my week via iPhone

< koda loves waiting in the window at my in-law's
> cooper waiting. heart-shaped treat and elephant ears.


< thanksgiving lunch at work with the crew - these guys are crazy, but they're pretty great, too.
> pomegranate snack


< new nails
> he loves sleeping with a pillow


< an autumn sunset
> looking especially dapper


< cooper at 4 months
> my only picture from thanksgiving - kelli and i bringing out own diet coke to dinner (none of that sparkling apple juice nonsense for us!)


< devin and i took some photos for a family near here on friday morning, we could smell them cooking their first batch of curry, and had to go back for an early lunch! (followed by a bruge's torpedo waffle, of course)
> how does he do it? i don't understand where he gets it from. he's the sweetest pup


< location for some family photos we took - so cool!
> patiently riding in the car like a gentlemen (a seat covered in his paw prints, by the way)


< starting to like the head-out-the-window thing
> picnic tables up yellow canyon

< my handsome dog (see the rest of these photos here)
> a few of the salt dough ornaments i made (see recipe here)


< my name is cooper the dog, and i approve this holiday.
> i love this time of year. so much.


< oh yeah, i cut bangs.
> just hanging out, being himself. (psychotic)


< so here's the situation: diet coke straight out of the can is pretty satisfying, but i'm a lover of ice, ice cold drinks. and straws. i love drinking from straws. but when you try to drink with a straw from the can, all you get is the fizz. this is the solution to all of my problems. i love diet coke.
> christmas, cascade collision style. this little guy is in the estimators' office at my work


< the big tree in our front office. i had asked my boss about making a banner and whether it should say "merry christmas" or "happy holidays" he said we weren't about to get all "politically correct" and he was going to bring in a full sized christmas tree. sure enough, the next day, he brings one in, and i spent my entire afternoon decorating it. (with car emblems, no less. only as cascade! haha) i love my job.

30 days of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving may be over, but it's still November, and I'm still thankful. Our Christmas tree went up the day after I said it wouldn't be up for another week, and we are pretty much full speed ahead for Christmas, but I still find myself noticing the simple things in my day, that maybe i would sometimes otherwise disregard, that make me grateful.

 

this new thing where we pretty much constantly have diet coke, dr pepper and sprite stocked in the fridge

a husband who i can kiss whenever i feel like it

when cooper gets sleepy and just wants to snuggle with his mama (that's me)

the space heater and candy stash at my desk at work

the mindless entertainment that is instagram

dog parks. cooper makes so many friends at dog parks. he loves other dogs

devin's honest fashion advise and opinions (it's awesome to have a husband that will give me advice since i don't live with girls anymore)

puppy eyes

my cocoa-motion and stephen's hot chocolate collection (half my pantry...)

the challenges and frustrations of rock climbing

cooper's 2 best friends, duke and addie, who live 2 doors down from us (and always happen to take potty breaks at the same time - so they get to play a lot!)

devin's relationship with my family (especially my dad. they're best friends)

kisses on the forehead from devin

taking home the old People magazines from the coffee table at work when we get a new one in the mail

things that make me feel pretty

fuzzy blankets

snow in the mountains while the leaves are still bright red and orange

my hands

sleeping with the window open, waking up to the cold, but still in my warm bed

mornings that aren't rushed

the way my husband was raised

good hair days

my wedding ring

seat heaters in our mazda

700 square feet to call home

waffles for dinner

wool socks for cold toes

having all our yard work done by HOA

that look devin gives me

spending the end of the day curled up on the couch with my husband and puppy, watching a tv show we are way too invested in, with a giant bowl of muddy buddies. happy as ever. 

salt dough ornaments

we haven't joined the christmas craziness just yet. i don't think we'll put up any christmas decorations until next weekend, but i did spend my evening making salt dough ornaments and spray painting pine cones gold while listening to the She and Him Holiday pandora station (it's so good!), so I guess we're getting there. It was warm enough to eat lunch outside today, so before I get too excited for christmas, I'm going to relish in this sunshiney fall. i do keep forgetting it's nearly december, though. 

