Bring on the Smiles:)

Researches say they can predict if a Marriage will last by flipping through the Newlyweds Wedding Album. A recent study from an Indiana University showed that those couples with the most intense and brightest smiles were more likely to remain married. This article caught my attention because when I think back on Ashley & Nate's Wedding day the one thing that stands out the most to me are the gorgeous smiles they had on their faces all day long. One of my favorite moments (besides the ceremony) was when they stepped out of the Temple together holding hands as Husband and Wife with these big bright intense smiles (those of you who were there to witness it know what I'm talking about... seriously it was one of the sweetest things I have ever seen:)

Most of you that read this blog have seen Ashley & Nate's Wedding pictures that were taken by the talented Jessica Kettle by now, but for those of you who haven't, you can take a look at some of them on Jessica's blog. Of course since I'm the Mother of the Bride I think they all turned out Beautiful but I want to know which one your favorite is!

p.s. Check out the Wedding video that Jessica added to the end of her post which was filmed by the incredible David Perry, who is also very talented and so nice to work with. Make sure you click on the white square of arrows next to the word Vimeo to enlarge it:)

Oh and don't forget to watch for those smiles I was telling you about:)

Wedding Day Goodness click here

Twice as Nice

Happy Birthday Karli & Nate!

Karli's BIRTHday July 19, 1990

Justin & Ashley watching Karli's first bath
Look at that hat the Nurse put on Justin:)
It's says....It's a girl!

Cutest little bundle of pink you have ever seen:)

Nate's 5th Birthday... July 19, 1990 (the day Karli was born)

What a cute little guy:)

Now that Nate has joined our family, July 19th is going to be twice as...
NARLI!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE & KARLI
I Love you both so much!

Showered with Love

Ashley was the lucky recipient of Six.... yes you read it right.... 6 bridal showers that were thrown for her before the big day. The first shower was hosted by a group of her cute High School friends where they spent the afternoon celebrating, laughing and catching up on each others lives:) The second one was a trip downtown to a swanky day spa and hip cafe with a couple of her wild & crazy room mates from College...more celebrating and laughing ensued:)

The next three showers were in May, with the first one given by the Roe's. It was a family shower that not only included just girls but the guys as well. They ate a delicious dinner and played a fun game. Each guest was given a small household item and then had the chance to guess along with Ashley and Nate what it cost. Whoever guessed the closest to the actual price got to keep that item. Ashley & Nate scored big! (only because everyone ended up giving their gift to them anyway;)

The pictures from the next two showers were uploaded on our laptop instead of the desktop and the next day it crashed! This is the first time we have ever lost digital pictures off a computer and I can't tell you how sick I am about it... sick sick sick:(but I'm not going to let it stop me from telling you about them anyway:) p.s. Does anyone else have pictures of these?

At the Davies Shower we feasted on homemade Cafe Rio Pork Salad for dinner. It is one of Ashley's favorite meals, and it was sooooo delicious! We played a fun game where each guest was given a stick of gum and a question about Nate that he had answered in advance. If Ashley knew the answer the guest had to chew the stick of gum but if she didn't know it then she had to chew it. Ashley didn't do so well at this game and had the biggest wad of gum in her mouth I have ever seen.... you would have loved the picture:) They also gave everyone a cellophane bag filled with white chocolate popcorn that was tied up with ribbon and a darling silver heart charm. Such a cute idea since popcorn is the well known snack at Grandma Davies house (minus the white chocolate of course:)

Next on the calendar was the Neighborhood Open House Shower given by the 3 ladies I serve with in Relief Society and a friend that I served with in Young Women's. First we ate a delicious Strawberry Salad and homemade rolls, which reminds me... I still need to find out who made those and get the recipe! For dessert we ate the yummiest lemon & chocolate cupcakes with real pansies on top....so pretty:)

The last Shower she had was given by the Atwood side of the family where we basked in the goodness of another one of Ashley's favorite meals... Barbecue Chicken Salad. Hmmm I wonder who she gets her love of salads from:)

We finished off this delicious dinner with these cute bite sized cupcakes...
mmmmm they were as tasty as they were pretty!

The table was decorated with a piece of fabric that was leftover from the bridesmaids dresses, doesn't it look so pretty?

My niece Holly made these cute labels that matched Ashley's Wedding invitations to go on the pink cherry soda's.

The favors were these cute birds nest filled with Ashley's favorite treat...Jordan Almonds:)

Holly, Patti, Emily, Trisha, Grandma & Marcie

Linda, Robyn, Dayna Syd, Lisa, Karli, & Amy

The Roe's... Rosemary, Natalie & the future Mrs. Roe...Ashley

I promise we didn't make them sit and eat all by themselves...really we didn't :)
We like them a lot.... a real lot!

My Sister-in-law Janene played a fun game called Bridal Bingo. First she gave everyone a true and false sign and then called out a bridal word that was also on one of the squares on our bingo cards. Next she read a statement about Ashley & Nate and we had to hold up the sign of our choice. Ashley would then show her card and if our answer matched hers we could mark the matching square. We were having so much fun learning about Ashley & Nate that we played until someone ended up with double Bridal Bingo:)

Why did everyone guess false except for Grandma? Yep...she was wrong

This game provided us with some great laughs and everyone learned a lot about
the newest (and probably most romantic) member of our family!
Ashley is one lucky girl:)

Showered with gifts

Showered with happiness

Showered with Love

p.s. Coming soon...
The advice book that we put together at this shower turned out so cute it deserves its own post!

