Nicole and Nate

Welcome to the World

2011-09-07T15:35:00.005-06:00

We'd like to introduce the newest addition to the Fawcett household. On August 24th at 7:37 pm, William Nathan Fawcett (who will be called Will) joined our family. He weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long. Today marks 2 weeks that he's been with us and we could never have imagined how he would change our lives....and we love it.
Today I took him to his 2 week check up and he now weighs 9 lbs 7 oz and is 21 1/4 inches long. He's growing up so fast! I just wanted to share some pictures that my sister in law Aimee took while she was here visiting. I would have posted his hospital pictures first, but they aren't downloaded to my computer yet. It will happen, just not today. I posted a picture similar to this BYU one on Facebook, but I decided to document it on the blog as well, cause that's what Nate would want. Here they are, watching the 1st BYU football game of the season. He's hoping to create a new die hard BYU fan. I think we need to get some Aggie gear as well....my side of the family is no doubt thinking the same thing!
On Sunday, we went to a park and did a few pictures. He loved being outside and was very content almost the whole time we were there. Remember, I said almost. I just had to put this one in cause I think he's cute even when he's screaming. But I am his mom. I'm so happy he's finally here! I see new things about him everyday and I can't wait to keep getting to know him better. Sorry folks, this may officially have turned into a Mommy blog. I just can't myself :)

Hanging out in wheat fields and barns while pregnant

2011-08-23T10:00:00.005-06:00

I decided to go along with the trend of the day and do some maternity pictures. My friend at the salon, Andrea Christiansen took these for me. I figured I'd better put them on the blog before Will got here, otherwise, I knew it would never happen.

Out with the old, in with the new

2011-08-23T07:12:00.003-06:00

Warning****this post is a little cheesy, but I had to do it.

As I come to the end of my pregnancy, I can't believe the day is almost here! I am being induced tomorrow and I have so many thoughts, I figured I should put a few of them down. First of all, I look at my maternity picture below and almost have to laugh that I thought I looked pregnant! I had absolutely no idea how huge I would actually get! I need to post some real maternity picures, but that might have to wait.

As this week has been wrapping up, Nate and I have talked about all the 'lasts' we are about to face. This is the last time we can go to a sit down restaurant for a while, this is the last movie we'll go to in a long time, this is the last time we'll be able to sleep in, the last time we'll go to bed alone and sleep all night, the last time we can go see my mom in Music and the Spoken Word, the last time we can hang out with friends alone or without a babysitter. And the list goes on.

There was a time in my life that all of these lasts would bring on a little bit of sadness, but I can honestly say that I'm ready to put this behind me, especially when I think about all the firsts we're about to encounter. The 'first' that I'm looking forward to the most right now? The first time I see my baby boy. The first cry, the first time I hold him, the first time I see Nate hold him, the first time we bring him home, his first laugh and smile(is first starting to sound like a weird word to anyone else?)

I have to admit that there are some firsts that kind of scare me. The first time he cries all night, the first time my mom and Nate are gone and I'm alone with him all day, the first time he's sick, the first day I go back to work and leave him, the day he enters the MTC....I'm jumping ahead.

This is such an exciting time for me. Today was actually my last day to sleep in and I was wide awake at 6 am. I'm thinking about him and what this new phase of life will bring us. I have no idea what to expect, but I am looking forward to this! Sometimes I think 33(34 in a few days) is old to begin motherhood, but when I really think about it, I wouldn't have it any other way. I think having to wait this long has been a good thing for me. Back when I was 18, I probably would have died if someone had told me I would have to wait this long to be a mom. Today, I am totally ok with it. And tomorrow, I think I will be even better with it.

Does this count as an excuse?

2011-02-14T19:02:00.003-07:00

I am completely aware that it's not important to anyone but me that our Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve and everything in between have gone undocumented. I feel bad about it! However, I feel that I have a pretty good excuse. Observe.

I haven't been at the top of my game as of late. Nausea and complete exhaustion have been my constant companion for the past three and half months. When I get home from work, I head straight for the couch and promptly fall asleep. Hence, blogging and cooking have been at the bottom of my priority list. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Nate and I couldn't be more thrilled to be adding a new person to our family in August somewhere between the 16th and 18th.( we haven't been given the official date yet) I'll be 14 weeks on Feb 15th...which happens to be tomorrow. Another thing to be happy about is that I'll be in my second trimester and I've never felt better! I feel very thankful and I can't wait to be a mom!

Sept and Oct in one big post, for the sake of catch up.

2010-11-09T19:31:00.005-07:00

It's official...I need to catch up. So, here are some of the things we did in the months of September and October.
I celebrated my birthday for the second time....only later. That girl in the middle, that's Aileen. The one on the right, that's Jayna. They're my friends. Aileen had a combined birthday party for us. She made us birthday hats and she made me a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, which happens to be my favorite. She did that on purpose. Nice work, Aileen! Nate came and was, according to this picture, very happy. Maybe it was the cake.

In the months of Sept, we camped. TWICE! That was kind of a record for me. We went with friends like Aileen, Jayna, Anamae, Chris, Brad, Tom, Season, the other Nicole and Darren. I didn't get many pictures though. Oh what fun we had, even though I was constantly worrying about bears. Yes, bears. Also, on the first trip, we wore our matching Coke shirts. Not sure if our friends were jealous of us or embarassed for us. For some reason, I think it might have been the latter.

I did another 5k........ with Aileen. It was so cold. This is our cheering section. Thanks Nate and Jayna for standing in the freezing cold just to take pictures for us so we could post them on our blogs. I like Aileen as my running friend. We need to make this a tradition and do many more. This is just minutes before we went to Magleby's Fresh and ate back the calories that we ran off. I love their french toast! My salon had a retreat in Park City. These are my co workers, Mckenzie, Stacy and Sadee. We ate, talked, laughed and slept a little. Since we had the Presidential Suite, we had a hot tub on our balcony. We stayed in there for quite a while. Unfortunately, the water was only luke warm and when we got out, the tub was about half full. I think that means we surpassed the maximum capacity. Anneliesa and Scott came to visit and stayed at our house! Nate and I had a great time playing Ticket To Ride with them. Of course, we had to go to Zupa's to get Anneliesa her fix. Aileen and I didn't mind. Since they came conference weekend, we did a lot of relaxing and eating. As per usual, Anneliesa and Aileen stole my camera for a self pic. They're so cute. Last but not least, we celebrated our 2 yr anniversary! We started off the weekend by going to the BYU game. After the game, we headed up to Park City for a relaxing weekend. We spent our time at the hot tub and sipping on hot chocolate, shopping the outlets, eating out, watching movies, attending the visitors only sacrament meeting(who knew those existed?) and apparently not taking any pictures. This pic at the BYU game is the only one I have of the whole weekend.

These last two years have been so great and I feel so lucky to have such a great guy who totally gets me and is everything I have ever needed.

The Best Birthday of My Life!

2010-10-27T17:00:00.000-06:00

Note: this post is long overdue, but had to be done for posterity purposes.

Back in July, Nate and I started talking about going to Wicked for our anniversary (which is Oct 11). I have wanted to see it for a couple of years and I conviced Nate that it was a good idea. When we checked the website, we realized it was closing at the beginning of Sept and decided that there wasn't a great time for us to go, especially since we went to Disneyland in August. I wrote it off and decided I wasn't going to be able to see it anytime soon. A week and a half after we got back from Disneyland and 6 days before my birthday(which is Aug 28th), Nate said to me, "We should go to Wicked for your bithday". I was like "really?......OK!!!!" So we did just that. It was pretty spontaneous.

We made it a very quick trip. We were gone for 4 days and two of those days were driving days. The night we got there, we stopped at his grandparents house and had dinner. I was a slacker and forgot to get a picture.

The Oakland temple was on the way to the hotel, so we stopped and got some pictures. It was so pretty...but I FROZE!Our first official vacation day started off with breakfast with some pretty cool people. My friend Courtni, from high school and her family were living in the Bay area (they moved to Idaho the day after this pic was taken). We met them for breakfast and to catch up. She has such a cute family. It was kind of ironic that I never visited until the day before they moved away, but we had a great time. Next up, a trip to the city. We started off at Union Square, then took the trolley down to the pier area. Getting on the trolley was pretty much a nightmare since it was so busy that weekend. It was every man for himself and I might have thrown a few elbows by the time we finally caught a ride. Here I am waiting for the trolley. It took us about an hour to finally catch one. The trolley was well worth the wait! I loved it. We stood on the outer edge and got to see everything from that viewpoint. Our first stop on the pier was Boudin's for Clam Chowder in a sourdough bowl. We saw this fun bread and had to take a picture. Fisherman's Wharf was fun and smelled very fishy...obviously. Too bad we're not bigger seafood fans. This seemed like seafood heaven.For my birthday cake, I decided a good substitution would be a cookie bottom sundae from Ghirardelli. I was right. It was amazing! Look at that beauty...not me, the cookie bottom sundae. I was worth every last calorie. Yes, I did share with Nate. This displays the way Nate was feeling when it was gone.

And this is how I felt. I look like I'm ready for more, and I was. We decided that wouldn't be a good idea.

