Quite the Cupcake

So Scott and I ran into Dans the other night to grab some toothpicks for dinner. We were walking passed the bakery and in the window was Scott's "dream cupcake". It was the cookie monster with more frosting on it than I've ever seen in my life (so gross)! You guys he HAD to have it. He pointed to it and got the biggest smile on his face. I gave in. So we bought it, took it home.....and the pictures will explain the rest!

After this much he was absolutely sick with nothin' but a stomach ache and blue teeth the rest of the day. I tell ya, he keeps me young. Man we had some good laughs with that thing!

Yep, like I said...

Like I said in my last post, Scott is the coolest. I get home from my 12 hour shift last night and he's slaving away pounding chicken! It always has to be a surprise when Scott cooks so he sent me out on a bike ride for an hour (which was just what I needed). These pictures don't even do it any justice of how gorgeous it was and how delicious it tasted. Bacon wrapped chicken with fresh limes, and then parmesan cheese covered tomato shishkobobs. And those green beans.....oh man. SO GOOD! You guys would have died! Then to top it all off, he got "P.S. I Love You" from the red box, which I've begging to see forever! It was the best night ever. Dont know how I got him. Love you babe.

More Randomness

Wow! Life is probably the craziest it's ever been for me right now. So much for summer right? I'm not trying to complain and life really is great, but man it's kickin my butt. Little update: so I finished up spring semester, had my last final on a Friday and then started up the summer semester on Monday. Yep, nice break. I have to admit, I really like summer semester because the classes are small and I am doing much better on my tests, etc. I don't have the option to fall asleep and just blend in with the crowd which therefore leads to staying awake, taking better notes, making comments, etc. which = more success. So that part is good, but they are so accelerated that they are just slamming so much info on us so fast, that's kinda hard. So definitely pros and cons. But I've got one class out of the way that was Mon-Fri from 8-5 for a week. It was tough but so great because it's over now( after I write the 3 papers for it). I wish there were more classes like that. So just four more to go and I'll be done July 18th, and summer will begin! Life is supposed to be hard though right? It's good for me. I complain about having school full time and working full time, but it will be weird when I'm graduated and just working I think. Whenever I'm not studying, I'm feeling guilty for not. I won't miss that, or the constant stress. But I will miss learning. I really have loved my major and my classes. Side note: just paid tuition last night and holy moly it's getting ridiculous. Luckily I get 1/2 off because of my job at the hospital but still with 1/2 off it's $1500 bucks! You kidding me? $3,000 for 5 classes? That's messed up.

So just a few other things that have been on my mind lately....

I'm actually really excited to move to Nebraska. I am SO sick of people's reactions when I tell them where we're moving for Scott's dental school. It usually goes like this:
"Where are you guys going away to again?"
"Omaha.....Nebraska."
"Oh man......Omaha huh? Have you ever been there?"
"Nope, sure haven't."
"There's nothing to do there....have fun."

Okay people! Come on now! It's gonna be great! I just want to shake them and be like, "If you were in our situation you would pick there too! Wouldn't you like to save $100,000?" Ya, that's what I thought! Scott was so lucky to be one of TEN guys in Utah that got offered this special program to stay here in UT and do his first year at the U's Med School. We are getting in state for the first year which is huge, PLUS he's getting 1/2 because of my job here at the hospital. AND if we come back and practice in UT (which is the plan right now) they will reinburse us $20,000 a year for three years! There! Does that explain why we would pick Nebraska over Ohio, AZ, etc.?! Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest! I am so excited to go out there. It will be an experience of a lifetime. When else are we ever going to get to live in the midwest? Yeah, never because there's no mountains! So bottom line: I am excited, and you would do it too.

So speaking of being busy, I now have 4 callings in my ward. It's great and it's totally fine, we have a small ward. The bishop called me into his office on Sunday and I thought, "Great, he's releasing me from a calling or two cause maybe he knows how super busy I am this summer." Nope. I get called to be a relief society teacher. Wow. After thinking about it for a week, I'm really excited. But, I just feel so inadequate. I know people say that all the time about everything, but really though, I am. I am so not hotty totty on all my doctrine, etc. I haven't served a mission, I don't have kids, I haven't had some life changing experience, I am just simple. To me, it's all about just being kind to others, and following the commandments. I guess the bottom line is, I'm nervous. But it's gonna be a good thing. I'm so excited to learn more and I think I will really grow from it.

