shoes and toes. and benefits. and camping. and school.

yesterday started out boring and lazy like usual.

i went and bought THESE beauties, while simultaneously having an intense conversation with my sister.

and then i got my haircut. which we already talked about. 

Devin loves it, by the way. Like I knew he would.

Then, I went to honey baked ham and picked up some ham for us to use in dinner... some time soon.

I got home and did some cleaning, and waited for Devin.

When he got home, he looked on the school website to sign up for a second class, because the loan won't go through unless he's taking at least 6 credits, which makes sense, but it's a little annoying.

After he worked it out, we headed up to Cabela's to get some last-minute camping things for our trip this weekend. We ended up buying a canopy tent! It's HUGE. 15' by 15'. I can't believe we just bought a screen tent? It's really cool. It's an investment, and we'll have it for years and years, I just think it's funny that we've bought so much camping gear! 

After Cabela's where we also got tent stakes (the aluminum ones that come with tents are pointless. They bend way to easily!), actual roasting sticks, flies (for fishing), and a few other things, we headed up to Salt Lake.

Our good friends, TJ and Liz (TJ's a seminary teacher, and they just had a baby, Hudson!) were having a big family event. TJ is in a huge family, and one of his older brothers, Brian has MS (one of the youngest to be diagnosed in Utah). The family put together a huge benefit bash to raise money so Brian could afford the new Bioness Device, and build up an M.S. fund so he can... live his life! 

I am SO glad we decided to go. It was AMAZING! Brian's story is incredible, and there were probably over 500 people there!

It was in another sibling's backyard, and it was like a carnival! There was a dunk tank, and all kinds of treats and food. Baked goods, cotton candy (my only regret was not getting any!) and.... FICTIONIST PLAYED!

TJ's brother is a guitarist/back-up vocals for the band, and they're so talented! I've said it before, and I'll say it forever: Fictionist is going to be big. They were in the competition to be on the cover of the rolling stone, and they have an EP coming out later this year, and a full album coming out next year. 

I was hugely impressed with all of the support everyone showed for Brian, and the whole Connolly family. I feel proud to be included in things for such great causes. It was so worth it to hear the band (which played both mine and devin's favorite songs by them, plus some awesome new stuff), and see TJ and Liz and finally meet Hudson.

When it was over, we were walking back to our car, which was a good distance from the party, because there were so many people there... and it started raining! Hard and fast and the raindrops were huge so we took of running. We thought we passed the car more than once because we were going so far, but we finally saw it and were pretty wet for the drive home. It was great. I'm a little sick of the rain though... hmph.

It was a good day. I'm glad we got so much done. Now, I'm just more anxious then ever to get out camping this weekend!

Other things:

My friend Baylee is doing eyelash extensions for only $30 (full set!) for a limited time. If you're interested, let me know! I will get you more information.

I took off my glitter toes. It hurt. Bad. And my nails are shredded. It's awful. But I painted them, and you can't really tell... hopefully.






Oh. And one more thing: i kind of love cross-processing...

again

so I cut my hair not too long ago. Loved it. but it wasn't... different enough. so a couple days ago... I cut bangs.











I loved my bangs! I had grown them out for over a year and they were as long as my hair, but it's just been hard getting used to having hair in my face again.


Anyway, for one reason or another, I decided to cut my hair even shorter. Maybe it's because I wanted something even more different. Maybe it had something to do with the influence my husband has on me. Anyway... it's SO short! I haven't gone this short... ever? At least it's been several years. I love it!

a thank you note

Today begins the first of many long, lonely Monday nights.

Since we took our time making the decision of where Devin should go to school, and ultimately, what he will be when he grows up (haha), he registered for classes at UVU pretty late.

The only class he's taking this semester is American Civilizations.

Every Monday night.

For 3. whole. hours.

It's going to be a long semester, but I'm excited for him to continue getting these classes out of the way so he can focus on what he's actually going to school for. Devin is going to excel in more ways than I ever could, and I am so excited to support him as he gets into the Rec. Management program.

