My Home-making Craft!

I have been inspired by my aunt to start craft projects to better my home. => I spend quite a bit of time at home doing nothing of significance, so the other day I decided to start a craft project => I bravely entered into the craft store (in the middle of the day again with the experienced ladies) and set out to find a home improving project! I saw these red bamboo-ish rods that I liked but I didnt know what to do with them, and then I remembered the cute letters my aunt Corianne made for her little girl to play with. I went to go get some letters and on my way I saw some things hanging from a garland with raffia (it helped that some of those things were the connected word signs) and I got an idea! This began the budding of a home making project! Yay my first one!! => I set out to make my wall sign!! And I could not have done it without the helpful pointers from Corianne and Gram!!! I really appretiate the time you took to talk to me and teach me little craft pointers! Well, this is my final product! Let me know what you think of it!

I painted the letters, sanded the edges to get that rustic look, gathered the bamboo, and tied it all together!Yay! Proof of me being a little home maker!!! =>

Consentrating so hard =>
The finished product!!! And I spelled our name right!! Wooo!!! =>

A closer look at the fake bamboo and raffia.
My parents gave us the picture of the Newport Beach temple on the left! It is one of those olden day looks, it is gorgeous! Thank you again Mom and Dad! We love it!!
The colors of the sign match my house (maybe, I am still deciding if I like it =>) I have red accents all over, so it was just fitting that the accent should be red. There is a tan table runner on our table and one of the colors on our couch is tan, so that should bring in the raffia, and the picture of the temple is black and rustic, and other things in our house are black or dark wood so I figured black lettering would be perfect.
I still am not too sure about it, it seems like something is missing or something is a little off. If you guys can think of anything I would appretiate your suggestions, and if I add anything new, I will be sure to post it! =>

Happy New Year!!

Oh goodness, its like I havent posted anything since last year => Jared and I spent New Years with my Grandpa and aunts and uncles in Utah. That was way fun, and it was also kind of crazy. You see, I did the same thing last year (spent New Years with my fam in Utah), and in no way shape or form did I think I was going to be married to the man of my dreams by the same time next year! => Although it is weird to think about it like that, I am overwhelmingly grateful for Jared and the opportunities we have had together! We went down to Ogden on New Years Eve and stayed until the 4th. We had so much fun playing with family!!








Before "Happy New Years" the boys played Play Station (Mario Cart and James Bond) and the girls took jumping pictures (I will get those soon =>)

And this New Years, Jared had his first ever (and of many to come) New Years Kiss!!!





On Friday Jared and I went snowboarding at Wolf Mountain and then went to Heather and Davids house to eat dinner and play games.





We played Blokus, Disney Princess Memory Game, and Yatzhee. Jared and David look sooo happy playing the princess game =>

My prince won the princess game!!! Oh I am so proud!! =>

The loving couple leaving Heather and Davids!! I love him!!!!





This is one og the funniest pictures of Jared and Orson. I love how they have the same look (Todd was talking to Jared) =>





I still can not believe how much Orson looks like Todd. We even compared baby pictures and they could be twins!!




Justine was going sledding with Todd and was so cute I had to take a picture!!




Its the Snow Crew!!! (Saturday) Jared and David went snowboarding at Snow Basin and Justine and Todd went sledding on the hill my Grandpas house! So cute!

While Jared and David were off galavanting in the snow, Heather came up with her little girl Holland and we had a girls day! => These two were so cute playing together!

Snow Boarding!!!

Ok, so Jared has been wanting to go snowboarding for 10 months now! He took me towards the beginning of our dating career, it was my third time boarding and his first ever!! We went night boarding and Kelly Canyon. Well we went with all his friends who have been doing it practically their whole lives, and he was doing well at keeping up with them, but he didnt know how to stop. => So he busted his knee and couldnt board for the rest of the season. Jared then was using a borrowed board, but he ordered a board that was his size but he never got to use it!! So sad! => So yesterday, we drove home from Jerome, through a blizzard, and made it in time to go night boarding again at Kelly! He was elated!! And he was pretty good! It was snowing pretty hard the whole time, but it was so much fun!! And he got to use my Christmas presents. I got him some goggles and a snowboard bag!! We had so much fun!! We cant wait to go again!!!

(doesnt he look like a tough pro boarder =>)

And the married snowbaorders!!! Oh so cute!!!

Jared, the Traffic Cop Lawyer

So back when we were first married, the first time we went to Jerome, Jared got a ticket. You see, while he was gone they changed a country road (50mph) to a residential road (35 mph) and the sign was hidden by a tree. And Jared, being the determined young man that he is, decided to fight this ticket. And four months later they finally gave us a court hearing. Jared was so prepared!! He has a slideshow, a video, he looked up the idaho state laws and made a whole argument! He was so excited!! He even practiced his opening statement, questions he would ask the cop, and closing statement!! He was so prepared!!! So we went down to the courthouse, waited and waited, and the cop never showed!! And they figured he had a good reason, so they just dismissed it!! He was so disappointed!! but at least ti was dismissed and we didnt have to pay the fine! =>

Christmas at the Millers!!!

