a little VALENTINE'S day surprise

 

  

  

On Saturday, while Maddie was staying at our apartment for the weekend, she helped me to surprise Justin by decorating our bedroom with RED, PINK, and WHITE balloons- tons and tons of them! And also by surprising Justin with a card, candy and a new movie- The Hulk. :) It was so much fun for Maddie and I to be sneaky about getting it all done while the boys- Justin, Curtis, and Curtis' friend, Jordan were at the BYU basketball game. Maddie kept getting so nervous that Justin would come home before we were done and wanted to leave before he got home cause she was just so sure that she wouldn't be able to keep a straight face. We were both laughing so hard! 

  

  

Maddie, showing off our magnificent decorating job. :)    

  

Luckily, we did finish just in time and left the apartment before Justin got home. Justin called when he found his surprise and was said he was indeed very surprised. :) I know this picture is kinda blurry of Justin, but I wanted one of him with the balloons. (Oh, and it's kinda hard to see in these pictures, but the bedspread on our bed is one of my Valentine's day gifts from Justin. Thanks love!)

Then, on Saturday night, while the boys stayed at our apartment and played Halo, Maddie and I went to the dollar theater to see The Princess and the Frog. Sadly, it was SOLD OUT! So we had to see Planet 51 instead. Which, unfortunately, wasn't our very favorite movie we've ever seen. It was kinda cute, but just not really all that thrilling. Oh well. We had lots of fun together, nonetheless. I love it when Maddie comes to visit. I also love it when Curtis comes to visit too. We really all had such a great weekend together!  

  

I didn't get any pictures of Justin and I as we celebrated Valentine's Day together at Tucano's last night for dinner, after his first day of work! But, we did have lots of fun, and we both dressed up, which was really fun. I love it when we both feel like we are looking our very best for each other. :) (It's really too bad that I didn't get any pictures...) After dinner we rented and watched Post Grad. Also a slightly disappointing movie. Once again, it was a cute movie, but it also had a lot of really ridiculous parts. I liked Alexis Bledel in it, but other than that I wouldn't recommend the movie to anyone really. 

In celebration of Lyndsey

 

On Thursday February 11th, all of us girls got together at the Olive Garden to celebrate Lyndsey's Birthday! It was such a blast to be with all the girls, and old roommates (Kristin, we missed you!). It was so fun to be able to catch up on each others lives and just hang out together while eating very yummy food. Soup, salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden is the best. :) 

playing catch-up...

Lyndsey's birthday was Wednesday, February 10th. But maybe even more exciting than that is that about three weeks ago Lyndsey got engaged! Congratulations Lyndsey! 

Melissa also just had a birthday on Monday, February 1st. Happy Birthday to Melissa!

Carrie and Melissa are now roommates again back in good old apartment #205 at Raintree! I have to admit I'm a little jealous! I miss living with these girls so much!

Aubrey is doing lots of interviewing and such for different PA schools. Good luck Aubrey!  

We are seriously SO blessed!

(no pun intended, and if you don't know what I'm talking about click HERE- sorry, but this blog is just seriously so ridiculous!)

This is BD Medical's logo, a company which makes A LOT of the medical supplies that I use as a phlebotomist, and ALSO, and most IMPORTANTLY, starting Monday, February 15th, is the company that Justin will be interning with!!!

Justin and I are both so excited and feel so blessed that Justin has been given this opportunity to grow in the career field he is studying, which is mechanical engineering. This is a big blessing for our family (which, yes, right now only consists of Justin and I :)  ). But, we feel this opportunity will bless us for years to come as Justin will finish his time at BYU as also an intern for BD Medical and will have the choice to stay there as an engineer once he is finished, if at that time we feel that is the best choice for us.

I am not at all surprised that Justin was chosen for this internship. I KNOW how capable and dedicated he is, which are just some of the qualities that make him perfect for this position. Justin, I am so proud of you, I hope you know that!

So, yep, this is why we feel seriously so blessed.

something SO cute!

