Twenty- One

*Thirteenth Birthday*

* Twenty- First Birthday*

Everyone loves a good flashback, am I right? My mom posted a picture of 3rd grade me on my Facebook wall and everyone came to the conclusion that I look the same. Haha its true.

The evening before my birthday, Kenley, her roommate, Emma, my Mom, Mike and I went to PF Changs for my birthday dinner after Kenley's choir concert. Those lettuce wraps though. So addicting! On my birthday, I had to go to school and finish up student teaching in Payson. Mike had a "reading day" to prepare for BYU finals, but he spent the whole day preparing for birthday surprises.

He made this impressive  blueberry cheesecake from scratch. It's pretty much a work of art. And he bought me these ankle boots that he picked out himself. So, major husband points there.

I've been wanting to go mini golfing for a while, but Mike surprised me with Miniature Croquet at Provo Beach Resort ! Didn't even know that was a thing but it was just as fun. We ended off the night watching Tangled just like last year. I guess that will have to be a birthday tradition. It was a perfect day full of fun and no lesson planning (for once).

Just a little Update...

Tomorrow we will have been Mr. & Mrs. Reynolds for 7 months! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. There are still so many wedding pictures that have not been posted and our wedding video filmed by a friend that I have not shared yet! Since being married we have completed two more busy semesters at BYU. Mike is studying Civil Engineering and will graduate with his Bachelors in about 2 years. I, on the other hand, have been completing my student teaching this last semester and I am graduating with my BS in Family and Consumer Sciences Education next week! I am excited to be teaching Foods and Teen Living this Fall at Diamond Fork Junior High in Spanish, Fork Utah. Mike and I love cooking, singing, and watching movies together (when we're not doing homework, or grading/lesson planning in my case). We are busy and tired, but loving every minute of married life! 

All photographs taken by Jessica Hills Photography.

an analogy about smelly feet

A little over a month before we were married, I was helping Mike clean his apartment before move-out. I was hunched over scrubbing the backsplash and wall around the oven that was caked in grease. Every now and again I would get a whiff of a pungent odor. College boy smell. I was happy to help clean, but I started to get really annoyed about the smell. After I got home to my apartment and slipped my shoes off, reality hit. I had in fact been getting whiffs of my own smelly shoes. In my eternal family class we discussed the scripture:

Matthew 7: 3-4
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

I remembered the smelly feet incident and how in life we can choose to be offended, hurt, or annoyed for the smelly feet of those around us, when in fact the stench is coming from our own selves. We need not worry about the imperfections of our peers, but work on repenting and perfecting ourselves and simply just love others. As we love those around us and see them through Christ's eyes, we grow closer to him and can love others more perfectly.