Oceanside California

Tyler and I purchased a time share package last year and had to get our last bit of use out of it before the new year. We decided to spend Thanksgiving in Cali. It was a great trip and nice to be out there when it was freezing in Utah. This would be the first trip since our honeymoon that it was just us two, and even still we spent a few days with my family.
We had a super nice view from our room and were fairly close to the beach. Unfortunately those crazy californians think that 65 is cold so most of the beachside shops were closed for the "winter". Oh if they only knew. We did get a chance to go see a few different sites.
On our second day there we went to the USS Midway, as suggested by some friends. I thought I may be bored, but it turned out to be really interesting. I even learned a few things. I talked Tyler into going to Seaworld with me, which was also a blast. I am always amazed by people telling a killer whale what to do (or asking it to do something). Tyler had never seen the San Diego temple (weird right?) so we stopped then on our way past one evening. For more photos check out my Facebook (it takes way too long to upload them all on here)

I'm coming back home...

Tomorrow we head back home! We have been in California for over a week now. I'm excited to blog about all of our adventures!!

maybe this will be our card???

Shimmering Ornaments Christmas Card

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View the entire collection of cards.

Merry Christmas with Shutterfly

Most people who read this probably know that I am addicted to Shutterfly, but did you know that I have NEVER made a scrapbook since learning about Shutterfly? Nope, not once. I bet you're wondering how many photobooks I now own... well the answer is 6. Not alot, but enough! I love their photobooks. I also love getting good deals on them.
Recently I found a website offering 50 free holiday cards for doing a blog about Shutterly.com, I figured it would be easy enough seeing how much I love their stuff. I also love their customer service. I have never had a huge issue with my orders, but I once sent my mom to make a book and use a code, well that ended up being a bit confusing and the right code did not get entered. Mom got charged quite a bit, but was just going to let it pass. Well, I decided that the guilt I felt for the confusion was too much and I called the Customer Service. It was the easiest thing I have ever done! They fixed the problem right away! It is nice to know I'm working with a company who cares about their customers.
Last Christmas Tyler and I sent out just a few Christmas cards, and I loved the way ours turned out. I think it's somewhere on this blog, or on my Facebook. This year I want to do them again! So far this one is my favorite, but not sure it is the final choice! They have so many choices! Tyler and I still need a good photo to use for it. Maybe we will take one while in Cali. A beach shot would be great! I'm hoping to be able to get 50 free ones because that will be double the amount I got last year!!! If I can get these cards, 50 of my friends and family will get a little love from me and mine thie holiday season. Wish me luck!

Manners Matter

As we watch people raise their children I am always impressed with the ones who teach manners so well. It is very endearing when a small child will say please and thank you and such. We decided it was time our "child" learned some manners. :) We feel it is polite to always wipe your feet.

My "Very Cherry" 5K

On Saturday night (yes NIGHT, that very cold night) Cassie, Lacey, and I ran a 5k! My sis-in-law Nisha, of Healthy Moms Kitchen, invited us to run with her team. We all wore super cute Flirty Aprons that Flity Aprons donated to HMK as part of a sponorship. Love mine? Nisha sells them on her HMK website. I have 2 of my own now and tyler has his manly one. I LOVE LOVE LOVE those aprons!

Anyways, we had alot of fun running. I didn't do as well as I have before, BUT I also didn't train very hard haha so considering that, I did great! Cassie kicked butt and came in 2nd in her age group. I wish I was a fast as her. It felt good to run and I am going to start doing more of it, despite the winter that is looming just around the corner.

After the race Cassie and I went home and played game with our hubbys, Tyler and I love Cassie and Derek!

