Mary and Jake

4 Months Old!

2012-01-16T21:13:00.003-07:00

Time has flown by so fast! Little Scotty is already 4 months old. It actually makes me sad that he is growing up so fast. I don't have much to say, just thought I'd share a few pictures. It's been fun learning how to take care of a baby, not so much fun trying to figure out how to fit regular life in with having a baby :)

My little newborn baby :)

I just love him! He gets cuter everyday. He is now cooing, grabbing toys, and loves to stand up on your legs when you're holding him. We're making bets on whether he'll learn to walk before he crawls.

2011-09-23T13:04:00.004-07:00

My friend Lexi is starting her own photography business and asked if she could use Scott for some newborn pictures. I looked at her blog and saw all the cute pictures she's taken of kids and jumped at the opportunity. She did such a good job! I love them! She put the pictures below on her blog, and is sending us a disc with all of the other pictures she took. I can't decide which one I like the most!

You can check out our little model on her webpage: lexiraephoto.blogspot.com

He's finally here!

2011-09-16T07:44:00.008-07:00

Scott Royal Nattress

September 11, 2:04 pm
7 lbs. 2.8 oz, 19 inches

We found out little Scott was breech at our 36 week appointment. Our doctor told us we had a few options - we could schedule a version (where the doctor tries to force the baby to move by pushing on the outside of my stomach) and hope that he flips, schedule a c-section for him to be born during the 39th week, or just hope he flips and if he does, go through everything like normal. Jake and I decided to wait a week and see if Scott would flip, and if not we would go ahead and schedule the version.

During that 36th week I did some research online and found some ways that help to flip a breeched baby. I had a few nights of sitting at a diagonal with my hips propped up on pillows, frozen broccoli sitting on top of the top of my belly, and headphones with music playing placed on the bottom of my belly to try to get him to move. I did each one separately, and also all at once to see if that would work. I told myself not to get my hopes up that he would flip, but of course I secretly thought he had flipped.

At our 37th week appointment we had another ultrasound and saw that he was still breech. I was disappointed but Jake and I both felt good about going ahead and trying the version. We went in the next morning at 7 am to perform the flip. We sat in the hospital room for 2 hours, until the doctor came in and told us he wasn't able to perform it because too many women had come in to have their babies, and there weren't enough nurses to help with everything. We rescheduled the version for Sunday, and scheduled the c-section for right after, if the flip didn't work.

Jake and I went out for a yummy dinner Saturday night and both talked about how we felt like it was going to end up in a c-section either way, but we both felt guilty if we didn't try the version. So Sunday morning we got up and went in (good thing I packed my hospital bag just in case). The doctor came in to perform the version and it was PAINFUL. I had multiple people tell me that it would be painful, and a few other people tell me it wouldn't be painful at all. The ones that told me it wasn't painful actually had a successful version. The doctor felt around for Scott's head and feet, and then took both of his hands and started pushing. I felt like my insides were being ripped apart. I was squeezing the nurse's hand so hard and felt bad, but not bad enough to stop. The doctor tried to flip him one way, and decided it wasn't going to work, and then tried the other way. After the second try, the doctor took a break for a minute and then Jake told him we would be okay with the c-section. The doctor told us he didn't think Scott was going to flip anyways, so he went off to get everything ready for the c-section.

We were scheduled to go into the operating room at 1 pm, but it took a little longer because the anesthesiologist needed to give another woman an epidural. We probably ended up getting in there about 1:30ish, and Scott was born at 2:04. The whole process went by so fast, and was easier than I thought it would be. I was given a spinal block (basically the same thing as an epidural) and couldn't feel anything. It was the weirdest feeling! I was given the shot in my spine, and then my legs got really tingly and then all of a sudden they were dead weight. Jake and the doctor had to move my body and lay it down on the bed. The doctor then took ice and rubbed it on my stomach, asking if i could feel the coldness. I couldn't feel it! I was so glad it had worked - you hear all of those horrible stories about people being able to feel everything, but I didn't feel a thing!

The doctor went ahead and cut into me. He didn't tell me what he was doing, and I really appreciated it. The anesthesiologist and Jake both kept me preoccupied by asking questions and feeding me ice chips. The anesthesiologist told me he would give me an ice chip for every question I answered correctly. He only asked me 2 questions, then handed the cup over to Jake, but it kept me thinking about other things than the surgery.

It was an amazing experience. The doctor did an amazing job with the c-section, and I was actually able to get up and walk around the next day. We were actually able to leave the hospital after two days because we were doing so well - when a lot of people who have c-sections actually stay for 3-4 days. It has only been 6 days and I am doing really well! I haven't had much pain, and I am amazed at how quickly I have been recovering! We just love our little Scott, and are so excited he's here!

Grandma Nattress came to visit us!

Our friends had their baby boy three days before we did. Jake and Tanner with their little boys Scott and Mason.

Scott and Mason

Simple Things

2011-07-01T12:34:00.009-07:00

Just a few...

We got a new refrigerator/freezer. I LOVE CRUSHED ICE. I seriously have about 6 or 7 glasses full of crushed ice with water everyday. I don't know how I lived so long without this. Our old fridge was fun - you could open the doors, and if things were placed right, condiments would fly off the shelves on the door - most of the arms were broken. I also love that this new one is black - it makes everything look much more up to date, and makes me want to work on my kitchen cabinets (big project I will tackle someday!)

I love having a garage door opener that works. The battery for the opener in my car was slowly dying over the course of a few weeks, but of course I was too lazy to figure out that the battery needed to be changed. Everyday for a few weeks i would pull out of the garage slowly and push the button as many times as I could to try to get the door to close. I finally got ticked when I had to get out of my car a few days to walk up to the garage and actually push the button. Talk about lazy, but its not so comfortable climbing in and out of my car lately. We got a new battery for it, and I realized how much I like it.

We have GRASS! We can walk in the backyard without shoes! I don't have razor-blade weeds stabbing my feet! We had new sprinklers and sod installed, and it is like a beautiful grassland in our backyard! Eventually we will plant trees/bushes/beautiful flowers, but for now the grass is AMAZING! I've never been so excited to see grass in my entire life.

My body is the same shape as the grinch's body. Everytime I look in the mirror and see my growing belly, I feel like I look like Jim Carrey in The Grinch...Just without all the green hair.

I miss going to the lake. I miss being able to ride my bike to a lake that was 20 minutes away. I talked to my brother today and we both talked about how we miss the lakes in Michigan. The picture is of Higgins Lake - the lake we went to all the time growing up. I miss being able to swim in nice, clean water. I miss going to the lake all day. I miss looking for seashells. I miss seeing fish swimming around your feet and ankles. I miss playing teeter-totter on a big blow up tube with my brothers. I miss spending all day at the beach and then going to church the next day and everyone would say "Oh, the Ryders went to the beach yesterday" as they look at our sunburned faces.

We only have 3 more months! I am excited, nervous and scared all at the same time. There is so much to do, and I am feeling like I'm in crunch mode. I feel like the summer is going by way too fast. He will be here before we know it.

It's Baby Time!

2011-04-21T13:54:00.007-07:00

Yes. We are having a baby, and it's a BOY!

When is he due? We aren't exactly sure. First we were told August 27th, then we were told somewhere around September 15th - 17th. We have another ultrasound in a few weeks that should give us the exact date. I just keep telling people we are due in the middle of September.

Do I feel sick? Not anymore. I felt fine until I went to the doctor and he told me I was only 8 weeks along instead of 12. I think he drugged me or jinxed me - because that whole next week I told Jake I was only doing this once - I didn't feel like myself at all, and I had to have a plastic grocery bag with me wherever I went just in case I lost my cookies. I feel normal now, which makes me understand why people do this more than once. It isn't THAT bad...I'm just a wimp when it comes to sickness. I always cry when I'm sick - no matter what. Just ask my mom.

Have I had any weird cravings? Not really. I eat everything I ate before, I just let myself eat more of it. I like thin mints, or grasshopper cookies. ALOT. I liked them before too, but I enjoy more of them than I did before. There has only been one time when I ordered chicken enchiladas at a restaurant, and I tried one bite and stopped eating them because I thought they were disgusting (normally I LOVE chicken enchiladas). I had water for dinner - with chips and salsa.

I took the liberty of using a program online to see what our baby boy will look like:

I am praying that our little boy doesn't actually turn out to look like this.
Jake says he looks like Shrek - I laughed out loud in my office by myself when I read that text.

We are excited!

Western Caribbean Cruise!

2011-03-25T07:18:00.007-07:00

At the beginning of February we took a cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Royal Carribean. We left from Miami, and then went to Belize City, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. It was tons of fun! I am the worst at taking pictures (both actually taking them - they are usually blurry, and remembering to even take pictures) so I took most of these from our friends that were with us.

When we booked our hotel for Miami, we made sure we got one that was able to pick us up from the Ft. Lauderdale aiport and drop us off at the port in Miami. We made our reservations for a specific hotel, just because they told us they offered these things. Of course, we land in Ft. Lauderdale and call them to come pick us up, and they say they DON'T OFFER IT. Sweet. We had to take a taxi to our hotel in Miami which was around 45 mins away. Talk about expensive. Then we get there, and we ask to see when the shuttle leaves to go to the port in the morning. THEY DON'T OFFER IT. Awesome. Basically they were idiots. It started our trip off to an awesome start. Of course I was ticked. The next day we took a taxi to the port and then waited in line to get on the ship. If you want to see angry people, just wait in line for over an hour to get on a cruise ship. There was one lady who was seriously upset. She was one of those that just yells out, rather than talking to someone individually. She felt like she could run the show better than the workers - the funny thing is that she was one of the last ones on the boat.

Belize City, Belize

Our first stop was in Belize City. We decided to do a cave tubing and zip lining adventure. It was the coolest zip lining I have ever done. (not that we've done alot). We were so high up in the forest- it was awesome. It was super hot, and I was sweating like a monster because we had to walk up stairs to some of our zip line stations. Everything was fun until I got hit in the mouth with a caribeaner. I probably deserved it after not slowing down, so the poor man had to stop me by catching my flying body.

The cave tubing was lots of fun. We put on life jackets and hard hats with lights on them and hiked a little ways to the caves. My life jacket stunk like BO, so it made the hike seem longer than it was. The caves were awesome - we saw a lot of stalactites and they would give them names according to what they looked like. It was funny because one of the guides thought this older couple in our group were our parents. It was hilarious.

On our way to the zip line we drove through the city. This is a graveyard. I guess they are at sea level, and they aren't able to bury the dead very deep. They dig three feet down, and bury the person, and then build a three foot high grave site for them. This way they are technically "6 feet under". I hope they don't ever have a tsunami or some sort of disaster that makes all these people come out of their graves.

We drove by lots of tiny little shacks. It made me really sad. It makes me sad that people have to live in one room houses and in filth. It makes me appreciate what I have even more.

Costa Maya, Mexico

(this was on our walk back to the ship)

Our second stop was Costa Maya. We heard that you could go snorkeling pretty much off the beach so we decided to just take our chances and go by ourselves, with out guides. It wasn't that awesome. We did go out and saw some rays and fish. The boys came back from snorkeling with a big conch shell, so Allie and I decided we wanted to beat their shell with our own. So we went out and found two big shells. When we picked one of them up, a squishy animal was trying to get out, so Allie shook it to try to get it out. These other people asked if they could try, and they made it go back inside. So we just took them back to our table to show the boys. A while later, the waiter told Jake and Tanner that it was illegal to take those things out of the ocean with animals still in them. They quickly returned them so we didn't go to jail :)

We sat on the beach all day and ate nachos and chips and salsa. We did a bit of snorkeling, swimming, and got massages. When I got mine, the lady asked if I wanted to be in the sun, so I said yes. I didn't realize she was going to use baby oil for my massage. I was completely burned. Everyone was burned pretty well after their massages. We decided to walk back to the ship and saw a few wild iguanas, and then we walked into a hotel's beach and they had dolphins in a little pool. We were able to see them for a little while. It was pretty fun!

Cozumel, Mexico

Our last stop was Cozumel. We decided to get guides to go snorkeling this time. It was lots of fun! We saw so many fish -even a barracuda. The guide would get a bunch of food in his hand so the fish would follow him. We saw lots of different kinds of fish. I expected it to be like Finding Nemo, with all the colorful coral and millions of fish, but we didn't really see any coral. There was a huge school of fish at the end of our trip and it was so cool to see how they moved together. It was like a huge wall of fish. I could have stayed there forever just sitting and looking at the fish - it was tons of fun!

Our guide boat had a glass bottom - Jake went under it for a picture.

We had alot of fun on the boat. We ate a TON of food. They had a soft-serve ice cream cart by the pool, so you could eat as much ice cream as you wanted. The buffet was really good, and our dinner room was the best. We had the greatest waiters. The first night our waiter asked us what we wanted to drink, and then every night after that he had the exact same drink waiting for us - and he would refill them so fast! I loved it. Every meal was SO GOOD. They even had room service that you could order any time - we got the spinach artichoke dip a few times.

They had fun shows - our friends did the newly wed game show (they did a version with a couple that was only married for a year or less, one that was married for a few years, and then the longest marriage). Our friends were the middle couple, and they won! It was really exciting to watch them do the show. We went to an "air" show that sounded really cool - the dancers were supposed to be flying around and using ribbons hanging from the ceiling and stuff. It sounded like it was going to be awesome, but it was really weird. We didn't really enjoy it.

There was an ice skating rink on our ship. We went to an ice show, and it was AMAZING. The rink was a little square - it looked really small, but the people did flips and all these crazy moves. This one girl was attached to a guy's neck by a rope thing on her neck, and she was spinning around in the air while he was going in circles. Weird explanation, but it was amazing. We also went ice skating during one of the open sessions and played tag. Of course Allie and I were the only ones who fell, and it hurt for me to walk up or down stairs for like two days because I hit my knee so hard. It was lots of fun though!

