Britt, Spencer and Scarlette Johnson

Cupcake Recipe

2011-10-25T13:19:00.001-07:00

Recipe for the Perfect Cupcake

1 lamp shade painted and upside down

1 Styrafoam ball with stem

a Pinch of stuffing

a dash of sprinkles made of yarn

1 cup of "I'm not spending $25 of my 20 month old's costume"

A Tablespoon of convincing her to get into the costume (2 people required)

Finding time to blog doesn't happen very often. So I have to do all my posts at once. Blog-Vomit, if you will. If you are interested in the "goings on" of our family, scroll down and have fun :)

Fall festivites

2011-10-25T13:06:00.001-07:00

We had cousins come into town this weekend and so we did lots of fun fall things!

Scarlette and "Manga" had lots of fun riding the train at the American West Heritage Center.

Daddy and mommy took turns taking Scarlette down the "Big Slide."
Scarlette's favorite movie it Tangled. So we had to get her picture in front of the Tangled display at the Pumpkin Walk.
Here with the cousins (well my cousin's kids) at the entrance of the Pumpkin Walk. They look like they could be Scarlette's older sisters and brother, don't they?
Hangin with Daddy at the Aggie Game!

"Nastics"

2011-10-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

Scarlette started "mommy and me" gymnastics in September. She loves to do forward rolls, jump on the trampoline, and play in the foam pit. She also knows straddle, tuck, and pike.

This is us getting ready to go before her first day.
I taught her how to do the gymnastics salute before we left. I didn't want her going in like a total beginner! ha ha!

Livin in the Projects

2011-10-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

It seems as though the last few months our house not been settled. There has been some kind of project going on in one room or the other at all times. We repainted the kitchen and put a chair rail up. We had multiple dining tables and washing machines taking up the kitchen. We canned the veggies from our garden. There were lots of holiday and decor crafts. And we painted out kitchen cabinets. Further explanation follows:

Our bed is just on a bed frame. We didn't have a head board or anything. I got inspired by Pinterest and rescued an old 70's head board from the D.I ($5.00!) I just spray painted it and screwed it into some boards so that it would sit really tall and look the way I wanted it to. This is how it turned out, and I'm pretty happy with it :)

Here is a witch hat I made and some D.I. shows turned witch shoes. Thanks to my sister for coming up with the perfect "witch" saying to go with my decorations.
We've been enjoying the spoils of our summer garden. All except for our pumpkins... THEY WERE STOLEN!!! There wasn't a lot of "love at home" for FHE the Monday night we planned to carve pumpkins, only to discover that they were all gone!
We canned our own salsa, tomato sauce, and peach cobbler filling. We also froze corn, creamed corn, and green beans. I've also become quite the expert with Zucchini. I made up my own recipe for Zucchini bread and I make some killer Zucchini cupcakes! (that one's not my own recipe :)
We painted the kitchen/dining room turquoise and put up a white chair rail. To see a "before" picture of our kitchen go to a few posts back when we moved into our house. It used to be green and a lot of people commented that they liked that color, but something was bugging me. I think it went too perfectly with the decorations and looked all "matchy-matchy" like a grandma kitchen or something. I wanted to go with a color that was bright and unexpected.
We originally had a borrowed kitchen table from a family member. I wanted one that was a little smaller to make our kitchen not seem so crowded and I wanted one that matched. So I got this table and chairs at the D.I. for $18.00 I just re-covered the chairs to match and used a new particle board circle for the top because it was missing.( that's why we had 2 tables taking up our kitchen for a while, we didn't have a truck to returned the borrowed one. And the 2 washing machines were here too because we had a really old 80's washer that my uncle gave us but my sister's boss was getting rid of his newer washer and offered to give it to us. Once again we had to find the truck to move it all around.)
We painted our cabinets black. It was a long, tedious process but we are really happy with how it turned out!

If you've gone private...

2011-09-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

If your blog has gone private, could you send me an invite?

...That is, if you want me to be able to see your blog. If not, I'll only be a little offended. Ha ha!

I just haven't worked on my blog for so long, I've lost touch with the blogs that I used to read.

Here's my e-mail

britt.shepherd@yahoo.com

Thanks!

Reason(s) why I am a horrible blogger...

2011-08-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

This is probably the main reason. I'm the coach for the Sky View drill team. I know, I'm crazy! It's a lot of hard work and pretty time consuming. But the good news is that we have early morning practice before Spencer heads to work so I don't have to worry about trying to find someone to watch Scarlette. This summer has been filled with practice, camp, parades, team BBQ's, and many parent and booster club meetings. The team has come along way this summer and we still have a ways to go, but our two performances this week went well, so I'm optimistic for the future :)Scarlette and I have been spending a lot of time playing in the water this summer. She loves to go swimming, but it's very tiring for me to take her by myself. She is not scared of the water at all. So if I let go of her, she's running right for the deep and of the pool! And while we swim together in the water, she's constantly pushing away from me so she can swim on her own. I have a floatie for her, but she doesn't want to be in it cuz all the big kids don't use floaties. There is a splash pad here, so that's a little easier for me to take her to, so we've been doing that a lot lately, too.
We went on my family's annual 24th of July boating trip to Alpine, Wyoming. It was a lot of fun! Lots of wakeboarding and tubing and some Razor rides on the side.

