anniversary.

Our 4 year anniversary was perfect for where we're at in our lives right now.  We decided that for this year we'd keep it pretty low-key compared to other years where we've gone to places like Daniel's Summit and gone snowshoeing, Johnson's Mill (where we honeymooned and spent our first anniversary), or the Castle Creek Inn and enjoyed yummy chinese cuisine.

This year, we settled on Apartment #5 in Provo, UT.  We stayed home!  And hey, we've only lived here for a couple of months so far so it's pretty much a new place to stay at anyways.  

We started the morning off with yogurt and granola parfaits (compliments of T) and exchanging gifts.  Every year I expect to give T his gift the evening of our anniversary, but every year he's too excited to give me mine so we end up exchanging the morning of!

This year, T handed me one incredibly thoughtful gift.  An "angel caller" necklace similar to this one.  Baby Girl was kicking at it all day long.  It has the most beautiful little chime/bell sound in the ball and it will be fun to see Baby Girl play with it and listen to the familiar sound when she's outside the womb.  

T does a pretty awesome job with surprising me with thoughtful gifts.  He knows I'm all about the thought behind a gift.

With that in mind, I handed him my super thoughtful gift of running shoes (that he picked out last week!).  At least it was my idea to get him shoes.  He needed some badly.  

We both headed off to work and I rushed home to get some of the house chores done and put up a sign before T got home.

T walked in the house while I was finishing cleaning the toilet.  Yep.  Super romantic, right?  He had a beautiful bouquet of flowers in his hand and I was holding a toilet brush.

Nonetheless, we both laughed and I got to smell my flowers.  He'd put in the order a while ago and made sure there were certain flowers in the bouquet that the knew I'd like.

Man is he a keeper!

Then it was off to Texas Roadhouse for some grub.  We definitely could've gone somewhere a little more romantic, but we both were in the mood for some down home cookin' and some meat!

It was actually pretty busy for a Wednesday night at 6:00, so we were happy we called ahead and got a reservation.  We were seated and served by the nicest waitresses (who got a nice tip from us at the end of the night) and we pigged out on peanuts.

Then they brought out the famous Texas Roadhouse rolls and we pigged out some more...

In lieu of our anniversary (and our very first date where I almost died of embarrassment eating onion rings in front of T), we ordered the Bloomin' Onion Appetizer.

Mmm hmm!  Yum!

Then came our main dishes.  The waitress handed T my order.  I think she saw the stack of ribs and BBQ chicken with a side of mashed potatoes and immediately thought it must be the mans dinner.

Nope, sorry.  Hand it over to the pregnant lady!

[and these were dang good ribs!  I only shared a bite or two with T...}

T ordered the roadkill steak with steak fries.

No worries though, we both ordered our salads beforehand too.  We got our rabbit food in.

We spent the meal laughing and talking about our past 4 years.  It's always fun to review the past and how we both think the years have gone.  Holding hands with T across the table always makes me excited to see where the future takes us.  I know we've had some difficult times that has brought us both to tears, but man oh man have we had some goooood times that we've made incredible memories with!

Happy 4 years to us!  Here's to seeing the exciting changes year 5 is going to bring!

a perfect holiday.

T and I love holidays.  Maybe a little too much.  We especially love extending our favorite holidays.  Valentine's Day being one holiday that's easy to extend.  

We started a little early on Thursday night.  T wanted to cover the actual day of Valentine's this year and I wanted to do something, so I did a pre-Valentine's meal.

Complete with top sirloin steak (grilled to perfection) and a side salad and chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert.

Yum.

The morning of Valentine's Day, T sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers to school.  Last year, he sent some and the delivery man couldn't figure out the address (since it was to the elementary school) and ended up dropping it off at a random house across the street from the school.  Luckily, the people living there had heard my name before at the school and brought the flowers over the next day.

Still, T was a little upset.  The flower company was super nice about it and gave him a nice gift certificate to make up for it.

This year, my flowers got delivered to the school right on time with a wonderful note.  

Score one for the hubs.  And T always remembers that I'm not a big fan of red roses on Valentine's Day.  I love the look of red roses and I have nothing against them, I just think they're tacky on Valentine's Day for me.  I have a sister and friends who love red roses on Valentine's day and I think it's perfect for them- it's just not my cup of tea on Valentine's.  And for T to remember that, it's even more special to get a beautiful arrangement like the one he got me this year.

The part of the night I was looking forward to most was dinner.  T sent me a "menu" of food topics a couple of days before Valentine's Day and I got to pick one out.  He definitely picked my favorite food topics which made it hard to decide.  Picnics, chocolate, Italian, and Texas yumminess are all my favorites.  

Suffice it to say, he did good.

Mmm hmm... a man in the kitchen always looks good.

