To spring? Or not to spring

Come on Utah. Make up your mind

These photos were taken awhile ago, up Provo Canyon

but I decided to post them today, because when I woke up, I saw snow!

And this isn't the first time it's happened, this month.

I have learned, though, that it is expected for April (or spring) in Utah.

The berry tree in our front yard

Valentine's Day (two months later)

I was never much of a huge Valentine's Day fan

until I got married

and this is how we celebrated this year

I got Jake some much loved treats. These are all his favorite

Photo taken on my iPhone

I filled Mason Jars with carmel filled Hershey kisses

Photo taken on my iPhone

I also made these little treat bags for my team at work

They were filled with purple (grape) and pink (watermelon) taffy

Photo taken on my iPhone

I decorated our bedroom (the night before V-Day) 

and filled it with 14 red balloons

Photo taken on my iPhone

At the bottom of each balloon, was a favorite past time of ours, in a black & white picture.

On the back of the picture, was a reason why I love him

Cheesy- I know

Photo taken on my iPhone

When I came home from work the next day (Valentine's Day) our bed was covered with red & white rose pedals

Photo taken on my iPhone

Jake decided the balloons were a nice touch (with the pictures) so he put them back in our room, on our bed.

Photo taken on my iPhone

Jake also got me flowers, which he always does on Valentine's Day.

His flowers are always very well thought out, too.

They always have significant meaning.

He never just buys a pre-arranged floral arrangement from the floral shop.

He picks out all his flowers individually, with a vase.

And there's always a flower (or two) from our wedding.

Photo taken on my iPhone

Jake made an early dinner reservation for a restaurant we've been wanting to try for awhile.

It's literally around the corner & down the street from where we live.

Photo taken on my iPhone

There was a special menu for the night (for the Valentine's Day holiday), so we each got an appetizer, salad, main course and dessert.

And of course- Dr. Pepper

Seriously- Every bite... Amazing. I would say it was a foodgasm

Photo taken on my iPhone

It was so romantic. A definite well deserved night out

Photo taken on my iPhone

We talk about going back to Chefs Table, often, for special occasions. I cannot WAIT to go back and have another great experience. This restaurant had an amazing view of the mountain with snow on it, and it was just beautiful watching the sun go down with my sweetheart. I feel like every day is Valentine's Day with him. He has such a loving, forgiving personality and I'm so thankful he's mine for eternity. We may or may not have gone home and baked that night. And no, that is not code word for anything. Although, there was some of that too ;)  

Christmas in California

I know it's silly to just now be posting about Christmas

but

this year the holidays were different

Not only did I lose my totally awesome grandpa but Jake lost his job

All of this was (and still is) temporary of course. Little did/do we know

So, we spent Thanksgiving in ID with Jake's family

and the plan was to spend Christmas in CA with my family; However

since we went home for "the party" the beginning of December

 I decided it was best we didn't go back to CA just a few weeks later for Christmas, but we did.

I felt like we really needed to be there, even with Jake losing his job the same week we lost g'pa.

I just didn't think the family needed another face missing. So we went back

and it was warm :)

We surprised my mom and boy oh boy was she surprised. Mission complete

We left early Saturday morning and drove to my parents house

My sister was in the hospital, for kidney stones, so we didn't get to see her 'til later that day.

Sunday we went to church and enjoyed a beautiful Christmas program, put on by the bishopric (my dad) and the ward choir (my mom). 

It was so nice be home and see family friends :)

After church, we drove to the east side of town to see my best friend (Kellie) and her family.

Kellie lives in LA, so I was excited that she came to Bakersfield for the Christmas weekend :)

After a delicious family dinner, we did our traditional Christmas light drive in Hagan Oaks.

It's always nice seeing what people have in their yards :)

Christmas this year was a little different. We were missing a few faces.

My aunt made a beautiful ornament in memory of our favorite person.

And here is g'ma hanging her ornament on the tree

Everything this year was covered in sparkles. Looks at those hands!

Smith family tradition. Bah-hum Bug trucker hats

My cousin sent us these hats (to CA from Logan, UT) in memory of g'pa.

We all got one and took a family photo

PS- we were supposed to take family photos this year for Christmas ;(

Here's how the family photo turned out 

The Albert's

or some of them

Kelsey was still sick with kidney stones

She went everywhere we did. Just not all that well

Tyler was with Carlie's family

and this is what we ended up with on Christmas day

Like mother like daughter. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree

After taking pictures, I drove down the street to see a childhood friend.

Erin

AKA- Ariel

I've known Erin (Ariel) and her family, since I was four years old.

