Jump into SUMMER 6.20.2012

June is almost halfway gone and guess what---

I just now did Elder Schott's box (oops lol)

But I did it, had to ask some of my friends for some ideas (man my creativity is starting to get slim here on the last stretch lol)

 The girls helped me come up with some awesome ideas to put in his Jumping into Summer box :)

Contents:

Jump rope

bubbles

chap stick

sunscreen

Frisbee

shovel and pail

candy bars

squishy basketballs (usually to be filled with water but soft if they just want to throw them at each other lol)

water guns

missionary talk (spiritual thought)

I wrote on there "toys for the boys" lol 

Hope you guys enjoy it! :D

Marini boys in action 6.20.2012

America's favorite past time???? Baseball of course :D 

I love getting to go and watch my little guys play the game they love!

With the sun shining it made for an amazing day to watch a baseball game :)

Zack is getting so good at baseball-he got all 3 outs in the last inning!! 

Bryce is just starting out t-ball but boy is he eager to play-he runs those bases like nobody's business! ;)

Little Andrew Swift is also on the team so that was awesome to get to see him playing as well :)

Congrats boys on your game-although they don't keep score I am saying you guys won! ;)

4% 6.18.2012

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH MMMMMMYYYYY MMMMMYYYY!

Can we just take a minute to zoom in on this picture and notice:

1) percent left-4% SAY WHAT????

2) months to go: 0.97 (oh under 1???)

3)weeks- FOUR-That is nuts!

4) days-29...you must be crazy! But I'm okay with it ;)

Pacis Reception 6.16.2012

May I introduce to you Mr & Mrs Pacis :D

I can't believe Morgan & Chris are now Mr & Mrs!!!!

They are such a cute couple and I am so grateful for the invitation to be apart of their big day!

They got sealed for time and all eternity in the Seattle Temple on Friday morning and then snuck away for a night at a hotel then came back on Saturday to celebrate Island style for their reception!!!

They had performances by some islanders in our stake which was awesome (yup that is Natasha right there-she did a few of the dances!!!) They even got the groom up there to dance for one of them ;)

Morgan's colors were pink and orange -now I'm not usually a fan of pink BUT Morgan made this look adorable and went so great with her personality :D 

Congratulations to Chris & Morgan! I wish you two the best of luck!!! :D

Relief Society BBQ 6.14.2012

Tonight we got treated-and I mean TREATED by President Hjelm and his lovely wife with their AMAZING grilling tricks :D Now anyone who knows me knows that I am not really a fan of meat we shall say..I have to be in the mood for it to eat it. But BOY oh BOY while he was talking to us about all his marinates and techniques all I was paying attention to was the smell coming off of that grill!!!! SOOOO GOOOODDDD :)
He treated us to 3 types of marinated meats: margarita, rosemary, and a traditional bbq sauce
I must say I think I liked the rosemary one the best-it was so savory!

Then we all grabbed the side dishes we had brought and added some meat to our plate and dug in. I ate my meat first too-BIG DEAL in my book lol! President Hjelm is hired for all my meat cooking needs lol!!! Thank you so much for coming out on your week night to give us ladies some of the tricks of the trade!!! :D

oh and the picture of me with the hat-ya I totally stole that from Steven and he was coming to get it so I snapped the photo before he could ;)

I love letters :D 6.14.2012

today I got my letter early. Perks of being home.
this is my 5th to last letter. WOW.
Only 4 more letters from Texas then I'll be seeing Elder Schott face to face...EEK!!!
I love letters from Elder Schott, he definitely knows how to calm my nerves, make me smile, and gets me excited to see him again here soon :)

Joey's Graduation 6.12.2012

Little Joey is not so little anymore-he is graduating on Saturday and heading off to BYU Saturday afternoon so they threw him his graduation party a little bit early! Mom and I headed back to our old neighborhood, (so weird to go back-flashbacks and memories of when I was little always come back...makes me miss those times) found the clubhouse, crossed our fingers it was actually the right place...then saw Joey as we walked closer -phew ;)
Got to catch up a bit with his family which was nice, got treated to a yummy italian soda by his little bro Nick. He was pro at making those, even convinced me to have a second one so I could try his rootbeer/vanilla one -tasted like a rootbeer float :)

Congrats to Joey and best of luck this summer at BYU and we are all excited to hear about your first year and what is to come for you :) Congrats grad of 2012! :)

Scripture journal complete! 6.11.2012

100 weeks have come and gone.

Each night Nate and I read a chapter in the scriptures and write down thoughts on them.

Each week we send out our notes and swap them.

I've come to the end of my book which means only 4 weeks left!

4 weeks of "regular" paper but I'm A-OK with that ;)

This is coming to an end...wow! :)

Thai food 6.4.2012

So my co-workers found out I have a secret-

I'm not cultured lol. 

