My heart.

 

These two melt my heart.

 every. single. day. 

Love is why we are here.

You know you haven't blogged forever when your husband notices and texts you about it...

For some reason I haven't had the itch to blog lately. 

Don't know exactly what it is. 

But today I want to leave you with something inspiring... 

via

Not much else needs to be said. 

Just remember, 

Love should come first. 

Love should come last. 

And Love should come in the middle too. 

Be in Love

via

Life is crazy lately. 

And it so good to me too. 

My in-laws came to town last night. 

I come HOME on Monday. 

Happy Friday Ya'll!

Will YOU be my Valentine?

So I never told you about our love day. 

It was pretty great. 

We both were busy all day but I surprised Dave in the morning 

with a heart attacked mirror. 

And a little gift. 

Remember my datevitation giveaway? 

Dave totally scored his own. 

He LOVED it. 

 We enjoyed a lovely evening. 

Chuy's for dinner. 

Which is seriously one of my favorite Mexican Restaurants now. 

Sorry folks, not in Utah. 

Then Dave took me to see Safe Haven. 

Typical, I know. We loved it. 

I read the book and I always enjoy Nicholas Sparks' books. 

Our Love day was fabulous. 

Low key is always a good thing. 

I hope everyone had a happy LOVE day. 

just pretend I am not two weeks late telling you about it. 

I want to love you every single day.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day yesterday. 

In order to wrap up a fabulous week of Love, here is a favorite Love quote:

If you click here you can find the printable.

Don't forget to keep on LOVIN all year long :)

Happy LOVE day!

Happy Valentine's Day to the one I love the most. 

DIY Valentine's gift.

I am certain you have probably seen this project all over pinterest. 

I made this for Dave 2 years ago and I love it. 

It was such a simple, inexpensive DIY gift but it is really thoughtful too. 

Here is the how to:

Supplies:

Construction paper

1 desk of cards

Directions:

First, think of 52 reasons you love your significant other. 

Mine were anywhere from:

'You love me for who I am'

to

'You always give me a smile when I look at you'

to 

'You make me laugh at least once a day'

You can write these or type them, 

I typed mine up and printed them all out on a piece of off-white paper.

Second, I glued that piece of paper to another piece of red so I could add color to it. 

Then I glued that piece to each card. 

Last, make a front and back cover. Hole punch each card and put a ring through the top left. 

It turned out to be a fun little flip book of reasons I love Dave. 

Happy LOVE month!

Valentine's Date Ideas

It is crazy to me that this will be our fourth Valentine's together. 

As you can tell, I love Valentine's Day!

I really just love any reason to celebrate something. 

I thought I would share with you what we have done to celebrate each year, 

in case you are in need of some great ideas...

1. For our first Valentine's together, we each planned our own date and we celebrate two days in a row.  I loved this because we each got to surprise the other with our date idea and we got to extend the holiday. Dave came down to Provo and took me out to a nice restaurant and then we went wedding RING SHOPPING! It was the best surprise ever. We definitely went ring shopping many times after that and we didn't get engaged until the end of July but our very first time was on Valentine's and I loved every minute of it. The date I planned was for Sunday night. I made a delicious homemade meal and homemade sugar cookies. I love decorating sugar cookies so I made some delicious homemade lime frosting and Dave hated it... fail. Don't get me wrong, he was still very nice about it but he didn't like it at all! haha. Valentine's doesn't have to be perfect.

 2. Our second Valentine's together was our first 'Married valentine's'. I made Dave plan this one because I love seeing what he comes up with. He took me to a fun little Mexican restaurant close to our house that we had been wanting to try. He bought me some adorable red toms which I had been really wanting and he got me carnations.... This is where the fail came in. For some reason I really don't love carnations and I totally cried! Hilarious I know. I guess I really just expected him to get me roses, but he didn't. And I was really emotional for some reason?? Who knows... Anyways, he did buy me these beautiful roses a few weeks later.  Once again, Valentine's doesn't have to be perfect.

3. Last year for Valentine's, instead of getting gifts for each other we decided to go get a couple's massage. My heavens, it was AMAZING! We went to Massage Envy and they have some re-occuring deal where you can get an hour long couples massage for about $100, I think. Neither of us had ever had a body massage before so we loved it. Then we had a delicious homemade meal of BBQ salmon and key lime pie-- he even liked the lime too. The even better part... we didn't have a fail last year :)

As for this year... we haven't really decided what we are going to do yet. We love movies and I read the  Nicholas Sparks book 'Safe Haven' so we might go see that since it comes out on Valentine's Day. And maybe a delicious dinner somewhere in town too. We are still thinking of ideas. Does anyone have any good date ideas for me???

Our Love Story.

First and foremost.
The winners of the FIRMOO giveaway...
First place: Amanda
Second place: Krista, Veronica, Sierra, Ashely, Ja Nae
Look for an email from me soon, lovely ladies!

This week is going to be all about LOVE.
So if you don't enjoy cheesy love quotes and stories and ideas.
Then stop now. . .