Well a lot is changing within my family! My dad and Crystal have moved from Holladay out to Daybreak in the last year. My brother and his wife also picked up their things and moved out to a house in Daybreak. My mom and Monty are selling their house in Holladay and moving to Midway. They are building a beautiful home that will actually fit the whole family when we all get together. It's got a gorgeous view of Timpanogas, and they're on a whole acre of land with a beautiful stream in the backyard, and my mom has built in her little greenhouse, and they will finally have a master bedroom and bathroom that they deserve. It's gonna be great. But I have mixed feelings about it of course. The house that I grew up in and have all my memories from is now going to belong to another family. Weird. But life moves on and Midway will be a great place for them. I just love their house. Too bad gas is so expensive and it's gonna cost $15 dollars to get up there! Also, my cute brother Brock and family just moved back from Phoenix this weekend and we are so excited to have them back! And before we know it my little brother Joe will have his mission call and be off to somewhere! So lots of changes going on. As for us, we're just hanging out in the village in our little 400 sq ft cinderblock apartment that we love so much. No really though, we love it. We're gonna miss it.

So my good friend at work who is an incredible, healthy little cook showed me this website that is SO awesome! It is a great time waster if you ever need it. I love to read it when it's 3am and I'm working night shifts and my brain's gone to mush and I can't study anymore. It's called www.tastespotting.com and you guys are gonna love it! It's a million recipes of everything you can imagine. There is a picture of all of them and then you can click on it and get the recipe. Don't worry, there are 300 pages of recipes. So great!

My hardest class right now is my economics class. Although it's hard and I'm hoping to pass it, it's really been a great class so far. It's such great information that I need to know. We have learned all about investing, stocks, bonds, CD's, 401K's, retirements, it's great. But we started talking about Warren Buffett and if you didn't know, he is now the richest man in the world with a net worth of about 62 billion dollars. But what I LOVE about him is that he still keeps life simple. Of course he has the luxury of doing whatever he wants, and I'm sure he travels the world and lives the high life. But he still lives in his little 2 bedroom house in OMAHA, NE (yep, we will be neighbors) with his wife, he has their same old cars and he just has great advice for investing. Our teacher read to us some of his advice that he has for young people and it was such great basic principles like spend less than you make, live within your means, and work hard. It's so true. It's hard to not go over the top these days, materialism is so huge and important to so many. Sometimes it makes me sick. I hope I never get that way. All I ask for is a car that has a decent paint job one day and one that doesn't have something break on it every week. Then I'll be good.

Life's good. I hope I didn't sound too negative with my busy schedule, I'm fine and a happy camper, just a little exhausted. Luckily Scott's the coolest guy in the whole world and keeps me goin. He's so awesome. I couldn't do it without him. We get to go on 2 fun trips this summer. We're going up to Victor, ID with my family and then to San Diego with Scott's family. His graduation present from them was 2 plane tickets to San Diego so we don't have to drive! Wooohooo! Best present ever! And then I hope we can escape for even just a day and go camping together a few times.

Alright, thanks for readin' if ya lasted this long. If so, until next time......

Great Weekend!

Our new favorite family activity: skateboarding behind the golf cart! It is a blast!


This weekend was too fun. I truly felt like I was on a vacation! It was such a nice break from summer school and work. We went out to my dad's house for the weekend and did our skateboarding behind the golf cart, watched the Jazz game (so sad), slept over, I went on a long bike ride Saturday morning with my dad while Scott went golfing, and then we went kayaking out on the lake. It was such a great time and beautiful weather. Sure love my family.

My Mom...

Yep! That's my mom! Isn't that picture amazing? I know it's Monday and I am late writing this to my sweet mother, but I can't pass up such an important day to publicly let her and all of you know how much I love her. I am who I am today because of my mother. There are countless things she has done for me, and millions of things that I love about her but I will just name a few.

First of all, my mom has taught me and my brothers how to work and I am so grateful for that. When my mom was a single mother raising the four of us, she worked at Great Harvest. The reason for this was because she could go in at 3AM and bake the bread and get home in time to make our lunches and get us off to school by 8:30. During the day she taught flute lessons. This way she was always home for us when we got home from school. I will always remember walking into the door and she would be standing there with her flute in hand. That is something that I look back on now and am so grateful for. And I am grateful that we could eat dinner together as a family every night around the kitchen table with out any TV distraction. We didn't have a dishwasher growing up, and one of my favorite memories I have as a child was doing the dishes together as a family. We were not excused to go ANYWHERE until the dishes were done and the kitchen was clean. We would blast the radio to Arrow 103.5 and dance and sing until it was done. Saturdays we could not go anywhere until our list of chores were completed and checked off. I know it didn't seem like I appreciated it back then, but THANK YOU mom. With her example of working so hard and her expectation of us to work hard, it has truly done some good. Thank you mom.

