed up to the house in Oceanside.

It was heaven for my husband, I don't think I'd seen him this excited and happy since.... oh wait, when we went to disneyland for his birthday two weeks before. November was a good month for him;) They had lots of airplanes that you could sit in and play with all of the controls.... I think Justin sat in all of them:)

Me and Justin on the top deck of the carrier by an airplane..... his favorite picture of us. He could tell you what kind of a plane it was, and a lot of different things about it, but I can't:)

Just before we left for Thanksgiving we decorated our house for Christmas. I got really lucky and married a wonderful man who loves Christmas and Christmas decorating as much as I do, I still need to get a picture of our outside lights, but these are our inside decorations. This are my cute little bookshelf decorations.
.... and our tree that we had room for in our living room this year. We bought a big tree last year and had to sit about a foot away from the television to fit it into our living room, this year everything fits and it is so beautiful:)
After we had finished moving around furniture and decorating.... it definitely puts us in the Christmas Spirit to have our house like this:)

Just before thanksgiving I also finished my Phlebotomy class. I'm still waiting to hear back on how I did on the national certification test, but I'm feeling pretty confident about it. :)

At the beginning of November we got to go to Disneyland for Justin's birthday. Thanks to a wonderful Aunt Diana and Uncle Derek who made this possible and let us hang with them at their house, we had a very wonderful trip:) The hat in this picture is a birthday cake hat. It has candles hanging off of it and lights up. Justin loved it. My cousin Haley and my Uncle Derek picked it out.... very fitting I think;)
I had to DRAG Justin out of Disneyland and California Adventure to get him to come check out Downtown Disney shopping with me. He ended up loving it after he found a store with a bunch of model airplanes and a LEGO store. He realized that this was really one of the happiest places on earth... even when your wife drags you shopping.

This is us in front of Main Street USA! We definitely are Disney people and love going there as often as we can. I love being married to a guy who begs me to plan trips to Disneyland rather than dreading it every time I want to go. Justin definitely had a very happy 24th birthday:)

We're getting excited to head into December here. We're jumping in head first with finals this week, going home in about two and a half weeks, and just taking it easy after we get home from work for Christmas Break! We love you all and hope you are having a very Merry Christmas Season!

2009-11-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

This Saturday the love of my life turns 24. We're headed to Disneyland and to visit my Aunt and Uncle to celebrate. Justin had never been to Disneyland and absolutely loved it. I'm so glad that I have a husband who loves to go do fun things with me.

I married my best friend in the entire world, and it shows. There are so many things that I love about him. The best thing I have ever done in my life is marry this boy. Marrying your best friend is something that I strongly suggest:)

He is such a stud that I am so grateful that I caught him. When we were younger we used to refer to him and his brothers as the "Skinner boys" because they were the incredibly cute nephews of my neighbors the Skinners. We would all make sure we were looking our best when they would come visit, and sometimes I still can't believe how lucky I am to have married a "Skinner boy."

He is the kindest and greatest husband I could have ever asked for. He love to surprise me with a clean house, and he knows exactly how to make me happy and how to de-stress me, and that is no small feat. He puts up with all of my craziness, knows everything about me, and loves me anyways.

He is my rock. It takes a lot of guts and a lot of strength to marry a girl with my health issues, and to put on a happy face about it and assure me constantly that everything will be OK. He is always the tough one during hospital visits and keeps us realizing that life can still be happy, even at the hospital.

He loves to take me out on dates. He makes me feel so great about myself, and I love that he wants to be with me all the time. I am so lucky to have a husband who adores me so much.He is up for anything. Anything I feel like doing, he wants to go along. Anything I ask him to do, he is up for. When I am crazy and change my mind about stuff every ten seconds, he thinks all of my ideas sound great and he believes that I can do anything.
He has the greatest sense of humor. We spend most of our time together cracking up. Even when I don't think something is funny, his laugh is enough to get me rolling on the floor laughing. He has such a happy-go-lucky disposition that I consider myself incredibly lucky to get to be around him all the time.
He is easily the most handsome man that I have ever seen in my life. I love to be able to look at him and know that I totally scored. I lucked out being able to find a man so good looking and wonderful who loves me too.
He is incredibly driven and smart. I am so excited that he is getting to do what he loves every day and excelling at it. He knows what he wants to do the rest of his life and he is going after it. It won't be long before he'll be flying the skies and be the best pilot the world has ever seen.

