a thursday

i did another pinterest thing. i made a QUIET JAR for C-train and Ari. 

See:

when they start getting a little too crazy and out of hand, they get the jar. and SHAKE IT so it looks like this: 

and then they wait and wait:

until it is all settled like this: (takes about 5 minutes).

and guess what? it works! it totally calms them down. awesome.

Yesterday was Thursday. Thursdays are Kyle's game days. So Devin and I headed over to the Bruin Bowl to watch MV vs. Timpanogos. 

Kyle is #85. In this picture he's 3rd from the right. The big one with the black socks. Because there's 2 #85's. So Kyle is "#85 with Black Socks" hahaha

I wasn't going to dare try get any pictures of him while on the field. My camera just doesn't have those capabilities. But he does awesome! I am so impressed with his determination at everything he does. He loves all sports, and plays them all, too! He is so good at everything he does. Including being my little brother.

Devin and I at the game. Of course, he couldn't just smile. 

so I wacked him and we tried again, but then I looked like the fool. So we just left it at that.

We only stayed at the game until half time, because we had to go to Ken Garff to pick up our second set of keys to the truck. After that, we drove out to Lehi to look at the Edge Homes being built out there. 

We've been looking at builders and floor plans for awhile now, even though we're a few years away from getting a house. But at this point, we've thought of our own home ideas that we love, and at this point are wondering if it would be worth it to just build our own house, so we can have all the customizing details that we love. 

We do know that if we choose to use a builder, it will be Edge. We love their style, and their floorplans, and they're affordable. All of this house-window-shopping is making me too anxious. But at the same time, if getting a house works out like getting a truck did, I might have a heart attack. 

5 things + a princess sequence

lace toes

our daily dora.

super girl

milo's still alive. don't worry.

 

homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza! It was SO yummy but SO spicy!


 princess aria: dressing herself.

teaching and learning

some things:

it's really hard to believe/trust little kids. they're great liars when they want to be.

it's awesome to have lots of friends get married after you, because you can give them the wedding presents you didn't want. like 1 of your 8 new muffin tins.

i actually enjoy my morning drive to work. sure, it's in rush hour traffic from orem to sandy, but it's really not that bad. my favorite part is the para-sailers on the point of the mountain. i get dangerously distracted by them,  but it makes me want to learn how! and i'm being totally serious. this is coming from the girl who's set on bungee jumping in the near to distant future.

the way the week looks:

nothing too exciting about this week. devin's not been feeling too hot, and he's had class and an unhealthy amount of homework. i've been doing my best to come up with new ideas for dinners, putting together crafty things for the munchkins, and cleaning. always cleaning.

we're really hoping that we can make it to the temple tomorrow. it's been far too long since we went. that's unacceptable! i have a feeling that maybe that's why we've been so off lately. we used to go together as often as we could, but life got so busy. i really shouldn't make excuses, because there are none. we'll go this week no matter what, how's that?!

thursday, kyle has a football game, and i'm anxious to go support him. again, hopefully we can go. so far our weekend is looking pretty open, and i'm happy about that. i think we need some time to just recuperate from how crazy everything's been lately.

munchkins have been especially difficult lately. i feel like i have a pretty high tolerance for kids being kids. i'm not going to get mad at them for being 5 and 2. that's just what they are. but when they stop being kids and start being pills, we've got to make some changes. nannying has been a HUGE learning experience in the short month that i've been here. I feel like I've learned more than I ever could have just babysitting or being a big sister or aunt. for 7 hours out of the day, i am 100% responsible for these kids. making sure they are fed and clean and happy and educated and entertained. it's a big job.

sometimes, when people ask me what i do for work, i want to tell them that i'm a part time mom. because that's virtually what it is. and even as a part time job, it's full time work! i sure love them though. i find myself missing them on the weekends or my days off, and i bring them up in conversations all the time. i love going home and telling devin about what carter accomplished or the funny things aria says. i'm positive they're teaching me more than i'm teaching them. it's all in a very good way though.

