day by day

The Holidays

2014-01-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

The holiday season was so much fun! We started it off by decorating our first Christmas tree. While we were on our honeymoon my parents cut down a tree for us so we were ready for christmas right when we got home. I loved loved loved some stockings from anthropologie but they were too expensive.... So I decided to try to make my own. I thought they turned out pretty good. I then made the merry christmas sign from $1 letters found at target! The garland was just pom poms found at Joanns. In the kitchen we created two chalkboard walls. This way I can change the drawings on the wall for every holiday. Thank goodness for Pinterest and all the cute chalkboard ideas. Once Christmas was over I changed the chalkboard to a Happy New Year sign.

Our first Christmas was very fun and relaxing! We started it off by spending the night at Justins families house and spending Christmas morning with them. We then headed to our house to open our gifts to eachother. It was fun! Justin gave me some cute jewelry and some new scriptures with my new name on them :) It was fun to take time out of the day to have our own little christmas. We then headed to my families house to open gifts with them and have christmas dinner. There is nothing like my moms home cooking. We then got to talk to my little brother Jordan, who is serving a mission in Texas. It was so great to hear from him. He is doing great! We ended the day by playing games with the family. It was a great Christmas for the Allens!

Honeymoon

2014-01-07T18:04:00.002-07:00

Justin and I were married and headed to our honeymoon the next day. We took a cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. It was so much fun. Here are a few pictures of our fun adventures.

this was the beginning of our funness! we stayed in a hotel in California

In the room we loved coming back to our bed pulled back with a cute towel animal. We also LOVED room service. We literally ordered it 3 times a day. It wasn't the best food but it was fun just having room service for free.

these are all picttures of us on Catalina Island. It was a fun cute little island.

We got smoothies and pastries at a local bakery. They were delicious.

This was us at the fancy meal on the cruise. We asked some extremely drunk guy to take this picture for us. Surprised it actually turned out! It was fun getting all dressed up and eat a fancy dinner.

We were all ready to explore Mexico

Giant Mexican flag. Our tour guide told us it was the size of a football field. We thought it was pretty cool.

On a tour we went on we got free Margaritas! haha obviously they were Virgin margaritas. they were delicious and while we drank we were serenaded by a mexican guitar player.

me and my hubs on a bus in Mexico.

a zebra?

view from the blow hole we went to.

Authentic Mexican fish tacos. They were delicious.

Our Cruise ship. We had so much fun! We cant wait to go on another cruise someday!

We got married

2014-01-07T18:04:00.001-07:00

Excuse me for the extremely long post. I Just wanted to post some pictures from our wedding. November 23rd 2013 was the happiest day of our lives. We both felt an overwhelming feeling that this was the absolute best decision we were going to make in our life. We had been patiently waiting for the wedding date to come and then it came and went too fast. The day was absolutely perfect. The sealing was so great. We had a member of the temple presidency from our ward do it. I wish I could remember everything he said. The luncheon and reception was also wonderful. We felt so loved from all our great friends and family that came to celebrate this exciting time with us.

Here are a bazillion photos from our day. I couldn't help put share so many. It was too hard to eliminate. I love our wedding :)

I love being married. It really is the funnest thing I have ever done. I love being a wife and I love having a husband. So happy we found each other so we could start our very own life together.