These are some of the towel animals our cleaning lady made for us:

A Monkey?

A Swan, I think.

Overall, it was tons of fun. We loved being on vacation! It was wonderful to get out of the cold weather and into the sun. I was sad that my tan only last about a week after we got back, but it was worth the burn :)

I'm Back!

2011-03-11T16:27:00.006-07:00

I am sure whoever reads this (if anyone) is very sad that I was gone for so long. Let me tell you, I feel like my life is boring and I have nothing to talk about. Here's how my days go:

Wake Up (and all the morning ritual stuff - shower, eat, etc)
Go to work
Go Home and eat dinner
Go to bed
Wake up and do it again

My life sounds awesome.

I want to get back into the blogging scene, so I thought I'd just throw up a bunch of pictures i had on my phone and tell you what's going on - this will kind of sum up a little of what we've been doing lately.

Our fence is up! It was put up in the fall, but I'm finally posting one little picture of it. I love it. I especially love that I don't have to see all of our neighbor's garbage in his carport!

My parents were visiting my sister in New Mexico, and my other sister's family was there for the weekend, so I told Jake I wanted to go down and see everyone. I decided to drive myself down there and stay for a few days. I thought it would be cool to take pictures of the different state signs, but i didn't think about it until the way back. So that's why New Mexico is first.

Obviously I passed through Colorado....

Back in Utah! I think I listened to the Wicked Musical sound track 5 times both ways. I have most of the songs memorized....Jake would have wanted to strangle me if he was on this trip!

We went to Roswell. These are just a few pictures of the lovely displays they had in every window. There wasn't much to see, but it was fun! We even went to a museum. It had an entrance fee, but it shouldn't have. It was like a bad high school science project.
I remember the guy at the ticket counter asked me how old I was...my dad said "we're all adults here." I thought that was funny.

Mom enjoying a coke with the alien.

I thought this was kind of interesting. I am sparing you the picture of the plastic alien we saw wearing lingerie. We couldn't stop laughing.

I drug my friend shiloh to a thing called "so you think you're a witch". It was a competition between a bunch of ladies dressed and acting like witches. They were competing for a chance to be the best witch. The winner and her two runner-ups did the "breakfast with a witch" program for kids to eat breakfast with them. It had potential, but Shiloh and I both felt awkward.

They brought an actual llama on stage. I thought that llama was going to have a heart attack. He had to walk up a few stairs, and he was not doing so well.

In October we went to visit our fun friends Brandon and Chelsea in California. I have more pictures on the digital camera - so those will come later. We had so much fun with them. We did the grand tour of San Diego, Sea World, LDS Visitor's Center, and the Ocean. They taught us how to boogie board (i am probably not even saying the right thing). Jake of course was awesome at it, and I was suffering from salt in the eyes. I didn't think I was going to be able to see after being in the ocean.

Brandon and Jake Boogie Boarding

Jake and I were able to go to the Jazz Vs. Heat basketball game. We were VERY lucky to have AWESOME connections with some very generous family members :) I enjoyed my hot pretzel and nacho cheese. The game was also fun..

I love March. I love Shamrock Shakes. McDonalds makes me happy.

This last picture is of an awkward situation I saw at our subway. I don't like this. Its weird. That's all.

I will be back to post more things! We went on a cruise at the beginning of February, that i'll post about later. Of course I had good intentions of taking lots of pictures, but I took seriously like 5. I'll just steal some pictures from our friends so it looks like I took more.

We're also working on our basement - the bathroom is down to studs and the bedrooms are ready to be re-textured and painted! Exciting things all around!

Christmas Shin Dig

2010-12-10T22:39:00.004-07:00

We had an ugly sweater christmas party tonight and it was tons of fun. The sweaters were the greatest part. I loved opening the door and seeing everyone show up with different sweaters on. Some people made theirs, and some were able to find some in stores. I found mine at walmart - the classic christmas vest with snowflake turtle-neck underneath. Jake made his. It was great! We had a big christmas dinner, complete with Ham and the fixins'. We played a few games - pictionary with the names of christmas songs, and a few minute to win it games. Of course the girls dominated. It was fun and I think we might even venture to do it again next year! It was great to see everyone. Mike and Amy won the prizes for best sweaters - I think Mike's vest and bow won everyone over. Merry Christmas!

Shiloh's festive sweatshirt!

The Grand Prize Winners!

Tanner and Allie

Kim and Kent - ken had a beautiful design with fluffy pon pons on his sweater

Fruit to the FACE

2010-09-28T20:22:00.004-07:00

Okay, do you watch Amazing Race on Sunday nights? We do. And we L.O.V.E. it. (well, i do at least). This week's was especially exciting. Here's a little glimpse at what happened:

Can you believe that? How bad would that hurt! Kind of funny, but not at the same time....

P.S. I will be back to blog about normal things soon :)

Link Love

2010-06-30T08:00:00.002-07:00

I like to peruse home decorating blogs and websites such as pottery barn and crate & barrel. I have always dreamed about my house looking like it came out of an interior design magazine but realize that will never happen. This site I found pretty much puts it into perspective: click here . Catalog Living. Here's an example of what they say:

All the comforts of home…

We’re so happy you could visit! The room’s all made up for you, and I ripped out some pages of my favorite book and taped them to your wall in case you’re like me and enjoy reading before bed.

I laugh when I read them... Enjoy!

Back to Being Cool!

2010-06-24T14:44:00.003-07:00

Remember when riding bikes was cool in elementary school, not so cool in middle school, and totally opposite of cool in High School? Well I have news for you...Biking is back to AWESOME when you are an adult.

Jake and I got back from our trip to Michigan (AWESOME trip!) two weeks ago. We rode my parent's bikes a few times and had tons of fun! We rode on the Rail Trail which is similar to the Jordan River Parkway. I forgot how much fun it was to ride bikes. Don't think we (meaning me) are extreme bikers, I just like to ride for fun and go at a normal speed. Anyways, when we got back from the trip we headed out and got some bikes! Mine is a pretty pale blue and Jake's is black so you can't see him at night - he likes to sneak up on people.

We went for a bike ride today on the Jordan River Parkway and I am worn out! I am happy to say that I only walked my bike up a hill ONCE. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it was incredibly steep - if you saw it you would want to walk your bike too. We went up a path and actually found an outdoor swimming pool in Riverton! We will have to make a couple trips there this summer.

Anyways, just wanted to express my excitement about our new adventure.

One last thing... How cool is this new background?!! I signed in finally after forever, and they had a new blog designer thing! I feel super trendy and super savvy with this new design! If you don't love it, just humor me :)

2010-05-04T09:55:00.002-07:00

I have a problem : Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jake left for swat training on Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon I made half a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I counted them - I made 18 cookies. I have eaten ALL of them by myself in two and a half days. I have only had two real meals since Sunday morning (both were dinners), but the rest of the days were filled with cookies. I need some help. I decided that it's a good thing I don't live by myself because I would only eat cookies and junk food.

Some Good Old Home Renovation...

2010-04-06T15:15:00.010-07:00

Well, I am finally putting some pictures up of what we have been working on lately. This project was started on a whim - Jake and I were bored one night and he asked if I wanted him to just take the fireplace down. I said yes, so that night we (mostly Jake) ripped down the fireplace. Here's what it looked like before:

During the process of tearing it down:

Yes, it was incredibly dusty and everything was dusty for days even after I cleaned everything multiple times.

With a LOT of help painting from this lovely lady:

and alot of hard work and persistence, we come out with our fireplace looking like this:

Doesn't it look super updated and beautiful? Jake did an awesome job! Now I just have to find some things to decorate it....That's the fun part!

We are getting ready to do our outside projects with the nice weather coming. On our to do list:

Fix sprinklers in the backyard
Put up a fence around our yard
Plant grass in the backyard
Landscape (trees,bushes, flowers, etc) around the perimeter of the backyard

Wish us luck! We hope to get everything done, but everyone knows how long it takes to do things, especially outside :)

I have a little problem...

2010-03-23T09:41:00.003-07:00

So we had a few warm days last week and of course I got VERY excited. I bought a huge planter for our front porch at costco a few weeks ago and went out to find a plant for it. I found a huge fern that would look awesome on the front porch, so I bought it and put it in that afternoon. Three days later it snowed and was FROZEN. But, with dedication I decided to water it and hoped it would get better. Of course it didnt so I decided to bring it inside. The fern is dying and it STINKS...BAD (as in smelly, as in I thought it was me, but was relieved when it was the stinky fern). That shows me for trying to make my front porch look nice. Has anyone ever had a frostbitten fern before? What do i do?

2010-03-17T08:27:00.003-07:00

Are these not the cutest kids you have ever seen? Of course all of my nieces and nephews are adorable, but these are the cutest little girls on the East Coast! I just needed to show them off...

Great work with the cute kids Jon and Christy!

is it Lady Liberty or Man Liberty?

2010-02-05T09:39:00.004-07:00

This has got to be one of the worst jobs ever. I don't know anyone, especially a MAN, who wants to sign up to dress up in a Lady Liberty costume and wave to cars passing by. The other day I was driving home and spotted a bearded Lady Liberty. I think it's the worst when they make them dance without even letting them wear an Ipod. NOT FUN. I guess everyone's got to work to pay the bills, but I would rather work as a circus clown than a dancing Lady Liberty.

And yes, this is probably the most times anyone has said Lady Liberty in a paragraph :)

Sorry, I'll have to ask my husband...

2010-01-27T15:12:00.003-07:00

Just one of the wonderful perks of being married. I do NOT like door to door sales. I guess it used to work back when people didn't use the internet, or grocery stores, but I will not buy anything door to door. (unless it's girl scout cookies-they are THE BEST). I will not buy your magazine subscriptions to help you go to college, I will not buy your cable packages so you can get commission, and I will not buy any meat that you have in the back of your truck. I don't trust random people trying to sell me meat out of their truck. I don't think it's sanitary, and I don't know the last time you washed your hands. SORRY.

This afternoon I went outside to get the mail, and some guy ran up beside me and asked if I have ever heard of Ponderosa. I said yes - (there was a restaurant back home called Ponderosa SteakHouse), but I didn't realize it would lead into a discussion of him trying to sell me meat. He handed me a brochure and asked what types of meat my family typically eats. I should have said waterfowl and nothing else so that he would leave. Of course I am dumb and too nice, so I told him we typically eat chicken. He then ran to his truck and brought out a huge box of chicken. Inside were individual boxes of chicken (frozen) marinated in different sauces. He told me that I would get 72 pieces of chicken for $350, but since we're friends (um, NO we aren't), he would give it to me for $150. So then I asked him how much that costs per pound, and he just avoided it. Of course I am scrambling trying to think of anything to get him to leave me alone, so I simply said "Well, I am supposed to talk to my husband about big purchases like this one, so I will have to talk to him about it and I will give you a call if we decide to do it". Thanks to Jake for marrying me. I use this excuse ANYTIME someone comes to my door. Of course, I have to try to think of something else when it is a small purchase ( like dumb magazine subscriptions), and I usually say I don't read magazines (i know i am totally lying), and no one I know wants a magazine subscription. Last time I used that one I got the worst dirty look ever. I don't even remember what excuse I used to use. I am grateful I'll be able to use this one from now on :)

Goodbye 2009, thanks for the Good Times...

2010-01-05T00:12:00.003-07:00

I was on a call today with someone who had these sentiments: "I am glad 2009 is over, it was the year of people swindling me left and right." Sorry if your year felt like this, but mine was pretty good. Lots of good times, I'm sure there were some down times, but the good ones outweigh them. As 2010 comes full swing, I just wanted to share with you some of my favorite discoveries (new to me) from 2009.

Clorox Disinfectant wipes. I love these. I just wipe down the bathroom counter, or whatever and it looks clean and beautiful and all the germs are gone. While everyone was getting the swine flu, I was wiping down with clorox wipes. I don't ever want to go to life before I knew the clorox wipe.

Yes, I have had peanut butter before 2009, but what I didn't know was that it is an AMAZING agent to get construction adhesive out of a coat. Jake was bravely fixing a frozen water pipe and got construction adhesive all over one side of his coat. I did a little research online and found that if you let peanut butter sit on the adhesive for a little while, you can just scrape it right off with your finger nail. I sprayed the area first with Shout so that the oil from the peanut butter wouldn't stay on the coat. It worked like a charm! I heard you can also use this for stickers left on certain clothing and other sticky things...

3M command hooks. I love these babies too. I have a new found love of putting wreaths on the front door, but the heavy magnet wreath holder was ripping the paint off the door when taking the magnet off. I think Jake was the one who suggested using these, but I didn't think it would hold a big wreath, especially a heavy Christmas one. It worked! It has been holding my big Christmas wreath on the door for about a month and a half now, and it hasn't even fallen once. I used the other one that came in the package to hang my necklaces on in our bedroom. I will keep buying these for any hanging needs I have.

Good old Pumice stone. Not just useful for making your feet nice and smooth, but also for cleaning your toilet. The toilet downstairs had a nice ring around it and I tried cleaning it with normal bathroom cleaner, magic eraser sponge, and anything else I could think of, it still wouldn't come off. After some research on the internet, I found that if you use a pumice stone it will scrub that ring right off, and it won't even scratch the ceramic. Worked beautifully! I thought we might have to buy a new toilet, but It looked as good as new. Oh the wonderful things you find on the internet.

Thanks 2009 for the great discoveries, please provide some more in 2010...

Always Good for a Laugh

2009-12-07T18:27:00.005-07:00

My roomate from college (shiloh) and I would sometimes disappear to her bedroom and watch youtube for hours. We always watched people falling because it is our favorite. We would laugh so hard our stomachs would hurt and we would cry. I still sometimes hop on youtube when I have a hard day and need to laugh. Just thought I would share my favorites! I love watching people fall down- so hilarious! When you watch the lady stepping on the grapes, turn your volume up at the end because it is SO FUNNY.

