M&M Delicious

So Cute!!

2011-10-27T17:06:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this picture! My sister-in-law, Brittany, is the one to thank for this great shot. It makes my heart melt! Matthew is going to be the cutest dad someday. His nieces and nephews ADORE him - especially his nephews. They LOVE to wrestle with Matthew, and he is so good to let them. They call him "Jungle Matt." What a good sport! I am so blessed to have such a great husband!

New House!

2011-08-17T19:06:00.001-07:00

The long awaited pictures of our house! Yipee! We LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE our house! We love it more and more each day. We love our neighborhood. We love our view of the mountains, the sunrises, the sunsets. We love our backyard that we get to share with 2 horses. We love that we are only 3 minutes from the freeway. We love our garage. We love having a place of our own.
Here are some before and after pics
This is our kitchen. It did not originally have a stove or fridge. We bought them. In fact, they wouldn't finish the appraisal (meaning we couldn't go further in our house buying process) without a stove. They said the house was "unlivable." Whatever.
The stone had not been grouted. The stone is very porous with many holes. Our realtor said we would have to tear the floor up and that we couldn't keep it. I love my Dad! He said we could keep the floor, we just had to grout and seal it. So that's what we did. First I vacuumed out each hole and each tile joint. Then I steamed them with my mom's steamer. Then we grouted it - a 12 hour, 3 man project. We put 4 coats of heavy duty sealer on it. It's so beautiful now! I love our floor!!!! Thanks Dad and Matthew! We painted all the walls in the kitchen. The faucet was leaking, so we replaced it. The shelves above the fridge were too low, so my Dad sanded them down so our fridge would fit. I replaced 2 lightbulbs.
This room is our guest bedroom. Don't you love the tree theme? Just wait - it gets better!!! We painted the walls in this room.
This is the rainbow room. Matthew's Grandma came in this room and said she was getting dizzy! Each wall was a different color - red, yellow, blue, green. We painted it. it's now our exercise room.

The bathrooms (2 1/2) were all orange. The bathroom cabinet vents vented into the cabinet, meaning they would heat or cool just inside the cabinet and not the room. My dad installed channeling, so they would vent into the room. He also adhered the counter to the cabinets (which we found were unattached). He adhered the backsplash and caulked it. We painted each of the bathrooms. The master bathroom didn't have the stone baseboards like the other bathrooms, so my dad installed them. We grouted and sealed the bathrooms in the same process as the kitchen. I put new toilet seats on each of the toilets.
This is our patriotic room - red, white, and blue. It is now our office. We painted it.

This is our hallway. Gotta love the corners of this one! Red, yellow and orange all combine in the same spot. What an eye buster! The crazy/sad thing is the people here before us had just painted everything. There was still some painter's tape up. They were so excited about their paint. Painting over all the hideousness of it was the first thing on the list! We have a 20 foot ceiling in our entryway, so my dad brought over his scaffolding, so we could paint all the way to the top. I replaced our air filters. One air filter I had to screw into the wall, because it hadn't been screwed in when we moved in. We have a ceiling fan in our entryway that had literally 3 inches of dust on it. The dust was hanging over the sides! So I cleaned that right up while we had the scaffolding up. One of our neighbors came inside and asked us if our fan was new it looked that good after I cleaned it! We had bird poop on every windowsill and down numerous walls. We're not sure if they had birds before us. We do know there was a bird that had gotten trapped in our house. Shortly after we bought the home we found it dead in the vent. Awesome! We also had a nest of baby birds and momma bird in our dryer vent. We sucked out all the junk then replaced the dryer vent cover on the outside of our house.
This is the master bedroom. Lovely red and yellow. We painted it and the closet.
Here's the front of our house. We have green grass! Once the rain stopped, it was time to figure out our sprinklers. We spent a number of hours trying to figure them out. We had my brother, my dad, and a neighbor help us try to locate our main water turn on/shut off valve. I had a sprinkler guy come, and he found it within minutes! After 10 trips to the sprinkler store, $75, many hours, replacing a sprinkler valve, replacing a sprinkler diaphragm, replacing 8 sprinkler heads, and many, many hours - we have green grass!!! What a project! We've had a few neighbors comment on our grass. They said it hasn't been green for 3-4 years. I love our green grass! I've picked many dandelions, we pulled out a dead tree in the front and dead growth in the front.
I cleaned all the windows inside and out along with the window tracks. I cleaned out our rain gutters. I deep cleaned every part of the house. After all this I told Matthew I had literally touched every part of our house! I put a cage around the lightbulb in our storage space under our stairs. I fixed a leaky pipe in our kitchen. I installed our washer and dryer. I had to get a new dryer cord and new washer washers in order to install those. I installed a new lightbulb socket in our garage.
Our garage had tons of junk and remodeling stuff in it. Most of which did not go with our house. I took all the stuff to "Restore" store. They took almost all of it! They were excited to get it, and I was excited to get rid of it! The rest I took to DI. I cleaned the cabinets in our garage. I swept out our garage. I organized everything in our garage so that we can now fit both of our cars in our garage! I'm so proud of that!

So there you have it. That's most of the work we did in a nutshell. There are still many things we could do, but you homeowners know the list is never ending when you own a home!

Matthew and I all through May would go to work, then come to our house and work on our house for another few hours. It was a TON of work! I don't want to do that again. Whew! Most of my June was spent working on it and moving. I'm so happy now that it's done! Now you can see why I LOVE LOVE LOVE our house! It has my heart, soul, sweat and work in it! Here are a few after pictures. I didn't do very many because the paint is the same throughout the house. Downstairs and the guest bedroom have the two tone color because of the chair rail. All the other rooms have the lighter color. A huge improvement over the multi colored paint! You are welcome to come check it out if you want - we love visitors, and I love to show it off!
This is our kitchen now. I have to show off our canvas collage. Matthew got this for me for my birthday last year. These are all pictures we have taken with our camera on our adventures. I love this collage!!! This is our living room. We bought the couch shortly after we moved in. A day before we got it I told Matthew I wanted a couch that was kind of in a half circle, but I had never seen anything like that before. I didn't think they made it. Matthew considered making a couch the way I wanted. The next day we went to the old I.M. Home store and found this! Perfect! It was really close to what I had in mind!

2011-08-01T11:27:00.000-07:00

It is Time!

2011-08-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

It is time to finally do a post!!! The question is about what? Hawaii or our new house?? Hawaii wins today.

We got to go to Hawaii for 2 weeks a couple of weeks ago. We had such a great time!!! It was incredible! Matthew's parents have a timeshare there, so they invited us to go with them. We camped for 5 days and were in the timeshare for 7. Camping was way better than I thought it would be. Our tent opened up right on the beach, so I watched the sunrises and sunsets from bed - awesome!

The first day we were there, Matthew and I decided to take the kayak out and do a little snorkeling. We found out you don't want to play games with the ocean - it's not very nice. We went too far out and got pounded over and over by waves. They kept tipping us over every time we got into our kayak. We both lost our nice scuba diving masks and snorkels. Bummer. But at the time the most important thing was keeping our head above water. A big wave took me, kayak and ores into the shallower part. It was fun riding the wave! Terror erupted in me when I looked back to see Matthew out in the rough, and there was nothing I could do about it. He caught a few waves and paddled into safety. We collapsed on the shore, grateful to be alive, grateful for each other. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life.

With so much time there, we did so much of what could be done on Kauai. It was awesome! Loved every minute of it! We did an 8 mile hike to a beautiful beach and falls. We kayaked 3 rivers. We did 2 rope swings. We ate all kinds of delicious food: sushi, thai, Japanese, Chinese, Indian. We went to a Luau with yummy food and an incredible show. We did some surfing. We went snorkeling and scuba diving. We took a boat trip along the Na Pali coast. We saw Harry Potter opening night. We did some cliff jumping. I had a different kind of flower in my hair every day - loved that! We took many long, romantic walks along the beach. We took TONS of pictures. Matthew whispered sweet nothings into my ear - more than once. Did so shopping and got some great stuff! 2 weeks of paradise. It was hard to come home. Matthew kept saying we are just
going to stay there and not fly back home. Deal. Done and done.

Here's some pics - out of the hundreds we took
This was one of the awesome views of the sunset from our tentHere's us a the Luau
There was a full moon while we were there - it was fun to watch the ocean waves with the full moon
Outside the condo
During our 8 mile hike - along the Na Pali coastThis was the beach we hiked to - 2 miles to get there. This part of the hike was so fun, because for 5 minutes you would get the beautiful view of the coastline and ocean. The next 5 miles you were in the jungle, totally covered in trees. Loved it!We saw lots of avocado trees. Most of them just had little avocados, but we finally found one where Matthew could stretch his arms and get a few. So fun! They didn't ripen in time for us to leave. We were bummed about that - I totally wanted to eat them! I did bring home a couple of pineapples that I'm going to plant and have a pineapple plant! Can't wait!The second half of our hike was quite the adventure! It had rained a ton the night before! (We would know too, because we were camping in it. It literally rained hard all night long - 2 nights in a row) Our camp was pretty wet. Needless to say, we were excited to get into the condo after that. Because it had rained so much, it was super muddy! There were lots of puddles. There was sludge and mud. It was slippery. It would squish under your feet. It was so fun! I'm so glad we did it! This is our muddy feet afterwards
This is the waterfall we hiked to - well worth the hike. It was beautiful! It was majestic. We dove right into the water. It felt SO good after our hike. We swam up to the water and went behind it. So magical. Loved it!!!!Sushi dinner outside along the Hanalei river - that we kayaked down the following day
A little waterfall right before Queen's bath where we did some cliff jumping
Not a good picture at all, but this is the cliff (on the right) that we jumped off. The fun/kind of scary thing (especially after our ocean craziness the previous day) was the waves would come in and out of this little inlet raising and lowering the water level. What a fun adventure!
On one of the many beautiful beaches

More Hawaii

2011-08-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Another day we kayaked up the Wailua River - this was one of my favorite activities. We kayaked for a while, then we did an awesome hike. This was one of the waterfalls we passed on that hike. We hiked to Secret falls. So beautiful! Again - we jumped right in, ready to get wet after our hike! This waterfall was super fun - we went behind it, under it, and through it - it was so fun! We had a great time!
After the waterfall, we hiked back to the kayaks and kayaked up the river a little more to the Fern Grotto. There is a cave there that used to be totally covered in ferns. It was destroyed by a hurricane a few years ago, but there are still some ferns there.
Here we are ready to snorkel in the kayak. This was the only time we wore our snorkel stuff. We decided after the rough, crazy ocean, that we would stick to kayaking the rivers. Definitely loved kayaking the riversWe went to the lighthouse there - I don't remember the name of itHere's one of our camp site set ups - we were at one campsite for 3 nights but changed our location to a better one each day - we got closer and closer to the beach! Nice!
Here's what we saw from our tent door - yep - I could wake up to that EVERY morning!
The next 2 are from Wailua Falls - Matthew found me the flower for my hair on that day. It was so big! I LOVED it! It was my favorite one of them all - especially because it was from Matthew!

We saw this guy on the beach fishing while we were watching the sunrise. He showed us the octopus he caught that morning - cool! Then he made me a flower and Matthew a grasshopper out of leaves they have there. So fun!!
This is at Kipu falls. You can do cliff jumping - there's also a sweet rope swing there. We had so much fun on the rope swing!!!! It was awesome! Another beautiful sunrise
These are some pics is from our boat ride along the Na Pali Coast - I LOVE LOVE LOVE the water! It's so blue!
Secret Beach
This was another view of the Na Pali Coast. Love the green, green mountains, with the hanging clouds, the beach and ocean. I love Hawaii!!!
We drove to Waimea Canyon

Freedom Academy Boutique

2011-04-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

My school - Freedom Academy is doing a Boutique this Friday (10-7) and Saturday (9-6) - come check it out! freedomcrossingsboutique.blogpot.com. We'll be selling our jam and lots of yummies you can make with our jam!

Our House!!!!

2011-03-24T16:21:00.001-07:00

Okay - so here's the story on our house. About mid January Matthew came home from work and told me he had gotten a little bored at work, so he was looking houses and sent me some to look at. I looked at them, thought they were pretty cool and pushed it aside. The next day, I got a little bored, so I thought it would be fun to look at some houses. I've done this a number of times before. I like to see what's out there and dream. Well now our dream is becoming a reality - but it still feels very much like a dream!

I found a house that seemed like a great deal, so we contacted some people who helped us take a look at it. Before we knew it we were calling a realtor. Shortly after that we were house hunting. We looked a few houses, then found one that we really liked. It seemed to have all the elements we were looking for - good price, close to the freeway, good size (almost 2000 sq ft), large yard (.24 acres), newer (2006). It also has some added bonuses - 2 car garage, walk in closet in the master bedroom, lots of windows. 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. It was a short sale, and there was already an offer on it. We thought our chances were low of getting it, but we decided to go for it. We weren't in a hurry, so it would be fine if it took a while for it to go through. We were soon bumped up to first position. A few weeks later we had a verbal offer, and few days later we had a written offer. Our Realtor told us it's the fastest short sale he has done in the last year.

We are so excited! I am still just in shock! I can't believe it's happening! We've talked about buying a house many times, and I've dreamed about it for a long time, but it's becoming a reality! So cool! We'll close within a month.

It's in Springville, about 3 miles directly west of where we currently live. It has some minor things we need to do on it - like grout some tile, paint the house (they painted it SO Ugly! - The downstairs is gold and maroon. One bedroom upstairs has a different color for every wall, red, blue, green, and yellow. Another room is green and brown. Another room is red, white and blue.) So we'll definitely do some painting. We'll need to give it a very deep clean and some other little things, but nothing major.

We'll probably move in around June. We'll use May to get it ready to move in. That's so close! We are so excited!!! I'd post pictures, but the ones online are just outside shots, and they are awful. You'll just have to come visit us to check it out!

In the News

2011-03-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

I'm on the news!

Just for a little blip - I'm leading a dance with the students. If you go to http://www.heraldextra.com/, go to the local news and find "Freedom Academy...." It's that little news article. Pretty fun!

