Two wedding and a baby shower later.......... I was pooped.

Cousins Meagan and Alycia at the shower at Alycia's house {sisters}. Alycia, on the left cuts my hair, and Meagan, on the right, is having a baby due on Dave and I's anniversary. My little sister Bre and her hubby are sitting by the fireplace in the background, it was a double shower for Bre and Meagan for the Briggs side of the family.



Then I rushed home to quickly make the most amazing caramel wassail/apple cider in the world, first time wassail/apple cider maker too mind you (we couldn't figure out which it was - wassail or apple cider, if anyone really knows the difference, let me know). It was supposed to simmer for an hour.... more like 20 minutes on high for me, but still delicious. It made my house smell amazing. Then the guests for Bre's 2nd shower started arriving, mostly from the Evans side of the family.
That ginormous poinsettia was a house warming gift from my pseudo family, the Wahlstroms. Thank you guys! And do you see our new rug that FINALLY arrived? Two and a half months later.... and right in the nick of time for the shower. Those bar stools we are painting red FYI, one of the several things I just couldn't get to in time for the shower. This pic was taken after all the hoopla {and 30-40 people} left.

Bre and Addison hung around after the fiesta to watch Modern Family with Dave and I, and I caught them canoodling...

Bre I think most of my pictures of you are with your mouth wide open... you Muppet.
{The Smith family after the shower(s)}

After all the cleaning, the festivities and re-cleaning after the festivities, I pooped out on the couch. Dave and I started Shrek, such a good movie, and I fell asleep at 9 p.m. Yes, 9 o'clock. 9 in the evening. And didn't wake up until 8 a.m. Eleven hours of sleep....I think the last time I fell asleep that early I was 10.

It was a great Saturday. I seriously have The. Best. extended family in the world, on both sides. I'm always so excited to see my cousins, aunts and uncles (and of course all the in-laws, we're huge now) and it's awesome knowing that they're there for you to help out with anything. Food for the shower, done. Everyone pitched in, as they always do, and brought some amazing desserts and appetizers. And I love the company, always fun to talk to. I'm seriously so lucky to have such a great family.

So happy wedding Bre! And Meagan we're so excited for little Samuel to come on Dave and I's special day, hope he makes it before the end of the year!

Some of my favorite things from Thanksgiving 2010:

Miss Lucy-loo, check out those eyes. Adorable child.

And Jimmy, with his pants raised as high as possible {curtesy of his loving and practical joker father, Wayne}
And Jimmy {obviously} loving it, and showing it off with p.r.i.d.e. {and perhaps a little swagger?}

I love family. So grateful for them this holiday season.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.

Another new favorite - tried sweet potatoes for the first time, never grew up having them oddly enough, and they were amazing Mylissa! Nice job. I think you'll be asked to make them every year from here on out. I made a delicious, if I do say so myself, old favorite, spinach artichoke dip. Oooh it was heaven.

Family AND food. Can life get better? I submit it cannot.

Love is...

....letting Kirsten watch a major chick-flick when my favorite team is playing my least favorite team and I REALLY want to watch it!

Love you Kirst!

{written by Dave}

merry christmas to me {early}

This item has been bugging me on my Amazon wish list for ages; always wanting me to buy it, saying how much I'll like it, saying my home will be beautiful and my life will be fulfilled if I just purchase it. Well... I gave in. Can't wait to get it!

So I just added this followers section to my blog.

Maybe you all should become a follower.... so it looks like I have more than 3 friends.

Just do it. Make me proud.

Follow me while I post embarrassing insights into Dave and I's life.

And thank you :)

P.S. Anyone else super excited about the royal wedding taking place in Britain?? Go Kate Middleton! Yeah I'm jumpin on that royal bandwagon. And I can't wait to see her wedding dress. Just saw this picture and had to laugh, love the superimposed head ;)

you know what i love about today?

it was a partial snow day at work.

i got to leave at 3:15.

and i was so happy.

i was going to clean my house with my extra two hours from work, i was going to make cookies, still might, and i was going to dig out my Christmas decor but now i'm watching Bruce Almighty with my sister and hubby.

and it's beautiful outside.

maybe i'll get around to my stuff. maybe.

first off: it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and i am LOVING it. i woke up to this weather yesterday morning. this pic was taken from my bedroom window. and i immediately started blasting Christmas music, the first time this year. dave was hesitant but how can you not listen to Christmas music when it looks like that outside??

secondly: house updates

the master bathroom flower decale, i like it.

