What a week..........

Wow it has been quite the week.... a lot of bad news.

It started on Monday November 12th with a good friend of mine from high school posting on Facebook that her little girl had to be taken emergency C section and she was struggling... then by Thursday she had posted they were letting her go. She had, some how, gotten a brain injury while in the womb and since being born she had yet to open her eyes or breathe on her own... they had decided the next morning they would say goodbye to her. So Friday she posted her amazing testimony as they said goodbye to her perfect, precious, beautiful little girl. I am amazed at the strength she had at this time of trial for them, she is so strong in the gospel to be able to be positive while it is happening.

Precious little Paislee

That news was followed by Curtis calling me from work to tell me that he got in a fight with a lawnmower and it won... he was in the emergency room with lacerations to the index and middle fingers on his left hand (which is his dominant hand) he ended up loosing his fingernails on both fingers, he broke the bone in his index finger with a hairline fracture in his middle finger and had to get over 20 stitches. My poor man can't do much for himself I have to help him eat, get dressed and tie his shoes... He has at least 6 weeks of recovery. Then therapy to follow... poor guy! *WARNING* I posted pictures of his exposed fingers if you are squeamish just skip over them... they aren't too bad but just in case.

poor hubby's fingers

The bad news ended with finding out a friend of mine died while duck hunting with his 2 friends on Saturday... they were on the Great Salt Lake when the weather changed and caused huge waves that capsized the boat and one of his friends hurried to swim to shore to get help, but my friend Chad and his best friend Logan chose to stay with the boat. The water was only 47 degrees, and they ended up getting hypothermia and they passed together... poor Logan he leaves behind his wife and 2 children. Chad was and is such a great person he was a friend to all those who knew him and was the friendliest guy. I know he is doing a great work in Heaven and that Heavenly Father wouldn't have taken him from us so young if he didn't need him for something bigger and better.

My friend Chad

Well as the saying goes bad things come in 3's so I'm done right? I sure hope so I'm not sure I can take much more bad news... All I can say is that I am so thankful for the true gospel in my life... it doesn't make the pain go away completely but it helps to ease the pain some.

Happy 2 Year Birthday

My cutie cute nephew turned 2 on Sunday. He is such a fun little guy! He's starting to talk and has more energy than a barrel of monkeys.

 

 

My mother-in-law made the cute cake! He loved it and was great and blowing out the candles! Happy Birthday Tye Boy!

True Aggie Night

There is a tradition up here in Logan we have a block "A" and on certain nights, you stand on top and kiss someone at midnight to become a "True Aggie". If you and your kiss partner both are not True Aggies you have "A" day or Homecoming night to become True Aggies but if one of you is already a True Aggie, you can go on a full moon night at midnight and kiss on the "A" to make the other a True Aggie. 

Since Curtis and I, both, were not True Aggies, we needed "A" day or Homecoming night, and we missed them last year because we were gone so much. This year, finally, we were here for Homecoming night! So last night we made a date night of it. I had a pressure cooking class at 6:30 but after that we went and got Jamba Juice and went home to set up our tent, sleeping mats and sleeping bags in the living room for a campout! We watched some TV until 11:30 and we hiked up Old Main Hill to the block A for our True Aggie initiation.

Holy wow was it packed full of people! I was reminded why I don't miss being single. It's crazy how things change after you get married, because when I was single I would have had a blast there. But being married it bugged me there were too many people and it was late and loud and cold and I just wanted to go to bed. It made me feel like a party pooper, but I stuck it out and kiss my hubby on that A good and long and then we unzipped our jackets to show our True Aggie T-shirts that we can now wear with pride.

sorry its kinda blurry

24

Holy wow I thought it was huge that I turned 22 well big news people my hubby is 24 he's almost a quarter of a century!!! He had a bigger birthday than I did. He has this place he is in love with The West Desert! It's out past Tooele by Dugway Proving Grounds. It is his favorite place to go camping but it isn't fun unless you have the big toys to play with ;)

So I'm fired, I can not be trusted to take a lot of pictures... but in my defense it was an intense trip.

 

It started on Friday Curt and I met his dad and step mom at their house loaded all the stuff from our truck to his dad's big "Bertha" truck! We headed out to the desert to set up camp. Curt was helping his dad and they sent Trudy and me down the dirt road on four-wheelers to meet my parents and munchkin to lead them to camp. Trudy has never been on a four-wheeler by herself so she was leading and it was a good thing too because she caught a soft spot in the sand rolled the four-wheeler on top of herself! Luckily she didn't get hurt too severely she has some bruises and a few scrapes but overall ok. We got back to camp and Curt said "it turned out to be an expensive trip" he accidently ran the truck into a stump and blew out the radiator. Oops! So then his brother had to come rescue us the next day. My brother's drove 40 miles the wrong way and had to meet Curt's brother in Rush Valley so he could give them a ride the rest of the way so they didn't get lost again. My parents also tipped a four-wheeler over, they are also ok thankfully!

