Happy Easter

Many years ago I was in a sunday school class. I do not remember which one or how old I was, but the teacher giving the lesson gave each person this story. Since that class I have read this story often and it is always such a great reminder of the savior's love to us. The story was in the May Ensign 1992 and it was by Marion D. Hanks. Many of you may have heard it, but here it is anyways.

As Easter time approaches, let me share with you the tender story of an eleven-year old boy named Philip, a Down's Syndrome child who was in a Sunday School class with eight other children. Easter Sunday the teacher brought an empty plastic egg for each child. They were instructed to go out of the church building onto the grounds and put into the egg something that would remind them of the meaning of Easter. All returned joyfully. As each egg was opened there were exclamations of delight at a butterfly, a twig, a flower, a blade of grass. Then the last egg was opened. It was Philip's, and it was empty! Some of the children made fun of Philip. "But, teacher," he said, "Teacher, the tomb was empty." A newspaper article announcing Philip's death a few months later noted that at the conclusion of the funeral eight children marched forward and put a large empty egg on the small casket. On it was a banner that said. "The tomb was empty."

During this special Easter season, let us not forget the empty tomb and all that it means to us and our eternal salvation. Happy Easter everyone!

P.S. I recently changed my blog title from "life as newly weds" to what it is now. If you want to know where I got my inspiration behind it click here. It is from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk during the General Young Women's meeting last weekend. A teacher at the Elementary School that I am working at told me about it and so I read it. It is amazing! And so cute about how he talks about how he and his wife met.

"Life is Like a Box of Chocolates - You Never Know What You're Going To Get"

Hey everyone, just wanted to do a quick update.
This past weekend we got together with McKay's brother and his fiance, Natalie. We attempted to try out our new fondue pot...Attempt being the key word here. :) Being new to the whole fondue world I would like to say that it looked like this...

Yet sadly we are newbies so no our chocolate was not as smooth and silky as I would have liked and it wasn't any professional/secret family recipe. It was just melted milk chocolate chips. But hey that is the story of my life, and it was still a ton of fun. After stuffing ourselves with chocolate and fruit (getting more chocolate on our faces than not) we watched The Blind Side. It was a really fun evening and thanks Jesse and Natalie for hanging out with us!




as for other news about our life things around here are great, busier than it has been in months. With school, practicum, homework, church stuff, and keeping up with housework I am finding that I actually have to plan my days out now and get up earlier than ever. The break that I had for the past few months was fun but I am definetely one who is more productive when I have more things going on. For example, McKay said to me this morning at six a.m. when I was rushing around to get everything together, "Wow you are really on top of things" (or something to that effect, I don't remember his exact words since it was still pretty early). But none the less it is SO true. Before I would often not wake up until nine and still accomplish less than I do these days. Now... I know many of you are thinking I am crazy for wasting my days like that, but if you don't have things pressuring you to do anything then it is really hard to stay motivated. So this morning McKay could not have given me a better compliment and it feels good to be getting back into the swing of things. Thanks McKay! Welp, that is all for today, thanks for listening to me ramble.

Spring Break Bliss

Sorry folks, I know this post is a little bit late, yes it is old news, but we took some very cute pictures of our extremely cute niece and nephew so I am still going to do it. So sorry about the delay... anyways, moving on, we are going to pick up right where my last post left off. So it was early wednesday morning of last week (which was spring break for McKay and I at Utah State) and we left freezing Logan and headed to sunny Colorado. It was a nine-ten hour drive I didn't really keep track very well because we made a few stops on the way there. All I know was that it was long enough to make my bum go num and for us to discover that our air conditioning no longer works (this is going to be a LONG summer). But once there we got a very warm welcome from McKay's sister Candace and her family. That night we ate a yummy dinner, talked tons, and then headed to bed. The next morning was McKay's oldest niece, Kenzie, had her 5th birthday party. It was a princess party and it was so fun to be there for it. We were the helpers and did anything from help decorate the house and cake to McKay being "Prince McKay". He even wore a prince crown and played the prince and the princesses with all of the five year olds. They loved him and it helped to distract the kids while Candace set up for the other games. During the party I was able to take hundreds of pictures of the event with Candace's very nice camera. That was fun and I think I even got a few good shots. :) We were all exhausted by the end, but thanks to all of Candace's hard work the party was a success.
Here is Kenzie dressed as a princess next to her AMAZING homemade Cinderella cake that her mom made. It turned out great!


