4th of July 2015

I loved that the 4th fell on a weekend this year. Nate had Friday off of work and you all know that I love a long weekend with Nate! My mom and sister also had Friday off of work so we had them both over and grilled some hamburgers and made a tropical watermelon sorbet. Of course I forgot to take pictures of anything that day! I hate when I do that! On Saturday, the actual 4th we partied with Nate's family. We had a yummy dinner and watched some of the Real Salt Lake soccer game, then they ended the night with some fireworks. We also all got together the next day for the blessing of our newest little nephew. Busy weekend, but a really good weekend.

I did remember to get some pictures on the 4th. Thanks to my sweet sister-in-law Amelia, I have some pics of Nate and me together.


Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along.

Spartan 2015

True to his word, Nate signed up for and successfully ran the Reebok Spartan race again this year. Several of Nate's coworkers also signed up and so they had a colleague make them some custom t-shirts for the race. I made sure to take pictures of the shirt before the race so that it was clean! This year the Spartan was shorter than last year, only 8.5 miles, complete with about 20 obstacles. They did everything from climbing walls, to carrying atlas balls, to running through mud pits. If you don't complete an obstacle successfully then you have to finish 30 burpees before advancing. Nate had a blast and is signing up for next year's race too.

Here are the photos of the shirt Nate's colleague made for them. I took these the night before the race so I could get one before they got all muddy the next day!



One thing I really like about this race is that they are good to get several photos of each participant and usually have them posted online within a week. There are a few shots of Nate making his way through some of the obstacles.



Here's Nate with one of his coworkers (who also happens to be married to one of Nate's cousins) at the completion of the Spartan.


After the race, and after he was all cleaned up, I took a photo of Nate with his medal and finisher shirt. Woo hoo, way to go Nate!

Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along.

Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to us! Last week we celebrated our 8th anniversary. Since it was in the middle of the week we decided to make a nice dinner at home and then party on the weekend. We went to Meier's for some nice steaks and Nate was sweet and grilled for us. So good! We had a great time and I'm so happy to be married to Nate. He is the best husband a girl could ask for. Nate surprised me and took Friday and Monday off of work so we had a fantastic long weekend. Wish we could do that every weekend!



Okay, so I know this looks like we're saying 4 years, but really it totals 8 years.


Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along.

Memorial Day Re-Do

This year for Memorial Day we had planned to have a picnic and games at the park with Nate's family. Unfortunately the weather did not agree with our plans. It rained quite a bit that morning and we knew that the park would be a soggy mess so we postponed our plans 'til Saturday. We had perfect weather on Saturday, it was warm and we had great cloud cover so it wasn't too hot. Almost everyone was able to make it, we missed Katie though. Nate and I had a great time with everyone and I think it's definitely something that we need to do again!


What do you think of Nate's new glasses?


Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along

Date Night

As is usual, Saturday night was date night for us. This week we doubled with the Robbins. We went up to Draper for some Mongolian barbecue. It was good. We had a fun time and got totally stuffed. After dinner we ended the night with our favorite game, hand and foot. Nate and I were the big winners woot woo!


Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along!

Early Morning

So I've been up since 2:30 this morning, almost 3 hours now. I scrapbooked for a bit, looked at some of my favorite recipe blogs, made and ate a snack, and caught up on the overloaded DVR a bit. Now I'm blogging. I've been trying to do really quiet activities so I don't wake up Nate. He never gets to sleep in. We had date night last night which is always fun. We started out picking out some new glasses for Nate. He had his eye exam yesterday and he got two really good looking frames. They should be ready in about a week and a half and I'll have to post pictures, he loks really good in them. Next we ran some errands. I've got to make some little favor bags for our Relief Society activity Tuesday so I had to pick up some supplies. I think they're going to turn out really cute. Nate and I also went to Hobby Lobby to look for some frames for a gallery wall I want to do at the top of our stairs. We didn't spend long there because my blood sugar was getting super low and I was feeling really sick, gotta love being diabetic. It was my week to choose where we went for dinner and my only prerequisite was that it was some place with chips and salsa, so we had Mexican food. As is usual, Nate was craving a baked good for dessert, so we went to Kneaders looking for a treat but they didn't have anything that appealed to Nate. We ended up at the grocery store and Nate got some donuts so he was happy. It was a fun and pretty productive night out. Nate has plans to hike this morning as long as the weather is good and I've got plenty to do around the house today and one more errand to run. I'm thinking I better plan for a little nap today too!

Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along!

Mothers' Day

For Mothers' Day weekend I went up to Idaho with my sister to see my mom and grandma. My mom knew we were coming, but we totally surprised my grandma. Kelley (my sister) and I spent the night Saturday and so we got lots of time with them. It was fun to see them and spend time catching up. Kelley totally wins daughter of the year though, she got my mom Shania Twain tickets for her Mothers' Day gift. Yah, my gift totally paled in comparison. My mom is super excited to go to the concert with Kelley in August. They should have a blast. We made it home safely on Sunday afternoon and I got to spend some time with Nate. That evening we went to Nate's parents' house for his missionary brother's phone call. It was good to see Elder Smith and he sounds like he's having an amazing time. I can't believe we'll see him in six months!

