Blake...Taryn..Malan.

2012-01-23T10:55:00.000-08:00

This little chick is 5 months old!

I can't even try to explain how much love I have for this girl. She is amazing. She is my everyday. She is one gorgeous girl. She is sassy and will always let you know what she doesn't want.

very much into her toes now. loves to hold them and talk to them. when I hold her, she will constantly watch them to make sure they don't go anywhere
weighs 15 lbs {30th percentile}, most of which is in her cheeks
she can roll to her right side, from back to stomach. then she's stuck there. and she hates it. a lot. the second we put her down on her back anywhere she instantly rolls over {not as cute during diaper changes}
still not a sleeper. her naps are a max of 20 minutes. we're working on that
she is a champion at eating her rice cereal! loves it. she opens her mouth for more before I even have it on the spoon, then leans into it so the spoon will get to her faster {darling} after every bite, she gently pats the tray in front of her as if she's focused on swallowing, cheering herself on.
bath time is show time. she yells and splashes, nobody gets out of the bathroom dry.
favorite toys are her cell phone and a singing dog that lights up. anything she can get to her mouth. she has an eye for anything shiny.
has a tooth coming in on the top! teething is a joy. she is a drool face.
loves to read books. they settle her down every time. she likes 'brown bear, brown bear what do you see?', 'who is hiding on the farm', and 'peek-a-boo animals'. she's a little afraid of the sound a cow makes, shocks her every time I do it.
blows raspberries all day. she blows harder with the more spit that gets involved
loves to grab your lip and pull as hard as she can. funny girl
ticklish like crazy on the back of her neck
Big fan of her doorway bouncer. she watches cali walk back and forth with the ball.

have a happy monday!

2011-11-10T10:16:00.001-08:00

I know, I know... I'm the worst at updating my blog. My usual excuse was that I never had much to post about. Now I have a baby who changes every day and I still can't post!! I just read my last post and had to laugh. I can't believe that almost everything I wrote has changed. I have so many pictures, unorganized as usual but cute to say the least.
Some updates:

Loves bath time
Eats every two hours, even through the night.
Sleeps in and loves her crib. She has a bath at 8 and we get her to sleep around 9-9:30. She has a long stretch of sleep for about 4 hours, then she gets up every two hours to eat. We're working on eliminating one of the feedings. About every other night, she will wake up every 45 mins, meaning I get up, rock her back to sleep, get up rock her back to sleep, get up feed her then rock her back to sleep. Repeat till 7am
Weighs 12 lbs 90 percentile
Height 23.5 inches 75 percentile
SO happy in the morning! She has the biggest smiles and such cute sounds and squils
Talks to herself and thinks she's pretty funny
FINALLY started taking a binky at exactly 2 months old. She sucks on it long enough to take the edge off, then spits it out when she's calm.
Still doesn't take a bottle
Still prefers to be held, but she can sit on her own for a while at a time throughout the day. I still rock and sing her to sleep for naps, though. She will have none of the 'cry it out' sheesh. She stands her ground and never budges
She is a champ at holding that head up. such strong neck muscles
Being naked is top notch in this gals life. loves it

Sadly, one of the only pictures from Halloween. She liked the pumpkins once we got candles in them

Happy girl in the morning

What? Nothing..what do you mean?

Oh yeah, Cali had a puppy :)

A week after she turned one month, I noticed that her right eye wasn't aligned with the left. I'm lucky enough to have a mom who listens to every concern and can talk to the right doctor for me, so after she talked to an ophthalmologist I quickly made an appt with a pediatric ophthalmologist at children's hospital in knoxville. Sometimes a child as young as Malan may need surgery before two months in order to fix the problem. Malan has Transiet Exotropia... her right eye deviates outward. Luckily she won't need surgery but if the muscle doesn't get stronger by december, she will start glasses and a patch. I feel like her eye is stronger and I can see that it's correcting itself. We will know for sure at the beginning of the month.

I love having this little girl. I'm lucky she is all mine. I struggle sometimes with how high maintenance she can be, but I feel like I was hand picked to handle it. I want to do these hard things for her. I do it for her.