DIY tisssue balls, made for my sister's shower.

family room corner decale in damask print.

the blue body length mirror, used to be a dark brown color (i need to take a picture of the finished product...)

curtains i "hemmed" myself, with a little help from my iron :)

it's all starting to come together, o' little home of mine. bit by bit. just waiting on getting my rug i ordered 2 and a half months ago.... supposedly it's coming this week....

a few more projects in the works that i'm really excited about. hopefully i get a few done this week before my sister's bridal shower. wish me luck!

Have you ever blanched before? I did today, for the first time. And I so don't recommend it.

Have you ever put your foot in your mouth? I did today, not for the first time. Once again, don't recommend it.

I was even thinking earlier this week about stupid things I've said or done in my life that I totally regret now. Isn't that the worst feeling?

I concluded life really is about living and learning, sometimes painfully. And I have a lot of the later to do, but at least I know it.

Seriously - weird experience blanching. I mean I read about it in books all the time, "So and so blanched when she saw the look of fear in her son's eyes" etc. etc. I looked it up {because when Google is your best friend, you do that with everything} and here is the very interesting definition:

a temporary whitening of the skin due to transient ischemia

and what is that last part? transient ischemia means "a mini-stroke"!

Whaaat? So apparently I had a mini stroke this morning. I probably deserved it.

Sigh........

cats and dogs

You haven't seen this half of our family in awhile. Look at those glamour shots!

Re-meet Sophie and Lola

{Piglet and The Fatty}

Sophie snorts like a pig, especially when she's super excited, meaning when she wants to eat something, which is pretty much all of the time.

Lola, or Kitty, is lazy as I'll get out {I just learned that phrase btw, who really says "as I'll get out"?} She naps about 8 hours a day. But dang she's so friggin cute. I really have a love/hate relationship with her. She doesn't love me {she's a cat, did I really expect more?}, and so then I hate her. But out of nowhere I'll be reading my book on the couch and this little head will poke out from under my book forcing me to cuddle with her and she turns into the sweetest little critter I've ever seen.

But most of the time she ignores me, aren't cats just the best ;)

veteran's day rocks. especially when you work at a bank. and you get the day off :]

so i spent the day:

sleeping in till 9:30... ooooh yes

going up to Park City to my pop's business to take pictures of him and the office for his new website {if you're in need of an amazing eye doc, he's the one to see}

freezing while taking pictures outside, not ready for this weather just yet

meeting up with my mom to eat at a new/old favorite {i hadn't been there in years, like 10 or more} Kneaders. go, if you haven't. they're actually going to cater my sis's wedding in December and i can't wait to eat the desserts....

returned a pantry organizer we bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond because we found a better one at Home Depot (yes, HD, weird) and I bought one of these instead which i've been eyeing for quite some time

this weekend i:

"hemmed" my curtains using Bond 'N Seal and it worked like a friggin charm

hung up some hooks in my bathroom that we've been waiting to do for ages

cleaned the entire house

hung up a few more pictures

yelled at a the worst company, Rugs USA. bought a rug from them two months ago and still haven't seen it, apparently it's on back order and i'll get it in a week and half... i'll believe it when i see it amigos

sanded some stools and other furniture that now is waiting for me to paint them (ok to be fair - Dave sanded them)

went to see The Drowsy Chaperon and LOVED it. Aldolpho was my favorite, he played my "husband" when i did Singin' in the Rain. he's hilarious.

watched the worst movie made, Jonah Hex. i know, i know. why did i even go there? couldn't i tell it was dumb from the cover? i know, but i did. and i wasted 88 minutes of my life

made an amazingly delicious pot roast that dave devoured and had three helpings of

longingly looked at home things online that i'll just have to wait to get till after the holidays...

sat around the house in these amazing things

oh and read two great books, The Lost Hero and The Scorch Trials, liked em both and am annoyed i have to wait a whole other year for the sequels...


all in all, a fairly productive weekend for me. i still have many things i'm working on with my home which are keeping me busy. and yes, i'm still waking up thinking about where to hang things and what to put on what wall and i'm going a little mad in the process...

i love technology, but not as much as you you see. but i still love technology. always and forever.... always and, sniff, forever...

