Hey Shorty, It's Your Birthday

This last weekend, Kirk and I celebrated my 22nd birthday. Luckily it fell on Saturday so we were able to make it a day long event. It started off with Kirk insisting that I stay in bed while he made breakfast, which was delicious. I'm ashamed to admit that I've never been fishing, so I asked Kirk to show me how it's done. We went to a nearby lake (which is rather shallow, as you can tell by the trees growing in the middle of it) and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I am converted--what could be better than getting a tan, enjoying the outdoors, and watching this hunk work his magic with the catfish? Truth be told, we caught a log and three lily pads, probably because I did most of the casting and fishing. It looks like Kirk has a big ol' fish on the line, but that was actually the log.
For dinner, Kirk made reservations at a very nice Italian restaurant that makes the best food I've ever eaten. For those of you who share my passion for peanut butter, you can imagine my excitement when the waiter told us about the peanut butter cheesecake drizzled with raspberry sauce. Oh. My. Gosh. Peanut butter cheesecake + Kirk + fishing = best birthday ever!!

Photos from Reception #2

Please disregard the many drinks in the background. It was warm that evening.













mi nueva familia













A foreshadowing of our future family. Aren't we going to be great parents??













Table centerpiece, thank you mama













My girls













SIL and adorable niece













Cake cutting ceremony. Thanks to my limbo skills, I remained clean for the most part. As you can see, he was not so lucky. Click on the pic for a closeup of the fun.





The Red Shoe Club

Walkin' in Memphis

Saturday was our Stake's temple day, so we were able to go to the Memphis, Tennessee temple. A couple in our ward was baptized a year ago so they were able to be sealed to each other and their two young girls. It was a very special day!! It's interesting to compare life as a Latter-day Saint in Idaho and Utah versus Arkansas. Out here, the wards and stakes cover so much territory, and the nearest temple is three hours away. It certainly helps me appreciate the sacrifice and dedication required of members in the mission field.

After the temple, we drove to downtown Memphis and grabbed lunch at T.G.I Friday's because nearly all the other restaurants looked a little bit rowdy :) There were several rock-and-roll and jazz cafe's. Memphis is right next to Arkansas, just on the east side of the Mississippi River. It is a beautiful city. We look forward to visiting the Civil Rights Museum and the Rock-and-Roll Museum in the future.

Home Sweet Home

Some of you have requested some pics of our new apartment. Forgive me, but I'm not so hot with the camera, but I hope these photos ease your curiosity.

This is our building, one of many in the complex. Did I mention it's on a golf course with a workout center and pool? Cause it is. Our apartment is the three windows on the bottom left.
















The kitchen . . .














Living room . . .














Master bedroom . . .














It is a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment. I figured no one cares to see the bathroom, even though it is clean and cute. Washer/dryer and all kitchen appliances are included. The second bedroom is not available for pictures yet as it is still full of all our extra stuff. We are on the ground level per my request, so that when tornadoes come we are slightly safer (I hope). Besides that, it's nice not doing stairs all the time. I LOVE our place, and I hope you did too. Come visit--our couch pulls out to a bed! :)

This Is Why I Hated Cooking When I Was Younger

I broke a lot of stuff in the kitchen growing up. I also ruined a lot of recipes, burnt a lot of brownies, left out ingredients, set off the smoke detector, and burned out the motor of a hand mixer. But when I got married, it was like my cooking genes kicked in and dinner has been uneventful for the last two weeks. Yesterday was a different story.

I've never made bread before. I think my mom did on occasion when I was younger, and I remember how amazing the house smelled while it baked. I wanted to make bread for Kirk because he loves it and it's one way to save a little money, but I hesitated because bread making is technical. There's the yeast thing, the kneading, shaping, rising, blah blah blah. The only mixing device I have is my grandma's old Sunbeam--no "dough hook" included. Just the beaters. This mixer, bless it's heart, is probably 2 1/2 times my age but it worked fine for banana bread! Why shouldn't it be able to handle Oatmeal Wheat Bread??














Things started off great; put all the stuff in the bowl, add the yeast, start mixing in the flour. . . and that's when things turned bad. I turned off the mixer to get the THICK dough out of the beaters and one of them was mangled!














That thing was probably an heirloom and worth money! And I still had a cup and a half of flour to mix in! Undeterred, I did it the old fashioned way, with my hands. It still turned out fairly well, maybe just a little dense. But I did get that freshly-baked-bread aroma!