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!

So Far

No introduction, no apologies for lack of blogging consistency, I am just going to dive right in.

2013 has flown by so far. Flown by! Nate and I have been busy busy busy. At the end of February we celebrated my birthday (no, you don't need to know how old I am) and it was such a fun birthday! My mom was working in Utah county that day so I got to see her on my actual birthday which hasn't happened in a long time. Nate totally spoiled me with gifts and that evening lots of our friends and family got together and we went out to dinner. The service was abysmal but we had great company and lots of laughs. In March Nate went on his first business trip to Manhattan and we had to spend 3 nights/4 days apart, by far the longest we've ever been separated. We made it through though and Nate had a good time. He has another trip to St. Paul, MN coming up next. Nate's family came into town (just before his trip) and they stayed with us for a couple nights and then rotated through the other married siblings. It was good to see everyone and during the week they were here we had 2 birthday parties, a family reunion, a baptism, and a missionary farewell. Talk about a busy week, lots of family time! Easter was a low key day (which was good), Nate made ribs for our Easter dinner and of course we had our tradition of Easter baskets. My basket was awesome, it was a new purse. Love my purse. In March we payed off our other car and so no more car payments for us! They are both ours free and clear. Nate has been busy with his master's program, only 6 more months to go! Both of us are ready for him to be done. Work has been going well for Nate. I've been busy with some new photography classes, this month's class is all about photo editing and I've been loving it! I finally scrapbooked! After months of being too busy to scrapbook anything for Nate and I, I finally got around to making some pages for our family book. I'm just about ready to order another book. I also signed up for some sewing classes which I'm really excited about. We've got our camping trips for the summer planned and now we're looking forward to summer. Gosh, I think that's about it for us. I still need to be better about taking more pictures, but here are some from the year so far.


New Year's Day at my mom's house. She made wifflers which are a family favorite that my grandma has made for years and years.


I don't have one normal picture of my brother and sister together from the last decade! They are ridiculous and either they both are adopted or I am adopted. Personally I think they were dropped off on our front porch by circus folk.



This is from my birthday. I'm so appreciative for everyone who helped us celebrate! We're missing Josh, Benji, Amanda, and Nate in this photo.





Being dropped off at the airport to head to NYC!


This is the view from Nate's hotel room.


Nate at the 9/11 memorial.


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Ugh! I always space taking pics of the whole family when everyone is in town. This is the only I took.

November 2012 Recap

I feel like such a terrible blogger. I barely posted last year. I am behind in journal keeping, blogging, and especially scrapbooking. I don't even remember the last time I got to photoshop anything for me and Nate. It was one project after another for others. I seriously think it's been about six months since I last made a scrapbook page. I am going to do better this year! So here is an attempt to get caught back up. Here are some highlights from our November.

The first part of November is always fun at our house. Keeping with tradition we celebrate the 12 Days of Nate. Since Nate's birthday falls on the 12th he gets a fun treat or small gift everyday for 12 days leading up to his birthday. We also started something new this year. I had Nate choose 4 dinners for me to make, anything he wanted. It didn't even have to be things I liked. Nate requested baked tacos, his favorite Mexican dip, and two new recipes- chicken alfredo biscuit bake, and chicken fried steak casserole. Also to celebrate, we went out to Brazilian pizza one night followed by the new James Bond movie - so fun! All in all, Nate had a great birthday.

Yes, that is hard boiled egg on the pizza. They definitely have some different combinations.

Dessert pizza. Nate was super bummed that it wasn't the hot gooey pizza he used to eat in Brazil.


It was our year to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. My sister is in Tennessee in nurse practioner school and so it was just Nate and I, my mom and brother this year. Don't worry that my brother decided this year that turkey is boring and that he wanted ham. So we had a turkey and a ham for 4 people. To say there were leftovers would be an understatement! Nate decided that there was a sale too good to pass up at a Black Friday sale. So early Thursday evening we trekked to the store to sit in line for a new tv. Nate is so thrilled with the addition to our living room. :)

The last day of November was a whirlwind. I spent most of the day in Salt Lake with my mom while she had a procedure done on her eye. Then on my way home, Nate called to let me know Brandon and Julianna invited us to go to the Festival of Trees. Of course I said yes, I love seeing all the trees, and it's a great start to the holiday season. Julianna's sister made this darling baking tree, so cute!

I love this fishing tree.

This is the tree Julianna's sister made.

Made entirely from soda cans, crazy!