Devin and Lianne

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-05T19:28:00.010-07:00

We had an AWESOME 4th of July weekend this year! It's definitely one of our favorite holidays. We had the annual party/mini family reunion at the Lewis household. Always good times. It's always fun to see the cousins and catch up.

Devin with fireworks is like any little kid at Christmas time with their presents. If fireworks were legal year round he'd probably light at least one off every night. He had to have a preview night on Friday so he could figure out some things and "test out" a couple of fireworks.

We spent the actual 4th of July at the parade with the Gardners - thanks for letting us go with you guys! Usually it's not that great, but this year was definitely better than prior parades. Then we went to Devin's uncle's house for a BBQ and fun on the blow up toys. I think Devin is still 12 years old at heart. He was definitely one of the kids again.

Devin was so excited for aerial fireworks to be legal in Utah. He scouted out a few different firework stands to find the cheapest and best ones. He ended up with quite the collection.

Don't worry, he's not selling fireworks out of our Jeep, he was just keeping them dry while it rained.

If you ever want some entertainment, watch grown men light off fireworks together. It's like they're all trying to prove their manhood. There were some close calls, but I'm glad no one got too seriously injured (just a couple of burns) and that nothing caught on fire! We got quite the firework show though, both from the ones we lit off and from the neighbors'. It really is cool having aerial fireworks be legal now.

I am so grateful that we are able to live in America and for all of the blessings and freedoms that we enjoy because of it!

We originally thought that the Stadium of Fire was going to beon the 4th, so Devin thought it would be nice to take today off so he wouldn't have to wake up so early for work, and since he was going to take it off I figured I would as well. We enjoyed a nice relaxing day fishing up at Silver Lake.

And check out this awesome scenery!

We ended up catching a total of 6 fish but we let 2 go.

They made for a delicious dinner!

And the aftermath from a weekend full of a lot of sun.

On a side note, this weekend marks 3 1/2 years of marriage for us. That, to me, is really crazy. I can't believe it's been that long! Definitely 3 1/2 great years though.

We couldn't have asked for a better weekend! Great food, great company and great fun! Thanks to everyone who made it so awesome!

A New Blog to Visit

2011-06-29T11:36:00.005-07:00

I wish I was one of those really creative people that always has fun recipes or ideas on their blog. But I'm not. And until I can be, I admire other people's creations. I found this new blog: Be Different Act Normal. I think I'm obsessed with it. Now I just want a house to decorate and make cute things for. Especially all of her 4th of July decorations. They're way too cute! Just thought I'd share this fun discovery. Enjoy!

Shooting With the Boys

2011-06-27T13:36:00.017-07:00

The boys decided they were going to go shooting on Saturday and they let me tag along.

We did a little skeet shooting. That was a lot of fun. It was my first time ever shooting a shotgun. I would like to brag and say I had the best shot, but I think I may have hit maybe 3 clay pigeons... maybe... These boys are pretty dang good though.

When we were done skeet shooting we went and did a little shooting at the range as well.

I just realized that I am such a good wife. I didn't get any pictures of my husband shooting in the range. Bummer. He took his Mosin Nagant that he got for Christmas one year. And they all had fun shooting at this bowling pin.

It was definitely a fun way to enjoy a nice day!

(Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, Mark didn't really get a tattoo. He just wanted to look tough for shooting. Ha ha.)

Back from the Dead!

2010-12-11T18:16:00.007-07:00

So... This is going to be a picture overload... I haven't posted on our blog for about 10 years and at least once, maybe even twice a week Devin asks me when I am going to post again. So I'm finally doing it! We are still alive! I would normally say that nothing exciting is going on in our lives, but that changed in the last couple of weeks. We saved up our pennies and had the opportunity to fly over to the United Kingdom with Devin's parents. We were there for a little over a week and we got to see some pretty cool stuff. It was my first time out of the country and we had a great trip! If you care to see, here are a few pictures from our trip.

Spotted Dick and Custard

Charles Dickens' Birthplace

Salisbury Cathedral (they have one of the original copies of the Magna Carta housed here)

Stonehenge

Bath Abbey

Castle Combe

The London Temple

"London Baby!"

Big Ben from a distance (this is the square where all of the students were protesting)

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Tower Bridge

Tower of London (those Crown Jewels are awesome!)

Les Miserables

It was definitely fun to see the sights!

On a side note, I can't believe that Christmas is in 2 weeks! Is that weird to anyone else? I hope that everyone is doing well!

Devin's Firework Extravaganza (And Garden Pics)

2010-07-12T11:24:00.007-07:00

Devin absolutely loves to play with (I mean light) fireworks. I think I would even venture to say that the 4th of July is one of his favorite holidays because he gets to light fireworks. This year he got the big pack and invited everyone over to my parent's house so that he could put on a show. It was pretty entertaining to watch all the boys take their turns trying to make flower bombs and lighting off other various fireworks.

Here's Devin lining them all up so he knows what order to go in - saving the biggest ones for last of course. I'm glad that he enjoys it so much. I just have to tell myself not to worry as all the boys light the fireworks in their hands and then throw them before they explode. I like to think they know what they're doing...

His garden is absolutely taking off! These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago so it's grown even bigger since.

He told me on Sunday that we can't move because our contract starts in August and that's the worst time because that's right when all of his produce is coming on. We'll have to try to figure that one out for the future.

Well, we had a great 4th of July weekend with lots of fun, family and food! Of course we missed all of our family who couldn't be there! I love this time of the year! But I can't believe we're already halfway through July. Unfortunately the summer is flying by!

Facelift

2010-06-25T19:16:00.008-07:00

Our blog really needed a makeover. I'm hoping this will encourage me to post more often. I just needed something new to look at. So I finally sat down at work today and got it all figured out. I'm glad it's something new and different.

On another note... I feel really lazy lately. I am just finishing my second month of P90X but I think that gets cancelled out by watching tv (stupid tv shows that suck you in!!). I need more motivation. Any suggestions?

I am loving the warm weather but our swamp cooler doesn't work very well - this is not fun especially when we are trying to sleep. We need our landlord to take a look at it. It has been nice to enjoy many nice days, hanging out with the family, and we can't wait for the Gardners to finally get here so we can enjoy even more!

Well sorry this post was all over the place. One final thought - I think I need to get me some of these pants (the chick second from the left that is...). I know you all want some. ;)

(Sorry the links weren't working before. Hopefully this fixed it...)

And So It's Begun

2010-05-09T13:26:00.003-07:00

Devin got some of his garden planted yesterday. It was the perfect day for planting and his garden looks awesome!

His tomatoes and peppers look great - he started these ones from seeds and has them growing up in our office right now.

Devin had a hard time getting his tomato cages to go far into the ground last year so he decided this year to dig up the rocks. He found quite a few down there. He didn't know what to do with them so he decided to put them around his tomatoes. I think they look pretty good. So here he has broccoli, tomatoes, onions, peas, beets, carrots and zucchinis planted.

He is also going to plant our neighbors garden and part of grandma's garden. We love summer produce!! And I love that Devin loves to garden!

We've Upgraded!

2010-04-26T19:49:00.002-07:00

Devin and I have been saving our pennies for quite a while now and we finally saved up what we needed. We've had a decent sized TV since we've been married thanks to Devin, but we felt it was time to upgrade. Here is the TV that we started with. A 32".

And here's what we have now! An AWESOME 55"!

And just to give you a size comparison... The old and the new. :)

Our tv stand is another IKEA purchase so here's how it stands right now. We just need to adjust/add some new decorations to our living room and then we'll be set!

Needless to say, we LOVE it! You are all welcome to come over and watch movies whenever you'd like.

I'm not so good in the whole blogging department lately...

2010-04-16T17:59:00.006-07:00

I feel like all of my posts the last little while have been catch up posts. I haven't been very good posting lately and Devin keeps telling me I need to so I am going to take the opportunity while he is sleeping on the couch to post what we've been up to. Here, in a nutshell, is what we've been up to lately:

-Celebrated some super fun holidays (ie Valentine's, St. Patty's Day and Devin's b-day - he's now 26. Crazy!)

-Went and saw the Broadway show of Mary Poppins with Devin's parents in CO. What a great show. Check out this video. Awesome! (I know the video is long so you have to at least watch towards the end as they spell it out - I think that Bert is the same one we saw perform.)

-Devin's started his garden. He started everything from seeds and has already planted his broccoli and peas outside. These pictures were taken awhile ago so his plants are a lot bigger now. I can't wait for summer produce!

-Had our first bbq of the season and played our first croquet game. I don't know that I'll ever get better at that game... :)

-Met our cute new little nephew Briggan and played with all the other nieces and nephew.

-And my favorite thing that's happened lately...

Like his Adam Lambert picture? NASTY!

But check out my good-lookin' husband now. I LOVE IT - and him of course. :)

Well that's the latest news for us. Here are some of things we hope to accomplish in the near future:

-Get in a regular running or just working out routine.

-Redesign the blog - I'm just getting bored with it.

-Rearrange, decorate, and get a few new pieces of furniture for our apartment.

-Enjoy the warm weather!!!

That's it for now. We hope you are all doing well!

Ch Ch Ch Changes (And Some Other Stuff...)

2010-01-24T18:21:00.012-07:00

I'll start with the other stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, one of Devin's best friends from high school said that one of their best friends from college/mission was going to be in Vegas for the weekend so they wanted us to drive down with them the next day. We thought it would be fun so we drove down Saturday morning, did a little gambling (my first time ever...), walked down the strip, hung out and had a good time. Then came back Sunday morning. It was just a short trip because we couldn't miss work on Monday. It was fun to go down, but I don't think I could ever live there!

On our way back we stopped by the St. George temple. I'm not sure that I've ever seen that temple before but it sure is pretty!

Change is not always a good thing, but sometimes it is a GREAT thing!

We've had the same couches since we've been married. These were couches that Devin and his roommates used, and quite honestly, without the couch covers looked pretty bad. Without the covers, the thought sometimes crossed your mind of what diseases you were going to get if you sat down on them. (I couldn't find any pictures of the couches without the covers...) But since we weren't ever in a position where we could buy new couches, they worked for us.

We said our goodbyes (which for me did not take very long) and took the couches over to Savers (thanks for letting us borrow your truck mom and dad and thanks to Mark for your help!). We were lucky that they decided to take them and drove away before they could change their minds.

John was nice enough to let us borrow his truck and then to come and help us get our new couch. It was pretty entertaining to watch him and Devin try to fit the box into our apartment. Let me start by saying that we don't have a lot of room to maneuver by our front door. The couch came in 3 boxes - 2 for the couch that were each about the same size and one for the ottoman. The couch boxes pretty much filled up the doorway. Once they got the first box inside the doorway they tried to turn it to get it down the stairs and it just wasn't working so they had to tear the box away from the couch. This is what they ended up with.

They learned from their mistake on the second box and that one went a lot smoother. We did some rearranging and got everything set up and we love our new couch!! It's so nice to have it and I am grateful that Devin is good at arranging stuff and setting it up because he made it look so good! Now we just need to do a little decorating. Our walls are looking pretty bare (I still haven't done anything with those frames...). But that's one of my goals as soon as work settles down a bit.

The layout of our apartment is very similar to the layout of Tricia and Gordon's townhome. We both have a closet that goes underneath our stairs. One day when we were at their place they showed us their new food storage closet that they had built under their stairs. I was jealous! It looked so good. We don't have very much cupboard space in our kitchen so we got some shelves from IKEA and had all of our food behind our table in our kitchen. We could never make it look very pretty, so we decided to copy them (thanks for the idea!).

This is what we started with: An empty closet (which used to be a VERY messy storage space) and a messy kitchen.

Then we added these shelves (another purchase from IKEA).

And then all of the food.

And here's how our kitchen looks now. Quite an improvement right?

And on a total side note I just have to show you some of what we've been up to at work.

We have 15,000 posters to roll up and stuff into mailing tubes. This is what we had total after about 16 hours of working on it. And this is pretty far under a third of the total. Mark's had "fun" working on this with us. They do look pretty cool all stacked against the wall though! Hopefully we'll be able to get them done soon.

Hello Again, It's Been Awhile...