Spencer and I went to Hawaii in May. We left Scarlette with the grandparents for a whole week! It was really nice to get away and we totally got hooked up! My cousin lives in Waikiki so we stayed at his place and he let us use his car (Thanks Kirk!) we didn't have to worry about a place to stay or transportaion. And we used our credit card airline miles for the flight. Yeah we know how to travel!
Polynesian Cultural Center Luau

Laie, Hawaii Temple

We learned how to surf!

Spencer is also in Young men's now. So he's been busy with youth conferences and scouting trips. Most of his days off of work lately have been taken up by outings with the young men. Now that school is starting, hopefully there won't be as many activities where he has to be gone all day :) Here he is at youth conference this last weekend in Salt lake. He was plum tuckered out!
Scarlette is now in nursery, which we are loving! And we are starting a "mommy and me" gymnastics class on tuesday. I'm so excited!

Life as of late

2011-02-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I've updated our blog, so here goes! One major milestone is that Scarlette is walking! She started taking a few steps at about 9 months and was on the go at about 91/2-10 months! She's been getting into everything ever since! She also says a couple of words. She mostly says puppy (she really loves dogs) and baby. And then she says "dada" and "mom, mom"
Christmas was great! Even though Scarlette was a little young to understand Christmas, Spencer and I had so much fun getting her gifts and getting her all exited for it. We spent Christmas eve with Spencer's family and Christmas day with mine. The picture above is my family in front of our Christmas tree up here in Logan.

Scarlette got tons of toys and some clothes. This is a winter hat that my mom gave her (the gift bow is optional) And here is Spencer and Scarlette at temple Square to see the lights. The Fam went for my brother-in-law's bday. I had a wedding video to do that day, so I couldn't go :(

Scarlette turned 1 on January 28th! I had a video of her eating cake but it wouldn't upload :(. This is the cake I made for her party. It was fun! We just had a bunch of friends over and ate treats!

Halloween

2010-11-12T13:58:00.001-08:00

We had a lot of fun with Halloween this year! Spencer and I went to a murder mystery dinner party. I was Miss Scarlett and Spencer was Pierre Dupont. I almost won! I was in the final two!

Scarlette was a bumble bee. We had a lot of fun taking her trick or treating on main street during the day. We took her to the mall too but it was so not worth it! It felt like we were waiting in a Disneyland ride line going from store to store in order to get a mini tootsie roll at each stop. Where was the chocolate, people!

I dressed up as a flower and spencer as a bee keeper to go along with our little bumble bee.

And this was not at Halloween. I took it this morning, but I thought it was too cute not to share!

Labor Day weekend

2010-09-09T08:59:00.000-07:00

Spencer had Saturday and Monday off for the holiday so we decided to go visit Spencer's sister and her family down in Price. They live near lots of fun places like Goblin Valley, Moab, and the San Rafel Swell. So we figured we'd go visit while the weather was still nice enough to enjoy that kind of stuff. Above is a pic of Spence and Scarlette and our 2 nieces Blythe and Ada.

Here we are in front of some petroglyphs in the side of the mountain. Our camera is horrible but I think you can still see them back there :)

Once again, out horrible camera did not capture this very well. It's a real dinosaur footprint!

Here we are standing in front of Little Grand Canyon. It was way cool but we were a little nervous standing out on this cliff with our nieces and nephews running around. Thank goodness Scarlette isn't mobile yet!

Sitting up!

2010-08-28T13:06:00.001-07:00

Who's with me!?

2010-08-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

I'm hosting a biggest loser contest and would like anyone one who wants to get in better shape to join!
It will be really fun and it's a good way to stay motivated!
go to brittsbigloser.blogspot.com
It has all the details :)

Cake Decorating

2010-08-23T13:47:00.001-07:00

On Saturday one of the girls in our ward had her mom come and do cake decorating for enrichment. It was way fun! The pic below is the cake I did at enrichment and the one above I did at home. I had to practice my new skills :) I still need to work on getting the icing smooth, but my favorite part is the decorating so I end up concentrating mostly on that. So now I can do cute cakes for birthdays and stuff, which I am excited about!

Here's a recent pic of Scarlette. She has 2 teeth now! (and she's not really cross eye'd. She must have been looking at something in the corner during this picture or something...)

Spencer and Scarlette at the fair. If you've never tried fried oreos, we highly recommend it!

Our ward did a camp out and since Spencer had to work the next morning, we didn't stay the night. So we decided to head up to the camp early with some other people in our ward. Since we were the first to head up, we got to be one of the luck ones to carry a canoe on our car. The road to the camp site was a bumpy gravel road that was all up-hill. So we had to drive 10 miles an hour and stop every 5 minutes to re-adjust the canoe. Plus the roof of our car got scratched :( But the campout was still fun!

America's Next Top Model, Here we come!

2010-08-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

So Scarlette had her 6 month appointment the other day. Everything is really good. She is in the 97th percentile for height. When the doctor was taking the measurement he said "looks like we've got some tall gene's in there." Then he looked at me kinda funny like, where did they come from? Ha ha! She's only in the 50th percentile for her weight. This combo has "Johnson" writen all over it! But hey, she can be a model when she grows up ;)
Here are some shots from her most recent photo shoots.

We love little ScarJo!