Peir 39, Alcatraz and China Town

2010-10-27T16:14:00.005-06:00

One of the trip highlights was Alcatraz. While we were waiting for our time to go over, we walked aoung Pier 39. It is a crowded fun place with a lot of shops. We got to see the sea lions, which apparently lay out on the docks every day. The numbers have gone down over the years, but there were still quite a few. It was pretty entertaining to watch them

Like I said, Alcatraz was awesome. They give you headphones and send you on a walking tour. I found it quite fascinating.

After the tour, we walked outside where Nate took pictures and I did this (refer to picture below). It was so windy and cold. I tried to bundle up but my jacket wasn't helping a ton. Our last stop that day was China Town. We spent most of our time walking though all the shops and seeing all the cool stuff they had. We had my birthday dinner at a restaurant there that isn't worth mentioning. It was below adequate and disappointing, but China Town was still really cool.

San Fran part 3...Wicked edition

2010-10-27T14:43:00.006-06:00

For the second day of our trip, we drove to Carmel. If you've never been there, please go! It is paradise. Our day started at the beach. We rolled up our pants and walked down the beach in the water. When we got about as far away from our car as possible, we found a stranger to take our picture. I went to pull the camera out of my purse only to realize it was in the car! So we walked all the way back up the beach and climed the massive hill to our car. We grabbed the camera and walked back to where we started. Another stranger agreed to take our picture. When we tried to turn the camera on, we found that it was out of batteries. Awesome. At this point, we decided a picture on the beach wasn't meant to be.
After the beach, we found a charming little place to eat lunch. It was the best meal we had on the trip(this does not include the cookie bottom sundae). After lunch, we walked around the town and windowed shopped. Carmel is a great place to see, but very expensive to buy. That didn't bother us...we were there to relax.

The Cottage of Sweets was so darn cute, I had to make Nate get his picture taken next to it. Before we headed back to San Fran, we took a drive down the coast and found this amazing spot to take a picture. It was such a beautiful day and the views were amazing (as you can see). Now...the pinnacle moment of our trip and the best birthday present I've ever received, WICKED!!! We gave ourselves plenty of time to get back to our hotel so we could get ready and get to the city for the show. We were so nervous about something going wrong that we took BART(public transport) in early and arrived about an hour an a half before the show. Instead of chancing the time at a sit down reastaurant, we ate at the Carl's Jr next to the theater. It was full of transients. It gave us the opportunity to buy dinner for a homeless woman who walked up behind us in line, asked us to buy her dinner and told us what she wanted. I decided it was a much better method than standing on a corner with a sign.

Here we are in front of the theater. It is so pretty inside! The show was absolutely amazing! It was both of our first times seeing it and neither of us were disappointed. I was so impressed with the cast and how talented they were. My favorite was the girl who played Elphaba. Her voice was so unique. It was interesting to put the music with the story, which I didn't know. I loved how clever it was and that it has a great moral. I would recommend this show to anyone. It is so great! The morning that we left, we wanted to make a few stops to Lombard Street and The Golden Gate Bridge. I love Lombard Street and how well taken care of it is. The bridge was also very cool. We walked out to the middle and were able to see a great view of the city. It was the last thing we did on the trip. It was so much fun and a great way to spend my birthday! I really could not have asked for a better present. I can't wait to see how he tops himself next year.

Did I post too many pictures??...Our Disneyland adventure.

2010-09-17T07:33:00.014-06:00

Every morning, Mr. Fawcett's alarm goes of at 5:55. He immediately jumps out of bed and turns it off before I have the chance to even consider waking up. By the time he says goodbye, I still haven't even peeked out from under the covers. This morning was different. Somehow, he must have confused the off button with the snooze button and at 6:05 am, I found myself wondering what that strange noise was. The end result?... I couldn't get back to sleep. It was early and I needed somthing to do until my 9 am Zumba class. Then it hit me. I could no longer put off the inevitable. I had to get going on the blog.

On August 10, Nate turned 30. This also happened to be the day that we left for Disneyland to join my family for 3 days of Disney entertainment. It was filled with long lines, expensive food, family shirts, jazzies and good old fashioned fun. Before leaving, we had the birthday festivites at home. I made Nate a blueberry crumb cake for breakfast, as it was our only chance to have cake that day. It was delicious.
I gave him the board game Ticket to Ride (as seen in the picture below). His other gift was the BYU shirt he was wearing in the cake picture. I must admit, I had to pat myself on the back for a job well done in the present department.

My little sister Melissa and her husband Travis met up with us around noon and we left for Vegas. First stop...the pawn shop from the reality TV show Pawn Stars. Nate and Travis were quite star struck from the whole experience.After and overpriced and under tasty birthday buffet and a nights stay at the Excalibur, we made way for California. Our first stop Huntington Beach. We borrowed beach cruisers from Nate's local friends took a bike ride down the beach. The weather was perfect. Nice weather doesn't always make for nice water. That wasn't about to stop Nate and Travis. They had great time playing in the water. While they did that, we did this.After the beach, we strolled around downtown Huntington. We looked through the shops and then found a cute little restaurant called Hurricanes. I kept pronouncing it like Nate's hometown of Hurricane(sounds like hurrikin). Sometimes I get confused. He was happy to be eating some good food. And the moment we have all been waiting for....let me introduce you to Barbara. She's my grandma. She makes a mean white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. She also paid for 59 people to join her at Disneyland for her 86th birthday. She did it all in a jazzie. We love her.We started out the day but strapping on our "I'm celebrating" buttons and heading out to the park. As strange as it may be, even though we spent equal time in Disneyland and California Adventure, we only took about three pictures in California Adventure(they didn't make the cut). The rest are at Disneyland. How does that happen?We had to take a picture with the 2 wild rides at Disneyland....Grandma's jazzie and Mr Toad's wild ride. See these fabulous faces? This is what happens to your face when you're crammed in a too small rocket ship on top of your husband's long legs on a ride in Tomorrow Land. Even though it was a painful experience, it proved to be very memorable and even more hilarious. A trip highlight was the dance party in Tomorrow Land. Gabby made me hold her the whole time I danced. Even though it gave me extreme low rise pants and a great workout, it was oh so fun. She loved it as much as I did. The second morning we had breakfast with Minnie and friends. The kids loved it. Unfortunately, I didn't pull out the camera until the very end so I didn't get any pics of the kids and the characters. But I did get one with this shady individual.

Capatin EO. What more can I say? This was a family tradition growing up. When we caught wind that it would be back for our 2010 trip, there was cause for a celebration. We all met up and saw it together. It was awesome...especially when Gabby was calling Michael Jackson a 'her'.The Brian and Marilyn family at their finest. Barbara is right in the middle. We took a picture with each branch of the family and then a picture of all 59 of us. Unfortunately I still have not received that picture. My camera was not chosen for that picture and I'm sure it would have been pandemonium at the least to do a picture with all the cameras. I'll be sure to post it when I get it.

You might be wondering about the family shirts. These are a tribute to Grandpa Gutke, Barbara's husband. As you can kind of see on the back of the shirt, there's a picture of a football player on top of the 'A'. That's Butch Gutke in action. We were all proud to be strutting around Disneyland sporting a logo of Grandpa Gutke. The trip was amazing. Thanks Grandma Gutke, for making all of our dreams come true at Disneyland, USA. We love you!!!

Now to address the elephant in the room. Yes, that was a mustache you saw Nate wearing during the trip. I attribute this facial hair to a mid life/turning 30 crisis. He blames it on a)his role model Phil Dunfee and b)not giving into a wife who insists he needs to shave it. He took one last picture in the hotel room before he shaved it off on the last day of the trip. Please notice my unamused expression in the back. If you've made it this far, you deserve a free trip to Disneyland too!!!

Back in the Saddle

2010-08-01T12:41:00.005-06:00

Pioneer Day marked my first race in about 4 years! I can't believe it's been that long since I've actually done one. I'm so glad I did it. My sister, Michelle invited Aileen and I up to Davis County(I know, it's a long way) to do her very first race. It was for the Bountiful Handcart Celebration. Michelle and I were able to run the whole race together and it was such a fun time. This is us a few yards from the finish line. Aileen came in right behind us.

They even gave out little medals to all the finishers. The cut up logs into inch thick circles and branded the logo onto them. They were perfect for Pioneer Day.

We were happy to be done!

Here is my personal little ribbon. I placed 2nd in my division of a whopping 4 people! I'm still proud of my ribbon and handcart "trophy".

I can't wait for my next race....possibly on my birthday!

Extravaganza 2010

2010-08-01T12:13:00.005-06:00

This last week has been an eventful one in the Lundberg Family. First and foremost, Michael finished the Bar Exam!!!!! (Celebrate good times, c'mon!) He also had a birthday on the 26th(the day before he took the exam) and he spent the entire day at the law school studying for the test. The exam was on the 27th and the 28th. My parents had their wedding anniversary on the 27th and Michelle had her birthday on the 28th. I knew this called for a celebration.
I invited the family over to have a party and to admire this beautiful Martha Stewart-esque cake, complete with spelling errors and all. Cake decorating is not my forte. We started the night off with a BBQ at our house. Nate cooked burgers and hot dogs on the grill. I was so busy getting everything ready for the meal that I never got a picture. But trust me, it was fun. We definately missed Angela, Kesse and their kids. After dinner, we walked over to the high school for what I think should be an annual tradition...an exciting game of kickball. We played guys against girls. To make it fair to the guys, we had 4 adults and one 6 year old, while they had 5 adults. I'm sure you can only imagine the outcome of the game.

