sean and chloé

day 11: makes you happy

2012-02-11T11:36:00.001-07:00

antibiotics.

sean and i both finally got on them yesterday. sean and i were on our own insurance policies through work when we worked at the same place. it was great and really cheap to be on our own but after 3 months on his new job, when he was eligible for benefits we decided to both get on the same plan at his work since they have amazing benefits for families. it's been kind of a mess though because we don't have our new insurance cards yet. in fact, our policy is still in underwriting so even though we are covered it has been a mess with all these dr. appointments we (mostly me) have had. hopefully it will all get sorted out soon. ugh. we felt absolutely awful last night. the antibiotics kicked in finally and we are feeling so much better than we were yesterday. antibiotics make me so happy. i can't tell you how happy i was to receive the phone call that i could finally go pick them up. we are twinsies. matching antibiotics and all.

sinful 7 chocolate cake from zupas.

last night in the midst of our sick crazy haze we thought it would be a good idea for me to run and pick up some hot soup at zupas since we have no food in our house and my mom wasn't responding to my "emergency! we need you :( " texts. at this point sean had no voice and was communicating to me through pen and paper and i could barely speak so i volunteered to go. i forget we don't live in provo. we live in springville. and it was date night out on the town in provo last night and everyone was at zupas. i was jealous because everyone was all decked out adorable and probably going to go see the vow after and i was in my sweats, glasses, and a baseball cap on. trying not to cough on anyone. super attractive. i'm sure everyone was super jealous of me. i decided since i had to wait in such a long line and drove all the way there and couldn't go see the vow too that i was getting a slice of cake. i love that sinful 7 cake. it is amazing.

breakfast.

we looked in the fridge today and happened to have 3 eggs left and some bread. so sean made us toast and eggs to go with our matching antibiotics and chocolate cake. this is the life y'all!

p.s. sorry all i have talked about lately is being sick. i know it's getting old. it's consuming our household and i am sick of it! but thank you all for your kind words and thoughts! i know we could definitely have it much worse so i am grateful that we don't.

day 10 : self portrait

2012-02-10T11:14:00.001-07:00

if you saw me today you would know this was obviously not taken today.

day 9 : front door

2012-02-09T19:14:00.001-07:00

this is old. not the greatest picture. this was just a few days before we bought our house. i know i'm probably cheating using old pictures but my camera is dead. to be honest i think it's pretty impressive that i even tracked this one down!

even if my camera wasn't dead i probably wouldn't take a picture of our front door. i don't feel like doing anything. i found out today that i need my tonsils out for sure. and my adenoids. i have tonsillitis pretty bad. i get it often. i also have fluid in my ears. i can't hear out of my left ear. my nose is so stuffy and i really just want to be done with this. i guess my tonsils are blocking 80% of my throat/airway. i am so done being sick. so next friday the 17th they will be gone. my doctor told me to expect to be down for 10-14 days. wha??? i don't know if i can handle that. from what i hear, the recovery is really painful as an adult. i'm hoping that i won't be out for too long though! my job is really busy at the end of the month and i feel really bad being gone. plus sean is sooo busy with school and work. i don't want him have to worry about me. i really hope this will be worth it. i have to pretty much be on a liquid diet so if anyone has any yummy recipes for smoothies or any recommendations for shows to watch while i am down let me know!

day 8 : sun

2012-02-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

this was not taken today. i love this picture though. taken on my phone last year.

we had a pretty overcast day here in utah county.

day 7 : buttons

2012-02-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

buttons from the shirt i would have worn today.. had i gone to work.

stupid cold.

pretty sure i'm just gonna have to bite the bullet soon and have my abnormally large tonsils removed.

my doctor is recommending it even though it's really hard to recover as an adult.

what to do? what to do?

also? i really miss my husband. pretty sure i didn't see him at all yesterday. hopefully tonight?

stupid school.

2 more months. 2 more months.

day 6 : dinner

2012-02-06T20:16:00.006-07:00

i didn't want this to be my dinner. i bought $20 worth of candy on my lunch break today. (gotta keep the dog walker happy.. and myself) including a 3lb bag of haribo gummy bears. the best kind of gummy bears. i was going to have a really good dinner. candy and left over cream cheese chicken chili to be exact. but towards the end of work today i felt another cold coming on and it is coming on quick. i might have toast later if i am feeling up for it but that's as exciting as dinner is going to get around here tonight. i'm so frustrated. i had the stomach flu a few weeks ago. then i got a cold sore. a week after that i got a cold. it was definitely not the worst cold i have ever had. but still inconvenient. my cold went away last week. and then lady problems arrived. and now here i am again.. with a very sore throat and a hot aching body. no appetite at all. really hoping when i wake up it will all be gone. i am tired of this. i don't think my body can handle much more. i take vitamins every day! i even loaded up on vitamin c. guess my body just hates me so far this year. my immune system must be weak. you think after being in nursery at church for over a year my immune system would be immune to everything. guess not. i probably need to eat more candy. and i'll stop my pity party here....

day 5 : ten a.m.

2012-02-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

getting ready for church.

day 4 : a stranger

2012-02-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

not even sure what this is?? no just kidding, but really i need to work on this...

see other days in the february photo a day challenge here.

day 3 : hands

2012-02-03T08:31:00.001-07:00

see other days in the february photo a day challenge here

day 2 : words

2012-02-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

this is gonna be cheesy but i really miss him and seeing him at work everyday.

i miss all the notes he left on my desk. i kept all of them.

sorry not the greatest pic. i left my good camera at home.
see other days in the february photo challenge here.

february photo a day challenge.

2012-02-02T09:22:00.001-07:00

i really wanted to participate in the fat mum slim photo a day challenge last month. i was late to the party though because i got really sick and i don't have an iphone anymore, so therefore i don't have instagram. but i've seen lots of people just do it on their blogs so i was super excited to see that they were doing another one for february. i haven't felt inspired to blog lately so i am hoping this will get me kick-started!

since i already posted some pictures from yesterday i thought i would just share one from a few days before for the 1st day. which was yesterday. once again i am late to the party and breaking the rules. oh well.

day 1. your view today

we saw this cool ice tree thing that someone created with their hose while

driving up the canyon by our house to check out a shooting range.

and that was a really long probably improper sentence.

i'll post day 2 later today!

moe's exciting news.

2012-02-01T21:59:00.002-07:00

what is moe's exciting news? he has a daily dog walker! funny story actually. sorry if that was not the exciting news that you were looking for. but it is big news around here! and if you don't want to read about how this came about at least scroll to the end and read some facts about our dog walker. he is awesome. oh and in reality that dog walker should probably be me. since i bought moses and all and responisibil...blah blah blah. anyway. sean and i work with the young men and young women in our ward. sean is in charge of the 12 year olds. okay 12 year old. there is only one. anyway, he was trying to raise money to buy his mom some things for her birthday. guess what he wanted to buy her? flowers, a card, and a whisk for her kitchen. a whisk? what kind of 12 year old thinks of stuff like that? so anyway, he came up to me at the church when we were having an activity and told me he needed our key. that sean said he could walk our dog the next day for a little bit of money. i handed him the key and got home and sean was like "i didn't tell him to ask for the key.." oops. oh well.

to make a long story short.. he is now our official dog walker. he told me to leave him a note with instructions on how to walk him. i left it on the door. so what does this kid do? he writes me a note back. and tells me he went upstairs.. with his friends. crap. when i went upstairs i had left my underwear drawer entirely open. the room was a mess. he said moses wouldn't come down when they came over so they had to come up and get him. crap. moses always comes down when he hears people come in. what the heck? anyway. so now that this boy and his 2 friends have seen my underwear and my messy room, i figured eh? oh well.. sure .. come over everyday! why not? i don't think my house can get much messier than it did that day. i mean he even said in the note that my house was awesome. haha.

he called me after leaving the note and asked if he could turn this into a real life job. no like really, he called me and asked me that. so i said sure why not! he wants to walk him every single day. i told him i would pay him 3 dollars every time that he walked him. he was like "oh i was just going to say $1 but if you are sure??" oops. i guess i didn't really do the math because the next day he reminded sean that he was going to be so rich and would make like $700 this year or something like that. hey.. i am just trying to support our youth okay? besides.. i personally think i would want to make $3. if i only got paid $1 i would probably get bored. but then i remember i am not 12 and am an adult and should do this without getting paid.. but you know what screw that. i don't have to worry about it anymore! and it makes moses happy. and i don't feel guilty that he is alone all day now. i know he has something to look forward to everyday. and this kid is rad. and he says the funniest things. so i am going with it.. k? i am throwing all dignity out the window and not caring about what my house looks like.

here are some fun facts about him:

his name is kaden.

he made a calendar to put on our fridge so he can mark off days that he worked.

he spelled february febuary. i love it.

he added valentines to that calendar. and then said he would walk him for an extra hour that night if we needed some more alone time. hahahaha! who is this kid? i love him.

those days say free because i paid him in advance so he could get his mom her gift.

he called me one night to come over so i could teach him how to put moe's gentle leader leash on.

he called me today just to tell me that he forgot to tell me on monday that he wore his roller blades and let moses drag him.

he then called me back because he was sorry that he forgot to tell me he let his friend walk moe for 5 minutes.

he wears our house key on a chain around his neck.

he thinks that sean and i have an arranged marriage and that i am from india. sean told him this because he asked why i looked so sad in one of my wedding pictures.

he called me another time to tell me he forgot to tell me that moses pooped on our neighbors lawn. but he cleaned it up.

he told some other kids tonight an activity that i am his employer. employer.. i am an employer! i feel so cool.

he told me my house was awesome. did i already mention that? oh and he lives in a freaking mansion. so for him to say that my little house is awesome made my day.

tonight at young women's he barged in (he was in a young men's activity) and demanded some of this brown sugar, cream cheese dip i made for apples. he saw that there was only one apple slice left.. ran to grab it and gladly dipped it in.... the peanut better instead. the look on his face was the saddest look i have ever seen. like he just ate a piece of poop. so what does he do? takes the bowl of other dip and starts scooping it out with his fingers.

today he offered to do my dishes if i ever need him to.. wha??? this is working out splendidly. can i go to jail if i let him "help" me out with my house chores?

he loves moses. he even calls him mo-mo.

he thinks we are awesome because all we have in our house is candy. he loves our candy dish. that candy dish was completely full last night. i came home.. empty. i had to add more. i'm hoping i can get him to start vacuuming. gotta keep him happy.

he has better handwriting than me.

oh and on a completely unrelated note. i am sick of my hair. please someone talk me out of chopping it off. or convince me that i should? i need a change! what should i do?

oh and i have been meaning to mention that my mom started a book club blog! you should all go check it out here! she is adorable. i love her!

just because...

2012-02-01T21:17:00.001-07:00

to make up for the lack of moses pictures around here.... here are a few. because i just don't think there are nearly enough pictures of him on this blog. doesn't he look so distinguished in the picture above this? every time sean and i see it, we say "frankly sir, i do declare." just like michael says on the office. with his southern accent. stay tuned.. moses has some exciting news...

careless words.

2012-01-19T15:49:00.001-07:00

last night i stayed up reading this blog. it had me in tears. i mean full blown bawling tears. i am surprised i didn't wake sean up. this poor little boy was born with a rare genetic disorder called EB. any type of friction on his skin would cause blisters that eventually turned to sores that wouldn't heal. as i read through this blog and read the words of his mother, i was truly touched. i can't even how hard it must have been for her. for him. to endure such awful pain. to the point that a diaper change was a monumental task and would require anxiety medication and pain medicine for this poor little boy. he passed away a few days ago. i didn't even know this little boy but it really got to me.

on top of watching her son suffer, reading some of the terrible comments that people would leave her broke my heart. i can't believe how cruel some people are. some people accused her of doing this for publicity. some people would say "how could you let your child suffer like that?" like it was her fault or something? like she had a choice in whether he lives or dies? i loved her responses back to people in this post. this woman is amazing. she went through all of this and a divorce while her son was suffering. she watched her son lose his eyesight. she never got to hear him speak. he required 24 hour care. nights when she got 15 minutes of sleep were considered a good night.

obviously i can't fully grasp this situation since we don't have children yet. but it still makes me so sad. i can't believe how strong this woman is. i don't know if i could have kept my faith through a situation like this. but i hope that she knows how much her story and her son have affected me. i know i only spent about an hour reading the blog.. but i have learned a lot already for her little son. i don't often get religious on here, but she left this scripture in the post where she addressed some mean comments.. and i have been thinking about it all day. i think it is one of my new favorite scriptures.

"I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

—Matthew 12: 36-37

it really makes me want to be more careful about the things that i say. i am really trying to work on this. i have a lot of room for improvement in several areas in my life. this being one of them. i was talking about this with sean on monday, but i think so often we get caught up in petty things and feel like it's okay to say mean things about someone if the person will never hear it. i have seen so many mean comments about people online (some who are very close to me) and in news articles and forums where people rip on who the article or forum is about. maybe they think that that person will never read it. but what if a family member reads it? what if they read it? why is it okay to sit behind our computer screens and say mean things? why do people justify in their minds that that is okay behavior? do they think that since they are not saying it to the persons face that it's okay?

anyway, the pictures on this blog are hard to look at. he is in so much pain. but really this little boy is so amazing. and so beautiful. and so is his mother. she is amazing. if you have some time i encourage you to go over there and check it out. it definitely humbled me and made me feel so ashamed for the silly things i complain about. it also made me want to be more careful about what i say. i need to stop being so careless with my words. it also made me see that even though this disease is not fair.. and pain and sickness and tragedy are not fair... it brings out the love in people. it brings people together. it changes people and makes people better. it allows people to show acts of service that they might not otherwise get the chance to do. it also made me so grateful for all of the things i have and take for granted more than i should. anyway... i just felt like i needed to post about this. to help me remember that i will be held accountable for my actions someday. and to try to better. thanks for reading!

my husband thinks i'm crazy.

2012-01-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

(sorry i couldn't resist. he is just too cute. and probably has dreams to kill me in my sleep one day)

gahhh! i had every intention of starting the new year and being a better blogger. but i failed. good thing i didn't publicly announce that on here. oh wait... just did.

yesterday sean laughed at me all day for apparently doing things that he had never seen me do before.

like vacuuming my coat. what is so unusual about that? he was just jealous he didn't come up with the idea first. because it was brilliant i tell you. brilliant. who needs a dry cleaner? also in his defense it was the first time i had done that. and i will tell you now it definitely won't be the last time. moses sheds. coat's attract hair. vacuums... suck. makes sense... right? it's awesome. also i got side-tracked vacuuming my coat so he ended up vacuuming the rest of the house when i was finished. so i think that makes this whole thing all the more brilliant. and actually i had already sort of vacuumed the house but he had to "fix" it. whatever that means. i'll stick to vacuuming coats sean. you can have the floors.

or plucking my eyebrows while holding my lamp in one hand and my tweezers in the other while balancing my magnifying mirror that has a broken light that makes me want to cry when i look into it because it's just showing too. much. stuff... it's too good at it's job and i hate it but anyway i was balancing that on my knee while plucking my eyebrows with moses at my feet while watching a lifetime movie about "sexting" and i was crying all at the same time. what is so weird about that?

men.

happy 26th birthday sean!

2012-01-08T19:22:00.001-07:00

today is sean's 26th birthday! i can't believe it. i remember when we were engaged and celebrating his 23rd birthday. it seems like just yesterday! sean wanted another gun for his birthday. and since i can't say no whenever he (and moses) flashes those puppy dog eyes, he got a winchester shotgun, a case for it, and a new pair of shoes. we also ate out multiple times this weekend to celebrate. it was a great weekend. i sure hope he had a good birthday! he deserved it!

sean,

i just want you to know how lucky i am to have you. this past week with having the stomach flu? you took such good care of me. thank you for always taking such good care of moses and i. we are so lucky. i still wake up everyday and can't believe that you wanted to be with me. thanks for always making me laugh. for knowing when i'm about to cry and fixing things. for giving me a hug without me having to ask. for understanding the things that i just can't seem to explain. for saying the things that i need to hear when i need to hear them. for being the best thing about my life. i love you! happy birthday seanie!

love chloe and moses

last post of the year.

2011-12-31T14:19:00.004-07:00

as moses and i were pondering a little more about 2011. (don't worry he was really ecstatic while pondering) i realized there was a lot i didn't say in my last post. a lot that happened that i didn't get pictures of. for some reason i don't have very many pictures with my family and that makes me sad. i am so close with my family and love my family so much so i hope the lack of pictures with them don't make it seem otherwise! my goal for next year is to be better at that taking pictures with them. anyway, in no random order here are some of the other things that happened in 2011.

sean had a liver biopsy. things came back showing he had "fatty liver". could be serious someday but not for now. we finished our patio. we got 2 trees for our yard. i went to the gym several days in a row! sean got the best grade in the class in the hardest one he has ever taken. sean went to california with my family. i stayed home and worked and hung out with moses. we watched lots of movies. we went camping with moses and got stuck in a rainstorm on the way home with windshield wipers that broke. we went up to sundance with my family. it was beautiful. 4 of my cousin's had babies this year. 2 more already on the way for next year so far! i had four cousins and one brother in law get married this year. all with in three months. it was crazy. i don't think i've ever been to more bridal showers and baby showers in such a short amount of time. we took moses up into the mountain several times to run around. he loved it. we bought a rice cooker. sean played lots of old school nintendo on the wii. we went to torrey to visit my grandparents with some friends and sam and sarah. we made the coolest trays in the world. my grandparents are awesome. we also ate lots of ramen noodles and toast and hardly spent any money when we really buckled down so we could reach our savings goal. we did it. it was worth it. we won our co-ed softball championship. we got lots of mosquito bites. we planted our first garden.

we did lots of things this year that we had never done before. nothing major happened this year if you compare it to our first and second year together but i honestly think it was all the little things that made it an awesome year. i probably cried more this year than any other, but i definitely laughed and smiled even more than that. moses and sean really are my best buddies. i really am the luckiest girl in the world.

p.s. one of my favorite moments was actually last night. when sean and i actually spent ten minutes trying to decide what tv show to leave on for moses while we left for the evening. i don't think i have ever laughed harder when we were debating certain tv shows. you definitely had to be there. i felt that it was important that we leave something on tv that moses will actually like. that would actually interest him. i thought animal planet. sean thought national geographic. we settled on a show called "the whale that exploded". moses seems a little traumatized today though now that i think about it..

a glimpse of 2011

2011-12-31T12:07:00.001-07:00

january:

february:

we went on our first cruise. took off from florida and went to belize, costa maya, and cozumel.

march:

april:

may:

devin and katie got married on may 26th. it was a beautiful day.

in june we got to go to harley davidson and watch everyone take off

on the memorial ride for matt wagstaff (our brother in law jason's brother)

july:

in august we went camping. sean started his second to last semester of school.

in september we got some pictures were were meaning to get closer to march.

oh well haha. sean had allergies and suffered through the entire 20 min. shoot.

in october and part of november we looked after brandon's dogs koda and riley. moe fell in love with koda and has been heartbroken ever since she left. october was so crazy with three dogs that this is honestly all i really remember about it.. oh wait. sean got offered a new job and after a lot of prayer and thought left first colony. he now works at mountain west small business finance and is really enjoying it. i am so proud of him.

in december we bought our first big christmas tree. i made a tree skirt. shocking, i know! sean finished his 2nd to last semester of school and we both stayed super busy at work. this month moses also proved to us he could be in the house all day alone. we are so proud of him!

i know this is just a glimpse of 2011. but it's been a great year. sean and i were talking last night about how we think this might be our favorite year yet. we didn't really know what to expect but i think we had a lot of fun this year and grew a lot closer than we thought we could. we reached a lot of our goals and hey! i ran my pretend 5k! haha. and haven't really ran since... but no really, it's been a year. good and bad but mostly good. with sean graduating in april and some other fun stuff planned? i am really excited to see what 2012 brings us! i think it's going to be a great year.

spontaneous?