engaged

2013-07-03T01:21:00.003-06:00

well i just realized me and justin have been engaged for over a month now. can you believe it? time is already flying! i decided i would share how justin proposed.... so we had gone ring shopping and picked out the most gorgeous ring that we could find and i was in love with it. i had no idea when he was going to purchase it or pop the question at this point. i then called him one day and i asked what he was doing and he said he was on his way home from the store. i asked what store? he replied the jewelry store. i then got so extremely excited. you have no idea. he bought the ring!!!!!! he then told me some sad news.... it was not going to be ready until friday and i was leaving on a trip to new york on saturday. so basically i knew the day he was going to propose since he wanted to do it before i left. he was really bummed that i knew the day now too. i kept asking him if there was any possible way of getting it sooner and he kept telling me no. so throughout that week i was nosie and kept asking him if he had a plan of how he was going to propose. he always said no. i tried to hint at ideas that might be cute haha and he never really said anything. throughout the week he told me that he wanted to take me on a date on thursday to celebrate our last date together as boyfriend and girlfriend. and of course i wanted to go on this date! i loved going on any dates with justin. he told me he was going to take me horse back riding to this really pretty spot. i was so excited to go... but on wednesday night the truck broke down that he was going to use to carry the horse to where we were going. so the plan was then sacked and we were both very sad. i was so excited to go on a horse back ride with him. he then came up with plan b. this plan was to take me to the same spot that he was going to take me on the horse and bring a picnic. so we did that. he told me to make dinner for the picnic and he would bring drinks and the dessert. at this point my mom kept telling me that it was going to happen that night. i still was very unsure because he was having me make the dinner and the ring was not supposed to be ready to pick up until the next day. so he came to pick me up and off we went on our picnic. it was about a fifteen minute walk on a trail. we found a perfect spot to lay a blanket down. we then just sat there and talked for a few minutes. we then ate our dinner that i made for us. and then cuddled and digested our dinner. justin ended up falling asleep. he then asked if i was ready for dessert and of course i said yes! i am always ready for dessert. he told me to grab them out of the back so i did. and to my surprise i opened my little pie he packed for me and the ring box was in with the pie. i pulled the ring box out opened it up and saw my beautiful ring that we had picked out. he asked me to marry him and i said yes. we both were so happy and excited. i love justin so much and i am so excited to marry him. i cannot wait :)

april date night

2013-04-08T19:57:00.000-06:00

In April our date night consisted of going to Outback! It was fun and very delicious. I love going out to eat with Justin. It is always so much fun! We then went out to ice cream to Coldstone and used our leftover gift card from Februaries date night. I love my dates with Justin!

easter sunday

2013-04-01T21:09:00.000-06:00

this easter was a great one! i havent been home for the past two easters so it was so much fun to be home with my family for easter. we ate a delicious dinner and just relaxed as a family. as you can see in the photos my mom did an excellent job at making a beautiful table setting for our easter. justin and i decorated the cute easter egg cupcakes. they were a lot of fun to do.

a valentines gift

2013-04-01T20:34:00.000-06:00

for valentines day i wanted to give justin something that would be of some significance and was a bit romantic. i decided to create a book of dates for us to go on throughout the year. he takes me on dates all the time and i know money can be tight sometimes so i wanted to give back to him and plan and pay for 12 dates for the year. here are the first two months...

february

february we went and got ice cream at coldstone and played his favorite game, monopoly. he destroyed me at the game haha. but it was still so much fun. we even had some extra money on the gift card to use for some other date!

march

for the date in march i planned for us to go the the bodies revealed exhibit that was here in boise. its been here since september and i have been wanting to go for along time now. we finally went on the second to last day it was here! it was so hard finding time that worked with both of our crazy schedules to go. we both really enjoyed it. we learned a lot of cool things about the human body.

it was so much fun having these two dates planned ahead so we could just go and have fun without thinking what to do. i cant wait to go on the rest of our dates this year! dates with justin are the best :)

It's Twins!

2013-03-27T17:10:00.001-06:00

My cousin and best friend, Melissa, is having twins this June!!! I am so extremely excited for her! I threw her a baby shower this last weekend. It was so fun planning and putting it on. My favorite part of it was the craft that we did. I had everyone decorate a onsie for the twins. They turned out cuter then I could have imagined! Now the twins will be stylin with onsies made by melissas family! I am excited for the twins to come... Just have to wait until June for Jackson and Elison to come :)

Spring Break

2013-03-27T00:16:00.001-06:00

IT'S SPRING BREAK!!!! Thank goodness!!! Me and Justin have been extremely busy with work and school so we are both extremely happy to have a little break! We went down to Pocatello to visit for the weekend. It was fun to visit his family and friends. We just relaxed and watched lots of movies, went out to eat, went to Lava Hot Springs and just hangout with his family and friends. It was a fun little trip.

23 years

2013-03-26T23:58:00.000-06:00

It was my birthday about a month ago and I just thought I would share a few photos from it! I turned 23!!!! I still cant believe I am that old. I really do feel like I am still 18... For my birthday I got to spend it with my family and my amazing boyfriend :) We went to dinner at PF Changs then came home to have my favorite dessert, pizookie. It was a day filled with people I love and the food I love! All around I just loved my birthday :)

Even though this pic is blurry I still love it. ps I love him too :)

snow day

2013-01-10T17:29:00.001-07:00

Today I woke up at 5:45 to get ready for work. Shortly after, while I was brushing my teeth, I received a phone call letting me know school was canceled today :) I finished brushing and went back to bed! It has been a snow day today and it’s been so great! I love the snow and all day I have wanted to go out and play in it! I am kind of crossing my fingers that there is another snow day tomorrow. The chances are very slim but a girl can dream, right?

