Sunny and 75

Well, once again it's been a while since I've posted on our blog. As mentioned before, I'm terrible at this stuff. I've made it my summer goal to keep up with this blog and I figured the best place to start is with an update on all that's happened with Tyler and me since I last posted 6 months ago.

Tyler and I moved out of our first apartment to a bigger space in Orem, UT. It's nice having an extra bedroom and bathroom and we love our new place. It's super close to where I work so we can still try to get by with one car for a bit longer. :) We are also both glad that it's finally summer and that it's warm, sunny, and 75 (+) degrees outside!

Tyler is taking a break from school for the summer and is currently working part time on the BYU grounds crew (not his favorite job...). He also puts in several hours a week doing physical therapy volunteer work. He was recently added to the "on-call" list at the clinic he's been going to in Orem so he now gets to cover some shifts and make some money! He has also started volunteering at a hospital with critical care patients. The patients in this hospital are those that have had life-altering accidents or injuries such as strokes, car accidents, etc where they have lost much of their mobility. He takes them on walks throughout the hospital and helps them re-learn the basic things we do every day such as walk and move. He has enjoyed being in such a different setting and is learning a lot! Tyler also recently bought himself a new electric guitar which he is VERY proud of (see pics below). The only reason I like it is because he plays Taylor Swift songs on it for me. :)

I haven't been up to much besides work every day. It's so nice being done with school officially but I've realized how many hobbies I DON'T have anymore... school took it all away from me. I've realized that I need to start finding things I enjoy doing again when I get home from work because right now I feel like work is all I do. I've been considering attempting to get crafty by making a quilt or start scrapbooking or something... We'll see how that goes. I'll keep you updated on what I find! I've also been trying to get back in shape. Because I live closer to my work now, I've been running (half jogging mostly walking) to work every day. It's made me EXTREMELY sore and I hate every second of it but I'm excited to get back in shape!

We just got back from a nice memorial weekend vacation in St George. We spent lots of time lounging by the pool and relaxing. We went and saw Million Dollar Arm and absolutely LOVED it. I highly recommend watching it! I wish we would have taken some pictures (another thing I'm not good at)... another summer goal of mine is to take more pictures of our travels.

We will be heading to Alaska next week with my family to go on a cruise. We are so excited and can't wait to get out of Utah. I'll make sure to post about our trip with pictures! So far we've had a packed 2014 and can't wait for more to come.

Happy Halloween

Fall is by far the best season of the year. I attribute this to several things. 1) Cutest outfits ever! Who doesn't love the sweaters, skinny jeans, boots, and leggings?! 2) The smells during Fall are THE BEST. I've been burning fall candles since August... 3) The yummy foods - soup in bread bowls, pumpkin cookies, pie, turkey, etc. 4) All of the best Holidays happen in the Fall/Winter. Which leads me to the topic of this post! I absolutely love Halloween. I'm not sure why... maybe it's all the candy, maybe it's the fun costumes, or maybe it's just the fun traditions I had growing up, either way, I hope my kids love this holiday as much as me! Tyler and I dressed up as Tinker Bell and Captain Hook (Peter Pan was too "Gay" for him - his exact words), we carved pumpkins at my sister, Ashley's, house, we made Halloween sugar cookies, and finished the night off with "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". All in all, I think we had quite the succesful Halloween, even though we only had five trick-or-treaters come to our apartment. Lame. They missed out on some awesome candy! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and are excited for the best ones that are coming up! Enjoy the pictures below. :)

Love,

Natalie




 Left (our pumpkin), Right (Ashley and Jonathan's pumpkin)

A close up of our pumpkin. Stuck with the same theme as our costumes.

Ash and Jonathan carving their pumpkin (mostly Ash) :) Jonathan hates Halloween.

Tyler and I carving our pumpkin.

 Tyler scooping out the goop! It makes me have an allergic reaction so he gets to do all the work.

Tink and Hook


 The siblings with Grams (minus Heather... she was late).

My adorable family! Love them!

My extended family at our Halloween party!

Catching Up

So apparently I'm really bad at keeping up with writing on this blog just like I am with writing in a journal - go figure. First, let me update you on how the Raspberry Ketone Challenge went! Natalie - didn't last two days on a diet. :) Good thing I didn't really need to lose weight. Tyler - ended up losing 12 pounds by the end of the challenge and is still going strong! He's much more dedicated than me, but he's the one who needed it. :)

I am currently in my LAST semester of school EVER. It makes me so happy to be almost done but I'm realizing just how hard it is to care about finishing strong. Example: my quiz score in class today was 6/15... good thing the teacher drops the lowest quiz score. I'm still working as a Human Resource Manager with a company in Orem and am loving it more than ever (I have a British boss - how epic is that??!). I'm super excited to begin working full time come January and to making more than an hourly wage.

Tyler is hating school more than ever and can hardly wait to be DONE with his chemistry classes. Between that and Trig, he's struggling to find happiness in obtaining an education. I keep telling him to stick with it and promise that it will get easier once he gets through all the dumb classes that just try to weed out those that can't handle the pressure of feeling like a failure. He's still volunteering at the Physical Therapy office and is hoping to be on the "on-call" list soon - that will get him one step closer to getting a job there! He's also been super busy with intramural sports this semester. I feel like a mom with tons of kids running them to everything they have going on and I don't even have kids yet! It's been fun to watch him play volleyball, flag football, and soccer. I've always secretly wanted to be one of those wives that are always dressed adorably that sit on the sideline and courageously cheer on their husbands. :) We also got to attend a BYU football game a few weeks back and it was Tyler's first college football game! He loved it!

That's the update on our lives so far. I am SOOOO excited for the holidays and have been listening to Christmas music since October 1st. I know, I know, I'm crazy. But Christmas music just makes me so happy! Who doesn't want that lovely spirit in their homes?! All I can say is thank Heavens for Pandora which allows me to listen to TONS of different Christmas music. :)

Love,

Natalie

Raspberry Ketone 30 Day Challenge!

Well this is my very first attempt at creating/writing/keeping up a blog! I've wanted to do a blog for quite a while, but it's taken me FOREVER to figure out how to build it and how to find the time to write for it. :) As you can see, it still needs a lot of work, but at least it's a start!

Tyler and I are still enjoying the summer and are not ready for it to end, mostly because we don't want something else to start! (aka school). We've had a lot of fun adventures this summer including lots of camping and a trip to Moab! I graduate in August with my bachelor's degree in Business Management and I can hardly wait! I still have one more semester of school left but I am so close! Tyler still has two years left much to his dismay.

We have now been married for 9 months (almost 10!) and it's crazy how fast time flies! Marriage is the best and we are both learning and growing so much.

Our newest adventure we are doing together is a weight-loss challenge that my work is doing. We are both super out of shape and have been wanting to drop those few extra pounds that have somehow creeped up on us since we've been married, but it's been hard to find the motivation. This is going to be the perfect way for us to get off our bums and do it! We're excited for the challenge and I'm praying I'll be able to make it through! If you want to learn more about the challenge or would like to participate, click on this link!
http://www.bolinaturals.com/blog/Raspberry-Ketone-30-day-challenge/

I'm super excited to get fit and healthy again! And I'm even more excited to do it with my Husband. Two is always better than one, right?!? :) I will update the blog with our progress so stay tuned!

Love,
Natalie