Merry Christmas

This year for Christmas I took off 2 weeks from work to spend time with my family. I picked up my sister Karly, her hubby Nick and their son Jack from the airport to begin our fun. On Christmas Eve we had a sleepover, total of 12 people, all at my house. It definitely was chaotic at times, but really fun. We made a turkey dinner, what a feast! We always open up one present on Christmas Eve which is always pj's. Here are us girls sporting our new pajama pants...

Here are a couple pictures from Christmas morning...


It's really fun having nephews and watching them open up their presents, even though sometimes they are more interested in the wrapping paper than the gifts. I love spending time with everyone, the day just flew by! I hope you all had a great Christmas as well!

Jazz Night

For Benton's birthday, he decided he wanted to go to a Jazz Game. So on Saturday we went and watched the Jazz play against the Orlando Magic's. The tickets he bought came with dinner at the Energy Solutions Arena and free parking. We had a lot of fun, hanging out just the two of us.


The Jazz did really well the first half of the game, but the second half wasn't so good. We ended up loosing, which was sad, but we still enjoyed our night out!

Happy Birthday Benton!!!

Today is Benton's 26th Birthday!!! I wanted to brag about how great he is and today is the best day to do that! So here are the 26 top reasons why I love him so much!
1. He is so loving
2. He cares about my opinions and those who really matter to him
3. Extremely smart, holy cow!
4. Really good looking, gets better looking with every year!
5. Such a hard worker, he'd do anything for us
6. Makes me laugh even when I'm not happy
7. Cuddles with me
8. Honest
9. Great memory (which I don't-so it's good one of us does)
10. Kisses me every time in the car at a certain stop sign
11. How much he loves and plays with Roxy
12. Values
13. Really clean
14. A great golfer and basketball player
15. Smart with money
16. Good sense of humor
17. Forgives me for my mistakes
18. Helped me with my weight loss
19. Takes care of me when I'm sick
20. Sings Country songs really good and dedicates songs to me
21. Great taste in clothing and decorations for our house
22. Competitive spirit (drives me crazy sometimes)
23. Reliable, you can always count on him
24. On time, never late
25. Such great endurance, never gives up
26. He'll be a great dad, I can't wait!

I love you babe! I hope you have a great Birthday, you deserve it!!!

Twilight Night

Last night we had a sisters night out! I went with my sister in laws and Chelsie to the Cheesecake Factory and then we went and saw Twilight. The Cheesecake Factory is one of my favorite restaurants, their Chicken Madeira is to die for. Yummy!

After dinner we went to the Megaplex and saw Twilight. We were all so excited to see it, since it had already been out for a week. I have been trying hard not to hear every one's reviews. I absolutely loved the book, not so much the movie. What can you expect though? Books are always better. I sure did have fun with all the girls, they are really fun to hang out with! Even though the movie wasn't the best, I'm glad I went. I hope to go with them to Eclipse when it comes out!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays, I love to eat and I love TURKEY!!! We had Thanksgiving dinner with Benton's family, at his sister's house. We arrived around 3pm and stayed about 5 hours. It's nice having every one together and being able to spend time with each other! I am so grateful for all my family and friends. Here are some pics from Thursday...

I LOST 50 LBS!!!!!

YAY for me!!! I have been waiting for this day for months, I have been plateaued at 49 lbs, and this morning (of course on Thanksgiving-the day you eat a lot) I finally lost that 1 lb. It really has been a struggle trying to loose all that weight. I started my weight lost journey Feb 2007, Benton bought me a treadmill for my birthday. The best present he could have ever gotten me! At first it was really hard exercising and I had to make myself do it. I have exercised every week 5 times a week with very few exceptions. The only time I have stopped was if I was sick, other than that I make myself exercise 5 times a week. In Feb 07 I also gave up soda, I was addicted to coke. I drank about 88-100 oz of coke a day! I never enrolled up in a weight loss plan, I just did it myself. I thought "What could I do to help me loose weight?" In the past I have tried different ways to loose weight from Weight Watchers to Body for Life. Neither of those worked for me, so I decided to run, quit drinking soda and watch what I eat and also my portion sizes. I have changed a little more than that in the last 6 months, I don't eat any sweets (candy, cookies, pastries), try not to eat out (I do maybe once a month) and no french fries for me! You may think, your crazy for doing all of that, but it's worth it for me. I love being healthy and having results! I was wearing a size 16 in pants and now I can wear a 4-6 and I love it. I have so much more energy now it's unbelievable. I've often wondered what I use to do with my time??? I'm not quite sure what I use to do before I exercised, but whatever I was doing wasn't working for me. If I can loose weight, anyone can. You just have to have the mind frame of I can do it and stick with it...don't give up, keep going! I'm lucky to have Benton as my husband and he has really supported me through this weight struggle. I know he loves me no matter what size I am. On days that I'm struggling to work out he gives me encouragement, exactly what I need. I love him so much and am grateful he's helped me during the last almost 2 years. I couldn't have done it without your support. My friends and family have really been encouraging too, thank you all so much. It means a lot when you comment on how good I look now, it's motivation! Let's look at what 5 lbs really looks like....multiply that by 10 and that's what I've lost!

