One Year and Counting......

Our Wedding Day!

On May 21, 2011, Thyci and I were married in the Oakland Temple!  Now, one year from that amazing day, here we are, still going strong!  This past year has been great!  Full of fun times and tough times, we have enjoyed every minute of it!  For our first anniversary we wanted to go to Las Vegas, however, since my car has had some issues in the past and I just couldn't trust it to make a 6 hour drive, we decided to stay local.  We decided that since Thyci got home from Brazil on Saturday the 19th, we would let Thyci rest at home and then on Sunday go up to Salt Lake City and spend the day in Temple Square.  We found a really nice park nearby and had a picnic.  We walked around Temple Square for a while, took a few pictures, and then we stayed at the Anniversary Inn for the night.  It was a beautiful hotel room with complimentary Cheesecake in the fridge.  Now any place that gives away free cheesecake is number one on in my book!  On Monday, our anniversary, we decided to go and eat at our favorite restaurant, Tucanos, and eat until our belly buttons popped out.  We then went and saw a movie and just took it easy and relaxed the rest of the day.  It was a very nice day.  Looking back at this year that we have been together, I pray that every year is just as good or even better than this one.  I love this woman so much!  I am so lucky to have found someone so kind, loving, and I can't forget to mention beautiful, to spend the rest of my life and all of eternity with.  Nick & Thyci Forever!

Thyci and I on our Picnic

Our Picnic

Thyci and Joseph Smith

Thyci and I at our Hotel

Our Breakfast at the hotel

Thyci in Brazil!

Thyci and her grandmother

Thyci has spent the last month, April 15 to May 18th, in Brazil visiting her family.  She had a blast!  Even though half way through she realized that a month is a long time to be away from your husband (it only took me a few days) she really enjoyed being back with her family and friends.  She was able to go back to her old ward back home and see her friends from church.  As usual, the whole month she was there she was followed by her best friend Bruna!  She enjoyed every minute with her as well as her loving Grandmother, Raimunda (high-moondah).  She also got a chance to get to know her father a little more.  She had never been close to her father.  Ever since she moved to the United States, he has tried to get to know her better and now their relationship is much stronger, which makes me happy.  He even gave us a piece of Beach-front property that he owned as a wedding present.  He is a very nice man and we wish him well!  As Thyci endured the extreme heat of her home town, Mossoró, she quickly started to miss the cold atmosphere of Utah.  Upon arriving in Brazil with 3 huge suitcases and an almost over the limit carry-on, her things were quickly ransacked by her friends and family.  Sisters claiming clothes and friends claiming shoes, Thyci came home with merely one very light suitcase and a half empty carry-on.  Thyci being the loving and giving person that she is, she was more than willing to give what she had to those she loved (of course her make-up was off limits!).  

Jared being Jared

All in all she had a wonderful time.  While Thyci was off visiting family, I, on the other hand, was at home with my brother Jared, enduring his annoying habits and enjoying his loving presence.  I am very happy that he was here to keep me company while Thyci was away.  I don't know what I would have done without him here with me for most of the time.  He did leave me alone for about a week before Thyci finally came home, but I was able to utilize that time and focus on giving the house a well-deserved cleaning up.  Thyci finally got home on Saturday, May 19th and I couldn't have been happier! 

Thyci and her Dad

Thyci's new nephew Alex

Thyci and Heider

Thyci and Bruna, her best friend in the whole world!

Thyci's niece Nicole Victoria

Thyci and her niece Jordana and nephew Jonata

So what's Thyci up to???

Thyci at work at DI with Michael and Kayla

 So Thyci has been in the United States for one full year as of March 24th.  She has gone through a lot in this year.  She has strived diligently to learn English and has progressed so much!  She has been working at Deseret Industries (DI) since Halloween of 2011.  On April 15 of this year, Thyci will be flying back to Mossoró, her home town in Brazil, to visit her family.  Unfortunately I will not be able to accompany her this time, but hopefully, soon I will be able to visit.  She has an ENORMOUS amount of things that she has already packed up that she plans to give to her family.  She has 4 suitcases packed to the brim with stuff, and most of it isn't even hers.  She is very excited to visit her family again.  She will be gone for a month, returning on the 17th of May.  I don't know how I am going to survive here without her for a month, but luckily Jared will be here with me to keep me company.  In the meantime, I will be working on my portfolio for the Animation major application, so hopefully I will get a lot done while she is gone.  Anyways, for now, Thyci keeps herself busy with work and her blog.  She had created a blog some time ago called Oficina de Moda (Office of Fashion). 

