Jonathan's Birthday Month

 October was wonderful because I was able to celebrate Jonathan's birthday throughout the month! Though I didn't take too many pictures, I want to write down what we did so we can remember.

We started out strong with a trip to Rockwell Ice Cream on the first so Jonathan could have some "A-NieNie-s" black licorice flavored ice cream. He loved it!

A few weeks later, I took him to get some fresh pressed apple juice at Rowley's Red Barn. It's one of his favorite treats and reminds him of his mission in Washington state. We went after dinner, so it was already dark and that's why I didn't take any pictures. While we were looking at all the wonderful things they sale, we saw the "Jonathan" apple variety. Of course Jonathan needed to try it, so we each got an apple, a gallon of apple juice, and some ice cream. All were delicious!

After we took the picture for Lyla's Cinderella birthday post, we took a few family pictures. Even though this one is blurry, I love it.

The night before his birthday, I had him open his presents. I knew that Saturday would be a busy day starting with our shift at the temple and then going out to dinner in Sandy. For one of his presents, I framed one of our favorite quotes that I wrote.

On Jonathan's actual birthday, we went out to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. I love the crab and he loves their key lime pie for dessert. It was perfect! Afterward we did some window shopping at Crate and Barrel, one of our favorite stores. We've started planning out what we want to buy there after Jonathan starts his career next year.

On our way back home, there were fireworks celebrating his birthday!

Birthday month was a success!

2016 Birthdays

We had a great time doing our pictures for our nieces' and nephews' birthdays. By far my favorite from this year is the Harry Potter picture for Tyler, but that's because I'm so excited that one of the kids loves Harry Potter too!

Next year we will be adding in Theodore and Spencer to the mix. I'm already coming up with more ideas!

Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to this fall. We were able to go to the ISU volleyball game to watch the amazing Abby play!

Jonathan and I went to the funeral for my dad's mission president Reed Benson. I loved seeing all of the flags around the building. One of his sons shared a common phrase President used to say, "May the Lord bless you and the devil miss you." I have a better understanding of why and how President impacted my dad's life. He lived what he preached.

Jonathan and I went for a hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon so I could see where William McMillan spent most of his time hauling lumber for fuel for his family.

We went for a drive up Provo Canyon to see the fall colors. I am not looking forward to winter, but Jonathan kindly reminds me that this is our last Utah winter. I have a feeling that will be my daily mantra as I scrape the windshield in the mornings.

Jonathan and I went the Pioneer Museum in Salt Lake City that also houses the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. There are photos lining almost all of the walls. I was looking to see if we could find any of our ancestors and sure enough I found one! Susannah Meredith Nebeker was there! I couldn't read her name plate, but I knew I had seen that picture before. I went home and found the same picture of her on Family Search.

Susannah is on the top left.

I loved this beautiful stain glass window in the museum.

We went to our first professional soccer game. It was pretty rowdy. I can only imagine how deafening the World Cup matches are in comparison.

We started off Jonathan's birthday month off strong with some delicious (to him) black licorice ice cream at Rockwell Ice Cream. We will have to go back and try more of their delicious flavors!

Jonathan is on track to graduate this upcoming May. I couldn't be more proud of him for his determination and grit to finish his education. He truly is an amazing man and will have so many opportunities because he refused to give up.

His Majesty, The Birthday King

Jonathan's birthday was last week. We started celebrating a few days before and the celebrating continued into the weekend. Jonathan requested a birthday pie again this year. 

I made his birthday crown the night before his actual birthday and he wore it all morning and evening long. On Saturday, we went to the UVU Women's Volleyball game. One of the players grew up in my home ward and when we were living in Roseville, Jonathan occasionally taught her in Sunday School.  

Abby was amazing! We had so much fun watching her. After the game, we went to Taylor and Kenzie's for a family party.

On Sunday, we went up to Salt Lake for a devotional for Juventud de la promesa. As you can probably guess by the title it was completely in Spanish. It was perfect! Jonathan has been wanting to do more with his Spanish and has been a little worried about how much he remembers. He only struggled keeping up with the speed of the native Spanish speakers. The highlight was having Elder D. Todd Christofferson speak in Spanish. His talk was a wonderful reminder of being consistent with doing the seemingly small things like praying and reading scriptures. He also gave advise to the youth about marriage. He said there were many wives around that love their husband and husbands that cherish and respect their wife. When he said that I looked over at Jonathan and felt a wave of gratitude to have a husband that already cherishes and respects me.

We had a lot of fun, but I doubt that the celebrating is finished!

Mother Dearest

Saturday was my wonderful mother's birthday.

She truly is the perfect Mother for me. We always had so many craft supplies on hand, that our teachers would get upset when they would see our projects that we were specifically told to only use things we already had at home. I can say that she is the reason why I have boxes filled with my very own craft supplies. You never know when you are going to need... (fill in the blank).

Now she gets to help with her grandkids school projects.
This was Ty's project for Grandparent's Day. It looks just like my dad!

She gave us the room to find our talents and was always supportive. When I was signing up for classes for eighth grade, I decided I was going to do band as my elective. I had wanted to be in band since 5th grade and I was finally going to do it. My mom wasn't so sure about, but she fully supported my decision. She was at every concert that we had at school and every competition my senior year of marching band. She was one of the favorite moms that volunteered and my friends ended up calling her Mrs. BJ's mom. 

