What is the deal with Valentine's day? The past couple days at work, I have been asked multiple times what the guys should do for their wives for Valentine's day. I have racked my brain multiple times trying to come up with creative ideas, because it seems everyone I work with has a wife who needs something "sentimental" for Valentine's day. Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, a few flowers and a nice dinner and that's all I need! Please don't write me some sappy poem or sing me a song. In college I had a guy actually write me a poem on a piece of paper and he burned the edges of the paper to make it look like it was historic or something - I couldn't stop laughing! I actually could care less about Valentine's day - in middle school and high school it was a big deal, (when you had your two day relationships) but now I don't really care. A guy at work was shocked when I told him that I didn't really care about Valentine's day - "WHAT? You aren't going to do ANYTHING for Valentine's day? If you're like this at 1 year of marriage, you are going to be a huge grinch at your 5th year." Sheesh!

Jake kept telling me that we needed to put this on the blog, so here it is :) The past couple weeks we have been playing the game "Sonic and Mario Olympics" on the Wii. This is me playing the whack-a-mole game (soon to be in the real olympics! j/k)

I am sure Jake will simply roll his eyes when he reads this post (he will think i am exaggerating the experience, but this is the way I see it - - from my point of view).

Let me set the stage a little bit here: There were about three years of my life (elementary school, of course), when I was rarely seen without a basketball jersey on. I was convinced I was going to become a WNBA star and dribble my way to fame. I was decent at basketball (except for the one year during the free-throw tournament when my dad had my sister run out to a trophy store to get me a trophy because they didn't want me to feel bad when I didn't place - somehow i took third), and played through school until my sophomore year of high school. I even remember holding my arms up to this poster in my brother's room to see if I could be "like mike":

I had felt pretty confident with my ability to play basketball until the other night. You know those people on the team that you feel bad for, but you let them play anyways although if you pass to them, they will try shooting it and way overshoot the hoop? Yeah, that was me the other night. Jake and I went before the game so I could shoot around and I was doing okay. Then, when everyone got there we started to get ready for the game and I was asked what position I play. I froze - I couldn't remember any positions! I came up with the perfect answer that anyone would give if they didn't know what to say: "oh, i can play anywhere". After feeling like an idiot, we went out on the court for the initial jump ball and I found myself not knowing which direction we were going! (luckily, the ref pointed out which direction each team was going). To keep the story short, I will simply say I stink. I should have probably just stayed home - the night consisted of me making one or two baskets (i think), catching the ball between my knees, passing the ball to the opposite team, and just running around while the other ladies made plays. I can't decide if I am going to spare these poor women this week and not go, or play to see if by some miracle I can get better. I am officially kissing my WNBA future goodbye...

And the countdown begins! On February 21, Jake and I will be embarking on our first cruise together to........


If you guessed Mexico you are right! and i hope we actually see someone who looks like this and is VERY excited to see me - that would be my dream come true! I have wanted to go to Mexico ever since I was little. I even had an obsession with latin music when I was in high school and would listen to my Shakira cd when i mowed the lawn. I even tried to minor in spanish when i was at college, but after my first semester I realized I sounded like an idiot american trying to sound like i actually knew how to speak the language. I also realized i could not, and never would be able to roll my r's, so i trashed that minor asap.


So Jake and I are off on our first foreign adventure with our friends Tanner and Allie. It was funny because Jake and I had talked about going on a cruise and thought it would be more fun with friends, so we were going to try to convince Tanner and Allie to go with us on a cruise. When we brought up the idea, they started screaming that they wanted us to go on one with them to Mexico! Of course it took us two seconds to approve, and then we got our plans started! We are headed out of LA, and then off to the ports of Puerto Vallerta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. It will be lots of fun! And one other bonus, is that people always say to drink bottled water in Mexico, but we won't have to worry about it too much since we will be drinking the water off of our ship. Unless they decide to trick us and give us the REAL experience and contaminate their water. I should just pack my entire suitcase with bottled water.

In other random news, Jake and I happened to catch this show on tv tonight:


have you ever watched this show? It makes me extremely sad but also makes me feel motivated to get in shape (at least for an hour after the show ends). Tonight there was an old man who got voted off and I started crying! I couldn't believe it. I am the biggest baby ever. Anways, this man was so incredibly gracious about the entire thing, and then after the show ended, they showed a clip of him after he had been home for a while. He looked so good! It was amazing! I am astounded at how determined these people are to lose weight! I need to use them as motivation..but I am thinking I have a long ways to go after my breakfast this morning of gummy bears and diet coke. I have a problem.