2011-12-29T21:17:00.006-07:00

i had a crappy day at work. just to be honest with you. i was grumpy and probably unpleasant to be around. but it got better and when i came home from work sean was making me chicken parm. he has had the week off so he decided to make dinner. he pretty much winged it but it was so delicious! the sauce was homemade and so good. sean got me all new pots and pans for christmas (do you think that was a hint?) so he got to test those out too. they are great! never thought i'd be excited about pots and pans. oh the life of an adult... i'm still in denial about it though.

and you might be thinking "but they have only been married almost three years.. why would they need new pots and pans already?" well clearly you all know i don't cook often so it's not like we needed new ones because ours were so worn out. we just never got new ones when we got married... kinda felt like a bridal shower on christmas morning. but it was awesome. i mean that in a good way! thank to sean's sister amanda though for letting us have their old ones when we got married! i promise they did get used...

moving on. . we also wanted to test out the apple tv sean got from my parents for christmas by renting a movie on itunes. we thought we were being all spontaneous. we were both excited. to hear sean say he wants to watch a movie at home is a rare thing for some reason. we go to movies all the time, but i guess we don't watch them at home together that often because he is usually doing homework. i however love movies and watch them all the time. i got all excited and we got in our pj's and got out the cupcakes i brought home...

i asked sean how long you get to keep a rented movie for on itunes and he said 30 days. but if you start watching it you only have 24 hours to finish it. we sat down to "rent" the movie off itunes... and it said "7 hours remaining". then it went down to 4 hours. then jumped up to 10. suck! so much for being spontaneous! we decided we better plan our spontaneity in the morning. so that it can download all day while we are work. then when we get home and the movie is ready to go then we can pretend we were suddenly spontaneous. planning to be spontaneous. ha. no one has to know the truth... except .. now everyone knows. crap. also we decided that they give you 30 days because that is how long it takes to download a movie! or maybe it's just because we are cheap and got the slowest speed internet. meh who knows?

oh well. anyway, i have been meaning to put together a year in review post but i'm too lazy to get it done tonight.. i'll get around to it eventually. maybe next year... ha. after today at work my brain hurts. i can't believe this year is almost over! where did it go? so glad tomorrow is friday!

christmas through pictures.

2011-12-28T00:00:00.003-07:00

let's just say it's been a great christmas. we are both worn out. which means it was good right? going back and forth all over the place is exhausting. but totally worth it. i wish i could have gotten pictures from all the parties that we went to but i forgot. we feel so blessed and my only wish is that i had the rest of the week off like sean. too bad my job is always the busiest during the last week of the month. i'll just let these pictures and the words on them do the talking for now. p.s. sorry some of the picture quality isn't the best. indoor at night = not ideal for pictures.

sean got his boots and waders so he is one happy camper. haha.. no pun intended but it is now. i should have gotten a picture of him trying those on. it was hilarious. i promise one day i will get one! i hope you all had some very happy holidays! we had our last family party tonight up in salt lake at david's kitchen. it was delicious! i have a huge, busy week at work this week so i better get to bed!

christmas around our neighborhood.

2011-12-23T12:32:00.002-07:00

the people in our neighborhood are so cute! i love it!

look at all these treats! i am in treat heaven over here!

also i forgot to put a picture up on tuesday.
i am trying to do one everyday if possible. now that i say
that on here it won't happen though. i love the pumpkin patch
turned tree lot near our house. so cute.

also.. so happy it is friday. i can't believe christmas is almost here!
only half day at work today. i have to go grab a few more things.
we just found out last minute that we need to take white elephant
gifts to one of the parties we are going to. nice ones.
so i have to go get that and moses some christmas dog treats.

then the rest of the afternoon will be spent making stuff for our
parties tomorrow and wrapping the rest of our gifts.
i love christmas! i hope you all have happy holidays!

rasta-moses!

2011-12-21T21:48:00.003-07:00

peace and love ya'll,
moses

p.s. my dog wants to kill me.

natural remedies.

2011-12-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

or maybe unnatural? oh well. i don't care . . .
. . . he even unwrapped my candy for me.
i don't know what i did to deserve him.

p.s. moses is a toast snob. he won't eat bread anymore unless it's toasted.
and he prefers my mom's raspberry peach jam. i'm so proud.

browned butter chocolate chip cookies.

2011-12-18T23:10:00.001-07:00

my friend lee made me these cookies one day and i haven't been able to make a different kind since. they are delicious. i cannot thank her enough for introducing me to it. browning the butter is genius. it is also kind of fun too! i also love any excuse to use the whisk. not sure why but when i was little i though whisks were so cool. these cookies are amazing. and trust me i know my cookies! i have tried so many chocolate chip cookie recipes. i have always been on the hunt for the best one and i love these. i make them at least once a week. i thought it was time for me to share the recipe.

i forgot to get a picture of the browning butter though. oh well! it's not that hard to do. the browned butter gives the cookie a toffee, nutty, caramel-y taste and i added some sea salt this time instead of table salt. also i never add nuts to my cookies. and i only cooked these for 9 and a half minutes. i prefer a chewy softer cookie. these always hit the spot. i wish i could track down where this recipe came from to give the amazing inventor credit. lee got it from a friend, who got it from somewhere on pinterest, i believe. i have it saved as a draft in my email. i will post it on here but i promise to eventually find out where it is from!

also these are huge! i usually make 16 huge one like the recipe says, but this time i made them a little smaller because sean wanted to take some to his co-workers. i made about 22. if something seems off or different when you are making them that's because they are different. you won't have a crumbly dough. if you follow all the directions it is fail proof. and in my opinion much easier and cleaner even though you have to brown the butter. also i didn't have parchment paper. i just greased the pan and it worked fine.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 3/4cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces)
1/2teaspoon baking soda
14tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1/2cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
3/4cups packed dark brown sugar (5 1/4 ounces)
1teaspoon table salt (i use sea salt)
2teaspoons vanilla extract (i use mexican vanilla)
1large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (i use milk but they are good with semisweet too)
3/4cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (i did not use nuts. not a fan.)

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.)

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes (I did 9 1/2 minutes), rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

saturday afternoon and evening.

2011-12-17T23:04:00.001-07:00

remind me to never, ever go shopping on the weekend before christmas ever again. i'd rather wait until christmas eve because in my theory most people have all their shopping done by then and only the procrastinators like myself are out scrambling around. shopping today was a madhouse! sean and i both went by ourselves and i think we both got EVERYTHING done. finally. i can't believe it. i am relieved yet still stressed out about it all. i feel like when i shop under stress i just spend too much money. oh well. it's done and i think we did alright!

i almost got in a fight with a lady in a minivan in the mall parking lot. she though i cut her off at a 3 way stop but she didn't realize that she had a stop-sign and i had the right of way because i was there first. she acted like i had just done the most horrible thing to her. left me some awesome hand signals and saw her mouth some words to me. she had kids with her in the car. i honestly couldn't believe it. what is it with people at this time of year? what happen to just being nice to people? i love christmas time. but i hate when it makes people act that way!

other than crazy shopping today we went to my niece makayla's piano recital. she did amazing! i forgot to take my camera in and only had my phone so i didn't get the greatest pictures but that's okay. she is so talented for a 9 year old. it amazes me. i wish i could play the piano! i honestly hardly ate anything today until tonight when i stopped on the way home to get some slab pizzas. i got home and we ate it and wrapped presents. when i walked in the house i found the sign below on one of the bedroom doors upstairs. haha. sean is so funny. moses wanted to go in there with him so bad but he takes his present wrapping very seriously. not even moses was allowed to see what i got from him. we ended the night with a moses/chloe stare down. i didn't win. sigh. i'm exhausted. i think i'll call it a night..

saturday morning.

2011-12-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

off to my nieces piano recital! and to do some more christmas shopping. oh and an update on the car. i bought it from my uncle 6 years ago and we found out he replaced the timing belt right before i bought it. it had a lot of miles on it before i bought it. so he made sure to take care of it before he sold it to me. i love him! we didn't know because it's one of those things you can't really be so sure of unless you get in there and take it apart. so glad that we found this out before we did anything. i am so relieved.

a good start to the day.

2011-12-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

lucky.

2011-12-15T19:54:00.001-07:00

sean's out tonight for guys night and some christmas shopping. i am guessing that the christmas shopping is for me because i was not allowed to come. boo. we had a ward christmas party tonight but i got home late and didn't want to go alone so here we are. it's just me and the mo here tonight. which i guess is typical since sean is normally in class anyway. it's been a long week. sean finished his second to last semester yesterday. i can't believe that he only has one more to go. it's been a long few years but it also seems to have gone by so fast. life is crazy like that though, eh? i am so proud of him.

tonight moses and i just have plans to watch christmas movies, drink diet dr.pepper, chew on some bones, maybe make some toast or some cookies (or both), and just relax. work seems to be insane for me this time of year. i guess people like to buy new homes for christmas. i get it. it's just hard to be so busy with so many fun things going on at this time of year though. i can't complain though. my job truly is a blessing. it's hard not be grateful for it. especially at this time of year.

i was being a grump today because we were getting a wheel bearing fixed on our honda and found out that we need a new timing belt and some other things that go along with that. like pretty soon because if it goes out then it could affect the engine. i get it. the car is older. it has a lot of miles on it. but we replaced the clutch 2 years ago for a lot of money and then found out that getting this fixed will cost the same plus the cost of the wheel bearing. not even sure it's worth it. but i don't want to buy another car and have 2 car payments. this car is paid off. what to do?

i let it ruin part of my day and i shouldn't have. i didn't intend to but i think i might have made sean feel like it was his fault or something. i know sean wasn't happy about having to fork out that money either.. but he didn't let it ruin his day. so why should i? gosh stupid hormones. it was not his fault and i knew it. i was just upset about it. the last thing i want to do is spend that much money on a car at christmas time. i was reminded by a co-worker that i am lucky to even have 2 cars. so many people make it work with one. and we could even survive with out a car believe it or not. (shocker i know! but apparently there didn't used to be cars.. and people lived! wha??? ha..) he was right. i am lucky to have everything that i have. it's just a car. i shouldn't feel so entitled that i should have perfect cars and never any problems in life. because then i wouldn't know how to be grateful for anything. i should just be grateful that it's just a car. it's nothing more serious. life will go on.

it really made me step back and realize how lucky i am. and i take it for granted every single day. i am going to work on that. i am ashamed of myself. but i know i am only human. i have an amazing husband who would do anything for me. i have the best dog in the whole world. we both have such amazing families. we both work for such awesome companies and have a roof over our heads. we have food in our bellies and coats to keep up warm. sure... fixing a car is sure an inconvenience. not exactly what i wanted to be spending money on around christmas.. but i should just be grateful that i even have a car, the money in savings to get it fixed, and a husband who takes care of it all and forgives an ungrateful me when i let silly little things ruin my day. i am really lucky and need to be more grateful. sorry.. i didn't mean to get all serious here. just needed to vent a little and make myself accountable to be more grateful. we haven't officially decided yet what to do about the car either... but i am not worried about it anymore. it will all work out. it always does.

on a lighter note, i will leave you with this...

what? another picture of moses? sorry if you are sick of them. but i could never get sick of them.

this picture cracks me up. i like to think he is just "soakin' it all in". you know.. christmas and all. i mean it's not like i haven't made him watch a million christmas movies with me or anything. i am sure he loves christmas just as much as i do.

what this picture doesn't tell you . . .

2011-12-14T21:30:00.007-07:00

. . . is that moses bonked his head into my mouth after this was taken. gave me a fat, bloody lip.

still love him though. i mean, how could you not love that sweet face?
also.. i guess i can't blame him. i practically forced him to snuggle with me.
although at first he was willing. so it's not all my fault... right?

simplify

2011-12-13T23:29:00.002-07:00

i am trying to simplify my life. since last night's post i realized i talk too much. okay i lied. i already was aware. i'll still talk on here. probably a lot. but i am going to try to talk less sometimes and just use a picture and very few words. i tend to ramble and take way too long to explain things. i was inspired by the tumblr lila was here. which is amazing by the way. i love it. i have mad respect for her to just post one picture a day with very few words. that takes restraint and self control my friends. and decisiveness. i could use them all that's for sure...

oooo look at me being domestic!

2011-12-12T23:26:00.003-07:00

it's sean's last week of school before the semester is over. he has two more finals this week and will be done on wednesday night. i can't tell you how excited i am. oh i guess he is probably excited too. one more semester to go! ahhhh! usually on monday and wednesday nights sean doesn't get home until 8:30 or so. then he has tons of homework on top of that. well tonight he was home before i was! he doesn't have class this week. just finals.

well i thought since he was home i would make dinner while he was studying. this does not happen often. me cooking dinner. i mean unless you count cereal, ramen, and toast as making dinner. then yes. i make dinner all the freakin time. but it's getting hard to come up with a different type of toast every night. it'd also hard to cook every night when he isn't going to be home until late. yeah, yeah, maybe that makes me a bad wife but oh well. i work full time and have way too many tv show commitments. (priorities people!) he is usually too tired when he gets home anyway to really care what i cook. anyway since he was home i decided to make some spaghetti. i think sean almost had a heart attack. he must have thought i was sick or something because i was cooking. he says he doesn't care that i don't cook often. but why should i? he is the better cook. baking though? i love to bake. i love to bake cookies and treats probably a lot more than sean loves to eat the things i bake though. oh well. he is crazy. probably.

i saw some biscuits on pinterest that i wanted to try. they are supposed to be like those red lobster biscuits? well when i actually looked at the recipe i decided i was just going to make my own out of bisquick. because i thought the recipe was made out of bisquick but these ones weren't and i was too tired to look for one with bisquick and had already bought the bisquick and also i am just trying to see how many times i can say bisquick in this post.

anyway, i had no clue what i was doing. just threw some stuff together but sean liked them so i will count it as a success! i only burned one finger in the process and it was my pinky and who needs that finger anyway. but eff it hurts like a mother. moving on. i will post the recipe below. just so that i don't forget it haha. feel free to try them. they were super easy! we spent the rest of night eating ice cream in bed while watching 2 broke girls and elf. it's been a good night. i sure like having him around...

i'll just call these

"wanna-be red lobster cheesy biscuits but not quite there. yet" (cuz let's face it, that is the only reason i go to red lobster.. sean and i aren't fish people. they actually make a very mean creamy chicken fettuccine pasta thing... oh man. so good.)

what you will need for the biscuit part: (i say that like there is a non-biscuit part but there isn't)

2 1/4 cups bisquick
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese. heck i can't lie i used more than that though.
1 clove of garlic minced... ish. remember i just kinda guessed.
1/2 teaspoon-ish salt
2/3 cup milk

mix all that together. if the batter is too runny add more bisquick. if it's too dry add more milk. should be kind of sticky but not runny or dry.

then i used an ice cream scoop and put onto a greased pan. it made 9 biscuits. put some extra cheese on the top and baked at 425F for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

meanwhile, i made a buttery topping:

3 tablespoons of butter
1/2 clove of garlic minced
dry parsley.. i probably did about 1/2 teaspoon.

(warning. this buttery stuff is yummy. i almost drank it but then immediately felt my cholesterol go up just looking at it so i refrained. i am slightly regretting that.)

melt that in the microwave.

when the biscuits are done you will pour the butter topping on top of the biscuits. i used a spoon. if i would have had a brush i would have brushed them on. then sprinkle some garlic salt on top.

anyway that is it! i thought they were pretty good for how easy they were and how i didn't really know what i was doing! just sort of made it up.. nothing beats red lobsters but oh well! sorry if you make these and they turn out awful! i am just posting this so i don't forget it.

p.s. one day i hope to write a post and make it short. sigh. it's like impossible to do. i know that people probably see lots of words on my posts and skim over them. i totally understand. i can't stop... typing!! i need to learn how to simplify. it's why i have that word on a sign in my kitchen. yet it's not helping me... aren't those signs and quotes supposed to help just by being there??!? well they don't. they freaking don't. anyway. working on it.....

p.s.s. oh crap here i go again. anyway, besides my blog posts being ridiculously long.. at our work party the other night i decided to bring sean. he doesn't work there anymore but i thought what the hay.. i'll bring him. also you could bring your spouses but that is besides the point. anyway we did a trivia game thing with all the employees and everyone had to submit a fact about themselves that people might not know. well since sean used to work there he looked at the sheet and tried to guess which one was mine. guess what he said? "i think it's this one. because it's the longest." WHA?!??? he was wrong. but then he found the 2nd longest one and it was mine. shoot. i suck.

p.s.s.s. my trivia thing was that i committed a federal crime. when i was 5. i'm such a bad a.......

all about moses.

2011-12-09T13:42:00.006-07:00

i have so many pics of moses right now. so this is pretty much a moses photo dump! all but the first three are from my phone. mostly of moses just being mopey and cute. watching christmas movies with me. one is of my nintendogs game that i got for christmas three years ago. my mom bought me a nintendo ds and a nintendogs game to satisfy my puppy hunger. it didn't help for long though haha. i pulled out the game the other day. it's been over 2 years since i have played it.. and my dogs were still alive! haha.. i love that we actually ended up with a moe. he may have been a chocolate lab in the game.. but look! he has a red collar and everything! i know.. i'm a nerd.

the pictures with the dog food? well moses does this thing lately where he picks up his food and puts it in piles all over the house. some piles he refuses to eat. it's like certain pieces aren't good enough for him. but the other day he would eat all but this one piece of dog food. he kept picking up the one piece and putting it in certain places. if i tried to take it and pretend to eat it (i know i'm insane.. but i thought it might make him jealous and he would therefore eat it) then he would bark at me and freak out. it was so funny. i wonder what goes through his head.

moses has been so funny lately. usually while we are at work in the day moses is in the garage. i know.. so boring. i feel so bad for him but we do not have a fence yet and it's worked out. he seems to enjoy it just fine. well this past week in utah has been FREEZING. and it is so cold in the garage. so last sunday while we went to church we decided to leave moe in the house for three hours. unattended. we came back expecting the worst. but nothing was out of place. no accidents. nothing. well monday seemed to be even colder and i didn't want to leave him in the garage. but i was scared to let him roam around the house for 9 hours. afraid of what he would get into. i was so scared to come home. but when i got home? the house looked... dare i say.. cleaner than before i left it? i think moses is a magical dog.

we have left him inside all week. usually he hears us open the garage so he runs to the door to greet us. but i have tried to sneak up on him a few times and not open the garage and just park outside and go through the back door. the first day i tried that he heard the door and came running down the stairs. so i assumed he was up on our bed. yesterday i got home... and caught him. on the couch. and he was seriously snuggled in blankets. he knows he isn't supposed to be on the couch unless its on a blanket. so he made sure to only lay on the blankets. it was so funny. the last picture i took of him through the window. that's why it's kind of trippy. isn't he the cutest thing ever? gosh i just love him. i didn't know it was possible to love another dog this much.. but i do. he is like my child. i can't get over it. i also can't believe how good he turned out to be. i am so proud that we can now leave him in the house and he will keep it nice and clean and make it cleaner (haha). i don't feel as bad leaving him alone all day. he is such a great dog!

friday!

2011-12-02T16:31:00.001-07:00

so last christmas sean's parents gave us a gift card to go stay at the anniversary inn for a night in salt lake! they also included free puppy sitting in that. (thanks amanda for helping out with that!) we are just finally getting around to using it tonight. we are so excited and so grateful that they gave this to us! i told sean that i only have one request.. that we eat at z'tejas. i ate there once about 5 years ago at the gateway and have been wanting to go back ever since. i had a pork tenderloin that was to die for.

we also want to go see the lights at temple square and get some shopping in tonight or tomorrow if we have time. okay maybe we is not the right word. i really want to go check out the new h & m and crate & barrell... that will probably take some convincing on my part though. neither of us are huge shoppers but i still want to go check it out! we will see if sean goes along with it. besides, shopping at christmas time with all the lights and christmas stuff makes me happy!

p.s. i got a new belt and it was a little bit too long. the solution thanks to pinterest? a knot! love it! and you are welcome for cropping out the rest of my crotch.... sigh... and sorry for saying crotch. is there a better word for it though? probably.. i just don't know it though.

sean's new ring.

