The end of the world (once again)

In honor of the end of the world being tomorrow, December 21, 2012, I thought I'd post a little update.

Remember this post from the last time the world was going to end? Amazingly, it didn't. May 21, 2011 came and went and we're all still here. It's been a good 1 year 7 month extension, hasn't it?

So today I plan on drinking gallons of egg nog, watching movies, and staying in my pajamas all day. And eating only Oreos. Because Oreos make everything better, right? Right?

Ben's Fashion Sense

Ben has never been into fashion. Take these two recent examples.

EXHIBIT A

Athena: Ben, we need to get you new sweaters.
Ben: Why? All my sweaters are fine.

Athena (trying to be tactful): Well... a lot of your sweaters are worn or out of style.

Ben: No they're not.

Athena pulls out the sweaters and lays them on the bed. She points to one.

Athena: When did you get this one?  
Ben: In high school.
Athena: And this one?
Ben: In high school.
Athena: And this one?
Ben: Well that was Daniel's, then Sammy's, and then I got it. I was probably in high school.

EXHIBIT B

Ben, driving, sees a man dressed very trendy aka metro walking across the road.

Ben: That guy looks ridiculous! Does he know how ridiculous he looks?!
Athena: No, I'm sure he thinks he looks really cool.

Ben pauses, pondering.
 
Ben: I guess we all look ridiculous sometimes.

Athena sighs, relieved Ben has seen a more reasonable viewpoint.
Ben continues to ponder...

Ben: But when I look ridiculous it doesn't take me any time or effort at all. I just put on whatever and go. That guy has to plan to look that way. I'm sure it takes me half the time that it takes that guy to look ridiculous. 

Now you know why I never tire of this play we call life. The same way Ben never tires of his high school sweaters.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving this year was short-lived but sweet. Short-lived because Ben had to work 10 hours on Wednesday and Friday, but sweet because of the family we got to be with. We ate with my family on Wednesday night then spent Thursday with the Petersen's. 

If you've never seen the way my mom decorates for Thanksgiving, it should go on your bucket list. It's always phenomenal. Behold:

The kids table

The dessert table

The appetizer table

The drink table

The adult table

Each place setting had its own turkey name-tag, charger and fabric napkin

The older kids table- she decorated all the way up to the chandelier

My wonderful parents with Nayeli. Isn't she just the cutest?

Thursday was also wonderful. We left early to drive to Ben's mom's house, spent the day eating, playing ping-pong and Settlers of Catan, then drove to Ogden to be with his Dad and grandparent's. It was an exhausting and wonderful day. The holidays always are, but they're always worth it.

Happy Halloween!

Today was Nayeli's first Halloween. She was so cute dressed up as a strawberry. We went to our ward party earlier in the evening then came home to be together. Side note: Ben won the Chili Cook-off in our ward! When I groaned to him yesterday that I had to make a pot of chili for the ward party, he was more than willing to make his famous Taco Soup. And then he won. I'm so proud.

In other news, Nayeli recently turned seven months and is getting so big. Being her mom is wonderful. If I had to use one word to describe her it would be intense. What I mean is, she loves to be part of the action. It always seems like her mind is going 100 mph and she wants to discover everything. We love it.

A few days ago the weather was beautiful, so she and I went outside to take some pictures of her in her costume. Most of the pictures involved her eating the leaves, but I got some cute ones nonetheless.

 Hope you had a happy Halloween!

Family Pictures!!!

Last night we did something I've been wanting to do for awhile. We got professional family pictures taken with Nayeli. We'd gotten plenty of amateur ones but something inside of me really wanted to go to a studio and get nice pictures. And I'm really glad we did.

I had a friend recommend Camera Shy to me. It's a studio in Lehi that give you 45 minutes with a photographer and then a CD of all your images. We had a really great experience there and would highly recommend it.

Well all of us except Nayeli. She was having a rough night. 

But luckily she wasn't sad the whole night and we got some good ones (sorry in advance for the picture overload. It's more for my mom and sisters than anybody else).

 

 

Initially I put a pearl necklace on her but all she wanted to do was suck on it.

This is what happened when I took the necklace away.

But she's so cute; it's so easy to make her happy again.

 Until I put a hat on her. Then I was subject to her wrath once more.

 But once again, she's easy to cheer up.

I love these pictures. In fact, it's almost 1am and Ben and Nayeli are already asleep. I haven't gone to bed because I can't stop looking at these pictures over and over and smiling. How did I ever get so lucky?  I can't believe I have such a wonderful family. Really, Heavenly Father outdid himself when he gave me Ben and Nayeli.

Facebook vs. Blogging

As of late, I've had a personal dilemma.

Until my last post I hadn't updated our blog for 6 weeks. Why? Well I've been having an internal debate lately about whether to put photos and updates of our family on Facebook or on Blogger. I know, I know, this really isn't a serious problem (a first-world problem, as my brother-in-law Darren would say). However I don't have the patience to do both and I feel like I'm not pleasing everyone (including myself) if I only do one.

Obviously I enjoy the space I have to write on Blogger.  However the picture upload on Facebook is much faster.  Also, my family tends to check the blog more while most of my friends keep updated on my life through Facebook.

Any opinions from you fellow Facebook / Blogger users?

Brigham City Temple and Willard Bay

A few weeks ago (okay, maybe more like months ago) my sister Julia invited us all up to her house in Perry, Utah for the Brigham City Temple Open House. We drove up on a Saturday and got to spend time with my parents, Julia and her family, Laura and her family, and my brother Mark even came down from Idaho.

Of course the temple was spectacular and beautiful. Because Nayeli doesn't take a bottle, it was the first time I'd been in a temple since she was born. I love the feeling inside of the temple. There's nothing that compares to it.

All the grandkids that were there

Showing Nayeli the fountain

She wasn't sure what to think about it

With my sweet niece Makayla

Our family

Our whole group together

After the temple open house, we went to Willard Bay, a small beach by Julia's house. It was so much fun- Julia and Terry had brought all kinds of water toys and even a jet ski. It was a blast.

One of my favorite pictures of Nayeli... ever. She was trying to be brave and not cry when I put her in the slightly cold water, and this is the face she made.

With my brother Mark and his wife Malinda

Nayeli with Aunt Laura

After Willard Bay, we went back and had a barbeque at Julia's house and then drove home that night. Thanks to Julia and Terry for hosting us. It was so much fun.Who knew you could have such a fun time spending a Saturday in Perry, Utah? :)

The Ugliest Gift

What you are seeing Ben proudly display is the gift my sister Laura got for him for his birthday. It's a flowerpot. A bona fide, hideous flowerpot. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either.

After the initial shock wore off, I told Ben I couldn't handle waking up every morning to a man who owned a flower pot like that. Luckily, his friend Lori was getting married the next week. We threw it in a bag with plenty of tissue paper, shoved it in the middle of all the gifts at the reception, and conveniently forgot to mark it with a card.

And the legend lives on.