stereo mood

I think the idea behind Stereomood is brilliant. Who wouldn't want to pick their music selection by what mood they are in?

Right now I am listening to snuggle with a hint of romantic. I might have to change gears to just wake up soon just to get through the rest of this afternoon. We shall seeeeeee.


{found via stephmodo}

Dear Santa,

{...ding dong ding dong}...Only 19 days left before you make your visit, and I'd just like to let you know that Holiday Cheer has arrived at our home, in a very hard core way. Twinkling lights have completely taken over while holiday music rings through the air. The smells switch from chocolate to peppermint to pine so quickly, it's usually a mixture of all three. The tree was carefully chosen after examining 3 tree yards, and fits so perfectly in the front window that it's like it's always been there. In the midst of all this cheer, just a reminder that maybe a little extra cash in our stockings would be helpful... you know... to pay for the electricity bill this month!


yours truly,

the Christmas tree hunting,light adorning,
holiday film cuddling,
cheery lovebirds in Utah,
Matt and Carla.

numbered thoughts

1. I love Christmas lights on our house. It reminds me of a real life ginger bread house. And besides 1 house across the street, we are the only ones with full blown lights. How sad for our street.

2. We are attending our first Christmas party of the year tonight. I am stoked for them to begin.

3. We went to an Eagle Scout Court of Honor on Sunday, and despite it being a bit long, it was really cool. Mostly because we sat 3 feet away from an adult female bald eagle. I've never felt so patriotic. And so seared to the core because of her penetrating eyes. {Congrats Adam!}

4. I was so excited for the Biggest Loser finale last night... only it wasn't last night. It's next week. Bummer. Go Danny!

5. Sometimes life gives you heavy boots. Literally and figuratively.

6. Driving around the holidays makes me feel the opposite of warm and fuzzy. Cold and slick? hmmm...

7. I got my hair did yesterday. Here is the picture I text to Matt after I was finished. It is definitely an improvement from my latest plain mop top.

8. I am excited for my sister Melina to have a baby. And I think the post about her cat is funny.

9. The Chocolate Enrobed Macadamia Caramel Clusters from Costco are suuuuper delicious. They are not, however, a substitute for dinner.

10. My favorite iPhone app is called LDS Radio. You can listen to all of the Church material with a touch of a button, including the voices from Conference. It made me miss President Hinckley last night as we listened to a talk from 2004.

11. I would like to go on a road trip with Matty very soon. Possibly to the redwood forests in Cali? Somewhere we can camp and drive and lose service from our phones.

12. He looks positively ridiculous here.13. My little brother and his new wife gave me a set of mixing bowls because they got 20 thousand as wedding presents. I really love them in all their green, red, and orange glory.

14. "That is no way to talk to your grandmother." I love Gloria in Modern Family and would be like her if I were really latina.

and that's all.

full hearts

there is so much to be thankful for this year.

marriage, each other, family, friends, house, scoots, health, cars, jobs, education, faith, goals...

the list could go on forever with gratitude spewing from my mouth.

hope everyone has a lovely holiday weekend with family and friends. let everyone feel the love and eat lots of pie. yum.

white is the new green

we'll just have to make it work.

matt used his MAN and cut down a tree

all in an effort to make room for a new and improved back yard ... including garden, a little more grass, and fire pit. the tree was awkwardly placed in the middle, and now with it gone, it opens up so much more room back there. with the help of David and a really powerful chainsaw, it took no time at all.
progress. progress. progress. all in the name of progress. and look at our trimmed pear tree! so much better :)
so this is what our yard looks like now.

well, not right now. right now it's covered in freshly fallen white, fluffy snow because it's been coming down for a few hours. good thing we put our christmas lights up yesterday! {not to be turned on until after thanksgiving, do not worry}

it's really fun to have a first home together.

a pair of eyes with a come hither gleam

Hey padre,

Remember that time a few years back when you took Matt and I to the Desert Star Playhouse for their silly Christmas performance? I can't really remember the name of the show, or really what it was about, but I do remember that one song that made me laugh so hard I cried. And I know you remember, because I swear every Christmas it comes up somehow.

The song was "Mr Santa" played to the tune of "Mr Sandman" {originally by The Chordettes} ... but only one woman came on the stage since the other ones were doing a costume change... and she sang the entire song by herself only using the back-up vocals and noises. SO the entire song was just "bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum, bum bum bum bum bum" and "ooooooooo saaanta." It was hilarious. I was busting for over 10 minutes. I always remember that performance whenever I hear the song, which I just so happened to hear yesterday. I've posted about Pomplamoose before right here, but yesterday when I stumbled back onto their youtube page to see if there were any new songs to enjoy, cha-ching! there it was - Mr Sandman.

