So much to Celebrate!

When I married Adam, I got the most amazing husband, but I also got the most wonderful mother-in-law. KaLynn is such an awesome woman. She has raised Adam to be so patient, kind, loving and sweet. Those four words also describe her. She has made me feel like family from the very beginning. She always has this sweet glow about her, and a smile on her face. She's always loving and caring to those whom she loves. She also has a great sense of humor, and we have shared several laughs together. Adam has such a great love for his mom, and I'm grateful that he treats her with love and respect. Growing up Adam was always a mamma's boy, which is totally fine with me. I'm grateful that they have such a strong relationship. It's always enjoyable to visit his family in Pine Valley. This Mother's day we went to Pine Valley after church to celebrate. We gave KaLynn a gift card to Red Lobster, and a card telling her how much we love her. We all hung out and Adam's dad made hamburgers for us. We also had the most fantastic lemon cake. KaLynn and I both share the same love for dessert. After spending the day with the Herpel's we went home. My heart is always full of gratitude when we leave Pine Valley. I'm so grateful for KaLynn and her always blissful attitude. Adam and I both love you very much!

I'm so grateful for my mom. My mom is the most compassionate person I know. She is always loving and supporting to those around her. My grandpa passed away when my mom was very young, but from the stories that she has told me about him, it seems like she gets these wonderful qualties from him. My mom is also a very strong woman. She is not afraid to stand up for what is right, and she is not afraid to express her opinion. I look up to my mom so much. My mom is also very intelligent. I'm always so jealous of her straight A's. My mom is very giving. She would drop everything to give service to someone in need. My mom has a great sense of humor, and I have several memories of us rolling on the floor laughing together. My mom and I look so much alike, even strangers in the airport know we're mother and daughter. My mom is beautiful, and I'm so glad that I look like her. Growing up, my mom always made me feel loved, and I have always been very well cared for. She made our house feel like home, and we were always safe there. I was missing my mom very much on Mother's day, but I was able to go over after work to visit with my mom. I made some orange cookies, and gave her the Our Best Bite cookbook. She also fixed a dress that was a little to big for me, which is another talent of hers. She's always taking in something, or sewing on a button for one of us. I love my mom so much, and she is my best friend. Here is just a few of my favorite pictures of me and my mom.

Our moms are fantastic, hard working, loving, divine women. Our moms have worked so hard to make our lives what they are today, and I think they deserve the best. We have so much to celebrate with moms like these. We love you both so much, and we hope you had a great Mother's day!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

This year my dad turned 55! ( I think. He'll probably be really mad if I'm wrong!) His birthday was on Saturday April. 30th. For his real birthday him and my mom went for a drive, my dad's all time favorite thing to do! I think they took the scenic route to Cedar City and ate dinner at Sizzler. The next day Adam and I drove over to La Verkin after church to celebrate my dad's birthday! When we got there my dad opened his present from us. We gave him some car washing towels because he had been complaining to my mom that he didn't have any, and we gave him a little shovel that would almost fit in your pocket! I think he liked it. My mom and dad made lasagna for dinner, and my Aunt Kathy and Unc came over to eat with us. It was so much fun just talking and hanging out together. I hope that my dad had a great birthday! I think I have the best dad in the whole world. He taught me how to be responsible, take care of things, and to work hard. My dad is also smart, so funny, or maybe goofy is a better word and he's been such a great dad. My dad was always watching out for me when I was growing up. Checking my oil and the tires on my car, taking the skin and bones off my chicken for me, and always rescuing me from the side of the road when I ran out of gas. I hope my dad knows how much I love and appreciate him!

Happy Easter!

Easter this year was so much fun! Adam and I went to church and taught our cute little primary kids. ( Well actually, I think this was the Sunday that they were really wild, and I ended crying on the way home.) I really love being a primary teacher. I'm probably learning more than our kids. Church was really so great on Easter, though. I felt such a warm, fuzzy feeling that day. After church, Adam and I changed our clothes and headed out to La Verkin to visit my family! I'm so grateful for my mom. I'm twenty-two years old and she still makes me an Easter basket filled with chocolate candies, and this year some hair products! She even hid it so I had to hunt for it! After eating several chocolate marshmellow bunnies I decided to dye some eggs! Kimber is finally at the age of kinda understanding holidays, so I made her color some eggs with me.