Just thought I'd share.

Exciting News

2011-03-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

So Matthew and I have an exciting announcement to make......

We're BUYING A HOUSE!!!!!!

Yipee!!! It really came out of nowhere. It's awesome!

Provo and Orem Maceys

2011-03-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

We got our jam into Provo and Orem Maceys so far. Yes!!!! It can be found in the frozen section, next to the cool whip and frozen berries. Make sure you get ours - Naturel Freezer Jam. If you haven't try it yet, you definitely need to. I had a sister in our ward who bought a jar of it for her family to have on ice cream for dessert. She was thawing it out, came back a little while later to find it gone. She asked her kids if they had some. One said, "I just had a little bit on my sandwich." Another said," I just had a little bit." Another one said, "I had it. It was so good. I was eating it by the spoonful." Caught!!! I laughed SOOOO hard at this! Especially because on our labels it says, "it is so delicious you'll be tempted to eat it by the spoonful." Tempted she was and she indulged! Love it!!!!
My awesome dad is going to be sampling our jam in the Provo Maceys this Saturday - you should come test it out if you haven't, and you should take a jar home with you.

Rex Lee Run

2011-03-13T11:13:00.002-07:00

Matthew, my Mom, Dustin, Alicia, and I ran the Rex Lee 5K race yesterday. Proceeds go to cancer research. Dustin and Alicia have run this race for the last 6 years. I ran it last year and this year. We invited my mom to do it with us. She was a champ!!!! Wow! I kept telling her we could walk the whole time if she wanted, and that we were doing it to finish, not to get a certain time. She ran most of it. There were times I had a hard time keeping up with her! She was passing people right and left! We ran it in 35:00:01. She took 1st in her age division! See how fast she is???!!! It was so awesome! What a great privilege and blessing that was to run it with my mom. I got teary eyed a few times throughout the race, because of the miracle I was participating in. My mom is going on 5 year cancer free!!! She is a fighter! I sure love and admire her! I'm so glad she is here now, and that we could run this race together. What a fun and great opportunity!!!

Naturel Makes It Into Maceys!

2011-03-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

We did it! After many long hours and TONS of work - our jam is officially in MACEYS!!!!! This is such a HUGE step for us! I'm so super excited! Right now it's just in the Provo Maceys. Soon it will be in the Orem Maceys. We have had it in the Springville Reams since last June. You can find it in the frozen section next to the frozen berries. If you haven't tried it yet, you should totally go buy some. It's SO delicious! You can also check out our website www.freezer-jam.com

Basketball

2011-02-07T17:45:00.001-08:00

I always said I wouldn't want to coach, because it takes too much time. Well, I just couldn't get myself away from it.
I went to a few Freedom Academy girls' basketball games. Every game I kept thinking, if I were the coach, I would teach them this, or say this to them, or run this drill with them, etc. One game the coach was slumped down and didn't say hardly anything to the girls. I was flabergasted!
I went home and told Matthew I was interested in coaching. He suggested that I see if I could help with the team this year, see if I really liked it, before I go full fledged into it.
The next day I was talking to the athletic director about the girls' basketball team. He said he didn't know what to do with the girls' team. The coach (who is a parent volunteer) seems that she took on more than she could chew. She has 5 kids and just found out she is pregnant. He said he was even considering stopping the girls' team. I said I would be happy to help out with it.
I LOVE it so far! I think I'm addicted. It's been about a week. It's fun to be a part of it. It's fun to help the girls. It's fun to boost them up, teach them, and see them progress. Even in such a short time. I'm still trying to figure out how to be the assistant. (I wouldn't mind being the head). There are still some challenges and difficulties, but on the most part, I'm really enjoying it.
We won our game last week - AWESOME! I enjoy the girls, and it seems they like having my help. Because it's 7th/8th grade, it doesn't take as much time as a high school team. I get done with practice by 4:30. Game days I'm done by 6:00. So, it's not a ton of time and stress.
I'm really loving it. I wouldn't be surprised if I am asked to be the head coach next year, that at this point, I would be totally happy with!
It does make me want to play though - I totally miss it. However, our ward is going to start up basketball again in a couple of weeks - I can't wait for that!

Car for SALE!!

2011-02-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

I love cars. I hate cars that don't work though. I'm ready for a new car - not my bug - Matthew's car. I won't bore you with all the details, but last August we took our car in for repairs - spent over $1000, then took a trip to Boise. We missed my nephew's baptism, because our car wouldn't go over 60 MPH. We left our car there, and 2 weeks and $850 dollars later we picked it up. Only to find out it was running at 60%. A few repairs later and lots more money later, they now tell us we need a new engine. $6000 for a new one. $2500 for a used one. Car is only worth $1700.

Anyone want a half running Ford Contour? You can get it dirt cheap - it's natural gas - we'll practically give it to you to get it off our hands and out of hair!

Mr. Lizard

2011-01-21T20:58:00.001-08:00

Meet Mr. lizard. He has yet to have an official name. We really should name him. He's much cuter than this squirmy one. He's been quick the form of entertainment around our house the past few weeks. He's good for a laugh, a tease, a startle, a surprise, etc. You never know when or where he's going to show up. Matthew first found him on his pillow. I next found him on the light switch - totally made me jump when I went to turn the light off for bed, and Matthew got a great laugh out of it. I went to hide Mr lizard in Matthew's book, right when Matthew was walking into the room - Caught in the act! We got a good laugh at that. He popped out of my toothbrush holder. He squirmed out of the sink drain, He made bed in my retainer case. I almost sat on him while I was going to the bathroom - twice (in fact I may have even sat on him and not even noticed). He was running out of the toilet another day. He was dangling from the ceiling and startled me - twice - and Matthew once. I touched his squirmy body when I went to flush the toilet - Matthew got a kick out of that one. He jumped out of our humidifier. He was eating away at our lettuce and tortillas. He went on a ride on Matthew's shoe for a full day without Matthew knowing he was there. We almost lost the little guy, but we are glad he's still alive. He's a sneaky one I tell ya! You better hope Mr. Lizard doesn't show up at your house. Or maybe you'll wish you had such a fun little guy around. He adds a twist of fun and a burst of laughter on crazy, wild, mundane and frustrating days. He brings out the creative juices. Yep. We sure love our Mr. Lizard. May the fun and games continue......watch out Matthew - he's going to totally going to get you tomorrow....hee hee hee

Snowmobiling!

2011-01-19T18:37:00.001-08:00

I have on my list of things to do before I die snowmobiling. Over the holidays I was telling Karissa about how it was on my list, and she and David invited us to go with them. I was so excited! We set the date to go over Martin Luther King Jr weekend. It was AWESOME! It was the perfect weekend. We drove up to Pocatello Friday night (where David and Karissa live) and stayed in the black swan. blackswaninn.com. We stayed in the Atlantis under the sea room. I love the Black Swan! I love staying there. I LOVED the Atlantis room. It had a jetted tub, a steam room, a huge tv, a round king sized bed that was under a dome and up a level, and beautiful. You can check out pictures of it from their website.
Saturday morning we went to breakfast with David, Karissa and Gramps (David's Grandpa - the cutest, funniest, most cheerful elderly man - love him!!) We drove to Island Park then took the snowmobiles out for a spin. I'll admit, the first day I was very nervous on it - I kept thinking about how I could easily get hurt. Sunday we went to church and the parking lot had a 20 foot by 20 foot snow mound from snow that was plowed - it was so crazy huge!!! There was about 5 feet of snow. Sunday we relaxed, played games, read, crocheted, and watched movies.
Monday we went out on the snowmobiles again - okay, so now I'm addicted and I can see why everyone loves it. It was so much fun!!! I felt way more confident and comfortable both driving and riding. We rode to Big Springs, and I seriously thought we were in a movie - it was unreal. The scenery was beautiful!!!! I loved the snow on the evergreens, and the lighting was so cool looking, the water was so clear and pretty, the snow layers were awesome! I couldn't get over how beautiful everything was!!! I loved it! My only regret was I forgot my camera! Luckily Matthew had his phone, so we took some pics with that, but they are not near as good as if I had my camera - I could kick myself.
I've decided I really love the seasons. I love the change each season brings, I love the scenery with each season, I love the variety of activities with each season. I love seasons!
After some more relaxing we headed home. It was a short fun filled trip. It just wasn't long enough. Thanks David, Karissa and Gramps! I can't wait to go again!

Look Everybody

2011-01-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

Look Everybody! I'm posting a blog. My life is a little more back to normal.
Last semester I took a sewing class that literally kicked my butt! Needless to say, I'm super glad that's over with!
It was Monday nights - so on Mondays I was gone from 7:30am-9:30 or 10pm. Now I feel super wimpy because some people do this all the time and do it on a daily basis. But for me - it was killer! Plus, Mondays are usually my laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping day, so to have that taken away from me was TORTURE!!! I could never fit that stuff in anywhere else in the week. It threw my whole week off. But now Matthew has a collared shirt - his $400 shirt that I'll have to post a picture of one day, and I have a new pair of jeans.
I feel like I have so much more time now, and I love it!!!!!

Christmas Vacation - now what's not to love about it?
Mike and Sooz (Matthew's brother and his girlfriend) were here for a week and boy did we have fun!
We played SO many games! Matthew was gamed out by the end of the break.
Matthew and I went skiing a couple of times. I did some double black diamonds - love it! I can't get enough skiing - who wants to go with me?
Matthew and I got to have many delicious breakfasts together. This is something we both have missed since I've started working full time.
We made yummy delicious sushi - LOVE IT! If you haven't yet had our sushi - we should definitely find a time that you can come enjoy it - it's the best!
We played wallyball and racquetball
We watched movies
We opened fabulous presents - we're so loved!
We went sledding - good times with the fam
I got to actually do some crafting - make jewelry and crochet - it was so nice to have some down time and do things I want to do!
I got to do some reading - that was awesome too!
We sang Christmas songs and listened to Christmas songs

I must admit - I had to drag myself out of bed to go back to school - I loved the break - it was so nice - but it's good to be back at school, and my classes haven't been that bad.
Life is good!!!

It's Us!

2010-10-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

What??!!

Melanie actually posting something on her blog???!!! Amazing! I used to wonder how people could go so long without posting something. Well, now I wonder how people have time to post. Our lives have been in major fast forward. It's been crazy wild, but we love our lives!

So here's some quick updates on us. Sorry no pics, I actually left my camera in Boise last weekend.

1-Our Freezer Jam made it into Reams. It's been doing pretty good. We're looking to hire someone to sample it for us every Saturday, so if you want an easy side job - let me know! We're also looking into getting it into Macey's - if we can do that, it gets into 20 associated food stores along the Wasatch Front. Cool! We can't wait for that to happen - we just need some more time to make it happen.

2- My brother Mike, married the most beautiful, fun, nice, sweet woman - Miriam. I got to help put their reception together and had a great time doing that for them. It was such a beautiful day. I love having her and her two girls; Shelby and Chanel in our family.

3-We took a quick camping trip up at Crater Lake. We went swimming in it - the deepest lake in the US. It was so blue and so beautiful. We got to me my brother-in-law's girlfriend, Suz. We had a great time with them. Suz was a lot of fun and is a good match for Michael.

4-I took a little trip up to Boise to help babysit my cute nieces and nephew. We had a fun day on the lake - slolam skiing, wakeboarding, wakesurfing. So much fun!!!

5-I started working full time at Freedom Academy. I love my job! I teach PE to all the K-6 grades. I'm still working on learning everyone's names. It's about 20 classes of about 25 students per class for a total of about 525 students!!! On top of that I am also teaching 4 classes of CTE. CTE stands for Career and Technical Education. AKA everything! It's a 7th grade class. So add another 75 students for a total of 600 students! It's a lot! I get to influence a lot of lives. I love that! So the purpose of CTE is to expose the students to all different kinds of careers that are available to them, and help them to prepare for their careers of their choice. So it includes sewing, cooking, marketing, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, child development, technology, engineering, economics, business. It's a fun class to teach. It's challenging because the curriculum is so wide. We are changing subjects every week to two weeks. It's hard to set expectations and routines. Plus I'm teaching 7th graders - enough said. There are a lot of great kids. There are a few who drive me absolutely bonkers! It's been good.

6-I took a cooking class from BYU over the summer to get my teaching endorsement for CTE. Getting my CTE endorsement will be great job security. A definite plus. I'm currently taking a sewing class at SLCC also to get my endorsement. I should be endorsed by December! Yipee!!! I need 16 credits to get endorsed and I already had 11. I just needed those two classes, so that made things really easy. I've decided sewing is just not for me. I wish I was a lot better at it. At the same time, I'm amazed at how long it takes!!!! We are making a men's dress shirt, and I think by the time we're done with it, I'll have put in over 20 hours on it. And then it might not even fit or look good! I think I'll stick to buying things - it's cheaper, less stress, less work, less time...Although, I do love homemade things. I love the things my mom makes - they are always so beautiful! I love the thought of things being homemade. It makes them sentimental. I love being able to customize things and make them how you want. Maybe I'll stick with it and see if I can improve. I do like sewing better than I used to, so that's an improvement. Honestly though, I'll be glad when I'm done with it. It's been taking a least 8 hours a week. It makes for busy weeks! Hence, my no blogging.

7- Superior Design is coming along nicely. You'll have to check it out - superiordesign.com.
They are bringing in some great clients. They have greatly improved their back end system to make making websites a lot easier, faster, and more efficient. They now have 2 employees, which is really exciting! It's so exciting! We're excited to see it continue to grow. So if you know someone who needs a website or internet marketing - send them our way!

8-Our car broke down in Boise, so we had to leave it there and go up 2 weeks later to pick it up. That wasn't so fun. What a mess! We are so grateful for our cars - especially when they function properly

9- Speaking of cars - I can now roll down my driver's side window (couldn't for 2 years), it's a lot quieter, I can use my windshield wiper fluid, I don't have a perdital. I have a love/hate relationship with car repairs. They are so nice when they are done!

