The Helms

My husband the photographer

2012-01-21T15:16:00.000-08:00

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!!

Colorado pt. 2

2012-01-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

Wohoo. I made it - this is the last of my Christmas break posts!
Friday after our fun hike, we headed home, cleaned up and went into Alamosa for Nicole's wedding reception. The reception was beautiful and of the bride and groom were stunning as well!

I loved the centerpieces!

Congrats to Nicole and Lendel!

Saturday was the annual Bagwell party at the lake. Every winter it freezes over and they take four wheelers and sleds and play on the lake. It ended up being really windy and really cold, but we had a great time anyway! I had my first experience of riding on a sled while being towed by a four wheeler. It was very fun :)

Laren got some good pictures of the kids playing, but I don't have them. So you will just have to take my word that it was fun!
Saturday night we decided we wanted to go see a movie as part of our New Year's celebration. We picked the new Sherlock Holmes movie and it was really good!

It was full of action and very suspenseful. I rather enjoyed it!

After our movie we headed home for a quiet New Year's celebration. We watched the ball drop and enjoyed a meatloaf and potatoes dinner with some sparkling peach cider. It was fun to just be snuggled up on the couch enjoying our first New Year's together.

Laren's grandparents were sick most of Christmas break, but they were feeling better Sunday night so we got to go over and visit for a little bit. We always have a fun time visiting with his grandparents. They are really neat people and tell great stories!! Monday morning we got up and hopped in the car for our trip back to Provo. It felt soo nice to be back in our own place! We absolutely loved visiting family over break, but it was great to get home and relax before the new semester started!

Colorado pt. 1

2012-01-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

Thursday we had a very nice relaxing day! We helped set up Laren's cousin Nicole's reception and spent some well needed time on the couch! We pulled ourselves up enough to go out for dinner, which was very yummy! Friday morning we got up and decided to go see Zapata Falls. It was a great day for a little hike, there was snow on the ground, but the sun was nice and warm. The falls were absolutely gorgeous! You had to hike up in the canyon to see the waterfall which was a little scary and slippery, but well worth it! The outside of the falls had frozen but you could see the water running behind the ice which was really neat.

At the beginning of the canyon before you can really see the falls. I for some reason really love this photo!

The falls are on the left side. It's hard to see but there is running water behind all that ice!

My father-in-law straddled the ice to get a good view looking down. It was pretty funny.

I braved it and climbed up the ice to the waterfall.

Standing by the waterfall

Going down was a tad bit scary!

The view from the canyon to the trail.

Family photo!

Wilberger Family Party

2012-01-17T09:23:00.000-08:00

The Monday after Christmas we had our annual Wilberger family get together. It is fun to get together with everyone in my dad's family and spend some quality time with each other! With everyone getting married and all of the kids running around it is becoming quite the family gathering! I can't imagine how big it is going to be when all of the newlyweds start having kids!

Almost everyone! We had to use the stairs so we would all fit!

We had a great time with the extended family and of course loved having one more day to overindulge in wonderful food! Tuesday we got up at 2 am and headed for the airport.. it was a loong day! We flew back to Salt Lake, drove home and slept the day away! It was nice to sleep in our bed after being away for 11 days! Tuesday night we cleaned up, did laundry, and packed up again for our trip to Colorado. Wednesday morning we climbed out of bed, hopped in the car and headed for Colorado for a stay with Laren's family. It was a crazy couple of days, but we survived and had a great time! I will put up the pictures of our Colorado adventures the next couple of days and will hopefully be done with documenting Christmas break by the end of this week!! Yay!

Laren took this picture of Benji over break and it just melts my heart. I love that dog!

Christmas!!!

2012-01-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

All break I would say can you believe it is only "blank" days until Christmas? and Laren would always say, no and add another day to my countdown. I had to remind him that in my family Christmas Eve is "Christmas." A lot of people think it is strange, but we have always done our big family Christmas on Christmas Eve, including Santa coming. We do stockings on Christmas day and always have a big Christmas dinner, but most of my siblings spend Christmas day with their in-laws, so it is much calmer and quieter! Unfortunately I was incredibly awful at taking pictures and so most of these are courtesy of my sister-in-law!

We took our annual bowling trip and as always had a fantastic time! The boys got really into it and even played for Nativity Director. Laren won both rounds, but still had to be in the Nativity... Sorry hun!

My SIL took this picture and I love it! It brings so many happy feelings with all the wonderful memories of when everyone is home!

The rule is that you have to be Mary and Joseph the first year you are married.. so here we are!

The Angels.

Our Shepherds. Boy are these boys gonna give us a run for our money one of these days!!

The whole gang!

Before the Chaos.

Santa's here!!

I wasn't thinking and didn't get any pictures of Laren and I with our new gifts so these after Christmas shots will have to do!

Laren got a new camera!! He has been wanting a new camera since I have known him and he has really gotten into photography the last year, so I knew that a new camera would be the perfect gift! My mom and I went in on it together and got him a Nikon D3100. He absolutely loves it and hates putting it down!! Getting him something special was the best part of my Christmas by far! I love giving gifts and it was so fun to see him be so excited about it!

Laren also did really well and got me a sewing machine! Yay!! I am so excited about my new friend. I haven't been able to use it yet, but my goal is to start picking little projects and making something every couple of weekends. I am so excited to get better at sewing!

Christmas day was nice and relaxing! We did stockings in the morning which is always fun. Church was an hour of pure christmas music and it was wonderful! Christmas Sunday is always my favorite because we get to spend the whole time singing songs about our savior. Laren and I sang a duet and my niece Hallie played her violin. After church we came home and had a wonderful nap ! Laren and I took Abigail for a drive and Laren got to play around on his new camera. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. It was so great to be with family and to have our first Christmas together!

Weekend Goals

2012-01-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

In anticipation for the long weekend I spent some time yesterday and today coming up with goals/ to do's I want accomplish over this holiday weekend.

1. I want to compile a book of all our wedding cards. They are currently sitting in a bag and since our Thank You's are done for the most part, I am ready to toss the envelopes and make a cute little book like the one below with all of the cards!

2. Organize the spare bedroom / closet! Seeing as I have a new sewing machine and really want to be able to do some crafts this semester I really need to organize and create a space for myself! I trip to Ikea for some closet organizers is in order, for sure!!

My Pinterest inspiration!

3. Make a craft!! I have had my eye on this wreath on Pinterest and am really excited to try it out! I have a heart foam wreath that I want to use for Valentine's day and I think it would look great as a red ruffle heart!

4. Put away the Christmas decorations and clean, clean, clean!! Spring cleaning has hit me early this year and I am in such a cleaning/ organizing mood all of the sudden!

5. Snuggle up with my man and watch a movie in bed! Both of us were hoping that we could catch a break this semester and get to spend a lot more time together, but sadly it doesn't seem to be the case! We do have less stressful classes, but are still incredibly busy! It was soo nice to get to spend quality time together over Thanksgiving and Christmas break, so I am looking forward to our long weekend!

Christmas Break Part 2

2012-01-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

The Thursday before Christmas my mom brought her dad home for the day. My grandpa was not able to make it to our reception and so this was the first time he had met Laren! It was so great to have him up for the day and for him to finally meet Laren. We had a great day visiting and all of the siblings, except for Shannon were able to make it over to see Grandpa.

We don't get to see him very often, so it was quite a treat to get to have him spend the day with us at home!

We had Mckenna spend the night with us on Thursday, so Laren and I took her into town and did a little Christmas shopping. It is crazy how old all of my babies (nieces and nephews) are getting! I don't want them to grow up! Friday morning we headed in to the Holiday Market, which is one of my favorite places in Eugene during December! There are so many fun crafts and interesting people :) It was Laren's first real introduction into Eugene! After the market we stopped by the cemetery and put a flowers on Brooke's grave. Then we headed home and picked up the rest of Steph's kids for a photo shoot. Steph wanted to give Zak photos of all the kids for Christmas and I so kindly volunteered Laren to do it ( I tend to volunteer him a lot.. ). He was so sweet to agree and the pictures turned out wonderful!!

Isn't he handsome?? I can't believe he is almost in high school!!

My favorite group one!

Gorgeous, right?!

I love this one of Maia!

This one is my favorite becuase it is just so Gavin!!

We had so much fun taking pictures of Steph's kids. They all have such distinct, wonderful personalities. I can't believe they are all growing up so fast, I just want to keep them where they are!!

