March 5, 2011...The adventures of car shopping...

Monday, Chris ended up selling his little Audi so we were in need of a second vehicle. It would be so nice if we could make due with one but crazy schedules won't allow it. We wanted to find something that would be good on gas and one that had a couple more doors :)
I kept finding cars that I liked and Chris kept finding cars that he liked...but we were having a really hard time liking the same thing. Until one day Chris showed me a picture of a Kia Forte. It was so pretty!!! We both liked it except for the fact that it was in Logan, UT. So we went to a local Kia dealership so we could test drive it. We had absolutely no intentions of purchasing there but ended up finding a better deal at the dealership. Take a look at our fun, new vehicle...

Chris was super excited about this purchase....it was like waiting for Christmas to come!
The favorite feature...a sunroof...kind of the selling point. It's kind of a funny story.
Coolest feature...iPod connection...pretty sweet!!
So far we love it and can't wait to drive it everywhere!!!!!!

Valentines Adventures!!!!

So for Valentines this year I decided I wanted it to last longer than one day. I started thinking of all sorts of fun things I could do for Chris up until Valentines Day. At first I was thinking of "The 14 Days of Valentines"...that's a lot of creativity and I couldn't think of that many things. Then I decided to do "The 7 Days of Valentines". I almost made it to 7 but ended up with about 5 days is all. Which is still pretty great, I think!

Day 1: Love Letter.....This was my favorite one. It was so fun to just sit down and write the longest love letter I have ever written. It really made me stop and think why I really love Chris!
Day 2: Breakfast.....Mornings are kinda quick at our home. We try our hardest to make breakfast and be healthy but sometimes it just doesn't happen. Well, this particular morning I got up a little early and made scrambled eggs and toast (one of Chris' favorites). I wanted to write on the eggs 'I love you!' with something but couldn't figure out what to use that Chris would like, so I used picnik instead and wrote it on there after.
Day 3: Balloons!!!!!! I love balloons and so this seemed like a great idea. I was going to have them delivered to his work but put them on the steps just outside the door. I attached them to a bag of sweethearts and wrote a cute little message using the title and the decoration on the bag..."Chris, you are my sweetheart and my true love. Love, Shayla". Later Chris told me he was walking up to the house thinking 'I wonder what Shayla did for me today'. I never told Chris about my plan but he sure did catch on. It's been so fun!!! I think my favorite part about this one is the heart balloon...it says 'Hoo loves you?' with a cute little owl on it...Love it!!!!
Day 4: Heart Shaped Pancakes.....I wanted to this breakfast just for the sake of good memories. A year ago on Valentines day my apartment and Chris' apartment got together to make pink, heart shaped pancakes. So I kept the tradition going and added pink milk. A wonderful way to start Valentines!
Day 5: Candy gram.....I love candy grams!!! The whole time I was writing this I was laughing so hard. It's just a fun, crazy, happy thing that makes me laugh!!!!! I hope Chris likes it as much as I do :)
So that's my 5 Days of Valentines. I have one more adventure but that will have to be posted later because we haven't done it yet.

Onto Valentines Day......
Chris is so wonderful. I knew he was planning something but I had no idea what. I had to call him and let him know I was on my way so he could finish preparations and I kinda came home early...not on purpose though :) As I am walking home from work, I was thinking of all the things that he could have done. As I get to the side door there was a little trail of rose petals going up the steps to the door. I open the door and see this.....
I was so excited and hugged him to death....almost! He is the most thoughtful, sweetest husband ever! Inside the heart shaped origami was a little present...tickets to the Bar J Wrangler concert...{squeal in delight!!!} I love the Bar J Wranglers and I can't wait for Chris to experience this!
After dinner we danced in the kitchen (I love doing this!) to George Straight "Cross My Heart". My heart melted for the millionth time in one day. He is so sweet! His last little gift to me was a love letter also. I'm pretty sure I have the most amazing husband EVER!!!!!!
He even put chocolate on the table....he sure loves me! :)
And one last picture.....a wonderful Valentines Day!!!!! True love that will last forever!!!!!

Bundt Cake and Henry Weinhard's

Chris and I have done a little experimenting this week....well, mostly me but he gets to be included in everything ;) Linda (the cutest 70 year old woman ever) gave me this bundt pan so we finally put it to use. I wanted to take a picture of it whole but we forgot to before we dug in to eat. But it still looks cool! I want to experiment with it and see what kind of crazy kinds of cakes we can get out of this thing. I'm not much of a frosting fan so I topped this cake off with my favorite....powdered sugar!!! It was sooooo yummy!


Our next little adventure was Heny Weinhard's. Every time we go to the grocery store we always end up in the aisle with this particular drink. We haven't ever bought it because it's a little spendy and whenever it happens to be on sale it is always gone. Chris got lucky this time....it was on sale and it was in stock....so we got some. Apparently there is an art to drinking this stuff. Upon my interview with the expert (Chris) this is what I found.
.......In order to get the full effect of drinking the oh so coveted Henry Weinhard's Root Beer you can't put your whole mouth over the opening of the bottle. The trick is to keep the sides of your mouth open so the air can run freely." Where it runs, I have no idea because when I tried all I got was a mouth full of carbonation that nearly choked me to death. Okay, maybe a little dramatic. I really wanted to like this and I really wanted to experience the wonderful sensation, but let's be honest...I just can't handle it! So to Chris' great disappointment, he now has 4 1/2 bottles of wonderful, amazing, tasteful Henry Weindard's to enjoy ALL BY HIMSELF. His wife must love him ;)

Crafting!!!!

So I think I may be getting a little obsessed with crafting...but at least its fun, cute, and I try to keep it very inexpensive...not that easy, not that easy ;) sometimes! Here are my two latest crafts. A weekly menu using a picture frame, scrapbook paper, and a dry erase marker...super easy. Hopefully this motivates me to cook more which would definitely make the husband very happy :)
These are cute little "B" blocks using Pres. Hinckley's "B's". I can't decide if they really are done or if I need a little something extra...just can't decide between this and maybe a little rustic action. What

New Years

Since we got snowed in (sorta) for Thanksgiving, we got to go to Idaho for New Years. It was so fun seeing the family and just hanging out. But getting there was a different story. The roads were fabulous until Snowville...and this is what we drove through for about 2 hours...not fun!
It wasn't too terrible but once there was traffic it got a little scary for me. I'm so glad Chris drove and let me try to sleep through it. :)
Once we hit Twin Falls the roads were so nice again!!! YAY!!!
And on the way back to Utah it was smooth sailing the whole way.

It does snow in Utah...

So Christmas came and went and still now snow here. Finally it comes for New Years...at least it came. We had huge icicles coming off the Christmas light on the house and the bushes we totally iced over. It looked really cool but it was way to cold for my liking.

Christmas decorating!!!!

Decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite holiday things to do! It's so fun watching your house transform into a wonderful winter wonderland and festive! Here are a few of my favorites.








Merry Christmas!!!!!