Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a fun Easter! We started off the morning with the Candland's traditional Easter breakfast which was absolutely delish!

The Easter bunny made it to our house and we were spoiled!

We had a family get together after church


and a yummy dinner.


The twins did a lot of the cooking...


and made this amazing chocolate tree.

I am so grateful that we were able to reflect on the true meaning of Easter and the magnificent sacrifice that was made for each of us. I just want to share with you my favorite quote. It's by our beloved Gordon B. Hinckley.

"The magnificent expression of His love came in His death when He gave His life as a sacrifice for all men. That Atonement, wrought in unspeakable pain, became the greatest event of history, an act of grace for which men gave nothing but which brought the assurance of the Resurrection to all who have or would walk the earth."

Milk...It Does A Body Good {NOT}

Okay I'm not shy about it...I despise milk! I think it is the nastiest tasting thing ever! I have never had a glass of milk, until the other day. I went to a doctor who recommended that I drink 2 cups of whole milk a day. Phillip and I both laughed when he said that because it just so wasn't going to happen. Well my sweet mother in law went and bought me a gallon and everyone waited for me to drink my first glass.

And it is just as terrible as I remembered! In fact the whole night I kept thinking about the taste and making myself ill. Since then I've managed to get down one more glass but it is pure torture I tell you! We'll see if I can drink more before it goes bad!

Good News Minute!

Okay, I have a good news minute to share! I got a scholarship! Yeah! It's the Gregory Carl Trevers Memorial Scholarship. It isn't huge, but it's enough to cover books each semester (which are absurdly over priced) and I am eternally grateful! Go Aggies!

Utah or Bust

The car is loaded, the engine is running, and we're finally going home! We've had a few days of delays. I've been struggling with a sore throat all week, then I had a terrible migraine on Friday that kept me flat on my back. Then Saturday after running errands we were no where near leaving. And Sunday afternoon I came down with a bad case of the stomach flu. So even though I'm not feeling so great and my husband is annoyed that we are leaving so late, we are on our way!

UpDaTeS

Absorbed, buried, consumed, immersed, involved, occupied, overloaded, overwhelmed, plugging away, swamped...in other words...

BUSY

We ran away (again) down to Tuscon and then Safford for almost a week. We enjoyed seeing family and eating at yummy hole in the wall Mexican restuarants and of course being spoiled by my Nanny (her cooking is delish)!

I spent a good portion of our getaway enthralled in reading and Phillip helped Travis fix his bike.

We got back to Mesa in time to help our friends, the Grasteits, pack and load their moving van. Even though it was work, we had so much fun! They are moving to Utah and only about 45 minutes from us! =) After helping them for the day, we did what any couple with no kids would do on a Friday night! We did homework! Haha! Boring I know, but we were a little behind and had two tests to take.

Saturday morning my mom and I had an awesome shopping spree! I tell you what, we are the clearance queens. Our plan was to run over to JoAnns to get some thread to start my curtains because for the time being we have some sheets up in our windows (give me a break - I'm trailer trash aren't I?). Well JoAnns led to Target which is where our first big find was! Roman Shades! Now I had bought the fabric to make my own, but lets face it, I don't think I'm going to get 5 windows done in a few days. They are just plain silk red, but I can't complain, especially when they were only $11.24, regularly $44.99! I'm going to spend that much just in buying the rods.

The problem was, they only had 4 of the 35 inch and I needed 5. So we tried another Target which led to Bed Bath and Beyond where we found my mom her curtains which her 75% off plus 40% off that. Her total was $6.74 per panel! Nuts I tell you! She wasn't planning on doing her curtains until mine were done, but we were on a roll. So we hit another Target to get some sheets to line the curtains and lo and behold I found my next deal. I have been searching for months for a back side for my placemats and a bottom half for my kitchen curtains. Luck would have it that I found a set of king pillows (which I can get 8 placemats out of) for $7.48 and a fitted sheet for the curtain part for $22.08. I know there is more on my part to do, but I couldn't buy fabric for that much - well that I like. So here is a sneak peak of what I've got cooking!

