crock pots and power tools?

Today was a beautiful day. Stephen and I both had the day off so we decided we should make dinner this morning using our crock pot. We had bought ingredients a few weeks ago for a recipe entitled Creamy Mushroom Chicken. When we went grocery shopping I had to make sure to bring Stephen with me because the recipe called for 1 cup white wine and well... in this great nation I'm not able to buy alcohol just yet :) So back to this morning.. we go to dump the ingredients into to crock pot and leave it to do all the work for us while we went about our day. Only one problem. How to un-cork Chappells white wine. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as non drinkers, we have never run into this problem. We immediately start looking in drawers for things we might be able to use to force the cork out. We tried knives, sissors, hand held can opener, corn on the cob holders, push pins, EVERYTHING we were running out of ideas. Suddenly I saw a light bulb hovering over my sweet husbands head. He went out to the garage for a moment and came back with the electric drill. Oh dear, it just got serious. I decided it would be in my best interest to step back and let the man work so I went to lay on the couch and watch my husband take power tools to a dainty bottle of wine. Very amusing. I sat while he went back and forth between the kitchen and the garage, bringing in every tool box and power tool he owns and setting them on the kitchen counter planning his strategy for attack on the cork. After about 20 minutes and lots of noise he managed to get the cork out. He ended up drilling a screw into the cork and using the back end of the hammer to alleviate the cork from its wedge. As he was pulling it out slowly but surely he repeated, "Its all about leverage." What a guy. Who knew you needed power tools to make dinner:) Needless to say Stephen, baby, I don't know what I would do without you.

Made for each other...

Anybody who knows me knows that I love shoes. If you were to ask Stephen what his biggest pet peeve is about me, he would respond 'Crazy Shoe Sale Sidnee.' I'll admit.. i get a little crazy when my Steve Madden and Jessica Simpson shoes are marked down 70%!! Here they are in the closet nestled safely in their shelves I got for them at Costco:)I currently own 48 pairs of shoes, not including the ones in the dress up bin. I have a problem. Luckily I just donated ten pair when I moved. But the entire time that Stephen and I were dating he gave me a hard time about how many shoes I have and how I care too much about my shoes. "He's a boy, he doesn't understand," I thought to myself. Well...... when I was moving my things into our bathroom I stumbled across a strange cabinet. One that had been installed more recently then the rest of the cabinetry. So curiously... I opened it only to find this

My husband had 27 different colognes. Rather, he bought a cabinet specifically for his precious cologne. I think this was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. This isn't even counting the samples that he keeps in his truck just in case:) So now we get to give EACH OTHER a hard time about the others obsession. Oh and he just bought another one, and last week.... I got new shoes. Now he understands:) I love you Stephen.

first fight...

Moving in with Stephen was a very easy adjustment for me. His house was new and big and decorated very nicely.. especially for a home full of stinky boys. But now it was to be my blank canvas...or so I had thought. When we got back from the honeymoon there was still a lot of unpacking to do on my part and de-junking and organizing on his. I had been getting ideas of what I wanted to change, after all I had to make it pretty right? So I asked him if I could take down that or move this or change such and such. His response was nearly the same with every question.. what I like to call 'the golden response'.. "whatever you want baby" Well it was after we got back from Bed Bath and Beyond where we had purchased the remaining items on our registry with all the generously donated gift cards:)(thanks again to everyone!) He was putting together our new vacuum and I was putting together picture frames and wall hangings when I asked yet another one of my questions, "Dear, would it be alright if we moved Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater somewhere else?" To my surprise I didn't get another one of those golden responses I was hoping for. Instead he replied, "Where would you want to move them to?" I hadn't really gotten that far, I had planned to figure that out after he said 'whatever you want baby' like he had so many times before! When he said that, it was almost as if he was offended. But I didn't catch on to that just yet. Instead I suggested we move his beloved tin pictures of these fictional characters upstairs.. perhaps in a closet. He was stunned. Upset, really! He then rambled for several minutes about how much they mean to him and how much light and color they bring to the room and how everyone likes them except me and when the kids come over they will just be devastated if they aren't up on the wall where they can see and well he went on and on.... Unfortunately I was not as sympathetic as I should have been to his love for these pictures. I started laughing, maybe a bit mocking. I couldn't help that this was funny to me! Of all the things in his house I asked to move THESE were what he was upset about. He called me a mean wife and pouted the rest of the night. We never really reached a conclusion but I didn't dare move those if I wanted a happy husband! Stephen went to the Chiropractor in the morning and when I woke up after he had left, I went downstairs to find that McQueen and Mater were gone. I felt horrible. Worse than horrible. I felt as if i had just taken candy from a baby. I went looking for them thinking maybe he had thrown them away or put them somewhere else but they were no where to be found. When Stephen came home I confronted him and asked them what he had done with them. He said, "I put them upstairs in the closet like you wanted." My heart sank. He looked so sad but he was so determined to be a good husband and make his wife happy and give her anything she wanted. And what had I been? Inconsiderate. Except I didn't have any idea how much they meant to him! If I did I would have never even brought it up. I asked him to get them for me and I put them back up on the wall. And there they hang as a constant reminder of compromise. I love you Stephen.

