Holiday Awesomeness

Picasa is my new favorite discovery. I used it to make collages of each night of the holiday week! So easy and I just couldn't leave these pictures out!

We have had way too much fun this week! Everyone came into town for Thanksgiving! Aunt Amy and her family, Sarah and her kids, and Kate and Brian and their kids. It was a blast. Ben and I have been in heaven. Ben was so dang cute with the kids. They loved him! The first night we all got together, Amy surprised the kids with matching pajamas to wear to the Polar Express! So cute!

The Polar Express was so much fun! We boarded on the train and got hot chocolate and cokies served to us by elves. Then we set off for the North Pole. on the way there the elves danced and told jokes. They even read "The Polar Express" book to each of us! When we got to the North Pole, Santa came on the train and greeted us. He gave each kid a Bell! On the way home Mrs. Claus came and handed each of us a recipe for her famous cookies. The kids were star struck.

Ice Skating was a blast! At first the kids were pretty timid on the ice but by the end of the day they were doing great! I however but really sore the next day!

Another fun part of the week was making Ginger bread houses! the first attempt kind of struggled cause the Costco gingerbread house kits were falling apart. But we got one that worked and all the kids decorated it beautifully. Avery was enjoying the frosting a little too much I think :)

On Saturday night Molly made some awesome scones and on Sunday we just got to come over and hang out with everyone. Ben and I took some of the kids on a walk around the neighborhood. It was so fun just to have everyone around! I wish it was like this all the time. By the way, Isn't max the absolute cutest little chunk you have ever seen? I am so in love with him!

Back to real life I guess!

just me thinking out loud :)

So.... I don't really have anything interesting to say today.. I'm just bored and felt like blogging :) No recent fun events, no new pictures. So even though I'm pretty sure nobody will actually read this I just felt like writing today. What I'm really just excited and happy about is what exciting events and pictures are yet to come! With this week being Thanksgiving and all :) Pretty much my whole family will be in town except my brother Brian and brother in law Perry on my side and Daniel and Nicole on Ben's side. They will be greatly missed! hopefully we will get to see them soon though. that's what I love about the holidays. It brings family together. It's always something to look forward to. I love seeing my sisters. I look up to them so much. Always have. Sarah is super mom. I hope I'm as good a of mom as her. She just seems to always have it together. Perry is in the military and unfortunately had to be away for months at a time and Sarah handles those three kids like a champ. She is always fun to be around and always has something good to say about someone. I love her laugh. It always makes me happy. She has the kind of laugh that makes whatever she is laughing at ten times funnier. Kate is also awesome. She is so creative and crafty. You should see the birthday parties this girl plans. She is amazing in the kitchen and can make any cute/yummy treat in the book. She is so stylish and has awesome taste. I miss her and Brian so much since they moved to Seattle. They are so fun to have around and are always helping in any way they can. Molly is my best friend. She is so spontaneous and always up for anything whether it's hiking at three in the morning, rollerblading at midnight or just catching a dollar movie. She is so easy to talk to and always has a good story to tell. She is so thrifty and always finding good deals. She is also becoming a very talented photographer. She is pretty much a rockstar. Wow totally didnt intend on doing a tribute to my sista's but there ya have it. They rock I know!

Anywho, while I'm talking about awesome people I should probably mention my hubby. Ben is awesome. He is pretty much a total sweetheart and I love him. He works so hard and recently got a cool new job at the Center for Human Genetics at the U and is learning tons and doing research and stuff. He is so excited and I am so proud of him. We are so blessed to have each other and such awesome family members that live so close. With a lot of my family moving away recently, It's so nice to have his family just down the street. It's always fun to be able to stop by whenever and see everyone. We totally take it for granted but who knows pretty soon we may only even get to do that at holidays and stuff.

Other exciting news...... I am only a few weeks away from graduating from nursing school. wow. I can't believe how close it is. I was talking to my friend Karen who I go to school with today and we were talking about how crazy it is! Just looking back and remembering all the clinicals, 5 hour class periods, hours doing case studies and projects, studying for and taking all the dreaded tests! it seemed like it would never end! I remember how scared I was that first day of class, or the first day of clinical! how awkward it was for me just talking to a patient, or doing simple procedures or giving meds! I was so terrified! ha ha I'm so glad I can laugh about all that now. I have learned so much and grown so much these past two years! It's crazy to think how much has happened and how I've changed. I love being a nurse. I love being able to help people do things they cant do alone. I love teaching and knowing enough to be able to help people understand things, even though I know there is still so much to learn!

