past pictures in Vegas

Yesterday we woke up to a little winter wonderland.  That's right...everything was covered in snow.  Disgusting.  (Although, I am grateful it was snow instead of tornadoes, praying for our family and friends safety!)  I was craving some warmth and wishing we could just pop down to Vegas for the day.  We used to live a short hour and a half away and would find any reason to go play... 
"Oh you want Cheesecake Factory?  Let's go to Vegas!"
 "Shopping?!  Vegas!" 
"Want to walk around until our legs are about to fall off?  Vegas!"
"What should we do today?  VEGAS!"
"One year Anniversary?  Vegas!"
"We're going to California?!  We have to stop in Vegas on our way back!"
So today I am daydreaming about Vegas, it's shopping, it's warmth, and it's pools.  Here are some past pictures :)

My very large virgin pina coloda ha!

Bellagio

Mandalay Bay

Hilton

Dang Cheesecake Factory...get's us everytime!

Mirage

Treasure Island

Caesar's Palace

We love and miss Vegas :)

p.s.  I bet you're all jealous and wishing your man could look as thrilled as my man does while taking some of these pictures.  It's a gift really :)

p.p.s.  Vegas has FREE valet parking!  Who knew?  After all the countless time's we've been there... I just found out in January.  Geez louise!

happy easter (a day late)

I'd be lying if I said I didn't really care about Easter candy.  Let's be real, it's the best candy.  But that's not why I love Easter.  I love Easter because it brings everything back into perspective.  I focus less on myself, and more on Christ.  I am reminded to be a better example, to live my life through my Savior.  He provided the ultimate sacrifice, so that I may have the opportunity to live with Him again.  Every day is more hopeful, every mistake less painful and every joy is just a little sweeter knowing that our Savior provided a way to return to Heavenly Father.  I am eternally grateful.

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I love Easter because we get to celebrate the life of Jesus Christ.  I know without a doubt that He lives! 

p.s.  Am I the only one who got up at the crack of dawn this morning to go buy Easter candy on clearance, before all the good kinds were gone?! :)

lesson learned

Advice:  do NOT set the bar too high when it comes to birthday gifts for the hubs.  What do I mean?  Well, when we celebrated Eric's birthday in our first year of marriage (April 2009) I gave him the best present ever.  Seriously.  Have you ever heard of Barrett-Jackson car auctions?!  Make that the world's greatest collection car auctions.  Eric is so into hot rods, muscle cars, almost anything you can rebuild so I knew I had to get him tickets to this car show!  So, April 18, 2009 Eric opened his gift and was so surprised when he saw tickets to Barrett-Jackson!  I instantly won the coolest wife ever award :) (Best part? Tickets were cheap!)
In October 2009 (yeah, we had to wait a few months for the car show haha) we headed down to Vegas!  We stayed at the Mandalay Bay where the event was taking place, and we had the funnest weekend ever!

Eric' chillin' in our room, checking out events for the next day.  He was like a little boy on Christmas Eve night.  So excited.

The camaro was not available yet so this was a big deal! 

We looked at cars for hours (or what felt like hours haha, but I was a good sport!) then headed outside.  We were surprised to find out we got to drive some pretty awesome cars!  Lucky us! 

Side note: before driving the cars we had to take a breathalyzer test and I instantly felt guilty (even though we weren't drinking ha) and was super giggly.  Eric breathed into it and the guy didn't even check, he just let him through.  When I breathed into it he sat there and watched it until it cleared haha.  Awkward.  Haha!  I've never even tasted alcohol!  Apparently I can act like I've been drinking, or I just acted guilty haha!

We each drove the camaro through a course they had set up.

Eric's famous picture...SO HOT!

Race car driver's took us for a spin in the new model (well new back then, it was the 2010 model) corvette.  So crazy and fun!  They flew through the course and drifted around corners!

We got to take these porsche's for a drive, then traded places with race car drives and they drifted through the course.  SO FUN!