Watch the model's ankles in this one....

2009-11-04T10:03:00.008-07:00

YES, we are alive and YES, I know you are all as tired of seeing that dumb bowl of popcorn on our blog as I am. You can now relax and not worry any longer, because I have returned to blogging.

The past month in three words: JAKE'S BIRTHDAY and DISNEYLAND. Probably Jake's favorite month of his entire life. The week before we left for Disneyland we celebrated Jake's birthday with friends. Of course in Fall Fashion. We went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point and did the corn maze and all of the fall festivities there. We even played some good old fashion tether ball, which of course I lost at. Afterwards we came back to our house for cheesecake and fun. We had everyone wear birthday glasses, which is what Jake is wearing in the picture. Jake's birthday was on one of the days we were in Disneyland, so he was able to celebrate it there! We made sure the whole week that we told the restaurants it was his birthday so he would get tons of free desserts.

Disneyland was GREAT! As you all know, it was my very first time. We flew in Saturday afternoon and met up with Jake's family. (Dad, Mom, and sister Amy's family) Jake and I went in on Saturday night because it was the only night they were having the Fantasmic show. We got there and it was INSANELY busy. We were getting slammed around by people walking by, and dodging strollers. We went and rode a few rides and then were a little late for the Fantasmic show and got stuck with the great view of a tree in our faces. We stood there moving our heads back and forth for a few minutes until we decided it wasn't worth it, so we went to ride more rides. I guess I was expecting thrill rides and was expecting to be scared for some reason. After Jake reminded me a few times that Disneyland was made for kids, I was able to chill out and have fun. Lame, I know.

We spent 5 days between Disneyland and California Adventures and it was SUPER fun. We went on almost every single ride in Disneyland, and a select few in California Adventures. We even rode the teacups- which I only ever need to do once. For those of you who have been there before, I HATE the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" show/ride. You put on these 3D glasses and they do experiments and there is a part where mice get multiplied and then where you are sitting they blow shots of air at your feet so it feels like mice are running by you. FREAKED me out. I lifted my legs up and screamed because i HATE mice more than anything. I don't think I'll go on that one ever again. Other than that, everything was great - I can see why kids love it. We didn't end up taking as many pictures as I had hoped, but here are a few. I guess we'll have to go back so we can take more!

Everyone excited to be standing in line

Outside the Haunted Mansion

The Front Entrance Gate

The Tea Cups - I thought it was so cute!

Sully at California Adventures

2009-10-14T22:43:00.004-07:00

I love this stuff. I love it air popped, microwave popped, popped from a pan on the stove, at the movies, or in those little metal things that you can put over the fire. I love it buttered, salted, with cheese, with lemon pepper salt, caramelized, toffeed (is that even a word? well i love it), even plain. Any way you can serve it, I will eat it.

I ate it for dinner tonight. That's one thing I kind of regret - eating a cookie for breakfast, and popcorn for dinner. Whenever we have kids I will have to get better eating habits or they will turn into 5,000 lb monsters. I think my love of popcorn definitely comes from my mom. I can remember her getting bags of cheese popcorn from Krogers and after eating it, my fingers would be completely orange and i would have to suck on my fingers to get all the cheesy goodness off. There's nothing quite like Krogers cheese popcorn.

My mom also had a specific pot she would use to pop it on the stove growing up. I don't know if she ever used that pot for anything else but popcorn, and boy did it always turn out super tastey. It had a specific taste because of that pot.

I loved when she would make caramel popcorn. She would always pop the corn in the pot, then make the caramel and toss it all together in a paper bag (from the Meijer's grocery store). She would lay it out on the dining room table and we would all walk in and out of the dining room throughout the night grabbing handfuls of caramel popcorn. Those were the good old days.

In another random note: I saw this picture in someone's facebook account. For those of you from MI, this is the HUGE Santa Clause at Bronners (the most amazing christmas store EVER). Thought you might like to see what happened after a storm (i hope they were able to put him back together):

Notice the head behind the tree

2009-10-05T21:05:00.002-07:00

I ate a $75 piece of steak. And it was DELICIOUS. Was it amazing because i didn't have to pay for it? NO - it was amazing because it felt like it MELTED in my mouth. Talk about never wanting to leave the restaurant.

I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas last week for a couple days for work. Vegas is full of many of my favorite things - awesome shows, the Rainforest Cafe, amazing hotels, and H&M. It is also full of many of my NOT SO favorite things. I don't want to talk about those.

I stayed in the Palazzo hotel while I was there - it's attached to the Venetian and it is BEAUtiful. I stayed in one of the suites and it was definitely sweet. I had three TV's, a remote for the curtains for the window, a jetted tub (with a tv in the bathroom so I could watch while I was taking a bath), and stale gummy bears in the cupboard. The hotel was great, and I had a nice time sleeping in a humungous bed all by myself - although I stayed to one side, so I could have had a smaller bed. One thing I didn't like were the towels. They felt like sandpaper on my face, which no one likes. If I could change one thing it would be the towels (oh, and the stale gummy bears that i had to eat for dinner one night because it was too late for room service).

The night before I left to come back home, my boss took some of us to eat at The Cut. It's a restaurant by Wolfgang Puck, and it was awesome. I don't think I will ever eat like that again. I decided to go all out and order a 10 oz. New York Strip that was from a cow from asia. I guess they feed it special stuff to make the meat so tender. I think they also soaked it in butter for weeks, because i felt like I was going to have a heart attack after eating half of it. I couldn't even finish it because it was so rich! I wanted to bring the other half home for Jake to try, but I didn't think it could last that long - and the people in the airport security might look at me weird for bringing a doggy bag with a piece of steak in it.

I also walked to H&M that's on the vegas strip. I usually find tons of things that I LOVE and can't live without, but I walked away with only one pair of gray tights. Talk about lame. That store was so tiny and full of flourescent clothing. I could close my eyes and still see the bright pink and green clothes. I am not big into the eighties - it's not really my style, although I did try to wear a side pony tail in college one night (low on the side, so it looked halfway normal) but i still looked like an idiot. Anyways, i wish I could have gone to the HUGE H&M store further down on the strip, but I didn't feel like getting in another taxi and hearing sob story about how bad the economy is in Vegas - i swear the taxi driver took a HUGE detour on the way from the airport to my hotel so that he could get paid more.

Vegas was fun, but I am now looking forward to Disneyland. And YES - i am going to get a pair of mickey mouse ears and take pictures at EVERY attraction. You have THAT to look forward to...

It Worked!

2009-09-19T15:12:00.004-07:00

So Jake and I planted our first ever garden this year to see if we could get anything from it. I decided that even if we just got ONE vegetable then it was a success. I faithfully watered and not so faithfully pulled weeds, but it still worked! We are very proud of our small garden. We planted corn, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, carrots, squash, lettuce, and green peppers. The peas, cucumbers and carrots didn't really make it, so let's not talk about those. As for the corn, it grew and grew but then was attacked by earwigs. Everytime I peeled back some of the leaves on the corn, tons of earwigs would come out. NOT COOL. The squash grew like CRAZY. It was huge and beautiful, but we don't really enjoy eating squash, so that one was just fun to look at. We will probably not ever plant that again. The watermelon grew (we still have two more out there), but of course I picked it too soon because i was excited and it was NOT ready. The inside was still a light green. BUT, we did get plenty of green peppers and tomatoes. Jake and I decided to make salsa today, so I thought I would take pictures of this momentous occasion!

2009-09-15T21:53:00.002-07:00

I LOVE FALL! I don't know what i love more - the crisp air, the fall colors, or the yummy meals of soup and rolls. I know it is probably a bit early to start getting so excited, but it is NOT AUGUST anymore! The first day of September I put away our summer decorations and put up the fall ones. I don't have tons of them, but I love the ones I have. I even got into the spirit and made my own fall wreath for the front door. I love this time of year because I can start wearing my scarves again. I love the fall jackets, the fall colored clothes, and even the fall shoes. It is all just so wonderful! I just wanted everyone to know.

Just to bring you up to speed on our life:

Our basement now has carpet! The carpet is wonderful and is extremely soft. Jake and I carried our sectional downstairs and I wanted to SCREAM OUT LOUD because parts of it were so incredibly heavy. I am enjoying the fruits of our labor though, and watch the tv that Jake hung above the fireplace while reclining on our sectional. We can finally use the basement and it feels SO good :) This weekend we are putting up our baseboards and trim, then after that all we have to do is finish the tile around the fireplace.
Our front yard is looking AMAZING. If you saw it before, you probably wouldn't even recognize it anymore. The flagpole and spotlight are gone! hooray! The huge rotten pile of rocks is gone, and the front yard is flat! Our wonderful neighbor came over with his bobcat and got rid of all the rocks, and then flattened out our front yard. We planted grass and it is slowly growing. In the spring it should look great!

Oh the joys of home renovations :) We are just living day by day and getting VERY excited to go to disneyland. It will be my first time there, and I hear it is just amazing. Happy Fall!

2009-08-27T14:46:00.014-07:00

This is a summary of our past two weeks:

My brother Mike has been staying with us for a couple weeks until BYU starts up again. It's been alot of man time for mike and jake and I have walked in on a few wrestling matches. My friend Shiloh came over the other day and made a remark about how when guys get together they tackle eachother and wrestle, whereas girls normally sit and talk about what's going on in their lives. How funny would it be if when girls got together they tackled eachother and wrestled? I would probably bust out laughing if I saw that. At the end of one wrestling match between Mike and Jake, this was pulled out:

Then mike tried it on and Jake felt a little left out so he made his own mask:

It's been alot of fun with Mike here - he has helped out alot with doing work around our house - cutting down a cherry tree in our backyard, texturing the basement ceiling, priming all the walls and ceiling in the basement and whatever we need help with. It's been great! Jake and mike took the cherry tree down in the backyard with a machete until our hometeacher came over and offered to cut the stump down with a chainsaw.

We went to Zion National Park this past weekend which was alot of fun. We hiked Angel's Landing, Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, and did the Subway. The Subway is a hike they say is "technical", but you don't really need any extreme gear. We just needed a rope and we were all set! We had to swim in some parts, do some bouldering, and then repel down one part. Here are some pictures of our adventure!

Weeping Rock

This is part of the subway where we had to swim

I think mike looks like he was photo shopped in here

Climbing up Angel's Landing

Creepy Faces in the Subway

This Video is of Mike and Jake running up "Walter's Wiggles". These are switchbacks on the way up to Angel's Landing. I stayed at the bottom and then took my time going up. They are intense!

This video is in the Subway - there were quite a few of these types of "water slides" but this one was on you could actually slide on.

We've had a great past couple of weeks and have gotten alot of things done! We hope you are doing well and enjoying the end of summer! Fall is just around the corner and I am VERY excited :) It is my favorite time of year!

Oh the good old days...

2009-08-01T21:21:00.002-07:00

This past week I went to lunch with my friend Dara who is moving this coming week to go back to VA. We met in our first semester of college at BYU. We always talk about how the first time she met me she had walked into our bedroom (we were roomates) and I was reading celebrity gossip magazines on my bed and crying because i missed home. We had alot of fun together and are still good friends! I can't believe it has been about six years since we met each other. I feel really old! So at lunch this week we ate at Pita Pit, which is by the old Baskin Robbins I used to work at during college. I got to talking about the great times at Baskin Robbins and for some reason it reminded me of all the funny dates I had been on in college. I had alot of interesting experiences. I thought I would throw a few out there for you guys to help you think of the crazy dates you have been on!

1. I went on a couple dates with a 17 year old high school graduate and on one of our dates we jumped into a swimming pool with all our clothes on and i walked into my apartment and my roomates looked at me like i was a complete idiot because i was soaking wet. I realized after that date I shouldn't go out with a 17 year old when I was 21.

2. When i was at BYU-I my friend knew a guy in our ward and one time he came over to visit when he got a new car. He asked if I wanted to go on a ride in the new car so i went along. The next night he asked me on a date - the "italian stallion" is what everyone called him. The first night I met him he looked completely normal, but then when he showed up for our date he had his shirt unbuttoned so you could see his chest hair, the hair on his head was slicked back (think the movie grease), and he had a massive chain wallet. He took me to dinner and told me that he thought it would be nice if I played the piano for him while he sang, then after dinner he took me for a ride in his car and told me about how when we got married i could stay home with the kids and I wouldn't have to finish school. I never went out with him again.

3. There was a guy in one of my wards who was an awesome soccer player - and asked me on a date. We played soccer together a few times and had fun so I thought it would be fun. We went on a date and then the next morning he left a rose and a poem written on paper (with burned edges) on my doorstep. My roomates asked him what he meant by that and he told them that he had a good time on our date, but didn't want to go on another one with me. I couldn't stop laughing that he tried to "let me down easy" by putting a hand written poem and a rose on my doorstep.

4. I dated a guy at BYU-I who my roomates and I nicknamed "superfly". After a couple weeks of dating I asked to borrow his truck to go to the grocery store. I got in his truck and discovered foundation (covergirl foundation) under his driver's seat. After I got back from the store I looked at his face and realized that he wore makeup! We didn't date much longer after that.

5. This last one didn't happen in college, but in High School. I went on a date with a guy who said we were going to go someplace "fancy" for dinner and a movie. When he came to pick me up, his friend was in the back seat and came on our date with us. He took me to a drive through place that serves soups and sandwiches. We were running late, so we grabbed our food and drove to the movies. I only got a muffin because i was NOT taking food into the movie. He got a tuna fish sandwich and hid it in his shirt so he could eat it in the movie theater. (if you know me, i HATE the smell of fish, especially tuna). So at the beginning of the movie he broke out his sandwich. A few minutes later the theater manager came in and told him he either needed to throw the sandwich away or finish it outside. ( i am guessing they could smell the tuna all the way out in the hall). So, he went out in the hall to finish his sandwich and then came back in and breathed his rotten fish breath in my face and said "what did i miss?". That was the last date we went on.

