Four Birthdays and a Wedding

it was a crazy week with ross's birthday and sam's wedding. both were great events. for ross's birthday i decorated the apartment with balloons and signs and made him his favorite cake. i also had lunch with him at his school which was fun to be able to spend that time together during the day. he asked for a wii game and a remote control jetski (haha yes he turned 27.....) so i wrapped up the game and set it all out for him to open when he got home. the jet skis should be pretty great at lake powell, i got him two so he and the other "grown up" boys could race each other.



notice that they numbers are different, that would be because i got him a 6 instead! haha luckily i realized it when i was picking up the balloons


i used red frosting to write happy birthday and of course put some hearts on it but it kinda melted and the hearts started bleeding (haha a little bit more halloween-y than birthday, but, being the sweetheart that he is, he didnt mind)



i couldn't bring myself to not get him something that had a recommended age over 12 so i made him a frame that says "i love you because..." and then you write things with a dry erase marker so you can put new things. at first he was kinda confused but i think he appreciates it now and its been good for me to make more of an effort to come up with different reasons to tell him how i love him. all of the boys in the wedding party got together that night so i was all alone for a while, so of course i got all my paint stuff together and put a few more coats of primer on my work-in-progress cabinet. (cant wait till its done!! sooo excited! turquoise.....love it) the cake turned out really good, thanks to mallory's cream cheese frosting recipe!

the next day was sam and erin's wedding at the logan temple. it was nice to have ross for the whole day in the middle of the week! i went and got my hair done so that it wouldn't be ruined when it rained that day, it was fun to get all dressed up and have my hair done, since my repertoire extends to ponytails or braids. my mom brought up my AMAZING turquoise shoes (i think i have a wee obsession with turquoise lately) and it was love at first sight! they are so great! and thanks to erin for letting me wear them since they didn't match the colors of the wedding (she's pretty great!!) . the wedding was so beautiful and it was so wonderful to be there with the rest of my siblings watching sam make a wonderful choice that will bring him so much happiness! erin is a great woman and we are a so excited to welcome her into the powell fam. plus her family is so great, it was fun to get to spend two days getting to know them better. i had so much fun playing with hudson and ellie! they are so big and talk so much! ross and i had fun chasing them around and playing with them. ellie is so cute now that she can talk a little bit. it was so great to get to see them again. so the wedding and dinner and reception went off without a hitch! it was a great few days. the reception at thanksgiving point was funny because all the people i knew didn't recognize me! there were so many people that thought i was a cousin who looked just like me (kinda weird i know), i guess it was the dark hair....

one year married! wahoo!!!

the man of the hour....look at that bow tie! so great
brett and mikalla came all the way down to lehi for the reception and it was so great!!! we had a lot of fun catching up and my mom is grateful brett took all those pictures for her! haha

ross took this picture of hudson and i. haha we were showing off our teeth, i love hudson's fangs! they are so cute and just like my dads. we had a blast playing with them
but many people said that marriage must agree with me because i looked so happy. that was great to hear because i am so happy and it does agree with me! haha. it was fun watching sam and erin because it made me think of the past year and my decision to get married to ross. i am amazed at how great it has been and what a great choice i really did make. (not to get mushy or anything) he is so great and i am so lucky that he picked me out of all the girls who were competing for him! marriage has been a new challenge but i am so glad i took that step and trusted my heart and Heavenly Father because i have been rewarded greatly! it seems so weird that our first year of marriage is over! its great and i am so excited for they years and challenges ahead.

the saturday after the wedding we had a party at the menloves for liam, grandma rudd, ross and becca's birthdays.. it was so much fun!! sara is a wonder-mom who threw an adorable train themed party which we joined in on. the food was wonderful and the company even better! it was nice to see everyone and to catch up. its crazy to me that porter is walking now, he seems so big! we went miniature golfing and that was really fun. the ski ball was calling my name and ross and i played a few rounds. i won the jackpot on a different game and got 890 tickets! i was pretty proud but not surprisingly there wasnt any thing good for all those tickets! so we are saving them so we can go back and play some more skiball! we had a lot of fun at the party and appreciate the chance we had to spend time with the menlove clan.

it has been a fun few weeks and we are now looking forward to st george and lake powell, so i am sure i will have more to post shortly

P.A.