I know everything will be totally different with my own kids. They'll be different kids! But it's still been an eye-opening experience.

 

a date, a dinner, and a house.

driving home from work on friday took literally twice as long as usual. 

i have now experienced freeway game traffic.

when i finally got home, Devin and I went to Marley's for dinner. 

they have some of the best burgers!

and? they're mini. 

also? mini fries. 

it's awesome.

devin taught me how football works.

yeah, i didn't really understand until then.

mostly just the "1st and 10" stuff they always say.

but now i know. 

before, i never cared to know.

football games were a reason to socialize.

but i decided, 'you know what? i'm an American. i should know how to play football'

it was a good idea to learn.

plus, now it holds my attention like 25% longer.

so that's good.

after dinner, we went grocery shopping.

i teased us for making this our friday night activity.

we both enjoy it though.

until check-out, where we almost always agree that we spent too much money.

but we eat what we buy.

and we hardly ever buy junk food.

healthy food, like fresh produce, always costs a lot.

and we always stock up on fruits and veggies.

we never buy frozen food. 

except for this time, we bought frozen fruit for smoothies (trying them a different way now)

when we were done grocery shopping, it was only 8:00

so i asked devin if we could go on a date

one i had planned for a few weekends ago that we never did

so we put away all the groceries,

grabbed virtually every pillow and blanket we own

stopped at redbox

and headed up to south fork

now that we're truck owners,

it's a rite of passage to snuggle up in the bed of the truck and watch a movie

we had so much fun!

we piled all our pillows and blankets in the truck bed, and got really cozy.

it was the perfect amount of chilly outside

and watched Something Borrowed (because i just finished reading the book).

about 45 minutes in, we got shined on by an officer

who said as he walked up to us

"i've caught more people watching movies tonight than anything else"

and i immediately felt unoriginal.

and i wanted to blurt out to the officer that it's okay. we're married.

but i didn't see the point.

because he didn't care.

we asked if there was a curfew. which there was.

and which we were still over an hour away from.

it was mostly just kind of funny.

we watched some more

and got a little too cold and uncomfortable

and after failing to see a shooting star,

headed back home.

it was a blast! 

saturday was almost as cool.

spent the whole day doing some cleaning

but mostly just doing absolutely nothing

which i loved

devin was slightly more productive

but he is always like that.

for dinner, we headed up to Midway

and met with the rest of the Intermountain Softwater employees

at the Blue Boar Inn

for a company dinner.

the food was incredible!

we started out with a

"gift from the chef"

which was some fancy trout with fancy cream cheese sauce.

we only got one bite, but it was AMAZING. 

i wanted THAT for my dinner.

first course, devin and i got fondue for 2.

amazing cheese

with apples, ham, pearl onions,

sourdough bread, and salami

to dip.

delicious. 

i could've eaten it all night.

i had to ask the waiter to take it away

so i could save room for the other 2 courses.

second course: i got Blue Boar Salad

which was just mixed greens

(i love it when they include arugula. which they did)

some small seasonal tomatoes

and the best white vinaigrette ive ever tasted.

devin got Wild Boar White Bean Chili.

it was amazing! i had to have a bite.

Wild Boar is tasty! it's sort of like pork.

third course: I got Braised Pork Cheek Risotto

i had about 5 bites before i was stuffed.

i hadn't paced myself

and the risotto was SO rich.

it was amazing though! 

pork cheek is an interesting cut of meat.

dont know if i'll have it again.

it tastes like cheek. haha

Devin had a filet, i think.

with a potato cake.

and loved it, of course.

he's a steak guy.

for dessert: I got creme brulee

devin got a chocolate mousse cake

and we shared.

the creme brulee was the best i've ever had.

it wasn't grainy, like most.

the custard was super smooth.

and the sugar top wasn't burned!

the mousse cake was super rice

but so good.

i was so impressed with the food!

the Blue Boar Inn was so sophisticated

and awesome! 

wish we could [afford] to go there by ourselves!

when dinner was through, Robert, the boss

said some things about the company really moving in a good direction.

said they had survived what he thought was the worst of the economy

and things would start looking up

he said that big things could be happening soon

and it would mean good things for everyone.

