The Month of { LOVE }

February is traditionally the month of LOVE throughout the whole world, but in our house, it's TRIPLE the LOVE.


February 10th is the day Beau blind folded me (6 years ago) and took me on a long confusing ride in his van where we ended at Seven Peaks Ice Rink in Provo. I was a little surprised that he made such a big deal about blind folding me to just take me ice skating. But I happily went along with his plans. So, we had been skating to a couple of songs when I stop off to the side to retie my skate where Beau had disappeared. Next thing I know Beau love song about/for me was playing and my name was being called over the intercom and Beau skating in the middle of the ring with a giant boutique of roses. So I stumbled quickly to finishing fixing my skate and hurried out to him. With tears in both our eyes, Beau kneeled on one knee and asked me to married him!

Beau & I technically had our first date at the ice rink the year before. Where it was the first time our friends knew we were becoming more than just friends and where Beau held my hand for the first time, and we had our first kiss later that night. I'll always remember that first kiss. Not to gross you all about our lovey dovey kissing but it was an amazingly good kiss that I just wasn't really expecting it to be. That kiss was the starting point of how I knew he was the man for me and I was falling in LOVE with him & knew I needed him in my life forever!

{ this is a picture after the proposal at Beau's Parents when we showed them the ring}

So the 10th day of February is an extra special day in my heart.



A few years later...


February 13th 2009, Beau & I made promises to each other and our Heavenly Father that are so dear and near to my heart. We were sealed together for not only time but eternity. It was extra special because I was able to be sealed to my parents that same day. That day was filled with lots of LOVE that we were able to share with our family and friends. We were sealed in the Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork.

I'm so grateful to have the knowledge that Beau and I are a family for eternity.

February 14th, is as you all know Valentine's Day. People hate Valentine's day because they think it's a big commercial, Hallmark, chocolate and flowers big waste of money. But I think of it as a special day that we get to share to the world how much we truly love the people in our lives. Yes I love my friends and family every single day, but on Valentine's Day, once a year, I can express and show them how much they do mean to me.

This year, I was truly inspired by an amazing designer Heidi Swapp to create mine & Beau's love story in a Jewelry Box Album. You can watch her how to video on My Craft Channel.com Season 1 - Episode 12. You should pretty much take an hour and watch ALL of her shows because is so cute and so creative!

Anyways... Here's my final project. Beau did love it. He loved seeing the old pictures. While I was making it, looking at pictures, and remembering the order of how things happened. I found myself overwhelmed with emotions. It's just so crazy to think of how things happen, the way things work out for the best and how truly grateful I am to have such an awesome guy that loves me as much as I love him.

{Album starts with pictures from when we first met and just started hanging out. Then into Beau's High School Prom, then our first date, dating, engagement, our wedding and getting sealed }

{Instagram Colleagues }

Thank you Heidi for sharing your pretty stuff!

Happy Month of {LOVE} !!

Photo A Day

Holy Cow! It's already February!

Well, this year I took on a personal challenge to document my/our life better. I have LOVED the concept of Project Life by beckyhiggins.com and kept thinking how cool it would be to look back on my year and see all the dumb but important repetitive day to day things that we did. I would love to see a book of how my parents, or Beau's parents and even my grandparents and what they did everyday and how things were back then.

Everyday... ya, I know. It seems way to much and just another thing to get behind in. But... with our amazing technology these days, it CAN actually be done!

So, it started with getting the Instagram app on my iPod. Instagram is this cool app that gives you the capability to share and take photos and use filters to make the picture vintage looking.
You can view & comment on your Facebook and Twitter friends Instagram pictures. It's pretty dang awesome.

So, I came across this Photo A Day Challenge and was so in LOVE! Even if I don't get them printed out and onto a 12x12 paper. I have it digitally, and I'm liking the idea to scrap my daily pics digitally!

Here is the challenge... Each day is a different thing/task/item to give you a challenge and a different view of your life.

Next I came across this app. my365. It lets you upload a picture a day and keeps it in a calendar view. Hello! Cool!

Days 1 thru 16

Days 17 thru 31

I first got the app before Christmas time and took a bunch of cool pictures of my Christmas decor.

Here's some of my favorite days.

Not my favorite thing to photograph, but it's something I need to do and "document"
{ Me }

Day26: Color - I love the color orange... I have many things in orange

Day 5: Something You Wore - My new favorite necklace, given to me by my BFF, Kiley.

