a la minute

we got to spend some time with our friends jessica and patrick down at the orange circle tonight. it was an insanely delicious evening. we ate dinner at smoqued... which is quickly becoming my new favorite place for bbq and then headed to a la minute for liquid nitrogen ice cream! it was so so so good and unique too. my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. man, i need some more of that deliciousness! the weather was nice, rockwell was well behaved and we got to spend time with great friends. can't wait to do it again!

happy memorial day!

memorial day was so much fun! we slept in, went to lunch at cafe rio and headed down to balboa island. we decided to park on the island and take the ferry over to the fun zone for balboa bars and walk on the pier. it was the perfect day. the weather was amazing and the company was excellent. it was so nice having time alone with tyler. lately life has just been so busy with work, school, coaching and getting ready for the baby... i wanted tyler all to myself and that's what i got. i loved every single minute.
while we were together i realized, this could be the last date we have before the baby comes. i really have been spoiled having tyler all to myself for the past six and a half years. sometimes i worry what baby boy will do to our relationship. not that i feel like i'll love tyler any less, just that i'll pay attention to the baby more than i should. but i am determined to learn to balance in my new role as mother so that no one feels unloved. i'm sure it will be hard at times, but i don't ever want to get tired of being with my husband. i love him far too much!
i rounded out the day with swimming at my sister's pool, pizza and five crowns while tyler was at practice. everyday could be THE day so for now, i am just soaking up the freedom, the sleep and the sunshine before baby arrives!

date night with the thompson's

we are so happy to have the thompson's in our ward now! when we moved back we knew there weren't a lot of young couples at church, but we were so glad that the thompson's moved in a couple months before we moved back. we love them! we went down to balboa for a ferry cruise, balboa bars and a visit to balboa candy store! here's to many more date nights in the future.

san diego temple date

our first week back in california we headed to san diego. we love san diego! we visited with friends and went to the san diego temple. i have always loved that temple and how it looks like a castle. i love the peace i find when i attend the temple and that i can feel the spirit of the Lord there. i can't imagine not being able to go there whenever i want to, i know that i will always do my best to remain worthy of the blessings of the temple as long as i live.

26 years old

i think i've gotten to the age where i have stopped caring about birthdays. for some reason i just didn't feel the need to make a fuss this year. but tyler and i went out for a nice dinner and it was good to just spend time together. maybe next year i'll be more excited to celebrate getting older!

misen place

tyler took me out for a super fun date night. we went to a cooking school called misen place. we watched as they cooked our meal and explained each course. the food was to die for and the set up was awesome! i wish they had more places like this, it was so cool!

new years

new years in utah was really fun. we had dinner at the roof restaurant which looks over the city and the temple. temple square was still decorated with lights and as we were counting down to midnight it started to snow. it was so magical. happy new year!

happy 28th birthday!

for tyler's 28th birthday we celebrated at bj's and ate pizza and pizzookies! i love this man! he is my sweetheart and i can't imagine life without him! happy birthday my love!

5 years

for our 5 year anniversary we were in the thick of packing up our place. but that didn't stop us from hitting up our favorite special occasion restaurant... houston's. we love that place. it was a great night. tyler got me my favorite roses, we exchanged cards and were supremely satisfied with our meal.
i cannot believe that we have already been married for 5 years! time really does fly. i am so excited for the future and what it will bring for us.
i love you tyler!

a much needed date night

lately with work, interviews, testing and side jobs i feel like tyler and i have had a hard time finding time to go out on dates. with so much going on, an ever tightening budget and upcoming events i knew that the only day we could make a date happen this week was wednesday. so, on halloween we went to dinner at lucille's bbq, bought some shoes for mr. rex at dsw and saw chasing mavericks. good movie. we recommend it. 

it was a little sad not really celebrating halloween or dressing up, but the good thing was, because everyone else was busy celebrating we got sat right away at dinner and had only two other people in the movie with us. no fighting for a seat! phew. it was so refreshing to just sit down with tyler with no distractions. being with each other and talking about life and our future together. oh, how i love that man. he has been working so hard to find a new job so that he can provide for us and for our future. 

sometimes i forget how hard all of this is on him. i just think about myself and all the things that i am worried about. but i sort of had a little revelation yesterday. i mean, i guess i always knew this, but i never really knew it. forgive me if that doesn't really make any sense. so anyway, i was thinking about life, making mistakes and forgivness. i thought about how doing something wrong not only affects me, but it affects tyler. it affects my future family. we are in this together. we are connected and if i screw up, it hurts all parties involved. then i thought about how i would never want to do anything to make life harder for tyler. i only want to bring him joy. this brought about a new motivation for me to live better in all aspects of my life. i need to be healthy physically and spiritually in order to be whole. i need to treat my body as a sacred vessel and dedicate myself to being healthy. i need to do the same for my spirit. i need to be healthy spiritually in order to be the best wife and (future) mother i can be.

i am so so so grateful for tyler and i have to remind myself that this particular season of life hasn't been easy on him either. being aware of that and trying to be sympathetic to his struggles will help us to grow even stronger. we are blessed to know what we know about God's hand in our lives. lately things have been going better and i know it because of Him. my heart is happy.

date night: where it all began

 

 on friday my little sweetheart planned a little date night for just us. we go out just the two of us quite often, but the planning usually goes a little something like this...

him: "hey, so, where do you want to eat?"

her: "i don't know, where do you want to eat?"

him: "um... the usual places. you know what i like."

her: "okay let's go to ....(insert restaurant name here)"

so i guess those are still considered date nights, but i have to admit there is something much more exciting about a date that someone plans for you. i worried a little more about what i wore, gave him extra kisses and just relished in those moments together. 

he is really a great man & it was a great night. 

dinner at the crab cooker, sunset boat cruise and balboa bars. mmmm. so good. so, so good. 

balboa is a happy place for me. i used to go there as a kid with my family & i've made some great memories there with tyler also. which brings me to the photo below...

 

now, you may wonder what i was trying to capture when i snapped this photo. i'm not even really sure what it is. an electrical or plumbing box maybe? i don't really know nor do i care, to me it's the place where our love started. we were on a big group date in june 2006. my date bailed and tyler's date ignored him most of the night. we sat there and chatted for what seemed like hours. later that week he asked me out to the dodger game. we became friends over the coming months and then in october he asked me out again. a couple weeks later we kissed, a couple weeks after that he told me he loved me & the rest is history.

my how things may have turned out differently if his date paid more attention to him & if my date was actually present. i'm glad it was him. i can't imagine myself with anyone else. 

balboa fun zone... you will always have a special place in this girl's heart.