2010-08-02T10:48:00.001-07:00

We are so blessed to have such a healthy and good little girl. I think we've been spoiled. She has slept through the night since she was 3 months old. She comes to dance class and watches me teach. Rarely makes a peep, just watches the girls dance and listens to the music. Doesn't fuss too much when we put the life jacket on her when we want to go wake boarding and she likes to ride in the boat. When I switch her eating and napping schedule around so that we can go do different things like stay over at a friends cabin or on the days I have to teach classes, she doesn't have a hard time, she just rolls with it and doesn't fuss. She slept through the night so we could drive in peace from Jackson Hole to San Diego! But not only are we happy that she is so well behaved, but that she's healthy. Today at the gym, I saw a little baby about Scarlette's age who had these goggle-like glasses on. This little girl must have had pretty bad eyesite if they had detected it at such an early age and it made me sad for her. I just feel so blessed that everything seems to be working the way it should and she's happy. These are some pics from or trip and just around the house.
Scarlette likes her Jumper but doesn't quite get the concept of jumping. She just ends up spinning around in circles, but she seems to like that :)

This is Scarlette and Spencer on the beach in Ensinidas where we stayed. Our beach house was just couple of blocks away so it was fun to walk over and spend the day boogie-boarding.

The San Diego Temple was under construction when we went :( but it's still pretty cool looking even when it's covered in scafolding.

We went to the San Diego Aquarium for Shark Week. Scarlette liked looking at all the tanks and seeing all the fish swim around and the lights and water and stuff. But in this pic, she's plum tuckered out!

This is us in a covered wagon at the Mormon Battalion musem in Old Town San Diego. I never knew that the Mormon Battalion went to San Diego. It's pretty interesting. I guess the mormons helped the early settlers of San Diego develop wells and farming systems and a bunch of stuff that really helped San Diego grow, which is cool!

New Digs!

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

So I'm finally getting around to putting up some pics of our new place. We are loving it! We were in a one bedroom basement apartment. Scarlette's crib was in the corner of our room, we had no laundry and no dishwasher! Actually, it was a good little place for us. It was way cheap so that we could save our money while Spencer finished school. So I shouldn't complain. Just after having Scarlette and having all her stuff in addition to ours, it got really cramped, really fast. We closed on our condo on may 2nd. It's three bedroom, 1 1/2 bath and it has a 2 car garage. We got a good deal on it, but probably because it needed some work. The family that lived in it before us had 6 kids, 3 dogs, a cat, and a rabbit. Needless to say, it needed new carpet! The tuesday we got the keys to the house, we ripped out all the carpet and started laying a tile entry way. The next day we finished the tile entry way and cleaned all the walls and doorways. The next day we painted the whole house except for the kitchen. The next day the carpet guys came to lay the new carpet and I moved and packed everything from our old place. The next day was spencer's graduation and both sets of family were comig into town. This all happened during finals week, spencer was working full-time, and Scarlette was teething. By Saturday, I was ready to pass out. But we made it and we are really enjoying our new place!

Just to give you some perspective, here are some pics of our old place :)

Major update :)

2010-06-27T16:30:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been such a long time since I've blogged! It's been pretty crazy around here, plus we haven't had the internet. We closed on our condo on May 2nd. I'll post pics when my house is clean :) It's been great! Coming from a one-bedroom baasement apartment to a 3 bedroom town house with a 2 car garage is AMAZING! It was a lot of work, though. I'll go into detail when I post pics, that way you have an image to go along with the story.
Spencer graduated USU with a bachelors in Economics! We are so excited! Now he's just workin away at US Bank. He also turned 26 June 15th. Scarlette is 5 months now. It's crazy how fast time flies by. I've been keeping busy teahcing dance, fitness classes and doing wedding videos. Here are some pics of things we've been doing....

Memorial day we went up the canyon with Spencer's sister's family. This is our brother-in-law Carl taking Scarlette on her 1st horse ride. She doesn't look happy now, but as soon as the horse started walking she loved it!

memorial day Dutch oven bbq up the canyon. Oh yeah... I cut my hair, too!

I just love this pic, so I wanted to post it :)

Here is Spencer posing in Front of "meet the challenge." The UsU Bull

Here is us after he graduated. A very happy day for us both! But a LONG day for me and Scarlette. My sister Alyson graduated that day, too. The graduations were back to back and in the 2 biggest colleges in the university. 4 hours in the spectrum with a teething 3 month old-- not great-- Luckily Kris, my mother-in-law did some laps with her and got her to go to sleep!

Update...

2010-05-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, here's a little update. I have been a horrible blogger since we haven't had the internet. But we are doing good! Spencer graduates this Saturday if her passes his managerial economics final on Tuesday. We signed all the papers to finalize our purchase of a condo on Thursday. So this week we'll be ripping out old carpet, installing recess lighting, installing new carpet and moving all our stuff in!
I'll let ya know how it all goes! Here are some pics of us lately....
Spencer loves playing with Scarlette! This picture looks like she doesn't know if she feels the same... Here is Scarlette playing in the Bumbo. She's getting so strong!

Here I am in all my Sweat shirt glory, but I thought it was a cute pic of the 2 of us. I don't get many pics of us cuz I'm usually behind the camera.

Scarlette loves bathtime too and she loves to get snuggled up in her towel after!

This is probably my favorite picture of her!

Scarlette's Blessing

2010-04-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

We are blessing Scarlette this sunday the 11th! We would love to have anyone who wants to come! We have 1 o'clock church so the blessing will be at 2:45. If you need the address, let me know!

Smiles, Pics, and Shaved Head!

2010-03-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since we've posted anything! Sorry! But I thought I'd show you some fun pics of Scarlette and Spencer :) This is her audition photo for America's Next Top Model. I told her to try to look fierce, and I think she pulled it off.

This is her belly shirt shot. She has a really, really long torso! As you can see the shrit is too short but the sleeves are too long and I even rolled them up!

