One more reason why I LOVE Texas

My friend Cassie posted this on her blog and it made me so excited to read. Of course most of you know what a fan of Texas I am... But here is another reason why I love this state! It is now OK in Texas for teachers to teach doubt in evolution & the big band theory. Say all you want about Texas but I am a big fan of this. Science does NOT prove everything. As my friend Cassie stated, and I firmly believe as well, I do not see Texas as ever allowing or requiring their teachers to teach homosexuality as a norm. I am so glad we have people in Texas who are not afraid to go against the grain and let religion be an wonderful thing.

To read the full article- Go to the link below... God Bless Texas!!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123819751472561761.html

Let's go fly a kite...

What we do in Logan, Utah to keep ourselves entertained.

Spring Break: Houston 2009

We are back in Utah now, sadly (no offense to any Utahns... it just doesn't quite compare to Texas, haha). We had a wonderful, WONDERFUL time. We spent so much time with friends and family and did SO much in the city... we never had a spare moment! Here are a few photos of our adventures this past week.

Us on the plane- Can you tell we are SO excited to be in Houston??

My sweet niece Abbi at the Park. I love this girl!!

Geoff and I took Abbi almost everywhere we went. If we can't be parents just yet- we will be the best aunt and uncle around.

Me and my two favorite girls. Abbi (my niece) and my best friend Sheree's little girl Ally Camille (yes, she is named after me which is why i love her so much haha )

Abbi's 3rd birthday party. Blowing out the candles

Is that not the CUTEST cake you have ever seen??

We went to the Houston Rodeo with my best friend Sheree and her husband Shaun. We had such a great time... It was AMAZING! We saw Clint Black there.

Me and Sheree- best friends since 6th grade.

Shaun & Geoff... Matching haha

Geoff eating a bbq turkey leg at the Rodeo. SO dang good. We also tried some fried alligtor which was really good, surprisingly!

Geoff's 27th bday. Abbi helping him blow out all those candles!

For his bday we went out for some really yummy Texas bbq at Pappa's bbq.

My whole family except for my brothers. Brett was in utah still and Ty has to work late

Us at the Kemah boardwalk- it was a GORGEOUS day. We rode rides and ate good food.

Just some fun pics of Abbi. Yes, I know. She is the CUTEST thing ever.

We went to the Museum District in Houston and spent a good chunk of time in the Natural history museum.

One of the most unique things we did during our trip was go to Mission control at NASA during the shuttle launch this sunday. My older brother works as a district manager for a congressman in Houston who is closely connected with NASA so we got a special VIP pass to go see the launch. Lets just say Geoff was in "nerd heaven".

All in all, it was such a great trip. We had so much fun and I really dreaded coming back to Logan. Thank goodness it has warmed up since we left (it snowed 2 feet the day we flew to Houston). I am so excited to move back to Houston. There is just so much diversity there that I have really missed. Anyway, it will be good to get back to a routine and to not be so tempted to spend so much money like I did over Spring Break!!

Fabulous!!

Seriously... Geoff and I are having way too much fun down here (Houston). We have been playing non-stop and just having a crazy good time. I forgot what it's like to live in a city where there is SO much to do, ALL the time!! I probably will never wanna leave. This only makes me SO much more excited to move back here in 9 months!

So excited!!

Tuesday morning Geoff and I are boarding a plane to Houston! I can hardly wait... Mostly to see the cutest little girl in the world Abbi Lynn Nelson. Heavenly Father hasn't blessed us with a child YET, so I am determined to be the BEST aunt ever to this little girl:

Draper Temple Open House

We had the privilege of going to the Draper Temple open house this weekend and it was a really good experience for us. The temple is gorgeous and unique in it's own way and I was just amazed at how the church does everything so perfectly when it comes to the house of the Lord. Even though the temple is yet to be dedicated, you could feel a sweet spirit there and I knew that I was on holy ground. As we sat in the sealing room, a lovely couple bore their testimonies of the temple and the sealing of forever families and it really touched me. I knew that in that very room, for many years to come, Eternal families would be created right where I was sitting. Sitting next to Geoff, it made me think of my special day where I started my family and I was overcome with gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father who would let me have Geoff for forever. I feel so blessed to be able to go to a temple whenever needed. It was a neat experience to be there with almost all of Geoff's side of the family. I am so grateful for the house of the Lord and all the blessings that come from attending the temple. I have a firm testimony that it is indeed God's work that goes in these sacred temples.

