2012

2012.

Seriously?

How is it really 2012?

I feel sad that 2011 is over and that it passed so quickly yet really grateful that it's over (ha!).

We are ready for a new year.

We are starting it out with a bang and moving to Utah a week from today.

Yep, just like that I said it.

This has been in the works pretty much from the last time I blogged in October until now. I don't even know how to put into words how I feel about it because I feel quite a few different things about it.

I'm going to try--

This is the first move I've ever made in my whole life that I've been sad/terrified/anxious/worried about. Okay I take that back.

But that doesn't mean that it is not the right thing because it is.

I just really really like Texas and I really really really like San Antonio and you see -- we've really planted roots here and bought a house here and this is the longest we've been anywhere the whole time we've been married and so I am just sad. It's funny because we moved outside of Utah for a grad. school adventure 5 1/2 years ago and even though I knew it was right I was sad/terrified/anxious/worried about it. (Are we seeing a pattern? Should I really have learned by now?)

I just didn't want to be outside my comfort zone and the bay area of California was a total culture shock to a 22 year old me.

BUT, it turns out I really loved it there and felt foolish for complaining the first 3 months we were there. And then, moving to Texas from California was really easy and fun to do because we finally had a paycheck and our first home! It didn't take long to adjust to life in Texas.

In fact, there isn't much about this place that I don't like. Ahhh! It's hard to sum up how you've felt about the events of the past 5 years of your life, but can I just say that I think I may have turned into a grown up and I feel like I might be proud of myself for doing that? And that maybe that's why I'm a wee bit nervous to go back to Utah because I've grown accustomed to and comfortable with being uncomfortable in different states, cities, wards, and away from family and there's something to be said about doing just that.

Don't get me wrong.

I love our families and it's going to be so wonderful to see them more often. But this is probably the exact way it needed to happen for me. I needed to move AWAY to see and learn and feel many many things. And let me tell you, much has been learned individually and with Brent. I am a different person because of California and Texas, and I'm grateful for those differences. I could probably even say that I like and know myself better than I did 5 years ago. And it's not just these places, but the PEOPLE. Oh, the people we have met in the last 5 years! From all different places and walks of life and I love them. There are women and friends that have taught me and they don't even realize it. They have been my family while we've been away from family. So many wonderful people. The women that I have been blessed to know have helped me grow from being a girl to a woman, and an insecure new Mom, to a more confident Mom of two. And I'm happy to say that I now have the perspective of the church outside of Utah. It's such a wonderful thing to be in the "mission field." It has been hard and eye-opening but I love the new perspective I have. And I love that I get to take all the love and experiences from these people and the places and move to Utah to start a new chapter in our lives as a new and different Bethany and new Guerisoli family. I don't know how long we will be in Utah or if it will be forever. And I don't know how I'm going to say goodbye to San Antonio and the people I love here. But of this I do know: life is just as difficult and HARD as it is beautiful and fulfilling. I know that Heavenly Father blesses us with the things that we need in our lives when HE thinks we need them. He has a plan for all of us. And I'm ready to go back to Utah and see what the plan for us is there.

So, if you still read our blog (anyone?), come and visit us in sunny St. George!

And if you know of anyone who needs friends or is renting their home in St. George, let us know - we need friends and a place to live! Ha.

Friday Family Date at the Pumpkin Patch

San Antonio pumpkin patches are few and far between unless you want to drive a few hours. This was perfect for a friday night with a few rinky-dink rides. Brooke was a happy girl and that's what we wanted!

Her and I spun around as fast as we could go and she was sick! Not me, I could have gone more..!

Cute 'lil pumpkin-kids

Our family - and notice the short sleeves! That's October in Texas...

Texas Thanksgiving

Probably what you would call a dream come true for me... MY family coming to MY house for a holiday! We lucked out and they all came to us this year. We hosted my entire family in Texas except for Krista and Steve and their boys (and they were missed!) for Turkey Day 2010. Soooo ya know when an event or holiday goes by and you wonder why you didn't take pictures of so many things? Yeah... hate that. And that's totally how this was, and I'm still regretting and fretting about it. I didn't even get a picture of all the food! Glorious! Food! This pregnant girl barely lifted a finger as sitting is what I spend most of my days doing, so it was almost as if they hosted us in our home. The food was particularly good and we were left with leftovers for over a week. I want to remember who made what... Brent did the turkey in our new roaster, Mom and Meag made the gravy, yams, PW woman's green bean casserole, glazed carrots, pomegranate salad, razzleberry pie, banana cream pie, and Bobby Flay's Pumpkin Bread pudding with vanilla cream anglaise sauce, Amy made rolls and stuffing, Dad did the mashed Potatoes, and Brent and I did a Pomegranate cranberry spritzer to drink. Oh and my Dad did dishes for two days straight! A memorable thanksgiving, for sure, and I will note in another post what I have been most grateful for this season.

