2015 Memories

This past year was a whirlwind. It went by quickly and because I'm a terrible recorder of my life I naturally went to my facebook to see all of my posts. 2015 was truly a great year for me. I'm the kind of person that is always looking to improve and learn. I definitely didn't fulfill my new year's resolutions from last year, but I feel that I started taking steps in the right direction. I have been blessed with so much. I need to complain less. I have grown closer to my family. I am more in love with my spouse. Caleb and I have everything we need to live plus more. Our lives are definitely not perfect, and we have our struggles, but our blessings have always outweighed our challenges and I need to keep remembering that. Here are some of my favorite memories from the year:

Recent Shenanigans

I love how I said at the end of my last post I would write about our Christmas, and then I dropped off the face of the planet. Well, that's how my journal looks like. I've been so busy I don't know what to do with myself! Well, let's get caught up, shall we?

Christmas happened. It was awesome. You can see pics from the last post. I ate a lot. And relaxed a lot. It was wonderful. I laid by the fire. I read a book. I got to spend time with Caleb. Caleb got to relax from school. Christmas is great as always.

We spent New Year's Eve back home in Michigan. Our neighbors invited us over for fondue. This was the first time I had ever had cheese and chocolate fondue in a home setting. It was mind-blowingly awesome.

showering of babes

Hello! So it's been crazy (as it always seems to be during these months) so now I'm finally able to write a little bit about what's been going on. The baby shower I planned was last Tuesday and my friend had her baby last weekend! It's been a really exciting couple of weeks. Caleb and I were able to visit them at the hospital and their baby girl is seriously adorable. For blogging purposes, I will call their daughter Calebella. Guess who thought of that? Caleb was trying really hard to convince them to name her that, so I guess he is getting his wish on our blog. :) Or I might just call her Bella for short. Anyway...I've got photos of the baby shower, but not of her. I'll leave that to the parents.

One really great perk of having a father who makes photography a serious hobby: he gives you his old equipment. My dad recently gave me his old Nikon attachable flash. It makes a huge difference. I've really been wanting to work on my photography skills, so I made an effort to produce quality pictures of the event. We didn't go crazy on decorations, nor did we play any games, but we had great company, great food, and great fun. I am indebted to the other women who helped in making this happen!
  

i like me some good design

Hey there, I think it's about time I blog some more. To say the very least, I've been busy...which is good! Then I can tell you all about it. I have a lot of projects going on right now, but there is one I'd like to show you. It's hot off the press. Come see. 

I am throwing a baby shower (why do you say "throw?") for one of my good friends here. I am collaborating with some other ladies in the ward to make it happen, but I'm basically in charge. So far so good, but there is still a lot to do. 

First things first...the invitations...

I have discovered that I am a lover of beautiful writing, fonts, print design, fancy paper, and even fancier pens. Anything that involves paper and ink, it somehow attracts me. So I made a project out of the invitations. Normally in our ward at church, someone sends out a mass email to the entire ward inviting everyone to the baby shower, but I decided that I wanted to go more traditional. Karissa liked the idea of inviting women that she knew personally, so all the more reason for me to make the invitations and use my design skillz...

Here's what came to fruition:

 I'm pretty proud of them, I'll just be honest. But don't they look so good?!

I gathered some ideas off the internet, but made some changes here and there and I chose the colors, fonts, and paper.

I'm just having way too much fun with this. I'm going with theme colors of cream, blush, black, and gold. Pretty classy in my opinion.

I then proceeded to address the envelopes using my calligraphy skillz...

I'm not made of money, but if I were I would have had these professionally printed. I bought the cardstock and nice envelopes from a store called The Paper Source. When I'm in there, I feel like a child in a candy store. It's a really fun store, but really expensive. However, they have a good selection of paper, and I have yet to find another store with this same variety. There may be a better store further into Ann Arbor, but I've only been there once and parking was atrocious...so I never went back. Maybe I will try to go again sometime.

At least they give you a cool paper bag. :)

Pretty cool huh? I haven't used my calligraphy pen in a while, so it was nice to break it out.

And by the way, I absolutely love love love burning candles. 

The one in this picture is "warm apple pie." Love it!

Happy weekend!

<3 Jessie

hitting lots of birds with one stone

So I just got back from another trip. Yeah, I know, I keep going on all these trips. This year has just been an exciting year for people close to me. I went to San Diego for a wedding reception of one of my best friends since 5th grade. It was quite the event. I wasn't planning on going, but then when I found out our other best friend from 5th grade was going, I reconsidered. It has been years since we have been together, so I figured what better reason to get together than a wedding? It will probably be another long while until we are reunited again.

Dawn befriended me in 5th grade. She was a new girl. And she invited me over all the time. She lived just down the street from me.

I got these old photos from facebook. She somehow found them and posted them years ago. 