My encounter with someone better then me

Today was a long day.... At work it was just a half day. It felt long though because of the stress I felt once leaving work. Unfortunately it was also grocery shopping day, so I headed to Smiths. I walked in feeling blah. I definitely wasn't happy, I felt pretty lonely. I wandered the different aisles trying to find the best ways to use up my coupons before the expire, and yet trying not to buy things I don't need. I found myself in the aisle with razors. I noticed an older man scoping out the razor selection looking quite perplexed.
Let's pause for a minute though so I can explain my deep rooted affection for elderly people. I don't know what it is, but show me one who seems confused or in need of help and I want to cry. My heart literally aches for them.
Ok, so today I felt that ache, but kept on walking instead of offering help and showing him the razors that I knew were on sale. I was pretty selfish.
I finished my shopping and picked a line that seemed short enough. Low and behold I am right behind my little old friend who I did not help. I watched as he got ready to pay for his overpriced razors and my heart hurt even more. Luckily Heavenly Father doesn't just rely on me to follow his promptings. Our lovely cashier asked him to sit tight for a second and ran over to the table where all the sale priced razors (that I have recently stocked up on) were sitting. I wanted to crawl into a hole... She brought them back and even took the time to explain the similarities and prices savings to him! His face lit up. He thanked her. Tears, real live ones, fell from my eyes. haha I'm sure people thought I was crazy. I did not think I would be able to even say anything to her when it was my turn. Luckily I hadn't lost my power of voice and I made sure to tell her how kind she was. If only she knew how kind I hadn't been.
I guess this all seems silly to anyone but me. But I truly think it was Heavenly Father giving me a chance to feel his love and help one of his children on a day where I felt so far from him and I regret not jumping on that chance. I'm grateful there are others out there more willing than I am. I'm glad I was still able to feel his love as I watched someone else take that opportunity, it truly brightened my whole day. If only Ronda knew what she had done.


p.s. I had to reword this for fear of retribution.

Birthdays and Corn Bellies

Saturday was our friend Laceys birthday and we decided that we all needed to celebrate!! A few weeks ago Tyler and I woke up at the crack of dawn to take the cubscouts to Corn Bellies to be on TV! For this kind act of service we were awarded free tickets back! We went back on Sat with Lacey and AJ and quickly realized this place is more for kids... but we did bring Tyler and AJ and they are practically kids.... so.... it worked! The corn maze was pretty fun and we got through it much faster then anticipated. For those of you planning on going... don't use the hints... they are pointless!


The boys had a race on the slide... Tyler clearly won!

It was a quick trip but plenty of fun. AJ couldn't seem to grasp why they would name the place Corn Bellies, so if anyone knows why, we'd love to hear it. I love going out to new places and spending time with Tyler and all our friends! I did feel bad in the end when AJ reminded us that he is allergic to corn though. oops.

After Corn Bellies we dropped AJ and Lacey off at Pier 49 so she could have birthday dinner with her family. It was at that time that we started having camera problems. The lens just wouldn't open and I was having a heart attack!! Luckily, we were near Best Buy and felt like taking a few mintues to go in and get the thing checked out. The nerds there, the ones who claim to be soooo smart, told me that it was toast and beyond repair :( Tyler and I talked it over and decided we would need a new one sooner or later so we picked out a new one and are trying it out now! I love it so far.

The friends came back after dinner to eat the delicious ice cream cake Tyler and I had made, and of course, play Halo! You may notice that instead of candles we used matches. I swear I own candles, but I couldn't find them.

Excellent wife? Or torturer?

Tyler and I both had small boughts of the Flu. Nothing life threatening, but enough that Tyler was willing to try anything to make his go away. Well, some of you may remember I used to work for YLEO. Of course I still have many wonderful oils laying around so I decided to make him a delicious tea! I knew this tea would help and I also knew he would not want to drink it because the smell is a bit strong. But I swear taste isn't!!! Well... He suffered through, making this face most of the way and dumping out the rest, but guess what! He was healed!!!!!! It may not have been what he wanted, but it was for sure what he needed. Sometimes we just have to suck it up and drink the tea.

Dinner at a Pub

Cory had a school assignment to eat at an European restaurant. He picked McCools in the district. I was pleasantly surprised by their yummy food and excellent service. Ken and Emily were in town so they came too! After all was said and done and I looked at these pictures I realized two things... 1, I am way too white, and 2, I need to ditch these braces soon!!!

Cory and Julie are so dang cute!

