::: 10 years :::

Jason and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on March 26!

10 years! I can't believe it. We've been married for 1/3 of my life. I'm so grateful that we found each other back at Liberty Square in 2004. Now we've got four beautiful daughters and such a happy life together!

To celebrate, we went on an overnight getaway. We've gone on two getaways in the past: once to the Anniversary Inn, where we were kept awake half the night by... er.... other guests and left at 3 in the morning; and once to a hotel in Provo, which was better, but we had to take Juno, who was currently in her body cast and woke up every hour or so all night, so still not great.

We were really, really looking forward to this getaway! How did it go? 

Well, maybe getaways just aren't our thing.

We started out at a restaurant in Ogden, Hearth on 25th. It had a fun atmosphere/vibe and they sell 20+ flavored balsamic vinegars and olive oils on tap. We tried a couple; the blackberry ginger was my favorite!

We ordered this super fancy cheese and cured meats plate to start with and it was so good. It came with three cheeses and four cured meats (one was wild boar) and also had apple butter, balsamic vinegar, local honey, and cashew butter. 

The rest of our food was ok, but not great and definitely not worth the hefty price tag. 

Then we headed to our hotel, the Alaskan Inn in Ogden Canyon. LOVED it. It was such a fun, rustic themed hotel. Plus, they serve breakfast to your room in the morning (you choose the time!) and the food was really good. I wasn't expecting much, but Jason had biscuits and gravy and I had french toast and they were both delicious. 

We stayed in the Bears Den room--don't you love the "cave" bathtub!

So why did I say getaways aren't our thing? I didn't bring any melatonin and I was struck by a major case of insomnia. I was so looking forward to a good night's sleep (Pearl still gets me up 3+ times a night) and I ended up not falling asleep until about 4--I got less sleep that night than I do at home :( We also didn't really plan anything to do in the morning and so we ended up just lounging in bed for a while and then going home. I didn't realize how pretty Ogden Canyon is--next time we go (and I'm determined we'll have a do over later this year!), we'll find some good hiking for the morning!

date night!!

I have been making more of an effort this year for Jason and I to have a regular date night. We all know how important it is to date your spouse, but with 3 1/3 kids and a mortgage, the dinner and a movie date nights of old don't happen very often! I have tried to get more creative and come up with things we can do at home or on the cheap and we've had some fun dates over the last few months.

So, in no particular order, here are some of our favorites!

1. Scooters on the Lagoon Trail. My mom gets credit for this one. Back when I was in high school and trying to figure out what to do on Friday/Saturday nights, my mom always tried to convince me and my friends to borrow our younger siblings' Razor scooters and go for a scooter ride. Oddly enough, we never did it. But now that I see how much fun my kids have on their scooters, Jason and I decided to try it! Last Friday night was a perfect fall night, so we borrowed Tempe and Helena's scooters and took them over to the Lagoon trail to enjoy the beautiful leaves. We got there just before a haunted 5k was about to start, so we got to see (and chat with) a few of the "haunts" as we rode. It was so fun! We finished up with dinner at Dickey's BBQ and "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" at home on Netflix (really hilarious spoof on "Cabin in the Woods" type movies--which are in themselves spoofs--but rated R for language)

 2. Chocolate tasting night. I saw this date idea on The Dating Divas (really great website!!) and it was so fun! I bought six different chocolate bars for us to taste--you're really supposed to get six different brands of the same kind (75% cacoa, for example) but I couldn't decide what I wanted, so I just got six different flavors. I set the table all fancy, we got dressed up, and after tasting our chocolate, we watched "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". 

3. No picture for this one, but with the leftover chocolate from our chocolate tasting night, we made fancy s'mores one night and ate them while asking each other thought provoking questions from slips of paper in a little jar (things like "What is your greatest fear?" and silly ones like "Pancakes or waffles?") The questions were because no matter how long we are married, I can always learn "s'more" about you! Cheesy, I know....

4. There is a store nearby with a "bomb shelter" in the parking lot that you can tour. Everyone who knows me knows that I am constantly scouting out places to survive the zombie apocalypse (I watch entirely too much Walking Dead), so one night we took our three little munchkins with us to tour the shelter and then watched "World War Z" after putting the kids to bed. Lame, but we've seen all the good zombie movies.

5. One day I took the middle seats out of our car, added a bunch of blankets and big cushions from our couch, and took Jason to a secluded parking lot to watch.... "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"!! on our laptop. We stopped at Habit burger beforehand to get some burgers, fries, and shakes, and then enjoyed our own private little movie theater.
Well, those are my top five dates of the past year. It's been really fun coming up with some ideas that are more than just watch a movie or play a board game--what are some of your favorite cheap/home dates?

how the mrs. met the mr.

