September LOVE

So I know it is the end of October but like I said in my last post...Better Late then Never. September we had three AMAZING weddings in three weeks that I don't wanna forget. It was a little busy with all three going on so close but they were so great!

The first one was Zach's cute sister Jenny marrying a great guy, Bobby. The wedding was at Zach's parent's backyard and was SO beautiful. Jenny was such a gorgeous bride and she made a ton of the decorations, butineers (no idea how to spell that), wrist bands, etc. She did such a great job it made me want to get married all over again with new colors, new decorations, new dress, EVERYTHING! It was all so dang cute. We are so happy for her and Bobby and love them both and so much. Bobby also has a little girl named Olivia that is so fun. We are excited to have a new niece and a new cousin for Dakota!

Our little family at the wedding. Look at those handsome boys! :) Dakota got to be the ring bearer and did such a great job. I was SO nervous that he wouldn't do it or that he would start crying or whatever. With a two year old...anything could happen. But before he went down Bobby had shown him that he had some fruit snacks. So we kept telling him, take this box to Bobby and he will give you some fruit snacks...bribing always works! :) He totally did it and as soon as he handed him the box he put his hand right up to Bobby and just stood there until he gave him the fruit snacks. Then he wanted to just stand right there in the front and eat them all, so we had to coax him back over to us. He did so good though and looked so cute in his little outfit!

Bobby and the little boys. SO cute!

Jenny and the boys!

Dakota stealing a kiss from the bride! Lucky boy!

The next weekend was my brother Ty's wedding. He married a girl named Heather from Duschane Utah so we didn't have to go very far for the wedding and we got to have all my family come up to us. He found him the perfect girl, just right for him! She is so beautiful and tall so maybe we will get some height in this short little family. She is such a great girl and we are so excited to have another sister! Five girls is not enough already! :) They got married in the Mt. Timpanogas temple and had the reception in her backyard. It was all so beautiful and it was so fun to have my family here and get to see them all! I missed some of my nieces and nephews that didn't get to make the trip because of their mean parents! :) J/K

Sister's and the cute couple

This picture is so fun because we had a picture taken like this when we were way young. Since he is the only boy in the family he got to lay across our laps. He was a good sport! :)

At the dinner after the wedding. Some of my sisters and my cute niece Logan!

Our little fam at the reception the next night.

My grandma, mom, and sisters. 3 generations!

Sister shot! We had a sister photo shoot if you can't tell! :) It was so fun to all be together.

Sexy butts! Annie's didn't make it in this pic cuz she was wearing a dress instead of jeans.

(yes, we are dorks)

More sister pics :)

This is how it really was...we thought we were soooo funny! (and of course we are) Sister's are the BEST! I don't know what I would do without them.

The night between the wedding and the reception we all got to stay in this huge cabin that was a friend of my aunts. It was between where the wedding and the reception was so it was perfect. It was so fun to have our whole family together. I love those times! Zach and I both are so blessed to have such amazing families.

Wedding #3 was one of my GREAT friends from going to school up in South Dakota, Karen. She was one of the few LDS young adults in the area and we became such great friends. Our institute up their consisted of like eight of us in the whole college so we all got to know each other pretty well. She is such an amazing girl and I am so happy that she found her "EC" (eternal companion). I know that sounds so dorky but it was kinda an inside joke for us! :) Lucky for me her husband is from Salt Lake City so they got married up here and I got to go to their sealing and reception. They make such a cute couple! Love you Karen!

The newlyweds! (Sorry the lighting was horrible)

Weddings are SO great! What great memories to have. Congrats to you all!!!

End of Birthday Week

So I know I am a little behind on this but my motto is: Better late then never...right?! At least that makes me feel good! :)

So the rest of Zach's birthday week was AWESOME!! His cute grandparents took us to lunch at Olive Garden...which is always amazing! We had so much fun with them.

We ended the week with a big bang with a couple's sleepover party with our friends at Jordan's grandpa's condo up in Eden. It was Steve's birthday too so we just combined the party for them both and had a blast. We stayed up so late playing games, talking, and snacking. Zach is not a big gamer but he was a good sport and played all the games...and I know deep down he really loved it! ;)

Here are some fun pics of our LONG and CRAZY night!

