Take MY Advice!

I have decided to share with my fellow bloggers a few tips on what NOT to do when creating a King Size Denim Quilt for your husband's birthday! Granted - I feel this has been one of my greatest accomplishments because I had no clue what I was doing, nor did anyone help me, and yet I still managed to complete this before Jess' birthday (tomorrow). I amaze myself. So listed below are TEN TIPS FOR TORTUROUS SEWING (if "torture-ous" is even a word!?!)

1. Procrastination is not a good trait. DO NOT wait until 8 days BEFORE your husband's birthday before you start on an ENORMOUS project such as this.

2. Make sure you can devote every waking minute to sewing. No excuses.

3. Do NOT try to cut 300+ squares in one day, by yourself. It is not a good idea and you will SORELY regret it when the day is over. Literally - you will be sore. I am not joking.

4. Make sure you wear thumb protection, have bandages on site, and ensure that you can stand a great deal of pain in your fingers. Advil does not help. Neither do bandages, but I used 4 or 5 so I had to include that.

5. You WILL get pricked by pins over one hundred times, plan on it because it's just a given.

6. Schedule an appointment with a massage therapist as soon as your quilting project is completed. I don't care how much it costs, just do it. You will thank me deeply.

7. Plan on making no other plans BUT sewing. It is impossible to complete this task in a week's time if you have any other commitments whatsoever. This can include but is not limited to: school, house cleaning, a job, homework, a church calling, eating food, a life...... etc. Sewing will occupy all of your time.

8. It will feel as if you are a crippled 80-year old woman by the time you are done - arthritis in your hands and osteoporosis every where else.

9. Have a CLEAN-UP game plan. If you are attempting to SURPRISE your husband with this oh-so-thoughtful gift, make sure that when he calls to tell you he's on his way home from work, and will be there in five minutes, you have the time to put EVERYTHING away immediately!!!

10. Remember to sew every stitch with LOVE!

Draper Temple Glimpse

Thursday night, Jess and I went down with the Dickson family to see the open house of the Draper, Utah LDS Temple. It was such an amazing testimony builder to be inside the temple and a great reminder for me of how important it is that I am sealed to Jess and my future children one day.

Even though the temple has not been dedicated, I cannot describe the amazing feeling and strong spirit I felt knowing I was inside the Lord's house.

There were so many people there which made the tour go quite quickly, but it was a great experience to see how beautiful the temples are on the inside and just how worth all of the hard work will be when Jess and I are able to be sealed as a family forever soon.

If any of you have the chance to visit this open house, I recommend taking the opportunity to drive to Draper and see it for yourself. I know you can still get tickets online at www.lds.org/reservations and I believe the tours are running through the middle of March until it is dedicated.

I Married a Mullet

Being this is Jess' second attempt to wear a mullet fashionably, I have decided to let him have his fun with this 80's hair-do and a "mexy-stache," as he would call his mustache. We have always been known to give nick-names for each other and I hate to discriminate, but his lastest nickname has been Nacho Libre for the last couple of weeks since he adopted this new look.

Here is the BEFORE picture of Jess. My little sister is in beauty school and needs as many boys-haircuts to practice on as she can - so I convinced her that cutting a mullet would teach her alot. Of course Jess couldn't possibly pay someone at Great Clips to cut such a ridiculous style, he had to find someone who would do this for FREE-99!!!

Jess tried sporting a mullet last year a week before we were supposed to get our engagement pictures done. Boy did I have a hay-day with that one! Of course, being the stressed out bride that I was, demanded he return to his stylist and fix that disgusting "thing" so that our pictures would look somewhat normal! Well - since we don't have any pictures coming up for a few months, I gave myself a serious talk and decided it was OK to be a good sport and let Jess enjoy the whole "business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back."

The whole time McKinli was cutting his hair, Matti and I got our giggles out of it saying to eachother, "I'm glad that's his hair and not mine - hahaha!" It was fun to watch McKinli try to keep his hair short on top and long and wavy in the back... Jess was so picky with how he wanted it cut!!!

I knew Jess wouldn't wear his hair like this to work and since he's had THE MULLET he has worn a hat to work everyday, which he usually does anyways, and you cannot even tell that "THING" is under there! So I told myself , "Alright - he'll wear this around for fun for a week, but come Sunday, there's no way Jess would wear a mullet to church! He'll go get it fixed before then. I only have to put up with it for a week!"

BOY WAS I WRONG! Sunday came and he styled his hair with THE MULLET and all. I was shocked because not one person in our ward said anything to him about it! But then again - I'm sure they all WANTED to say something -but didn't!

Well if any of you who read this went to high school with me, you know EXACTLY which group of boys did this exact same thing... and it was hilarious! Only the boys at Bonneville would cut their hair in mullets for PICTURE DAY! (aka Steve Okey, Kevin Wade and Jesse Martin... just to name a few) They were the funniest group of boys and their pictures in our yearbooks are SO SO funny, I still laugh every time I see them! Jess has the exact same personality as those boys... that's why I had to post these pictures because I'm so glad that Jess has such a humorous personality and can enjoy life (with his mullet).... and I can make jokes about it!

Jess' Birthday Month

I just wanted to REMIND everyone that it is Jess' birthday month, in case you have forgotten! He has been reminding me every day for the last four days... since February 1st. He made up this rule, I think before I even met him, about birthdays.

This is how it works: whatever day of the month your birthday is - that's how many days you get to celebrate your birthday. For example, mine is the 3rd of August so I only get three days to celebrate my special day. So since his is Feb. 26th - there is 26 days of hel...... I mean JOY in our home because every time he wants something or has to come up with an excuse, he uses the ol' "Well its my birthday month" excuse on me. If you know Jess and his personality, maybe it will make this a little more amusing.

