What's happened the past 2 months?

Alright, I think I'm ready to start blogging again. It's been 2 months and a day since my last post! You might be wondering if I won the lottery, have done something crazy like skydiving, or joined the army...? Well, I haven't. But I have finished school for the semester, have been playing the heck out of the piano at church, and stay up pretty late playing yahtzee, scattergories, and monopoly. Wow, my life sounds really exciting huh? I can tell I'm getting old when I find myself shopping for crock pots and mixers online.

Anyway every one likes pictures, Here's some pics from my last trip to Reno that I never posted!

The kids are like a big balls of craziness wrapped up inside little bodies.
And they are adorable.
And I'm really excited to come live with them for a couple months before I got to Rexburg :)

New Hair & Fall Pumpkin Recipes!

My hair is finally back to it's natural color! No more highlighting! :)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Recipe

Ingredients:
- 8oz low fat cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup canned pure pumpkin
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- dash of salt

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix until smooth and creamy.

Entire recipe makes 10 servings
Serving size is about 2 tbsp
Each serving = 2 Point Total

Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

Ingredients:
- 1 18oz box of spice cake mix
- 1 15oz can of pure pumpkin
- ½ cup applesauce
- ¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Spoon into muffin tins, either lightly sprayed or lined with muffin cups. You’ll use about 1/4 cup of batter per cup. Bake as directed on cake box.

Entire recipe makes 24 muffins
Serving size is 1 muffin
Each serving = 3 Point Total

MmMmMm...Maybe we can spread the pumpkin cream cheese on the warm pumpkin muffins?

Sounds like an amazing treat to me!

Video: Prayer

The power of prayer is so strong. And the Lord answers my prayers DAILY.

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&vgnextoid=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&channelId=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&sourceId=42c9b7d081426210VgnVCM100000176f620a____

I hope this will lift someone up as much as it did to me!

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&vgnextoid=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&channelId=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&sourceId=561c6a86bdcf7210VgnVCM100000176f620a____

8/28 Restoring Honor

This was the room to get your metro ticket...
AFTER waiting in line for hours upon hours.

Metro station and on the tram. Packed liked sardines.





The Lincoln Memorial's steps were filled with people.
It was such a cool sight to see.

A picture from in front of the Washington Monument
looking over the rally.
This doesn't even show a 1/4 of the people that
were here.

Praying.

The group.
Kelci, DJ, Katlyn, Chris, Me, Jimmy

At the American History Museum, they presented a
section on Julia Child and her kitchen!
I was so excited!

This was an awesome experience to be able to attend the Restoring Honor Rally and witness 500,000 Americans show up to show their love for God, our country, and our families. The crowd was indescribable. I never heard one harsh word spoken between strangers, even though it was very hot, packed, and uncomfortable. Look it up online and watch the whole thing!

Reno, Nevada
&
Lake Tahoe

We all had a great time together! Went to a water park, did some shopping at the outlets, watched Toy Story 3 and Eclipse, visited the beautiful Lake Tahoe where we ate at a really good pizza place, and played A LOT of the game apples to apples after the kids went to bed. We had some great quality time and I soaked in every minute!

I found a testimony from a man on LDS.org that really just made me happy today.

How has the Book of Mormon brought you closer to God?

B. Andre answered … As you may have read above, I grew up with a good exposure to many different denominations of Christian faith. Although as a child it was confusing to me that there were so many different ways to interpret something Jesus taught as I have grown older it has made me appreciate the things I have learned and the Christlike people I have associated with. When I began my investigation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, many well-intentioned yet misinformed people cautioned me against reading the Book of Mormon. They told me it was "another Bible" or "an addition to the Bible", etc. They told me "Mormons" believed in a "different Jesus" and to beware. This all actually made me more curious because the Mormons I knew were some of the most kind, honest, family oriented, Christlike people I knew. So, after some time I decided to read The Book of Mormon for myself. As I began expecting to find some strange twist on who Jesus was or what He taught I found the exact opposite... page after page testified that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world and the only name given under heaven whereby we can be saved. In fact the more I read the stronger my faith in Him grew as well as my conviction that the Bible is the word of God. The Book of Mormon truly became a Second Witness to me that all I had learned growing up was true. In fact, The Book of Mormon did not confuse me in any way but instead gave me a clearer understanding of core Christian doctrines like God's eternal plan, the saving power of grace, Christ's infinite atoning sacrifice for sin, life after death, baptism, the power of faith, the importance of studying the word of God, the relationship we can have through prayer and more! The Book of Mormon has blessed my life and my relationship with my Savior Jesus Christ more than I can express. It has deepened my love for the Bible and together they stand as dual witnesses that Jesus truly is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the World!

