Natalie and Nathan

10 Months

2012-01-12T18:44:00.000-08:00

Natalie has been very busy the past few months with our anniversary, Christmas, and getting ready for her big Relief Society activity (going on right now), which leaves the duty of updating our blog to me.

Well, in our last post Alana was just figuring out how to crawl, but it wasn't long after that that she discovered standing up. Then it was scooting along the couch. Now she is a crawling machine and when she gets where she wants to go, she pulls herself up and has a look around. Unfortunately her new found gifts have led her mostly to grabbing books off the bookshelf, following Natalie around incessantly, and generally getting into everything we want her NOT to get into. What we have found is that the following around she gets from me, though I think I have a younger brother to blame for her general, 'getting-into-it-ness.'

The difficult thing is we can't even be mad at her. I mean, just look at her. Even when she is knocking over all your old Nintendo games, trying to destroy your TV, or eating your remote control (or cell phone) she is just too darn cute. She sure doesn't get it from me (as you will see later on...).

She also had her 9 month well child visit since our last post and I am proud to announce that she is an AMAZON!!! She measured in the 96th percentile in head circumference (definitely from me) and in the 94th percentile in height (definitely NOT from her Grandpa Salt or Aunt Sarah).

In November Natalie went against her better judgment and allowed me participate in Movember. During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men. I was not a successful fund raiser, but I must say that my mustache was quite impressive. What do you think, should it make a comeback in February?

Perhaps needless to say, Natalie was not thrilled about it on our anniversary. Well, I figure if having a mustache for a few months across three years of marriage is the worst of it, then she must have it pretty good. Natalie and I have been happily married now for three years and I can honestly say that I love her more today than I did the day we got married.

Then came December. My work travel is picking up, but we were able to find time make a visit to Des Moines to see Nanna Jo and Grandpa Jo (you can't really want to be called that can you?) and the rest of the Smith gang (longer for Natalie than for me). Then came Christmas and Grammy and Grampy Salt made the trip to Madison with the rest of the Salt clan which made for a lot of noise if nothing else. During their stay we took family photos, saw Sherlock Holmes, played Wii Sports, watched The Muppet Christmas Carol, watched Alana enjoy the wrapping paper more than the presents, celebrated the birthday of my brother-in-law with the most amazing cake ever created, enjoyed new family stocking made by my talented wife, took pictures with Santa, played Santa, and ate our weight in Ferrero Rochet and Bluebird chocolates. A successful holiday if I have ever seen one.

Which brings us to the new year. Resolutions abound, but my goal was to get us up through Christmas and I have done it. Now, enjoy our (almost) monthly photos of Alana and our Bang! card game container while you wait for our next installment (pins and needles, I am sure).

November

December

8 Months

2011-11-04T05:54:00.000-07:00

Where has time gone? It doesn't seem possible that it has been 8 months already, well, except for the days when it feels like it has been much longer than that... : ) Alana is learning new tricks every day. This Sunday she decided she knew how to get herself into a sitting position from a laying down one. Nathan even saw her do it before me. (What a rude kid I have!)

These are the things that this 8 month old can do:
Sit
Stand with assistance
Almost pull up on something by herself
Get into a sitting position from a laying down one
AND......

CRAWL! Yep, We now have a crawler on our hands. She's not real consistent yet, but she gets better and faster every day. Granted that she just started crawling on Tuesday...

She also eats a variety of foods:
Squash
Sweet Potato
Apple
Pear
Cherry
Banana
Spinach
Carrot
Peas
Green Beans
Corn
Plum
Peach
Nectarine
Puffs
Mum-Mums in Vegetable flavor

This baby isn't consistent at sleeping through the night yet...but I just know one day it will. Now all I can do is wait!!!

Now for cuteness overload!!!!

Our Apartment (part 1)

2011-09-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

I know that you have all been DYING to see pictures of our apartment. Well, we've been cleaning and I've been taking pictures. So here is what we have so far. I still have a couple more rooms to take pictures of...but I'm not done cleaning them yet...

Alana's Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Living Room

There you have it. Half of our apartment.

6 months!

2011-09-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

Alana had her six month appointment last week. Here are the stats:
Weight: 16 lbs 10 0z
Height: 27"
Head: 45 cm

She is around the 90% for height and the 50 % for weight. Nathan is so proud of his tall baby : )

Alana is starting to get the hang of eating baby food. So far we've been successful with sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, and right now she's eating pears. It's so fun to see her try new things and the usually concerned face that she has.

Alana is also getting great at sitting by herself! She still is a little wobbly at times and after a few minutes she ends up pretty much laying down, but she's doing a great job!

Sleep has been hit or miss. For the past week she thinks it is a good idea to get up at 12, 3, 6 and stay up for the day, so it's been a little tiring. Last night she only got up at 3, but was still ready to go at 6. Hopefully this is a phase that will quickly pass.

We have been going on walks a lot recently and Alana loves to be outside. She is always so calm that I think she's asleep, but she just really enjoys being in the stroller and having new things to look at.

Now to the pictures:

Alana's first football game outfit

Her Sunday outfit (thanks Tyler and Andrea!)

Her super cute standing picture

Her outfit from her Auntie Meg

Her awesome sitting skills

Oh, and a shout out to Sara and Aaron Christensen. Congrats on their baby on the way. March is definitely the best month for babies!!!

We've got....

2011-08-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

A Roller!!!!

She is very proficient in rolling onto her stomach. She does it pretty much every time you lay her down. She used to always get really mad about being on her stomach, but now she is mellowing out (Thank goodness!!!)

This is how I put her down for her nap.

And this is how I found her when she woke up!

