Second Catch Up!!!

Ok, so I am hoping that with this next post, I can catch it up to the present day...so that I can go back to doing single posts per event. (Hopefully this wont take me a few months this time. :) )

October 15 - 18, 2009 - Jake and I were able to go to California for our niece - Emily's baptism. The whole weekend was a lot of fun. We were able to do a lot that weekend...which made it worth the trip. First on Friday we had an early morning tee off with Jake, Spencer (brother in law), Brandon (Nephew) and I. I had one amazing hole where I almost had a birdie...but ended up settling for par. Brandon, who is 5, did really well. It was fun to do 18 with them. That night my mom, dad, sister Lisa, Spencer, Jake and I went to the San Diego Temple to do sealings. It was pretty special to be there with my family....I always enjoy that. On Saturday, Jake and I went down to the beach to have lunch at the end of the pier. The marine layer was pretty thick that day, but it made for some good pictures. We even saw a pod of dolphins swim by, a crazy lady throwing flowers into the water from her boat, and a seal playing in the water. Later that day we went to the BYU vs SDSU Football game. IT WAS AWESOME!!! :) Jake and I love watching BYU football, but it is even better to be there....especially when it is in the 70's outside!!!! We ended up having to leave a few minutes before the game ended because the baptism had to be moved up....but we ended up winning...and that's all that matters. :) After the game we went straight to the baptism. I had the pleasure of giving the talk on the Holy Ghost. I pretty much cried through the whole thing...because I have giving talks and get really nervous....but hopefully people were able to understand what I was saying and they were able to feel the spirit. The the whole thing went well, and I am so proud of her for making the choice to become a member of the Lord's church. GOOD JOB EMILY!!! WE LOVE YOU!!! That night, we hung out with my sister Jennifer, her husband Cain and daughter Natalie. It really was great to be able to hang out with everyone and to be able to see my family.

October 31, 2009 - We went to the ward trunk or treat Halloween party! It was slightly awkward going and not having kids....but luckily we have such good friends, the Chapman's, that are willing to let us borrow their kids any time we want. :) (Thanks guys! :) ) But it was actually pretty fun seeing all the kids in their different costumes and watching them play the silly games that they had. This is a picture at their house afterwards of Jake and Sophie eating their candy necklaces.....she's in love with her Jake Jake. :)

November - and actually some of October, I was working on a Christmas present for Jake's mom. I am pretty sure that she doesn't read the blog, but Sue, if you are reading this.....get off the site now! :) (You don't want to ruin Christmas!!!) Anyways, I decided that I was going to make a "family tree" quilt for my mother in law....and with a little bit of Jake's help......IT TURNED OUT AWESOME!!! I am really really proud of it. It was my first time appliqueing before....which was done all by hand! Jake was able to draw the tree from scratch for me, and traced all the apples, leaves, and people. Thanks for sharing your homemaking skills with me babe! :) Anyways, each of the items on the tree stand for something. In the middle of the tree, is a heart with Jake's Parents names in it. The apples stand for each one of their siblings (Jake's aunts and uncles) and the leaves stand for their nieces and nephews (Jake's cousins.) The four apples in the corners are their parents (Jake's Grandparents) and the people under the tree are their kids (Jake and his siblings.) After 1 huge tree, 21 apples, 46 leaves, 7 people and 1 heart, my fingers were pretty tired. :) Now I am just waiting for my sister to quilt it together for me. Once I get it back, I am going to be binding the quilt for the first time. But either way I am super proud of it....and if she doesn't like it....then I am taking it back....and having 7 kids. :) haha jk.

