Vacations, Creations, and Birthdays (the celebration of creation!)

I mainly want to show-off how creative and handy Mike is, so this post will highlight the things we've done, places we've visited, and things we've made.

Valentine's Day

In February we celebrated our L-O-V-E on Valentine's Day in simple ways, making breakfast and dinner for the other and renting a movie and staying home to watch it. It wasn't fancy, but it sure was nice to have a quite evening. I did get Mike a Best-of Johnny Cash CD, which he loved, and Mike got me flowers, which I love.








Presidents Day Vacation

For Presidents Day weekend we went to Southern Utah and stayed at my uncle's cabin. There was no internet, cable and by the time we came home I wasn't even charging my phone anymore. It was so nice to unplug and enjoy how quiet and beautiful it was. Mike did some homework on the laptop, we read, went for a few drives, visit with my grandparents (my mother's parents who live close by), and played scrabble every night. James loved being in a big house and just crawled all over the place, he especially liked the dishwasher, as you can see from the pictures. Before this weekend I didn't really like Scrabble, but we played it every night and I finally beat Mike, who is actually quite good, by the time we came home. We enjoyed it so much Mike bought it for me for my birthday in March.









Our Last BYU ROTC Dining Out

We realize this semester is the last time we will be participating in certain things that we love at BYU, and one of those was the Army ROTC dining out. We always enjoy getting dressed up and spending a nice evening with our friends from ROTC. There were two things I really enjoyed about this semesters dining out: one- Bronco Mendenhal (BYUs head football coach) was the guest speaker! He gave an excellent talk on leadership and I can see why BYUs football program turned around after he became head coach. Plus, we got to shake his hand. I wanted to take a picture with him, but he had to leave so we didn't; two- we finally got to sit with some of our good friends! In years past they always ask who you want to sit with and it seems inevitably the couples get switched around and we always end up sitting with UVU cadets we don't know. Now, I realize this is an exaggeration, but it was really nice to sit with friends at the dinner:)





23rd Birthday

In March we celebrated my twenty-third birthday by going out to eat, going to a movie, and Mike bought me Scrabble. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures:( I feel every year is my favorite birthday, but this year was especially wonderful because I got to celebrate it with Mike and James; being a Mommy makes everything so much more wonderful. We saw Disney's Tangled, which is a darling movie and took James with us. He did so great. I was a little worried the loud noise would scare him, but he just sat in our laps big eyed with his mouth forming a perfect "o" for the first half of the movie. Towards the end he started to get tired and we took turns holding him in the back of the theater. But it was so much fun to have him there with us.


60th Birthday

A few days after my birthday my sister and I went home to good ole' Brawley, California for our Mom's 60th birthday. My sister and I must have brick feet because we made it to Brawley in eleven hours and back to Utah in just under ten. In large part, the trip was so fast because the kids were soooo very good. We spent four days enjoying 75 degree weather and let the kids play with the cousins, grandparents and great-grandparents. I know everyone thinks their mom is the best, but my mom takes the cake, it was good to to celebrate her and the wonderful wife, mother, and grandmother she is. I hope I can be like her. While in Brawley I got to visit with my grandparents (Dad's parents), which is nice because they are well into their 80s. I love them and hope to take James home to see them as often as possible. Grandpa James (James's namesake) is a World War II veteran and my grandmother is a saint, and a very large reason why my Dad is such a good man. I also got to visit with my brother, sister-in-law, and their two children - Vera and Blaine. It was fun to have Blaine and James together because there are only four months apart in age.
















An Early Birthday Package

A few weeks ago Mike's sisters sent an early birthday package to James - clothes, stuffed animals, a shape ball, and bead balls. James loved the bead balls and especially liked the wrapping paper!






Spring Break

Here at BYU we don't get a spring break... the trade off is graduating April 22nd, which I'm okay with. But Mike's neice did have a spring break and came out for a visit. We tried our hardest to sell her on coming to BYU for college, I think we made a little head way:) We took her around campus, went out to eat, went to the movies, and on a few little hikes, but it was pretty cold and snowy so we couldn't do to much. Here are a few pictures of our outings. Mike's brother and wife went down to Canyon Lands with Jessica. It was much warmer there and much more like a spring break!






Chinese Panels and Bread Making Creations

This semester Mike is taking an art class. His mom is also opening her very own Chinese accupunture business. So, Mike decided to make his mom a set of decorative panels for her new office and to also have them count as his final project for art. He spent quite a bit of time getting all the material, putting the panels together, and painting them. The Chinese characters stand for peace and good health. I think he is pretty darn creative and artistic. I am so proud of him.

As for my creative outlet, I bake. I have found it is something I truly love to do. I go through phases; for awhile I was making bread and rolls, but lately I have had a sweet tooth and made cinnamon rolls on Sunday. I've worked in a bakery before and I really enjoyed it. I think I can say a dream of mine is to one day have a bread bakery.