Her big eyes. I love this outfit : )

The bow I made to match.
Her lion rattle my mom got her. She LOVES it! I'll have to post a video of her face when you give it to her. It is SO funny!
She is slowly getting stronger and can sit for a few seconds!
A pretty common face:

Loving her Jumperoo

Move sitting

None baby related, but there was a huge Lands End outlet clerence event that Nathan and I and the Buffingtons went to. We got lots of clothes for great deals! One of which is the shirt below. You may notice that Nathan does not have the initials of CEL. Fortunately for my AMAZING seam ripping abilities...
You can't even tell they were ever there!!!

ALSO, It was my birthday on Sunday. Hooray! It was great! We went to Iowa for the weekend and my mom made all sorts of my favorite foods for dinner. And we had delicious peach shortcake and butterfinger ice cream! Oh yum! This is my loot: (the foot is in there because Abby gave me a foot massage. ha ha)And here is my newest addition to my sewing corner of our room. I haven't actually hung it up yet... but soon! Also, as soon as I get our place clean... I'll post some pictures of our place! (let's see if that ever happens :D)

Happy 24th Birthday!

2011-07-05T19:17:00.001-07:00

It was Nathan's birthday on the 23rd. It wasn't too exciting, but I did make a cute birthday cake : )

Nathan is pretty awesome. I like him a lot. I'm not too much for mushiness... but I have the greatest husband ever! He is really is wonderful. He is patient, mellow, and loving. He is great with the baby, even if she really does love me best! ; ) I'm so glad he's mine! Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

Alana lately

2011-07-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, she's 4 MONTHS now!!! And such a cutie! : ) We had her 4 month appointment today. She is now 14lbs and 3 oz. That means she is almost twice her birth weight. She didn't enjoy her shots very much, but she got over it. And tonight we tried rice cereal for the first time! You'll see how it went below : )

We had a good fourth of July. I made Alana an outfit and her hair bow so we took family pictures!
Here is her crabby picture:
Some shoes I made:
Alana in a cute outfit from my grandma:
Here she is ALMOST rolling over. She's getting closer everyday!

The Dells

2011-07-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

Sarah got some free passes to one of the water parks in Wisconsin Dells, WI. So we decided to make a trip of it. The Buffingtons and our fam went down on Friday with plans to spend the night Friday and go to the park Saturday. It ended up not being the greatest idea, as Lily didn't really sleep very much that night, but it ended up being lots of fun. We didn't take too many pictures of the water park, but here is what we have!

Sarah really wanted a snow cone, but she wanted Tigers Blood. The people that worked at these snow cone places had NO idea what she was talking about. Thus, a sad Sarah!
Ally's favorite part? The goats!

Our cute baby in her swimsuit!Ally with a cowgirl hat:

Summer Frolic

2011-06-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

Mt Horeb had their summer Frolic. Basically it is a really small fair. They had a really cool game that Nathan played. It was a real live Angry Birds. You had some plush birds that you threw with a slingshot at some plush piggies. He did awesome and won an angry birds key chain thing. Cool!

Here is Alana playing a game. She even won a cute polar bear that had penguin feet! :)

And Alana's new trick:

Our baby girl is getting so big! She just turned 3 months!!! Her new tricks include giggling, keeping her head up, smiling more, and DROOLING!!! She drools everywhere! But she's just so dang cute anyways!

When it rains, it pours!

2011-05-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

Now I know that saying is usually referring to when bad things happen they all seem to happen at once. But in THIS case, when one thing happens everything else happens at the same time too! You may think that I've been an awful blogger. Well, the truth is... I am! But also in the past 2 months we: Had a baby, Nathan graduated from school, We blessed our baby, We moved to Wisconsin, and Nathan started a new job. So, I think I'm entitled to some slack.

Things are just starting to settle down a little. Nathan is getting into the swing of his new job. Well, actually he is just doing orientation right now, so let me rephrase.... Nathan is now continuing to be bored while he goes to orientation all day for his new job. : ) I hear things will get better. Let's hope so, for his sake.

I am keeping myself busy during the day. I'm almost all unpacked. I think we might have 5 boxes left, with most of them being small ones. Alana is such a good baby. She is very chill and likes to relax and not cry unless she is hungry or feels lonely. She grows cuter everyday and is getting so big. She gets her shots this week. I'm not looking forward to them : (

What? You want some pictures of our cute baby??? Ok:

Smushed binkie face

Sometimes I find her in weird positions...

First Sunday outfit
Graduation outfit
Dad graduating from BYU

Blessing day
Loving the dress/hat that Grandma Smith made. She is laying on a blanket that was made for Grandpa Salt when he was a baby. Don't worry, the other side is blue. : )

Happy Easter (thanks grandma!)
Perhaps a slightly posed (on Nathans part) picture
Her empty room. Don't worry, it looks better now.
And a cute smiling video for your viewing pleasure

I love Kohls!

2011-04-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

I received a $10 gift card in the mail for Kohls, so we went over and looked at some baby clothes. I really wanted to get some jeans, but they are pretty much impossible to find in size 0-3 months. So we bought these:

(white multi-colored)
http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/kids/baby/newborngirlsapparel/bottoms/PRD~720204/Jumping+Beans+Woven+Poplin+Capris++Newborn.jsp

(pink flowers)
http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/kids/baby/newborngirlsapparel/bottoms/PRD~715363/Jumping+Beans+Poplin+Capris++Newborn.jsp

(Sorry, they won't let me copy their pictures...)

And our receipt:

That's right! $1.07! We saved $21!!! I love Kohls. : )

Bath Time!

2011-03-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

Alana Joy Salt

2011-03-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

On March 3rd 2011 at approximately 7:54 am, we welcomed Alana Joy Salt into our family. She came via c-section because she was breech and because I was having some problems with high blood pressure. She was 7 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches long.

