The best two years!!

Yesterday we celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary!! It truly has been the best two years of our lives and I am so grateful to know it will be FOREVER!! Last year I wrote this song for John and played it for him.

*You came into my life like a dream,

And since that day I'm a new me.

Now its been a year,

And it is so clear.

From the moment that I said "I do",

I knew our love would see us through,

Anything, Everything.

You make me so happy,

Because I know how much you love me,

And I love you and always will.

You're my best friend.

I love you so much honey...2 years down, infinity to go!!!

Holidays!!

John is finally done for the semester...its been a long one! He now heads up to the U to get his prereqs done before he applies for DPT school. I just had to post this picture because it shows what a hard worker he is. He wanted quiet time to study, and the best place was our bedroom closet. I couldn't find him for a while so I opened the door to the closet and his long legs were crammed in there. I guess we do what we have to!!Something else that happened last month was Sunni got fixed. You can see the stitches across her belly. Poor thing was so confused on the medication...I had to get this picture of her. I was in the office working and she was moaning and wandered underneath the desk and collapsed like this. She recovered really quick...too quick. She was running and jumping the next day which is bad because she started to bleed out. Not bad, although I freaked out, it was just from a raised heartrate so we had to keep her in her kennel for a couple days because she couldn't get too excited!This is John and I new favorite picture of Sunni. Her first real experience with snow...she dove right into a pile and popped out looking like this!! She is pretty stinkin cute!

As many of you know...John got roped into playing Santa at my studios production of "The Night Before Christmas". He did such a good job and the girls loved him. He worked so hard over the past couple months going to rehearsals, studying videos, and suiting up in a fat suit. I love and appreciate his support for me. Everyone loved him. Shayden (Johns 8 year old niece) said her favorite part of the whole show "was when the girl jumped on Johns back"! It was such a success!!

I am really excited about our Christmas tree this year. I threw it together with stuff from Tai Pan Trading, my own design. The white are feathers, the green and black is this amazing ribbon I found, the red are these glittery fox tail things, and the green and gold sparkly things you can barely see are giant leaves. I also made my tree skirt out of this amazing deep red fabric I found in the remnant pile at Joanns. I also decorated our garland with pearls and deep red feathers...it is really fun! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!

Halloween!!!

Our day started off with a trip with my parents to the Miller Motor Sports race track. We watched a local race for a bit, and then headed over to the Go Karts! It was a blast...we got 3 30 min passes. John and my dad went the full 30 and me and my mom split 15 15. John was feeling a bit queezy after racing. He has had a sensitive stomach ever since he got home from his mission. Right after we pulled out of the parking lot we had to quickly pull over to the side so John could lose his lunch!! Then we went to Saltair and walked around and took pictures...it was a gorgeous day!

That night we had our 1st annual Southwick Halloween Bash! It was a lot of fun having new and old friends over...and the pumkin carving contest was amazing, not to mention the donut contest!!

John and I were old people for halloween...SCARY!!

Our growing pup!!

Sunni 9 weeks old

Sunni went in for her first vet exam 2 weeks ago and was told she is as healthy as a horse. She weighed in at 7 lbs. The vet guessed she would be around a 40-45 lb dog as an adult...but he said he is usually wrong with mixes like Sunni. Well, she went in for her second set of shots on Friday and weighed in at 11 lbs...what a chunk!! The vet said that the next time he sees her for her last set of shots (in about a month) she will probably be double her size...another 11 lbs in a month!!! Well we just love her. We are all definitely growing from having puppy (mostly me and my patience), but we love every minute of it. Sunni is getting better with potty training, it doesn't take her 10 min from taking her outside to figure out why she is out there. We also read and heard that a good way for them to let you know they need to go outside is put a bell by the front door for them to ring, so far a success!! She is also learning how to sit, lay down, and come. She loves to chew on her toys and play in the park. Her new thing is she loves to relax on the bean bag...we dont like that idea so we are looking for Sunni's own dog bed. My favorite is one morning I woke up to take Sunni out and there was a scribbled note with a paw on the floor next to her kennel that said, "thank you mommy for taking such good care of me, I love you". I am married to such an amazing man who makes me smile at even the silliest things, like a note he wrote with his left hand and and traced our puppy's foot. I am so blessed!!

Sunni 11 weeks old (i hate the blue harness...but she doesn't chew on it!)

You Are My Sunshine!

Who knew that the Eastern Idaho State Fair had so much to offer!! Our little family has grown as of last night...WE HAVE A PUPPY. Her name is Sunni, and has the most beautiful blue eyes...like Johnnys:) She is a husky, chihuahua, pug mix...don't ask but is worked!! We have had her one day and she has already chewed up the carpet by the laundry room, pooped once and peed three times...oh what a joy...but her face makes you just melt and forget about it!! And I know thats just the beginning.

