If You Need a Smile

This video made me smile today. Thought I'd pass it along. If you haven't seen it yet, you're in for a treat!

The Impossible Task of Picture Taking

My sweet husband hates taking pictures. I LOVE it. haha. Poor guy. I know he'll find a way to be grateful for my obsession with documenting our lives someday. Yesterday he looked especially cute and it was our 10 month anniversary, so I decided we should take a picture. Easier said than done.

After about 15 tries we still didn't have one with both of us looking/smiling that was in focus. I even tried again later and still had ten shots that sucked and only ONE that was decent. Seriously? How hard it is to hold still and grin for a second? haha. Apparently, very. Oh well, these goofy shots sum up our relationship a little better than a fake smiling picture would anyway!

 On a completely random side note...How stinkin' cute and stylish are my sisters!! They are both in NYC for the summer having the time of their lives...and I am so jealous! Unlike Colby, they LOVE taking pictures as much as I do. I'm thinking we will have to have some fun photo shoots when I'm in the city 2.5 weeks from now :) Can't wait!

Honestly Lauren

My sister Lauren has a super cute blog you need to follow. Check it out! She's a talented, witty, and eloquent writer. Oh, and I promise she has some stories in there that will make you laugh out loud!! Enjoy :)

Summer Living

I've decided it is possible to keep up both of my blogs...and I need to update this one because pinned by dani hardly ever highlights the "going ons" of my life.

So. Here's what has been going on :)

I left my job at My Social Practice back at the end of April because Colby and I were headed to Washington for the summer so Colby could sell alarms. Yes. We choose to "sell."

Team lunch at Rubios on my last day at MSP:

So, we packed up our very first home together, put our big stuff in storage, and loaded my car with the things we wanted to bring with us. On April 28 we picked up my brother (who was also coming with us to sell) and drove 13 hours to Washington for a summer of hard work, late nights, and very little fun.

For the first three weeks we were lucky enough to live in an apartment with carpets that reeked like cigarette smoke. I tried leaving the windows open, dousing the floors with febreeze, buying air fresheners, and filling the apartment with scented candles. The smell was SO bad though, that none of those things helped. The smell of smoky carpets will forever haunt my memory...and I will never buy a house or apartment until I've made sure the carpets smell nice and clean!! Luckily, another apartment in the complex opened up after three weeks so we packed up all our stuff once again and moved. That's twice in a month I had to both pack and unpack an apartment. Not fun. Fortunately, we didn't bring very much with us to Washington so the second move wasn't nearly as tiring as the first.

Saturday trip to Seattle with the girls while the boys sold:

The life of selling consisted of the boys leaving for work at noon everyday and finally coming home for dinner at 10:00 p.m. Needless to say, I was very lonely A LOT. And the poor boys were always tired and hating life. After about one week in our second apartment, both Colby and Adam started to rethink things. They were surprised at how dishonest the art of selling alarms is. Though Colby has sold before, this was his first time selling alarm systems and he wasn't a fan. He actually believed in the product, but he didn't agree with the way he was asked to sell it. Therefore, Adam and Colby decided to keep their integrity and come home after being out there a month.

Once we decided to come home we could hardly wait. So, we packed up one day and left the next. That's right...my third time packing up an apartment in one month's time. However, being able to come back to Utah where we have friends, family, lives, and regular schedules made it all worth it.

Colby joined two softball teams within two days of coming home and quickly started his own window washing company.

I was hired as an Editor at an internet marketing agency called OrangeSoda within a week.

Things worked out quite nicely and we couldn't be happier with our decision to change our summer plans on such a whim, though I do miss being able to see my brother everyday (he headed out to NYC for an internship at my Dad's company).

Such is the life of the newlyweds. We are coming up on 10 months next week...that means our one year mark will be here in no time. Hard to believe how fast time flies, yet its even harder to remember my life before I had Colby in it. Things are amazing, and we couldn't be happier!

pinned by dani

Just in case any of you missed the announcement on my other blog last month, pinned by dani has moved to a new URL, and it is much improved :) Check it out if you haven't yet!! http://pinnedbydani.com :)

The Most Wonderful Time Of Year

sparkling lights. winter coats. hot chocolate. homemade candies. family. candy canes. boots. christmas music. mistletoe. decorations. balsam scented candles. sugar cookies. parties. presents. snow.

Yup. This is absolutely, 100%, the BEST time of the year. I love everything about it.

But first, let's back up a little....

Colby and I had our siblings sleep over the night before Thanksgiving, and it was perfect. We made apple pie, bought some ugly DI sweaters, watched a movie, and just hung out. The next morning we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while Lauren and I made a yummy fresh green bean casserole.

Then we headed off to Thanksgiving Dinner at Colby's grandparents' house, fully decked out in our nasty sweaters.

Naturally, as soon as we got home from dinner, I recruited my sister to help me put up the Christmas tree...and I've been enjoying it's warmth ever since!

December 1st marked the start of my 25 Days of Christmas. Basically all that means is that I've been trying to do at least one Christmasy thing every day to "savor the season." So far, I've been successful! I've made a cranberry + popcorn garland for my tree, had hot chocolate, listened to festive music, sat under the light of my christmas tree, made yummy treats, gone to a christmas party, watched christmas movies, and done some holiday shopping! It's been amazing. Oh, and we're going to the Salt Lake Temple tomorrow to see the lights, and I can't wait!

Colby and I head back to New York for the Holidays on the 18th, and Colby's family is coming out for a few days too! What better way to spend the holiday season than with our families in one of my favorite places on earth? I am blessed.

Birthday Boy.

Colby turned the big 2-4 on November 19th! It was fun having a whole day dedicated to spoiling the man I love.

He loves Reeses, so I made him a yummy chocolate cake with a peanut butter buttercream frosting. Delicious...and I don't even like cake! 

We went to dinner with some friends, and had a ton of people over to our place after. Turns out all of Colby's friends are boys! My sister was the only single girl there, and she didn't seem to hate it :)

I decorated in blue, since it's Colby's favorite color. (This was before the drinks and appetizers were laid out). 

Short post...just wanted to give you all an update and let you know that it was a successful day of celebration :)