Megan had a ton of fun and was a little disappointed by the fact that while we were up to bat, she actually had to stand around. I'll admit it, I might have enjoyed that part.

Here is the guys team line up. L to R- Travis, Dad, Steve, Nate and Michael

And here are the real champs. If you know me well, my slogan is 'The winner is the one that has the most fun'. That was definately us. L to R- Megan, me, Michelle, Mom and Melissa.

The post game party consisted of softball using tennis balls that Nate and Steve collected from the tennis courts next to the baseball field. Megan was very excited when my dad helped hit some balls. It was cute. I thought this was a cool picture of Nate with the sky in the background Oh Steve, you're such a star.

Thanks to everyone for coming and for the great time!

Guatemala bound!

2010-08-01T11:46:00.007-06:00

That's right, folks. Nate's brother, Caleb left for his mission. He entered the MTC on July 28 and is going to the Guatemala Quetzaltenango mission. Try that one for a tongue twister. It took me a while to figure it out.We were lucky enough to go to the MTC. Before he went inside, we were able to get some pictures. It's been a while since I've been to the MTC and things sure have changed. As most of you probably know, they no longer have the meeting where everyone watches the video. We literally dropped him off at the curb and said our goodbyes. It might be a good thing because it doesn't give anyone a chance to be sad. Before you know it, they're gone into a sea of missionaires who have that same deer in the headlights look. If they only knew what was ahaed of them!

We're very excited for Caleb and know he will be a great missionary. He has an amazing 2 years ahead of him.

Wedding Celebrations

2010-07-02T18:54:00.004-06:00

Before the wedding post, I'd like to post some of the wedding prep stuff. About a month ago, I went to Logan for a couple of showers for Melissa. A few of the women in our ward growing up threw her a ward shower. That evening, our cousins and aunts threw a family shower. I love getting together with our extended family and this was a great reason to do it. As you can see, it was a fabulous time.

This is my mom and sisters after the shower. We spent a few hours tying a quilt for Melissa and Travis, which is a family tradition. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of the quilt but it turned out really cute.

The night before the wedding, the Dansereau's (Travis' family) had a family dinner. We got the chance to get to know his family and eat some great food. Here's Michael (brother), Steve (bro in law) and Nate shootin' the breeze.

The kids loved the Koi pond.

Nate and I enjoyed the festivities. We had a delicious dutch oven dinner made by Travis' brother in law and sister.

This is my mom and Grandma Gutke out on the patio getting stuff ready.

After dinner, we sat in a circle and gave them some marriage advice. Some of it was funny, some was serious and some was little...how can I say this? Inappropriate. My favorite part of the night was the look on my grandma's face when it was given. She looked horrified! Hilarious.
After that, things got a little crazy. I love how great Melissa and Travis are together.

We got a sibling picture at the end of the night. I love them! They are all so great.

Melissa's wedding day

2010-07-02T18:12:00.005-06:00

We felt like this day would never come! I'm so happy to say that my little sister Melissa married Travis Dansereau on July 1, 2010. They got engaged in Decemeber , which by Utah standards is a long engagement. It was such a fun day! I know that there are a lot of pictures, so bear with me on this. It was really hard for me to decide on the pictures, and I wanted to share all the fun we had. I started the day off early by Melissa's hair. I was feeling extremely anxious about it cause I wanted her hair to look amazing. I'm glad it turned out the way I wanted it to.

They were married in the Logan Temple. Nate took this shot that morning. It was a beautiful day. When they came out of the temple, they were happier than I've ever seen them. Melissa looked so good. Check out her amazing dress.

We took a lot of pictures outside of the temple. Here is the couple with my parents.

As you might notice from the picture below, it was an extremely windy day! I felt like we had a built in fan, which is great for when we want the wind blown model look. However, for the most part it made me obsessed with fixing Melissa's hair. I told her it was part of the wedding hair-do package.
These are the sisters. Love them!

Just a little memorial of our own wedding day.

I ended up not taking many pictures of the luncheon that afternoon. We had it at the Coppermill in Logan. They gave us the chance to share some stuff about the couple with everyone there. Big surprise, I cried. I get a little emotional when it comes to stuff with Melissa.

The reception went well. It was so fun to see old Logan friends and hang out with the family. My mom, sister Angela and I are the pic below.

This is my niece Gabby. She's wacky. Enough said.

Cutting the cake and kissing. My brother, Michael caught the garter. What a champ. He was obviously the most athletic person there, so of course he caught it.

In my opinion, the most fun of the day was the dance party at the end of the reception. Michael brought his ipod with Chris Brown's 'Forever'. We hooked it up to the sound system and had a little dance party as one last surprise for Melissa and Travis. Of course, they loved it and we had a ton of fun dancing while a lot of people stood there and watched us. Party poopers. Even my parents joined in and were loving it. My mom is in the green and my dad in the suit.I'm so happy for Melissa and Travis and look forward to many fun times with them in the future.

Happenings in the Fawcett Family

2010-05-24T10:59:00.002-06:00

We have had the opportunity this spring to spend a good amount of time with Nate's family in the last little while. They came up for Easter and Conference weekend(unfortunately I was feeling lazy that weekend and didn't take a single picture). At the end of April, Josh, Nate's brother, graduated from BYU in Geography. Nate's parents were able to come up and spend the weekend to celebrate the graduation. Here he is in the processional. He's behind the tall guy. I'm always impressed when someone receives their degree. A lot of work goes into that. Congrats, Josh!

On May 8th, we went down to St George and did a session at the St George temple. Nate's youngest brother Caleb went through in preparation for his mission. He will be serving in Guatemala and he is leaving in July. Aimee, Nate's sister, decided it was time to go through for herself as well. It was a very special day to have all of the Fawcetts in the temple.

A post for Michael

2010-05-24T10:25:00.005-06:00

I know these next couple of posts are a bit braggy, so bare with me. I just really wanted to share the good things going on. I wanted to dedicate this post to my brother, Michael. On May 14th, he graduated from Law School at the University of Utah and I was definately a proud older sister. Michael worked hard and went through a lot of stress to get here, so her deserves a round of applause. Here he is just about to receive his diploma. The proud parents with the graduate. I think they were just as happy as he was.

This is where he spent the last three years of his life. We had a little tour of the building after graduation. He showed us the Moot Court room, the law library and his office. Congratulations Michael! You did it!

What other cool thing has Michael done lately? He sang the National Anthem at the Salt Lake Bees game. They held auditions and he decided to go. It was so fun to see him do it. I was so blown away by his amazing voice! I knew he was a good singer, but he really surprised me!

Forget about the fact the stadium was next to empty that game. Even though there was a small turn out, we were very excited to see the momentus occasion.

Even Bumble thought he did a great job!

In other news, Megan(my niece) spent the entire game following Bumble around the stadium. Here they are dancing. I think this might have been the highlight of her night. It was pretty funny.

Nice work Michael! Thanks for finally giving me something to blog about!

The Distinguished Service Award

2010-05-24T09:55:00.002-06:00

Back in February(I know it's been about 3 months, SORRY!), my dad recieved the distinguished Service Award for the Utah Dental Association. Over the years... for about as long as I can remember, my dad has been heavily involved with the UDA. He is currently on the the Utah Board for Dentists and Hygentists. He also travles around the country to give final exams to dental students who are about to graduate. As you can tell, I'm pretty proud of him. He received the award at the UDA Convention in Salt Lake. Here he is giving an acceptance speech at the luncheon. Here's the family after the luncheon. Luckily, we were all able to come to the awards ceremony to cheer him on.

Just wanted to say, way to go Dad!!! We love you!

I made this

2010-01-17T19:11:00.003-07:00

My good friend and old mission companion, Deanna and her husband Brooks were given a baby shower. I made this mitered corner blanket and it took me about four hours. Don't be fooled by the simpleness of how it looks. Can I just say that I love the fabric!!!!! Here's the back.

She was so funny when she was opening th present.

Nate was there, but for some reason, I had him take the picture instead of pose for it. Now I wish I would have thought of that!

Now prepare yourself for a lot of posts!!!!!!

Even though I didn't get pictures on New Year's Eve...

2010-01-17T18:52:00.003-07:00

I did get a few pics on New Year's Day! Nate and I went to visit my friend from high school Courtni,her husband Brian and her super cute kids Brett and Abby. We had fun catching up with them. They've lived in Australia for the past couple years and now they're in San Fran. They are such a great couple. Bear with me here. I just couldn't help myself. My niece, Gabby and I had a little photo shoot on New Year's Day and I got such a kick out of all her expressions. She has a huge personality in that little body.

Christmas, in a few random pictures.