It was a soggy Veteran's Day my junior year of high school.

This past year and half of living apart has been pretty lame, but I know that no matter how far apart we may be physically she is always there for me!

Padawan Seth

Jonathan and I are still having too much fun making birthday pictures for our nieces and nephews. Seth loves Star Wars, so we decided to make it look like droids invaded UVU.

I love how Jonathan has gotten so excited with each birthday shoot. He came up with most of the ideas for this one. He's tapping in to all of the hours he spent pretending he was a jedi as a kid.

What makes me the happiest is hearing the reaction of the birthday kid. Seth was convinced that we were really taking on droids and wished he could battle them with us. We have fun making these, but the real reason is we want to make sure that our nieces and nephews know that we love them no matter how far away we live.

My Birthday

Apparently, I had been dreaming of a white birthday because it snowed for most of the day.

Since my birthday was in the middle of the week, I decided to take myself out for lunch. The snow was still falling, but instead of snowflakes it was clumps of snow.

This year, I didn't want a cake and instead got ice cream and donuts. I also thought I had birthday candles, but all I could find was a candle stick. 

Lucky for me, my birthday celebration usually lasts for days. The following weekend, Jonathan and I spent the entire day together. For Saturday's adventure, we went up to Brigham City to go to the temple there. Before we could go to the temple, I needed some Mexican food!

The exterior is similar to pioneer temples, but very minimalist. The interior is simply gorgeous!

We got to the temple really early and the workers were so concerned about us waiting for so long. One of the sisters decided to give me a little tour so I could see the Bride's Room. I don't have the words to describe how beautiful it is! I love the Bride's Room at Sacramento, but this one was amazing! Jonathan and I both agree that this is our favorite temple in Utah.

On Sunday after church, we headed up Squaw Peak Road. The views were amazing!

Personally, I loved the view of the mountains.

Over all, it was a very good birthday!

More Birthdays!

We are really having fun making birthday pictures for the kids. For the princess pictures, I make a felt crown for me to wear in the picture and then it is the present for the birthday girl.

Rapunzel's crown for Mercedes.

Jonathan's computer skills are improving with each project we do.

One of my favorites so far has been our version of 101 Dalmatians. Charlotte is so in love with dogs that I knew that this would be perfect for her! I still plan on making her a crown because they are so much fun to make.

This has been such a fun and creative way for Jonathan and I to show all of our nieces and nephews that we still love them even when we aren't around them.

Our True Identity

I can't hide it any longer, Jonathan and I are super heroes. We are having so much fun planning and adding special effects to our pictures for our nieces and nephews! For at least the past year, Jonathan has been doing all sorts of 3D graphics and has started getting more into the animating side of things. This is his creative outlet when homework gets tedious and he just keeps getting better!

In case you haven't seen the latest creation here it is.

Jonathan got really into this photo shoot because he could visualize how he could make them come to life with the special effects. He's the one who makes these pictures amazing. I just tell him what it is that I want and he runs with it.

Celebrating Birthdays!

Last year, I was pretty lame when it came to making our nieces and nephews birthdays special especially for the California kids. This year I vowed to do better. The idea started simple with just holding a sign that said happy birthday. As I was sitting at work, I started thinking more about what Garrett was interested in. (Garrett has the first birthday of the year.) I knew he is crazy about the Ninja Turtles. Then it hit me. Jonathan and I needed to dress up as Ninja Turtles! I told Jonathan my idea and he was on board!

This picture turned out even better than how I imagined it! I am having so much fun figuring out what we are going to do for each of the kids. For Clara, we went with a Frozen theme since she loves the movie and Utah Lake is currently frozen. Jonathan added in the special effect so I could be a more convincing Elsa.

Here's a very small hint of what we're doing for Kyle. It's going to be amazing thanks to Jonathan!

My Birthday

This was my first birthday without my family and it was kind of weird. I still remember how adorable Garrett and Kyle were singing/yelling happy birthday to me last year. It was a wonderful day thanks to Jonathan though. He was able to get ahead on his homework so we could spend the entire day together in northern Utah. It was really nice, on the drive my mom called and since the family was all together I got to talk to my funny nephews for a little bit.

Here's a couple of instagram posts from my family.

One of my favorite gifts!

Here's Hannah's caption:
Back before even this ancient photo (the YSA conference where my brother first asked for her number....), BJ and I met as 12 year olds at Treasure Mountain girls' camp! Didn't know then that I was meeting my sister, but I am grateful the addition of this crafty, smart, cute lady to our family and for her birth 24 years ago today! Happy Birthday BJ!

The first order of business for me was to have some authentic Mexican food. Since moving to Utah, I haven't had any and I was dying for it! So we stopped of at a place just south of Ogden. It was heavenly! Then we went to Hill AFB to check out the planes they have as part of their museum. Even though it was my birthday, I wanted to do something that I knew Jonathan would enjoy. Jonathan was so excited, it was like he was a little boy all over again.

After checking out the planes we headed up to Logan to see the temple. It's the fifth one we've been inside of and the ninth one we've taken pictures of. (There's a lot of temples in Utah!) This temple is so beautiful! It seriously looks like a castle.

My favorite tree was in bloom!

Love this man!

Jonathan did a wonderful job of making my birthday a special day.