the sun is shining

and we are spending every spare second outside to enjoy this beautiful spring! i guess this means i survived my first cleveland winter. which everyone says was nothing.. but i had to wear a winter coat and shiver, so for me. it was an accomplishment. now on to enjoy the weather i love.. SUNSHINE!

love the sunsets, j has had an easier rotation, so when i don't work nights. we have been taking walks. oh how i love the warm air with a light breeze.

the start of the blossoms!

Jill, Bella and I went to enjoy an early lunch at our favorite health place, The Root Cafe.

my first "beet" sandwich.. so yuuum. 

Oh how precious little bella is!

oh how we enjoyed wearing our short sleeve shirts and flip flops! we love the lake in our neighborhood, there's a trail in the forest too. it's so peaceful.

love the big tree. my favorite thing is just having conversations with the mister and enjoying the beautiful world we live in.

Kaitlyn, Alyse and I enjoyed a perfect day at hunington beach. It was so nice to put my feet in the warm sand  and enjoy some girl talk:)

natalie and kids joined us! Her and her hubby are going to Phx, az for residency! J and I went over for dessert to tell them all the things they should be excited about! So excited for them! We recently realized natalie was roomate's with justin's group of friends, so back then they all went to a party together. small world!

Another sunday adventure. We explored a new park! Love the big rock in the water to sit on. There were so many trees!

Dr Pattee spoils me by bringing home coconut water. I'm obssessed. It's so refreshing and yummy! It cures my sweet tooth while hydrating me and making me feel i'm on a tropical island :) 

for j's birthday we went downtown to ittle italy for the first time and had lunch at Mama santa pizzeria. it was recommended by a client, it was very good!

 the last time we wore coats:) oh how i love him

love the colorful buildings downtown.

mitch sent me peacock feathers he promises he chased a peacock to get for me to make headbands. his letter made me cry. he's such a loving, amazing missionary. oh how i love my brother. if you are interested in what we believe and what he is teaching go to www.lds.org. i promise you won't regret it.

a bunch of girls and i went to crocker park for lunch and a little shopping.

 menchies is now at crocker, we had to take advantage. oh how i love a good yogurt flavor with toppings of my choice:)

they have a life size chess board. i'm thinking we need to learn how to play!

love the lights strung along this shopping center

j has boards coming up, so he had to study and i have wednesdays off, a bunch of girls and i got together to make cards and eat treats. it was my kind of girls night :)

i couldn't help it, i had to capture this moment in nursery. i'm pretty sure he's the favorite. i was reading at first but they wanted him to read instead. don't blame them..

we went to lakewood park to enjoy the beautiful cleveland skyline and once again enjoy the 70 plus degree weather

our tree in our front yard, this made me so giddy :)

we love these trees in our neighborhood!

popcorn tree! the first one i've seen!

we decided to make pizza and have a picnic!

oh so happy :)

 planning on using this red basket a lot more this year..

perfection

loving keeping our window opened at night and waking up to the birds.
this might possibly be my favorite time of year here..

the big 3-0, recipe's + more

this handsome man of mine turned 30 this week! 

he woke up to a car filled with balloons/love notes, and came home to a decorated house filled with notes everywhere, more balloons (i felt light headed from all the balloons.. next year.. i'm getting a pump haha. and a cake made by me:) easiest/yummiest cake ever. took me about 5 minutes.

 eclaire cake: 3 c milk, 2 (4 oz) pkg instant french vanilla pudding, 12 oz cool whip, pkg of graham crackers, 1 tub chocolate frosting
mix milk and pudding, fold in cool whip (lighter mixture is placed on heavier mixture, to prevent cool whip from melting) layer a 9X13 inch glass container like this: crackers, pudding mixture (x4) then spread frosting over last layer of crackers. refrigerate at least an hour before. (we liked it the day after better because the crackers were more like a crumbly crust)
obviously you can half this like i did. we don't make treats in our house very often. so this was such a treat:)

we were both sick, so we had a sliver of cake in our pj's, and had a low key night. i kept feeling bad, but my postive man said, i'm not letting it get me down.. i'm thankful for my health that i have 99% of the time.
oh how i love him.
i did plan on having him blow out 30 candles, but since he was sicky, i was considerate:)

as of lately..
goood thing we met after med school, because it's so hard leaving this cute face alone while he's studying.. i like to be right by his side:)

 have loved cutting/coloring/styling/perming/relaxing ect lately! i gave myself a lovely cut.. good thing this doesn't happen too often! 

 we had a class for our new color line and at the end we had models come in. jill was my model, you can't tell in her before picture because she didn't have a picture right before.. but her roots were really dark and 7 inches long. she decided that because she is a mom and the all over blonde is a lot of up keep she wants to go back to her natural color.. we matched the color to her roots so perfectly that we didn't even have to color them! so happy how it turned out:) we may put some subtle highlights in the future:)

on my healthier kick.. if you have a panini maker at home this is the best sandwich.  turkey , artichoke,  avacodo , pesto  with pepper jack cheese and lettuce . i even like sautee' ing mushrooms and peppers . if you have it on whole wheat oat bread it's so filling:)

we were craving a sunday treat, so we made carmel popcorn. this is a family treat , i grew up with.
so easy. ingredients: popcorn, honey and peanut butter
 i usually do 1 cup of honey and 1/2 cup of pb , but you can do whatever amount, just make sure you double the honey.
mix in pan over the stove med/high keep stirring with a fork and watch the whole time, when it bubbles stir really fast for a few seconds and then pour over plain popcorn:)
& enjoy a treat without feeling as guilty!

we have loved our gym that is close by and open 24.7, i couldn't help  but take a picture of the view i had during my spin class. i love his passion for running/being active.

  it has been great weather, a couple days of no coats and beautiful sunsets.

 however, yesterday changed. march is a warm month in arizona.. i'm not used to this..

 j has weekends off this month's rotation, so we were able to go the temple before i worked. it's in columbus. so we woke up at 6 am and drove 2 ish hours. it was a completely different experience when it's not 5 minutes away. you have to schedule ahead (which is hard for our schedules) but it makes it a sacrifice and i think you appreciate it more! i love going with my man.. i am reminded how i am sealed to him forever and love the blessings we receive from going. 

i know i say this allll the time, but
life's good.