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.

life according to my phone + beauty tips

the weather has been so good lately. i was so excited that i got to wear shoes other than boots, i had to document it.
- j had all weekend off, it was so nice having sunday all to ourselves. we went to a new spot to see lake erie. it was beautiful with the waves hitting the rocks and the sun going down!
- baby sophia can hold her self up now :) she was so giggly and cute this week.
- my "after gym cravings" i'm eating healthier with way more fruits and veggies and hardly any sweets. i went over board this holiday season:) a gym opened up a minute away from us, so now instead of a total of 45 minutes driving, i can drive one minute and get a good work out in that time and save gas:) i'm loving the zumba class, very fun!

ok, ok, i was doing good until i saw the dang girl scouts selling their yummy cookies at the mall where i work!  i can start the no sugar thing next week right? :) 
-j has been playing games with me. since it's not his favorite thing, it means even more, plus he beat me! 
-tuesday, we got our new color line shipment (matrix) 60 boxes! i've used it once so far, i made a dirty blonde client a red head. she was obssessed, and so was i. i love the consistency of the color and am excited to learn all about it! 
-we are enjoying law and order right now on netflix.. and sometimes midnight snacks:)

some of my favorite fashion ideas right now..

- the fishtail braid. i had clip in extensions, so i braided those and then just bobby pinned them behind my      ear.. but you can do it with your own hair too! 

-red lipstick is my favorite right now, don't be afraid and wear whatever you love!

 - wrapping my hair around a curling iron and leaving the ends out. gives it a beachy wave look with cute pokey outie ends :) plus, gives them a break from the heat! 

lovey dovey day

we felt so spoiled and loved this valentines! my friend jill came to visit me at work and brought me the yummiest/cutest cookies i've ever had!

the best part of living away from home are the packages! nana sent us the biggest card we've ever seen and spoiled us with money to go to dinner. mom sent us yummy chocolates, rose petals, rose soaps, socks and a cute little fabric valentine holder. oh how we felt so loved!

i sent out valentine cards to friends/family this year.. i had so much fun making them!

 this valentines was extra special because we both got off at 6. we both promised to not buy gifts this year, our joke is someday when we are rich and famous we can:) my thought is flowers die, homemade things last forever! i had a lot more time to spend on mine.. i made him a book of things i love about him from a deck of cards, i had so much fun antiquing the cards and being creative with my cricit!

here are pictures of some of the pages and the back.:) my favorite part was seeing his face as he was reading him, didn't know if he would notice all the detail cause well, he's a guy.. but he sure did!

he sure did meet my love language.. he wrote me three letters. one expressing the things he loves about me which had me melting and laughing all at the same time. 2 being his favorite memories we've had together and the last one was the minutes and seconds since we started dating ect and it was the most romantic letter ever. he gave them to me throughout the night .. i wasn't expecting more than one!

since my favorite carrabas was a 2 hour wait, j thought of having a reverse date. we had an appetizer at home and then watched a movie in bed and went to dinner around 8:30 and had no wait :) it was perfect. we hadn't been out to eat for a couple months, so it was a real treat. he gave me the last letter at the table and i started crying.. he sure is a thoughtful man. 

the best part is, every day feels like valentines. at least once every day he makes me feel like the most special girl in the world. i'm pretty lucky:)

i do love the day, giving me an excuse to call him my valentine once a year. :)

winter wonderland

with only 5 tiny snow falls that melted the next day and only sunshine for a week in the forecast, we thought we had escaped the "famous cleveland winter" well, we didn't. this is what i saw the other day, when i opened the front door..

good thing it's beautiful. i'm still not used to driving in it, but i think it will get better.it hasn't been icy.. i 'm sure people think of me when i drive, how i used to think of the az snowbirds..

love the sunset + the whole street covered in snow.

i get excited when i see green trees, the majority are brown, so you see the reason for the excitement. i love the barn and  the fields in every season!

my snow angel.. i didn't want to get my hair wet, so it doesn't have a head:) love the snow on the evergreen tree..

j had to work after church yesterday, and i was feeling adventurous. it's a tradition for us to explore something new on sundays.. and i wanted to see how lake erie looked with snow. . so i went alone. this is an example of how huge and amazing the houses are on the lake!

i'm pretty sure lake erie is prettier in the summer.. haha:)

1. i made these "i love you because" frames for the ladies i visit teach for valentines. the cost was $2 since i got the frame and the pen at the dollar store! the pen is dry erase, so you can write things you love about your family on the glass :) 2. my curls. took me 7 minutes after i let my hair air dry! curling with the straightner is my new best friend. 3. the view walking out of church 4. j eating an oreo doughnut at voodoo doughnuts on his trip. 5. pizza/breadsticks at a much needed girls day. :)

love every second of babysitting little sophia rose :) babies are just so precious! i always come home baby hungry!

my mom sent me my quilt! she paid for it to be quilted. i love it so much! it's so soft and cuddly with the minky on the back and brings so much color to our couch! this won't be my last quilt i make!

1.  melissa and i at work, the salon has been so busy and i've loved it! 2. more trees. 3. my high heels for church ( hard to walk in snow with heels) 4. cutest shoe chair at the mall 5.sunday dinner for one:)

j switched his schedule around so he could attend his good friend, mikes wedding in washington! he had such a good time getting to know his wifey to be, seeing old friends and making new ones! we are so happy for the new mr. and mrs!

j sent me this picture.. he wanted me to tell him what i think happened.. i failed haha. i  love when he brings me treats that he gets free at the hospital. . sushi, ice cream snickers, huge water bottles, naked juice, the yummiest chocolate bars and the recent a small pack of oreos.. i complained to him how when we get a full thing of oreo's it's so hard to control myself:) good thing he doesn't bring me treats everyday:)  

since i work the afternoon/night shift and j had the day off.. we decided to grab some hot chocolate and go to the metro parks. it was a very good day:)

love spending time with him:)