{family additions}

Yesterday Jer and I had this crazy idea to head out to Topaz mountain for fun since I didn't work. It was a long drive and I got quite a bit of a nap in. Once we got there it was hot but Jared impressed me with his topaz finding skills

I also love this man because he's constantly entertaining me...like I was trying to take a suitable picture of us to on our 'adventure' and came up with this...

and then on our way home we were passing a train and my hubby decided to race it...like a cowboy in our Mazda3?



So those are just some reasons why I love my hubby. We also  saw some wildlife including this cute little baby horse-y

 Which reminds me I haven't announced it yet...

Breck and Jarom (Jared's sis and bro-in-law) are prego! They are due sometime in February. We are so excited for them to have a second addition to their family. This year has brought quite a bit of change to the Smith/Cowan families and its looking to be a great rest of the year!

.:our first family Fourth Celebration:.

Last night we dared the risks and set off on our first illegal adventure as man and wife. We had some different kinds of fireworks (I'm not sure of the names of) that flew really high up into the sky and were obvious for blocks around...which quickly drew po po's to the area. We only did about four or so and I didn't get a good picture of any of them except this one mid launch.

Jared barely let me handle any of the fireworks and was very resigned to let me even light the punk sticks let alone the mortars. He basically set them all off after my first one which I stuck to far into the grass and it was just an epic fail.

But trust me, I'm not that bad with fire.

 

Normally. I just get really excited by it. As soon as Jared saw the first glimpse of a cop he took the fireworks downstairs and that was that. Sad day. However, we will try again very very soon...

...until then, enjoy your Utah allowed fireworks and summer.

:)

The Aroma...

...of fireworks are soon to be smelled wafting viciously from our backyard park...or somewhere in Utah County. We're not sure yet. They may, or may not be illegal fireworks. You'll never know. All you can know is that we went for a short and beautiful trip/drive through Evanston and back on the Mirror Lake Highway. And may or may not have made a pitstop at a inconspicuous stand somewhere thereabouts.

I'm sure ya'll are wondering why we're barely getting around to doing fireworks. Well, we both have been mega busy since we got married trying to get on our feet and basically I worked the 3rd, 4th, 23rd, and 24th when everyone was doing their grand fireworks so I missed EVERYTHING. I just got this hankering for fireworks because July is not July without some BANG BANG if you know what I mean. And Jared is a pyro. Cough cough. So there.

That and the aroma of our good BBQ's is what our neighbors will remember us for hopefully. Speaking of aroma's, our Aroma Rice Cooker is defective. Sorry if you gave it to us, we don't hold you responsible I was just extremely upset that one of my all-time favorite foods will not be cooked until we get a new one. Seriously, I don't like it when instruction manuals for a kitchen appliance have no actual instructions in them...only nutritional information about rice instead of telling me what flashing lights and 'C1' means. I'm extremely unimpressed with Aroma since I called to figure out what to do or if we could send it in because its warranted and haven't heard anything back...oh well.

Anyways we are embarking on mission bottle rocket tonight starting at approximately 2200 MST. I'll update tomorrow on our late night firework show.

P.S. I just found this on loveactually-blog.blogspot.com and loved it because its so true from my marital perspective,

"The sexiest man in the world is the one loading the dishwasher because that tells me we're in this together." 

This describes Jer to a 't'. I love that man so very very much. And yes, he almost always does the dishes every night. Aren't I lucky? Well yes I am! I love him with all my heart!

.Jared's camping trip.

I woke up this morning to husband kissing me goodbye and telling me he loved me. I tried to go back to sleep, but it isn't easy sleeping alone. I guess I now know what he's been going through with me working grave shifts. I got up and started cleaning/organizing/trying to waste time and came across this sweet surprise left to me by my baby

It made me smile and miss him even more which meant I needed to preoccupy myself even more. I decided cleaning was just keeping my hands busy but not my head, so I went outside to get some sun and read my current novel. I got through a good hundred or so pages and got PLENTY of sun. I'm slightly red...oh well.

