becky / chase

DIY Moby Wrap

2012-01-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

My good friend Mitzi was gracious enough to have a baby before me let me know a few things she would recommend. Among these was a Moby wrap. It seemed like a good idea and I watched a few youtube videos on how to tie those things. I thought the price tag was a little ridiculous though, for FABRIC.

I looked online for the dimensions of the wrap and ended up using a piece of fabric I had bought at Walmart. It is a knit, and looks like fabric from a thermal shirt. I took three yards (60 inches wide) and cut it in half down the middle. Then I sewed them together to make one really, really long strip. I trimmed the edges with pinking shears and I don;t think it made a difference and it took forever. It is really fun to wear, but tying it is a BEAST. I'm glad I ended up making it because I honestly only wore it a few times and it wouldn't have been worth the money. Also pregnancy took a real toll on my back and after 30 minutes or so my back gets really achy.

I also tried to talk Chase into using it and he said he would rather cut off his foot. Thanks for the support honey :)

Felt Zebra Rug

2011-12-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

Way before I found out I was pregnant I spotted a tutorial for this rug made out of felt and it immediately caught my eye. Once I was designing my nursery I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make one. Zoe's bedroom has wood floors so it needed a little something down there.

Here is a link to the tutorial I used. I made sure to buy the felt at Joanns with coupons! If you can't tell from the picture I used a deep purple for the stripes. I also just used regular fabric glue to put it together. I thought about sewing around all the edges (stripes included) to give it an extra-finished look but I got to this point and I thought, eh... good enough. I'm sure we all feel that way sometimes!

The tutorial also calls for paper with gridlines on it. I hate it when projects call for specialty things like this and was reluctant to scour Joanns to try and find something like this. Luckily, while I was contemplating this, I bought some cheap wrapping paper from Walmart and on the back it had a grid of 1 inch squares on it! The tutorial calls for 2 inch grid so I made it work. As soon as the rug was finished I fell in love! I hope you like it too.

I'm not going to lie though, it isn't the most durable rug... it's already looking a little worn and fuzzy, but it has been a year.

It looks good though... right? :)

Homemade Stamps

2011-12-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

For a while now I've been really interested in making my own stamps. I think this stems from my love of fabrics. Printing my own fabrics is a distant dream of mine. I ended up buying some rubber blocks and a lino cutter and went to town!

First I literally traced my image on some vellum off my computer screen. I used a soft pencil and then pressed the paper against the white rubber and the pencil left a very good reverse image. Now you may think, well it's backwards so it's no good, not true! Because it's a stamp you want the image backwards, true story. I did a little experimenting with the cutting tool and it was surprisingly easy and fun! Like cutting butter. The rest seems to be common sense, I carved the crane first, then cut off the excess and had enough to make an additional "Zoe."

Now I just need to get a better ink pad, lol. I guess the dollar store isn't always the quality choice.

I decided to use some fabric paint and make a little onesie for baby Zoe. I'm into paper cranes right now.

And here it is on an adorable baby model!

Feel free to comment with any questions.

New Format

2011-12-22T16:44:00.002-07:00

I figured that since I spend so much time in the blogging world, I might want to start contributing to it.

I stopped blogging because I felt like it was pretty pointless. I post more pictures to facebook then my blog and I didn't think anyone read my blog that wasn't my friend there. Also I started my blog when I lived in Utah and was away from family and now we live in California, under a mile from my parents and Chase's parents are moving 1 hour away to Sacramento.

So I thought I would make a few changes. After a good discussion with a friend in Hawaii I decided that it might be fun to post some things that I have made for my home and family. The plan is to post mostly before and afters, some how-tos and maybe a full blown tutorial. If this isn't your cup of tea... well then just stick to browsing my facebook. :)

I'm starting tomorrow!

Watch this!!!

2011-06-02T17:22:00.001-06:00

A Birth Story

2011-04-08T16:50:00.006-06:00

I've been putting off posting about Zoe's birth because frankly it as too much typing. Well last night I made a little video that pretty much sums it up. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/bHd_D8G00gc?hd=1

I had to link to it because the video would not fit in my blog. It's worth the copy and paste!

Surprise! Guess what we bought...

2010-12-06T11:31:00.002-07:00

We bought a house! Chase and I are SO excited and we will be moving in sometime around the 16-20 of this month! Things happened pretty fast...

A family in our ward saw a really cute house for sale across the street from their son's preschool. Chase and I mused over the idea and I finally called the realtor for that house to see if we could get a tour. That led to a pre-approval for a loan and over the course of about 3 weeks we had looked at around a dozen homes and found this one! We put an offer down (this was the 3rd house we had offered on) and it was accepted! After that we were wavering a bit about going through it but everything has felt right and this house really is an AMAZING find.

It was built in 1951 and it has that "character" that I was looking for in a house. Great area, it is in my parents ward. We really wanted to stay in the ward we were in, but you know how things work out sometimes... it is only 1,100 square feet, but it is on a really big lot, .17 arces! It has 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and two of the bedrooms are upstairs, dormer style. Our plan is to live upstairs with the nursery and the downstairs bedroom will become my craft room :):) Chase will get the entire detached garage for his space, which is huge and has tons of potential. The other day I was feeling bad that I claimed the room inside and justifying it in my mind. Things like, I'll have the baby and it makes sense that I have to stay in the house.... But then Chase mentioned how excited he was for the garage and I felt better! He actually preferred the garage. An old lady was selling the house because she couldn't take care of it anymore and the inside has been completely redone to sell it. New everything. The kitchen has brand new tile floors and granite counters, appliances, new bathroom, carpet, paint, everything! I particularly love the upstairs with wood floors and huge windows on the sides that let in tons of light. We couldn't be happier :)

Chase's New Truck

2010-12-06T11:16:00.002-07:00

About a month after we moved to California, Chase got his new truck! He was very excited and put plenty of research into the decision...

(Here I am pregnant... about 18 weeks?) It is a Toyota Tundra and recently it has been adorned with the company logo. While it is a "work truck" it is still Chase's truck, he just gets a monthly allowance from work to pay for it.
We had to drive down to Visalia to pick up the truck which is only about 1 hour North of Bako, so we turned it into a weekend thing and had a fun time with Chase's family. It has been so nice to see them more often since we have moved to California.

Awesome New Project

2010-11-04T22:34:00.002-06:00

I was over at my parents tonight and Saw a tripod in my dad's workshop. I asked him where he got it and he said a garage sale a few years ago. I said, you know, people make some pretty cool lamps out of those. He got very excited and asked me if I wanted one because he had an extra. It was in his "bones pile." He told me this used to be my Grandpa's tripod for his old video camera! I was so excited to bring it home... I am going to sand it, polish the hardware, and paint the feet and mount a lamp on it! It will be a super awesome addition to our home, whatever room it ends up in.

Unfortunately it did already try to kill me. I leaned it against the car to load it and it slid off and fell directly on my head! I saw stars for a few seconds before I realized what happened. When I told Chase he was very concerned... about the car! He asked me if the car was scratched... thanks a lot!

31 Weeks

2010-11-03T15:26:00.004-06:00

I hit 31 weeks on Monday and the time is just flying by! My hours were finally cut down at work and I'm ready to start some serious nesting. It's hard because every day there seems to be something more pressing then the procrastinated projects... I still have about 2 months though, hopefully the upcoming holidays don't eat up all my time!

Baby Project #1

2010-10-24T00:18:00.002-06:00

Well I did it! I finally finished a project for the baby. I literally have 10-15 that are in the works but this one is completed! It was fun and only took me about 10 minutes, as you can see. Getting the fabric paint was the hardest part, haha. I have many other cute ideas in the wings but I'll also take suggestions!

