We bought a HOUSE!

Well, Brad and I did it, we are official home owners! :) After looking at probably 60 plus houses we finally found the perfect one! We walked through the house on a monday night, tuesday morning we submitted our offer and wednesday afternoon we found out our offer was accepted! It was such a crazy experience, and we can't believe we really own a house. It is a cute little red brick rambler in Cottonwood heights. We really love the area; it is close to both our parents' houses and close to work and school too. The neighborhood is really nice and it is a "true" neighborhood-lots of variety of people and wide age ranges.
    
     The house had just recently had a new kitchen put in and new bathrooms too. They left a hideous rock fireplace in the front room though, so Brad worked so hard and pulled many late nights and early mornings to rip it out and build us a new one! I am so proud of that guy! He works so hard to build us a beautiful home and a beautiful future! He never complains and he often does much more than he needs to. He woke up at 4 am to go finish the fireplace before the carpet guy came that morning. He told me he was just finishing the tiling and then going to work, when I went over later that day I saw that he had not only tiled the fireplace but he also painted the whole thing! I am so thankful for a husband who knows how to do that stuff, he truly is amazing! :)

and now for some pictures...

Signing our life away

Our new home!

Ripping out the ugly rock

The (almost) finished project!

home. sweet. home

2 years

2 years ago I somehow managed to trick Brad into marrying me, and it has been the best 2 years! :) I am so lucky to be married to him, and I am so glad that we have many more years to go!
  We went to Rodizio grill for dinner. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it. It was delicious! You get real full way too fast, but it is totally worth it. Brad tried rattlesnake sausage...and liked it! I was definitely not that brave. My favorite item there was grilled pineapple. After we ate we got some chocolate at the chocolate factory, we were so full that we didn't even eat it until the next night. We stayed at Little America hotel (where we stayed on our wedding night). It was such a fun night, and nice to "get away" for a little bit. Thanks Bradley, for an amazing 2 years, and for being the best husband ever! xoxo

We saw "Charlie" the dancing chocolate chip pancake when we went out to breakfast the next morning :)

While the boys were at priesthood session the girls went out to dinner at Pizzeria Limone. It was great food and even better company.

Little Dell

A few weeks ago Brad and I went hiking and decided to take Zeus along. We went to Little Dell up Parleys canyon. We hiked a pretty easy trail since it was Zeus's first time. He did great! He stayed right with us and we were even able to take him off his leash because he was being so good! We had a picnic by the river and surprisingly Zeus played in the water!

I'm officially a NURSE!

I finally graduated on August 3rd!! It was the best day! I had a final that morning at 8:00 am and after that was finished my study group and I celebrated by going to Ruth's diner for breakfast. We rolled down the windows and shouted "we graduated today" the whole way up and down the canyon! It was the best feeling knowing all my hard work had finally paid off. Pinning was wonderful. It was at the Jordan Campus. We had some speakers and the graduates walked across the stage and received our pins, we did the nurse's pledge and then had a slide show. After pinning all of my family went to Spaghetti factory for dinner. It was so great to be able to celebrate with the people who have supported me the most! On August 29 I took my NCLEX exam to become an officially licensed nurse. I was so nervous the days leading up to the exam, but on the actual test day I was quite calm. My sister Melinda came with me and waited there the whole 3.5 hours while I was testing! She is such a gem! My friends took me and Brad to dinner and a movie on Thursday night to get my mind off of the test. Finally that night at 11:00pm my friends texted me "Congratulations Nurse Leah!" Brad and I hurried and logged onto the website to see and sure enough my name was posted saying I passed the test! I AM A NURSE!! :) and the best part is I got my dream job in the newborn ICU! I start on September 11 and I can't wait! Thanks to everyone, especially Brad who helped me get where I am! I couldn't have done it without you!

Ruth's Diner with study group
Jen, Nich, Steph, Brooke, Me, Devon

My amazing study group (minus Jen)

Devon, Brooke, Lynette and Nich

Our biggest Fans!
Rocky & Devon, Chris & Brooke, Lynette, Nich & Steph





Bear Lake 2012

This year at Bear Lake was so much fun! We had every single person in my family there! Something that hasn't happened for a little while. We played all weekend long! We went on the wave runner, the boat, played cards, slept, ate, got sunburned, got shakes...it was a perfect weekend!

