For my Dad

Happy late Father's Day Daddy!! I'm never on time, even when I was born, I was a couple weeks late.. So this is totally acceptable (:

Doing my 10 page research paper I learned a LOT about how much parental involvement effects children, not only through my research of articles and books, but even from personal experience. I don't know where I'd be without my Dad. He was my best friend growing up, I looked up to him in everything he did, and he was my hero. We never had a whole lot growing up, but I didn't even notice it. Maybe it was because I'm the youngest and was happy with having nothing but my life-size Barney, but I remember how much fun I had with my Dad, how he tried so hard to do my hair in the mornings, and yanno what? He did a DANG good job! He spent his work days working his butt off to provide the best for his kids, even if it was doing a job that he hated. I don't remember much from my childhood, and I'm not sure why, but the things I do remember I'll keep with me forever. The sacrifice and love my Dad gave for me and my siblings was unlike anything I've ever seen, and I will always appreciate it more than I'll ever be able to show. I've never seen anything but the best in my Dad, and I wish he could see himself like I do. He deserves so much more than he lets himself believe.

Daddy, I love you so much! I wish we lived in the same state so I could see more of you, but thank goodness for technology, right? Don't worry about me growing up and starting my own family.. I'll always be your little girl (:

Word Picture

How cool is this? It's my favorite picture of Cody and I made up with words from the story of our engagement! Here's the website if you feel like doing it too! I might get this printed and hang it up in our house somewhere(:

*UPDATE ON PRINTING*- I just printed this on a regular piece of copy paper, 8&1/2 x 11, and it was realllly pixelated. And I'm not too sure that getting it printed at somewhere fancy would really do much good either because downloading the picture from the website only gives one size option... unless there's some way to download a bigger one? I'll check into it!!

Work out update

I was super excited about the Air Force work out, and after doing it for two weeks straight, I saw a very sad result.. when I run, I find myself coughing a TON and it tastes like metal? And it stays for a few days.. So when I run more than one time a week, the cough stays for at least week. And I'm okay with coughing, but the metal taste might be blood? And that's not really okay with me. So I've decided to alter my workouts because it's just the running that I can't do. I'm upping my ab workouts (a lot..). I saw this on pinterest, and since a lot of pinterest things are fake, I went to her blog and saw that she's doing this workout. And she's getting results! Not huge, super fast weight loss results, because it's real, which means a little at a time. So I'm going to attempt this as my workouts each day: Walk for 30 minutes instead of the running/walking portion of the Air Force workout, and doing this whole ab workout. I'll take pictures of before and after, but probably won't put the before picture up until I have something super awesome to compare it to.. So maybe after 90 days? (; We'll see.

I WON!!

So, as far as I can remember, I've never won anything. Which is pretty sad, if you ask me. Well, I'm "friends" with Blickenstaff's on Facebook, and they have little things that you can write your comment and be entered to win either free candy, or free movie tickets from the Wynnsong Theater that's right next to Blickenstaff's. Well, the other day, they had this on their facebook:

 So naturally I looked at every other entry, and figured out that it meant Play Well. Cool huh? Never knew that before.

 Well to my delighted surprise, I WON!! I put that comment on there on the 13th of June and forgot about it until today, so I went back to their page, and saw this:

It's so cool to see my name like that(: So, Cody and I get to go see any movie of our choice!! Which is just so perfectly happy, because we never go see movies because it's too expensive! Not this time!! Hello date night (: Plus, remember when I posted a whole blog post about how much Cody and I love Blickenstaff's?? Well, because I did that, they're giving me a whole pound of free candy!! So now we can enjoy our movie with some yummy candy!!

*PS-Update on the owls- Well, we didn't see or hear them at our house last night, but Kaylee had them outside of her apartment! Apparently they were creepily looking at her little dog Trixie!! So cool that the owls were visiting us sisters(: MAYBE WE'RE WITCHES AND THEY ACCIDENTALLY FORGOT TO BRING OUR HOGWARTS LETTERS?!?!?!

