"Say Yes to Love"

I was introduced to this video this week 

and it made me so happy I started to cry! 

There is SOOOOOO much LOVE in it! 

From the proposal to ALL of their friends and family

near and far

participating in it!

And the song they sing has such a wonderful, but simple, message.

The refrain goes:

It was the best day of my life
‘Cause ever since you everything’s right
Yea, the best days of my life are all ahead
‘Cause we both said yes to love
Yes to love, yes to love, yes to love,
The best day

Wow

Just Wow!

What a great example for all of us. 

It makes me think...

I try and fill my life with many good good things

Many, many, tangible good things

But

Really,

In the end 

(aside from our Relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ)

All that matters is our relationships with 

our husband/wife

children

parents

siblings

extended family

and all those we come in contact with who touch our hearts

The rest if just "stuff"

So, one of my new "focuses" or goals for 2013

is to say

YES TO LOVE!!!

And, if you liked the video above

they just made this one for Valentines Day 2013

Just as AWESOME!

Happy Birthday Jill!

This weekend was really fun. Some outlet shopping, a movie ("The Impossible"... really, really good - but OH man... It made me cry!), dinner with friends and a really fun birthday party!

Celebrating Jill!

She's also a 1980's baby :)

 Her favorite color is blue... almost ALL the food was blue or dyed blue

This cake was made from scratch... white chocolate with blue frosting. 

ABSOLUTELY YUM!!

White Chocolate anything is YUM!

 The Beautiful Birthday Girl

Wearing Blue, of course!

 I like this picture of me... so I posted it. I really liked my outfit...

Call me vain... I don't care! It's so infrequent that I actually take thought in to

what I wear... so this was a big step for me. I even accessorized!

 Jared, Jay & Jill

The J's!

 Amelia & Jill

 Jared & Jill

Jared must be looking at the yummy cake on the counter!

 Lots of fire :)

 Jill& I

Such a fun night with good friends, blue food, and lots of laughs

I also wanted to post a few pictures from my last morning in CO. I was up early and took pictures out their backdoor. It was so pretty. SO COLD though. You can kind of see the steam coming off the lakes behind them. But, I miss the views... CO is gorgeous! I'll defend the east for it's history and culture till the day I die, but UT and CO win hands down for beauty!

Some things that bring me JOY recently :)

Some of the recent joy in my life has been from seeing pictures of my nieces, actually spending a week with my nephews in CO, and watching the kids I work for accomplish some pretty big things!

Here's a summary... Holland - In the snow for the first time! Just so happens it was during the NEMO Blizzard in Boston this past weekend. Not bad for a first-timer! Although I'd love to be with Holland, I was super glad to not be in Boston for this storm! 3 feet! My word!!

I love, love, love this picture of Evan and Mary.

Priceless

 Ava & Jed graduated to purple belt!

They worked long and hard for it!

 And, now to CO times with my nephews. I should have taken more pictures here, but we've had fun watching Riley play in his basketball games, playing card games, playing in the yard (we've done a lot of playing) and other fun stuff. CO is beautiful! I love it here... but I also love Riley and Jace.

So, as a surprise I took them, and Jace's friend Ben, to see a play based on the book "How I became a Pirate!" They loved it and I loved it too! Such a cute production and the perfect length of time for them - one hour. On our way out we got pictures... this one is the boys with "Jeremy" the main character who's the boy in the book and wants to become a real pirate!

 Then, this one if Riley and Ben with Max, one of the pirates! 

It was awesome!

I love life in Fort Collins. It's not as rushed as DC or the east coast... and the scenery with the lakes, the mountains and everything else is breathtaking! It's been semi-warm too so we walk to and from school and play outside a lot in February! Love it!!!

It's been an exciting few weeks filled with lots of joys in watching and being a part of the lives of children!

Welcome Mary Fitzpatrick!!!!

I have a new niece... 

and melt my heart...

she's named after my MOM!

Meet Mary Fitzptraick

 Born on Saturday, January 26, 2013

7lbs 7 oz - 19.5 inches long

 I can't wait to meet her!! 

And, see the whole crew again too!

What's gotten in to me???!

For those of you who know me... you know I don't cook. I make things that go in the microwave or eat cereal like it's going out of style.

However, recently I've found a little fascination with cooking. I think it basically comes from now having super early church (8 AM) so I want to have people over for dinner in the evening. If not, it's just a long day from when I leave church till night-time to not have any social interaction! I do love living by myself, but I also love having people over too! I like the option of choosing when to be social and when to be an introvert and curl up on my couch with a good book and not talk to anyone :)

So, I've had a lot of Sunday dinner parties here and they have been AWESOME! Not only am I getting to know people in my ward, and in the area, better, but it's been a lot of fun and a great way to end the weekend/start off a new week!

Well, recently I've taken a few photos of my cooking works of art. I've impressed myself! I love going to allrecipes.com and I recently discovered a site on pintrest where you can find some of these recipes posted. YUM

So, last week's menu was Roasted Rosemary Chicken. It got a lot of compliments! So simple.

 And, the great thing was that my home teacher happened to be over a few days before I cooked it and we got to talking about it. He is actually quite the cook himself, although he won't admit it, and he suggested I actually pull back some of the skin and place whole sticks of rosemary between the skin and the meat. I thought it would be harder to do and gross... but it wasn't. And, it definitely helped the flavor! I tried to show it in the picture below.