Part of me is actual jealous, and wishing I was there at school with him. It's been awhile since I've taken classes, and I'm strangely missing it! I don't necessarily want to take pointless generals at UVU, but rather, finally get started on Dental Assisting. We're shooting for January. Hopefully I will be able to enroll then, but it's going to start depending a lot of different things.

Regardless, the point is, I am proud of my husband. He works harder than any man I know, and he does it all for us. He is my biggest supporter, and I know I can always count on him, without a doubt. 

Today has been a lot of reflecting on our relationship, and I'm not sure why, but I can't believe how far we've come. It's coming up on a year now since our first date, and it's so interesting to look at where we were at that point, and where we are today. 

I was shy and totally head over heals for him, way earlier than what would be considered sane. I was more giddy than any little school girl, and I had no idea what the next day would hold, besides knowing he'd be there. 

There was never a point in our relationship where I questioned it's length or importance to Devin. It was an unwritten, but firm statement he somehow got across to me that he meant business. He wasn't fooling around one bit when he went out of his way to contact me. And he certainly meant it that first time he admitted he loved me, and he made it obvious that this was something bigger than anything before.

To this day I don't question any of it, and none of that has changed. He tells me he loves me multiple times a day with the same surety he always has. He doesn't make doubt an option (not that I would), and I love him for that.

For that, and for many, countless other things. It's been a hard 2 months without having a job. My mind wanders way too much when it doesn't have anything better to focus on. I was feeling very discouraged, not only about not finding a job, but feeling like I wasn't contributing to our marriage and family as much as Devin was. 

But leave it to Devin to assure me that the small things I did mattered just as much. He doesn't leave room for sadness in our marriage. He makes every second a happy one, and it means so much to me to have his positive attitude influence mine. 

Every action he takes just reinforces my knowledge of knowing I married the exact right person for me. 

Nobody else could do for me what Devin does. 

Nobody else can understand me as completely as he can. 

I don't thank him enough. He's quite literally the better half of me, and hands down, the very best friend I'll ever have. 

And I couldn't be more thrilled about it.

"I never understood before. I never knew what love was for. My hear was broke, my head was sore, what a feeling. Tied up in ancient history, I didn't believe in destiny. I look up, you're standing next to me, what a feeling..."

maybe i'm running this well a little dry...

but you know what?

i'm not going to apologize for not being over these. best day of my life.

so what if i still look at them every day, and play around with editing?

3 months (as of friday) and I'm still not over my wedding day :)

kuddos to Julia Hess for reminding me how much I love these pictures :) (thanks for your sweet comments!)

catastrophe #2

it took me forever to fall asleep last night.

i've been so, so hot at night lately, and it makes me too uncomfortable to fall asleep

not to mention the thunder and lightning keeping me awake...

at 1:30 a.m., I woke up to Devin telling me the ceiling was leaking.

needless to say, he was pretty ticked.

Water was dripping right onto his face!

I got up and turned my lamp on in a bit of a frenzy and we noticed it was coming from the heat register.

I started to panic a little and went and checked all the other vents in the house.

The new computer Devin just built was sitting right under the vent in the office.

Luckily, the only other vent leaking was the one in the bathroom, and it was dripping right into the sink.

We put a towel under the leak, and it soaked through really fast,

so we got a huge bucket/bowl and went upstairs to see what was going on.

Grandma and Grandpa were out of town.

It's freaking 1:30 in the morning.

We go up to the sewing room, which is directly above our room, and noticed spots on the floor were wet,

and the walls were leaking.. THE WALLS.

water was coming in from under the window sills all along the back side of the house

which is flush with the construction site.

this week, they've been framing the main level part of the addition, and have put one of the tresses up.

they've also taken the siding off the part of the house, so the plywood is exposed.

plywood doesn't hold back water.

and it doesn't help that the rain gutters were taken off, too.

so the water was leaking in through the seams between the different pieces of plywood,

and it was seeping into the floor as well.

we had no idea what to do!

i tried calling the grandparents, but their phone was turned off,

but i'm no fool.

i know that when in doubt, i need to call me dad!

dad said to call the builders and have them come out. because it's techincally their mistake, not taking the right measures to prevent the rain damage.