2009-12-27T12:54:00.009-07:00

Well it's been forever since my last post and a lot has happened. Here's what we've been up to:

We went to Colorado to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Walkers. It was a great time!

- Devin put up Christmas lights...

...While the kids played in the sprinklers with our 60 degree weather (notice the snow across the street).

- We went to the North Pole Amusement Park (sorry I didn't get any pictures) and then we drove up to the top of Pike's Peak - so beautiful but freezing!

- We cut down a Christmas Tree.

- We also had a great and relaxing Thanksgiving dinner! It was another fabulous trip to Colorado!

We also had, yet another, great Christmas! We did all the usual stuff:

- Had our Jerusalem dinner
- Got a new nativity and ornament
- Hunted for our pajamas
- Stayed up late playing games and watching movies
- Opened presents Christmas morning
- Had a nice breakfast
- We got to talk to the whole Walker gang (including Chelsee and Tyson who are both on missions)

It was just an all around great Christmas!

Everybody sporting their new pajamas (including mom and dad because we thought it would be fun for them to have to find them as well this year)!

And here's Devin with his new toy.

Hope you guys all had a great Christmas as well!! And to the Gardners, we missed you!

Interesting Customers

2009-11-18T12:01:00.010-07:00

I work at a printshop. I make business cards, flyers, posters, you name it and we can usually do it. Typically I don't mind helping customers, but there are just some days... Like today... Older gentlemen are pretty nice. As I'm sure any younger woman who works has experienced, they sometimes make an awkward comment about "what a cute young thing you are...". I smile and politely say "thanks". That might have to be the old me though. Let me just play out this scene for you. An older gentleman (over 70) came in today. I was friendly and took his order (30 copies - the whole job from start to finish would take me maybe 30 seconds). He was there for 45 MINUTES!!! During that time he asked me if I went to church and asked if I had found the Priesthood (I didn't really know what to say to that). He proceeded to tell me that he was excommunicated from the church (which is something I didn't know you go around telling complete strangers...). And then he said he was part of a group - the name of which I don't remember. He asked me if I knew what that was and when I said no he told me it was a POLYGAMIST COLONY! I didn't even know what to say. (Although I was worried that I was going to get kidnapped in my sleep). I just wanted him to pay and leave, heck I would've give him his job for free! Instead he asked me if he could share a scripture with me. The correct response should've been, "I'm sorry sir but I actually have a lot I need to get done" but instead I said, "sure". He said something to the effect of how a girl's long hair is glorious and a boy's long hair is rebellious (or something like that) and then told me that's why I should never cut my hair. I smiled and laughed a little and then thought about how short I was going to cut it next time I got my hair done (just kidding Devin).
We had quite a few people come in the store while this guy was there and luckily one of them decided he was going to help me out a little (unfortunately not necessarily by choice). He needed some business cards and needed them fast so I said I could help him out. As he was pulling up his files the old guy got him involved in the conversation so he turned to me and said, "I'll keep him occupied if you give me a good deal". You better believe I did! He talked to this guy for quite a while while I printed his cards and tried to work myself out of the conversation (also trying to apologize whenever possible). If I'm remembering the conversation right, it involved, playing cards (he asked me if I knew how many aces were in the deck - am I stupid?), the old guy pulling out a knife (which he said was a tool and not a weapon...), money (both how the US is trillions of dollars in debt and how paper money and coins are worthless - which is part of the reason his payment took so long), the business card guy asking the old guy if he was married (which I was really sad I didn't hear that whole response), guns and the Obama administration.
After the guy's business cards were done I tried to really show my gratitude (and apologize) because I was definitely VERY grateful! But it was a super awkward experience from the get go. I really hope that old guy doesn't come in any again (and if he does I told my coworkers I wouldn't help him). Sorry for the long story. After he left my manager told me I need to be less soft and friendly. I said I would try to be less friendly but less soft? I didn't know...
And that's how my day started off at work today...

We Love IKEA!!

2009-11-15T13:37:00.005-07:00

This is what we started out with:

This is what we did:

And this is what we finished with:

(Those side tables slide in and out of the headboard. Cool huh?!)

Isn't it pretty? Now we just need to do some decorating!

Another Great Weekend!

2009-11-09T20:22:00.001-07:00

We had another great weekend. We had the opportunity to go over to Colorado again to spend the weekend with the Walkers. Devin's parents got tickets to see Wicked, and since I had never seen it we decided it would be fun to go over and see it with them and Britnee and Adam. And I am definitely glad that we did. It was such a GREAT performance! I have always loved the music, but it makes a lot more sense now after seeing the show. We had some great seats and the show was simply AWESOME!

We also had the opportunity to do a little shopping at the outlets, we played lots of games and ate some yummy food!

Devin also got to go four-wheeling with his dad and bro-in-law (something he always looks forward to). I hope Gyle doesn't mind me posting these pictures, but I was lame and didn't take any of my own all weekend...

Thanks again to the Walkers and Harrops for a great weekend! We always enjoy spending time with you guys. Can't wait to see you for Thanksgiving!

Halloween

2009-11-01T15:57:00.003-07:00

We had another great Halloween this year. As usual, we went over to my parent's for a sweet party!

We were in charge of bringing the Root Beer. Devin makes some really good homemade Root Beer. :)

I'm not very creative when it comes to dressing up, so I dug through the costume box this year and ended up as a jester. I thought Devin's was pretty good.

We played all of the traditional games this year. The good old "Pass the Eyeball from Spoon to Spoon"...

"Try to Get the Ring on the Skeleton's Finger First" (Devin beat me both times that little turkey!)...

The "Try to Maneuver the Marble Through the Tube" Game...

The "Candy Bar Game"...

And this year we added the "Eat the Donut off the String First" Game...

I got my bum kicked by Kara. But Devin represented for the Walkers!

We also played the game Cootie's but with Skeletons, and the "See Who Can Throw the Most Bones into the Cauldron" game and the "Wrap Your Spouse Up Like a Mummy With Toilet Paper" game. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of those. And don't worry, those are the official names of the games. ;) Ha ha. We are still working on perfecting some of rules of those games, but they were all a bunch of fun to play!

It was another great party! Thanks mom and dad!

MTC

2009-10-28T19:03:00.003-07:00

We had the opportunity to take Tyson to the MTC today. He got called to serve in Pocatello Idaho. Because of the new policy at the MTC with the Swine Flu, families do not get to go into the MTC to drop off their missionaries. Instead you pretty much just say goodbye at the curb. So Devin and I took him to Brick Oven for lunch (which is tradition in his family) and then we took him down to the MTC. I was totally lame and did not take many pictures. This is the only one that I got.
Tyson is going to be such a great missionary! We are so proud of him and his decision to serve a mission!

My Birthday

2009-10-22T17:58:00.006-07:00

So this last week I celebrated my 22nd birthday. We started out celebrating with my family last weekend. We ate some delicious food and then Nancy made me a great cake! This isn't the one she made but its the same cake...

Recipe found here. Holy cow was it delicious and so rich and yummy!

Devin and I celebrated on my actual birthday by doing the whole "Free Birthday Meal" at Tucano's thing and then going to see Where the Wild Things Are.

It was a great birthday this year and I just wanted to say "thanks" to everyone for the birthday wishes and presents. It means a lot!

And just look at these beautiful flowers! (The ones on the left are from Devin and the ones on the right are from Devin's parents. Thanks!)

High School

2009-10-06T21:41:00.002-07:00

I think it's really weird to be back at Waterford mostly because all of the students there seem so young. I went to one of the girls' volleyball games and it made me realize how much I miss volleyball. Volleyball was definitley a big part of high school for me. It's funny becuase I sometimes have dreams that I am a senior and that the coach won't let me play (which is especially weird because it was always my dad and I thought I was at least respectable...).

Anyways... Back to the point of this post. It was a lot of fun to watch the game tonight - the team is really good, but unfortunately they lost. After the game my mom and I talked to my dad (who is still the coach) about the game and the team in general. The conversation actually left me feeling pretty sad. I just felt bad for both the girls and my dad. I'm not sure what has changed over the last 4 years, but volleyball is just not the same as it used to be. It doesn't seem as fun for everyone involved and just talking about that made me feel pretty sad. I remember volleyball always being one of the great things in high school and it was definitely something that I looked forward to every year. So my question for you is is there anything from high school that you really miss? I know that I definitely don't miss a lot of things, but there are a few things that I do miss. High school for the most part was pretty good but I do especially miss volleyball. What do you think?

Brrr!

2009-09-30T10:24:00.003-07:00

What is the deal with this cold weather? Where did summer go? How is it already October? All I want to do is snuggle up and watch a movie.

On a side note... If you want to watch something funny check out this video here. Too funny!

Life is Good

2009-09-17T11:00:00.005-07:00

Now granted life isn't always peaches and cream, but lately I feel like life has been pretty good. I just wanted to share with you all a few things that I am grateful for.

(This isn't meant to be a sappy post, but it might turn out that way... So no offense if you stop reading anytime :))

First of all, I am so grateful to have the Gospel in my life. I see so many blessings in my life that I know would not be there if it weren't for the Gospel. I have really enjoyed going to church and the lessons that I have been taught there. My next step is to start reading and studying the Book of Mormon more, and go to the temple more often, sadly both of those are things I'm not very good at...

I am so grateful to have a loving husband. The first few months of our marriage were a little rocky, but I am very glad that he didn't give up on me (darn that birth control...). I think our marriage is stronger now that it has ever been and I am so grateful that I'll be able to spend eternity with Devin. I can't believe it's been 18 months! Love you babe!

I love family. Not too long ago, someone I work with asked me what in the world makes me really happy and one of the first things that popped into my head was spending time with family. I am so grateful for all of the invaluable lessons I was taught by my parents (why didn't I pay more attention to cooking and canning?!?). And I am so grateful that we didn't have close friends that lived nearby when we were growing up because it forced us to spend time together and my siblings are my best friends! I just wish we all lived on the same block - well maybe not that close, but at least closer than PA... One of these days... I also wish Devin's family lived closer to us. They're such great people and we miss spending time with them!

I am grateful that both Devin and I are employed right now. This is a tough time for a lot of people and we are both blessed to have good jobs. I feel especially blessed because I really like all of the people that I work with, which I know can be a rarity, and for the most part I really enjoy my job. To all of you out there who are looking for work my thoughts and prayers go out to you.

We live in such a beautiful state! I love everything from the mountains to the red rocks. I could do without the snow in winter but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. :)

Now my life is 100% fantastic, but it sure makes me a lot happier to focus on the good that on the bad. I've been wanting to put up some vinyl lettering in our apartment - I'm thinking maybe "Life is Good" on a wood board. It's so important to remember that the good things outweigh the bad and that yes, Life is good! I am so excited and terrified at the same time to see what life will bring us in the future. And I am grateful to have such great family and friends to be able to share that with.

Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading and just know how much we love you all!

Salsa!

2009-09-06T14:49:00.002-07:00

When Devin first planted his garden he had plans of making salsa. Earlier in the week he picked a big bagful of tomatoes and then yesterday he went out and got another bagful. He got his mom's recipe and made some yesterday. He grew the tomatoes and jalapenos and we bought everything else from the store.

We ended up with 9 pints of salsa and then we had a little bit extra that we ate last night. It is delicious! And thanks mom for letting us borrow some of your stuff!

The Valley of the Goblins

2009-09-03T19:06:00.008-07:00

So sorry, but this is going to be picture overload. Devin had last Monday off of work because he has to work on Labor Day so we decided that we were going to do something fun. So we headed down to Goblin Valley with Kara and Ryan. We had a great time even though we roasted from the heat.

We got down there Friday night and set up camp. It was my first time camping down there and the campground is set against these awesome rocks.

Saturday morning we headed out to the Little Wild Horse trail (or something like that...). It was a fun hike through the dried up river bed. It was incredibly warm in the sun but it was fun to hike through the canyon walls.

If you look really close you can see Ryan climbing up to those cracks, he was very upset that we did not stay out in the burning sun to take his picture when he made it to the top.

The boys were pretty fun to watch. If they ever found a cave or something cool to climb up on, one would go and then the other. They even played the "if you touch the sand you die" game. So they spent a lot of time hopping from rock to rock.

