national sisters day

 i love ALL my sisters so so much! They are all beautiful and i am so grateful to have them in my life!

e'lan salon giveaway

E'lan Salon located on Bluff Street in St. George, Utah is going to start doing monthly giveaways here on my blog! 

E'lan is a full service salon. They do color services, hair cuts, spa pedicures, gel toes, eyebrow color and wax, shellac, extensions, and more!

The salon is now offering microdermabrasion! Microderm softens fine lines and wrinkles, decreases the appearance of scarring, and also reduces age spots. Their esthetician, Charlette is amazing! 

Today we are giving away a free microderm and image skincare products! The drawing will end on the last day of the month!

How to enter:
It is pretty simple really, just head on over to facebook and "like" the "E'lan A Full Service Salon" page, then leave a comment at the end of this post saying you liked the page and leave your facebook username. Giveaway ends September 30th! Winner will be chosen via   random.org.

For additional entries you can tweet about the giveaway, or blog about it! Just leave a separate comment for each additional entry with either your twitter username, or a link to your blog post! 

If you are interested in getting microderm there is a deal going on that ends October 2nd, 2012. Charlette is offering a limited time microderm package. Six series for $200! Only $33  per treatment for six weeks & amazing results! Give her a call at (435)688-2151!

things i hope to never forget

On the 21st of September one of my best friends was sealed to her husband for time and all eternity.
I was able to attend her sealing, and it is something I will remember and cherish forever. I don't remember much from my sealing since I was truly focused on not crying. You know those little signs that have the red words running across them over and over? One of those ran through my head my entire sealing that said "don't cry." It didn't work and I still cried but not as bad as I would have if I hadn't been talking myself out of it the whole time! I was so excited to attend Hailee's wedding for lots of reasons! First, because she has been one of my best friends for so long. Second, because she was having Dale Gubler seal her as well and I was hoping it would be similar to mine. I was in luck.

{things i hope to never forget from my wedding day}

-the first thing Dale Gubler said in our sealing was that we were in the presence of God and other angels. Then he went on to name my Grandpa Gates, Alex's Grandpa Arlo, and my brother Kameron. This is what started all the tears, because I truly felt as though they were with me on my special day. Typing this is bringing back those tears and I am so happy that I have the knowledge that I will be able to be with my loved ones once again.
-we have incredible support from both our families. As Alex and I entered the sealing room together we were overwhelmed with the amount of people that were there to support us on our decision to be married. The chairs were easily filled, and after all the people who ended up having to stand there was literally no room left. 
-our friends are the best. Alex was so lucky to have all of his friends in the temple with us. They are all such good kids and they have accepted me from the start, I love them all and I think they are such great kids. It was really great to have Taylor and Paige in with us as well, I love being able to go to the temple with them it is so much fun, even though Paige and I haven't had a time where we haven't gotten lost yet. {luckily there are the sweetest ladies in the temple just waiting for people like us to get lost and they help us out every time.} I wish that my friends could have been there, but I am so excited that I will get the opportunity to be to every one of their temple sealings, and what a wonderful experience that will be. I am so blessed to have such great friends.

-before Alex and I entered the sealing room, they had us sit in a little room together that overlooked the temple grounds. It had a beautiful view, and the room was gorgeous. We were in there for probably twenty minutes while all of our family and friends packed in to the sealing room. I will never forget those last twenty minutes before we were married. They were pefect. We laughed, talked, cried, and enjoyed every minute of being together. We were so excited to be sealed for time and all eternity.

-the brides room in the temple. Words cannot describe how gorgeous it is. My mom and Grandma Gates were able to come with me and help me get ready for the sealing, and then after as they helped me change in to my wedding dress and fix my makeup from all the tears. They also had to try and make me laugh because the tears were still flowin' steady by the time we got done with the sealing, and I just didn't have time for tears ha.
-the temple ladies. On the day of your wedding the ladies in the temple make a big fuss about you and make you feel so special even though there are ten other weddings that day. They hug you and tell you how pretty you are. They give you presents and ask if they can be the one to walk you around the temple that day. They are the sweetest, and I will never forget the kindness they showed me. 

-my sweet husband during the sealing. During the sealing Alex held my hand the whole time. My hands were sweaty and I had to keep wiping the tears but he held it tight the whole time. I loved it.

It was the best day of my life, and I hope to never forget the small and simple things that made it so special for us.

hailee's bridal shower

For Hailee's Bridal shower I decided I want to make her something. So naturally, I looked all over pinterest and couldn't find anything I really liked. One day I was thinking about it and came up with an idea I thought was pretty funny. At my bridal shower my friend Jenna gave me this awful book. It was called "Sex Tips for Girls, By Guys." I decided that I would recover it and make it a little bit cuter than it originally was. I named it the "Sex Tips Pass Along Book." There were some rules that came with this book...

I thought it turned out pretty great, and her shower turned out so dang cute!

