random october

when a baby is as cute as him, its hard not to want to take a million photos. LOVE that baby B. 

Girl time at the cabin :)

Her shirt isn't very convincing. ha! She's the cutest. 

Pumpkin Patch Pickin' at it's finest. 

I was quite picky about finding the perfect pumpkin. 

Grandmas J's 92nd b-day celebration. She will always be the young, fun grandma in my eyes.

I sure do love this lady. 

Corinne can be kinda pretty i guess..

baby muscles. (ignore the sweaty tank and messy room) BUT after doing about 100 thrusters I felt like I needed proof that something was happening! 

cowgirl boots and blue jeans. my kinda day 

It's not too early to be sending Nate  Christmas gifts hints is it??   ( Call me a granny but i could reallllly use a robe) 

Last weekend was too hectic so we had to squeeze in a Saturday afternoon lunch date to make up for missing our weekly date night. 

I love when Nate makes a Peruvian dish for Sunday dinner. 

I sure do love that Indian of mine though 

I can't believe I'm really saying this but I am pretty sad to see October come to an end. It has been one of my favorites... ever. Not to mention the WARMEST!!  I love that we have been able to do so many fun things outside-it makes me feel like I'll be able to bare the winter cold a little better.Well, Hopefully.
 School is hectic as usual but its crazy to think that this will be my last fall EVER that I'll be going to school. (or will it be??)  I'm trying to just enjoy it all and not wish away time. This life is pretty dang good.

cow heads and babies

We spent a (small) fortune on this gem for our home. It is huge in real life and I love it. Nate thinks it's a little creepy. 

Sometimes I get weird and tell Nate we should probably have a baby soon. Then I look at his photos and think yep, We DEFINITELY need a baby soon. Then we stay out way late and I sleep as long as I want and I think, We should probably wait on the baby. BUT LOOK AT HIM!

This will be going up somewhere in our home :)

Perfect fall evening spent out in the country. Complete with a fire and all. 

We had a little couples get together this weekend and I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time. The kinda laughing where you are afraid you will pee a little. That kind. These people are prime dimes and I'm glad we have so much fun. (Also notice the 7 month pregnant lady, is she a trooper or what?) 

perfect fall weekend.

  I love fall. There, I said it. Especially this one.
I love our night time walks in the cool air. I love getting out of class at 9 o clock and it's already DARK outside. I love wearing a jacket for our warm ups in the morning. I love that the leaves are starting to change. Our world is seriously beautiful.

one of my favs. from family pics. I sure do love this guy. 

So fun to catch up with this lady who I hadn't seen in AGES. Plenty of reminiscing and talks of future plans. 

We (barely) made it to the temple on the  very last day of September. (procrastinate much??) Everything that could possibly go wrong, did. But we made it! So it counts. 

This little lady is too much fun. She kept me laughing all weekend. She is sweet and sassy. *don't know where on EARTH she got the sassy part ;)

The scenery was so Beautiful on our 4-wheeler ride I honestly could have taken a million photos. 

Conference Cuddles. Suz and I fought over this chair all day until finally, we decided to compromise. 

The little rat dog that literally sat at my feet begging for popcorn on multiple occasions. He kinda grows on ya though.

Even the ornery face looks dashing on him.

& now for a monotonous update. I swear I'm not turning into one of those psychos but this blog is for me and someday I want to look back and see the progress I've made. I am killin' it with the no grain diet. I am learning to be more and more creative in what I cook and in what I pack for lunch each day. Don't get me wrong, this weekend was TOUGH when my grandma whipped out her killer homemade rolls, and of course I didn't want to offend her by not having one.But I thought of how far I've come and I just couldn't sacrifice it on one roll. When the rolls got to me I politely passed them on without looking twice. (afraid I would surrender on the second look) ha ha  I feel in control. I have made it 2 1/2 weeks and only have 3 1/2 more go. nbd. I love that the girls on my team send me recipe ideas or text me when they need encouragement not to eat the cake their neighbor brought them. We all have a common goal and support each other at our work outs AND with our food intake. I really like that.

  

This face shows just how much I love my morning smoothies. They are practically the best thing ever. I'm a breakfast girl through and through and these just really hit the spot. I've tried a variety of recipes but this one is my favorite at the moment.

1 frozen banana

1 scoop protein (or meal replacement of some sort)

1 spoonful of peanut butter

4-5 ice cubes

& a touch of milk just so it's not too thick

 I sip on this all morning at work and don't even get hungry until lunch time.

challenges and kimonos.

