Visitors

I feel like this past month or so I've been able to visit with a lot of family and friends down here at various times. It's been great!

First we had the pleasure of hosting brother Sam and his wife Megan and their little cutie bug Grace. They stayed with us on a Sunday night while on their way up to Idaho Falls to see my parents. Sam had just finished management training with Jamba Juice out in California for 4 weeks and Megan and Grace went along for the ride. They live out in Tennessee so we don't get to see them very often. We had a tasty dinner of beef burritos and then were entertained by Grace until she went to bed. After she was in bed we played a ravishing game of Guillotine! One of our favorite card games now. If you haven't played it, let me know and we'll set up a game night. :)

I asked them both to say cheese and smile and this is what I got. They must be related.

Super crappy picture from my phone, but we tried to capture how much fun we had playing GUILLOTINE and eating Halloween Jell-o jigglers.

Then a week or two later my mom came to visit! I got a flier for the local giant craft fair that was going to be held down here at the beginning of November and remembered how I would go to the big one up in Idaho Falls with her growing up. I called to see if it was an open Saturday for her and it was! She came down that morning and we hit up the fair that afternoon (it was HUGE, by the way. It took us a good while just to get through everything!) I stayed within my budget and came back with some new cute holiday decorations, which was what I was hoping to find. And she got a cute baby blanket for the little nugget. 

After that we went home and relaxed a little (and she cleaned my living room. I protested, but she said "that's what Moms do, we clean!" or something like that. I was grateful.) and then took Paul along with us out to dinner at McCool's. We love that place! Great Irish food and it's hardly ever crowded. After that she helped us register for baby gear at Target. It was really nice to have her along to help me know what's really useful and what's not.

Then we got some frozen custard at Nielson's and as you can see, really enjoyed it.

Then Sunday morning she headed back home. Short trip, but it was a lot of fun. Thanks for coming Mom!

The Friday night before Mom came down, I got to see my bestie Katie! Ever since she married her military man a couple years ago she's moved across the country and it's rare we see each other in person. But she was in town for the night so we met up for dinner downtown. We had a lot of fun catching up in person and I don't know the next time I'll see her!

Once again, another crappy quality picture and not all that flattering, but whatever.

Then last Friday my high school bestie Rachel stopped by for a lunch date during her travels! She lives in Oregon right now with her cute little family and this was my first time meeting her second baby Bennett! He had the most kissable cheeks and her other boy Logan was a lot of fun too. It was so good to see her in person too and catch up!

All those visits were so wonderful. Thanks friends and family who came and saw me!

Other random happenings:

We went down to Provo to see an art exhibit with Paul's parents. I couldn't take pictures in the actual exhibit, but it was really cool. It was sacred works from 18th century or so artists like Carl Bloch, and I love his work. BYU had the option of renting ipads that had extra information about each piece displayed and it was really neat to have that. 

Below is Paul outside the exhibit holding all our ipads.

And I finished the baby's dresser! Below is the before picture. It wasn't in bad shape when I bought it, but I just wasn't a fan of the colors.

And after. I really like how it turned out. I think it is now very kid-friendly.

And there you have it. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Cory and Alex

Remember how a while ago I did a post about my two older siblings? Well, this is now a continuation. Onto the next 2 siblings, little brothers Cory and Alex.

Yep, I grew up surrounded by boys. Sam, Cory and Alex were my main childhood playmates. We made up the coolest games and also had some pretty good fights, just like most siblings.

Anyways, Cory.

Cory, Cory Cory. What a weirdo. I say that in the most loving way, of course. If you think I'm obnoxious, you obviously haven't met my younger brother. He is one of the most creatively annoying talented people I know. 

And when I say talented, I really mean talented. Talented at observing each one of us and figuring out what exactly it is that bothers us, and then doing it a million times until you are ready to kick his hiney out of the room. Talented in figuring out the most annoying noises possible to make and doing them over and over and over and over again. Talented playing tricks on you and manipulating you into trying something. He can be so persuasive. Or maybe it's just pushy, I don't know.

Talented in music like no one's business. This boy can fiddle around on the piano and accompany you on probably anything. He's majoring in organ performance and really, I can't imagine him doing anything else. The louder and faster the song, the more he likes it. 

Talented in making me laugh like no one's business. I'm sure we made quite a pair when we were younger- he put on the show and I laughed and egged him on. We shared a room for probably about a week when we were little. I know it didn't last too long because I think our parents realized what was going on- we weren't getting much sleep because he would keep me up laughing while he danced around our room gargling "YMCA"  late into the night. That's how much of an entertainer this guy is. 

I hope you notice what is going on in this picture above. He obviously did something obnoxious right in my face and my hand is poised ready to smack him. Yep, this happened a lot. And I'm glad it's caught on camera.

There are too many childhood memories to count with this little brother of mine. And even though I can think of plenty of times when he drove me nuts, there are also memories of him being a sweetheart. Of being loyal. And like I said, he could sure make me laugh. He now has a beautiful wife and cute baby and I'm so glad he's my little brother.

So thanks, Cor. For the memories. I'm sure my childhood would have been A LOT more boring if you weren't around.

And now onto Alex. AKA the Kid. Or Kidothy. Lex. Lexkins. Alington. This brother had a lot of nicknames.

I think of Alex as the nicest of the boys. So naturally, he was the most picked on. I don't remember ever really getting into fights with him, all I remember are the not so nice things I would convince him to do. Like "superhero training" where I made him him carry me up the stairs or around the house pretending he was the superhero saving me from a burning building. Or pinning him down and tickling him over and over again until he bucked me off because he couldn't handle it anymore. 

