honeymoon... finally.

So I'm finally getting some pictures up here...

These are a few from our honeymoon. We went to Anaheim, CA for 6 days and stayed in a beautiful timeshare and had such a great time wandering around the city. Our room had a sweet balcony that faced Disneyland/California Adventure and we got to watch the fireworks EVERY NIGHT! it was so awesome. By the end of the week we were making sure we got home to watch the fireworks. :) they were SO AWESOME.

The place also had a sweet pool and huge hot tubs that we were able to relax in in the evening.

We didn't go to all the amusement parks but we did have a chance to visit Universal Studios (it was Ben's first time) and Six Flags Magic Mountain.
these are at the Universal Studios "Water World" show.

Sorry these pictures look so the-same... that's what you get when there's only two of you and you each have crazy hair that "has a good side" haha.

After the Jurassic Park water ride we were looking at each other and how wet we were and it was about then we realized that our outfits were opposite of each other. we had a good laugh about it. :)

This is just a pretty picture of the sun behind the sign. and the palm trees were pretty too. but my camera wasn't the best at getting a good picture.

The next day we went to be beach and watched the sun set. it was pretty chilly, but still a good time. good think I keep blankets in my car b/c i get cold on road trips. We were also able to use our new camping chairs that someone bought us for a wedding present. We were happy we didn't send those with the rest of the gifts back to Utah. :)

Then two days later we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain and this is the only picture we got because it was such a busy day full of riding roller coasters.. and you don't want to lose your camera on those things so we left it in the lockers.
After six flags we drove to Henderson and I got to meet Ben's aunt and uncle and their super cute little kids. It was great. thanks Aunt Deana and Uncle David for letting us stay with you! then we came home and moved into our new (well, new to us) apartment. :) I'll post pictures next time... we're still decorating and such. probably will be for a long time. haha
Thanks for listening to me talk about my life. i'll try to be funny again sometime soon. key word: TRY. adios.

its good to be loved.

I absolutely love this song/video. Being that I just got married, it came out at the perfect time. I also love carrie underwood's music and her story. ahh!!.. just watch/listen to the video. try not to cry like i do every time i see this. Both her husband and mother are in this video, which makes it even more precious. :] i love country music and the stories that come from it.

I love my mom and dad and how supportive they are of Ben and me. It's the greatest feeling ever to know you are loved by so many people and to know that you love them back.

make sure someone knows they're loved today.

Counting the days..

Days I've lived not married to Ben: 7,943.
Days I've lived knowing Ben: 622
Days I've lived Ben knowing me: 615
Days I've lived since my first date with Ben: 557
Days I've lived since my first kiss with Ben: 547
Days I've lived since Ben put a ring on it: 146
Days I've lived married to Ben: 32.

I'm hoping one day the last number will be bigger than the first. :)

♥ Happy 1 month to Ben and I ♥
(2 days late)

p.s. i'm trying to post about our new place but other things keep coming up. that's my goal this week (along with doing 3 weeks of reading and homework). we'll see. :/

I'm Moving...

for anyone who checks this blog... starting wednesday, this blog will be moving to benalie.blogspot.com

that's all.. i'll post better stuff later.. :)

wedding pictures and loving life.

Hey Everyone, We are one party away from celebrating our NEW marriage! here are the slideshows from the wedding, the first being just ben and i, the second being of our family pictures as well as reception pictures.

http://stephaniesmithphotography.com/natalieben/

http://stephaniesmithphotography.com/natalieandben/

ENJOY!

Oh yeah, and to see ALL 600-something of them.. you can visit this site, and create a log in. they're amazing so you'll probably want to do this as well. =]

http://www.pictage.com/901802

we don't have internet right now at the apt. so you probably won't be hearing from me for a while... we're working on it.. i'll post some pictures later and some lovely things about the 1st month of marriage and so forth later on...

p.s. EVERYTHING FOR MY MARRIAGE WAS PERFECT! THE SEALING, BOTH RECEPTIONS, PICTURES, EVERYTHING!! I CAN'T SAY ENOUGH GOOD THINGS ABOUT IT. IT WAS EXACTLY HOW I PLANNED. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED OUT. WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND ARE SO GRATEFUL FOR YOUR SUPPORT. WE COULDN'T HAVE PULLED IT ALL OF WITHOUT YOU. special thanks to our parents. they're amazing and we love them.

love, natalie (& ben)

two days... & Wedding Pictures!!