I then got ready and headed to BYU campus to deal with the difficulty of changing my marital status and name. That being done I headed on my way home. Well on the way I passed the Paul Mitchell hair school, and thought maybe I should go check how much it was to put a demi hair color in my hair.....and then I did it.

I had the girl put in a 3RB and I LOVE IT!!! This may be a permanent change depending on what Jer thinks when he gets home...

It had a bit of red in it that will show mainly in the sunshine, you can see some of it here. Anyways that took a good two hours at the salon and I hadn't eaten before I went so once I was on my way home I was STARVING. Thank goodness Jared left me this very healthy meal to throw in the oven when I got home. No preparation necessary. Isn't that nice?

Gosh, I am glad Jer is going to be home tomorrow so he can cook. I seriously think I may burn the pizza. It's in the oven currently. But no worries, the timer is sitting right next to me.

I am so glad Jared is only going to be gone for one night. He may be semi used to being alone for extended periods of time without me, but I certainly am not! I work a grave tonight thank goodness so I don't have to stay curled up in bed scared all night. Its barely getting dark and I'm already getting jumpy. I'm glad my big strong man will be here tomorrow night to scare the shadows away for me. I don't know how I coped before we were married. I've almost forgotten single life! Which is good, I don't want to live any other way then married for the rest of my life! I love you Jared Hilton Smith! Come home soon and safe!

{The first month of marriage}

This past month has absolutely flown by. We are still amazed at how its already been a month since our magical day. I've loved our adventures, and fun times so far as a married couple.

I love waking up next to my handsome bed-headed husband and having him smile at me. I love having him bring me breakfast in bed or have dinner ready when I get home from work exhausted. I love having him grabbing me out of the blue and dancing with me in our kitchen. I love going on walks and looking at the stars with him. I love brushing my teeth next to him and getting ready for church together. I love watching the movie 'Up' in bed with my hubby and having us both still cry when Mr. Fredrickson's wife dies. I love how excited he gets when he gets to go fishing. I love how he looks at me with that secret smile and loving look that only I get to see everyday.

I just found this picture on my camera. This was taken right after we had finished with our pictures at Temple Square on the day we got married. We had just gotten in the car and decided to capture the moment. I'm so glad we did because I love this picture! We both look so relieved and happy. I love this man and I love how he loves me unconditionally. I can't wait for the next thirty billion months to come, and I know we'll be living them all as if we're newlyweds still!!!


We decided because of all the bad rap stories we'd heard on year old wedding cake to eat half of it on our one month anniversary, and then the other half at our six or one year anniversary. We haven't decided yet.

Either way here are the pictures from the event today...

Our wedding cake thawed

Cuttin' the cake

Dancing to our song 'Lucky'

Post cake eating...we don't feel so good. But He's still cute and handsome as ever! I LOVE THIS MAN!!! 

P.S. fondant on cakes that's old is NASTY. The rest was OK though.

Dah dah dah...just ONE MORE reason to LoVe BYU!!!

This just brought the hugest smile to my face, that and being next to my honey. (Jared even laughed at it if that tells you anything!)



Watch it. It's surprisingly good. For the newest Old Spice commercial, here it is...

these days...

...I live for days like this past month. I love my husband so much, and even though nothing terribly exciting like getting married and having a reception is happening at the moment, we are making memories every single day!

Today after sleeping in until one P.M., working a couple hours, and them coming home to 'Jer-Dawgs' (imitation J-dawgs) made by my baby, I decided to finally use my kitchen aide and make me hubby some sweet treats...

(Mm chocolate chip cookies!)

So although we haven't taken any huge trips yet (although we have some planned) we still love spending time together without any other time expectations like work. We love going on walks in our neighborhood or driving up the canyon to watch the stars. We also spend a lot of our time watching movies. If you don't believe me just check out our DVD stash...

We're two days away from our one month anniversary! Crazy!! Its been the most amazing month ever, I'm his spell check and he's my guardian by checking under the bed and in the closets before bed. We love having our random newlywed schedule of having date night on Tuesday nights and FHE on any day I don't have to work. We love our life and wouldn't have it any other way. It will be interesting to see what happens once we start school but I know all will be well, everything is always well when I have this amazing man next to me.

a need to vent...