So when Joey came to our rescue we packed up his truck with our stuff and hooked up to the trailer, we got back to Magna (Curt's dad and step mom's house) at about 10:30pm then Curt and his dad went to pick up a trailer to tow Bertha back to the house. They got back out to the desert by 1:45am and it took them 30 minutes to load the truck up and it barely fit, then they didn't get home till 4:30am it was a late night! But a fun memorable trip! Happy 24th babe!!!

22

I am 22 holy cow! I swear it was just my birthday!

Well it wasn't a huge day it was a Thursday so nothing too fun.

Curt did take me to Chili's for dinner which I love that place p.s. :) Curt had to work and I didn't, so I stayed home and did dishes exciting right? I did go over to my sister-in-law's house, after the 3 hours of dishes I did, and hung out with my darling nieces til Curt got off work so we could go to dinner.

I got a fun game called Fluxx, some fabulous cushy mats, a weekend at my mother-in-laws condo (which we used in March for our anniversary), a gift card to Claire's, a new white board calender (which I was in desperate need of people) Curt got me a cribbage board, princess bride, and A BRAND NEW SMART PHONE! I kind of really enjoy that thing but I feel bad for it, it doesn't get used to its potential.

Another year old I don't know about wiser but definitely older :)

One more thing HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTIE!!! I miss you! (I tried to post a cute picture didn't happen imagine cute picture of us together)

P.S. The half asleep picture in Curt's shirt is because he had to give me my phone at 7am before he went to work!

Camping!

One of Curt's and mine favorite summer activities is camping! We love being in the out of doors, enjoying nature, and four wheeling all over! We had a great weekend, we spent Friday night up Blacksmith Fork Canyon we were supposed to have some friends come up and stay with us but plans fell through and they didn't make it up on Friday night, so Curt and I played in the river by our camp, played a few games together and went to bed earlier than we do at home. Curt's friend was coming up to meet us Saturday morning to go fourwheeling all day, so we were up at 8:30am to make breakfast and then we went all over the back trails in Blacksmith for hours! It was a blast! Such beautiful views, we went to Old Eprhaims Grave (which is a giant slab of rock, in tribute to a giant bear), and 3 or 4 other trails. The boys shot a pine hen and we saw lots of sheep being guarded by two dogs.

We enjoyed spending time together without any distractions. Yay for the simple joys in life!

Happy 24th

Happy 24th!!!

Usually the 24th is a big party and sleepover on the parade route in Salt Lake. We arrive on the 23rd and hang out, play games, and munch on snacks until the early hours of the morning. Sleep through the marathon (sorry if you're a runner in it) and get woken up by the parade later on.

But the city has started getting grumpy and being mean about people camping out and making all these crazy insane rules... Anyway... breathe... Moving on. Anyway needless to say we didn't want to deal with that again so... We had a giant sleepover at my mother-in-law's house the night of the 23rd, we stayed up till the wee hours of the morning like usual. Had omelets the next morning then hiked up to Doughnut Falls up Cottonwood Canyon, then went to the Days of 47 Rodeo that night :)

Monday night most of the adults stayed up till 2:30am I fell asleep on the couch at about 1 (I had a sore throat). Then we had make your own omelets, muffins and fruit the next morning. Then we all got ready to go to on our hike.





The weather was perfect :) just overcast enough that we stayed cool. Then as we got back to the cars it started to down pour so we ate our lunches in the cars.

Then we all went our separate ways and Curtis, Nan and I went to get ready for the rodeo.

Monster in the closet

We had a monster in our closet this morning but Curt was already gone to work so I left for work hoping it would stay put till he got home...

 it didn't...

I tried to show it to him and he said there's no such things as monsters. I told him we were turning our house upside down till we found it and disposed of it!

I climbed on the bed for protection...I looked to my right and there it was on the wall! So I snapped a picture, for proof, then recorded his death! Granted I mostly filmed sheets because we missed the first time... But I love my hubby so much!!! I'm glad he is brave!

The monster in our closet/moved to our wall

Kids say the darnest things No.6

So as I just realized I did leave out one of my Kids say the darnest things. At Curt's Grandpa's funeral and as I did post the girls were being silly as usually. Which if you missed you can see it down a few posts.