2011-12-01T10:19:00.002-07:00

haha maybe this is a silly thing to be blogging about.. but this is sean's new wedding ring on my thumb. he has lost his original wedding ring before.. usually he leaves it all over the place and i sometimes hide it to freak him out a little bit... you know. make him sweat a little. this time though.. we can't find it anywhere. luckily the original was only $60. we just went back to the website we got that one at and got this one for $50. free shipping. and i ordered it on monday.. and it got here wednesday. they told me it would be 7 days. how cool is that?

this ring is much different than his other ring. i wanted to get him something totally different in case the other one turns up. then he can pick which one he wants to wear.. don't you think maybe i should get another one too? just to be fair? ha... totally kidding. anyway, this one is titanium and so much lighter. his other one was black tungsten and had 2 silver stripes in it. he likes them both! but then again he would probably like anything.

it's so unromantic shopping for a men's ring. (at least for us. we aren't the most romantic pair. we pretend to try sometimes but usually just end up laughing hysterically) anyway, it's like:

"hey which one do you like?"

"eh. i dunno. that one works."

"ya sure?"

"yep."

"cool. done."

bam we have it 2 days later.

also missing: our checkbook and my glasses case... sigh. we are ridiculous.

phone dump.

2011-11-30T16:49:00.002-07:00

i know it's not friday but i have some random pics on my phone

and since i didn't do this last week i am just gonna do it now!

*sean sewing the hole in my sweat pants....they already re-ripped..oops.*

*delicious yummy browned butter chocolate chip cookies*

*admiring the view of the tree from the couch*

*moses watching tangled with me*

*another one of moses watching tangled. his crossed legs kill me. i love it.*

*my little mo-mo*

*a picture of sean, his dad, brother devin and brother in law jason from disneyland.

we found it while going through christmas stuff*

*babysitting my cousin jenessa's little boy madden! he is so cute!*

*i bought burlap to make a tree skirt. moses had to be laying on it at all times while chewing on the old skirt.

it made it difficult to get anything done. it was so cute though. he thought it was his new bed*

*the finished tree skirt!*

*i love our tree*

*sean and i have this thing... we love to see the odometer hit milestones. like probably more than most people. it silly, but we discovered we both liked this after we got married. the other day our toyota was about to hit 20,000 miles. i selflessly told sean he could take the car that day so he could be there for it. he selflessly insisted no. so i broke the law and was stupid (don't worry mom, nothing bad happened and no one was injured and i won't do it again) but took a picture of it while driving at 19,999 and 20,000. texted it to him and said, "see, it's like you were right here with me!" he responded back and said "that right there is why i married you!" (don't worry. i already know we are weird)*

this one is not from my phone but this beautiful antique desk belongs to sean's sister amanda! she is letting us store this in our house until they move into a new place. i wanted her to see how it looked in our entry way! i love this desk... i hope i can find something just like it when she takes it back!

our tree.

2011-11-27T15:54:00.003-07:00

this year we decided it was time to get a bigger tree. since we have been married we have had a small 4.5 foot tree that sean's sister gave us! we have loved it but felt like it was time to get a bigger one. on black friday we decided to check out target to see if we could find anything because we had to get a rice cooker there anyway. we found a $60 6.5 foot pre-lit tree on sale for $30! sweet! and there was no line at the check-out. not too shabby for black friday! i love target. later that day i went to tai pan and got 20% off a bunch of ornaments and stuff for the tree. it's still not a very big tree, but our house isn't very big so it will work just fine for now! i don't feel like the red tree skirt we had for our old tree goes with this one so i am planning to make one! also my friend lee suggested putting an "A" for ashby as a tree topper instead of a star. so i went with it! anyway, here is our tree! oh and p.s. that clock doesn't work. well it does but i took the batteries out because it was loud. so the first picture was taken at night and the rest around noon. not that that really matters. but whatev... oh and this post will probably be really long and boring.. so feel free to just look at the pictures if you want!

growing up? we never had a tree that had matching ornaments. everything was home-made and mismatched and i loved it that way! every ornament has it's own story. as kids we always got a new ornament every year. my parents tree is full of random stuff now and i think it's pretty neat. it's a little hard to start out a tree like that though so for now this one is a little more themed. but we have been starting our mismatched collection since we got married! thanks to sean and my parents.

sean is a little more sentimental then he lets on. while we were engaged he always told me how much he loved my parents tree. he promised me then that he would find a new ornament every year that would represent something that happened that past year. this will be our third married christmas. so far we have one for 2009 and one for 2010. he will give me 2011 as a gift on christmas eve. in 2009 he gave me a lady and the tramp ornament to represent our first year of marriage. in 2010 he found this snoopy ornament with snoopy's dog house because last year we got our first dog and bought our first home. i love it. i don't really know what he will come up with this year since nothing really major happened.. but i am sure he will come up with something sweet.

the christmas we were engaged, my parents gave us some ornaments to put on their tree. since we have been married they have given us one every year to put on our tree. in 2009 they gave sean that grill ornament because sean got a new grill and he was a little obsessed with it. this one lights up and the hamburger patties spell ho ho ho! i love it. one of my favorite christmas movies since i was a very little girl is mickey's christmas carol. i own it on dvd now and watch it all the time. growing up though we recorded it on VHS on tv and tried to watch it every year. it even has all the old school commercials on it. i actually love that version more than the dvd. anyway, hallmark comes out with a new or different ornament for mickey's christmas carol every year. i think they might do it in phases or something but that is why we have one of bob cratchit (mickey) and then ebenezer scrooge. i love them. can't wait to see what we get this year!

anyway. if it is not obvious yet.. christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. i'll admit i listen to christmas music on the radio way before thanksgiving. they won't admit it, but i think it drives sean and the rest of my friends and family nuts so now i just do it when i am alone. it puts me in such a good mood. i just love christmas and want to spread it out for as long as possible. besides.. there is no thanksgiving music that i am aware of and if there were it would probably be weird. also i love baking and feel like the holiday season gives me more chances to make cookies and yummy treats. but let's be real here. i pretty much do that all year round anyway. and who could complain about that anyway? but hey! i didn't decorate until after thanksgiving so people can't be too mad at me! :) right now i am watching home alone 2 lost in new york. i actually watched it last night while babysitting and recorded it. so i am watching it again. elf has been on the past three nights on TBS and i have it on almost every night. last night i switched back and forth from home alone and elf. oh and don't worry.. i own all these movies. but i can't not watch them when they are on tv. in fact the first dvd i ever purchased with my first media play gift card was home alone.

i used to make myself sick every year at christmas because i would get too overly excited on christmas eve. i would get so anxious that i would throw up and have to go lay down while everyone partied. i have gotten a little better about that... but yes. i just love christmas. and i can't keep secrets from sean so i have to wait until the last minute to get him anything or else i'll end up trying to give it to him early. or the surprise will get ruined by ~~golds gym!~~ anyway. i don't have all our decorations up yet.. but here are a few! every year i mean to add our names to those stockings but i just haven't gotten around to it. yeah. i am lazy. sean's is the reindeer one and mine is the one with the tree. we even have one for moses but it's not pictured.

thanksgiving.

2011-11-27T15:00:00.001-07:00

it has been a great weekend. let's just say we spent a lot of time eating and a lot of time with family. i didn't really get any pictures of it so oh well! that is not really what matters i suppose. i love thanksgiving and am so grateful for all of my blessings. i love both of our families so much. i love this time of year because it brings back memories of getting engaged. sean proposed to me the tuesday night before thanksgiving. i can't believe that was 3 years ago. and you don't have to read this next part. it's meant for sean and i am going to brag a little here. i hate bragging and don't even want that to be what i am doing. so maybe i will just say i am being honest here. i need him to know how much he means to me. and since this is our blog i am going to do it. i honestly can't believe how lucky i am to have scored a guy like sean, but every day i wake up thinking it can't be real because i am pretty crazy and can't figure out why he would marry a girl like me.

sean is so selfless, humble, sweet, giving, hard-working, smart, silly, sarcastic, hilarious, genuine, and honest. he would hate that i am doing this on here. he is so humble and hates being the center of attention. he has a hard time admitting that he is good at things. even when he is good at them. he is not often a man of many words. don't get me wrong though he can talk and has a lot to say about a lot of stuff. i should say he is not a man of many words when it comes to certain topics. he doesn't really like to talk about his feelings or get emotional if you know what i mean. but when he does? i know he means it. and besides, his actions say more than words could ever. he does so many things for me that he doesn't think i will ever notice. but i do. he scrapes my windows for me (well while we had both cars parked outside when we had the dogs in the garage) even if it will make him late for work. and now that the dogs aren't in the garage he lets me park in the garage. we could fit both cars but we have all moses stuff in there so for now we only park one car in there.

he ~~lets me~~ insists that i drive the newer, safer car. and he takes the old one that used to be mine.. that is not in the garage and is freezing in the morning. because he wants to make sure that i'll be in a safe car. don't get me wrong. the car is safe but it's older and tends to have more minor issues come up. he can handle a minor car issue. i ..... would probably freak out and not know what to do if the car broke down. okay... it has happened before and i don't handle it well... anyway he does all this after he turned in his truck. his baby. he loved that thing. he still let me take the nice car. he gave up his favorite thing in the whole world because he knew that it would mean for a better future for us. it was cheaper on gas and repairs and payment.. and so he gave it up. and he then let me drive the new car that we traded the truck for. he sees the big picture. he knew that doing all of this would put us into a house sooner. i love that he thinks ahead. he puts the most money that work will allow into his retirement and 401K to ensure that we will have a good future. even if it means we don't get that money now. i love that he sees the big picture when i don't always.

he folds the laundry that i start. he makes me toast when i am running late. he doesn't care when i just make cereal or cookies for dinner. he embraces it. he organizes my life for me when i am a mess. physically and emotionally. he treats other people with so much kindness. he is never mean to waiters and i love that. he treats others with so much respect and always tries to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. and i wish i could be like that. i am sorry, i don't mean to be all braggy on here. there are tons of amazing husbands out there! i don't think anyone has the best husband in the whole world. this is not a competition. and i don't think sean is the best husband in the world. but he is the best husband for me. i just feel like i can't let this month pass by and not express how grateful i am for him.

a few months ago sean won a gift card in a contest. he got to pick a $30 gift card to anywhere. he chose nordstom (RIP soon orem nordstrom). nordstrom. why would he pick that you ask? because he gave it to me. he could have easily picked home depot or sports authority but he wanted me to buy something nice for myself. i actually found out before he gave it to me because he won it on facebook and i entered the same contest. so when they said "sean ashby chose a gift card to nordstrom!!" i got a little suspicious and confronted him in fear that he might not like girls anymore... haha totally kidding. but if you know sean you would know he is not a nordstrom type of guy. anyway it's those selfless acts he does that mean the most to me. he didn't have to do that. but he never even thought twice about it. he doesn't just do this kind of stuff for me. he would do it for anyone. anyway, i will stop. i know it can get kinda annoying reading these kinds of things. but this is for sean. sean... i love you so much! i know i can be difficult sometimes. and a mess most of the time. and it's probably pretty rare that i am actually pleasant to be around. but for some reason you hold out for those moments. it's probably cliche to say this but i can't really find the words to express it. just know that i love you!

on a lighter note.. i am sad the weekend is almost over. i am going to finish it up lying in bed and watching movies and football with my moses and sean. while drinking diet dr. pepper. and making a delicious treat.... in fact i am doing all that now... minus the delicious treat. i better get on that. i hope you all have had a great weekend!

fill in the blank friday and phone dump!

2011-11-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

this is going to be 2 posts in one! fill in the blank friday and friday phone dump. i meant to do these pictures last week but didn't get around to it. sorry they are kind of old! i'll start with fill in the blank friday.

1. A nervous habit I have is: pacing. especially while i am on the phone.

2. Something that makes me sad is: when people go out of their way to post on social media sites or their blogs about things that other people do that bother them... knowing that the people that do those things are going to see it. does that make sense? i just think it is passive aggressive and unnecessary. there is so much negativity in the world anyway. why make it worse? is it worth ruining someones day just to get that off your chest? i am so sorry if i have ever done that to anyone! i really am. and i realize that it's kind of hypocritical of me to say all this. i just think it's really not that hard to be nice! i know how sensitive i can be and it's hard not to take those things personal when you see people say things like that when you know you have done the things that they mentioned. or that you wear the kind of clothes or listen to the kind of music that they just said they hate. i try to be very careful about what i say on facebook and my blog.. but nobody is perfect. so like i said, i am so sorry if i have ever said anything to offend anyone! i really love the kind-hearted blogger campaign! and i promise this is not directed at anyone specific! don't think you have done these things! it's usually random people that i don't really know but am somehow acquainted with or follow on twitter. and it's dumb of me to ever even take it personal. yet i do.... i have problems. sometimes i just wish i didn't care. and yes.. things bug me all the time! i am only human! but i think some things are just better left unsaid is all..

3. Today I am thankful for: the fact that it is friday. and that my brother and his wife might move next to the house that is next to me!

4. My favorite room in my house is my: bedroom. it is so cozy and i just love watching tv in there with sean and moe.

5. I can't stand: people who drive and have no awareness of anything around them! also people who are mean for no reason. it really bothers me when people are mean to waiters and waitresses. if you aren't happy about something, it is okay to handle it kindly!

6. If I had an extra $100 to spend on whatever I wanted today: i would buy some new clothes or put it towards a new gun for sean.

7. The last person I hung out with was: sean and our friends colby and kaylynn! we went to breaking dawn last night. they had tickets through colby's work. haha.. the movie was interesting.. not my favorite in the series but so entertaining going with them. it was so much fun. we might have gone to the wrong theatre and ended up having to sit in the 2nd to front row? but it was still a blast. we had some yummy chipotle and i believe that great company can make anything fun! also... it was kind of funny watching seans face. he has never seen any of the twilight movies and had no idea what was going on.

and here is my phone dump:

1. sean and moses watching the latest pearl jam documentary. PJ20.

2. my awesome friend jesica's baby girl addie! love them both!

3. my niece addi sneaking sips of diet dr. pepper! that cup is almost as big as her!

4. another sleepy moses picture.

5. malawi's delicious pb cup smore dessert pizza... with nutella on it. seriously AMAZING. smorgasmic!

6. the beautiful sunset we had a few days ago.

7. this was not from my phone but from our little overnight trip to my sister in law's family cabin!

some of my favorite things right now.

2011-11-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

*my new camera. i love playing around with it. i am by no means a photographer and never will be. but i like to learn. and there is nothing wrong with learning how to take better pictures. right? haha and i am not implying that these are good.. just for the record.*

*noir from victoria's sercret. my favorite perfume ever. sean always gets me a new bottle for christmas. i ran out early and was just trying to hold out until christmas but yesterday he came home from work with what he calls "the circus bag". he thinks the store looks like a circus with all the stripes. anyway. he said he had a rough, stressful day. so to make himself feel better he wanted to get me something to make me happy. he got the biggest bottle they had. seriously. he is way too good to me and i don't deserve it. it totally made my day. he is so selfless. i have so much to learn from him.*

*sleepy moses*

*moses and my blanket. two of my three favorite things in this world. throw in some chocolate and i am set! just teasin'... it's sean..perhaps holding something chocolatey.. *

*i have sonic cups like this all over the place. at work. in my cupboard at work. in my car. on my nightstand. i need help. hey, i like to re-use them, k? but yes. i just love sonic! today a co-worker asked me why. well.. the ice, the styrofoam cup that doesn't "sweat" and keeps the drink cold almost all day, and almost always the perfect syrup carbonation ratio...what's not to love?*

the weekend.

2011-11-13T22:17:00.002-07:00

it's been a good, busy, sad, fun weekend. i got off of work a little bit early on friday and headed over to my parents. my brother and sister in law are in the process of buying their first home and we got to talk with them about it for a bit! i am so excited for them! sean met up with us when we got off work and we talked and ate some of my mom's delicious chex mix that she was making. after that i headed to target to get a baby shower gift and some dog food. sean headed home and we met up later and just spent the evening at home. it was nice to not do anything that night!

saturday was quite a busy day for me. sean and i woke up early to make a dessert to take to dinner that night. we made sugar cookie bars! sean made the frosting and pretty much just made it up. it was yummy. then we got the house cleaned up. we still have soooo much dog hair left behind from the other dogs. i think it will take a while for that to all go away! oh well! after that i got ready for a busy day. one of my dearest friend's mother passed away last week. his dad passed away just ten months before. i attended her funeral yesterday. it was so sad. such a sad beautiful funeral. they are such a strong, incredible family though. they have ten AMAZING kids in that family and their parents did a great job in raising them. i have no doubt that they will carry on their legacy.

after that i went to a baby shower for my cousin's wife ashley! all of my cousins were there and my aunt, along with my grandma, mom, maddie, lee, and sarah! ashley is due the day after christmas! my cousin jenessa also just had a baby a couple of months ago. his name is madden and he is the adorable little baby in these pictures! my other cousin tara (and jenessa's sister) brought her baby girl luella who is ten months old! it was so fun being with all the girls and babies. we ate some awesome food and watched ashley open tons of adorable baby things!

after that we met up at his cousins house and had an awesome dinner. we had the best chicken burritos that i have ever had. i can't get over them. i must get the recipe. they also brought us sonic drinks and it totally made my day. i loved it. we played a really funny adult game called loaded questions and my stomach seriously hurts from laughing. it was so much fun! i can't wait to do it again!

today we went to church, subbed in nursery again (different class. we have 6 nurseries) then came home and took naps. at least i did! sean said he got sucked into a poker tournament. then we headed to my parents for a yummy dinner and stopped by his parents after to bring some of the sugar cookie bars and say hi. we got to play with the babies and that was fun! even though addi peed on me i still had a good time! i love our families! then we came home, watched sister wives and now we are watching holmes inspection in bed. this weekend has not been long enough. i am already counting down til next weekend. sorry this post was not that exciting but oh well. i haven't been feeling well today and am still a little sad from the funeral so don't really feel all that exciting anyway. oh well! hope you all had a great weekend! here are some pictures from this weekend!

fill in the blank friday.

2011-11-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

i haven't done one of these in a long time! fill in the blank friday was started by one of my very closest and dearest blog friends lauren. she was one of my first blog friends and will always be one of my favorite! i adore her! she is going to have the cutest little girl soon! i can't wait!

anyway, i someday hope to actually meet lauren in real life. she lives in oregon. i am super jealous. if i could live anywhere in the world it would be oregon. someday we will meet! we used to email back and forth all the time! not so much lately but i still think about her often and she means so much to me.

she is one of the coolest, sweetest girls that i know! you can head over to her blog and link up to see all the other fill in the blank fridays for today!

1. My favorite new blog of the moment is: it's actually a tumblr. lila was here. her mother posts a picture of her every day with just a short caption. i love it. how cool would it be to have that to look back on? they are amazing pictures too. all so unique. i definitely want to do this someday. and it would force me to only choose one picture and once sentence a post. i tend to ramble....

2. Something I am thankful for is: a great job, a roof over my head and food in my belly. and an incredible husband and puppy. and awesome family and in-laws. oh and mcdonald's $1 diet coke. i have talked a little too much about that lately though. oops.

3. Something that made me laugh this week was: this video my friend lee sent me. haha we got a good laugh out of it! "daddy long legs? who did name you?" or this one.

