Valentines Day and Lent

Another great month in 2013. I think I love this time of year because during the bluesy winter months it is always when we seem to get an abundance of family and friends in town to ski. I like that tradeoff. After my awesome best friend Al and her cool husband Ben were here we followed it up with Brendan's parents and Aunt and Uncle Laura and Mike in town staying with us. I still pinch myself that we as home owners have a house big enough to fit all of these people and plus some.

When everyone was here we also had an engagement party for Tommy and Brandy, 2013 is going to be a great year with their wedding coming up in August. We made burgers and survived the winter storm that always seems to grace us when we decide to have a "party". I think I may quit calling it "parties" so mother nature decides not to add her embellishments.

We had a great time and enjoyed some good skiing at both Solitude and Canyons. I love snowboarding and just sharing in a good activity with family. This has been a monumental snowboarding year for me because I have family been to different places besides PCMR! Both Solitude and Snowbird are fantastic and to be enjoyed. Brendan and I also had a back country outing by Alta yesterday that was great in the sunshine.

Other big news was Baby Mayhem arrived, our friends Andy and Lexi had their gorgeous baby boy Everett Andrew May a little over a week ago. He could not be a cuter, sweeter baby boy! They make it all look so easy, last night they had all our friends over. It was neat watching everyone love this sweet little boy and just reminded me how lucky we are to have the amazing friends here. I hope the next few years ushers in more babies and this new changes in all of our lives.

We also are in the season of Lent again, as Catholics I think Brendan I both try hard every year to pay attention to God and refocus our busy lives on the renewing of Easter. We actually both gave up Facebook for Lent this year. I know this sounds lame but for both of us this was a challenge to cut some technology out. I would find myself checking facebook way too often on my phone and just feeling too connected. It is refreshing to disconnect and not care. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to host my Fat Tuesday party again this year prior to Ash Wednesday as it was the same day everyone left and I was tired. Maybe I will have a post Lent cocktail party.

For Valentines day we had our annual terrible card competition. Brendan smoked me with a Justin Bieber card that not only sang Baby but lit up with the words inside that lit up saying "listen" the front of the card asked if it was love at first sight or love at first listen in the inside. It was bad....
More guests in town soon, my house tulips, daffodils and Hyacinths are about to bloom and I can feel spring in the air!

Love,
Alyssa and Brendan

2013

2013 is upon us, which is crazy to think about! So far 2013 has been a good year and has just included a lot of travel. Christmas in Minnesota this year was excellent, we had so much fun. I think one of our favorite days was our annual do something fun with all the nephews prior to Christmas. We have done different things every year and this year we decorated ginger bread cookies and just had an afternoon of everyone hanging out. It was so much fun and relaxing, it is neat to see all of the nephews get to an age where they really enjoy playing with eachother. Some of both of our best memories are playing with our cousins around the holidays. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were also a lot of fun the only problem was everyone was getting sick. The flu made its rounds both at the Breckes and at the Whites, we are just lucky that now in late January everyone seems to finally feel better!

Our New Years was spent in Florida and it was such a wonderful, memorable trip. We spent five days in Englewood Florida and then went down to Florida Keys for the birthday celebration. The heat and just relaxing was such a nice vacation for both of us. The best part of the trip was Tommy and Brandy got engaged! It was pretty neat to be there that night popping champagne and celebrating with them. The best way I can describe the whole weekend was that it was a celebration from beginning to end. We were down there to celebrate Brendan's grandpa Bud's 80th birthday, they had a really spectacular dinner the last night we were there that just made me feel so happy to be apart of such a great family.

As if Florida wasn't enough both Brendan and I also made some trips as well. I made it to Seattle to visit my friends Kurt and Emily and meet their gorgeous new baby Madeline. I had so much fun in their gorgeous catalog harbor town that they live in. I miss Washington and all the year round greenery and our good friends there. I think a second trip getting Brendan to come along is in the cards for this year as well. The same weekend I went to Seattle, Brendan went to Las Vegas for his work's annual conference. The vacation seemed to continue when my best friend Allison and her lovely husband Ben came to town this last weekend. We skied a lot; one day at Park City and another at Snowbird. Brendan and I just felt like we were on vacation with all the good meals, drinks and laughing. We both love having friends come visit and see why we live here.

