Fall and Hollidays!

I love when the leaves start to turn colors. It's like saying "the holidays are coming". And today it even snowed just a little bit.

I love the holidays. Mostly just spending time with my family and doing traditions that we've been doing since I was little. Like making my great grandma's amazing chocolate pie recipe for Thanksgiving, or having our Christmas eve program and then putting on our Christmas PJ's and watching Muppet Christmas Carol while all of us kids sleep in the same room.

This year we are also going to a family reunion in Saint George with Riley's dad's family the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'm so excited! We are going to be riding 4-wheelers and dirt bikes and Riley said he might be able to teach me how to drive a dirt bike. I'm also hoping Riley's cousins Bree, Alauna and Karly will be there. I've been able to hang out with them lately and get to know them better and I am so excited to spend more time with them.

So Big....

I can't believe that next week my sister-in-law Salest turns five and my oldest niece Camryn turns four.

 I still remember when both of them were born and now they are getting so big! They both love having me do their nails and coming swimming in my pool and Salest will start kindergarten next year! They grow up so fast I have to try not to miss it.

Rain......

Just when you think it's warming up outside, mother nature plays a cruel trick and sends more rain and, can you believe it, snow. I have got the worst spring fever lately! I want to be able to rollerblade and go on bikerides and have picknicks and just enjoy the sun!

Moab!!

Easter weekend Riley, his friend Dallin, my sister Kelly and I all went down to Moab for Jeep Safari. I had never been to Moab or been jeeping so I was so excited.

We found a pretty cool camp site off the high way just south of the city and the Whole In The Rock store. It had a fire pit and a make shift metal table we used to cook our burgers over charcoal and two decently flat spots for our tents.

Riley got a good fire going.

And then, being the pyro he is, poured lighter fluid on it and mad it bigger.

We spent most of the rest of the night taking crazy picture and just having fun.

In the morning before breakfast we went on a hike behind our camp.

This was the view from the top.

I love hiking.

This was where we hiked to.

This is where we started from

Then we loaded up the jeep to head out and go jeeping!

We went up some cool hills and off some crazy drop offs. On the trail Hell's Revenge we drove up something called Tip Over Challange and I thought Kelly was going to pee her pants when we tipped a little sideways. After trying three times we made it up Tip Over Challange and the guy that was spotting for us told us we get the award for best wheelie when at one point our from tire was about four feet off the ground. He also said it would have been easier if we had lockers. Dallin informed the guy that we had a back locker only to have Riley notice as we drove away that the locker had not been engaged the whole time.

After a particularly rough hill we were hearing some funny noises coming from the front passenger side wheel well. We pulled up on this hill to stop and check it out.

Turns out the bolt had come out of the shock. We didn't have another bolt so we ended up with a Dallin and Riley fix. They shoved a screwdriver in it.

Later that day though on a long trail that took us closer to Monticello, where Dallin's parents live, we went up another steep rocky trail and the screwdriver came out, the spring and bump stop came off and the sway bar broke. We had to flex it up on a rock to get in to put the spring back on.

We put the spring back in place and took the bolt off the broken sway bar to fix the shock. At least it would drive that way.

If you look close at the center this picture you can see a little bit of the dirt road below that we drove up.

The last trail that we took to Monticello was suppose to be a couple hour drive, at least that's what his sister that went on it with us said. Six hours after starting the trail we finally found the end and a highway. It was fun but my butt was really going dead. We were all ready to come home Sunday night.

But I'm totally up for going to Moab and jeeping again.

Our Own Place

We have pretty much been unpacked for the last week. It is so nice! I am no longer getting up and going to work then coming home and unpacking till I go to bed. I can finally relax here and it feels more like "our place".

I now have a place where I can have girls night with movies, games, facials and pedicures without having to worry about keeping my family up because people are here too late or because we are a little loud.

I can decorate how I want, put my shells up everywhere and put pictures all over the walls (I wish I could paint the walls but I guess I can't have everything at once).

After living with my parents my whole life, including eight straight months of married life, I am finally on my own (well, with my older sister and husband) and I'm loving it!

Moving....

I hate moving. I would love to find the house I want to live in forever and stay there. My family always moved around when I was groving up. I am 22 years old and have never lived in the same house for more than five years. Counting temproary places we lived (around six months or more) I have lived in ten different places. I thought it was so crazy when I found out my friend Rachel had lived in the same house her whole life.

Now it's time to move again. Riley and I have lived in my parent's basement since we got married because we were both laid off from our jobs within a month and a half of our wedding. Now my parents are moving and so we have to move too.

With three car payments and me not working full time, we can't afford our own place just yet. So we have decided to find a place with my sister and her little girl Lexi.

Finding a place to rent has been hard because I have a cat, Reggi (one of the fattest most lazy cats you will ever meet), and my sister has a cat (who thinks he's a dog and who we're pretty sure is mentally handycapped) and a dog (that is one of the most annoyingand needy dogs I have ever seen). Most places don't allow animals or charge an arm and a leg extra to keep them there.

Friday afternoon, however, my sister and I went to look at some apartments in south Orem. They do allow pets with not too much extra a month and it's a pretty decent place. There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an open kitchen in the apartment as well as a pool table, a playground for Lexi, a small work out room and an indoor heated pool. Can you say pool party at my house?

Riley and I are also taking our projector and wii so we can have awsome movie/game nights.

I think it will be good for what we need right now.

Baby Quilt

Now that I have a new little niece my mom, sisters and I wanted to make something for her. We decided on a baby quilt and the day Addy was born we went to the fabric store. Friday night my sister Kelly came down from Salt Lake to spend the night and work on the quilt. We set it up so we could each do a couple squares with the coordinating fabric we picked out that matches Addy's bedroom.


We were taking dinner to my brother and sister-in-laws house Sunday night and wanted to have it finished. It always happens, however, that things end up taking much longer than expected. We thought we would have it finished by Saturday afternoon. Well, we worked on it Friday night and through Saturday. My mom and I were up until three am Sunday and got everything but the binding for the edge done.

My mom made the centered square with Adalyn appliquéd on it and two other squares. I made two of my own squares and cut out and sewed my sister Elise's square because she ran out of time. My grandma Christensen came over and did a square. Kelly appliquéd bugs onto three squares and my youngest sister Caroline appliquéd a flower onto hers.

Sunday afternoon I hurried and sewed the binding on just in time to leave for their house. I folded it up, put it in a bright green gift bag and put white tissue paper in the top.

My sister-in-law, Tressa, and Addy's big sister Camryn loved the quilt. Cam played in it most of the night. It turned out so cute and it was fun to get everyone together to do it. Maybe we will have to make one for every new baby in the family.