Kimber is so cute! She kept holding them a little to tight and they would crack! I love this picture with her hand on her forehead!

The Girls!

 My mom made homemade fried chicken for dinner! It tasted just like Texas! My dad made his famous mashed potatoes, and we had some really colorful deviled eggs. After Kimber and I colored them we used them to make the deviled eggs, and the color had gotten all over the egg! They were still delicious though. I think that was the first time I've ever dared to eat a deviled egg.

 After dinner we all sat in the mom room and watched crazy game shows and stuff on the Royal Wedding! I love visiting my family! I wish I could see my mom more often. It was such a good Easter Sunday.

Thousand-aire

I also forget to say that a few days after Spring Break, Adam sold the Saturn! I was really excited because that meant I could get the capris I've been dying to have from Dillard's. Also, we can put that money towards paying off the rest of our cruise in June! Oh, and I don't have to look at the ugly Saturn EVER again.

Spring Break!

I love Spring Break! I have such fun memories of spring break from high school. I was in a serious need of a week without anything to do this semester. On Saturday, when I woke up I noticed that Adam had had put little Dixie cups with dirt into the window in his "man" room. At first I thought, "what the heck?" then I thought, "Oh, cute. Adam is trying to grow a garden."  

A few days later I checked in one of the cups and it actually had a real live plant growing in it! I was so shocked. I've tried to grow things from seeds so many times, and I never got anything! His plants are growing a lot, and he built some planter boxes in the backyard. I'm excited to see if we actually get some vegetables from this little garden. Krista and I had a really good laugh about Adam gardening. I think it's just so cute how serious he is about it.

Later that morning, I went to Zumba and Adam lifted weights at the gym. After our workout we decided to go hike at Chuckwalla. We wanted to do some repelling, but there was already a gazillion people there. So, we just decided to hike the trail. It was such a perfect day! It was like 72 degree's outside, with lots of sunshine.

After our hike we played mini golf at Fiesta Fun. Adam kicked my butt, and I didn't even get my lucky hole-in-one on the last hole. That meant that Adam got to choose where we ate for dinner.

Unfortunately, Adam got a hole-in-one, and he chose to eat at Winger's. I haven't been there for such a long time, but I'm pretty sure that will be the last time I ever eat there. After dinner, we got swirl cones at Artic Circle and went home. It was such a busy day, filled with lots of fun!

On Tuesday night, Adam and I made a late night run to the grocery store for supplies to make chocolate chip cookies. They turned out really good. Adam is the gardner and baker in our family. How sad, right? I just read the recipe and cracked the eggs, and rolled the dough into balls. It was fun staying up late (since we never do) cooking together, and it was fun to do something spontaneous.

On Wednesday, my best friend Krista came home from California, so we decided to make dinner together and then go for a bike ride. We watched Dr. Phil on my couch until the chicken was done unthawing. After that, we started cooking. We cooked Chicken-bacon stuffed pizza rolls, and they turned out so good! Krista and I always have fun cooking together and we always laugh at each other.

This was the first time I'd ever tried this recipe, but we loved it! It was so good. After dinner, Adam pumped up our bike tires and Krista and I rode our bikes around Santa Clara. It was the perfect time of night for a bike ride.

After riding our bikes, and swinging at the Elementary Krista and I went to Golden Spoon and got Blueberry-Pomegranite frozen yogurt. It tasted like the push-pops we used to get from the ice cream man when we were kids. It was so much fun hanging out together! I'm trying to soak up every little Krista minute I can, before she leaves for Brazil.

On Saturday, I moved our cats outside. It's been kinda hard for Zoey to live outside, she liked it better when she could cuddle with me at night. But it's been nice not to have a litter box, and cat fur all over the furniture. I spend all day and almost all night doing laundry and trying to clean up our house.

On Sunday, after we taught our cute primary kids about praying, we drove to Pine Valley to see Adam's brother's become Elder's. We ate lunch at Adam's parents with his grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. We had so much fun, as always. I'm really proud of Spencer and Mckay for choosing to serve missions. They are both going to Mexico. I'm so excited for them! They will be leaving August. 3, that seems like such a short time away.

