The eyes of my husband

Through the eyes of my husband I am important. I am worth it to him to spend the whole Sunday cooking his famous lasagna that I love, to have my family over for dinner and cake. He did everything! He wouldn't let me touch a single thing or dish.

Through his eyes he is aware enough to see how much family means to me.

Through his eyes, it is important to have the perfect birthday cake for me. He wanted me to pick which dessert I wanted. He went through me changing my mind 15 times until I settled with a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and sprinkles. He made it perfectly.

Through his eyes I am beautiful. He tells me this everyday. I rudely roll my eyes because I think he is just trying to flatter me, but he tells me that he hopes with each time he says it I will believe it a little more. I know he believes it.

Through his eyes I am worth him taking a day off of school and work on Tuesday to spend the day with me since I had to work on my birthday. Through his eyes I am good enough to be lazy all morning while he cooks me breakfast. Then we could lounge around all day and enjoy the time we had together. I am special enough to him that he will go with me to spend the gift card his parents got me at Layers clothing store. (THANK YOU Dave and Carol) He sat the whole time and watched me try on different things without a hint of annoyance. He gave input and was honest and patient.

Through his eyes it is important to get me the two most perfect gifts.

These are cowboy boot slippers. When we went to look for boots with his mom, they had these slippers that I fell in love with. So, apparently he sneaked back and got them. He knows I love the group REM. So he got me a great "best of" C.D. of theirs. I love it.

Through his eyes it is important that I smile. Little does he know that he doesn't even have to do a single thing to get me to smile. Knowing I have him as my husband forever is enough to keep a permanent smile on my face. Sitting with him on our couch watching a movie puts a smile on my face. Having him come home everyday to me puts a smile on my face.

Not only is it important to make me smile, but through his eyes it is very important that I laugh. Maybe I am wrong in that it is important to him to make me laugh, but he just does it. He does it without even meaning to. Now just look at that cute face. I was laughing while taking this picture. He is always making me laugh. But he sure does look good huh?

Through his eyes it is important that I get sung to. So along with two waiters, and the ladies at the next table over, he sang Happy Birthday to me. Through his eyes it is important that I try and like new things. So he took me to The Cheesecake Factory. Now there isn't really anything new that I haven't tried, but I ate guacamole. I don't ever eat it. And I did. He gets me to try new things. Just like how I have tried his cottage cheese and chip thing and never liked it, but when we were at his parents on Halloween, I ate some. I don't know why, but I did like it. He says its just a matter of time before I am eating beans. I don't know about that but I had a great time at dinner!

And most importantly, through both of our eyes, it is necessary to have a happy family. Luckily, we have that! I love you, Nick! Thank you and thank you all of our family and friends for making my birthday the best ever!

**tune in in late January (around the 21) to see through my eyes**

Halloween Continued.

I am on the activities committee for our ward which of course consisted of the Halloween Party. We decided to dress up to make it a little more fun for the both of us. (Or maybe just for me) So I dressed up as a 50's housewife and Nick played the part as my adoring 50's husband! He was such a huge help with the party. We set up, served the food, washed the dishes, cleaned up, and it was over! Just like that! But I had fun with him. Thanks for going with me, babe!

The wife. It looked better without my sweater on, but it was cold.

The husband

The wife and husband

The Cottage

My ceramic pumpkin. I have a few more of these and I love them! They add just the right touch to our small home.

I made these and I really like how they turned out. They are scrap wood from IKEA that were once cabinet doors. They sell each piece for like $1.

I have a project I am working on to redo this glass coffee table. I am going to spray pain the bottom black and put black and white pictures underneath the glass in a collage. I am excited to finish it! I will post pictures when I finally get to it.

Thanks to Jared and Erica, we have a T.V. that we can now watch movies on. We don't have cable or anything but it is nice not to have to watch the little computer screen anymore!

We LOVE the rug Andrea. I told you it would go perfect! Thanks!

Cornbelly's

Last weekend, Nick and I went with one of his old mission friends, Jake, and his girlfriend, Corinne, to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. Nick and I went last year, but I would have to say that this year was even more fun!

This is Nick.

This is me.

This is us.

This is really cute of you guys! (sorry it took me so long to put them up!)

We had so much fun!

They look so great together. I don't know why Nick chose me. They look so much better than we do as a couple.

Riding this thing was $5 so we just had to pretend to be riding it.

Jake and Corinne.

Nick. He looks a little too happy to be on that fake bull if you ask me.

We went and ate at Zupas afterward and had some really good soup. It was a really fun date. Thanks for going with us Jake and Corinne.

Tonight we have our ward Halloween party. Since I am on the committee, we will be going and dressing up. Don't be too jealous. So there will be more fun halloween pictures soon to come!!

A Nice Surprise!

I can't even tell you how excited I am. Lately we have been talking to my dad about going to visit him and Jen in Wichita for Thanksgiving. My sisters are trying to all make it out and so it could possibly be the whole family together for a holiday. Well I haven't been back home to Kansas in almost 2 years, and so when my dad told us that he was going to fly us out for Thanksgiving, I got so excited. Well that was last night, and I am still just as excited.

