Marching Into March

Much of March seemed to be leading up and preparing for my California trip (I'm writing a separate post about that), the trip itself and then not much after the trip. I still seemed to find quite a few pictures though to prove that I still had some things happen. 

We had a freak snow storm one morning (it kind of seems that's what all of our snow has been this winter or at least a big chunk of it). Visual on the freeway was terrible, everyone was only going 20-25 (compared to my normal 80 was crazy slow) and you couldn't see the lanes and barely the car in front of you. 

We did a really fun art project at work. You use a salad spinner, paint, and coffee filters. Really simple, just place the coffee filter in the salad spinner, put some drops of paint and then spin...tada! The kids loved it, especially seeing how placing the dots in different patterns/quantities/etc. created different results. 

Someone decided I needed to be a princess one day and help rescue others from the monsters that were coming to take over the world. 

All of the end results hanging up. 

Mandy, Charissa, Brea, and I hosted a baby shower for Leah in March (and the cute twins coming soon!). I was asked to make the desserts and of course I had to experiment and try new things :) Mom had bought me a mini whoopie pie pan for Christmas. I had originally was going to try to use them for push pops but they didn't fit the ones that I had so I made sandwiches instead. It was fun because I got to practice my pipping skills too, I think they turned out pretty cute.  

The desserts all together. 

I had leftover strawberries from the baby shower so Mom and I decided to take them up to Libbey and Erick's to share with them. 

 Alexia and Sophie were so excited to help Grandma slice the strawberries and get everything together. 

Getting our nails done before the cruise!

The Mathews' came over to help with our traditional hanging of eggs in the trees for Easter. Unfortunately we got them up late this year so the trees had already begun to bloom, it makes it a little harder to put them on the tree and we had to do it on the smaller one in the corner of the yard but they still looked good. 

For the General Woman's Broadcast Libbey, Mom, Sonia, Sarah, and Katrina came with me to my Singles Ward to watch it, afterwards they had sundaes afterwards plus candy sticks on the table. Sarah stacked all of the ones that were on our table, others started coming and donating theirs when they saw how tall she had made hers. 

Mom bought a new patio set with comfy rocking chairs that also swivel. It's been fun to go out and enjoy the warmth while reading or doing other stuff. 

Life As Of Recent

I keep telling myself that I need to do better at blogging and get caught up on whats been happening with my life lately, today I haven't been feeling very well so have just been hanging out in my bed. I was getting caught up on some of the recipes that I've been trying lately (Yummy Recipes!) and thought that I would do some catching up here as well. This isn't everything that I've done lately but some of the pictures that I've taken the last couple of months. 

The end of May was Kayla's birthday, we arranged it so that Derek, Kayla and I all had it off work. We started the day off by going on a 8ish mile bike ride on Porter Rockwell Trail in Draper, it was a beautiful ride with hills, green along the sides and sunshine galore! 

After going home and everyone getting ready for the day we drove to Wendover, along the way we stopped at the Salt Flats, they were so cool and it was amazing how flat and long the area was. Kayla and Derek definitely took the chance to test the speed on Kayla's car :)

I tried my first Hawaiian Ice/Shaved Ice this summer, I've decided that I am a fan. Its crazy, it is a big thing here in Utah, Kayla and I really like going to this one in Alpine called Snoasis when we go there I think I counted that we pass 5 other shaved ice shacks on the way. 

I needed someone to go to the Lindon days with me, Mom suggested that I invite Katrina to come with me. We had lots of fun wandering looking at the different booths, we both got a cute hat (me a cowboy one of course!), talked, and enjoyed a smoothie together. I can't believe that my little niece is no longer so little and is someone that I invite to hangout with!

One of my favorite parts of summer is fireworks, I watch for shows whenever possible. That's the biggest reason that I wanted to go to the Lindon days, I thought that the fireworks were awesome and where Katrina and I were sitting was really close to where they were shooting them off. 

A couple of weeks ago I was really struggling with some things and missing my Dad pretty strongly. I had gone on a drive up in Alpine when I had a strong desire to be near my Dad. I decided that the Temple was the best place to go. It was wonderful, it was a Sunday so there was no one there, I just walked around and just felt the peace of the House of the Lord. 

My Mom left on a three and a half week trip, as excited as I was for her to go on the trip it was hard for me to drop her off. 