Pregnancy Eats

2010-10-19T15:46:00.003-06:00

I haven't had too many cravings since being pregnant, I'm usually just hungry. So here is a list of things I have just eaten way too much of since I have been pregnant.

Cheeseburgers
Otter pops (we're talking 8-12 at a time)
I'm always thirsty so I've been drinking a lot of water
Coke icee's (this might have more to do with my car's lack of AC then being pregnant...)
Smarties (this began before I got pregnant though)
I also ate a PB&J sandwich the other day, totally unlike me.

Thats about it! Disgraceful I know.

A Little Update

2010-10-12T16:12:00.004-06:00

My mom keeps telling me that I need to post an update on here. Its kind of funny because when we were in Utah, she never mentioned my blog, but now that I see her everyday she mentions it a lot more! She says that people want to know...

So anyways, I uploaded a bunch of recent pictures from my phone so everyone can see how things are going! (Caution: Aubrey took all of these pictures, except for the ones that she is in... so quality is questionable. But she is quite artsy!) If I look tired in this picture it is because I am. Most days I am very tired and don't have a lot of energy. I can definitely tell that I'm starting my 3rd Trimester!

Haha, Hopefully my mom won't be embarrassed by this picture, but it made Aubrey and I laugh for about 5 minutes when she took this. Definitely going to credit this to late-night silliness...

Aubrey wears this dress most days, and I told her to put on mom's glasses for a funny picture. I think its cute!

Alright, the apparently long-awaited belly pic. This IS my real belly, as opposed to the fake one from the post before, haha. When Aubrey takes a picture of you, she insists on taking at least 5 shots... this was the least blurry, but towards the end of the series, so my face got a little ridiculous...

This one too. But I feel this picture accurately reflects how I feel. I was telling Chase that I try not to complain too much, I know it's going to get worse and every woman goes through this. But unfortuneately he and my family both get to hear about it the most.

I felt that this picture was the best belly-shot. You can see my whole body, and my arm looks pretty muscular. Haha.

Eating ice cream. It was home-made!

Camryn is over at our house a lot and Aubrey takes a lot of pictures of her. This one was too good to pass up! Again, towards the end on the 5 picture series, so the faces get more ridiculous...

Too cute. Aubrey and I made caramel apples as a welcome home surprise for mom and dad when they recently came back from a 4 day trip to Utah. This was hers with all the cute sprinkles and I wanted to document it before she ate it.

Here she goes! She did only get through about 3 bites before she got tired of fighting the apple and put it back in the fridge.

Chase eating his caramel apple. Colin, Chase and I were playing settlers at the time and Chase and I rue the day that we ever taught that game to Colin. He is obsessed and begs us to play with him every time we go over there... which is every day!

I have a lot of baby projects in the works right now but I told myself I wouldn't post them until I finished... and since none are officially "finished"... I am very close on some of them though! Updates soon!

A Bun in the Oven

2010-08-04T17:08:00.003-06:00

Well the rumors are true, we are expecting! It's about time I announced it too, because I am officially 18 weeks along. (As a side note, this picture of me is NOT my real belly, it was taken when I first found out and was very excited to see what I would look like...) I am due on January 2nd, which was the same due date my mom had with Aubrey. I actually had my FIRST appointment yesterday. Crazy, I know, everyone there was like, why haven't you come in before?? Well it's because we have finished school, moved, and gotten jobs with insurance, not to mention the hellish experience of actually making the appointment. The bottom line was, "shut up, I'm here now."

Chase and I were very excited to see the baby, because up until yesterday there was lots of speculation that there actually WAS a baby, and I told Chase I needed to eat an extremely large dinner in case I had sextuplets in there...

The first time we saw it, Chase said he was like "wohhh" and I was like, "Where are the arms and legs??" The doctor reassured me that they were there and moved the doo-hicky around to give us a different perspective. It was cool to see a baby moving around with a skeleton and everything and the doctor looked and said she was about 85% sure it was a GIRL!! Chase is still hoping for the 15% chance it is a boy, and he makes sure to tell everyone about that part. I'm hesitant to run out and buy all things pink, but I'm sure that will wear off in a day or two and then, watch out!

Here is a picture of pretty much the whole munchkin. I've included convinent labels if you're like me and suck at decyphering these things... I mean, I was there and saw the moniter! But as soon as we left and were looking at the pictures, all understanding was gone.

I'm going to be posting many pics and updates about our last few months, but right now work is over and I have to go home :)

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T11:34:00.004-06:00

We are having a great Easter enjoying conference. Noelle and Ashlee are over for the day and we had breakfast and are having a pot-luck dinner tonight. These are a few bunnies I made and sent to Tori, Lyra and Aubrey. They are larger versions of the one I posted earlier. Happy Easter!

RC Planes

2010-04-03T22:13:00.013-06:00

So I am still into planes. Here is the latest video of the plane I designed and built!

Wish me luck!

2010-03-30T22:18:00.003-06:00

I'm making myself this skirt for Chase's mission reunion. I saw the picture and had to have it! I've procrastinated and now only have 3 days left to make the whole thing from scratch! Pattern and all.

Aubrey's dress :)

2010-03-30T22:17:00.005-06:00

I'll have pics of her wearing it at my graduation!

Best Friends

2010-03-30T22:13:00.005-06:00

I made these and they turned out really good! If you can't tell, it's a bunny and an owl.

http://ashbyfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/easy-owl-pattern-and-tutorial-win-one.html
http://www.chubbyhobby.com/make-and-create/ballet-bunny-plush-tutorial/

Dog Pillow

2010-03-24T13:38:00.005-06:00

One project I recently finished was this dog pillow. I was excited to make it and happy that it turned out bigger then I expected! Noelle is totally in love with it and tried to steal it one time... It is the perfect size to embrace, use as a neck pillow, or whatever.

When I finished it I was so excited I woke Chase up to show it to him but he wasn't interested. I was kind of sad, but the next day I came home from school and Chase was taking a nap on the couch and he was totally snuggling with it! It was cute :)

This is hilarious.

2010-03-04T03:22:00.001-07:00

New Project

2010-03-02T14:15:00.004-07:00

I've recently been called to the Relief Society Activity committee and I came up with the idea to make these wreaths for an activity. Next week a bunch of sisters are coming to my apartment and I'm teaching them how to make these! I already made mine (The one above isn't mine, I tried to take a picture of mine and it didn't look so good...) but mine did turn out Amazing!! It's really the perfect craft, super cheap ($3) and takes a while to put together. It can look as good as you want too! Right now its hanging in my apartment, making me smile every day :)

Facegoo

2010-02-22T22:08:00.003-07:00

Facegoo is a new app I got on my phone. I photoshopped this picture during Church yesterday and it make Chase and I laugh uncontrollably for 5 minutes before we realized the new bishop was looking at us... oops!

Visit from the Smiths

2010-02-17T02:20:00.004-07:00

Nicole, Phil and Tori came into town last week for Phil's brother's wedding. I knew they were coming and one night I was trying to decide what to give Tori when she came... So I made her this:
It's an Octopus. I gave it a little personality with the teeth and the mouth (I know that's not how octopuses really are... DUH.)

Tori liked it and he was christened "Oscar" (sorry baby boy Smith, you'll have to find a different name, haha) I suggested Ollie but Tori vetoed it.

Even Phil liked it, lol. Well it was fun seeing them and we can't wait until we're in California and it can become a regular thing!

RIP Chase's Mustache

2010-02-17T02:13:00.004-07:00

Well, Chase's grad-stache had a nice 6 week run. Here is a picture from it's early days... I came home from school and Chase had made this loaf of bread all by himself for dinner! I had to get a picture.
He finally decided to shave it because I complained too much that kissing him was pokey... Other then that I never complained! It caused quite a stir though, mostly people at church. He told our Bishop that for some reason the thicker his mustache got the more he wanted to buy a gun and shoot things...