I am excited to be home more. This semester I spent more nights away from Ben than with him. Between working nights and being in Provo for school half of each week it felt like we barely saw each other. Now I may actually be home most days in time to make dinner for Ben. Or do laundry, or iron clothes! all the things that Ben has been picking up my slack on! I'm excited. Life is good.

Bebecha

So I am totally into headbands right now. I found this adorable Etsy shop with the cutest headbands, fabric earrings, hair clips, and other way fun stuff! After I found a bunch of stuff I wanted I noticed that the girl selling lived in Provo. So since I pretty much live there these days with school being so crazy, I asked if I could come look at all her stuff while I was down there one week! She is so creative and makes the cutest accessories. I was in heaven! check out her Etsy shop here. Her prices are awesome! especially for the earrings! Here are some of my favorites:

So, the shop's name is Bebecha. She is doing an open house in North Salt Lake this Saturday from 12-3 and another one next month in Provo on Dec. 12th from 10-2. Let me know if you want to go and need the address! If you bring 3 friends you get a free pair of earrings. This is a good opportunity to get some cute Christmas gifts for your friends!

Isn't Halloween the Best?

I love Halloween mainly because I love seeing what parents come up with for costumes for their kids! ha ha here are a few of my nieces and nephew's costumes.


These are my sister Sarah's kids. Andrew, Avery, and Abby. I'm loving these costumes. Doesnt Andrew make a scary Dracula? Apparently Andrew stayed in character all night with that serious expression. Aren't Avery and Abby such babes? I can't believe how big they are getting. click here to see more cute pics from their halloween!



Ruby made the absolute cutest Dorothy! She was so excited for Halloween this year! Ruby has been talking SO much lately and she loved telling people what she was dressing up as. See more pics here


Last but not least, here is little Hazelbop. She made the best Wonder Woman ever! ha ha I love this costume! My sister Kate found this at a costume store and tailored it specially for Hazel. She looks like she was really getting into character!


I also love Halloween just purely for all the fun festivities that surround it! For my friend Kate's birthday we got a bunch of the girls together and went to Cornbelly's Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point. It was FREEZING! and we definitely struggled in the Maze ha ha I don't think we ever actually found the right way out.


Don't ya just love these goofy walls? ha ha. we were lovin it.

I can't believe it's already November!!! The Holidays are coming fast! I can't wait for the next couple of months! Between now and January we have Thanksgiving, GRADUATION, Christmas, One year Anniversary for Ben and I, then my Birthday!!!! yay! I can't wait!

Fall Break

This week was so much fun! Ben and I had a couple days of break for school so we were able to take a little vacation out to Oakland, California just the two of us :) I had bought our plane tickets a few months go for Ben's birthday present and this was the big weekend! We have been wanting to go out and visit Ben's mission forever and we finally we are able to do it! We did so many fun things! I was able to meet a lot of families and people that Ben taught. They were all so happy and excited to see him again and it was awesome for me to finally meet all these people that Ben has been telling me about for years now!

Our first stop in California was the Bay Bridge. We spent the first day in downtown San Francisco but I HAD to get a Golden Gate picture with Ben. Of course it was super foggy that day and you could barely see it but it was beautiful!
This is another attempt at getting a picture with the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm pretty sure this was the only 30 second period when it was completely invisible because even as we were walking back to the car it was coming back into view! dang! It's still a pretty cool pic I think :)First pic of the trip! We were so excited! This is just us waiting for the shuttle to take us to the rental car place. We made reservation for the cheapest car there. it was supposed to be a compaq and we wanted a trunk so our luggage wasn't visible when we were parked in San Francisco. Instead we ended up with a JEEP? Okay whatever. I will say though. GPS saved our lives this trip! thanks to the Hunters for letting us use it. We didn't get lost once! I'm sure it saved us hours of grief and frustration in an unfamiliar city!
After was seemed like hours of driving around the city looking for parking we finally made it down to Pier 39! It was so much fun looking in the little shops and things. Behind us in this picture is a huge random group of sea lions? Well they look like seals to me but apparently they are sea lions. they just all sit here and make noise and push each other off the docks. It is hilarious to watch them! I know this picture of me is awesome. I look so attractive. Ben was supposed to make a funny face too but of course he smiled. I usually can't keep him from making funny faces in pictures. go figure.
We didn't make the trip out to alcatraz but there it is in the background. It was such great weather out there. We were getting hot in those clothes!