This is how the night started out. Boys just chilling watching something on T.V. and chatting while us girls got the food all ready for a yummy dinner of pulled pork sandwiches.

Here's all the girlies!

The birthday cake that Steve ordered. How funny is that?!

Birthday boys!!

Sleeping situation...The condo had three AMAZING beds that we played a round of paper, rock, scissors to see who got them. I was getting REALLY lucky that night and won Zach and I the master bedroom. The other three couples had blow up mattresses on the floor. Luckily the condo was big and could fit us all in there.

The whole gang the next morning after our yummy breakfast. I think we were all still half asleep from our late night.

It was so much fun though...we had some great laughs all night and even the next day! Thanks Jordan and Steve for planning it all. Thanks Doug and Vicki for watching Dakota. The cute grandparents that they are took him to go see Toy Story 3 at the theatre since he has a little obsession with Buzz Lightyear right now. I know he didn't miss us for a second but we missed him!!

HaPPy BiRThdaY tO YoU

Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby!!! He has finally caught up with his old woman and joined the 26 club! (I'm only eight months older but I get the old lady jokes ALL the time) :) And as much as you make fun of me for writing in birthday cards "I am so glad that you were born on this day," I really am glad that you were born today so that you could be my amazing husband. I don't know what Dakota and I would do without you! We love you and want you to know that!!! Happy Birthday Z!!!

I always believe that a birthday can't be celebrated in one day, it should be celebrated ALL week! We started the week off great with a Sunday night birthday dinner at Zach's parent's house. Monday night his cousin had us over for a birthday dinner, and tonight we went out to eat for our birthday tradition with just our little fam! I can't wait for what the rest of the week holds! :) Who wants to have us over next? Totally Kidding!!

Birthday clan! We missed Jenny, Bobby, and Livy but they were on their honeymoon cruise so we will let it slide this time! :)

Ryan's face in the background is the best part of this picture! He is such a goof!

Here are just some pics of the handsome birthday boy! They are all with Dakota since Zach never lets me just take pictures of him. :)

Handsome devil!

This pic represents Zach so much because he LOVES to hold hands, especially Dakota's!!

On one of his most favorite things...his skidsteer!

Such a cute daddy! Always giving horsey rides to our little cowboy!

So fun!

We love you Zach! Thanks for being the best husband and daddy ever!

Grammy & Poppy Days

So Dakota has the BEST grandparents in the whole world! Both my parents and Zach's are so sweet and cute with him and he just loves them to death!

So this last summer Zach's mom Vicki decided to start having "grammy days" with Dakota once a week. She teaches preschool during the school year so she doesn't have as much free time as she does in the summer so she wanted to take advantage of her grammy time. It is SOOO cute how much Zach's parents LOVE being grandparents. I hope when I have grandchildren I am as cute as they are. They will drop ANYTHING for their grandkids.

Well, Vicki had last Friday off for UEA and so Doug (Zach's dad) decided to take off work too so they could have a "grammy and poppy" day and sleepover with Dakota and Houston (Zach's sister Ashley's baby). Of course Dakota was more then thrilled. As soon as they showed up I told him they were here and asked him if he was going to have a fun day with them. His response: "Yeah. Bye Mommy." He could have cared less about me...it was grammy and poppy!!!

Vicki is ALWAYS so good to take her camera and snap pictures all the time which is great for me because I am so bad at it. So here are some fun pics from their day...

His face says it all!

Going down the slide with Houston!

My Grammy!

Going for a walk!

Climbing on Poppy!

Where did Poppy go???

More fun pics of other grammy and poppy days:

They got this sweet tractor for the grandkids to ride.

Helping Poppy work!

Snuggling with grammy!

More snuggles!

Going for a bike ride with grammy!

Riding in style!

We are so lucky to have such a fun grammy and poppy!

We love you guys! Thanks for all you do!