After the car show we went shopping, ate yummy CheeseCake Factory, and went swimming!  (Mandalay Bay has the funnest pool, aka the Beach!)  Such a fun weekend! 



Ask me what I got Eric for his birthday last year...

I know.  Coolest wife ever award down to what-the-crap-is-this-lazy-wifey award.  Just kidding :)  Seriously, there's just no competing though!  (Although, it is a nice watch..haha!)  No worries, I made up for it this year with his gun..

Don't mind his work clothes, we went shooting as soon as he was off work!

So, if you can help it, don't give him the best birthday gift he could ever imagine in your first year of marriage.  Everything else will just be down hill from there!  Hahaha!  To be fair, Eric was such a good sport about the watch, he'd really been wanting it for a long time!  He's always a good sport! :)

i smile

I am so excited to join in with Jessica because, well, I just love to smile! :)

I smile because my face is finally starting to show signs of healing!  I'm noticing the break outs are happening few and far between.. woo woo!  I still have ridiculous amounts of scarring, but in time those will fade.  Hopefully.  I'm trying to get used to these imperfections. :)  For those of you who live in southern Utah: if you need any dermatologist needs...please go see Tim Nowatzke.  You will NOT regret it!

I smile when I tell my husband we'll go shopping where ever, and for what ever he wants for his birthday weekend.... he chooses to go shopping to buy me some capri's.  What?!?  How did I get so lucky?

I smile because I get to have serious girl time today watching this movie :)  This is the ultimate girl movie and definitely my favorite!  I've never seen the original, or read the book.  Definitely on my list!

I smile at the thought of being a mommy one day.  i. can't. wait.

 I know this picture is a little blurry, not the best.  Oh well.  You need a little mystery.

I smile at how attractive my Eric is.  mmHmm...  I'm so lucky this man is all mine.  Oh and I smile at how happy Eric is about that silly gun!

I smile at the idea of shopping with my mom-inlaw and sisters-inlaw tomorrow!  Looking forward to some girl time with them!

I smile at how happy my tummy is.  I ate a whole bag of these in two days. 

Wait.  Crap.  A whole bag...in two days?  I don't smile, I frown!

So bad.  So gross.  But sooo delicious!

birthday weekend recap

I'm just going to put this out there... I'm not the best wifey in the world.  Dang it.  Since Eric's birthday was on a Monday (yesterday) and he had work AND school, I really wanted him to have a special birthday weekend.  And maybe a little surprise party.  Ask me if any of that happened?!  Our weekend was...pretty normal, but in a good way.  It was a happy, fun, friend filled weekend with zero surprise parties.  Please help me out here, I don't come from a party throwing family, so I have no clue how to go about putting together a SURPRISE party!!  I'd love some tips so that next year I can try to throw my man a surprise party!!
Friday night we went out with one of my best friend's (Jaicee and I met in hair school, we just LOVE Mark and Jaic!) and had a great time!  Dinner, bowling, ice cream...what's not to love?!  Especially when Eric and I barely beat them at bowling, earning ourselves some free ice cream! :)

Saturday we did a little shopping and then went shooting!  (Yes, Eric got his birthday present a few days early.)

Bullseye for the birthday boy!

Cheesy Eric with his birthday gun!

Sunday was so laid back and relaxing!  After church we invited our neighbors over and had lunch.  Once lunch was finished we popped in a movie and took a nap.  Yep that's right.  We all took a nap.  Our friend's, their two kids, me and Eric.  Asleep in our little living room.... haha!  I wish I could've taken a picture, but I was sleeping instead :)  When we all woke up we ate some dessert with dirty spoons.  Oh it's true.  Eric thought the dishwasher was clean.....

Come over anytime!  We really know how to make you feel right at home!  We'll make you take a nap, feed you yummy food with dirty utensil's, if you're really lucky...that yummy food will be a week old! ;)  No worries...the food was NOT a week old! 

