three little birds

california dreamin

2011-08-15T10:43:00.000-06:00

last month we headed out to california to stay with my sister and her husband, otherwise known as the murtcurfs, and overstay our welcome by at least four or five days. sawyer and i flew out by ourselves because we just couldn't wait until a weekend like bryson had to. we really had to be there a good 9 days to really soak in the whole aliso viejo scene. which was pretty amazing i must say. the first night we were there we headed down to the beach to take in and bask in the sunset.

we wanted to wait to do anything truly exciting until bryson came so the first few days we just hung around the apartment, ate cafe rio and watched sawyer and tobias (their kitty) built a lasting friendship. unfortunately there are no pictures of that. i am so sorry.

so fast forward a few days if you will. enter bryson! woo. never so glad to see the guy. single parenting isn't my thing. we took bryson do to the whole sunset at the beach thing. and take more pictures which all look the same.

it took a few days for sawyer to warm up to the sand. i had no idea it could be such a frightening thing. but i was determined to make him love the beach. he eventually warmed up and stopped acting like someone was trying to punish him

these two have always had a very special relationship. she has taught him many things. some of which are giving kisses and streaking in a very very high pitch. he loves her so much. it makes us all jealous.

one of our days was spent touring balboa island. it was so cool. the streets were lined with little shops, frozen banana stands and amazing houses. which, by the way, you can rent for the summer for a cool 5 million dollars. definitely something to look into... we ate a delish italian cafe, indulged in frozen bananas and ice cream bars and acted like true tourists taking pictures of everything.

our last day there we spent at the beach. sigh. what it must be like to live 10 minutes from the beach. by this time sawyer was a beach pro. the sand had nothing on him.

i actually did a really horrible job documenting this trip. luckily my tis is a picture taking fiend and i plan on stealing all of her photos. not pictured from the trip: shopping at trader joes for delicious tortillas and popcorn, swimming in the pool, bbqing by the pool, watching ryan play his video games (which was actually a lot more fun than it sounds) recreating cafe rio tacos, watching shark week, and of course intense family bonding. tobias included. it was such a good trip and we didn't want to leave. thank you murtcurfs for taking us into your home and treating us like the family we are. we will be back soon

a wordless post about we've been up to. because i'm lazy.

2011-07-18T15:12:00.000-06:00

one

2011-06-21T00:16:00.000-06:00

well my baby is one. and i am not happy about it. instead of spending the next several hours writing about the deep unconditional and slightly unhealthy love i have for my child and most likely sobbing over the fact that my baby is practically an adult we will just skip to the fun, less crazy stuff. sawyers birthday was on the 15th and i had big plans for the day that included sprinkles in his pancakes, birthday hats, balloons all over the floor and cupcakes. and he hated it all. he was a real pain in the rear all day.

do not let that sheepish smile fool you, he was not pleased

i hate when people make me eat delicious cupcakes too..

the aftermath of the red velvet cupcake looked slightly morbid.

i really don't think he smiled all day. it was great. luckily his party wasn't until the 18th, and luckily he was much happier that day. lets go there now shall we!

****

in my mind i had planned this extravagant party where sawyer rode in on a magic carpet and everyone was given a small pony as a thank you gift but apparently that wasn't in the budget. sooooo we settled for a bbq in the canyon instead.

all sawyer wanted to do was crawl around on the grass and play and thats just what he did.

although he did have a very important meeting of sorts with his ladies he had to attend to. i can only imagine the riveting conversation that went on here.

the men grilling away

would ya just look at this guy? he's precious.

the parentals. or should i say grand parentals.

my dad does this thing where he holds my baby up and puts his face next to his and says "twinners!" we're not sure where this comes from but we go with it because its cute.

he loves her more than me.

my baby is not one of those babies you have to show how the whole shoving the cake in your mouth thing is done. he picked up on it right away. you know what they say.. like mother like son... i don't think anyone actually says that..

victory!

needless to say cleaning him off took forever. he's so cute all nakey.

the gunter clan

the whole clan.

all in all i would say the party was a success thanks to everyone who helped! my sister and mom where a huge help and so were brysons parents. we were so glad most everyone was able to come and share that special day with us!

he loves me

i just love him so much and feel beyond blessed that he's mine. i honestly look forward to waking up every morning and hearing his sweet little voice talking to himself in his crib just waiting for me to come get him. he's my best buddy and i love him a lot. i will stop now.

overkill

2011-06-14T10:48:00.001-06:00

gurls trip

2011-06-13T11:37:00.000-06:00

this last weekend i went on a little girls trip to st george. it was a hoot and a half. there were 11 of us, kellee, lara, stefanie, missy, sammy, courtney, heidi, jade, lori, emily and myself. unfortunately i was not very good at documenting this blessed occasion and some will not be pictured and i am real sorry about that.

the first night we got there we went to dinner and out for frozen custard. and cupcakes. there was a lot of eating going on. mostly by me seeing as how everyone else is healthy and skinny.

there was a slight air conditioning issue and seeing as how my body temperature is about 20 degrees higher than the average person i refused to blow dry my hair. so i ended up looking like steven tyler all weekend.

saturday we went to vegas and everyone shopped until they dropped. we went to cheesecake factory for more food.

there was very little sinning going on but there was some and it had to be documented.

our last stop in vegas was to serendipity frozen hot chocolate and forbidden sundays. it was delicious. however i would say the serendipity in new york is much better and not nearly as hot and trashy. just sayin.

all and all i would say the trip was a major success. it was rather amazing we could get 11 busy girls (i originally typed women but it just didn't feel right) to drop husbands, babies and jobs to all get together for the whole weekend. it was especially amazing to see stefanie all weekend seeing as how she is currently living far far away in rhode island. we just love her!

thanks for an awesome weekend girls! loves!

graduation and missionaries

2011-06-08T12:10:00.003-06:00

well i am officially old. my little bro graduated from high school last week. class of 2011 sounds so weird seeing as how i graduated all the way back in 03. as i was singing the timpanogos fight song with pride burning in my bosom i couldn't help but think how weird it was that this was my parents last high school graduation! we're all grown up now. sigh.

as you can tell sawyer absolutely adored graduation. or mostly playing outside on the grass during the ceremony.

heres the graduate himself. beaming with pride. for his school and his accomplishments im sure. but mostly for no more homework. for now anyway. oh and he does have two fully functioning arms.. its just doesn't look like he does in this picture.

after graduation we went to Pf Changs. we learned that sawyer does not like chinese food and he also does not like to watch us eat chinese food. he protested by chocking on goldfish crackers and throwing chopsticks and anything else he could get his hands on all over the floor. so that was a good time. jesse got a sweet new watch and a bunch of gift cards from my parents and we didn't give him anything because we're poor like that.

congrats again brover!! now you're old and in a few years you'll wish you could go back to when things were simple like when you were in high school. i would also like the say that the murtcurfs were greatly missed. especially since now that tis is gone i have to take all the pictures.

yesterday my grandparents got home from their mission to Hong Kong! this was their third mission overall, second to Hong Kong. it was so good to see them and have them home again!

my grandparents with our cousins

sawyer was real mad at me for putting him in his stroller and wouldn't look at me the entire time we were at the airport. or at least it felt that way. he has quite the attitude problem lately. i am thinking it is directly related to this whole teething situation. lets hope so anyway. can i just mention what a pure joy it is to begin this teething experience at month 11? its greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

and last but not least, on a completely unrelated note, my baby in flip flops. it might just be the best thing that has ever happened to me.

the weekend

2011-05-31T09:52:00.005-06:00

so as you know the weather memorial day was awful. shouldn't we have been able to bbq and go swimming? maybe get a sunburn? well obviously that wasn't the case. in fact we didn't do a whole lot of anything memorial day. we met my mother and brother for lunch and then the rest of day we talked about how stupid the weather was. Buuuuuuuuut the weekend leading up to memorial day was rather pleasant and event filled. lets discuss.

on friday we had the ivins over. and by over i mean to my parents house... where there is room for more than three people to comfortably move about. they brought pizza and we just chit chatted the night away. jessica and i go waaaaaaay back. back to jr high. back to the days of note writing and awkward adolescence. over the last couple years we were reunited via social media. gotta love it! SO glad they moved back down to utah county. and its a good thing they did because sawyer and their adorable daughter lola fell in love.

