Monday, May 31

My Twenty Dollar Dresser

We bought this solid wood dresser on KSL for $20.

I spent this whole long weekend turning it into this!

I'm so in love with it!

Saturday, May 29

The Big 5-0!

My dad turns 50 on June 1st.
Melinda & I decided to throw him a surprise party last night
hoping it would be more of a surprise than if it was on his real birthday.
He was mostly surprised. He said he suspected a little bit because
Maggie told him a few times that "mom needs to take you out to dinner on Friday".
I think he had fun though :)

We tried to keep the black & white theme with the food but my dad doesn't
eat sweets so we had to figure out some stuff he would eat too.









Melinda & Troy trying to fit the most marshmallows in their mouth.
Troy won.

Monday, May 24

Snow?

Today is May 24th.
It's snowing.
REALLY?!

Scariest day of my life

So I was at Coldstone decorating some cakes one day last week
& I looked down at my ring & the whole part that holds the diamond was gone!
It had broken off & I had no idea where it was.
I searched that whole store over & over. Nothing.
I was scared out of my mind that I had lost it :(
Then I remembered bumping my hand earlier that morning while taking
a cake out of the blast.
I opened up the blast door & there it was sitting on the bottom shelf.
YAY!
That was a close one! No more wearing the ring to Coldstone!
Jeff took it in to get fixed & the guy was shocked.
He said this is only the second time anything like that has happened
in the 24 years he has been in this business.

Elder Erickson

Marsh got set apart on Tuesday, May 11th.
Good thing Erickson's aren't criers ;)

Marsh went into the MTC on Wednesday, May 12th.
He didn't want the whole family to go to drop him off, so I said goodbye
the night before.
These are some pictures my mom took Wednesday morning.





It was really hard to say goodbye to him for 2 years but I'm so proud of him
& know he will be such a great missionary!

Thursday, May 20

BIG day!

Sunday, May 9th was a SUPER special day for us!
Mother's Day!
Our one year anniversary!
Marshall's farewell!
It was a busy busy weekend!
I can't believe we have been married for a year!
I swear we just got married like 3 weeks ago ;)
I've gotta say, it has been a great year.
There is no one else I would want by my side for the rest of eternity.
We spent a lot of time at my parents house the first 2 weeks of May.
We had family here from out of town & had so much fun with them.
We were able to slip away Saturday night though to go to dinner to celebrate :)

P.S. I taught Benjamin this on Saturday!

Ha ha ha :)

Marshall gave an amazing talk on Sunday about mothers.
My favorite part was that he quoted a Backstreet Boys song in his talk :)

"It takes a lot to know what is love.

It's not the big things but the little things
that can mean enough.
A lot of prayers to get me through.
And there is never a day that passes by
I don't think of you.
You were always there for me.
Pushing me & guiding me
always to succeed.

God has been so good
Blessing me with the family
who did all they could.
And I've had many years of grace
And it flatters me when I see a smile on your face.
I wanna thank you for what you've done.
In hopes I can give back to you
And be the perfect son.

You showed me how to love.
You showed me how to care.
And showed me that you would always be there.
I wanna thank you for the time.
And I'm proud to say you're mine.

You showed me
when I was young just how to grow.
You showed me everything that I should know.
You showed me just how to walk without your hands.
'Cause mom, you always were the perfect fan."

The bishop stood up after & said he never thought he would
ever hear Backstreet Boys quoted in Sacrament Meeting :)

After Sacrament Meeting, about a million people came over to my parents house for lunch.







Pretty Aly :)






My mom wanted a picture of the whole family before Marsh left.

Hubs disappeared for a while & I found him snoozin on the couch.

It was so much fun to be around family & friends and sit & talk with some people I haven't
seen in a while.
Amy & Rodney wanted to come see our place while they were in town, so they came over
on Sunday afternoon.
Jacob absolutely loved seeing all the animals.
He even held a snake for a minute.
He wouldn't do it again for a picture, so this is the best we got.
I think his favorite part was feeding lettuce to Gordon.


We spent the rest of the evening at my parents house with lots of family
& invented a new game called "6 square" (instead of 4 square). SOOOOO funny!
Jeff had to get up early for work the next morning so went home to bed &
I stayed later.
When I got home this little message was on my pillow :)
(Sign language "I love you" & a hershey's kiss)
He's so sweet! :)

Friday, May 14

Las Vegas & LA Part 2

Friday was a much warmer day!
We had to be checked out by noon, so we did that & then spent a few hours
laying by the pool :)
From there, we went down to Mandalay Bay to visit the Aquarium.

It wasn't as big as I thought it would be but it was still fun!








After we left there we drove to Camarillo, California to Dean & Deanna's house.
They took us to this awesome Mexican place for dinner &
we stayed the night at their house.
Saturday morning we drove to LA for the wedding.
My parents got married in the LA Temple so it was really neat to be there.
My dad was telling me about the day they got married
& showed me the room where he sat & waited for my mom to come meet him :)

This was the first sealing I had been to besides my own.
On my wedding day I was so nervous & didn't really know what to expect
so I didn't really take the time to look around & really take everything in.
This sounds bad but I don't remember a lot of what was said & I wish I did.
There was one thing the Sealer said to my cousin & his wife that I really loved.
He talked about how a marriage is like a triangle with Heavenly Father at the top &
you & your spouse at the bottom corners.
The closer you each get to Heavenly Father, the closer the two of you become.
I've heard something like this before but I guess it was never explained
that way to me or I just didn't understand :)
But it really touched me that day in the Temple.
Funny story....
After the sealing the Sealer invited everyone to come up &
congratulate the newlyweds.
He kind of did it in a weird way though.
He didn't want anyone leaving until everyone had said their
congratulations, to keep the noise down once we left the room.
So people were just going up randomly & after a few minutes
my cousin sitting next to me grabbed my arm & took me up with her,
leaving Jeff kind of stranded.
After everyone had gone up the Sealer looked at Jeff & said,
"I didn't see you go up!"
He told me to come up with him & he put out his hand to
shake my cousin's hand at the same time as my cousin went in for a hug.
Those of you who know Jeff know how he feels about hugs :)
(especially from guys)
And how much he loves awkward situations :)
Watching it, it seriously felt like it was happening in slow motion.
It was super awkward & everyone was watching them.
My parents & Marshall were sitting right up at the front & started laughing.
I was laughing really hard.
It was just really funny.
But probably not that funny to those of you who don't know Jeff :)

These are some pictures of everyone waiting outside for our turn
to take pictures.
There were quite a few people getting married that day.







My dad & all of his siblings.

Crazy family...

Coming out of the Temple.



Tree family.
Wedding party.

After the luncheon we had a few hours to kill.
Melinda, being super obsessed with famous people, suggested we drive
through Beverly Hills & try to see someone famous :)
Who would have thought we really would!
We saw Arnold Schwarzenegger!
For real!
By the time we realized it was him, it was too late to get out the
camera & get a picture.
But we did get lots of pictures of the cool houses :)





While we were driving around we saw a sign that said,
"Map of the Stars here!"
Of course we had to buy one!
We tried 3 or 4 houses before we realized it was fake.
The addresses didn't exist.
There's $15 we'll never see again!

Here's some pictures from the reception later that night.






Dancing with Hubs.
And Hubs trying to dip me into the garbage can.
After the reception we drove back to Dean & Deanna's house for the night.
Sunday morning we left for home.
It's always nice to take a little break from life for a few days.
But it always feels good to get back home!