Matthew has been so great since I started working full time. He is so thoughtful and considerate of me. He makes the bed every day now. A small thing that means so much to me. For some reason, my life feels put together if the bed is made. He often does the dishes. One really busy week, all our large plates, small plates, small cups, tall cups were dirty. (We were SUPER busy that week - parent teacher conference week) While I was gone to a RS retreate, Matthew spent 2 hours doing all our dishes!!!! What a huge surprise and relief it was to come home to a clean kitchen!!! Wow!!! That meant the world to me! He gives me many little back rubs. He listens to me vent on hard days. He praises and encourages me. He cleans the bathroom and other things willingly without me even asking. He is the best! When I was working part-time I was happy to do all those things around the house - that was my job. But now I'm working full time he is sharing in the load. I so appreciate that!!!

Well, that's all for now. It's time to do a little relaxing - time to watch some Glee with my honey! we'll catch you up on more Henage happenings soon - hopefully sooner than later.

Hello World!

2010-07-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

2 months without a post??!!! I thought summer was supposed to be a break!? Not so around here! We've definitely been keeping busy, busy, busy! So here's a quick update and pics on us and our worldwind lives
We attended the sealing of my brother Jeremy and his wife, Therese, to their adopted girls. What a neat day! The spirit was so strong, and what a treat to be there as they surrounded the altar together. I love the temple! I know through the Priesthood power we can be sealed to our families. What a special occasion.
I love their family all in white! Therese made the girls' dresses and flowers. So pretty!!!We took a trip to Yellowstone with the Henage family. Our first time to Yellowstone together. It was a quick trip, but it was so much fun!!! We loved it!
The melting pots were so cool! I was fascinated by them.Old Faithful
We went through the Manti temple for my brother Mike to receive his endowments. All my siblings and my parents were in the Celestial Room. I loved that moment! It was so neat and so special. A small taste of eternity. My parents were so happy - all their kids in the Celestial Room. I love my family!!!
We celebrated the 4th of July with our families. All my family was in town to go through the temple. We had such a fun time!!! Kickball, BBQ, fireworks, mario brothers, playing on the swing set. Good times for sure!!! It was so fun to be with all my family! It doesn't happen as often, so I cherish every minute. My eyes are so freaky looking in this pic - sorry!
The girlies diggin the fireworks
We've attended 2 of our nieces baptisms - Hera Schick
and Hannah Henage
Other exciting events without pics

I took 16 hours of a sewing class from BYU only to drop out of it (found out it would be $900 - not a chance!!!!)

I'm taking a cooking class and trying all kinds of delicious delicacies

I went to a week of girls' camp. Matthew stayed home and diligently worked. It was the longest we went without seeing or talking with each other. Needless to say, we missed each other and were excited to be together again!!! I love my Matthew! He means so much to me!

We got our freezer jam into the Springville Reams and Salem Kneadin Bread

We braved the wind, cold and rain to sell our jam at Springville's Art City Days

We discovered our jam is great to make strawberry shakes, strawberry milk, strawberry shortcake, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

We helped my brother Mike propose to his beautiful fiance Miriam. We are so excited to have her and her girls join our family!! They are so perfect for each other. The Schick family will grow from 2 grandkids to 9 in 9 months!!! I love it! It makes it really fun when we all get together - it's a big party!!

Matthew's company, Superior Design, landed a big project

Superior Design hired its first employee

I made bracelets and necklaces for Hera, Zarian and Jesse for their sealing and for Hannah's baptism

I made a family proclamation with pictures around it for the Schicks for their sealing

Matthew is researching and experimenting with making a freezer to put in the stores' shelves. He is so smart!!!

I am training for a 5K and 10K, both races I really wanted to run this year I wasn't able to do because of other engagements

I am taking a golf class and becoming a pro!

We attended the Goodman Family reunion (Matthew's family). We had such a fun time camping, roasting mallows, playing cards, laughing and talking.

We've learned lots of fun new games that we've been playing with the Henages - Dominions, Bang and Phases. I love games!!!

I think that about sums it up! We've been loving our summer! We're always up for fun activities and camping - just let us know!

Schick Kids Adopted!

2010-05-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Matthew and I were up in Boise for the adoption of my three nieces. What a great day! 12 hours of driving for a 30 minute court hearing. TOTALLY worth it! I wouldn't have missed it. I LOVED being there for it. What a neat experience in their lives. The judge asked Jeremy why he wanted the girls in their family. Zarian said, "Because we're gorgeous!" I got such a kick out of that! Jer said, "It's as if they were always a part of our family, and we want it to be that way." The same question was asked of Therese. She said, I want to take care of them as if they were my own." The girls are so cute and so fun! I am so excited to have them in our family! Their family will be sealed together in 2 weeks. I can't wait for that! Such big things happening for their family. The girls all wanted their ears pierced, but they had to wait until they were adopted, so they all got their ears pierced. It was fun to be there for that. We went swimming and had such a great time going off the slides. It was a quick, but very fun and rewarding trip. I can't wait to spend more time with their cute family!

New Calling

2010-05-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

It's the moment you've all been waiting for...
Okay, so it's the moment that I've been waiting for. Matthew and I were released from nursery back in January. I thought I would get a calling super quick after being released. But I waited, and waited, and waited. I was getting sick of not having something to do! It's nice to have a break and all, but I would MUCH rather have other people to think about and focus on instead of myself. Of course, I still am a visiting teacher. My laurel sister-in-law, Alisha, said when I got released it meant that I would be called into YW. Then a few weeks ago a sister got released from YWs, and Alisha said there was now an opening for me in YW. She's also been saying for a year how fun it would be to have me at camp.
Well, the Bishop called me in and asked if I would be willing to serve. YES!!! Finally!
My new calling is the Laurel adviser!!! Yipee! I was pretty sure I would be called into YWs, but I wouldn't have guessed the Laurels. I am so excited! I was even more excited to see Alisha's expression. She was super excited about it. We're going to have such great fun! And we get to go to camp! Plus, my mother-in-law and I are going to be cabin leaders for camp. What fun! Good times ahead! I've been thinking about some things I want to do for my Laurels. It will be a good calling for me.

In other news, my brother, Mike, called me about a week ago and said he had some exciting news, and asked me if I had any guesses. Well, he's been dating this really cute girl the last few months, so I tentatively asked if he was engaged, not wanting him to feel we were pressuring him if they weren't. He said no. I asked if he got a new bullet bike, no. I couldn't think of any other big things he could tell me. He told me he was going to be going through the temple!!!!!! This was THE BEST news! I am so happy for him!!! It is so exciting! I'm so proud of him, his good decisions, and what he has done to prepare him to take that step in his life. Way to go Mike! July 3 is the date. I can't wait!

And other news, here I thought I didn't have anything blog worthy, but now I sit down to write, I keep thinking of things to share, just no pictures. We've sold 15 jars of jam already! We're still working on our labels. I've been sharing my jam with people I work with and people in the ward. A sweet lady in my ward bought 10 jars last Saturday. One of my favorite co-workers at school, who is actually from my homeward, who has known me since I was 3, was the first person to buy a jar of jam. But he didn't buy just one, he bought 5! That's so exciting! I LOVE our jam, but it's even more exciting to know other people want to buy it and have it. Even if they are doing it just to support me. What wonderful people!

Naturel Freezer Jam!

2010-04-13T16:27:00.001-07:00

No we have not fallen off the face of the earth.
We have been super busy starting our Naturel Strawberry Freezer Jam company!!! Yipee! (This is not our label, it's just a practice website I made with Photoshop a while ago)
That's right! The freezer jam you all love so much is coming to a grocery store near you! That is our hope and goal. We're starting out with the farmer's market during the summer and expanding from there. It's been a fun and wild adventure. It's been way fun to work with Matthew on it. We make a great team! There are so many things he's good at and has done that I couldn't do. At the same time, there are so many things I'm good at and have done that he couldn't do. It works out perfectly! This has been in the works for a few years, so it's fun to see it come alive and take shape! So the last couple of weeks we bought 2 freezers to store the jam in, 16 cases of apples, 20 cases of strawberries (160 pounds, 160 individual cases), bought over 500 containers with lids, and
MADE 475 JARS OF NATUREL STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM!!!

I had spring break last week, and for 3 days SOLID I worked on freezer jam. No joke 8am-11 or 12pm. I was tired after all that! My amazing, awesome Mom came and helped those days. I couldn't have done it without her or Matthew! Matthew also helped a number of times. They were lifesavors! We make our own pectin. The trick has been to figure out exactly how we want our pectin to be. I love saying it's made from our own pectin! That means a lot less sugar. But the jam is still so yummy and sweet. It's a lot healthier because we use our own pectin. Only 3 ingredients: Strawberries, pectin (from apples), and sugar. We are solidifying our labels right now and will have them soon. If you want some yummy, delicious, healthy freezer jam, you know where to get it. We'll be happy to sell some to you!

Caribbean Journal

2010-04-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Brittany and I had a great time journaling together while we were on our cruise. Hers is way cute with fun watercolors and drawings. I'm definitely not artistic like that, but I did still want to do a journal of our cruise. I wrote stuff down while we were on our cruise, then while in Honduras, I bought this journal. I then transferred everything into our cruise journal. Once I get some pictures, then I'll put them in too. I was so happy with how it turned out. I just about messed it up at the beginning, but with Matthew's help I was able to make things work out better in the end. Matthew's so good at coming up with good ideas and helping me with my meltdowns - small or big ones. Thank you Matthew!!! I'm so glad I did this! There are already so many things I've forgotten about our cruise, so it's fun to look back and see what we did. I probably wrote too much. That's one of my downfalls when I journal. Who's actually going to want to read it? I'm trying to get better with that. I'm just afraid of missing details. If no one else will read it, I sure will. I love it and am so happy with it! So originally, the rope letters said Roatan (for Roatan, Honduras), but part of the T fell off and got lost. Then some other letters started to fall off. So, I pulled all of them off. Instead of leaving it naked, I switched the letters around to say cruise. It's not perfect, but I liked how it turned out. Hopefully my adhesives will keep the letters on!
This is a Mayan calendar we got in Belize. I love it! Good purchase Matthew!
We also got this map while in Honduras. Also once we get pictures, I'm going to put pictures around it and frame it - Matthew's idea. I'm excited to work on that! Such fun memories! I loved our cruise and am so glad and grateful we got to go. That's all thanks to Matthew. He made it happen. Thanks Love!!!

Our Dream Vacation

2010-03-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

I've been dying to post these pics, but haven't gotten to it until now. Our cruise was AWESOME!!!! In a nutshell it was our dream vacation! We loved EVERY minute of it! Here's a little run down of our trip.

We flew into Miami Saturday, February 27, 2010
We got on our Carnival Cruise on Sunday, February 28 - accompanied by Daniel and Brittany (Matthew's brother and wife).
Here we are in Miami getting ready to get on the cruise!
Lunch on the cruise with our AWESOME view of Miami!
Our sweet stateroom - with our big window!
Top of the cruise overlooking Miami - pretty much everywhere you look looks like downtown.
Sunday - Embarkation day
Tour of the cruise ship, eat yummy food, played trivia game - Brittany got 18 out of 20 right and won a medal
Played game show mania - Daniel and I played - Name that tune to tv shows, songs, and movies, Carnival showtime - singers and dancers
Monday - Day at Sea
Eat yummy food all day, lounge in the sun
Formal Dress night
Carnival showtime - comedy act and singers and dancers
Fun/Crazy pics in the cruise library

The 2 foxy ladies
Tuesday - Georgetown, Cayman Islands
Scuba diving! Saw a HUGE lobster! We took some pics with an underwater camera - I'll post those pics on a later post
Walk around shops in the area
Back on ship, eat yummy food
Carnival showtime - juggler
Getting geared up for scuba diving
View from the deck of the Cayman Islands
Lounging on the deck
Wednesday - Isla Roatan, Honduras
Pirates of the Caribbean 8 zip line tour. This was SO FUN! It was probably my favorite thing we did! It was so green and so pretty!
Here's me getting ready to take off While we were zip lining, we could see the ocean in the background - beautiful! Matthew gettin ready to go
The view of the zip line ready to go!
Loved this rickety bridge! So cool!
Playing with the monkey - giving loves to Daniel
Matthew plays with monkey - luckily the monkey peed after Matthew put him down and not while Matthew was holding him

Picture perfect private beach - it was one of those beaches you see in a postcard or on a calendar. It was so hard to believe we were there!
We did some snorkeling, and while snorkeling - I got bit by a fish! No joke! There were 2 mean black fish hanging by the ladder going down into the water, just waiting for bait - me!
Here is the bite mark for proof!Back on ship, eat yummy food, carnival showtime - magician
Matthew likes to call the cruise ship a hotel on water. Check this out! We are on level 9 (There are 11 levels) The bottom floor you see is level 3. On the right are the elevators. So cool!
Thursday - Belize City, Belize
This is what their cemeteries look like. They bury their dead only 3 feet into the ground because the water table is so high.