37 weeks and 2 days

Nathan pretending he was asleep. We had to be at the hospital at 5:15 that morning, so we were a little bit tired that day...
Last pregnant picture:
First picture of Alana (who was still nameless at the time...)
Weight:
Me strapped to the table. I was crying and it was sad because I could barely even see what was going on from where I lay. : (
A thumb!
First bath
I think I was on the phone with my dad when they brought her in. I was still a little loopy from the medicine and from the early morning. It was very hard to stay awake and I think Alana was a little sleepy too.
We like to call her our little frog
Mommy and baby. My face is a little red because the morphine that they gave me made me itch like crazy! I know I was only supposed to rub...but I scratched a couple times too...
Andrew and baby
Her first outfit
Holding daddy's thumb
Grumpy face
Second outfit
First picture after we actually decided her name
Flowers that Sara and Aaron sent me
Going home!
First nights sleep. We had her sleep in her car seat because her nose was getting so stuffy since it is so dry in Utah. We had to get some boogers out earlier that night with tweezers so that she could breath. Let me tell you, it was traumatic. But then she could breath easier so she was fine.
Today's outfit. Don't you just love the hat? My mom made it. And she's almost smiling.

So far, she is such a good little girl. She hardly cries, unless she is hungry, but even then, only for a few seconds. She loves to look around and also loves to sleep. We love her tons and tons and can't get over how cute she is!

Basket craftiness

2011-01-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make some baskets for our changing table. Unfortunately I couldn't find any that I liked/ were the right size to fit in between the shelves. So I decided to make some after a pattern I found on the internet here. Here are MY step by steps:

1. Find some fabric
2. Cut it to the right size for your basket

3. Sew your fabric together so that it makes a loop. One loop of each color.
4. I guess I forgot a picture... You need to sew the two loops together on bottom. Make sure your main print is facing out so that wrong sides of the fabric are touching. You will then need to sew 6 lines so that eventually you can put some cardboard in them.

5. Go to the store and get more thread.

6. Sew the bottom piece of the basket to the side pieces.
7. Sew the binding on the bottom.
8. Put the cardboard pieces that you cut out in the beginning (I include that in cutting your fabric...) into the slots that you already sewed.
9. Switch your needle to a Jean/Denim sewing needle because the instuctions say so.
10. Then decide that using a glue gun to glue on the binding is a LOT easier/less stressful, and glue the binding down.
11. Glue the inside bottom fabric to your bottom cardboard piece.
12. Put it inside the box and have a finished product! And then promptly put things inside. :)
And that is how it's done.

We're moving!

2011-01-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

I know I've been a little bit of a slacker on this blog, I'll try to do better! In November, Nathan started filling out an application (with the help of his sister Sarah) for a company called Epic.

"Epic makes software for mid-size and large medical groups, hospitals and integrated healthcare organizations – working with customers that include community hospitals, academic facilities, children's organizations, safety net providers and multi-hospital systems. Our integrated software spans clinical, access and revenue functions and extends into the home."

So they make software for hospitals, etc., that makes it so that your medical records can be accessed no matter where you travel and which hospital you go to.

ANYWAYS, Nathan finished a phone interview and then they asked him to come out for a face to face interview in... Wisconsin! He went and wowed them and voilà! They offered him a job! His job title will be Implementation Consultant/Project Manager. They "work with clients to get their systems up and running. They analyze client needs, develop strategies tailored to a specific healthcare organization, configure the system and ensure a successful implementation of (Epics) software". They also travel.... a lot. But fortunately for me Sarah and her family live out there as well as my parents living only a couple hours away. I'm so excited that Nathan has a job lined up! His official start date is May 2nd. And yes, his graduation date is April 22nd. So yes, that means as soon as he graduates we are LEAVING Provo! HOORAY! I'm so excited to move on with our lives. So here we go. We're moving to

WISCONSIN!

- 1 month Anniversary

2010-11-12T19:47:00.000-08:00

On the 28th of October, Nathan and I celebrated our "Negative One Month" anniversary. For the past 3 years we have celebrated by going to Color Me Mine to paint our own dishes.

Here are some pictures from past years:

And this year:

I recently went to a Super Saturday in my ward and did the following, as well as learning a yummy recipe for Cinnamon Rolls. Hooray!

We also invited some friends over for Skookies! Yum!!!

As well as making homemade Chicken Cordon Bleu. SOOOO easy and SOOO delicious! If you want the recipe, you can find it here.

And that's what has happened lately!

Crafty, Crafty, Crafty.

2010-10-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

I have been TRYING to get this done for a while... I'm getting closer, ever so closer! My goal is to have a least the top done by Halloween. I still have 5 day, right? :) These are the blocks that are mostly done:

Pumpkin:

Frankenstein:

Witch (without hair...):
Ghost:
Spider:

What it will look like when it's done (hopefully!):

Also I took my first class from a quilt store. It was how to make a purse.

Yes, one day it will have handles too.

Heather's Baby Shower

2010-10-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I threw my old roommate Heather a baby shower. It was fun getting ready for it. Thanks to Megan and Nathan for their help! Here are some pictures from the event:

The Food:

Chicken Salad (with croissants), chips and dip, peaches, pop...

CAKE POPS!!!!

How CUTE!!!!!

Games:

The 'melt chocolate in a diaper, have it look like poo, and guess what kind it is' game

The 'see who can drink their juice the fastest from a sippy cup' game:
(no picture from actual game...but you get the idea.)

There were also a unscramble baby words game, but no pictures of that either!

Blurry Prizes:

Presents:

The fabulous diaper cake I made : )
Burp rag from Megan
A toy giraffe from Nicole and Julia and a blanket/hat/socks from Brittany
A picture of Megan : P

I had a really fun time. It was nice to get together with all my old roommates. Who's next?

The Fair

2010-09-15T10:54:00.001-07:00

Nathan, Andrew, and Logan went to Colorado for the BYU vs. Air Force game, so Megan and I decided to go to... THE UTAH STATE FAIR!!!

It was HOT!!!