Ok so one of the main reasons why I took so long to post was my new found addiction to a certain web site introduced to me by a coworker….pintrest.com. I am now looking for a pintrest anonymous aka P.A. cuz I need one! This site is so great! It is a bunch of people posting things that are interesting or things they like. There are cool pictures and good ideas, there are funny signs and beautiful things. There are tutorials and great recipes. Well I am all full of crafting zeal now! I have to many great ideas that I am bursting to try out. Instead of spending my time at work updating my blog I spend it searching for interesting things….ugh. well all I can say is I am glad I didn’t come upon this before I finished school because it would have been even harder to concentrate on homework! But keep in mind you have no control over the content and there are some stupid things people post (of course a good thing is always spoiled) but I had to post some of my faves that I have found. I am sure this will become a frequent post since pintrest is like internet crack to me now.

so, so true

haha hello college?? totally sums up pintrest!!

Shout out to Jake and Jen

hear hear!

this makes me think of Ross

i am in love with this. i makes me laugh every time i see it! someone is very clever

this one is for my mom. the caption said cat storage. :) i want a cat so bad it hurts and this web site has made it worse! (if that is possible)

genius!!

this reminds me of Ross

i have a new found love of buttons! i want to a) raid my mom's and grandma's button collection and b) try this!

GBH I miss you

this one i HAD to post cuz it totally reminds me of my mom (especially the last bit)

totally want to do this

sheep made out of cauliflower! so clever

hahahhahha i LOVE this! i hope i have a kid with big cheeks so we can do this someday

stinkin cats! i want one!

hahahahaha i love love love this one! so true and makes me think of my wee bro sam every time. it says "sometime in your life you'd wish you were british and no one really knows why that is"


k--i totally cant wait to have a girl who loves dress up and we can do this. its so cute!

this one was in honor of mom and Katie at work....he he he he

Moving On, Moving Up

Wow I have been terrible at updating my blog lately! It has been a crazy few weeks!!! First off I graduated! Whaaaa???? Me finally graduating? Who whoulda thought it would finally come! It was a stressful week because we I spent most of the week, while not working or doing my TA job, packing and moving all our boxes of stuff. Saturday was the day we were to move all our big stuff with the help of dad’s trailer and many hands (therefore making light work, haha). So by Saturday I was pretty beat but Friday night we had the help of Megan and some big cowboys to move some stuff so we were able to sleep in our new apartment in Smithfield. Saturday started off with the tradition of walking from the A to the Spectrum for commencement. I didn’t want to go to commencement so I just walked the other way, but it was so wonderful to see Ross and Megan cheering me on from the side as I walked with all my fellow graduates. I didn’t think I would care about it but I actually really loved participating in the tradition. It was also great to see my old stilts roomies! It seems crazy to think that we all graduated, and that we all ran into each other while we were waiting to walk…it was a pretty great moment!

all the roomies! i love alica's baby bump! so cute! i had just woken up and driven there so i look terrible next to everyone else who was all ready. it was embarrassing! but totally worth the photo moment

i am just so flattered by this outfit!

Heather was one of my old roomies and we were both in the college of HaSS so we were able to walk together to the spectrum

So then we moved Sam into his new married apt :) and then we moved our furniture. Then it was off to graduation! I was pretty nervous on the drive there! What if I tripped over my beautiful new heels?? That would just be embarrassing! But I didn’t….thank goodness!! The ceremony wasn’t unbearably long and went off without incident. It was a fun day and so great to know that I had accomplished one of the goals I had always set for myself. There are so many people who helped me accomplish it and I am so grateful for all the support. Here are a few pics from the day….

"please dont trip, please dont trip"

"oh no I am getting closer"

"whew, I made it, now I just hope Dr. Damen says my name right!"

"haha i made it!!" this is Dr. Jones and he was so great to me as an undergrad! he helped me so much and inspired me to be a better historian"WHAT?! another incline! dont trip, dont trip"

"sweet I made it!"

The hubby..looking proud I hope. Plus I had to get a pic of the flowers! I am a sucker for roses! Thanks Ross! :)
The parentals...looking proud I hope

The Menlove's! It was so great to have them there and it meant so much to have them, Megan, Sam, the Doutre's and my wee bro Sam and Erin there to support, I felt so loved!
My bosses at the ticket office made me and the other graduates a sign that they posted on the second floor. I was pretty excited to see it! A bunch of random people asked me if i was one of them when we were taking this picture, I thought that was pretty funny
Ever since I was a freshmen in Pine View I saw graduates take pictures next to the bull and it was something on my to-do list. I am glad that we did, i love the pictures!
AWWW they are just so cute!!! I literally could not have accomplished this without their love, support and "donations". Thank you Mom and Dad!!!
Challenge set and matched. woot woot!! :)