Best Halloween Yet!

So after much fretting about what to wear for a Halloween costume this year, I finally came to the consensus that I should be a pageant mom. I just think that they are so funny. That show Toddlers and Tiaras does such a good job at showing how crazy those women can be. As I was telling Ben about my plans for a costume, I realized, "what better pageant daughter to have than Ben?!" He totally embraced the idea, and let me dress him up just like a little pageant girl. We had a blast at our party in our hilarious costumes. Thanks Shawn and Ashley for putting together such a fun night!

The back of my shirt says, "My daughter is prettier than yours!" and "Shake that thang!"

The tough guys and the sissy pants.

All the beautiful women in our costumes. Everyone did such a good job dressing up!

The boys and their costumes. Ben finally took off the dress and wig after a couple hours. Now he just looks like a creepy transvestite with makeup on!

WE'RE CERTIFIED!!!

Yay!!! I don't know if I'm about to cry, laugh, smile, scream, whatever! We just got a call from our caseworker that we are now certified by the state. That means that a birth mother can actually choose us now. This has been such a wonderful journey, but now I feel like it is for real.

I know that everything happens on a larger timeline than we can see or understand, but I sure hope that we find our baby soon. I can't wait to experience the joy and happiness that so many of our friends and family have. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as this roller coaster ride begins. Arms up!

Halloween Costumes . . .

Help me!Why is it so hard to come up with a creative Halloween costume? Seriously, I feel all this pressure! Haha, I'm a 26 year old working woman who is worried what I'm going to dress up as for a Halloween party! Ben and I love dressing up, though, so we look forward to Halloween every year.

I thought of a couple funny ideas for costumes. The first one is a pageant mom. I could stuff pillows in my clothes, wear old fashioned glasses, mess up my hair, and wear no make up. You know how pageant moms look. They're all living vicariously through their daughters, trying to make them look all pretty so they can feel pretty themselves. Then I could pin a picture of my 25 year old looking four year old on my shirt. By the way, I am obsessed with the show Toddlers and Tiaras. Ben will sometimes watch it with me, and it makes him so mad. He will literally talk back to the women on the television for exploiting their daughters. I think it's hilarious to see how worked up he gets. I do agree that those women are somewhat crazy. I find it more creepy than cute when little girls are shaking their booties in what looks like miniature stripper outfits. Why do I still watch the show then? It's still very entertaining!



So, another one I thought of is to wear a big cardboard cut out of a house. I could hang it upside down. Get it? I'm dressing up as OUR house. Haha! Okay, maybe I'm the only one that thinks that's funny. Hey, if you don't laugh at it, you just get depressed.



A friend of mine suggested a trophy wife. That could be good. I could get some gold body paint and hang a plaque around my neck. Ben already knows that I'm the perfect wife, though!



Well, who knows! I still have two days to think about it. We'll definitely take some pictures to let you know what we decided. Ben's on his own for figuring out his costume. My brain is too tired trying to think of my own. Any suggestions?

So Long, Farewell . . .

It was finally time to say goodbye to our old washer and dryer. Yes, it was a sad day . . . okay, now I'm over it! Seriously, that dryer squeaked like a banshee every time we used it. We can't really complain, though. We bought the set three years ago when we first moved to the house for $50. How can you pass that up when you're a poor couple just graduating from college buying a totally overpriced first home? (We couldn't have predicted that last part, oh well) So we've happily done our laundry in the squeakily cheap dryer ever since. We thank our friends greatly who just moved and sold us their nearly new set for such a steal. The joy of quiet laundering!

Let's Go Coyotes, Let's Go!

Ben loves, loves, loves hockey! He coaches a little league roller hockey team where we live. One of the fathers of the kid's gave him some free tickets to go to the opening home game of the Phoenix Coyotes. We went with some friends of ours and had a great time. The game was a "white out game" because that is one of the colors of the team. They handed out free t-shirts to everyone that came to the game. I got an x-large. Wahoo! It'll make a great nightgown at least.



We'll definitely take any other free tickets that come our way!

Attack of the Killer Fridge!

Some good friends of ours quickly moved out of state for a new job opportunity. The leave was pretty unexpected and they didn't have much time to pack up and go. I got a phone call about a week later to see if I could do some extra cleaning around the house, and to empty out the fridge. Wow! I came face to face with a monster! I'm telling you, that fridge was crazy. The power had been off for three weeks, and there was definitely a smell and a few abnormal growths inside to prove it. All in all, it was a pretty funny experience. It separates the men from the boys. Apparently I am a man and Ben is a boy because he couldn't take it. He almost barfed. Eww!

I had to be fully armed before I went on the defense with this fridge! Full on mask, gloves, and BLEACH cleaner!

Something growing on the top shelf!

