Jon & Holli Raymond

Kyla is Here!!

2011-12-08T15:14:00.001-07:00

After 40 weeks, 3 days, and two hours of pushing, our princess was born!

She was worth the wait!

Here are some pictures of the first 3 weeks of her life...

Here is the ever so attractive hospital picture

Jon's such a great Dad!!

Getting ready to head home from the hospital

She already can hold her own bottle, kind of

First Thanksgiving, she was only 6 days old

Blessing day, Oma was here for it

Blessing dress that Oma made from

my wedding dress material

Oma with her new grand daughter

What's up?? :)

First bath...she LOVED it!

She was holding her binkie in so it wouldn't go anywhere

Happy dreams!

Want to play a game??

2011-11-15T15:42:00.001-07:00

Okay friends, are you ready for a game?? Whomever guesses the date AND time closest to when Beck is born, will win a fabulous handmade something from me. Item is to be determined based upon who wins. Since today was my due date and there is no baby in sight, I will give you one clue. My doctor will let me go another two weeks. You have a two week time frame to play with.

So what do you say?

Do you want to play?

Start your guessing!!

I figure that this game will keep me sane until

Beck decides to arrive!

No end in sight!

2011-11-11T13:24:00.001-07:00

I feel so close but so far away to having this baby!

Still a lot of movement, but not many contractions.

I would be willing to bet $10 that Beck is not going to arrive by Tuesday.

Due dates are really estimations after all, right?

For the first time this pregnancy, I had an emotional break down.

I'm not proud to admit it and it is rather embarrassing.

Yesterday I decided that I would get all dressed up and

take pictures of myself in my backyard.

Beck is due in 5 days, so why not get some good quality pictures while I still can!

I spent almost an hour getting my hair perfect,

picking the right outfits and accessories.

I grabbed the camera and headed outside.

I spent an hour taking picture after picture hoping that the more I take,

the better chance I have of getting a really good picture.

I came in the house and had a lot of pictures to look through

and I had some really good ones.

Today, I decided that I would open them up in Photoshop

and play around with the colors.

As I transferred the files from the memory card to my external hard drive,

something wasn't working right.

I knew that something was up and I should save the pictures elsewhere,

but didn't listen to myself.

I was determined to save these pictures to my external hard drive.

It took triple the amount of time to transfer the pictures than it normally should.

When I went to open the folder, I saw that half of the pictures were now corrupt

and could not be opened.

I had already deleted all of the pictures off of the memory card.

I stared at the computer screen in amazement, disbelief, and frustration!

Can you feel all those emotions at once??

Before I knew it, I was crying.

I was trying to text Jon and tell him what happened

and I couldn't even see my phone screen.

I lost half of the pictures that I spent so much time and effort taking yesterday.

The majority of them were my favorite pictures.

My only irrational emotional outbreak so far this pregnancy.

Hopefully it is the ONLY one I will need to experience.

Here are three of the pictures that I got and actually liked.

Here's to hoping that Beck will arrive soon for all of us to see!!

Sugar Cookies

2011-11-02T14:10:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things to bake is sugar cookies. You have a plethora of options; shapes, sizes, colors, etc. I particularly love making frosting in all different colors. That way whomever is with me, can decorate the cookies in any way they want. It is like a coloring you can eat.
It makes it even more fun!

This past weekend I made sugar cookies for the kids in the Primary. We had our first practice for the Sacrament program and they were so good, they definitely deserved a treat! Here is what the cookies looked like on Sunday.

Here some of the sugar cookies that I have decorated over the past few years.

So many options!!
These are cookies that my nieces and nephew decorated.

Christmas 2008

Halloween 2010

Super Bowl 2011

Valentines 2011

Don't they look yummy? Well, they are!

If you're interested in my recipe, just let me know and I'll send it on to you.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-27T14:33:00.000-06:00

For the past few months I have been wondering what do dress up as for Halloween. I only dress up for my ward's Trunk or Treat, but I still think that it is fun to get dressed up. Here is the costume that I have been wearing the past 3 years.

Unfortunately, the Matterhorn background didn't come with the costume :(

My fall back costume just wasn't going to fit this year due to basketball sized fashion trend I am now sporting. I had to find something else to wear.

I started doing research online of different pregnancy costumes and there are a lot out there! Some were super funny (expecting Barbie or Mom dressed as a skeleton with baby's skeleton on her stomach), some were distrubing (baby limbs coming out of your stomach), and some were too simple (dressing as a Chef and saying you have a bun in the oven).

In my search I found the idea to be a pumpkin farmer. This woman had taken a pair of overalls, carefully cut a circle out of them, where the belly is, and then painted her belly to look exactly like a pumpkin. I was so impressed with her costume, that I thought it would be fun to do it as well.