2010-01-17T18:27:00.002-07:00

Let's be honest, I really took very few pictures this holiday season. It was so bad that I don't have a single picture of Thanksgiving or New Year's Eve! Shame on me. Anyway, we started Christmas off in Logan at Grandma Gutke's party complete with dancing around the Christmas tree and singing the 'Gypsy girl' song...just a few annual traditions. I had the honor of hanging out with this cute little couple who are engaged to be married. Everyone, meet Travis Dansereau. Melissa(my baby sis) chose this lucky guy to be the newest member of the Lundberg family. We are very excited for them.

The morning of Christmas Eve, we went to Hurricane to spend the rest of the holiday with Nate's family. While we were down there, Nate and the other Fawcett boys laid a laminate floor in the kitchen. It looks great!

And now for the crowning moment of Christmas morning? Er...Nate got me The Clapper!!! Since we bought the house, we really weren't going to do presents this year. But one day while looking at the online banking, I noticed a purchase from Amazon.com. When I inquired about the purchase, all Nate said was, "it's for you, but it will make my life a lot easier." He assured me that I would like it and technically it was meant to be funny. I was totally stumped, and very surprised when I opened the present.

We had a very fun year and I was actually very excited for the holidays to be over and to get back to normal life. Now that normal life is here, I want the holidays back! The grass is always greener.

The house with some stuff in it!

2010-01-17T18:17:00.002-07:00

The house is one of the many reasons that I haven't blogged much lately....along with the holidays. For those of you who haven't been over, here are some pictures now that we are more settled. Mind you, we have nothing on the walls, save a clock in the bathroom so we aren't late when we're getting ready for the day. We love having people over,(it gives me a reason to clean) so feel free to come!

Halloween..a little late?

2010-01-17T17:42:00.003-07:00

Halloween this year was so much fun that I waited until January to blog about it! As you can see, Nate and I dressed up as a smashing couple from the eighties. I referred to myself as Kelly Kapowski and I think Nate ended up being a cross between Zach Morris and Brett Michaels. Our friends Natalie and Dave hosted a party at their house in Daybreak and felt like I was on Wysteria Lane. That community is so cute! Aileen dressed up as a Kristen Wiig character

from SNL. Only those of you who have seen the sketch could appreciate her costume. Like the doll hands?

Again, if you've seen the sketch, you will understand the next picture of Aileen popping bubbles with her doll hands. I can't explain in, you just have to see it. Look up Lawrence Welk/SNL on hulu.

Tom and Season were Merlin and Mad Madam Mim. Obvioulsy, they had to have a wizards duel! Here there are, about the start the count off.

Our House

2009-11-21T13:11:00.006-07:00

We've been meaning to put these pictures up for a while now but we just haven't been able to find the time. These are pictures that we took of the house that we're buying (but don't ask when, cause we still don't have a closing date!) We took them when we first looked at the house and we probably should have taken more, but we didn't know we were going to buy it at the time. We haven't been able to go back inside since. So this is all we've got for now. We'll definately take some more when we move in.

This is our house. It's the one on the right on the end. It was the model home, so they put up a stucco wall with windows and a door in place of the garage so they could use it as an office. It has since been converted back to a garage. Yay for a garage and no scraping off car windows!

This is our kitchen and small dining room. Since it was the model, the floors, cabinets and appliances were all upgraded. It cost a little bit more, but not too much, so it was worth it. To the right is the sliding glass door that leads out to the deck and our small yard.

Here is the living room. It is a nice open space and as you can see it's right off the kitchen. It also has a little nook that's perfect for our TV.

This is our basement. It's unfinished which is kind of nice because then we can make whatever we want out of it. Plus it gives us the chance to do some fun projects.

Our laundry room is located in the hall upstairs outside of all of the bedrooms.

We'll have a full bath located in the hallway upstairs.
This is one of the two spare bedrooms. They're not huge, but not small either.

Here we have the master bedroom. It was hard to get a good picture of it. It's a pretty good size with lots of room. The ceiling is vaulted with makes it feel more open. We love the wondows!
The master bath is just off of the the master bedroom. You can also see the linen closet on the left.
This is the rest of the master bathroom. The walk in closet is on the far side.

One of our favorite parts of the house is the walk-in closet.

There's more of it.

That's all the pics we have for now. Hopefully we will close soon and be able to move in. Right now it's pretty much a blank slate, but that will soon change!

I can't put it off any longer!!!

2009-10-14T23:38:00.006-06:00

Well folks, because of my serious procrastination, you are going to have to get the second half of summer in one big post. I'll start it with a picture of Nate golfing on his birthday. Even though I cut off his chin, I love this picture of him. I love that he has a tee in his mouth and I love the look of concentration on his face. Over the 24th of July weekend, we went to Hurricane with our friends, Nicole W and Aileen. Aileen's parents also live in Hurricane(Nate's hometown). It was so fun. We went to Sand Hollow Reservior.

We also went hiking in Zions. It was beautiful, but H-O-T!

This is our hiking group. Aileen's mom, Denise and niece, Brooklyn came. As I'm sure you can imagine, Brooklyn put us all to shame. She was basically running the whole time and wondering what on earth was taking the rest of us so long.

On Saturday night, we drove over to St George and went to the Secondhand Serenade/Parachute concert. It was so good, besides the fact that we were the oldest ones there by about 15 years. Who knew? My favorite part of the concert was the ugly face contest that we had. I heart ugly face contests. I learned about them from my brother in law, Steve. Thanks Steve! They are great and entertaining way to pass time.

Not to brag, but I'm pretty sure I won. Who do you think is the winner???

This is the lead singer of Parachute. He did a great job performing live!

Nate and I both had August birthdays. This is Nate about to enjoy favorite breakfast. He turned 29. Only one more year til a big one!

This is his typical present face.....Note: this could also be used for an ugly face contest.

I turned 32 and Nate and Aileen threw me an amazing birthday party with so many fun people!!! I loved every minute of it!!! Also, Nate made another ginormous birthday cake.

Free pizza at the pizza factory.

Labor Day weekend, we went camping with our friends Tom , Season, Aileen and Anamae. We went to the Uintahs and had so much fun....even though we froze during the night! Nate and Tom did the manly thing and built the fire and kept it going.

Tom and Season were so excited about their new tent that they did a Toyota jump. They also announced that Season is pregnant that weekend. Maybe that's why they were jumping. Anyway, we are very excited for them!!

Here we are before we realized how freezing we would be that night. It's probably better that we didn't know, right?

The State Fair......what more can I say than don't get your hopes up. I'm kidding....sort of. We went to the fair with my family and Aileen and we actually had a lot of fun. I do have to say that it's a good thing we had Megan there to entertain us though. And let us not forget about the fried twinkie. I know it's extremely shameful, but I had to try it. Trust me, it was so good. But you should probably never eat one more than once in your life. Don't worry, I shared.

Melissa's boyfriend, Travis got a second place ribbon for the pizza eating contest and he wore that ribbon all night with pride, which I thought was fantastic. Although, he did have a very suspicious fair worker giving him the 3rd degree about where he got the ribbon. I'm pretty sure she thought he stole it off of one of the displays.
My one regret about the fair is that we didn't get a picture of the whole crew. But we had a good turn out....Mom, Michelle, Steve, me, Nate, Michael, Megan and Aileen. We missed Dad, Angela, Kessee, Jaxton and Gabby :(

This was for sure the highlight of Megan's night. I don't blame her.

Now that the holidays are coming, I'll at least make an effort to stay caught up!

Year one...and counting!!!!

2009-10-11T10:55:00.002-06:00

Oh my goodness gracious! It's our first anniversary today. Here are some fun pictures from our wedding day at the Logan Temple. I'll never forget that beautiful, blizzardy day! Even though I was FREEZING, it was an amazing day! Thanks to a few family members and friends, we have a small handful of pictures from that day.(We'll never forget the big mishap, when our photographer lost the wedding picures) Anyway, it's been such a fun year and even if I tried, I could never imagine what married life is like! I am so lucky to have someone who totally gets me and is undoubtedly the most patient person I have ever met. Thank you Nate, for always doing everything you can to make sure that I'm happy. I love you!

One man's trash ....

2009-09-27T18:04:00.004-06:00

Nate's been working hard in our workshop, aka, our second bedroom. We found this dresser and night stand at a garage sale for $15. Nate went to Home Depot and spent about $45 on new handles, stain, sand paper and paint brushes. So for $60 total, we have beautiful new furniture for our bedroom. Here are the before and after pictures. I think he did a GREAT job and we saved a ton of money! Imagine how much we would had spent at RC Willey for this stuff.

Another one of our great finds was this vanity from the DI. We bought it for about $45 and we ended up using most of the leftover supplies from the dresser and night stand. Since Nate worked grave yard this week, he had tons of time to work on it. He sanded this puppy on all day on Tuesady from 11 am to about 6pm. All I can say is WOW! That's a long day. It looks so awesome. We have one more thing to do before it's finished. We need to find a mirror that fits the frame. If anyone knows where we might find a place to get specially sized mirrors for cheap, please let us know!

What do you think?

4th of July!!!

