It's Official!

For anyone wanting to do any vinyl projects, I created a blog to showcase some projects and to give prices and options. Check it out and pass the word along, to anyone you know. Craftyvinyl.blogspot.com

New Year's in California

This last weekend, we had an opportunity to get away to California for a few days, over New Year's weekend. We woke up super early Thursday, and got to Universal Studios by about 5:00 p.m. We spent that evening in the park, and hung out at Universal's CityWalk as long as we could Thursday night, for New Year's Eve.

Yummy! There was this excellent crepe place, it was so good!

Boston just couldn't hold in the excitement! (That's actually what I felt like doing, too.)

Then Friday, we went back to Universal.

Who looks more evil in this picture?

Looking out at the view. The weather was absolutely perfect!

Boston LOVES dogs!

Then Saturday, we walked around Hollywood, by the Chinese Theater and looked at the stars. Then we hit an outlet. (what's vacation without a little shopping?)

Saturday night, we went to Downtown Disney. This was in the Lego Store, while killing time, waiting for our table at Rainforest Cafe.

And here's my dad and Carol, we went to dinner together.
Our table was great, right by the big fish tank. Boston was still a little nervous of the gorilla, but he loved looking at the fish.

In-n-Out in Vegas on the drive home (yep, we did that all in one day, too).

Chuck E. Cheese, Skiing, and Tepenyaki

So, Saturday (the day after Christmas), I went with Misty, Zariph's parents, Boston, and the girls to Chuck E. Cheese. Boston had a blast. He went up to everyone (even strangers) and started talking jibberish and pointing at like the games and stuff.

I love this little drawing thing. This was actually the first take out of three.

Zariph and Roy went skiing at The Canyons. And then we met up for dinner at Tepenyaki. Yum, yum.

Christmas

Christmas Eve, Zariph gave me this lovely old smelly, corroded bathroom faucet. (Which meant he replaced it with a nice one!)
Christmas morning, Santa left this fun track and car set for Boston. He loved it so much, he just wanted to play with it all day.

Presents from Boston's birth grandma. He knew exactly what the pez were, that's what "candy" was when we taught him the sign language for it.

We had breakfast and opened presents at my mom's house.

Grandma Hanson

Hannah and Jac helping Grandpa Mike open his presents.

Lindsay, Eliza, and Jake

Zariph's fun new toy. He only crashed it a few times.

That evening we went to Zariph's parents house for presents, food, and singing. Boston loves this four wheeler! He's so excited that he can actually make it go.

Zariph's family got him a turkey fryer. What a great idea, he loved it.

After the family party, we all went up to the Christmas Village in Ogden. We bundled up so much, and it was still so cold, we just hurried through it.

TEN Years Ago...

Ten years ago tonight was a special night for Zariph and me. It was the night Zariph proposed. It's hard to believe it has been that long. Wow! Well, here's the whole story for anyone interested in reading it.

"Someone" did the 12 days of Christmas to me. I started getting these little packages in brown paper sacks left on my doorstep while I was up at Rick's College. (Zariph was living in Layton at the time.) Each day there was a letter that went along with the song, but the items were different than how the song goes. Here's what I got:

• One box of Peppermint Tea (that's a little inside joke by itself)
• Two Fuzzy Gloves
• Three Fountain Pens
• Four Boxes of Nerds
• Five Candy Rings
• Six Candles for Lighting
• Seven Divers Swimming
• Eight Coins for Spending
• Nine Truffles for Enjoying
• Ten Packs for Chewing
• Eleven Christmas Canes for Hanging
• Twelve Crayons for Drawing

On each of the notes there were letters underlined, which spelled out little phrases. During this time I returned home for Christmas break. There was a package mailed from Rexburg to my house. And then the packages continued being left on my doorstep at my mom's house. At this point I was pretty sure it was Zariph, but it kind of threw my off a bit too, and I started worrying that I had some psycho stalker.

Then the last note told me to look at the back of all the papers. There was a letter on the back and it spelled out where to meet on Christmas Eve. The letters spelled out "The Roof". Which is The Roof Restaurant on top of the Jospeh Smith Memorial Building. Zariph and I spent a lot of time together, but for some reason I never brought up these packages that were coming for me. Zariph said he was worried that I wasn't getting them. And he kept asking me if we could get together Christmas Eve. My mom told me to tell him I had to pick up my cousin from the airport. So, he put some doubts in my mind that it was really him. Anyway, I bought a new dress and got all fancied up. I drove down to Salt Lake, nervous as could be! I kept thinking, I really hope it's Zariph, the night would be very awkward if it was some other random guy. So, I checked in with the hostess and told her I was meeting someone. She took me to a table, which had another brown paper sack on it. I opened it and inside was a paper that said, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray. You'll never know dear, how much I Love You! So don't take my sunshine away!"

