A year of Laws Lovin'

So, Myke and I have almost been married a full year! Unbelievable, right?!? We are headed to Park City this weekend for our FIRST ANNIVERSARY!

I am a complete freak and I tend to keep my planners...after they are all used up. I have this hope that one day I will make some sort of a record from them. I think that heaven secretly knows that will never happen, but until I let the dream die, I hold on to my old planners.

So today, with my old planner in hand, I make a blog-post record of the first year of this Laws family!


Here it goes!


November 20, 2010, Myke and I were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. We had a reception that evening and according to my planner I had a Chemistry Exam and Microbiology Exam the two days before my wedding. It was a busy time :)

After the reception it was off to the honeymoon! We had a 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera and it was a blast! Though, I have to admit, we spent most of our time.... .... SLEEPING!  We were so exhausted from working and going to school and planning a wedding that our interior cabin was a heaven-sent. We never knew if it was day or night! Lot's of much needed zzzzzzzz's!

We got back from the honeymoon and started our new little life in our tiny 700 sq ft apartment. The pictures make it look nice...because it kind of was! AFTER 15 hours of DEEP (I mean really deep) cleaning (thank you family!). We headed right into finals and we were both glad to have survived that semester!

After Finals, we had Christmas and New Years  and a little time to get settled into our new married life!

After the holidays, it was back to school and work. We had our first Valentines day together...a black tie affair put on by Myke and his friend Doug...no idea why I didn't take pictures! Ryan and Kaylyn's wedding was a big event as well on February 19th!

I recognize I am the only one wearing green/teal (except for Ryan's tie) and that I am the only blonde, I stick out like a sore, and vibrantly caucasion thumb in this family.

March brought Myke's 23rd Birthday at Asian Star...oh so delicious. I gave him a recording of the song I wrote for our wedding. I tried to find a cheap place to record and, let's just say, I got what I paid for. The keyboard stand kept collapsing to the floor, it smelled like rotten food and the computer (from 1990) malfunctioned (literally, the blue screen of death...) so I had to record it all on one track, with no repeats or edits. What's the point of a recording studio if you have to record it "live?" At least I was paying pennies on the hour!

April came, along with wretched finals and a somewhat spontaneous road trip with Kent and Kailee to Arizona! We drove down to Chandler to see Porter, Devin, Preston and Jane for Easter! We REALLY need to make that a tradition! **these pics are not from that trip, somehow, none of us took pictures, but this is Preston and Jane :)

May was a crazy month full of last minute moves to the in-laws basement (definitely weren't planning on that one), purchasing our first pet, and my being promoted to office manager at my job earlier than anticipated! So much craziness...working full time, going to school full time, being HOMELESS...just livin' the dream!

This is Pookie - our bunny. He is extremely adorable and sometimes very naughty...but I LOVE him!

I don't know why I was worried about being homeless, I live at work anyway! I love it though, I work for and with great people...THAT is a blessing!

June is my birthday month, so clearly that was the most important thing that happened! I woke up to flowers and presents and cash from our parents for some much needed shopping. We had dinner at La Jolla Groves (SO deelish)...after which I became violently ill for no apparent reason and spent the night in bed, feeling like I was going to up-chuck my most delicious birthday dinner! Oh, such sweet memories... My brother, Kade, also opened his mission call on June 21st and we  were all stunned to learn he was going to Bangalore, India!

Birthday Flowers :)

My studly brother Kade and his best pal, Danny at the "not-farewell talk" after party.

July brought us a new church calling. We are primary teachers for the 5 and 6 year old kids in our ward! We are convinced it is the best calling EVER. We LOVE those kids! We spent Independence Day boating with my family and drove to St George in the middle of the night to meet our new niece - Maylie Nicole Laws on the 16th! We slept in and went to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe on July 25th and had a yard sale at my parents house on the 30th. Love those summer months!

 From L to R: Macey - the super mature 6 yr old, Porter (aka "PorterMan") - the cool kid, Kate - the daughter of a Harvard Grad who could go to Harvard at age 7, Katie - the sweet, quiet one, Eddison - the smartest most charming girl magnet of any 6 yr old I know, Elsie - the adorable daughter every mom wants, and Haley - the shy girly girl. We are missing Max in this photo, which is a shame...because I could write a whole blog about Max. He speaks Spanish most of the time, thinks he is a KING (literally, we are all his royal subjects), lives in an imaginary world 24/7, and can sing "Praise to the Man" like you wouldn't believe!

 

The beautiful miss Maylie

August came faster than we thought and we had a blast at the Laws Family Pool Party/Maylie's Blessing/Mathew's Baptism! August 12th was my LONG awaited Graduation from BYU with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Exercise Science. FINALLY! And last but absolutely NOT least, a rockin' trip to Lake Powell!

After the blessing/baptism...before the pool party

Goodbye BYU! Thanks for all the laughs and TEARS, and blood, and sweat, and anxiety....

My Hawaiian husband

Being sprayed by an anonymous man from Thailand

Preston going down the slide on the houseboat! Rock on little man!

September came with a very highly anticipated trip to Montana to see Myke's grandparents. Myke was pretty sure I wouldn't survive in the "wilderness", BUT don't worry, I just hopped on this horse bareback and jumped across a river! Ok, it was a stream, but still... March also brought me my new life without school! It was even better than I thought!

