Who Is The Wife Of The Year?? I Am!!

Last month an auction was held to raise funds for Stephanie Nielson. I went to high school with Stephanie and sadly her and her husband were in a plane crash last year. Luckily they both survived but it is going to be a long recovery with a hefty bill. While I browsed the items up for auction looking for a way to donate I saw something that I knew I had to get for Andy, Row 2 VIP tickets to the Jazz vs. Celtics game... conveniently scheduled close to Valentines Day. I started bidding right away, I was on a mission to get those tickets for my husband! My mission was successful and I won! I handed Andy the tickets on Valentine's day (It was near impossible not to spill the beans sooner). He opened them and smiled, thinking they were run of the mill Jazz tickets in our usual nose-bleed-could've-had-a-better-seat-at-home seats. I will never forget the look on his face when he realized what he was really looking at, after celebrating for a few minutes he immediately starting calling his brothers to brag about how awesome his wife is, and I have to admit he is right, I'm pretty dang awesome.

Here we are anxiously waiting for the big game to begin


We were right next to the Celtic's bench. It was awesome cause we could hear the players talking and the couch yelling at the ref


This was our view, Basketball players are HUGE this close


Andy hanging out on the court at half time


Oh and the best part... the Jazz won!!!!!!

Just One Reason Why I Love Him

It all began Wednesday at 10PM when Andy and I had this text conversation:
Andy: "You may choose between a movie and a region of the world"
Me: "Huh?"
Andy: "Don't ask questions, just choose one"
Me: "Well what if I choose the wrong one??!?!? You know I'm bad at choosing things, please just do it for me" (I can't choose ANYTHING for myself. Choices give me panic attacks.)
Andy: "Whatever you choose will be fine... just choose one"
The conversation continued in that fashion for about 30 minutes. I finally chose The Matrix because I had an assignment for school to watch it (yes I said an assignment, who assigns a senior level college course to watch The Matrix?!). Andy refused to tell me what it all meant and told me it was a practice in patience for me, I thought for sure I would die while waiting... I hate not knowing things.
The next day seemed to take forever. Then at 3PM while Andy was at class there was a knock on the door, when I opened the door I found a UPS man carrying this


I tore open the package and inside I found this:


It was the sweetest surprise! It was 3 days before Valentines Day so it was totally unexpected.

At 5PM I got another text from Andy:
"Hey I'm on my way home, be ready to leave at 6:30, everything is taken care of"

When he arrived he was carrying these:


FLOWERS TWICE IN ONE DAY!?!?! Amazing! I combined them to create this beautiful display:


He also gave me my Valentines Day gifts, two board games. Ahhhh... he knows me so well:


Since he is a chef he doesn't get nights like Valentines off, so he planned a surprise pre-valentines day date for me. We took the kids to his Dad's and then he took me to the Cheesecake Factory for my favorite Crab Wontons appetizer and then to The Asian Star for dinner. I've been wanting to go to the Asian Star for years. It was so fun to go to two different restaruants, a very unique and fun date.
We then went home and watched The Matrix (hence the original text message conversation).
It was the perfect evening planned just for me by the perfect husband. I'm so lucky to have Andy as my companion. He does so much for me and strives everyday to make sure I'm happy. Thanks for a perfect day babe.

Moments like this

Make it all worthwhile. I love watching my two boys play together. Cohen is in love with Talan. His face lights up whenever he sees him, especially if Talan is paying attention to him. Talan loves Cohen, but from afar. He likes to sit on the opposite side of the couch from him and say "hi Cohen, hi Cohen". But there are the rare times like this when I'll turn around and catch them together, and it melts my heart and makes all the messes and tantrums and time outs worth it. This is what being a mom is really about.

Weekend Getaway

Thanks to the fender bender we were in a few weeks ago our car was in the shop getting worked on. Thankfully we weren't to blame for the accident, not that we were surprised, we were stopped at a red light when a lady ran into us so obviously that wasn't our fault. So the other insurance company had to get us a rental car. We figured we might as well make good use of having someone else's car and put some miles on it! So off to Vegas we went! We didn't have much time so it was a really quick trip, but so much fun, and really when you're LDS and have two kids there isn't much you can do there so the few day light hours we were there was plenty. We got a fabulous deal from priceline, we stayed at the Planet Hollywood resort for only $50, our room normally goes for almost $200, I guess that is one good thing about the economy right now!

Best part of the trip for Andy:

Eating at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill, this was one of the biggest reasons we went. It was a dream fulfilled for aspiring Chef Andy... and holy cow the food was to die for!!!!!!!



