My husband, the romantic

My favorite thing about people is that they always surprise you. And my dear sweet husband is no exception to that. We hit the Junction in Ogden and got some dinner and then went to the late showing of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Very cute movie by the way. The movie got out around midnight and although it was late the top was down on the jeep and it was such a perfect night for driving. He drove up to the look out over North Ogden. We sat gazing out at the stars and the city lights below, danced under the stars, and he even did a little sweet singing. He has been sick and so busy with work and the house that we haven't had a date in a little while so this was a very pleasent surprise! The lookout may not have been Van Goh's Starry Night but any night spent with my husband is truly magical. I love you babe!! Thanks for a great night!

Lexi Turns One!!!

This little gal has stolen our hearts! And now she is one!! We got to play at her luau birthday party and had a great time! We love her curious and adorable personality! She always has cute little bows and dresses on but loves to dig in the dirt and ride her "vroom vroom"! She loves her mommy and daddy but she did warm up to us enough to cruise around with Ray and I! Me and Lex played in the garden digging up rocks and her and Ray went driving on the "vroom vroom"! She enjoyed chowing down on her cake and sharing with whoever was brave enough to eat off her shovel! Happy Birthday Lexi!! We love you!!!

A boys dream!!

My dear husband is in love with any sort of tractors, trailers or anything that is big and drives. His little heart was rejoicing when we rented a backhoe to finish digging out our side yard for the new driveway. He got to drive it up twelfth and Washington through 5 o'clock traffic and and construction which I am sure he didn't mind. Someday I know we are going to own some sort of tractor, he already spends far much time looking them up!

Mother's Day!!

Mother's Day was fabulous...the Winn's spent Saturday four-wheeling and then had dinner at Steve & Jodi's (Thanks for dinner Jo!) and the Whipple's spent Sunday afternoon relaxing and having dinner. It was a great weekend to celebrate our Mom's and all the wonderful things they do for us! Thanks Momma Winn and Momma Whipple! Here's some pictures from four-wheeling! It had been awhile since Raymond and I had been and we loved it! Sorry lots of Pictures!

NiCkElCadE

oh the things we do for entertainment! raymond's brother, spencer, came to hang out with us while his wife was out of town so we headed on down to the nickelcade! we had a blast and wound up spending about four hours and many many nickels there! when we were all done and trying to choose our prizes to get with our tickets i got bored waiting for them to make up their mind so i decided to play one last game. i played deal or no deal and i won!!! you would have thought i had won the million dollars but those 200 tickets were pretty exciting too! we were all jumping up and down, yelling and taking pictures! the entire place stopped and stared at us but we didn't even care! so i originally was in last place with ticket totals but i took the lead and have officially won deal or no deal! yay!!! (the pictures of the win are on raymond's phone so i will have to post them later!)

Newest Edition

The newest edition to our dining room! There really isn't room in our dining room for a table and a piano but yet here it is! A couple from Raymond's mission, Mike and Roxanna Maturo (We have had the opportunity to stay with this family a few times and we just love them so much!), asked Raymond if he wanted it and assuming his future wife would be a great pianist said yes. Shortly after his mission he drove back to California and brought home a piano. Since he was living at home at the time it was kept at his parents house and since we got married we have not had room nor lengthy enough stays at any apartment to warrant moving it with us. So Raymond's parents are now doing some remodeling and wanted to put it in a storage bay and we just couldn't handle that so we moved it home! This piano may be a little beat up and definitely out of tune but this beauty was built in the late 1800's and still works great! And no Raymond nor his wife play the piano, but the wife has started teaching herself and is doing pretty good! All of my aunts are amazing pianists so hopefully I can rub off some of the family charm!

RaYmOnD's 25th BiRtHdAy!

It was my dear husbands birthday yesterday! I would have posted my 'ode to Raymond' yesterday but I instead spent the entire day enjoying him! I am the type that loves to celebrate birthdays but he on the other hand doesn't really care! So regardless of how hard it was for me to give in we did exactly what he wanted to do for his birthday...NOTHING! Saturday we went to a movie, got some lunch, and hung out at home and looked up where to get ammunition for his new gun! Then Saturday night we went to the drive-in...which is on of our favorite summer activities! Yes, it was a little cold but oh so fun! Then Sunday we didn't do a thing! We stayed in bed and watched movies, napped and had a great time! I asked Raymond what he wanted for breakfast and well he chose the whole list I rattled off to him! He got french toast, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, raspberry muffins, all washed down with half a gallon of chocolate milk! Needless to say, we didn't need to eat the rest of the day!

Raymond is such a great husband whom I look up to very much! He is always thinking of me and helping me with all of my little projects! He always thinks of those around him and is willing to help anyone with anything! Raymond, I love you and am so grateful to have you in my life!

Raymond came home while I was putting the slide-show up and well he is really excited about it! Hehehe!!! Love you babe!

SeRiOuS uPdAtE!

life has been a blurr...here is an peak at the blurriness

raymond's mission reunion:

the berkstedt's--one and only mission president raymond had on his mission...they are the nicest people ever and are always so welcoming when we get together...they have books laid out at each reunion with each of the missionaries final evaluation they write before going home...kinda fun to see what raymond was thinking before i came along :)


some of the gents raymond served with in the arcadia california mission

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my recent doings:

killing cactus...what a skill lunch with dear friend amanda...this is her adorable little girl wedding cake...hadn't done one in a while and boy are my skills rusty had my last clinical day for this semester...i am not going to miss the hospital at 0430

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dear husbands recent doings.... saving the world one wall at a time supervising the new window installment...look at them sparkle the old windows...they didn't want to come out so they were each shattered in order to force them out...sad huh raymond getting truck and trailer stuck in a field with over two tons of dirt loaded...smart huh ruining the yard...in hopes of improving our driveway...this is the process of making it wider feeling like a king on the kabota...he let me try it out...once

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a day from the view of our jeep...our topless day to be exact! beautiful spring has sprung or at least for a day and granted us an opportunity to take a drive through ogden canyon...it was still a little cold when we got to the top of the mountain but other than that is was perfect! we have seriously missed our topless summer days! just thinking about the fun that was about to be had my hair out of control...i secretly love it me and raymond--isn't he hot to start our trip we headed up the canyon, past oaks (home of the best spaghetti & meatballs!) past pineview reservoir over trapper's loop and into mountain green valley... gorgeous isn't it! we really had a great time being out in the beautiful weather! we finished the day off with some good 'ol home cookin and a movie in the comfort of our own home!

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the end of march, or april, who knows...we had a baby shower for raymond's cousin SHERRI and her BABY BOY...here are some of the cute pictures from it! tiffany swaddling the baby during our "pass the baby" game
this is SHERRI opening presents my cute sisters...tiffany melissa kristi some of the yummy foods we had diaper cake made by me the awesome quilt tiffany made for part of our present...matches the diaper bag!!

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Clear back in March (if all of you can remember that far back) Steve and Jodi hosted a miniature dinner! Jodi did one awhile back but not all of the spouses had been to it so we did it again! It is the cutest little tea party! We all had a blast! And surprisingly we all got so very full!

Madison, the devoted princess and dancer

how grandma and halli play

madison's idea of playing with grandpa

miss halli

cute lisa and lexi!

our own romantic chandalier and s/p shakers!

even miniature butter flown in from france (hehehe)!

miniature salads!

all the china, flatware, stem ware, appetizers, serving bowls, decor and everything was mini size!! it was so much fun hanging out with the family and indulging in all the yummy food! thanks for the invite steve and jodi!