Life lately...

I haven't had a job for a little less than a month, and while it's been a fantastic break and a never ending supply of sleep, it's safe to say I'm in a bit of a rut. So onto the serious job-hunting I go! However I have to say, aside from being jobless, life has been pretty terrific lately.

Our three day weekend in Midway ended on a wonderful note! It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so Kendrick and I drove to Park City to do a little shopping. Kendrick has been so ridiculously supportive with me not working, and with my little clothing selling business, and I really wanted to treat him to some new fall clothes with some of my earnings. Also, he scored an awesome black leather jacket for $40- regularly $200! I've been on the hunt for longer skirts and was able to find a darling cobalt one at LOFT, and a few odds and ends at Old Navy. After shopping, we met up with my family for some bowling! I'm telling you, the day that I break 100 in bowling just might be the best day of my life.

I've gotten to babysit my darling nephew Keegan lately, and aside from the explosive diapers, I've really loved the time I've had with that little guy. He's seriously the easiest baby to watch! He lets me watch my Gilmore Girls on the couch while he quietly plays with wooden coasters and a water bottle on the floor, and occasionally will look up at me and give me one of his famous toothy grins. Seriously, I love that little man.

On Thursday night, Kendrick and I had a wonderful temple date! We love going on Thursdays because we've made it a tradition to have a hot wings dinner afterwards, and Thursday night is conveniently 60 cent wing night at Buffalo Wild Wings. And even better, there's a BWW's right across the street from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple- meant to be, I tell you.

That night, I had theee worst insomnia of my life- I was up until 8:00 in the morning! On the positive side, I was up and awake to say bye to Kendrick before he left to work. ;) But as tired as I knew I would be that day, I only let myself sleep until 11:00 so that I would be able to get to sleep at a decent time that night. I knew that I needed something to keep me occupied that day- and then the idea hit me, I'd make Kendrick a nice dinner for him to come home to! After looking through our pantry, I fell upon a pizza making kit that Kendrick's work had given us as a wedding present. I was grateful for the dough mix (that could have been disastrous),  but decided it would be fun to make everything else myself! 

So I put some tomato sauce in a pan and threw in all kinds of seasonings and spices, and then let that simmer while I kneaded out the dough. While the dough was rising, I started to make the dough for peanut butter cookies, one of Kendrick's favorite desserts. When the dough was in the fridge, I chopped up a red pepper, threw some sausage on a heated pan, and rolled out the pizza dough, stuffing some string cheese inside the crust. I then put the crust in the oven for a few minutes, along with a small batch of cookies. Then, I mixed up the juice, and piled the pizza dough high with cheese, pepperoni, sausage, and red peppers. Oh, was it pretty. 

Once Kendrick told me he was on his way home, I threw the pizza and some cheesy garlic bread into the oven and threw together a salad. Setting up the table was the last step, and I was sure to add some candles for a little flare. ;)

It was a delicious dinner (or maybe I'm just biased) but the best part was the fact that prepping it kept me awake all day! After dinner, we took some NyQuil, popped in a Red Box, and were both out by 8:00. Oh blessed sleep. 

Now let me just end this rambled and scattered post with some adorable pictures of my dog in a wool vest. Because when you come across one of those beauties at Old Navy for $2.99, you just don't say no, guys.

You just don't. 

Halloween in Midway

As you get older, Halloween seems to drop drastically on the excitement scale. A day that was once filled with candy piles, parties, and costume parades becomes an average Fall day with a couple of handfuls of candy on the side. However, this year my parents rented two condos in Midway for us all to stay at over the week of Halloween, and that surely made this Halloween a great one.

Almost everyone in the family was planning on driving up to Midway Friday night, so I spent the day grocery shopping for food to bring up, and pieces to make up fabulous costumes for Kendrick and I. In the beginning, we had decided on being Morticia and Gomez from the Addams Family (get it? Okay) but waiting until Halloween day to find a long black dress wasn't exactly brilliant on my part. So, after browsing Google for creative couples costumes, I stumbled upon this gem:

Bingo! It was the perfect combination of funny and creative with a side of risqué, and it looked easy enough to pull off. Luckily, I already had a blue and white striped dress that my mom made me that had the perfect retro vibe. I also am the proud owner of a pathetically large necklace collection so already owned a pearl necklace and red lipstick from my Flo costume from last year. For Kendrick, I found a black bow tie at a costume shop, a white cap and old fashioned milk bottles at Michaels, and the costume Gods must have really been smiling down on me when I came across a pair of white pants at the DI that were his size. Hallelujah, we had costumes!

