life through instagram

hi. we're still alive. just two busy bees trying to get everything done, and unfortunately i've let blogging fall of my list of things to do. sam is now in finals mode (bless his heart, i know i DO NOT miss those evil tests, and mine were nothing close to what he has to do...). my job has gone through a lot of transitions, 99% of which i'm not that happy with, but, oh well. i've failed at documenting life as i used to. i try to blame it on sam's lack of enthusiasm when the camera comes out, but i really don't have an excuse besides i stopped carrying my camera everywhere and i've become addicted to instagram! so, here's my catch up...

i had a birthday, i'm now 24 which is kinda freaky since it's only a year away from 25 and 25 is only 5 years away from 30. crazy.

my sister came to town. we shopped and ate and then ate and shopped. it was great!

sam's family came to town for thanksgiving. i actually pulled the real camera out that day and snapped a few photos, so those will be the next post :)

my friends threw a great baby shower for our dear whitney who is due to have her little girl, Brooklyn Nicole, february 7th! the shower was so much fun, the sad part is whitney and her husband, scotty, are moving to california TOMORROW. i just got back from saying our goodbyes and am a little depressed :( sam and i will surely miss those two!

i pulled out the christmas decor and we bought a tree!!! last year our tree's name was henry, this year her name is henrietta. she's a babe. christmas music has been playing non-stop on my pandora since november 25th.

my friend, amanda, and i got together and made christmas wreaths (i asked her to teach me to be crafty!) i'm a little proud of the final product.

in other news, we finally got callings in our ward...we're nursery leaders! we love our new little friends, they are so fun and awesome. utah is freezing, but without any signs of snow. now we're on the countdown to be with family in az for christmas (and have a break from school and work)!

sister

Today is my sister's bday. This evening I will be picking her up from the airport and we are going to have some sister fun all weekend long. I'm excited, really excited (unlike my emotion in one of my fave pics below). 

Happy Birthday Jen!!!

fall festivities

This time of the year is full of fun over at the Nielsen home. Between Halloween, Sam's bday, my bday, Thanksgiving and Christmas... there is always something to celebrate or get geared up for. The past two weeks we've had fun celebrating Halloween and Sam's birthday.

A few weekends ago we met up with Amanda and her husband, Eric, for a yummy dinner and then pumpkin carving. Of course our staple pumpkin chocolate chip cookies accompanied our pumpkin carving time since that is only natural. Amanda and I opted to paint instead of carve...

The line up of the finished products...

Of course, Sam was a clever one with what he thought to carve. Sad I won't get to cheer on my Suns this year. I thought his pumpkin looked pretty good lit up! 

Last Friday my work celebrated Halloween just as big as they usually do. It is pretty much mandatory to come in costume and at the end of the day everyone's kids come in for some trick-or-treating through the office. I was a toddler. I loved my friend Whitney's version of Edward Scissorhands. (I promise I don't usually do myspace pics but I snapped one before heading out to show my little niece in California I was serious when I said I was going to dress like a baby!)

If you care at all and want to be entertained by viewing my office and coworkers on OrangeSoda's favorite holiday, you can view here.

Saturday night we went with some friends out to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Sam's birthday! (I love that man and I love celebrating him). Cheesecake never disappoints so it was enjoyable as predicted. We then finished the night off making caramel apples at our place.

Sunday was Sammy's actual bday. We had the privilege to attend G's wonderful Halloween party. The annual party is always full of food, costumes, bingo, a pinata and great prizes!!! It was so fun to see all of the cousins, especially their little ones dressed up in costume.

And, the party was finished off with Sammy blowing out some candles on a birthday cake! My favorite 24 year old.

The fall season has been great. This week the weather is taking a turn for the worst, and I am never ready for that. I experienced the cold first hand this morning as I sat on my doorstep frantically calling for a ride to work. I had locked the door to our place (from the inside) stepped outside and shut the door only to discover I hadn't grabbed my keys. Reallll coool. Sammy was already on campus and had a quiz first thing in the morning. My dear friend Sara went out of her way to pick me up on her way to work. While I waited, shivering, my neighbors opened up their door to take out some trash and saw me, they graciously invited me in so I wouldn't freeze. :) I am grateful for nice people.

birthday boy

Yes, it's my boy's birthday today. I've been trying for the past month to get Sam excited for his bday. I don't think it's really worked but on Friday he started referring to this weekend as his "birthday weekend", so that's an improvement!

