Happy New Year!!

can't wait for this day at work to end so I can start my long weekend...

making fresh guacamole for a party tonight.... yummy

have to write my new year's resolutions tonight....

(and this year I'm going to complete at least two of them....

I hope ;)

a happy five years

Happy Anniversary Spouse!!

Memories from Our Big Day:

• getting up super early to get my hair done by Katie
• looking like a kemo-kid because my hair was pulled all back and deciding last minute to just leave it down and curl it
• rushing to the temple to get there on time...
• seeing Dave when I walked into the temple looking like a giddy school boy with the biggest smile on his face
• holding hands... a lot (with Dave of course silly)
• being totally nervous
• almost dying from heat in our extremely over crowded sealing room
• loving that I have such a great, big, happy family that loves and supports me
• saying 'yes' to our sealer before he was finished and then having to say it again (so I said 'yes' twice Dave - remember that!)
• Dave being so nervous/excited he was almost trembling
• changing into my wedding dress (because I couldn't wear my antique white one in the temple) and it being so busy I didn't get a little dressing table in the bride's room... still bummed about that actually
• Dave's face as I walked out of the bride's room and met him down the hall
• having to re-curl my hair like 10 times that day because it was grey, cold and snowy
• my warm fuzzy boots that I wore under my dress to try and keep warm
• my new black puffer jacket that I brought to keep warm that I may or may not have returned...
• loving my photographer
• sitting in the lobby of the Salt Lake temple with Dave waiting for something and BOTH of us falling asleep while holding hands - cheesy I know
• eating soup with my mom, dad, and Dave at the temple cafeteria after the sealing but before the wedding breakfast because I was starving
• having to pee so bad during the wedding breakfast while everyone was was doing the rounds with the microphone that I made Dave get up with me creating a totally awkward moment while I ran to the ladies room...
• my niece Naomi sitting on my lap during the whole wedding breakfast because she thought I looked like a princess
• loving my reception at Memory Grove
• absolutely loving the cute little old men that we hired for our Frank Sinatra-esque band, they were fantastic
• I remember loving what we got for our food but also remembering how sad I was I didn't get the chance to eat any (different types of hot chocolote, cheeses and breads... that's all I remember actually)
• the long line of dear friends and family that came to our wedding - thank you! thank you!
• beautiful flowers
• a delicious cake that looked nothing like what I had ordered...
• my nephew Nate swiping a big chunk of frosting off the back of the cake
• our first dance - sung by my cousin Kami
• when it came time to leave Dave realized he had left his keys in his sister's car who had left early...
• waving goodbye to friends and family while waiting for Dave's keys to make it back to us
• the shattered sparkling cider, dropped as Dave was opening the door to the car
• swimming at Little America
• an awesome suite at The Grande America
• missing our flight the next morning and barely getting tickets for the next flight
• going back to our hotel room after we had already checked out and gone to the airport
• eating breakfast at Burger King downtown and running into my Uncle Mark as he was crossing the street - so awkward! ("Uh hello Uncle Mark... thanks for coming to the reception last night...ummmm... well! See you later!")

Thanks, my love, for all the memories we've had since and for the memories we've yet to make.

puerto rico? what?

So a few weeks ago Dave and I decided to take a little trip.... to Puerto Rico baby! It was a very last minute decision and only made possible through some fantastic friends who gave us some buddy passes ($190 for both our round trip flights! I mean come on! Who wouldn't go?) Then Dave found this awesome deal at a 5 Star hotel if we listened to one of those 90 min. presentation things (which I hate but.... $199 for 3 night/4 days. Could you have chosen any different??)

Puerto Rico was another random serendipitous choice but thanks to my friend Elisabeth and her beautiful pics on her blog we decided to follow in her footsteps. And we couldn't have been happier! If you haven't considered going to PR you totally should. It was like Mexico, Hawaii and America all rolled into one. It's an American territory so they use American money, but then everyone there speaks Spanish and all the road signs are in Spanish but the environment is exactly like Hawaii. Loved it. Our 5 year anniversary is December 29th so we kind of decided this would be our fantastic 5 year celebration and it was perfect. It was a quick trip and just what the doctor ordered.

Our hotel room was awesome, marble floors and all.

