our happy marriage

Happy 4 years to us babe!

 I love July 15th and all the precious, priceless memories this day holds for us.

I can't believe that we have celebrated our special day four times now. 

 I can honestly say that we have a very happy marriage. We truly do.

I love spending time with you, it's my favorite part of each day.

I love you more than ever honey boy.

You are my world and you have made me the happiest girl of all time!

 

We went away for the weekend and it was such a blast!

We stayed at the Armstrong Mansion for our first time, i discovered that totally adore everything about it.

I felt like I was back in the early 1900's, which I loved! It's very cozy and romantic. We went on a self guided tour and it was so thrilling to explore a century old mansion. I seriously would go back in a heartbeat.

We stayed in the lovely January room. These pics don't do it justice, it's beautiful. We actually had reserved the August room like a month ago but upon arriving, I realized I wasn't liking the attic too much. We asked the reservations desk if it would be possible to switch rooms at all. They said sure, so we went to explore again to pick out which room we wanted. I fell in love with November and January (I just love old mansions, okay?). Anyway, we chose January, I felt like I was back in time. We wondered who's room this was over 100 years ago. So fascinating to me. I wished I could go back to 1899 and be a fly on the wall. Vaughn was nervous when it came time for bed because earlier that day we had read up on the history of the mansion and it mentioned ghosts. He strongly suggested that we sleep with the tv on for background noise. We settled on a classical music channel. Then we pretended like there was a ball going on downstairs, which it really did feel like. Maybe that's cheesy but, we just like to pretend and use our imaginations, okay?

 

Here's what we did over the weekend:

Armstrong Mansion Tour

 Blue Iguana for lunch

Jamba Juice

Gateway walking, Sur La Table & Rocky Mtn Chocolate

Relaxing

Breakfast in the parlor

This Is The Place Monument

Mark Miller Toyota & Subaru car shopping

Utah Blaze Game

Relaxing

Bangkok Thai in Park City

The Lodge at Park City Mtn Resort

Utah Olympic Park

Iceberg milkshakes

& 

more relaxing

 Blaze game with Tyler and Angela

 

 We stayed in Park City the 2nd night.
While I was getting ready, Vaughn surprised me with breakfast and flowers. Love him :)
 

 

We went shopping at Sur La Table.

I made Vaughn hold up that spatula that says "Hot Stuff"

 

 We went to the Olympic Park for the Alpine slide. 

We got halfway up the mountain and it started pouring rain!

We ran for shelter once we reached the top. We couldn't ride the slide because when it gets wet, the brakes don't work. We got our money back and ended up getting a free gondola ride out of the deal, yes :)

 

These have been the best 4 years of our lives!

compliments from the bread gal

Just the other day, I stopped at the local bread store here in town. I had Ava with me, carrying her on my hip.

I picked out my selection and was paying at the cash register.

 I noticed that the girl behind the counter kept looking at me like she knew me. 

She then proceeded to ask me "Do you go to Fremont High?"

Uh, no..

but, we can pretend I do :)

I kinda giggled and thought to myself, does she not see the baby I have on my hip?

 Alas, I was never on "MTV's 16 and Pregnant"...

Or perhaps she thought Ava was my little sister?? 

I thanked her kindly for the bread and the compliment then headed out the door with a smile on my face.

When Vaughn got home from work, I proudly exclaimed "I'm 17 and I go to Fremont High!".

It really did make my day!

a good day

I love how much love I have for Ava and how much love she has for me.

Ava

I wanted to post about my sweet baby and what's she's up to lately.
Here's a re-cap from age 18 months-20 months

She just turned 20 months old

23 lbs

27 inches

at the Vintage Cupcake, giving uncle Tyler kisses

 

 

 She can say lots of new words now, about 35-40 in her vocabulary.

 Among those words are: dirt, heart, butter, salsa (yes, she likes to eat salsa) so funny!
She also knows all her ABC's! People are shocked when she says them.

She has been showing interest in potty training these past 3 weeks. She will run to the toilet and say "potty", and I will sit her on it and she "wipes" with one square of toilet paper and then she flushes all by herself. So proud!

Ava has a great personality, she is over-the-top friendly to everyone she meets.
It's so fun to watch her interact with other people, she truly loves anyone and everyone.

Ava loves Elmo, babies, playing at the park, going bye-bye and she's a social eater.

Ava does not like hair bows, flowers, hats or anything in her hair or on her head.
I desperately wish she would keep her bows in but, the second she realizes it's there, she rips it out.

She loves puckering up her pouty lips to give kisses

LOVES her daddy.
They have become really close this past month and she cries when he leaves for work.

She has been getting a few teeth in these past 2 weeks and our patience has been majorly tested as a result. We may or may not have seriously contemplated having Ava be our first and last baby after these terrible, I repeat, terrible 2 weeks.

 Look at those chompers

Poor little sweet pea was in pain. We gave her pain reliever when we could but, we were also were completely at our wits end after hearing crying, screaming and whining for 2 straight weeks. Thankfully things have calmed down and are much better :)

all tuckered out

throwing a little tantrum

Easter Sunday

playing with cousin Rowan in the sandbox

 needless to say,  bath time followed!

On top of those terrible 2 weeks, Ava came down with the croup on June 11th. Vaughn and I awoke to a screaming baby who couldn't breath. We had to take her to the insta-care at 1:00 am.

They gave her a breathing treatment, a steroid shot and a sucker. 

Then she was a happy camper.