Monday (Eric's birthday) we met up for lunch at Taco Bell.  It's our unhealthy, nasty little guilty pleasure haha.  It really was a pleasure though because Eric didn't have to eat a sandwhich for lunch, and this was our first time meeting up for lunch on a weekday since moving up here!  Longest run-on sentence ever?  After work we went out for pizza!

He LOVES taking pictures... can you tell?!

Eric had to go to school after dinner, lame, so I baked his cake and made the frosting while he was gone!  Of course I messed up on the frosting and had to dump it all down the drain.  And of course I didn't have enough ingredients left to make a second batch.  So once Eric stopped at the store, I made the frosting, and everything cooled off enough to throw together, Eric finally ate birthday cake.  At 9:30.  Freakin' baking...I do NOT love you.  But I love my Eric.  I hope he had an amazing birthday/weekend.  I know I did! :)  A huge thank you to friends and family for Eric's birthday love!

happy birthday Eric!

Happy Birthday Eric!!

Hahaha.. I had to do it!  This picture is totally shows how you feel about your birthdays :)

Half way to 50... not to make you sound older than you are... haha! ;)

25 reason's why I love you:

1. You are my best friend.
2. You sing in the shower.  Some time's we have company over and you think we can't hear you... we can ;)

3. You are the biggest (cutest) dork.  Makes life so entertaining!

4. You are the hardest worker.  You do so much to provide for our family and I'm so grateful!

5. You can make friends with anyone!

6. Your laugh.  It is the best sound in the world!  Seriously, if you can get Eric laughing really hard..hilarious!

7. You dress so cute.  I know that's weird, but I love that you care how you look :)

8. Your wink, gets me every time!

9. You are always on time.  I've always loved that about you because I'm the same way!  (Except when it comes to church, why is it SO hard to be on time to church?!  haha!)

10. You hate school but you never miss a class!  You work so hard to get your good grades!

11. Your brutal honesty :)

12. You're a hot little number in your pick up truck....  Seriously.  So true!

13. You clean the toilets for me because you know I hate that chore the most!

14. You actually like shopping with  me!  I am one lucky girl!

15. You are an amazing example to me! 

16. I love that you play with my hair, it's my favorite thing in the world!

17. You are so excited about your hand gun.  (Happy Birthday!)  Now our family is truly protected..haha!

18. You love cartoon movies!  Is anyone else's favorite movie  How to Train a Dragon?! :)

19. You like to cook occasionally and love to bake!  My tummy loves it!

20. Your eyes.  I hope our babies get your eyes/eye lashes!

21. You love babies (well...our friend's babies haha) and can't wait til we have one of our own!  Makes me so excited to see you be a daddy!

22. You really are a humble man.  Something I need to work on.

23. I love that you speak spanish, it is so convenient :)

24. You give the best compliments.

25. You love me.

Happy Birthday babe!  I love you :)

(It would probably make his day even better if he got lots of love from blog land...)

i am thankful

Have you experienced listening to a song that just totally changed your attitude that day?!  By 7am I just knew today was going to be a rotten kind of day.  Trying to cheer myself up I turned on some tunes while getting ready and I certainly received my attitude check.  I'm so thankful for that song.  Today I am just thankful.

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I am so thankful for music and how it does change my mood and attitude in a split second!  Thank you mom and dad for make music such a big part of our lives!

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I am thankful the sun is shining through the clouds today!  (Even though it's only in the low 40's... I wasn't sure if spring existed here BUT everything is greening up haha)

I am thankful for good hair days and make up!  Makes life easier as I am still struggling with my self image.

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I am thankful for a healthy body that allows me to work out.  Can't wait to get my spin on tonight! :)

I'm thankful Eric is mine.  I'm so lucky he loves me.  Plus he's hot ;)

I am thankful for so much more.  Really, I could go on and on.  But I won't :)  I will say that I am thankful God has blesed my life so much.  He truly loves me and has surrounded me with His beautiful creations so that I can be happier.  

What are you thankful for today?!

longest post ever about...food storage?

