Wow, it's been awhile...

Yes, I have decided to finally blog again. We have been busy since...October. Oops. We are still having fun with our puppy, she is crazy but really smart. Steve is teaching her all sorts of tricks, but my favorite is "play dead" which I taught her. And she is SO good at it! Anyway, we have been doing lots over the past few months. We attended our 5th annual Diabetes Walk here in Las Vegas. It was very different from Logan, more people, obviously, but we enjoyed it. Well, I did, and Steve looks thrilled.


We have been home several times, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Leslie's Wedding! They were all fun trips, and it is so nice to go back to visit. Steve has been doing really well in school, and presented research at 2 conferences. One in LA and one in SLC-YAY! I went with him, naturally. Here we are riding beach cruisers on the beach at Santa Monica. It was so much fun, I LOVED it. And I think Steve is so sweet to agree to do this with me. But we did fight over the pink bike ;)


We went to a restaurant in downtown at The Standard hotel, and it was so cool, I had to take pictures. The walls were textured and it was very modern and very yellow. They also gave me a small packet of Nutella, so I was in love. And they had this organ sitting on one side of the lobby so I made Steve take my picture by it. I thought it was pretty sweet. If I ever own one, I think I would like one like this.


We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Steve surprised me with tickets to go see the Phantom of the Opera. (I have really wanted to go). And here he is getting all dressed up because I wanted to. But he looks so nice, I'm glad he did it! And it is a wonderful show. I will go again when you come and visit me.


And earlier this month, my sister got married so we got to visit home again. Congrats Les and Shayman! It was a busy week. I was part of the decorating/floral team for the reception. It was so fun, I got to hang out with my buddies Denise and Julie. And I will post some pictures when Leslie sends them to me. I didn't take any because my camera isn't that great, so I left that task to my sister Kaylie and the wedding photographer. But Les looked so beautiful and her reception was lovely too. Yes, I am saying that we did a great job. Thank you.
Well, I will try to update more consistently from now on. Ya, I always say that...

Our New Puppy

So I finally gave in and let Steve buy a puppy. He has been begging for awhile. Her name is Elliot/Ellie (whatever we're feeling that day) and she is a Welsh Corgi. It has been fun and I think she likes us.
She loves this squeaky toy.

We think this is funny, she likes to relax like this. Haha!

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner

At work the other day, I was checking up on some flower arrangements at one of the restaurants and they happened to be filming for the show Next Iron Chef. I've never watched it, but it was still exciting. I thought they would make me leave the restaurant, but in the spot I was they told me it would be fine-as long as I stayed there. So I kept working but right before they said "Ok people this is for real!" (yes, they really say that) the director made sure I was going to stay put... in the corner. Nice.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of this particular restaurant. I get to go there almost everyday. It's an authentic Spanish restaurant where I am able to increase my Spanish vocabulary :) And a fun fact about this restaurant is that in the restrooms, the music is very soft so they can play a recording of a woman teaching lots of Spanish phrases like "What's your name" and "I'm hungry". Haha, it's fun and I think I'm almost fluent.


This is a picture of the wall tiles. "Very Colorful"..."Muy colorido"
These are cool bubble dividers hanging from the ceiling. "This restaurant is beautiful"..."Este restaurante es hermoso".

This is the other side of the restaurant-it looks fancy with those chandeliers. "Check please!"..."La cuenta, por favor!"


These are the budvases on every table. I have to make sure all 62 of them look amazing! There are more arrangements too, but no pictures yet, sorry.

Happy V-Day!

This was actually the first year in like 7 that I haven't had to work ON Valentine's day, so I wasn't really sure what to do with myself! Just kidding, I knew exactly what to do...be with my Valentine of course! It was fun, even though we were both sick. We stayed in mostly, but we got take-out Chinese and had a (candlelight) picnic on the floor in our living room! I love you Steven! I'm glad I get to spend all my Valentine's with you.


This is also the first year that I have celebrated Chinese New Year. Weird, I know, but apparently it is a big deal in Las Vegas. I guess all the Chinese millionaires come to gamble, but they are very superstitious about it. They love flowers-but only in specific shades. Certain flowers symbolize good and bad luck. All white flowers-bad. Cherry blossom and bamboo-good. and on and on and on... Seriously, those are just a few of many, but who wants bad luck when gambling? So, our flower designs all changed this month to incorporate these beliefs. The hotel looks really cool with Chinese lanterns, statues and characters. But despite all the particulars involved we, (my partner Yoko and I) made some really cool arrangements with lucky bamboo this week.







