Our Little Deformed Strawberry

So since we have started our garden not much action has occurred...except this beauty. It is a little deformed,but I couldn't love it more. It gives me hope that I am doing something right.

Takoma's Spring Break

My brother Takoma came to visit us for his spring break this past week. Sadly I don't have very many pictures cause he is so uncooperative when it comes to getting his picture taken. We had a very active week.... laser tag. in and out. jet skiing. tennis. hiking camelback. suns game. cafe rio. easter celebration. We were excited he was able to come visit us.

Mom's Birthday Weekend

March 28 was my mom's birthday. I was able to fly to Atlanta and spend the weekend with her. Because we fly stand by I had to come home a little early to guarantee I got home, but it was well worth it.

we had lots of fun...shopping. girl talk. eating lots of treaties. wynton marsalis performance. thai food. five points. furry convention. my "costa rica" dad came and partied with us for a little bit.

When we got to the hotel we saw tons of people dressed up like animals...weird. Supposedly there was a furry convention going on. What is that you ask? Look Here. The hotel agent told us though that they were people who supposedly believe they should have been born animals. My mom got in an elevator with one that was completely dressed up, here is a rough draft of their conversation....

Mom: so you are here for the furry convention?

Wolf: woof woof woof woof

Mom: Oh so can you not talk or something?

Wolf: woof woof woof

haha she came back to the hotel room just laughing her head off. Our goal before we left was to get a picture of them and we finally got an awesome one.....

Loved having girl time and being with my family. Those days are definitely few and far between. Love you mom! You are the greatest, thanks for being so amazing. Hope your birthday weekend was everything you wished for.

Reasons to Be Happy

sometimes you just need a little reminder....

1. I have the best husband. He is what makes me happy from day to day and what keeps me going. He makes me feel like the most beautiful women inside and out.

2. I have a roof over my head and a full fridge. 3. I have a job. 4. I finally finished my 21 page research paper. 5. I have an amazing and supportive family. 6. I have great friends. 7. I have the gospel in my life and a knowledge that I am a loved daughter of my Heavenly Father. 8. I am only a few weeks from being done with my bachelors degree.

9. Next week I am getting a new camera to finally dive deeper into my passion for photography. 10. In two days I get to spend time with my mom and sister.

11. My garden is growing not dying. 12. I have great visiting teachers, companion and visiting teaches.

Our Garden

This past weekend my good friend Shannon has been helping me start a garden giving me all the tips and helping me make my potter box. I love it! Since we don't have a yard it was little difficult but we managed, and our porch is getting some good use. We are growing...

I am so excited. It reminds me of when we lived in Alaska and my mom would garden all the time, I miss those days. Since this is my first garden I'm not getting my hopes up on them surviving. The other day I came home and they had wilted a little and I almost shed a tear. If anyone has any tips on how to keep my garden healthy and strong please let me know, I love advice.

If you are new at this like me, here is what we did. We got compost or aged manure to be exact :). Shannon found some free compost on Craigs list and we got so excited.Greg was like "really you found FREE poop" haha. Lets be honest some people pay for that sutff. After we filled it mostly with compost then I put potting soil on the top. Planted them and I water them about everyday.

Its Offical

Its getting hot again. My car is starting to get more uncomfortable and for the first time since October we have turned on our AC. The past few weeks though have been glorious. I wish it would stay like that forever. I have hated being stuck inside an office all day, any second I get I am outside. Now is the perfect time to come visit :) cause shortly it is going to be the hot where you don't want to be outside.

Hachi

Yesterday Greg came home with a surprise.....

A few years ago I saw my first Akita and totally fell in love they are adorable and everyone says so many good things about them, I have wanted one ever since. When I went to BYU my bishop told me the story of Hachiko and I fell even more in love. It is a story of a loyal dog who waits everyday at the train station for his owner to come home. The owner dies at work one day but the dog continues to return to the train station everyday until the day of his death nine years later . It is such a touching story and I'm so glad they made a movie out of it, talk about a total tear jerker though. I was bawling, I think Greg was too :) We can't wait to get one of our own.