Honey Lime Enchiladas

2012-01-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

Since this last Sunday was Fast Sunday I decided I would try out some enchiladas I have been eyeing on Pinterest for a while. A nice filling meal is the best thing on Fast Sunday and these babies did not dissapoint! The recipe calls for shredded chicken so I shred I did. I had never shredded chicken before so it was a good learning experience.

Ingredients:

Marinade -

6 tablespoons honey

5 tablespoons lime juice (1 large lime)

1 tablespoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded

8-10 flour tortillas (I used whole wheat tortillas)

1 pound monterey jack cheese, shredded

16 ounces green enchilada sauce

1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Whisk the first four ingredients and toss with shredded chicken in a Zip-loc bag.

2. Let it marinate for at least a 1/2 hour, but preferably a half day or so.

3. Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan.

4. Fill the tortillas with chicken, saving marinade, and shredded cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas.

5. Put tortillas in 9x13 pan as you go.

6. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade (if there is any).

7. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas.

8. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on to

The recipe says to marinate the chicken for 30 min to half a day and we have church at 8:30 am so I cooked the chicken Saturday night, so it could marinate while we were at church and then through most of the afternoon. For the chicken I put it in the crockpot with some water and oil and cooked it on high for 6 hours. I shredded it and stuck it in the fridge over night. I woke up extra early Sunday morning to make the marinade and stick the chicken in it. We got home from church, took a nap, and I got up and put the enchiladas together. I loved how simple this recipe was and how great it worked for days like Fast Sunday.

Please ignore my crazy hair... aah!

These turned out so delicious. I honestly loved everything about them. Probably my favorite part is the combination of the Honey and Lime in the marinade. The honey gave the the chicken an overall sweet taste, and the lime gave it just enough tang. Oh they were great! I marinated my chicken for a good 7 hours so it really soaked in the flavors. Also - I would recommend not skimping on the sauce. I made extra marinade just for the sauce on top and I am so glad I did! Combined with Salsa Verde it gave the enchiladas just that extra kick!

Chicken Rollups

2012-01-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

So far so good in 2012! Laren and I have been going to the gym and I have been doing some cooking! I love cooking and thankfully I have my cooking bible aka Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. It seriously has everything you could ever want! Along with that I have my Pinterest collection which is also so wonderful! To start my 2012 cooking I picked an easy week night dish called Chicken Rollups - also known as Chicken Pillows. I had never made them before, but this is now going to a go to meal for us because it is inexpensive, easy, and so yummy!!

Chicken Rollups

2 (8 ounce) cans Reduced Fat Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can of cream of chicken soup, undiluted
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese or swiss cheese (or any cheese of choice)
1/2 cup milk

Filling
4 ounces cream cheese (very soft) * I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese*
2 tablespoons butter (very soft but not melted)
1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tsp minced onion flakes ( optional! I didn't use them and this still turned out great!)
2 large cooked chicken breasts, finely chopped (or use about 2 cups, can use cooked turkey) - I actually used precooked chicken fajita strips ( you can find them just about anywhere!). They are seasoned and add great flavor to the recipe. Plus they are already cooked :)
1/2-3/4 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)
2 Tbsp. milk
1-2 cup grated cheddar cheese (for topping)

Set oven to 350°F. Spray a 9x13 dish with cooking spray. Mix together milk, 3/4 cup cheese and undiluted chicken soup (can season with black pepper if desired).

For the filling --- (make certain that the cream cheese and butter are very soft) in a bowl, mix the soft cream cheese with butter until very smooth, then add in garlic powder. Add in the chopped chicken, onion and cheddar cheese; mix well until combined. Add in 2 tablespoons milk; mix to combine (add in a little more if the mixture seems too dry). Season with seasoned salt or white and black pepper to taste. Unroll the crescent rolls. Place 1 heaping tablespoon chicken mixture (or a little more) on top of each crescent triangle, then roll up starting at the thicker end. Drizzle a small amount of soup mixture on the bottom of the dish. Then place the crescent rolls seam-side down on top of the creamed mixture in the casserole.
Drizzle the remaining sauce on top (you don't have to use the full amount of cream sauce, just use as much as desired) and sprinkle with 1 cup (or more) grated cheese, or amount desired. Bake for about 30 minutes

( Cheesy chicken goodness!)

I thought they were delicious and my husband loved them which is always a plus! And you can pull it all together in about 45 min. I made a side of mashed potatoes to go with, but just about anything would work!

Also thanks to some spontaneity I decided to make homemade pancakes and whip cream. I love homemade whip cream, it is so much better than the store bought stuff! Today I added some cinnamon for an extra boost of flavor and oh man was it delicious! Thank you cooking bible :)

Hello 2012

2012-01-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

In honor of the new year I decided to give the blog a makeover. New year, new look, at least for the blog :) While I haven't sat down and officially written out my goals for this new year here are a few that will be making their way onto my list.

1. Live in the present! I want to spend less time on the computer/ in front of the TV and live in the real world, not the virtual world. I also want to enjoy the present more rather than wishing for the future. Life goes by too fast and I want to make sure I enjoy every minute of it with the people I love.

2. Cook more! I have a lighter class load this semester and I am hoping I will be able to more things like cooking yummy meals!

3. Sew!! My wonderful husband got me a sewing machine for Christmas and I am so excited to find time to spend sewing. I'm not very good, but I'm excited to learn and practice with my new machine!

4. Get into shape. I realize this is a goal that is made almost every new year and doesn't have a very high success rate, but cross my heart I really do want to get into shape this semester. The gym and the pool are calling my name.

5. Make a cake and use my new cake cricket to decorate it! My sister gave it to me as a wedding gift and I still haven't been able to pull it out and play with it. I will definitely be playing with it this year though!

Remembering 2011

2011-12-31T17:37:00.000-08:00

2011 was a wonderful year for so many reasons! It will forever hold some of my absolute favorite memories and events! Here is an over view of our super fun 2011!

January

I started the new year celebrating with my favorite girls :)

As soon as I got back to Provo this boy and I spent a lot, a lot of time together!

Sundance Film Festival with these lovely ladies!

I got a job

I was officially accepted to study abroad in London for Spring term.

February

Laren turned 22 !!

We celebrated our first Valentine's together!

We made a trip to Oregon and Laren met the whole family!

He also asked my dad if he could marry me and we officially began discussing wedding plans with my family!

March

March 5th 2011:

We enjoyed watching BYU win the conference championship

Laren took me out to ice cream for our 3 month anniversary

We decided to hike Y mountain and to my surprise and excitement he proposed and I said yes!

Alichelen came to Provo for Springbreak and some dress shopping :)

April

I made my first trip to Colorado to meet Laren's whole family.

It was quite the adventure and included getting a little stuck in the mud!

Engagement Photos

I turned 20!

Winter semester ended.

Found a wedding dress

Laren and I said goodbye for 3 months!

I headed to London for 2 months!

May - June

Taught primary!

Made two wonderful friends :)

Came home to find these beautiful flowers all the way from the U.S.A

Traveled the United Kingdom

Witnessed the Royal Wedding

Showed my parents, sister, and niece around England and Scotland.

Eventually found my way back to America!

July

The 4th of July was spent at the lakehouse

Laren and I were finally reunited!

We spent the 24th of July in Colorado

lots of time was spent with this little cutie!

I went back to the pool for my last summer in Veneta

Managed the whole long distance relationship thing

August

Katie finally came to Oregon!!

We took a bridesmaid trip to the beach

The soon to be husband came too :)

I went through the temple for the first time on August 9th, 2011

We got married!

Everything after this in August is pretty much a blur.. we were just enjoying finally being married!!