Now we had some low expectations (sorry to those that love the Utah fair...) but the Iowa State Fair is AMAZING!!!! and how could Utah really compete?

We walked around for a while trying to decide what food to eat. I really wanted a pork chop on a stick, but Utah isn't famous for pork chops on a stick, so they didn't have any. I settled on a smoked turkey leg instead. It was good, but HUGE! Megan, however, being the curious person she is, decided to get Alligator on a Stick. (ewww..) She said it wasn't bad!

YUM!

We basically had a "Bushel of FUN"!

Megan
Me!

Another thing that the Iowa State fair is famous for is their...BUTTER COW!!!! But not only is there just a cow, but there are other sculptures as well, like Superman, or the landing on the moon. Something cool like that. Well, Utah does have a butter cow. But it's just not the same. : (

We had a fun time overall. Good try Utah. Good try!

2010-09-08T12:09:00.001-07:00

Well the baby blog is a success! Check it out! babysalt.blogspot.com

Good News Minute

2010-09-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

I loved having good news minute in Relief Society. Unfortunately my ward doesn't do that so much (what can you say for the Nearly Dead and the Newly Wed???) Anyways.... I just wanted to share a brief little bit of good news... We're having a BABY!!!! HOORAY! I had my 11 weeks and 2 days appointment and was able to hear the heartbeat. What a sigh of relief! We've been waiting until we heard it to officially spread the news on the web : ) Nathan said that the heartbeat sounded like a boy... whatever that means. : ) My sisters are convinced it's a girl. Nathan and I would love a boy (or a girl, but we want a boy first!) I'm thinking about making a baby blog, because I'm cool like that, so that those of you who don't want to hear about my expanding waistline can not hear about it. But for those of you who LOVE to hear about it (like me!) you can just pop on over there! I'll let you know when it's up and running. The 22nd of March is the due date. Hooray for babies!

Another cake. Is this all I ever do?

2010-08-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Well I tried a NEW cake! It was from the Kraft Food and Family magazine and it looks a little like this:

AND IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!! That is cream cheese, sugar, cool whip and oreos in that filling!

YUM!!!

cakes, Cakes, CAKES!!!!!!

2010-07-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

Last year, for my birthday, Nathan gave me a cake decorating book. I hadn't tried any of them until recently, but having two decorating classes under my belt I decided to try some cakes out. Here are the results:

Cake Number 1:

Cake: Devil's Food
Top: White, Milk, and Dark Chocolate
Icing (between layers): White Chocolate Buttercream (not my fav....)
Outside: Toasted Almonds

Cake Number 2:

Cake: Homemade Chocolate
Top: Dark Chocolate w/ White Chocolate Piping

Icing (between layers): Cream, Whipped

Hooray!!!!

Golf Cake aka Happy Birthday Nathan!

2010-06-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

Well, It was Nathan's birthday yesterday. Luckily I have recently acuired the new skill of cake decorating so I made him a cool birthday cake! Hooray! For those who don't know...Nathan got some golf clubs for his birthday, so I thought this cake was especially fitting.

Cake:

Sand Trap:

Water with drowned balls (Nathan wants me to assure you that they aren't his!):

Flag:

Golf ball border:

Yep. That's it. Hooray cake!

Our Garden, Take 2

2010-06-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

As I was talking to my mom about my cool cake from previous post, she complained how I haven't put up any updated pictures of our garden... So I went out and weeded. : ) And then took some pictures so that you can see the things that are growing!

This is my blister that I got after working for 2 hours...

Watermelon:

Cantaloupe:

Pumpkin:

Corn:

Peas:

Tomatoes:

Squash:

Yellow Squash:

Zucchini:

and Cucumber:

Some of our plants didn't grow so well, so I gave them some food and hope that they decide to grow sometime soon!!!

My first REAL cake

2010-06-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

So my friend has a birthday. That day is today. SOOOOOO, I decided to make her a cake. This is the first time that I have completed a whole cake and I think it turned out pretty well. The cake is chocolate with chocolate pudding in the middle. The frosting is cream cheese frosting from betty crocker : ) The roses are gum paste and the pink frosting is butter cream. Volia!

This is the cake at first.

These are the roses:

The mess I made:

And then I decided that I wasn't completely satisfied so I added some dots:

And it tasted pretty good too!

Now my problem is that Nathan's birthday is next week and I have NO idea what kind of cake to make him. Do you think he'll like roses too???

Our Garden

2010-05-29T19:28:00.001-07:00

This is our Garden. It is big.

We have Broccoli.

We have Peas.

We have Tomatoes.

We have Cucumbers.

We have Watermelon.

We have Cantaloupe.

We have Zucchini.

We have Squash.

We have Pumpkins.

And we have Corn.

Because as you all know.....

Theeeeeeee Prophet said to plant a garden
So that's what we'll DOOOOO.
For God has given rich brown soil,
The rain and sunshine TOOOOO.
And if we plant the seeds just right,
and tend them carefully....
Before you know,
Good things will grow,
To feed our famillllllyyyyyy!

There are also some flowers that popped up in our backyard:

SWEET!!!

And speaking of flowers...

I'm pretty much a pro. : )

Ok, Ok.

2010-05-09T19:25:00.001-07:00

I know. I'm a slacker. Things happen and I just let them pass by without sharing with the whole world. Boo me. SOOOOO, things i've done recently:

1. Went to Iowa as my graduation present. While there I went to a quilt retreat with my mom and sisters. I was sad that my grandma couldn't make it this year. Maybe next year?

2. My mother in law and brother in law (recently got back from his mission in Samoa) came to visit. It was great fun. We played games. We ate food (especially Sakura. Japanese steak houses are my favorite of all Japanese houses.) They went to a whole day of graduation boringness. All around good time.

