11.11.11

 This year 11.11.11 was more than just recognizing such a cool date and remembering and honoring the veterans who serve our country, it was also about celebrating Miguel's 30th birthday! I have known that his 30th was going to fall on 11.11.11 and a Friday for a few years so this party is something I have wanted to do for a while. My cute friend Danielle's husband Clint (who is also a Sigma Chi) also turned 30 a few days before Mike so we decided to have a combined party. We hosted it at our friend Trace's bar The Bourbon House, and we had a fabulous time! Mike and I have been incredibly busy this year so we haven't been able to see people as much as we would like so it was great to celebrate this fun day with some of our dearest friends. Mike also wanted to give back to the Veterans on his birthday so instead of gifts, we asked people to donate money to the Wounded Warriors Project as a small token of our appreciation. My need to give back to others is finally rubbing off on Mike. :)

The Party Planners and the Birthday Boys!

The Jones and Kigers

The Sig Boys- Jeremy, Coon, Clint, Mike, Harm, Justin and Flounder

Chris and Matt some of the best friends we could ask for!

Han and Lo

Meagan and Kipp

Faux sister wives and the best managers a girl could have!

Mike, Justin and Drewcifer

Cute EX wives and soon to be. Love these girls and the few that are missing.

Danielle and I, and of course Coon being annoying/awesome in the back

Raxel, Annie and Danielle

Miss Annie and Danielle

There were a lot more people there but halfway through the night I forgot I had a camera. I promise to be better at the EX Alumni Schlumni Party.

Since it was Mike and Clint's 30th, we decided to splurge on some cakes by Kristin's Kakery (can be found on Facebook). Our men love them some football so it was a natural choice for them. I think they turned out INCREDIBLE and the boys loved them. Can you guess which one is Mike's?

Overall the party was great and Mike had a wonderful time celebrating the big 3-0! The parties continued for a couple weeks and he was spoiled rotten by his family and mine by getting brand new powder skis, bindings and a home cooked meal from his mom every 30th day of the month until he is 31. We really are blessed to have such generous and thoughtful families.

I realized as I was decorating for the party that Mike's 23rd birthday party was where Mike and I really fell for each other and it's been a great ride ever since. I keep hearing that your 30's are the best years of your life and I look forward to experiencing them with the man I love more than anything and continuing our journey together.

Happy birthday Be! I love you more than words could say.

Slowly but surely, more posts to come...

Behind...

I have been insanely busy recently and blogging is about the last thing I have the energy to do.  I am behind on emails, phone calls, texts and everything personal but there are so many fun things we have been up to in the past few months and I want to make sure to remember them so I am making myself an online blog reminder list...  I promise (mostly to myself because I am sure I am the only one who cares) that I will blog about them before 2012 begins.  These fun events are...

-A fabulous trip to Lake Powell with the Albrechts and Billses

-11.11.11 which just happened to be Miguel's 30th birthday

-Sawyer bug's perfect first birthday party

-A much needed getaway weekend in San Francisco with mah Be

-The upcoming holidays

-The EX Christmas Party

-The Girls Christmas Get-Together

And in 2012, the wedding of my awesome brother-in-law and my soon to be sister-in-law in the beautiful destination of Tobago, as well as some new babies who will be joining the EX Family thanks to Rachel and Ashley.  Can't wait to find out what they both are having and to see these little ones comes April/May.  I love having new babies around to snuggle! 

While I haven't had a lot of time to keep up my blog, things have been going great and we are enjoying everything that life has to offer us.  Although not much is going on right now, you can always keep up with our path to parenthood here.  We are hoping 2012 brings our little miracle or miracles as well. 

Happy holidays everyone!

30 Days of Gratitude...Facebook style.

Since I have been feeling pretty down lately I decided to update my Facebook status once (sometimes twice) a day for the month of November so I can remind myself of all the good things I have in my life.  I normally try to look on the brightside in all situations but following my heartbreaking IVF cycle, I have had trouble being appreciative of everything and everyone who have been an intregal part of my life and journey.  I am hoping that writing down all the people and things I appreciate will allow me to reflect on the amazing life I am blessed to live and be a positive way to deal with the grief and loss I am currently feeling.  So here it goes...

November 1st- Today I am thankful for The Sharing Place and everyone in my teen group for healing my soul and being my support during this trial.

November 2nd- Today I am grateful for Starbucks which gets me through my day more often than I should admit.

November 3rd- Today I am grateful for a comfortable bed, a hot shower, a roof over my head and a reliable car. 

November 4th-  Today I am grateful for some much needed bestie time and a break from work with Whitney Houser.

November 5th- Today I am grateful for a hardworking and dedicated husband who got called into work at 3:00 am and who is still working now.  Today I am also thankful for my sister wife Miss
Annie and my faux nephews. Can't wait to celebrate Mr. Cole's 4th birthday!!!

November 6th- Today I am grateful for a strong, healthy, satisfying and fun marriage. I feel very blessed to spend every day with my best friend and love of my life.