(the drywall was getting ruined!!!)

and might as well save them for paying for any more damage, right?

devin texted his brother-in-law, Jason, who works for the company that's buildling.

it wasn't until we went back downstairs to check on our own house, after stuffing towels in every leaking crevasse upstairs, and tried to go outside through our own door, but were prevented by the 2+ inches of water gathering outside, that we finally just called him.

maybe this doesn't show very well, but this is right outside our front door (which is a basement entrance) about 2 inches of water! and that drain? wasn't draining. obviously.

jason said to find a push broom and a tarp.

so we did.

we used the broom to sweep as much water as we could off the plywood floor of the addition (which was a  lot)

and finally just found some nails and nailed the tarp to the house to catch the water and run it in a different direction.

we were out on the addition, (which is totally exposed), in the rain, getting wet, trying not to laugh because we're so mad, trying to be quiet, because we don't want to wake the neighbors... oh man.

this is the addition right now. the arrow is pointing to the dark green tarp we nailed up to the house to catch the water. 2a.m. is not the ideal time to do this! 

the leaking stopped.

by there is ruined drywall on parts of the house, and the vent above our bed that dripped right on devin's face (he later told me he thought the roof was caving in!)

we were back in our room by maybe 3:00a.m. and wide awake.

we watched the office to fall asleep.

i think grandma would call this "catastrophe number 2"... (#1 being the incident with the window and the pipe)

i couldn't help but laugh at the irony of that situation.

thank goodness it was a saturday that this happened, so we could catch up on the missed sleep.

thank goodness it wasn't raining any harder.

thank goodness that leak hit devin right in the face, or else we never would've known.

thank goodness my husband has so much sense or else we would've been totally lost!

he told me that this is the kind of stuff that homeowners get to deal with

...i think i can wait on the whole getting a house thing....

hahahaha

summer reads

so maybe this list is started around march, but i'm still counting it all. everything i've read recently. i've really loved all of these books, and have had a lot of friends wondering what they should read next, since everyone's done with the hunger games (haha) so... here are my suggestions/most recent reads.

didn't see that one coming, did you?! I read this for maybe the millionth time around March. I try to read it a couple times every year, but not too close to each other. I feel like it's unfair to the other books when all I really want to read is this. It's just that good!

I've talked about this one before. It's literally life-changing. It's such an amazing story. And it's true! I first read this in my high school literature class. I loved my teacher, and I think that made me love this book even more. You'll find it in the "grieving" section at Barnes and Noble... haha

Excited for this movie to come out. I read this book only because the cover stuck out to me when I was at B&N looking for something new. It's a little like a modern-day Catcher in the Rye to me. It's written entirely of letters from a boy to some anonymous friend, and it's fascinating. 

I only made it about half way through this book before I got too bored. I know the story, and it's hard to read more than once. The original book is just so much better than the disney movie, though. It's one of my favorites. 

I wrote a lot about this one, too. This book was also formatted like letters, only instead of just from one person to someone else, they are from a bunch of different people to each other, and I was so surprised at how well that method told a story, and so beautifully. This is one of my new favorite books. Unfortunately, I got it at the library, so I don't own my own copy. Some day soon, though!

I'm about halfway through The Help and completely incapacitated. It takes up way more time in my life than it should. I spend forever reading it, and I take my time, though, because I want to really read it. I don't want to see the movie until I'm finished, but it's amazing! It's also kind of neat to be reading this book when I'm about to start nannying. A nanny and help are kind of the same thing, right? Hopefully I won't be given my own garage bathroom though... This book is seriously amazing. I'm so impressed that it's Kathryn Stockett's first novel. She's made such a name for herself. It makes me so anxious and curious as to what her next book will be about. I certainly can't wait to read whatever it is!!! I struggled for the first couple chapters getting used to the ebonics, but now I struggle to talk normally after I've been reading for 2 hours!!! 

this is next on my list. I've had my eye on Emily Giffin for a good while now, but wasn't convinced to read the books until... (please sense my shame) I noticed that John Karsinski was playing a part in the movie... I know, I know. But I'm excited to start. I've heard lots of good things about her books, and I even happened upon another Giffin book in the clearance section of B&N last week. Just my luck! They're both sitting on the bookshelf waiting patiently for me to finish The Help. 