This is the banner from her old website

She kept that up for a while until I created a website for her called Beauties in Pink (the name suits her well).  Due to my lack of website creation knowledge, it proved too hard to keep up without her using me to update it.  So, she decided to simply use Facebook and create a group for Beauties in Pink dedicated to fashion, where anyone could post there own ideas concerning fashion.

This is the banner for her new blog

 Finally, Thyci has convinced me to recreate a blog on Blogger so that she could have a more specific place where she could advise people about fashion.  In my opinion, she is quite good in this category.  As of now, her Facebook group has a total of 420 members.  It has been about 2 weeks since I finished creating her blog and it now has 51 followers and hundreds of visits.  She loves getting all dolled up and looking beautiful so that she can post new outfits on her blog for people to see.  It makes me happy to see her involved in something she loves.  Unfortunately for most of the people reading this blog entry, her blog is completely in portuguese, so for now her fanbase is pretty much completely Brazilian.  As for a more spiritual note, Thyci and I have been going to a ward here in Orem, close to our house, however, every few weeks we go to a Portuguese Ward here in Orem so that Thyci can have an easier time understanding the talks and feel the spirit just a little more.  Just this week she got a calling to be the Second Counselor in the Young Women's Presidency in our ward.  She is kind of scared to fulfill her calling in a ward that only speaks English, but she knows that the Lord will bless her greatly.  I am so proud of her and all that she has accomplished here in a new country and a new culture.   

Finished Grasshopper 3D Model

Well, I finally finished my new 3D model for my Animation Portfolio.  It is a grasshopper that is about to be smashed by a shoe.  It has taken some time to complete, but it is finally done.  I have included a few progression images showing the progress of the model.  I hope you like it!

near the end of the modeling process

Bug with shoe without textures

repositioned model with simple colors and environment

Final product of the Grasshopper and the shoe

BYU Animation Program

As most of you know, I am trying to apply to the Animation program at BYU.  This is a very competitive program to enter.  The BYU Animation program is one of the top animation programs in the United States.  There are about 300 people who apply each year and about 25 who actually get accepted.  Places like Pixar, Dreamworks and Sony recruit often from BYU.  They have a 90% hiring rate at graduation.  So I am really working hard to be able to get into this program.  Since I have been at BYU for so long, being rejected from various other programs like Film and Graphic Design, this is really my last chance to get into a program that I enjoy and that will help me have a brighter future.  However, as scary as that may seem, I have enjoyed the classes I have taken.  There is much more that I need to do in order to really get good, but I have improved much.  So that I have more time to work on my animations and such, I built an animation station.  It has two fold out wings that extend out so that I can have more space to work.  It lights up from below and has a place to clip a light at the top.  It was really fun to make and much more fun to use. 



















I am currently working on a 2D animation that I had done previously.  It is a Sack of Flour animation that I will turn in for the application.  The requirement is that the sack of flour flies through the air and lands and then does something else after it lands.  I have the original one I did here and now and also the updated one.  The updated one has a watermark on it because I did it at home and I haven't bought the program, but you still get the gist of it. 

I also am working on a 3D bug.  I have to create a bug in a 3D modeling program.  My original one was a disappointment so I wont even show it, but my new one is currently looking much better.  It is a grasshopper that will soon see his demise by way of shoe.  It will be good.  Here is the current state of my grasshopper.  Ignore the random colors or lack thereof.  Well, I hope you enjoy and give feedback on what you like and what you think should be better.  Thanks!

Whats New??

