Happy Halloween!

FYI This is the second post I have written today, read Kory's Birthday post below!

We had a blast celebrating Halloween!  Our dear friends did an amazing job planning the Halloween party, and we had a ball hosting is at our place!  I borrowed some great decorations from my Aunt Laura.  We put a spider web with a spider in the entrance.  We had purple lights strung across our family room and some orange light on the table.  We had spiders, a ghost, a skeleton, a witch, and pumpkins on display.  Then some super cute orange vases, and paper plates to really set the Halloween spirit.  I wish I had better pictures to demonstrate the atmosphere, but you'll just have to trust that it was awesome!  There were over 25 people in attendance, and everyone brought something yummy to share.  Cafe Rio style sweet pork salads/burritos were served, along with some amazing desserts!  We spent most of the time socializing and eating.  Then we got the whole group together to play a game.  Kory and I are always down for a good party, and we are so glad that we celebrated Halloween this way!  We can't wait until we live in a bigger place and can host even bigger parties with ALL of our friends!

Dinner was fabulous, and so were the desserts.  But, I was just so impressed with Stephanie's festive treats.  She's never done this before, look how cute they turned out!

We had a really great surprise, Kelli came over with the two cutest trick-or-treaters ever!  Hayden decided to eat his Halloween cupcake under the table since all of the people around made it kind of chaotic.  Some of the boys that were at our party had fun playing around with Hayden and Roman, and stuck them up on the fridge to be silly, haha.

The rest of our pics are random guest shots.  I know a some people were missed in the pics, but I'm glad to have what I do!  We had such a blast.

Kory's Birthday Weekend! (Totally Belated)

We had so much fun celebrating Kory's birthday weekend! On Friday night we went to Texas Roadhouse with some of our favorite friends. We were also celebrating Stephanie's birthday, so dinner with everyone was totally appropriate and lots of fun! I had never been to Texas Roadhouse before and I loved it. I loved the appetizers, you can never go wrong with potatoes and melted cheese and bacon on top, or fried onions...yum! Their steak was delish, too.  The best part though, was probably seeing Stephanie and Kory riding the saddle in celebration of their special days. We have such amazing friends! Kory and I always talk about how lucky we are that we lived in this apartment complex our first year of marriage and have been able to become so close with such fun friends!

The next day was Kory's actual birthday.  The whole week before Kory's birthday I made a little "birthday gift corner" for Kory to look at every day in anticipation of his birthday.  I know, I'm kind of silly.  But I thought it was lots of fun.  The sign says, "My love Kory's Birthday Gifts!" First thing that morning he got to open one of his gifts.  I got him a few t-shirts and polos, because he has lots of great dressy clothes but not too many casual ones.  I was happy that he seemed to be excited about it. 

After that we went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast.  Kory had never been there for breakfast before and it was such a treat!  We signed up for their e-club and both got free breakfast for doing so.  If you haven't done that already, you should!

When we got home I had Kory open his second gift, which was a notepad with a business cover to make it look classy.  He always needs to take notes at club meetings etc. now that he is in the business school and the strategy program.  Then Kory went shooting with some of the guys in his Elder's Quorum.  I think he had lots of fun with the boys!  He dressed up in his camo pants and totally played the part, haha.  My husband is so funny. 

When he got home I had him open his third gift.  It was an envelope with a little poem two stanza poem that I can't find and can't remember.  But anyway, that is how I told him we were getting a couples massage!  We went to Solasa (the place I now work as receptionist) and enjoyed an hour of relaxation.

The BYU football game was that evening.  We lost, boo, but still had lots of fun.  My mom was able to go to the game with Stephen and Stephanie.  She was in town because of Brett's wedding.  It was so fun having her!  I'm glad everyone got to go to the game.

Lastly, after the game we were able to have a bunch of friends over for an ice cream cake birthday party!  We  have so many great friends and neighbors, we always love an excuse to have people over.  It's hard to make sure everyone got the word when you're super busy so I know there were some people we missed.  But we are so happy that those who made it came, we love you guys!

