PIX

I had a two part goal this year; one, to take more pictures and two, to keep them organized. Last night as I was sitting with Evan cleaning pictures off of our camera and renaming a ton of other ones that were on my computer, we had a few laughs as we were reminded of the past years. Here are a few of our of favorites:

Evan looks like he is 12! We both look so young.



One of our favorite wedding pictures



Temple Square at Christmas time



San Diego Harbor



Manti Temple Pagent

Time Flies

Happy anniversary Evan! I am glad that I married my best friend 3 years ago today. These past years have been so wonderful. Evan and I have grown so much closer and I am glad that I have him by my side each day to share experiences with. I have learned so much from him. Thanks for being so wonderful Ev. I love you so much.



(Our engagement picture from October 06)

Reasons to Tolerate the Cold...

A very happy husband!

This weekend's storm was a little sCaRy, but I am looking forward to clear skys for the next couple of days.

**We haven't gone out in the snow yet this season, maybe this weekend if a few more feet drop.**

First round of finals

Good luck today Ev! {And everyone else that has finals today} You have this in the bag!

Massive, Massive Post!

So I realized that it has been quit a while since I have posted anything, so here you go!

Thanksgiving weekend was fun. Evan and I went to our good friends the Farr's house for dinner. Sorry, no pictures, but it was a lot of fun with good food, friends and laughs.

Friday after Thanksgiving, Evan studied and I ventured out of the house for Black Friday. I LOVED Black Friday until this year- I usually go with my mom and little sisters and have so much fun being with them. However, this year without them I realized that Black Friday is full of CrAzY people running around frantically. I did walk away with some sweet buys!



Saturday Ev and I went up to Strawberry Reservoir and cut down our Christmas tree. We have cut our own tree down for the past 3 years and love doing it. This year, Evan hands me the saw and says "you do it". What!?! Me, on the ground, in the snow, cutting a tree down? I didn't even wear my flannel. I pulled through, frost bit on my knees and all.





Later that afternoon, we went to the BYU v U football game. Emotions were everywhere... first they were winning, then we were up, then in the 4th quarter BYU forgot that they were playing football for a few minutes and the U caught up. I even think that the refs made up calls just because. BYU ended up winning in overtime.







With our Christmas tree in the house, I have been pulling out decorations and my glue gun. Here are a few of our things from around the house...









The count down to finals begin! 10 days and Evan is all mine until January! WAHHOOO! We have both been crazy, busy this past couple of weeks. Evan has finals and I have year-end stuff to do at work. Hopefully things will calm down soon.

Congrats Taxinators!

So Evan's x-tax team won Friday night! I am so proud of Ev and all of his hard work. He not only had this competition this week, he had a big test in one of his classes and was sick (see previous post). Not to brag, but I think he is the brightest guy ever. Keep up the good work duder! We find out in a few weeks if they were selected to compete in the national competition in Washington DC. Only 5 schools in the nation are picked to compete. If they do go the school only pays for Evan to go, so here is my genius idea so I can go...a bake sale!

Better health to come

So Evan was sick the past couple of days. So it wasn't to unexpected when I started to not feel well. We learned this past weekend that Ev is a stronger soldier than I. I woke up around 11:30 Friday night and couldn't move off of the couch for almost 20 hours. Thanks Evan for putting up with my complaining and running to the store about 20 times to pick me up stuff that I thought would make me feel better. This has been my bed and 'buddy' for the weekend.



I am proud to say that I am feeling better now and was able to shower this morning and go to church. I always feel better when I can go to church and hug my hubby standing up.

Parents, Potatoes, and a Piano

Two weekends ago I went down to California to see my parents and visit my family. I flew out Friday morning on the cheapest flight in the world! Thank you Jet Blue for being awesome. My bro Devo picked me up from the airport and on the way home we stopped to look at the pirate ship in the San Diego Harbor. Friday night was also my cousin's wedding. Congrats Wayne and Brianne. The wedding was really pretty and it was so nice to see so much of my extended family.

