First funnel cake

I love summer in Utah. When the sun sets, the air cools down and it's magic. Last month, we went to a local city festival with JD's parents and little brother. We mostly just wandered around the booths and people watched in anticipation of the fireworks. Then, out of nowhere, I smelled the intense aroma of funnel cake and my mind whisked me back to a good ol' Texas rodeo. I love me a good funnel cake! I mentioned how sweet and delicious the air smelled and how much I enjoy those tasty treats. . . and was surprised to find out no one in JD's family (including him) had ever tried one. Well, that was that: FIRST FUNNEL CAKE ALL AROUND. 

Week in the Life: Monday

This week I am joining with other scrapbookers in Ali Edwards' "Week in the Life" project. I love the idea of really trying to capture what my days are made of: routines, habits, meals, projects, moments. All the little things I don't normally remember to document and record. Here's a look at our Monday, September 9, 2013.

 A baby girl who insists on being as close to me as possible.

Patriotic Pancakes

Happy Fourth of July! This holiday is one of my favorites. I think my fondness for today may have something to do with my Mom loving it, too.  She always insisted we wear red, white, and blue on the Fourth and was devastated the first year I missed fireworks with the family because I went to church camp. Both her and my Dad are intensely proud to be Americans. Growing up, I never really noticed how that patriotism rubbed off on me. But, when I was in college, I had to write a paper about my upbringing and family traditions. I realized then how my parents had really instilled in me a love of country and a deep sense of pride in what America stands for. I really am proud to be an American and am so grateful for the freedoms I enjoy.

This morning, we skipped the parades and opted for sleeping in and making pancakes instead. Yum!

Waffle Love.

The Waffle Love truck has been making its way around Utah County and finally made it to our little neck of the woods. We (mostly I) couldn't resist splurging on some extra crispety-crunchy sugar-y goodness topped with the prettiest arrangement of juicy red fruit. Yum!

Pancake breakfast.

This morning was one of those lucky ones when all of our family was home and awake at the same time. JD didn't have to go to school to study, I didn't have to go into work, and Tenley was in an alert, playful mood. So. . . we decided to celebrate Thursday morning with pancakes! We even went a little crazy and threw some peanut butter M&Ms in the mix.  Sure love this cute little family of mine.

Saturday morning.

Recently, JD requested to switch from evening to morning work shifts on the weekends. The morning shift is from 6am-2pm and the evening one is from 2pm-10pm. He was willing to sacrifice sleeping in and snuggling for afternoon daddy-daughter bonding and a few more nights out on the town with me.  For the most part, he was scheduled for morning shifts this month just like he wanted. His alarm went off this morning at 5:15am and he got up and dressed and out the door. As he was driving, he started thinking and realized he was scheduled for the evening shift today. Luckily, he remembered before he made it all the way there! He came home, crawled back into bed (totally freaked me out!), and we slept and cuddled for a few more hours. Then, because we were planning on going out tonight, we moved our date up a few hours. We made a trip to Station 13 in American Fork. I mean, a girl's gotta get her donut fix every now and then, right?? Ha! Even though I didn't plan to, I loved getting to spend the morning with my two favorites. 

Idaho Trip

Last week, JD and I took a little road trip to Idaho for my friend Angela's wedding in Teton. We also made a slight detour to visit our friends in Boise. It was a lot of driving in a few days, but we sure loved seeing our good friends and spending time together in a new state. 

Crossing the border.

 Yummy restaurant in downtown Boise.

 We miss this cute family!

Zoo Boise on Friday. 

 Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, ID

 Double rainbow at the falls (!!)

 Peaceful time together in the Idaho Falls LDS temple.

San Antonio friends. Look at that pretty bride!

 Gorgeous Idaho sunset. Love this man.

Angela's wedding ceremony and reception was held at the cutest barn in a small Idaho town. She did such a good job decorating with vintage books, dried flowers, romantic pictures, and rustic accents. The whole place had a dreamy feel to it. So happy she found someone to make her so happy!

