Birthday week #1

Well Bryan and I had quite the busy week last week! So I'm going to give you a play by play of our week, including pictures. Monday was labor day, we didn't really have any big plans we just kind of took the day to relax and not worry about work and school. So it was a good day. We took Wally to a dog park and it was hilarious. He was the smallest dog there and he had no idea how to interact with the other dogs. We wished that we would have done this more often with him because it was a lot of fun. Then when we got home from the dog park we went to our apartment complex's end of the summer bash by the pool. It was pretty much a bunch of kids and us, but we didn't want to pass up a free meal. They had pizza and snow cones and popcorn. We felt like little kids with our snow cones and popcorn, but we had fun with it.

On Tuesday we had to, unfortunately, say goodbye to wally. He went back to his mommy and daddy. I thought we were going to be relieved to give him back but we actually miss him a lot! I guess we didn't realize how much we liked him until he was gone. So our house it a little bit lonelier now, but I think we'll survive, haha.

On Tuesday night we went to see The Lion King in Salt Lake with Bryan's family. I was so excited because I've always wanted to see this show. And it was everything that I hoped for. The costumes were AMAZING, and overall the show was a lot of fun. I'm so glad that we got to go! Thanks momma and daddy Haslam!

Then came Wednesday, aka Bryan's 23rd Birthday! The day started off with me making him breakfast in bed. I thought I was being sneaky but Bryan said that he knew what I was up to even before I got out of bed! Fail. But He still enjoyed his omelet and bacon.

Then it was off to school for the Birthday boy. But when he came home I had his pile of presents waiting for him. He was shocked because I had been hiding them at Grandmas for over a month, so he had no idea what he was getting.

Here he is with two of his presents. A woot shirt that I got him and a pumice stone (he'd been complaining about his feet so I got it for him as kind of a joke, haha). Oh and for those that don't understand the shirt, it's a ninja turtles shirt, only instead of the turtles it's who they're all named after. clever.

He was really surprised about his big present. A chair from ikea that he used to sit in forever when we would go there. So I decided to just get it for him. He loves it. But he didn't love putting it together. It's true what they say about ikea instructions, they don't make sense at all! Here he is trying to figure them out.

And after lots of (confusing) work, he finally got it together. And now he sits in it all the time. It's his manly/comfy chair.

After presents, I made Bryan a yummy dinner. It started with some artichoke dip. Bryan loves artichoke dip but I've never actually made it for him. So I thought I'd give it a try (thanks sarah for the recipe). It turned out really well and we both enjoyed munching on it while I made the rest of dinner.

For dinner we had steak and ranch mashed potatoes. Since it was his birthday, Bryan got to eat on the "You are special" plate. This was a wedding gift that we got and our first opportunity to use it. I think we'll have a lot of fun with the plate through the years. And I'm sure that Bryan felt very special eating off of it, haha.

Bryan's not a big fan of cake so I got him a little cookie cake for the two of us to enjoy together.

I even sang him happy birthday all by myself! Those candles were supposed to be sparkler candles but they totally didn't work. Lame.

We spent the rest of the evening watching "Date Night". It was hilarious. If you haven't seen it you really need to rent it. So I hope that Bryan had a fun birthday. He is now the ripe old age of 23, and for ten days I'll be married to an older man.

On Sunday we went to Bryan's parents house for a birthday dinner. I made the cake because I love baking but with a husband like Bryan (cake hater) I don't get to do it that often. So I was pretty excited about making it. Here is the finished product:

So, needless to say, we had quite the eventful week. But before we move on to the next birthday of the family, I'll say one last time: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRYAN!

Our August Adventure

Out of the kindness of our hearts, Bryan and I have opened our door to a little puppy named Wally. Leslie and Casey went to Africa for a month so we've taken him in for them. It has been quite the adventure seeing as both Bryan and I have never owned a dog. But despite his flaws (using the carpet as a toilet) we have grown to love him. He's really fun to have around and he's the perfect cure to a bad day because he gets so excited every time he sees us. He follows us around everywhere and he wants to be a part of everything that we're doing. like watching tv on the couch:

He just cuddles right up to us, wherever we are.

He loves finding sticks and tries to bring them all in the house. Sometimes he tries to pick up sticks that are twice his size and it's pretty amusing.

Surprisingly I think that Bryan and I will miss him when he's gone. He's just so loving and happy all the time. But, if I'm being honest, I do look forward to the day when I no longer have to clean poo off the carpet. haha. And that is our adventure for the month of August.

All Grown Up

Well it happened, I finally became an adult! The past two months held quite the whirlwind of events, and after all of that I can officially say that I'm an adult. Yes, my childhood years are now behind me, but not to worry, I'm sure that the fun has yet to cease. Here's a quick look at what the past two months took me through:

I graduated! I can't believe that my four short years of college are over. Looking back it seems like it went by so fast, but my semesters didn't seem that short when I was actually living them. I'm glad to be done but there are definitely some things and people that will be missed.

I took Bryan home to see/meet my home and all that that entails. I was so excited to show him around and introduce him to some infamous people that he had only heard about up till then. Here we are on a Sunday walk around the neighborhood.

We got married!!!! How crazy is that? Here we are at the end of our Utah reception. Our engagement seemed so long and now I can't believe that we've been married for over a month! The wedding day was perfect and no amount of rain and wind could have changed the way we felt that day. It was the happiest day of our lives. Hopefully I'll have more wedding pictures to come soon!!

We went on a honeymoon! We took a 7 day Carnival cruise and it was so much fun, it felt so nice to finally be on vacation! Here we are in Honduras at the beach, it was so relaxing!

Another picture on the beach in Honduras. We also went to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Belize. It was a lot of fun!

This was our last day on the boat. We're catching our last rays of Caribbean sun while we still can!