In trying to brainstorm what to write in this post, I just kept thinking of little things that I love about Sam. So, since my man is the big 2-4 today, you get to read 24 things I love about him (original, I know...)

1. He makes me laugh every day
2. He is a good cook
3. He studies hard in school
4. He is smart
5. He often sends me a text at a random time in the day that just says "I love you"
6. He kisses me before leaving each morning
7. He brings the ipad into the bathroom where we're getting ready every Friday morning and either plays Rebecca Black's "Friday" or Katie Perry's "Last Friday Night" and dances
8. He willingly does service for others
9. He honors his priesthood
10. He takes me on dates every weekend
11. He watched Kim Kardashian's wedding with me
12. He goes to the doctor with me every time I have to have my blood drawn and holds my hand and talks to me while it's happening to distract me (I've only passed out on him during this once)
13. He looks good :)
14. He lets me cuddle with him (I'm 10x more a cuddler than he is)
15. He takes care of our cars (I hate dealing with car stuff)
16. He gives me good back rubs
17. He lets me vent to him about work stuff when I need to
18. He is athletic
19. He springs out of bed in the morning (I'm groggy when I wake up. Sam can literally open his eyes, jump out of bed and start singing)
20. He teaches me and quizzes me about football (pretty sure this is out of love)
21. He never complains
22. He is kind to everyone
23. He makes me want to be a better person
24. He is my best friend

I love you Sambo, Happy Birthday!!!!

hi.

I haven't updated the blog in awhile, but I suppose there hasn't been much to update on. Sam is super studios in school, I just work everyday and on the weekends we get to actually hang out together. :)

Last Sunday we decided to drive the Alpine Loop and take advantage of the beautiful fall scenery before it turns to winter (as that always seems to happen WAY to fast here). The colorful leaves were beautiful and I loved every minute of ooo-ing and aww-ing as we made our way through the mountain. Sam didn't want to stop and get out of the car (I'm still trying to get him to appreciate pictures) so my phone pics from the moving vehicle will have to do...

For your viewing pleasure:

Had to get some of the Aspen trees for my mom:

happy fall friday.

makin me happy.

pumpkins in front of grocery stores

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies fresh out the oven

it all makes me happy! the leaves are slowly starting to change as well (ill need to snap pics of that). conference is this weekend. tomorrow is october which is sammy's birthday month. which then leads right into my birthday month. which is also when my sister will be paying me a visit.  :)

hope you can find some happy in your friday!

as of late

Just a lot of random happenings to report on for an update. 

A few weeks ago Sam's grandpa, Chuck, had all his grandsons together to teach them a little about investing. We hosted the gathering since our house was somewhat of a central location for everyone. This was my second time meeting Grandpa Chuck so it was nice to see him and get to know him a little better.

Last week my Papa Curtis, Uncle Brent, Aunt Corina and cousin Kevin all came up to Utah for the BYU vs. Utah game. No need to discuss the game (embarrassing)  but having family in town and getting together was fun!

Last weekend my sweet friend Dani came over and helped me make some yummy raspberry jam. She was such a help and it was so great to catch up. I wanted to make sure I made the jam just the way Sam's mom does, since that is how he prefers it. After about 10 calls to Sallee and 4 grocery stops later, I FINALLY found all the right stuff and was able to get started. The funny thing is the recipe isn't anything unique, Utah grocery stores just don't seem to carry what I was looking for! However, I am happy to report that the jam turned out great and I got Sammy's taste test approval!

My grandparents weren't able to make it up this weekend for the BYU game, but they were so kind to let Sam and I use their tickets. It was a Friday night game, and thank goodness the cougars won. We enjoyed the game and I was grateful to finally spend some time with my lover! (School has taken over Sammy's life this semester).

And that's a wrap.

pick-your-own

The past two Saturdays Sambo and I both noticed a "Farmers Market" sign at the Riverwoods. Since we live right across the street, we were excited about it and decided to check it out yesterday. Well, it wasn't anything impressive, at all. Maybe a total of 6 stands? However, one had some good looking produce and the lady told us it was all from the pick-your-own farm right up the street. Really?? We had never noticed the little plot of land. So instead of the let-down market, we decided to check out the farm first hand. We loved it!

