Stadium of Fire with Tim McGraw

I have been wanting to see Tim McGraw in concert for years! My family went through a spirt where were pretty obsessed with him for a year when I was in high school. 

It was so much fun to see Tim and the stadium of fire fireworks with my whole fam and grandparents! 

My sweet grandma's passing

My grandma Church was one of the sweetest most kind people I have ever met. She was also a talented artist (painting, doll making, sewing, etc) and a wonderful cook. She loved being surrounded by family and always made you feel like you were the most special person in the world. 

Some of my favorite memories:

- Finally realizing that the cereal and the bowls didn't magically make it to the table regardless of the time I woke up, Grandma set breakfast up the night before after we went to bed. 

- Grandmas Epimotus story. Best bedtime story there ever was. 

- Carrying around my Treeco pink blanket that she made for me from the time I could remember till it was literally in shreds

- When I asked my grandma if she could make me another Treeco blanket as my college graduation gift. 

-Seeing grandma and grandpa at all my extra curricular activities in High School, I was so lucky to live so close to them the last 9 years. 

- Attending their monthly fast sunday dinners with all of my cousins- and eating grandmas yummy food! 

There are so many more but these come first and foremost to my mind. 

My grandmas passing was difficult for me, she was the first of my grandparents to pass, and I regret not spending more one on one time with her, but I know she is in a better place away from the pain she has been experiencing the last year. I am so grateful for the knowledge that my family will be together forever and that I will see my grandma again. 

I was so happy to get to see so much of my family. It was the worst reason to all get together but we made the best of it and had a good time catching up. 

All the grandkids and great-grandkids on the church side, only missing a few great grandkids:

My adorable cousins little girl nora. She was my buddy all weekend. We read books for hours and it was the best!

I hit the jackpot in the family department

I definitely hit the jackpot in the family department. We all love to hang out and spend time together. We have big dinners or parties at least once a month with this side of the family and it is awesome.

This time we got together for a surprise party for my grandma! It was her 80th and we figured it was time to put her in the spotlight since she tries to be more of a behind the scenes woman most of the time.

My Dad and his siblings concocted the plan, and carried out such a great surprise. My grandma thought she was going to dinner with her 3 sons, but as it turns out, she was coming to dinner with her 3 sons, two daughters (who secretly flew in for the occasion) and a bunch of grandkids! Her faces were PRICELESS (as seen below).

We ate at the delicious and beautiful La Jolla Groves in Provo, and it was a treat. I am so grateful for this family that has always supported me and each other.

 

Check out Martha Keyes Photography if you need some great family, wedding, or event photos!

Easter weekend

This Easter weekend was filled with food, family and fun. The three F's. haha Because I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we also have General Conference which is 8 glorious hours of listening to our prophets and apostles talk about Jesus Christ, families, marriages, and other gospel topics. I can't think of a better way to spend Easter than focusing so much of my time on Christ!

Saturday night the boys had a session of conference just for them so my mom sister and I went to dinner at the amazing Station 22 in Provo. Those sweet potato wedges are the best Ive ever had! We also finished off dinner with fried cookie dough, why not? My little teenager sister ditched us for friends afterwards (someday she'll realized we are cooler than her friends) and my mom and I went shopping!

Sunday we spent the whole day at my parents, and started the day off right eating our traditional homemade cinnamon rolls! Then we had 22 people over to my parents for Easter dinner. We even had some friends join us! Dinner was delicious, the egg hunt we set up for my siblings was a blast, and we even got easter baskets full of goodies from my parents. We aren't adults yet! haha

Man I love the weekend!

Today I am linking up with Oak and Oats! Link up your favorite post from the week:

LINK UP
Every Monday I host a link up called Week's End! It is a place for you to link up your favorite post from the week and meet new bloggers. I love community and think that we can all learn something from each other! This week Jess of Love Always, Jess is my co-host!

