Spring Break!

This past week was our Spring Break...a much needed one at that! It was slightly uneventful in the way of travels and adventures, but there was much for us to do around Boulder. We have started marriage counseling with the pastor who is going to be marrying us and it has been so great so far.  We are continuing to learn so much about each other and learning how to best communicate with each other. It's funny....we thought after 3.5 years we had it all down, but its been a challenge in a good way to learn that we still have things to learn about each other.  We have been so blessed in this relationship and just desire to honor not only each other, but God in all that we are doing. Our greatest desire to serve and honor Him in a way that is wholly pleasing to Him.  As we move forward into being husband and wife we truly desire to be the best stewards with this great privilege and gift of marriage.  

 This past week our friends Bryce and Kate were in town for the evening on Tuesday from WI, so Chris and Courtney, Wes and Marissa, Travis and Rachel, and Erik and I all gathered to spend some time together! Despite the down-pour of snow, we all managed to make it to the Rio for an always memorable time.  We decided after the Rio to head next door to the Walnut Brewery where 10 min. after sitting down the power went out.  Needless to say, that ended the night, but on a funny note!

Erik and I finally closed on our house on Friday afternoon. Buying a house has been one of the most challenging, yet incredibly exciting adventures we have had! I was sure there was going to be some hiccup, but just as soon as we were in the door and the papers were signed, we were back out with the keys in our hands, free to start this very brand new adventure of being homeowners together! We started construction on it today, scraping off wallpaper, putting in bucket lights, and scraping the popcorn ceiling.  It will be quite some work and time before everything is done, but we are looking forward to calling this place HOME!!! 

Our First Nephew!

Welcome to this world, Caleb Joseph Fowler! Brandon and Kirstin welcomed healthy, sweet baby Caleb at 10:07 PM on March 23, 2010 weighing 5 lbs. 12 oz.  He is wonderful and perfect in every single way. We are looking forward to meeting you soon our sweet nephew! We love you! 

Love,

Auntie B and Big Unkie E 

Lot's Going On!

Lots and lots going on, once again..or maybe it’s just that things have not slowed down! The most exciting news of the weekend was that our friends Cassidi and Chad got engaged!! Cassidi is one of my roommates from Montana and she is just wonderful.  She had been so patient in waiting for this special time and it finally came! Yay!!! We cannot wait for this awesome wedding, whenever it happens to be! Congrats you two!

Erik still has not heard for sure about Peru. He will not be going in May but there is still a chance he will be going the end of July through mid August.  Last week he was presented with a couple of opportunities for some different things including an internship and research opportunity that he will be discussing in some meetings later this week.  For 6 months it seemed like there were limited opportunities out there and in a matter of just a few hours he was presented with 3 possible leads outside of Peru.  He is excited to say the least and it finally is starting to feel like some doors are opening in his favor!

Over the weekend we celebrated Erik’s 24^th birthday! It was quite the weekend including finishing the design of our kitchen, a visit to the natural history museum to see the Body Worlds exhibit, an IMAX about the Hubble Telescope, a day of skiing at WinterPark, and dinner over at Erik’s dads’ house with my parents! Going to the museum was something neither of us has done since elementary school, maybe middle school at best. We had a blast, and the Body World’s exhibit was amazing.  If you have the chance to see it, we highly recommend that you take the time to go. The Hubble IMAX was incredible too.  The technology aboard the telescope today is incredible allowing us to see pictures of a galaxy 10 billion light years away…incredible!

We are getting more and more excited about the house! We are scheduled to close on Thursday of this week….just 3 more short days away. It has been quite the process with the lenders and agents making sure we are crossing all of our T’s and dotting all of our I’s.  We are thankful that we are even in this process, but wish in some regards that it could have been a little easier or at least a more smooth process. As I mentioned above, we re-designed our kitchen this weekend! The first thing we are going to do is tear out the old kitchen, and replace just about everything in there. We are going to knock down a wall that currently separates our dining room from kitchen and make it one big open space, complete with an island.  It feels so grown up to be doing all of this, but it’s so fun knowing that this is the house we are going to begin our marriage in!  