We saw this a lot - pretty much the foundation and 3-4 walls of a house
Most of their houses are on stilts like this or even higher. This is to avoid flooding as well as to avoid little insects and creatures from getting into their houses. So intriguing!
Xunantinich Mayan Ruins - 4 hour bus ride round trip
We took this river wallace to get there
Tour of the ruins and climb up to the top of them - 130 feet, tour of Belize
This is from the top of the temple - 130 feet. So cool! It overlooks Belize and Guatemala
The temple is in the background
We found a sweet banana tree - yummy! I never knew banana trees had flowers at the end of them like in this pic - I thought that was so cool!Back on ship, eat yummy food
Carnival showtime - comedian
So here's a funny story. Matthew one night wanted to get a smoothie they had on the menu under the kids section. So we got it. We drank about half of it when the drink receipt came. As we looked at the receipt, it said we ordered a Miami Vice and the price was $2.00 more than what it should have been. It was the price of alcoholic drinks instead of the smoothie price. We asked our waiter about it. We had really ordered the Strawberry Pina Colada. He said the Miami Vice is the Strawberry Pina Colada. We asked if it had alcohol in it. He asked if we ordered it virgin. We said no. He asked if we could taste the alcohol, because it did have it in it. We said didn't know, because we had never had alcohol before. He was so surprised about that. He started laughing and said we would feel a little tipsy that night. Needless to say, we didn't drink any more after that. We got a big kick out of that experience. It was so funny! Oops! So the next night we ordered the Strawberry Pina Colada Smootie VIRGIN. Hee hee! Friday - Cozumel, Mexico
Scuba Diving - swim through a little tunnel
Checking out shops at Cozumel
Check out that water! Love it! So clear! Such great visibility - made for some AWESOME scuba diving!
Sportin our new shades!
Still can't get over how big cruise ships are! They are Massive!
Back on ship, eat yummy food - I have lots of pics of our yummy food, but didn't want to bore with all the pics I do have, so here's a small sample. This was smoked duck. I really like duck. It's so yummy! Every night in our stateroom we were greeted by a new towel friend. Here's just one of the many. We also could get ice cream any time, so every night we got ice cream cones. So yummy! Perfect treat for perfect days
Saturday - Day at Sea
Games, play speed basketball, twisty water slide
Eat yummy food
Carnival Showtime - singers and dancers
I watched the sunrise Sunday morning from our window - here are some of the pics from it. Loved it! Remember they were from our window, so some are the best
On top the cruise ship one last time
Sunday - Miami
Day at the beach, soak up the sun even with chilly wind, walk downtown South Beach
Here's our hotel
This was our bed - Yikes! I about died when I saw that! I gotta sleep in that??!!! Actually the bed was fine, it's the comforter that is all bumpy. They should really look into getting new comforters!Hotel overlooking the beach - check out that view! 2 minute walk and we were at the beach! Love it!
Monday - Miami
Day at the beach, soak up the sun, snorkeling, swimming in the pool, DELICIOUS sushi!
We climbed up onto the roof to check out the sunset
Tuesday - Miami
Walk along beach and watch sunrise. Fly home. Memories to last a lifetime!
Super long post! Sorry! I tried to narrow down my pics, but there were so many good and fun ones!
I HIGHLY recommend a cruise for a vacation, but especially for a honeymoon! It's such a fun way to travel! Your hotel and food and entertainment is all taken care of for however many days you go. They are such good deals! You can find some really good deals on them too!

3 More Days Until...

2010-02-24T08:19:00.000-08:00

3 More Days until This!!!!!And this!
And this!And this!Yep! That's right! 3 days we fly into Miami, jump on a cruise ship and head on to the Cayman Islands, Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel! We are SO SUPER EXCITED!!!! It's going to be a blast. More pics and posts of that to come!

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-24T08:11:00.000-08:00

Matthew and I celebrated Valentine's Day together the Tuesday after. We had lots of stuff going on the weekend of Valentine's Day. On Sunday, Matthew kept saying, "Happy Valentine's Day in 2 days!" He surprised me with the daisies. I love daisies! They are so happy and make me so happy! Last year I made a big heart cookie and frosted in it, "I love you with my heart." This year I made lots of little cookies and wrote a letter on each cookie. He had to unscramble the message. The message was again, "I love you with my heart." We tried out a Chinese restaurant that had a Mongolian Grill. That was a fun experience. Most of all, it was fun to be with the love of my life. He's so great!
Here are his hearts unscrambled
Matthew can't wait to The daisies Matthew got me
The two lovebirds

Jewelry Fun

2010-02-15T18:17:00.001-08:00

So I have found a new hobby that I LOVE! I love jewelry. I think it's so fun to accessorize. The discouraging, disappointing, frustrating part of jewelry accessorizing is I could never find quite what I was looking for. Or I would spend hours looking and not find anything. I also wanted to find some cute, simple earrings I could wear to work while I teach PE to add a little femininity to my outfit. I finally decided I would look into making my own. It couldn't be that hard, right? RIGHT!! I am amazed at how SIMPLE it really is. Of course, I stick to the simple things. I haven't tried anything too crazy, wild, complex yet. I looked at some youtube videos and learned how to do it. Then there were multiple fun trips to different craft stores to find just the right beads and stuff. I owned some jewelry that I wanted to match, and I also had some shirts and outfits I was trying to match. It was so fun trying to find things that would match and work. I had such fun doing it! So here are my "masterpieces!"
I already had these earrings, so I made the necklace and bracelet to match
I already had these earrings, so I made this bracelet to match. I also want to make a matching necklace
I also already had these earrings, so this is the bracelet I made to match
I had this necklace and earrings, so I made the bracelet to matchFor church last Sunday, I wore my sister's bridesmaid outfit, but with a different ribbon, and wanted to match the jewelry to the ribbon, so I made this necklace, bracelet and earrings. (The bracelet is the same from the previous picture, but it matches with both ensembles - Perfect!) I wore a red shirt yesterday, that I wanted slightly different earrings for, so I made the straight bead earrings. They were just what I was wanting. I used to have a necklace that matched these earrings and bracelets, but I lost it. I was so sad! So I made this necklace to replace it. It ended up being pretty heavy, so I haven't quite decided if I like it. The beauty of making your own, is if you don't like something, undo it and try something new! I love that!
I had this necklace and earrings and made the bracelet to match
I made these earrings and bracelet
These are my fun new earrings to match shirts for PE. I love wearing them! It adds that little something to my outfit that I was looking for.
Here they are all together! These are all my new creations. I love them! I don't know if I'll ever go back to buying jewelry. It's so fun to make it yourself, plus I love the challenge and creativity of it. If you want to learn, I can teach you what I know, or check out youtube. I love how easy it is to learn new things thanks to the internet!

New Office!!!

2010-02-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

Superior Design is doing so superior right now that they moved into a new office! They actually moved into the office about 6 weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. This was a big and exciting step for the business. We hope they will continue to bring in many new clients, so they can hire more people. So if you know of anyone needing a fabulous website and/or some internet marketing - you know where to send them! SuperiorDesign.com Their office is located on Main Street close to the McDonalds and Chevron. It's nice to have the office close. Here it is!
This is the reception desk as you walk in. Matthew and Danny created the design and logo.Matthew and Danny made their conference table. (Again the handyman in Matthew comes out - where did he come from? I like it!) I think their table turned out SO GOOD! It looks awesome! I think it looks very professional. These are the chairs they got for their conference table. I helped assemble them - yay for me!
Here is their conference room. They will eventually put up a screen, so they can project a client's website on wall with the projector. They will also eventually put a whiteboard on the other wall. So exciting!
Good job Matthew and Danny and Superior Design! It's so fun and exciting to see things are going so well. We can't wait to see it grow and expand! I'm so proud of Matthew and his hard, dedicated work. He is so smart and so talented! I'm amazed at what he can do. I'm most happy to see his hard work become a great success for him and his business partner. Awesome!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2010-02-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

I had a great time decorating for Valentine's day. Some things we already had. I really wanted to have some pretty roses to put on our table. It took me a while to find the ones that I was happy with. LOVE the vase I found! While I was looking for roses I found cute hearts that I put in a vase too (as seen on our Valentine's table). I was excited about those - they were only $1! For 2 vases, 4 things of roses, and 3 wood hearts I spent $15. I think I did pretty good. Here's our festive kitchen area

New Shelves!!!

2010-02-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

So back when we moved into our cute basement apartment we had some shelves that served us wonderfully and faithfully, well, over the course of time the shelves began to look like thisYep - HALF our food was sitting on the floor - on top of each other!!
Needless to say, it was really starting to drive me BONKERS!!!! That's when I decided something had to change. I looked and looked for shelves that could replace them, but didn't find anything that seemed to fit what I was looking for. Matthew said he could build some. I'll admit, I was a little skeptical at first, but what did we have to lose? So we ventured out to buy the materials. Good ole Home Depot. We visited there a many a times during our shelving adventure. Right after we had cut our wood for our shelves, we saw some plastic shelves that were almost the exact size of shelves we were planning to make. We about DIED! We could have just bought those and saved ourselves a lot of hassle and work. Now that I have the shelves we have, I am so glad we DIDN'T get those plastic shelves.
2 months, big messes, (as you see below)lots of home depot trips, new drill, 3 new screw sizes, a lot of work, a fun experience, and lots of learning later.....we're proud to show off our shelves to you!!!!
I was so giddy and so excited when we were putting them up! They are PERFECT!! I LOVE them so much! Here are some of the fabulous features I love about them
1-High lower shelve to fit flour, sugar, and other big items
2-2 tops rolling shelves, perfect for our cans
3-All the SPACE it has! There is PLENTY of room for everything. Everything has its place. It's organized, and I can actually see what food I have!
4-I can fit all my fabulous appliances on 1 shelf! (We do have more appliances, but these are the most commonly used ones)
Now aren't you all jealous you don't have the amazingly awesome shelves I have??
Matthew did such a good job! I was so impressed! Thank you Matthew!!! You're my HERO!!!

Goodbye Nursey

2010-02-07T22:40:00.000-08:00

Matthew and I after 18 months have been released from the nursery. It actually happened about 2 weeks ago. I cried when I got the calling (because I did NOT want the calling) and I cried being released from the calling (I loved it so much and knew I would miss it). Miss it I do!!! I feel so out of place having to mingle with grown-ups! I don't know what to say or do around them. We're still callingless too, which doesn't help. I need something to do! (I better be careful saying that - who knows what crazy calling I could get....) . I've been going through all the callings I would like and would not like to have. We'll see what happens....Any guesses?

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

2010-01-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

So today as I was doing the dishes, I had such a fabulous idea! At least I thought it was. The idea continued to evolve and evolve until I created this:

Introducing and Inviting you to:
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

What is it?
Here's the scoop. All girls need a girls night out. And a craft night out. It's a combo of a girls' craft night out. Here's my plan. Each month you are invited to the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. We'll do crafts together while we chit-chat, strengthen and make new friendships, snack and listen to good music. If preferred, we can put on a chick flick while we are crafting. You are not obligated to come. If you can come one month and not another month, no big deal. Come and go when it's convenient for you.

What do I bring?
You can come with your current craft project and work on it with me and other fun/cute girls! Bring any materials you need to work on your project. It could be scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, jewelry making, sewing, etc. You are more than welcome to use things that I already have. I have a sewing machine you can borrow, or you can bring your own. You will need to bring your own thread, my thread selection is very small. I have scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting and jewelry making materials that I will let you borrow for free or keep for a small price. If you want to learn how to do one of the above mentioned crafts, I can teach them to you, or we can find someone else to teach you, or we can turn to Youtube to teach us. You can also bring other friends/girls who want to join us.

When do I come?
January's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun will be Tuesday, January 26, 2010
5:30-whenever
Come and go when it is convenient for you. Stay however long you would like

Where do I go?
My "house"
177 S Canyon Ave
Springville Ut 84663
Basement - you can come either to the front door and ring the doorbell or the back door and walk in

What if I can't come this month?
No big deal. I'll let you know when the next one will be. I'm going to try to change the nights around to accomodate for different people. I'll also throw a Saturday one sometime. Come the months you can. I'd love to have you anytime you can make it

What about food?
I'll have some sort of snack available; sometimes healthy, sometimes not, but dinner is on your own

Do I RSVP?
Don't worry about. If you have questions, comments, or anything you want to chat about, call me 801-380-9499 or email me at mhenage@gmail.com. I'll send a little reminder email to you the night before the event

What if I'm not interested?
No big deal. Just let me know, and I'll take you off the email list. Happy crafting!

I'm excited to kick off the monthly Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! I'm excited to work on projects together with you, see and visit with you more often than I currently see you.

Thanks!

Melanie Henage

I sent out emails to lots of friends and family. I think it's going to be great. If I somehow missed you, and you want to be a part of it - please join us!!! Send me your email, so I can let you know when the next one will be.

Extraordinary

2010-01-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

I had my brother, Jeremy, for Christmas this year. Ironically, I also had him last year. One of the things on his wish list from last year that I remembered was a motivational poster. Instead of buying one, I thought it would be great to make one for him! I had a number of pictures that would make awesome motivational posters, but Matthew and I liked this one the best. Gotta love his sweet awesome face in this picture! Plus barefooting, what could be a great shot than that??!!! So with Matthew's help, we created and designed this poster:
We got it printed at Costco and I got a frame to put it in (in this picture it still has the protective wrap on it, that's why it looks weird.) I was so excited to give it to him. I thought it was the perfect gift! He LOVED it! Yipee! I'm sure it will look great in his office. I can't wait to see it there, and get a picture of him with it in his office

Christmas Cards

2010-01-16T18:12:00.001-08:00

So I wanted a way to organize my Christmas cards. I know I should probably just throw them away, but I just can't seem to do it. So I made them into a little book. I wanted something small and simple. Something that would make them easy to look at. So I created this:
I put newsletters on 1 side, and if there was an accompanying picture, it went on the other side. That way, as you read the letter you can see the people who it came from. I also put "loner" pictures on the right side to be space efficient. The pictures were put on the backside of the next newsletter to condense the book. Here's our newsletter and picture. Of course I had to include that one! So if you by chance didn't get to see ours, now is your chance!
Any extra pictures I arranged after the newsletters.
All Christmas cards I cut down to the "essentials" to conserve space.
Then I drilled some holes, strung some ribbon to hold it, added some little touches, and vwala! Our Christmas card book. I was so happy with how it turned out. It was exactly what I wanted. It was so simple too - it only took me about 1 1/2. Awesome!

Strep, Strep, Go AWAY!!!!

2010-01-16T18:05:00.001-08:00

Strep, strep, go away, and don't come back another day!

Here's a little bit of deja vu or irony
2 months ago, we had a weekend trip planned to go see my sister Natalie, and her new little baby. I had professional development day on Friday, but was feeling sick that day. Ended up not going on weekend trip due to sickness.
This weekend we planned a trip to go to my Natalie and Mark's baby blessing and visit my new nieces. I had professional development day on Friday, but didn't go because I was feeling sick. Ended up not going on weekend trip due to sickness.
See the pattern? I better not plan any more trips close to professional development days! Or to see Natalie, but of course I'll keep planning those.

