Happy 8th Year Anniversary!!

(Engagement Photo)

I can't believe that 8 years ago today Cody and I were married in the SLC temple. As I look outside this morning I notice that the day is nothing like it was 8 years ago.


Cody and I were married at 7:00 am, which meant everyone had to be at the temple at 6:30. We had to be at the temple at 6!!Since it was so early in the morning I had my hair done the night before at midnight. Then I slept on the couch and I tried not to mess up my hair. Not that I was really going to sleep much the night before my wedding. Then Cody came and picked me up at about 5:30 am. We started our trek to the temple in a BLIZZARD! The weather was so bad that we almost missed our exit because we couldn't see. Thankfully, we made it to the temple (and so did the rest of our families) safely and we were married bright and early. But after the ceremony we looked outside and realized there was no way we could take any pictures. Our photographer was so understanding and said that we could just come back another day. So we went back about a month later and took all of the temple pictures. Our families weren't there but it was so much more laid back and relaxing then it would've been the day of our wedding.

(Cody's favorite pose, we even had some tourists take our picture!)

After we left the temple, we all met at Joanie's restaurant in Kaysville to have our wedding brunch. It was really a beautiful luncheon. Then, since we were exhausted, we went to our hotel room and took a nap. And so did everyone else. Thanks to the nap, we were well rested for our reception at my parent's church in Farmington. The next night we had another reception in Idaho Falls.

Thank you Cody for marrying me that cold December morning. These 8 years have been wonderful and I look forward to spending FOREVER with you.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

We had our Ward Christmas party this weekend. Santa came and all the kids got to sit on his lap and talk to him. Santa asked Riley if there was something that he wanted to tell Santa about. I think his mind suddenly went blank because he nodded his head with this dazed look on his face. We had to tell him to tell Santa what he wanted. Then he remembered and he told Santa that he wants a red light saber that glows in the dark. Santa told him that he thought his elves had been working on some of those, so I guess we'll see!

I've been tagged!

I generally don't do these but I thought this was simple enough that I could handle it.

8 Shows I watch:
1. Chuck
2. Dancing with the Stars (Now that that's over I'll start the Bachelor in January)
3. Biggest Loser (Go Michelle!!)
4. Ugly Betty
5. The Office
6. Smallville
7. Numbers
8. How I Met Your Mother


8 Restaurants That I Like To Eat At: (These are restaurants I like to eat at but rarely do.)
1. Robintino's
2. El Matador
3. Olive Garden
4. Red Lobster
5. Sakura
6. Black Angus
7. Chili's
8. Sandpiper in Idaho Falls


8 Things I Did Today: (Very exciting!)
1. Decorated the Christmas tree
2. Took Riley to preschool and then realized that preschool had been cancelled for today so I brought him right back home.
3. Cleaned the Kitchen
4. Went to Enrichment night
5. Practiced our Presidency lesson for Relief Society.
6. Played the piano. I just love when I can pull out my Christmas music.
7. Updated Family and Friend mailing addresses
8. Made Crock pot Chicken for dinner.

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Christmas!!!
2. Spending time with family.
3. Giving people their Christmas gifts!
4. Our 8th anniversary (coming up on the 15th)
5. Cody's Christmas break and just hanging out.
6. Watching The Office.
7. Doing some crafting tomorrow for fun not because I have an enrichment night to do it for.
8. Getting my house totally clean. I hate unpacking after a long trip!

8 Things On My Wish List:
1. A House! Our condo is great but it would be nice to have at least one more room that I could put my Cricut, sewing machine, and any other crafts out.
2. I'll have to copy my friend Liz and say a walk in closet. I would love to have more closet space to hang all of our clothes. I feel like our rod is going to break one of these days.
3. A bigger kitchen. Maybe we'd eat in the kitchen more often if it was bigger.
4. Finally feel great! At least I'm feeling a little better, every little bit helps.
5. Lose 20-30 lbs. That would be awesome.
6. More patience.
7. To go on a cruise some day.
8. An hour long massage! That would be nice after spending all day crafting!

Twilight Premiere!!

