So much happening, and so much to do!

Jon and I thought we would take advantage of the local Provo Public Library this week and get our own library cards there!






I also experienced a sweet tender mercy experience a few weeks ago I forgot to share until now: for about a week I had been smelling a strange burning smell that seemed to be coming from our bedroom. Whenever I smelled it I would check all the outlets and the little heater we had in our room. I never found anything weird. I even asked Jon if he could smell it and most of the time he didn't, and when he did, he would just say it was probably coming from the upstairs neighbors. So I tried to let it go. Well, as most of you know, Jon leaves for work every morning at 5:30 am and doesn't get home until around 3:00 pm. I usually don't get up until around 9, depending on how late I went to bed the night before. And it takes me quite a while before I feel fully awake. I am NOT a morning person. But one morning, after Jon had already left for work, I woke up at 6:30 am, feeling oddly very much awake. And I smelled the burning smell stronger than ever. I quickly got up and checked all the outlets and the heater again, but found nothing. Then I had the idea to check the extension cord that the heater was plugged into, instead of the outlet. By looking at it there on the floor, it looked completely normal. But when I tried to pick it up, I found that it was stuck on the carpet. When I finally yanked it up, I turned it around to find this...





I immediately turned off the little heater and unplugged the extension cord from the wall. My first thought after I saw that was, "This was not me." I am never that awake when I first get up, and I never thought to check the extension cord before then. We are so grateful for the little things that the Lord blesses us with!


Lately I have also been feeling very crafty and homemaker-y. This week I decided that we should start saving a little money by having homemade bread instead of store bought bread. Here is my first try at making homemade bread...


Obviously the left one had a little explosion before even going into the oven, but they didn't look too bad when they were done. For a first try, at least:




This first batch was okay, but they were a little hard. I looked around online and found a better recipe and now I am making much softer bread! I am still going to experiment with a few things but as soon as I get it to where I feel it is near perfect, I will post the recipe here on our blog.

With the bread making urge came the desire to try new recipes! But I needed a place to collect all these new recipes I was finding so I bought this...




And turned it into this:





Tada! I was pretty proud of myself and since my little project was such a success, I feel even more tempted to take on more craft projects! We'll see what happens!

On a different note, it has been so AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL outside lately!!! So last week Jon and I thought we would take advantage of the gorgeous new spring season and go fishing!













We went to Salem Pond which is "our spot" because we went there all the time last spring and summer to fish while we were dating. It is so beautiful there! They have tons of ducks, a goose that hisses at Jon, a dock, a little beach, tons of places to go for walks, a bridge, a playground, and even a little stream. We highly recommend it for a little family outing, a fun place to swim or raft, an awesome place to fish, a great place to play with friends, or a great place to just go for some peace and quiet with beautiful scenery.

Along with the new spring season comes new decorations!







And I saved the best for last. Jon and I went and saw The Hunger Games! We couldn't go to the midnight showing because of how early Jon has to get up in the morning, but we went Friday night and we LOVED it!!! But we highly recommend that you read the book first because you will understand the movie a lot better if you do. Plus, even though the movie was awesome, the book is even better.






Happy Spring, everyone!!!

The Luck O' The Irish!

Jon favored me with a little Irish jig for St Patrick's Day and I thought I would share with all of you:


He's such a good sport!

I know it's short. We thought it would be best if we left him with a little dignity. ;)



We hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!!

A Dream Come True!

It's finally happened! After 4 years of studying photography and one year after graduating in it, I finally have a nice camera!!!!



Presenting our Nikon D5100 !!! (Isn't she beautiful???)



This has been a long time coming, and it's so weird that it is finally here but it's just wonderful! I take this little beauty with me everywhere I go and I love it! Jon and I think it's worth every penny. We also bought a telephoto lens for it too! We only got the camera and lenses a couple days ago, but here a few shots we got while wandering around the Riverwoods mall that night.
















I know it's not much yet, plus I am more of a portrait photographer anyway, but there you go. Wanna hear something even cooler?? It has an hd video recorder on it! Here is a video we took with it of our adorable nephew, Britian, trying to jump...

A story of sorts..... by JON!!!

Yes! It is I!!! This is my first official post! And to celebrate this most festive occasion Caitlyn has given me pictures to post with it! So I'll post them and comment in a very original way. We'll see how it goes tell us what you think.

