ten dollar Christmas tree

Since I was taking care of 90% of the Christmas shopping and errands this year, I delegated the purchase of a Christmas tree to Jake.

This is what I found in our living room one night after work:

Jake proceeded to explain how this was the only one for less than $30 at the "tree dealers" he went to. (Tree dealers? This is my term, I don't know what else to call them. Tree markets perhaps? A market of trees?) Anywho, we decided that we actually love our shabby little tree. And yes, it is quite shabby.

Here it is from a couple other angles:

We agreed this was it's obvious best side. We tried entering it in Extreme Makeover Christmas Tree Edition, but they said there was no hope for it to ever look like an average Christmas tree. So I did my best with what I had.

I think it looks much better after getting all dolled up. We actually love our little pathetic Christmas tree, and are thinking about buying one of the homely leftover trees every year.

And for the fellow Friends fans: (if you are impatient, just watch 3:38-4:55 and 7:50-8:17 for the parts of the episode that actually relate to this post)

awesome youtube mustache video - "Sexy Stache"

A good friend directed me to an awesome youtube video after my last post. It is quite funny.

Much of it may be lost on you if you aren't familiar with some of the BYU/Provo cultural references.

The resolution isn't great, but it's hilarious!!!! WATCH NOW.

mustache anyone?

A few weeks ago Jake and I decided that he should most definitely grow a beard. I was really excited about it. Well it turns out his work doesn't permit beards to be worn. Sad day. As he was shaving it off, we decided he should try out a mustache....

This is my most favorite picture of Jake. Possibly ever. Yes I know, but seriously.

Just a glimpse for you of the thing on his head he has to tame every day.

Awww, so cute and smiley.

BEHOLD: the best part of this post.

Jake is usually very camera shy, so I feel quite accomplished for catching his goofiness on video.

Can you believe we went to a wedding reception like this? Awesome.

Trip to Socal

Mid-august Jake and I took a trip to Southern California to visit my grandparents and have some fun. 

Warning: This post is heavily laden with photos which may or may not be all that interesting... or in focus for that matter. We need a better camera.

Here we are looking cute and Grandma and Grandpa's. 

We went to the MOCA in LA, or the Museum of Contemporary Art. There was a lot of really cool stuff there, and I was thrown back to my days as an art major and it was fun to show off to Jake with my (minimal) art history knowledge. 

I didn't actually know this artist, but that is a tear drop piece of flooring. And see the photo on the wall? What is it a photo of you ask?

A photo of the building the flooring was cut out of. This was probably my favorite thing that we saw. 

An actual Barbara Kruger. 

Rothkos! MULTIPLE Rothkos!

Jake standing by a cool metal sculpture. 

Metal sculpture close-up.

We also saw a Jackson Pollock, but I was too ashamed of the terribly blurry pic to post it. 

Thanks for letting me vent my geekery. Now onto.... DISNEYYYYYYLAAAAAAANNNND!!!

Splash Mountain. We don't know the people in the front. They got really wet though. 

Disneyland has a petting zoo. This is a goat curled up on top of a barrel. I thought it was funny. 

My favorite! The teacup ride!

We got really bored waiting in line, and I got silly and decided to feed Jake the remaining Altoids. He was minty. 

We had to do the hat thing. 

Guess what?

ITS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL... ITS A SMALL WORLD AFTER A- okay enough of that. 

MICKEY!

I love love love Toon Town. It was my favorite when I was little. 

mmm... so strong...

Tower of Terror. This is a close up of the screen the pics were displayed on. I'm not sure why my ears look so big, we were laughing about that. 

We felt very accomplished because we did virtually EVERY SINGLE ride in Disneyland in a day. During the busy season. We are pretty much rock stars. And yay for the fastpasses. 

We also went boogie boarding at Hermosa Beach, but I failed to take any pics there. All in all it was an awesome vacation with my amazing hubby!

Pleased to introduce you to...

our kitty cat!!!

