Have a very "Wonderland" Halloween!

Ok so my Alice costume turned out GREAT! I am so so pleased with it. My desk, eh, well it isn't exactly what I had in mind, not quite as extravagent, but I think it will do. All in all I am decently happy with all of it and I wish you all a very happy Halloween! Or, a Very "Wonderland" Halloween!

These children are my idle and I can only hope mine will be the same:

http://www.dana-made-it.com/2010/10/costume-wonderland.html

Kristen and Maren 2010

Room Mates 2010

Maren Photoshoot 2010

We had our big photo shoot on Saturday. I got my pictures done so that my mom and Grandparents can have updated pictures (So far the winner is the one in the middle of me on the bridge). We also had our room mate pictures done and me and the Kissy smiled and posed as well just the two of us! Thanks to McKenna at mckennalynnephotography.blogspot.com (you can also see Ashley and Bretts pictures on her blog as well!)

Moti Died.

Sadness. Depression. Despair all around.

Last night we came up to bed after entertaining and when I walked over to Moti's bowl I knew instantly that he was gone. He used to sit up at the top of the bowl but he would have SOME movement. So I first made Kristen confirm that he was not alive anymore, then I went and got my fish net hoping that when I put it in and started chasing after him he would fight back. No such luck. I burst into tears. (I think mainly because it had been the longest day ever at church and I haven't been sleeping great, and also the shock of losing yet another fish, but I did cry.) And made Kristen do the dirty work.

All in all, I don't think I am going to get another fish.

Halloween "Desk" Decorating Contest!

Every Halloween my work has a Halloween Desk Decorating Contest and a Costume Contest. They also do trick or treating for the kids the friday before Halloween. We are WAY into halloween here. I personally have not yet decorated, Although I am starting to definately feel the pressure. So, I think today after work I might have to hit up the dollar section at the target again. Below though, are the 3 desks that have decorated so far.

This is my best work friend Katie's desk. She is way way way WAY into halloween. It's like her favorite holiday ever. This is what she has so far... When I went over to take a picture of her desk there were other gizmos and gadgets that still looked like they needed a place, so this is her desk SO FAR.

This is Brians Desk. His looks real cool up close and personal. The other day he made spider web hats for us to wear, freakin' hilarious. Thankfully, I haven't been prompted to wear it again. He likes having the empty cube between us because he can use it plus his desk for decorating.

This is my supervisor Christine's desk. Cute and simple. Just how she likes it.

Our lobby is also fully decorated in the Halloween spirit. Tomorrow once I get my desk all decorated I will post my desk and pictures from the lobby. I'm not sure what the prize is for winning the desk decorating contest but I am sure it is good! All the prizes here are worth participating in! Happy Halloween Festivities!

Pumpkin Carving 2010

Monday for FHE our ward was doing pumpkin carving. We of course had to go to add to all of our Halloween spirited Decor.

Here are my lovely roomies.... (Well, lovely most of the time anyway!)

Getting ready to start our glorious masterpiece!

Allie was brave enough to clean out the yucky pumpkin guts!

Our pile of pumpkin seeds to later make a tasty roasted treat!

I would like to applaude Allie's above average skills of "gut cleaning"

We made sure to put daniel to work. It took about an hour or so but boy the end result was the greatest creation! There are 3 different sides to the pumpkin. Daniel had declared that if we could draw it, he could carve it, and he sure held to his word! The first side are the words BOO! The second side is of a robot, a witch, and a ghost trick or treater. The third side is of a spooky tree with the moon and leaves blowing in the wind. Super cool! I am very impressed with the carving skills Daniel has and am so glad we now have the coolest pumpkin on the block!

Julie decided that she would be independent and carve her own pumpkin. So, here is Julie's cute pumpkin!

To avoid any pumpkin smashers the pumpkins are currently displayed INSIDE of our house. But, good news is that Allie and Kristen went on a cleaning hoorae and so our house is currently spotless! (I had about given up. Doing the carpets was a lot of work. Along with trying to keep on top of all the dishes that tend to pile up in the sink) And Allie took it to the next level by organizing everything in the kitchen! So the pumpkins add to our "newly cleaned/decorated" home. I think they might get to go outside on halloween night for the trick or treaters to enjoy... I mean, the spice girls house has to have carved pumpkins!

