top five friday 1.5.17

1 - we just booked a trip to cabo! we are going at the beginning of june and we are doing it without kids. i'm so excited!! the last kidless trip we went on, we took a red eye to orlando {biggest mistake of our life}, got on a boat, and set out to the bahamas. there was a huge storm the first night we were out and the rocking and swaying was ridiculous. i was already not up to par from being so exhausted {remember the red eye? oh, and i was also 18 weeks pregnant} and i ended up having to leave dinner early because i felt so nauseous. i got right outside the door and puked everywhere. so embarrassing. and yet, i really didn't care as much as you'd think i would, because i felt so. dang. awful. we slept almost that whole trip away. my point is, this trip will be soooo welcomed. we found an awesome room at an awesome resort and it was ridiculously cheap! so stoked.

2 - i spent almost 3 full hours walking around target on monday. also by myself. {totally coincidental that the first two highlights of my week have to do with me being away from my kids...i promise i don't hate them.} it was gloooorious. i spent way too much money, but i'm patting myself on the back because since i spent a lot less than i wanted to. winning? i just want to revamp my entire life with everything target.

3 - i signed up for a 6-week workout program that will probably rock my world {not in a good way}, but i'm weirdly excited for it. i've been needing something to kick me in the butt and get me to workout. i have successfully counted calories and eaten better for over a week now, but that can only get me so far if i'm not exercising. my friend, diana, and i have been practicing for the early mornings that the program is going to bring {5:30 am. ouch.} and have been to the gym early in the mornings a couple of times this week. it hurts so bad to get out of bed {totally not a morning person. as far from it as possible.}, but it feels incredible when i can come home and shower before the kids are even awake! {even if it means me taking a quick nap at 9 am. ha! i'm not joking.}

4 - we went on our first family bike ride! every year, zach and i make a list of big-ticket items that we want or need and then we number them, based on which ones we think we should buy first. then we put money into a savings account each month that goes purely to buying things on that list and it is so fun to see the list get smaller and smaller! we have had bicycles and a trailer on our list for the longest time and we finally bought them about a week after graham was born...not the greatest timing. now that he is big enough to sit up and not being bounced around all over the place, we were finally able to use it and it was awesome. i didn't realize how much i loved riding a bike. {even if my butt says otherwise.} can't wait to use it more. too bad that we just got a foot of snow dumped on us.

5 - it's a new year. i'm a sucker for fresh starts. i've seen a bunch of things going around about how much of a crock the idea of a "new year, new you" is and it makes me so sad! i love the clean slate feeling that the turn of a new year brings. sure, you won't just magically be a different person on jan 1 than you were on dec 31, but it makes you think about how you want to change and how you're going to do it. i love it. we were able to celebrate 2017 with dear friends that we have made in cheyenne and we had so much fun. {especially the part where we ate cuban sandwiches. first timer here and man, they are amazing!!} we are sure going to miss everyone when we move this year.

happy first week of the year!

-the mrs.

top five friday {4/11/14}

happy friday!

without going into too much detail, because it probably won't make sense anyway, zach just got kind of a different job, so weekends are officially a thing of the past. boo. on the flip side though, he will have random days off during the week, so that will be nice. he actually had last friday off and then he asked saturday and sunday off and he didn't have to go in monday and only had to go in for a couple hours on tuesday. it was awesome! addi has been sleeping like poop at night, so zach has been a rockstar of a husband and has gotten up with her at the buttcrack of dawn, so i can get some extra sleep. i sure married one awesome man. anyway, because he's been home during the day, he's been having to go into work at night and doesn't get home until midnightish. on paper, it sounds like a fair trade, but i hate going to sleep alone, so i end up waiting up for him and then we are both exhausted the next day. it's a joke. so, pretty much, that was just a really long way of saying that zach isn't home now and i'm killing time until he is and thought i'd share my top five favs from the week. ;) 

1 - i just started another job. yep. another one. do you want to know the best part about me working two jobs? both of them can be accomplished in my pajamas at home! i've been talking to my boss from the pharmacy for months now about doing some computer work for him and things have finally started rolling with it. i feel so grateful that i can earn a little bit of money while still being able to stay home and play with adelaide!

2 - hiking. once upon a time, i went hiking with a bunch of peeps and we thought it'd be a good idea to leave at 1 in the freaking morning. note to self: the next time you want to go hiking at a time like that, do not do it. it was sooooo miserable, i can't even put it into words. since then, i've been convinced that i hate hiking, until a couple weeks ago when i went with my little brother in estes park. that was kind of a lame hike though. ever since the flooding in colorado last fall, estes park has been demolished. so, last weekend, zach and i went to a different area and i loved every second of it! i kept saying over and over that i wanted nothing more than to go hiking every weekend. not only does it get me out and exercising, but it's so dang pretty! also, addi loves it. she sat in her chair and giggled the entire time.

