Day 3: Family

If there is anyone you can count on to be there for you no matter what it is family. We love our family and are so blessed that we are all close to one another. One of our favorite parts of our wedding day was to see our two families meshed together as one. You would have thought they had known each other for years. I am excited that now that we are living in Utah County that we will be closer to my dad's side of the family. I have always lived at least an hour away from them and never got to see them a whole lot. This last year I have spent more time with them than probably any other year in my life and I have loved every minute of it.

Jeff and I can't wait to bring traditions and different parts of our family into our home to raise our own children. We wish we could start our family now, but we have things we need to finish before we start on that adventure. I love our little family unit right now. I love having Oakley in our home {he is good practice for a baby}. He has such a funny personality and fills our house with fun and excitement. I love when I come home from work and seeing how excited he is to see me. He dances all around the kitchen with his tail wagging a million miles a minute. Life couldn't be better.

I wish he was still this little

He just wants to be in the middle of whatever we are doing

My sweet boy

Lazy days at home cuddling up ... my favorite days. I love these two!

Love Always, 

Day 2: The LDS Faith, Temples, and Forever Families

Each decision we make causes a ripple effect as if on a calm crystal lake. Majority of the time we don't know how or who our decision will effect. One small action, by someone I will never meet, changed my way of thinking forever. One Sunday when I was around 13 years old I was sitting in a Sunday school lesson. The lesson that day had been about the importance and significance of a temple marriage.

When you find that special someone that you want to spend the rest of your life by and can't imagine them not being in your life; don't you find yourself saying how you want to be together forever? Well in the majority of marriage ceremonies in the world the phrase "till death do us part" is at the end of each vow. Does this incline that after one dies your love for them stops? Do you really want to be parted by death? What about after this life? Part of the lesson we were taught showed a video clip {that I couldn't find even with intensive search on Google} of the stunning Jackie Kennedy at her husband's casket. She took off her wedding band and placed it on his finger before they closed the casket forever. If something horrible were to happen to your loved one, how horrible is it to think that is the end? Heaven forbid if something happened to myself or my husband I know I can find comfort in the fact that it is just temporary and that we will be together forever, beyond this life on earth. This video was the first moment that I can remember knowing that when I got married it would be in the temple.

I love the temple and we are so blessed to be surrounded by so many temples in a short drive. In three months Jeff and I have visited 3 different temples. I want to attend at least 1 session in as many temples as I can around the world. Ones I want to visit the most are:

Kona, Hawaii

Manhattan, NY (because of my obsession with NYC)

Rome, Italy... once its finished and Paris (no sketch of it yet)

Like majority of people San Diego, California

Washington D.C.

I am so thankful for all the blessings that I have been given and the opportunities in my life. I have had to face many trials and I know everything has made me a stronger and better person. The best thing in my life is knowing that I am sealed together to the love of my life and that our children will grow up with the knowledge and blessings of the church.

Love Always, 

13 Days of Thanks & Gratitude: Day 1: My Husband

I love this time of year and its a great time to be reminded of all our blessings and things to be thankful for. This year I decided to do a blog post for 13 days and each day dedicated to something different.

My Husband Jeffrey

I don't know how I got so lucky to have such an amazing man to call my husband. He is always there for me and I love that I can always count on him. He works so hard in school and at work so that he can provided for us and when we have children. I love how amazing he is with kids and I know he will be a great dad some day. He has this happy and goofy side of him that always makes me laugh. Our house is filled with laughter at all times and I couldn't imagine it any other way. 

Being married to him I have come to realize how much he knows and how handy he is around the house. About a month ago we had a major electrical problem in our master bedroom and bathroom. We had no power in the lights or in the outlets. {which really sucks FYI}. I really didn't want to have to call an electrician because they are extremely expensive and as a newlywed couple that can really hurt your pocket book. Jeff replaced the 2 of the circuit breakers and an outlet that were all effected by the surge of power. Now we magically have power and I couldn't be more proud. He amazes me every day. I love him so much and couldn't be happier.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It just makes me laugh and shows the goofy side of him. {he probably will hate that I put this up here... oh well  ;)

He came with me to my college orientation down in Cedar and they have this circle of statues of philosophers and influential people of our time. Jeff pretended to be every single one of them.

This was during his senior prom day date.

One of our trips to Vegas. Another one of my favorite pictures

Proof that Jeff will be a great dad is to see how he is with Jamone. That boy idolizes Jeff and they are so cute together.

Mr. & Mrs Edminster!

