da tyoze

The sweetest pup in the whole world passed away 1 week ago on Memorial Day.

In the spring of 2010, my mom decided to surprise my little sister, Hailey, with a new puppy. Hailey had just turned 8 and been baptized and of course those 2 things call for a new addition to the family, right?! I remember him being just a little tiny fluff of black fur running around the front yard of my parents house. He was hardly taller than the grass. I remember him being so energetic and excited to be a part of our family. We were equally, if not more, excited. 

Our family has been so luck to have the Tyoze in our family for the past 5 years. He's been on many family vacations with us and been apart of many memorable moments.

This week has been suprisingly hard, accepting the fact that the Tyoze won't be with us anymore. I have grown to love that pup so much. He has never failed to make my day a little brighter.

There are things big and small that I will always remember about Ty. Some of them include..

His crooked little bottom teeth

Going on walks with him. He ALWAYS had to be in front of everybody else. He would always look back and make sure we were still following him.

Also, on those walks we'd take, he would have to mark his territory on every tree/lamp post/mailbox/stop sign/etc.. Like, literally he would pee on everything. Of course, he only had so much pee in him but he'd just continue lifting up his leg as if he were peeing on the object. I don't know if he thought he still had pee coming out? or?? Really, I'm not sure what he was thinking. hahah. It was always so funny though. 

Occasionally, when I would drive over to my parents house, Ty would be on the sidewalk on Palisade Drive - outside of our cul-de-sac. Whenever he was, I would roll down my window and use my angry voice at him saying "Ty! Go Home! Go home, Ty!" He would look at me and start sprinting home right next to my car, as if we were having a race home.

Most of the time, however, when I would go over to my parents, Ty would be sitting out on either the front lawn or the porch chair. Just lounging. Resting in the warm outside air. I loved pulling up and seeing his cute little black body laying there. 

One time in Lake Powell, we spotted a mouse crawling around on our houseboat. We hollered for Ty to come and pointed to where the mouse was. His hunting terrier side of him would come out at times like these. He chased that mouse all around the houseboat until catching it. Ty was such a quick dog. That mouse had no chance. He LOVED catching smaller animals. 

Unfortunately some of those smaller animals included birds. It only happened a few times when Ty would bring in a dead bird through his doggy door that he had caught from outside. I'm sure he didn't know he was doing something bad but, we would have to scold him and then carry that poor dead bird outside. 

After killing the mouse and birds, Ty would always have this evil hunting look on his face. His bottom teeth would show and he would be on edge for a few hours after, anxiously awaiting another little rodent/bird to catch.

Nothing got Ty more amped up than the family returning home after being away for a few days. That pup would burn more calories sprinting around in circles for 5 minutes than he would on a full regular day. He would then always cough and choke for the next 20 minutes because of his bad throat. Bless his heart. He was always sooo excited when people would come home to him! 

Ty always got extremely jealous when we would give attention to other dogs... or even babies. If we hollered for another dog (specifically Oakley) he would come sprinting to us out of jealousy. If we were holding and loving on a baby, Ty would come and wedge himself between you and the baby. He was an extremely jealous and selfish pup. 

I loved trying to make Ty hold eye contact with me because, he never could! Come to find out, thats a trait that all dogs have.. not making eye contact. But it was still fun to try and make him look at me for extended periods of time.

And last but not least, my favorite thing to do was snuggle him. He LOVED snuggling anyone and everyone. Sometimes spooning even occurred. I'll miss his snuggles. 

Thanks for always being such a sweet, friendly, energetic, loving dog, Ty. We'll miss you and love you forever!!!  

Fire in the Night

We had a thrilling night last week. We had gone to bed on Wednesday night (2/4) at about 10:30 as usual. And, as usual, I fell asleep within minutes of laying my head down while Adam struggled for an hour or 2 to fall asleep. I recall being awake at some point in the night (and come to find out, Adam was too) and hearing a loud, rumbling BANG. I couldn't distinguish where it came from. I wondered if it was something that happened in our house. It sounded so close. I lay there for a few minutes a little nervous but eventually I allowed myself to fall back to sleep. 

I don't recall what time that noise occurred but, sometime later I woke up again, this time to go to the bathroom. Before getting up, I looked at the clock next to my bed and wondered why it was off. I then noticed the light that flickers from the wifi router was not lighting up in our room. I suspected that Adam had turned off the clock and covered up the router so that he could better fall asleep (that boy needs the room to be pitch black) since he had been struggling. I got up and baby-stepped blindly to the bathroom. I wondered what time it was and looked in the kitchen at the oven clock. No time showed. I looked at the microwave. Nothing. I then heard sirens that sounded to be right out our front door. I turned my head to look out the front window from the kitchen and noticed the outside glowing. I immediately ran to the front porch and what I saw was extremely distressing. 