Chubby Greg

Today marks the seven year anniversary of the day Greg entered the MTC to prepare for his mission in Puebla, Mexico. We can't wait for the chance to go back and visit all the families he met. He loves Mexico and he takes any chance he gets to speak spanish...hopefully one day I will be more fluent.

He always loves to pull out his pictures and laugh at how chubby he got (haha) and share all his stories.

Aww so cute! I'm so proud of him for serving a faithful mission. Still to this day he is constantly seeking opportunties to share the gospel and be an example to those around him. Don't you just love your missionaries?

I can't wait for the day when we have the chance to serve a mission together.

Dogsitting

This past weekend while our family was out of town we made sure their dogs got love and attention and had so much fun doing it. We discovered all their cute little personalities.

{Kodi} miniature australian shepherd (light brown), who we nicknamed Winnie the Pooh. He definitely required the most loving. One night after we dropped him off at home for the night he dug a whole to get out of the fence and search for people to give him some loving. Luckily the neighbor found him and returned him safely home.

{Hallie} miniature australian shepherd. She was a little scared of us at first but quickly warmed up. It took at little longer for her to warm up to Greg so whenever he was around she came and took cover near me. She was also in heat so we had the chance to practice our diaper skills with her :)

{Chloe} white maltese AKA little princess. Whenever we tried to get her to run outside she just stood by the door begging to go back inside and when we took all the dogs for a walk she put her butt down and made us drag her until she figured out she wasn't going to get her way, haha.

We had so much fun and we can't wait to have a dog of our own.They made us laugh constantly. And to top it off we were staying at my Uncles Toms house so we had cable and we were able to watch the Oscars and The Office yay!!

Washington DC

Last weekend Greg surprised me with a trip to DC to celebrate Valentines Day. We loved it!!

We ended up flying into Baltimore because we didn't make the flight to DC. It actually turned out to be really fun because once we got off the plane in Baltimore we hopped on the train to DC. It was a fun little twist to our plans. It was so cold when we got off the plane.... and I loved it!! It was such a great feeling to be cold and cuddle up next to my hubby.

We ended up getting into DC Friday night and took the metro to our hotel which was in the heart of DC, we were thrilled. I definitely recommend hotwire.com. Right away we headed out to see some sights. This was our first....

Can you see Obama in the window?

The next morning we headed out early to try and see as many sights as possible. Here is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Its such a cool building, the architecture is so unique. When we first got into DC I was taking tons of pictures of all the column buildings cause they were gorgeous and then Saturday when we walked around more I realized they were everywhere. It was such a gorgeous city.

Here is the Lincoln Memorial...

On our way to the Lincoln Memorial we saw a memorial dedicated to World War II. We definitely need to come back though sometime in the summer because it would be a completely different sight.

Korean War Memorial...

Our next stop was the museums. We were able to go to the American History, Natural History and Air and Space Smithsonians. We were shocked to find out that the smithsonians are free. I definitely recommend a trip to DC because all you really have to pay for is a hotel and food. There was so much stuff to look at you could spend hours in those easily. Some of the coolest stuff we say was the hope diamond, Abraham Lincolns famous top hat, Julia Child's Kitchen, Dorothy's shoes, parts of the world trade center, etc....

We also headed over to the Newsuem (check it out) and it was by far my favorite. They had a section of the museum dedicated to pulitzer prize winning photos. They were amazing it really inspired me to be a photographer. There they also had a piece of the berlin wall, old news footage, etc...

We had a blast it was a quick trip, but that is what we are used to these days. We were able to see a lot in in one day. We walked around DC from about 8:00am to about 10:00pm and the only down side was my feet were killing me. I don't know how the pioneers did it. It was worth it though.

The End

Thanks babe, Love you!

So Jealous

Yesterday Greg came home with great news....he gets to work from home on Thursdays. I am so Jealous!!