4. An item that is currently on my wish list is: a new laptop. mine is dying slowly. and a new wardrobe.

5. I am excited about: christmas. and it being friday. i am so ready for the week to be over. and to see sean. i miss him all the time. also we are going to stay up at the anniversary inn one of these next weekends and hopefully do some shopping. can't wait!

6. If I were a color I would be: white. i love white. or mustard yellow. ooooo or peach. you notice how i can never just pick one thing? yeah... super indecisive about everything.

7. My favorite way to spend a chilly fall day is: bundling up on the couch with a delicious scentsy scent going, some delicious treats, and a movie. or going up to sundance!

happy friday ya'll! i might do a friday phone dump later! it has been a while since i have done one..

and i have lots of pics waiting on my phone....

thoughts.

2011-11-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

just some thoughts:

do you feel cooler when you hear a song on the radio and they throw "utah" (or the state you live in) in the song in place of some other, much cooler place that is in the song? i call those pity songs. they depress me. like the first time you hear it it's like "okay. that's cute i suppose." (not really though) but then when you hear it over and over and it's so obviously added in there... i don't know. i feel like they are trying to make us feel better for some reason. like our state is awesome. and it is pretty cool but i would rather be in paris like the song originally says.

why is mcdonald's diet coke so much better than anywhere else? no really? why? sean used to work there and i don't know if he just doesn't want to let the secret out.. but there has to be something. some sort of secret. because it seems like you can always count on them being good. whether you go to any of the ten within a 3 mile radius. or do they just taste good because they are $1?

why doesn't my dog understand daylight savings time?

do you watch new girl? if you don't... you need to stop reading this right now and go watch. seriously. every episode gets better and better. i want to be best friends with schmidt. if you do? you are awesome and we should hang out sometime.

do you watch 2 broke girls? because i haven't heard sean laugh so hard in a long time. he admitted that it was his new favorite show this season. i think it's hilarious. i love kat denning.

why do my nails seem to grow faster when i put nail polish on them?

how come all the sudden when i publicly admitted that i was baby hungry.. babies are EVERYWHERE around me. and they all suddenly got a million times cuter than they already were and they were already really cute. sigh. not helping my craving.

i think i am losing my mind. i went to chick-fil-a the other day. forgot my wallet. luckily my sister was there. tried to order a kids meal. i think it came out in some other language that i was not aware i spoke. somehow the guy understood me and then he handed my change and then i handed it back to him like i hadn't even paid yet? then i asked for barbecue sauce like twice but he had already gotten it for me? then i almost dropped the bag and my drink on all the napkins? sigh.

okay, that reminds me. let's talk about the time i spent $18 at del taco. yes. $18. WHAAAA? i know you are thinking. how is that even possible? i honestly think i broke a record that day. and this was only for 2 people. i was trying to save money and sean wanted something cheap so he was like "go to del taco." and i was like "okay." because last time he went he got enough food for 12 people and it was like $3.50. so i go thinking it will be cake. apparently it takes skill to order at del taco. sean said he wanted a burrito with meat in it. so i just asked about one in the drive thru and they told me about one and so i was like "okay, i will get one of those. (thinking it would be like $2 at most) then 2 bean burritos, 2 chicken soft tacos, a medium fry,and 2 large drinks." then they were like "would you like to add a shake for $1 to that?" and i was like "well, yeah!" because i love their shakes and when i used to get them when they were little they were huge. so i got a chocolate and a strawberry. and then she was like, "that will be 17.49 at the first window." and i was like "excuse me?" and then i noticed that the burrito i got sean was $4.99. are you serious? for a burrito? but at this point i was sure that they already made it and i felt stupid and i am sure they were laughing inside thinking "wow, this chick just spent $18 here... that's a record!" and so i shamefully just let it go and pulled up to the window. she hands me my food and drinks. then my $1 shakes. and they were in cups that you get the free water in. you know.. those plastic clear cups. and i was like "yay, this is awesome. thank you." and i drove away and didn't want to walk inside because i didn't want to tell sean how much i spent. i mean we could have gotten steaks or something and i wasted it on this. so i get home and shuffle inside... tucking the shakes in the bag because the had lids on them. and right when i get to the door? the bag falls from my hand. and the strawberry shake. MY stupid small $1 STRAWBERRY courtesy cup SHAKE splattered all over all the food......

so sean hears me swearing and comes to see what is up. and says it is fine. and i was like "it is not fine! do you know how much this cost?" and he was like $10? and i was like... "not exactly." so then we agreed to never ever speak of this incident ever again or tell anyone how much i spent. so now here i am blogging about it. also his strawberry burrito was disgusting. and he pretended he liked it until he was half way through. then he felt sick. major fail. i am never going there again because i can't handle the del. i just can't. i don't know how to do it like every one else.

that is all for today.

camera vs. laptop

2011-11-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

i don't know why i just realized this but i just remembered one of the reasons i haven't been blogging that much. what's that you ask? well. my macbook is on the fritz. and it still works and all but it has a few quirks that i have to work through. i am trying to pretend they are endearing. it gives my macbook personality. does your computer scare the crap out of you every time you open it up? let me explain. so i am 99.9% sure that the disk drive no long works. i am not sure if there is a disk stuck in there because i just can't even tell. i don't even know what disk it would be to be honest. and i'm pretty sure it's disc now huh? when did we switch from disk to disc? sigh. i don't even know which one is correct. it's hard to keep up with these things.

anyway. the only reason that i noticed something was up was because every time i open up the computer for about 10 seconds the computer sounds like it is trying to eject a disc. obviously it's not working. close the lap top fine. open it? noise. as of yesterday it started making a noise that is terrifying. it is like ten times louder and honestly sounds like the computer is breaking in half. something is definitely not right in there. but it still works because i am typing on it. and it only lasts for like ten seconds. i just can't open it up in the middle of the night or else sean will pee his pants because really? it's a terrible awful noise. one i wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. however, i just pretend it's my laptops way of saying hi to me or something.

anyway. wow. once again this was way off topic. it's not the reason i haven't blogged as much. the main reason was that when all this started it stopped reading my camera when i would try to plug it in the USB. i am talking about my small digital camera. i have had it for a while. about as long as this laptop.. almost 6 years? okay i have probably had the camera for like 4. it's a canon and it's a GREAT digital camera. its like 7 mega pixels and really i know cameras have gotten better since then but it has been an awesome camera. it still works great, but for some reason it is not compatible with the laptop anymore. the laptop will not register that camera, but it will register the bigger, nicer nikon that my sister gave me because it is reading it as in external hard drive. not a camera. so i can still get pictures off of that one. it's a great camera. but it's really big and kind of older. and not exactly convenient to just throw in my purse and whip it out when i see a really cool hot dog car or a person worthy to be on people of walmart or something like that. ya know?

so anyway. my life is obviously so hard and i just didn't know what to do. i have all these pictures from camping and this summer on my digital but it just wouldn't upload and i was too lazy to try and put them on sean's laptop. i am kinda of hooked on my macbook and i am too stubborn to change. also he is always using his for school anyway. so i resorted to awesome cell phone pictures which i am sure you have noticed. well my sister.. she LOVES cameras. being a photographer and all. well she bought this really cool small digital sony camera a few months ago. and the thing is... is that is really nice. and you can change the lenses. it's like my digital canon camera and the nikon made a baby and it turned into this really compact, light, awesome camera with 2 lenses and really awesome features and 14.2 mega pixels and is way better than both combined. but the problem? it was maddies. not mine.

well, last week maddie decided that she wanted a different one. she loves this one but she found one she liked even more that looks like it's old school but it's not. and is more expensive. it is super awesome though. and so she bought that one. she was going to put the sony one for sale on KSL but asked if i wanted to buy it from her.... of course i wanted to! however i was worried that my laptop would try to read it as a camera and obviously that wasn't working on my computer and i really wanted it to read it as an external hard drive. so i took it home last night to test it out.....and it worked! i am so happy! so i was able to put my old memory card in the new camera and can now get all those pictures on here, and also have some way better pictures in the future!

so anyway. that was a really long story about a silly camera. i am sure which you could have those ten minutes of your life back. but i am excited about it! especially with all the holidays coming up i now have a really great camera that will fit snugly in my purse and it will be great! also i am claiming it as my christmas present so i can take pictures of other peoples christmas presents with it since it will be all i am letting myself get. (sean you better not get me anything else! he keeps claiming that it will count as HIS gift. seriously, he is too good to me.) haha. so anyway. that is all. also, the above picture was taken with the new sony. but i need to figure out how to use it. i was trying to focus on his paw, not him. so that is why he is not in focus. also today, maddie taught me some better settings to use. you can shoot manual and stuff just like the nikon. it's like the best of both worlds. you can adjust the settings like the ISO, aperture and shutter speed, all while looking at the screen. it will make the changes right before your eyes. so you can see if the picture is getting enough light before you even take it. i had to play around so much with the nikon because i could never tell if it would turn out after i took the picture. now i will already know before i take it!

so anyway. the whole point of this post that was so pointless was that i am going to make myself blog more now because of the new camera. i have no excuses anymore. so stay tuned for some posts from the summer that i should have posted a long time ago. also. i probably should just be getting a new laptop... because i honestly think the problem is not with the cameras. it's the computer. but oh well. maybe i am a little in denial about it. if i pretend there is nothing wrong with it... then maybe it will fix itself? that's how things work right? no?

the blankets that saved our marriage. and voting.

2011-11-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

i am always hot. like in our house? i think the heater is up way too high and i always have the fan going in our bedroom. even in the winter. i have to have it on. what will i ever do when i get pregnant? sean is the opposite. his little "toesies" as he calls them are always "icicles". i tell him that there are these new things called socks and lounge pants that he can wear to get warm but he just doesn't seem to comprehend that. he will put on his "shorty" socks and i am like.. that does nothing!!

we have even gotten our own blankets that we sleep with that i like to call "the perfect temperature blankets" because really? they seem like they adjust to whatever temperature you need them to be. and no, don't worry. this is not some crazy new invention. unless you call the 1980's new. but no. these blankets used to be on my sister and i's beds when we were 4. we love them. and sean and i both have one because we stole the other one back from my little brother. we claimed that these blankets have saved our marriage because when we only had one of them we would constantly fight over it. it was like a race to bed to get the blanket. it was awesome. apparently we just can't be under our regular bed covers because he is too cold and i am too hot and apparently i am a sprawler and don't listen to his needs or something. i can't remember though i wasn't really listening.

anyway, i am going way off track. point is about the blankets? they are magical. and we have 2 now. and they are awesome. they are warm when you want them to be warm and cold when you want them to be cold. and they are cream with roses on them. does it get cooler than that? i don't care if you think i am insane. if you have used these blankets.. you would just know. ask my brother and his wife! apparently we have put their marriage on the fritz because we stole the blanket back. haha i am totally kidding they are just fine and dandy and the cutest couple in the world but they miss the blanket. wow. i am really rambling. anyway we have 2 blankets now. and it has been bliss. yesterday i was burning up and i made him put his cold feet on my back to prove to him that the house is hotter than hades. he said:

"chloe!! how come you are so hot?!?" don't worry. he wasn't trying to tell me i am good looking..

i said the only thing i could think of, "i don't know sean! i can't explain science. it is just the way it is!"

he busted up laughing and said that didn't even make sense but whatever he doesn't make sense. why is he cold and i am hot?? this doesn't make sense! and why are those blankets so awesome? also you probably thought this was going to turn into a really cool story but boy were you wrong...

also? i have never seen someone as excited to vote as sean is...it just came out of nowhere! like he made me renew my voter registration thing to match our new address and has been talking about it for weeks. today before he left the house.. i thought he was trying to be romantic and he was like:

"hey chlo-bo... what are you doing tonight?"

i was like "ooooo... well you know.... what do you doin' tonight?" (i threw in a wink or two but then he asked if my contact was falling out or something so apparently that didn't work...)

and he was like "ummm.. have you forgotten something?"

and i was like "........."

and he was like "umm... it's november 8th?"

me: "..........."

him: "voting day silly! let's go vote tonight!"

me: "yes!!!! that is exactly what i wanted to do tonight! i love voting! wahoo!"

so needless to say..sean is super excited about voting and apparently i am too and that is what we are doing tonight! so wahoo! go voting!!! we are so crazy and adventurous. be jealous y'all!

also, he is wanting to vote because tonight in springville they are voting on a new rec center right by our house. i guess sean won a free month family pass to this place if it gets passed. he is so excited about it. but remember when i bought him a gym pass for christmas 2 years ago and the gym ruined the surprise by sending him a welcome to the gym letter before christmas? and i cancelled christmas and then sean never used the gym pass ever..probably because the surprise was ruined.. thank's a lot gym! i want my money back! and then we just put it in my name because i was trying to appear active and healthy and that only lasted for a few months so now it's getting no use? ..besides giving me the appearance of being all gymsy because i have a keychain i get to carry around? (don't worry.. when my dr. asked me last week if i excercised i was like "pshhh...yeah.. like a few days a week" she didn't ask when or anything so technically i wasn't lying.) anyway... go vote so that sean and i can get another keychain!!!

p.s. in case you are worried that i am having a seizure or that something is wrong with my brain, i AM aware that my grammar, puncuation, and spelling all suck but i just don't have time to be perfect or really care. it's too exhausting. also i just like to write exactly how i am thinking in my head. also... i know gymsy is probaby not a word. but it is now. boom!

can it just be april?

2011-11-06T16:50:00.006-07:00

gosh. i just don't know if moses could be any cuter. i love him so much. and sean. i sure am one lucky lady. sigh. where has this year gone? i used to blog all the time. nowadays it just seems like everything is a blur. yes, things are crazy busy. but even when they aren't i still have no idea what to blog about. it's not like things weren't crazy busy when i used to blog more often. so i really shouldn't have any excuses. maybe i have just been feeling uninspired. i have mentioned this before but i tend to do all or nothing. i can get really into doing certain things and then it will just die out faster than it started. i need to be more consistent. i feel like i have all these silly, random stories from our first year of marriage. and truth be told, we still have silly, random stories. i just can't seem to get around to posting about them. i am going to try and be better about that! i guess even if i feel like i have nothing to say, i am still going to try and blog more. because this is the only journal i have!

i guess i will just start with what is going on right now. let's see.. well sean started his new job last monday! so far so good. he is overwhelmed but seems up for the challenge. he loves to be challenged and i love that about him. the hard part about him starting a new job is that he is still in school full time. and he has been sick. blah. i can honestly not wait for him to be done with school. seriously, april cannot come fast enough. i feel like i never ever see him. it was rare before but now it is even less. before, when we worked at the same place? we could at least see each other at work. we didn't work in the same building but he still came over to drop stuff off and say hi. we would go to lunch almost every single day. now we don't even have that. then he has school every single night and does homework for several hours after that. even on saturdays and sundays. i guess that is just the way it goes though. the further one gets into their major the busier they are. i cannot believe that we have been doing this the whole time that we have been married. 2 and a half years! i am so ready for it to just be over! i want to know what it's like to be married to a non-full time student! on top of that he works full time. i just don't know how he does it. i work full time and used to be in school full time and had a second job on top of that before we got married. i can't even imagine trying to do that while married. i have a lot of respect for sean and anyone else out there doing this! especially when both spouses are in school and working full time! or when people are getting doctorates and whatnot. you guys are my heros!

one other reason i am excited about sean being done with school? because we are going to take a graduation trip when he is done. it's still in the works and we haven't officially decided yet but it is going to happen. i have to say this on here so i can be held accountable. i told sean i owe him one for being married to me, working full time and going to school full time. i will make this happen! also it will kind of be for our three year anniversary. he said i have to plan it this time since he surprised me the first year, we had our cruise this year.. so now it's my turn. any ideas? i would like to go somewhere that neither of us have been. i was thinking new york maybe. i have a friend that lives there and also family in maryland so we could probably go see all of them and do the washington D.C. thing as well! anyway. nothing is official yet. i guess right now it's more just wishful thinking! hopefully it will all work out that we can do something fun! heck... i'd even be cool just going to disneyland!

unfortunately/fortunately my job was so busy in october and sean had school on monday that we weren't really able to do anything for halloween! it's the first year we haven't really dressed up or gone to a party. it kind of made me sad because halloween is a special day for us. i know i have said this many times but it's the night that sean said he realized he wanted to be with me forever. he didn't tell me that night or anything. but it was seriously one of the best most memorable nights of my life! i am sad we didn't get to really celebrate this year. we got to celebrate by having three dogs run to the door every time the door bell rang! it was a little chaotic and my makeshift fence/baby gate just didn't seem to do the job. oh well!

it's been a pretty low key weekend. friday we went to dinner with amanda and jason and the kids and then met up with devin and katie after and got cupcakes and ice cream. then we headed back over to sean's parents and ate it all while chatting with brandon. brandon is sean's brother who just got back from a 5 week adventure back east. it was good to see him and talk with everyone.

saturday we just took it easy. i wasn't feeling well yesterday morning. to be honest i thought something was really wrong with me. i thought it could be appendicitis or that something was wrong with my ovary or something. i was in a lot of pain (to the point of tears) but decided to wait it out. i have still been pretty sore on my lower right side but it was not nearly as bad as yesterday so i think it wasn't anything big. i had to go to the lady dr. on thursday and i'm thinking maybe she just ... well. not to get TMI and be vague at the same time but maybe let's just say something didn't like what went on and that's why i was in pain. i guess i could blame it on the student and a few too many "oopsies". i was pretty traumatized but either way it's over and that could be the cause of my pain. i am feeling better today. like i said we took it easy yesterday. we did manage to get the house cleaned up. it was a nightmare after having the three dogs here. we tried to keep up with it but it became pointless. so it was nice to finally get the house cleaned up. i think we could create like 50 dogs with all the dog hair in our trash. after that we went and grabbed some cafe rio for sean and jimmy johns for me. came home and watched some football and then my sister talked me into going and seeing tower heist with her and lee. it was just us girls! i bought some shoes before the movie started and am debating on taking them back or not... anyway. that was our saturday!

today we went to church and subbed in our old nursery class. it was good to see them again and it kind of just made me baby hungry. seeing sean with all those little kids? it's hard not to want to see him be a daddy. he is so cute with them. every adult that walked in saw him and just said "wow. he is so good with those kids. they just adore him." he had them laughing til they almost cried. it was adorable. i think sean missed nursery more than it missed him. it was fun though and i can't wait someday to see him be a dad. yes. i think that is the first time on here that i have admitted i was baby hungry. so there you have it blog world!

tonight we are going to have dinner at our neighbor/friends house! can't wait! it was kind of last minute and i wish i had something to take over! we will probably spend the rest of the night just relaxing and watching sisterwives. and then sean will probably do more homework. yay.... homework. maybe i'll spice things up and.. make brownies or something. haha. ooooo.. we are wild.

M+K = LOVE

2011-11-04T10:44:00.000-06:00

after more than 5 crazy weeks with 3 dogs, koda and riley left. moses is heartbroken. he fell in love with koda.

the rest of our family pictures.

