14 Mounds of grass on the lawn

This is what happens when your lawn has not been mowed for 2 weeks in Missouri....Needless to say we raked up 14 large piles of grass, and then raked those said piles into 4 very large piles of grass. The sad part is, we only raked the very worst parts of the lawn...

Lessons learned:

(1) Unless you want to spend 2 hours plus of unnecessary lawn work, you had better mow your lawn more frequently.

(2) We now know that we could bale hay from our lawn...seriously.

(3) And three, as you are putting the large piles of grass into trash bags, make sure that you are standing up hill from the wind or else you will get a large confetti like grass combobulation right in the face, enough said...

Piles before being consolidated into one large pile

One of the VERY large piles of grass

The other two large piles

In the name of Love and.. Mashed Potatoes?

For Sunday dinner last night I made dijon and itallian bread crumb chicken, mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, and green beens. I called to Chance that dinner was done, and let me tell you he comes a running like a water buffalo comes running to a river in the sahara dessert when I tell him dinner is done. He sat down, and after prayer I got up to get the rest of the chicken out of the oven, when I came back this is what I found on his plate...

He said it was to show his appreciation to me for all that I do, and how yummy of food I cook. I found this to be quite funny really, he isnt too artsy, but I guess when it comes to food art, he found his niche :). So this is a heart of mashed potatoes for me...later he said it was a jacuzzi of love, and he was going to eat it. Such an imagination this husband of mine :).

Kansas City Temple Open House

Not very often, if at all, does one have the opportunity to attend an LDS temple open house. But...Chance and I are that lucky! We live quite close to Kansas City, and were able to attend the open house along with his parents and grandparents! We left early Saturday morning to meet up with Chances family for a yummy lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse. After lunch we headed over to the temple. We first watched a really great little movie about the Mormon temples, it helped those who have never gone to the temple before to better understand the importance of temples, and some of the things that take place inside. After the video we had hosts take us on a tour through the temple. We saw the baptismal room, session rooms, the Celestial room, and sealing room. The temple is such a beautiful and holy place, I absolutely love going to the temple, and taking in its beauty and spirit. Temples are so important to me because I know that without them I would not be able to have an eternal family, and live with them for eternity, and for me that is a big deal. I could not imagine life without my husband and children, and family. I want to be with them forever, and I know that by making sacred covenants with the Lord in the temple, and by keeping the commandments, I can have an eternal family. It is also so neat to be able to do this special work in the temple for those whom have passed on, this gives them the choice to decide whether to accept the gospel in their life and partake of these great blessings as well. For those of you who may live around the Kansas City area, this would be such a great opportunity to learn more about the Mormon temples, and to have the chance to see inside of the temple before it is dedicated. The open house goes until next Saturday, so don't miss out on this amazing experience! If you would like to learn more about the Mormon temples follow this link:
 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint Temples

Chance and I at the Kansas City Temple, Excuse my chubbiness, I am 31 weeks pregnant

Let Them Eat Cake!!

On Saturday one of my friends had their baby shower, and I along with 4 other girls were the hostess'. I was in charge of making a "vintage" cake to go along with the vintage theme for the baby shower. So I hopped right onto the wonderfully spectacular website... yup you probably guessed it...Pinterest and started searching. I came across a really cute rose decorated cake, and it looked very "vintagy" to me, and it looked easy enough to make also. My Friday was devoted to cake making, now if you do not like sugar this cake is NOT for you! It has so much frosting, frosting filling, then you frost the outside, then you put the frosting flowers on top of that frosting, holy moly, can we say sugar high? Needless to say, I went through 3 bags of powdered sugar by the time I was done, and yes I am not exaggerating about that, TONS of sugar on this baby! I made homemade white chocolate cake, and it was divine, or I hoped it was, because apparently while being "with child" you cannot eat ANY raw dough, batter, etc..., which is lame because that is my favorite part. So The cake looked pretty darn good to my standards, I was ready for this shower! Everyone said that they loved the cake and thought it looked so pretty, which made me feel pretty great especially when it took around 3 hours to complete, my hard work paid off! And to top it all off....It did indeed taste great! Now don't get any ideas, I am not a professional cake maker/decorator, but I do love challenging myself, and it is a self esteem boost when things go according to plan...yay me! Let me know what you think :)

Me and my Boys :)

My sister Camille is a fabulous photgrapher and did my maternity pictures for me over spring break. Thanks Camille I love them :) I was 28 1/2 weeks Pregnant :)

BBQ's, Marshmallows, and Family Time

It is nice having both mine and Chances family living in the same town, but also provides difficulties when it comes to making room in the busy schedule for spending time with each family as equally as we can. Especially when there is a cute little baby who I could just hold all day long keeping me from wanting to do anything but hold him and kiss his little cheeks! But we did have a great weekend with both of our families! Friday night my family had a weenie roast outside on the fire pit and roasted weenies and ate smores. We talked and burnt some marshmallows, and tried to keep our dog Badger away from the food, and us, because he apparently thinks that cow poop is a delicacy food and reeked of manure, yummy. It was such a beautiful night and we did a little star gazing with the help of an phone app that tells you where the constellations are. I love spending time with my family, and love that it is growing and changing, we aren't little kids anymore :( but that doesn't stop us from acting like it at times ;).

