What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

Well most of it anyway. There are a few things I am allowed to share.

*The drive down. Who doesn't want to spend all day in a car driving through the desert. As Steph put it..."I thought I was done with road trips when I left college". Think again girlfriend. Fortunately there was some road construction and we were able to get out for five minutes and stretch.


















*Rich got a speeding ticket. 85 in a 70. The officer was nice and only gave him one for 75 in a 70.

*This was the view from our window. Not bad eh?
























*Saturday Steph and I went to Sephora and had the best time. We went looking for Pink Sugar perfume that I smelled on Beth and got so much more. They had makeup artists that were advertising for a line called Too Faced. This one cute gal kept talking to us about different makeup and finally asked us if we wanted our makeup done. Steph was a little concerned with her hot pink eyeshadow and glitter eye liner so she told me to go first. We got to talking and she said she has done makeup for Ashley and Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne and Gwen Stefani. Not only were those hands touching my face but she did an amazing job. My eyes were incredible. Smoky eyes and nude lips. Stunning. And I didn't take one picture of them. But believe me they were so, so good.

*Meeting Erin, who I went to high school with. She is married to one of the founders brothers. We weren't friends in high school. She was a cheerleader and I was the shy girl. She also knew Steph through middle school. Anyway, I recognized her immediately and when Steph brought her over she recognized me too. Minus the large high school glasses. She is the sweetest person have met in a long time and I am so glad I got to get reacquainted with her over the weekend.

*4 a.m. You know who you are. That's all I'm sayin.



















*Making Stephanie walk to New York New York thinking that it wasn't that far. It was. She had heels on. Not good.

*Learning a lot of good stuff about the business.

*Meeting a lot of great people.

*Modeling in a runway show. Sounds so posh right? Rob and I got roped into showing off the new Jus athletic gear. I wasn't entirely happy about it BUT we got to keep what we were wearing so it made the public humiliation worth it. And what made it even better is it was the outfit that I wanted to buy the first day we were there. Rich tried to take picture but the lighting made it really hard so if you look at Erin's blog it is the green and grey one in the top picture. If you scroll down you will also see the only picture of us dressed up. Sad, I know.

*The fountains at Bellagio. This video does not do it justice. If you are ever in Vegas you have to take in this attraction.


























*Taking part in the Boyle Family Hand Hold.

*Hanging out with these two.

























*Not getting nearly enough sleep. Nine hours in two days. Not good at all.

*Having a great weekend with friends. One that I will not forget soon and looking forward to more like them in the future.

Thank you to both of our parents for taking care of the kids. We couldn't have done it without you!

His first kill.

Busy busy

We had a great weekend. We went to Rich and Steph's to watch the BSU game on Saturday. It was quite the game especially at the end. It felt a little like the Fiesta Bowl with all the whoopin' and hollerin'. Thankfully our guys pulled it off.

Sunday we slept in and went to late service. It feels so good to be able to wake up whenever, drink a cup of coffee, read the paper and casually get ready for church. We haven't been able to do that for a long time and we were so used to getting up early that we just continued to do it. Not anymore.

This week we are getting ready to head to Vegas for Jus Momentum 2008. We are driving down with the other Smith's. Should be quite the road trip.

Lovin it

It is pouring outside.

Pouring.

I love it.

Looks like the atelier for the day calls for sweats.

Gotta love that.

Pride at its finest

We went to the Gunfighter Skies 2008 this past Sunday. We have taken the kids for four years and I love going. Just being at Mountain Home Air Force Base makes me so thankful. We have great men and women that serve our country and I would really love to have gone up to every one of them there and tell them thank you. But since there would be a great likeliness that they would throw the crazy lady out we simply walk around looking at all the planes.

Phil and Nicole were there with their kids and they had a nice spot right by the runway so we parked ourselves by them. Rich and Steph soon joined us and there we sat waiting for the show to start. In the heat. I am all about summer but this was a little much. I was sweating and I think the heat made Rob go mad because he spent $8 on two snow cones. We watched a few plane demonstrations and they were all amazing. People do things in planes that should not be possible. Even though those planes were cool, everyone there was waiting for the real stars to take to the skies.

The Thunderbirds.

What is it about those red, white and blue jets that makes me so proud? Why is it that they take off and my chest swells? The Lord has given us such a great country and every time I see those jets I am reminded of that once again.

So they finally head to their planes and, yes, it is a huge ordeal. From the time they start out there to the time they take off is about 20-30 minutes. But so worth it. As soon as they take off and you hear the roar of those engines all the waiting pays off.












There are four that stay together most of the time, and two solo pilots. One solo pilot is a woman.
And guess which one.
Yep...the one that's upside down. Doesn't that make it so much cooler?



I love this picture. I just happened to look around and saw everyone around me trying to block the sun.
We ended up having a great day. We got to see some cool aerial acrobatics, a really cool old WWII jet that was flown in the Doolittle raid, (If you saw Pearl Harbor you understand more), and we got buzzed by a jet. I think everyone there wet themselves a little. Now I know why Maverick got in so much trouble.(pardon the language at the end)

One of 'those' posts

Today has been a busy Saturday. Rich and Steph came over for breakfast which is something we never think about doing. I made a fabulous Rachael Ray dish...blueberry scones with melted peaches. Yum. We also had breakfast pizzas. I made some yesterday and added eggs, a few mushrooms and even a sprinkling of milled flax seed for good measure and they tasted just as good as they do without that stuff. And they were a little healthier than just sausage and processed cheese. After they left I cleaned our bathroom because it was disgusting and then headed to a sewing bee put on by Kelly and Andrea.

