2 Years

On December 11, 2009 I married my cute husband. 

I can't believe it was that long ago. 

We went on a little vacation to Las Vegas to celebrate our anniversary and it was really fun. :)

I will post picture with us actually in them later, these are just the only ones I have right now.

The first day we flew in and stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. 

We were pleasantly surprised with our room. 

This bed was so fluffy that I kept getting stuck in it while I was sleeping. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

This little TV wall thing was pretty cool because it had a TV on both sides. There was also an iPod player in the wall that was connected to surround sound throughout the room, or else you could just use a screen on the wall and find music on there to play. Not too shabby.

This is just the little entry way, but I should have gotten a picture of the giant bathroom. All the walls were glass. It was really cool. 

Those really aren't the greatest pictures, but like I said--be patient with me and I'll add some more. :) 

The second night we stayed at the Palms and we were excited about this room too. 

The big kitchen.

Yes two TVs right next to each other on the wall... haha probably not necessary but we thought it was pretty cool.

The pool was really cool, but pretty much abandoned since it was freezing cold. There was a restaurant just connected to the side of the pool which was really cool. It was all glass and you could look over and it looked like you were on the water. We ate there that night. 

I spent a lot of my time at H&M and Forever 21. My two favorites. :)

I wish you could see it better, but this tree was the prettiest thing I've ever seen! I want one in my living room.

And that's about it. This is a pretty boring post but I will add more later. 

So happy I married that boy two years ago!! :) Happy anniversary to us!

Not an obligation, but a pathway

Today I woke up kinda grumpy. 

Then I stumbled upon this talk. I loved it the first time I listened to it, and today it really helped me put things into perspective. 

"My dear sisters, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not an obligation; it is a pathway, marked by our loving Father in Heaven, leading to happiness and peace in this life and glory and inexpressible fulfillment in the life to come. The gospel is a light that penetrates mortality and illuminates the way before us.

While understanding the “what” and the “how” of the gospel is necessary, the eternal fire and majesty of the gospel springs from the “why.” When we understand why our Heavenly Father has given us this pattern for living, when we remember why we committed to making it a foundational part of our lives, the gospel ceases to become a burden and, instead, becomes a joy and a delight. It becomes precious and sweet.

Let us not walk the path of discipleship with our eyes on the ground, thinking only of the tasks and obligations before us. Let us not walk unaware of the beauty of the glorious earthly and spiritual landscapes that surround us.

My dear sisters, seek out the majesty, the beauty, and the exhilarating joy of the “why” of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The “what” and “how” of obedience mark the way and keep us on the right path. The “why” of obedience sanctifies our actions, transforming the mundane into the majestic. It magnifies our small acts of obedience into holy acts of consecration."

How true is all of that? 

I'm so grateful for the gospel. 

Sophie

My calling at church is in the nursery.

And boy do I love those little ones.

The hard part is there are 25 of those little ones. And sometimes 4 adults can't Monitor exactly all 25 at one time.

A few weeks ago, a sweet little aspiring beauty consultant found her way behind me during singing time and asked so politely if she could play with my hair. Before I knew it she had found some scissors I had put up on a stack of chairs. I didn't know she had found them until I heard a snip behind me and heard a few other kids point and gasp. I turned around to her innocent little face holding a section of my hair that she'd so sweetly cut for me. She must have known I needed a hair cut.

It really wasn't that much hair.. Maybe a section the about 4 inches long and the size of an extension cord. But it was pretty funny and probably frightening for her. When she saw my face I think she realized she had done something wrong. So I just got the scissors and my hair from her and took the scissors back to the library. Her little face was too sweet to get mad. When I walked back into the nursery room she looked up at me and said, "What happened to your hair?" as if she had no idea what had gone on in the last 5 minutes. I just laughed and told her she cut it, but she was too sweet to say much more so we left it at that. (Sorry guys, I'm not the best at reacting to these situations... as you can tell ha)

The next Sunday I walked into nursery and as soon as she saw me she asked, "Did I cut your hair?" She must have remembered and been thinking about it because I hadn't told her parents or anyone. (I didn't want them to feel bad about it.. I know, I know.. I'm not good at this stuff) I told her, "Yes, have you been feeling bad about it all week?" She nodded and I think we had it all taken care of at that point. But I ended up telling one of the other girls in nursery, who thought it was way too hilarious to keep from her parents. So they found out. Her mom is super cute and did the sweetest thing with little Sophie.