2011-10-17T19:32:00.003-06:00

i have been meaning to get these up. my sister maddie did such a great job. there are a ton of them.. so just a warning now! this isn't even all of them! i know they might get redundant and lots of them look the same but it was hard not to post most of them. and lots of them are kissy pictures. if you were my nephew kaden you would problem go "ewww! " and run away screaming. but that's okay with me. you don't have to look at them if you don't want to! i love these so much. moses wouldn't sit still for anything.. but if you look hard you can see little snippets of him in some of the pictures. it's like where's waldo but instead where's moe? i like it that way though. because he is insane. and it would only be fitting that he be running all over the place picking up huge branches in his mouth. thanks again maddie, and no worries.. i love even the blurry pictures of moses! :) also, this whole shoot was really only about 15 minutes of shooting because sean's allergies were terrible and moses was being crazier than normal. i think she got some great shots, regardless of the circumstances! i love them maddie!

i should be napping right now. luckily i already had these pictures uploaded and ready to go. i am incredibly sick. i have come down with a stupid cold and i feel terrible. i came home from work early and fell asleep for about an hour and then the three dogs decided they would not stop barking. our neighbor has a black cat and they can see it from the window. when i took them out to go to the bathroom they all booked it. they chased after that cat as fast as they could. i watched riley poop under someones trampoline. and me being the great citizen that i am (not) pretended like i didn't notice and finally got them to come inside. i'm not feeling well enough to go walk all the way over there and pick up the poop. also, he hasn't pooped in a while so i am just glad that he did. which is funny to say since he is the one that wouldn't stop pooping in the garage and pooped in my bathroom. guess i can never be pleased. haha.

sigh. it's a bad week to be sick. work is going to be so busy, but luckily we slowed down enough this afternoon that my co-workers let me go. they are the best. i have been feeling kinda sick all weekend but it hit me really hard today while at work. i hate that it comes on so suddenly like that. i'm just trying to take it easy but can't seem to get comfortable so i thought i'd hop on here for a bit. i haven't been reading blogs for about a week and a half now. or been on facebook. i also deleted my pinterest. sigh. i am regretting that one a little. but i feel like it was turning into a negative thing for me. which i hate saying because i LOVED it so much. i felt like it was such a positive place but then i get comments from strangers or see people commenting on randoms strangers stuff, questioning my likes or their likes.. and it makes me sad! pinterest is a personal place and i just feel like we should respect other peoples likes and interests. why do we have to question what colors they think are cool or what fashions they like? it's okay to have an opinion but sometimes it's even more okay to just keep it to ourselves. i guess i am just too sensitive about stuff like that. it was starting to depress me though. oh well. i am trying to take a break from social media. mostly facebook though. i am not going back on until at least october 31st. that's my goal. so far it has been really nice. i don't know why but facebook can get frustrating sometimes. it's definitely a love/hate thing for me. i have found other things to do though with my time so it's been nice. i don't think i've read blogs either for a week and half. except for today. so sorry i have been MIA! things are just crazy with these three dogs. oh and we got the cement poured for our patio! it looks great and our yard finally looks finished. except for the fact that we don't have a fence. but who needs a fence eh? we have one side fenced (neighbors got one) haha. so that's enough for me. someday though.. i'm not getting one until i can pay cash for it. so it could be a while. but i am saving up for it.

also.. sean got a new job. as most of you know we knew each other in high school but starting dating several years later when i got a job at my work. he had already been working there for about a year. it's been such a blessing for both of us working there. they are such a great company and had it not been for that job we probably would not be where we are now. i would like to think that we would have still ended up together, but i have no doubt i got a job there to bring me to sean. it's bittersweet that he is leaving. it's been awesome being able to carpool together and go to lunch together and see each other often. it has been all we have known throughout our marriage. so this will definitely be a change. sean loves working for his boss troy. we both love troy and his family so much. it is really going to be hard for sean to leave that. he has learned so much from troy and this company. they have been so great to us. it's hard. because he is leaving a great job. for another great job. it might not make sense to most people. but we have prayed a lot about this decision and just feel that it is the best direction for our family and our future. i won't get into too much detail on that. but we are excited for the new adventure that awaits us. sean starts his new job on halloween! he will still be working in finance which he is incredibly happy about. he is also really good at it, but he won't tell you that ;) anyway. that is about all that is going on.. i'm off to take some more cold medicine and try to keep these hot flashes i am having at bay...

time for an update!

2011-10-06T20:24:00.000-06:00

oh hey! anyone still out there? sigh. it has been a crazy couple of weeks. that is for sure. i feel like we have never been busier. here are a list of the few things we have been up to this past little bit.. forgive me if this is long. it has been a while!

-went up to sundance with my family a few weeks ago to see the beautiful colors. it was awesome. i love it up there. we ate a wonderful brunch. rode the ski lift. got some yummy suckers.

-finished up our softball season. we won the championship! wahoo!

-sean is taking 4 classes and doing an internship right now. and working full time. he is my hero. i hardly ever see him though. we both work all day. he has school at night. then comes home and studies the rest of the night. is it april yet? can't wait to have my husband not be a student! 6 more months and he is done for good!

-my young womens calling keeps my busy on wednesday nights. it has been fun though!

-work last month for me? INSANE. i kid you not. i wanted to come home and cry every night. but at the same time i am incredibly grateful. the overtime hours and bonuses make it worth it. i don't feel that way until payday. but on payday..? i know it was worth it. i am very grateful for my job and the company i work for. it has truly been a huge blessing. sean had a busy month this last month too. i am proud so proud of him.

-we got 2 more dogs! haha okay not permanently. they are my brother in law brandon's. he went out of town for 4 weeks and his plans to take them with him sort of fell through last minute. their names are koda and riley and they are awesome. however. it has definitely been hard. hard would be an understatement. we have had them for a week and a half.. and they will be here for another 2 and a half weeks. riley won't stop pooping. riley doesn't like moses. moses has a crush on koda and won't leave her alone. we have no fence. it's been rainy. and muddy. riley has been sick. i have to work too much and can't give them the attention they need. riley pooped in our bathroom. and it splattered all over the wall. and it was green. sigh. this experience has definitely tested our patience. and our house is covered in dog hair. but it's okay. it is life and everything will be okay. we love these dogs and we love brandon so it's worth it. we might have to get a new vacuum after this though. our vacuum might not be able to take much more!

-even though we have been so busy, sean and i have found some time to get into a few new shows this season. more so me... but we both are enjoying suburgatory and new girl. i am enjoying on my own, PanAm, hart of dixie, whitney, and 2 broke girls. also still watching the office, sister wives, and grey's anatomy. so glad that fall is here so we can have some great tv back! sean and i are really loving suburgatory and new girl. both really funny!

-a little over three years ago this week was the beginning of sean and i. three years ago (after a few weeks of quick flirting and little glances at each other) at our company luau i noticed sean staring at me. i was sitting at the guest sign in book with my mom and finally i just told him to come over. he took my phone and put his name in it under "the man". he said a swear word and it made me laugh. and for the sake of the story i am just telling the truth. sorry, i know swearing isn't the most attractive thing in the world, but i tend to cuss more than most in utah and he caught my attention. i knew we could hang if you know what i mean. haha you can judge me all you want! i have gotten better though. but occasionally i find it more than appropriate.. moving on.. he ended up coming to my softball game that night. i didn't think he would make it. he was sitting with my family and felt so comfortable with them. they immediately loved him. i got so nervous when i saw him. i had the biggest crush on him. we have pretty much been inseparable ever since. every year around this time i get nostalgic thinking about it. it was amazing how everything just worked out with us both working there. we hadn't seen each other in years. i love how everything just made sense. i love halloween because it was the night he knew that he wanted to be with me forever. i love sean more than i could ever explain. he has never let me down. he is my best friend and more. he is the best thing about me. and probably the only good thing about me. i'm not trying to get pity by saying that. but i feel like a mess most of the time. to put up with me? takes an amazing man. i am a lucky girl.

October 3rd, 2008 first picture ever taken of us.

-we are getting cement poured soon for our patio. can't wait. we really need it. half of our backyard is just dirt right now and now it's mud because of the rain. i love the rain. don't get me wrong. but i don't love the mud. and the dogs seem to be drawn to it. we are trying to keep this house in good shape and get things nice around here so that we can someday turn it into an investment property. that was kind of our plan when we bought the house. i think it would make a great rental someday. if things don't work out that way though? that will be fine. i am not counting on it or anything. we love this house and don't mind being here as long as we need to be. i would love to live closer to orem/provo again someday though.

-so happy it is fall! i love this time of year. i know most people do though. i could eat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and soup all day long. we have a pumpkin patch right next to our house. you can see rows and rows of pumpkins in the fields when you look out our window. i love it!

-when i come home and night and need to relieve stress? i have been making bracelets. the year that sean and i started dating i had gone to australia and fiji that summer. i became obsessed with making bracelets. i bought over 200 things of embroidery floss and put them in these organizers. i made bracelets all the time for everyone. a few weeks ago i pulled the boxes out and have been making them again. i don't know why but it's kind of therapeutic. and i love making them.

anyway. that is about it for now! tomorrow we are going to be heading up to my sister in law sarah's family cabin for friday night! it's going to be awesome. i can't wait! i feel like we have just been going non-stop and it will be nice to get away for a night! here are some cell phone pictures from the past few weeks... i need to still get my camera/computer fixed. not sure which one is the problem. anyway, grey's just started! gotta go!

sneak peak

2011-09-18T19:53:00.001-06:00

here are a just a few sneak peek pictures from the photo shoot we had with my sister maddie a couple of weeks ago! unfortunately i forgot to bring some benadryl for sean. he has really bad allergies and this field really got to him. it ended up being a really quick photo shoot and he was such a trooper. even moses was a trooper. we couldn't get him to hold still but we got shots of him playing off in the distance and a few with him running towards us with a tree in his mouth. no really, it was a tree. it was over 6 feet long probably. he is so funny. anyway, here are just a few of them! thanks maddie! :) i can't wait to see the rest! also she just posted an adorable engagement shoot so you should go check it out here!

journal entry from 9/11/2001

2011-09-11T08:14:00.000-06:00

sean and i have been watching 9/11 documentaries all weekend. in fact i am watching one right now called "102 minutes that changed america". it is so hard to watch. it consists of live video and audio taken from that day. i remember that day so vividly. yet when i pulled out my journal i realized that i had forgotten some of the facts or at least what we thought were initial facts. so i thought i would put that journal entry on here. i was in 10th grade, 15 years old at the time and was scared and emotional so please forgive my terrible grammar and also incorrect information since we weren't quite sure yet of what was going on.

image found here

september 11, 2001

today is a day that i will never forget. this day will go down in history. in fact i was sitting in my history class when this happened and my teacher said that they would definitely be getting new history books the following year because history would forever be changed after that day. i never thought anything like this could happen to america. i thought we were so safe here.

some terrorists, they think possibly palastinians, hijacked 4 U.S. planes with a total of 266 passengers on board. they flew the first one into one of the towers of the world trade center in new york city. one of the biggest buildings in the world. the plane exploded in to the 110 story building. a while later, another one (bigger) crashed into the other tower right beside it. the world trade center was on fire and about 50,000 people were there. people were evacuating the buildings as fast as they could and meanwhile another plane crashed into the side of the pentagon :(. then all of the airplanes had to land in the U.S. all airports closed and we were put on high terror alert.

meanwhile another hijacked plane was on its way towards new york to crash there, ended up crashing in pittsburgh. everyone on board died. minutes later the 2nd tower that got hit at the world trade center collapsed. killing thousands of people and 200 firemen below. then the other one crumbled a little bit after that. then the pentagon section collapsed and another world trade center building collapsed too.

i was at school walking into my first period class, european history, when this all took place. we had a moment of silence and then we watched the news reports ALL day. we did nothing else. it is the only thing on t.v. my history teacher said that we should probably go home and right down our thoughts on this day and where we were. it is hard to concentrate on homework and other stuff with all of this going on. they say it could be the start of world war III. that's a scary thing to think about.

we are still not quite sure who did it, but in palestine they celebrated. they were so happy that americans got killed. i guess they think they will go to heaven if they kill americans and israelis. i guess america has been helping israel and they got mad so they did this. some country bombed afghanistan a couple of hours ago. we don't know who it was but there has been talk it was them bombing themselves to make them look innocent but we don't know for sure.

thousands of people have been killed. they still don't know how many. it has been a sad day. it has been hard on the whole U.S. since all airports shut down. it is going to be hard on the economy and costs billions of dollars. gas prices already went up. it's hard for everyone. i just want God to bless and comfort all the victims and their families, and everyone affected by this. i was this to be resolved without further conflict but i guess it is up to president Bush to ensure our safety and make a good choice to protect our country.

Chloe

anyway. i can't believe it has been 10 years. i can't even imagine what it would be like to be in new york on that day and be in the world trade center or to have loved ones killed. i will definitely keep them all in my thoughts today. i am so grateful for all the men and women out there who were serving our country at this time and for all those who decided to enlist after this event happened. including my brother in laws brother Matthew Wagstaff. he may have lost his life last year, but he will never be forgotten. neither will all of the other men and women who lost their lives serving and protecting our country.

i remember after this happened america really came together and i realized all of the silly things that didn't really matter anymore and started to realize what i had been taking for granted. and how quickly life can change. i need to be more grateful for what i have and soak in the good moments. because things can change in an instant. today i am remembering that. last night as i laid in bed with sean lightly snoring next to me and moses snoring under the bed.. i realized how lucky i was at that moment. to actually be in a bed. and next to the ones that i loved. and how on that day there were so many trapped in those buildings who wished that they could have just been home in bed that day. or have one last moment next to the ones they loved.

boys just don't understand pinterest. or quilts.

2011-09-07T22:38:00.002-06:00

chloe: "sean! pinterest is important! how else am i going to get a body like that if i don't pin it?"

sean: "you are insane chloe."

chloe: "sean. pinterest is everything that is great about the internet... all in one spot."

sean: "so that makes it okay to pin your boyfriend tim riggins on there?"

chloe: "sean, if you were on pinterest i would totally pin you too. and look! that is our quilt! we have that quilt! our quilt is on pinterest! aren't you proud? do you see this?"

sean: "yeah i see it and we can't ever use it! because you won't let me!"

chloe: "sean, we use the quilt. at the foot of the bed. it's a foot warmer."

sean: "it's not even on the bed right now chloe. it's bundled up over there in the corner."

chloe: "that is because you always kick it off because it makes your feet too warm. but i guess that means that it is doing a good job. it's a good quilt. so stop complaining. plus.. it's on pinterest!"

sean: "you wouldn't let me sleep with it chloe! that one time? i tried? i got all wrapped up in it and you said and i quote,

"no! absolutely not! not happening! put that down!"

then chloe being an idiot got super confused and didn't realize he was quoting her when he said "put that down" feels like she needs to pull out a pencil and paper or something and continues with...

chloe: "put what down?"

sean: "what i just said. put that down!"

chloe: "put it down where?"

sean: "i don't know.. on the table?"

apparently sean doesn't understand pinterest... and i just don't understand... anything. that's probably why he keeps turning the volume up on the tv when i open my mouth.

guess i'll just go back to pinning. in silence.

probably the longest run on sentence in the world.

2011-09-07T10:35:00.000-06:00

we had a great weekend.. it consisted of late dinner to cracker barrel, while taking a break from season 5 of friday night lights on a friday night, moses waking me up by sitting on my face and making me move out of his way so he could sit by sean, then dropping his favorite red ball of the side of my leg and looking incredibly pathetic like he just couldn't reach it, football, baking, a couple of bbq's, slab, the reef, church, photo shoot in which sean's allergies went nuts and moses misbehaved, finishing the friday night lights series, tear :'( , making my mom a birthday cake, seeing the help, which was fantastic by the way, another bbq for her birthday and ended it by watching maryland win their football game against miami! (my uncle is a coach at maryland) it was a great weekend. and that was the longest sentence in the world. and i still can't get my computer to read my camera so yes.. you get cell phone pictures. p.s. doesn't moses look like a bad a in that last picture?

some family pictures from may.

2011-09-02T21:39:00.000-06:00

here are some of the family pictures that my sister took back in may of sean's family! it has taken me forever to get around to posting some. here are a just a couple of the many. i will try to post more later! i am looking forward to our photo shoot this weekend! i am just going to let moses do his thing and we won't make him try to hold still and pose. we were only able to get a few of him here where he didn't have his gentle leader leash covering his face. he just didn't want to sit still. i don't blame him though. it was for big group family pictures though and when you have a group that big you kind of just have to pose and hold still. this time around i just want some more candid, natural shots. i want moses to run free! and maddie is great at capturing stuff like that.. so i am definitely looking forward to it!

more pictures from my brother's wedding.

2011-09-02T09:52:00.001-06:00

i know i have posted some of the pictures that i took from my brother sam's wedding last november.. but those weren't that great. here are the ones my awesome sister maddie took! well technically not all because she is in some of them haha. anyway, i still can't believe my baby brother is married. he is honestly one of my best buddies. but he couldn't have picked a more perfect girl to marry. we love you sarah! isn't she beautiful? and isn't my dad's mustache the coolest?

sleepyhead.

2011-09-01T15:47:00.000-06:00

moses fell asleep on my legs last night while we were watching friday night lights. i know.. surprise, surprise. we are almost finished though with the series and i want to cry. anyway, i didn't have the heart to move him. you know how before he used to stand by the bed and stare at me and whine to wake me up? now he lays right on top of me. all sprawled out. and whines right into my face. and if he sees me open my eyes? he wags his tail and gets so excited. i don't know why he won't do this with sean. keep in mind this is at 5:30 in the morning. sean is the early bird! not me! i like my sleep. i don't know what happened but he started to wake up an hour earlier and will not go back to sleep or stop whining until he gets fed. it's really awesome. but i just can't stay frustrated at him for long. look at that sweet face! i want another one!

anyway, its been a crazy busy week at work. we had a huge month in volume and i am really happy about it. sean started school this week and it seems like i have had something going on every night. i am now in the young womens in our church and get to go to activities every wednesday night. last night i went horseback riding with the girls and sean claims that i forgot to tell him about it. i swear that i did earlier in the week but i didn't remind him about it because i thought i would be back before him. when he came home from school at 8 he thought i left him.. ha. like actually just left him. ha. it was actually really cute how worried he was but i assured him that if i were to ever leave him three things would be missing from the house. moses, my baby blanket, and the bag of cookies that are in the freezer. he should know better. ;) p.s. i would never leave him. anyway we have a softball game tonight which i am pretty excited for. but i can't lie.. i am ready for a break! thank goodness there is a three day weekend coming up! it's my moms birthday, we have a few parties and bbq's to go to, i am going to see the help, and my sister is taking pictures of sean, moses, and i this weekend! i can't wait! i feel like i have lots to blog about but just can't find the time.. i will get around to it eventually though!

daily moses #3

2011-08-28T00:15:00.002-06:00

i don't know why i call this daily moe.. it's more sporadic than anything.

maybe i should call it the sporadic moe.

regardless? he sure is cute eh?

right now moses and i are snuggled up watching tangled on netflix.

sean left to go play poker a while ago..

and it still not home yet. i am hoping that is a good sign.

that he is in such an intense game and he is going to win...

and buy me lots of shiny things with his winnings. a girl can dream right?

i have done 6 loads of laundry tonight. 6 loads.

for 2 people. yes. that is what happens when you

haven't really had a good laundry day in 6 weeks and you

can't afford to buy any more undergarments.

anyway i think that deserves an award..

sean.. in case you read this. don't you think?

and you are welcome.

and only because i folded all of it. by myself.

let me tell you that is a rare occasion around here.

i am the queen of starting the laundry and leaving

it in the dryer until all the clothes are used up.

it's just how i roll.. alright?

also? i deep cleaned my bathroom and closet.

it was bad. and i say my bathroom because sean uses

the guest bathroom. because i have just completely

taken over the master. and it's pretty much disgusting.

sorry. it's the truth. i am not going to beat around the bush

and pretend like it's always clean and perfect. ha.

are you kidding me? you are welcome to come use it now.

it won't stay that way for long. trust me.

and to be honest i don't even know how it got that bad.

sean came up and said,

"two huge garbage bags came out of just your bathroom? wow."

yeah... i am awesome. but to make myself feel better i will pretend that

it's because i work full time...and am a puppy mom...

... and friday night lights is just too damn important.

if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.

