Random...

1. We went to St. George for a weekend in February. We FINALLY got to meet our new cousin, and she is adorable! I think I spent 75% of the weekend holding her. The other 25% was spent with great family and friends. I miss living in St. George...I really do consider it my home!


Four of my favorite people in St. George!

2. We have still been working out and eating healthy. It's crazy that it started out as such a hard thing to do, but now it's habit for us. We enjoy eating all the fruits and veggies that we do and we both feel guilty if we don't make it to gym at least 4 times a week. I think that's pretty awesome! And this week it's been so nice almost every day that we've been running outside. Man, I love spring!

3. My birthday is coming up...and I'm not sure how I feel about that. What's cool about turning 23?

4. I realized I totally suck at blogging. I have been "blog stalking" lately (I know, what a cool hobby), and there are some amazing blogs out there. I am fascinated with some people's lives...and it's not even that they live this glamorous life or anything, they just know how to write and how to draw you in to what their daily routines are. I kind of feel like a creep for checking their blogs almost every day, but it's addicting. Seriously...try it.

5. I can't wait for our upcoming vacations. We're going to Austin for our one-year anniversary in June, and then we're going to Vegas in September! I am so excited because I have never been to Austin, and John has never been to Vegas. They are going to be two awesome trips! We also have a fun "staycation" planned in April, and hopefully some family camping trips and road trips to St. George this summer. Eeek! I love vacations!

6. John is really excited about this thing they call "March Madness." I don't get it.

7. John's dad's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. We had so much fun hanging out and playing games. We get super competitive with our games of Skip-Bo. Too bad I never win...haha.



Mark, John and Me

8. My Grandma got a Nook for Valentine's Day. I'm jealous.  

9. I've been cooking a lot of new things lately. I used to absolutely hate cooking when I was a teenager. Now, it's one of my favorite things to do. There's just something about throwing a bunch of ingredients together and making it all taste good...it's therapeutic.

10. I am really lucky to have the life I have. I have an awesome family, husband and friends. Not everyone can say that, but I'm really grateful that I can.

Be Mine, Valentine

I was debating about even posting anything about Valentine's Day since it was like a week ago, but when else do I have a great excuse to brag to the Internet world about my husband? Haha!

Our Valentine's Day this year was really great. We celebrated it in two parts since Valentine's was on a Monday and we didn't feel like going to a restaurant and waiting for 2 hours just to eat, so on the actual day we exchanged our gifts to each other (a golf gift card for John and chocolate covered strawberries and a shirt for me), and I made John dinner. I asked him what he would have for dinner if he could have anything in the world, and he told me chicken fried steak, so that is what we had! It turned out great. If anyone needs a good chicken fried steak recipe check out my recipes tab...it is an amazing recipe from my Granny! 

My yummy strawberries!



Our Valentine's Day Dinner...and John goofing off like usual!



Now on to Valentine's Day Part 2...We dubbed last saturday as the "official" day of love and spent the whole day doing fun things together. We woke up and went to Normandie's Cafe and Bakery in Holladay (check our restaurant reviews for more on the cafe) for breakfast, and then came home and worked out and relaxed for a while, and then went to Sego Lily Spa to get massages. After that we headed out to Jordan Landing where we did some shopping (and got shoes!!) and had a yummy/really fun dinner at Tepanyaki. John planned the whole day, so I was really impressed. He took me to do my most favorite things in the world...eat and shop. Haha. I'm lucky to have such a thoughtful and loving husband! :)

Other than our Valentine's Day festivities, we haven't been up to anything too exciting beyong the norm. We have still been keeping up with working out and eating really healthy, and so far John has lost 15 pounds and I have lost 4 (I like to think I've only lost that much because I'm gaining muscle...haha). It is really exciting though and keeps us motivated to keep it up! Also, we are heading down to St. George this weekend...and we finally get to meet this sweet girl:

Baby Olivia!

I'm sure I'll have another post after our trip! :)

John's New Prized Possession!

John FINALLY got a set of new golf clubs today. He has been talking about getting new golf clubs since I met him, which was more than two years ago! And for as long as I've known him, he's been asking for Uinta Golf gift cards for every birthday and Christmas. After this last Christmas he finally had enough gift cards saved up to get some new clubs and a driver. I have never seen him get more excited...seriously! Anyway, here he is opening his box of new Nike Slingshot clubs! :)

January Recap

Wow January has gone by fast! It has been a great month though...we've been super busy (like usual). I was asked to be on a newly-formed team building committee for my department at work and I signed up to take a quality associate test in June, so things have been very busy for me at work. But it's been a lot of fun and it's nice to have more responsibility at work and be more involved within the company.

John has also been busy with work and his first class for his bachelor's program, and I've been busy writing stories for the paper like usual. By the way, if anyone ever cares to read my news articles, you can check out the Journal's site at http://www.taylorsvillekearnsjournal.com/. I know you're all dying to read about what's going on in Kearns!

This month we've also been REALLY good about working out. We have gone to the gym at least 4 times a week this whole month, and we're both starting to see results which is exciting. John has already lost like 10 pounds! It also helps that we're being more careful about what we eat and trying to limit our calorie intake each day to about 1,500 calories (except for on the weekends!).

I also just figured out how to do little tab things in our blog, so I'm going to try to get some cool tabs going...like "recipes" (because I love cooking/baking) and "about us." I also want to do a couple others but I don't have any good ideas right now...I just think I could really make this blogging thing a hobby. Haha.

Anyway, that's what we've been up to. Now on to February!

The best surprise!

So the other day John told me he had a surprise for me but he wouldn't tell me what it was. It wasn't too long before I found out. He sent me these pretty roses while I was at work! It made my day! I have such a sweet & thoughtful hubby. :)

The flowers came with some chocolate too...which is good because I was definitely having a chocolate crisis!

Wendover

John & Me

Gaya & Prasad

Charlie & Becky

At breakfast the next day!

So last weekend John and I and some of our friends headed out to Wendover to try our hand at gambling. We all got mini suites so we could stay out there overnight-- and they were way awesome! Luckily John and I came out even...I lost $40 and he won it back! I guess I just don't have the good luck streak!

It's Official!

John finally got his diploma in the mail! Yay! And don't mind his crazy hair...we had just gotten done working out...haha.