Keep Calm and Carry On

Life is hard. And no, this won't be a post of me complaining about how hard my life is. I realize that life is hard for everyone and while life seems a little harder than it used to these days, I am constantly being reminded of the Lord's hand in my life. In the midst of everything hard going on, he always let's me know that he cares and that everything is going to be alright. Today just happened to be one of those days. I am currently researching professors that I want to possibly work for and do research for in their labs. I was talking to one of my professors today and he presented a couple options to me that I didn't even know were available to me. His ideas really opened up my options and got me to think outside my little box. It was so wonderful and I can't wait to get started on everything and see where I end up. It was also one of those days where I know without a doubt that BYU is the place for me! I love where I am at and love where I am going even more. Life is wonderful! The only thing I wish I had a little more of in my life are these cutie pies.

Aren't they adorable? I wish we lived closer to them so we could play with them all the time!

I am also missing all of them as well! Someday soon we'll be able to take a vacation to see everyone (hopefully sooner than later!)

Birthday Shenanigans

Friday Laren turned 23 years old. Woohoo. I absolutely loves birthdays and they have always been a big deal in my family so I wanted to do something special for Laren on his special day. I spent most of the day making his cake which you will read about in a little bit. It was a long process and I learned a lot about cakes, but it was fun and I was glad I got to do it for him! Friday when he came home for the day I made him fettuccine alfredo with chicken. It was delicious :) We spent the rest of the evening enjoying our time together, watching Law and Order and playing Farkle. Then I surprised him with his big cake! I decided that I was going to make him a football cake. Laren loves football and BYU is his favorite team in the whole world, so I made him a big football field with BYU on the endzones and a football in the middle. Now a few things before I the pictures

1. I am not a cake designer

2. I have never worked with fondant before

3. I don't profess to be good a baking/ cake decorating, although I hope to be somewhat decent someday.

The point I'm trying to make is I am not a professional and this was my first attempt at making something more than a simple box cake with frosting, so it is what it is, but I'm pretty proud of it :)

Here is the football. It is probably the cleanest part of the cake! I used two circle cakes to make it. I cut out the middle of the cake and the stuck the top and bottom pieces to make a football. I used brown fondant, (which by the way brown is an incredibly hard color to make!) and Laren's rice paddle to texture it. 

This football field is a well-worn field! Getting the fondant to lay nicely over two sheet cakes without tearing was pretty impossible, so I went for the used football field look. 

I loved how the colors turned out!

I had to throw this picture in, because yes, that is Toddler's and Tiara's on the TV in the background... hahaha. 

My handsome birthday guy!!

This was his first attempt at blowing out the candles. He did it too fast, so I made him do it again so I could get pictures!

This was the 2nd time around. 

yay! Happy Birthday!

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of him. I love it so much!!

Saturday we slept in and then got up and went to go get Laren his birthday present. He has been needing a new pair of shoes so badly and so I decided that that would be a perfect present. He found a pair that he loves and we both ended up getting a pair... After we picked out our shoes we headed to lunch at one of Laren's favorite restaurants the Wild Ginger with all of his buddies. We had a great time visiting and eating yummy Chinese food. We spent the rest of the day studying/relaxing and it was wonderful!! 

He doesn't look too thrilled here, but he is. He loves them so much that he is wearing them right now in honor of today being the Super Bowl. 

Yeah.. we are kind of nerds and bought matching shoes.. go ahead and make fun :)

I love Laren so much and it was so fun for me to spoil him on his birthday and really make it a special day. He makes everyday so wonderful! 

Happy Birthday Laren

Happy Birthday Laren!! 

Yesterday was a crazy day, so I am a day late on this... oh well! 

