Living Life on the Blessed Lane

This should be the real title of the blog.

Hmmm.

It's definitely true.

This morning I woke up thinking about

How blessed Casey and I 

have truly been.

When I walk around our tiny apartment

I can't help but think about the blessings

our Heavenly Father has 

given us.

First of all to have known my husband for so many years.

I always knew he was different then the other kids.

I could just see it.

Now that we are married,

it has just proven how right I was.

I am just amazed at how supportive he is in everything

that I do and say.

He is truly my partner in crime.

(Don't worry, we are not real criminals.)

Our biggest blessing

has been Eliana.

Many people ask why we didn't wait long.

We definitely got advice to wait.

Children are great blessings and whether we waited

was between us and our Heavenly Father.

We don't regret not waiting.

We have followed the First Presidency's counsel 

and continue to.

And for that reason we live life on the blessed lane.

As young adults, hold on to your dream,
and work to fulfill your hope for eternal family love.

Horray for frames!

Today was a bit long but fast.

I don't know.

It's so nice to have Casey home.

I'm sure he's glad he doesn't have to go to school on Saturday.

Anyways.

Today.

We finally got pictures on our wall.

Call me Crazy but,

I didn't feel like we were actually living here.

There wasn't any pictures on our walls.

Not because we didn't have pictures.

We have plenty.

Trust me.

We just didn't have frames.

It's so nice to have family pictures on the wall.

It's a good reminder of

the love

and blessings

we have.

Relief Society Activity

Today was (honestly) my first day of Relief Society Activity. No joke. How many years have I been in RS?  Almost 6 and not once have I attended. How many times have I even been in Relief Society? Not long. I always have callings that make me unable to attend. Like Young Women and Primary. So I am ALWAYS out of the loop. Blah. So I finally pushed myself to do it. I made it a goal to attend and I finally did. I had fun! At first I felt like an outsider perhaps even an investigator. Everyone looked at me like I wasn't from the ward. At least the ones that don't know me. So just about everyone except the Relief Society President.

There were 3 classes that we could attend 20 min each: ABC BOM booklet for children. We cut out cards and made a BOM booklet. I love it. I wasn't aware that we had to pay ahead. (I am out of the loop) But they were kind enough to give me one of the extras. Then there was a "How to use the Internet for FHE ideas." Didn't feel like I needed that but in the end I went and had fun and got some websites to go to. Will have to check them out. And there was decorate cupcake class. I REALLY enjoyed this one. After a season of TLCs "Next Great Baker" I wanted to bake and decorate cakes. This is a good start. At first I thought it'd be a little of frosting and throwing some m&ms but no. It was fun and learned some techniques. I'm a pro now! Yea...right.

the pink one started as a butterfly and someone said "Oh I like your flower" so I turned it into a flower lol  I also made a penguin for Casey. The flowery one looks like I could put those designs on a wedding cake. 

For a while we have been trying to get rid of some dishes. I tried selling them as well as a crock-pot and no one seemed interested. Just one guy that wanted me to drive to Salt Lake. I don't think so. So I took them to church for the "take it or something" table. (I don't ever get the name right) Apparently a couple just moved in from Oregon and have nothing. I just loved the reaction the guy had when I gave him about 20 dishes and some mugs that we had hidden for a year. He asked why I was giving them away. Well that's simple too much and never use them. So I asked if he'd like the crock-pot and of course...they did. It's a great feeling seeing someone react and be so grateful with me. It was like a kid with a gift on Christmas. (No Joke) I definitely feel like a much happier person.

Thank you Casey for staying home with our sweet girl!! <3

GOALS!

Casey and I have some goals. Casey's main goal is finish with school, but he also feels like he can do more for us. I don't think so. He does plenty. He is just a wonderful person. For beginners he is not a complainer. He simply lets me know his opinions. Still, there is nothing wrong with that. We all have opinions and I'd rather we talk about them then keep them in.


Me on the other hand. Where to start? First off. I want to lose all this baby weight but Elianas health is more important. I'm just glad Casey is ok with my size. More to love right? I just can't wait for this weather to change. Ice on the road just doesn't work for running. Or walking. I also need to read the book of mormon on my own. I have it on my phone so there is no excuse. I need to be more organized!! I just need to make sure Eliana's sleeping goes back to routine tonight. 


As we go through the days we get a little annoyed with the same meals, so we are trying to have different meals each day. Casey makes the best stir fry. I fall in love every time he cooks. We also read a scripture before we go to bed. One chapter at least. We bought a fitness game for our kinect. Believe you me the game is insanely good. It works your butt off. Well you keep your butt. But it is good. I try to workout on down time. Casey tries to workout at night before bed. 