I didn't go to as much effort as she did, I had a hard enough time getting the buttons to button up on the overalls, but the costume turned out to be a big hit around the ward. I had people coming up and touching my stomach to see if it really was that big.

Here are the two pictures that I took before I headed out the door.

Halloween is a fun time of the year. I am definitely looking forward to next year when I will have an 11 month old that I get to dress up however I want!! I'm so excited!

I hope that everyone has a Happy Halloween and gets into the spirit.

Life's too short to not enjoy it!

24 days...are you serious??

2011-10-22T22:23:00.001-06:00

I would like to say that this pregnancy has gone by fast, but that would be a lie. I actually feel like I have been pregnant for a long time! I have had so many family and friends that have had babies. It seemed that as soon they announced they were pregnant, the next week they were having their baby. I never really thought about how long 9 months is. It is 3 months shy of a year...a year! That is a long time. I am getting more and more excited to meet my new little baby, but I'm very hopeful that Beck will stay in as long as needed so that Beck is healthy and strong!

Yesterday, I FINALLY finished my baby projects! Huzzah! Ihave had them done for quite a while, but was putting off one small step. Ijust didn't have time to get it done until yesterday. I decided to go with a jungle theme for my projects for two reasons...1. I think it's cute and 2. It is very unisex. I found the most adorable material at JoAnn's and I fell in love with it. Without further delay,here is what I have been working on.

First, I made crib bumpers and a crib sheet conference weekend.

Here are the bumpers folded on top of each other.

Here you can see the bumpers on the crib, and you can see a little bit of the sheet.

Here is a shot with the adorable sleep sheep my sister Tiffany gave me.

This is the project that took me a little bit more time then I thought and you'll see why in a few pictures. I wanted a cute car seat canopy for the cold Montana winters. The top material is flannel and the material underneath is fleece. The fleece helps weigh it down and will keep my chunky monkey nice and warm.

Here's a close up of the ties I made. They are made from scraps from the bumper and sheet.

This is what the fleece material looks like, isn't it cute??

Here is why it took me a little bit longer to make. I decided to crochet the entire border of the canopy. It was the first time I have crocheted in a while and it was so relaxing!

I did not make this blanket, but Jon's Aunt did and she gave it to me at my baby shower. It is gorgeous and it matches everything else perfectly! I had to post a picture of it.

She makes AMAZING quilts!!

Well, that is all I have to say right now. Baby projects are done, now if I can just finish getting the baby's room all put together. 24 days is going to go by too fast!!

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder...

2011-09-12T20:30:00.002-06:00

There are many times that I feel I have OCD. For example, today I felt the need to type a list of everything in my pantry including expiration dates. Some of you may read that last sentence and think that I am crazy! But let me explain to you why I do it and then you can tell me if I'm crazy or not.

Around March of this year, Jon and I would sit down every Sunday night and we would make a menu for the coming week. I would have two pads of paper next to me; 1. For the menu and 2. For the grocery list. Jon and I would decide what we wanted to eat every day of the week. Once the menu was done, I would go through all of our supplies in the pantry, fridge, and freezer and make a grocery list of what we did not have for the coming week.

1. The menu came in handy all week long for a few reasons:
- Once I got home from work, I didn't have to wonder, "what should I make for dinner?" That question caused us to go out to dinner quite often. We would be hungry as soon as we got home and instead of trying to decide what would be good to make, we would eat out cause it was faster.
- I would know if anything needed to be thawed. I could pull it out of the freezer the night before or right before I left for work in the morning. As soon as I would come home from work, I knew what to start making.
You can imagine how much this menu saved our budgets and caloric intake! There are soooo many calories in restaurant food! I can make similar dishes at home with 1/2 the calories.

2. The grocery list was fabulous to have...again for a few reasons:
- I only had to go to the grocery store once a week. When I looked at our budget, we had so many different trips to the grocery store, around 4-5 a week. I would estimate that 70% of what we bought, we did not need or already had. Having the grocery list cut down our grocery expenditures a lot! Plus, that is only one day a week that I had to deal with annoying people at the grocery store. :)
- I didn't double purchase something that I already had in my house. There were many times I would make a recipe and buy all the ingredients I needed at the store without checking my pantry first. Most of the time I had everything I needed at home. What a waste of money :S
- If I ran out of something while making any meal, I had the list on my fridge and I could immediately write it down. Then I wouldn't have to think back 4 days and try to remember what I needed to buy.
You can imagine how much money was saved by having a grocery list on my fridge at all times.

