Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

People like me should not be allowed to have live plants.

This was a full and very beautiful poinsettia a couple of weeks ago.

Can I tell you how much I love This Amazing Woman's Blog? She can make me laugh and cry and want to eat Greek food (which I hate) all in one post. Someday, I hope to be able to write like her.

Someday.

Top 5 reasons I KNOW I'm not making up this pregnancy thing:

5. Bathroom breaks are WAY more often than any normal human being. Let's just say I have a preferred stall in the bathroom at work because I know them all so well...

4. My belly button used to be at least twice as deep as it is now. And I should know. I love my belly button - and it's disappearing!

3. Leg cramps in the middle of the night. Awesome.

2. That breakdown I had before dinner. Long story, but let's just say Nate just looked at me like "why the HECK is this crazy woman in my wife's body crying (no, BAWLING) over Spaghetti?" (To his credit, he was very good about it - he just hugged me until I calmed down - while trying really hard not to laugh).

And #1 reason this is for real:

1. The 'lil poke, poke every now and then (I can just imagine that little guy/gal -- "Uh, mom? Could you please not lean forward like that?" Poke, poke.)

*Disclaimer: These are, by far, not the only fun, new things I'm experiencing. The others, however, most of you (or maybe all of you) would prefer NOT to hear about.

Promised update:

For Thanksgiving, we went to Chicago (technically Naperville, since we never actually went into Chicago - more on that) for the holiday to see my sister Shan and her family, as well as my sister AJ and her family who came down for the weekend. We had a BLAST! Granted, we probably didn't get as much sleep as normal (there were 4 kids ages 2 and under), but I got some good practice for the future! It was definitely worth the lack of sleep since we hadn't seen two of the nephews at all and it had been the longest since we'd seen these two families. While we would have preferred to have the WHOLE family together, I think we're all learning that when the family is as spread out as our's, we'll just have to see bits and pieces at a time.

While there, we spent most of the time just hangin' out at their apartment. We considered going downtown, but with 4 kids who need nourishment every 2+ hours and naps often, it would have been crazy. Honestly, I wasn't disappointed at all. I went to be with family and we had so much fun just being together, playing games, watching movies, laughing at silly two-year-olds, etc. etc. Here are some fun pictures/videos from the weekend.

This was a pretty common scene. Glenn, Josh, Nate and AJ played Mexican Train (with Dominoes), Monopoly and several other games. Shan joined in a few of the times as well, but I was content to hold babies and play with/deal with toddlers.
Here's one of AJ being a good mommy (as always). She always got interruped during games to take care of her little guy.

Here's Shan also being a good mommy (:D) and multitasking (taking pictures of the other munchkins).
I was sort of amazed that Xander looked at me since he was watching a movie. :) He really loves the Shrek movies and I think that's what was on at the time.
Also Stella watching a movie. I love this picture because she's SO focused (and in such an awkward movie watching pose).

I have a few videos of an absolutely silly 2 year old dancing queen, but my computer isn't letting me post it, so I'll have to do that separately. Stay tuned for that!


Usually, I like to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, but as I didn't get home until the following Monday, I had to wait a few days. I love putting up the Christmas tree (and hate taking it down - it's too bad I was thinking about how I would have to take it down as I put it up)! Here it is:

And finally, I keep getting requests for belly pictures (I guess that's what I get for dishing it out, huh?)

So here is one at 12 weeks:
One at 16 weeks:
And one at 17 weeks: (I think this one looks like I'm sticking my stomach out, but I promise, I was even trying to hold it in a little bit...)
So there you go! We had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a fun Christmas!

The Doghouse

Beware of the Doghouse

SO FUNNY!

I've either got a boxer or a soccer player residing inside me.

I'm a little worried about what the next 23 weeks hold for me if he's/she's already kicking/punching me with such vigor! I only started to feel any movement about a week ago and now this morning it almost hasn't stopped.

Maybe he/she is just making sure I know this is real.

