enter

As I watched conference this weekend, I was even more thankful for our life and our home.  I was reading on Yahoo News an article on our church and it made me even more appreciative of the truths that we have and our beliefs. Every day when I walk into our home I'm reminded of our Savior. When I was deciding on how to decorate our home I knew that I wanted "The Living Christ" and "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" framed and on display above our entry table.  We're still working on our house but this section is definitely finished! Disclaimer: our house is never as neat as it appears in photographs. Just saying. 

easter

We are so lucky to have Mom Ruth in town for today! Our day started off with her famous french toast, sausage, bacon & fruit for breakfast. YUMMMY. We then watched General Conference and I loved every minute of it, of course. I didn't get to watch yesterday's sessions and I can't wait to do that this week. Then we looked/planned for our vegetable garden/flowers we are planting soon.  I'll admit, I'm quite nervous about it only because this will be our first time doing this.  And I'm tired of killing my plants!

Then Brit and I played EASTER BUNNIES and had an egg hunt for the girls.  We wrote down positive affirmations and put them inside of plastic eggs.  How cool is this? I mean, seriously, wouldn't you rather get positive notes than candy? I feel a new tradition coming on.  It was so much fun watching as they found the eggs we hid.  I will say that my favorite part was when they read their notes and seeing which ones they really liked. 

Happy E a s t e r, everybody!!!

Matthew 28:6

spring

This morning I woke up with the biggest smile on face. There must have been birds singing or something because if you know me, you know I HATE mornings and I HATE waking up. I don't think I have ever been more excited for warm weather like this before.  I dislike anything warm but due to the crazy winter that we have had, I'm so ready for some SUNSHINE! And then I walked outside and saw a bee and was quickly reminded of all the buggy things that come along with spring.  NOOOO. 

Alright, so I have to talk about the best date ever. It started out with going on a run with my love (in the rain). Then we went to Paint A Piece and I finally got to paint a piggy bank.  After being on the look out for a grownup piggy bank (nothing Elsa, Hello Kitty, etc) for months and not finding one, I finally decided to paint my own gosh dangit! Then we went to watch Cinderella and I loooooooooooved it.  Omg...it was so good!  I have never been so excited to go to a movie theatre before! It took me back to when I was a little girl watching the cartoon version of it. We ended our day by trying out a new Japanese restaurant.  One of our goals is to try to branch out and try out new places to eat. 

Hope everybody is enjoying this beautiful weather!

#youarebeautiful

What is beauty? How is it defined? What makes a person beautiful? Beauty is so much more than your physical appearance. It is not measured by your weight or pant size.  It's not defined by your "hot" body or your hair.  Or by how others perceive your worth.

I believe that beauty comes from inside. It's in your heart and it's what you do.  It's the way you carry yourself. It's the things you do for others.  It's the kind words you speak to others.  It's the way you treat others.  It's the positive self talk within yourself and the love that you give yourself.  It's the kindness, forgiveness, and grace you give yourself.  It's knowing that you are ENOUGH.  It's knowing that you are worth something and that you are special.

So, I'm looking at you. Yes, you.  How do you define beauty? What makes you beautiful?

For me, it's doing the things I love.  It's challenging myself.  It's creating things for others and giving.  It's telling myself that I deserve happiness and to believe in the journey. This is when I know and feel beautiful. 

I had the great opportunity and honor to be the photographer for the  "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL" shoot at work.  Wow…editing the pictures for these lovely women gave me so much joy! What a blessing it is to be part of their journey and to know them. 

Sleep

 The conversation J and I had while he was sleeping:

J: Do you want me to install Javascript on your computer?

N: Yeah, sure.

J: I'll do that right now.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's what happens when you are married to a Jerber.

Rainy

DAYS.

// Walk around Target looking at everything but buying nothing.  Sometimes you just like to imagine which picture frames would look good in your room. 

// Use your Starbucks gift card and order your favorite Cheese Danish (quite exquisite and just the right choice of dessert for a rainy day). And since you don't drink coffee, you try to get creative with the menu and end up ordering something that just doesn't make sense. 

// Accompany your husband to Best Buy and talk TVs with him even though they all look the same. And they are all big. 

// Go to the best Mexican restaurant in town (Las Tortugas) and order the same thing you have always ordered. Could there possible be anything else on the menu as delicious as this? Heck no. 

// Make a to do list and watch it get longer and longer by the minute.  Then you think to yourself how can one person possibly do everything on that list. Priorities. 

// End the day with a movie at home, cuddling with your husband on the couch, and everything in the world makes sense. 

Space

One of the main reasons why we bought this home is because of the lighting.  In March, we came to see this house on a rainy, cloudy day but the amount of light that was coming into the house was remarkable.  It was then that we knew this was going to be our home! J and I are very similar when it comes to home decor and we knew this is exactly what we wanted to do!  I've always wanted to do a family gallery and thought it turned out pretty good (unfinished)...just need to add a picture of JD! We are finished decorating the living room and I wanted to show you guys some pics! Enjoy!!!

Now...time to finish up the rest of the house. Eh..this might be a lifelong project. 

Nashvegas

Well, I promised I wouldn't use the obnoxious term NASHVEGAS, but it was toooooo easy! J and I headed out to Nashville this weekend for a romantic getaway...oh yeah! JD got us some tickets to see a concert in the area.

We stayed at a bed & breakfast for the first time EVER.  You will laugh but somewhere in the process of booking our stay they picked the bedroom with TWO twin beds!  Obviously, with it being Valentines weekend, all of the other rooms were booked so we couldn't switch rooms.  The breakfast at the bed & breakfast was super fancy!

In true Castagno fashion, before we went out to Nashville I googled good restaurants and, man oh man, it did not disappoint!  We ate some delicious stuff and we even went to Jackson's Bar & Bistro TWICE for their dessert.

The rest of our stay we visited museums, fancy mansions, and art galleries until our feet couldn't walk anymore.  When we moved to Memphis I was disappointed to find out that there was not an H&M here! I made sure we went to H&M while in Nashville and I got a couple of cute tops! These are pictures of us at the Parthenon with the giant Athena.  And we even whipped out our tripod to take a picture of ourselves because, sometimes, when you ask a random person you will never know what you are going to get! RIGHT????