Kayla and her Dad were crazy and did a 64-mile bike ride in Logan. I drove down with her Mom and we got to be cheerleaders for them. I was super impressed with her, especially after we drove up the canyon that they were having to bike--it was crazy (10 miles uphill with no pause!). 

While Mom was gone I got to help make sure that everything was taken care of with Grandma. I went down and took her to the doctors one morning before work. (I mostly took the picture because I thought the nurses shoes were awesome but it was fitting to document what I've been up to :D). 

I started walking to work while Mom was gone, during the 3 and a half week trip I only drove twice (it was pouring rain and I was doing errands before work one day and was running late). I've made it my goal to walk to work for the rest of the summer, not only is great having that little bit more of exercise its also nice because I get a little bit of sunshine before locking myself into the kitchen for the next several hours. 

Ignore the crazy face and pose. I tried this dress on a couple of weeks ago and was so happy with how much better I am looking in that dress than I did a few months ago. 

While Mom was gone we got to facetime once, my cousins kids wanted to be a big part of the talking. This is what my view was most of the time (except that there was actually generally a second or third face popping in). 

On the 4th of July Kayla and I went down to Provo to watch the parade (her younger brother was in the marching band for his high school) and then we went to the festival to check out the booths, there wasn't too many booths to impress us but we saw this chalk art on the ground and couldn't believe how impressive it was (the picture doesn't even do it justice). 

I helped Kayla make a picnic dinner for her and her boyfriend and then the night of the 4th I didn't even go anywhere to even watch fireworks, 4 of my neighbors were seeming to have a competition of having the best and biggest fireworks. After watching theirs for 45 minutes from my front lawn I went to bed. 

I think something is wrong with me, I discovered farmers markets and all I bought was fresh blueberries and raspberries (both of which I have HATED most of my life) and fresh pico de gallo with avocado (again never liked avocado). Thursday when mom came home all that I had in the fridge were fresh fruit, vegetables and protein shakes. What is happening to me!?

I'm feeling "adult" lately, Kayla helped me pick out real perfume and I bought it from Victoria's Secret. Because I now own real perfume I gave Katrina my body sprays (hehe that will help her in a couple of years---although Ben told me that she will never turn 16 :D). 

More evidence of me going crazy--fruit salad, yumm!! I made a huge batch of it and that is pretty much what I ate for the next 7-8 meals. 

Kayla decided that she wanted to try her first pedicure and manicure (she doesn't like touching her own feet and thinks the idea of others touching hers sound gross). She was pretty nervous. 

I think it turned out ok though, I got a snapchat from her today with her wearing open toed shoes saying "thank goodness for pedicures" 

This made me so happy to pull up beside her at the airport, she's HOME!

With her 11:30pm landing we hadn't really planned on going through the fun things that Mom had got but when we got home she immediately started pulling out stuff to show Kayla and I, we ended up looking at stuff and talking for an hour and a half plus but it was fun and to see all of the chocolate that Mom brought back--wow!

Friday I had the day off and Leah got off work early so Brea, Leah, Mandy, and all of their kiddlets hung out. We met at Brea's house and walked to Thanksgiving Point to explore the Farm and have ice cream afterwards. There were so many cute little baby animals, I just wanted to cuddle with them. It was fun to be with friends from growing up and just to relax without worrying about work or other parts of life. 

This just begins to skim the surface of my life lately but at least its an idea!

Whoopy Brea--Look Who's 23!

Way back in February my bestie turned 23! Where has time gone that we haven't gotten that old (I was talking with my Mom tonight about how close I'm getting to be a quarter of a century, to be honest not that excited about it). 

Brea and Darrell hosted a fun party at their house, it was fun to get together with all our Newport friends, we live so close but because of life we don't get to see each other all the time. 

I was in charge of the drink and because I've cut back on soda I wanted to a drink that didn't include any, I found this really yummy lemonade- it must have been a hit because the whole bowl got brought into the living room where we were eating. 

Probably the best picture of the whole night, Leah was trying to tell Addie to be a monkey and I caught in on camera :)

Look at those cute pregnant bellies, crazy that they both have had their babies now and that Abby is two months old and Carson is a month old!

You would have thought that it was Addie's party with all the attention that she gets :)

At one point Addie disappeared into her room and shut the door, Brea and Kimmy were trying to see what she was doing in there by herself.

Brea has become quite the master at making awesome and delicious ice cream cakes.

Kimmy kept clipping the hairbow on Addie's nose and then it would fall off, Addie thought it was the most funny thing in the world and kept on bringing it back to her so she could do it again.