Here's a couple before pictures...



and after....

Awards Night

On Saturday night was our Awards Night for my work. All of the employees and a partner went down to the Salt Palace for our celebration. The theme of the event was The Holy War, Utes Vs BYU. We had to pick which team we were cheering on and of course we were for....

that's right for the Utes! (if you can't tell by Megan and my shirt)

They had tons of tailgating food, games to play and of course the football game on multiple big screens. Benton and I sat and talked with Megan and her hubby Darek, it was a fun night eating and talking with America First Employees! We were really excited when the Utes won the game!!!! Go UTES!!!

Help Me!!!!

Does anyone know what causes side aches when you run??? I have been running for the past 2 years and I run about 4 miles a day. It doesn't happen every time and it's driving me crazy.
Here are my theories;
1. Eat too close to the time you run
2. Not drinking enough water
3. Breathing incorrectly while running
4. The time that I run
The thing of the matter is that I don't eat anything 3 hours before I run, I drink water like a camel (I am always drinking and I only drink water), I pay really close attention to how I breath (I breath through my nose, out through my mouth-the whole time), and I change up the hours that I run-sometimes it's in the morning and most of the time it's at night. So what is going on here? Any other theories?

Friday Night with my Sis

My sister Chelsie lives about an hour away from me, and we talk on the phone quite a bit. About a week ago we were talking and she was saying how she gets so bored on Friday nights because her hubby comes up to Layton to do an internship. Well it hit me, "Why aren't you coming up with him and hanging out with me?" So this Friday we were able to get together. We ate crisp bean burritos, my sister Karly's reciepe and talked, it was a lot of fun. We gave Spencer a bath, he is so cute, he said his first word a little bit ago, and it's "Wow", it's really cute!

Roxy really wanted to get in the bath with Spencer!

I'm really excited to hang out with Chelsie and Spencer on Friday nights!!!

Visit with my Dad

My dad came into town, and we went to lunch with him at the Blue Iguana. It's a Mexican restaurant, and the food was really good. I had never been there before and would recommend anyone who loves Mexican food to try it. It was nice visiting with my dad.

After lunch we were all walking out and I asked my dad to take a photo of Benton and I. So while he was doing that, a lady walked past and asked "Where are you guys from?" and it made me feel silly, I just replied "Oh you know, from the Layton area". I couldn't help but laugh, so here's our silly photo of us out of towners...


My dad ended up bringing with him a tote that had stuff from my childhood, it was so fun looking through everything. I found this doll that I absolutely loved, my mom told me that it's probably about 60 years old now, Benton thought it was scary, so I'll let you judge for yourself...


She has a cracked head as you can see, but I think she's so cute (I'm probably biased)

Baby Kallen

Today Benton and I went up to Primary Children's and visited Kallen in the ICU. He is doing really well from the surgery and will end up staying at the hospital for 3-5 more days. We were relieved knowing that everything went smoothly. We are still thinking about him during his recovery, we love you baby Kallen.

Visit with the Fitzpatrick's

This past weekend we found out our new nephew Kallen has a rare heart disorder. Only 1 out of 450,000 people have this disorder. Benton's sister Rachelle and her family live in Montana and had to fly Kallen out to go to Primary Children's. So, on Saturday we went and visited them at the hospital, it was such a nice visit. Benton and I stayed and talked with Rachelle, she is such a strong person, I have a lot of respect for her and what she thinks. Here's Benton and Kallen for the first time...

After visiting with Rachelle and Kallen, we met up with the rest of Benton's family and played games and ate pizza. I love getting together with his family, they are a lot of fun to hang out with and it's fun to even just watch his niece's and nephews. We got a picture of all of the kids on Benton's mom's side, with the exception of Kallen, here's all the crazy kids....

Today we ate yummy soup and rolls at Benton's moms house and then all drove down to visit Rachelle and Kallen. It's so fun having the family all together, I just wish the circumstances were different. Kallen is having surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30. We are all thinking positively about his surgery and are praying for him. He'll be at Primary Children's for the next 2 weeks, so our thoughts go out to him.

Happy Halloween!!!

I love Halloween, it's such a fun holiday. I think everyone's imaginations and creativity really comes out. At work we all dress up and I dressed up as Medusa. Here are some pictures of my coworkers and I...
(Jill Downs, Kimberli Green, me and Cortney Jones)

(Megan Eggleston and me)

(Cortney Jones, me, Kimberli Green and Monica Sparks)


I hope you all had a happy Halloween!

I've been spooked!!!

Today at work I was spooked, which means someone "spooks" your desk in Halloween decorations. It was really fun and festive. They gave me healthy snacks, since I'm still not eating candy, which was very thoughtful. I got grapes and granola (YUMMY!!!), flowers, and a bunch of little Halloween decorations. It's fun to be surprised at work, I love looking at my desk-here's some pictures....