After a few weeks of doing this, I decided to catalog everything in my freezer in the house and in the garage. I printed the sheet off and hung it up inside a cabinet in the kitchen so I could always know what I had in there. I started referring to that list when Jon and I were making our menu for the week so we could eat up everything in our freezer and not waste money on freezer burned food. Once we used something on the list, it was crossed off.

Now we come back to my first paragraph...do you think I have OCD for starting a list of everything in my pantry? I feel that it will continue to help me cut back on extra spending, eating out, and will help in making my menu every week. What do you think?

Why does it happen at church?

2011-09-04T20:50:00.002-06:00

I had an interesting experience at church today. I'm sitting in sacrament meeting and my stomach started feeling a little bit upset. "There is only 15 min left and I can wait it out," I thought to myself. 15 min later, we were still going and I started feeling lightheaded, sweating, started seeing stars and tunnel vision. I felt like I was going to pass out or throw up, or possibly both. I laid my head on Jon's shoulder, that way if I passed out, at least it wouldn't be noticable to everyone in the congregation. But I couldn't take it anymore, I had to make a run for the hall. I prayed that I wouldn't pass out on the way and walked as fast as I could to get out of there. I made it to some chairs by the clerks office and sat down. I tried to steady my breathing and calm my body down. My body immediately started cooling down and I started feeling better. Jon was so concerned. As soon as sacrament was over, he came rushing out to the hallway with my church bag to make sure I wasn't sprawled on the floor. He grabbed my hand tightly, to give me support, and lead me to the truck. He brought me home, made me some toast, and put me to bed for a 2 hour nap. Now I feel just fine. It was soooo weird!

Jon believes that I may have been dehydrated, which I think is odd since I drink 32 oz of water a day and sometimes more. But here is his logic and it makes complete sense. I have been dog sitting the past few days and last night, I drank 28 oz just during the night. I had to use the restroom 4 times, which I NEVER have to do, even being pregnant. My body is used to having a lot of water coming in, that it gets in the habit of getting rid of it often. If I stop drinking water, my body will continue to get rid of fluids in me often in the anticipation that it will be receiving more water, even if no water is coming in. That being the case, I drank a lot of water during the night and my body got into the habit of getting rid of it often. Causing me to get dehydrated because I didn't continue to drink a lot of water after I woke up. Thus, the stars and tunnel vision. Thankfully, I didn't have an episode of any kind during sacrament meeting so no one knew what was going on except for Jon.

Moral of the story...drink your fluids regularly, especially if you're pregnant. No one wants to see a woman pass out in the middle of sacrament meeting.

Only 79 days...

2011-08-28T16:31:00.008-06:00

I can't believe that I am in my 3rd trimester already. Here is a picture I had Jon take a few days ago to document what I look like at 28 1/2 weeks.
I wouldn't say that the time has gone quickly, I would just say that I have been extremely busy the past 3-4 months. With work and vacation, I'm grateful that things are starting to slow down a little bit and I can focus on what is important. Like getting Baby Beck's room all setup and organized the way that I want it to be. For those that don't know, we are referring to the fetus as Beck because it is one of Jon's favorite bands. That doesn't mean that it is a boy or that it is the name we are going to use...it is just what we call the fetus so we don't have to call our baby "it".

Jon and I just got back from a 3 week vacation. Kind of our last hurrah before Beck comes. We went camping in the Sierra's in California for a week, then hung out in the Monterey area for another week, then headed back to Utah for 4 days. It was an amazing vacation. I will post about it when I have more time later this week.

Jon starts school tomorrow. I am a bit envious of him. I miss going back to school and having homework. I am almost tempted to do the same homework assignments that he does just to keep my mind fresh. I will have quite a bit of time at night now to accomplish things that I've wanted to do for awhile.

Firstly, blog more about everything.

Secondly, complete this blasted nesting so I can relax and not worry about throwing more things away.

Thirdly, teach myself to play guitar. Jon bought me a beautiful guitar for my birthday and I have barely had time to even look at it. Since I haven't been lucky enough to afford an upright piano yet, I will need to learn how to play so my kids will be raised with music like I was.

And fourthly (is that a word?), I want to start cooking and baking new and exciting dinners and desserts. Before my crazy summer started, I got into the habit of making a menu for the entire week. It was very handy to know what to cook every night and I only had to go to the grocery store once a week. I want to get back into the habit of it.

