Happy birthday David!!

Yesterday was David's 23 birthday. It was his first birthday that we got celebrate while married so I wanted to make it really special. Also, because his birthday is a few days before Christmas, it has sometimes been overlooked in the past. But not this time...

The first thing David wanted to do on his birthday was open his birthday presents.

His family got him some really great presents. He got the game Connect Four, a leatherman, lights for when the power goes off – like last weekend, two toy guns – one for him and one for me to make things fair, and the movie The Night At The Museum. I got him a lot of movies: Be Kind, Rewind; Victory; Bourne Identity; Bourne Supremacy; Bourne Ultimatum; Iron Man; and ... STAR TREK!

David loves this movie. His parents were big Star Trek fans when he was growing up so he understood all the inside jokes within the movie and has been really excited for the movie to come out on DVD. So I got him the movie and decided to make his birthday a Star Trek theme.

I found a special edition of the movie in a case that looks like the Star Trek ship, the Enterprise. I think it's really cool.

And then I got him a Star Trek shirt. As you can tell in the picture below, he was really excited. In honor of his birthday theme, I made him wear the shirt all day. It was really funny.Here is a picture of David and his presents. He is holding his toy gun and doing the "Live Long and Prosper" sign that Spock does on the show.
Then we went to David's parents' ward Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. The ward decided to have a Christmas breakfast party instead of a dinner. So we went to that.

After that, I needed to make David's birthday cake. David was great and helped me out with it. Neither of us really like cake (as many of you who went to our wedding reception know. We had cheesecake then instead). So I made a fruit cake that looks like a pizza. I made this cake a few years ago for Kaity Kobayoshi's birthday and it was a hit so I decided to try it again.

After David helped me solve a few almost disasters, we finally got it done. And it looked amazing, if I do say so myself. David really liked it.
We put the pizza in a real pizza box from Craigos – that's our favorite restaurant in Rexburg. The following is what the substitute pizza ingredients were:

Pizza Sauce: Red Cream Cheese Frosting
Cheese: White Chocolate, grated
Pepperoni: Strawberries, sliced
Sausage: Blackberries, divided
Green Onions: Kiwis, sliced
Olives: Grapes, sliced with the middle cut out
Mushrooms: Bananas, cut to look like a mushroom

Combine all those ingredients and you have an amazing pizza cake!
To top it all off, I decided to throw David a surprise party. He's never had a surprise birthday party and so I took on the task of throwing him one. I started planning it during Thanksgiving break where I secretly asked his friends if they'd be up for it. Then I got his family involved in the planning and coordinating. His sister mentioned that it'd be fun to have a theme party like little kids do and I loved the idea, hence the Star Trek theme.

David's mom bought the balloons and a Star Trek cardboard cutout of James T. Kirk (the one from the movie). It was really cool. I bought Star Trek plates and cups but accidentally left them in Rexburg so she bought bowling plates.

David's sister reserved the bowling alley and helped with the planning.

There were many times David's mom would call me while I was with David and I would have to make up some excuse about it being for Christmas or something. Even on the day of, David would leave the room and we would automatically start talking about the party. Then he would come in and we'd change the subject really fast. I really thought he was catching on.

I took him out to dinner. We were going to go to an Italian restaurant but there was a really long waiting line. We went to Subways instead. Due to this, we were done eating before it was time to go to the bowling alley. Luckily there was a movie store nearby and I convinced David to look around for a while. Then I got the OK to go to the bowling alley and headed out.

David didn't even see everyone until he heard them all shouting "Surprise!" And he was. He was so excited to see his friends there.
Here's a picture of David posing like Caption Kirk. The picture is a little blurry but it's still cool.
We bowled for a little while and then we went to David's parents' home to end the night by watching the movie, Star Trek.

David keeps telling me it was the best birthday he's ever had. I'm glad he enjoyed it and that everything worked out. I just don't know how to top this one next year. But I've got a while to plan.

Free Canvas Portrait

My friend, LeaDawn, started a blog to help people find out where some of the best deals are. This has been a great site. I've already ordered a free photo album for my parents and just ordered a free canvas portrait. She also has many other wonderful deals on her site. You should check it out.

The canvas portrait is from canvas people. The 8x10 is free to first-time users or you can put $55 towards a bigger portrait.

It's a perfect Christmas present that you only have to pay for shipping and handling (which is about 14.95). But if you want to find out how you can save more on the canvas (making it only cost $2.95-$8.95, go to The Coupon Basics Web site for more information on how to do that. I'm really excited to get mine in the mail soon!

Bride's Guide

I am officially done working on the BYU-Idaho's Bride's Guide magazine!! My job this semester is the editor in chief for the Bride's Guide magazine and the Winter Outdoor magazine. When I received this position, I have to admit, it was a little intimidating. I have never written for a real magazine or designed a layout for one. And to add to the stress, none of the editors who worked on the magazine in the past were on Scroll to help me along the way. I am grateful to Bre for coming in and giving me advice though.