Thanks to a family member of a friend, I was able to attend a premiere showing of Twilight on Thursday at 7:00 pm. (I didn't have to stay out until 2:30 am!) It was so much fun. Eight of us drove to Jordan Commons in my friend Jill's Excursion and on the way we listened to the soundtrack. (We liked the soundtrack even more on the way home after we saw the movie.) We had dinner and then got in line to go into the theatre. As we approached the door to the theatre we found out that they were scanning us with a wand to make sure we didn't have any cameras. Of course we had cameras!! So Laisa and I had to run all the way back to the car to put our cameras away. The "guards" were from Summit Entertainment and since we were getting a special preview we couldn't take any pictures. They wanted everyone to take their cell phones back to their cars too. Since everyone had phones, they compromised and just let us turn them off. Luckily, I did take a couple pictures while we were eating dinner.

(Me and Jill)

As we walked into the theatre they handed us VIP badges. (Thanks Laisa for taking a picture and posting it on your blog so I could steal it.) Some of the badges had symbols or words on the back that meant you won a prize. A few of us in our group won a bookmark. Then we finally sat back and enjoyed the movie. I absolutely loved it! I was expecting the worst, but I was pleasantly surprised and I can't wait to see it again!

Toilet paper anyone?

So this is a little embarrassing but it's too funny not to share.
Yesterday I went in the bathroom and realized, after it was too late, that we were out of toilet paper. I called to Riley and told him to go to the other bathroom and get me some toilet paper. A couple minutes later he came in holding three squares of paper. (I had just put new toilet paper in the other bathroom the night before and I had left the rest of the package in there on the floor.) I explained to him that I wanted the whole roll, not just a little piece. He said that he couldn't get the whole roll out, so I told him to just bring the whole package.

A few minutes later he walked in like this

I was so angry that he had just ruined an entire roll of toilet paper but I busted out laughing. Apparently, he never saw the entire package of toilet paper sitting right in front of him! When he said he couldn't get the roll out, he didn't mean from the package, he meant he couldn't get it off the toilet paper roll holder. So he just unrolled the WHOLE roll and brought it to me. Thanks Riley, you are so helpful!

Where are my keys?

Today, Riley and I went shopping to get the last few things that I needed for my enrichment night tomorrow. We were at our last stop, Walmart. As we were getting closer to the car, I reached in my purse to get my keys. I have a special pocket that I always put my keys in, but they weren't there. So I started looking through my purse and I said, "Where are my keys?" Riley said, "Maybe they're in the car." I said, "I hope not, because the car is locked." I'm sure you can all see where this is going. Yes, the keys were in the car, in fact they were still in the ignition! Now I'm not always the best at locking my car, but I've tried to be much better. I honestly don't even remember flipping the automatic locks as I was getting out. But I did.
Now the question is, how do I get my car unlocked and how do I get home? The only other key that we have is on Cody's key ring and he is over 20 minutes away. Also, I didn't really want to call him and make him leave work. I did try to call him to see if he had any ideas on how I could break into our car. Then I realized that he wasn't even in his office today, he was out somewhere in the school, so I had no idea how to even get a hold of him. So I started calling everyone I knew in my ward that was in my cell phone or that I knew by heart. Apparently, everyone else was out for the day too. I finally got a hold of my friend Tanya and she was able to give me the number for the police department. I called the police station and 10 minutes later a nice police officer was there to unlock my car. It only took him about 2 minutes and my car was unlocked. I'm so grateful to be home and to know where my keys are!

A Snack?

We were watching TV the other night and we saw one of the previews for Twilight. Riley was there with us and when the preview was over he looked at me and said, "Why does him think her's a snack?" Okay, I know his english wasn't great but I could not believe he was perceptive enough to realize that James was talking about Bella when he said, "You brought a snack."

On that note, I can't wait until the movie comes out next week. I know things will inevitably be different than the book, but I'm still very excited to go and see it on Thursday!!

I love to see the Temple

This weekend, Cody and I were able to attend the wedding of our friend Kristin at the SLC temple. It has almost been eight years since Cody and I were married in the SLC temple. As we sat in the sealing room, waiting for the bride and groom, we had time to remember our wedding. Cody was sure that we were sitting in the exact same room that we were married in. He said that it looked just like it. :) Of course they all look the same so I'm not really sure if it was the same room or not. But it was kind of fun to think that it was the same room.

As the sealing continued, I was reminded of the covenants that we made and the blessings that we have been given. I am so grateful that we were married in the temple. I am grateful to know that we have been sealed to eachother and to Riley for time and all eternity. I am grateful that I was also born in the covenant and that I'm sealed to my family. We are so blessed to know for a fact that we will be together in the next life. My grandparents are not LDS, they hope and believe that they will be together again but they don't have that assurance like we do.