I am sure that there are plenty of other things that I will find to occupy my time. But for now, this list will suffice. I hope to find all of you well. *hugs*

Cafe Rio

2011-04-09T21:44:00.010-06:00

I "liked" the Cafe Rio page on Facebook a while ago. Every now and then, I look at pictures of different meals that everyone has uploaded. Well, they make me sooo hungry!! I have asked quite a few times for them to come to Montana. They say that they are planning to in the "near future". There's a chance that when they do come to Montana, they wont even be close to me. Yesterday I was looking at pictures of one salad that someone posted and I couldn't think of anything else for the next 24 hours. Since the only meal that actually sounds good during this pregnancy is salad, I had to make one for dinner tonight.

I have many versions of copy-cat Cafe Rio recipes. I did some research last night, and found the one's that I wanted to use on www.kalynskitchen.com. Here they are (with a few changes I made per other recipes I have looked at and how I cooked it):

Café Rio Creamy Dressing

1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)

2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)
½ cup of chopped fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
2 TBSP fresh lime juice
1 jalapeño (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green tobasco for the jalapeno.)

Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well, make sure that you blend it until smooth, mine came out a little bit lumpy. Refrigerate 1-2 hours.

I had the dressing again the next day and it tasted EXACTLY like the restaurant version. I highly recommend refrigerating overnight if you can.

Café Rio Rice

2 c water

4 tsp chicken bouillon

4 tsp garlic –minced (2 large cloves)

½ cup cilantro

1 can green chiles—or equivalent fresh

¾ tsp salt

1 TBSP butter

½ onion - diced

4 c regular rice (not minute rice)

Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in food processor. Add chicken bouillon to water and bring to boil. Once boiling, add garlic, salt, and butter to make seasoned water. Stir in food processor items and rice. Simmer covered 30 minutes. Stir after 30 min, cilantro pieces will float to the top of the mixture.

This makes A TON of rice. Recommend cutting in half, or more, if you have 4 or less people in your house.

Here is the order that I assembled the salad with pictures. I tried to put it together exactly how Cafe Rio does.

1. Heat the tortilla in a pan and grate some cheese on it. Keep tortilla in pan until cheese is melted.

2. Take out of pan and place in bowl big enough to hold tortilla. When Jon and I eat at Costco, we save the containers that we get our chicken salad in. They are PERFECT size for large tortillas that you buy at the grocery store, and are perfect for leftovers. :)

3. Put rice on top of cheese, however much you want.

4. Put black or pinto beans on top of the rice, again, however much you want.

5. Add steak, chicken, or pork, what ever you made. Jon pulled out our grill and grilled up a steak for us. He seasoned it with salt, pepper, and Mansmiths. If you've never heard of Mansmiths, you are missing out! It is found in California, but you can order it online. It is the BEST seasoning for meat.

6. Add sliced romaine lettuce, then diced tomatoes (or pico de gallo if you have it), a dallop of sour cream, a dallop of guacamole, and some cilantro pieces.

7. Put tortilla strips on your salad and cover in dressing. I couldn't find any tortilla strips at my grocery store, so we just broke up tortilla chips into little pieces. The benefit of making your own dressing, you can use as much as you want and you don't have to pay extra for another container.

Let me just tell you that it was DELICIOUS!! It tasted so much like a Cafe Rio steak salad. Jon and I will definitely be making this again. Try it if you don't have a Cafe Rio nearby or if you've never heard of Cafe Rio.

The Rumors Are True...

2011-04-02T22:33:00.002-06:00

For those that don't follow me on Facebook...I'm pregnant. Just 7.5 weeks along and everything is going fine. I am blessed to have my Mom's gene's where I am not chained to a toilet for the first 3 months of pregnancy. I have had an upset stomach, but nothing too bad. I've still been able to workout and get everything that needs to get done accomplished. My first ultrasound is on April 26th. I am very excited for this new chapter in my life...it will be a big change, but a good change. Jon keeps referring to the fetus as "the babies" :S My sister miscarried twins and my other sister had twins. There's a good chance I could end up with twins, but I'm hoping not for right now. My head is just spinning thinking about raising one baby, let alone two. Only time will tell eh?

Crafts part 2

2011-03-23T20:02:00.006-06:00

I don't believe that anyone reads my blog anymore, since I had such a long hiatus away from the internet. However, I will still post when I see fit as part of my journal, since I have been terrible at keeping one of those.

The first week in January I had a Facebook friend post this on their status, "Pay it forward 2011: I promise to send something handmade to the first five people who leave a comment here. They must in turn post this and send something they make to the first five people who comment on their status. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your five people sometime in 2011. Note...I get to pick what to make for you. :)" Last week I finally got pictures of the items I made for 4 of the people and got them sent out in the mail. I decided to make them their own temple packet. I thought it would be a nice touch for those that are married to have their name and anniversary on it. Here are pictures of them.

