ice

i woke up today with an inch of PURE ice all over my car because we had an ice storm. thankfully i had nathan to somehow open my frozen shut doors and scrape all that ice off my car which broke our snow scraper. even though i'm actually enjoying the cold and winter this year sometimes i wish i could rewind time. this time last year we were here:

new look

i cut all my hair off and it feels good! i was getting really sick of my long hair. it was getting tangled all the time and it took too long to blow dry. so today i decided to cut it off. i suprised nathan and his reaction was priceless. i walked in the door and he came up and hugged me then pulled me back and was like "woahhhhh. you cut your hair off. i have a new wife." he loves the change and so do i. 

one year

this weekend was our one year. crazy right? this year has flown by. nathan planned our date to celebrate. at first he wouldn't tell me and kept saying, "i'm taking you to taco bell or mcdonalds, i haven't decided yet." but i gave him 2 hours and he caved in and told me. he took me to cincinnati and we went ice skating outside in the middle of the city with christmas music playing. we went on a carriage ride and watched the coolest show of santa claus, an elf, and a reindeer repelling down the macys building. then we finished it off with dinner at a 4 star restaurant. it was raining the whole time but we didn't let it stop us. i was soaked by the end. i know this sounds cliche and everyone says this but this first year of marriage as literally been the best year of my life. i feel so lucky to be married to my best friend.

nathan had way to much fun skating fast around me and coming up behind me to push me fast

this is what our hair looked like by the end of the night. it was worth it.

the view from where we ate dinner

First year together but there are many more to come. I love you Jayme because your my wife and you stole my heart when I was 16 and I never got it back.

catch phrase

tonight we had friends over to play catch phrase. if you have never played this you have got to! we were laughing so hard we were choking on our water. i love nights like this.

favorite quote of the night: 

chelsey: what is a state that has a girls name in it?

seth: i dont really know my states to be honest.

they were all being camera shy so this is they best picture i could get

christmas tree

we put our christmas tree up today! i have been counting down the days to do this. it was so sweet...i was in taking a nap and all of a sudden i heard nathan cutting open a box. i asked him what he was doing and he was like uhh nothing. so i went out to check and my cute husband was trying to surprise me by putting up the christmas tree for me. but i came out put on christmas music and we did the rest together. this was our first year putting up a christmas tree because last year we left right after our honeymoon to texas so we didnt put it up.

                   take a guess at what hes doing. watching football. ha

this is my favorite ornament. my sister-in-law gave this to us as a wedding gift.

we have been laying in bed so excuse the hair. also i have been having a weird obsession lately with wearing nathans sweatpants and tshirts. they are just too comfy.

happy holidays!

family

today was a much needed fun day. all of my family went over to my sisters new house to celebrate my moms birthday. we ate good chili and yummy cake. i am so jealous of their new house with 18 acres. 

my nephews are in town this week and nathan had way too much fun playing football with them. he can never get enough of it. we have brought them over to spend the night tonight and we went to the waterfront park with our friends seth and lincoln and played football there again. i joined this time and scored two touchdowns. yeaaaa

gorgeous barn

love him

madison ziplining

taking grams on a golf cart ride

thank you

thank you husband for coming to my work and hanging out with me almost everyday on my break. cant ever get enough of you. its almost been one year and i couldnt be happier!

feeling grateful

besides the fact of not wanting to get out of bed this morning because it was so cold, i have had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude today. i thought i was share what im grateful for to share the feeling.

1. STABILITY-- before i was married i didnt have much stability in my life. i was living at different places and just felt like my life was chaos. it is so amazing to see how something as simple as stability has blessed my life. i feel so much calmer, peaceful and i dont worry about little things anymore. looking back my mind was going in 500 different directions then. im so much more content and relaxed.

2. HOT CHOCOLATE-- it is so dang cold in the office i work at. hot chocolate saves me everyday.

3. MY HUSBAND-- the main thing i felt grateful for when i woke up this morning was nathan. i feel so grateful to be married to my best friend. i am so in love with him.

4. LAUGHING-- who doesnt love laughing? i love having a good laugh with friends and family. me and nathan spend the majority of our days laughing. for instance last night we stayed up wayyy to late talking and making up wierd names for our future children and laughing until our stomachs hurt.

5. TEMPLES-- lately i have been reading the new ensign that came out this month about temples. i am so grateful to be sealed to my family for eternity.

6. GUILTY PLEASURES-- some of my guilty pleasures include celebrity gossip and those crazy reality TV shows and smelly good things. i am obsessed with candles and those plug in things with good fragances, especially the vanilla. i could spend so much money in yankee candle.

these are just a few of the things i am grateful for. what are you grateful for today?

muffins and hot chocolate

me and nathan both have to wake up early every morning during the week. so we look forward to saturdays for sleeping in and being able to hang out together and have a relaxing morning. this morning we made hot chocolate and blueberry muffins. how can you ask for a better morning?

survey

my good friend becca tagged me to answer some questions about myself a while ago and im just now getting to it.

1. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Last Christmas we went to Texas to visit nathans family and we are doing it again this year and im pretty sure it will be happening every year. i love going down there. i probably talk more about it than nathan. there is so much good food and great shopping and its so relaxing. we love spending time with his family and we are counting down the days for this year.

2. Who is your biggest role model and why?

hands down my mom. she is so strong and always does what is right no matter what the situation is.

3. What is your favorite thing to do with your husband and why?

we love to go running and go on walks together and we love our trips to costco, nathan really loves to go to costco.

4. What is one place you want to travel to, when, why?

greece africa and egypt. i have an obsession with different cultures. i love to see the different ways people live. these three places fascinate me and i would love to go one day.

5. What is your all time favorite band?

it really just depends on the day and my mood. but me and nathan have been listening to tons of coldplay lately.

6. What is your favorite book?

i honestly cant remember the last time i read a book. its really sad. but i did recently buy a book called sarahs key that i am reading. its about the holocaust and so far its really good.

7. Who is your closest friend and why?

i know this sounds cliche, but nathan. before we started dating 6 years ago we were friends first and developed a deep friendship. when we were younger and people would ask our parents about us dating they would always say how its different because we were more like best friends.

8. What is your favorite trait about yourself?

i can never stay mad at anyone. i have a 5 second rebound rate. i can never hold grudges which i am glad because i dont want to spend my life dwelling on things that dont matter.

goal setting

do you ever feel like life gets so busy you forget to make time for the things that really matter? me and nathan have been so busy with work and school and have let it take over our lives. yesterday for family home evening we made goals of things to help make our life more healthy. here are just a few of the goals we set:

go running together as a couple

set aside 20 minutes daily for personal spiritual study time.

nathan gave up video games and i gave up soda (we will see how long this one lasts haha)

have morning prayer

these are just a few things we set goals for. we just want to make sure we are doing these things everyday and not just when we have time.

what are some goals you could set to have a more healthy lifestyle?

i am making my first roast tonight with mashed potatoes, which i have to brag, my mashed potatoes are the best. ill keep you posted on how it turns out

engagement

this time last fall me and nathan were engaged. its so wierd because everytime im outside i feel like it was yesterday that we were engaged. the fall has really brought those memories back to me. it was so exciting planning our wedding, planning our life together, and just experiencing all the excitement of being newly engaged. i am so happy though to be married. i have been so full of gratitude today for my husband. he is way to good to me and i will be forever grateful for that.

time

"Love is actually spelt T-I-M-E"

This quote really stuck out to me today in General Conference. No matter how busy our lives may be we should always try and spend time with our family. i am so grateful for my family and love them so much. i always try to take a little time to make sure i get to spend as much time with them as possible. we are always sad we dont get to see nathans side of the family as much but we are so excited to go down there for christmas.

if you read my blog you know how much i love my grandma. she was in the hospital but all is well. she is 93 and doing better than ever. her biggest complaint was she had just gotten her all done and curled and when she went to the hospital they ruined it by putting gel all over it to do tests on her brain. i literally probably tear up once a month just thinking about the time she will be taken from us. luckily nathan doesnt think im crazy, hes had to comfort me a lot because of this ha.

we had my two nephews over to spend the night and we had so much fun with them. they are watching a movie in our bed to fall asleep to.

sarah was sad because she couldnt sit next to her brothers in church so nathan cheered her up playing thumb wars

much needed update

 i have been such a bad blogger lately. we have done so many fun things but because i break every camera i own i can't take any pictures. we have had fun going to old high school football games, taking a road trip to the outlet malls with friends, went to a friend wedding, spending time with family and just enjoying being married. the only time i update my blog is usually when we babysit because i have access to a camera. right now we are babysitting for the week. nathan has actually been with the little ones most of the time because he has fall break and doesn't have to go to school. i came home friday with the whole house clean, kids up from naps and fed, and he was sewing a button on his shirt. i told him he cant be spending much time at home anymore haha. he has been such a trooper, he is really going to be such an awesome, hands on dad which i am so grateful for. here are some pictures of our crazy week so far.

today we woke up at 6:30 to take our two nieces to their cross country meet.

i wanted to get pictures of amalie to but we put my purse away in the car so i didnt have my camera.

this sums this morning up.

im not gonna lie, i was a little grumpy and worn out so leave it to my husband to do something funny to get me out of my grumpy mood.

baylie wanted us to take her and her friend to field of screams (a haunted house) and we told her we would only take her if we went like this. she must really love us because she didnt care.

memory lane

me and nathan were going through some old pictures today and cracking up. my hair was wayy to blonde, his hair was so long and his clothes were all to small. i love looking at old pictures and laughing thinking, what was i thinking then?