A Work in Progress

We found our home!

As many of our family members and friends know and have witnessed, we are dedicated to working on making our house our home. We have sweated, bleed (Landon's elbow through the china hutch), laughed and cried through this process. It is all coming together now, piece by piece. One thing we have learned about being home owners is the work is never finished. You can always find something you want to changed. And another thing, which is most important, is that it doesn't have to be done all at once. There have been many who have lent a hand in helping build this dream for us. Thanks to all of you who have sacrificed your time and energy. We are forever grateful to you and love you so very much. The beginning of our home.

Couper & Kaleena's Wedding

They did it! One more eternal family has been formed! Here are a few pics of their reception. I have some beautiful pics of them at the temple, but I will have to get them from my father-in-laws computer. Maybe some day I will be able to use them for my own photography portfolio.

Destruct and Rebuild

Destruct.....the very word that describes what we do as home owners. We destroy so we can build back up and make things more our own. It's very exhausting making things your own, but it gives you a greater appreciation for them. Well, we have some great appreciation for our yard let me tell you why. We had a gigantic 40 foot pine tree in the upper corner of our yard. Landon and his dad chop it down last year. So, you may be thinking the hard work was over, not even close. Last weekend we had a few guys from a tree stump grinding company come out and turn our huge stump into barrels of mulch. It took them about an hour, using their big grinding machine, to get it all chopped up. It was already looking better. Landon and I ended up taking that following Monday off to clean up the many wheel barrels full of mulch cleaned up along with some other things. After moving the majority of the mulch to our flower bed we then found the real work. There were about 6 long, thick roots sprouting out in different directions still in the ground where the pine tree stump had once been. The tree stump company had told us we could call them if we found anything else that needed to be ground up. Well, they were about two weeks out from being able to come help us. We took matters into our own hands and started to dig. Landon did most of this work while I was working on spreading mulch in our flower bed. Here is a picture of Landon using the axe to chop away at one of the thick roots. And then here's another picture of him holding it once it was out. We had about two truck and trailer loads of dirt, branches, roots, and rocks that we had to take to the dump by the end of the day. We worked for about 12 hours straight, but there's nothing more rewarding then spending one full day in your yard getting a ton done. The final result makes it all worth while.

Feeling Free.....Our New Adventure

Landon and I went on a fun adventure last night. We'll call it our first step into feeling free. We just bought ourselves mountain bikes. We thought bike riding would be something fun that we could do together to keep ourselves active because lets face it, when you get married you get lazy. Landon got off early yesterday so were decided to take our first adventurous bike ride on the open road. I would love to say we went in the mountains on some unknown trail with slick rock, but that was not the case. We rode from our house in Layton to Landon's mom's house in Kaysville and then back. It may not sound like a hard trip, but when you haven't ridden a bike for as many years as me, that is a big accomplishment. It felt great! Its amazing what being outside being active can do for you and I'm not just talking physically. I can see already how much this will help us as couple. Yay for new adventures!

Mother's Day for 4 Mother's

All of you people out there whose parents aren't divorced consider yourselves super lucky. This not being only for the obvious reason of having your parents living in the same household, but also for the fact that when they are both remarried, divorced once again and married once again, you have that many more parents you have to find time for. Don't get us wrong; we love all of our parents, step parents and all, but wow, holidays can get a little hectic. Unfortunately, there is never enough time on the actual holiday to go visit them all so we end up celebrating ALL our holidays for about three days. :-) This year we saw Landon's step mom on Saturday afternoon, my mom Saturday night and his mom Sunday evening. Michelle still lives in Chicago, unfortunately, so we didn't get to see her. We're hoping we can talk her into moving back HOME. ;-) All of us kids went to Tom and Britt's yesterday to cook kabobs and celebrate Mother's Day. They were very delicious! Then we had left over cake from one of the two weddings we went to last week. Landon's cousin got married on Thursday and his step brother, Couper, got married on Friday. They were both all day events. So, needless to say after the two weddings and all the Mother's Day running around we are pooped. In ending this post I would like to say that we recognize one of the greatest blessings having divorced parents can be having more family. We look at it is us having more people to love and more people to love us. We love you all and hope all our Mother's know how much we appreciate them. xoxo