I love you sweetheart. I hope you have a very very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Becoming a Vampire....

2009-10-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, this post has nothing to do with the Twilight series, although I will say that I am getting pretty excited to see the new movie. Nope, this has to do with something that I will be taking a course for in November.

It all starts with my Doctor's appointment (in which we found out that I am Cancer free.... Hooray for 3 and 1/2 years!!) when I had the greatest phlebotomist of all time draw my labs. She was wonderful, she got a vein on the first poke, and even though she went into my hand, it hardly bruised at all! (Usually my entire hand is black and blue when they do that)

Now, I had thought to myself before that if there was anything I was interested in in medicine, it would be phlebotomy, don't ask me why.... it's rather creepy I know.... but an interest none the less. But over the past few weeks since the appointment, I have not been able to get it out of my head. I now passionately want to be a really good phlebotomist. I know what kind of a difference it can make in a hospital visit when your phlebotomist is good, and I want to be that kind of person.

So I signed up for the November night course in Ogden. I am super excited and I am really looking forward to having this skill, and hey..... being a vampire wouldn't be that bad right?:) Isn't that what reading Twilight tells us?:)

Oh no!

2009-10-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

Our Idaho registration expired on our Carolla yesterday, so now we are officially utah drivers. Both of our cars will soon have Utah license plates, and I was informed yesterday at the DMV that we need Utah licenses. We're trying to embrace our Utah lives, but we're still Idahoans at heart!

Much needed update

2009-09-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally have a couple minutes to update. Our lives have gotten even crazier since school started (we had no idea that that was possible!) Justin is working at the airport and going to school, and I am working at the doctor's office and doing online classes. We have early mornings for work and late nights for homework. Oh the joys of being students!

Before school started we got to go up to Moscow for a long weekend, and it was wonderful! We really miss our families when we are away from home. We got family pictures with the Schwartzes (see the post below) and family pictures with my family (more to come, I'm sure) :) There were a couple of pictures of Justin and I that I LOVED. (Thanks Annie!) It's fun because both families got them taken at the same place, so that will make my decorating so much more fun with all of the "matchiness."

This is one of my most favorite pictures that we got taken. I adore it! It's so fun to have such a cute husband!

Our first anniversary was while we were in Moscow. We celebrated just the two of us before we left. We went to the Salt Lake Temple to do sealings and then had lunch at our most favorite restaurant called Tucanos. We have had such a wonderful and eventful first year. I am so grateful to be married to such a wonderful man:)

On our actual anniversary in Moscow we went to Gracie's baptism. It was so fun to have the family all together. My cute husband got me a dozen roses, and we ate out with the fam after the baptism. It was an awesome day.

We ate the top layer of our wedding cake that we had kept frozen. The whole family was completely grossed out that we would even think about eating year old frozen cake, but it wasn't bad. I kept trying to tell them that it is a long standing tradition. I don't think they cared.:)

We got home and started right into school, and had my family come down to Logan and stay with us for a couple of days while they took Lauren to BYU. It was so much fun to have them here and show off our new townhouse a little bit.

And now we've been in school for almost a month! It's crazy to think about for me. The semester is flying by way too fast. I've been doing homework for a couple of hours a night to keep up with my online classes, but I am lucky enough to get Saturdays off of work. Since my hubby usually isn't home for most Saturdays I use it to get lots of homework done and some fun projects.

Once I finish my homework, I like to have projects to do that have nothing to do with school. This has been my most recent one. I've worked on it for the past two Saturdays and it is finally finished and will be moved inside our house this evening!

I found this solid oak coffee table at DI. Yes, it was very beat up but it had a lot of potential. I spent last Saturday sanding it down and staining the top. I put one coat of black on the legs, and that is all I could get done before it got dark. This week, I put two more coats of black on the legs, and put a gloss stain on the top. It looks great and I am so excited to move it into the house!

My next project includes these. I got them this morning at the farmers market in town for $1! I was so excited, they look delicious. I think we may have quite a bit of zucchini bread in our future:)

Schwartz Family Pictures

2009-08-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Someday I'll actually get around to talking about our wonderful anniversary trip, when I get the pictures from the camera loaded up. We had an awesome vacation home, it was great to be able to see our families and not have to WORK! We also got to take pictures with BOTH families, and here are the results of one of them!