November 25 - 29, 2009 - Luckily, Jake and I were able to go to California again! This time we were going for Thanksgiving. For the most part, it was just a weekend to hang out and relax. We saw a lot of family, and a lot of football. :) Actually, probably more football than family, but its all good. We had two Thanksgiving dinners. One with one of my mom's sisters family - The Thompson's - on Thanksgiving day and the second with my sister Jennifer and her family on the Saturday after. On Saturday we also went to a member of my parent's ward to watch the BYU vs Utah game. It was a nail bitter, but luckily Jake was able to keep his cursing to a minimum because they won in OT. :) But even if we do sit around and watch football the whole weekend, it is nice to just be out of the cold and with family. I LOVE CALIFORNIA!!!

December 4, 2009 - We went to a birthday part for our friend Zach Smith. A group of 10 of us tried to go to Dave and Busters but have dinner and play games....but when we got there, the told us that it was going to be a 2 hour wait! Luckily I keep Texas Roadhouse's number in my phone (I know, I'm a nerd) so I was able to call ahead and get us in right away. After the delicious dinner, we went to the Chapman's and played games. My team won, of course. :) haha. It was great to be able to spend time with some of our good friends. HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD MAN!!! :)

Ok!!!! I should be all caught up....or at least with the really important things....hopefully people still check out my blog.....haha. Thanks for hanging in there!

Over Due Catch Up

(ok, so I have been working on this post for months.....but I have been having a really hard time catching up in the way that i wanted....with pictures and all....so I am just going to post it as is....and then come back later and add some pictures.....Sorry!)


So I figured since I have made it Jake's Birthday on the Blog for over two months I should probably catch this puppy up with what we have been doing for the past few months or so. I know I am going to forget important things....but here goes nothing..... (I'll try to go in order..)

July 31, 2009 Jake and I had the pleasure of going to one of our good friends, Zach and Amber's, weddings. Well, actually Jake was one of the best men...so I guess we kind of had to go. :) Everything about the wedding was beautiful! The day started off with some pictures, then onto the main event, after that more pictures, then off to the Cinderella themed reception where we danced the night away. It really has been great getting to know Zach and Amber more and being able to share their special day with them. We are so happy for you guys!

August 4, 2009 marked the second anniversary of our eternal marriage! It really is unbelieveable that two years have passed already. I am so thankful each and everyday that I married my best friend and that our friendship keeps growing as we continue forward together. Even though Amber and Zach's wedding was absolutely beautiful, I would not change my eternal marriage to Jake for anything! I love knowing that we are together for all eternity and that we continue being married not just until death do us part, but F-O-R-E-V-E-R! (Well when I put it that way, it sounds a little scarry...haha jk) I LOVE YOU MY BAYBA BAYBA!!! :)

August 5, 2009 was the day that Jake finally got rid of the monster inside him that we fondly called Ernie. :) Since we have now been on insurance for over a year, Jake was able to get his hernia that he had had for over 8 years fix. Over the years it had definitly gotten more and more worse, so it has been a blessing to be on insurance and finally get it fixed. Just in the few weeks since the operation, he has already been able to see a difference in his ability to play sports and sneeze. :) haha

August 21, 2009 we traded my baby in for a new set of wheels. Jake and I took my 1998 Jeep and traded it in for a new 2010 Subaru Forester. Surprisingly it was pretty hard for me to let go of my car. That was my first car that I owned...and I had a lot of good memories in it. I even teared up when I handed over the title....I know, I'm lame. :) But I'm not going to lie, driving the subaru for a few weeks now....its hard to remember what driving Zelda was like....sorry girl. I am mostly excited to test it out in snow...since Dever doesn't know how to plow. We will see!

September 5, 2009 the Chapman's were nice enough to bring me along to the Denver Zoo with them while Jake was at work....still in busy season. The only two times that I have gone have both been with them....thats because they are awesome! It is a pretty good size zoo though....and it really is a lot of fun to watch how much their two girls enjoy all the animals. Towards the end when we were walking back towards the gate....Sophie started getting tried of walking...so I picked her up to put her on my shoulders....and she ended up falling asleep up there! I dont know how she managed to do it....but she did! I got a pretty good kick out of seeing the pictures that Jessica took with her trying to get comfortable on my head. :) But thanks again guys!