I'm kind of a picky eater-I call it I just like to have a routine but they didn't take that excuse so they took me out and treated me to Thai food :D Caitlin, Kelly & Cynthia (in order of the photo!) are the sweetest ladies :D I took Cynthia's advice and had the chicken one-with only ONE star! Heat + I are NOT good friends lol!

I have to admit I liked stepping out of my box a bit, it was way yummy!

Thank you ladies for convincing me-aka pulling my arm ;) I was so lucky to have you girls to work with! 

Institute Graduation 6.2.2012

Today was the big day, I graduated from Institute. WOW. Never imagined this day would happen-didn't expect it to be honest until Sis. Williams asked me about graduation and I found out I could be graduating this June. Well fast forward a few weeks and BAM graduation day! It was a hectic and packed full day, bridal shower, baptism and after prepping the chicken at the Stake Center. Great conversations happen in the kitchen lol. But graduation was a perfect way to end this hectic day, such a spirit filled meeting! Got to enjoy a dinner, listen to some great testimonies and speakers, and then we were able to walk across the podium and receive our diplomas! WE DID IT :) It was so amazing to spend the evening with family and friends :)

The people in the video just in case you don't know is Tessa and I :) We got it taped so we can show our family and friends who weren't able to make it! Enjoy! :D

Shannon's Baptism 6.2.2012

Happy day for my friend Shannon today. 

I got to be apart of her baptism. 

Shannon is amazing, such a spunky personality and lovely to be around. 

I've loved getting to know her and being able to hang out with her throughout this year :) 

Shannon I am so proud of you for choosing to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know it has been a struggle and that you have prayed about it and come to know for yourself that this is true! This gospel is amazing and it can bring you so much joy into your life, as you already know! You have tons of people around you and in your life that will support you in your life.

 Congrats again Shannon! :D 

Maren's Bridal Shower 6.2.2012

This lovely lady is becoming a MRS....in August! So we had a bridal shower for her before school got out :) I have loved getting to know Maren over the past 2 quarters thanks to being in the same classes :) She is amazing, super smart, and really funny! Her and Jacob (the lucky fella) are SO cute together! Thanks to Maggie for throwing her an awesome party and thinking of me! oh and Maggie came up with the CUTEST idea for gifts-food storage...so clever!

Maggie had cute arts and crafts as well-we got to make our own jewelry! Overall such a cute bridal shower. Job well done Maggie and Congrats to Maren and Jacob for their engagement and wedding here soon :)

Portland adventure! 5.26.2012

Mom and I decided to take an adventure to Portland, Oregon for the beginning of our memorial day weekend :D We woke up, headed out and grabbed some Jack in the Box breakfast jacks-so good! Then hit the open road... :D two hours of road, jamming to music, and some much needed girl talk we made it to the BEA-U-TIFUL Portland Oregon Temple! I've never been so I was super excited! We felt a bit out of place wearing our jeans and flip flops (reminder to pack a skirt next time!) but it did create some funny moments when people thought we were investigators, we got an awesome tour of the visiting center there-it is WAY high tech...they have a machine where the Book of Mormon is read to you in whatever language of book you choose. Ya scared me to death when I opened it up and a voice came from no where and started talking to me in Cambodian lol!

Then we walked around the temple grounds-saw 6 different wedding parties so of course we had to check them out a bit lol! Then we took some photos of our own! That temple is gorgeous :)

After we went to Chipotle-my mom was a nubbie!!! So I introduced her to their amazing burrito! Then we hit up the Portland mall-time to shop...TAX FREE baby!!! oh ya we went wild! ;)
This mall is huge-they have an ice skating rink right in the MIDDLE of the mall...now how cool is that lol!!!!

I loved this little adventure :) Great way to kick off our memorial day weekend! I love you mommie-thanks for a great time!

Discovery Park 5.21.2012

Sometimes we drive ourselves to FHE...
sometimes we go after the group has already left..
sometimes we get lost..
but sometimes we end up at the end point and get to wait for the group to come by having our own dance party ( I think that was WAY better than a hike anyways lol)

Tessa and I got to rock out to our jams...get a few weird stares from park goers lol and then direct the group to the lighthouse once they arrived. We got to munch on some trail mix-yummy!
Our Discovery Park adventure was just that-an adventure-we went through like 6 states to get there (no lie-each street was named a different state lol!) Oh man...Tessa time is the best time :)

Ward Campout 5.18-19.2012

Snow+sleds+hot coco+s'mores+late night charades+early morning ice sledding+ Priesthood making breakfast+women having to help them out =AN AMAZING CAMPOUT!

