Lyla Rose

The beginning of December, I got to go down and visit cute little Lyla Rose. She was born almost 3 weeks ago, and I was so grateful my husband bought me a plane ticket to go visit my best friend Sarah and her husband Cuyler, and see their newest addition. I got down there Thursday morning and was picked up at the airport by Sarah's parents. They were in town for business and were actually on their way out of town. I was glad to be able to see them since it had been a while! We hung out at their apartment for the afternoon. I got to hold the sweet baby while Sarah got some things done around the place. Cuyler came home and we ate some dinner that Sarah made, watched I Am Number Four, chatted, and went to bed. Friday, Sarah and I slept in a little bit, and then I got to take her and baby to their doctor's appointment! Lyla had to get checked to make sure she was developing okay, and she passed with flying colors :) We then got some lunch from Wendy's and made our way over to Laura's (sarah's sister) house to visit her new baby she had a couple months before. Lyla is pretty much the same size as her cousin even though they are 3 months apart. It's so cute. I hadn't seen Laura and Joseph for over a year so it was good to see them even for just a minute. They are such a cute family and their house is really nice! Sarah and I stopped and picked up some pizza and ice cream and Captain America to entertain us when we got home. It was a great night in just vegging with my favorite friends. Saturday, Cuyler didn't have to work so we got spend the day all together. Cuyler made us omlettes for breakfast, we lounged around and watched their Simpson DVDs, played with the baby, got some Jimmy Johns, played LOTS of card games and ate LOTS of Blue Bell Ice Cream. We stayed up till 2am, and I had to get up at 4am to get ready to go to the airport, so I was living on 2 hours sleep! Cuyler and Sarah drove me to the airport, and I was so sad to leave them! My flight was supposed to leave at 7am for Idaho Falls, but during the night we had gotten a hail storm so there was ice on the wings so we had to wait for the SUN to melt the ice! I couldn't believe it! They told us it was going to take a half hour, but it ended up taking almost 2 hours, so I was 2 hours late getting into Idaho Falls. It felt so good to get off that plane. I was sad to leave the warm weather, but I had missed my husband so much so it was good to go back to him. :) Thank you for the awesome weekend Sarah and Cuyler!

Black Friday

Alright. I got cookies in the oven baking, and the boys (Chris, Chris's Dad, and Dan) are downstairs watching football, so I wanted to share with all of you, my very first Black Friday shopping experience. About a month ago, I decided that I wanted a camera for Christmas. A nice one. Not one of those cheap little ones. A good one. So when the ads for Black Friday came out, I was really excited to see that Target had a good one for $100! Chris and Jared and I went and spent it with Stephanie and her family. I made a sweet potato casserole (found the recipe on Pinterest!) cause if there aren't sweet potatoes, then its not a real holiday! :) We ate lots of food and visited for a while, then went home and played Fat Dog. If you don't know what Fat Dog is, then just ask. My family loves to play on Thanksgiving and Christmas :) I figured that Target would get pretty busy so I wanted to get there early to get a good spot in line. Chris wanted to watch part of the football game, so I went over at about 7pm, and Chris got there at about 8:45pm. I was pretty close to the door so that made me really excited! I wanted that camera! I was around some pretty nice people so the time went really fast from getting to talk to someone. Once Chris got there, he took my spot in line and I took the car to go to the bathroom and get us hot chocolate. It was starting to get super cold! By 10pm, the cold was too much to bear. My toes felt like they were going to fall off! So I went and sat in the car for a little bit, then it was Chris's turn to find a bathroom, and then it was finally count down till Midnight!

Right before it was time for the store to open, a bunch of people started arriving and lining up across from the entrance. So when they started letting us people who had been waiting for hours in, all those people tried to run in with us! We all stopped and started yelling at them to get to the back of the line, and security had to come out and push them back so they wouldn't cut in line. I got scared! I just tried to stay against the wall of the store and waited for our turn to go inside. Once inside, it got real exciting!! We walked as fast as we could (since apparently we weren't allowed to run), to the back of the store to where my camera was. It was hilarious! We saw this itty bitty girl trying to drag a HUGE TV down the aisle. Big men pushing carts with toys in them. And pushing through the ipod people so I could get my camera.....but, I GOT IT! There werent' many left so I was so excited to get my name on one of those boxes! After we paid for it, we went to go look at their cheap movies, but I didn't feel like it was worth standing in the huge line again to pay $2 for a movie. So we left. It was almost 1am and I was ready for bed!

