T.G.I.F.

Lots has been going on around our house lately! Here's a re-cap through photos (that are not all good quality, sorry! Anyone wanna buy me an awesome camera??).

Baby Shower:
My cousin Jillian was in town and her mom and sister threw a surprise baby shower! It was a lot of fun, and we had yummy authentic Spanish food (my aunt is from Spain). So fun! Makes me excited to have my own babies one day.

me and my adorable grandma (sorry for the horrible photo quality. I'm holding out until the day we can afford/are given an awesome new one haha) 

It was my cousin's son's (how do I say that) birthday that day. This .gif was basically all my attempts to get a pic of him with the balloon. Love this boy! 

My cousin Eileen had us all write fun/funny things on diapers for those late night diaper changes that will happen often .

Happy Birthday! 

My cousin got him an Ironman suit. He calls it his "fireman" suit :) 

15 Minutes of fame: 

Last week Tay picked me up from school and I just thought his outfit was so cute. Those are his classic white chucks that he works to keep in pristine condition. I kept trying to get just a cute, normal photo of him, but he resisted. (note: he likes to wear things on his head like that a lot, not sure why...:) 

Me straight up feeling like the paparazzi following him just trying to get a quick cute photo of him. 

Finally after getting the mail he got really into the photo shoot mode and started to give me his best "fashion blogger" poses (no hating on anyone or any blog, it was just so funny to see his perception of fashion blog poses). 

Partners in Crime: 

Ok this isn't what it looks like. Ok, yes it is exactly what it looks like. I mentioned in this post that my dad liked to teach his girls about cars. One thing my dad loved to do (and always did) was have me or one of my siblings time him while he would lock a car door, narrate a scene where he's a bad guy and the cops are coming so he has to hurry and "break in" to the car by unlocking it from the outside. If he didn't like his time he was able to unlock it in, he'd do it all over again. I'll be honest, I knew what a Slim Jim was, I understood the concept (sort of) but I never paid a ton of attention of how to "break in" to cars because I figured my dad would just always be there to do it. I remember it wasn't long after he passed away that I locked my keys in my car at school and needed to unlock it. I walked into the all boy auto shop class and asked the auto mechanic teacher at my school for a Slim Jim and any tools he had to break in. He asked if I needed help, and being a little prideful and feeling all "girl power" I told him I could do it. Let's just say there was no way I was going back in that classroom and saying I couldn't do it. It was like a test; I had to think back and try to remember what I had seen and learned when my dad did it. Anyway, long story short, I now carry a tool in my car (hoping I don't lock the keys in my car ever or else I'm in trouble) and I unlock cars for people quite frequently. Tay has now mastered the skill so we do it together :) Things like this, though simple, remind me of my dad and make me smile. Go here to learn a little more about my dad :). 

My dad would be so proud I have a man who has the "skill" as well :) 

Rivalry Game: 

Since we'll be moving in about a year for grad school (hopefully) I've been feeling all sentimental lately as I keep thinking "on this day next year I won't be in Provo anymore!". It actually makes me really sad. So this year since the BYU/Utah game was here in Provo, I tried to convince Taylor that we should spend the $80+ each to attend the game since we didn't buy season passes. He thought about it, and was responsible enough to tell me that we didn't need to spend that money. Instead, we decided to invite some friends over and have a little game-watching party at our house. 

I worked the day of the game and of course had to don my cougar blue. Then I ran into sweet Jenny who worked with me at Allyse's Bridal. She happened to be wearing red so it was a perfectly fitting photo for the day! 

THE CONTRACT:

Ok, remember my "shopping fast until Christmas" I was on? Ok, well, I sort of broke it. Twice. Ok, let me explain. First of all, I really was in need of new jeans and didn't realize it until after I started my little fast, so Tay & I (ok really just I, Tay just kind of rolls his eyes and laughs) made an exception because it really was a need and they were really cheap. I bought these cute Edyson jeans from Nordstrom that were on sale. But don't worry guys, the shopping gods were watching. The UPS guy came on Monday. Tay didn't remember I was expecting a package and he was still sleeping because he worked a graveyard so he heard a knock but didn't get it in time. So the UPS guy came the next day when I was at work. So then he came again, and I was at school. Long story short, my pants are ON THEIR WAY BACK TO IOWA. Whaaaat? Yeah, lame. But Nordstrom said they'll send them back when they receive them. Waste of postage if you ask me. 

SO THEN....Ok, so I've been wanting those Steve Madden 'Intyce' boots forever and ever. I'm embarrassed at the price because I neverrrr spend that much on really anything. However, my handy dandy Facebook ads creepily knew I had been eyeing them online so one day I was just innocently on Facebook when I saw a promo code for Steve Madden on my side bar. The promo code (I think) still works (SMSEP5) and it gave me 15% off AND free shipping. WHAAA? I had to get them, right? But wait. THEN I go looking online for other promo codes, and I found ANOTHER, BETTER promo code since the boots were more expensive and it was 20% off AND free shipping. Oh gosh. So literally for DAYS I had been contemplating because I didn't want to splurge but I was never going to feel good paying full price for them another time. So I asked around to people who bought Steve Madden a lot and the consensus was that it was a good idea. So I talked to Tay and he just told me to decide. Then after I made dinner last night (guys, I cooked a really good meal. It's been a while) I come out and see this "contract" that had just printed out. Pretty much it is a written form of what I had already said: I'm not shopping until Christmas for any clothes, with the exception of fabric for my sewing class where we make clothes (score!), including black friday. Tay had me sign my name and stuff. It was so funny and quite cute on his part. But I am excited to re-start my challenge. I've been really trying to look at what's in my closet with new eyes. I also found this challenge I am going to do from Plane Pretty. It's going to be so fun. I'm sad I have to start over on my little fast, but let's be honest, these boots were worth it. Also, I'm going to re-fashion a few things I own. I will post about it. 