I am so excited for Kristin and Jared and the life that they have begun together. You could not mistake the joy they had in their faces as they were joined together forever. Thanks again for letting us be part of your wonderful day!

Halloween Fun

The night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. Of course carving was a little difficult for Riley so he helped us poke the holes and then he had fun drawing pictures on the pumpkins. Cody helped out a by gutting the pumpkins and then using his power tools to cut the small circles. He also carved the tiny pumpkin. I ended up doing most of the carving. I think next year we'll only get one pumpkin!

Halloween day was a lot of fun. Riley and I went to the elementary school where I used to work and watched the Halloween Parade. It's always so fun to see all of the kids in their costumes. It was also really great to see everyone that I used to work with. Then we went to Cody's work. Then we stopped by the District Office so I could see some of the ladies there that I didn't get to say good-bye to. That was fun for Riley because they let the kids come trick-or-treating there. If we would've had time he could've filled his whole bucket there, but we had to leave and go to preschool. It was definitely a full day of Halloween fun.

That night, I took Riley trick-or-treating while Cody stayed home to answer the door. We went with our friends the Christensen's. It was a lot more fun for Riley to have some other kids to go with instead of just going with me. I couldn't believe it, but we ended up going for 2 1/2 hours. There were a few times where we went into the house's and we sat and talked for little bit so it wasn't 2 1/2 hours straight. I'm just glad that it was such a nice night, it was perfect weather for trick-or-treating. I always hated it when it was so cold that we had to bundle up in our coats and stuff and then you couldn't see our costumes.

Shaelee and Tanner

Now this was Riley's first time really trick-or-treating. Last year we had a trunk-or-treat, and the years before that he was so little we just went to a couple houses. So I tried to coach him before he went. I told him to just go to the door, say trick-or-treat, and then say thank you. I told him that even if they had something he didn't like to say thank you and then Cody or I would eat it or we'd throw it away. He was doing pretty good, then at one door I noticed that he said something to the person at the door but I couldn't hear what he said. When the three kids came back, I asked the older kids what he said and they told me that he said, "I already have this treat." I guess I didn't train him well enough. :)

One Lucky Girl!

I just have to say how lucky I am to have Cody for a husband.

I haven't been feeling very well for a LOOOOONG time. We still haven't figured out exactly what's wrong. Lately, I've been very stressed out and concerned about what's going on with me. Last night Cody came home with this beautiful bouquet of flowers and a message for me.

Instead of buying a card he played this video for me.

I am so grateful to have such a caring and understanding husband. Thank you Cody for putting up with me. Thank you for always being there for me. And most of all thank you for loving me.

Mmmmm...Sprinkles

Last week we decided to make Halloween cookies. Riley and I cut them out and baked them and then when he got home from preschool we decorated them. Riley had a great time frosting or "painting" the cookies. He eventually got a little lazy with the frosting as you can see on the bat cookie. He finally said, "Mom you can put the frosting on and I'll decorate." He loved the sprinkles, M&M's, and candy corns. He especially loved sneaking a few candies in his mouth while he was decorating. It was a lot of fun to do this together. Believe it or not, we've never made sugar cookies before. I always had good intentions, but with working and other things going on, we've just never done it. I'm so glad that we were able to make cookies together this year. It's so great to be home with Riley!

Halloween's almost here!!

I can't believe how quickly October is flying by. I'm obviously not very good at keeping up on my blogging since I haven't posted anything for almost two months!! Honestly, we just haven't done anything too exciting to talk about.

As Halloween approaches, Riley keeps asking me if it's Halloween yet. Once he got his costume (he's going to be a Storm Trooper), he figured that Halloween must be close. He started asking every night if he could put his costume on and go outside Trick or Treating. Finally, to stop the questions, I decided to make him a countdown so he could see exactly how many days left until Halloween. This has seemed to work pretty well until today, he took his Tootsie Roll and then he brought me one too! I guess he's trying to make Halloween come a little sooner.

(I know it's a little late for this year but, if you like the countdown, I got the instructions from http://heartlandpaper.com/ then go to their blog and you can see all their upcoming and past projects.)

Something exciting for today is that my Mom's finally coming home!! My Mom has been gone for 9 weeks. She's been in Virginia taking care of my Grandma (she broke her hip) and my Aunt Polly (she was diagnosed with Lymphoma). I know I don't see my mom all of the time, but I can't believe how much I've missed her just knowing that she wasn't there for me to go see. I guess I can never move too far away. One thing I've really missed is that Cody and my Dad have season tickets to the BYU games and my Mom usually comes with my Dad and we get to hang out. I've really missed that time together. I'm glad she'll be able to come this weekend, I can't wait to see her. WELCOME HOME MOM!!