Most of these are on the top floors in the hotel Villas, where I've been working lately. You can see cute orange trees in the background, they really go all out! (Sorry the pics are blurry, but I took them really quick on my work phone). But it was fun, and I learned it is the year of the Tiger. It depends on the year you were born, but both Steve and I are Tigers. This year is supposed to bring us good luck, happiness and success! Woo Hoo!

2010

So Steve and I enjoyed our first New Year's in Las Vegas. Downtown gets really wild and crazy because of all the parties going on, so we stayed in and watched the fireworks from the hill behind our apartment. They were actually really cool, sorry about my pictures. They lit fireworks off of the top of some casinos on the strip at midnight. We had a pretty good view.



Things are going good though. Steve is in school again, and I work all day. But we try to explore on the weekends. This afternoon we drove to Lake Las Vegas where all the millionaires winter homes are, and we planned to drive around, but the private neighborhoods wouldn't let us in. Steve said we looked too poor, haha. Oh well, it was a nice drive there and back, and we caught a glimpse. Well, we miss everybody, so come visit and we'll find some more things we can actually do!

December

So we safely moved to Las Vegas NV, and it is exciting and scary for us. I started my job at the new Aria resort. It's pretty cool, very stressful and I've been working very long hours! But the hotel is beautiful, there are so many cool things to see. Since I work all day we haven't had any free time to go see much, (except for the Target down the street from our house!) but hopefully we can soon. We REALLY miss everyone, I hope that we can come home for Christmas but we're not sure right now. I love Christmas time, and that makes me even more homesick! But if you're ever coming down to Vegas, please call us. We're pretty fun sometimes :)

Halloween.......................................09

So, this year Steve and I dressed up as Eric and Ariel from the Little Mermaid. It is one of my favorite movies-just ask my parents. I can sing just like her and they know it! (I wish). But our costumes turned out pretty good. I think it would have been really funny if Steve was Ariel and I was Eric. I don't think he would have gone for that though. Oh well, it was fun. We had trick-or-treaters starting at 4:15!, went to fun parties, and ate lots of candy. Thanks for being a good sport Steve...I love Halloween.

I Miss Fall...

Fall came and went quickly in Logan. It is one of my favorite times of year, especially here because there are SO many trees, leaves and canyons nearby to admire. It's not too not, not too cold, it's just right. I love it! This is a gorgeous view of our street, but my camera doesn't do it justice.

And since Halloween is almost here, my grandma and I made cupcakes with spooky sugar decorations. They turned out pretty cute, she is so festive!

Tuesday To Do List

1. Go to work
2. Go to school
3. Temple visit
4. Pay Bills
5. Make zucchini brownies
6. Naptime ;)
7. Drive to Tremonton
8. Stop at Taco Time!
9. Mow grandma's lawn
10. Enjoy the fall weather, SO nice!
11. Visit Mom, Jess & Kaylie
12. Take flowers to grandma
13. Bake brownies
14. Take Brian's hot rod to Steve's house
15. Visit Steve's family, including Blake!
16. Drive back home, survive the wind.
17. Water the plants
18. Read my new book and go to bed.

done and DONE! Wow, we had a busy day!

"School" Clothes

On Monday, my mom took my sisters (minus Kaylie who was sick), me, my grandma AND grandpa to Park City to shop for "school" clothes. I don't have school anymore but I tagged along anyway. We had fun, I don't know how much fun grandma and grandpa had (haha) but we were glad they came. We even had a little picnic! I bought some school clothes for Steve since he really is going to school and I made him try them ALL on, but he said no pictures, sorry. I'm glad we went, thanks again Mom!

So this month Steve and I have been partying like it was our birthday-mostly because it was. We are both 23 now, which is fun. We are still getting used to it. We treated ourselves to a vacation earlier this month, we were invited to dinner with our families, and opened many fun cards and gifts. Thanks to all for our birthday wishes. July is our favorite month, so we are still going to party.

Jade helping Uncle Steve open his presents.

I don't know why she made this face! Haha!


My grandpa wishing us a happy birthday before we ate the cake.

Last week, Steve and I went to Hogle Zoo with some of our family. We had lots of fun, and we got to see the animals from Madagascar. Here's a few pictures.