Best part for Sarah:

Finding my identical hand twin... NICK JONAS!!!!!!!!!! All the 12 year old girls are so jealous. "This hand is my hand, this hand is your hand, no wait that my hand, oh no it's your hand"



Best part for Talan:

Playing in the bubbles in the fountains. He would reach his hand in to pop them and then scream "I got it!"







Best part for Cohen:

Figuring out that putting a blanket over your head is a really funny joke. He did this himself and couldn't stop laughing about it.



We got in the car to head to the other end of the strip so we could take Talan to Circus Circus. We had been driving about 30 seconds, looked in the back, and saw this:



Andy and I looked at each other and knew it was time to head home. It was a great quick trip to celebrate our time as a family before Andy disappers for another few months into the abyss known as school. Wonderful family memories to last a lifetime.

Christmas!!!!!!!!!

I'm a little late, but here are our pics from Christmas. The best surprise was the gigantic toy box Andy's dad hand made for the kids. It is adorable and I'm praying Talan doesn't it destroy it... too quickly. It is going to be a wonderful keepsake because it was made with such love



Talan loved opening presents, but got bored after a few. It took him 3 days to finally finish, and he didn't get very much!!!!!





Every time we go to a store Talan wants to carry this "bear" (it's really a puppy but he calls it a bear) around. It is made for babies about 6 months old so I kept saying we didn't need to get it for him. But he wanted one so badly I decided to get one for "Cohen" for Christmas but knowing Talan will probably use it more than Cohen will. We had it hiding in Andy's closet and for weeks Talan kept asking us to get him the bear in there cause he had heard it go off a few times. He now carries it everywhere!!



Cohen did get to play with his toy for a little while



It was a great day! I hope everyone had as wonderful as a Christmas as we did. I love this time of year, it is a time to reflect on the life of our Savior and celebrate all that he did for us. It is also a time to draw our families near and enjoy just being together. I wish we could all keep the "Christmas Spirit" alive all year long... maybe that should be my New Year's resolution this year?

3 Years... and 3 days

On Wednesday (December 17th) Andy and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. I'm amazed that 3 years has passed already, and yet at the same time it amazes me all that we've crammed into these 3 years! 7 jobs, 3 apartments, 2 kids, 2 cars, and the list goes on and on.
I feel so wonderfully blessed to be married to such an awesome man. Here is a quick list of what makes him amazing:
* No matter how little sleep he gets if he is home in the mornings (which is rare) he gets up with the kids and lets me sleep in as late as I want.
* He is a chef for goodness sake... what more could a girl want?! I never have to worry about what we're going to eat
* He always knows how to make me laugh, even when I'm furious at him he can make a single joke and the fight is magically over
* He is 10000 times more patient than I am
* He is a fantastic father. He isn't one of those Dads who sits on the sidelines waiting for the wife to tell them what to do. If a diaper needs to be changed, he changes it.
* He is very good looking!
* He always makes me feel pretty... even when I know I don't look that great (like after a hard day chasing Talan around)

That is just a short list... I could go on and on. I'm so glad that I get to spend eternity with my best friend! I love you babe!

Been thinking... I'm blessed

Right before we found out I was expecting Talan I got a huge promotion with big pay check attached. We decided we should go ahead and buy a house. We found a place that we loved and even put in an offer but after sitting down and really crunching the numbers we realized I would have to keep working full time in order to afford the house and I knew I wouldn't be able to do that after having the baby, so at the last second we pulled out.
Ever since that time I have been extremely jealous of everyone that has a house. I watch HGTV all day long and imagine I'm the one house hunting with the endless budget, I search the web for houses in my area and go to Open houses, it's almost been an obsession with me. I want a house so so so so so badly and I've been pretty bitter about it at times when I look around my small apartment with no yard to play in with the kids.
Then right after Thanksgiving I was looking at a friend's Facebook account of the pictures she posted of Thanksgiving. She had hosted it in her beautiful brand new house with a formal dining room and stainless steel appliances. The pictures of her home were bringing all my jealously and bitter feelings to the surface, but then something struck me with great power... there were no children in the pictures. My friend has a great big house and lots of luxeries, but she has also been married several years more than me and still doesn't have children, which I know she really wants but they just don't feel they can afford them now since she has the better job of the two. Would I really trade my children for the pretty house?? Never!
Then I began thinking about other friends and the other young families in our ward. Many of them have both parents working while the children are in daycare or with grandma. While thinking about this I looked at my two little boys that I am blessed enough to be with 100% of the time. I do still have to work remember, but I was able to find a job that I can do from home while my children sleep or play at my feet. I can't stand my job, but at the same time I love it because it keeps me with my children, which is the most important thing to me.
So I've decided that I can stay in this tiny apartment, as long as it is filled with the three boys that mean the world to me. It's ok that we don't have the big house with the big yard because I'm in the best place for me and my family.