Weekend fun!

So my plans for the weekend didn't exactly turn out the way I originally planned, but I'm totally fine with that! On Friday I went to the shop to pick up Cody but ended up getting there before he did so I went inside and hung out with his sister. It was really nice to just talk with her since we don't get to spend much time with them, which is a bummer because they're awesome! It was their anniversary weekend, and they were telling us how they were going to go to the outdoor drive in movies. Right before we were leaving to go home, they invited us to go with them! I didn't even know there were drive in movies in Utah! So we were super excited to go! So we left, and I've been craving a hamburger for quite some time now, so we decided to go out to Apollo Burger and my-oh-my, it was delicious! For the movies, it was a double feature for only $7 each. Ambre and Ryan were so kind and paid for us, and we saw Men in Black 3 and The Avengers. I was super against seeing Men in Black 3 because it looked like every other alien movie from the previews and I hadn't seen the first two.. But I'm so glad we saw it! It was so dang funny!! I really want to see the first two now! And by the time The Avengers came on, I was sooo tired! I tried so hard to stay awake, but I didn't make it. It was like a 3 hour movie! So we didn't get home until 3:00 in the morning.

Saturday morning we woke up at 11 and got ready really fast because Cody's Aunt was getting sealed to her parents! It was such a cool thing to witness, and I'm super grateful we were able to go! We went to Red Robin afterwards with the whole family (I LOVE their Clucks and Fries! Get it every time!) After that, I was acting like a little 3 year old, so I decided a nap was definitely necessary. The rest of the night was pretty low key, we went to a couple stores to get some errands done, and we ran into Cody's sister Alysa at Walmart! Fun little coincidence! We also bought blinds for our kitchen window!! Now our neighbors don't get to peek at us in our indecentness (:

Sunday was a good day too! It was my turn to teach the primary lesson, and I think it went super well! Had them go on a treasure hunt and they were all paying really good attention the whole time! When we came home, we took a LOOONNNNGGG nap and ended up being late to my family dinner. We had fun catching up with my side of the family, eating very yummy food! Then we headed over to Cody's parents and spent the rest of the day there with them, playing games, playing with the nieces and nephews, enjoying the nice weather and fun presents that Brian got to open. When we came home last night, I heard a really cool animal noise in our front yard, so we went out to look, and there was baby owls!! I think there was about 6 of them!! They were so dang cute! We tried taking pictures of them, but they didn't turn out too great since it was 11:00 at night.

So adorable!!

TGIF!

I'm really excited for today!! Vacuuming/dusting/cleaning the whole house (or as much as I can do in the next hour), then I'm headed over to Kaylee's to puppy sit again! I love that little puppy!! And so happy to watch her while I can before they move to Arizona at the end of this month! (And no Kayla, she doesn't chew everything up! She's the sweetest, most tame little puppy ever!!) And since she gets so tired so easily and sleeps for HOURS at a time, I'm determined to get a lot of homework done!! Then when Cody gets home, we're having Burrito BLT wraps, and then planting our garden! We have watermelons, cantaloupes, carrots and garden beans! I might go buy some lettuce and tomato plants today too, because we use those A TON and it'd be pretty sweet to not have to buy those anymore. What a fun date night, huh?!?! I really think so!! HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

Because pictures of cute puppies never get old (: Little Trixie climbing on my leg!!

Wedding Book

Go take a look! After HOURS of working on it, IT'S FINALLY DONE!!

(Let me know if this doesn't work)

Homemade Pizza

By now, you should know that I'm practically in love with Elise Blaha. She does every crafty thing you can think of; scrapbook, makes little paper books, embellishes in a unique way, bakes, cooks, sews, paints, builds.. Yeah, it keeps going. Anyways, she recently started a goal to make 40 pizzas, all with different toppings, just to try something new. She uses a whole wheat crust, and it sparked my interest. I've only tried a handful of wheat pizza crusts, and they've all been from when I worked at Pizza Pie Cafe. So I went out and bought some high altitude wheat flour, some pizza yeast from Walmart (that you don't even need to wait for rising time! Mix it all together and throw it in the oven!) and I decided to get started.

