today i aged 15 years

Being the graduated women we are [soon to be], Kylie, Jenna, and I are among the few people in Provo not going frantic over finals. Since the husbands are still in school, they are all beyond busy, gone for hours on end, studying for finals. Therefore, the girls decided to get together to bake.

On today's agenda: bread

I got to pretend to be an expert since I had made bread before and teach Kylie and Jenna how to make some. The bread came out awesome! We did four mini loaves and two regular loaves.

*No, we couldn't wait to take two seconds to take a nice picture before digging in.
**The baby loaves turned out exactly like the loaves you can buy at Sugar and Spice in the Cougareat. We're going to be giving them a run for their money!

I didn't truly age 15 years until I was packing up my things to head home. Kylie reached into her freezer and handed me a cute little Tupperware full of homemade strawberry jam to take home and enjoy with the bread. How cute is she?! She has promised to teach me how to make the jam at our next baking party.

I can't wait!

four years

I've always thought I was a little ridiculous going into teaching when I absolutely hated being the student. Four years ago I got dropped off at BYU with no plans to actually graduate. Flash forward four years and I am sitting in my apartment twiddling my thumbs waiting for graduation to come.  The girl who hates school is actually graduating college! Who knew? I cannot begin to express how great it feels knowing that I have dutifully completed my 17 years of school. Not only did I finish, but I am graduating in something I truly love and have become very passionate about. Winning situation all around.


Now to convince Sean a college graduate needs a new dress and shoes to walk in. Nevermind that the dress will be completely covered by robes. It's fine.

Oh, and this would be a nice gift to show me how proud he is of me. . .

You're Not Hardcore, Unless You Live Hardcore

Somniloquy - sleep talking; uttering speech while asleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, it  is a sleeping disorder that affects 1 in 5 people. It's easy to brush these statistics aside because they'll never really happen to us right? Wrong.


It was a very emotional day for Jaimie yesterday for a number of reasons. For starters, she turned the whopping 22. On top of that she successfully finished her university coursework and is now one generic tearful send-off speech and an awkward handshake away from a college degree. Lastly, to make matters worse, she had to deal with a very confused Utah forecast as we had rain, snow, and more rain for the past few days. It's no wonder that after a fun-filled evening out with some friends to celebrate, she couldn't wait for her head to hit her pillow. 


Fast forward to shortly after two o'clock in the morning. I was jolted awake by the sound of a stern voice in our dark bedroom. Waiting for my eyes to adjust, I tried desperately to figure out where the voice was coming from. It wasn't until I heard it again that I discovered I was sleeping next to the "one in five" statistic.


Sleep talking can involve complicated dialogues or monologues or complete mumbling and gibberish; but for Jaimie it has a different meaning. What I heard last night amazed me. She must have started on her topic long before I awoke, because after a short pause while I searched the dark room for the mystery voice, Jaimie started into an excellent second grade lesson. Without skipping a beat she explained the solar system, including the different laws or gravity you would find on each planet. From there my midnight homeschooling went into a guided reading exercise in which I was instructed to speak up and sound out each letter of a word instead of merely guessing how it was pronounced. Finally, the cherry on top moment happened when she stopped mid-sentence and said, "Do you have a question? Raise your hand please!" 
  
After I listened patiently for about ten minutes of her lesson, and knowing recess was probably not for another 45 minutes, I decided to see if I could wake her up. Upon waking, she sleepily asked what I wanted and when I told her she had been talking in her sleep she accused me of lying and rolled over. 

Apparently, for most people it's supposed to be short-lived and rare. But something tells me I might need to brush up on my solar system geography tonight because there might be a pop-quiz.

oh, it is love

This baby has already whipped up sugar cookies and Oreo's. Who knows what will be next. . .


Sean is the best present buyer I know. We had a great Valentine's Day!

              




As soon as it was opened Sean immediately got to work on the rebate. Typical.

the real deal

This post is for you, Eric P.

Today I took on a new challenge. I get bored at work every now and then so I like to look at craft blogs. I was creeping on one such craft blog when I decided to browse through some of the recipes and found a really exciting one for home-made bread. I just happened to have all of the needed ingredients and some time on my hands today so I decided to try my hand at it.

I was talking to my mom about some of the logistics for the recipe and to ask some tips, when my dear dad got on the phone. Long story short, he feigned shock that I was making bread. Of course that only gave me more of a reason to make this bread and well. So...after a few hours (that whole raising business takes forever!) here is the finished product. I made one cinnamon loaf and the other is just regular.

PS-Grandma Jones this bread couldn't have been made without you! I was able to use the yeast you gave me for Christmas. I'm still looking forward to making bread with you!

See ya, Grizzy

This last weekend we road tripped it down to AZ for Wes' farewell. We had a great time with the family and thoroughly enjoyed that one of a kind Arizona heat. Wes spoke in church on Sunday and gave a great talk about the Book of Mormon. He was so precious and we were all so proud of him. We drove back to Utah on Tuesday only to drive up to SLC the next morning to pick Wes up from the airport and drop him off at the MTC. I loved being able to pick him up and be able to spend his last couple of hours with him. He was so excited to go in and meet the other elders and get his mission started. He is a great kid and will be an awesome missionary. I will definitely miss unique personality.

Wes specifically requested 5 Guys for his 'Last Supper'. It seemed like the perfect choice, we all had delicious burgers. After that we took Wes over to the MTC to get some pictures. Unfortunately the MTC is under construction and we didn't get any pictures over there. We walked up to the Provo temple to take some pictures instead. All the elders were out playing soccer and four square and Wes cheesed it up with some of the elders as we passed. He was cracking me up, so excited about the new pals he was already making.

As we got to the top by the fountain, two elders came rushing by us and said hello to Wes. Wes gave them a cheery hello and then as soon as he passed Wes says (too loudly in my opinion) "Chicken Little!!". One of the elders was total Chicken Little style with blonde hair and glasses. I'm sure that elder heard and I was cracking up at Wes's lack of tact as well as how right on he was.

After taking pictures we headed back to the car to drive into the MTC and drop off Wes. We were greeted by tons of elders lining the sidewalks and waving to incoming elders. We pulled into our spot and there were two elders right there to help Wes with his luggage and show him where to go. Once the elders had Wes's luggage they told him they would take care of it and kind of started to walk off and Wes just followed right after them. They noticed this and told Wes he could take a couple minutes to say goodbye. He was so excited to get in there that it didn't even dawn on him to say goodbye! After that he gave us hugs and told me he expected a Tanner niece or nephew by the time he got back and off he went. I'm so glad we got to spend that time with Wes, we will miss him!

Krazy Krafting

Since my last post I have completed a couple different projects and am extremely happy with how everything has turned out! First, I found a very cute idea here and put my own little spin on it.

                      I started with some cheap canvas art I found and painted
                      them white. Then I found the fonts I wanted and printed
                                    them out, big to be used as stencils.

Then I traced my letters and symbol onto freezer 

paper and cut around it and then ironed it on my fabric. 

Then I used black paint to paint in the letters and symbols.

And here we have the final project.

 

Next, I needed to cover another pillow for the bed. I can't take all the credit for this, my mom helped a ton with the design and logistics. I definitely couldn't have pulled this one off by myself. It turned out awesome!

And here is the end product of all my hard work....