the Church is True

We have been very blessed recently/our whole life. but the last 24 hours have been especially amazing. Ben got a new (FULL-TIME) job that he will start at the beginning of summer and have through fall we just made the most amazing bundt cake and we found a place to live starting in summer that is even CHEAPER than where we are living now! somewhat smaller, but still a great deal!!!! (still kinda ghetto, but who cares it's definitely worth how much we'll be paying) We're excited to continue to live our life and save money and also continue to be so greatful to our Heavenly Father for blessing us so much. He really has helped us find all these great things (job, apt, bundt cake recipe, etc) :) We owe it all to him and will TRY to continue to read our scriptures/say our prayer/fast/pay tithing/try to be righteous... basically, we need to be just saying thank you all the time to our Heavenly Father because he is AMAZING. That's all for tonight. The Church is True so check it out.

LDS.ORG

helpful hint.

Well, after taking 2 tests (92% on one, and high hopes for the other) i have started to study for test #3... in doing so, i have discovered this helpful hint that I am going to try to remember for the final:

When studying for your finance test... don't start at chapter 9... It will make no sense because you haven't read chapters 7 & 8.

That's all. Until next time, --go in order.

just a day.. :]

guess what we made???? -- APPLESAUCE MUFFINS!!!!! they were DE-LISH.

I was so glad my mom emailed me the recipe. we made them tonight for dinner (b/c we weren't hungry for anything that took more than 20 minutes to cook).

Also, we went to a wedding/sealing today in Salt Lake for Ben's cousin Michael. It was a great ceremony and their colors were LIME GREEN and ROYAL PURPLE. it was a bright and unusual combo, but still beautiful. I only got one pic of the happy couple and it was of their heads cut off. Lame. Right? and I got a new outfit to wear to the wedding and it looks weird in this pic because you can't see my hot shoes. but ben thought I looked good so I believe him. =] I'm still adjusting to the new hair and pretty much only like it straightened... so we'll see.

This is us after the ceremony right after Mike and Chloe came out of the temple. funny thing is.. I bought that shirt just the other day and it pretty much matches ben's tie PERFECTLY. so we're super precious and matchy. =]

Also, we made some good chicken/pasta salad stuff.

this was the BEFORE pic from the delicious calzones we made. only lame thing is.. i forgot to take a pic of the AFTER!! jeeze. Well, they were de-lish and ben was really good at combining the ingredients. if we make them again, i'll try to take an after pic.

that's all for now. until my 3 midterms are over. adios.

blog slacker/busy.

So I've been trying to figure out what to post... hence the reason I haven't posted since AnnMarie's birthday. Well.... i'm back with not much to say... Back a little while ago aka beginning of february we went to the Ice Castles. They weren't as cool as they were the first year... but they were still awesome.

Also, as usual.. we like to cook and try new stuff... this is chicken cacciatore. it was pretty good.

Meatloaf with the delicious ranch mashed potatoes.

We also love pizza. and we made BBQ Chicken Pizza! it was great!

also, in recent news, i started working for the Sociology Student Association (SSA) at BYU and it's been fun. Keeps me way too busy but that's ok. I am excited to see the semester coming to a close but it's going to be a rough next month. i've got 3 more tests this week and a few papers to do. so yeah.. it will be busy and I'll try to be less of a blog slacker as my cousin tells me. =] haha thanks for the motivation heidi. can't wait to see you in a few weeks for the YW Broadcast. that will be awesome to go to LIVE.

Dear Cousin A.M.M.E.H.

Well, today/morrow (Feb. 26th) is my BCF's bday (if you're wondering what that stands for... it's BEST COUSIN FOREVER!) yes. This is her:

A.M.M.E.H.

(i could tell you her whole name, but that's dangerous! -- and i'm respecting her dislike for her middle name)

she is my favorite. I just wanted to give a little shout out to her because i miss her so much (and it's her special day). Here are some things that I love about A.M. --

I love that we can talk for hours and still have so much more to say. I love that we would go to stake dances together and rock out. I love that we would go to efy and party like we were 16. I love that we would have sleepovers when we were little. I love that we always stood next to each other in the cousin lineup for pics. I love that we would go to harry potter midnight showings (AND dress up!).

I love that I got to go to Hawaii with her. I love that she would hang out on long weekends at grandpa's with me and make pink rice krispie treats to swoon ben with (he had no clue).

I love that she loves Greys/Bones/america's next top model so we can watch re-runs till forever. I also love that she loves visiting me. She even came all the way from sanDiego for my wedding. It was awesome to see/talk/visit with her and talk about new married life.

She is such a trooper while she's all alone-ish in S.D. She is such a great mother and wife and I love her for that too. I love that she lets me hold max for just 5 special minutes while everyone else is trying to steal him from me. I just love HER. she is great. and she has cute clothes that i'm jealous of sometimes. =] So...

Dear Cousin Ann Marie M.E.H. :) I hope your day is great and that max and larry make you feel happy on this your 24th birthday. (even if you are sick) I love you and can't wait till i see you next. Let's skype soon. ok? ok. love, natalie.

p.s. feel free to come out for graduation. it's during easter break (well, law school probably doesn't have that... but still) =] xoxox

we're FAMOUS!

so this is old news to my family, but I still think it's really cool. Over the christmas break, my mom got a package. Being the nosy daughter that i am, i opened it with my mom right away and it was these random bridal magazines.. well not random, it was the Sacramento Bride and Groom Magazine. before we got too confused thinking, "uhhh, don't these people know, the wedding was 4 months ago!" we read the note. It said something like this... "your kids are in these, more than once" so of course we started flipping through them page by page. We were so excited. I started in the front, mom started in the back... and BAM. There we were! on FOUR PAGES! let me tell you a few things about this magazine:

1. It's a SACRAMENTO magazine, not an LDS magazine (I'm wearing a modest dress, this is a big deal).

2. This magazine comes out TWICE a year (this makes it an even bigger deal).

3. hundreds of people submit photos for this and don't even make it in (we have FOUR pics=big deal).

well, all of this is a big deal to us at least... we feel cool and we wanted to share our excitement with everyone. You can view the magazine online by clicking HERE. We are on pages 86, 110, 151 & 173. one pic is of our candy bar that halie did for us which is fun, but the rest are 1/2 page pics of PEOPLE. aka ben and natalie (for 2 of them) and then one of my sibs. it's awesome. well, thanks for letting me share the joy of being cool for 10 seconds... now i'm caught up with one post... just a few more to go.. peace.

still deciding..

the pics look worse than what it looks like in real life... but i'm still in debate. =] it's definitely puffier than normal..