Tulip Festival

Tulips have always been my very favorite flower and so I was so happy when Rachel and I got to go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point last week while I was at home. It was BEAUTIFUL!! Need I say more?

Jacob was SO excited when I laid him in the grass to play. He was simply fascinated with the pokey green things tickling his fingers. Ah, the simple things of life!

I have considered myself very lucky since I can count on just two hands the amount of times this little guy has EVER spit up in the last five months. But this time was right as Rachel was taking our picture. I love his face... "Whoops, did I do that?"

So smiley!

Thanks for bringing your camera, Rach! I loved our day out! (And I know you LOVE this pic!)

5 Years Ago... (With the old pics added)

5 Years ago, today, was one of the greatest days of my life. Stephen and I got engaged. I never really recorded the story, so here it is...

We had met the summer of 2003 and became good friends during the next school year (my junior year at BYU.) My roommates and his hung out daily and eventually we just clicked and started dating seriously.

Meanwhile my sister, Rachel, was already engaged to Aaron and they were busy planning a wedding for April of 2004. Stephen felt like he should wait until they were married before he asked me. He had the ring and kept it quite a secret for some time. In fact, one night in the car we were talking about marriage and (the tricker in him!!) he kept saying that it was going to have to be a while before we even talked about marrying. Well, the night of April 23rd came around, My sisters beautiful wedding and reception were over and we were cleaning up.

He got in the elevator with my mom and dad and told them he was going to ask me that night- he couldn't wait any longer. (I guess the wedding made him too excited:) So after we cleaned up the reception we got home exhausted. He told me he wanted to go for a drive.

We drove around Provo after midnight for a while, going no where in particular, which was a normal thing for us to do. We picked up some slurpees at 7-11 and kept driving and talking. Then he told me he wanted to go to a place special to both of us.

(I know this is totally "small town" of us, but during the early days of us dating, we were driving around one night and came to this hidden old train yard in south provo. We were somewhat of adventurers and thought it would be fun to get out and climb around and explore. (Shhh, don't tell about our trespassing!) We laughed a lot and he tried scaring me a few times saying that someone was right around the corner or something. We sat up on this platform at the front of the train and just talked for a long time. We also had our 2nd kiss ever there. It felt like we were in a movie under the starry sky. I came home all giddy and woke up my roomate to tell her about our random and totally fun night. We came back to this place every now and again just to reminisce. One night we went back, and Steve (with the romantic in him) turned on his music from his car and asked me to dance up on the same platform. (Funny- a guy who worked on the train yard drove passed, stopped, and asked "Hey! What are you doing up there?" Stephen, a loss for words, said..." Oh, just....dancing." The guy laughed, told us to be careful and then drove on.)

So, to make a long story even longer- this was a special place for us. The night of the 23rd of April, 2004, we drove to this place, got out and climbed up to the platform under the stars. I totally did not expect it, but after a few minutes he started telling me how he wanted to be with me forever and I was the girl of his dreams. He couldn't imagine his life without me. He got down on his knee and pulled out the most beautiful ring. He asked me to marry him. I started laughing and crying at the same time, of course, and said yes with the biggest hug ever! It wasn't a huge production. There were not violin players behind the train, or thousands of roses everywhere, but it was just the two of us and absolutely perfect. I love you, Stephen, and ever so much more than on that day.

We took this the morning after we got engaged.  We look SO young!

Easter Fun and Trickery

I know I am a bit late to post about Easter Sunday, but I just wanted to put these pics up and write a little about the day, because it was wonderful!

First of all, Stephen gets such a kick out of tricking me. Each year we take turns doing an Easter Basket for the other. Last year was my turn and I got all sorts of goodies- but was too sick (pregnant) to eat any of it. Bummer!! So, With Steve being so super busy this year (a little bit spacey sometimes), on Saturday (day before Easter mind you) he asked who was in charge this year. So I said, "Are you serious? I told you last week it was your turn. Ok, lets just go to the store and get some candy and do it together this year." So we did. But he didn't let us get hardly any treats because he said we might as well wait until they go on sale after Easter. I didn't argue, (though I was secretly upset he wouldn't let me buy any cadburies!) We filled some plastic eggs right there in the living room and he just put the basket next to the couch. The next morning it was in the exact same place. I thought- well, he could have at least hid it! After breakfast he told me I had to start searching for my Easter Basket. Yep, He had indeed hidden a different, very full basket of goodies for me somewhere around the house. I looked and looked and after a very long time became stumped and "gave up." We had to play "Hot and Cold" until he led me to the Costco Box of diapers hidden in our storage area in the kitchen. He had taken some of the diapers out and covered the basket. I am so sure. Like I EVER would have looked THERE!! It was a fun morning and I sure appreciated the surprise effort. Little things like that make me so happy inside.