Food storage has been on my mind a lot lately.  Why?  I dunno.... maybe because I'm getting old?  Is food storage what old people think about?!  ..... awkward.....  ANYWAY!  I was taught to have at least 1 year's worth of food storage in my home and with all these natural disasters happening, that seems like the BEST idea!  The problem I've had with that is this:  when do I start building up my food storage? 
The first year of our marriage we lived in a box.  Haha seriously, a studio apartment.  NO room for food storage.  When we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment I was just starting to feel comfortable with the food we had in our home.  I didn't have to go to the grocery store and buy every ingredient for a recipe, I had most of it on hand.  Now my excuse is... our parents!  Our parents have food storage so we'll be ok.  Um...hello Courtney?!  We don't live by our parents!!  It is time to start filling our home up with food, not kids.  Haha...kidding!  Seriously though.  Here is an email I was forwarded from an American who is stationed in Japan:

Hi Everyone,
We're doing "fine" here. Considering what is going on around us.
When the first big quake hit, around 2:45 in the afternoon on Friday,
I ran to baby's room and grabbed him out of his crib. We've had
plenty of earthquakes in the 2.5 years we've been here, but this one
was huge. Boy started crying and calling for me --I got him too and
we huddled on the stairs away from windows and light fixtures. The
two boys were walking home from school and came in while the
house was still shaking. They thought it was exciting. I yelled at
them to "GET BACK OUTSIDE!" because I'd just been told if you're
outside, you're supposed to stay outside! I sat on the stairs
praying: "Please protect my kids, please protect my kids, please
protect my kids..." It seemed to last forever (around 5 minutes I've
heard) and then the aftershocks just kept coming and coming. They're
still coming.

They evacuated the hospital and Husband was able to come home around 4.
[I can't tell you what a relief it was to have my whole entire family
safe and together. And how upsetting it was/is to think of people
all over Japan who have family unaccounted for. It's really hard for
me whenever one of the husbands has to leave.]

Since then, the power has been out and we haven't had any heat or
access to phones (to the states) or Internet (except Husband getting one
e-mail out from the hospital.) Yesterday they opened the commissary (No lights, cash only) and we grabbed some extra food, water and diapers. Since we
have the standard Mormon "food storage" I wasn't too worried about
running out of food or water, but I didn't have any spare diapers so
was happy to buy three big boxes yesterday for Baby. (And yes,
I bought two big cans of hot chocolate. Priorities, people!)
We were asked at church to see what extra coats, blankets, food and water we can round up to donate to the Japanese people nearby. I feel heart sick thinking of those who've lost homes and loved ones. Although you probably know much
more than me, I hear the devastation is extremely great. We were
lucky to be so safe on base and grateful our off-base friends and
neighbors were okay.

The earthquakes (aftershocks) haven't stopped and I spent all night
last night having nightmares about running from collapsing and
buckling buildings. The kids are on edge and tantrums are at an all
time high. They keep busy playing during the day, but when it gets
dark and we have to ration flashlights and candles it gets extra hard
to keep the peace.

A few things I've been wanting to tell people and note for the
future:
*Get an old school, corded phone. If the power goes out, your
cordless won't work.
*Speaking of accountability, in an emergency, if you're going to
leave your house--leave a note on the door saying where you are going
so when guys from church or work coming looking, they'll know where
you are.
*When the power went out, people off base couldn't get their cars out
of their garage. Turns out there is a special crank to use but most
of our friends didn't have it or know what it was.
*We've been cooking with our camping equipment. Note to self: Buy a
20 pack of small propane tanks. We've also used our outdoor BBQ (in
the cold) and I'm wishing I had a spare tank of Propane for that.
(We still don't have power and don't know when it will come back on
On Base. Estimates have said 24 hours (we're way past that) to 1
week, to indefinite.)
*Do you have an extra refill of your prescriptions in your 72 hour
kit? It's terrifying to imagine running out of the things you take
every day. Also, the thought of my kids getting sick and not having
enough Children's Advil and/or Tylenol made me pretty nervous until I
verified we had some of each.
*For ONCE I was glad to be doing Dave Ramsey yesterday when we had
plenty of cash on hand to shop at the commissary. But we also have a
cash and yen emergency fund hidden in the house for back-up which was
very comforting.
*While I'm making notes to myself: Buy a hand crank wheat grinder
and blender! (We have a freezer full of frozen fruit to make
smoothies but no way to blend anything.)
*Also, I'm buying all my kids a down comforter. We have one on our
bed and we've been fine at night, but the kids need 20 blankets piled
up to stay warm.

