warm vegas.

the ring.  we were scared vanessa was a gonner in 7 days when we saw this.

 we did mostly the traditional things, nothing out of the norm. ate at the buffet till our hearts were content. this trip was probably one of the hardest to resist sugar.  i never noticed how much sugar i inhaled while traveling. but......we did it. we didn't have any sugar.

doesn't vanessa look gorge? she looked hot that night. her hair makes me miss my long hair.

that night we begged brad to try on nates skinny jeans. for some reason i was loving it so much just because brad has his style and nothing else. so it was fantastic to see him in some skinnies.

thanks nate and vanessa....we have a crush on you guys.

warm st. george.

st. george/vegas was 68 freaking degrees.  it was perfect. i almost forgot what it was like to have warm weather like that.

we stayed in st. george for a night and then hit up vegas with the hills.  2 of the funniest people i know. it was the perfect we-need-somewhere-to-go-to-get-out-of-this-dreary-weather getaway.  i'd do it again in a heart beat.

promise i love being with people that love taking pictures of themselves as much as me and brad do. and eating as much as me and brad do. and i also love being with people that are perfectly ok with farting as much as me and brad do. i think every 5 minutes we were laughing and gagging and spraying cologne/perfume.

thank goodness for technology.

thank goodness for technology. 
and thank goodness for little 4 year old boys who use cell phones to call their dad.
and thank goodness they look like 16 year old teenage girls when they do.
and thank goodness for cell phones that have cameras on them so i can take pictures while they're talking on their cell phones.
and thank goodness for cooper and his personality
and thank goodness for mcdonalds.

makeovers.

i know, blogging about church stuff is as cliche as a blog can get.  but when it's something fun, i can't help it.

we only have 3 young woman in our ward so for new beginnings we wanted to do something cool.  so i called 3 of some of my favorite and talented peeps that are excellent at hair and makeup, and we gave the girls full blown makeovers.  christine, vanessa and my sister jax did an incredible job.  and of course the girls were obsessed with them.

after we treated them to a nice dinner so they could show off their sexy, new looks to the public.  i wish i would have taken pictures of them all dolled up, but i'll tell you what, they looked smashing. our waiter thought one of the girls was 18 (she's 16) and she couldn't get enough of herself.  it was awesome.

sufjan stevens.

me and brad have grown quite obsessed with sufjan stevens. 
he's constantly playing in the background of our apt.
i came across this video of him playing and i absolutely love it. it takes me away. and i love even more the surroundings to where he's playing.  it goes to show how talented he really is with this banjo because it sounds spot on to the soundtrack. and his voice is magical. listen to the track version here.

happy 50th mamma.

happy 50th birthday mom!
your the most forgiving and non judgemental person i've met.
you've taught me some of the greatest lessons in life, from your example and from our long talks.
you've never judged me.
you've always been there for me, even when i was immature and didn't understand how much you truly loved me.
i could never say a big enough "thanks" for the life you've given and showed me.


basically what i'm saying is....i want to be you when i grow up.
hope you had a good birthday laughing with us girls today. i loved it so much.
p.s. i can honestly say your the hottest 50 year old i know. promise.

the ugly head.

 

jax has this hideous head from hair school that randomly shows up in unexpected places around the house.

one night it was lurking in the corner of the window for when people walked up to the door.

another night it was laid perfectly on jaclyns pillow staring straight up.  jax got home that night and screamed bloody murder. haha.

on my birthday josh came down with that head (shown above) and had all of us laughing so hard.

so naturally we went to town with it.

(sorry about the video being sideways)

don't you love our background sabbath music that we dance to? um.
our spiritual downfall.

twins.

happy friday.

and a happy new weekend.

we are in love with settebellos.

 we got another couple hooked on settebellos. how can you not get hooked? 

once you've tried that crust with it's fresh toppings...mmmm...you can't go back. 

we hit up the temple after settebellos, and after we dropped them off later that night i got a text from christine
(who happens to be one of the sweetest human beings on earth) 

saying they went back at 10:00pm to get another pizza and gelato ice cream. 

i was not only jealous, but uber happy they love it just as much as we do.

bottom line, it felt good to be back.  

i finally feel at peace after being without that place for so long.  

but now i have that balsamic flavor and greek olive taste lingering around in my mouth. 

mmmmmmmm. 

fondue party.