(i would also like to take this time to publicly thank jessica for being a good mother and taking pictures, and then letting me steal them all)

after hours of trying to impress lola, sawyer was tuckered out. and i love when he's tuckered out because that is when i force him to cuddle me. and by force i really do mean force.

on saturday sawyers aunt alyssa came down to babysit and bryson and i went on a little date. we like to court each other. that sounds kinda dirty... moving on... first we went to costco and ate more pizza. its cool to go on dates to costco. its romantic. after, we went to color me mine. in all the years its been open we have never been! it was sooo fun! i want to go again and again. and thanks to groupon it cost us $8. sweet.

my favorite part was listening to all the awkward date conversation going on. oh man so funny. one guy actually said, "oh you make me smile, not a lot of girls can do that." the girls response was something like, "ummmmlkajdlkfja;slkdfj".

finished products. practical and adorable no?

gotta love weekends. and reconnecting with old friends. and babysitters. and costco pizza. and color me mind. and bryson.

Oh and i am love pinterest these days! get one and let me follow you. heres the link to mine.

fanks

2011-05-26T15:05:00.000-06:00

i just wanted to say a quick thanks to all of you who have offered me so much support in the opening of my new little shop! all the call and texts have been mucho appreciated! so as a thanks to you and all the love i'm having a little sale! free shipping on all items until june 2nd. chiggity check it out.

how rude

2011-05-25T12:02:00.004-06:00

i feel as though this blog has become terribly self involved as of late. all this talk of my etsy shop,abandoning my child for cruises and all inclusive resorts is making me feel a little selfish. if sawyer could talk i think he would muster up his best stephanie from full house impression and say, "how rude". so i thought it would be appropriate to do a post of nothing but adorable pictures of my baby. and remind you all that, in case you were wondering, i am still overly obsessed with my child. lets say nothing more and just observe shall we?

three little birds: a shop

2011-05-24T08:50:00.000-06:00

well my friends i have officially opened an etsy shop! which you can find here. i have been toying around with the idea for a while now and i finally just decided to bite the bullet and do it! i usually shy away from these types of things because its so far outside my comfort zone to put myself out there open to public rejection and failure! and mockery! but hey life is short right? and oprah says if i do what i love i'll become really rich... or something like that.

the shop (which is almost named three little birds) features handmade cards, picture frames, stationary and other pretty little things. its been so fun starting this little shop and i hope i can keep it going for awhile. i am thinking of doing a giveaway of sorts to those of you who faithlessly follow my blog later this week when i add a few more things. soooo if you're interested follow away and stay tuned! if you're not interested... just pretend you are so i don't feel bad about myself. 

a little of this and that

2011-05-19T12:02:00.001-06:00

would you look at these adorable feet. i just love them.i could just put them in my mouth and suck on them. too far? i have been feeling so depressed lately about the fact that next month he'll be one. where did my baby go? sometimes i'll just stop and stare at his feet because i know when he's nine i won't appreciate them like i do now. sigh. chubby little nugget feet.

he is standing and walking along things and it looks like at any moment he could just take off and run away from me forever. since he was about four months i have claimed that every month from then on has been my favorite and i wish that he could stay that age forever. but this really is the best stage. you can just tell he is really starting to "get things" if you will. and now he claps and waves and plays peekaboo and is just so adorable.

while we were on our cruise he finally got his first tooth. go figure. its pretty cute albeit slightly crooked. i am a wee bit concerned that he'll get to kindergarten and only have three teeth and will have to gum his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

we were enjoying the nice weather last week. key word being "were". now it feels like it could snow at any moment.i love putting sawyer in the grass and watching him trying to lift both of his legs while he's sitting because he just doesn't know how he feels about how the grass feels yet. its hilar. and maybe a little cruel but mostly just funny.

this little jerk up and left me and moved to California where im pretty sure it doesn't feel like winter and death. i am going to miss her and her tender little husband. im also going to miss watching her and sawyer and their special little bond. they are obsessed with each other and when theyre together things get really loud and their voices suddenly become very high pitched. we will miss the murtcurfs but are glad we have an excuse to go to california this summer and frolic on the beach.

thats all for now.

cruisin

2011-05-11T10:07:00.000-06:00

we are home from our cruise. sigh. it was sooo amazing. and when i wasn't feeling extreme guilt for wanting to stay forever i was thoroughly enjoying every moment. since i'm new to blogger.... all of these pictures are out of order and i just don't know how to fix it. i just don't. and i just realized that you don't know if they're out of order.. you weren't there but lets just roll with it.

here we are on the stairs. bryson desperately wanted to get a picture of us in our formal attire on the stairs but both formal nights they had their camera crew set up there and the make you pay hundreds for those pictures so we opted for the last day of the cruise haven't showered look. also i'm pretty confident the woman we asked to take the picture was pretty drunk.

this is just an example of what i was dealing with all week. my dessert plate is on the left. brysons is on the right. annoying. i felt real anger towards him when he would do that. i would also like to mention that my plate usually had one of every dessert. but i would just take bites of each of them so its totally fine.

the next two pictures are now my favorite of the two of us because it makes bryson look like a giant man. oh man i just get a kick out of it. if i wasn't so lazy i would have put the pictures right next to each other so you could really appreciate it but i just don't have that kind of... time.

the classic towel animal

so aside from getting a dessert plate after every meal we would also get soft serve ice cream cones. sigh. luckily bryson would join so i didn't feel like a complete failure. i'm not going to lie to you by the end of the cruise we were eating 2 cones... or more... after every meal. we were also quite disappointed that these cones were not offered in the morning. is there anyone who doesn't want an ice cream cone after breakfast is what i want to know. but its cool because the machine said "low fat"

our cruise was a wonderful 7 night southern caribbean adventure with stops in St Thomas, St Croix, St Johns, Atigua, St Lucia, Casteries, and St George, Grenada. i just sounded like a brochure no? it really was aaaaaamaaaazing and i would do the same cruise again in a heartbeat. all of our ports were amazeballs. everything was so green and lush and beautiful.

so this is where my handicapped blogging skills comes into play because what you're about to see is st croix which was actually our second port but just go with it. in st croix we took a bus tour around the island. i remember fully enjoying myself but by the end of the cruise we couldn't really remember what we saw or what was so great about it. but i do remember going to the top of some hill and looking over the island and all its splendor.

st thomas (our first stop) was beautiful. the weather was pretty cloudy that day but we survived. we took about an hour long sailboat ride out to buck island and went snorkeling. we saw big sea turtles, stingray, lots of fish and coral and even a barracuda. i could have died. not out of excitement that fish could have actually killed me. it was pretty amazing to see all the turtles. i wanted to take one home. the stingray was cool to see for about five second but when you get a closer look at it you realize their eyes and really creepy. bryson and i both agreed that one of them was staring at him.

st johns was our third stop. we got in a taxi and went to valley church beach which was gorg. the water was the bluest water i had ever seen! this day was actually our 3rd anniversary and it was a pretty awesome day. bryson rode a jet ski around the beach and i got a massage. i also managed to the flash the beach my boobies. awesome. we did suffer one casualty though. the picture below you will see bryson looking down realizing his iphone was in his pocket. oh boy.

our fourth stop was our favorite. i have wanted to go to st lucia so bad every since i saw a documentary on it. and by documentary i mean an episode of the bachelor. we took a coastal tour on a catamaran to see the pitons. it was amazing. the island is soooooooooo pretty and green. we stopped in a bay and went swimming and the water was so clear you could see fish swimming all around you. which was pretty cool and a little creepy. i dream about st lucia all day. i was actually there this time last week... sigh

our last stop was st george, grenada. we took a very education and long tour of the island learning all about how the harvest cocoa beans and how white chocolate is not real! its not real people! our tour guide Terry was pretty pissed at "Mr. Hershey" and his white chocolate. we also learned about all the fresh spices they have and bought some fresh nutmeg and cinnamon which both spelled amazing. we then went up in the rain forest and saw and grand etang lake and went to annandale falls. the last leg of our tour was at fort frederick. which the french built when they invalded something something something...

it was the most amazing trip. i didn't know how much bryson and i needed to reconnect and spend one on one time together. after a long semester it was good to rekindle the la (thats how we say love. try it. its real cute) knowing we were going home to sawyer made it way easier. if it wasn't for him i would have just had to stay. of course when we got back he was mad at me. and while we were gone he got his first tooth. but was it worth it? ya it was. i am already planning my next cruise. new zealand/australia? yes please. now all i have to do is save thousand of dollars and wait 20 years and i'll be on my way. whos with me??