Lots of people wonder how Jason and I got together.

It seems like we are total opposites--I'm very social, very outspoken and outgoing, and Jason is a lot more reserved. He's perfectly friendly but he isn't really his true self around just anybody.

What is his true self? Hilarious.

My first contact with Jason was at a ward mix-and-mingle one Sunday night. I was new in the ward; I had just moved in to Liberty Square at the beginning of summer term for my sophomore year at BYU. We were asked to bring an object that represented ourselves to the mix-and-mingle so people could get to know each other. I brought a plastic lion cookie jar that roared when it opened its mouth because I am rough around the edges but sweet on the inside (?)

So, we were all going around the circle, showing our objects.

"I brought this pencil because I'm creative but I'm not afraid to erase my  mistakes!"

"I brought this teddy bear because I like to snuggle!"

"I brought this piggy bank because I'm a saver but I'm still a kid at heart!"

Then Jason stood up. He said, with a completely straight face, "I don't feel comfortable sharing things about myself."

I have to get to know him better, I thought.

We went to a dollar movie a week or so later with a big group of people from our apartment complex and we ended up sitting next to each other. The movie (The Day After Tomorrow) was a bust and Jason kept me laughing the whole time. We all stopped at Wendy's on the way home and Jason lent me a dollar to buy a Frosty. A few days later, I asked him if he had gotten his car out of the shop yet and he said "No, I haven't been able to because you haven't paid me my dollar back yet." After that it was history. I asked him out, he said yes, and we've been together ever since--just over eight years now!

The best thing? He still cracks me up all the time.

{Mr. and Mrs.} master bedroom

So it's been a while since I started my master bedroom makeover. In fact, it's been so long that I've been staring at a half-finished room for so long that now that it is actually done, I don't really feel that sense of accomplishment that usually comes with finishing a big project. Darn! But I am really happy with how it turned out. With three little kids, our whole house seems like it is filled with toys and other kid-related junk most of the time. I really wanted our bedroom to be a special place where we can celebrate being a couple.

I'm not going to share any before pictures because they are all on the other computer and I just don't have the energy to --spend more time uploading pictures from a half-dead computer. So you'll have to use your imagination. The walls were builder beige, the light fixtures were late '80s mod sconces, and there was a forest green, velvet cushion on the window seat. Oh, and there was a mirror niche in the wall behind our bed. A big ugly mirror.

What is it with my house and mirrors?????

Our bedroom is really big with vaulted ceilings (high vaulted ceilings). I started by painting all the walls navy blue--no paint info, because I got the first gallon as a $5 oops gallon. Then I had it matched for the additional gallons I needed.

To take care of the mirror niche, I used a section of the fence that my neighbor lost in our windstorm. My dad helped me to mount it on the wall directly over the mirror niche, using flush mount hardware. Easy peasy!

I got the bedside tables from KSL and spray painted them coral (Krylon Coral Isle) and then glazed them. I really love how they turned out!

We went to New Orleans for our honeymoon so I just HAD to get this poster from Orkposters.com.

The light fixtures on this wall were these white ceramic half-globe things. Blerg. I got the new little guys from DI (excuse the ugly lightbulbs, please) and replaced the globes with new ones. I looooooooove this picture of me and Jason! My favorite picture ever.

I love my new windowseat area. It used to just have a velvet cushion on it but we NEVER sat on it. I used it mostly to stack DI donations on. I decided to make it more of a focal point, so I stenciled the windowseat with some mustard yellow oops paint and hung some sheer white curtains from Ikea. I added some vintage books and a typewriter and a couple of candlesticks and pillows for accessories. But the best part is definitely the light fixture. Oh, the light fixture. I almost cried when I saw it at DI. I love it so much. It only cost $5. Can you believe that??? I am really the best at taking pictures, huh? Too bad I can't capture the true awesomeness of this light.

And hanging over my sewing desk are some of the paintings Jason has done for me. He paints one for me almost every year for my birthday or Mother's Day. So sweet!

{7 Years and Counting}

Today I am celebrating 7 years of being married to my best friend!

Jason is the best husband in the world. No, really, he is.

He works hard all day to provide for our family and then comes home and does anything I ask him to do around the house--dishes, garbage, you name it. He basically takes over all childcare duties after dinner so I can have a break from the kids.

He is so generous. He loves buying presents for the people he loves, especially his three little girls. He always agrees to a budget on gifts for each other at birthdays or Christmas, and then promptly goes over budget getting me something totally awesome. He's also so thoughtful with his gifts!

Best of all, he still makes me laugh more than anyone in the world. I am so grateful for him and for the happy life we have together!