Birthday Boy

23 years ago today this little cutie came into the world. 

 

He grew up to be quite the stud, and the most amazing man I know. He is an example to me everyday of love and kindness. He is constantly cracking me up and then surprises me with lots of sweet, tender moments. He is a humble priesthood holder and the best husband a girl could ask for. 

Happy Birthday to my best friend and the love of my life! 

A New Addition

No...I'm not pregnant. That's totally what you were thinking right?



{via}

And no, this isn't our puppy. BUT we're about 99.9% sure that a little cutie similar to this one will be joining our family. We found a wonderful boxer breeder and one of her dogs gave birth to 9 beautiful puppies today. We're pretty excited, to say the least. Erik has been reading boxer books non-stop for the last couple of months. So now we just need to get all of the necessary supplies and wait the 8 long weeks until we can bring our sweet girl home.

Wedding: Part Three

For this week's Wedding Wednesday I'm sharing the last of our pictures from the temple. Enjoy!

Over the weekend...

We had the best, most relaxing weekend. Like I said on Friday, we started out with some delicious Mexican food and our second time at The Hunger Games. I think I liked it even better the second time. If you still haven't seen it (I mean really you've had more than a week at this point!) please, please take 2.5 hours out of your day and see the awesomeness that is this movie. 

Saturday and Sunday were spent cuddled up on the couch listening to our church leaders. I especially loved Elder Holland and Elder Uchtdorf's talks. I'm pretty sure they are always my favorites. I also loved all of the emphasis on families. I have a feeling our leaders always talk a lot about families, but now that I'm married I think it stuck out to me a bit more. It makes me so excited to have kids someday and teach them about the gospel. Now I can't wait to get the conference edition of the Ensign so I can re-read all of the wonderful talks and be inspired all over again. 

We also enjoyed lots of scrumptious food including Mickey D's breakfast (my fav), Dairy Keen burgers, french toast, and my FIL's AMAZING smoked pork. I'm pretty sure all that deliciousness put me into a bit of a food coma and I slept more than I should have. But it felt great just to chill with my sweetie for a weekend. It was just what I needed after a long week at work. 

Smash

Is anyone else watching? I'm sort of addicted. I know it's a little overdramatic and a bit racy but I can't get enough. Katherine McFee happens to be totally fabulous. I'd forgotten what a ridiculously amazing voice she has. The original music is fantastic too. So if you have an open spot in your Monday night TV line-up or even if you don't - I would definitely make room for Smash. 

Friday Favorites

I may not be the most consistent at actually writing on my blog, but boy do I love to read blogs. I'm constantly finding ones that I just adore and I thought I'd share a few of them with you. These are five of my current favorites:

One Good Thing by Jillee: This is my MIL's AMAZING blog. I know I might be a tad bit biased on this one, but really, her blog is fantastic. She posts one great, practical tip every day - hence the name of her blog, "One Good Thing". From genius cleaning solutions, to delicious recipes, DIY beauty products and more...she really does it all. If you love finding money and time saving tips, this blog is for you. 

Something Charming: Ok I'm biased on this one too. Joelle and I have been friends since we were like 3-years-old and I've mentioned her blog on here many times before. But even if we weren't friends I would still adore her blog. She's an aspiring writer and really has a knack for writing down-to-earth, relatable posts. So many times she's written things that I've thought about before but was never quite sure how to articulate. She also has impeccable style and just started her own wedding planning business. Her blog is great for 20-something girls just trying to navigate their way through life. 

Busy Bee Lauren: This is another one of my favorites that I've posted about before. Lauren is the cutest young, married LDS girl in Arizona. She and her husband are expecting their first baby in a few months. She writes about anything and everything. From fashion, to photography, books, movies, and food. There is something for everyone. I especially adore her great vintage style, gorgeous photos, and her relatable writing style. And if you're a Hunger Games fan, her blog is a must read. 

The Happy Hour: This is another darling lifestyle blog that I discovered a couple of weeks ago. Megan and her husband Tanner met in Utah while they were both in college. Now they are living the life in Southern California where Megan works as a dental hygienist and Tanner is in advertising (I think...). She has adorable style and posts tons of cute pictures and videos of her and her husband. Plus, they have this awesome red Vespa that they're always riding around on. If you love witty writing and beautiful photos then you'll love The Happy Hour. 