Happy Happy Birthday

Lately we have been doing a lot of celebrating. Last weekend we celebrated Greg's birthday by going to the cheesecake factory and a movie.

Then we had a superbowl/ birthday party at my uncles house and I made Greg his all time favorite, german chocolate cake.

Then this past weekend we were able to fly up to Utah and celebrate Gregs birthday again :) along with his sisters Birthdays Valerie {Feb 15} and Kelsey {Feb 17}. We had lots of fun. We visited Grandma Conover and brought her Valentine flowers....

We went bowling, ate at an amazing thai resturant, opened presents....

Sang Happy Birthday, blew out candles, and ate delicious pie....

We were sad to have to leave so soon.

The End!

Pray for Dylan

I don't know if you remember a few months ago my post titled "A Miracle". You can check it out here if you missed it. The accident ended up not only being a miracle, but a huge blessing in disguise. As a result of all the CAT scans they did to check for internal bleeding they found a tumor in Dilly's head, which probably would have stayed unnoticed if they hadn't gotten hit. The tumor is getting bigger and they are worried it could be cancerous.

Tomorrow she is getting surgery to remove it and there are tons of risks. We are so grateful for the accident and that the girls came out of it almost perfect, but there is still one more hurdle to jump over. Dylan will be in surgery for 12 hours tomorrow and in an induced coma another three days. I can definetly feel Heavenly Father watching over her. She is such a brave girl she told us that she is only scared about the IV. Please keep her in your prayers as she overcomes this trial.

Stress

So I started the year off great blogging, but then I realized that I better get my butt into gear if I'm going to finish my online classes in time. So I will be missing in action until the end of March. The only reason I am blogging now is because the site is not working...getting a little stressed.

After March though I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I will be done with school until further plans are made. Its crazy to think I have been going to school for 22 years and its coming to an end, yikes! When I'm bored I go crazy so I'm planning on having a lot of projects. Here are two I can't wait to make.....

I also had to postpone my table project so pictures to come, when I have time to start it.

Hope you all had a great Valentines Day!!

Birthday Boy!!

Happy 26th Birthday Sweetie!!

I can't believe how fast time flies. Thanks for being such an amazing husband, I couldn't have found anyone more perfect for me. I'm so excited to spend many more birthdays with you. Love you!

Cortney + Chad

My sister in law is getting MARRIED!! I'm so excited for them. They got engaged last weekend and are getting married April 15, 2010. We are so happy for both of them. Chad is actually one of Greg's old roommates. We are so excited to have him join the family. Sadly I don't have a picture of the cute couple yet so that will have to wait. For the wedding I get to be a bridesmaid I'm super excited so I'm trying to find a cute new black dress or skirt/shirt. Anyone know where to look? I have looked at shabbyapple, downeast, shade, jcrew, anthropologie and can't really find anything I absolutely love...thats modest. Any ideas?

We can't wait for the spring so many exciting milestones....

{April 15 } Cort & Chad's wedding
{April 22} Graduation for muah :)
{May 7} Cam Bam & Marissa's wedding
{Juneish} Kels' Graduation from Alta

Happy Groundhog's Day!!

Hope yours was just as good as ours! :)

Scrapbook Heaven

The other day my good friend from work, Shannon took me to scrapbook heaven :). I'm definitely not a serious scrapbooker and usually just go to Michael's or Johannes when I have a little project, but now that I have more time on my hands I have been getting more into it. I have recently had a desire to start making cards. So Shannon enlightened me that there is a MUCH better place to get cute paper and knick knacks. I was so excited. If it we hadn't gone on our lunch break I would have been there for hours. So I decided I wanted to make a few Valentines day cards to start off and made these.... I love them.

The store was in Mesa, Scrapbook etc. in case you want to stop by. One of the best parts about the store was that they give you awesome ideas. I will be honest I stole these ideas from samples they had. I also got the best idea for our Christmas cards next year I can't wait...:)