3. I graduated. Now I officially have a Bachelor of Arts from Utah Valley University in Deaf Studies. Plans for the future? Get certified and work, making big bucks to put my husband through the next year of school so he can get a job. : )

4. I got a second part time job at the place that I worked at last year. Good times. (hurry Nathan! Are you done with school yet???)

5. We planted our garden!!!!! HOORAY!!!!! We planted tomatoes (that died since we planted them to early and didn't cover them... New and improved ones will be planted soon.), broccoli, peas, corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, and watermelon. Hopefully they will all grow and we will be gardeners!

Whelp, that's about it for now. We'll let you know if anything new and/or exciting happens to us.

2010-04-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well I suppose that it is time to post again.

It's been pretty busy around here.
I am finishing up with school as we speak. (well....that's what I'm supposed to be doing right now...)
Today was my last day of school.
*Sigh*.
I've been feeling weird all day.
I think it doesn't help that my very good friends Sara and Aaron are moving before I get back from Iowa.
(Oh yeah. I forgot. I'm going to Iowa! For a quilt retreat! HOORAY!!!!).
And by not going back to school I won't be able to see my school friends either.
Boo.
I'm in denial, I think.
And we are staying in Utah for the summer so that Nathan can take some classes.
That means no family either.
Sad day for us.
But we are planting a garden.
That's cool.
Also, I'm taking a cake decorating class right now.
I'm not good yet...but maybe one day!

(Cute clown I made!!!)

And some pictures from my trip to Vegas with Megan!

Valentines Day

2010-02-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we woke up and I made some pink Waffles. Everybody LOVE pink waffles, especially on Valentines day. They were delicious! (of course. : D ) Anyways we didn't do a lot that day, especially since Nathan had to work that night, so we celebrated on Monday. (Yay no school!) We went to a morning movie, When in Rome. It was cute and romanticy. Then we went to arby's and got some food, with our coupons of course! We had previously decided that we were going to make pizzas that night, but decided that we should invite someone over to have pizzas WITH us, you kno, share the love! So we invited our good friends Sara and Aaron over to make pizza and play games. Good times were had by all. Here are some pictures:

Hooray Pizza!!!!

Here is our pink cake that failed a little....it was a new recipe

A little York Peppermint Bouquet for Nathan : ) He also received a Pink tie, not pictured.

Nathan bought me this! HOW FUN!!! It's actually just what I wanted!

Ok, Now to non valentines day stuff. Remember that I was making Nathan a quilt for our anniversary? This is what it used to look like:

WELL, it now looks like:
YAY!!!!! It is going to have a red and blue border (the fabric that is on the left side) and it is missing 2 stars that will come soon. I ran out of wonder under stuff.

Other crafts I'm working on:

I found these cute little wood things at walmart and then the wooden plaques at Michaels. I'm going to attach ribbon to the back to hold it.

And:

I'm planning on going to a baby shower on saturday and this is what I'm bringing. This skill has definitely come in handy. Thanks Mom!

And that is everything as of right now!

Bread

2010-01-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

I have some time between my classes each day. The other day I decided to see if there were any books that looked good that I could check out from the library. And guess what. THERE WERE!!!! I found one that is all about making bread, so I decided to go on a bread making kick. And what fun it is! Here are some pictures of some of the breads that I've already made:

Here is my bread rising in it's pan.

Here's a picture under the towel!

Finished product!!!!!

Doesn't it look great?

This is ciabatta bread. It is quite tasty. I added a little too much flour...I'll remember that for next time... For this type of bread you make a starter, which is basically yeast water an some flour. You leave it to bubble for 12 hours or overnight. Then you add the rest of the ingredients and let it rise.

I can't remember the name of this bread...but it was pretty good. I modified the recipe a little. It called for some fresh herbs, which looked like spinach leaves, that I did not had. I did, however, have some leftover frozen spinach so I added that, plus the dried herbs. It also called for gorgonzola cheese. That cheese not only looks gross, but it reminded me of feta cheese, which IS gross, so I opted to just use more mozzarella than the recipe called for. It ended up being pretty good.

This is a cold picture of the insides, i forgot to get one when it was hot. Do you see all that wonderful cheesiness??? : )

So yeah, that's what I've been up to. Well, besides school and work, of course... : ) ttfn!

Happenings

2010-01-06T10:39:00.000-08:00

Well, today was my last first day of school. Wow! Hard to believe it is here already. I'm very excited to be graduated from school. This semester shouldn't be too bad. I am only signed up for 12 credits (6 credits less than last semester...), and one of those credits is an...AEROBICS CLASS!!!! How cool! I'm pretty excited anyway... Yesterday I had a massage for my 1 year anniversary present. Ahhh. It was nice. I could have those all the time and be very happy. Christmas was fun. We went to Texas and all of Nathan's brothers/sister (except for Andrew who's serving his mission in Samoa) were there. It was a lot of people, a lot of games, a lot of movies, and a lot of sports. Good times were had by all. Especially since there were two cute neices to play with. Hooray! Nathan is still playing around with his scedule at school. He's hoping to get into two classes that are already full...but if he does he can graduate next april and we can move on with our lives. SO, here's to hoping! Nothing else new is happening though. The End.

Babies EVERYWHERE!

2009-12-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

Today I found out from my good friend, Facebook, that two of my "friends" announced that they were pregnant today. I have thought about babies a lot recently and this certainly didn't help. Nathan and I have decided that it is for everyone's best interest to wait until I'm finished with school to start to try and have children. But that certainly doesn't mean I don't want a baby RIGHT NOW! But then it starts me on my other train of thought. Infertility and Miscarriages. I don't know what my insides are like. I've never actually met them. And they haven't told me if they are going to be nice to me or not. That makes me nervous. Sometimes I read a blog of a friend of a friend of mines (yes...I don't actually know her...) and her struggle with infertility. And I just cry and cry. I don't even know her, for crying out loud, but I can see her pain. And I don't want that. I hope that when it comes time that I won't have to ever deal with that pain. Until then I guess I'm just going to play the waiting game.