2009-08-23T12:30:00.000-06:00

This 4th of July was definately a fun one! We went to Logan and spent time with those crazy(in a good way) Lundbergs. We started the day off right by going to the Boy Scouts pancake breakfast. It was our first year going, but for sure not our last! Megan was thrilled because she loves pancakes! After the breakfast, we went to the farmers market(sorry no pictures). Our time old tradition on my dad's side of the family is to go to the Hyrum parade. His parents(Nana and Papa) house is on Main St so we always have the best seats. Since they are both passed, the house is up for sale and this could be our last year doing the parade. :( Here's Nate and I in our chairs anxiously awaiting the parades arrival.

I love this picture of my niece, Megan. This is when she didn't get the piece of candy that she wanted. Don't worry about the fact that she got like 700 other pieces. She really wanted THAT one.

This is a special guest that the guys caught lurking in the bushes at Nana and Papa's house! GROSS! Yes, that is a full blown rat! Nate, Daryl and a bunch of the guys cornered and caught him. After the parade was over, he came up missing from the bucket. I didn't like the idea of that. To finish up the day, we went up to the cabin with all the extended family and had lunch(again, sorry that there's no pics) and just talked. It was alot of fun. We were able to relax that night cause we went to the fireworks the night before. All in all, it was a very fun holiday.

Nate's Honduran friends

2009-08-23T12:04:00.000-06:00

I couldn't leave this out of the blog. While we were in Honduras, Nate took great pleasure in finding little 4 legged friends. Please note that these animals were all found on separate occaions and I didn't have enough room to post all of the animals that he found cause for some reason, I can't figure out how to post more than 4 pictures at a time. If anyone knows how, I would love a lesson. I'm clueless! Anyway, notice how small the gecco next to m&m is! It was a tiny little baby. He loved all the animals. I, on the other hand, was happy just to be the photographer! Also. I'm a little worried about what kind of animals are going to be coming in and out of our house when we have kids. SCARY!!

Mangrove Tour

2009-08-23T11:52:00.001-06:00

One of the last things we did on the trip was the Magrove Tree Tour. A Magrove tree is a water tree with intertwining roots and braches. Back in the 1600's they cut out canals within the Mangrove trees and used them to take their boats through the canals for protection from pirates. Because of the tunnels, they could take different routes through the island, rather than around the island and get the pirates from behind. They are so thick that they also offer protection from hurricanes. In the picture above is our captian, Emiril. He was really funny. The video below is a little snippet of what the tour was like.

Here we are, enjoying the tour.

This is us on the last night of our trip on the beach by our hotel. We were sad to leave. The trip was AMAZING and Nate did a fantastic job of planning it and carrying it through. It exceeded my expectations beyond what I could have ever imagined. If you ever have the opportunity to go to Honduras, DO IT! It's such a beautiful place.

Roatan continued

2009-08-23T11:39:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, I have waited far too long to update the blog. But because of church being cancelled for the temple dedication, I have some time to catch up on everything! I still want to finish up on Roatan, so here we go. One of the days that we were there, we rented some scooters for the day. It was only $1/hr!! So we rented them for 24 hours and we had so much fun. The island is 15 miles long and 3 miles wide, so we spent the entire day driving all over the island. It was so beautiful to see the views and very interesting to see the little village. We also went to the place where the cruise ships come in and see all the shopping over there. By the end of the day we smelled like exhaust and had sore backsides, but it was so amazing! We loved it. Below is just Nate and the open road!

As we mentioned before, some of Nate's friends were down there at the same time as us. We did some stuff together and some stuff apart. Here we are at a place called The View. It's a spot were you can see the ocean on either side if the island. Here we are with Carter, Ben, Nate Goodrich, me and Nate Fawcett.

One day when we were on the beach, we encountered a pick pocket. Luckily, I got a picture for evidence. This little boy ran up to Nate (I was walking behind him at the time). He grabbed the strap on his backpack to help himself catch up and immediately started unzipping all of the pockets and rummaging through them to see what he could get. Instead of defending the backpack, I decided to take some pictures. He didn't seem like much of threat. I was pretty sure we could out run him if he got away with some loot. After getting some pictures, I told him he better stop. Oddly enough, he didn't seem to care that I caught him. He rattled something off in some sort of Creole language and off he went. We thought it was pretty funny.

Roatan=Paradise

2009-06-15T09:24:00.000-06:00

After we were done with all the crazy fun of Copan, we boarded our bus and then a ferry to Roatan...a Caribbean Island paradise full of adventure! First things first, the beach! We spent alot of time on the isalnd at the beach and let me tell you, it was beautiful. The first morning, it was a complete downpour, so when it cleared up and we got to the beach it was kind of cloudy and the water was choppy(as you see in the picture below). But all the other days, the sky was completely clear and the water was totally still. We spent alot of time at the beach. Unfortunately, the only pictures we have in our snorkel gear are on the underwater camera. When we have more time, we'll scan those into the computer and post them. All I can say is that I have never had snorkeling like this. The water was so clear and there were so many different types of fish! It was beautiful. Roatan has the second largest barrier reef in the world next to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, so I'm sure you can imagine how awesome it was. We went snorkeling almost every morning.

The area around this rock was about 40 ft deep and on one day when it was still water, we snorkeled around it and it was SO cool to see the reef out there with amazing fish.

One day when I was laying on the beach, Nate did some exploring. I was very surpised when he showed up next to my towel with a black iguana. He was thrilled, as you can see in the picture above. We need to do a post about all the animals on the trip. Being the animal lover that he is, it pretty much made his day when he would catch something. And trust me, there were a lot of things to catch!! So as I was taking his picture with the iguana, this funny little man showed up with a hat and put in on his head and posed for the picture with him. It was hilarious. Also, the iguana scratched up his arm pretty good, but of course he didn't seem to mind.

Here we are at the beach, just loving our life. Last night, we showed our pictures to my family and my niece, Megan asked me why we live at the beach. I got a good laugh out of it. I guess she didn't catch the fact that we were on vacation. I wish we lived in Roatan!

THE BEST PART ABOUT OUR VACATION!!!!!

2009-05-31T19:38:00.000-06:00

This post highlights what was my favorite part of the trip. Although, I must admit I never thought I would say that. We did a zipline tour in the mountains near Copan and I seriously think that no one should leave this existance before doing a zipline!!! The guide put us(Nate, me and his friends) in the truck and drove and drove and drove up a mountain until I didn't think he could drive anymore, and then he kept driving! YIKES!! I was getting very nervous about how high it would be. In fact, I couldn't even eat that day in anticipation of what was to come. I thought it would be horrible and scary, but I was SO wrong. It was GREAT!!! Once at the top of the mountain, they put us in a harness and connected us to the first zipline. It was a fifteen zipline tour. We went from one platform to another. One zipline was a kilometer long and about 200 feet high. The views were breathtaking and beautiful. We could see everything. At the end of each leg, there was a guide to catch us and make sure we were safe. In this picture you can see him wating for me.

Nate's expression in this picture pretty much sums up how we felt about the tour. He did it last time he was visiting and told me we just HAD to do it. I'm so glad we did.

I like this picture because it show how pretty it was! Everything was so green.

Here we are waiting for our turn in our gear. We were loving life.

A visit to the Mayan Ruins

2009-05-31T19:18:00.000-06:00

One of the most interesting things we did on our vacation was go the Mayan Ruins in Copan. At this point, we met up with some of Nate's friends that were down there at the same time. We hired a tour guide and it was very informative. Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of them from the ruins. Maybe in another post. The ruins are just outside the city and they are said to be the 'Paris' of the Mayan cities. In this first picture is the Heiroglyphic staircase. This picture does not do the size of this thing justice. It is enormous. Each little stone in the staricase is individually engraved. They are in the process of restoring it and so it's covered by a canvas to protect it from the elements.

Here is our tour guide, Antonio. He was very knowledgable and also very funny. He actually gave a tour to Spener W Kimball about 20 years ago. When he told us that, we knew that we wanted him as our tour guide. He's not LDS, but he has read the Book of Mormon. He knew everything there was to know about the history, the ruins, the Mayan culture. Here he is with what he says is his brother because they have the same teeth. Only 2 on the bottom with a big space in the middle. He was a crack up.

This area is actually an arena where they played sports.

Just an arial veiw of some of the ruins. All in all, the place was a lot bigger than I expected it to be and it was amazing to think of what into building all of this so long ago! Definately a must see if you're going to Central Ameica.

Some intersting things at the Ruins

2009-05-31T19:00:00.000-06:00

On our way into the ruins, they have a spot that has a bunch of parrots that were so pretty! I loved their bright colors and thought this was a cool picture.

Our tour guide showed us this Ceiba tree. It was such an amazing tree! These little spiny things grow out of the tree and then fall off. He said the tree produces cotton that apparantly isn't used for anything.

Here is a close up picture of what the spiny things look like.

Technical difficulties

2009-05-22T09:12:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone! Just wanted to give a little update. We are currently on the island of Roatan and it is an ISLAND PARADISE! I never want to leave. There are tons of pictures that I am dying to post, but the connection on the island is awful, so I am having a very hard time downloading the pictures. On top of that, we can barely even get our wireless to come up at our hotel! We are having the time of our life and will post some fun pics as soon as we can.

Horseback riding to the Mayan Village

2009-05-17T16:13:00.000-06:00

We hired a tour guide and went horseback riding to a Mayan Village. This was very cool and also very informative. Our tour guide, Francisco was alot of fun and knew alot about the area. Here we are next to our horses. I know the hat is a little ridiculous, but I needed something to sheild my face. Lol.