This is her St. Patricks outfit :)

We were gonna cut Spencer's hair one day and so he put the highest gaurd on our clippers and started doing it himself. The guard slipped off and he took a chunk out of the front of his hair! So we had to shave it all! The picture above is the "after" picture.

If you'll notice, this picture was taken right after the next two pictures were taken. It's funny how quickly things change!

This is her "after party" look ha ha!

She's already pretty good at smiling for the camera

I just thought this pic was darn cute!

Open House!

2010-02-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

Come for some food, fun, and way cute stuff at awesome prices!
My sister and I are having an open house this Saturday and we'll be selling Crafts, Home Decor, and cute wearables!
There will be discounted Tai Pan Trading, Pier One Imports, and more!

Here are the details:

When: Saturday, March 6th. 11 am-3 pm
Where: 249 Hidden Creek Drive. Providence, Ut 84332

Bring Friends! it will be fun!

Introducing....

2010-02-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

She's here!!!!!!!!

2010-01-29T07:05:00.000-08:00

Our little girl was born yesterday at 1:56 pm. She was 9 lbs and 6 oz. Yeah, I know! The day before, I had a doctor's appointment and asked him how big he thought she was. He estimated about 7 1/2 or 8 lbs. Everyone was so surprised that she ended up being so big! But she has cute chubby cheeks and little rolls, so I love it!

Everything started out really well. We got to the hospital at 1 am. I was able to be up and about until I got the epidural. But it was nice cuz after the epidural I was able to get a little bit of sleep in since we got there in the middle of the night.

I was really nervous when it came time to push, but at that point, there was no backing out! The doctors and nurses kept commenting that everything was going so well and so smoothly. However, as she was being delivered, she kind of got stuck. They didn't expect her to be so big so they were having trouble getting her head and shoulders out. They tried turning her but then they realized that the cord was wrapped around her. Luckily, I was able to push her out quickly. They had to take her to the NICU and give her oxygen for a while.

I was a little worried for a while, but she is doing great now! We haven't settled on a name yet. But we'll keep you posted!

30 Weeks!

2009-11-14T16:18:00.001-08:00

It's hard to believe that I'm 30 weeks along already! I'm starting to get a lot of anxiety about giving birth, but I guess that's normal, right? I feel like there is still so much I need to get ready! I've been making these little hats and booties for her. I plan on making a lot more booties in a lot more colors. That way she'll have some to match all her outfits :)

And here is a pic of me. Some people have been requesting to see the bump, so here ya go!

Good bye my love!

2009-10-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

So we did it. We bit the bullet and traded in our beautiful Infinity M35X this past weekend. We're both pretty sad about it.
When Spencer initially got it, he was a manager with Platinum and they were giving him a car allowance. Half way through the summer, we were informed that if Spencer's office didn't hit certain sales numbers, the allowance they had been giving us would be an advance. So we pretty much got the car with the expectation that the company was going to pay for it.
We got the car when the economy was great. Since it's gone down so much over the last year, so has the value of our car.
We decided to cut our loses and trade it in for a 2004 Honda Accord. It was a long afternoon and evening, and I'll be honest, it ended in a few tears.
(it's not hard to make a pregnant girl cry when you've been at a car dealership for 5 hours with no food, talking numbers and the amount of money you are losing)
but we feel like we did the right thing!
Just thought I'd let ya'll know about our big decision this last weekend!

Labor Day weekend

2009-09-12T08:45:00.001-07:00

For Labor day weekend, this guy that my mom has been dating offered to take us all down to Flamming Gorge in his RV. Those of you who know Karen, are probably like, "Karen, going out camping in an RV? What?" Ha ha! But it was good for her and we really like this guy she's been dating. So if you see her, tell her how much fun it looks like we're having on this trip. And say "wow, he must be a really great guy if he wants to load your whole family up and take you on this trip!"
Spencer couldn't come cuz he had to work. We're sad about that, but we still had a lot of fun!

This is us going down the Green River (above: me and my mom, Karen. Below: my sister, Alyson, and her husband, Andy.)

We went to the Mountain man Rendezvous, That was pretty interesting! We decided to get some pics with some of the die-hard's! (we didn't get any with the guys in loin cloths, they were a little too authentic. -- if you know what I mean.)

This is Alyson overlooking Flamming Gorge. She'd be mad if she knew I put the bottom picture in, cuz it was supposed to be a joke. But she doesn't read my blog and I thought the rest of you would get a kick out of it!
This is me at the Flamming Gorge lookout. Some of you have been requesting some pictures of my belly. Honestly, you can't really tell. I feel like I'm just getting really beefy. But you decide. Here, I am 21 weeks.

I accidentally put these pictures in. It wouldn't let me erase them. So I just made them really small :)

This is, sort of, a profile shot. Can you tell I'm pregnant in this one?

Drum roll please....

2009-09-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

It's a girl! I'm so excited! When I found out I was pregnant, I made a cute little purple hat with a flower on it and little purple booties to match. About three weeks ago, I realized that I better prepare myself in case it was a boy. So I made a little boy beanie.

Not that I would be sad of it was a boy. I was just so convinced that it was a girl. Plus, almost everyone thought it would be a girl (except Spencer and our brother-in-law, Andy)

So now it's official! We're gonna have a little girl!

We have a few name ideas, but we are open to suggestions. We'd love any ideas because we are having trouble agreeing on anything.

What do you think?

