School's Out!

School's out for the summer! Hip Hip Hooray! Friday was my last day of work until August. I'm sure I'll get a little restless later in the summer, and hopefully I can get some temp work or something, but as of right now I have lots to look forward to and I'm super excited! I leave for Italy with my mom and sisters in 5 DAYS! Then, we have our 1 year anniversary, some friends coming to visit, my parents in the U.S. for a couple months that I will be able to call during the day (yay!), and just sunshine and the wonderfulness of summer! There is also possibly one more exciting thing that is not a sure thing yet, so I will hold off on posting it so that I don't jinx it! Curious? I will let ya know if it works out!

Thrown in there I need to hurry and finish up an independent study class (I hesitated to write that because I don't have the best track record with those, but maybe this will put some pressure on me), and start teaching Relief Society (AHH!). My lesson is pretty much right when I get back from Italy, so I've already started preparing. Wish me luck! It's just slightly nervewracking for me :)

P.S. I forgot a picture from my 2 month update!! Willie and I went to his friend Josh's graduation party and we all went to a kareoke bar. Willie and I went up to sing a song!

I was expecting everyone to be off key and terrible like all of my past stake dance etc kareoke experiences. Well, we certainly were. The guy operating the music had to come up and clap and sing with us to get us going to the right tune. We were there really early and the first ones there pretty much. When their friend got up after us, I was thinking, Wow, she's really good! Little did I know that each and every person in that place sang like professional singers! Haha anyway, it was super fun to sing and be there and hang out with Megan and Josh!

Happy Birthday Willster!

This is a little late as Willie's birthday was last Sunday, but Happy Birthday to Willie!!! Saturday he spent the day swimming and playing volleyball with his brothers up in Alpine (I was busy at Kelli's hair school being her model all day...so fun! ), then I went up and we had dinner and went for some ice cream. Sunday Willie opened presents, and I made dinner after church and we played games and had cupcakes with siblings and friends! I didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple!

(We don't really keep up with our block calendar... :))

Happy Birthday to the best husband in the world!! Love you! :)

All At Once

There have been so many things that I have meant to and wanted to blog about in the past two months...and I have done none of them! My blog to do list kept growing longer and longer, and I felt overwhelmed. So, here it is. Two months all at once!

First off, Kenny came home from his mission, and Timmy left on his! It's been so fun having Kenny back, and Timmy seems to be doing super well on his mission. Willie works at the MTC doing maintenance, and has even gotten to see him a few times! We had lots of family in town for the homecoming and farewell, and it was really fun to see everyone.

Willie and I waiting for Kenny with the fam at the airport

He's home! Willie and his brother :)

A couple of weeks later, we went to conference with Robbie and Kelli, Timmy, and Kenny. I had a cute one of all of us, but I tried to upload it and blogger kept deleting it! Bummer.

We got the tickets from Willie's Grandma Claire. She and Willie's grandpa volunteered with the missionary department for a long time, and get a few tickets each conference. We were really lucky to be about 10 rows back this time! It was so neat.

Next: Easter. Willie and I had such a fun Easter this year! We went shopping and picked out surprise Easter baskets for each other.

Then, for our Easter dinner, Willie barbequed some DELICIOUS pork chops for us. He is quite the grill master! I warmed up some rolls and made homemade mashed potatoes (not as good as my mom's but better than powdered I guess) and asparagus. It was such a good dinner! This is a picture of Willie's plate because I'd already digged into mine by the time we remembered to take a picture :)

This past weekend I was able to fly to one of my bestest friends Sarah's wedding in Texas!! It was so much fun to see and visit with her! She looked absolutely beautiful and was so happy! I think this picture of them is so cute.

And, in the past two months I've done two crafts. First, I finally completed my wreath! I decided to go with a yarn wreath, and actually had the yarn wrapping part done and sitting around forever. It took me such a long time to decide on flower colors and to figure out how to place them! I finally just went with these colors, but stuck them on with velcro so that I can switch them up sometimes. I think the flower placement is a little awkward, but it was surprisingly difficult to place them. I will probably add some more later. I ended up deciding to put in on the inside side of our front door. Thanks for all of your input!!

The other craft that I did was a birthday calendar! I am sort of proud of this one because I kind of made it up on my own. Kind of. I don't remember how I got the idea to make one, but when I did I googled "birthday calendar" and found where one girl had made a similar one. She wrapped paper around a piece of cardboard, and glued on little papers like the ones I had and hung it with a ribbon.

I changed it a little by adding the title, flower, and mod podging the paper and sticker letters on. I wanted something thicker than scrapbook paper, and didn't think mod podge would go well on cardboard because it's kind of bumpy. So then I came up with the brilliant idea of cutting this foam placemat that Willie and I won in a white elephant game. Bad idea!! It now curls in and has to be taped down to my wall. If you ever make one I would recomend a posterboard back probably. And maybe no mod podge. That's what I wish I had done.