So I only took one photo all weekend. Here's my cute mom and my little sister.

Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along!

Date Night/Update

This past weekend was Nate's turn to choose where we went for date night. He chose Mexican food, his favorite. We took a couple phone pics at the restaurant, notice the lady in the background of my pic totally staring right at the camera. Dinner was fun, then we went to Deseret Book and I got a new set of scriptures that I'd been wanting. Ever since implementing my new scripture study protocol, I've been wanting a new set. But let me tell you, the first time I opened and read from the new set it was a little daunting, there were no markings! I'm so used to seeing the highlighting and the notes in my old set of scriptures. It was good to start marking up the new set, makes them feel more like they're mine.
Also this last weekend, we had Nate's two youngest siblings stay with us while his parents were out of town. It was fun to have them over and spoil them. We welcomed a new nephew a few days ago too, and he's adorable. Things are going well for us, we're still hoping to adopt, so check out our profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800.



Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along!

Park City Getaway

We are so spoiled. Nate's parents have a timeshare in Park City and we got to spend this past week up there. We love Park City, it's where we spent our honeymoon. It's just the right amount of distance away from our house, not too close that you don't feel like you're getting away, and not too far that you can't come back down for an appointment. We lucked out, lots of Nate's family were able to join us in Park City. We were able to watch LDS General Conference while we were there and on Sunday we had a nice Easter dinner, but we missed Zak, Domonique, and Clementine. We spent time swimming, playing games, getting pedicures, shopping, eating yummy food, and lots of time relaxing. It was just what we needed. We can't wait to go again! A big thanks to Ben and Katie for a fun family week!


Nate doing dishes.


Nate and one of our little nephews playing basketball.


My sweet sister-in-law.


Us with my youngest brother-in-law. Jake and Nate are super close.


Jake and Katie relaxing in the hot tub. Lots of time is spent swimming when we're in Park City.


Handsome Nate.


Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along!

Scripture Journal

Okay, so I've debated about whether or not to post this. But I keep thinking about it which is sometimes how the Spirit works with me, so I've decided to just go ahead and do it. This is about a little project I've been working on. I hope this doesn't come across as self aggrandizing, I don't want it to, but I just feel like I should share. So if this post isn't up your alley, just scroll on past it.
At church on Sunday we had a really good Sunday school lesson in our gospel doctrine class. The teacher was super prepared and had a power point presentation and everything. We also had a good discussion going in the class about studying the scriptures, really using them to help answer personal questions and gain greater knowledge. A brother in our ward brought up the point that study and search were both action words, that they implied more than just passively reading. That really hit me hard. I am great at reading my scriptures everyday but I think that I'm missing the point to an extent. Am I just simply reading or am I actively studying? So with the intent to do better I've been looking for resources to help me better study my scriptures. I came across three awesome websites that both had the idea of a scripture journal. This is separate from a personal journal, the point with the scripture journal is to take notes and write down thoughts and impressions that come while really studying. This was totally what I needed! So I ventured out and bought a cute three ring binder and paper and got to work. I combined ideas from the both the websites and I feel like this is going to make a huge difference in my scripture studying. I took a few pictures to help you get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Here are the links to three websites that I really like. I took ideas from all and put together something that will work for me.

The Red Headed Hostess (you know how I love a red head!)
'Tis Eventide
Allison Kimball (she's an amazing artist too)


So this is all the stuff I now get out when I read my scriptures - my scriptures of course, pens/colored pencils/hiliters for marking in my scriptures and writing in the journal, and the journal itself. Nate was on speakerphone with me when I took the pic so that's why my phone is in the shot. :)


Basically I took the list of topics from The Red Headed Hostess and I typed them up in fun fonts and glued them onto the tops of pages in the journal. I added three topics to my journal, I added Mary, infertility, and happiness. All three apply to my life and are things I want to get more information about from my scripture study. I added an extra sheet of paper per topic so that I've got plenty of room to write.


Today I focused on the topic of scripture study for my reading.


Like I said, I just feel like I should share this, not sure why. Hopefully posting it helps me to maintain my new scripture journal and really use it and love. Check out the links I posted, I found the super helpful and inspiring.

UPDATE 03/31/15
Still loving the scripture journal. I've since added some section divider tabs so the topics can be found a little more easily and I bought some fun pens to use just for the journal. I also bought a second three ring binder. This second binder is getting filled with charts and timelines and other Book of Mormon printables I've been finding online. Lovin' it!



Don't forget to check out our adoption profile at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800, and feel free to pass it along!