obligatory google reader post

so... monday. that's the day that google reader dies. like, gone-zo. forever. 

don't worry, though. i already did you a HUGE favor. 

ALL you have to do is click HERE (well, and then click "follow"...), and we can still be friends. it will take you two seconds. 

unless, of course, you don't already have an account with bloglovin'.

in which case, it will take you maybe five seconds. 

and then you can thank me later, because bloglovin' is at least 126x better than google reader, anyway. and you'll love it so much. 

so just... real fast, k? promise.

or you know what else? just click on that big black circle over there ----->
that says "follow this blog via bloglovin"... duh...

OR... just click the link at the bottom of this post! 

that's 3. THREE ways you can do this. right now. so fast. 

just... please. 

thanks.

katie, lately

 

so, we've still never really edited our wedding photos, but i'm pretty sure when we get around to it, i'll want a black and white version of all of them. also? so mega-grateful for this guy lately.

 

this is my nephew kaden. i got to spend a whole morning/afternoon with my nieces and nephew.

kaden has started a karate class. this is what he did when i asked him to show me what he's learned so far.

this is kadenator at the library. he chose to check out dragon books and was so excited about them.

 

this is my sweet addi-mae at lunch that afternoon. she was being such a ham all day long. i can't stand how much i love her. those eyes! that goofy grin!

      

she's become such a big girl lately. always wants to do things by herself.

i mean!

all 3 kiddos waiting for story time to start at the library

 

more storytime waiting

 

i just can't even handle the cuteness of these three. they are perfect! i'm one lucky aunt! (not pictured: my only other nephew, ben. the world's cutest baby. literally. although he isn't included in the picture, he is included in the holy cuteness that is my nieces and nephews and i'm obsessed with all 4 of them.)

  

we FINALLY planted herbs! they smell amazing. we are so excited to use them in our cooking!

 

so... this is the kind of stuff that ends up happening when we spend the evening in kamas with brandon. we'll start out playing with the dogs (five of them this night!). then we'll progress to some delicious barbecue dinner. then we'll move to the camp chairs in front of the garage and bask in the low 70's. and then we'll head over to the slack line. then, someone will bring up the infamous horse head mask.. and things get weird. hilariously weird.

 

cooper freaked out when he saw devin in the mask. full on psycho dog.

 

please take care to notice brandon's "thuggie" - there is no better combination then a guy, on a slack line, in the thuggie, wearing a horse mask. it just doesn't exist.

 

also recently: pool time. like, a lot of it. this was our double date with my sister and her boyfriend. basically our favorite double date couple right now. they came up to herriman and we took them to sodarow for lunch and then went swimming. funnest afternoon. love those two.

 

the treats i picked up at Swirly Girls Bakery on SodaRow: a cotton candy cupcake (it was the most amazing and delicious cupcake i have ever eaten in my life. the best frosting, the most perfect flavor. i don't think i can ever eat another cupcake again. nothing will compare!) and a chocolate croissant (which i saved and ate the next day for breakfast...) - the most buttery delicious thing.

 

cooper face. priceless. on our way to lunch.

some more of the coolest babies around. ellie on the left, the greatest most adorable one year old of all time. i just love her to death and want to take her home! we always joke with lynn and jared (her parents, our dear friends), that she's the only baby that makes us baby hungry! and on the right, sweet little montgomery, just days old! my mom, sister and i took dinner to my cousin McKenzie after this little guy was born. he was so content and relaxed. it was the cutest thing.

aaaaand a massive cooper photo dump. 

 

he's taken to sticking his head out the window, and goes into "guard dog mode" every time the front window blinds are open. it's hilarious and adorable at the same time.

such a mama's boy. i love it.

 

getting taaallllll - and this is cooper and his very best friend, addie. she's a mountain dog puppy about his same age, but about three times his size and she lives 2 doors down from us. they are the cutest when they play! it takes us forever to tear them apart!

 

we explored the park next to our house for the first time on sunday. cooper approved.

the looks he gives me, man.