So yesterday I forgot my phone. Wow. Talk about withdrawals! I did the same thing on Friday (okay just to clarify what might seem like a common occurrence, it's NOT, I never forget my phone). I felt nakie. On top of that our computers and the phones at my job didn't work for about half the day. It was the weirdest day. I mean, what was life like before cell phones, texting, email and internet? I can barely remember. Okay I totally remember, but I just don't like to.

Remember when you set up your first email? Remember when you sent your first text? {Dave taught me how to use T9 when we were dating back in our BYU days}. Remember when sending and receiving texts were like 15 cents a pop? Remember when you were in school and used to have to look everything up at the library, in books? My mom actually "bought" a phone number with a PIN that we could use for emergencies at any pay phone, before a cell phone entered my life. Remember when cell phones were for 'emergencies only' (well in my family anyway)? I don't even have a home phone now.

Yesterday I totally felt like an addict being weaned off a drug. No surfing the internet! (not like I do that at work anyway...), not texting, no email, no calling anyone on the drive home. Whew, hope I never have to be without it again. I might just sleep with it tonight.

A side note: why in the world are pillows (or pellows as we say in Utah) so freakin expensive! I really want these pillows from Target but they're like $50 a piece. Are they lined with gold or something? Sigh. Aren't they cute for Christmas? Maybe if I'm a super good girl... no wait, what am I thinking? Even for Christmas I don't think I'd spend that much on pellows.

what we've been up to

a beautiful sunset on the drive home...
and then Halloween! can you guess who I was?

somebody couldn't get enough of my blond wig.... like seriously ;)

how embarassing dave! you came in the same costume as our host. but you had a good chat about how cool you looked.

speaking of cool.... how cool do these cupcakes look? can you guess what they are? i made them for the party.

enjoying the last of the warm weather out at sugarhouse park and loving the leaves.... absolutely gorgeous.

happy fall, one and all! oh and i bought my first christmas item at the store today. i shouldn't have because i believe in the proper order of things; thanksgiving then christmas... but i couldn't contain my excitement for the season. literally i grabbed dave in the store when i saw the christmas stuff and kind of gave an embarassing girly scream/giggle and then said "let's buy our first christmas item of the season!" he kind of shook his head and moved several feet away from me... i want to say it's because he went to grab one of the said christmas items but i have a sneeking suspicion he might not have wanted to be seen with me right at the moment.

a movie review

"He who is not busy being born, is busy dying."

That, is what this movie was all about. I went to see it last night at The Broadway Theater in downtown Salt Lake. And I have to say I really enjoyed it, enough to recommend it even. It's a unique story that focuses on a young teenager, facing, what would seem, the regular struggles of our day. Overwhelmed with thoughts of suicide he decides to commit himself. In the adult psychiatric ward he discovers many things about himself while looking through the eyes of those around him.

I thought this material, which could seem very dark and heavy, was realistically displayed, all with a simple and honest sense of humour. It had just the right touch of making the characters real but bearable to watch and laugh with/at. It was touching, simple, and funny, but brings to light many things that we all are struggling with and teaches us how to just "deal" with what life throws at us.

Not like this show didn't have it's pitfalls, a few crude parts that I thought could have been left out, but also not so crude that I wouldn't recommend it.

If you have the time, go and see it. The acting was surprisingly fantastic and the themes surprisingly poignant. The main boy in it I would totally adopt for my younger brother, what a sweetie. Go here for a summary/analysis if you want to totally spoil it for yourself, I suggest watching it first and then reading it.