Buffalo Wild Wings

Such a fun last minute date night to Buffalo Wild Wings! I was at my friend Maren's having our second girls night out! and John called on his way home from scouts at 8:00 and said I'm hungry would you like to go get dinner! Such a guy thing to do, no plans, completely spontaneous and last minute, the tummy growls and he thinks let me ask Alicia if she wants to go to dinner?! So, we decided to go somewhere we haven't gone before. There are so many dinning options on our side of town and we made it a goal to start trying new places this year rather then defaulting to some of the favorites that we already have. So, we decided on Buffalo Wild Wings. I've ate there before, but it was John's first time! He absolutely loved the giant televisions broadcasting the basketball games that were on that evening! It turned out to be a fun sports date night!! Since, we were out so late I completely forgot to call Austin and tell him happy birthday... I'm the worst ever at remembering birthdays! I had been thinking about it all day, but I kept telling myself he is in school you can't call till after three. then I had my tutor appointments, then I arrived at girls night out late, and then my husband asked me on a date. Well, ten o'clock rolls around and we are watching White Collar in bed and my mom texts me, Austin is going to bed soon are you going to call him?? I felt so awful, but we called him and sang him Happy Birthday over the phone!

Love is in the Air!!

Today I took out the Valentines Decor! I really do LOVE valentines! I love the feel of love in the air! Even though it should be all year round! and I have to say decorating for Valentines for the first time in this house was so much fun! I love our house! I really do! It's our home and it make me happy! Plus, the hearts, red, and pink make it so CUTE and CHEERY! I still need to buy some candy for my red bowl , most likely it will be chocolate, and I need to get a hook for my door so I can hang up my sign, but other then that the house looks so festive if I do say so myself!!   

LOVE IS IN THE AIR!!!

I even got these cute neon heart towels with Taylor a couple years ago at Target and I actually had somewhere to put them this year! In my downstairs bathroom they looked perfect!

 Plus, this year I got this super cute banner at Target, love Target, for $3.00 what a deal?!?!?!?! It's super CUTE in my entry way! It added the perfect touch to our archway when you enter and exit! Can't wait till John comes home from work and sees what I did today!

the creative gene in me

I designed this blog header for my mammas blog! sometimes I actually use my creative genes! I thought it turned out really cute so I wanted to share it! 

Because I love him

John and I have this ongoing debate about forgetting to do things. I will tell him and remind him what feels like a 100 times and he still forgets to do it or waits until the very last minute to do something and then there is no time left. He claims he does things... and finishes things/tasks all the time and I claim he has a hard time following through and finishing tasks. But, because I love him to death and knows he is an AMAZING man at heart and has the best of intentions I finished a task today by returning his book to the UNLV bookstore on the very last day it could be returned.  After returning his book I went into the office for a therapy session!! I truly love my job, it is such a joy to work with kids and I'm enjoying this semester even though it's going to be a lot of work! I can't wait to graduate this year! Anyhow, I took this picture and sent it to John so he could see that I was happy and he always makes me happy. He left for work and felt bad because I was a little upset. He sincerely apologized for not following through with what he told me he was going to do! I know he tries hard and I am truly grateful for all he does for our family and I wanted him to see me happy all the time so I designed this simple collage for his lock screen on his phone! 

Izzy will never be a mommy... :(

I'm a mean mamma taking away Izzy's opportunity to be a mommy, but I don't think I could handle a bunch of mini Izzy's running around!! So Izzy went in for surgery this morning. She was spade; we absolutely love Aloha Animal Hospital and Dr. Jason. He did a wonderful job taking care of Izzy and making sure her surgery went smooth. When john picked Izzy up from recovery the doctor informed us that she would have been able to carry 15 puppies! Holy Cow!! That many puppies in teeny tiny Izzy. At that point John was careful for Izzy having the surgery as well. The animal hospital sent Izzy home with a decorated Valentines bag and a cute Valentines bandana!! She has been such a trooper! It was so sad when she jumped off the couch and cried in pain... I felt so bad for my baby :( we just gave her tons of loving and snuggle time!