See? Even above (this was about 5 years ago) he let me bother him and just laid there and waited until it was over. (By the way, check out Andrea's AWESOME nightgown!!!!!)

He and Cory were always known as "the little boys". Those two were peas in a pod. Whenever Cory and I would disagree, Alex would always side with him, even if my side of the argument was totally right. Didn't matter.

He also can make me laugh so hard because he is also so weird. Except instead of being weird in the obnoxious sort of way, he's just weird in the nerdy literal way. Actually, I feel like he and Paul are the most similar out of all of my siblings. They share the same love for nerdy things, like superheros and catching people making grammar mistakes. 

And he's the one who entertains me by doing things like this:

This little sweet nerdy boy has really grown up and it's a lot of fun having him not too far away in Provo. 

These two brothers sure did add a lot of excitement and fun to my childhood, and they still crack me up to this day. I've been really blessed to have some amazing brothers. 

Pictures with explanations

It snowed here last night. And I can't say I'm too sad about it. At least it didn't happen until Halloween was over. In my mind, once Halloween is over, it is officially OK to snow because it's Thanksgiving/Christmas time and you need snow for those holidays! Just not giant blizzards while you are driving. And you better believe I'm listening to Christmas music while typing this post. Paul is gone doing a sacrament meeting at the hospital so he can't get annoyed at me. I win.

Anyways, here's some pictures from stuff that's been happening lately. They are out of order but I don't want to take the time to fix it. Does any one else get annoyed at how hard it is to move pictures around on blogger once you've uploaded them into your post? Maybe I'm just a little slow when it comes to that sort of thing. . .oh well.

Anyways, this past Friday night we made a little trip up to Logan for the evening to go to a reception of one of my old coworkers from the eating disorder clinic I worked at. And yes, I totally forgot to get a picture of her on her special day. But trust me, she was a glowing bride and looks very happy!

I was excited to be able to catch up with some of my other friends/old coworkers from that place. Even though by the time I quit I was burnt out of that place, I made some wonderful life long friends working there who share the same insanely strong views about body image! It's nice to know I'm not alone. 

Anyways, Sara's reception had an awesome photo booth set up while you are waiting to talk to them. That's why the bottom picture is so amazing. 

It was a really fun reunion and I'm glad I made the trek up there.

Below is a picture that really doesn't have much to do with anything, but I just found it on my phone and it is WAY too good to pass up. Cory, you sure are a cutie.

And of course, Halloween! Most of you already saw my costume from the pictures posted earlier. This was by far the easiest costume I have ever done and was the most successful! Who knew that drawing on a a little facial hair would make such a difference? I don't know if it's comforting or not to know that I can look like one ugly dude, but it was a lot of fun.

By the way, the shirt I wore is Paul's! Ha ha! He claims he has no idea who gave it to him and I'm pretty sure he tried to stash it away years ago at his parents' house. But when we were visiting them a couple weeks ago his mom and been cleaning out some parts of their house and found this gem! As soon as I saw it I knew it would be the perfect fit for my costume idea. It really helped disguise my pregnant belly to look more like a beer belly, so it really worked out great.

I'm annoyed that this is sideways, but this is the side I made for our Halloween potluck lunch at work that day. It was an almost sob story and got close to not turning out. In fact, by the time I was finished it had taken me 45 minutes longer than planned and my mood matched my annoyance! It was supposed to be A LOT more upright. But as you can see, that did NOT work out. I've made this recipe before. It's pizza balls. But I tried stacking them in a bunt cake pan so that when I decorated it, it would look more like a pumpkin. Well, the top and bottom cooked just fine, but the middle was still really doughy! And I didn't realize that until I plopped it out of the pan. It immediately spread out and I was seriously so bugged. I just cooked it again for a lot longer and the top and bottom were crispier than I wanted, but whatever. People still said it was really good and it didn't taste bad at all, just looks crappy in my opinion. Needless to say, I did NOT win best side like I was hoping I would. Boo.

Ok, and just a couple more costume pictures. C'mon, you know it's so ugly you just can't look away. . . also, I convinced my boss to dress up like a nasty rockstar too! She went all out and even won best costume. I am so proud. She's totally one of the cool grandmas.

And a picture of the pregnant ladies at work. The other two are sisters. And a lot cuter. But you know, it's all good. Maddy on the left is due to have a girl about 3 weeks after me, and Anna in the middle is having a boy in December. This means that we have a giant drawer in our office packed full of snacks that we all contribute to and eat out of every day. It's awesome.

And that's all the pictures I have right now.

A few other things:

-I found a dresser that will work as a changing table as well. I painted it yesterday (and was actually sweating while doing it outside! That's how warm it was yesterday, and then I woke up to snow today. Typical Utah!) I just need to put nobs on it and Paul is going to cut out some boards to put up as side barriers so the little nugget won't roll off while on there. When all that's done, I'll take pictures and post them. So far I'm really liking how it looks. 

-We are also slowly dejunking/organizing our house. Nesting is really coming out in me. Mostly because the room this little lady will be in has been our designated "Hmmm. . I don't know where to put this, so I'll just toss it in here" room since we've lived here. Now we have to actually put that stuff away and that means organizing all the other rooms to do that. I'm just trying to do a little each week and it's already looking a lot better.

- I think that's all for right now. Life is just plugging along!