Day 14: Something You're Reading - I'm reading The Pioneer Woman's Black Heels to Tractor Wheels again. It's a hilarious love story. A must read.

Day 12: Close-Up - This is my eternal necklace. Beau gave me this the day we were sealed. I love and treasure this close to my heart.

I'm excited to start onto February. I'm just more excited to see the whole year.

Along with this Photo-a-Day Challenge, I finally got me Project Life (Clementine edition) and I am doing a monthly 2 page layout of our happenings during each month. I've add some sparkly letters. I'm really loving it and hoping I can work on the past years. (a bigggg project, but how awesome will that be to look at!)





Anyways... I still can't find my camera! It's driving me CRAZY!!! I am just hoping one day I find it in my amazing safe place that I stashed it! So, my iPod has become my awesome camera.
***UPDATE: found my camera!! It was in my basket of all my Boutique stuff!! haha! Glad I found it!! ****



I linked up to House of Smiths linky party. check out other peoples Photo-A-Day blog posts.

Looking Back on year 2011

I was looking back at some of my scrapbooks I made in High School where I found a page of where I did a 4 page layout of all the months and did a summary of what happened in that whole year. Ah... Hello!!?!? What a FANTASTIC idea! (too bad I only did it once) but I'm changing that now...

so here's

Beau & Jenalee's 2011 Happenings Recap:



January

• Rung in the New Year Beau's family
• Beau goes Snowshoeing
• Traded in our Ford 500
• Got our first Brand New Car: 2011 Nissan Rouge Krom

February

• Beau goes on a Wilderness Innovation {aka WI} winter rendezvous

• We get our "Black Heels" Pioneer Woman Book signed
• Go tubing at Soldier Hollow w/ the Jenkins
• Valentine's Day {I can't remember what we even did...so sad! }
• Gregory Visits Us in Utah
• Go to a Linkin Park concert

March

• Head to Seattle and down the West Coast on an AMAZING road trip

"It took us a couple of months to plan, but we made it happen! Our good friends Angie & Jason and us took an amazing road trip together. We first headed straight up to Seattle, Washington to visit our friends Catherine & Eric Bingham and to see what Seattle had to offer! We were able to see so much in Seattle like: The Space Needle, The Pacific science Center, The Seattle Aquarium, went on a cruise around the coast of Seattle, Underground Tour of Seattle, The EMP Museum, visited the Woodland Zoo and of course ate great food. After a few days in Seattle we headed to Oregon to see the beautiful Pacific Ocean Coast. We took the U.S. Route 101 highway down the coast and saw God's greatest creations. The beautiful peaceful ocean coast, the outstanding Redwoods and the gorgeous mountains and valleys we took the highway down to one of our favorite places; San Francisco, California. There we visited Beau's grandparents, took a tour on Alcatraz, visited China Town, rode the trolley, and drove down the whiniest road; Lombard Street. Then we headed back to Utah staying a night in Reno, Nevada where we played some bingo and went to an amazing buffet. " from my Shutterfly album.Me, Cat, Angie (blurry... but only good one Beau got)
Wish I could see and be by this Every Day!


Don't mind our conversation ... but Love this bridge




April

• Took my first adventure with my sister Shantell in putting our crafts in a Boutique
• Shelly Chic Designs was born

• Celebrate Easter

May

• Took my baking talents to another level by being challenged to make a "Barbie" cake
• Made Adysen's 5th Birthday cake of Tangled's Rapunzel
• Beau prepped and went on a Sniper Training Course in AZ. He is making his gilly suit here..
• We visited our loved ones on Memorial Day
• Went to the midnight showing for the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie
• Got new Fridge, dishwasher and garbage disposal

June

• Took some Withers Family Pictures (the last ones ever with my Grandpa Withers)

• Was laid off from working at Pinnacle - Clear division

• Beau & WI entered there first Expo show at UVU
• Took a camping trip with the WI Crew

• Did another Rapunzel Cake for Sydney, McKay & Rebekah Louder's daughter

• Celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary

• Our fishes got a new home at John & Carol's because our fish tank had a huge crack in the back- so we no longer have a tank and the fish were adopted

• Took a trip up to Heritage Park with the Graves Girls

• Annual Withers Camping Trip was at Vernon Reservoir, where Jamason proposed to Angel

July

• Celebrated Independence Day with the Graves
• Went camping up to Payson Lakes with the Jenkins
• Gregory came and visited
• Had another Birthday, 26th to be exact. Flowers from Beau
• Headed back up to Payson Lakes for some fishing and camping with our neighbors friends Whitney & Otis

August

• Was invited to be apart of my friend Erin's mini Creative Escape (read her blog post and pics from here also). I learned how to make charms, all sorts of fun jewelry things, more scrapping ideas and new friends!