While I was gone, Evan was able to see his parents on their way down to Vegas for his cousins wedding. We had a full house; Ev's parents, two sisters, a brother, and a girlfriend were all jam packed in our tiny apartment. So now to the potatoes and piano. Since Evan is from potato country, his parent's brought down a huge box, I would guess 20 pounds, of potatoes. So I will be making lots of freezer meals with potatoes. They also brought a piano down so we can play and I can re-learn.

Thanks for being great parents, all four of you! Love you guys.

Craft Night

This past craft night at Jess' house we made Autumn blocks. I couldn't choose between two papers that I really loved so, why not use both, right? Since both were patterns, I need a solid to break things up. We really haven't decorated for holidays or seasons, so I thought it was a nice change of pace. Can't wait for winter, I have the cutest idea I found in the November Martha Stuart Living magazine.





I also just bought a little table to put in our extra room ( I know more to go in that room!) to reserve as a craft area. Currently I just use the dinning room table, but I feel like I have to finish a project when I start it because it makes the house look messy, which if you have seen my house, know that messes stress me out. I will post pictures when I have everything set up and ready to go.

Catch Up...

Sorry for the massive post; I have a lot to catch up on. I lost my cord for my camera early this summer, and just recently found it when we cleaned out the office/study/craft/closet room (no wonder why it was lost, that room is the multi-purpose room). And what is a post without pictures?

Since we have season tickets to BYU football games, our weekends consist of watching college football in the mornings and going up to campus to watch BYU. I love spending that time with Evan. Sorry Ev for so many questions like why is he running that way? Is Jan really a guy? and many other random things!




A few weekends ago we went to Evan's mission reunion. We had a lot of fun. It was really good to see Evan's mission president and his family.

And last weekend we went to Divine Comedy. They introduced a few new people; we still had a lot of fun.



I also have been going to the gym every night! Thanks Hanna for the motivation and keeping me from flaking. I hope sooner than later I can start seeing some results and looking hot and skinny! If anyone wants to go with us, the more the better.

My handsomely, rugged Dad!

My mom sent me this picture this morning and I couldn't help but share it! My dad is awesome! I can't believe that he is only 17 in this picture. He and his buddies would always trip it up to Alaska from Southern California to go fishing.
(he is the one with the beard)

Princess wands

So for a while now our nursery kids have had nothing to play with after our lesson and before their parents came to pick them up (we don't want them to pull out the toys again for just a few minutes). We have bubbles for them but they need something else. The solution, princess wands for the girls, and manly-man wands for the boys. They were very simple to make. I think I did 14 of them in less than an hour. A blog that I follow posted how to make them, they are super cute.

Our new toy!

So we had the eventful weekend- Saturday night's football game will not be talked about. On Saturday morning we went to our stakes annual Family Expo. I loved it! We were able to chose workshops to attend and we were blessed to hear from out Stake Presidency. They are wonderful men of God and it is such an experience to hear from them and feed off of their words. When we listened to President and Sister Ehat, there were maybe six other couples in the room, so it was such an intimate and personal setting to be able to talk with them. After we had a delicious lunch and enjoyed the company of some close friends and a few new friends.

But back to Friday night, I came home from work with...a DVR! We love it! The best invention ever. Since we are at work all day and have commitments most nights during the week, we miss a lot of our favorite shows- namely PTI for Evan and Judge Judy for me. We also enjoy watching all the movies that they play on TV without the commercials.

My favorite part of the whole DVR, while I was setting it up and reading the instructions, this is what a part said (no joke, this is word for word): "When batteries need replacement, the remote control will stop operating." All I can say about that is WOW and DUH.

As soon as I can find my cord for our camera I will post some pictures from the unmentionable football game.

I love America!

