My Favorite Kinda Day

was yesterday.
Mostly because it consisted of
time with my feller,
jimmy johns,
a blanket on the grass,
cuddling,
playing pass,
two swings,
packing {not so fun, but productive!},
movie night,
aggie ice cream,
and a walk along the temple boulevard.
All of which included my handsome boy :)

Oh yes. That was my favorite kinda day.

Lately {in Pictures}

 Health challenge: drink two of these a day 

{that's 66 oz, people!}

 Playing with Jon's hurr

 I park under a tree everyday...

 Mini German pancakes, anyone?

 Dying eggs we'll never eat

 You'd think they would look better...

 Pretzel Maker, I'm gonna miss you

 Sadness

 G.P.'s again, we love'em

 Mr. Feller lookin' goooood

 Trying new 'dos

 Who else hates packing?

 Finally got around to washing the bird poop off.

We are so attractive.

Our Vacation

We stayed at an all inclusive resort in Cancun.
All you can eat, drink, swim, sun-bathe, play, etc.
Awesome, right? Yes.

This is our hotel room. 

King size bed. Couch. Tv. Mini-Fridge. Ocean View.

Need I say more?

Our walk to and from our room was an adventure in itself!

 Are you a reptile lover?

We all spent a lot of time on the beach.

Reading, talking, napping, playing catch and volleyball.

 I'd be okay with a beach as a back yard...

We ate.

and ate.

and ate.

The resort had lots of different restaurants.

Mexican. American. Japanese. Italian. a cafe. Seafood. 

and a buffet that was always switching it up!

The ice cream was one of my personal favorites. 

I probably had 17 cones. at least.

Italian

Japanese

Japanese. again. {our favorite}

Some of us took some really awesome action shots...

See for yourself :) :

 We are weird.

and SO fun to be around!

;)

 Jon and Dave got in a little fight...

 Jon's smile after the punch...haha!

A few of us got pretty sick, if you know what I mean. 

Let's just say I had to go to the bathroom about every 15 minutes. 

We couldn't figure out how we got it...

because we had eaten totally different things that morning.

and I thought I was being careful!

2 weeks later, I was back to normal! :)

We were able to go to church in the city.

It was a cool experience not understanding anything anyone was saying

other than "hermanos y hermanas"

But the spirit was totally there, I loved it.

 On our way to la iglesia

On the fourth day of our trip we took an excursion to 

Chichen Itza and Ik Balam

We went with the group, Mormon Encounters.

Our tour guide, Carlos, was so awesome!

He was able to tie each site back to the Book of Mormon. SO cool.

The day we went was when the nastiness hit me the hardest,

so I had quite a hard time paying much attention to what Carlos was saying.

But I did take some pictures ;)

 Cichen Itza

Balam

In between the two places, we visited an awesome

Cenote

It was so beautiful! And oh-so refreshing!

 

We all got to be cliff jumpers for a minute

If you ever go to Cancun and want to go on an awesome tour, 

check out Mormon Encounters. 

Carlos was so great! He really knew his stuff.

 Thanks, Carlos!

I thoroughly enjoyed being on vaca 

with the one I love most :)

 A HUMONGOUS thank you

to Jack and Margo for making this amazing trip possible!

We had so much fun spending time with everyone,

this was such an unforgettable experience.

We love you guys!

 That's one good lookin' group!

take me to the sun!

Well, this week has finally come.
On Thursday we're headed to Cancun with the Feller Family!
Jon's parents give their children an adult vacation
each year for Christmas.{we are adults, ya know!}
Basically...we're really excited.
And fearful these next three days will feel really long.
Also...my skin hasn't seen the sun in months.
So Cancunians, prepare to be blinded!
(not so sure Cancunians is even a word. oh well)
This new year has been quite good so far.
We've been lucky enough to see our good
friends at least twice in the past month, which sadly... is rare!
Thank you, Karin and Emily for being prego.
(baby showers are what have brought us togetha.)
I was good and brought my camera to Karin's baby shower,
but not Em's.

You may be wondering why MEN were at the baby shower??
Well, these were taken after all the baby stuff went down,
and the boys were just down the stairs watching a movie,
so they joined us for dessert.
Also pictured above is a few of us at Mike's mission homecoming!
I met Mike and the rest of these wonderful people
(missing Josh in the pic) my freshman year
here at Utah State, and they are some of my best friends.
I'm so grateful we all lived in the
same dorm, or I would've probably left USU and never looked back
3 years ago!
Val has been my roomie up until marriage, and we're still going strong!
{friendship wise. :)} she is so great.
All of us have been able to get together a few times since Mike has gotten home, since we're all here in Logan.  Love you guys!
Last night Jon and I went to dinner to celebrate Valentine's a little early.

 Here we are standing in front of 1 of the 3 little decorations I put together for love month.
Yeah...they're not that great, so I think I'll spare pics of the others ;)









We went to Firehouse pizza, pretty much just for the Fh'zookies
{or however you spell it...}
It was packed! But somehow we were seated and fed pretty quickly.
I wish I would've taken some pictures, but I thought I would feel silly
amongst all the other pizza eaters...
Maybe next time.
I made a goal to take more pictures. Would you agree that I'm failing so far?
 
