Cody and Susie

16 week baby bump

2011-11-06T21:00:00.001-08:00

Little Baby Mortensen must have felt like showing off on this day because the bump looked significantly more like a baby bump than it usually does. The custodian at the school noticed and asked if I was pregnant. I was so excited. That is the first time someone asked me who didn't already know.

I'm currently 17 and a half weeks. We find out if our little one is a boy or girl on the 20th of this month.

Halloween at Eastlake

2011-11-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

The other 2 teachers that are on A track with me and I dressed up as the Three Little Pigs for Halloween. The kids thought it was great and some of my kids told me, "you're the wise one" or "you're the one that lives!"

When we headed through the Halloween parade, my class and I were the last of the first grade so I heard a lot of parents say, "Oh there's the 3rd one" as we walked by. Walking through the parade felt a little awkward, but the day was fun! In the afternoon we acted out the story for our classes.

Little pig 1 has straws on her sign and little pig 2 has popsicle sticks.

I chopped it

2011-10-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

After saying that I would cut my hair for a long time, I finally did. And i love the results!

Going red

2011-01-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

I was getting really sick of my natural dirty dishwater blonde hair color growing in so I finally tried a box dye. (With the help of Shauna) So here's the before and the after.

Some Craft Projects that have actually made it to the FINISHED Pile!

2010-10-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

A pair of cowboy "boot"ies to go with my nephew's adorable little wrangler bum.

He wanted to play with them and eat them:

Oreo truffles for a potluck:

The diaper bag I made for my sister:

A wrist pincushion was a birthday present for my friend Thy. I glued the blue beads on the pins so they'd match the snails.

I made these dry erase boards as auction items for the Miss Rodeo Utah pageant silent auction.

And a quick baby present: a cupcake made of onesies, washcloths, and a headband with 2 interchangeable flowers

Giveaway for some GORGEOUS necklaces

2010-08-30T21:47:00.001-07:00

So I realize I'm kind of a lame blogger...I actually do have some pictures to post but I haven't gotten to that yet.

BUT

I had to share this jewelery website and giveaway I just found. I've seen a lot of the stamped jewelery around the blog world, but this gal's is by far my favorite.
Lisa Leonard Designs
I just have to share a few of my favorites:

Every piece is absolutely gorgeous. And you can enter to win a $50 gift certificate here

(I might have to send Cody here around Christmas time)

Graduation Weekend!

2010-05-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

Cody graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Construction Management this weekend and I am so proud of him. (and we are so glad that he's done with his schooling) Here's some pictures:

Isn't he a handsome graduate?!

(p.s. I edited some of these with an online editor called picnik. It's free and you don't have to download any software to your computer. You can see what a bloggin mama did with the program here.

Brittany and Angie graduated in the same college as Cody (they're in the math education dept.)

We went to lunch at Costa Vida and My 4 year old niece Lara put 3 straws in her cup. When I asked her why she said, "So it's like an Alien" . . .Ahhhh. (later she explained that it's like and alien "because it has 3 eyes like an alien"--Oh I get it now)

It was also Lara's birthday party on Sunday.

This weekend I also made this ruffle butt onesie and headband. I saw the idea here and the tutorial here awhile ago and have been wanting to try it. I also made a belt for myself with a pretty flower clip but I didn't take a picture of it.

Take That Sugar Cookies!

2010-04-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

Every time I try to make sugar cookies, I fail in some way. I tried again at Christmas and was reminded of why I hate to make sugar cookies. The point of this story is that because of this animosity I have with sugar cookies, I was a bit skeptical of what my skills would be with another cookie treat I've been wanting to try. Granted they really aren't that much alike but I was reminded of the sugar cookies anyway.

I'm loving how the little tufts of hair/feathers turned out on these chicks!

Mine are not perfectly pretty like the pros but I think they're still pretty cute. You can see where I got the idea here

Since Wal-Mart is the only store I had, I was limited with my supplies. I'm just now realizing that I forgot to put whiskers on my rabbits. Oops! From start to finish (clean up included) 16 of these little guys took me 2 hours and 1 bag of candy melts. That's much better than my sugar cookie time. Now that I have a better idea of what to do, I'm sure I can make way more in the same time.

2009 update!

2010-03-31T10:40:00.000-07:00

Ok so I've been super bad about blogging about real things so I'm going to try to do a quick catch up. I don't know if we were overloaded with pictures around our wedding or what, but we haven't taken many pictures since we got married, but I'll post what we have!