As I was driving to work today, I was reminded of such a great country that we live in. There are flags on people’s lawns and every flag pole has the flags at half mass to honor all the men and women that fell that fateful day of September 11, 2001. I can’t believe that eight years has passed by.

Ten days after 9-11 President Bush gave an amazing, patriotic speech to our country. He said:

"Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment.
Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us.
Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail."

I love this country! I am pumped up and ready to fight just reading his words from 2001. Thanks to all of those soldiers that have had the guts to fight for my freedoms. I love you little brother you are amazing!

Since our kids and younger siblings are not allowed to share the Pledge of Allegiance in school, I think that sometimes we forget about what this country is based on. As I was reading today about the history of the Pledge of Allegiance, I forgot that it had changed over the years. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy. It was originally published in The Youth's Companion on September 8, 1892.

It originally read:
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In 1923, the words, "the Flag of the United States of America" were added. At this time it read:
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy's daughter, the original author, objected to this alteration. Today it reads:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

10 Signs School is Back in Session

Here is my list of things that were observed this weekend reassuring my assumptions that Provo is a different world in the summer time.

10. It takes almost 2 hours to go to the Walmart or Macy's
9. We need to exit the back of our parking lot a lot more now- no more quick turns out onto 5th west
8. The extra 10 minutes added to my drive to work- all of it from home to Bulldog and sometimes University Pkwy
7. Realizing how much older we are than the freshman
6. More often then not, there is a car stopped in the middle of the intersection of 550 W and University Pkwy (the one by Albertsons and Olive Garden)
5. All the mac and cheese, top romen, and pot pies are sold out at every grocery store- yes Evan does still eat like a college student some times and I love it!
4. We can't go somewhere without running into someone from current classes, old classes, old jobs, etc.
3. No more open parking at our complex
2. Seeing all of our old friends that have been gone all summer at internships
1. I lost my husband on the weekends to COLLEGE FOOTBALL

And along with the football, it is always funny to hear what the ESNP announcers have to say about BYU. For example, last night a really good play was made and the announcer said, "Max Hall just said 'Oh my gosh', or whatever they say down in Provo". Gotta love the clean reputation that the town has.

Random Happenings

So Evan and I went down to California to see my family since my little brother was in town on leave from the army. My little nephews never fail to make me laugh. Here is a conversation with the 3 year-old Quinn.

Me: Quinn what color is this? (while holding up an apricot colored crayon)
Quinn: Skin-ish!
Me: What color is this crayon? (Now I had a violet crayon)
Quinn: Well, um.. that's a tricky one. That man (meaning the crayon) is a very big liar. It looks blue, but colors purple, so I think the color is burple-ish.

I think he has been around my mom a little to much by adding -ish to the end of everything if he is not sure.

Good luck this semester babe! I know that you will rock! Te amo mi esposo.

Cooking Group

So I have been thinking for a while about starting a cooking group. With most of our husbands starting school over the next couple of weeks, I know that I need something to distract myself while Ev is studying all night at the library. Does anyone want to start one with me? Here is kind of what I was envisioning. Once a month getting together and sharing a themed meal together. The hostess will provide the main dish then pick the theme, assign dishes to bring (sides, dessert, drinks, salad, etc.), and pick the location- either their home or if your house is not big enough, somewhere like the park. I would set up another blog where we can share the recipes and organize the month’s event.

Some ideas for themes that I can think of are countries, wraps/rolls, finger food, less than 5 ingredients, holidays, really anything.

Let me know if this sounds like something that you would want to do…

Surgery Round Dos

So Evan has another round of surgery on Tuesday. He originally tore his ACL and 9 months later, another trip to the hospital. We originally thought that his meniscus was torn, but he had a cyclops something or other growing in his knee. I don't know, the doctor explained that his knee was not bending properly because of the mass of something growing. Now that it is removed, he should make a full recovery. So moral of the story; this...



turns into this...



I love you Ev! You are amazing and a lot braver that I would ever be.