Bear World

This last weekend we went to Idaho. While we were there we went to Bear World. Surprisingly, we had never gone there before, even though it's not that far away from Idaho Falls. We decided this summer that when we went to Idaho we would finally go to Bear World. We told Riley that we would go and for the past month and a half he has been marking his own little calendar with stickers, counting down the days until we would finally go to Bear World.

(Me, Grammy, and my cute little bear cub, Riley)

I can't believe how close you actually get to the bears. I thought it was funny that they told us you had to keep moving because if you stopped the bears could climb on the car. It was a little difficult to get any pictures because you have to keep your windows rolled up. But I had a few that turned out.

After we drove through to see the bears, we went to the little amusement park and petting zoo. Riley was being a scaredy cat and he started screaming on the first ride. The cars went up in the air and then they started bouncing and he did not like that. I think he was afraid he was going to fall. After that he'd only go on the train.

One of Riley's favorite parts at Bear World was the petting zoo. He said he loved petting the big pig.

Riley's other favorite part was the bear cubs. That was my favorite part too. The bear cubs are in an area all by themselves over by the amusement park. Riley loved watching the baby bear cubs run and play.

Sleeping with Darth Vader

Recently we found out that Cody has Sleep Apnea. For those of you who don't know what Sleep Apnea is, here's an explanation.

Sleep Apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing. Most people have about 5 pauses an hour, when Cody was tested he had about 60 pauses! So pretty much about 1 a minute. We thought he might have a problem when about 6 months ago he started snoring louder and more frequently than ever before. A couple of times I woke up and I could hear him choking. It scared me to death so I made him go to the Dr.

It was clear that he had Sleep Apnea so now he sleeps with a CPAP or oxygen mask. As he breaths in and out it sort of sounds like Darth Vader breathing through his mask. I thought it might bother me a little bit but it doesn't. It's actually kind of soothing and it's very quiet. Cody won't let me take a picture of him with the mask on, so here's a picture of what the mask looks like.

Cute, huh? I'm just really glad that we have found the problem and that he can breath again. He feels so much better every morning now that he doesn't wake up with headaches from the lack of oxygen. And I'm glad I don't have to sleep with earplugs anymore. I was starting to wonder if we were going to have to sleep in different rooms his snoring was so bad. I'm happy that we can sleep in the same room again!

Dinosaur Museum Craziness

This last Tuesday, Riley and I went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Thanksgiving Point has $2 Tuesdays in August and I knew that Provo and Alpine School Districts had started school so I thought it wouldn't be too busy. HAHA!! Boy was I wrong. We got to the museum about a half an hour after it opened and the line was already out the lobby doors, around the corner, and down the side of the building. I could not believe it. It probably took us at least a half an hour just to get to the front and pay.


We went with my friend Laisa and two of her kids and my sister Hope and her five kids. Eight kids and three adults, what were we thinking!! Actually it wasn't really bad, the kids were great. But it was so busy that they didn't really get to do all of the hands on stuff. All in all, we all had a fun time and the kids loved seeing all of the dinosaurs.

(Keilana, what a doll!!)

(Camden, Riley's cousin, they're only 11 days apart)

Back to work!!

This week was Cody's first week back to work. For those of you that don't know, Cody is a Counselor at American Fork Junior High. He worked there last year for his internship. He loves his job and loves helping the kids.

This was my first week home with just Riley. I should've gone back the same day as Cody to take care of new student registration. I definitely did not miss that stressful day.

Since we just got new carpet I didn't do much other than just clean up all of the mess around the house and try to organize everything. Even though I was doing a lot of cleaning, Riley and I had a great time together! I'm really looking forward to this year with him. I've already bought a bunch of stuff so we can have our own little preschool together. I know Riley can't wait too, he keeps asking me when we're going to start preschool. He's so excited about learning.

The other thing I did this week was read Breaking Dawn, the last book in the Twilight Series

I just could not put the book down, once Cody got home from work and we had dinner, I picked up my book and just read until it was time to go to bed. I finished the book Wednesday! I enjoyed reading all of the Twilight series so much. (I didn't start reading them until this summer). Now I'm just sad that it's all over. I need to start something else, any great ideas?

Summer Away from Home!