I love you, Jeffrey more and more each day. I am so blessed and thankful that you are in my life. 

Loved you yesterday, 

Love you still, 

Always have and Always will

Love Always, 

A Dinner Date Two Years in the Making

 Friday night, Jeff got off work early and we were able to have a date night with our best friends. This was a particularly special date night, because it was the first time in two years we all had our guys with us. Makaela has patiently been waiting for her dear missionary Tycen to come home from Canada. Its kinda crazy we talked about when he would get home all the time and its crazy how fast time goes by. My favorite part was seeing how happy Makaela was and how they just went back to how things were before they left. They are such a cute couple and perfect for each other. We went to California Pizza Kitchen {CPK} for dinner, because Dani's class was doing a fundraiser there. Great food and friends makes for a great night.

Dani & Stephen

Makaela & Tycen

We are so blessed to have such great friends in our lives. I wish we got to see them more than we get to. That's the bad thing about living 45 minutes away! We miss hanging out a couple nights a week and just hanging out.

Love Always, 

Halloween @ Our House

Every year for Halloween, we all enjoy ripping out the guts out of pumpkins. We bake the seeds and turn the insides into a delicious treat. Once we have our hollowed shell we proceed to stab and saw intricate designs.  We do all of this to light up their insides for the admiration of others. This year was no different in the Edminster household. Every year we each carve a pumpkin and every year they seem to get more and more detailed. Its a fun tradition we can't wait to share with our children. This year we decided to do 2 pumpkins each because I wanted a pumpkin on each step in front of our house. I failed at taking pictures of us doing it, as it was late at night and we were covered in pumpkin guts. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, they were taken off of Jeff's phone. We need to get a camera. 

Jeff's Clown from Hell

My Evil Spider (though all spiders are evil)

This is the back of my spider pumpkin. It casts a spider web on the wall

I needed a cute pumpkin.

That's Jeff's other pumpkin we failed to take a single shot of that one

We were slow decorating the house for Halloween. In fact my plan was just to focus this year on fall decor that will be for the whole season and next year I would get things for Halloween. After all decorations are just not cheap and we live on a newly wed budget. But this weekend my mom went to R.C. Willey at lunch and bought me a couple decorations on sale. She's too kind. Here is some quick snap shots of our house. I promise I will post a tour of our house soon. Its a work in progress. 

Outside our door with all the decorations. I'll give you close ups.

This is Herman my tarantula

My motion activated Skeleton Albert. He screams in his cage "let me outta here" and his eyes light up

A bigger shot of Albert

Our bloody window (bad picture)They glowed red I promise

My lovely fall wreath, it got attacked by the spiderwebs...they will be off as of today

This is on the right side of our TV. I love my crow & pumpkin

My candle festive fall on the left side of our TV

So the crows my mom bought. I made the love sign before we got married.

Told you they glowed red...

My leaves above the cabinets in my kitchen

Decorations are still slim, but I'm working on it. I have plans for more and I will post them as they happen. Anyways, Sunday night we had Jeff's parents and brother over for dinner. We hadn't had the chance to have them over with scheduling conflicts. I made 2 roasted chickens (for the first time), cranberry sauce, stuffed jack-o-lantern peppers, garlic mash potatoes, and for dessert I made from scratch a pumpkin cheesecake (also for the first time). It turned out amazing and you can find my recipes at my new food blog Love Is All You Knead. Here are a few shots of the dinner though. 

Preparing the seasoning and flavor bits for the chickens: onions, cranberries, apples, herbs, etc

Waiting for the cranberries to "POP"

Our carved pepper faces. (from the left) Hill-Billy (K), Vampire (J), crying (K), dead man (K), and Pirate (J)

My roasting chickens half way done

I forgot to take pictures of the cheesecake, because things got a little crazy at that point. It was a delicious dinner and I couldn't have been happier about how things turned out. On Halloween Day I had to work and our friends were going to come out and do dinner and movies, but because it was a school night it didn't happen. Jeff and I spent the night together and it was fun to watch all the little kids at the door. Nobody loved it as much as Oakley. He would sit by the door and just stare at it. If there was too much time between knocks he would look at us and whine. He loves attention and he got plenty from everyone who came to the door. We did dress him up like a clown and he was just beyond cute! He didn't like it at first, but didn't mind it after 10 minutes or so. The video is after we put the costume on him and he freaked!

 

His first Halloween: 3 1/2 months old

He was so excited

He really loved the trick or treaters

He heard some kids getting close

 

His spot for the night

 

A very busy night makes for a very sleepy puppy

Love Always,