I am so grateful I met Jake. We didn't ever go on any awkward dates - it has always been so fun! It's fun to remember all the crazy people I went on dates with before I met Jake.

Skydiving!

2009-07-14T10:50:00.002-07:00

I went on my third skydiving trip yesterday. Usually on your third jump (and after the ground school) you can jump by yourself. NO WAY was I doing that. For one, I haven't taken the ground school, and two - i don't trust myself enough to jump by myself. So, I went tandem yesterday. I was able to have my own altimeter and pull the parachute. I was trained out to read my altimeter and pull the parachute about 20 minutes before we jumped. I was super nervous because I didn't want to mess up (of course the guy who i was strapped to could have taken over), but i did it! I did all the things I needed to do in order for us to pull the parachute in time. It was so fun! Learning how to do everything yourself makes it more fun than just hanging out being strapped to someone. If you haven't done it- you should do it! But remember to wear a cap because I didn't and my hair was a crazy mess and super tangley after we were done : )

Fourth of July Fun!

2009-07-07T22:09:00.004-07:00

Fourth of July weekend was a fun one! On Friday, Jake's brother was married in the Draper Temple. It was a beautiful wedding, and it was fun to be with his whole family. It was an all day affair; with the wedding in the morning, luncheon, and then the reception that night. Katherine looked beautiful (and steve looked handsome) and it was fun to be at their wedding!

On the fourth, Jake and I had a lazy morning but then decided we needed to get out of the house and do something fun! The "Riverton Town Days" had been going on for a few days so we thought we'd walk down to the fairgrounds and check it out. On the way there we were talking about this ride called "the gravitron" that they used to have at the fairs when we were growing up. We talked about how awesome it was to ride it and how they probably don't have it anymore because it didn't even have anything to strap you in. (If you don't know what ride I am talking about, it is one that looks like a capsule - you walk in, and stand against these pads lining the wall. They shut the door and turn on the lights and then start spinning the capsule really fast. As you are spinning you get "stuck" to the pad and then you travel up and down the wall while you're stuck to the pad. Kids used to lay sideways and then fall onto the ground when the ride was slowing down = NOT SAFE). Anyways, we walked into the fair and to our amazement they had the gravitron! It wasn't called the gravitron - something different, but it was the same thing. That was the only ride we went on. We got in and rode it, and afterwards talked about how we could only ride it once because we felt like we were going to hurl. Not a good idea to drink slurpees right before going on it. After the gravitron we went on the tall slides where you sit on the potato sack. We raced, and of course Jake won. Seeing the slide gave me flashbacks to an amusement park we went to when I was little - King's Island. I went down the same slide and somehow skinned my arm on the slide and had to get ice for it. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but i'll let you in on a little secret: I was nervous to go on it when Jake and I saw it. After the rides we went to the pavillion and played bingo. There were tons of people there so we had to sit on the outside in the scalding sun. Of course I had a black shirt on, so I was super sweaty. Jake won one of the rounds and got a gift certificatae to Bajio. I wasn't as lucky...

After the fair we headed to Jake's grandparent's house for a bbq. It was fun to see his family again and eat lots of food! Happy Belated Fourth of July!

The fair - sorry, no picture of the awesome Gravitron

WARNING: I took these pictures from the photographer's website. I know they would probably get ticked if they saw this, so here is my citing:

Photos courtesy of Mike's Photo
www.mikesphotolifepics.com

THANK YOU VIC for the lovely edible arrangement. This came today for Jake in celebration of his "Officer of the Month". We both loved eating it for dessert! We've always talked about how awesome these are, so thanks!
"This is the first time anyone's ever sent me a real bouquet" (Jake)

On a different note: I was reminded of one of my pet peeves today. I'm sorry if this includes you, but why do people insist on sitting right next to eachother when you are driving? One person in the driver's seat, and then the other person in the middle seat right next to them, when there is NO ONE else in the car? I'm sorry, but that drives me nuts. I saw two people doing it today in a normal car. I don't think there was even a middle seat in the front, so she was probably sitting on a glove compartment. It is incredibly awkward and I don't see the point. If you like to do it- that's cool, just please don't ever ask me to join in.

Officer of the Month!

2009-06-30T20:28:00.002-07:00

So a couple weeks ago Jake finally broke the news to me that he was Salt Lake City's Officer of the Month for May. I couldn't believe he waited a couple weeks to tell me. He is super humble - I would have called him the second I found out (if I were given officer of the month) and cheered to him on the phone. He said it so nonchalant, as if it were no big deal. This is time to celebrate! Jake went out of his way to make sure he solved a case that he had been on the night before. He went out and sought the guy out on his next shift. I won't go into too much detail - he can fill you in :) Anyways - he gets to go to a big staff meeting to "receive the recognition he deserves" (as said in his award letter) and he gets to go to lunch with the chief of police. Talk about AWESOME! I am very proud of him - he's such a hard worker and I'm glad he is being recognized!
Here's the website - I am not sure if it will be up much longer, but you can always hit the "archived officers of the month" if you don't see him....click here

2009-06-08T21:06:00.006-07:00

Boy it has been a long time! I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to see what is going on in our lives! I wish I had some amazing things to tell you, but normal life just keeps keepin' on.

Some of my family and I have committed to running a 10k in September so the training begins! Today was the first day of training and it was NOT FUN. I only needed to run 2 miles, but my feet felt like lead, and my chicken fajita dinner came back to haunt me in the form of an excruciating side ache (okay not that bad, but it wasn't a good feeling). When I'm running I like to picture myself on the cover of this magazine:

I hope to someday run like this, but I am afraid to admit I look more along the lines of this:

I didn't go too slow, but I know I can improve! I will try to keep updated on the progress and will definitely post pictures when we complete our first ever 10k!

In other news - Jake did get a new truck. He loves it, which is all that matters. I am glad he found a good thing out of a not so fun situation. An image for your viewing pleasure:

We have been doing alot of fun things lately - we went fishing for my first time ever! Jake has gone before so he helped me figure out how to throw the fishing line out and sit there until a fish comes. I didn't catch anything, but I did get some bites on my bait which was equally exciting. I screamed when it bit my line, which probably scared it away. I am excited to go again - and maybe catch something. Of course I will not touch the fish or eat it - i will give Jake that pleasure. Jake wasn't able to catch anything either, but our friends did catch some small fish.

We went camping a couple weekends ago and had fun with some friends. We went up Provo Canyon and stayed at a campsite with a camp host who wore a kilt. We did all the fun camping stuff - sitting in front of the fire for hours and eating nonstop (hot dogs, smores, roasted starbursts, etc), playing games in the tent, and then hiking in the morning. I LOVE living in Utah. You can drive 20 minutes and be in the mountains to hike or camp, whatever you choose. It is great!

This past weekend our nephew was baptized. My parents flew out, and my sister came down with her family and it was wonderful! We also had another nephew have his baby blessing and were able to see Jake's family. It was great to spend time with both of our families! Nothing is better than hanging out with family. We are off to go boating and camping this weekend with some of Jake's family, and we are excited to be out on the lake. I'll be sure to take pictures!

In other news - I planted my very first garden! I planted carrots, green peppers, squash, watermelon, corn, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, and lots of lettuce. I am hoping we get at least one piece of fruit or vegetable. I will be happy with just one piece! I decided to start some seeds inside first, and after planting them I only have three seedlings left alive outside. I am guessing i wasn't doing things right because we had a neighbor come over and explain to me how i needed to soak the base of the plants with water, rather than shower them with water. We'll see how it goes!

Our friend Elisa with her prize fish!

Jake getting ready to fish!

Maureen, Austin and me before our 5k "Race for the Cure"

Cutie McKell riding a horse at Thanksgiving Point

Cutie Tyler

Cutie Austin

Grandma and Ellie watching the horses

I knew you were wondering - YES this horse is wearing sunglasses because MAN it was sunny!

Stinkin' Punk Kids...

2009-04-28T20:34:00.007-07:00

before you read this, please know that everyone is safe and i would have not been so upset if someone had actually been hurt....

Last night was quite an experience. Jake had just left for work, I was settling in bed watching the great "gilmore girls" when all of a sudden I heard a crazy crash outside. I thought it was a garbage truck (it sounded like a garbage truck slamming it's crane down), but to my suprise I opened the blinds to see this: (click on the pic if you want to see a larger version)

the boy in the cast was NOT in the accident - he is our neighbor and I have no idea what happened to his leg.

sorry about the fuzzy picture - i'm not the best photog

That's right - there is a random car flipped on it's side, slammed into Jake's car. Jake's car was parked on the street when somehow the white car flipped over and totaled both cars. So, I ran outside the house and first came to a lady who was on her cell phone with 911 screaming at me to tell her my address. After I said it about 10 times I ran up to the scene and saw the two punk kids climb out of the driver's side window. I guess at first the driver was knocked out for a minute, but then came to and was fine. He just had a small cut on his hand, and the other kid was fine. After I saw them jump out, i ran inside to call jake and tell him to come home. Of course I didn't know how to handle my emotions and started crying the second I heard his voice. He turned around to come home.

I don't want to go into all the crazy details because I start remembering how ticked off I was, but i will tell you a few key facts:

The two punk kids claimed that someone cut them off and they had to swerve out of the way, thus slamming into Jake's car. The two witnesses both stated that there were no cars that cut them off. (how would this happen anyways when we live in a neighborhood where no one can drive fast on the street because there are speed bumps?)
The mom of the driver was explaining to Jake how it was sad that this happened because the kid had just gotten his car out of the shop a couple days ago after a "hit and run accident" ( i guess the guy who hit him ran off because he didn't have insurance or something). To say the least I was not feeling one bit sorry for the car or about the money he spent to "supe" his car up.
The punk kids called all their friends and probably every family member to come check out the damage. Once again - I was not amused. By the time their car was towed away i think there were 40 friends and family who came to "check out the damage"
After Jake's car was towed away and the white car flipped back on it's wheels, the punk driver proceeds to say "Hey guys (announcing to all of his crowd) you wanna see $10k down the tubes?", then opens his hood for all to admire his "stellar" engine or whatever is under there. - once again not amused.

It stinks, but at least no one was hurt. Once again, as in probably every crazy situation, I was the one in hysterics and Jake was extremely calm. It must be that police training. I was about ready to throw some punches once I found out everyone was okay. It was nice to have our neighborhood come out to make sure everything was okay (also to investigate what had happened), and our neighbors help me and jake get everything out of the car and make sure everything was taken care of. It's nice to know that people are there to help. I think Jake's favorite thing about this whole situation is that he can now look for a truck! Oh the joys of car shopping...

Side note - the car was driving down the street the opposite direction it is facing in these pictures. It was driving the same direction Jake's car is faced. So spin, flip, and whatever else it had to do to get into this situation.

On a random note - i know you are all wondering, but I haven't eaten ANY french fries since my last post about Hawaii!

2009-04-20T21:26:00.004-07:00

After Jake and I went shopping for new clothes for me tonight I left with nothing. Shopping for clothes always makes me sad. I decided I need to take slow steps to make shopping happier for me! Jake made a bet with me and I HAVE to follow through! If I don't eat french fries for a year (which are my all time favorite thing, besides diet coke) we will go to Hawaii, either on a cruise or trip, for our second anniversary! Starting today I cannot eat ANY french fries. Wish me luck! Hawaii here I come! (in a year)...

2009-04-13T20:55:00.006-07:00

So i was looking at the Martha Stewart site, as I so often do when i am trying to not go to sleep, and came across some asparagus recipes. I clicked on the link and flipped through lots of recipes and it made me think... I remember when I was little and I absolutely hated certain vegetables. I hated tomatoes (still to this day - except for in salsa i LOVE them), broccoli, asparagus, green beens, basically anything green that was cooked. I hated steamed vegetables and would always pick them out of anything we had for dinner.

Times have changed....It is funny how tastes change. I now like things that i used to hate eating. I love spinach (not cooked) and like eating roast. I also suprisingly branched out and now love eating some cooked vegetables. I have my sister to thank for the asparagus. She is an amazing cook and can make anything taste good. She made asparagus with mozzarella on it and I LOVED it. Thank you Maureen! I also like it because it can make any meal feel fancy. Just look at this asparagus...doesn't it just scream fancy?

One other thing I discovered I like is edamame. I tried it first when I was at a business lunch and we went to Happy Sumo. Everyone wanted tons of sushi to share between all of us (I do not like sushi or the smell of fish for that matter), so i ate a lunch of edamame. It is the tastiest thing ever. It is the best when you have lots of salt on it, and pop the little soy beans in your mouth...yummy! I introduced it to jake a couple weeks ago when we went to Pei Wei. And the other day i found some in the store! If you haven't ever had any, you definitely should try it.

I know this is a random post, but it's just my thoughts for the night. I have some other fun things to post about later- our trip to vegas, more indoor skydiving, and a fun weekend backyard tilling adventure. But for now, I thought I'd leave all you working people out there with a thought I came across tonight....

2009-03-21T22:08:00.009-07:00

So i decided to go to a Yoga Class at the gym this morning. I went to a yoga class at a gym when I was in high school and loved it - ever since then I have been wanting to go to yoga regularly, but i am what they call..."lazy". I went to a class a couple weeks ago and loved it! So i decided I would go this morning and was excited to feel relaxed and calm. I showed up and she said we were doing a core workout today - it seriously killed me. My legs were shaking because I haven't worked them out in so long! At the end she had us do this pose:

(side crow)

I was really proud of myself because I did it for 1/2 a second. Later today I was telling Jake about the crazy workout and then wanted to show him my side crow. This is what it looked like when i showed him:

I knew i should have practiced a little more before I showed him. I don't think he believes i even did it for one second. We both laughed pretty hard...