Well - 4 days down.... 22 more to go! Wish me luck cuz I'm gonna need it!!!!!

Oh ya - I just had to throw in this picture of him ..... haha he taped his upper lip and it just cracks me up every time I see this picture! Love you LOVER!!!!

Flashback: One Year

I cannot believe that today marks one year since Jess and I were engaged! It was Groundhog day, Saturday February 2, 2008 and I hadn't the slightest clue what I was in for that evening. The week before, Jess had been stressing and planning out how to make the perfect proposal, and it was beyond anything I had ever imagined.

You know when you're younger before you get engaged, and you picture how the love of your life is going to get down on one knee and pop out a ring and say those magic words, (ok well maybe I'm the only girl who's ever dreamed of that) but this day was better than all the awesome ways I had imagined! Jess did SUCH an amazing job!

A few days prior, he had gone to ask my dad for permission and show my mom the ring he had picked out. He had actually began planning his proposal months in advance because he had taken me snowshoeing quite a few times before the big proposal - so that by the time he was ready to propose, I was used to snowshoeing and wouldn't complain the whole time =0) haha he was smart!!!

Well the day before he proposed, he sent my mom and I away to go to a day spa to get makeovers (which was really just a cover-up to keep me busy so I wouldn't clue in on what was going on). He spent that whole day making a trail in the woods up in the Ogden Valley with him and a friend of his, carving out the tree that said, "Whit Will You Marry Me," and preparing all the goodies he was going to take up on our little adventure.

Saturday morning came and Jess casually asked me if I wanted to go snowshoeing for the afternoon. Being the stubborn girl I am, I told him that we were not going to do anything fun that day until all of my homework for school was done! haha - so by the time we got up to the valley, the sun was setting and Jess was beginning to panic because things were not going according to plan. (but I was STILL entirely oblivious to it all - suprising, I know) On our drive up to the valley, he had the trunk of my car full of balloons, flowers, a CD player, a picnic basket and lots of goodies. I was still clueless.

Jess dropped me off at his sister's house and told me had to go do a plumbing job for an hour and as soon as he got back, we would go snowshoeing. Well this really ticked me off because we had just gotten all of our snow gear together and then he randomly tells me we can't go until after dark and he dumps me off at his sister's house. I was still clueless.

(the whole time I was at his sister's house he was setting things up to pop the question)

About an hour later, he picked me up and I could tell he was a little antsy, not really himself. I was still clueless.

Well we go up on this trail in North Fork, (if any of you know that camping area) and I thought it was a little odd that there was already a trail made -but again, I was clueless. So we start along this trail and the only light we have is the headlamp I'm wearing in the picture. After about 10 minutes of hiking, I start to notice that there are rose petals along the trail.

Now rewind a few days... I had been complaining to Jess that every time we go and do something fun it has to be with friends. I explained to him that I didn't mind hanging out with other people at all, but I would prefer that every now and then, I would like to do something fun... just the two of us.

Now fast forward to me seeing the petals on the trail. The thought that came to mind was, "Oh that's so sweet, this is his way of doing something romantic for me, ... just the two of us." I was still clueless. Well I keep going along the trail, Jess is behind me, and I start to notice more and more rose petals. All of a sudden, I see these red paper hearts that Jess cut out that are tied onto the branches, sort of marking the trail. Again I keep thinking, "He's doing this to make up for what I said." Clueless again.

Finally we get to a point in the trail where it forks off in two directions, and I had to choose which way to go. So I pick one direction and it takes me a short distance to where there is a chocolate covered rose in the snow. The trail leads me around the chocolate rose and back the way I had came. (Indicating I had chosen the wrong direction) So I followed the trail in the opposite direction and it led me along for awhile, with more rose petals along the path and paper hearts tied in the trees. FINALLY, I stopped and sat down to take off one of my snowshoes because my sock had fallen down around my ankle inside of my snow boot and I told Jess I needed help fixing it. It worked out absolutely PERFECT because the very spot that I sat down to fix my sock and boot, was right in front of the EXACT tree that Jess had carved out. I was still CLUELESS!!!!

Keep in mind, it was probably six or seven o'clock at night by now, and completely dark outside, and all I had was my trusty headlamp. Anyhow, Jess began to help me take off my snowboot and sock and help me fix it and I noticed he was being extremely slow. As I tried to wait patiently while he fixed my boot, I tilted my head back to look up at the stars and low and behold I looked up at the tree in front of me and there it was!!!!!

I quickly jumped up to take a closer look and there was a beautiful diamond ring hanging off of a nail in the tree! I started to cry and Jess grabbed the ring off of the nail and got down on one knee and asked me!

It was so sweet and 150-percent absolutely perfect, romantic and wonderful... all at the same time. After mushy time was over, I put my snowshoes back on and assumed we were heading back to the car to go tell everyone the exciting news. Jess led me down the trail and told me he knew a shortcut to get back down to the bottom. Obviously, I trusted him and followed right behind him and shortly after, I began to notice a bunch of balloons tied to the trees. I thought to myself, "Oh my... what does he have planned next?!"

Soon we came to this big opening where Jess had previously stomped the snow down in the shape of a heart and had a picnic table set up with treats. Balloons were surrounding us in all the trees and there was a big bouqet of daisies (my favorite flower) and he had a CD player that was playing our song, "She Will Be Loved," by Maroon 5. I started to tear up once more. It was the perfect moment. ( I was no longer clueless) So we sat down in the cold, dark, and peaceful scenery and had a nice little picnic complete with carmeled apples, fruit and veggy dips, and sparkling cider. We sat there for a long time together just enjoying the moment before we hiked back down the trail to go tell everyone the fabulous news.

It was truly a day I will never forget and I am so grateful for Jess. I am the luckiest girl to have him as my husband.