2011-08-27T22:25:00.002-06:00

haha, i had that post title quote backwards and just noticed. oops! fixed now :) today was such a neat day! sean got to compete in the 2011 dodge barrage with some of our co-workers. all proceeds from the tournament go to a foundation that former jazz players kyle korver and deron williams started. they even competed in the tournament. i was so glad that i ended up going because i got to meet kyle, deron, cj miles, and wesley matthews. they are the ones in the red shirts and the green pants in the second to last picture. those were actually ninja turtle pants haha. they had face paint and bandannas. it was awesome. also.. i learned that sean must be a closet professional dodgeball player. okay not seriously, but really.. he was incredibly good at it. i missed the first 2 games. there are three rounds in each game and they had only won one of those because sean had been the last guy up and ended up staying in the game and winning it for his team! after that there were a few more games. sean had some impressive moves that i don't think i have ever seen before. haha. anyway, i was really proud of him. it was so much fun to watch and they did so good. obviously they are all in black shirts but sean had blue shorts on and you can see a white undershirt peaking out from the bottom of his black shirt. in case you were wondering which one he was..

i had all the above nba players sign my cursed purse. i wasn't planning on it at first, but i really didn't have anything else for them to sign. this purse has brought me nothing but bad luck. you can read all about it here. honestly, i am not sure why i even bother wearing it. i haven't for a long time and i started to again and i just don't even care anymore if it gets dirty. i used to baby the thing since it was the most expensive bag that i have every purchased. anyway, i thought.. what the heck.. i'll have them sign the inside of it. and they did! hopefully now this purse will bring me good luck! oh and these pictures are not great at all. i shouldn't even post them but it was such a cool experience that i can't not. the lighting in there wasn't great. i don't know how to take action shots, and half of these are from my phone because it zoomed in more that the camera that my sister gave me. also, i even brought my point and shoot. man i have pictures all over the place. unfortunately my computer will not recognize that camera anymore so you will have to wait to see more pictures that sean took of d will and kyle signing my purse! anyway.. it was such a fun day! they ended up getting out in their 5th game. but it was so much fun to watch. so in the end they lost their first two, won the next two, and lost the last. i was really hoping that they would get to play deron's team. maybe next time though eh?

you is kind. you is smart. you is important.

2011-08-23T22:10:00.005-06:00

here is moses hanging out under the bed. there is hair everywhere under there. i don't even care. it used to bug me when it was all over my clothes and whatnot. but i just don't care anymore. it's not worth it ya know? those little things don't matter. i love this dog and all the hair that comes along with him. i saw a sad picture today of a dog mourning over his owner who was killed in the war. he laid at his coffin and it seriously broke my heart. it was the saddest thing i have ever seen. all i wanted to do was come home and hug moses. i feel like i take too many things for granted. and one thing that has made that aware to me is this book. i am almost finished with it. i'll probably finish it after i post this. although the thought of it ending makes me sad. have you ever been torn about finishing a book? i don't want it to be over. i want it to last. maybe i should wait.. nah. i can't. this book is just so well written and i am so sucked in. it has changed my perspective on a lot of things. i can't believe this is kathryn stocketts first novel. she is amazing. i can't even explain how much i love it. i think that everyone should read it. i honestly just don't even know what to say about it. i feel like if i try to explain it.. i will not do it justice. so just go read it if you haven't yet. i can't wait to see the movie.

camping, cars, and cooking.

2011-08-21T23:21:00.008-06:00

i didn't get many pictures from our trip to the cabin. but when i went to upload the ones that i did have my computer could not read my camera. awesome. hopefully i can figure that mess out. i had a few from my phone and some other pictures from this weekend so i thought i'd just post those. so here is another phone dump! the trip was awesome. i will blog more about that when i can get those pictures to work. we weren't even gone for a full 24 hours but it was still a blast! we had so much fun and sean's family and extended family are so much fun. we slept in our new tent on no mattress and still had a blast. moses did great . there were lots of other dogs and we watched movies, went four wheeling in the prowler with makayla and moses. moe jumped out the back and it was the scariest thing for a minute because he flipped and rolled and it scared the crap out of all of us but he was okay. we went and carved our name in the "cousins" tree and ate some yummy food. kayla counted how many trees we saw the name "troy" in. trust me, they were on like over 50. same man carved it. pretty cool! i am sad i didn't have my camera so i could take a picture of our names in the tree but sean's cousin mark took some on his phone so hopefully we can get those sometime! there were some names on trees back from the early 1900's.

i wish we could have stayed a little bit longer. but it had started to rain and we decided to get our tent cleaned up before it got muddy. we weren't planning to leave as early as we did but we kinda had a feeling we needed to go. it turns out that was probably a blessing in disguise because we hit a huge micro burst of rain on our way home. and in the middle of that, our windshield wipers completely broke. like as in they do not move at all. even if we put new ones on they still wouldn't work. something is wrong with the thing that makes them move. awesome. it was really scary because we were going 65 miles an hour on narrow road with no cell phone service. we pulled over and waited for the rain to stop. it started back up again so we had to pull over one more time but luckily we made it home. it started raining even harder once we got home and i kind of felt like it was a good thing we left when we did. if we had to drive through that at night with no windshield wipers it would have been a lot worse. so now we need to get that fixed. oh well it could have been worse. i'm glad that sean was driving because i probably would have freaked out. he always seems to be driving when something happens to chuck (my car) which i know is a good thing because he can handle the sudden car problems and i can't. like the time the clutch went out when we were sluffing church to go to park city? yeah... ha. you can read about that here.

anyway. the rest of the weekend was really great too. sean and i went on a date last night and i got some new shoes and we ate at red robin. we were passed out by 10:30 last night. we had church today and we got to spend some time with my parents. my mom brought us an adorable basket full of some goodies to make some dinners and cookies with this week. she is so cute. after that we went over there and brought moses with us. my mom has her own little book club that anyone can join in. she picks a book to read and this month she picked the help. i think i already mentioned on here that i was reading it but we both started it last week and are so into it. it's been hard to find time to read this week but it is so good and i have a hard time putting it down. so we both read that today while moses laid on the floor. he was such a good dog. maddie had just gotten back from shooting a wedding in san francisco. seriously? how cool is that? my sister gets to do such awesome things with her photography. i am jealous. anyway we decided to make some pizza and recreate the buffalo wing slab pizza that i love so much. i think we got everything down but the crust since my mom just had some JIF crust that we used. i found a recipe on pinterest for a flat crust pizza dough and i am going to try that next time. my mom also made some homemade kit kats and they were AMAZING. sooo good. i am so proud of her for starting to make all these treats. i think i have finally inspired her haha. anyway, it was fun hanging out at my parents and after that maddie and i stopped by to do some hula hooping in the park with lee. it was a great sunday. it was a great weekend. bummed about the car stuff but i know it could be worse. we have about 2 or 3 other things we need to fix on that car. sigh. i hate car problems. anyway, sean is already asleep and i better get to bed. it's going to be a hella busy week at work. hope you all had a great weekend!

vogue.

2011-08-19T09:51:00.001-06:00

here is some moe for your friday! so far today has not gotten off on the right foot.. but then i looked at these pictures and got happy again! you can't tell but moses is laying on my hip in these pictures. he is so funny. this is how i get woken up almost every morning. he has become quite the little model. turning his head in all these different poses. also? we found a long black hair on him... what the? maybe he is more like me than we thought. today we are closing on our refinance and after work we are heading up to sean's uncles cabin for the weekend with his family! we just got the itinerary and it looks like it is going to be a blast! we are going to get ice cream at a local ice cream shop, have pizza from the pizza parlor, possibly go to a drive in movie, ride four wheelers, play games, and eat s'mores. can't wait! hope you all have a great weekend!

"we don't have a choice, chloe."

2011-08-16T12:43:00.005-06:00

on saturday we went climbing at the quarry with my brother sam and his wife sarah! it was a lot of fun! i love hanging out with those guys. also sean and i hadn't been climbing in a while so we couldn't pass up the opportunity! sean is really good at climbing. don't let his jeans and cowboy shirt deceive you.. haha. i wish i could be half as good as he is. but then again sean has been climbing a lot.. and me not so much.

anyway, after that we went to my parents and had a little bbq. the weather ended up getting bad though. it seems like every time my parents want to throw a party in their new gorgeous backyard... it rains. we made it work though and had some delicious food. after that maddie talked us into going to see rise of the planet of the apes. sean didn't really wanna go and wasn't really a fan of the movie but i am glad he stayed up late and came.

i really want him to see crazy stupid love. it was so good! i love emma stone, ryan gosling, and obviously steve carrell. sean didn't see it with me though and i want to make sure that he sees it so that will probably be the next movie that we go to. i loved it. also i really want to see the help. me and my mom are reading it though and want to finish it before we see the movie. so i better hurry! p.s. i stole those pictures from sarah. thanks sarah! :) p.s.s. isn't she gorgeous???

......................................................................................

in other news, sean has been full of funny sayings lately. he is cracking me up. not that he doesn't normally.. but last night we were watching friday night lights in bed. it was about 11:00 pm and i thought for sure he was asleep. he wasn't saying anything when i was screaming "no tim riggins! no!!" (also i love how everyone always calls him by his first and last name.. haha)

then when the 2nd to last episode of season 4 ended, leaving us hanging, i hear sean say, "well great. now we are going to be up way too late." and i said "you are awake? haha.. sean, we can watch the last episode tomorrow." and he said "no. we don't have a choice chloe. we don't have a choice." and so we watched it. haha. i totally thought he was asleep. he sometimes watches the show with me, but not consistently. it just cracked me up.

but i am sad now because i have to track down season 5 somewhere other than netflix. i am also sad that the series is over after that. i know, i have attachments to tv shows and their characters. i often times wonder what tim riggins or lyla garrity are doing right now but then have to remember that they are just actors. and it is pretend. it makes me sad. i get a little too involved in the lives of these people. don't even get me started on grey's anatomy, the office, and one tree hill. i can't wait for those shows to start up again. yes. i need help.

It's not going to turn out the way you thought.

2011-08-15T11:39:00.001-06:00

don't worry. this post isn't about moses haha. i had to throw a picture of him in though. it's from photobooth on my mac so that's why it is such fantastic quality. ha. i have lost quite a few followers since blogging about him more often. and i know my blog isn't as entertaining as it used to be. but that's okay. it's still my life. i don't blog for followers though, so oh well! anyway, moving on.

you know.. sometimes there are just some things that you wish you could have told your younger self. things that you wish you would have known. things that you know now, but didn't believe then. there were times when i felt so broken that i thought i could die. i know that sounds dramatic. but when you don't know any better? that is just how you feel sometimes. my friend lee shared this beautifully written blog post with me today. it was written by a girl named kate moller. you can check out her blog here. anyway this blog post really hit home to me for some reason. i think almost anyone can relate to it, but i definitely felt like it was written for me even though it wasn't. i needed to read this today. obviously i still have a lot to learn and a long way to go in this journey called life but it was nice to get this reminder. here is that post. it seems long but it is worth the read! it is called:

It's not going to to turn out the way you thought.

It will happen later. His best friend will ask you out instead. You’ll be kissed in the movies instead of on a beach. You’ll end up going to a different school because the one you thought you’d get into didn’t work out.

She’ll move away. Someone else will move in next door. She’ll be a little weird at first, a little more shy, but ultimately really good at riding bikes and playing dolls.

That part you always wanted will go to that other girl instead. And you’ll rock it out in the chorus like your life depended on it. Because on some level it does.

The road you were going to take will be flooded and closed. The inn where you were going to stay will be under renovations. He’ll be taller than you thought. And have a funny accent. But will be a good kisser nonetheless.

You’ll get a flat tire on the way to that crucial meeting and end up peeing your pants laughing with the gas station attendant over a copy of Us Magazine. And someone else will fill in for you because they always do.

You won’t get that dream job like you thought you would. It will go to someone else with far less creative drive and vision than you. Someone far better suited for a cubicle than you.

You’ll be put in groups with people who put your panties in a wrinkle. You’ll sit next to someone on the plane who you’d never talk to except that they won’t shut up … and you’ll end up staying in touch for years and taking family vacations together.

Five years after you graduate, life won’t look anything like you would have imagined. You’ll be single when you thought you’d be married. You’ll have kids when you thought you’d be in the Peace Corps. That trip to Laos will get delayed because you’ve got to stay home and take care of your grandmother. Laos will be there. You’re grandmother won’t always.

He’ll move overseas and oddly the Atlantic Ocean between you will bring you closer than you ever dreamed possible. You won’t get engaged, married, or pregnant when you thought. You’ll miss the bus/train/plane/ferry that you thought you just HAD to be on.

You’ll fall off the turnip truck. You’ll jump on a different bandwagon than you intended. You’ll get fired when you thought you ought to be getting hired.

You’ll realize you forgot the outfit you had planned to wear and that the shoes are all wrong now that you have a full-length mirror to see the whole outfit. Your shirt will be wrinkled and you’ll spill red wine on your white jeans.

Your dog will eat your five-year plan. You’ll drop your Blackberry in the toilet (at least once). Your computer will crash, and you’ll delete the first draft of your magnum opus. You’ll accidentally delete your hard drive and end up with a clean slate.

You’ll show up late to the date with the guy you were sure was going to fit into your husband suit and realize he’s less than graceful under stress and not so flexible (better to know now than later).

When you thought you’d be baking pies and living behind your very own white picket fence you’ll find yourself doing something so entirely different you couldn’t have even imagined it a year before. There will be moments when you’ll look around and not even recognize your own life … in a good way.

You’ll take a wrong turn and end up in an entirely different city than you intended. You’ll dial the wrong number and end up in love with an entirely different person than you intended.

You’ll flunk out and end up taking five years instead of four to graduate. You’ll have your heart broken when you were sure you were with the one and then meet the other one a month later. You’ll move to a new city to start a new business with those perfect new business partners and then it will all go to shit. And you’ll move across the country again only to realize that that’s where you belonged the whole time.

You’ll drive as far away from home as possible thinking that it will make you feel free. Then you’ll get homesick and drive back four months later because you suddenly feel trapped.

You’ll imagine the open road, country music playing loud, you singing at the top of your lungs and flirting with a new man in every town. And then you’ll invite someone to come with you on a whim and realize driving around the country by yourself was a terrible idea anyway … and that it’s way more fun when you’re traveling with someone you love.

You won’t do it at the right time.

You’ll be late.

You’ll be early.

You’ll get re-routed.

You’ll get delayed.

You’ll change your mind.

You’ll change your heart.

It’s not going to turn out the way you thought it would.

It will be better.

-Kate Moller: source here

just a lazy saturday morning.

2011-08-13T11:14:00.006-06:00

sean and i spent last night at home. he cooked up some delicious tacos and i made 4 loafs of zucchini bread out of one GIANT zucchini. and let me tell you for some reason? it was a million times harder to make 4 instead of 2. i can't comprehend why. but it just was haha. by 9 o'clock last night i was seriously ready for bed. i was so tired. so was sean. i had to stay up and finish baking bread and almost fell asleep waiting.

reduced fat.

2011-08-12T11:11:00.003-06:00

"this is reduced fat ice cream. you know why? because it doesn't have chocolate syrup on it"
- Sean Ashby

this was a quote that was said last night after our softball game while sean was eating his triple chocolate ice cream with brownies and junior mints. he said it because we were also snacking on reduced fat walmart brand wheat thins. he also said that he was pretty sure the inventor of ice cream and junior mints had a front row seat in heaven. i am so glad i married this man. we are definitely compatible in more ways than one. and sean sure loves his ice cream. he has a bowl before bed.. almost every single night. he also said before attempting to eat it, "should i eat it on the couch? or in bed? couch? or in bed?... i'm gonna go with bed even though that will make me fatter." haha.. seriously? he kills me.

a few minutes before this we were attempting to pick some vegetables in our garden for sean's brother devin and his wife katie. i am sure if you were observing this situation it might have been somewhat interesting. it was 10:00 at night. we were still in our softball clothes. we couldn't find our flashlight. besides flashlights are old school now that all these "fancy, can do pretty much everything but wipe your bum" phones are out. all we had was my phone and i had to reset my phone last week so i didn't have my flashlight app anymore. we were attempting to find vegetables while this app was downloading. sean was whining because it took too long. he grabbed the phone thinking if he held it, it might download faster. like i was holding up the download or something? i tried to pick veggies with no light.. just by feeling around. i found a few. by the time the flashlight app downloaded sean says:

"this is it? your camera doesn't use your flash to make it brighter!??"

"sean, my camera doesn't have a flash."

"well that is stupid. what kind of phone is this? this so-called "flashlight" is just barely brighter than your normal screen! my camera phone has a flash."

"well excuse me! sorry we can't all have flash camera phones. this is all you get. some people don't even have camera phones or phones that have "apps" on them. gosh you are so ungrateful. and picky."

at that point we already picked the vegetables in the dark. such a hard generation we have to live in. how sad is that not all phones have flashes on them? and do they even make flashlights anymore these days?

(i hate even having to say this, but i hope you sense my sarcasm in this post haha. i know they still make flashlights and that we really don't have it hard.. haha. we are an incredibly spoiled generation.)

mosey in the morning.

2011-08-11T14:28:00.001-06:00

moses is a funny dog in the morning. actually he is always a funny dog. but at night? he starts out on our bed. then he goes under the bed. then he gets on his dog bed. if i leave our bedroom at any point during the night? he follows me. even if he is completely zonked out. he will wake up if i am going to get a drink of water downstairs. and he will wait at one of the landings until i come back up. he doesn't come all the way down. he just waits. watching. making sure that is all that i am doing and then when i walk back up and get to the landing he walks back up the rest of the stairs with me. he goes right back to sleep. then without a doubt at 6:20 every morning he gets off his bed and comes over to my side of the bed and stares at me. even though my side of the bed is farthest away from his bed. and he sits. and he whines. and he mopes. and sometimes he licks my face. and when he sees my eyes open? he wags his tail so hard that he shakes all the blinds. it's like an alarm clock. and if i pretend that i don't notice? it doesn't work. so he will back away. and stare. and repeat the process all over again. if that doesn't work? he jumps on the bed and lays either right in between sean and i? or right across my body. just waiting. but eventually he gets off the bed and stares at me again. waiting. so i finally get out of bed and his tail wags and shakes the blinds again. i go to the bathroom. he waits. he gets excited as i put on my shoes. we start to go downstairs and he will not walk ahead of me. afraid that i will decide to stop or turn around. he has to make sure we are at the same pace. i take him out to go to the bathroom and he runs right back to the door. ready to eat. he gets so excited. to the point that he can't control himself. he loves his food. then he eats while i go back upstairs. eventually when all his food is gone he comes back upstairs and jumps on the bed and usually ends up in the covers like this. his mood completely changes from his excited puppy mode. he suddenly gets really mopey and sleepy. and he usually acts that way until we leave. i think he tries to guilt me into staying home. he usually stays on the bed while i am in the bathroom getting ready. i turn the tv on for him and he watches it while snuggling with the blankets. we have a walk-in closet in our bathroom and if he sees me go in there? he jumps off the bed and runs into the closet. and lays down. he can't not see what i am doing. it drives him nuts if he can't see me. if i leave? he follows me out. it's the same routine every morning. oh mosey. he is such a good dog. i sure love him. but i know you all know that. sorry if you are sick of the moses pictures. i am sure they are getting old. but oh well :)

daily moses X 6

2011-08-08T14:58:00.001-06:00

and since it has been a week since i posted a daily moe.. here are 6 pictures from my phone to make up for it. i love this dog. and his poor little worn out puppy paws. they are still healing from our trip to black mountain ranch. i would have included these in my last post about our weekend but i thought it deserved it's own post.

it should have been a three day weekend.

