A very merry unbirthday

My birthday is on Christmas, so growing up, I always celebrated my "half birthday" instead. June is much better than December when it comes to little girl birthday parties. Sleep overs in the back yard, running through the sprinklers, you get the point. Yesterday [June 25th] was my half birthday and my sweet Chris wanted to celebrate it!

He is so sweet!!! AH I can't even get over! 1st we went to the Cheesecake Factory (of course), then we went to Victoria's Secret and bought lots of new lotion, then Chris insisted that I buy 2 new shirts from Down East. What a sweet boy! Afterwards, we headed to the Bees game with my family. What a perfect day!

I was so excited to go to a baseball game, I was finally able to wear my super cute new Yankees shirt that I ordered from Victoria's Secret over a month ago!

Haha Ty's face!

It was a great half birthday, the best actually! All thanks to my lover!

One of my favorite things about mine and Chris's relationship is that I still feel super twitterpated about him. I'm always excited to see him, I still get way happy when I get a text from him, I just love hanging out with him and being together, it's just FUN!

I'm really excited for Chris to start school! The sooner he starts, the sooner he will be finished! I'm so proud of him for working so hard and being so dang smart, what a great example he is to me! I love him.

Hippie

I'm turning into a hippie.

Every day a little bit more. 

And I'm obsessed with it. 

I'll go into more detail later, 

but for now, just know that it's awesome!

Lake Powell Pics!

We didn't tube, just laid on it.

Boys fishing, me watching.

Everyone playing games up top

Night boat ride...haha Chris's hair!

So, Shawna's shower is coming up quick, here is a pic of the invitations. 

For some reason, the pic of the insides randomly isn't on the computer, so I'll have to put that on later! I'm really excited for it. I have all the food planned out. Court's sister Ashley is letting me borrow some white Christmas lights, invites are all made and ready to be sent out, Court is making cupcakes, mom is making cookies, I'm making cake, Beth is planning out games! Now it just needs to be here! 

I bought my Halloween Half Marathon gnome outfit today! It's just some blue leggings and a blue shirt. I'm going to make a cute red and white tutu to go with it. Then I'll just make a cone hat out of paper probably. Cheapest Halloween costume I have ever had. WOO!

Harry Potter comes out so soon! I'M MORE EXCITED THAN YOU ARE [guaranteed]! I love all of the trailers minus the part where Harry grabs Voldemort's face and they fall off a cliff....umm that definitely never happens in the book. Ever. 

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! I'm happy to say that I have the best day in the world. So, just like I did for Momma on Mother's Day, I dedicate this blog to my dad. Here are some of the reasons why I have so much love and respect for him.

• My dad is really smart. He knows all sorts of useful information about stocks, business, politics, and other things that I find very confusing. As we say in my family, he "gets it." He is street smart and book smart. He graduated from the U of U all the way back in 1992, he is the only one in his family to earn a Bachelor's degree, what a great example. 

• He is very easy to get along with. My dad has GREAT social skills, he can talk to ANYONE about ANYTHING. This always amazes me because I'm pretty shy. I remember when I was little, we would go to the store and he would talk to several people whether he knew them or not, it always really intrigued me.

• Like my mom, he put up with me through my teenage years. He taught me a lot of good lessons (although I didn't think they were so great at the time). Although it would have been easy, he never gave up on me, and I'm very grateful for this.

• He is very spiritual but also extremely down to earth. He hasn't missed a day of reading scriptures in YEARS. No matter what trials he has had to endure, he has never questioned the truthfulness of the Gospel. He has such a strong testimony that is completely unshakable. He has so much faith, I look up to him for this great quality.

• My dad would do anything for his family. Even when my parents were dirt poor when I was a baby, he worked hard AND went to school while my mom stayed at home. He has always done everything possible to support his family. Even though he hates it, he goes to Lake Powell every single year without fail, because it makes the family happy.

• He is way funny! You never have a dull or boring moment when you are with him. Unless you don't have any sort of sense of humor, he WILL make you laugh. He also has the funniest stories, he always says, "Dumb decisions make for great stories." And he has a lot of great stories haha!

• He doesn't take any crap. From anyone. Don't mess with him. Consider yourself warned.

• He took me to New York, which lead me to my sweet husband and future-father of my children. OHHH how grateful I am for this. My life wouldn't be anywhere NEAR as amazing without that New York trip.

So, as you can tell, I have a pretty great dad. I am very blessed that I have such a good father figure who has been there for me throughout my whole life. It can't be easy being a father, but he does such a good job and I am very grateful for everything he does for me and my family. 

Summer fun

I love summer and days off work!

Today, I went on an hour and a half bike ride, it was quite windy but it was great. Since you can't use an iPod while biking on the road, it's the perfect time to just think.