3 - this song:

i seriously can't help but roll the windows down every time it comes on the radio. it's definitely my favorite feel-good song as of late.

4 - i'm officially 4 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. you'll probably get an update when i'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight too, so just deal with it. i've been hovering between 4 and 6 pounds for a few weeks now and although i'm not where i want to be completely, i feel pretty dang proud of how far i've come! it wasn't as easy to get rid of it all as it seems like it is for a lot of moms. probably because i love chick-fil-a milkshakes too much, but still. it may have taken almost 9 months, but it's still happening nonetheless. it blows my mind to see the difference between these two pictures. i know you can't compare bellies or anything since i was pregnant and all, but my face? good freaking night. that's 36 pounds that i hope to never see again!

{36 weeks in, 36 weeks out!}

5 - i've been feeling all sorts of nostalgic this week. yesterday marked 4 years since zachary and i went on our first date. on that date, he took me to my very first thai restaurant and i have been in love with thai food ever since. so now, it's tradition to eat at a thai restaurant every year. 

{the one we went to this year was a total let down, by the way. but that's beside the point.} 4 years. i can hardly believe it. it's nuts to see how much has happened and all the places we've been in those 4 years. we did a little reminiscing and played the "remember that one time?" game where we just recall memories from the last 4 years and they all start with "remember that one time?" {duh} and holy cow, i was busting a gut. it's amazing, the pathetic kinds of things your mind remembers.

i sure love this boy with all of my heart and i'm so grateful that out of all the people in the world that i could have ended up with, i ended up with him. i'm grateful for that beautiful little girl that he has blessed me with and that even though it sometimes feels like we are out here in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles away from our families and feeling a little lonely at times, at least we have each other! and i wouldn't have it any other way.

-the mrs.

top five friday {3.7.14}

soooo...it's been a while since i've done a top five friday. partly because life is busy. and partly because i've thought that i really don't have much to share. then i decided that last sentence was stupid, because dang. i have a freaking awesome life and i guarantee that there are always five things in a week that can be celebrated. so, i'm hoping to keep this up again. after all, it used to be my favorite post of the week on this ol' blog, so maybe it'll give me something to look forward to! anyway. let's begin.

1 - planners. i've sucked at using a planner my entire life. my entire life. my freshman year in college, my friend gave me a planner for my birthday {because she knew how much i needed it. i'm the most disorganized/forgetful person ever.} and i was super pumped to use it and after about a good solid week, i stopped using it. cold turkey. i've just never been good at writing things down. that was until i bought a new planner last month. i think my problem with planners is that i usually get the week by week ones, so the amount of space to write down my to-do list for the day is no bigger than the size of my thumb. granted, i do have big thumbs {stupid man hands}, but it still just didn't cut it for me. this new planner is a day by day one and i literally have a whole page to write on! it's awesome. since acquiring this planner, my house has never been cleaner, i've never had so many posts written on my food blog and i've never worked out more in a week. it has made me so productive! i'm the type of person that needs a goal to work towards and attain, so being able to cross something off my to-do list every day makes me feel so accomplished. even if sometimes i do something and then write it down, just so i can cross it off. it still feels awesome. my goal is to cross off everything i've written down by the end of the day. i still have yet to do that.

2 - painted toenails. and sunshine. going along with number 1, because the house was clean one day this week and i had already worked out and such, i put addi down and found that i didn't have a whole lot to do. i have had "paint your toenails" on my to-do list for 3 weeks now {it always seems to be one of the things i can never get crossed off} because i have had the same smidgen of toenail polish on my feet since i painted both mine and addi's toes before halloween. don't judge. anyway, i sat down and painted those babies and as i laid on the bed, waiting for them to dry, i was seriously overcome with what a gorgeous day it was and how good life can be. yeah. i get giddy over lame things. but to me, they're awesomely lame things!

3 - date night. i've always loved going on dates with zach, but since we have had addi, it hasn't been as much of a priority. not because we don't want to go out by ourselves, but because leaving your kid with a babysitter is stressful. if i'm not worrying about whether or not she will be okay without me, i'm worrying about the person babysitting her and imagining addi screaming her head off the whole time and not wanting to take a bottle or nap. it's hard for me to let go of. luckily, we have some really great friends here that have helped us out though and have put us at ease. i don't think people realize how freaking lucky they are to have family living close by. some days, i'd give anything for it! i'm so grateful for friends that can be like family to us. anyway, we have tried to make it a point to go out every thursday now. last night we went to a local place called 'the chocolate cafe'. umm, is there any possible way a date could go wrong at a place with the word 'chocolate' in it? no. the answer is no. not to mention, they had the best bread pudding i have ever had in my entire life and i don't even like bread pudding. 'nuff said. i love being able to get away and share a few hours with my main squeeze!