As if I could forget.

I promise there are pictures coming of Thanksgiving (if I can figure out what the heck is wrong with my camera card) and a Twilight update and Christmas stuff, but until I get that done (and while I'm sitting here at work), I'm going to post another of those silly tags/surveys/whatever. (Let me just say right here, how awesome blogs are. Instead of getting forwards with these things in them and feeling bad for forwarding basically SPAM to family and friends, you can post it on your blog and people can read it if they want! Or not! Whatever!).

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? A glass of each! I actually drink hot chocolate all year long, so that's not really a representation of Christmas for me. But Egg Nog - oh yeah. You'd think I'd hate it since I had it forced down my throat when I was 10 and wasn't eating anything because of my surgery, but I still love it. However, I think Nate doesn't love it, so I probably don't drink it as much as I could (which is probably a good thing huh?).

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Actually, family puts wrapped presents under the tree. Santa puts presents by our stockings, which have been placed on couches and chair around the room.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White with colored ornaments! We always had colored lights growing up, but I think I like white for my tree. Oh, but I like colored lights for the house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. Don't need mistletoe to kiss my sweetie. :D

5. When do you put up your decorations? The day after Thanksgiving (or the soonest I'm home after Thanksgiving).

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Um...that's a good question. I don't think I have a "favorite" holiday dish. Oranges are SO Christmas to me though. Can I count that?

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Having my oldest sister Emily come wake us up at 5:00 AM to go look at our presents. Then running into my parents room to tell them EVERYTHING I got and wondering why they were always so tired. :)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? You mean the truth that Santa's a busy guy, so he needs moms and dads to be his helpers? Or the truth that he's a representation of the Spirit of Giving? Oh, sometime in the last few years.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nate's family opens one present (usually pajamas), but my family never did (except at the Cox Family Christmas Party).

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? White lights, colored Christmas balls, and our old ornaments (there's this really cute one of Nate as a snowman when he was like 5. I'll have to take a picture and post it), and candy canes.

12. Can you ice skate? Huh. Sort of. I end up in pain after (either from falling or the muscle strain of trying to keep from falling).

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't think I have a FAVORITE gift. I have MEMORABLE gifts, like the year I asked EVERY Santa I saw and wrote about 5 letters to Santa to ask for "Giggles and Go," the doll in a stroller who giggles when she hits into a wall in her stroller (she also giggles when you throw her at a wall or the ceiling, which Ben so kindly found out for me).

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? FAMILY! Also, being super lazy - just ask my poor in-laws who thought there was something wrong with me when I slept practically three days of the holiday 2 years ago.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Candy from my stocking.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? It used to be when we would drive from Roosevelt to Salt Lake for the Cox Family Christmas party, then drive back late on Christmas Eve and I'd watch for Santa's sleigh the whole drive. Now, it's probably the fact that we basically don't eat a meal on Christmas. We just kind of snack all day. Maybe eventually something will be made, but if not, that's okay!

17. What tops your tree? A big red bow.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? A little of both. I love seeing people's expressions when I got them something they wanted. On the other hand, who doesn't like getting new stuff! :)

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? The Christmas Song (does that sound boring or what?)

20. Candy Canes? I like the fruit flavored ones to eat. Peppermint ones are only good to eat in hot chocolate.

21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? I hate the fact that Christmas decorations start going up in stores on or even before Halloween. I hate that it gets away from the real reason we celebrate CHRISTmas. (There's actually a senator here in Utah trying to pass something for stores to start using "Merry Christmas" more instead of just "Happy Holidays" since we are a predominantly Christian nation. I thought that was kind of cool - let's get it back to the reason for the season!).

So I put a poll on the side of my blog about what I'm having - I'm giving clear until the day we find out what we're having for you to vote!

After you vote, I would LOVE it if you would comment and tell me what you think I'm having! I love knowing what people think (and why, if you have a reason).

