...be happy now...

Happy Holidays everyone! I thought with this post I'd explain the title of our blog and then journal about how we spent Thanksgiving. 

We had a great Thanksgiving break and we are grateful for all that we have: amazing families & friends, the opportunity to be studying at BYU, our health, the gospel, and each other :) Although we're at that stage of life where our worldly possessions are minimal, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Photo cred: Abby Lazarev Photography (my awesome friend!) 

"This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now." -President Monson

Who knows where we'll be in 10 or 15 years... We'll have kids, perhaps a dog, more furniture and possessions, a TV that isn't 15 years old, and likely own a house. And I'd bet that I'll look back on this time when it's just Sky & I--college students, living in a teeny apartment, not many bills or financial concerns--and I'll miss it! However, I hope I'll have the same outlook then as I do now... Enjoy the Journey. There is always happiness to be found in whatever stage of life you are in.

Hahaha... this is me saying, "OK, OK, this pose isn't working!"

"The happiest people I know are not those who find their golden ticket; they are those who, while in pursuit of worthy goals, discover and treasure the beauty and sweetness of the everyday moments. They are the ones who, thread by daily thread, weave a tapestry of gratitude and wonder throughout their lives. These are they who are truly happy." -President Uchtdorf

I love this quote. I love having goals. I love improving myself and growing. I love working towards something. I LOVE the feeling of accomplishment. However, I refuse to have those goals=my happiness. I try to follow President Monson and President Uchtdorf's advice... BE HAPPY NOW.

In the end, I am excited for our future, but I can't help but be grateful for what we have NOW. 

Ok, I'm off my soapbox. That has just been on my mind and I thought I'd share :) 

Now for the update of our Thanksgiving break. I'll start with my good friend Brecken's farewell. She is headed Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I couldn't be happier for her. In my high school group of friends, Breck was always "the rock". She always helped us remember what was most important in our lives and always knew how to comfort us when the high school scene got hard. Love her so much and will be forever grateful for her impact on my life! 

Some of my bestest friends- Tay, Jess, Bags, Breck, Jas, Shelb. (missin' Steph!)

The day of her farewell, there was a few feet of snow on the ground from the night before--it had DUMPED. So when Sky tried to turn on ESPN at my parent's house, the TV wasn't working because the satellite dish was covered with snow. Sky was determined to watch ESPN, so apparently he put on some snow boots, grabbed a long stick, and trekked outside. I was in the kitchen and saw something out of the corner of my eye, and my first thought was, "deer!" Nope, it was my husband. Haha. The things men do for ESPN... (rolling my eyes)...

Before he knew I was watching him...

I've been spotted! haha.

With the sibs that night...

The following weekend we headed to San Jose for the BYU football game and a fun weekend with family. Sky flew out Friday morning with the team, and I flew out Friday afternoon--thanks to my father-in-law for the ticket!! Many of Sky's extended family is from the area, so it was kind of like a family reunion as well.

From the airport, I went straight to the BYU football devotional at a local chapel in the San Jose area. They hold one of these the night before every game, and the head coach and a couple players usually speak. Since Sky's whole family would be there, Sky signed up to speak, and he did awesome. He told a little bit of his football story, and talked a lot about his dad's conversion story to the church. I was very proud :)

When Coach Mendenhall got up, he invited Ziggy Ansah (#47 D-Line) to come up and tell his conversion story. If you haven't heard Ziggy's story... look it up! Such an amazing story of a kid from Ghana who had never played football a day in his life and is now NFL bound. I always tell Sky that he is my favorite BYU player but that Ziggy is a close second ;) haha.

Since Sky spoke, SO many people came up to him after asking for pictures and autographs. My sister-in-law Brooke kept laughing and looking at me when a group of girls would come up to him for pictures. I'm just glad he wears a ring on his left hand so that they all knew he's mine forever :) haha.

The Ridleys at the devotional.

The next day was game day, but the game wasn't until that night. We spent the day at Grandpa Ridley's eating yummy food, watching football, and just hanging out and taking cute pics :)

 We left for the game a couple hours early and bundled up to watch warm ups.

After the game!

Sky & his mama!

We then spent Sunday at Aunt Robyn's and had a great time with Grammy and the rest of the fam...

