Cutest 1 year old niece around!

Our cute niece Marlee Mychele Ku'uipo Roberts turned 1 on December 8th!

She's a adorable and so much fun! Love her forever and always!

First married Thanksgiving

This year was our first Thanksgiving together. We are blessed to have both of our families live in the same town, so we got to be with both of them. Thanksgiving day we spent with the Warburton's and had a delicious meal :) I love them and it was so much fun helping to prepare dinner with my mother-in-law. We always have a good time with them. Then we headed up to my house to have pie with them. All of my family plus some were there besides Christine Levi and Ezra. We had fun with everyone there too, it's always a crazy house when we all get together, I love it!

I have an awesome new sister-in-law Veronica(Mick's wife) who got us to go black Friday shopping. Me, Jana, Veronica, Heidi (our exchange student from Germany) and Mick (our place holder in line) braved the 3 degree weather and headed out at 10 pm. We had a great time hitting up all the craziness, and it was fun spending more time with Veronica and getting to know her better, I love her and I always welcome more girls into the family!

On Friday I braved the cold again and headed out with the Warburton's to go shooting. I love shooting and it's a family tradition they have, I went last year as Race's 'just friend' this year as his wife... We had fun shooting clay pigeons and chatting and sitting around the fire. Surprisingly, I'm not too bad of an aim and can hit the pigeons.

After hanging out with our families we heading to Vegas because we had tickets to the Trans Siberian Orchestra! This has been on bucket list because my brother Jake is one of their biggest fans and always is raving about them. And thanks to Jake, I got to meet one of the lead violist Roddy Chong this summer and had the opportunity to be his assistant. Roddy is awesome and that awesomeness runs in TSO. The concert was so AMAZING! If you haven't seen them you HAVE to go, you won't regret it! Look them up if you haven't heard of them.

Last but not least of course I have to include our cute niece Marlee, I love her and she has such a personality now, I can't get enough of her :) Race was blowing up the air mattress and she was standing there watching him so he handed it to her and she started blowing into it! The picture shows how cute it was! We got to stay at David and Jana's in Vegas Saturday night and we went to a car show and just hung out, we love spending time with them! I love having Marlee around too because Race is so good with her! She just looks at him and gets this HUGE grin on her face and starts giggling. He's always playing with her. He seriously will be the best dad... one day

Weekends

We've learned that Halloween isn't as fun when you're not a kid or don't have kids... so this Halloween we 'kidnapped' kids to make it more exciting for us. First we took Simaya to our ward trunk or treat. She's a doll and she made a cute wonder women! She doesn't look like she had tons of fun in this picture haha but really she loved it, just a little camera shy :)

And this year Marlee spent her first Halloween in Tooele. she was a cute lady bug! I love my niece and we had fun with five adults taking her trick or treating in downtown Tooele in the rain, poor baby, but that's how Halloween goes in Utah.

This last weekend wasn't as much fun. Race had to go to the Marine Ball but I couldn't go because I spent all weekend in school from 8-5 Friday and Saturday and 8-12 Sunday. To become a hygienist one thing you have to do is pass the written national boards. So this weekend was a board review, so we reviewed everything from the past four years... It really wasn't fun but very beneficial. Race didn't want to pay to go to the ball so it turned out he didn't go at all and just spent the night with his buddies. This was our first nights sleeping alone and being apart, I didn't like it but it's preparation for more times to come. I love being married and part of the reason is because I always get to be with Race, so when that isn't possible I'm not a fan.

Also Race's great grandma Jeffs passed away this weekend, she was 97 and an amazing women and lived a healthy and strong life. We love her dearly. One of the best parts of our wedding reception was she was able to come. What a sacrifice for her, but it meant the world to us!

What's been on my mind....

SCHOOL, SCHOOL, and more SCHOOL!

So my life is school and so is Race's. Luckily we can just focus our time on school and not have to worry about much else... Here are some things about my schools that won't get out of my mind

1. I'm so grateful I passed the ultrasonic competency today! Seriously competencies are the SCARIEST test in the world. We have three instructors huddled over us (one breathing right into my ear) trying to see my technique instrumenting my patient's mouth (thanks the Race for being my patient). I always do it good in clinic but when competency comes I get so NERVOUS and shake so much. But today I was able to do it right and pass, thank goodness!