Then I sat there, for what seemed like EVER! It was probably only 5 minutes, but I was so nervous! Then Zariph came to the table (finally). I felt relief that it was him, but still so nervous because I knew it was a big night for us. We talked for a few minutes, then he leaned over to me and said, "Just so you know, I'm not proposing to you tonight." He said that so I wouldn't be so nervous all through dinner. But, my nervous feeling turned into "What the heck?" So, anyway, he had a lovely dinner and dessert overlooking the Salt Lake Temple. But inside I kept thinking, "Why is he not going to propose? What could be more perfect than tonight?" I started to feel a little angry about it, but I kept it pretty well hidden.

So, we finished up dinner and went down to the second floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. There were two chairs perfectly situated by the window and a Christmas tree, in the corner away from people. So we decided to sit down and talk. Then Zariph kept looking down in between the chairs (acting kind of weird, like he wanted me to look down). So, I looked down and there was another paper sack. Then I was thinking, "What?!? He left the ring down here while we were eating?" So, I opened up the paper sack and there was this cone shaped present wrapped up, so I unwrapped that and inside was a ring box. I opened the box and inside that there was a lifesaver. (I had joked months earlier, that I didn't care if he had a ring for me, he could propse with a lifesaver, I just wanted to get married.) So then Zariph asked, "Do you think it will fit?" And I just played along, "Maybe." Then he took the lifesaver out and tried to fit it on my finger. In his hand he switched it for the real ring and started placing it on my finger. Then he knelt down, as we both got a little teary eyed, and asked me to marry him. To which, I shook my head yes, and said, "Of course." Then we hugged. It was the perfect moment.

We don't have any pictures of that night, but here some from Christmas day (Ya, I'm showing off my ring in all the pictures!):

Thanks for TEN great years, Zariph. I love you!

Christmas Came Early!

Our kitchen is this much closer to being complete! Zariph wanted to surprise me on Christmas with the new range, sink, and faucet, but he also wanted me to help pick them out. So, here are our new additions: (our kitchen is now totally free of yellow appliances!)

Remember the oven from last Christmas? I still love it!Only a slight gash out of the counter. Obviously, I don't love the brown crappy countertops, but they'll have to do until we can afford granite. I'm so excited about this faucet. It has the detachable head that can come out and spray wherever. It's awesome. And when deciding whether to put the handle on the right or left side, I thought it should be on the right since we're both right handed. After I started using it, I realized I'm used to turning the water on with my left hand. Weird, hopefully I can get used to it. And, yeah! A disposal IN the kitchen sink (my old one was on the side of the sink, it was weird). And best of all it's all installed AND the mess is all cleaned up! So, now I can just enjoy this Christmas week and not worry about the installation.

Melting Pot and the (Lights)?

So, as tradition would have it, we set off for our annual Melting Pot and Temple Square Lights adventure last night. Zariph and Boston picked me up from the mall (since I had to work yesterday afternoon). We did some shopping then set off for Salt Lake. We left with plenty of time, because last year we missed out on the lights because traffic downtown was HORRIBLE and we couldn't find a parking spot anywhere. Well, who would've thought the freeway was CLOSED and all four lanes had to exit on either 215 or Beck Street. It took us a good two hours to get to Salt Lake from Layton. Needless to say, we missed out on the lights again. (Although, we were just there two weeks ago, so it wasn't a big deal to me.) Luckily, the people at the Melting Pot were nice and weren't upset about us missing our reservation by an hour. Here are some photos of our fun night. Jake and Hannah
Julie and Eliza
Lindsay
Boston is ready to eat!

This is the best picture of the three of us. Sad, I think we took about seven...

This is one of my favorites. Look how happy he is eating chocolate.

Megan, Jacqueline, Cameron, and Mike

Emily and my mom

You can't see it that well, but both of his cheeks are completly stuffed!

Walking through the Galivan Center on our way to the car. At least we did see some lights, and watching the ice skaters was fun.

And can I just say, I am SO glad we decided to buy a heavy duty snow thrower this year. We've been without one for about four years and finally decided it was time to get one last Wednesday before the stores were all out. Zariph used it twice yesterday and once today, but is totally excited about using it again tonight. ha ha. I may be out of that duty for a while.

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