3 weeks already?!

2011-09-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

We have learned a lot in the past 3 weeks. Bringing home a new baby is possibly the scariest thing i've done. I feel like I have no idea what i'm doing! Nobody really tells you how hard the first couple weeks are. She is already so full of personality and my heart just aches at how much I love this lil chick! Our daily goal is getting to know what she likes and what she doesn't.

Here are some things we have learned and love about our baby girl:

She eats every hour to hour and a half -which makes for looong nights
Like her mama, she hates her feet touched
She adores her daddy
Not a fan of bath time
Loves to be held. She will fall asleep ONLY if you hold her, and wakes up within mintues of putting her down
She thinks the ceiling fan is pretty fantastic, we could look at it all day
LOVES tummy time. Her little muscles are already so strong
She gets the hiccups at least twice a day and they make her angry
She's like her dad... loves to be naked
Starting to get the hang of the night and day thing {ish}

It has been so fun to watch and learn with her. I feel like she changes every day. She is still the prettiest baby and has the best spirit about her. It actually makes me a little teary eyed {like that is anything new}

Introducing...

2011-08-28T16:08:00.000-07:00

Malan Kelli Rabe

08/21/11

7lbs 10oz 19 inches

Blake and I are so excited to announce that our little girl is here! She is such a blessing to have around our home and we already love her little spirit.
I was scheduled to be induced on August 19th...but the hospital had other plans. We went in at midnight to be checked in and start the process. But someone dropped the ball while scheduling me AND the rooms were full with girls that were actually in labor. Our doctor was less than thrilled to say the least. So, Blake and I drove the hour and a half home. I was so disappointed. I expected to have a baby that day and instead, went home. I was rescheduled to come in at midnight on the 21st.
I didn't sleep the entire first night in the hospital.. the anticipation was killing me! I've always been so afraid of labor and I was only hours away, or so I thought. I ended up going into labor on my own! My doctor planned to start the pitocin that morning but I had already started pretty intense contractions after my water was broke. They were coming only a minute apart and starting to put stress on the baby. Malan's heart rate would drop and my blood pressure would go too high. So the anisthesiologist insisted I get an epidural to seperate the contractions. I had 1/8 the amount of a regular epidural because I was too afraid to go all the way numb. It spaced them out to only 2 mintues apart.
A few hours later, it was time to push! I pushed for almost 3 hours. A few stretched ligaments and an episiotomy later, Malan was here! She was born at 5:57pm.

She is a very healthy little girl and has the funniest faces! I can't tell who she looks like yet, but I know she is a gorgeous girl! Her eyes are so light, her skin is olive like her daddy's and she has the best sounding cry. That sounds funny, but she is squeaky, and I love it!!

Hmm...

2010-11-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

Wow

I should update this...

Maybe tomorrow

Love me anyway?

LMU-DCOM

2010-08-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

Lincoln Memorial University- DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine

Blake started his first week at medical school! The first 4 days were orientation and a ton of speed reading classes, just to get them warmed up. Monday was his first 'real' day of school. Mondays are anatomy lab for him, which he loves! He is so far ahead of most students who have never seen a cadaver before. Turns out Weber State prepares you pretty well who knew ;) He came home with a box of human bones to study and we've already purchased all of his equipment (opthalmoscope, a glass eye to practice on, BP cuff and whatever the ear scope is called). I like to play with them until I remind myself how expensive that stuff is. Not to mention the 1300 dollar computer they require... it is so dang fancy! Also, a BiG shout out to Trent who is providing us with a semesters-worth of medical gloves so we don't have to buy them! Woot Woot!! Thanks, you saved our bacon.

He is loving school now that classes have started, he was very anxious to get going during orientation. All he does is study now... that's it. He leaves early early, I have dinner ready when he comes homes, he eats then goes to read till he comes to bed. I have a lot to get used to.

The school's campus is gorgeous! The med school is by far the biggest building in this town and it sits up on a pretty hill. The University part of campus is cool too. All the buildings are old old brick that makes each one look like a house. There are civil war bunkers around campus, too.

