Wish us luck...

Today we're going to look at houses in a more affordable area of California. (Thank you mortgage crisis!!) Hopefully we'll find something amazing, although I'm not getting my hopes up for this house. I'd like to have the maid's quarters, but then we'd have to get a maid and I'd feel a little awkward sitting on the couch eating bonbons while she cleans up our house. Of course, I'd get used to it, but it would be an adjustment at first.

We'll let you know if we find anything worth putting an offer in on. Hopefully soon, because we HAVE to be in a new house by the time the baby gets here, and preferably before Thanksgiving. (So that everyone we know can come stay with us, of course!!)

Been busy...

Wow, it seems like it was just yesterday that I posted. Then I look, and it's been a WEEK and yesterday since I last posted. Crazy how time flies.

Well, in my defense, I have been busy. I went down South this weekend to attend the wedding of my bestest friend ever, Summer. :) It was a beautiful occasion and I had a lot of fun. I didn't take Eli or Nathan, so it was a pretty nice solo trip, although I did miss my guys a ton. I have to give a shout-out to my good friend Marisol for watching Eli for two days while Nathan worked. That was a lifesaving favor, and it was greatly appreciated. Next time you need anything, Marisol, let me know!! :)

Being in Louisiana and Mississippi was a lot of fun, and I could feel my southern accent yearning to break out again! I really couldn't help it -- blame it on the environment. I had such a great time seeing Summer and her family again. I hadn't seen her parents for almost 5 years! And seeing as how I was basically at her house every week during high school, that's saying something.

The humidity could have been lower, but I guess that's just the nature of the place. Luckily we didn't get hit with too much of the tropical storm. That was a blessing.

I'll leave you all with a couple of pictures that I've (gasp!) actually had the time to edit. There are more waiting in the wings that I'll post later. TTFN! (Ta-ta for now!)

Too much junk...

(not my actual room, but you get the idea. i'm too much of a pansy to show the world my real junk!)

Okay, I'm not sure if it's the pregnancy or just a mounting sense of enclosure, but I have really felt that lately we just have too much junk in this house! I keep looking around in preparation for a future move, thinking to myself, "I can't possibly move this much crap to a house. It's just too much for one family." And we only have one kid so far!

So who is the main culprit? While Nathan is a big keeper of junk like old computer boxes and clothes his mom gave him from his high school years, it's probably a lot more me than him. I admit, I do tend to keep a lot of stuff 'just in case'. I so totally get that from my mom. No question about it -- she is the ultimate pack rat. And I learned well. I think in the back of my mind, I secretly hope to need something a year from now and be able to pull it out of its hiding place in the garage and say, "Ha-ha! I do have this meaningless trinket that somehow I now need! Boo-ya!" But then when I truly think about it, I am not sure that I would know where to look for that meaningless trinket. It would probably take me more time to search for it than it would to go to the store and buy another one.

Grams, I know you are reading this thinking, "But that's a waste! Keep it because you never know when you'll need it!" But I have a sneaking suspicion that you may be where my mom got it from! :D

So over the next few weeks, I am vowing to go through my junk and start paring down. And I mean seriously paring down. I don't need boxes and boxes of old paper scrapbooking supplies that I literally haven't taken down from the top shelf since we moved in 2 years ago.

Wish me luck. As my mother's daughter (and my Grams' grand-daughter), I know I'm going to need it! :D

Some recent layouts...

While I've been hard at work editing my sister's wedding photos, I've also been doing a few new layouts. Here are a couple to share (and I'll share more once they've appeared in the Scrap Girls newsletter, so that they are fresh over there).


Oh, and here are some more cute wedding photos from Ali's big day. I just love antiquing (a photo, that is)! :)

Yesterday was Nathan and my four year anniversary! I can't believe that we've been married that long. (But of course, sometimes it feels like we've already been married my whole life.) I love looking back and remembering how we met, when we were dating, and all the fun things we did together. Here's a trip down memory lane, just for you babe. :)

WARNING: This post is very photo-heavy. Proceed at your own risk! :)

This is a great photo from Jared Laney's surprise birthday party. Nathan and I met at BYU -- we lived in the same apartment complex, and his best friend was dating my roommate. He would just come hang out at our apartment and play games with us and I'd cook him dinner. Sometimes Matt (his best friend) would come with him, but a lot of the time it was just Nathan. :) He was laying the groundwork, I suppose. LOL.