I also got a new camera for Christmas that I took these pictures with. I am in love with my camera and I cant wait to learn how to take better pictures with it.

a much needed break

2013-01-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

Its been Christmas break for the past week and a half and it has been amazing! I have loved having time to relax and not worry so much about work. Life has been crazy and I haven't had time to update the blog so here is a quick update of whats been happening in my life lately :)

Christmas was wonderful like always! During the christmas season we did many festive things like making gingerbread houses, looking at Christmas lights, playing games, decorating trees and so much more!

I have had the pleasure of getting to know this guy the past few months! He is my wonderful boyfriend, Justin! I really have enjoyed spending the holidays with him. He really is the best and I like him oh so very much!

This was the first snowfall of the year. I had to snap a quick shot of my parents beautiful front yard. They are moving in February so it will be sad not having this great yard anymore.

I finally got to meet my cousins new baby Dawson! He really is a cute little baby.

Its been a wonderful Holiday season spending time with the ones I love the most! Now I guess its time to get back to working. I cant believe I am halfway through my first year of teaching. It has been pretty challenging but a fun adventure! I am so excited to see how this next semester turns out.

day camp

2012-06-10T23:05:00.000-06:00

Life is very exciting right now. I have a job for the summer which is great! and I have a job for the next school year which is even a thousand times more exciting. I will be teaching at Columbia High School as the Family and Consumer Science teacher. I couldn't be happier. School starts back up in August so I have the summer to prepare and get everything ready for my first year of teaching.

My summer job is working as a summer day camp leader. It is pretty fun. I do fun activities with 6th and 7th graders all day long! Above are some scenes from the first week at camp.

life through my phone

2012-06-05T16:32:00.000-06:00

1. crayon art on the first day of day camp
2. new running shoes
3. i taught how to make fruit pizza at day camp
4. jords graduation
5. lunch at panda
6. peonies.... my favorite flower
7. saltwaters. favorite summer shoes
8. hiked up to table rock and this was the view of boise

memorial day

2012-05-29T21:55:00.000-06:00

For memorial day we had a little family get together. There was swimming, a bbq, games, and catching up with family members. I always love seeing all of my cousins little kiddos and playing with them. Its always a blast! and aren't they so cute?

little brothers all grown up

2012-05-26T23:30:00.001-06:00

I can't believe it but my little brother graduated from High School! He is all grown up now. It is crazy how time flies. Graduation was great. We even had a little laugh as Jordan dropped his diploma while walking across the stage. It was epiclly Jordan. Graduation wouldn't have been complete without something like that. Well I am so happy for Jord and all he has accomplished in High School! Can't wait to see what life brings his way next.

Famous Idaho Potato

2012-05-21T18:23:00.001-06:00

Well the half marathon has come and gone. Jordan and I ran the Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon. I was a little scared going into this one because I didn't train as hard as i could have. I thought for sure I would have gotten my worst time for my half marathons. To my surprise I ended up getting my best time at1hr59:30. We had perfect running weather(minus the freezing windy weather while we were waiting to start) and a beautiful course! I was also so proud of my brother Jordan for completing his first half marathon and getting 9th place in his age division at a time of 1hr43min. He really didn't train very much and he regretted that after haha. Now on to training for my next half. After my run on saturday one of my toes wasn't feeling too great. It is all bruised and burns with pain every once in awhile. I decided I will rest my feet this week and just swim and bike for my cardio. Hopefully next week it will feel all better so I can run in preparation for the See Jane Run Half on June 16! I also am starting my marathon training next week. I decided I am going to run in the Top of Utah Marathon in September. I am so excited for this summer of running and so excited to accomplish some goals of mine!

Baby Ducks

2012-05-21T17:22:00.000-06:00

For about the past month we have had a Duck nesting in our backyard. She actually comes every year to lay her eggs. This weekend the babies hatched! At first I only saw 3 or 4 little duck heads but then they came out of the nest and to my surprise there was 12 little baby ducks! They were so precious. They all slowly jumped out of the nest and followed their moma around the yard. They took a little dip in the pool and then left the yard. It was such a cute thing to see.

