*Our First Camping Trip *

For Memorial Weekend last weekend Matt and  I finally went on our first camping trip together!! It only took up a year and a half!  We a bunch of cool camping essentials from our wedding and we always talked about going, but we just always found reasons not to.  So this time we bought a tent, which was the last item we really needed of our own, and we promised to go.....and it turned out to be so much fun!  We went to fossil springs for the day to play in the water and then camped in Strawberry, which are both just past Payson, Arizona.  The Road we took down to the river was all dirt and bumping and winded down the side of a mountain!! At times it was scary and uncomfortable but the water at the end made it worth it!

We saw this car on our drive up and of course had to stop!

Fossil Springs..the first spot we found

It took a few tries to get the timing right on this picture

Matt cliff jumping at the second spot we found

It was 8 or 9 feet deep in some parts and the water was super clear!

Us over looking the little water fall and swimming hole

our beautiful camp site

I got my shoes all wet at the river so at night I was forced to wear socks and sandals!

Matt roasting away

Our new tent!

Whacking away!  We didn't bring any fire wood...so Matt found some dead wood in the forest that did the trick!

Golf Masters

Matt and I are becoming quite the golf masters!  Well not really, and Matt more so than me, but we have had fun the couple times that we have gone out together!  I made a 40ft. putt the last time that we went out so that was my highlight from the game.  Matt also made an awesome putt from the sand trap thing which I believe is called a bunker!  So this is yet another thing that we enjoy to do together!  I don't think we have found anything actually that we don't like to do together!

Spring Craft Project

A few weeks ago Matt and I had Spring Break!  It was great to relax, celebrate his birthday, and do all kinds of other fun things!  By the end of the week though I was kind of tired of just sitting around so I decided to make a door wreath that my friend Hilary Whalen had emailed me about.  It took me a while to post the pictures because my camera battery was dead, and well.....I just never got around to charging it until yesterday!  Here are some pictures of the final product!

This is more of a winter-one

My Summer one! Since it was 100 degrees in Phoenix yesterday I thought this was appropriate.

I bought a round Styrofoam wreath at Michael's and wrapped yarn around and around and around, for what seemed like forever.  I had to stick the big yarn ball in and out of the inner circle over and over...I don't know if there is a better way to do it than that, but it worked!  The flowers are made out of felt.  The directions that I had said to glue the flowers onto the wreath but I wanted to make them interchangeable so I just pinned them in.  Now I can change the colors according to the seasons :) I know so cute right?

Happy Birthday Matthew Bentz!

Yesterday we celebrated Matt's birthday!! We had a lot of fun but before I get into what we did, I want to explain what happened leading up to his birthday.  Matt is one of the hardest people to buy gifts for because he is constantly saying "oh let me show you this", or "this is awesome, I want this".  The list gets so long and I am often left wondering what does he really want?  Some may say, well you have a whole list of things to choose from so it can't be that hard!....but I just don't want to get him any old thing, I want to get him what he really wants!  I had an idea though that would solve all of this!  I made a "birthday test" for him.  I wrote out 7 questions, some multiple choice, some fill in the blank, and one free response question; In other words it was a very reliable test, at least I thought it was!  The only thing I forgot to do was write directions telling him he could only choose one multiple choice item per question!  Anyway,  I was able to gather information on what he wanted to eat for dinner, what kind of cake he wanted, when he wanted it, what he really wanted the most for a gift (kind of, he said he wanted to go shopping all day), and what he wanted to do all day since we were both going to be off!  At the end I asked him to leave any additional comments or suggestions and this is what he wrote and I quote, "I pretty much am going to get as much free food as I can from around the valley and then we can decide what to really eat for dinner." 

Since it was his birthday I had to give him what he wanted, so we did a little of the "finding free food" thing.  The day started out though with a little surprise gift...something I heard him say he missed, but didn't specifically ask for. 

He woke up to balloons with little words in each one that would help him to find his gift!

I love this face! 

He found all the papers (except for one) and he had to arrange them into a sentence.

Can you see the one he lost in his popping frenzy?  I had to quickly write it again and throw in it the mix :)

No tissue paper, so zebra fabric would have to do...at first he thought it was his gift :)

Yeah!  He lost his IPOD Shuffle a little while back so now has one to rock out to!

After he got his gift, we went to IHOP so he could start out the day with some free birthday breakfast :)  The shopping then started!  We went to several stores and it was funny because we would both go our separate ways to look and things, try things on and such, and I was always the first one done waiting to leave!  I would text him in each store and say "I'm done" or "I am done again".... My husband the shopper....He did find some good deals though so the shopping paid off.  The day ended at Benihana's (yes another free meal for Matt).  It was delicious and new for both of us.  It was a great day and I am so glad we got to be off of work together and hang for so long!  I love Matt and I am happy to celebrate with him any day! 

Happy Valentine's

I know that is has been almost two months since my last post, but I figure if I can at least get in the major holidays on this blog, then I am doing okay :)  Our Valentine's Day was pretty low key but very special.  Matt came home with a very special bouquet of flowers :)  He made them himself!  Made you may be asking?  Well did I forget to mention they were origami flowers?  He spent a lot of time on them and I loved the very kind, cute gift :)  He stopped at a few places on his way home and picked up some of our favorite foods...all very yummy!  Then we had the Strawberry Dipped Cupcakes that I made.  They were absolutely delicious!  We then started watching a "romantic" movie...but soon we realized that it was a b-list "romantic" movie and had quite bad acting (I am being kind...they were more then just quite bad), so we switched to another movie only to both fall asleep on the couch 40 min. later!  You would think we were 60 year olds....I guess a long day at work and school just make one feel that way...even on Valentine's Day!

My beautiful Valentine's Bouquet

Our scrumptious dessert...you know you want some!

Merry Christmas!

Santa was all to nice to us this year!  We had a wonderful Christmas with Matt's family and received many awesome gifts.  We were definitely spoiled!  I got a lot of cake supplies.   I got a couple different pan sets for multi-tier cake baking.  I got a cake decorating set/tool box, and a couple other small items.  But the biggest thing that Santa brought me was a kitchen island!  Yes that is what I said, a kitchen island!  It does not fit in our little kitchen so it will take the place of our kitchen table.  It will be a great work space for me to work on all of my cake projects without breaking my back!  So thank you to my sweetie for getting me something that I had never even thought of! Now I just need to sell some of my cakes to pay for it :)

My kitchen island!  It has a nice high counter top so I don't break my back and shelves so I can keep all of my cake stuff together!

The highlight of Matt's Christmas would be two different things.  He got an early present from me.  He got his own golf clubs witha sweet bag!  He got to go golfing with his two brothers so that was fun for him!  Then his parents got him a lap top!   He had to go on a little scavenger hunt to find it so that was fun.  He was getting all impatient watching everyone else open their gifts so when he found out that he had another gift somewhere he got really excited!

So overall the day was good.  We were able to be in our own home and start our own Christmas traditions but also share a lot of time with The Bentz's.  It was a lot of fun! 

Happy One Year Anniversary to Us!!!

Yesterday Matt and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary!  It was a great day!  We stayed in and made a special meal, ate our wedding cake, and watched our wedding videos!  The wedding cake was actually still pretty good!  Maybe we should freeze it again and save it for next years anniversary :)  We really enjoyed watching our wedding video again.  Matt would pause it every so often to share his memories....but don't worry they weren't on the pictures of us, he would pause on the pictures of his as a little boy and talk about how sweet he looked at that time.  Silly, but what would I do with out him :)