...the last six months...

So I have decided that I'm not so great at keeping the blog updated.  Here is the recap of the last six months!

blowing out some candles

December 2011

...Mattie turned 24!...  

Here are 24 things that I love about my husband...

1.  he laughs with his heart

2.  his "Dale" humor (although it's getting better and sometimes he's as funny as he thinks he is)

3.  that he takes such great care of me just because

4.  his Asian eyes when he smiles even though he's not Asian

5.  how effortlessly he climbs

6.  how he doesn't let his heart limit him

7.  how much he loves his nieces and nephews

8.  he LOVES food even though he's a light weight

9.  how i can leave a room and the whole bag of candy is gone when i get back

10.  how strong is testimony of the gospel is

11.  how him and Leinani have become like brother and sister

12.  how he goes to visit my parents even when I'm not with him

13.  how he's an adventure junkie

14.  that he sings and doesn't even notice it

15.  his latino booty shake

16.  how obsessed he is with shoes

17.  that the "shy boy" youtube video makes him emotional

18.  that he's not afraid to be himself

19.  that he makes me laugh every day

20.  that he has come to love sushi when he used to hate it

21.  that he leaves me notes around the house just because he loves me

22.  he's a smoothie champion

23.  he is such a caring brother

24.  that he makes every situation bright

I could go on for days.  I have the BEST husband ever :)

...temple square...

Matt and I went to temple square with his family.  It was freezing and beautiful!  They had different nativities set up from various cultures that I could have looked at all day if it wasn't so frigid.  But here are some pictures from our Dale family outing :)

Dale Family December 2012 Temple Square Trip

...mom & dad's 40th anniversary...

I cannot believe it.  My parents have been married for 40 years!!  huge shout out to them for being an AMAZING example of how marriage can work if your life is centered on the gospel.  I love that they still go on dates and hold hands, tease each other, and are sad/grumpy when the other is gone.  I hope my marriage is as fulfilled and happy as theirs.  Thanks mom and papasan for being amazing parents and a genuine example of love!



...christmas 2011...

I love having family live so close but at times it can make the holidays a little bit crazy.  We had Anderson/Dale Family holiday party, mom and dad's 40th anniversary, and utah cousin christmas eve all in one night followed by Matt and Sachiyo Christmas, Dale sibling gift exchange and then off to mom and dad Takahashi's for presents and dinner.

February 2012

...cancun, mexico...

Matt and I had a chance to visit Cancun this February.  The weather was beautiful and the water was so blue I was in love.  Most of the time we slept in and hung out on the beach that was right outside the hotel and drank virgin mango tangos and pina coladas.  Yum!  We drove speed boats through the "jungle" aka a little area of trees, went snorkeling where we saw a little shark, shopping at the flea market, ate a mango on a stick, and got a couples massage.  It was nice to hangout with friends and enjoy the warm weather!

Adventure of Cancun 2012

...a mandolin and a banjo...

A day or two after Matt and I got home from Cancun I bought a mandolin and a banjo which I am teaching myself how to play.  It's a lot of fun and the strings are a lot tougher than I thought they would be.  I mostly play the mandolin currently and Matt is learning the banjo when he has time.  One day we'll be a little bluegrass playin' family.  I didn't know Matt took this picture.  Here I am very focused on tuning the mando.  My face looks mean :/  I hear my I have a mean looking face when I'm focused.  This picture proves it.  

March 2012

...25 years of life for sachiyo...

This year I turned 25!  Or as many small children like to put it, I'm a quarter of a century.  ha ha!  My birthday was so fun.  The day before my birthday at work my office was decorated and there were little notes from co-workers and employees that I had trained.  So sweet!  On my birthday Mattie made me breakfast, we were going to go skydiving but the weather did not permit, I went and studied, took two tests (it was midterms), got dressed, ate some chocolate cake from Magelby's Fresh (yum!) and went to dinner with Mattie and the cousins.  We went to Sushi House in AF.  Soooo delicious!  And to top the night off we went and saw the Hunger Games which I loved!  Thanks Mattie and Lei-nan for making my birthday so amazing.  I'm so spoiled and blessed to have so many wonderful and amazing people in my life.  I also started to make a list of 25 things to do while I'm 25.