And Finally we made it back home to start our lives together. It felt good to get home and we have been having so much fun as we put our apartment together and figure out this whole marriage thing. Here we are after a major life event - buying a new computer. We bought a mac for me to work from home on and we LOVE it. Oh and I got a haircut (if you couldn't tell).

So that's that. Now we are officially the Haslam Family (hence the change of the blog). And now that I'm out of school (for good) I will be able to (hopefully) update the blog more. We are both looking forward the the many adventures that we have ahead of us as we set out as newlyweds. Wish us luck!!

Into the teens!!

Good news! As of today we have now hit the teens, 19 days till the wedding! How crazy is that? Even crazier is the fact that I'm graduating THIS WEEK! I've been in school since kindergarten but that's about to all be over. It's a very odd feeling. But a good one! I just have one more paper to go and I'm home free! I'm very excited about my after-grad plans as well. I'm getting married (obviously), and after the wedding I'm going to continue working as an editor at BYUB. I look forward to editing full time! I still can't believe that I'm graduating, but I am so looking forward to my post-grad life.

It probably seems like all I do is talk about (and count down to) the wedding and graduation, so I thought I'd throw in a few pics from a little date night. Bryan and I went to the opening game of the Salt Lake Bee's. It was crazy. There were so many people there (as you can see in my pic). Over 15,000, a record for Bee's games. At first we thought it was kind of cool that so many people were there, but we quickly realized that we much prefer the usual, mellow, Bee's game. Basically everyone was super annoying. But we bought season passes so hopefully the games will start to get a little more normal :). But it wasn't just the turn out of the fans that was unusual; the Bee's actually played well! haha. Shocking I know. They lost in the 10th inning, but it was a pretty good game. Here are some pics from the evening:

On the way to the game

A packed house!

enjoying the game (Taylor would be proud of this pic)

I will leave you with one last exciting pice of information: yesterday Bryan and I had our last skype convo ever! We've been doing the distance thing since Bryan lives in Salt Lake, but after yesterday that's all over. We will be seeing each other every day from now until...well for a long time. Needless to say, we are both very excited about that :)

45 days and counting

Well it's been almost a month since my last post so I figured that it was about time I get some new material up here. I am writing at this unsightly hour because I can't sleep, too much on my mind. School is finally starting to wind down and the wedding is finally starting to set in...and it's kind of weird. In 45 short days I will officially be an adult; a full fledged, college graduated, married woman, adult. Kinda crazy. But a good crazy. I've been so caught up in the stress of everything going on right now, that I haven't had many moments to reflect on my life and the exciting time that it is. So it's all finally starting to hit me (and it's about time!). Work is stressful, the wedding plans have hit some disastrous patches, and school is the thorn in my side, but all in all I am happy. Because in 45 days I get to be with my best friend, forever. That makes it all worth it.

Sorry for the sappy post, but it's 2 in the morning, what do you expect?

The Wedding Checklist

So my mom has been in town for the past week or so and we were so productive!! We were able to check so many things off of our list for the wedding and it finally looks like things are coming together pretty well! I'm starting to get way excited for May 7th to roll around (ok so I have always been excited but now I'm even more excited).

One thing that has been a HUGE help in getting things together for the wedding is a website called etsy.com . It really is the bomb. People sell handmade jewelry and stuff on there and so we've been able to find lots of pretty things for me, my mom and the bridesmaids. For example we got this for my hair:

It just came yesterday and I am IN LOVE with it. So pretty. So anyway you should check out the website if you haven't before. It has tons of fun/cute stuff that you will love.

In other news, the countdown has reached an exciting low:

53 days till graduation

68 days till the wedding

Time really is flying by (thankfully) and I'm sure graduation and then the wedding will be here in no time!! I think the fact that I am so busy is really helping the days go by. So for once I am thankful for my stressful life.

Well I think thats about it for now. Just thought I'd give you a quick update on my crazy life. I hope everyone is proud of me for becoming a better blogger! haha.

Engagement Pictures

So Bryan and I had our engagement pictures taken today. I was super nervous because I woke up to a nice blanket of snow on my car and it appeared that more was on its way. However, the weather cleared up in the afternoon and it turned out to be a beautiful day. We really loved our photographer. She's a student at BYU and she's quite talented. Here's a little sample of some of our pics. If you want to see more you can go to her blog. It's aftonhuntley.blogspot.com . She just put a few up this evening so obviously we haven't seen them all yet, but we love what we've seen so far! I hope you guys love them too!

Wedding plans and creepy cars.

Basically I felt like updating my blog. I don't really have a whole lot to update about, but I think I can come up with something to say.

First things first: I'm getting married in 100 days!! That's right. Today we hit 100, which means that in a few short hours we will be in the double digits of the countdown. I'm pretty excited...I'd like to think that Bryan is as well. And speaking of countdowns, 85 days until I graduate. I still can't believe I'm about to finish up with school, but I'm so excited to start a new chapter of my life.

And speaking of weddings, I bought my wedding dress! I had a dress picked out that I really liked and Stephanie and I decided to go shopping at one more place just to make sure and I guess I kinda fell in love with a new dress. It was funny because it was the very last dress that I put on, and it was completely opposite of what I was looking for. Right before I put it on I told Steph, "I don't understand, everyone told me that I would put a dress on and just know that it was the one, but I haven't felt that way about any that I've tried on." and sure enough that was the one! It was a big decision, and quite stressful in the moment, but I'm super excited and just one step closer to being married. kinda crazy (but a good crazy).

On another note, I just came home from my horror film class and there is this super shady white van parked in my parking spot. I'm talking way shady. And because I had just come from watching two horror films in a row I was a little freaked out by it. But I'm alive. And you better believe I'll be calling a tow truck in the morning if the creeper is still there. Thats all.