Fun in the Sun

Have I told you how we hang out with Brittney and Tommy about every other day? Yes, we are super lucky to have family members who are our bestest pals. I really want to post some of our cute pics from our trip to St. George we took with them so I decided to do a blog for it and give some details. After the marathon in Moab we came home for a few days then picked back up again and went to Landon's grandparents town home in St. George. On the way down there Britt and I made the backseat a moving movie theater to watch our many hours of Dawson's Creek. Yes, I did just say Dawson's Creek. Don't pretend like you don't have one guilty pleasure like that. We went to Vegas one of the nights and rode the NY NY Rollercoaster. Here we are in NY! :-) We wish! We spent the rest of our vacation lounging at the town home. Britt and I spent some time laying out by the pool getting some rays. It was perfect weather while we were there. We went to the Fiesta Fun Center and rode go carts. Brittney and I kicked the guys trash. Along with all the junk food we ate we had some delicious pizza at the local Pizza Factory. Yum! There was an old phone booth there so we just HAD to get a picture with us all in there. Unfortunately the picture with all of us there didn't turn out. This whole trip was just what all of us needed. We had one heck of a good time. When's our next trip guys?!

Team Edward.....Bite me

There is one thing you must know about me. I have a tendency to get a tad bit obsessed with things I find and enjoy. You must know about my latest obsession. My sister-in-law, Brittney, started telling me about these magical books she was reading and told me that I HAD to read them. She wasn't lying. Its a series called Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. She is brilliant. Here is a little understanding of how much I enjoyed these books; I picked up the first book and set down the third book a week later. Each book has an average of 550 pages. Landon had no wife for that week. Every waking moment was spent in Edward and Bella's compelling love story. After I got done with the third book I felt like there had possibly been a part of me that had just died. And the worst part is that I now have to wait until August 2nd until the fourth book comes out! You can only guess the kind of torture that is. No worries. I am reading them all over again. :-) And the movie comes out December 12th so it can only get better from here. If you have not read these books do not wait another day! Go spend $9 on the first book at Walmart! By the way, is anyone as disappointed as I am with who they are casting as Edward?!

Moab Canyonlands Half Marathon

Landon and I had been looking for a reason to get in shape just right before this last Christmas. Some of the girls that I work with had decided to sign up for a half marathon in Moab in March. Some of them were going to be running with their husbands. So, I decided that would be a fun thing for Landon and I to do together to help us get in shape. We started our extreme training immediately with only four months until race day. Half way through training Landon hurt his foot and the doctor said it would not be wise idea for him to run in the marathon. I was on my own. I still had Landon's space I could fill so I coaxed my friend Darin into taking his place. For the last two months before the race we hit training super hard. Two days before race day both of us hurt one of our feet. We weren't going to let that spoil our hard work. Landon, me and Darin all drove to Moab. The morning of race day we had to get up at 6:00 to get ready and go get our race packs. Landon dropped us off at the buses and wished us good luck. It was pretty chilly that morning, but we had been training in 45 degree weather so we were okay with the low temps. The bus ride up to the starting line seemed to never end. We kept looking out the window seeing all the road we would have to run on until we would get to the finish line. When the buses got to the starting line we saw something amazing. There were about 4800 people scattered all over the side of the mountain, under rocks, on the dirt, waiting for the race to begin. After two hours of waiting in the chilly weather in the canyon we were all lined up ready to go. The gun shot went off and we were on our way. The adrenaline I felt is unexplainable. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. It was even somewhat of a spiritual experience. I was running in an absolutely beautiful canyon knowing that I was accomplishing something so big for myself. There were so many people around us in the beginning, but as we got further everyone split off into their groups who were on their same pace. Luckily Darin and I were on the same pace. At about mile 6 Darin's and my foot were throbbing, but nothing was going to stop us from finishing now. We kept trucking and had plenty of energy up to mile ten. Once we step into mile eleven we had hit our wall. The last 3 miles of our race seemed like another ten. As we turned the corner on mile 13 we saw the finish line within reach. There were tons of people at the finish line there to cheer everyone on. That was one of the most exhilarating moments in my life. I had done it. I had just crossed the finish line of a half marathon. What a rewarding feeling. Landon met up with us and congratulated us on our accomplishment. The took pictures all along the way of the race and at the finish line. We still need to get some off the website, but here are some Landon took for us.