I'm voting for boy, mostly because of a couple of dreams I've had (see Baby Mama post for one of the dreams). Don't base your vote on me though! I could definitely be wrong (plus, Nate thinks we're having a girl, so who really knows!).

Details...

Well, I've made my happy announcement and I can FINALLY tell everyone what I haven't been able to talk about for a few months! Some of it may seem a little like complaining, but I'm definitely not - I'm just sharing what I've gone through with pregnancy these last few weeks, so some of you can relate and some of you can look forward to such fun-ness.

I think I got pretty lucky as far as morning sickness goes. From about week 6 to week 12 (and even occasionally now) I did/do feel nauseous. I haven't thrown up at all (for which I am VERY grateful), but I felt nauseous all the time. It was kind of like being car sick all day every day. Not very fun, but at least I kept everything down. I did lose a lot of weight because nothing sounded/tasted good. I ate Ramen a lot because for awhile that and Buffalo wings were the only things that sounded good.

Now that the nausea is mostly gone, I've started getting lots of headaches. Trade one for the other I guess.

Nate doesn't think I really was that much more tired than normal in my first trimester (at least he doesn't think I SLEPT more than normal), but I was definitely exhausted. There were about 3 or 4 weeks where I showered at night and just threw my hair in a frizzy, awful ponytail every morning because I was too tired to fix it. I straightened my hair a few days ago, so I must be doing better now. I am definitely less exhausted than I was for a few weeks. I must say, I'm glad that's over (though it was nice to always have an excuse to sleep A LOT).

I have no brain. My sister AJ used to talk about something called "Baby Brain" (I'm sure that's a real term). She also commonly said "Baby's eating my brain." I had NO IDEA how true that is! I can't remember anything! If I don't write something down, I will forget it in less than 5 minutes. In fact, when I went visiting teaching last month, I couldn't think of the words "Word of Wisdom." The poor girl I visit teach had to listen to me try to figure it out: "it's that thing in the Doctrine and Covenants that talks about what you should and shouldn't eat..." My sister-in-law Emilie says it never comes back either (that part of the brain my baby is eating). Oh joy.

Those have been the three biggest symptoms I've had. I really haven't been that moody (if anything I've been happier), except when I'm really tired or really hungry.

So there you go! I have my 18 week appointment early December and we find out what we're having December 22! When I scheduled the appointment the receptionist said a cute idea would be to bring a teddy bear to the ultrasound tech with a pink bow and a blue bow. Then when she finds out what the gender is, to tie that bow around the bear and put it in a box (without showing us), then wrap it and open it on Christmas! Cute idea, but I don't think I'll be able to wait. :)

Well, sorry if that was boring. My belly is starting to show in earnest (I can't button some of my pants very well anymore) so I'll have to take a picture in the next few days.

Tagged...

It seems like I only occasionally get tagged and usually just post whatever fun tagging things I see on other blogs because I feel like it. :) But I was actually tagged this time (sorry it took me so long Linds :D).

I'm sure most of you have seen this picture tag - the 4th picture from your 4th folder in your pictures folder. Since most of our pictures are still on Nate's laptop, I had him look and e-mail it to me.

The 4th folder on Nate's laptop is called "Alisa and Me" so any picture from that folder would have been of US. :) This was less than 2 weeks after we met - we went to play in the snow with a bunch of Nate's friends from Colorado and this is after we got back in the car. Cute huh?

Hmm...now I get to decide who to torture next...I TAG: AJ (when you get time), Shan, Em G. Em C., Alta and Mom (oh, I'm only supposed to tag 4? Oh well).

Still can't tell what I'm posting about? Hmm...I wonder about you. Here, maybe this will help.



A brief note on the following reaction: we really didn't think we would get pregnant when we did. I don't think he believed me at first. Just goes to show Heavenly Father does things in his own time, no matter how or what we plan.




I think I wanted him to jump up and down and start crying like I did. But it's probably better he didn't.

