I want this...

Does anyone look at the amazing yard in Better Homes and Gardens magazine and think, "that's what my yard is going to look like! "

Well I do.

But now that I actually have a big yard to work with I am actually starting to realize how hard it is going to be!

I want my yard to look like this:

But I have money for a professional landscaper that looks like this:

But... I have been reading my trustworthy Better Homes and Gardens magazine and have found out you don't have to hire a landscaper to have a fancy yard! You just need to have patience and a a bit of a green thumb. I really don't know if am a pro in either of those areas. But somehow I am going to figure it out!

I even bought some cute pink gardenign gloves.

I am even thinking of getting a big sun hat. :)

If anyone has any special secrets for a greener grass or how to not kill a plant in 5 days please do share.

Wish me and my yard luck!

Crazy Life

I have been absolutely awful at blogging lately! I really need to start getting better, but we have had a whole lot going on lately that's been keeping us super busy. 2011 has already been a crazy roller coaster and I am so excited to see what the rest of the year has to offer. We have experienced some pretty exiting highs, and some hard lows- but this is life and I love it nevertheless!



Last month Garrett's family was rocked pretty hard by the unexpected passing of Garrett's awesome cousin Brad. He was only 28 with a beautiful wife and sweet 3 year old daughter. It was so hard to see his family grieving, but it was amazing to see how many lives Brad touched in the short 28 years he was alive. I can honestly say I have never seen SO many people come together to celebrate someones life at a viewing and funeral- Literally 20 minutes after the viewing started there was a line around the block of people wanting to come see Brad and his amazing family. And the line never shortened for 4 hours strait! And it was one of the most beautiful funerals I have ever been to. ... I know its weird to say that a funeral could be beautiful. And I think its even weirder for those words to be coming out of my mouth, I hate funerals (but honestly, I don't think anyone is a fan of them). But it honestly was so beautiful, not just the looks of the funeral but all of the amazing speeches and prayers; they were all so meaningful and touching. There was one particular part of the prayer that Uncle Doug (Brads Dad) gave that really affected me. Doug said that he and his family had no regrets, he said that if they could have Brad back for even just a little while, they would do nothing different. That Brad had lived his life to the absolute fullest and there was nothing he could have done differently to make his life better.



I thought that was such a powerful statement. Even just thinking about that part of the prayer still gives me chills today, and makes me wonder if I were to die tomorrow, could I say the same about myself? Am I living my life to the absolute fullest that I possibly can? Am I pushing myself the hardest I can in every aspect of my life? I don't know why it takes something awful like the passing of a loved one to help you put your life in order, But it really has for me. Since the funeral I have really been thinking about how precious life is and how much I am taking every little day for granted. It has really pushed me to put things into perspective and to look at the big picture, instead of wasting my life away stressing over the little things. It has also given me a much clearer idea of what I really want in life, and what is really important to me.



I am making a promise to myself to stop procrastinating. If I want something in my life, I need to go out there and work hard to get it. And to start telling the people that I love how much they really mean to me. And to really appreciate Garrett and everything he does for me. Because in the end we really never know when our, or our loved ones final day will come.



Which brings me to my next big topic.......



Dukester!!! Garrett and I have been so excited to get a puppy since the day we got married! (excited is an extreme understatement on Garrett's part haha) But both of us hated the idea of having a big dog in a little apartment, we wanted our dog to have a big yard to play in. So once we got the house, we knew it was on! But I just kept procrastinating, and making excuses for not getting a pup.... like its winter and it will be hard to train, or we have all new furniture and it will get ruined, or we don't have the time. But like I said above, no more waiting for tomorrow to do the things I want to do today!



So last weekend we went and found our newest family member Duke!! He is a sweet little 5 week old (now 6 weeks old) baby Brown lab with bright blue eyes and he is our baby!! Literally.... haha I think Garrett thinks he actually gave birth to this little guy! We love him so much and I cant wait for him to get a little bigger so we can go on lots of fun adventures this summer. It's going to be so much fun!!



I will post some cute pictures of him on here soon!

