My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. It was such a sweet day. I got calls from friends and family I woke up to a sweet note from Kyle and when I checked my e-mail he had sent me a gift card so I could get coffee before work. He knows me!

The first graders wrote me happy birthday cards. They were sweet and so funny. 

Some of the cards said things like, "I love you, do you know your abc's?" "Zack thinks you look 32, but I think your 18" "happy birthday, I'm having a bad day"

The Tracy's got me flowers and a gift card to Hobby Lobby. I am SO thankful for them, honestly an amazing family that I am blessed to know.

My sweet friend Megan made me this!!! She is so talented and thoughtful. It is EXACTLY what I wanted, and I know she made it better than I could have.

Bri sent me chocolate covered strawberries with one of the sweetest cards ever :) I miss her.

Then the best present, Kyle came home with dinner, dessert and flowers, a perfect present and  he was home early enough we got to enjoy the night together. 

Birthday celebration day in Newport

I have a fantastic husband. He invited 2 dear friends down for an early birthday celebration and then surprised me by taking us to Newport after church. He rented a boat! He knows me so well. Then we rented one of those 4 seater bikes and rode all around before dinner. SUCH a fun day!

Steve and Lauren.... Steve and I are birthday twins!

blurry, but they are just so cute...especially Lauren

the captain :)

This little kid was a pro! We were all very impressed

on the back of the "Siri"

the boys playing chinese fire drill except they couldn't touch the ground because it was lava...

also, they are just obsessed with climbing!

point proven!

just a quick stop for a work out

I let people borrow my boat for the day.... i wish!

Proposal/Family

I'm pretty behind on blogging, but this is my attempt at catching up. Kyle and I have had some fun weekends. 

At the beginning of the month we went up to L.A for a surprise engagement party! One of Kyle's best friends got engaged and it was so fun to be there with them as they celebrated. I failed and didn't take any pictures. BUT... I did take a couple of pictures of our next day when we saw the Talcott's. Kyle and I love our time with our nieces and nephews. Unfortunately Elijah, Vanessa, and Amelia are in Idaho so we don't get to see them as often (but Aunt Bek-Bek is coming!) 

I Didn't get pictures of the proposal night, but I did get some of the boys the next morning at breakfast. These friends have been such a blessing! (and for some reason Colton is always wearing his north face jacket WHENEVER I want a picture of him, and it glows)

Sweet Daniel with his mouth full of food. He is good at posing for the camera though, sometimes he even says "cheese"

He takes a little bit after Abigail when it comes to posing for pictures. But I just see this and want to squeeze him! What a precious boy.

Playing with David and Daniel is one of our favorite things.  It was just a fun family day. We hung out around the house and then all (by all I mean Dan, Katie, Deb, Kyle, Me and the boys) piled in the van and went to Costco. Yes, Debbie did get on the cart with Davy and was pushed around by Dan. 

Then it was off to the Habit for dinner. YUM!

Skyping With Abigail/ Vanessa's Birthday

This morning I skyped with my little sister.

I got to listen to her play the recorder.

She got to watch me bake a coffee cake.

We got ready for our day together. We did our hair, brushed our teeth, picked out our clothes ( she thought it was pretty cool that we both use deodorant now).... all the while laughing and being silly.

Abigail is 16 years younger than me, and so as you can probably guess there are times when she feels a bit like an only child. 

I LOVE these moments when I can become 9 years old again and play with her.

She also showed me all the decorations and food for Vanessa's (my niece) 2nd birthday! 2 years ago today I was in Glendale waiting for her early arrival. Looking at her today you would never have guessed that she was a premature. She is one strong little girl. I wouldn't be surprised if she could do a pull up.

Vanessa is very feminine.She is gentle and sweet. She loves being Elijah's little sister, but loves being Amelia's big sister. She likes to have things explained in great detail to her. I think that's a combination of the influence of her mom and nanna. They both explain things step by step to her. I noticed when I was home for Christmas that if Vanessa was a little fussy all I had to do was gently tell her everything that was going on. She would immediately relax.

I love you Vanessa and wish you the happiest of second birthdays!

sick day 2

What do you crave when your sick?

For me I want Kyle to hold me, my grandma to scratch my back, my Dad to let me sit on his lap, Lisa to make me soup.. in short I want my family.

(I called my Dad last night, he said he'd have to put something in my water to make me sick all the time if it meant me calling all the time.)

I also crave things that remind me of my childhood. Like watching Harry Potter or The Sound of Music. 

I clearly become pretty needy when I'm sick. 

I also become unnecessarily and embarrassingly emotional. Last night kyle was making me some soup from a can. He thought that now that we're making a meal a week together he'd put his culinary skills to the test. After all, he was left alone in the kitchen without me telling me what to do. 

He decided to get a little crazy and added rosemary to my chicken noodle soup. 

This made me cry.

Yes, cry.