Okay this blog post may go down as the MOST LAME in the history of lame blog posts. To my future self reading this: Sorry 'bout that.
Life is so good lately. Fall can sometimes be very depressing to me but this year I'm totally loving it. (maybe because it's still 85 degrees outside??) Either way, I won't complain.
Enough small talk.
So yesterday I signed up for a little "challenge" at cross fit. I have tried to talk myself out of it all week but finally I just thought I need to suck it up and DO IT. I thought of my word for the year and how I have accomplished a lot of "firsts" this year and why not keep 'em coming?? So the challenge is a body fat percentage challenge and basically you pay to do the challenge and then if you win,  you get ALL the money that everyone has paid. Now if you know me, you KNOW i'm the biggest cheap skate.. ever. It's HARD for me to just "spend money." And I'm not gonna lie the reason I wasn't going to do the challenge is because I just HATE spending money if I don't NEED to.
But then I started thinking. If i truly COMMIT To this and try my absolute hardest, there is a chance I could end up with MORE money than I even had to give up to join. That was the deciding factor.
So I'm doing it. Basically I don't have to change anything about my lifestyle except... FOOD. ugh . the hardest one in my opinion. I workout at least 5 times a week. I get 7 hours of sleep most nights. I deal with stress in a positive way. I live an active lifestyle. It's just..... I love my food. so so much. Basically I work out so I can eat whatever I want. And those habits will not win me the pot of money. How tragic is that?
I'm sticking to "no grain" eating habits and it is going to test me like NEVER before. NO cold cereal. No bread. No rice. No processed sugar. No pasta. the list goes on and on.. luckily I can still have meat, fruit, veggies, a little dairy.. stuff like that. Everyone at cross fit SWEARS by this diet. Not only to lose body fat percentage but  also to FEEL your very best. Like the best they have ever felt. So I'm experimenting. and hoping I survive. ha ha Yesterday was great and I didn't feel hungry once. But the true test will be on the weekends or at family gatherings. I'm a sucker for a treat. So that's my rant.
Nate is so sick of hearing about it and I don't want to tell people about it sounding like "I'm so cool I don't eat grains I can't believe you do" kinda thing. Ya know?   One last thing: You know how everyone says when you want a cookie just imagine how you want to look in a few months and put the cookie down. Well for the next 6 weeks when I want a cookie, I'm going to think of that MONEY pot in my hands and PUT THE COOKIE DOWN. What can I say?  We all have different motivators. ;)

Oh, and here's a little picture for you. For some reason we don't have any awesome pictures from the past weeek or so except this one.
 Of me.
In a kimono. 
Okay, it might not be awesome at all and you can call me crazy, but i think they're a little cute. And yes, Nate tells me my crocheted kimono looks just like the one the 90 year old lady wears who sits next to us at church. But she's pretty rad so I'm taking it as a compliment.

Cheers and Love

end of summer.

I'm not going to lie to you, the end of summer is probably the most depressing thing to me..ever.
But for some reason this year I have accepted it {better} than usual and am kinda just a teency tincy bit excited for fall. (did i just say that??)
Labor day is always so  bitter sweet to me because even though it means a day off of school, it also means that summer has officially left us. Nate and I seriously had the best summer of our lives. We said it over and over this summer that this year was one of those summers we will probably talk about for years and years to come. It was the very best. We did so many things and had countless adventures. We did everything we wanted to and I am so glad. Now its back to the books for me and  driving long hours for Nate. Let's hope we make it through :)

One of the best things that happened in August was that I finally passed the Accuplacer Test!! Oh my heck that test almost was the death of me. I was so happy when I passed that the lady in the testing center had to remind me to *be quiet.* Sorry lady but if it was you, you'd want to celebrate too!

Carson asked me to give him a hand outside at the shop. We hadn't been out there 10 mins before it started DOWN POURING. He was kind enough to give me a ride back in the tractor. :)

one of my very best friends finally got home from her mission czech. So so good to see her! 

We rode the fair rides together because our husbands are kinda wussy. hahah but we still love them.

LOVED the Rodeo!

He has to be in EVERY picture I tell ya :)

Seniors this year and couldn't be happier! I love that little {big} bro of mine.

I got to ride up in the family wagon to Soda and of course we had to watch full house the whole way! 

Baby Boston is the cutest ever. Sometimes he makes me wish we had a baby..but then he cries or has a blow out and I think.. we can probably wait on that a little bit :)

Nate finally got a new truck!He flew all the way to Washington to get it and I missed him. But He loves it and so do I. (And appearanlty he loves carson too?? #akwardfamilyphoto)

Sunday best at the cabin. We never want to leave that place. 

We HAD to Longboard on the last night of summer. It just seemed right. I will mist those warm nights more than anyone.