The NFR! Cody and I were so excited! My cousin has tickets for every night of the NFR every year and she had two extras every night. Cody and I got to go the the last night and spend some time with my parents, lil bro, and Lee and J.R. (who we rarely get to see). It was GREAT, but of course I forgot my camera so the only picture I have is the one they take at the AT&T booth. I've tried to get rid of that red eye in every program I have (I don't have many) and couldn't do it so there we are-robot eyes and all.

Many years ago, my dad and his friends decided to start a youth coyote hunt with the purpose of getting kids out hunting and having fun with their families. It has grown so much since that first year! It is a really great time and all the kids have fun. EVERY kid gets at least one prize item just for being there and then EVERY kid gets a drawing item and the drawing items range from small items all the way up to guns....a whole lot of guns! This year Cody and I went with my dad, little brother, and cousin Bryant. My dad's good friend Chopper passed away a few years ago from complications from a brain tumor. He was one of the guys that started the hunt with my dad and our families had done a lot with each other over the years. He was like an uncle to my little brother and I. In honor of him, they started a contest at the hunt called "Spirit of the Hunt". The kids write a story using that theme and their experiences during the hunt. The story that gets picked gets a special rifle that has "The Chopper" engraved on it (It's the chopper gun). This year my little brother's story won. I started crying when they read it outloud (in fact I'm tearing up now). You'd have to read it and know Chopper to know what I'm talking about but I was just so proud of my lil bro.

Oh and that face mask that my cousin is wearing in the middle picture is super creepy in the very early morning when there's mist and it looks like a horror movie anyway. He scared the tuna salad out of me!

At the beginning of the fall semester, Cody's parents brought us boxes and boxes and boxes (seriously I think there were seven boxes) of peaches from Grandma Quilter's trees. They were perfect delicous peachy goodness but I was feeling a little overwhelmed at the thought of what we were going to do with all those! Ha well Cody put them all in one of the empty apartments under the swamp cooler with a blanket over them to keep them cool. It was quite the sight the first time he lifted up the blanket to show me all of them. We were able to give some away but most of them we dried and bottled. It was . . . a mess! But we felt pretty accomplished when we finally finished. It was our first time and we did it!

Two of my good friends got married in August, just one week apart. And OF COURSE the two weeks of their receptions were the two weeks that Cody had his 2 week army training in Wisconsin! So I was flying solo, well kind of anyway. I had friends to go to both Kellie's and Annika's wedding with. They were so much fun! (p.s. Callie, Colter and I got a little lost while running an errand in the process of getting to Kellie's reception. Oops!

In August we went to Lagoon with Cody's family and we also got a new car that weekend. I don't have a picture of it but it is a 2007 black Saturn Aura. We love it! I made us get some of those old time Lagoon photos . . . doesn't everyone have one of these with their spouses in the first few year they're married?

Last summer we went to the Due West and Lady Antebellum concert at the Dixie Sunbowl. It was SO great! We love them both but if you haven't heard Due West before you should really look them up! If I got started I really wouldn't be able to quit saying good things about them! I wanted to get a spontaneous dance picture but it just wasn't working, so please excuse the blur. Cody and I did swing dance to one of Due West's songs, and I have to say that dancing in the dirt and grass is a little difficult but very fun!

Cody and I went to Pine Lake last summer for our only camping trip of the season. My parents came out to meet us and we had a really good time. As you can tell from the size of that fish, we didn't have much luck in the fishing department . . . so I started taking pictures and playing with the color settings on my camera. Our poor tent didn't make it through the trip alive, unfortunately. That reminds me, we better get a move on getting a new one because we plan to get A LOT more camping in this summer!

New Blog to Follow and Giveaway

2010-03-29T00:02:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been looking at crafting and DIY decor blogs. One of them is http://diaryofacraftaholic.blogspot.com and they have a very nifty giveaway of a tote going right now! Check it out!

I can't help passing on a good deal!

2010-02-11T23:39:00.000-08:00

There's an outdoor outlet type store in St. George that my dad gets items from for the Youth Coyote Hunt, and when he went in last week, the lady gave him these vests to give to his daughters! (So I was pretty excited of course!) She also said that if anyone else wanted one they were only 10 bucks!!! So if you want one, let me know and I'll have my dad go in and get some. They come in many different colors, but the only 3 I know for sure are black, tan, and a very light blue.

I really like the vests because they are cute and warm but they are also lightweight. All my other vests are pretty bulky so these ones are nice that way. They also have a nice, soft lining.

The Case of the Missing Khakis

2010-01-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

A case long thought to be cold was solved this weekend . . .