We think we'll love it here :)

Just some thoughts

2010-07-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Now that Blake is in school

I will have a ton of time to blog.

Who knows how often I really will, my guess is that i'll quickly fall behind
Since I will have nobody around to take pictures with, I decided I will blog thoughts.

I think i'm generally a funny person

So hopefully I will find it less of a chore to blog

Today I went grocery shopping for the meal we're going to feed our new friends tomorrow night and realized when I got home that I would rather put 10 grocery bags in each hand than make two trips to the car and carry them in.

Anyone else?

My hand was killing me and I even stood there in my driveway for a minute deciding on the better choice for me: make the two trips or pretend to be strong and act like I can find the house key first off and make it all the way in the house without dropping something...

Well, I chose the second one and toughed it out. almost

I ended up dropping a jar of sauce all over the porch that already has bugs.

Lesson learned

maybe...

Also... How many times is it appropriate to ask 'what' before you just nod and smile because you still didn't understand what they said?

Tennessee so far...

2010-07-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Blake and I are loving this house! I was so excited when we found it and thought we got such a great deal on it. Now that we're living in it and have seen other students' houses, we KNOW we got a great deal. The down falls i'm learnig of Tennessee? Bugs bugs bugs! Everywhere! The spiders are the size of the shoe I use to kill them and it seems all the other crawly-things are on steroids too. Also, obviously, the humidity. It's unbarable! Our towels don't dry off after we use them and my skin is always sticky. I can't walk to the end of the driveway without dripping sweat (which is actually saying a lot since our driveway is at a 90 degree angle).

The town we moved is small, but so gorgeous! The tress are tall and so green and the hills are covered with everything pretty. The people are so dang friendly! It's true what they say, don't go to the store here unless you've got an hour or two! People just talk your ear off about nothing and I love it! We've met some friends from Blake's school and some from church. We alrady belong to a softball and a soccer league and have a neighbor that texts everyday :)

Our Back Yard :)

We already miss evveryone from home and hate not having parents around! We can't wait for some visitors ;)

celebrating america's birthday in moab

2010-07-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

We went to Moab to visit my papa for the 4th! We had a nice and relaxing weekend... Me, my mom, trent, blake and my papa went out to LaHacienda to eat, did some shopping duh and Blake and I planned to hike up to the delicate arch (didn't happen because my lungs were sissy the night before) and watched the fireworks! I really missed having my nana there. It just wasn't the same without her. After, we went to the neighbors house, who are great family friends, and watched the real firework show (may or may not have been legal).

Thanks, Papa, for a great time!

We know how to cheese it!

Here's the story: I have be threatening to shave Max (my mom's dog) for months and months because he is sooo shaggy! Max is such a sissy so I couln't use the shaver, so I took scissors and went to town! Max just layed there and thought he was being spoiled with all that attention.

Sadly, i don't have an 'after' picture! He looks so cute with his new 'do and about 5 lbs skinnier hahah

During---------------- Before

Lava Hot Springs!!

2010-07-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

My family is building a cabin in Lava hot springs so I went up one last time before the move. We celebrated birthdays and went four wheeling!

~Our Trip to Nashville

2010-07-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

NaShViLLe

This is my over-load of pictures from our trip to Nashville! Blake and I had to fly out to Harrogate to look for housing so we went to Nashville to visit Ben and Kendra. While we were there we enjoyed some sweet cici's ice cream, walking around downtown Franklin, caught fireflies, swimming, lots of eating and CoUnTrY FeSt!!!

Nashville is beyond gorgeous and I'm sooo thrilled to be moving to Tennessee!
Thanks, Ben and Kendra, for showing us a great time and how it's done in Tennessee :)

Country Fest was soooo much fun! I hope to do it every year! I couldn't believe how great of a deal it is! We got to see so many stars and performances over the three days, it was great

2010-07-06T18:27:00.000-07:00

..........TwILiGhT..........

This year for the big movie, the guys went! Blake was so giddy ;) Jake and Brad, I think, were just curious. Blake read the book last year and thought it was the best book (or the least whiney on Bella's part) I thought the movie was great! I think we all really liked it. Just re-affirmed my love for Edward....so romantic! We missed having my mom, Nicole and Kendra there...

