Rachel's Brithday and Easter

Rachel's birthday was on the 11th of this month so we went out to dinner on Friday night to celebrate. We went to a restaurant in Cedar Rapids called Granite City. They had yummy food and it was nice to spend some time alone with each other. It's hard to be able to do that with Nathan working so hard in school.On Saturday (Rachel's birthday), we went to a church primary activity, came home and dyed Easter eggs. This is the first time we have ever dyed eggs in the 4 1/2 years we've been married. It was lots of fun. Nathan's eggs are the blue and green ones (the manly colors).

After we dyed the eggs, Rachel opened her present from Nathan which was a food processor. Now she doesn't have to use a cheese grater to shred anything anymore! YEAH!Later that night we attended the adult session of stake conference. The talks that were given had messages that we both needed to hear. They were uplifting and encouraging, and the broadcast the next day from Salt Lake was also wonderful. Elder Snow from the Presidency of the Seventy spoke, along with Sister Lifferth from the Primary General Presidency, Elder Dallin H. Oaks from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and our Prophet President Thomas S. Monson. We are so blessed to live in this day in age. Sometimes we wonder where we would be without the church.

Rachel's Spring Break Getaway

I was able to take another trip back to California earlier this month. My boss took some time off to go to Paris to visit his in-laws and I decided to browse the web for plane tickets back to California. To make a long story short, I ended up finding a REALLY cheap flight home to California from Iowa (which is very rare...it costs a fortune to get out of here). After Nathan and I talked about it, I booked the flight and told him Goodbye.

I ended up staying 10 days back at home. I don't think my Dad knew what to do with all the extra estrogen that was back in the house. The first few days weren't so hot. I had bronchitis. Yes...what a way to start off a vacation. I just laid low for a couple of days, but then was able to visit with family and friends once I got better.

One of the highlights of my trip was going to Disneyland with all my sisters, my mom, my niece, and my nephew. I have attached some pictures below for all of you to see.


In front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle
From Left to Right: Rachel, Emily, Katherine, Breta (Mom), and Mary

Getting ready to get in line for California Adventures new ride...Toy Story. Katherine, Andrew (Emily's child) and Breta

Here are Emily's kids (Elizabeth and Andrew) strapped in and ready to go to the next ride

To much fun for Elizabeth...
...and too much fun for Andrew.

Rachel's First Quilt

Back in Fall 2008, our wards Relief Society was getting ready to make rag quilts for an enrichment activity. Well I know nothing about sewing and so I decided it was time I do something about it. With the help of my wonderful friend Kristi, I got the fabric, cut out the squares, pieced it all together, and started to sew my first quilt.





And after 5 months...I finally have the finished product!

Sleeping Beauties

I was downloading the pictures from our camera the other night, and I stumbled across this photo that I took back in December. Nathan had been working so hard to finish the semester strongly that he often stayed up all night. Well, one evening I came into the family room and found this photo opportunity and couldn't pass it up.

Kiss the Cook

For one of our wards enrichment activites we made a Valentines decoration. When I brought it home, Nathan said to me "You do both REALLY well." Anyways, the plate turned out really cute.

Game Night

For FHE we went over to a friend's house and played a game of scrabble. However, this was no ordinary game. Our friend's sister made him a life size scrabble board for Christmas and we got to christen it for the first time yesterday. Like always...Nathan won.

Warm and sunny

This past week the weather has been really interesting. It would have been a good time to go to Florida or the Carribean or something like that. Here is a screenshot of the temperature last Thursday morning:

I'm not sure you get used to weather like this. I was told that it was colder in Iowa this past week than it was in Alaska or Canada. I don't know if that's true, but it doesn't increase my desire to live there either. Incidentally, our pipes partially froze because of the frigid weather. It was an adventure.