Now, just a pre-note, I've always hated homemade pizza. I think it just tastes awful and the texture is weird and.. there's really nothing good about it. 

With that said, here's what the pizza looked like: (as I was in the process of eating it)

AND IT WAS FREAKING DELICIOUS!! Seriously, the best pizza I've ever had. Even better than Pizza Hut.. which is saying a lot because that's the one pizza that I actually love. I guess I've found my knack of what I cook best? Or maybe it was just a fluke and I accidentally scored?? Either way, it was amazing. Cody thought so too, and he also dislikes homemade pizza.

Side note.. I had the dough all made, the toppings ready to put on, and realized I forgot to buy cheese! Duh! Who forgets cheese when making PIZZA!?? So I had to run to Costco super fast a buy a thing of cheese (that was freaking huge.. So it looks like I'll be making a lot of pizza in the next little bit)

Toppings:

• Great Value Classic Alfredo
• Sliced ham from Costco (for sandwiches) which I cut up into tiny pieces
• Pineapple chunks that I cut up into small pieces
• Mozzarella cheese
• An herb from my spice rack called Pizza Seasoning (fancy, huh?)

[^ I made up this pizza at PPC, and if you haven't tried it, it's seriously so good! Alfredo instead of classic red sauce, and then a normal Hawaiian pizza.. MMM:]

Dough: *If you buy those pizza yeast packets, they have a recipe on the back that I followed. But I'll give it to you just in case.

• 1-3/4 to 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I started out with one cup of wheat flour, then added small amounts that probably added up to 3/4 cup of white flour)
• 1 packet of pizza yeast
• 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup very warm water (120* to 130* F)
• 3 tablespoons oil

Preheat oven to 425*F
COMBINE 1 cup flour, undissolved yeast, sugar and salt in large bowl. Add water and oil. Mix until well blended; about 1 minute. (I don't have a Kitchen Aid or any type of dough making machine, so for this part I just used a good ol' wooden spoon)
ADD gradually, enough remaining flour until soft dough ball is formed. Dough will be slightly sticky. (And for this part, I mixed it with my hands)
KNEAD on a floured surface adding additional flour if needed, until smoothe and elastic; about 4 minutes. With floured hands, pat dough out to fill greased pizza pan , OR roll to a 12-inch circle and transfer to greased pizza pan (which is the option I did, because I have a fancy pan that can be used for pizzas!)
TOP as desired with pizza sauce, toppings and cheese.
BAKE on bottom oven rack for 12-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust is browned. (Mine took about 13 minutes to reach perfection, but obviously everyone's oven is different)

And when it comes out, wait a little bit so you don't burn your mouth off, but then eat this delicious pizza as soon as you can and enjoy every bite!

*But just remember that if you have normal yeast, you might have to alter this recipe a little bit. Or look at Elise's recipe, because she uses normal yeast that you have to wait for it to raise.*

Dog sitting!!

 Kaylee and Sean got the cutest little puppy the other day and they just so happened to need someone to watch her while they went to the gym and grocery store today. Of course I gladly volunteered!! Her name is Trixie and she's a French Bulldog, and she's so freaking cute!

Making the house - OUR HOME

I've had "Hang up wedding pictures" on my to-do list.. since we got married. Almost 5 months ago. So guess what I finally did? Hung the darn things up! 

I got the "Family is forever" from Hobby-Lobby for a Bunco party.. and chose my own gift! But I was having the hardest time figuring out where to put it! Also, got the subway art from Hobby Lobby and was having the same struggles. As well as with the pictures and where to put them.

I am in love with the placing and spacing and everything about these! They're up in our "play/craft room" right above our box full of sports equipment.