Again, it takes something so tragic and devastating to kick my butt into gear!  I'm not going to go out and spend all of our money on food storage.  We just can't do that right now.  This is what Eric and I decided we can do: 
*Instead of buying 1 or 2 canned goods, buy 3 or 4. 
*Each time we go to Costco buy a case of waterbottles. 
*Each week put $5-10 (small bills) away for emergency cash. 
*Put money aside to save up for a shopping trip to complete 72 hour kits for the both of us.
*Make a list of where everything of importance is in our house in case of an emergency, I won't be thinking clearly and won't remember where I stashed everything.
What other ideas do you have?!
Congratulations if you're still reading...this may be the most boring post I've ever done.  But it's so incredibly important.  I need to be prepared for my family!  So I'd love input, ideas, anything you've got for me! :)
Because every post needs a picture, and I failed to have one with my last post, enjoy this picture of our little, crazy, happy family! ;)

life

I just had to take a minute and talk about life.  Life is so fragile.  I've learned that lesson, and will continue to do so again, and again, and again.
I had such a great, busy week of work last week.  I got to spend time with my parents, my girlfriend's and my clients.  I truly am blessed with the most amazing people in my life!  I have so many good friend's and I could not be more grateful!  (I'm talking about my St George friends, northern Utah friends, bloggy friends, clients, everyone!  So grateful!!)  Even though I had a great week I was really missing Eric (as you all know ha) and I was so ready to get home to him!  Unfortunately the weather was supposed to be horrible with winter spring storm advisory's and lot's of snow.  I called Eric to talk to him about whether I should drive home on Saturday or not when he told me, "I'd rather wait another day to see you, than never see you again."  {insert cheesy sigh} 
I decided to brave the storms and drive home.  I was so lucky, there was only one tiny patch of bad road.  There were other's who were not so lucky.  Just a few minutes before I drove up on the bad patch of road there was a horrible accident.  I just kept thinking about what Eric told me and I realized it wasn't so cheesy.  I wanted to cry because someone wasn't going home to his/her family that night.  As I finished the drive home I saw a couple more accidents on the side of the road and it really made me think and reflect on my life. 
I am very blessed.  I feel so loved by all of the amazing people in my life....BUT...do they know that I love them?  The Lord will take my life when it is time,  but it is my responsibility to live my life to the fullest until that time.  I am going to try my very hardest to love more openly and to serve everyone I can.  I do not want any regrets.  I am going to live my life to the fullest.

Who's with me?!

missing...

I am missing this face!!  :)  I am so lucky to have such an amazing husband who loves me no matter what!  And let's be honest here.  Look at that face.  He is freakin' hot.  Haha.. I am lucky! ;) (I LOVE this picture! So cute and funny!)

A huge thank you to my clients who keep me busy enough to spend a week working in warm, sunny St. George.  In case I haven't said this enough... I am one lucky girl!

Can't wait to catch up on my blog stalking next week!  I am loving all the friends I'm making here in bloggy world!  I miss you guys too!! :) :)

do you love me friends?

Alright ladies, (I'm assuming we're all ladies here, but you know why it's bad to assume right?.....Never mind!:)  I'm testing out our friendships right now.  I was asked by one of my best friend's to guest post on her blog!  Please go take a look here and tell me what you think!  I need lots of love and support ;)  First time guest posting!  So nerve-racking :) 

Plus you're going to love Randi's blog! 

Have a happy weekend filled with love and sunshine! :)