Intermountain is such an awesome company.

they are primarily a family company

with a few exceptions, like Devin

and some of the other guys

but they are good people.

they know how business is done.

and they treat their employees well.

I am really impressed with how they handle things

and i'm excited to see what happens!

instead of driving home down the canyon, we decided to take the alpine loop

it was dark, obviously

but still beautiful!

the leaves are already bright red and orange up there!

plus also, we just HAD to get that truck on a dirt road! 

it handles SO well. 

we're definitely happy with that purchase.

hopefully we'll make it back up to cascade springs before they close for winter.

when we got home, we noticed that 

our favorite home builders just updated their website

which means to floorplans

so we spent a good amount of time looking at them all.

i want to build a house more than anything.

we even have a lot in mind.

we both just have such specific ideas of how we want out house to look.

but we're still a good couple years away from that.

but we've agreed on a kitchen.

big slate tiles.

white cabinets.

and the wall color will be this pretty shade of blue-ish seafoam (we have a plate that color... haha)

i just want a house.

week of crazy.

monday and tuesday were both school nights for devin.

which meant i spent monday with my mom hanging out at my parents' house

and tuesday night getting things done around the house

wednesday was ryan's birthday, and devin and i were invited to a surprise dinner at La Dulce Vita. it was awesome to see ryan and danica, and some other friends we hadn't seen since the rehearsal dinner. 

thursday was girl's night. 

so while devin locked himself away at home doing homework

i went to chili's (like always) with kylee, tracey, and shelly. where we all always order the same things, and talk about "that one time at the bachelorette party..." no really. we do that.

then we went to the mall to do some shopping. 

kylee has titled me her personal shopper, and i'm okay with that.

i did a pretty great job finding her some new tops.

then we did some boot shopping for ky and shell. success. on both accounts.

friday we finally don't have any plans

except for catching up on housework and grocery shopping

i hope tonight ends up being a drive up the alpine loop or a grey's marathon with brownies. either works.

tomorrow night is devin's work party. i haven't been to one before, so i'm anxious to see how this will go! he always has entertaining stories about his co-workers. 

next week is probably going to be just as busy! but hey, at least we're busy doing fun things. well, some of them.

Photos of the Little People

purse, keys, sunglasses... she's all set. pretty sure her cell is in her purse, too.

C-Man's got a massive army.

lost his tooth at school. literally.

blue eyes

she was weirdly insistent on taking this picture. she begged and begged. kids...

LOVE this little girl. love. look at that face! 

Put Ari in time out for hitting. Went to check on her, and she was sporting this little 'tude. Hands in pockets, ankles crossed, leaning against wall, perfect scowl. She's got it down.

When I tell her to make a funny face? She throws her head back. HI-larious.

five things

did you know there is a mike-n-ike's box called Red-Rageous? And it has all the pink and red flavors? The BEST flavors? Yeah. It's for real. I love Mike-n-Ike's.

what 4 miles in the Uintah's + summer heat at 10,000 feet + chacos looks like... ouch! (ever had blisters on the bottom of your foot? it's hard to walk!)

this little munchkin.

i am completely in love with this ring. and really, any jewelry from this site. LOOOOVE. i was very adamant in explaining to devin that this has a high priority ranking on my christmas list. as in, like... #2.

white chicken chili. homemade. i made this for dinner yesterday for devin and i. using our new pier 1 soup mugs (love.) and we both agreed that this is our new default, chilly-day, go-to meal. SO good. wish i would have bought the french bread to go with it! darn you, second thoughts! 

weekend plus recipes

on Friday, I had the day off. I used it to run all my errands and do some grocery shopping. I also watched lots of Grey's. I'm determined to be caught up in time for Season 8 (which is like... this next week). When Devin got home... i don't remember what we did. Maybe it will come to me some time soon. I'll let you know.

