Happy Birthday Babe!

Since Nate is in Michigan, we didn't get to celebrate his birthday with him today (and he had to work until like 8:00 tonight - boo).

Anyway, I wanted to do something for him since I couldn't make him apple crisp (birthday tradition) or give him presents today.

Most everyone who reads this blog knows our story and our relatively short time dating and being engaged. What a lot of people don't know is that I knew after dating him for only 3 weeks that I wanted to marry him.

{First Date: January 2006}

{Temple Square, April 2006}

{Engagement Picture}

As if all the confirmation we received before we got married and during our temple ceremony weren't enough for us to know it was right for us to get married, we got further proof at our reception in North Dakota. I had written a letter to my future husband in a Young Woman activity when I was younger. We opened it in North Dakota and I had written the letter on June 8, 2003 - 3 years to the day we got married.

{Wedding Day - June 8, 2006}

Every day I spend with him is further confirmation that I married the right guy. The day Karly was born was an incredible day - to see him as a dad for the first time and how much he loved and still loves that little girl makes me so happy.

{Karly's birth - May 14, 2009}

From the time Karly was born, everyone has said "Oh, she looks just like her daddy!" While it occasionally makes me crazy (where am I in her?!?), I really am happy about it. He's a dang handsome guy after all! :)

He's probably going to ask me to take this post down, but I just wanted him (and the world!) to know I really do appreciate all he does and how patient he is and all the other cliche stuff. :)

Love you babe! Happy Birthday!

Kit Kat Bar

Hey hey (if you know Finnish, you know what I said (or if you've seen Confessions of a Shopaholic)).

We are moving this week. Into an apartment and out of poor Dan and Kippy's spaces. Oh, and Nate's in Detroit. As in Michigan for work. So I'm kinda busy. But I promise (Becki), I will post as soon as I have time/energy/etc.

Until then...

(Oh, and the Kit Kat Bar reference is so you'll "give me a break." :D)

8 weeks to a better you!

I signed up for something called "8 Weeks to a better you."

Here's the link:

http://8weekstoabetteryou.blogspot.com/

Wish me (and AJ and Leona and Nisha and almost 100 other people) luck!

And...We're Back!

Oh, you didn't know we were gone?

Nate has basically a month off work (did a temp job for the summer and starts with EY October 6!), so we decided to take a Loooonnnnggg vacation.

We started out at Mt. Rushmore. Pretty cool. Moving on. :)

We went to Bismarck to see my parentals and little sistahs for two of the weeks. My mom spent the whole time apologizing for all the stuff we didn't do (silly woman) and we spent the two weeks telling her now nice it was to just spend time with them! :)

We did, actually, go to a couple of museums and planned to go jet-skiing (love North Dakota weather!), Nate and I read ALL THREE Hunger Games (thanks everyone for watching our kid!), did a bonfire and had dinner at Space Aliens, so I'd say overall it was a perfect trip to Bismarck. I took my camera, but as we all know how awesome I am at taking pictures, here are some my mom took:

Suz and Karly were good buds (not only does my mom take pictures, but they look artistic! Why didn't I get any of that?)

Apparently is was mostly Suzie watching my kid while I read books. :)

Nate and dad watched the BYU games every Saturday and Karly sported the true blue each time. Too bad it didn't help...Even though it's blurry I LOVE this picture. So cute and candid.

We played dress up with a very confused Karly.
We went to the zoo, which happens to have a petting/feeding section to it. You have no idea how much I sanitized her hands after this. :)
Looking at the ducks.

Don't worry, there's a glass wall between my daughter's hand and the ridiculously large tiger, who stared at her like she was a gazelle.
We played in grandma's big tub with the jets.
I don't know what on earth she's doing, but dad (grandpa) was happy to have the attention.

Sharing food with daddy.

She had an ear infection while we were there and did NOT get the sleep she needed. This was about 7:00, which is 6:00 PM, our time, so she must have just been exhausted. This is the first time she's ever fallen asleep like that.

We made our boneless buffalo wings and completely pigged out. I don't even want to talk about how much weight I gained on this trip.

SO! That was North Dakota. From there, we drove to Utah via Yellowstone.

There was a controlled burn in Yellowstone while we drove through - this picture doesn't show it, but we could actually see the flames. Cool (that's the pyro in me talking...).

Waterfalls. Really big ones that even scared Nate. And here they are leaning over the edge. Makes me shudder.

I love how we are squinting in all our family pictures.

Waiting for Old Faithful.

Still waiting (it was COLD!)

We also went to Utah for a week to hang out with friends and family there. I took a total of 3 pictures, one of which was blurry and another which was the same as this one:

I love this picture. This is Bridget, Karly's good friend (and daughter to our friends Jake and Mekelle - we miss you guys!). I love the contrast in the faces.

We actually stayed the week at Adam and Becki's house (thanks again and again!) and hung out with little Mia. I think Karly enjoyed finally being the older kid!

We went down to BYU and both tried to visit our old jobs (nobody was there at Nate's and the stupid security guard wouldn't let me on the floor at AT&T - do I really look like someone who is going to steal secrets? If I was going to do that, I would have when I worked there!). Ahem. Anyway, it was fun to see friends and family while there.

Now home and back to real life!

Triathlon? Check.

For those who didnt' already know, I have been training for a triathlon. I just completed it last Saturday.

The operative word there is COMPLETED. I did a triathlon. It was awesome.

Now, before you start thinking I'm now a super athlete (ha), let me give a few more details. It was a sprint triathlon (so half the length of an olympic traithlon), it was with my ward so there were like 10 of us total and it was totally low key and finally, I came in dead last.

No super athlete here! :)

And now for the excuses for WHY I came in dead last (this is mostly for my benefit - to make me feel better...): I basically hadn't exercised for 2 years, I only trained for 10 weeks and in that 10 weeks, one week we had family in town and another week I was sick.

So anyway, I'm not sharing my times, but I will share a couple of pictures.

The whole group, pre-race

On your mark, get set...

That's me in the red cap in the front. I was actually in the lead for the first 400 yards and in a close 2nd for the rest of the swimming...

...it was the biking...

...and running that did me in.

But I finished!

Thanks to Nate and Karly for being there to support me and Jordan and Paige for coming to the finish line!

And thanks IHOP for existing so you could be my reward! :)

She is the only reason you're on here, huh?

I just have a bunch of random, cute pictures of Kar and I just love showing off this kid.

"waf" as Karly calls flowers (anything that starts with an F actually has the F sound at the end. Phone is Ohf, Food is Oof, Flowers are waf or awf. Totally funny).
My little smurf. She was blue all day from her blue popsicle (which she loves).
Man that kid loves Elmo! (Eck, as she calls him - I have no idea why). And yes, that is Julia Roberts - looking about 15 years younger - with Elmo

Dress up girlie!