After coming home from Pine Valley I wanted to make some more cookies. While I was making cookies and dancing to Ricky Martin songs, I noticed that I didn't have any brown sugar. I called Krista to see if I could borrow some brown sugar from them, and invited her over for some cookie making, Ricky Martin fun. While the cookies were baking, we danced to Justin Bieber, Aqua, NSYNC, Britney Spears and Counting Crows. We were copying all of NSYNC's awesome dance moves, and laughing so hard. It was the perfect end to Spring Break. It was so hard to get up at 5:30 again on Monday morning, hopefully it will get easier again!

Somewhere in Time

When I was in Elementary school, mostly all the kids names were Sarah, Jessica, Emily, Josh, Jake, John. There were a few names that were a little different, like McKenna. I didn't really like my name in Elementary school because it wasn't like anyone elses. It was weird. In middle school, I began to like my name, and I asked my mom where she came up with it. She told me it was from a movie that her and my dad had liked to watch when they were first married. I'm twenty-two years old this year, and I finally watched the movie that my parents named me after. Adam got the movie for me for Christmas and we watched it together. 

Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early 1900s, Elise McKenna. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, he manages, by self hypnosis, to travel back in time where he meets her. They fall in love, a matching that is not appreciated by her manager. Can their love outlast the immense problems caused by their "time" difference? And can Richard remain in a time that is not his?

This movie was made in the 1980's I think. I loved it! My parents always told that the movie was about a young beautiful actress named Elise McKenna and Christopher Reeves traveled back in time to meet her. They thought McKenna was pretty and named me after her. I feel special that my name came from this movie, and I love my name even more now! You should watch this movie, you might love it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have always loved Valentine's Day, for my whole whole life. I have always had such great Valentines'. Because I've always had good Valentine's, I think Adam wanted to make this one the best one EVER. I gave him a few ideas of things that I would like as Valentine's gifts. Shoes, flowers, chocolates, a scentsy, a dinner date. It's not about the things anyway. It's about getting to spend time with him. On Saturday, we spent the day celebrating Adam's best friend's wedding. We spent a couple hours at the temple, and attended the luncheon, and the reception. Adam was a groomsman, so I was mostly just tagging along. Luckily, Adam has great friends who will hang out with me so I don't have sit alone. I think Adam felt bad for me because I had to sit by myself half the night. He bought me a new pair of black high heels because my other favorite ones were falling apart. He also let me get a pedicure while he was taking pictures with the groom. I thought that those two things were going to be my Valentine's presents. I was perfectly happy with that. But, when I woke up this morning this was sitting on my night stand.

A scentsy! The exact one that I wanted. AND my most favorite box of chocolates from Costco. There is not one chocolate in that box that I have to spit out. You should try them, maybe you'll love them too.

We both had to go to work all day on Valentine's Day so after we got off work we met for dinner at Olive Garden. I got there first and waited for him on the bench outside. When he walked up I saw him holding a rose and a black bag. When I opened it, it was a gift certificate to get my hair cut and colored! He thought of that all by himself! He knew I'd been whining about my hair since Christmas, and decided it would be nice to get me a gift card to a salon! I think I pretty much have the best husband ever. Inside the bag there was also a card, that made me cry. Dinner was delicious, and Adam even asked if I wanted dessert. Of course I said yes, even though I didn't think I could fit anything else into my stomach.

When we got home, I felt bad that I only got Adam the movie The Italian Job. That was all he said he wanted, and he said that Valentine's Day was a girls holiday. He picked up our kitties and said they can be my presents too. He didn't seem very happy about that. But it made me laugh.

I'm so blessed to have Adam in my life. He's always makin' me laugh and smile. He always makes me better when I'm sad or mad. He puts up with me when I throw a tantrum about a pair of shoes that I really really want. He unloads the dishwasher when I ask him too. I love everything about him. He's funny, sweet, kind, handsome, a total nerd (which I love, I just can't get him to admit it yet.) He's loving and so much fun to be around. I think I'm so so lucky to have Adam in my life, and I love him so much.