4 - adelaide is officially eating solids. willingly! i know. i never thought i'd see the day either.

i tried so hard when she hit six months and she refused. it actually made me kind of sad to be honest. i wanted to try some baby-led weaning, where she could basically just eat table food from the get-go, but after a few episodes of dry heaving and full on puking, i decided that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. i think she doesn't know what to do with a chunk of food on her tongue, so it triggers her gag reflex. so, purees it is. but at least it's a start! if anybody has some good recipes on homemade purees, send them my way!

5 - i attended a blog conference last month and had so much fun that i wanted to go to another one. there is one called blogher foods in may and it's geared just towards food bloggers so i really wanted to go, but i knew there was no way we would be able to afford it, considering that it's in miami freaking florida. then, i got talking to my friend, hayley, and she encouraged me to try to get sponsored. so, i asked around a little bit and what do you know? the company that makes candiquik {that dipping chocolate you see in like, every grocery store? yeah. them.} is totally going to pay for me to go!! i was super excited about it and still can't believe that this blog has taken me to places like this. i have a problem with comparing it and its size to other people, but ya know what? i've worked dang hard at getting it to where it is and i'm totally proud of it. regardless of whether it's smaller than other people's blogs. that's all.

well friends - same time. same place. next week. {actually, probably not the same time because ain't nobody got to worry about writing a blog post at the exact same time every week. but, you get the point.}

-the mrs.

top five friday.

#1 - monopoly. we played three games in one day this week. i grew up thinking that the game was over once all the properties were bought cause we didn't understand the whole mortgaging thing {nor did we care to}, so in my eyes monopoly has always been just a really boring, short-lived game that doesn't have a point. zachary taught me the official way to play last weekend though and it has turned me into a monopoly addict...and kind of a rude person. i hate losing.

#2 - saving money. i went to joanns last night, looking for some valentine's wreath inspiration. i didn't find any sadly, but what i did run into were some huge christmas sales. these 6 tins were originally $32.40 and i got them for a whopping $3.24.

there aren't many things that i love more than a good deal. especially when it's 90% off. i'm envisioning homemade caramels and peppermint bark in them for gifts next christmas. can't wait.

#3 - campfires on the beach:

i got off work early last weekend and when i came home, we made a spontaneous drive to grover beach for a weenie roast/date night. we wanted to watch a movie while we were at it and were seriously comtemplating going out and buying a laptop just so we could, but decided against it - smart move by us. it felt like we were in a movie the entire time we were there though. it was super romantic and really fun.

#4 - the temple. my testimony of temple attendance has grown tremendously in the last few months. not just because of the things we are taught in it, but because of the renewal of love i feel for zachary each time we go. it's like all the reasons i married him come rushing back and it makes me grateful for him more than ever before. it does my heart good to know that because of this wonderful place, i will be with zachary forever. not to mention it's also very beautiful.

#5 - junk food fridays. zachary and i made a few new years resolutions this year. we want to read our scriptures every day, save enough money to go to europe, run a mile for every day of the year, pay off a big chunk of debt, and the one that is proving to be the most trying: eat junk food only on fridays. it doesn't make it easy when you have this staring you in the face everyday:

but when friday finally does roll around, i can't tell you how satisfying it is to let loose and stuff my face with all things bad for me.

what are you loving this week?

-the wife

p.s. this has nothing to do with top five friday, but did you know that kirstie alley, the star of my favorite childhood movie, toothless,  is 61 years old?

61! that's older than my parents!

she looks no where near that old. 

oh the things i learn on ellen.

top five friday: new year's edition.

since it's a new year, i think it's only appropriate to share my top five things from 2011. here we go, in no particular order:

#1. we started our crazy adventure, which is taking on the air force life. we packed up and took the 1,856 mile trip to montgomery, al, only to pick up 6 weeks later and drive another 975 miles to del rio, tx. then, unexpectedly {and gratefully} we left 7 months later on a 1,395 mile trek to cali, where we are now waiting until the day we make the 1,280 mile drive to cheyenne, wy. whew. that was rough. looking at that, you may wonder why it made it to the top five list. it sounds hard and painful and sometimes it was, but at the same time, it has been so very rewarding. i've loved seeing the sights of this wonderful country, learning how to be a grown-up and do things for myself {mostly} and my very favorite part - meeting so many incredible people. seriously. we've made some friends that will be a part of our lives until the day we die, i'm sure. on top of all that, zachary and i have grown together more than i imagined possible in one year. yes, we have kind of been thrown into it, being away from family and such, but it really does a lot when you are all each other has to rely on. when you are the only person each other knows within a 1,000 mile radius. what a blessing in disguise it has actually been.