I shared a little bit about our love story over at the 14 days of love last week.
I love it so much that I want to share it with you too.

Love is one of my favorite things. 

I love reading about love. 

I love listening to music about love. 

I love watching people fall in love. 

But most of all, I love our LOVE story. 

Be excited, because I am going to give you a short little synopsis of how it all played out...

The beginning of July 2009, I had just said goodbye for two longs years to a boy I had been dating. I was determined to wait until he got home to see if things would work out between us... little did I know, three days later I would meet my future husband. We met at a Pina Colada party, awesome I know. He was a very attractive blonde boy, a rock climber, recently returned missionary and he made me laugh. I saw him every night for the next four days and he finally got my number and asked me out for a date the following Monday. We went rock climbing...

We texted each other every day and hung out almost every night for the rest of that Summer. I was the first to kiss him at the end of July, again awesome I know. I thought he was a fabulous guy, he kept taking me out to dinner (which for a poor college student was awesome!) but I was nineteen years old and totally not ready to put someone before me... I was selfish and wanted to enjoy my college single life.  And I was headed back to Provo for school. I tried to tell him I wouldn't see him as much and things probably were not going to work out. He was VERY persistent and came to Provo every weekend except for the weekends I came home. 

My young mind was definitely fooled at this point. I liked this boy but I certainly thought it was just for fun and I knew I wanted to see that one other boy when he was going to be home in two years. Then things started getting more serious. By December, I felt like I was in love with him. He was truly everything I wanted in my future husband and he treated me like gold. We starting talking about getting married around February of 2010. There were a lot of major family events that year for my family so we decided the end of the year would be best. On July 30th, he popped the big question... while we were rock climbing. 

We were married on December 27th, 2010.  It was the best day of our lives. 

Now let's rewind. 

One of my ABSOLUTE favorite things about love stories is that everybody's is different. 

And no two love stories will ever be the same. 

Our love story is filled with a lot of rock climbing, laughter, tears, date nights, tickle fights, burned dinners, vacations, cuddling, dirty dishes, moves across country, arguments, bike rides, even more rock climbing, and so much more. 

As you can see, our love story is not perfect. 

And I am so incredibly grateful for that. 

Happy 14 days of Love.

I hope you will stop by and visit. 

Inspired by LOVE

This is one of my all time favorite love quotes. I remember hearing it while I was in high school and I remember thinking how I couldn't wait to feel that way about someone. I couldn't wait to get home after a date and be so in love that I literally didn't want to sleep because my dreams could not be better than the love I had with someone. I remember when I started to feel this way about Dave. It was in December of 2009 that I first told him I love him. I gave him a book of pictures I had made and I remember writing a personal letter to him in the back of it, telling him that I knew I was so in love with him because of this very quote.

Love is an incredible emotion. It is an emotion that makes me strive to be a better person. Love makes me want to serve others. It makes me want to work hard at the things I am doing in my life. It makes me want to make the bed in the morning so we can have a nice bed to go to sleep in at night. Love makes me miss Utah because I love so many people there. It makes me cry even when I feel happy too. Love makes me realize that it is the only thing I need to be happy. It makes me stay true to who I really am when life gets hard. It is an emotion that makes me want to cook dinner and clean up the apartment. Love makes me be my best.

My love is certainly not perfect. I do not always act on the love that I feel for people. But I am so incredibly grateful that I feel love in my life because it really does inspire me in so many ways. I hope you will be inspired this week by the love that you have for the people around you.

DIY Valentine's Wreath

I love holidays. 

Really I love any reason to celebrate something. 

So naturally, I love to decorate. 

Seeing as we live in just a little over 500 sq ft of space, I don't have a lot of space to decorate. 

(I cannot wait until we move in three weeks!!!)

I think it is really fun to have a new wreath on the door for every season/holiday. 

I always keep my wreath inside because then I get to see it more often

and I really don't have that many people come to our door anyways. 

This wreath is super simple. 

All you need is:

1 round styrofoam wreath

1/3 yard burlap

2 felt squares

1 yard of twine

Super glue/ glue gun

First cut about 4 inches of the burlap.

Put a light layer of super glue or glue from a glue gun around half of the wreath. 

Then wrap the burlap around and around and around :)

Do this until you reach the beginning and just glue down the excess on the back side o the wreath. 

Take your felt square and cut our a curly cue circle. 

You can make this as big or little as you would like. 

Hold the middle of the circle and start wrapping the felt around it. 

This is much easier than you think .

Put a little bit of glue on the end to hold it together. 

Add glue to the bottom of the rose and place it wherever you'd like on your wreath. 

For the burlap banner, cut out four triangles with your burlap. 

If you have a glue gun, glue each triangle to the twine. 

Otherwise, you will probably want to stitch them. 

Write whatever word you would like with permanent marker. 

Tie the banner to both sides of the wreath. 

Happy LOVE month!

enjoy.

What is your favorite Valentine's Day decor?

Leave me a link, I want to check yours out :)

Wedding Series: Wedding!

Love is one of my favorite things. 

I enjoy reading stories about love. 

