Brotherly Love

(Chris, Alex, Nick, Tucker, and Nathan)

I saw this picture as I was cleaning out the trash can on my work computer and couldn't help but smile. :) This picture was taken 2 years ago on Alex's Birthday. It was also the first time I met Nick's Family. We had gone up to the Hogle Zoo to see all the animals. They all climbed in the little egg (on the playground in the Zoo) and took a picture. Then they shoved all the girls in one too...but that was only 3 of us.

Its a good thing Nick and I ended up getting married since I was "one of the girls" in the picture. :) Too fun!

...and then there was THIS!

On Valentines Day, like all good husbands Nick surprised me with flowers. They were beautiful when he gave them to me, but a few days later...check this out!

Before

After


Wow, they really opened up overnight!! It was really cool!
SO PRETTY!

Seeing a VERY Unexpected Friend

This last Moday Nick and I had gone to Walmart in Orem to return something and as we were walking out I suddenly realized that Nick had stopped walking and I was running out of Walmart alone. :) When I turned around I saw Nick had stopped and was talking to someone. The closer I got the more obvious it became that he was shocked....and NOT speaking English.

Nick had run into one of the members from his mission! Artyom lives in Russia, Perm to be exact. Artyom had come to America for a vacation. They chatted for a little while, and it gave Nick a chance to brush up on his Russian a little bit. :) Who would have thought we would run into someone from Russia in Good old Orem Walmart?! Small world!

It was fun meeting him. I always like meeting people from Russia or finding out new information about Nick's Mission.

"Whats Happening?"

Yesterday my family all went to Tyler's Basketball game. When they were all getting ready Kylee announced that she wasn't a fan of going. :) So, she came and hung out with me for a few hours. I told her that if she came over she had to help me cook dinner and that sounded like fun to her so she jumped in the car and came home with me.

Well, I pulled out the ingredients and the chopper to chop the onions. She had never chopped onions before and since a chopper is safe, and she was being "supervised" I let her do the chopping. Well, she got the surprise of her life. :)

"Whats happening Katelin?? It stings...am I crying?!"

It was SO cute!

The Kitchen

Alright everyone, the wait has been long but we are getting there. :) For the most part, everything is organized, now for the fun part, decorating! I have decided the best way to go about this is room by room. Each day when I get home from work I work on one room, getting things all decorated, and organized until the room is completely done.

One room is completely done and decorated..
Here is my KITCHEN!

(Yes, that is a RED wall, and i'm lovin' it!)

100% huggable

Nick and I have been pretty busy the last few months, and this last week (and continuing...) we are getting all moved in, and organized. However, we had to take a little time off for Valentines day and spend some quality time together. I had to work from 6am-5pm and by the time I was off work all I wanted to do was be with Nick. I walked in the door and everything was quiet. Nick was not even home. *sigh* Well, I looked over at the sink and the dishes were calling my name, so I figured I would get started on those. About 30 min later Nick walked in with a HUGE Valentines Day Balloon, and flowers for me. Not just any flowers...but daisies! I would take daisies over roses anytime. I LOVE them. :)

After doing a few more things, before heading out to dinner at our favorite restaurant EVER, Bombay house, and a few hints from Nick I saw a box sitting on the TV in the living room. ( I hadn't noticed it, and Nick said I had walked right past it a few times moving my shoulder around it so I didn't knock it off. oops, maybe I should be more observant. :D ) I opened it up and saw Nick had gone to build a bear, and made me a Valentines Day monkey. :) They even made him kiss the heart before he put it in. :) haha! He also recorded a message for me in a sound box and put it in the monkey's foot. Its pretty much the cutest thing ever.

(had to put up a picture that showed the HUGE balloon!)

Thanks Nickel, I LOVE you!
I couldn't have asked for a better valentines day!
xoxoxo

Happy Valentines Day!

Nick,
I love you with all my heart. :)
XOXOXO

A lot of people like to look at valentines day as what they call "single awareness day". Since High School that has always bugged me. I don't think valentines day is just for people that "have a Boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse". For me Valentines day is more than that. Its a day I can shower the people I care about with love.

So, to ALL my parents (both sets), brothers, and sisters. I just want to publicly announce
WE LOVE YOU!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!! I saw this poem on my friend Kylie's blog. I thought it was really sweet. So I wanted to share it. Thanks Kylie!

My Promise of Love to You

I promise to give you the best of myself...
and to ask of you
no more than you can give...