2. I've been way STRESSED about clinic this semester. I thought this semester would be easier because we don't have as many book work classes... but I was wrong. Trying to find patients and patients with the right requirements is much more stressful. As we get closer to graduation we need harder patients which seem IMPOSSIBLE to find and even harder to really have them show up to their appointment. There are 24 of us girls looking for hard enough patients and it seems most of us can't find the requirements we need to pass clinic this semester. I think we are all in the same boat... but it's hard to get patients to come in and sit in the chair for three hours not only one time but multiple times and then to pay up to a $100 dollars for their treatment when the reason they came to the clinic is because they are low income... so feed the kids or get my teeth clean is what it comes down to for alot of patients, so that translates to us girls having a really hard time finding what we need. Hopefully with some connections I will find my requirements and pass.

3. My #1 LEAST favorite class ever is expanded functions... this is a class were we as hygienists fill small cavities on patients after the dentists drills it out. First complaint, it's not even legal in Utah so how and why are we doing it in school? Second, again patients are almost impossible to find they have to have cavities small enough for us to fill and also be able to come in on a Monday from 2-5. I haven't had patients in clinic that need fillings so how am I going to find people with cavities? Also the dentist that teaches the class is very tough, when we asked what happens when we make a mistake he told us, just don't make mistakes... so we are expected after six times of practicing on a model to go in to a real mouth and do perfect work? I just don't get it. And then they let me send my patient home with a C grade filling in his mouth. It's so hard to get all the anatomy perfect. Well I could keep going but I'll stop... the point is I hate this class.

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4. I didn't realize when I signed up for hygiene school I would also be teaching. But this part is actually pretty fun. We go into preschools and elementary schools and teach them about taking care of their teeth. I would NEVER want to be a teacher, but having fun with the kids and doing activities for a half hour isn't bad at all.

5. Race probably didn't realize when he asked me to marry him that also meant he would be my patient and guinea pig for my hygiene school. Good thing he is a good sport... since I need alot of requirements he said he would let me do nitrous (laughing gas) and three shots on him. He's a good husband. Plus he LOVED nitrous and was pretty dang funny on it, I wish I had gotten a picture.

6. Even though school is stressful, I've made lifetime friends that help me get through it all because they really do understand, and seeing all the girls at school is awesome! I love them !

After the marriage...

So here's an update on our life since we have been married... We live in St. George because I'm in dental hygiene school so i dragged Race down here. Race is going to Dixie and getting his associates finished up and working on going towards an engineering degree. After I graduate in May, we are moving up to Salt Lake so Race can go to the U of U (my dad will be proud).

We live in a little one bedroom apartment but we love it, it's small but nice. We don't have a dishwasher or washer and dryer... that's all I want in my dream home, it's way crappy without it. It's within walking distance of both of our schools and thanks to St. George weather we walk a lot.

We like our ward, it's a family ward but we are starting to get to know some people. We are in a strengthening marriage Sunday school class, which is kinda funny because we have a strong marriage and no problems yet, the class seems to be geared toward people who argue a lot and need some help... but we were called to go to it so we do. Maybe one day it will help us out. Everyone tells us their first year of marriage was so hard but we just need to stick to it and it gets better... honestly it hasn't been hard at all we are almost waiting for it to be hard because thats what everyone says, we are just lucky. Race has a calling but I'm still jobless...

Neither of us are working which is a blessing thanks to the GI bill from the military we get money from them and Race donates plasma for a little extra money.

I like St. George, it took Race some adjusting especially the hot weather, but it's cooled down so maybe he likes it a little more now. one of the best things is we are so close to the temple we get to once a week :) And Race got a snowboarding season pass to Brainhead and it's still close enough so I'm sure he'll live. We have done some fun things since we've been down here like hiking with friends and my aunt, having friends over for dinner, visits from Dave Jana and Marlee and Jake. We usually go on a Friday night date some things have included mini golfing, frozen yogurt, playing pool and billards at the rec center, swimming, going to dinner andI can't remember other things but we find things to do. We have a starving student card that gets us discounts to lots of places so thats how we usually decide what to do.

Being married is the best thing ever and we are both very happy! We'll keep you posted on our adventures in St. George!

Entering the blogging world

Well we, actually I Aly, have created a blog and decided to include my husband too. I'm a really good blog stalker and after my dad created a blog last week I decided it's finally time that I create my own. As my family gets spread apart and my friends are moving all over the place this is a good way to keep up with everyone. Plus I'm not the best journal writer so maybe this can substitute for it? It always will motivate me to take pictures since I haven't taken any pictures since we have been married...oops. And best of all it gives me something to do in class when I don't want to pay attention... So here's goes nothing!