Yummy HEALTHY peach cobber!?!? It's true!

Ok so on my quest to make recipes healthy, I decided to surprise Geoff tonight with a yummy yet healthier version of my peach cobbler and I must say... it came out REALLY well!! It was moist and delicious.
Here is how you do it:

2 cans peaches in light syrup (drain peaches & reserve the syrup)
1/4 c. Skim milk
1/2 c. Flour
1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. oats
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. peach syrup
1 tsp. baking powder


Drain peaches and reserve the juice. Mix all the dry ingredients. Then add the milk and peach syrup to the dry ingredients. Pour into a 9x9 sprayed dish. Spoon peaches into the mixture. Bake at 375 for 35-40 min. We didn't add icecream but you could if you're feeling scandalous =)
Or maybe just a dallop of fat-free cool whip....Enjoy!!!

Our relaxing weekend...

We decided kind of on a whim to leave Logan for the weekend and to spend some time with Geoff's parents. We had such a nice weekend! We got into Cedar City at around 8:30 Friday night and stayed up until midnight just talking to my in-laws. I feel so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. Saturday I woke up and went for a long run... and it was just beautiful. The weather was nice- not a cloud in the sky. Geoff got to show his dad the wonders of google earth and my father-in-law thought it was just about the neatest thing ever, haha. Then we all got ready to go down to St. George for the day. We decided to go down to the St. George dinosaur mueseum... and it was actually REALLY cool. They literally built the building around real dinosaur tracks that are from 200 million years ago. Crazy huh? Then we did a little shopping and went out to eat at Outback Steakhouse, which I suggest because they serve the one and only Texas BLUEBELL ice-cream there (the ONLY place in the northern states that has it and trust me-- its the BEST store bought ice-cream you will ever have!) and man it was SO great!! I only had a couple of bites of the icecream and it was just heaven, haha. The weather in St. George was wonderful! It was in the mid 60's. What a nice break from the frigid Logan air we have been living in! It was just such a lovely weekend and we feel truly blessed to have such wonderful parents on both sides of the family.

Photography Fun

So Geoff and I got a new editing program for all the photography we plan on doing with our new camera and I have been messing around with it and LOVE it... Here are a few of my Bridal portraits that I have been editing. This is what I have been doing to avoid homework!

Whatever happened to GOOD movies?

So today I decided to drag Geoff to a chick flick (He is actually pretty good about seeing girly movies). I really wanted to see "He's just not that into you" because 1) I LOVE Jennifer Aniston and 2)I love Ben Affleck and 3)It seemed really funny.

Well... Lets just say, I left the theater VERY disappointed.

The movie portrays men as dogs that are only after ONE thing and Women as desperate, needy and without any self-worth. One character's husband cheats on her and of course, she blames herself. One character is the "other woman" and makes it seem okay because "someone she knows knows someone who left their spouse because they married the wrong person", so it was "okay" to have an affair. It also made many comments about marriage that took away from the sacredness of it.

The only story I did like (there is like 10 different ones going on throughout the whole movie), was Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck's characters. They were real people with decentcy and morals. Sorry if any of you have seen the movie and liked it, I don't mean to offend. But I wish I honestly would have walked out of the movie rather than stay. It just was a very worldly movie that just didn't mesh well with my standards and beliefs. If you need a good movie to see, which may be in the cheap theaters now, it's Marley & Me. Good movie with good family values.

That's just my two cents! Take it or leave it :]