Saturday, August 27, 2011

Our New Present!

We got a Wii! Darren and I have been wanting one for a really long time but I never really thought we would actually get one. But the other day when we were shopping at Michael's, Darren said"Let's go buy a Wii"...and so we did. It was really spontaneous and we never do things like that. It made it fun and exciting though and now we love playing it! Just Dance is my favorite game and Darren of course loves Wii Sports. We had some friends over the other night and we had a wii party. Thanks to all of the people who got us Target gift cards for our wedding, we were able to buy our Wii and we love it!!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

The Beach and Mr. Frostie!

Today was birthday celebration part 2. My Family all went down to windansea beach so all the boys could skim board. I got a lovely piggy-back ride down to the beach and I took my boot off so I could even out my leg tan. My left leg is way more tan than my right leg because of wearing my boot.
After we went to the beach we all went to this yummy hamburger place in La Jolla called Smash Burger. They had the yummiest fries ever! They were made with olive oil, rosemary and garlic! Then came the best part of the day...Mr. Frostie's! If you are ever in Pacific Beach you NEED to go there. After my parents went to Multnomah Falls my Mom has been on the hunt for soft serve as good as Multnomah Falls had. She searched the internet for San Diego's best soft serve and Mr. Frostie came up.
Mr. Frostie has been around since 1949 and it is SO delicious! They have cake batter milk shakes that are made with their soft serve and it literally tastes like you are eating cake batter. It's because they put real cake mix in it. We also tried some new flavors today. My mom got 2 so she could take 1 home and then she even went back for a 3rd so she could freeze that one too. We tried the lemon custard soft serve and the lemon custard milkshake as well as the brownie bites milk shake. They were all SO good! We counted the cake batter milkshake as my birthday cake since it tastes like eating cake anyway!
My Mom with her 2 milkshakes and Josh with his giant one! Me and Darren's yellow cake batter milkshakesMy Parents sipping on their milkshake together!

Finally 20!

For some reason 20 just sounds way older than 19 and I love it! I already get such weird looks and comments for being married so young and I love that I can at least say that I am 20 now! My birthday was so wonderful thanks to my family and friends! My lovey husband made me breakfast and got me a beautiful necklace and a sweater that I have been wanting.
This is my necklace except there is a D & A in the middle. I couldn't take a good picture of it so this one will do.
I LOVE my necklace! I have been wanting one for a long time and a birthday is a good excuse for getting one! I picked out several different styles that I liked and then he chose the one he liked best and I couldn't be happier! My sweater is just those cardigans from Nordstrom that everyone wears. I already have 5 but I really wanted a light pink one because that is my favorite color for clothing! It is adorable and very feminine just like I like! I also went to the doctor on my birthday, so fun I know, but it really was fun because I got some good news! I found out that I don't have to have surgery and that I can start putting weight on my foot!! You have no idea how exciting that is! I haven't been able to put any weight on my foot for 4 weeks and it was SO hard! Now I can put weight on it and just stand at the sink and stuff and then in another 2 weeks I get to walk in my boot! Even more exciting! Having this broken foot has seriously made me so grateful for my 2 feet! I feel so bad for people who only have one leg or one foot. It is so much work to do anything and I have really gained an appreciation for my healthy body! After the doctor's appointment Darren and I went to work. I nanny for a little girl who is almost 2 and Darren has to drive me there and help me take care of her since I only have 1 working foot right now. I love to watch Darren and Hannah play. Darren is so good with kids, even though he has never thought so, and I know he will be a really good Daddy some day! After we were done working we met up with my family at the beach. Maddi Mckenna, Maddie Prows and Jordan came with us. Josh, Arie, Gage, and my Mom and Dad were already there. We got there around 6:30 so it was getting kinda chilly but Maddi, Darren and I went out in the kayak anyway! I love kayaking and I am so glad that I was able to do it! We had a fire pit and we roasted hot-dogs and smores! My mom also made yummy pasta salad and dips! We were serenaded by Maddi and Gage, played lots of "Would You Rather" and ended the night with some fireworks! It was a wonderful night and I am glad I got to spend it with some of my favorite people!
Me and Darren
Maddi!
Maddie and Jordan!
Gage playing his guitar for us
Darren loves his marshmallows nice and crispy!
The firework finale!
When I got home I got to open some of my presents. Darren's parents got me some miniature glass bowls (they have a name but I forget what they are called) so I can make chocolate molten cake! It is so yummy! Darren's mom also made me an adorable reversible beach bag! Gage got me the classic tic-tacs and candy bars! It's a long story! Josh and Arie got me movie tickets! I am so excited because I really need to see "The Help"! I opened my parents present today, the day after my birthday, and I got 6 new dresses! It was the most exciting thing of my life! I am always complaining about how I need new modest dresses! So my mom actually wrapped 6 dresses but she bought 12 and I got to pick out the ones that I liked and were the most modest. It is sad that only 3 dresses out of 12 were modest enough to keep! It is so so so hard to find modest dresses! But I am really happy with the 3 that I get to keep and it was such a good birthday! We are continuing the birthday festivities today and going to Mr. Frostie's and the beach! Oh yeah, and the greatest thing that I have ever heard in my whole life was today when Darren said "Aubrey, when I become rich I am going to hire you a dress maker." I CANNOT wait for that day!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

We Got a House!

