Another Craft

I am just becoming quite crafty if I do say so myself! I recently decided I was sick of not having any fall decorations in my house. As luck would have it, on Saturday my sister-in-law asked me if I would want to do a craft. I told her about not having fall decorations in my house and we decided to make a fall craft. We decided to make fall wreaths. They turned out really cute! This craft we were able to do under 20 dollars. We first went to D.I. and bought two pre-made wreaths. We then went to Jo-Ann and bought ( I don't even know what they are called...I call them picks) fall colored picks. We were a little bummed that Jo-Ann didn't have any yellow ones so we went to Walmart and bought yellow beads. Once we got back to the house we began our project. We had to first undo the all the decorations on the wreaths we bought. We then made felt flowers using fall colored felt that we had. We hot glued the flowers onto one side of the wreath. After that was done we began to arrange the picks and beads around the wreath. It was so easy and they turned out super cute!

Finished Product

Anniversary-Warning! This post may be a little mushy

Last week was our one year anniversary!  I really can't believe how fast it came! It seems like just yesterday I was dating Jake and wondering if this new relationship was going to go anywhere, and now here we are married for a year. What a "one-derful" year it has been. I look forward to the many years to come. I guess I should do a little report about what we did on our anniversary. Well it was on Monday, October 15. So we both had school to attend during the day. That evening we ate dinner at Rustys. We still had a gift card leftover from our wedding that we had saved and decided this was the perfect occasion to use it. Afterwards we went the movie, "Taken 2." We loved it! It wasn't as good as the first one, but it was definitely worth the money. After the movie we went to Maggie Moos for some ice cream since that was what we did on our first date. It was a really enjoyable day/evening.

Jake surprised me with flowers which were gorgeous! He is so sweet when it comes to flowers. I don't think he as missed an occasion!  He also got me the DVD "The Avengers." I really struggled with thinking of a good gift to give him. A t-shirt doesn't quite say "Happy Anniversary, I love you!"  So I did what any good wife would do, I turned to Pinterest. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I found a really cute idea and modified it a bit. I first wrote down 50 things I loved about him. I then picked about ten of the things and thought of little items I could give him to correlate with the thing I loved about him. For example, one of the things I love about him is his laugh. So I went to the dollar store and bought the DVD "Mr. Deeds." I knew that he really liked that movie and laughed a lot during it.  I then taped " I love your laugh" to the cover of the DVD. I placed all of the items in a basket and called it "An All About You Basket." Each item correlated with a thing I love about Jake. I also placed the list of 50 things I loved about him in the basket. It turned out really cute and I think he enjoyed it.

Last, this wouldn't be an anniversary post if I didn't give a little shout out to my husband. Jake, I love you so much and I am so grateful to have you in my life. I love you!

Anniversary Flowers

Crafty Me-Decorative Boards

I am really not a super crafty person. I just wasn't born with the "craft gene." But I recently discovered a cute and fairly cheap craft on Pinterest. I did modify my craft a bit from the original. It was really fun to do this project with my mom and sisters.  We each made one to hang above our beds. We first bought nine 12x12 scrapbook papers in coordinating colors. My bedroom colors are red, cream, and chocolate brown so I bought paper in those colors. We then bought 12x12 canvas boards. You can get a pack of 12 boards for 20 dollars off of Amazon. (The original project I saw used shelving board. We opted for canvas because it is lighter and we didn't want shelving board above our heads. I think the canvases were great! They were already pre-cut and easy to use.) I then painted the edges of the boards brown, my sisters opted to leave theirs white. We then modge podged the paper onto the canvas. We did not modge podge over the top. The final step was to hang the boards up on the wall. We used poster putty because we thought they might hang better than with a nail and picture hanging kit. The poster putty worked great! I am so excited that it turned out! 

In the picture the red looks kind of pink....but  it is red!

Summer Ending

Goodness! I haven't posted anything in a really long time! I know, I know, I should have been updating all summer long. I am hoping to get into a routine with school starting and maybe I will post more often. Jake and I have had a great (and busy) summer! We were able to do a lot of fun things with our families. We started off our summer with the annual Garrett Family hike.  This is no ordinary hike, we usually select ones that are 10+ miles.  This year we were able to hike the East Rim of Zion's National Park. It was kind of cold, but it was a really beautiful hike!  We had so much fun! 
We also spent quite a few weekends at Lake Powell. Jake and I both really enjoy being at the lake. One of the weeks in July we were able to be there with both of our families. Jake's family invited my family to come and spend a few days there. We enjoyed wake boarding, skiing, wake surfing, water weenie, sliding, cliff jumping and sight seeing.  We also spent quite a few weekends up at the cabin. We just enjoy being up there and relaxing. I always love being at the cabin just because I know that it is truly summertime.  We also got the opportunity to attend a couple of family reunions. I was able to meet some more of Jake's family and he was able to spend more time with mine. Another exciting thing that happened this summer was Jake and I were able to buy a second car together. We are now a two-car family! Yay! It has been really nice having a second vehicle. Last week we went to Wicked at the Capitol Theater in SLC. Jake got me tickets back in December for my birthday in August. I had really been waiting years to see this play! It did not disappoint! It was so amazing! Well that is just a short recap of our summer vacation. I will try to post more this upcoming semester!