Merry Christmas to all!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! I know we sure did!! We spent Christmas with Jared's family in Jerome, and it was so fun!! Jared had to work Monday Tuesday and half a day on Christmas Eve! That was a bummer but at least he didnt have to work all day!! We left Rexburg around 1, and we made a detour to Twin Falls (Jared hadnt even started his Christmas shopping yet and I had to finish mine because I chickend out of soem of the presents I got him and decided to get something better =>) We finally made it to the Millers around 5:15p and then started the festivities!! The big event there is Christmas Eve dinner and events thereafter. They decorated the kitchen table so elegantly and the plate treats were just adorable! We ate dinner by candlelight, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, watched "Joy to the World" and read scriptures! It was very fun and Christ oriented, which is how it should be! => On Christmas day we woke up around 8:30 and casually got ready to open presents => I think this was the most relaxed Christmas morning I have ever had in my life!! With no kids, things go pretty easy-going and slow paced! => After we opened all our wonderful presents we just lounged around and played games with the family. It was so much fun!!

Karen (Jared's mom) and Melissa (Jared's sister) putting the finishing touches on the display of Christmas dinner!

The beautiful Christmas table!

The Christmas tree with all the presents under it!! Look at all that loot!!! =>

Kalyn's Germany Trip!

Hey Fam! So as most of you know Kalyn has had some pretty exciting things happen to her lately, and it is my honor to report them to you! => First off, she got accepted into the German FLSR (foreign language student housing) at BYU as a FRESHMAN!!! She evn had someone from call her because they were so pleased and awed that a freshman made it in. (Although she will not find out if she actually makes it into BYU until Febuary) She also got accepted to BYU Hawaii and BYU Idaho! Oh goodness look at our little baby growing up!! => And over Thanksgiving Kalyn went to Germany. It was with a school program, but she stayed at a German families house with a girl around her age, and sometime next year that girl will come and stay with our family. It is a really neat program! So here are some pictures from her adventure and explanations by her!

Christmas Shopping in the Snow!

So I was a very brave little girl and ventured out into the cold and dreary, snow ridden Rexburg today in search of the perfect present to make my wonderful husband overjoyed on Christmas morning. => And of course, as in anything out of the ordinary I do I documented it! => Not only did I get 2 (what I think are) very good presents for Jared, I also got my parents a present and my sister!! All without crashing and minimal amounts of sliding!! Yay me!!! => And I am almost done with my hristmas shopping!! Wooo!!!
Now where do I put all these presents? Shhhh!! Dont tell Jared what they are!
And this is what I looked like while driving in the snow all day => Its amazing I am still alive!!



Tape Master to the rescue!!! She can tape a present faster than a speeding bullet!! =>

Snow, Snow, Everywhere!

It is finally a winter worth having up here!! I did not like the freezing cold but no snow!! It felt like it was cold for nothing!! lol Well I got my wish!! It started snowing last Wednesday and hasnt stopped since!! And guess what I got to do!?!? Thats right, drive in the snow for the first time!!! And I can tell you... I was scared to death!! I drove Jared to work on last Thurseday morning, when it was still dark!! I was so brave!! I am so grateful Jared was with me the first time, because of course I did everything wrong and slid like crazy, but he was there to calm me down and tell me how to fix it!! Isnt he just a dream?!?!! I love him!!!!

First Married Christmas Tree!

Its the Christmas season!! This is my favorite time of the year!=> After a wonderful weekend with family, Jared and I began putting up decorations! My parents were nice enough to let Jared and I have the old Christmas tree (my mom bought one with lights already in it), so we were blessed to not have to buy that! Our first ever decoration to put up was the elf clothes from Denmark, then two nativity scenes. We put those decorations up on Sat, and set up the tree on Sunday, but we didnt have any decorations for the tree (other than the lights my parents gave us). So today I went to the craft store in the middle of the day to get some decorations. I felt like such a grown-up.=> They had a bunch of sample trees up, but my budget wasnt big enough to just copy their design (like I normally do =>) so I had to be creative! It was so exciting! And I am very pleased with the outcome. And I even cheated. When I was little and I would help my mom decorate the tree she would always make sure we decorated equally all around the tree because "santa inspects the decorations on the christmas trees". But I only decorated the front half of the tree lol => And I kept relatively in my budget => I was so excited! =>

Thanksgiving Weekend!