The Last Few Weeks

JD and I have done a lot of fun things in the last few weeks!

 Here's a re-cap of what we've been up to:

Dinner at Jared and Karen's with Bryce and Sheree. These guys were JD's good friends in high school and we got together because Bryce just accepted a job offer in Louisiana and they'll be moving soon. It was nice to visit and catch up with them.

Dinner at Chick-fil-A. We were trying so hard to not spend money on eating out in May, but I had been talking about Chick-fil-A for weeks. . . so we gave in. Worth it!

Tyler and Mikella's Wedding. JD's little brother got married over Memorial Day weekend. We were both in the wedding party and loved sharing in their celebration.

JD's mom's side of the family at the reception. It had rained most of the day, so it was pretty chilly. . . but the backyard was absolutely lovely!

It started raining hailing during their wedding dance. While everyone rushed to get the tables and chairs and stereo equipment under cover, these lovebirds shared their romantic moment in the rain. Rain on your wedding day is supposed to be good luck, right? :)

NBA on television. We've been watching a lot of basketball lately. JD has been cheering against the Spurs (only because he's bitter they swept the Jazz) and I've been teasing him by wearing my San Antonio apparel sometimes. I'm not as committed to the Spurs as I probably should be and wouldn't mind if OKC won (gasp!) because it would make JD happy. 

Park City with the newlyweds. Tyler and Mikella stayed in a condo up in Park City for their honeymoon. We went up later in the week for dinner and games. We played games until like two in the morning and spent the night up there.

Tiffanie's graduation. JD's little sister, Tiffanie, graduated from Layton High School. We are super proud of her and are so excited for what's in store in her life.

Camping with the Weeks and Leues. We planned to go camping with these guys, but ran into issues when we tried to find a camp spot. It didn't end up working out as we planned, but we had a bonfire anyway and spent the evening playing games and visiting.

Fishing with the Williams family. Camping didn't work out, but JD still really wanted to go fishing. We invited the family we live with and JD taught all their kids how to fish. I sat out in the sun and helped cook breakfast in the morning. We were up in the mountains for a few hours, but JD was the only one who ended up catching a fish. Still, it was pretty special to see JD's sweet interactions with those kiddos.

Dinner and dominoes with friends. Cory and Sean and Jeremy and Stefanie came over for dinner on Saturday night. We enjoyed delicious food and played dominoes. Love spending time with these guys!

We are blessed with such good friends and family and are trying to enjoy the sweet time we have together before our little one joins the family. We know we'll miss these days!

A Date!

Our lives have been pretty hectic the last two weeks because I've been training for my new job (my first official one as a recreation therapist!!)  We still share one car, so we've been playing tetris with our schedules (my part-time job at  New Haven + my new job in West Jordan + his classes at UVU + his job in Provo + his job shadowing appointments in Payson + our job at the storage units in Spanish Fork. . .) Needless to say, JD has gotten pretty good at working the bus system and we are so grateful for our kind neighbors who've helped us out when the timing of things hasn't quite worked out. I've pulled close to 120 hours the last two weeks between my two jobs and I'm pooped! But we did go out last week for Valentine's Day and the three year anniversary of our engagement!

Matinee movie to see The Vow. Dinner at Gloria's Little Italy in Provo and dessert at The Chocolate in Orem.  It was the perfect night out on the town and I was so grateful for the little break together during this hectic month!