I don't know how people do bedrest. I've been in bed since Thursday afternoon, and I'm so ready to be up doing stuff. I ache just from lying down! The best part is though, the worth is done, and I can only go up from here! That's reassuring!

CARIBBEAN!!!!

2010-01-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

WE'RE GOING TO THE CARIBBEAN!!!! WE ARE SO SUPER EXCITED!!!

WE WILL BE GOING FEBRUARY 27-MARCH 9!!! WE'RE GOING ON A CRUISE! WE FOUND PLANE TICKETS TO FLY TO MIAMI FOR $230 PER PERSON - CAN'T BEAT THAT!

ANYONE WANT TO JOIN US? WE'D LOVE TO HAVE COMPANY IF YOU'RE GAME (AND AVAILABLE) LET US KNOW!

Family Videos

2010-01-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I was looking at what I would do for my mom for Christmas. One of her favorite movies is an old Cinderella. We have it on VHS, but I thought it would be great to get her the DVD. Well, the DVD is no longer made and would cost $100 to buy. Yikes! Matthew found a place that would transfer it to DVD. As I got looking at things, I found some software that I could buy to transfer VHS to DVD on my own. Then I had this great idea that I would transfer all my parents' family videos to DVDs for their Christmas present. Then I thought it would be great to do that for Matthew's parents as well.
I did not know what I was getting myself into!!! It turned into a HUGE project that I will be working on through this next year. It is a lot of work! My parents had about 10 VHS tapes, but they also had about 8 VHSC tapes. The VHSC tapes fit into a VHS for playback. My parents don't know where their VHS tape is, so they couldn't even watch those home videos! They only have 1 VCR player in the house, which doesn't make it very convenient to watch VHS tapes.
Matthew's family had about 18 VHS tapes and about 10 DV tapes. While I was working on this project, the last VCR in their house broke, so now they have tons of VHS tapes they can't even watch.
The first VHS tape transfer was the most difficult. I was learning how the software worked, the VCR I was using broke, the DVD wouldn't burn, etc. etc. It seemed like everything was working against me to keep me from completing the project. For 3 weeks it seemed like all I was doing was working on transfering VHS tapes.
I'm still not done with it, but all I can say is:

I AM SO GLAD I DID IT!!!!

It's totally been worth it! It's definitely been a lot of work and some days were really frustrating with it. It can be a long process, but on good days, you can have the computer do the work and come back later to make sure it's doing it's job. I was more excited for our parents to open their gifts from us than I was to open my gifts. I gave 8 DVDs to Rick and Jeannine, and I gave about 10 DVDs to my parents. It was so fun to see how excited Rick and Jeannine were to receive their home video DVDs. They saw me working on my parents and kept saying what a great gift it was. So they were ecstatic and surprised when they received their own home videos. My parents loved theirs as well. At first they thought I had someone else do it, but then they found out I had done all the work with them. My mom says she can't wait to watch the videos when we're over for Sunday dinners. They are so fun to watch! It is so nice having them on DVD. I set them up so there are chapters for every event, so you can skip to the events you want to see instead of having to fast forward to them. The funny thing I found out was my parents were going to have this done, and they were going to give us the DVDs for Christmas, but I beat them to the punch! Hee hee. We now have over 50 hours of home videos we can watch. My plan is to give copies to our siblings this year for their birthday presents. Perfect! So if you or you know of someone who wants their VHS transfered into DVDs, then I'll be happy to do it for them for a small fee. Matthew says I should make a business out of it....maybe I will.....

These are all the DVDs I did for my parents These are all the VHS and VHSC tapes I transferred. The other nice thing about these DVDs are they take up way less space than than the VHS tapes

These are all the VHS I've done for the Henages. I have yet to do their DV tapes though, that's still to come
Yipee for me!

New Year's Eve

2010-01-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun for New Year's Eve! We had a FULL HOUSE! And I loved every minute of it! Jeremy and Therese came down from Boise. (I went skiing with Jeremy at Solitude the day before - AWESOME! It was such a fun ski day!) We got to meet our cute new nieces. Jeremy and Therese adopted 3 little girls on December 11. Hera, Zarian, and Jesse. It was so fun to get to know them and spend some time with them. What cute girls! It's a little different for our family to have girls around - so far we have only had boy grandkids in the family. Mike brought Miriam, a girl he's currently dating, and she brought her two girls, Shelby and Shanille. Dustin and Alicia had their two boys, JJ and Cameron. Lots of kiddos! It was so fun! We ate some yummy, yummy food, opened presents, watched some home videos and hung out. Then we came over to the Henage's house and played some games in the racquetball court, had some pizza, and talked. Everyone had other plans for New Years, but it was sure fun to spend time with everyone. Our family is growing! It's so fun!
Here's TJ holding Cameron
TJ and JJ
Shelby was hiding from the camera
Shanille was happy to smile for me
TJ trying out his skills on the organ
Therese and Jesse and Mike and Miriam doing some puzzling
US!!!
Jeremy and Cameron
Jer and TJ
Dustin and Cameron
The bigger Schick family - Zarian, Therese, Hera, Jer, TJ, and Jesse
Hera LOVED holding Cameron, she did so well with holding him!
The Schick family got nativity costumes to dress up in for Christmas. We had to try it out. The kids all looked so cute in them! They loved trying on all the different ones.
Zarian especially loved the wings on her angel costume
Shanille and Shelby - I got Shelby to at least look at me this time - hee hee
It was so fun being with family! The day went so fast - too fast! I wish those days would last longer, but they are sure great when we get them!

Christmas with the Schicks

2010-01-01T18:22:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family. I love spending time with family! It's the best! One of my family's favorite Christmas traditions is the Christmas box. When my two older brothers were just little, my parents were struggling financially. One Christmas they received a visit from Santa who brought pajamas and toys for my brothers, a dinner and some money for my parents. Once my parents could afford to it, they started their own Christmas box. Every year we find a family in need. We all go to the store, pick out and buy food for a Christmas dinner. We wrap a box and fill the box up with the food. My parents include a money envelope. We then all crowd into the car to go to our destination. One person carries the box, but we all walk up to the house, ring the doorbell and run! It's so fun with everyone doing it. I love it! There have been many fun experiences through the years and funny stories from it. We then all climb back in the car, and drive by to make sure the people got our package. We all love it! Christmas Eve was great with a delicious dinner made by my mom followed by a Christmas program organized by my dad. The program usually contains the Christmas story, maybe some other stories, some songs, some Christmas memories, etc. It's always a great time to remember the Savior and reflect on his birth and life.
My parents' house always looks so fun and festive at Christmastime. It's always fun to drive up to their house and see this:
My mom always decorates the inside of the house so beautifully. I love all their fun decorations in their house. Here's their little Christmas tree forest
I love Christmastime!!! Christmas is not Christmas without family, and I am so grateful for the time we got to spend with our families. How I love them!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-01-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas with the Henage family. Rick and Jeannine were going to Israel the day after Christmas, so we decided to do Henage Christmas early, so they could then focus on their trip. It was a great idea! We got to have almost everyone in the Henage family there to celebrate. We didn't have to choose between 2 families. It was so fun to spend time with the family! I loved it! We did the Henage tradition of reading the Christmas story by candlelight and playing with the wax. Always a favorite. We also all sung Christmas songs around the piano which was tons of fun. The next morning we opened presents and played with family the whole day. Such fun! I got a new yoga mat. Matthew and I got a new deep fat frier - we can't wait to make sushi with it! We both got wireless headphones. Brittany made me a way cute purse - I love it! I'll have to post a picture of me with it later. It was kind of weird celebrating Christmas early the way we did, because it felt like we had already had Christmas. I kept forgetting that Christmas was still coming up.
Here's our tower of presents:
Matthew's wild, wild hair -
Matthew was in desperate need of some pajama bottoms - as you can see
Good thing Matthew was a good boy, so Santa could bring him some new ones.So here's the story behind those lovely looking pajama bottoms. I wanted to make him some for Christmas. I made tons of pajama bottoms in high school, so I thought I could do them in no time flat. Or so I thought....The first obstacle was finding some material that would be Matthew worthy - 3 stores later we finally found some that I liked. We (My mom and I) thought we got more than enough material to make them, but when we laid them out, we didn't have enough to make them long enough. No big deal, we would just add some at the bottom. After we had them all cut out we realized the words in the front were upside down. I busted up laughing! How funny is that?! This is about how all my sewing projects go - DISASTROUS! I was not going to buy more material or lay them out again. He'll just have to deal with it. Besides, the fabric is busy enough that you really wouldn't be able to tell unless you were looking for it. As we continued to make them I kept thinking they looked HUGE! I wanted them to be big and cumfy, but not ginormous! It seemed like there were other things that just weren't going our way, and they took WAY longer than I had anticipated....but I finished them, and Matthew loves them! He said he likes the words upside down, because it's easier for him to know which side is the front, and he can read the words when he sits down. He's so cute. I knew he would love them no matter how they turned out. I have such a great man! Maybe I'll look into taking a sewing class, so I can learn more and become more experienced with sewing. Then maybe I'll even enjoy doing it!Alisha had her Christmas dance the day we were celebrating Christmas. It's always fun helping her get ready. We all loved taking pictures and sending her off that night. Isn't she gorgeous!!!! She and her grandma made her dress. I love it! The slinky was a big hit with the kids

Posts Galore!!!

2009-12-24T14:00:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to post some things for the last month. We've had so many fun things to blog about, yet no time to blog about them. I jumped into a Christmas project that has engulfed my time the last few weeks. I'll tell you about it after Christmas, so I don't spoil the fun! So, if you have the stamina to read through my gazillion posts over the last month, by all means, keep reading. Where to start?

Christmas Decorations

2009-12-24T12:52:00.000-08:00

Rick and Jeannine for my birthday, said they would help me decorate our table for Christmastime. Jeannine and I went to a number of different stores looking at Christmas decorations and what would look good. It was a work in progress. It was fun to see it come together, one piece at a time. I knew I wanted something classy looking, but didn't know exactly what I wanted. The Lantern was the most exciting purchase. It was perfect! I actually found it while I was up in Rexburg visiting Natty. It was fun for us to find that together. I love how our table turned out! I think it's so fun and so festive! I was so excited about it! Thanks Rick and Jeannine! I thought about buying a Christmas tree this year, but we don't have any lights or ornaments to put on it. I think I'll hit up all the clearance items after Christmas to supply our Christmas tree next year. Instead, we have our little holiday table with the decorations we already had. Now it's all covered in fun Christmas cards from loved ones. I love it! I love Christmas. I love the whole season. I love celebrating it for a month and not just a day. So fun!!!

Baby Danny

2009-12-24T12:35:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I finally got to see my sister's little baby Danny. He is so cute! We had a great time visiting the Patten family. We played some Snorta, Halo, talked, hung out, shopped, and lounged around. It was great! Here's my little Christmas present

JJ Talking

2009-12-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

My little nephew is the CUTEST!!! This is from my Birthday. There's a lot of background noise, but if you listen closely you'll hear him say Happy Birthday to you! A couple of times as well as I love baby Cameron. It's so cute!!! I love it!

Matthew's Goat

2009-12-24T12:27:00.001-08:00

Matthew has had a pet goat the past couple of months. He thought he'd see if he could grow one, and when he was successful decided to keep it awhile. He got a lot of comments on it such as, "that doesn't look that bad." Or "You look good with that." "You got a little rebellion going on huh?" Etc. Every week he said he was going to shave it, but it never happened. Then Matthew did his GQ photoshoot...
A couple of days ago he shaved the goat off. I actually miss it. We've been asking people if they like him with or without it, most people say he looks good both ways and it's fun to have it for something different. I agree. It definitely makes him look older to have his goat. Maybe he'll grow it out again. We'll see. It's always an adventure with Matthew! Maybe next time he'll do a handlebar mustache!

The Poo Story

2009-12-24T12:20:00.001-08:00

During Thanksgiving break, while we had everyone here, the mysterious poo came to play...

I went to go to the bathroom, when I found this.....
EWWWWWW!!!! I couldn't figure out where this poo came from. The only person who would miss the toilet like that would be our 4 year old Nephew. However, there's not a reason for him to be in our bathroom. I couldn't figure it out!!!
I didn't want to clean it up. It was so gross!!!
I went and got Matthew. I showed it to him and told him my theories. He was suppressing smiles and laughter. He asked me if I had smelled it. Of course I hadn't smelled it - it's poo! It CAN'T smell good. Although, when he said that, I figured out it was a joke! He was the culprit! Him and his brothers! They did such a good job. It looked so real! We left it there to see what other people would say/do about it, if anything. Nothing happened over the next few days. Luckily Matthew was also nice enough to clean it up.
All I have to say is you never know what's going to happen when you get the 5 Henage boys together.....

Thanksgiving!!!

2009-12-24T11:35:00.000-08:00

We'll start with Thanksgiving - told ya I had some catching up to do. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving - with both families. My family did Thanksgiving on Thursday and Matthew's family did it on Friday, so it made it easy to go to both! Yipee! We played some badminton - awesome fun! We then played video game extravaganza with all of Matthew's family. Everybody had to participate in at least one event. We had a such a great time!
Here's everyone playing games
Matthew's showing his circus skills

M&M badminton - UNSTOPPABLE!!!!

SKIING!!

