Happy Year

1 giant wedding
7 wonderful days in California
2 people completely in love
6 holidays
8 TV series\
1brand new car
1 car accident in the brand new car
16 primary kids (2 classes)
3 Trips to Disneyland
1 graduate from school
2 crazy work schedules
1 full time student
10+ spiders hidden under a cup until Shawn gets home to kill them
a zillion laughs
a couple tears
a million movie nights
a few home-cooked dinners that turned into a McDonalds run- HA!
several late night drives just to be together
365 best days.

And that's not all.

This past year has easily been the best year of my life. Starting with Shawn coming home from his mission, getting married, and spending every day with my best friend- I'd say we've had a pretty fantastic year! I keep putting off this blog post, because no matter how hard I try to make it perfect, it doesn't happen. So instead of thinking about it, I'm just going to type. I'm going to type everything I'm thinking and hope it doesn't sound like I'm babbling on about our anniversary.

If I could use 3 words to describe the last year, it would be: Marriage freakin' rocks.
Seriously.
It's so fun.
We've had it really good- I mean reallllly good. Alot of people go on and on about how ''the first year of marriage is the hardest'' but whoever said that, obviously didn't know me and Shawn. I don't know if it's because we've actually known each other for a long time, or that we are both so easy going- but seriously marriage has been easy.

Were there things we had to get used to?? Yes. Maybe like Shawn's dirty socks all over the floor. Or piles and piles of hair, or like Shawn would say it "I LIVE IN A HOUSE OF HAIR''. And yes paying bills suck, no air conditioning sucks, paying for groceries suck, but at the same time it's so fun going through these things with your best friend. So like I said, YES there are things that are hard to get used to, but at the same time I wouldn't use the word ''hard''. It's just different. But it's a GOOD different.

Me and Shawn have been living in this cute little basement apartment for the past year, and it's so different. But remember what I said? Different isn't a bad thing!! Not at all. We've had so much fun. So many memories. We have been very blessed to live where we live.We have a fantastic ward, and the whole time we've been a part of the ward be have been in the primary. Doing that with him is so fun.

We both work. But luckily our work schedules hardly ever clash. We usually get home the same time which is AWESOME. I was scared that with us both working and Shawn going to school, we'd never see eachother. But no, we see eachother all the time.

We also have awesome married friends. Even friends with babies. So thats so fun to hang out with them.

I love being married. My favorite thing ever is falling asleep with my best friend and waking up to him every morning. Really, it's the best. I love being lazy with a husband. Cuddles on sunday watching tv are awesome. Cooking dinner, or making Shawn cook dinner -HAHA- is also so fun.

I could go on and on about how marriage freakin rocks. But I'm not kidding when I say this has been the best year of my life. Traveling together, singing together, laughing together, dancing together, cooking together, cleaning together, crying together, EVERYTHING TOGETHER. Rocks.

ANNIVERSARY DATE:
So onto the anniversary date Shawn planned.
June 20. (Friday)
We both worked. I got home around 7 and there were flowers on the table and my favorite dinner made. He is so sweet.

June 21. (Saturday)
We woke up, and Shawn made breakfast. Then we went to Park City for the day. We did the Alpine Coaster and the outlets. And then Shawn had a big surprise for me. There I was, thinking it was going to be a couples massage, candle dinner, I dont know something super romantic. Instead? Ziplining at Olympic Park. HAHAHA. It really was so funny. I laugh at how different boys and girls are. But the Zip line really was sooooooooo fun! And then we went to dinner at one of our fave restaurants!

June 22. (Sunday, our anniversary)
We spent it at my parents house. It was sunday so we couldn't do much but we were together and that's all that matters.
Oh yeah. And i got shawn the coolest gift.
I made him a book on shutterfly of his WHOLE mission. Separated into sectors and everything. 

I love my husband. And I can't wait to see what year 2 brings us!

Birthday Boy

I have been waiting to write this blog post for a while now! Actually since February! I planned the best birthday surprise for Shawn and it took everything inside of me to keep this big secret from him. Everytime I was around my family, they would just laugh because they couldn't believe I wasn't telling him yet. In fact, I think everyone in Kaysville knew about it besides Shawn. I'd tell everyone! So thanks everyone for not telling him!! HA.

I've actually had everything booked since February 26 to be exact. So for almost 3 months, he had no idea. It was really hard the closer it got. Especially because there were many nights, Shawn and I would be sitting next to each other on the couch and a Disney commercial came on and he'd say "Lets plan a trip to Disneyland" and I would say something like, "Not right now hun." It was really hard. The day before was a lot worse. I was getting way too excited. I kept myself really really busy that day and away from Shawn so I wouldn't spill the big surprise.

The night before, we packed our bags. That was hard too because I had to tell him what to pack without telling him where we were going. And make up some excuse why we had to have a suitcase instead of a little duffel bag. After we packed up our things, we were laying on the bed talking and and it hit me that we were about to go to Disneyland the next morning. I got REALLY excited and Shawn could tell I was getting hyper! Then we went to bed, and it was the worst sleep ever. I woke up at 7am and decided to go make him breakfast. I surprised him with breakfast in bed and told him to hurry and eat and get ready.