Always a good sight to see in the evening.

{see the roses on the table?  Those were for getting through my test last weekend.  Fresh flowers at home are always my favorite.}

Always.  

Especially when this man of mine has been so excited to make the meal he'd planned.  He definitely had some fantastic plans up his sleeve...

His masterpieces that he created for the night?

Chicken Crostini's with melted Provolone

Lightly toasted bread with Olive oil

and Mini Wonton Lasagna's

Oh my was this pregnant lady happy.  Every single bite was delicious goodness in my mouth.  I mean, this guy really outdid himself this year!

Happy Lover's Holiday.  

Mine was awesome.

a fun filled weekend.

Last weekend started and ended in a blur.  Our ward campout started Friday night and we rushed up to Jeremiah Johnson's Day Camp where it was being held.  Before heading up, T surprised me with beautiful flowers lying on the passenger seat of the Explorer when I hopped in.

They're gorgeous.

Along with a beautiful bouquet he handed me an intricately folded note.  Like the ones everyone always passed around in high school.  The ones where you giggled and laughed whether the note was from one of your girlfriends or guy friends.

I can tell you this, I definitely giggled like a school girl when T handed me this note.

And yes, my husband is a romantic and writes his letters in cursive so I can pretend we live way back when in the days that people actually wrote hand-written letters.  It's his time that he sacrifices for me when he writes these notes rather than typing them or saying his thoughts out loud.

Sigh.  I got a good one, ladies.

After a quick kiss (maybe a little longer) we filled up a water vase at home and put my beautiful flowers in my favorite tin vase, we headed up to the Ward Campout/BBQ.

We got there just in the nick of time for sloppy joes and a variation of salads.  We chowed down and our awesome little neighbor came and ate beside us.  We convinced him to eat his sloppy joe in five bites.  We're going to be the worst parents ever.  But at least our kids will hopefully eat all of their food.

Even if they can't digest it...

We also ate with the Mama and my Dad.  I think between the four of us, we tried all of the desserts that were laid out.

Yum.

Jana made a cheesecake for the dessert contest.  Apparently it was deliciously good.  However, T and I will never actually know how good because it was all gone by the time we got over to the desserts.

She got a little nervous when they were handing out awards...

Psh.  What was she worried about?  Obviously she would win.  Good thing we're friends, because we love eating over at Jana and Dustin's.  

That's not the only reason we're friends though.  I promise.

Jana and Dustin have the cutest little boy who's pretty good-natured when I tease him and pull his cheeks.

Oh my.  He's darling.

T even caught a picture of me with one of my childhood heroes, brother Lindgren.  I've given him a hug nearly every Sunday since I was little.  He's always let me know what he thinks of me and has always pointed out some of my better qualities.  He's a pretty great guy.

Maybe not the best picture of our foursome, but alas, we finally got a picture altogether.  We've been attempting a group picture for ages.  So yes.  We do actually have friends in the ward.

We decided not to stay the night at the campout and went over to another of our friends houses for movie night.  Definitely a full and fun night!

Then Nae called us up and said she had an extra ticket to a play at Hale Center Theatre.  Of course we said YES!  

We had a fun night with just the three of us.  We highly recommend the play.  Completely comedic and hilarious.  

We don't get together often enough these days.  So a good play with good friends was completely what was needed after a long week of work.

Thanks, Nae!

All in all, a successful weekend.  We definitely stayed up later than we have since we were dating, but it was more than worth it!

Happy days.

smorgasbord of thoughts from the week.

T brought me home flowers this week.  Included in the bouquet were sunflowers.  Sunflowers are some of my favorite flowers.  They're cheery and happy and bright and sunny.  And I love it when they just start to bloom and open up.

T left me a note on the table before he left for work.  I woke up stuffy and sniffly and his cute little love note and happy sunflowers completely turned my morning around!

Best.  Husband.  Ever.

We participated in the Temple to Temple 5K on the 24th this year.  We ran/jogged/walked with a couple of friends of ours and completely enjoyed ourselves.  Running with over 4,000 people (who, let's be honest, were all mostly members of the LDS church) was pretty inspiring.  We can't wait for the Provo City Center temple to be completed in the coming year!  Heavenly Father is truly blessing the people in Provo.

And T and I realized we haven't taken a picture together in a while.  So we attempted one after church last week.

Pretty sure all of them ended up being super cheesy.  But hey, they show us young and completely head over heels in love with each other so I love them.  

Marriage is work.  It's something we have to work for on a daily basis. It's easy to start becoming selfish and not put the other first.  We're definitely not perfect marriage partners, but we are perfect for each other.  No one else would fit me as well as T does.  

He truly does complete me.

