Missions, friends, and ice cream

Tender Mercies all Around

This semester is going great, we are busier than ever and loving it!

Spencer and I are both full time students, part time workers, frisbee players, temple workers, AND family history consultants! Woohoo!

A few highlights from the last few months:

Fist things first, KALEB GOT HIS MISSION CALL!!!! HE IS GOING TO RICHMOND VIRGINIA! Back to our home land. He is leaving at the end of January, I am so excited for him. Way to go bagel boy.

Camille has been my friend since first grade, she is sooo good about staying in touch! I was so happy to hear that she was coming to Rexburg to visit and meet Spencer! We had a great day talking, making mac and cheese, feeding ducks and remembering and reminiscing. I also learned how to make acorn squash from her mom Sharri. Here is the fantastic recipe:

Cut in half, then scrape out the seeds, set the oven on 350 put a big dollup of butter with a large table spoon of brown sugar with some cinnamon in the cavity. wrap it in tin foil and put it in a baking dish and bake it for about 40 min or so (till a fork stuck in goes easy. Then remove it and scrape it all out into a bowl and mix it. Some people do not like sweet and instead like savory so instead of sugar and cinnamon you can add garlic salt and pepper and spices.

(p.s. Puting it in the microwave with water is not a good short cut)

Kyle, My favorite older brother turned... 23!!! We had a fun celebration and skype call with the family in Oregon. (Spencer's 23rd birthday is on October 28th)

Homework homework homework... we do a lot of homework. Tonight I finished my family Systems project. I compared my family to an ice cream sunday.. Best homework ever and tastiest! 

Bowl- Heavenly Father
Ice cream scoop #1 -My Dad
Ice cream scoop #2 - My Mom
Hot fudge- Kyle
Marshmellow Sauce- me
Strawberry Sauce- Kaleb
Whipped Cream- Kysa
Cherry on top- Spencer

Also, 

Spencer and I are still madly in Love 

(we are coming up on ten months! Time flies)

Fishing!

Spencer and I went fishing!

Fishing is fun! ANnnnd hard work! Who knew there was so much that went into fishing? This experience made both of us appreciate our dads, always tying the knots and putting bait on for us! Yesterday was a good practice round for us. I got to practice casting out and spencer got to practice prepping the poles and fixing all of my tangles and snags. The people around us caught a lot of fish, but the only thing we caught was our fishing knot book :)

We had these HUGE worms for our bait, way too big for the little fish in the river. We had to cut the worms in half, Spencer struggled at first, he couldnt bring himself to cut the poor little guys. Marrigae has made him a softie :)

PB+J picnic! 

(We are still learning how to work the timer on the camera)

Internship/Job

Today is Spencer’s first day at his new job/internship!! He was so excited to start this morning! He is officially the newest employee at Greg's Automotive Service & Tire. It’s a small automotive shop that is just starting out, Spencer works with three other employees, one of them being Greg himself. 

I am getting excited to go to school in the fall, and thinking more about what I want as my major. This week is spring break for us and then my job on campus and babysitting will start on the 22nd. This week I intend to paint, paint and more painting!

Pine Wood Derby

 Learning to Whittle

Spencer’s auto motive department is so small that after each semester they have a closing social for the students their families. Everyone looks forward to it because it is famous for good food and fun. This year for the entertainment they held a Pinewood derby race! A LOT of hard work went into our little car, we didn’t have any wood cutting tools, but what my handy husband did have was a pocket knife. Yes, we whittle led our car. I have only whittled once in my life, and that was a bar of soap at girls camp. Wood a bit different. But it was a fun activity that we worked on together. Spencer choose a light sky blue color for the paint and a black sharpie for the details. For weight, we taped two dollars in quarters to the top.

            It was such a fun evening, I got to see the shop Spencer works in everyday and meet a lot of his teachers, classmates and families. It was fun to see the different stages of families. I had gotten used to seeing newly weds because that’s what our apartment complex is made up of. It was refreshing to see all ages of children, I loved  interacting with them!

            Though our car didn’t win, we were proud that it crossed the finish line, AND it was never last place. I liked seeing the other derbies, we saw a variety of cars, from a lady bug car, wagon, and a lot of trucks. Now that we have some pretty cool ideas and experience, we are SO excited for our next race. The Palmers are going for gold!

Being married is such an awarding experience, even though it is just Spencer and I for now, we are a family. We work together and cry together, but most importantly we learn and laugh.. a lot! I am so happy to always be with the love of my life!

Valentines day

One of my favorite holidays! I love the red and pink hearts, chocolates and Flowers. And of course … I love LOVE! 

I left a note for spencer to find asking him to be my Valentine, at the bottom he had the option to check yes, or heck yes! The next morning Spencer came back from class with a red rose and my note attached to it, He choose heck yes :)

On Valentines day I find this sweet message waiting for me!

 He waited until I had fallen asleep the night before to surprise me. What a sweetie!

I wanted to do something special for my sweet husband. While he was in class, I quickly turned our kitchen into a romantic café! Lights dimmed with candles and the table set fancy. I acted as his waitress, cook and date! It was so much fun, I really got into it and made a menu for him to look at and a check at the end. He LOVED it!!

I am  so grateful for my husband, he is such a wonderful example to me!  Our first Valentines day was a romantic and a lot of fun, I am already looking forward to next year. We are almost at our two month mark and couldn’t be happier.

 

 Drinks

Water.....                   1 Peck

Milk......                1 forehead smooch

Chocolate milk.,,,      2 lip locks

Sides

Mashed potatoes......     3 snuggles

mixed veggies.....           2 bear hugs

Main Dish

Glazed ham....                5 passionate kisses

Dessert

Chocolate Cream Puff....        1 foot Rub

Milk shake .....                        1 back massage

Handy Husband

Small Apartment= LOTS of room for creativity

A late night tonight! Juggling working out, making dinner, laundry and FHE is not an easy task. Especially when the drier in our apartment complex didn’t completely dry all of our clothes.

Right now I feel as though I’m marinating in a lovey soup for my husband. He is such a hard worker and has a drive to get things done right. I was doing the dishes and I turn to see Spencer hanging one sock at a time on a wire, strung across our chairs. To help dry the clothes he had made this clothes line for me. It is such a simple thing but it makes my heart glow. Relish the simple things in life!

A night in Italy

Friday date night!

Spencer and I always look forward to Friday night, because that is our date night :) Honestly almost everyday feels like a date, but Fridays are special because we look forward to it all week. Last Friday was my turn and my sister helped me come up with this idea. 

A night in Italy 

We made two different kinds of pizza 

pepperoni and onion

And 

sweet peppers, onion, tomatos, garlic and ham. 

It was fun! I had never made pizza dough before and it turned out pretty good! We made the pizza on a pizza stone, so we had to heat the stone first, then make the pizza on a different surface and then move it to the hot stone. Well we made the pizza, but when we tried to move it to the stone the dough was basically glued to the pan! We pulled as gently as possible and were able to get it on the stone, although it looked a bit mangled.. BUT it tasted wonderful :) We enjoyed our master piece under our homemade fort with candles and classic Italian music. Friday nights are the BEST!!