life lately

One of my best longest friends Annekah came up to Utah with her newborn babe Theo!

"let me take a picture of you in your new suit!!"

my lil sis shayna sent him that tie from ukraine

sunday selfie

hedgehog selfie FAIL

visiting noma (my german grandma) in the hospital when she had pneumonia

my parents were out of town, and dustin was so sweet - he skipped his night class so he could drive down to american fork to visit her with me.  

superbowl/birthday party for donna (dustin's mom) at the harpers' house!

sad day since we were all cheering for the broncos.

we went out with some friends from our ward

dancing (as in ballroom/salsa dancing) & coldstone

such a good time!

went to a jazz game with shrude! (my boss, harp teacher, mentor, friend..)

we had awesome 3rd row seats!  sadly the jazz lost that game.

midway ice castles 

with our friends the jensens & the ostlers 

we like kissing each other!

now for a quick trip down memory lane...

three years ago we went to the ice castles for one of our first dates!  ahh we were babies!

three years ago - february 2011

it's fun to look back and think about when we first met, and how easily we fell in love and how quickly i knew that i wanted to be with him forever.  it always felt so right and easy and it still does!  

"best of" christmas 2013

• Christmas shopping date at City Creek!  I love living 4 minutes away.
• We sent out Christmas cards for the first time.  
• Quinn fit in perfectly with my woodland creatures Christmas decor.
• Humongous, as in 7 feet tall, gingerbread house at the Grand America.
• We saw The Hobbit.  It was ok, not my favorite.
• Lots of Christmas classic movies including White Christmas, Elf, Christmas Vacation along with the cheesy Hallmark romantic holiday comedies that I kind of love.
• Christmas Adam celebration with just us two.  We went out to dinner then opened presents from each other.  Dustin got a new blue suit. He totally surprised me with a little blue box.
• Santa came to my grandma's on Christmas Eve!  Sadly I was *not feeling well* and missed him. ;)
• Skyping both of our sisters!!!  Shayna in Ukraine, Korinne in Idaho.
• Christmas get together with some of my best friends, and their husbands, and precious babies!
• Lots of time spent with each other and our families.  

guess who? 

(yes i was santa! i was volunteered! no one else wanted to do it! the littles never knew it was me though haha)

last year                                                                          this year

i LOVE these girls!

a post about quinn

We love our little hedgehog!  Even when she is grumpy and doesn't want to be woken up, she is still so adorable.  When Dustin is in school at nights, she cuddles in her blanket on my lap and we watch tv together.  For a while, she was occasionally bleeding under her ear and we didn't know why.  One day I realized her little toenails were super long and sharp and so I cut them with some baby nail clippers.  She always scratches herself right under her ear with her back legs so no wonder she was bleeding.  Poor thing!  Learn as you go I suppose.  She is warming up to us more every day and lets us actually touch her quills without freaking out - which is a big deal.  Enjoy the random pics.

one day she {mostly} crawled into dustin's shoe and took a nap

then when i tried to pull her out to put her back in her cage, she spiked up!  she did NOT want to come out of there hahaha.  

meet quinn

meet quinn the hedgehog!  

{the newest addition to our little family}

Yes, we have a pet hedgehog.  It all started when my mom was flying with another flight attendant who had this hedgehog.  She had just found out she was pregnant, and they were getting a puppy, and moving into a new house, so they were looking for someone to give Quinn to.  My mom sent me a picture of her and we fell in love immediately!  So she is now ours and we are in love.  Dustin wanted to name her Sonic but we decided to keep it Quinn - I think it's cute cause she has quills.  Some of you may know that I have been wanting a cat for a long time, but that is not an option because of our current living situation, so I guess a hedgehog is the next best thing!  She is the perfect pet for us for now.

chillin on her wheel.  hedgies are nocturnal, so she runs at night!  sometimes we sneak in super late at night and watch her run, she is fast and runs and runs and runs.

playing hide & go seek

hedgehogs are really curious creatures.  she sniffs everything and tries to get into all the small spaces she finds.

playing with dustin

she really liked how his hair tasted haha

playing in the grass! 

check out that tongue action! haha it looks so long here

i love when she is curled up into her poky ball

fun facts about hedgehogs:

in some states, they are illegal as pets

they are nocturnal

they eat dry cat food & meal worms are special treats

they need baths - we bathe her once or twice a week and use a toothbrush to clean her quills

when they get scared or need to defend themselves, they become an impenetrable spiky ball

they are not related to the porcupine

you can only buy them from a breeder

they prefer a warm climate, and if they get too cold they will hibernate and die