September 11, 2009 was my 24th birthday. It was a pretty good day. It started off with me waking up to say bye to Jake and going into the bathroom to take a shower....and finding a dozen roses on the bathroom counter. (They were beautiful!!) Jake and I had already decided weeks before that we werent really going to be able to do anything on my birthday because he was only 4 days away from his big deadline....so we decided to eat dinner and go shopping the following weekend.....but you know, somehow.....we still managed to go to his soccer game that night...hmmm...... :) (that just makes me the best wife ever to let him play in a soccer game instead of taking me out to dinner) But over all the day was great....thanks for everyone that called and emailed!

September 23, 2009 we finally went out to dinner for my birthday! Which you know, looking back on it now....it really wasnt all that bad because instead of just having my birthday on one day....it ended up being spread acrossed the whole month! We went to dinner with Zach and Amber to Bennihana's. I love that place!!! But it was a lot of fun...even if it was two weeks late. :)

September 25 - 27, 2009 Jake and I had the opportunity to go to Utah. Jake actually left on Thursday and went on a golf weekend with his brothers and Dad down in Mesquite. I came in on Friday to spend the weekend with my Highschool friend Linne who just had a baby in August. It was a fun relaxing weekend for both of us. Some of the courses that Jake played on were beautiful. And Linne's little girl is sooo cute. On that Sunday Jake's Family threw a birthday celebration for me.....which was awesome! I love his family so much! Thanks for the gifts guys!

October 7 - 11, 2209 Jake's siblings, Jordan, Kit, and Maggy came to Denver to visit us. Jordan just left to go into active duty for the Air Force (on October 21), so he wanted a chance to have one last little trip before he left.....and then Kit and Maggy decided that they wanted to join in on the fun...so they came too. It was great having them out....hopefully we didnt bore them to death....because the weather was crappy that weekend....but at least I had a good time! :)

Happy Birthday to the Love of my Life!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!!!!

Happy Birthday to the most amazing man in the world!

Today is Jake's Birthday and what is he doing...of course playing basketball...his second love. :) But I think today was a really good day for him. It started it off with me making him pancakes for breakfast...so of course you already know that it is going to be a good day if it starts off with panckaes. I also gave him two of his presents so that he could wear them to work. During work, he was supposed to go into the main office where I had snuck in the day before and left him a present on his desk....but he ended up going to the other office....so I guess he will get that gift tomorrow... :) But it ended up being good for him since the internet stopped working so he was able to come home early instead of the 7:30 nights like it has been. So when I got home from work we ended up going out to dinner at Jake's favorite resturant...Chili's. After dinner we came back and opened up the rest of the presents. After trying out all of his presents he got dressed and went to go play basketball with his friends. But overall I think he really enjoyed his day and his presents. And even more, I'm sure that he really enjoys being 32!!!

Sweetheart, I hope that you had a great birthday! You are so amazing and you make me the happiest woman alive!

I love you!

One With Nature....

