Arkansas Weather and Some Auntie Rif- Uncle Ty Time

Okay, I just want to do a short post about my crazy hometown. So today it was snowing. Yesterday we had tornadoes. The day before it was really warm and perfect outside. I'm just saying that I have no idea what type of attire to put on in the mornings and I have no idea what to expect when I walk out the door in the afternoons. I wouldn't mind some snow to go with the cold. But if there isn't going to be any snow then the cold can just leave and the warm can come. Got that mother nature? Cold + Snow = Okay. Cold - Snow = NO. .... And yes, I do fully realize that I just wrote a whole paragraph ranting about the weather. It's definitely been a long day.

So in other news, my sister was in the hospital this past week (she's home and better now) but one of the days while she was gone I watched my niece Camilla. Gosh. She is adorable. She has Tyler wrapped around her finger and me too.

It's been so fun to see Tyler with all of my nieces and nephews. (Don't worry, this might sound like a baby hungry post but it will be a while before anything like that happens.) He is so good with them and they all adore him. We also just got called to be sunbeam teachers at church so we watch all of the 3-4 year old's. Let's just say, as adorable as they all are, we are dead tired once we get home. If there were ever a time where I wish I could wear sweats at church, that's it. Hopefully we will get better at teaching. So far we burn through the little lessons within the first half of class so by time the second half rolls around we are just trying to manage chaos. We'll get better though. Just give us time and some more crayons.

Thanks for reading!
With Love,

That One Special Day

Okay, so since this blog pretty much replaces my journal (considering I never pull that thing out to update it) I figure I will post about my wedding day on here. So Tyler and I got married on December 18 of 2012 in the San Diego, California LDS Temple. Which is this big, unreal, gorgeous place in this picture below. A funny part about that day is that it rained. From what I understand about California is that 95% of the time it is perfect weather: sunny and fairly warm. On our wedding day it was overcast and really rainy for California standards. From what I understand it's good luck to have rain on your wedding day, so I'll take it then! It caused some communication  errors though so when we came out of the temple doors. The first time we came out, no one was there to greet us. Tyler and I thought were a little confused, turned around, laughed for a little bit, and then a few minutes later, tried again. By that time the family had started to run towards our door (they had all been at the other door) so we had a some friends there to greet us and then the rest soon followed. After having a short and rainy photo shoot, we headed over to our reception spot. It was BEAUTIFUL! Tyler's parents made the California reception hall a surprise and it was amazing. It was a restaurant right on the beach with huge windows showing the ocean. At the reception we had the delicious food, and then the famous roast! I had never heard of a roast before meeting Tyler and his family but it's an event at the wedding where everyone stands up and.. well.. basically roasts you! They tell any and all embarrassing stories that they can think of regarding you. They had too much fun with it but it was a blast and I highly recommend roasts at weddings now. Here are some pictures of some of our roasters:

So after getting completely roasted we cut the cake, danced our dance, had another little photo shoot, and went on our way! The best part about that day though, other than getting married to the man of my dreams, was being able to celebrate it with both of our families and some of our friends. It honestly made the occasion 100 times better that had it just been Tyler and I. Here are some pictures of the great people that came to our special day. I can't post a picture of everyone that came, because that would be overwhelming, but here are a few of my favorite shots.

Some of our whole big awesome family! 

We love our family! We can't express it enough! Sometimes we aren't the best at calling and communicating with everyone since we get caught up in our busy lives, so it was nice to have an event that brought everyone to the same vicinity again. We also love that we got married. That's a big plus too! ;)


Thanks for reading! I'll try to post again soon, I promise!
With Love,

Our Story

This is when we were at Tyler's cousin's
wedding when we first started dating. 

So before I post about the wedding day and all of those events, I want to go in order and post our story of how we first met! I'm trying hard to not jump the gun so here goes nothing: Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a place called Rexburg, Idaho. It was magical with it's snowy mountains and tender winds.... Just kidding! We really did meet in Rexburg, Idaho, but it definitely doesn't have tender winds. We met there in the January during the winter semester. That is when Rexburg is most freezing and icy. Tyler was in my Family Home Evening group and he was also my home teacher. It took a while for us to actually start dating. I kind of crushed on him for a while and then one day I saw his twin brother, Travis, and his wife, Cami, out on campus. They were holding hands and I politely waved at Travis (thinking it was Tyler, since I didn't know about his twin brother) just to say hi (even though in my head I was wondering what the heck was he doing holding another girls hand) and he didn't even acknowledge me. Needless to say, I felt like an idiot and I was irritated at Tyler for flirting with me all the time and leading me on. Not long after that though I was around Tyler at FHE and I overheard him mentioning his twin brother and sister-in-law. After that I was into him again. On our first date we went rock climbing and out for ice cream. I remember thinking that he was fun but things probably won't work out because he was too cheap. Ha! But, I kept dating him just because he was fun to be around. Slowly like turned into love, and I guess he felt the same way because before you know it we were exclusively dating. His parents flew us out to California so I could get to know them better, and while we were there, Tyler took me on a date to the beach and told me he loved me on the pier. The thing that really makes it a "Rifka-ish" experience though is that before he said that, I got bitten or stung by some sort of sea creature, so I had a nice swollen foot that I was limping on to the pier with. I refused to say anything though because I knew what was coming, and by gosh, if there's a time to sacrifice the little for the big, that was it! So, fast forward, Tyler was graduating at the end of spring semester, and with him being from California and I being from Arkansas, we both knew we wouldn't be in the same vicinity again. After discussing, he and I decided that we didn't really want to cut things off... but we weren't ready for engagement, so his solution was that he was going to move to Arkansas and see how things went from there. So he came to my family reunion, met everyone (they all loved him to death) and ended up lining up a job and housing while he was here, and then two weeks later he moved here to Arkansas! A few months after that he proposed, and then a few months after that we had our dream wedding! (That post is on the way.) The proposal story is kind of long and funny but pictures will just have to do for now! :)

And yes, that is my Mom in the background, crying. She's a sweetie. 

Thanks for reading!

With love,

A Little Introduction About The New Mr. and Mrs....

Well hello friends, family and perhaps strangers,

This is my first time writing on a blog in a while and I'm upgrading from my single life blog to a married life one, so that Tyler can be in the picture here as well. The update right now is we are here living in Rogers, AR close to my family. Tyler graduated from BYU-Idaho last summer and is now working at Hyundai as a service writer, so that he can get some dealership experience (his end goal is to own a dealership). I am currently working at Gibby Law Firm as a legal assistant, and I am also still going to school. By the end of this semester my associates will be complete and then I should be able to transfer easily to other universities that fall in the plans for Tyler and I. Right now we are working on the plans for the next step in life! Choosing which college to go to for my bachelors and his MBA, which internships to apply for, which jobs are best and which cities seem most appealing for us! Everything is a big adventure and feeling like big decisions.. but with that said, we're in this together so everything will work out; but feel free to remind me of that. :) I'll try to keep this updated so that you know where we are and what we are doing! Thanks for being involved in our newlywed adventures!