 

more guard dog mode.

a more honest portrayal of cooper's personality.

the hundred year week

Oooh my goodness. It has been forever. Last night Devin told me that he keeps going to my blog to see if I'd written anything and was surprised I'd gone this long without a post! Well let me tell you why... 

The last week literally seemed like one hundred years. Are you ready for a sob story? Because you're going to get one. Like, a big fat one. Except, now I'm at the point where I can laugh about it all, thank goodness.

Here's how it went: well, actually no. Let's back up a little bit. 

Remember how... recently (I don't remember how long ago this was) - cooper had eaten an entire prescription? Spoiler alert: it was birth control. A brand new, only one pill had been taken, $90 birth control prescription to be exact. I was mostly worried about my dog and what could happen to him (which is nothing, in case your dog ever gets a hold of your pills, they will be just fine. learned that the scary way...), but I was also flaming angry at the little stinker for wasting my $90 and all my crazy pills. 

Except that this frustrating situation ended up being a massive blessing in disguise. You see, about two and a half years ago, I started the pill. I was about to get married, so it's what you do, you know. Whatever. I went to a Women's Center and I loved the Doctor, but over those 2 years of being their patient, I never saw or spoke to them again. I would call with a question and be told "we'll have a nurse call you back" -- never once got a call back. LAME. I also went through all hell and high water to get my prescription refilled after my two years were up. It was such a huge pain, SO when cooper ate those pills, I took it as an opportunity to 1: find a new doctor (I already had one in mind that everyone loves) and 2: get some cheaper pills because NINETY DOLLARS is just too much. WAY too much. 

So I did just that. I had to wait about 2 weeks to get an appointment with my new doctor (who I love and is awesome), but when I did, I told her that I had only been to a gynecologist the one time, and had only had simple exams. Do you know what that means? SURPRISE pap smear. And I know that's probably WAY TOO TMI, but it's all part of the story. I wasn't too bothered by that.. procedure... it wasn't bad at all. While she was at it? We did a breast exam. Why not?! 

Except here's the bad part: she found a lump. Cue my heart sinking in my chest while simultaneously not really being able to process everything but still being surprisingly coherent. She asked me a bunch of questions and we left on this weird "it's probably nothing, but i'm sending an order to the hospital and you're going to get an ultrasound AAASSSSAAAAPPP" note. 

That was last Tuesday. And that was day 1 of the 100 year week.

I spent the entire rest of the week maybe only 50% mentally present in anything. I didn't exactly know what to do or how to feel. I mean, I was just told that I have this major issue, that might not be a major issue, but we don't know anything yet, so "don't freak out it's probably nothing". Which is NOT too comforting. 

I did a lot of research on breast cancer, which only scared me more. I worried a lot. I cried a lot. I repeated a million times over in my head "it's probably nothing, it's probably nothing". 

And then Tuesday finally came. Yesterday. At this point, I was almost excited for the appointment, because I wanted answers that badly. I got a pretty good one, too! The radiologist said that from what they can see on the ultrasound, the lump just seemed to be dense tissue really close to the surface. He said that it wasn't anything alarming at all, but to pay attention and keep an eye on it, because there is always potential for that to change. 

CLEAR! I was so happy. So relieved. I mean, there's still a small chance that in the future, I could have a problem (that will most likely not be breast cancer, thank goodness), but for right now, I have nothing to worry about! 

I posted something on instagram about it and was so surprised by the response from my friends (we had kept this between just us, our parents, and a few other family members during those hundred years) - a lot of them had had a similar experience! i had no idea how common it was, and it made me feel a little silly for taking it so seriously and being SO worried (i was such a wreck, guys. like, major.) - but it IS serious, so still. but anyway. 

that's where i've been. 

i have SO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON now that i'm over being half-katie/half-nervoussobbinganxious-wreck, so probably expect wayyyy too many posts in the next few days after i can get some photos uploaded from my phone and camera. 