I have been talking to Nick about Wichita since I met him over 4 years ago, and told him about how someday I would get him there to visit and see where I spent 15 years of my life living. Pretty much the only place I can remember ever living. Now, when I was about to graduate, I couldn't wait to leave Kansas. But just like everyone said, I do miss it so much. It was a great place to grow up. So, thats the exciting news. I finally get to introduce Nick to my hometown.

I can't wait and I hope that the rest of my family gets to make it out too!

When the family gets together...we have lots of fun!

When I heard that my Mom and Charlie were making a quick trip to Arizona to visit my sisters, I didn't really want to go. (Sorry guys!) But I was going to be off of work, it was practically a free ride down, and I didn't feel ready to be away from Nick quite yet. Stupid? Yes, but I really love my husband and being around him. And every time I go somewhere, my crazy mind always thinks of the worst thing that could happen (normally thinking about death) and I end up worrying constantly.

Nick finally convinced me to go, and I am glad I did. It was a nice change of scenery from this cold place. We drove part way on Wednesday night and stayed in a hotel. Then we arrived at Shenna's in Phoenix on Thursday morning. Shenna had just had a birthday so she got money to buy some clothes for her new gorgeous figure. (She has lost 25 pounds on weight watchers in the past couple months!) She and I found a few cute new shirts that look awes

ome on her. We spent the rest of that night playing with Madi and Alex. Those girls are so sweet and cute. They were definitely excited to have visitors.

Me and the birthday girl

The girls with Charlie

Shenna has "guitar hero". We played and it was so much fun. Especially since we got my mom to play. She really wasn't that bad. I, however, was not good at all.

We went to the Arizona State Fair on Friday night and had fun walking around and watching Madi go on a couple rides. They had all sorts of animals and a petting zoo thing. I'm pretty sure I saw the world's largest bunny rabbit. I swear this thing was like three feet long and two feet tall. Pretty creepy actually. But we had tons of fun there.

The story of how I went crazy:

We woke up early on Saturday to go up to Andrea's house. I hadn't heard from Nick since I had woken up and knew he was planning to get up early to go hang out with Jon and Karina all day. I tried calling a few times while driving to Prescott, but I had no luck. I started getting a little worried since we are always good about calling or texting. I decided I was just being a little crazy since I tend to worry a little too much. (See top paragraph) Then about twenty minutes later, Nick's dad calls from his visit in Washington, wondering if I had heard from Nick. I hadn't and told him I was worried. It turns out Jon called Dave because Nick was on his way to Jon's house and was more than an hour late and no one could get a hold of him.

I immediately broke down and I was so worried that something had happened. I knew something had. I felt it when I hadn't heard anything all morning. Jon and Karina left their house to go and look for him. My heart sunk. I felt so sick and I was such a wreck. We got to Andrea's house twenty minutes later and I went inside crying. I'm sure the kids were so confused because they were so excited to see us, and I came in so crazy. Andrea took me into the other room and said a prayer with me. She prayed that nothing was seriously wrong and that he wasn't hurt in any way. I couldn't think of any scenario in my head that would make him not hurt, but somehow I felt a good feeling. I began to look online at her house trying to find out if there were any accidents in Utah on the freeway. I called the Utah Highway Patrol trying to find out more information. I found nothing.

I kept saying out loud that I knew I should have stayed home and nothing would have happened. I could have been there looking and helping to find him. Being so far away was hard. I called Karina and talked to her while they were looking. I asked if they had found anything yet. She said "No, we are almost to your house. What's your address?"

I gave it to her, and then she says "Oh! Nick is calling Jon right now!!! I will tell him to call you."

What a relief!!!

He called just seconds later to tell me he had stopped by the gas station to return a redbox movie he had got the night before. He left the car on and accidentally locked the keys in. His phone, wallet and everything he needed were in the car. He had had ten different people try to break in since we live in that nice kind of area where people really do know how. He even told me one guy said "I can normally do this!" Ha. So the good news was:

He was alright.

No harm, no injuries.

No one will be breaking into our car anytime soon.

Bad news:

We had to pay $90 for the locksmith across the street to open the car. What a ripoff!

Landon and I

After I regained composure, I was able to play with the kids and had a great rest of the trip! Matt was sick with a chest cold, so my mom and charlie decided to stay at a hotel. Since no one visits Chino Valley, AZ we were able to take the kids swimming at the indoor pool. It was fun. Poor Landon had blue lips and was shivering by the time he got out, but still wanted to swim.

We ate at this great Mexican restaurant. It is Nick's favorite and I even offered to bring some home in the cooler for him. He declined the offer.

Landon having fun!

Ava

We shopped a little that night, and had fun watching Ava play with the "titty" (kitty). If you saw how she held that thing you would wonder how the cat resisted murder. But for some reason or another, it loves her. Overall, I am so glad I got a chance to see my family. I miss having sisters close by, but am glad we have some of Nick's family and my Mom, Charlie, and Scott nearby. Thanks for letting us stay with you all! Can't wait to visit again.

A Walker Party

A couple of weeks ago, the Walkers got together to celebrate Dave's birthday. We had fun hanging out with everyone and picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch and eating pie.

We played a few games that were really fun! It is so nice living close to family!

Jon and Karina, Amy and Rob, and Nick and I all got him pretty much the same thing. So now he has three nice zip up sweatshirts for winter. It was funny when he opened them all up and found the same thing in each bag.

Overall we have been having a fun fall, and look forward to carving our pumpkins soon.