6th Street Design School: I am currently obsessed with anything having to do with interior design. I saw Kirsten on Studio 5 a couple of weeks ago and just had to look up her blog. I instantly fell in love with the bright, clean look of her blog and all of her amazing design tips. She has fabulous taste and a beautiful home. She does a "Feature Friday" post every week where she shows another blogger's home that she just loves. It has become one of my favorite posts to read on Saturday mornings. I'm stating the obvious here, but this blog is great for anyone who loves design. 

It was really hard to narrow this down to five but I didn't want this to turn into a novel. I am such a blog addict and love telling people about the awesome blogs I find. This might just have to be a weekly post for a while. 

What are some of your favorite blogs?

It's Friday, Friday...

Am I the only one that still sings that song every Friday? And does it bother anyone else that one of the worst songs ever to hit the airwaves is now a permanent part of pop culture? Like I'm pretty positive I will sing that song every Friday for the rest of my life. Rebecca Black really should not have that kind of control over my life. 

Anywho...I know Friday is almost over but I'm just chillin' here on my couch while my hubby plays Call of Duty. He's trying to "level up" his AK-47 - whatever that means. So I thought I would put up a little post. 

Friday night is date night in the Nystul home. Tonight we went to Don Pedro's in Heber for dinner. It was quite scrumptious. After dinner the weather was just too beautiful to stay inside so we grabbed a couple of baseball mitts and played catch for a while. Poor Erik...I'm horrible at sports. He told me tonight that when he found out  that I'm a huge baseball fan and basically grew up at Angel Stadium, he thought, "Wow, playing catch with her will be so fun!" How wrong he was. Just because I could name the entire Angel's roster in 6th grade does not mean I know one bit about actually playing the game. I'm horrid actually. But Erik is trying to teach me and I'm slowly learning. 

So we've basically had a fun night so far and now we're killing time until the late show of The Hunger Games. Yup, we're going to see it again. We just can't resist. 

I'm really excited for this weekend because it's the Annual General Conference for our church. Twice a year our leaders speak to us from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and it gets broadcast all over the world in about a million languages. Their words are always so inspiring and uplifting. So we'll get to spend the weekend at home watching conference in our pj's. 

Although I LOVE watching conference, probably the best part about this weekend is that Erik will be home for the whole thing! You see, he usually works on Saturdays but because we live in Utah he got to work today instead and has tomorrow off! Yay! I'm so excited to have him to myself for two whole days.

So what are you doing this weekend? Anything exciting on the agenda?

p.s. This is how I feel about the weekend:

That's my excited face in case you couldn't tell. I live for the weekend. 

This stuff...

...is ridiculous. Do yourself a favor and run to your nearest grocery store and grab a pint...or two. 

Wedding: Part Two

It's that time again! I'm linking up with Joelle at Something Charming for Wedding Wednesday. This week it's part two of our wedding photos. I thought I'd share photos of our awesome wedding party. 

You might notice from the pictures that our wedding party is a bit lopsided. Erik really wanted his two cute brothers to be his only groomsmen, but I just had to have 5 of my best girlfriends plus my awesome new sister-in-law as bridesmaids so we decided to just be a bit unconventional. And if there is anything I've learned about weddings it's that there are no real rules. It's your day so do what you want! 

See what I mean? A bit lopsided. 

That's better. 

My beautiful bridesmaids left to right: Anne Johnson, Molly Hunter, Britta Nystul, Brillante Self, Karen Cassebeer, and Kaitlin Rackham. These girls are THE best!

So you might be wondering...why are two of my bridesmaids missing from this picture? Well I just had to get a picture with these four girls. We all met in the dorms our freshman year at BYU. Seven years later and we're all married and Molly and Kaitlin each have a beautiful baby. It's crazy how much we've grown up since then and that we're still the best of friends!  

Somehow I didn't get pictures with each of my bridesmaids but I'm so glad that Karen and I did! We've been friends since 7th grade and have been through so much together. She is probably the kindest person I know and I just love her to death! 

I had to get a picture with the Johnsons too! I've known Michael since we were little kids and like I said above, Anne and I met our Freshman year of college. Have I ever mentioned I introduced them? And now they're married? Oh yeah - I pretty much rock. 

Could these three be any cuter? That's Kell on the left and Sten on the right. 

I'm not quite sure what's going on here - but I do know that Erik is loving being the center of attention. 

Stay tuned next week for more fun wedding photos!