It's always good seeing the Gentile's

I'm getting better about this whole blogging thing. I didn't know I had "readers" or "followers" until some started pestering me to post more. So here I am world. I don't have Facebook anymore, so for those of you who are Instagram, you can follow me on there (piece_of_scrap) or keep up w/my blog. Hopefully we can keep up together! 

Christmas DIY

This Christmas was definitely a DIY since we had so much going on

I made these necklaces (listed below) for all the girls in our family... and then some :)

Thanx Pinterest :)

There were a couple different style necklaces I put together

All the cousins matched and all the aunties matched

This is the necklace all the aunties got:

I had to get chains @ Hobby Lobby which were $9.95

It was $4.49 for three packages of links @ Hobby Lobby

and $5.26 for the 10 mm washer @ Lowe's

They ended up costing me $19.70 total which brought it to $3.94/person

and I made five of these necklaces total

I also painted the washers various different colors, using nail polish. So easy! 

You can wear this necklace two different ways.

One way with color, and one way with the silver. 

This is the necklace all the cousins got:

I had to get washers @ Lowe's which were $37.08 for 50 

and it was $1.50 for ribbon @ Hobby Lobby

I ended up getting two different colors of ribbon.

One color was the coral (pictured above) and the other color was cream.

The cream ended up looking real elegant & classy. I wish I would've taken a picture! Dangit- sorry

The color is just bright & fun. I made one for myself and love it!

These necklaces ended up costing me $38.58 total and I made four

I made a Mickey Mouse link bracelet, for my one sister (who is obsessed with Disney.) 

I didn't take a picture of the finish product, but the inspiration came from this Pinterest:

This bracelet ended up costing me $14.43 so not too cheap but still.

Cheaper than what Disney will offer ;) 

It was $4.26 for the Disney stickers @ Archiver's (letters)

$2.39 for stickers @ Hobby Lobby (the mickey heads) 

$1.79 for the actual bracelet @ Hobby Lobby

and $5.99 for the magic Mod Podge 

I made a ribbon bracelet for my other sister. Again- no picture. Don't hurt me.

It's the same as the ribbon necklace above, just a bracelet :)

Why did I make a bracelet, instead of a necklace, you ask...

The sister preferred a bracelet over a necklace. That simple

It ended up costing me $4.44 total

I just got faux leather, from Hobby Lobby, instead of ribbon, and used 12 washers from Lowe's.

Total for Christmas= $77.15 for 11 girls which put me at about $7 per girl. I'll say I did all right.

And they were all home made, which makes it even better, right?!?!

I also made the gift tags. Again- no picture though :( I know I know

but I got the inspiration from Pinterest yet again

This project was free. 

You can go to any hardware store & they'll have free paint chips

so I got all red & green paint chips and taped popsicle sticks to the back

(I already had the popsicle sticks from Hobby Lobby)

The above picture shows a star at the top of the tree. I hole punched a hole and strung a ribbon through it and tied it with a bow to hang from the gift bag. 

Oh- and I made this for my brother and his girlfriend (now fiancé)

A fun little date night jar w/creative dates.

I'm sure you all have seen this. I put my own little twist on mine and color coordinated the red white & green sticks.

ie- the red were more expensive dates & required more planning

the green sticks had "at home" date night ideas

and the white was things to do away from home but less expensive

What a great, fun, crafty and cheap Christmas! Thanx again Pinterest, Hobby Lobby and Lowe's. My three favorite things :) besides my husband of course. 

Valentine's Day

Jake and I spent our fifth Valentine's Day together. Ah!

I know this was our first married one. But still

We kinda decided to go all out. Just kinda

We went out to eat on Valentine's Day

Then we went to the theatre to watch The Vow

we celebrated the rest that weekend

He game me flowers on Monday 02/13

they would die if he waited until later

and (yes) he always picks out his own arrangement

I made these little Valentine's for my co-workers

Jake made a Valentine for me!!!! SO CREATIVE

cute thing is= he really does call me sweetheart

I got a lot of treats from him

This is why I've gained weight. I swear 

We stay
ed the night in a Hilton hotel in SLC

it was soooo nice

it was two stories and beautiful

Our room had a huge hot tub. Be jealous

Jake felt pretty cool. It was kinda nice to be spoiled

For one night. And one night only

When we checked in, they gave us free stuff!

Oh it was such a nice first (married) Valentine's Day together). We weren't able to do all this stuff ON the actually V-Day but we waited until the weekend of the 17th and had so much fun! We also went up to Park City (on Saturday the 18th) to pick up my new bindings for my snowboard and we  had Cheesecake Factory on Saturday as well. I can't post pictures of our dessert at Cheesecake- my mouth will water. We also went to a friend's wedding reception the night before. It's always fun to go to weddings (I think) 'cuz I'm reminded of what it was like for me/us on our big day. What a great way to celebrate our weekend full of love, or so I thought. 

crash BANG boom

As many of you know = Bubbles is gone

2005-2012

my first car

(besides what I drove in high school)

wasn't too happy about it and was real shooken up

but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise

here's how it happened

I was leaving Hobby Lobby with my friend Katie

she's my current partner in crime

We were sitting at a stop light. Facing south. Just chillin

Then all of a sudden, a truck slides into me. Ouch!