birthdays and such

2011-04-24T12:19:00.000-06:00

lets start with the such shall we? we tried to take sawyer to the park behind our house the other day and it didn't go as planned. basically he hated it. better luck next time i suppose.

brysons birthday was quickly approaching and i wanted to make him a customized iphone cover. so my mom and i had a little photo shoot with sawyer last week. it is not easy to take pictures of babies... he kept moving! can you believe that? i know, shocking. eventually we made my brother try to make him smile while my mom made sure he didn't move and i took the pictures. it does indeed take three adults to take a picture of a baby. we eventually got some but it was a rather stressful situation for all involved. so i salute you photographers.

sometimes i just don't know what to do with my child. there are times that he actually plays with his toys but usually he doesn't want anything to do with them he would rather play with clementines.

for some reason he find the string that draws the blinds fascinating. and apparently it tastes delicious. he also likes to climb up pillows and fall down. he really doesn't enjoy the falling down part but that is usually what comes after the climbing. i have gotten into a really bad habit of scooping him up each time he falls and cradling him and petting his hair and kissing him. now every time he as much as tips over he looks at me and cries. oops.

i think his most favorite activity as of late is climbing the stairs. i find myself just sitting at the bottom of them because he of course cannot climb down them.

this is the face he makes when i say no. then he usually does it anyway and i take pictures. good parenting i know.

now onto the birthday. bryson is 27 now. which if you haven't worked out is basically 30. i like to remind him of that and i think it is greatly appreciated. see i can do that because i am only 26.. nowhere close to thirty. the birthday celebrations where a success. we started out with brunch at communal with our dear friends jake and amy. then a bbq at my parents.

when i asked him what cake he wanted me to make him he said i want your mom to make brownies.
okay.....

sawyer looking for the dog in his old man pajamas

next up laser tagging. here we are at the trafalga in lehi. which might i add is a hoppin place on the weekends. if you ever want to hang out with a bunch of unfortunate looking teenagers i suggest you go there.

i am not with child so i don't know why hes doing that.

the murtcurfs and their son

not very many of brysons friends could come so i invited mine

and my brother and his friends

what an adorable 27 year old

after laser tagging we went and saw the movie hanna. which was a little bit crazy but good.

thats all for now. this week we are getting ready for our cruise on saturday. i am feeling better this time around about abandoning my child. not sure if thats a good or bad thing...

pura vida

2011-04-12T16:44:00.001-06:00

we are back from costa rica. i want to start off by saying that yes my baby does remember me. or he seems to at least. i know you were probably concerned because of my last post but i survived. lets move on shall we?

we went with brysons work. it was a club trip for those reps who hit their numbers last year. whatever that means... all i know is that we got to go to costa rica all expenses paid and we went to an all inclusive result. way to go bryson.

our flight situation wasn't exactly ideal. we left tuesday night and got to costa rica wednesday afternoon. we had like three hundred layovers. luckily there was a little time to catch up on some prison break. i would like to point out that i am not bald. although this picture certainly makes it look like i am.

we stayed at the riu guanacaste. it was super pretty and clean and fab. the food was not the greatest but it was mango season and they were SOOOOO good. the resort had a huge pool with a swim up bar where we had plenty of pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris (virgin of course) , and the beach was within walking distance. it was bloody hot and we both got 5th degree sunburns. never hear of them? theyre pretty serious.

when we walked into our room this little guy was just waiting for us. its not exactly like you can step on them... so it was rather entertaining watching bryson try to catch it in a cup and set it free. which he did successfully. but by the time we saw the second one we were over it and we all cohabited just fine.

this was our first day there as you can tell by our pasty white bodies. the more i look at this picture i'm just not sure why i put it up... its pretty hideous

every night we would go down to the beach and watch the sunset. it was so pretty i wanted to marry it.

this is what happens when you don't have anyone to take a picture for you .

this was our little spot by the pool. we would have stayed at the beach all day except there wasn't any shade and it really was 150 degrees.

bryson being the adventurous man he is went zip lining through the jungle. he loved it. i stayed at the pool and got burned.

more beautiful sunsets

our last day, drinking our last drinks. we were sad to leave but ready to get back to our baby. i only had one minor meltdown while we were there so i'm going to chalk it up as a success. and its a good thing because in three weeks we're going on a cruise and i'm abandoning my baby all over again. sigh.

i love him

2011-04-04T13:15:00.000-06:00

separation anxiety

2011-04-01T14:28:00.000-06:00

(could you leave this face? i think not)

bryson and i are going to costa rica on tuesday. i know beach, fun, sun, ya ya ya but when i think about the fact that i have to leave my baby behind and leave the country i literally keel over in pain. real, deep excruciating pain right in my heart. and gut. im not being dramatic either this is real people.

since sawyer was born i have been away from him twice. the first time bryson and i went down to st george on a saturday and came back sunday. the second time i went up to park city on a friday night and came back saturday afternoon. i mean we leave him and go on dates for a few hours, but not for very long. so this is a big deal. big. huge.

don't get me wrong it sounds nice to have a break and go to the pool but i will cry. see i'm very attached to my child. like unhealthily, possessively, obsessed with my child. last night at midnight i went up to his room and took my sleeping baby out of his crib and made him cuddle with me. which surprisingly didn't turn out to one of my best ideas.. shocking i know.

my fear is he will forget about me while i'm gone or start walking or talking! what if he realizes i abandoned and he is mad at me? or feels really sad! what if he meets someone and gets married?? what if he never recognizes me again? what if he grows three feet and loses all his babyness? what if my plane crashes? i don't have a will. he will become a property of the state! keeling over in pain.

so obviously i have some deeply rooted psychological problems and i just don't know how i'm going to get over this. pura vida.

unemployment

2011-03-31T12:58:00.000-06:00

so i don't have a job. well i do... i am a mother and oprah says that motherhood is not only a full time job but the most difficult job out there. so there's that. and lets get one thing straight i am not complaining about the lack of employment. all i wanted growing up was to one day not have a job. its true im one of those women. i'm cool with it. i have paid my dues you know. i worked for a long 8 years! i brought endless amounts of diet coke to golfers and soup, salad and bread sticks to the nice people of provo. dues paid. anywho i have been through several...phases if you will. different phases to fill my time. i would like to share them with you.

phase #1: the newborn phase
the newborn phase was rather difficult for me. at that time my dear baby would cry all the day long. he would only nap in my arms and he wanted to eat every two hours and it took him about an hour to eat each time... therefore my time was spent nursing, rocking holding, repeat.

phase #2: greys anatomy/nutella love affair phase

around four month my baby started to take a good 2-3 hour nap. in his crib. thats right he was a real baby now and life was good. i actually started watching greys when he was first born but it was always interrupted. so now i could eat nutella and just watch and watch for hours. it was unproductive and fattening but it was necessary. months later i would give away my jar of nutella because it was becoming a real problem.

phase #3: candle making phase

after watching all six seasons of greys anatomy and gaining what i can only imagine was a good 10 pounds it was time for a change. i still had those couple hour to kill during the day and what better way to spend my time then making candles. hello! who doesn't make candles when they're bored thats the real question. well it was a good time but now i have several candles that i just don't know what to do with...

phase #4: baking and treat making phase

this one was short lived.. all it took was one very failed attempt to make paula deens lemon blossoms and i was over it. i still bust out the occasional cookie when i'm feeling chubby though.

phase #5: cleaning frenzy phase

i think this was the only phase bryson truly appreciated. aside from the newborn one of course. i cleaned and organized everything. for several hours a day. my house smelled like lysol and windex. the laundry was freakishly caught up all the time. it was odd. well lets just say that phase didn't last as long as i was hoping.

phase #6: crafting...ish phase

who wants to clean when you can craft! however i do use the term "craft" lightly. my idea of crafting is finding things in my house i can mod podge. so i make picture frames and whatnot while watching 30 rock. and yes i consider that heart "garland" crafting. i had to cut out those hearts you know. and then i glued them to that string stuff. talent.

i guess you could say i am still in phase 6. however i have mod podged everything in my house so i will need to learn a new trade if you will. i am thinking of taking up sewing. i have taken a class before. if you consider seventh grade TLC a class, which i do. and as you can see my baby is only 9 months old so none of these phases last very long. i am trying to incorporate all phases into my life. you know balance or whatever.

i think its safe to say phase #7 will be pool time. here's to unemployment!

bangs

2011-03-30T00:46:00.001-06:00

i have bangs now. its really the most exciting thing to happen to my hair since the "swoop bang". and while i am rather fond of these bangs for the moment they are very high maintenance. i find they need fixing several times a day due to their natural desire to separate. for some reason when other peoples bangs separate they look adorable. mine end up looking like this...

