Baby Blessing

On Sunday we had to opportunity to head out to Tooele for a baby blessing. My cousin Jer and his wife Amy had their baby and now it was time to bless him. We still went to our church because we were practicing the primary program and we needed to be there with our class. We had to leave a few minutes early to make it on time though. We arrived at the church just in time. It was a beautiful blessing. There were 13 priesthood holders in the circle. So many people who love little Austin. After the meeting we had a little lunch in the gym. It was so fun to see everyone and spend some time with the family. Little Austin is so cute! Thanks for letting us share this special day with you guys.

Happy Halloween!

Well this Halloween Ben and I celebrated a little differently than we have in the past. Instead of dressing up and going to a party or carving pumpkins and hanging out with friends...we bought a new car. That's right we went car shopping on Halloween night.

So my jeep finally died. We knew it was going to happen sometimes because it was so old but we were hoping it would wait till June. It has been giving us trouble all month. We have had it in the shop three times and it was still running like crap. I couldn't get it to go over 55 on the freeway and it just putted along when we drove it. So we decided that it was time. We had been spending more money to repair it than it is worth. This past week we have been looking online at different cars to see what we like. Friday night that's all we did. Both of us sat on the couch and we just looked up different cars. We finally decided that we liked the Mazda 6. We found a bunch online that met all of our requirements and we made a list of where we would look first. We decided to look on Saturday after our fun activities.

Saturday Ben went hunting with his dad and brother again. Kailua did great once again and they were able to get 20 birds. While Ben was hunting I was busy at home. I cleaned our house, did the laundry and cleaned up our yard and got it ready for winter. I pulled our all of our flowers, trimmed back everything and raked/mowed up all of our leaves. I was just finishing when Ben got home. We were both tired but decided to still go looking for a car. We started at the Mazda dealership in Bountiful because we figured they would have more than one Mazda 6 for us to look at. We got there and started to look around. We found one in the color we wanted, within the number of miles we wanted on it and so much more. We decided that we wanted to test drive it. We found a salesman and he showed us everything about the car and then I took it on a test drive...since it is going to be my car. I fell head over heals in love with it. It was so much fun to drive. We got back to the dealership and talked prices for a little bit. We weren't planning on buying a car right away but everything just fell in place and we ended up buying it right there and then. I felt kind of bad because we made them stay late...but at least they made a sale.

This is bittersweet for me because I loved my jeep. It has been such a fun car these past 7 years. So many fun memories with that old jeep. But at the same time I am so excited about my new car. The jeep was fun but this car is cool. It has everything the jeep never had...power locks, power window, AC, a huge trunk, a V6 engine...I love how much power it has, and so much more.
On Monday we had to take the jeep to the dealership to drop it off. That was so hard for me. I really wanted to cry...pathetic I know. I made Ben take a bunch of pictures of me with it. I'm going to miss my fun jeep but am so excited to get to know my new car.

Last time driving it

Saying goodbye

Happy Halloween!

Dance, Birthday, and Christmas

Two weekends ago was a busy but fun weekend with many different activities going on. Saturday I had dance practice early in the morning and I actually had to get ready for the day before I went because I had to leave half way through the practice to go to a judges meeting. Practice went well. We just worked on cleaning our jazz routine and getting it ready to perform. The judges meeting went really well also. We talked a lot about what they expect from us judges and way that we can become a better judge. I really liked this meeting and found many ways that I can improve myself. On the way home I stopped at my mom's house for a bit to say hi. They were busy getting Chris ready for his mission. I ran a few errand with them and then headed home to pick up Ben. He took Kailua pheasant hunting for her very first time that morning. Ben said she did awesome. She could work on pointing a little better but she did a great job bringing the birds back. When Ben got home we headed down to Texas Road House because we were celebrating Brandi's birthday. The whole family was there...even Corey. He had driven down from Oregon for his rotation here and made it in time for the celebration. We had a blast just talking and all hanging out together. Towards the end of our meal they made Brandi sit on a saddle while they sang happy birthday to her. I wish I would have gotten pictures of our fun night. Happy late birthday Brandi! Love you!

Fun picture of us in Cabo

On Sunday we got to have Christmas Breakfast. We usually have this closer to Christmas but my brother requested we have one earlier before he leaves. My mom was so cute and made our house feel like Christmas...minus the Halloween decorations that were up. She set the table just like at Christmas time with all of her cute Christmas dishes. She even had fun Christmas music playing in the background. It got me in such a Christmas mood. We had our traditional egg sausage casserole with scones and honey butter and fruit cups. We couldn't forget the hot chocolate and orange juice. It is such a fun tradition that started years ago that we still do every year with my mom's side of the family. For desert I made this delicious Reese's cake. I found the recipe a few months ago and had just been waiting for the right occasion to make it. If you don't like Reese's you won't like this cake...but since they are my favorite I loved it. After dinner we watched Transformers 2. Ben had never seen it.

