December 2013

Happy Holidays! Hope your Christmas was as nice as ours and that your new year is safe and fun filled. December was s fun month, lots of time spent with family and friends and lots of festivities.

My house was decorated for the whole month which I love. There's nothing like having the lights on the tree lit up and a gingerbread scent going in the candle warmer. I love decorating for the holidays. Most of our Christmas shopping was done online (thankfully not at Target) but I still got to wrap, which I also love doing. Nate and I also kept up with another tradition of looking at lights. We found a house with a giant chicken out front and a life sized nativity in the side yard. Of course we went to see The Hobbit when it came out. We also got to hit up Maxwell's again with Mike and Sarah.

Nate and I babysat several times this month and on one occasion we made some gingerbread houses with Keith and Lacey. They were a huge hit! We also decorated sugar cookies with Jack and Henry but I forgot to take any pictures.


We added another niece to the family. Clementine is Zak and Domonique's first child. Welcome baby girl.


Katie invited all of us sisters-in-law to come over for a day of baking. I don't know who had more fun, the kids sampling the goodies or the adults talking.


My sister Kelley came in to town for the holidays during her school break and we've spent several days up at my mom's visiting. We spent Christmas Eve up in Salt Lake with my family. We had a nice ham dinner and received our traditional pajamas.


Christmas morning we spend time together, just the two of us. We started that tradition the first year we were married. Nate "accidentally" set an alarm for 5:30am and so we were up bright and early. We opened presents and made breakfast pizza. Nate was super excited to get a spotting scope for hunting and some snowshoes and I got an external flash for my camera and the newest version of Photoshop Elements. My gifts have already been put to good use! After presents Nate took a nap and I got started digital scrapbooking.


Christmas afternoon we went over the Nate's parents' house. We were able to skype with Aaron who is on a mission and we had our annual gift exchange and a Mexican feast for dinner. The evening was completed with a pinata for the kids and a game of tape ball. All in all it was a fun filled day.


Here's the double page layout I made for our Christmas. I really like how it turned out.

Thanksgiving 2013

This year was our year to spend Thanksgiving with Nate's family. Ben and Katie were able to get some time shares up in Park City so we celebrated the holiday there. We spent a whole week in Park City and had lots of fun. We had a room with a great view of the pool and the slopes. Nate only had to work two days and it was so nice to get some time with him. There was lots of swimming, playing pool and shuffleboard, and lots of family time. Of course there were trips to the outlets and a feast on Thanksgiving day. I think everyone had a really enjoyable time. For Thanksgiving Nate and I were in charge of stuffing, pies, and cooking the turkey. I'm happy to report that everything turned out really well. I was nervous cooking such a huge turkey (21 lbs.), but it came out really nice and moist. Everyone enjoyed it. It was a good week and a happy holiday.

Here's the double page scrapbook layout I made with our Park City pictures.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Happy Happy Birthday to my amazing husband! Today, 11-12-13 is his birthday and I wish him all the happiness in the world! Love you Nate!

Late Summer - Mid Fall

The past few months have flown by! I feel like we've had multiple things planned every weekend and several things throughout each week. It's been crazy! I can't believe Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to.

August:
We didn't camp at all in August, shocking I know. Very unlike us. Nate participated in Salt Lake county's corporate games on his company's ultimate frisbee team. I think they came in third or fourth overall, but I do know that they had a blast.
This is Nate catching the frisbee to score a goal!


August was also full of preparations for hunting season. Nate was busy scouting out his designated hunting area and we also spent time honing our sharpshooting skills. A few times Nate even brought his brothers along.



September:
We started the month of September out camping at Granite Flats with some of Nate's younger siblings. It was our final trip of the year and I think the kids had a good time.

Aaron was busy getting ready for his mission and one day we went and had a photo shoot. I got some great shots of Aaron and then later that weekend we had Aaron's farewell.

Speaking of pictures, we also had some Smith family photos taken before Aaron left.



October:
Nate took a week off of work in October to hunt and to finish up his last paper for his master's degree. Fortunately he was successful at both! Nate didn't get an elk this year but he did get his first deer. Way to go Nate!

Of course we had our annual scary movie marathon. We ordered pizza and watched some nightmare on Elm Street movie. You know I'm not a huge fan of horror movies, but it was definitely fun to have friends and family around.

Yes, we carved pumpkins again this year. Our theme was ninja turtles. I thought if we lit them colored glow sticks instead of the traditional candle it would make them look even better. Yah, no, totally didn't work. Oh well.

My favorite news from October is that Nate finished graduate school! I am so proud of him getting his master's degree. He worked so so hard and he totally deserves it. Now that he's done he can celebrate and actually have some free time!
This is the scrapbook page I made for Nate's graduation.



November:
At the beginning of November I finished up a cake decorating class I'd been taking. Just in time to make Nate's birthday cake right!

We've been busy celebrating Nate's birthday with the 12 Days of Nate. Since Nate's birthday falls on the 12th I take a page from the 12 Days of Christmas and give him and small gift or treat for the 12 days leading up to his birthday. He loves it, and it's become tradition. Last night we celebrated with Nate's family and had an ice cream cake. Nate wanted a camo cake with cookies 'n cream ice cream.



We're looking forward to the holidays and spending time with friends and family. This year has really flown by and we look forward to see what the rest of year has in store for us!

Spring - Mid Summer

April 2013
Nate traveled again for work in April. He went to St. Paul, Minnesota for a few days to visit 3M. It was a successful trip even if he only sent me one picture the whole time!

Nate really wants to add smoking to his cooking repertoire. He is really good at grilling but wants to improve his smoking skills. He made his first pulled pork butt and it turned out really well. Great work Nate!


My sister came home for a visit at the end of the month and while she was in town we made a quick trip to Idaho to visit my grandparents.


May 2013
In early May, Nate and I were able to get away to Park City for a much needed break. Thanks Smiths for letting us use your timeshare. We invited our good friends the Taggarts to come with and we had a blast.


We spent Memorial Day morning with Brandon, Julianna, and Jack fishing at Payson Lakes. It was freezing! We did however have lots of success.


The last weekend in May we had some groupons about to expire so we trekked to downtown Salt Lake to eat at Maxwell's Pizza. We went with the Robbins and Bryce. Sarah taught us how to eat New York style pizza and I think I like that kind of pizza better than regular crust.


June 2013
We started out June celebrating our sixth anniversary! It's been a great six years. Since our anniversary fell on a Sunday we made dinner. We made copy cat Tucano's garlic steak and Nate's favorite potatoes. So yummy! Definitely an indulgent meal, but hey, we were celebrating!


One Saturday in June we went up to Silver Lake Flats with my brother and fished. Yah, turns out it was free fishing day and it was way crowded, no more fishing on free fishing day for us.


Of course we went camping, Nate's favorite summer past time. We made a quick one night trip up to Strawberry Reservoir with my brother and our pals the Robbins. Fishing was amazing that weekend, we even ate some trout for breakfast.


We ended the month with a big group date night. Dinner at Red Robin followed by seeing Man of Steel at the drive-in. Um yah, not sure we'll visit the drive-in again, kinda sketchy, but we had fun with our family and friends.


July 2013 so far
At the beginning of July we had a new nephew born. Cute Henry is Brandon and Julianna's second little boy and he is such a handsome guy!


Nate's family in Oregon came down to see Henry and stayed for a few weeks. While they were here we took Nate's three youngest siblings camping at Payson Lakes. Despite some rain we had a fun time.


Also while in town Nate's brother Aaron received his mission call. He has been called to serve in the Gilbert, Arizona mission. So far a fun month!