The Schwartz Family:)

All of the Schwartz boys..... or "Skinner boys" as we used to call them:)

Me and the Hubby:) I LOVE this new picture!

Livin' it up in Logan

2009-08-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

We're doing well here as the summer comes to a close. Justin passed his third stage check today and will have his final check ride on Tuesday. Then I will officially be a pilot's wife:) I'm really proud of all of the hard work that he's put in this summer. When I got home from work last night he still had his books and charts and flight stuff spread out all over the floor making a flight plan. It's pretty cute.

We've got a couple of changes coming up soon. I put in my notice at Sports Authority because I am moving to Full TIME at the Doctors office after we get home from Moscow. I am very excited. I could not ask for a better job. It will be a lot to handle working full time and school full time, but I think I'm up for the challenge.

Justin will hopefully be changing jobs at the airport and working at dispach where he will only be taking care of the Utah State airplanes. They would be better hours for him, and a lot less stress which he'll need since he'll be working on TWO ratings in the fall. He'll be taking instrument ground school at the same time he's finishing his intermediate hours. The instrument rating kind of scares me because they put him under a "hood" and it covers his eyes so he can't see anything but his instruments and he has to fly using only those. Should be an adventure for him this fall!

We're getting excited to go home in just over a week. We have lots of family pictures to do, lots of visiting, and lots of mom time to get in. We're both feeling a little bit deprived way down here in Utah.... we need our moms!

Grace is coming home with us after we go visit because my family is coming down here the day after we come home to take Lauren to BYU. I'm excited to have her closer, and excited that BFFs Justin and Grace will get some quality time together. They have a very special bond, and Justin's been missing her a lot! It will be fun to have her all to ourselves for the drive and that Monday.

Well that's an update on us! I should have pictures coming sometime next week.... we're doing an early anniversary celebration in Salt Lake. We're planning a little bit of the Temple and Tucanos. Should be some good times! We love you all!

My life = explosion

2009-07-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

I don't think I have ever been so busy in my life. It's a blast, but definitely taking its toll. I'm sitting here at the doctors office at the end of my 12-13 hour day (we have yet to see which one) and I realize I've only seen my husband for about 9 hours in the past three days combined. Its a bummer. But between both of our two jobs, and him going to school it makes sense that we would never see each other. Which is why we're actually looking forward to school starting. Weird.

The upside of this current explosion of my life is that I was finally able to afford the graphic design programs that I had been yearning for for the past six months. I plan on churning out masses of invitations, business cards, programs, announcements and everything else I've wanted to make. I am excited. So if you know anyone who need wedding invites, party invites, baby announcements.... anything, let me know!

Wishing everything in the world was digital.....

2009-07-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

I was recently called to be the "technology specialist" in our new ward. I thought, SWEET! I love to do stuff on the computer. The computer is where I can be very creative. I can make the picture in my head become a reality. Now, I have done almost everything this calling requires I have all but three couples pictures uploaded to the ward directory, I have made the website look in tip-top shape, and the ward e-mail with announcements goes out for the first time next week. All of these things I can do. We may even have a ward blog soon where announcements get posted, posts about all of our wonderful, successful ward activities, as well as the weekly e-mail.

Yet, I can't seem to bring myself to do what I have decided should change the name of my calling. The ward bulletin board. You know the one with all of the pictures of everyone in the ward that had USU 62nd Ward across the top? Yeah. It is defeating me. What does that have to do with technology? As you can tell by my backgrounds, digital scrapbooking has recently become a passion of mine. I love to make my own cute little pictures and post them for people to see. But to do it for real? I don't know. I think it may end up looking like a 2nd grader did it. But here I go, headed to Michael's to buy scrapbooking paper, trying desperately to come up with a design in my head and coming up blank.

Wish me luck.

Flying high and our new {used} car:)

2009-07-07T15:21:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I got the chance to go up with Justin on one of his flights. It was my first time up in a little plane, and I was amazed how smooth it was, I was totally expecting it to be really bumpy. But it was very relaxing and I got to see how beautiful Cache Valley is from the air, its pretty incredible. I loved it:) So here are some pics:)

Taxiing to our runway

Looking at the Logan Airport from the sky

My hubster in action flying around Cache Valley! He did so well! I don't know how he remembers everything all the time, he's definitely catching on fast!