 {This is usually what our pictures end up looking like...}

On another note, I'm in in the process of planning my relief society lesson for sunday right now.  I don't know what it is, but teaching a room full of thirty 8-year olds is no problemo.  I can dress up for crazy hair day and wear crazy clothes to school and stand on desks while I teach to entertain them, but put me in a room full of adult women and I freeze up.  I become the definition of dork-ification (if ever a word existed).

Go figure.

One day, I will figure out this whole adulthood thing.  For now, I'm stuck in limbo between young adult and adult.  It's a bit of an awkward place to be sometimes.  At least my second graders could care less.

Bytheway, the first day of school is in less than a month.  Just sayin'.

3 year mark

3 years.

36 months.

156 weeks.

1095 days.

They all add up to the amount of time that T and I have been married.

It's been bliss.  It's been work.  It's been passion and love.  It's been happy summers and long school days.  It's been once a week mac and cheese nights.  It's been first-time gardening.  It's been days of service.  

There have been days of frustration and irritation.  We've learned from our mistakes and moved forward through our weaknesses.  Our strengths have added to our relationship.  "Mine" and "Yours" has been combined to "ours."  

I can honestly say that I've never had more fun than I have being married.  T is my best friend.  He truly is my everything.  He knows exactly what buttons to push to make me irritated, but he also knows exactly what to do to make me feel loved and appreciated.

I love him.   He's my dreamboat.  

Today he surprised me with a beautifully sentimental gift that I will treasure throughout our marriage.

It came in this box...

It's something you can wear around your neck...

It's a gorgeous heart charm.  If you look a little closer you can see a special engraving on the inside of the heart...

{freckle neck}

T had it engraved to say, "T's pretty girl."  It's an adorable endearment that T calls me.  I've always been his "pretty girl."  And for a girl that hasn't always been confident about how she looks, he's the best confidence boost.

T woke up to a special gift, too!  

His very own iPod Nano. He wanted the smaller size to wear in a watchband and to run with.  He was one happy and surprised hubby this morning!

T spoiled me even further with fresh tulips when I got home from S.E.P conferences today!  He has classes until 8:30 tonight and he was so sweet to let me know that he was still thinking of me.  Doesn't get much better than that.

It's been a great 3 years.  

I'm so excited to see what the next 3 years brings us.  It's going to be good.

I just know it.

The April Scoop

These days are filled with cub scouts, talent shows, Great Brain Presentations, and the mad rush to making sure all of my 2nd graders are capable of passing their end of level tests.

The entire school held an evening of talents for all K-6 students. They had to do TWO different show times just to fit all of the talents in. One of our favorites was this glow stick dance done by some upper grade students.

Freaking Awesome.

T and I have been super busy with cub scouts as of late.

Last week was spent attempting to make 3-D structures out of toothpicks and marshmallows. After teaching them how to make a cube, we let them have at it and try to build the tallest and most sturdy building.

We had a loooong discussion at the end talking about why their structures were falling over. They did great relating it to temples and how important it is for architects to design a firm foundation at the bottom.

Seeing how we're over the Wolf Den, one of the achievements is to make bird feeders.

We made the classic pine cone and cheerio bird feeders. It's funny to me that this project NEVER gets old for kids. We could do this for every activity and I think they would love it.

The fact that they got to eat their own cheerios and peanut butter was probably the highlight of that activity.

Teaching is going so well!

Our caterpillars have gone into their chrysalis (cocoon) and should be coming out in the next couple of weeks!

We've also been talking about Spring. I had two little monsters bring in this itty bitty bouquet of freshly picked flowers for me one morning.

Adorable.

They melt my heart.

Other fun things that have/will be happening is that T starts a new internship tomorrow! We're excited that he gets some hands-on experience in financing and we're so excited.

Did I mention that we're excited?

We're also working toward losing a few pounds and toning up for the summer. I'll admit, T is doing a lot better than I am. Between grading presentations and planning lessons, it's hard to exercise during the week. Who has time or energy for that?

I've gotten super soft and gross.

Ick.

I've been strengthening my back so I can get back to running without grimacing in pain with every step. T is a great help and we're trying to eat better. That's hard to do when you stay at school 'til 7 at night sometimes.

I can't wait until I can exercise daily again.

5 weeks until summer vacation!

What?!

We Made a Cake

It was for Grandma's birthday.

Because no one should have to make their own birthday cake (so says Grandma).

So we experimented and came up with this...

All white cake with vanilla frosting, as per Grandma's request.

And then to top it off, we made chocolate flowers!

Don't these babies look legit?

And yes, they are all handmade.

Made by yours truly and my lover boy.

Happy Birthday, Grandma.

Thanks for feeding us Sunday dinners, teaching us the most up-to-date card games and board games, and for loving us unconditionally.

We love you!