They even tried to build a fire with flint and steel.

And a few more random pictures from the hike.

Can you see our faces down in the crack?

After we finished on our hike we went back to camp to relax a little bit and to eat some lunch. We played a few card games and then as soon as we were soaking wet from how bad we were sweating, we decided the best thing to do would be to sit in an air conditioned car. So we drove over to Hanksville to get out of the heat and to get some milkshakes. Man did they taste good!

Around 6 we decided it had cooled off just barely enough for us to head over to the valley. That is some of the most interesting landscape. It's really unlike anything you've ever seen.

Of course the boys had to climb up into every nook and cranny they could find...

...and ended up finding a cave. They threw plenty of rocks into it to see if anything was going to come out and when nothing did they figured they were safe to venture inside. They climbed in and realized they could start climbing up. So they went and they went. Kara and I were both too afraid of the small space so we stayed out in the open.

And once again, a few more random pictures...

And this, ladies and gentleman, is my favorite picture from the whole trip! Enjoy! :)

Wishful Thinking

2009-08-26T18:17:00.003-07:00

We've been in our apartment now for almost a year. I don't have any pictures or curtains hung, I still need to organize our downstairs bathroom which at the moment contains our games, car cleaning supplies, extra toilet paper and all of our laundry stuff and I have laundry that I need to put away that's been clean for over a week.

So what do I learn from all of this?

It's better to put my laundry away as soon as it's clean.

I have some serious organizing and cleaning to do.

I need to work on my decorating.

Speaking of decorating, for a long time I've been wanting to do some sort of photo wall. I absolutely love this one:

found here.

It's awesome, but first of all I don't have photos that I like enough to do this with, and also, I don't have the money to be able to print and hang them. Maybe one of these days... Until then, I bought a bunch of frames from IKEA - I still have the same problem of not having photos that I like enough to put in them though. Devin told me that I couldn't hang the frames until I have photos to put in them so until then they will sit on our side table.

I have been thinking a lot about things that I could be better at and climbing to the top of my list is cleaning. I hate to clean. When I get home from work it's pretty much the last thing that I want to do. And my apartment looks that way. So my goal over the next week or two is to do a deep clean of my apartment and to get everything organized. We'll see how things go. :)

Payson Lake and Our Garden

2009-08-15T16:53:00.003-07:00

Last weekend we went down to Payson Lake to try out mom and dad's new canoe. It was a little bit of a chilly day, but for some reason I was expecting it to be warm when we got to the lake. Mom and dad were the first ones to try the canoe out and I really wish that I would've gotten a picture of both of them sitting in the canoe. It was riding pretty low and they said that you had to balance it just right otherwise it would tip. It was pretty entertaining watching them trying to master the canoe. After tipping it and getting soaked up to their wastes they decided it was much easier to ride in it with just one person.

They kept asking the rest of us if we wanted to try it, but we passed on the opportunity. Although Devin said he would've tried it...

So instead of playing in the canoe, we enjoyed the scenery, ate some lunch and Devin got in some fishing. I think in total he caught 5 fish - he only kept 2, but it was decent fishing. Mark even caught one (even though he doesn't have a license... Shhh... Don't tell anyone).

Our garden is flourishing! We have eaten quite a few delicious veggies out of it and our tomatoes are now getting ripe. Homegrown produce is the best!!!

It's Been Awhile...

2009-08-06T18:26:00.003-07:00

Devin told me today that I need to post more. I have been meaning to but just haven't done it yet. So enough excuses, here's what we have been up to lately:

We had the opportunity to go to the Days of '47 Rodeo up at the E Center. It was the first time either of us had been to a rodeo before and it was pretty fun to watch. Some of those cowboys sure are crazy! I don't think you could ever get me up on the bucking bronco or on the bull. That's not my idea of fun. We were sitting right above the gates so it was fun to watch them poke and prod the bulls and get them ready to ride and it was fun watching the cowboys all sitting on top of the gates.

We ate our first zucchinis out of our garden! They sure were yummy! Devin's garden is still growing very well. We've eaten quite a few things from it and have lots more stuff that is getting ripe! Garden veggies are the best!

We went boating for a company party at work and of course I forgot my camera. We had a good time riding the wave runners and boats and Devin even got to wake board a little. But apparently we don't really know how to use sunscreen cause we got completely fried. It was a lot of fun though!

The Walker family had their family reunion up at North Fork Park Campground (or something like that...). Now normally I am not a fan of camping but Devin assured me that it would be fun. So we pulled out our 10-man tent and packed up to go. I can say that I actually had a good time camping over the weekend. We hung out, went boating, played games and had an all around good time.

Boating was a lot of fun! I tried the tube for the first time. I definitely didn't realize how hard it was. I got back in the boat and my arms were pretty much dead. It was so funny to watch Devin on the beach. When we got there he found a hole that was filled with water. He decided it was his mission to dig that hole deeper and make it more like a mud bath. He spent quite a while digging with the oars and the sand castle buckets. At one point in time he even had little castle towers around the edges. It was quite entertaining to see all of the little kids - and then Devin - definitely still a kid at heart. So here he is enjoying the fruits of his labors.

Catch up Time...

2009-07-12T12:25:00.002-07:00

We have had some good times lately. It all started with the Gardners coming out for some vacation from Pennsylvania. They came to hang out and have some good times for 3 weeks and we are all VERY glad that they did. Nancy and Tricia came up with their little boys from Texas to hang out as well. It's been so fun!!

We had an excellent 4th of July. Devin had to work in the morning so I went to the parade with my family. The parade was just average, but as always, it was fun to watch the little kids. It was a pretty warm day so in an effort to stay a little cool, mom was pouring water on Josh's hand. It was cute to just watch him hold it there while she poured water on it. He kept it there for quite a while.

It's been fun to watch all of the little girls help take care of Tyler and Josh.

I just have to say that we have some really cute nieces and nephew on both sides of the family! After we went to the parade we hung out for a while and then we went down to my aunt and uncle's house in Provo to have a bbq and watch some fireworks. They are so gracious to let us all come over and use their backyard. There were a lot of people there this year and it was especially fun to see cousins we haven't seen in over 6 years.

The Gardners, mom and dad, and Nancy and Josh went camping up at Granite Flats for a couple of days. Devin and I both had to work so we just went up after work to hang out. We were able to roast some s'mores and Devin was able to do some fishing which he was excited about. Here is the view as you are driving up the road to the campground. It was so beautiful!

While we were eating s'mores, Brinley had such a goopy mouth. She totally cracks me up!

Our garden is still doing pretty well. Here's just a little before and after so you can see how much it's grown. We are getting some blossoms on our zuchinnis and we have some tomatoes growing in - it will still be a while before they are ripe though. We are just about ready to pull up the peas and we have eaten quite a bit of broccoli. Not to brag or anything but we have the best looking garden in our apartment complex. :)

One of our favorite things to do is cut up some broccoli and zuchinni and fry it up in a pan. Yummy yummy!

Well I think that just about covers everything for now. I hope everything is going well for anyone reading this. And I hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Popsicle Party

2009-06-23T19:06:00.002-07:00

Let me start off by saying that I am not one of those people who can go out and have a great conversation with a complete stranger. I am probably not always as friendly as I could be. And I hate to admit that I couldn't give you all of the names of our neighbors. So Devin and I were given a calling by our bishop to set up little get to know your neighbors activities once a month. We did our first one tonight. We had a popsicle party. We scheduled it for half an hour from 6:30 to 7 thinking that people could come and stay for however long and it wouldn't be an all night event. We taped fliers to everyone's doors the end of last week. Right around 6:30 we headed out into the courtyard right in front of our house and set up a couple of camp chairs and a cooler with 3 bags of popsicles. Then we started throwing the frisbee and we waited. Around 6:50 we had a 2 couples show up. We saw one more walking to their apartment and asked them if they wanted a popsicle. All together we had 3 couples come by to chat. I don't blame anyone for not coming. To be completely honest, I don't know that I would've shown up if we weren't the ones in charge. We had a good time getting to know the people who came and hopefully we'll have a few more show up next time. Until then we'll enjoy the 2 and a half bags of popsicles that we have left. :)

Another Post of Randomness

2009-06-10T18:54:00.005-07:00

Just a few random thoughts for the day:

To start with, check out these pictures of Devin. The before and after from his mission. The before...

And the after...

It cracked me up the first time I saw that before picture. He just looks so little. Thanks sweetie for letting me post these! :)

Nancy introduced me to a cute new blog background website. It's scrap-e-blog.blospot.com. The girl that runs the site has some really cute backgrounds and she'll even design a free header for you which I think is cool.

Orem Summerfest is this weekend! Anyone here in Utah should definitely check out the fireworks on Saturday night! They always have the best ones.

I can't wait for the 4th of July. I love the holiday and everything that it represents! I am especially excited that we will have most of the family here to celebrate. Good times and I can't wait!

And last of all, I think every time I need a pick me up I am just going to post a couple of pictures of myself on our blog. (Ha ha. Not really) Thanks to all of your guys for your super nice comments about my hair! You are all way too nice.

New Hairdo

2009-06-06T12:22:00.002-07:00

Well these pictures aren't that great, but here's an idea of what my hair looks like. I think it turned out pretty good. :) Thanks again Britnee!

Branson, MO

2009-06-01T17:46:00.011-07:00

Let me just start off by saying this post is pretty long, sorry... We had a fabulous week with the Walkers in Branson Missouri. When they originally told us that was where we were going, we didn't know what to think. We had such a good time though! We flew out to Colorado and then drove to Branson. On our way out we were able to stop in Independence to visit the Visitor's Center there and then we drove up to Liberty Jail. It was my first time there and it was really cool to see.

This is the temple for the reorganized church. We were going to take a tour through it but it was closed for the day.

And Liberty Jail. It was way cool to see. They said the only thing that is still original is the floor. It always amazes me to go to church history sites and see the places where the prophet actually stood. I'm definitely grateful for everything Joseph Smith went through to restore the Gospel on the earth today!

While we were in Branson we did lots of fun stuff. We had a blast going miniature golfing. It was especially a lot of fun to watch the kids.

I had my first experience dying my hair. Britnee was doing Suzi's hair and she offered to do mine as well, so I got some highlights. I love the way that the color turned out (and of course I didn't get any pictures of the finished product...) Thank you Britnee!

We also spent a day up at Silver Dollar City. Devin looked like a kid in a candy store. He rode every ride with a huge smile on his face. It was totally fun to watch.

The rest of the week involved playing at the pool, a lot of Canasta and Ticket to Ride. We went and saw the Dutton's perform who were on America's Got Talent. It was a very entertaining show.

Sorry Britnee, I just couldn't resist posting these videos. That was just too awesome. Please don't hate me. :)

We had a great time and it was so nice to get away for the week. Thank you to the Walkers for such a fun time!

Road Trip!!

2009-05-20T18:42:00.004-07:00

It has been a really long time since our last road trip, so we decided that if the BYU lacrosse team made the semifinals we would drive out to Colorado to watch them play. They made it! We drove out on Thursday after I got off of work. Mom and dad and Ryan and Kara came out as well. Devin and Ryan spent Friday morning digging up and working in Suzi's garden while the rest of us went shopping at the outlets. Then we headed out to Dick's Sporting Goods Arena to watch the semifinals. BYU had an awesome game, and it was so much fun to watch. It started out with Chapman getting up by a couple points, and then BYU caught up. The whole game was neck and neck. I don't think I've ever been so nervous at a game. After some iffy calls from the refs, the game ended in a tie, so they took it into sudden death overtime... Chapman got the ball one on one with the goalie and they were able to put it in. It was so heartbreaking! You could read the disappointment on any of the fans or players' faces. We all felt really bad for them. We went down to tell Mark good job after the game and you couldn't help but to feel bad for him. He's a stud though! Some little kids came up to get his autograph and he signed their programs and hats. It reminded me of when we would get autographs from the BYU volleyball players. It was fun to watch.

Saturday morning Devin and Ryan golfed 18 holes. We had fun heckling them (mainly just Ryan...) from the deck when they teed off on the second hole. The day also consisted of the Denver Temple, Olive Garden, Star Trek, the championship lacrosse game (in which Michigan won), planting the Walker's garden, games and birthday cake. Happy birthday again Kara!!