Ok so this was on our sliding glass door in our room... it was so random! I just didn't know what the hotel staff wanted us to take away from that... 'Beware' because we'll never want to leave? I guess they were right.

The pool...

The beach right by our hotel...

K so this was part of the kiddy pool area. We were both a little frightened by Ariel and her plastic surgery.... come on girl! You looked beautiful before. Why'd you have to go and mess it up Michael Jackson style?

One of my absolute favorite things was going to old town San Juan. It was like stepping into the set of 'Pirates of the Carribean.'

I love all the beautiful architecture down there, the balconies, and the fun, bright, Caribbean colors.

These are the famous towers from the San Juan fortress, they're on like the license plates and the PR quarter and stuff.

Awww. What a cute couple! ;) It was sooo hot and humid that day. And we somehow found ourselves at the bottom of the fort for like an hour and couldn't find our way back up. We walked around the entire thing only to find a dead end! We had to hike all the way back and around. Dave almost gave up on me and wanted to go back to the hotel...

A famous view, this time from ON TOP of the fortress.

There were cats everywhere! And I'm such a sucker for them I couldn't resist taking a couple pictures.

I loved all of their unique doors. Every window had bars on it (reminded me of Mexico) but some looked pretty and not so... 3rd worldish.

This was our 'authentic' Puerto Rican meal that we shared.... thank goodness! They told us it was pork with rice and beans, they didn't say HALF the pig would be on our plate and we'd feel like animals eating it.

Playing chess at the pool. Dave beat me in like 4 moves and was so smug about it... so I kicked his queen and said we were done playing... yes, I was a poor sport ;)

This was our 'European' friend at Tuquillo beach or so we thought. While frolicking in the ocean, because that's what I like to do - frolick, he said in a very plain American accent "it's a good day for the beach." After that we were just a little more creeped out and kept our distance. If you're European that's one thing but if you're American and wearing a thong well... that's something else entirely.

Dave and I on our borrowed hotel towell at the beach.

The end.

exciting news! (for me anyways)

For those of you bookworms out there like myself, you might be fans of the incredible series The Hunger Games. I was so disappointed when I finished the 2nd book, Catching Fire, and the 3rd book wasn't out yet, nor would it be out until August 24, 2010! But I just found out that I can pre-order it on my favorite website, Amazon.com, for the great price of $9.89 (hardback).

Yay hurray!

Yes, I am one of those nerds who gets excited about young adult books... HP, Twilight, The Lightening Thief, yada yada yada -- don't hold it against me and love me anyway :)

i'm a happy girl

I've been waiting for this particular gift for 5 years. So for those of you who think I don't have the gift of patience (including myself actually ;), think again!

I LOVE kitchen tools and for some reason when we were married we didn't get the standard best-ever kitchen tool that I'm told I can't live without! Can you guess what it is? It begins with Kitchen and ends with Aid... and it mixes things. AND I bought it for myself for a stellar deal, AND I already used it.... to make Christmas gifts with! So that's okay right? I justified it.

Here she is in all her glory (just a pic from the internet but yes, the exact same one sitting on my counter at this moment) --

red mango - not so much

So I've heard so much about this Red Mango natural frozen yogurt place and do you want to hear my two cents on it? (of course you do):

It's too expensive for what you get.

Kind of yummy, tart, but expensive. This was the smallest portion size I could get and it was a whole extra dollor for those 5 berries topping it off at like $4.50! And that was the small!

I think I'll just stick to my little Yogi Berry place by my house...

how to make something ugly, semi-cute {we hope}

Dave and I salvaged an old (and ugly I might add), dark burgundy, filing cabinet.... where oh where could we put that? So I thought I might spiff it up a little and I have no idea how to. After talking to my best friend (Google), we decided that the best and cheapest way to re-do a metal filing cabinet is to spray paint it. But what color?? I guess that all depends on what I'm going to paint that room (when I get around to it). Any ideas? A girl did a post on apartmenttherapy.com where she added cute, wall paper on the front of the filing drawers here. Am I capable of doing something like that? We'll just have to wait and see...

But in the mean time I would appreciate any input from all you people out there who read this blog post :)

they've arrived!

Yea for wonderful, cute, classic books!