When I got home, I did this fun workout...



It was actually a lot harder than I expected, maybe I'm just a weak sauce.

Chris and me

On our hike last Saturday

Super pretty waterfall

Every year I say that I'm never doing it again, but I think I want to do the Halloween Half Marathon again. Shawna has been running a lot lately, she said she might want to do it with me! Court and Vannessa said that they might want to do it too. Fun!

One of our very favorite things to do is drive around, look at houses, and plan out our dream home. Here are a few of our favorites.

Love the brick and rock color. Also, the cute balcony.

Love the lights, rock, and the separated garages.

Love the front door and the balcony railing.

Love love love the tall skinny entryway!

SO OBSESSED!

We are still SO excited about getting to stay here. It's hard to even put it into words. We are sooo so blessed, I can't even handle it! I'm the luckiest girl EVER.

What a random post, thanks for reading!

The day that changed our LIFE

June 11, 2011 could have possibly been one of the greatest days in all of history. 

Woke up to the sound of birds, not the alarm. 

Sweet Christopher made us waffles for breakfast.

I cleaned the house, Chris mowed the lawn.

We went to Target and bought True Grit.

Went on a great 6 mile hike with John and Maree. 

Drove around and looked at houses.

Had a BBQ with Matt and Candi's house.

Went to Best Buy to check out our future iPhones!

Got custard from Bombdigities.

Watched True Grit.

BUT HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE DAY!

Chris had turned his phone off while we went on our hike because we didn't have service. We got back to the car and he had 2 voicemails. 

Voicemail number 1 was from the apartment in Houston that we had attempted to sign a lease for online. They were letting us know that the website had been having some technical difficulties, so our request didn't go through, we would have to fill everything out again.

Voicemail number 2 was from the Dean of Admissions at the University of Utah. The message was quite hard to understand because Chris's phone is struggling (hence the iPhone excursion), we heard something about extending an offer of admission, his personal cell phone number to call, and asked that he call back as soon as possible. We were FREAKING OUT, so Chris calls back immediately, leaves a message. We were really trying to not get our hopes up. Then, at about 7 pm last night, we were at Matt and Candi's, Chris's phone rings, it was HIM. He ran to a bedroom while we all sat and waited in silence. A minute later Chris came out and says, "I'M IN! I ACCEPTED HIS OFFER!" 

I always told everyone that if Chris got into the U or BYU I would cry. But I didn't. I was just in shock. It took quite a while for it to actually sink in. For a while (ok, more like 10 minutes) Chris seemed really torn, like he wasn't totally sure what we were supposed to do. Then it started feeling more and more RIGHT. OHH can I just TELL YOU how relieved I am. I was having a very good attitude about Texas, but I knew it would add so much stress on me. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. Let me put this into perspective for all you lovely folks...

In the first year alone

we will save

$20,000 on tuition

TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, PEOPLE!

We will save over $60,000 on tuition and rent over the 3 years

SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, FOLKS!

I have a job

We have a place to live

I know people

Chris has SO many connections for internships/jobs/etc.

FAMILY

Friends

Weddings

Ty's farewell

This list goes on

and 

on

and

on

So many things seemed to just FALL into place. I am SO grateful. I really feel like this is a miracle. That 1 phone call changed our .whole.entire.life. literally! For the most part, the state in which you attend law school is where you have to practice because you learn the laws of that particular state. We would have spent (probably) the rest of our lives in Texas. I believe everything that has happened has truly happened for a reason. Just a week or so ago, we were laying in bed kicking ourselves for turning down the $21,000 scholarship in Oregon, but now, it's basically like we received that just by how much money we will be saving. AH!

WE ARE STAYING HERE!

Lake Powell 2011

We're back! And what a great week it was! We arrived on Saturday, got to our houseboat and found that the left motor didn't work, so we had to stay in the slip the whole time, which was noisy but fine. Saved the parents about $2000. It was great weather but the water was really bloody cold. I probably only got in the lake about 3 times the whole week! We had great company. My family + 2 of Cole's friends, CJ's family + 2 of the girl's friends, Grandma, and the Ward family. I tried to document some of my favorite quotes from the trip, but there were just TOO many funny things said.

Eliza: I couldn't hold it, so I did a full pee right there on the Target dressing room floor. 

Craig owns a landscaping business, someone who spoke Spanish called him, Joshy answered-

Joshy: First off...I don't speak Spanish

Chris: That crow is a Bird Ferguson

Eliza: I was wearing my Star Wars panties, I told the Target pee story, and I peed the floor again

Tyler: It really pissed me off...pun

At 7am, some workers started jack-hammering on the dock right next to our houseboat-

CJ: Well good morning...I guess it's time to get up

Tyler: He looks like a lion who has rolled around in a bog!