Our neices: Lyla, Brooklyn, and Maylee

All in all it was a great weekend!!! :)

We then headed back to Provo for a day, and then I was off to Hawaii with my family. We were SOOOO sad Skyler couldn't go. I debated for a while whether or not to go without him, but he told me I deserved to go because of all my hard work this semester, and since he would be gone for football most of the week anyways. He's a champ.

Shipwreck Beach :)

Sky headed to New Mexico (woo!) for the weekend and assisted BYU in the 50-14 win over New Mexico State. He had 5 catches for 46 yards in the game. So proud of my man!

This is the game from a couple weeks ago!

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, we are beyond excited for the semester to be over and Christmas break to begin! First we'll head to the BYU football bowl game in San Diego for a few days. In the middle of the bowl festivities (Dec. 18), Skyler's brother Cody returns from his mission in Columbia and we can't wait to be at the airport to greet him! Then on to the bowl game at Qualcomm stadium on the 20th... Go Cougs! We then spend a week at Skyler's home, where we'll have Christmas with his family. A couple days later we're off to Grand Targhee in Wyoming for some sweet powder and a snowboarding trip with my family. Then we get to head to Idaho with Sky's parents to drop of Cody and Shayna at BYU-I and help them get settled. Finally, a new semester of school begins, but instead, I will begin my internship with Grant Thornton! Christmas break in FOUR states. Craziness.

Can't... WAIT!

fall time...

    Alright... here's my marathon post of what we have been up to thus far this fall season.

    First things first... football. It has been a HUGE part of our (mainly Skyler's) lives these past few months. It has been such a great experience... one a BYU football fan since birth can only dream of! My dad played for BYU, so he installed in me the love of BYU football from a young age. I have grown up coming to BYU football games, and I remember seeing a "BYU Wives Club" t-shirt on a girl at one of the games when I was in my early teens. I turned to my friend Makira and jokingly said, "I'm going be in that club someday!!" Needless to say, dreams come true! Haha. (NO, I did NOT marry Skyler for his football skills! Haha). But honestly, it's a dream come true for both of us, and I am so proud of my husband and all his hard work.

    So I'll start off with the BYU vs. Utah State game that was on the Friday before conference weekend...

Love this pic. On the field before the game with my hubby behind me lining up during warm ups :)

With my Dad & Uncle Ron before the game.

With Sky's parents after the game!

    May have been a low scoring game, but a win is a win... And I was super grateful for it so that I could have something to rub in UofU fans faces. (The rivalry gets me deep.) 3 way tie for the state of Utah! That'll have to do until next year :)

    Now for the "BLACKOUT" game vs. Oregon State...

Sista's

    Shayna (Sky's little sis) and her friend Catherine came down from BYU Idaho to go to the game, and we had a little sleepover at our apartment. It was so fun to have them come down to the game, take them to dinner, and have them spend the night at our place. We hope they'll come again soon! (Hint, hint...) My family also came to the game, and we had a great time despite the sad loss :(

Warming up... it's so fun to go down on the field before the games! Thanks for the hookups dad :)

Dad, me, & Chlo

Sky on the bottom right. 

Sky top right.

     
     These two have had the funniest relationship lately. Ever since the first game vs. Washington State when people learned about Skyler, Josie has had so many friends freaking out that "Skyler Ridley" is her brother-in-law and they'll ask her questions at school about him and the BYU football team... and she has been lovin' it.
       So every time we are up in Bountiful, she will always crack jokes using the new "YOLO" phrase that teens use these days. She'll say things like, "Sitting by Skyler Ridley in church, YOLO!" or, "Skyler Ridley is dropping me off at dance, YOLO!" It has been pretty funny. So the other night Sky wrote on her Facebook wall, "Played dominoes with Josie Hale last night... YOLO!" She commented on the post saying, "Skyler Ridley wrote on my wall... YOLO!" We all got a good kick out of that.

i love #17 :)

After the games we always wait outside the locker room for Sky. It is so funny to see people come to him with Sharpies and footballs, pen & paper, cameras, etc. I remember doing that when I would come down to games!

Showin' off their muscles.

Although football is a big part of our lives, we DO do other things as well. One quiet Sunday, we decided to go on a fall drive before all the leaves were gone. We drove up Provo Canyon, then up by Sundance. It was so beautiful. I absolutely LOVE the mountains--more than any place else. The fresh, cool mountain air and the beautiful scenery is simply unbeatable. 

How lucky am I?

