April 2011 - Bessey, Ryan & Alexis & Family

Greetings Family

Our little family would like to announce that we are finally graduating this month from BYU. It's been a long and grueling process and we have many wonderful supporters to thank for without them we wouldn't have been able to finish, especially my little girls who have put up with being dragged around to classes and working so well with me and my crazy schedule. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to finish my education (even though it was very difficult, I'm pretty sure it was the last couple years of classes that meant the most and were the most valuable to me. That seems to be how it is supposed to go.) So again, we would like to thank you for your love and support. We will be walking at graduation on April 21st, ceremony starts at 11 in the good old Marriott Center. Then we have the convocations the following day at 11 in the Smith Field house and 2 in the De Jong for Ryan and myself respectively. Ryan will graduate with a major in Civil Engineering (he would be a terrific asset to the industry, he's one of the smartest guys I know) and a minor in math. He however is not done with school as he was recently accepted into BYU's graduate program and will continue to get his Masters...so we will be here a bit longer. I will graduate with a major in Visual Arts emphasis in Illustration and minor in English (I will be a terrific asset to my husband's business letters.) And I am OFFICIALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!! YAY! Not through with learning of course, that will take probably three more years. For those of you in Utah who would like/or able to attend we welcome you and appreciate your support. We love you and we are happy to join our BYU Alumni family...except for Grandma of course, I heard she was a traitor and went to the U...good thing Grandpa overlooked that detail.

Love you all!

The Besseys

November 2010 - Bessey, Ryan & Alexis & Family

We've had lots of things happen in our little home since last I posted, so I'll try to buzz through everything quickly.

Ryan and I are both still attending BYU and we will be able to finish by this Christmas, yay!

We moved into a bigger basement house to accommodate our new addition, Averie, who will be coming in two weeks, or so mom thinks.

We still live about spitting distance from campus so it's nice to still be in that atmosphere, but with just a little less noise.

Maija is in nursery and just LOVES it! In fact, it is a real issue if I accidentally walk into the church building from an entrance that passes by the nursery, I then have to drag her into sacrament and I've only made that mistake twice so far.

Ryan has been called as Stake Executive Secretary (poor boy) so now not only is he extremely busy, but he is learning to apply his wonderful organizational skills to help others.

I've been called as Ward Activity Chair and I'm both loving and afraid of this calling. I have no idea what I'm doing and I have a lot of big events coming up... but I have a wonderful committee who is always willing to help and they have wonderful ideas. I"m pretty sure we will have a lot of fun.

In fact we just finished our Ward Trunk or Treating party last night. Everything and everyone was helpful and cooperating, except the weather. It rained cats and dogs and we had to use classrooms as the "trunks" and people decorated the door ways. We had fun games and a ton of cupcakes and drinks, and there was even a costume contest.

Our little family dressed up as Pacha, his Wife, and Kuzco from The Emperor's New Groove, as it is Maija's favorite movie this year. We even won a category in the costume contest, I promise I was not in charge of the judging so it was not a fixed competition. We won the "best Homemade Group" costume, I guess it was a good thing that the costume was homemade. In fact, all three costumes cost 50% less than the earrings that I wore that night.

Maija loved seeing all of the candy but didn't quite like the whole trick or treating idea. She would happily grab the candy given to her, but became VERY upset when Daddy tried to help her put the candy in her sack. She wanted to eat it all right away.

Ever since last night she's kept an eye on where I put her sack of candy and at every meal she will point to the hiding place, even when I pick different locations. I guess it's a good thing that she hasn't learned to count, or she'd soon discover that Mom has been dipping into her candy supply when she takes a nap.

Maija loves to see little babies and I'm hoping that Averie will get the same reception. We will be sure to post pictures once she graces us with her presence. We love you all and hope you had fun this month. Happy Holidays!

The Besseys

Some serious Multi-tasking, cleaning the toddler and the dishes :)

The reason for cleaning the toddler....

" you got to pucker up your lips... like dis!"

going All OUT for halloween, somebody get that girl a gold star!

MAIJA-LLAMA, say that 5 times fast!