September

Ｉ　ｄｏｎ’ｔ　ｈａｖｅ　ａｎｙ　ｐｈｏｔｏｓ　ｏｆ　Ｓｅｐｔｅｍｂｅｒ，　ｂｕｔ　ｉｔ　ｗａｓ　ｆｕｌｌ　ｏｆ　ｓｃｈｏｏｌ　ａｎｄ　ａ　ｎｅｗ　ａｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔ　ａｎｄ　ｇｅｔｔｉｎｇ　ｕｓｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｂｅｉｎｇ　ｍａｒｒｉｅｄ！

October

Ｗｅ　ｇｏｔ　ｔｏ　ａｔｔｅｎｄ　Ｇｅｎｅｒａｌ　Ｃｏｎｆｅｒｅｎｃｅ　ｉｎ　Ｓａｌｔ　Ｌａｋｅ　Ｃｉｔｙ

Ｍｏｍ，　Ｓｈａｎｎｏｎ，　Ｈａｌｌｉｅ，　ａｎｄ　Ａｂｂｉ　ｃａｍｅ　ｔｏ　ｖｉｓｉｔ　ａｌｓｏ！

Ｗｅ　ｈｅａｄｅｄ　ｔｏ　Ｏｒｅｇｏｎ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ＯＳＵ　ｖｓ。ＢＹＵ　ｆｏｏｔｂａｌｌ　ｇａｍｅ

Ａ　ｈｏｕｓｅ　ｄｉｖｉｄｅｄ！

November

Ｗｅ　ｖｉｓｉｔｅｄ　Ｍａｎａｓｓａ　ｆｏｒ　Ｔｈａｎｋｓｇｉｖｉｎｇ

Ｉ　ｒｏｄｅ　ａｎｄ　ｄｒｏｖｅ　ｍｙ　ｆｉｒｓｔ　ｆｏｕｒ　ｗｈｅｅｌｅｒ　ｅｖｅｒ。

Ｗｅ　ｖｉｓｉｔｅｄ　Ｔａｏｓ，ＮＭ　ａｎｄ　ｈａｄ　ａ　ｇｒｅａｔ　ｔｉｍｅ！

December

Ｏｕｒ　ｆｉｒｓｔ　Ｃｈｒｉｓｔｍａｓ！

Ｗｅ　ｓｕｒｖｉｖｅｄ　ａｎｏｔｈｅｒ　ｓｅｍｅｓｔｅｒ！

Ｗｅｒｅ　ａｂｌｅ　ｔｏ　ｓｅｅ　ｏｕｒ　ｆａｍｉｌｉｅｓ　ｉｎ　Ｏｒｅｇｏｎ　ａｎｄ　Ｃｏｌｏｒａｄｏ

Ｗｅｎｔ　ｔｏ　ｍｙ　ｎｉｅｃｅ　Ｍａｉａ’ｓ　ｂａｐｔｉｓｍ

Ａｔｔｅｎｄｅｄ　Ｌａｒｅｎ’ｓ　ｃｏｕｓｉｎ　Ｎｉｃｏｌｅ’ｓ　ｗｅｄｄｉｎｇ　ｒｅｃｅｐｔｉｏｎ

２０１１　ｗａｓ　ｗｏｎｄｅｒｆｕｌ　ｔｏ　ｕｓ　ａｎｄ　ｉｔ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｆｏｒｅｖｅｒ　ｈａｖｅ　ａ　ｓｐｅｃｉａｌ　ｐｌａｃｅ　ｉｎ　ｍｙ　ｈｅａｒｔ。Ｉ　ａｍ　ｅｘｃｉｔｅｄ　ｆｏｒ　２０１２　ａｎｄ　ｗｈａｔ　ａｄｖｅｎｔｕｒｅｓ　ｉｔ　ｈａｓ　ｉｎ　ｓｔｏｒｅ　ｆｏｒ　ｕｓ！

Ｗｅ　ａｒｅ　ｌｏｏｋｉｎｇ　ｆｏｒｗａｒｄ　ｔｏ　

Ｇｒａｄｕａｔｉｏｎ

Ａ　ｐｏｓｓｉｂｌｅ　ｉｎｔｅｒｎｓｈｉｐ　ｉｎ　Ｃｈｉｎａ　ｆｏｒ　Ｌａｒｅｎ

Ｇｒａｄ　ｓｃｈｏｏｌ　ｆｏｒ　Ｊｅｓｓｉｃａ

ａｎｄ　ｗｈａｔｅｖｅｒ　ｅｌｓｅ　ｌｉｆｅ　ｔｈｒｏｗｓ　ｏｕｒ　ｗａｙ！　

Ｈａｐｐｙ　Ｎｅｗ　Ｙｅａｒ！　

Ｌｏｖｅ　ｔｈｅ　Ｈｅｌｍｓ

( Please ignore the switching of fonts.. I am on Laren's computer and hit a button and hit changed my fonts and I can't figure out how to change it back... oops!)

Christmas Break Part 1

2011-12-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

This Christmas has been the best Christmas ever! Break started off by finishing finals and celebrating to be done with this incredibly long and hard semester! It feels so wonderful to be done and I am no where near ready to be starting up again next week! To celebrate, I picked out a wreath on Pinterest and decided to make it!

My Inspiration

Wa La!

It was such a fun, easy wreath to make! Granted it is time consuming, but a very cute and different Christmas wreath. All you need is peppermint candies, a styrofoam floral wreath, hot glue, and some ribbon. This year's was an experiment, but I definitely know what to do differently when I make another one!!

After finals we hopped on a plane and headed to Oregon. It was such a great feeling getting on the plane and knowing we had nothing to do and could just enjoy the trip! Unlike normal Oregon winters it was sunny and warm our whole trip!

Saturday after we arrived we had the pleasure of going to my niece Maia's baptism. It was so wonderful and we had such a great time! She is such a fun little girl and I am so glad she is a part of our family!! I don't have any pictures on my camera, but I will put some up when I get them from my mom!!

Monday my mom and I got our hair done. I can no longer claim my hair is all natural :( It looks like it is and I am lucky enough that I won't have any grow out issues, but I did give my hair a little boost! Most people probably can't tell, but I'm okay with that :) My hair in the winter decides is it going to be a drab yellow color, rather than it's normal vibrant bright blonde color, so I gave it a little lift and brought it back to life. I love it! It is so wonderful to have nice bright hair, instead of drab dark yellow! And everyone deserves a little boost every now and then :)

I honestly cannot remember what we did on Tuesday, so probably just relaxed which is something we have not been able to do in a long time. It was wonderful! Wednesday we got up and did a little Christmas shopping and then headed to Corvallis to make Gingerbread houses with Stephani and her family. It was so much fun and Laren and I greatly improved in our house decorating skills!

This was our terribly awful gingerbread ( but really it was graham crackers) house.

Our house this year was much better, and much funner to decorate!

Me with our finished gingerbread house. I was quite proud... haha

This was very serious business and we worked very hard!

Our Wheaties roof!

Gavin was so sweet the whole time. He was constantly complimenting us on our houses and just been super nice. It was very cute!

All of the finished houses.

Front View

Front / Side View

Back view. The heart is my favorite!

We had a blast doing our gingerbread house (well at least I did)! I think it is most definitely going to be a tradition in our family. The little kids were so fun and quite the entertainment. Being able to spend time with family truly is the best and was the highlight of our trip!

More on the rest of the break to come later!

'Tis the Season

2011-12-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

We are back from Oregon for a few hours and then headed to Colorado tomorrow morning! Break has been so wonderful thus far and incredibly busy. My Christmas post will just have to wait until next week! We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, ours was absolutely wonderful!

xoxo

Pinterest this week

2011-12-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

Seeing as it is nearing finals and I am obviously spending my time on more productive things like Pinterest rather than studying for finals I thought i'd share some of my favorites from this week's Pinterest obsession.

I love this sign. It has such a good message and is very thought provoking!

So cute!! One day I will have time to create crafts like this!

I love this quote! It is fabulous and such a good motto!

I think this is such a great and simple gift

Fake fruit and Christmas glitter. Yes!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-05T11:01:00.000-08:00

I meant to blog about our trip as soon as we got back, but school took over and I'm just now getting a little bit of a break. Surprisingly, I don't have a ton to do which is wonderful seeing that Thursday is the last day of classes for the semester. But, I figured I should blog about Thanksgiving before I use all my free time studying for finals!

Thanksgiving was wonderful! Laren and I made the 9 hour drive to Colorado in a breeze. It feels like such a short easy drive compared to our 14 hour drive the other way to Oregon!! We had almost an entire week in CO and we enjoyed every minute of it. It was great to see family and visit! We made it out to the ranch which was so pretty with all the snow, watched some football, saw the newest Twilight ( which I loved! Laren wouldn't let me document it though because he didn't want people to know he went.. oops. He was a great sport for going with me!), and made a trip down to Taos, New Mexico. It was such a refreshing break and much needed to say the least! We made it back without any problems and are now just slaving away until Finals and Christmas Break!

My turn to drive

Blue Mesa. The lake looked so inviting, too bad it was 35 degrees outside!

Out on the ranch. I love the snow!

Shooting. Our Manassa tradition. I have improved a lot!

This cow was just so cute!

I always admire this creek on our drive there.

My very first time on a four wheeler!

Harley - Laren's uncle's dog.

Haha. This picture makes me laugh every time. So redneck!

Sunset on the ranch. I love this place!

Gorge in New Mexico... I can't remember the name. But I can tell you it was freezing and windy!

Chili's

Such a cool Adobe Church!

Giant gorge!

It was very impressive and large!

My wonderful In-Laws :)

I just loved this little church!