I can see clearly now

the pain is gone

I had envisioned what my 4th of July was going to look like this year... Decorate my front porch in the finest 4th of July fashion, neighborhood breakfast/parade, hike to Bell Canyon Waterfall, lay by the pool, delicious barbecue, fireworks... I was going to do it all. My eye however had a different plan and it didn't include any of these fun filled festivities, especially the ones that involved sunlight or bright colorful bombs bursting through air:) Here's how my Holiday played out...

Last week I was living my life free from any kind of medication, not even an occasional Tylenol ... I just don't need it... then suddenly one day I found myself on all of these!

Eight different meds... 5 pills, and 3 different drops. Some of the pills I take once a day and others I take two and three times a day, with a grand total of around 20 pills a day. One of the drops I use 4 times a day while the other two are every two hours. There are so many different drugs and times that my doctor made me draw up a chart to keep track of everything which I thought was a silly idea at first, but quickly learned that I would have been totally lost without it.

Now I know that this post is a little lengthy so you can stop right here if you want...but here's a little heads up... if you make it to the end you can consider yourself my best friend for life:)

My ears have been plugged for a couple of weeks now...ringing and full of pressure. I couldn't stand it any longer and went to Insta Care last Saturday. They told me my blood pressure was a little high and that there was some fluid behind my right ear drum but they didn't look plugged. The doctor sent me home with an antibiotic. Sunday my face felt swollen and was hurting a little bit and by that night my right eye felt like it had sand in it.

Monday: I made an appointment with an ENT Specialist and had Jake go buy me some drops for pink eye.

Tuesday: My eye was killing me and it felt like it had been poked really hard... you know the feeling when it hurts so bad that you can't open it no matter how hard you try... ya that one:) Anyway I was feeling pretty sick and was starting to think that it was something besides a bad case of pink eye, so I made another trip to Insta Care that night. When they took my blood pressure they couldn't believe how high it was.... 212/116! no wonder I was feeling so sick! The Doctor looked at my eye and said I had 2 lesions on my cornea, wrote me out a prescription for high blood pressure, tylenol with codeine for the pain (wasn't strong enough) and an eye drop.

Wednesday: My eye felt even worse but I got up and went to the specialist to see about my ears. He ran some tests, looked in my ears and prescribed a steriod and suggested I see a Neurologist about the pain behind my ear and the back of my head. When I left his office I considered going over to the ER about my eye but found an eye doctor in the same complex so I walked in and asked if I could be seen that day. The receptionist took one look at me and asked if I could come back at 2:00. When I returned they ran some eye tests which I failed and then the Doctor cleaned the entire surface of my eye with a Q-tip and told me I had an infection on my eye that was the same virus as a cold sore... so basically a cold sore on my cornea! He prescribed two more eye drops and another antibiotic and told me to take them in addition to the ones I was already on. Luckily I happened to mentioned that I had just been prescribed some steroids for my ears which he immediately said he didn't want me to take. He called my ear doctor and they both agreed to have me hold off on that medication for awhile. Apparently steroids can make this particular strain of virus spread like crazy...ahh dang it! He then told me to come back and see him in the morning. I honestly don't know how I drove home since by now my good eye was super sensitive to any kind of light and I could barely keep it open, but as soon as I got home I curled up in a ball on the couch with a ice pack and now instead of sand it felt like I had shards of glass under my eyelid....OUCH:(

Thursday: When I woke up and opened my eye everything was blurry and it scared me. Both eyes were hurting and extremely sensitive to the light. I don't know if it was from all the drops I was using or the fact that my left eye was doing all the work (probably both) but I was glad I was headed to another appointment. After driving with only one eye that was even barely open (I'm tough but not very smart!) I made it to the office where I failed the eye test, miserably this time. After cleaning off the entire surface of my eyeball the Doctor told me that the infection had spread into my line of vision and was very concerned about it so he wanted me to come back again the next morning. I drove home and went straight to bed feeling as sick as I did the day before and praying that I wasn't going to lose my vision in that eye.

Friday: Waking up I immediately blinked my eye a few times checking to see if my vision had improved. It was blurry but it seemed a little better. I quickly jumped in the car for my 5th trip to the Doctors office that week, anxious to see what the Doctor had to say. After the same old routine he told me that it looked like the drugs were finally doing the trick:) He asked me to come back Monday morning and I left feeling relieved knowing that he didn't feel the need to see me for two whole days:)

Monday: I walked into the now very familiar Doctors office feeling like it was such a normal part of my morning routine, and when he looked up and saw me, he smiled and I knew it was going to be good news:)

Monday Night: My eye is still swollen and a little sensitive to light, but today is the first day since last Monday that I have been able to stand to look at a computer screen for longer than a second. I am finally on the mend and already planning a bigger and brighter celebration for July 4th 2010!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!