I assigned a few classes to write some articles for the magazine, expecting to receive at least 20 articles... I got about 10. I enlisted in the help of many Scroll editors and friends and family. It's funny to see all the familiar faces within the magazine. Thanks to Kimberly, Bre, Brian Johnson and Carol Rhees for stepping up and writing their personal stories. And thanks to LeaDawn for sending me pictures in the last minute.

But, after working on the magazine for 70 hours in the past week, I am pleased to announce that we sent the 48 page magazine to the printers yesterday. It doesn't come out until November 12, so we'll all have to wait to see the final product but here is a sneak peek of what the front and back cover look like. I hope you like it.

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile

Autumn is David's favorite season. He loves the feeling of the leaves crackling under his feet and the wonderful colors all around. Unfortunately, we had our first snowfall last night and soon the whole world will be under a blanket of snow. But before the snow came, David and I were able to get a few pictures of Rexburg in the fall.

Can you find David?

We set the timer on the camera so that we could both be in the pictures. We were both ready to take our last picture and when the timer went off I threw the leaves in the air, like we were supposed to, and David threw his in my face. I was not very pleased.

This is not from the leaves David threw in my face. But I did get hit in the head with a soccer ball during one of our tournament games. I couldn't really see out of my eye for a while but I finished the game and we won. Below is a closer look at my eye.

It's been way too long

It has been so long since I posted. I could say that things have been really busy, but in reality, I just haven't gotten around to posting. But we have been doing some fun things. David took me fishing for the first time in my life. We went with his family during Labor Day Weekend to Teapot Lake. That is where David's dad took David's mom on their first date. So they have a tradition of going fishing at Teapot Lake every Labor Day Weekend. It was a lot of fun.

David's parents own a canoe so we took it out in the lake. We didn't catch any fish out there but it was still fun.
And... I caught my first fish!! I was so excited! It was pretty small but it was mine. David's mom says I'm a natural at casting my line. However, I still refuse to gut the little fishies. Afterwards, we took the fish home and cooked them on the grill. I didn't care much for the bones I kept finding in my teeth. It'll take a while to become an expert fish eater.
Also this summer, David's sisters came to Rexburg for a visit. It was so fun to have them come and be able to show them the sites. David misses his family a lot. We took them to Mesa Falls. They really enjoyed this beautiful site.
We also took them to the sand dunes to play soccer and throw frisbees. In this picture, they buried us in the sand up to our waists (we are standing straight up). Then they gave us mermaid fins. It was fun.
Last night, I went to my first BYU football game with David and his family. They are avid BYU football fans so it was fun to watch it with them. David is trying to convert me to BYU football. So far I've watched all of the games except the Florida State game - which I'm OK with since they lost that game.

So that's what we've been up to lately. We're both going to school right now. David has a job helping build the new chapel by the temple and I'm still working for the Scroll. We're taking really hard classes this semester. We're taking archery and racquetball together. It's tough, but we enjoy it.

Summer Fun

We had a lot of fun this summer... so much fun that you may wonder if we had time to do schoolwork. We were gone at least every other weekend for family get-togethers. But we did really good with school. David is actually getting a scholarship because of his amazing grades! I'm so proud of him.



One of our many parties included a family reunion. All of my siblings got together for the first time in a year and a half.


This is a picture of my parents and all my siblings - in order from oldest to youngest.

This is my niece, Ellie. She loved Spencer and Becca's dog.

We were in charge of the slip n' slide kickball. The kids had to slide on the slip n' slide to home plate. It was a lot of fun.

These pictures aren't from the actual game. The kids played on the slip n' slide long after the game was over.

We also went to my cousin's to play on their waterslide. It was a lot of fun. They built a real waterslide in their backyard. I had to show David this amazing place. Needless to say, he loved it. He went nearly non-stop from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. David refused to leave until they turned off the water. David and Hayden were the last ones to go down the slide.

We saw a lot of this throughout the day. The uphill climb was a killer but it was fun.

David and Hayden lost their mat halfway down the slide and David scraped his knees really bad.

We went one after the other one time and I totally caught up to David. Here I am about to run him over.

I went down with Kami and it was fun. So we went down again and completely wiped out. Not cool. But all in all, it was a really fun summer. We had a great time and are excited to see what the rest of the year has in store for us.

My faith in humanity has been reaffirmed.

I'm taking a photography class and so whenever I see something beautiful I just have to take a picture. Well, we were driving in the car and I caught a site of the temple with amazing clouds behind it. I just had to take a picture and convinced my husband to drive up to the temple so I could do so. I couldn't get the right angle so I grabbed a few of our gift cards from our wedding and used them to angle my camera right. During this time, I really had to go to the bathroom and I was dancing all over the place. But I was not going to miss out on this opportunity just because I really had to go. So I got my pictures and climbed in the car and we raced home so I could go.

