The New Place

This is to document how our new hood looks before we transform it into something a little cozier.

Living Room:

It's a little bit of a fixer upper (name that song).  The walls need painting and the doors have a hard time closing, but the carpet is really nice! Basically there's a lot of potential here. Once we throw up curtains, get some pictures on the walls, add some bright pillows I really think it will look awesome! We've also been promised that a paint job is coming in the near future....

Kitchen:

 Again, the walls desperately need a new coat of paint, there tons of "touch up" parts that are all discolored and stand out like a sore thumb. The table, chairs, and storage shelving unit were free, courtesy of Mama Gaffney. The no dish washer thing has taken some getting used to, we are back to the old school dish washing by hand. But we love how much bigger it is in general than our last apartment. It's also cool having a back door, even if there is no light outside and we have to feel our way to the door, through the lock, and across the kitchen to turn on light. Hence the lamp solution by the door.

The bathroom and bedroom are both tiny and I'll document them on another day. Here's to home projects!

The Art of Procrastination

So I really need to be studying for my midterm tomorrow but I can't seem to find the willpower to focus my energy on such a task. Alas I choose to neglect my studies and blog instead (seeing as how that's been neglected lately.)

 .....so...life huh?

Where to begin... let's see here well in February we celebrated our first valentines day as a married couple, that was pretty awesome. Basically it entailed an Ikea date, a hotel in SLC (sometimes Garrick gets awesome military discounts), with pizza, chocolate, and Gladiator. (so romantic haha) It was a good time, we love holidays, especially when it means we get long weekends together. 

A couple weeks later we were back in SLC sitting in the temple watching his brother Michael get sealed to his beautiful bride Janette. We couldn't be happier for their little family! It was really nice to see all of the Gaffney's getting together again to support Michael.  

In other news we've had an early spring here in Provo and we have welcomed the sun with open arms! Walking home from school has never felt so good.  We've loved being outside again, playing at the park, throwing the frisbee, watching Dallin's baseball games. Spring is officially here! 

Another exciting thing that has happened recently is we moved! (next door to Colby and Kelsi) It all happened really quickly; one day we started looking for housing, the next day we put our apartment on craigslist, about a week and a half later we are in a new home. Crazy but exciting! We love our new home, seriously. The first time looked at it we were having second thoughts about moving, it looked pretty ghetto (I blame the previous tenants for putting no effort into their home) anyway, at the time it felt like we'd  really be downgrading. But we knew we'd save money and needed a change in scenery so we decided to go for it anyway. 

The first night in our new place we really felt at home, more so than we ever had in our apartment complex. It sounds weird but we love our little basement apartment! It's old, worn down and makes creepy sounds at night but it's ours and we love it. And I love that I have a bigger apartment to decorate! I am completely pumped for the challenge of beautifying our new home. 

Well this has been fun but now I have to get back to staring at my computer screen hoping some of the information sinks into my brain so I'll be able to ace my test tomorrow. 

Here we go...

My Favorite Pastime

Decorating our home has turned into my favorite pastime. Looking back, I don't think I've ever completely been able to decorate anything before and now I get this whole apartment! This has its pros and cons, the pros are that I have a new hobby to give me a break from school, our home is looking better and better each week, I have so many ideas that I just don't know what to do first! The cons are I keep rearranging our home, I don't have a real job ergo I don't have all the money I want to transform it how I'd like, and I have so many ideas that I just don't know what to do with myself! Don't ask Garrick his opinion about my new found hobby...he usually suffers the most from my head of ideas. I may or may not make him put up pictures, take them down, rearrange, complain incessantly about how I don't know how to decorate, etc. He's a good sport. But it has been the best time making it our home. I'm slowly but surely making it perfect. 

Here are a few new arrangements we've made to our love shack!

  

It's just a start and there are so many more things I want to do. But in the mean time it's our home and we love it. 

                                                             

Golden Birthday

Let me just being by saying that for some reason, golden birthdays are just so much more cooler. But it's even sweeter that I turned 21! I am now legally able to purchase alcohol, adopt a child, supervise a person who is learning to drive, gamble in a casino, purchase and conceal a gun. And most importantly Garrick doesn't feel like he robbed the cradle anymore. Life is good!

My birthday week entailed my coworkers decorating my office with the sweetest notes, my amazing boss spoiling me with a gift and a lunch date, eating delicious food from Red Robins, IHOP, and Olive Garden (birthday freebies are the bomb), thoughtful gifts from my incredibly cute husband and my favorite part- 21 Krispy Kreme donuts to put me in a happy sugar coma (we may or may not have eaten 2 dozen donuts in 2 days...) I am so blessed to have so much. 

Playing Catch Up

Well Christmas break came and went way to quickly but it was so great. And now January is almost over. Time is just flying! Here is our documentation of our break. (This will be the longest post ever.)

We watched The Hobbit with the fam in the best theater ever (the chairs reclined all the way down!!)

We played games almost every night, Garrick and Mom loved it. Kayla and Dad were good sports.

All this kid wanted to do was eat pizza and wings over the break, he got his wish. And his pizza skills improved immensely since our last trip. 

He loved participating in our epic Beck family Christmas traditions, I loved it more.

Kayla, Garrick, and I participated in an after party most nights after the parentals went to bed. This entailed movies, food, and more games. This would often last until 4-5am. The power went out one night so we cuddled up in our bed while we watched a movie on the computer and played pandemic. (arguably the best board game ever created)

We were able to go on a temple date with my parents and it was so wonderful. It was the first time we had been back since our wedding, it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

And Garrick had to experience our world famous zoo!

We also made a point to visit our engagement spot, exactly a year later. (So precious, I know)

We even were able to spend a couple days with Rebekah and the kids, they are seriously the cutest. I can't believe how fast they are growing up, we love love love them! We even squeezed in seeing the movie Frozen right before we caught our flight. (see Alicia's incredible reenactment here)

Basically this was the best break we've ever had. We ate food allllll day, stayed up till 5, slept in until noon, went to plays, movies, caught up with friends, and spent some good quality time with my fam. Needless to say it was rough adjusting back to school life again. Thanks for the good times Iowa, you'll see us again soon. 

                                                                

Merry Christmas!

Since we are poor we aren't sending the card out but it made it on the blog so that's something! Here are our  13 highlights of the year. 

1. We got married!!

2. We moved into our first apartment

3. Went to the family ward then switched to a married ward

4. We went on a cruise to Mexico!

5. Our cousin Travis and his wife Holly moved next door to us!

6. Jamie got a promotion at work and became the office manager and supervises all student staff. 

7. We camped, a lot! (Jamie learned how to survive in the wilderness with no bathroom)

8. We started the big brother big sister program and have become best friends with our little bro, Tommas.

9. We got to see my family multiple times throughout the year, which we loved!

10. Garrick got Jamie to try Tilapia, Chicken, and Turkey (no vegetarian in the family now)

11. We survived 2 weeks apart! (that really is an accomplishment!)

12. Colby and Kelsi got married, Dallas and Lauren got engaged, and Michael and Janette got engaged!

13. Garrick solidified his major and starting working towards his degree

Christmas Time

Because this is our first Christmas as a married couple we thought it would be so fun to make a Christmas card! So I asked my friend from work if she wouldn't mind taking a few photos for us and then I enlisted the skills of my talented sister Carrie to turn it into a card. Here are a few of my favorite pictures we took on Saturday. 

Our Christmas card is still to come!