Halloween 2012

For Halloween, we had a little party with our friends. There's not much to say other than that. We love having people over! :) I had so much fun making the invitation, someday my kids will have awesome invites to their b-day parties. The party quality will be debatable, but the food will be delish! 

Here's the invite (w/out our address, of course):

Here are the pictures from our evening:

Mr. Cal, the Rodeo clown!

Ben, Syd, Jami, Debbie and me decorating our caramel apples.

I don't love dressing up for Halloween, but everyone else did, so I had to.

Jami, Rob and Cal 

Chris and Sydney

Me and Ben (and Cal)

I didn't get any pictures of the food/treats, but oh well. All in all, we had a lot of fun. We were all so distracted talking that we never got around to games. I don't think I'm going to do my ugly sweater party like I wanted to, but Ben is just too busy with finals and I'm too busy crafting. ha! Just a few more posts and I'll be caught up. Next up: Birthday/Thanksgiving and my Christmas craft adventures. :)
I can't believe it's December already!!

Odds and Ends

So a while ago (September) I went stir crazy because our apartment is so small. We continue to acquire stuff and have no place to put it... therefore it was Ben's idea to buy invest in a storage type thing and put it in our house. Ever since we did, life has been great! I can put all my sewing/craft stuff where it's out of the way and we are utilizing the space from floor to ceiling! (instead of just floor to waist) It now has doors on it and works great. You'll be able to see it in the background of the halloween party pictures. The next project that Ben had up his sleeve was to build a table saw that could accommodate both his router and his circular saw. I think he got the idea online somewhere, but he figured it out and made it. He is so handy and really enjoys wood related projects. It's great because after he does things for himself, he ends up making me something awesome as well! Here's some pictures of his table/saw and him using it. If you ever need wood cut, you know who to call!

 

I think this picture is from early October. It was our first cup of Hot Chocolate for the season! Ben makes it perfectly for me, so whenever he has some, I ask for a cup as well. And of course, you need a cookie to go with it!

The next exciting thing in our lives recently is our purchase of a KitchenAid mixer! We've been saving for one for a while now and when we found a good deal on Costco.com we went for it! For those that are wondering, October is the time to buy them! We were able to get a rebate for an ice cream maker (attachment) from the KitchenAid site for FREE! I'm just waiting for it to arrive. I was so excited!

Here is Ben making cookies the same night it arrived. He's the cookie monster in our family. There are never enough cookies in the house! 

The weekend before the KitchenAid came, I was able to go to Richfield, UT for Time Out For Women with my MIL and SIL's. It was a very uplifting weekend and such a nice time. It was fun to have a girls weekend and get away from Provo!

Well, that's it for this post.. I still need to catch up on our Halloween Party, my Birthday and Thanksgiving! You know you need to update your blog when Chris Heaton can remember the exact date of your last post! Ha! Thanks for reminding me to stay caught up, Chris! Glad to know I have at least one reader. :)

October Crafts

So I've been extremely busy crafting these last few weeks... Did I mention already that we're going to be celebrating every single holiday to the fullest? If not, now you know. I'm hoping to do a halloween party in October and an ugly sweater party in December and take a break in November (being my birthday month and all). Also, since school started work has kept me pretty busy, and supporting Ben in his studies is becoming more and more time consuming... (Having two online classes might be the culprit.)

Anyway, life in our home hasn't changed much, just busy with different things. I'll have to sit down one day and blog about how we meal plan and budget... I'm not sure if I'll just write those as journal entries or actual posts... (Note to self: figure that out).

OK, OK... Here are my crafts: 

I love the idea of a Fall wreath because it will last me for TWO whole months and I don't have to buy/make a new one... Isn't it so wonderfully colorful?!? I got a great deal on the wreath and the leaves when JoAnns did their "Coupon Commotion" in September. Made. My. Day.

Next is my tablecloth... It's fall colors and has pumpkins all over it. I LOVE it! I'll try to get another picture of it being used eventually...

Next are my halloween crafts... I invested a whopping $5 in one 2x3 and one 2x4 and had ben make me some blocks. It was fun to see how excited he was to use his power tools. :)

While the blocks were drying, I decided to start making some jars that matched. I've been saving my pickle/applesauce/soy sauce/worcestershire sauce/salsa jars for this exact thing! I used painters tape to do the frankenstein hairline and then just squirted paint right in there... it takes more paint than I originally anticipated, but they turned out so cute! 

You can't tell in this picture (b/c it hadn't happened yet) but the witch failed miserably when the black smeared all over the purple... I'm too lazy to try again this year, so maybe next time...

I also made some "Boo!" blocks in orange and I love them.

Here's the "Trick or Treat" blocks with Frankie and my tiny pumpkins I got from a patch near Gpa's house...

Lastly is my runner for my TV stand. I think I'm going to do this for every holiday. It was so easy to make and it helps bring the decorations down off the shelves. 

Well, that's all for October crafts... I'll probably be doing some more for the November holidays and I'll do another post about that sometime soon.... If anyone has any jars they don't need/want, I'd be happy to take them off your hands... I have a few more projects that involve jars.... Happy October!