Hiking the East Rim at Zion's National Park

Wilson Family Reunion

Cabin

Lake Powell

Rainbow Bridge at Lake Powell

Easter Weekend Getaway

Jake and I had a fun Easter weekend. On Thursday night my three younger siblings; Carson, Brenna, and Natalie came over to dye Easter eggs at our apartment.  It was so fun to get to color eggs with Jake and my siblings. We had some fun creative eggs!  Later that evening Carson went home while Brenna and Natalie stayed to have a little sleepover since they didn't have school the next morning. On Friday after work and school Jake and I packed up and drove to Las Vegas for a little shopping trip/ getaway. Since we don't have a vehicle that drive on the freeway, we have to either borrow a car from our parents or go with our parents on a trip. We borrowed Carly's car and decided to take a trip with just the two of us!  We stayed at the Fiesta Station in Henderson, Nevada. After checking into our hotel we went to Olive Garden for dinner in Henderson. It was so yummy and it was nice to just have the two of us. It is our first trip since we have been married with just the two of us. We really enjoyed it. The next day we slept in and then drove to the mall for some summer clothes shopping. I know, I have the best husband ever for agreeing to take me shopping! He actually enjoyed it when we were shopping for him. Jake is now a huge fan of JCPenney since we bought just about all of his clothes there! He did start to hate it after we spent about 4 hours shopping for me! I can't say I blame him! After shopping we ate a late lunch at In-N-Out burger and hit the road. It was a short getaway but it was so fun and I really enjoyed it! We finally felt like an independent married couple instead of two teenagers who have to ride everywhere with their parents. Our next goal is buying a new car so that we can leave town without having to borrow a car or bum a ride!

Our cute eggs!

The hotel we stayed at in Las Vegas!

Family Tradition

Family has always been an important thing in my life. I have always enjoyed family get-togethers and traditions. I have always been really close to  my family even extended family.  Last weekend I got to share one of my all-time favorite family traditions with Jake. We went with my family to one of my favorite places in Southern Utah....Red Cliffs! Once a year my family goes down for a picnic and a hike. The hike is easy and so fun! The hike follows along side a creek, and there are a couple pools of water for kids (or adults) to play in. I love being with my family and enjoying some of these fun traditions. 

It was such a beautiful day for hiking!

My family has a competition as to who can "run" up this rock. Jake was  successful in running up, although he did have a bit of trouble getting back down!

He kept trying to push me in and get me wet

At some point during the day, a football gets thrown around. 

Recipe: S'mores Bars

This week I made S'mores Bars for Jake (they are his favorite treat). I think they are quite delicious and super easy to make, so I thought I would post the recipe!

S'mores Bars:

1 C. Corn Syrup

1 pkg. Choc. Chips

4 T. Margarine

Heat to melt. Stir in 1 tsp. vanilla. Remove from heat. Add 18 oz. box of Golden Grahams and 16 oz bag of mini marshmallows.  Put in 13X9 pan and refrigerate.

I halved the recipe for just the two of us and put in an 8X8. I put  a few too many chocolate chips in so they are really chocolatey! But I love chocolate so they were still delicious to me. 

 

 

Spring Break

Wow, I am terrible at this whole blogging thing! This last week Jake and I spent our Spring break in Wyoming with his family. I guess I should call it a Winter break because of the snow! We had a lot of fun! The eight hour drive was definitely worth it! On Monday the 12 we went skiing at Grand Targhee which was a great resort. For the first hour we had a refresher lesson which proved very useful. We then spent the rest of the day skiing, trying jumps, and falling. The weather was perfect for skiing. On Tuesday we got up early and drove to West Yellowstone, Montana where we rented some snowmobiles to take through the park. We drove on snowmobiles through Yellowstone with our tour group. We saw a lot of fun animals that I have never seen before. I saw my first buffalo, elk, and coyote. We droves to Old Faithful and saw that erupt. Afterwards we ate lunch and then began our snowmobile journey back to West Yellowstone. On Wednesday we drove to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to take a sleigh ride through an elk refuge. It was fun to see all of the elk, we saw about a thousand of them. Quite a few of the bulls hadn't lost their antlers yet so we got to see some big antlers. Jakes uncle was our sleigh driver. We had a good time visiting with him and learning about the elk. I also saw my first moose in Jackson. I was told moose were rare and I probably wouldn't see one on this trip. But there along side the road was two moose! My trip was complete! On Thursday I stayed home with Jake because he was sick while everyone else went to the temple in Rexburg, Idaho. We had a very relaxing day watching the NCAA tournament on TV. The rest of the trip was filled with games, reading, lots of food, and even herding some sheep!

Old Faithful

The family at Fire Hole Falls (the prettiest spot on the whole trip)

Skiing at Grand Targhee

About Us....

I finally decided to start a blog! I thought this might be a good way for people to keep up with our lives who don't live close by.  A little bit about us... Jake and I were married on October 15, 2011 in the St. George temple. We went on a five day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was so beautiful there!  The water was so warm and clear, and it was hot down there. Cabo is all about the tourists. The minute we stepped off of the ship, the locals were right there trying to get us to buy souvenirs and offer their services. This was my first time leaving the country and it was really exciting! We also got to experience para sailing for the first time. What a blast! It was so peaceful and we got to see Cabo from the air.     We are currently living in Cedar City where we attend SUU.  Jake is an accounting major and I am an Elementary Education major.  I have about another year left and I can't wait to finish! 

Our Wedding Day (AK Studio and Design)



Just finished para sailing!