We got him from the Salt Lake Animal Shelter about a month ago. He was the oldest and fattest cat there, but we fell in love with him. He is really sweet. We wanted an older more distinguished name for him, and thought about "Winston," or "Brentley," but settled on Atticus. Nicknames include, but are not limited to: Atticus Fatticus, Atticus Catticus, Atticus Fatticus Catticus, At-cat, At-a-tat-tat, and.... kitty. 

 

Here is Atticus looking cute with his favorite toy, the shiny red ball. 

Interesting features about Atticus include:

his long whiskers, 

his fat belly,

(and my personal favorite) his little white toesies. 

Atticus is also very well behaved, as illustrated by this picture. I disturbed his sleep to prop him up on this pillow so I could take better pics of his toes, and he actually stayed. He pretty much rocks, and we love him. 

Behind on Blogging: Part 5

On Sunday June 7th we went to Marianne's baby blessing. Marianne is Jake's newest niece. 

Here she is with her parents (Joe and Nicole - Joe is one of Jake's older brothers) and her adorable sister Jaime. 

She is so sweet! A very good baby. 

I made the blanket that is with her in these pics. It was a fun new project. I had never done ruffles before. 

This picture cracks me up. It kind of looks like Jaime is jabbing her in the throat and she's about to retaliate with a swift punch. 

Is it strange that Jake is instantly more attractive holding an infant?

Here we are with her. She is so sweet, and we are so happy for Joe and Nicole. It was great to enjoy their special day. 

Increasingly Behind on Blogging: Part 4

I have lots of pics that go with this post. Which is probably part of why I have been procrastinating it, since I knew uploading them would take FOREVERRRRR.  And it did. 

So here we go. Back in MAY... the 25th to be exact... Jake and I went on a trip with his friend Josh (aka squash-oo-uh), and Ann, Jake's momma. We went to Southern Utah, first to Goblin Valley, then to Canyonlands National Park, and Arches National Park. It was so much fun. 

You Utah readers may not find this post too exciting, but it is pretty cool stuff for those who have never been. 

So this is a pretty good snapshot of the view for basically two hours...

... then all of the sudden... waBAM. 

Here a couple of "goblins" to greet us...

and this is what they call "Goblin Valley"... because the rock formations are weird, and they look like goblins. GET IT?!?

Josh likes to stand on things...

See? I told you he does. 

So we found this cave. Except we didn't know it was a cave. It was a very small dark slit between the rocks. And being the geniuses that we are, we decided to try to climb in. I seriously thought we were going to get bit by some giant spider or snake, because we couldn't see ANYTHING. The pic is light from the flash of my camera. So we climb through, more like "wedge" through, because that's what you had to do. And then it kept going...

At one point you had to climb through this TINY space.

And then it dropped down...

And opened up...

It was huge. We couldn't see a thing at all, except with my camera. We would take a pic, and then look at the camera to see what it looked like, lol. 

Some more pics of the goblins.

This is a good pic to show how these rock formations really are in the middle of NOWHERE. It is really flat and boring except for this little spot. 

This is all the way at the top, couldn't believe wildflower seeds even made it all the way up there...

Then it was off to Canyonlands...

This is the one arch in Canyonlands

The view through the arch. A straight drop down behind it. 

Then it was on to Arches. Yes, there are a LOT of arches in Arches. 

Ann made me do this pic. 

This arch was cool. You couldn't walk any closer to it, a few years back a giant piece fell of the bottom of the arch and almost killed some people. It will probably collapse in the next 50 years. 

The infamous "Delicate Arch." Living in Utah I have seen a million pics/paintings of this, but never realized how huge it is. 

This was our favorite hike on the whole trip. You had to walk across the top of these rocks, with a straight fall on either side. It was windy, and scary. But it was so beautiful. Being so high up we could see everything. Very cool. 

An awesome double arch. 

The trip was so much fun, and so many cool things to see. 

THE END.