These two pictures are from our first 'real' date together. We went to a Sum 41 concert together. The best part about this was the way Nathan came about asking me to go to the concert. First, he just mentioned in passing that Sum 41 was going to be in Salt Lake and they were doing a concert. Then a couple of days later, he asked me if I would maybe like to go, if he was able to get tickets. I said that might be fun. So then a few days later, he said he had been able to get tickets and wanted to know if I still wanted to go. I said yes and we went to the concert and had a great time. Later I come to find out that he had already bought the tickets a few days before he even mentioned the whole thing to me in passing! He sure is a schemer, making sure his odds look good before going in and asking me out. :) To his credit, though, it wasn't exactly my style of music at the time. He was slowly introducing me to some punk stuff, and I had never been to a real mosh-pit included concert before, so he wanted to make sure that I would even want to go before he asked me. But that just made me laugh.

Here is me and my best friend Summer, at Newport Beach.
The summer after Nathan and my year of college together, we went back to our respective homes, me to Texas and he to California. That was only a few days after our concert date, and so I was bummed that we had to be apart for so long, because I wanted to see where this thing was going. But I settled for emails and was resigned that I wouldn't see him again until the fall.
About two weeks after I had been home, I got an email from Nathan's dad. (I had never met him before.) He essentially said that Nathan had mentioned my name to his parents and said that we had been hanging out together during the last few months. He hadn't even said that we had been dating or anything, but his dad knew that if he was even saying my name to them, that it was a bigger deal than Nathan was letting on. :) So Nathan's dad looked me up on the BYU website, found my email address, and sent me an email.
He invited me to come out to California for a visit with Nathan and his family, and he said that I could invite Summer to come with me so that I wasn't coming out by myself. He said he would take care of the flight and that we could go sight-seeing while we were there. But he also said that he didn't want to embarrass Nathan too soon, so it was to be a surprise visit! At first I was a mix of emotions, like shock, excitement, disbelief, worry. But I decided to go and have fun, and just see what happened.
So Summer and I went out to visit Nathan and he was SO surprised, it was hilarious.

Then this is a picture of us in downtown San Antonio. Later that summer, after I had visited Nathan, he and his old mission companion took a trip back to Oklahoma to visit. They just happened to stop by my house in San Antonio (yeah, it's not a direct way, but they were in the 'area') and stayed with us for a few days. I got to show them around San Antonio and Nathan got to meet my family. That was a lot of fun, but still a little awkward because we weren't officially dating or anything -- just getting there. :)

This is from a sunrise hike that we took to Stewart Falls once we were back at school. This is where we had our first kiss! :)

Me and Nathan and Homer. Good times.

Us in my apartment at Courtside.
We spent a lot of time with each other that school year, as things got better and more serious. :)

This picture is hilarious. It's me and Nathan on the couch with my creepy roommate that used to come sit on the couch with us while Nathan was over. I swear, she must have had a huge crush on Nathan and imagined that if she sat there long enough and bugged us, she could lure him away. It was weird at the time, but now it's just funny. :)

Ah, our Italian vacation! This was the summer after Courtside. Nathan's dad served his mission in Italy, so they took a trip out there to see it, and they invited me to go with the family. By the time we were here feeding the gross birds in Milan, we were engaged, but no one knew it yet. We planned some of the wedding in the back seat of our van traveling around Italy. Good memories. :)

Hanging out near St. Peter's Basilica. Look how young we both were! Crazy....

After a long hike up to Mt. Vesuvius. And I mean LONG! :) What a fun day.

Eating at a cafe in St. Peter's Square in Venice. One of my favorite cities in all of the world. I seriously could take a vacation there for three weeks and still see new things!

My favorite part of our entire trip -- taking a romantic gondola ride down the canals in Venice with my sweetheart. I've been so blessed.

A couple of months later, we were taking our engagement photos in San Antonio, gearing up for a wedding in less than 2 months! It was a crazy schedule, but I'm so glad we didn't wait. We knew it was right and went for it. Couldn't have asked for anything better.

At the Houston temple where I took out my endowments. Such a special day, to have Nathan and my parents there with me. That was overwhelming and amazing and life-changing.

The night before our wedding, our rehearsal dinner at PF Chang's in San Diego. I was so happy to have so many family members come down to the wedding. It was perfect weather and just a great place to get married.

The day my life changed forever.
Nathan and I were married in the San Diego temple on August 13, 2004.

And here's my main squeeze. :) Nathan has been such a blessing in my life. He is the perfect companion for me, he challenges me and supports me and is always trying to make my life better. I love him more than I knew possible and I'm so thankful for him. I am glad for these great 4 years, and am looking forward to the next 40 with him.

Love you babe! :)

More Wedding...

Been gone...

....because my little sister got married last week! :) I can't believe how beautiful she was and I'm so happy that she found her honest-to-goodness prince. She's one lucky lady and I think she knows it. (And he's one lucky prince, too, just so you know!)


Here's a preview. I just drove in tonight and I couldn't help myself. Had to set up the computer and look through the pictures that my friend (and amazing photographer) Jessica Kettle shot. There are some great ones!! Can't wait to post some more, once I get through with them.