Oh man. such a highlight of the trip! I was able to find a SWEET deal on tickets to WICKED at the Orpheum Theater. I have been wanting to see this Show FOREVER! and now I finally got that chance. It totally lived up to all the hype. I was in heaven. Ben probably won't admit it but he loved it too :) I would totally go see it again. worth every penny.
On Friday we were able to go do a session at the Oakland Temple. This is Ben's favorite temple. I was excited too because this is where my parents were married. It really is such a beautiful temple and it has an AMAZING view of the city. It was awesome.Afterwards we went to Fenton's for some ICE CREAM. oh my heck. they gave me so much. IT really was the biggest serving of ice cream ever! That was pretty much our lunch because I was stuffed after. DELISH
After visiting a family that Ben taught we found this awesome place. In this neighborhood all the streets are named after women. This one was my favorite :) Ben told me when he was on his mission, every time he rode his bike past this street he thought of me :) isn't that romantic?

Okay major highlight coming up. After visiting the member in the lady street neighborhood, we were supposedly going to meet up with some other people that Ben knew to go to a drive in movie. so we were driving along and I was giving Ben directions from the GPS. Well as we arrived at our destination I saw that instead of a Drive in theater, we were at the HP Pavillion Center. Confused I looked at Ben who clearly thought I had caught on by now. I was just thinking "oh the drive in must be behind this huge place." Then I saw a sign that said Rascal Flatts tonight! I said to Ben, Look! Rascal Flatts are playing there tonight! He just smiled and said nothing. "Ben... are we going to Rascal Flatts?" oh my goodness I was DYING! I have always wanted to see them in concert!
The funny thing was... Ben totally was having a hard time keeping this surprise to himself all week. and earlier that day when we were driving, I randomly put on all the Rascal Flatts songs on a playlist and was rocking out to them. He totally thought I knew and was trying to hint to him. ha ha. nope. I was totally oblivious. It was such an amazing concert and we had a blast!! Thanks Ben. I love ya.
Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures on Saturday! We were so busy going from house to house visiting Ben's friends from the mission and I kept leaving my camera in the car. We really had a blast though. A much needed break for us! Can't wait for the next one!

So the day before we left for Oakland, Molly and I (and a few of Kate's friends) got to fly up to Seattle on a Private Jet and hang out with Kate for a few hours! It was so random! Kate has a friend, Nora and her dad has a jet and was using it to go pick up his son for some family thing in Salt Lake. they had some empty seats on the jet so she invited us! It was such a blast and so nice to see Kate, Bri, Hazel, and little Wells (who by the way is sooooo cute!)


Here we are about to take off! Natalie, Me, Molly and NoraChubby little Max, Hazel and I. I miss these little ones so incredibly much! Can't wait for thanksgiving to spend more time with them!
I can't believe how grown up she is getting. Look at that long hair! ha ha and I love that she insisted on carrying that lotion everywhere we went.
Again with the lotion... ha ha love ya Hazelbop

Happy Birthday Ben!

Today is Ben's 23rd Birthday!! We are having a great day full of adventures so i don't have too much time to Blog today but i just wanted to post some pics of Ben and I. Just reminding everyone not to forget to call or send a text wishing Ben a happy day. I love you Ben. You are the best!

Jordanelle Triathlon

Last Saturday, Ben, Matt and I participated in the Jordanelle Triathlon! We did it as a relay team and it was such a blast! It's becoming sort of a tradition for the three of us. last year we did the Echo Triathlon as a relay team and that was Matt's first ever triathlon. He has been hooked ever since. Only problem is he keeps injuring himself in training for the Xterra Triathlon. Luckily, this years injury didn't keep him from swimming!
















I did the run this year. It was a 10k (6.2 miles) and it was brutal! I haven't been training one bit this summer which is horrible! But I didnt want to let my team down so I really went hard! I actually ended up with a better time than usual so that was good! It was a fun run but it was so dang hot! I was so red in the face by the end!












Ben also did awesome! We have mostly been mountain biking this summer so I was proud of him for busting out 26.2 miles on the road bike. Here he is running in to give me the time chip so I could start my run.











After the race we were exhausted! Especially me. I hadn't quite recovered in this picture. This was about 15 seconds after the run. I am still so red! It was such a blast to do this race as a team. Go Hunter Dogs! (yes that is our team name. ha ha no idea where we came up with that one)