Clean Shaven, Post Grad, & lots of Cookin'

It's what you've been waiting for....the clean shaven Thomas Mann.

Not many men can pull off a beard and look attractive, and be clean shaven and attractive too. But this one can.

I received my diploma in the mail a couple weeks ago! It's official!

My cute husband got us a little treat to celebrate

(I like crunchy while he likes puffy, but we both love jones :)

The other day...I discovered that Menchies is in Utah! Thomas and I had a little treat (sorry for the sideways pictures...it just uploads that way sometimes!) Forget Yogurtland, FroZone, Spoon Me, or Spoon It Up. Menchies is where its at. And I love the spoons! Aren't they cute?

I bought a ton of pears from Costco, made some pear crisp! (and thought of Candace the whole time - we LOVE pears)

I found a delicious recipe for shortbread logs, so I took it a step further and made them raspberry thumbprint cookies - such buttery goodness!

We got a lovely surprise in the mail today: Jen sent us homemade hot fudge! It's divine! I immediately got out the vanilla ice cream and tried some on top: SO GOOD. Thanks Jen! That was so"sweet" of you :) And we smiled at the envelope too :)

I made lemon blueberry cheesecake cookies I found on pinterest (just got an account - so many good recipes on there!) - you make the dough and then put a bit of cream cheese wrapped in it. Check out the recipe here:

http://hotpolkadot.com/2011/08/18/its-12am-do-you-know-where-your-cookies-are/

I put this one up for Tami! We have made this delicious breakfast multiple times! Thomas introduced it to me when we first started dating - told me it was his favorite breakfast his mom made growing up. You're probably asking, what the heck is in it?? Well I shall tell you: eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, sour cream, and olives. Wrap it up in a burrito and you're set. It's SO good. One of our specialty breakfasts!

(thanks mom for the "I love you" blanket. I love you too.)

I have really been enjoying my amazing keyboard! I LOVE it - all 88 keys, weighted, and the sound is beautiful. One of the nicest gifts I've ever received (graduation gift from my mom).

One of my few goals this year is to compose 6 songs. I have one completely done, and a couple more I'm working on. Maybe I'll eventually put them up...

Honeymoon!

Our honeymoon was great - half of it spent in WA and half in Disneyland.

Yes. We met Aladdin.

My favorite souvenir and current house resident.

My first ever "Monte Cristo" sandwich. It did not disappoint.

9-10-11

So I know it's been like 4 months, but I wanted to put some pics up of our special day. Thomas and I had a beautiful wedding. It really couldn't have been a more perfect day. I have to admit that I am pretty proud of the fact of how low budget cost our wedding was. We made our cake together, I made my bouquet and the boutonnieres, Candace did my hair and I did my makeup. We had the reception in the Mann's backyard - they already had all the lights and I provided the rest of the decorations. Family did all the food. Brother and Brother-in law did photos, I got my dream dress for only $500, and Thomas got a steal on his suit. Oh, and our venue was free and of course the best :) It was an amazing day and I wouldn't change a thing! Below are some of our favorite photos of the day:

Getting ready at 5:30am! :/

note the shirt.

Mom made me these wonderful strawberry cream cheese crepes which I ate on the way to the Temple at 7am!

Mr. and Mrs. Mann :)

Reception

Mmm...the food was SO good.

Can you believe him?!....I can.

Jones are a thing with Thomas and me. I mean,

who doesn't love them?? It was his idea to have

custom jones in our colors with our photos on the

front. Each one had a part of our story on the back.

Funny story: my nephew wore this around

his neck for a while...until he realized it had

been around my leg.

I loved our day!!!