Happy Suprise!

This morning I woke up to this beautiful surprise!
About three inches of fresh, white snow coupled with blue skies . . .
. . . but this was the BEST surprise of the morning! Our driveway and walkways were all cleared. Our bishop received a snowplow attachment for his four-wheeler for Christmas. Now, every time it snows he's out there like a little kid with a new toy. He's all smiles as he goes around helping people. Thank you, Bishop. That was so sweet!

Christmas Lights

One of my favorite Christmas activities is going downtown to see the Christmas lights. I just love the atmosphere of downtown at Christmas time. It's so happy and festive. This year my Grandma Verda booked a week in a condo that was right across the street from the Conference Center. She didn't stay down there the whole week, so she let Mikey and me stay down there for a night, which happened to be the night they turned the lights on at Temple Square. So a lot of my family met up to walk around and see the lights and then go back to the condo for donuts and hot chocolate. After everyone went home, Mikey and I even went out for another walk--just the two of us. I can't image a better night to bring in the Christmas Season.
This was the view from the outside of the condo.

Back-tracking!

Before the BYU v. Utah game!
During the BYU v. Utah game!
And after the BYU v. Utah game! :)

Halloween 2009

So it took me a while to get these up! But hopefully the pictures of our Halloween costumes live up to the anticipation! :) I'm sure I don't need to state the obvious, but Mikey went as Rocky. I joined him as Rocky's wife, Adrian. We had a really fun time acting in character. I really loved Mikey's costume. I liked mine too, but the sad thing is every piece of it came straight from my closet, except the glasses. I really am homely Adrian!
The night before Halloween we even dressed up for the costume contest at the Utah Jazz game. We didn't win, but we did get on TV!

Halloweens Past

This may look familiar to some of you! Last year I posted a review of all the Halloween costumes Mikey & I have done together. This year I just copied the post over from last year. Mikey & I have so much fun coming up with an idea and putting it together. It's a fun tradition!

For our 2008 costume last year we were Wesly & Buttercup from "The Princess Bride." Putting our costume together was a lot easier than I anticipated. The dress was a bridesmaid's dress Mikey's mom had in her closet. I just pulled it out and wore it!
For our first Halloween in 2004 we had been engaged for just over a month. We thought the third picture below was a great candidate for our engagement photo. Some how it got vetoed. Weird. I think it might be time for these wigs to be resurrected.Our next Halloween in 2005 we went as GHOSTBUSTERS! Who ya gonna call? The packs on our backs are our neighbor's 72-hour kits wrapped up in aluminum foil. I wonder if they noticed the missing granola bars when we returned the packs.
Halloween 2006 had a couple different costumes. One costume for a pre-Halloween party and another costume for Halloween night.
Any guesses on what we were for the party?
We were "LEAF BLOWERS!" We thought we were clever, but having a leaf hanging in our faces the whole night did get a tad annoying.

For a costume contest at work, Mikey was John Stockton, so that night for Halloween he was Stockton and I was Malone. I think Mikey looked pretty darn good! And I was just a spitting image of Karl Malone!
We tried to recreate the statues of Stockton & Malone that are outside the Energy Solutions Arena. What do you think?And now we come to Halloween 2007--when I showed the ULTIMATE love I have for my husband by dressing up as a WWF Wrestler--the Ultimate Warrior. Oh the love. Mikey grew up a huge fan of Hulk Hogan and so dressed up as him. Mikey was such a fan of Hulk Hogan growing up that in kindergarten he made a poster for school and on it listed his three heroes as #1 Jesus, #2 His dad, and #3 Hulk Hogan!
This is a picture of the real Ultimate Warrior. See, I just have a talent for looking like big, athletic men. What can I say?
Do you think Mikey had fun? :) I love it!

And now you have to wait in suspense to find out what we are dressing as this year!!

We've Moved!

Well, it's kind of old news now seeing as we moved the last week of August, but non-the-less! After living in our first place just over 4 1/2 years (since we've been married), we made our first move. Mikey's Grandma Pete invited us to come live in her basement apartment and it worked out perfectly for us. We rented a moving truck to simplify things, but we really only moved 3-4 minutes away. We've been getting settled into our new space and things are going well. Many, many thanks for all the help we received!My brother Wayne & Me

Mikey's dad Russ, nephew Riley, & brother-in-law Alain

My brother Russ

Mikey's mom Colleen (who was a HUGE help! THANK YOU!)

Saying "Good-bye" to our first place

Part of the moving crew: Andy, Wayne, Russ, Braden, Karie, Mikey

During the move Grandma Pete got really worried because she couldn't find her Mickey Mouse figurine. She was sure someone had stolen it! My brother-in-law Andy took it upon himself to find Mickey & put Grandma at ease . . . and he did! He found Mickey in the entertainment center, right where she had left him! :) We all had a big laugh!

All moved in and working on a few home improvements!

The BEST part of living in Grandma's basement apartment is getting to see Grandma everyday. She is so darling and so sweet. We try to watch "Dancing with the Stars" with her each Monday. We love spending time with her.

My new GORGEOUS niece!

Allie Cloe
Born October 16th, 2009
To Brandon & Sharlene, brothers Austin & Cody, & big sister Emmie!Welcome to the family! Love, Uncle Mikey & Aunt Karie
(Photo courtesy of her mama Sharlene)

Awesome.

Okay, so there's some sarcasm in that title. This morning we walked out to go to Church and found this lovely scene. During the night someone broke into our car! How rude! Whoever it was stole our GPS & Mikey's backpack and didn't even clean up the mess. Our thief actually even left the baseball bat he used to break the window (which is not in the picture because the police officer had taken it by this time). It's a major bummer, but Mikey and I are both safe and fine & everything that was taken is replaceable . . . except Mikey's homework. That's the real bummer. But here are a few photos to document:

I think the glass actually looks kind of cool on the pavement.The plus side is that I've been having writer's block and now had something to blog about, so I'm back at it. I'll give you an update in a couple days of what we're up to now. Hope you're all doing well!