My Young Women

I have been the Young Women's President in my ward now for over a year and a half. I have learned a lot from them during this time. They are courageous young women in a crazy world that teaches them they aren't good enough or worth anything unless they are "perfect".

Who gets to define what "perfect" is in our world today?

• Height
• Hair color
• Body type
• Talents/Hobbies

My Young Women are perfect in THEIR own way.

• Some are ballerinas, artists, and musicians. 
• Some like science, math, dance, and recess. 
• Some enjoy being the oldest, youngest, or somewhere in the middle.  

All I know is I wish they can always know how special and perfect they are in their OWN way. 

It is amazing how much they teach me and I how much I worry about them.

Friday Night fun...taxes, movie, and dinner

Friday Night...I sat down with Matt's mom to do our taxes, so much fun right. Not the funnest, but after that we had fun with Matt's parents

Matt had been wanting to see the Ghost Rider movie for the past couple of weeks, so after taxes we planned to go to the movies. Since it was an early movie, we invited Matt's parents to go with us. (Pops tends to fall asleep if the move is later). 

We drove into a parking spot and found our name on the adjacent car. I thought it was funny, so I took a picture. 

We ended up being a little late to the movie, but with previews we would have been right on time. We bought our tickets and walked into the theater and no movie was playing. Why? No one in the theater. We had to tell the manager that no movie was playing, so we ended up having a private screen. It was fun. I took a picture with my phone. 

After the movie, we went to dinner and Iceberg. Lets just say that mini shakes are MINI there. One shake is big enough for two people, unless of course you are POPS and like ice cream. 

Matt and I enjoy hanging out with his parents and spending quality time with them. 

Don't forget...we are still trying to ADOPT. Help us get the word out!

We are still trying to find our little one. Please keep us in mind and let everyone you know.
You never know...you could be our missing link to our future baby.
We have been waiting for over 3 years and are hoping this year will be OUR year.

Thank you for your support and love!

Lydia...The newest Niece

My sister, Chelsey, had our newest niece, Lydia, in December, but they live in Washington, so we only recently got to see her.

She is already getting so big (two months) old. We have sorely missed Arlee growing up over the last 7 months and now we will miss watching Lydia grow up. It is definitely sad when family has to move far away. We have 5 nieces and nephews in my family and only 1 lives here. The numbers are definitely not in our favor that is for sure.

Here are some of the fun moments caught on camera:

First time seeing and holding Lydia

Lydia fell asleep on me and I had to get a picture.
Snuggling...one of the best things to do with a baby!

Matt's first time seeing Lydia.

Lydia making faces at Matt!

Matt and Lydia

Us and Lydia

Last time seeing Lydia. She was the happiest baby that night.
You can tell because she is smiling. CUTE!


Got 3 cute videos too!

Lydia likes to smile!

Baby Cries are so CUTE! 

I got lots of pictures of Lydia and only two of Arlee. She was so busy playing and enjoying her cousin, Kasiah, that she didn't really care about the adults. Who can blame here either!

I did get to eat ice cream with her the night she arrived. We eat it at 10:00pm. The fun of being an aunt!

While Chelsey was here, we decided to go horse back riding at the place I have been learning about horses to be able to volunteer in the summer. It ended up being me, Chelsey, Hans (Chelsey's husband), and my two brothers, Jake and Dane.

It was really interesting. We started out in the arena to make sure everyone knew how to ride safely and make sure everyone was situated with their horses. It was alot of fun! Can't wait to go this summer when it is warmer.

Chelsey

Dane

Jake in his cowboy hat! Cutest little brother ever!

All of us at the end of the ride! Me, Dane, Chelsey, Jake, and Hans.

Valentine's Day..two days late

Matt had to work Graveyards this Valentine's Day, so we had a quick Valentine Day dinner at La Frontera for an hour, but planned a date late in the week. It worked out great as dinner on Valentine's Day can be a chaotic mess.

I did wake-up to a Valentine's Day surprise.Matt left me a message on the board on our fridge. Matt made me heart shaped sandwiches and bought me chocolate covered strawberries.

Valentine's Day message

Personalized Heart shaped message

Two personalized heart shaped sandwiches.

 It made me giggle and laugh at how cute and loving he is.


We ended up going to Rodizo Grill on Thursday night for our Valentine's Day date. We also went and had Gelato at the Harmons City Creek store. 