I don't know what will come next though! So... I want YOUR suggestions! So far, I think I'm going to revert back to The Hunger Games. The first movie should be out in awhile, and I think I need to brush up on it, so I'll remember what it's about. And by the time i've re-read that series, I'll probably have a hankering for more To Kill A Mockingbird. 

Suggestions appreciated, nonetheless.

In other news: Devin has been a busy photographer lately! We were up Cottonwood Canyon earlier this week shooting engagements for a cute couple. I piped up a bit more, with Devin's permission, and the results were some pretty awesome new ideas that I think he'll use more often in the future! He's doing more engagements today. I think we're heading to Payson, and I'm so excited to see what he will do there. He gets better and better every time that shutter opens and closes. I am endlessly impressed with his photographic skills. He's amazing.

Yesterday was spent, yet again, at the pool. And I have the wrinkled book pages and peeling shoulders to prove it. Note to self: maybe I shouldn't read while in a wet swimsuit... oops :) then again, I think that if the book looks like it did when you started once you're finished... you didn't really read it. So maybe it's not such a bad thing. 

Last night, we headed to Josh and Amy's new place (it's adorable and i'm jealous of the kitchen!). Owen and his wife Sydney were there and we played Cranium. The only Cranium I've played is the version my parents have, which must be the first, because this one was way more updated. It even had more activities! It was awesome. So hilarious, too! Devin and I had a HUGE lead the majority of the game, and then Owen and Syd came out from behind and took the win! It was such a good night! I took over some chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies, and everyone loved them. That always makes me feel good, knowing I can please a crowd with my newly acquired baking skills :)

Today has been spent sleeping in, and then on the couch reading while Devin finished BUILDLING a COMPUTER. Yeah. My husband is a genius. He got a parts list from his brother, and bought everything... those packages were pretty entertaining. Everything he pulled out of those packing peanuts was followed by me asking, "what is THAT?". And no, I didn't learn a thing. Ah! False: I now know what a "motherboard" looks like, but I'm still not quite sure what it does... But there he is, in the office right now, on his computer. That he built. From scratch. I'm amazed. I wouldn't have the SLIGHTEST idea where to even start!!! 

He really is the best. Just a minute ago, he came out of the office and walked up to me (sitting on the couch) and gave me a kiss. I said, "whatcha doin?" and he said "just comin' to say hi"... I thought he was justing stopping in passing on his way to grab something... nope. He was literally just coming to give me a kiss, and then went back into the office.

What did I tell you? He just DOES THAT. It's amazing. I love it. and I love him.

Also: getting anxious for labor day weekend. We're going up in the Uintah's with a big group of friends to camp and hike and fish. SO excited! I've never been up there before. And I can't wait to fish again. Also... so many great people coming with us. 

i'm ready

i'm ready for skiing

i'm ready for hot chocolate (to be acceptable... i'm drinking some right now. it's august.) and cider

i'm ready to buy a christmas tree and decorate our house for christmas (first married christmas! it's practically all i can think about!)

i'm ready to buy devin's christmas presents (i may or may not have already started...)

i'm ready for boots and pea coats

i'm ready to scrape the snow off the car

i'm ready to slip in the driveway more than once

i'm ready to look out the window and see it snowing

i'm ready for WINTER

*

and that's weird.

i hate winter.

always have.

i think devin changed me.

we met in the fall, and we dated through winter.

so maybe i associate winter with devin now, and that's why i like it?

i'll accept that answer. especially because it's making me feel better about all the cold coming this way.