2009-08-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a while since I posted anything! Probably because it's been a crazy month! I flew home from Dallas on the 5th (in case some of you didn't know, we moved to Dallas at the beginning of July cuz sales were not good in New Jersey). However, for some reason, sales were not good in Dallas either. I flew home early because I had a wedding video job that weekend and also, one of my best friends was getting married.
Spencer was planning on staying in Dallas until school started on the 24th. But since sales were not going very well, we decided that it would be better for our family if Spencer left early and got a full time job in Logan before all the other college kids come back and there would be more competition for jobs up here.
So the day after I flew home, Spencer packed everyting up and drove home. Poor thing! He drove all 20 hours by himself. He only stopped for a couple hours to sleep in a parking lot in Parachute, Colorado. I told him that's how people get murdered by truck drivers, but he was adimate that he didn't want to spend $50 to stay for a few hours in a hotel.
Since we've been home, we've been busy moving into our apartment and looking for jobs. Luckily, the job search has gone pretty well and we've been able to spend some time playing, too! we've been able to spend a lot of time with my sister and brother-in-law, Alyson and Andy. And Andy even took Spencer out wake boarding the other day. I think Spencer is enjoying having a little bit of the summer left, since he's missed that last two and half summers!
Great news! Spencer got a grant from the government for his tuition! So all we had to pay was $90. And it will be the same next semester! This is a huge blessing!
Also, we both got full-time jobs! Spencer is going to be managing a cash loan store, and I'll working at Qwest. We are both so excited that we were able to get jobs up here only after looking for less than a week. We were nervous because some of our friends said that there were no jobs up here.
Also a plus... my job has benefits! I'm sure how it will all go down with the pregnancy, or what exactly will be covered. But it just gives us so much more peace of mind. We're also waiting to hear back from the medicaid people. Just in case my work won't cover my pregnancy because it was a pre-existing condition when I started working.
The lord is definately blessing us right now!
I thought that I would be able to get my sonogram by the end of this month to see if it will be a boy or a girl. But since we just got into town and I've never seen this doctor before, I have to wait a little longer to find out :(
So I thought it wold be fun to do a little poll....
What do you think it will be?
Write a comment to tell me what you think!

Well guess what...?!

2009-07-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

A lot of you already know, but I thought I'd do the traditional blog post saying, I'm pregnant! I'm twelve weeks along and due on January 24th. We got to listen to the heart beat yesterday and that was fun! The doctor would find the heart beat and then she'd loose it and have to find it again. She said the baby was swimming around! I thought that was cute!
I've been doing good! For a little while I was feeling sick on-and-off throughout the day. Going into New York everyday didn't really help. I would feel sick on the bus and every ethnic food stand I would walk by would make me feel like I wanted to throw up. But I've been feeling pretty good the last couple of weeks. So that's good! I've also tried to still work out everyday. I'm planning on still teaching aerobics in the fall, so I have to at least try to stay in shape!
So we're doing good and we're very excited!

NYC

2009-06-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

We been making trips into the city every once in a while (well I go everyday for work, but this is for fun) to do some sightseeing . This is us at the Castle in Central Park.

This is us in Times Square. My work is only a few blocks from here, so I get to see it all the time! But Spencer had never been to New York before we moved here.

The Tony Awards were happening that night. So that's what all the chairs and ropes were set up for. The reason I am diplaying my candy bar is because, just before that in the Hershey's store, I got our whole group free Hershey's bars by singing the Kit Kat jingle in front of the whole store! (I don't know who she is, but I really like the lady on the left side of Spencer)

This is cute little Bridget! My friend, Brooke Hallows, came to visit from Rochester one day and this is her little girl. We covered a lot of ground around the city that day and Bridget was so good! She was like this for quite a bit of it :)

Woops! This is Brooke, Jaime, and me in central park the day Brooke came to visit. Sorry, I forgot to switch the orientation before I uploaded it.

East Coast Fun!

2009-06-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

Spencer had a lot of fun operating the video camera! Check out the farmer tan!

The FDR Memorail

Spencer standing in line for food during the great depression

The Lincoln Monument

The WWII Memorial The Jefferson Memorial

Two weeks ago we decided to take a little trip to Washington D.C.! (sorry mariah! We would have stopped to visit but we kind of tagged along with people who had family there so we just kind of had to do what they did cuz they drove :)

It was a few hours away, but it was really fun!

New Jersey or bust!!!

2009-05-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

So we have safely arrived at Fort Lee New Jersey! But not without an adventure...

We left Utah on Monday morning. We caravaned with another couple but one of guys out here needed someone to drive his Tahoe here. So there were four of us and three vehicles to be driven. The intital plan was to all take shifts and we would trade off who gets to take breaks from driving. That seemed like a good plan at the time. Let me just say that in the three days (or 33 hours) it took to get here, there was only a three hour period of time where I was not behind the wheel. Spencer got the same amount of break time as I did. Cross country road trips are not for the faint of heart! (good thing they don't have a blog haha! Wait...that I know of...yikes!) Thank goodness for Harry Potter on CD and Saved by the Bell and The Office on DVD (The Tahoe had a DVD player in it) -- and just for the record, I have never read or watched any of the Harry Potters, so I am not a total nerd (I just needed something to keep me entertained for a long period of time!)

We stopped over night in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Spencer loved this because Michigan State is there and apparently has the biggest college football stadium in the country. So before we hit the road Wednesday morning, we checked it out. It was pretty fun! The campus is really neat, it's like it's own little city. It was also nice because we stayed with some family members of the couple traveling with us. So we got free room and dinner that night and brakfast the next morning.