But the story I left out was... my 5 year old niece Kate was standing by me and she was just staring at me. She then turned in front of me and put her hands on my hips like feeling she was feeling my width. She proceeds to pat me a few times, then comments, " Aunt Aerika you're big........ like there's a baby in there.... I said "No Kate, no baby." Just then a pregnant lady walked past and I whispered "That's what a pregnant belly looks like." She turns back to me and goes back to patting my hips. "Ya I know you're just big.... like WIDE......"

Well thank you Kate for boosting my self-esteem as you always do :P I believe she was supposed to be my daughter not my niece, because whenever I share her stories with my mom she tells me how much that sounds like something I did or would have done when I was her age. Oh the honesty of youth! Why can't we keep it forever?

Our New Couches!!!

We got new couches! (As my cousin Whitney would say) Huzzah!

We got a sofa and love seat for free off of KSL just before we got married. They were nice for the first year and plus they were free so can't complain right? Right. But we decided we needed something a little nicer, that would last a little longer. We both love recliners, but knew with people coming over just recliners wouldn't do. So we started looking at reclining sofas and love seats. We found a set at Ashley's Furniture that I fell in love with! We kept looking but didn't really find anything else that compared. So we decided those were the ones we wanted finally, and we got a memorial day sale special and a discount because my brother-in-law used to work there. So for a pretty good price we got these Beauts!!!

Love Seat

Love Seat reclined

Sofa

Sofa reclined

We love them! They are so comfortable and big enough that we basically can sit on one side/seat! We hope that these will last a long time!!! We figure now is a good time to have nice(ish) couches, while we can afford them, and before we have kids that (as my daddy puts things) "destroy everything!" We can make them last  a while!

So anyway thats my happy news! The End!

One of those days

Today... is one of THOSE days.... You know the days that you want to do nothing else but curl up in your favorite blankie, in your comfiest (is that even a word?) p.j's, snuggle up with your mom and sisters, hunker down with your favorite comfort food, have a good cry and watch your favorite chick flick? That explains my day to a T.


There are just some days that seem to make me really down. Today was one of those days. I was just feeling really down on myself, I was feeling worthless, and like nothing seems to be going right. On days like this I pull out my poem notebook and one seemed to fit perfectly today

Its called Less Than Perfect:

Life's not supposed to be perfect I know this, there's always something.

Like your cool new shoes, wear a blister on your toe.

Or your bike has a flat, when you're ready to go.

Or you get a big zit before your first date, or fall on your face after doing something great.

There's always something I know this, I just wish that sometimes everything would be perfect.



That was kind of, really just how I felt. It was just one of those days that I just needed to break down. Tired of being strong and acting like everything is great when really I've been struggling just to get out of bed in the morning most days. Questioning why and wanting answers.

Anyway excuse the emotional post I just needed somewhere to vent. So to make up for it here is my happy picture that makes me smile

A proud momma otter showing you her baby

Bear Lake-Newman get-a-way

I took way too long to post this. I forgot most of the little details so here are the pictures! We had a good time :) Curtis and I enjoyed being the favorite Auntie and Uncle for four whole days (We always are the favorite Aunt and Uncle but it was nice to have it for a few days straight).

We went down to Eagle Mountain to see my grandma and great grandmother while they were up here for a short time while my grandma had hip replacement surgery. So we got a picture with Great Grandma Lue :) but Grandma Carmen was not feeling well enough for pictures.

Baptisms/Baby Blessings

On Saturday April 7, 2012 we had two baptisms in the Newman family. Our niece Brooke Goates and our nephew Nolan Smith both got baptized.
Brooke was baptized at 9:30am in Logan by her dad Brad Goates, her mom Connie Goates gave a talk on baptism/repentance, it was beautifully done. Uncle Curtis and Grandpa Goates were the witnesses. We had a breakfast get together afterwards at the Goates residence. Then it was off to Layton for the 2nd baptism of the day.

Nolan was baptized at 3:30pm in Layton by his dad Jeremy Smith. Uncle Joey and Grandpa Smith were the witnesses. We had a luncheon gathering afterwards at the Smiths residence. Then it was off to Highland to spend the weekend with my family for Easter and to be with our friends for their baby blessing.

Our good friends/Curts mission comp. Cameron and Ariana Field blessed their beautiful chunky baby girl Bethany Opal Field on Easter Sunday April 8, 2012. Curtis got to stand in the circle. We also found out that Ari's dad was my dad's longest comp in their mission. What a small world it is. We had a luncheon in Orem afterwards and I sat and talked with "Elder Molleman" the whole time. It was a great day, makes me excited to one day have that be us, it is years away but it will be a great day.

