my little wes is sort of amah-zing.

Seriously though. This is the first video of him that we have (that isn't on my cell phone) I love hearing all the music he writes. There is a new one (with lyrics) nearly everyday!

Tanner can attest to the fact that I'm sort of a creep about him. I listen to his music as I drive to work, and the first thing I want to do when I get to my parents is hear Wes play! I am just jealous.

So anyways, this is the song he wrote for reflections. So far he has made it to region! What an awesome little guy. (who also has an affinity for cat videos - you'll see)

I'm so proud of Wes for finally making his cat video debut!!!

(^^^ a little clip of a sunday jam sesh) 

yesterYAY!

yesterday was a lovely non-eventful sunday.

we woke up to a snowy surprise, ate too many bowls of lucky charms, and then headed to church.

at church, we played too much fruit ninja and talked to friends during library - we are sure going to miss this calling.

from church, we headed straight to my parents for dinner. we had STEW. i have to say, there is nothing quite like a good bowl of stew on a cold snowy day. on our way home, we drove past our house, and wished it was our house already.

after we got home i skipped studying (like i currently am) and ordered christmas presents. jake and maki's are my favorite.

a good day. i wish we could have 2 sunday's in a row.

our new home

This time of year is always bitter-sweet for me. I love the holidays, gift-giving, work parties, sparkly sweaters, family gatherings, christmas lights, and fun memories. I love these things even more with Tanner by my side. But this time of year also brings stress with finals, moving,  busy days at work, buying a house, finals, and did I say buying a house!? 

Yep, because we didn't have enough going on already. We are oooooh so excited for our first little house. It's not fancy, but it is perfect for us, and we cannot WAIT for the fun projects that we will take on after we move in. We are planning on replacing a lot of the carpet with wood floors, this should make the house even better! We will see how installing those go... I'm so glad Tanner is so patient and willing to take on just about anything I foolishly dream of doing. So far nothing has gone horribly wrong. 

Our favorite past time is talking about and dreaming about the house. We stay up too late at night coming up with ideas for it, we sketch ideas during church, we sit out in front of the house (creeeepy!) and just about die because we can't wait to just pull into the garage & be home. We dream of planting a garden, building benches, and built in's, and finally being able to paint whatever we want!

I cannot wait to post pictures of all this fun. 

First things first, a new front door color! (blue or black?) 

tuesday

on tuesday tanner and i decided to take a much needed break, and decided to have a tuesday date night! i think we may make this activity a tradition.

first: we went for a drive up the canyon to see the pretty leaves, it was the first time we have done so this year and it was so worth it. utah is beautiful this time of year, and i totally can't believe we hadn't taken advantage of it. it was fun to drive up the canyon, and talk, and tell each other stories (some that we've heard over and over, and others that were new.)

after that: we headed for sushi. a girl came into the bank a few days ago and told me about how the restaurant she works at has buy one get one free sushi ALL THE TIME! she assured me it was great sushi so we thought we'd give it a try.. and it was! this place even had tables where you sat on cute little pillows on the floor. we opted for the table though, and left full, and happy that we only spent $23 on sushi night!

after which: we dropped my ring of at wilson's because, as much as i love this ring, it is retarded, and always crooked and one of the little diamonds had even fallen out. i ALWAYS love going into wilson's because it reminds me of when we got engaged. i love seeing the couples there looking at rings. it really brings back the best of memories. i also have to refrain myself from looking at all the pretty rings they have now that they didn't when i got mine. those jerks.

and last of all: we went to see taken 2.. and were so surprised when the movie boy told it tuesdays were half price. totally AWESOME! he made my night. i told tanner i wanted his job so i could surprise people with such great news every tuesday. the movie was good, but probably wasn't the best choice considering our impromptu date night was really to get away from stress!

gratitude

it's not even november yet and i'm feeling so grateful all the time
i mean... what's up with that? gratitude is reserved for the month of thanksgiving!

ok, but seriously.
the past few months have been hard.
they have pushed me beyond where i have ever been before,
and yet, i feel so at home in this place in our life full of challenges and growth.

and you know, i am grateful for that.

but as i take the new challenges that come our way
day by day by day
it  all works out.

