Update-ish?

Oh so much has happened since I last updated, it would be impossible to write about everything.. I'll just skim, eh?! For starters, I read all of Harry Potter this year and it was AMAZING! I can't even tell you how excited I am for the first part of Deathly Hallows to come out this month.. If I didn't have to work at 7am, I'd totally go to the midnight showing! I just love reading so much and these books completely renewed my love for literature. *sigh*

Also, our fifth anniversary is coming up and we got some photos taken! I'm thinking about including one of them in our Christmas cards this year, but that's still debatable. Here is one of them:

American Crafts is great. It's a job and it's hard work and I hate getting up so friggin' early.. But it's such a good job for me. I just love it! I've gotten so much paper and scrapbooking supplies, I just need to make the time to do it now. I'm planning on making all of our Christmas cards this year, so I better get going! It's going to be some hard work for sure!

The house is great! We got our front yard's landscaping done.. What a relief! Our friends and family were so kind and helped us with the sod and it looks great! Now that it's getting cold, I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would've liked, but I'm so glad it's done.

I hiked Timp with Jeremy! Well, at least we got to the basin.. But it was gorgeous! I'm hoping to try again next year with Kris and Jake for sure.

The fall colors were amazing!

Oh, Kristen..

Alright, I know that you can go through Google and find just as many (or more) examples to prove me wrong, but I just want to have a moment here. Every time I see a photo of Kristen Stewart (bless her little heart), her mouth is open. OPEN. Biting her lip, smiling, or just looking like an idiot. I don't dislike her, make no mistake. I just hate that most of the photos on magazine covers are with her mouth open. No, I haven't seen New Moon, so don't ask! I'm actually planning on seeing it someday, preferably when it's at the dollar theater. I'm excited about it because I enjoy them more than I expected to. I'm such a horrible blogger nowadays, so I thought I'd attempt to make you giggle, growl, or nod in agreement. I hope everyone is doing well! The end.

Happy Easter!

Today Cody and I were able to enjoy a fun Easter barbecue with his family in Spanish Fork. It was very nice! And of course we ate too much. After eating, the kids had an Easter egg hunt (of course!), so that was fun to watch. Here are a few photos from the festivities:




In other news, we've noticed more and more people mentioning our lack of procreation recently .. Is it selfish of us wanting to get into a bigger house, pay our debt down, and make sure Cody's job is going to be reliable? I know that if we were to wait until we can afford to have kids, we wouldn't ever have kids. But I don't think it's unreasonable to make sure we can provide for said offspring. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to have a family with Cody. Nothing would make me happier than to stay home and raise a family in the Gospel. But, that's just not realistic right now. *sigh* What it comes down to is that this is our business and we have to do what is right for us. Some people have been able to start their families right after the wedding, and that's awesome. Moral of the story: Relax, we'll have kids soon enough! :)

California: Day 4

Today we attempted to eat our leftovers from Friday for breakfast.. and it was gross! Luckily, I had an apple from breakfast yesterday, so all was not lost! After packing everything up and checking out of the hotel, we drove up to Rialto for one last visit with Rusty and Michelle before going over to a local tree nursery to get some more souvenirs. This guy was really funny.. and we stayed way too long! We bought a Chinese Windmill Palm (can survive down to 5 degrees!), an ultra-dwarf orange tree, and a weird orange tree that makes really small ones that are sour. The two fruit tress will stay inside the house until we can get a little green house figured out for them, but the palm should be able to go out as soon as Cody can plant it.



After spending the rest of our cash ... We left for home! We stopped in Barstow to eat at the original Del Taco .. It was pretty good! I wasn't expecting it to taste different, and it may just be because it's in California with fresher ingredients, but I was pretty impressed! The chicken-soft taco I got was definitely bigger and it had tomatoes!


The drive home was pretty boring .. I got to surf the internet for most of the trip, but that got old after a while. So, we listened to music the rest of the trip. The trees in the back was pretty comical, and the wheel cover came off our car about half-way home. Cody was able to fix it (well, cut it off!), so it was ok.