Jill and Jake are in town with their boys! I love having them around, they have so much personality and are just so fun! It's impossible to get a picture of Nolan! but here is Lukie helping grandma load the dishwasher and just hangin' out with grandpa.

We love when family visits. These picts were from May when Kendra was here, so a little late ;)

Silly Girl :)

Meh-he-co

2010-05-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

Blake and I had so much fun on our cruise! We always enjoy the water, sun and all the food we can eat! It was nice to spend some time together and experience the things we did.

Here are a few pictures to highlight our trip....

Even though I felt too pushed by the people selling stuff, I still had fun in Mexico.

We shopped, ate authentic mexican food (and didn't get sick!) and we boogie-boarded for hours! The ocean was our absolutely favorite part and it was great to get some sun!

We were ready to get off the ship on our last day at sea. I threw up the entire day and Blake wasn't feeling well either. I still sway... either out of habit or my body still thinks i'm on a boat.

{ South Carolina }

2010-04-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

Now What?!

Trent, my mom and I went to see my little brother graduate from basic training. The first day we were there was family day. After finally getting through security, we parked in a huge field and went from booth to booth to see all the ARMY stuff we could buy. We are now, definitely representing our troops ;)

We sat in the heat waiting till we could see the soldiers...waiting.. then we saw smoke bombs being thrown out of the trees around us and out of the smoke came the American flag being held by three soldiers. The feeling from that sight was unexplainable! Then, it got better. Behind the different colors of smoke, 1,100 troops came marching out to the ARMY song. This is for sure something every American should witness!

After every parent rushed the field, we picked Jonathan out of the crowd and tackled him with more hugs than he appreciated. That day, we couldn't take him off base, but we had some time to spend with him.

The second day was his graduation. We sat, again, in the heat and waited to see him. Watching them enter in their formations was really cool, and they announced all soldiers that deserve Honorable mention. Jonathan was already promoted (or whatever ) to Private First Class, meaning he's awesome. He also received the 'sharp shooter' title, meaning he's a great shot. His platoon, Foxtrot, was by far the most disciplined.

After graduation, we were aloud to take him off base -his first time in 10 months! We saw a movie, did some shopping and grabbed some unhealthy food. His first request was to have anything with carbonation or sugar in it hahaha.

We could feel so much emotion all around us. I witnessed a soldiers propose to his girlfriend and another meet his baby for the first time.

Even though Jonathan wasn't able to come home for two weeks like we thought, we are so so grateful for the time we had to see him. I can't imagine how much he misses family, friends and his own stuff. He is now in California learning the language they assigned and making sure he isn't having any fun. He is learning FARSI, which is a mid-eastern language. It's Persian or something, they speak it in Iraq, etc.

Congratulations little brother! We sure are proud of you and miss you every day! Can't wait to see you SOON

The Soldier's Creed:

I am an American soldier.

I am a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the ARMY values.

I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

Mr. & Mrs. Eccles

2010-03-11T21:47:00.001-08:00

Congratulations Christian & Sam!

My cousin Christian just married his best friend on the 11th! (isn't she beautiful?!?)

They had a gorgeous reception at the Ben Lomand Suits in Ogden, and the building was so pretty! The architecture of the rooms is so cool. What a great place to have a reception!

I want to have another wedding.... to the same person of course!

Love Brad

I got to see Chris!!

Me and my cute cousin, Lauren

Ryan & Anna

Love Ann

Cute Jack!

my cute cousin Jeanette

Jack.... fast asleep and drooling

Such a fun cake

Nick

Aka: mini Christian

Beautiful Bride!

Handsome Groom

Can we sit down yet?!

Mother of the groom... Aunt Jilllllll

Aww... royal!

They got their marriage started off right... they didn't shove

Yummy Treats! beer bread, hug-hes salad and cheese cake

They weren't messin' around

Of course Lauren caught it... pshht

Their wedding was such a pretty one!

Sam was disgustingly gorgeous... and Christian looked hott ;)

* Kinda Spoiled *

2010-03-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

....WE'RE GOIN' ON A CRUISE....