(i do not know this woman, i am sure she is very kind)

wind has become an enemy of mine for obvious reasons and i am forced to wash my hair almost every day. and when i wash my hair i have to blow dry it and that is when things start to get hideous.
there i am just minding my own business, blow drying away in the proper hair drying position (bending over at a 45 degree angle, head down) and when i stand up straight and look in the mirror i see this....

i think its a combination of me not wearing any make up and my face is usually red from being upside down and from the heat of the blow dryer and my bangs are parted down the middle and doing a weird swoopy thing... its not a pretty picture. however i am usually not making that face. or holding a gun...

some days i look more like sister wife while blow drying. those are good days.

well...

2011-03-17T11:02:00.000-06:00

i think its safe to say that nobody reads this blog anymore. its cool. im not mad its my own fault really. once every couple month blogging doesnt exactly make for interesting reading. But i am turning a new leaf. you seen i get real bored when my child naps and am always looking for a hobby of sorts to fill my time. and since i have officially modpodged everything in my house i figure its time to get back into the blogging world. lucky you!

as for a little catch up. my child is now nine month old. he is crawling and into everything. he is very adorable. i can say that because i made him from scratch. (yes i got that from a greys anatomy episode) at his nine month appointment my dr assured me he is normal and developing on track even though i am always doubtful. not that he isn't doing what hes supposed to its just that im crazy. super crazy. like i get more paranoid everyday. therefore i am never having another child. it would push me right over the edge into crazy town. his stats were;

length: 28 inches 25%
weight: 18lbs 7 oz 10%
head circ: 45.5 cm 25%

so... obviously he doesnt take after bryson at all. unfortunate really. bryson asked the dr if there was a chance that he could have some kind of a massive growth spurt at some point in his life to which the dr kindly said "no." way to go dodson/davis genes. way to go. im sure my girls will be 6 feet tall and manly. im not sure why they will be manly....? but i did decide im not having more children so problem solved. we will just have one short little boy and bryson will walk around town looking like a single dad with his two children. (me being one of them because im so short... you get it)

i was going to do more catching up... but since the last time i posted was in november that would just take tooooooo looooong. lets just say happy thanksgiving! congrats jordan and ryan way to get married! happy birthday me! merry christmas! happy new years! happy valentines day! good?

the pictures are mostly from our trip to disneyland a couple weeks ago. i wish i lived there. in disneyland. also i don't know how to put the pictures where i want them to go........... i need my tis to help me.

more to come..............

this is what happens...

2010-11-22T23:24:00.000-07:00

this is what happens at bedtime

this is what happens after a meal at tucanos

this is what happens when you're feeling crafty and also love a delicious snack

this is what happens when your son suffers from somewhat of a flat head

and this is what happens when you don't clip your babies finger nails. bad mom award.

much ado about nothing

2010-11-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

i know this once a month posting is absolutely ridiculous. i just want you to know that i know that. also i think its important to say that the pictures in this post are hideously out of order but i don't really care enough to work on it. if you hadn't noticed this blog had an extreme home makeover. i had to have my tis who has been blogging for about a month do it for me. i'm just no good at it. lets begin shall we? this is my child. this is the face he usually makes.like he thinks you're crazy and that he's generally unhappy but i assure you he is indeed a happy child. most of the time. the first three months of his life he was in fact generally unhappy but we've moved into a more pleasant phase that makes everyone a lot more happy. honestly if it was up to me i would just skip the whole newborn phase. sure they're cute and cuddly but man they're hard. moving on.

beanies and pajamas an obvious choice. we like to throw him in the air. the only time he will laugh is when we throw him or shake him. gently of course.

on to halloween. here we are just your typical cowgirl, bull and bat family. you can't tell from this picture but sawyer was absolutely thrilled to be a bat and its a good thing because i made him wear that adorable costume all weekend. originally i wanted him to wear an over $50 zebra costume from baby gap but we settled on the $15 target costume. whatever bryson.

if i didn't have a husband and a child this new discovery would be the best thing thats ever happened to me. pumpkin yum. cheesecake yum. ice cream yummm. put them all together and hello! it was consumed quickly and i do not regret it. please go get it and then let me watch you eat it.

how adorable is this picture? it was a tender father son moment that i am glad i captured on camera. of course it was with my phone. sawyer loves his dad.. and that thing growing on his face. noshavember.

back to talking about food. this has been my lunch consistently for the past week or so. my baby naps and i eat this delicious ensemble while watching greys anatomy reruns and all is right in the world. seriously i might just smile the entire two hours. there may be laundry to fold and things to clean but i simply cannot deprive mcdreamy of my undivided attention can i? that just wouldn't be fair to him. or meredith.

here we are on our way to st george. my home away from home. have you been to the ramada? its rockin. we went on a little vacay sans baby. i may have teared up a little when we left sawyer with my mom and drove far far away but it was a much needed trip. we slept in and took a nap and saw a movie and had togetherness time. and we came back the next day and my baby still remembered who i was.

and last but not least a little tummy time. tummy time is very serious business if you can't tell by his expression. he rolls and scoots and screams in delight and im pretty sure hes a genius baby or has supernatural powers.

life around here is pretty great. i feel really blessed and fortunate to be able to stay home with sawyer all day. he changes so much and does new things everyday and im glad i don't have to miss any of it. hes my buddy. bryson got accepted to the business program at byu and although that means i will be a single parent for the next two years i am really proud of him. hes a really hard worker. also hes really good looking.
this was a ridiculously long post.the end

this is what we do

2010-10-14T23:27:00.000-06:00

we go to jack johnson concerts

we say "way to go!"

we lounge on beds

we stare at hanging ducks

we test out pools

we go on dates

we fail to correctly put on pajamas

we go on more dates

we talk baby talk

we sit

and we bathe. happily.

and we fail to take pictures with anything other than our phones.

my baby

2010-08-24T10:33:00.000-06:00

well my baby is two months now. 10 weeks today to be exact. i can't believe how fast the time has gone by. i think he's so little until i look back over pictures from the last couple months and i can't believe how much he's grown.

when he was five weeks my amazingly talented friend brynne came to take some pictures for us and they turned out so cute. 

his receding hairline is almost gone. all his beautiful hair has almost fallen out except a patch in the back. kinda like a rat tail.
you might think its cruel to post this picture but this is how he looks most of the time. i don't want to deceive you with all the pleasant looking pictures. that would be wrong of me

here he is at 10 weeks. he makes it look good doesn't he?

we just love him to pieces

because the world is a creepy place...

2010-08-08T23:46:00.000-06:00

this blog is about to go private folks. i know, i know so annoying but there are a lot of weirdos out there. leave me your email addresses now!

sawyer

2010-07-14T23:31:00.000-06:00

our baby boy is finally here! actually he got here about a month ago, its hard to find time to eat let alone blog so don't judge me

sawyer was a week late the little turd. i was induced june 15th. we went in at 10:00 that morning i started pushing at 10:00 that night and at 11:10 he finally made his entrance into our lives and they certainly haven't been the same since! he was 8 pounds 9 oz and 20 inches. no wonder i was so miserable the last couple weeks. like i had room for that size of a baby.

labor was a little rough. i'll spare you all the gory details but i will just say forceps were used and we both had battle wounds to prove it. the poor little guy had quite the cone head, he also had a huge red mark around his eye and some scratches on his forehead. he was quite the sight! after he was born we realized his blood sugar was low, and since he was having a hard time latching on they took him to the nicu and gave him an iv to bring his blood sugar back up. it was not fun. but after a few days we were able to take him home and all is well now.

we just love him so much despite him being a really fussy baby. he always lets us know when he needs something even though most of the time we really don't know what that is... but he has started smiling so it makes it all worth it. he's so cute. he has a receding hairline only a mother could love. he also had really big feet and hands. he's long and skinny just like his mom...

all the pictures are from brysons phone so the quality is no bueno but they'll have to do for now. until next time...

hello

2010-04-15T17:05:00.000-06:00

its been a while has it not? i figured its time for a post of sorts. let me start off by saying yes.. i am still pregnant. and no i am not particularly pleased about it but we do want a fully cooked baby so i try not to complain (which doesnt really work). its just difficult when your torso is four inches long and what feels like a giant baby resides in your ribs. i'm sure some of you have been there. see how good i am at not complaining?