These are some pictures we took along the way. That town in the distance is Copan.

I love this picture that Nate took. He is definately enjoying the camera we bought for the trip!

Mayan Village

2009-05-17T16:04:00.000-06:00

When we got to the Mayan village, Francisco took us into a hut that a local family lives in and they gave us beans and tortillas. They make their homes out of mud and sticks and apparantly the houses last for about 8 years. We look like giants next to this woman. She was the one who fed us. The hut is just one room and the whole family lives there. It is about the size of a regular famly room in utah. It was really cool to see what their culture is like!

I couldn't resist taking this little boy's picture. He saw us and came running with his bow and arrow and was showing off for us by shooting it all over the place. I pretended to be scared and hid behind Nate and he seemed very amused by it.

This is Mirna, she is quite the persistant little thing. The second that she saw us come into the village, she ran and got he cornhusk flowers and wanted us to buy them. I told her, "tengo no dinero" so she pointed to Nate and said, "el". It was pretty funny. It didn't take her long to figure out where the money was. Then she followed us aound the village for about an hour. She only lost interest in us when she saw other Americans coming. We see how it is!

Here is Mirna with some of the other kids in the village. They were very cute and happy to see us.

We made it!

2009-05-17T14:32:00.005-06:00

This picture expresses the way I feel about our LONG journey to Honduras! It started with a short one hour flight to LA, with a seven hour layover(as stated in the last post), a six hour flight to Panama City, a one hour and fifteen minute flight to Costa Rica, a one hour and fifteen minute flight to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, a five hour bus ride to San Pedro Sula and then another three and a half hour bus ride to Copan, Honduas. WHEW! Don't forget about all the layovers. By the time we got to San Pedro Sula, it had been about 26 hours of traveling and I WAS DONE!!!! We stayed over night in SPS at a nice B&B owned by a very sweet lady named Sandra. We then took the bus in the morning to Copan. I have never been so happy to arrive somewhere in my life! That afternoon, we were kinda beat, so we wandered around town and took some pictures. The area is very hot and humid, which makes it very green. It's gorgeous. This picture is taken from the roof of our hotel.

We went into the town square and they were having a huge festival with kids so took some pictures of them jumproping. I thought it was cute.

This gives a better idea of what the streets look like here. It is a very hilly town, covered with nothing but cobblestone, so we are getting our exercise. Don't you think they did a great job organizing the telephone and electric wires....or not!

That night, we met a friend that we made on the bus for dinner at a pizza place. Her name is Alicia(and of course we forgot to take a picture) and she is down here on her own working for a nonprofit organiztion. It's a childrens organization and she is doing a food survey. Since the flour, sugar, salt, cornmeal and basic foods down here don't have proper nutrients, alot of babies are born with spinabiphida and cleft pallets. So they are trying to pass a bill with legislature to put the nutrients in the food so that pregnant women will be getting the nutrition without even knowing it, and will be more likely to have healthy babies. It was really interesting to be able to talk to her. We also go to talk a little about the church and our missions and inform her that Mormons are not polygamists :)

We're on our way!

2009-05-17T14:05:00.002-06:00

For those of you who don't know, we left for Honduras on Thurdsday night. It has already been an adventure. Since it's hot here, every once in a while we need some down time in the air conditioned hotel room, so I will be blogging some of our adventures while we are on the trip. The night we left, we had a layover in LA for about 7 hours. Luckily Nate has a friend, Nate Goodrich who lives in Huntington Beach, who was good enough to take us around. First things first, Nate G. had a city league basketball game and needed an extra guy. Nate quickly agreed and we spent the first hour at a local high school. It was fun to see him play. After the game, we came back to Nate G's apt,(which is 2 blocks from the beach) where they showered then we headed out for an evening on the town. The best part was we rode some beach cruisers over to downtown Huntington Beach. It was amazing! The weather was perfect and it is so beatiful there. I felt like I was in a dream world!

We walked out the edge of the pier to see the ocean and eat at a local hamburger place called Ruby's, but by then it was about 9 o'clock, so it was closed. We had a tough time finding an open resaurant, but finally found a little mexican place right across from the beach. By the time dinner was done, it was time to get to the airport back in LA for our 2 am flight. Ugh!

Festival of Colors!

2009-04-02T10:06:00.003-06:00

We went to the festival of colors at the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork on Saturday, and let me just say, IT WAS CRAZY! A small explanation is that this is a religious ceremony they have at the temple every year. Thousands of people show up. They sell chalk in about every bright color that you can imagine before it starts. After they do a little cermony down on the stage, everyone start throwing the chalk. This year they sold 25,000 bags of chalk. So as you can imagine, we were COVERED from head to toe with chalk. Our friend Brent brought us some masks to help us breath...LUCKILY!

This is us in the aftermath. The place was complete chaos...but it was really fun!

I'm trying to figure out how I can do a fashion color at the salon that looks like this. Don't tell me you wouldn't want to pay $75 to make your hair look like this!

Surprise Visitors

2009-04-02T09:57:00.000-06:00

We had some surprise visitors last week. My sister, Angela and her two kids Jaxton and Gabby showed up unnanounced from the Philipines(where they live). We were so excited when we got the phone call that they were in Utah that we drove up to Layton and had dinner with them. These pictures are from when they drove to Provo for their mom and my mom to get their hair done. We went to lunch at Magleby's and I couldn't resist getting their cute pictures when they were sitting in this window.

He's squezzing her cheeks in this picture...even though it kind of looks like he's got his hand around her neck!

They're so cute.

Shout out to Nate!!!

2009-03-13T20:18:00.003-06:00

You deserve a gold star!

Ok, at the risk of sounding like TAMN on seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com(you'll understand what I mean if you read that blog), I seriously have to do a big thanks to Nate. I've been sick with the flu the past couple of days. I must admit that when I'm sick, I'm kind of a baby. Anyway, even though I knew that Nate was awesome, he has shown me a whole new level amazingness. Seriously, the guy has been waiting on me hand and foot. He has been making dinner, running to the store to get me orange juice, getting out of bed to get me medicine at night, grabbing me tissues, wrapping me up in blankets 'burrito style', rubbing my feet, tickling my back, folding my towels for work, and just about everything you can think of. So I went back to work today and I have to say that the house was kind a disaster cause I have been too sick to do anything. So when I came home from work, he was already home and had comletely cleaned EVERYTHING...including vacuuming! I was so happy, especially since I had NO desire to do anything cause I'm still not feeling the best. What a guy! I just wanted to say thanks! Otherwise I might be tempted to do it over the pulpit in testimony meeting. KIDDING!!!!! This is where I draw the line.

Expanding my horizons....

2009-02-23T18:33:00.006-07:00

I hate to admit it, but the downward spiral of the economy has hit our nations hair salons. As a hairstylist, this really concerns me. I've been thinking about how I can bring in a little extra cash. Recently, we were visiting Nate's old roommate and his new wife, Tom and Season Giles. Along with some other friends that were there, including Aileen(a mastermind in this money making scheme), we came up with a way to make some more money. Season agreed to be my model/guinea pig. Here we are at the beginning of the pilot program. Thank you and sorry about how long it must have taken you to comb out this rats nest.

When I say rats nest, I REALLY mean it. This took us minutes upon minutes upon minutes.

In case you've been wondering, this is the look we are going for. Nate's from Hurricane, which is VERY close to Colorado City. We see polygamists with hairstyles like this everywhere we go in Hurricane and St George. As a trained and experienced stylist, I am completely dumbfounded as to how they get their hair to do this!!!! All I can do is stare with my jaw dropped while Nate is probably totally humiliated. It's unbelievably smooth with tons of volume and there is not a bubble to be found. And on top of that, I'm pretty sure they don't use and ounce of product, not to mention bobby pins! What on earth is their secret?????

Here is our finished product. Please don't enlarge this picture, I don't want you to see a close up version of the style. It's kind of pathetic.

For any of you ladies out their that want to get this great new style, call soon as appointments are going fast. And guys, this is a great birthday, Mother's Day or "just because" present. It's at a going rate of an inexpesive $25.99. Call now, before it's too late.

I DID IT!!!

2009-02-23T18:12:00.002-07:00

Hmmm....where do I begin????
I was finally brave enough to make bread!!! I googled easy bread recipes and came up with one that didn't seem too intimidating. After all of your advice, coaching and motivation I decided that the worst that could happen was that it would be horrible and I would have start over. Nate has made bread before but I made it very clear that I wanted to do this on my own. Don't worry, I asked him about a billion questions. Especially about activating the yeast. Scary!!!

Here I am with the "cast of characters". Anyone who reads the Pioneer Woman's blog will appreciate that. If you don't, please start. You will love it. Nate and I make her recipes sometimes and have yet to find one that is not totally delicious and mouth watering.

Just kneading the bread as instructed. Don't you love my red Kitchen Aid? It was a must with leftover money from the wedding.

Hello amazing, hot, melt in your mouth honey wheat bread(not to toot my own horn). I must admit that it turned out fabulously. If you want the recipe, let me know.