This is the St. George Temple

Now you can see the general design of the packet, I have included zoomed in pictures of the rest of the embroidery.

This is the Bountiful Temple

This is the Timpanogos TempleLast but not least, the Salt Lake City Temple

It was a lot of fun to serve my friends and make them this special present. If you have time, post the same status and have fun making time to serve someone else.

Crafts

2011-03-05T11:24:00.008-07:00

Lately I have been thinking about how much extra time I should have on my hands. I figure, there are 24 hours in a day. From that I subtract 8 hours of sleep, sometimes 9. Then I work around 4 hours a day. That will leave me with 12 hours to accomplish so many things throughout the day. That's a lot of time! I have decided to challenge myself to be more productive and use my time more wisely. I find I sit in front of the computer too much not doing anything of importance. I think I got into the habit when I worked at NuSkin. Granted I was doing Travel Expenses, Business Expenses, Data Entry on a HUGE document, etc. I was always working on something, but I just enjoy sitting in front of the computer and that eats up a lot of my 12 hours I have in a day. Here's what my computer area looks like.

It's organized chaos!! I know where everything is in this mess. Luckily, I have been able to setup my sewing machine next to my computer. Now I can be productive while I "waste time" sitting in front of the computer. If you notice on the outside of the photo, I have mounds of material to start working on sewing projects. Last night I started on a new project and I finished it this morning.

I decided that I wanted to make some matching hotpads for my kitchen. I went to JoAnn's last night and found that they sell Insul-Bright. It is an insulated lining, like batting, but it can withstand heat and cold. I searched through the endless bolts of cotton material to find that right pattern that screamed out to me, "Holli, I belong in your kitchen!" Here is the finished product of my creativity.

p.s. I didn't even use a pattern, I made it all up. But honestly, how hard is it to sew a square and stuff it with batting? Well, I did have to unpick once because I put the handle on the wrong side of the material, but other than that, it was fairly easy.

Now that I have this done, I need to get started on a skirt that I have had cut out for a few weeks now! Back to work for me!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-18T22:51:00.015-07:00

I know I'm a bit late at getting this done, but here it is.

Christmas was a blast this year. This is how we decorated:

Our Tree

This is called a pyramida, it is a European tradition at Christmastime. I got this in Münich, Germany. There are 3 candle holders in the bottom of this and the heat from the candles make it spin around. It is pretty awesome!

Our Christmas Villiage. I think the Bakery and the Bowling Alley are my favorites :D

And lastly, cheesy window things that look and feel like jigglers.

Last year, I thought it was so odd that not a single person in my cul-de-sac did anything for the neighbors. I realized that I'm not in Utah anymore and decided that I wanted to wish them all a Merry Christmas. I made little goodie plates for all of them.

These plates were bad news...Jon and I had to eat all of the leftovers. Not good!
Jon and I were able to go to Utah to spend time with both of our families. We stayed with Jon's brother in Spanish Fork. It was an awesome trip! We did so many things. I spent quite a few days with my family while Jon was with his family. Jon and I spent the Sunday before Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together. hehe. That's what happens when you're married though. Here's a picture of my sister's adorable kids that I spent a lot of my time with.

I spent Christmas Day celebrating in true Raymond Family style...building a gingerbread house. Jon and his brother Lee put this together and I decorated it.

True to Raymond tradition, this happened when all was said and done...

I hope that everyone had a fabulous Christmas and New Years! Happy 2011!!

My Dad

2010-12-17T20:28:00.006-07:00

It's been a while since I last blogged, but life gets in the way. Today is a special/sad day. It marks the 12th anniversary of my Father passing away. Jon and I spent all day driving to Utah so we could spend time with our family for Christmas. I thought about my Dad all day. It's hard to lose a parent. If you have lost a parent, then you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't lost a parent, count yourself lucky that they are still around and let them know how much you love them.

12 years is a long time. It is sad how little I remember about my Dad, but when Christmas rolls around, a lot of my memories of him come flooding back:

Setting up my Christmas tree, I thought of him. When it was time to setup our Christmas tree, he would stand in front of the fireplace to stay warm and didn't really help decorate the tree. He would rather watch us all have fun getting it together and he would enjoy the moment.
Christmas morning, one of our family traditions is to go to our parents bedroom and have a family prayer. Naturally, we would be there by 7 am and my Dad would still be asleep. It took us 30-60 min to wake him up. Then he would jump in the shower and we would have to wait. Finally he would be ready. We would kneel in family prayer around my parents bed. After we were done, my Dad would go downstairs and get everything setup. He would plug in the Christmas tree, start the train, plug in all the Christmas lights, start the Christmas music and get a fire going. Once he got that ready, we would be able to go downstairs and see our stockings. It made for a very suspenseful day. :)
He LOVED Christmas! He wanted the day to last forever. He would do everything so slowly. We would try to rush him so we could open our presents, but he enjoyed taking his time.
I remember he LOVED having a new electronic toy to play with. He would spend hours setting up his new toy and trying it out. He was so cute to watch!