Blake and I have been working our butts off to try to save enough money to enjoy ourselves one last time before medical school. When we finally had a little bit saved, we started considering our options. We had so many different trips in mind. Moab (to see family and hike), California (to see family and the ocean) New York (my #1 desired destination) or on a cruise. When we started thinking about it, our honeymoon cruise was pretty dang fun! We met great people, ate amazing food, and had some fun on the ports. The selling point? well the food of course! We will be headin' off at the end of April.

This time we will be going on a Mexican Riviera cruise! I'm so so excited to see mazatlan and chill in the water in Cabo!

Changes we would like to make this time around:

We will ABSOLUTELY build a base-tan before to avoid burns...

Blake will win us MORE shopping moneys...

We will spend more time in the waves!

Thing we want to repeat:

We loved loved loved the food! but we will probably eat a little bit less... or try

Make great friends...

Take some beautiful pictures!

Yeah, Blake spoils me and I love it! He worked so hard so we can enjoy ourselves. He even worked a couple doubles to get overtime- meaning he worked his 2-12 shift AND stayed till 6 in the morning covering another persons' shift!

I'm ready for some SuNShInE!!

2010-03-04T13:49:00.000-08:00

I am so happy spring is here! I can see the grass and feel the sun!
The weather has been so so nice lately.. I've been in such a spring mood!

The pictures above are what I expect from spring....
The picture below is what our spring is lookin like....

The weather was fine up until today! It has been so dang windy and raining!

{MiSs yOu}

2010-02-23T19:33:00.001-08:00

My mom, Trent and I are flying out to South Carolina to see Jonathan graduate from boot camp! I can not wait to see the changes basic training makes... We just can't wait to see him! Believe it or not, as quiet as Jonathan is, we definitely notice him gone. He has such a fun personality and you always know when he is in the room, even when he doesn't say a word. Having him gone has made such a difference in everyday life. When I see anyone in uniform, it has an entirely different feeling. The national anthem played at the Olympics on TV has such an emotional effect. I think I speak for my whole family when I say that a new respect has been engraved in all of us, thanks to Jonathan. We miss you little brother!

2010-02-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

Blake and I have been working so hard to get this house up for sale. Blake's aunt Cathy is a realator for the Franklin Group so she has been giving us those much needed tips to make our house look amazing.
Blake went around the entire house and patched up the little nail holes we weren't using and gave some rooms a bit of fresh paint. I worked hard on 'phasing' the house. Cathy suggested that we move out some furniture to open some rooms up. We moved out our love seat leaving a huge room with only our couch and a big red chair in it's place. I cleared the kitchen counter of the canisters and anything else that gave it personality ha ha. One of my favorite things about our kitchen was the amount of personal touch the fridge had. Now, all of the cute magnents, pictures and baby announements are gone!
Now that we finally have the house up for sale, it looks fabulous! I love how rediculously clean everything is. I know this house will sale fast because Blake's brother, Ben, did an amazing job fixing the place up when they bought it and his cute wifey, Kendra, used her skills in interior design to pick great colors to paint each room.

{ Wuv... Twu Wuv}

2010-02-17T15:33:00.001-08:00

HaPpY VaLeNtInE's DaY!!!
This is our first Valentine's day as a married couple! And to celebrate, Blake took me to get a couples massege! It was heavenly! Then we went to dinner at my fav resaurant the Maccaroni Grill. Blake also was so so sweet and surprised me with flowers at work!!
I love you honey!

Oh! I almost left out the best part. This year, I made Blake a naughty candy poster and tried to embarrass him at work by letting everyone see him receive it ;)

The poster may be a little too naughty to post what it said, but I will list the candy bars included and you can fill in the blanks with imagination....

.........100 Grand.......... Nut Roll............. Snickers............. Look.....big hunk...... sugar daddy......... take 5............... skor........... peanuts............ Surgar babies.......Etc....

I would say he rather enjoyed his very blingy naughty poster. ( Blingy= it had glitter)

WaTeR FiGhT!!!