OUCH!

2009-02-19T08:30:00.004-07:00

Ok, we have an accident prone member of the Fawcett household. Someone keeps getting hurt. I know what you're thinking...he "fell down the stairs", right? I've already heard it from his brother and his friends at work. But I promise, I haven't laid a finger on him. A week and a half ago, Nate was playing basketball at the church and this happened. He's been limping around everywhere, but I don't hear much complaining from him. He's a pretty good sport. Please notice the difference in size between the right and left foot. It's been pretty swollen.

Just the other night, we were leaving a friends house and she called to tell me I left something there. I had Nate run in and grab it.(I shouldn't do that to an invalid) When he came back to get in the car, he opened the door and banged it right against his head. It split right open, leaving him a Harry Potter-esque scar down his forehead. Sorry this is the only picture I have though. If you're wondering, the bandaid is cut so it doesn't get caught in his eyebrow. In the words of my mom...'Poor Nate'. Get well soon!! P.S. He usually acts much happier about getting his picture taken!

Happy Birthday, Mr President

2009-02-19T07:49:00.004-07:00

My dad had a milestone birthday on Feb 11, so we decided to have the President's birthday party on President's Day. It was a perfect match. We made him a little badge that identified him as Mr. President and we all wore badges that said, "Happy Birthday, Mr. President". Here he is in awe of his awesome party. My mom and Michelle put together some very cute and very patriotic decorations. Good job guys!

My favorite part of the night was the Dr Pepper tower. We gave him a very significant "60" Dr Peppers. My mom and Nate made the amazing tower. Here we are modeling next to the tower. (sorry Megan for getting cut out of the picture)

The coolest part about the tower was the logo. Nate got into photo shop and changed it up, which I thought turned out pretty nice. The most fun was when Michael and I cut out the little tiny oval shaped logos while Nate taped them to the bottles. It was worth it though cause they looked great!

And here we have our birthday boy. What a champ! Happy birthday dad (or Brian...I know who you are)!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-19T07:31:00.004-07:00

Valentine's Day this year was a total hit! Nate did a great job of preparing the perfect night. He started out by picking me up at a friends house so it felt like a real date (he also had me leave the house for a couple of hours to prepare) We had a candlelight dinner of ribs and potatoes.
Here we are getting ready to eat. Don't we look hungry?

One of my favorite things about special occasions with Nate...his attention to detail (a quality I don't possess). He made these cute heart shaped ice cubes with red food coloring. He also did it last year, so now it's a tradition.

Here is the 4 layer chocolate cake he made me. He didn't have much room, so he wrote Happy Valentine's Day in short hand with m&m's. YUM! After dinner, we went to the movie Taken (part of my gift to Nate) and it was AMAZING! Go see it. My heart was pounding like 97% of the time.

We wanted to stay at a bed and breakfast that night, but couldn't justify the expense. No problem, Nate brought the theme room to us. He made this cool canopy over our bed. It was very impressive!

Lessons of the week....Cafe Rio is cheaper and making bread takes too long!!!!

2009-02-05T15:44:00.002-07:00

Hi everyone. I just wanted to share what I've learned this week (as you can see from the post title)
Lesson #1-Cafe Rio is cheaper
On monday(our day off), Nate and I decided that we were going to be adventurous and try to re-do our favorite Cafe Rio meat.....the yummy pork.We found a recipe online that sounded pretty good. As we were looking at the recipe blog, it came to our attention that we have to have rice to go along with it, and the beans, and the dressing, and fresh tortillas.(probably because she listed those recipes as well) And what the heck...why not make homemade guacamole and salsa to go along with it? So off to Costco(for the uncooked tortillas, yum) and the grocery store we went. We had a HUGE list of stuff we needed. I have to tell you all that the total amount of our items was so big that I can't even post it on the internet!!!(if you really want to know, I'll tell you in person). Warning...making your own Cafe Rio is not something you want to do if you are trying to be frugal. I wish someone would have told ME that. Anyway, we came back home and got started. I do have to admit that we did have a lot of fun making the food. It is much more rewarding than standing in line at the restaurant, even though it takes pretty close to the same amount of time.....3 1/2 hours. When we were done, we had quite the spread and I must admit that it tasted pretty darn good! Our friends, Sadee and Mike joined us and were very impressed with our culinary skills, if I do say so myself!
Lesson #2-Makind bread takes too long!!!
This lesson is a sad one for me, because I can never seem to find the time to make it. In the past year or so, I realized I really wanted to be a great bread maker. My mom showed me how to make rolls in November, something I ever dared do myself. You might ask why. The answer is that I AM AFRAID OF YEAST! I have a fear that I will ruin the bread/rolls since I don't really know how yeast works. I finally decided that I don't care anymore and I just want to try it. The worst possible scenerio is that I have to throw it away. But now I have a new problem....IT TAKES TOO LONG!!! I thought I had time today, but when I looked at my recipe, I realized that the process is over 3 1/2 hours(ironically the amount of time it takes to make a Cafe Rio meal with your husband). Hmmm...I just realized that maybe I do have the time. I just need to enlist him.
OK, maybe this lesson is teaching me another lesson.....sorry that this post was SUPER random. Just a few thoughts for posterity.

Double Daters

2009-01-28T21:11:00.004-07:00

Nate and I went out with our friends Tracy and Brent recently. Bowling is one of Nate's favorite things to do and anyone would know that just by looking at his Power Paw(please notcie his right hand). If you're a pro bowler, I'm sure you would know what they are, unlike me. He does this spinny thing when he bowls and I do this thing where the ball goes straight to the gutter. I don't think I broke 78. But it was still really fun!
We also went ice skating with our other friends Ashlee and Nathaniel. The evening started out a little rough with the skates. Notice that my feet have 2 different skates on. I had to try on 3 different pair before I found the perfect fit. Poor Ashlee didn't find a good pair until #4. We even had to test out our skates on the rink and I honestly think that it took us 45 minutes to get the perfect pair. Once we found that pair, the Zambonie promptly hit the ice for a cleaning and took about 15 more minutes. We finally got out there about an hour later! Then I think we actually skated for about 30 minutes. We're so hard core! It was funny.I helped Nate out by pulling him around the rink. He may be able to beat me in bowling, but I'd like to see him try to outdo my triple toe loop!Just resting after alot of skating.

Anneliesa's wedding!!!!

2009-01-05T16:52:00.002-07:00

My very good friend, Anneliesa got married on Saturday in Arizona and it was so great! I drove down with Nate and my friends Aileen and Elizabeth. We got there late on Thursday night. Friday morning we had a shower at Mimi's Cafe. (see above picture) After that we went to work running errands until the evening, when we went to the church to set up. The next day, I did Anneliesa's hair and went on some last minute errands with her while Nate, Aileen and Elizabeth went to the church to do the flowers and finish setting up. The wedding ceremony was great, then they had a ring ceremony, a luncheon and the reception. It was alot of work, but the four of us had tons of fun running around. Anneliesa and Scott were so cute together. I have to admit that I was kind of wishing that it was my wedding day again. The happy couple in front of the Mesa Temple.

After the ceremony during pictures.

All of the friends at the wedding. Congrats Anneliesa and Scott!

A few Christmas pics....

2009-01-05T16:13:00.004-07:00

Just a few Christmas photos. I didn't really get many, but here are Nate and I in our Christmas pj's on Christmas Eve.

This is one unhappy little wiseman. We had a nativity scene at our family party and my nephew, Jaxton was super cute and a bit unhappy about something...maybe just the fact that he was having his picture taken.

And here is our little Gabby, my youngest niece. She is very funny and quite content just hanging out by the Christmas tree so she could play with the ornaments.

Happy Holidays!

2009-01-01T09:41:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to give everyone an update on our fabulous holiday season. Since I am still trying to work out computer kinks, you don't get to see our bright smiling faces. But soon I will put some pictures up. I just need to get around to downloading them on Nate's computer.
Our first Christmas together was really fun! We went to my parents house and everyone was there except for Michelle, Steve and Megan. SAD! They were in Sun Valley for Michelle, who was performing as a caroler for the holiday season. Despite their absence, we had a great time. Nate got me a sewing machine! I am very excited to start using it. Not that I know how to use it. But, before you all know it I will be making couch covers and sewing prom dresses(from the 80's of course).
For New Year's, we are down in Hurricane, making a stop on the way to my very good friend, Anneliesa's wedding. Last night we played games with Nate's family. It was really fun! This afternoon we are leaving for Arizona for the wedding. I am SO excited. I will definately have some pictures of that. Until then HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Saddest Day Ever!!!!!

2008-12-22T12:10:00.002-07:00

Sorry to vent guys, but I just have to...and this might explain why picture posts are going to be few are far between for the next little while. My hard drvie crashed. Nate said that it was the worst possible thing that could happen to a hard drive, don't ask specifics, cause I don't know. Would anyone like to guess why I have been in tears???? It's called 4 YEARS worth of pictures in that little hard drive. First my wedding pictures, now this. So, I guess I could use Nate's computers to download pictures, but let's be honest, WHAT'S THE POINT????? Ok, I sound like a basketcase, so I better stop. What better way to cheer myself up than by going to lunch at Zupas with my friends Aileen and Nicole. But don't expect to see pictures of this little outing!!!!

