New Moon!!!

The invites...

The picture on the front door...

The sign outside the front door...

The decor...

One of the games...

The crazy girls with tattoos...

...who waited outside in 20 degree weather to see the 12:01 am showing!

I didn't take as many pictures as I'd have liked but you get the idea! We had a crazy fun time! Oh and the movie was GREAT!

CBS Cares

Are you kidding me?! Oh ya that's the best gift ever! I would kill my husband!

Stay Tuned

We are in the midst of finals so please be patient as we have lots to blog about when the semester is over!

Mmmmm...

All is right with the world!

Brooke White Concert Benefit

Please follow this link and help our best friends as all proceeds go to their recent adoption!

Ode To Shelby

{Warning: Picture overload and a little bragging!}

Oh Miss Shelby...how we love you! You bring so much fun and laughter into our family! We adore your little personality and can't believe how it is similar to ours! You are the best dog! We are so proud that you make friends with every dog/child/adult you come into contact with! You are the best babysitter...

...and we love that our friends will stop by just to say hi to YOU and play with you and your toys!

We think it's funny that we have had multiple friends just stop by and ask if they can take you on a walk!

You LOVE family cuddle time and cuddling in general. You will burrow in any blanket!

You are the best helper. You love playing broom hockey with daddy when he sweeps the porch!

You are a great protector {like from a big spider last night} and rarely bark.

You ADORE daddy and always have to know where he is!

Your playful disposition is a hoot! Playing in the leaves was so much fun with you this fall!

And this morning when we woke up to the first "sticking" snow fall you couldn't stop running around with your nose in it and eating it!

You aren't a picky eater and will finish anything off for us!

You are a sucker for car rides and love to hear "let's go"!

You know how to sit, stand, shake, lay, speak, and roll.

You know the words, walk, park, leash, outside, home, kennel, treat, eat, where's daddy/mommy, ball, snake, bone, go get it, up, good girl, and baby to name a few.

But must of all WE LOVE YOU!

Stake Conference

What a neat stake conference! The messages from

Elder Ronald A. Rasband

Sister Cheryl C. Lant

Elder M. Russell Ballard

and President Henry B. Eyring

Were truly amazing! Exactly what we were supposed to hear. We have been uplifted and edified!

New Favorite

Amazing Talent

I am in awe! These little girls are amazing!

Random Update Overload

I always laughed at people who said they lost their camera cords...well I sorta miss placed mine for a little while and I am so sorry for my negative thoughts towards all you nameless people! Since I finally came across it, here is an overload of random updates!

This adorable couple got married! This is Phil's little sister Malissa and her new husband Greg! Cool fact...they are both twins!

We went camping with some good friends over Labor Day weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the mountains and great company (no pictures)! Cool fact...Shelby LOVES to go camping!

We finished a simple but VERY long overdue project in our room! Cool fact...my friend Jill rocks vinyl hard core!

My grandma (Nanny) and aunt (Falene) came to visit for a few days! Falene made us a yummy frittata from our garden and Nanny spoiled me with this birthday present! She is always fostering my love for reading but she shouldn't be tempting me during a school semester! Cool fact...it has my pioneer ancestors in it!

The day after said family left we finally broke down and checked out the leak we had been hearing for a while. Needless to say here is the proof that it was a HUGE project and we had no water for days! I am blessed to have a hubby who can fix whatever problem comes our way (although plumbing is his least favorite)! True fact...this had nothing to do with THIS incident.

Thanks to my "mock" mommy next door I learned how to can! Phillip and I ended up canning 21 jars of pears, 5 jars of pear sauce w/ cinnamon (like applesauce), 32 jars of peaches, and 2 jars of salsa! Cool fact...my husband remembered to document this moment (although his photography skills need a little practice - sorry it's so blurry).

Phillip and Shelby like to go running every morning and on this particularly hectic day they went somewhere new and he lost his cell phone and Shelby thought rolling in cow poop would be awesome! Here's Phil's solution to cleaning up the yucky situation - but it was probably just an excuse to play with Shelby! Cool fact...an honest person with a 3 legged boxer found his phone!

Relief Society was a success! Our theme was "Stretch You Dollar" hence the reason I busted out our play money from Monopoly to make money tree center pieces! We had a great turn out and lots of awesome ideas on how to save money! Cool fact...having homemade Cafe Rio was hit!

Cool fact...we have Halloween decor up already!

We had two super fun couples from our ward over for Sunday dinner, then while the men were at a stake priesthood meeting the girls congregated at the Holmgren's house and when the men got back we all sat on the floor and had caramel popcorn and laughed and talked! Cool fact...Mindi makes the BEST caramel popcorn!

We found this little dude while mowing the lawn and weeding. Cool fact...we safely deposited him elsewhere.

P.S. It's pretty much autumn! The leaves on our trees are changing and we have had to cover our tomatoes at night because it's been at or under 32 degrees!

Mess + Stress = Melt Down

Phillip has been working on a few projects in the house and needless to say the house is a disaster zone! I should just put "CAUTION" tape up...seriously! Anyone that knows me knows I am not okay with messes and disorder. I have had a few meltdowns. The topper is that schools starts Monday and I am beyond stressed because I always have my home immaculate (yes I bust out the toothbrushes) before a new semester starts. I like to start off on the right foot feeling organized and in control. I guess I need to learn a lesson in letting go because I was thrown for a loop Wednesday night when I had a cyst rupture and I needed to take it easy for a few days. I hate it when I have to be humbled haha! So, here's to the start of a new semester...messy house and all!

New Callings

My husband and I are the new ward temple coordinators and we couldn't be more thrilled! I am still the enrichment leader too (which I am so happy about). We got set apart tonight and it was such an amazing blessing for me. I was set apart for both callings and literally, it was exactly what I needed to hear and feel. The words spoke right to my heart and I LOVED that I had confirmation about a few things! I left the bishops office all smiles!

It Survived!

We had this really great rose bush by our stairs, but since we expanded the deck and put in a gate we tried transplanting said rose bush in hopes that it would survive. We were a little nervous, but guess what, it survived! My husband has always made sure no matter where we live we have a rose bush. See, he has this little Sunday tradition of going outside to get the newspaper and cutting me a rose while I make breakfast. I love that he is a hopeless romantic!

And in honor of pioneer day we did a huge breakfast with our friends/neighbors, then we did a big bbq for dinner. I made up these fun shishka bobs and because of a misunderstanding, they got a little too done, but it was fun! Yeah for a long weekend!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

I am way excited now to chop up all 23 zucchini Phillip picked from the garden this morning! Thank you!!!

And here are a few pictures from said garden (minus radishes that already came and went and pumpkin and butternut squash which haven't blossomed yet)!

Dinner From The Garden

Other than the rice/chicken I threw together, we had a delicious garden dinner! We are so grateful for the blessing of growing a garden! Everything was yummy and we can't wait to try what it produces next!

Pooped!

They really do just wear each other out! This moment was caught after a morning run and weeding in the garden for two hours!

Drum Roll Please...

After TWO years we now have a bathroom door! Thanks babe for figuring out a way to allow our guests to not feel so awkward!

Live & Learn

This adorable face...

Who loves to do adorable things like cuddle..

Did this not so adorable thing to our family room!

Found the RED paint - check

Made RED paw prints all over our bed - check

Ate my Geology book - check

Ate a roll of paper towels - check

We still LOVE her and are pretty okay with the first really bad thing she did. We could hardly scold her as we were laughing so hard. We knew we should have put her in her kennel for those 30 minutes because we could tell she was upset we were leaving. Oh well, live and learn!