These are Kenzie and "Prince McKay at the party while they played games. The kids loved McKay so much I considered turning it into a business. "Prince McKay" for sale, great entertainment at birthday parties...



Also on her birthday we went to Garden of the Gods National Park. It was a very pretty day and it was so great to be in warm weather. (It was the first time this year that I didn't need a jacket outside) The kids (oh and McKay) loved climbing on the rocks and Braden, McKay's nephew, even started eating the rocks. He told us that they were his cookies.


We didn't really go on a tour or go to the visitors center there, so I couldn't really tell you anything about the Garden of Gods except that there were really big red rocks and they make cool formations. We just had fun walking around. Here are the rest of the pictures from our visit...
Kenzie and I on the way to Garden of the Gods

McKay and the kids


The whole group



The boys climbing on rocks




Later that night we had pizza once Chad got home from work and then started watching tons of basketball games (By the way, I am still bummed about Kansas loss, I basically stopped checking my bracket all together) Friday was a relaxing day. Candace and I had the chance to go shopping for a few hours but after leaving, talking in the store parking lot for an hour we finally realized the time, ran in, grabbed what we needed, and ran out. But not worrys we got our real shopping trip on Saturday while the guys took the kids sledding. Also on Saturday we went roller skating. It was my first time, and only slightly different than roller blading. The kids were still a little nervous to do it, but the adults had a good time.

Right after we put the skates on for the first time


Saturday night we just hung out and talked. Then on Sunday we just got up and headed home. It was so fun to go on our first major road trip and thanks to Candace and Chad for feeding and entertaining us. This week has just been back to the normal. I started my practicum on Tuesday and I have been exhausted all week, (went to bed at nine every night) so hopefully I will get used to it soon. Anyways I hope every one is having a great spring and thanks for reading!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Well I am getting a taste of freedom right now. It is officially 1:20 am and I just finished my 9 page historical research paper. All I have left is proof reading (that will be done AFTER spring break). Tomorrow... or I guess later today, McKay and I will be on our way to Colorado. Wahoo! I also just remembered that it St. Patricks Day and since I will be taking an extended break from blogging while we are gone I thought I would just wish everyone a Happy St. Patricks Day! Not really sure what that means (don't really see a point to this holiday) but oh well I hope you all have a great day anyways. :)

Also congrats to Vanessa and Brian who are getting married TODAY! Good luck with everything and I hope it is a beautiful/wonderful/amazing DAY!

Oh I just love weddings! Well that is all for tonight, thanks for reading!

Checklist

So in a week and a half I will start my elementary practicum. It is where I will go to a elementary school and help a teacher, in my case I will be doing 2nd grade, from 8 am to 4 pm. I will be there all day and then I also have night classes after. Many of my peers have already been doing this all semester, I was just lucky because I had already completed the preschool half of it in high school so I only have to do it for half the semester. So needless to say my days of freedom and relaxation are coming to a close. It will be an adjustment but I am excited for the challenge, because I would much rather be busy than not. For some reason I am much better at managing my time that way? It is weird... But anyways I have been busy this week preparing myself for the transition by relaxing a few more times (I think I took a nap everyday, so heavenly!) and doing odds and ends newly wed stuff (I swear there is more to do after the wedding day). Some of the things I have done were