Yes, I'm embarrassed.

He asked me why I was crying.

Didn't he understand that adding rosemary to the chicken noodle soup was un-necessary? (much like my crying)

Think I'm pathetic yet? It gets better.

Sweet Kyle, after working all day and coming home to an emotional wreck of a wife decided to ignore my criticism of his cooking and started cleaning the kitchen for me. 

My response? ... you guessed it. I cried. I asked him why he couldn't just come cuddle me.

Poor man, I wouldn't have wanted to cuddle me either. And yet he did. 

Kyle slightly blames my dad for this. He thinks I was a bit spoiled (my dad would wholeheartedly agree) I never had to ask for a hug in my life. My dad gave them freely. In fact I had a sister who used to ask us NOT to hug her.

Well time to go shower, I'm hoping to be more of a "site for sore eyes" for kyle tonight than I was last night.

sick day

It's coming to the end of the school year and so people where I work are taking a little advantage of the sick days they had piled up. 

I started thinking about taking a "sick day " with Kyle. 

I got one today. Except I'm actually sick with the flu. Body aching, head throbbing, fever, nose and eyes running.. In fact I took a break from writing this short post just to rest. 

Between naps I am doing my best to clean the house so Kyle doesn't get sick. In about twenty minutes I might be taking the sheets out of the washer and putting them in the dryer.  

On a lighter note I found out something kind of funny last night. Since Kyle and I started dating I thought he didn't like painted fingernails, only toenails. For 3 years now I haven't painted my nails except the occasional french tips which were approved by Kyle.

For some strange reason I painted my nails yesterday. I asked Kyle if he minded. He said they looked great! The only thing he doesn't like are fake nails, but that I should paint my nails more often... Who knew. 

Well, time for another nap. 

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Today is a bread baking day! I've already posted my Honey Whole Wheat Bread Recipe, so I thought I'd share my Whole Wheat Banana Bread. I love it! 

Whole Wheat Banana Bread:

3 ripe bananas (mashed)

4 Tbs buttermilk (this isn't a MUST, but I think it makes the bread better)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1/4 cup shortening

1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

(crushed walnuts optional)

Sometimes I also make a mixture of flour, brown sugar, oats that I sprinkle on top of the bread before baking.

Easter Weekend

What a wonderful weekend!

Friday was the Good Friday service at our church. After work I met up with my friend and helped her with the decorations for the Good Friday service and the Easter Service. It was so fun to serve with her! We are really glad that our church had a Good Friday Service, it was a great time to stop and focus on Christ's work on the Cross for us.  Kyle and I love being with our church body. I could talk about the church we go to forever! We love them more and more all the time. We have been truly blessed to be surrounded by such believers! 

Saturday was a baby shower for a friend of ours. I had the privilege of planning it with some sweet friends. I think the best part was being able to do something that really blessed the mother. 

After the shower me and the other planners came to my apartment. Our husbands went climbing and we took naps on the couch.. we needed it.

Then Easter Sunday came!!! I LOVE Easter! It might just be my favorite holiday. I love dedicated to celebrating the Resurrection. I also love that it's always on a Sunday. We always celebrate Easter with other believers and as fun as the little traditions that surround Easter are, they don't seem to take over the meaning of the day. 

We spent the day with the Tracy's and Tinahui's, but that's a post all it's own. I couldn't think of better people to have enjoyed Easter with.

Good Friday

C.J. "The Scream of the Damned"

Great sermon to focus your mind on Good Friday and Easter

Steak Dinner/Movie date night

I told you awhile back that Kyle wants to learn how to cook and that we are going to start cooking together. Our goal is to cook one meal a week together. Well yesterday was our day. I was in our gym (our apartment complex has a gym, not our personal gym. hahaha.  anyways...) when I got the a text from Kyle that said "don't make dinner." 

When I was done with my workout I walked back to our apartment right as Kyle was coming home and he was carrying fun surprises. Steak, red wine, and a movie.

We had a blast cooking together and having a little mid-week date night. 

This isn't my picture, although honestly it looks almost identical to our finished product. 

YUM!!! Dinner was so good, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy wasn't so bad either. 

Recipe:


1. Kyle and I patted down our cut of steak with a paper towel. I'm not sure if you need to do that or not, but we like to. It just absorbs a bit of the extra juice and helps the spices stick to the meat.

 2. Next we rubbed salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary onto the meat.

3. In a large skillet we melted butter on high heat (You can just call me Paula Dean) and added the steaks. I would recommend 4 minutes on each side. That also depends on the cut of meat at how rare you like it. 4 minutes on high heat is a nice medium rare.

4. When the steak was done I removed it from the skillet and added the asparagus. Letting it cook in the same skillet added a ton of flavor to the asparagus. It was delicious!!!

* for a little extra yummyness sometimes I shave a little mozzarella cheese on top of the asparagus at the end, I leave it on just enough to melt it.