Got to love those Family themes!!!

February 2010 - Bessey, Ryan & Alexis & Family

Hello wonderful family!

The Bessey's are here and boy did we have a fun month! We start with the end of our Christmas vacation with the Woodwards up in Colorado; we were getting snow in Provo and Colorado, so we went to Colorado because it had the added bonus of family. There we celebrated the New Year by watching fireworks go off on Pikes Peak.... it was pretty far away, and we didn't have the Air Force Academy fireworks which I pretty sure happens on New Year as well as the Fourth of July, but it was so much fun to spend time with our fun family. We then had to return to reality and start yet another semester of school.

Ryan and I are so close to finishing school...I just realized that I don't think I'll know what to do with myself when school is over... I've only known school for the past say 17 years (I'm so used to it)... and even with Maija I always had school, which made me feel like a fake mom. I guess I can't really say I'm a mom yet until I finally turn all of my attention to my little one after I graduate. So I'll be a mom this December, yay. Anyways, classes are REALLY fun this semester, well for me at least. I'm finishing up with the painting section that I have to do for my major, Acrylic, Gouche, and Computer. Yep that's right, I actually draw on the computer, literally, it's really cool. I seem to recollect mom telling me not to color on the furniture, I guess this doesn't count. I can't say as much for poor Ryan. All I can say is that he is busy. He'd get an A for busy. We see each other on Sundays and if we are lucky on Saturdays as well. The rest of the week only Maija sees us both in the same day and not at the same time. I just love my time with her and I am so glad that Dad gets time with her as well. So now we move on to this month's holiday, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

We were invited to go up to Cedar City with Ryan's family and spend the weekend in the mountains. We had SO much fun sleeping in a lodge, snowmobiling, snowboarding (Ryan being pulled behind a snowmobile on his snowboard), and making a snow cave. Ryan even managed to get the snow mobile stuck in the snow and when we tried to pull it out we were stuck in waist deep snow, and I was standing on a tree branch so it could have been deeper. How the heck did he pull that off. We recruited a couple of burly mountain men (muscles, thick staches, and curses to boot) and it took only five of them to lift that thing up and onto the trail.

Maija looked ADORABLE in her snow gear and loved walking around in the snow. Because her jacket is so thick, my attempts to get her into her snow gear is something a kin to that of the mother on a Christmas Story... and yes, Maija then "can't put her arms down." Finally we come to two very important parts in our story. First is that we remembered Grandma on her anniversary of passing on the 22nd, as well as the coming of Maija. We sure do miss Grandma, I'd like to think that Maija had a good time up there with Grandma before Grandma sent her on her way to me. Well we had a Kung Fu Panda party for Maija's first birthday (I can't believe how fast that year went. I miss my baby!!!). Since Maija expressed an affinity for Kung Fu Panda (a Dreamworks film, aided by some BYU students) we had to make sure that we gave special attention to her likes. I wanted to make sure that I would have a really good video of Maija digging into her birthday cake (since I had heard that some children do not like their first cake) and so a few days prior to her birthday I would feed her small amounts of the same kind of cake that I would be giving to her on her birthday, just to test the waters. But when it came time for the video (first she tried to grab the candle, flame and all) she only picked at her cake with two very dainty little fingers. I finally helped her along and smeared a little on her face. The birthday was fun and she was a very good little hostess. I guess we just might do more birthdays. Well that is all, nothing terribly exciting to end our month with. Just looking forward to what you have to say! We love you.

Ryan, Alexis and the Maija Bessey

January 2010 - Bessey, Ryan & Alexis & Family

Hello Family!

Starting in January, our family will celebrate the one year anniversary of our little Maija. Boy that sure went fast! But before we get into that, we first must mention that the Christmas and New Year’s festivities were wonderful! We had the opportunity to finish up our Senior Fall semester…actually I think we are super seniors now…anyways, we found out that you can survive for two weeks on about three hours of sleep every other day, an experiment we would not like to test further. Fall semester ended well with grades that we were both proud of, knowledge as well. Then we were flown into Colorado to spend time with wonderful grandparents and cousins, Aunt and Uncle. All of the kids loved Christmas! Maija loved the wrapping paper and later discovered there were toys as well, like the next day. The rest of the trip was spent with the rest of us taking turns having the stomach flu. Poor Mom and Dad will need to filter the whole house after all of that sickness. But despite the sickness it sure has been fun and we’ve love the opportunity to share Christmas with the Woodwards and Haupts.