I actually saw it coming though. Katie did too

I didn't actually think it would happen though. But it did

It was one of those things where you have high hopes. Yeah. No

The truck was coming down University Pkwy.

So he slid onto my street (Stop light by Hobby Lobby)

So he was originally driving west on the Pkwy. 

Then he turned where I was sitting and crash BANG boom

The insurance companies were a PAIN to deal with. Still are

they marked my car as totaled

I wasn't too happy about that/car payments again

but it literally worked out for the best

We upgraded! Pimp my ride!

we decided to get a family car (for future kidlets)ha

So we got an SUV

She's a 2004 Acura with no name. Oops

Definitely a beauty though. Heated seats. My fave

There's cruise control, a back windshield whipper and sun roof

She gets pretty good gas mileage. And she's a seven seater

hoping to have more memories with the new addition to our fam

We'll be driving this beauty to CA in May

no, we didn't need a big vehicle right now

but, we decided, that if we were putting money into a car

we'd wanna keep it for awhile

no more little four dour, donut tire cars

no more $35 to fill up the gas tank

no more 35-40 miles/gal. in the city/fwy.

We realize we're losing a lot. But I think we're gaining more

Our year (2011) in Pictures

January 2011

Jake and I started dating again. For the third time

this picture described my life best

Feb. 2011

Jake and I spent our fourth Valentine's Day together

He got me a Journey DVD

(he really knows the way to my heart)

The company I work for, also changed their name

We went from APX Alarm to Vivint

photo taken on my iPhone

March 2011

Sunday adventures came to be. I loved being on outings with Jake

(always taking pictures with his sister too)

Picture below is us at Little Sahara

photo taken on my iPhone

April 2011

I decided I was inseparable with Jake

I flew home for about a week & had fun with my family and Kellie

(We went to Magic Mountain)

I photographed a wedding at the San Diego LDS Temple

Jake and I also went ring shopping

(04.30)

and spent our first Easter together

taken on my iPhone

taken on my iPhone

photo below is the beginning of spring

Magic Mountain with best friend Kellie

Photographed a wedding at the LDS San Diego Temple

(photo taken on my iPhone)

Tulip Festival 

and the day we went ring shopping
best date ever
we were together all day

May 2011

Jake and I celebrated my 25th birthday with friends

(05.19)

We also went home (Oroville) Memorial Day weekend

We had so much fun in Nor. Cal with his parents

Feather Falls in Nor. Cal with Jake's parents

June 2011

Jake and I celebrated his 27th birthday

and got engaged

(06.20)


photo taken on my iPhone

July 2011

Jake Johnannah and I drove home to CA for the 4th of July

we spent time with Jake's family and my family

photo below is right before we left UT for the long car ride

4th of July in Cali

my parent's backyard

photo taken on my iPhone

August 2011

Jake and I move into our first place together

My mom flew up from CA to go wedding dress shopping with me

Jake and I took our engagements on our engagement-versary

(08.20)
I also celebrated my third year working for Vivint

photo below is of our kitchen and flowers that Jake bought me

engagements

Photos by Alicia Jane Photography

September 2011

We took our bridals/wedding photos a month before our wedding

Our good friends (Jon & Ashlee) got married

photo taken on my iPhone

Bridals/wedding photos at Temple Square

(where we'd be married 30 days later)

Photos by Alicia Jane Photography

October 2011

Jake and I got married 

(10.29)

and left for our cruise/honeymoon to the bahamas

November 2011

Jake and I spent our first married Thanksgiving together

photo taken on my iPhone

We went to his best friend (Kyle's) sister's house for Turkey Day

The Johnson clan was all there, including Grandma Johnson

Howard and Suzanna Taggart

and yummy food/fun games

I also picked up on some shooting in November
photo taken on my iPhone

December 2011

Jake and I spent our first married Christmas together

We just stuck around Utah

real laid back & real nice

Next year we might have to visit our families in California

I got home sick for the first time this year. Jake did great tho

I also started making Christmas crafts during the Holiday season

Our house is now filled w/personalized crafts. Not just for Christmas

Even though this is the first year Jake and I have been married

we've still shared many things together and I love that. It's been so nice to look back and reflect on the different things we've done, throughout these years, even though we weren't married to each other the whole time. Journal entries have definitely been fun too! I have a feeling 2012 will be great and that life only gets better from here!