the thing i love most, is looking back
and realizing that i, we, made it through
with a lot of help from one another, and from the lord.

so yeah, i am grateful, just so very grateful.

our lovely fall weekend

last week was so busy, that i made myself sick from going going going so much!  i woke up this
morning (afternoon) so sick. the worst! but, on the bright side, it was a great week.

kristen flew in late thursday night, so i headed straight from work to see her on friday. we spray painted pumpkins and went to mi ranchito friday night. yum! we were probably way too rowdy and loud at mi ranchito but it was fun, and we were able to practice our smize (smiling with our eyes), which is always nice, because i feel like there is hardly ever time to practice smizing (haha) i think pretty soon here one of us will be on america's next top model.. yeah, we are that good at smize.

anyways.. saturday morning i woke up and headed to gardner village with my mom and kristen. we have been going there since i was little so it was totally fun. but very cold!! after gardner village half the fam headed out sailing, and tanner, me, and my mom went out for a fun sushi lunch! i love sushi, and since i am so baby hungry i figure i should get all the sushi i can in now, until it's too late.

after sushi i took a 3 hour nap, the family went and got thai food

we had so much fun having kristen in utah, and miss her already!

october goals

i love making goals
i love striving to achieve the goals i make
and i am so okay with the fact that sometimes i don't live up to said goals
because in the end, i am always pushing myself for more
and i am always growing when i am reaching for more.

in october i'd like to

-catch up on my online individual income tax class
-make bed everyday
-eat at home more
-show more kindness
-serve others more
-ride our bikes more//exercise more
- & strive to be better at keeping the spirit in our home

i have so got this.

car washes and conference

 

THIS WEEKEND WAS SO BUSY! but so fun.

 

Friday we kicked it off (pun) by eating at Noodles then heading to the BYU game. Javan got us amazing tickets and we loved being able to go cheer on the Aggies! (under our breath of course.) Before the game we met up with Javan and ate some more yummy food at her event, and then headed into the game. This was the first time I had ever been to a BYU game and it was actually really fun! I was so worried about sitting still for that long (Because I have the attention span of a humming bird apparently?) But I loved it! It was a blast.... except for the fact that USU lost. Whatever. 

Us all bundled up! It was a COOLD fall night 

Saturday I worked and then headed straight to the lake to go sailing and listen to conference with my Dad, Tanner and Wes. I was totally dreading it because I was tired from work, but it was so fun and peaceful, and honestly the perfect setting to listen to conference, and we got some amazing sailing in! 

After sailing T headed straight to Priesthood with Quinstagram. After Priesthood Tanner & Quinn kindly invited me to get Sushi with them. Also they invited me to arrive at the restaurant 10 minutes early to get a table. Whatever, guys. I got sushi out of it. It was great! And I was the only girl in the whole restaurant, except for the waitresses. Literally. It was crazay! 

Quinstigram showing off his instagram. Cute. 

This post just KEEEEEPS on going. BUT. This is the best part! After sushi we decided to get a car wash... because, um... its been like 8 months or so. So it was about time, I'd say. So, we pull up to the car wash and there are four options;

Rain ($4)

Storm ($5)

Monsoon ($6)

&

TYPHOOOOOON! ($7) 

Since we don't get car washes ever, this whole cute name thing totally took me off guard. I mean who wouldn't choose the typhoon? That is right, we got the typhoon.

Tanner only had 3 dollar bills, and then a 20. So he put the 20 in and out comes...

13 dollars worth of quarters. I was buckled over in my seat CRYING, and Tanner is over there trying to hold all these quarters as they come out of the machine. We were not expecting quarters. It would have been SUPER upsetting if it weren't so ridiculously funny. 

And, to boot? The typhoon didn't even get our car clean! Lame. 

october.

it is only the 3rd of october & i can already tell it's going to be a good good month.

yesterday i got my corporate finance exam back  the class average was 49% so needless to say i was worried...but i got 37% above that!!!

normally i wouldn't be happy with 76 percent...
but with the curve that's an A!
i am so relieved & motivated now.

after feeling sooo discouraged with this class & school in general, it felt good to have something reassure me that i can do it! i can do it.
i can do it?

