annie

i turned 27 this summer. and a week or two before my birthday i realized all i really wanted was another sweet piggy in my life. this time around, mitchel suggested that i find one that i could use as a sow. the stars seemed to align and i found a pure bred berkshire gilt for a good price. better yet, the gal who was selling happened to be a customer of mine from the garden center. when i first went out to pick out my little lady, i instantly fell in love with the runt {apparently i have a soft spot for runts}. ruby had been bottled fed and was tiny compared to her siblings. she acted more like a dog than a pig when i first met her. i wanted her. unfortunately some health problems arose over the next few weeks and i made the decision to pick a different gilt. avocado had health problems from the first month i had her til the end and dona knew that. she wanted to make sure i had a healthy gilt knowing that i plan to breed her. once they were fully weened, i went back to pick out another. i picked up hope from home and had her help me. it was quite the adventure. once i picked out annie and grabbed her, wrangled 40 lbs of pure muscle from the back of the half acre property and than managed to settle her down enough to transport her in the truck.... hope was nervous that she had to manage her in the 'tote' all the way from mapleton to orem, we were pleasantly surprised that the ride back went smoothly. it took me a few days to finally come up with her name, annie, and a perfect name for her. i adore her and she is nothing but full of sass! 

my golden year

25 has been so good to me.
it happened to be everything i needed
i don't know if everyone can say this, but i think i really came into my own.

my health finally seemed to balance out.

i worked on conquering my fears. i can confidently say i've mastered my fear of snakes. my heart no longer races when i come across them, i don't even run away. the true test of accomplishment was when we went hiking up grove creek and cezar happened to walk right over a very large snake and my foot was next in line.  we both held our ground and even turned around to get a better look at it and make sure it wasn't a rattler. i'm no longer baby stepping it... i'm taking giant strides. {i will say that holding them will never be on the docket... at least i'm no longer living in fear of them}

i never would have thought that my family roots/heritage would surface to the extent of it this past year. my grandpa is a farmer. i grew up around it. we even had chickens in the backyard of our house in springville. a small orchard and large garden. harvest season was spent with my momma in the kitchen canning and putting up goods for the coming months. preserving the wonderful bounty of the season. we would visit the garden center, occasionally join grandpa in the field for melon picking, or early morning raspberry picking with mom hoping to beat the heat. {we never escaped the mosquitoes though}. we played in the fields, climbed mountains of dirt and loved the animals grandpa keeps around for pumpkinland. i have incredible memories of those years.... but boldly declared that would never be anything i'd want to follow footsteps in. oh the endless amount of 'nevers' that i've eaten.... my heart is in the farm, the garden and everything that i enjoyed as a child but never thought would be my love in adulthood. my dream now is to live on the outskirts, have a couple acres of land, chickens, livestock, gardens... my own little homestead.

until then i'm making my little corner lot my little mini homestead. fruit trees, gardens, sustainable landscaping. and i'll spend the summer months bottling up the harvest season.




a few things that remind me that i'm turning into an 'old fart' --
comfort wins over style. our hybrid takes the cake over mitchel's past sports cars.
early bedtimes and waking up early to enjoy some of the day that isn't spent at work.
days off turn into catch up days at home
fire works are fabulous in the right setup otherwise i'm my father's daughter and they make me nervous
i may be the neighbor who also calls the cops on other neighbors for lighting fireworks off in june....
country music wins on the radio. the hip hop, rap, and what ever popular songs are just noise to me.

tomorrow brings another year. another year of discovery, challenges 

and learning a little bit more about myself. i don't find getting older daunting.

"another year older and wiser too.... happy birthday to me." 

birthday adventures

yesterday we spent the day celebrating Mitchel's birthday.
sleeping in
presents
breakfast at kneaders
4-wheeling up hobble creek
meeting my grandpa on the trail during his 50 mile endurance race
a trip to costco
revenge on netflix
tri tip steak and mash-potatoes with mom and dad dayley
back yard camp fire
birthday cake
star-bursts over the fire
puppy loves

it was a magical day for sure.
i'm glad 27 years ago Mitch was born.
he is the best thing ever.
i'm beyond grateful that he is mine!!

my nanna is growing up

Happy birthday sweet Nanna

I can't believe how fast you are growing up.