My best friend since I was a teenager (forever ago!) Amanda and I went on a short road trip to California to see this beautiful couple be sealed in the temple. We were lucky enough to actually get to be in the sealing room and attend all the activities afterwards. I love going to things like this in California, not only is it exciting to see friends get married, but it's also fun to see old friends that I don't get to see too often! We also went to Brittany Warners wedding since she was kind enough to get married the next day.

I got to spend a few days with my family, and Amanda with hers. I love visiting my family, especially because I have an adorable neice who used to live at my moms! She is hilarious and never ceases to make me laugh.

Grace loved Sydney! I loved being with Amanda! She is such an excellent mom and I am so happy for her and Jeff and their beautiful baby! Tyler and I wish they lived closer then St. George!

Family reunion.

Tylers, moms aunt own a beautiful piece piece of land out in Nephi. It is amazing! There is a cabin and a dining area. We enjoyed hanging out on one of the many hammocks, playing on the kids toys, swinging on the swings that hang over a small stream, sliding down the HUGE water slide (in our clothing) and playing games with the family. I am so glad the invited us to come along! i'm also glad Cory isn't afraid of being.... funny :)

Tyler and I have the same favorite shirt, and will often be found wearing it at the same time. Like it yourself? I know a guy who will sell you one!

Update # 3

A few months back a friend of mine gave us some discount coupons to Lagoon (so nice of her). I have never been there and I just tried asking Tyler if it had been his first time, but he is too busy blogging to answer me, so I will assume that it was. We knew there was a good chance we would be bored going just the two of us (don't judge, we love eachother but standing in lines for a long time is not our strong point as a couple) so we decided to invite Cory, Heather and the always entertaining Chris along for the rides. We made the right choice... My bro-in-law Chris never lacks interesting topics of conversation. He and Tyler also won me some prizes throwing a baseball. We filled up on Cherry ICEE's which I had forgotten about and haven't had since, but loved.

We didn't stay long and didn't ride much, but had a good time.



Unfortunately we were not impressed with the park and decided to never go back... oh well!

Update #2

Toby.... I know everyone is wondering how he is doing.... right?

Well.... HE IS AMAZING! Toby is probably the best dog in the world, not even kidding. :) We are even a little impressed ourselves. Tyler has taken a liking to him (surprise to everyone) and works with him daily to become the best he can be. Toby can do what is called a double T, it is a hunting technique, funny enough we don't hunt, but it makes him listen better which is all we can ask of him.

Our trainer, John of Arrow Kennels, is nice enough to invite us to all of his home and garden shows to show off the tobster. Toby absolutely LOVES these things, why you ask? Because he can sit on a table for 8 hours and be pet by every single person who walks by. What dog wouldn't love that. We are so proud of how well trained he has become. Who agrees it's time for a second?

Update #1... of many!

Seeing as how I never blog, I thought maybe I could just have a goal of one blog post a year! This post will officially meet that goal!



Tyler and I have done so much this year. I probably cant blog about all of it, but maybe I'll do more blogging later... who knows!



It also may be easier if I work backwards as I seem to remember the most recent things MUCH better!



So... Last Monday we jumped the gun with some neighbors and decided to go get some pumpkins and carve them. It was soooo much fun. We have a few couples in our ward that are about our same age and we LOVE having them over. We planned on going to a pumpkin patch, but we all work too late so we ended up just going to Smiths which was alot more fun then I had expected. Once home we got to work! Carving pumpkins, even small ones, is a lot harder then I remember. I definitely needed help gutting them out, but I did the carving all on my own! Having never attempted anything other then a scary pumpkin face, I would say my puppy turned out great!































Unfortunately... Thursday morning my puppy was pumpkin mush in the street. I guess thats what I get for putting carved pumpkins out over the schools fall break. Dang kids!!















Aj and Lacey, are our neighbors down the street and they practically live at our house, which we love! However I have picked up a gaming habit from them and it has taken over my family room... we had to rearrange so I could see the TV better. Gaming is ok if you play with neighbors right?
















Tyler and I both celebrated Birthdays, but there is only one picture(of my b-day cake given to me by Cassie) as evidence. Tyler improved my quality of winter living by purchasing me some wonderfully warm snow pants! I can't wait to go tubing this winter.