S A L T  D O U G H  O R N A M E N T S : 

  

(i know they look a little brown in these pictures - my lighting is weird in my kitchen!)

> 2 cups flour

> 1 cup salt

> 1 cup water

1. mix it all together real good. 

2. roll out (not all at once, i did fist-sized balls at a time) inbetween 2 pieces of parchment paper.

3. i used stamps to decorate mine (regular scrapbooking stamps and ink - worked great! took a little practice).

4. cut out with cookie cutters (even a glass would work). 

5. use a straw for the hole at the top. 

6. place on cookie sheet (keep them on the parchment paper, just transfer the whole thing onto a cookie sheet).

7. bake for 3 hours at 250 degrees. (you can go longer, just watch it carefully after 3 hours so the edges don't brown). 

8. let them cool, string ribbon or twine through the hole, and hang on your christmas tree (or use as gift tags!) 

these were so quick and easy to make, and the batch made me PLENTY to keep for my own tree and to give to neighbors and friends. i found stamps today at hobby lobby for %40 off - I got a heart, snowflake, bird, a north pole postage stamp, and small alphabet letters, plus my black ink pad for $20! i think this would be a fun activity to try with kids! i even made one with cooper's paw print (it took a lot of tries to get him to hold still enough - but it turned out cute!)

thanksgiving and a cooper photo shoot

we've had the most glorious weekend so far. and it's only friday - which is even more glorious. our thanksgiving was a lot of fun. we headed down to orem bright and early. my parents cooked us breakfast - my whole family was home! the boys went golfing right away, and us girls stayed home and played with the dogs. cooper and zero are best friends - they played non-stop all. day. long. it was so great! devin and i were assigned a side dish and decided to make homemade macaroni and cheese - why had we never thought of that before? devin is the genius chef when it comes to stuff like this, but since he was golfing i was left alone to brave the roux all by myself. the first attempt was a miserable fail. it was ugly and smelled bad and looked like death. i finally just googled a recipe (i didn't have one in the first place). and found an awesome one that worked well! i just don't remember where it is... oh well. around 2:00, we went over to my grandparents' house (where we used to live!) and had a big "dinner" (2 in the afternoon is not really in the "dinner" category if you ask me...) with all my extended family. delicious. as always. after that, we visted with devin's parents and brandon for awhile and then went to see one of our very best friends, Shawn, who came into town for just a few days (he's been teaching in PA for the past several months - even survived Hurricane Sandy!) after that, we headed back to my parents with plans of seeing a movie with everyone. plans changed and we somehow got convinced to go to Walmart. uh... bad decision. my brother in law Sean told us there would be $2 DVDs - and there were! really, really good ones! the crowd? pretty much exactly how i picture the apocalypse. people are crazy. like... insane. and so, so dramatic. we only got 4 and laughed the whole time at the ridiculousness. we are not shoppers. and especially not black friday shoppers. never, ever again.

this morning, we woke up early and went to Salt Lake to take some family photos! the Barnett's were in our old ward, and their youngest was in our nursery! they were so much fun to photograph. their kids are absolutely adorable! devin posted a few photos on his photography blog here. While we were up there, we grabbed some Thai Curry from Ekamai and couldn't resist a waffle from Bruge's Waffles and Frites - it was such a gorgeous morning! We did a little shopping and then went home, picked up cooper and headed up Yellow Canyon for a hike with the pup. It turns out Coop is pretty scared of horses... When we got home, Devin gave me a little photography lesson - Cooper was our subject! I love this dog so, so much. Best. Dog. Ever. He's so handsome! Oh, and there are only, like, a zillion photos. Don't worry. I wouldn't taken more (because i'm just that dog-crazy), but Cooper's attention span isn't that long. I just can't get over how cute he is. That's probably obvious, because I very rarely take pictures, blog, or talk about anything other than my puppy... Oh, and every single one of these photos is my favorite one.