sista sista

If there's anything I love leaving work early for it's to spend time with my favorite gals!  It was my sister Michelle's birthday last week so of course the girls in my family all had to celebrate.  My mom and sisters have made it a tradition to go to Cafe Trelis and to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point every year and this is the first year that I could finally join them!  I skipped work early for a "mental health day" and boy was it worth it.  I'd never been to Cafe Trelis before and now I can't wait to go back!  There club sandwich and sweet potato fries are seriously to die for (oh no, I'm sounding just like my mom who over uses that line. But I really mean it when I say it about that blessed sandwich!).  After lunch we rented a golf cart and drove all around the gardens getting our "model" on taking pictures at every stop.  We were being seriously goofy and acting like children but we didn't care what anyone thought.  It was great. Really, really great.

Sister #1, #2, and #3 (not sure why we decided to put our fingers up like that...)

My mama was loving the tulips and had to get a close up...I think this is the only picture we got where we were actually cooperating instead of acting like children

Of course we had to end the day with Lindy rolling down the hill like a child....haha

Spring Breakyyy

I had such a grrreat spring break!!  I had an entire week off of work and did all of the following:

• Played in St. George and Vegas with the B-hams where we went hiking, searched some underground caves (where I hit my head on sharp rocks a thousand times), went hot tubing, went shooting and shot my first shot gun (I also made the realization that I hate guns.  They are far too powerful for my tiny body to handle...I think Steve was a little disappointed in his wussy wife.), walked the Vegas strip, shopped, and of course, we ended the trip going swimming at Mandalay Bay's beach resort which we should have been doing the entire trip!  The wave pool and lazy river made a perfect ending to a fun weekend getaway!  
• Hung out with my mom and sisters during the week and got a little jealous of their stay-at-home-mom lifestyle.  
• Did laundry and cleaned my house of course...
• Did yard work in the beeeeuuuuaaatiful sunshine!  I LOVE this time of year!
• Hung out with my most favoritist doggy Benj.  He was lovin havin his mama home all week!
• I hosted a shower for my friend, Jess, who's having a baby boy next month. It was so fun to reunite with my high school peeps.
• We ended the wonderful week at the cabin in Bear Lake with the Miller clan.  It was pretty good weather and so fun to just hang out up there.  Oliver is at such a cute age and is so fun to play with!

1 year anni

We celebrated our one year anniversary last weekend and we had such a good time! It's crazy that it's already been a year.  People say the first year is the hardest, and honestly if that's the case then I can't wait for the rest of my life because our first year was amazing.  I am lucky to have such a funny, smart, goofy, and adoring husband who sure makes my life entertaining.  

For our anniversary we stayed the night at Little America because that's where we stayed for our first night as a married couple.  We checked in early and went swimming. The sun was out and the temperature was in the 60's and it was so nice!  (If only we had gotten married this year, it would have been a perfect day for a wedding!).  We then walked to Maxwell's for dinner and had the most amazing pizza I've had in a long time! I'd definitely recommend trying it!  We walked around downtown for a bit after and then watched a movie.  I think one of the best parts of the night was when we were checking in to the hotel we ran into an old couple who said they were celebrating their 51st anniversary.  They were seriously the cutest couple and ended up being in the room right across the hall from us.  When we were leaving for dinner we could hear their t.v. on and it sounded like they were watching the news...haha we joked about that being us in 50 years. Hopefully we'll be watching something a little more exciting than the news... ;) 

 

da bunj

I take millions of pictures of my baby boy a day (some aren't the best quality) and decided it's time to get them on the blog!  This cute boy of mine is the funniest, most playful, needy, pesty, energetic, and most loving doggie I know.  (Yeah, I definitely sound like one of those crazy dog ladies but I can't help it!).  He can be so sweet and loving one minute and then the next minute he can be dragging poop on my carpet.  He sure keeps our lives exciting. Getting a dog is a lot more responsibility than most people think but it also comes with an immediate best friend who has so much love for you.  There's really no better feeling than coming home from a long day at work to a jumpy excited dog who is ready to love the crap out of you.

I love the crap out of you too, Bunj.

I'm just always intrigued by the positions he chooses to sleep in.   He always looks uncomfortable the way he sprawls his body out over our legs or pillows or books or...his most favorite position is his butt right by our heads.  I guess it's how he shows his affection to us. ;) I just wish he would choose a less smelly part of his body to direct towards our face...

Christmas Break!