all things aside this pregnancy has been pretty smooth sailing. aside from the whole gestational diabetes thing. good times let me tell you. its really not as bad as i though, i do have to check my blood sugar a couple times a day and make sure i'm watching my portion sizes and basically cut out all things delicious and tasty but it hasn't been that bad. i don't have to give myself insulin shots or anything like that and i really really don't want a ten pound baby so i do what i'm told... for the most part. i just hope it goes away after... if not i will kill someone.

bryson is just finishing up his first semester at byu. he loves it. he's really embraced his inner zoobie. he even got a bike to ride around town. what a dear. in his spare time, if he has any, i would say he enjoys hanging out with his adorable wife and yelling at the jazz... through the tv of course. because they can hear him.

aside from being pregnant and going to school and working there isn't much going on around the gunter home. i am deeply deeply invested in lost and biggest loser. my tuesday nights are really the highlight of my week. when i found out glee was on tuesdays this season i almost pooped my pants but i think i have it all figured out. i have had to cut american idol from my life.. there was just no time! stupid dvr only recording two things at once. tell me what did people do before drv's? hello! life would be pure hell without it. that sounds dramatic but its very true.

well thats all for now. due to my blogging history i think its safe to say that my next post will most likely be introducing little sawyer to the world because lets face it there is not a great chance that i'll blog again in the next 7 weeks.

oh boy

2010-01-28T19:06:00.000-07:00

well its offical... baby is a boy! this proves two things; a: the chinese birthing chart is crap and b: i have absolutely no maternal instincts (i was sure it was a girl) however i couldn't be happier. and suprisingly neither could bryson. we went in for our ultrasound tuesday and it was such a cool experience. what is not cool is that they make you drink a whole bunch of water and then press on your bladder for a half hour. the first the nurse said when we started the ultrasound is "oh my you have a tiny bladder!" no? really? i almost peed on the table. after that she found the baby and the first thing we saw was his little pee pee. i think he was excited to show it to us because we have been calling him a girl for the past five months. oops. he even grabbed himself at one point. isn't he classy? it was so fun seeing him kicking and moving although i still couldn't feel any of it :( the dr said i should in a couple of weeks. the little man was bent in half most of the time so the lady doing the ultrasound couldn't get a good look at his heart so we get to go back in four weeks for another ultrasound. which is fine by me! just this time i won't drink so much dang water. 16oz is a lot for someone who's bladder is the size of a pea! now we just have to get ready for the little guy to come!

baby

2009-12-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

well i think everyone already knows because we're not very good at secrets but i thought now would be a good time to announce to the world that im pregnant! yay for baby! it took us about a year to get this little nugget here so we're beyond thrilled. my due date is June 12th, which makes me 13 weeks. i am starting to feeling a tiny bit less pukey but nothing to get too excited about it. also i have zero energy but i here that comes back so i'm looking forward to that. 

i am hoping its a boy and byrson is hoping its a girl because we're weird like that, although i just have a gut feeling its a girl. we call it a she all the time so i hope it is or we're going to give the poor little guy a complex before he's even born. its a little alarming how little i know about babies so its a good thing i have the next six months to do some research. i'm also hoping my kid doesn't cry or puke. 

the picture of the baby at the top of the post is what my baby probably looks like right now. in all reality it probably looks like a little alien but that baby is so cute! i'm very worried my baby is going to come out with a unibrow (sorry bryson) but thats what plucking and waxing is for right?!

i feel like i should also mention that i will not be posting any "baby bump pictures" its just not going to happen. i enjoy when you all do it but when you looked pregnant before you actually get knocked up its just not cute.

thats all for now. i have to pee

chalk paint is fun

2009-09-04T14:02:00.000-06:00

so i know we are a little behind the times but we just discovered chalk paint and boy is it a joy. we decided to paint one of the walls in brysons office and let me tell you we have a love/hate relationship with this stuff. it is black and sticky and lethal. bryson had black paint stained on his hands for several days... it was actually rather funny. anyways two days later and the wall was completed! and it is more than anything we could have dreamed of! here is the progress of the wall in photos. please enjoy.

summer lovin

2009-07-26T21:30:00.001-06:00

here is our rather uneventful summer thus far all in one post. warning: this post may or may not contain a bunch of pictures that are pretty lame.

here we are in an airplane on our way the beautiful and sunny san diego. why don't i live there? oh ya i'm poor.
here is the fam literally running to the beach

aww cute parents

almost every night we would go watch the sun set at the beach. it was glorious

here is bryson at sea world looking thrilled. doesn't he look thrilled?

a dolphin

here we are waiting to see some lame... oh i mean awesome... show at sea world. we were in san diego for a week and it went by soo fast and i miss it very much. i want to go to there.

i realize the forth of july was almost a month ago but i was on a role with the whole uploading picture thing that i just kept going. so here we are at the balloon festivle.

jordan and bryson. this picture pretty much sums up their relationship.

i realize i never put up any pictures of our condo. im sure all five of you who read this have probably already been to our place but here are a few anyway. its a work in progress but we love it. we do not however love the kids who live here.

i can't believe how fast this summer has gone by! bryson will be back in school before i know it. and then george michael and i will be all alone. that is if george michael lasts that long. anyone want a bunny? he is free and cute. well thats all for done.

dear all of you,

2009-07-10T20:02:00.000-06:00

hi, you may or may not know me. i probably went to high school or junior high with you. maybe i was just friends with your sister 10 years ago. i may know you through a friend. or maybe you're just married to some guy i used to go to school with. it might be possible that we have never spoken, but i need to ask a favor of you... please don't go private. its really a drag. i promise i wont come to that giant new house you probably just bought, or steal that cute baby you probably just had. i just want to cyber stalk you. is that so wrong? i don't think so.
love, jaclyn

george michael

2009-06-22T22:04:00.000-06:00

well its official we are parents! we brought our son george michael home about a week ago. he is now eight weeks old and just a bundle of joy! naturally it has been rather difficult juggling work and motherhood but i am adjusting rather well. bryson has been rather unhelpful.
george michael enjoys eating bananas, pooping on the carpet, and hiding under the couch. he doesn't enjoy the fifty pounds worth of food we bought him, carrots, or being held.

and even though i am overly confident that i am allergic to this baby of mine i still love him.

(please forgive me for the poor quality of these photos, they're from my phone. i am far to busy these days to even shower let alone search for my camera, oh the joys of being a mother)

as of late

2009-05-07T23:28:00.000-06:00

i have had many request for a new post and i mean a lot. i am really popular. i guess i never really grasped just how important i am until now. obviously i am kidding. ok so anyway really exciting things have been happening.

on may third bryson and i celebrated out first year anniversary. who would have ever thought we would make it to a year. kidding mom. i actually don't think my mom even reads this. kidding jodi! to celebrate we went down to st george with our dear friends the tates. we stayed at the inns at entrada. so fun. the weather was perfect. we went to vegas, went to the movies, out to eat, got massages (me and jules), went to the pool and just relaxed. it was a much needed getaway. for our anniversary i made bryson get me a wedding band. its sparkly. i got him nothing because i am just that good of a wife.

i have a twitter account. now this is really exciting because i love celebrities and as far as i am concerned they love me. i spend most of my time these day trying to get ryan seacrest and matthew perry to talk to me. now i haven't had much success but i feel like one day it will happen and when it does i will cry happy tears.

bryson turned twenty five april 23rd. he is so old. to celebrate i went to see wicked (more on that later) with my mom and sister and his mom and sister and g-ma and he worked a double. wife of the year award. he handled the big day with grace and didn't have a nervous breakdown like i will when i turn the big two five.

like i said.... i went to see wicked! it was aaaaamazing. this was my fourth time and i must say it was better then when i saw it in chicago or LA. plus the prophet was there so that made it even more special. he looked at waved at me, its not a big deal.

dr green's tumor came back. this time its inoperable. he's being pretty stubborn about taking it easy at work but if carrie weaver would just lay off he'd be okay. (er season 8, don't judge)

there are exactly 64 days until our san diego vacay. i need to lose exactly 75 pounds before then. this is soo doable.

it is offically summer for bryson and i am happy to report that he got all A's this semester. how amazing is that? i like to brag.

if you're looking for a good book to read i would suggest The Pact by Jodi Picoult. very good.

well friends thats it for now. i think i will work on taking some pictures because posts are much more exciting when pictures are involved.

we've moved!