Christmastime is time to be with you family. Tell your parents, spouse, siblings, kids, etc...how much you love them! You never know when it will be too late and you wont have the opportunity to do it again.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you have a fabulous Christmas!!

Cardston, Alberta, Canuck-Land

2010-11-10T21:06:00.014-07:00

I need to start out this post by thanking all of you for your comments. It made me feel sooo loved that you all care so much about me. I have felt a little out of the loop the past year and a half and I am still trying to catch up on everyone and everything. I miss ALL of you and I wish we could have a girls night this weekend and catch up! But alas, we will have to be content with catching up on the internet. A lot has happened since I last blogged. Two events stick out to me the most and I will be posting about one of them today. Bare with me, it may be a semi-long post :)

On October 10, 2009, Jon and I celebrated our first anniversary by being sealed for time and all eternity in the Cardston, Alberta temple. That is our temple for the area we live in and it is Jon's childhood temple. Not only do you need to have a temple recommend to go inside, you also have to possess a passport so you can get across the USA/Canadian border. HA! This is what the massive fortress temple looks like on the outside. The inside is decorated with the most beautiful mahogany you have ever seen! Friends, this was one of the most amazing days of my life and I'm at a loss of how to describe it for you. Therefore, I will post pictures and describe them. How does that sound?
Here is my fabulous husband waiting for me to walk out of the temple so we could get pictures taken.

My amazing brother-in-law Eric took these pictures for us. He did a fabulous job!

The Mühlestein's (L to R: Oma, me, Jon, Travis, Brett)

Only my Mama and two older brothers where able to come up, but the rest of my family sent me text messages or called me all day! I LOVE my family!

The Raymond's (L to R: Lee, Joelle, Eric, Jamie, me, Jon, Crystal, Kelly, Angelee, Phil) And here's the whole clan. We had a good samaritan that was walking around the grounds take this picture for us. Bless his heart ;) Yeah, we're pretty stinkin' cute!

Did I mention that it was 8 degrees outside? Yeah, it was pretty cold. Jon told me to jump on his back and he ran to the next place that we took pictures. He's the best husband ever!

By this point, I couldn't feel my feet! That is what I get for wearing my tall sandals eh?

Thanks for sticking around to see all my pictures. I do have a lot more and maybe I'll post more later, but right now, these will do.

FINALLY!!!

2010-11-03T00:32:00.002-06:00

Jon and I finally found a company up here that would let us have internet without getting a land line and cable. Hopefully I will have my blog up and running again soon! I have so much to tell all of you...if you're still out there.

We'll chat soon!

My Birthday

2009-04-25T23:33:00.005-06:00

It was my birthday today, April 25th, and I wanted to share with you the wonderful present that I received from my amazing husband. First I need to tell you that we had a Costco pepperoni pizza for dinner. I can't think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than at home with the person I love the most. No worrying about restaurants, paying bills, leaving a tip, driving, etc. The pizza was DELICIOUS!! We have tons of it leftover, so we'll be eating it for a few days, but I'm fine with that! We're going to Sizzler on Monday night, they give you a free dinner the Monday after your birthday. With this economy, it's nice to get something for free! I'm excited about that, Sizzler is one of the nicer restaurants in this area :)

Anyway, I opened my present and here is what Jon gave me... That's right my friends, my husband bought me 61 spools of thread, specifically for my sewing machine that I got last Christmas! I was so excited to use it, that as soon as our dinner and movie were over, I started embroidering. Here is my very first embroidered (sp?) creation! Doesn't it look amazing?!?! I'm so excited to embroider more and more and more things!

To end my birthday off right, we decided to have some fun with the deer in our backyard. Here's the result of that:

We saw deer running away two houses down from us and our neighbors aren't very close. It was awesome! We'll be pulling out more firecrackers as the summer continues.

Thank you to all who wished me a Happy Birthday! It is nice to know that I am loved by so many wonderful people!

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy...

2009-03-23T11:07:00.007-06:00

For Valentine's Day, I decided that it was time to get Jon's fish tank out and get it ready for some fish, that was my present to Jon. It took 3 weeks for the water to be completely clear. Finally, two days ago, we made the time to go buy some fish. Here are the 4 fish that we started the tank out with. We have one of each of these that are pictured below.