2009-12-13T07:05:00.000-08:00

This last Friday Matthew, his brother, Daniel, and I went SKIING!!! It was awesome! The lifts opened for the season on Friday at 9:00. We were there at 9:10. You'd think we were hard core skiiers. More like wanna be hard core skiiers. We've got a ways to go to get there though. It was Daniel's first time skiing. You would never guess though. He did great! You'd think he'd been skiing a number of times. Only the front mountain was open (pretty much the bunny hill) but we still had a great time. We have season passes, so I can ski in the morning, go to school to teach in the afternoon, and have our evenings together. It's awesome! If anyone wants to come with us, let me know! We're open for takers.
I volunteered last week to accompany for our school choirs. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. I forgot how much work and practice goes into getting a song ready. I only had a few days to prepare, so I felt like I was practicing my brains out. But I did it! Friday afternoon our choirs sang in the Provo Towne Center, and I accompanied. It was a fun experience. My worst nightmare came true though. I was afraid I would totally get off, stop playing, and be totally embarrassed. I told the choir director about my nightmare too. I told her if it were to happen, I would find a good place to come in at, so it would sound like they were supposed to be singing accapela. Well, the VERY first song, I hadn't put the last page out, so I had to stop completely, turn the page, then find a good place to come back in. My nightmare totally happened! Good thing I had a back-up plan. A few people I talked to about it afterwards said they thought it was supposed to be accapella in that place. HA! My plan worked! Now we'll be performing at the school twice next week. Gotta do some more practicing....

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

2009-11-29T17:30:00.000-08:00

November 24, 1983
Family was all gathered around eating Thanksgiving dinner. My cute mom was 3 days overdue and in the other room having contractions. She told my dad it was time to go to the hospital. 2:56 p.m. I made my entrance! My parents were so excited to have a little girl. My mom was especially excited after having 3 boys. She missed out on Thanksgiving dinner that year, but she says it was the best Thanksgiving because she got me. I sure love and appreciate my mom. I thought more about her this year on my birthday, because Alicia had her baby the night before my birthday. It caused some reflection on my part. Moms are so great. I admire every mom. They give and sacrifice so much! I only hope one day I'll be half the mom my fabulous, amazing, caring, loving, beautiful mom is!!!

November 24, 2009
26 years later.
Jeannine made me pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. They were so yummy! I attempted pumpkin pancakes earlier this year, and they were a total DISASTER! So these were so delicious comparatively. She is so cute. I have such a great mother-in-law. I feel so blessed! I went to work, expecting to have an easier day which was an awesome birthday present. I got to school and these balloons were by my office. A little while later my cute mom showed up with a small bundle of balloons. What a fun surprise!! I added them to my collection. When I went back, one of my kindergarten classes had made the yellow poster that says, "Happy Birthday Ms. Henage" with all their names signed around it. I went into that class to say thank you. They were so excited and so cute! They said happy birthday and asked if it was really my birthday today. They sang happy birthday with "cha cha chas" in the breaks of the song. I wish I had that on video! I love moments like those! There were a number of kids who told me thank you. One of my kinders after school came and gave me a hug and told me happy birthday. Kids are so cute! I love my job! I have the best job!

Matthew and I went out to Olive Garden for dinner. Yum! Then we went mini golfing at Trafalga. It's been years since I've been! They've totally changed it around. The first 9 holes we played normal. Matthew beat me by a couple of strokes. Then we got creative-and the real fun began. We did one handed, left-handed, pool style, jump-turn-and hit, between the legs, etc. That was so much fun! That's definitely the way to play mini golf. We had a great time. We came back and Jeannine had made the famous Henage peanut butter cake for me. They sang, and we went to town scarfing down cake! So yummy!!!

Then fun continues...

This is what is so great about having my birthday around Thanksgiving. Everybody is in town, so it makes for such fun parties!!! Originally my dad was going to be out of town until late Thanksgiving day. Then he said he would be back on Wednesday. I made some phone calls and Wednesday night we had a fun dinner/birthday party for me! We had dinner, ate cookies, opened presents, played cards, and talked. All my family (minus Natty, Mark and baby - bummer) were there! It was so fun! I loved having everyone there! I requested homemade oreo cookies instead of cake. Boy were they delicious!! That was a good choice! So my cute mom made tons of oreos and made a cake for me. So fun!!!
Just wait - the fun still continues....

Saturday morning we did a Henage family birthday celebration. We had yummy biscuits and gravy, sang happy birthday, and opened presents. We all went and played frisbee golf in Provo and had a great time. So fun!!!! I love my birthday! Most of all, I love my family! They are all so good to me! It was such a fun birthday! Thank you everyone!! I sure love you!!!

And the fun will still continue...

Matthew's present to me was a VACATION!!!! How awesome is that??!!! He's been saving up money all year for us to go somewhere fun! I think that is so cool! I had no idea. We're thinking about going on a cruise in the caribbean, so we can do some real scuba diving. There are some good deals right now on cruises. I'm amazed at how cheap they can be! The best part is your lodging and food is all taken care of. It's such a great way to travel. We'll see what we end up doing. I think we'll go during spring break. I can't wait!!!

Welcome Cameron!!!

2009-11-23T19:37:00.000-08:00

Matthew and I just got back from see my new little nephew Cameron. He is so cute!!! It was so fun to see him. He is a big baby! He weighs 9 pounds 13 ounces!!! Wow! He has the cutest chubby cheeks. He was 2 days late, but only one day before my birthday. Happy birthday to me!! The doctor told my sister-in-law 2 weeks ago that he thought she would deliver early. Not so. She went in to be induced today because he was late! He was happy in the oven getting big! I think babies are such miracles. You get a little taste of heaven. What a treat it was to go see and hold that cute baby!! It's incredible to think of the whole process, it really is a miracle to have a healthy baby.

New Moon

2009-11-23T19:31:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday night at 9:30, Matthew and I were deeply engrossed in playing Wii Sports Resort, when our friends Jake and Meredith called. Meredith had an extra ticket to go see new moon. I'll admit, I did hesitate a little bit, more because of the late hour, not because I didn't want to see it. The show started at 1:00. I'm not used to staying up quite that late anymore, and I can barely keep my eyes open when it does get that late. I went with her and had such a great time! I'm so glad I went! I LOVED the movie! I was not expecting to like it, because I didn't really care for the first one, and I didn't really care for the second book. However, I loved the movie! I thought it was great! I can't wait to see it again. I busted out laughing when I saw a bag full of stuff on every seat in the theater. There were advertisements for companies, some chips, vampire teeth, chocolate lips, lotion created and named after characters in the movie, etc. It was funny looking through all of it. It was a great night. A late one at that. I didn't get home till around 4:00. Then I had a hard time going to sleep! How ironic is that???!!! It was worth it though. Thanks for the invite Mere!!!

Yeah Alisha!

2009-11-21T20:51:00.001-08:00

We just got back from watching Alisha, Matthew's sister, in their high school musical, "The Music Man." Loved it! Alisha was a townsperson. She did such a great job! It was so fun to watch her. I don't know if anyone else was on stage, because I was so busy watching her the whole time! It was a great family activity.

My Sweet Matthew

2009-11-14T10:46:00.001-08:00

I knew a long time ago that I have the greatest husband in the world, well, I definitely have THE BEST husband in the world. I came down with a cold yesterday. Matthew found me yesterday on the floor crying. Natalie had her baby last Monday, and we had planned to go visit them. I didn't feel very good and I was upset that we couldn't go visit Natalie, Mark and baby. I had been looking forward to it all week and my hopes were totally dashed. He cuddled with me. He figured out a back-up plan of when we can go. He told me we should plan something fun for Saturday since we couldn't go up. He always takes such good care of me. This morning he made me breakfast, did dishes, and waited on me with whatever I need. How could I ever do it without him?
This last week after we got back from playing basketball, I found this on our dresser. We took our rings off to play basketball. I took mine off first. Matthew put his ring on top of mine like this. I thought that was so cute. He purposely positioned them in this way. It reminded me of how photographers position rings when a couple gets married. I saw it as love. Call me a romantic, but I thought it was so cute! I just love my Matthew! He is so perfect for me!!

The Newlywed Game

2009-11-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

Remember how I said I have the best husband in the world? Well, I do. Our ward had a dinner and program last week. One part of their program was the newlywed game. They asked Matthew and me to be a couple on it. They asked us 3 questions and we answered them with flying colors!Question 1 - How many shoes does Matthew have?
a-One
b-less than 5
c-More than 5 but less than 10
d-More than 10
Ding, ding, ding! We both said c-More than 5 but less than 10Question 2- Your relationship is most like:
a-Two peas in a pod
b-Romeo and Juliette
c-Oil and water
d-Lehi and Nephi
e-Ruth and Naomi
Ding, ding, ding! We both said a-Two peas in a podQuestion 3- When you have a disagreement, do you?
a-Get mad
b-Get even
c-Let it go
Ding, ding, ding! We both said c-Let it goWe tied or first place. Yipee! It was fun! We had a great time. Just another way to see how perfect for each other we are. Hee hee! I love my Matthew! I love every minute with him. I can never have enough time with him. I love experience life together!

I'm an aunt!!

2009-11-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

Yipee!! Natalie delivered baby Patten last night at 10:43 pm. He weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and was 19 inches long.

I can't wait to see him! Congratulations Natalie and Mark!!!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

For Halloween, Matthew and I went up to Pocatello to see Karissa play their last home game of the season. What a fun game too! They won 4-0, and we got to see Karissa score a goal! We had such a great time! We didn't dress up, but these pictures are scary enough!On Friday, I dressed up as a soccer player for Halloween. My school had a carnival that Matthew and I attended. It was fun to be there and support the school. I think it would have been way fun to go with kids! I was in one of the dunk tanks. What a wild experience! The dunk tank did not seem very stable. I got dunked tons of times! Luckily the water was warm! I ended up with a number of bruises from it, but it was still fun.

Superior Design is SUPERIOR!!!!

2009-11-01T09:11:00.000-08:00

Matthew and his business partner, Danny, have been working hours on end to create their new website. It looks so good now! I am so amazed with all they have done. I've seen bits and pieces of it here and there, but I did not know exactly how much they had done! It's amazing!!! Wow! They are so smart and so very good at what they do! That's my husband! How lucky am I? I love it! If you need a website, or some internet marketing, you know where to go! Superiordesign.com. Check it out and see their amazingness! Good job Matthew and Danny!

Fall!!!

2009-10-29T08:36:00.001-07:00

I should have posted this sooner, because this last week it's been more like winter!
I've decided I really like fall. I love the crispness in the air - but not the chill we've had this last week! I wanted to have a cute fall tablecloth, but I didn't want to spend more than $5.00 on one. Cheap, I know. I went to Wal-Mart. They had plastic Halloween ones, no thank-you. They had those plastic vinyl ones, no thank-you. They had some cloth ones for $9 or $13, no thank-you. Then I thought I could make one easy enough. I could buy some material, sew the edges, and have a cute, easy, simple table cloth. It cost me $3.75 for the fabric, a little bit of time, but I ended up with exactly what I had in mind! I love it! I already had the leaves, so I thought they went perfectly with the tablecloth.
The other thing I like about fall is pumpkin! I love pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, dinner in a pumpkin, but not pumpkin pie. I've loved making all of these things. Yummy! Now I want to make pumpkin bread. If any of you have good recipes that you love for above listed pumpkin cravings, please send them to me. I'm always looking for good new recipes! Here's my fun halloween decorations! Not very many, but enough for our place to be festive!

Freedom Academy Halloween

2009-10-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

The school I'm teaching at right now is called Freedom Academy. I'll tell you more about it in a different post. We are having a school carnival tomorrow - I'm excited about that! They asked the teachers to make a decorated box that we could sell at the carnival. A student can buy a box, and the following week the teacher will bring lunch for that student and each lunch with that student. It sounds like fun! Here is the box I made for it. I love how it turned out!
This is my favorite part - there are cobwebs going into the box. You can't even see the box. Stick your hand in there, and you don't know what you'll get!!!

Great Present!

2009-10-21T19:59:00.001-07:00

In Relief Society about a month ago we made these little journals. You can do it with all recycled paper, which is what a I used to make this one. You can use one sided printed paper, fold it in half, and that's the paper you put in the book. Then you take a cereal box (or any other box) and cut it to be the size you want and the print you want. Then line up the paper, (fold on the outside) with the 2 boxes (these are the covers) and drill holes down the spine of the book. Once you got that, take embroidery thread (I use crocheen (spelling?) because that's what I have around) and thread up and down the holes you've made. You can add beads or any other details you want. It's easier to do when someone shows you. They are super quick, cheap, and easy. If you want to do it sometime, and need help, I can show you.A couple weeks after we made them, I thought it would be great to make a coloring/activity book for my nephew for his birthday. I went to the Crayola website, where you can print off tons of different coloring pages and activity pages. I did them double sided and tried to find things my nephew would like. Following the pattern of the journal, I made my own cover. I used cardstock I had for the cover, then made the front with lettering I have. Awesome! The best part - it probably cost less than $1.00 to make! It cost more to send it than to make it! Hee hee. A couple weeks after that my niece was over for conference. The girls were all doing crafty stuff, and she wanted to be a part of it. So, I got some white cardstock, cut it down to the size I wanted, and she put pictures on them. Once she was done, we made it into a little book like the other ones. I should have gotten a picture of it. She loved it! It was super easy to do, and it helped her feel special and important. She loved having her own book.
This little journal making idea has come in so handy! Love it!!!

2009-10-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

So many posts! Where to begin? I'm way behind! Sorry!
This last weekend was fall break, and it was great! Loved it! Matthew's sister, Karissa, plays soccer for Idaho State University. She had a game last Thursday and Saturday, so we spent those three days up in Pocatello. She won both games, and scored a goal in one of the games. It was so fun to see them win! What great games to be there for! Her in-laws own and manage The Black Swan up there. You can check out their website and other sweet rooms at http://www.blackswaninn.com/. Matthew and I spent Thursday night in the Egyptian room. Here's some pics from that. We got a sweet discount, otherwise, there would be no way for us to be able to afford to stay there. Thanks David's family!!! We loved our room! The shower had 2 shower heads, and was also a sauna - loved it! It was very relaxing, very much needed, and very cool!
Karissa's mother-in-law did all the painting and decorating in all the rooms. They look so cool!!! I am so impressed and amazed.
Karissa's husband and father-in-law built these statues, as well as others in The Black Swan. Incredible! These alone, were so big!!! That's amazing!We watched the proposal on this sweet screen. Not the biggest fan of the movie.
They had a massage table in the room. Who knew Matthew was such a good masseur? I definitely was and am spoiled!
The jetted tub was so cool - the water, as you can see, came shooting out of the the snakes mouths - so fun!!!
Kitchen area
On Friday, we played an exciting round of Yahtzee, then Matthew worked the rest of the day. He is such a hard worker! What a stud! While he was working I went up to Rexburg to spend some time with Natty. It was fun to see her again. I only wish I could have been there longer. It's just never long enough!!! We chilled, relaxed, and talked. We made chili together - a first for both of us, yummy! My grandparents live up there as well. While I was there, they said they had some extra pumpkins if we wanted them. So we visited my grandparents and got some awesome pumpkins! I was wanting some pumpkins, but didn't want to buy any, so this was exactly what I wanted. They look great in our apartment!
Look at her cute halloween decoration she made!!!
Stay tuned for more posts! Gotta go play - I mean work - but I'll post more this afternoon - hopefully!

