Free time, what's that?

Super long post alert!!

     I finally have some time to blog! And why is that you ask. Well I'm finally done with school!! That's right, no more home work, late nights working on projects, getting no sleep, and having no free time! It's been very strange being done. I feel like I'm forgetting to do something, but I don't have anything to do. Being done with school means I now have a Bachelor degree in interior design. I would just like everyone to know, I do much more than pick out paint and arrange furniture.

 Here is a great link that will fully explain the difference between an interior designer and an interior decorator. There is a large difference, and no designer likes being called a decorator. 

http://www.ncidqexam.org/about-interior-design/differences-between-interior-design-decorating/

So let me just recap the last year.....

     We are still in the basement. But we will hopefully be out within this year. Because I'm done with school, I can actually start making some money! In about May I got hired as an intern at Elume Distinctive Lighting. They are a lighting design company in Park City. They specialize in high end residential lighting. I've really enjoyed working there. I've learned A LOT! I am now working for Elume, mostly training an assistant to take my place, and Pier1 still. I'm very ready to not be working retail, but that will have to wait a little bit longer. I just recently got hired on at Roxbury Studios! I am loving it so far! It's just part time, but it's still a foot in the door. Please go check out our website and go like our facebook page. Roxanne has done some AMAZING homes!

http://www.roxburystudios.com/

     A coworker and I got put in charge of helping out or pintrest page, so go follow that too while you're at it ;) Roxanne is also working on her intagram. 

Here is one of my favorite homes Roxbury recently got done working on. The lighting in this home was done by Elume.

     Josh is now working at a demolition company called Outlaw. He has moved up in the company really fast! He is now number three in the company. So - the big boss - the boss under him - then Josh. I am very proud of him for all of his hard work. But it is VERY stressful while he's still in school. He works crazy hours over time hours, and sometimes crappy night shifts. He will hopefully be in the office more often working on bidding jobs instead of running them. I know the both of us would love for him to be in the office more. 

http://www.outlawdemo.com/index.html

     Josh is no longer at the U for architecture. He is going to UVU for a bachelor in construction management. He doesn't have too much longer before he's finished, about a year. It's going to be so great when we're both done with school!

We added a new member to our little family! Her name is Mako. We adopted her from Humane Society. She is so sweet, and a little crazy. Her and Kona are best friends! It's so cute!

Oh and Josh loves the cats (especially napping with them)!

We were able to take two vacations last year. The first was to California, and the second was to St. Maarten. California was Savannah's senior trip and St. Maarten was Rylan's.  (Rylan's trip had be delayed because we got married ;) ) Both trips where super fun! 

DISNEY LAND!!

We love Sully!

We found a hidden Mickey!!

Sea World!

We had lots of family to visit too. 

And we had to go to Josh's favorite restaurant! 

 ST. MAARTEN!!

Rylan was so excited to have cigar with Dad.

This was our yummy food we got from our day we took a catamaran to Prickly Pear and Anguilla.

 Boof! Welcome to the gun show ;)

We have lots of dive videos too. So i'm going to try and get those up soon. We saw a couple reef sharks, and some lion fish too!

And there you have the high lights of the last year! I am going to try and up date the blog more often so stay tuned. 

