Spring update 2013

Man these past few months have seem to fly by so fast, it's insane! Here is my attempt to recap :)

March 2013
March was a pretty busy month. Danny and I did March Madness brackets and he won.... I did pretty good to start but Danny beat me in the end. Just like every year :) I love this tradition and one year I will win, I just know it.

I helped with my ward's annual RS Birthday celebration, it was a lot of fun this year. We did a baby shower theme and I was in charge of putting together the party favors. They turned out pretty cute and were super easy to make. I modpoged the clothes pins with fun paper that matched our colors for the shower/birthday and stuck magnets on the back. Then I created a little "thank you" tag and clipped them on to the Skittles.

That night we had a dinner and people brought "baby shower gifts" these were items like diapers, wipes, baby shampoo, baby clothes, maternity clothes and other things that were donated to a couple of local charities. We also made onsies to donate which were so darling. We learned how to apply a simple applique using an iron and fusible web. It took 5 minutes to cut out a pattern in cute fabric and iron on to a onsie. They were all super cute and I'm so glad I learned how to do it so I can make more. It's such a quick and easy baby shower gift.

Most of the month was spent on wedding shower stuff! It was so fun to help plan this shower for Lisa! I created the invitations and matching paper decor stuff. Here is the invitation:

I'm so glad Amy took pictures of the shower because I only took one:

 I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest during Valentine's day and really wanted to use it for the shower so I punched out like a million hearts in Lisa's wedding colors.

I took all the hearts with me one Sunday to dinner and after we ate Stacy and Cathy and I strung the hearts on fishing wire. They turned out so perfect! I loved it! I also wanted to make a cute heart wreath to hang on the front door so I painted chevron stripes onto a canvas drop cloth and wrapped it around a heart form. Then I made a little banner to hang on it. All the following photos from the shower are Amy's.

The wreath was a little more difficult then I thought it would be but I loved it. I used the canvas drop cloth so it would match the table cloth that Stacy was making. Which turned out super cute.

The food was amazing and the party was super fun. Our theme was Favorite Things so we tried to have all of Lisa's favorite things to eat and drink.

All the girls took a trip to Ikea the day before the shower while the boys did Easter egg dying with the kids. I was able to get the frames that I have been wanting for forever at Ikea. I made these little signs to put in them to set on the tables and around the room. I love making these things, it's so much fun. Stacy put together the party favors in these sweet little "brown paper packages tied up with string." Soooo cute! It is a CD with some of Lisa's favorite songs.

I spent part of the drive down punching out the confetti! I love it sprinkled all over in the room! sorry Jess :) Danny said I was just trying to kill her vacuum, so not true haha, I just like the obnoxiousness of confetti. The shower was so fun!! I'm glad we were able to do it and celebrate Lisa.

While we were down in Utah we celebrated Easter on Friday. I didn't take any pictures of that but the weather was totally perfect and it was so fun to watch the kids run around the yard looking for eggs. And the pinata was so fun, it was hilarious to see the kids hit at that thing.

Rachel & Kyle watched our puppies while we were in Utah and we are so grateful, 3 large dogs is a handful but Kokua and Kapone loved it! Here we are on our way to drop them off, that is Kapone if you couldn't tell.

Danny and I were a little homesick for our puppies so Rachel kept me updated. These are a few pictures she sent me of the three puppies during their sleep over.

April 2013
I especially loved General Conference this April. I love listening to our church leaders, they are so inspired. I'm happy the words are so easily available to re-read or re-listen to.

Elder Perry is one of my favorite speakers :) I just love him! Of course I love all of them, but I love him. And he had great words for us, as always. I encourage anyone who would like a little pick-me-up to re-read or listen to or watch any of the talks given in conference. I'm so thankful for the technology we have that we can be anywhere and hear the words of the prophets.

I sort of feel like March was filled with Shower stuff and April was all wedding stuff hahaha. I love the build up to big events, the excitement and anticipation is so fun. And the planning, I like the planning part too. :) I just had to plan what we were going to wear for the wedding day and even that was so fun.

Thank you Amy for the beautiful photos!!! I love them all!!! This one is my favorite :)
I did a ton of Instagraming while on our trip down to Utah for the wedding, it is such a fun way to stay connected and keep those photos that we love, by far my favorite app. Here is a little picture overload from our trip that are some repeats from Insta and some new ones, all from my phone so be prepared for low quality photos. :)

We drove down to Utah on Thursday and stayed at Jeff & Jess's. It was a blast!

