Highlights of the Year So Far

I have been putting off writing on my blog for some time now. It's been a crazy few weeks and I am EXHAUSTED. But I want to give the highlights of my year so far from January until now. 

Ryan and I asked his dad to watch Rose for a night while we went to Salt Lake City for a night with just the two of us for our Anniversary. We had SO much fun. Having a baby is wonderful, but they make it incredibly difficult to take the time to focus on your spouse the way you did before the baby came, and this night away was so much fun. We laughed and joked over dinner and didn't have to worry about changing Rose's diaper or making sure she was fed or keeping her happy while we ate. After dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, we went back to our hotel which was supposed to be pretty fancy, but ended up being kind of a bummer. In the morning, when we realized that the hotel charges a minimum of $17 a plate for breakfast, we decided to go to Eva's Boulangerie instead, which definitely was the right choice. I got a chocolate filled croissant and hot chocolate, and Ryan got flatbread pizza. It was delicious. I've already dragged Ryan back there once since our anniversary, and I plan on making him take me back many many more times. Our anniversary trip ended up costing us a lot more than we were expecting, and being poor college students that was a bit of a bummer (there's a funny story involving a swimsuit purchase that you'll have to ask Ryan about that goes along with this).

Luckily, we had time after everything to stop and do sealings at the Provo City Center Temple to finish off our getaway and it was the perfect ending to a fun trip. It was a good reminder that it doesn't matter what we have or what we do or what happens to us, that two years ago we were sealed for time and all eternity in a beautiful temple of God and our little family gets to be together forever because of that choice we made. All in all, it was a really great date, and I'm already looking forward to whatever we decide to do for next year.

Some other fun highlights are:

Getting to learn how to make pretty flower arrangements with my friend Bette at her ward activity. We even got to take the leftover flowers home!

Trying out different restaurants with Ryan including a Peruvian place on Center Street in Provo and a new pizza place on University Avenue.

With our new apartment we have had trouble finding affordable furniture that will also fit up our stairs, mainly a couch and a kitchen table. Every time we have people over, we all just gather around on the floor. However, last month I found a cute round table that fits in our kitchen for $20 at DI! And then on Facebook Marketplace I found a futon that isn't ugly or too uncomfortable for $50! These finds are some of the top highlights of this year so far! I LOVE having a couch to sit on with Rose to read books to her, and I love sitting by our kitchen window at our new table in the morning when the sunlight is coming in. (Especially with the flowers Ryan got me for Valentine's Day sitting on the table.)

We also decided to buy a really old truck, it needs some work, but it's in really good condition and it was also a great deal. The car Ryan had when we got married is on its last legs and we wanted something else to rely on, and with all the snow in the winter, we wanted something a little more sturdy than our little car.

I've had the chance to watch two kids who I adore a couple of times in the last few weeks, and it's been fun to spend time with them. One of them was one of my husbands and my nursery kiddos from our last ward who we've missed since moving.

And last, but not least, my parents came out for a mini trip to Utah and I got to spend some time with them in a time of the year that I don't normally get to see them.

Phew! I am now all caught up on January and February and a little bit of March!

I also have a few not-so-highlights, that are kind of funny. Here they are:

I was told by a family friend that this snack puff has a "strong will to live." hahaha 

This is just a cute picture of Rose's hand dimples. I think they are so cute!

We tried to do laundry at my brother's apartment complex but someone was being inconsiderate and hogging the dryer, we ended up having to take a washed load (meaning soaking wet and very heavy) to the laundromat to finish off my laundry. While there, this cute girl hung out in the laundry carts. 

Grandma sharing her ice cream with Rose. You can definitely win Rose over with sweets. 

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. :'(

I guess I just don't know my own strength. You can call me Mrs. Incredible. 

When you are too lazy to walk into the kitchen for a knife or scissors, but not too lazy to spend 10 minutes ripping a box open.... 

The decision to wear heels for our dinner date on our anniversary was a poor one. I ended up walking through the City Creek mall in my socks.. that isn't socially unacceptable, is it? 

Finding Rose in the crib like this. 

Trying to decide if I could carry Rose in the diaper bag and deciding I better not. 

I spent all day trying to keep the kitchen warm enough for these rolls to rise but then I ended up having them rise for just a little too long. They did not turn out soft and fluffy like I had anticipated.