And it's a real house! Well kinda. We live in a basement but we have a front and backyard. We could have lived upstairs but it is more expensive because it is a 2 bedroom. But what is cool is the basement is the same size as the upstairs so we have a really spacious 1 bedroom apartment. Here is the family room...
I don't really love how these people decorated it, but I can't wait to get my hands on it. I am going to make it so cute. Well hopefully, but I think the room has a lot of potential! The apartment is pretty nice it has a really nice kitchen and all new carpet. I am really excited to live here! The backyard even has a fire pit! We are going to have partieeees! I hope nice people live upstairs! It is so exciting to move into an apartment with Darren and start our new independent life! I can't wait to hang all of our pictures on the walls! Can you tell how excited I am? :)

Our Open House

Our open house turned out great even though I had a broken foot and was on crutches. Darren's family had spent so much time working on their yard so that it would be nice for the open house and it turned out beautifully! We also had a lot of yummy food and pretty decorations.
The sign in table
The centerpieces were so pretty. You can't really tell in this picture but they were topiaries with flowers arranged at the bottom. Darren's mom and aunt arranged the flowers and they could seriously do that for a living!
Darren's brother Alan came up with the idea on how to decorate my crutches! Alan did the purple one and my Dad and Darren did the pink one. I love how they coordinated with my wedding colors and I LOVED the big bows. Everyone who came to the open house commented on how much they loved my crutches.
My Mother-in-Law decided to use an extra chair sash to tie around my cast. It was a cute idea and we had fun posing in silly positions with my cast. Even though it was a kind of unfortunate situation we made the best out of it and it really wasn't that bad.
I was even able to take some normal pictures because everyone was holding me up. No one would even know that I had a broken leg in this picture!
I think it was really funny that almost every single person who came to the open house made a comment about Darren beating me. He really does love me! Overall everything turned out really well and I am grateful to the people who put so much time and effort in putting it on for Darren and I. I am sad all of the wedding festivities are over, but it feels nice to not have to stress about it anymore!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Today...

Today was a wonderful day. My parents came up to Oregon for my open house tomorrow night. Darren and I took them to Wakena Falls and Multnomah Falls to go for a hike. We did the 5 mile loop around the waterfalls and it was beautiful! My mom absolutely loved it! She kept commenting how beautiful it was and how it looked like the Garden of Eden. I felt super out of shape on the hike because I haven't done much of anything since I got married. All Darren and I do is lay around and sleep in! What can I say though? We're newlyweds! Oh, and Darren's mom makes delicious dessert EVERY night! Really, every night. I love it! Except I don't love what it's doing to my body. So the whole hike I thought I was going to pass out because I couldn't breathe! But other than that it was so much fun. When we finished the hike we went to get an ice cream cone at the bottom of Multnomah Falls but we decided to share one because we were going to go to Chipotle for lunch. I have never been so excited for lunch! I was wiped out and so so hungry. We had to walk back to our car which was half a mile away but we couldn't just walk on the street because the street was too narrow. We had to walk on this little trail just above the road. My Dad offered to run back and get the car for us and I loved that idea. I was fine just sitting and waiting but everyone else just wanted to walk back to the car. I decided to go with them because I didn't want them to think I was lazy, but I should have just let my laziness win that time! When we were about half way through the little trail I stepped on a rock and I heard the loudest snap I have ever heard. I looked at Darren and said, "Did you hear that?" He said no only because he thought what he heard was a tree branch breaking off. My mom said she could here the snap and she was at least 20 feet in front of us! When my foot first snapped I just thought that I twisted it wrong and the pain would go away in a second but that did not happen. All of the sudden the lateral side of my foot went numb and heavy and I couldn't move it at all. I couldn't even move it off the ground. Darren had to give me a piggy back ride back down to the street while my parents went ahead to get the car for us. We got some ice from one of the little venders at the bottom of Multnomah Falls and we iced my foot all the way home. I was so bummed we never got to eat lunch! I was so looking forward to it! We went back to Darren's house to see what we should do and to call different doctors and things. We ended up going to Urgent Care. I got a couple x-rays and they told me that I have a proximal fracture of the fifth metatarsal. Boooo. The doctor said that this particular foot fracture is one where you can't put any weight on the foot at all. I guess some foot fractures can be walked on and heal just fine, but not this one. I can't put any weight on it at all! I have to go to a Orthopedist in a couple of days where they will really tell me what to do and cast it if they need to. It is such a bummer because mine and Darren's open house is tomorrow night and I can't really stand up! We will see how it goes... I wish I at least had a cool story to tell, but oh well!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Just Married!