We got to see Kara play a soccer game and she scored a goal, it was so exciting to watch her!

Friday was Ryan & Lisa's graduation. So fun to see them both graduate from BYU. Congrats guys!!

Danny did some feats of strength after while we were all waiting around which was so fun to watch. The kids wanted to be weighed so they all took turns while Danny did the calculations.

One of the things I love about going to Utah is Jess makes like the best food. We had super amazing food for every meal, she spoils us! THANK YOU JESS! And thank you for letting us crash your pad guys. :)
Saturday was the wedding!!! They had an afternoon sealing so we all had plenty of time to get ready in the morning. There was no rush to get up at 5am so you could be sure to get a shower and get your hair curled. Everyone looked so great! Here is one I got of Lily before we left for the temple. Sooo cute right!

The sealing was beautiful, of course, and it was so great to be there for that special moment with the two of them. It was so sweet to see them there together, we are so happy for Ryan and Lisa!
As always there was a lot of waiting outside after for them to come out as well as in between pictures for the photographer. I love these shots I got of the kids, these kids just kill me, they are so cute!

Of course I had to get a few of the girls and our mating shoes.

Then Ryan and Lisa came out and there was a lot of cheering and lots of picture taking. Oh my gosh, doesn't she look amazing and her dress is so beautiful!

 I loved the boys all lined up waiting for the group photos.

Then we all walked over to the Lion House for the luncheon which was awesome. No photos from that but the food was so good and we had lots of fun there. This darling video was played and I just had to share the link on here because our nieces and nephews are the cutest ever.

Marriage Advice for Ryan

As we walked back to the car to head to the reception I got this shot of the temple. It was such a beautiful day, perfect weather for a wedding.

Somehow I only got 2 pictures of the bride and groom... I don't know how I didn't take more but I so love this one.

There were lots of shenanigans in the car on the drive over to the reception.

The reception was beautiful! The location was an amazing place with a beautiful area in the back for lots of photos. Of course the kids were hilarious.

It was so much fun and we loved every minute and really enjoyed spending time with everyone and celebrating Ryan and Lisa. But by the time it was all over, we were all ready to go home and get to bed.
Some got a little head start, and no Jayson is not pretending, he fell asleep on the ride home right along with the cubs.

May 2013
This month has been pretty low key for us compared to the past 2 months driving to Utah twice. It's been lovely to stay home and hang out on the weekends.

The first weekend was Ryan & Lisa's Virginia Reception so Jayson stayed with us while the 'rents were out of town. It was pretty fun, I think Danny loved that they watched weightlifting videos from YouTube on the TV every night, normally he has just watches those on his phone. The puppies love Jayson so I think they were pretty happy to have him stay over. They checked on him in the night several times to make sure he was okay. That Saturday was Kyle's birthday so we went and saw Iron Man 3 in 3D with the Munks. That was a lot of fun and I really liked the movie, it was very entertaining.

The next weekend was Mother's Day, it was fun to spend time with both of our moms on Sunday.
This is one of my favorite photos with mom from when we were little.

And this is one of my favorites of Danny and his mom from our wedding day.

We had a lot of fun at Sunday dinner and planning for kids day and then we went to my grandparent's house to see my mom because she was there to see her mom. So we got to see my grandparents too and my aunt and uncle and cousins were there too so it was fun to see everyone and chat for a little while there as well. We both are so grateful for our moms and all they do for us. We love you both so much!

Tuesday I helped out with another RS activity, this time it was a "Quick-n-Easy Recipe Swap." I had a lot of fun helping out with this activity. My assignment was to create a handout for the ladies to take home with recipes. All the sisters in the ward were encouraged to pick out a favorite recipe they consider to be quick and easy and to email it to me so I could compile them all together in a hand out. I have to admit, I miss getting recipes emailed to me every day. It was so fun to read through them and they all sounded so yummy. The night of our activity a few of the sisters made their recipes for us to try them out and we had a few speakers talk about quick meal prep tips, freezer meal planning tips and menu planning. It was very fun and I learned a few things I can use as our family grows. Right now Danny and I don't have a need to plan a menu but from what I hear, kids like to know what's for dinner. :) So I'm hoping I can remember some of the fun things I learned for when we have children. If you are interested, here is a link to the recipe packet.

For anyone who actually made it through this entire post, congratulations, you deserve a cookie or something. Sorry this is so long but so much has happened in the past few months. Our 4 year anniversary is next weekend, it's crazy how time has flown by so fast!