2011-08-08T14:47:00.001-06:00

oh how i wish that it was a holiday today. i love three day weekends! and even though this weekend was not one, i still enjoyed it. on friday night we went to outback with my family and a bunch of relatives. it was a lot of fun! we had gift cards from work.. so you can't beat free dinner right? ruby river though still stands as my favorite steakhouse. but we had an awesome waiter and some great company. while we were waiting for our table i got bored. so i started to take pictures of sean with my phone and then my mom tried to take some pictures of us. haha. these aren't all of them. but just some of them. sean can never make a normal face in pictures. oh well. such is life!

we went home after dinner that night and just went to bed. why is it that we always go to bed earlier on friday nights vs weeknights? i think it's just the lack of sleep throughout the week finally catching up to us. like i said.. it was a busy week last week. saturday sean woke up and started working on the yard. i normally would have slept in until like 11 but i decided to just start cleaning. not typical of me but i cleaned the entire house and it was nice to get that out of the way. it needed a good deep clean. after that we went and got lunch at jakes brookside and then went home and bummed around. sean went golfing with his brother devin while i watched more friday night lights. then i decided to meet up with my sister in law amanda. we went to maceys and did some grocery shopping, got drinks, and ate yummy waffles with homemade buttermilk syrup. oh my gosh i could drink that stuff. then we met up with my brother sam and his wife sarah at yogurtland!

sunday we had church. it was our last day in nursery. we are actually really sad about it. we got so close with those kids. they say the funniest things and i am really going to miss them. after church we met with the bishopric and we got released. then i got a new calling. personal progress program coordinator. ha. sean will be getting his call this week from the elders quorum president.. haha. should be fun! after that we went home and napped. then i made homemade brownies with homemade sea salt caramel and we took that over to his parents and ate dinner with them and his grandpa. it was a yummy dinner! then we played nerts and rummy with his parents. it was a lot of fun! overall a great weekend. i can't believe that summer is almost over.. sean goes back to school in three weeks. :( boo. but then... he graduates in 8 months! wahoo! i can't wait! i can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! up next? a bunch of pictures of moses haha. cuz i know how much you all love those.. jk. but i don't care cause i love that dog.

friday phone dump.

2011-08-05T15:34:00.003-06:00

i saw this on another blog (i can't remember which one) and thought i would do it. friday phone dump. so this post will be really random. and i got a new app on my phone called my tubo that does fun things to pictures. hence the interesting pictures haha. i know they don't look that great but it's fun to play around with!

1. when sean is passionate about a certain topic he gets very animated. and loud. haha. i love it. i believe right then he was talking about cowboys and aliens and somehow dinosaurs got brought into the mix and he said he didn't believe in dinosaurs and that jurassic park could never happen and i about lost it. i love jurassic park! how dare he! i am just going to pretend he was joking for the sake of our marriage. no but really i love having conversations like that with him. he gets so riled up and i can't stop laughing. these pictures were taken on saturday while eating lunch at slab pizza. i know surprise, surprise. we can't stop eating there. their buffalo wing pizza must have crack in it. because i can't stop thinking about it. i have even attempted to make the sauce on the buffalo wing pizza and put it on grilled cheese sandwich. it actually was really yummy! next i plan to actually put it on pizza crust.

2. a picture of the buffalo wing slab. it usually has chicken on it but i actually like it better without. not sure why? i honestly just think that it doesn't even need it. it's that good. it already has celery, bleu cheese, buffalo sauce and more cheese. perfect in my book. anyway.. it is so yummy. you should all go eat there. then you will understand why i go eat it like 5 times a week.

3. i got this bracelet at the black mountain ranch. i love it! i also got a really cute hat but have yet to take a picture of it. sean got a cool shirt that buttons up and he can wear to work. maddie says he looks like an old man wearing it. haha. but i think it's awesome. anyway, i used to make bracelets all time. i want to get back into that!

4. i had just gotten my ring cleaned and was playing around with different functions on this new camera app. the picture was a lot less blurry before i took this but i still think this looks kinda cool. surprisingly my phone takes great macro shots. i can't believe how advanced camera phones are these days. i think my phone has more mega pixels than my point and shoot! i know it doesn't look like it because of the different functions i used on these pictures. but it's actually a much better camera than my other phone.

5 -6. and here is some daily moe for ya. i love this little.. okay big guy. 72 lbs. the vet says he is borderline overweight. pshhh. we are supposed to feed him a little less. yeah right. sean says we are doing that but for some reason sean can't hear moses whining in the morning so moses is not getting less. so we are not "doing that" yet. i just don't have the heart to do it. i don't think the vet took into account how tall moses is.

anyway. i am really glad it is friday. it has been an incredibly long, stressful, busy week at work. don't get me wrong though. the busier we are the more we make. i am grateful for that. just tired. ready for the weekend! tonight we are going to outback to use some gift cards we got from our work. we are going with maddie, lee, my brother sam and his wife sarah, my parents, my uncle scott and his girlfriend mara! should be a lot of fun! i also want to watch take me home tonight since my sister let me borrower that. man i love the 80's. also? i hope to watch lots and lots of friday night lights. it's on netflix and i am obsessed! hope you all have a great weekend!

p.s. i have been an awful commenter lately. but... to be fair? most blogs will not let me comment on them. has anyone else had that problem? you try to leave a comment and it keeps making you log in? and then it still won't work? this was happening on my sister in law sarah's blog. but i think i came up with a solution.. and i only think that because i helped her make some changes and it worked. if you have your comment section embedded below your actual post? people might have a hard time commenting because something is messed up on blogger. i have heard that it might be a problem with internet explorer but i have tried it on other browsers and it still didn't work. anyway, if you make it so a comment box pops up separate when people hit post comment? it might fix the problem. to do that, go to your dashboard. hit settings, then comments. then go to comment form placement and hit pop up window. then save! that might help if you have noticed that you haven't gotten any comments lately.

daily moe #1

2011-08-01T16:37:00.001-06:00

sometimes when my sister maddie and friend lee are having a bad day? i send them a picture of moses that i have taken on my cell phone to cheer them up. i call it the daily moe. i am gonna try to do that more often around here. post a daily moe from my phone. not everyday but every once in a while. so i guess i guess that defeats the purpose of calling it the daily moe but i am still going to call it that anyway because it sounds cool. and if you don't like pictures of cute dogs then you don't have to read. the thing is i can't not smile when i see his face. i never thought i could love an animal this much. okay i knew it was possible. i loved all the other dogs we had growing up. but i just love him more than i ever thought possible. i don't know if it's the fact that sean and i got him together... okay maybe i got him without telling sean but maybe it was the fact that we grew so much and learned so much about each other while raising this little puppy. it definitely brought us closer and i see that now. there were times when i thought, "what have i gotten myself into? what was i thinking getting a dog?"

it was definitely hard sometimes. and it still is. we can't just pick up and leave town if we want. we can't go out every night after work because we have to go home and let moses out. we don't always agree on what he can and can't eat. or if he is sick or just fine. we might not always see eye to eye. but we have worked together and somehow this little dog is still alive. haha. it hasn't always been convenient and easy but it has definitely been worth it. and i am sure this was just preparing us for parenthood someday. we have definitely had some trying times with this dog. but they have all been worth it. he is such an amazing dog. with such a sweet little heart. sean always says that our life is just like marley and me. that is one of our favorite movies and i cry like a baby every single time that we watch it. more than any other movie. that movie just gets to my core. also we get comments all the time that he is totally marley. i can't imagine our life without moses. i can't imagine my life without sean. i love my boys. and i can't imagine that love we will feel someday about our own children. and how close that will bring us. someday. anyway. there is your daily moe for you. next time i will try to not talk so much..

Black Mountain Ranch Part Seven- last one.

2011-08-01T12:46:00.000-06:00

. . . . dancing at the saloon . . . .

. . . . the pool . . . .

we spent the rest of the night dancing in the saloon but mostly just watching brandon dance! he was one of only 2 guys on the staff there that country dances. so all the girls took turns with them haha. it was so much fun to watch. i could not believe how good he was at it! i mean, he is good at everything he does. but it was just so fun to see him do this. he seemed so happy out there and we loved seeing him so happy. sean and i danced a little bit and played some foosball. he might have beat me but i definitely want a re-match!

we were so exhausted after this day so we went to bed a little earlier than everyone else. when we woke up in the morning we had breakfast and then started some chores! hey, we had to earn our stay there somehow right? trust me though, it was totally worth it. we went on poo patrol with brandon and amy. poo patrol consisted of amy getting in the bobcat and driving while the rest of us used these rake things to gather up poop on the ranch. since the cattle drive was the day before there was lots of cow and horse poop on the main road through the ranch. so we did that and helped clean up the saloon from the night before. sean is such a hard worker and swept and mopped that entire floor. i wiped all the tables down and counters down and emptied trashes and stuff. with a lot of us working it wasn't too bad at all! i would definitely do it again to get to stay there. it was incredible.

after all the cleaning we decided to go to the pool. this pool is up really high and has an awesome view. the water was a little cold so i didn't stay in for long but mostly just watched everyone play volleyball. moses even came up and hung out with us! he kept trying to get the ball though. but was afraid of the water. haha, silly dog. after that we had some lunch and sean and i went to take a nap. i must have been so tired because when i woke up sean was gone. he had gone up to play volleyball again in the pool. this time they had a more official game going on. i headed on up there and just watched for a bit. we were both pretty sunburned by the time all was said and done. it was worth it though and now we have a little color so it's all good :)

after that we went and watched amy rope some cattle and then had one last dinner at black mountain ranch. some of the staff had painted the picnic tables earlier in the day so we got to eat outside on them. we had a real southern bbq with all the new guests that had arrived that day. the food was delicious. we had ribs, pork, chicken, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, corn on the cob, salad, and bread pudding. mmmm. that bread pudding was amazing. unfortunately my camera had died at this point but we decided to head out and shoot some guns one last time. this time we brought flo with us! the one that wanted to shoot seans big gun and see the bear. so we shot guns... saw the bear. and then ended the night with watching the office at brandons place (above the dining hall). it was so much fun. i seriously loved this place and can't wait to go back. all of the people were so funny and nice. i didn't want to leave. we left really early the next morning. it was sad to leave. but i know we will be back! seriously, if you ever get the chance to go up there... take it! it was so amazing. anyway. that is the last of the black mountain ranch posts! thanks for being patient with me!

Black Mountain Ranch Part Six

2011-07-30T20:54:00.001-06:00

. . . . the cocktail party . . . .

. . . . after dinner at the saloon . . . .

after heading back from taking the cattle back out to graze, we took quick showers and got ready for the cocktail party. the owners of the ranch occasionally will host an awesome cocktail party at their house before dinner on the day of the cattle drive and then there is a long night of dancing at the saloon. it was so much fun. everyone gets dressed up in dresses and cowboy attire. we headed up there with brandon and met all the other guests at the house. this house was incredible. it had such a beautiful view too. it's just a few minutes away from the ranch but it feels like you can see so much more from this view. i loved it. we ate some awesome appetizers while chatting with lots of the staff and guests. it was so much fun. i love that they did this! see that cat lying on the table? i seriously thought it was fake at first. it didn't even move the entire time. at the cocktail party we watched some dvd's on black mountain ranch. they were really neat and also really hilarious. i love all of the people that work at black mountain ranch. i now consider them all great friends!

after the cocktail party we headed back down to the ranch for a delicious dinner. we had lasagna and gnocchi. sean and i had never tried gnocchi before but it was really good! brandon did a great job! everything that he made we loved. after dinner we all headed toward the saloon. we spent the first part of the night just hanging outside by the fire with the dogs. brandon's dog riley is soo funny. he is obsessed with that fire. he tries to eat all of the sparks that crack out of the fire. it is the funniest thing to watch. he does this all night. and when i say all night? i mean all night. he takes it so seriously. i loved it! oh and sorry for some of the blurry pictures in this post! i didn't have my nicer camera with me but i still like the pictures so i am keeping them :) next up will probably be the last post.. just pictures of dancing and hanging out at the saloon and swimming! thanks for being patient with all these vacation posts! :) oh and i promise that i am not pregnant haha. some of those pictures make it appear otherwise but it was kinda windy and that dress bunches funny because i had a shirt on under it. haha. it seriously drives me nuts when i wear it. okay or maybe i just ate too much. yeah probably the latter

Black Mountain Ranch Part Five

2011-07-29T20:37:00.004-06:00

. . . . the cattle drive . . . .

. . . . round 'em up! . . . .

saturday morning we got up and ate a delicious breakfast. i am not used to waking up early on saturday mornings so excuse my really tired face in that first picture haha. after breakfast we started the cattle drive. boy, i have been on a horse before. but nothing like this. we left at 9:30 and went and searched for the cattle. we were going all the way up the mountain searching for them. we found them after about an hour and a half and then had to bring them back to the ranch. it was so much harder than i thought it would be. but it was so much fun! the cows would try to run off and take shortcuts and someone would have to go chase them. haha. i loved it. we had to shout out and make noise to try and get them to follow the rest of the cows. the best part about this was getting to do this with brandon's friend amy and her sister sarah. they were seriously so awesome. we had such a blast with them and laughed like the whole time. i am glad i got to know them better!

we got back around 12:30 just in time for lunch. after lunch we went and learned how to throw a lasso so we could rope the cows. let's just say i wasn't so good at that so i ended up just taking pictures and watching sean do it. he got a calf! i couldn't even really tell at first but luckily i was taking pictures of it. he was so excited. moses was too. he loved watching. he kept going up on that rock with all these strangers. watching with them like it was no big deal. haha. after roping the cows we got back on the horses to take them back out to a different area to graze. we were on the horses that day for probably about 5 hours. let's just say my butt and knees still hurt. it was so much fun though. after this we went back and got ready for the cocktail party which i will post about next... oh and i had to take pictures of the donkeys on the way back. they were so cool. josephine and milton were their names!

Black Mountain Ranch Part Four

2011-07-28T22:56:00.001-06:00

. . . . the saloon . . . .

they have an awesome bar/saloon at black mountain ranch. all the bar stools are made out of tree logs or horse saddles. it's awesome! they have all these cools signs and beer cans decorating the place. they have a pool table, a foosball table, a piano, and cards all over. oh and they even have a popcorn machine. it's awesome. black mountain ranch believes in the honor system at the bar. so pretty much you just serve your self and keep track of it on a piece of paper. i love places like that. i have more pictures of this place when it is full of people and dancing coming up later. one of the best parts about this ranch? was that there are dogs all over. and they roam around with the people. i loved that. moses hung out with us at the saloon and it was awesome.

unfortunately i only took a few pictures of our room. i meant to take more but wanted to wait until i straightened up a little bit. and by that point my camera battery had died. boo. oh well! here are a couple from our room. moses got to stay with us and he loved it. he was so tired at this point he wanted to do nothing but lay there.

Black Mountain Ranch Part Three

2011-07-27T22:22:00.005-06:00

. . . . shootin' out on the range . . . .

after dinner on friday night we decided to go out and shoot some guns. sean LOVES his gun. the sunset was so pretty and we even took moe out with us. i honestly thought that he would hate it. he is afraid of everything. vacuums, blow-dryers, mixers, his own tail, loud noises, and wheelchairs. i did not think that he would like loud guns. but he actually did really well. even before i put the earmuff/headphone thingys on him. in fact i think he loved that part the best. i can't get over how cute he is. it kills me. also, i quite enjoy watching sean shoot guns. it's so manly haha. that sounds cheesy but i still think it's attractive. we put a target way out in this tree that was about 150 yards away and sean hit it dead on. i was pretty proud of him. i couldn't hit something if it was 2 feet in front of me and i had a stick. stupid eyes. i guess we can't all be blessed with better than perfect vision eh sean? pshhhh.. showoff.. ;)

anyway after shooting we were driving back and i spotted a bear! you can see it if you look closely in the last picture! i guess this bear hangs around and usually comes out at night to steal food out of the garbage truck. he is a black bear (even though he looks brown) and apparently fairly harmless. . for a bear. anyway, there is this adorable girl named flo that works there. she is from france and her dream is to see a bear. she was so sad when she found out that we saw him without her. she has been waiting two months to see him. she goes out with her night vision goggles to try and spot him. well luckily 2 nights later after shooting i spotted him again.. and she was with us this time. she was freaking out! it was the funniest thing ever. she jumped out of the car and actually chased him down the hill. she was hilarious. i am so glad she got to see him before going back to france! she kept saying "next step? touching the bear!" haha. i wish i would have gotten pictures of that part but my camera was dead by then. i did bring the bigger new camera that my sister gave me but didn't end up using it at all because it was kind of big to lug around. (especially on the cattle drive which i will be posting about soon.. ) oh well! my little point and shoot did alright!

Black Mountain Ranch Part Two

2011-07-27T21:54:00.000-06:00

brandon is such an amazing chef. he cooks for all of the guests. all of the meals. there are anywhere from like 20-40 people there at a time. plus all the staff. all of his meals were delicious. the first night we got there all of the guests were out in steamboat at a rodeo. since he didn't have to worry about dinner for all of them he made a few of us chicken parmesan. he whipped it up so fast. it was delicious!! just looking at that dinner makes my mouth water. all of these pictures were taken either inside or just outside of the dining hall. this ranch is seriously beautiful inside and out.

Black Mountain Ranch Part One

2011-07-26T13:16:00.000-06:00

oh man, what a fun weekend! we just got back yesterday from spending the weekend at Black Mountain Ranch in Colorado. we went to visit sean's brother brandon. it was such a blast! i can't even begin to explain how amazing it was. seriously. we owe brandon big time! i am so grateful that he let us come and see him. we have missed him so much! everyone at the ranch was so nice and friendly. i loved it. it was awesome. it was so beautiful. the weather was around 70-80 degrees. much better than this 100 degrees in utah! i hate being hot! anyway, i am going to break these posts up since i took over 275 pictures. oops. i promise i won't post that many though. i know my posts always end up being way too long so i will try to keep them short and spread them out.

so we took off from utah at about 9:30 on friday morning. this was the longest road trip that we have taken with moses and he did so good. except that he really kept wanting to come up front and sit in my lap the entire time. he is so funny though. he would seriously rest his head on our shoulders and put all his weight on us. thinking that we would eventually let him up there. we stopped for lunch in grand junction and had some subway. we stopped at a huge park and let moe run around for a bit. we ate delicious tapatio doritos. seriously. go get some. if you like hot stuff? you will like these. anyway, the drive was about 6 and a half hours. and i look pissed in that picture but i am not haha. it's hard taking pictures of yourself. not sure why i even bothered!

we finally pulled in to Black Mountain Ranch in the late afternoon. these are pictures of the ranch. the first cabin is the one that we got to stay in. it was so neat inside. wood floors, log beds. so neat. my brother in law brandon works in the other cabin. that is the dining hall. we ate some AMAZING food while we were there. i definitely am going to miss that! moses sure did love running around with all the other dogs. we have missed brandon's dogs koda and riley too. it was so good to see them. they sure love it out in doggy paradise. moe tried so hard to keep up with them and the 20 other dogs that live there but he overdid it on the first day. he wore down the padding on his paws and could barely walk the rest of the time. poor little guy! he is still so worn out. he sure did have a blast though. anyway.. more to come later!

from the garden.

2011-07-19T23:37:00.003-06:00

last night we picked some of the veggies from our garden. they are HUGE. keep in mind that i should get no credit for this garden. it is all sean. he is obsessed with our yard. and our garden. and i love it. he gets so excited about it. nothing makes me happier than to see sean excited about something. vegetables though? i wish i could grow cookies. anyway. last night we made a delicious bowtie pasta with slow roasted summer squash, zucchini, and bacon all tossed together in with whipping cream, garlic, and basil.

while that was cooking i attempted to make zucchini bread for the first time. i think that it turned out pretty good and i will definitely be making more in the future. oh and we won't talk about how at midnight i threw all of the above up. yeah. not as good coming up. i think my body was like "woah chloe. you have had way too much vegetables and healthy stuff today. where is the sugar? REJECT." or more like EJECT. anyway. i am feeling better and the food was still delicious. oh and do you like how i said we won't talk about it and i totally talked about it?

moses is just so cute. i can't not take a million pictures of him. we left him alone inside the house other night for an hour and half. he was such a good boy. he didn't tear up anything. there were no accidents. i am a proud puppy mom.

those are sean's new cowboy boots. we are headed to colorado this weekend to spend some time with his brother brandon. we cannot wait! we get to bring moses. it is going to be awesome. we don't get to see brandon too often so this is something we have been looking forward to for a while. he is a sous chef at a black mountain ranch near mccoy. how cool is that? anyway sean insisted that he needed some cowboy boots. happy early christmas sean! haha jk.. but not really. ;)

tonight i had softball practice and sean spent the evening grilling steaks and more squash with our buddy tyson. when i got home we watched 127 hours again. that movie is amazing. i highly recommend it. anyway, i tried to snap those pictures during an intense moment and sean was making fun of me. i always know how to ruin the moment. it's one of my greatest talents :) but i happy with how the pictures turned out. his smile still gets to me.

and some more...