We both got ready and it was about 8:45 am at this point, and I told him to sit on the couch.
This is how I told him:

 It was hilarious. When he opened it, he just looked at me and said, "We are going to Disneyland?" and I just started laughing way hard. and I said "Yeah babe, we are leaving in an hour!" and he did NOT believe me. I finally showed him the tickets and the flight itinerary and he almost cried! He grabbed me and gave me the biggest hug and kiss! It was perfect.

My mom picked us up and took us to the airport.

This was our first time every flying together.It was really fun. We got on the airplane and the whole time Shawn kept saying, SERIOUSLY EM! WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYLAND! 

 Once we landed, I arranged a driver to pick us up, so he was waiting for us. He picked us up and took us to our hotel to drop our bags off and straight to Disneyland we went! Oh my gosh, if you guys don't already know this, you do now. We are OBSESSED with Disneyland. We were more excited than little kids. This was our 3rd time to Disneyland together and we haven't even been married for a year! HA! We are crazy.

Thursday: So fun. Not very crowded. We went on almost every ride in Disneyland.

Friday: Disneyland was open from 6am-6am. Yep, 24 hours! But we weren't that crazy. We went to California Adventure all day. We got there around 8:30 and around 3pm it got really busy. We left the park at 11:30 and there were more people entering the park than leaving. It was getting reallllllly crazy.

 This was really cool. We got to watch a 12 minute sneak peak of Maleficent.

Saturday: CRAZY busy. But still so fun! And his birthday!

Sunday: We came home. And it was so hard to come home. Our trip was not long enough but it was so fun to get away with my husband for a little bit. I can't wait for our next vacation!

Coming home from vacations are always hard because you have to go back to work. Spending every second with him was perfect. Monday we spend the whole day side by side. It was memorial day so we didn't work. It was nice to be with him all day. I love him so much and I'm so glad that I got to do this for him. He deserved it. And I hope it was a birthday he will never forget :)

Life through my phone

Wow, I am officially the worst blogger. I haven't updated this in a long time. So sorry! But I am back. Not a whole lot going on over at the Larkins. We are either working or Shawn is at school. I was looking through my phone yesterday and realized I just have a bunch of random pictures. So here. Take a look through my phone.

 

The cutest baby ever. My friend Mary had this sweet baby girl 6 weeks ago and I love cuddling with her. And that picture with her in the sink? Yeah. If she gets fussy, they turn on the sink and she loves it! She loves water. Its adorable. 

 Date nights are my favorite. We went to City Creek. We ate yummy food and shopped. 

This was on Easter. We spent the day at my parents having dinner and an easter egg hunt. It's always a good time getting together with the whole family, laughing and having a great time.

 Let me explain this picture and why I am icing my face. I'm sure many of you have heard of permanent make up. Well, that's what I got done. I actually got it done in January but this was my touch up. Many of you don't know this, but some do, I have the thinnest eyebrows. Not to mention they are super blonde too.. So every day when I did my make up I had to shape and fill in my eyebrows. Such a pain. And now they are perfect. The best part is that I don't have to even touch them in the morning. 

For a week, they are super ugly tho! They bleed (sometimes) and you have to put tons of Vaseline on them every hour so they always look goopy. But after a week, they look natural. So natural that you wouldn't even know I got them done unless I told you. 

 

So there ya have it. A look through my phone. Exciting huh?? 

xoxo.

 

Ahhh I love Sundays

Sundays are seriously my favorite day of the whole week. There is nothing better than relaxing around the house all day with my best friend. Lately we have been dragging ourselves to church (good thing we have callings) because 9 am church is kicking our butt. I don't know what it is about Sunday but all we want to do is lay in bed. The nice thing about church being early is that we have the whole day to lay around and do absolutely nothing.

Our day has been absolutely pathetic perfect. After church, we ate left over pizza from last night (oops-sorry diet) and watched Despicable Me 2. Now its 3 in the afternoon and we are watching 90210 and there is not a care in the world. I love Sundays because you can't do anything. So I don't feel obligated to go to the gym, or go to work. I'll just lay on the couch all day and cuddle my babe.

The best part is we will be doing this until 6. Because then we are going to my parents house for dinner. That's another great thing about Sundays; spending time with the family.

Before I end this ridiculous post, I wanted to share something I saw on Twitter. It melted my heart. I couldn't agree more with everything it said. It makes me wish I wrote it.

"Growing up, I always thought true love was red roses, dates on Saturday nights, little black box that held expensive things, and always knowing what to say. I thought true love was a kiss in the rain, deep explanations, and the perfect story. But now that I'm older, I've realized it's not like that at all. 