This post is getting excessively long...I'll update April and May in a different post.  Enjoy!

...i've always wanted a onesie...

This is what happens when you wander the little girls' section at target...

If the arms were longer, I would have purchased it. Konrad got in trouble by the "security guard" but once he bent over and the guard saw that he was packing heat, the guard backed off. I wish Mattie would have tried one on. He would have looked cute in the pink panda outfit :)

...the dirty dash...

#7: Participate in the Dirty Dash

On September 24th, 2011 at 11:20am, Mattie and I, along with some friends and lots of people from Vivint participated in the dirty dash. Can I just say it was awesome! There was a 5k and 10k option but we did the 5k. You know us, we don't really exercise currently. Matt and I are attempting to be better about it. Matt has been successful, I still need a little more motivation. We "dressed up" as Skittles. On the bottom of our shirts it said "taste the rainbow." By the end of the run, there wasn't much tape on us. I'm sure it was somewhere in the mud.

Before the run...

After the run...

We donated our shoes, took cold showers, and headed home. It was quite the eventful morning day. Can't wait to Dirty Dash next year!

...the holy war...

#4: Attend the BYU vs Utah Football Game

We seem to be doing fairly well with crossing off items from our make memories list! It was a great game...well for the U. Mattie was a bit bummed that his school got crushed. Plus I don't think it helped that we were sitting in mostly a Utah fan section next to a mom of one of the Utah players. Go Utes!

...dale family reunion...

Over Labor Day weekend we had the opportunity to go to Kenny's (Matt's uncle) family's cabin just outside of Sigurd, Utah for a little family reunion. It was a nice relaxing couple of days filled with fishing, four-wheeling, food, and fun! Thanks MaRecia and Kenny for having us!! Here are some picture from the weekend...

Also, we were able to cross off #3: Catch a Fish :)

Mattie caught his first and then I caught mine later up the river. We were soooo happy and excited! Can you tell by our faces?

It was the easiest fishing we have ever done! All we had to do was drop our line in the river and in only moments we had fish biting! Plus Kenny taught us the secret of catching fish in the river :) Thanks again Kenny!

...dear brian mcknight...

Dear Brian McKnight,

Please come back to Orem, Utah because it was fabulous and my husband missed you.

Sincerely,

Sachiyo

Brian McKnight came to the scera shell the last weekend in August! He was phenomenal! I attended this awesome event with a handful of the frousins and because Mattie was driving home from Alabama we gave his ticket to our friend Konrad who we work with. Matt and him joke that he fits better in the frousin picture than he would. Ha ha the funny thing is, it's true. Konrad is on the very left of the top row...thoughts?

...and so it begins...

Matt is still in Birmingham, AL for another week and an half or so but we are finally starting our blog! Yay! It's about time. There is a lot that has happened in the last 10 or so months and instead of trying to catch up, we are just going to give y'all a brief synopsis of what has happened and hopefully move forward from there :)

Matt has been gone since the middle of April doing summer sales for Vivint (the company we both work for) which is a Home Automation and Security company. He is doing well and working hard. He initially started off in Raleigh, NC and then after a couple months moved to Birmingham. I was fortunate enough to be able to go and visit him once every three weeks (thanks Vivint for being so amazing!) so the summer has not been as horrendous as you may think. When Mattie (that's what I call him) is home he'll attend BYU where he is looking to apply to the Information System program there.

I have been working like crazy all summer. I still am training and developing the technical support department at Vivint, which fortunately has kept me extremely busy while Matt has been gone. School starts tomorrow! I attend the University of Utah and will hopefully graduate within the year with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies.

Other than the assiduous summer, life is consistently busy. I thought for some reason that after we were married, life would "slow down." Much to my dismay, it didn't. Fortunately we have learned to manage. We work lots. We laugh lots. We play lots. And then we do it all over again :) Thank goodness we have each other!

The picture is one of the last times I went out to visit Matt. More to come when he gets home!

Also, we are making a list of things that we can do from September 2011 to March 2012. If you have any suggestions feel free to send them our way!