 

 We love you Ava!
 our world revolves around you :)

Mother's Day

For the first time ever, Vaughn and I hosted a fancy family dinner held in honor of my mother.

It took over two hours to prepare but, it was oh so worth the delicious-ness.

Those rolls are heaven. Got the recipe off Pinterest. Highly recommend them!

The strawberries are "stuffed with love", aka stuffed strawberry cheesecake. Very simple, tasty and low cal.

My sweetheart surprised me with a poster board of reasons why he and Ava love me, Mrs. Cavanaugh's caramel corn (my favorite ever), two roses and Ava picked out the balloon. She loves balloons, so precious!

I'm so grateful to be Ava's mommy and to have such an awesome husband.

And I can't forget the two amazing mothers in my life:

My amazing mom, she is always there for me and is the first to help in time of need.

My amazing mother in law who is so sweet and raised my amazing husband.

thank you thank you!

I just had to share this sweet commercial..
I sure hope Ava feels this way about me. I still don't know what I'm doing and I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I'm a mommy now. Sometimes I have rough days and don't think I'm cut out for this but, I just need to remember that my precious Ava does believe that "I'm doing okay" and that's all that matters :)

 (scroll down to the very end and pause the playlist)

kinda obsessed

I reeeeally love cooking. It gives me a sort of thrill that I can't seem to put my finger on. 

Pretty sure it might have to with my adoration for culinary photography.
If I could photograph only one thing, it would have to be food.

Thanks to Pinterest, Vaughn has become quite the lucky man in the grub department.

 Made this delightful dessert tonight:

Lemon Yogurt Cake

p.s.  isn't that just the prettiest cake stand? Thrift store purchase for 3 bucks!

i LOVE me a good lemon cake and this one didn't disappoint. I love the lemon zest in this recipe and think it's what made the top crust pastry-like, flakey and perfect.

note- I omitted the glaze. Too lazy plus it's less calories.
I decided that fresh raspberries atop were the perfect compliment. Kinda like raspberry lemonade :)

and ...

This healthified dish from Fitness magazine is a keeper:

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

It's made with fresh spinach, fat free ricotta and a can of diced tomatoes 

(no sodium filled jar of pasta sauce in this here recipe)

Note-  I omitted the chorizo, salt and egg.  Again, less calories and they're just not my cup of tea .

I also doubled the recipe, it's not enough. Plus leftovers are awesome  :)

Another fave of mine is this palate pleasing salad:

 avocado, tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella 

(photo borrowed from justaspoonfulof.com)

note- i omitted the olive oil.
Too oily for my taste and I found it was much better (and healthier) without it :)

This salad is so simple yet so delish!
The fresh basil compliments the other ingredients perfectly and elevates it to a whole new level.

and ...

Don't even get me started on these other two glorious recipes:

chicken enchilada pasta

holy cow, 5 stars and then some!

oriental salad 

I could eat an entire sink full of this stuff. 

Not really but, this NEEDS to be on your to-make recipes!

hot date

We had a memorable and eventful weekend, just good old-fashioned quality time together.  A great date on Friday, spending all day together on Saturday and Sunday, Ava and I getting locked out of our house for nearly 3 hours (that story coming soon), listening to general conference, Heidi, Scott and the kids hosted a clever April Fools dinner after conference, featuring: sponge "brownies", meatloaf cake frosted with mashed potatoes, and "moldy" rolls.

Vaughn got off work at 3:30 on Friday (a rare event these days) and we headed down to Salt Lake on the train.

 First stop, City Creek

(i seriously wish Vaughn would consider the bow tie outfit above, it would be so dashing on him)

City Creek was extremely crowded but, we thought it was cool and very posh.

I'd rate it 1.5 stars above the Gateway.

he models while we wait :)

 gracious, he's handsome.

We needed a caramel apple from Rocky Mountain and gasped when we saw the prices.

FYI ...You can totally get the same exact caramel apple at the Gateway for $2 less!

So off to the Gateway we went. Much less crowded and much better prices.

 We had dinna at Star of India.

 Chicken Tikka Masala is hands down our favorite Indian dish and we compare every Indian restaurant to our local Sitara India's Chicken Tikka Masala. We both rate Star of India's Tikka Masala a 6 out of 10.

Oh and just in case you're wondering, no one has Sitara beat yet, it's outta-this-world delicious. 

Thank goodness we live only 10 minutes away!

 Spring is here!

By 8:00 pm it was time to head home to pick up our little baby from auntie's.

We laughed hysterically on the ride home while I snapped photo after photo of Vaughn doing this:

last night...

Going to the temple with Vaughn is simply the best!

My absolute fave and there is nowhere I'd rather be.

Just wanted to share that  :)

anyway,

Last night was perfect.

We don't get much time together since Vaughn's schedule is insane.

7 am - 9 pm is just how he rolls these days.

I feel like a single mom during those hours but, I am so grateful that usually by bedtime,

I'm really in fact not a single parent after all.




Sunday is our only day where it's just us and family.

 No work, no homework, no school, no internet.

Do I even have to say that Sunday's are my favorite day of the week?



Back to where I began,

We put our sweet baby to bed at 8:00.

We always joke around that we wanna talk and giggle and tell secrets

when we want to simply hang out and talk.

 These are my favorite evenings.

When we snuggle together on the couch and just talk and get to know each other better.



 I love Vaughn with all my heart.

We are completely perfect for each other in every way possible.

 I will leave it at that but,

 I love being married and last night was perfect  :)