FWEW. 

weekend update

oh my goodness, this weekend was incredible! okay that's not completely true because i spent friday night at home by myself alphabetizing our dvd's out of boredom while devin worked BUT. saturday, man. saturday was the best. Oh, but we did go to lunch on Friday! You see, every Friday at work for me is basically Armageddon. It's super stressful and I was having a pretty bad day (ranged from beetles to angry people, so...), so Devin met me for lunch and we ate huge, messy burgers and I felt much better.

burger wasted.

devin had to teach a class at the gym saturday morning so he got up and went to work. i woke up a little later and got together my climbing gear and some lunch, and then met him at the gym and we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Reservoir Wall (side note: i sometimes wonder if people who aren't familiar with climbing know that each different wall or climbing area has it's own name. usually, the person who bolts the routes, which could be anyone who knows how, names it. I've talked a lot about climbing at The Wild and The Zoo that's near, but there are a lot of places. Devin and his Brother just climbed 7 pitches of one called "Cosmic Space Dust Lasers", so there really isn't any rhyme or reason to the names of these places we climb)

i sort of love the empty gym in the morning as they are opening. 

I would love to climb with that place to myself!

I had never climbed up Big Cottonwood, and I had never climbed on quartzite rock, either. We were in the sun and it was pretty hot, but we had a nice breeze! I was getting pretty excited and proud of myself for putting a lot of the techniques and movements I had been learning to good use, but on the first route, the mental game won and I came off the wall from about half way up really upset and disappointed. I hate that! I don't understand how/why my mind can control my climbing. That should just be left up to my strength and my body, right?! It can be so frustrating when you let it! I was mad. But I'm also going to blame the heat, because hot climbing shoes hurt and my toes were in a lot of pain!

big cottonwood canyon is absolutely beautiful!

loving my new and much needed chalk bag!

>imagine a picture of a moose right here, because there's supposed to be one, it's just on my other camera and i'm hugely lazy about uploading photos. the point is, this awesome moose grazed by us for awhile and it was pretty cool. moving on...<

After I rested for awhile and got my head cleared, I tried a second route, and it was the same thing. I was so proud of myself for trying things I had been afraid of before. I was using those tiny, tiny footholds (howintheworld do those microscopic lips on the rock hold me up?!) and I was going for moves, even if I wasn't confident I would stick them - except this time, I finished! When I came back down I told Devin that I couldn't even remember the last time I saw the anchors of a long route like that. I was so happy and in the best mood after that! I wanted to end on a good note, so we stopped there, plus it was getting way too hot.

We had been in the sun for awhile and were pretty hot, and neither of us wanted to get back into climbing shoes so we went home and headed straight for the pool! I love that our development has a neighborhood pool! It's not super nice and it's pretty small, but we have been at the pool so much since it opened on Memorial Day, and we will spend pretty much all summer there, I'm sure. We swam and laid in the sun for awhile and then started feeling guilty that we had left cooper at home all day (i'm a little opposed to climbing in big and little cottonwood canyons just because they won't let my dog come along), so when we got home, we took him to the dog park and let him run around for awhile. He is the funniest dog and every time we go, people comment on how much personality he has. I love that! He was even chasing butterflies around just like Riley does.

one abandoned coke can

On our way home, we stopped at the grocery store to grab a few things and then made some dinner and dessert and ended the night a little early because we were so tired! We ended the day with some of the funniest tanlines ever. I had put sunscreen on a few places that I knew I didn't want to get burned, including the tops of my shoulders, that were just recovering from a really bad burn while we were hiking Calf Creek, so I have a ring of sunburn around my shoulder where the sunscreen wasn't all down my arms, dang it! I didn't get any sun on my legs of course. My shoulders look so, so funny though. Devin got a pretty major chaco tanline and some funny lines on his chest and sides from climbing and belaying without a shirt. We are quite the pair!

chicken and pasta with fresh basil and spinach salad with strawberries and feta cheese

this dog makes our lives so. much. fun.

Whoopie Pies

So Devin served in the New Hampshire Manchester Mission which basically covers most of New England (he served in 5 different states!), and apparently, these treats are an East Coast thing. I had never heard of them until I met Devin, and he has always raved about them. He's tried the "moon pies" that are sold out here and says they aren't the same. He even looked into the cost of getting a dozen whoopie pies shipped out to us, but it was crazy expensive.