For Posterity

I kind of consider this blog a place for me to journal since I've gotten so bad at writing in my journal. One day I'll print off all of my posts to put into a book for posterity or something. :) With that being said, I've had it in my head the last few days that I'd like to write a post about weird things I did or liked as a child.

I was discussing (or probably arguing) with Ryan the other day about something and he was like "you had pet water balloons as a kid!" as if that was a way to prove that I can't be right about anything because what kind of weirdo holds onto filled up water balloons as a child?! Well.... I did...

So, that got me thinking about other super weird things I did and I thought I'd share a few...for posterity, and maybe for your enjoyment also, if you like reading about this sort of thing.

• To start off, I'll go into more detail about my pet water balloons. :) My best friend, Kristen, and I were a little on the weird side... but one time we got some water balloons and made little beds for them, and little magazines, and little houses. We spent hours making teeny tiny homes and accessories for our little water balloons. Then she kept them in her closet for who knows how long, until one day, years later she was cleaning out her closet and found shriveled up balloons in boxes. 

• My favorite treat at Jeremiahs Italian Ice was a mix of cotton candy and chocolate chip. 

• I had a collection of dead animals. (Which Ryan thinks is so weird, and unfair because if he were to say something like that people would look at him funny and assume he was psychopathic (or is it sociopathic?), but when I say it, people laugh.) And like, I didn't kill animals or anything! I loved animals! I just found dead frogs or lizards or butterflies or snakes and kept them in little collections. Florida is a great place to find things like that! I found them fascinating! My mom made me leave them all behind when we moved to Texas, except for the butterflies. 

• I don't think I wore shoes for the first 12 years of my life (except when I went to school or church). I still have calluses on my feet from running around barefoot so often. The dad of one of my friends was always getting on to me about it and I would tell him that I WAS wearing shoes, he just couldn't see them. 

• My dreams in life were to own a day care (What was I thinking?!), to be a librarian, or to work in an office as a receptionist. I even had a desk set up in my room with handmade business cards and everything! Dream big kiddo!

• I was shy, but I was also convinced that if I sang loud enough from the backyard someone would recognize my talent and haul me off to Hollywood or something to become a famous singer. Thank goodness I don't have any recordings of those backyard serenades.

• I had lots of little collections. Pillows, fuzzy socks, quarters, beads, stuffed animals, magazines, paint color samples from home depot, oil lamps, etc. 

• I was the worlds pickiest eater. On my list of foods that I hated were: potatoes in any form, tomato sauce (so pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, etc.), vegetables, grilled cheese sandwiches, waffles, french toast, sandwiches, jelly. My friends parents were always trying to figure out what I DID like, so I would tell them that I liked macaroni and cheese, but it turned out that I only liked Kraft mac and cheese, so they even normally got that wrong. (Sorry to everyone who tried to feed me back then...)

• One time, in 5th grade, I brought a Ziplock bag full of flour to school because I thought it was so soft and fun to touch, but then one of the boys in the neighborhood told me it looked like cocaine and that if anyone saw it I would be arrested. So, I threw it out by the bus stop, terrified that someone would think I was doing drugs! 

• One of the best gifts I ever got was 3 pet tadpoles from my other best friend. Unfortunately they didn't have enough food to thrive and 2 out of the 3 died before my mom made me release the last one into the wild. 

• My friend Tori, the one who gave me the tadpoles, and I loved to put glue on our hands and let it dry and then peel it off. We used to always give each other Elmer's Glue for birthdays. We also would buy those movie theater boxes of Nerds and sit for hours separating them by color. 

• I learned how to tie a tie when I was 12 playing Harry Potter with my friends. We were part of Dumbledore's Army. 

• And one last one, Kristen and I used to throw parties. We'd ask her dad to take us to the dollar store and we'd buy streamers, balloons, and candy. Then we'd spend all day making invitations to run around the neighborhood to invite all the other kids we knew. Nobody ever came, so we'd sit there and eat our candy by ourselves. 

So, there you go. If you were my friend, you may never want to be again, but I wanted to write these down so I'd have them saved to laugh about with my children someday. :)

If you have any weird things you did as a child, I'd be happy to hear them! :) Please share!

This is Tori and I. We've been friends since Kindergarten, she even flew all the way to Utah to come to my wedding! <3

This is Kristen and I. I don't seem to have any pictures of us any younger, but we've been friends for about 13 or 14 years.