I'm not so in love with this.. but we've had the left side done for a while, but the right wall has been blank. And this picture of us is big enough to be by itself and take up enough room.. I might keep adding to it though.

I finally figured out what to do for the open space above my sink! This is what I wanted to have for our wedding as our backdrop, but using ribbon instead of fabric but it was going to be too much work and too expensive. But I found all of the fabric and paper cranes in my house! (Cody and I started making the cranes when we were engaged, then forgot about them) It may look ghetto to you, but I LOVE IT! And it ties in the colorful things all randomly placed in our kitchen!

Strips of fabric, colorful paper cranes. Cute and easy (:

I'm really liking not having a job again so I can explore my creativity with the little that we have at our house. 

And a random update on the Air Force work out that I talked about last week. I've been doing it!! Technically 3 times last week, and then we went to Lagoon on Saturday and I consider it another day of the work out. We were there for about 8 hours, walking everywhere, getting an ab workout from screaming and laughing my brains out on every ride, and eating our healthy, cheap, packed lunch while everyone else spent $10 for a meal that should have normally costed maybe $3.

Anyways, moral of the story.. I LOVE this workout routine! So simple to do and I feel the effects right away! And you don't need a gym membership to do it! Seriously, start it now!! You won't regret it!

Summer Vacations

Aren't vacations just so lovely!? We bought our tickets to Washington last night! We were originally planning on driving, but we just got a pretty good deal on the flights, and since I HATE HATE HATE driving, flying was a no-brainer! Now we're going from driving for two entire days down to driving 4 hours to and from both airports and 4 hours on both planes (: Now that's my kind of traveling! We are incredibly blessed to be able to spend 9 and a half days there! I can't even describe how excited I am to not only see my family, but have my amazing husband by my side the entire time! We're going the end of July through the first week in August, so I'll be there for my birthday! We're already planning some boating sessions, trips to Seattle, and possibly even a camping trip! Gosh I miss Washington!

For our wedding, my Mom and Kevin gave us two free nights in a condo up in Park City, and we're hopefully going to be able to spend a weekend in August up there, away from everything we have going on. Go hiking, go out to eat.. we're going to have fun! I've only been to Park City once for a day when I visited Kaylee on my 16th birthday I think it was. We had fun, and now, (well I sound like a broken record) I get to experience it all with my husband! Everything's so much better with him (:

And, this isn't a vacation, but we're going to Lagoon this weekend! I've never been there, but I've heard so much about it from everyone and their dogs! One of Cody's really good friends was able to get us tickets for $15 when they're normally up in the $40s! So we're heading up there at 10 in the morning and going to have such a blast!

WE LOVE SUMMER!!

Planty plants

As I've mentioned a million and two times, our yard is BEAUTIFUL with all the different types of flowers! And I've been getting kind of obsessed with them and plants in general. I decided that I'm going to plant a garden next year! I can't wait!

I have the cutest visiting teacher and she brought me this adorable little plant! It's in this little jar with rocks and water, and that's all it needs! No dirt or sun even! It likes the shade! So we keep it in our kitchen and it makes me so happy to see it! I love plants!

We have three huge flowering trees in our side/back yard and they have HUGE LEAVES!

Cutest husband award! I came home to one of every flower from our yard just laying on my side of the bed! So sweet!

I arranged them into a cup of ours, because I don't even own a vase! Such a pretty arrangement!

A few weeks later, my little plant is growing so much! I love seeing the progression it's making!

 Last Saturday was a little rough for me, and I ended up having my monthly "cry your eyeballs out" session. Cody was so sweet to just sit there and cuddle with me for the entire thing. I love him so much. Anyways, when you're feeling depressed, what will cheer you up? FLOWERS! And especially flowers that don't cost anything (: Have I mentioned how much I love our yard??

Our adventures that include food!

Sometimes we like food, and lots of times I like to take pictures of our food. So, here's a post dedicated to just that.. Ladies and gents, I present:

 OUR FOOD!