Life Lately

2012-05-09T16:35:00.005-06:00

There is just ten days until my next half marathon! This year I haven't had as much time to run as I usually have in the past so the training for the half marathon has been a little limited. This is a photo that I snapped really quickly with my phone while I was on my jog this morning. This is one of my favorite places to run. Isn't it beautiful? It's so nice to find places to run that are so pretty and close to home. It can be so easy to get tired of the same old boring running routes so I love to find little trails like this one to run on.

One of the goals for the summer is to run in three half marathons and one marathon and possible some shorter races. It will take a lot of hard work and dedication but I am ready to take that time and run and become in the best shape of my life!

Other then running I have been pretty busy. I have been subbing at schools for the past couple of weeks and plan on doing that until the end of May. Along with subbing I have been applying for what seems like a million jobs. haha. I have been applying for teaching positions in the Boise area and a few in Utah. This week I had an interview down in Utah that I think went pretty well. I will find out Monday if I got the job or not. If I got that job that would mean I would move down to Utah which I am a little unsure of right now. I also had an interview today in Meridian. It was just a screening interview and they said I should hear from principals very soon for further interviews. I am really hoping for a job here in the valley. I love Boise and would love to have a job here and live here. I am so excited to be a teacher and hopefully I will be hired somewhere soon!

a week in the city

2012-04-18T14:52:00.002-06:00

Student teaching is over and that means there was need for celebration! So what did I do?? I went to New York! Mariah, her friend Maddie, and myself took a little vaca for a week to NYC. Sorry for this extremely long blog post but i just couldn't keep out any of the fun things that we did. Here is a little recap of our week in the city.

We went to the top of the Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building to get an amazing view of he city and man it really was a great view!!

Eating our first slice of New York pizza at Big Nicks.

After a one and a half hour wait we got to eat some dessert at the famous Serendipities. It was delicious and such a cute little restaurant. We got frozen hot chocolate and chocolate cake ice cream sundae to split between the three of us. We ate every bit of the deliciousness.

Times Square! We probably walked through Times Square on a daily basis. It really was so amazing and Huge! I can't believe how many people there were there either. No matter what time we were there it felt like millions of people were surrounding us.

We visited the Central Park Zoo! We have a relative that worked at the central park zoo so he took us on a tour. It was great! My favorite animals that we saw were the polar bear, peacocks, penguins, and many many more. It was such a beautiful day that we went on.

On our last night we went to a Broadway Play. Memphis is what we went to. It was great! We were on our way back to the apartment on the subway after and guess who we saw??? The leading actor of the play. So we snapped a quick photo with him.

One night we headed over to Brooklyn. We ate some pizza at Grimaldi's, which was pretty delicious. We then took some gorgeous pictures at the pier of the city scape while the sun was setting.

After dinner we walked across the Brooklyn bridge. It was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable evenings of the trip.

Lavain Bakery- We stopped here twice in the week to pick up these wonderful cookies! If you know me you know that one of my favorite foods is chocolate chip cookies. I would have to say that these were probably the best cookies I have ever had. First off they were ginormous. Second off they were so gooey in the middle and crisp on the outside. The three flavors that I tired was the chocolate peanut butter, double chocolate, and chocolate chip walnut. I am going to miss these cookies.

We took a little cruise around the southern part of Manhattan. During the cruise we passed the Statue of Liberty. It was much smaller then I expected but still so awesome to get to see in real life.

I have heard about Sprinkles and how delicious their cupcakes are so when I saw one I had to stop. We got a lemon cupcake and it really was delicious!

This was a roots from a tree that they dug up and preserved.

We went to Carlo's Bake Shop which is the bakery from the television show Cake boss. It was pretty good pastries and treats.

We visited the World Trade Center Memorial. It was a good reminder of what happened that day and really how many lives were taken. The memorial was beautiful. They are currently working on building seven buildings in replace of the two that were lost. The picture above is a few that are being built right now.

Dylan's Candy Bar- This was such a fun candy store. They had tons of candy of course but they also had a bakery with cupcakes, ice cream parlor, and a chocolate bar. It was such a cute fun place that brought us back to our childhood.

On our last day in NYC we went to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon! It was such a blast. As many of you already know I LOVE Jimmy Fallon so I was so ecstatic to go to the show. It was fun getting to see him in real life. We had front row seats!!!!! and at one point her was like two feet away from me. At the end he went through the audience and I got to shake his hand and can I tell you he had the softest hands I have ever felt. I love jimmy

We did so much more then the few things I wrote about. We literally were up doing things from 8am to 11pm everyday. It was a very exhausting trip but well worth it! I loved the whole trip and someday hope to go back!