February should continue to be a good time as we have more family coming to town and engagement party for Tommy and Brandy. I think my new hobby for 2013 is to get better at back country skiing and also to learn to use my sewing machine. Brendan is hoping to learn either woodwork or leather work. It will be good, as always!

Love,
Alyssa and Brendan

December 2012

Holy Cow! December is pretty much almost over and I have no clue as to where it went. It was a good month just very busy for both Brendan and I. At least we both love our jobs and if there is extra work to be done we are still grateful for employment. Weekends have been busy between our usual mountain activities, work parties and shoveling snow. We volunteered this month for work for Toys for Tots, it was pretty incredible. You never realize how many families an organization like that serves until you see the desperate need for toys and a huge warehouse filled for just two counties. It was a good experience for us both. Brendan also had a work party this month in downtown Salt Lake City that was a lot of fun. He has some great co workers and we both had a good time. I finally took my early Christmas gift of back country snowboarding out for a spin this past weekend. We went to Mill D in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a fantastic work out, I just need to figure out the whole carving in powder on my snowboard bit. I have been too spoiled on groomed runs in Park City the last few years. I'm sure I will get the hang of it but I might need to pull out the old school learning flask again. Brendan and I both hope all of our family and friends have a wonderful Holiday and great 2013!

Love,

Alyssa and Brendan

November 2012

They always say as you get older time goes faster, I never believed it when I was little but as I blink it feels like it was just June and we were still in Park City. Love, love, love our new house and all of the blessings we have in our lives. I am always surprised at how much Utah has been such a wonderful fit for us. I would have never expected to be as happy and surrounded by an amazing landscape and good people here! Enough of the cheesy stuff but we really have it good, and this month I feel like taking a moment to be grateful is okay. I miss Minnesota for the family and friends we have there but Utah truly has become our home. We have been lucky enough to have family here like Brendan's brother Tommy and his girlfriend Brandy and his cousin Charlie. We also have friends here that are like family and have also helped immensely make us not homesick. Facetiming on the iphone with my Mom and emails/calls with my other Mom Kathy also help. Brendan and I are also lucky that the people we spend quite a few hours a week with are also incredible, having great co workers is also something I know we are both grateful for!
Thanksgiving this year we continued the third year of out traditional turkey day 5k and feasting at the Mays. It was good as always and was nice that the weather was mild enough this year to allow for some hot tubbing and yard games as well. As November comes to a close I find myself thinking about this past fall and it has been good. Now just bring on the snow so we can start some real winter here!
Love,
Alyssa and Brendan

P.S I have also included a picture of my lovely nephews Eli and Westin in this post, I love this photo Jack took of my little boys!

Lexis Baby Shower

November has gone by way too quickly! It has been good just busy. One of the first weekends in November myself and my friend Sara hosted a baby shower for our really good friend Lexi. She is due with baby boy Mayhem in February. So far we have had a pretty mild fall and beginning of winter. Baby May decided that his shower should begin with some mayhem. What was suppose to be only a few inches of snow turned into a full on blizzard in Utah starting the friday prior to Lexi's baby shower. Lucky enough for us the weather semi cleared up for the actual shower brunch on Saturday early afternoon but their were some moments of worrying! I had no choice but to bust into the champagne and mimosas early, right? All in all it was a great shower with good friends and the sun even peeked out for a little. Can't wait for this little boy to join all of us in February, adding another "nephew" to the hockey roster!

Halloween 2012

I love Halloween! When I was a little I would decide on my costume in July or August. I was usually a witch... for almost five years in a row (my mom had to stage an intervention). I asked Brendan what he liked to be and he said he always liked to be a football player but never really put much thought into his costume. We had a great Halloween weekend this year. On Saturday I went to a witches brew at my friend Kelly's house. It was so much fun, yummy food and really cute decorations. Saturday night we had friends over for a costume game night. I really do believe dressing up and yahtzee should always go hand in hand. We carved pumpkins last night, I am great at scrapping the pumpkins out and baking the seeds. Brendan is the expert carver, each year he seems to find a new design to try and do. Try to guess which pumpkin I did? Can't wait to pass out candy tomorrow night and see how many trick or treaters we get at the new house!

Love,
Alyssa and Brendan

Pictures from October

High Tea with Barb and Kathy at the Grand America

Brendan and Bud just enjoying the porch

Halloween 2012, Flapper and Rockstar

Lexi, Sara and I

Now hes blonde again!