We had such a fun weekend!! Thanks to mom, dad, Kara and Ryan for coming out with us! Thanks to Mark for making it to the semifinals so we could come watch, and for providing us with some good entertainment although of course we wish it would've turned out differently...! Thanks to the Walkers and Harrops for letting us stay with them!! What a fun trip it was! Too bad we had to come back to real life.

And I just have to say that I am SOOOOOO excited for So You Think You Can Dance?! You all better watch the 2 hour season premier tomorrow night! It's gonna be AWESOME!!

A Day of Firsts

2009-05-10T12:06:00.006-07:00

Yesterday was a day of a couple of firsts. It started out with Devin's first Pinewood Derby. He made a totally awesome car and even carved in a little windshield and a gas tank. It turned out pretty well but unfortunately it didn't win any races... We didn't have anything to weigh it with, so he didn't add in any extra weights, and we didn't have any paint, so it was just the wood. I think overall he took 18th out of 20th. They had a pretty cool track that measured the speed that the car was going and also the time that it took to make it down the track.

Of course we played croquet and Mormon Bridge yesterday. Our first with that was Ryan broke the first croquet ball. Usually it's the mallets that break, but a chunk of his croquet ball flew right off.

And we had our first fire of the season. We roasted some mallows and made some s'mores. Dad made us a great fire and it was the perfect night to do this!

Devin doesn't like chocolate, so he was just eating the roasted marshmallows, and as he pulled one off of the stick his comment was, "Ah, ah, ah, it feels like a giant slug but it's really hot." We all laughed pretty hard. I don't know where mom learned this trick, but ft you take a copper pipe, drill some holes in it, put a rubber hose down it and then put it in the fire the flames come out green and blue and purple. It's really very cool.

It's going to be a great summer!

The Perfect Game

2009-05-04T14:05:00.005-07:00

It happened. The first time since we've been playing. Somebody got a perfect game. That somebody just happened to be dad. No one expected it. He pulled it out though.

Our run of Mormon Bridge has continued. We play that more than any other game. For those of you who don't know how to play Mormon Bridge, there are 3 rounds of 7 deals (each hand dealing one less card). After the cards are dealt you bid on how many hands (or tricks, or whatever you want to call them) you think you can take with the cards you are given. The game is played with Rook cards. There is a trump color which beats any other color, and the Rook beats everything. If the Rook is not played, the high card takes the hand. If you take as many hands as you bid at the beginning then you get 20 points. For every hand that you are off, you get minus 5. That is the basic gist of the game.

With how many times we have played, you would have thought that someone would have had a perfect game. We have had many people have perfect rounds, but dad was the first person (since we have been playing as a family) to ever have a perfect game for all 3 rounds. A total of 420 points.

So dad, my hat goes off to you! Congratulations and way to go!

I am not going to lie, I am a little jealous... Maybe one of these days... Ha ha.

Funny Commercials

2009-05-02T09:45:00.003-07:00

I don't really have anything exciting to post, so here are a couple of funny commercials for you. We saw the first one over at mom and dad's, and I think dad laughed about it for about an hour... So I hope you enjoy. :)

2009-04-26T15:31:00.008-07:00

Out with the old...

And in with the new...!

Doesn't he look good?!

And a couple of pictures of the garden...

Devin planted 4 cucumbers and 4 zucchinis in our little garden in front of our apartment. We're hoping that it stays warm enough that they won't freeze.

Obsessed

2009-04-23T10:32:00.002-07:00

So I decided that our family is obsessed with 2 things: Croquet and Mormon Bridge.

Now that the weather is nice, we have played croquet at least 5 or 6 times in the last week and a half. Mom and dad have the perfect backyard to play in and the boys are always seeing how crazy of a course they can set up. They've done some pretty good ones. I have yet to win a game, but I've made it pretty close. Maybe one of these days... We have learned that you want to stay away from Mark, who will boot you over the garden if he has a chance, and we've also learned to take Dad out as early as possible, if you don't get him when you have the chance he will almost always end up winning the game.

We had never played Mormon Bridge as the "Manning family" before I married Devin. His family was the one that taught me how to play and then Devin and I taught the Manning bunch how to play. If we are ever deciding on what game to play - it almost always ends up as Mormon Bridge. We have played it so many times that Ryan has a move named after him. We love it and we have such a good time playing. Thanks to the Walkers for teaching us this new game!

I am so glad that we have such great family and that we truly enjoy spending time with each other. Good times!

2009-04-19T12:00:00.002-07:00

We had our last get together before the guys leave for the summer (so sad). We went to Noah's and rented a racquetball room and a ping pong/billiards room so we could have a couple of tournaments and hang out. It was originally going to be a ping pong tournament with racquetball on the side, but everyone had so much fun playing racquetball that we didn't ever get a winner for the ping pong tournament. It was a lot of fun to just be able to hang out for a night!

We had such a fun time and hopefully we'll be able to do it again sometime soon!

On a side note, we had such a beautiful day yesterday! Devin, Ryan and Mark took advantage of it by going golfing in the morning, and then helping out with some yardwork in the afternoon. We also got in a pretty sweet game of croquet. I hope this nice weather is here to stay!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-13T19:15:00.011-07:00

We had a great Easter weekend! It started out on Saturday going up to Woods Cross for Devin's family Easter party. Sorry, I forgot to take my camera, so I don't have any pictures from that. We had some great food, watched the kids do an Easter egg hunt, and we wrote letters to missionaries. They are such a great family and a lot of fun to be around!

Then on Sunday, we went over to my parents house for another Easter party. We got in a few games of croquet before the party started and after it was over. What a beautiful day it was!

After croquet, we had a great meal and then had a very nice family home evening. We read scriptures about the Resurrection of Christ and had different items to go along with each scripture.

After we were done with the spiritual stuff, we played some sculptionary. It started out as scuptionary mixed with charades until we decided it would be a lot harder if you couldn't do any actions. We all got beat pretty bad by Nancy, John, Kara and Ryan - we think they cheated... Aren't those the faces of cheaters? ;)

And the losing teams.

A few action shots. Some of the sculpting was pretty bad... Myself included.

Up next on the agenda was name that Jelly Belly. Nancy bought a bunch of Jelly Belly's with flavors ranging from Pomegranate to Roasted Marshmallow. We passed them around in cups and had to write down the number on the cup and what flavor we thought it was. Good thing she didn't do Berty Bott's flavors!

Everyone showing their guesses. I am proud to say that Gordon and I tied getting 11 out of 12 right!

Here are just a few more random pictures from the day.

This was the look on Tyler's face for about the first 45 minutes to an hour that they were there. He cracks me up!

We thought this was a cute one of Grandpa and Tyler. We kept trying to get Tyler's attention to look at the camera and every time he did, Grandpa would look down at Tyler. It was kinda trickey to get them looking at the camera at the same time. Tyler was definitely grandpa's friend that day though!

After the party was over, those who had babies had to take them home, but the rest of us stayed around and played some Mormon Bridge. Good times! Happy Easter to everyone!!

St. Patty's Day Pics

2009-04-13T18:43:00.007-07:00

I am very slow at posting these pictures, but I had some good ones, so it's better late than never right? The famous St. Patrick's Day game. We play this every year, and I'm pretty sure the rules change just as often. But it just keeps getting better!

We have to play 2 separate games so that it doesn't take all night long, but we always stop to watch the jiggers.

After the game we had to watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People - which is tradition of course! And we even watched it on the projector!

The cute little men.

And the whole gang spread out. Good times!

The new bike and more garden!

2009-04-10T16:05:00.004-07:00

This is my (Devin's) new bike! Its from Walmart, and the crank has already fallen off and the handlebars came loose today... but other than that, its been good. I've already gone through and fixed all the problems. It just took some lock tight on a nut and a couple bolts. But I expected a few more problems than that so I'm pretty impressed with it. This is my "P-90X"

These are the beans we planted a couple days ago!

And these are the spaghetti squash and and cukes and the zukes that i planted. They are all starting to sprout! Its pretty exciting.

Here are the tomatoes. They are getting HUGE! (6-8 inches)
This is what used to be the office. ;) Lianne says that is smells funny in there. I think it just smells like a greenhouse. I don't mind it. Its prolly a lot higher quality air in there.
These are some new ones that I planted today. (as exciting as pots of dirt are...) I did four more pots of cukes, and two more zukes, and another pumpkin, and a cantaloupe! (i heard that farmers aren't gunna do as many cantaloupes this year so they're gunna be pricey)

Things on My Mind

2009-04-07T18:01:00.009-07:00

So... I have had a lot of things on my mind lately. Mainly ways that I can change/improve my life. I would like to say that I will start to do all of this stuff within the next week, but come on, let's get real... Here are a few of my thoughts:

I watch way too much TELEVISION (as I am sitting here typing, watching American Idol). I need to get my lazy butt off of the couch and do something different. (And I really need to start working out again - which I keep saying, but haven't yet done.)

I need to start EATING better. I snack on Jolly Ranchers and Starbursts all day at work, and then come home and eat my weight in Doritos... Ok, so it's really not that bad, but I could definitely make some improvements!

I need to find a better way to keep our apartment clean. We clean it really well, and then ignore it until it's too dirty and can't take it anymore. I love the feeling of a clean apartment, and I know that it's easier to do little things every day then to do a big CLEANING, but I guess that hasn't really sunk in yet. Maybe after we do our spring cleaning and get everything organized, it'll be easier. Maybe...

We have been talking about setting up a BUDGET for a while now, but so far it has been all talk. I finally typed one up at work the other day. Making progress. :) Now we just need to go through and fine tune it (and actually put it to use).

Along with a budget, we have a hard time grocery shopping because we never make a list, so a lot of it is impulse buying. Let me just say that we end up spending more than we should. So my next project at work will be to make us GROCERY LISTS - in a tear off pad, something we can keep on the fridge.

I need to get better at writing cards - birthday cards, Christmas cards, thank you cards, pretty much any CARDS. I'll have to make some of those at work as well. Oh it's nice to have so many resources at my fingertips.

I don't know if it is just the nice weather that has me thinking about new things I can do and ways to improve, but I am definitely excited to make some changes for the better!

On a side note - I am loving the warmer weather that we are having (even if it is only every couple of days). I can't wait for the cold weather to finally leave for the year!

On an extra side note - I am even more excited to be able to spend time with family over the next few months - whether it be traveling out to see people or having them travel in to spend time in Utah! There's nothing better than hanging out with the fam!

Ok, sorry, this post is long enough... I just challenge everyone that if there is something out there that you really want to do, start tomorrow. Hopefully we'll all be able to change our lives for the better! Happy spring!

Lianne's new clubs

2009-04-04T14:54:00.003-07:00

The DI didn't have any putters when I got lianne her set, so we got her a putter at Walmart today. She also really liked my Hybrid club when we went golfing last week so we got her one of those too. They were both on clearance so we got both for just twenty bucks!

2009-04-02T20:17:00.005-07:00

I apologize if you are getting sick of posts about the garden, but we have to take some before and afters. :) Devin planted his zucchinis, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, and some more jalapenos. He started them inside, and I am especially excited for this stuff. Yum yum!

2009-04-02T19:52:00.003-07:00

Devin went to Savers and to DI today with Todd, and came home with a few new purchases. He texted me letting me know that he got me a couple of surprises (which he usually says when he buys something for himself...) and I was actually kind of surprised with what he got. Here is what he came home with...

A grinder:

I asked him if he was going to grind cranberries because that's what I always remember my mom doing with hers, and he looked at me like I was crazy.

2 new controllers for his old-school Nintendo:

A set of golf clubs for me:

Apparently when you go golfing everyone is supposed to have their own set of clubs. When we went with Kara and Ryan I shared with both Devin and Kara, that whole thing doesn't really make sense to me... Devin got my clubs and my bag for $11. The clubs are a little beat up, but they will be fun to play with!

A little putter thingy (I don't know the technical name):

These always remind me of rich people - you know, who play in their office...

And this last purchase was actually from Home Depot, but he got some solar lights for our little garden:

Sorry about our attempt to take a picture of them in the dark, it was as good as we could do. They'll be fun to have for the summer!