I never anticipated you becoming my best friend,

my soul mate,

but I'm a very lucky girl!

You are my sister and closest friend.

I hope you have a magical birthday

and look forward to celebrating with you in style.

{Cezar wishes you a happy birthday too!}

Happy Birthday Jakey boy

today our jake turns 4!!!

he's no longer a young pup.... he's an old fat happy man

happy birthday fatty, 

we love you an incredible amount!!

thanks for being our 'first' baby

if only i could bottle it all up

yesterday everyone gathered at my parents for Faith's birthday dinner.
she turns 15 tomorrow and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend some time celebrating her.

as time passes and i get to enjoy time with my siblings
i find myself wishing i could bottle it all up
the laughter, the jokes, the conversations.....
i love the stage we are at.
as we grow older, we grow closer
and i absolutely love every minute of it

happy birthday faith!!

my little one turns 2

i can't believe how fast time passes
my little one just turned two

i can still remember the day that i first held him and knew i couldn't come home without him
and making the phone call to tell mitch that i found jake a brother....
one of the best days ever

cezar filled a place in our little family that only he could fill.
i don't have my own babies yet.
we aren't ready for them.
however my two fur babies are everything i could have asked for.
i love them with all my heart and cherish every moment i have with them.

happy birthday cezar.
i love you little one
it's been a wonderful 2 years so far!

{cezar was born on september 1st}

the Mormon mob

saturday morning we left bright and early for idaho. we were going up to celebrate grandpa hatch's 80th birthday. we met mom, dad, ashley, brendon and kennady for breakfast at kneaders. it was the perfect way to start our road trip. our goal was to be in pocatello by 11:30. mitch and i took the z up. it wasn't the brightest idea in the book other than gas mileage is better than the jeep..... we made it just after 11. grandma and grandpa arrived around 12. it was a surprise birthday party for him. everyone gathered in a circle on the lawn to enjoy lunch and good company. 

after the party we decided to attempt a little thrift shopping. as we all pulled up to the store we couldn't help but giggle. we look like we are part of a mob with all of our black cars. {it'd be even better if it was black escalades. lol.} this was the first time mitch and i had been to a 'thrift' store. it's not necessarily our thing. we did find some serious entertainment out of it though. ashley and mom found a few treasures though.

at that point we rethought our plans for the day. we all originally thought that the party would've been an afternoon thing. but with the rest of the afternoon ahead of us..... we decided to turn our over-nighter  into a day trip. mitch and i headed up to idaho falls to visit my grandpa and aunt val before heading home. my aunt val just moved in with my grandpa this week. i got to see my cousin jerry and his beautiful new baby boy. then we all headed out for dinner. aunt val was incredibly sweet and took us all out to dinner. uncle wes and aunt connie joined us too. it was a fabulous party of 8. it's funny how comfortable you are with your own family. as amazing as mitch's extended family is, i've not grown up with them and am not nearly as comfortable around them as i am with my own family. {no matter the differences of our life styles}. i was incredibly grateful and happy that we were able to spend time with both families on this trip. as we finished dinner, we hurried out to our cars as the rain started to pour. we stopped back at grandpa's to pick up some pickled beets and grab a picture with them. then we made our way back down to pocatello to meet up with mom and dad.

the weather was insane. we drove through a pretty awesome rainstorm. the road was drenched and we almost hydroplaned a few times. grateful that mitch is a good driver. once we neared pocatello the sky cleared up and i enjoyed the view. unfortunately we spent the 4 hour drive home with the ac blasting to keep the window from fogging. needless to say it was a freezing and entertaining drive home. we aren't surprised we woke up with runny noses the next day.

funny faces, happy birthdays and welcome back

there is nothing more fabulous than realizing it's friday. hip hip hooray. it'd be even better if i didn't have to work on saturday. i'm sure looking forward to our 3 day weekend coming up. today started out with the most darling funny faces every. a little birthday wish for our sweet sanna. pictures with her dad fuzz. he's a sweetheart. i really like him. catching sweet photos with maverick and some kids. pictures with the birthday girl before she took off for the day. welcoming back one of my most favorite cousins - chris. i'm looking forward to many fabulous memories ahead of us... :) chris, i'm super excited to have you back! a long day at work, followed by a relaxing evening at home with hubby. happy friday ya'll!!

