Graduation is approaching!!!!

Steven is basically done with school now! Just one more assignment left to complete and he is FINISHED!!!!!! We are SO excited to have school behind us forever!!! It has started to become real as we have attended our last Sunday at our married student ward (since conference weekend is the last weekend of the semester). I am just so excited for the possibility of Steven switching back to day shifts... We have been doing this opposite schedule thing for what feels like forever now. I was just reminiscing on what our lives were like when we were first married, and how I used to wait up as long as I could for Steven to return home... Compared to now where I have my tea and am in bed by 10 every night no matter what and he comes home and crawls into bed and I barely ever wake up for that. I am just so excited to have Steven home for dinner and in the evenings and to not be worried about homework or any of that. WE ARE SO CLOSE!!! Just waiting to hear for sure if Steven can get the day shift worked out.

We enjoyed our Easter this year by celebrating with some of our closest friends here. We hosted everyone for dinner and relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. I love having our friends so close!! 

Spring is still just around the corner but I finally saw some blossoms today from the bulbs I planted a long time ago!! This coming weekend is supposed to be really nice but it was cloudy and rainy today and is supposed to be the same tomorrow... I have some serious cases of cabin fever, though, and the warm weather can't get here fast enough!!!!!

In our Sunday best for Easter!

Is it Spring Yet?

February and March is always a hard time of year for us where we currently live. We LONG for it to be spring, but unfortunately it takes so long for spring to actually happen here. Today, the sun came out and it hit 50 degrees! I was puppy-sitting tonight so I took the dog to the park to run off some energy (as I am sure he has been cooped up all winter as well) and it was PACKED with lots of people trying to soak up any amount of sunshine they could. It gets nuts around here as soon as the weather gets above freezing... But I so get it. I am getting sick of being inside, freezing all the time. It's supposed to be nice again tomorrow, so if I can get Steven to muster up the energy, maybe we will go do something fun outside. Then again, it will probably still be pretty cold, so we will see. 

Steven is still wrapping up his last semester of school and we are still SO eager for him to finish. His mentor even told him today that he can tell that he has hit the point where he just needs to graduate. I am so excited to get him back!!! He is so tired all the time that it's hard to suggest doing stuff because I know all he wants to do is kick back and relax for just a minute before he is off to work on his project or head to work. Poor guy...

So we kept it pretty low-key for Valentine's day this year.  We attempted to go out for dinner (without a reservation... We are dumb for former restaurant workers...) and decided it was easier to avoid the crowds and we went to Chick-Fil-A instead.  The next day (actual Valentine's day) Steven made me a delicious steak dinner and we enjoyed ourselves at home together. We had a pretty cool stake conference that morning with Elder Rasband at the I-Center on campus.  He came to speak to all the married student wards in the area. That is one perk for remaining in the student wards. However, come April, we will make the switch to the family ward as we will no longer be students. 

At the beginning of February we attending my niece's baptism. It was fun to see her so excited and to see that dress I made in good use. She looked so lovely!!

Steven and I have been doing our low carb diet again since we got home from Christmas. We both had been feeling so overweight and lethargic.  It has been a nice change--even if we haven't been losing as quickly as we did the last time. We do cheat every now and then but it's made sticking to it this long not nearly as hard.  I have also found that even when I do cheat, I don't even cheat that bad because I can't stomach all the junk food as much as I could tolerate it before. I say that's great progress. It's been a fairly easy transition to make this a lifestyle too. I admit that some days when I am trying to meal plan that it sounds easier to just be done with the diet, but I feel much better when we stick to it. 

Work has been going well. This week was tough for some reason. I pin it the the fact we didn't really have a very restful week/weekend before this week began. I attending my cousin's funeral on Thursday last week and then we left town to go to see Steven's family and attend his niece's baptism and his other niece's baby blessing on Saturday and Sunday. We hustled back home so that I could be back in time for an interview I had scheduled and then spent the evening with some friends.  While all of that was great and we needed to be there for our families, it made Monday really hard when it came time to get back to work. I can't be more grateful for a Friday night and a good weekend ahead of me to get caught up on some housework and get some rest as well.  We have another stake conference on Sunday but this time it is just our stake, so church will be an hour shorter than normal which is awesome for getting some rest!

I do still try to document our lives through pictures, so here is a few for your viewing pleasure and as a small window into our lives:

Not really sure what this pic was for, but my hair has got that fun SWOOP goin' on!