• Beau headed to Boise, Idaho where WI had a very successful expo show

• LaDawn and I gave Marissa & Jordyn a party of lunch and crafting

• Saw a Salt Lake Bee's baseball game with Michael & Amy

• Listen to a very inspiration woman; Stephanie Neilson at Girls Night Out put on by IHC

September

• Fall colors have arrived, took a drive with LaDawn on the Nebo Loop in Payson Canyon
• Went to the General Relief Society Broadcast in SLC, with Whitney

• BYU Football is in full swing

Movie from Beau's phone at a BYU game

Go Cougars!

• State Fair fun with Angie & Jason

• Found some new internet loves; Pinterest & mycraftchannel.com

• Lots of Wedding preparations
• Angels Wedding Shower at Shanny's
• Beau's Crown Vic car blows a gasket... literally. No more second car
  

October

• Payson Temple groundbreaking

• Beau and WI goes to the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy for a Preparedness Expo

• Grandpa Withers returns to our Father in Heaven
• Said goodbye to Grandpa

• Jamason and Angel get married- Oct. 12th

• Can peaches and make peach jam with Carol

• Do a boutique in Salina, Utah

• Ride the Redneck Rollercoaster with Shanny, Becky, Sara (Brandon's girlfriend), Holly (cousin), and Susan (Aunt)

• Had the most fun you possibly could have for a 5 minute ride in a van

• Lefted on a jet plane to Dallas Texas with Michael & Amy to see Texas, and BYU football at the Dallas Cowboys stadium

November

• Went to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn: Part 1

• Stuffed our faces at Thanksgiving with the Graves and pie at Grandma Burch's

• Joined the crazies and did some Black Friday shopping starting at 10pm Thursday... it gets earlier and earlier every year.

• Debated all month if I should enter Becky Higgins 12 days of Christmas video contest

Prepped, created, edit, submitted the video all on the last day you could submit a video

Bloopers... for some funny entertainment






December

• Shelly Chic Designs at Battlecreek's Christmas Boutique

• Winner! Winner! of Becky Higgins contest. Won $100 (got PSE, & Project Life)

Read her post about me here.

• Went to the Homestead in Midway to see the Nativity Creche with the Graves

• Saw the beautiful lights at Temple Square with John, Carol & LaDawn

• Stopped by the "Up House" in Herriman, Utah

• Was just like the movie...

• Made awesome Withers Candy

• Mom made handprint ornaments with the grandkids

• Here Jamason displays the done ornament, its a little snowman family

• Beau catches up to me and turns 26 years old

• Christmas is ready at our house

But I get sick and so it's becomes Christmas Week to see everyone

• Plan to say goodbye to 2011 with Beau's family but eating and playing games

So my friends... I would like to challenge you to do this same thing or some version of it! I love it! Took me forever to do it this way... but so will a 4 page scrapbook page.
I first got a notebook and went to my Google calendar and flipped through the last year to get my brain remembering what a fabulous year we really did have. Then flipped through my physical calendar notebook, then go through your phone photos and remember things that happened that way. Next go to your Facebook, and if you updated to a timeline you can click on your activity log and it will show you everything you ever commented, posted and liked in each month! so cool btw... anyways...
I challenge you to take 20 minutes to do this even if its to scribble down the happenings on notebook paper, it will be cherished in the years to come. Because all of this blogging, scrapbook-ing, journal-ing and even Facebook-ing is to document our life! I think even if I did stay on top of my blogging I would love to see the "year at a glance version".




What a great year Beau and I were blessed with. Even with the crummy jobless months, no more second car, less money, being sick, and so much more that we ALL have to deal with. It's this time of year we get the chance to look back and remember, then change if we need to. I'm so looking forward to what 2012 brings!

Happy New Year!