Well he DID shave it off and has been upper-lip bald for about 2 weeks now. Who knows if it will ever return??

Pics from Thanksgiving and Christmas

2010-02-17T02:00:00.003-07:00

Here are some of the best pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Aubrey on Chase's shoulders while he played the Wii fit, so cute!

Colin playing the Wii with his sweet set-up and Aubrey sitting with him (a rare sight!).

Chase's mom makes AWESOME guacamole and she hadn't even finished before everyone swarmed around and devoured it. From all sides!

This is from Christmas day in Lodi. My dad got all the boys remote control planes and we went to the Lodi High track to test fly them. It was hilarious and my dad wins the award for most ridiculous crashes and Ryan wins for actually hitting a person (not intentional). It was fun.

At Chase's house over Christmas. For some reason everyone thought it was hilarious that I needed 2 boxes of cookies before I settled down to watch a movie... but they were going fast!

Until next year!

Airplanes

2010-02-17T01:48:00.004-07:00

In my Christmas post I mentioned Chase's obsession with planes. Here are a few pictures from one of his maiden flights. He asked me to come with him and it seemed like a nice day, so what the heck?
After we got to the park he explained in detail how I was supposed to handle his plane and launch it for him. Then he made me pretend like I was going to throw it so he could correct my technique, which he did. Then he finally turned it on and I launched it... perfectly. Well, the launch was perfect at least. The plane climbed for a minute then promptly turned upside down and dropped like a rock straight into a lower parking lot. I only had time to think, "oh man..." before it blasted straight into the ground and pieces went flying. Chase seemed kind of shaken, and after some damage assessment we determined that the plane was no more but luckily all his electronics were fine so he could build a new one (see the Christmas post). The whole ordeal was quite funny...Broken plane :(

Christmas

2010-01-07T17:55:00.007-07:00

I always put off blogging because transferring pictures to my computer holds me up. So this time I thought I would post and put the pictures up later.

Fall semester finally ended and with a little bit of drama that got worked out, Chase graduated :) No break for him though, as he started grad school at BYU on Jan 4th. He's getting his masters in civil engineering and so far (4 days) he is enjoying it. The weirdest news is that he has decided to grow a "Grad-stache" over the break that is pretty full now and getting lots of attention. He said that his teachers notice him a lot more and he would shave it when he couldn't take the ridicule any longer. He said one guy told him if HE grew a mustache his wife would divorce him! I said that seemed a little extreme and Chase admitted to me that this guy was kind of weird anyway... But other then that I'm am not aware of any ridicule and he always passes it off as jealousy, so I think the 'stache might be here for awhile.

We headed to Lodi for the first week of break and had a really fun Christmas with my family. I had not celebrated Christmas with my family ON Christmas day for 3 years, so it was fun. Aubrey is at the cutest age where she was excited for Christmas to come and finally understood what was going on. I made her a tutu which ended up being a big hit and she would put on her leotard (from Mom), tutu, and ballet slippers (from Noelle) at least twice a day and leap and twirl around the house for anyone that would watch her. She also got a tiara and matching wand and I taught her how to tuck her wand into her tutu like it was holstered. Her favorite thing was to stuff her wand down the front of her leotard and ask me where it went. Obviously her leotard is skin tight so that was no mystery... Besides her tutu she was obsessed with our "pet" (we brought our pet gecko out to California with us) and would ask to hold her at least 5 times a day, and she was obsessed with my iPhone. Once I was leaving and she asked if she could play it and I said no because it was my phone and I needed it. A few minutes later my mom came running out to the car saying that Aubrey had burst into tears because I wouldn't let her play with my ipod, so I handed it over...
This is a picture Aubrey drew on my phone, which she called "Chase."This is a picture Aubrey took of Zaya. She was pretty handy with the camera!

Chase and Colin had a really fun week and had a great time playing with the RC airplanes my dad gave to all the boys. They also went shopping together at one point and after we left Chase told me it was the most fun he's had at my house. (The whole week... not just the shopping with Colin.) We also got to meet Tamie and Ryan's baby for the first time. She is adorable and it makes me glad to see Ryan so happy with his new family. Seeing my friends and family getting married isn't as surprising to me as seeing them start having kids. I was really excited to give baby Lyra the hair barrettes I made for her but then I met her and her hair is like 1/2" long! Oh well, she'll wear them down the road.

MY favorite present was a cast iron grill pan and panini press which I did not expect at all! I was excited to use it and one night we had two kinds of soup and panini sandwiches that turned out delicious! I have a few bugs to work out, but I'll get the hang of it! Noelle and I also gave my dad the Christmas present we had been working on for 5 years... a toupee made out of our own hair. We had been saving our brush hair for a long time to come up with this masterpiece! We also made an infomercial with Chase's and the Shield's help. It turned out hilarious and got just the reaction we wanted. I'll post the video on here when I get it from Noelle. Chase gave me a new fossil watch and some adorable pearl earrings which I love! I think he cheated though and spent more then $50 which is what we agreed on this Christmas... I got him a small drill and some drill bits, but I think he likes those too. I loved being in Lodi and spending time with my family. I am excited for school to be over and for Chase and I to maybe move there :)

After that first week we headed down to Bakersfield to spend time with Chase's family. We had so much fun and it was way relaxing. I had a lot of fun playing with Tori and the result was that she liked to follow me around. Her favorite activity was coming in the bathroom while I was getting ready and going through my things. She liked to do the things I did which included putting baby powder in my hair (Sorry Nicole, if she does this at home...), putting on makeup, and applying chapstick. Another day we also painted her finger and toenails and I put tiny hearts on her nails and they we so cute! Little did I know that she likes to chew on her nails and by the end of the night she only had polish left on about 3 fingernails... haha. Good thing I used the scented polish so she could chew strawberry and kiwi off her fingers! Tori is so much fun to play with but I can already tell Chase and I are a bad influence on her. Chase taught her this weird throaty noise that she makes and sounds like a dinosaur and Chase and I laughed and laughed at her, but Tori gets in trouble for making it from her mom and dad. Oops!

I got lots of good Christmas presents from everyone including a cute homemade necklace from Nicole, a headband from Ashlee, and nail polish from Alex that I wanted so bad but didn't tell anyone about! How did he know!? I also got an immersion blender from Chase's mom, a new watch from his dad, and a very nice Williams-Sonoma gift card which I feel is the best present of all :)

We also went bowling one day which was so fun except I got the lowest score out of everybody on BOTH games! I guess being good at Wii bowling means NOTHING in the real world. Chase's dad also gave him an RC airplane and they went and flew it a few times. It crashed the second to last day and Chase spent the WHOLE day gluing it back together with this special epoxy stuff... then they went to fly it the last morning and Chase's mom went to watch. I stayed home to pack the car when I got a text saying "Plane crash" and when they came home, his airplane was no more... Chase salvaged the electronics but the airplane itself was beyond repair. So once when he had 3 airplanes he now was down to 1 (after another fatal crash of his home-made one that happened in Lodi) Poor Chase!

New years day we also had a super fun Bunko party with 20 people. It was so fun we decided to make it an annual thing. I had a lucky streak and although I didn't get the prize for most wins, I got the prize for most Bunko's rolled (4!) and I was told it was the biggest prize. I got a gift certificate for a pound of See's chocolate which I am really excited to use. Chase won the prize for the 50-50 record (a Rudy Giuliani bobble-head) and Ashlee won for most wins (2 big chocolate bars). Chase's mom was worried that all her prizes were going to her own family members and that the guests would think the whole thing was rigged, but how can you rig Bunko??