Overall our goals are spiritually and physically healthy. A more happy lifestyle. Not that we don't live a happy lifestyle. It's the keeping it at that happy level or beyond. We are doing great so far. We are also reading The Hunger Games together. So far it is fantastic. He almost read it on his own. No sir. Not without me. 

Awesome Teamwork!

Casey and I were not sure how having a baby would affect. A lot people say that it all starts going down from there. Casey and I think different. We were right. The first couple of months was tough, especially on me. That whole post-partum stuff. Yuck. Sickens me. I felt so hopeless. Maybe I was doing such a horrible job. Casey never once agreed with me. Thank goodness. Instead, he gave me all the support that I needed. I felt bad because he is in school and has classes that are hard to him. His grade dropped a little but my mom was here to help us. We had to have a talk about how we were going to get through this together. My husband is just awesome. He convinced me that I was doing everything that I could, and there was nothing wrong with what I was doing.

Today we make the perfect team. I mean it helps that our girl is awesome too. For some reason I can never hear her in the mornings when she wakes up. He is awesome enough to wake me up to feed her. Then we eat breakfast in the mornings. While he takes care of Eliana or sets her on the swing while he gets ready, I cook us something because there is usually time to. Then he is off to school.

When we are home together we are good at planning what is going to happen. He has been enjoying the cooking recently. He is experimenting and boy he is a great cook! I don't like oriental food and let me tell you he has converted me. So I feed Eliana or get her ready for something or just entertain her while he cooks.

I fall in love more everyday with my Casey Cakes. Not one complain. He is the best!

Valentines Day

This is the day of love. Correct? Well I decided that I wanted to spend Valentine's Day with my WONDERFUL husband and BEAUTIFUL girl. We love her and want to spend her first Valentine's Day with her, even though she has no idea what it is. Everyday is Valentine's Day for us. The name is just different. I made a heart shaped spinach and pepperoni pizza. It was delicious. Casey made yummy brownies and we had veggies and fruit. We watched Date Night. Eliana was good and stayed on her swing throughout the entire movie. If they didn't have bad language it would have been great. It seems like people think if the movie has bad language it makes it great. No.

Anyways. Casey is smart. He gave me pink flowers last year. Don't get me wrong. I love pink flowers but they were dead within a couple of days. I'm just not good with them. This year (we are couponers, not freakishly weird couponers but use them when we have them) he decided to use coupons and ask me what I wanted. Makeup. I love makeup. So he got me eyeliner, foundation, blush, eye shadow, movie, and chocolate. I love chocolate. He thought he did a bad job with the eye shadow because we had to return it. IT wasn't because I didn't like it. I already had that one. So was that bad? No. He knows my taste. It would have been perfect if I didn't already have it. Anyways all of these things I had coupons for so I gave them to him and he used them. O and the best part of it. (Now this was just a selfish gift or so he says...he also wanted to read it) I got the Hunger Games book!! Awesome. It has been almost a year that I have been trying to read it. So we are going to read it together. The movie is coming out soon so we want to read it before we watch it.

I gave Casey Jenga. I had a coupon. I've never played it but he says he likes it. He also wanted some khaki pants so I bought him that. He had to try them on before we bought them though. (This was a selfish gift) I got him weights. I need weights to workout also but he had been asking for them. So basically he already knew what I was getting him for V-Day.

Eliana was done for the day and we had time to spend talking and just being with each other. Played some games and such.

Overall it was just the best V-day. I love our tiny family.

Bi-weekly Cleaning!

Today was very exhausting at the end of the day. Why? I am a little OCD about reorganizing things. I am not a freak, I don't think. I just like things to have space and such. Today we cleaned all day. Bad? I don't think so. I am just trying to get rid of things. For example. We have a crock-pot that we don't use because we have a nicer one my mother in law gave us when we got married. Dishes. Losts of dishes I bought before I was married that I never used. Yarn. I don't have time to do any crafts with a baby. Well at times I do but she doesn't like to wear any of the things I do. Baby girl clothes Eliana grew out of. I want to keep the things that are almost brand new. The apartment was in need of deep cleaning. There is definitely more space but now what to do with it all.

Our relief society president sends out emails each week letting all the sisters know what other sisters are in need of and what there is to give away. Well this is an opportunity for me to give. Well us. A sister was in need of dishes but now they don't know for sure. Anyways, each Wednesday that there is a RS meeting there is something called the "Bring or Take" thing. You bring what you don't want and maybe another sister that was in need can take. There is just so much that I don't want anymore and look forward to taking it on Wednesday. Hopefully someone will need the things I take.

I am glad Casey was there to help me with all of this and that our princess was good enough to entertain herself.