View from the Sky:)

Our other big news recently {well, today} is that we bought a new car! It is a used car... but it's new to us:) We're really excited. Between the two of us working two jobs and Justin going to school part time, I was doing a lot of walking around Logan. So we finally did it. It's our first big purchase together, and we LOVE it! It is a 2004 VW Passat, and it's GORGEOUS!! I'm love it!

At the dealership:) Justin's brother Tyson is here visiting, he's the other tall one.... makes me feel a little short between the two of them.... ;)

Double Date Day

2009-06-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

We had one of Justin's best buddies from Moscow and his girlfriend up in Logan with us for the day, it was a blast! We went to lunch, hit the driving range, and then got some frostys at Wendy's before Justin and I both had to work. A wonderful day all-in-all. These are some pictures from the day. (I promise I was golfing too! I was just the picture taker too:))

Logan River Driving Range

My honey and his beautiful swing:) His always go so much further than mine.... it makes me jealous sometimes.

I just had some really good shots (pictures I mean;)) today that I was so proud of!

Enjoying a chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough frosty at Wendy's.... they're incredible by the way, in case you were wondering:)

June!

2009-06-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well June has flown by and we finally have some internet up and running at our apartment. We're so excited! Which means I can finally blog all of the exciting happenings in our lives. We have been running around like crazy people working, schooling, and working some more. Justin started flight school and is loving flying every day. He's aced all of his tests so far and I am so proud of him. He really seems to have found what he loves to do, and I am excited for him. We got to go home for Lauren and Niks graduation, and it was fun to be there and spend time with our families:) After we got home I got another job at a doctor's office so I've been turning into a work-a-holic, and I definitely look forward to just spending time with my husband after I get home.

Me and the sister on Graduation Day! I can't wait until she lives by me!

Me, Lauren, and Anne, I love those girls!

Me and the Hubster at Lauren's Graduation BBQ

Me and Justin and his brother Nik! Hooray Graduates!

Justy doing his pre-flight

Just after the pre-flight getting ready to go.

Taxiing to the runway

More taxiing

And a beautiful take off

Look at him go!

Stay tuned for more pictures! I'm trying to get the courage up to go up with him sometime next week, and that will make for some really fun ones!

We're not dead! I promise!

2009-05-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Just running around like crazy people without internet:) We've been pinching all of our pennies following our move to make sure we could pay rent before we were getting full paychecks, but internet should be coming shortly after we go home for graduation! HOORAY!

We are doing wonderfully in Logan. We love it and it is actually starting to feel like home for us. My cute husband hasn't mentioned how much he misses our little Rexburg apartment in over a week.:) Life is good.:)

Since our move, we have purchased a washer and dryer. (Yes, I finally have one in my house and it is the most incredible feeling! I never imagined I would count my blessings and be so excited about doing laundry.... hooray for being poor students;)) I got a job at Sports Authority and Justin has a job at both TJMaxx and the Airport. Can you guess which one is his favorite?;) He is hilarious:) He doesn't even feel like the airport is work, he's getting paid to hang out out there and he can't even believe it. He is refueling planes and such.

We head home for graduation for Justin's brother Nik and my sister Lauren next week. We're excited to be home and be a part of that. As soon as we get back Justin starts flight school, and our debt for education begins in a big way. Justin and I keep reminding eachother that the Prophet said it was OK to go into debt for education.:) It's the only thing that keeps us sane taking out so much in Loans.;)

We're missing everyone and just wanted to let you know that we're not dead, just internetless and that will be changing soon.:) Love you all!

Finals, Moving, Easter, Home and Cancer Free!

2009-04-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy couple of weeks at the Schwartz home:) Including the Schwartz home changing locations. On April 9th I finished my one and only semester at BYU-Idaho with flying colors and picked up my long lost hubby from the airport. He had been at home for two weeks to see his brother who just got home from a mission. The next morning, we picked up a U-haul and packed it up, drove to Logan, UT and unpacked it. It was great:) When we picked up the U-haul it had airplanes on it, which is the reason for our move to Logan, so Justin can learn to be a pilot. He took it as a sign and happily moved for the rest of the day.