When we woke up the next morning we went and had a yummy breakfast at Perkins and then braved the mall. It was crowded of course but Chris got some new church shoes that he had been wanting for a long time, and I bought some new jeans at American Eagle. So overall, it was a good Black Friday! Not sure if I want to do it again.....we'll see what kind of deals they have next year! :)

Car

My car is finally out of the shop! It has been in and out of the shop for the past 2 weeks and it's finally done! We ended up having to put all new tires on, fix the alignment, repair my tire rods, and put in new axle seals. Just the sort of thing you want when you first get married huh? Good thing we had all that wedding money! The Lord does look out for us though. We thought we were going to be able to move into an apartment, but He made sure that everything we tried did not work out so we could have that money for my car. Its kind of a bummer having to start over and pushing back moving, but we know that we will find something when we are supposed to. In the meantime, we have a warm bed to sleep in, food to eat, and Chris's parents have been so good to us! It's been a blessing for them letting us stay in their basement.

While my car was in the shop, I got to drive this beauty around:

Chris was pretty jealous. He got to drive it the first day and I drove it the other 2 days. He was sad that I had to take it back last night and would try to think of any reason to drive somewhere so he could drive it. :) It was a pretty good car! Comfy seats, has some GUTS, I like how it sounds when I start it up, and a smooth ride. But, I am also glad to have my car back. I do love my car. It's small and gets me where I need to be. Its been through a lot but still going strong!

Halloween

Well it's Halloween weekend and we all know what that means....haunted houses, pumpkins, yummy treats, costumes, and cold weather. I like everything about halloween except for the haunted houses, the cold weather, the scary movies, and the scary costumes. I LOVE the yummy treats and seeing children in their cute costumes. I am not very good at dressing up. I am a huge procrastinator on it and can never think up a good idea for a costume. Chris and I spent some time in the halloween store this week knowing we had a couple parties to attend where we needed to dress up. We found some pretty good costumes.....only if you want to spend $70 to $110 for them! Ridiculous! Why would I spend $70 for a shirt and like a little ribbon to go with it? We found an awesome wig for Chris at the last minute when the store was about to close and decided he was going to be a nerd. We grabbed some glasses on our way up to the cash register and I told him I would find a bow tie for him in the morning. I remembered my good ol friend Melissa wore a poodle skirt last year so I asked if she would let me borrow that (don't worry, I borrowed another one of her costumes last year. See how good I am at this?:), she said yes of course so I got that from her and found a bowtie and a scarf for me at Ross! Yay! Last night we came home from work and got all cutsied up in our costumes. We went to our friends Shawn and Summer's house with a few other couples, had dinner, and played one of those Murder Dinner games. I am not good at those things. I get all confused and mess up my character! But it was fun to play with friends and pretend to be someone I wasn't for a night. I was just happy to get Chris to dress up cause he is not too keen on that! I can't wait to wear my costume to work on Monday! :)

Meals

I have been trying to cook new things for Chris and I cause we tend to eat the same things all the time. There are a couple recipes that I have made that we LOVE and I wanted to share with you all. If any of you have yummy recipes that you think we will enjoy, please pass them on! I need ideas! It can be pretty hard cooking for 2 people.

Ritzy Chicken (both of these are made for an 8X8 pan, if you are going to use a 9X13, then double the recipe! :)
Cook 3/4 cup of rice and put in bottom of pan.
Mix one can of cream of chicken soup and 1/2 cup of sour cream and place on top of rice.
Mix 2 tablespoons of parsley, a dash of garlic salt, and 20 crushed ritz crackers.
Cook 2 chicken breasts, cut up into bite size pieces and mix into the ritz cracker mixture, and pour on top of the soup.
Put grated cheese on the very top of everything.
Stick in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Eat and enjoy!

Tater Tot Casserole
Make enough mashed potatoes to cover the bottom of the pan.
Brown ground beef with garlic powder and place on top of mashed potatoes.
Pour a can of green beans on top of that.
Mix a can of cream of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup sour cream and pour on top of beans.
Cover the top of the casserole with tater tots.
Place in oven at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. Put grated cheese on top of casserole halfway through cooking time.

