A few Summer Obsessions and Recent Happenings

I feel as though this summer was one of accomplishment for me. Not necessarily because I did a lot of things I NEEDED to do, but I have been able to do so many things I've always wanted to do! Here are a few.

I finally went in for a LASIK consult. I have been struggling with my contacts for quite some time and on the 4th of July it became unbearable. I came to find out that my eyes have rejected contacts and after 10 years of wearing them I will no longer be able to wear contacts. Now, here comes the tricky part, because of the condition my eyes had developed from my contacts, they weren't able to get a good read on my eyes and therefore I wasn't a LASIK candidate, YET! I'm crossing my fingers that when I go back in a month, the news will be good, or that at least I will have some different options. For now, I'm dancing with an awesome dorky strap on my glasses. Sweet.

Couponing! I went to a free Savvy Shopper couponing class with my friend Courtney at the beginning of the summer and got really excited about it, I even got a binder and everything. I have actually gotten a lot of free stuff and saved much more money than I was before. Even if I'm not getting 150$ worth of groceries for 10 cents, I feel like I'm contributing to our income by saving! It has become more like a hobby to me and I love it!

Crafting, crocheting, and etsy! I have an Etsy site now where I post all of my new crochet projects. My skills have slowly improved over the summer as I have tried out new patterns and ideas. I make lots of different baby items like shoes, hats, headbands. And I've recently been taking some special orders! I made a feather wreath for a baby shower gift that my friend Mollie wanted. It has been SO fun to craft and once again, even though I haven't been able to get a steady job this summer, I have been able to contribute a little bit by selling my items online and by word of mouth.

I have such wonderful friends. Below, is the logo my friend Kristi made for me completely out of the goodness of her heart! And then, my friend Lyndsey designed a darling business card for me and I ordered 500! I'm really excited for this to take off! I'm working on getting an inventory of things to take to a boutique in Bountiful.

 Babysitting and babies, babies, babies! Above are the munchies aka Grant and Paige who I have had the opportunity to babysit a couple times this summer and below is my dear friend Courtney's baby Harper. I go over every Monday night and watch Bachelorette and hold Harper. I love it. We have also been visiting Bryan, Sally and little Bennett too. We love all our little babies! I'm counting down the days until I get to meet my own little Ella. FINALLY when we go to Tahoe with the family in a couple weeks.

My sister is a member at 24 hour fitness and has been taking some of the classes there and invited me to come. I found a free 7 day pass and jumped in. I love it! My favorite is hip-hop hustle and I am actually scheduled to get certified to teach this class in mid-september if all goes well scheduling wise. I never thought I would get a gym membership while in college but it might have to happen until I get certified and can teach the classes instead.

And finally, DANCING. I'm of course dancing this summer. Caleb and I are still competing together and have been practicing most every day. I am teaching dance three times a week as well. Caleb and I have the opportunity to get several lessons from professionals who have come in to Utah for the ballroom camp at BYU. It has been awesome! I may have missed some things but that is pretty much it in a nutshell!

Anniversary!

Jer and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary last Wednesday! Well, sort of. We actually did our real celebration on Saturday. Wednesday we did go to Los Hermanos which is a forgotten favorite of mine and I'm so glad we decided to go there and rekindle the flame of my love for that restaurant. Jer was able to take the day off work on Saturday so we got the whole day together!

First stop was 7 peaks! Jer's mom was kind enough to help us out with tickets as an anniversary gift. We had so much fun and went on most of the rides. Even the scary ones! Watch out for that slingshot though, Jer "bottomed" out and bruised his tailbone!

Next, we went to Cheesecake factory! We have both been really wanting to go here and my mom got us a gift card as an anniversary gift! We got some amazing food and of course cheesecake!

Just as a P.S. we DID take a bite of our wedding cake that we had frozen for a year and guess what? It was pretty dang good still! I'm so mad we forgot to take a picture but let it be known that we did indeed save it in our freezer and ate some on our one year!

 When I got home there was a wonderful surprise! Jer had our friends the Bready's come over while we were gone and decorate with balloons, candles and flowers. It was so fun!

 Jer got some help from my sister and made a slideshow DVD of pictures from our first year of marriage! It was so cute, I loved it.

 Here we are with my beautiful roses.

 I got Jer some temple pants because ever since we got married he has always rented them! And then I also got him a gift certificate for a one hour massage at our favorite place Solase because he has been working so hard this summer and could use a little relaxation.

 In addition to the decorations, flowers and DVD, Jer also got me a coupon clipper! It's a pretty nifty gadget. For those of you who didn't know, I've gotten quite into couponing this summer so it was a very cute and thoughtful gift from my sweet husband.

And now for my thoughts on the matter. I've heard a lot of people say, "everyone says the first year of marriage is so hard but I don't know what they're talking about! My first year was perfect!" I'm not going to tell you our first year was perfect even though it WAS pretty blissful. But I WILL say, that marriage makes those hard times a little less hard because you have someone supporting you and going through them with you all the way along. I have learned such a selfless love from my husband and I'm so grateful for the experiences that help us grow as individuals and as a couple every day. I can't wait to see what eternity has in store for us! :o)

Scriptures and Cell Phones

I wonder what would happen if we treated our scriptures like we treat our cell phones?