SKOOKIE!

2009-03-20T18:21:00.003-07:00

My mom sent us an early anniversary present and it is wonderful! It's called Skookie. It is a cookie that you make in a cast-iron skillet, and then you put ice cream, hot fudge or caramel, and whatever else you want on top. We got it and made them the same night! They were so wonderful! They remind me of this place in Craigo's in Rexburg, ID. They an amazing dessert "the cookie monster" that was the same type of thing. I ate so many when i was up there going to school - i think that's what helped me gain my freshman 15. Here are some pictures so you can be jealous! And yes, they tasted as yummy as they look!

This is the one I made

holding both mine and jake's

Finally! I get my act together!

2009-03-07T21:57:00.015-07:00

Back by popular demand, to report about the MEXICAN RIVIERA! I know you have all been losing sleep over me not posting until NOW about the most exciting foreign trip we have taken as a married couple- but after getting back and having over 245 emails to look over at work, and plan my sister-in-law's baby shower, I needed some time to gather my thoughts! So i have been thinking about how to exactly relate the amazing time we had, and after endless debates with myself I have decided to say it with pictures of course!

First things first: after my previous Valentine's post, I received some lovely flowers from a lovely husband.

Now on to the meat of this post: We flew out saturday morning and got to LA on time! I had multiple people warn me that the ship would not wait for stragglers, and would sail off without us if we weren't there on time. After an almost deadly cab ride with a creepy looking driver, we arrived and got on the ship! The weather was a bit chilly, but as true vacationers do, we (and our friends) were the first ones in the pool. That was the first and only day we played frisbee in the pool- a good game of 500 can only last so long with a deck patrol guy who looks like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV- who takes his job VERY seriously. After a scare from the incredibly loud horn on the boat, we were off! The first two days we were at sea, and the first full day was the day we got rocked by the sun. Like an idiot i didn't wear any sunscreen, and the others would put sunscreen only in the spots they felt were getting burned - we were quite a crew later that night. I had left my sunglasses on all day so I had a white raccoon mask around my eyes, and everyone else had white spots and weird sunburns.

right before dinner - a little hot to the touch

(that's cabo in the background)...what's vacation without some good old clown hair?

Our first port day was beautiful Puerto Vallarta. We planned the excursion of the Eco Island Discovery. We took a boat (complete with breakfast and spanish music) out to the Marietas, which are islands made of rock. We couldn't actually stand on the island because it is protected by some law. So, we put on our snorkeling gear and jumped into the saltiest water I have ever been in. That was a huge shock - we didn't even think about it and somehow i jumped in with my mouth open. Lesson learned. I had this beautiful picture painted in my head of crystal clear waters and tons of tropical fish, but reality was that we were swimming in what seemed like lake water, and you had to get about one foot away from the underwater rock to actually see anything. Before you think it stunk - it was awesome! We saw tons of different kinds of fish - my favorite was the blue bodied, white necked, yellow faced fish. And we saw some purple, white spotted coral - way cool! With our surfer dude, Pepe as our leader we had an awesome time. Pepe was swimming with only one fin and no wet suit. He swam down and picked up a sea star. He had our friend Tanner put it on his hand and Pepe described how "he is not holding onto the star, the star is holding onto him!" After everyone else got back on the boat, the four of us kept snorkeling. If you went under the water and just sat there, you could hear whales singing and it was the coolest thing! Allie and I were waiting for the boys to come out of a cave and had birds poop on us, which added some excitement when we started screaming and swimming as fast as we could away from all the birds. Once we got back on our excursion boat and had lunch, we went out for a kayaking tour. We kayaked around the islad while Pepe told us about the history of the islands - we saw lots of crabs crawling around and creepy looking birds staring at us. There was a pelican who was seriously the grouchiest looking bird I have ever seen - Allie and I were nervous he was going to fly at us and try to kill us. After we got out to our destination for kayaking, Pepe said we could take our time to get back to the boat or race each other. Of course the first thing Jake and I do is try to paddle as fast as we can to beat everybody - and we did! Who knows if anyone else was trying to race us, but we beat them all! On our way back to Puerto Vallarta, we saw whales, dolphins, and a manta ray! It was the coolest thing - the crew had girls at the front of the boat that they were trying to teach a dance to, and when everyone saw a whale, the boat stop so fast that the girls looked like they were going to flip over in the water. It was so much fun!

right when we got of the cruise ship, a lady asked us to take a picture with her parrot and donate to something

Tanner and Jake on the way out to the Marietas. Jake is also showing his dance moves.

Allie and me - we both couldn't stop saying "I can't believe we're in mexico!"

Of course we couldn't leave without a picture with Pepe!
Our beautiful, enormous cruise ship as seen from our excursion boat

The next day we went to Mazatlan to do zip lining! We heard everyone talk about their zip lining adventure in Puerto Vallarta - in a jungle, zip lining through gorgeous landscape, and repelling down a waterfall. We went with the greatest picture of how gorgeous it was going to be, and we ended up zip lining over dead trees. Don't get me wrong, it was still fun, just not as gorgeous as those lucky people in Puerto Vallarta. We were picked up off the ship by a guy who told us his name was Silver. I didn't really believe him, but called him Silver anyway. We got onto a bus and tooke the bumpiest ride I have ever been on through, what i am convinced, what are some of the most run-down parts of Mazatlan. We saw houses made from whatever you could think of - with straw ceilings. I saw people selling plumbing supplies out on the sidewalk. I felt bad for the people! Then we arrived at the zip lining place. We got all suited up and then were herded into these old Swiss army tanks. After climbing up these steep sand hills and holding onto the ceiling straps so we wouldn't fly out the windows, we got up to the start. We went on nine zip lines over dead vegetation and sweated like crazy because it was boiling hot. The workers were tons of fun, and when Alex (our guide) asked me my name, i thought he asked me if i was ready so i said "yes". From then on he called me "si" because i told him my name was "yes".

I know you can't see him very well, but that's Alex who thought my name was "Si"

The next day was our last port in Cabo San Lucas. It was also our shortest port, so we decided not to do an excursion. We just walked over to a beach and hung out there for a couple of hours. Of course we were bugged like crazy to buy things by the vendors, but after Tanner told a guy selling sunglasses that he wanted two pairs for $10, the guy called him cheap, and must have told all of the other sunglass vendors about him, because they didn't bother us much after that. We did, however, have about 20 people come buy selling the exact same thing - bracelets with your name on them, and Henna tattoo services. Sorry to say, we didn't take advantage of getting the Henna tattoos.

All of the resorts where we hung out at the beach

Some lady was walking around with an iguana. She let it down into the water and then it started running away and she had to chase after it.

We buried Tanner in the sand with some help from the people who worked at the bar - notice the shovel- this guy's got experience!

Our ports were all so much fun! I was nervous that the days spent on the boat would be boring, but I didn't get bored once! There were games by the pool, which we participated in, and Jake won! He entered the "Mr. Sexy Legs" competition. He told me I needed to be a judge so that he would win. So, we pretended we didn't know eachother, and I entered as a judge! There were five guys in the contest and Jake took the win with no problem! The guys had to walk around the pool all together, and then once individually. Jake definitely put on a show - when it was time for him to walk around individually, he took his shirt off, twirled it around his head and threw it into the crowd. Everyone starting screaming and cheering! He then dove into the pool and stuck his legs out of the water and did some synchronized swimming moves. Afterwhich he lifted himself out of the pool by doing a hand stand (which was amazing) and flexed his leg muscles in the air. Everyone loved him and I didn't even have to say anything to the other judges about him being "mr. sexy legs". They loved his little show and chose him without seeing everyone else! After that, we would walk around the boat and people would say to him "Hey Mr. Sexy Legs". It was hilarious - our friends have the contest on video, so we need to get it from them! Tanner also participated in the Pool Olympics game and his team won! A few days later, Jake and I entered to do "the newly wed game" and we were put on the show! Of course we lost after some embarassing and stupid questions. It was funny because that night and the next morning, we had lots of people come up to us and say how they wish we would have won. They also announced that we were from Salt Lake City, so we had people coming up to us who had either lived in Utah, or currently do. It was funny.

And last but not least - I know you want to hear about THE FOOD! We had been told by everyone we had talked to that the food was the most amazing part. Sorry to say, we weren't super impressed. We chose to do the anytime dining option- meaning we could eat at anytime instead of having to eat at either 6:30 or 8:30. We had four restaurants we could choose from, and they were all super fancy. By the last night I was tired of the fanciness and just wanted a burger. The dinners were good, but there was one night when i got the turkey dinner and it came with lots of giblets, the potato was disgusting, and the corn patty (or whatever) was the worst part. I went to bed a little hungry that night:) We did, however, enjoy the hamburger bar and the pizza bar. I will never forget sitting in the hot tub eating pizza and drinking diet coke - that's luxury!

Overall, our trip was awesome and we can't wait until we can plan another one. We are thinking the Carribbean, but if you haven't been on a cruise - book one now!

This should entice you, if nothing else! This is the rose I got after we did the newlywed game.

I thought I would leave you with a wonderful video - after my sister-in-law's baby shower this morning, Jake sucked helium out of the balloons and sang a song.

2009-02-10T13:39:00.005-07:00

What is the deal with Valentine's day? The past couple days at work, I have been asked multiple times what the guys should do for their wives for Valentine's day. I have racked my brain multiple times trying to come up with creative ideas, because it seems everyone I work with has a wife who needs something "sentimental" for Valentine's day. Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, a few flowers and a nice dinner and that's all I need! Please don't write me some sappy poem or sing me a song. In college I had a guy actually write me a poem on a piece of paper and he burned the edges of the paper to make it look like it was historic or something - I couldn't stop laughing! I actually could care less about Valentine's day - in middle school and high school it was a big deal, (when you had your two day relationships) but now I don't really care. A guy at work was shocked when I told him that I didn't really care about Valentine's day - "WHAT? You aren't going to do ANYTHING for Valentine's day? If you're like this at 1 year of marriage, you are going to be a huge grinch at your 5th year." Sheesh!

Jake kept telling me that we needed to put this on the blog, so here it is :) The past couple weeks we have been playing the game "Sonic and Mario Olympics" on the Wii. This is me playing the whack-a-mole game (soon to be in the real olympics! j/k)

2009-02-01T12:09:00.005-07:00

I am sure Jake will simply roll his eyes when he reads this post (he will think i am exaggerating the experience, but this is the way I see it - - from my point of view).

Let me set the stage a little bit here: There were about three years of my life (elementary school, of course), when I was rarely seen without a basketball jersey on. I was convinced I was going to become a WNBA star and dribble my way to fame. I was decent at basketball (except for the one year during the free-throw tournament when my dad had my sister run out to a trophy store to get me a trophy because they didn't want me to feel bad when I didn't place - somehow i took third), and played through school until my sophomore year of high school. I even remember holding my arms up to this poster in my brother's room to see if I could be "like mike":

I had felt pretty confident with my ability to play basketball until the other night. You know those people on the team that you feel bad for, but you let them play anyways although if you pass to them, they will try shooting it and way overshoot the hoop? Yeah, that was me the other night. Jake and I went before the game so I could shoot around and I was doing okay. Then, when everyone got there we started to get ready for the game and I was asked what position I play. I froze - I couldn't remember any positions! I came up with the perfect answer that anyone would give if they didn't know what to say: "oh, i can play anywhere". After feeling like an idiot, we went out on the court for the initial jump ball and I found myself not knowing which direction we were going! (luckily, the ref pointed out which direction each team was going). To keep the story short, I will simply say I stink. I should have probably just stayed home - the night consisted of me making one or two baskets (i think), catching the ball between my knees, passing the ball to the opposite team, and just running around while the other ladies made plays. I can't decide if I am going to spare these poor women this week and not go, or play to see if by some miracle I can get better. I am officially kissing my WNBA future goodbye...

2009-01-13T22:07:00.005-07:00

And the countdown begins! On February 21, Jake and I will be embarking on our first cruise together to........

If you guessed Mexico you are right! and i hope we actually see someone who looks like this and is VERY excited to see me - that would be my dream come true! I have wanted to go to Mexico ever since I was little. I even had an obsession with latin music when I was in high school and would listen to my Shakira cd when i mowed the lawn. I even tried to minor in spanish when i was at college, but after my first semester I realized I sounded like an idiot american trying to sound like i actually knew how to speak the language. I also realized i could not, and never would be able to roll my r's, so i trashed that minor asap.

So Jake and I are off on our first foreign adventure with our friends Tanner and Allie. It was funny because Jake and I had talked about going on a cruise and thought it would be more fun with friends, so we were going to try to convince Tanner and Allie to go with us on a cruise. When we brought up the idea, they started screaming that they wanted us to go on one with them to Mexico! Of course it took us two seconds to approve, and then we got our plans started! We are headed out of LA, and then off to the ports of Puerto Vallerta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. It will be lots of fun! And one other bonus, is that people always say to drink bottled water in Mexico, but we won't have to worry about it too much since we will be drinking the water off of our ship. Unless they decide to trick us and give us the REAL experience and contaminate their water. I should just pack my entire suitcase with bottled water.

In other random news, Jake and I happened to catch this show on tv tonight:

have you ever watched this show? It makes me extremely sad but also makes me feel motivated to get in shape (at least for an hour after the show ends). Tonight there was an old man who got voted off and I started crying! I couldn't believe it. I am the biggest baby ever. Anways, this man was so incredibly gracious about the entire thing, and then after the show ended, they showed a clip of him after he had been home for a while. He looked so good! It was amazing! I am astounded at how determined these people are to lose weight! I need to use them as motivation..but I am thinking I have a long ways to go after my breakfast this morning of gummy bears and diet coke. I have a problem.