Our Airplane U-haul

Our new townhome in Logan

Easter Sunday happened to be the very first holiday that Justin and I had ever spent not at our families' houses we enjoyed ourselves and dyed eggs the night before and went grocery shopping for our new place. On Sunday we went to our new ward for the first time, and made mini southwestern egg rolls. DELICOUS.... maybe a new Easter tradition for these Schwartzes:)

This would be the first shot of a video that I need to post, my husband's virtual tour of our new place in Logan. Such a cute man:)

We then headed home on Tuesday to make it back in time for a doctor's appointment. We go the all-clear on Friday evening so we're cancer free for another 6 months. So that's a quick update. We miss everyone! Love you all!

More fun pictures....

2009-04-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

So, I'm bored out of my mind missing my hubby. I spend a lot of time on the computer, and a lot of time at work. With all of my homework and studying being done, that means I just play with photoshop. So here's my FAVORITE wedding picture, with a little bit of Enchanted inspiration:)

More Photoshoppin'

2009-04-06T14:31:00.001-07:00

More Photoshop fun. I'm really wishing hard that I had the new program. But it's actually even cheaper at Utah State.... Someday I'll have it!

Listening to Conference:)

2009-04-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

I love General Conference. I love to listen to the talks from Apostles of the Lord. But they all have very soothing voices that makes it quite easy to doze off. So I have projects to do while I listen. Yesterday, it was packing, with the TV up really loud. Today, it's playing with Photoshop.... :)

My sister Savannah LOVES posters. She has them all over her room. I love it! She's such a teenager now! AND she's growing up to be absolutely beautiful! So I thought I'd make a "Savannah" Themed poster... I used all of the pictures I had of her. Maybe I'll print it off for her and she can put it up in her room.... or pass them out to all of her admirers;)

Our Disneyland "Spring Break"

2009-03-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well I finally have gotten around to importing these pictures from our "Spring Break." Justin and I made up our own spring break because BYU-I doesn't have one. We went to Disneyland from Wednesday to Saturday with my family. Justin and I love Disneyland, it may be one of our most favorite places on earth. We were so glad to be there!

Just before the teacups... we were nervous...

Oh... I love my sister so much.... she loves me too... I promise;)

Justin and his best buddy, he and Gracie love each other so much!

We love toon town.... although I'm not sure if this picture is supposed to make him look strong or weak...... hmm...

I think we were going for a missionary type picture? Maybe? (But it was in Mickey Mouse's house)

So excited to go on Space mountain!!! (waiting in a 50 minute line....)

Were in the back... yay splash mountain!

Goofy and Justin.... I'm sure there are many jokes I could make here..... but I will refrain:)

My Comm 130 homework

2009-03-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Looks real doesn't it?:)

I have a new passion....

2009-03-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

and it's called Adobe CS3 (and probably CS4 that just came out, I haven't used it yet.) Right now I only have photoshop elements on my computer, and this is what I have come up with. I found out how EASY it is to make wedding/graduation/baby announcements that would otherwise cost big bucks.... who knew?!

So right now I am spending way too much time on the computer at home and at school and I am loving every minute of it. It also helps that I have such beautiful pictures to work with... yay for having a gorgeous sister:) Here's the spoils:)

And last but not least, not only am I loving photoshop... I am loving a program called illustrator.... here is a cute little thing I designed (which still needs a little work, I know!) if I ever actually start a wedding planning business. designed by jackie- your day. your way. catchy huh? Hooray for dreams....:)

Soon I'm going to start a fund called "help the poor students by Adobe programs" if anyone feels like donating I'd be happy to accept it;)

Saturday's Spring Cleaning

2009-03-02T13:41:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Justin and I took on the huge task of cleaning our guest/storage room. We needed to get all of our boxes cleaned out and everything ready for the packing process.... it looked like a big task but only ended up taking us two hours, including a trip to DI. It was a successful Saturday:)

Before

After (all of those boxes are ready to move! Hooray!)

I had no idea before we got married......

2009-02-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

I love the things that you learn about your husband after you get married. Tonight at the grocery store, he picked up some beef hot dogs and proceeded to tell me that he learned how to fry them on his mission... yeah... YUCK! So when we got home he showed me his wonderful cooking abilities, and I about died when he pulled my Italian olive oil out of the cupboard. (yes, I made him put it back and use canola oil;)) Here are a few quotes and pictures of the evening.

"See? Its just like frying bacon." "I think I may have put too much ketchup and mustard on and distorted the fried beef flavor." "I have enough of these to enjoy one a day for a whole WEEK! Unless.... I decide to eat six in one day." "Something's different, I think I need to burn them a little bit more on the bottom."

OH the excitement!

