Dan.

Last Tuesday, Dan and I got to have a date night while our friends played with our cute girl. One thing I really love about Dan is his ability to get me laughing... and I mean, really laughing! I swear, he says the funniest things in just the most hilarious ways and I die. Every. Time.

We went to see the new movie, The King's Men, and then Dan took me shopping for a few new things at Ross (He spoils me!). On the way home, we were chatting and then he spouted off some poem that just really kind of makes you think. I told him how impressed I was that he can memorize something that lengthy and deep! Seriously, he memorizes the craziest things! So he says, "Yeah, I have another one. Do you want to hear it?"

Still in awe at his abilities, I say yes, and he begins, "Roses are red, violets are blue..." and THEN, "When I go to the bathroom, it smells like poo!"

I was so caught off guard, after expecting some literary masterpiece, that I busted up laughing... and then I couldn't stop! haha Dan thought it was hilarious that I was so cracked up by his "middle school joke", as he put it, that we both just sat in the car, laughing ourselves to tears.

Lately, it seems that with Dan's new job and these graveyard shifts, we are on opposite schedules! He's working when I'm sleeping, and he's sleeping when I'm working. It's hard. But Dan always makes time for me. AND for Aurora.

She's become quite the daddy's girl lately and, of course, Dan is loving it... and so am I! It is the sweetest thing to see the love she has for him!

Everyday, I am grateful to have Dan as my partner in all things. My parents always told us that actions speak louder than words, and Dan's actions practically shout his love for me and for Aurora. I know I say it all the time, but I am so blessed to have him in my life.

Oh, and P.S. You remember those 70° days we had last week? Those have been replaced with beautiful snow and 40° weather this week! Welcome back, winter!

A Little Less Distraction

A little bit ago while I was perusing Instagram, I came upon a friend's post... a picture of her with her young boys and her thoughts below that. The post read:

"I've been feeling really sappy about these two lately... So please excuse me while I indulge in some good ol momma sappiness. They are just my whole world and I wouldn't have it any other way. Last week I decided I needed to make some changes. I decided I was distracted by a lot of things and not able to keep my focus on what matters. One of those distractions being my phone! Yes, this social media thing... Sometimes it just sucks you in! So, alongside a couple of friends I challenged myself to only check social media when the boys are sleeping. It's been way too hard. Kind of embarrassing how hard. But probably one of the best decisions I've made in a while. I feel so much more present and feel like my head is so much more clear. Anyone else need to take this challenge?"

I 'liked' the picture and went on my way, but that thought has not gone out of my head since! I too, have been distracted, as she said, with my phone! Especially since we got new phones and I've been busy trying to get the new phone set up to my liking.

But every time I pick up my phone and Aurora is in the room, I almost cringe. I then try to justify my reasoning for picking it up by saying I'm doing it to document the moment, but as I look back at time spent on my phone, I realized I wasn't being honest about that. Half the time I'm on Facebook and that's AFTER I've already checked the stupid thing WAY more times than a person needs to in a day.

So today, after almost two weeks since my Instagram friend posted what she did, I decided to use my phone a little less and play with my Aurora a little more.
And it was beautiful.

We read.
We laughed.
We sang.
We played.
We lived.

And we did it all together.

I even pulled out my "real" (non-phone) camera and took some shots of my little reading on the big comfy red chair in our living room.

Of course, this doesn't mean I'm perfect with it.
It doesn't mean I've stopped pulling my phone out at all.
And it doesn't mean that I don't pull it out to capture a quick picture of Aurora doing something I think is wonderful, when I don't have time to go grab my normal camera.

BUT I have decided to use it less. I don't instantly whip it out every time I hear that notification from Facebook ding and I don't try to use any lull in action to mindlessly stare at the screen.

It's my work in progress and a daily goal!

And speaking of having less distractions and more face-to-face time with loved ones... tonight, my sister-in-law, Laura, watched Aurora for us so I could take some much needed time with Dan alone before he had to work the graveyard shift again tonight!
Oh it was wonderful!
Our intentions were to do some moving work for a woman in St. George who does interior design for model homes, but that plan fell through and we ended up doing a dinner date instead!