Saturday, D and I woke up and were both weirdly in the mood to clean. Like, deep clean. We re-organized a ton of different areas of our house, did some more decorating (if that's even possible) and got a LOT done. I don't think I've loved our house any more then I have on Saturday! It's amazing. I've also started lighting candles. I feel like candles are a fall/winter thing, so I never really lit them in the summer. But I LOVE candles. It's been pretty great.

In the afternoon, Brandon came over and brought us Ernie's for lunch! Ernie's is hands down my favorite place to get a sandwich. Love that place. I hope they stay in business forever. I would seriously use the fact that Ernie's is less than 5 minutes away as a "pro" on a pro/con list of ever moving out of Orem.

Devin and Brandon spent the ENTIRE afternoon geeking out on Devin's computer. It's officially a hackintosh. Which means... he built a mac computer on a PC basically. I think. It's incredibly fast and really really awesome. I'm so impressed that they built one!

I spent the afternoon picking up some ingredients for things I was making, making those things, and playing with Koda. Riley didn't come over on Saturday. He was too busy sitting in Devin's parent's backyard by the tree. That dog has a thing with that tree. You can never get him to leave it! It's really cute. Love those dogs!

After Brandon left, Devin and I cleaned up a little more, and decided to have a crowd over to watch the BYU game. Shawn, Christian, Sarah (and their little girls Joanna and Molly), Josh and Amy, and Alli came over. It was a blast! We had pizza and snacks and drinks and had a really good time despite the horrible loss.

*by the way: I SO do not care about football enough, apparently. EVERYONE's status updates were so obnoxiously annoying. Gah. I even called it beforehand, that if BYU won, everyone would talk it up, say that they never expected anything less, 'THAT'S my cougs!' blah blah blah, and if they lost... everyone would justify it. I was right.

Anyway... we had a great time! Stayed up SUPER later than usual with shawn and alli talking. Such a good time!

Sunday morning, after sleeping in, we woke up and I made smoothies, which has been our newest go-to breakfast. I think i've perfected the home-made smoothie!

Church today was the debut of my fall boots. I don't think it's quite cold enough to wear them yet, but I just couldn't help myself. Unfortunately, I failed to photograph their premier. Sacrament meeting was high councilmen... yay... and nursery was normal, except we had 7 kids, which is a lot compared to normal. A little overwhelming to say the least.

This afternoon, we had 2 family parties. One with Devin's family, to celebrate Amanda's birthday (wahoo!) And one with my Mom's side, to celebrate all the birthdays in September. I made a dessert for both! One was snickers salad, which I added my own ingredients to, and the other was an ice cream dessert, which Devin named Fudgey the Whale. Which is a reference to The Office. This shouldn't surprise you.

Exciting though: at the Houston party (my mom's side), we had quite the surprise! My aunt Melissa had put a Pigamy Goat on her birthday list... and got one!!! Crazy huh? Pigamy goats are just little guys. Well, girls, in this case. And they are sooo cute! I was surprised at how cute she was. She was ba-aa-ing a lot. It was pretty awesome. We were all anxious to see her eat a sock or a paper cup, but she never did. Oh well. Adorable though! Melissa has all sorts of pets, including a GIANT dog. I mean it. He is probably about 4 feet tall. He looks just like Clifford the Big Red Dog, minus the Red part. I wish I knew what kind. Or that I had a picture. He's HUMONGOUS! I can't even believe it.

It was an awesome weekend and the next few weeks are going to be just as busy!

Here are the recipes for my smoothies and desserts:

SMOOTHIES:

1 banana, cut into small pieces

4-5 large strawberries, cut into small-ish pieces

2 small handfuls of blueberries

1 tsp vanilla

3 tablespoons vanilla yogurt

1/3 cup Milk ( i love using Horizon Organic milk! it's SO good, but expensive.)

-blend. in a blender. i like the "liquefy" button. not a fan of chunks in my smoothies.