Thanks Dr. K for not amputating his leg by now!

Boise!

We went to Boise this weekend- also know as the toddler version of Salt Lake. Some day when we grow up, and if Boise grows up, we might consider it home. Evan and I decided this summer that we would go and visit potential grown up towns to live in when Evan finishes school. It was a lot of fun. We stayed at a really nice hotel and were able to visit downtown and drive around to see the city. We took some before photos and hopefully some day- cross our fingers- we will take an after photo in front of the capital when Evan works there.

For those of you that have never been on a road trip with us, you are missing out! I think for about 1/2 of the trip we played our favorite car game two different ways. We put the radio on scan to see how may songs I know, 10 out of 10 every time. Then we played the Evan version, talk radio. 10 out of 10! The theme of our car ride is summed up in one song that we heard I think about 20 times, no joke; that new Black Eyed Peas song I Gotta Feeling. It was a really fun trip. Just being able to jump in the car and go with no plan was a blast.




I had to take this last one picture. The capital is under construction so I couldn't go close. This a picture of the front and right under the stair case is the governor's parking spot! How crazy is that, some day Ev, some day.

Cousin Camp

Every summer Ev's family has a big family reunion. Because there are so may nieces and nephews, they call it 'cousin camp'. We went to Rexburg over 4th of July weekend. It was a lot of fun to see all of the family and spend time with his brothers and sisters. We played lots of fun games and ended the weekend with a firework show compliments of all the kids. Thanks Juliet and Spencer for a wonderful and very eventful weekend.

Manti Temple Pageant

So this weekend we went to the Manti temple pageant. We have never been down to Manti so it was an adventure all in its own. Thanks Devin and Ashley for inviting us, it was a lot of fun!

Happy Belated Father's Day

I found the cutest idea for Father's day treats for all of the primary children to give to their dads. They are cupcakes, brownies and sugar cookies- where could you go wrong. So the Saturday before Father's day I drove Evan crazy by baking sweets that he couldn't eat until I knew I had enough for all of the dads. It was so cute seeing all of the kids give these to their dads and then try to steal them back to eat for themselves!




Here is the finished product...

Blanket!

I showed this to Evan a few days ago and he said that I had to put this on the blog. So here is our favorite infomercial...

B1G1 Free at TGI Fridays

Since Ev and I are cheap, I will share our cheapness with all! Here is a link to a buy one get one free entree at TGI Fridays. Enjoy!

Our weekend with the Walkers

So this weekend, Ev and I were left with 4 little kidlets in our tinny little home. It was a lot of fun to play with them and have kids in our house. Evan played the Wii with the boys all weekend, while the baby and I watched. We also went the Veteran's Memorial Pool and played in the water. Lesson learned, wear sunscreen!

Update...

So I realized that it has been way to long since one I have posted anything and two I have posted a picture. So here you go...
Two weeks ago was my birthday! Yeah for me. Evan bought me a pink camera. I love it. We have taken more pictures in the last few weeks, that we have in the last few years. And, we also went to visit my family. It was tons of fun. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Evan at the airport on our way to CA. Way excited because we usually drive so we cut our travel time by 11 hours!



Evan made me a really yummy birthday cake and me little nephew helped blow our the candles.




On Saturday, we went with my mom to the Murrieta Farmers Market. We listened to this band of 10 and 12 year olds sing cover songs to 80's bands, it was pretty entertaining.



The rest of the weekend, we had a BBQ with my family and played in the pool and at the beach. My nephews love having Evan around because he throws them in the pool and wrestles with them. It was a lot of fun to play in the sun and enjoy being with my family.







Thanks Mom and Dad for flying us out and letting us crash at the house for the weekend! Love you guys.

VACATION- kinda

We officially are going on VACATION! Well, at least just leaving town for the weekend. We will be spending Memorial Day with my familia in sunny southern California. Thanks Mom for letting us use your extra miles!