Dan took me to a Mexican restaurant on Bluff Street called El Coyote Charro. We talked, we laughed, and we ate yummy food! I loved every minute of it!

Sometimes disconnecting from our distractions is all it takes to make some real connections that we will cherish forever!

4 Days, 1 Post

This week has been a whirlwind! It's gone by so SO fast! But it's been oh so fun!

Monday, Dan was off work so we slept in (glorious!) and then headed to St. George so that Dan could help our friend, Shaun, build a shed for their stuff. Aurora and I kinda bummed it on their couch and watched Will & Grace reruns while they worked, BUT THEN we all went to Fiesta Fun!

We played the arcade and played mini golf and rode bumper boats and drove the go-carts. It was a blast! And the weather was perfect. Hot and breezy. We love St. George!

When we returned to Cedar, we attended Collette's very last choir concert and hung out with my family! Which, of course, included spying on Collette and her boyfriend, Kurtis, out the front window after their post-concert ice cream date... hahahaha

Tuesday, Dan worked the morning shift at Ernie's and I did laundry (and maybe played on the floor a bit with Aurora... something involving a diaper on her head... haha) but when he got home, we played pool in the garage. Oh! We got a pool table for $100 dolla dolla bills! So yeah, that was tons of fun. Although, Dan kicked my butt multiple times... and then he was supposed to go fishing with my dad but my dad had a crappy/long work day, so plans got rescheduled. Instead, Dan, Aurora, and I packed up to go to St. George again. This time, to spend the night and pay the car payment.

Speaking of cars... before we left to St. George, we sold our red Taurus! Woohoo! Then we put the money toward our car payment on the Neon. Perfect.

We stayed that night in St. George at Grandma Rigby's house then got up the next morning and had breakfast with Grandma before going shopping and to pay the car payment. Dan got to spin the car payment wheel of fortune and won us a free oil change! Then we bought me a cute new pink swimming suit at Ross and we got Aurora a cute CUTE swimming suit at Target all thanks to her Great Grandma Claire (Thank you Thank you!).

After that, we went on a mini date to get ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and we checked out this cool candy and soda shop called Rocket Fizz. They had some cool old candies there that you can't get anywhere else AND some crazy sodas! Some were flavored like ranch dressing or peanut butter and jelly... haha silly!

When we finished, we went out to dinner at Mongolian BBQ with Shaun, Kara, and Shaun's brother, Brad. It was so fun to see them! And the lady at the cash register there when we were leaving even gave us all origami hearts she'd made from coupon pamphlets haha and told Brad he needed to get a girlfriend and bring her there to propose using an origami heart... she was funny.

We meant to go swimming at Grandma's house after dinner but someone was using the clubhouse there so we rescheduled the swimming adventure. No worries! I'll be sure to post when we actually do take Aurora swimming for the first time! I'm so excited to see how she likes it.

We got home from St. George on Wednesday night around 11pm and headed straight over to Jeremy and Kaela's to watch Walking Dead with them, Cody, and Ryan. Lucky for us, we had a very yummy cherry pie to share with everyone from Grandma's house! (How's that for great zombie-watching-food? haha)

Thursday, Dan worked the morning shift at Ernie's again and Aurora and I slept til noon! Ahh! haha We DID wake up and go straight to work on cleaning the house, though, so that makes up for the late wake time, right?? After the house was semi-clean, I hurried and got us both ready to go to Collette's high school graduation.

BOTH our siblings graduated from high school today! How crazy is that?? Collette from Cedar High School at 4pm and then Cody from Canyon View High School at 8pm. In between that, we had a celebration for Collette at my parents' house and got to see some of our cousins, Grandpa Smith, Grandma Barclay, and our aunts (love those people!). Then after Cody's graduation, we had a celebration for Cody and his fiancee, Laura, at Dan's mom's house with Dan's family and Laura's family.

What a fun night! We are so proud of them both! They are both on to such great things in the future; a mission for Collette and a wedding and SUU for Cody and Laura!