So this picture is for my mom (who has been begging for pictures of me pregnant)
This was me at 6 weeks - I'm actually 14 weeks now and due May 13th. Honestly, I don't look much different from that picture (I've actually lost 7 pounds from then til now). Baby's still hiding somewhere in there...

So I don't have pictures to post, but I'm bored at work (Fridays are usually pretty slow) so I thought I'd just post some SUPER randomness. I'll be amazed if anyone reads the whole thing. Oh, and I'm color coding each different thought.

I made the mistake of bringing Christmas music to work today. I had one of Amy Grant's Christmas songs stuck in my head this morning (don't ask me why), so I decided I wanted to listen to Christmas music.

Bad idea. Look, I'm one of those people who gets REALLY bugged by Christmas taking over HALLOWEEN and Thanksgiving. I'm okay with it slooowly coming in over the month of November, but I mean really slow. Not like, the second October starts, Christmas stuff starts filling the stores. That bugs. I like to be able to enjoy each holiday on it's own, so I want Thanksgiving to be it's own thing. But listening to Christmas music got me SO excited! It makes me want to put up my tree and drink egg nog (I think Nate might hate Egg Nog...sigh...).

Lots of you probably already know this about me, but I LOVE to clean. I know - you think I'm a weirdo. Lately, I've been busy with other stuff and haven't kept my house as clean as I'd like. In fact, I realized two weeks ago, I hadn't mopped my kitchen floor since like August.
That's disgusting. It felt SO GOOD to get that floor squeaky clean again! And I love those days when I get a TON accomplished - all the dishes washed and the kitchen clean, laundry done, clutter picked up, etc. Does anyone just LOVE the feeling of your hard work and the finally clean house?

I have a new favorite show.
I was blog surfing one day and saw someone talk about a show called Pushing Daisies. The way they described it made it sound SO funny! I decided to give it a try and now I love it. It's really clean (which is amazing for TV these days), super funny and a very creative idea. I've heard rumors that they're talking about canceling it (not enough sex for viewers apparently...grr). Watch the show so they don't cancel it! To learn more, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushing_Daisies

I've read a couple of books lately that were COMPLETELY opposite books, which was fun. I read a book called The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. At first, it kind of intrigued me - it was basically told in stream of consciousness I think. That's how it felt at least, but after awhile it just kind of bothered me that things would change really quickly. One sentence to the next would be totally different. Blah. While I'm glad I read the book, just for the sake of reading something new and different, I really didn't like the book in the end and HATED the ending. Also, apparently, it was made into a movie!

The other book I read was called Deception Point by Dan Brown (by the way, I Wikipedia'd Dan Brown - did you know he used to be a musician?).
If you've ever read a Dan Brown book, you know they are very grabbing; his books are very hard to put down. I really liked this one because I feel like I was better at solving what was going on than I was with Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code. I even guessed the bad guy WAY before he revealed it! Definitely action packed and totally unrealistic, so read it!


That's all. Thanks for reading my boredness. :)

Pumpkin carving fun-ness!

On Sunday, we went for a drive to look at the leaves (most of which were already dead/gone/only semi-colorful) then came home and carved pumpkins. Here are some pictures of the evening.
This is the only wildlife we saw on the drive - yeah...can't really see it (it's a dear). Seeing that was probably the most exciting part of the drive.

Here's a picture I took of me and Nate from the car. At first Nate refused to smile for the picture, but finally relented and then it was blurry...boo.

He absolutely refused to smile again. I told him I was going to post it anyway. That's what he gets for being a punk about pictures. :D he he
So then it was home to carve pumpkins. Here is Becki working diligently on her pumpkin while...
Her husband (and mine) worked very hard at...not carving pumpkins. They cut the lids off the tops...

Trav and Rachel had this gargantuan pumpkin so Rachel thought it would be fun to stick her head inside and... Become the Headless Horse-woman! (with pearls on...)
Here are mine and Becki's final pumpkins (mine is on the left - scary huh?) I didn't get a good picture of all 4 of them lit up - it was too hard to get them in the dark. And here is my FAVORITE part of carving pumpkins! The SEEDS! We made three huge pans of pumpkin seeds, which were SO tasty.