For those of you that don't know I recently made the choice to start working in a nursing home in addition to the home health job I'd been doing. It has been a smart choice because we need the money, but it has sucked working my first grave shifts, and dealing with all the crap that goes on in a nursing home. Lazy nurses, CNA's who are jerks, and patients who are needlessly demanding are not a bright spot in my day.

For the most part its been ok, some days even great because I connect with one of the patients that aren't completely there and I help them, but today was absolute &*%#. I won't tell specific stories of what happened because it would take to long, but basically if you want me to do something be nice about it because I'll be more likely to want to do it and more helpful. If you're an a-hole to me about it I respond negatively. I got ready to leave work feeling exhausted and like I had worked especially hard today because we were short an aide (one girl decided to just not come in), but right before I left I had a nurse tear into me. He hadn't been friendly to me all shift and then just became unnecessarily snappy with me at the end about one specific patient. Ruder than he needed to to get what he wanted done. Wish I could have said, "Yeah, I understand you've had a long day too nurse, but don't take it out on me." But I didn't because that would have just made it escalate. So instead I thought I'd write it to all of you who read this.

The only bright spots of my day was finally getting my social security name 'changed' today around noon and then coming home from this awful shift to my amazing husband who had made me dinner and cleaned the house.I love this man so so much and am so grateful he is in my life. How did I snag such an amazing guy? Anyways I'm tired and just want to snuddle and I'm sure he'll be more than happy to do that with me...right about...now.

.:having a grand FISH of a time:.

With me working full time now, we're taking advantage of every minute we have together. Originally the plan was to go play tennis, but then we realized that we were lacking the ever important racquets and tennis balls. Yeah, those may be important. So I agreed to take another hit at FLY FISHING. I think I've kinda got the hang of it better now...

Us trespassing? No, we'd never.

I often go walking, in fields of clover...

That gray thing attached to my pole with the red on it was my fake 'cricket'...kinda gross looking not going to lie. That's supposed to draw in the fish?

There's my honey bringing home the fishies :) Except we didn't catch any. But we had fun wading in the water with the sun on our backs.

This is my absolute favorite part of the outting today!

I love this man!!! I am SO lucky to be married to him!

{the most amazing trip of my life: The Honeymoon}

Well our week long Honeymoon ended sadly, I very much wish it had lasted a couple days more. There's no more cruise to look forward to, but I have so many wonderful stories from it now. Jared and I both agree, this was the best vacation we have ever taken. Whether or not that's because we spent the entire time with only each other, we both had an amazing time visiting Key West, Cozumel, and spending time on Carnival Imagination, our cruise ship. We made so many lasting memories from climbing a lighthouse overlooking the coast of Cozumel, 

to standing mere inches from a saltwater crocodile, 

to going down water slides in the middle of the Caribbean.

(This is Jared making his splash at the very bottom)

We embarked on Monday, the 28th, got settled, and then spent some time in the sun. 

(Amazing view of Miami in the distance)

At dinner a huge group of waiters sang the 'Happy Marriage' song which goes to the tune of Happy Birthday. It made us blush, but also was a special and sweet moment.

(They also gave us an extra slice of cheesecake when they serenaded us which was a bonus)

Tuesday we went to Key West and visited the Hemingway house which was very cool, but the weather and humidity made it extremely hot even if the tour guide said it was low for the day.

(I love this man!!!)

That night was the 'Dine with the Captain' night, so we got pretty darn fancy for our lobster dinner,

and then came back to find this cute present on our bed.

Wednesday we went to Cozumel which was absolutely beautiful. We went on a shore excursion that included a jeep tour around the island, 

went and saw some Mayan ruins,

(pretty small ruins right?)

hiked the lighthouse mentioned before, viewed the beautiful Cozumel coast,

And went snorkling (sorry no pictures of that yet).

Thursday we relaxed on the ship, and got some sun as it headed back to Miami. Here's a picture of our last night on the ship.

We had so much fun and can't wait to go on our next trip. Until then we'll be having adventures at home making more memories!