Horno bread ovens.

This was an awesome shop with all sorts of goodies! They had some amazing Native American Jewelry.

I'm still not sure why they are holding skulls... strange

Today I'm Thankful For...

2011-11-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

Today, well and let's be honest everyday I am so thankful for my family. My brother and his family are in Utah for Thanksgiving with his in-laws and so tonight we got to have them over for dinner.

Obviously I'm bias, but are they not just so attractive?! Haha. I love all of their family photos from this year.

Especially this one. I love these kiddos and this picture only comes close to capturing how adorable they are!

It was so wonderful and refreshing to have them over for an evening and get to spend time visiting and playing. Living so far from both mine and Laren's family, I absolutely love when we get to spend time with family. It was such a fantastic night and it made me that much more excited for Thanksgiving. We are headed to Colorado and I am so excited. I Laren's family is always a blast so I have no doubt it will be super fun, not to mention well needed vacation!

I know I say this a lot, but I am also so grateful for my loving husband. All weekend he has helped me while I have been preparing to present a huge paper for one of my Psych classes and he has been an angel for doing so. He is so great to let me distract him from his school work with my school work and I appreciate his love and patience and his willingness to help me so, so much!

I just have to keep telling myself, "only 1 more day!" Laren and I just have to make it through tomorrow and then we are off for our Thanksgiving Vacation!

Overwhelmed

2011-11-18T14:25:00.000-08:00

I have been so overwhelmed with school lately and the idea that I only have one year left here at BYU, but today I had an experience that was overwhelming in a good way. It really reassured me that Heavenly Father is looking out for me and the recent changes I've made in decisions regarding my major and my future career and what I am supposed to do. It was such a wonderful experience after a culmination of events that I want to share it with you!

Just a bit of Background!

My entire life I have wanted to be a lawyer. And, not just any lawyer, but a criminal lawyer, a prosecutor. I'm sure it all started when I was a little kid and I enjoyed watching Law and Order with my more grown up siblings, from there we moved on to watching the FBI files ( they recreate murder cases and show them on the Discovery Channel). I know i'm weird, but I have always had a passion for criminal law. After my sister was killed, my decision to be a prosecuting district attorney was pretty solidified. In high school I participated in debates and I just loved the environment of "proving my case."

Can't you just see me being a lawyer? ;)

I came to BYU as an eager freshman with my love of history and a desire to be a lawyer. I jumped right into a history major working hard to accomplish my goal. My sophomore year started and history began to seem less appealing with each class. I did not want to give up my goal of being a lawyer, but I started to have my doubts about my plan. Enter Mr. Laren Helms and my world went spinning.

Before I knew it I was engaged, getting ready to leave for London, England, and Changing my Major... What?! Yes, I changed my major - surprised? I was! I took a marriage prep class with a marriage and family therapist here at BYU and it was my first introduction to some sort of psychology class. It was amazing and I found myself with this deep interest in Psychology, so I prayed about it, talked to my mom and next thing you know I was declared as a Psychology major.

Present Day

So after switching majors, I started my first load of psychology classes this fall and let me tell you, I LOVE IT! I could not be happier with the switch. My classes are so intriguing and I am constantly learning new things. Switching was not the end of my journey though, I've still had the decision to go ahead with law school looming in my mind and despite my passion for criminal law, I have found another passion that is even greater. Counseling. Weird, right? Well I have decided that I am now going to pursue a masters in a Marriage and Family therapy program and THEN go on to get my trauma counseling certification and hopefully work for an advocacy group and provide counseling for trauma patients, especially children and teens. So what does any of this have to do with my experience? I will tell you that right now :)

One of my classes this semester is a Psychology Writing class. Our main project for the class is a 15 page literature review of something related to psychology. Due to my heavy viewing of Criminal Minds, on a whim I decided to write a paper on Narcissism and Sexual Coercion. It was a risky idea, but it is really starting to pay off! While working on this paper I have gained some really interesting insight and it has further fueled my desire to helps those who have been victims of sexual coercion. I was meeting with my professor going over my paper and he presented some ideas for my paper beyond this class and said some things that really made me feel.. well pretty awesome. I won't tell you the specifics, but I will say that as I left his office I felt this amazing feeling that Heavenly Father was behind everything leading to this point. It was so comforting to know that my educational decisions have not been in vain and that my career goals are possible and I am headed in the right direction. It was such a powerful experience and I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and the small revelations that I receive everyday that help me so much in the long run. I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to know what I want to do with my life and to know I have the support to help get me there!

Now I am off to keep working my paper and enjoy my weekend! Happy weekend to all of you as well!!

Month # 3

2011-11-11T13:19:00.000-08:00

Wahooo! Laren and I have made it through three months of marriage. And, they have been quite the 3 months :) We started school in August and it keeps us on our toes and busier than we would like, but oh well! We've made a trip to Oregon, seen some of my family, Laren's family, went to general conference, survived our first talks in church, carved pumpkins, and many other things loving every minute of being together! Happy 3 months honey!!

General Conference 2011

Addictions and Dreams

2011-11-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

So I am addicted to pinterest.. well not completely, but pretty close. I can definitely live without it, but if i wasn't in school and had a real house I would be so addicted. It has so many wonderful craft ideas and house decoration ideas. Plus it is full of awesome recipes, I love making them when I have the chance.

Don't all of those just look delicious?!

Well today the oh so addicting Pinterest, lead me to this website www.houzz.com and even more addicting website with every possible inspiration for a house you could think of ( plus you can make your own idea boards - eeks!). Lately I have been on a "Dream House" kick, probably due to Pinterest and this website has done absolutely nothing for my productivity. But it has got me to thinking about what I want someday when Laren and I buy a house someday or even hopefully get to build a house of our own. Some of the fun ideas that have sparked my interest are

I'm super into kitchens! I want a big kitchen that is open and bright and really organized.

I love this entry. I definitely want a mudroom like this in my house somday!

Pinterest has some awesome laundry room ideas. I love having a shelf over the washer and dryer to fold clothes.

My mom loves church pews and so we have a couple in our home. I think this is such a cute idea for an entry hallway!

I think this kitchen is beautiful! I hope that I can have one like it someday!

I have always had an obsession for French Doors and would love to have them in my bedroom. Especially if they opened up onto a wrap around porch. I know - dream on!

I had bookcases in my room as a kid and they were more of a pain than a fun decoration as I got older, I never knew quite where to put them. I love that they are built in here, with a window seat to read. I think this would be doable for a boy or a girl!

This would be great in a living room or bonus room!

A big wrap around porch is a dream of mine.. maybe someday!!

You'll probably think i'm a weird backwards nerd, but I love all these and would love them even more if they were in a big farmhouse style house out in the country with lots of acreage and no neighbors!! My dream is to live in a small town where the zoning laws require everyone to have at least 5 acres ( that's what they are where I grew up) and being able to have a huge barn, lots of animals and room for my kids to play outside all the time!

The Thankful Tree

2011-11-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

I am so excited, because I finally made a craft from my Pinterest ideas! Because it is thanksgiving, I thought it would be so fun to make a thankful tree ( thank you pinterest for the inspiration). I posted the picture here last week.

Laren and I were at Ikea that other day and they had some super fun vases. I found this lovely vase and decided it would be perfect for our thankful tree!

Monday night I spend a good hour in Hobby Lobby ( I could spend so many hours there!) finding exactly what I needed. I came home with craft tree branches, wooden balls, craft paper, and plenty of other fun things.

I definitely wish they would have had more of these at the store, because it would just be nicer and a fuller tree with more! I painted the wooden balls different varieties of brown and black and stuck them in the bottom for a little filler.

( sorry these photos suck )

Anyway, then I cut craft paper into circles for the leaves and Laren and I wrote what we were thankful for on them. I hole punched them and then we stuck them on our "tree"!

it looks really bare, but that's because...

Some of our leaves fell down into the vase.

I need to improve it a little, but I was really excited with how it turned out and am really glad we did it! We made enough leaves to each write something we are thankful for every day until we leave for Thanksgiving Break in CO. It was so fun to sit down with Laren and write down things we are thankful for. We are soo incredibly blessed! I've decided we are going to make this a family tradition AKA: i can't wait until we can do this with our kids and teach them about gratitude and have them be thinking of things they are thankful for so they can add it to our tree :)

Ta- Da!

What are you thankful for this year?

grrr

2011-11-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but I just need to vent. Last week i missed going to the ranch and was really, really looking forward to going today. However, my car had a different opinion. I hopped in and turned the key and nothing.. NOTHING. Grrrr.. I have no idea why it won't start and Laren is gone until late tonight and happens to have the only key to his car so I am stuck at home and very disappointed / frustrated. Stupid car.