i really am ready though.

nanny

on Sunday, Devin and I drove up to the airport to meet Chris and Katie. 

they were headed on vacation and we took their car back to our house so they didn't have to pay for parking.

we got home and went back to sleep until we went to church. (it was too early for a sunday morning!)

nursery was insane! all of the kids were a little cranky 

and fighting a lot. 

and crying a lot.

and nobody seemed to remember how the concept of sharing works.

but we survived, and they all left happy... happy enough, at least!

after church, i met my visiting teachers, who are so sweet! 

i love them already!

then we headed up to Sandy.

and I met the family I will be nannying for!

I love them all so much already. 

The 2 kids are absolutely adorable,

a 5 year old stud and a 2 year old doll.

I love the mom (plus, she's gorgeous!) and Devin gets along with the Dad so great.

They have a ton of the same hobbies.

I feel like we're already great friends!

Devin and I both felt so comfortable with them and we know this will be a good thing!

I will be starting with them right after labor day

and I couldn't be more anxious!

I used to spend my time on pinterest looking at recipes and outfits.

Now I'm looking at kid-friendly crafts and activities!

I can't wait to be a nanny.

I am beyond excited for this job.

Not only is it a huge blessing 

to finally have a job again

but it has been a job i've wanted since my early teenage years.

I couldn't be more happy to work with this family.

They are amazing and I will love every minute of this new adventure!

muddie buddies

good news everyone. 

i have perfected the goodness that is muddie buddies. 

i'm not one to stray from the original, especially when the original is so amazing (although, my sister-in-law, chloe has come up with her own version of muddie buddies, and it's AMAAAAZING).

so i've stayed pretty true to the chex mix box, but i've finally found the ideal combination that works for this little Ashby family.

the chocolate/peanut butter mix-to-chex cereal ratio? we like it about 1.5:1

the chocolate/peanut butter covered chex cereal-to-powered sugar ratio? about 1:1

so the recipe is this: 

i set aside 7 cups of rice chex (the box says 9 i think. i've always only done 6.)

i make 1 1/2 of the chocolate/p.b. mix. which means, i make the mixture, and then i make it again, but half the recipe. 
melt it in the microwave for 1 minute. it's plenty. 
I only add about 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

then i drown the chex in peanut butter, chocolatey goodness.

then i put it in a big zip-loc bag (the kind with the zip on it, not just the pinch-close kind. because sometimes you don't pinch it all the way and you spill everywhere... it's happened... more than once)

and i add 2 cups of powdered sugar.

and i usually let devin shake it.

because he sometimes likes too.

then, i pour 2 big glasses of milk.

one of skim, one of whole. (we have to buy 2 half gallons of milk, because neither of us like meeting in the middle. i like my watered down milk. dev likes his creamy, thick milk.)

then we eat. immediately.

because muddie buddies are very best when they're warm.

but when we're done eating, we put a lid on it. fast. because they have to stay fresh.

this recipe usually makes for a lot of clumps and clusters, which are our very most favorite part.

it's about time i perfected this recipe. it's been a staple food in this house since day one.

in fact, we had some muddie buddies at sean and chloe's on one of our first dates, which was quite a coincidence, since i've loved them forever!

oh. plus also? the hawaiian bbq pulled pork was amazing! that sauce i use made it a lliiiiittle bit spicy, but it was still really good. i made some rice pilaf to go with it. i love rice pilaf. i'm just not good at grouping foods together to make a well-rounded meal, i guess. but it was still delicious!

monday productivity

i saw a recipe on pinterest for a 3-ingrediant hawaiian bbq chicken.

um... 3 ingrediants? please and thank you.

i love making dinner for devin. i love being able to let him come home to a clean house, happy wife, and big dinner. it means a lot to me, because it's my responsibility as the wife to maintain a household. and he deserves it all with how hard he works each day.

i didn't have chicken, i had a center cut pork loin with a maple rub. the same kind of pork i used for my first crock pot success a couple of weeks ago.