We didn't get into New Jersey until late Wednesday night. It was pretty stressful! Non of us knew how to get around or where we were going. It was raining really hard, too. Not to mention that we had been driving for the past three days, so tension was high! When we arrived at our apartment complex, we were told that our apartments were being re-carpeted and were not ready for us. However, our managers booked an extended-stay hotel for us in the mean time. So we set out in the rain trying to find this place. Let me just say that the roads and traffic here are ridiculous! In Utah, Semi's are always the slow vehicles on the road and you get all mad if you get stuck behind one. Here, not the case. They are the ones tail-gating you, changing lanes and darting in and out of traffic! I thought I was gonna die that night!

The extended stay hotel is not like a normal hotel where there is someone at the front desk all night. They close at 11. So we get there and we can't get in. There was a phone in the lobby for emergencies and after hours assistance. This connected me to the only employee in the building who was a laundry lady that did not speak very much english and informed me that she could not check anybody in or look up resevations. I feel bad because I got a little assertive with this cleaning lady, but I mean COME ON PEOPLE! So we just ended up staying at the "no tell motel" that night. The next morning we we went to the hotel that we were supposed to be staying in (not without getting lost a few times) and unloaded our entire car into the hotel room so that Spencer could use the car the next day for work. Since we are going to be living here for four months, we had quite the load on that hotel luggage cart. The front desk girl gave us a weird look as we wheeled our tv up there.

It was clear that we needed a GPS cuz we couldn't go anywhere without getting lost. However, we couldn't even get to a store to buy the GPS without getting lost! Thanks to Erica's iphone, we found a target!

We got into our real apartments on Saturday. The guys were working so that meant that me and Erica had to move all our stuff from the hotel to the apartment by ourselves. It wasn't too bad. We just had a lot of bags, boxes and our huge Tv geez! Plus, the elevator in my building was broken. Luckily we're on the second floor, not the fourth. So it could have been worse.

Even though the apartments were all finished being re-carpeted, out furniture had not arrived. So we borrowed some couch cusions from some friends and Spencer and I have been taking turns getting to sleep on them. Luckily, the furniture guys came today! We have couches, a bed, a table, a dresser, lamps -- it's wonderful!

This is the longest post I've ever written, but the story needed to be told! Hats off to those of you who have gotten this far into the post! We're happy to be here!

The Rachel Ray Show

2009-04-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

Since we are moving to New Jersey for the summer, I've been trying to find some kind of cool job or internship that I could do. Then it hit me! I could be an intern on the Rachel Ray show! Most of you probably know that I got my degree in Broadcast Journalism and interned for Channel 2 in Salt Lake a couple of summers ago. So yesterday I sent Rachel's people an e-mail with a picture, resume, and links to some of the shows that I hosted and anchored for at Utah State. I also told them all the ideas that I had for my summer as their intern. ha ha! Basically I told them that I want to be Rachel's "out and about" intern, where I would be her corespondent out amongst the fans. ha ha! I'm waiting to hear back from them. However, if I get rejected or they never get back to me, I'm just going to keep e-mailing and contacting them until I finally get something. Wish me luck!

So this is what I'm thinking....

2009-03-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of cutting my hair. I like my long hair but since I went blonde over the summer and then went back to brunette, it's kind of damaged. So I want to chop it all off! Ha ha! Above are some ideas that I have. In case your having trouble picturing me with the short hair, there are some samples! :) The blonde one at the top is not one my ideas, I just did that for fun!

This week...

2009-03-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd give an update on what's been going on up here in L-Town!

On Tuesday, Spencer did something to his back playing church ball. He's been walking around like an old man since then. He went to the chiropractor on Friday and he said that Spencer sprained his lower back. He has another appointment tomorrow. He says he feels like it's getting slightly better each day. Hopefully, after to tommorrow's appointment he'll be getting around like normal!

Ever since the fall, I've been having small issues with my bosses at the Sports Academy. I haven't been getting into arguments or anything! It's mostly been that I would try to ask questions or issue complaints and I would get ignored, or given lame excuses, or just given the "run-around." Since, as instructors, we don't work together side by side, (we mostly see other teachers before or after classes passing in the hallway) I just felt like I was the only one feeling this way, so up until now I've just kind of sucked it up dealt with it. After an employee-wide e-mail that was sent out last sunday ruffled my feathers a little, I sent both of my bosses a more "assertive" e-mail than I would normally write. They got back to me with more excuses and one of them responded kind of defensively.

On saturday, there was an instructors meeting that no one even told me about. One of the other instructors called me after the meeting and told me some of the things that came up. Apparently, she has had a lot of issues too. So we are rallying together with a few other instructors and we are meeting with our bosses and the SARC General Manager tommorrow morning. Unfortunately, we are all a little intimadated by our bosses! Ha ha! So wish me luck!

The instructor that is trying to get all of us together to, kind of, "fight back." Is one of the main Yoga instructors. It was so funny cuz everytime I have ever talked to her, she is so calm and "zen-like." But last night on the phone she was like "this is Bull-****" and getting all riled up! Spencer and I were joking that this situation has "her shakra's all out of line""her chi is so not flowin right now!" ha ha!

Friday was our anniversary! We went out to Cafe sabor and got ourselves a new lamp for our apartment as our gift to ourselves. Ha ha! I know, traditionally, you are supposed to eat your left over wedding cake on your 1st anniversary, but there wasn't any left. So I made us a mini wedding cake. It was really cute! I was square, four layers, and it was about 9 inches high. It was a fun little thing to make!