(i am pretty much guessing on those actual measurements, because I usually just eyeball it, but it looks pretty correct. they are so tasty! i love smoothies)

*why don't they sell plastic lids for plastic cups?!?! it's a perfectly fathomable idea. i don't see why they aren't on store shelves. I found some, but they're "kid size" which means... tiny. hmph.

SNICKERS SALAD:

5 large green apples, cut into bite-size pieces

5 snickers, cut into bite-size pieces (put them in the fridge for awhile, because they're easier to cut cold)

1 tub whipped cream

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup mini marshmallows

drizzled with carmel (like the kind you use on ice cream)

-just mix it all up! sooo good.

(i'm guessing on the chips and marshmallows. i just added everything in in layers and sprinkled them in to my liking).

FUDGEY THE WHALE CAKE:

these are all layers in a 9x13 pan:

ice cream sandwiches (covering bottom of pan)

thawed out ice cream (i used carmel delight flavor) -- it's easier to spread when it's soft

whipped cream

chocolate syrup or fudge

carmel (the kind you use on ice cream. we love the Smucker's brand)

crushed up heath bars.

freeze!

sooo yummy.

hope you all had a good weekend :)

diy DONE

my newest project has been making my own subway art! 

i don't think i do it the way you're "supposed to" but i really like how mine have been turning out.

here are just 2 of about 10 that i've done! 

i made these to modernize our living room decor a little bit. i hope to maybe add a lace bunting banner above the bookshelf maybe. something, at least.

some of my favorites that i've made have been christmas subway art. we'll see how much i decide to decorate. but these have turned into an awesome idea for gifts! i'm excited about it. i want to make one for EVERYBODY! i tried making one for all of my family members, but it was hard to come up with enough lines. it's a work in progress. 

helpful tip: i didn't want to have to trim the paper, or find special frames, or use special formatting on the computer. but i learned today that regular size paper (8.5 x 11) fits in the "certificate" picture frames! i found these perfect black ones at target for about $2 a piece. my other useful tip is to use the "justified" alignment, instead of left or center alignment. it makes a difference, because it spreads the words out to take up the space of the whole line. also, i made each line a different size, and used tenths to make sure i filled up as much of the line as i could. (did that even make sense? basically, the font sizes of the lines are as specific as 32.9 or 16.2. the point is to fill each line completely.)

this is probably one of the cheapest projects ever! all you need is cardstock, a printer with ink and the frames! 

the portrait board is like a super-condensed story of devin and i's relationship. i thought it was a cute idea to include these important dates in our life. and the landscape board is a quote that i've LOVED for awhile now. i love putting good quotes to use. it just doesn't seem to be enough to have just read it. i need to see it often!

also? these frames complimented our growing middle kingdom vase collection!

somethings!

i just realized something.

i never posted about my wedding somethings.

what???

no worries. here they are. BUT: i apologize for the warped picture quality. not sure what happened.

something old: the antique peach colored lace that wrapped around my bouquet and the vintage clip-on earrings that i used as a brooch. very old.

something new: my dress! brand spanking, you better believe it! haha my jewelry was new, too. (bracelet, earrings, necklace)

something borrowed: valeri and i decided quickly that i "borrowed" all the hairspray that held this beautiful 'do together! i will definitely have to give all of that back to her, haha. hey, it works!

something blue: i painted my toes this color for the wedding day! only now, do i wish i would have had all my bridesmaids write a message on the bottoms of my sparkly Toms in blue sharpie or sewn the wedding date into the hem of my dress in blue thread. oh well! i liked the blue toes.

i sort of thought to do all of this at the last minute, which is why it's not as creative as i would've wanted it to be.

but you know what i realized about my wedding day? 

sure, there is a small, but notable list of things i would've liked to change, but if i had the choice, i probably wouldn't. because then, it wouldn't be my wedding day.

maybe i should've had orange table runners instead of grey.

maybe i should have hired a decorator.

maybe i should have splurged for my dream dress.

maybe i should have reminded the photographer to get a picture of the groomsmen (we don't have any!)

and maybe i should have thought more about my somethings.

but i LOVED my wedding.

it was the best.