(Ann took this picture with her nice, big camera. My little iphone couldn't capture this)

Just across the orchard that is directly in front of our house was an enormous fire! It was the brand new, still under construction apartments that were being built. I had been watching those go up for the past few months. I sat their in awe, wondering what could have happened. The first thing I thought was that lightening started it, which would have explained the loud thunderous noise we had heard earlier. (oh, I must make a side note right now... I'm currently listening to a random shuffle of songs on Spotify right now and the song "Girl on Fire" by Alicia Keys just came on. Haha, I'm glad I was not a girl on fire a few nights ago.) As I watched on the front porch, there was a constant flow of cars driving on our road. Many pulled over to observe. Many got out of their cars and walked through the orchard to get a closer look. After about 10 minutes of watching, I decided that this was something eventful enough to wake Adam. I went to the room and softly said, "Adam." He was partially awake already, not even from the the events outside, but just because that's how his nights are. Poor boy. He got up and we both continued to just stare and wonder what could have happened. We talked about how we both had heard that booming noise earlier. We watched the fire hoses douse the area. The fire dwindled eventually after burning the whole building down. It became very smokey which caused our house to smell of smoke all that night and into the the next day. Eventually, knowing it was under control, we went back to bed and tried to sleep the rest of the night.

(mostly smoke at this point)

The next day we found ashes all around our home. I went and observed the area more closely after school...

(These big chunks were all around. They're about the size of quarter)

(The elevator shaft was the only thing left standing. Everything else was burned to the ground.)

I came to learn that this was an act of arson. About 15 minutes before this site went up in flames, a Provo police car was set on fire just a few blocks west of us. They believe that the car was used as a distraction. Investigators also believe this event is linked to other arson acts that have occurred over the past year or so. The events all have similar patterns of lighting something on fire and then minutes later, a larger fire is started (I believe they've been other construction sites). 

It is unbelievable how someone or a group of people have that much inhumanity in them to do this much damage. Luckily no one was injured or killed. They still have yet to catch the people who are responsible for this.

It made for a very eventful, memorable night in our neighborhood. One that I wouldn't want to happen again, of course.

Ok so, I have to be honest... when I don't have any really interesting stories or specific big events to share, I kinda just throw everything from the past little while into my blog posts. And thats fine with me. But, it just kinda turns into my journal. So, bear with me. If you love me enough to find interest in my day to day life, then... enjoy! Hahah!

Our families got together up at the Lewis cabin the Sunday before MLK day (1/18). We had a fun evening watching one of the semi-final NFL games, eating dinner, and playing cards. It was so fun having both our families up there together. John and Ann were very kind and let us Robins clan sleep up there so that we could just walk out the door and start our day early on the slopes the next morning. It was a fun MLK day spent doing something we all love, snowboarding/skiing. 

We then had another eventful weekend just a few days later (1/24). We had a coupon to The Roof in SLC (we received it because we had our wedding luncheon at the JSMB) so we planned a whole days worth of activities. We left around 2 to go visit my brother and sister-in-law and their kids - particularly their sweet little newborn twins. Those baby boys are sooo cute. They are just the tiniest little things! You almost don't even know how to hold them because they're just so little! After visiting them for a while, we drove the rest of the way up to SLC to attend the temple. OF COURSE we just figured the temple would be open... and it wasn't. Closed for several weeks for cleaning! We planned on being there and shopping around City creek for the rest of the time before dinner at 7:30. But, we had to come up with some other plan to fill those several hours. We decided to head up to the Bountiful Temple because we had enough time to spare. It ended working out perfectly. We got done with our session and drove back to Downtown and walked into dinner right at 7:30! The Roof was beautiful and the food was delicious. The most stunning location and view. We then headed home and got word that April and Jared, along with some friends, were going disco skating at Classic Skating. We couldn't turn that down! I hadn't been there for years. It was surprisingly packed but as fun as ever. We had a very enjoyable Saturday!

Just lovin those baby boys again. Henry Kipp and Owen Brandon

Last night, all the local Robins plus G&G Anderson/Robins went to the PBR at the Maverick Center. My parents gave us all tickets for Christmas. It was a blast! All the best bull riders from around the world competing to qualify for the World Championships. Our family looked totally out of place (about the only sober, mormon-looking group there). But we all lovveddd it! It was so fun and entertaining. 