2009-01-02T19:48:00.004-07:00

One of my most favorite things:

I know it sounds ridiculous because it is a kitchen appliance, but I absolutely LOVE my Kitchenaid. If you don't have one - stop reading and get one right now. This lovely appliance not only helps me when I cook and bake, but it sits on my counter beautifully. I am so protective of it, that I will not let the silver bowl dry in the dishwasher - I will hand wash it and dry it with a towel, of course making sure that there are no water spots. I make up any excuse I can to use it. It is one of the reasons I like to cook! Of course cooking and baking is more fun when you have fun little gadgets and appliances.

Another one of my favorite things:

I love things to be organized and be in cute boxes with labels on them. Nothing makes me feel better than to look in the closet and see all of my boxes stacked on top of eachother with labels. I love taking a messy room and organizing it. (you wouldn't be able to tell that by our spare bedroom - but where else do you cram everything you can't fit anywhere else?) I love filling empty shelves with neatly folded towels, linens, or anything that looks pretty. I just love for everything to have a specific place. I have gotten into the habit of walking around the house and throwing things away that I don't find important - It has gotten to the point when if Jake can't find something he will immediately ask if I have thrown it away. What can I say - I don't like clutter :)

2008-12-26T13:38:00.004-07:00

We have been having a very snowy christmas! It feels like it won't ever stop. There was one day I came home from work and couldn't get my car in the driveway because it was so snowy. I just parked my car halfway in the street and walked inside and made Jake get it in the garage. These pictures are from yesterday when jake was shoveling the snow...

Look at that form! = broken back in the future

He decided to build a wall up around the stairs going into the basement

We had a fun first christmas together - we opened gifts and then later in the day went over to have dinner with his family. It was fun to be with family on christmas! Christmas eve Jake was working, so I went up to my sister's house. Santa visited and her two boys loved it, but her girls were both screaming and crying. I wish I had pictures- but it was seriously hilarious.

Trying our stockings on..

We hope you had a merry christmas!

Christmas Spirit!

2008-12-13T15:49:00.002-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been busy but fun! My friend Shiloh and I went to the Hogle Zoo one night to see the Zoo Lights. The whole zoo is full of lights and some lights in the shapes of animals. It was alot of fun to go around and look at everything! There weren't many animals out but we did get to see the penguins and go in the smelly reptile area. The zoo also got a new carousel...we stood in line to ride it, but didn't actually get to because we didn't realize you needed to buy special tickets. We felt like the biggest idiots ever.

I look like an old lady for the zoo lights

Shiloh rockin it out at the zoo lights

We had some friends over one night to play games but realized we didnt want to play any of the ones we already had, so we decided to open one of our christmas gifts (from santa) a little early. Jake got to open it, and you can tell that he was extremely excited.

This picture makes me laugh so hard...
he is just so excited!

classic christmas picture

sorry not much to say, but just wanted to share the pictures!

2008-11-30T20:14:00.004-07:00

This weekend was full of adventures! Friday we were able to do Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and her family, my younger brother and my other sister. We started the day off with a 3k run- the "Turkey Trot". We were all getting ready to do the run and my nephew karate chopped the finish line (made of crate paper) and when my sister asked him why he did that he paused for a second, i think because he realized he did something wrong, and then he threw up his hands like he had won the race and said "woo!". It was super funny. After the run we all started the food preparation and then stuffed ourselves silly. After a movie a few of us went up to Ogden to iFly-and indoor place where you go inside this tube thing and they turn the wind up super high so you can fly. It was tons of fun!

Getting all of our gear on

All geared up and ready to go!

The next morning we met up again to go shooting out past Saratoga Springs. I didn't have the best time, but everyone else enjoyed it! I hadn't ever held a gun before and the first gun I shot was super loud and the trigger was hard for me to pull. Once I shot it I started crying because I was so scared! I screamed and handed the gun back over to Jake and then the rest of the day shot a small gun with my nephews. I am the biggest baby ever. Everyone else had and awesome time- Jake brought all of his guns plus some, so everyone had lots to shoot. Jake got some targets and clay pigeons, and I brought the pumpkins from our porch- so we had lots to shoot! It was interesting driving out to the middle of nowhere and seeing little spots where you could tell people shoot their guns because there were piles of garbage- tv's, bottles, and even a windshield(at least it looked like one). It was fun to be with everyone again, but I don't know that I would go shooting again.

Vic shooting a gun- doesn't she look totally in her element?

The guys all lined up

my nephew, Austin and his dad shooting the gun that made me cry- they are so brave!

Overall it was a good weekend. It was nice to sit at dinner and talk about all the things we are thankful for. It is amazing how I don't even think about some of the small things-like being able to take a shower everyday, having a car to drive to work, or even food to eat at every meal. We are super fortunate to have these things!

2008-11-19T22:15:00.004-07:00

The other night we headed out to look for Christmas decorations (yes, i know it is not even Thanksgiving yet-but i wanted to be ready for the day after Thanksgiving) and we decided to get some stockings. Jake asked if I wanted them to match, and after I told him I didn't really care he went off looking for his favorite one. After looking at the picture below, I will give you one guess as to which one is his:

Maybe this will help:

I couldn't stop laughing. I think it is so funny how much he loves the Jazz (no, not the music Vic). We both love christmas and are excited for the day we get to put up our christmas tree! I even bugged Jake to get the gutters put up on the house so we could hang christmas lights outside. I still haven't gotten to it, but that is my goal for this weekend! (they will not be turned on until AFTER thanksgiving) I still can't decide what kind to do- the clear ones, white ones, or multi color? I don't really like the solid colored ones (besides white)-it reminds me of a house back home on our street that did all yellow lights on their house, including yellow spotlights shining on their roof. I can't remember if they had a tweety bird dressed as santa or not- I could be imagining that. I also don't like when people do solid red (sorry if that includes you)- it just seems like the opposite of christmas. Or I could do the ones that flash according to music...what will they come up with next year?

The one thing I don't like about this time of year in Utah is how dry my skin gets. It is disgusting, and I am sure people look at me like I have a disease but it looks like I have a goatee of dry skin. D-I-S-G-U-S-T-I-N-G. Maybe too much information for you, but it is worse for me- I have to live with it. Regardless of the pounds of lotion I put on, I am left with the dry skin goatee.

We are excited for Thanksgiving- we are going up to my sister's house to be with family (sadly Jake will be working on the real thanksgiving day so we will miss out on his family's festivities) but my sister usually does her dinners on Friday so her family can go skiing on Thanksgiving day-that way they aren't slamming into other skiiers and having to yell at people to get out of the way on the day after thanksgiving. We will probably all eat tons of food and have intentions of playing games afterwards but in actuality will fall asleep within minutes of finishing the dishes. That's the best part-taking a nap with your bloated belly. I am in charge of the traditional Black Bottom Pie (initiated by Dad Ryder) and hope I don't ruin it. I have never made one before- I am usually in charge of mashed potatoes which no one can screw up (which is why it is always given to me). Wish me luck! Dad- if you have any pointers let me know!

2008-11-12T22:03:00.007-07:00

I am somewhat grateful I was home by myself tonight...after feeling extremely stressed and irritated by a couple days at work, I found myself sobbing on the couch reading about this amazing family. (or you can click the NieNie icon on the right pane) I found a link to this inspiring woman's blog on a couple of my friend's blogs and was curious to see what was going on. After a few hours of reading her blog entries, followed by entries in her sister's blog, I felt myself wanting to aspire to be a fraction of who she is. Her family is most important to her. She is loved by many people, mostly her husband. I cried the most when I read of how her sisters were helping through this, and how all her husband cared about was his wife. I know it sounds creepy, and almost stalkerish, but after seeing pictures of her and her family, she seems like one of those women at church that you see yourself longing to be more like. You should check this out- and if you are female, make sure you have some tissues handy!

I feel like this was a mushy, weird post from me, but I am allowed to be emotional every once in a while! :)

2008-11-07T15:47:00.003-07:00

We went to Lowes the other night, and by our pictures you can tell what we found! They have all of the christmas decorations out, and they had tons of different types of hats.

I think this one is my absolute favorite :)

This one makes me feel a little sick

It kind of felt like winter because it had snowed almost 3 inches that morning! I woke up and was excited but ticked off at the same time. It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to work, when usually it only takes me 30 minutes. I think its funny and it drives me nuts how when it snows people somehow forget how to drive and they freak out. There was a five car pile up on the freeway, and another accident they were cleaning up. I fought the urge to jump into the carpool lane, but decided a super expensive ticket would make me feel even worse.
We joined a co-ed volleyball team with some friends from church and we had our first games on Tuesday night. There are three couples that play and it was alot of fun! We only won one game out of the four but it was fun to play. I haven't ever played on a co-ed team, but I do like the rule of having to have the girls touch the ball almost everytime it comes over the net. The guys on our team are good about letting the girls play, but there was one time I played a game with some people from church back home and some guy acted like girls didn't even know what a volleyball was. I am glad this team is different!
I am also on a church volleyball team and we were good enough to make it to the regional tournament! We played our first games last night and were good enough to move onto the next pool play next week. It is alot of fun and it's nice because everyone plays hard but have fun while doing it.
Jake and I also had a new nephew born this week! Jake's brother, Danny and his wife Courtney had little Cason on Monday! We went to the hospital to visit and they are all doing super well. Cason is adorable! He is so little!
Other than that things are good! I am counting down the days until Thanksgiving so I can be lazy, watch movies, and eat tons of food.

2008-11-03T14:36:00.003-07:00

So, I know i shouldn't be posting at work, but i just HAD to do it. I got the hiccups and they were the worst I have ever had! I told this guy that I wanted them to go away, then he sent me this link:

Click This

It made my Hiccups go away! You should visit it!

Halloween Galore!

2008-10-30T21:22:00.004-07:00

So my older sister Maureen was in charge of the Fall Festival at her son's school (the one in the Narnia outfit below). My sister Vic, my brother Mike, and I were able to go and help with whatever was needed. It was alot of fun! Vic and I took money for tickets the whole night, and we were surprised how busy we were! Vic dressed like a skeleton-it was seriously one of the creepiest things ever-and she even made a little girl cry because she was so scary! (she wasn't trying to scare her, she was actually being really nice). It was funny to see how all of the little kids would stare at her as they walked by. I was all prepared to put on a witch costume, but I didn't actually have time to put it on. Oh well-I guess I could wear it to work tomorrow, but I always feel stupid dressing up for work. We all had alot of fun and I feel sick from all the pizza, soda, and baked goods! It also makes me grateful that I chose to not go into elementary education-those kids are crazy!

Vic (skeleton), Austin (pirate?), Tyler (narnia character), and McKell (princess)

Creepy Skeleton

Jake wasn't able to go to the Fall Festival because he was working, but we have done some Halloween adventures of our own! We went to a cornmaze (yes, shaped like the American Idol guy, David Archuletta) at Thanksgiving point and did all the fun festivities! We went with our friends Tanner and Alli, and had a blast! Tanner and Jake decided to run ahead of us and try to scare us. They did it so many times that Alli and I decided to just run and finish the maze by ourselves and we would wait for them. Well we started running-with me in the front- and I wasn't watching where I was going and I tripped and slammed super hard into the ground. It was the funniest thing!-you had to be there I guess. They had lots of things for people to do-a small barn filled with hard corn kernels that you can bury people in, or have corn fights, a trampoline, little pedal karts, and a huge inflated monster that you walk through kind of like a haunted house. The inflated monster was super scary- especially when they all pushed me in front and it was pitch black and I was screaming because I couldn't see anything and ran into the walls. There really wasn't anything jumping out at you, but there was a random creepy girl who kept popping up in crazy places-that was the scariest part!

I will be celebrating my Halloween night with a night at home with my friend Shiloh. We will probably just watch a movie and make dinner, and pass out Halloween candy of course! Jake will be a cop for Halloween- and be at work dealing with all of the weirdos.

I forgot I had this random video, but thought it would be fun to watch. This is my brother mike dancing to some music. Enjoy!

Our East Coast Trip!

2008-10-18T08:40:00.009-07:00

Well we got back Monday night really late from our trip out to Connecticut. It felt like a super fast trip full of tons of fun stuff. We had things planned for everyday which made the trip go by really fast. Jon and Christy's little girls are the cutest things ever. We loved being with their little family and were sad to leave and come back to long days of work and normal life. It went by so fast! I think it would be easiest to go through the trip day by day, so I hope it's not too long!
Tuesday: we arrived around 3 pm and hung out with Christy, Riley and Melaina at their apartment and then when Jon came home we had dinner and played games.
Wednesday: Jon had school so it was the five of us again- we went shopping at a mall near their house and went to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. While we were eating lunch all of the power went out and we just kept eating and talked about how crazy it would be if the animals came alive when the lights went out ( like jumanji). The waitress brought us a glow stick which entertained Riley throughout the power outage. We couldn't get dessert because the power was out, so we left and did some more shopping and then went back to get dessert. I am sure they thought we were weird for going back after an hour of already eating there. After the mall we went to a state park and went for a walk in the woods. It was gorgeous and alot of fun!

Thursday: New York Day! We started off our morning really early with the train ride:It took about an hour and a half to get to NY from Hartford but it was fun to just sit and talk. There was also this weirdo guy stretching for almost the entire train ride. It was kind of funny. When we got to NY we went and saw all the touristy things: the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street(the gold bull), some old church, Empire State Building, Ground Zero, China Town, Little Italy, Times Sqaure and FAO Schwartz. View from the top of the empire state building

The Wall Street Bull - it's supposed to be good luck!

