Miss Brooklyn turns one May.6.2011

Its been a year since this sweet girl came into this world-WHERE DID THE TIME GO!?!?!? Wow I can't believe my little niece is ONE! Brooklyn turned one this past friday and so my mom and I flew down to Utah to join in on this celebration! I can't believe how big she is getting! She is walking around and talking now-well baby talk that is lol! But she is such a cutie-her big blue bug eyes have stuck with her so she is still my bug eyed beauty :) I love this little girl!

I'm so glad I got the chance to go down to spend some time with this little girl! She is growing so fast and I'm really glad that we have the transportation (airplanes) that gets me to Utah faster so I can spend more time with the kiddos and fam then how we used to travel (car) that took FOREVER!

Happy 1st Birthday Brooklyn! I am so proud to be your Aunt and can't wait to see how you grow throughout your life! I love you!-Auntie K :)

Great Grandma O April.21.2011

Today a great woman passed away that was dear to our families hearts.

Great Grandma O was an amazing woman who has lived many wonderful years on this earth and has been able to witness her children growing up, them having children of their own giving her blessed grandchildren, and then them having children, even got to witness in her lifetime not one or two but three great great grand children being brought into this world!

Great Grandma O you will be missed! We love you & you will always be remembered!

Nana's Birthday May.1.2011

Happy Birthday Nana! To my awesome Nana who turned 29 today ;) Or so she says! She is an amazing woman who has been through quite a traumatic year and is still holding strong!

Ever since I was little my Nana has made it out to all my events & I'm so grateful for that! She is such a support and loves to brag about me which makes me blush lol! She came to my graduation which was shortly after my papa passed away and was such a trooper for staying up late into the night and being there for me. I hope she knows how much that means to me!

Although Papa has passed away he will always be my Nana's other half.

The love they shared for each other makes me so happy and I can't wait to be "experienced" (old) like them and get to be all cute and happy like they were.

My Nana used to be taller than me but I've out grown her! (I must say that is one of my proudest accomplishments lol) Oh! so funny story...looking at this photo I see that my papa is in the background sitting on our shoe rack...well he thought it was a place where you sit and take off/put on your shoes.wrong! He broke it and fell straight to the floor-and he wasn't such a light fella either lol...it was hilarious! We got a new shoe rack out of the deal too! He made it for us :) That crafty/handy papa of mine!

Happy Birthday Nana-I hope you have a fantastic birthday & an amazing year ahead of you!

I love you.

Awesome engagement photos! May.2.2011

Ok I may have an addiction but they are so cute so how can you blame me?!?!?! :D Don't judge.

So I follow this blog http://www.theldsbride.com/ and its pretty amazing-I blame Marlee for getting me addicted to wedding videos/photos! ;p

I have no idea where this is but it looks AHmazing!

Wait for it....wait for it...I am adding a new thing to my "must have list" for a guy! My man has to be able to do this (down below) for our engagement photos!!!! :D Its epic!

SUN in Seattle May.1.2011

Oh my lanta there is sun in Seattle :) ok don't alert the police-its legal :)

So Sunday morning I walked to and from the stake center with Electra & Tessa which was fun!

Then we made pancakes-not just any ordinary pancakes but chocolate & banana (and Tessa's butterscotch) pancakes...DELICIOUS!

Then we went outside to enjoy the beautiful sunshine! Oh man that was awesome! Electra, Tessa & I went and laid in the grass to chit chat for an hour and a half :D I love the sun :D

Last night I went to bed being on fire and this morning I woke up to this! (sorry its blurry I took it quickly at work :) ) Ah the joys of a sunburn-go from hot to cold every few minutes lol but soon it will be a tan :) YA buddy!

Carole's Birthday Dinner April.29.2011

So slightly delayed but we finally got all our schedules to work so we could take Carole out for her birthday dinner, she had never been so it was a pretty sweet night!

I love how there is a trolley always in the middle of the place :) such an awesome center piece!
I went out on the edge and ordered the managers special-mizithra cheese and brown sugar on half and meat sauce on the other YUM! I would have to say it was definitely a great choice :)
And then how can't forget the best part about the meal-the FREE ice cream YA BOI! I love the spamoni flavor! And the best part about the ice cream was Electra learning that it was free-HA she had the waitress bring her a to go one that she ate on the way back lol...she learned something new today lol! Good night overall I would say and I think Carole has found a new restaurant she likes :D

A fairytale come true! April.29.2011

The princess said her vows to her prince charming just as every girl imagines her day to happen!