Well, much has happened in the last few months. To begin, Thyci and I have been married going on 9 months now and we are very happy. We have been living in Orem near University Mall in a two bedroom fourplex. It is nice and cozy for us. Thyci got a job at Deseret Industries (DI) working the sales floor organizing clothes. It has been somewhat physically draining for her because she has to be on her feet all day, but she enjoys the people she works with and has learned SO MUCH English from the experience. I am currently searching for employment while I am in school, but that has been somewhat difficult. However, there have been many fun things that have happened over the last few months. First and foremost, my parents were called to serve a full-time mission in Lyon, France. We dropped my parents off at the MTC here in Provo about two weeks ago. It was an emotional time, even though we saw them like twice after that before they left. They left for Geneva, Switzerland on Friday, which is where their Mission Home is and arrived today in their area. They are currently getting settled in and we hope to hear from them soon for some updates. Right after my parents sent in their mission papers, they moved down here to Utah and lived with my grandparents. My grandfather got diagnosed with cancer and my parents helped both him and my grandmother as he went through chemotherapy. After having received a blessing saying that all would be fine, a few months later my grandfathers cancer went into total remission. We were all so very excited about that. My grandfather while he was in chemotherapy would say that he looked like Yoda because he lost all of his hair. He is doing much better now and is slowly regaining his strength. As for family events, Sara, Jared, Vania, Thyci and I went to Mesa Verde in Colorado. It was a fun trip. We camped out at a campground and during the day we went out and saw all the cool indigenous architecture they have there. We had a great time and we will never forget it. For Thanksgiving, the whole family, except for Tyler's family who was unable to attend, went to Disneyland for the weekend. It was a first for some and a first in a long time for others. We had so much fun and can't wait for the time when we can all go back. It was really nice seeing the family again. We stayed in San Diego at Aaron's house and on Thanksgiving Day we all went to LA to Disneyland. Then we celebrated our Thanksgiving dinner the next day on Friday. It was a blast! For Christmas, we celebrate it at my Grandparents house, where my parents were currently staying. Sara was able to come down from Colorado and Jared had recently moved back to Utah for school. We had a really good time. As for now, Thyci and I are doing great. We try to get out as much as we can to have fun. Thyci has recently become addicted to the TV shows Lost and Vampire Diaries so we have been spending quite some time catching her up on those shows, lol. Well, that is us for now. Hopefully I wont wait too long to update you all again. Tchau!!

Biometrics and other stuff

So, this morning at 8:00 AM in Taylorsville, Utah, Thyci went to go and get her biometrics taken at an immigration center. In case there are those who don't know what biometrics are (because I didn't until now) it is basically getting her fingerprints taken. So we woke up early and went and got that done for her Change of Status application. This is so that she can become a permanent resident and get her green card. It went pretty quick and we didn't have to pay anything because we already paid it when we sent in her application a few weeks ago. So now that we have that done with, we only need to send in a few financial documents to the immigration department that we failed to send them originally and she will get her green card as well as her license to work. It is exciting! The only thing we will have to do after this is get her Social Security Number and then wait for her to be able to apply for citizenship. Well, in the mean time, we have been trying to keep ourselves busy. We hang out a lot with Jared in Provo as we have mentioned before. The other day we went down there to swim in the pool at his apartment complex. We brought our friend Dany with us who was staying with us while her husband is in Brazil getting her daughter. It was quite fun. One of the pictures is of Dany, Thyci and I at the pool. The other picture you might notice is of Jared and Thyci with a strange gooey substance that just looks nasty. Well, that nasty substance is actually melted sour gummy worms that were left on the table outside while we swam. They thought it was quite funny to make it look just disgusting. Thyci has also started to make makeup tutorial videos with a Brazilian friend of hers. She has her own blog on fashion and makeup that she has been working on. It really keeps her involved in something when there is no money to go out and do anything with. If you want to check out her blog it is on the right side of our blog in the "My Blog List" section. Her blog is called "Oficina de Moda," which basically means Fashion Office. It is all in Portuguese, so it might not spark your interest that much, but her Brazilian friends are going crazy for it. They love her little tutorial videos. She is constantly looking and new ways to show people more about makeup. I myself have no clue when it comes to makeup, but I encourage her to do what she loves. Other than this, we have been trying to spend more time with Tyler and Alexis and their family while they are still in Utah. They are moving soon to California as most of you know to stay at my parents house while they are on their mission. It will be great for them, but we will miss their presence here in Utah. Tyler has done so much for us in the car repair department and I will be forever grateful and Alexis has done a great job trying to help Thyci feel comfortable here. Thyci is very grateful for her kindness and help (especially for the discount makeup from Mary Kay). We will miss them and hope to rejoin them in California in the next few years after I graduate from BYU.