Big Ben is Back!

So, this is kind of funny...one of my closest friends who I graduated from high school with and we became nearly inseparable right before he left on his mission to Tuscon, Arizona Spanish speaking came home a week ago! It's awesome to see these kids who leave for their missions come home as men. It's also cool to see how some things change and others will always stay the same. :) The funny connection with Ben is that he is also Zo's COUSIN! :D Weird, huh? I've known Ben for years, and I never thought that out of all the people I graduated from high school with, I'd be related to him! Haha! :D It's a funny world we live in! What's even stranger is that Zo and I didn't even start dating until after Ben left for the mish, so when he came home, he was freaking out that we were married and everything! Poor kid! :) But he is getting used to it, I think. Every once in a while, he looks at us and yells, "I can't believe you guys are freaking married!" :) Sometimes I can't believe it either! Welcome home, Benny Boy! We're so happy you're back!

Sam and Tyler's Wedding

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. We've been BUSY with work and school! At the beginning of January, Zo and I went to my roommate's wedding in Idaho! :D Samantha and I lived together when I went to school at BYU-Idaho a loooong time ago. I am so happy for her and Tyler! :D They got married in the Idaho Falls temple and had a reception in Ashton that evening. The weather was nasty that day, so we just went to the luncheon and had to get back home. It was a quick trip, but it was worth it to see the beautiful bride! :) Congrats to Sam and Tyler!

In the Words of Tiny Tim...

"God bless us, everyone!" WOW! Christmas has come and gone! It came like a whirlwind this year! I still can't believe it's already over! This year, it was a Merry Nucci Christmas! :) Zo's parents and younger brother came to Bozeman to celebrate the festivities. My mom left for St. George for the week, so we kicked off Christmas early with dinner and presents at her house. (P.S. these are pictures that Zo's sister, Arison, took. I took them off Facebook so the quality is no bueno! Sorry!)Christmas Eve started off with the traditional power shopping trip with my dad. We took our time this year, and it was super fun! :) I made the lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner at Arison's house, and to be honest, it was nerve wracking making it for an Italian family. :) I think it was a pretty big hit! After dinner, we went over to Zo's cousin Elene's house for a Hawaiian Christmas party with a bunch of his extended family.We opened presents at Arison's house on Christmas Day. We all know (or at least should know) that Christmas is not about the presents, but we had a good time opening some awesome and also pretty hilarious presents! :D We rounded off the evening having a Christmas dinner at Zo's aunt Donna's house and going to Avatar with my dad...GREAT movie!The best gift this year: getting to talk to my little brother on the phone. I was lucky enough to talk to him both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I would never have expected that hearing his voice would make me miss him so much. He's doing really well, and still has that dry sense of humor that cracks me up! :) Now that I think of it, we got to celebrate Christmas with every family member in at least some small way this year. :) That is what's most important about this season. It's not about the presents, how much we spend on one another, or making sure we find them something they'll like; it's about being with the ones you love. On that note, I got everything I wanted for Christmas...did you? :)

'Tis The Season

Christmas decorations always make everything better. :) Fall 2009 is finished; now it's time for some Christmas Break goodness! :D This is going to be a BUSY week! I can't believe it's already this time of the year; my FAVORITE time of the year! Christmas is a time to be with the ones you love. :) So spread the cheer! Merry Christmas!

Rihanna and Shy Ronnie

I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED MY SENIOR CAPSTONE PROJECT!
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D
I tried not to stress myself out too much while I worked on my project...and as weird as it sounds, this video clip from Saturday Night Live helped a lot. :) I've watched it probably about 50 times. It's so funny! Or maybe it's not and I'm crazy because my mind has been a little loopy for the last few days!

Anytime I started feeling frustrated, I played this bad boy, and it totally put me in a good mood! It's freaking HILARIOUS! :D I laugh everytime I watch it!

This is the last week of classes and then Finals week! I've pretty much already checked out as soon as I put my project in its folder! I'm so excited to be done, and this semester went by SO fast! Let's hope the same thing happens next semester...MY LAST SEMESTER of school EVER! WooHoo! :D

Zo Doggy Turned 27

I'm a few days behind on blogging. :( My senior project's deadline is rapidly approaching, and I know you wouldn't expect anything less from yours truly, so I've left it all to the very last week! :) It's actually not that funny... :D

Anyway, my hub turned 27 on Wednesday! We also celebrated Zo's sister, Arison's birthday as well since her birthday is 2 days after Zo's. It was just me, Zo, Arison, and their older brother, Abe. We had a delicious Thai dinner that Abe made and then we went over to Arison's to decorate her tree and eat some cake and icecream.Now, Zo's a little sensitive about his birthday and aging, even if it doesn't seem like it. I'm learning that the closer he gets to 30, the less enthusiastic he is about celebrating. So we didn't go all out this year, but we still had a fun time!

Here's a little video message from the birthday kids. :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving this year was THE BEST! It all started off with a hunting excursion with my mighty mountain man; just the 2 of us. There are no pictures, because well, quite frankly, I was not a happy hunter. :) Zo did NOT go easy on me for my first time. We saw 4 does on the side of the road when we first got to the location we were going to. Zo said, "No no baby, we don't hunt like that." Not knowing what that meant, I naively agreed and off we were into the woods. Oh, did I say woods? I meant up a cliff side mountain. We didn't see a single animal, other than tracks and poop. :( Bummer deal. But Zo says hunting is more about the experience of being in nature and spending time with the person you're with. :) So it was actually a great time...in hindsight. :)

We spent Thursday evening with Zo's family and my mom this year. All of the Nucci siblings were there, including the Nucci parents. My wonderful mother, Zo's cousin Seth and his girlfriend, and Zo's aunt and her family were all there as well. It was a big group...and big groups mean TONS and TONS of food! :D We played an awesome round of Cranium to end the night and it was so much fun. It's hard to express the happiness I felt that day. I have so many things to be grateful for, it would take me the rest of my life to name them all. :) We are all so unbelievably blessed. For some reason, the words of Vega 4 kept popping into my head that evening:
Life is beautiful, but it's complicated.

We barely make it.
We don't need to understand,
There are miracles, miracles.
The food was perfect (the stuffed mushrooms were TO DIE FOR!), the evening was perfect...Thanksgiving was perfect. :)I also had my first Black Friday shopping experience! :D Zo and I both woke up at 4:30AM. He was catching that Black Friday crowd who were making their way to Sleep City down the road. I made my way over to Target right as the doors were opening. I had no idea that Black Friday was such a big deal here in Bozeman! There was a cop car in the parking lot, looong lines to the doors, and psycho moms EVERYWHERE. I only went to 3 stores but I got the best deal ever: iPod Touch for $125! :D Check out my sweet purchases! AND I saved at least $350 that day! I give Black Friday 2 thumbs up!