- Aloha

It's been a while

School has been consuming my life lately, but I finally have a break and have some time for the blog! As of now Josh and I are getting back into the swing of things because we just got back from California! It was an early anniversary trip. We had so much fun! We both really needed a vacation. Pictures for all of our fun adventure are soon to come. But in the mean time here's what we've been up to.
Other than school I have been busy with weddings! So many weddings! My cousin Kearstyn got married and she chose me to be her photographer. I was so excited! I got to take her engagements, her bridals her her wedding day. All of her pictures turned out so pretty! Her wedding was beautiful and so was she. I'm so glad she chose me to be her photographer!  The day after Kearstyn's wedding was Stephanie's wedding, one of my best friends. I did take a couple engagements for her and made her announcement, but she wanted me to just be at her wedding and not be working, which was nice. Her wedding was just as beautiful but much different than Kearstyn's. I am so happy for the two of them. They both found amazing men! My father in law Scott also got married and asked me to be the photographer. They had a simple small wedding, so I was there just for ceremony and family pictures. I got some really great shots though. Melanie looked so pretty! I am so happy for the two of them. And now I have another mother-in-law and also two more brother-in-laws. I was also chosen to be the photographer for a cute girl I went to high school with, Tiana. I took her engagements, bridals, and reception. She got married in Lake Tahoe, so she booked another photographer for that. Her dress was so fun and different. Her wedding looked exactly like she imagined. I'm so happy she got to get married with her toes in the sand. (It's the best way in my opinion ;))
I also got to take my little brother Rylan's senior pictures, because he GRADUATED! I am so proud of him! I couldn't ask for a better little brother. I should say younger brother, because he not really little Amy more.
 In other recent news we now have a chameleon named scoop. You may be thinking scoop is a strange name but Josh said he looks like Plato ice cream. That got me thinking of things associated with ice cream and scoop seemed the most fitting. I think it makes sense in a round about way.  Kona loves scoop. If you can't find her chances are she is sitting in the office just starring at him. However scoop does not feel the same way about Kona, he always has at least one of his eyes on her. My favorite things about scoop is watching him eat crickets. His tongue is so long!
I know it was months ago but josh turned 22 this year. We both unfortunately had to work but after work I took him out to Benihanas. Josh had never been there before. We forgot that it was also general conference, so it was a little busier than we were expecting, but the food so good! We got Vegas rolls and Josh's dinner was very fitting, it was called Rocky's choice. After dinner we just went home and watched a movie. We didn't do anything too exciting because we were saving for California. Although we were saving I did get Josh a small present. I got him the Best of Jimmy Fallon SNL and Jimmy Fallon's book of thank you cards. Josh loved it!
Josh is now in charge of the fresh water side of the store. His boss had let some people and he also got ride of the reptiles, so now there is more room for tanks and fish. Josh isn't a huge fresh water fish guy, but he got to set up a display tank with life plants and he liked that. He will soon be in charge of the stores social media! Hopefully all of that will come with a raise! I'm still at General RV. I did apply for RC Willey a while ago but I didn't hear anything back from them. I'm hoping to talk to someone at school and possibly getting an internship somewhere within my field. I would like to at least get my foot in the door.
We were able to go to the Onerepublic concert at the beginning of June. We went with Josh's work friend Ricky and his wife Kourtney. It was pretty fun. There were so many people there, it was a little crazy. Good thing I brought blankets because it was also freezing. I wish we had time to do more things with friends, but it's hard to work around everyone's busy schedules.
Nothing has changed on the house from. Still no kitchen. I'm going a little crazy with out one, so who knows how long I will be able to stay there with out going completely nuts.

Red Velvet Oreo Cupcakes

Red Velvet Oreo Cupcakes:

What you need:

1 box red velvet cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 C. oil

1 C. sour cream

1/2 C. buttermilk or milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

24 Oreos

Cream cheese frosting

How do do it:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake lines.

2. Sift cake mix into a small bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, sour cream, buttermilk and vanilla extract until smooth.

4. Stir in cake mix.

5. Take your Oreos and place one at the bottom of each cupcake liner. (If you are afraid your oven will get to hot on the bottom you can always chop them up and fold them into the batter!)

6. Scoop batter over each Oreo to fill the liners about 3/4 full.

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

8. Let cool.

9. Crush about 6 Oroes and mix in with cream cheese frosting.

10. Frost cupcake and enjoy!

Happy (Very belated) Valentines Day!

Valentines day is just an excuse to make yummy cupcakes right?! Josh and I both had to work on Valentines day so all we did was make cupcakes! They were delicious! We make Oreo red velvet cupcakes. (I'll put the recipe up later.) We didn't exchange gifts, but we did find some awesome limited edition Oreos!

We didn't use the cookie dough Oreo's, but I saw them at the store and had to buy them for Josh. So that was kinda an extra bonus Valentines treat. We wanted to go on a Valentines day date, so we went about a week after. We had an awesome date! After work we ate at P.F. Changs, (thanks to Big Alex and Cody) it was delicious! After dinner went to the Lego movie! It was so great! We loved every second of it! I would say we had a fantastic Valentines day! 

Funfetti bundt cake

Funfetti cake

What you need:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sprinkles

What to do:

1. Preheat over to 375. Grease cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Once mixed add milk, vanilla, canola oil and an egg. Beat until smooth. About two minutes.
4. Quickly fold sprinkles into batter and pour batter in the pan
5. back for 20-25 minutes

Vanilla Glaze

What you need:

1. 1 cup confectioner's sugar
2.  2 to 8 tablespoon heavy cream
3. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

What to do:

• In a small bowl, combine sugar, 2 tablespoons heavy cream and vanilla.
• Using a spoon, mix to the glaze until all the sugar has been moistened. begin adding additional heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency of glaze has been achieved. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!

