Life or Something Like It!

Everyone! I am SO sorry that I haven't updated this is 1,000 years! I totally could've, I just plain forgot that we had a blog! What! So, let me catch everyone up on a few things...plus a few funny photos that I'm sure the closest friends and family will get a kick out of. (Everyone else will probably just think..."hmmm, weird.")

Anyways, life is awesome and we are gearing up to fly to Idaho for Thanksgiving! We are so blessed to be together! This past month has been great. Some of the Bennion bunch joined us for Halloween. I think Claire was just WAY more excited about that candy than anything else. If you know Claire, you'll understand! ;-) Love her! Also, Sam and Bradley decided to wear disturbing teeth (as you can see). I thought they were totally disgusting, but hey, guys apparently love that stuff?!

But WAY before Thanksgiving, Nathan and Shaleena got married and it was so awesome! It is strange to think that they used to be great friends in high school and now look at them all grown up! Here is a picture of us ladies holding up the groom! Check out the look on his face! He's a happy camper.

Bradley's doing super good in school. Lucky duck. Somedays I wish I had his brain! Hehe! But I count my lucky stars everyday that I was able to earn my degree in something that I am absolutely passionate about and will hopefully be able to use! Right now, I am trying to figure out which is the best option right now! But as everyone says, "You've got time." Well, I hope that's true! We love you all! Even you crazies who I haven't seen forever! Take care and remind me to update soon. I'm sure I'll have stories about pie.

Time sure does fly by

Wow! It seems like forever since we have updated our blog! Things are going well for the Stokes family here in Iowa. Bradley is really enjoying medical school and is doing really well so far. He even got a 100% on his first biochemistry test! Way to go Bradley! His favorite part of school so far is dissecting in the cadaver lab which is a little freaky but oh well! ha ha ha!

Meanwhile we have really come to like where we live. We have the best location that we have ever known since we are just 1 mile or so from the free way and 5 minutes of driving from a huge shopping mall with movie theatre, restaurants, and everything you could ever want to do. There are also some really pretty parks that we like to go to and take walks and pictures.

Ellen is also doing very well. She keeps herself busy and takes very good care of Bradley. All in all life is going really great and we are so excited for the big wedding of Nathan and Shaleena coming up in a few weeks! That will be so fun! Ellen took some awesome pictures today and when they are ready we will post them for all to see!

HOLY SMOKES! Happy 4th everyone! We just got finished blackening our fingers on some majorly sweet fireworks! I forgot how freakishly good the smoke smells. Hmm, but we are back now. We got some sundays and chocolate shakes, ate some pieces of our frozen wedding cake, read a ton of books, watched food network, bought a new couch, drove the old GMC truck, partied like rock stars. You know, the usual. Here are some pictures with us dancing with sparklers. You could say it emulates our stunning personalities on a few levels of awesomeness. "Shnike on a bike" as Matt and Sam would say...wish they'd put it on youtube. Love you all and to all a good night.

Well, we've had quite the eventful week! For our anniversary, we went to the Tautphas Park Zoo in Idaho Falls, went to Chili's (duh), and saw Night at the Museum (it was pretty lame, but we ate watermellon patch kids the whole time so it made it better). After that, Bradley made me the best dinner in the world and we drank a lot of bubbly! Andrea and Nathan also had their baby this week. Her name is Madison Lynn and we are finally aunts and uncles!

This week marks our one year anniversary! We have had a really great year, and it has gone by so fast we can't even believe it! It's funny because a lot of people in our student ward are just recently married, and we call them the newly weds! It seems like we are still in that boat, but in Mormon territory, its a different story. We are old timers now! This week is also exciting because Andrea will hopefully have her baby, which means that Bradley and I will finally have a niece! So exciting!

Also, Happy Father's Day to both Papa Stokes and Papa Bennion! We love you guys!

Hey Everybody!

We are still madly in love! We are doing great! I am half way through my last semester as an undergrad and Bradley is working here and there! We move soon, so we've been on the look out for random, fun furnature. Here is a picture of us at Temple Square, and another one of us eating!

Hola everybody! We haven't updated in ages! Today is Bradley's last day teaching Pathology and Anatomy at the hospital in Blackfoot. I think he's not THAT sad about it. He'll be done at BYU-I officially in April, so he'll need to start up a new job. He'll probably be driving for United Pipe and Supply again, if he can.
I am just trucking along with school. The whole 20 credits thing is starting to wear on me, but its worth it. I am still tutoring, and I am busier than last semester. I guess they got the word out that I was an amazing tutor or something. J/K. We are starting to look for housing in Des Moines. Its absolutely ridiculous. I don't know how we are going to move all of our stuff out there in a U-haul and tow our car behind. I am going to be very grumpy on the ride there. We will miss Rexburg a ton. Its nice to have the temple so close and live in the greatest apartment ever. Oh well. Maybe Des Moines will be the bomb. We'll see.
I thought I was done with the whole sickness thing after my emergency room visit in January, but I got a really nasty throat/cold thing. I thought I was on the homestretch. Oh well. They make some pretty fantastic cold medicine these days. I am high as a kite...almost.
Bradley and I have been trying to do some fun stuff on the weekends. For Valentines Day we went to Idaho Falls and stayed at a hotel and went to Ruby River and watch Brian Regan videos. Last weekend we went to a school thing called Extravadance and then went to Chili's. It was way fun. We also try and hit Coldstone often. I think I'm hungry or something. Tootles.

Life is busy

We just went to Lacey's sacrament meeting talk before she leaves on her mission to Uruguay. It was very good to hear her speak and she did a great job. A lot of the family was there as well as many of Lacey's friends. The food was very good and we all rolled out of the door like the girl on willy wonka after chewing gum. We are sure that Lacey will be a great missionary.
Ellen also went to the emergency room this week because she was dehydrated (stomach issues...). That wasn't fun AT all. But the recovery is coming along. We also had to (finally!) get a new lap top because our other one was so ghetto fabulous you couldn't do anything on it unless you wanted to spend ten years doing it.
Well for now peace out and we will be in contact!! We mainly wanted to test out our new computer's ability to post a picture on our blog! Chau.

A new year . . . A new semester!

Well we made it through 2008!!! What a great year one of the best obviously since we got married in 2008. We are looking forward now to the great 2009 starting out with this new semester. Ellen can graduate in July by really putting in the effort. She has 20 credits this semester and 21 next semester in order to finish!! Good luck to Ellen!!! Bradley walked in graduation in December but is taking biochemistry and a psych class in preparation for medical school which starts in August. Ellen is also going to continue to tutor sociology and Bradley is working as an anatomy TA and teaching anatomy and physiology at the hospital in Blackfoot. All in all it will be a busy time for both of us.

We had a marvelous Christmas break eating everything from crab stuffed tenderloin to chicken and dumpling soup. We also ate from a selection of every sweet thing imaginable. Bradley got a sweet tool set along with some nice clothes and other fun stuff. Ellen was excited to get movies, boots, a fondue pot, and other stuff as well. Thanks to everybody who helped make our Christmas amazing. The Stokes parents surprised everybody by getting a Nintendo Wii for the family how exciting!!!!