Saturday night Chances brother Chris and his wife Katie had a BBQ at their house. We had fabulous hamburgers thanks to the grand chef supreme Christopher Davis :). We also roasted yummy marshmallows as well. Needless to say we did not starve over the weekend! Baby Davis loved all the yummy treats, he thanked my by giving me a kick each time I was eating :). But we also had some good and bad news announced to us that night. Chris and Katie will be moving to Pennsylvania. Chris got a job as a mining manager for a growing company, and Katie will be closer to her family. It will be sad to see them go and we will miss them so much, and their cute little boy Tucker. But this new journey will be a great experience for them and their family and we couldn't be happier for them! Love you guys!

It is crazy where life takes each one of us as we get older and start our own families, and go our separate ways. But one thing is for certain: no matter where we are we can always come back "home" to our roots and visit family and feel right at home and so loved. It is sad to leave them when the time comes to go back home, but I have learned since being married that home is with Chance, and soon our little baby, and it is a special treat when we get to see our families, and we always cherish each moment and memory spent with them. We love you, thank you for all that you do for us!

182nd General Conference

I love hearing from our Prophet and general authorities twice a year. Every speaker brings with them such a sweet spirit and speaks with such authority that you can feel their love and concern for you emanating right through the television. I loved Elder Uctdorfs talk on "Stop It"! Stop judging, stop sinning, stop doing things in your life that will bring you down and will not help you progress.

 I also loved the talk on the power of prayer and righteous living. After the hurricane hit Haiti, a families house collapsed and their young children were inside, the wreckage was so great that it would be a miracle if any of the children survived. The mother and father prayed that if just one of their children could be saved they would be so grateful. Not too soon after their prayer, they hear a baby cry, they began digging along with the help of neighbors, and got the baby out. Astonishingly just when they got the baby out the father heard a child singing, it was his son singing "I am a Child of God", they were also able to save their little boy and their daughter as well. All of their children were saved because of a loving Heavenly Father, Prayer, and Righteousness. The little boy who sang the song said that he chose that song because he knew that his father would hear it and would come rescue him, and his Heavenly Father would protect him.

 I love the talks and am excited to read them or listen to them again because they are filled with such great knowledge and love. here is a link you can follow to listen to these amazing talks, they will brighten anyone's day.

 General Conference Spring 2012

May the odds be ever in your Favor!

So I am sure that you have all heard about the highly anticipated move : The Hunger Games by now. Well my husband and I had been quite curious about these books, and the studious readers that we are, we thought we should get the books and read them along with the rest of the world, we aren't followers, we just like to be well informed :). Needless to say neither one of us could put the books down. Chance becomes like an addict when it comes to good books. He went to bed one night reading the book, and I woke up at almost 3 o'clock for my nightly bathroom run, and found him STILL reading! That is when I pulled my mom/wife card out and said "honey its time for you to go to bed you have school in the morning!" Silly boy, anyways it goes without saying that we both loved the books, and finished them at perfect timing because the movie had just come out.

 So my husband surprised me and got us tickets to see the movie the day after it came out. Now I have no idea why people compare this movie and book series to Twilight, because they are nothing alike, thus they should not be compared together, but I do have to say the Hunger Game movie was a million times better made than Twilight and I like the characters a ton more. We arrived to the theatre early thinking it would be jam packed, but we got the matinee and were pleasantly surprised that the enormous theatre was not so full. I stocked us up on candy and drinks at the gas station because who wants to by popcorn for 8 bucks, not us poor kids that's for sure. When the movie finally started after about a bazillion previews (don't you just love the hour long viewing of previews) the movie started. Chance watched the whole movie VERY intently and didn't say a word the whole time, he was so into it. I am happy to report we loved the movie and thought they did a great job of following the book, it was a little gory at times, rightly so, but I am dying to watch it again! I would recommend seeing the movie, and if you have not read the books, they are a great read, I couldn't put them down. The Hunger Games =  a Success in my book!

Baby Bryden

Early Wednesday morning the Hobbs family welcomed a sweet little baby boy into this world. Bryden Rayne Hobbs: Born at 12:58 Weighing 8lbs, and 21 inches of cute perfection long. Luckily that weekend was General Conference, and Chance and I were planning on coming down to Ava for a visit and to watch Conference. So thank you Kaysha for having Bryden at a perfect time :). I just have to say that I am so proud of my sister, labor does not seem easy, but she sure made it look pretty darn good for sure! She is so strong and brave and the 8 and a half labor went pretty well! I just hope that in less than 3 months I can be as strong as my little sister and bring my little sweet miracle into this world as well. I absolutely loved holding that little guy words cannot describe how precious newborn babies are. Chance was even excited to meet him and held Bryden quite a bit, he loved his chubby little cheeks, and said, "Kaysha and Brad got themselves a cute one there!" he is going to be a great daddy :). Even with the long tired sleepless nights, and a whole new realm of learning how to care for a baby can be exhausting and at times frustrating I am sure, my sister and Brad are doing a great job, they will be such great parents, and I am so excited that our two little guys get to be so close in age, I can't wait for them to meet! These babies are so loved already, nobody wanted to put Bryden down, hes just too cute to lay unattended! Congratulations again Kaysha and Brad on your sweet little baby! I love him so much already, I can only imagine the love I will have for my own baby, I truly do feel so blessed!

Smile!

Just too darn cute!

Look at those chubby cheeks! I love them!!!!