November 7th- Today I am grateful for the mistakes I have made and the lessons I have learned from them. I wouldn't be who I am without my past.  Today I am also thankful for miss Hannie for keeping me beautiful inside and out.

November 8th- As difficult as it has been, today I am grateful for my infertility struggle. It has taught me strength, compassion, humility, patience, reminded me who my true friends are and has shown me what unconditional love truly is.

November 9th- Today I am grateful that it's hair day and that someone invented hair dye to keep my gingerness under wraps.

Also Happy Birthday Miss Sawyer bug!  I am definitely grateful for you and you are the cutest one year old I know and I adore your snuggles. You have brought so much love and joy to so many around you and we look forward to many years watching you grow and developing that sassy personality of yours! Love ya buggy! (Pics from her perfect first birthday party to come)
November 10th- Today I am grateful that Mike has taught me how to be financially responsible and that together we are financially stable. It makes for a much happier marriage!

November 11th- Happy 30th birthday to my smart, sexy, hardworking, funny and incredible hubby! Today and everyday I am grateful he chose me and I am looking forward to seeing what the next decade of his life brings us. Love ya be!

November 12th- Today I am grateful for these two.  They are my world...

November 13th- Grateful for those who donated to the Wounded Warrior Project for Mike and Clint's birthday and extremely grateful to all of the Veterans who give their lives everyday to make our country a safer place to live in. This is only a very small token of our appreciation.

November 14th- After reading this devastating story, I am grateful for my family's safety and for The Sharing Place who is there after tragedies such as these occur. I hope this family finds us

November 15th- Today I am grateful for travel. Mike and I have been very blessed to visit 11 states and 7 countries in the 7 years we have been together and we are embarking on another journey together this weekend!

November 16th- Today I am grateful for a job that not only provides a paycheck and amazing benefits, but that I absolutely love. It's amazing what loving your job does for your morale!

November 17th- Grateful for a wonderful and successful work trip but am happy I get to see my hubz tomorrow! I miss him when I am gone.

November 21st- I am really behind on my thankful posts because of some work travel and a weekend trip to San Francisco (more on that later), but I found this "thankful" blog post from last year and after reading it, realized I am still thankful for the same exact things. Life really is amazing when you share it with incredible people, have a job you love and have the most incredible family a girl could ask for. I really am extremely lucky and feel so blessed.

I will keep adding to this post as the month goes on.  I hope you all have a great November and you also take the time to remember everything and everyone that is important in your life and share your feelings with those who have and do make a difference in your life.   

Don't you wish you were my faux nephew?!?

So as many of you know, I spend a lot of time with Cole and Mase and I like to spoil them rotten (I am sure to Annie's dismay).  Well this year as I was perusing Target for Halloween decor for work, I ran across some awesome Halloween stuff I thought the boys would love so I decided to play "Great Pumpkin" to them.

I may have gone a little crazy but I just can't help myself.  I don't have any kidlets, nieces or nephews of my own so I kind of just adopted them and love to give them little toys and treats.  Mike is finally starting to learn how much joy this kind of stuff brings me and actually helped me wrap everything up last night.  Can't wait to drop it off to the boys tonight!  All that is missing is the balloons :)  Happy Halloween everyone!

Our first craft project.

Recently I discovered Pinterest and have loved being inspired by the vast array of photos and quotes on the website. I saw this project on one of my friend's boards and instantly fell in love with it.

Miguel and I have been looking for a piece of art to go above our bathtub in our master bath but nothing has ever struck our eye. I am a lover of quotes and am very sentimental so when I saw this I immediately wanted to do it with the song I walked down the aisle to. When I showed Mike he also loved it and he decided we could make it ourselves. Twenty minutes after I showed it to him he was designing it with our wedding song words and our wedding font and the next day we were out looking for canvas to modpodge it to. Here is a sample of it...

There are two more rows with 6 more canvases but this is the idea. I can't wait to see what it looks like in our bathroom and it will be a good reminder every day of what our love is and should always be. I will post pics of this and our newly decorated useless room when everything is finished! Loving that our house is FINALLY turning into a home. Happy weekend everyone and GOOOOO Utes!!!

DTSB is Fidelity...

My mom was nominated and interviewed for an "I am Fidelity" piece that gets seen companywide. Unfortunately, she works for a subsidiary Fidelity company so it couldn't be published on the Fidelity page but I am one proud daughter and wanted to share it. I am lucky to come from such great roots and personally think I have the best example a girl could ask for. Way to go DTSB!

Love these boys!

Mike may or may not have told me that I really need a kid of my own the other day because every time we are shopping or I get an Annie text I say, "Cole would love that, this would be so cute for Mase, look how cute this picture is, Cole said this, Mase did that" etc. etc. This statement came from him after I shared a little surprise that I have for my faux sister-wife and faux nephews. I am just glad Annie doesn't think I am too creepy, and if she does, she hides it well. :) This cute pic was before the Utah game a few weeks ago. How cute are they?!?

Little Miss Mekah...