Quilts, Quilts and more QUILTS!!!

2009-11-15T19:06:00.000-08:00

I remembered yesterday that I hadn't blogged about my quilt that I said I was going to make a few blog posts back. I also made a few other things, plus I'm working on a few more! So I thought I would post some pictures : )

This is the quilt that I mentioned I was making. It turned out really good! I also made some pillows to go with it:

I started this next quilt when I was in high school. I figured it was about time to finish it...

The next one isn't a quilt yet...but it will be some day, hopefully soon! I got it from my family for my birthday. It's my Christmas quilt and the colors are just BEAUTIFUL!

This is another quilt that I am working on. It is going to have brown stars like the one I've made and then it has blue that goes between the star blocks. (*note: the color is not very accurate.)
And this leads to the last quilt. Nathan wanted me to make him a sports quilt as his anniversary present. So that is what I'm doing. It is going to look interesting and this is a quilt that doesn't have a pattern to follow, so I can change whatever I want! : ) Also, because the Houston Astros stopped making fabric for the team... I could either buy a fat quarter (an 1/4 of a yard) for $13 or make my own. So, I made my own! It will eventually have the word "Astros" as well as a star on it.

HOORAY!

Hooray!

2009-10-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

So, today Meadow and I went up to Salt Lake to take the written part of the National Interpreter Certification test. This test is 150 questions and you must get a scaled score of 500 or better to pass the test. There are different categories of test questions about culture, code of ethics, interpreting situations, understand the structure of ASL, etc. Well the good news is.......

I PASSED!!!!!!

Now I just have to catch up on all my homework that I've neglected recently.... : ) p.s. Meadow passed too. We are both just that cool!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

2009-10-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Every time I watch this show I cry. Sniff Sniff.

2009-10-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

I found this email that my friend sent me one time. Once again I laughed! It's called Porn For Women:

"Hold that thought for a second. I want to pull over to ask for directions."

"I don't have to have a reason to bring you flowers"

"Don't want anyone 'falling in' in the middle of the night."

"I know. Let's take you shoe shopping!"

"Ooh, look, The NFL playoffs are today. I bet we'll have no trouble parking at the crafts fair."

"As long as I have legs to walk on, you'll never have to take out the garbage."

"Is that the baby? I'll get her."

"I made some Niman Ranch lamb tenderloin with garlic, black pepper, and Indonesian soy sauce for dinner. I hope that sounds OK."

"I like to get to these things before I have to be asked"

Hee Hee Hee.

Other news

2009-10-04T19:02:00.001-07:00

So, I signed up for the written NIC test. That is the National Interpreter Certification test. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! The written part alone is $340. It's 150 multiple choice questions and I'm taking it on the 31st of October. LESS THAN A MONTH!!!! If/When I pass the test, I can apply for the ACIPP (Advanced Certification Interpreter Preparedness Program) for the Spring semester. Here's to hoping!

(http://alishamsigns.com/portfolio.html)

Our 500 Days of Summer

2009-10-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

It would take far to long to tell you everything that we did this summer, so I've decided to do it unjustice by putting up lots of pictures to tell the story of our summer! Enjoy!

Nathan was a CTR 5 primary teacher

We went an visited Sarah, Matt and Ally in Wisconsin
Abby, Nathan and I went to the Henry Doorly Zoo In Omaha Nebraska

We went to Wisconsin again to see our new niece Lily Elizabeth

We went to the Iowa State Fair

(Yes, those are made out of BUTTER!!!)

We went on a cruise to Ensenada Mexico and Catalina Island

And we went to Bandon Oregon to visit Gpa and Gma Salt

Yep. That's what we did this summer.

Oh, besides work our fingers to the bone at:
and

SunnyView (no picture. LAME!)

We worked a lot and now we are very glad to be back in good old P-town going to school and working some more. Nathan is back at the MTC and I'm doing some private home health care.
Hooray for getting closer to graduating!

Coming soon...

2009-08-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's been over 3 months since we've last posted. What can I say, I'm a slacker which is unfortunate since I'm the one who blogs the most... Anyways, I'm getting some pictures developed soon and then I will post all about our most amazing summer!

Homeward Bound

2009-05-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Near the end of April Natalie and I had some grand adventures before we began our long long journey to Iowa. First we went to Salt Lake for Brittany's wedding day. We hardly ever seem to carry a camera with us so here are a few shots of us taken on my cellular phone.

This is Natalie and I just outside the door to the Salt Lake City Temple...

This is me trying to sneak in afore mentioned door.

Well, this happened after the BYU semester ended and the UVU one was still winding down. So as soon as Natalie's semester was finished we packed up the old Focus and headed out to Denver, the first stop on our journey East where we visited my brother and sister-in-law for his birthday. My parent's came out to see us also and it happened to be that Matthew was called into the Bishopric just in time for us to be there for the ordination. My grandpa and his wife came out so he could ordain him a high priest. It was really great to see everyone and we spent a lot of time eating and playing and eating and watching movies and more eating. It was really great and, for me, a great way to relax after a rather difficult semester. However, after a few rather short days in Denver we packed up the car and headed on to the great state of Iowa.

After being in Iowa for a few days and having put in applications all over town we decided to let the dust settle here while we waited it out in Mt. Horeb, WI. My sister lives there and so we spent a few days there. Yet again, it was very relaxing and we atched A LOT of movies. Plus, and possibly most importantly, we got to see our very cute neice, Ally Joy. SHe is a doll and we hadn't been able to see my sister or brother-in-law or Ally since the wedding in November. What a trip we have had so far. Now, you may ask. What is there to do in Mt. Horeb, WI? WELL, let me tell you. First, we went to the mustard museum, "Poupon U." What a hoot!