What a fun weekend. So many different activities to keep us busy, but so much fun.

Fall Break

Well fall break really isn't a break for me. I still have work and dance but at least I didn't have to worry about homework for a week. Instead I caught a nasty cold. The Saturday before fall Break I started to feel a cold coming on. We headed up to Logan so visit some of Ben's family and by the time we were done I really wasn't feeling well. The rest of the night I just sat in bed trying to relax. On Sunday I woke up wanting to die. I felt so sick. I didn't even get out of bed. Ben was such a sweet heart and took care of me. He even read to me while I just laid in bed. Monday I wasn't feeling any better but I had to go to work because we were doing interviews and I needed to be there. By the end of the day I was feeling even worse. I decided not to go to dance because I really needed to just rest. Tuesday I got up to get ready for work and decided it wasn't worth it. So I went back to bed for a few hours and then headed in to work around noon to help with interviews. That night I was starting to feel a little better but not too much. Dance went ok. I tried to keep my energy up but I'm not sure how well I did. By Wednesday I was feeling better...at least I didn't feel like I wanted to die.

Without having school this week I was able to get all my hours in by Thursday so I took Friday off to relax. Well I did absolutely nothing during the day. That night we went over to Ben's parents house and hung out with Robin and Chris. Robin made a yummy dinner and then we watched the Proposal. I saw the movie in theaters but it was so fun to watch again. That is one that I want to own someday. We had a blast hanging out with them. I'm so glad we live close and can hang out all the time.

Saturday I had the opportunity to go the the Rap it Up workshop. This year it was held at Murray High School. I headed out early and prepared myself for a day full of dancing. It was amazing. They brought in five choreographers from L.A. who all taught us different routines. Three of their flights got bumped so they were running late getting to the workshop so they combined the first class, beginning and intermediate and advanced and pro. I went into the advance and pro class and we had Gev from So You Think You Can Dance teach us a routine. He had some extra time at the end and started to teach us different break dancing tricks. I'm always interested to learn new tricks so that was fun for me. The other instructors finally arrived so we split up into our classes. My next class was taught by Lindsay. She dance with the Beat Freaks who almost won Americans Best Dance Crew. I have had classes from her before and she is one of my favorite choreographers at this workshop. I didn't really like the dance she taught us this year. It was more of a contemporary hip hop...not really my thing. It was still fun to learn though. Next we had a lunch break and it was nice to relax for a bit. After lunch we had a class by Craig. He teaches with Lindsay in L.A. and was so much fun. I loved his dance. It had so much energy and just a goofy style to it. His class was my favorite. The last class was taught by Lisette. It was different from the rest. She put a lot of locking and popping into her style and I'm not very good at those styles. Overall it was such a fun day. I ordered a DVD of all the dances and am excited to get it to get more ideas for my classes.

When I got home I hurried at got ready to hang with Britt. Ben and I had to run a few errands and Britt nicely came along. On the way home we stopped and got some cold stone ice cream to make up for it. When we got home I helped Britt make the jar pumpkins like I did a few weeks ago. She is so creative. Robin and I had the hardest time coming up with faces and Britt whipped them out like they were nothing. While we worked on them I tried to make a different pumpkin out of grape vine. Well it didn't quite turn out like I imagined it and got so frustrated with it that I just left it how it was. Ben was sweet though and patiently worked with it until it looked like a half decent pumpkin. I don't know what I would do with out him. Once our fun craft projects were done we just talked and got caught up on life. I'm so glad me and Britt and so close. The time goes by so fast when we are together and before we knew it she had to go home. We are just going to have to get together soon and hang out again.

That was our fun fall break. Once I got over my cold it really was fun. I'm glad I was sick then while I didn't have school to worry about though. Now it is back to the homework. I just have to keep telling myself that we are halfway through the semester and we only have eight weeks left. Let the count down begin.

Fun times come to an end

It was finally time to put the top back on the jeep. So we have been having some crazy here this fall. One day it is 80 degrees and the next day it is 40. Well we weren't quiet ready for that fast temperature change and still had the top off of the jeep. We weren't stressing about it though because we don't drive the jeep very often. Well a few weeks ago Ben's car needed to get some work done, that meant we had to drive the jeep. We woke up Wednesday morning and put on our winter clothes, ready for our warm drive into school and work. We were listening to the radio and the guy said it was 32 degrees while we were driving in. I definitely believed it. I was freezing. That night after Ben picked me up from dance we ran over to his parents house and put the top back on. One day of driving in that weather and I was done. Crazy weather. Usually I can go till the end of October, sometimes even into November before I have to put the top back on. Oh well not this year. The weather decided to skip fall and ago straight to winter. I'm so ready for summer all ready. This is going to be a long winter.