Jon, Christy and Melaina

This was outside some old church- i guess it was in National Treasure or Divinci Code ( I can't remember)Central park

FAO Schwartz- these were made out of Legos

Rockefeller Center-where they have the ice rink and the huge christmas tree- they were already getting the ice rink all set up

Friday: Boston. I think I liked Boston more than NYC. It still had the big city feel, but it wasn't as crazy. I thought it was alot of fun! We went on "the Freedom Trail" which is this red line that is painted on the ground and if you follow it you can see all the historic sites in Boston. We decided not to get a tour guide (they were men dressed in colonial clothes), and went on the trail ourselves. I am glad we did because we were able to stop and look at whatever we wanted. At the end of the day we got a big pizza and ate it in a park in the middle of the city. It was seriously one of the best pizzas I have ever had. Riley and Melaina ready for fun!

Some tour thing that takes you on land and on water...

One of the tour guides for the Freedom Trail

Saturday: Jake and I went to Six Flags in Springfield, Mass. It was alot of fun- they had it decorated for Halloween and we went through a haunted mansion. We made the mistake of going on the best ride first- Superman- and were dissapointed with all of the other rides. Next time we will have to save the best for last! Afterwards we went to dinner with Jon, Christy, Melaina and Riley to this place called Moes with really yummy mexican food.

Sunday: We all went for a hike in the same state park we went to on Wednesday. Before we got started I got hit by a car- It was the craziest thing! I was leaning against Jon and Christy's car while everyone else was getting the kids ready for the hike and all of a sudden I was pushed forward by the car- Some psycho old lady bumped the front of their car with her bumper (don't worry there was no damage) and I got hit by their bumper. It was super funny. This time we went on a non-paved hike and enjoyed all the fall colors and the trees. It reminded me of Michigan because it was so gorgeous and had so many trees! Afterwards we went to a little city Whethersfield and looked at all the scarecrows people had put out. It reminded me of all the cute little cities you see in the movies. It was alot of fun! Jake, Me and Melaina

Jon, Christy and Riley

Monday: We headed back to Utah.

Leaving on a jet Plane....

2008-10-06T19:02:00.005-07:00

Well, we are off bright and early tomorrow morning to visit my brother, his wife and their two cute daughters in Conneticut. This trip could not come at a better time- we are both excited to not have to work for a whole week! We have lots of fun day trips planned- Rhode Island, New York City, and Boston. It will be great to get to spend some time with them! Not that I post all the time, but be looking for pictures from all of our fun adventures when we get back next week!

Fall Decorating!

2008-09-29T20:41:00.003-07:00

So I love the feel of fall. I don't know if it is the fact that because growing up in Michigan was absolutely gorgeous in the fall (the canopy of trees down the street when they were changing colors), or because the air just smells so good! I also like the fact that we can wear light jackets and cute scarves. I decided this past weekend that our house needed some fall decorations, so I took matters into my own hands. I went to Tai Pan in Sandy and spent about an hour and a half walking around and just thinking about what I could do. Now, I am not good at decorating by any means so it took me forever to pick out just a few items. I went home and cleaned the house and put up my decorations. I love sitting in a clean house (especially with fall decorations!). Here are a few pictures of what I could come up with:

Our fall colored pillows!

Pumpkins on the front porch

I promise these are fall colors (it looks a little christmasy)

I also tried to make the house smell like fall with this wax melter thing we have, but it didn't quite smell like fall. When Jake got home that night he said " it smells like a craft store in here". It reminds me of something my Dad might say...

2008-09-24T20:11:00.007-07:00

Two things I don't understand: poor sportsmanship and sagging pants.

Last night Jake had a softball game and I saw a great display of poor sportsmanship. While our team was in the outfield (know that jake's team is full of ward members and the bishop) the other team's 3rd base coach went crazy. I guess our third baseman made a comment to him about whatever and the 3rd base coach went off. He was swearing like crazy and looking like he wanted to push the baseman and then Jake got up off the bench and told the guys to calm down and just play the game, but then the 3rd base coach yelled at Jake to "Tell YOUR team members to calm down and play...What are you doing up anyway? Shut up and sit down". I was sitting on the sideline watching this whole thing and I was getting fired up! I wanted to yell at the stupid guy for yelling at Jake. I had this whole thing set up in my mind how I would yell at him and then things would get so crazy that I would have to punch him in the face (a little extreme, i know). The Ump stood up and told everyone to shut up or he would call the game, so everyone went back and played. I couldn't believe how upset I had gotten. On the way out I saw the jerk walking out and i wanted to "accidentally" hit him really hard with my purse. I can't imagine how I am going to be when we have kids and someone says something mean to them. I told the guys at work about this today and one of them told me "watch out for mamma bear!" That's right!

Saggy Pants: What is the deal with these? Is this even comfortable? I went to get dinner tonight and while there a teenager was walking around with his pants around his thighs. He didn't even have a belt to hold them up. Do teenage girls find it attractive when guys have to walk with their legs spread so far apart, not able to bend their knees because their pants might fall down? I would think it would be harder to walk that way, but what do I know?

I went to a pampered chef party last week and realized I have a problem: I love to buy kitchen gadgets. Do I cook very often? No. I think I have a hope that if I stock my kitchen with fun gadgets I will want to cook more. I think I just find it hard to cook for two people. Then when Jake is working I find no point in cooking for myself and when I do I usually just make macaroni and cheese. Any suggestions? I know it will definitely help the waistline and wallet if we don't eat out so much...

2008-09-15T06:36:00.003-07:00

We had the fun opportunity to have dinner with my friend Heather and her husband last night. Heather and I went to high school at the same time (different High schools) back in Michigan. It started out as a normal dinner, but of course it turned out to be a reminiscing party (for me and heather). I am sure our husbands felt like it was one of those times when old mission companions get together and talk about all of their old mission stories, except our involved my "jersey years", when I was obsessed with wearing basketball jersies in elementary school, and girls camp stories. I thought it was tons of fun and we laughed alot! I love hanging out with old friends. It is so much fun to remember fun things we did together and it just feels comfortable. I just hope our husbands will let us do more things together-even though we talked the whole time :)

Some fun memories we talked about last night:

When we were girls camp YCL's and one of the girls was made over by the other girls in our cabin with tons of blue eyeshadow and makeup and I didn't even recognize her. I was yelling for her and asking where she was when she was standing right in front of me.
Youth conference when we were given and orange to eat in the morning and then had to go all day hiking and doing different activities without eating anything and then we had a HUGE dinner and everyone got sick.
Going to Prom with boys who were brothers and then wearing our dresses and disgustingly hair sprayed "prom hair" to church the next day.
Jet skiing and having heather be pulled into the water by the neck from the rope that was attached to my tube.

There were alot more, but these were some of my favorites.

In other news, Jake started rifle school today, and I am sure he was VERY excited. He came in to say goodbye and was practically skipping :) Okay, not really, but he is excited to go. I am off to work and on my way will listen to the Mamma Mia soundtrack- vic you got me totally addicted! (if you don't own it, Go get it!)

2008-09-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

Well things have been going really well. Nothing too exciting has been going on. We have both been working as usual and are excited for the upcoming weeks. Next week Jake is going to rifle training for work, so he gets to work from 8am-5pm Monday through Thursday. We will get to see each other everyday! I have been in a transition at work with moving into a new position, still doing my old tasks but adding on a whole new aspect of the technical side of email marketing. I am starting to learn HTML and CCS coding (totally geeky, I know) but I am really excited about it! I get to start learning how to build templates for emailing and webpage design, so it is a challenge.
Enough of boring work! We have both signed up to play sports in our ward. Tuesday nights are Jake's softball nights, Thursday nights are my volleyball nights, and Jake will start playing volleyball on Saturday mornings. It has been alot of fun going to Jake's games and watching him play! I promise to get pictures up soon!
We are heading out to CT to visit my brother and his family (Jon and Christy) at the beginning of october and are SUPER excited. It will be fun to go out there to visit them and see where they live! We all plan to make a couple day trips....to NYC and Boston and eat real seafood! It will be quite an adventure! We are counting down the weeks until then.
I realize I don't have much to say, but will post something better soon!

Although this does look like photo shop, these were actually stickers he put on his face

Vic brought us a suprise!

Showing off my sunglasses

Tagged!

2008-08-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

About your husband...

1. What is his name? Jacob

2. How long have you been together? We've been married 4 months, and known each other for a little over a year

3. How long did you date? Four months before we got engaged

4. How old is he? 23, but turns 24 in october

5. Who eats more? He does, most of the time- but sometimes I do

6. Who said I love you first? Jake did- I waited until he said it- boys are supposed to say it first!

7. Who is taller? Jake

8. Who can sing better? Jake of course- he is really good at opera early in the morning

9. Who is smarter? Street smart- Jake, I am probably more book smart because I am a geek
10. Who's temper is worse? Mine- Jake never gets mad

11. Who does the laundry? Both of us

12. Who pays the bills? Jake

13. Who sleeps on the right side? Jake

14. Who mows the lawn? Jake

15. Who cooks dinner? Jake- I am more of a baker :)

16. Who is better with the computer? Me

17. Who has bigger feet? Jake! I am excited about that because I have big monster feet for a girl

18. Who drives? Jake

19. Who is more stubborn? Not sure, probably me

20. Who kissed who first? Jake kissed me first

21. Who proposed? Jake did, even though I was being stupid the whole night and didn't realize anything was going on- He suggested a nice restaurant and I said "no, i want to go to applebees"
22. Who asked who out? We were set up- then jake asked me out after that!

23. Who has more friends? We both have lots of friends

24. Who is more sensitive? Me of course- I am the girl!

25. Who has more siblings? I do- six, jake has four

26. Whose parents do you see the most? Jake's

27. Who wears the pants? I like to make Jake think that he does... (I think this question is dumb)

We Sold It!!

2008-08-28T15:37:00.001-07:00

After a month and a half (about) of having a third car, we finally sold it! Jake put it up on KSL without much luck- we had one person come check it out, and then another person say they were on their way to come look at it but never showed. So we waited a few weeks and then I got extremely anxious looking out the window and seeing it in front of our house, so I decided to put it up on Craigslist. I put it up on Sunday, and the next day I had about ten emails in my inbox. I was super excited! I had one set of parents call me twice so they could have their daughter test drive it. She liked it after driving it, but said that she had another car she wanted to check out that night, before she made her decision. That night I had another girl come look at it and she decided she really liked it and wanted to get it. Jake and I told her that the other girl was taking her time so she should really jump on it. The next day we got her offer! We decided to go ahead and give it to her (they were both offering the same amount). I am super excited! Now we don't have to pay for it anymore and I don't have to see it! Our driveway was crowded with a police car, my new car, and then the cars of our friends that live downstairs. We were looking like a circus house. We decided to get a new car about month and a half ago, so it was time to sell the other one. I am sure my brother will be sad because it means he won't be able to use it anymore. Sorry Mike!

(nissan versa)
this is what our new car looks like :)

2008-08-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

We went skydiving! It was so much fun! A bunch of people from my work went a couple of weeks ago, and I was a little nervous so I didn't go with them. My boss convinced me that I should go- he even had another co-worker tell me the only way he would go is if I would go. So, I decided to do it, and made Jake get in on the action! So on Wednesday we showed up (it is out in Tooele) and watched a twenty minute video where they showed you exactly what you needed to do in the air (Belly button, Breathe, Banana). While being attached to a skydiver by four caribeeners you have to stand on the edge of a platform on the plane while flying through the air, then on the count of 3 you have to stick you belly out first (belly button) with your head back as far as it can go. Then proceed to breathe through your teeth (breathe) and then when the instructor says to, curve your body like a banana in the air. We couldn't stop laughing throughout the entire video, but don't you worry..we remembered the three B's! I had the awesome opportunity to be attached to a guy who smelled like cigarette smoke and talked about his "hot 27 year-old" wife (which I don't 100% believe because he was about 5'5'' and was wearing a man tank top and camo cargo pants). I don't know about Jake's experience, because he seemed to have a normal instructor, but mine was crazy. We did a flip out of the airplane and then he pulled the cord for the parachute and then let me direct where it was going. Then he told me to pull it in a certain way that we were parallel to the ground and were spinning super fast. I thought I was going to lose it. I felt so sick. I must have looked worse than I felt, because when I got to the ground I couldn't walk very well and Jake said that I was super pale. I guess it is a good idea to eat before you jump out of plane.... Jake loved his experience and we really want to go again! We would only have to go one more time with an instructor attached to us, and then one our third jump we jump solo, but with two instructors jumping at the same time. If you haven't done it, you should definitely try it! It was awesome!

After the jump by the airplane

I couldn't get a good picture with Jake's whole face, so he looks like Two-Face

In other news, we got a new kitchen table and chairs! We are very excited about that...and I am also posting a picture of the paintings I went to Tai Pan 4 times for- I swear the workers there think I am insane. But i HAD to have them! (the picture is for you mom...)

Can anyone guess who is on the tv in the back? That's right, it is P. Diddy!

2008-08-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well we decided to do a little hike yesterday morning, and it was alot of fun! We went up to Little CottonWood Canyon to a hike Jake used to do with his friends when he was still in school. It was alot of fun! I was even able to wear my Chacos, which I love and try to wear them every chance I can. We ate a little picnic lunch after the hike and then went back home to watch the olympics. I love watching the olympics! I think the summer ones are my favorite- mostly because of the gymnastics. I have also grown to like watching the swimming, especially because I want to see if Michael Phelps can get all the golds from all his events. Watching them makes me want to get out and exercise more, but it doesn't do much good when you watch them while you are eating Taco Bell for dinner. Oh well, someday things will get better!

We look like we are in High School in all of these pictures!

In other news, Jake was able to bid for his new schedule and starting August 31, we will have Sundays together! I am VERY excited to finally have a whole day together. We will actually get to make good sunday dinners together and I am very excited!

He is sanding one of the kitchen cupboards, and is VERY excited about it!

