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.

BOY, WHY are you SMILING?--

Dear world, sorry i haven't blogged in so long.. i've been super duper busy with school, work and wedding planning. lame excuses i know. HA! anyway, here are some pictures from recent events. aka: engagement pictures (out of 600, we'd better have a least a few good ones), making THREE TIMES more cheesecake than i was supposed to, snow on May TWENTY FOURTH!!!!!, Trip to California (only picture is with my Asian BFF's), and visiting Ann Marie & Larry's new baby MAX!! He's adorable! Anyway.. here are all the pictures. Hopefully you can tell which event goes with which picture. More to come... SOrry i haven't been good about doing this... i should have more time since i'm done with school. you'll see more engagements after i mail out the invites... i wouldn't want to ruin the surprise! =] haha hope you enjoy the pictures. I absolutely LOVE ALL OF THEM! (the ones below.. not all 600 engagements) :) adios for now.



More to come at the pink wall... these are the precious ones at sundance! thanks a ton to my sister HALIE! for taking all these for us! she's amazing.
TTFN--Ta Ta For Now... :) [yes, i babysit little girls who LOVE winnie the pooh)

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!

Party in August?? Plan Ahead :)

Hey Everyone.. Ben and I need your addresses... SOOOooo.. If you haven't filled this out yet, please do.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHUtMGhxbUxsUmx3OTN2a0VPbG5DX2c6MQ

Since Invites wont go out for a bit, and we know you all want to make travel plans to come to our parties ;) visit our wedding website for the info on dates, maps, registries, etc:

http://www.mywedding.com/benandnatalie

hope everything is going well in all of your lives. Thanks for all the love and support thus far. Hope you can share our special day(s) with us. :)
love, natalie & ben

Thug Life Thursday

Photo Courtesy of Google Images search: "Thug Life Thursday." sav and i have been too busy to have a g-money photoshoot.. hmm maybe on a saturday sometime soon.
but for now... haha I love this pic. enjoy the rest of the day everyone. happy weekend tomorrow!

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!

Thug Life Thursday

well, i don't have a picture this week, but i am in Sac-town, California... which is pretty ghetto (in some spots) so, i just thought i'd share my favorite line to one of my favorite "thug life thursday" songs.. CALIFORNIA LOVE.

From Oakland to Sacktown
The Bay Area and back down
Cali is where they put they mack down
Give me love!

...............

Sacramento, sacramento where ya at? yeah

Throw it up y'all, throw it up, Throw it up
Let's show these fools how we do this on that west side
Cause you and I know it's tha best side

yeah, That's riight
west coast, west coast
uh, California Love
California Love

happy ThugLifeThursday everyone.
love, tupac

Thug Life Thursday

Little late, but here it is. Happy Thug Life Thursday Everyone.. hope it was gangsta. ;)
love, natalie

p.s. this picture is from my phone, which makes it pretty crappy quaility, b/c my phone is ghetto, which makes this post all the more appropriate. :)

Title 9...

SOC 328 PRESENTATION on Prezi

So i made this for my class... it's pretty cool. It made my group look like the coolest kids in school. Which is probably true, given that there are some freaks walking around in this world.. but jesus said love everyone.. so i will. but i can still be better at group projects than them right? :)

true or false

No, i don't drink beer but this is how i feel right now....
True or False, my SOC 112 (current social problems) teacher presents all of his material as if he is a Sexist Male Chauvinist PIG? TRUE.
True or False, i'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt, that the material really is this biased and discriminatory? true.

am i going to? NO.

My teacher is SO bogus. and i am so glad this is the last class period. (yes, i'm in class right now-trying NOT to listen.) after my final next week i am DONE with this swigg.

This i think is what he says to himself when his wife tries to make any type of communication with him...


Winter 2010... decent semester (if i'm not including this class)

i love college.

Thug Life Thursday

so my brother-in-law has a sister-in-law that has this blog.. (confused already? I've never met her b/c she had a baby like the same week my sister got married, so she didn't come out for that event.. but my sister says she's pretty amazing. i can tell she's right just by looking at her blog) and every wednesday she posts a super cute/funny/priceless picture and she titles it "wordless wednesday." for a while now, i've wanted to do the same thing, but i don't want to COMPLETELY copy her.. so i kinda was thinking about starting something new for myself. i have chosen to call it "thug life thursday." I'll be moving in with savannah soon, and i'm pretty sure i can convince her to do this with me.. this is the first "thug life thursday" post. get ready for some great stuff. :|

EasteR egg HUNT

So last tuesday i found this paper in ben's pocket and he was pretty quick to take it away.. this is rare for ben.. so i knew this paper was pretty important and he didn't want me to see it, so it definitely had to do with me.. It was either a surprise for me, or a mean note he didn't want me seeing.. so, since it could never be the second option.. ;) it was definitely the first. so after pestering him relentlessly and always asking him "what's on the secret paper BEN!?" on friday night he finally said, "i'll tell you tomorrow night." surprisingly, after asking about 20 more times, that answer sufficed. Saturday morning i woke up to this outside my bedroom door:

Which led me to these... (they were all around town) The church i have ward prayer at, my sisters house, ben's house, and back at my house/garage/even in my CAR! (the whole time!)

Those led me to Ben who was waiting in my back yard to give me this.. THANKS BEN! I love you and your secret papers that have fun easter egg hunt surprises on them. Maybe next year i'll send him driving around town for 40 minutes.. :)SUCH a FUN day... :)

Overwhelmed.

is an understatement. Library is open till 2AM from April 5th to April 20th. Let's just say I'll probably be living there for the next 14 days. well, time for dinner. going to be the last one i have at home for a while.

lame-O.

i love my mom.

so i wanted to do an april fools joke. then i realized that i hate april fools jokes. so i didn't. that's all.
except for i did like reminiscing about the times where we used to tape mom's sprayer down so she would get sprayed when she turned on the water... then she would totally get us back by leaving it taped and we would totally fall for our own joke! ahh.. that was probably the only funny one that's ever happened in my life.. so yeah. i love my mom for putting up with us and for totally beating us at our own game.. i want to be like her when i'm a mom. =]

Dear Houston... get a clue.

Dear Houston (the place, not the apollo 13 reference)... the church is true. so get a clue. Love, natalie. Well, for all those people who haven't already gotten a clue, Ben's brother Tom will help them out. GOOD LUCK ELDER CHAMBERLAIN!

This kid is amazing. (ignore ben's closed eyes.. we can't win 'em all)

God's Speed Elder. :)