Leftover Bajio's salad. Anyone hungry?

The fateful end for Mr. Chunky Monkey ice cream.

Yay! The job is done, and the fridge is back to its beautiful self. We're glad we could help out our friends in their move. Plus, I always love making funny memories, and this is definitely one of them!

Vegas Baby!

Finally, a well deserved vacation! After seeing my family for two days, we headed off to Vegas to splurge. We really enjoyed ourselves. We stayed at the Belagio, which was so relaxing and beautiful. They have this awesome conservatory garden in the middle of the hotel. They decorate it with all kinds of flowers depending on the season. They had just put up their autumn decor, and they had these real 1,000 pound pumpkins. I would love to carve one of those babies!!!

We also got to relax by the pools in the morning. Yes, I said pools, not pool. They had about six pools and two hot tubs to choose from. It was kind of chilly for swimming, but it's never the wrong time for a dip in a hot tub.

We had a blast going around to all the different shops and hotels. If you can avoid all the crazy men handing out naked pictures of women on the streets, Vegas can be quite fun!


Our hotel. Wahoo! This is where the fountain show was every hour. They have these amazing fountain shows every hour. You could hear the water blasting from almost a mile away.

Once again Ben loves food, so what do you expect his favorite part of Vegas to be? The buffet, of course! This is our lovely breakfast buffet the last morning there. Oh, and this is plate #2 for the wonderful hubby.

They have the most gorgeous floral arrangements in the lobby of the hotel. Autumn colors are my favorite!

Modeling at the Quicksilver store!

Wow! Ben totally picked out this outfit and boy what a stud! I have to say that Ben is soooo hot!

There is a reason that I'm not a model, besides the whole being 5' 1''!

Ow ow! Love the kissy face on Ben. Isn't that how the girls usually pose nowadays?

The night life!

The view from our hotel was great. The Paris hotel was right across the street, and it was fun to look at the Eifel Tower each night.

The Conservatory (the garden in the middle of the hotel).

Okay, so this was trippy. The eyes of the tree would move back and forth like they were following you. And if that wasn't creepy enough, the tree would start talking out of nowhere. Weird.

A model size Belagio with little fountains. The whole conservatory smelled so good, like pumpkin spice. It totally smelled like the holidays.

Another creepy, but cool, monster tree.

Do I resemble the scarecrow? Hmmm...is that good or bad?!


Ben lounging at the pool. I wish I were back there right now!


The fun mirror room at the toy store in Ceaser's Palace. It reminds me of the 360 mirror on the show What Not To Wear. I think my outfit would have passed Stacey and Clinton's test!

Yay! The Lion King! AMAZING!!!
This was by far the coolest show I've ever seen. We loved it! All the actors moved like they were actually animals. It was really artistic. The music was wonderful. Everything was magical!

Well, Vegas had to come to an end, but we loved it there. We stayed the perfect amount of time, the weather was great, and the company was lovely!

Grandma's Cabin and Zion National Park

Ben and I got to go see my parents last weekend at my grandparents' cabin in Duck Creek, UT. We had so much fun. My grandma is a game fanatic and so am I! We stayed up late playing Wizard (a card game) and Farkle (a dice game). Apparently my sister-in-law Diane renamed the dice game "Sparkle" because it sounds nicer. Farkle sounds too much like, well, fart. Haha! Too funny! We also got to play a few games of horseshoes out in the back. I don't plan on giving up my day job to compete in horseshoes any time soon, but Ben on the other hand...

Besides hanging out at the cabin, we took a day trip out to Zion National Park. That is one of the most gorgeous scenic drives. We hiked up to Emerald Pool, which was mostly just a mud hole, and Weeping Rock. The Weeping Rock constantly has water dripping from it, and supposedly the water is 1,200 years old before it drips out. My mom refuses to believe that the water is that old because scientists don't know anything, right? Instead she believes that someone is standing at the top of the rock with a hose spraying 24/7. Hmmm...makes sense! Okay, she doesn't really think that, but she kept joking about it.

Looking out over the deck of the cabin. It is really beautiful up there. It's so nice to get away in nature and not have to worry about anything!


Horseshoes!

Ben is a horseshoe master! I don't know where he learns these useless and random skills, but they provide for good entertainment. I could not throw the horseshoe anywhere close to where it was supposed to land until I discovered that I have better aim granny style. After that discovery I made FIVE ringers!

So pretty! Almost as awesome as the Grand Canyon (my favorite national park).



I felt like we were getting professional pictures taken here. We asked a random lady to do us a favor by taking our picture. She made us pose and took the picture from five different angles. She was so serious!


Weeping Rock
You can kind of see the water drops behind Ben...but not really. Just pretend because it was really pretty in real life.

We had so much fun! Thanks mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa. We loved spending the weekend with you!