It's so great. Listen to it. Now.

And thanks for taking us to that playhouse dad, it was fun. Maybe we'll have to do it again sometime :)

{their MJ's "Beat It" is pretty cool too!}

a pretty tree at the Logan Temple

next to a really cool john deere bicycle.

maybe this was my favorite part

maybe we let them use the black mamba as their get-a-way vehicle.
maybe i taped my own veil onto her helmet.
maybe it looked soooo flippin' cute i almost died.
maybe they loved it.
maybe i loved it more.

it's hard to tell...

either way, the weekend was great. they are married & cute & happy.
and i am still beyond giddy that someone got to use this scooter idea while leaving their wedding. and since it couldn't be us, i'm glad it was these two kiddies. and maybe i'll post more about their wedding day because it was a hoot. my grandpa wore a USA leather jacket, a cute girl was stabbed in the leg by a high heel, and i had a laughing attack in the car... so many good memories. oh, and that they got hitched, because that was pretty good too :)

love and marriage

Tomorrow my little baby brother is getting married. And he's doing it in style with his beautiful wife-to-be because they chose a Friday the 13th to wed. Sound familiar? We really like that day in my family because it brings the best of luck! They are following suit exactly 2 years and 7 months after Matt and I... and it's really cute. And lovely. And exciting. And means we get to visit Star Valley, WY to party with the locals. And I just love weddings.

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But more importantly, I love marriages. It's a choice to keep loving that same person every single day, no matter if it's really easy or really difficult. And I'm super grateful that we experience both the easy and the difficult times, because otherwise we'd take advantage of the beautiful gift of marriage given to us by a loving Heavenly Father. And sometimes, we all need to be humbled and reminded how difficult loving another person unconditionally can be so that we can always be working on improvement.

.

"I give counsel to husbands and wives. Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion."

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-President Henry B Eyring, General Conference address October 2009.

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How wonderful that God will allow us more love if we pray and ask him for it. The entire talk from President Eyring is amazing and encourages improvement by following Christ's example.

.

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I am thrilled for Mark and Cassie! And am very thankful for that husband of mine and our very own eternal marriage {as well as our beliefs.} Love love love.

sometimes a flower

...really makes things feel much better.

faces

of Brady... {remember this post? like i said already... his face is priceless.}

...and then of Megan. absolutely brilliant.

i think scooters really bring the best out of people.
or at least the happiest faces.

the p dub diddy dub

I've talked about how much I like the Pioneer Woman before on this blog. So when she was coming to SLC to sign her new cook book {which Matty gave me for my bday,} I knew I wanted to go. Did I know it would take 5 hours to see her? Did I know I would get totally star struck and stare at her with a goofy grin and say "hiiii" really slowly while waving? Did I know that I would get embarrassing nervous leaky tears because of that star struck-ness? Nope nope nope nope. BUT... it was awesome. And she is everything you'd think a lovely little woman from Oklahoma would be. Funny, sweet, very pretty, and super super nice for staying for hours meeting her fans. I think every picture I took last night you can see all of my teeth because of my huge grin. Like, all. Glad my friend Melissa came with, as well as Matt playing paparazzi for us.
I'm pretty sure she thought I was BFF material when I stood next to her pointing and saying "this is the pdub! RIGHT here!" How embarrassing. Anyway, I love her. And it was great.

Also, Dooce {Heather B Armstrong} was there. It was like the internet coming to life right before your eyes. I watched her do a ninja/fairy jump off the curb as she sneakily went around the back of the store to cut in line. Very nimble, that one.

a funny scene

This was Halloween afternoon. Brady, Matt's brother who is over 6 feet tall, is about to get on the back of the scooter and hold onto Matt while they take a ride. Megan, my sister in law and Brady's wife, is casually standing in the middle of the road in our dragon costume watching. Matt is kick-starting the scooter while I am taking pictures of this ridiculous scene. I have more pictures to share from this day later on when I get more time, because Brady's face is priceless. And I'm going to frame it in our house because it was such a great moment for all of us.

*Also... Macfisto was great. I want to post about it and tell everyone how very very thankful we are for all of the people (upwards 300 or so) that showed up! And to tell you how great the band was! And to tell you how the movie was superb and Ryan is probably still sleeping off his work! However, I'm experiencing some fall allergies and we're pretty much still exhausted from the stress from behind the scenes stuff... so it'll come. Just not today. But it was quite the evening!

rrrrrrraaaawwwwrrr

that's how dragons wish you a happy halloween.

we hope everyone had a safe and spooky holiday. and here is a kissy face picture because 8 years ago on halloween in 2001, matt kissed me on the mouth for the very first time. 8 years! awesome. love you bubba boo boo bear.