A little bit of this and that: A post within a post

2011-11-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't want to wait to blog about a bunch of things and I didn't want to write more than one post in a day, so I decided to combine them all! Good idea? I think so :)

Come listen to a prophets voice
Today was the 3rd time in a month that I have had the opportunity to listen to our beloved prophet Thomas S. Monson speak. Today he spoke at devotional ( which I have to say, I haven't listened to as often as I should this year) and it was absolutely wonderful! President Monson always has wonderful talks, but there were a couple things that I absolutely loved from his talk today!

1. "Those who lose faith in religion, lose faith in everything greater than themselves"

2. To be an example of the believers, we ourselves must believe.

3. "When you choose to follow Christ you choose to be changed," Ezra Taft Benson

4. As we choose to follow the savior, ours will be the opportunity to be a light unto the world.

5. I love that he used the Lion King quote! " Simba, look inside yourself. You are more than you have become. Remember who you are" It is such a great quote and is so true. All of us have the potential to be anything we want to be, but we often lose sight of that and settle for what we have become rather than what we can become!

My Pinterest Addiction

So I love Pinterest.. yes, love it! It is full of so many fabulous ideas and I am so sad I don't have the time to create all the wonderful craft projects I find. However I have decided that this weekend I am setting aside some time for crafts and I am going to do some holiday decorating!!

I really wanted to make a Thanksgiving thankful tree and it just so happens that I found one on Pinterest, coincidence? I think not!

I love vases filled with tree branches ( or craft tree branches) decorated for a particular holiday and I thought that putting what you are thankful for on the tree branches would be so fun! In fact, I think I might just make an FHE activity out of this :)

My next project is a Christmas Tree skirt. Seeing as we are living in our own apartment, I really want to get a Christmas tree and start some Christmas traditions of our own. I found this tree skirt on Pinterest and cannot wait to make it!

All you need is a hot glue gun, an old tree skirt, and material! Obviously I'm sure it will be harder than it looks, but it is so worth a shot! I'm thinking a dark crimson linen instead of an eggshell linen, just because Christmas trees can equal dirt and pine needles.

Also a Christmas craft, I really, really want to make an advent calendar. We had one in my home growing up and it was one of / still is one of my favorite Christmas decorations in our home. I wish I had a picture of it! It is a green felt tree on a piece of burlap and has little pockets with an ornament for each day of December leading up to Christmas. Getting to put the ornaments on the tree is one of my favorite memories of Christmas in our home. I am really excited to make my own advent calendar for my family!!

This will definitely be a multiple craft Saturday event, but i'm excited to start working on it! There are a few things I want to add to it, but i'll wait to tell you until I start working on it!!

Pinterest also feeds my craving for a house of our own... which I know will be years from now, but no reason I can't start planning now!

I had another thought I wanted to blog about, but I'll save it for it's own post :)

Glasses and Pumpkins

2011-10-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Remember how I said i'd tell you about my glasses? Sorry it took me so long! P.S. ignore how gross I look in this photo! Alas - I finally have glasses. Turns out my vision is horrible... no wonder I've always avoided the eye doctors! It finally got to a point where I noticed I was having a struggle seeing certain things, like the score runner on the bottom TV screens during football games, not good! Powerpoints were also getting hard to see from far away, which isn't too great.. i guess.. haha. Point is, my vision sucks and I decided to do something about it and WA-LA, I now own glasses. Funny thing is, I love them! I can see so much better and am much happier!

Also, Laren and I finally carved pumpkins!! It has been hard to be festive and decorative this semester as school is burying both of us currently, but I couldn't handle not carving pumpkins so we pulled out the newspaper and knives and carved our pumpkins!

"BOO

My finished pumpkin

Our first Halloween together :)

My Ghost!

Laren's scary face

All lit up!

I had a blast carving pumpkins with Laren last night! This was the first time in my life i've attempted to carve something other than a face and I have to say I am pretty dang proud of my pumpkin! I freehanded both my ghost and my "boo." I also discovered if you accidently cut off a part you aren't supposed to super glue works great on pumpkins. Who'd thought?!

Photography

2011-10-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Since I have no skills when it comes to photography this post is actually about my sweet husband. Not only is he just the greatest, he is really talented when it comes to photography. I always tease him about how picky he is when it comes to photos and how he can't take his camera on road trips because we'd never get anywhere, but in all honesty I love it! I love that he has something that he is passionate about and really loves to do. It is so fun to watch him take pictures and delve into that world. I think it is so important to have things in life that you love to do and that bring joy to your life. While he may not admit it, he is so great at photography and i'm so glad he has such a love for it!

These are just a few of his photos that i love!!

A country road from our honeymoon

One of my favorite's!

Fall!

Wedding Photos Final # 3: Us

2011-10-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

Oh there are not enough words or feelings in this world to describe how much I love this man! He is truly amazing and I love looking back at our wedding photos and thinking about our wedding day and the beautiful feeling it was to finally be sealed to the my best friend, the love of my life. I am so grateful for him and cannot imagine a life any better than the one I get to spend with him!

Wedding Photos 2

2011-10-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

Bridesmaids and Groomsmen

I really like this one!

Ahh. Bridesmaids. I love all these girls so much!

Groomsmen and Groom

This picture cracks me up everytime!

Bridesmaid and best friend!

Almost all the nieces and nephews

My mom and I ! My mom played such a key role in our wedding! She picked the reception site and was a blast to plan with! I am so grateful that she was my "wedding planner." We had so much fun planning and doing the reception together!

My Parents. They are so amazing - I would not be who I am and where I am if it was not for their example and guidance in my life. I couldn't ask for better parents!

love them so much!

Wedding photos!

2011-10-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

Yay!! We finally got our wedding photos from the temple this last weekend. My sister-in-law had them all ready to go for us when we got to Oregon. I am so excited to share them with you!! She did such a wonderful job and I love all of them!! There are a ton, so I will do them in a 2 or 3 posts :)

The kids waiting for us to come out of the temple

wohoo!!!

I cannot describe how happy I was at that moment!

Greeting friends and family

love these girls!

Sam was adorable all day!

ah! Melts my heart every time!

so funny!

The whole gang!

My family. It was so wonderful to have them all there at the temple supporting us!

Laren's family! They came out from Utah and Colorado and we were so lucky and so happy to have them there with us!

Parents

Laren's grandparents

Don't worry there are more to come :)

Weekend Retreat

2011-10-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Laren and I hopped in the car and made the long drive out to Oregon. Long as it was, it was most definitely worth it to get out of Provo for the weekend and spend time with family. We didn't get to spend as much time with my family as I would have liked to, but it was still just a wonderful weekend! We got in Friday night and spent a relaxing evening at my parents house. We got to see B&B and the kids which was great ! Saturday we got up and ran over to Alichelen and Bryce's new apartment to say hi and see the new place. Too short of a visit, but so glad I got to see her! Then we drove on up to Corvallis and met up with the family for the OSU vs. BYU game. It was a blast! It was so much fun to be back at Reser watching the Beavers play and even better getting to cheer with my fam!

Of course there was some rivalry going on. He wasn't alone though - he had the company of my nephew Cole and two of my nieces!

Like mother like daughter. Isn't she so awesome?? I love her outfit!

Yep, just a few girls who happen to love beaver football!

After the game we got together at my sisters house with the whole family and had a birthday party for the October/ November birthday. My nephew Cole turned 14 on Saturday. Yikes - he can go to church dances, boy do I feel old!

Cole is such an awesome kid! I can't believe he is 14 and will be in high school next year. I love getting to hangout with him, he has an awesome sense of humor and it just such a great kid! Happy Birthday!!!

Even though the Beavers lost and I am back to cheering for both the Beavers and the Cougars, it was still a blast and I am so glad we went!!!

It can't come fast enough

2011-10-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow bright and early Laren and I will be hopping in the car and heading off to Oregon! I am soo excited that we get to spend a weekend away from Provo and with family! BYU is playing OSU and it also happens to be my nephews 14th birthday - yikes ( I can't believe he is that old already). Anyway, since there is so much going on we decided it would be the perfect time to visit.
I am so excited for the football game on Saturday! I grew up watching the Beavers play in Reser Stadium and I haven't been able to go to a game since I was in high school.

This will definitely be a family affair and there will be some rivalry going on. I am a die hard beaver fan and sorry Cougar fans, but I will be cheering for my Beavers. Laren on the other hand accompanied by some of the nieces and nephews will be cheering for the Cougars. Either way I am just so excited to get to go and to see my family for the weekend!!

