Glitz and Glamour

I just found out that a friend from high school, Joelle James, just got signed a record deal with Chris Brown Entertainment! She is AMAZING and gives me chills every time I hear her sing.

Listen to her music HERE!

I just realized that there are some really, REALLY talented people from my high school.  Ricky Fowler (the next Tiger Woods) went to my high school.  So did Cody Cabral, who was the winner on Model Latina.  I feel lucky to know these gifted people. Who would have known that Murr-town would produce such great people?

Next in line to be famous- Ms. Rachael McCall :)

Look at her photography HERE!   It's some GOOD stuff! Love you Ray Ray!

Until we meet again...

Yesterday was a BIG day.  My brother-in-law, Derek, entered the MTC.  It was my first time doing the whole drop-off thing, but it was such an awesome experience. 

The whole family came down the night before and we went to Bonsai in Sandy for dinner.  It's sort of a tradition now since Branson went there the night before he entered the MTC.  I had been to a restaurant similar to this before, but man was it GOOD!  I absolutely loved watching "Abi" cook our food right in front of us.  He was so entertaining and we had such a good time laughing and being together.

Abi, our cook.  He was hilarious!

P-dawg chowin down with those chop sticks and bib

Harm..she is just the cutest/funniest girl!

This was before all the meat was piled on but those noodles were heavenly.

The next morning we went and ran some last minute errands that Derek needed before we headed to the MTC.  It was SUCH a quick process. We literally drove up, unloaded his stuff, gave quick hugs, and off they took him.  Wam Bam thank you mam and that was it. We miss him already but are so proud of him for his decision to serve the Lord.

Branson and Harmony look a little too excited for what was to come...haha

Preston is so sweet.  He's really gonna miss his brother.

And away he went...

Here are some pictures of a couple weeks before when D went through the temple for the first time.  We drove up to Idaho for the weekend and had an awesome time with tons of family and friends!

 

"That's How we Party on President's Day"

Over president's day weekend we made a trip with some of our friends to California for some fun in the sun.  We needed a break from the freezing cold weather here in Utah so we decided to hit the road.  

We stayed at a resort in Anaheim, just a couple blocks from Disneyland.  The night we got in, we decided to hang out in downtown LA.  We met up with Garrett's sister Gabes, (such a cute girl) and she took us to a restaurant called Urth for lunch.  The food was pretttty delicious.  Then we went shopping in Santa Monica where the boys spent WAY too much time in Nike Town.  From their we got some more food and then had dessert-my favorite!  We went to a place similar to smart cookie, but even better.  And it cost 3 bucks total for our dessert.  That's my kind of place. 

(Sadly we didn't document this day very well)

The next day we went to DISNEYLAND! 

Thanks to Cory and his knee surgery, we had handicap parking privileges. It was amazing.

The boys were excited to say the least.

Branson's eyes are closed^. Surprise, surprise. They are in every other picture.  

I need to superglue them open.

The Gee's having fun on the gigantic jungle gym

My first time at California Adventure.  And sad to say it almost tops Disneyland.  If I wasn't so attached to the memories from my childhood , I'd have to say CA adventure comes in first.

By far our favorite ride...Toy Story.  We went on this over 5 times.  It was WAY too addicting.  We kept wanting to beat our scores, plus it was so fun.  Garrett topped us all with a score of 191,000.  

A bug's Life ride.  Pretty amazing what people can do with technology these days.

SO HAPPY to be there!  Even though we experienced a down pour...it wasn't as sunny as we had planned, but it definitely made for some funny moments.

Disneyland churros are THEE best.

Nice Branson...

Haha! This is Cory in a nut shell.  Such a goof.

Gar Bum and his huge turkey leg.  We all agreed that it tasted like ham?