I was nervous to see how a co-ed campout with our singles ward was going to go but man it was epic! We started off with getting lost on our way up there (classic Tessa & Kendahl move lol) then we had some amazing food for dinner (pasta with Sis Bean's homemade sauce-the Bishop's wife is THE best!) then we went outside for some sledding, started out at a bunny hill then a few of us left for a bigger thrill. We found the hill of death (serious-if you didn't stop at the right time off the cliff you would go!!!!) What is life without a bit of adventure-right??? haha
Once it got too dark to keep going we stopped (so we are somewhat sensible lol) and headed to the fire to warm up and make some s'mores. Chris taught us the "proper" way of making s'mores-you need to melt the chocolate as well...after a few attempts (he kept losing the chocolate in the fire lol) he made a delicious s'more that I got to enjoy :) I'm a fan of melted chocolate lol!

After that we went inside and played some banana-grams...hilarious! I saw the competitive side of my Bishop which was awesome! We laughed so hard during that game! :D
Then we made up some hot coco and played some late night charades...makes it really funny once its past 1 a.m. lol Then we sorted out and went to bed. For Tessa, Emily, and I our bedroom ended up being a walk-in closet lol. We were the last to sleep so our original spot had been taken so we crashed in there for only a few hours because our alarm went off at 6 to head outside so we could go sledding again! This time though everything had frozen over so it was all ice and super fast! Super crazy too-oh and boy did it hurt to fall off lol. OUCH!

Breakfast time came next-the men were in charge of it...but that failed quickly so the women stepped in a bit to help it run a bit smoother ;) Then we learned a new game called 10,000-you play it with dice and try to hit 10,000...but super fun and we added twists to make it more competitive ;) After that we cleaned up and headed home :( Such a fun night that went by way too quickly! But it was a blast! :)

Pinewood Derby 5.10.2012

Do you have the need....the need for SPEED???? We do :D

Carole, Tessa, and I did that is for sure!!!

One late night we started carving our car using a Swiss Army knife-yes you just read that right, we didn't have any tools and we met this guy named Kevin after his Institute class who said he had one in his car so we borrowed his-got to meet an awesome guy during our 2 hour chipping away at the car lol!

The next night we discovered Tessa's exacto knife worked a bit better and it helped shape it into the way we Tessa had designed it lol Then we got to paint our lovely car which we had decided to name it Carly Rae -yes after the song Call Me Maybe-we love to jam out to that song in the car! We created lightning bolts on the sides with numbers (going along with our calling theme lol) -we even included our own numbers in them lol..we are dorks!

Carole decided to sponsor us (she had WAY too much money in her food account) so she bought a bunch of donations and we ended up winning the top prize -$50 dollars to Pizza Hut HECK YES!!!

So we decided with our winnings we would throw a pizza party at Gas Works with some friends! It was super fun-everyone brought drinks or chips and we brought the 5 pizzas lol and we ended up playing some Ultimate Frisbee and then watched the sunset then sat around telling stories from our past! Super chill yet amazing night! :D

Brooklyn turns 2!!!! May 5.2012

My blue bug eyed beauty is 2! I can't believe it-just the other day I was graduating from high school and welcoming this precious little girl into the world and now look at her all grown up! Not a baby anymore!
I got to fly down to Utah to be apart of Brooklyn's birthday party-The Hungry Caterpillar! My sister is so creative-all the food went with the days from the book and the cupcakes looked like a caterpillar...oh can't forget the art and craft project of making your own caterpillar! It was super fun! :D

This little girl is spoiled and loved by all! She is such a cutie-it is hard not to love her :D I love being her Aunt and being able to celebrate with her! Brooklyn I love you to the moon and back! :D-Auntie K

I love being an Aunt

From squeezing hugs to messy kisses being Auntie K is always full of surprises and laughter! Thanks to Brittany and John for giving me such two amazing blessings in my life. I have loved spending time with these two little tykes-they are so dang cute!!! I got to fly down to Utah this weekend to celebrate that little girls 2nd birthday-don't worry there will be a post about that too. I can't believe its been two years already-they are getting so big and making me feel so old lol!  I love you kiddos! -Auntie K

DI hunting 4.28.2012

What is better than a flashback from decades in the past? Oh nothing! ;)
Tessa and I hit up a DI with the idea of looking at bed parts for her new place but while we waited for her mom to answer her phone to ask questions about the bed we did a little shopping of our own!
We got to scope out some awesome dresses! They made for some good laughs and amazing photos as you can see :) It is always a good time when Tessa is around!

The Illusion 4.27.2012

Curled hair, make up on, dress slacks and heels we are out the door...

picked up a salad, pizza slice, drinks, ice cream cones with lots of toppings that go everywhere for dinner & dessert...

Grabbed our tickets and headed to find our seats.

Got to experience my first time in a thrust theater which was awesome!

Saw the play The Illusion tonight and oh buddy was it hilarious-lots of usable quotes in it and you better believe that Tessa and I will be using them to our advantage "we won't disappoint" because we have "lots of lovers to share" haha! 

Thank you Tessa for being awesome company tonight and always knowing how to make me laugh :)