2009-03-21T14:49:00.000-06:00

ya this isn't really our house, but it would be cool if it was. we really did move though, we bought a condo in lehi and love it. i'll post pictures when we paint and finally unpack and everything looks purdy. other the the whole moving thing we've just been doing the usual work and school thing, nothing to exciting. we are looking forward to the summer now that we have a pool within walking distance. other than that not much to report... just truckin along. loves!

24 going on 95

2009-02-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

i can't tell if i'm bored or lazy. its a tough call. either way i feel like an old lady. i think part of my problem is i hate running errands. i could have stuff to do but i just don't want to do it. like ive been needing to get some pants hemmed and pick up some shampoo and hair stuff for weeks but even in a state of immense boredom i can't make myself leave the apartment. lazy? probably.

id like to hang out with my friends but and lets be honest i probably wouldn't actually leave the comfort of my sweats and couch if something exciting was really going on. maybe im not lazy or bored.... im just tired. im a working woman! although i feel like a really old mom who's burnt out from a day of chasing children, laundry, cooking, cleaning and whatever else mothers do... when in all actuality all i did was go to work. and work just happens to exhaust me to the point where the first thing i do when i come home is change into sweats.

on wednesday i went to bed at 9:30. and felt okay about it.

is there something wrong with me? maybe im dying. i need an energy boost of sorts. although i feel like i should have a healthy supply of energy since im only in my mid to late twenties. maybe i should go to the gym or something.... that sure does take a lot of effort though.. oh man.

there really is no point to this post. it gave me something to do and and took very little effort. maybe you out there reading this could give me some good ideas on how to not feel like a 95 year old?

anyone?

once upon a time...

2009-02-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

The Rules: 1. Go to your documents/pictures. 2. Go to your 6th file. 3. Go to your 6th picture. 4. Blog about it. 5. Tag 6 people to do the same. 6. So here we go...

so this picture is one of our many engagment pictures. it was taken in april and it was so cold! by the end of the day it was starting to snow. which of course sent us into a state of panic because our reception, which was outside, was in just a few weeks. this picture was taken by the beautiful and talented brynne louder. oh and yes my hair was blonde.

the end

i tag

kellee

la la

jade

jules

jacqueline

oh bother........

2009-02-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

So i figured it was time i posted something although i really have nothing to say and nothing much is going on. i really hate january. the holidays are over and everyones back in school and its so cold... poopy.

things are pretty boring around the gunter household these days. its all work and school for us. however i did get a new job and that was a very exciting event. if you know me at all you know that i loathed my job and could not wait to get out. i was sick of working late nights and weekends and soup and salad. I'm now working at Flagship Financial Group in Lehi doing loan processing. I'm really enjoying it so far even though the first week was really overwhelming. since all i've been doing for the past four years is either bringing people food and drink or walking them to their table so someone else can bring them food and drink... i felt a little lost to say the least. fortunately by the end of the week i was feeling pretty good about things, and i'm guessing in a few weeks when i have everything down i will love it even more. i feel bad leaving my poor husband behind but it was time to go. now i get to wear real people clothes and i don't have to wear a tie and look like an L all week. i think bryson and i will realize how much we really got to see each other and work because now we are on pretty opposite schedules but i guess thats how it goes for most people.

im trying to think of something else thats going on with us and sadly i can't. boo we're boring. seriously the most exciting things going on (besides my new job because that really is exciting) are....
* lost came back on. but who am i kidding that really is exciting.
* my dad bought me an iphone. love the dad.
* i didn't have to work this weekend. and although i was SO looking forward to it, i found myself rather bored and lonely.
* we got brysons parents old jack lalanne juicer! we spent about an hour making orange and strawberry juice. not much juice in bananas turns out....
* we are now on season 3 of er. it just keeps getting better. although dr susan lewis just left. how could she do that to mark?
* did i mention i get to wear jeans to work?
* the sun has decided to make an appearance, and i think its going to stick around all week.

told you we are boring. i should probably find a hobby or somthing productive to do since i have my nights and weekends off now. hopefully somthing exciting happens soon so i have somthing to say. im sorry if you felt like you had to read this whole post...........i feel like just rambling now, its probably because i'm so bored.

Oh and happy birthday to my tis tomorrow! the big 2 0. you're old.

christmas day with the dodson clan and a trip to louisiana

2009-01-03T01:04:00.001-07:00

christmas eve night jordan and jesse came to spend the night so we moved out mattress out in the family room (we just moved it back into our room about twenty minutes about) and watched elf and then woke up at the crack of dawn to go to my parents for christmas morning

i love when santa puts mascara in the stocking

my grandparents came over that morning to watch us open presents and then eat breakfast. later that night we went to their house for more presents and more food.

santa (my parents) bought bryson a d will jersey. lets just say he was pretty excited about it.

jordan looking adorable.

the day after christmas we flew to louisiana to spend time with my moms side of the family. it was soo good to see everyone we only get to see once a year.

one day we drove out to the town of natchitoches and had a little picnic and strolled the streets of the old town and did some shopping.

brother

we had an awesome christmas and had such a fun time in louisiana and really enjoyed spending so much time with each other and our families. as far as 09 goes so far i have dropped my phone in the toilet, our car has been towed, and our water heater broke so we're hoping the year gets a little better from here on out!

tv is my life

2008-12-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

so im sitting here on this chilly saturday night bored to tears because my adorable husband is watching survivor man. do i care that you caught a turtle, ripped off his legs, and cooked him over a fire? um no. and the fact that it is indeed my birthday does make this story a rather sad one. however even though this show is terribly terrible it has inspired me to blog about my favorite shows. shows that are actually good. lucky you right? also, im bored. i'll admit that some of these shows i am not entirely proud of but i believe in being an honest blogger. so here we go.

lost how i love you. how i love everything about you. how i obsess over you. if you do not watch this show i secretly judge you. ok not really but it is awesome. and i CANNOT wait for it to come back in january. jack i love you. also i will name my first son sawyer.
if you haven't seen how i met you mother yet i highly suggest you watch it. yes it has doogie howzer in it and ya ya he's gay and what not but he is SUPER funny. just watch it.

im sure most of you have seen 30 rock. its cracks me up.

ok now i'm a fan of the office but lately i feel like it hasn't been as funny? anyone agree? maybe its because the whole jim and pam tension is gone? im not sure. is still watch it every week in hopes that it will be funny. come on office!!

love scrubs. its on abc this fall. not a huge fan of last season hopefully it will be better this season. plus i'm sara chalkes (elliot) biggest fan. she is awesome.

i know friends isn't on tv anymore but i will forever love it. it is my favorite show and i adore it. plus i have a crush on jennifer aniston. i feel like i know her and we are friends. i love you jen!

don't judge me. its really cute. right jules??

i saved this one for last so that i could gain a little respect before you all completely disregard my opinion. its just a guiltly pleasure. leave me alone. spencer and hiedi? i hate them therefore i must watch them.

i love tv and would die without my dvr. tv is my friend.

watch out world...

2008-12-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

she has a blog. it is true that her not having a blog never stoped her from being a creep creep and looking at all of you... but can i ask that you all befriend her? accept her into this blogging world. she means you no harm. jade you can be my blog friend for life. amen

i'm a creep..

2008-12-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

so i have a confession.. im a blog stalker. i am, its true. its so addicting and easy and i love it. and now everyone is going private and its such a drag. however will i continually check up on your personal life if you go private? i like to find random people who i went to jr high with and then tell my husband what they're up to as if he cares. then i cry when i see that people have giant houses and cute babies and go on fun trips and have real jobs because i live in a shack and go nowhere except the olive garden and walmart. gag. am i wierd? am i really a creep or does everyone do it? im going to say that maybe not EVERYONE does it but im sure some people do... that way i feel a little better about myself and less creepy like. maybe its just that other peoples lives are way more interesting than mine... or maybe i'm just bored and have way too much time on my hands. i felt like i should vent this publicly so that maybe if you were blog stalking my blog and read this you would feel a little better about yourself.

* the cat is me and the bird is all of you in case you were wondering

oh christmas tree..