Funny/Sweet Moments:

(I'm gonna start adding these to the end of some of my blogs to help me write down and remember all the little things that make being a mom so much fun and so I don't forget them...I don't have the best memory. :) )

1. So Zach LOVES to scare people, anyone, anywhere. He often hides around the house and scares me on a pretty regular basis. He has started to do it with Dakota and they hide together and scare me. Real funny...I know. So today for the first time Dakota scared me all by himself. I was in my closet putting clothes away and I could hear him walking around looking for me. Then all the sudden he screamed and really did scare me in the doorway. It was so funny he thought to do it by himself and did a really good job at it. It was really cute but I don't think that I can handle two boys trying to scare me EVERY day! :)

2. Yesterday as we were driving in the truck he out of nowhere just said, "Mommy, you look pretty." It was so sweet and just melted my heart.

3. Zach has taught him how to count to ten in spanish and he does a really good job. With a little prompting every once in awhile he says every number in order. It is so cute to hear his little voice and watch his little mouth say the numbers in spanish. You are so smart buddy!

Also, sometimes when Zach speaks spanish to Dakota or if you say a word he doesn't know he says, "Don't say that." Like it's not good or something.

4. Every morning in his sweetest little voice he says, "Good morning, mommy or daddy." He says it with so much happiness and enthusiasm. It is the best start to my day!

5. The other day he was playing at his best buddy's across the street, Tanner. Tanner's mom, Terra was making them some lunch and they were sitting at the table together. Tanner said, "Mommy....(and talked to her)." Dakota looks at Tanner and says, "That's not mommy! That's Terra!" Tanner didn't like that so much but Dakota did have a good point. :)

6. He LOVES his buzz lightyear pull-ups right now and he only gets to wear them when he goes in the potty. So now every time before he puts them on he tells them as he holds them up to his face, "Don't worry buzz. I won't get you dirty." (he still does but it is cute that he tells them that)

7. My parents live in Arizona and at least a few times a week Dakota tells me, "I'm going to Zona. I'll be right back." It is so cute that he remembers they are there and wants to go there. I wish we could just go and be right back too. :)

Bunco!

So I am an official member of a bunco team, squad, group, league...whatever you wanna call it. I played my first time with this awesome group (besides being a sub once) on Thursday night and it was a blast!! The best part about it all is the fun girls, the amazing goodies, and of course the prizes. I went that night with full intentions on walking away with the grand prize (I am very competitive :) ) but unfortunately I didn't win anything except best costume (we dressed up in Halloween costumes to be festive ya know)...which hey that counts for something right?!

Before I reveal what I was to win this grand prize, I want all of my millions of readers out there (that's a joke) to guess what they think I am...

You better have guessed a dang Q-tip...it's totally obvious! :)

So I first got this brilliant idea of being a Q-tip back in college. Me and some friends were going to a Halloween party and you know in college all the girls gotta try and dress cute and sexy (at least they think) to impress the fellas (there's always the sexy cat, angel, cowgirl, you know what I'm talking about...maybe you were one of them. j/k) So me and my awesome friend Ashley thought, what is the sexiest costume of all?!

Q-tip of course! :) I mean don't I look so hot?! Except Ashley and I went ALL out! We painted our faces white and wrapped our entire bodies in blue saran to really distinguish the Q-tip look. We had a blast.

So needless to say when I found out I had to dress up and I didn't want to spend any money, I only had twenty minutes to get ready, what did I turn to...the trusty Q-tip. And heck, it even won me a prize! :)

The best part of it all was Zach and I trying to figure out how to keep the batting on my head. I couldn't remember what I had done before so Zach was just taking the scotch tape to my head like there was no tomorrow. It was pretty comical. He was a great sport!

Our Bunco group!!!

(I'm trying to clean Amber's ear but I couldn't get close enough :) )

Thanks so much Chantell for being a great host, especially when you are having a baby within three weeks. You are the woman!!

Ohhhh Relief Society

Alright, so last night was our wards relief society meeting. I had forgotten about it until my awesome neighbor Terra asked me if I was going. She told me we were supposed to bring something that has strengthened our faith, and so on.