Just Because

I have the sweetest husband! He came home from a busy afternoon of helping Becca move some stuff to a storage unit and working on some sprinklers and cancelled all his plans for the evening so we could do date night. As we were about to leave, there on the kitchen table sat beautiful roses and some chocolate truffles JUST BECAUSE! The roses were absolutely beautiful and the truffles tasted great! Then we ate at The Hong Kong Buffet and saw Fast & Furious 6.

I am seriously SO in love with that guy. I could NOT imagine my life without him! ♥

InstaTuesday #6

/Submitted my application for the 11 elementary ed. teaching positions for ICSD. I hope I get an interview! I can't believe the time is here! I'm almost a college graduate and I'm applying for "adult jobs"! Eee!/

/Caleb turned 12 on April 10th! We had dinner and played games at my in-laws for it and I brought him a balloon stuffed with a rice crispy treat for his present!/

/Apparently it was National Sibling Day this last week so I did my own post! I love these people! I'm so lucky to have them all./

/Fader by The Temper Trap has been on repeat these days. I love it./

/Love that I've had some time to scrapbook! Isn't Dan a cutie?!/

/I don't want to brag or anything but I've been able to sleep in almost everyday this week since I'm out of school. Ah, this is the life./

/Dan and I got to play with Jack on Friday! We loved it! He's our favorite nephew hehe/

/One day I'm going to clean up our backyard patio and put a table and some chairs so we can do dinner outside for summer. Also, I need to pump up my bike tires so I can hit the road!/

/Saturday we played night games at Park Discovery with Ryan, Bryan, Mickel, Steve, and Lauren. I couldn't see very well in the dark so I admired the view of Providence Center. Aren't the lights looking over Wal-mart beautiful at night?/

/After night games, we went to Denny's. I like these people./

/The relief society lesson on Sunday was from the teachings of President Lorenzo Snow on perfection. I loved this quote. I need to remember this./

/After church we went to Canyon Park for a picnic with Dan's family. It was sunny and beautiful. I love this boy./

/Just another Polyvore creation. Lovely./

/Found this recipe on Kraft for chicken pot pie so I made dinner... it was divine!!/

/Don't these look so yummy? I posted the recipe for Rolo Cheesecake Squares on my facebook page and my old assistant manager from Megaplex, Alicia, made them for me! I love her! haha/

/It has snowed pretty much all day today. Gah! April, what are you doing??/

InstaTuesday #2

Here's the latest installment of InstaTuesday. Enjoy!

/This field by my house has holds kind of a special place in my heart. It was where Dan and I got some of our engagement photos and I love it because it has the most beautiful red bushes. I love the contrast of the red with the yellows... especially on a rainy day./

/Oh, just a selfie. haha It'd been a while since I'd rocked the middle part so I had to!/

/I really love this guy. He can always make me smile./

/Finally got the chance to hang out with Brandon and Kristel and got to meet their sweet new baby girl, Rylee. We had a fun night! Bryan and Mickel came, too, and we had breakfast for dinner and played Mario Kart on the Wii./

/Relaxing on my parents' couch before family dinner. It was nice./

/These two can always, always get me laughing! haha They are the best!/

/Monday, I got to go to the CHS choir concert to watch Collette. I was 5 minutes late so I missed her singing but that's ok because that was THE shortest concert I'd ever been to at Cedar High. I'm serious. We're talking 50 minutes instead of 2 hours. Yeah./

/AND, even better, I got to sit by these people at the concert. I love my family! Also, there may have been an old man sitting behind us watching the concert through binoculars... so, yeah, it was good haha./

/This, here, is the aftermath of Tuesday night scouts at my house. We passed off their communication beltloop by telling stories, writing letters, making posters, and eating cookies. Oh... wait. Eating cookies isn't part of the requirement.../

/Today was also my littlest sister, Erin's, birthday. 13, people, 13!! She's getting so grown up! AND beautiful! It was so fun to celebrate by swimming at the aquatic center and then eating pizza at Steph's with ALL my gorgeous sisters and wonderful husband. Sibling time was much needed. I love these people./

/AND the sunset was gorgeous. Happy birthday, Erin!/