2008-12-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

its finally christmas time! my favorite time of the year. and since there is a serious lack of snow (not that i'm complaining) we decided we needed to bring the christmas spirit to our apartment. so we headed off to the good ol' walmart for a few essentials. lets be honest i HATE walmart with a passion that burns so bright, but we're poor so i got over it.we got our tree at a cute tree lot and it smells amazing! since our apartment is so small you can smell the tree throughout and now the place just reeks of christmas joy. and yes he's sawing in the middle of our family room.

we invited our good friends lee sara and kaity over to help us with the festivities. we listened to christmas music (courtesy of jules) and put lights and decorations on our beloved tree.
lee is shy
it beautiful isn't it. i couldn't get a good picture of it in all its glory but it is still a work of art. we put a few ornaments on the tree that we've had since we were kids and it added a really nice personal touch.

i also finally had something to fill my cute vases i got from my wedding. hurray for christmas.

i love this time of year. i have watched elf like five times already. god bless everyone. even the weird guy who lives below us who is out smoking in the wee hours of the morning. visual? quasimodo in sweat pants on a cell phone circling the parking lot... and smoking of course. or the guy who lives across the street from us who was handcuffed and taken to jail. merry christmas handcuffed guy. and merry christmas to all of you. :)

First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookie-dough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle.

Just in case you were curious....

2008-12-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

yes this is what our future children will look like.... can't wait

anniversary and jazz game

2008-11-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

our sixth month anniversary was on nov third and we take any chance we can to go eat yummy food so we went up to sundance. on sundays (i know i know we skipped church to go eat.. we are sinners) the foundry grill does the most wonderful brunch. it is seriously sooo good. so we ate and ate and talked and had a really good time. i love my husband, and the last six months have been amazing!

our good friend lee had a birthday extravaganza wednesday night, we went to the jazz game and sat in a suit and they brought us food and treats and we watched the game and it was awesome!

the birthday boy! we love you lee!

bryson and jake

we love the jazz! especially when they win :)

halloweeny fun

2008-11-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

we had a fun little halloween season starting with some pumpkin carving and ending with a halloween party.before we carved our pumkins we buckled them into the car for a safe car ride.
i know this isn't our baby but he is adorable and in a pumpkin so it was worth blogging about.

carving fun

lee doing some really good work

taking in all of our good work

arent they beautiful?

holla!

harry and cho (lee and sara)

happy halloween!

The most enchanting, the most intriguing, the most awesome hour of television ever . . . but for how long?

2008-10-29T14:15:00.001-06:00

For those of you that frequent our blog often I have a request for you. There is a little unknown show on every Wednesday night on ABC called Pushing Daisies. It is probably the best television show that I have ever watched before in my entire young life with only one downfall: it doesn't get enough ratings and ABC might be pulling it after this season. It is like they want to rip my heart right out of my chest and dangle it on a string right in front of me. The show is amazing, its like watching an hour long movie every week and it never lets me down. The plot is simple: a young boy discovers he has a very mystical and magical power which allows him to bring back the dead simply by touching them with his finger, the only drawback is that if the dead person that he just brought back to life is alive for longer than a minute, another alive thing that is in close proximity drops dead. Jump ahead twenty years and the young boy is now the pie maker who makes the most amazing pies ever because he has the ability to take dead fruit and transform it into the most delicious fruit ever just by his touch. A local detective discovers the pie makers ability and talks him into joining him in solving murders because who is a better witness to the murder than the murder victim themselves. OK, Ok so maybe it isn't quite that simple, but it is oh so very entertaining and I am calling out to everyone out there to make an effort and try to watch it every Wednesday night so that it won't get cancelled. Jaclyn and I have the first season on DVD if you would like to get caught up from the very beginning. Amen.

the latest and greatest.. and some old stuff.

2008-10-14T19:33:00.000-06:00

i know we havent posted in a really long time. so just in case anyone checks this anymore i decided to catch everyone up on what we've been up to. also im kind of a tard and posted all the pictures from the most recent to the oldest ones. so i'll catch everyone up back wards.this is my new fall wreath. i got it at pier one and i love it. exciting i know.
bryson had to make a mask for school and he was very proud of it and wanted me to show everyone.
he has been pretty busy with school. he sits at his little desk from the D.I. and does his homework and i bring him food like a good wifey.

this beauty is the newest addition to our family. another pier one purchase. niether of us really sit in it but its pretty.

i went to see jack johnson with my fam this summer and it was a lot of fun. he sounded so amazing live! i got some good pics but then deleted them.. i don't know why. it was a lot of fun except there was a rather trashy screaming drunk woman behind us who everyone wanted to punch but other than that it was a good night.

we went to island park with the gunter clan in august and stayed in a super nice cabin. it was a lot of fun. we went boating and to a play and alyssa sang to us. it was amazing.

bryson went through a small facial hair phase..... its over now. don't worry.

back in july our dearest friend shannon came to visit before she headed back east to go to law school and while she was here we went to raging waters and made a feast and of course had a sleep over. we miss her a lot and love her to pieces.

we got a new table from target forever ago.

i post this picture not because its attractive but because this is the last picture of bryson with his wedding ring. yes he lost it. he did have it for a good two months though which is pretty impressive. just a little adive dont go tubing down the river with your wedding ring on.

over the summer we hung out with our besties lee and sara everyday. now that school has started we never see them. if we didnt see them at work we would think they were dead. may they rest in peace.

for the fourth of july we got up super early and went to the hot air balloon festival in provo. we used to go a lot when i was kid but i hadnt been in years and bryson had never been. it was really neat to see. that day was full of the usual festivities which i did not take pictures of. but as far as i can remember it was a blast!

i don't really remember when we took this picture but i thought it was cute. we are both tan which we are soo not anymore. i think i will try to blog more. not that we really do anything exciting. its all work school and more work and school. if anything great happens i'll keep everyone posted :)

remember?

2008-08-13T19:39:00.000-06:00

remember how i never posted wedding pictures? or st george pictures? or anything at all really? ok good. sure my parents live like five minutes away and im over there several times a week but sometimes i just forget okay people! now that thats out of the way i will catch you up.. basically we work all the time and when we're not working we're most likely watching tv and as of lately it has been the olympics! last night the girls gymnastic team flushed a gold down the toilet! hello! who falls off the beam? and steps out of bounds like twelve times? i wouldnt have. but good ol' phelps never disappoints so thats been fun to watch. tomorrow we're going to island park with the gunters and we are pumped! i promise on the life of my mother i will post some pics when i return... loves

Me and D-Will

2008-07-13T21:52:00.000-06:00

So this is my first stab at blogging so please forgive me if I sound bad. Any who, you might be wondering who this is in the picture with me. If you know The Jazz then you know him. That's right, thats my boy D-Will and me. I was lucky enough to be invited back to help out at The Champions Challenge at Thanksgiving point again by Jaclyn's dad and lo and behold Darrin Williams was one of the celebrities invited to play. We are now best friends and he texts me often....ok so that last part was made up but it was still pretty neat to take a photo with him. Well, I gots to go now, if you feel like making a comment on my blogging skills or how good I look with my boy Darrin go right ahead.

im sorry!

2008-06-19T16:39:00.000-06:00

i know i havent posted in a long time but you cant get mad because i don't have a computer so its hard! im directing this to those of you who have gotten mad at me for not posting. im sorry! tonight we leave for st george for a little weekend get away. so i promise i will have pictures and a post when we get back. loves!

sunday night dinner

2008-05-31T21:45:00.001-06:00

after church on sunday we had some of our good friends over to make a feast, and a feast it was. we made steak, potatoes, green beans and corn bread complimented with a great glass of kool aid. we're classy people. basically the boys cooked the whole time and sara and i were on clean up duty which is a lot of fun when you don't have a dishwasher.. we finished the night by watching batman begins. it was a fun filled night. here are some highlights.

our apartment may be small but we still love having people over. if you havent come by yet you should! we will feed you!

our new old apartment

2008-05-31T21:30:00.000-06:00

here some pics of our new place for those of you who havent seen in yet. its old and slightly ghetto but we love it. our bedroom

the small but beautiful kitchen

the one and only bathroom

ive been tagged.(this has never happened before so im kinda nervous)

2008-05-31T21:10:00.000-06:00

How to play this game of tag:
post these rules on your blog.
answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog
list 3 joys, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, and 3 random surprising facts.
tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. let them know they are tagged by leaving them a comment on their blog. here it is....

three joys
1. my hubby
2. our new apartment
3. friends and family. (i know that technically those are two separate things but i don't care)

three goals
1. get a big girl job
2. have cute babies. (the "cute" is a must)
3. find a hobby that doesnt include watching the food network for hours on end

three current obsessions/collections
1. all things Lost.. i mean how do you move an island??
2. the food network.
3. diet coke.

three random surprising facts
1. im kinda into basketball.... kinda...
2. i wish i was an olympic gymnast.
3. i like to keep my apartment clean.

i tag.... jules t, alyssa g, ashley c, brynne l, and...... lara t. go!

hello from utah.......