Brooke in sheer heaven with 6 cousins that she hardly ever sees. Lydia, Rachel, Brooke, Ellie, Colin, Jacob, and Seth.

We looked over while getting the desserts out to find these three munchkins eating whipped cream out of the bowl!

The kids table covered in butcher paper to color on. I will do this every year that I can on the kids table. My niece, Rachel, made the namecards and decorations for the kids table and did such a cute job!
Meg had her food first and rightfully so... she kicked some booty in the kitchen for two days straight. Let me also just say that this sister of mine is going on a MISSION! She gets her call very soon!!!

The kitchen workers

Thanksgiving table... this may have been the only thing I did for the whole day.

Thanks for making the trek to Texas, dear family.

It was so appreciated and we miss all of you.

South Padre Island, Texas

Wow, where did the month of May go?!?

At the beginning of this month, we took a trip down to the coast and rented a great house with two other families. I had never done any type of trip with friends before and it was a blast!!!

Top ten AWESOME things about this trip:

1) Our beach house (not exactly on the beach, but still). Each of us had our own room and bathroom, there was a large kitchen and family room area, a wrap-around deck on the top floor, and a pool in the backyard.

2) The beach, 85 degree weather, need I say more?

3) The FOOD. Alyssa, Crystal and I planned it out well, I must say. Each of us took three meals and we ate so well on this trip... YUM. Stuffed strawberry french toast... amazing chicken tacos... grilled chocolate sandwiches...Way better than going out to eat would have ever been.

4) Enjoying Brent minus his work laptop and blackberry.

5) Watching Brooke with her friends at the beach and at the pool. We haven't taken her to the beach since she was 8 months old in California. She's so grown up and it's so fun to see.

6) The hardly-bad-at-all 4 1/2 hour drive each way.

7) Being able to put all our kids to bed and then have grown-up time with dessert and games. So much fun.

8) Watching my friends be such awesome Moms to their kids. I wanna be like those girls.

9) The interesting town of South Padre that I would never really want to visit... just has an awesome beach.

10) The fun fun fun in the sun memories of this trip!

Ward Campout...

but we didn't really camp. HA.

I didn't blog about the ward campout last year because I forgot my camera but just in case you feel like it, click here to see pics of Brooke and Olivia. C-R-A-Z-Y how these babies (yep, she's still my baby) change in a year.

So last year we stayed overnight. I was on the activities committee plus I felt like the first camping trip of our marriage probably should happen. Um... I had fun except for that whole sleeping in a tent outside part. And Brent even dislikes that part even more than me, so that's how we roll. This year, we went up for the afternoon, stayed until around 10 p.m. and then drove home. I gotta say (and I do feel bad saying it), it felt really good to drive away from the ward that night (who experienced rain and thunderstorms all night long), and get into our own beds. Pictures taken from Alyssa's camera--

Whoa... halt! My Brooke looks SOOOO BIIIGGGG in this picture. And really pretty, too, right? These two friends just love each other.

Right before Alyssa took this picture of me, I was talking about how unnatural I felt roasting a hot dog. I'm just that girl, I guess. And now looking at the pic, what a ghetto firepit it was, and those hot dogs look nasty... ha.

The boys doing the roasting much better than I did.

So Alyssa typically just thinks of creative ideas like this... of course we needed to blow bubbles while camping! And there is no sarcasm in that sentence at all.

Cutie pie honey bunches

Maybe next year we'll consider staying the night, but it's more than likely that we'll do exactly what we did this year.

Totally fun!

My 2010 Girl's Trip

After last year's Girl's weekend in San Francisco with the Guerisoli Girls, I decided a Girl's trip is a necessity each year.

Even if it is just for a night.

Kendee turned 30 and knowing that I probably wouldn't do a trip with either my sisters or sisters in law this year, a friend girl's trip was definitely in order.

We stayed at the brand new JW Marriott resort for one night about 3 miles from each of our houses.

It was great, grand, and very wonderful.

Bethany, Crystal, Alyssa, and Kendee outside the resort

80 degrees in February in San Antonio. We'll take it, thank you very much.

Out to dinner the night before at one of the best restaurants I've eaten at in San Antonio.

View from our room

Thanks dear friends, for an awesome time. It only takes staying up until 5 a.m. once when you're a Mommy to remember why you don't miss late college nights anymore. HA.

February-ness

Are you ready for the mother-load of posts?

We had a busy and fun February.

And most of all, I'm glad it's over and March is here... lots and lots and lots to look forward to in the coming months.

So, let's break it down--

1. New Beginnings

Have I mentioned I was called in November to be the Young Women's secretary?

