My Husband the MAN!

Kory has been busy! He is always looking for a project and with his shed he built he has been saving and buying tools so he can keep building/fixing things. His first big one this year was to redo our bed in our spare bedroom. This was the bed I have had since I was 13 and was a girly, frilly daybed with a trundle. He hated it. He has been wanting to build a new frame for it for quite awhile now and finally set about doing it. I love it! The side part lifts up and the trundle pulls out, pushed together it makes a king bed for our visitors. It has really made the room look much better. He also took an cheap mirror I had and made a chunky frame for it to go on the wall. Also love this! But wait, I'm not done yet. He finished my favorite project just last night. A couple of weeks ago we were wandering D.I. and found a headboard set for $20, we had been discussing getting a less bulky headboard and couldn't pass up the offer. The only problem with this was in getting rid of our old headboard we took away any semblance of a nightstand that we had. I set off to find us some nightstands. I searched every store I could possibly think of buying one. For a cheap one I could get them for $90 a peice, for one that I really liked it was around $200 a peice. Grrr. That wasn't going to work, so I asked Kory if he thought he could build us some. He totally came through! Before the paint!

Finished painting!
In place. Oh, we also got our lamps at D.I. I am probably going to write a poem about D.I. soon. So many treasures we find there.
Finished product!!! I LOVE them!!! They look so good and are better than the ones we were finding at stores. I can't get over my excitement about them!

I am soo happy I married such a talented man. I Love you Kory!!!

The Big DL!

WARNING: Many Pictures Ahead. I couldn't edit!

Thats right people, Disneyland. We got the opportunity to go to Disneyland a couple weeks ago with Kory's parents and younger sister Karli. Aaahhhh, I love Disneyland. What a happy place. Kory's parents and sister had not been there so it was extra exciting to be able to share the excitement with them. We ended up leaving Sunday night and driving all night to get there. Our plans were to spend the first day in Hollywood and L.A. settle in and relax and then get right down to 4 fun packed days at Disneyland.

L.A. was CRAZY! I am pretty sure it is always crazy but whew! Let's just say we were lost more than found. We stopped in Hollywood first to see the hand and footprints and the Kodak theater. It just happened to be the day after one of the award shows so their was red carpets and security everywhere!
I happen to love Doris Day! Classic!

After a trip to the farmers market and the stress of the busy streets we decided to find the L.A. temple and take a walk around. It was magnificent! And the people there were nice!

We got to Anaheim earlier than expected and had some time to kill, Kory's dad insisted to all of our whining we take a trip to Newport beach and look around. It was totally worth it and fun. Not the best picture but I love the sky behind him, that really is Kory in the picture!
The rest of the week was DISNEYLAND!!!!! It was so much fun! We had a couple days of walk ons and two busier days. We mistakenly bought our tickets over Leap Day. It was insane that day, we were literally waddling everywhere we went. I think every local was there! We still made the best of it though we did not stay for the all night event. By the time World of Color got over in California Adventure and we exited to enter Disneyland for a few more rides the lines to get in were so backed up we gave up. We met Pooh Bear, and Tigger too. And...wait for it, you WILL be jealous...Thats the REAL Aladdin people! I know, crazy. Jasmine should be worried he totally had a thing for Karli.Kory with his favorite characters. Unfortunately we didn't have any little kids to disguise Kory's picture as theirs so alas, he waited in line with a bunch of little boys. Ha Ha Ha. It may have been forced by his wife.
The true terror of Hollywood Tower of Terror. I cannot say this is my favorite ride but it was definitely in the top of the lists for Kory and Karli, much to the chagrin of Kory's dad and myself. Toonland was a bit crazy, Kory was stuck by poisonous material, I just barely broke out of jail and Karli crashed into Goofy's mailbox! And for the finale.........We are kissing on a bridge with hearts! Can you get more romantic? Yes, that lady in the background kind of crushed the moment, oh well. We still got cheers from a bunch of teenage girls. :-) This picture was also slightly forced by the wife. We have been home a couple weeks now and I miss it! What a magical place! Until next time Disneyland!

The "Cabin"

I didn't know if it was going to happen! I thought my resolution might be lost, but I managed to squeeze some time in to blog.

For Presidents day Kory's parents used their grand connections and let us know they got a cabin for us to stay in for the weekend. I have never stayed in a cabin but always thought it sounded fun. The cabin was in Victor Idaho and we were hoping for a little snow. All of our expectations were blown out of the water when we pulled up to this:

A Mansion! Okay, it might not technically be considered a mansion but it was bigger than any house I had ever stayed in and was similar to the humongous houses we see on our parade of home tours. The place was huge. And it had a theater. Oh. And a hot tub. None of my imaginings of a cabin stay included a theater and a hot tub!