pantomime

look at this little beauty i stumbled upon today. no big deal. just my husband (before he was my husband) hanging out with imagine dragons' lead singer, Mr. Reynolds (before they were all famous). 2008-ish, i believe.

the awesome thing about devin's early love for the provo music scene is that he has become great friends with a lot of amazng, talented people, who have become huge! tyler glen of neon trees? brinton jones of the devil whale? joshua james? 

it pays to make friends, my friends.

i've noticed recently that a lot of people are picking up on imagine dragons. they're playing on the radio now! devin introduced me to them when we first started dating almost a year ago, and then their new album came out, and it made a big difference. 

i would say it bothers me. that i feel like i have some kind of territorial issue with other people liking music that i liked "first" -- but kuddos to the band, for making people notice. the more, the merrier :) 

thursday

things i noticed today:

1. zucchini grows like WEEDS around here. I feel like i'm offered a zucchini at least once a week. at least. i currently have 3 GIANT zucchini on my counter! i was going to make bread with it, until last week when devin said he didn't like zucchini bread. hmph. anybody want some zucchini? haha. i'll probably use them, but just to eat with dinner. i don't know what else i can do! lasagna?

2. people are so impatient about their car door getting unlocked. i am among those people. i can't even justify it. it's just seems that as soon as i'm at the car, i have this very sudden urge to sit down. like my legs just can't stand it any longer. and for some reason, i am almost positive that pulling on the handle a thousand times will make a difference. news flash: it won't. realistically speaking, it probably takes the drives roughly 5 seconds to unlock their own door and hit the unlock button, but those just happen to be 5 of the longest seconds of anybody's life.

3. my teeth are extremely sensitive. i've known this for a long time, but tonight it seemed worse than normal! my hot pizza hurt my front teeth! i usually just have a hard time with things like ice cream and ice water. but pizza? gimme a break!

4. i am completely baffled at the fact that Devin and I have been married almost 4 months, and are only just now buying Tums. He's a Tums guy.

TONIGHT: was absolutely great! Brandon came into town earlier than he planned (he's been in colorado making amazing food for awesome people at a ranch all summer), so we got to hang out with him for awhile. Devin showed brandon his new toys, namely the truck (who's had a sex change, by the way. apparently she's a he now.) and his computer, while I entertained the dogs! Is it weird that I legitimately missed my brother-in-law's dogs? They're just that awesome. Riley and Koda are rad dogs. There is simply no other way to put it. Riley even cold-nosed me TWICE. I think it was just to make up for all the ones we missed over the summer.

 

 A little later, we headed to Sean and Chloe's softball game. If i'm correct, they've gone undefeated, and are now playing in a double elimination tournament. They 10-run-ruled their opponents AGAIN tonight, which was awesome! Also, Devin's parents were there with Amanda, Makayla and Kaden. It was great to have a sort of impromptu family get together. Love those Ashby's!

Next, we headed to Slab for pizza with Sean, Chloe, Brandon, Chloe's Twin, Maddie. Chloe and Maddie's brother, Sam, and Sam's wife Sarah. Sam and Maddie play on the softball team with Sean and Chloe.. If you haven't ever been, you should go! It's pretty affordable, especially since you're getting 1/4 of a pizza...! I got BBQ Chicken and everybody else got Buffalo Wing. I'm such a baby with spicy food! It was so delicious though! Loved it. It was so fun to hang out with the Thomas group. They're all great.

Now, Devin and Brandon are in the office doing nerdy things that I don't understand. I think they're making it so Devin's computer can run Mac and Windows. It's all way over my head.

We have a REALLY busy next couple of weeks coming up! So many parties and plans coming up. It's going to be so fun, especially since a lot of it will be catching up with good friends we haven't been able to see in awhile (Banner, Harry, Danica, Ryan...). Devin's work party is next week, and that's sure to be entertaining... haha.

Tomorrow, I have work off (no munchkins :(...) but I plan on getting a lot done. Fingers crossed! Oh. and I have some projects to post tomorrow, hopefully.