The Worlds Best Dad

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD!!

Wish I could be there to celebrate with you.

I love my dad for so many reasons. 

One is his jeans and t-shirt look that was worn everyday of my childhood.

P.S. Look at alllllll that hair :)

I love him for baptizing me into this wonderful church.

I love him for coming to triathlons to make sure his youngest child survives.

I love that he loves his granddaughters and always sneaks them candy.

I love him for picking out the perfect husband for me.

I love him for loading up on pain pills while suffering through kidney stones to make it to my wedding:)

Thank you for all you have done for me, Dad. 

I love you so much!

Eat lots of extra grilled salmon and birthday cake for me.

HAPPY EASTER!

Our date night this week...think we got a little too into it? :)

This Easter weekend was a great opportunity to reflect on the countless blessings that our Heavenly Father has given us. First and foremost--Our Savior Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the atonement in my life and for his amazing sacrifice. I know that he lives and knows me personally, and somehow manages to constantly forgive me of my imperfections. I love Him and love the time of year that we get to celebrate that fact that He Is Risen.

I am so grateful for my wonderful husband, 

For the constant patience and kindness that he continually shows me. 

I love him with all of my heart. He is the BEST.

I'm so grateful for my awesome family. My parents are my rock. My brothers know exactly what to do to make me laugh, or make me mad. Either way, they're amazing. 

My brother in law, I rooted for him for like 4 years. He should know he's awesome. 

My sister, my best friend, I love her so much.

 My sister in laws are the sweetest. I can't imagine what life was like before they were around.  

As for my nieces--oh I love them. There are no words.

To top it off: Daniel's family is wonderful. I have a mother in law who I adore. My father in law gives me a great idea of what Daniel will be like in 30 years, which is perfect. I now have 6 additional brothers and 2 sisters, (not to mention 3 beautiful sister in laws and one more awesome brother in law). They are all such wonderful examples and I admire them for their endless talents and different successes in life. 

I can't believe I married into such an incredible family! 

 

Blessed I tell ya, SO blessed.

I hope everyone had a fun Easter weekend!

My experiment

The other night I made pasta...only it was out of zucchini instead of regular noodles. And I must say, it was dang good. It tastes than it looks, is probably a quarter of the calories, and surprisingly very filling.

Here's what I did:

1. Boil water.

2. Cut the zucchini lengthwise into strips, stack them on top of one another and cut again (basically until they look like spaghetti noodles). I used about 6 zucchini, and 2 yellow squash.

3. Once the water is boiling (ALOT, not just little bubbles), throw in the cut up zucchini for no longer than about 2 minutes. If it goes any longer than that it'll most likely be ruined. I just kept stirring and kept an eye on it. Once they get a little softer, they're done. 

4. As soon as they are done, rinse them with COLD water. If they don't get cooled down right away, they'll continue to cook and become like mush.

We ate it with alfredo sauce (from a packet..not a jar, so much better) and I also added a tsp of pesto to the alfredo sauce. I also diced tomatoes and yellow peppers and threw them into the alfredo too. We topped it of with grilled shrimp and it was a hit! Luckily my husband is willing to eat healthy and doesn't demand steak and potatoes all the time :) 

Give it a shot! It's different because the "noodles" are cold, but the sauce is hot so it helps. Hope you like it!

For Your Entertainment :)

Okay, so I'll be the first to admit--I'm a big Justin Beiber fan.

Yes, hes like 10 years old, but the kid can sing.

I came across this on youtube the other day,

and Daniel and I laughed SO hard.

The first half is the funniest. Too Cute.

Click Here

I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

What is it about shoes..

Every night, Daniel studies.

And every night, I play on my computer.

Last night, I found shoes. 

At Nordstom.

On Sale.

I was debating between 2 pairs. 

(Daniel made me choose)

Yellow and brown..or black and white.

Daniel voted yellow, I liked white,

so I decided to sleep on it.

After thinking about them all day at work,

I bought them as soon as I came home.

And I don't even feel bad about it!

I'll admit they're different.

But I've got some outfits in mind.

And for 45 bucks, who cares!

I'm excited.

Happy Thursday to me.

argggggg

I dislike the bachelor. I dislike Vienna, her cross eyes, and her one color teal wardrobe. Gross. And I also dislike the fact that I am now addicted and will continue to watch Ali on the Bachelorette. Dang this show!

Hope you have 5 hours to read this..

Wow, I am NOT good at this!

So lets start at the beginning, shall we? January ended well... I think. Is it pathetic that I don't even remember? January and February have gone by SO fast! I cant believe at this time next month Daniel will be one with his second semester of dental school. What in the world? Where has the time gone? 