Our wedding day finally came, although I really never thought it would! It was a perfect day and we really couldn't ask for anything more. It was so exciting to have all of our family and friends come down to support us. We were sealed in the San Diego temple at 11 am. I guess if I could change anything about my wedding it would be the time we got married. I always thought I wanted to have a really early wedding so I wouldn't have to wait around all day and be nervous. Well 11 am is way too early. I had to wake up at 5 in the morning to start getting ready. I didn't go to bed until 1 the night before and so I was super tired. I had to get all made up for my special day, and that took forever. Darren and I had to be at the temple at 10 to get everything situated. While we waited for all of our friends and family to be seated in the sealing room, Darren and I were taken to the Celestial Room to wait. It was so wonderful sitting in that beautiful room with Darren. We had about 20 minutes to just talk to each other. It was such a sweet moment that I will never forget. When we were brought into the sealing room it was so surreal to me. My heart was so full and it was so wonderful to be surrounded by people I love. Our sealer was perfect! He gave us wonderful advice for our marriage and I actually found out after the sealing that we were related. It was so funny because that day at the temple there were a lot of people that my family knew and all the temple workers kept telling me they knew someone from my family. The sealing was so wonderful and powerful and I am so grateful that I am sealed to the man I love. After the ceremony was over we were walking down the grand staircase and I asked Darren if he felt different, he said yes and I told him I felt different too. I wasn't sure if I would because it seemed so weird to me that one moment you are single and the next you are married. But I did feel different. I told Darren I felt more committed to him, and I actually did feel like his wife. Coming out of the temple was so exciting!! It was so much fun to have all of our family and friends cheering for us, I truly have never been happier in my entire life. It was so worth all of the waiting that we did to get to this pure and sweet moment. It was a moment of pure bliss that I know Darren and I will never forget. Darren repeated to me over and over that day "This is joyous." And really everything was joyous! We took some pictures and then we went to my house and started getting things ready for the reception. Everyone went over to the Stone's to help set up for the reception. I can't begin to thank all of the people who helped with my wedding. Everyone was so generous and helpful, I felt truly loved. I have to admit, right when my reception started I was getting really nervous about how everything would turn out. I was afraid no one would show up or something would go terribly wrong. I was blown away how well things went. So many people showed up and everything went so smoothly! We even left the reception on time! I loved our reception! I loved how everyone was so happy for us! Happiness was contagious that day! I already miss my wedding day. I have told Darren several times that I want to live that day over again. It was just the perfect day and I am so glad that I was able to enjoy every moment of it. I started the day off with the attitude that I wouldn't care about anything that went wrong because it really only mattered that Darren and I were sealed. It was a good thing I had that kind of attitude because had I not, the day might have not been so perfect. This is just proof that things go wrong surrounding a wedding...
The first thing that went wrong was Darren's Dad lost his tie. We looked everywhere for it the morning of the wedding but it was nowhere to be found. The second thing that went wrong was my Grandma's temple recommend was expired. She was calling people all morning trying to get into the temple and luckily she made it in. The third thing that went wrong was while we were putting pictures in picture frames one of the large frames snapped in half. The next thing that went wrong was a major one. While my Dad was driving the centerpieces over to the Stone's one of the branches flew out of the trunk. My brother Josh ran into the street and tried to collect the broken pieces but they had already been run over. My Dad decided to break off parts of the other centerpieces to fix the broken one. Luckily, no one noticed. Not even my Mom. We decided not to tell her because she might have a melt down. The last thing that went wrong was the sparklers didn't light fast enough. It ended up being really funny though and everyone was such a good sport about it. Leaving the reception was so fun with everyone cheering us on! I am so glad that all of the little things that went wrong ended up being really funny to me. I have never been happier in my life! I love my wedding dress so much and I am so glad that I have one more opportunity to wear it! We are having an open house in Oregon on July 9th and I am so happy that I get to wear my dress one more time!
I am so happy that we took pictures before our actual wedding day! It made the pictures on the wedding day way less stressful! And you can't even tell the difference between the pictures taken on Wednesday and the pictures taken on our actual wedding day.
Coming out of the temple
Everyone who was at the sealing
There are more pictures on my wonderful photographer's website: jenessenicole.com