We fall more and more in love with this little lady and she becomes more adorable every day. She is our little cuddler, our attention needer, our nuzzler, our feisty girl, our sleeper, our alpha dog, our lover, our wrestler, our manipulator, our player and she has both of us completely wrapped around her paw. She loves to give kisses, does many trust falls to find the perfect position to be petted in, finds the best spots to lay and she loves her daddy more than anything. She makes us laugh, makes us love, brings us incredible happiness and she will always be our first baby. Thanks Miss Mekah for being the best doggie someone could have given up . You were meant to be in our home and you are more loved than we ever could have imagined.

My first work trip...

I have been planning a meeting in Napa Valley and I found out Monday I get to attend. I am excited to travel with the company and I feel so professional! I am sure it’s just the allure of something new but it’s an exciting move in my career and I hope this is the first of many travels I will experience within my position. We are staying at the beautiful Westin Verasa in Napa Valley and I am looking forward to working hard, but also enjoying the scenes and food Napa Valley has to offer. Since it’s the week following Mike’s 30th birthday, we decided to take advantage of the weekend and celebrate his 30th in the bay area. We are looking forward to some time together exploring the city and wine country and we are very hopeful that this adventure will be the first with Baby Ricci on board. If not, I look forward to enjoying some delicious wine with mah be and discovering a whole new place together. Isn't it beautiful?I can't wait!

Inspiring...

Craving...

I have always been a spring person; the smell of it delights me, the sight of tree buds intrigues me and the airiness awakens me. The past few years spring has come and gone without much of a presence and I haven’t been able to enjoy it as I once had. This year it has been different, I am craving fall. Maybe it is because I didn’t get to experience spring or maybe it’s because as I grow older I appreciate more that the fall time brings and the magic and allure of a changing season. When I was younger fall meant going back to school and the season of snow. Now fall means hearty soups, college and NFL football season, the vibrant colors of the changing leaves, a crispness in the air, Halloween décor, brown boots, nights cuddled up with mah be and the doggies next to the fire, peacoats, pumpkin carving, cardigans, tailgating, Mike's 30th birthday, cozy sweaters, caramel Brule lattes, scarves, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the return of my shows, deep colors and the beginning of the holiday season. I am impatiently awaiting the change from summer to fall and I can’t wait until the temperature drops and it finally feels like autumn. Is it October yet? because I am craving you…

Apparently we like to be on the news...

The other day Mike's company ATK was spotlighted in multiple news articles. This is a picture that was run in the DeseretNews of my hubby explaining what an autoclave he designed does. He looks so intelligent and sophisticated, not to mention sexy. I am one proud wifey :) Lately Mike has been bounced into many different roles at ATK and is currently outfitting this new facility in order to get it operational. I am really so lucky to have met and married such an intelligent and hardworking man. If you want to learn more about this new facility, here are some links to the news stories...

Deseret News
Salt Lake Tribune
KSL

This is what music means to me...

As I was searching for Adele's beautiful song "Someone Like You" I ran across this quote and had to share...

"There’s nothing quite like the feeling when you are listening to a song written by someone you don’t know, by someone you have never met, who somehow manages to describe how you felt at a particular moment of your life. If you have ever had a broken heart, you are about to remember it now"

There are certain songs that steal my heart, heal my soul and keep my secrets like nothing else can. They transport me back to moments in my life when I was elated, when I was broken, when I was numb and when I was overwhelmed with love. Some say smell is the strongest sense but to me, it is the lyrics that give me goosebumps and send chills down my spine that move me and remind me of moments I have hidden away. Music is part of my existence and allows me to feel my raw emotions. It gives me life and without this artform and without the words people are bravely willing to share, my life would be just a little bit dimmer. Here is one of my all-time favorite songs...

Enjoy.

Slightly obsessed with this song...

"You can take everything I have
You can break everything I am
Like I'm made of glass
Like I'm made of paper
Go on and try to tear me down
I will be rising from the ground
Like a skyscraper, like a skyscraper"

It's haunting... the best kind of song.

Meet Steve...

Since I don't have any nieces and nephews of my own, I have adopted Mr. Cole as my faux nephew. He is so much fun to buy things for and is by far the funniest three year old I know. He keeps me laughing with the things he says, his hilarious antics and I adore everything about him, his baby brother Mase and his parents Justin and Annie. I am so lucky Annie lets me steal him for some sister wife dates and he reminds me that our long wait will be totally worth it.

A few weeks ago on my weekly Costco trip, I ran across this adorable Dino Snuggle Bud, which is a stuffed animal that turns into a blanket and pillow. He was so cute and soft and I immediately thought of Mr. Cole and had to buy it for him. Cole has decided to name him Steve and I love getting these pics of Cole and his new best friend.I was at Costco yesterday and they still have some left so if you are looking for a gift for your own kiddos, nieces or faux nephews, I highly recommend getting a Steve! The Sleep Buds also come in a dog and hippo stuffed animal and I think they are way cooler than a pillow pet (and actually cheaper).