 Then, next on the list was spinach mashed potatoes. UM.... YUM! Sadly, this is the first time EVER that I had made mashed potatoes. It always just seemed like too much work to wash, peel, boil the potatoes and my mom always used the instant kind... but I wanted these to be authentic! And, they were awesome!! I've decided that I like them a little lumpy... and since I am the cook, I got to decide just the right lumpiness!

 I also made a simple salad and salad dressing from a recipe that I had gotten from a friend for that same dinner. It has blue cheese and red onion in it. And, the dressing even turned out pretty good! I was so proud of myself! People were laughing at how happy and giddy it made me... but I used to think I just had no talent for cooking... and now look at what I created!

A week or two ago I made Roasted Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes with Rosemary for a dinner. My sister in law made them for Christmas and so I had asked her for the recipe. She said she got it from my mom, but I sure don't remember my mom ever making them.  I think Rosemary is my new favorite spice. It makes the food taste good and it makes my apartment smell good!!

 What else have I been up to besides work and cooking... Well, this past month I have celebrated quite a few birthdays of friends of mine. One of them was Misty!

 I knew her in Boston, but it wasn't until I moved to DC and joined the Potomac ward that we became good friends. And, what's even better is that I helped to convince her to move in to my complex and live the next building over. If there is ever a snow day or sometime where we can't go anywhere, I know I'll have a friend to hang out with!

Miriam organized an AMAZING party with fabulous food, decorations and everything a party could need. It was a ton of fun and I wasn't even the birthday girl! I did get to help by finding her tiara at a local party store :)

 Happy Birthday Princess Misty!!

Happy New Year!!

I left UT on Sunday and started my drive back to Fort Collins. Amazing the difference the drive is when the sun is out and the roads aren't coated in falling snow! I was able to enjoy the beauty of Wyoming... although if you've seen one sight along I-80, you've seen them all.

But, I knew I loved Wyoming when I came upon the following

 $2.59 for unleaded gas!! Yes, please!!!

In D.C. it's about $4 something a gallon

I arrived back in Fort Collins in time to take up another few rounds of Pounce... and to catch some dessert with the boys before bed!  

On New Years Eve, I found a local "bounce house" that was having a New Years Eve party for kids from 9:30-12:30 PM - which a "ball drop" and celebration at noon! It was so much fun! I even went down a few of the slides... but mostly chased the boys from one bounce structure to the next in tag.

 I think they had fun!

 I love that they get along so well!

At 11:45 they gave out noise-makers and other such party things to all the kids. It was SO loud in there as the kids couldn't get enough of their new found toys!

 At noon... the ball dropped, disco lights turned out, and the dance party began. This picture is hard to see, but it's me and the boys!

Afterwards, the place cleared out pretty fast but we stayed to the very end and the boys had all the structures to themselves for about 20 minutes! They loved it! Then, I took them to their favorite fast food restaurant - SMASH BURGER! My first time there but I was very impressed by their menu selection. Sweet potato fries (amongst other things...) - YUM!!

It was such a fun morning! And, I didn't really feel the need to stay up till midnight anymore. I had done my celebrating! But, I truly enjoyed the rest of my time in Fort Collins with them. More Pounce in the evening... and just fun time being together as family. Can't get enough of it!! Fortunately I'll be back in Ft Collins to watch the boys for a week in February. Can't wait!!

Lessons Learned/Reminded of at church :)

Even though church this morning began earlier than I have EVER gone to church in my 32 years of life :) It was still an amazing and spiritually rewarding experience.

Although there is usually no specific theme for our three-hour block of meetings, I felt there was definitely a focus on family - more specifically eternal families.

I go to a Mid-singles ward. That means there are about 300 of us, who are single because we've either never been married, are divorced, or widowed.... and most just have never been married. But, I would place a bet on the fact that the majority of us are there because we want to get married and are just a little frustrated that it has not happened yet.

So, the topic of family - and eternal families - could be a little bit touchy/problematic.

But yet, it wasn't.

In sacrament meeting, testimonies were shared about the importance of families and lessons learned from family relationships. In Sunday School, the topic of relationships was continued... whether it be family, friend or co-worker relationships. We are not here to be/live/work alone. We need each other. 

Then, in RS, we discussed "The Family, A Proclamation to the World" issued by the Prophet of the Church, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 Apostles in 1995. I still remember when it was first read in church and how profound I thought it was. There was no scooting around the issue. They laid it right out there - our beliefs on the role of men and women, God's plan and purpose for families and the role it plays in mortality as well as in the eternities. 

The entire thing can be found here.

I love how it states in one of the opening paragraphs is that the plan Heavenly Father has laid out is a PLAN OF HAPPINESS. Happiness being the key word. Many things will try and take away that happiness, or test our faith, but in the end, it is a plan meant for our eternal happiness. 

I was asked to share my thoughts/bare my testimony on this paragraph and I was honored to do so.... but it was hard to get through! 

"The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally."

Of course my thoughts immediately turned to my mom who passed away in March. I miss her terribly, but I choose to have faith and hope in HF's plan. I have a strong testimony of the sacred ordinances and covenants made in the temple and I know that my mom did as well. I know that if we choose to live according to the laws the Lord has explained to us and the promises we have made, we can return to live with our loved ones again... and be united eternally. I know that's where my mom is right now and I am going to do my best to get back and join her. 

What a glorious reunion that will be!!!