Happy Birthday, Mitch! :o)

Okay, so i'm a little late on this...Mitch's birthday was December 2nd. I was so lucky to have the day off so I could make his cake! It's one that i've wanted to make for someone for years but never have! (And now i'm fresh out of original cake ideas...)

Here are some pictures :o)


Here are the rest of the ingredients I used--pretty simple, really!



And the finished product:



Now for a top view:

I had so much fun making it! It was a near disaster until I started frosting it...turns out cakes need something like 300000 hours to completely cool!

All he asked for were church clothes, so that's pretty much all he got, plus some movies. Nothing exciting!

Love you baby! Can't wait to spend many, many more birthdays with you! :o)

Eight Special Guests

About a week ago, we (my in-laws and our family) had a family over for dinner and fun. They usually don't get invited many places and were thrilled to come!

It's not like any of them are weird or unsocial...it's just that they have

4 Quadruplets, who happen to be TWO years old, plus a 6 and 8 year-old. So, needless to say, they're quite the houseful!

We decided we could handle them and got ready for them to come over.

Mom and Dad Dooley made dinner and got activities ready, Ethan provided the jungle gym (he's going to be a great uncle to climb all over someday!), and the rest of us just served as the "big people" that the mom and dad of these special 6 would need.

We started the night by listening to Brooklyn, their oldest, play a song on the piano, then listened to Jayna play a song on the harp. One of the little quads was just mesmerized by the harp and tried to sneak off to it and touch those strings all night (she succeeded many times...)


Then we made peanut butter playdough! They loved it and it was all completely edible! We sent it home in baggies so we could get ready for dinner, tater tots and chicken nuggets, with steak for the adults. :o)

Then we led them all downstairs to watch a Disney movie they'd never seen. They picked "A Bug's Life." None of us had seen it in a long time: what a cute movie! Ethan got attacked by 4 two year olds, over and over and over, and was such a good sport by letting these little ones climb all over him!

Afterwards, we had cake and ice cream for dessert, played some more, discovered Ethan and Jayna's Halloween candy (woo hoo!) and after getting to know them all very well, they went home.

We all let out a sigh of exhaustion, wondering how these parents did this EVERY day!! They are so wonderful and a great family to share the ward with.

That night I doubled up on my birth control :-P

Update

So I haven't posted for awhile because I'm lame.

You were all thinking it :o)

Mitch is enjoying his job at Wyoming Work Warehouse: a place that sells Carhartt and thick denim jeans and stuff...this is a mining town so the store does really, really well! He loves it there and his boss is a Church member, so it makes everything easier. He got a new calling a few weeks ago as an Elder's Quorum teacher, which he's loving: he taught his first lesson today and is teaching again next week, too! He is getting to know his brother, Ethan, better. Ethan is a senior in high school and just the best kid you'll ever meet. Mitch's parents were hoping they'd get to spend more time together before Ethan leaves for college then a mission. I think their wishes are being answered: these two are getting to know each other better and are getting closer and closer!

I'm enjoying working part-time at Marshall Jewelry with my mother-in-law. It's amazing! I wanted to get to know her better and this is the perfect way! The hours are great and it's never open on Sunday because the Marshalls are Church members also. Plus, just today I was offered a nannying job on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30-1 pm for 5, 3, and 1 year old kidlets in another ward. It should be exciting and I'm hoping to start next week. This week I have a lot going on with school. I find out my grade for my midterm in one class and take the midterm exam in another. I had to set up a proxy exam since i'm not at BYU-Idaho, which is actually the hard way for this teacher to do things; most of my other exams are online (even when i've been on campus!) and it makes it much easier. Oh, and I recently chopped off my hair (if you haven't seen it yet the pictures are on facebook), which i'm loving: I hate feeling high-maintenance so now I can just spend 5-10 min. on my hair and it's DONE!

The ward isn't the same: I miss Overland Park 1st Ward more than anything. It's really hard to go to church sometimes knowing I don't know anyone yet, plus there's no one our age. The adults are really nice and i'm starting to work on names, now that I have most faces down. Small towns are different, though, and not what i'm used to! They have their own lingo and their own way to dress (which is NOT my way to dress...) and they're all really close. It's a fairly new ward, the 4th ward in the stake here in Gillette. They organized it right before we got married but everyone seems to have been a group for years! Hope I can fit in somewhere!

