It's a wonderful life...

I know it has been a long time, it was a busy summer for me! I planned a wedding, attended many bridal showers and engagement parties, finished my Teaching English Language Learners minor, and spent time with family and other fun things. I did not have much time for anything else! But it was a very enjoyable summer :) Mike and I were finally married on August 15th, the day after he graduated. I am very proud of him and jealous that he is finished, but feel bad for him because now he has to wait for me to finish school until he can start his new job. I would think that would be awesome, but most of the time he just watches me do my homework or distracts me from my homework, haha. Anyway, back to our wedding. It was perfect. We really couldn't have asked for our to be any smoother or more beautiful. We loved to see all our family and friends and were amazed at how supported we were. We felt so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. I could go on and on about the wedding day, but I have a lot to catch up on...so here are some pictures :) If you're my facebook friend, ALL of our pictures are on there, so feel free to check it out!


My adorable niece and nephews. They have such wonderful and outgoing personalities as you can see :) I can't imagine life without them, I love being an aunt!


My beautiful sisters!

The wedding party!

My wonderful brothers!

My wonderful, life time friends. . .

This is such a fun picture!

Eating Cake!

Next, is our honeymoon in HAWAII! It was my first time to go there and it was Mike's first time to be back since the mission. Yes, he served in Hawaii for 2 years and he loved it :) We really enjoyed ourselves on Big Island and kept ourselves busy. We went to a real Luau, a dinner cruise, snorkeling, hung out by the pool with smoothies, hiked waterfalls and ate at lots of local restuarants that had wonderful live music...Hawaiian people can sing! Our favorite part was the snorkeling. It was just so amazing to be swimming right next to tropical fish and the scenery underwater was breath taking! I also enjoyed attending church at a ward Mike served in almost 4 years ago. He didn't think many people would recognize him, boy was he wrong! He impacted that ward and was a favorite to many (I can totally understand why too!). They were so kind to us and I feel in love with the Hawaiian culture. Hawaii really is as amazing as everyone says it is and we highly recommend it :)

The Beach!

Macadamia Pancakes :)

Before the Luau started

Luau Dancers
Akaka Falls
Kona Hawaii Temple

May Happenings

So I am super behind! I got engaged and things have been busy ever since. I will do my best to update for each month. I will post some pictures of April as well. Before I got engaged, I took a trip out with Mike to Wisconsin. It was a lot of fun to be with his family. They are really nice people and Wisconsin is really pretty in the summer.

After, Wisconsin and getting engaged, I took a trip to Omaha to help my sister, Emily, with all the kids. My new nephew, Wyatt, is adorable. I enjoyed spending a lot of time with them. We were able to bless Wyatt at my parents home in Oklahoma and then my mom and other sister, Amber, met us back in Omaha for a girls day. We went and saw Wicked! It was so much fun and I really enjoyed, it was so cute!

Me & Wyatt

Me & Luke

Me & Austin

Me & Danielle (she loves doing bunny ears!)

My sisters and mom

The family that was able to make it for the Wyatt's baby blessing. We were missing Alex, Brittney, Jon, & now Mike :)

Girls outside of Wicked in Omaha!

After enjoying a little over a week in Omaha and Oklahoma, I headed back to Utah for a couple of weeks of nothing, but wedding planning. As most of you know, I’m getting married to a wonderful guy August 15^th in the Salt Lake Temple. It is gorgeous there! Anyway, I got a lot of that done, but decided to take a break and headed down to Arizona for 6 days. One of my best friends from college, Jenn Cobb now Farnworth, was getting married in the Mesa Temple. Amber & Jon also live in Mesa, so I decided to make a vacation out of it and spend time with them. I LOVED Arizona. I loved waking up at 9 am and it was already warm outside, I didn’t have to wait at all to lay out and swim at the pool. I probably fell completely in love with that because Provo was still cold and rainy, I was ready for some sun! My other favorite part about Arizona is Bahama Bucks. It has THE BEST snow cones I have ever had. They were so amazing, that I made at least 3 trips there in the short time I was there and with the little amount of time I had. They are heaven and you have to try one :)

Mesa Temple

The beautiful bride and best friend, Jenn Cobb Farnworth

Laura and I about to enjoy our delicious Bahama Bucks!

Soooooooo good!

I was a happy girl :)

The last event of May was a bridal shower given by my roommates, Alexis, Whitney & Shalisa as well as my amazing friends from Oklahoma, Kyla & Lindsey. It was so much fun and they did such a great job! I have made some great friends while living out here to add on to all the great friends I have met in Oklahoma. I am very blessed.