I'm getting Married in TWO DAYS!!!! crazy right. i'm so excited to have benjamin lee chambers as my husband in a few days. we are going to have so much fun together. he is the best thing that has happened to me... EVER. He keeps me company while i clean, takes care of me when i scrape chunks of skin off my knees (literally), gives me hugs when i am sad for no reason, reminds me to take my medicine, lets me sleep when he drives even though i don't let him sleep when i drive (because he's great like that--and i'm mean). he also does super nice things for me like gives me amazing back massages, let's me sleep on his shoulder, doesn't mind it when i make faces at people... smiles at me when i'm sad, kisses my forehead, and it just all around awesome. And he comforts me when i'm freaked out by something scary or weird. AND he shares food with me! (more than i can say) and he doesn't care that i don't wear makeup and that my hair is crazy. i just love him. more stuff?? yes.. --he is great when it comes to this wedding stuff. he is so supportive and kind about everything. and he helps me plan our party which is so fun to do with him. We also take precious pictures with each other and he smiles for the camera. better than some people can say about their husbands. aren't we cute? ;)

can you believe i'm going to be somebody's wife in a few days. cool huh?

more pics to come! :) (after the actual wedding-these are just teasers from our bride&groom session)

really REALLY bad BAD dream. (sorry it's so long)

so, i had a super sad/scary dream last night... here is how it went...
DREAM:
first off, it all started at the wedding reception at my house, which apparently (in my dream) was happening before the sealing.. guess who was there... nobody. just a couple random people helping with food and ME. No ben, no family, no anyone. I was alone... my dress was huge and my G's were hanging out all over the place, the back of my dress was BLUE PAISLEY, the front the beaded stuff i chose, but it was sooo heavy and so stiff (exact opposite of what is being made for me). my dress is flowy and definitely NOT blue paisley. so, i'm in the house, there is a swimming pool in the boys' room, emma's room has the bunkbed (like normal) but she wont let me in to go change. a few guests arrive (i don't know who they were) and i'm still in gym shorts and have nasty hair no make up, and i look like i've been working in the back yard all day.. I finally get into my bogus dress, people like the flowers, food and all but still... what is missing?? yes. BEN. he was no where to be found.. 1/2 way through the dream i decided that i had been stood up. first time in my life and it had to be on my wedding day. so gay. well, a little while later, still not very many people at my party (which i guess is a good thing, since i'm being stood up) and the ben rolls up in this bogus van with his brother who is supposed to be on a mission... Apparently in my dream Tommy comes home because there was no companion to give him. kinda bittersweet b/c he can be there for the "dream wedding" but he had to come home from the mish... anyway. ben comes up and i don't even know what to do. i am so sad/mad/sad/sad/really sad/really mad. I felt like those girls that get sent home on the finale of "the bachelor"...
then he started to explain that he was doubting and really worried about getting married to me but then he finally decided that he would... so he came. i told him to go get dressed and he put on this BOGUS PINK/Purple/ugly striped suit (to go beautifully with my blue paisley dress). I wanted to die. I made him go change, but he ended up going swimming in the boys' room. it was weird. that's when i woke up.

REAL LIFE:
It was 7:45am (i have to work at 8am) so i didn't have any time to mentally recover from this horrible dream. I rushed to work and the first thing i did was text ben and have this conversation with him:
Natalie: Ben. You had better not stand me up at our wedding. I would die. then i'd kill you. I just woke up from the worst dream ever. My dress was blue paisley and your brother came home from his mish early b/c they didn't have a comp for him.
Ben: I'm sorry you had a bad dream. Do you really think i would stand you up?
Natalie: Well, i am a lot to handle sometimes... but no. It was just so real.
Ben: Natalie, if i was going to bail out i would have done it a long time ago. I need you to realize that i don't just love you for your strengths but for your weaknesses too. i love everything about you.
Natalie: BEST TEXT EVER. i love you.
Ben: oh yeah, and the fact that i pretty much can't live without you.
the convo goes on, but that's the end of the relevant stuff.
i'm sorry this is so long.. i just had to get it out of my system. i'm also sorry this post has no pictures... i'll try and find one by the end of it..

ok, so things i attribute bad dreams to:

• having to go pee (when i was little, if i would be screaming, my mom would wake me up [kinda] take me to the bathroom, i'd go, then she'd take me back to bed and i'd be fine again)

• not having my ring on (ben took it last night so it can be cleaned before the big day- i feel like people look at me and wonder if we broke it off)

• wearing my retainer (some days it makes me feel like i can't breathe--then i find it under my pillow when i wake up)

that's all. thanks for reading.. if you made it all the way through, i'll give you something good. like a frosty or something.. just call me. :)
p.s. i found a picture... these are my "shoes" for the wedding: stylish i know.. ;)

19 Days!! (the annoucement)

HERE IT IS!!!!