Now we start a new semester and another year with our little sweet heart. She sure has grown fast! She will click her tongue, says “Hi”, says mama and Pa Pa (whispered), she walks, gets into everything, loves breath mints and carrots, loves Pixar movies, and absolutely loves attentions. We sure do love her!

November 2009 - Bessey, Ryan & Alexis & Family

Happy Halloween Family!

We decided this year to go all out and actually dress up, it being Maija's first Halloween. The inspiration came from Maija's favorite movie Kung Fu Panda (I've tried Disney movies and Pixar movies, but she likes this one best). The characters we decided to be I think may say something about our personalities. Maija dressed as "Po" the Panda and main character (as she has let me know many times that she is the main character in this family), Ryan dressed as "Oogwe" the wise turtle and spiritual leader (quite self explanatory), and I chose Master Tigress (one of Po's rivals and the best at everything). Yep, that about sums us up. Actually I didn't want to cross dress and she is basically the only female.

Well we survived our midterms, barely. We each pulled a couple of all nighters to finish our work. Maija can't complain though. We almost have her sleeping through the night as she generally wakes up around 5am for a bottle, then sleeps till 8. Not bad. She is trying VERY hard to walk and gibber jabbers all the time. She has said Mama and Daddy and we have fun taking turns jabbering at each other. When we do find a Sunday that we can sleep in, we try to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, even though last night was daylight savings time and we were supposed to get an extra hour of sleep, Maija didn't get the memo and woke up anyways. In order to appease her, we let her out of her crib, shut the bedroom door (we sleep in the same room) and let her play around with her toys while we caught a few more winks. But Maija has learned to climb onto the bed and this is what happens when she does grow weary of trying to get us out of bed to play with her (see attached picture). She kicks me out of bed. Boy we sure do love her though.

We've started a new tradition which helps us utilize our food storage. We make bread every Sunday; this also means I don't have to buy bread. It's been really fun and we enjoy the time together and the new recipes that food network puts out.

Ryan is busy finding an internship for this spring and summer and was quite successful in acquiring a few interviews. Unfortunately some of these companies will take him away from Provo, which means Maija and I get to try and survive without Ryan all summer...Oi. But it will be worth it in the end and I'm excited to see where he gets called off to.

Well, until next week! We love you all!

The Besseys Ryan, Alexis and the Maija

October 2009 - Bessey, Ryan & Alexis & Family

Hello Family!

Nothing terribly interesting to report from Provo. Football season is in full swing and that means more painted faces and blue hair. It's getting darker when I walk home from class, and the parking lots are always full as it gets colder and the students become whimps. One of my classes this year is oil painting and it's getting the better of me. Who would have thought working with color could be so dang difficult. Where is grandma when you need her? I'm sure she could show me a thing or two about color theory. And it makes things increasingly difficult when you have a teacher who is a genius at everything having to do with art, and very little having to do with teaching. I asked him a question about "warm" colors in my painting and he ended up talking about Joseph Smith and the first vision... still trying to figure out how he made that connection, and my question never was answered. Other than that, classes are going very well.

Ryan's classes are also very difficult as he nears the end of his undergrad in civil engineering. We will both graduate next fall; he will have a math minor with all of the crazy math classes he's taken. Grandpa told me to tell Ryan to make sure he took many English classes since being able to write and present well would be very important in civil engineering; well Grandpa, he didn't take the advice and he's depending on me to help him out in the "English department" of civil engineering, since I will have an English minor... I'm not the greatest with English. But instead of admitting that, I just told him that I couldn't since it was not in my contract when I agreed to marry him.