A Tender Mercy

Ever since we moved to Las Vegas I've felt like I don't have any friends, well besides John! He is my best friend and we do everything together, but sometimes you need some girl time! Someone to laugh with and unwind from school, home, and being a wife! It's definitely not been easy this past year being a full time wife,student, and teacher (for the majority of the year). I mean, I know I have friends, but none close by. It's different being married now. I'm not living with four other girls on campus or in student housing and I have struggled with this transition. However, when we moved into our house last May and into our new ward I told myself I was going to be outgoing and meet new people. I was really going to try and make an effort to get to know the sisters in my ward! I realized, there has to be other women out there feeling the exact same way. 

Well, the first month was a blur... the summer was hit and miss, and then I got called into nursery! I told my mom, "it's not that I don't like nursery, it's just all I'm doing is meeting people's kids!" I don't know any adults names because all I know are there kids! I did meet some of the nursery leaders though so I started associating with others! Then they moved me up to primary, more specifically the sunbeams. I love those little sunbeams, but getting ten kids to hold still and be quiet! That was a challenge!! Our ward is huge!! Over 650 people every Sunday  Our bishop warned us not to get discouraged if we didn't meet any people! He said, "give it at least 6 months and then let me know if you still feel out of place, the Pinnacle Ward truly is a great ward and very friendly, but there are just so many people!" Well, luckily for us then our ward split the week after the primary program in the fall! That was a tender mercy! I'm so grateful for the way the church is organized and for all of our leaders! It was sad to see some of the people in our ward go that I had begun to know, but I knew having a normal sized ward would make it easier to get to know people! When the ward split a lot of new callings were given including the Relief Society Presidency and the Primary Presidency! I love the Sisters in the new Primary Presidency! They reached out to me and asked if I liked being in primary and to express any concerns I may have, they also moved me up to the CTR 4 class. Then I began participating in ward choir! This was another tender mercy! In ward choir I was able to participate in something I love and meet tons of wonderful people in our ward! I was a little hesitant to go at first; I knew I really wanted to do it, but I didn't want to go alone and I couldn't convince John to go with me! But, I did it! I told myself 2 minutes of courage when I pulled up to the Rosequists home. Looking back now I really don't know why I was so worried and nervous! I loved practicing all of the holiday choir music as we prepared ourselves for December! I'm truly grateful that the lord blesses us with talents! At choir, I really got to know people who I shared common interests with!

Also, around the same time I joined choir I got my visiting teaching assignment , another tender mercy! (this is what this post was intended to be about, until I started writing it and just decided to start at the very beginning) In  December I learned who my sisters were! I didn't give them anything for Christmas, which I feel really bad about, but I did talk to them and tell them I'm their visiting teacher! I was still trying to figure out who my partner was... which, still remains a mystery! As the holidays came to an end I made my New Years Resolutions/Goals and I decided that I was going to have 100% visiting teaching for the year of 2013! 

So far, so good! The first month I mailed two of my sisters a letter because they had no phone number and only an address. Then I met with the other two sisters in person. I am so grateful for Visiting teaching and the Relief Society! What a strong sisterhood we have. I am so grateful for Kylee and Rachel! The fact that I was assigned to them, to look over them, and care for them was just what I needed. As I continue to serve them, and care for them I have truly made friends! The past two months I have been able to strengthen our friendships as well! Kylee is a newly wed and we decided we needed to plan some girls nights! We were both feeling the same way, we felt lonely, like we didn't fit in or have a place, mostly because we don't have kids yet! So we decided to find other sisters in the ward and planned a Wednesday night girl night! We decided Wednesday's because both of our husbands are at the church that night! At our first get together, we had some delicious treats and watched The Lucky One that Is where I met Marren! I'm so grateful to have met Marren! Then their is Rachel! I am so grateful for Rachel's friendship! I really look up to her! Which leads me to the pictures I have with this post! One random morning, Rachel texted me and invited me to go to the temple with her! She had planned on going with her husband, but then their kids were sick and he told her she could still  go and he would stay home. Then she thought, I'm going to text Alicia and see if she wants to go with me even though it's so last minute. I was so grateful to receive that text! What a tender mercy... We had planned to go to the 8:00 session, but little did we know the last session on Saturday night is 7:30! What a wonderful feeling to be at the temple! We still had a wonderful time with each other and we talked non-stop the entire way there and back home! Plus, I got to take this beautiful picture of the Las Vegas temple! What a beautiful place to spend a Saturday night! 

