Wreath

St. Patty's Wreath

I decided to test my luck and try to use cardboard as a form.

This fabric came from a yard sale a few years ago. The lady having the sale was/is {can't be determined} a hoarder. She was getting rid of all her fabric. 

 I cut the cardboard without really measuring {it definitely was not even or perfect}. I was so scared it would look awful.

I made 70+ rosettes for this wreath! I put some on top of others to make it more of a 3D effect instead of flat. I watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey while doing this. {DA is SO good}. 

 It ended up looking better than I thought!

Trip

I went to visit Steph {Weston's sister} and Clark on Feb 16 in Albuquerque. They were there for Clark's last rotation for medical school. Grandma P joined us on the 18th.

We are so proud of Steph and Clark {and the boys} for getting through this crazy year. 

We did a lot of fun stuff. Here are some of the things we did: rode the train to Santa Fe, rode the Sandia Peak Tramway, drove past the Albuquerque temple in rain and snow {it was pink!}, and went to historic Old Town.

Grandma P's ring she got in Santa Fe. The middle is Amethyst and the sides are Opals.

We made some trips to Costco while we were there. Ethan and Caden were playing so well while we were there.

 Grandma P loves two of her great grandsons.

 Ethan wearing my sunglasses that I bought at a scary rundown shop.

 Caden and Ethan love to play with their dad.

 We have the cutest dog named Ethan.

 Thanks Tammy for the cute coat ;)

 Caden, Ethan, and Clark eating in Santa Fe. I didn't try any New Mexican food. A hamburger sounded so good. I am such a party pooper.

 GP and Steph

 Caden, Steph, Ethan and Clark on the train to Santa Fe.

 Oh just let me tell you about this shop {Kowboyz} in Santa Fe. Weston would have been in heaven there. Cowboy boots EVERYWHERE and lots of Ostrich and Alligator botas. AND cowboy snap-up {or off if you prefer} shirts. I bought Westy some shirts, but I left without botas. So many choices. I wish he was with us when we went there! 

 CC wearing my shades.

 Steph, CC and Clark on the train.

 Me taking a special shot of myself at the airport. I was waiting in the parking lot to pick up Steph and GP.

 I went in the bathroom to take my make-up off, pop in pills, and to brush my teeth. When I came out, my bed was made up like that. Thank you Steph and CLark for letting me use your quilt during the night. That was the nicest thing ever for you to sacrifice it from your bed! =charity.

 Steph helped me pick out this vintagy looking dress from Costco (of all places). I LOVE this kind of dress. 

Steph took me around to Anthropologie and Pottery Barn. I was in HEAVEN!

Some design ideas for Easter 

{hard to see but it says Happy Easter hanging from the branches on eggs}

 I LOVED looking in Anthro. Seriously! Did you know that {well at least in Albuquerque} the stores have classes where you can come in and help make the store decorations and displays?! We saw a group of ladies helping some Anthro employees the day we were in.

 Remember how my friend Kelsey made her own version of the bedspread above? The version at Anthro was stretchy.

The mustard pillows were SO gorgeous.

 Everyone keeps making the ruffled shower curtains (the blue and green above).

Owls!!!

Here are some videos from the trip:

Can you guess which is my favorite ?!

What a FUN trip. Thanks for letting me come :)

Valentines

We stayed home this Valentines. 

Home food is just the best.

Meg, Kelsey and I were at Ikea a few weeks ago and we spotted these ice trays. The trays were the perfect thing for my Valentine's drinks. 

I put {amazing} strawberries, that I bought at Costco,  into my food processor, added a little sugar and dumped it into the trays. I also dumped peach juice and chunks in a few hearts. Sprite Zero was the perfect liquid to use with the ice hearts.

I was inspired by this post, which I found on Pinterest.

Our main course was orange chicken. The orange chicken is a crockpot meal -that sounds horrible for Valentines right?!- I decided to spend more time on desserts than the main course. {I found the recipe and used it as one of my meals for my freezer meals group.} Try the recipe out and tell me what you think ;)


The dessert {chocolate mousse} was really good! I also found the recipe on Pinterest. 

Our next dessert/finger food was cheesecake stuffed strawberries. The recipe was also found in Pinterest {it is the place to be these days}.

I would definitely advise adding more sugar to the cheesecake filling; it wasn't as sweet as I wanted and I added as much as called for. Just add more sugar. Trust me!

I made Westy a candy bar arrangement as part of his Valentine's surprises. It was not even close to professional, but he liked it ;)
-I got the vase from the dollar store
-chocolate covered almonds from Costco
-candy bars from Walmart so I could get more of a variety
-I hot glued skewers to the back of the candy bars
-the tissue paper was also glued to the back of the candy bars to hide the skewers 
{told you I am so not professional ;) }

We went to the dentist {yes both of us!} on Valentine's Day {sounds so unromantic}, and our dentist gave us flowers! The flowers are STILL ALIVE! We love our dentist.


Also, my sister Brooke's birthday is on Valentine's Day. She spent it in Costa Rica. Happy 31st! 

Our Story

OuR StOrY condensed 

I moved into Raintree Commons in August of 2007. I had a missionary, so I had a different take on the dating scene. I wasn't dating to get married but to have fun. It made it so easy to go on dates because I was pretty confident in myself. 