(And my wonderful friend is getting me two more for Christmas and my birthday - thank you Hayley!)

pumpkin cheesecake bites

For those of you who don't like pumpkin pie (or your husbands don't like it....) or even if you're a big fan like moi, you should make these delicious babies. Super easy and super delicious. Dave ate 3! My family ate them up for our pre-Thanksgiving feast last Sunday.

Find the recipe here.

a fetish...

I've realized that I kind of have a dish fetish. I saw these dishes in last year's Christmas issue of Better Homes and Gardens and I loved them! The only problem was that I saw the magazine in like March and the store didn't have them in stock anymore... But I found them this year! And then I found 3 other colors... how could I choose!? So I bought 8 of the red ones (for Christmas) and I'm not sure what to do with the other dishes but I couldn't resist them. The dinner dish below the red bird dish were part of my wedding dishes that I absolutely adore, another part of the fetish...

music to put you in the mood

So I'm usually one of those people that tries not to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving but I got overruled at work and we're listening to '100 Days of Christmas' on FM 100.3.... and I'm getting super excited for the holiday season!! The snow this weekend just rolled in the holidays for me especially when we celebrated Thanksgiving early with my family since my parents will be gone to Brazil!

Like I was telling my friend earlier today, Thanksgiving to me is watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and then watching 'Miracle on 34th Street' (the old one if you please) while the turkey is in the oven and other goodies are being made.... sigh. Time for Thanksgiving already!

graham family photos

This weekend Dave and I went up to my parent's house in Heber and my sister Mylissa asked if I would take some pictures of her family. Here are the results...

the whole graham family plus Indie the dog

(yup, named after Indiana Jones)

why, hello blue eyes

the parents of FOUR boys... i don't know how you do it myliss!

a little silliness to help the boys get their wiggles out,

and they had plenty of them (being boys and all...)

cute, cute owen

nate and isaac

the PERFECT Christmas picture!.... if only owen were in there... crap

another cute shot of the parents with the adorable lil jimmy

Thanks Myliss for letting me take pictures of your wonderful family!

yo gabba gabba!

So a few of you may know the up and coming kids show Yo Gabba Gabba, but what some of you might not know is that my sister-in-law, Emma, plays the pink character of Foofa! Her brother is the creator and director of the show, and lead singer of the band The Aquabats.

This weekend my mom and my brother, Emma's hubby, went out to see their first of several live shows and guess who she sat next to and chatted it up with? Weird Al Yankovic, his wife and kids. (*Funny side note - she didn't know who he was so when she was telling me who she sat next to she said, "Some weird Al something-or-other." Thanks for the laugh mom.) Also present were Dennis Quaid and his kids, the blonde girl from Scrubs, Jason Bateman, Christina Aguilera, and Mat Costa and a few other celebreties that my mom didn't know and my brother had to point out to her. Snoop Dog performed (look at me name dropping and I wasn't even there ;) Today Brad Pitt, who is a fan of the show, is taking his whole crew of kids to go and see the show. Brad also dressed up as DJ Lance Rock from the show for Halloween this year. Click here to see the photo.

So that's my claim to fame, via my mom ;) Foofa and Yo Gabba Gabba fans look for them in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year! Yea Emma!

header schmeader

Does anyone know how to make my header smaller? I'm kind of blogtarded when it comes to figuring that kind of stuff out. Any comments or ideas would be helpful...

an ode to fall... with some friends

I love all these fall colors! While on lunch (at my favorite spot of course) I decided to take a few pictures to pay homage to fall. Love these marigold-colored leaves.

While there I was suddenly mobbed by two delightful companions who promptly made themselves at home on my blankets... but my oh my, they were so adorable! They belonged to a guy who breeds these cuties and he was out walking them. They're six week old pittbulls and the most snuggly dogs I've ever met. If anyone is interested they sell for a bundle ($1500ish) but he had some older dogs (like 3 mo.) for about half that. Just leave a message and I can get you the company's info.

Brother and sister...

I'm pretty sure he wanted me to take him home, look at that face! So sweet.

Yeah they seriously were laying all over my stuff, and sleeping I might add, after like 10 seconds of running up to me and and sitting on my book.

See Mar - I think I'm half and half. Love dogs too.

(Sorry you got two posts in a row about animals - I am totally an animal person though so... you'll just have to deal with it ;)