Well...I'm over a month late on this post. I guess I'm suffering from post-Christmas-depression and wasn't ready to write about my wonderful past quite yet.  After several nights of movies and hot chocolate I think I'm finally ready to relive my Christmas break. Boy, was it a BLAST! I feel like I say that in every post but how could I not have a blast with two weeks off of work (oh the perks of working for the school district!), hanging out with friends and family, and going on a cruise?!! I mean, it really doesn't get any mo betta than that. I wish I would have taken more pictures to document our fun time but I was too busy enjoying being in the moment.  At least Steve and I have our mental pictures that will hopefully stay in our brain forever.

Here are some of the fun things we did:

-First, we decorated our house to get into the Christmas spirit!  I had to get creative since I didn't have very many decorations.  It's one of my favorite things to be creative on a budget. I then get to use my creativity to revamp items I already have or buy new cheap items and try to make them look cute. I figure I can start by having a cheap looking Christmas house this year (thanks Walmart for livening up our tree!) and slowly work my way up to having a classy Christmas.  We also decided to start a tradition by making an ornament together with a picture of something that happened during the year.  We should have put three ornaments up this year since we had three big events happen during the year (our wedding, our house, and our Benj) but we decided to just make an ornament with a pic from our wedding. 

-Benj was definitely feeling the Christmas spirit all month long and loves his new toy Santa brought him!

-I don't even know where to start with the Cruise...Steve's parents took the whole Miller clan and it was the best Christmas present we could have ever gotten!  We enjoyed LOTS of food, sleep, trivia and family time. We stopped at Cozumel where we played at a beach resort and played ping pong and other beach games, snorkeled, raced down some water park slides, and (the best part of the day) played on an inflatable obstacle course in the middle of the ocean.  We hung out at another beach in Roatan where we hung out on the beach and played more beach games and our final stop in Belize we went Cave Tubbing in the juggle.   The whole trip was un"belize"able!  We all rolled our stuffed, well rested bodies off the boat and came back to reality...unfortunately.  We were excited to see Da Bunj though.  He sure got spoiled staying with his Grandma.  I think he may have had more fun than we did ;)

-We sure enjoyed this theater below.  The cruise puts on a show every night and we got to see some pretty fun/funny/scary/cool stuff.  We learned our lesson the first night when we sat on the VERY first row of the theater and got more than we expected with the cheesy singers and dancers right in front of us.  I don't think I'll ever forget Russ's face while watching the male dancers hip thrust their sweaty bodies on the end of the stage right in front of him.   We then realized the show is a little less scary from five rows back where we didn't have to hold back our laughter at the cheesy dancers.  We also got to see a magic show, comedy show, and some other musical concerts.

Grandma and Benji sure bonded while we were gone.  I don't know who loves Bunj more, Steve and I, or my mom.
He's sure lucky he's got so many people to love him!

ode to gizmo

The weekend before Christmas we found out that my childhood dog of 14 yrs had a tumor in his mouth that was rapidly growing and causing him a lot of pain.  I knew the day would soon come when we would lose him, but I was really hoping we wouldn't have to make the decision to put him down and that he would just die peacefully on his own.  We knew this was probably the best way since he was only going to be in more and more pain.  We decided to give him as much love as we could through Christmas and then the day after we put him down.  It was a sad day for all of us since he has been in our lives for so long.  I remember when we got him 14 yrs ago.   I was only 12 and in 6^th grade when my mom and I went and picked him out of his litter.  He was just a little fluff ball and was the.cutest.puppy.ever!!  He has been such a good dog through all these years and we are so sad to see him go!  

I will forever remember...
how soft and cuddly he was.
how he would run around and chase his squeaky toy.
how he would play hide and seek with us and spaz out when my mom would hide.
how he would sleep under the covers with me every night and keep me warm.
how he would howl when I would sing to him.
how he would somehow always know when I was going to give him a bath and would run from me while his whole body would shiver in fear.
how he would sit in the bathtub patiently after I had washed him (I think he secretly loved his baths even though he would always hate getting in.)
how he would run around the entire house after he had been bathed and then run to me after so I would blow dry his fur.
how he would LOVE getting blow dried and would just sit perfectly still letting the warm air blow through his fur and look up at me like I was the best person in the world.
how he would hop through the snow like a bunny.
how we would sprint like a lightning bold down our street chasing our car and beat us to our house.
how he would run to the door to welcome me home after a long day.
how he would be there to cuddle with me when I was upset.
how even though in the last few years of his life, when he was getting old and crippled, he would wag his tail when he saw me to prove, in the only way he could, that he still loved me.

My heart will always have a spot for my sweet, sweet Giz.

Cute Audrie and Carley drew pictures for Gizmo.  Audrie's says: "Dear  Gismo, hope you have a grate life in heven.  We all love you very much."  Well, said Audge!  We love you Gizzy!