___________________________


i have also made some much needed changes to the apartment lately
here is a little sneaky peaky:

|| sights of our summer ||

our weekendings

what a weekend it has been!

friday we went to Tanner's work party. it was fun to meet everyone he spends is days with and spend some time in their beautiful new office. i am so proud of him! 

after that things got reeeally exciting. we drove back to provo and i studied for a test for the rest of the night. what a fun time we are! just kidding. i hated it, but you do what ya gotta do! 

___________________

saturday morning i woke up, and headed to the testing center, 

tanner woke up and headed to tow a car with his dad.

my test went fairly well so my stress level plummeted afterwards! 

after my test we met back up at home and walked down to center street hoping for 

a fun little lunch. we found a little chinese place that looked good, and it did not disappoint! 

we love being able to live so close to the center of things.

saturday evening makayla and i went to the relief society broadcast.

i loved it! they all focused heavily on trials + relying on the atonement during our struggles.

a message that i always need to hear, but especially lately. 

ok, but let's be real here. the highlight of the evening was sitting behind NIE NIE and her adorable baby. i was a little star struck, she's such an inspiration. 

____________________

after the broadcast we met up with the boys and headed to CPK and then Pitch Perfect. so much fun.  

can i just say, the movie was SO FUNNY. we were cracking up the whole time.

it basically just made fun of glee, and Rebel Wilson - "fat amy" 

 is possibly the funniest human on the planet.

just sayin. go see it. 

september frustrations

last night i had a huge breakdown. on the kitchen floor. 

i swear all of my breakdowns come in the kitchen. (not that i ever break down) 

school is tough, work is good, but hard to balance with school, and i just feel like i don't want to be doing these things! 

i don't feel like i am excelling in school, but instead feeling super mediocre.

and as a perfectionist not having the time to achieve my idea of "perfect" in the things i am doing

i am feeling lost! 

i want to feel passionate about the things i am doing

but instead i feel like i am dying to move on to the next thing 

i am grateful for this time in our life, i am not grateful for the essentials of corporate finance though.

not at all. 

all in all? i need motivation to keep it up! someone give me motivation? anyone? 

+++

on a more positive note 

i am sooo so grateful for the life we are living, and feel so much joy everyday.

even in the silliest little things

like how amazing the candle smells that is burning in the kitchen right now (seriously! yum.) 

& our nightly jogs along center street 

last night as i felt overwhelmed with my imperfections, tanner sat next to me on the rug under the sink,

and helped me make a plan to make things better. 

a plan that included a whole lot of help from above. 

and in that moment that life felt oh so imperfect

all those imperfections built up to one perfect moment of love & support. 

and i am grateful for that & the challenges and for the chance to grow and see what i am capable of.

god is good. life is, at the end of the day, SO GOOD. 

 and it is all going to be just fine.  

|| summers end ||

school has begun! and i never even blogged about our fun end of summer trips to california, vegas, and st. george.

here are some pictures of our picture perfect summer! 

|| we are sooo baby hungry, don't even get me started! ||

in the middle of july we went to 7 peaks for about 3 seconds with griffin and caitlin

 || in vegas for M & M wedding reception ||

vegas was glorious - we went night swimming + watched a movie in the pool

hung out on the strip with marcus + makayla {a first for me}

& ate a maggiano's 

 || we left vegas around 8 pm and drove to see paul + ainsley ||

had a total blast on our middle of the night car ride talking and being best friends

went to anthro in palm springs { i die. } 

went night swimming

ate some amazing indian food

and fell in love with ms. cailin. 

a bike ride + a birthday + a wedding

It has been so long!!

We have been having a lot of fun & summer has just flown right on by. Soon enough I will be back in classes & spending my nights studying instead of going on bike rides & going swimming seven peaks. Tanner is going to be a lonely man soon! (I tend to obsess over doing perfectly in all my classes! Miserable for him and me!) 

But let's show you what we have been up to lately. We love our bikes so much. We love long rides up the canyon and talking to each other on our rides, and we especially love wooshing past all the other bikers as we fly up the canyon on our bikes. They are so fast, it's crazy! 