St. George Trip

I had to go to St. George for work the first of February to complete some Green/Recycling Training at a store. Since Matt was on his 7 days off, we decided to make a weekend trip of it.

I only had to work half a day on Friday, so after I was done working we went exploring. 

We walked along a trail along the Virgin River and ended up at a park. The skies were blue, the temperature was perfect, and Matt and I got to just hang out together. We ended up stopping at a park to swing on the coolest swing and relax before heading back to the condo we were staying at. 

Us together relaxing and catching cool sun rays in our photo too!

Me posing with my future swing for my backyard!

On Saturday, we went to Zion's National Park. I have never been there before, but Matt has a couple of times. It was absolutely beautiful. We ended up hiking a huge circle around the canyon by the Emerald Pools, along the Virgin River on one side, and back along the Virgin River on the other side. We would have hiked more, but Matt didn't bring a jacket and we were both a little sore. 

Us looking up at the enormous walls above.

Matt is King of the Rock!

Matt showing off his muscles.

My attempt to be Queen of the Rock.
It was hard as I am scared of heights and
this rock was rather tall. 

Trying to imitate Matt, but I look more like a monkey.

We also went and saw the St. George Temple and took a couple of pictures. 

The trip was so relaxing and much needed! 

We ate dinner every night together and cuddled up to watch movies too.

My 30th Birthday!

This year I turned 30. My birthday was on Saturday, January 14th. To be honest it was a pretty lousy birthday weekend.  We had an adoption situation come up on Friday, January 13th that didn't end up working out.  Matt was on his first graveyards for work, so he slept during the day. I hung out with the horses for about 4 hours and was able to see Matt for an hour while we went to dinner at La Frontera. Spent the rest of evening by myself. 

Since my birthday weekend was pretty lousy, I wanted the next weekend while Matt was off work to be a lot better. I planned to get a Pedicure with my best friend, Kristin, on Thursday night and then we would go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with our families. Friday - I wanted to go to Gorgoza Park to go sledding. Saturday - We would spend the evening with Kristin and David for Kristin's 30 birthday. 

Well nothing went as planned, but it still was an enjoyable weekend for the most part. 

Thursday -

Kristin and I went to get our Pedicure like planned, but Matt had other plans for dinner. He threw me a surprise party...Kind of, because I ended up suspecting something before hand. Some of ours friends came over to surprise me, Elswoods, Lundgrens, McIlravys, Mellons, and Sloans(my sister).

Matt even made me my kind of cake....A beautiful fruit edible arrangement! It was the best cake ever! It was pretty funny though that Robbie (5 years old) got upset that we didn't even have cupcakes, because this was a birthday party and you are suppose to have some kind of cake. We told her the next time we saw her we would have a cupcake for her.

Mine are the blue toes and Kristin's are the pinkish toes.
No one has really seen them, because it really isn't flip-flop weather. 

Matt preparing my "cake"

Fruit "cake" all complete!

  

Matt and his master piece

One more picture of my "cake".

Kali Sloan (sister) and Lundrens, Alan and Turkey (my nickname for her)
waiting to surprise me. 

Amber Dawn and Mike McIlravy waiting to surprise me.

Lundgrens, Alan, Turkey, and Daxton.

Matt and Parker posing for the camera

Surprise...here I come. Yeah!
I was really excited to see everyone and thrilled Matt set it up!

If you can't tell I am embarrassed in this picture

Gracie and Me!

My thanks to Matt and nice big KISS! Love him so much!

A bunch of fruit cakes in this picture...3 of them.

Very Edible. I got to take the first bit. 

Friday -

I ended up sick, so we didn't go tubing at Gorgoza Park, but we did go see Mission Impossible: Ghose Protocol.

Saturday - 

It decided to rain and snow, so David and Kristin had their basement flood. So no dinner with them, but we ended up going out with Matt's parents to Macaroni Grill anyway.

Matt and I got to sit next to the Fireplace. Perfect!

Matt's Parents

So the birthday weekend after my real birthday weekend was great. 

I also got a couple cards I thought were pretty funny. 

Lundgren's Gave me this Card:

Chelsey and Hans sent me this one:

My mom also gave me money for horse back riding gloves. I ended up having some money left over, so I also got some ear muffs. These both have saved my life while horse back riding in the lovely winter weather. 

Matt gave me tickets to see Zorro at Hale Center Theater on March 19th.

 I am ecstatic to go see this play!

OFF TO A NEW YEAR!