So to be completely honest life has been a little too crazy and busy and I'm not gonna lie but I probably have let my house become the dirtiest house on the planet. So finally yesterday Zach and I had discussed that we can't live another minute like this and that Tuesday (yesterday) was gonna be our day to clean it. Well, we were gone for most of the day and it was already evening time and we still hadn't done a thing. So as 7:00 (time for relief society) was rolling around, I was a little overwhelmed with the house cleaning I needed to get done, Dakota was a little whiny and needy because he hardly napped because we were gone all day, and Zach was not in the best mood and wasn't wanting me to go because of all we had to do. To be completely honest, I was not that excited to go either. Now if we were doing a craft or something super fun it is sad to say but I would have had a completely different attitude. I hate to admit that but that was how I was feeling, which is exactly why I forced myself to go. I said because I don't want to go, is why I am going. Obviously I need a little spiritual boost because I have such a poor attitude. Zach is on this little kick of forcing himself to do everything that he doesn't want to do. It has been kind of nice because I can ask him to do things and it forces him to do it. :) Example: Me: Hey Zach will you take this out to the garbage? Zach: I don't want to so now I have to. (and he does it) Not that he wouldn't do things before, but it is cute how he has such a good attitude about doing things he doesn't want to do. It has been a great example to me... So anyways, that got me thinking about not wanting to go and forcing myself to do it.

So, I ended up going and am so grateful that I did...it was AMAZING!! Obviously Heavenly Father knew that I needed it. This amazing lady in our stake came and spoke to us about faith in Christ, strengthening our own faith and testimonies to help us through our lives and trials. Now I'm not a huge crier (You can ask Zach. He knows when I do cry it's a big deal and he always gets a little worried when I do. :) )but the spirit she brought was so strong, I couldn't help it. After she got done we all went around and shared what we has brought that has strengthened our faith in Christ. Now I have to tell you that I am in the best ward ever and we have the most amazing woman in our ward so it was so powerful and neat to hear each person share their experiences. Everyone was just so real and it strengthened me to see what trials and things others have been through that have brought them closer to their Saviour. So often, I think it is easy to think man, why is life so hard for me and everyone else has it so easy but that is never true, we just don't always see the trials others are going through. I have learned so much through our trials and although every day Zach and I dream about a day when life will be a breeze and there will be no worries, I really am grateful for what we have had to endure because it has brought me closer to my Saviour and has helped me become a better and stronger person because of it. I could hardly even talk when it was my turn to share because I was being such a bawl baby so I'm not sure that anything I said was understood but it was great for me to have to think about for myself what has strengthened my faith and testimony in Jesus Christ.

So anyways, I left relief society last night so grateful that I had gone, thankful for the spirit that I felt, thankful for my faith in my savior, thankful for the wonderful woman of our ward, and just thankful for my many blessings!!

So, if you are ever feeling like not going to relief society...you better go, because that is when you will get the most out of it! :)

GIRLS NIGHTS!!!

So, I don't know what I would do without my girls night outs!! I LOVE my family, don't get me wrong...but every so often it is nice to get out and just be with the girls! I feel so blessed to have such amazing girlfriends (both old and new) who are so much fun and just give me a little boost to keep me going!

Thanks to ALL my girls out there!

Dinner at the Olive Garden. This was such a fun night. It started with some dinner, then we couldn't be so close to Children's Place and not stop in. (Always thinking about those kiddos, even when you aren't with them) Then we ended the night with some delicious Farr's ice cream. That was my first time there and it was AMAZING!!! I am all ready to go back if anyone is up for it! :)

And of course the crafts! I would have no crafts if it weren't for these crafty girls who come up with these great ideas!

Check out the fumes from the spray paint!

I didn't leave Heidi's until 11:30 that night but I FINISHED all 3 of my cute Halloween crafts. Thanks Heidi for setting it up and letting us stay so long!

Back in July, my two best girls from high school came for a girls weekend all the way from Colorado and Arizona! It was such a great weekend and it felt like the good ole days!

The thing I love best about great friends is that you can just be yourself and they love you no matter what! I am such a dork so I need that! :) And no matter how long it has been since you talked or have seen each other, you just pick up right where you left off, like you haven't missed a day!

Abbey and Katie...miss you girls!

We went for a hike to Waterfall Canyon...so pretty! We evened hauled Katie's baby Dominic on our backs. He was such a trooper!

We made it!

I LOVE MY GIRLS!!!