A Fun Flowery Surprise

As I was getting our final touches done on painting and preparing the floors for carpet to be installed I looked out the window and a minivan pulled up to our house. I was expecting Curtis and Becky later this afternoon but didn't think they even owned a van. As I looked a little closer, I saw that it was a van from the local flower shop in Lehi and that a man was bringing a beautiful boque of flowers to my door. I was a little confused as to why he was stopping at my house but sure enough he knocked on my door and when I opened it he asked "Is your name Janessa?" I told him that it was and he said these flowers were for me! I felt so happy inside and as I read a note that was attatched I saw that it was from Dallen. It was very thoughtful of him to order these flowers and they definitely brightened my day! I put them on display on the kitchen sink in the south side of the duplex that we have been working on and smelt them each time I walked past to fill my roller with paint. I am thankful for the little thoughts and messages that Dallen gives to me and for the great husband he is! I appreciate his thoughtfulness and time that he gives me and I want him to know that I love him very much! Thanks for brightening my day! I love you Dallen!

!NEW TILE!

It is so fun to see big steps of progress we have been able to make on our house and today was one of those days!!! Dallen and Chris Ray (Dallen's former young men's leader/boss/close friend/good example) came up from St. George to help us put in the tile for our kitchen and bathroom. They worked hard together and by the end of the first day they had the tile laid down.

The next day after the tile was set in place, they were able to fill in the gaps with the grout. With the two of them working they whipped out the project in just a matter of hours. They did an awesome job!
Kitchen floor....

Bathroom shower.....

I am so grateful to have a husband that knows how to do projects like this and is such a hard worker! We have been able to save so much money by doing the labor portion ourselves on many projects and I owe it to Dallen. He has been taught by many great examples in his life and I will be forever grateful for those who helped him learn what he knows.

The finished products!!!! Our house looks AMAZING!

Thank you so much to those who have helped us get this far on our house! We look forward to finishing this big project and moving in soon!

Be Mine Valentine

Februaru 14, 2012 was the first Valentines holiday that Dallen and I were able to spend together as Husband and Wife :) I love this man so much and I wanted to surprise him with something fun so I decorated and cleaned the house, made a dinner, wrote him a card, and anxiously waited for him to come home from work. Dallen has been working in Oregon the past couple of work cycles and so it was fun for him to come home ON Valentines Day after being gone for 8 days. Here are a couple of pics of the house and the dinner we had....

I made home made breadsticks the day before Dallen came home just in case it took longer than I expected. Thank you Young Women's for teaching me this recipe! They turned out delicious!

A couple of shots of decorations from around the house...

I love these two pictures....probably among my top favorites from our wedding (The picture of the dress was a shot I took and developed for my film photography class last semester)

The dinner table......and more decor...

The lasagna and salad turned out great as well as the drinks and dessert! It was fun to have a candle lit dinner and to be able to sit across from my best friend and talk to him in the walls of our home.

The next morning I wanted to do a valentines breakfast as well so I made pink crepes with pudding and strawberries with whipped cream on top. Dallen wanted to help me so I told him to make the pudding. He thought it'd be a fun idea to color the pudding pink as well so he put the coloring in, and as soon as he started mixing the pudding he realized the color was green instead of the red food coloring! hahaha We had a great laugh over this and ended up having pink crepes with green pudding inside of them :)

Although the colors were a little off, the crepes tased great!

I am grateful for Holidays like Valentine's Day because it is an extra reminder of the amazing friends and family that I have. I love my family so much and appreciate the great examples they are to me. I COULDN'T have chosen better parents to raise me, better siblings to grow up with, a better husband to be by my side throughout all eternity, better in-laws, grandparents to lead the way, friends to make memories with, etc. I am thankful for the love that I feel from each of these individuals and for the happiness they bring into my life. I am very blessed and full of love!

Region Wrestling at MHS!

This past weekend I traveled to my home town to watch Hunter in the region wrestles. It has been a really long time since Monticello has had the opportunity to host the region tournament, so it was a privelage for our team to have region in our home gym this year. I get really excited each time I have the chance to see my family and it makes my trip that much better when I get to watch my siblings in their sports and activities! Hunter has always been way fun to watch in wrestling because he is so quick, strong, humble, and finishes out on top! This past season has been a struggle for him as he has had to miss out on 8+ weeks of practice and tournaments due to his elbow injury. The doctors weren't sure if he'd be able to wrestle at all this season, so the fact that he was on the mat today was an answer to many prayers and a blessing for us all. I feel that sports are something that brings my family closer together as we travel to different games, matches, meets, tournaments, duals, etc. to support each other. I was so happy I was able to come and watch Hunter. He did AWESOME!

On Friday night, 6 of the wrestlers came over to our house and my mom and I died their hair black! The team usually does something every year with their hair and this was the vote for the 2011-2012 season's region and state style. From left to right, Jake Jiles, PJ Leiataua, Eric Anderson, Austin Wilcox, Hunter Bowring, and Justin Redd.