Caroling with the Fawcetts

2008-12-18T01:16:00.001-07:00

On Monday night, Nate and I went to Hurricane to participate in the long time tradition of Christmas caroling with Nate's extended family. It was so much fun! The best part about it was that it actually snowed down there! That doesn't happen very often. Usually they go to home teachee houses, widows or shut ins and it seems to brighten their night. Here we are on the caroling route. If you are wondering if he's getting eaten by a fox, relax. This wonderful hat is from his mission in Mongolia. It definitely keeps him warm. (Don't you think he kind of looks like a giant next to me???)

Here I am with Aubrey, one of Nate's cousins. She's great! Not only that, she's also an Aggie. How could we not be friends with that in common???

I had to put this in. Nate took this picture because it's not very often that you see a palm tree with snow on it. I thought it was pretty cool!

Snowball fights...while caroling!

2008-12-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

While we were enjoying the Southern Utah snow and caroling I happened to sneak a peak in Nate's pocket and this is what I saw...a huge snowball. He's like one of those fifth grade boys that just can't resist the urge to nail the second graders with a snowball, unbeknownst to the victim. I quickly made my way to other side of the group after I spotted it. The last thing I wanted was to be involved in the cross fire.

In the far left corner of the group, you can see Nate. He's trying to blend with the cousins, while spotting his easiest prey.

When they least expected it, he hit the first sucker, comparable to a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick the face. This created a night long domino effect between him and all the boy cousins.

Little did he know that his dad had created revenge in the form of a snowball the size of Pee Wee Herman's tinfoil ball. (slight exaggeration) Nate's brother managed to get him a well earned hit to the back with the massive snowball. Fun times in Hurricane!

GUESS WHAT I DID!!!!!

2008-12-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hello new haircut!

Just wanted to show everyone my new haircut. I've been wanting to do this since about a month before the wedding. But I knew I had to hold out until it was over. Anyway, I started getting nervous, so it took me 2 months to cut it, and I'm so glad I finally did. And I cut 8 inches!!! It's so much easier to style!!!

A funny thing happened at Nate's work party tonight. My luck streak is continuing...or not. There was a raffle with about 75 prizes from businesses all over Provo and Orem. I just knew that we would win something like free groceries, movie tickets, Sees chocolates, a dvd. Well, it turns out we did win something!!! Guess what it was.....a free haircut at Seasons Salon and Day Spa!!!! What the???? Out of all the prizes at the party, they give the hairstylist who just got her haircut a free haircut? No thanks!!! I must say that we got a really good laugh out of it!

Tree Topper Mishap

2008-12-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

I was pretty sure that this year, Nate and I wouldn't have a Christmas tree. I didn't want to spend the money on one, along with all the decorations for it. Luckily, Nate's parents decided to donate their old one to us. The best part about it is that it's pre lit! So we decided to buy some Christmas balls and do popcorn strings and candy canes, which was pretty inexpensive. We were just having a horrible time finding a tree topper. A few nights after we decorated our tree, we went to Target and found the perfect topper. But when we put it on the top, this is what happened. It didn't seem to matter how Nate twisted, turned and fenagled, it just flopped over.

I mostly added this picture, because of Nate's expression. But he found this little stick and decided that if he whittled the top into a perfect little point, the star would slide perfectly onto the top and perfectly top the Christmas tree. Perfect, right?

Little did he realize that the whittling process would take much longer than anticipiated. He hovered over the garbage can for about 30 minutes shaving the top of the stick. Oh, the things we do for a magical Christmas. I do have to admit that he was much more patient than I was.

Meanwhile....

2008-12-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hello beautiful!

We got this little piece of heaven with some money from the wedding. I decided that while Nate was whittling, I would make some hot chocolate in our Cocoa-Latte machine. LOVE IT! If you don't have one of these, you should seriously consider buying one.

He managed to put the star on the whittled stick and jam it in to the top of the tree. What a little handyman!!

Here is our finished result. Merry Christmas!

Random stuff in my life

2008-12-04T00:56:00.001-07:00

For those of you who didn't know, I finally had my 15 minutes of fame! As an explanation to all of my wonderful Aggie loving friends and family, please know that I love Nate and he loves the Cougars, and I also love contests and winning prizes.(And I still love the Aggies!!!) A couple of weeks ago, I was in the BYU halftime in the RC Willey giveaway. A few games before, I was a winner of the best seats in the house. We got to sit on two leather recliners on the front row and 50 yard line. Nate was thrilled and I was having a heat stroke. Leather and 95 degrees don't go well together! Anyway, for the last home game, all the winners of the best seats for the season got to be in this contest. We all chose a cheerleader and whatever she had in her case is what we won. I got the iPod boombox, but as you can see, I should have chosen the cheerleader to the right. I really wanted that TV for my bedroom. Oh well, it was still fun and now I've had my 15 minutes!

My salon had a retreat in Park City the second week of November and it was so much fun. Here are all of my coworkers. I seriously love all of the people at my salon. I already love my job, but they make it even better. Here we are at Cafe Sabor in PC. From left to right is Kristi, Sondra, Stacy, Sadee, me, Becky, Emily and Andrea. They are all so awesome!

Just wanted to give Sadee a little shout out. Not only do we work together, but we're neighbors and in the same ward. She is so fun! We watch the Office with her and her husband, Mike all the time.

Honeymoon in Vegas!!!

2008-12-03T01:30:00.000-07:00

I know it's a little late, but I wanted to blog about our honeymoon. We went to Vegas, as I'm sure you can see. It was so fun!! Here we are with the fabulous strip behind us while we were partying it up one night.

Just a few nights on the town

2008-12-03T01:23:00.000-07:00

We went to Coney Island at the New York New York and played arcade games and won a bunch of tickets. Here we are with our loot. I think the cash value of our prizes was about 75 cents. We also rode the roller coaster that night along with a ten year old little boy that cried and screamed the whole time, yelling stuff like,"I CAN'T BREATHE!" and "I'M CHOKING!!!" It was realy sad, but maybe a little funny too.

Watching the fountains at the Bellagio. My favorite!

Confession.....I might have played the nickel slots and I might have won $22. It payed for about two thirds of our roller coaster ride!

Can't go to Vegas without a trip to In n Out!

Wax Museum and Phantom!

2008-12-03T01:12:00.001-07:00

So we went Madame Tuessads(spelling) and it was there that I realized that the Blue Man Group is missing a very important member!

Don't worry guys. Nate was there the whole time!

And Nate did a very impressive slam dunk over Shaq.

Our last night in Vegas, Nate took me to see Phantom and it was so good! It totally exceeded my expectations and was like a MILLION times better then when I saw it in SLC with the traveling group. We had a blast on our homeymoon. I'm sure that all you marrieds understand that going back to work is alot less fun than the honeymoon! We wish we could go back.

Best Thanksgiving Recipe EVER!!!

2008-12-01T17:05:00.002-07:00

So, since I was not going to be at my parents this year, I felt like I needed to have a piece of Thanksgiving at home at my in laws house. My sister Michelle makes this recipe every year and it is so yummy. Since Nate is a great litle chef, he made it and...WOW! Give it a chance, even if you don't think you like sweet potatoes. Trust me now and thank me later!

GOURMET SWEET POTATO CLASSIC

*5 sweet potatoes
*1/4 t. salt
*1/4 cup butter
*2 eggs
*1 t. vanilla extract
*1/2 t ground cinnamon
*1/2 c. white sugar
*2 T. heavy cream
*1/4 cup butter, softened
*3 T. all purpose flour
*3/4 c. packed light brown sugar
*1/2 c. chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 9x13 pan
2. Bake sweet potatoes 35 min in preheated oven, or until they begin to soften. Cool slightly, peel and mash OR peel, cut into chunks and boil for about 30 minutes.
3. In large bowl, mix the mashed potatoes, salt, 1/4 cup butter, eggs, vanilla extract, cinnamon, sugar, and heavy cream. Transfer to prepared baking dish.
4. In medium bowl combine 1/4 cup butter, flour, brown sugar, and chopped pecans. Mix with pastry blender or your fingers to the consistency of course meal. Sprinkle over sweet potato mixture.(VERY IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!!!!!!! I make NO GUARANTEES for this recipe unless you double the toppings. We have never enjoyed this recipe with a single mixture of the topping. Don't worry about the calories, it's the holidays!)
5. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven until the topping is crisp and lightly browned.
ENJOY!!!

Wedding......Take Two!!!

2008-11-15T18:05:00.007-07:00

We took our retake pictures on November 4th because of the lost photos and we wanted to share them with everybody. We only have a few right now, but we should be getting more soon and we will be sure to post those too.

Welcome to our blog!

2008-11-15T16:22:00.003-07:00

So, here we go, we officially have a blog. We are excited to finally get started.

Here are Nate and I on our wedding day! This picture was taken by Michael. (Thank you!) It is one of the few pictures we have of our wedding day because, as many of you already know, our photographer lost our wedding pictures. We did our retakes and we have some of them back and will be posting them in the next post. Hope you enjoy. If you come across our blog, leave us a comment. We'd love to hear from you!