So, Nate and I work in the temple on Friday nights and neither of us are huge fans of trying to find costumes for Halloween anyway, so that worked out nicely. Sorry if you were hoping to see fun pictures of costumes later....Can't wait to see yours though! :D

I'm a bad wife.

I see all these people posting cute things about their husband's birthdays and how much they love their husbands, etc. etc.

Did you know Nate's birthday was almost 10 days ago?

So, to show him that I don't hate him and that I DO, in fact, love him like all those other wives love their husbands, I'm posting about his birthday (the worst part about it, is that occasionally, I forget the day of his birthday. I can never remember if it's the 18th or the 19th - don't ask my why, but it's awful).

So happy birthday Nate! I'm glad you were born! :D

For his birthday, we made Boneless Buffalo Wings (of course - if you know Nate, you know that's his favorite food). We had a bunch of his friends from Colorado and their spouses over - 13 of us in total - so we made a LOT of wings. And, amazingly, I took a few pictures. Aren't you proud?

So here's the birthday boy, blowing out his candles (his birthday cake was apple crisp and candles melt really bad in apple crisp - we learned that the hard way).
From left to right, Annie and Quinn Hout, Nate and Brett (Brett is our most prompt friend, by the way).

Mekelle and Jake Sorenson. She's pregnant. Can you tell? Of course not. She's tiny. :) Again from left to right, Damien and Natalya Olenslager & Adam and Becki Johnson

Travis and Rachel - Rachel also dislikes cake as much as Nate, so she was happy for the apple crisp. :)

So there you have it. A wonderful birthday celebration.

Let me tell you what I did at work this afternoon:

I'm not sure why I was thinking about this, but I had been talking to some friends about the song "American Pie" by Don McLean and I had no idea what day it was that "the music died." (I know, everyone knows that and it's SO sad that I didn't). These friends mentioned that it was the day Buddy Holly, etc. died in a plane crash (by the way, I only know who Buddy Holly is because of Weezer...). So, since I didn't know anything about it, I Wikipedia'd it (hey, if "googled" is a word, so it Wikipedia'd). I learned the whole story about the plane crash and what other things the song is about (apparently, it makes references to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, etc).

Did you know that?

Then, that got me thinking (because Wikipedia mentioned it) about the song "We didn't start the fire" which I have ALWAYS loved, though the only words I knew were the chorus. I just loved the beat and it was popular when I was really little. SO I got going on that with the help of Wikipedia. It had a list of all the things mentioned in the song and what Billy Joel was referring to, so on any that I didn't know about or wanted to know more about, I clicked on the link.

Did you know, by the way, that the song is all about things that happened throughout Billy Joel's life? It starts with the year he was born. Pretty cool idea I think.

ANYWAY, this whole post is just to say how COOL Wikipedia/the internet are. I know there are definitely problems with the internet, but I'm so much smarter than I was 2 hours ago!

PLUS! I was reading about the Berlin Wall (mentioned in Billy Joel's song) and it reminded me of this movie I saw about 15 years ago. I couldn't remember the name, I just knew it was about some people who built a hot air balloon to cross the Berlin Wall. So I googled that: "movie about people crossing the Berlin wall" Lo and behold, the 23rd link was to Yahoo Answers where someone asked the SAME question and I got the name of the movie! (it's Night Crossing by the way).

I've made a list of movies and book I want to see and read because of all this reading (The Color Purple, Bridge on the River Kwai, A Streetcar Named Desire, read the Catcher in the Rye again, etc.)

GO WIKIPEDIA!

(I'm sorry there are no pictures - our camera has been in the closet for WEEKS. I'll try to post pictures soon...)

Win a Free Handbag!