Over the 4th of July weekend Jake and I had the opportunity to go backpacking for the first time together (first time for me all together!)! We went up into the Uinta Mountains with Jake's dad, his 4 brothers, 2 sisters, and 1 brother in law. We were quite the group. :) We left Salt Lake around 4:30am on Thursday morning and drove up to the trail head. When we got there, we all got our packs on (everyone's packs were ranging from around 35 to 60 pounds) and off we went! The hike started off pretty good. The group ended up splitting into two groups....the fast group and the slow group. :) The slow group was comprised of the 4 oldest people in the group...and then me... :) I guess that's what I get for marring an old man! :) (Just Kidding sweet heart!) Anyways, when everyone got to the top of the mountain we all met up again and walked down the other side of the mountain towards Granddaddy Lake. The whole time that we were hiking we were supposed to be looking for this sign that pointed us to another path to take us to the other side of the lake....well....we kept walking....and walking....and walking...and we kept getting closer and closer to the lake...but no sign in sight. Jake's brother Tyson ended up leaving the trail and going down towards the lake and realized that we were on almost the complete opposite side of the lake that we wanted to be on. So at this point, I think everyone started to get a little bit grumpy after having hiked 3 or 4 miles (the total amount of what we were supposed to do) and was now going to have to hike another 2 or 3 miles to get to the spot that we wanted to be at. At this point we decided that we were not going to be fooled again by looking for the sign, so we decided to all go down by the lake and just hike by the lakes edge..........maybe not the best idea. Most of the land around the lake was soggy from snow run off and very difficult to walk across without getting your boots wet. But after getting across the sloppy grounds, we FINALLY MADE IT TO THE PERFECT CAMPSITE! Everyone set up their tents and then gathered together to start setting up the fire area. All of the boys walked around and found the perfect sitting logs and made a lovely area for us to hang out around the camp fire. Overall, the campsite was pretty sweet. Well, after setting everything up, we were all so tired after having woken up at 4am that we all decided to take a nap. We all slept for a few hours...luckily while it was raining (it didn't start raining until we were all asleep). When we all woke up, we built a fire and started cooking the amazing steak dinner that we packed in. :) (yeah, we pretty much ate like a King during this trip...but I guess we paid for it with how heavy most of our packs were. :)). After dinner we sat around the fire and roasted smores and popped pop corn. The first night in the tent though was a little rough...not because it was uncomfortable...because it was actually really nice since we had sleeping pads...it was more because I was paranoid about every little sound that I heard out in the woods. Eventually it started raining again, and I think that helped me fall asleep. The next morning we had another amazing camp meal of bacon, bagels and cream cheese. After breakfast the boys decided that they were going to make spears out of branches with their hatchets and knifes. Once all the boys had all of their spears whittled down to perfection, we all made the hike over to a nearby stream. All of the brothers had their spears in hand and the girls had fishing poles. Well, to make a long story short (because this post is probably going to be so long that no one will read it all) the boys ended up spearing 8 fish and the girls ended up with only 1 fish using their poles! I thought that was pretty funny and ironic. But the best part about that whole trip was when Maggy decided that she was going to catch a fish with her bare hands. As she was bending over for the attack, I was across the stream to capture the victory...when all of a sudden I have this fish fall into my lap! I was a little shocked at first but I was able to compose myself and grab a shot of the floundering fish. :) After that adventure, we all hiked back, cooked up the fish, and hung out for the rest of the night. Luckily that night and the rest of the trip it never rained another drop...we were really lucky. The last full day that we were out there we mostly just hung out around the camp, trying to finish off all the snacks and treats so that we wouldn't have to hike them out. Later in the afternoon, we climbed the rocky mountainside to see the view of the whole lake. This was also nice because it got us away from the tons of mosquitoes that were everywhere around the lake, if you don't believe me...just ask Tyson... :) But after hanging out for a little bit, Jake started throwing rocks at this bigger rock...and naturally we all joined in. It's amazing how even the most simplest games make the competitiveness in us come out. :) After we all threw our arms out and took a few crazy pictures, we walked back to the camp and played a few games with some dice that we brought up. We enjoyed our last night with some more smores and popcorn and got ready for our early morning departure. The next morning, we woke up at 5am so that we could leave camp by 6:30. On our hike back we decided to just climb up the side of the mountain towards where we thought the trail was going to be...and what do you know...we found the trail that Gary was looking for on the way down! In his defence there was so sign like there used to be the last time he came there...but if we ever go back there, we will know right where it is! :) But we ended up leaving so early because on Sunday afternoon one of my new nephews - Gavin Paul Renshaw and a new niece - Reese Renshaw (they are my two brothers kids) were going to be blessed. So we raced down the canyon and arrived at my brothers house straight off the trail. I'm sure we didn't smell all that great and didn't look all that fresh since neither of us had showered since the Wednesday before, but luckily family doesn't seem to care about that all that much. But both blessings were beautiful and both of them are so darling. The sad part about that though is that my memory card was full, so I didn't get a chance to take pictures of them...so these last few are borrowed. :) But that was our amazing 4Th of July backpacking trip. Everything couldn't have gone any better. But for my first backpacking trip ever, I think I kicked butt! If anyone ever wants to go, Jake and I are always up for it! :) I hope everyone had a happy 4th!