I am so grateful for my wonderful, loving, and handsome husband.  I'm glad you had a great birthday sweetheart! I love you!

Brett and Mikalla's Wedding

My cousin Brett got married in the Logan Temple last Thursday. It was so fun to be able to go attend the wedding in Logan and then drive to Ashton, ID for the reception that night. Kory and I drove down the night before and stayed with my mom in the same hotel as my cousins. We had lots of fun visiting with them a little bit while watching Legally Blonde (love that movie). The next morning we woke up early, helped set up, and attended Brett and Mikalla's marriage sealing. Afterwards we stood outside the temple and waited for the bride and groom to come out.   While we were waiting we took a few pictures.  Then the bride and the groom arrived and Mikalla looked absolutely beautiful. They are so cute together!

We attended a luncheon after that, which was wonderful.  Then the road trip to Idaho began.  We drove with Mom.  Before we got to Ashton we stopped in Rexburg for a minute to eat dinner at Craigo's Pizza.  It was pretty good, but not as good as I was expecting it to be.  When we got to the reception we were able to spend some more time with all of our cousins.  I love seeing family!  I'm sad some of our family wasn't able to make it, but that's just how Thursday weddings out of town go.  Nonetheless, it was a great time!  The reception turned out very beautiful, I should have taken pictures!  Oh well.  Here are some of the pictures I took for your enjoyment.  I love the picture of Kory helping direct the kids in the picture.  My husband is such a go-getter, he is wonderful.

Brett and Mikalla I am so happy for the two of you.  I hope you continue to fall more in love everyday, and that you enjoy your journey to becoming one.  Congratulations!

Random Sampler

I noticed that there are some pictures I have not had a chance to post yet.  Kory and I have season tickets for BYU football.  We've been having fun going to the games.  We also have seats next to our friends Kyle and Mekelle, whom we love, so that's fun!  The first couple of games we actually had fairly good seats! Here are some pics.

The week before General Conference we also got to see my best friend Karly Jo, and her little sister Kimra.  Kimra was blessing her beautiful little baby.  Then after the blessing we got to enjoy some amazing homemade Cafe Rio pulled pork burritos and to-die-for desserts.  Here are some pics from that event.

In addition to those little picture updates, I can't help but add adorable pictures of other cute kids.  It's kind of funny how I always post pictures of Kelli's cute kids now that they are close to us.  It's just one of those things you can't help but do, I can't imagine what my blog will be like when I have my own children to post pics of.  Until then, I just love all of my nieces and nephews!  Here is Aubrey in my sunglasses, haha.

 

Hope you enjoy my little picture update! I think I'm finally all caught up...wait I never posted our Moab reunion... hmm... haha catching up on blogging is not fun!

The Best "How To" and "DIY-Do it Yourself" Ever.

How to have a wonderful, loving, helpful, and successful husband.
AND
DIY Creating a Man That Makes You Proud.

Yesterday in church, our lesson in Relief Society was about improving our relationships in life (between spouse, parents, children, etc.). When we got to the part in the lesson where we were talking about our relationship with our spouse, a couple of things stood out to me. The first was when one girl talked about how we need to remember that the way we think about our spouse is how they'll become. So she likes to think of her husband as so helpful, muscular/handsome, and talented. Everyone got a little laugh out of that.

I have learned a lot about how positive affirmations can play a huge role in your life, for the good. One of my favorite positive affirmation quotes is,"what you think about, you bring about." I don't know why I never really directly connected how important my thoughts about my husband are. Of course I think many wonderful things about my husband! But I am also human. I need to remember that the way I think about him is how he will become.

The second thing that stood out to me was a story that was shared. It made me laugh, and then made me ponder how much more I could/should be doing as a wife.