So grateful that I can still manage to have dinner every night with this handsome man!

Steven got an awesome reward for being an awesome employee! We have still yet to use that gift card...

Home and awake at the same time?!? Must document this event!! ;)

Sunday's are the best--especially with my eternal sweetheart. <3 I love listening to him play and sing hymns on a Sunday afternoon.

With my cute little niece the day after she was baptized. She loved her dress!

Steven came home early the Friday before Valentine's Day with this lovely surprise in hand!

He made this copper rose himself!!!! It's so beautiful!

Sunshine and a clean house? Say whaaaat!?! 

Before our big stake conference with Elder Rasband on Valentine's day! We clean up alright. 

Valentine's Day dinner. I married myself a good chef!

Good workout followed by a protein green smoothie!

Why yes, this is on my diet... And it was DELICIOUS! Chicken, creamed spinach and sautéed mushrooms! YUM!

I love him!

Dressed up to go out! We went to a play Steven had to attend for a class.

Making dinner for me again!!

He is so good to me!!

Steak dinner round 2! Steven has some great recipe ideas!

He can present it really well too!

I have THE coolest parents around!

My immediate family. So grateful they are all mine for eternity!!! I couldn't imagine life without these people!!

Until next time!

Holiday Fun

We had a pretty busy holiday season this year. Steven finished out his last full semester!!! He now only has 3 more credits worth of stuff left to do which only includes 1 class and his senior project!! WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR HIM TO BE FINISHED!!! Especially after this last semester... It was probably one of the roughest ones for him--not because the classes were so hard but between school and work he was pretty busy and being so close to the end of his schooling career it was a huge struggle. He made it through though and now things are starting to look up!!

We did a few things here to celebrate Christmas before we took off to see my family for the holidays.  We put up our tree of course, and decorated the rest of the house to make it feel more festive.  We also made and decorated sugar cookies together and had LOTS of fun doing something different together (as well as eating all the yummy cookies).




We took our Christmas card photos over Thanksgiving break while we were visiting Steven's family.  I was really please with how they turned out and even printed off a few to frame around the house! 

This one is totally my favorite of the bunch!

My sister had also given me her wedding dress earlier this fall to take apart and remake it into a baptism dress for her eldest daughter.  It was a little intimidating of a task to take on at first (and I will admit I put it off for a loooong time) but after I decided what to do with it it came together really quickly and I am so proud of the outcome!  My niece loved it and I am excited to see her wear it on her big day!  I thought I would share some of the pictures I took during that whole process...

My niece in her dress! I took some pretty pictures of her in it as well
(but I need to edit them still... on the to-do list for tonight)

The adventures continue with my family for the holiday festivities at home for Christmas!  We saw the new Peanuts movie and Steven and I doubled with my sister and her husband to see the new Star Wars movie as well! Both were very good!  We decorated "gingerbread houses" together, went Christmas caroling, and had a wonderful holiday dinner on Christmas Eve.  We even went to the pool at my parent's motel and got to swim with some mermaid tails I brought from work! I think all the kids enjoyed it and it was fun to show off some of the things I have been working on/with at my new job!  

Steven and I also took a night to ourselves and went to town to attend an open mic night dedicated to one of our friends whom passed away last December.  We had some time to burn before the event began so we stopped by one of my old hangout places in Selah when I was in high school and grabbed some treats and played an epic game of Jenga.  We had a really great time together and it was super nice to have a quiet evening together without having any stresses of normal life to wear on us!

We had such a blast with my family! It was a crazy time having all 18 of us together in one house but I am so grateful for the time I get to spend with my family!

For Christmas this year we used the gift money our parents gave us and (finally) bought a painting of Christ to put in the frame Steven's cousin made for us for our wedding (...that was 2 1/2 years ago now... But beside the point...)  It is a super unique painting and we love it!  We are excited to take it down to his cousin's so he can put it all together for us!



We had a great holiday break and are trying to fall back into our normal work routine. Work has been pretty busy for me getting things put together to be ready for the summer and Steven's work has been slowing down because this is kind of their off season.  Thankfully he has kept busy enough to get his hours in this winter!  We are so thankful for both of our jobs and feel so blessed to have them and to be able to be independent!!

*PHEW* That was a lot of updating and a lot of pictures... 

Until next time!!