One of the guys that I started liking was not even close within my standards. He was eight years older and had been married already {which neither of those matter except with a combination of things}. I hung out with him very often and the relationship was extremely superficial on both parts. He was *very* attractive and when we went to the hot tub, every single girl there would just stare at this guy because he had a 6-packs. {Oh my. I'm laughing writing this...}! I knew in my heart I shouldn't be hanging out with this guy. Long story short {I could go on and on about this}, I decided that I needed to let go.


In the midst of me hanging out with the guy mentioned in the paragraph above, I met Westy. I went to stake conference with my roomies and decided to sit by a guy {let's call him Tom} that I thought was cute. I left to get a drink, and when I came back some guy was sitting in my seat. I was really annoyed because I wanted to sit by Tom, but I decided to take advantage and chat it up with this guy that stole my seat. He would smile at everything I said, and he seemed so shy; I kind of liked it... This guy told me his name {Weston} and after that night, I didn't know if I would see him again. I didn't know that he was the roommate of Tom until I saw him there a few days later. We went on several dates after which would take forever to talk about, but I will say that I have never been treated so well in my entire life. Weston was the sweetest guy ever; he still is.

December 2007

We dated for seven months until a very sad night. We talked about marriage and he dumped me right on spot. I was so sad. One of my roommates kept me company and told me that I needed to get through this and there were other guys, but I was still sad. I called Weston and asked him how he was doing and he told me he was sad. I told him the same. Like two days later he called me and told me he wanted to talk to me.  We talked and decided to get back together and we were engaged two months after that chat.

The Search For the Perfect Ring

School ended, so Westy went to live with Grandma P and to work for the WHOLE summer. I thought I was going to die, but he came and visited me almost every weekend. One of those weekends, we went to Lagoon with Westy's family {minus James because he was on a mission and not married to Erica yet}. Steph had just had Ethan a few months before. Even though we were tired from a fun day, we knew we needed to go and look at rings at the place my sister got hers since we were close. Westy called the guy up and we set up an appointment with him. That was the first time we had looked at rings and the last. I had so many fun choices, but I knew that I loved "timeless" rings. It all came down to two vintage rings. One of them was a little less expensive with a smaller diamond and a little more expensive with a bigger diamond. Can you guess which I wanted more?! LOL. Okay, I loved both, but I liked the bigger better because it was GoRgEoUs. I told Westy he could choose for me {hoping he knew which I was leaning more towards}. He asked me to go outside, so he could discuss with the guy about my ring.


Westy and the ring fellow had a chat that went something like this:


Westy "So how does this all work?"


Ring guy "I will have you make a deposit to get the ring sized. When the ring is done being sized, I will accept cash to pay for the rest of the ring."


Westy "I now need to decide between the two rings."


Ring guy "You know which one she liked more, right?"


Westy "I think it was the bigger diamond."


Ring guy "You got this."

The pRoPoSaL

Westy gets a letter in the mail from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Westy gets home from work and notices a nice cut with a letter opener but nicely put back together {like it was never opened}. Keep in mind he was living with his Grandma.

Westy came and visited me like he usually did. I honestly thought it was going to be this particular weekend because it was getting close to the day that we had called and reserved for the Salt Lake Temple. But the weekend was over and he was leaving to go home. I was *very* disappointed. 

Westy called me an hour later and said he had forgotten his wallet and to go look in my car. I went and looked in my car, but I didn't find it, so I told him I'd look elsewhere. He then told me to go make sure because he knew he didn't have it. I went back out and looked in my car again. I found his wallet. BUT I have a very keen mind and connected right away that the wallet was on the driver's side and not the passenger.. HMM. I told West and told him that I found it. He told me that his cousin Nate was coming out to pick up a body {he was working with a mortician} tomorrow and that he would pick up the wallet. We set up a time and place for the next day {Monday, June 2}.

I went to work like normal and literally woke up 10 minutes before going to work. I was wearing a pink shirt and black stretchy pants {which was not a cute day for me}. I decided to call cousin Nate to make sure everything was going as planned, but he didn't answer. I told Weston at lunch that I called Nate and that Nate hadn't answer. Work ended and I was on my way to the location.

I got there, pulled in and looked around. I didn't see him. I was just sitting there until all the sudden someone was pounding on my window. I looked and to my surprise, Westy was there. He told me to get out and come with him. {in my head: UHHHH if he is proposing I'm going to be so mad because I look so gross}.

Westy took me up the canyon and told me we were going to go on a little hike.

We made a stop on the trail.

he gave me Gerbera daisies because he knew those are my favorite flowers.

He then carried me over a river to the next stop where he gave me a porcelain replica of the Salt Lake Temple.

Next, we went down the trail a bit and he had set up a blanket with a basket. He had gotten us Zupas for dinner: a salad for me and a sandwich for him. {I was slightly annoyed because he made it seem like he was just doing a fun dinner because he said he was paying me back for all the good dinners and surprises that I gave him}. We were done eating and he put on his iPod. We started dancing and a song came on which said "I'm going to love you forever." The next thing I knew, Westy was on his knee asking me to marry him. During this special moment a fisherman walked by.. WEIRD?!

----Sidenote: Later Westy told me he had seen so many snakes on his way up the trail that he was afraid that a snake would ruin it all. It may just have!!! I HATE snakes.

We were happily married August 23, 2008.