7 Years Together

Mmmmmmmm. Isn't he a hottie?? We celebrated 7 amazing years on September 27th. Seven years since we started dating...not seven years of marriage - fyi.

We did our date a little later than September 27th because a little certain something that I ordered for him wasn't ready.

I wanted to take Paul to all the awesome stores that Teresa took me earlier in September on her birthday. So I packed my lunch bag with plates, knives, martini glasses, my nummy Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette and stowed it away in my car. After his football games were over, we headed downtown. Paul had no idea where I was taking him.

First we stopped by Tony Caputo's for some fresh mozzarella and goat cheese. I am putting this picture up because Paul kept getting the sun in his eyes for almost every picture and I think it's hilarious:

Then we stopped next door for some yummy baguette bread at Carlucci's:

My most favoritest place (Teresa I don't know whether to thank you or politely kill you), Gourmandise. I had Paul pick out the ones he wanted the very most and I did the same. I could literally go crazy in there...everything looks so amazing:

Next I took him to the Salt Lake Library. We went straight to the roof to enjoy our cheese and 'wine', bread and desserts.

Us at the top of the stairs. Another one of Paul's priceless faces:

The spot that I wanted was taken so we sat on the open patio part and partook of food and great views.

But, there was too much traffic where we were sitting and of course, we got some pretty weird looks, so as soon as the guy left my originally intended table we hussled over there to finish the rest of the date.

We had this delicious bread pudding:

Tiramisu:

Some chocolate concoction I can't remember:

And this super yummy rasbarry tart:

When Paul was looking in the opposite direction, I pulled out his present and put it on the table. He was confused of course because we haven't celebrated our original anniversary since we got married, but I was counting on that because I wanted it to be a surprise. I gave him a new tungsten wedding band - one of two he will eventually own :). His original wedding ring was tungsten with three cubic zirconias. The CZ's didn't last that well and so I wanted to give him something even better. I love his new ring and I think he does too ;)

And I love this picture - Paul is always talking business with someone it seems...so he put out a fire at work, looking sexy as hell.....

...while I snapped pictures of myself looking bored because I was bored.... ;)

At that's how I proposed to my husband. :)

Kidding.

Harry Potter!!!!

So, in honor of the new Harry Potter movie coming out, I have decorated my blog with this new awesome H.P. background!! I'm super excited. My sister is a Dental Assistant and her boss rents out theaters at Jordan Commons the day before the movie releases and his employees, patients and their families all get a sneak preview! My whole fam is going and it's gonna be super fun!!!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

I did not read this book.

Why post it, you ask?? I dunno. I guess cuz it was the next book in line for the BBCE (Best Book Club Ever) and they all met last night to discuss it. I have had zero time the last two weeks (and yeah I guess I could have read this instead of all those other books I posted about earlier but....I didn't) and I never got around to reading it.

I would have gone to the meeting last night anyway, but Paul and I spent four hours making our costumes last night. And two of the girls told me that it wasn't that great of a read and they didn't care much for it. So I'm wondering, has anyone else read it and do you think the same thing? I probably won't read this one if I hear the same thing from others.

Food, Inc.

Hop on over to here, to read what I posted about this documentary film - a film I believe everyone should watch.

Fondue with Friends

Sunday night after seeing Bronsynn off, we headed to Chet and Cheryl's (acquaintences from high school that have now become good friends - although Chet and Paul were very good friends in H.S. already) for some fondue!!

Rachelle, Chet and Cheryl enjoying delicious Swiss and Cheddar fondue:

Paul and I:

After we ate ourselves fat, we sat in the living room talking, laughing, and reminscing for HOURS!! It was so fun to laugh til you cry while reliving good times. So much fun.

Mallow Time!!

I have such a great husband. The last two weekends in a row he has given up a lot of his weekend to help my niece with her math to keep her from failing Geometry. Ugh. I hate Geometry. What is the point of it?? Someone please tell me. Because I tried to help her with it and I can't. Just can. not. do it. I nearly failed Geometry myself. Enter smarty pants husband.

Anyway - Bronsynn stayed with us all weekend and Saturday night after doing some mall shopping we came home and roasted marshmallows outside. I hate that the summer is leaving. I hate that winter will soon be here. But I love that you can put a hoodie on, get a fire going and have it be just perfect!

I don't even know where my husband gets half the stuff that comes out of his mouth but he always has me laughing - and when Bronsynn is around he gets even funnier somehow. He had us laughing so hard we were crying!:

Cheers to us with our shakes from Arby's - one of the greatest things in the world!!:

My beautiful niece who has such a sense of style and fashion that I wish I could have been more like her when I was in the ninth grade.

Hubband making a silly face because that's his middle name. Silly Face.

Hush Hush

Another book review!!! Yay!!!!

Okay so I love Hush Hush. That being said it could have been soooo much better. It is Young Adult and so like every YA, I feel like lacks a certain level of realism. And that's what I need when you are dealing with vampires and angels and other situations that aren't real (not saying that angels aren't real). I need the characters to act somewhat like you would if it were real - does that make any sense?? I dunno.

