let freedom ring

we love the fourth of july! we had so much fun celebrating this special holiday together. we woke up and played racquet ball, went running, and cooled down with some swimming! then we canceled out all of our exercising with some lunch and homemade cookies & cream ice cream. 

yum! we spent the afternoon lounging around in our pjs (what's more american than that?), doing homework and watching tv. for dinner, we wished for a traditional fourth of july BBQ, but decided a bbq chicken pizza was the next best thing. i'd say i did a pretty dang good job. 

 after dinner, we grab some sparklers and headed out the door. i've had our special fireworks-watching location planned for weeks. 

 we went to my school at the edge of west jordan, overlooking the whole valley. 

 a perfect spot on the field with an amazing view! 

we played with our sparklers and watched the skyline of colors.

(amazing picture quality, i know. blah.) 

these next two are my favorite from the night. special thanks to the empty gatorade bottle we found on the field and the self-timer app. 

i love him. 

 it was such a beautiful sight. i love our country and the freedoms we have. 

god bless america, my home sweet home! 

memorial day weekend

well, the long weekend has come and gone.

i'm less than excited about returning to school tomorrow. 

now that my second practicum is over, i'll be in school monday - thursday from 8-3 (*cough*with no breaks*cough*) AND, because i put the "pro" in "procrastination", i'll also be taking a statistics class from 5-7. 

luckily, my fantastic weekend with family reminded me how much i love life. i'm happy, rejuvenated, and ready to crush the next 2 months of summer school. here is a little recap of what we did: 

FRIDAY: dinner at chili's, and game night

SATURDAY: costco, shopping, picnic in the park, playing in grass, feeding ducks, homemade pizza, games, and froyo date 

SUNDAY: spencer's farewell, spencer's farewell breakfast, eva's blessing, eva's blessing lunch, and family time in midway

MONDAY: sleeping in, homework, running, target, and more homework. 

... nothing exciting enough to take pictures of. 

i love my family, and i love three day weekends.

hope you all enjoyed your long weekend and are ready for the start of a new week!

valentine's day 2013

we had a wonderful valentine's day this year. and by "valentine's day," i really mean february 15th. because on the actual holiday, i had class until 9:30. YES, 9:30. normally, this wouldn't be a big deal because i would just leave, but this particular class has QUITE the attendance policy. if i miss two classes, i fail. simple as that. so i wasn't taking any chances. we were fine waiting a day to celebrate. 

 

 

i'm so lucky to have this cute man in my life! i love spending time with him and laughing with him. wherever we go, he makes it fun. scotty is perfect for me. and i'm glad he appreciates a good, expensive meal like i do haha. we made breakfast, exchanged cards, baked, ate candy, went out to dinner, shopped around the mall, and then we counted down the minutes until we could see the newest and cutest addition to my side of the family. 

EVA MAE BLYMILLER

sweet little eva entered the world on valentines day. i am obsessed with her. we already have a connection because of the whole holiday-birthday thing. i am so happy for my cousin angela! 

 

i hope all of you enjoyed your valentine's day as well! 

christmas break highlights

aside from the christmas eve, christmas day, mitchell's farewell, and the movie watching i already blogged about, scotty and i did a lot of other fun things over christmas break!

i got pretty christmas nails

 we laughed at mitchell and tanner and their jokes

 we carried on our 21-year-old tradition of pictures with santa

 we visited the strip

 ... and got a pretty view of it from the new HOV lane :)

 we played fun card games with scotty's parents

 i enjoyed a wonderful fab 5 luncheon at BJ's

... and especially my complimentary birthday pazookie 

and meeting kami's sweet baby jack! 

he is a beautiful little baby. i'm in love.

i visited my mom's place of work at the world market center. she plays with christmas decorations all day, so i got a sneak peek at them :)

 after that, she treated me to farm basket.

scotty and tanner long-boarded from our house down to farm basket!

crazy boys. it only took them 22 minutes!

amidst all this fun, i got my wisdom teeth out and ate lots of fro yo.

and i spent lots of time with my husband.

we mostly shopped and munched on red velvet cafe chocolate chip cookies. 

leah did my hair!

i love it dark.

 and i hung out with these cute kids. i love my little cousins!

overall, it was a pretty successful trip. 

now it's time to get back into routine and prepare for school to start.