So I have to give him all the credit for this one. He found a recipe and was determined to make them, so last night, we finally did! He said they were perfect! These were a lot of fun to make and really simple. I don't think anyone could mess them up! I do have a few tips that I think would help at the end, though!

Ingredients: (cakes)

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

Directions: (cakes)

1. Whisk together four, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, set aside. In a smaller, separate bowl, stir together buttermilk and vanilla, set aside.

2. Beat brown sugar and butter until light brown and fluffy (it's about 3 minutes. longer than you think, but don't over-do it either!). Add the egg and beat until well combined.

3. Reduce the speed on the mixer and begin adding the flour mixture and buttermilk in batches into the mixer until everything is well combined. Make sure to scrape the sides!

4. Spoon 1/4 cup mounds of batter onto a prepared baking sheet (we just used parchment paper). You should have about 8! Bake them in the over at 350 for 11-14 minutes, or until the cakes are cooked all the way through (we had to go all the way to 14 minutes to make sure the middles were cooked!) Let them cool on the cookie sheet completely, and then transfer to wire rack.

Ingredients: (filling)

1 stick butter, softened

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

2 cups marshmallow creme

1 tsp vanilla

Directions: (filling)

1. Beat all ingredients until well combined (we just used a hand mixer.)

2. Spread about 1-2 tbsp of filling on one cake and sandwich with another cake to assemble the pie.

Tips:

- these are cakes, but they are also cookies, so the batter will be a weird consistency. Almost like brownie batter, but thicker, like a dough. That's how it's supposed to be!

- to get the batter onto the cookie sheets, I just used two spoons. They didn't come out perfect, but they weren't too bad!

- make sure the cookies are completely cooled before you frost them, or the filling will melt and get all over the place and make a huge mess (this happened to us on the first 3 we made!)

- devin says they are supposed to be better on day 2!

fitness friday

I gave up on fitness friday for awhile because it got boring and repetitive and we were doing a lot of rock climbing, but i'm back at it! It will probably start being a lot more sporadic though... 

I've been raving about Tracy Anderson for awhile now, but today I actually posted my favorite videos from her! What I love most is that they are each only about 10 minutes, but you BURN! The first few times I did the arms one, I felt pretty silly, but my arms felt like they were going to fall off, and I feel like I am stronger and more toned after only 2 or 3 days in a row. The abs one I started more recently, and it's the same. I love her crunch variations - I never realized how much leg work can affect your crunches! The standing abs part made me feel even sillier than the arms video, but they work so I'm a happy camper. You should give these a try! 

Other fitness things: downloaded the "my fitness pal" app - love it. obsessed with it. never thought i'd like counting calories so much, but it's become pretty fun even though it's tedious. Also? Because of the app, I got my butt of the bike and started doing the elliptical because I burn a zillion more calories and it's fun to enter the cardio on the app! 

weekend update

you know, like snl? haha. maybe that's what i'll start calling all my weekend posts because that's when we have the most fun!

friday / /

pretty much right when we got home, we headed up little cottonwood canyon to the storm mountain amphitheater and saw our dear friend cory mon perform! (i call all our friends our dear friends. i'm just noticing.) have i ever told you about how devin and cory met? they used to climb together all the time, and then one day while they were climbing, cory suggested that devin come see one of his shows some time. and devin was all you play music?! haha he had no idea the entire time! so he started going to his shows and they climb together much less now, but cory has remained a close friend, and has proven to be a very, very talented musician. the first time i met cory was at starbucks, which is much less exciting, but he's such a good person. we love cory and we're so excited about his upcoming marriage! he did so well and the opener from denver, her name was Megan Burtt and she was incredible! i can't wait to buy some of her music. the point of the show was sort of to announce the release of cory's good friend, wes kirkpatrick's album, and we saw wes play with cory about a year ago and have loved his music ever since so it was a trifecta of awesome music that night! dustin christensen was there too, on the keys and the now-famous-because-he-was-on-the-voice, ryan innes made an appearance, although he didn't perform, but sat in the audience in front of us on his phone the whole time. (famous people. psshaw.) haha anyway. great show! remember how we came to the same place last year to see cory but it was pouring rain so we all went and stood under a big overhanging cliff in the back of the amphitheater and cory played a few songs? haha it was so great! much better without the rain this time though, i'd say. i was especially excited that cory performed my favorite song, Minnesota this time, so we recorded it! my phone ran out of memory (because i have such a hard time deleting old photos, even though they're already saved to my computer), so it stops in the middle, but it was still amazing!