Long story short, when I take a second to slow down and think about my life I am so grateful for the many tender mercies that I have. I am grateful for the gospel, my life, my ward, and for the many friendships that I have made. I truly am so lucky and so blessed and I am grateful! 

Take two?... I wish!

We definitely need a repeat of this super fun weekend! Mason came to visit from St. George! John has been waiting for him to come hang out for FOREVER... I mean he has only been home for almost a year and it's his first time visiting! Plus, I got to spend time with my sister before she leaves for Romania! we went Ice Skating on a floating Ice Rink.

You see I was sitting in my car last week in the Target parking lot and I heard an advertisement on the radio... "Want to start a new family holiday tradition? Bring the entire family to Lake Las Vegas Floating Ice rink!" Well it went something like that so of course I had to pull out my phone and google Lake Las Vegas floating Ice rink and see if this was legit... and it was! I immediately text John and said you have to take me to go Ice skating!! PLEASE.... and well then we decided it would be a fun thing to take Mason to do too! I mean Lake Las Vegas is beautiful!

I have to say we were a little disappointed the Ice Rink was super small and it was kind of melting... hahaha and it wasn't floating around the rink it was stationary, but we were the only ones there!! We had the entire rink to ourselves and we had a blast! We made figure skating videos/routines and played freeze tag!  It was pretty cool because the entire rink was lite up with neon lights and of course they had music! I don't know if we will ever go back because it was pretty pricey, but it was a definite must try at least once and we LOVED it!!

Afterwards we went to Chuck-E-Cheese! John and I have done this multiple times, we just go and play all of the arcade games! It was really fun and Megan even won the jack pot! We ended up giving all of our tickets to a little girl that was there for her birthday! Her eyes lite up, she was so ecstatic I think we made her families entire night! Mason and John played like 10 rounds of basketball they had to keep winning it was an intense competition. If there is one thing I have learned about John over the past 2 1/2 years its he is a very competitive person and a pretty soar loser! But, boy do I LOVE him!

We decided to go try out a new restaraunt at town square afterwards. Uncle Dennis and Aunt Ali go there sometimes when I babysit and they keep telling me we need to go try it so we decided to all go together! I've  been trying to convince John for a while... I mean I really want to start trying new places to eat and a lot more local/family own restaurants. I'm tired of eating at the same chain places even though they are delicious we need to broaden our horizons. I mean we live in Las Vegas...?? there are some pretty great places to eat here! I really liked the Meatball Spot! I don't think John was the biggest fan, but what a great first time experience! The food was delicious and we tried gelato!

Who's been stamping??

I've decided to do more things I love this year! Things I enjoy... and I love crafts! So I went to my neighborhood Michaels and signed up for a Martha Stewart Glittering class!!! I figured that's a good way for me to get out of the house and learn something new! While I was there I also got some new peg stamps. It's a starter kit and I'm in LOVE!! The cute little starter pack teaches you how to make all different floral designs!

So tonight I made my first Thank You card!! I think it turned out great! Can't wait to work on more fun crafts this year!! Here's to a crafty 2013....!!!

First time at FIREHOUSE Subs! It sure was scrumptious! I've hear tons of people talking about this place.... a Sandwich shop founded by firefighters... It must be delicious and let me tell you it was! These are real sandwiches  in John's words it's a "man's sandwich!" hahahaha. I especially loved the pickle! Anyhow, I was driving down Rainbow and noticed they opened a new location so one day before John went to work we decided to go check it out! Oh, and I got a coupon in the mail! It made it even more worth it! We will definitely be going back; it gets a five star rating from us!!

We love our Izzy!!

 Izzy always makes everyday a little bit better!! She loves to play with her toys, have her belly rubbed, and sleep! She is so cuddly and playful! We love her so much! She really is my little baby! John sent me this picture of Izzy playing with her toy I thought it was so cute! She loves that purple bone it is the first toy we ever got her!

my new SHOES

I absolutely LOVE my new shoes!! Santa brought me them for Christmas! They are SUPER comfy and SUPER cute!

My LAZY pup!

Oh how I love my IZZY! she is the center of our world! I take way to many pictures of her, but I love these ones! These are all pictures of her being lazy, sleepy, and cuddly! Did I say how much we love her???