Announcements have been sent out and I really apologize if you didn't get one... After ordering, stuffing, stamping, sealing, mailing like a million invites some of them are bound to be lost/forgotten/returned to us... so hopefully that wasn't yours. =] Anyway, here's the info... We'd love for you to come to one of our events... below is our low-key second open house in Orem for our Northern Utah Family/Friends PLEASE COME if you can! Anyway, we're super excited to share in this life-changing event we are going to do... (sounds weird, but you know what i mean) Anyway. thanks for the love/support. You're the greatest. 19 days. i love ben. i'm eating poptarts. all that jazz. =] adios!

--OPEN HOUSE INFO--

Saturday, September 11, 2010 | 6:00 pm-8:00 pm
Draper Home
1176 West 560 North
Orem, Utah 84057

precious.

More Engagements!! hope you like them. i think we're pretty precious, but hey, that's just me. I'm not telling which one is on our announcements because i want it to be a surprise.. :) it's about the only secret i can keep.. (not a very good one, i know) haha anyway. hope you guys enjoy. I'm off to k-town, USA this weekend for the 4th.. it should be a blast! (if my camera decides to behave, we'll post some pictures when we get back. adios! hope everyone has a great LONG weekend!! i know i will!

aren't we just precious..? can't wait for this guy to be my husband. he's amazing in case anyone was wondering. but you probably already knew that.

i LovE PhoToShoP!

I absolutely LOVE photoshop! i have had so much fun the past few weeks just playing around with different settings/colors/fonts and brushes... it has been so much fun. Here are some of the precious things i've done with the pictures of ben and i. I'm thinking about designing my own invitation. I'm really excited about it. :)

this was my first try... not as cute as the other two. but still fun.

This is a picture from Valentines Day 2010. precious right?
I wanted to post more, but i don't want to spoil my engagement pictures or my announcement. so... more to come. =]
Anyway, i'm super excited to finish taking engagement pictures this weekend, it's going to be fun. Ben is such a good sport to take hundreds of pictures with me. that's just one of the reasons he's amazing. I'm so excited to show everyone precious pictures of us. haha please don't throw up in your mouth. it's not going to be kissing or anything.. don't worry. haha well, all in all, photoshop is awesome. and i love it. the end. =] hope everyone has an AWESOME 3 day weekend! i'm sooo excited!

for those who want to stalk me...

Well, i haven't blogged about my life recently so i thought i would catch you all up on recent happenings. first of all, this blog is provoked by my dear friend krystina. She sent me a text the other day saying, "update your blog! I wanna stalk you!..." it made me laugh so hard. but it also made me blog. =] so this blog is for her... kinda.

so here is my list of recent happenings:
0. discovered how good yogurt and granola is.
1. winter 2010 semester ended. couldn't be happier.
2. winter didn't. it snowed. on april 30. so gay.
3. i finished a whole class in 2.5 days.. (not too proud, but i totally passed it so i'm proud of that)
4. went to california for a few days with ben. we had fun.
5. went to kanab for 1 day. that was fun too.
6. watched pollyanna for the first time all the way through. it was pretty good.
7. moved into my NEW APARTMENT!! it now takes me 7 minutes to WALK to work. it's awesome. (sad thing is.. i'm still late alot)
8. I have the coolest roommate (savannah)
9. I got the internet working at my apartment. ALL BY MYSELF! :]
10. Classes started and it's lame. But i'm taking 9 units and this will help me graduate faster. which is awesome.
11. work is slow again. just the way i like it. :)
I think that's it.. life is good.
ohyeah. and.. (i almost forgot.)

#12. i got engaged.
haha i didn't really forget. "it was for dramatic effect." (quote from Step up 2 the streets)

ben proposed on Monday, April 26th, 2010 around 740ish PM at Bryce Canyon National Park.. Great FHE activity right?and i knew it was coming, but kinda tried to ignore it (so i wouldn't ruin it..) it was so cute. he was so nervous (even though he KNEW i'd say yes.) haha. well, that's all for now.

oh yeah, here's the ring.. i usually get harassed for not including a picture of it.. this will be especially good for those of you who want to stalk me. ;)
happy weekend everyone!