See because true love for me is ugly snapchats, and kissing at 6am despite the morning breath. It's singing at the top of our lungs. It's saying all the wrong things, at all the wrong moments. It's sarcasm and being honest even when it hurts. It's late hours of the night when it's been a long night and it's no make up and bad hair. It's tears from laughter, it's tears from sadness, and it's nothing like any storybook you've ever read. It's never running out of things to talk about and it's being comfortable in the silence of things. True love is watching The Notebook though you said you never would. It's getting mad over stupid things. It's "you're an idiot" and "you little shiz" and knowing you're so lucky to hear those things everyday. It's spilling your feelings at 4am when you should be asleep. It's that song you hear on the radio that always makes you smile. It's the worst story and the best story. It's ''thank goodness'' it worked out. True love is never losing the magic. True love is not leaving when things get hard. 

I like my definition better anyways."

The perfect definition of true love.

Now I'm going to get back to cuddling with my babe. xox

Remember me?

Hi. Remember me? The girl that used to blog all the time? Sorry I've been so MIA lately. I don't have any explanation other than I was just taking a break for a little while. I've been so caught up with work and life that I haven't really wanted to blog lately. But I'm back and I hope that I'll keep up with it.

 We celebrated my birthday a couple weeks ago and let me just say being married on your birthday is the best!A couple days before my birthday I went shopping and to lunch with my mama at City Creek and that was so fun to be with her and on my birthhday I woke up with a love note in the kitchen.

At the end, as you can see, it said for me to go to the dryer! I started laughing to myself thinking what on earth Shawn is doing.

(sorry it's sideways, it would NOT rotate)

 So then I went to the fridge! HA.

So I went to work, and my cute friend at work decorated my station and it made my whole day. I've never been one to like working on my birthday but this sure made me happy.

After work, I went home and waited for my cute husband to get home from work. When he got home, there was a knock on the door. It was my in-laws with these cute balloons and a card. So good to see them on my birthday. They are so sweet.

After they left, we packed up our stuff and left. My husband is the cutest. He surprised me with a hotel in Salt Lake, dinner, and shopping! I dont know why, but for some reason I love hotels. I love getting away even if its 30 minutes away from my home. We had so much fun. We ate dinner at this yummy fancy place, shopped at City Creek and got a cute outfit, went back to the hotel and went hot tubbing and swimming. And then we went back to the room and had birthday cake and snuggled all night. I really had the best birthday any girl could ever ask for. My hubs sure did spoil me.

Mom for the week

Ah I finally get to sit down and actually blog. I don't have a whole lot to blog about but the past 2 weeks have been entertaining. Ha. I have played 'mom' for the past 2 weeks. Last week for my siblings while my parents were in Cancun, and this week for my uncle's kids while they are in Hawaii!

Last week was super easy. It always is when I babysit my siblings. 16 years old, 13 years old, and 9 years old. They all pretty much take care of themselves. Other than putting a dish in the dishwasher or cleaning up their stuff when they get home from school, they pretty much take care of themselves. Ha! But really they are fun and it's so easy. It's also way nice to get away from our little apartment and go into my parents very roomy house. We like it!

But get this, two days before my parents got home, I'm sitting on the couch with Shawn. No one is home. Kids are with friends. And my brother Parker (16) calls me:
"Whats up!"-Me
"Uhhh Emily?"(hearing him start to cry)-Parker
"ya?"-me
"I just got in a huge car accident. I think I totalled my car."

I JUMPED off the couch and Shawn was like what is going on! haha. I just told him to get in the car, Parker got in a car accident. So we rushed to him. For those that are familiar with Farmington, UT, it was the overpass by Farmington Station.

Talk about scarriest moment ever. Not only are we siblings, we are like best friends so to hear that made me cry immediately. Getting off the exit and seeing the flashing lights made me sick. But he is totally okay. No one was hurt. I just can't believe that happened while my parents were gone. ha.ha.ha. and the next morning, we are cleaning the house and Tyson (9) is cleaning the basement and yells,
"EMILY THE HOUSE IS LEAKING!"
Yup. The ceiling was leaking from the kitchen sink right above.
-Welcome Home Parents! Hahah

This week, I'm babysitting my uncle's kids at their house while they are in Hawaii. They have three kids. The two older girls are in school all day. and then they have a little 3 year old boy (Tate) who is my little buddy all day long. We are babysitting til Friday (today is Wednesday) and I've gotten a little taste of what it's like to be a mom. And as much fun as it is, it's definitely cured my baby hunger. Haha and not in a bad way. I adore these kids so much. but it's made me realize that me and Shawn are in no rush to have kiddos of our own right now! We've only been married 7 months. We are still young! We have other things we want to do before kids come into the picture. But it's so fun playing mom and dad! Tate is the best. We play all day and he will constantly say:

"Shawn is my buddy"
"When is Shawn coming home?"
"Why is Shawn at school? Daddy's don't go to school"
^haha my favorite. Daddys. I love it!

It's so cute to see Shawn play with Tate. Seriously, melt my heart! Shawn's going to be the cutest dad in the world. (when the time is right might I add).

So two more days of babysitting and it's gonna be a fun 2 days. Tonight we have fun things planned. Bowling and arcades! We are the coolest babysitters!

Other than that, it's been a week filled with Curious George and Mickey Mouse, Arctic Circle to play on the toy, Video Games, playing with the dog, running errands with my little buddy, and bath time. He LOVES the bath!

He also loves naps so that's nice! ha.ha.ha.