We were sad to leave California but ready to get back to our normal lives. Although out of everyone I asked NO ONE was ready for school to start on the 4th, haha. But that was our fun Christmas and I'll get some pictures up here soon.

Phone pics

2009-09-27T19:23:00.007-06:00

I've realized since I got my iPhone that I don't use my camera as much for everyday uses... So I decided to upload the best pics from my phone into my blog, genius!

This pic is from when I was in Lodi. My parents have a garden, but they don't know that you have to pick a zucchini before it grows to be too big. Aubrey is illustrating how massive it truely was!
My family had lots of fun playing with the picture editing on my phone during church. Noelle edited this pic of Shannon and made everyone laugh for like 5 minutes!
I went to Coco's with my dad, Colin, and Aubrey and Colin had me take this pic for Noelle's benefit. Wished she were there!
Our pet gecko (Ginny) sheds about every 2 weeks, usually during the night and she eats her skin (EW!) before the morning, so we never get to see it. I came home in the middle of the day one day and saw her like this, so I snapped a quick pic and then let her alone to finish up and eat her snack (EW!) in peace.
Every once in a while at the museum I have some down time and I like to bring Oatis out onto the grass to roam around. It's usually unsuccessful, as he is so obsessed with eating that he will just chow on the grass the whole time, but we get to know each other... and I get paid for chilling outside, so it's cool.
The reptiles at work get fed mice once a week and the best snake to feed is always Elpheba, she thinks the mouse is live so she'll strike at it and squeeze it for a bit before immediately gulping it down. It's cool to watch.
Chase and I went to the farmers market yesterday and he bought some of these Dutch Waffles that he used to eat on his mission with his Dutch companion. They're crispy and filled with caramel, Delicious!
Tonight Ashlee came over for dinner and I made hamburgers. I like everything so much that when I make my hamburger I always think, "Tomatoes? I like tomatoes, I'll add a few extra... Pickles? I like pickles, I'll add a few extra... Avacado? I like avacado, I'll add a few extra..." and before I know it my hamburger is HUGE! Chase and Ashlee laughed a lot when they saw my burger and Chase had to take this pic.
Yesterday I was reading my craft blogs (not to be confused with my cooking blogs...) and I saw a picture of these awesome bracelets made out of old t-shirts, so I pulled some of Chase's out of the DI bag and made these. I love them! I've already made about 10 with the hopes of giving them to my friends. Unfortunately I don't know many people who wouldn't think I was weird in trying to force these bracelets on them... :( Maybe I should sell them for $2 each? I have 6 colors so far: pink, navy, green, white, gray and red. What combos would you like?

Mission Video

2009-09-26T12:41:00.004-06:00

I have been working on making a scrapbook of Chase's mission and I ran across this sweet little gem. Make sure you watch to the end!

Fall Semester

2009-09-26T11:20:00.005-06:00

Summer has ended and Chase and I are into our Fall semester. During the two weeks between semesters I went to California to "play mom" while my mom and Noelle went to Europe for about 10 days. I took care of Aubrey, Colin and Zaya and helped things run normal while my mom was gone. I was excited to spend time with Aubrey and I had many craft projects planned weeks in advance :) Here are some picks from making rainbow cupcakes with Aubrey. She loved to decorate them and I taught her how to put the right amount of sprinkles on them.

Lets just say if Aubrey doesn't want to take a picture with you, it's hard to force her. This was the best smile I could get, and it seems a little sarcastic on her part!

While I was in Lodi, Chase went on a pack horse camping trip with our Bishop. Chase's brother, Alex, flew in to go with him. They had fun and I heard a lot of funny stories when we met up in Bakersfield for the second week of our break. We had fun down there and got to see Nicole, Phil and Tori and celebrate Janelle and Phil's birthdays. Chase's mom also gave us tickets to go see Brian Regan in concert as a belated birthday present to Chase. It was awesome.

After 2 weeks of vacation school has started up again. I'm taking lots of classes for my major, including a sewing swimsuits class, advanced cooking, and floral design... so you know, pretty tough classes. Haha. Chase is in his last semester of undergrad and taking a few last GEs and holding strong! He complains sometimes, but he still studies hard and gets good grades.

I still work at the Bean Museum giving live animal shows. It's a fun job and I LOVE it! The coolest part is that all my co-workers are my age, I've never worked anywhere like that before! Chase is still doing research for a professor on campus which will turn into his graduate research, so that's a win-win!

The bottom line is that we don't have much free time, but we want to say congrats to all our friends who have had their babies! Cameron and Mitzi, we need to see Noah immediately! Ryan and Tamie, I'm excited to be an Aunt that spoils her neice! Beth and Mark, I love visiting Spencer and I wish I could come over every day!

Chase's Birthday

2009-08-12T19:35:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was Chase's birthday (26!) and it ended up working out because it was a reading day in preparation for finals, so neither of us had anything going on. We went to the mall and out to lunch and finally fishing up at Salem Pond for some catfish. Well as it turns out, fishing until 10pm the day before a 7am final is not such a good idea as I still had to study, so I ended up having to pull an all-nighter. Yawn!

Anyways, here's some cool pics from yesterday.
Popsicle tongue, driving to Salem Pond.

Chase is getting his hook ready, it had to be baited with chicken liver, gross!

We had fun hanging out together, but next week he gets to go pack horse camping with our bishop! And the best part is... I don't have to go! But I'll miss him :(

Camping

2009-07-29T00:34:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago Chase and I decided to go camping on a Friday night. He found a campground and we headed out after our classes.
Here is our meager campsite.
Next time we'll remember to bring a few more things, such as:

Chairs
Matches or lighter
Paper towels or towel
Toilet paper
Flashlight or lantern
Sweatshirt for Chase
Shoes besides flip-flops
Hatchet for firewood

Oh well... it was still fun!

Our New Pet

2009-07-22T18:06:00.006-06:00

Chase and I also got a patternless leopard gecko about a week ago and we love having her as a new pet. Chase just build her this shelf today so her cage could have a nice place to sit.
She doesn't have sticky pads on her toes, but she has tiny claws that help her grip onto clothing. We are having problems naming her, so any suggestions?? She will be bright yellow when she is full grown.

Here's a video of her eating a mealworm, for some reason my mom thinks it's gross...

Re-upholstery...

2009-07-22T17:59:00.003-06:00

I just turned this old ottoman...

Into THIS!!I got the fabric from IKEA forever ago because I made our living room curtains out of it. It's really sturdy and so I wanted to re-cover our nasty ottoman. We always tried to cover it with a blanket, but as you can see from the picture above it never worked very well. So today I ripped off the old fabric and put this new one on :) It ended up being a really easy no-sew project. So much prettier!

Manti Temple Trip

2009-07-12T16:59:00.004-06:00

Last month we had a ward temple trip to the Manti Temple. We left Provo at noon and got to the temple in time for the 2:30 session.
Here's us outside the temple after the session. We were hoping that it would be good weather for the temple pageant that night, but it wasn't looking too good.
We ate pizza as a ward and waited in a candy shop for awhile before the pageant. It was pouring outside and we almost left for Provo, thinking sitting in the rain that night would not be pleasant.
But the sun came out! It was seriously a miracle. All those dark clouds behind Chase were finally leaving and the sun was coming out right before it set.
The pageant ended up being amazing, I'm so glad we stayed. Its something everyone should see at least once in their lives. And because it rained all day, hardly anyone was there and we got amazing seats and there was no traffic leaving! Talk about a blessing.

Through the Cave

2009-06-30T23:19:00.005-06:00

Here's a pathetic video Noelle took of me trying to make it through the cave...