I enjoy listening to songs about love. 

I enjoy watching people fall in love. 

But most of all I enjoy talking about our love story. 

In honor of LOVE month, I want to post more about our wedding. 

I started posting about our wedding in December for our anniversary. 

You can read more about the proposal and look at our engagement photos 

but this post is dedicated to our actual wedding. 

We were married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake City Latter-Day Saint Temple. 

It was one of the happiest days of my life. 

We were surrounded by so many people who love and care about us

and I have never felt so much LOVE at one point in my life. 

I was so giddy and happy all day long. 

It truly was the best day of my life. 

I hope you enjoy a few of my favorite pictures. 

Compliments to Duston Todd Photography

Don't forget to go check out my guest post over at  The Meaningful Pursuit today.

I am so excited to be apart of the 14 days of love....

Two Year Anniversary Celebrations

 We had a fabulous, low-key, two year anniversary last week.

We are saving up for our week long celebration in March but that is still a secret...

so we decided to do a simple celebration on the 27th of December. 

As I was telling one of my friends about our celebration, I noticed a common theme:

I was at my parents house and Dave picked me up with two dozen roses. 

We went to the dollar movie theater and watched Taken two.

We went to two of my favorite places to shop, the Rack and City Creek. 

I bought two things at every store I went to.

(I love having Christmas money to spend)

We went to our favorite Salt Lake Restaurant, The Blue Iguana

and we each ordered Two Chicken Enchiladas Verdes.

Then we went to our favorite Frozen Yogurt spot, Top it

and we got two bowls of frozen yogurt. 

We ended the night cuddling by the fire, watching The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Just the TWO of us. 

Did you notice the common theme of TWO? 

Kind of silly but it was our two year anniversary and all.

It was a treat to spend the night together reminiscing our wedding 

and the story of how we fell in love. 

What is your favorite thing to do to celebrate your anniversary?

Love is Loyalty

via

Every time Elder Holland gets up to speak, Dave and I get way excited. 

He just has this way of being so spiritually stern. 

Instead of highlighting parts of his talk... 

I really just want you to go watch it. 

It was incredible!

watch or listen to it here

Today I love my husband because...

Every time my husband and I have been in the car together this week, he fast forwards the CD in the player to Michael Jackson. Not only is it Michael Jackson but it is 'Man in the Mirror.' My husband hardly ever sings.. but I LOVE listening to him sing. I actually love his voice and whenever it starts getting good, he goes way high and starts laughing. 'Man in the Mirror' is his current favorite song to sing to. I have wanted to take a video so many times but I know as soon as I whip out the camera, he will stop singing. So until I can put a hidden camera in the car... just imagine how amazing it is.

Isn't he smokin hot?

I sure love this man. 

Let love guide

source

Thanks for all your love yesterday. My first day as a nanny went really well and I am excited to be with the kids tomorrow, so it really must be good.  I was scrolling through some of my favorite quotes for today's post. Aren't powerful quotes just the best thing ever? I honestly love reading something that inspires me.

I am in a world of new. Yes, I have been in Gainesville for almost two months now but it still feels brand new. Every where I go, every one I see, and everything I do is new. Change is hard for me. I am one of those people that enjoys new experiences but I always like to go home at the end of them. After two months of being here, I think I have finally realized I am not going home. Florida is my home.

I know what you are thinking. How does this quote even go along with what I am saying? Well. . with every new thing I am doing it is easy to be discouraged, frustrated, angry, etc. However, if I let this quote seep into my soul... 'most of all let love guide your life' ... it seems to me everything just begins to fall into place. The more people I meet, the more love I strive to give to them. The more things my sweet hubby needs me to do because he is so busy, the more love I strive to give to him. The more unfamiliarity's I face, the more I strive to embrace and love change.  The more I am away from my family, the more I am filled with love and gratitude for all they do for me.

I am not saying it is easy. But. I truly believe if you LET LOVE GUIDE your life it will be so much easier. And. You will be sincerely happy.

Happy Tuesday :)

happy love day!

we had the most amazing valentines ever.

we were able to go get one-hour massages at Massage Envy

one word.

incredible.

They focused on our upper body and it couldn't have been better!

apparently climbing has put a lot of strain on my pectoral muscles...

random?

anyways. we came home and had an incredible candle lit dinner.

bbq salmon.

green beans.

lemon rice.

and key lime pie.

this dave, commanding me to stop taking pictures and let us eat already.

delicious dinner.

best. easiest key lime pie. ever.

this is our cute treat bowl.

we made it at color me mine together when we were dating.

you can always count on it having yummy holiday treats in it :)

i also made delicious sugar cookies on sunday.

they had cream cheese frosting on them.

dave had never had cream cheese frosting.

weirdo? yes. result: he didn't like it.

he is a plain joe kind of a treat lover.

anywho.

i wouldn't trade my valentine for the world.

I love you with all my heart dave.

thanks for making each day such an adventure

filled with giggles, cuddles, and love.

get stoked for the weekend:

we have a four day camping trip in st. george!!

wooohooo!