This summer we decided we'd celebrate. Cody and I are both done with school, no homework for the summer!! And I am now done with work. (Now my real work begins at home!!)

To celebrate we decided to take a long trip. We were pretty much gone the entire month of June. We started in San Diego for 1 week. We stayed at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido. I know it sounds like a retirement home but was actually a really great place. There were tons of families and lots of fun stuff for the kids. We had a barbecue pad right outside our back door and a hot tub. It was a community barbecue and hot tub but nobody was ever out there when we were there so we had it all to ourselves. The pool was great and they had a splash pad where Riley could just run around and play.

While we stayed in Escondido we went to a Dodger game in LA.

We went to SeaWorld for a couple of days. (One day to view the shows and the other day to walk around and see everything, both days to feed the Dolphins.)

We went to another Dodger game at Petco Park. (Andre Ethier)

After the baseball game we went to Ocean Beach and then to Sunset Cliffs. While we were in San Diego it was pretty cold, apparently it's called "June Gloom," it was overcast and the high was maybe 68. So we didn't really play in the ocean because it was freezing, but we had a good time building sand castles and just hanging out.

After our week in Escondido we went to Anaheim for a couple of days. I'm sure you can guess what we did there. The first night we were there we went to Medieval Times. Riley absolutely loved it. When you get to Medieval Times, everyone gets a crown with a specific color on it. You cheer for whatever knight matches your crown and you sit in that Knight's section. We got to cheer for the blue knight. While you're there they feed you soup, a roasted chicken, a rib, bread, potatoes, and for dessert an apple turnover. The whole time you're eating you watch the knights compete in different tournaments. Our knight was pretty good but in the end when they did the jousting he lost. It was a lot of fun to watch, Riley especially loved the horses.

The next day we spent all day at DISNEYLAND and California Adventure!! This was Riley's first time at Disneyland and my first time since I was 18 months old. We had a blast, we were having so much fun that we just kept right on going for 13 hours!! I can't believe Riley lasted that long, Cody and I were wasted. Riley had some pretty cool things happen to him. When we went on the Monster's Inc. ride, at the very end, the Monster Roz is standing there talking as everyone's leaving. It's not someone in a costume but someone is obviously watching from somewhere and can make her mouth move and they speak for her. She said as we were leaving, "Young man in the front row, what big ears you have." (Riley was wearing his Mickey Mouse ears.) Then she said, "Are those your real ears?" Riley was dumbfounded he just stared at her and didn't know what to say, he just shook his head. After the Monster's Inc. ride I went to save us seats for the electrical parade. While I did that, Cody and Riley went to the Talking with Crush interactive video. Crush was on a movie screen but he could move around and talk personally with the audience, asking and answering questions. At the beginning Crush moved over towards Riley and talked to him. He asked him his name, when Riley told him Crush said, "Rocking Riley." Then he asked him where he was from, Riley said Utah but it sound like Utalk and Crush said, "Yeah, I talk." Then he asked Riley who he was with and Riley looked at Cody and Cody said, "Who am I?" Riley looked at Crush and said, "Who am I?" Of course everyone laughed, then Riley finally said that he was with his Dad. Crush asked him if he could talk with his Dad and he said yes. Crush asked Cody's name and then he called him, "Cowabunga Cody." Crush asked him how many kids he had and Cody said one, Crush said, "You're just starting, I have 65." Cody and Riley had a great time talking with Crush, I'm sorry I missed it. :(

After Disneyland we went and visited my sister Robyn and her family in Hemet. We spent a few days there just hanging out at the pool and playing SingStar and RockBand.

Left to Right: Christian, Ben, Robyn, and Matt

We traveled home and spent one night at home and then we were off to Idaho. We spent a few days in Idaho. While we were there we went boating, and to the zoo and had a nice time relaxing. I spent most of my time reading the Twilight series. I just couldn't put it down.

While we were at the zoo I found out that my sister Hope had her baby boy, Nathan. So on our way home from Idaho we stopped at the hospital to see the baby.

We then came home for a few days to finish out work and then we went to Farmington to visit my parents, my Grandparents, my Aunt Polly, my Uncle Steve and Aunt Linda, and my sister Michelle.

(Left to Right: My Mom (Sheila), Uncle Steve, Aunt Polly, Front Row: Grandma and Granddad)

It was a nice little family reunion. Now we're finally back home for a few weeks before Cody goes back to work! It's amazing how fast the summer can fly by!