Baby Presley

My sisters friend Alisha had her baby yesterday. She named her Presley and she is adorable. You always forget just how small newborns really are. Here's a picture of Presley with her Aunt Maddie. :)

I just read my own blog...

Because I couldn't remember what the last thing I posted about was. Haha. I feel like I used to blog a lot more frequently, and I used to be real good at taking pictures for the blog, and posting them ON the blog. I just get more and more lazy as time goes on. Oh well. Since it's mostly for my remembrance, I guess it doesn't matter if I post too many pics. Anywho, the real reason I'm here today is to post a quickie about our life lately.

On the 6th I went down to Vegas with my friend Kelly to see a concert. Her husband surprised her with a ticket to see the Backstreet Boys and since HE didn't want to go with her, he splurged and bought me one too. We stayed in St. George at my cousins house Friday night, left early Saturday to get checked into the hotel and get ready. We lived off of Jack in the Box tacos and fruit leather I had brought. It was pretty epic. The concert started at 8 o'clock, and our seats were actually pretty decent. Much better than I thought, and even zoomed in on my camera didn't look as close as we actually were. Brian Littrell's son got on stage first, (he's like 10) and sang a few songs to get the crowd started and it was super awesome. Next was DJ Pauly D, and frankly, his performance would've made more sense if we were in a dance club, but whatever. Then came Jesse McCartney, and I didn't think I would know any of his songs... then he started singing and I knew most of them :). FINALLY at about 11 the Boys came on stage. Needless to say, it was amazing and my life is now complete. Best concert of my life.

This last weekend was pretty great too. We got to have dinner with some awesome friends Friday night, and we always have interesting discussions with them which is fun. Saturday Matt made homemade pizza from scratch, we fed our besties, and finally got all caught up on Dexter! I can't believe there's only 2 episodes left (1 more to air)! Matt and I have been watching since the beginning and I'll be sad when it's over.

 All in all, these last few weeks have been fun, even if they haven't been JAM-PACKED. I appreciate all our friends, and family who make our lives so much fun. I thank Heavenly Father for all of you, every day. Everyone in my life is amazing. You all know who you are. Thanks for being there. :)

Another year older... but maybe not much wiser. ;)

The day has come and passed. What day you ask? The day that commemorates the amazing day 27 years ago (I know! 27 years!) where my mom, and my dad went to the hospital, had an emergency c-section, and then left a few days later with a blond, giant headed, bouncing baby girl, namely... Me. On Wednesday (my actual birthday) Matt made me breakfast before we both had to leave for work. My SIL took me to lunch at Cafe Rio, and my bosses let me off early. I got a letter from my favorite missionary, Hermana Howell. :) When Matt got home he cooked us steak and then he watched "The Lucky One" with me. I happen to think that Zac Efron is pretty dang attractive, so kudos to my amazing husband that I wouldn't trade for anything, for putting up with during the movie. Haha. The rest of the week was rather uneventful, but Saturday we got to celebrate my birthday with my family and friends at Pineview Resevoir. We got up there early, got a spot in the shade, relaxed, swam, had hotdogs and cookies and had a great day. Later that day my sister Hayley and her fiance Travis came by and brought me a gift, ate dinner with us and then finished the night watching Pitch Perfect with us. It was a pretty great birthday, even if I am getting older... Thanks to everyone that wished me a happy birthday, and thanks to those who celebrated with us. You all made me, one happy, and lucky gal. :)

Summer, summer, summer.

I don't think I've posted anything since the beginning of summer. So, here's a quick update of all that's happened thus far.

*Harry Potter marathon with one of our good friends who hadn't seen them
*Fourth of July at the lake with friends and family
*night climbing at Momentum
*All-night movie nights
*our first garden with tomatoes, basil, rosemary... yum!
*swimming
*little sister Mary got her mission call, spanish-speaking in Idaho!
*Family temple trip for Mary's first time!
*Shooting with the boys (Matt and Matt) I shot my first AR! (not a bad shot either)
*Delicious dinner parties
*Our good friends had their first baby!

So far our summer has been full of fun, but also relaxing at the same time. I'm sure we'll have plenty more fun before the summer is over, I can't wait to see what other fun things we dream up! Hope the rest of you are having amazing summers as well!

I'm a cheap date

I really enjoy cheap (or free) dates. I actually have more fun on cheap dates than I do on fancy shmancy dates-- they're more fun for me. Last night Matt and I went on a cheap date, that was actually a group date with some of our good friends. The Schmidt's, the Van Duren's and ourselves grabbed some grub, some blankets, some camp chairs and picnicked on the grass in front of First Utah Bank on the corner of 1300 S. and State St. I know how it sounds... sitting on the corner of State St... but honest, there were no shenanigans involved. It was all in the name of catching the Salt Lake Bees Fireworks show for free. We chatted, laughed, played some games and finally got to enjoy the fireworks from a free, comfy and uncrowded seat. All in all I'd say it was a great night. :)

Sometimes I wish we knew everything... almost.