Remember, if you have any yummy easy recipes PASS THEM ON PLEASE! :)

September 17, 2011

I am sure you have all seen my pictures on Facebook, so I don't want to keep boring you with all of the same pictures over and over again. So I will just tell about my most perfect and favorite day in the world. It was a Saturday. I woke up that morning so very calm and happy. Planning a wedding is very stressful and overwhelming, but my family was such a HUGE help and are so very talented, I really wasn't worried that it wasn't going to look great or something bad was going to happen. I was just excited to finally get married to my very best friend! The person who I had spent everyday with for the past year, a person who knew all of my faults and secrets and still loved me, the person who made me laugh all the time, who let me cry on his shoulder, who made me feel safe. I got up and tried to help out with the set up at the church as much as I can before I needed to go see my amazing friend Amanda to get my hair done.We finished my hair, I threw on my makeup, grabbed my dress and everything I was going to need for my honeymoon and headed back to the church! The cultural hall looked GORGEOUS! I really can't say in words how beautiful and perfect it all was, and I think I am going to be thanking my family for the rest of my life for all the work they did because it was wonderful. I went and hid out in the bathroom until it was time for me to walk down the aisle. Everyone else was busy getting the boutineers (sp?) on, helping people find their seats, and making sure I knew that Chris had shown up! A half an hour before the ceremony was supposed to start, Chris was at Red Robin with his family so I was a little worried he wasn't going to show up....haha....or just be really late ;) We were all ready to go, the bridal party was all situated to walk out, the music started. But then it stopped. Everyone started laughing and getting back to the starting points. Chris had forgotten my ring so he had to run to his stuff and get my ring! He ran back and we were able to start! Everyone stood as my music began, I walked out and couldn't stop smiling.Thank you Lyndon for walking me down the aisle! You have been such a great father figure to me. On the inside I was focusing on not tripping, but I kept my eyes on Chris and couldn't believe that we had finally made it! Our branch president did a fabulous job. I had no idea we were going to say our own vows, so I had nothing planned, but then Pres Cazier tells me that it's my turn to say whatever I wanted to Chris! I froze, freaked out, and all that could come to my lips was "I love you". :) Chris had a beautiful speech for me that just made my heart melt. I wish I could have said something more than just I love you! But either way, we were married, we kissed, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" played as we exited down the aisle. We hugged all of our guests, and just felt relief that we were now husband and wife. We weren't going to have to say goodbye anymore at night. We could be with each other all the time. We had someone to go home to everyday, and I couldn't be happier.

The Ceremony

We had an amazing bridal party who was such a great help with everything we had to do.These pictures are all out of order but it's so much work trying to make them organized on this thing....:) So just enjoy! The ceremony was perfect. The decorations were beautiful, everyone that we love was showed up, the words that were said were wonderful, and you could feel so much love in that room. I waited in the bathroom until it was time to start. Thank you bridesmaids for making sure everything was organized and I remembered everything.

The Decorations

I got my wedding photos! Yay! But I am going to split it all up and just do a little bit at a time cause it's gonna take a WHILE! :) My family did a FABULOUS job creating the decorations and presentation of my wedding ceremony and reception. It was GORGEOUS and everything that I have ever wanted for a wedding. My colors were Red, Black, and White. We were going to have an outdoor wedding in my branch presidents backyard, but the day before the wedding, the weather turned awful and it scared us away from doing that, so we moved everything inside our church building. I think that was the perfect idea and made my wedding amazing. My mom and sisters worked so hard tying bows (which I had told them I am NOT good at tying bows, so if they wanted it to look good, I cannot tie any of the bows :). It was all so very elegant yet fun and comfy at the same time. It was the best night of my life!

Bridals

Well, I have been married for 2 weeks now so it's about time to get some pictures up! :) I am still waiting on my wedding day pictures, but here are some of my bridals! The wedding day was PERFECT, but I will tell more about that when I get the pictures. The past 2 weeks have been amazing and I love my new husband and being a wife!

Ahhh!

I just wanted to let all of you know that my camera broke so I haven't been able to take any pictures! My wedding is coming up in a couple weeks and I don't know how I am going to be able to document everything that is going to be going on! I am kind of freaking out! :( Hopefully some of you can be kind and take pictures of stuff for me and send them to me! :)I am so excited to get married!! 18 more days! Yay! I love this man. He is my everything!

Engagements

Hey all! We are probably going to send out our annoucements soon! Yay! We have only been engaged for 3 weeks yet we have almost the whole wedding planned out! This whole experience has been amazing, stressful, hard, wonderful, all at the same time :) We have one more month till we get married and I am so excited for that day! Our friend Kendra Hansen did our engagement photos and she did a wonderful job. So I just wanted to share a few with you! Oh, and if you haven't given us your address yet you better do it so you can receive one!