At about 7 that night I heard the door bell and opened the door to see Sophie and her mom on the porch. Her mom had a plate of cookies and Sophie had a card and a "craft" that she had made herself to say sorry. They must have rehearsed because Sophie said, "I'm sorry for cutting your hair" and handed me the things she had made. She was so sweet, I just loved it.

I thought that was just the cutest thing ever. What a good mom she has! I will make a mental note of her professional skills for someday when I have kiddos. 

On another note, I have the greatest employer. 

They gave me one of these for Christmas. 

Although, they may have given it to Mike more than me, because I can't seem to get my hands on it. 

Thanks to my great bosses!!

Thankful

This last weekend, we did a lot of fun things! I am so thankful for lots of things in my life. 

On Friday, we went to the Fremont Championship game with my Mom and Nick. It was a sad game because the boys lost, but I enjoyed being there with my family and watching my little brother. (I mostly watched him stand on the sidelines--he's just a junior so next year will be a fun year to watch)

After the game, Mike and I went to Buca de Beppo and it was yummy. Then we went to the temple. We were a little late for the session, so we decided to do sealings. What a good choice! 

The temple was so pretty at night and we had such a good experience. The Sealer taught us a lot and gave us a lot of things to think about and study when we left. 

So glad we went. :) I'm so grateful for the temple!

On Saturday, I got to spend some time with some of my favorite people. 

Once upon a time, I lived with ten girls in a house in Logan. Everytime I tell people that they shriek and say.. "TEN GIRLS!!!????" but let me tell you it was such a fun year. We all got along so well and were the best of friends. 

Lots of my roommates read the twilight books so when we were all living together, we all went to the premier of the first movie together. I remember everyone gathered in the living room after the movie at 3am to listen to one of my roommates read parts out of the book. 

We all reunited after almost 3 years and saw Breaking Dawn together. Since the last time we saw the movie:

6 of us got married.

1 of us has a little baby boy.

3 of us have lived out of state. (two are back thankfully) (oh and shelby lived in africa for a month--not sure if that counts?)

1 is back from a mission.

5 graduated from USU and one from BYU-Hawaii.

And I believe only 3 are still living in Logan. (one of those I'm guessing...Not sure on her whereabouts...haha)

As you can see a lot has changed. 

But I still love them all a million!

Martha and Bridget

Katie and Shelby

Bridge, Whitney, Lauren, Kate, and Martha

All of us after the movie. Check out Katie's eyes!

All of us again--a bit better of a picture.

It was so good to see them!! I sure love the 103 girls!!

It was a fabulous weekend. Can't wait for the one about to come!!! :)

Stuff We Make

Me and Mike like to make stuff.

Here is some stuff we've made recently.

These are some random jars I covered in pretty things..

This is a wreath me and my BF Kortnie made. 

This is in the process of being made. Mike painted it because he's the best.

This is also in the process. I suck at before pictures that's for sure.

Last Saturday Mike and I had a competition of who could bake the best pie. I made the one above. It's a carmel apple cheesecake. Mike made the one below. It's a cherry pie. Yes, he did the braiding and the lattice and everything. He's super cool.

And that's about all of our creations.

But here are some other fun things we did this weekend.

This is me standing in line for 2 hours for the H&M grand opening. My mother and sister-in-law are the real troopers and they stood in line from 4am-noon on Friday. I had to work so I came when I got off at 11:30. Disaster stuck though as I pulled off the freeway and realized my car was completely out of gas and was having trouble going up the hill to get off the exit. It kept going and then stopping and I thought I was at the end of my life. Then when I finally got up the hill I had NO WHERE to go but to turn left at the light so I did with white knuckles and saying my prayers. I made it and ended up coasting right into Macaroni Grill's parking lot. Well not quite in the parking lot...more just in the entrance. But a nice gentleman helped push my car into the parking lot. From there I abandoned the car and ran over to the mall. Got into the madness at about 2pm. It was fun though. I'm so happy there is finally an H&M in Utah!!!

And these two lovely ladies are my little sister (on the top) and my niece (bottom). Aren't they just so cute? Addie (my sister) wouldn't look at me as I took the picture but who bets that my kids are going to look just like her? I sure hope so because she's a doll. They have a little bit of a shoe obsession so here they are trying on my slippers.