Hi! My Name is Jessica and I blog over at Love Always, Jess. I write this blog to chronicle my life and thoughts.I love to read, travel, cook, and be healthy. I have an amazing job at Qualtrics as a professional services consultant (it's okay if you have no idea what this is, no one does). I am also a Utah Sales Rep for an organization called The Shine Project which I am obsessed with.




RULES
1. Link up ANY POST from last week!
2. Make sure it is a POST and not your BLOG URL. We love your blog but we want you to share a post.
3. Click on one, two, three, or more posts and LEAVE ENCOURAGING COMMENTS. The whole point of this is to find new blogs, make new friends, and all that good stuff! You MUST read the post right before yours and comment.

An InLinkz Link-up

Oh the weekend.

Sometimes your little sister wants to be a photographer one day so you let her take some pictures on you. Travis was not excited. I told him too bad. haha

We had a fun weekend relaxing, seeing the giver, reading (finally finished a book I started 4 months ago), and baby showers (i'll put pics up tomorrow)!

My friend Hailey (she's been my friend since 10th grade) moved into our ward so she and her little family come to church with us now. ITS SO FUN! Her 15 month old Saylor is just too adorable. I am so glad I can just walk over to their cute new house!!

Miles this week: 15
Miles this year: 102

5/18/14

Sundays are just busy.

I woke up around 8 for no reason, again. Then magically fell asleep till 10:30! wohoo!!! progress.

We made a batch of delicious eggs filled with cheese and red pepper. The went to church around 1.

In relief society we hd a really good lesson on the power of scripture study (which I personally and Travis and I together tend to suck at). We decided we need to try studying together in the morning. I Am going to start studying by myself topically, I've never done that so I thought it might be cool. We also had an awesome lesson in the teacher improvement sunday school. The teacher said, "some teachers think that they should entertain and try to compete with other forms of entertainment, don't do this, those other forms will always win out, that isn't the unique thing about the gospel." that really struck me. sometimes I think I treat studying that way, I start to think well id rather read blogs or a novel or exercise or watch TV. Of course, those things are designed to be strictly entertaining, studying the gospel is meant to lift you up, change your perspective, and bring you closer to your heavenly father. Here's to trying to be better!!!

After church I went home teaching with Travis, and then met up with my visiting teaching companion and set up appointments. Then we raced to my parents house for sunday dinner. My siblings were mad we were late. haha

We had lasagna, and it was delicious. After helping my mom take everything from the kitchen to the basement (the renovation is starting on Thursday) we walked over to Travis' parents and took our nieces on a walk and to see the puppy. Oh my gosh Ashlyn (3) was so funny she would act al confident but when we let the dog out she would FREAK (should have taken a picture). then we'd put it away and she beg we let it out again. hahaha

All in all it was a relaxing day. This week will be pretty crazy, we are staying at my parents to watch the kids while they are on vacation, I am mostly not excited about the dog.....

4/20/14

What an amazing Easter Sunday, the sun was shining and we got to take my siblings to our home ward cuz my mom was out of town and my dad is in a BYU bishopric. I love coming to the ward where I met my sweetie! Everyone came and asked us how married life was etc. etc.

After church we read for a while and then colored eggs until my mom got home so we could start the Easter hunt. 

His: The Maze Runner, Hers: The Rational Optimist

Travis and I got to hide the eggs for my siblings. Pretty sure there are a bunch still left out there.... haha we are such good hiders. Then we headed to my grandmas for a delicious dinner. Ham, potatoes, veggies, rolls, and strawberry shortcake, mmmmmm! 

I just want to say how amazing this day is. How important this holiday is. Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection. Because of him I can repent and life forever with God and my family. I don't think i will ever be able to live up to this amazing gift that Christ has given me, but I sure am going to try my best! 

Hope you had a great Easter Sunday too! 

