Stressed

Fall semester starts Monday. MONDAY! Where did my summer go? Does anyone else feel the same way or is it just me?

This next semester has me stressing already. Did I mention some amazing news? RAY GOT IN THE NURSING PROGRAM! I am so proud of him and excited for him to start. But this semester is going to be so hard with both of us going to school, Ray and me working, and then having Mady.....I am also babysitting on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. But this will actually be easier I think - Mady is so much easier to watch when she has a friend to play with.

Ray also has clinicals on top of all his classes that he will have to drive down to St. George to attend. Which will be another hardship, seeing how we only have one car. But I'm sure we can carpool with some others who are in the program.

This semester is also a very critical one for me. I must maintain a 3.7 in order to be accepted into the Masters program that I hope to start Spring semester. Which I have calculated that in order to maintain a 3.7, the lowest grades I can get is 1 B, and 2 A-. Which if you think about isn't too hard to do, but I'm just stressing, because if I don't, I will not be accepted. UGH. So stressful.

Besides all this stress, it has been relieved some. My good friend Ada Munk has offered to help me out with watching Mady at night when I need to study, and helping me understand the accounting concepts. I have also found a babysitter for Mady on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Which is such a blessing and answer to our prayers. Our sweet neighbor, Kylee Dowse, agreed to watch her. She has a little boy close to Mady's age, who will be great for Mady to play with.

So despite all the stress I have been feeling lately, there are blessings that have been falling down around us. Thank you everyone who has offered their love and support to us. And I apologize for the stressed out post. I needed to vent a little. :)

Happy Birthday Ray

Ray's birthday was on the 28th of July, but we had planned a huge birthday party for him on the 29th. So we pretended it wasn't his birthday, which thankfully he was fine with. For about two weeks before his birthday I had been making big plans. I had decided on a Mario theme and thought it would be fun to have cut outs of Mario characters all over the walls. So I went out and bought a whole bunch of posterboard. I thought I could find a picture online and make it super big so I could just trace it. Well I really don't know what I was thinking. First of all, posterboard is too thick to trace anything and secondly, there was no way I could blow up the picture even half of what I really wanted. So instead of giving up my idea and doing something else, I decided to draw and color all the characters. And it actually didn't turn out too bad. Here's some pictures of the finishing products:
This guy actually hung on the door outside. I didn't get a picture of him before, so the sun, wind, and rain got to him before my camera did; which is why he looks the way he does.
My next big project was the cake and cupcakes. I have a friend and cousin who has made such amazing cakes with fondant. It didn't look too difficult, so I decided to try it out. My good friend, Alicia came over for dinner that night and helped me with some of the characters. She did such an amazing job. She did Mario, Toad, and the turtle. Check them out:So while she was doing those hard ones, I did the easier ones, like the boxes, the flower pipe things, the big bomb guy, and the little brown and white goompas: I also decided to make a Luigi, and then found that Alicia's guys were a little too big to go on the cake, so I made another Mario. Her's was so much better though. The day before the party, my friend Kylee and Ada came over and helped me put the fondant on the cake, make more characters, chat, and laugh. It was a fun night. Ada made the star for me and Kylee made Princess Peach:
After the cakes were made and they went home and I finished the rest of the cake and cupcakes. It took a while to put everything on and make them stay but it turned out pretty good for my first time I think. Here's some pictures:
Everything turned out great. We had so many people show up, which was good because I made quite a bit of BBQ turkey. I should have made more salad and potatoes but I didn't think we'd have such a good turn out. It was so much fun though. Our really good friends from Provo/Orem area came down to spend the weekend with us and were able to celebrate with us. Which was super fun.

Thank you everyone for making Ray feel super special and celebrating with us! Thank you Ada, Alicia, and Kylee for helping me out with the cake. I couldn't have done it without you!

Ray - happy birthday my love! You mean everything to me, and I had so much fun planning your party! Thank you so much for everything you to for Mady and me. I love you so much!! Here's to many more birthdays to come!

Our Sanpete Adventures

While home in Sanpete, we had the opportunity to go to the Mormon Miracle Pageant performed on Temple Hill. If you have not been, you really should go. It is AMAZING. My family has been apart of the cast for years now. And although it is performed each year, and we go each year, there's always something new to learn or to realize. I love it. It strengthens my testimony that much more. Here are a few pictures:

We were able to go up again on June 29th because the next day was my grandparents 50th anniversary. They are such amazing example to me. I hope that someday Ray and I can follow in their footsteps and share our 50th anniversary with each other and have our whole family surround us. We had over 100 people in attendance - everyone of them making up their posterity. We had this blessed event at the Heritage park in Salt Lake. It was a pretty long drive, but it wasn't too bad, seeing how we slept most of the way. It was so gorgeous. Mady had such a fun time with the little kids park they had. Here's a few pictures of the fun things they had:At the park they had a little village of old pioneer houses, it was so fun to go around and walk into some of the houses. This church was one of my favorites: There was also this gorgeous orchard with a cute fence. My mom took some pictures for us, I felt like we were taking engagement pictures again. Ray looked amazing. I fell in love with him all over again.





This is one of my favorites:

We also got to spend the 4th of July with my family. We spent the day in Manti having fun with all the festivities that were going on. We got to ride the train:We rode some horses, which Mady loved:We did an egg toss - which got all over me:We then went back to my grandparents house to eat some delicious food and wait for the parade to start. While we waited, we played some cards:And slept:
After eating a delicious meal, my mom took the kids and Mady to the parade.

When it was late enough, we headed over to Temple hill to watch the fireworks. I was surprised at how well Mady took the loud noises. She loved it. The next day we celebrated mine and Ray's birthday's by going to Palisades and eating some yummy cakes!

My parents gave us some awesome gifts! Ray got a lot of his favorite snacks along with $100. I was given some cake decorating supplies, $100 snacks, and a wonderful surprise - My American Girl Doll, Molly. All brand new. When I was baptized, my grandmother gave me Molly. She has had a hard life, so it was quite a surprise when my Mom gave her to me all brand new. She will be kept safe to pass down to my daughter. Overall it was such a great trip. We loved spending time with my family and enjoying the fun things Sanpete has to offer. Thanks for letting us come stay! We love you!