February however has been a wonderful month. For some reason every weekend in February was filled with fun things to look forward to. The first weekend, I went back to Utah with my aunt and my 2 cousins. We left California at 10:30 at night, and drove straight through. I am so proud to say that I stayed awake the whole time! I don't think Daniel believed me when I told him that, buts it's true. My aunt is a very good talker and was able to keep me very entertained for the 9 hour drive:) It was a great trip! Lots of time with my family and cute nieces. Hattie has grown tons since Christmas, and Kaylee and Kennady never cease to amaze me with their genius brains. They are all so cute and so much fun to be around. We all had an amazing steak and salmon dinner at my parents one night (this was due to my dad making fun of me for not being there the previous weekend for Shane's birthday streak dinner). Therefore, I ordered steak AND salmon to make up for it! And it was worth it. We also went to The Pie one night, which has become a Pack family tradition over the past few years. It was so fun to see everyone. I have to say that I was ready to come home to Daniel though, not California by any means-but 4 days away from the husband is kinda more than I like to handle. I left my camera here though, so sadly no pictures from that trip :(

The second weekend in February was Valentines! I had to work that Friday the 12th, but I knew Daniel had plans and we had to leave by 7. I hurried home as much as I could in Friday Los Angeles traffic, and didn't get home until about 7:15. Once I got ready it was about 7:45, but my patient husband didn't even complain. We got in the car and started driving towards Long Beach. I kind of realized where we were going, but I was still super excited about it. We have this favorite Thai food restaurant down in Seal Beach. It's small and the people are SO friendly..not to mention the food is amazing. So we went there, ordered too much, but didn't complain about the price because "it was Valentines". We probably should stop trying to find excuses for spending money that we don't have. But it was worth it! After that Daniel surprised me with Brad Paisley tickets for the following weekend, and spending the night at the Marriot on Long Beach. I love hotels. They make me feel like I'm on a special vacation far far away from our busy lives. The next day we hung around Long Beach--went to a farmers market, ate breakfast in a tiny coffee shop, bought myself some presents at Nordstrom Rack, and went and saw Valentines Day (pretty funny movie, by the way). It was a great weekend! We ended it by me making Daniel a teriyaki salmon dinner on Sunday--his favorite. Daniel always goes all out, he's too good to me.

Last weekend was the Brad Paisley concert! It was at the Staples Center, and it was PACKED. Not an empty seat in the house and for good reason. I think that it was possibly the best concert I have ever been to. Of course it was so different than the dozens of Houston Rodeo's I've been to, which I love. But this concert had Justin Moore and Miranda Lambert that opened, except she sang about 12+ songs, so it was more like a concert from her. She was super good and the twang didn't bother me in the least! Then Brad came out and it was heaven. Haha we moved closer to the stage to sit with our friends, and it was a blast. He's such a good entertainer with an awesome voice. And the fact that he was wearing a glittery batman symbol on his shirt made him that much cooler. He made a lot of jokes about how the guys in L.A. aren't real manly men (so true) and about how life is so easy out here with the beach and the weather, the only thing we can complain about is the traffic. "I was in traffic on my way here to the Staples Center...and I'm the guy who was causing the traffic in the first place, that's not right." It was such a fun night! One day, we'll go back to Houston and go to a real country rodeo concert. But that one was amazing! I must say, L.A. girls have a different version of "dressing country" than Texas girls do though...slightly more scandalous. and by slightly, I mean ridiculously.

Last week, we got 5000 dollars back from the government for Daniel's tuition reimbursement since he joined the National Guard. Instead of being responsible right away, we bought ourselves some presents.

1. New couch covers. We aren't going to buy real couches until he's at least out of dental school and into ortho school, so we've got a while. We bought some right when we moved here, but they're cheap and crappy and have to be tucked in all the time (ghetto). Therefore, we got some "sure fit" suede dark brown covers from overstock.com. I'll post pictures when they get here tomorrow! So excited to get rid of these already stained cream couch blankets/covers.

2. Well, I must say I'm proud of Daniel for lasting 8 months before losing his wedding ring. Good job, hun. My dad lost his first one long before the 8 month mark. However, that kinda shows me that its dumb to spend 300 dollars on a mens wedding ring. Therefore, James Avery helped us out in finding a 40 dollar silver band. I told Daniel that if he keeps this one until he graduates, he can get another real titanium one :) How nice am I huh?

3. A camera charger for my little digital camera. It's a little difficult to bring my big camera around all the time, and I lost my charger over a year ago, so we're excited for that. It's little, but it something coming in the mail! I love ordering online, it's like a surprise when it gets here.

4. I bought a bunch of picture frames from Target-we have like no pictures on our walls so it's time to decorate a little better. Got some good deals though! 6 dollars for a pack of 8 4x6 frames, and 6 dollars for 6 5x7 frames. Plus a few other more expensive ones but overall--not too shabby!

5. There were other necessary things--oil change (which ended up being more than that cause we don't take good care of our car apparently), Daniel got some sweet slacks from Banana Republic, and I got the Hunger Games book series. HOLY COW. If you haven't read these, please do. Best books I've ever read--yes, better than Twilight. Totally different though. But they're so good. Now I have to wait till August for the 3rd one, not sure how I'm gonna do it!

This coming weekend, some of our best friends from Utah are coming in town! We're going to disneyland and playing on the beach and possibly going down to Hollywood blvd for a fun night out. We can't wait!! We LOVE visitors!! 

That's all for now! Sorry it's so much! Life is good.