It was a super fun night and a traditional halloween activity. This saturday is full of fun as well. We have our room mate pictures, and then a ward activity where we will hit up the corn maze. On sunday we are also having friends over for a big roast dinner! Lots and lots of fun filled days are ahead!

Today We Become Men

Alright I know I know, we are girls.. But how weird is it to say "today we become women"? more people would have thought something of the anatomy, which is not what happened.

On thursday Allie and I decided we were going to hike the Y mountain. We had been

wanting to do and today was the day. We got all ready and headed out. We got directions online, since obviously that worked so great the last time why not do it again? Yeah same thing happened. And I bet you are asking yourself, how on earth did they get lost? They can see the Y out of their window. They live right down the street, how did they not find the trailhead? Well I am here to tell you that in fact that is possible. It is possible because we listened to the dumb directions online which tell you to turn left(which is north) and head south to Terrace Dr... you would think when we were driving north and not south that would have clued us in.

But anyway we did find a trailhead. However, it was the Bonneville shoreline trail.

We decided to try it and just walk south to find the "obvious" trailhead for the Y.

After half an hour of walking on the mountain we finally made it to the VERY obvious trailhead.

So this is just the scenery around the Shoreline Trail. The views are similar to that of the one by the Y.

When we got there we had already gone up and down on a rocky terrain. We started up the trail and made it....

That's right! Only to turn 2! Out of 11. We were panting and in pain. We had to give up. There was no way we could walk straight up the face of this mountain. Not today.

So when did we finally become "men" you ask? Today, Saturday.

The hike was pretty intense. But there are tons of little kids up there and we couldn't let them show us up. Our buns were still a little sore from our last attempt. But we had to do it before it got too cold. The beginning is very steep and there are very little straightways in between the switch backs. But as we got up they became a little easier to get up the hills. The worst I thought was the last switch back, number 11, it is long and leads to the top of the Y. I was not aware that there is concre

te poured over the rocks that creates the whitewash. One girl thought it was sand.. pretty sand to see her dreams crushed in front of us. To climb up it took us about 30 minutes which is about average. Many of the regulars run up and even some elderly gentlemen(that is putting it so nice) were showing us up and able to run down.

While we were walking we tried to listen to music so that we wouldn't pay attention to the steepness or our aching muscles.( We have decided we are quite out of shape). But on the way down we were listening to the Spice Girls(yeah the Spice Girls) and we both will swear we heard a kid shush us! We were like sorry for ruining your nature time, we are just trying to make it down the mountain without rolling down it.

But anyway.. Today we became men!

MISS UVU

My first semester at UVU has been crazy. Not only did I decide to take 16 credits, I also thought I would try to become involved and participate in Miss UVU. The scholarship is what peaked my interest. The girl crowned would receive a full years tuition including $200 to the bookstore. The attendants would receive half a years tuition and $100 to the bookstore. It seemed like a great opportunity to get my tuition and become involved. In years past Miss UVU is held in February, so you have basically a semester to work on your talent and platform. This year they decided that she was not able to reign during the school year as much as they preferred and bumped it up so we only had 4 weeks to prepare. There were originally 22 girls

that were planning t

o compete for the title, but with the new date and conflicting schedules, we were left with 16 girls. That was plenty I thought.

We were able t

o pick our numbers, but they draw your name out of a bucket to decide which girl gets to pick which number. I was last, but luckily number 7 was not taken so I got what

I wanted. The next 3 weeks were a blur.. With school and having to learn walking, dance routines, talent, platform and staying up to date on current events I barely had time to sleep, which actually did get cut quite often. This is the stage the competition took place.

Looks pretty scary when its not under the lights on stage... Ashley was kind enough to help me with my make up and hair... It looked GREAT

The opening number was fun.. We had to learn it the week before and it was altered the day before. I have skipped the pictures of the swim suit portion, just know that it was indeed

included. And my least favorite part, which is weird since I wear one to work all the time. Evening gown was fun, but I like to have people look at me when I am wearing a pretty dress.