Reflections

Erik and I had another great weekend! We got to spend Friday night up in Dillon at a condo with a friend of Erik's from graduate school and then skied all day Saturday at Copper. It was a beautiful day! We even got a little sunburned...definitely a good sign that spring is just around the corner.
 It's been so fun to finally be together in the same place doing the same things.  I can remember what it was like 3 years ago when Erik was in New Zealand and I was back in Longmont and we were trying to figure out how our relationship would look and work. As I think back now those times now I realize that they were challenging for us, but necessary.   We were challenged to trust each other and challenged to trust our own decision to be in relationship at such a time.  There was never any question that we shouldn't be in relationship, but it was hard to know that after just three short months of dating our lives would be lived thousands of miles apart and in completely different ways.
Thankfully, both of us trusted.  A love had been established between us that no distance could break. Love won out. Here we are just 2 1/2 short months away from our wedding day and I could not be more thankful for the passions and travels that Erik pursued in our time dating.  They have helped foster a deeper love and appreciation for travel and pursuit of adventure not only for Erik, but for myself as well, and for our relationship. I so look forward to building and creating our own adventures in marriage, and will be SO thankful that no longer will we be having to fight any distance between us in marriage! Well, that may not be true, but at least we will be married :)
Thankful today for: beautiful sunshine and spring time air and an adventurous fiance.
Not so thankful today for a 30 page paper I have to write... I better get back to working on it!

Another Birthday!

Yay! Last night I (Brianne) got to spend a wonderful evening with three of my favorite people.  Mitch, Sarah, Reba and I got together to celebrate Mitch's 24th birthday at the Cheesecake Factory! It's always so nice and so refreshing to get together with them and I feel like our conversations could go on and on.  Mitch's actual birhday isn't until Friday but she left for Vegas this morning to spend the big day in Sin City...hopefully making lot's of money :)

It was fun afterwards to get to grab a beer with Erik and continue to dream about what life ahead looks like together.  We are both becoming more and more excited as Erik takes direction in his program and studies.  There are lots of opportunities awaiting him and it feels like things are starting to fall in to place.

Tonight I am thankful for: time with wonderful friends, dreams that are being made and pursued with Erik,  and the chance to be a part of a much bigger picture

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Today is Mr. Christopher Kevin Nicoletti's big 2-4! Happy, happy birthday! We love you SO much! Glad we got to celebrate with a sweet dance party on Saturday night....looking forward to spending many more together!

Gone Live!

Welcome to our blog! We are so excited to be on this journey of life together and hope that this serves as a place to stay updated on our lives.  There is SO much going on in both of our lives (besides planning a wedding :)) so we hope that this is useful and beneficial in staying up with both of us both before and after the big day!

Currently, on the side of planning a wedding, Erik and I are in the process of purchasing our first home! We were not too serious or set on buying a house, but thought that it would be good to get out there and look.  Our first day we ran across the most perfect, quaint little house and fell in love. We decided to put down an offer just to get our feet wet with the process, and after just one counter offer, the current owners accepted! It has been quite the process to get everything together and signed (you would never guess how many different things have to be signed!) but it looks like we will be home owners on March 25! We could not be more excited and are looking forward to spending married life together in a place we get to call OUR home!

Here are just a few photos...a little preview!

Erik finds out this week if he will be going to Peru or not, and if he does get accepted he will find out if he goes either in May or in July.  He has applied to go as a part of his graduate program to gain some more experience in the field and begin to understand his direction better.  He is fortunate to have this opportunity, although the timing has been a little tricky as the wedding is in May and we will be newlyweds in July! Not necessarily ideal, but we both have faith that this is something he needs to do and will be rewarding later.  

I will finally graduate in May and am more than ready. I feel like I have been in college for years...oh wait, I have! Its very fulfilling to be at this point and to know come May I am finally home free! The real world is still intimidating and overwhelming at times, but I am just thankful I will be done with the school, homework, and studying piece, at least for a little while. There is no clear direction to what I will be doing afterwards, but at least have the open door to stay at the Registrar's Office on campus where I have been for the last year and a half.  It's not a career I hope to have forever, but in this economy its a job, and its a job I can enjoy well enough for now!

So there you have a snap shot of where we are and what is going on as we prepare for marriage! This is such an exciting time and we are both so looking forward to being married! Thanks for joining us in all that we are doing :)