4th of July!

This year for the 4th we took our boat out for it's maiden voyage! We went to Utah lake to make sure everything was working correctly before we headed to Bear Lake the next day. It was so much fun and the boat ran perfectly...except for the fact that the steering was on backwards haha! So everytime you turned the wheel right, the boat went left. :) It was quite a challenge for Brad to drive, but a quick changing of some things and it was all fixed! Here are some pictures of the first trip in the water.

After we went boating we went up to the Draper temple to watch the fireworks go off all over the valley! It was quite the view!



Brad's 24th Birthday

Wow, where has the time gone?!? A lot has been going on with us this summer. We hiked up to donut falls. Brad had never been there before so it was fun to introduce him to something new. My grandma celebrated her 94th birthday!! and Brad turned 24!! For Brad's birthday we had a bbq at sugarhouse park. All of our friends and family were there and it was so much fun! I made him a "golf" cake and it turned out so cute. Everyone sang and I think Brad was embarrassed, which means I did my job as a wife! :) It really was such a fun day and I am so glad everyone could make it!

*a special thanks to Traci who helped me make the cake, set up decorations and take candid photos of everyone the whole night! You are the best!



Just keep swimming

Only 8 more weeks until I graduate!! It is the best/worst news in the whole world. The best because its only 8 more weeks, which means only 8 more classes, only 10 more tests, and only 7 more clinicals. Its also the worst because it still means 8 weeks of class! :( It is so hard to stay focused in the summer, especially when I know so many people who graduated in May and have already taken the NCLEX and are officially registered nurses. I need some serious motivation to get me through these next 8 weeks. If anyone has any motivational speeches or pep talks to help me out, I would seriously appreciate it. Until then I just need to take the advice from Dory on Finding Nemo and "just keep swimming."

Trucks and Boats

Brad and I finally did it, we traded in his lancer and got that boy a truck!! He was SO excited to get it! We've been looking for a few months and finally found the perfect one, and got it for a sweet deal! He loves driving it, and somtimes he just likes to go outside and sit in it. :) He tells me that he finally feels like a "real man" (whatever that means). We were sad to see the lancer go, it has been a good car for us, and has so many wonderful memories that go along with it. But we are ready to make new memories in our new truck...starting tonight when we take it to the drive in with some friends!

OUR BOAT

Brad has been working hard remodeling an old boat that we bought, and he is almost done! He has done such a great job and it looks amazing! He wakes up early to work on it and stays up late finishing projects. He has completely redone the whole thing all by himself! I am so impressed!! He is just waiting for the upholstery to be done and then it is completely finished! This summer is going to be so fun!! :)

Look how ugly that is

The "BIG TUNA"

pictures!

Sunday walk in the park

Compliments of grandma Burgoyne

Mothers Day!

Happy 1st Birthday Amos!

On Sunday the Fortuna and McAllister family celebrated little Amos's first birthday! I can't believe he is already going to be ONE! He is one cute little kid, thats for sure. We celebrated at my mother and father in law's house aka Grandma and Grandpa Fortuna :) We had cake and ice cream and watched that cute little kid make a mess all over! Here are some pics of the birthday boy.

Rock climbing!

Brad and I have recently discovered rock climbing! Well Brad discovered it about 8 months ago and decided he loved it and wanted me to do it with him, and I of course love doing anything that lets me get to spend time with my Bradley Fish, so I started climbing about 2 months ago. Brad is already an amazing climber! I  think a big part of that is that he is fearless. I on the other hand am terrified of heights and most of the time I ask to come down, unfortunately Brad is the one holding the other end of the rope so I can't really come down until he lets me down, and the majority of the time he won't let me down until I've made it at least 3/4 of the way. I guess I should be grateful he makes me dangle in the air and try again?? Anyway, we went on Saturday with our friend Alex and his girlfriend Jessica. It was way fun, and such a good workout-I am SORE today! :)