Now I have updated you on May, I better get to June! It was also a busy and fun month!

Engaged!!!

Yep, I'm finally engaged!! Mike came into my life April 20o8. I moved into the my new apartment complex and met some new people to play games with. We went into the guys' apartment and there was Mike on the couch. He was sleeping at his friends apartment for the week before he left for an internship for the summer. Mike immediately caught my attention while I was there. He was chill, fun, and made me laugh constantly. We hung out everyday that week with our friends and he even got the guts to ask me out. Our first date was so much fun! We went to Macaroni Grill and then to Color Me Mine (that is my all time favorite place). I was impressed with how he treated me and how comfortable I was. Then he was gone for 4 months. Mike and I kept in touch through email throughout the summer, but I continued to date other guys. However, no one compared to Mike and I didn't get into a relationship with anyone else. I knew Mike was coming back in August and I wanted to see what would happen with him first. The day Mike got back into Provo, he came over and asked me out for the weekend. Ever since then we have been on a dating roller coaster. I put him through a lot and now I just tell him I was testing him and he passed :)

So last Thursday, my dad was in town so he and Mike had "the talk." He kept reminding Mike that he wasn't losing a daughter and he wasn't giving me away, he was granting Mike permission to be a part of the family, which he fits into very well! The next day, Mike and I went to Wisconsin (where he is from) to meet his family. I had a great time, but I was convinced he was going to propose while we were there, which he did not. So, on the airplane ride back to Provo, I was pretty disappointed and I voiced that disappointment, haha

And last night, Mike decided to take me out on a date like our first date. We had reservations at Macaroni Grill at 6:30, so he picked me up at 6:00. We're on our way when he gets a call from Sean (Elders Quorum president and Mike is in the Elders Quorum presidency) and says, "I hate to do this to you, but I'm stuck in traffic in Salt Lake and I really need you to go look at the amphitheater for our Elders Quorum opening social next week. They have to know tonight if we're going to use it." So Mike acts all frustrated and says he can do it. He hurries over to the amphitheater. This is a castle looking area behind the Utah State Hospital if you're from Provo. We are on our way to drive up to the amphitheater when we hit construction in the parking lot. Mike continues to drive through and move the blockades when I strongly suggested he didn't. We get to the top and he says he's gonna go look at it and that I can come too. I declined and said that I would sit in the car, lock the doors (this is by a mental hospital), and wait for him. Although, the plan was for me to go, he went with it. He came back down a few minutes later and said, we're already late for our reservations and there is a beautiful view at the top, you have to come see it. So I did. I followed him up the stairs and found this:

He has green candles surrounding a book on the steps. (The candles were supposed to be lit, but it was too windy). Mike made this book that had all pictures in it from when we started dating and at the end at lyrics to a song that he wrote for me, which he then played/sang to me. After he finished he said, "There's more." Which I replied "Ya, there's more!" Thinking he still had to propose to me, but he said okay lets go. Confused, we walked to the top of the amphitheater and around the corner, where he had dinner waiting.

Mike had a dozen roses on the table, with take out from Saigons (from my favorite restaurant) and rootbeer (my favorite drink). He did good :) While we're eating dinner, I made a comment like, " I thought you were going to do this in Wisconsin." And he was like,"What are you talking about? Can't I do something nice for you before you leave for 2 weeks?" I felt bad and thought maybe he really was just doing something nice for me and not proposing.

And after dinner, he said there is more and blindfolded me. He lead me on a path for a little while and then I took off my blindfold and we were in front of the dock over a lake. It was so pretty! He bought a dozen floating candles that he wanted to have lit and floating on the lake, but once again it was too windy, so his friends, Sam & Paul/proposal ninjas, lined the dock with them. And this is the place where Mike FINALLY proposed :)

So excited to have the ring on my finger :)

My fiance :)

I'm offcially engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We're getting married August 15, 2009 in the Salt Lake City Temple!

Oh- and thanks to the proposal ninjas, Sam & Paul. Mike didn't have the ring with him the entire time because he knew I would be looking for it, which I was, haha So when Mike had me blindfolded we were first walking on a road and then onto grass, where these large rocks were. And behind one of the rocks, Paul was hiding, and did a hand off with the ring. Smooth huh? And then they cleaned everything up and put it in Mike's car so we didn't have to do any cleaning up afterwards. Mike has great friends :)

Who's ready for Spring!?

