I suuuuuuuppose for the sake of our posterity, 2012 should be documented here on this little blog, so this is me putting on my copy-cat hat and writing that which is most definitely a typical blog post. Here we go!
January
Ben & I were dating, going to school, and working at BYU. Nothing too exciting going on in our worlds. We spent the month going to lots of plays and musical performances so Ben could graduate with Honors later on in the summer.
February
Ben proposed, we picked a wedding date, and the wedding plans began! We found it was really hard to balance wedding stuff with school, work, and church callings, but we made it work. And lost a million hours of sleep--or at least it felt that way. Ben flew out to St. Louis to interview for Washington University's human genetics PhD program, and left me back in Utah to find a wedding dress. Oh, and we took engagement photos. :)
March
March Madness Wedding Madness. I feel like finding bridesmaid dresses consumed all my free time, even though my mom was pretty much doing everything (Thanks a bunch, Mom!). Midterms rolled around at one point, we passed those and prayed for our finals scores to be just a little higher. We joined the Marriage Prep class in our singles ward at BYU and bought ourselves a car! At the end of the month, two very lovely ladies threw me the cutest bridal shower - complete with a million different kinds of foods and desserts, and Ben and I had our bridals/groomals shoot!
April
We spent the first half of the month finishing up little things for the wedding, and pretty much running around like crazy. I was able to go through the
temple and receive my
endowment with Ben and family members present the week before our wedding. We finished finals, packed, and got married the next day on the 20th in the Mt. Timpanogos LDS temple. Best. Day. Ever. We celebrated with a short cruise out of California that went to Mexico, and raced back to Utah to start new classes.
May
School and work demanded most of our time, but we sure had fun stocking up on all of the kitchen necessities that we were lacking. Over Memorial weekend, we drove to Denver to have an Open House and spend time with Ben's family.
June
Birthday month for us! We celebrated both of our birthdays in June, and had fun just enjoying the summer whenever we weren't at school or work. We went to a couple of weddings/receptions, spent our weekends up in Ogden helping Ben's grandma with stuff around the house, and went to one of my family reunions up in Idaho.
July
July was full of family get-togethers, taking on our first big crafting project and finding out that one of us is not a fan of painting, and packing our stuff up to move. I shot my very first gun, and made my first apple pie. I really moved up in the world during the month of July! We took a trip to St. George with my family, where we held our very first annual family Olympics. You better believe we had a synchronized swimming event! ;)
August
The term wrapped up with finals and graduation for Ben! We celebrated with our families, packed a trailer, and drove the 1,340 miles to St. Louis. Once we settled in, we had a lot of fun discovering what St. Louis has to offer and poor Ben had to head back to school with less than 2 weeks of a break. I spent my days applying to jobs and signed up for my first online class through BYU.
September
September brought a bunch of fun activities with friends - everything from Greek festivals to watching BYU games to hot air balloon festivals. Ben was called as the 2nd counselor in the YM's presidency and I was called as ward librarian. I spent September applying to jobs and making some great dinners learning how to cook. I had a lot of time on my hands, so it was fun to get to know other ladies in the ward and get out of the apartment whenever I could. St. Louis also put on a free All-American Rejects concert, so we definitely took advantage of that. We found some great dessert places, too.
October
We kicked off the month with pie and general conference. My mom and sister came to visit in the middle of the month! I had the greatest time showing St. Louis, before starting my job working for a professor at Washington University. We had a ward Halloween party, watched scary movies, and carved pumpkins with some friends.
November
I made America proud by voting for the first time and our couch finally came. We bought a Christmas tree and put it up before Thanksgiving, per my request. November brought long days at school and work for us before we headed to Denver to celebrate Thanksgiving with Ben's family. I can also proudly say that I went on my first Black Friday shopping trip this year.
December
Let's be honest. December is always a whirlwind of festivities and activities, and really the best month out of the year! It felt like we were always rushing off somewhere or doing some kind of Christmas shopping. We were fortunate enough to have the time off of school and work to drive to Utah to spend Christmas with my family and New Year's in Denver with Ben's family. It was so great to see everyone and spend time around the mountains.
We couldn't have asked for a better year and feel so blessed for all that we have been given. Here's to 2013 and new adventures!
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