The Monster Mash...

Last year Stephen had an amazing Halloween party. . .

We decided to carry on the tradition this year! We had a lot of fun planning for it. We already had a ton of decorations from last year so that part was easy. We went all out. Put up orange Christmas lights, black lights in all the outside lighting, Tiki torches in the yard, our awesome pumpkins, scary torn fabric on the porch it was lookin pretty good. Inside was just as good. I was very impressed with the choice in costumes this year. Everybody got pretty creative. Our favorite was the stick figures....

Haha Logan and Kaylee dressed in all black with beanies and gloves and even painted their faces black and then safety pinned glow sticks in the shape of stick figures. Hilarious. Then there was the shot gun wedding...

This was particularly funny because they are getting married next weekend:) I loved it. Rusty's wig is the cherry on top. Next comes the sound of music...

I loved it they even brought her younger brother and his girlfriend as their children haha! Then of course the amazing Ceasar and Cleopatra! . . .

They looked awesome. She even made his costume! So creative. They are also getting married next weekend! Alright I think that's all of my favorite couples costumes. But i took more pictures This is Jill and Mike she was Dracula and he was a military man. Which is not much of a costume because he is a military man! They were cute though, they are getting married in December. So exciting getting more married friends!

Then there is the amazing Craig Roberts...who took first place in Septembers fitness competition! He is our famous friend. And Stephens Idol basically...

Stephens brother and his 3 dates. . . My favorite was the one in diapers:) The cutest little girl ever!

Now last but certainly not least. . . The elves themselves

The Amazing Buddy the Elf and Jovi the Elf!

So we were planning on being pebbles and bam bam but last minute found these online and had to have them. Stephen was so excited to be elf, it is on his top 3 movie fav's. He was adorable. And I love him so much i was willing to make his Christmas/Halloween dreams come true. Haha we had a lot of fun. My hat was so big! When I saw my shadow I almost felt like part of the KKK. And the costumes were too small for both of us when they arrived...part of the risk of ordering online I guess. We rocked it though and pulled it off. He quoted the movie all night and we even put maple syrup out on the table:) But the party wasn't over yet! You better believe we had bobbing for apples! Stephen and Dylan. . .

Stephen lost his hat in safari falls so we let him take it off. But I put it back on him for the picture:) GOT IT! Thats my boy.

A great Halloween. I wish i would have taken more pictures but as more people were showing up I was distracted playing hostess:) I hope everybody had a fun and safe Halloween! Hope you enjoyed sharing ours with us.

CHOO CHOO!!

Stephen and I had found this train ride when we were coming home from Mcall one time and decided we were going to do it in October. We figured there would be lots of kids so we also decided to bring one! Hazels birthday was that weekend so Pam and Richard were down in Provo celebrating and so were Annie and Stephen and their kids so we decided to bring Tiffany's wonderful children. Apparently Cameron and Kendall had a Halloween party at the primary teachers house so that left Jaxon to come play on the train with us! We were so excited to play mom and dad for the day. He looks like a natural doesn't he? :) ...