Back to Reality

In my last post I mentioned that reality came crashing down around us when we came home from Lake Powell. It's lovely how that happens, isn't it?

We would prefer to just take naps instead of doing adult things. 

Lake Powell was this beautiful bubble that blocked EVERYTHING out. No cell service, no wi-fi, no phones, nothing. We were forced to relax and enjoy the water and sunshine. Unfortunately, a few minutes after we left our phones started buzzing, our emails popped up, and our "don't worry about until after Lake Powell" to-do list came into focus. It's really a bummer how life does that.

Ryan had to start school the day after we got back, go back to work a week later, and I had to start thinking about looking for a job. We had bills to pay, and we realized that we should probably start looking for an apartment with another bedroom so that we don't have to get ready for bed in the dark every night hoping not to wake Rose up. (Also, I have lots to catch up on for my blog! SO many pictures!)

Anyways, so all that just to say that the last few weeks have been a lot of adult stuff.

I'm feeling awfully proud of myself because one of the adult things I did was research car insurance and I found one that would save us $360 a year! In one day, I cancelled our old car insurance, signed up for this new one, took our car to Jiffy Lube for the emissions test, AND registered the car. (This is all Ryan's stuff, to make it up to me he bought me chocolate raspberry Magnum bars.)

I still haven't found a job, but I have an interview on Monday, they said it could potentially be a job I do from home, so we'll see. (fingers crossed). It's difficult to find a job that I can do from home while watching a baby. There are jobs where you teach English to kids in China, but I found out when I started applying to those that the camera on my computer doesn't work. So, until I get webcam or fix that, those jobs aren't going to work. If the job interview works out, then I'll be set. But if it doesn't, I'm probably just going to do small jobs here and there to help supplement Ryan's paycheck.

Is it too much to ask to find a job that allows me to get out of the house for 4 hours a day, that is helping families (so it uses my bachelors degree in family studies), pays a salary instead of by the hour (because why else did I pay for college????), and allows me to take Rose with me??? (Probably, but one can dream.)

We aren't seriously looking at new apartments until I can find a job, because 2 bedroom apartments in Utah County are pricey, and we really like our ward and our apartment.

It's a bummer that Ryan is back at school and work again because we really enjoyed spending all day, every day with him. I am hoping that we will be more creative with the way we spend his time off now though because it is so limited. We went to Mount Timpanogos Caves with his sister on his day off last week.

That view!

  It was actually super fun, and it's way more affordable than some of the other cool attractions here in Utah County. (I'm looking at you Thanksgiving Point!) The hike was a little painful, and my husband, Mr. Long Legs walked as fast as he possibly could because he didn't want to be late for our cave tour. Me, Mrs. Short Legs nearly died and keeled over, off the mountain. Also, we were 35 minutes early. Lucky for him, I didn't actually die, otherwise he would have felt bad.

The caves were beautiful and exciting! For me AND for Rose. Rose loved looking around, I could tell it was one of the most exciting moments of her young life. The tour guide was impressed that she was so calm, she said that normally babies cry in the caves. One really cool part was that when you get pretty far in, they'll turn all the lights off and it's completely black. You can put your hand right in front of your eyes and still not see. In the Book of Mormon, when Christ dies and the world is black for 3 days, I imagine that's what it was like, and now that I've experienced it, I can understand why they were so devastated! Pure darkness would be miserable and terrifying!

It was a really fun experience, I'm glad we did it. Next Summer, Ryan has decided that we should hike Mt. Timpanogos caves every day for exercise. (I think he's slightly delusional, but if he really wants to do it, I'll do it too, as long as he carries Rose.)

Fun Fact: Tressa is in the MTC now preparing to go to the Tacoma, WA mission. (The same mission that Ryan and I served in and where we met!) 

Side note: Writing the caption for the picture of Ryan and his sister reminded me that I am upset that both my sister, Emily, and Ryan's sister, Tressa, will be gone for the next 18 months on their missions because they are the two who would be the most excited/willing to babysit for us for free! How rude is it of them to just up and leave like that?! (I'm mostly kidding, it's so awesome that they are both on their missions right now. Serving a mission was one of the best experiences I ever had and prepared me so much for what I'm doing now. We will miss them though.)

Rose is waking up from her nap so I'll have to finish this up quick. Pretty much, since Ryan started back up at school two weeks ago, we've just been playing catch up and trying to get back into the swing of things. I miss vacation, but it's always good to be home.