Well, we made it safe. I'm really missing it already, but I'll be ok *sniff* 'Night ya'll!

California: Day 3

Today, we ate a quick breakfast and headed over to the swap meet at the Costa Mesa fairgrounds. It was pretty fun! My feet hurt a little from all the walking (four miles of booths!), but we got a few goodies. I got a bracelet with a peace sign on it and Cody got a karma-catcher and a laser pointer .. Not too exciting, but it was fun!


After the swap meet, we decided to head up to Hollywood. As we were driving, it hit me that the Oscars tomorrow.. That equals lots of traffic, so it took us a lot longer than we thought. Plus, I didn't get to see the handprints at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre because it was blocked off for the awards.. bleh. We went to the Hollywood Museum, which was pretty cool. Not amazing, but there were a lot of things in there from movies and such. It was interesting for sure. We ate at Burger King (so exciting!) and we also got to see the Hollywood sign, so that was great.





After we got done with all that, we went back to Newport and to the beach for one last evening there. Unfortunately, the clouds were out and my beach sunset plan was foiled. Also, my camera's battery was dead, so I didn't get any photos. After soaking in the last of the beach, we headed back over to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Very yummy, of course! We were pretty tired after that, so we went to bed!

California: Day 2

Today we headed over to the beach which was surprisingly close to our hotel! (only about 5 minutes!) Cody was still feeling a little under the weather, so we mostly just walked around and enjoyed the sun.



From there, we drove around a bit and found a nice little spot for lunch. We went to Subway to grab some lunch and went back to the spot to eat. We shared with some pigeons who quickly became our best friends .. It was pretty funny!


After eating, we walked down to the water to warm up from the cold drinks and shade. We ended up staying until about 5 just watching the surfers and amazing waves. It was so nice to just sit wand enjoy the scenery!


When we were finally able to tear ourselves from the beach, we went to dinner with Cody's Aunt and Uncle Michelle and Rusty, along with their daughter Marcy and her friend. We went to Claim Jumpers and it was pretty yummy! After eating, we went over to the local Walmart to look at their plants (since we bought a nice spider house plant last time that has been doing really well the past two years). We didn't really see anything special, so we just went back to the hotel and to bed!

California: Day 1

We left for California around 7:30 this Thursday morning, so here is the start of our trip!

We stopped in St. George for fuel..


Then on to Las Vegas where we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe ..


We stopped in Baker to see the big thermometer and our good friend Big Boy ..


We then checked in our hotel and then headed to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (YUMMY!)

So yeah, sorry this is a little late, but the rest is to come!:)

Babysitting day!

I got to babysit my nephews Jayden (almost 3) and Parker (almost 2) today while their parents and older brothers went to the car show up in Salt Lake City. It was fun! They were pretty well behaved, as well as can be expected, and I got a few good shots in. We watched Kung Fu Panda and Shrek the Third. I love my nephews... seriously, if my kids are half as cute as these, I'll be happy! Enjoy!

Moving forward.

We're still working on the kitchen. We've finished half of the tile and my Dad is now helping Cody install the cabinets on that side. I've snapped a few photos of the progress, and will hopefully get a few more when they've finished. It's finally starting to come together!

Updates..

We're still working on the kitchen. So far, all we have left is the other half of the floor, cabinets, and positioning the appliances. Cody put in half the floor last night so we can get to putting things back in the kitchen. Our house is so messy! It's been a little stressful for us these last few weeks, but I'm glad it's moved as fast as it has. I'm really excited! We painted over the weekend and I really like the color scheme. I hope I can decorate to accent the colors now...so much pressure! Here are a few more photos:

New light fixture!!














Gobi Desert paint!














Cody installing tile!














Moral of the story: I am excited to work on my wifely duties in the kitchen when it's finally finished! I never thought I'd miss cooking as much as I have! Especially things like cookies and cake.. Can't wait!