Jax and I have a special bond. When mommy wasn't around I was happy to be the next best thing:)


We were taking pictures and a lady offered to take one for us. Aw Happy Family. Jax munchin on his pretzels. Oh ya...we were prepared with snacks and transformer! The train and beautiful scenery kept his attention at max ten minutes. He was really good though.

We finally reached our destination. The train took us up past banks to this adorable pumpkin patch and we got to pick a pumpkin. Jax fit right in with Stephen and I...he loved having his picture taken! Love this one! He was so funny he thought the pumpkins were in a maze so he was trying to weave his way in and out of the pumpkins. I had to video it:)
The Final product. We picked the most misshapen pumpkin we could find. As long as there was no green Jaxon was happy. He was more interested with the pumpkins as a maze. We like it. Its got personality:) Oh and we moved to inside the train car because it started raining on the way back. Good timing!

We had so much fun with monster Jax. Thanks Tiffany and Justin for entrusting your precious baby in our care. We love watching our nieces and nephews, it pushes back the day we have our own children! Parenting im sure is rewarding. But exhausting!

Larger than Life...

I am so happy for my sister. When I was in high school I modeled wedding and prom dresses for a company called Margenes Bridal. I grew pretty close with the wonderful girls who worked there. Jaylee, the owner, has given me a beautiful opportunity. When she saw my amazing Bridal pictures taken by Mallory Hurst Photography she asked me to send my favorites to Margenes Head quarters, that they were looking for pictures to use for advertising. So i did and amazingly enough...they picked one. One of my sisters pictures of me. This picture is going to be used on a billboard for Margenes bridal. Its official. I'm going to be Larger than Life. Thank you Mallory for all your hard work in making me and my Margenes dress so beautiful.

Roctoberfest 2009

October is our very favorite time of year. We LOVE Halloween, especially all the festivities that go with it! This year to start off the Halloween spirit we were able to go to a haunted forest with my side of the family when we were all in Utah for cousin harmonies wedding. It was a total blast! I wish we would have snapped some pictures. Way better than anything they could manage up here in Boise. The next phase would be to carve pumpkins of course! We tried several times to go pumpkin shopping together but it just wasn't working. Finally, last Saturday I took matters into my own hands and went to wally world and picked out what I thought were excellent pumpkins. When we pulled them in the house to carve them I realized I got the worst pumpkins possible. Mine had a spot on the bottom where it was bruised or just plain rotting which after cleaning out the inside turned into a big fat hole in the bottom which we referred to as its "butt hole" Mature I know. Stephens was dropped or something (possibly by me) and has a crack in the bottom. But we made them work and I put Stephen in charge of buying pumpkins next year! Here is Stephen workin away at his kitty....

Yes we made the executive decision to cheat this year. We got a cute little carving kit with sweet little ideas inside. We slapped those stickers on and went to town! Stephen gave me the more complex one because apparently 'I'm more artistic and could handle it' Haha I Love my husband. Here I am with my ghost...

The beautiful finished product. Here you have Felix the Cat in Moonlight (quite the name) Then there is Gwendolyn the Ghost. It was a very successful family home evening!

FLASH BACK...........

This was last years pumpkin carving event! Come to think of it, I got the pumpkins last year also! oh yeah its totally Stephens turn. I'm not sure where my pumpkin is but this is Stephens cute lil freehand guy. We had such a great night and when I showed my mom the pictures she was mad that he was wearing a shirt that says "divers do it deeper." :) This was also before she had even met him...they left the night of our first date (the 3rd) for Hawaii for 3 weeks!

Its really fun to remember last October. The 3rd was our first date AND first kiss:) We went to the Haunted World and i kept my hand in his back pocket and we progressed to holding hands by the end of the maze. It was cute. I had a crush on him for 9 months...you know since the day we met...so it was a long time coming. I finally gave up on it over the summer and it worked! We fell in love at the Reflections of Christ fireside at the end of September, actually after it on the 3 floor of the parking garage when he walked me to my car. Who knew we would be married the following September. Fall reminds me of falling in love with Stephen. That may have something to do with why its my favorite time of year:) Happy Haunting everyone! Hope to see you at our Halloween Party!!