2011-07-14T14:18:00.001-06:00

so i know this is kind of random. to be posting some bridals again but i need to get some of these up here since i don't scrapbook. you may have heard me say this before but i had my bridals taken twice. once with sean and it was a little more formal. then after i got married i went out again and had some more taken. with just me. sean didn't feel obligated anymore since we had already sealed the deal. haha. i wanted to wear my hair down, with no jewelry. i wanted to be able to lay down in my dress. you know, be a little bit more casual. because that is more my style to be honest. haha. i probably would have gotten married in sweats if i could have. just kidding. sorta. also, our first set of bridals were taken in february and it was freezing! we got to do these ones in october and it was perfect. i loved the colorful leaves and the blowing wind. i decided i should probably just have bridals taken in every season just for the heck of it. you know, to make the dress worth it. haha i am only sort of kidding.

anyway. my sister maddie and my awesome friend mikki both took pictures of me at BOTH of these shoots. how cool are they? they are both so incredibly talented and i felt so blessed and lucky to be able to work with such awesome people. not only did i get to work with them, but mikki's husband braydon as well. they are such an awesome photographer team. you need to check out their website. anyway, after the whole blogging disaster happened and i lost all my pictures i dreaded re-posting everything. but i decided to do it anyway. then i had realized that i never put up the ones that mikki took. and then i could not find the disc anywhere when i was doing that wedding post challenge before my 2nd anniversary. i was devastated! then i remembered that i put them on facebook (my back up hard drive if you will). but all of the pictures came up as thumbnails.. ahh! way too small. what was i to do?

well this week.. i finally found the disc in my desk at work. i was so happy. so here i am finally now just posting the pictures that mikki platt and her husband braydon took. i hope they know how much these mean to me. i love them so much and am so grateful to have such awesome, talented friends. i feel silly getting my picture taken. but it was so much fun. and i feel silly posting pictures of myself, but i can't not post these because they did such a great job and they deserve the credit! they were so great to work with. i would recommend them, my sister maddie, and brother in law devin to anyone in a heartbeat. they are all fantastic. and mikki? we really miss you here at work! i hope all is well with you and your cute little family! also, these pictures are copyrighted by mikki platt so please do not copy them or take them. thanks!

p.s. i am so excited for harry potter. i can't even explain. i get to go see it on saturday morning at 9 am with my work. and guess what? you can too if you go like my works facebook page and try to win some tickets! they are giving away 20 tickets from now until 5. it will be at the university mall in orem! also.. someone may or may not have offered me tickets for tonight.. and i am super tempted to go. but i would be going alone.. decisions, decisions. i wish sean shared the harry potter enthusiasm with me!

this is your life.

2011-07-11T16:11:00.000-06:00

i love this man. and i know that he knows that. i don't necessarily feel that we have to announce it to the entire world to make it true. not that there is anything wrong with that because i know i admit that i love him a lot publicly, especially here on this blog. and he has done the same. however there have been times in my life where i have caught myself questioning things. like if he doesn't announce it all over the internets everyday like sally's husband then it must not be true? maybe that was just satan trying to get me to think that what we had wasn't enough, but that was wrong of me. it was my fault that i suddenly questioned if just saying it in private was enough. i don't need him to do that for everyone to see. not that he never does. but it doesn't mean that if he doesn't all the time or everyday that our love isn't special. i know he loves me and i am so happy and comfortable with where we are. and i apologize if i have ever made anyone feel some of those things that i was feeling. i don't know when it finally hit me but i was wasting a lot of time comparing my life to others. letting others make me think that their lives, not just love was better. i am happy with my life. whether people know publicly or not. i think there is a lot that goes on between peoples relationships that we think we know, but we really don't. as honest as i try to be on this blog? i don't share everything. just like i am sure that you don't. no one can fully understand a relationship or friendship unless they are in it. and just because your husband or boyfriend or significant other might not announce it all over for the world to see.. doesn't mean that he doesn't text it to you, or leave little notes on your car, or tell you in person how much he loves you. in fact he might not even do those things but it doesn't mean that he doesn't feel it. and you know what i think is the best thing about love? it is all unique. not better, not greater, not worse, not less. just different. no one's love is greater than anyone else. and it should never be compared. because in reality it can never be explained. so why compare something that can't be put into words?

p.s. i really like the below quote. i think it helped me realize that it was my own fault that i was
wasting my time."if you don't like something, change it."

via

baby mo-mo.

2011-07-07T22:14:00.000-06:00

i love this dog. he sure gave me a run for my money this past weekend. he got sick. and it was especially hard taking care of him without sean around. he would not stop whining and wanting to go outside to try to go to the bathroom. i feel bad and guilty for getting so frustrated with him. it was also probably my fault that he got sick but we won't talk about that or tell sean that. oops. haha. anyway, he is seriously one of my best friends. him and sean are in my top two :) i am super glad that sean is back. i can't even tell you how much i missed him. let's just say that it was A LOT.

i am especially loving my lightscoop. i have finally figured out how to shoot in other modes besides auto. i feel kind of dumb showing the pictures that i did before because they did not do the lightscoop justice. i wasn't shooting with the right settings. i think i have got it down now though. the above pictures were taken at 10 at night with the lightscoop. the below pictures were taken right after in auto with a flash and no lightscoop. can you tell the difference?

when sean's away..

2011-07-03T15:55:00.014-06:00

it's just been me and moses this week. sean has been in california with my family and we both miss him very much. it's the longest we have been apart since we started dating! he is hopefully coming back on tuesday night and we can't wait to see him! i realized i haven't blogged in over a week so thought i would post some pictures. most of them are just what i was sending sean while he has been gone. you know.. to try to make him jealous. i mean what else can i do when he sends me pictures of the beach, him golfing, and eating at the wharf? you better believe the captain crunch picture sure made him jealous ;) remember this story? so sean? this is what we have been up to this week... acording to my cell phone. (i'll explain more after the pictures)

we tried to take pictures to send to you but moses kept licking my face. we finally got an okay one. i went to the company pool party without you. and it was raining! i had to wear a hoodie. can you believe that? i got to eat at the slab. possibly 3 times while you were gone sean. but who is counting? i loved the flowers that you sent me. they were absolutely beautiful and made my entire day. i was not expecting them. i told you about how without you here i just can't seem to function in the mornings. i can't seem to be to work on time and for some odd reason i went to walmart at 6 am to get some medicine and came home with nail polish? i don't even remember buying it. i have only painted my nails one other time this year? why did i decide to buy nail polish? have you ever heard of sleep shopping? because i am pretty sure i sleep shopped. oops. then i decided to paint my nails before work and they didn't dry and it was a mess? oh well, there is my paint job. you should probably come home so i can be sane again. and yes i have hairy, freckly knuckles but you love me anyway :).

i spend a lot of time on pinterest and catching up on glee. i ate cereal and toast for dinner almost every night. moses had a fight with his bone and his bone won and he just gave up. and then moe and i watched the voice. which you accidentally texted me and told me who won before i had finished it. you felt so bad and i forgave you. i missed watching it without you anyway. it just wasn't the same. we had our first tournament softball game on thursday and we came back and won. i wish you could have been there! friday night i had some girlfriends over and we got snow cones, made treats, lit fireworks and watched dinner for schmucks! which was a lot better than i thought it would be! saturday i tried to stay in bed all day but it just wasn't in the cards. i braved walmart to get stuff for the bbq and immediately regretted it. then i went to amanda's bbq and played with the babies. addi was mesmerized by the fan. it was so cute. i brought a fruit pizza that i made for it, and i know you wanted me to save you a piece but i left it there so i could go see transformers 3 with chase so i don't know if there will be a piece left for you. i promise i will make another one though.

i went to church and nursery without you today. it was lonely sitting alone in sacrament meeting. i really do take having you there with me all the time for granted. i think this has been especially hard with you being gone because we work at the same place, carpool together and eat lunch together everyday. we spend so much time together and i have forgotten how lucky i am to have that. i think it has been good for us to be apart so i could realize how lucky i am to have that. and you. i have always known that i am lucky to have you though but it was just nice to have a reminder that i shouldn't take things for granted. as much i as i was looking forward to having the bed all to myself? (since i am a sprawler) i'd rather you be in it. i've realized that it's just too big now without you there.. i hope you are having the time of your life though. golfing your heart out. you deserve it! now i am watching she's the man with moses. while eating muddie buddies. and he keeps trying to sneak some when i am not looking. he sure misses you. and so do i. he wants his best buddy back.

...and so do i.

p.s. moses has decided to poop twice as much as he did before you left.
the yard has lots and lots of dog poop on it. i would help, but remember how it's
my job to clean up the inside poop? and your job to clean up the outside? i just
don't want to overstep my bounds... ya know? off to watch baby mama now. love you! ;)

am i really 25?

2011-06-23T00:37:00.003-06:00

first of all, thank you for the birthday wishes! i don't know how i got so lucky with sean. but i sure do thank my lucky stars everyday for him. he is definitely a keeper. he is my best friend. and makes me laugh every single day. he loves his family so much, and would drop anything to help them out. he is a great man. i sure do love him. his post was really sweet. it made my day. man, i had a great birthday. i know that 25 is not old. but i still can't help but feel a little old. 25 just sounds so much older than 24 for some reason. i have never been one of those people that wished they were older. i have always hated growing up. i always wanted to live in neverland like on peter pan when i was little. haha, oh well. it was a great birthday and i loved every bit of it.

my birthday wasn't a huge big event. there wasn't a big party or anything. but it just seemed like every little thing that happened made me happy. and usually i hate mondays. but it was a pretty good monday. the day before on fathers day we celebrated that and my birthday with sean's family by having an awesome dinner made by sean's mom. i love her. it was so sweet of her to do that. she made some delicious scotcheroos for dessert because she knows how much i love those. she makes the best scotcheroos. it was a great day. then i woke up on my birthday morning to moses snuggling up to me. then i didn't think that i would have enough conditioner left to condition my hair. but magically i did. then? i had a rice krispy treat for breakfast. awesome. then when we went outside to get in the car to leave for work? one of our yellow flowers had finally bloomed. i heard my favorite song on the way to work. then when i got there my wonderful friend lee brought me a HUGE diet dr. pepper. and she brought my twin sis maddie a latte. it was awesome. then my mom treated us to lunch at the slab. our favorite pizza place in the world. you need to go get the buffalo wing pizza. NOW. trust me. go do it. it will change your life. we try (and are not always successful at it) to only eat out once a week and when we do? we go to the slab on fridays.

then my friend sara got me a gift card and some white spray paint! because you can never have too much white spray paint :) lee brought us some beautiful flowers, treats, gift cards, and a coupon for a free massage from her. she is the best massage therapist around. we got lots of birthday wishes on facebook and it was just all around a really great day. i felt so happy. after work sean and i decided to celebrate by going golfing. i knew he wanted to go so bad. we have been before together, but not in a while. it was a lot of fun. even though i lost a lot of balls. meh.. oh well! after that we went and grabbed some cafe rio and took it home to watch the bachelorette. it was such a great birthday. i feel truly blessed and lucky.

this month has been so busy. sean and i planned to go up to salt lake for my birthday and possibly spend the night at the anniversary inn because we have a gift card there. but there just doesn't seem to be anytime this month to go. we have had weddings galore this summer. i have 3 cousins getting married within a few weeks of each other. 2 on the same day! we have lots of family stuff going on and things are just crazy. next week sean is going to pebble beach, california with my family. haha. i know. without me. he is not a horrible husband though. trust me. i am making him go. (not like that is hard though.. i mean it's a vacation.. in pebble beach. a golfing mans dream!) i have been there several times with my family. we go pretty much every summer. the first year we were married, sean, lee, maddie and i headed up there a few days afer my family left. sean got really sick on the way there and what should have been a 14 hour drive took about 20 hours. poor sean. it was not a good experience. and we only got to be there for like 3 days. i wanted him to go again and make up for the last trip. also? he works so hard. it was a rough year school wise. and he needs the break before he jumps back into 2 more hard semesters. plus he pretty much will be golfing the entire time while he is there since there are like 20 golf courses in the area. like i said, a golfing mans dream. not that i don't enjoy going though. but i plan to spend at least one entire full day here in bed. hahaha. no sean to wake me up by vacuuming. and i won't even feel guilty at all. but i will sure miss him.

so why am i not going? well to be honest? i don't want to leave moses again. i know that is silly of me. but it's just too hard. i know i could find people willing to do it but it's still hard. i just feel guilty for leaving him and for making people take care of him. and also? lee and maddie and i work together and we can't all be gone at the same time. plus i don't have as much vacation time left as sean does. i feel good about staying but i will miss sean and my family a ton! sean and i haven't been apart for more than 3 days since we have been dating. it will be so fun for him though and i'm excited to bond with moses. plus we are going to see his brother in colorado a few weeks after so we have that to look forward to. and we get to take moses!

anyway, i didn't mean to go off on that tangent. i mostly just meant to say that when he gets back we will try and go up to salt lake. for now sean got me this thing called lightscoop. let me preface this by saying that i love the camera that my sister gave me a few months ago. i have realized though how awesome natural light is and i hate having to use the flash. i don't think that the flash light is very flattering. it blows out a lot of things and can just be too harsh sometimes. it creates red eyes and blown out backgrounds. but sometimes when you are inside and it is late at night? you have no choice. well i heard about this thing called lightscoop that you slip on to the top of your camera and a mirror on it redirects the flash off the wall to display a more flattering light on the subject. i got it in the mail yesterday and with the help of my sister maddie we tried it out today. i usually shoot on auto on this camera. but when you use the lightscoop they recommend using it on manual and adjusting the settings so that you get the most amount of flash. it works better with the lightscoop. here are some of the pictures that i took with it today.

keep in mind that i took these on manual and didn't adjust the settings more than once. so the pictures don't necessarily look as good as they could have on auto. but since you need to set them on manual to use the lightscoop, this is how they turned out.

my wonderful model maddie.. don't kill me for posting these maddie!

the beautiful flowers that lee gave me on my birthday! the flash doesn't look too bad on this but notice how it kinda blows out the background? the light is much calmer with the lightscoop.

my computer. see how the glare is gone with the lightscoop?

sean doing what he loves to do..

our laundry closet. yes. it's in a closet. and we love it that way.
but i guess anything is better than having it in the kitchen like it was in our old apartment.
but hey? it was extra counterspace actually and we really enjoyed that! no joke.

much more natural calm light. the flash one still looks okay,
but i like it with the lightscoop better. the paint color is much more accurate.

oh and in case you were wondering? that basket full of laundry may or may not have

been sitting in that exact spot for more than 10 days. and it's possible that dryer door has been

open for just as long. i know.. i'm the worlds best housewife :) but who cares? certainly not me.

and i married mr. housewife.. so it works out k? ;)

anyway.. i love it! i am really excited about it. i like how it creates more natural light and less harshness on the subject. here are some pictures i took with them later. it was a good night. sean was playing the guitar and moses was listening, watching, and sometimes singing along with him. gosh i sure do love my boys.

anyway, i am no pro and don't intend to be, but it sure is nice having another option for

taking pictures inside! thanks sean! i sure do love you and hope you never forget that.

thank you for a wonderful birthday.

It's Chloe's Birthday!

2011-06-20T16:17:00.001-06:00

it's chloe's birthday today! she's 25!

chloe, i hope today that you realize how many people love you and care about you. me and moe included. we love you so much! thanks for being so good to me, supporting me, believing in me, and telling me when i'm being dumb. i appreciate it and i'm so grateful that i have you (you may not feel the same way but you know what? you are stuck with me). remember that one time when we were on the beach in mexico? yeah i wish we could go back. i loved just being there with you and playing in the water and all of that.

you know what else? i'm so stinkin proud of you. remember that one time when you woke up and said "i think i am going to accomplish my goal and run a 5k today"? i do. and remember when you came home and said "i did it" and how happy you were? i do. you never cease to amaze me. i love every minute i get to be with you and for all the crazy adventures we've had and will have together. oh and remember that one time when you hit the home run over the left fielder and he fell down and cried because "his leg hurt" but really he just felt dumb? i do. remember that one time when you were fighting with that girl and yelled "you wanna go?!" at her? i do. that was pretty awesome. and remember that time when you scratched my head at 3 in the morning until i fell asleep? i do. and remember that time when you cleaned up moe's poop at 4 in the morning? i do. and remember how everyone loves you and always says "sean, you married a pretty incredible girl"? i do.

anyway, i love you so much chlo-bo. you mean everything to me. i DEFINITELY got the best part of the deal. here's to you baby. happy birthday!!!!!!!!

Boutique Open House!

2011-06-15T14:35:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! This Saturday, June 18th, my sister in law Amanda

is hosting a boutique open house at her home in Provo!

If you are in the area you should come check it out!

She is going to be selling her awesome Addison Renee hair accessories.

She makes adorable hair stuff for girls of all ages!

My friend Lee is going to be selling her hoops and you can even

get them custom made with colors of your choice! They are so much fun!

You can even have them made to be collapsible. So they are easy to travel with!

I have a hoop made by her, and I LOVE it. They are so much fun. I never thought I

could hula hoop. But these bigger hoops are so much easier to learn on.

I will be making up a few yummy treats and you can come snag some of those if you would like!

There will be lots of other vendors and cool stuff there, so you should all come check it out :)

The Wagstaff Residence

2685 North 850 West

Provo, UT 84604

11:00 am-3:00 pm

Anyone is invited! Hope to see you there! If you have any questions about it just let me know! :)

memorial ride for matt.

2011-06-11T16:26:00.000-06:00

this morning sean and i got the chance to go and watch sean's sister amanda and her family take off on a motorcycle memorial ride for her late brother in law matt wagstaff. he was killed in Afghanistan last september. you may remember me blogging about it when it happened here. before they took off everyone met up at the harley davidson dealership in lindon. they had yummy pancake breakfast and we got to hang out with our adorable nieces and nephew and some good friends and family! it was a lot of fun and i am glad that we went! it would have been fun to go on the ride with them, but maybe another time! if you want to read more about the ride and matt, you can go check out this article! here are like a bazillion pictures that sean and i took. most of them are of my niece addi and her little best friend addi :) i can't help it! they are too cute! i love babies!

sean and i had a softball game last night. we won! yay! it was so hard to see because of the sun and there was a lot of cotton everywhere but it was fun. both my parents and his parents came, my grandma was there, and so was lee, and my uncle scott and his girlfriend mara. after that we decided to go eat at red robin and then we came home. we decided to drive back to provo with the moe to help amanda and jason get packed for the big ride! they had a lot of heavy stuff to move into the trailer, so sean helped jason with that while i helped amanda with the dishes. we woke up early to go hang out at the memorial ride and have spent the rest of the day just being lazy!

tonight we are having a "zach and cheese" party with a bunch of friends in my parents backyard! lee is making homemade mac and cheese and we are hanging out with our friend zach who we haven't hung out with in a while! he is getting married next month and we are super excited for him. we are also having j dawgs and smores and it should be a lot of fun! we have spent most of the day just being lazy and relaxing. it has been nice. i should probably do some cleaning before the party... meh. probably not.