He got some good deals and some fun new stuff!

Golfing

2009-03-29T13:40:00.002-07:00

Devin got some birthday money from his mom and he has been wanting to buy golf clubs for a while, so he finally got a set. Ryan got some at almost the exact same time, so they decided that yesterday would be a good time to try them out. I didn't want to go with them. (Partly because I'd never been and I knew I was gonna suck...) But Devin forced me into going, so we went with Kara and Ryan. It was a beautiful day, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I hate to admit that I'd never even swung a golf club before (the extent of my golfing experience is miniature...), and believe me, it showed. We played 9 holes and Devin ended up with 14 over par. He did pretty well. :) My score was definitely no where near the same level. We couldn't have picked a nicer day though. It was the perfect temperature!

After we got done playing, Devin and Ryan each bought a bucket of balls to hit on the driving range. Kara and I just sat on the bench and watched, but it was pretty entertaining!

I'm sure we'll go a couple more times through the summer, and maybe at some point in time I'll be able to give Devin some competition. Probably not though... :)

Tomatoes and Peppers

2009-03-26T17:53:00.004-07:00

Devin transplanted his tomatoes and peppers into bigger pots. They are all growing very well and we can't wait to be able to plant them outside. He planted Jalapeno Peppers, and 3 different kinds of tomatoes.

Here are the peppers:

And the tomatoes:

Devin sure loves to garden! I can't wait for some yummy produce!

More Garden!

2009-03-18T18:31:00.005-07:00

Devin bought some broccoli plants today and planted them in the garden next to the onions. He talked to Grandpa Walker and found out he could plant the peas too! So here are the new additions to the fam! ;)

2009-03-17T19:26:00.006-07:00

Today was the start of an AWESOME gardening summer! The onions have been planted...

(And Happy St. Patrick's Day!)

A New Purchase

2009-03-14T08:55:00.002-07:00

Last weekend Devin and I went shopping for a washer and dryer. We started out looking at the Sears Outlet, but didn't really find anything that we really liked, so then we went over to RC Willey. We talked to one of their sales guys and he tried to sell us on their expensive front loaders, and as much as we wanted them, we decided we needed something cheaper. So we headed over to Home Depot. There we found just your basic washer and dryer, for just over $500. For the both of them. We were pretty excited! They were delivered this morning. So we now have a working washer and dryer! We had been doing our wash over at mom and dad's house, which we were very grateful for. Thanks mom and dad! I promise that we will still come over and visit, even if we aren't doing wash! So here's our new washer and dryer. :)

2009-03-05T17:57:00.004-07:00

Things are going well for Devin and myself. We are back to our normal schedule. Woo-hoo! This week has been a good one. It started with Devin's birthday. He is a quarter of a century old now. Crazy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY sweetie!
We had our Manning family VALENTINE'S DAY celebration on Monday night. We played the traditional shoot the arrow through the heart, and then my mom added the blindfolded musical chairs - which was definitely much more entertaining to watch than to play.
Then on Tuesday we had some of Devin's friends over for a birthday bbq where we were able to use our new bbq for the first time. Devin made some good brats. I think we are going to get some great use out of our bbq this summer! I can't wait. And of course, I didn't get any pictures at anything that we did. Sorry...
I started a new position up at our LEHI branch this week, so I will be working up there from now on. I am excited for it, and it should be a good change.
When Devin was working graveyards, mom came over and helped me figure out some stuff that we can do in our apartment to get things more organized and to make them look better, which I was very grateful for. So she found me some drawers to organize our bathroom stuff, and it definitely helped me get this room cleaned up. So here's the finished product. For now...

This next picture is totally random, but I found this in the bathroom one morning when I woke up to get ready. It took me off guard for a minute. So this is what Devin did at work that night when he was supposed to be workin hard for the money. :)

And this is really what this post was supposed to be about. Devin got our small GARDEN ready for the summer. He got some bricks to put our bbq on and he dug up the soil and got out all of the big rocks. I am excited to eat lots of fresh produce this summer. Grandma said that we could use part of their garden this summer so we are very excited about that. I know what Devin's going to be doing every day after work...

I'm LOVING this warmer weather that we are having. It pretty much rocks!! I can't wait for spring! MORE SNOW PLEASE!!!! (from Devin...)

Colorado

2009-02-23T22:14:00.005-07:00

Devin and I had a great weekend in Colorado. We flew over on Thursday night, and flew back Sunday night. Friday morning we went shopping at the outlets and boy did we find some great deals! Gotta love the outlets! Then we had a delicious fish fry. Now I am not one who usually likes fish, but Gyle made some very good halibut. And Devin was thrilled because he got some mussels as well. On Saturday we went to the Garden of the Gods. Here are some pictures from our fun outing.

The whole group with the red rocks in the background.

Devin had a blast climbing up on the rocks. He's definitely a boy at heart.

He wanted me to take a picture of his Peter Pan shadow. Ha ha.

And then of course all of the kids wanted to climb up on his lap...

We got back from the Garden of the Gods and then went to Tyson's play - Guys and Dolls. It was a great play and Tyson did such a good job as Nicely Nicely. We had such a fun trip. Thanks to the Walkers and the Harrops for a great weekend!

2009-02-18T20:35:00.002-07:00

We are surviving Devin's late night shifts. It has not been so much fun, but there is only one more week left!! We had a pretty good Valentine's Day. It was relaxed , but it was fun. We went out to eat on Saturday to Denny's. We went early - it was breakfast for Devin and lunch for me. I don't enjoy waiting in the big crowds. Then on Sunday night we did our traditional spaghetti dinner. It was nice to be able to spend a little bit of time with Devin this past weekend. This week has been low-key for us. I spent a few of the nights hanging out with mom and dad. They were definitely nice to feed me and to let me chill. Thanks guys! This weekend we are going to Colorado to visit Devin's family and watch his brother in the play Guys and Dolls. I am excited for that because that is one of my favorite musicals! We are looking forward to seeing them and to be able to spend time with them. Hopefully we'll have some fun pictures to post when we get back.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2009-02-14T12:24:00.002-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! I hope that you all have a good day and do some fun stuff!

2009-02-09T19:32:00.006-07:00

So we finally got wireless internet in our apartment!! Yay! Hopefully this will mean a lot more posts. I definitely have a lot of catching up to do, so this post is going to be long, but hopefully it'll be ok.

First up, I finally have a couple pictures of our apartment to post. (This is mainly for Annette) So here we have the kitchen - notice the sweet yellow stove. I know you're all jealous. :)

And the living room. One of these days I will make some curtains for the window above the couch and also for the one above the table.

And this is our new fish tank (well semi-new). It's in our living room and it's so fun. We have some pretty sweet fish in there!

I can finally post a picture of the really pretty roses that Devin gave me for our 1 year anniversary. So here they are.

I'm sure you all remember Devin's love for gardening. He decided that he wanted to start his garden a little early this year - at least the tomatoes. So we have a few tomato plants growing on our kitchen table. Here's what he has so far.

Well after my last post about snowboarding, Devin decided what better way to follow up then to go out and buy me a snowboard. There were a couple of stores in the mall having sales, so we went to look at them, and we found a really good deal. So I now own a snowboard, boots, and bindings. I am really excited that there are no shoelaces to tie! The big question will be how many times they will actually get used though...

The next couple of weeks will be interesting for us. Devin is working graveyard shifts for the next 3 weeks. So he will leave for work when I get off of work and he'll get home around the time that I wake up. Hopefully they'll go by fast! That's about all that's new with us. I'll try and get a few more posts out now that we actually have the internet!

Snowboarding

2009-01-27T12:09:00.002-07:00

Kara and Ryan asked us if we wanted to go snowboarding with them. Devin was excited to go while I reluctantly agreed. I have never been before so I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but I went. We went up to Brighton on Saturday for some night boarding. It was my first time and also Mark's first time. We thought it would be good because Devin and Ryan could go together while Kara and I hung out. Mark picked it up really quickly and ended up with the boys. Everyone warned me that I would hate snowboarding for the first time, and they were all right. I spent most of the night on my butt or my face. Needless to say, it wasn't the most enjoyable time I've ever had. I like to think I got better towards the end of the night, but I don't know if that's really true... Luckily it was snowing so when I fell I wasn't falling onto pure ice. I'm glad that I went and will maybe go again one day... Thanks to Kara and Ryan and Mark for going with us/inviting us to come. I know for sure Devin had fun! And thanks to Kim for letting me borrow your gear so I didn't have to rent any! I'm glad that we all made it out in one piece!

Happenings...

2009-01-12T20:38:00.002-07:00

I know that I haven't posted for a while, but things are going well for us. We had a good low-key New Year's Eve, hanging out and playing games with the family. Then we celebrated our first year anniversary on January 4th. I can't believe that we have already been married for an entire year! Crazy how time goes by! We had our ups and downs in our first year of marriage (as I am sure every newlywed couple has), but I feel like our relationship has been strengthened and I know we will grow closer together in the coming year. We are really liking our new apartment. I promise I will post pictures soon, I am still working on getting stuff organized and cleaned up. Maybe one day soon we'll have everything put together. Devin is in St. George the beginning of this week working on the Spring Resets at the St. George store. He was definitely excited about the warmer weather, but they have him working 2 nights of graveyard shifts, so he was not excited about that. Hopefully it'll be a nice change of pace for him though. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to get back in shape. Devin gave me the workout program P90X for Christmas. I've been doing it for a week now and it is a great workout! Devin was telling me that he was sitting in the breakroom discussing with some of his buddies what they had gotten their spouses or girlfriends for Christmas. Someone asked Devin what he got me and he said that he gave me a workout video. From the corner he heard a girl say, "what an ass..." He then had to explain that that's what I wanted for Christmas. I thought it was pretty funny. (Sorry about the profanity.) That's pretty much all that is going on with us. Nothing too exciting. Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T17:22:00.002-07:00

We had a great Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas as a married couple and we had a great time. We spent this year with my family, having our traditional Jerusalem dinner, watching Luke II, playing the nativity game, and hunting for our pajamas. Ryan, Kara, Mark, Devin and I stayed up playing games and watching movies. Kara and I went to bed while the boys stayed up for a few more hours playing. My mom had to wake us up this year, which I think was the first time ever. We opened up a few presents with the people that were here and then we went to our house to open the rest of our presents.

Here is our Christmas tree this year - thanks Nancy and John for letting us use it!

Devin really wanted a 22 this year, so he could go shooting with my dad and with John. So that was his big present. We also got to talk to Chelsee today for a few minutes, so that was fun.

After we got done opening up our presents, we went back over to my parents to do family presents with everyone and to eat some food and play some games. It was a great Christmas! I hope you all had a great Christmas as well!

Life

2008-12-22T14:14:00.003-07:00

We can't pick up on any wireless internet signals in our apartment, so I have to try and blog at work (on my lunch break of course...). The last couple of weeks have been really busy for us, but things have been going well. Instead of going into detail about everything we've done, I will list of few of them for you.

-We moved into our own apartment - we got everything moved in, but we still have a bit more organizing to do...
-We took a weekend trip to Colorado to visit the Walkers.
-Devin's brother and his brother's friend came to stay over the weekend with us.
-We went to the Walker family Christmas party.
-And the Manning family Christmas party.

Even though it has been busy, we have loved this time of year! It is so great to be able to spend it with family and to be able to see people we haven't seen in a while. I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas!!

A Fun and Eventful Weekend!