The girl that was crowned Miss UVU was number 8 so she is standing next to me in the horseshoe. This was her 7th pageant and she just gave up her title of Miss Tooelle.

It was a great experience and I was glad I was able to do it.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

On Sunday, I decided to take a crack at making homemade strawberry freezer jam (recipe curtesy of Julie Brown). And, much to my suprise, I had much success! I was thrilled! I was slightly concerned because I didn't read the whole recipe, so therefor, I mixed the Surejell and water in with the big strawberry mix and then boiled instead of boiling the surejell and water seperate. But, it turned out delicious! Now we have plentiful freezer jam to last us a while!

*editors note: This is not a picture of the freezer jam I made, this is off of google, but mine looks kind of like this and I had to have a picture *

"Hike"

Allie, Maren and I decided we were going to go on a hike. The original plan was hike Y mountain, but we had all gone for a run that morning so we decided that we wanted an easier hike and to post the Y until next week. We decided on Battle Creek Falls which is up in the Uinta National Forest. We didn't really know where it was and the directions we got were a little confusing. So we ended up not finding it. We still wanted to take a picture of the three of us...well i did.. and so we got out on a trail right below Mt. Timpanogous and found a cute bridge to take the picture on.

A day out with Allie

Yesterday we decided we would go and hike the Y with our lovely room mate Allie. But, earlier that day we had gone running and they thought I had gotten lost and it was a big ordel, but Kristen and Allie ended up running like 4 miles instead of just the 2 we had planned on. So by the time we were wanting to go up and hike the Y, everybody was too sore and too tired. (Tired because Ashely had come up the night before and we had stayed up til 4 in the morning, but, I would like you all to marvel at how good mine and Allie's hair now looks). So instead of going to the Y we decided to go hike up another canyon and look at some waterfalls.

Me and Allie on our way to the Canyon

This was the horrendous traffic we got stuck in for a good 20 minutes. Provo has LOTS of traffic.

Kristen and Allie on our way to the Canyon

Me and the Kissy all ready to go to the canyon

Sadly, we were not able to find our destination because the directions we got from the internet were wrong. We did however stop at a pretty place in the canyon by this cute little bridge and take us some cute pictures. Kristen has those ones on her camera that she will shortly post. We decided that the place we went last night would be where we would take our room mate fall picture to hang on the big wall that connects our living room and our kitchen. I am super excited for that. We already have things getting color coordinated! Those will be taken on October 23rd. We are enjoying our room mates a lot more and having a lot more fun. Except for Kylie. Everytime her name is spoken we hear Cruella Devil music play.

I am Woman, Hear me Roar!

I don't know how many of you know, but we had ugly as sin curtains hanging on the big window in our bedroom that overlooks the family room and kitchen. They were at one point probably a nice cream color, but now they just had that old look to them and just were not cute at all. So, I went to the Wally World and got us some new ones to hang up with a nice curtain rod (The ones that were up had just been nailed to the wood framing around the window). And I would just like you all to know that it is HARD WORK putting up a curtain rod. But, the result is well worth it. The best part is they are real good at keeping out additional light. I also put up new shelving above my bed but don't have pictures for that unfortunately. It was an all around handi-work day!

Here are the new curtains:

H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N!

We decorated the house with Halloween decorations like 2 weeks ago. But I didn't post them because today is technically the first day your supposed to decorate. These are the cute window clings... Sorry it's sideways, when I was uploading it it was facing the right way... Oh well.

These are the wall decor.. well, some of them. This is in mine and Kristens room, in the living room we have a big collage of them with pumpkins too.

Front door and mantle part 1

Mantle part 2

Front door Skeleton Wreath, we also have a wreath like this on our bedroom door.

Front porch. The pumpkins light up and we have strobe lights to light up the cans. It's super cool. I also have halloween skeleton and bat lights on our deck with a spider web and more cans.



Bathroom decor part 1

Bathroom decor part 2

It has made our house super fun! Although I think it's slowly starting to lose it's funness since it's been up kind of long... We also have a cute pumpkin kitchen rug, new dish towels, a halloween table cloth, and a Frankenstein window cling in our kitchen. We are ready for halloween! We have also decided that we are most likely all going to be the Spice Girls!