As many of you know I'm obsessed with purses, and there's a new website launching in a few days (October 15), where you can register to win a free handbag! (for those guys out there, who don't know, a handbag is a purse). Even if you don't win a new bag, they seem to be relatively affordable (okay, honestly I only end up buying a purse MAYBE once a year...) so check it out!

Go to www.handbagplanet.com to see their different bags, which are WAY cute and there are TONS of styles!

I love it!

This is for Nate, because it thoroughly embarasses me, but he thinks it's so funny, so I'm sharing all of this since I know he wants to tell the world how funny I am (without even trying!).

I'm on a roll lately.

You know how I have funny dreams? Well during the summer, Nate and I would go to sleep about the same time. Now that school has started, however, Nate is usually up a couple of hours after me.

I'm scared to fall asleep before him now.


Night #1: (from Nate's perspective) Alisa was sleeping and all of the sudden rolled over and said (with her eyes open and rather loudly) "Initiatory....staff..." at which point Nate started laughing, which woke Alisa up (actually, it was probably her loud talking that woke her up). She tried to explain how it made sense, couldn't, got angry and rolled over to go back to sleep.

Night #1: (from Alisa's perspective) That evening Nate and Alisa had gone to an accounting event, at which a whole bunch of accounting wives were on a panel and talked to the student wives about having a husband work for this accounting firm. They kept saying the different areas of service (meaning audit, tax, human resources, etc). So in her dream, Alisa was on the panel and some girl asked her to name the areas of service. Of course, since she was sleeping and this was a dream, Alisa couldn't think of ANY. But she had to say SOMETHING, so she said "Initiatory..." and immediately realized it was wrong. So she tried to cover her tracks with "staff..." because every company has staff, right? By this point, she was awake and was going to try to make Nate think she hadn't been asleep, but couldn't think of ANYTHING to say. So she went back to sleep.




Night #2: (from Nate's perspective) Nate hears Alisa say (again, rather loudly) "OOOHHH NOOO." So Nate asks what's wrong. Alisa MUMBLES something about not being able to carry/hold onto something. Nate asks what she has to hold on to? "You know," Alisa says "Binders," (while opening her hands into the shape of a binder). Nate laughs, of course. Alisa gets upset, of course, because it makes sense in her head. She tried to explain it, gets upset, rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Night #2: (from Alisa's perspective) Alisa and Nate were on an African Safari (I'm not even making this up). They got to a part where they had to climb down a steep cliff, in a crevice. Alisa needed both her hands and was, apparently, carrying binders. Hence the conversation. Not sure what happened to the binders, because Alisa climbed down the precipice and the dream continued (Alisa never woke up and doesn't recall the conversation with Nate). She remembered the dream the next morning when Nate asked if she remembered what she said to him, though she didn't remember saying it out loud.




Night #3: (from Nate's perspective) Nate walked into the room and Alisa turned to look at him and said something about a tour and coffee. Then she sort of sat up, reached over and started playing with his chin while smiling at him (yep, her eyes were open AGAIN). Nate started laughing, Alisa got angry, turned over and tried to insist that he understood what she was talking about with the temple and taking a tour. Of the three nights, Nate thought this was the funniest.

Night #3: (from Alisa's perspective) Alisa and Nate had just worked in the temple that night, so it was fresh on her mind. One of the temple workers Alisa works with had been talking about giving a tour to a sister who had just started working in the temple. Somehow, all of that transferred into a dream. Alisa only vaguely remembers the dream and knows she was in the temple and there was a coffee cart for when this new sister finished her tour. That's the extent of Alisa's recollection of the dream. She does remember playing with Nate's chin, but her eyes were closed and she wasn't smiling. She woke up enough to hear Nate laughing, tried to explain, got angry and turned over and went back to sleep. Of the three nights, this one is the most embarrassing to her.




So there you have it. I'm crazy.

And I have to quit sleeping.

Not tagged, but doing it anyway...

Nobody tagged me, but I need a break from work and I LOVE filling these out (plus, maybe it will inspire someone else to fill it out and I can read about them!).