Well, the next day I was looking at where we keep our gift cards and I only saw half of them there. My first thought was about how I used them for my pictures. No, I thought, I'm not that daft to leave the gift cards on the top of the car. Well, we searched and we searched and came up with nothing. Our only options were that I had left them on top of the car and someone picked them up (for we drove passed the temple and made sure they weren't still there) or I put them somewhere and they'd show up eventually. Either way, we felt the loss greatly because we counted a couple hundred dollars in profit lost.

Today my dad called me and said that he saw on the news that the Rexburg police report that a girl found a few gift cards and gave them to the police. We called the police station as soon as possible and verified that they were our gift cards. David went and picked them up and I'm happy to say that they are back in our lives.

The media is always portraying how humanity is failing and how the world is falling apart. Little acts of kindness and honesty, though they are not given much publicity or hype,do more to give me a good perspective of how the world really is than all the news programs on TV.

I'm so grateful for that young girl who was honest enough to turn the gift cards in to the police. I'm grateful for good people who are always striving to do what is right. And I am gratefulfor my reaffirming faith in humanity.

What you shouldn't tell your parents...

Zach on the roof and Justyn jumping from the swing.



Devin had perfect form and David jumps over Zach.



Double act (Zach and Justyn) and David – the ring leader.

Camping/Memorial Day Weekend/Soccer – all in one

David is took a class this semester (it was a block class so he's done with it now, hooray!) where he had to go on two camping trips, leaving me all by myself at our apartment. I know, many of my siblings have had to deal with this and I figured I'd have to sooner or later, but I was not looking forward to this. And it was really hard. The first time I stayed at the apartment by myself, I hated it. I stayed there as little as possible, getting home late and leaving early the next morning. I was so glad when David finally came home. But the next camping trip he made, I didn't want to do that again so I went to my parents with David and Kimberly.

Though it wasn't the best experience for me, David had a lot of fun on his trips. I decided to post some of his pictures for you all to see.


David, my little boyscout, and his group around the campfire.



David took some artistic photos and here's one of them.

We also went to my parent's house for Memorial Day Weekend. It was a lot of fun. My sister had just come home from her mission in the Philippines so it was great to see her again.

We got a little creative (as you can see in my last post) and played some games. Here are some pictures of the boys playing baseball:



David W. has perfect form and David L. hits the ball with a stick.



Klayton's focused on the win and David took a panoramic of the beautiful sunset.

And finally, we have an amazing recreational soccer team this semester! We are undefeated and going strong. We're only in the Leisure league, but we like it that way and hope we stay there. I wanted to get a good picture of David but he was always on the opposite side. But you can see him in the background of Devin's picture.


Devin Garner eying the ball and LeaDawn (Brown) Grant throwing it in.

Catching up

So I have been terrible at posting on my blog recently -- though some of you may have noticed that I also have to post on four other blogs now. It's a lot of work but it's fun.

I've noticed that being a senior in college is a lot different than being a senior in high school. All I had to do in high school was show up most of the time. But in college... now that's a different story. I have classes from around 9-5 most days and then I spend 5-8, sometimes later, doing homework or working. I'm usually never home, and when I do get to go home early, it's cuz I don't have to use the internet -- which our apartment is lacking.

Luckily, David and I are taking a few classes together so we get to spend some time with one another. He told me that he's done more homework in this semester than he did in the entire semester in the Fall. It's mostly not because he has so much homework but that I am always doing homework or at work so he needs to do something to pass the time.

But I am finally posting a few belated pictures. This is our bed. It's not the most comfortable bed but it's better than nothing.

This is our living room. We live in a studio apartment so the living room and bedroom are combined but we have a couch as a separator. This is our living room. We live in a studio apartment so the living room and bedroom are combined but we have a couch as a separator.
David bought me the one in the background for my birthday/Mother's Day. I've always wanted one of these, only in the shape of a circle, but he refused because it only sits one person. But when we saw this couch, we had to get it. We found it at a garage sale for $50. It's the most comfortable couch ever and we just love taking naps in it.

This is our shrine to us. It has our wedding/engagement pictures and gifts given to us for our wedding. We really enjoy it.
This is our pantry. I just had to show this so I could thank all those who helped us to fill this pantry so we're not starving. We love our big this is.And this is the first pizza that we burnt in our apartment. We put it in the oven and forgot about it. Needless to say, it was pretty burnt. I wanted to throw it out but David insisted we give it a try. We found that certain parts of the pizza weren't so bad and ended up eating the whole thing -- only poor college students would...
David enjoying his burnt pizza.