Six Week Summer

We had the best Summer ever!

I mentioned the last time I wrote that Ryan got six weeks off from Sam's club because he's a new dad, and we took full advantage of those six weeks! He did work for his aunt for two weeks, but only in the morning. In the time that he had off we:

• Went to a wedding for my cousin.
• Went to my brothers wedding.
• We had Ryan's sister come to stay with us for a few days.
• We went to visit my aunt and uncle in Brigham City.
• We spent a week down in Southern Utah camping with Ryan's family.
• We blessed Rose down in Cedar City.
• We spent a week here with my parents who came up for my brother's wedding.
• We lived on a houseboat at Lake Powell for a week. 

and then reality came crashing back down when Ryan started school and went back to work. But before that, we had a blast and wore ourselves out to our limit. 

I used to hate Sam's club, but their paternity leave is awesome, so they are definitely not at the bottom of my list now. 

I love this picture. Every time we go to visit my aunt and uncle, it is for a big occasion of some sort and there are a ton of people and lots to do and never enough time to sit and talk. I was so bummed to find out that the weekend we decided to go up, my aunt and uncle would be at a wedding, my grandparents were going to California for a week, and everyone else had to work. On the day that we were planning on leaving we decided to stay a little later, and we ended up finally having a chance to sit on the porch, during the sunset, and just relax and talk, almost like the adults used to do when I was a kid and we had our family reunions. This may seem silly, but it actually meant a lot to me and was one of my favorite summer nights this year. 

Rose's Blessing Day

 Jared's wedding.

 My grumpy little girl, also at Jared's wedding.

I think this picture is just the cutest! The UVU library has THE coolest stained glass installment. We took Rose to see it and she loved it. (Until she realized that she was hungry, then the bright colors weren't interesting anymore.)

Pictures from Camping near Navajo Lake... I tried to limit it to only a few, but I have this amazing power to take way too many pictures in a short amount of time... so it's not just a few...

Those eyebrows!

One of the best things about Navajo Lake is that it has FROGS! You just don't really get to see frogs very often in Utah.

This one is at Duck Creek. 

Aunt Megan putting Rose to sleep. 

We left the campsite a night early because the rain was extremely persistent and our tents were filling up with water. This rainbow was a beautiful way for Navajo Lake to say goodbye to us on our way out. :) 

Here are pictures from Rose's Baby Blessing. We had lots of family come all the way to Cedar City to support us and Rose. :) We are so blessed.

Also, the dress Rose is wearing is the dress that I was blessed in as a baby. :) We waited a little longer to bless Rose so that both of our dad's could come and I was worried it would be too small, but it was perfect. :) My grandma made that dress for me 23 years ago. Isn't she darling???

Four generations. :)

Doesn't he make a handsome dad? 

Family Reunion t-shirts

Here are pictures from when my parents and Carson were visiting before Jared's wedding. We all went to Bridal Veil Falls for dinner and a walk. Isn't Carson a cutie? 

Pictures from Lake Powell:

We had so much fun at Lake Powell with my cousins. Rose is a natural and did way better than I thought she would. She didn't scream every time she went in the water, and she got plenty of naps and sleep at night even though there were 20+ people on the boat. Ryan and I even had a couple of chances to go off on a jet ski to go hiking without her.

Ryan wanted another swimsuit for the trip, so the day before we went to Walmart and he was going to get something boring like solid dark blue or grey. I tried to convince him to pick something fun, so he told me that I could pick WHATEVER I wanted for him to wear. ;) This was my pick. He wore them all week like the good sport that he is, until they "mysteriously" got a hole in the back on one of his hikes and they had to be thrown away. :) 

That's me. :) I can do headstands on solid ground, so I thought I'd try on a paddle board. The first try ended with me in the water, but my second try was much more graceful! 

This is Ryan and I attempting our Goga trick on a paddle board. Definitely not as successful as my headstand...

We had the best summer this year. Last Summer we both worked full time at different hours of the day so we didn't have a chance to do very many summer-y things, so we wanted to take full advantage of his paternity leave. Also, growing up in Florida, summer meant spending as much time as possible in a swimsuit in the sun as possible. So, we tried to do that this year, and I think it worked out pretty good. :)

It'll be fun to see what we do with his next paternity leave. (Which will NOT be coming for a while, so don't get your hopes up.)