Zion's Subway Adventure - Part 1

Friday the 6th {my birthday} we woke up bright and early to head south to Zion's. Our hope was to get a small hike in during the afternoon and pick up our permits for the Subway hike the next day. Just our luck that the sky was overcast, the parking lot was full so we parked in town and shuttled to the park. Finally met up with mom, dad and Ashley. We decided to hike the trail to the mouth of the narrows and see how the water looked. There were flash flood warnings that we had failed to pay attention to at the head of the trail. It sprinkled on us a bit as we made our way down the trail. I was in love with the richness of colors due to the rain and the overcast sky. It was gorgeous. Once we made it to the mouth of the narrows we all decided to give it a try. We didn't go very far but enjoyed ourselves. After the hike, we went to go get our permits. Unfortunately they weren't handing any out at the time due to flash flooding. We would have to wait til morning to see if we could get ours. For dinner we made our way into St. George and had Cafe Rio. My choice of course being the birthday girl. It was delicious as always. After dinner we went our separate ways for the night. We were so excited to check into our hotel and get comfy. A quick trip out for some water and snacks for the hike in the morning. Best part was when I grabbed my drink and went to put it in our cart.... and it wasn't our cart. Nanna and I laughed so hard. Mitch just shook his head at me. :) It was a wonderful day and sure glad I got to spend my birthday with my two favorite people!

Celebrating 25 with my sweetheart

I've spent the last week living it up. I celebrated my BIG 25th and loved every minute of it.

Mitch and I celebrated together on Thursday since we'd be driving south on Friday. It started with sleeping in. A giant birthday bag full of gifts. Mitchel was a sweetheart and really went above and beyond for this birthday. {3 magazine subscriptions to Yoga journal, woman's health and organic gardening. a new heart ring with blue opal, a new diamond stud for my 3rd piercing, a book about yoga for anxiety, the collection of Underworld DVDs and a new flat iron and 4 piece curling iron set.} We've quickly turned Kneader's french toast into a birthday tradition. It was absolutely delicious and delightful as always. After breakfast we made a trip to Costco to get some snacks for our hiking trip. I wanted Chipotle for lunch so we headed north for awhile.  The weather was surprisingly rainy and continued for a good half of the day. We attempted to find outfits for Abby's wedding but didn't have any luck. Next stop - lunch. It  was fabulous!! Mitch asked me what I wanted to do during the afternoon. Since I was still fighting a cold I thought a birthday nap was the perfect idea. The boys snuggled up with me and I snoozed away for a couple hours. Once I woke up I had to get ready and head to Mapleton for Abby's bridal shower. 


I have to say that I had the most fantastic day celebrating with Mitch. And best part.... We still had the whole weekend to party :)

Birthday BBQ and the 4th of July

Tuesday afternoon Alpine caught on fire. It was insane. Mitch had an early day off and ended up driving up to Alpine and Highland to get a closer look. On my way home I found it ironic the firework tent was advertising new aerial fireworks and the mountain was on fire.

We started off our 4th of July with sleeping in and our favorite smoothies. Then we headed to my parents to have a BBQ and celebrate my birthday. There is always an abundance of laughter when we get together. It was a fabulous way to celebrate the day. I even got a new red lawn chair to add to my collection. Thanks Mommy and Poppy!! Hope and Mom made me a fabulous cake. I had TWO servings.... YUMMMY!!!

Once home I watered the garden and patio and then took a nap. We decided we are ornery old people because we were having panic attacks watching the neighbors light of their fireworks {carelessly might I say} we eventually went outside to keep an eye on things. We had the sprinklers running in the front yard all night in hopes of keeping it from sparking into a fire. Pleasant Grove had a fantastic firework display that we were able to watch from the corner of the yard and then our neighbors invited us to watch their firework display. I'm looking forward to next year because the Denboers and the Clarines are going to have the battle of the fireworks. Who needs to spend money fireworks when you have the whole neighbor lighting them off :) Gratefully they are very careful when lighting them off too!!