(And no that isn't a typo--she really is my little SISTER...long story. :) haha)

Young Men

Look at this handsome young man. 

Isn't he a doll?

I'm happy I get to see him all the time.

 Funny story about this costume: When he was first introduced to it, he would SCREAM every time they got it out because he was so freaked out by it. I guess they finally bribed him into wearing it, but you can kind of see in the picture that he's not so thrilled about it. So funny. What a silly little boy!

Just had to post those pictures because they are so darn cute.

Last weekend, we had the young men from our old ward over for dinner. When Mike invited them, I doubted that many of them would come. I figured that high school kids had better things to do on a Saturday night. 15 minutes before we thought they were going to come, I answered the door to about 6 boys (all that could fit in one car). I was impressed that they had come and then a few minutes later, I opened the door to another group of young men. By the end of the night, almost all of the young men from our old ward came. Most of the priests that Mike had worked with came and they were so excited to see each other. 

My testimony grew so much of the programs of the church. I'm so glad that the church is so organized and that the youth have leaders to help them along. It was awesome to see each of the boys talk with Mike and tell him how things were going. They seemed to have grown a lot, and were doing such good things in their lives. I'm also grateful for members of the church, like my husband, who work so hard to magnify their callings. I know our lives are constantly blessed by the hard work of those in our ward and stake, and also by the general authorities who work so hard and give us such good counsel.

I got a bad angle on this picture--there are probably like 10 of them group hugging but you can only see like 4 of them... 

Today I'm super grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Tookiloo

So this kinda cool thing happened to us over the weekend. 

We found this new GREAT spot. 

It's actually a consignment store in Ogden. And it's super great. And guess whose stuff is going to be featured there? 

Ours!

Kinda fun huh? We have a few things there now and we're actually going to start painting some furniture for the store as well. They like the paint and we like free furniture to fix up so it's a perfect match. :)

Click here to go to their website. Or just go in. It's way more fun to just go look around. It's right by the junction on Washington Blvd in Ogden. 

I forgot to take some pictures of the building but I thought this bench was stinking cute!

I'm making a goal right now to be better about updating this blog with furniture. I have been kind of slacking because it was the only thing I ever posted about. But I'm finding a balance and I'll be better at updating. :)

Side note:

My friend makes these cool benches too and she does such a good job! Check out her blog: re-madejustright.blogspot.com. 

Wish us luck and we'll see how this goes! Should be fun! :)

PS Today I'm grateful for Christmas music. 

Second Chances

Well remember last time we ran Ragnar and I threw up 5,856 times?

Well good news! Second time is a charm! No puke this time! We did the las Vegas Ragnar and it was super fun!

We went down on Thursday and we got to stay at this super pretty home in Boulder City, where a friend of a team-mate lived. They were so nice for letting us stay! This was the view from their back porch below.

We started running on Friday about 2:00pm and kept going...

...into the night. This is Mikey and my mother in law in the car that night. I think Mike and Dawna had just finished their legs at this point. Isn't my husband cute? haha

This is the next day on Mikey's last leg. He is soooo fast at running. He's amazing. He ran a total of 23 miles I believe, and mostly up-hill. He never even had one thing bad to say about it. He would probably have me explain in this picture that his ipod which was perched on his waste fell at this very moment and that is what he was grabbing. :) Not that you would have noticed before, but just to add the disclaimer.

Mike said this should be my slogan for the race. It pretty much was. When we ate dinner the night after the race, I definitely got my fill of diet coke.

I don't really know what this car is, but it was the son of our hosts. Mike thought it was cool enough to document it though so I thought I would add it. I think he looked up the price for this bad boy and it was about $114K-196K. (and this was his second car......and he's 23) Lucky boy! :)

This was my favorite. If you can't tell what is going on here, these are Mike's legs. And that is his mom and sister giving each of his feet a "treatment." He is a pampered little boy. haha I love it though.

And of course, here are our metals!! Since we did the Wasatch Back too, we got a "Saints and Sinners" metal.

It was a fun weekend! It went by waaaay too fast!

But luckily it's Halloween weekend!! Wahoo!

Ps Today I'm grateful for good health.