You've had eggs in a basket, right? Ghost style, right here!

Here's the recipe for this yummy Pizza Casserole. I cut it in half and it was still too much for the two of us.

Pizza Casserole from Pinterest! So yummy!

Our friend Matt had a birthday and invited us to go to dinner and Nickel City with them. I've never been a fan of Chili's until this time!

Cody's delicious quesadilla type things. He loved it!

Best salad ever! Don't remember what it was called though.

We love date nights (: Especially the ones that involve going out to a restaurant! We got a flier in the mail for a yummy looking hamburger at Rumbi, so we decided to try it out!

New hawaiian burger from Rumbi! Pineapples and all! Yummm!

My stomach wasn't feeling good at all, so I only at a few bites, then gave the rest to Cody.

Sometimes when I'm looking through Pinterest, I find these pictures of food that look so good. And this time, I made my own version of this. I still want to make the original recipe too!

Wheat toast with cream cheese and a tomato on top.. Wasn't as good as I was thinking but not awful!

Cody wanted the brats that have been in our fridge for a while, so we pulled out a can of pears, emptied it, soaked a paper towel in nail polish remover and lit it on fire to have a mini bon fire to roast the brats on!

Not the best smelling, but the nail polish remover didn't get into the food!

Boy oh boy!

I have some catching up to do! And I'm going to put them into a few sections. Games/activities/people, Food, and Plants (:

GAMES/ACTIVITIES/PEOPLE:

BATTLESHIP! We bought a ton of games from DI for super cheap, battleship being one of them! And, BONUS.. it's not missing any parts! Except one of the pieces got bitten by a dog or something, so you can't put the little red pins in it. But that's fine (: It was definitely worth the $1.50 or $2 we spent on it! Also, Cody's a freak of nature at this game! He always sinks all of my ships by the time I only have like two of his.. And no, I don't put the ships in the same place every time..

Google+ has really cool editing features.. And makes me want this color of hair..

I love this man!

CREEEEPPY! (Glad I found myself a man that will sit in front of a camera forever taking silly pictures! :)

Next on the agenda: Painted Keys

I got this idea from.. wait for it.. PINTEREST! Of course (: Anyways, I thought it was such a good idea because I have a ton of silver keys, and it sucks to sit at your door at night when it's cold trying to figure out which key is the right one. So I got my nail polish and went to work!

Good idea, but holding them until they dried wasn't very fun..

Lazy saturdays are very common around these parts of town. We are known to stay in bed until 12 or 1, then watching movies or playing games in our house. Well, this particular Saturday was just that! Cody's brother Austin came over and they decided to set up the army men all over the front room and shoot them with our rubberband guns.

Well, they didn't get them all with the rubber band guns, so they brought out all the other sports balls we had in our sports box!

Hahaha, they didn't realize what this looked like..

So they decided to re-pose (:

The after-math

There was a small spider on the ceiling, so Cody tried shooting it with the dart guns that stick to things. He eventually got it too!

You know in the movies when people slip on a bunch of marbles or small balls? That's exactly what happened here. I was getting up from the couch, (as I was playing "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer on the guitar) and KABOOM! Down I went. Quite hilarious.  

We decided it was time for a new look with Cody's facial hair.. Hitler mustache anyone? (Don't worry, he shaved it RIGHT off :)

This dog was hilarious looking! Pulled into the parking lot, and he looked like a human just sitting there! It was much funnier in person!

Shaylin, stop being a creeper. This is the guy from the Kid History youtube videos. Just driving right by us on the freeway.

Driving down to Delta for the demolition derby! And... I'm blonde again! Brown just wasn't working. 

My first demolition derby!

It was freezing! I ended up putting on Cody's huge coat and was STILL cold. Learned my lesson for sure!

Main event of the night. This truck hit the bottom truck, got him all the way upside down, and almost drove all the way over him!