Funeral for Curt's grandfather/Kids say the darnest things No. 5

Curtis's grandpa passed away on March 31, 2012. We attended the funeral in Idaho Falls, Idaho on Friday April 6, 2012. We rode up with his sister Connie and her older girls Brooke, 8, and Kate, 5, as well as his brother Joey. I had received my new book Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson. I was reading that while the girls watched Barbie Princess Charm School and Curtis and Joey were making boyish comments about the dirty windshield and ways to clean it. (I will leave the rest up to your imagination.) The drive started out snowy and cold, the snow did stop on the way up to Idaho, but the wind got more fierce it was frigid.

I have never met his grandfather nor his mom's siblings, but I felt I needed to be there for support even if his family isn't as close knit as mine. Besides I get a kick out of my nieces, they are fun to be around. Which brings me to my kids say the darnest things No. 5

My 8 year old niece Brooke made a comment after the funeral when we were out in the car waiting to follow the hearse to the cemetery. She saw the hearse and studied it for a minute then asked, "is that like a limo?" We laughed for a little bit. She didn't get what we were laughing about so her mom answered, "in a way."

Then it was 5 year old Kate's turn, we were in the funeral procession, and she asked why were all driving in a line, Uncle Joey explained it is called a funeral procession, we are all going to the cemetery. To which she promptly responded "like a parade :D only we aren't throwing candy." Once again we all laughed, kids certainly have a way of making any situtation lighter.

One Year!!!

Holy Cow! One year can you believe it? I can't! It went by so quickly. It hardly feels like a year.

Friday: I had to work :( poop. We sort of hoped that I would be sent home early, which is sad because we want money and hours but we also wanted to get our weekend get away started. They had been sending people home lately, and I was hoping that I would be one of the ones to be sent home Friday. However such is my luck, they sent every other project home, EXCEPT the one that I was on. So I didn't get off till 2:45, I rushed home we threw our stuff in the car and took off. We drove up to Bear Lake (special thanks to Curts mom for giving us a weekend at her condo :)) and made it up at the perfect time for check in. We got all settled in (a.k.a made a mess of the condo in 5 minutes) We changed and went to the hot tub :D ahhhh. Hot tubs are a gift from the heavens. So miss having one in the back yard. We had dinner, went and got a famous raspberry shake and watched mystery men, (which brothers of mine you would find hilarious) and we fell asleep.

Saturday: We did absolutely nothing... not kidding we spent a lot of time in the hot tub, napping, eating, and playing cards, finally by 7:45 we went out to Cafe Sabor for dinner. Which was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. There were rude, annoying, drunk ladies that were by close to us laughing at everything. They were pretty much closed and the tables were a mess and the service was awful. But there was this cute couple sitting behind us. As we were leaving we talked to them for a minute and we found out that they were there celebrating their 1 year anniversary on March 4th as well. Not only that but they were staying at the same condo we were, and the lived around the corner from us and are in our stake. Later we ended up meeting at the hot tub and then later playing games in our condo till 2 am :) Never in a million years would I have thought that would happen, crazy but very fun.

Sunday: We got up, Curtis is so sweet he let me sleep in and made me breakfast in bed. We picked up checked out and came home. It was a very relaxing weekend and we had such a great time together. I have never seen Curtis lay still that long EVER! But it was a much needed weekend. It made Monday that much harder.

I am so in love with this wonderful man that I married. I am so lucky that he chose me and wants me for eternity. I am so excited for our first year under our belts, and for so many more to come and for our love to just get stronger and stronger. I LOVE YOU CURTIS JAY NEWMAN!!!

P.S. Oh yes I almost forgot! We did not eat our cake top, we are going to go fill it full of lead! We are going to shoot it up instead of eating the nasty thing! Its gonna be a blast ;) no pun intended.

Valentines Day 2012

Valentines this year was much more enjoyable than last years.

Last year I was manager at Papa's in Lehi working with teens and grouchy people who think that if they "don't get a ♥ pizza their whole life is ruined!" So I didn't get off till 7:30 or 8 while pretty much ruined all plans Curt had made.

So I made it to Salt Lake by about 8:30 or 9pm. So we ate later than planned but we had delicious fondue, steak and chicken, with veggies in cheese sauce and fruit with chocolate.  Then we went bowling instead of to the movie he had originally planned.