A Spring Wedding

2012-04-16T22:00:00.000-06:00

My dear friend Laren got married last weekend! She looked absolutely beautiful along with her reception. I made her wedding cake. I decided to go along with the theme of lace and burlap of the wedding and added those two things to the cake. I liked the way it turned out, especially for my first wedding cake. It was really fun to make. The wedding was so great to see a few of my friends from high school and catch up with everyone! It was a wonderful springy wedding!

hens and chicks

2012-03-18T21:52:00.000-06:00

Once again I practiced making wedding cake for my friend. The actual cake turned out perfect and I am pretty sure that is the recipe I will use for the real thing. I mainly wanted to make this cake so I could practice using fondant. I think I have the fondant part down and I am ready for the real cake! I then had a plain light pink fondant covered cake and had no idea what to decorate it with. I then went outside to see about putting some flowers on the cake my mom had and then saw some hens and chickens. So I cut off some of those and this is what I came up with. Pretty plain and simple but I think it turned out pretty well. Now really, if you want some cake come eat it... I think I have begun to hate cake.

Happy Valentines Day

2012-02-14T17:50:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their Valentines Day. Here are some yummy sugar cookies conversation hearts that I made. They were very fun to make.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour

Directions:Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~40 cookies.

*Recipe from annie-eats.com

Once I had these yummy cookies made I frosted them with royal icing. To make royal icing I used 4 cups of confectioners sugar and 10 Tbsp meringue powder. I then added water slowly while stirring until it was the correct consistency. I then frosted the cookies. The cookies then need to rest for 24hrs. I then found these cute little stamps at Walmart. I dipped the stamps in gel food coloring and stamped the cookies with cute valentine sayings.

I Love Valentines Day

2012-02-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

So I kinda live Valentines Day. I am not really sure why because I haven't really ever had a Valentine except for once in my entire 21 years... Maybe I just love the hearts, flowers, reds and pinks that are everywhere. It is such a happy holiday to me. Or maybe its because I love little Debbies Be My Valentine Cakes, valentine candy, and cookies.

I am hoping to try out these cute things this year for valentines day.

How to make these cute hearts can be found here http://cottonandcurls.blogspot.com/

I really hope to try these cutties out. These can be found here.

Or maybe make these cookies

This how to can be found at toostinkincute.blogspot.com

Isn't this heart sweater adorable. Find out more on how to do it

abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/

I hope to find time to try these Valentine crafts and treats out this season!

Chelsi's Valentines Day Pins

Cake

2012-02-04T21:57:00.001-07:00

This weekend I did some baking. I made this cake. I am making a wedding cake in April for a friend and I haven't ever made a wedding cake before...so I thought I would practice and this is what I came up with. I know it's not perfect at all and there are many things I would change about this cake but its a start. I will most likely keep practicing as much as I can in the next few months so hopefully I will improve. If you want cake in the next few months let me know and I am sure I will have plenty from my practice cakes.

Here is a pretty good cake recipe that I used for the cake

White Wedding Cake

Ingredients

1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
3 1/4 cups sifted cake flour, plus more for pans
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two each 5-, 7-, and 9-inch-diameter cake pans; line bottoms with parchment paper. Butter parchment; dust pans with flour, tapping out excess. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Mix milk and vanilla in a measuring cup.
Cream butter in a mixer bowl on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With mixer running, add sugar in a steady stream; beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes more.
Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with milk mixture and beginning and ending with the flour; mix just until combined.
In a clean mixer bowl, whisk egg whites just until stiff peaks form. Use a rubber spatula to fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in remaining whites in two batches. Divide batter among pans (see batter amounts, below); smooth tops. Firmly tap pans on a work surface to release any air bubbles.
Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean and tops are springy to the touch(see times, below). Let cool in pans on wire racks for 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks, and remove parchment; then reinvert, and cool completely.
Batter amounts and cooking times: 9-inch tier: 4 1/2 cups batter per 2-inch-high pan (9 cups total), bake about 40 minutes; 7-inch: 3 cups batter per pan (6 cups total), 30 minutes; 5-inch: 1 1/2 cups batter per pan (3 cups total), 22 minutes.
Recipe from: http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/224671/white-wedding-cake