So with that said, I do not like the main character chic. She had no backbone and left her self wide open with vulnerability the entire time. I hate that. Give me someone who can fight back and tell someone to go to hell if they don't like what they see. On the other hand, I love Patch. He is dark and sinister and totally hot. Yum Yum. Speaking of Yum Yum - what a great cover!!! The story line is good but she could have written it better. Kinda like Fallen by Lauren Kate:

Great potential...but lacking. Fallen flopped for me - BIG TIME. Such a waste of a great cover. It could have been so great!!! And now that one is a series and I am so tempted to get the next one that just came out. Do I get it so I can find out what happens? Can I stand to put myself through this author's shatty writing?? I dunno!!

And speaking of series - I really need to stop reading books that turn into series. Seriously. Hush Hush is a three book series...I found out after I read it. But with this one, I will definately keep reading and pray that Becca Fitzpatrick takes good to even better.

If I Stay

I may love this book more than any other I have read this year. If I Stay is about a girl, who is in an accident with her entire family. She is left alone in a coma but still here...and she is trying to decide wether to leave or stay. I loved the flashbacks to her life before the accident, I loved her boyfriend, Adam, I loved the author's incredible talent with words and I wanted more - so much more- at the end of this book. It left me hanging and, happily, I learned that she wrote a sequel...from the boyfriends perspective. But don't go looking at that until after you've read this. And you should read it. You might cry. I'm surprised I didn't because I am super sensitive when it comes to death and family and stuff. Probably would have if I had been PMSing or something.

Horsin' Around

Last weekend I headed up Yellowfork with my dad. We towed Bronsynn along with us too.

Our good family friend, Ope, was up there with one of his friends. My dad and his group ride all summer as long as much as they can but they really hit hard a month or so before the hunt to get their horses ready for the 12+ hours of riding a day up in the Uintahs.

Ope and I took pictures of each other taking a picture of the other. Get it???

My dad on Smoke:

For some reason I could never get a good picture of Ope's donkey. But it was a baby and super cute. It just followed us around and chased after the dogs, showing them who the boss is/was:

It is incredibly beautiful up there in the fall...I love all the bright oranges, pinks, reds and lime greens:

We met a couple herds of cows...I got to this one before my dog went and chased them off:

Bronsynn is becoming a better rider all the time. She is more comfortable on the horse now and spent most of the ride loping up ahead of us and then doubling back:

And Bacardi, as always, traveled probably three times as much ground as the horses do. He HAS to be in front and he runs everywhere and then comes back to the group and heads off again. Can you tell how much fun he had?:

One dirty and exhausted little puppy:

Safe Haven

Yet another Nicholas Sparks book has been released. I find it weird that I have nearly every single one of his books, but I am not a die-hard fan. I think it's because I find that I love his stories, and everytime he rights a new one, I have to find out what it is about...therefore, I add it to my collection. But looking at my bookcase you really would think that I am a die hard Nicholas Sparks fan.

Anyway, Safe Haven is another great one. It has a little more 'adult' content than I am used to with him. I was actually surprised because he's always kept it pretty clean. And this is in no way some kind of romance novel with explicit porn scenes...I'm just sayin' it was a little more than normal. Moving on! I can't really tell you what the story line is because one of the things I love about reading is guessing it for myself. It's not really hard with this book but it's fun all the same. I will tell you that it is about survival...survival through hardships, loss and hurt...and follows a young lady as she struggles to find a new, safer life and finds love and a family. Really good book - couldn't put it down!

More Birthday Celebrations :)

Our family gathered together last Sunday to celebrate the birthday of Morgan (the 21st), his wife Sam (the 22nd) and Amber (Oct 3rd). My mom also had a birthday on Aug. 31st in which I took her out to dinner with my sister, Amanda and my niece. So we made sure to throw in her name on the birthday song :)

We had two different kinds of enchiladas, chips and salsa, cinnamon tortilla chips with fruit salsa and then ice cream and brownies for dessert.

I love that my husband becomes the entertainer for the kids. He prefers to be out of the kitchen just sitting and watching things come together so he always grabs the kids and heads outside...which is really nice actually. While we were fixing things up I wondered what they were up to and found they were having a nice chillout on the tramp:

So cute to me.

Aiden is becoming his own fashion statement. He loves to wear hats. And the previous week, it was Pink Day so he had his white t-shirt on and he grabbed his pink tie from his Hip Hop dance recital last year and wore that to school. He felt pretty cool. So this day he adds his red shirt, but keeps the shirt open. This was all him. I find it so incredibly cute:

I hate that he's in school now because I don't get to see him as often as I see Dallin. It sucks:

We all sang to the family and made sure to do it extra slow because 1) Morgan didn't want to get sang to but he wasn't the only being celebrate so he had no choice in the matter and 2) he said "will you hurry it up". Ha Ha. Sure thing, Bro.