And there was great peace in the land Provo until the eve of March the thirteenth. For it came to pass that Jonathan was troubled and felt there must needs be a date of great courage and valor. So it came to pass that Jonathan went and departed with his wife Caitlyn to see the great Caesar and pleaded for merriment. Caesar looked kindly at the couple and awarded them with food and beverage and there was much rejoicing.



Therefore Jonathan and his wife Caitlyn also met their friends the duck family at wilderness park and shared their food with them. The semi-ungrateful ducks stood off in the distance momentarily while the couple were close, so the couple kept their distance and let the ducks partake of the food that was brought for them after some patience.



And thus Caitlyn and Jonathan continued their journey down the path by the Provo river. But lo and behold, the ducks were displeased with their departure and formed a band of mercenaries that tried their best efforts to block the couple from continuing their journey. The mightiest one named Hercule shouted, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!!"


Fortunately, the couple went on in their journey past the duck barricade. And as luck would permit, Caitlyn and Jonathan ran into their duckie friends, Fred, George, and Bob. They were camera shy though and went fleeing as soon as we got out the camera. So the couple journeyed on. And it was thus said of the couple that they found a swing in the forest. It was made of fine rope and a grand seat. The couple both tried the swing and agreed the workmanship was fine.

Isn't she such a cutie?

And I can still jump out of the swing

As Jonathan and Caitlyn continued their journey. The adventurers upon the path came upon a band of kids on a trampoline who termed Jon as the "tall guy." And more so these children felt as if they had superpowers and we could not hear them talking about us since we were on the path and even talked more when we walked back down the trail. But our journey continued. And it came to pass that Jonathan and Catilyn met up with friendly dogs, though Jonathan kept his distance due to his big dog phobia.

And lo, when the trip looked as if it would continue, Caitlyn said she needed to pee and thus we turned back down the trail. The journey back had scenic views of the river though, here are some.

So nice outside

And it came to pass as the adventurers journeyed back, the couple bumped into our friends Fred and George, but not Bob this time and they all wondered in awe where he could have wandered off too. But it came to pass that the couple caught up with Bob later with his wife! The meeting was so exciting that they needed to take pictures with the cute couple! It was as if feeling like a big family after meeting up with them.

Good ole' Fred and George

Bob and his Wife!

And thus concluded the adventure for today, Caitlyn and Jonathan went home and rested. Till next time.

Getting back to normal

For the last 2 weeks I have have been sick with a bad cold/sinus infection that were so bad I had to leave work early one day. That is something that can rarely happen at my job because our department is so small during the fall and winter that we HAVE to get someone to work for us if we can't go to work. Even if you are sick. And lets face it, it's pretty much impossible to get people to work for you. So I felt lucky that day. But then for the rest of the week I spent a lot of time in bed, if I wasn't at work, which got pretty boring, especially while Jon was gone at work (and by the way, if you have three adorably perfect nephews, don't get sick or you won't be able to play with them).

Anyway, when Jon got home he would help stop the boredom by talking with me, watching movies with me, reading my book to me (which must have been incredibly boring for him) and getting tissues and medicine for me.


He even made me chicken noodle soup

And played games with me!



He is pretty much the sweetest husband ever! But since I didn't want him to catch whatever I had, I made sure he drank lots of this.....



And used lots of this.....




My mama was also super sweet and brought dinner over on Sunday night. And she let me borrow her diffuser and oils!


I went through 3 boxes of Tissue, and got lots of medicine from the doctor, and spent lots of time in bed, but I'm starting to feel a ton better. Sorry this post is kind of boring, but that's been my past 2 weeks. Ha ha.

Now that I'm pretty much better, things are starting to get back to normal. Jon spends as much time as he can studying for the GRE which he is planning on taking in May.




Currently he is memorizing lots of words. He has made a ton of flash cards and I test him on them when I am home.




And on a random note, my work got an awesome new time clock. Instead of sliding your card to clock in and clock out, we now get to clock in and clock out with a time clock that reads your fingerprint to identify you! Its so neat every time I come and press my finger on the clock and it beeps, says my name on the screen, and then says "Thank you."


I feel like an FBI Agent. :)