The Lord is on my side

It is Easter Sunday. I fasted today and had a great fast. I read Jesus the Christ about His final hours, and plan to do this every year before this special holiday. The hymns that we sang were so comforting to me. They spoke of Christ lifting my burdens and helping me to carry them. One was Be Still, My Soul. Thy Lord is on my side. I know that. I felt the power of His Atonement as I read of His crucifixion and suffering on the cross. I felt the love of the blood that he shed for me as I read about his sufferings in the Garden of Gethsemane. I was able to be testified to that he had to go through all pains, all sufferings, that anyone who is on this earth has gone through. I read when Christ said, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and felt so deeply how horrible that would be. Such appreciation came over me when I read that and realized that I would never have to feel that feeling. The Lord is on my side. Most of all, I felt so deeply as I read of the Savior's resurrection. My testimony flourished as I witnessed Him speaking to Mary Magdelene in his spiritual state. My knowledge was re-affirmed that I would get to be with Cody forever, and hug my sweet, perfect son someday. I know that I will be able to spend eternity with Warner and the rest of my dear family. The Savior's sacrifice makes this available to us. The Lord is on my side. He wants us to be patient. He needs us to prove our worthiness to Him. We must go through some pain and suffering to realize just a tiny bit what He went through for us. We must feel sorrow and hurt mentally, physically, and emotionally in order to be worthy to live in His presence. How can I expect not to go through any trials here on this earth and to deserve to sit on the right hand of God? We must all pass through the refiners fire. I am so glad that I don't have to do it alone. Not only the support of my husband and family, but the amazing atoning sacrifice that our Savior made for us is my support. How can I ask for more? He gave all He had for me, to allow me to return to live with Him. The Lord is on my side.

Sunday Will Come

This video made me ponder today. All week I have been trying to study the week before Christ's crucifixion, and have learned about and loved Him more along the way. Elder Wirthlin says it perfectly,

"Each of us will have our Fridays, the days when the universe itself seems shattered...we will all experience broken times.

No matter how dark your Friday, Sunday will come."

SUNDAY WILL COME. 

Day 2 of Birthday celebrations

Since Cman's birthday was on a Wednesday (lame-o) we celebrated with friends and family on Friday. It is master's weekend, so he walked in the door from school and said, "I love you hunny, but I've got some Master's to watch." (There was a quick kiss thrown in there too!) Little did he know who would be joining him for the viewing...

Jane! I love this picture. She is looking at him like, "Seriously, is that magazine really more important than ME?!" She had fun watching golf with him for a little while. In the meantime, Teddy and I were preparing Cody's bday "cake". Then he and I went out to Rivera's, a beyond delish mexican restaraunt in Omaha. He always gets carne asada, and I get lobster and rock shrimp enchiladas. O my yummy. We have leftovers that I can't wait to chow on today! After dinner, can you guess where we ended up?! The golf store, of course! We chilled there for a while, he hit some clubs into the simulator, then headed home for the big reveal.

I was so excited to bring Cody's cake up to him! You see, Cody doesn't really have a deep love for cake. He does, however, have a deep love for homemade oreos. Yep. Pretty easy for me! I was a little bored, though, so this year I snazzed it up a bit with a centerpiece!

He seriously LOVED it! I was so happy. It is not often that you can get a reaction out of Cody, and I got an awesome one this year! Look at that smile! I am so glad that he was impressed with it. The only problem is...now what do I do next year?!?! (He has already requested a full golf ball instead of one cut in half! Ha!) The back had his "weezer/winterholler" sign on it. He is always drawing this on doodles.

Okay, okay, I will tell ya how easy this was. We just whipped up some rice krispies and shaped them into a half ball. After they hardened a little bit, I made some homemade fondant. We placed it over the top, smoothed and trimmed it, then used an actual golf ball to make the divots in the "cake". It was so fun and turned out great! (We had to have the oreos on the side, of course:))

The man is 26.

He is 26. Just a few favorites I can think of today...there are many more, but this is what I got...

~He is super positive, all the time. ALL the time.
~So supportive of me and my crazy 100's of hobbies.
~Isn't always a chatterbox, he has this quiet calmness about him.
~He is patient. SO patient. Even with those things he wants with all his heart, he is patient.
~Knows when to talk my tears away, and when to hug them away.
~He is dedicated. To his family, the church, his schoolwork, his career.
~He would give anyone who deserves something all he has. Especially his family.
~Always has his priorities straight: wifey, golfey, vacationey. Haha.
~Is always ready for fun. Fun. Fun. Fun.
~His mom and I were talking yesterday, and we think he was sent here to cheer us up. Make us laugh. Make us forget about the sucky things in our lives and remember the happy things.
~Knows that he and I are a family. He knows that together, WE can do anything.
~He is great about making sure he and I have 1 on 1 time. It's like he doesn't need anyone else in the world except me. We are best friends.
~He looks hot when he golfs. Way to end on a shallow note, Chels. It is true though.