Park City Fun Weekend

What a fun weekend we had. I am loving the weekends more and more every week. They are such a nice break from all the stress of the week. We started out our fun week by going through a session at the Salt Lake Temple on Friday night. My brother Chris is getting ready to go on his mission and was going through for the first time. It was so fun to be there with family and experience a session with my brother. It reminded me of the first time I went through the temple. I'm so grateful that we could go and feel of the spirit. Hopefully we can go through the temple again with Chris before he leaves on his mission.

When the session was over Ben and I rushed up to Park City to have dinner with his brother Chris and Robin. They had been staying in a condo up there for their honeymoon. Robin got the flu and hadn't been feeling too well so they came home for a few days. Laurie called me and asked if we wanted to go up and use the condo and Ben and I decided to go up for Friday night. Chris and Robin came up to join us. When we got up to Park City we went to Ruby Tuesdays and had a great time. I had only been there once and was excited to go again. After our fun dinner we headed up to the condo to play some games. We played last word and then phase 10. I won both games and Robin came in second both times. The boys were just out of luck. By then it was way late, or very early so we decided to call it a night. The next day we had to be out of the condo by ten so we just got up and out of there. Thanks Robin and Chris for letting us crash your honeymoon.

That afternoon we worked on our yard. It needed some serious attention. Ben worked on the air conditioner and got it all ready for winter while I weeded our lawn. That's right our lawn. This year we got this weird weed in our yard that has basically taken over. I spent hours trying to get it all out but finally just gave up and mowed the rest up. When Ben was done with the air conditioner he took care of the back yard and then went in and watched conference. When I was done with all I was going to do in the front I went in to find him sleeping during conference.


That night Ben went to the priesthood session with his brother Chris while Robin and I hung out. We finished a puzzle that she had been working on and then decided to do a fun craft I saw online. We headed over to Roberts to get a few things that we needed. When we pulled into the parking lot we couldn't even find a spot to park. We couldn't believe how many people were there. We walk in the door and the store looks like it is the day after Thanksgiving shopping. There were so many people packed in there. We just stood there for a minute trying to take everything in. We noticed a sign that said ladies night. We quickly found what we needed and stood in line to check out. They were doing all sorts of games and activities. They told everyone to find a pink number and stand by it. Ladies went running all over the store. Then they would call out a number to get a prize. Robin and I just stood there and watched. It was a little much for us. We made a couple more stops to find everything we needed and finally headed back home. We got back right after the boys did and put a pizza in for dinner. While it was cooking Robin and I started on our craft. The hardest part was cutting out the cute faces. We weren't having much luck at first but then got the hang of it. They turned out so cute. I didn't have my camera so I wasn't able to get a picture of our pumpkins together but here is one of mine.

By the time our cute pumpkins were finished it was getting late and very stormy so we just decided to spend the night at his parents house. It was so much fun to spends some time with Robin and have a little girls night.

On Sunday we headed over to my mom's house in the morning for monkey bread and conference. It was such a special treat. It was fun to watch conference with my family and just hang out. Britt and Chris had coloring books out and started to color pictures while they listened. It looked like a lot of fun that I joined in. Ben was feeling left out and finally gave in and started to color also. I love hanging out with family. When the morning session was over we headed back to Ben's parents house to get Kai and our stuff and then headed home for the afternoon session. Conference was so good. I love listening to the leaders of our church and to hear the message that has been prepared for us. I wish I could have watched the Saturday sessions. I can't wait for them to come out so I can read them.

When conference was over I decided to put up our few Halloween decorations. So now our living room has both fall and Halloween decorations up. They are both fun to have out.

What a fun weekend we had. I can't wait for the next one and all of the fun adventures that come with it.

Cow

On Wednesday I usually run...fly if I could...to dance right after my class so I can make it on time. This past Wednesday we just had a practical that took seriously one minute. My partner and I got the easiest muscles...I had biceps and she had triceps. We just had to talk each other through an exercise and a stretch. Since it only took a minute I was able to go home for an hour before I headed to dance. I got home and went down and played with Kai for a bit. She was looking really fat and I couldn't decided if she has slowly been getting fat or if this was a new thing. I took her upstairs and she was acting really weird. She would walk into our bedroom but wouldn't jump up on the bed like she usually does. Then I started to hear her gag and it all made sense. I hurried and grabbed her collar to get her outside but only made it as far as the front door before she threw up. I put her outside and noticed that she had tipped her food tub over and somehow gotten the lid of. She must have just sat there and ate all day. I cleaned up all the mess and let her back in. Usually she is hipper and running around but she just sat on the couch and didn't move. This is the second time it has happened. You think she would learn. When I got home from dance she was still really fat and not feeling well. I called her a fat cow the rest of the night because she was so huge. I need to remember to take pictures. So that is my funny story for the day...much funnier now that it is over and I'm not cleaning it up.