What if we carried them around with us everywhere?

What if we turned back to go get it, if we forgot it?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we spent an hour or more using it every day?
What if we used it to receive messages?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we used it as we traveled?

What if we used it in case of an emergency?

Unlimited usage. 

No roaming charges. 

You always have reception.

It's free with no hidden costs, AND you don't ever have to worry your scriptures being disconnected because CHRIST has already paid the bill!

Dancing With the Stars

Something I had the opportunity to do this summer was work with one of the young men from my director Linda Wakefield's ward and do a little "Dancing With the Stars" for their ward. I taught him a Foxtrot to Michael Buble's "Fever" and we performed for the mutual and their parents. A few other people from my team did it as well and it was a really fun experience! My partner's name was Ioane pronounced ee-oh-wah-nay, and he was such a fast learner! Here are some pictures.

 He is only 15! He's a foot taller than me.

 Here's Caleb with his partner.

This was our ending pose. I think Ioane felt pretty cool about the fact that he could pick me up and I was impressed that a 15 year old could pick me up as well!

Waitin' For the Postman

You know that excited feeling when you know something is coming in the mail for you, you can hardly wait till the mailman comes and you run out to the mailbox right when you see his truck drive away? Well, I've got that fever right now. And i'll tell you what for:

 My sweet husband got me these shoes for Christmas (meaning six months ago) and they were just a bit too small so we sent them back. Sadly, they didn't have this style in anymore and wouldn't get it in until their Spring collection came out, (so they said). I really, really, really wanted the pink glitter ones so we decided to wait. Spring rolled around and nothing. We waited several months and finally decided to check again and FINALLY they had the pink glitters in my size! Yay! So they are in the mail on the way to my awaiting tootsies.

Secondly:

The picture is a bit small, but my friend Alissa got these wedges for tour last year and I have always admired them. I somehow never asked her where she got them but yesterday as I was browsing Target's website I stumbled across them. Jer was home for lunch and I showed him the shoes and told him how much I liked them. Later on in the day after I had left for a dress rehearsal, I got an e-mail on my iphone from Target thanking me for my purchase! Jer had ordered the shoes for me after I left the house AND he had done the dishes and taken the garbage out to boot! What a sweet husband I have! I am the luckiest girl alive. :o)

Anna's Stay - Installment Two

We had just as much fun the second week we had Anna as the first! Can't believe how many fun things you can fit into such a short time, but we did it! :o)
First feat...Hiking the "Y"! This was so much fun, once we got to the top. It turned out to be VERY hot when we chose to go and the hike seemed a lot harder in that heat.

 We got to have some Paigey and Grant time when we went to Mollie and Elliot's for a BBQ. It was so much fun. We love these little cuties. They are our adopted niece and nephew.

 Can't get enough of those dimples!

 More babies! Every Monday I go to my good friend Courtney's house to watch The Bachelorette but lets be honest, 50% or more of the reason I go is to see this sweet little bundle Harper. She is almost 4 weeks old now but still so tiny and cute, cute, cute!

 Being silly and holding miss Harper Jean.

 I LOVE this picture of her. I can't get over it.

 I taught Anna how to make a baby headband! This is amazing for her first time! My mom taught us both to crochet so we had fun crocheting together.

 Our cousin Keiana came down to Provo to spend the day with us. We went to see Soul Surfer at the dollar theater. It was such a good movie. Kind of emotional but definitely a must-see and totally family appropriate. We love our sweet Keiana!

 Here we are just hangin out at the apt. We did have some quiet moments of watching movies and doing crafts. :o)

 We had a blast spending some time with Jer's family in Kaysville. Anna and Jer's two little sisters came with us to the Bountiful Temple to do baptisms. They got out quite a bit earlier than we did so they walked around the grounds and took some pretty impressive pictures. This temple is so beautiful and it was both mine and Anna's first time visiting it!

 Then we all headed to Lagoon! We were so lucky to get Cam and Dianna with us too. We had a blast and went on almost every ride. We had a delicious picnic dinner at the park.

 Sisters at Lagoon!

 This the horses on this carousel are hand carved and this carousel is the only operating hand-carved one in all of Utah! Pretty cool history for you.

 I tried out a new pattern. LOVE these. The ruffle kills me.

 When my parents and Katie got back we had a fun picnic in the back yard of the condo and then walked to the football fields to watch the stadium of fire fireworks. It was awesome. On the 4th we had our own condo of fire! This was the first time Anna and I had done fireworks as it is illegal in CA.

 Please excuse the way I look in this picture. I promise I had a cute 4th outfit on earlier. See my sister's blog for those pictures. mshouston.blogspot.com

We got one aerial firework to shoot off since they are now legal! Here Jer is getting ready to light it! I will admit it was pretty cool.

So there you have it, a glimpse into a true Party at the Pendletons - Anna style. :o)