Maija is having just as much fun in class as we are as she has to stay cooped up in her stroller during class. There are a few times when the model in my figure drawing class takes a break that I can let Maija out of the stroller and crawl around, getting the attention of everyone in the class. Right now I'm basically the only mother in the Illustration department (I know this because I've been around so long I know everyone), so Maija is still a novelty. My teacher even plays with Maija sometimes while I get my work done in class; you've got to love BYU. Well, Maija is crawling around, her bottom teeth finally came in (after 6 months of indecision), she can say Mama, and she is on the verge of walking, all before 9 months. Did I mention she reads books? She can sit for minutes at a time playing with her books, turning the pages carefully and mumbling to herself....more like grunting actually. She's a cutie.

Well, we love you and we love hearing from you.

Love Ryan, Alexis and the Maija Bessey

September 2009 - Bessey, Ryan & Alexis

Upon hearing Grandpa's threat to cut off those who don't contribute to the Newsletter we decided to surface. So here is our story.

We have been parents for 7 months now and we enjoy every waking second of it (sleeping hours don't count.) Maija is a smart, beautiful girl with her Mom's personality, her Dad's good looks and we are not too sure where she got her energy from... she surpasses both Ryan and I. Baby girl sits up on her own, laughs, smiles, crawls like a maniac, and loves to call out my name whether she is happy or angry, and she loves giving me kisses. We've noticed many fun quirks like she likes to play "wack a mole" with anything on the ground that moves quickly: hands, feet, bugs, toys, etc.

Ryan and I are both still going to school (almost done! yay! Well, at least I am) I'm taking it easy and although I only have eight more classes I won’t graduate till Fall 2010. Ryan is staying for his masters so you will know where to find us for the next couple of years.

We've had a splendid summer (Maija and I love summer since Ryan stays at home more...during the Fall and Winter semesters the Clyde building sees more of him than we do). Maija and I had the opportunity to visit with Grandma and Grandpa this past month and I still can't tell if Maija or the grandparents were more excited to see each other.

Right now we are working as managers for Suzanne's and Uncle John's student housing just south of campus. We love the set up. But this last little bit of the month we've been scrambling to get people to sign contracts and we are starting to understand what poor Craig had to deal with all by himself the past couple of years. Thank goodness we still have him to help us! It really is fun and a terrific learning opportunity... for instance, I've learned that I am a control freak at heart, I HAVE to be in charge of everything and I have to know everything.

I've found that I have a new hobby, coupon shopping! My sister in law Amber and I get up at 6 am to raid Walgreens and Rite aid... and then later hit up Smiths and Albertsons...only to MAKE MONEY!!! no kidding! my latest trip I paid 14 dollars out of pocket for $30 worth of good quality groceries, then I get a rebate (cash) and register rewards so I end up getting everything for free and then make $10.50, not bad eh? I'm pretty proud, thank you Amber!!!

Ryan is chugging away at his Civil Engineering classes, he is really quite good with math and physics and not a bad teacher either. He was a Teacher's Assistant this past summer for Dr. Christensen and he would come home and go through the student's tests and homework with me, trying to explain everything to me... and oddly enough I followed the math and the physics behind the work... and I have only had a 1st year college level calculus class. He might need to consider teaching as an option. Well, that about sums up our little lives here in the Bubble (Provo).

Hope you all are doing well!

Love Ryan, Alexis and the Maija.

April 2008 - Bessey, Ryan & Alexis

Hello Family!

This month was crazy fun for our little family and we would like to share with you a few funny stories. Earlier this month Ryan and I wondered whether or not we could share the same clothes. We had at first thought that no one would ever find out about our curiosity because we are in the safety and privacy of our own home, knowing of course that there was a huge gender and social obstacle which would not allow us to publicly exercise and share our curiosity. As you can tell, since I am sharing this story with you, our secret had to be let out in order for me to tell about another funny experience. On a particular Sunday Alexis thought it would be funny to dress in Ryan's church clothes and take pictures as if they were missionary companions; they had the clothes, the name tag, and an appropriately small and messy apartment in which to pull this gag off. Right before they took the picture, Alexis realized that she still had her ring on. She quickly slipped it into Ryan's pants (on Ryan) and exclaimed "we can't be married missionaries!" And then the picture was taken. Later on that day Ryan's pants, no longer needed since they were changed into normal attire, were later slung over the bathroom door...that bathroom door swings right into the toilet, and Alexis' ring is (was) still in the pants... For about two and a half weeks we searched frantically all over the house for the missing ring, checking in all of Ryan's pants but it was no where to be found. After approximately two and a half weeks Ryan came running into the bathroom, where I was, doing a "happy dance." In his hand was the "lost wedding ring," on his legs were the pants that I was wearing on the Sunday the pictures were taken. Of course this story isn't quite as funny retold as it was lived because I must also add that this story has really circulated all across BYU, including to the jeweler, whom I am sure still mocks my stupidity for not insuring the ring upon receiving it. And I thought they were just trying to get more money out of me, who knew that they are actually there to help me when I act stupidly.