California Adventures

2009-06-30T20:56:00.003-06:00

Chase and I headed to California about a month ago and had a great time! We went memorial camping in Santa Cruz and we were so glad we could make it again this year. The first morning of the camping trip we went back to this amazing cave we were introduced to the year before.
Dane was our tour guide again and here he is showing off the entrance. Its a glimpse of what was to come.
Here's a glimpse for you to see, it was a really tight fit!
Here's the group that went in the cave. If you look close you can see how dirty we are!

The next stop on our trip was a family reunion on Chase's Dad's side. We headed up to Auburn and hung out for a few days and had a super fun time. Our reunion last summer was so fun, I was really excited for this one and it turned out being great as well.

After the Reunion we headed back to the bay area to spend time with Nicole and Phil and Tori. We were really glad they let us stay at their place.
One day we headed into San Francisco and spent time with our friends Brian and Lauren who had just moved out of our Provo ward. We went to the botanical gardens, the Pier, and Ghirardelli Square.
Here's a good pic of us with some city scape in the background.

After Palo Alto we headed back to Lodi for a few days and attended Colin's 8th grade promotion before finally returning to Utah. How could we be gone for so long you ask? Well Chase took time off from his extremely flexible job (research for a professor) and I didn't need to take time off because I didn't have a job! Neither of us were in school either, so overall it was pretty easy to get away. It makes me wish our lives could be like this forever!

Provo Adventures

2009-06-30T20:36:00.003-06:00

Chase and I have been trying to take advantage of staying the summer in Provo by doing some fun summer activities. This is just a bit about what we've been up to.
Sometimes Chase and I like to walk along the Provo river on a nice day. We also like to walk up Rock Canyon and "explore."We crossed a freezing stream and hiked up a steep hill to see this cave. It ended up being not so impressive, haha.Chase hiked out onto this ridge as the sun was setting.One day Chase and I rented a tandem bike with our friends Cameron and Mitzi and rode all around Provo. It was fun, only the next day our butts were pretty sore!

Birthday and Anniversary

2009-05-04T19:16:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was Chase and my 2 year anniversary and my 22nd Birthday. It was the best day! We had a bunch of people come over for desserts at about 7 and had a little party. I made bread pudding with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, a chocolate souffle with caramel sauce, and strawberry ice cream. Noelle brought over a cake and Beth brought some chocolate chip cookies.
Noelle made this delicious cake and decorated it with fondant for our anniversary.
We didn't have any candles, so Chase held up a lighter while everyone sang and then I blew it out, haha.
Cameron and Mitzi had the "sampler platter" of desserts.
Everyone had a good time, sitting around and talking, it was the best party!
Me and Lauren, chatting and eating... maybe not the best idea, I ended up spitting food on her husband!
I even decorated a little... Overall it was so much fun, Chase made me some earrings and gave me a new ipod nano! In pink of course. And I gave him a fly-fishing rod and reel combo. When Noelle and I went to Cabela's to pick it up, we were in and out in 2 minutes! Now that's my kind of Cabela's trip... That's it until next year I guess!

Potty-Training

2009-05-04T18:47:00.003-06:00

I ended up having a great trip to California. I got to hang out with Aubrey, Yeong-Hye, and my mom. When I got there about noon on Thursday, my mom told me that Aubrey had not gone to the bathroom all day and she was wearing panties. That night we went out to dinner and here are some pics I took in the car.
At the restaurant Aubrey sat so close to me! My mom said it reminded her of me and my grandpa when I was little. Touche!After we ate, Aubrey started complaining that she wanted to go home, which means that she might have needed to go potty. As soon as we got home she started asking for mom to put on her diaper and I suggested she sit on her potty instead. She was sort of resistant at first, so my mom left the room, but she sat on it and I sat next to her and talked to her for awhile. I was tired after awhile so I went downstairs and all of a sudden she came running down saying that she had gone! Well that night she was so excited that she prayed to be able to go poop the next day and she assured me she would do it. "Don't worry Becky, I'll go poop tomorrow..." The next day at about 10am she ran downstairs and exclaimed that she had gone #2. Sure enough she had and we opened up her kitchen set and assembled it as her reward for going poop on the potty. She loved playing with it!I think Aubrey was ready to go, but she needed an outsider to make it seem exciting. The trip ended up being really great and a nice break from the semester before finals.

Recent Happenings

2009-03-22T00:54:00.005-06:00

Next week Chase and I are going to California for a small vacation. Chase actually isn't going all the way... he's staying in Nevada because he was invited to attend the annual young men's desert camping trip by my dad. Apparently this year they're going all out and getting ATVs for everyone. Chase is really excited and I told him to bring me back some sweet rocks. I'm driving with him and then continuing on to California to hang out with my mom for a few days. My plan is to hopefully potty train Aubrey while I am there. Chase and I agree my mom is a big softie and Aubrey needs some tough love. Not anything too extreme, just refusing to give her a diaper when she has to go. We'll see how it goes though :/

Recently I recived this dog for free from my Religion teacher and because it was impossible for us to keep... :( ... I sent it on to California as a surprise Valentine's present for my mom. Her name is Nutmeg and she was so adorable! Apparently she and Aubrey will play outside for hours and she is much more fun for Aubrey to have around then lazy Taz. Although I'm sure my mom still loves Taz more, Nutmeg seems like a good addition to the family.

This is Chase on the couch eating Triscuits and watching TV. When I saw it I had to take a picture because it was so hilarious. Notice the vacant stare and pile of crumbs on his chest. He is so cute :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-03-12T16:39:00.006-06:00

Today is my dad's 49th birthday! And in celebration I have written 49 reasons why he is so great! So here goes...
Haha, jk. I don't have 49, but here are a few good reasons anyway.
He is so smart! He always gives me great advice and he knows how to deliver it.
He loves to have fun, and he always makes sure everyone else is enjoying themselves as well.
He loves our family! Everyone has a close relationship with him and we can all talk to him comfortably. AND we can all rough-house with him too! Haha.
He's an amazing cook. Thanks to him I make Chase cook all the breakfasts and do all the BBQing! Every general conference I miss his delicious food :(
So Happy Birthday Dad! the big 4-9. Don't sweat it now, you'll be 63 when Aubrey graduates high school! I love you.

Yay!

2009-03-12T16:34:00.002-06:00

My sandals came in the mail today! I found them online for $7.50 (I got them in dark brown) and I had to get them for the summer! It's been getting warmer and it makes me so excited for spring. I'm actually going to get my bike out this weekend and ride it around. But that actually makes me said because now I'll wish I were in Lodi... :(

Winter 2009 Semester

2009-03-05T09:33:00.007-07:00

I just wanted to post for a bit and talk about some of the classes I (Becky) am in this semester, cause some of them are pretty cool! People always ask us "what is new" and there is never anything, just school. So here it is, school!

One class I'm in has already ended cause it was on the first block, Snowboarding! It was the best class I've ever taken. I guess I don't know if it could really be called a "class," but there was a test, so I think it counts. (The test was just "How have you improved," "What have you learned" type questions) I learned a lot and now I can ride switch, powder, and do some nose-rolls, if that means anything to anyone, haha. Well I'm sad it's over, but my season pass still works and it snowed last night (finally!) so Shannon and I are going today once I'm done with work.

I'm taking two religion classes this semester as well. One is Doctrine and Covenants and the other is Eternal Marriage. I actually like both of them pretty well, which I'm happy about because I didn't think I would like D&C at all. My teacher is really great and she said they asked her to speak at devotional! I think that proves how good she is, haha.