2010-02-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

So after Blake and I ate a really delicious meal that I cooked, we washed the dishes together. I, so very nicely, handed him a plate to dry and a little bit of water may or may not have been smeared all over his face.... After his many many empty threats, I thought for sure that was as far as it would go. WHY?! Why would I second guess blake's competitive-ness?! Not only did he throw a whole cup of water at me, he threw the dog bowel of water in my face! I was only defending myself with the sink hose and he got scared, like a sissy la la, and decided to throw dog water in me face! So rude! Needless to say Blake won.... but only because he cheated.

That's right, clean up your mess! hee hee :)

{ One of the Hardest Days...}

2010-01-19T15:41:00.001-08:00

Today, my little brother is officially Private First Class Jones. Jonathan joined the army. He will be intercepting and translating warfare intelligence.

This experience has been one of the most difficult for me. Jonathan and I have a great relationship and he is the best little brother. It kills me to think he won't always be in his room when I want to see him. I hate that he grew up. He grew up into a man that I have an unbelievable amount of respect for. He is so brave to go to South Carolina for basic training (boot camp). He is so brave for going to California to learn the things he needs to know to comlete his title. The most amazing part? Jonathan went into all of this, the army, with so much grace. He isn't afraid. He isn't worried, he is excited and looks forward to the things he isn't sure of. He wants to learn a European language and soon serve somewhere in Europe. He has so much to learn and so much changing to do. It's a good thing is such a strong person... something he gets from our mom. Jonathan moving away has been so hard on her. I can't believe how composed she's managed to stay. Our mom has given everything she has to her kids, so she has to know that Jonathan is so prepared for his future because of her.

Saying goodbye

It's official!

This is the room that Jonathan was sworn-in. It was the coolest thing... they repeated everything and kept saying 'yes sir' and everything! They sound like such army men ha ha

Me, trying not to break down....

Me, Jonathan and Jacey. Jacey is our cousin/Jonathan's best friend since birth.

Proud parent of a U.S. Army Soldier

I am so proud of my little brother and the choices he's made! We love him and will miss him too much. Go and be a Hero jonny joe!

Jazz Game

2010-01-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

Blake and I went to a jazz game on friday night against the buck's. We absolutely love the jazz and the games are even better court-side! My dad, Christopher, is a member of the jazz 100 club and has courtside seats to every game. Before the games, they serve the best food!

Our seats :) yeah

Coaching staff

within reaching distance... again :)

Bogut, former Ute

Jazz Won!!

_HoLiDaY_SEaSoN_

2010-01-12T19:29:00.000-08:00

Snow Basin!

Blake and I hosted a holiday party with a few friends...

Cali just loved Cache

Oh Danny and Morgan! We miss you!!

Soon-to-be family: Mckay, Scottie and Chloe

Our little Family

We decided to bring Cali over to my mom's house to see how she got along with the other dogs. Cali is such a funny dog and has more personality than any dog i've ever met... she HAS to be the alpha.. the top dog...and she will not put up with other females :)

The dogs at my mom's are all male, including my nana's dog (visiting). Blake brought her in the house and the other dogs instantly stearted barking, obviously Cali didn't love that.

Long story short, Blake had to hold Cali the whole time so she would stop harrassing (attacking) the other dogs.

Cali and Max, deciding they hate eachother

Poor Cooper, he was the only friendly dog and Cali wanted nothing to do with him

Our christmas eve pajamas! Soooo cute! We had my nana and papa in town for this very special christmas. This is the last holiday while Jonathan and I are living here! My baby bro has joined the Army intelligence... I just can't get past it.

Cute Mckell! She is such a happy baby and looked adorable in her PJ's!

The Rabe's christmas eve tradition is to open your pajamas as fast as you possible can and change into them (privacy or not). The first one finished wins! Last year I was basically the last one ;) This year, Blake and I rocked it.. First couple dressed baby!
This year, all of us had the same pajamas. It was so so great to have everyone in town for the season.

{ This is how Thanksgiving is done in Moab }

2009-11-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving, Blake and I went to my Nana & Papa's house in Moab. My mom, Trent and little bro Jonathan came down too, so we made a trip out of it. We did some four-wheeling, hot tubbin', hiking, a lot of eating, and watched the BYU/Utah game.

