Nick's Birthday part 3!

So... Nick hates surprises. Really. He likes to know what's going on and he's really good at figuring out a surprise before it happens. It was my plan this year to throw him a surprise party and make sure he was SURPRISED!

Thanks to some of our wonderful friends, the party was set up while we left to do homework last night. When we went home there were friends in our apartment wearing adhesive mustaches, there was a pinata hanging from the ceiling, balloons, and a cute poster that said "feliz cumpleaños". We hung out and ate chips/salsa and birthday cake. I do have to say, NICK WAS ACTUALLY SURPRISED! Mission accomplished!

Nick's Birthday part 2...

So, we've seriously got some great friends! Nick was doing homework on Friday night (I know right....) so I told him I'd run to the store to get a few things I needed to make a cake for his birthday. While I was at the store I saw our cute friends Trevor and Cassie Walker in the dairy section. We had dinner plans for Sunday and we chatted for a bit to figure out what Nick and I could contribute. (sidenote... these two are the ones that make cakes! We made a couple ornament cakes with them over Christmas break and they make wedding cakes too) Anyway, while chatting in Walmart, Trevor asked if they could make Nick a birthday cake for dessert on Sunday. We brainstormed for a bit and I honestly was not coming up with any good ideas for a birthday cake for Nick.... These two are great though and they came up with a super cute idea!

Nick is really good at math.... so they made a really long math problem that equaled 23 and put doodles on the bottom with "Nick's favorite things" according to his wife....

Anyway, we loved it! Happy Birthday party #2 - especially since my parents came by with gifts Sunday night!

Nick's Birthday!

Nick turned 23 yesterday! WAHOO! We had a nice, relaxing day and spent a lot of time just hanging out. We went to see the movie "Unknown" (which had a really cool story line) then ate some cake and opened a few gifts.



Since Nick turned 23, I made him a little book with 23 Reasons I love Him - it turned out pretty cute!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a busy busy day for us this year! Nick took me to dinner at the Garden House - SO YUMMY!!! The restaurant was packed - but we got our delicious food quick and were even done eating before we'd been there an hour!

We exchanged gifts and hung out for a while before Nick started a long night of homework! We stayed up until midnightish (I think Nick was up even later....) to get everything done. I started making a bag for my old roommate since Nick was up anyway! Here's the finished product :)

Sweethearts!

Our married stake held a Sweethearts dance Friday. I wasn't sure if we were going to go because we had a few things going on, but I found out it was a date when I came home on Tuesday!

Here's what I found.....





Nick is so funny! Cute, slightly cheesy, but super fun! So, just like in high school, if you get asked to a dance you have to answer your date back!





The fish that was swimming in our sink relocated to our bamboo for a couple days. He started to swim a little slow, so we decided to release him so we wouldn't have to know if he died or not.


(The red valance in this photo is one of my most recent and FAVORITE crafts I've made.)

We did get pictures taken at the dance (we won't get them for a couple weeks though). Here are a few from our camera!

The Singles Ward....

One of our new responsibilities with Nick's calling is to attend the weekly Family Home Evening with the ward. I couldn't help but love what I saw in the church....

I think this is a lost and found someone made... There is some gum, an earring, a cell phone cover piece, lip gloss, a skittle, push pin, and tithing slip stuck to TAPE on the wall! OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Just had to share :)

Heart Attack!

I just have to start this post saying that we have some of the best friends in the world! We have so many friends that we LOVE hanging out with!!!

Last night we were chatting after the Chinese Party and we heard a knock on our door and people running away! Hesitant to answer the door... THIS IS WHAT WAS THERE!


Thanks for the treats too! We think we know who you are.... and you better watch out cause we might get you back!!!

Chinese New Year

Last night we headed over to Kirk and Kelli Blake's house to eat Chinese food! We had curry (some had deer in it....), egg rolls, pot stickers, plenty of rice, and we even got red envelopes! The Blake's are such fun party hosts - and their baby Kyden is the cherry on top!

Nick and Kyden


Group shots!



The Blake's


Cassie and Grace (Cassie's husband Trevor got called out to work :( we missed him!)


Nick and I


The ladies


And the guys!


We love any excuse to party and hang with our friends. Nick and I keep talking about us being too social! We just love hanging out with friends :)

Catching Up

I've been bad about taking pictures again. It's hard to find the balance between too many pictures and not enough!

Tyler came to visit last weekend and my mom and Mitch came yesterday. Next week Nick's parents are coming down and the week after we're planning to see my family again! It's so fun to spend time with our families catch up.

Life has been busy, but it seems like it always will be. After I graduated in 2009 I moved back home to Roosevelt while I job hunted. I was lucky enough to be able to work for my dad and my mom and I even started doing wellness presentations for some of his groups. It was so much fun to talk with people about being healthier - but, never fail, we always got the same question when we started talking about exercise. "How am I supposed to find 60 minutes a day to exercise... working full time and having a family makes it really hard!" Ever since I've started working exercise has been a struggle! And some days, I honestly don't know how people fit in exercise! It's so easy when we wake up and go before work/school... but waking up at 5:15 is rough and going to the gym at night is tough! We're working on it (1/2 marathon training starts Monday) but it's sure been a struggle to figure out how to make time for the gym sometimes. If we went to bed before 11 it might be easier to wake up early... hmm....

Things really have been great for us! We sold Nick's Trooper today because we decided that we only need 1 car. If we weren't living where we do and if we weren't working where we do we probably wouldn't have been able to make it easily with only 1 car.... but we are motivated to save money to someday buy another car!

I was looking through some pictures today and I came across this....

And then I saw this....


These pictures were a year ago at a Chinese New Year party - me with dark hair (...) and one of my first experiences with some authentic Chinese food! Nick LOVES chinese food! The good news is we are attending a Chinese New Year party tonight! I just may blow the dust off the camera and take it with :)