It was fun to pick your own produce, the owners were so friendly and the prices were great! No camera was on hand, but thank goodness for iphones:

Sammy was SO excited about some banana peppers...

Just posing with my beans in the bean stalks... 

Most of our pick for the day, the monster cantaloupe we got and the beans didn't make the picture. We obviously were very excited about the fresh-off-the-vine baby tomatoes...

For any of you local friends who want to give it a try, the farm is right behind the Smiths off of State and Center in Orem, and they take cash only. We highly recommend it!

Omelets with fresh bell peppers and tomatoes are on the menu for today. :) Happy Farming!

labor day

After just one week back in school, Sammy had loads of homework and diligently spent tons of hours on campus (where he still is as I type this) so an extra long weekend was welcomed by both of us! We made the most of our free day. I worked a half day in the morning (saving up and working up as many vacation hours as I can now that I depleted everything I had before our crazy summer!). As soon as I got off work we headed up Provo canyon and enjoyed a pretty hike together to Stewart's Falls. The hike was an easy one and we decided we had been spoiled by Costa Rica waterfalls, which made this one not so awe inspiring to us. However, it felt great to be outside together in the beautiful mountains enjoying the fantastic weather!

That evening we hosted a BBQ with our friends (who we missed so much during our summer away)! It was great to have everyone together and to catch up. I stole this pic that Ashley had on her phone... thanks ash! :)

PS. Whitters on the left end is PREGO and due to have her baby girl in February! Can't wait to meet that little doll!!!

Somehow the boys always miss out on getting in a photo...

Thank you Labor Day, you were great.

little cougar

Remember this post about the little bro becoming a BYU cougar? Well this week we found out that he'll not only be a student at the Y but also on the lacrosse team! Go Taylor! The coach switched it up this year and is having two teams, so I hope the little bro gets a lot of playing time. I've already started to warm up some of my old cheerleading skills so I can be his biggest fan in the stands (don't worry, that was a joke). I had to do something to congratulate the little man so I made some special BYU cupcakes today...

I couldn't make my y's look like the actual BYU "Y", but you get the idea. I made the batter blue so the color scheme would flow.

So happy we have a 3 day weekend! Besides the half day I'll be working tomorrow - Sammy and I will be celebrating with a hike and BBQ with friends!

goodbye summer

After our amazing trip to Costa Rica, I had just enough time to get home, unpack, do laundry, pack again and jump on a flight to Utah to babysit (more like hang out with) three of my cousins for a week!

Meet the fine Curtis women...Reagan, Ava and Reese!

While their parents spent a few days of fun in Hawaii, us girls had a great time together playing all day. I learned these ladies are quite the talented bakers! We had a Cupcake Wars day; we mixed a box of yellow cake mix and each girl doctored up her portion of the batter for her own specialty cupcake. I was impressed! Here Reese and Ava are showing off the treats pre-baking:

We also had a nail day:

Reagan is a rock star tennis player and made the JV team as a freshman. She got her uniform while I was there, so of course a fashion show with the camera out was needed!

I had so much fun with my sweet beautiful cousins! I'm so glad I got to spend that time with them. It was sad to leave, but I'm glad we'll be living in Utah for 2 more years so I know I'll get to see them often still! (The girls were fresh out of bed before we snapped this picture as I headed out the door to get back to my Sammy in AZ...)

The night I returned, Sammy and I had a special date night to celebrate our anniversary. In case you can't tell, it's been two years...

And just like that, we packed everything up in our cars and made it back to Utah! It has been a whirlwind of a summer. I am so grateful for the time we were able to spend in AZ. It was so wonderful being close to family and getting to see them weekly. With all the traveling and moving around we've been doing lately it does feel nice to be settled back into our place again with all our things. I've made it back into the office (which is an adjustment after getting to work from home for 4 months...) and Sam starts school tomorrow. Can't believe summer is over. It was fun while it lasted!

two years.

I was one giddy girl when I was engaged to Mr. Samuel Brett Nielsen.

I was on cloud nine when, two years ago today, I was married to Mr. Nielsen and became Mrs. Nielsen.

I am one grateful woman for having two years of happiness with my Mr. I know he loves me and I love him.

I also love August 21st because it's the one day of the year Sam will sit down and watch our wedding video with me.

Happy 2 Years Baby Love!