I have been crazy busy lately with school, but of course I make time to have plenty of fun! Most recently Mike and I went to Trafalga for a Friday night date. He has never been and they have added and changed things since I've been there, so we both were excited to go! We got the "diamond date" which includes three activities of our choice, 8 arcade tokens, and two large dippin' dots. We first did putt-putt, went out to the batting cages, which didn't work very well, so we rode the go-karts instead, watched a really cool 3-d movie, and lastly we enjoyed our dippin' dots. We had a lot of fun together :)

Mike golfing
At the batting cages
Waiting for the 3-d movie

On Saturday most if not all of BYU and everyone in Utah, attended the festival of colors at the Hara Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. I've been to the temple several times in the past, but never to the Festival of Colors. This is where everyone gathers, they chant, and pick a demon to burn. This year it was a demon who used to be able to withstand fires. When the demon realized she could do this, she would bring babies into the fire with her. This was her sin and the reason why she was the chosen demon to be burned this year. As soon as she is lit on fire at the stake, everyone has a package of colored flour that they throw to welcome in Spring!Doesn't make much sense, but it is a lot of fun! Definitely something every BYU student needs to experience at least once.
This is the crow that gathered there. SOOOOOOO many people, it was insane!
This is me and Mike before the throwing of the colors began.
This is me and Kyla after the big "atom bomb" explosion of reds, greens, oranges, purples, pinks, etc...
Me and Mike :)

A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon, my roommies decided we should take some picture by the temple. It was a beautiful day, kinda windy, but beautiful :) I say this in every post, but I have the best roommies. I also have the best boyfriend. He came and took the pictures for us! We even got a few pictures of us together though, he is adorable isn't he?

This is my favorite picture us, even though Shalisa has her eyes closed :)

This is my other favorite picture. Shalisa and I in the back; Alexis and Whitney in the front

Me and Mike = In love

Lastly, anyone who knows me, knows that family is the most important thing to me. I was able to attend a baby blessing this last Sunday for my cousin Ali's baby, Quinn Jeffery Jensen. It was worth driving in the wind and snow to be with family that I haven't seen in a while. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the time I was able to visit with each of my cousins, their kids, and my Aunt & Uncle. Quinn is a beautiful baby boy and I loved being there and supporting Ali and Jeff. One of my favorite things about being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is having the knowledge that families can be together forever. I am very grateful for my family and my extended family. I'm so excited that I will be able to attend the baby blessing of my newest nephew, Wyatt. He was born on March 14 and is adorable. I really do have the cutest neice and cutest nephews ever and I'm excited to see them in a month and love them to pieces!! Here is a picture of all of them on St. Patricks Day :)

I'm a proud Aunt...Aunt Cwystal :)

Is this real life?

Life has been crazy, but SO good! I feel really lucky to have the life that I do. It does have its challenging parts where you think it will never get better, but then you get a surprise! I'm so grateful for my family and friends who get me through those times. They are so encouraging and I know I can depend on them even though most of them are so far away. Even though they are so far away, I feel so lucky to have the roommates that I do. They are so loving and dependable as well :) Here is a recent picture of me and my roommies:
February was a month full of birthdays! First was my roommate, Alexis'. We went to the "hip" place to go called, Spark. It is a lounge scene where they serve drinks that you would find at any other bar, except these are all non-alcoholic. It is REALLY fun, especially on a girls night out! The guy in the middle is the bartender. No one sits at the bar usually, but we're VIP so they make an exception for us :) We've gone so much, that he knows our names and expects us every Thursday! We just like to have fun!
February also had our last break of the semester so Alexis and I decided to take full advantage of that. My friend Ryan was wanting to go to California and experience Disneyland. So, Alexis and I invited ourselves a long :)
Alexis, Ryan, and Me
Someday our princes will come...well...mine already has :)
I love this picture because it shows how much we do love each other, haha Ryan is such a great friend and puts up with a lot when its Alexis and I against him :)
This was one of my favorite places at Disneyland, the Tiki Tiki Room. And this is one of my favorite pictures! Ryan and I both had so much fun (This was our first time to Disneyland). We were at Disneyland from 11 am until around 11 pm. We went on Valentines Day so we got a special performance that night on the waters and then a fireworks show. I absolutely love fireworks, I could watch them all day. I think it is beautiful! The next day we went to Newport beach and saw a lot of things I never thought I would see, including dolphins in the ocean and crabs the size of my head! California was a nice place to visit and a great place to get away from the Provo bubble :)