4/13/14

Just when you think your plate will be a little lighter... you get called into the relief society presidency. Gah. When Travis got a text from the new second counselor we thought for sure he was getting a calling (cuz he doesn't have one) or we were getting a calling together. Nope, for the second time in this ward the calling was extended to me.

I am excited to be in a position where I will be out of my comfort zone and will be required to meet new people and make new friends, but I am also terrified. The next few months were going to be hard enough without having a calling that takes up a couple hours a week. Travis says the Lord knows how much work I can do, and so he is probably just trying to stretch me even further. Maybe.

I am nervous about the next two months. I am nervous that I can't handle as much as I have taken on. I wish my MPH project was just done, but it's not. I think I can handle everything, but I am gonna be more stressed than I would like.

On the other hand I have been feeling lately like I have been in a rut spiritually. I haven't felt close to the savior. I know this calling will bring me closer to him as I have to rely on him more and understand the love and compassion he has for the women in my ward.

3/30/14

I think I hit the jackpot today. Like seriously.

Haha it all started 5 weeks ago when I was asked to give a 15-20 min talk in church. Yeah they gave me 5 weeks notice. Yikes. Luckily I pretty much forgot about it the week before.

So anyways I wrote my talk saturday night, and my fate was sealed.

I love public speaking, but for some reason talks in church make me so anxious/nervous.

So when I walked in and the 2nd counselor came down to let me know my talk would need to be shortened because we were getting a new bishopric I was more than willing. Then I went up to the stand to sit. The 1st counselor came to tell me that not only would I need to shorter my talk, but that I should not make it any longer than 5 mins.

SCOREE!!

I told the most compelling story from my talk and bore my testimony. haha As much as I don't like actually giving talks. It was good to prepare one. sadly I am not the best at just straight studying the gospel and talks always make me think deeper about topics and my beliefs.

We had sunday dinner with Travis family and played this really fun game called stone hedge. SO FUN!

I can't figure out how to flip this, but its so funny. I was reading a book about population growth and it mention that EVEN mormon families have gotten smaller. hahahaha

My Story: Elizabeth Smart

The story of Elizabeth Smart was national news for a lot of 2002. Her abduction and rescue became a national phenomenon. At the time I lived in Georgia and I still heard about the young Mormon girl from Utah who was kidnapped from her bed. I may have heard more about it because I am also Mormon though, not sure.

I have been excited (not exactly the right word since I have also been terrified, maybe anxious?) to read this book since it came out. I read this entire book in 4 hours. I could not put it down, mostly because I needed to get to the happy ending. I cried a lot. I have read a lot of reviews of this book and am completely shocked at how negative they were mostly citing her childlike writing style and naivety. I think most of these people don't understand her religious beliefs and the strength that gave her through her 9 month ordeal.

I thought Elizebeth's book was deeply inspiring. Her choice to tell the story as if from her 13 year old self made the story more real. Her level of detail was amazing. Her captors did everything they could to take away her religion, her identity, and her pride. She was raped daily, chained to a tree, starved, and treated like a slave. Her Captor did everything in "the name of religion."

The most amazing thing to me is that despite the personal hell she was living through, she never once blamed or lost faith in God. She continually prayed and saw the blessings in her life. She has come home and lived an incredibly productive life (she graduated from BYU, served an LDS mission, testified in trial against her abductors, established a foundation, has been instrumental in a variety of legislation on abduction, gives speeches around the US, and has gotten married).

My favorite part of the book is a quote from her mother the night she returned home. She said, "You be happy, Elizabeth. Just be happy. If you go and feel sorry for yourself, or if you dwell on what has happened, if you hold on to your pain, that is allowing him to steal more of your life away. So don't you do that! Don't you let him! There is no way that he deserves that. Not one more second of your life. You keep every second for yourself. You keep them and be happy. God will take care of the rest.”

I can't imagine ever having to go through what Elizabeth went through. Her story has inspired me to remember that I can get through anything if I keep my faith in God. I am so grateful she was brave enough to share her story with the world.