2008-05-19T00:18:00.000-06:00

so we're back. bryson gave the whole apx thing a shot and decided it wasnt for him and we packed it up and came home. who wants to knock doors and try to sell people things anyway? well first we made a small three hour detour to chicago. it was amazing! our wonderful friends jade and lori got us a nights stay in chicago as a wedding gift so we took full advantage of that before we came home. of course they went above and beyond and got us a ridiculously nice suite for the night. it had huge windows that overlooked the whole city.we didnt want to leave. we didn't really plan out our trip because it was so short notice and we didnt really know where to go so we went and saw wicked of course(four rows back from the stage), and then just kinda wondered around the city, ate at the house of blues, and then hit up our awesome hotel room to watch game five of the jazz/lakers series. which turned out to be the only disappointing part of our trip. stupid jazz. after chicago we made our way back to utah. worst. drive. ever! you drive through a bunch of nothingness for like twenty hours. so lame. so now we're back.. and even though we're homeless and unemployed we couldnt be happier to be home.

wedding reception

2008-05-19T00:10:00.000-06:00

heres just a few pics from the reception. we should be getting pictures from our photographer back soon. i'll post some as soon as i get them! i can't even put into words how amazing our wedding day was. so i wont even try..... loves!

hello from davenport

2008-05-08T18:03:00.000-06:00

well its official we're married and living in iowa! to be honest its all a big blur. our wedding day was amazing!! we keep saying how we wish we could go back and do it all over again. it goes by so fast. my advice to any future brides out there is to really soak it all in because its over before you know it and then all of a sudden youre sitting alone in an apartment in iowa! :) our internet connection is not very good and i forgot to pack the little cord thing that connects the camera to the computer so no pictures yet but i promise i'll post some of our apartment as soon as my mom mails the cord to me. that and my straightener and everything else that i forgot. our apartment is perfect. its brand new and just the right size. so far so good. oh and the cable guy comes on saturday so i think i'll survive. its nearly going to kill me not being able to watch scrubs the office and lost tonight..... i think i'll be okay. we had our first grocery shopping experience yesterday. we bought hot dogs and forgot to buy the buns, hamburger helper but no hamburger..... the list goes on. we'll get the hang out it soon enough. for now bryson is going to get used to knocking on doors and im going to start writing all those thank you cards! i just want to thank everyone who made our wedding so amazing. it was the best day of our lives! it couldnt have been any better, it was perfect! we miss all our friends and family already but i think this summer is going to be a good one. more from us soon!

bridals+birthdays+bridal showers+jazz games+talks in church= ahhhhhhhhh!

2008-04-27T22:19:00.000-06:00

we had a pretty eventful week. tuesday i took some bridal pics out at the gardens at thanksgiving point. thankfully it wasnt snowing however it was freezing, windy, and cloudy. thank you utah weather!is it not april?! wednesday was brysons birthday and the grill at the thanksgiving point golf course was kind enough to let us throw a little shindig there wednesday night. it was pretty chill, some of our friends from the good ol' og came and we just ate and hung out and had a good time. fast forward to saturday my home ward threw me a bridal shower. i got sooo much stuff and it was so fun. that night we went to the jazz game and they won! it was awesome. i also got to watch bryson yell at the jazz like they could hear him or something.... hes a keeper. sunday we gave talks in church. something that was hanging over our heads all week. i spent all week preparing mine and bryson threw together an amazing talk the morning of. great..... we are so glad that its over but we were really thankful for the opportunity we had to speak. the pictures are of all of the events this week. someday i will learn how to upload pictures better. but for now, enjoy! oh and we get married in six days!!! hooray!

top five things ive learned while being engaged...

2008-04-22T22:20:00.000-06:00

1. being engaged for five months is too long. its a lot less stress because you have so long to figure everything out but we have about a week and a half left and i am dying! im so anxious and ready for it to be here. im pretty sure if i had been engaged for three months and was a week and a half away id still probably be anxious but still.... im ready. bring it on.

2. my fiance loves to be involved. i have to pass everything by him. i love it. hes so cute. the basement of my house has practically become a storing unit for all things wedding and the other day bryson came across the knife we bought to cut the cake and was shocked that i hadnt told him we had picked that up. he loves to know whats going on and i think its oh so precious.

3. i get cranky when im anxious. we'll just leave it at that.

4. corsets make for difficult breathing. today we took my bridals outside at the gardens at thanksgiving point. it was really fun to get in my dress and get all dolled up but i think by the end of the wedding day i will want to burn the dress. it looks fabulous but it will cost you....

5. it doesnt matter if its the last sunday you have in your singles ward and youre getting married six days later youll still get called on to give a talk........ so close.....

bridal shower # 1

2008-04-16T12:22:00.000-06:00

some of my favorite people in the world put on a wonderful bridal shower for me last night. it was so fun just to get everyone together. i got tons of great stuff some appropriate some not so much... but it was all appreciated. big thanks to everyone who came! loves!

engagement pics

2008-04-16T11:29:00.001-06:00

here's just a few of our favorites.

only three weeks to go....

2008-04-12T00:37:00.000-06:00

with the wedding quickly approaching we are fairly busy people. today i took and passed my test! i am now a licensed master esthetician. hooray! byrsons last class of the semester is this coming wednesday and he is very excited about it. he has done really good this semester and i am just so very proud. he is such a big big boy. my mother keeps us busy with to-do lists for the wedding. most of which she ends up doing herself or i make her help me. what would i do without her? .....not have a wedding reception thats for sure. planning a wedding can get a bit stressful but its the moving across the country three days after we get married that is a bit overwhelming at times. my parents keep throwing boxes at me trying to make me pack. my dad has said more times than i can count that he is "over me". does he mean it? no. im overly confident that he is just in denial and will cry and cry when i leave. anyway i always end up just looking at the boxes and not getting much done. who likes to pack anyway? i didnt think i would be sad about moving but turns out that i will probably be pretty homesick. good thing ive already unleashed the crazy in front of bryson or my random outbursts of tears would probably worry him. ive never lived more than ten minutes from home! i know i have to grow up but if i could take my mom with me this summer i would. bryson would LOVE it. basically all the big things for the wedding are done so now its all the little details we have to worry about. we sent out announcements yesterday so if you havent gotten one yet its either in the mail or we didnt send you one...... loves.

FINALLY!!!

2008-04-09T16:59:00.000-06:00

i really hope everyone is as excited as i am that the office is back on tomorrow!! i have been in a constant state of mourning since the stupid writers strike and finally we can enjoy the office again. how are jim and pam? what have they been up to? these are things i need to know and now i get to find out tomorrow. so what if my life revolves around tv... dont even get me started on how lost wont be back until the 24th... im okay, im okay..

conference sunday

2008-04-08T02:10:00.000-06:00

sorry ladies he's taken....

2008-04-08T01:57:00.000-06:00

i know what you're thinking..... and no you can't have him, he's mine. conference sunday we spent the first session at my house and then drove up to bryson's parents for the second. after of course came trampoline fun and dinner. when we got back we stuffed about twelve hundred announcements.... okay not really but it felt like it! my guess that is if you're reading this you should be getting one in the mail in about a week!

did we say chicago....?

2008-03-30T01:14:00.000-06:00

so as most of you know we are moving this summer, actually we are moving two days after we get hitched! we've been saying we're moving to chicago when in all actuality we are moving to davenport iowa. awesome i know... chicago is about an hour and a half away and just sounds so much cooler than davenport. seeing how this is all news to me (i just found out tonight at work) i thought i should learn a little more about our new home and as i researched it i found that there really isnt anything interesting about it all. unless you think the fact that davenport was the first place in the world to have a chiropractic school is cool. we are pretty close to the mississippi river... rivers are cool...? and no one worry there is an olive garden! i think this summer is going to be an adventure for sure. hopefully we'll get to drive to chicago a couple times and go see wicked and play around. if not there's always the wacky waters adventure park!

You have to start somewhere right?

2008-03-27T20:39:00.000-06:00

sure we're new to the blogging world and don't really know how to do anything yet but just you wait... its going to be really amazing once we figure it all out. As of right now we are anxiously awaiting our wedding day (37 days, but who's counting), working at the olive garden, brysons in school and im about a month out from being a licensed master esthetican. we've been pretty busy with school and wedding plans but still manage to have time to lay around and watch american idol and scrubs. anywho, more to come from us soon!