There are some mysteries in life, better left a mystery I know. But there are something's,(specific things yes, but you'll excuse me for not sharing them, I'm not really ready to blab it all over the internet) that I wish we knew for certain. I've been so overcome with emotion lately when I research and study the "things" I'm talking about that I feel like... well I don't have anything clever to compare myself to at these points in my life so let's just call it "silly". And other times I feel incredibly annoyed. Like when certain people ask (what they think is a harmless) question yet they have no clue about the stress and "ideas" that question plants in your brain. Then they tell you not to worry, except that is SO much easier said than done. The problem is that I don't feel like there's is anything to worry about until people who think they know better open their mouths and start spouting off! And OBVIOUSLY you can tell by this post that I'm worried. So to come full circle with this post, I wish I already knew the outcome of this situation so I wouldn't have to worry. Anyway, thanks for listening to me rant about the unknown. At least it didn't waste more than like, 5 minutes of your time. :)

Stuff, stuff and more stuff...

It's been awhile. If I had written this blog post a week ago Monday it would have turned out much differently than it's going too. It probably would have read something like this... "BLAH!". I've been stressed lately, but that's nothing new really. I'm always stressed. For proof you can see this previous post. Matt and I are happy. We just had a house warming party, and now that that's over I'm A LOT less stressed, haha. In all seriousness though, it was REALLY fun, and it was so great to see so many people come celebrate with us! Thanks to those of you who read me, and who came! We love you. :)  I also made quite a few things (recipes) I found on Pinterest and now I feel pretty accomplished. ;)  Anyway, what I really wanted to write about in this post is just the sense of peace I've had lately. I had been so stressed, and just so irritable that I new I needed to do something. My mom and I went to the Temple last Tuesday and it had been awhile since I'd been. Wow. I really need to make going a habit. I just prayed to Heavenly Father to please help me be more patient, less stressed and more proactive in changing the things I want changed. I've realized that I need to remember to be more grateful for the things I do have, and not worry about the things I don't have, or the things I can't change. I've felt incredibly grateful for my sweet hubs more than anything lately. He's just the best. But I'm also grateful for my friends, my family, my job, Matt's job, a roof and warm home. Just everything. Cars, heaters, sunlight, clouds, rain and all kinds of stuff (literally everything, gosh... maybe I'm manic...jk). Other than feeling incredibly grateful for everything, and planning then executing a party (the first at our house) not much has been going on. But I will ask, if you haven't already seen (on Facebook) Matt is applying for a new position at work that comes with a raise and hopefully better hours. Please pray for him. That he will at least be able to get an interview and that he will interview well. After that it's in the Lord's hands. Thanks to all of you who have stuck around and continue to read my scatterbrained, non-cohesive, and irregular blog posts. I appreciate it! Til next time...

More life.

What's been going on with us lately you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Not.a.whole.lot. Slowly I'm getting organized. And I'm really enjoying decorating. Matt and I have been working, and being lazy a lot. The last two weekends we have just spent with each other, doing our own thing. Two weekends ago, we spent the whole weekend at home watching movies. This last weekend we rented movies, wandered around Trolley Square and City Creek and took pictures. Don't get me wrong, I love everyone in my life, and I love spending time with them, but it's been really nice not to have to rush around, and to just be with Matt. It also helps that since we have a house now, Matt enjoys, and can completely justify shopping with me. :D  YAY!

January always marks one of my favorite times of the year, the time of year when the University of Utah gymnasts start competing! I started going with my parents to the meets back in middle school because the schools used to give the students free general admission family tickets. We stopped going for a while in high school because the family passes were harder to come by, and then a few years ago I found some and we started going with our buds, Matt and Jenn. It's been tradition ever since! We love our RED ROCKS! During the season there is about 5 or 6 meets, and we get in for free so it's a fun FREE date night. And it's lots of fun. It doesn't get much better than a free date night with great friends!

Other than that, life has been normal. Nothing else terribly exciting, but life sure is GOOD. I'm so thankful for my friends, and my family. I truly have been blessed with the most amazing people in my life. Thank you all for putting up with me!

Life

Gosh, it's been awhile. Matt and I have been swept away with life lately. For those who don't know, we bought a house. After having our closing date pushed back twice, we finally closed on Dec. 15. Then we spent almost 3 weeks painting and getting the house ready for us to move into. I'm grateful we lived with my parents so we didn't have to rush to move in. The house still needs a lot of work to get it into the shape I WANT, but it's livable for now. Pictures will be coming soon, when I finally get all the clutter put away into its rightful place. Probably we will have some type of house-warming party, also when I get a little more organized. I still can't believe we actually bought a house, it will probably hit me when we make our first mortgage payment in February. EEEP! I was nervous about buying a home because well, my current job is only good for about 2 more years, if that, and what if Matt gets laid off from Ebay? We haven't actually heard anything of the sort, and as far as we know, his job is safe. But there is always uncertainty, we thought his job was safe at Comcast too, and it wasn't. I guess that's life though isn't it? Nothing is ever certain. That's where faith comes in. Faith that no matter what happens, it happens for a reason and everything will be okay. Without faith, we'd still be living with my parents (it really wasn't that bad, but we had to move on and get on with our lives sometime right?). Without faith, we'd be sitting around wishing we had the opportunities we have now. Sometimes you have to put the "what if's" aside and just live life. Anyway, this is just what's been on my mind lately and I felt I needed to write it down. Til we meet again, when my house is organized... more... tata! :)