This next week is Spring Break! Spencer doesn't have school and I have the week off of teaching aerobics! we've worked out a "Spring Break schedule" so that we can get a whole bunch accomplished and we don't waste our days away. Hopefully it will prove to be a successful week!

Correction! :)

2009-03-03T08:48:00.001-08:00

We are not getting rid our internet now! We talked the comcast guys into giving us a better rate! Yay!

One year anniversary!

2009-03-03T08:13:00.000-08:00

On Friday it's our one year anniversary! It's kinda crazy! Time flies! We don't have anything big planned, probably just dinner somewhere or something (I know, we're boring). But I'm excited that we've reached this milestone :)

Also, we are cancelling our internet for a couple of months. So don't be offended if you make a comment on our blog or something and I don't get back to you. We'll probably have it again when we get to Newark :)

10 things....

2009-02-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

Rules: List 10 honest and interesting things about yourself. Then tag 7 of your friends.

1. I love crafts and making things! Maybe people think this is wierd or gross, but I told Spencer that when we get a house, I don't want to spend tons of money on new furniture and decorations. I want to get old stuff from the DI and garage sales and fix it up really cute!

2. I'm terrible about getting up when my alarm goes off in the morning. I think Spencer hates the person who invented the snooze button. I seriously press it at least three or four times every morning. Spencer tells me to set my alarm for the exact latest time that I can wake up, and then just get up then! It just doesn't work that way for me.

3. I feel like I clean my house everyday and it drives me crazy! I guess that's normal for most people, but I feel like if I clean it, it should stay good for at least a couple days! I think it's cuz our apartment is so small! It looks cluttered when there are like two things sitting out on the counter!

4. I substitute swear more than I should. I say stuff like "what the helanore" or "WTF" or things like that. Especially when I'm playing games or things when I'm being competitive. I should proably stop that habit before I become - in spencer's words- a "cuss face."

5. I love to have my house smell really good! Of course everyone does, but all over out apartment you'll find scented candles, air fresheners, wall flowers, sachets, and stuff like that.

6. I am not much of a pet person. Don't get me wrong, I like animals! But i just don't think that I will ever own pets. They shed hair, you have to clean up their poop, they cost extra money to feed-take to the vet-etc , they make your house smell like an animal, they jump up or sniff or scratch or aggrivate guests. All that kind of stuff!

7. I've watched so many make-over and style shows that I think I could be a personal stylist or a make up artist. I think it would be fun!

8. I think I might try my hand at selling security systems this summer. I figure while I don't have kids I should try to make as much money as I can and save it or invest it. That way, when I do have kids, I can stay at home with them and hopefully it won't be too much of a financial strain.

9. I eat about 2 pounds of carrots a week. Weird, I know...

10. I love to travel! The top places on my list to go right now are: Italy, Greece, France, and Peru. The list will change as I cross my current list off...

I tag.... Tiffany Morris, Morgan Bradshaw, Kim Noel, Cora Johnson, Tammy Griggs, Julie Andreason, Crystal Smith

Spencer picked out the current playlist...

2009-02-09T12:47:00.001-08:00

Eastern Bound!

2009-02-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

We've found out where we are going to be selling this summer! Newark, New Jersey! Crazy huh!? At first I was like "ugh New Jersey?!" But it's growing on me! There are so many cool things to do and see on the east coast, so I'm getting really excited! Plus I'll get to visit my old stomping grounds back east and show them to Spencer!
Here are some fun facts about New Jersey!