Cami: Do I look like a lion who has rolled around in a bog?

Chris: Always.

Little Joshy jumped from the boat to the houseboat, didn't get hurt or anything-

Joshy: Oh sh** 

Tubing-

Joshy: This ride is nuckin futs!

Sadie and Corky went skinny dipping on "Naughty Tuesday"-

Dad: Hopefully the carp don't see your kibbles and bits

Chris: Hopefully the girls don't have kibbles and bits

Dad: Today will be "French Wednesday", we won't wear deodorant and we'll have really bad attitudes

Dad: I'm getting so good at landing this boat, they're going to be calling me for seminars

It's really dangerous to drive your boat after the sun goes down. So, on Wednesday night, when we were all in bed up top, we were surprised to hear a boat. We all stood up and a big houseboat was coming into the slip. We were all dying at how stupid these people were. It's hard enough to park a houseboat in the light, let alone the pitch dark! It turned down our row, they were going really fast, and WABAMM the tail end of the boat ripped off another houseboat's slide!!!!!!!!!!! The slide is currently residing at the bottom of LP. Then, this other boat zooms into the slip next to us, the guy slams into the side  jumps out of the boat without even tying it to the dock. Chris ran down and tied the boat up. Lisa went down to the slide-destroying houseboat and asked if there was an emergency or something, because why else would they be coming in so quickly at 11:30 pm?! Nope, nothing was wrong. Just seemed like a great time to come back ??? We wondered if they were all drunk or something, but Lisa said that they were all wearing BYU clothes. After everything was finally settled down, for some reason, everyone was pretending to be British children who show up to their houseboat and their slide is gone.

Unknown: Don your cougar gear!

CJ: We strike at midnight! Under the cover of darkness! Turn off the lights and let's take out that slide!

Dad: When did Balfour show up?!

CJ: [British accent] But Father, some cougars came under the cover of darkness, took our slide, and just left some screws. We got screwed!

Tyler: [British accent] Father is gonna buy me a trolly ticket to Norwich if I go down the slide this year!

CJ: Dear Diary, came in kind of late today, ruined some British kid's dream. Be back next year, until then, go Cougs! 

Dad: They were just playing a very elaborate game of truth or dare

All in all, it was a grand ol' trip to the great Lake Powell. Chris and I weren't able to go to Moab because we had to drive with my Ma and Tyler, but that's ok! It will be nice to just have a nice relaxing weekend together.

Chris read The Count of Monte Cristo, he loved it

I read The Scorch Trials, I loved it

 I LOVED being in LP with my lover. There is nothing better than being on a boat ride, sun setting, sitting together in the front of the boat, holding hands with the love of your life. Aww, I highly recommend it. 

We were dumb. I brought my camera, dead battery, forgot the charger. Chris brought his camera, left it in the car. The only pics we have are on my mom's phone, so maybe some day I will add some pics! 

June....or January? brrr

Nothing too exciting  has been happening lately. 

We're getting really nervous about moving. Where are we going to live? Where am I going to work? Who am I going to talk to when Chris is at school for those long hours? What if bugs crawl in our bed? Am I going to be able to handle living ghetto? Why did we pick the most expensive school? The list goes on and on. The only thing that makes me feel better is knowing that Christopher will be there with me.

It's so crazy, we started talking about going to law school in February 2010, it always seemed so far away. Now it's approaching very quickly. But, as scared as I am about this HUGE change, I know that it will be a good experience for both of us. 

Chris and I are heading to Lake Powell tomorrow with my family. I am SO excited to get away from our freezing cold June weather and just to have a little break from life. I will be able to do my 1st open-water swim of the year....we'll see how that goes haha! I had been wanting to get a cute 1-piece swim suit for a while. After searching and searching, I finally found the cutest one ever, check it! Can't wait to wear it this week!

Chris and I are planning on heading to Moab for a few days before we have to go back to work on the 11th. I'm SO pumped, I can't wait to go on a few great hikes. I have only been there 1 time when I was little and I really wanted to go before we move. 

It's been FOUR years since I graduated. I can NOT believe it. 

I am getting really excited about Shawna's shower next month. Last night, I made invitations and they turned out really dang cute. It's going to be in the backyard under the patio. We will have a dessert table. I have this great picture of it all in my mind. I am looking for some white strand Christmas lights, if anyone has some that I can borrow, please let me know!

Chris and I are still doing GREAT, more in love than ever. I met my visiting teacher for the 1st time on Wednesday, she said, "I have seen you and your husband at church, you guys look like you were literally made for each other." We really were made for each other. We are SO weird together and I love every minute of it. Aww I just love my Chris, I'm so lucky!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. If you didn't, I don't blame you. Our lives aren't too exciting or crazy! XO