I was a little nervous about going since

#1-I don't know Kelly or Andrea very well

#2-I didn't know anyone else going

and

#3-It was someplace I've never been

All that said I was so glad I went. I made these towels and I love them. They were so easy. I did have a little trouble finding everyone but once i did all was good. They put so much time into the bee and I want to say a huge thank you to both of them. They made cute door prizes, like this pincushion, that I was lucky enough to receive and I also walked away with a Sonic gift card and a full tummy. I cannot wait to do another one.

Tonight Rob wanted to host a tailgate party for the BSU game so he spent the afternoon getting stuff ready. Finally a party that I don't have to plan.

I ordered three scrabble pendants from etsy a couple weeks ago. lOvE tHeM! I saw them on Andrea's blog and knew I had to have some.

Cute huh? And they are every bit as cute in person as they are in the pictures.
Etsy has the coolest stuff.

I started bunko again last Monday. There were only eight of us that showed up so we only played two tables. But boy was it fun. I would be in the -rarely to never win- category but I just love getting together every month to visit with those women.

I posted this picture a couple weeks ago. They are the colors I want to do in Em's room. I really want to do the pink on her walls but don't know exactly how. She has a chair rail about 1/3 of the way up her walls so do I do the dark pink on the bottom and another coordinating color on top OR do the pink on the top? I wish I was good at this.

Steph and I got together and made salsa this week. That's our new thing. Making stuff to can. I never knew storing stuff away could be so much fun. We made the Hines' hot hiney salsa. Apparently if you eat too much that's what you get.

I also went last week and bought a half bushel of peaches from a local garden. I came home and proceeded to spend the next two hours peeling and bagging peaches to freeze. I got 10 bags full which doesn't sound like a lot but they each have a quart of peaches. That equals 40 cups of peaches. It was a bit of a task but being able to grab some peaches out of the freezer last night for breakfast today was so worth it. I am thinking about getting some more before they are out of season. Maybe apples too.

Is this not the greatest idea from the fabulous Joanna Bolick. They bought a whiskey barrel and let their rain gutters run into it. They have a spigot on it so they can hook up a hose and use it for watering plants.

Love this idea. I want three of them. One at each spout.

I guess that is about all I have for now.

Mr. and Mrs. Church

We had a short but fAnTaStIc visit to Oklahoma to celebrate the wedding of Renee and Jeremy. Some of my memories are...

--introducing my dad to an ipod. he loved it and it entertained him on more than one occasion this trip.

--renee's personal shower. I was so glad we were able to be there. we had so much fun. all of us girls laughing at some of the stuff she got, then trying to talk the theater owner to give us a special showing of mamma mia.
























--getting a tour of some of the area in town taken out by the tornado. when it first touched down it was about 1/2 a mile from my aunt and uncle's house. it missed their house by one block but hit their office where my uncle was down in the cellar. he only had five pictures left on his camera but he got three amazing ones of it.

--having nine people crammed into a two bedroom, one bath house. good times.

-rearranging said house so we could fit all of us in there.

--not having a bathtub or bathroom sink for the first night and morning. did i mention it's an old house?

--trying to go down in to the storm cellar. i made it to the bottom of the stairs then looked up and saw spiders on the ceiling and couldn't go any further.

--decorating most of the day on friday.

--the rehearsal dinner and rehearsal on friday night.

--my mom, aunt and cousin teaching me the cotton eyed joe in the living room. it was one of the songs they had on their reception play list. sadly after all that practice it was never played. we had some laughs though.
**that video is the closest thing i could find to what they were teaching me. sorry about the dorky guys :o)**

--the big day.

--meeting jared. hi jared! he said he reads my blog :o)

--her something blue. how fabulous is that?




















--dancing with the groom. the story goes...we were sitting in the brides room after the ceremony. they were eating and becca and i were waiting to tell the deejay they were ready to come out. they did a dance where they dance for about 30 seconds then each of them would go pick someone to dance with. jeremy said "who am i supposed to pick?" and renee said "pick jenny". I replied "no no no noooo. that's quite alright. pick somebody else." he said "no, i'll pick you" to which i replied again "no no no noooo". i was hoping that when the time came he would pass me by, and he did for the first change up but come the second one he came right up to me. I went out there and said "i can't dance". he said "sure you can. it's two steps forward and one step back." ok, i guess i can do that. and it wasn't that bad.

--doing the cupid shuffle. even my mom got out there.

--my mom dancing to "i'm too sexy".

--boogiein' the night away.
























--hanging out with becca.




















--cleaning up after the wedding. there was a bottle of champagne on the cake table and did a napoleon dynamite with it not thinking that it would come spewing out my mouth. it did. what a laugh.

--eating at zio's. yum yum!

--shopping at the mall for a few hours till we had to head to the airport. picking up several good deals at dillards.

--a very late flight home.

real quick

emily and i are flying to oklahoma tomorrow for my cousins wedding. i have to do the following things before we get to the airport at 6 am:

*finish a love album

*print out the wedding programs

yes, for those of you jay leno fans, it is the 'church-bell' wedding.

*try to finish a power point video. not sure that is going to happen.

*make a pot pie so the boys don't starve

*finish at least 5 loads of laundry

*pack for both of us

*pick up the house

*color my hair. steph is going to do it for me today. yikes! never done an at home job before.

*finish the guest book.

i'm sure there's more so i better get off the computer and get to it.