Rewind to Thursday night <- <- <- After my institute class Tessa & Carlye ganged up on me and persuaded me to pull an all nighter in order to watch the Royal Wedding (ya it took a bit of time) and then the deal breaker was Carlye offering me that she wouldn't have coffee/ caffeine if I stayed up....I was SO in ;p (sorry roomie lol)

So Tessa and I decided to kill some time by taking the bus over to Seattle University (where she attends school) to go grab some stuff for friday & we got smoothies (strawberry banana-YUM!)

Then we got back and started watching tv (channel surfing-ya boi! lol)

Electra came over to "study" and ended up reading us her Spanish book and I translated it for Tessa-ha that was hilarious! (it has been a few years since I've been in spanish lol)

Then it was time for the Royal Wedding guests to arrive-did everyone see David Beckham with that top hat?-priceless!

Then came the wedding :) ahhhhh so pretty and HUGE (so much for a quaint family wedding BAHA!)

So first off-cute couple...I loved the picture they released of them!

I think a big part that helped keep me up was the anticipation to see Kate's wedding dress! Oh ya it was beautiful- I'm not one for lace but she definitely pulled it off nicely :D

Then came the couples first kiss (to the public that is lol) Ah man something about weddings (royal or not) that make you super excited for your own day of complete happiness! I loved watching it and all the details!
Watching the wedding was an awesome experience-I have fully become a college kid! I pulled an all night-ya I know it wasn't for studying for a test so its not really a logical or "legit" all nighter but I approve lol!

So after they did their balcony kiss Tessa and I decided to head to bed-we had to be up at 6:30 for Friday morning Committees so we thought "hey an hour of sleep will help right?" so we hit the floor and we were out! The sun was out at 6 so I woke up a bit before the alarm so I got to snatch a photo of Tessa-all cute and curled up in the blanket out like a light :D
Like all fairytales the story must end....and so my post ends-it was a very awesome night so thank you Tessa & Carlye for convincing me to stay up for this momentous occasion :D

FHE Easter Games April.25.2011

So monday night I went to the stake center for FHE & in the spirit of the holiday we decided to play easter games (who said adults can't play games?!?!)

Well the first game was an egg toss & you had to have a guy as your partner so I grabbed shea (a guy from my ward) and we headed over to toss some eggs! Well just our luck our egg cracked in mid-air...go figure! It never even hit the ground but sadly we were still out :(

But even after that bad luck we still came in 4th place-WOOHOO! And I scored some Robin Eggs...

well I've went on a no candy/soda kick so I gave them to my roommate Carlye and she went like this :D So that made me happy!

Tulip Festival April.23.2011

What better way to spend a cloudy afternoon then to walk around the garden of tulips & see the waterfalls at Thanksgiving Point-ok a little sun may have been nice but at least it didn't rain

(too much lol)

I had such a fun day with my dad, cricket, Britt, Brooklyn, & Jaxson!

I love being an Aunt. these two kids are adorable and are giggly (most of the time) which makes my life so happy!

It was a great afternoon and then dinner at Goodwood bbq for dinner which added to the awesomeness of the day!.....p.s. my sister drinks A LOT of water lol (she had the waiter filling up her glass roughly every two mins-it was hilarious to watch!)

Easter Sunday April.24.2011

Sun shining, breezy, & smiles-perfect combo for a family photo lol

After church I convinced the fam to take some photos (I figured we were all dressed up-why not?!?! lol)

Well the family dynamic is quite funny-so in the upper right hand corner we have AT&T...we raise the bar in this family lol (cody won't stop growing lol and sadly my dad and I have :( )

Everyone in their Sunday best to attend church and to celebrate this Easter season. Church was amazing-talks on the atonement and how we can become better individuals (definitely made the spirit come :] )

Hoppy Easter everyone!

The hunt April.23.2011

Ready. Set. Go! My dad opened the door & there we went!!!

Have you ever seen a group of adults run around a back yard to get eggs? Oh I have/ did lol! My bro in law T and bro Brandon even tackled each other to get one-that was priceless lol!

Jaxson even helped out a bit :D
Then we went inside and opened our eggs-i scored 4 bucks!!!

The kids had their gifts on the couch-paige got the shark one, brooklyn the giraffe, and jaxson got the monkey one :)

Easter breakfast April.24.2011

The smiles, giggles, opening gifts, playing outside with chalk, walking around with my niece...these are a few of my favorite things!

The family came over to the house for Easter this morning-easter egg hunt for the adults, then breakfast, & then we sat and chatted which was fun!

..... April 22.2011

Forgot my camera in Parkland.

Focused on school (tests)

Worked my butt off

Packed for Utah

Met my future sis in law Korrine

played the Wii with my dad

chilled

chatted

I need sleep so goodnight!

p.s. I promise to blog once I get photos of my activities!