2008-11-30T21:42:00.005-07:00

I just love Thanksgiving! These weekend was such a good one! We were able to close a little early on Wednesday, and then we were closed Thursday and Friday as well. It was awesome! Unfortunately, since Devin hasn't hit his 90 days yet, he still had to work 40 hours this week, so he ended up working both Friday and Saturday. That was kind of a bummer, but luckily he works in the morning so he was able to get off in the early afternoon. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We went up to Woods Cross to eat dinner with Devin's family at 1. His immediate family wasn't there, but his extended family was so it was good to see them again. We went to his uncle's house and had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. We then came back to eat with my family. We had a smaller group than we usually have, but it was still a lot of fun. We ate yummy food and played some fun games (even though some did get a little heated...). We had a little competition last year to see who could gain the most weight from all the food, and of course, Devin had to beat his record from last year. This year he ate 11.7 pounds of food. Can you believe that?! He was definitely feeling it for the rest of the night. Friday was a fun day. I ended up going to Home Depot in the morning to get a grill that was on sale and also some Christmas decorations. This was the first year that I have ever gone shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. It's definitely not my favorite thing to do... Then I helped my mom put up her Christmas decorations. I love Christmas decorations!! We always put them up on the day after Thanksgiving and it is so much fun. My mom has quite the collection of nativities. That is definitely one of my favorite things. Here are a few of my favorites:

This one is my all time favorite. My mom and dad painted this one, and they have had it for a long time. It always goes on top of the piano. :)

She always tries to collect nativities that are different. To give you an idea of how many she has, here are a couple pictures of some she has in the living room. And this isn't even all of them.

I just love her collection of nativities! Setting up her Christmas decorations took us pretty much all day, but it was a lot of fun. Her house looks really cute. Saturday I went and saw Twilight again with Nancy, Tricia, and Kara. And then Devin's cousins had a "cousins party" so we went up to Bountiful for that. We played some games and ate some food. It was fun! Thanks Krista and Jay! December is going to be a busy month for us. We are moving into our apartment this weekend. Yay! Then we are going to Colorado next weekend to visit Devin's family again. We are excited for that. Then we just have lots of family Christmas parties. It is going to be a busy month, but it's gonna be a lot of fun! We hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and that any holiday plans are going well!

Remember These?

2008-11-28T20:18:00.001-07:00

Things are Going Well

2008-11-23T16:09:00.002-07:00

We got our apartment!! Devin and I put a deposit down on a 2 bedroom 1.5 bathroom townhouse. We don't sign the lease until December 5, so we still have a couple of weeks before we get to move in, but the apartment hunting is over! We are pretty excited. :) This weekend was a good weekend. Friday night we went over to Nancy and John's and watched Wall-E. It was a cute movie. And if any of you watch it, I would highly recommend the short film with the magician and the rabbit. It was hilarious! Saturday Devin went up with John to the gun show, so I went shopping with Nancy and Tricia at Kohl's. I just love Kohl's. They always have super good deals!! Then we went up to my grandparents to watch the BYU-Utah football game. That was such a sad game! The BYU quarterback had such a rough game, and you couldn't help but feel bad for him. After the game, Devin needd something to cheer him up, so he offered to take me to see Twilight. How could I pass that up?! I was going to wait to go see it until next week with Tricia, Nancy and Kara, but we got tickets to go see it last night. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was pretty true to the book, and I liked it! Tyler was blessed today, so we went to his blessing. He is such a little cutie! It's so fun to live so close to family and to be able to spend time with them. Annette and Ron, you guys need to move back!! I am so excited for Thanksgiving this week! It'll be so fun to be able to take a couple of days off of work, to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving and to set up Christmas!! I can't believe it's already that time of year. Crazy!

Painting

2008-11-19T20:19:00.002-07:00

We have been doing some remodeling at work, and they have tried to have employees do most of the work- like building and tearing down walls, painting and moving. So I volunteered to paint. I thought it would be nice to have a break from the everyday stuff of working, but I think it's time for my break to be over (for now at least). I have been painting for the last few days, and I have enjoyed it, but I'm at a good place to take a break from my break. We have offices and equipment to move and then it'll be back to more painting. I gotta say I'm getting pretty good! :) It will be so nice when all of the remodeling and moving is done!

Nothing New

2008-11-13T21:03:00.002-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, but there hasn't been anything new with us lately. Devin and I have both been working trying to save up some money and finally looking for an apartment! Yay! Work is going well for the both of us. I am still working at the print shop that I have been at for a while, and Devin is enjoying his job working at his home improvement store. It has been a good job for him and he is enjoying it (except for waking up every morning to be at work by 6). He travels around to all of the different stores from Salt Lake and Park City to Provo. It has been good for him to have some variety from day to day. I am glad that he is enjoying it. That is pretty much all that we have been up to. We are excited for the holiday season to be here, and we are hoping to plan a trip to Colorado to visit the Walkers sometime soon. We'll see what happens. We hope that everything is going well for all of you!

Halloween!

2008-11-01T19:21:00.005-07:00

I apologize if any of you have seen these pictures on Nancy's blog, but I am finally getting around to posting them on my blog. We had our family party a week before Halloween, and we had a lot of fun! Our family has traditions for pretty much every holiday, and Halloween is not an exception. For dinner we always have dinner in a pumpkin, and mmmm mmmm it is good! We have a few games that we play every year that are just simple games, but it's amazing how entertaining they can be. One of the games is passing a ping-pong ball (with an eyeball drawn on it) from spoon to spoon, but you have to hold the spoons in your mouth. Then there is the classic put the ring (that is attached to a string) on the skeleton finger. This year my mom added a few new ones, that included throwing bones into a cauldron, throwing darts at a vampire, and the candy bar game with furry monster gloves. It was a fun party, and we all enjoyed it!

We usually just buy rootbeer and put it in a cauldron with dry ice, but this year Devin made homemade rootbeer and it was really good!

Of course everyone has to dress up. Here's the whole gang (minus Nancy who was taking the picure).

Mom and Dad: The medieval knight, and the big blue frog.

Nancy, John, and Josh: The fisherman, the glowworm, and the panda.

Tricia, Gordon, and Tyler: The farmers and their pumpkin.

Kara and Ryan: The mummy and the cop.

Tyler and Josh: The pumpkin, and the panda. Aren't they cute?!

Devin and myself: The Mexican and who knows what I was supposed to be...

And Mark: The pretty hula girl. :)

And a couple extra pictures:

It was a fun party! We really missed the Gardners though and continue to wish that they'll move back to Utah!

2008-10-21T18:36:00.002-07:00

So I don't really like Obama, but this video is pretty funny. A couple of girls I work with showed me this one.

Tagged by Haylee

2008-10-20T20:18:00.002-07:00

Share 7 random and or weird facts about yourself:

1. I like to start new things at the beginning of the week. If it is not Monday, then I will usually put it off and wait until the next Monday to start.

2. I buy a lot of scrapbooking supplies, but hardly ever scrapbook. I need to work on that one...

3. I love to be organized, but I do a lot better job organizing at work than I do at home. When I get too messy I get way stressed out.

4. I read what people type or write and pick out typos. I know that I make plenty of my own as well! Working at a printshop, I have quite a few opportunities to do this. Maybe I'll take a few English classes and become an editor...

5. I love to learn new things, but I am not a huge fan of school right now because of all of the tests.

6. I get a lot of my clothes from my sisters as hand-me-downs (hey, they're free!)

7. I secretly wish I was a dancer, but am too self-conscious to ever take a dance class.

Tagged by Annette

2008-10-20T19:50:00.006-07:00

8 FAVORITE TV SHOWS

1. The Office
2. So You Think You Can Dance?
3. Survivor
4. Dancing With the Stars
5. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
6. Friends
7. Super Nanny
8. Amazing Race

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS

1. Iceburg
2. Costa Vida
3. Cafe Rio
4. Panda Express
5. Sonic
6. Olive Garden
7. Arby's
8. McDonald's

8 THINGS THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY

1. Helped Devin make blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast.
2. Played with Devin's nieces and nephew for a couple hours.
3. Got our car all ready to go.
4. Drove from Castle Rock, CO to Orem, UT.
5. Ate some cake and ice cream.
6. Opened up some cards.
7. Held new baby Tyler and played with Josh.
8. Lost to Mark in animal snap.

8 THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

1. The Twilight movie
2. Our own apartment
3. Christmas
4. Christmas music
5. Getting our stuff out of our storage unit
6. Being able to dress up at work for Halloween
7. Thanksgiving and good food
8. Being able to decorate as soon as we have our own apartment

8 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT FALL

1. The pretty colors on the mountain
2. Holidays
3. Snuggling up in blankets
4. Spending time with family
5. Pumpkins
6. Jackets
7. Hot Chocolate
8. Holiday Traditions

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST

1. New long undershirts in different colors
2. Our own apartment
3. A new jacket and coat
4. A little extra spending money
5. A second small square coffee table
6. A date with Devin
7. The will and desire to work out more
8. The 4th season of the Office

8 PEOPLE I TAG

1. Cori
2. Audra
3. Suzi
4. Britnee
5. Haylee
6. Krista
7. Megan
8. Morgan

Out With the Old, In With the New

2008-10-20T19:43:00.001-07:00

Weekend Trip

2008-10-19T21:08:00.006-07:00

Devin and I went up to Colorado this weekend to visit Devin's family and to borrow his sister's car (while she is on her mission). We flew out Friday morning and got to Denver around noon. We spent the evening shopping with Suzi at the outlets in Castle Rock and then went out to dinner at The Rockyard. On Saturday, Suzi, Devin, and I took a nice drive up to Estes Park and saw all of the wildlife up there and looked around at the shops that they had. When we pulled in, there were like35 elk just laying around on the golf course. It was pretty awesome. We then noticed there was a huge herd up on the hill behind some houses. So we went up to look at them. Estes is in a national forest so all of the elk are protected, so they are not afraid of people. You can pretty much get as close as you want/are brave enough to. That was way cool to see them. Here are some pictures from our fun weekend!

We were able to spend a couple hours with Britnee and Adam on Sunday morning. It was fun to be able to see Devin's family again and spend a little bit of time with some of them. Thanks guys!

Lost

2008-10-15T18:25:00.002-07:00

Devin has been getting into the show "Lost" lately. My mom has the first season, and he watched it and got sucked in. He was excited to find out that seasons 2-4 are online. For the last little while, I usually find Devin like this when I come home for lunch.

He watches Lost quite a bit - he finished the second season today. He'll usually stay up until the wee hours of the morning watching as well. I am glad that he has had a break from working and that he was able to relax and do what he wants to do. It was really good for him to have some time off. He'll have to enjoy it while it lasts though because he should be starting work again next week. Yay!

Who's Excited?

2008-10-09T22:30:00.001-07:00

Twilight HD Exclusive Trailer

Ha Ha!

2008-10-06T19:16:00.002-07:00

So this is entirely inappropriate, but it is hilarious. I am sorry if any of you are offended by this. This is a true story. I found it on a website of real newspaper clippings. I apologize again if any of you are offended...

Things I Have Enjoyed...

2008-10-02T19:46:00.002-07:00

I have just realized over the last little while how lucky and how blessed I am. There have been so many things that I have enjoyed in my life. This post is meant to just list a couple of them.

The first thing (and the best) would be that it is SO nice to be back in Utah by family. Even though we had Nancy and Tricia and their families in Ohio, it's so nice to be back in a place that is home, and to be by even more family! We have had a couple of bbqs since we have been back, and I am so blessed to be a part of a family that always has such a good time when we get together. No matter when or where, our family can always get along and enjoy each other's company. I only wish that Annette and Ron and their family lived closer. Just so you know Annette, we are planning on setting up little "Manning Reunions". We should all get together at least every other year and just go somewhere fun (not necessarily expensive), but just fun. Devin's family does this and I think that it is such a good idea! So plan on it, and we'll have to all put our brains together to decide on when we want to do it and where. :) It's also so fun to have Josh around (thanks Nancy and John for having him and for coming to visit often). Little kids spirits are just so sweet. We can't wait for Tricia to have her baby, too! And thanks mom and dad for letting us stay with you guys until we are able to get our own place. I really really really appreciate it. We're just so lucky to have such awesome family on both sides!

I have enjoyed being back at work. I know that that sounds weird, but it's so nice to be able to have a routine every day. I don't have to try fill my days with blogging and TV watching anymore. I am glad that I am able to help out with our small family's finances as well. Some days are not always the best, but I enjoy spending time with people I work with, and for the most part, I enjoy my job. I am grateful that they were able to find a spot for me when we got back.

I have also enjoyed watching the Presidential Debate and then tonight the Vice Presidential Debate. I have never been one to get into politics, and I regret to say that I don't know very much about politics, but this year I have tried to pay a little bit more attention and to learn a little bit more. I have found that it is actually very interesting, and I am glad that now I don't feel as stupid. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the election this year.