Since we have a lot of birthdays in October and November we will be having a family birthday party which always equals a good time!

It's a long trip for just a couple days, but so worth it! I can't wait to be in the car and on our way!

Happy weekend everyone and GO BEAVERS!

Some days

2011-10-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

Most days I am not entirely conscious of my situation in life. I get up, I go to class, I go to work, I come home and repeat. Most of the time there really isn't a lot of thinking accompanied by my routine, because it's just that a routine. Life has the tendency to fly by these days and I often feel like an immature teenager caught up in the whirlwind of life. And then there are those days that it hits me smack in the face... I am not a teenager who can float through whatever comes my way... I am 6 months shy of becoming an official adult, I'm a married woman now, I have my own apartment {with my husband} and I pay my own bills, and I am a little over a year away from graduating from college. Yikes! When did all this crazy grownup stuff become part of my life?! I have to admit it's really scary to think that I am my own adult person now and not just the baby of the family.

Today is definitely one of those days and hopefully it will sink in soon and quite smacking me in the face. But, for the meantime I'll accept it because it prods me to think a little deeper about my life, where it's going, and what I want out of it. It also prods me to realize how blessed I am and how grateful I am for my life. I have the most amazing husband in the entire world! He is so wonderful to me and is always there when I need him. He picks me up when i'm down { sometimes he literally picks me up like when I fall asleep on the couch because i'm so exhausted!}, he always, always finds a way to make laugh when i'm ready to give up on the world {and by world, I mean school}, he supports me in whatever endeavor I find myself in, and he loves me unconditionally { even when i'm the biggest distraction his academic life has ever encountered }. Life with him is everything I could ever want and more {minus when school makes it nearly impossible to spend the time I want to with him}

Isn't he handsome?

P.S I am now the proud owner of these bad boys: Post to come soon

Happy Birthday Momma!

2011-10-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today my beautiful mother turns 60! I have had the pleasure of being her daughter for 20 of those years and I am so grateful for all of them! My mom has filled so many roles throughout her life and is always giving and sacrificing for others. She is such an amazing example to me of love and selflessness. Throughout the years she has taught me many things and help to make me who I am today and for that I am eternally grateful! She is my best friend, my role model, and the best mother a girl could ever ask for! I love her so much and this post is just a smidgeon of how I feel / can say about her! I hope that I am half the mother she has been and continues to be for me and I am so excited that she will one day be the Grandmother of my children. Happy Birthday Mom - I hope your day is as amazing as you are!!

General Conference Weekend

2011-10-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

General Conference as always was AMAZING! I love that I have the opportunity to listen to our church leaders and feel of their wonderful spirit. I was so blessed to be able to attend two sessions of conference with my husband and some of my family. To learn more about General Conference click here and to watch this October's conference click here.

Saturday we attended the morning session of conference and then spent the rest of the day in Salt Lake. Laren had tickets for Priesthood session, so we spent the afternoon shopping at Gateway and then hit up the bookstore for ladies night during Priesthood session. We got a few pictures on Temple Square before we grabbed lunch.

I love my mom! I am soo glad I got to spend the weekend with her!

Sunday we also had tickets to the morning session which wonderful as well! We had extra tickets so we invited some friends to come up with us! My family had to leave for Oregon after the morning session, so we headed over to Temple Square to do pictures in our Sunday Best. My sister has most of them, so these are mainly Laren and I.. sorry!

love them!

We all look so much alike!

Also - did you see that BYU Game?! GO COUGARS :) We took Hallie to the game and it was a blast!

I can't believe how grown up she is!

Today is great because...

2011-09-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Today is great, first because it's Friday and my weekend is finally here!! I cherish my weekends so much during the school year and this weekend I know will be fabulous!

Reason 1: Today started off right when I got to catch up with a great friend today. It was soo nice running into her and hopefully i'll get to see more of her the rest of the weekend.
Reason 2: I finished putting up pictures of our Oregon Reception on the blog. Woohoo!!

Reason 3: My mom, sister, and nieces are on their way to Utah for the weekend and I could not be more excited to see them! I miss being around my family and getting to hangout with them. I'm soo excited to spend General Conference weekend with them!

Reason 4: Friday Night Football! I love night games and tonight we are taking my niece with us to the game, so it should be a blast! GO COUGARS!

Reason 5: It's General Conference weekend. I love general conference and I am so excited that we were able to get tickets. It is always such a treat to listen to our beloved prophet Thomas S. Monson and the 12 apostles, but other general officers of the church. Their spirit is amazing and their messages always hit me right in the heart. It is such a blessing to have such wonderful people to look up to!

Have a wonderful weekend! And here is a little thought for the weekend via Pinterest (it's my new addiction)

Oregon Reception Part 4

2011-09-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well this is the last of our Oregon Reception photos :) I will be getting the rest of our photos from the temple in two weeks, so i'll get them up in the next month or so! I also have the photos from our Colorado reception, so those will be the next thing to go up wedding wise!!

This of one of my favorites!

as well as this one :)

and this one!

and this!

Cutting our cake - wohoo!! that was probably the only thing I at the whole reception!

My Grandparents on my Dad's side

Grandparents and parents

Laren's grandparents on his mom's side and his parents

Our very first dance, ever!!

There was a volleyball net, so naturally we couldn't resist a little game.

Our wildflower bouquets. Aren't they beautiful!!

Oregon Reception Part 3

2011-09-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

My dad, aunt, grandparents and bro-in-law

I love this picture of my dad!

our reception line was ridiculously long and at times never-ending, but it was great to see everyone!!

Our groomsmen decided to do a little dancing to make time go by

love this picture!!

and more dancing

Gift Table/ Entrance

Food! Sorry this is randomly placed

My dad telling an embarrassing story about me..

oh boy!

Tate really liked the beads!

Oregon Reception Part 2

2011-09-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

Fun fact: This isn't Laren's actual wedding ring... eeks! I ordered his ring and then it turned out to be the wrong ring, but we didn't realize that until the week of the wedding so he wore this one until we were able to send it back and get his real ring!

Our groomsmen were great and very entertaining. P.S. the 3rd one in with the black jacket.. we didn't know him until the day of our wedding!

One of our Lavender Bouquets

Laren sang two special numbers and it was wonderful. I love having a musically talent husband :)

Me and my girlfriends from highschool. Love these girls!

The whole gang! Guys and girls :)

Groomsmen looking tough

Bouquets. I wanted each of my bridesmaids to have a mini-version of my bouquet and my florist did such a great job! They turned out so great!!

Love these girls so much!

Football... of course!

All of the bridesmaid dresses were made by hand! Each of their mom's and my mom made them. It was fun to get to have bridesmaid dresses that look great on them and were not off the wall for price!

some of our favorite peoples

we are so grateful for all of them. and they did look pretty awesome :)

One of our "helpers" has her own wedding venue and she and her family do weddings. She had an amazing collection of old vases and apothecary jars that were so cool!

Cake Servers. We did a lot of twine mixed with ribbon for a more country effect

Head Table

Cafe Tables. I absolutely loved this idea! It added a little flare to the set up and gave people a spot to stand and chat.

My birthday bud!

My amazing sisters!

I love them so much and they were SOO helpful and did so much to make the wedding amazing!

YUM!

2011-09-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

I have basically zero time to make any of these amazing things, but check out this blog. I'm in love!
http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/page/2/

Some of the yummy treats look a little like this

Oh so delicious and fattening! One day I will make one of her delightful treats!

Happy 1st Day of Fall!!

2011-09-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

It is finally fall ~ wohoo!!! I absolutely love fall. Sunny days with cold crisp nights and some of nature's most beautiful colors are just a few of the things that make fall so fun. As much as Utah is not my favorite place in the world, the trees here in the fall are breathtaking, especially up in the canyon. There are also so many fun fall things to do!

Some of my favorites thing about fall are

1. Football games. Fall would not be fall without college football. Plus it adds just a little bit more spice to the weekend!

2. Jeans & Sweaters! Utah, especially is so stinking hot until the end of Sept. beginning of Oct. and I always look forward to being able to pull out my jeans and sweaters and not be dying of heat halfway up the hill!

3. Farmers Markets. Fall harvests always bring out the best fresh food at local farmers markets.

4. Pumpkin Patches. I am a really big nerd and I love pumpkin patches and carving pumpkins, etc. I am really excited to go with Laren this year!

5. Halloween. I loved Halloween growing up and i'll admit it I went trick-or-treating until I was 18... whoops! I am really excited for when our kids will be old enough to dress up and take trick-or-treating ( which won't be for a while!!)