9 months-No transfer, no photo,no baby April.14.2011

Today marks 9 month out for Elder Schott (time is kinda flying I'll admit, I definitely don't feel like its been that long since I've seen him)

So I gotta explain my title a bit...this week Elder Schott sent out his email (which I got :D) and it said that he and Elder Loveland (the one in the middle) would be staying companions for another six weeks! So no transfer!

And Elder Schott is a stinker and won't send me any photos...apparently there hasn't been anything "worth of a photo" so ya I'm still waiting for one..so instead I took a photo of his calender :) day 274 Ya BOI! creeping up to the top of that spiral :)

And about the no baby part--> Kind of a joke-you see he has been out nine months and I'm not in labor nor pregnant so we were good kids (laugh now!) lol but I wanted to put this one here cuz a few weeks ago I had a dream where I was in my life right now and pregnant because of Nate (which freaked me out like no other!) so ya I wanted to tag this on the end. No baby yet folks-give us a bit of time lol the man still has 15 months to go lol ;)

S'mores April.11.2011

I failed to blog about this on tuesday from Monday (we did s'mores for FHE)! So under this picture is Tessa who I caught off guard as she tried to eat the s'more (candid shots are priceless lol) The picture with the unassembled s'mores was taken while Tessa was trying to explain to me the "proper" way to assemble them. However I disagree with her method of splitting the graham cracker after the chocolate and marshmallow is placed on it because it makes it like twice as hard to not get it over the place...I think I'll stick with my method ( I get myself messy enough when I eat it lol)

My picture got a little blurry but may I say that it was DELICIOUS :) I sure know how to toast a good marshmallow

So the picture of Tessa and I shows how badly I look after getting minimal hours of sleep *cough five cough* ya it was a rough night sunday-monday lol but I pushed through it and those s'mores were SO worth it!

& then Electra....as she modeled her s'more she squished it (made for an awesome photo lol) and a messy aftermath BAHA!

1 and 1/2 years April.12.2011

"Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction."

I believe this totally applies to my current situation, Elder Schott and I are not able to gaze into each other's eyes but we are able to look together towards an eternal perspective :D

Today marks our 1 1/2 year anniversary, I can't believe I have been blessed to have Nate in my life!

So since I don't have him with me to go out on a fun date and take cute pictures to post on here for ya'll I decided to google cute love quotes instead :D

Some of them are super cheesy but bear with me I am kinda a sap when it comes to Nathaniel :)

I went to the beach this past summer and actually wrote his name in the sand and as I was taking the photo the water washed it away! So this one seemed fitting:

Nathaniel called Taylor Swift's song "you belong with me" the stalker song so when I saw this photo I thought of him :D
Nathaniel always tells me "never forget that I love you and that I ALWAYS will"- I'm thinking this would be cute vinyl for our bedroom wall :)
This one pertains to every girl because they find their man super cute :D
I believe Nate is my other half. I finally found my missing puzzle piece who makes me feel whole!
This last one makes me think of my current life, with him not here I smile from just thinking of him (which happens quite often so basically I smile A LOT!) :)
Happy 1 1/2 year Anniversary Nate :D I'm so grateful for you in my life and this is just the beginning of our LONG life together :D

A year ago today... April.11.2011

I can't believe a year has passed since my papa left this earth. Not a day goes by that I don't think of him and wish he was still here. I remember the day he passed so vividly which makes it harder to move on. But its been a year and we are slowly getting our lives back together, my Nana is doing really well considering she lost her husband, companion, and best friend.

I remember as a little girl up till the time he passed away whenever I saw him sitting on his lap. Me being 5'2 and him being a giant lol like 6'5 ish or something (giant to me at least) I could still pull it off.. :) which is something I truly miss but I definitely appreciate all the times I was able to do it.

I loved whenever my Papa would greet me, he would give me a HUGE hug and say "hello Bratlin", I can still hear him saying it to me and sometimes I think he still whispers it in my ear to encourage me to keep enduring through my trials and to bring a smile to my face. I loved having him wrap his arms around me and me kissing his cheek!
I can remember my grandparents coming to all my birthday dinners when I lived in Washington at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I loved having them there and will truly miss my Papa not being there. My last birthday memory of him was of him trying to figure out how to take a photo with his touch screen. Old people and technology crack me up-I will definitely cherish that moment forever.
A year ago we said goodbye to this beloved man but he will stay in our hearts forever. He made such an impact on our lives, mine truly. He taught me the fundamentals of a good work ethic and the importance of using my brain to do operations rather than relying on technology which came in handy in my future. He was always my support in my school activities and I hate that he never got to see me dress up for my High School prom or graduation but I believe he was looking down at me from heaven and still does :) Papa I love you!