Our last full day in CA we decided to take it easy and relax.  B and I and Jess and Garrett went to a ward close to the hotel and Lynds and Cor went to a ward with a family member in LA.  After church, we decided to walk to the beach (since we didn't have a car) but it was super close.  We joked along the way that the boys looked like two missionaries that had picked up some blonds and decided to ditch out on church. haha.  We probably looked pretty ridiculous.  When we got to Huntington it ended up being pretty cold.  But we shopped a bit and then had lunch at BJ's.  We had to introduce the Gee's to one of our favorite desserts-The Pazookie. From there, B and I met up with one of my best friend's Sierra and her boyfriend Tyler for dinner.  They were so nice to come up to Huntington to visit for a while.  We had a good time as always.  While we were visiting with them, the rest of the group went to Balboa.  They took some great pictures and it made me miss it big time.  It's beautiful there.

The blonds and the "missionaries"

Gar and B playing some football on the beach

The Huntington Pier

Balboa

Some good-looking people right here :)

Then before we knew it, the trip came to an end and we had to head back to Utah.  Cali, you will be missed.

P.S. I am aware that this post is long overdue.  I've been a horrible blogger. My apologies.

Soccer and Love

Our ward is awesome and we do so many fun activities.  Branson and I decided it would be fun to join our ward soccer team.  Our first intramural game was last night (actually it was the second, but the first game was the same night as the BYU/SD game and there was NO way B was gonna miss that...) and we had a blast.  It was my first soccer game, ever.  So let's be honest I looked like a lost little sheep on the field.  And I almost collapsed in the middle of the game from running back and forth across the field.  After the game B decided to tell me I was supposed to guard the goalie and stay on the back half of the field. haha.  Wow, woulda been nice to know that from the beginning.  I probably looked so dumb and that definitely explains the faintness.  Well, okay, I'm out of shape.  But it was fun and I can't wait to play again.  I love trying to new things, even if I'm terrible.  I realized I need to give soccer players more credit.  It's harder than it looks. 

P.S.  Thanks for the shin guards, Paigey :)

Oh, and I suppose I should post about V-day.  Branson took me to Kneaders for breakfast (one of my FAVORITE breakfast places) and then we both had class all day.  I had a break inbetween classes so I came home to get some lunch, and I walk in to roses and new black Tom's!  Boy do I love shoes.  And my wonderful husband :)  It was so sweet.  Then we went out to dinner at Osaka and had brownies at home for dessert.  Nothing too special, especially compared to last year when B proposed in Cancun...nothing can compete with that.  I'm one lucky girl.

It's time...

Looks like we need to jump on the bandwagon and get us some I-phones! haha

A Work in Progress

Branson and I watched this video this morning before church.

It is so inspirational.  Watch it.

 https://lds.org/youth/video/a-work-in-progress?lang=eng

Recent stuff

I haven't blogged in a while.  I have been super busy/haven't had too many interesting things to blog about.  So this post will be a bunch of randoms.

#1
Branson and I have been really devoted to the gym lately. A couple of his friends go every morning at 7 am so B likes to go at the time, too.  (Apparently my workouts aren't fun enough for him) Since B knows that his buddies will be there, it motivates him which makes me more motivated to goo, too! (Mind you it's practically still dark when we get up, and FREEZING COLD) That time is really the only time that works with our school schedules, but it really does feel so good to start my day off with a good sweat.

The other day we all decided to start Insanity for the second time.  We did it last winter and it kicked our butts.  But I completely forgot HOW hard it was.  I was done after the warm-up...seriously.  I was so dizzy and felt so out of shape.  The next day when I got out of bed I almost collapsed because my calves were dead.  I am still so sore/  So Branson and I decided to do some YOGAAA!  We found THIS video on youtube.  After about 20 minutes of laughing my head off at Branson, I got pretty into it.  It's so relaxing and it really does improve my flexibility.  I'm sure there are better videos than this, but it worked for us.  I think from now on we will have to do it separately because the laughing really interferes with my breathing.

#2
I bought new drapes the other day that I am in love with.  I finished decorating a while ago, but something was definitely missing from our family room.  Then I found these beauties from Pier One...(Thanks Coley!)

 It was the finishing touch to our home :)

....That's about all the semi-interesting things I've got, folks.