My mom has such a love for nature and truly takes advantage of the beauty that surrounds us here in Utah. She is always out walking, hiking in the mountains, biking, or on some adventure somewhere. We had the funnest childhood. I remember just piling into our Isuzu Trooper and heading down to Southern Utah and ending up camping somewhere. We had some great times.

Just a few more things I love about you mom:

-I love that you stay fit and you're so naturally beautiful. I especially love that you say you've earned your wrinkles and how you think it's ridiculous that women want to take them away. "It's just part of aging" right?

-I love that you always need to be up and moving, walking, running and can't stand to sit for a long time.

-I love that you are always reading a good book.

-I love that you laugh so much.

-I love that you greet everybody with a kiss on the cheek and a big hug!

-I love that you love to keep a beautiful garden.

-I love that you love to cook for your family (and that it's always so healthy!)

-I love that you always have every door in the house open, all day everyday.

-I love that we get to shop together and go to lunch.

-I love taking walks with you around the neighborhood and talking about life.

-I love that you put your whole heart and soul into being a mother and a good wife.

-I love that your testimony is so strong and that you are so knowlegable about the gospel.

-I love that you take pride in being a grandma.

-I love that you keep a clean house and always a clean kitchen.

-I love baking our whole wheat bread and cinnamon rolls together!

-Thank you for always being so in-tuned with me and Scotty and our crazy life. You do so much for us.

-I will stop there!

Sure love you mom! Happy (late) Mother's Day!

Cutest Grandma Ever.....

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Well I want to wish a Happy Birthday to my favorite little guy in the whole world....my little brother Matthew. I am overwhelmed with a love for him that I could never put into words. For those of you who don't Matthew, I will give a little history. Matthew was born in Atlanta, Georgia to a wonderful single mother who took great care of him, and he had a brother as well. Matthew's mother struggled to keep them in good care, to feed them, and provide a place for them to live. When Matthew was three, his mother lost her job and could not provide for Matthew and his brother any longer. His older brother went to live with his father (a different father than Matthew's) and Matthew had to be put up for adoption. I won't go into too much detail, but we had a neighbor family waiting to adopt a little black girl, and they wanted a newborn. Well this neighbor got a call from the agency about Matthew. Of course they were waiting for a little newborn girl, so it didn't go through. Well this neighbor Jen, she had an overwhelming feeling to call my mom that day and let her know about this little boy. My family was not looking to adopt, my mom had never mentioned it to her, it was just toally random. So she told my mom all about it and then my mom called Monty and he flew in from out of town. Our family all got together and talked about it, prayed about it, and the rest is history! Three days later we had little Matthew at our home as a part of our family. I will never forget that day. It was a beautiful, warm afternoon and we knew he was coming soon. We were all in the kitchen wondering what he even looked like. They pulled up and he got out of the car, dressed in a darling outfit from the Gap that the agency lady had bought him, and a little suitcase full of worn down, old clothes. He had an orange baseball cap and cute tennis shoes. We all ran out to greet him and he said in his strong southern accent, "This my new house?" We told him, yes! Then he went up to my mom and said, "You're my new mama?" And of course then to the dog Dan and told everybody, "This my new dog." Matthew's mom had prepared him for what was coming. He new exactly what was going on. There have been no problems at all, which is very rare. He is perfectly normal, healthy, and handsome beyond his years. Matthew is such a blessing for our family, and I can't imagine what it would be like without him. He is truly a rare one. He has an imagination like you've never seen. On his way home from school, he picks up sticks and comes home with an armful everyday and makes shelters, forts, and houses out of them. He is always building something. He is truly gifted. Besides that he is the sweetest, most loving boy. One of the things I love most is Matthew's relationship with Scott. Matthew follows Scott around everywhere, repeats everything he says. When we have to leave their house to go home he always says, "Love ya Scott" and walks him all the way to the car. He is truly a blessing. I love that little boy. It is his birthday tomorrow and he will be 11. I can't believe he has been in our family for only 8 years, it seems like it's been that way since the very beginning. Sure love you buddy and look forward to all the years ahead with you. Thanks for all the joy you bring to my life.

Love always,

your favorite sister

This picture is one that Matthew's mom sent to my mom. We have about 4 pictures of him as a baby.

This picture was right after Matt came to us when he started preschool. I think it's my favorite pic.

Coolest kid ever. Love ya bud!

U of U Class of 2008 Baby!

Congratulations to Scotty! Class of 2008! It was a fun night to celebrate, be with family, and then watch the Jazz dominate! Thanks to all the family for coming to support! Just four more years to go babe! Wooohooo!

Scott and his cute sis Keli

A glimpse into the future....Matthew in about 14 years! Oh yeah baby! and Scott and his cute parents below.