More pics of Echo

OH, JUST MY NEW PUPPY :)

Meet my new best friend, Echo.
Can't blame me for falling in love with him right?

Echo, showing off his side profile.

Yet, he eats anything and everything. Last thing I found in his mouth was a cotton ball covered in fingernail polish remover and pink polish....Ewww..
But he's still adorable.
Approx 6 weeks old.
Black lab/sharpei mix.

Can't sleep... So just thinking about...well, lots of things. One of them:

One reason why Glenn Beck is a good, smart, respectable man.

He created the 9/12 Project which is: The name for the 9 principles and 12 values that Glenn says embody the spirit of the American people on the day after September 11 attacks and how we should be living our lives today.

Purpose: "To bring us back to the place we were on September 12, 2001...We were not obsessed with red states, blue states, or political parties. We were united as Americans standing together to protect the values and principles of the greatest nation ever created."

9 Principles accompanied by quotations from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson:

1. I believe in God and He is the center of my life
2. America is good
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government
5. If you break the law, you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it 6. I have a right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, but there's no guarantee of equal results
7. I work hard for what I have, and I will share it with who I want. Government cannot force me to be charitable
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

The 12 Values are:

1. Honesty
2. Reverence
3. Hope
4. Thrift
5. Humility
6. Charity
7. Sincerity
8. Moderation
9. Hard Work
10. Courage
11. Personal Responsibility
12. Gratitude

Valentine's Day!

The Most Perfect Valentine's Day.


Some older pics--

New Years Eve.

Snowboarding over Christmas break.



Chris got me a new charm for my Pandora bracelet.

^ This purple one


And lots of chocolates :)

Which I ate all of already.

Southern Red Velvet Cake
You can tell I love buttercream since
it turned out being a little cake
with LOTS of buttercream.
:)
Find the recipe on:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/southern-red-velvet-cake-recipe/index.html



Basically, we had an awesome Valentine's Day.


It's been so snowy, cloudy, and gloomy for months now. It seems the sun hasn't been out in months. Except today!! I had to take some pictures of my old friend, The Sun, so I can remember what he looks like. Aren't these clouds beautiful!



I love sunny days.

Until Next Time,

Loni

The Simple Life

I Love the simple things of life. I love a summer barbecue. I love reading a book. I love listening to the rain. I love laughing with my family. I love taking walks. I am trying to make the best of each day and look at the positives in life.

Now....

Meet my worst enemy and pet peeve. The Alarm Clock.

I hit snooze 5 to 8 times each morning. ( Seriously, I really do )
And from now on I will try my hardest to wake up on the first alarm.
I know, seems like a HUGE goal.
but Hey, It's the simple things that matter right?
so I'll start small.


One thing you might not know about me:
I LOVE ♥ road trips.
Driving to new places, and seeing things I've never seen before.
( Yeah, Dad, I remember how miserable we were on the last day driving from UT to TN)
But remember how excited we were at the beginning?


My favorite part of our cross country road trip was drinking 7-11 slurpees the ENTIRE time and driving COMPLETELY off course just to visit the Royal Gorge.
Simple.


Some things I miss:
Even though I'm very h.a.p.p.y in Tennessee, I miss some -good 'ole people- in Utah!

Like...Stevie, Nicole, Alyse, Kayla, Kirra, All my UCCU friends, and especially...

My favorite person, Lanae.

♥ Who is that hot bride?? ♥
I always knew she would get married before I did.
Didn't we make a bet on that like 10 years ago?
I think you owe me $40 bucks, Lanae.
Yeah, you can give it to me later.


Favorite moment of the week:

Chris surprising me with red roses.

2nd Favorite moment of the week:


Seeing a mouse while taking a picture of my roses.
Jumping up on a chair.
Hitting my head on the lamp.
And accidentally taking a picture of myself doing this ALL at the same time.
=PRICELESS.

Dear mouse in my apartment,

Your gonna need one of these helmets if your here much longer!
I'm watching you.

Love, Loni ♥ Simply Me.