Also, on Friday, Adam and I plus Claire and a date went to the US premiere of the musical The Count of Monte Cristo at BYU. It was incredible. The story, along with the actors incredible voices/orchestra honestly brought me to tears a few times. As we were walking to the car after the 2 1/2 hour long show, I told Adam that I could have walked right back in there and sat through the whole musical again. I LOVED it. 

And of course, tonight was the big Superbowl game. Seahawks vs. Patriots. To be completely honest, I didn't care much about the game. But because I had to pretend I did, I was rooting for the Seahawks. Unfortunately, they lost. I have to say, I was really looking forward to Katy Perry's halftime performance. I had high expectations aannndddd... I was disappointed. Not that spectacular. Kinda weird in fact. Also, the commercials seemed to all be super touching and full of emotion. That was a change. Not necessarily bad or good. I liked the positive vibes from them. But, I also like the funny commercials too and, there really weren't very many of them. 

Hope you all have a great new week! 

pictures from the past month

Here's just a little catch up of what I've been doing this past month. Some things that aren't pictured here that are new/changed:

1) we're back in school and only get to see each other in the evenings again.. ugh.

2) I chopped my hair about 6 inches a few days ago. I love it! Such fresh ends and a nice change. Adam likes it but doesn't love it. Hahah! What's with boys and loving long hair on girls??

3) I listen to "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran at all times possible. Obsessed with the song. Adam's loves the song "Uptown Funk" by Bruno Mars. (just incase you guys were wondering, hahah)

4) I never mentioned that Adam's parents got assigned to the Yakima, Washington mission. It's a brand new mission they'll be starting up. We're all so thrilled! I'm glad they'll be near so we can visit often. 

5) My sister-in-law gave birth to twin boys yesterday. I'm super excited to see them!!!

Ok that's all... here's some pictures.

Hailey and I were taking pictures of Ty modeling. It was SUPER hilarious to us at the time. Doesn't Ty make such a great male-model? Haha, love this pup!

Anderson Family Christmas party! Bobs and Grandma Judy have dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus for as long as I can remember. They're such fun grandparents. Looks like Santa has a weird pattern of facial hair growing though... (on the nose?? haha!)

 Cam's doing so stinkin well on the mission. Miss him like crazy!

Samuel decided he needed his ears checked/cleaned out by Dr. R. Let's just say... it wasn't the most professional visit my dad's had with a patient.... Haha, the snapchat pictures kills me. 

Cabin sleepover.

I got SO many pairs of socks for Christmas. I mean... I'm not complaining one bit! The more the merrier when it comes to socks, am I right?! Adam and I thought it was sooo funny though. Like, who gets that many socks for Christmas??

Adam and his super cool Jimmy Neutron hairdo. 

And then Adam making fun of my not so voluptuous hair... 

Sushi date night at Happy Sumo with some of my faves.

Wrestling season for the boys! Cheering them on as often as we can. 

A blurry selfie taken by the handsome Eli. Love hanging out with these kiddos!

1 year anniversary

Yesterday, Sunday the 4th, was mine and Adam's 1 year anniversary of being married. Part of me feels like I've been married to him forever and I don't even remember life without him and, another part of me cannot believe our first anniversary is already here! Either way, these past 365 (now 366) days of my life have been the absolute happiest. As cliche as that sounds, that is the honest truth. He makes me happier. And not only that, he makes me better. I am a better person with Adam in my life. I hope I portray that on the outside with my actions but, I feel it on the inside as well. I not only love him deeply but, I love others more. 

Adam and I are so much a like but, we're also different enough to make our marriage healthy and balanced. I love being married to him. He's kind, funny, patient, goofy, hardworking, loving, and so much more. I got so lucky with him. 

So, 1 year down. Infinity to go. I am eager to see what this next year of marriage brings for us!

(Adam got me a few things including 2 dozen roses. Each rose had a red piece of paper wrapped around it with some special/funny/exciting moment we shared this past year.)

As of late...

We have been busy the past few weeks preparing and studying for finals (which are this week).  But we have found time to do a few fun things.... here's an update

We picked out our first Christmas tree! It's the perfect little size for our perfect little house. And it's oh so cutely decorated. I should take a picture of it at night when it's all lit up. We found ours at the lot on Center St. next to Wendy's. It was so fun walking through all the rows of various trees. Taking in the smell. Heavenly!

My in-laws, John and Ann, received a call to serve as mission president and wife! I could not be more thrilled for them. This calling was only a matter of time. I'm grateful that I married into a family that could add be added to my list of "perfect examples for me." John and Ann have lived their lives in a way that has completely prepared them for this calling. I'm so grateful for them! They leave July 1st of 2015.

(place of service is TBD)

(I'm not sure what was being told to us in this picture. Something shocking, I'm sure.)