(I can't get the video to upload to my blog, but you can find it on my facebook page!)

saturday / /

devin had to work saturday morning, so after i slept in a little bit, i went straight to the gym to test out my new nike free's! i love them. i just focused on cardio since we were going to be climbing later that night, and i noticed that i burn more than twice as many calories on the elliptical machine than i do on the bike, which is just my luck because i sort of hate the elliptical and the bike is my favorite! oh well. i stopped at the grocery store on my way home since we hadn't gotten groceries since before our trip, and then i cleaned the house and played outside with cooper for a few hours (still no sign of sun on my legs, though, of course!) after a few episodes of parenthood, devin texted me and said he was off work early so i packed up my climbing bag and headed to the gym! do remember the last time i posted about climbing in the gym? no? exactly. because it's been forever. we brought cooper and tied him up on the grass outside which he loves but also hates, and we climbed with some friends for a few hours. i got really pumped right away and called it quits after about 4 routes, and i was so mad! devin said it's just because i haven't climbed in so long, and i'll agree with that. i'm still sore though! we had a lot of fun and i'm starting to really understand the technique and movement that make such a big difference to your climbing. devin's a pretty great coach, and it's nice that he sets a lot of the routes at the gym because he can have my climb specific examples of things i'm trying to learn. it's so helpful! after that, we headed to zupa's for dinner with a few friends and pretty much went straight home and went to bed!

sunday / /

after church on sunday we had some lunch and spent the entire afternoon catching up on The Voice while devin looked up tons of routes on mountain project (it's a rock climbing guide, basically) and i edited that video from out trip! for dinner, we went down to orem to see amanda and jason's gorgeous new house and have dinner with the family to celebrate devin's birthday (a little late, since he had to work during the last party). i had so much fun playing with my nieces and nephews. i never get tired of those kids, holy cow. they are all so, so smart and so funny and i love them all so much! even baby ben was in a good mood and let me play with him for a little bit! i feel like i've gotten pretty attached to that addison, though. she and i are buddies and i love it! man. all those 4 kids that have made me an aunt are pretty special, but there's just something about that addison! when we got home, i showed devin several example pictures of the kind of coffee table i want, because now that he's got that miter saw, he's really anxious to build something, so hopefully next weekend we'll get it done! i'm really excited and now i want to redecorate the entire house! we'll see... haha i can't believe it's already monday. the weekend went by way too fast!

 

this dog has become so obsessed with people watching. he goes nuts any time he sees someone outside the house, and even watched people really intently when we're in the car. it's so funny!

 

these girls are so, so cute with their baby cousin, Ben! they are so sweet. i'm so glad we will all have makayla to babysit our kids! she'll be so awesome!

love this photos i snapped of mom and baby! chloe's such a good mom. i'm glad i have her and amanda as examples for when i become a mama!

And a few other photos from our weekend / so far  this week...

 

when it's not muddy buddies, it's chocolate chip cookies. too bad i took the rest of this batch to the boys at work, because they were delicious!

 

just started this book. i'm having a little bit of a hard time understanding it because it's written from the view of a 5 year old boy who has never left this one room his entire life, so he talks about objects in the room as if they are people and friends, but it's so good and so interesting! i would recommend it to anyone.

oooh boy, did this guy give us a scare this week! i came home for my lunch break, like i do sometimes, and found that he had eaten an entire prescription! only 2 of the 28 pills had been taken and he had eaten all of them, plastic included! i was so angry, because the prescription was expensive, and so, so worried about what might be wrong with him! we were so relieve to find out that he should be fine, but we are keeping a very close eye on him for the next few days to make sure he's not acting funny, but man! it was a pretty awful afternoon.