Act 2; Scene 4: Time to Show the New Apartment

Tonight we invited my family over to check out the new and improved apartment. So I decided it was time to put it on blogosphere, as well. Enjoy!

Smaller view of kitchen

Larger view of kitchen

Dining room

Other side of the kitchen :-)

It has been so fun figuring out how to decorate this place! Thanks to Katie for the lavender wreath in the dining room, Dad for his gorgeous paintings, and Kim for the beautiful scentsy in this last picture.

Act 2; Scene 3: Blueberriesblueberriesblueberriesblueberriesblueberriesblueberries

That's right. You heard me. Blueberries!

While I was in Michigan, my sis-in-law Katie took me to pick a huge bucket of beautiful, succulent, fresh, and very large Blueberries. 

 

I stowed them an took them all the way back to Utah with me. 

They have been such a delicious addition to the McFarland and Center kitchens. Here is a list of what I have done our half-bucket of Michigan blueberries:

• fresh blueberries in morning cereal
• blueberry ice cream
• blueberry syrup
• blueberry pancakes
• fruit salad with blueberries
• blueberry yogurt parfaits
• green salad with berries and vinaigrette
• blueberry jam (delicious)

And tomorrow I will top it off with a lemonade, blueberry sorbet for our last picnic of the summer. Who knew you could do so much with those berries, and they could be so delicious? Next time we need to put blueberry buckle on the list :-) I'm excited for next year's bucket of fresh blueberries. 

Act 2; Scene 2: DIY

I have been going through boxes and boxes, trying to get everything up in our new apartment. I finally made it to the last box a few days ago. I had one--ONE--5x7 picture frame with no picture to put in it. But I didn't want to store it anywhere. It's a great frame and I was DONE having boxes in the house! So I put on my creative hat and came up with this:

With some scrap book paper I won at Robert's, and a frame I got for our wedding, I created this little "Center" decor for the house. Wahoo! I may or may not want to replace this with a picture eventually...I am sort of fond of my little DIY project :-)

Act 2; Scene 1: Celebrations

This is how we celebrated our one year anniversary:

Rather than a freezer burned one year old cake, we opted for a mini cake from "The Chocolate"

Homemade blueberry ice cream! Surprisingly delicious!

The combination: excellent.

Act 1: FINAL SCENE

Today marks the one year anniversary of mine and Robert's marriage. Wahoo! Now we're starting Act 2. To reminisce/celebrate, here is what was meant to be a rather short but turned into a rather long picture narrative of our first married year. :-) Enjoy!

Our first picture together. Although we were not married at this point, I had to post it because it was SO telling of things to come... :-)

Me crying when we told my parents we were engaged. Don't be deceived by the smile--they were not the happiest of tears. Robert didn't know what to make of it :-)

We got married!

 Honeymoon at Jackson Hole, WY!

Eating the top layer of wedding cake appx. 5 days after the wedding

Fun fall adventures

At Hee Haw Farms on the hay ride

At our Halloween/house warming party

A piece of the cheesecake that Robert MADE me for my birthday

Thanksgiving at Grandma Svedin's. The car ride was early, packed, and freezing!

Our First Christmas

We went to an ugly sweater party!

Happy New Year!

                                             And I caught Robert eating on camera...a lot

Spring and Summer Adventures!

Participating in the saltine eating contest--how many can you get down in one minute?!

At the SLC Tabernacle for Music and the Spoken Word on Easter Sunday

After Convocation

We went to a baseball game

We went hiking! 

We had a picnic every week--this is our first one of the summer :-)

Waiting for the 4th of July fireworks to start

We moved...

 And helped others move

 

And to cap it off we took a big vacation to the Midwest

At Lake Michigan

Went on a walk at the cottage and saw this

On the swing by the pond at the Center Farm

The whole Center clan -1 (We love you, Harry!)

And that pretty much brings us to today. If you are still going through this blog post, you are pretty awesome, too. I've had so much fun going through pictures of the past year and trying to decide which ones I want to post! I think this will have to become an annual tradition--so watch out for next year! 

Robert--you are the love of my life. Here's a toast to Act 1!

Now...on to Act 2!

Act 1; Scene 39: Giddy Giggles

My favorite part about last night was listening to Robert giggle and giggle while we were watching this:

My other favorite part is how we were both so tuckered that we both only made it through half the movie before falling asleep on the couch and waking up hours later.

P.S. Doesn't Wart kind of remind you of Robert? They are both skinny and have the same nose :-)

Summer of Picnics #14

BY THE POND 

Place: At the Center Family Farm, just behind the pond by the deck around the trees.
Menu: Grilled hamburgers and roasted hot dogs, potato salad, green salad, grilled zucchini, water melon, baked beans, gigantic chocolate chip cookies, lemon cake, Texas sheet cake, butterscotch rice krispies, chocolate covered pretzels...wow!
Description: A bunch of family and long time family friend FUN!

Ellen had a lot of fun pushing her Dad on the swing, drinking root beer, and eating as much chocolate as she could get her hands on. 

Notice the mischievous look

This dog has an amazing sixth sense--he knows exactly when you are eating something. He will stare at you and your food until you finally give in and give him a bite. 

Robert and Chip having a stare down over some watermelon

Chip eating his favorite food--potato chips

And I know one little boy who can't get enough water melon

And here's my handsome man:

More to come on our amazing family vacation later :-)

Today I am also remembering how nervous I was one year ago today. Go here to see a video from that day (think toads and suckers...). 

Happy Picnicking!