Fun Filled Weekend

2009-09-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

Matthew went on a business trip in California from Thursday morning to Sunday morning. He went to promote Healthy Shores (a company they have done a website and internet marketing for). They met with some celebrities to try to promote one of their products and get pictures with them. I didn't want to spend the weekend home - especially with Jonathan living with us. So I decided to go up to Rexburg and visit Natalie and other relatives there. I left Friday after school and got up to Rexburg around 9:00. What a great weekend! I loved it so much!! Natty and I had such a great time. I took up a couple of burp clothes. She crocheted one and I crocheted the other. We spent many hours just talking and catching up. I ran from Natty's house to my grandparent's house and visited them for a little bit. Natty and I then got some cheese curds, then some chocolates from my Aunt Florence (She owns a chocolate shop called Florence's chocolates - they are heavenly!!! They are so rich and so delicious - melt in your mouth goodness!) We went to a craft store then visited my aunt and uncle. My cousin and his wife just had a baby girl, so we visited their family and gave them one of our burp cloths. We finished the night off with some yummy ice cream and a movie. Sunday we went to church then visited my other cousin and wife who also just had a baby. They were born a week apart and are both girls. We took them our other burp cloth. We came home and played the game Life, then I headed home. It was so much fun!! I was so glad I went. It was a very good decision! Way better than doing who knows what at home. I wanted to get a picture of Natalie and I togehter with our completed burp cloths, but I didn't think of it until it was too late. So I just have pictures of them separate.
Here is the one I didHere's Natalie with the one she did
Here's a closeup of hers
Thanks for a great weekend Natty!!!
It was so good to see Matthew when I got home. It seemed like forever! I hate being away from him. I always miss him tons! Good thing he doesn't have to travel for work. I don't think I could handle that.

What the Squirrel?????

2009-09-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've decided I officially don't like squirrels. A couple of days ago I went to leave for work. I pulled out of the driveway and knew immediately something was wrong with my car. I took Matthew's car to work instead. After school, Matthew and I looked at my car. My serpentine belt had come off. As I was looking in the hood I saw something furry. I don't remember furry things being in the hoods of cars. I looked closer and discovered an animal!!!! I got so disgusted!!! That was so gross! Matthew and Jonathan pried the little bugger out of my car. So here is the culprit of so much trouble - the dumb thing! I wanted to beat him! He was dead - good thing! We think he crawled into my hood, then when I started the car it zapped him and caused my belt to come off. URG!!!! Matthew said I have had the worst luck with my car the last few months. You better believe that! New timing belt, new water pump, new battery, new clutch, fixed tire, fixed belt. I love my car, but I hate my car too! More like I hate car problems! I'm so sick of them!!! The next day my brother Mike was nice enough to come put the belt back on my car. 2 hours later, some grunting, scrapes, bruises, and frustration we were able to put the belt back on. What a lifesavor!! He definitely saved us money. It was so nice of him to do that for me! Thanks Mike!!! I made him dinner in return, but I think I got the better end of that deal.

Yummy Delicious!!!

2009-09-05T13:49:00.001-07:00

Last night I made my great grandmother's delicious peach pie. It's melt in your mouth goodness! I made homemade vanilla ice cream to go with it. Wow! It can't get better than that! It was so good! We still have more - come visit us and you can enjoy this delicious goodness with us!

2009-08-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was looking into different races Matthew and I could run this year. One that sounded like a lot of fun was one in Bryce Canyon. We went to it this weekend. It was awesome!!! We had such a great time. We left Friday after I got off work. We drove down to Bryce. We got there when it was dark, so we tried our luck with finding a place to camp in the dark, just off the road. We found a place, but we were still worried we were on private land or something. It was way windy that night and it kept blowing our tent. It made it sound like there was person or animal footsteps outside. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. We both woke up and said we felt like the night would never end. End it did, and we were up ready for our race. It was a five mile race. We ran along the Bryce Canyon rim. Matthew took some pics on his phone/ipod/run tracker while we were running. Such talent! Here are some of those pics: It was so beautiful!!! I was hoping all of our run would be along the rim but only a short part of it was. The rest was running through all the pines, which was still beautiful! It was a 5 mile run and we finished in 55 minutes. That's the furthest Matthew has ever run before. Yeah Matthew!!! There were a lot of people who intermittently walked and ran, but Matthew and I ran the whole way! It was awesome! We both finished 5th in our age group. However, there were only about 200 hundred people in the race, but no one has to know that. This was our picture after the race - and look we're still smiling!
After the race Matthew and I went exploring in Bryce canyon. There are some sweet trails through the canyon that we decided we want to come back and hike. We were just too worn out from our race. It was so beautiful!!! I couldn't believe it! It was so wild to see the red rock with so many pines. What a fun combination! I was also amazed with how many foreigners there were! It seemed like every stop we made we heard a different language. We were beginning to wonder if there were any Americans. It was cool to see and hear so much diversity!

Matthew was starting to look like a bear with his scruff. Hee hee
Mr. Crow posing for his photo shoot
I took this picture on self-timer. Except I didn't leave enough time for me to get in the picture. Oops!
So we decided to switch places, this picture turned out lots better

The lone pine. It looks like there is snow on the mountain. It also looks like the pine is on a cloud. We thought it looked super cool.

Walking

We were so pooped with our race, sightseeing and walking. There was one lookout we almost didn't go to because we didn't want to walk to it. We are so glad we did, because this is what we got to see. It was awesome! It was one of our favorite views!
The cute little couple
We got free tickets to the rodeo in Bryce that night from running our race. Matthew and I hadn't been to a rodeo before, so we were excited to go. Matthew even indulged me by wearing cowboy boots! It turned out to be a junior rodeo, which was still fun. We had a great time. It got us excited to see a real rodeo someday.
Here we are sportin our cowboy boots. It was fun to get a little cowboyed up What a fun weekend! I will admit though, we were so excited to sleep in our bed!

We have Seatbelts!!!

2009-08-13T13:09:00.001-07:00

As long as I've known Matthew, and we've been crusin in his car, it has only had one seat belt in the backseat. We always wanted to offer to drive places because we can get gas cheaper, but oh yeah, we only have one seatbelt. A couple of weeks ago, our trusty lone seat belt finally died. Now we were down to having a 5-passenger car that was really a 2-passenger car. It was time to do something about it. I went to checker and asked them about it. They sent me to the Springville junk yard. They had an old Ford Contour that the worker and I took the seat belts out of. With a little bit of tweaking and working, Matthew's help, Matthew's dremmel (thanks family!), we now have 3 functioning, working seat belts!!! Yipee!!!! Now you are all invited to ride in our car!
A couple of side notes to this story:
1-When I took the seat out we found a ton of rice from our wedding - thanks everyone!
2-I was so facinated with the junk yard! I thought it was so cool! There were hundreds of cars there that they have and can take the parts from to fix up other cars. What a great way to recycle and get things for cheaper! I loved it!

What do you get?

2009-08-13T13:06:00.001-07:00

What do you get when you have two boys in the house?

THIS

On the kitchen counter!!! I went to get some ice cream last night and found this furry, large friend just like this on the counter. YUCK!!! Matthew found him, and he'll also be the one to dispose of him when he's done with him.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

2009-08-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

Matthew and I went with Brittany and kids to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. It was so beautiful! We had a great time. I can't believe how many temples are in Utah now. We are so blessed. I'm excited for the dedication and to do a session sometime.

My Poor Neglected Blog

2009-08-12T15:41:00.001-07:00

Well - ready for a feast?! With my poor neglected blog, it's time to catch up. So now you'll get an overload for my blog!!!
My sister-in-law, Brittany, told me about this warehouse craft/scrapbook sale going on last week. We went together to check it out. I did not give myself enough time. There was so much to look at, and so many great deals! I only had about 30 minutes, so I went through everything so quickly. I put my name on their email list. I can't wait to go back and check out their stuff! I got this frame and saying for $5.00
This one was $3.50
This one was also $3.50. I love that saying! I think these are so cute! Great for the price! This is our little date reminder table. It's our extra decoratives that I just didn't quite know what to do with them. So, I put them all together. I was especially pleased with the flowers. Matthew gave me these roses for our 1 year anniversary. They hung upside down in our room forever. Then, I remembered this vase we got from the Krisna temple in Salem a while ago. It was perfect! They were the perfect addition to our date table. I was so excited!!!This is our US map. We have dots on it of where we have gone and where we want to go. You can't really see the dots from the picture. It made me want to learn more about the US and where would be some fun places to visit. I can't wait to go to the places we have marked. Someday we'll get a map of the world, but for now we'll focus on the states.
Matthew's brother, Jonathan, moved in with us about a month ago. We put a wall up, and now it really feels like we have our own apartment. It looks really good!
I went to a friend's baby shower a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be fun to try to make baby booties to take. I tried a pattern and this is what I got. I didn't like it.
So I tried a different pattern. I got this far into it, but found I had messed up, so I started over.
Attempt #3. I finished the bootie, but it was totally messed up! You can't tell from the picture, but it was totally lopsided, ugly and asldkfj;askldjfl;kaj!
Attempt #4 - I tried different yarn. I didn't like the yarn I used previously. This one was HUGE!!! Her kid could be 4 years old by the time he fit into this! It was lopsided as well. At this point I was starting to think I was either messing up on the pattern or the pattern was messed up.
Attempt #5 - By this point it was time for the baby shower. I ended up just buying a gift. I was so bummed and sad and upset about buying a gift. I so wanted to make something instead. I should have bought something from my friend's cute baby selection of stuff - http://chloeco.blogspot.com/. I didn't think about it at the time. But you should check out her stuff - it's so cute!!!
This time I went to my mom for help. She and I crocheted the booties together, but still no success.
After this last attempt by my mom, we finally decided either the pattern is wrong or we are really bad at figuring out the pattern. We gave up. It was time to give it a break. They are so cute! I'm sad I couldn't get them to look like the pattern. Maybe another day I'll get up the courage and motivation to try doing baby booties again. For now I think I'll stick to the burp cloths. They are way easier compared to the booties. This is what they were supposed to look like. http://crochetme.com/patterns/simple-baby-booties
When we went to visit Michael in Oregon, he showed me his sketch book. I loved his stuff! I asked if I could take one. He said yes. So I brought this one home. It was quite the challenge to find a back that would look good. I didn't want to do just a frame. I wanted to do something a little more artsy and creative. First I was just going to do posterboard. Then I thought I might get a piece of tile. Tile would be too heavy, and I couldn't find one I liked. My mom suggested a chalkboard. I went to so many places to find a chalkboard! They are non-existant! I was surprised, but not at the same time - whiteboards are way better than chalkboards. I found some foam posterboard that I thought I could use in place of a chalkboard - PERFECT!!! It ended up having the same effect as a chalkboard - just what I was looking for. A few finishing touches and now we have some fun artwork in our kitchen! Thanks Michael!!!
I'm doing a baby shower for my sister, Natalie. This is the invite I made for it.
Now that you're done reading my novel, you'll never want to check my blog again. Hee hee! Sorry to bore you, but I had to share!!

What a Great Day!

2009-08-01T21:09:00.001-07:00

What a great day today! No pics, sorry. Matthew and I did a fun bike ride up the canyon. We live so close to, so we ride our bikes about 10 minutes and we're in the canyon. It's so beautiful! We had such a nice ride. The best part was cruisin home down the canyon!
This afternoon I checked out a boutique my friend was selling some of her cute baby stuff in. It was so fun to see what she's made! You can check out her stuff at chloeco.blogspot.com. Tonight we needed sushi redemption after our not so good sushi experience on Matthew's birthday. So we made it tonight. We are getting to be pros at this! It's so yummy! We love trying new stuff in or on our sushi. Matthew made a new sauce tonight that tasted really good on the sushi. So good! Love it! The best part about making sushi is the time we get to spend together making it. I love that!

Matthew's Birthday

2009-07-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Matthew's birthday was a great day - although he did take 4 quizzes and a test that day. We wanted to play all day, but he was crazy busy with school work! He did get some breakfast in bed, our birthday tradition. We went out for dinner to a new Japanese restaurant called Demae. I was really hoping it would be good, because it's way cheap on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I decided we could try it out. Matthew loves to try out new food and places, so I thought we could do it anyway. Well, it was very disappointing. The sushi was gross for a number of reasons. Our homemade sushi is WAY better than the stuff we had there. Yuck! Well, at least we know! The highlight, of the day though, is Matthew has a new hat, dremmel, basketball shorts, basketball shoes and a scuba diving trip. Thanks families! He loves all that he got and is totally stylin!