Sushi Party for Abby

Last Wednesday, our dear friend Abby had a birthday. On Friday, we spent the afternoon helping her prep for her big sushi party. JD made a big bowl of fried rice and helped prepare the sticky rice for the guests to make sushi rolls when they arrived. We cut veggies, meat, and other toppings (uh, fillings?). While JD was busy doing his thing, Abby and I also made a type of sushi I actually like. . . candy sushi! We made rice krispy treats and let them harden. Then we cut them into strips and wrapped gummy worms in the middle and rolled them up like sushi. Finally, we bundled them in fruit roll-ups and cut them into little bites. Most precious treat ever! The party turned out to be a roaring success and JD taught oodles of people how to wrap their own sushi. I ate up the fried rice and might have had more than my fair helping of candy sushi. We're so glad Abby was born and loved helping her celebrate her big day!

  

 

Wedding and burgers.

This weekend one of JD's favorite mission companions got married. We were able to attend their temple sealing. It was a sweet and sacred ceremony, where they promised to love and take care of each other forever. The feelings of love and devotion in that room reminded me of when I made similar promises to my husband and to God. In the hustle and bustle of everyday, I sometimes forget to honor and respect my marriage relationship. JD's super-de-duper important to me (obviously!), but I could be better about telling and showing him that. I'm thankful we were able to go to the temple this weekend with his newlywed friends so I could feel this giddy happiness again and re-commit to having a rockstar marriage with my husband! 

We got burgers at In-n-Out on our drive back home. I'll never understand why JD needs to order a double-double when we go there. . . but, I guess part of making marriage work is learning to pick your battles. 

 I let him win this one ;) Happy Monday!

Texas birthday.

JD celebrated his birthday in Texas this year! (He's being converted to TEXAS every second, I swear. He's started stealing my longhorn hoodie when it's cold outside and I've never seen him  care about baseball as much as he did during the World Series this year). 

While we were home, we took family pictures, played baseball with Isaac, ate at Alamo Cafe and Rudy's (yum!), visited Lindsey at the cutesy yogurt shop where she works, spent time with Jake before he leaves for Argentina, watched a lot of baseball on TV,  got some dental work done, visited with both sets of grandparents, had dinner on the Riverwalk, played Settlers, ate homemade lasagna from my momma, sang "Happy Birthday" to the hubs, helped pick out new clothes for Morgan, saw some cousins at church, and relaxed a little. 

We really enjoyed our visit, but it's been busy busy since we got back. Make-up school work, packing, cleaning, painting, organizing, shopping, planning, un-packing, studying, dreaming, sewing, re-pairing, working, visiting, babysitting. You name it- we're probably doing it around this house!

But being busy feels good. It means we're alive! And productive! And happy!

Pumpkins, vegetables, boots, candy, cars, and more.

Lately, we've been busy bees.  I took my girls on a hayride to a pumpkin patch. We've discovered the magic of a food co-op and love having fresh fruits and veggies from our Bountiful Basket. 

JD traded one of his snowboards for a fancy-shmancy-remote-control-gas-powered toy car. He loves working on the little engine in all the free time he doesn't really have.

Since October is his birthday month and we're going to Texas soon, we decided it was about time he got a pair of cowboy boots! When he wears them, my little country girl heart pitter patters a little faster. I love a man in boots :) Naturally, he insisted we go country dancing so he could "test them out." We haven't been in ages and don't rememer a lot of the steps, but it was still a fun date night.

We also went to  Blickenstaff's, a huge toy and candy store, for the first time. It was such a fun environment, but the candy was a bit overpriced. Luckily, we got a free pumpkin with our purchase! There's no such thing as too many pumpkins in my book. We picked a bunch from my in-laws' neighborhood garden and they're all crowded together on our front steps. I'm planning on painting and decorating them soon, but I've been too busy lately on other projects.

I finally got to go to Color Me Mine for shift bonding with my co-workers. I could seriously paint pottery every week if it wasn't such a big blow to my budget.

Also, JD's been grilling our food whenever he can. Corn on the cob, shishkabobs, chicken, you name it. . . so yummy.

I'm loving this fall-time season. Seriously, what's not to like about fresh veggies, a cool breeze, college football, and changing colors? Life is good.

Ps. We're leaving for Texas in four days! Stoked.