It is fun and a new challenge and change of scenery from what I'm used to and I LOVE IT.

It is a privilege to work with the other leaders and we have a great group of about 17 girls who come regularly.

Our president is particularly talented and I love how she does things.. I don't remember New Beginnings being this cool.

The theme was "It's a jungle out there."

My assignment was the refreshments and we made jungle animal cupcakes.

They were a labor of love and Alyssa-friend came over and helped me for 4 hours!

The leaders minus Natalie - Shanna, Patsy, Kendee, Jana, Bethany

Can you tell what each one is? Hopefully they are recognizable.. A zebra, monkey, lion and tiger.

Sign-in table with the guides for the Personal Progress Scavenger hunt... brilliant idea.

The stage before the night began.

Next up...

2. Lovely Lover's Day...

Much of our Valentine's day and every other holiday surrounds food. Whenever we go to the store before a holiday, we always end up getting way more food than we can handle but end up justifying it by saying, "we can have this for Valentine's breakfast," or whatever it is... What can we say? We are lovers of foodness.

Brooke opening her Valentine

Chocolate-covered strawberry yumminess

Brent was in charge of the yummy Belgian waffle+strawberries+whipped cream+bacon+scrambled eggs+orange juice

Let me tell you... this guy can make a mean breakfast.

Happy to be eating Daddy's food-iness.

I also want to remember that for dinner we had Tuscan chicken cakes with tomato-basil relish... if you don't know what these are, you should look in my recipe label, because they will surely make your life complete.
Of course, after stuffing ourselves with great food and candy all day, we had to make our annual heart cake.
Dark chocolate cake with ganache on top really brought the day to a blissful close.
Full bellies + full hearts = lots 'o love.

Brent decorating the LOVE cake.

Are you still with me?

3. Bedroom change

This is trivial and less-than-important to the blogging world, but fun for me. And we blog for ourselves, right?
Ha. Yeah, right.
So... we switched our bed to the other wall...
I like the change... it opens up the traffic flow, but the accent wall does stand out maybe in a bad way.

Thoughts?

Yes, I know the picture is not centered..

4. B-rookie: Our Potty-star!

Happy to report total success in the potty department!

She is in a diaper for naps and at night-time but we haven't had an accident in over two weeks and she's done great the last two weeks while in nursery at church.

We're all very happy and can constantly be seen doing a celebration potty dance in her honor.
Thank you for all of your advice, everyone!

Everyone's comments were so valuable.

I do have to say that I don't think it was really anything I did with Brooke.

She is so smart and caught on so fast and really did most of it herself.

Brooke with her big potty prize after going #2 for the first time.

Happy lady

I can't imagine you are still reading but just in case, here's #5

5. Brent's job change

Brent will be starting his third rotation with the AT&T leadership development program next Monday.
This is wonderful as can be because his 2ND rotation was maybe one of the hardest 8 months of my life.... (probably an exaggeration, but still very hard)

It was normal for him to work for 14 hour days and in this next job, the schedule will be much better and much more realistic.

Also, to go along with this, we almost had to move to Dallas for this rotation.

Prayers were answered and we're obviously staying here, but there is a good possibility we will be moving when he is out of the program in October, but I'm still crossing my fingers.

I really really REALLY love San Antonio.

Alrighty...

I think that about covers it... the hip happenings from US lately...!

Our friends, the Walburgers--

We just spent part of our weekend with some old friends who live in Austin, Jordan and Marlo Walburger.

They stayed the night at our house on friday and it was a treat because we haven't seen them for a year and a half for just a few minutes and then about 2 1/2 years before that.

We met these great people in our married student ward in 2005.

Brent was in the bishopric and Jordan was the Elder's quorum president so they spent a lot of time in meetings together.

They were also notorious for keeping each other up to date on the scores of whatever game was happening during church.

Men... I mean boys will be boys.

And a fun tidbit--I worked at Alysse's bridal in Orem and just happened to be Marlo's bridal consultant when she bought her dress.

It is fun to reminisce back on the times we spent together prior to having kids and then to see each other with kids. Marlo is such a sweet mother, and that baby Drake is dreeeaaamy.

They are also part of the original group that we played Nertz with almost every Sunday night and they always dominated.

But who dominated this weekend?

That's right, we did!

Sorry guys, but it did feel good.

Gratefully, we had good weather the day they were here so we hit up the Riverwalk.

Marlo, Jordan, Drake, Brent, Bethany, Brooke on the riverwalk

Stopping for some gelato

Terrible lighting, but I still like this shot of the river

The three of us on the River


We had some good times back in Orem and have really missed them so it was great to reconnect. We are so glad you came and stayed with us and can't wait to come visit you in Austin!