I love this Man

I am lying here in bed. Just woke up from a wonderful Sunday afternoon nap with my husband, who is still snoozing away. I don't think in the past almost year that we have been married, he has ever woke up before me. I sleep like a 50 year old woman going through menopause, so I am up all the time in the night and a nap is almost impossible! haha! Which I actually don't mind, I love to be the first up. These few minutes before he wakes up are one of my favorite times of the day... Garrett looks so cute and peaceful when he is sleeping!... minus the random loud air gasping snore here or there, and the strange whole body twitch that comes and goes from time to time. I cant count the amount of times he has accidentally flung his arm into my face while sleeping! The kid has a killer right hook while dreaming! But nevertheless, like I was saying- its such a perfect time of day when the house is quiet and still and all I can hear is the sound of our breathing. Its the moments like these that I realize how blessed I am to have him in my life. And how thankful I am for our marriage and the loving bond we share! :) I cant imagine my life without him in it, he is such a big part of me and who I am.

There is this amazing verse in the bible about love that I am literally obsessed with! On Garrett and my first anniversary I made him a blanket and I stitched this quote onto it. And in many birthday or valentines cards that I've givin to gar over the past years, I have written this quote within them. We even put this verse into our wedding vows . Almost every single time I hear it I get the chills and the first person that comes to my mind is Garrett.

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy.

Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;

It is not self-seeking , nor easily angered.

it keeps not record of wrongdoing.

It does not delight in evil,

But rejoices in the truth.

It always protects, trust, always hopes and always preserves.

-1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

There is nothing love cannot face;

There is no limit to it's faith, hope and endurance.

In a word there are three things that last forever:

Faith, Hope, and Love;

But the greatest of them all is love.

Sorry for the mushey lovey dovey... but I want this blog to be a sort of journal of my life. So maybe in a month, a year, or 10 years down the road from now - when there is a day that he is making me mad, I can look back to this to remember the reasons that I love him so much!

Gar- I know you hardly ever read anything I post on here. So if you never see this thats just fine but if you ever do come across this post, know that I love you. I love everything about who you are. I am so excited to spend the next 80 plus years by your side!

I like this picture...

It almost makes me feel like I am tan.... aaaaahh. :)

Life through my eyes... 2010

I cant believe 2010 is already over- I feel like these past 2 months have just flown by, its like everything is moving in fast forward. To be honest, it feels like the whole year was went by in fast forward and my brain is still trying to catch up! It was such a fun year full of so many exciting and big changes, probably one of the biggest years of my whole life so far!



Here is a view of my 2010... life through my eyes:



-Left behind the teen years of my life- turned 20!

-Planned a wedding

-GOT MARRIED to my soul mate and best friend. March 13Th goes down as the best day EVER in my book!!

- Had the first vacation with just Gar and I on our honeymoon (best week ever!) and had the most fun I have ever had with any one person in my life!

- Moved out of mom and dads house... most surreal event of 2010

-Garry and many of my awesome friends turned 21... which highlight a handful of hilarious and extremely fun nights throughout the year.

- Went to Vegas and had blast!

- Had my first "California Trip" as a married woman!

- Decided to by a house.

- Found a house we loved.

- BOUGHT a house!!!

- Had a wonderful Holiday season with my wonderful husband in our new home.

I hope everyone else had just as good of a year as we did! I honestly feel so blessed to be surrounded with such amazing family and friends. Also, to have a husband who truly loves me for who I am, and supports me in every way not matter what. I cant wait to see what 2011 has coming for me! Hopefully we can take things a little slower this year, to really enjoy everything we worked so hard for in 2010! :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Ahhh... why cant every week have a four day weekend!? They are the best, but I swear they come and go faster than a regular weekend. We had such a fun/busy/relaxing weekend! This year Garrett's dads family decided to do thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, which meant we only had to juggle 2 dinners this year and both were here in the valley! We started the day with a late lunch at Garrett's mom's house, which was so fun and the food was amazing! Turkey is probably one of my favorite dinners ever, I cant get enough of it. :) But usual me, I never remember to take any pictures. I really need to start getting better with this or I am never going to have pictures of the first year of our marriage! Then we headed over to Tracie's for dinner with my fam, which is all ways a good time! After dinner we all just hung out and talked for a long time. It was so fun! I Love when our family gets together for the holidays- I wish we could do it more frequently throughout the year!