Two Good-lookin' boys! Blake&Jonathan

Arches Ntl' Park

No Biggy

Aww....

Go BYU!!!! Rise and Shout baby

I'll bet they feel stupid now

Us, freeeeezing cold at MotoX

Thanks, Nana and Papa, for all you do! We had a great time in Moab and loved spending the holiday with you!!

What the heck have we been doin'?

2009-11-17T21:23:00.000-08:00

We have definitely enjoyed our time together. The house is becoming our home and i'm loving the space to decorate. Blake is not a hard person to live with, at all! Shocking, but true. I hate when he isn't here and that's often, unfortunatley. I work mornings and he works nights... we cross paths at the very least, welcome to marriage! Our jobs are going great and really have no complaints!
Since marriage, blake and I have joined a new ward. We go to a family ward, and it's pretty great. I was really attatched to our singles ward, though. Not only did we love the friends we've made... but honestly, why can't all wards have a linger-longer?!? Really? Everyone would stick around after church if food was offered!
Our summer was filled with fun. The Rabe family welcomed 3 new babies into the family!
Jake&Jill had their second boy, Lucas. He is such a happy baby!
Ben&Kendra had Graham... he is so dang handsome with his big blue eyes
Nicole&Courtland are first time parents after having beautiful Mckell
Blake and I are happy to announce that we will not be joining the trend for some time :)
Both mine and Blake's birthdays are in July and this year he took me to Vegas! I was so excited. Growing up, Blake spent a lot of time in vegas with his family but it's still a new and exciting thing for me.... We saw Cirque du Soleil and I loved it! They are so talented. Blake's birthday included a failed attempt at taking him parasailing. We drove all the way there to find out the weather was too windy to do it, so we went to dinner instead. (I still owe him a birthday)
*** I would add pictures if I could find my camera cord!!***
Blake's Med school progress: Blake has been accepted to tennessee!! We haven't made any final decisions yet, but have to give a response by Dec.14th.
He has had 2 interviews so far. First was with Lincoln Memorial- Debusk college of Osteopathic Medicine. This school is in Herrogate Tennessee. Blake wasn't thrilled with the size of the town but there are up sides to the (brand-spankin' new) school.
His second interview was this past monday in Virginia. The school is a bit older but the area is better.
Now that everyone is basically up to speed, I will try to update once a week. ( with pictures, hopefully) I'm not great at blogging and still need to learn how to add people to my page, I can't remember. My fonts are just ugly and all pictures are blurry... but at least family can keep updated!

the honeymoon!!

2009-11-17T21:11:00.001-08:00

the pizza and hot chocolate were aMaZiNg!$!$

Dunn's River Falls... Our favorite port

HELL :)

SO Sad to be leaving

We're Still Alive!!

2009-11-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't been on our blog for several months... but we're still very much alive! We have been happily married for 5 months now (wow, goes by so fast) and we had a great wedding day followed by an even greater honeymoon!
Here are some pictures of our day to share with you.

I'm really bad at the blog thing so far and I have no clue how to make my posts look like I want them to and i'm not sure why the pictures are the way they are... help!

Class of 2009!!

2009-05-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

My Baby brother is GrAdUaTeD!!!

Jonathan,I am so so so proud of you and I know you will go so far in life. Sounds cheesy, but you are such a smart kid with a great view on this world. I know you'll make it a better place. You truely are the second-smartest person I know! (me, being the first of course!) Keep those smarty pants on your whole life ;) I love you Jonny-Joe!

My brother rarely takes a serious picture AND smiles, so some of these are more valuable than ya think!

Proud Mom and Pops

Go TiGeRs!!

Paulson Family Wedding Shower

2009-05-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

Nola Paulson and family put together a beautiful wedding shower! It had a recipe theme. I received a ton of great recipes with a great gift to go along!

We ate brunch before with all my favorite breakfast foods!

We got a great new pizza pan with a yummy recipe for BBQ chicken pizza! We'll use it often, I'm sure!