I am so thankful for the opportunity Jared and I had to go down to Utah this weekend and see my family!! We left Rexburg on Thurseday morning around 8 and got to American Fork around 12! It was so fun to have the rest of my moms family meet Jared! The thanksgiving food was amazing! My uncle Drew fried 6 turkeys!! Thats right 6!!!! And he gave Jared the honorary job of carving them all! Oh I am so proud of him! => After playing with the extended fam for thurseday my parents and siblings drove back with us to Rexburg to see where we live and have my dad play in his old stompin grounds => That was so much fun!! I am so grateful that they were able to do that! Here are some pictures from the amazing weekend!! I am so thankful for a wonderful family and a loving husband!

Truck Happenings

So this just in, Jared's truck likes being in body shops => I had just finished posting my last post, then started cleaning the bathroom when my love calls and says that I need to bring the trucks insurance (we had just got it in the mail and had yet to put it in the truck) to his work because a work truck ran into it. I was shocked and amused, we have had this truck for about a week and Jared rarely drives it to work, he did today because I didnt have school. I found the whole situation rather ironic. => When I got to Jared's work, the work truck (an electric boomer or something like that) and his truck were still in the crash positions, but I didnt think I had a camera, but later when I was looking for my cell phone I found a camera. So here are some pics of the truck and the big electric truck. Just a little update on the truck drama =>

Family Home Camping

I just had to tell how cute my husband is! For family night he took me "camping". => We roasted marshmellows and told stories! => Even though it was 18 degrees outside, he made it work => He is so cute!! I LOVE him!!

My Tough Little Man!

So Wednesday night was the playoffs for Jared's basketball team! If they won they would be the best in the school, and get a t-shirt! => So I,of course, went to go support my man and watch him win the game! => I should have known this game was going to be interesting from the beginning. While Jared was warming up an official came up to him and told him he couldnt play unless he shaved his soul-patch. Now, you have to know Jared is an avid facial hair lover, and was pained to shave his beard to play these basketball games, but he has been able to sneak this soul-patch for a month now. And for what a good wife I am, I just laughed. => So Jared misses the first three minutes of the game because he is shaving. When returning he is going full force and loving it. Their team is winning by 10 points throughout the whoel game. In the last 15 minutes of the game Jared steals the ball from a rebound by the opposing team and starts heading towards his side of the court. Well like litterally at half court he collides with a member from the opposite team. The other guy is just knocked backwards, but Jared is like flipped, twisted,trucked, bounced, and flown across the court. Believe me, it was way cool to watch!! => And after all that the foul gets called on Jared, for I dont even know what reason. => and Jared just gets right back up and plays. And me being the good wife I am, I am like cracking up in the stands. I dont think you can picture how cool/funny it was to see this big guy fall so acrobatically. hehehe. Another like five minutes into the game and the ref stops the game and tells Jared to get off the court because he is bleeding. Jared runs over the the score table to get some band-aids (which for some reason they dont have) and I see his arm. From his elbow to the middle of his forearm was just covered in thick blood. It looked way scary, but Jared acted like it was nothing so I was not too worried. => So he ends up having to go to the sports doctor and they say that they can see ligaments and he needs to go to the ER and get stitches right away. This is all during the last half of the game, and Jareds team won!!!! Wooo!!!! => So again after the game, he tells me he needs to go to the ER and get stitches and what do I do..... laugh => Sometimes I wonder why he married me => We go to the ER and I am taking pictures and playing around with the nurse and doing like fake pictures (one witht he q-tip touching the top of the wound then break the q-tip in half and put it in the same place, so it looks like it went in way far =>) and Jared is completely fine and joking around with us. Thedoctor comes is and examines him and explains the situation, so we can decide if Jared is to get stitches or not, and then the doctor starts cleaning Jareds cut. I am right there by the table watching in fascination. The doctor litterally took a medicine saoked q-tip and put it and inch into Jareds elbow!!!! AN INCH!!!! Oh it was crazy to see! => And the whole time Jared never complained or anything. Even when the doctor was shooting the nummer into him (which the doctor said would hurt a heck of a lot) Jared didnt even flinch! I was so impressed!! He is like superman in dealing with pain!! => And because he was such a good boy and help so still at the doctors, I took him to Jamba Juice after => I just thought I would tell you the recent adventure we had => And here are some pics from it. => (wow this is a long post =>) The pics are of Jareds cut after wiping down the gross stuff and after he got all bandadged up! =>

Two Cars!?!?!

I think this is one of the funniest pictures of Jared I have taken => We were in Jerome ID a couple days ago to get his truck (it broke when he was taking me down to Utah last winter break) from the shop. Can I just tell you how much I have learned to dislike automechanics and spending large amounts of money!! This whole ordeal was cRaZy! It even spiked Jareds interest for getting an undergrad degree in automechanics and then going to medical school, just so he never has to pay one again => Well anyways, after all the car drama (and believe me, there was a lot!!!) we went to Jerome to pick the truck up, and on our way back we had to stop for gas. I thought it was a fun picture opportunity, the way the cars were placed, so I told Jared to jump in there. I looked away because of something, I dont remember what, but happened to snap the picture, and when I looked at it Jared was making this face. Oh I laughed so hard!