Us enjoying the nice hot sun.
I made Jess and Kaylie stand in front of the elephants so I could take their picture. I convinced them I needed it because their birthday was the next day. So they let me.

I brought some pixie stix with us and when Jade ate her first one, she put so much of it in her mouth that it was too much for her and this is what her face looked like-puckered. Haha! After that they were her favorite and she kept asking for more "sticks".
After our zoo trip we headed up to Powerhouse to go camping with Steve's family. We had so much fun, we got to use our tent for the first time! Yay! And we got to try out our 4-wheeler on the trails. Steve looks like he's having fun, right? He really did...he told me so.

Leaf Art

I found this really cool website pressedleaf.com and I loved almost all of the leaf art on it! And we can't afford to decorate much so I decided I would make some myself. The difficult thing is that to make this it takes almost all year to gather the leaves! I have 3 maple leaves of different colors and still needed green, so my wonderful husband took me into the canyon yesterday-after stopping for a slurpie :) to gather some for my leaf press. It was a fun outside day, thanks Steve! This picture is actually from the website but it's what I'm trying to create. All four are hung in my kitchen, but my green leaf was looking faded so I got some bright spring ones. Hopefully soon mine will look as good as these. Check out his website, it's really cool!

Clean!

I have to mention how awesome my Steven is. So yesterday when I came home from work, my AMAZING husband had cleaned our house! Even though he has finals to study for this week and he works everyday, I came home to find that he had picked up all our stuff that had been lying around, vacuumed upstairs and downstairs, cleared off our computer desk hidden under papers and books, dusted, did the dishes, a load of laundry, AND made the bed. (It made me feel really lazy that I slacked off and hadn't done anything!) But I was so grateful, and it was SO sweet. I love you Steve! Thanks for everything you do for me.
p.s. I'll take care of the bathrooms :)

happy you and me day

My Steven, today is our 1st anniversary, our own special day. 1 year went by so fast, but I am so lucky I got to spend it with you. I never thought we would be THIS happy, but I am. I love you so much, happy you and me day.

Memories of our wedding day...

Yay for Kitchenaid!

I just wanted to share my good fortune with you. My Kitchenaid stand mixer arrived 2 days ago, and I am in love, as you can tell! Steve thinks it's funny how excited I am, so we took a picture. I made some cupcakes (easy and quick) tonight just because I wanted to use it! It is such a fun green color, it makes me happy. If you don't have one, I recommend getting one!

Welcome Spring!...Maybe

So on Sunday my wonderful husband and I went on a walk to enjoy the nice weather. But on Monday we woke up to 2 feet of snow! Ok, so it wasn't 2 feet exactly, maybe more like 10 inches, but it felt like 2 feet after helping Steve shovel our driveway and dig out our cars. And it snowed steadily ALL day! Luckily Steve drove me to work because he didn't have school. Happy 1st day of spring break Steven! The snow was exciting, and even though I love the snow, I am ready for spring.

Happy LOVE Month!

It's that time of year again, the month of love! I am NOT excited to work next week straight, but I always survive, somehow. Even though the cheesy, extreme guys (who decide they want one rose of each color to symbolize all the emotions in their relationship...gag) drive me crazy, I just have to keep thinking that they love somebody just as much as I love my Steven. He is the Best Valentine ever, and he's mine! I am so lucky.
Esteban, Tus labios son el agua de amor, y yo tengo sed.
(this is a great pick-up line, it worked on Steve!)

Christmas 2008

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas! I am posting a little late but we wanted to share that Steve got his shotgun! Right on! Even though there were no squeals of delight like I was hoping, I could tell he was excited. And he gave me the BEST perfume ever, I freakin love it! (And I smell amazing, haha). These were just a few of the many gifts we received thanks to our wonderful families! Anyway, he took his new gun to "shoot stuff" and it lives up to his expectations so I am extremely relieved and glad my dad picked it out instead of me.

Steve opening his shot gun.
Sorry, no pictures of him in action.

January 6, 2009

A year ago today, Steven Gary Manning asked me to marry him! It was a snowy, beautiful day-one I will always remember. His truck got stuck in a snowy drift, and while I wasn't the happiest girl while I helped him get unstuck (I will admit it), 20 minutes later he made me the happiest girl ever! Thanks again for asking me to marry you Steve, I love you so much. Aren't you glad I said yes?