 

here's a few pictures of the fondue par-tay.
it was awesome.  mostly because of the company. not because of the chocolate and doughnuts and angel food cake and ice cream bars and rice krispie treats and cream puffs.

stacies soup.

i posted stacies' soup on the diabetic blog.  so if you wanted the recipe, it's on that blog.

i have to say it again, it's out of this world.

25 on sunday.

i can't fathom i'm already 25. weird.
we started saturday with my favorite breakfast done by brad....quiche.
and ended  the day with my favorite activity...popcorn and a movie.
everything in between was really laid back.  which i thought was absolutely perfect.
i wanted to do nothing, that way we didn't have to spend anything huge.
so by my request we watched eat, love, pray.  i'm sure it was a chore for brad to sit through.

i did ask for one request from brad that had to last the entire day for one of my presents.
brad does about 4 quotes in these hilarious voices that have me laughing so hard every time he does them. 
the only problem is that he never does them.  even when i beg, because he hates being put on the spot.
so my one request was that at any given moment when i asked him to do a quote, he had to do it.
and he did....and i was laughing every 7 minutes.  i took full advantage.

the hardest was sunday.
my family celebrated my birthday with a fondue party.  nice.
me and brad were sitting in the corner eating our sugar-free pudding with strawberries with a chocolate crime scene going on in the kitchen.  chocolate was everywhere.
BUT-we can say we conquered it with flying colors. the sugar cravings are officially gone, and we both feel like saying "no" to sugar has become a thousand times easier after that night.
one month down, 11 more to go!

stacies magical soup.

i went down to hang out with stace and the fam before aerobs yesterday while brad studied.

i texted him around 4:00 and this was our conversation:

me: you loving the single life down in salt lake right now?

brad: ya i'm loving it, because i'm watching every movie on netflix you wouldn't approve of, like street fighter.

me: thank the high heavens your getting that movie out of your system while i'm gone.

this conversation just makes me laugh:

i walk in stacies house and cooper's playing the wii.

me: hey coop!! i missed you bud!

cooper (without even glancing away from the wii for a split second): hey boom bum.

me (while laughing of course): boom bum? where did boom bum come from?

cooper: you have a boom bum, that's why its big.

me and my mom at this point are rolling.

me: well thanks coop.

cooper: uh huh.

stace worked her magic in the kitchen last night with literally the best (and healthiest) soup i've ever tasted.  and that's saying a lot because i have a lot of favorite soups. i'm pissed i didn't take some home with me to eat today.

and most of my family, including jaxs man, came to my aerobics class last night which made thursday the best day of the week so far.

the wii.

this has been our life since christmas.

our marriage doesn't exist when this thing is turned on. 

i don't know what we did before it came along. 

i'm guessing we talked.

i love old people.

an older woman, 80's maybe, came in for a procedure.  sometimes my job is to wheel the patient out to their car after the procedure because of the affect the meds have on them.  now i've heard and seen some pretty funny stuff because of those meds. peoples' true selves come out. and thank goodness for that. 

so as i'm wheeling this old woman to her car, she leans over and hugs me super tight for about 3 minutes and as we're just standing there awkwardly, she whispers in my ear, "i've adored you my whole life" and then smiles at me like she's prancing on clouds.

usually i would have burst out laughing, but for some reason this woman melted my heart because of how cute and old she was.  and yes, i got teary eyed. i couldn't help it. she was just so cute and lovable.

weekend upload.

 brad went back to school this morning.  the apartment seemed so empty.

it was an awesome weekend though, so we're glad we did some fun stuff before we headed back into school reality.

we made dinner for some friends friday night and watched fantastic mr. fox on their projector screen. i was obsessed.

went to the library, checked out some incredible music, read some random books and magazines and talked for a good hour. i was surprised how much i loved just hanging out there.

watched the movie hearafter with matt damon at the dollars.  i bawled in it about 4 times. i'd recommend it.

then finished the night with some delish pier 49 pizza.

sunday we ended the weekend by skyping with family. look how cute the elders look all gathered around the computer.  

beautiful message.

what an inspiration this gospel is.

scott and jenesee.

 last night was scott lewis's wedding reception.  they are such a beautiful couple. 

scott has always been a good friend since high school and i can honestly say every time us girls hung out with scott and his boys back in the day, we ended up either breaking the law or getting in trouble, which was why they were all so much fun.

by far the best part of weddings is running into old friends.

and p.s. allie although the picture's crooked, i thought that picture turned out so pretty of you.  your smile is perfect!