Planning Ahead

So, I recently got some free cards from Shutterfly.com and decided to plan early this year for Christmas cards... What do you think?! I got this one for some of my free ones, but might order some different ones later in the year... Depends on if I can get a list and some addresses together. 

(sorry it's not centered, the Shutterfly site wont let me change it)

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Believe it or not, Ben and I are pretty excited for the holidays this year... I made a goal to celebrate each one to the fullest! I'm working on Fall decorations that will work all the way through Halloween and Thanksgiving. Then, on December 1st, we'll put our wreath and tree up. I got some new Christmas decorations from work so hopefully we'll be in the holiday spirit starting October 1st! Any suggestions for Fall decor? I have tons of JoAnn's coupons, so I might go buy some fall decor this week! 

California Solo

At the beginning of August, I took a trip to CA to visit my family. Yes, just me. Ben had to work. (bummer, right?) Anyway, I spent a week just chillin with my mom and helping around the house. We were able to dye my hair, finish Emmas quilt, fold laundry, do dishes, cook delicious food and hang out with the family. It might be weird, but I really love just coming home and 'taking care' of my parents. they probably don't see it that way, but I like to help around the house more now than I ever did as a kid. Maybe because I know what a relief it is to not have to worry about the house being a mess and what is planned for dinner...

We did a dinner with the Eitel cousins and it was great to see them! I got to meet baby Noah and just hold him all night long. He's going to be so big next time I see him and probably not want to be held. :(

One of the days I was there we were able to go to my cousin Jazz's sealing.
Just the girl cousins with Gpa... cute!

Jazz and David after the sealing and my mom and her siblings/dad. 

Me and mom. We had dyed my hair just two days before and hadn't had a chance to trim it yet. That's why it looks kinda gross (in my opinion). Oh yeah, and it was like 105 that day (or felt like it).

On my last day in town we tied Emma's quilt. She has been working on this for a few years now and it's finally [almost] done! (Just the binding left) Aunt Ellen, Jill and cousin Meredith came to town to help and we had a great time all together!

Me and my chunky little friend for the day, Noah.

Mom and Emma with the quilt at the end of tying! It looks awesome, right?!

All in all, a great week in CA. I missed Ben tremendously, but only cried once. The Olympics kept me pretty good company along with the great family I have. Just as a little side-note, I left Ben a note/surprise for each day I was gone. Some were mailed, some were hidden around the house. Between the notes and the meals I prepared in advance to help him during his busy week of work/school, I think he was well taken care of. It was really hard to go on a vacation without Ben (especially by choice) but hopefully we wont have to do any more of those. Although, seeing his face after a whole week was a great feeling! Kinda made the missing him worth it.
Does that even make sense? oh well... 

That's all for the trip, can't wait to go back at Christmas time. Especially since Halie and Kendall will be there! We haven't seen them in over a year!

2 Years!

Can you believe it's already been two years!!??

haha. I love how inappropriate this picture is. It's one of my favorites from our wedding (sorry mom!).

Each year, whether it's a birthday, anniversary or Christmas, we always tend to ruin the surprise of the gifts we have planned for each other. How/Why you may ask... it's simple. We can't figure out what to get one another, so we just ask and talk about it during our family budgeting discussion. Once we set the budget for gifts/the holiday, we try to decide what we'd like that is within the budget. Lucky for me, Ben knew exactly what he wanted... and lucky for Ben, so did I. This rarely happens because when we want/need something, we usually just save for it right away and buy it a few paychecks later. It's kinda sad that we don't have many surprises in our gift-giving, but we're both OK with that right now. 

So, to celebrate the completion of two years on the road to eternity, Ben asked for some power tools (to make me awesome stuff, of course) and I asked for some family pictures (to remember how precious we are). Yes, our family is still just the two of us, but I love this time that we get to share with one another. Just the two of us. Everyday I treasure our time together because I know someday it will be hard to come by. When I was home in California for a week (Ben stayed in UT for work) I absolutely loved being around my family and the wonderful chaos that came with it (blog post to follow). However, nothing compared to that moment when I walked into my tiny, clean and quiet apartment where Ben was there waiting for me. (Well, he was doing homework, but I like to think it was a multi-tasking effort.) I hope I can enjoy these quiet moments we have together before the chaos of eternal progression comes along  (aka children).

Well, enough mushy stuff, here's the pictures that my wonderful friend Merrick took for us. Thanks to Ben for a wonderful two years and many more to come. And thanks for the gift, I love my pictures!

p.s. on the actual day of our anniversary we went to Goodwood BBQ for dinner and then saw the movie "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" followed by huckleberry shakes at Arctic Circle. It was a perfect date night and I loved it! Also, that movie was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Everyone should go see it right away! It's truly heartwarming. Be ready to laugh, but bring tissues, too.

OK, OK, now I'm really done, here are the pictures:

(one of my favorites)

(one of Ben's favorites)

(probably going to be used for our Christmas card)

precious, right?

 Well, that's enough for the blog... I love them all and can't wait to get some of them printed and framed. Happy Anniversary, Ben! I love you more than those three little words can express.
Thanks for being the best husband a girl could ask for!