So 3 years ago when I moved to Bryce Valley for the summer, 1/3 of my stuff went with me, 1/3 of it went to my sister's house, and 1/3 of it went to my parents' house in St. George. With this haphazard packing style, it's not surprising that I misplaced many items--some would be found, and some, like the khakis, I thought were gone forever. This weekend I decided to go through and clean out a lot of my stuff in my bedroom at home and what did I find but the two delinquent pairs of khakis. You may be wondering why I'm making such a big deal about these khakis, but I will be doing a lot of practicum hours in the schools this sememster and next so I will be wearing dress pants and khakis much more often than usual. They came home just in time and, needless to say, it was a very happy reunion!

Our Honeymoon . . . Finally!

2009-07-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

So I finally got these pictures ready to post and I've got some more errands to do today so I think I'll just put the pictures up and let them speak for themselves :)

Unfortunately we weren't very good about getting pictures but this si what we have.

Hotel Del Coronado is where the prettiest beach is...it's also where the Marolyn Monroe movie "Some Like it Hot" was filmed. Which happens to be one of my favorite old movies!

We took the ferry a lot to get to San Diego (Our hotel was on Coronado Island).

We visited the USS Midway, but didn't buy their expensive picture.

We went to the zoo and the elephants were Cody's favorite!!!

This was Cody's first time at the beach and he spent a lot of time looking for good shells. The third picture is him trying to get me to come farther into the water to look with him. But it was TOO cold!

My flip flops had "just married" on the bottom of them, but I had a hard time getting the married to work very well for a picture.
We bought a little fishing pole at the local hardware store so we could fish off the pier on Coronado. Cody caught the biggest bass in the ocean! We met a lot of very nice San Diegoins that helped us throughout our week. The last people we met helped us set up our pole for ocean fishing. So much fun!!!

Mi Pueblo

2009-07-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

So this post is kinda late but I would just like to suggest a new restaurant to everyone. Cody took me to that new mexican restaurant on South Main for my birthday and we loved it! It is called Mi Pueblo and we were so impressed with the food and the staff. The flavor of both our meals was super good and you could tell the employees and the people who own the place are trying really hard to make it a good business. We've heard some people say they are too expensive but they're not any more than applebee's and chili's and at least as good! Plus they gave us at lot of chips and salsa to go home with :)

So Dissapointed . . . .

2009-07-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

My sister, mother-in-law and I were headed down to St. George for my bridal shower a week before the wedding and we got a flat tire in my sister's van. Now, the three of us are fairly capable and knew how to change the tire but we did really struggle getting the dang jack and spare tire out of the back of the van so it took us a LONG time. So there we are, three girls fighting the back of a mini van and not one person stops to help us! Once we were almost done, someone finally stopped to help but I was so dissapointed that no one stopped before that. What's wrong with people these days?

Memorial Weekend Ride

2009-05-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Cody and I did a lot of driving this last weekend but it was worth it because we got to spend a little bit of time with both of our families. We went to cody's cousin's graduation in Escalante and then back to Cedar and then we went down to St. George Saturday night. The wind got a little wild and crazy that night and our tree about blew over. While Cody and my dad were working to keep the tree up my 8 year old nephew was getting pretty nervous. When we went back into the house he said to me serious as can be, "I'm afraid we're not going to live through this". I tried to reassure him without smiling too big but it was just so cute.

On Sunday Cody, my dad, and I went on a ride on Pine Valley. It was so stormy the night before but it was clear as can be and the perfect day for a ride sunday morning! I don't think that I've been on Pine Valley when it's been so wet! The ponds were full and everything was so green, it was absolutely gorgeous. Because of the rain the day before, parts of the trail were also very slippery.Ha notice that Gambler and Dee are nuzzling and being nice in this picture? Well about a second later she bit him...Ha!!! That tease!!! :0)The top right picture what went on everytime we got the camera out . . . I would forget i had my glasses on and I'd have to find something to do with the stuff in my hands, and you couldn't see Cody's face. Despite our struggles I think we got a few pretty cute ones. Luckily my dad likes taking pictures like me so he was always suggesting pictures. I told cody that must be where I get it from.
I've never seen so many wildflowers! There were all kinds and they were everywhere. I got to try out the digital macro setting on my camera and get a few pictures of them but I missed a lot. I think my favorites were the gorgeous red cactus flower that i have in the middle. I've never seen cactus flowers that vivid red!

I got most of these by the second pond we came to and at that pond there were two young cows. They looked like they must have survived the whole winter there without their mothers, though we couldn't figure out how or why. It was kind sad. While I was taking pictures they were following us around and kept following us until we got too far from their pond. Poor things!