After my five-hour-long shopping excursion, I quickly made my way home to pack bags for the hubs and I. Once everything was loaded into the car, I was on my way to meet Kendrick at his work, and then we were off to Midway!

Once in Midway, we were greeted by Harmony, Jeff, and Keegan- all dressed up as Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and Pascal . Their costumes were so incredibly done- I couldn't believe all the details they managed to add. What's even more impressive is the fact that Harmony made all the costumes herself- even that darling chameleon costume and gorgeous princess dress! Zoey was also dressed up in her adorable Peacock tutu dress that Nicole made her. I have to say, nothing is cuter than seeing such a tiny little girl walking around in such a huge poofy dress.

As it started to get dark, we all headed out to take the kiddies trick-or-treating. There was some impressively huge houses in the area, so we figured this must be the candy jackpot. However, we may have spoken too soon when the first house had no one there, and the second house had no candy. Kendrick and Aaron quickly caught on that this area was full of condos, and chances were most were empty and the people that were there wouldn't have candy. So, after a little bit of direction, we were able to find a neighborhood filled to the brim with trick-or-treaters and candy. Much to our dismay, the candy wasn't anything out of the ordinary (mini candybars, tootsie rolls, dum dums- the components of your basic Halloween candy stash). However, there were some creepy decorations that made it all worth it, like this creeper on someone's porch that I'm still 99% was real...

We only made it down and around one street when we all decided it was time to call it a night, and headed back to the condo to meet up with mom and dad who were just arriving. With it being Halloween night, Danny's family and Chris and Jade weren't planning on coming up that night since they had other plans, so we planned our family Halloween party for the next night, had some dinner, and then went to bed. Kendrick and I were sure to watch a scary movie before hitting the sheets to pay some respect to Halloween in one way or another.

The next morning was cold and windy, but that didn't stop us from wanting to go walk around such a cute little town, so Kendrick and I headed out for some brunch. We found the cutest restaurant that was inside what looked like a darling little house. I settled on some cheese pizza while Kendrick ordered a sausage breakfast sandwich. While we waited, I noticed our table was lined with paper, and there was a little tin can of crayons next to my elbow- so obviously we got into a heated game of hangman before our food arrived.

The next few hours were spent in a long and blissful nap back at the condo. I had been struggling with insomnia the past week, and basically fell into a coma while my body desperately grabbed for any and all the sleep it had been missing out on. We woke up around five o'clock that night- just in time for our family Halloween party! Excited to reveal our costumes, I quickly curled my hair and helped Kendrick squeeze into his white pants that ended up being a couple sizes too small (I'm telling you guys, I'm married to the ultimate team player). And the outcome of our costumes...

I was thrilled with how they turned out and even more thrilled that my mom had the perfect apron that I think really added to the costume. I must say.. my family is pretty hilarious and creative- I loved seeing everyone's costumes! Chris and Jade were a couple of bandits, Wendy was Cruella Deville, Boston and Lincoln were Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker (SO cute), Mom and Dad were a couple of fairies (I think? haha), and Nicole, Aaron, and Zoey were a zookeeper and two peacocks (um, lets all just take a second to admire Aaron in those tights, please.)

After taking some pictures, we sat down for dinner which included my dad's famous dinner-in-a-pumpkin over mashed potatoes with some pumpkin muffins and cider. Then, we played a fun little Halloween game that my dad put together, which quickly turned into something that closely resembled beer pong (hold the booze). Then the much anticipated part of the night began- the costume contest, and the results were in: Funniest costume: Aaron! Most creative costume: Me and Kendrick! Most well-done costume: Harmony, Jeff, and Keegan! I'd have to say, I was pretty agreeable with those results. ;)

The rest of the night was spent snacking on treats, playing games, and chatting. It was a great Halloween night (on November 1st, ahem), and did I mention how much I love my family?