We can't wait to get to Idaho but don't anticipate being poor as dirt...it's really nice living free here and only worrying about gas and tithing, but we know we're supposed to be in Idaho, which makes us look forward to it. (Plus, we better get used to the poor thing...only 6 1/2 more years of school!.....)

Well that's it: thanks for reading! I miss everyone!

Married life is bliss :o)

We've been married 28 days now, according to my Facebook counter :o) We just love it!! The best part is that we can see each other whenever we want, and we don't have to worry about any tempations keeping us from the Temple: it's great!!

I know I haven't posted in forever! Since my last post, we've had formal pictures taken, gotten married, bought a couch and a car, packed up everything I own, and moved to WYOMING! (Until January when we head back to Idaho). We just love our little life, even if there is more stress than we ever realized...who knew our parents had to think about so much just to live and eat!?

Even if we're a little shell-shocked, we're still happy and that's all that matters!

I started two online classes. (Mitch's school break is this fall, mine was last summer) One is a general called Art and Propoganda and the other is a religion class, New Testament. I'm excited about them but also a little nervous! I haven't been in school since the beginning of April and it's nervewracking getting back in the swing of things: or trying to at least! My New Testament teacher is very grumpy and my Art and Prop teacher is just the opposite! So at least I got one happy teacher!

Mitch is working at the same place he worked after he got home from his mission and I just was told today that I got a job at Hallmark. I'm also working for a temp agency on the side. Yay for working at Hallmark during the holidays! At least it's a company i'm familiar with, being headquartered out of the city I was born in! Mitch's boss is a member of the Church and is very nice, and mine seems nice too. Wish us luck!

Here are a few pictures from our formals and wedding day: i'll get the reception pics up soon! I want to know how to make a slideshow on this thing...maybe a Smilebox like Sis Bishop does!

So much fun!

Engagement pictures are just the best...I love looking at them over and over! Ours come up as my screensaver, I have a collage of them as my wallpaper, and various prints of them around my house. I just love them! They remind me of how much love Mitch and I share and how anxious we are to be sealed in the temple. He comes to Kansas August 1st, which just couldn't come soon enough. I guess it's a blessing for us to be apart, mostly to survive temptations that all engaged couples are tortured with (or so i'm told!), but also so my Mitch won't get too distracted while he's in school at BYU-I!

Here are a few favorites of mine...how many can I post on this thing? I'm SO new at this!!

Love A&M

Best Memorial Day Weekend EVER!!

Mitchell and I were together for four days this Memorial Day Weekend, from Friday the 22nd to Tuesday the 26th. He came into town so he could meet my family, take engagement pictures, and complete our registry. He was a great sport through all of it: even after he saw Bed, Bath, and Beyond for the first time ever and still agreed to spend the next four hours there with me, zapping things with the new found toy gun i'd put in his hand :o) We got everything done that we needed to and had a great time doing it. In fact, we're now thinking about going to optometry school in Kansas City!! We're still two years away from starting optometry school, but it's soon enough to start thinking about it. I'm just glad he loved my family enough that he wants to spend time living near them!!

All in all it was a GREAT weekend, and definitely something we needed after being separated. We're both cursing BYU-I's summer semester, the sole reason we're apart this summer, but he's doing great in school because he isn't being distracted by a girl :o) Only 55 days till August 1st, when he comes back and I never have to be separated from my sweetie again!!

I'll be posting engagement pics the second we get the cd! (our session went FABULOUSLY, by the way!! Beautiful weather, great photographer, attractive man...I could go on!)

Until August 1st, I'll be working full-time as a Home Support Provider for Medicaid of Kansas. Wish me luck: this is a very tiring job, although it's always been worth the work! Mitchell will be proving his great work ethic by working two part-time jobs AND carrying a full load of classes!

Love,
Alaina and Mitchell :o)

Wow...a blog!

So, I wanted to wait to do this until after we got married, but I was a little too excited :o) So, here it is! There probably won't be much on it until after August when we're actually married, but I comment on so many other people's blogs that I figured I might as well have my own!

Life in Rexburg is a tease...yesterday it went from 40 degrees to 7 degrees in about 8 hours...we can't wait to graduate and get outta here!

In other news, we're hopefully going to Gillette, WY to be with Mitch's family for General Conference. I'm really excited! If the weather doesn't cooperate the plans are canceled, obviously, so keep your fingers crossed for good weather!

Other than that, we just have grades and finals to worry about! Fun stuff! (not...)