I have enjoyed very much the time that I have been able to spend with the Walker family this year. We were able to stop in Colorado on our way home and spent some time with the Walkers before Chelsee left on her mission. I was so glad for this opportunity. They are a great family and I am so glad that I am able to be a part of it! It has also been so awesome to have Chelsee on her mission. Suzi posted Chelsee's letter on their family blog, and the letter that Chelsee wrote is just really good! She has such an uplifting spirit! She's going to have a great mission! I definitely feel more comfortable now with their family than I did before and it is so awesome!

I have just loved having Devin around more often. Even though I don't see him while I am at work it is so nice to be able to come home and have him here. I am so blessed to have him for my husband and my best friend. I am also glad that he didn't have to come back and just jump right into work. Even though it wasn't the most exciting last couple of weeks, I'm sure that it was still nice for him to have a break. I am so proud of how hard he worked and for his endurance through the summer. I know that it was rough, but when all is said and done I am glad that he stuck with it. He has now had a couple of very promising interviews and will hopefully be starting a new job very soon. He's just such a good guy and tries his hardest at everything he does, and I am so thankful for that. I love him so much!

Well sorry that this is such a long post, I have just been so blessed with so many things and I wanted to be able to share them. And I also wanted to say "thank you" to everyone! You guys make our lives so awesome and we are so blessed to have you all in our lives. We love you all!

2008-09-27T22:15:00.002-07:00

Well, nothing too exciting happened for us this week. I spent all week working, and Devin spent the week hanging out and continuing his job search. Last night we played Mormon Bridge with my parents and Kara. It was fun, but I am sad to say that I got my butt kicked! I was just glad Gyle wasn't there to see me lose that bad. Today Devin went frolfing (frisbee-golf) with Todd again. We also got to see Josh today after his lip surgery on Tuesday. Nancy and John do such a good job taking care of him! He is doing really well, but it's so sad to see him in his arm braces and the protective stuff for his face. He is so cute! And we can't wait for him to recover all the way! Kara, Tricia, and I went to women's conference tonight with mom. It was a good conference. We missed the last part of Pres. Uchtdorf's talk cause we had to get the refreshments ready, but we enjoyed everyone else's talks. The very first date Devin and I were supposed to go on was supposed to be on women's conference 2 years ago, but I had to cancel cause I didn't realize that the conference was that night. Luckily Devin understood, and he asked me out again. Then last year, Devin proposed on the same day as women's conference. Just jokingly, I asked him what special thing he was going to do this year. Well, that's about it for this week. Devin has another interview on Wednesday and lots more applications to fill out. Hopefully he'll have more luck this week!

A Fun Weekend

2008-09-20T20:47:00.005-07:00

This weekend was a fairly busy but fun weekend. It was a long week of work (I am still trying to get back into the work mode...), but it has been a good week. On Thursday night, Devin and I helped my mom can a couple of batches of peaches and pears. We were so spoiled growing up always eating fruits and vegetables that my mom had canned. I hardly ever buy fruits and vegetables from the grocery store if they are not fresh just because they are not as good. We will definitely have a garden and lots of fruit trees when we have a house of our own. Friday was not all that eventful for us. Devin went fishing and then we just hung out Friday night. Today was pretty busy. Devin woke up and went frolfing with his friend Todd. They've been planning on doing this for a while, and were finally able to. I woke up and helped my mom can 3 more batches. I definitely like to do peaches more than pears. I love the way that the skin just falls off after you boil them. After canning I helped Tricia design a couple of ideas for baby announcements. We are so excited for them to have their baby! Then Devin and I went to get a couple more fish. We also got a little frog to put in our fish tank! It was fun to have fish in Ohio, so I am glad that we got some more for here. We tried to take pictures of our new fish but they didn't turn out very well taking them through the fish tank. Then Nancy and John invited us over to their place for a bbq and some volleyball. It was a fun get together! Our new family game is Catch Phrase. We always play boys against girls and I am sad to say that the girls usually end up losing... But we always have a good time making fun of clues and answers that are given. It's some pretty funny stuff! Here are a few pictures from our little get together.

Tricia just played with Josh instead of playing volleyball because of her pregnant belly.

Isn't he cute? (Josh I mean...)

More Fish Pictures

2008-09-19T18:40:00.004-07:00

Devin went fishing again today and in his words, "Fishing was awesome!" He and John came home with a total of 5 fish, one of which was pretty big. As Devin was driving home he said, "Go get your camera and then come outside, you can post this on the blog". (I know, our lives are so exciting right now...) So here are a couple of pictures of the boys and their fish.

I am glad that Devin can go and do something that he enjoys so much! Thanks Suzi for getting him a fishing license! And thanks John for going with him! While Devin was gutting the big fish, he found out it was a female, and she still had all of her eggs. It was really sick to see all the blood and the guts, but the eggs were pretty cool.

On another note, work is still going well for me. It's been good to be back. Devin is still looking for a job and he had an interview at Home Depot the other day and is still waiting to hear back. We're hopeful that he'll find something soon! We'll see what happens. :) That's all for us.

Fishing!

2008-09-13T12:15:00.003-07:00

Yesterday Devin went fishing with John and John's brother and caught a fish! Dad was cooking salmon on the grill, so Devin threw his trout on there with it. Here is Devin gutting his fish. I know, it's pretty gross, but it's the only one that I took.

I am not a huge fan of fish, but I tried some of Devin's and it actually turned out pretty well. Way to go!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

2008-09-08T20:26:00.004-07:00

Now that we are back in Utah, we have to get back to "real" life. Devin spent all day Monday job searching, and it was my first day back at work. It was nice to be able to have some structure to my day now and to have something to do. And I am definitely grateful to have a job, and to be able to avoid all of the job searching. Devin spent 6 hours online Monday applying to different places. Yuck! Hopefully he will be able to find somewhere that he can enjoy working. The night we got back in Utah we had a bbq at mom's house. It was lots of fun. After we ate some yummy burgers we roasted some mallows over the fire. Here are a couple pictures from our fun night. (Annette and Ron, we missed you guys!)

I know this pictures is really blurry, but I just had to post it for Kara's face! I thought it was pretty funny. :)

Thanks Ryan for looking at the camera. I think he was a little to concentrated on roasting his marshmallow. I've never seen anyone eat so many!

Today we had the awesome opportunity to take Devin's sister Chelsee to the MTC. She and Devin's mom came over last night from Denver and we drove up to Kaysville to see them. Today we went to Brick Oven for lunch , and then we took Chelsee to the MTC. It was fun to be able to go and see her off. She's going to be such a great missionary! We love you Chelsee!

Camping

2008-09-05T22:45:00.013-07:00

After we got done at the water park, we hurried and showered off and then headed up into the mountains for some camping. While we were up there we went 4-wheeling, we roasted some marshmallows, and we went hiking. Devin had a lot of fun building fires, and he built some pretty good ones! Brailee, Daiken and Estee had so much fun playing in the dirt. I was very impressed that Britnee just let them do it. They got pretty dirty! It was fun to watch them though and it made for some cute pictures! So sorry, but you get a lot of pictures again with this post. This was our last little outing in Colorado and it was a lot of fun!

In the second picture, notice the shoe on Daiken's head to block the rain. Ha ha.

We made it back to Utah last night, so we are home! It was so much fun to be able to spend time with the Walkers though, and I am glad that we were able to do it. Now it's back to "real" life...

Pirate's Cove

2008-09-04T11:13:00.008-07:00

For our Labor Day, we spent the day at Pirate's Cove water park. Devin and I went with the Harrops, and with Chelsee and Suzi. We had a lot of fun playing in the water. It was a great water park with lots of areas for little kids to play in. Here is the bucket that would fill up with water and then as it was getting close to the top a bell would start ringing letting everyone know it was going to drop. As a result, lots of people would go and stand underneath waiting to get wet. It was a ton of water!

Devin and I posing by the pirate at the entrance.

This is the lazy river that we spent a lot of time on. Brailee and Daiken weren't quite sure of this at first, but Brailee eventually warmed up to it. On the last time around she was sitting on my lap and I went to get out and my butt was wedged so far down in the tube that I got stuck. So it took me a while to get out... Kind of embarassing...

Devin and Adam had fun going down the waterslides. Devin would see how far he could make it coming out of the slide. He usually ended up on the stairs! We tried and tried to get a picture of Adam coming out of the slide but just couldn't get one. We had them go back up 3 or 4 times, and we just missed it every time!

Here are just a few more pictures from our fun day at the park!

The Last Few Days...

2008-08-31T20:35:00.015-07:00

Devin and I have had a few fun filled days in Colorado. We got here Thursday afternoon, and have been pretty busy ever since we've been here. Britnee was nice enough to give Devin a haircut, and she trimmed up my hair as well. That was nice since the last time we cut our hair was when we were in Indiana on our way out to Ohio for the summer. Thanks Britnee!

We all went to the temple together on Saturday morning. That was a good experience. It was my second time going through, so I was a little nervous, but I am glad that we had the opportunity to go. Devin and I were asked to be the witness couple, so that was cool to be able to do that as well. I am glad that they wanted to go to the temple. The Denver Temple is way smaller than the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, but it was still very pretty. I'm still amazed at the peace and quiet and the Spirit that you feel in the temple. There's nothing like it!

Devin absolutely loves playing with his nieces and nephew. He is always doing crazy things with Daiken, like tossing him up in the air, or having him do somersaults in his arms. When we went to dinner at Chili's on Friday night he lifted Daiken up in the air and had him hang onto this little roof. He actually let go of him a couple of times and Daiken just hung there by himself. Britnee always looks so worried when he does this kind of stuff and I totally understand why. It just makes me wonder what he is going to do with our kids...

Devin and I took Gyle's 22 up shooting Saturday afternoon. It was so nice to see the mountains and be able to be in them again! There is a family in the Walker's ward that has 5 acres of land in the mountains, and they have shooting booths set up on the mountainside, so we went up there to shoot. It was fun shooting, although the gun jammed on an empty shell every other bullet. I think Devin spent more time digging out those shells than we spent actually shooting the gun!

Here are our targets that we shot at. It's not a very good picture, but I would say we did a pretty good job.

Chelsee had her farewell on Sunday and they had an open house after church was over. She is going to the Nevada, Las Vegas mission and she goes into the MTC on September 10. She gave such an awesome talk in Sacrament Meeting and then her and Britnee and Tyson performed a musical number that was great as well! After church, I noticed that Brailee had a bunch of books that she was reading to herself, and so I asked her if she would come over and read them with me. We read books for about a half an hour. While we were reading Daiken decided he wanted to come and join us. We read about 9 books, everything from The Cat in the Hat to Dr. Seuss's ABC to The Bear Detectives. It was fun to sit and read with the kids. I don't know if you can see the wet spot on my shorts in the second picture, if you can, I did not pee my pants, Brailee just spilled some water on me. The Walker's spent the last couple of days cooking and making yummy snacks for the open house. They made some delicious food!

Here are just some pictures of the kids that I took in the last couple of days. Daiken just loves his sun glasses and he is always wearing them. It is so cute! You can see in one picture he is even wearing 2 pairs. I just love that picture of Devin and Daiken in their sun glasses. Stud muffins!

It's been so fun to be able to spend time with the Walkers. They are such a great family. These kids are so cute! Everyone always asks them either, "Who loves you the most?" or "Who's your favorite?" Tyson had Brailee pinned down and he kept asking her "Who loves you the most?" And she kept yelling over and over, "Lianne, Lianne, Lianne." I thought it was pretty cute. Over the next couple of days, we should be swimming, camping and having a good time, and then we will head back to Utah on Thursday. I'm sure I'll post again before that. I hope that post didn't bore you to death, I know it was a long one!

We Are Out of Ohio!!!

2008-08-28T07:54:00.007-07:00

Devin and I spent the last couple of days packing and cleaning. It was loads of fun... We got our apartment all ready to go in 2 days, and then we hit the road. Here are some of our last few pictures from Ohio.

Here's Devin doing a cartwheel in the puddle of water behind our apartment after it rained. I have such a talented husband don't I? (This was before he threw out his back again...)