Yes, fried hot dogs... (but they have to be BEEF)

And look how much he enjoys it:)

Justin's boo-boo

2009-02-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

No, he's not going to like that I'm calling it a boo-boo, but he doesn't blog, so I get to call his owies whatever I want:) This is the result of him slipping on the black ice of our very poorly shoveled apartment sidewalks and parking lot. This is two days later after it has healed a little bit.... sad huh?

And this is my very sad husband.... he has to keep band-aids on the most of the time.

21st Birthday!

2009-02-25T21:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I had a wonderful birthday weekend:) Justin took me out for dinner at Olive Garden, we went to a movie and then out for ice cream on Saturday night. Sunday on my actual birthday we went over to the Skinners' house and had ice cream cake:)

All of the candles lit!

Me and the Hubster with the cake

I got all 21 of them:)

My party people:) Hooray for new cousins who I love so very much!

The hubby and I playing with my new birthday camera! I love it! It has been so fun to play with!

Same picture, different effect:)

2009-02-20T07:39:00.001-08:00

So, the last one had everything but the bridesmaids black and white, this one may be a little better.... the background is painted and the bridesmaids are real. (You can tell better if you click on it:))

One more!:D

2009-02-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

My new favorite class:)

2009-02-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

In one of my classes we are learning all of the Adobe Programs, and this morning we started on Photoshop. I was super excited about it because I have LOTS of fun wedding pictures to play around with. While we're learning on Adobe Photoshop CS3 and I have Photoshop Elements, its still fun, but someday.... maybe someday.... I'll be able to buy that incredible program. It's been so fun to learn. Here are a few of my little play projects today.... just starting simply:)
Justin and I also had a wonderful weekend at home and it was really hard to come back to Rexburg, but great to see the fam and celebrate my birthday a little bit... we're still working up to the big culmination of the palooza this Sunday.... four days until I turn 21! Wooo HOO!!

Fun-filled long weekend in Utah:)

2009-01-23T08:07:00.000-08:00

We had a very wonderful long weekend down in Utah! We started with USU transfer day in Logan. (In case anyone hasn't heard, BYU-I isn't working out school wise for me, it was a bad year to transfer so both Justin and I will graduate from Utah State.) We're working really hard on the "GO AGGIES!" thing. At least I've gotten to the point that it's "GO AGGIES! UNLESS YOU'RE PLAYING BYU OR U OF I!!" Now we've just got to get my husband to attend their sporting events.... and we may turn blue before you know it;)

We found a townhouse that we love very much. It's beautiful, brand new, tile flooring, granite countertops, cherrywood cabinets, and in our price range! WOOHOO!! So we're hoping to move down there mid-april depending on when we can get out of our contract here in Rexburg!

After a fun-filled (and tummy filled, they fed us well!) transfer day, we headed down to Provo. We decided since we were half way there anyways, we may as well go visit some aunts! We showed up to some very happy little ones!
As soon as we got there, and Olivia got out of the bath she yelled "YOU'RE HOME!!!" and asked me where my 'hubsbinz' was. Both her and Hayes really love Justin a lot, he's a pretty big hit with all of the cousins. Hayes and Olivia call the guest room "Jackie and Justin's" room, and we love it! This is a picture of us with our matching braids:)

Justin made sure that he brought his new nerf gun with a laser pointer on it (thank you, santa:P) so that he could play with the boys. His wife is not that in to nerf guns so he loves to run around upstairs and have nerf gun wars:)

And an action shot.... way to go shannon on the pictures:) We miss them already, but we're excited to only be two hours away soon! And to any sisters going to byu soon, or cousins who will soon get their drivers licences... We'll have a big guest room!!!:D

Christmas Break! Finally!

2009-01-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well, the Schwartzes had a VERY merry Christmas this year. Santa decided to come to both the Schwartz and the Pennington households for us. Being married rocks:) This is me playing the Wii and Wii Fit that we got:) I got really in to it. Especially the hula hoop game that they have. I can Hula Hoop with the best of them. Justin makes fun of the way I look while I rock the game:)

This was probably my favorite present that I gave. I gave my daddy a picture of us at my wedding and then on the other side were pictures of me and him as I grew up.

This is Justin and I before we opened presents..... all photos courtesy of my mom's new camera:)
Savannah and Lauren Rocking out with the new x-box singing game:)

Hot tubbing after a long day of skiing.