#2. we welcomed in a new member of our family. a member that is here to stay. {unlike the fish we got for christmas. or the puppy back in april. or the motorcycle. sheesh.} her name is stella.

you might laugh when i talk about a car being part of the family, but let's see you go shopping for one and then tell me how you feel. it has to click and you have to love it. i had the biggest butterflies when we drove her home for the first time. never mind that her tint job is bubbling up, causing her to look like a car straight from the hood. never mind that her night lights are very dim, making it hard to see what i'm doing. and never mind that she happens to be a manual and has embarrassed me many times as i've stalled her in the middle of an intersection. she's perfect and we adore her. i'm so glad we never have to live in one-car-purgatory again.

3. our many trips to utah. we went four times last year and each time it was incredible.

{alex and jodi's wedding - march}

{snow creams - july}

{the bestie's wedding - july}

{bryce canyon 5-mile run - august}

{temple square -november}

{black friday shopping with the sils - november}

#4. i got a job! my first job in over two years. there can be some serious down times:

but i am so so grateful for it. it really is a good job. i have prayed for this for months now, so i am grateful to have been so blessed. it's been a serious miracle. i like the people i work with and i love feeling all secretarial like. i can't even tell you how many times i've felt like pam from 'the office'.

#5. i know it wasn't 2011 when we got married, but come on. it was only 3 days before the new year! i feel like when something happens after the new year, then it's kind of old news, but trust me - my wedding is not old news. at least not to me anyway. someimes i will get on pinterest and see all the cute things that i couldn've done if only it had been around at the time. it bums me out and makes me resent the brides of 2012 that will all have perfect ideas. but then i realize that those perfect ideas will be done by more people that you can count and at least my wedding was an original design by me.

there's nothing like reliving the most perfect day of your life through pictures. it really was like a dream come true.

what are your favorite things from 2011?

-the wife

top five friday

#1. zooey deschanel. she has come a long way since 'elf' if i do say so myself. i've seen her in movies like 'yes man', '(500) days of summer', 'failure to launch', etc., but my all-time fav is her tv show 'new girl'. oh my hilarious! you've got to watch it. i think if i could have any actress' hair, it would definitely be hers. what i wouldn't give to be able to pull off those gorgeous front bangs! anyway, since this weekend is new years', it just so happens that i came across zooey and joseph gordon-leavitt performing a cover of 'what are you doing new years eve?'. i thought it was too cute not to share, so i hope you enjoy it as much as i did:

#2. one of my good friends from high school got hitched today! this is kind of a bittersweet top five. i am so so happy for shandi and her beau, but boy would i give anything to be with them on this special day. they are basically a match made in heaven. they dated throughout high school, he left on an lds mission and they kept in contact and then she left on a mission too and when she came home, they got engaged within weeks. such a cute couple and i'm sure she made a beautiful bride today. congrats shandi. love ya girl!

#3. these boots. they will most definitely be a near-future purchase.

#4. this photo found on ellen degeneres's facebook page:

she posted it and said, "people need to realize that a diamond isn't the only thing that's forever." *laughs* seriously though...who would make something so pointless into a tattoo? if you're going to get one and especially that big, at least make it worth it!

and coming in at #5, {last the best of all the game} was the greatest, most wonderful thing that happened to me this week - being able to celebrate my one year anniversary with my honey!

we went to san fran and oh. my. gosh. it was one of the best vacations i've ever been on. it was like a second honeymoon! there will be more pictures and stories to come soon. i promise.

i hope you all have a wonderful and happy new year and that you get lots of treats from the new year's fairy. over and out.

-the wife

top five friday.

i'm going to try something a little different here on the blog.
this is my introduction to "top five friday"; a weekly post where i will share five things that i love.

here are this week's:

#1. zachary and i both didn't have to work today. {and don't have to for two weeks. holla!}

#2. this video from david archuleta:

isn't that just the sweetest thing ever? i may or may not have cried a little with him the first time i saw it.

#3. these super easy christmas tags:

after using up our entire christmas budget, i realized we forgot to buy present tags. what's cheaper AND cuter than some kraft paper already on hand and stamps?

#4. this photo found on pinerest, captioned "this is why you marry your best friend."

pretty much sums it up. i'm so glad i married my best friend that makes me laugh everyday.

#5. new jammies. we do a christmas pj swap every year and i've dubbed these as the ones i want. think this is a big enough hint to the hubs to let him know which ones to get?

{found at target.com}

what are your favorite things this friday?

-the wife