Where were you born? Good 'ol Roosevelt, Utah

Middle name? Nanette (I used to wish it was my first name, actually - I thought it was prettier and easier to pronounce. :D)

How old will you be this year? This year, I already turned 22. I'll be 23 in about 4 months.

Nicknames? Alis, Alf, Dad, Babe, Fella (I don't really like that three of those nicknames sound like they should be for men...never thought about that...)

Are you taller than your mother or father? I'm probably about the same height as my mom - She might be a little bit taller - don't know for sure.

Do you cry often during movies? That really depends on my mood and the movie, but I do often cry in movies, yes (ALWAYS in movies like Charly, Titanic, Pearl Harbor, etc).

What is your biggest pet peeve? Oh, I have way too many. Switching lanes without turning on your blinker, people who talk/laugh really loud in a work environment, slurping drinks/soup, girls who don't know how to walk in high heels and wear them anyway, people who use the self-checkout lines in the grocery store, but aren't QUICK about it (I don't care if they have lots of stuff - just if it takes them FOREVER to figure out how to do it), etc. :D

Favorite color(s)? Green

Favorite food(s)? Uh oh. I'm really hungry right now, so....Ramen, chocolate ice cream, fries with Franks & ranch to dip, celery, apples (only if they're crunchy), boneless Buffalo wings

Favorite restaurants? Fuddruckers, Cafe Rio, Applebee's

Favorite smells? RAIN, apple cider (esp the candles), ANYTHING vanilla, babies :D

Favorite time of the day? Right before I fall asleep and I'm completely relaxed.

What brand of shampoo/conditioner do you use? I use Thermasilk for days when I am straightening my hair and just the Costco brand for other days.

What brand of make-up products? Hah. The only makeup I EVER wear is eyeliner, mascara and eye shadow. The eyeliner and mascara are Mary Kay (thanks mom!) and the eye shadow is from AJ and I have no idea where she got it.

How many pillows do you sleep with? Two - one for my head, one to go between my knees (they hurt if they rest on each other)

Do you play an instrument? I sing and can play "As Sisters in Zion" on the piano, but that's about it.

Have you ever been skinny dipping? Not the way you're supposed to go....

Did you play any sports in High School? Swimming (mostly backstroke) and track (hurdles)

What was the last movie you saw in the theatre? Regular Theater or Dollar theater? In the regular theater I think it was 27 Dresses and in the dollar theater, I think it was...actually I can't remember. Been too long.

What is your favorite article of clothing? My jeans that make me look skinny. The bottoms are completely frayed and they're REALLY dirty right now, but I'm wearing them anyway. :)

What is your dream vacation? Right now it's Italy. It changes often, but that's where I would love to go right now.

What was your first impression of your spouse? I thought he looked like his younger brother (I don't think that anymore). I also really liked his car (red Subaru Legacy). And I liked his muscular shoulders (I don't think I've ever told him that...)

If you were an animal, what would you be? Monkey. I LOVE climbing!

What is your dream car? Honda Pilot

What is one of your weaknesses? I get sick of people/annoyed with people really easily. Also, I get offended too easily.

What do you fix for dinner when there is nothing to fix? Ramen of course. Nate makes a quesadilla (he hates Ramen).

If you could live in a different decade/era what would it be? If we're going for clothes, I would want to live in the South around the Civil War. I LOVE those dresses. For lifestyle, I've always thought the 20's seemed kind of fun.

What is the emotion you feel the most? Exhausted, and I do mean that as an emotion. I just got a job promotion and called as Relief Society President in my ward, so I'm always a little exhausted. But I'm also usually just happy. :)

Do you consider yourself outgoing? I used to, but not anymore. I have a really hard time starting conversations with people I don't know. I'm fine if I'm with people I know (maybe a little too comfortable with some people) but for the most part I'm pretty quiet.