6. Crafts / House decorations. There are so many fun crafts to make for fall. When I get a free weekend, which is looking like never, I am going to attempt a few.

7. General Conference. I love General Conference, it is such a wonderful spiritual experience and is one of the highlights of my fall. Living in Utah it is especially wonderful because it means that I get to see my family for the weekend. I can't wait for them to get here!!

8. Thanksgiving, of course! It may be later in fall and more like winter if you are in Utah, but Thanksgiving is always the best. Not only do I have so much to be thankful for, but an entire weekend of family, food, and football, what else could you ask for?

What do you love about fall??

It's almost fall!

2011-09-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is officially the first day of Fall.. Yahoo!!! I love fall and tomorrow I will tell you some of the reasons I love fall :) Last night was the premiere of Criminal Minds and it was SOO good! For those of you who don't know ( and probably don't care) Criminal Minds is probably my favorite TV show, I'm weird I know. Laren loves it too and we are super nerdy about it, but we really could care less because we enjoy watching it together!

If you haven't ever watched it, please do at least once! It's great if you are into crime shows, really it is! Anywhoo I was just really excited that the new season has finally started and it looks like it is going to be a great season!

Oregon Reception Part I

2011-09-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

We got the photos from our reception in Oregon last week and I was sooo excited!! I absolutely love them and am way excited that I get to share them with you you!!
DISCLAIMER: Some of the photos are wide angle lensed so they don't really shrink all that well with blogger. If there are some that look a little funny or are bigger, that's why!

I wanted a reception with a barn so badly and all of the ones that we looked at seemed to fall through, so my sister-in-law found this one and my mom booked in while I was in London. I was a little worried at first, but when I got home I went out to see it and I fell in love with it immediately!

The reception was antique/ country themed and I am just so lucky to have a mom/ sisters who love antiques and had all sorts of fun treasures like this trunk!

The owners of the venue had so many cool collectibles!!

I had seen this on tons of wedding blogs and thought it would be such a fun way to display pictures of Laren and I as kids and together instead of using frames.

Did I mention how breathtaking the property for our reception was?!

For the tables we did mason jars with alternating bouquets of wildflowers and Lavender. I loved the simple look of the flowers matched with the more classy Creme and Purple tablecloths!

Don't these boys just look adorable!

Vintage Coke Holder!

Vintage Bird Cage

My sister came up with the idea of doing a sweet table and it turned out amazing!

My mom found the table/ cabinet and my sister put it together!

It was definitely a hit!

One of Laren's favorite treats is Animal Cookies and my sister happens to have this lovely jar with an "H" on it ( her last name starts with an H also). We used it as the center jar for the table.

Homemade Lemon Bars

We had store bought candy and then lots of homemade treats! My mom and another one of my sisters made this delicious fudge!!

FRIDAY!!!

2011-09-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Ahh, it is Friday and I am so excited for this weekend!!

Starting it off with a couple hours at the ranch :) I am so glad to be back in Provo and can spend a few hours each week there. It is a great stress reliever for me!

and then it is football time! I can't wait for the game tomorrow, it is going to be a great day and a great weekend!!

Enjoy your weekend !

Colorado

2011-09-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

So besides London and the wedding of course, my trip to Colorado was probably my favorite event of the summer! It was the first time I got to see Laren in over 3 months and it was beyond wonderful! We headed to his hometown Manassa, CO for their 24th of July celebration and spent the weekend enjoying time with family and all of the different activities. Friday and Saturday morning consisted of watching the town parade. Laren had told me all about their giant, amazing floats, but I had thought "yea, we had some pretty cool floats in our town homecoming parade too..." Oh no, these floats were waay better than any float we ever came up with!! It was fun to see all of the different ones and let me tell you I was most definitely impressed.

Seahorse float = awesome. I love the bright colors and the giant seahorses!

This was probably my favorite float. I absolutely love it!! The giant chicken is amazing and the little chicks on the back are just so cute!

This float still blows my mind. That is the most fantastic fake tree I have ever seen. It truly is a work of art! All of the branches are real tree branches that were wired in to the middle and covered with copper colored tin foil. All of the flowers are tissue paper flowers that were glued on. Awesome, I know!

Alice in Wonderland float.

There were a lot more floats, but these were the best ones I got photos of. My mother-in-law had a really great as well, but my photos of it were blurry :(

I love visiting my husbands family because it reminds me so much of being with my own family. Everyone gets along so well and every time together is always a fun time! His grandma's house is the central point for family gatherings and so we headed back there for lunch everyday and usually ended up there at the end of the night.

One of Laren's cousins. This is one of my favorite pictures - he is so cute!

Another little cousin

Main Street

Demolition derby

It was actually pretty fun to watch, until a car caught on fire!!

Rodeo with his cousin (right) and a friend

My only good picture of the barrel races

We also hit up the motocross races. I some of the kids were so little, but were really good!

Fun to watch, but definitely not a sport I want my kids doing!!

We also spent some time on the ranch which is one of my favorite places. It is so beautiful and peaceful, most definitely the country environment that I love!

Even if I get at least ankle deep in mud!! ( we got a little stuck back in April)

Just waiting for his uncle to come pick us up.. whoops!

This time around was much dryer and we didn't go looking for any mud holes!

We found an old pvc pipe and something ( i'm not sure what it was) and decided we go shooting instead. Laren did a pretty good job of shooting it to pieces ( literally)!

I hit a couple times... give or take :) No, I actually did hit the target a few times.

Then we hopped in the car and went for a drive on the country roads.

There were wild sunflowers everywhere. I loved these ones growing on the side of the road.

Sunday we headed to the mountains and hiked up to "Rough Creek Falls" It was a gorgeous hike and felt so nice compared to how hot it was in the valley!

It was most definitely the best way to reunite with the love of my life! Being in London was so hard, because there were so many things I wanted to share with him! It was so beyond wonderful to spend the weekend with him and see each other before the wedding!!

Catch up # 2

2011-09-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

One of our last activities in London was going to Kensington Gardens and having traditional Tea and Crumpets. It was so much fun! We all dressed up and and enjoyed the delicious food, and boy was it good!!

We were very happy about our matching outfits. Thanks Primark :)

attempt # 1 at being artistic

attempt # 2

We like to twirl in our poofy skirts

a lot!

One of my other favorite things in London was getting to go to the London Temple. It is a beautiful temple and it was such a neat experience!!

And then the rest of these are just random!!

I love this quote by Winston Churchill.

One of the lovely maps that guided our walks around London town.

Best crape place ever! Definitely took my family back to that one!

YUM!

Brighton, oh Brighton

2011-09-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

Brighton is a beach town south east of London and it is SO much fun!! We went for a day trip during our free weekend and just had a blast!

This was a giant pier with tons of carnival rides on it!

Carousel on the beach - love it!

Beach chairs are the best

That water was freezing!

love hot days on packed beaches

jellied eel = disgusting. I wasn't about to try that!

she's a pro...

me, not so much..

You may not be able to see it here, but my legs are incredibly sunburned... whoops!

just posin' on the pier

Catch up # 1

2011-09-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay on my London photos!! I will put the ones that I have up, but I am still missing a few that my mom/ sister have, so hopefully I will get those up after they come out in October. I apologize for the photo overload this post ( and the next few) is going to be, but enjoy!!

I couldn't help but take a photo of this cake display. It was to die for!

nothing like your siblings burying you in the sand :)

Durdle Door Beach

Such a beautiful place!

I was really bummed the beach was a pebble beach!! It may be gorgeous, but trust me pebble beaches hurt your feet!!

Banksy

Awkward family photo.

love these girls!

Tinturn Abbey. It was breathtaking.

Mineral water from Bath

It has healing powers according to Jane Austin :)

Roman Baths. SO COOL!

Another Banksy Mural

Stonehenge

Me and my pal Esme.

Just chillin with the lion.

Les Miserables!

Just another walk around London

New Hair

2011-09-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

And, no it's not a married thing!! I have always had a thing for short hair. It started way back when I was about 3 years old and I decided to cut off all my hair and give myself a boy hair cut. Short hair and I have been bud's ever since. I decided to grow my hair out when I came to college and then when I got engaged I really wanted long hair because you have so many more options for cute wedding do's with long hair. Well as soon as the wedding was over, the urges to cut my hair kicked in. I told myself to wait it out and keep growing it, but pretty soon the urge was too hard to resist so I didn't and am now back to my short hair.

please ignore my face!! anywhoo my hair went from the longest it's ever been

(once again ignore the bad photo!!)

this lovely short do! I love having it short, it is so much easier to do and Laren loves it !