As you can see, Hunter went out on the mat with a determination to win each time. He gave everything he had no matter the difficulty of the match... And check out those muscles!
One of the reasons I love Monticello wrestling is because of the support and energy the coaches, athletes, parents, and community give. The Adair family has played a huge role in building the program and their efforts have greatly impacted the town. As you can see in the picture below, Monticello Buckaroo pride is strong, full of energy, and nobody is afraid to show it. We are proud of our wrestlers and proud to say we are from MHS!

Hunter made it to the finals and came out on the mat with fire. His battle for the championship title was against a returning state champion, Jori Owens from Panguitch High School. They battled back and forth the entire match and I can't describe how intense my family and I became as we were cheering Hunter on. They both wrestled very hard and tough! Hunter ended up taking 2nd place and I am so proud of him for that! It is amazing that he performed so well, especially after being injured for the season and just returned to practice the week before Region!

As a team, the Buckaroos took the region tournament for the 6th year in a row! Way to go Monticello Wrestlers!! Good luck at STATE!

Fantastic February

February is always a fantastic month to share time with family and express your love for them. Today after school I was able to meet up with Janice, Candis, Kaitlin, and all the kids to do a little baby shopping for the soon to come baby Carson! We went to the Burlington Coat Factory, Old Navy, Ross, TJ Maxx, Wal Mart, Sams, and possibly other stores that I can't think of right now.. haha... Anyways, we were quite the shopping crew from store to store but it was a lot of fun! Janice found some of the things she was looking for so that was good. At Sams we bought ice-cream for all of us and then later went to Janice's for dinner. Kaitlin and I were able to help Janice and the kids with their Valentine's Day cards which was fantastic!

Although we were busy and traveled from place to place, I thought our time together was well spent. I am grateful for the FANTASTIC sisters I have! Each one of them are amazing to me and I love all of them so much!

Superbowl with the Proctor's

On Sunday, Dallen and I headed down to Casey and Janice's house in Payson with the rest of the Proctor family to watch the superbowl, eat some great food, play games together, and spend time as a family. Candis and Joe came down from Washington so it was especially fun to see them! The Boys (above) are Dallen, Casey, Spencer, and Joe
All the girls (Christine, Kaitlin, Janessa [above], Candis, and Janice [not pictured]) hung out at the table and had a fun time talking, watching the kids, playing games, and laughing.

Ed and Candis with baby Sawyer

And all the kiddos! Chloe, Parli, Maclee, and Porter all had fun playing together and being around the family as well!

Although I didn't really watch much of the game (which was probably a first), I had tons of fun spending quality time with the Proctors! They are such great people and I am blessed to have them as my family now. It was a fun night and I look forward to more family gatherings in the future!

First Snowboarding Trip of the Season!

Dallen and I have always enjoyed time together, especially on the mountain and that is just what we did over the weekend! Last year I was able to take a snowboarding class from UVU and in doing so I bought a season pass. I went snowboarding from January-April atleast once a week, if not two or more times. I really enjoy the sport and Dallen was interested in learning as well so we spent a few weekends on the slopes where I helped Dallen learn how to board. It made a great date with all fun adventures and laughter snowboarding can bring. Dallen caught on super quick! I always say he's a natural because it took me 3-4 years to be able to snowboard like he could after just a couple weekends. We had so much fun together on the slopes last year that I couldn't help but give Dallen his own set of snowboarding gear for Christmas! .... And today was the first time we were able to take all of that new gear and try it out!!!
I love the excitement that being outdoors can bring sometimes! If you can't tell from the pictures, I'll just have to say that there is nothing like a beautiful range of mountains covered in feet of powered snow at a resort!

We bought the "twilight" lift tickets which was from 2:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. We had such a great time, but towards the end of the night our legs were burning like crazy! We decided to go to the resort lodge and get a creamy hot chocolate to top off the night and then headed home...

We are definitely looking forward to the next time we can go snowboarding and hope to make more fantastic memories!

(Just a view of the slopes lit up after the sun went down)

A Whole New Look

-REMEMBER THESE???-

Over the weekend, Christine came and stayed at our house in Lehi and helped me get a few more painting projects done around our house. The kitchen was our target and it turned out AMAZING!!! .... Although the end look was worth our time and effort, the process of painting them was a pain in the butt! We had to take off each hinge that had 2-3 screws on them, plus the magnets that held the doors shut, the handles, hardware, etc. Christine scrubbed down everything and got the dirt and scum off all the doors and began the long process of painting multiple layers of black paint.

In the meantime, I worked on painting primer on the walls that had not been painted yet in the kitchen and family room...

AND.........This is the finished product we had by the end of the day!!

With new handles on the doors and the fresh clean look, it made our kitchen stand out so much more! I am really excited to get the walls finished and the tile put in so we can see our efforts come together even more! Thank you so much for the help you have given us Christine and especially for the time you've spent making our home a better place! Our kitchen looks SOOOO much better thanks to your help! We love it!