What is something you are constantly working on? Not letting emotion rule all of my decisions (that's for you Nate) :D

What is a word or phrase you overuse? Babe. One time I tried to go 24 hours without calling Nate "Babe." I made it 7 minutes.

What was the hardest thing that happened to you this past year? My grandpa's funeral. While I was okay with him being gone, the circumstances around his funeral were a little jarring and I had a really hard time with it.

What is the best thing that has happened to you this past year? Graduating was pretty awesome!

What is one thing you hope to accomplish this year? Oooh. Maybe finish the quilt I'm working on...we'll see.

The best piece of advice you learned this past year? This wasn't really advice and I definitely didn't just learn this this year, but I've learned BETTER to just be patient and let things happen when they happen - I don't let myself get as stressed as I used to. Hence the quote at the top of my blog. :)

Wedding, beaches and "Disseyand"!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to San Diego for Nate's brother Trav's wedding. I, of course, was awful about actually taking pictures (I took my camera EVERYWHERE, but it sat in my purse...sigh...).

Here are some of the highlights from our trip (thanks to everyone who's pictures I borrowed!):

DISSEYAND!

For two weeks before our trip, I walked around the house saying "I go to Disseyand!" like a 4 year old. Nate got really sick of it, but I hadn't been there since I was THREE, so can you blame me??!?! We ended up having a really fun time, but realized if you want to be able to do everything you want to in both Disneyland and California Adventure, you need at least 2 days...

This was our favorite ride - California Screamin' (it's actually in California Adventure). I'm not sure why Nate is so hidden in this picture, but this is the whole fam, minus the parentals.

This is us on California Screamin'. It stops you right at the beginning, does a countdown and then shoots you forward! Way fun.

Somehow, I "got" to be in front for Splash Mountain. Everyone else got a few drops here and there - my whole front was soaked. Good thing it was warm that day! (I'm holding my pants out to show that my fitted pants were all loose because they got wet. I looked like such a freak until they dried).

When we got home, everyone asked me if we saw all the Disney characters. We really didn't see that many! (we were focused on the rides). We saw Brer Bear, Winnie the Pooh (didn't get a picture), AND....
Mrs. Incredible! Or Elastigirl! (which ever...)

After all that playing....
(Okay, this was actually lunch time. We all get a little tired when our blood sugar gets low...)

Another group shot (this isn't a real street behind us, but is looked seriously real until we were that close).
And finally, the castle. It's really blurry, but you get the idea. :) I love Disseyand!


BEACH/FAMILY PICTURES

We went to the beach a couple of times just to play and go sea kayaking. One morning, we got all dressed up fancy and took family pictures. I would love to post them, because they're pretty good, but I only have access to them on the photographer's website. There are a few of them on there, if you're interested www.ninaseibertphotography.com.

After we took pictures, I really wanted to play in the water a bit. I pulled my pant legs up and walked out as the wave receded, then ran back to shore as the wave came back in. After a while, everyone joined in!

Ready to run....

Run!
Back safe from the wave...Or so we thought...

One of the times, the wave came up a little higher than we expected -- and by a little I mean a LOT. It completely came over the top of Kim, Connor and my heads. It was AWESOME! (the trip home was a little uncomfortable - it's amazing how much sand and salt I had everywhere).

That was one of my favorite parts of our trip. I don't think Rachel would agree with me....

WEDDING

And then, of course, the reason we were there:

The Happy Couple...awww....

All the brothers: Nate, Jordan, Trav, Connor, Jakob and Aaron

All the sisters (funny how my family has WAY more girls...) Paige, Kim, Trav, Lindsey, me and Rachel's little sister Rebecca. And despite the fact that I look like it in this picture, I'm not pregnant (I really need to learn to hold my stomach in while pictures are being taken!).
And the Frakes Fam! We just really like each other. :D

And that was our fun trip! It did make me realize I don't want to live in San Diego, like I used to want to, for which Nate was thrilled. It is definitely a fun place to visit!