Overall, it was a great break. We spent three weeks at home, and we both learned fun new Christmas Traditions of the other family. We got to talk to Justin's missionary brother Tyson who is in Chicago on Christmas which was a fun experience for me. We got to go skiing for new years and Justin totally Rocked it for his first time! He was as good as me by the time we left 3 days later. Now we're home starting the semester!

Newlywed BYU-I Student is a Survivor

2008-12-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

Jacklyn Schwartz, 20, survived cleaning four months of leftovers out of her fridge this afternoon. This has been found to be the cause of death for many young newlyweds in Rexburg, Idaho. Schwartz said she was "happy to be alive" after the cleaning.

"I have not seen that much moldy taco meat in my life, and I hope to never see it again," she said after finishing. She and her husband have not been eating their leftovers. Schwartz forgets to re-prepare them for meals like both of their mothers.

She decided to take on the fridge before they left for the Holidays. Schwartz dumped out 9 containers of various sizes into the trash. The leftovers ranged from taco meat to roast beef, all of which had some mold.

She was close to failing after dumping everything in the garbage can. Her husband, Justin Schwartz, 23, saved her by offering to take out the garbage. "I did it because I love her, and I could see she was an interesting shade of green."

She finished by washing out the containers. She really considers herself a survivor because of their broken dishwasher. It is not spraying water. She washed all of the dishes by hand.

When the dishes were finished, no trips to the hospital needed to be made. She came out of the situation unscathed and excited about the prospect of going home for the Holidays.

Yeah, I'm a Journalism student..... and coming up with this post (and my cute husband) was the only thing that got me through washing all of those nasty dishes by hand! Thanks for indulging me!

The Noteworthy Unblogged....

2008-12-06T08:13:00.001-08:00

I was going through my iphoto this morning, and found some pictures that I meant to blog..... but never quite got around to because they didn't really fall in with any of my major posts.... So here goes!

This is what my cutest husband does when I sit down with pizza and forget the ranch. He goes and gets it for me.... he's quite the creative one huh?:D

Evenings at the Schwartz apartment are never boring:) Cute Polka-dotted robe huh? Its mine.... but Justin thinks its soft.... the picture is taken from so low because I was literally on the floor cracking up.:)

This was just barely taken on our way home from Moscow. My mom usually only shops at safeway but they don't have a gas station at ours. So her fuel discount hardly ever gets used. So any time I see a safeway gas station that's where I stop. This time... her fuel discount was larger than the price of gas.... so we got our gas for 1 cent per gallon! I thought it was picture worthy! THANKS MOM!!!

Thanksgiving Skinner and Schwartz style:)

2008-12-02T18:42:00.000-08:00

Well Justin and I spent a great week in Moscow with his family and I got to learn all of the Skinner/Schwartz family traditions for thanksgiving. The festivities started on Wednesday when all of the boys went out to Garfield to get the family Christmas Trees.

The girls stay home and start the Thanksgiving day cooking:) I learned how to make the super special Skinner family stuffing..... it was incredibly delicious when it was done.... but it looked a little yucky when we were grinding up all of the veggies:D

Pies are also important to the Wednesday cooking day. We made two pumpkin and one apple. (that Apple pie crust looks pretty great huh?.... the newest member of the family made it;))
When the boys got back the started putting up the Christmas lights at Grandma and Grandpa Skinner's house. This is Grandpa and Mitch doing the lights on the bushes.

And this is my cutest husband putting them up on the tree.

This is the next day after dinner..... some very very stuffed Schwartzes:) It was incredilbly delicious! We had such a fun time! We got to see my family on saturday when they came back from Hawaii and then we headed back to Rexburg where we only have two more weeks before we get to go home again for Christmas!

Christmas has hit the Schwartz apartment!

2008-11-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

Justin and I leave for home for Thanksgiving on Saturday morning. Then when we get back we'll only be home for 2 1/2 weeks before we head home again for Christmas, so we decided, even though it is before Thanksgiving, it was still OK to set up the Christmas stuff already. So it was a wonderfully fun Family Home Evening!!

My cutest Husband getting out the tree:D

We had Hot Chocolate.... Peppermint Hot Chocolate... YAY!

