Happy Birthday America!..and Dizz!

A few weeks ago, we spent the week at my Parent's Home in Logan to celebrate Kindsey's 20th Birthday and the 4th of July.  We had fun hanging out in the sun, shooting guns, being around our family, shooting off fireworks, and had a picnic at Bear Lake in the rain (complete with raspberry shakes!)  Here are some pictures to catch you up:

Overall, things are going wonderful!  I hope everyone is having a great summer break!  School is just around the corner.  I will be starting again on August 22nd, and am so excited to be a full-time teacher this year!  What a blessing music has been in life!

For all you busy people out there....

So, my New Year's Resolution has been to be a better cook this year.  For those of you who know me (especially former college roommates), this is a HUGE deal for me.  Before getting married, I worked at all fast-food places....and this was my "reasoning" in eating out all the time.  When Troy and I got married, we decided that we wanted to make sure we have family dinners every night.  Of course, there are times that this doesn't happen, but we are doing our best.  I am proud to say that in the seven months we have been married, we have probably only eaten out about 15 times.  That may be a lot for some families; however, for us this was a big deal! :)  Tonight we had this for dinner: Angel Chicken Pasta, Salad, and Home-made Bread sticks...with some crystal-light lemon aid :D (Ignore all of the ranch...it sort of exploded on my plate).

So, I wanted to share something that I came across on Pinterest this week.  I thought this was a GENIUS idea!  It's called Freezer Cooking.  Basically, you take your ingredients, prep them, bag them, freeze them, and then put them in the crock pot on the morning you are ready to eat them. (If you would like to see more of her recipes, check out this blog...SUPER yummy stuff! http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html)

This is what I put together tonight while dinner was in the oven.  It is a Teriyaki Chicken crock-pot meal.  It is now in the freezer and ready for one of our busy days/nights!

Anyways....until next time, life is going great!  We hope you are all doing well! 

February Already?!

Well, I haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought I would give some updates as to what we have done.  Christmas came and went SUPER fast...and no we find ourselves in February.  Just last week, we have already been married for six months!  It has been a wonderful six months, and we wouldn't change a thing about it!  So, to catch you up on what you've missed, here are some updates:

 Our newest nephew, Nash Owen Daniels, was born on January 7th.  Although born three weeks early, Mom and Baby are doing great!

 Snapshot of Buddy sleeping...

 Little Easton: SUPER cute kid!

 Our First Christmas morning together :)

 We spent Christmas with the Hackett family, and now welcome Robyn, who will be marrying Trevor in March! :)

 Buddy doesn't like to be left alone, so when I left him on the porch to load the car up, he had to watch my every move...

 Troy and Mark had some "boy bonding" time over Christmas while playing with Kade's new toy

 We spent New-Years with the Hansen Family

 Our Nephew, Kyler Watts, is growing SO Fast!  Love him! :)

 Overall, life has been great to us!  We can't believe how quickly the time has gone!  We have been super happy, and love being married!!  We hope everyone has enjoyed their new year so far! 

"I Dream About Being with you Forever..."

I have been thinking a lot lately, with Thanksgiving coming, about the blessings that I have in my life!  Today, I have really been thinking about how wonderful my husband, Troy, is.  He is kind, giving, generous, loving, compassionate, strong, and (of course) funny!  Every day we spend together is only better than the last.  I can't believe how fast the last year has been together.  From the moment we went on our very first date, I knew this was the man I would marry.  It is funny to say, because I never believed that this would happen.  I had heard people say that they believed it, but I always thought, from past relationships, that time would be what would lead me to know if someone was the right person for me.  It is amazing to me that I have found someone who can complete me like this.  Days when I am struggling, he knows just what to do or say to make me happy again.  He has always put my needs first.  He is my rock and my example of who I want to be.  He makes me want to be a better person, and I feel so blessed to be able to spend forever with him.

Forever is quite a concept really.  I was thinking about that when I went to watch Breaking Dawn last night.  While watching the wedding scene, I was thinking about how romantic of a concept that Twilight does present.  Being able to spend forever with somebody that you love, and never having to be apart from death. (Granted, the whole vampire thing does add a different twist).   This brought me to think about how blessed I am to have married a man who could take me to the Temple.  The day that we were married in the Temple, we were sealed for time and eternity.  This means we will be together not only for our time here on earth, but also for all of eternity after our life here on earth.  Our marriage and family life together will last beyond the grave, and we will truly be together FOREVER.  I am so BLESSED to not only have a testimony of this, but to have it in my marriage.  I am so grateful to have a husband who understands this.  Every day we work to keep our marriage strong and happy.  I know that, as we work to have a Celestial marriage together, we will be a forever family.  There is no greater truth than that in my life.  I love my husband with all of my heart and will love him every moment of our forever together.

Our Apartment

So, as of today, we have finally finished decorating our apartment!  We had bought a head board for our bed months ago (before we got married), and finally went to pick it up last night from where we were storing it.  Yay! :) 

 Here are the pictures of our apartment, starting with the master bedroom and bathroom...

 Sorry some are so dark.  This is our guest room/Storage room.  One disadvantage to this place is we don't have closets...so we use this room to store our "storage closet" stuff. :)

 This is our living room (ignore the box, we were about to take out the trash so it is by the door) :)

 I made this clock for a "Super Saturday" activity...LOVE it! So simple! :)

 Our FABULOUSLY small kitchen...

 Coming in through through the door...

 Our Dining Room...

 And let's not forget the master closet. :)

We love living here!  Between Troy, Katie, Buddy (the Dog), and Red (the Fish), we have a happy little family in our cozy place!