I'm in Family Finance, which isn't too exciting, but I feel like the knowledge I am gaining is very valuable. I have a test this week on Taxes and Insurance. It isn't hard at all and I find myself thinking "good to know!" quite a lot. It's scary and reassuring at the same time. Scary because i don't know how I have gotten by without knowing this stuff! And reassuring because I know it now and I can stop stressing. I think financials are always scary to think about anyway... am I right?

Another Class I'm in is called "Family Meal Management" and it's really great. I only took it because it's a cooking class, but I'm learning some good stuff in the meantime, haha. The cooking portions are always really fun and our teacher comes up with some great recipes. Each week we focus on something different, like cooking for food allergies, breakfast, children's snacks, etc. I'm always completely stuffed when I leave that class and I'll usually bring something home for Chase. As for things I'm learning, basically family mealtimes are extremely important. That's pretty much the whole course in a nutshell. We focus a lot on cooking nutriciously too, which is new to me!

Ummm, my History of Creativity class... I want to flush it down the toilet. :) It's just really boring and there are a lot of assignments and reading.

Perhaps my most time-consuming and rewarding class this semester is pattern-making. Who would be excited about making clothing patterns, right? Well.. me! I love learning about it , but mostly I love knowing it at the end of the day. I told my mom that I would never want to take the class again, but I'm so glad i took it! It's extremely tedious and hard to remember everything you learn because there are a lot of measurements and techniques. Up until now, we have been tracing BASIC pattern peices and changing them to completely different styles. For example I have a cardboard bodice peice that i trace onto tissue paper and then I can change it to basically any style possible for a bodice top. I also have to remember all these changes and multiply that by a skirts, sleeves, collars, cuffs and waistbands. Right now we are taking our week-long midterm which consists of our teacher giving us a picture of a dress and we have to make every pattern piece for that dress without any notes at all! Once this is over we are starting drafting, which is using blank paper and measurements only to make our patterns. After that we focus on draping, which is just using fabric and a dressform. I know what you're thinking... It's all very exciting!

Lastly, I TA for the Food Prep class. It's fun, and it works out that on Fridays, I get to eat food from the morning class and the evening class! Noelle and Shannon are in the Evening class, so sometimes I chat with them, but usually I'm running around getting things ready for the next week. I also really like the teacher I TA for, and we chat a lot about cooking and sewing and I even leant her a pattern for an apron, which she ended up loving.

Well that's my semester in a nutshell, besides my work on campus, which is where I am right now (I guess that proves how important I am... not very!). I would update you about Chase's classes, but I don't know much about them. Also... snooze! They're things like Concrete mixing and materials and all I know is he comes home and tries to tell me about flex strengths and emulsifiers, and I patiently listen, but the SECOND I open my mouth about stylelines on a skirt... he doesn't even pretend to listen! How rude.

PS: I don't know when I'm graduating, so stop asking my mom. Either Dec or April next year. Chase is in Dec 2009.

Ice Fishing

2009-02-10T19:12:00.006-07:00

So first and foremost Becky said that it is my duty to update the blog for a couple of reasons..

1. It needs class. Let's face it with an average of 6 blogs per LDS family you need some substance...none of this "oh I love Britney's new music video look at it on youtube" buisness. More like rednecks fishing on a piece of ice type class.

2. It was updated forever ago. I mean we don't have terribly exciting lives, but we could post something right?

3. I kept bugging her to post something which resulted in a couple spats and now here I am writing it.

So here is my first post to our blog and I must say based on my personal journal writing habits I might do this once a year. On to the ice fishing.

This last Saturday the Elders Quorm had an ice fishing activity. For all those, who for some reason dont understand the concept, ice fishing consists of being cold, cutting a hole in a frozen lake, frost bite, and hopefully catching some fish. Well on our way up to the adventure the car I was traveling in hit some ice and we hit the guard rail at about 55 mph. No major injuries, but the air bags got the front passengers pretty good and so it took some time to figure out what to do. Long story short it started the day with a hiccup.

The destination was Strawberry Reservoir, which is about 1.5 hours from provo. When we go there it looked like a frozen wasteland. The bishop brought some snowmobiles so it was easy getting out to his favorite spot. Just to make a short mention here Bishop Brown is the man. He does it all and is pretty much davy crocket minus the coon skin hat. Anyways we cut through the ice and wouldn't you know it... the ice was like 2 feet thick ( a little comforting considering we just drove out there on 1000 lb snowmobiles) . The fishing was a little slow, but we had a bunch of laughs. We caught 3 fish and had 5 total on our lines so the day wasn't a total bust. Luckily I caught a 3 pounder so it made the day worth it for me. For that reason alone I could probably go icefishing again. One thing we forgot though was sunscreen so I got a really nice beanie burn and so did everyone else that went along. We looked pretty stupid at church the next day to say the least. For dinner Sunday Becky cooked the fish and it tasted fantastic...almost like salmon.

Overall it was a blast, and I could maybe do it again... and to be honest it was a warmer day up there so I never even got cold...just sunburned.

Halloween

2008-11-04T15:36:00.005-07:00

Halloween ended up being really fun and because CHase and I hadn't dressed up for like 5 years we thought it would be a fun activity! Chase obviously dressed up as a gangster midget...
I dressed up as a zombie bride.
We went to a Halloween party, crashed the freshmen Heritage party for a few minutes to see Noelle, and went to Cameron and Mitzi's for a movie. Here's a pic of Noelle and Chase, both being gangsters.
The next day we dressed up again and went to our ward party. I got an honorable mention for scariest, and Chase won for funniest costume! All in all, it was a good Halloween.

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Visit from my family

2008-10-24T18:25:00.004-06:00

My family came up to Utah a few weeks ago and it was great to see them! Noelle and I hung out with our family Wednesday for lunch, then Aubrey came back to my apartment with me while my mom, Colin, and Yeong-Hye hiked the Y. It was my mom's first time! Aubrey is getting so old, its crazy. We walked from campus to my apartment (about 4 blocks) and she chattered the whole way and we actually had real conversation. She made me scrounge up every toy in my apartment (about 6) and I had to read a book I gave her 5 times. She may be demanding, but she's so cute! Friday after we all went to the homecoming spectacular we came back to my apartment again and I had to go around to ask my neighbors to borrow some cards so we could play scum, and Aubrey insisted on coming door to door with me :) It was a fun few days and we can't wait to see them over Thanksgiving!

5 Interesting Things About Me

2008-10-22T14:32:00.007-06:00

Dani tagged me in her blog, so here are 5 interesting things about me :)

I have a blanket (actually a fabric) that I take with me everywhere. Church, school, movies, you name it.

I got married on my 20th Birthday! Yay for May 3rd!

I love crossword puzzles and I bought this book this summer and I just finished it :( Sad day.

I go to school with my sister and we have a class together. It's fun.

I've kissed a dolphin! Luckily it was a male, unlucky for Colin, haha.

Now I tag Nicole, Shalon and Mitzi!