Next we have Laura's birthday! Laura is my neighbor and I absolutely adore her. She is one of the sweetest and most beautiful person inside and out, that I know. She is always there to listen, to lend advice, to laugh with, and watch my shows with. We have been watching One Tree Hill, The Bachelor (BOO....), Grey's Anatomy, American Idol (i'm sure there are more) together for a while now. She is just so much fun and I don't know what I'm gonna do without her! She is going to London this summer, which I am so very excited for her, but sad we're going to be apart. We haven't been apart for more than a week at a time, haha I love you Laura!
We went to the Pizza Factory for her 21st birthday with a few girls and we had a blast :)
We also went to the tumbling gym with some more friends for her birthday, it's a great place to go! This is our highschool musical pose! Go Wildcats!
Isn't she beautiful? I love her!
Alexis and I...roommate love!
We recently watched Kung Foo Panda together and ever since, we have been obsessed with Kung Foo-ing one another, haha
I wouldn't mess with us :)
Just me and my cute boyfriend, aren't we so happy together?
This time they had sumo suits. Most entertaining 5 minutes of my life watching Laura and Alexis sumo wrestle one another, haha
In jumps Laura!! Watch out Ping Ping!
My sweet front flip into the foam pit!
Again, me and my cute boyfriend at the end of partying all night long :)

Happiness

I had the opportunity to attend the Draper Temple Open house this past week. And let me tell you, it was breathtaking! Temples are the most beautiful and puriest buildings I have ever seen and been in, the spirit is so strong there. My roommate Alexis and my friend Ryan from Oklahoma were able to go with me as well. We went on a Tuesday morning, so there weren't a lot of people which gave us the opportunity to take our time and take it all in. If you ever have the chance to attend a temple open house, whether you are a member of the LDS church or not, you should go. It is an amazing experience and gives you an idea of what goes on in this sacred house of the Lord. I think people would understand more, why the temple is the place I want to be married. That is where I have been sealed to my family and where my future family is going to be sealed to me for time and all eternity. I looked forward to the new temple over by Jordan River and for the chance I will get to attend the open house there, Utah does have its advantages :)
Alexis and I outside the temple. Yes there was a lot of snow and yes it was freezing cold, but totally worth it.

This is me, Ryan, and Alexis.
No, I am definitely NOT a Florida fan. This goes way back to the Championship game between Oklahoma Sooner and Florida Gators. I have this friend named Dave who is a big gator fan. So we decided to bet one another. If the gators lost, he had to make me an Oklahoma Sooners cake and if the Sooners lost, I had to make him a Florida Gators cake. Well...we know how that game turned out, so here is the cake I made! Not very attractive is it?
Me with Dave and the cake
I also had the chance this last week to go to the OKC Thunder vs. Utah Jazz game with a bunch of Oklahoma fans. There was about 6 of us that went together and suprisingly there were other fans there as well. Across from us were two rows of orange, it was awesome! So, of course I was cheering for Oklahoma, but the Jazz won. Which is okay because I am also a Jazz fan. It just would have been nice to see the Thunder win a game!
Alexis and I after the game by the basketball players out front.
I have been blessed with an amazing FHE family. For those of you who do not know what FHE is, it means Family home evening. Every Monday night we get together for a spiritual thought and then an activity. I haven't been the best with FHE through my college years, but this last summer has changed my view and obviously for the better. This is my new group this semester and I loved them to death! It may have helped that I knew a lot of them before, but because we love each other so much, we decided to take family pictures. Aren't we a good looking group?
We took some pretty pictures on the spiral case in the JFSB building on BYU campus. We had so much fun!
We are so fun :)
We also each took a "model pose" as we walked down the stairs...This is me and the rest are some of my other friends in the group. We obviously had a lot of fun doing this little photo shoot, haha
Zoolander Barrett
My adorable roommate, Whitney.
haha, Ririe
Mysterious Alexis
Daddy Brown
And flirty Marci

I have a new appreciation for FHE and am glad that it is getting me into the habit for when I have my own family. The church is true and provides so many opportunties to help us keep the commandments, enjoy life, and uplift others as well as help us to be able to return to our Heavenly Father.It is so amazing!

Christmas Break Overload...