other things today:

i bought a new skirt. i've been rebuilding my collection of sunday clothes. i had to give a bunch to kayla because they were too short, so it's been a process. i'm excited about the one i got though. along with a cute lacey blouse that i couldn't say no to.

then i headed to the post office to mail the cd of photos to jenna, the senior from Texas that devin took pictures for! i hate the post office. it was a nightmare! the line was SO long. TONS of whiney kids. and only ONE person working. the lady behind me in line was CHOMPING on her gum. like a cow. it was AWFUL. and everyone knows that listening to people eat is my biggest pet peeve. i was 2 snaps and a pop away from asking her to spit it out and grow up! she's a grown woman! she also kept making really rude comments about the other people there, expecting me to agree. it was horrible.

i finally got it mailed and headed to Target for grocery shopping. the first person i see when i walk in the door? the gum chewer!!!

hahah oh irony.

luckily i didn't run into her again.

grocery shopping success. dinner in the crock pot. had a hot dog for lunch with some spicy nacho doritos (which i love, by the way. which is weird because i hate spicy food...)

it's been a good day.

i hope to spend the rest of the afternoon reading The Help. I bet i'll finish it this week, it's SO good! 

saturday

Saturday was amazing! One of Devin's converts, who has since become a great friend of his, Alyse, was MARRIED!!! Alyse is an AMAZING woman. I am so glad that she and I are friends, and I can't even BEGIN to say how happy I am for her and Brandon! They are a perfect couple. I am so glad they let us share this day with them! It was beautiful.

They were getting married in the Bountiful temple, so on the drive up, we got some mcdonald's. Nothing worse then a growling stomach in the temple! The lady in the drive-thru handed Devin a drink and said "here's the regular" ...what? he said, "...what's that supposed to mean?" she meant Coke. It was just funny because both of us were so confused. Who calls coke "regular"? Weird.

We kept driving, and Devin gets a call from Chris and Katie. Chris was Devin's mission companion when they taught Alyse the lessons, and Katie, Chris' wife, is Alyse's best friend, who they also taught, and Chris and Katie got married! (so cute. i think i've told that story before...) Chris asked Devin what temple we were going to... Bountiful. Apparently Chris and Katie thought it was the Logan temple and were there -- at least an hour and a half away! I felt so bad for them!

We got to the temple and met with Diana Fontaine, who is another NH mission friend of Devin's, and went to the sealing. It was beautiful! It was the first sealing I had been to since my own, besides doing them as temple work. I was so happy to be a part of it and being there reminded me of my wedding day. It is such a great feeling.

Afterwords, we ran into Chris and Katie on our way from the sealing, they had barely missed it! We all waited in the foyer for Alyse and Brandon to come out, and when they did, they looked so happy! Alyse is gorgeous and I wish I would have had my camera on me to take pictures but I didn't want to take it into the temple.

We walked around the grounds to take some group pictures, and I couldn't help but notice some particularly obnoxious photographers. Wedding days are crazy, but that doesn't mean the photographer has to be! I guess I just notice things like that since I met Devin. I think i'm much more observant of photographers and the way they photograph and direct people. Alyse and Brandon had a pretty cool guy though!

We made sure to get  a picture of the two of us at the temple before we left. It is so beautiful! It looks like Timpanogos and Draper kind of. SO pretty.

I am also glad we took a picture, because i especially loved  my outfit that day. and I love any excuse to see my husband dressed up! He always looks good :)

So the reception was going to be in Brigham City at 5:00, and we had a couple of hours until then. We wanted to stay up north to avoid lots of driving, so we went to Salt Lake and wandered around The Gateway. We went into the Mac store. We both really want iPhones. And Devin was looking as some mac accessories to get for the computer he's building.

Then we went to Z Gallerie. Which is my new favorite store. It's like pier 1 imports and tai pan trading, but prettier! haha We found a lot of dishes and decorations we wanted, but didn't get anything.