Tanner's birthday week was so fun!! He got lots of bike stuff, lucky guy! I also made up a new tradish for him. I bought a little box that says birthday wishes all over it from target, and each day there was a special surprise in there for him! We loved it so much we want to continue it when we have kids. So fun! Along with the Birthday box we kept the apartment decorated all week for his birthday! So very festive, it was!  

 \\\

\\\

For his actual birthday we went to Tucanos with T's fam. It was fun and very filling, and then came back and opened presents and ate cake with Grandma, Javan, Quinstigram, and Tanner's parents. Needless to say the apartment was a little cramped! 

///

Wait, there's more! Jake and Makaela got married at the Homestead in Midway on the 28th, and it was beautiful, and so much fun, and we love Makaela. Yeah! 

Sorry for the picture overload (not really). Happy weekend! 

What a wonderful week we had!!! 

Tanner suuure does spoil me. He is the best.

We had THE MOST incredible dinner Thursday night at Chef's Table. 

Sunday was fabulous as well. We had an amazing dinner at my parents house and had so much fun spending time with family. And eating some good good food. 

Tanner got me a Staub pot. I have been wanting one forever so I was so so surprised! (We even decided to not eat out tonight and cook in (big deal for us lately!)) The pot is amazing and is a nice alternative to crock pots. (I have a weird hatred for crock pot food... whatever) 

I wish we had a picture of the both of us! 

I am so grateful for everyone's birthday wishes and love! Birthday's are the best, huh?!

Tanner's is coming up on the 2nd of August. Looks like we should start celebrating!!!

friday the 13th

Yesterday was not a good day. Hopefully blogging about it will make it seem more funny and less ridiculous.

 Tanner & I planned on going camping Friday afternoon with some friends (ok actually just with our only friends, M & M) as a fun little Birthday getaway. We found the MOST beautiful spot *which I can't show you a picture because of what happened later* up by squaw peak. Seriously it was such a gem. It was a little rainy as we left but nothing too bad, so we headed up the canyon excited for a fun night. It was nice a cool as we set up our tent and unpacked the car.

And then the heavens opened and it started pouring & pouring & pouuuring rain. Marcus called us saying they didn't want to spend a freezing cold night in the rain.. can you believe that? Just kidding. At that point we were cold, soaking wet and hoping our tin foil dinners miraculously would cook in our poor fire.  

And then... somehow we just decided to throw in the towel and take down camp and go home. We felt lame giving in but we were soaking wet and the rain wasn't stopping.

As soon as we had the tent taken down (Tanner did most of the work) the rain stopped. But we just headed home anyway, thinking it would probably still end up raining during the night. (Pretty sure in didn't :( ) 

We came home and watched parks and rec and ate our tin foil dinners that we finished up cooking in the oven. While we ate I threw all of our muddy smelly clothes in the washing machine. 

A few hours later we were getting ready for bed & I could not for the life of me find my phone.

& then it dawned on me .

It was in the washing machine in the pocket of my coat.

Oh, what a day. 

*thank goodness for phone insurance,; Monday cannot come soon enough*

I am excited for a new day, that is for sure! 

weekend + the moment

Life is so, so fun lately. I honestly need to appreciate it more because we are constantly having so much fun, and for the most part our life is really care free. (except for the days when its not). I find myself getting excited & impatient about the future all too often though. Seriously, I already have strollers and mom cars picked out for myself. Who does that?! MMM... I love those honda pilots! Hah. Some days working at the drive through at the credit union I see cute little moms come through in their Honda Pilots with a car full of kids in swimming suits and I am like, THAT LOOKS SO much more enjoyable than what I am doing.

But then I realize, our life is sooo easy, and so fun, and those experiences will come. For now, I just need to enjoy now. 

And let me just say, the NOW lately is oh so good. 

Here are some pictures of our wonderful weekend.

Friday night we went to the temple & then went on a little date to get sushi.

Saturday I woke up early and made Tanner breakfast, this deserves to be blogged because 

A. I never make/eat breakfast 

B. I never wake up before Tanner

After my oh-so-gourmet breakfast we rode our bikes a couple of blocks to the Farmers Market (one of our favorite Saturday activities) and got some eggs and all natural snow cones. So classy, I know, I know. 