In all honesty though, I couldn't do it without this man. I liked him in high school, I adored him when we dated, I loved him when we got married. Who knew that your love could grow so much? I thought I loved him as much as I could when we got married, but I love him so much more now. It is amazing how trials make you grow closer and stronger. He is such an amazing strength to me and to our family. The past couple years of our lives have given us more challenges than I ever would have expected. I need him so much. I couldn't go on one more day without his smiling face to help me through it. He makes life so much better. I couldn't love you more, Hubbs. (Maybe I shouldn't say that, because I just told you how I didn't think I could love him any more and then the trials came and continue to prove me wrong...hehe.) I should say, I can't wait to see how much I end up loving you in 50 years! MUAH!

More to come, his "party" is tomorrow...you will get to see his awesome cake! ha! Wait til you see it, you will laugh.

Teach me how to....Holla

He definitely knows how to Holla! (Okay seriously, if you don't get that...we need to get you into the world of BYU/March Madness. Jimmer? Anyone? We are obsessed, basketball is on the TV 24/7. Too bad that my bracket is killing me. I DOMINATED last year and kicked about 50 peoples butt's, but no such luck this year!) ANYWAY, Cody rocks. He played in his first golf tourney of the year and won a flag prize. For those of you who have golfed with him, you won't be surprised to know that it was for Long Drive. He had a perfect drive right down the center of the fairway, and won this brand new Ping C1 Hoofer bag! He has been wanting this bag forever but his mean wife wouldn't let him get it because it is quite pricey! We can now put that *discussion* behind us. YAHOO! Keep winning stuff babes!

I have been keeping busy with making cakes! The one above I made for Ali's 2 year old, Anders. He loved it...my hands cramped for about 2 weeks but it was so worth it! It was so fun to make it with Ali and to see how happy he was to have a Percy cake.

This was a Purse cake! I made it for the Relief Society Birthday party, the theme was the "Purse-suit of Happiness". It was a wonderful party and I had a blast making the cake with a friend, Marissa. I did all of the cake classes with her and we loved them! She is so fun!

 For the recipe CLICK HERE. 

(O, the flowers are made out of sliced marshmallows rolled in sugar and smashed...the rest is self-explanitory!)

Photography. I love it. I am slowly but surely improving and continuing to love every moment of it. I snapped a few shots as Cody and I were playing with the boys.

Cute Jane. She is 7 months old and can sit up now! She is so fun! She is always my test dummy for pictures, and she is a perfect model. To see more pictures of these cute kids,

CLICK HERE.

In other news...tomorrow is Cody's first patient! I can't even believe that I am writing this. These first two years have flown by, and now he is about to become a Dr.! May 7 is the official day that he begins to take patients on a daily basis, but tomorrow he gets to do a filling on a real person. Numb them and everything! He is going to do great.
I am working my butt off in the salon! It is great...I even got a shampoo bowl installed so I am super official now. I love doing it and it is definitely keeping me busy. On top of my oral surgery job, I feel like I am working 6 days a week! It is good though...busy is always better...except not really for the blog, I have really been slacking, sorry! Hopefully more updates soon...!

I just saw this picture on my Sister's blog. I love my little Meg-ster. I made this Tutu for her for her birthday, and it was so worth it! It was super easy to make, and seriously, could she look any CUTER in it?!?!

Katie visits Omaha!

Katie is the best. She flew all the way to Omaha last week just to see me! (and Cody.) Seriously I could not love her any more. She has always been my best friend and still is. Her and Dan are living in Billings right now, and if all goes as planned, the same summer that we move back to Billings, they will be leaving! arg! That does not make me happy at all. I just love spending time with her. Everyone was shocked that she was coming for 5 days, but it FLEW by. We had such a blast.

We did soooo many fun projects! First we made little onsies for her on-the-way baby. I am so happy for her I can barely stand it! We did a boy one and a girl one, just so it would work for no matter what sex her baby is. We also did car seat covers...gender neutral as well! Our last project was chalkboard menu boards! We bought super cute picture frames and painted the glass with chalkboard paint. It took a few coats, but they are so adorable and super functional, too! Cody hasn't crossed anything off the Menu yet, so that is a plus! Ha.

We did our fare share of eating while she was here...we have always been good at that! We made her amazing chocolate chip cookies, the best cinnamon rolls I have ever consumed in my entire life (soon to appear on my food blog), german pancakes, frittatas, and many more fattening meals. We also got to go out a couple of times...Panara, Rivera's Mexican restaurant, (where we each consumed way too much on our main dish, then went on to eat 5-6 sopapillas EACH!), and the picture above is from Dixie Quicks, a local Diner, Drive-in, and Dive. We got delish food there, including a CACTUS scramble...seriously? Cactus? It was to die for.

We also hit up about every historical site in Omaha. I really tried to show Katie around the whole city, I am trying to convert her to moving here for Dan's medical school. I just know that they would love it! We went to the Kanesville Tabernacle, the Mormon Trail Center, the temple, the Durham Museum/train station/Abe Lincoln exhibit, shopping, Hobby Lobby x12, and Whole Foods (which she L-O-V-E-D). We also got a pedicure, and that is so much more fun with someone that you love to chat with!