Weezer

2008-10-08T08:59:00.003-06:00

So last night Chase and I went to a Weezer concert up in Salt Lake City. They've been my favorite band for a long time and I have never seen them in concert before, and they're getting up there in years so I was worried I would never get to see them live. Well let me just say that last night was officially AMAZING. We got there at 7:30 and some lame band came out first, then Angels and Airwaves came out. They were pretty good and I'm glad we got to see them. Well after they left my heart started beating really fast because I was so excited to see Weezer in person! They finally came out and their whole set was awesome! First Chase and I were laughing because the whole band was wearing these white jumpsuits and Rivers had this white stocking-thing on his head! Then he had a mini-trampoline on stage and he jumped on that for awhile. Well then they started singing Perfect Situation and I was jumping up and down so excited that I started crying a little bit! Chase was laughing at me and told me I should calm down or I would be one of "those girls" at NSync concerts that cries when the band comes out, but I couldn't help it! (My eyes only got a little watery...) Well they took off their white jumpsuits and they had on all matching red tracksuits that said Weezer on the back. Then they starting singing Say It Ain't So and I thought I could die happy. All in all there was a lot of screaming on my part, laughing between Chase and I, singing along, and a few tears. We laughed a lot at the way Rivers was on stage. He walked around taking really small steps and every once in a while he would sort of hop and kick his legs back. Also when he wasn't playing the guitar or drums he would shake his hands back and forth like he had parkinson's disease... Chase called him a "weirdy," haha. They told some mildly amusing anecdotes and at one time Pat (the drummer) came down to sing and play guitar for a song and he said "I have also been to Salt Lake City before, and I went to the Salt Lake, and it was very salty. As I ventured forth into the lake, I lost my shoe, and I am sure it is still there. So thank you Salt Lake, for stealing my shoe." Ohhh Weezer. Some other highlights were when Rivers asked Tom (old lead singer for Blink 182, now lead singer for Angels and Airwaves) to come back on stage and sing The Sweater Song with them. Another when Rivers yelled, "If you can hear me yell 'Heck Ya!'" Also at the end of the show when they had about 30 Weezer fans come on stage and jam with them. The fans were playing a great variety of insturments including saxaphones, tubas, violins, cellos, that mouth insturment that make the twangy "boinging" sound, and a penny flute. It didn't sound perfect, but it was such an amazing concert expierence. I read a review somewhere of a weezer concert and the guy said that the show wasn't particularly amazing, and Rivers had some weird quirks, and they didn't banter with the crowd much, but it didn't matter because the fans of Weezer were so happy to see them and sing along that they pulled off an amazing show. I totally agree with that :)

I couldn't help myself...

2008-10-04T12:17:00.002-06:00

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2008-10-04T12:12:00.002-06:00

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September at school

2008-09-27T11:28:00.007-06:00

Well the semester is in full swing here in Utah. Chase and I are both in school full-time and working part-time. We had to come back a little early for a job interview for Chase, which of course he nailed. About an hour after we left the interview they called and offered him the job. It's for a company called Sebo Marketing which *basically* designs websites for clients that sign up. He likes his job and gets to work with his good friend AJ Wilcox. I was fortunate enough to find a good job on campus! It's in the CITES Office in the Mckay (Education) building and so far, I go in at 8am everyday and do my homework :) They told me when they hired me that the biggest challenge with the job is the work load fluctuation, sometimes they're swamped and sometimes they're totally dead. Well I guess right now is the latter, so I do an assignment here and there, but mostly I read my textbooks and write papers for my classes. It's actually been really great and I am always caught up on my homework!

As far as I can tell, Chase likes his classes this semester, but I LOVE mine! This is my first semester as an HFL (Home and Family Living) Major and I must say my classes are awesome. Besides my GE's, I'm taking intermediate sewing, a family routines and rituals class, and a food prep in the home course. I'm getting a huge dose of sewing and every Friday I have a 3 hour foods lab. Yesterday my kitchen made doughnuts and fudge and I brought some home for Chase and he said the doughnuts were very tasty :)

Well Chase and I got some new couches. It's a long story, but here's a picture of me lounging on it. We got this couch and a matching love seat for only $375! Basically it was the deal of the century.

Nicole and Phil came out to Utah for Phil's sister's wedding and they came over Sunday afternoon to visit. Tori gets bigger everytime we see her!

Backpacking

2008-09-04T22:28:00.005-06:00

When Chase and I got to Utah on Thursday, we couldn't move in until Monday and we needed to kill some time. Chase had to be here Friday morning for a job interview so we decided to go backpacking up in the High Uintas in Granddaddy Basin. Really Chase decided and I had to act excited... but once we started packing for it I got pretty excited. So we set out Friday and hiked for about 4 hours into a campsite before hitting the hay. The next day we fished, camped, messed around and hiked out. It was nice to get into nature and spend some time together before the start of the semester. Here are some of the pics from the trip.

Us hiking into the basin. If we look tired its because we are!The only way to cross these two merging lakes was to walk across all these logs. Harder then you would think with a huge backpack on.Chase caught a big fish early in the morning. He usually throws them back, but this one bled so much that it died... (look at Chase's hand)So we had to eat it. It was actually pretty tasty!Me in our tiny campsite. Another fish, he caught about 5 total.I wanted to make sure we left our mark once we left!

End of Summer

2008-09-04T10:47:00.007-06:00

Well now that Chase and I are back at school I wanted to write one last post to wrap up our summer in California. We headed out to Palo Alto to Nicole and Phil's for Tori's 1st birthday. We had a fun BBQ and they made 2 cakes for Chase and Tori because their birthdays are only a day apart. It was awesome for us to hang out with Chase's family for his birthday! (I know that's really what he wanted.)
This was the "exploding cake" his mom made, its chocolate with crushed up candy bars and m&ms on it. So tasty!
Hanging out in Lodi as well. Aubrey is super good at riding the scooter now and every night she wants Chase and I to come out and ride up and down the driveway with her. Sometimes we'd rather not but it's always fun to get out of the house.
For Tamie's birthday Ryan took her jetskiing and Chase, Yeong-Hye and I tagged along. We all had a really fun time out at Hogan and I had to ride the tube behind the ski most of the time! My arms got tired, but it was so fun!
For the second part of Tamie's birthday, Ryan, Tamie, Dani, Kevin, Chase, and I went to California State Fair on a kind of triple date. We had a really fun time messing around and eating fair food (Ryan's favorite part!) and that night we saw the Weird Al concert. We were all skeptical at first but it was free and it ended up being really funny and entertaining! This is Chase and I on our way out of the fair.
The last weekend before we left Emily, Paige, Dani, Chase and I went to Santa Cruz for the day to enjoy the beach before returning to Utah! It was a nice, relaxing day with lunch at a deli, bocce ball, and walking along the Boardwalk. We did ride the Giant Dipper once, it never gets old! The only problem is that we all forgot sunscreen and got grilled up like a bunch of lobsters. Chase was the only smart one who stayed dressed and in the shade, but I don't mind a little extra tan before heading to school ;) This is Chase at the boardwalk, I suppose he's sad he'll be the only one going back to school without a tan.
The day before we left California Chase's mom called us up and said she'd be in Walnut Creek and maybe we could get together for dinner to celebrate her birthday. We headed out there and met Nicole,Phil and Tori and had a fun time, eating and watching her open her presents. She asked everyone to just give her a good book to read, so I gave her "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, and Chase gave her "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. I hope she enjoys them!Now Chase and I are back in Utah for Fall semester.

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Anniversary Video

2008-08-06T15:41:00.005-06:00

This is a video of Chase reading the book I made him for our anniversary. It cuts off before the end, but enjoy it anyway!

Our Exchange Student

2008-08-04T12:27:00.003-06:00

On July 26th we got our Korean exchange student that is going to live with my family for the next 10 months! Her name is Yeong-Hye (Young-Heh) and she is 15 and a sophomore in high school. She arrived on Saturday and started school on Monday and then on Tuesday, my parents left for Hawaii, so I was left here to assimilate her to American culture...!
The week was actually really great and Chase and I both bonded with her really well. One night Colin had a friend over and we all went outside and after a failed badminton attempt (too windy!) we ended up playing an excellent game of croquet in which I got poison and killed everyone! Yeong-Hye actually did really well and Colin only blew his stack a few times. After a few days in high school, we pulled Yeong-Hye out on a pre-arranged absence to transfer her to an intensive English program for two weeks. Hopefully that will be long enough for her to understand her teachers better! Overall she is a joy to have and Aubrey is so enthralled by her that she is Aubrey's new favorite and I get left alone whenever she is around.