After the Farmers Market we went Birthday shopping for me, and then got a quick lunch at Thai Ruby before going sailing with my Dad and Wes. 

It was a fun fun day! My Dad forgot the weather vane so I was responsible for reading the wind... which I am shockingly good at. I kept telling the boys it was just my hair blowing that helped me figure it out... but let's be real here, I think I may have a little more native american in me than I get credit for. 

birthday week!

GUYS!!!! It's day 2 of my birthday week.

Birthday week this year  will consist of a present a day (most of which I picked out myself haha:))

Hopefully some white water rafting,

A nice dinner at Sundance,

A King Crab dinner at my parents house,

& lots of other fun stuff that we haven't planned yet.

Any suggestions? (because I am not spoiled enough already.) 

I love birthday week.

Who wouldn't? 

*Day one present* A new dress from Soel. Thanks Tan. You have such good taste. 

the fourth of july

July 3rd, waiting for fireworks to begin in NSL. 

Wednesday morning I woke up giddy.

I even woke Tanner up by jumping on the bed.

(he was not as thrilled as I was, can you believe it?)

Because for goodness sakes, it was the 4th of July!!!

Only the best day of the year.

& for 4 years I have been MIA (work, peru, work, work) on the 4th, so obviously I was giddy to have this one off, who wouldn't be?
(In fact I proposed to Tanner that we give our kids presents on the fourth instead of Christmas. Still workin on that one...)  

So here is the low-down on this fabulous day.

First, we rode our bikes a few blocks to watch to parade. Which was hot and sort of lame. 

But "nienie" was the grand marshal of the parade, and after reading her book I am sort of in love with her, so that was fun to see her and her cute family all decked out in anthro. 

NieNie and her family.

M&M at the parade. Tanner showing his patriotism by turning my scarf into a turban.

We lasted a solid 20 minutes at the parade before we decided to go to 7PEAKS. We just relaxed and floated around in tubes and talked with Marcus and Makayla for a couple of hours.

After 7PEAKS we headed to the Freedom Festival market and walked around long enough to get sunburned and enjoy some mexican corn. mmmmmmmmm..

After our jot at the market Tanner & I conked out before heading to a barbeque at our neighbors place with some couples from our ward for a couple of hours.

AND FROM THERE... we headed up to Thanksgiving Point to meet up with Marcus and Makayla for a picnic, games, and fireworks. It was a blast. We sat and ate and talked and imparted our vast knowledge of marriage upon M & M. They really appreciated it. (haha:))  and played frisbee on the grass while we waited for the fireworks. We had a BUSY & wonderful fourth. 

Now, can we do it all over again? 

strawbrerries

We had a great week + weekend. Thursday we went to Strabrerry Days, and then snuck into Scera Shell and watched a play. Always a good time. On Friday T came home from work early and we headed up to Strawberry Res. and camped with my parents up there. It was FABULOUS! 

Tanner & Wes did some serious Crawdad fishing... they caught ten of those nasty little creatures, and then ATE them. I was turned off by the exploding guts and brains. Crazy, I know. 

We spent some much needed time gathered around the fire, a morning on the lake in the kayaks, and ATE SOME DELICIOUS CAMPING FOOD!! Our life revolves around food. Clearly. 

But really. We love camping. And by we love camping, I actually mean, we think we love camping and then we go and then we remember that what we actually love is our bed. 

All in all though. Living is easy these days & we are la la la loooving summer.

I have been working on a BIG 'OL project lately as well. I can't wait to show you what I've been up to! 

the most perfect saturday

Saturday we woke up (after some glorious sleeping in), cleaned a little, and then headed to the farmers market. I used to love going to this in high school, and have missed being able to go since I always worked on Saturday. It was fun as always. We got some pupusas, natural honey sticks, and a new cute pair of earrings for me!!

After the Farmers Market we drove up the canyon to go on a little hike on timp (not all the way up). It was a blast, we went about 7.5 miles & saw so many awesome waterfalls, and had fun hanging out outside for the majority of the day. I of course rubbed my hand through stinging nettle; which was probably the highlight of the trip. We are just so outdoorsy huh??? 

& of course we ended the day with Thai Food.