Devin was so sad to have to get rid of his garden. I felt bad for him. But we can't wait until we can have a big one! (Although it might be a while...) He's excited to be able to go and work in his parents yard this week.

We also had to get rid of out fish. We figured that they probably wouldn't make the drive home, so we released them in the pond. Hopefully they'll be able to survive for at least a little bit! I think we are going to get a couple more when we get home. They were pretty fun to have.

We left Ohio around 10 in the morning, and we made it to Hays Kansas around 12:30 at night. We will make it to Denver hopefully around 3 or 4 today. It has been a long drive so far, but it hasn't been too bad. Time goes by pretty fast with music and DVDs, so it's almost over (at least for now)!! It was fun while it lasted, but we are glad that we are no longer in Ohio!

The Jungle

2008-08-24T10:06:00.004-07:00

Devin's garden has been one of the funnest thing for us this summer. (Devin says it was the funnest thing.) It was fun to watch it grow, and we didn't get a ton of produce from it, but it was fun to take care of, and we got a few yummy vegetables. All in all, we were able to eat a couple of cucumbers, a zucchini, some beet greens, a couple of peas, lots of little tomatoes, and rhubarb. (We have a squash growing, but it's not going to be ready before we leave, we also have some peppers that probably won't be ready either.) These are some of the vegetables that are still growing, and some that we are going to eat really soon!

The Zucchini we're going to eat for lunch today. Yum!

Our Squash. This won't be ready before we have to go. :(

The peppers. Devin told me I can't eat any cause they're going to be really spicy! (Pica mucho) I think I am ok with that. :)

Our Beans. We have a couple of blossoms on the plant, but no beans yet.

And here is how our garden grew over the summer. The plants definitely got a lot bigger! It was fun to watch it grow!

And the final product...

And just a couple more pictures of Devin. He was really happy that I wanted to post these ones. :)Oh, he's so cute. (Sorry that the picture is pretty blurry.)

2008-08-22T12:37:00.002-07:00

I was watching Ellen today and this little boy was on the show. Cody is 6 years old, and he was born with some defect in both of his legs, so they had to amputate both of them. On the show, they showed him swimming, running and playing soccer. They also talked about how he went to visit men who had lost their legs fighting wars, and he would tell them to not be afraid. I just thought he was such a cute kid! And I was impressed by how he was still a happy little boy, doing things that any kid loves to do! It is definitely a feel good story! :)

A New Clip!

2008-08-22T12:28:00.002-07:00

I found this Twilight clip. I got to the Fansite off of Britnee's blog (thanks Britnee!), and there it was! The sounds is pretty crappy, but you can watch it here. It's under "trailers/clips" and then just hit next until you get to the Greenhouse clip.

Cleveland Indian's Game

2008-08-17T16:47:00.013-07:00

Gordon had been wanting to go to a Cleveland Indian's game this summer, so when they got their tickets they asked us if we wanted to come along. I had never been to a professional baseball game before, and we thought that it would be fun, so we went with them. We drove up to Progressive Field to watch the Indians play the Angels. It was a fun game in which the Indians won 4-3. The only drawback on the day was that it was a little warm. The temperature was perfect every time that a cloud passed in front of the sun, but when it was out it was pretty hot! But thanks Tricia and Gordon for taking us along with you! We had fun! Here are a few pictures from our outing today:

On a side note, we were looking at what movies are coming out in 2009 and there are some pretty good ones! I didn't figure out what an of these are rated, but some of the ones that I am excited for are, Angels and Demons (the sequel or prequel (I can't remember which) to The Da Vinci Code), Wolverine (who doesn't love Hugh Jackman?! Watch the trailer here), The Brazilian Job (the sequel to The Italian Job), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (I don't know exactly what this is about, but it looks like it could be pretty cool... Maybe...), Jurassic Park IV (maybe they'll redeem themselves...), Spiderman 4 (the IMDB website says this one isn't coming out until 2011, so I'm not 100% sure...), Transformers 2 (hopefully it will be comparable to the first one), and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (whose release date recently moved from this year to next summer). Hopefully it will be a good year for movies!

Weird Sports

2008-08-16T12:36:00.004-07:00

Sorry to write another post about the Olympics, but watching them today I have realized that there are a few weird sports in the Olympics. I watched the women's singles final of Badminton today. I remember trying to play Badminton when I was little, and I'm pretty sure we were lucky if we got more than 2 hits in. The commentator was saying that these girls hit the birdie at speeds upwards of 200 mph. Crazy!

I watched the women's singles final of Fencing the other day, and it was not at all what I expected it to be. I have never seen a fencing match before, but I definitely pictured more hitting and blocking with their foils instead of just taking steps, lunging, and getting in a hit. It was not as exciting as I thought it would be...

I have yet to see a Table Tennis game in the Olympics, but I still can't believe that Table Tennis is an Olympic sport. Although I am amazed every time that I watch professionals play. There again, it is quite different from when we played it in the garage or on the mini table in the basement...

The other sport that I didn't ever expect to be an Olympic sport is the Trampoline. Who would have thought to make that an Olympic sport? I watched that one for the first time today, and it was pretty fun to watch. I don't think I was ever even able to do a flip on a trampoline!

Even though I think that these are kind of weird sports for the Olympics, I still admire all of the athletes that compete in them. And I can't wait to see what's coming up in the Olympics. :)

Other Twilight News

2008-08-15T19:49:00.003-07:00

I was watching the Twilight clip that I posted earlier and caught this article. According to the article, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was scheduled to be released on November 21 of this year, is moving to July 17, 2009. And Twilight will be taking it's spot! Apparently Warner Bros feels that if they release it in the summer, the movie will reach a wider audience. I tried to see if this date switch was given on the IMDB website, but they still have the release dates as the original ones, so we'll see if it's actually true... But hey, I would be all for the movie coming out a little bit earlier! How awesome would that be?!

Enchanted

2008-08-15T18:27:00.003-07:00

Tricia and I did something fun tonight. Our apartment complex sets up little things you can go to, like ice cream or root beer floats by the pool and just fun stuff like that. This weekend they are doing outdoor movies by the pool. So Tricia and I went over to watch part of Enchanted. It was fun to get out and do something different for an hour. And to have our own little "date" as well since our husbands work late. We both decided that we like that movie. It's a good one! Tomorrow night they are going to show The Game Plan. We'll probably go out and watch a little of that as well. If any of you out here in Columbus want to join us feel free to! They start the movie at 8, and it is something fun for a change. We can all have a date with each other since it is hard to have dates with our husbands! :)

More to the Twilight Scene

2008-08-12T21:55:00.003-07:00

So you guys all know how they revealed the full scene from Twilight? I'm sure you have all seen it. I found a little more to it. To watch the scene, click here. It's pretty awesome!

2008-08-12T21:12:00.002-07:00

I have been absolutely loving watching the Olympics! I think that this is the first year that I have ever really gotten into them. I am amazed at what all of these athletes can do! I really hope that Michael Phelps can take home all of his gold medals. And how awesome would it be if he kept up setting the world records for the rest of his races! His team medleys have been awesome! That 4 x 100 had the best finish that I have ever seen in a race! And they absolutely smashed the world record in the 4 x 200! Wow!! I still can't believe how great of a swimmer he really is. I hope that Misty May and Kerri Walsh continue their winning in sand volleyball and become the first women's sand volleyball team to ever repeat gold medals! They should be able to do it. I feel so bad for the women's gymnastics team. Especially the one girl who messed up on beam and on her floor routine. That was SO sad! They still finished well though so that was good. Those Chinese girls are good though. I gotta say that I feel bad for them though; training from the time they were 3 and only being able to call their families one time a year. And I feel bad for the team captain who wanted to quit gymnastics, but her family wouldn't let her come back home. I also must say that I have a really hard time believing they are all 16 or older... I am excited to watch some more events and to see how the rest of the olympics turn out!!

Cucumbers!!

2008-08-10T17:42:00.002-07:00

We got to eat our first cucumber! Mmmmmm! Nothing like fresh garden produce (especially cucumbers)! We are probably going to get a few more cucumbers before we leave, which I am way excited for! Somehow this ugly picture was the only one that we got, and Devin made me promise that I would post it. So I apologize! The cucumber sure was good though! :)

The Olympics

2008-08-08T18:17:00.003-07:00

I am sitting here watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and working on my online classes, and I was just thinking what a cool thing the olympics are. I don't think that I have ever watched all of the Opening Ceremonies before, but this year they have been fantastic!! I am amazed at all of the planning and preparation that has gone into them. And it has been a lot of fun to listen to the commentators and all of the knowledge they have about what is being represented. I am amazed at the artistic-ness (sorry, I know that's not a real word...) that has been shown in the opening ceremonies. I particularly enjoyed the Tai-chi portion, and what they did with the movable type. Wow!! Awesome!!! I think that the Olympics are just such a great way to bring the world together. And I can only imagine that it would be such a great honor to represent your country at an event like this. I have to admit that sometimes I get a little teary-eyed watching the athletes sing along to their national anthems, especially the athletes from the United States. I think that this is such an awesome event and it will be so nice to have a break from watching the shows that are on tv every day to watch the Olympics. So good luck to all of the athletes! Let the games begin!! :)

Breaking Dawn

2008-08-03T12:22:00.001-07:00

I too, like Annette, finished reading Breaking Dawn yesterday. I didn't make quite the same time as she did though. Tricia and I got the books together and read all day together yesterday. It was an enjoyable book, a little different from what I expected, but she got all of the loose ends tied up, and we enjoyed reading! I would recommend the series to anyone looking for some good books! :)

I Miss My Hubby!

2008-08-01T14:07:00.004-07:00

I dropped Devin off at the airport about 3 1/2 hours ago, and I already miss him. He went home to Colorado for the weekend to visit his family and support his dad in his new calling. I am so super excited for him that he was able to take this little vacation (and to have a break from work)!! Before he left, he told me over and over, "you know what I am going to do when I get there?" My answer was always "go swimming". He would always reply with "yep!" And add a big smile to his face! I know that he is super excited to be able to play with his nieces and nephew for a few days. I just ask the Walkers to take care of him while he's gone - and to not let him be too crazy on the 4-wheelers! :) Have fun sweetie! I love you!

Here are a few pictures I found of Devin on our computer. I know he's going to love me for posting them! :)

Have a fun trip!!

Moldy Food

2008-07-30T13:08:00.003-07:00

One of my least favorite jobs is having to clean out the fridge. I hate to see moldy food. It grosses me out! We had some Jell-O a couple weeks ago, and we didn't finish the whole thing. So it got stuck back in the fridge. I have been afraid to pull it out because I did not want to see what it looked like. I finally got brave enough to wash out the pan. So I pulled it out and found out that it was not longer Jell-O. Needless to say, it was growing hair. I took a picture so that I could show Devin later, and he said, "you should post it on the blog." So prepare to be grossed out!

My lesson for the day is, clean out the fridge before your food starts looking like this!

Devin's Got Tomatoes Coming Out The Wazoo!

2008-07-30T10:54:00.004-07:00

This is the big cucumber that is growing. We have a couple of little other ones growing as well. :)

The beans that Devin planted 2 weeks ago. They are already growing really well!

The whole garden. Things are still growing pretty well!

Kirtland Revisited

2008-07-27T17:56:00.003-07:00

We had the opportunity to go to Kirtland again today. We went with a big APX group and we were able to bring our husbands. It was fun to be able to go back and see everything with Devin. We went and took the tour through the temple first and then we went and saw all the "Mormon" stuff. I think we all enjoyed that part a bit more. This time was fun as well because we also got to see the ashery and the sawmill, which we didn't get to see the last time we were there. Here are some pictures from our little outing today. If any of you haven't been to Kirtland, you should definitely go if you have the opportunity. It's worth it!

We learned that Kirtland was the place where the hymn "High on the Mountain Top" was written. And the sister missionary told us that the mountian that this song is taling about is the tiny hill that you can sort of see in the background of this picture. Doesn't it just look like a huge mountain?This is a replica of the ashery that Newell K. Whitney owned. The products made here were what helped Newell make most of his money.

This is a replica of the sawmill that was built to help build the temple.

A couple of other random pictures. We sure have one cute nephew!