I am pretty sure I will go my whole life and still not be able to formulate words that express how much I love this boy! He is so wonderful is so many ways and I am so grateful I get to be by his side and enjoy the great person that he is. Year 22 was a hard year and I am so proud of him for all his hard work and willingness to do the things that are asked of him. I love seeing him succeed and I can't wait to see all of the amazing things he will accomplish this year. He is such a fun guy and people love being around him. My nieces and nephews called to wish him happy birthday last night and it was fun to see how easily they have accepted him into their lives and how much they already love their "uncle Laren". He makes everyday great and brings so much joy to my life. I am so grateful for him and can't wait to see what this year holds for him!

Birthday shenanigan details to come soon !

...

I don't really have a title for this post.. I am just writing.. haha. I just finished two batches of marshmallow fondant and am really pleased with how they turned out so far. I am really excited to see how it does tomorrow when I put it on the cake! Also - over Martin Luther King weekend I made my Valetine's ruffle wreath. Sorry I didn't post it on here, but I was saving it until February and then ended up using it as a guest post on a friend's blog. She is doing 14 days of Valentine's crafts and they are all going to be wonderful!
You can check it out at House Wife Memoirs. Enjoy!!

Giftcard heaven

I love giftcards, they are so wonderful! We have used all but one or two wedding gift cards, but luckily I have a bunch leftover from my bridal showers. Laren's birthday is on Friday and I have had my mind on a few things I want to get him, but I was trying to figure out how to not spend too much when I remember I have giftcards for the places I want to get him stuff from. SCORE! I was so excited when I remembered this, this morning. Also today, one of my professors sent out an e-mail saying that he had taken 9 questions off of the test because no one in the class got them right, seriously? The best part is removing those 9 questions provided me with a 97% on my test! SCORE again. These are definitely tender mercies from the lord and have reminded me how blessed I am and that the lord is always mindful of us. I am so grateful for everything that I have been given and just how wonderful life is no matter how crazy it can get.

P.S. I decided what I am doing for Laren's birthday cake and I am so excited. He reads my blog so I won't say anything on here, but I will definitely provide pictures after it is all done. I might be a little in over my head, but what's life without an adventure??

Next week will be better...

I don't know how the rest of you feel, but lately it seems like I am constantly saying "once this week is over, I can relax.." Well I should know by now that that is never the way life works. The next week always turns out to be just as stressful or more stressful than the week before. I am only taking 13 credits which is next to nothing, but for some odd reason I am the busiest I have been! I have group projects in every class which requires a lot of coordination for meetings. Plus my professors have decided they want to put their midterms at the same time, so this last weekend felt more like finals week than a regular week with a test or two. So from the gyst of this you are probably seeing why I haven't blogged in a while.. sorry.

This picture says it all!

However, I do have some wonderful things to look forward to in the near future. And as soon as I take my last midterm today, I get to relax from tests for a little bit!

1. Laren turns 23 on Friday. I can't wait to celebrate him on his special day. Plus I am excited to finally pull out my mini cricut for cakes and make a yummy creation!

2. After today, I don't have another test for two weeks!

3. Valentine's day is in two weeks. 

4. After Valentine's day is President's Day which means a well needed day off. Woohoo! 

5. On the 11th Laren and I will have been married for 6 months, wow has time flown! 

With all the fun exciting things going on, hopefully I can get some good pictures and have some blog posts up! Plus I have a couple Pinterest recipes I have been dying to try, so those will definitely find their way onto here! Other than my mind taking it's time to come back from Christmas Vacation, life is wonderful and I'm so glad I am getting to spend it with my favorite person in the whole world! 

Here a couple Pinterest quotes to get you through the day :)

My husband the photographer

Laren absolutely loves photography and as you saw earlier I got him a new Nikon camera for Christmas. He loves it, which I love and it is so fun to see him be so excited about something that he loves. He really has  knack for taking unique pictures, especially landscape ones. He recently sold a canvas on Etsy and so decided that he would try it again and even make a blog. I love supporting him in this adventure and I am really hoping he continues to be successful in it! Here are some samples of his work with his newest camera!

These are just a few of his photos, if you want to see more you should check out his blog over at pushpinpictures.blogspot.com!!