New Jersey is the only state where all of its counties are classified as metropolitan areas.
New Jersey has more race horses than Kentucky.
New Jersey has more Cubans in Union City (1 sq. mi.) than Havana, Cuba.
New Jersey has the most dense system of highways and railroads in the US.
New Jersey has the highest cost of living.
New Jersey has the highest cost of auto insurance.
New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation.
New Jersey has the most diners in the world and is sometimes referred to as the Diner Capital of the World
New Jersey is home to the original mystery pork parts chub, Taylor Ham or Pork Roll.
North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area in the world, with seven major shopping malls in a 25 square mile radius.
New Jersey is home to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
The Passaic River was the site of the first submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland.
New Jersey has 50+ resort cities & towns, some of the nations' most famous: Asbury Park, Wildwood, Atlantic City, Seaside Heights, Long Branch and Cape May.
New Jersey has the most stringent testing along our coastline for water quality control than any other seaboard state in the entire country.
New Jersey is a leading technology & industrial state and is the largest chemical producing state in the nation when you include pharmaceuticals.
Jersey tomatoes are known the world over as being the best you can buy.
New Jersey is the world leader in blueberry and cranberry production.
In 1642, the first brewery in America opened in Hoboken.
The famous Les Paul invented the first solid body electric guitar in Mahwah in 1940.
New Jersey is a major seaport state with the largest seaport in the US, located in Elizabeth. Nearly 80% of what our nation imports comes through Elizabeth Seaport first.
New Jersey is home to one of the nation's busiest airports at Newark Liberty International.
George Washington slept here. Several important Revolutionary War battles were fought on New Jersey soil, led by General George Washington.
The light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture projector, were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park, NJ laboratory.
The first town ever lit by incandescent bulbs was in NJ.
The first seaplane was built in Keyport, NJ.
The first airmail (to Chicago) was started from Keyport, NJ.
The first phonograph records were made in Camden, NJ.
New Jersey is home to the Miss America Pageant held in Atlantic City.
The game Monopoly, played all over the world, named the streets on their playing board after the actual streets in Atlantic City.
And, Atlantic City has the longest boardwalk in the world.
New Jersey has the largest petroleum containment area outside of the Middle East countries.
The first Indian reservation was in New Jersey.
New Jersey has the tallest water-tower in the world.
New Jersey had the first Medical Center, in Jersey City.
The Pulaski SkyWay, from Jersey City to Newark, was the first skyway highway.
NJ built the first tunnel (Holland Tunnel) under a river, the Hudson.
The first baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ, which is also the birthplace of Frank Sinatra.
The first intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick in 1889. (Rutgers College played Princeton.)
The first Drive-in Movie theater was opened in Camden, NJ, (but they're all gone now.)
New Jersey is home to both of "NEW YORK'S " ProFootball Teams.
The first radio station and broadcast was in Paterson, NJ.
The first FM radio broadcast was made from Alpine, NJ, by Maj. Thomas Armstrong.
All New Jersey natives: Sal Martorano, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Jason Alexander, Queen Latifa, Susan Sarandon, Connie Francis, Shaq, Judy Blume, Aaron Burr, Joan Robertson, Ken Kross, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughn, Budd Abbott, Lou Costello, Alan Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, Marilynn McCoo, Flip Wilson, Whitney Houston, Eddie Money, Linda McElroy, Eileen Donnely, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Walt Whitman, Jerry Lewis, Tom Cruise, Richard Wojewodzki, Joyce Kilmer, Bruce Willis, Caesar Romero, Nelson Riddle, Lauryn Hill, Ice-T, Nick Adams, Nathan Lane, Sandra Dee, Danny DeVito, Richard Conti, Joe Pesci, Joe Piscopo, Robert Blake, John Forsyth, Meryl Streep, Loretta Swit, Norman Lloyd, Paul Simon, Jerry Herman, Gorden McCrae, Kevin Spacey, John Travolta, Phyllis Newman, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Eva Marie Saint, Elisabeth Shue, Zebulon Pike, James Fennimore Cooper, Admiral Wm. Halsey,Jr., Dave Thomas(Wendy's), William Carlos Williams, Ray Liotta, Robert Wuhl, Bob Reyers, Paul Robeson, Ernie Kovacs, Joseph Macchia, Frank Albert Sinatra, "Uncle Floyd" Vivino, and Kelly Rippa.

Eyelash Extensions

2009-02-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

The lady that Alyson nannys for gets eyelash extensions and they look really good! You don't even need to wear mascara! I have such short eyelashes anyway, so I thought this would be a great idea.
About a week ago I told spencer that for my Valentines day present I want to get eyelash extensions. He was like "how much are they, like $100?!" And I was like "No! I bet they are not that much at all."
I went to some salons here in Logan and come to find out, they are $120! Then you have to get them refilled every few weeks for like $40 each time! (H-No!)
My sister got extensions one time, but she just bought them at Sally's and had a friend do them. They last about the same time and cost like $12. SO last night we tried it! Here's a pic. I know it's kinda hard to see. If you think they look totally fake, please tell me! I won't be offended. I would only be out $12.

Finally Figured it out!

2009-01-30T19:49:00.000-08:00

I finally figured out how to add links to all of your blogs onto my blog! I know...I'm a little slow. But thanks for your help, ya'll!

Exciting News!

2009-01-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

Spencer talked to his academic advisor about a week ago, and to get his Business Economics degree he only needs to complete one more semester after this one! I was soooooo excited! He's meeting with a counselor today to go over all the details and make sure that it can be done. We are so excited!

New Years Pricing!

2009-01-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

I'm doing a New Years Special for my business! Check out my website for the details! I also have a new video posted and I should have another wedding posted by next week!

Red Letter Productions!

2008-12-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited! I've got my little business blog/website all set up and I posted my first video on it! Check it out at
redletterproductions.wordpress.com
I'm doing a wedding on Dec 27th and I have another one scheduled for Jan 16! If you know anyone who is interested, please let me know!

Gingerbread Houses!... Well graham cracker houses...

2008-12-13T10:16:00.000-08:00

We were searching for something to do last night, so I decided it would be fun to make gingerbread houses! Spencer didn't seem too excited at first (ha ha!), but we had some friends over and it turned out to be really fun! We were pretty proud of how our house turned out, too!

HELP!

2008-11-24T21:51:00.001-08:00

Okay... for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to make that list on the side of my blog of the links to all my friends' blogs. Am I retarded?! Can someone help me?

memories!

2008-11-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

This is a great idea! Everybody PLEASE play!!!

1. As you comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember.

2. Next, repost these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty fun to see the responses.If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave a memory about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you do not have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. Have fun!!

Attention!

2008-11-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

I am starting my own wedding video business! I'm doing a few FREE videos to start out with, so if you know anyone who is looking for a videographer, let me know!

2008-11-23T18:03:00.000-08:00

I learned how to crochet in young womens once, but I was terrible! So I had to re-learn in order to do this project. This is how they turned out! If anyone wants to join in, let me know! Or, if you have any yarn or material that you would like to donate to the cause, I would love it!

Service Project

2008-11-23T17:55:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a service project crocheting baby caps and booties, and making fleece blankets to donate to Logan Regional Hospital's newborn unit. I talked to a lady who works there and she said some families have nothing to keep their babies warm when they take them home from the hospital. So I decided to make these things to donate.

2008-10-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

This was at The Plaza, which is a reaaly nice shopping area with entertainment and restaurants and all that fun stuff!

2008-10-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

2008-10-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

We spent this last summer in Kansas City, Kansas. Kansas City is know for their fountains. These are some pics of down town KC!