Lastly, she inspired me to change my living room wall! We have had the picture of George Washington and the Prayer at Valley Forge on our living room wall since we have been married. It is a beautiful picture, but I was really needing to have some more personal stuff on our walls. This is what I came up with...I love it. Love it. LOVE IT. We have pictures from our engagements, wedding, Warner's birth, and other family pictures. It is a beautiful reminder of our amazing eternal family!

Catch Up

(Gotta love the pictures where the table is the photographer...we have way too many of these!)

Ah. Where to begin? I know it has been a while since I posted...alot has gone on, and at the same time, nothing at all has happened! (Yeah, I know, that made no sense, sorry.) The pictures in this post are all from December 2010 but they are pretty randomly placed. Last time I posted was beginning of November, so since then...

Cody finished the most killer semester yet of Dental School. I couldn't believe how hard he worked. He even got to work on his first patient...me! He cleaned my teeth and did a beautiful job. He never poked or hurt me once! (The hygenist that checked his work, on the other hand, was BRUTAL. I was seriously almost in tears. She was horrible. I will never, ever let her near my mouth again. Ever.) This semester seems to be a lot more lab work for Cody. Lab work is great because he is learning actual skills instead of just reading about them! It is alot more pressure though...less than 4 months and he is into the clinic, working on real patients. Man time flies. I can't even believe he is almost 1/2 done with dental school. We will be back in B-Town before we know it.

Me, me, me. Huh. I pretty much feel like I am just working and coming home from work to do hair...aka more work. Good thing I love to do hair because it is getting crazy around here!  I feel so busy all of the time but that is great. I love to be busy. I guess the highlight of my life right now is Friday night which is date night. I love it. Our weeks seem to fly by so fast so it is great to know that we always, no matter what, go on a date on Friday. (Okay, so this week was the exception, we did it on Tuesday because Friday is our Ward Chili Cook Off. Cody is gonna rock it.)

(Me and the bro. I loved hanging with him over break. He's a pretty big deal, or so he told me...!)

Christmas break was great. I was able to get a few days off of work so we went home for 9 days! It was the perfect length to visit for. I love the fam, but I really love my bed, too! We didn't do much but chat with family and get spoiled to death! We did have a gingerbread house party...which was quite entertaining. Nate's house was all about snowmobiling-go figure! Mom's was a masterpiece, and Cody's and I's, well...not so amazing. We did have fun though! As always, I pretty much got a ton of kitchen loot. That is what makes me happiest right now though, so that makes sense! I scored a ton of really amazing, beautiful kitchen things that I never would have bought for myself so it was great. Along with some clothes, nintendo games, movies, giftcards, books, etc. We made out pretty stinking well!

(Dane, Whitney, Brevin, Jace, Halle)

Seriously? How stinking cute are these kids? I hope our kids can live up to them someday! We had such a great time playing with our nieces and nephews. Brevin had a birthday while we were home and who better to celebrate it with than the entire family! (well, almost...) He scored big time with the usually Cars and Thomas stuff. He is getting so big, it is crazy. My bday was wonderful, too. Cody got me super hott jeans :), Pioneer Woman's new cookbook (which I L.O.V.E.), and New Moon. I lucked out with an awesome gift giver of a husband!

(Dan, Katie, Me, and Cody at the Christmas Eve party at Grandma's house.)

I am super duper excited because awesome Katie is flying to see me in just two days! I can't even tell you how happy I am. For the past couple of years we have only been able to spend an hour here, and hour there, together...usually at the holidays. We were torn between families and eachother, and it stinks! Especially after being inseparable for 20-some years! So, we are going to have blast. We will take lots of pics so that we can each share our eventful party-ing on our blogs! ha!

(My adorable mom and me.)

Momma, o Momma. I miss you. (Now you can see how awesome her gingerbread house was...) Can't wait to spend a ton more time with her in a couple of years!

(The parental's new kitchen!! Yahoo! Finally!)

My parents are moving into their new house...well...today! Yahoo! It was so close to being done at Christmas but not quite live-able yet. So...they are now in their beautiful home that they planned and built and did everything on! They worked together pretty good I think...and it turned out AMAZING. I love it. love it. love it. Can't wait to see the real deal...in like 8 months...sad...seriously?! Sad.

(Teddy (with brown hair!!!), me, and Ali)

Man I missed these two over Christmas break! Teddy was gone for 3 weeks, and Ali for 2.5 weeks, I was so lonely! We have got some good time in since they have been home though. This was pizza night...the boys were there, just in anti-picture mood. We also got to spend a girls night together last Saturday and it was soooo fun. We headed to the mall and shopped-it-up! We all ended up getting a thing or two, which makes the trip so much better. Then we went to Panara AND Red Mango! (Probably didn't tell the boys that on purpose...so I shouldn't have posted it on the web...o well.)

(Cody, Brevin, Jace)

Had to end with this picture. It makes me smile just looking at them laughing their heads off.