This next experience taught Ryan and me that you can be married and still be really silly; you could even look and act as silly as you were when you were dating. Well on this particular Monday Ryan and I thought we would try to fly. They say that two heads are better then one, but they forgot to mention that the quality of both, or at least one, of the brains must surpass or at least equal that of a normal brain... ours combined don't make the cut. Enough gilding of the lily, Ryan and I were walking to his old apartment to visit with his roommates when Alexis started trying to throw her leg up behind herself and kick Ryan in the fanny. Ryan thought this was funny, not only was it a silly looking thing to do, but Alexis wasn't doing it right; she wasn't even making contact. So Ryan had to show her how it was done. So, anybody watching us would see two idiots walking along laughing and kicking each other. We don't know how this was accomplished but, we ended up with both legs entangled and in the air. Well, when four legs are in the air and not beneath the two bodies that they are attached to, people get hurt. We ended up flat on our faces with our backpacks over our heads; we couldn't account for our arms; we don't know where they went. Let me just say that people were behind us, and laughing at our misfortune. It was one of those moments that you wished you were watching and not participating, you know like the BYU vs. Utah football game? In the end, we have tons of fun. We are both still working very hard to finish up the semester with outstanding grades. The prospect of having to continue the jobs that we currently have inspire us to work very hard academically. We love you all and we hope that you laughed at least a little, for that was my intention. We hope your month was as fun as ours, but hopefully less painful.

Ryan and Alexis Bessey

March 2008

Dear Family,

This month Ryan and I have found out that married life plus school plus work equals a binary experience. This month has been very difficult for us, but at the same time, we are having so much fun with life. Ryan and I are both attending school in the motherland at good ole BYU; he is studying Civil Engineering and I am now studying Illustration and minoring in English.

I currently have a job at a Group Home for a company called Chrysalis; the individuals living in the home are the sweetest, most loving individuals I've ever had the opportunity to meet. I could certainly picture Christ hanging out with these guys first when He comes again. Ryan has found work with our brother-in-law, Fred Pena, painting and maintaining homes, so he comes home late at night covered in paint, poor guy.

We also had a bit of trouble selling our contracts before the Christmas vacation; well, I had trouble at least, so for a while we were paying rent for two apartments! I couldn't compete with the five other girls in my apartment complex who were trying to sell their contracts because they too were getting married during the Christmas vacation.

To address the other side of the binary let me add that Ryan has a wonderful time with his Men's Choir concerts. They just recently finished a concert where they sang love songs in the theme of a date. They started with "Tonight at 8" from She Loves Me, something I'm unfamiliar with, then they sang "they say love" from Annie get your Gun, then "Tonight" from West-side story; then "Kiss the Girl" from Little Mermaid (they used TicTacs as part of the percussion); then they sang "Mamselle" another one that I was unfamiliar with, then "Goodnight Sweetheart". These men had all of the girls going nuts in the audience. It was a very enjoyable experience.

I am currently taking Latin dance classes at BYU; I highly recommend them. We just recently had a dance competition where we performed the Rhumba, and we have another competition coming up in March where we will be performing the Samba, I really look forward to these classes.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed reading this letter almost as much as I enjoyed living these experiences. We send our love and gratitude to all of you for your support and warm wishes concerning our wedding. We love you all!

The Besseys