Our room for the duration of the stay!

Count them people- 7 shower heads! 7! (sorry its sideways)

The kitchen.

We did manage to leave the cabin to play in the snow too. There was easily 4 feet of snow already and it snowed almost the whole time we were there. We found a good sledding hill and had some fun there.

Kory and his dad braving the hill together.

The results of their bravery....yeah.

This was one of the only pictures of me! I'm sure if you zoomed in there would be terror in my eyes!

Kory's sister Krystal and her husband Shane could be described as...athletic and adventurous? That is putting it lightly. We were so lucky they decided to bring their snow shoes. That's something else I've always wanted to try. Kory and Shane took off up the hill to try them for awhile while the rest of us explored and had a snowball fight. It was so cool to try the snowshoes! I was walking on top of snow where a little bit before Kory's parents had been trudging through up to their waists! It was so cool.

It was such a fun weekend! I still don't feel like I really know what it would be like to stay in a cabin but we definitely had a blast. Thanks Mom and Dad Call!!!

Goodbye 2011!

WHOA! We have been bad, bad people!!! I did not realize it had been 4 1/2 months since I last updated!! That is awful! I was flipping through the pictures on our camera and thought I should at least give you a quick run down of things I managed to get pictures of in the last 4 1/2 months!! I am including some pictures that some of you may think "Why would someone put that picture on their blog?!?" It is for history people!!! I have decided to publish my blog into a memory book type thing and I need the history!!!!

AUGUST

I know our last update was the end of August but I found this picture on our camera that I never got around to blogging about and thought I should throw it on.
The reason I look so bedraggled is because I did end up flipping my kayak at one point on our second time down the river. Note to everyone, you cannot kayak perpendicular to the current!!

SEPTEMBER

We had the fun opportunity to have Kory's sister Kami and her family come visit us for a weekend. It is always a blast when we get to see them. Unfortunately I only came out with 1 picture from the experience but it was too good to pass up.
Ha. Ha. I am pretty sure Stephen did not need help changing Maycee's diaper but Kory cannot pass up any opportunity to be involved in anything kid or baby related.Kory also decided he had had it with our back lawn, sigh. He tore up the whole back yard and replanted it, the quality of the grass just wasn't where he wanted to see it at. sigh.It was also the parade of homes in Logan, we LOVE the parade of homes. This is just one of many pictures I grabbed at the parade. A must in the house we one day build? A cozy fireplace to snuggle up by and read a good book.

OCTOBER

For being my favorite month of the year I didn't get many pictures. We went to corn mazes, carved pumpkins, helped at Harvest for a week, semi dressed up for Halloween and nada! No pictures of any of it!One highlight of the month involved BYU beating the Aggies in football. Ha! I made sure Kory didn't hear the end of it. :-) This was hanging up when Kory got home from work. :-)We also got to babysit our niece and nephew for a day and I dragged them to the pumpkin walk.

NOVEMBER

Kory got us tickets to an Aggie basketball game through work. It was a lot a fun.I have had secret desires my whole life of being a gymnast or a cheerleader so I went a bit wild with the camera at half time.

It was also our 4 year anniversary!! Kory kept trying to take a backseat the the planning so I gladly took control. That means our 4 year mark was celebrated with a hilarious play in Salt Lake, Legally Brunette. A day FULL of shopping!!! And dinner at The Garden at temple square.We even got to sit right next to the window with a gorgeous view!!! It was a great day but for the big 5 I am expecting great plans from Kory!!! (hint, hint)I love you sweetie! It has been a great 4 years!

DECEMBER

Ahhhhh what a happy month! I decorated our house to the nines and didn't get one picture of it! We tried to keep the Christmas spirit high this whole month, visited Temple square twice, got rear ended twice and again, nada!!! If you want excuses it is because we lost our camera charger for the month of December. We were able to find it and get it charged just in time for my battle wounds.6 stitches baby! I love having battle wounds and feeling like a warrior. (I do not enjoy getting them, however.)(Also, don't go asking what this is from, cuz I'm not sharing. It totally takes away from the warrior part of the story!)