Anyway.

I am looking forward to this next week, it will be so awesome to get away for a little bit!
Cross your fingers that Jon won't fall too far behind in his classes...we'll see if he actually does
some homework while we're laying on the beach ;)

Temptations...

...are all around me.
hot pizza, soda, movie popcorn, CEREAL...they're all calling my name.
Seriously, it's only day five and this has felt like the longest week of my LIFE!
haha okay, I'm being dramatic. But really, this cleansing stuff is tough.
Props to those who do this all the time. 
The results so far: pretty much the same as last post.
No headaches which is awesome.
Less fatigued.
Weight loss. I feel more comfortable in my skinny jeans :)
and a whole bunch of hunger ;)
I'm pretty sure the only reason we're SO hungry is because we sometimes go eight hours without food because of work, and we can't snack. I wish there were more snacking options than herbal tea...
and water.
I mean today we ate smoothies at 9, and just barely had our main meal {which took forever to make} at 4:30 instead of 1 or 2. We'll get it figured out though.
It'll be interesting to introduce all the foods we haven't been eating to see how our bodies react to each item.
If you're going to do this cleanse, drink a ton of water! I'm bad at that, and I'm pretty dehydrated. Especially when I'm at work. My lips are perma-dry which is gross.
Sorry customers.
Any previous cleansers out there who have some tips for a rookie to resist all the goodies all around?
I'd just hate to cave in before day twenty one.
But I'm a Christiansen. Which means I have one MAJOR sweet tooth.

Be Clean

So remember my goal of completing P90X? Well...I've already quit.
More like paused.
Jon and I are doing a 21 day cleanse. Have you ever cleansed before? Wowzers.
It's a strict "diet" in a way, where we are taking out all of our normal things we eat and going quite healthy.
The meals are actually quite delicious, they're just really short lived. 
Today is day two. and I'm craving just about everything imaginable.
{a bit dramatic}
I'm really excited for the end results! I haven't had a headache at all in the past two days, which I normally have them daily. I've cut out caffeine, and really every drink but water, so I'm quite shocked to find out that my headaches weren't necessarily caused by the caffeine.

Here's what a typical day looks like:
Breakfast- mango and pineapple smoothie
Snack- water {for real?}
Lunch- grilled chicken and veggies {there are lots of dishes to choose from, we liked this one a lot}
Snack- water {i need a cooooke!}
Dinner- peach and pineapple smoothie

According to the book this cleanse came from, we're supposed to get massages a few times a week, take special supplements, get your colon flushed out weekly {ouch!}, and more.
Sounds like a cleanse for wealthy people... so we're just going with the food options. which is great!
So far I haven't had headaches {like I said before}, I have more energy {I'm usually ready for a nap by 2}, my hair looks fuller {probably just a good hair day...}, and I'm learning to like {really cold} water.
Lots of people are joining the cleanse bandwagon, so if you're interested check out the book called...
Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself.
By Alejandro Junger

19 days to go. Let's do this. For reals this time. Then I'll get back to P90X ;)
I'll be back to update on our progress and results. 
ps. Thanks Gordon's for letting us join you on this adventure!

Trying

One night I decided to make caramel corn. I remember making it when I was in junior high with my chef-of-a-sister, Heidi. But no, I'd never made it on my own. We don't have a popcorn maker, so my only option was to pop the kernels {which we received when we got married} on the stovetop. Wow, what a challenge! If you can get your hands on a popcorn maker, do it! If not, practice can make perfect. {In my case, TONS of practice} On my fourth or fifth try I decided to take some pictures as I went so I could share this journey with you and get any popcorn tips you might have :)

Start by adding about 3 Tbs of vegetable oil to your pot

 I poured enough kernels in the pot to almost cover the bottom,

 if you do too much you may be left with some kernels in your caramel corn.
Cook on medium-high, shaking the pot the whole time {pain in the rear}.

Once the popping stops, or there are about 7 seconds between each one,

turn off the heat and remove

 Pour popped corn into a LARGE bowl.

Here are the ingredients for the caramel {you can alter how much or little you'd like depending on how much popcorn you make...but it goes a long way!}

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cube {or 1/4 cup} butter
• 1/2 cup karo syrup
• 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
• cook on medium-high heat. But STIR, or else you may have some burnage.

{sounds reeeaal healthy, huh? ;)}

Cook brown sugar, butter and karo syrup to "soft ball" stage.

{still not so sure what that means...I just assume it looks like the photo above}
I stirred the whole time.

 Once you've reached that stage, Add sweetened condensed milk.

 Bring to a boil {goes quick!}

Once those steps are completed, you know what to do..

Grab your hubby or a friend to help you pour and mix!

Unless of course you have four hands, or are so much more talented than I.

YUMMM

Just so you know, one day I will have popcorn mastered! One day :)

Ps. How was your Halloween?

Ours was baby-licious!