Cleaned the house
Return a few more gifts
Wrote more thank you notes (still not done)
Got McKay's suit dry cleaned (it got completely messy from our wedding night when They covered our car with shaving cream)
Bought new bread pans (hopefully I can make it again soon)
Joined my name onto McKay's bank account (yay! now I have access to his money too! lol)
Planned our trip to Colorado next week
Did laundry
and last but not least, started my 10 page paper due in two weeks :(

Oh and a couple other things, I bought our one and only spring decoration to replace our "Winter Welcome" It is definitely not welcome anymore, and surprisingly I think it is taking the hint. :)
The Before

And the cute after


Also the other day I was remembering back to preschool last semester and I remembered when we had "walking apples" for snack. It was very tasty and the kids loved it so I decided to make it. But I do have to say, it is much more fun to eat with kids. But for those of you who are not familiar with what walking apples are, let me explain. You start by cutting/slicing apples into small chunks. Then you get different sauces/foods that you could dip your apple in. Then you "walk" your apple through the different dips and then eat it. What types of foods do you use? Well when I had it the other day I just used what I had so I used crushed up graham crackers, yogurt, and frosting. I have also had it with pudding, sprinkles, whiped cream, and carmel. It is way fun and the kids could experiment and see what combinations that they can come up with.
Here is a visual for those of you who are still not fully understanding...



Well if you can't tell I am really excited to start teaching and helping kids again, and it will be really cool to see what teaching a second grade classroom is really like. Hopefully the kids will like me and we will have lots of fun. Well that is all for today, thanks for reading my blog!

Basketball Galore

So this weekend was SO fun! For those of you who are not avid basketball fans, or do not keep up with it. This week was a state playoffs for highschool teams and the last conference games for the WAC Conference (The Utah State Aggies are in this conference). So we started out Friday with heading down to Ogden to watch Alta (my dad's team) play Fremont at Weber State. This was the semifinal game of the state tornament Lucky for us we stayed ahead almost all of the game and won it in the end. That night we went to Wingers to celebrate and to get pumped for the game on Saturday which would be the final game. Alta had not made it to this far into the tornament since 2003 so this was a HUGE deal. After a yummy dinner at Wingers McKay and I headed to my grandparents house to stay the night. Thanks again grandma and grandpa for letting us stay there so that we didn't have to drive so much.
The next morning McKay and I helped his brother and sister in law move into their first house that they bought near Layton. It was way fun hanging out and helping his family. Their house is really cool and I am so happy for them and their kids, and I can't wait to go visit them there. After helping them move we headed straight back to Weber State for the Final game against Davis High School. This game was fun because half of our cousins cheered for davis and the rest of us cheered for Alta. I thought a little bit of family rivalry was good for us. :) Once again Alta pulled ahead in the beginning and stayed that way till the end (yay Go Hawks!) So Alta is offically Utahs 5A State Champs! Such a fun game!

Here is McKay and his "fan Club" at the games. My little cousins LOVE him. But who can blame them ;)



These are pics of the rest of the cousins and family that came to support their Uncle Tony. We always love hanging out with them at the games each year. Sorry if some of them are alittle off centered, my cousin was "helping" me take them. (he is two and SO cute!)






And last, but not least here is the championship team as they celebrate their victory.





The Utah State Aggies also played on saturday in their last conference game of the season and won (ofcourse) making them the WAC Conference Champions! So it was a great night for basketball on saturday. Unfortunetly McKay and I did not go to the game because we had just gotten back from Ogden and we needed to do some homework. But we heard it was a great game and the spectrum was totally packed.

Thanks again for reading and before I end I want to show you the beautiful surprise flowers that I recieved this past week from my amazing husband. He is so sweet and always thinking of me. They have been a perfect addition to this almost like spring week. So here is to nice weather and great basketball games, have a great week!

The Third of March

Today I saw this...


After that I saw this...


Unfortunetely I missed seeing this...


But Thank Heavens! I didn't see this...


Today has been a beautiful day!!