After a great day at church we went over to our Home away from Home, the Wood's house. They had a little easter egg hunt and then a delicious ham dinner. Thanks Karrie and Jim! You guys are so nice to take care of us while we are away from our families!

We hadn't taken any family photos in a while so we snapped a few before we left....

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and could enjoy the beautiful spring season and promises that come with Easter.

We are BACK!!

Hello my friends! Thanks for visiting our new (yet old) blog. We decided to come on back to blogger, so hopefully it will help out those who use Google Reader and others who use PC computers. I am hoping I can still reconstruct this a bit, to make it more fun and "cutsie" like all my friends... but we shall see. Hope all is well with you all!

Most People Use Blogger (from former blog)

But we just had to be different and try out the .MAC option.... which had many problems when it switched to Mobile Me.... and now that the new ILIFE is out there seem to be even MORE problems.  I have always been a fan of Mac stuff- but come on people!  Seriously.  I am sure many of you have chosen to skip visiting my blog for more reasons than my boring writing!!

So the time has come to renew our Mobile Me account.  Dare I?  Probably not.  I love the many options it gives, but Blogger has become a lot more user friendly and interesting in the last year.  I wonder if people will update their links to our page IF we do switch to a new blog address.  Do you care enough?  I am saddened to see some of my cousins still have my link from my first blogger account on your blogs from over a year ago.  If it is possible to comment..... tell me what you think I should do.  If you can’t comment.... then I guess that makes my decision doesn’t it!!

Grrrr.

Hodgepodge (from former blog)

Blogging becomes difficult when the owner of the blogging laptop is absentee from 7:00 am to 9:30 pm daily. I have a bunch of random things that at one time I had something to “say” about.... but now I just have these random pictures and one liners. Bloggable? Perhaps.... though probably not. This can be a quick one, Friends, in fact feel free to skip. But I felt like I needed to fill in some blogging gaps. Here are my mini-posts in chronological order all meshed into one.

Mini Post 1: A lot of people are getting into the photography scene, which is cool- because if you have a great camera, cute people, and know how to use photoshop you can come up with some pretty neat things for a lot cheaper than the big guys. Stephen and I did our brother Eric’s and his fiance Taylor’s engagement pics. We were really proud of our great work.

Here are a few faves:

We went to the Parade of Homes while in St. George. Ok. Pretend you were a millionaire and had a home theater in your huge house. Is this what you would choose to put in your snack bar?

Stephen cozied right up, but I was a little frightened of this grandma maniquin.

Mini Post 2: Ok, random I know..... but-

I am the last girl between age 15-50 to start reading TWILIGHT. I must admit, I am slightly captivated. Haven’t seen the movie yet- and tell myself not to until I finish. I took this on my birthday when we got home from Disneyland... I thought it was pretty funny.

Mini Post 3: Babies, Babies, and More Babies...

Earlier this month I was up in Utah for my cousin Tiff’s and Lani’s baby shower. Little Jazmine on the left- two weeks old, my chub Jacob 3 months old, and little Houson 1 month old. And no, Jacob did not sock him in the jaw right before this picture. His arms are just.... flailing a little.. and cute Houston was just.... screaming a little.

Being at home was really fun.... except for when everyone became anti-social.

Mini Post 4: Disney What?

I know- totally ridiculous. My siblings came down for another Disney trip. We celebrated Steve’s birthday for him while he was doing a Dental Clinic up in Terra Bella for the weekend.

Glad he could make it back for a little Wii time back at the beach house. Gotta love the Raving Rabbids dance off.

Here we are mimmicking a group of teenage girls we saw posing in front of the Castle at Disneyland. They all had matching princess shirts with their sequined names on the front. They really took themselves seriously and we had to snicker a little.

Mini Post 5: Happy St. Patricks Day

What would a post be without one of the latest and greatest pics of my favorite little one? He is getting so smiley and I am loving him more every day- he is incredible!!