Baby Tyson's Blessing

This past weekend my nephew Tyson was blessed. A few of my family members were able to go to Arizona to see the him and be there when he was blessed. My brother in law Spencer did a great job on the blessing. We had a good time the whole weekend. We went off roading to this place where there were a few old houses because my dad wanted to try to metal detecting. I guess the trip was worth it because he ended up finding a 2005 quarter. :) The kids were pretty impressed with it though, and Brandon now wants to be just like grandpa. Over all the weekend was pretty fun. Here is a quick slide show of some of the pictures that I took during the weekend. Enjoy!

A Day At The Air Show

This past weekend Jake and I went to Salt Lake City....(wow, I think 90% of my posts start off that way....hmmmm..... :) ) We went into town last weekend to go to the United States Air Force Air Show. The show was definitely worth the plane ticket and time. The main event that happened was seeing the Thunderbirds perform their air show (the Thunderbirds are the Air Force's Performance team....kind of like the Blue Angels for the Navy). It really is truly amazing to see how closely they fly to each other and all of the different stunts that they do. Our favorite part was when four of the planes flew by the crowd and as everyone had their heads turned watching them fly away, one rouge plane came and buzzed the crowd. The plane was sooooo loud and low to the ground. It scared the crap out of everyone! :) Another awesome moment was when they would fly past each other while one is upside down. Well, I'm sure the pictures can do a better job of describing this than I can. But besides the great Thunderbirds show, they also had a few others shows that happened before the finale. Some included a parachuting group, an F-22, propeller stunt planes, tribute to all of the different planes through the different wars, and tons more. Either way, if you ever have a chance to see them in action, I would definitely recommend it!
I think what made the day really special though was to be at the show with three of Jake's brothers that are all going into the Air Force. The first brother, from the last post, is leaving in October to hopefully fly fighter planes. The other two are in the ROTC program at their school. One of them already has a pilots slot and the other one just started. But we are so proud of all three of them, and are so thankful for their willingness to serve our country. It is because of the military that we are able to enjoy the freedoms that we do....and I am so very thankful for that. Thanks guys!

Enjoy the pictures......there's a lot of them. :)

Yes Ladies, He is Sexy, Single, and Looking!

Well, I don't know if anyone even checks my blog anymore since it takes me so long to post, but here goes nothing. Since it has been so long, I will just post the most recent event which was Jake's brother Jordan's commissioning into the Air Force. We flew into Salt Lake to see his "graduation" from the ROTC program into the full time Air Force. The ceremony was really cool, and much better than any school graduation. It was held at the state capitol, which is actually really beautiful. He was sworn in by his Dad who is a retired Air Force Officer. He was then pinned by his mom, dad and younger brother Mikey, who will be commissioning next year. The whole ceremony went really well and was really neat to watch. Jordan actually had over 30 people show up to the ceremony, which I think was about half the room. :) Gotta love the Lawrence family events! :) The next day a few of us gave him some presents for all the hard work that he has put into the ROTC for the past few years. Jake, Maggy, Kit, Abbie and I decided to go in on a quilt that I made for him. It was only my third quilt and I am so dang proud of it! Overall the weekend went really well, and we are all really proud of what Jordan has accomplished. So if any of you ladies reading this know of any hot single ladies that would like to travel the world with their fly boy, let me know and we can hook it up! :) That ones for you Jord! Keep up the good work bro!