"sigh"

2011-08-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

Ahh, well all of the wedding festivities are over and I am back in Provo and finally feel like I can breathe again! Everything was more than wonderful and beyond what I imagined and I promise I will have a post about the wedding up soon! In the meantime here are some pictures as a sneak peak :)

The Temple

I don't know why this one is blurry :(

Thank You to my awesome sister-in-law for taking our photos at the temple!

The Reception

I love this one!

I am soo excited to see the rest of our photos from both the temple and the reception!

In the meantime life is keeping me busy with moving into our new apartment, work, school starting, and trying to enjoy every moment to the fullest!! I am so grateful we were able to move into our apartment at the beginning of this week! It has been such a blessing to be able to have gotten all the big things done before school starts on Monday.

I have so many things I want to get done, but for the moment my biggest goal is getting all moved into our apartment and organizing everything. Once that's done I have a bunch of fun decorating ideas I want to do kind of like these!

So cute!

I absolutely love this idea and we have a wall that is just perfect for this.

Today

2011-08-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Today is the biggest day of my Life and I couldn't be more excited. I apologize for the lack of blogging, but wedding planning has most definitely been a full time job on top of my full time job! I have loved getting to plan with my mom and sisters, it has been so much fun and I have learned so much!! I can't wait to see it all come together. More than anything I can't wait for this afternoon when I get to marry my best friend, the love of my life. Today is the start of the rest of my life. Today is the beginning of my fairytale ending. I am so excited to start my forever marriage with Laren and begin our life adventures together. I promise one of these days I will catch up on London and blog about all the fun wedding planning, but you'll have to excuse me for another week or two because I'm gonna go start this party :)

Enjoy this clip - it's my favorite and is perfect for today !

Canvas craft attempt

2011-07-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

About a year ago my sister told me about taking a poster and decopodging it to a canvas to make it look like it was an original canvas art. I love canvas art and have been dying to try to make my own since last summer. As always school gets in the way and I never seem to have the time to do anything, especially not crafts. Well seeing as I had some free time on my this last weekend I thought I would give it a try! I had a paper bag from a bakery in San Francisco that I picked up last summer when I decided I was going to try this whole canvas art thing, so I figured I would try it with that and see how it went!

It had been sitting my car for a while so one side of the bag was faded, luckily the other side wasn't! I took the bag and cut it in half so that I would have enough to cover the entire canvas. I cut it with an exacto knife and then ran it horizontally along the egdes to give it a more worn appearance.

I used a a 14" x 18" art canvas that I picked up at Ben Franklins. They are usually really expensive, but I happened to stop in when they had a sale which is what prompted my decision to finally make one! The bag has red in it, so I decided I wanted to paint the canvas red, one so the sides of the canvas would bring out the red in the bag and two so that if anything bled through it would match. I used red acrylic paint that matches the red on the bag. If you aren't worrying about having any colors show through, etc. you can do this without painting the canvas. I blow dried the canvas with a diffuser so it would be really even and then I sanded it down a little bit. I sanded it so that it wasn't really thick and so it gave it a little bit of texture.

I didn't have decopodge, so I used modgepodge. Either will work :) I had both Matte and Gloss so I used the Matte for the back of the bag. I covered the entire bag and then layed it down on the canvas. I smoothed it out with my hands to make sure it stuck and that there weren't huge bumps throughout the bag. To cover the front I used the Gloss, but I watered it down some so it wouldn't be as thick. Then I brushed it on using criss cross strokes to create that canvas feel. The bag naturally popped up in some places, but I smoothed most of those areas out and left some to give it a vintage feel. Then I blow dried it again with the diffuser. The decopodge goes on white, but don't worry if you are using color it dries clear! I let it dry all of the way and then sanded it out just a little bit to add a little bit more texture.

I am really excited about how well it turned out!! I can't wait to put it up in my kitchen in August!

bye, bye wisdom

2011-07-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Wisdom Teeth that is. As of Friday afternoon I am wisdom teeth free, yay!

Some things I learned are
1. I still love general anesthetic, being put under for surgery is so great!
2. General anesthetic makes me pretty loopy. I had surgery around 12 and don't really remember anything until 4 pm!
3. Biting down on tea bags is incredibly gross and I never want to do it again!
4. It feels very strange to have 4 less teeth in my mouth

Please ignore the grossness of this photo!

That being said I am so glad they are out and that I never have to do that again!

Starting today for the next 7 days yogurt, V8, herbal tea, slimfast, muscle milk, applesauce, and mashed bananas are going to be my best friends.

Something funny about all of this? Well for one thing they gave me my teeth, which I honestly have no clue what I am going to do with. I guess i'll try and see if the tooth fairy still loves me. Also, when I left the surgeons office I walked out with a giant coffee mug full of candy that oh you know I can't eat for at least a week.. go figure.

Harry, Harry Potter

2011-07-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

You may make fun of me, but this is a very bittersweet post for me! On one hand, the movie was incredible!! I loved it and I definitely think it is the best movie of the entire series! The night consisted of dinner at Sharis with the group and showing up to the movie a good 3 hours early, dressed up of course! On the other hand, I am super bummed because it's all over! Pathetic, I know, but the first book came out when I was in elementary school and the books and the movies have both been huge in my growing up! I was also so, so excited when a new book came out, I have read each book more times than I can remember. In fact when my sister-in-law once asked me if she could read the first book, I told her no because I was going to read it again for the 6th or so time. The movies have been the talk for the year as we all wait in anticipation for the next one to come out. It has become an annual outing that I am going to really miss! You probably all think i'm a really big nerd by now, but oh well because I am totally okay being a Harry Potter nerd :)

Harry Potter ending just so happens to be the capstone on my childhood. I grew up with Harry Potter and now that Harry has grown up and the entire series is over, I am growing up too and getting married in less than a month! It's been a great adventure and I love every bit of it!!

If you haven't seen the movie, DO IT! It is so good!! Also if you haven't read the books, shame, please start ASAP. J.K Rowling is a genius!

It's Independence Day!

2011-07-05T14:23:00.001-07:00

Or at least it was Independence Day! Independence Day is one of my absolute favorite holidays! It marks the beginning of summer here in Oregon and means long sunny days, great american hamburgers, spending all day on the boat, and hanging out with my family! This year was no exception! Saturday night we all headed up to Portland for my cousin's wedding. It was a blast, she was absolutely gorgeous and married such a great guy! Sunday after church we all packed up and headed to our family lakehouse! Sunday was spent soaking up the sun reading a book. It was so relaxing and wonderful! I loved getting to lay back and finally relax! While the guys took the kids out on the boat to watch fireworks my mom, sisters, and I brainstormed for the wedding! We have lots of fun ideas like this super fun sweet table!

We got almost everything figured out so now it's down to actually working on stuff!

Monday I woke up to blue sky and sunshine which equaled a perfect lake day! I was on the dock by 10 and ready to soak up some sun! The day was spent laying on the boat, tubing with my neices and nephews, and swimming in the lake. My grandparents came over along with my great aunt and uncle for our 4th of July BBQ. It was so great to spend the day celebrating our country with my family. They are really the best friends I could ask for and being at the lakehouse with them is probably my favorite summer activity! I did not want to leave last night, but hopefully i'm headed back this Friday for a few more days away!

I came home with very sunburned legs, a super sore neck, and an exhasuted body, but it was so worth it! The lakehouse is that place that makes me ancy for summer. I can't wait to get out to Tenmile and on the boat. We have been going since I was eight years old and I can't imagine my summers without it. Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor day, and every other day we can squeeze in are always at the lakehouse rain or shine. I love it there and I can't wait to one day share it with my family!!

My camera battery died and I forgot to grab some of my sisters' pictures before I left, so I don't have any of the lake, but here are some from London :)

Happy Fathers Day Dad!!

London Eye at Sunset

Oh you know, just hangin on the Carousel

Me, Amanda, and Emily with the directors and Esme - Love them!

Baby Steps

2011-06-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

Well I am finally home and it seems like the madness is just beginning! The end of my trip was a blast I'll have to blog about it when I get a little bit of free time! I am currently waiting for wedding things to print so I figured I'd write a quick post. Life back at home is great, crazy busy as always and even busier with the wedding. I am back at the pool and loving it. The wedding is going - invitations are printed and almost put together! I am taking pleasure in the small victories because even baby steps are big steps at this point! Hopefully by Monday I will be able to say that invitations are out and I am moving on to the reception finally!! For now though I am still working on the invitations and counting the 20 days that I have left until I get to see Laren !!