The Kitchen (red/black/tan)

The Bedroom (brown/sage/cream)

The Office (black/white)

And if you haven't figured it out yet, we're going home to Utah the end of this week!!!

Southern AZ Trip

We had so much fun running away last week! We didn't have any plans or time constraints (that's probably what made it so enjoyable)! We headed off to our friends house out in Florence Wednesday night to spend the night and see their new house. From there it was an hour drive the next morning to our first stop - Casa Grande Ruins. We thought it was really cool and quite interesting.

After that we drove over to Kartchner Caverns and splurged a little on the longer and better (so they say) tour. It was really awe inspiring and we were so glad we went. We couldn't take pictures inside, so I pulled one off the internet.

After leaving Kartchner Caverns we finally got to Bisbee where we stayed in the most amazing bed & breakfast! We can't say enough good things about this place! We loved it so much and it's quaint inviting atmosphere that we stayed an extra night! Bisbee was such a cute town. Everyone was so nice and always saying hi. We spent most of our days shopping in the antique stores and hours going through old postcards (we love to collect the old ones, especially with writing on them - weird I know). We even found a handful of different temples, some dating back to 1903! We made a few friends, including a dog named Alice. We got the opportunity to eat the best biscuits and gravy in the world at the Bisbee Breakfast Club. It has been in gourmet magazines and the New York Times. It was so worth it (yes, we ended up going twice)!

We did get a chance to stop over in Tombstone. It was fun to say we went, but man I've never been anywhere that charges you for EVERY LITTLE THING! I don't mean to sound cheap, but it was kind of ridiculous. We saw a re-enactment of the fight at OK Corral, and window shopped.

At the end of our trip we were able to go to Phillip's cousin's Eagle Court of Honor in Tucson. He did an amazing project with an estimated 425 man hours! It was huge! We are so happy for him and his awesome accomplishment! Way to go Bracken!

Days 6-14

We have decided to run away for about a week and go where the wind blows us. So, I am posting the rest of the 14 days of Valentines because when I get back I'll probably be posting pictures from our trip and Valentines will be over. Hope everyone has a happy heart day!

Day 5

Just a quick post about the 5th day of Valentines. On Phillip's mission in Uruguay they nicknamed him "osito" which is like teddy bear or little bear. So I saw this cool PEZ dispenser that was a bear and gave it to him today. The card said something about being my cuddly bear so it all went together.

Day 4

On the 4th day of Valentines I gave my hubby a movie night kit! We were planning on using it for FHE tonight, but we had so much homework that we didn't finish our tests until a little after 11:00 pm and weren't about to start a movie! We spent the ENTIRE day studying for one class because the exam was due by midnight. It wasn't hard, there was just so much reading. I like the books where there are pictures, charts, or graphs that take up half the page! He read to me, then I read to him while he tickled my back...we were just trying to get creative and stay awake. We're glad to be done with those boring first few chapters! We're off to hit the sack - finally!

And yeah for our new First Presidency who will do amazing!

Happy Anniversary

Happy 7th Anniversary to my wonderful husband!

I don't know if it's a bad omen or not, but I had asked Phillip to move the TV over a few inches because it wasn't centered on the dresser (OCD) and I forgot I left my ring to the side of it. Well the darn thing got set down right on my wedding band (they aren't sautered) and bent it as you can see from the pictures below. I tried to stay calm about it since it was my fault for putting it there. It really isn't a big deal as it's the two year check up for the prongs and dipping it in white gold, so they can just fix it then. But I was bummed because it happened on our anniversary! Anyways, the engagement part is fine, but the band pulls away from it when I slip them in together.

As for the 3rd day of Valentines, he got a box of these bad boys asking him to be mine! (He already got new scriptures and a huge whiteboard for our anniversary)