At the Fair in Montana

October got us both down with some sickness (ugh) and our first halloween as a married couple! I also chopped my hair off and I pretty much love it a lot more than my thin, wispy, stringy, thin locks of yesteryear. I did my best at having long hair, but I think short hair suits me much better :).

Can you tell we are both sick? I mean, we still look AWESOME, but not as awesome as usual...

New Hair!

And here we are, back at November :) I threw a baby shower for my best friend Jess and my other best friend, Abbey, got engaged! Babies, engagements, and anniversaries...what a fun time of life! What a November!

 Cute, pregnant Jess and I at her shower!

An old picture of  (the now-engaged) Abbey, Me, and (the now-pregnant) Jess...we actually sent out Christmas cards from our apartment with this picture, haha. Best Friends!

A whole year later and we still love each other! Love you Michael! Happy Anniversary!

What a year of Laws Lovin'!

Jess's BabyShower: Frogs, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tails...

I had a baby shower for my gal pal, Jess. She is due December 19th (I think, maybe the 17th, I keep getting mixed up) and she looks ADORABLE as a little pregnant mama! I decided to base the shower theme around the nursery rhyme "Frogs, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tails, that's what little boys are made of." I think it turned out pretty cute and we had an awesome turn-out because everyone loves Jess so much! I should have taken more pics, but at least I got these ones!

 

These were the announcements I sent out. Ordered them from tinyprints.com if you're wondering :).

These were my FROGS, aren't they cute!?! I made "frog eye salad" and then put these little fruity frog faces on them. I thought frog-eye salad was a well known food, but apparently it isn't! If you haven't had it, you should google a recipe 'cause it's tasty! It has little tiny pasta pieces in it called, "acini de pepe" that look like frog eyes or frog eggs, which is where the name comes from. 

 

 

These were my SNAILS...cinnamon snails! I pot them on kabob sticks and then poked the sticks into floral styrofoam that I attached to the inside of this cute bucket thing. My first attempt at creating this idea, did not go well! I made really good dough, but it was too "yeasty" and when I put it in the mini cupcake pan and baked them, they exploded out of the pan and become one giant mound of cinnamon bread stuff. So, in my next attempt, I made it easy on myself and bought the pre-made cinnamon rolls that come in those cool cardboard cylinders that POP open when you take the wrapper off. It worked perfect! I just smashed the dough out a little thinner, rolled it up, put it in the mini cupcake pan and voila! They even come with their own frosting! Can't get better than that! I used the cinnamon rolls and the orange rolls for my snails and I think they turned out pretty cute...and tasty!

And finally, the PUPPY DOG TAILS. I had a harder time thinking of how to do this part, but I finally came up with the chocolate dipped pretzel rods idea. They kind of resemble puppy dog tails, right? A word to the wise, white chocolate seems to take about 15 times longer to dry, as compared to milk chocolate. I made these the night before and it was kind of fun! I used coconut shavings, brown sprinkles, and smashed oreos (chocolate and golden) to give some variety to the pretzels and try to make them look more "furry," haha...you know, like a puppy dog tail. I thought chocolate licorice fit the bill pretty nicely too. 

  I served a warm Caramel Apple Cider drink because it was FREEZING outside! There was a recipe on a box of apple cider drink packets I had, but it required butterscotch schnapps, and we don't drink alcohol...so I improvised with a similar idea. I had apple cider in the crock pot with a cinnamon stick and orange slices. You fill your cup with the apple cider, add some caramel (ice cream topping), swirl whipped cream on top, drizzle more caramel on top of the whipped cream, and then sprinkle it with cinnamon and nutmeg. Super easy! Super deelish!

I didn't do anything fancy for the Thank-You's. I bought cellophane treat bags, lined them with brown tissue paper, put some of those cute gummy frogs in the bottom and tossed in a chocolate dipped pretzel rod. I made quick "Thank you" tags with envelope labels and a $1 package of paw print stickers. I just wrote "Thank you" on each of them with a sharpie marker. Easy peasy. 

This table was set up in the family room with a bunch of onesies and fabric markers. All our cute guests designed a onesie for Jess's little babe while they munched on some snacks. I had lot's of muddy buddies (aka "puppy chow") on the tables too, I thought that kind of went with the theme. The onesises were SO cute, I can't believe I didn't get a picture! Just imagine the cutest onesies you've ever seen, girls are so crafty!

And that's it! It turned out so fun!

We had LOTS of beautiful women come and it was just a blast! 

Thanks to all you lovely ladies for making it such a good time!

Thanks to Jess for having a baby and letting me throw a shower! 

It's so nice to do something other than work!

Baby Bump Jess, Hillary and Hill's adorable son, Julian. He looked right at the camera! What a little stud!

 Jess and the beautiful Mandy.

 Jess and Abbz! Abbey just got engaged the night before! Woohoo! Looks like we need to plan another shower...bridal shower this time!

 The lovely Megan, glowing Jess, and beautiful Lacey...oh look! They are working on their onesies...and you can see a few on the table behind them! So fun!

 Stacy, Jess, Johanna, Jenny, and Julie...so pretty :)

 And of course, the Jess and myself!

Love you girl! Can't wait to meet the little one!!