this husband of mine...

Meet Jake. My best friend.

He's smart, good lookin', and is the biggest sweetheart. I am so incredibly lucky to be his wife, he is simply amazing! For Valentines Jake planned a romantic weekend getaway to the Zermatt Resort in Midway and after a long week of midterms and sickness it was a much needed "mini vacation"...

You can't each lunch at the train (aka Dairy Keen)without receiving your fortune...

At the resort there was a giant ice castle-gotta love ice art:)

We made a trip to the hot pots...

Thanks bicho for a fun weekend devoid of any responsibility and full of lots of love. You are the best! I love you Jake!

The Twilight Zone

"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."

As per a conversation Jake and I had a while back on the Tower of Terror ride at MGM I have wanted to see what the whole twilight zone is for myself...and finally that is becoming a reality. With access to old episodes online I have officially entered...(cue creepy music)...the twilight zone.

Feliz Ano Nuevo

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
--Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Phantom's Gift

...so Jake is quite the romantic...When I woke up Christmas morning Jake had a "special" present that I was supposed to open before all other presents...I opened it to find our old cd player with a picture of the Phantom of the Opera on it that said to plug the player in and turn it to number 5 before opening the next gift. I followed the instructions and listened to the theme of the phantom of the opera as opened my next gift which was the DVD. Inside the movie was a certificate to a weekend get away to the Anniversary Inn in the Phantom of the Opera room for the following day. The phantom of the opera has some sentimental value since we first saw it when it came out at a date dance in high school and then I played it on the piano for Jake the night before he went on his mission....so it was really thoughtful! Thanks Honey for being so cute!

a little bit of christmas...

We had a wonderful christmas full of cheer and goodness. We are blessed to have both our families live one minute apart so we can go back and forth and not miss a single party! Here are a couple pictures from our holiday...





Merry Christmas!

DINNER and a MOVIE

We took Kay and Tommy with us on our date last Friday. We ate pizza, saw Ice Age 3, and had a great night full of laughter!! We love ALL our fun nieces and nephews!!

HGTV "Wannabe"

It has been five months since we've moved into our town house and we absolutely love it!! When we first arrived we got cable and instantly became addicted to HGTV and therefore over the last 5-ish months we have dedicated several weekends to the betterment of our home. Painting and decorating has been a fun process especially when Jake has more of an opinion than I do. Its a little sad that we are basically done and we already miss the Home Depot.

One of our favorite projects was our extra bedroom now referred to as our "homework" room. Jake installed the bead board and chair rail and we had a blast painting the walls and furniture. Here is how it turned out...

Before...

.....

and AFTER!!!


Here are some more before/after pics of our house:

family room & dining room:

Our bedroom:

La Cucina...

and the downstairs bath:

our last HOORAH of summer!!

No better way to end our summer than with a trip to Lake Powell-Thanks to Andy and his houseboat we were able to enjoy a week of wakeboarding and sleeping under the stars!! The weather was perfect and it was fun to have a little Brown Family bonding. Here are some pictures from our trip...

Cruisin on the lake...

the attempted back flip...

so...Jake is not so good at taking pics haha-at least I'm in it!

hiking to the ruins

AND you can't go to Powell without a little Cliff Jumping...

Jake talking me into jumping---

One year and going strong!

ONE year ago...we got married!!

-And what a beautiful day it was. We absolutely love being married. It really is so much fun! Jake is a wonderful husband and we just love hanging out with each other. I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Apparently the first year is the hardest so it looks like were gonna have a pretty dang good life ;) I love you Jake!

Since we took our big cruise that was supposed to be our anniversary trip back in May because it was cheaper then we decided to spend our actual anniversary in Park City. We spent the weekend shopping, swimming, playing tennis, not taking any good pictures, and watching movies. By the way we saw the movie "time travelers wife" and we both cried (well...I more like bawled hysterically thanks to birth control...) but it was nice to relax and sleep in two days in row-wahoo!

the JOYS of July....

July has always been our favorite month-it not only has two fun holidays but both of our birthdays as well. This July was packed will all sorts of fun events....

the 9 day FaMiLy ReUnIon

For the 4th and the week after the Browns from Arkansas came to Utah for a visit. It was so so

so much fun having them here. I can't believe how much those kids have grown in the last year. Our week was jam-packed with fun activities every minute including stadium of fire, hiking stewart falls, tinfoil dinners in the canyon, going out to eat, roasting marshmellows in the back yard every night (thanks to TY;), and the list goes on and on. It was a constant party and we LOVED it. We love you folks from Arkansas!

Jakey and his girly fans


Ty Ty and Jake

and of course we can't forget the chocolate fountain party at our house

...I've never seen the kids so wired!!

CaMpIng TrIp..

Jake and I decided to take a weekend camping trip to Fairview. The outdoors are so beautiful and it was exciting to get away. We had a crazy time fighting off mice in the middle of the night until we were hysterical but we had a good time. In the morning we went fishing and pretty sure I caught the LUNKER

We made a target to shoot at....(if you can't tell its Sasquatch A.K.A. Big Foot)

OtHeR AcTiViTiEs...

We also attended the MLS Soccer game at the Rio Tinto Stadium, I bought Jake tickets for his birthday and it turned out being super fun.

On Jake's birthday we also went to Lagoon with some of the wild Browns. Thanks Claire for the discounted tickets!

so this is the only picture we got-yes it is the parking lot-we were too lazy to carry the camera around the park.

What a fun month it was!
-Au revoir