One of my most favorite things:


I know it sounds ridiculous because it is a kitchen appliance, but I absolutely LOVE my Kitchenaid. If you don't have one - stop reading and get one right now. This lovely appliance not only helps me when I cook and bake, but it sits on my counter beautifully. I am so protective of it, that I will not let the silver bowl dry in the dishwasher - I will hand wash it and dry it with a towel, of course making sure that there are no water spots. I make up any excuse I can to use it. It is one of the reasons I like to cook! Of course cooking and baking is more fun when you have fun little gadgets and appliances.

Another one of my favorite things:


I love things to be organized and be in cute boxes with labels on them. Nothing makes me feel better than to look in the closet and see all of my boxes stacked on top of eachother with labels. I love taking a messy room and organizing it. (you wouldn't be able to tell that by our spare bedroom - but where else do you cram everything you can't fit anywhere else?) I love filling empty shelves with neatly folded towels, linens, or anything that looks pretty. I just love for everything to have a specific place. I have gotten into the habit of walking around the house and throwing things away that I don't find important - It has gotten to the point when if Jake can't find something he will immediately ask if I have thrown it away. What can I say - I don't like clutter :)

We have been having a very snowy christmas! It feels like it won't ever stop. There was one day I came home from work and couldn't get my car in the driveway because it was so snowy. I just parked my car halfway in the street and walked inside and made Jake get it in the garage. These pictures are from yesterday when jake was shoveling the snow...

Look at that form! = broken back in the future

He decided to build a wall up around the stairs going into the basement

We had a fun first christmas together - we opened gifts and then later in the day went over to have dinner with his family. It was fun to be with family on christmas! Christmas eve Jake was working, so I went up to my sister's house. Santa visited and her two boys loved it, but her girls were both screaming and crying. I wish I had pictures- but it was seriously hilarious.

Trying our stockings on..

We hope you had a merry christmas!

Christmas Spirit!

The past couple of weeks have been busy but fun! My friend Shiloh and I went to the Hogle Zoo one night to see the Zoo Lights. The whole zoo is full of lights and some lights in the shapes of animals. It was alot of fun to go around and look at everything! There weren't many animals out but we did get to see the penguins and go in the smelly reptile area. The zoo also got a new carousel...we stood in line to ride it, but didn't actually get to because we didn't realize you needed to buy special tickets. We felt like the biggest idiots ever.

I look like an old lady for the zoo lights

Shiloh rockin it out at the zoo lights

We had some friends over one night to play games but realized we didnt want to play any of the ones we already had, so we decided to open one of our christmas gifts (from santa) a little early. Jake got to open it, and you can tell that he was extremely excited.

This picture makes me laugh so hard...
he is just so excited!

classic christmas picture

sorry not much to say, but just wanted to share the pictures!

This weekend was full of adventures! Friday we were able to do Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and her family, my younger brother and my other sister. We started the day off with a 3k run- the "Turkey Trot". We were all getting ready to do the run and my nephew karate chopped the finish line (made of crate paper) and when my sister asked him why he did that he paused for a second, i think because he realized he did something wrong, and then he threw up his hands like he had won the race and said "woo!". It was super funny. After the run we all started the food preparation and then stuffed ourselves silly. After a movie a few of us went up to Ogden to iFly-and indoor place where you go inside this tube thing and they turn the wind up super high so you can fly. It was tons of fun!

Getting all of our gear on

All geared up and ready to go!

The next morning we met up again to go shooting out past Saratoga Springs. I didn't have the best time, but everyone else enjoyed it! I hadn't ever held a gun before and the first gun I shot was super loud and the trigger was hard for me to pull. Once I shot it I started crying because I was so scared! I screamed and handed the gun back over to Jake and then the rest of the day shot a small gun with my nephews. I am the biggest baby ever. Everyone else had and awesome time- Jake brought all of his guns plus some, so everyone had lots to shoot. Jake got some targets and clay pigeons, and I brought the pumpkins from our porch- so we had lots to shoot! It was interesting driving out to the middle of nowhere and seeing little spots where you could tell people shoot their guns because there were piles of garbage- tv's, bottles, and even a windshield(at least it looked like one). It was fun to be with everyone again, but I don't know that I would go shooting again.

Vic shooting a gun- doesn't she look totally in her element?

The guys all lined up

my nephew, Austin and his dad shooting the gun that made me cry- they are so brave!

Overall it was a good weekend. It was nice to sit at dinner and talk about all the things we are thankful for. It is amazing how I don't even think about some of the small things-like being able to take a shower everyday, having a car to drive to work, or even food to eat at every meal. We are super fortunate to have these things!