Isn't this just the cutest scripture cover you have ever seen! Lauren, a girlfriend of mine in my ward makes them and sells them on her etsy shop. Click HERE to see all the cute things that she has! (My other favorite is her cute headbands with interchangeable flowers!) Lauren can make these scripture covers to fit any size of scriptures really, and she also told me that if she had the measurements she could make them for any book! She has the cutest materials to pick from and I think that everyone should check out her shop and order one of these super cute scripture covers!

And well, because I just LOVE these covers so VERY much I will give the 9th person (just to make it tricky- I hope it works- ;) and you can post more than once, I guess, just not in a row!) who comments on this post a scripture cover/book cover, your choice, for FREE! So check out her shop and I hope to hear from you all soon!

BYU basketball!

On Saturday, January 30th Justin and I doubled with Mckell and Jared and went to the BYU vs. U of U basketball game together. It was so much fun! The game was very intense, of course, and we were on the very, very, very top row of the stadium (also, of course, the game was packed with tons of BYU and U of U fans!)! But despite our less than great seating we all had tons of fun watching the game. The BYU basketball players were supporting cancer awareness and were wearing pink shoes and had pink stripes on their jerseys and I absolutely loved it! Plus, with the U of U wearing their red it looked like Valentine's Day down on the court. :) BYU played a great game and won the U of U which made us all very happy! After the game we all went to dinner together at Red Robin and then Mckell and Jared came back to our apartment and we watched Live Free or Die Hard. I fell asleep, but apparently it was a pretty good movie. :) Such a fun night!
Then on Tuesday, February 2nd we went to another basketball game with Mike, Marianne and Elle Osborn. It was BYU vs. TCU. We got to the game at about half time, since we went to In-N-Out Burger before we headed over to the game- Mike and Marianne treated! Thanks so much you guys!!! BYU won again and it was fun to be at the game together. My very favorite part of the night was getting to spend time with Elle, who is such a dang cute baby girl with such a huge personality. She was a little restless at the game wanting to do anything but sit and watch, go figure. :) We all got a picture with Cosmo, which I thought was pretty cool. And Elle was for sure pretty intrigued by him! We had such a fun night with our friends and being with them made us really want to try to get together more often!

saying goodbye...

On Wednesday, January 27th our whole family had the opportunity to all take Talon to the MTC. What an emotional day! It was hard to say goodbye, yet we are all so very happy and proud of Talon and we know he is doing what the Lord wants him to do- he is helping to bring some of His lost sheep back to fold.


Before taking Talon to the MTC we all met at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We had three large tables all completely full. We took lots of pictures, each had time to spend a little one on one time with Talon, and the food was delicious!


The service was amazing at this restaurant. I couldn't believe how fast we got our food and how much food we were given. We were all stuffed by the time we were done eating.


















After breakfast we headed to the Provo temple to say our final goodbyes. Talon was very ready to be at the MTC. It was such an emotional time for everyone. We took lots more pictures and gave lots of hugs. It was so amazing to see our WHOLE family there to show love and support to Talon. There were lots of other new missionaries at the temple with their families to say goodbye also, BUT our family was 10X the size of any of the other missionaries there. Talon SO is loved.













I love this picture. Talon is such a hero to all of the kids in our family. They all love him so much and it was hard for them to say goodbye. Talon is the first family member for these kids to see go on a mission and they are learning so much from Talon. Talon is leading the way for these kids to follow his example for their own lives.
After saying our goodbyes, Talon, my parents, Hunter, Maddie, BreAnne, and Maccoy took Talon to the MTC and dropped him off. My mom said it all just happened so quickly, which was probably a good thing. And now, it's been almost two weeks since Talon first arrived in the MTC and he is doing great! He says he is learning so much and gets to write to us each Monday which is his P-day. All our whole family loves writing him letters and sending him packages. EVERYONE is feeling and reaping from the blessings of Talon serving a mission. I love it. I love watching my family get so excited for Talon. We are all praying for him and cheering him on. He already is a wonderful missionary and we are so happy for him.