Thanksgiving Twice

Between Covey and I, we have 3 families that need rotating when it comes to the holidays.  This year, we decided to stop by his parent's house in the morning and help them prepare the food for their Thanksgiving lunch.  We weren't able to actually stay for lunch which was a shame because the food all looked and smelled so good!  Oh well.  Next year. :)  After leaving the Ogdens, we drove up to Herriman to my dad and step-mom's house for our actual Thanksgiving.  It was a small one, but still good food and good company.  We spent the night at my dad's and then went over to my mom's house for another Thanksgiving dinner.  I love spending the holidays with family!

Thanksgiving Day 1

Thanksgiving Day 2

Sad, but True

Covey got this card from my dad and step-mom for his birthday and it made us laugh.

This card is both funny and true.  Mostly because it shows how well my dad knows me and my love of clothes and lack of closet space...

Confession

Okay, I have a confession.  A confession that includes fabric, thread, a sewing machine, and not nearly enough money (or storage) to devote to the purchase of the first item.  You may remember that I received a sewing machine for my birthday after giving various not-so-subtle hints ("Hey Covey, I'd really like a sewing machine for my birthday.") to my very observant husband.  Since this time, I have become aware of all the fantastic blogs that give step-by-step instructions on how to make all sorts of crafts, using a sewing machine and various other tools.  Most of these sites have been introduced to me by family (Heather) and friends (Emily) and I blame them in part for my newly acquired obsession.  I have included a list of said blogs in case you want to find out why I've become so obsessed and enthralled with crafts and sewing:

www.makeit-loveit.com

www.cluckclucksew.com

www.crapivemade.com

www.dana-made-it.com/

Poor Covey just rolls his eyes at me and shuffles over to my computer when I yell over to him to "come look at this!  I love this!"  Bless his heart for putting up with me and my crafts.  I hope to be posting a bunch of the things that I have been making and have already made and will make very soon.  Wa-hoo!

Mold...

...growing in my rice cooker.  Gross.

I Vant To Suck Your Blood!

After sifting through about a 100 ideas of what to be for Halloween, Covey and I finally decided to go with the traditional "vampire and his date/victim".  We figured this out after going to WalMart and looking through all the costumes that were left over.  When we left, we had some vampire makeup, some black hair paint and a wig in hand.  

When I went to work on Friday, I dressed up like a witch like I did last year because I already had everything for it and it didn't take much time to get ready in the morning.  But for the party that night at Shannon and Grayson's, we got all decked out in our vampire gear.  About 15 minutes before we needed to leave, the power went out at our apartment which meant that we had to finish getting ready by candlelight.  (I thought it was kind of funny and strangely fitting that we were getting ready in the dark considering our costume choice...)  I'm happy to say that we finally got ready even though it took a little longer that we planned on.  Here is the end result:

I LOVE the way our costumes turned out!  We didn't have to spend much money but I think the end result was really what we were going for.  Here are some more photos of our costume and the party:

I vant to suck your blood!  Covey did a great job on the fake bite marks on my neck!

Pucker up!

Covey as a vampire

 

Shani as the vampire's girlfriend/victim.

 On the edge

Showing off my bite marks

Visiting with friends

Playing games and visiting

Overall, the party was really fun.  We ate and played games and visited and laughed.  

Couple's Costumes

Shannon and Grayson--Fairy and Hippie

Shane and Shannon--Scottish Man and his Bagpipe

Ryan and Tiffany--JFK and Marilyn Monroe

Devren and Kiara--Batman and Poison Ivy

Chase and Amy--Owner and his Cat

Bret and Lori--Mexican Gardner and a Ballerina

Jason and Wife--Salesman and Grecian Archer

Halloween=Skankiness?

I'm just putting this out there, but why is it that girls think that just because you get to dress up for Halloween means you have to dress like a skank?  This seriously drives me nuts.  I would go so far to say that it is a pet peeve of mine.  I mean, is there something sexy about dressing up like a ladybug with garters?  C'mon people!  

I guess I can understand that people want to dress up for Halloween like something other than what they dress like every day, but when you dress like a skank, does that mean that that is what you would dress like if you didn't dress like you do everyday?  Think about it.  I mean, really.  What does that say about you?  You couldn't come up with something more creative than a "sexy witch", or a "sexy firewoman", or a "sexy jellybean"?  No witch, or firewoman or jellybean is going to dress sexy in real life for their job!  Get real!  Use your brain and come up with something at least semi-creative.  Or normal.  

What happened to the days when you would dress up like what you wanted to be when you grow up?  Even little kids are jumping on the bandwagon.  They want to dress up like Lady GaGa (skank) or Paris Hilton (slut) or who knows what other supposed "idol" they have.  THAT is their idol?  THAT is what they want to be when they grow up?  And parents let them dress up like that because 'what harm is it going to be if they are only pretending to be that person?'  The harm is that they just may end up dressing like that person when they get a little older because they were allowed to 'dress up' like that person when they were little.  

Aristotle said: "We are what we repeatedly do."  Therefore, if every year women dress like skanks for Halloween, eventually, they will probably become a skank.

I will now step off my soapbox.  Thank you for reading.

Olivia Rose

Today, I got to go meet my newest "non-niece", Olivia Rose Erickson.  My good friends, Kristen and Aaron, had their little girl on Friday, and Covey and I got to go see her today.  We totally ditched church after sacrament meeting so that we could go see her while they were still in the hospital.  She is seriously one of the cutest babies I've ever seen and I love her already!  Here are some pics of the new babe.

Kristen, me and Covey

Look at that hair!

Big yawn!

Mama and baby

Me and Kris

Free Fun!

Yesterday was a day of free fun!  We went to the Trafalga in Lehi for free and we also went to the BYU game for free.  What luck!  We ended up with the Trafalga passes because Covey's dad had gotten about 20 of them from BYU (he works there).  We weren't sure what kind of stuff was at this Trafalga but decided to try it out.  Besides Covey and I, Bret and Heather brought their whole family (5 kids!) and then Shawn brought his kids plus a couple cousins from his wife's side of the family.  The weather was pretty nice too even though I had to wear a sweatshirt.  We rode on the merry-go-round, a roller coaster and played mini golf.  Here are some pics of the fun:

My nephew Chase

My niece Kinsey

Riding the Merry-Go-Round

More Kinsey and Chase (I swear the other kids were there.  These were just the ones we were in charge of...)

My father-in-law taking his turn on the merry-go-round

Covey and Cooper

Cosmo was at Trafalga too

After Trafalga, we went to Golden Corral for lunch and to celebrate Chase and Brooklyn's birthdays (they are siblings whose birthdays are 2 days apart).  Then we ran home to get ready for the BYU game.  Covey had gotten some free tickets to the game from a guy that he works with.  So we decided to go back to our stomping grounds and enjoy the game.  It started to get a little chilly but it was still fun.  The best part is the BYU won the game 24-21.  It was a great day but we were pooped when we finally got home.  Playing is hard work!

We invited Chris and Quinn to come with us

A Quarter of a Century

Alright, so I know this post is a little late, but I just hadn't uploaded any photos from my camera until today.

I had my 25th birthday on the 29th of September.  We didn't really do much to celebrate and that was alright with me.  We had gone to dinner the week before in Salt Lake to celebrate mine and Covey's birthdays.  The day of my birthday, I went to work (yay!) and then we went to dinner at Noodles and Company.  (Covey has decided that that is one of his new favorite places to eat.)  Then we ran a couple of errand and went home.  Also, Covey had bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  He always creates the bouquet from scratch and I love that he does that.  Overall, it was a great day