And my one picture from Christmas. We decided to play a trick on Kory's mom this year. We bought her some sexy lingerie and snuck it into her stocking. Kory's dad is solely responsible for the stocking. It was hilarious to watch her pull it out, realize what it was and try to hide it while shooting her husband dirty, dirty looks. He responded by putting his hands up in the air while backing up to the wall, shaking his head over and over and saying, "It wasn't me! It wasn't me!" Both of them were so bright red! Ha Ha Ha! We would have gotten away with it too! Everyone was blaming Kory's sister Krystal but I just couldn't stop laughing. Ha Ha Ha! Priceless!

That about sums up our year of 2011. I can't say I am sorry to see it go! It was definitely a year of highs and lows. Kory and I sat down and made some awesome new years resolutions for 2012, it is going to be a GREAT year! You will be happy to know I plan on blogging at least once a month in 2012. (I know what you are all thinking! But look at my track record! That is a good goal for me.) Here's to an awesome year!

Official!

Many of you may already know this and many of you may not, Kory and I are trying to adopt a child to join our family. After 5 LOOONG months of paperwork, interviews, home studies, and classes we have finally been approved and are available for birth moms to see us. We wanted to share this here because you never know who is going to know someone. Please keep us in mind and in your prayers. We are so excited that we have this option and cannot wait for the day we can be parents!

https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/26245143/ourMessage.jsf

Day 5: Palmyra!!

Soooo sorry for the delay, we have had some internet issues along with some serious busyness. I know you were all checking every day to see what we did on day 5!!!! Palmyra!! This was by far my favorite stop on the whole trip. There was such a sweet spirit everywhere we went in Palmyra, the air was thick with history, and we had a very normal and fun missionary that showed us around. We met up with my parents for the Palmyra day. They had also always wanted to see Palmyra so with a little convincing we got them to meet us there.
We arrived there when everyone had just started church so we had some time to look around. We started off with a walk through the sacred grove. It was absolutely beautiful. There was a youth group there for a church lesson when we walked through. At one point they all started singing Joseph Smith's First Prayer. It was very special.
When we finished with the sacred grove we drove over to where Martin Harris lived and then to the print shop where the Book of Mormon was first printed.

Martin Harris Home.

As it says, Book of Mormon Printing Site.

It is crazy to see how far apart everything is there and to imagine what it was like without cars to get from place to place!

Our next stop was Hill Cumorah. I was most excited to see the Hill Cumorah. It is soo amazing that Moroni was once on that very hill, as well as Joseph Smith. Crazy! Here is a view of Hill Cumorah from the top monument.

At this point church was over so we headed over for our tours of Joseph Smiths and Alvin Smiths homes.

Day 4: Kirtland and Niagara Falls

Day 4 was our short driving day! We only had about 5 hours of driving to do and it was all split up in 1-2 hour sections. We were extremely excited about this! We knew we wanted to see the Newell K. Whitney store and the Kirtland temple. Those were our 2 big things we HAD to see in Kirtland. We started with the actual church owned sites. As we started our tour and began walking towards the Newell K. Whitney store my insides dropped! It was under construction!!!! This had been on the top of my list of sites to see on our trip.

Don't worry they still let us in. Phew! Apparently they were just fixing the old paint on the building and we just weren't allowed to smoke by it but could go in. (Ha ha ha, I thought that was funny that there were signs everywhere that said you couldn't smoke by it when I'm pretty sure we weren't allowed to smoke there anyway.) The store was extremely cool to look at. This was the original store and everything inside was made to look like we had really stepped back in time to the pioneer days.Here is Kory in the actual store downstairs.

Upstairs of the store, I did not know this but Joseph Smith and his family actually lived here for a time. In this room it is said they would look over plans for the temple.
The School of the Prophets. So many great men gathered here and learned more of the gospel. It was one of the most overwhelming rooms we visited the whole trip. Visions took place in this room. Also, happenings in this room inspired the Word of Wisdom.

We saw a couple more places owned by the church and then hurried up to see the Kirtland Temple. The temple was beautiful, no pictures were allowed inside. It was exciting to see the different floors and see where visions had taken place.After we finished with Kirtland we headed to Niagara Falls. I think this ended up being one of Kory's favorite places to see the entire trip. It was AMAZING! I had no idea they let you get as close to the falls as they do but it was almost frightening to be right up next to it with only a bar separating you from falling. As we stood there we would be completely dry one second and the next the wind would change and it would be as if it was a heavy downpour when in reality it was just from the falls.I had to include this picture because really? Have you ever seen Kory look this excited!

Can you see how close we are to the water there!?! Holy cow. It still gives me the willies.

When we were done there we drove to Rochester, New York to meet my parents. Coming up: Palmyra, New York!