Blackburn Wedding

Over the weekend Darren and I drove down to St. George for James and Christa's wedding. James was Darren's roommate his first semester back from his mission and Christa was my roommate my first semester. I feel like I owe our relationship to Christa because she was the one who decided we should go over to the boys apartments in our ward and meet them all. That day I met Darren and then a few months later she was the one who found out that Darren liked me, and of course told me, and the rest is history. We think it is so cool that our roommates married each other and that we dated at the same time. It was a really fun semester. 

On Friday we left to drive down to Vegas to stay with Darren's sister who lives there. We got stuck in horrible traffic but it was so nice once we finally got there. Alan, Darren's brother and John, his friend stayed at Amy's house too and it was fun to see both of them. James, Darren, Alan and John were all roommates that first semester. We ended up going to bed super late on Friday because we were all up visiting and then we had to wake up super early to get to the temple in St. George on time for the sealing. 

It was such a pretty day and the temple is very beautiful. I love that we got to go inside. It is a really old temple and the sealing room is so beautiful and ornate. It looks old fashioned but that is what makes it so pretty. I also thought it was interesting how the sealing room was on the first floor in this temple. The sealing was beautiful and happy and I learned a lot from their sealer. I liked that he talked about looking more at your own faults than your spouse's faults. I also liked what he said about being a joyful mother. He said there are lots of mothers in the world but there are not as many joyful mothers. I really liked that and I will be sure to remember it when I am a mother.

 While waiting to go in the temple we took some pictures on the grounds. I told Darren we needed to "channel our inner wedding pose" so that is what we did. And Alan was all about directing our poses. He thought we needed to do a "tree pose" like the classic wedding pictures so that is what we did.

 Alan and John decided to do a tree pose as well

We took a few pictures waiting for them to come out of the temple: Here is Darren, John and Alan

 The Newlyweds

We did a lot of waiting around because we couldn't go back to Amy's between events because it was so far away, but the boys sure entertained themselves... and me. They decided to try out their dance moves in the parking lot before the reception. How could your life be boring with these 3 crazy boys in it? It's a little bit sad that they don't live together anymore. But I'm glad I get to live with one of them :) Oh, and they found these ridiculous 3-D glasses in Amy's car that they insisted on wearing...I wasn't so fond of them, but they did take them off for the reception.

 We decorated the car at the reception. It was quite cute if I do say so myself. I just basically copied how my car got decorated at my wedding. (Thanks for all the ideas, Amy :)

 The Bride and Grooms first dance

 Me and Schpanks! I love this dog! He is James's dog and I always liked visiting their apartment and playing with Schpanks. He has a super cute bow tie on but you can't really tell in this picture.

Overall we had a really great trip and it was fun to see family and friends. We hung out in Vegas on Sunday and then left to drive back home early Monday morning. There was a lot of driving in a weekend but it was worth it to be there for our friends on their special day! On our way back home we stopped in Springville and visited with my grandparents for a few hours. It was really good to see them and of course they spoiled us to death in only the few hours we were there. It is good to be back home but not really back to school. We are at midterms though and in only a month and a half I will be married to a college graduate! woot woot!

B is for Bow

I opened up a little etsy shop a couple of months ago and I am loving it. I just wish that all I had to do was make cute baby stuff! Too bad I have a real life and a real job and I have to go to school! Besides selling on etsy, I have my stuff in a little boutique up in Oregon. I just mail up some headbands to my sister in law and then she takes care of it for me! I love to think that babies out there somewhere are wearing stuff that I made. So fun! Here is the link to my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/bforbow?view_type=gallery

Darren and I all excited before our first softball game...then we lost. Oh well, it was really fun and we are excited for our second game on Wednesday!

Our Home

I have always wanted to take some pictures of our little house and I finally did today. We have been living here since September and we like it fine but we are going to be moving soon. We live in a basement and that means that we get spiders in the summer! So gross! So I don't like living here for that reason and our bathroom is super old but we like everything else about it. Oh wait, I don't have a dishwasher or garbage disposal too. Who knew a garbage disposal was so handy? I wish I had one everyday! Anyway, we have a really big living room, nice kitchen cabinets and nice carpet so that's good!

 This is our room

 Darren and I both love this little sign. My grandma got it for us!

 Our dresser and our wedding day shadow box

 Our desk

 Our bookshelf. I love the second shelf from the bottom. It has wedding pictures from our grandparents and great grandparents. 