Al Borland and Gangsters

2008-08-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

So, this past week I went to TJ Maxx at lunch to just look around. I usually find cute stuff pretty inexpensive and went to just see if there was anything I couldn't live without. After browsing through the racks, I found this super cute coat. It is a dark green plaid pea coat, and after trying it on and walking around the store with it on, I decided I couldn't live without it. Plus it was only $20! I also have a habit of getting black coats that are cute, but are not warm in the winter. I felt pretty good after buying it, and was excited to show Jake my steal of a deal! The next day after jake came home from work i tried it on for him (after promising him it was the cutest coat and he would love it) and you know what he said? "I don't want to hurt your feelings, but it reminds me of Al Borland". Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed but laughed it off. (i promise the coat is super cute!)
I have also been told that the next time I go shopping for jeans, Jake gets to come. I have a habit of getting jeans that are comfortable and don't fit 100%. Most of the time I am able to take them off without even unbuttoning them. I look like a gangster! I should probably apply to be on "What Not to Wear".
In other news, we have started a humongous project that I was really excited about, but just realized it is a huge undertaking. We are re-doing our kitchen. We started by taking off one cupboard door and discovered there are about seven layers of paint! The guy who remodeled the house before Jake moved in had a tendency to just slop the paint on, even over the hinges. We want to fix up the kitchen and make it look beautiful, and part of that is sanding down the cupboards until they are smooth and repainting them. I went out and got some paint stripper and slapped some on, after Jake attempted to sand it and it didn't even look like he had touched it. After peeling it off, it actually worked! It is going to take FOREVER, but I am sure it will be beautiful!
Today was my first time in my new calling- Primary teacher for the 7 year olds turning 8. I didn't spend enough time preparing my lesson, so it didn't go as smooth as I had hoped. I am usually okay winging it, and figured that after teaching primary to other ages, and working with kids all last summer I would be okay. After I got into class today I didn't realize how long it had been since I had been around kids that age. There was one boy that is going to be my challenge this year. When the primary president came over to give me the manual, she told me and the other teacher (the girl who lives downstairs), that there was one boy who had "alot of energy and loves to express it during primary". I took this as "there is a crazy, out of control boy who is going to drive you nuts". I didn't realize how rough it was going to be. After a morning of him not listening and in sharing time yelling, kicking chairs, telling a boy in the front row "YOU STINK BIG TIME", (the bishop even came up to me and told me the kid was hard to control) I realized I am going to have to rely completely on the Lord for this one. Jake said that I could tell him I would beat him up if he didn't listen, and could bring his tazer into class, but I decided that probably wasn't the best option, and the kid might even want to be tazed. I am guessing I was put into this calling to learn patience. I do have four other kids in the class that are amazingly perfect, and the bishop's son is seriously one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. I am excited for the calling, but today was ready to tell the bishop I couldn't handle it. At least I only have to teach everyother week, and can control the crazy kid while Angela teaches.
I am off to eat a dinner of macaroni and cheese...

4th of July Fun!

2008-07-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

Well the fourth of July was tons of fun! It started Thursday night for us and ended on Saturday afternoon. Thursday night i was able to go up to my sister Maureen's home and participate in their neighborhood parade. It was the cutest thing and it felt like a movie because I couldn't believe a neighborhood actually did something like that! The kids all decorated their bikes, scooters or whatever they were riding, as well as dressed up. We all met at a neighbors house and then got in a line and walked down the road. It was so cute! It was fun to see how excited all the kids were. There was one girl in particular who was totally decked out in a unitard, and I couldn't stop laughing. They also had the North Salt lake fireworks that we were able to watch in the front yard. It was alot of fun.

cute little Mckell in her wagon

totally decked out girl

Friday we were able to go back up to Maureen's for fun games and fireworks. We had super good food and played lots of fun games. Maureen made up cute games like the jello eating contest, three legged race, raw egg toss, and water balloon fight (which turned into a full out water war). We had lots of fun, and it was fun to see how excited the kids were with everything going on.

Mike and Ian getting ready for the Jello eating contest

Jake eating his jello

Mike after the jello eating contest

Three Legged Race

being excited during fireworks

McKell and her fireworks

Jake and Ian dancing during the flashing fireworks

Saturday we went hiking to the Timpanogas caves with Maureen's family. It was alot of fun, and the kids made it all the way to the top. After taking only a few breaks and being super sweaty we were able to go into the caves. It was fun to see how excited the kids were and how much fun they had. Tyler was able to have the important job of shutting the doors after the whole group went through, and he made sure he did his job well. It was tons of fun!

Inside the caves

Family picture inside the caves

Jake looks like he's trying to model, and I look overly excited

Hiking the Stansbury Mountains

2008-07-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go on my first backpacking trip, but sadly Jake couldn't come because he has to work on the weekends. I had a great time, although my brothers and sister would probably say differently :) I didn't realize backpacking was so tough, and I was glad the first day we started it was dark so no one could see me crying because I was so tired. The trip made me realize how out of shape I am! It is so sad! Even though I was lame and tired the whole time, I did have alot of fun. I am posting pictures below and hope you enjoy! The neat thing is that the mountains were only about 45 minutes away, so it was so close. I am amazed that a place so beautiful is so close to SLC. Some highlights from the trip:

Running away from flies at the lake we hiked to, and then having them follow us all the way back to our tents.

Ian finding a snake on the hike

Finding three goat legs randomly on the trail, and Ian actually touching them
Eating a mountain meal with the four of us eating off of one fork and passing it around
Going home and getting tons of food and eating almost all of it....It seemed like the best meal ever!
Vic and me putting up our tent on slanted ground and us sliding toward the bottom of the tent during the night

Here are some pics:

A Little update

2008-06-15T17:46:00.001-07:00

Just thought I would give a little update as to what we have been up to lately. Life continues to be good- we are both working and trying to find fun things to fill our time together with. We seem to be seeing alot of movies lately, but it's fun! Good movies we would recommend: the new Indiana Jones movie, and Kung Fu Panda. We thought they were good! Kung Fu Panda has Jack Black in it- so vic it's not a recommendation for you! This past week I had an opportunity to plan a conference for a group of publishers that were coming in for a 2 day training. I was able to make the agenda, plan all the food and activities, as well as give an hour presentation on what I do for the company. At first I was super nervous because I wanted everything to be perfect, but then I realized the conference only had men coming, so as long as there was food there it wouldn't matter what it was. It turned out really well!
Two weeks ago we were able to go boating with Jake's family. Jake's brother in law, Greg, bought a boat and was nice enough to take us all boating! I included pictures below. We went tubing the entire time, and I even got to drive the boat! It was cold for a little while, but after our bodies became numb it was perfect! Jake came back with a super sunburned face, and i only got sun on my nose. Jake's brother had a long sleeve shirt on the whole day, and when he took it off, it looked like he was wearing gloves because only his hands got sun....

Jake being the flag boy- whenever someone fell off the tube he had to put the flag up

me getting ready to get into the tube

Jake, his brother Danny, and Greg going out on the lake to try wakeboarding

This is Gavin (Greg's son)- everyone was trying to get his shirt off so he would go in the water, and he was screaming and fighting the whole time.

We have been spending some time fixing things up around the house. I decided I wanted to try potting plants, so I put some in the pot below the mailbox, and put some in pots on the front door step. I am super excited, because the plants have gotten bigger! I am actually able to keep plants alive! I planted some green onion and carrots in pots on the back doorstep, so we will see how those turn out...

This is the hosta planted beneath the mailbox- there are purple flowers on them now!

Plants on the front doorstep- obviously after I watered them

Jake putting up the shower curtain in the bathroom- you can't see it very well, but he had all of the hooks lined up at the top of his shorts

Life continues to be fun! We hope you are all doing well!

Wedding Pictures

2008-05-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

So after forever, here are some of our wedding pictures! I just wanted to give you a quick preview, and will be putting a link to all of them on the blog in a little bit. Enjoy!!!

Pictures!

2008-05-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't really said anything much, I thought I would post pictures of the latest things that have been going on. I will just put a short caption under each one, so you know where it is from....

This is us lookin' good on our honeymoon taking a gondola ride in the Venetian

This is me being really excited to get onto the gondola...can't you tell?

Jake in M&M World, I made him stand with the yellow one because yellow and red are friends (the M&M's) and he was in a red shirt... he was really excited about that...

Jake touching some random ocean animal at the shark reef in Mandalay Bay

BYU graduation- I don't know who is more excited, me or my dad?

Me and both my parents

Me, Jake, and Jake's parents (at graduation of course :) )

I will be getting wedding pictures tomorrow, so look for that update! I will try to keep up on the blog!! I hope you are all doing well!

Wonderful Married Life!

2008-05-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

Well we have been married about one and a half weeks. It has been incredibly fun! The wedding went well, all except for the photographer not showing up, but my friend Andrea saved the day and took lots of pictures. We should have some from other friends, as well as from our families, so overall we should have alot of good ones! I had a problem during our engagement pictures in that I kept making weird faces so we only had a couple to choose from, but after looking at the wedding pictures jake's parents took, jake told me that I did a good job not making too many weird faces. So A+ for me!
Our reception turned out really well, with my family putting up decorations and refilling food and everything. Everyone did an amazing job, and it turned out great! It was fun to have lots of people and see old friends. So I can't think of lots of details of the wedding and everything, so I am going to give just a couple highlights I can remember:
* Going through the temple to receive my endowments and having friends and family there.
* Getting a speeding ticket on my way home from Jake's the night I went through the temple- I was even completely honest extremely nice and he still gave me a ticket!
* Graduation from BYU Friday morning and making a comment to the girl next to me about one of the faculty members looking like she was from Harry Potter, and the girl looked at me like I was an idiot.
* Jake and I rushing through Costco like maniacs trying to get all the food for the reception so we could make it in time to the family/friend dinner that night.
* Parking at the Dinner being insane, so everyone parked in random spots (sad for the people wearing high heels- not fun)
* The night before the reception we had a huge fruit/vegetable cutting party with my family at my sister's house. We ripped through that stuff so fast! It was seriously amazing, and everyone helped
* The morning of the wedding I got incredibly nervous and I was hyperventilating while packing my temple bag- seriously weird.
* During the sealing my hands were the sweatiest they have ever been in my life. I was so nervous and boiling hot.
* The sealer seeing jake and i for the first time and telling us we were a good looking couple, and then looking at jake and saying "you are very good looking"
* The sealer being serious during the whole ceremony and then saying "to infinity and beyond" at the end.
*Walking out the temple doors to no photographer, but friends and family taking millions of pictures.
*trying to coordinate pictures when we had millions of people was kind of crazy!
* jake and I eating at Carl's Junior right after the pictures were over, and then running up to my sister's to get ready for the reception.
* Seeing friends I haven't seen for a while during the reception
* My dad bringing me a drink during the reception in case I was thirsty- I thought it was super cute
* Randy and Vic kicking me and jake out and not letting us talk to anyone once the reception was over

These were just a couple things that stick out to me- I will be getting pictures up soon hopefully! thanks for everyone who helped, we really, really appreciate it! You are all wonderful and made the wedding and reception so much fun!

He's a Real-Live Cop!

2008-03-11T22:23:00.001-07:00

So this weekend was full of lots of excitement! Jake finished his training with other officers (FTO's) and he started his first week on his own. Saturday night we went to SLC to go to his sister's play and then afterwards we picked his police car up from the precinct and drove it to his house. It was alot of fun riding in his car and seeing all the buttons and gadgets they have inside. I never realized how many things they have to have in their cars! I felt funny in normal clothes riding in a police car, but it was fun! I could tell that Jake loved it, because once we got back to his house he turned the sirens on for like one second and scared the heck out of me. We had dinner with some of our friends the next day at Jake's house and he got to show them his car which was lots of fun for everyone... I do have to admit that I like him being on his own because I get to talk to him more.
We have less than seven weeks before the wedding and I am getting super excited. I am excited for my classes to be over, the whole family to be together, and to go to vegas. We decided to see Phantom of the Opera and the Ka Cirque de Solei (sp?) shows. Does anyone have any other ideas of what to do? We want to do lots of different stuff! It is exciting to plan things and know that it isn't too far away.

Embarassing moments

2008-03-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

*Giving dirty looks (on accident) to coworkers
*When my boss called my cell phone and I answered it with a super excited "HELLO!"
*When my boss brought me over a piece of cheesecake that looked like he had taken a couple bites out of it and he offered for me to have it and I gave him a dirty look and asked if he was serious, then he told me he had just dished it out and said he kind of messed it up getting it out

And Lastly- Listening to my Ipod and someone came up to ask me a question and I totally yelled because I didn't realize my music was turned up so loud

I think the guys in my office think I am crazy. No wonder when I ask for them to complete things they don't take me seriously because I am weird.

Feeling a bit awkward

2008-03-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

So after reading everyone's blogs lately and feeling like I am obsessively looking to see if anyone has updated pictures/posts I felt like I wanted to get in on the action. I haven't told Jake and feel weird about using his name as the blog title but oh well... I figure I will keep it up after we get married and then maybe he will give random comments.
I also see this as a place to post pictures, because it takes me forever to email pictures to people so it works out well. I decided to post a couple of our engagement pictures, only because I don't want everyone to see all of them because I am making a funny face in most of them. I am convinced it takes 100 pictures of me to find 1 good one. I am not good at taking pictures as shown in my recent ward directory picture where I looked like Gollam from Lord of the Rings with three pieces of whispy hair. When the guy came around to deliver them he looked at me and said "You don't have to worry about your picture, you're engaged". Ever since then I am constantly nervous that I am going to look like a whispy haired, hunch-backed little man from Lord of the Rings.
There aren't any new or exciting happenings going on, I am just feeling the pressure to get my stupid online class finished before April 4 so I can graduate on time. I guess one thing that I have realized this past week is that I should not have ever gotten a car. In the past month I have gotten a parking ticket, a boot on my tire, and a humongous crack in my windshield. I wish I could just take it back to the dealership. Anyways, enough of my ramblings.

P.S. I promise I will figure out how to put pictures in normally someday!