I learned a lesson the hard way!!!

Today I decided to make this chili Benton has asked me to make for about a year...so I thought I should be a good wife and make it for him. So earlier we went to the store and got the ingredients, and about an hour and a half ago I started cooking it. Well I chopped up 2 Jalapenos without any gloves...and the side affect of that is like being tortured. I would compare my pain to getting my flat iron and burning my hands with it. I looked online for an aid to help my pain go away because taking a shower was like torture...the hot water made it worse. So it said to put sour cream on them which didn't work, I then tried lime juice, vegetable oil and finally bleach. I just tried Neosporin and that's helped the most. My mom said the remedy is to give it time to go away and next time to wear gloves...I definitely will buy some gloves the next time I go to the store! So this is a warning to those of you who have yet to cut up a jalapeno, WEAR GLOVES!!!

Visiting with Family

Tonight we went over to my mother in law's to pick up Roxy, since she babysat her during my friends shower. We visited with my in-laws and then Kattie, Jasson and Cowen came over as well. We ate pizza and hung out. Kattie fed Cowen and he is just the cuttest little guy. He looks just like Kattie. I wish they lived closer, they live in Orem-which isn't really far away but it's hard getting together with an hour drive between us.
Here is Cowen eating his dinner...

He has the cuttest smile, it's a good thing his mother is taking this picture so she could make him laugh.

Here is Uncle Benton and Cowen watching football...

Baby Shower for Megs!

My good friend Megan is 6 months pregnant with a girl, she's naming her Ellie. Two of Megan's friends and I threw her a baby shower. It was really fun visiting with Megan, her sister and friends. I'm so happy for Megan and her husband Darek. We've been friends for a little over 7 1/2 years. We met at work (America First) and have always stayed good friends ever since. I know how happy they are and I know they'll both be really good parents! Congratulations Megs!

Here is Me, Megan and Liz

4 Things

Tag your it!

4 Things I love about my spouse
1. How much he loves me.
2. He is such a hard worker.
3. How handsome he is.
4. He knows how to have fun, even if it's singing in the car at the top of our lungs!

4 Movies I would watch more than once
1. The Father of the Bride
2. A lot like love
3. The Family Man
4. Just Married

4 TV Shows I watch
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. The Office
3. Brothers & Sisters
4. Desperate Housewives

4 Places I've been
1. Oahu, Hawaii
2. Orlando, Florida
3. Bella Vista, Arkansas
4. Canada

4 Places I'd like to go
1. Mexico
2. California
3. New York
4. Back to Chicago, Illinois

4 People who email me regularly
1. My mom
2. My sister Karly
3. Stephanie
4. New York and Company

4 Things I like to eat
1. Turkey Sandwiches
2. Chips and Salsa
3. Granola
4. Smoothies

4 Things I would like to have if I were stranded on an island
1. Benton
2. Roxy
3. Water
4. Lighter

4 Things I am looking forward to in the coming year (next few months and into 2009)
1. Karly, Nick and Jack flying out for Christmas
2. Spending as much time with Benton as I can
3. Sitting by the fireplace while it snows
4. Loosing more weight

4 People I tag
1. Karly and Nick Hodge
2. Chelsie and Taylor Hansen
3. Stephanie Rodarte
4. Yvonne Freeman

Winter already???

What happened to fall? I woke up this morning to take Roxy outside and it was a winter wonderland outside. It was really funny watching what Roxy would do. The snow was as tall as she was.

She's so unsure of the snow. Roxy is very high maintence, and so of course she couldn't figure out how to climb up the stairs with all the snow. She didn't want to get her feet wet.

Girls weekend!

On Thursday night my mom drove up from St. George to spend the weekend up here. I met her at my sisters house to go to La Caille for dinner. My manager and co-worker went to a conference all Thursday and as a thank you they had dinner for everyone at La Caille. They had previous engagements so my manager asked if I would go in their place....who would say no to that? I had never been there before and it was breath taking. It's so hard to describe the beauty, I guess I would compare it to a fairyland. The grounds are so beautiful, here are some of our pictures.



Dinner was fabulous, we had steak, veggies, salad, rolls and much more. The desserts looked delicious, but I'm still on my no sweets diet, so none for me. We met a lot of friendly people, who mostly lived outside of Utah. It was a really fun night that I was able to spend with my mom.

On Friday my mom, Chelsie, Spencer and I hung out all day. We went shopping, ate out for lunch and then we decided to sleep over at Chelsie's house in Sandy since we were all going to be together on Saturday anyway. Here is us in our PJ's finally relaxing after running around all day.


Then on Saturday we had a birthday party for Spencer who turned 1 years old!!! Happy Birthday baby love. He is just the funniest little guy. I love cuddling with him. It's really nice now that he knows me, he will actually reach out so I can hold him. Here's some pictures at his birthday party.



Here is Spencer opening his presents...


And eating his cake...


What a fun weekend with the family!