Speaking of wildflowers, we passed this field that looked like it had a carpet of yellow wildflowers, so of course my dad and I thought we needed a picture in that field.

After our second run in with a rattle snake (yeah that's right 2 in one day, yick!!!) my dad was walking his mule and he picked me a little bouquet of wild flowers! it was so sweet! I tried to keep them for the rest of the ride but our descent was longer than I thought and they didn't survive very well. Part of the slick trail that wasn't so bad on our way up was like a slip n' slide going down. Dee lost her footing really bad at one point and I thought we were going down but somehow she caught her self and we made it the rest of the way down. I'm so proud of Dee. This was her first long mountain ride and she handled herself pretty well! She struggled with all the water crossings (even a water trough at the bottom of the trail terrified her) but hopefully next time they'll scare her a little less.

Since my first bouquet looked pretty sad by the time we got close to the truck, my dad picked me some more. What a sweetheart!

Cody's Uncle Tom

2009-05-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

Cody's Uncle Tom has been working on some songs for our wedding. You can check out one of them called "Since I Fell For You" on his blog.
http://steelmysong.blogspot.com/

Steal of a Deal with our Photographer

2009-04-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Our photographer is offering a deal to anyone that books with them after being referred by us. (We don't get anything out of it, they're just trying to build their business. They are located in West Jordan, Utah. You can look at their portfolio and our pictures at warrentphotography.blogspot.com .

Here is their deal:

"We are offering anybody who you refer that books with us from now until a year after your wedding a great deal on their photography. We would do the engagements, bridals, and full wedding day photography, plus prints included in the package with all of the images with copyright release for only $600 (traveling fees would apply on top of this price for those out of state, or living past the wasatch front area), the normal price of this package is currently $950.00."

Engagements!

2009-04-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

Our photographer has posted some of our engagements on his blog! If you want to see them his blog is warrentphotography.blogspot.com The wind scared us on Saturday morning, but everything worked out and I think our pictures turned out really cute. Warren and Marva were great to work with!

Shootin Chizzlers

2009-04-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

I did some Bridals on Saturday, so when Cody and I went to Beryl to shoot chizzlers on Sundaywith my dad, I was in the picture taking mood. The first place that we went had this cool looking old car so I made us stop and my dad was our photographer :)

. . . and of course I had to play with the picture

Cody was very annoyed that the fox eluded us.

Yes, I am a dork

2009-04-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

So last night I discovered what I think might be the most truly dorky thing about me. I LOVE this PBS (KBYU?) show called "Rick Steves Europe". When I turn it on it puts my roommates and Cody to sleep but I absolutely love it . . . . maybe because it is probably the closest that I'll ever get to Europe :( Last night he went to Spain and Morroco! So interesting!!!

Save the Date!

2009-04-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

There was a fun event for brides in St. George a few weeks ago where we got to sample different vendors including caterers, planners, florists, salons, make-up artists, dresses, and photographers. They got us all dolled up and took pictures for us. Here are some pictures from the event. There's one that is a good picture of my ring!

I also just downloaded a new photo editor, so I had fun playing around with it to make my collages. I'm really excited to use it to play with our real bridals!

Wedding Planning

2009-04-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

So I said that I wasn't going to make a blog until we were actually married, but I decided to just break down and start it now. At the very least we can keep our families up to date on our wedding plans. I feel like we got a lot done over Spring Break and it really motivated us to just get everything done. Unfortunately that dang school has to get in our way :)

Our photographer is Warren T Photography from West Jordan. We won a contest for a free full wedding package! We are so grateful for that--it has taken a lot of stress off of us. You can see his blog at: http://www.warrentphotography.blogspot.com/ When we do our bridals and engagements, we'll get some pictures up. (We're doing them April 25th and 26th)

I am so excited to have Olga Goddard do our flowers! She is so sweet and I feel very confident that our flowers will be just beautiful. If you want to see what she does, her blog is: http://www.olgaandmyfavoriteflowers.blogspot.com/

We are having our ceremony at Willow Glen Inn on June 26th and our reception in Cedar will be that evening at a very cute little yard/garden called St. James Place. Here are some pictures of the place from other weddings. (I should probably give credit to the wedding decorators that I got these pictures from: Thank you to Irresistable Weddings and Wedding Decor and More)

I have a friend from one of my classes doing our cake. Her name is Amanda Runge and I'm excited to work with her.We'll let you know as we get more things in place!