     
     Moving on... So pretty much for all of October I was busy, busy with recruiting dinners and interviewing for internships. I landed interviews with 5 major, international accounting firms. (Deloitte, PWC, E&Y, Grant Thornton, and KPMG-- for those of you who know about the accounting world.) I was SO excited. I feel so blessed to be a part of BYU's Masters of Accountancy program, and I am grateful for the opportunities it has presented me.

Yes this is a mirror picture. I sent it to my parents & husband to show them how my suit fit!

     Once interviews were over, I had to make my decision as to what firm I wanted to do my internship with and most likely start my career with once I graduated. I was deciding between 2 firms, and I had the biggest internal battle deciding! Through the support of my husband & our families, and through the power of prayer, I made my decision to go with...

I feel so at peace with my decision and CANNOT WAIT to start my internship in January and apply what I have learned thus far! All my hard work is paying off :)

My signed offer letter!

     Also during October, Sky traveled with the football team to South Bend, Indiana to play Notre Dame. Our dads and brother Ryan traveled out there to go to the game as well. It was both of our dad's birthdays that weekend, and they were so excited to spend it at the BYU vs. Notre Dame football game!

At the stadium before game time.

Getting off the bus headed into the stadium!

My Dad, Sky's Dad, Skyler, & Ryan after the game.

They all said it was an awesome trip. I'm so glad we will be able to rematch them over Thanksgiving weekend next year! Go Cougs!

On October 10th I had the chance to go to the Carrie Underwood concert with my mama and Josie, and her cute friend Kaylee. Carrie was AMAZING. Most gorgeous woman alive with the most beautiful voice. Period.

Onstage

Outside the Maverik Center.

Then towards the end of October we had a little get together at our friends Robbie & Erica's home. We carved pumpkins, ate yummy treats, roasted pumpkin seeds, and played some games. Who knew Apples to Apples could be soooo funny. Pretty sure I was laughing the entire time.

Erica definitely had the best costume. Haha.

For Halloween night we went up to Bountiful. We ate homemade chicken noodle soup and breadsticks, dressed Josie up as a scarecrow and filmed her while scaring the trick-or-treaters, and danced to "Thriller" with Bigfoot and Yeti. All in all, it was a pretty fun Halloween!

With Josie the scarecrow.

With Bigfoot & Yeti (AKA: cousin Whitney's husband Dane & his friend.)

We had a wonderful October... Now on to November. The weekend of the 3rd was a bye week for BYU football. We of course had to take advantage of this and do something fun! So when Sky's friend from the team and his wife invited us to go to St. George, we were super excited! We ate at Pizza Factory the night we got there and watched "Woman in Black". Scary. I can't say I was super scared because I fell asleep through some of it (woops!) but the parts I did see freaked me out! The next day we went on a hike to Johnson's Arch...

Dallin & Natty Cutler

The arch

Sky & I

We love being outdoors and the hike we went on was super cool, so we really enjoyed it. After the hike we cooled off in the swimming pool, although I found myself in the hot tub most of the time. That night we walked the outlets and ate at Outback Steakhouse, then went home and played lotssss of games! Sequence, Rummikub, & Coo mostly.

The next day was Sunday and we went to church, packed up, played a few more games, and hit the road. Thanks for the awesome weekend Cutlers!!

Alright, alright. While those may have been the highlights of our last couple of months, most nights just end up like this...

Hahahaha. I snuck this video one night while we were doing homework at our kitchen table. JB4lyfe! (As my little sister's friends would say.) I'm sad I started laughing! The video could have been much longer... cause believe me, this was going on for quite a while.

I sent this video to our families, but Sky didn't want me to post it on Facebook. I convinced him to let me post it on the blog because not nearly as many people would see it. So with that argument, the video was posted. Secrets out... my husband is the next Justin Bieber! Haha.

So other than singing during homework sessions, this also tends to happen a lot...

Skyler procrastinating homework... (on the kitchen counter?)

Me procrastinating homework...

Us together procrastinating homework... by making smoothies! (yum!)

Although we've made some great memories these first few months of marriage through vacations, football games, & concerts--these last pictures of us, just at home in our little apartment, alone together, are probably our most favorite memories that we will cherish forever :) #cheesy (yes I know hashtags don't work on blogspot... #dontcare)

Well folks, that's a wrap! Hope you enjoyed this little update on our lives, because it took me foreverssss to write. Haha. I just keep telling myself it will be worth it in 10 years. Have a great rest of the fall season! Go Cougars!!