Stage 1 of the Christmas Tree Putting together. We bought a big one and had to rearrange our living room to make it work. But... even though our couch is really close to our television, we decided it was worth it!:D We both LOOOOOOVE Christmas!:)

Decorations made by yours truly! Justin and I have a new favorite store called Porters... with all of the crafts you can dream of. They have WONDERFUL Christmas stuff, and we had a lot of fun coming up with ideas!

Our cute little wreath. We hang it on the inside of the door so we can look at it.... selfish huh?:)

My little baby tree... it's going on our table:)

We finished stringing the extra lights around the window:)
(yes, that is Home Improvement on the TV... Hello Al!)

And our Tree!! TA DA!!! We LOVE it! I even plugged in evergreen scent so our house still smells like christmas tree even when our tree isn't real.:)

Justin touched chicken!!

2008-11-11T17:10:00.000-08:00

I got home from the grocery store yesterday evening an asked my hubby to vacuum pack the meat. He did fine with the ground beef, and then I asked him to do the chicken too and he told me that he had never touched raw chicken before. So.... I documented his first time:) Hooray for wonderful husbands who will touch raw chicken for you:)

Birthday Weekend

2008-11-11T17:00:00.001-08:00

Justin's birthday was on Friday the 7th and we had quite the wonderful weekend. We woke up and had a birthday breakfast and opened presents. Then we headed off to work and school, and after that we took the drive down to Utah.

We went to Provo to our favorite restaurant Tucanos. It's a brazilian restaurant where they bring skewers of meat around to all of the different tables and cut it off at your table. It is incredibly delicious and Justin says its just like the BBQs that they do in brazil. They also have his favorite brazilian soda Guarana. I love it as well, and it goes GREAT with the dinner:)

The next day we headed back up to Salt Lake to meet with a mission companion of Justin's and get tickets to the BYU game, which we went to, and they won.... by a lot:)

We both really love BYU so it was fun to go to a game together! We really had a wonderful time. After the game we went out to panda express and then back home to my Aunt Shannon's house where we watched a movie and chilled.

On Sunday we went to church with Shannon's family, and then they blessed their new baby, Ivy Grace that evening and then we headed home. It was a wonderful weekend and we were so grateful to get to see all of my aunts and uncles!

2 WHOLE MONTHS!:D

2008-10-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

Justin and I celebrated our two month anniversary today. All in all we're doing pretty darn well as newlyweds we decided, the sparks are still there even after all these..... weeks;) Rexburg is treating us well except for getting really cold, and we just got back from a trip to Moscow where we spent just enough time there to get homesick and have to come back to Rexburg.

Justin got the chance to meet my oncologist and approved of her, especially since she told us that I am cancer free again for another six months.:) I have an interview coming up on Friday to work at the Student Health Center next semester as a receptionist, and I got offered a scholarship to be in the i-comm program here at BYU-I. I-comm is the program that they have for the communication majors that is like a mock agency for each of the different emphases. (For example, they have a mock newspaper, a mock advertising agency, a mock PR agency... etc.) Its unlike any other program in the nation. Most schools have newspapers, but I'm excited to be working at PR agency to get great experience while I'm still here at school. The director actually mentioned that after I get my two semesters of scholarships, they love to hire their students as Paid interns for their last semester, so school stuff seems to be working out great!

Sorry no pictures this time... just an update.... I've got to find my camera again and then we'll get back on track! Miss you all!

We have been Rexburged!!

2008-10-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

Our new license plates... 1M!!! When we got our title changed over they made us get new plates... we kept the james toyota moscow thing just to make us feel like we weren't complete traitors:)

Picture Tag:)

2008-10-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

So the rules are, pick the fourth picture in your fourth picture file, and post it:) Then tag four people:) I don't have too many pictures on my computer since its pretty new, but this is what it turned out to be:) Justin and I on our trip to disneyland in March.:) Now I tag aunt laurel, aunt shannon, Jade Stellmon, and Dorese Cornelison:)

My mama and sisters came to visit!!

2008-10-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

We had such a wonderful weekend with my mom and sisters:) They came and we played, and went out to eat and shopped, and crammed as much as we could into the little time that we had to spend with them! We were really sad when they left, but we were glad we're heading up to Moscow soon for a Doctor's Appointment!

Me and my mama after I got off work and they came to eat at quiznos with me:)

Me Justin and Gracie all in the twin "guest bed"

Its such a lucky thing that Justin's cousins that moved down here just before we did happen to be my little sisters best friends:) Gracie and Kindra:)

Savannah and Katelyn