It's a Girl!

My brother Jake and his wife Sylvia just had a baby girl! She was born on Monday, January 28. She weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and is 19.5 inches long. Her name is Tori Rae. I went down to Orem last night to see her. I can't get over how tiny she is. She looks a lot like her daddy.

My amazingly talented father made this little cradle for her to sleep in. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't quite give it justice.

Happy Football New Year!!!

Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone had a good holiday season. I can't believe it has come and gone! Please forgive my lack of Christmas cards being sent out. Believe me, the intentions were there. We had a nice Christmas. It was fun to actually spend time with my husband. December is the busiest month. The week before Christmas was the busiest ever with all of the catering they did. I even put in a couple of late nights to try to help ease their stress and see some of Nate. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and spent the night so we could have breakfast with them and open some presents Christmas Day. Then we spent the rest of Christmas Day with Nate's family. We were both spoiled with lots of nice presents from our families and from each other. It was refreshing to spend time together and not worry about work.

We had a very low key New Year's Eve and I bet you can't guess what we did New Year's Day! I'm not sure how many football games were on, but I'm sure we watched all of them. OK strike that - I'm sure Nate watched all of them. I spent most of the day in and out of consciousness grateful to not be at work for the day!

My New Year's Resolution is to be more faithful to this blog - but I'm not making any promises!

Tag I'm it...

Man how time flies! I feel bad I haven't posted anything for a while. Alyse has "tagged" me so here are 6 things about me, some you may or may not know.



1. I am a licensed Nail Technician. One summer I took a class, learned how to do nails, took a test, and paid some money and now I have a license. I usually only do them sporadically when friends or family have a special occasion that they want their nails done for. However, I do have 2 "clients" that I do on a regular basis. Thanks Karen (sister) and Mom! Here's a picture of my very first set of nails. I like to think I've gotten better since. My favorite is to do acrylic toe nails. I have some fun colored acrylics that you do for the tip and they stay on a lot better than just nail polish. It think the best perk is that I am able to purchase supplies at the beauty supply stores - hair stuff included.










2. I keep buying ornaments for the Christmas tree. I swore that I wasn't going to buy any this year. We have enough and I'm satisfied with how our little tree has turned out. We have gone with a red and silver tree. The first year we were married we found these really fun silver glittery snow flakes. The next year I was out and about and found the exact same snow flakes in red! I was obligated to purchase them. Also that second year I found these fun silver curlicue ornaments. Well this year I was out shopping and found red ones! Once again I was obligated, even though I swore, I just couldn't pass them up. Here's how it's turned out so far. I guess it's a work in progress and may never be complete even when I swear that I won't buy any more ornaments!



3. I enjoy scrapbooking even though I don't think I have officially scrapbooked since we've gotten married and started working full time. I do make cards quite a bit. My new favorite toy is my Cricut machine. I love it! I even got Nate to help me make some Christmas tags for our presents. He admitted that he was a "Scrapbooking Virgin" but I'd have to say that the tags turned out pretty good. He must really love me if he will help me with scrapbooking. He caught on to the spirit of it though. He wanted to save the insides of the cutouts for other projects. Even though he talks sports all of the time he has a soft spot for scrapbooking in his heart. (He's reading over my shoulder threatening to erase this section...)

4. I hate driving in the snow. I know it's not something completely unique. But it's so bad that when I am able - I make Nate drive me to work and come pick me up. It's about a 25 minute drive each way. If he's not able to take me I steal his Jeep and drive it because I feel more comfortable driving with four wheel drive.

5. I am a country girl. I enjoy country music. My favorite group is SheDaisy. I enjoy their harmonies. My favorite part about Christmas is bringing out their Christmas CD. If you haven't heard it I highly recommend it. Also my favorite concert that I've ever been to was the Tim and Faith concert. I've actually been twice - once 7 years ago and once a year ago. They are both awesome performers.

6. I've been to Paris countless times. At least three times this last summer. I love Paris in the springtime. The weather is so beautiful. OK so it's Paris, Idaho not Paris, France. My family has some property there and hopefully someday soon a cabin. It is just 10 minutes north of Bear Lake. We have a lot of fun going up there and relaxing. It does usually include work too. We have been working to clear out dead wood, build a bridge across the river, and make it a better place for all of us to enjoy.

My Rant

So I finally said something to the annoying guy who sits behind us at the football games. His name is Scott. Scott is extremely LOUD (loud, because he has to hear himself talk over his his radio as his listens to the play by play - super annoying!!!) and NEGATIVE (even when the Cougars are winning, he thinks they should score 100 points every game and shut out the other team) and RUDE. Scott thinks he knows everything there is to know about football. He even thinks he should be the head coach - he said so himself. During halftime on Saturday he started yelling at the band and telling them to go sit down and go to their side of the field. This kid that sits in front of us turned around and told him to be quiet and that he was being annoying. Scott thought he was joking and started laughing - but the kid was pretty upset and told him he was serious and that he should shut up. Scott then mumbles under his breath "I bet he played in the band in high school." To which I turned and said "Dude, have some respect. Please!" That shut him up for about 5 minutes. His little comment was uncalled for.

As I replay the situation over and over in my mind I keep thinking of different things I could have/should have said. I should have added a few expletives. It's been 3 years worth of annoying Scott at the games that finally brought me to saying something. I understand that people go to games to yell and have a good time. I get that - but this guy is just plain rude and negative. I've had to hold Nate back from saying things to him before - but this time it was me who said something. I just wish I would have thought to say more.

The good news is that BYU won! Now I have a happy husband and it will be another year before we have to see Scott again. Hopefully he will get his tickets somewhere else so we don't have to sit in front of him next year.

My Plug for the Library...

So can I say how much I love the Public Library System? First off, it's free. Second, they have self checkout stations where you just scan your card, put in your PIN and then scan your books. It's great for those days when I don't feel like making small talk with strangers - which is most of the time. And you can renew your books online. Oh and did I mention it's free?


Plus, I'm liking the fact that they have DVDs that you can check out for a week. I've found that our main source of entertainment - TV Series' on DVD - is costing us a fortune. I've been checking out Grey's Anatomy which I'm liking a lot but I'm so glad I didn't spend $40 a season to watch it just one time.

Although there are some books and movies that I'm extremely glad we've purchased (ie: The Twilight series - which I intend to re-read several times and pass them along to all of my family to read and The Office - I don't think that will ever get old) - it's nice to read a book or watch a movie once and not feel guilty that it is sitting on the shelf collecting dust.

If you don't have a library card - I highly suggest you get one!

Quilting

I made my first attempt at making a quilt. I thought I'd start off simple with a baby rag quilt. I think it turned out pretty decent if I might say so myself. Plus it is somewhat square! I was fortunate to get my Grandma Charlene's old sewing machine. It's older but it works great. My dad even got a nice case that I can keep it in, which is nice where we don't have a whole lot of space in our apartment to keep it out all of the time.

Super Nate!!

So I'm a little slow in getting this page up - but isn't my little "Super Nate" the cutest! OK so we don't have kids to post pictures of in their cute Halloween costumes. (You all have adorable kids by the way...) but Nate took so much time making his shirt that I had to post his picture. He did it all by himself too! I helped him buy the supplies - but he designed it himself. He improvised on the cape and pinned a dish towel to his back!

We had a pretty low key Halloween. We both worked and then we hit a couple of family Halloween parties. We went to Nate's cousin's party for a little while. They get pretty in to Halloween. They have a spook alley and have a costume contest. They recently adopted a little boy who they dressed as a pirate. I thought he had the best costume. Check out his pictures - super creative! My favorite is the little mustache they put on him.