This ia a Bala Shark. Jon has had a few of these and he LOVES them. I think they are super cool looking.
Here we have a Swordtail, this is the male.
Here is the female Swordtail. There is a chance that she could mate with the male, but who knows if that will happen.Then we have the Clown Loach.

We are hoping to add a school of Tiger Barbs to the tank in a few weeks. We need to let the less aggressive fish get used to the tank before we add in the Tiger Barbs. Here is what they look like. They are my favorite fish.
Here's a couple pictures of our fish tank. Some of the fishes were being brats and wouldn't let me take pictures of them :)
I LOVE having a fish tank in my house. I find it so relaxing!

Baby Blankets

2009-03-20T13:24:00.010-06:00

My Stake is having an Enrichment called "Think Baby". Members of our Stake are asked to donate anything that a new mother would need for their baby, i.e. onesies, food, blankets, hats, pacifiers, etc. There are quite a few women in this valley that don't have any money for baby supplies. This Enrichment is designed to help those mothers get a fresh start with their new little one. Since I got my sewing machine, I have been so excited to sew something amazing. Well friends, I finished one girls blanket and one boys blanket with a bunch of material scraps that a Sister in my ward brought as her donation. Here are some pictures of them. I thought they turned out so cute! I was tempted to just keep them for when I start having kids. :) But I figure that I'll be blessed for donating my time in making them and I can easily make another blanket when I have a baby. Tell me what you think about them!!

I'll start with the girls blanket:

The last one shows you how both sides look the same. It is kind of hard to see where I folded it over :)

Here's the boys blanket:

What do you think??

A moment of silence please...

2009-03-13T09:02:00.008-06:00

I FINALLY have a break from my crazy busy schedule to post a few things that I've wanted to post for quite sometime. I hope to regularly post again, but don't get your hopes up.

I want to flashback to the 3 treasured vehicles that Jon and I have sacrificed to enjoy a more debt free marriage.

The first one we lost was Jon's motorcycle.The guy that bought it, could barely drive it and he had to drive it to SLC from Orem. I remember when he pulled out of the parking lot with it, I started crying. It hurt me so bad to see my husband (boyfriend at the time) lose such a valuable and treasured possession. I took him to lunch at one of his favorite restaurants at the time to help ease his mind and cheer him up.

The second one we lost was Jon's Jeep.We sold that one up here in Montana before we got married. And once again, as soon as we drove away from it, I started crying. That Jeep was amazing and one of a kind. We took it to Moab, Utah and had a blast! Another sacrifice that my darling husband made so our life would be easier.

And last but not least, we've sold the Honda Pilot.This car is amazing! It can make it through almost every road condition imaginable. If we could afford it, we would have kept it.

We saved ourselves $1,000 a month by getting older, less expensive vehicles. Every now and again we think back to our old cars and feel a little bit of remorse for having let them go. But when we think ahead to how financially stable we are becoming, it erases all doubt that we feel.

Christmas & New Years 2008

2009-02-06T11:40:00.006-07:00

How sad is it, that neither Jon nor I pulled out our camera this Christmas? It's our first Christmas as a married couple and we didn't even think to take any pictures at all. It kind of depresses me a little bit. At least my brother in law had his camera out. Hopefully we can use some of his pictures for our memories of this last Christmas. But, I finally got around to taking pictures of the presents that my adorable and amazing husband gave me for Christmas this year!

Embroidery Sewing Machine

When Jon and I first got married, I told him that the only present that I will ever really want is a sewing machine, it really is the only thing that I don't have but want. He went above and beyond and got me an embroidery sewing machine! It is extremely high tech. You don't have to use the pedal for speed if you don't want to, it threads the needle for you, and it has a digital touch screen on the front where you pick your stitches and patterns. I LOVE IT!!

iPod Nano

Jon was sick and tired of the shuffle that I got from NuSkin 3 years ago. It was falling apart, could only hold about 100 songs, and was in terrible condition. He went out and bought me this iPod Nano. Right after I opened it, I was in my bedroom uploading movies and music to it! He bought it so I could use it during my workouts, but we have an iPod docking station in our kitchen. So it's used to give me good music while I'm cooking, cleaning, or working out in the living room.

And of course, my husband got some power tools!! Since I work at Home Depot, I saw a deal that they had going for Christmas, so I utilized it and got my husband tools that he doesn't have yet. Ryobi: power drill, table saw, & recipricating saw. He loves them and has already used at least one of them. :)

It was a fun Christmas. New Years Eve, Jon and I developed a cold and stayed home. Jon's brother Lee spent the night at our house. We ate Jon & I's yummy crockpot chili, watched an old Jackie Chan movie, and lit off some fireworks at midnight. Very uneventful, until one of the fireworks almost exploded in our faces, but fun. Did I mention that they were artillery shells? haha.