But that was all in the past, this year, we started earlier than last year, we had chicken fondue, with broccoli and cauliflower and french bread in cheese sauce with Raspberry soda instead of Bubbly, since they only had the apple kind that Curtis and I don't like as much.

Next post will be our One Year Anniversary post :D stay tuned.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Can you believe it is 2012!!!??? Wow last year flew by. Was it a big year for my family? I'D SAY SO!!! 


January- last year I was engaged only 2 months away from my wedding, Joshua was home, Alise turned 18. 


February- Curtis and I signed a contract for our first apartment and moved our stuff in. 


March- I received my endowments and the next day I was sealed for time and all eternity in the Mount Timpanogos Temple to the man that I love more than anything else. We spent a week in Southern California. Came home to our apartment and started our lives together.


April-July- We both worked and just enjoyed our time as newlyweds. 


August-December- Alise moved up to Rock Springs Wyoming for her first semester ever at college on a full ride scholarship for volleyball. Curtis's first semester at USU. He did extremely well, I was so proud. He worked so hard. In October I got a "grown-up" job in a call center and finally swore of Papa's forever. In October Joshua got married to my friend Bailey and I am so happy for them. It was a big year for my family. 


Curtis and I had a party for New Years Eve, and we played games, ate lots of food watched the count down, kissed at midnight, and then. One of our friends brought the floating lanterns like on Tangled!!! We wrote our wishes/goals for the new years lit them and watched them float away! It was a great ending to a great year. Can't wait to see what the new year holds! 2012 here we come!

The only picture we got of our lantern on Curtis's cell phone but at least we got one :)

Our First Christmas: Part 3: Christmas Day

 So early morning on Christmas I woke up like a little child at 6:15am and anyone that knows me knows that I am NOT a morning person. This is the ONLY day in the whole year that I wake up quickly, early and happy all at the same time. Curtis was a little more like the normal me sluggish, tired, complaining, and wanting to sleep longer. When Curtis is usually the opposite he is a morning person through and through.We went into the living room to look in our stockings and see what Santa brought us.

Then we opened our presents to each other we had a great time and then we opened our wii from santa and played our games. We had breakfast together and then grabbed our presents for my family and headed down to Lehi to see them for the day. We went to church with my family and had dinner and exchanged gifts and played games. We had a wonderful day filled with remembering the birth of our savior and enjoying our changing family, with two marriages, one in college, one a senior.

We are such a blessed family, we have so many blessings, so much love for each other and so many things to be grateful for. I love my family and all though I only get to see them once a month I am thankful for their love and support. Merry Christmas to all and to all a happy new year as well!!!

Our First Christmas: Part 2: Christmas Eve

So we decided to spend Christmas Eve with Curtis's family and Christmas Day with mine. So early Christmas Eve we got up and met Curt's Sister and her family to ride with them to West Valley. We got down there and Curt's mom had started the food preparation for the yummy brunch we were going to have.  I got to play favorite Auntie and color with the girls and watch the babies. We ate talked and let the kids run wild.

 Then Curtis and Brad read the Christmas Story, then we sang christmas carols, and then we got a surprise visit from Nolan Santa ;) our nephew dressed up as santa and brought us $2 bills and fruit and asked what we wanted for Christmas. He was so cute some of us sat on his lap others just stood or shared the seat so we wouldn't hurt him.

  Then we opened presents, our camera died so we only got a few pictures, I got a wonderful book that I highly recommend, The Wednesday Letters, from Nan. We got wipeout wii from Karla Curtis's sister. Curtis got a box of clay pigeons from his mom. His mom also gave us the attachments for Wii Sports Resort and a game Wii Party Games. 

After all the fun and games were over we came home to spend Christmas morning at our house. We put baby Jesus in the manger before retiring to bed to wake up at 6:15 the next morning.

Our First Christmas!!! Part 1: The setup

This was our first Christmas married! We were so excited to get ready together and spend time as our own family for Christmas! 

Our Irish Christmas Tree

Our Belleek Crystal Nativity

Setting up

It took us an ENITRE day to set up everything. It started off with ALL of our lights not working from last year. Most of them were brand new too :( It was frustrating we took the whole tree apart to try and fix them, no luck. Curtis's mom was coming up to spend the weekend with his sisters family, so we asked her if she would stop by modern display on her way up and pick us up new lights for the tree. So we took a break and went to go buy some other decorations for our home.

We finally finished decorating by 11:30pm I love my cute Irish christmas house :) so glad Curtis's mom had the genius idea to make a christmas tree of the country that her boys served missions in while they were gone. Such a fun idea :)