She is such a playful little puppy, and such a snuggler. When she gets scared, she will just climb up and around your neck. Her favorite spot to sleep is right at the end underneath our bed...half in and half out. We are so excited about our little addition...and hope we survive potty training! We love her and her little face makes us smile. Hope you all get to meet her soon!

Itty Bitty Salt Lake City

So John and I were trying to figure out something fun to do for the last day of summer...that was free. Well I get a phone call from him while he was at work about a contest in the newspaper called "itty bitty salt lake city". So here is the scoop...there are 20 pictures of very very random things within 20 blocks of downtown. For example, some of the pictures are a corner of a logo of a local business, the last four digits of a phone number on a sign, or like below, a specific set of knots on a tree! So basically it is really hard, but we thought we should be adventurous...our own little treasure hunt. So we borrowed some bikes and went to town. We rode for four hours up and down the streets, and we had a lot of fun. We have found 15 of the 20 locations, and we have until September 21st to find the rest and submit the addresses of the exact location of the pictures. Whether or not we win...we had a BLAST!Out of a million trees downtown...how did we manage to find this exact one!!
The picture of this one was just a corner of the base and chair...but we found it!!

Golfing!!

So I have never been "real" golfing before...so John took me to the driving range and then we putted around a bit. Come to find out I am a pretty good driver...I guess going straight down the fairway is a good thing. I must have learned from the best:)

Happy Birthday John!

So on the night of John's birthday I had to teach and I felt so bad. So to make him feel special while I was gone I sent him on a scavenger hunt throughout our house. His "prize" at the end was a traced lifesize picture of me thanks to Mom Southwick, that was beautifully detailed by Nicole Clifford! It was pretty dang funny!

Summerlicious!

Our summer has been full of hikes, a couple trips to Vegas, Southwick family reunion, and pure awesomeness!!

Our first hike of the season was to Grandeur Peak. So beautiful at the top with views of the whole valley. It was awesome, except for the people sliding down the mountain in the snow, making it impossible to hike up!!

Our second hike this summer was to Antelope Island (Frary Peak) just outside of Layton. It is the island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. You have to go over the causeway to get there. Well when we crossed, our car got malled by brine flies...I mean absolutely covered. We couldn't even see out the windshield!! We also got some pretty awesome tan lines on that trip...they are still lingering.

Our next adventure takes us to Zion's National Park to the Southwick Family Reunion. Our weekend was full of hiking in the Narrows, horseback riding, food, and family! We had a blast. It was Megan's first Southwick Reunion experience, and she loved it!!




From the family reunion we ended up in Las Vegas for Megan's studio's National Competition. There, we danced in the parents novelty to Micheal Jackson's "Beat It", and had the best costuming in the group...oh and we totally rocked it!!

Our new book, "60 Hikes within 60 Miles" then led us to Desolation Lake. Wow...what a beautiful hike, but shame on us we took the steep way up!!

So we have a "List" of things we have to accomplish within the year, and one of our items is to dress up for the opening night of a movie...so we chose TRANSFORMERS! From the time John got home from work at 6 until the midnight movie, we puff painted and sharpied our own shirts. Basically everyone wanted to be our friends!!

So we ended up in Vegas again...this time it was 15 degrees hotter without a working AC in our car. But it was totally worth it. Megan had the chance to work with the producer/choreographer that she worked with when she performed in Atlantic City, but this time she was an assistant choreographer for a show that would be on Carnival Cruislines!! It was a lot of fun. But it wasn't all work, we had a lot of time to play and relax.

Most recently we went to a Jack's Mannequin, Fray, and Meese concert with Megan's siblings. It was at Usana Ampitheater. We were really nervous it was going to be boiling hot because that was one of the hottest days of the year so far, but as soon as we got there and got out of our car it became overcast. Basically it was a perfect night of awesome weather, amazing music...and cotton candy!!

ALL MOVED IN!!

The Family Room The Dining Room

Master Bath

Guest Bathroom

The Kitchen (they did the wrong edging on our counters, so they will be

ripping them out sometime soon)

Family Room and Front door

A "Broadway Extravaganza"

Ciaran Sheehan, our guest artist. Such an amazing voice!

John all done up and ready for the stage! He did so good.

John getting his makeup done. I don't like putting makeup on my husband I won't lie.

We had a wonderful night of song and dance. It was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it. Everyone that came enjoyed the show. The singing was amazing and the dancing was so fun to watch. We all had fun...but we are glad its over!!

Buying a Condo!!

Our condo is under construction as we speak! This past weekend we put in our own flooring. It was an interesting project in that many unexpected things occured...like the floors being painted with latex paint. This caused many set backs and lots of extra money, but it looks beautiful!! We are so grateful for the help we got from Papa and my Dad, we about killed them off with all that labor!Sealing the floor.

Finished product for bathrooms.

John hard at work in the laundry room.



The old men are BEAT!

Before the "big project"