Anyway, sorry for the late post. Things are going well in this messed up economy. We are still alive and well up here in Montana.

Welcome to Big Sky Country..Montana

2009-01-09T15:58:00.014-07:00

I have been saying for months that I was going to take pictures of the house that Jon & I live in. Today, I finally got my act together and took the pictures. so, without further adu, here are the pictures of the house.

Here is a front shot of the house.

Here are pictures of our backyard. The yard extends back another acre or so past the white fence.

When you enter the front door, you are greeted by the living room.

Then you come to the kitchen.

Across the hall is the dining room.

Then the last room is the family room. Yes, our Christmas decorations are still up. We just haven't gotten around to taking them down yet. :)

Then the last room is the master suite.

So that is my home sweet home. Let me know what you think. I will leave you with a picture of the sunset from my front porch a few weeks ago.

I sure am in love with the Big Sky Country!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T12:20:00.002-07:00

Another year has come and gone and I wonder, "Where did time go?" I can't complain though, a lot happened in 2008. I got married, moved to Montana, and started working two new jobs. I am curious to know what 2009 has in store for me though. Only time will tell I guess. I don't really have anything to post. Just wanted to let the few readers know that I'm still here. I hope to have pictures of my house soon for everyone to see. I also hope to have some pictures of my amazing Christmas presents from my gorgeous and thoughtful husband!! We'll have to wait and see how dedicated I am to getting all that in the near future. :)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-22T10:54:00.006-07:00

Right now Jon is working for a company in Kalispell and it has been a good job thus far. He has a nice steady schedule, which I wish I had. :) I am working at Sage Spa in Whitefish as a massage therapist and at Home Depot as a Service Desk Associate. We are both very busy, but extremely happy up here in Montana. We are both very grateful for all of your love and support the past few months with our wedding. We couldn't be happier then we are right now.

We would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

The most amazing man in the world!

2008-12-17T13:11:00.003-07:00

It's been a while since I have blogged. I just got my internet back and today is a very sacred day for me. It commemorates the 10th anniversary of my father passing away. I feel the need to pay tribute to the most amazing man in the world.

10 years go by so fast. So much has happened in those 10 years. But today I have been reflecting on all of the memories I had of my father when he was alive...

-I remember as a child, every Saturday morning around 7 am he would come into our room and wake us up to do our chores. We would complain that it was Saturday and we should be able to sleep in. His response was, "I did let you sleep in!" When we continued to enjoy the warmth of our beds, he would pull our ears to get us out of bed. We would scream in pain and he would say, "Oh it doesn't hurt either!"
-Every winter, when we were watching TV, he would stand right in front of the fireplace and roll up and down on his feet to stay warm.
-In the middle of the summer, he would see a commercial about snow or winter and he would shiver and become cold from watching it.
-My Dad would only swim in our pool if it was over a certain a temperature, he never did get his hot tub that he wanted. There was one time in the late summer that our pool temperature was very high and it started snowing. He jumped in and we have a video of the steam rising and he had a huge smile on his face.
-When I attended BYU and my Dad worked there, we would carpool. We had many interesting conversations on those drives. We had a burgundy Geo Tracker (it was a piece of garbage!). In the wintertime, he would always have one hand under his legs to try and keep them warm.
-My Dad loved Christmas! He always wanted to have more lights then you can imagine on the house. He always tried to make the day last as long as possible. All of us would be up in our parents bedroom and he would then get out of bed, sometimes he would shower while we waited "patiently". Then he would go downstairs and turn on all the lights, music, train, camcorder, etc. He would take forever!! When we were opening presents, he would slowly open every single gift. When I say slowly, I mean slowly. There was one year that there was tinsel or string in his present. He spent about a min taking the time to pick it off his present and get it off his hand and he hadn't even opened it yet. Many years, we didn't finish opening presents until the afternoon. He loved to savor the holiday.

There is so much that I could write about my father. There is also so much that I miss. I miss the fatherly advice, his corny sense of humor, his loving and caring for everyone, etc.

My advice to you, call your parents today and tell them how much you love them. Before you know it, they won't be around anymore and you won't be able to let them know how much you care. If you're not talking to your parents, make amends.

If you knew my Dad, please leave your favorite memories of him. I would LOVE to hear how you remember my hero in life.

I love you Dad!

Reception Video

2008-10-16T18:49:00.002-06:00

Here's the video that I made for the reception.

Enjoy!

I'll post some wedding pictures as soon as I have time.

Wedding Invitation

2008-09-17T20:33:00.002-06:00