It was a story about a husband and wife who went to her hometown to visit family. While they were in town they stopped at the local convenient store, and ran into the owner who happened to be the wife's high school sweetheart. The husband, who was a successful CEO of a company, later asked the wife, "aren't you glad that you married a successful CEO instead of a convenient store owner?" To which the wife replied, "If I would have married him, he would have been a successful CEO too."

I think it is easy to believe that as wives it is our responsibility to help our husbands reach the potential we see in them. However, it's tricky to always remember that we help them reach it through positive encounters and not negative ones. Based on the feedback given while we were discussing this in church yesterday, I think everyone can improve in this area.

Private Blogs

Every now and then I think about making my blog private. Partly because then maybe the people who glance at my blog every now and then will actually comment! (Don't act like you don't read my blog ;) hehe). I'm really big on commenting on others' blogs. Sometimes I think maybe I shouldn't because they never comment back on mine, and it kind of makes me feel awkward. I just don't want to come off as a "creeper" so if I'm reading someone's blog I let them know. They're trying to play it off like I'm the weirdo reading their blog, but then they read mine too! haha jk. It's really not a big deal if people don't comment. It takes time to read everyone's blogs, let alone comment on them too.

Another reason I have considered going private is that I'm applying for a lot of jobs and hoping to enter post-college life of professionalism. I googled my name and found that everything popped up: this blog, my facebook, both twitter accounts. I'm just not sure I really want my personal life to be that accessible. Not that I have anything to hide, because I don't, I just want to keep my personal life exactly that...personal.

However, I don't want to go private because honestly I never read people's private blogs! When they are private they don't show up on my blog reader because they don't transmit and RSS feed. I only view people's blogs when I see they have written something new, and I know that because of the feed. So if you have a private blog, I very rarely visit it because I just totally forget about taking time to visit every private blog individually to see if there is something new. I don't really want reading my blog to be like that for other people.

Lastly, it is kind of a head ache to have to privately invite everyone to read my blog. Additionally, you are limited to 100 readers and that really isn't that many. So I don't know what I am going to do. But ultimately, because I am debating going private I need your email address so I can, in fact, invite you. All readers are welcome, even if you have never commented on my blog if you enjoy reading I would love to have you. Leave your email in the comments, or send me an email/text/facebook message whatever. Family, I have your email addresses you do not need to leave them.

P.S. I've added pictures to the General Conference post below!

Conference Weekend

I just spent a lot of time catching up on friends' and family's blogs. It is always nice to catch up. This weekend was really wonderful! As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we had the opportunity to be addressed by the leaders of our church as the semi-annual General Conference. The messages that the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and other General Authorities and Apostles shared with us were uplifting, inspiring, direct, and gave me the desire to be a better person. I feel so blessed to know that Heavenly Father hears my prayers, Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer, and that the fullness of the gospel has been restored to the earth in our modern day.

Kory's parent came to town this weekend! I love it when family comes to town. On Friday we went out to dinner with some more extended family. Then on Saturday we attended the afternoon session of conference in Salt Lake. Stephen and Stephanie were able to come and enjoy conference with us and Kory's family. What a treat! It was such a beautiful day! I love fall when it is sunny but the air is kind of crisp and slightly cool. It's fun to think that Kory officially proposed to me around this time last year. We had already been engaged for a couple months by that point, we just didn't have the official "pop the question with the ring" thing yet. I also had my bridal shower this weekend last year! So many wonderful memories from that! I have such amazing friends whom I love very much!!! Saturday night Lynda, Kelli and I went to Rod Works (which is a super amazing home-decor store). We had no idea it was going to be crazy busy because of a "girls night" shopping event. Even though the line wrapped around the whole store, we had fun shopping and were happy with our finds.

This morning we went over to Kelli's for breakfast. Kory's dad made their famous family crepes, and they were delicious! All of us then enjoyed watching the Sunday sessions of conference from home in our comfy PJ's. Later in the afternoon we went to my cousins and enjoyed a Sunday dinner with them.

I love my family so much!