Then, after that we headed off to see the trolls. Apparently, Mt Horeb was once a troll village full of wonderful magic fairy creatures. Or maybe it was just some crazy woman who thought they looked cool...

After we left Wisconsin we headed back home and sicne then Natalie has started working and I have recently gotten a job though I haven't started quite yet. The adventures are slowing down, but only for now and I am sure that we will have more stories to share as the summer rolls on.

WOW!!!!!

2009-04-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

A lot of things have happened lately.

I went to the doctor three times in two weeks.
After NOT being given medicine at the doctors and suffering a whole weekend without being able to swallow I was finally given medicine and was better the next day.
I was told I have Mono. That's right. Just before finals. (arrrrgh...)
We found a place to live in the fall!
We decided to go Iowa for the summer.
I talked to my old job in Iowa and have a full time position for me when I get there.

Man. AHHHHHHHH!!!! Thankfully I will be able to sleep better at night : )

Sigh

2009-04-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today was a GREAT day. Well, I mean, it was ok. I woke up after 9. Yay! And then I took Nathan to school and went back to bed until around noon. HOORAY! How exciting was that!?!?!?! I then procrastinated a lot and ate some food and showered and got ready for the day. I was still late to class (darn it all! I was SOOO close!) I went to class and stayed awake and I got to come home and see Nathan for an hour and a half before going back to school. Which brings me to my *sigh* moment. Don't worry, it's a VERY good sigh. It's my cross cultural interpreting class aka my favorite class ever! Oh my. It is so fun. I just feel like those girls in my class care about me and my awesome and amazing teacher has all the answers to all my questions. I just feel such relief that I can actually interpret in the future. I CAN DO IT!!!! : ) And that makes me very happy. The End.

(yeah, i know it says "Translator" but it's kindof funny. Right?)

It hasn't been THAT long, has it???

2009-04-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

Man. The last time I blogged wasn't really ALL that long ago but yet somehow I feel as though I have slacked majorly at my blogging duties. Lets see... Nathan and I went to Denver on the 18th of March. WHY? Well, basically to watch the beginning of March Madness. On television. Yes, you heard me right. We went all the way to Denver to watch TV. Well, and we saw two of nathan's brothers (Adam and Matthew) and his/my sister in law (Debbie). It was fun anyways, although I did watch more basketball than I ever thought was humanly possible!
It is very sad to think that my bracket that I so expertly filled out is practically dead. And with not very many points either... Stupid Syracuse...

Also, I made a new goal to go for a whole month without making the same thing for dinner twice! What a fun thing to do!!!! I started in the middle of March and things seem to be going great. My mom bought me this great new cookbook for St. Patties day. It's called The Worldwide Ward Cookbook. It is FABULOUS!!!!! YUM!

Nathan and I made it to our 4 month anniversary!!! HOORAY US!!!! What can I say? We are just so old in love! : ) We ended up going to the Salt Lake Temple with a friend of mine. It was so fun! And then we went to dinner at Chili's. I got this bacon jalapeno burger. It was great! But I got full after about 3 bites. Lame. AND I REALLY WANTED DESSERT!!! But no room. : ( And the waiter would bring our drinks out 2 at a time. ( I guess he was a little busy...) So I drank like 20 strawberry lemonades. Let me tell you. Bladders don't really appreciate that at one time...

We still don't know what we're doing this summer. Maybe going home to Iowa or maybe Matthew and Debbies house in Denver. Lame. I hate decisions. HATE!!!! And my stupid decision making process is NOT helpful when it comes to making big/important decisions. Ugh.

Tonight's Wednesday. Date night. HOORAY! I wonder what we'll do...

Happy St. Patties Day!

2009-03-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was St. Patrick's day and to honor our Irish heritage we made green pancakes and green scrambled eggs. YUM! Here's proof:

Green Pancakes

Green Eggs

Nathan in his green shirt just about to eat some delicious green eggs!!! YUM!!!!

Poop.

2009-03-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A9gukuizDU

So...This morning was not the greatest. In fact, it was just kindof poopy. I came home from work to get a little more ready for the day and it all started when I hated my hair cutter all over again. She was not very intelligent, especially since she thought it was a good idea to cut about 8 sections of my hair about and inch long. Probably not as bad as it sounds. She lifted up a section of my hair after is was parted so you can really only see it every once in a while while my hair is pulled back. Except for today when my hair is DOWN and you can see these little hairs poking through! WHAT WAS SHE THINKING!!!!???!!?!?!?! Ugh. Then my pants didn't fit right. And I started running behind. And Nathan had to be to work. And I was rushing. And I was mad. And today was NOT a skinny day. Ugh. I sure didn't want to go to school. And yet I went anyways. And it's been a lot better since. I realized that everyone in Utah is real set on taking the Utah interpreting test, even though you can just take the National Test. And hey! I'm not planning on living in Utah! So, I'm going to work on that. We'll see how it goes... : )

Hair!

2009-03-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

So I cut Nathans hair today. Yep, all by myself. It's about 5 inches shorter than it was this morning... I went to Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday and picked up a clipper set and whacked it off! HOORAY!!! I don't think it turned out exactly how he expected or hoped...but it'll grow out in two weeks anyways, right? I also made some chocolate chip banana bread today. So domestic, I know! And now we're having scookies (thanks Sara and Aaron!!!) YUM!

Quilt!!!

2009-02-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

So, I thought I would put up some pictures of my fabric and the quilt I plan to make. Hooray!

*It's much more cream than it appears...

*Also much pinkier

*Not so redish. More marroony.

This is what the pattern will look like. Hooray!

Well how fun is that? I'm so excited to get started on it. Now I just have to wait until I can get a cutting board and a cutter... Oh, and time : )

Meh...

