Why don't you stay a while, Spring?

Sunday was the most beautiful day.  Jensen went down to Moab with his brother Morley so I invited myself over to Suz's house for Sunday dinner and stayed the night.  We spent a little time enjoying the warm sunshine in her backyard taking pictures and then taking the dog she is dog-sitting on a walk.  Sometimes I wish spring could last forever.

A snowy spring

It's been a little warmer here the past few days, and I think the spring warmth is finally here to stay.  It seemed to have some trouble getting here though.  We have had an unusually wet and cold spring this year.  I love snow, but snow in April is not welcome.  I just hope our days of 60s and 70s will be here for a while, and not jump too quickly to hot summer days.

Those flower blossoms are from apricot trees in Suzanne's back yard.  They do look a little like popcorn popping don't they?

A little bit of Easter

Easter was quite a while ago, but since I took a little blogging break I never posted about it.  I made the most delicious and prettiest sugar cookies I've ever made!  I was quite proud of myself.  To make my icing I used this recipe.  I was a little skeptical that it would taste too sugary without any butter so I did add some melted butter to mine.  Easter Sunday Jensen and I went over to Suzanne's house for a Granny inspired Easter dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, deviled eggs, lima beans, rolls, and jello salad.  We ate to our heart's content and then enjoyed the nice weather that made an appearance that day out in the yard.

Picnic in the Park

Sunday we finally had some nice sunny weather!  So we packed ourselves a lunch and ate in the park.  It was so nice to have the soft green grass between our toes and warm sun on our faces.  I love picnic season almost as much as leaves changing season, and it looks like it might finally be here to stay in Utah.   Except today and tomorrow.  It got a little chilly again! 

We had our picnic at Bicentennial Park in Provo.  They have a ton of open grassy space, a giant gnarly tree, and walking paths with wooden bridges over slightly overgrown marshy areas.  I think it's one of my favorite parks in Provo.

Swimming around in the murky pond was a muskrat.  He was pretty cute! All the little kids at the park kept calling it an otter or a beaver.  

Liebster Award

My friend London at A London Review nominated me for a Liebster award. And I think the ladies over at Potlucks on the Porch nominated me a little while ago, but I totally forgot to post when they did!

1. What do you love most about blogging?

I like documenting my every day life like a journal, and being able to also add photos and be creative with it. I've also met quite a few people through blogging/instagram which I would not have expected when I first started to blog.  It has also been fun to get to know people that way. 2. How did you get inspired to blog? Usually just my day to day life.  Most days are not very exciting, so I try to find interesting things and beauty in my day to day life. 3. What is your favorite type of breakfast cereal? Life! I buy tons of cereal but always go through my boxes of Life first.  Almost as soon as I run out I buy more. I never seem to get tired of it. 4. Shoes or Sandals? Shoes.  I do not have cute feet. 5. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla ice cream, chocolate pudding. 6. What is your favorite book, TV show, or movie? I love Harry Potter, and I try to reread the series every couple of years.  I'm also love competition tv shows.  Project Runway and Top Chef are my favorites. 7. Name one of your guilty pleasures. Reality tv shows.  When it comes to tv I'm easily entertained and if you let me I could watch for hours.  It's bad. 8. What is your biggest fear? I hate parasites and worms.  I've seen too many weird medical shows about people getting them. 9. What are you most proud of? This isn't meant to sound conceited but I am proud of my life! Jensen and I have been able to get a nice home together, and I'm proud of our relationship. 10. What is your dream job? An interior designer 11. What blog do you just HAVE to read? A Cup of Jo Emily Henderson A Beautiful Mess 11 facts about me 1. In fourth grade a boy in my class named Zack asked me to "go steady". I had no idea what going steady meant and I told him no.  (Even if I knew what it meant I'm pretty sure I would have said no) 2. I hope so bad that I will have twins some day. 3. I wear men's deodorant. 4. I hate when people use the word literally wrong... like "my head literally exploded" or "I literally died."  No, no you did not. 5. My birthmark is on my bum. 6. I have lived in both Hawaii and Alaska. 7. Since I was a little girl my family has 9 had cats.  Sweety, Prissy, Sassy, Lightening, Kitty, Sammy, Samantha, Kitty, and my kitty I have now Pigeon. 8. I was voted most unique in high school. 9. I am super forgetful/clumsy. I've locked myself out of my house twice (and have only lived here 3 months), I dropped and broke my new phone after having it for less than an week, I accidentally elbow Jensen in the face far too often (apparently I can't quite tell where my elbows are when I'm stretching or reaching for things), and I lose my phone/keys/charger/ipad approximately 27 times a week. 10. I was a portrait model for a painter in Provo for a few months.  I yawned a lot while I sat in the chair very still.  Then he asked me if I would be comfortable posing nude (nope!), and I haven't worked for him since.  This is a coincidence (I think :) ). He has talked about having me work for him again, but our timing never works out. 11. I am terrible at remembering what happens in movies. And I hate the "guess what movie this quote is from game", probably because I'm so terrible at it.  I also fall asleep half the time I watch a move (even in the theater).  That might have something to do with it...
My questions for you 1. What are 3 items on you bucket list? 2. What is one of your favorite childhood memories? 3. What is your favorite way to spend rainy days? 4. Where/how did you meet your husband? 5. What is your most embarrassing moment? 6. If you could go anywhere, where would you go? 7. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? 8. Were you named after anyone? Who? 9. Who is your favorite musical artist or song? 10. What is your guilty pleasure? 11. If you could go back in time to any time period where would you go? I nominate my awesome sister-in-laws! Dena, Brynley, and Desiree! 
And here's the rules if you want to join in:

1. Answer the 11 questions the blogger who nominated you asked you

2. Give 11 random facts about yourself

3. Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers

4. Create 11 questions for the nominees to answer

Conference

I know conference sessions are over for this year, but I hope you all had a great conference weekend.  Jensen and I were in Logan on Saturday and missed most of the Saturday sessions, so I will be sure to listen to or watch those talks in the coming weeks.

At my church twice a year we get the opportunity to hear our prophet, apostles, and other church leaders speak.  It's always such an uplifting experience and conference are two of my favorite weekends of the year.  You can watch here.

St Patty's Day

76/365: Food coloring for making green waffles. (March 17, 2013)

For St. Patrick's day Jensen and I had green chocolate chip waffles for breakfast. With bananas and whipped cream too. Yum! I think I may have this become a St. Patrick's day tradition for us.

Pie Day and other things

71/365

72/365

73/365: Pie Day! (March 14, 2013)

74/365

75/365

Not too much happening around here lately. Just lots of work and getting excited for spring weather and more sunshine! And of course pie for pie day and Easter treats.  Easter has the best candy out of all the holidays.  Starburst jelly beans are my favorite!

Denver Part 2

Gandolf?

After visiting the Big Blue Bear we went back to our hotel to nap for a bit then to the aquarium.  That ended up being way to expensive so we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science instead.

We started in the museum in the outer space section and ended up spending way too much time there.  They had a lot of cool things, but because we were there so long we had to rush through the rest of the museum.

Dinosaur fossils! They also had woolly mammoths and other ice-age animal fossils.

Jensen and his favorite dinosaur, Spike! Also know as the stegosaurus. 

They had rooms and rooms of stuffed animals from all over the word.  Have you ever seen a video of a fox jumping into the snow? It's so cute! 

When we were done looking around the museum we went back to the hotel to get ready for the Verizon party that night. They had really good dinner and then dancing, a casino night, and dueling pianos.  I thought it was pretty fun, but Jensen was a little disappointed.  In past years at this party they have given away tons of prizes, and everyone who goes to the event also gets a gift basked, but this year only 3 people out of over 200 there got a prize.  

On Saturday morning we woke up to snowy Denver.  It was supposed to snow 7 to 18 inches so I thought we might get snowed in, but they only ended up getting a few inches. On Saturday we went shopping, to a movie and lunch and then flew home.