I promise to accept you the way you are...
I fell in love with you for the qualities, abilities,
and outlook on life that you have,
and I won't try to reshape you
in a different image.

I promise to respect you
as a person with your own
interests, desires, and needs,
and to realize that those are
sometimes different--
but no less important--
than my own.

I promise to share with you...
my time, my close attention,
and to bring joy and strength
and imagination to our relationship.

I promise to keep myself open to you...
to let you see through
the window of my personal world
into my innermost fears and feelings,
secrets and dreams.

I promise to grow along with you...
to be willing to face change
as we both change
in order to keep our relationship
alive and exciting.

And finally,
I promise to love you
in good times and in bad,
with all I have to give
and all I feel inside...
in the only way I know how...
completely and forever.

-Dorothy R Colgan

I hope you all have a great day,
and can find SOMEONE that you can give a little love to.

Happy Valentines Day!
xoxoxoxo

-Nick & Kate

Almost There...

Well Everyone, Its been 6 LONG weeks, and we are still not completely moved in yet. However, We should be all moved in sometime within the next few days.

We have definitely learned some things though this whole process. Below are a FEW things we learned.

-Doing things right the FIRST time would make life a whole lot easier for the people you sell your condo to.
- Close your mouth when texturing the ceiling.....the mud drips. :)
-6 5Gallon buckets of mud later you can have a practically new house!
-Sanding is an important part of making a wall look even. (especially when its textured.)
-"Kill" brand primer does exactly that...I'm pretty sure we all lost a few brain cells from the fumes. The only way to get kill primer out/off of anything is with HUGE amounts of paint thinner, and water only makes it WORSE.
-DO NOT paint over lights/plugs, and covers it looks tacky. If you don't like the color, you can buy new ones at any hardware store for about $70 and replace the whole house!
-Expect finding a good deal on carpet at Mr Carpet in Orem.
- When replacing light sockets, make sure the main breaker is turned off...completing the circuit on a plug, can make your arms numb for the rest of the day. :)
-Lowes makes mistakes when cutting your tiles if you don't stand over their shoulder watching them cut it... O well. :)

You can TRY to fix it....
but the best bet is going to be just buying 2 new tiles.

-Even "unmountable light fixtures" are mountable when you have the right tools.
-When replacing an old murcury thermostate, with a digital one, ALL the wires attached to the wall are important, and need to be hooked up when you want the vents to blow out more than cold air. :)
-When a rag falls out of the bucket into the toilet, sometimes the only answer is pulling the toilet off the wall to get it out. (Gross)
-Clean the bathroom with your eyes closed, and wear rubber gloves when you clean out the drain traps. (ewww!)
-Sometimes Grandma's "concoctions" work. Cleaning oak cabinets with linseed oil, and turpentine makes them look BRAND SPANKIN' NEW!
-Packing things well, and organized makes unpacking as good as it can get.
- Finding a husband willing to carry a whole storage unit full of totes up 3 flights of stairs is rare. ( I am SO lucky I found one :D)
-We LOVE our families. We would have NEVER been able to do what we have done without the help we have received from FAMILY. Everyone has given a little here, and a lot there to help us out and we really appreciate all the extra time, effort, and help.

Thanks!

PS I will post pictures of the finished product soon!

Over & Out

One of my cousins (Zac Jensen) that I am very close to is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Sweden. He only has about 5 months left! Crazy! Anyway, when I get to work everyday along with my work applications, and websites I also login to my gmail account so I am available for family and friends to contact me while I am at work.

In Sweeden right now the missionaries are unable to use the myldsmail domain for their emails. So, they have a gmail account. There have been many times in the last year and a half that I have been on the computer and I see that Elder Zac Jensen is online and "available to chat" :) However, mission rules, NO CHATTING. :) So, I ignore that he is even there. (at least seeing him online I know he is alive and doing well though. :D )

This Wednesday I came into work and logged in like normal. Zac was online, and like normal I ignored him. On gmail you have the capability to change your "status" to say what you are thinking, what song you are listening to, something that you are excited for etc. and all your friends that are online will see it. About 10 min after I had logged on and gotten all my other work applications up I tabbed back to my gmail account and saw this under Zac's name in his status message.


Although we cant chat he wanted me to see that he saw I was online, and say hi. He is such a great kid and it made my day. :) I am so excited for him to get home! This was just one of those little things that I couldn't help blogging about.

Hope you all have a good day!