Happy 1 Year Anniversary!!!

...One Year Ago Today...

...Jess and I were married...

This weekend Jess and I celebrated by taking a short trip to Sedona.

It is such a beautiful, relaxing place, and as I was looking up things to do in Sedona, most were really expensive.

But then I came across "Out Of Africa" 

which is a wildlife park just 30 minutes south of Sedona!

Haha, both Jess and I had gone when we were in like 5th grade and a recent episode of "The Bachelor" sparked our interest in an African Safari

...I can't believe he wore that safari hat the whole time...

ANYWAY!

So we spent most of friday morning and afternoon walking around Out Of Africa. First thing we did was take the African Safari Ride. We all received carrots to feed the giraffe.

Jess was super excited obviously :)

 The giraffe stuck his head all the way in the tram and ate all our carrots out of our hands! some people even put the carrot in their mouths and received a giraffe kiss... unsanitary.

...We Saw Zebras...

 ...Camels...

 ...and whatever this is...

 After the Safari we walked around admiring all the lions and then went to the Tiger Splash Show where people basically taunt tigers with toys and try and get them to jump in the water... didn't work out so well most of the time.

 Shhhh... The Lion Is Sleeeeping

 Tiger Splash Show

 Right before we left we got some AMAZING shots of the lions, National Geographic might wanna give me a call :)

...Cue LOTS of lion pictures...

 

 ...My Favorite Picture...

We then headed to Sedona and checked into our hotel, that night we just relaxed and ate at a mexican food restaurant nearby. In the morning we went down to the hotel diner and had a gourmet breakfast

...I LOVE BREAKFAST...

I had scrambled eggs, wheat toast (divine), sausage (should have picked bacon), and roasted potatoes (soooo good)

 Jess chose ham, cheese, and bell pepper omlet with roasted potatoes

 After breakfast we ventured outside and took a walk down the creek that runs behind the hotel. This is the GORGEOUS view from the hotel grounds.

 

 This is what Jess gets for buying me such an awesome camera for my birthday!

 And finally,

the view from our hotel room balcony

...why can't mesa look like this...

 It was such a great getaway and so fun to spend time with Jess. 

Happy One Year! 

Home Improvement Projects!

This past week Jess and I have had fun doing some home improvement projects. I really hate the fact that my house isn't decorated...I wish I was an interior designer and could see a vision for every room but nay I am not. So I do things VERY slowly and just hope it will all come together in the end :)

My project this week was to make a kitchen sign using some vinyl I bought 50% off at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago.

So we went to home depot and bought a wood slab 11.5 x 33.5 inches. It was way too expensive I should have found cheaper wood. Oh well lesson learned! Then I ran to Michaels and got my red paint and crackle medium.

 First I painted the board with 2 coats of white paint, after that dried I placed the vinyl lettering on and also made a thin black border around the lettering.

 Once the black border dried I taped off my outside border and painted it with a thin layer of crackle medium. Once that dried almost all the way, I painted on my red border.

 ALL DONE!

Jess spent the weekend working on our baseboards. We really wanted white baseboards but didn't want to pay big bucks for them. So, Jess had the brilliant idea of just painting them ourselves!

It's been a learning experience but I absolutely love how they turned out! 

Here is the beginning stages

Lots and lots of taping

 Lots and lots of priming then painting

 Lots and lots of caulking and carefully pulling off tape

  ...And this horrible mess was my project today...

The dreaded spare room aka junk room

Full of tools, art supplies, scrapbook crap, decorations, boxes, unused wedding gifts, wrapping paper, etc.

 This post is for my dad... who was always disgusted by the tornado that was my bedroom.  He would always say, "If you can't learn to clean your room you will never be able to keep your own house clean"

Well he forgot I have TREMENDOUS organizing skills

After 3 large bags of garbage...

here is the result!

 HURRAY! Now I'm tired and ready for bed.

Adios

Sun's Game

On Thursday Jess and I went to the Suns Game. My dad was nice enough to give us tickets for Christmas and Jess hadn't been to a game in like 15 years! It was so fun to sit so close and see the players live. Even though I could care less about sports... still cool :)

Oh and the chicken caesar pizzans you can get at the arena

....Soooo Gooooood....

Valentine's Day and Freebies

 Valentine's Day makes me happy...

Especially when I receive flowers. I L-O-V-E Flowers.

Thank you Jess!

 Our Valentine's Day consisted of us both working 10 hours, then exchanging "i love you" cards, spaghetti dinner combined with Olive Garden Salad and breadsticks, and 2 hours of "The Bachelor"

How romantic :)

I am so thankful for Jess and I am so excited that our 1 year anniversary is coming up less than 3 weeks!

* CHANGE OF TOPIC *

Everyone knows these days that coupons are the way to go. I've been lazy lately but when i can remember I always try to go grab the FREEBIES of the week at the grocery store. 

...Here is what I got today...

3 FREE softsoap handsoaps

 18 FREE airheads (not for us, but to bribe our primary children with!)

 4 FREE packs of Mentos Gum

 And 6 FREE packs of Colgate Toothpaste

See Jess, all those annoying newspapers laying around do benefit us in some way :)