After dinner Gar and I went home and cuddled up next to the Christmas tree (p.s. We put it up on Tuesday night! haha I am bad I know!!) and watched "Eat Pray Love." I love nights like that!

I have never been a huge "Black Friday" shopper. Garrett and I went last year for a bedroom set, but that was only because we really needed it! I wish I had the motivation to get up at 3 AM to get all those killer deals... but frankly I just don't have it in me. Ha! So we got up around 7 ish and went over to Lowes and got a cordless drill and garage door opener. We got them for a freaken sweet deal too! That's my kind of Black Friday shopping! We had lots of visitors on Friday which was so fun- I love showing off our house to everyone! Russell, Nessa, Shirley, Brandon, Cute KD, Krewseter and a bunch of friends all made stops by throughout the day. I felt like quite the host. =] Spent the night trying to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies but epic-ly failed! They were gross!!

Saturday we headed up the canyon to Garrett's Uncle Doug's Cabin. It was so pretty up there and we had so much fun eating more yummy food and hanging out with the family! On the way home Saturday night we had a near death experience though... no joke!

-So we were driving down the freeway with absolutely no one around us. Then a guy in a blazzer started to come up behind us. And then just kept coming until he was so close to my back bumper we couldn't even see his lights. He was so close Garrett didn't want to brake check him, because he would probably slam into the back of us. So Gar just started to slow down- he slowed down to like 45 or 50 and the guy backed off. Then about 30 seconds or so later he comes up real close behind us again and then whips over onto our side (my passenger side). He came up even with my window and starts screaming at us. He honestly looked so freaking crazy mad!! And then all of a sudden jerks his wheel and trys to slam his car into ours!! I was freaking out and screaming!! Garrett had to slam on the breaks and completely swerve into the other lane because they crazy guy was completely in our lane! Then the guy went back into his lane a little and then swerved again to our lane. Then he just started driving way fast and got off the next freeway exit! It was probably one of the most scary moments of my life, I swear he was literally about 2 inches from slamming into the side of us! We tried to get his licence but he drove away so fast we couldn't see anything but an A. We called the cops anyway but they couldn't really do anything. People really need to learn how to control their road rage, he could have killed us! It was so scary!!

The rest of the weekend was just full of family time, visitors, Christmas tree cuddling, and putting up the garage door opener and the rest of our decorations! All in all it was a pretty amazing weekend and I cant wait for Christmas!!! I hope you all had a safe and fun weekend too!

House!

For everyone who doesn't know yet..... WE GOT THE HOUSE! We are completely overjoyed and are so excited to take this big empty house and turn it into our home! We got the keys on Friday and were all moved before noon on Saturday. Its so weird to have so much space. I don't know what do with it all just yet. Coming from a little 1 bedroom apartment to a 3 bed 2 bath home, feels like we are moving into a castle! I am so obsessed with having my own master bath and walk in closet! I feel like a queen =] And having a garage is pretty dang cool if you ask me! Its so much easier to unload groceries from the garage to kitchen - instead of from the car, across the apartment parking lot, and up 3 flights of stairs!

I never knew I could be so excited to shovel! We woke up to a driveway full of snow on Sunday morning and I was so excited to go shovel my very own driveway! I was jumping on the bed for Garrett to wake up and come outside with me to shovel! And I have already learned the complicated trick of getting heavy snow off our tree branches =] Its going to be so much fun (and maybe expensive) learning all the things that come with being a home owner!

We are pretty much all unpacked... depending on what you version of unpacked means. There is nothing in boxes anymore. But piles of stuff that were in the boxes spread all throughout each room in the house. ha ha we are making slow but steady progress at finding a place for everything!

Everyone as been at me about posting pictures, so this weekend it is my goal to get everything put away so I can take some pictures and put them up here!! Wish me luck =]