Life: January - February

The last main highlight of our trip to Oregon was watching the little girls perform at the high school's little mini dancer camp. Those girls can move!

We had a great break in Oregon and were very sad to leave! Luckily we didn't have anything exciting happen on the trip home, either!

We did come home to an apartment that smelled horribly like rotten chicken though. Apparently some chicken juice got behind the fridge and stunk up the whole place. Kyle and his brother moved the fridge and Kyle bravely cleaned it all up. He's the best! The beginning of the semester was insane for me with my two comprehensive exams, multiple presentations, and our conference submission deadline. Kyle did a tax internship this semester, so luckily he was there to pick up the slack when I was at my busiest because his job hadn't gotten crazy yet. Seriously, there was more than one week when I didn't even walk into our kitchen because Kyle made all of the food, packed it for me, and did all of the dishes. He's the best!

I made him take a first-day-of-work picture.

My sisters and I got to sing with the Beckstrand girls a couple of times for different Young Women programs. We all love the Beckstrand girls and it was so fun to get to sing with them, especially as it will be the last time for a while with Jessica and Shannon both moving out of the state. 

The beginning of February marked my class' thesis defense. I was super worried about it, but because I had incorporated the feedback I had been given a couple weeks before into my project, I passed easily. In June I will officially be Master Dowdle!

The weekend after my thesis defense Kyle's family came to town for Presidents' day weekend/Valentine's day/Adalyn's birthday. Again, we had a great time playing together, eating good food, and laughing. We went to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the MoA one night (which weirdly enough Kyle and I had already seen). We also got to play at Provo's new rec center. That was a lot of fun. But also super tiring! We celebrated Adalyn's birthday on Valentine's day Sunday by everyone coming to our Sacrament meeting and then spending the day at our house because, surprisingly, it has the biggest space. Kyle loved that his brothers got to stay with us and the four boys could play some video games together (thanks to his parents giving us their old TV and Xbox for Christmas). It was also on this trip that we discovered Rose's Sneakerdoodle ice cream at the BYU creamery, which has become our favorite. So that's good.

The Provo City Center Temple open house started in January and went until its dedication in March. Kyle and I went early one Saturday morning and toured it and then I got to be an usher for a couple of shifts since we are in the temple district. It is seriously so beautiful (sidenote: we did a session there for the first time and it was so neat because all of the windows give it so much natural light!). 

We also went to a few basketball games in January and February for our date nights/days. My cousin Taylor has been cheering for BYU for three years, but she got married and is transferring schools so her husband can play football somewhere else. We are sad that we aren't going to be able to watch her cheer!