Pretty In Pink

On September 24th, I participated in another fashion show for I'm Beautiful Salon. This one was to raise funds for Susan G. Komen for The Cure. Although I am very against Susan G. Komen and all the Pink nonsense (and I have my reasons before anybody goes and dogs on me), I decided to participate in this because 1) my friend Britney, who I did the last show with and is also the owner of Klub Knarley Modeling Agency, needed lots of girls for this show. There were 60 models in this show that I'm Beautiful put on...compared to the six of us at the last show that I'm Beautiful just participated in to raise funds for the domestic violence charity, Cut It Out. and 2) Fashion Shows are fun to be in.

In this show, there were six groups of ten models. Each group had a name such as Hope, Fight, Inspiration, etc. Each group was done up similarly and we had ten minutes to take up on stage outside, one minute for each model.

I had my hair and make-up done early in the morning. I was super stoked to learn Janessa would be the one doing my make-up again - we had so much fun joking around and laughing at stupid stuff. It was great! After I was done, I went back to work for a couple more hours until it was time for me to head to their downtown Salon where the show would be put on outdoors in the parking lot. All the models had to be there at 4 o'clock and we were on lockdown until we started walking at 8:00. Oy!!

Me and Britney with our make-up done and hair in progress:

During those four hours, the group leaders and stylists were busy running around getting touch-ups done, hair pieces in, outfits put on, sewing done, and everything else. I was bored for the first hour so I just helped blow up pink and white helium balloons :)

It was incredibly fun to see everyone as their hair and outfits started to come together and were completed. My group was Inspiration and we each had a piece of origami to wear. The head stylist learned how to do origami just for this show and she made everything herself.

This girl was from the group Fight, where each of them had some sort of nature/plant thing on them. You can see where they also painted her back similar to the branches and blossoms of her hair:

This guy was from my group. He was the only one who didn't have origami, aside fromt the paper pink ribbon, but he was shirtless, pretty ripped and had a hand print shaved into the other side of his head and painted blue. He also had a ribbon and black hand prints air brushed onto his back. He is mostly on here for your viewing pleasure ;)

This girl is also from Fight, she had flowers all over in hair, very beautifully done:

These girls were super cute and from Fight also:

This chic was from a group that I can't remember but they were all dressed as fairies - hard core fairy, pretty pink fairy, woodland fairy etc and they all wore wings. I love her 'hair bow' and the ribbon that was braided upside down into her hair. Amazing:

This one was amazing, too. She had butterflies throughout her hair and a bird on the other side of the pearl head band. I loved everything about her get-up:

This cute girl was a princess...she reminded me of the Princess on Mario! She wore a pink formal gown, her tiara was made of origami (as she was in my group) and so was her wand!

These cute girls were part of the fairy group...

And here is a close-up of my make-up and hair. I had these windmills in my hair and they were alson sewn all over my shirt:

Britney all done up as a peacock with a funky tree in her hair, and a couple girls:

Me and the 'woodland' fairy - you can see my cool origami windmill shirt!!:

Here are all the models in my group. Starting from the left: this girl had a fake braid piled on her head and a gigantic origami flower made of newspaper pinned to the side. Girl in the white with the blue eyes had a gigantic crane on her head. Blond in the white tank and black vest had black and silver origami stars glued to her neck and up her face and they airbrushed wicked tattoos all up her arms. Blond in the blue baby doll dress had a long hair piece made and pretty dragonflies of all shapes pinned to her hair piece. Next is the Princess, then Shirtless Guy. Next to he who has no shirt is a girl whose hair was died red and she had a belt and hair piece of flowers made out of tin foil! Next to her is her sister who has a teeny little hat made of hair on her head and an origami necklace and hair piece. Next to her, hot guy with an origami tie!!

This picture sucks but the stylist up front in the middle is the one who put us all together along with her assistants!

And me and Britney again, all made up, right before we walked!

It was actually really really fun!! There was a buttload of people in the little parking lot. The music was really fun and two Utah celebrity news chicks came and did the announcing. I can't remember their names. There was an up and coming musician who wrote a beautiful song and she debuted this at the very beginning. They had a moment of silence for those fighting and those who have lost their lives, which they broke with a song written by James Blunt about his friend that died of breast cancer and all the I'm Beautiful staff took out "Illuminaries" which were lights in bags and placed them around the runway. After we had all walked, we changed into pink shirts that had our group name on it and we all walked out in a line, grabbed an illuminary and stood around the crowed while thanks and recognition were given. There was much hullabaloo after it was over, but I quickly grabbed my good bag and headed home for bed :)

Playin' In My Pod

He Is We.

An accidental discovery but one that I am very glad to have made. I was searching for something on Google...first word was He...and, thanks to Google Instant, I found a super awesome band. I have spent all day listening to their music and, take it from me, it is fantastic.

Take a listen...you're sure to love them. Another song that I couldn't find to add but that is equally addicting is A Mess It Grows.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com