It was the beginning of an awesome relationship. Pretty sure this is 5th or 6th grade. I wish I had one of Mariana too, but you'll see her in a second. 

ben and whit 2014

Over the weekend, Caleb and I went to Utah for a much anticipated wedding. Ben and Whitney were married on August 14, 2014 in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful ceremony. Everything was perfect. Before the wedding day, we went around visiting friends and relatives. It was a really busy day, and we were very exhausted, but it was worth every minute. I was grateful to see so many old friends. And a big shout out to my friend Allison for being so loving! I love you Lew Lew! I was also glad to see Ben, even if it was for a little bit, he seemed to be pretty calm and relaxed. I know he'll rock this whole marriage thing. :)

The wedding day went perfectly. We rode with Josh, Shannon, and Phoenix and had time to spare before the actual temple ceremony. With our extra time, we went to the temple square visitor center and saw the famous Christus statue. It was so peaceful. I just stood there looking up at the statue for a few silent moments, and feeling overwhelmed with gratitude for my knowledge of the Savior and His love for me. I am so grateful for the faith I have in Him. Because of Him, I've had the strength to do hard things and to change for the better. 

NC...another long post

I must say this year has been an awesome year of trips for me. A couple weeks ago we went to North Carolina for a week to celebrate my brother's graduation from Wake Forest Law (go Cheston!). The graduation festivities were only two days long, and then the rest of the time we rented a beach house on the Outer Banks, which is off the coast. I loved every single minute of it. I kept telling my parents this has got to be one of my top favorite family trips ever. 

Happy Easter 2014

I am so grateful for this time where we can celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of Him, we can find true and everlasting happiness. Because of Him, we can return and live eternally with our Heavenly Father once again. I know that the resurrected Savior lives and loves every single one of us. You can read more about the true meaning of Easter here.  

Tonight we dyed eggs with our neighbors and we had a blast! I hadn't dyed eggs in a long time. It was nice to bring out those artistic skills. The eggs in the picture at the top are the ones we made. 

This was Caleb's intricately designed egg.

Mine, pretty simple.

I was going for Starry Night

My neighbor was playing the Wicked soundtrack, so I got the idea...

Hope you all have a great Easter!

Iron Chef

So our home is very unique in the sense that it has been converted into a duplex. This means we can potentially rent out half our house, and that's exactly what we do. Our "neighbors" are some good friends of ours that we met back in Utah, and we were surprised when we discovered they were moving to Michigan as well. One thing led to another and BAM! we have awesome neighbors. Back in January we decided to have an Iron Chef competition. Having a home with two kitchens definitely has its perks. 

We didn't choose a secret ingredient, but instead we chose a theme. Basically we had to prepare two or three dishes that can complement white rice (we have a never-ending supply of white rice). Of course we did guys vs girls. So Caleb and Jon were a team, and Karissa and I were a team. We didn't have any restrictions on what foods could be used, and you could borrow from the other kitchen if you needed to. Our time limit was an hour and a half. 

All the dishes turned out delicious! We sent photos out to a few people to vote which dish had the best presentation. The Chicken Katsu and Bacon-wrapped Green Beans got the best reviews. I thought they all were restaurant-menu worthy. 

chicken katsu (Chef Jessica and Chef Karissa)

some sort of asian omelet, has shrimp, onions, green onions, soy sauce (Chef Jessica and Chef Karissa)

Mango Meatball stir fry (Chef Caleb and Chef Jon)

Bacon-wrapped green beans (Chef Caleb and Chef Jon)

Baked Potatoes and Onions with Smoked Paprika (Chef Caleb and Chef Jon)

So moral of the story is....if you have a home with two kitchens, have an iron chef competition. 

  

What's been going on the last couple of months...

Here is just a sampling:

Caleb got a coat for his birthday. I have a matching one that is hot pink!

Caleb's birthday dinner: Parmesan crusted tilapia, Garlic Green Beans, and Cilantro lime rice

Another Birthday Surprise! Dragon Fruit! I found this randomly at a grocery store.
We both enjoyed this fruit a lot while living in Hong Kong.

I made A LOT of pumpkin cookies

We visited an apple fruit farm called Wasem's in Ypsilanti.
You could pick your own apples.

They also had a pumpkin patch, very convenient. 

I thought these gourds looked really cool

Here's the pumpkin we carved!
The Boogey Man!

We watched "Hocus Pocus" while pumpkin carving with our neighbors

Our neighbor's pumpkin, "Let It Snow" is the title of Jonathan's Christmas album.
And it's actually available for purchase now at jonathankeithmusic.com
You should buy it.

Happy November :)

Hello Everyone!  It's been a while so I thought I would give an update on what we have done in the month of November. This time of year is so exciting because it is the beginning of the holiday season. A lot has happened this month.

First, one of my former mission companions got married! Brittany and Kyson, were sealed in the Bountiful Temple.

 

 The Bountiful Temple is such a beautiful building! It is one of the larger temples. Hopefully I can take Caleb there sometime soon. 

Brittany was so happy and wearing a huge smile the entire time. It was really great to see her take this important step in her life. 

As I mentioned before, we drove down to Phoenix for Thanksgiving and spent the holiday with my family. It was really great trip and we loved every minute of it! Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the food, but I can assure you that it was amazing. We also went to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa LDS Temple, did some hiking, and of course some shopping.  

                    

 

We were supposed to make a funny face, but I guess Mom and Dad didn't get the memo. 

Dad started playing around with the camera

Jen loving her frozen yogurt dinner

Shopping at the Anthem Mall. That is a real tree behind us.

Caleb and I had our six month anniversary this month.

 I celebrated by putting on my wedding dress, and it still fits!

We are now safely back in Provo and going back to school and work. Caleb also took his Physics GRE exam this month, and he is now applying for graduate programs. Wish us luck!