 I really wanted a picture with my book because it kind of took me a long time, and I was really pretty proud of it ha, but Alex was asleep so this will just have to be good enough.

 hahaha this picture KILLS ME! Both Cam and Hailee! {this is when Hailee was opening the rest of her gift from me}

 She was really enjoying my tips haha

 I am so happy for Erik and Hailee to be married on the 21st! Congrats to these two cuties!

welcome home bryson

The gang is all home! On Friday, September 14th one of Alex's very best friends returned home from his mission in Peru! He was the last in their group of friends to come home, and Alex is so happy about it! We went to the airport with Paige, Taylor, and Branson around four to wait for the plane to arrive. It was so fun to see these boys so excited. Bryson was making us all laugh, he laughs SO LOUD, and does this weird snapping thing ha I don't know him too well so I thought it was pretty funny. Later that night we headed over to their house for dinner where we had some pasta, break sticks, and salad. Yum! As Brett and Cherise {Bryson's parents} were over in Peru picking Bryson up from his mission, their house was affected by the flood! It went through their garage into their basement, and ruined just about everything in its path. They came home to an empty basement with the walls half torn apart. Their yard was probably the worst of anyone's, but the wonderful volunteers of Santa Clara made it look 100x better before they got home! I can't even imagine how it would be to come home to your house torn apart like that, it seriously just makes you sick. On a better note, welcome home Bryson!!

This picture is so awkward, but i still love it!

i'm comin' home

This week was homecoming at my old high school! Both my sisters were on royalty, so it made for a really great week! Friday morning we went to the assembly, and they were so great! It was Olympic themed, Mitzi and her partner were Sumo Wrestlers {since when is sumo wrestling an Olympic sport ha? oh well it was pretty dang cute} and Macey and her partner were gymnasts! 

 My sister Sadie also cheered in the assembly!

 My sisters are SO beautiful!

 Macey's actual homecoming date Brandon!

Our cute cousin Riley who ended up being the homecoming King! So fun to see these three on royalty! I can't believe it was two years ago when Reggie and I were on homecoming royalty together, I seriously can't believe it!

Saturday night was the Homecoming football game, and the alumni cheerleaders were asked to come back and cheer the second half of the game! I seriously forgot how much fun it was to cheer at a game. If Jessica and I were to go to practice on Monday while we were going over binders Kitty would say this, "Everyone was really good at the game, behaved really well! Except Jessica and Tori, you guys goofed off the whole time." SERIOUSLY THIS HAPPENED EVERY WEEK, AND WE TRIED SO SO HARD TO BE GOOD.
But now we think it is hilarious and we loved the fact that we could count on being in trouble every Monday! The homecoming game this year was possibly the greatest night of my mom's life. Seriously. She was the happiest woman in the world when she realized Mitzi and Macey were on royalty, and Sadie and I would be cheering together! It was really fun to cheer with my Sister Rosa haha she is the cutest girl out there and I love that she chose to do cheer, she is an incredible tumbler and cheerleader!

It was so much fun to cheer with all my girls again! 

our not so typical tuesday

Tuesday September 11th we woke up to a rainy cloudy day, I had class and Alex had work. Before I left to class Alex walked in the door, he ended up getting off work super early because they can't do much of anything while it is raining at a golf course! After class it was still pretty rainy outside and when I got home Alex and I made some seriously amazing soup and cookies, and I was REALLY excited it was still rainy because on rainy days, I don't have to work at the car wash! I was so thrilled about the fact that we would get one whole day {not including Sunday's} to be together! I decided I was going to take pictures all day, this really never happens and I was giddy as could be.

As we were making lunch my mom called and told us the Little League Baseball Fields were filling up to the top of the fence with water and we should go for a drive to see it if we weren't busy doing anything. We decided to go check it out and since I was documenting our day, camera came too, and boy am I glad now!

 The water had been up to the yellow lining of the fence, little did we know that the dike had already broken, and the water was quickly draining.

We drove over to the upper baseball fields and saw a whole bunch of people looking over Santa Clara which we thought was pretty weird, so we decided to go check it out! We drove over and got out of the car when we saw my uncle Travis. He said that Sue and the girls had just been evacuated. The police walked in and said you have thirty seconds to get out of your house. All they had time to do was grab the dog and hop in the car. I can't even imagine what all these people were thinking as they were told they had thirty seconds to get out of their homes. Alex and I walked over to the dike where we saw the water just flowing right through it. I walked across that thing every single day on my way home from middle school, and I never had any idea that it was a dam I just figured it was a nice little walkway for us to get home from school each day. I think I felt the most sad when I saw the water hit sweet little dutchmans market. I was happy that it was withstanding the rush of the water until the doors gave way and the water started rushing in. My aunt Mary Dawn and her family had been evacuated as well and she asked me and Alex to drive around for a bit and see if we could tell if the water was headed toward her house. After the water ran its course my dad got a call from my aunt Mary Dawn saying the water had broken through their basement windows and the basement had been flooded. Alex, my dad, and my brothers changed and hopped in the truck to go help try and save their basement until they were told no vehicles could be driven down there. Lucky for us my dad was allowed to drive his new Razor down there and it made him pretty excited to have it and use it for something so good. Once the boys got down there they called and let us know that we were needed down there. We changed and drove the four wheeler right down! I have never seen so many charitable people respond so quickly to such a disaster. It was amazing to see all of the volunteers some friends, some strangers, so willing to help. 

By the end of the night we were all pretty exhausted {and really pretty muddy}, but I was so happy to be there helping and it was amazing to see all of the people who dropped everything they were doing to come and help. I am so grateful to have such a close knit family we all live so close and everyone was so willing to help, it was incredible. It wasn't really the day I was planning, but it was great none the less!