2009-02-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

I heard that "meh" was actually in the dictionary. Yep, right on the radio it said it was true! How can I possibly doubt? I just saw a guy who looked like Ashton Kutcher (sp?). IN THE UVU LIBRARY! It must be him. Who knew he liked the library so much? Not a lot is happening. Megan got mad at me for not being very updateful. Rude her for not even HAVING a blog. Yeah, that's what I thought! Well, I had a great time in Rachels class yesterday. It was so fun! I'm sure that perhaps I was a little annoying, but I asked a lot of questions about the Interpreting test. I was nervous before, but now I'm actually really exciting. I'm sure it will be kindof tricky, but I'm sure it will be fun too! My family is coming down in March. How fun! I like them, that family of mine. They're good people. I wish I had some chocolate with carmel right now. That would be tasty. Nathan had an intermural basketball game yesterday. He's in a team with someone that served his mission with him. I guess they won by like 30 points (yes, I wasn't there. Class you know.) Yay him. What a studly man! : ) Opps, institute now! Later!

V-Day and such

2009-02-18T12:37:00.000-08:00

Well, this was our first valentines day together. How fun! I decided to do my portion on tuesday since we actually had steak and potatoes to eat... : ) My gift was mostly lame. I got him some of his favorite candy and a big balloon from the dollar tree (hee hee hee) and I made him a yellow cake in a heart shaped pan (thanks sara!) with homemade chocolate frosting. I know, so domestic! And then I cooked dinner (or perhaps reheated the potatoes from the previous day and put the steak on the foreman!) It was great. And tasty (If I do say so myself!) He was much more thoughtful. I came home from work on Saturday morning and Nathan made me go take a nap while he finished what he was doing (oh darn...) So he came in maybe an hour later with a book that he made me. It's called "I love you the mosterest!" modeled after my "I love you the mostest" that I gave him for our negative one month anniversary. I was way cute and I love it! Then he got me an assortment of purple flowers (how did he know I liked purple????) as well as chocolate with carmel (My favorite!!!!) And he made every box of jello that we have in our house. Approximately 8 flavors. CRAZY!!! But so good! Then we had lunch like the lunch we had for the day we got "officially" engaged. Yay us. It was so fun! Oh, and I also bought fabric for a quilt i'm going to make!!!!!!!!!!! It's so cute. It's pink and red and creamish. Great fun. Now for free time... YAY!

Hopefully

2009-02-13T15:08:00.000-08:00

Ok, the day has finally come................I went to the ob/gyn to get some new birthcontrol! HOORAY!!! I've been getting headaches for the past month and a half or so. It's been terrible, horrible, no good, very bad! So I got this new stuff called Loestrin 24 Fe. Yep. It sounds like Low Estrin (or in my head, Estrogen). That should be better since the patch has more dosage at a time. I know you all have always wanted to know, but we're hoping that things get better. (yes, "we". Nathan will appreciate it when I want to do other things besides sleep or lay around...) Funny story of the other day... So I was telling Nathan of the things I wanted to do during the day. "I want to finish my test and homework, I want to clean the apartment, and look hot." All of a sudden he starts saying how he was going to clean my car for valentines day (man, I can't wait! What a great present!!!!!) and I was so confused! Well, It seems that he thought I said I was going to clean the apartment and "le car". HA HA HA. Man! At least I got a little bit of secret out of him! : ) yay me! I sure do love that husband of mine.

The Next Day...

2009-02-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

Wow, Who would have thought that day two of the new blog and there's already another post! Hooray! (Hurray?) So here I am...sitting at school wishing the huge massive headache that I have would go away. But I'm way excited about tonight. We're having steak (marinaded in Italian dressing) and Twice Baked potatoes! YUM!!! So maybe we had that twice last week and maybe we're having it twice this week. So what! I can hardly wait, except I need to make the potatoes sometime between 3-7 because we won't actually eat until after 10! Lame work. That's what I say! Valentines day is coming up. Sigh. I hate holidays. I have a hard enough time thinking of gifts for Christmas and Birthdays, now another holiday? We'll see how it turns out. Maybe steak for dinner?

First try...again...

2009-02-08T18:41:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! Today is the first real blog post! I'm just so dang excited! Well... Let's see...There really isn't a lot to blog about right now...except I just made a huge discovery a second ago. I always spell the following word Hooray!, but then today I realized that the reason my T9 doesn't recognize it is because I spell it WRONG!!! It's supposed to be spelt Hurray! Who knew?
School is going good so far this semester. I actually really like all my classes. Maybe because they are all ASL classes, so? I think my favorite is my Deafness and the Law class. It is SO interesting! I think a lot of people are frustrated by it, but I think it's so neat! I would love to be a court interpreter so it would be a good thing if I liked this stuff I suppose. Oh, and my cross cultural interpreting class. I feel like even though I don't really know all of my classmates really well, that I have all these friends. I think that ever since I've been married my social life has diminished DRASTICALLY. And even if I haven't done anything with them outside of class that they are my friends. It's nice to have friends that are girls that know and talk about things you know and talk about. I mean, boys are great and all, but they aren't girls. So thank goodness for that class.
Nathan and I might be going to Denver in March to see his brother and sister in law and then another brother that's coming up. It's for a basketball conference (yay...) but we did get married in Denver, so it definitely won't be terrible. I'm pretty excited about that, especially since I was having a bummy day the other day. My mom and sister are going to Ireland in May and I can't justify spending a grand on myself while Nathan and I haven't even had a honeymoon yet. *tear* Oh well, we'll find somewhere even funner to go! Take that!
I've been going through a baby phase lately. It's pretty ironic since when I was engaged or just very very newly married I was scared to death of having a baby, but something must have changed! I really want one now. Boo. The thing is that I really want to wait until I'm done with school to have one. Well, I graduate next April...so that means I could start trying in the fall... : ) That is a happy thought. Be patient Natalie. Be patient!
Well, That's all for now. Stay tuned for future updates!