Josh and I had an awesome Christmas! We have the best families ever! We were a little busy trying to make it to every families house, but we did it! Before Christmas we went to the Zoo lights! It was so fun! Although we decided the zoo is a little more fun when it's warm.We got a shiny new fish tank. (pictures to come soon.) It's nothing too exciting yet, because it's just rocks and water. Even though there is nothing in it I catch Kona just staring at it for hours. We have a weird cat, but I guess that means she fits in perfect with us. We had a nice quiet new years at my parents house, it was nice. I made yummy funfetti mini bundt cakes. (I will put up the recipe. Super easy to make as always!)

Meow-y Christmas 

  

We got Rylan an early Christmas present. I saw this sweater and had to buy it for him!

The Christmas Ping-Pong tournament!

Don't ask me who won, because I have no idea. Once Josh and Buddy were done with their game they wanted me to play. I have never played ping-pong before. So Josh and Buddy are trying to coach me through it. Apparently I hit the ball way too hard!

Our date night at the Zoo!

It was kinda cold and kinda crowded, but we still had fun!

Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's

We're related can ya tell?

My Grandpa is the biggest dork in the world! First of all while opening the present he would just hold the tissue paper in front of his face, like a goof ball. And he has been told by the doctor to drink more water. So what does he do? He drinks Keystone. "There's water in beer," he says. For his present this year we got him peanuts and "Keystone". Well really we got him some water and wrote Keystone on all  of the bottles. It was pretty funny!

Christmas morning at the Russell's

Again my goofy Grandpa. My mom made me a necklace with a puffer fish on it. So this is my Grandpas impression of a puffer fish.

What can I say my family is good at posing for Christmas pictures!

My Dads big present for this year. A dive helmet from the 1920s! 

My Dad wanted me to document my Mom cooking breakfast, and Christmas breakfast at that. She never makes breakfast ever! But it was very delicious!

Christmas afternoon at Scott's

Josh and I thought we found the perfect gift for Scott this year, a Duck Dynasty board game. We also found Duck Dynasty beef jerky and a chocolate bar, and a Ute grill spatula. Little did we know he got Savannah a Duck Dynasty board game. We all thought it was pretty funny though so it turned out alright. Yes, we did play it that day and we all kinda sucked at it! I thought I was going to do the worst because the only time I watch it is at Scott's house. But we all did equally as bad. Josh beat all of us though and won by quite a lead.

Christmas Evening at the Green's

Sorry for the blurry-ness.

I don't have any pictures but Josh had so many presents to open! He asked for tools this year and he got TONS of tools! When we started doing presents Krista gave Josh five or six boxes and said ok Josh start opening presents cause you have way more to open than everyone else. Don't worry they don't love Josh more than everyone else. Josh's presents were just less expensive so he got more of them. Once Josh was done opening all of his presents we hung out and snacked for a little but before our long drive home.

Christmas night at the Naylor's

finally home

So you may notice that the trees are on the other side of the room. This is because I had to move the trees so the fish tank could go there. Trust me it was a pain in the butt. All of the trees are hooked together with lights so I couldn't move them one at a time. I had to scoot one a few inches then another then the last one. Oh and the tall one tipped over and landing in the kitchen taking the little one with it, and putting all of my ornaments of the floor for Kona to bat around. Luckily my ornaments aren't glass. So I had to pretty much redo my trees a couple days before Christmas. 

Josh got tons of books from me this year. Shakespeare Starwars, the Jedi handbook, Vaders little princess, and a few architecture books. 

And here is the fish tank! It looks really sad in this picture. It took so long to fill it up! But now it's full and has lights and doors. Oh and the rest of the trip is painted. 

Josh felt so bad because he ordered all of my presents way before Christmas and maybe only half of them came. So I opened this present and found a whole bunch of things in it. I only saw one thing though. Josh hurried and grabbed the box from me and asked what I saw. So he just gave it to me. Then with the wrapping paper that was on the floor he wrapped each thing out of the box and would had it to me so I could be surprised. He's so cute! The next few pictures are of his awesome two second wrapping job.

This was Josh's big present this year. A Lego architecture kit of Frank Lloyd Wrights Falling Water house. He loved it! It's already put together and in his office. (I'll have to take a picture of it.) It turned out pretty cool. There were so many Lego pieces!

I would say we got a little spoiled. But hey we've been good all year!

Happy New Year!

Yum funfetti cake!