Then, we headed to a store called Trifecta. Our friend Brittany works there, and they sell the Middle Kingdom vases that we love so much. It's such a cute shop. And we ended up buying another vase! We're a little obsessed... haha

After that, it was time to head up to Brigham City. We drove past the new temple there that's being built, and I tried to get a picture as Devin was driving but it didn't work so well:

It is small, but so so beautiful! It has 2 steeples, which we thought was interesting.

We got to the reception pretty early, but chris and katie were already there, and now they had their sweet baby, Ellie Rose with them! we hadn't met her yet (she was born right around the time we got married)

As people were running around trying to set up last-minute details we all just hung out and talked with Alyse and Brandon and took pictures of how awesome the reception looked! They had an Alice in Wonderland theme, so it was all purple, red and playing cards. I loved it! One of the perks of hiring a decorator, I guess!

The beautiful bride and I with Ellie! She's the cutest little baby! Her smile is adorable.

Reception. The lighting was dim, and it looked SO good, but the pictures made it look weird, because I had to use flash.

Candy table! There were these delicious white gummy bears and marshmallow taffy.... SO good!!

wedding cake: AWESOME!

My favorite part of the whole reception: they had COTTON CANDY! It was grape flavored and it was amazing. Cotton candy is my favorite! I have been wanting cotton candy all summer but hadn't gotten any, so I let myself have two, hahaha

cutting the cake! this was right before we left. it was getting late, and we were hungry and still had the drive home! 

We stopped at the Gateway again on our way home and had dinner at Tucanos (since I had a free birthday meal). It was so good! I wish I would have been hungrier. It wasn't as good as I remembered, but maybe that's because I wasn't as hungry as I was last time I was there. Still delicious though. I loved my passionfruit brazilian limeade and Devin's guarana! Eating so much meat makes me feel like a seriously crazy carnivore though! It was all so good.

On our drive home we talked a lot about finances and the future. I enjoy talking about our plans and our future. I enjoy where we're headed. It's somewhere good. I love that we're on the same page about everything. Where we want to be, what we want to be doing... it's a good feeling. I love that we've been smart in our decisions as a couple. As a family. 

It was a long day but so much fun!

Congratulations again to Alyse and Brandon Wood! I love you guys! 

construction zone and little ones

this is what my backyard looks like right now. on the far right of the bottom 2 pictures, you can see the cement wall that goes along the stairs down to my house. that wall is being extended, and will be the new view out of our living room windows! yay!!! i'm trying to be positive. for example: it will feel like we're living in some crowded city with but 3 feet between buildings. and there won't be a wicked glare on our TV anymore, which will be nice.

the addition is coming along quicker than i thought, but there's still a lot of work to do.

the whole point is adding on to the back of the house, the bottom level of the new part will be a work room/storage room and the top will just be an extension of my grandparents' great room, so the whole family will fit in there (we've been having family parties in the garage...)

i'm excited to see what it will look like when it's done. it will be interesting.

as for the rest of this week: it's been spent with lots of little ones:

here's some glimpses of wednesday:

finger lickin' apple dippers from mcdonald's

picking movie after movie after movie...

writing letters to Devin (they love him. a lot. and were very upset to find him not at home when they came over)

thursday:

sophia ruth

ben rockin' a pink headband

claire struggles with clothes sometimes, haha

ben!

and THEN the kids made the discovery of photobooth. and the result was hilarious. almost all the kids joined in. Claire, and her friend Sage, mostly. And then Claire's brother Lincoln, and his friend Jonah, and Sophie too: (there are so many, but they're all so funny!)

oh man. those are some cute kids.

friday: after football practice, and matilda, i took the kids to their house (from mine) and we had pizza and watched soul surfer (which was surprisingly really, really good.) devin was pretty tired so he stayed home, but had to run to the store for a wedding present. (he also surprised me buy picking up a cupcake corer (yeah, it's as cool as it sounds) and some ramekins! isn't he the very best? he is.

(love the girls in this picture. so funny! claire loves to be gangster)

I love these kids! It was a crazy week, but so fun!