Chase's Family Reunion

2008-07-22T15:29:00.010-06:00

Last weekend was Chase's family reunion in Avila Beach. It was a lot of fun and good to meet all his extended family again. When you meet them of course they always remember me and say that we met at my wedding, but I met so many people! I told Chase this and he just said "Welcome to my world" and I got no sympathy at all! I guess it just shows me that I should be more sensitive to his situation here in Lodi. We got there Thursday night and went out to dinner with everyone at a restaurant with AMAZING fish tacos. I guess all my worrying was for nothing because as soon as we sat down talking to everyone was totally natural and fun. I love his relatives! Friday everyone went to Morro Bay which was about 45 minutes away from our hotel and went whale watching. We saw a lot of whales and it was cool except it took like 5 hours and on the way back everyone got sick and 3 people barfed!

This is Morro rock and Chase!Alex and Ashlee seeing the whales, I must've just missed a picture of the whales!
And Chase on the open ocean.
That night back in Avila Beach we walked around the local farmers market and bought food for dinner and dessert. We ate on the pier and it was so fun, I want to go to farmer's markets every day!

This is us on the pier, poor Chase got roasted on the whale boat. Who knew that you could get burned on an overcast day??
After the farmers market that night we went down the beach a little ways and had a bonfire and roasted smores. This was the time for everyone to tell stories about Chase's Grandma and just talk and enjoy themselves without worrying about throwing up like we did on the boat! Haha.
Us at the bonfire.
The next day we went to Morro Bay again and went to a restaurant called the Coffee Pot for breakfast and met the owner who is this amazing guy who wrote the book Double Luck about his own life growing up as a Chinese orphan. Then everyone went out on kayaks in the bay for a couple hours. I was paranoid about getting wet but Chase was nice and didn't splash me at all, so it was really fun! Then that night we had a BBQ at our hotel for Grandma's birthday and everyone gave her presents. Sunday was the last day and we checked out of our hotel room and went to Grandma's house in San Luis Obispo for a delicious brunch and then to church in her ward. It was so small we basically doubled it with the 15 or so people that came to church with her! Then we drove home in time to celebrate my mom's birthday with dinner. The weekend ended up being tons of fun and I enjoyed spending time with all of Chase's relatives, hopefully we'll be able to visit some of them before the summer is over!

Our summer.

2008-07-15T15:35:00.013-06:00

This summer has been really crazy. We moved to California with my family so Chase could "work", but we've ended up going on so many trips, it truly is a summer vacation! Chase has been interning at my dad's engineering company and he says he's gaining a lot of experience. I didn't get a job so I could help my mom take care of Aubrey and my Grandpa who lives with us. He has Parkinson's disease and some dementia so it's IMPOSSIBLE to leave him alone at the house. There is some outside help, but she can't live here so either my mom or I have to be here pretty much all the time. It's fun to play with Aubrey everyday though! My mom says we can't have too much fun because she remembers EVERYTHING and she'll want to play like that everyday! Aubrey and I swinging, one of her favorite activities. She might look scared, but she's not! Besides that we've had some fun vacations! It started when we left Utah and drove to Bakersfield to see Chase's family.
Chase's dad had to set the timer and run to get in the pic.. haha. It was really fun spending time with them and we even got to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary!
Chase got me a huge present for my birthday and it ended up being an amazing new set of pots! He was just as happy as I was.
For our anniversary I made Chase a book called "Our Story" and it told the story of how we met until we got married. I tried to upload a video of Chase reading it but it wasn't working, I'll try again later.
After Bakersfield we drove to Monterey for the weekend as a present from Chase :) We went to the pier Friday night and the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday. It was so fun! I don't know why I haven't tried this being married thing earlier! Haha. This is a pic of us on the pier.
Here we are outside the aquarium... I bet Chase thinks he's pretty lucky!
After the weekend we finally headed into Lodi for the summer. Besides watching Aubrey and spending time with my mom, we've also been camping for memorial weekend, gone to Bako again for Ashlee's graduation, had numerous BBQ's, had a reception for Beth's wedding, and gone to the desert for a week! Here are some of our favorite pics from the desert trip. All us girls in the truck about to drive out to the dry lake bed. Somehow Beth managed to get into the picture too! On the dry lake bed with my honey :) We were setting up for the bowling ball cannon, and be "we" I mean the boys dug the hole while the girls watched. Out with the shotguns. Chase was amazing, I only looked it... haha. Fireworks. Chase was getting creative with the bottle rockets, shooting them from his fly. I was okay shooting them from a bush.

President's Weekend

2008-02-19T23:37:00.005-07:00

So our President's day weekend ended up being pretty amazing. Thursday was of course Valentine's day but the day before Chase and I were sitting on the couch watching TV and suddenly he turned to me and said, "Did you get my present yet?" Well I thought he meant did I receive a present that he had given me, so I looked very confused but then he said "you didn't get me anything!?" I said, "Ohhhh... no I didn't." We agreed we weren't doing presents for Valentine's! So the next day I did some emergency shopping and that night he took me to McGrath's Fish house and it was delicious :) He ended up giving me a chocolate mill and I him a sweeeeet sweater (it was made out of bamboo).
Saturday we went on a ward temple trip to the Manti Temple. I was so glad we went because I know we never would have gone all the way out to Manti otherwise. Even driving up to it was so beautiful.
Monday we went snowboarding up at sundance. Chase had never been before so I was so excited to take him! He was really good and I hardly ever had to wait for him to catch up. When most people hear you're going snowboarding for the first time they always say "Get ready for a horrible day!" I don't know why they would say that though, it's still fun, even though you can't go too fast. Chase ended up really liking it and hopefully we can go again soon. He made the comment to me that I didn't even fall the whole day and I said it's because I was being a chicken and I never went too fast. But still, I guess not falling means I'm amazing.
So I have one quick story before I finish. I'm sad to say that Chase has officially crossed the border between man and nerd today. He's been dancing on the edge for awhile but his awesome coolness has always held him on the man side of the line. Today we were walking onto campus and Chase was talking about a trebuchet that he is planning on building for an engineering competition (strike one) and he was saying how he wanted to go to the machine shop and drill holes all along the arm so that it would be extra lightweight (strike two) and then he actually uttered these words, "Now if my calculations are right..." Right when he said it I stopped him mid sentence and I said, do you realize what phrase you just used?? Strike three, you're out!

You're Late!

2008-02-02T17:14:00.001-07:00

So after wasting away yet another Saturday, I finally convinced Chase to get dressed as it is now 5:15 pm. To be fair it's not all his fault, but it doesn't matter how long you take to get ready as long as you finish first right? Then you can justly boss the other around and say things like "I'm always waiting for you!" and "I knew you would make us late..." This might not be the best way to behave towards your spouse but I can only follow the example set by my parents. I remember just this Christmas when Dad, Chase and I, Noelle, Colin and Aubrey were supposed to leave for the desert at 8:30 am. I must admit I was not ready until 9, but it turned out that my Dad was getting ready the entire morning, working on his plane and packing the car. In the meantime to stave off bordem, I offered to help Noelle add music to her new ipod. Finally around 10 or 10:30 my Dad got into the car and was ready to go. Well I spent the next 2 minutes finishing the ipod and ran out to the car. Immediately I was assaulted with my dad yelling about how he was ready and we were still running around making him late! Well the irony of the situation was just so overwhelming to me I couldn't even say anything, I just sat in the back and shook my head and laughed. With that example, what can i say? Well I better go because I just realized that I don't have mascara or shoes on and when Chase is finally ready, if I'm not ready to go he will turn the tables and start giving me crap for making him late. Ohhh, the irony.