                                                                   Kitchen table

Entertainment Center

 Photo Collage

Family Room

Bathroom

Kitchen

The Laundry Fairy

Tonight as Darren and I were leaving to go out to dinner I was frantically looking for my oatmeal sweater. I couldn't find it anywhere and I began to realize that all of my sweaters were missing and some of my other clothes. I couldn't think of anywhere they could be and then I remembered how we went to the laundry mat last weekend and I put all of my nice clothes that couldn't be dried in a separate washing machine. Then I remembered how I never took them out and it was a week ago! I was so sad and scared that my clothes would either be gone or ruined from being wet for a week. We didn't have time to go to the laundry mat before we went to dinner with our friends so I sat through dinner the whole time worried about my clothes. As soon as we walked in the laundry mat after dinner I could see the lid up on the machine that my clothes were in. My heart sank because seeing the lid up meant that there were no clothes in the washing machine. Now these aren't just any clothes, they are my really really nice clothes and my favorite ones. We started looking for a lost and found or something and on the other side of the laundry mat there were my clothes all laid out flat on top of a couple of washing machines. They were all dry and clean and I seriously could not believe it! I had to fight back the tears! I know that sounds so lame but I really didn't want to lose all of my nice clothes. I am so grateful to the person who was nice enough to lay out my clothes so they could get dry and to all of the people who didn't steal them! Rexburg is such a nice place to live! :)

Nap Time

Darren and I are playing on a co-ed softball team at school this semester and today he got his glove in the mail. He was so excited to play catch with me but ended up falling asleep wearing his glove. I thought it was pretty funny so I had to take a picture!

Semester Break

Over the semester break Darren and I went up to Portland to see his family and to meet the newest addition, baby Kylee. I seriously can not get enough of that sweet baby! I just wanted to hold her all week long!

Darren liked to hold her too! He learned lots of "Daddy skills" this week and he even changed his first diaper ever!

We had Kylee overnight for 2 nights while we were there and it was fun to see what it would be like to have a baby! A lot of work, but totally worth it when you get to stare at that precious face all night!

We had such a fun and busy week! We got there Thursday night and of course we had to go to Chipotle :) I actually first met Kylee in Chipotle. Now there is even more reason to love that place :) I can't remember what we did those first couple of days. I know we went to a lot of craft stores to buy lots of craft supplies for me and then on Sunday it was Easter. Easter is my favorite holiday and I am glad that we were able to spend it with family. It is so great to be reminded of Jesus Christ and all that he has done for us. I think the resurrection is such a happy thing because it means that I get to be with my husband and our families forever.

{Kylee on Easter}

Anyway, we had a big Easter dinner and Darren's Grandma came over and tried to teach me how to knit. I wasn't very good at it but I just need to practice! On Monday or Tuesday, I can't remember, we went to the Portland Japanese Gardens with Alan and one of his friends that he knew from BYU Idaho. The gardens were so pretty and peaceful and it was neat to walk around and see all of the pretty trees, plants and waterfalls.

On Wednesday we ended up getting free tickets to the Blazer game from Darren's uncle. The seats we had were so good! We were on the 8th row or something like that! Even though we like the Lakers more it was really fun to go to an NBA game since I have never been to one. The players looked so huge being so close to them and it was a really exciting game! The Blazers won and they scored over a hundred points so we all got free chalupas. That was pretty exciting too.

On Thursday we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory with Darren's sister Bonnie, our sister in law Kathy, and of course the baby. It was pretty cool to watch them make cheese and read all of the facts about cows but our favorite part was the cheese samples. We went through the cheese sample line at least 5 times. They also have a Tillamook ice cream place in the factory so of course we had to get some ice cream, which was really delicious.

{Baby's first trip to the Cheese Factory}

On Friday Darren's parents came with us to go tour a DO school in Lebanon, Oregon. The school is brand new and it was really nice. It was fun to get a glimpse of what our future might be like. Darren really liked the school and that will definitely be one of the places he applies to. The school is about an hour and a half from Darren's parents and is in a pretty small town. At first I was opposed to doing the whole small town thing again but we learned from the tour that they have a lot of plans to build up the city. Also you can buy a really cheap house there that is brand new and beautiful and pay less a month than what we pay to live in our dingy basement apartment! After we went on the tour of the school we went on a little house hunt, just for fun, picking up all the for sale fliers. Maybe one day we will move there, but who knows. The rest of the week I spent a lot of time crafting and playing with the baby. She was a great little model for all of the headbands I make and she looked darn cute in them!

{My cute baby model}

We are back home now and I miss being with family and I am sad to be back in Rexburg. This is Darren's last semester but I still have a couple left. We can't wait to be done and find out what the future has in store for us!