My mama gave us our cute red crockpot that i've been dying for!

Ann gave us the sassy-red fiesta dishes we needed! They are the cuttest ever and add so much style to the kitchen!

4 days....only 4 days!!

2009-05-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

Blake and I have been busy these past couple of weeks!! Blake has relieved a huge stress by finishing the MCAT. Now, he is trying to put together a ton of applications by friday so they'll be ready to send out... The test was a thousand-hour long test in Taylorsville really early in the morning so by the time I got to him, his brain was fried for the day. He has been taking a couple classes a week to improve his score and he feels a ton better about the test this time. We will find out the score while we're on our honeymoon.... that could be good or bad ;)
I've just been busy with work and finalizing all of our fun wedding plans and hoping I'll still fit in my wedding dress(yikes!).... Thank goodness for mothers because there is NO way I would survive planning alone!
Most of our family is here in town for the wedding and we really enjoy having everyone here! My nana and papa are visiting from Moab and it's always a joy to have them around. Trent can have his history-talkin' buddy and my mom has the world's best shopping partner. My aunt Gretchen and two boys, Sam and Ben, are here from Portland and I CAN NOT believe how big they've gotten! Blake's family is growing too! 2 of the great girls in his family are pregnant and have the cuttest prego bellies! Kendra will be having her second child, a boy, and Nicole is having her first baby, a girl! We look forward to having Jake and Jill here with us and we'll finally meet this handsome Luke we've heard everything about!

Starting to Feel It...

2009-04-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Blake and I get married in ONE MONTH!!!!! Getting this close to the wedding, I'm starting to feel all the stress that I've heard so much about. I'm actually to the point where I don't like to talk about it because that's what I've been doing everyday ha ha. Now, when people ask how wedding plans are going, I simply reply with a 'good'.

Blake has enough to worry about without stressing about wedding stuff... He is taking the MCAT on friday!! He has spent all of his extra time away from work studying....and sometimes when he gets a chance, he even studys at work. He has worked so so so hard in preparing for this test and I know it'll pay off. **GoOd LuCk HoNeY**

Happy..uh, 29th.. Birthday!

2009-04-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

..Today is my mama's birthday! I am so so sad I couldn't be there but I know she had a good one. I hope she decided on the most expensive place to eat, because this is the one day you can get away with it ;)

Mom, I truely appreciate everything you do for us and everything you are! I am so very lucky to have a beautiful mother like her and I know she'd do anything for her kids!

FuTuRe Mr. & MrS....

2009-04-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

We will be getting married in the Salt Lake temple on May 29th. Planning this wedding has been a challenge for me because I am not the type of person that makes decisions easily. I'm just easy to please ;) Honestly, I'm happy with anything so it's been a little hard to decide on sooo many things!

Reception Center: The only thing I wanted for our reception center is that it had to be one big, open room. That is exactly what I found! Our reception will be at the Eccles Conference Center in ogden. The room is HUGE but beautiful.

Ceremony: The temple was a sinch to pick because, in my opinion, Salt Lake has the most beautiful exterior... better pictures too!

COLORS: Choosing colors was one of the hardest parts of planning because they are SO important. Everything revolves around the perfect color. I always thought I would get married in the fall so I had deep and darker colors picked out, but... things change :) I decided on 'Champaigne pink' after seeing the color on a silky table cloth in a design add. I fell in live with it! This color has been a night mare to work around because it seems that nothing is made in this color. But it'll all be worth it!

Dinner: we decided to have the dinner the night before the wedding so we don't cram everything into one day. We will be eating at the White House in bountiful. They have gorgeous hardwood floors and yummy food!

Photography: Choosing our photographer was actually the easy part for me. She was recommended to us by so many people and my mom said she is just my style. We are thrilled we went with Amber of Togisala Photography. She has been so so much fun to work with!

A Little Early...

2009-04-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

So I know it's a little early to be starting a blog page but I thought it would be fun to give family updates on all the wedding plans!
I'm new to this blog thing and to be honest, it's kinda kickin' my butt! (I swear it's the computer) I have no clue how to add other people onto my page... suggestions?!?