Anyway, I googled birthday calendar printables and got the little papers for each month. I printed them out on cardstock and used distress ink on them. Then, I used scrapbook removable glue dots to put them on so that I can take them off and re-write when I have new birthdays to add. Here it is!

So far it's been really helpful and I think cute in our kitchen. I like it!

So, there is a quick-ish review of the past two months. Hopefully I'll be back on here sooner than that this time! :)

Close Call

The Kindergarten class that I work in is doing a unit on fairy tales right now. Along with it, we're talking about fiction vs. non-fiction. Today the kids were doing a worksheet on fictional creatures, and this little girl marches up to me and demands, "Is this an elf?!"

I looked at the picture and said yes, it was. She then said, "But elfs are real!! They live at the North Pole and make our toys!!" Oh geez. What do I say?! I can't crush her belief in Santa! I stared at it for a minute, then said, "This is a different kind of elf. The kind that live in the woods..." (I have no idea what kind of elf that would be. I think I was thinking along the lines of the Keebler elfs or something), "...and there aren't really elfs in the woods, are there?!"

She burst out laughing like that was the silliest thing she'd ever heard and was like "nooo!!!", and walked away happily, her illusion of Santa and elfs still in tact. Phew!!!

Heheh I thought it was so cute :)

St. George and Vegas

This past weekend Willie went out to the Mountain West Conference Basketball tournament in Las Vegas with his brothers, dad, brother in law, uncle, and cousin to cheer on BYU! They had a great time watching all of the games and lost their voices cheering. They had great seats right behind the basket, and were even on TV!

While the boys were gone, Willie's mom invited Kelli and I down to St. George for some fun girl time. We had the best time there! We visited, went shopping, saw the movie Just Go With It (Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler are surprisingly so cute together!), and ate lots of yummy food. We had such a fun time. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures!!!

Saturday we all got up early and drove up to meet the boys in Vegas. The boys got ready and we met up with Uncle Tim and Tommy before getting some breakfast and sight seeing (this is where the camera finally came out).

Us at the MGM hotel where the boys stayed. They picked that one because that is where the team was staying. Sadly, there were no Jimmer sightings.

The Lion habitat in the MGM hotel

We looked around the M&M store

After walking around the strip we met up with Bill, Jamie, and Timmy (they had taken Timmy through the Vegas temple) and ate at Cafe Rio.

After lunch us girls headed back and the boys went to the last game. BYU lost :(. The boys got home late late late that night. We went to church the next morning, and then came back to rest. We were all TIRED!!

I snuck up and took this picture while they were sleeping squished on the air mattress...cute!

We headed back to Provo and colder weather Sunday afternoon. I loved it being so nice and warm in St. George!! We had such a fun time, and it was the perfect weekend getaway!

New Wreath

So, back in December I made this wreath:

It was so fun to make, and I loved having something to decorate our door! Supposedly I was going to be able to spray paint it different colors for each season/holiday/etc, but I put like 3 coats of the green on and it was starting to bubble, so I don't want to chance it. Besides, wouldn't it be more fun to make another, different kind?! I've been looking for awhile now, and can't decide! There are so many cute ideas out there. There are cute burlap ones, like this one:

I don't want it to be a St. Patrick's day one, so I would take out the Lucky banner thing, and change up the flower colors. Cute, huh?

Or, a girly, ruffly burlap one like this:

I think this is so pretty! I'm not sure about it going on the outside of our door, though. I've contemplated hanging it inside. I've seen how some people hang them inside their houses, but I don't know how or where I would put it. If I could figure it out, I think it'd be cute. Any suggestions?

The other kind of wreath that I'm really liking is yarn wreaths. I could do one like this, where it's a burlap-ish color yarn. Best of both worlds!

Or like this:

Or possibly one with a cute "M" in the middle, like this one:

I need help! What kind should I make? Since it's almost Spring, I would probably want to use some springy colors. Suggestions? Let me know what you think! :)

Update

Day 8= all vegetable day. It's the worst! I am dying. I am dreaming of pizza and brownies and other delicious items. I so would have quit if Willie weren't doing this with me.

Anyway, what have we been up to lately? Not a whole lot! No, we've had a nice, fun, relaxing month, but no major events. I always feel like I need a big event to blog about. We've just been kinda hanging out lately, though. That's ok, because we're storing up for the big month of March and trips to the Mountain West Basketball Tournament, Kenny's homecoming, Timmy's farewell, and lots of fun family time!

I've been told that pictures are the best part of blogs, and I know they are my favorite. So here are a few random pictures of Willie and I from the past little while:

This past weekend at Nickel City (formerly known as the Nickelcade)

Those two are us at Willie's old roommate's surprise party awhile ago

You may notice that there are no pictures from Valentine's Day. That is kind of a major event, right? Unfortunately, I had an eye infection which resulted in a red shrunken eye and me wearing glasses for a WEEK, which I have not done since I got contacts in the eighth grade! I felt weird. So no, no pictures, although we did have a lovely one :)