I was able to go home for a much needed break from school and from Utah for Christmas. It was of course, too short, but I enjoyed the time I had at home. I loved being with family and close friends. To spare you from a super long post, I'll just comment on the pictures because there are a ton!
The stockings all hung with care; I love that you can tell who the new/newest members of our family are, they have the whitest stockings :)
This is my newest nephew, Kade, in his "My first Christmas" and might I add, reindeer outfit! The things grandma's do to their grandkids, haha I love it thought and I think he looked adorable. Sterling, Brittney, and Kade were only in Ponca for a weekend (before anyone else got there) and we missed them so much! They spent most of their Christmas break with Britt's family, which I'm glad she got to spend time with them.
Since they weren't here very long, I made sure I got to spend quality time with Kade. He is such a happy baby, whether he looks like it or not in this picture, and he does love his aunt, even though most of the time, he does prefer males. Males are just crazy...they make weird/random noises and jump around like monkeys. Kade just laughs and laughs, sometimes I do too, so I guess I don't blame him :)
Christmas Eve, we always get together with the Hardy family (we've been doing it for about 24ish years) and have a yummy dinner, break a pinata, exchange/bargain our candy, tell the Christmas story, and finish with the 12 days of Christmas Song. It is so much fun and we look forward to it every year. This year I got a video of us going after the candy and bargaining afterward. You might think we are crazy, but it is so much fun :)



After the Hardy's leave, we open our Christmas Pj's and take weird pictures :) We couldn't be as crazy this year with just the 4 of us, but we were still creative. We took the classic "star" picture and classic "pyramid" picture and combined it, haha
They really wanted to take a "no hands" picture...they're just so strong! haha
I love this picture of Jon :) After we take our pictures, we all get into the van and look at Christmas lights all around Ponca. Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year!
We also started another family tradition. This is only the second time we've done it,the first was over Thanksgiving break, and we look forward to doing it many more times. We go to Camp Mcfadden and have tin foil "lunches," roast marshmallows, and make smores.
Here are the grandkids all helping grandpa with the fire. It was so much fun to see them and have them around. There is a huge difference in the house when they are here; they bring so much happiness, love, and laughter, as well as so much noise, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) I am so lucky to have the family that I have.
The siblings on the back of the famous green tank!
Jeff's attempt at being artistic, I actually like it :) These are my sisters, Emily and Amber, with my dad at the end.

I can't believe I'm actually posting a video of this, but Amber and I one night decided to play the Wii and one thing lead to another and the next thing we knew, we were boxing. I think I look pretty rediculous, but it was so much fun! I'm embarrassed to say that I only beat Amber once, but just you wait...I'll get you next time! haha


This is my best friend Stacie; I have known her since the 8th grade. I was in her wedding last year around Christmas time and she recently added a new member to her family, baby Brooklyn. She is such a sweetheart and I'm glad I got to meet her.
This is another one of my best friends from highschool, Levi. He recently got home from serving in Iraq for a year. It was so much fun to see him and see how much he has changed. His other two brothers served at the same time as well, Luke and Ben. They are also some of my best friends. The Garrisons are fun and loving people who have done great things with their lives. I'm really lucky to have the friends that I do.
This is my best friend Katie. She moved to Ponca her senior year from Texas and she is just so much fun! I made a goal to document everything we did during the Christmas break, but of course it only lasted for like two days. This was the first thing we did together, make breakfast. I have to say it looked amazing, but I'm not so sure it tasted amazing...better luck next time! Oh- and don't we just look lovely in the morning?
Next, we made brownies. This is something we are AMAZING at. We have made brownies at our "I hate boys" parties in high school and now we make them every time we get together, so I would say we are pretty experienced and have become experts in brownie making. This year, however, we added a new ingredient. Katie will be upset that I'm sharing it with the whole world, it's supposed to be a secret, but oh well :)
It's Andes Mints! So freakin' GOOD! I'll be making that again soon :)

Sorry this is so long, but I love pictures and I had to update my blog sometime! My Christmas was wonderful, it was full of family and friends. I did miss having Alex there, but was able to talk to him on Christmas day, where a member was taking good care of him. Alex is serving a mission in Oregon. He is happy and doing what he is supposed to be doing and I think he is pretty good at it too. I loved hearing his voice and being able to laugh with him. He is such an example to me. Missions can truely change a person and help them grow. Over Christmas, I was also able to reflect on the true meaning of it all and be thankful for my Savior. I love the spirit of Christmas and hope to be better at retaining it throughout the year.