10K and Family Reunion

2009-07-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

This month has been so busy and so fun! I love summer! I don't want it to end. The only thing that would make it better would be that Matthew didn't have to work. Poor guy. I'm always going off to play while he is home diligently working. What a guy! He's the best! It's exciting to see his hard work paying off to. We can only go up from here!
So 2 Saturdays ago my brothers Dustin and Jeremy ran a 10K trail race. It was fun to watch and support them.Right after that we went to a Schick family reunion. This was way fun! I saw cousins and their kids who I haven't seen in YEARS!! There are spouses and some kids I haven't even met. It was so fun to connect with them and catch up on each other's lives. Luckily with blogs and facebook I've been able to stay somewhat up to date with some of my cousins. Gotta love that! Matthew was so good to come up with me even though he was totally swamped with work and homework. What a trooper! I was so grateful to have him there. It was fun to introduce him to some cousins who haven't yet met him. My cousins decided next year I would be a candidate for planning the reunion. So cousins - now is the time to put in your input of ideas for next year!

Happy Birthday Matthew!!!

2009-07-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

Matthew hits the 27 milestone today! We are looking forward to having a great day to celebrate. I'm so grateful for Matthew in my life. What a fabulous husband he is, and I love every minute I get with him! Happy Birthday Matthew! I love you! Things are really starting to pick up with Superior Design - it's so exciting! Way to go Matthew!

Surprise!!!

2009-07-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

Natalie's birthday (my sister) was on Thursday, so my parents and I thought it would go up and surprise her for her birthday. Jeremy and Therese invited Natty and Mark over for breakfast and then to the lake. We were at the house and jumped out with a big surprise when they came over for breakfast. It was such a fun surprise!

We then spent the day on the lake - it was awesome! The water was great, so I got to do some slolam skiing, wakeboarding and wakesurfing. Can't get better than that when you get to do all 3 fun activities in one day! And this time I didn't get burned - thank goodness! We then had a yummy BBQ with some delicious cake and ice cream. You can check out my wakeboarding skills. I'm still warming up for the summer, so I was just warming up. The best videos are yet to come...houseboating is next week! Yipee!
Here's TJ wakeboarding. He'll be turning 7 in the September. I can't believe how good he is! That is way cool!
We got some good shopping in - I got 2 new PE jackets for $6.00! Normally they are $30.00 a piece. I got them from Anchor Blue. They are going out of business and have some sweet deals! I also got some new running shoes. I can't wait to try them out! We also went to the park and played some Bocce. That was so fun! We had some great obstacles to work around like a sand volleyball court, a sidewalk, a horseshoe pit, a river. Good times!
The next day was ultimate day - love that game! Our team won 2 of the 3 games - go team! To finish off the fabulous weekend we went golfing. I did the best I ever have done! I had some really good drives and hits! It was so exciting! I'm finally getting the hang of this game. I still have a ways to go, but it's so great seeing some improvement and actually being able to hit the ball and have it go more than 10 yards. It was so much fun! The one thing that could have made this trip even better was to have Matthew with me. He stayed home and was hard at work while I played for a few days. He thought it would be best for him to use the time to work so he can go on houseboat trip next week. Can't wait for that! I love summer!

Happy 4th of July!!

2009-07-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

I love holidays!!! What do I love most about holidays? Playing with family!!! That's exactly what we did. We played with the Henages and the Schicks - it was awesome! We had a BBQ at the Henage's house and did some slacklining. The Henage family gave Daniel a slackline for his birthday, so we tried it out for size. It was so much fun - but it will take us a lot of work to get good at it. We then drove to my parent's house in Provo, and rode our bikes down to Canyon Road to watch the fireworks. It sure beats being stuck in traffic. It was scary riding our bikes with so many people and cars! I did not feel safe, but it was still fun.

Doing the slack line and hanging out - good times!!!Mike showin his moves and chillin on the slackline
Our sweet spot for the fireworks. We had a great view. I set this picture up on timer. I wanted to get all our bikes in it. When the countdown got to 2 seconds we saw this guy running - we tried to stop him, but to no avail - he's a part of our picture. I could have cut him out, but I got such a kick out of it that I had to include and post it. This has happened a few times to us while doing a timer, but I sure love doing a timer. I can usually get the picture I want, the way I want it, and it's a fun challenge to see if I can do. Call me crazy
So here's for my not so cool events on the 4th of July. My Dad and I decided we wanted to go see the balloons and go to the breakfast that was going on. I made it halfway to the park when I realized I had forgotten my phone. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find my dad. I totally lucked out and found him right quick. We had a great time enjoying breakfast and the balloons. My brother, Dustin, was running in the 10K that morning. We were close to where he would run by, and I thought it would be fun to go cheer him on. We went over and looked and looked among the throngs of runners, but no Dustin. We decided we had missed him. It was 7:20 and I needed take off to get to work at 8:00. When I got to my car, I thought maybe I could see Dustin finish his race. I would cut it close for work, but I thought I could pull it off. I ended up going way out of the way to get to Kiwanis, and by the time I got there I realized I just needed to get to work. I drove past 7 Peaks and got to Center, but they had the road blocked off. I drove around for the next HOUR!!!! trying to get back to Springville. Every road I went down was blocked off. All of University Ave and most of 9th East was blocked off! I was so FRUSTERATED!!! Plus, I had forgotten my phone, so I couldn't call my work and tell them I would be late, and I couldn't call Matthew and tell him where I was. I finally made it to work - 45 minutes late. Poor Matthew had been out looking for me. He was afraid my car had broken down again, and I couldn't call him or that I had been in an accident. What a good husband I have! He always takes such good care of me. He wished too I had taken my phone, because there were so many phone calls that morning. Note to self - always take my phone! Thank goodness for cell phones!!! And good thing the rest of our 4th of July turned out way better!

Eugene Funness

2009-06-30T18:00:00.001-07:00

Matthew and I decided it was time for a vacation - so vacation we did!! We picked to visit Jeremy and Therese and Natalie and Mark. While we were planning that vacation, we discovered Boise was about halfway to Eugene, Oregon where Matthew's brother Michael lives. We planned to stay one night with J&T then continue up to Eugene to stay for a few days, then return back to Boise to play with J&T. It was a fabulous trip!!! We had a great time!
We drove to Eugene through Bend, then back to Boise through Portand. It was fun to see the differences between the 2 routes we took. We loved our drive - who wouldn't love it when you are surrounded by this beautiful site?
M&M arm wrestling - guesses as to who won?We went and saw the movie UP in 3D. We totally digged it - especially the glasses! While we were waiting for the movie we played some arcade games which was super fun!
Michael made his table into a slate board. We loved drawing and writing on it - such beautiful artwork. Brittany - check out the bottom left corner - you'll get a kick out of it!
Matthew was starving! What a perfect shot!
We hiked up to Spencer's Butte and got a panoramic view of Eugene - so beautiful! The hike was awesome and so much fun!

This is what Spencer's Butte looks like from Michael's apartment - Yep! We hiked all the way to the top of that! We are pretty much amazing!
This is Skinner's Butte - also close to Michael's apartment. This is the famous Eugene rock climbing wall. We climbed up the left side of it where it wasn't so steep and we could do it without the equipment. It was awesome! Every year there is a race from Skinner's Butte to Spencer's Butte. That would be quite the run - good thing we have a car.
Michael's apartment was super cool. We totally digged it. After a day Matthew was pretty much pleading to move in. His apartment was built in 1921 - so it's got some old classics - like this phone - this is what they use to buzz people into the building
The bed can fold up and twist around into the other room! Amazing!
Here's the outside of the building. I love the design of it!
This is sweet awesome elevator. First you have to open the door, then you have to open the gate to get inside. Classic!
Matthew and I tried our first scuba diving experience in the wild in Newport while we were there. It was quite the crazy experience!! We had to wear 7mm wetsuits and a hood because the water is cold - 48 degrees. We got all new snorkeling stuff, so we were unsure how it would work, and if it would be decent. The current was so strong. Every time we tried to swim out deep enough to dive, we would end up in the same spot. We would swim and swim but wouldn't go anywhere, instead the current would take us away from where we wanted to be. We quickly learned the ocean is way different from the cakewalk Homestead Crater where we got certified. Next time we'll do a boat dive. We wanted to do a boat dive, but they were not offered in that area. We did get to see TONS of cool starfish, some jellyfish and other fish. Let's just say our dives can only get better from here!
We went to a YUMMY sushi restaurant. It tasted so fresh and was so delicious. Michael was a fabulous cook and made us such yummy food while we were there! Plus it was nice to have the food prepared and not have to make it. We also went to the farmer's market. I love those! I wish they had one here - I would probably live there.
We went bowling which was super fun. Guess who the big winner was?? Me!!! I beat Michael by 2 pins! and matthew by a long shot - hee hee

The first video is of us on Spencer's Butte viewing Eugene. The second video is of us gearing up for scuba diving. The third one is of us sending off our paracute man that we won from the arcade. Good times! The last one is of us running down Spencer's Butte rockin out to Eye of the Tiger - our theme song!

2009-06-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

While we cruising along driving back from Eugene to Boise we saw the Portland temple peeking out from the trees. I told Matthew we should stop and walk around the grounds. He hurt his back earlier in the day, so he lied on the grass while I enjoyed the grounds and took pics. It is such a beautiful temple! I couldn't believe how big or how tall it was! We didn't have time on this trip, but I would love to return and do a session!

Boise Funness

2009-06-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

Boise was fabulous! We got to spend 2 days on the boat - my favorite! The water wasn't the best, but we still got in some sweet wakeboarding and wakesurfing! I totally forgot to take my camera on the boat thought, so I was bummed I didn't get any water pictures. The first day we went, Matthew and I got totally FRIED!!! We are PINK! We put sunscreen on, but obviously not enough and not often enough. I usually am so good about not getting burnt, I forgot how much they hurt! So this was a good reminder to be more careful. The big reason we went to Boise at that time was to celebrate Jeremy's birthday! One of the days on the lake was for his birthday celebration. Afterwards we had the yummiest BBQ. We also got to see the new Transformers movie. Good times!

Natty is 4 months pregnant! It was so fun to see her and we got to check out her farm. Awesome! 4 months pregnant and I can still stick my tummy out almost more than her - she is tiny!

You ain't had a birthday party or celebration until you sing Happy Birthday Wagstaff style!

Happy 80th!!!

2009-06-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

My Grandma turned 80 a few weeks ago. The older I get, and the more time I spend working in assisted living, the more I realize what an incredible feat this is!!! Way to go Grandma and Grandpa!! They are great people and how I love them!

I Promise We're Not Lost

2009-06-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

We're just vacationing!!! I haven't been close to a computer. I'll have lots of updates and posts soon, but for now we're playing and having fun!!!!

Camping Anyone??

2009-06-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Matthew and I LOVE camping!!! We can't wait to go!!! We'll keep you posted on when we will be going. In the meantime - anyone want to coordinate with us and go with us? Our summer is filling up fast - so let us know! We can pick a date and place and DO IT!!! Yes!!!

5K - Yeah baby - Done and Done!!!

2009-06-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Matthew and I made a goal to run a 5K together, so that's exactly what we did today. It was so fun to do it together. It did take some pushing and prodding. Matthew teased me about having to get up early and to have to run. But yes, even he enjoyed it. We've been preparing the last few weeks for it - which has also been good. Last week Matthew said he ran as far as he ever has - 2 miles. (Maybe I shouldn't reveal such secrets). Today we successfully complete the 5K in 33:11 - Yes!!!! It was a great goal to work towards. Neither one of us are big into running, so it was a stretch for us. I loved having a running buddy. Now we're going to either work towards improving our time or running a 10K. Anyone know of any good ones coming up or would want to do one with us?
The fun part about it was during the race looking ahead and seeing a sea of people in front of us and behind us. As a PE teacher, I was ecstatic with how many people were participating and being active! Yes!!!! That's what I like to see!
Right before the race with our matchey shirts!
Right at the beginning of the race. My parents were nice enough to come support us, cheer us on and take pictures. We are in the front of the picture in the middle. I'm mostly hidden with a person in front of me.
Coming in on the home stretch!

I love this picture! See how much we love this??!!
In line after the race
Alisha ran it too. We didn't know that until the night before, but we didn't see her till the end of the race. Next time we'll have to do better and coordinating and run together!

Family Proclamation

2009-06-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

When Dustin and Alicia got married, I thought it would be cool to make a family proclamation with pictures of them around it. They absolutely loved it! They then did the same thing for us when we got married. I did it again for Natalie and Mark - here is what it looks like

Scuba Certified!!!

2009-06-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

You are now looking at the most recent scuba divers!!!! Matthew and I have been talking for a little while about wanting to get scuba certified. Scuba Ted's in Springville had an offer we couldn't pass up to certify. So as a graduation present, Matthew and I just finished our scuba certification! Yipee! It took 3 weeks. It was fast, and there was quite a bit of time involved, but it was well worth it. Now we just gotta plan a fun trip somewhere!! For our 2 open water dives we went to the Homestead Crater in Midway. It's a natural hot springs, so the temperture was nice and hot - 96. That felt really good after shivering everytime we went to the pool. I had the hardest time with any skill requiring me to take off my mask. I thought I was just breathing through my mouth, but obviously not, because I ALWAYS ended up with water in my throat!! I got really good at coughing my way through the skills - But - I was successful! It was so much fun to do it together. It's way better to certify and dive with a buddy - especially when that buddy is my amazingly awesome Matthew!

Henage Family Scrapbook

2009-06-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

Matthew's brother's family were here for about a month - Thomas and Emily. While they were here I took some fun pictures of their family and kids. I was going to just send the pictures to them for Emily's birthday, but then I thought it would be even more fun to put the pictures into a little album for them. I got this album for free on my mission - so I've had it for a while. It was a scrapbook kit, so they had different layout ideas and everything I needed to do those layouts. I used most of the stuff, but catered it to what I was doing. I could never find a good us for it, until now - it was perfect!!! It was fun to do. It was fun to try some different ideas and use some new stuff I had recently gotten at an awesome scrapbook sale - thanks Katie for telling me about the sale! Here is my work of art!

Bocce Fun

2009-05-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday we celebrated Mother's day because my parents were out of town. We also did a mini birthday celebration for Dustin's birthday. We gave him Bocce for his birthday, so of course we had to go try it out!! It was so much fun! Dad was amazing - he beat us all - we couldn't believe some his shots. Where did he come from?JJ was digging Bocce too!