I'll post a close-up of the contract later. I'm not sure how my phone came up with this little collage, but it's cool I guess. 

 Well, that's all folks! Sorry for such a long post. I need to find the balance between posting too much and getting behind on stuff. Things have been fun around here lately. Tay was recently contacted by one of the admissions people at Pacific University in Oregon who saw that he had started his application. It just made things super real! He's shadowing an optometrist today. He looked so cute in his "optometry office" clothes he picked out (he's wearing a blue & white pinstriped shirt and some nice slacks and a navy tie). So cute. I love that guy lots. Guys. Dr. Hibbs. Doesn't that sound so cute?? Ahh! Well hope you all have a great Friday!

CPK, Pepper Spray, and other fun things.

Hello! It's been a great weekend so far. Yesterday was super fun. After school Tay and I just hung out at home and literally just relaxed and talked for a couple hours, which doesn't always happen since we're usually really busy. It was nice to just spend time together with no place to go or rush to right away. I was craving California Pizza Kitchen and even though Tay wasn't super hungry at the time, he took me there for dinner. Such a sweet guy :). I decided to try something new, so I asked the waiter what his favorite thing was: the Jamaican Jerk. I tried it and it was pretty good! Also, for those of you who go there frequently enough to notice, they changed their bread! It was more like how the bread is at Macaroni Grill. Super yummy.

My cute cousin Morgan just got home from her mission in Georgia, so we made signs and took pictures of ourselves with them to post on her Facebook wall (she lives in California). As you can see from the photos this task wasn't super easy to do ourselves (holding the sign, both fitting in the picture, then taking the picture).

My sister sent me this photo from school. She's a cheerleader and they had to each make a big poster to but hung around the stadium. I may or may not have helped a little (just a little!) so it was fun to see it hanging at her school. She's the youngest so it's crazy seeing her already in high school!

My sister's (the one on the back) school mascot is the Thunderbird, so Tay helped us come up with this saying for the poster! 

Taylor and I possibly made a mistake yesterday...we started watching the ABC series Once Upon a Time on Netflix...and now we're addicted. Seriously though, we stayed up until 1am watching it when Tay had to be at work at 6! (ok, Taylor stayed awake. I, as usual, fell asleep on his shoulder).

After a couple episode's we went to Taylor's Intramural football game. The other team had to forfeit because one guy didn't have his ID (they're required to show that they're the one who actually registered for the team). They still played just for fun, and it was fun to watch. While I was just sitting watching, some girl came up to me and told me I was really pretty. I share this because it makes me have faith in humanity that some people just do or say nice things just because. It was really sweet of her and it gave me a little confidence boost! I'm gonna try to pass that on to someone else!

Oh, the joy of taking photos on your phone. If I had an awesome camera these shots would've been great. Tay played a great game! Plus he wore orange to stand out so it was easy for me to find him playing :) 

My cute boy getting ready for the game

just chilling and wishing I'd worn rain boots because it was wet! 

Shameless selfie. 

As I've mentioned before, Taylor works as a security guard at the Missionary Training Center where LDS missionaries are trained before they serve their missions. The other day they had a pepper-spray training. In order for the guards to carry pepper-spray they have to be sprayed first!!! It is optional, but required if you want to carry pepper-spray. And for those of you wondering if it would ever be necessary for them to use it...you'd be surprised at some of the people they come across! Last year Tay couldn't make it to this training so he didn't have to worry about deciding whether to do it. This year he told me he was going to do it....let's just say I almost embarrassed myself by the amount of worry I had for him ALL DAY before the training. I feel like it might have been similar to how mothers feel when they have to take their babies to get shots. You're just letting the person you love get hurt and you can't help them! I was a baby about it. So he went, and he was sprayed. He said it was really bad, but he recovered pretty quickly. That was an interesting adventure. Oh, and I'm still sitting here wondering, why don't you have to be shot by a gun in order to carry a gun? Not to get all political...but who knows!

I've made it another week without buying clothes. Sometimes I see really good deals on Facebook (have you checked out GroopDealz? They are AWESOME!) and then I have to remind myself of my goal! But it's all good. I did get a really fun new curling iron/wand...not really sure what to call it. I've been curling my hair with my flat iron for the past four years, which works but it sometimes takes long and is a little tricky sometimes. I'm still deciding if I like this one (pretty sure I do), but it's been rainy so I haven't really been able to use it and see how the curls stay because it just rains. I'll show a good pic some time soon and see what you all think.