Megan & Ben Smith

It's almost over! Yay?

2012-02-07T11:33:00.003-07:00

Let's get one thing clear: I'm glad and grateful that I'm pregnant.

Let's get another thing clear: being pregnant is hard.

I'm reaching the end of my pregnancy and as terrified as I am of actually having a baby, I'm getting quite anxious to to get this baby out of me. Coincidence? I think not.

Child birth is a scary thing for me. I've always been scared of it (thank you BYU Human Development class video). I don't need to tell anyone that knows me that I have quite the imagination. And I've thought about all the things that can go wrong. Yes I know it's unhealthy, but I do.

I think of Ben's childhood friend Gabe and his wife and how she almost died because of some disease they knew nothing about. I think of my sister's friend who's heart beat stopped as she was sitting talking to her husband in the hospital. And all the improbable things that could happen.

Then there is all the things that could be wrong with the baby. My whole pregnancy I've been obsessed with her movements and stats. I won't go into all the horrific things I've thought about, but needless to say, I want her here so I can count all the fingers and toes.

I think that you get so uncomfortable these last few weeks so that you practically scream, "get out of me!" and are willing to undergo the potential pain/terror/joy that the call child birth.

I'm am most excited to see her, hold her, smell her, and figure out her name! But here are a few other things that I'm excited about NOT being pregnant any more:

1. Heartburn. Yeah that sucks! It's constant and you get mild relief. Ben is actually grateful that ice had this experience cause he's always had bad heartburn in our marriage, and he never thought I could sympathize. Now I can.

2. The belly. I actually love my belly. I love knowing my baby is in there, and that I can eat and not worry about having a belly. But I am looking forward to not having to hold it when I roll over, or get out of bed. The pain it causes because it stretches the sides and feels like its bruised. Kicking my ribs like they're a zilaphone or pushing on my bladder...

3. Sickness. I've had nausea my whole pregnancy. Second trimester more that others, but I can't wait to enjoy food again.

4. Not having to eat 24/7. It's rather annoying. :)

5. Sleeping on my stomach. Ahhh.... That would be wonderful.

6. Most of all, I'm looking forward to getting her here, safe and sound.

2 weeks left.... Yikes!

First Surprise of 2012

2012-01-18T12:04:00.002-07:00

Life is full of unexpected changes.

I have been dreading writing this post for a week, not sure how much I was wanting to share. But I figure only our friends and family read this, so... here goes.

Last Wednesday Ben and I received some bad news. Due to details that I am not going to go into, Ben lost his job. It obviously came as a shock to the both of us, and the timing could not be worse. Baby girl is due Feb 20-ish and our insurance is now canceled at the end of January. Like I said, great timing.

There isn't a whole lot more to say other than Ben and I are doing fine. Sometimes it is hard to wrap our minds around how quickly our life is changing, and not only due to the fact that we are about to have a baby.

On the flip side, we still feel incredibly blessed. We feel that this is a blessing in disguise and will eventually work out to our benefit. We live amongst a wonderful support system of family and friends and know that no matter what happens, we will be taken care of. And above all else, we have each other, and our baby is healthy. I keep thinking that things could be worse, and then silently beg the Lord not to prove me right. :)

For those of you who are already aware of our situation, we are thankful for the support and love that you have already given us. We are truly blessed by the love of our friends, family and the Lord.

Some Fun Photos

2012-01-09T12:19:00.003-07:00

So Ben and I are selling our coffee and side tables (cause I bought new ones) and I had to download them from Ben's phone. Apparently he hadn't downloaded his photos in a while and there were some that I thought I would share. :) These are from this last year.

This dog often thinks that she is our baby... So we thought we'd see if it would work out.

We were pretty sure Miley would get run over trying to jog next to the bike, so we strapped her in.

The first thing we bought when we found out we were pregnant. :) We saw a little girl in Costco curled up with it just like this and said, YUP, we're buying it. Ironically we are having a little girl!

Got our dogs drunk on pizza, ranch and Dt. Pepsi...

I keep feeling sorry for them about how their life is going to change. Someone else will be curled up with their Daddy... so sad.
Just some fun photos. Eventually I'll post the photos of the house and what it looked like when we bought it andwhat it ended up being. The outside and the inside have totally changed. I love it!

What's occupying my mind of late...

2012-01-03T23:05:00.002-07:00

4 things: baby, baby, baby and oh yeah, did I mention THE BABY! That's pretty much what has been occupying every waking thought, and even the dreams. I read something on my baby app that perfectly describes what I'm feeling right now. Let me share it with you...

" third-trimester insomnia strikes more than 75% of expectant moms. Very tired expectant moms. The hormonal changes, the midnight treks to the bathroom, the leg cramps, the heartburn that won't quit, the fact that you can't get comfortable when you're in bed with a watermelon where you're tummy used to be, and the anxiety you're likely feeling about the impending birth of your baby (and the fact that you haven't decided on a name for your baby) all contribute to your inability to catch some z's"

Yup. Spot on.

Let's dissect a little.

1. Hormonal changes: I've actually been pretty good. Or at least Ben says so... And he would tell me. But I cried every time I watched the ending of White Christmas this year. Every time. Ugh.

2. Bathroom trips. I'd actually be okay going to the bathroom multiple times a night if I actually had to pee. But the fact that it's not very much and I feel like I'm going to burst.. Really ticks me off at 3, and 4 and 5 in the morning.

3. Leg cramps: more like butt cramps. I have a bad sciatic and it feeds this one nerve in my butt cheek. If I turn to lay on the right side, it gets mad. I have Ben try and rub it out for me. Trust me, our husband rubbing your butt, not as sexy as youd think it to be.

4. Heartburn. Ben has always had bad heartburn and takes prescription mess for it. I never truly appreciated it. Now I do. Poor Ben. I love him.

5. Getting comfortable in bed: if you're a stomach sleeping like I am, switch now to your side. It'll save you A LOT of issues when your pregnant and can't sleep on your belly. Can't wait for that to be a possibility again. The extra weight on my hips makes them hurt but I basically have no other option. Oddly, snuggling with Ben helps me sleep. Again, I love him.

6. Anxiety about the birth. Yup. I'm nervous. I watched Melissa do it, no problem. But still... I worry about the epidural needle, the pain, the tearing, something being wrong with the baby and Ben being gone. He is traveling early Feb to Utah... Makes me nervous.

7. The baby name: We're having trouble. Here are a few we are thinking of: Ainsley, Aria, Harper, Avery, Fiona, Isabella. Feel free to Wei in, just heed the last blog post: be tactful if you don't like a name. Or better yet, just tell me the ones that you like.

So yeah, that's what I've been thinking about. But on a more positive note, I'm very excited. I'm excited to hold her, to see who she looks like, see Ben with her, watch her grow, smile, crawl, laugh, talk... All those things. I love her so much already and I'm so excited to see that Compound and grow even more. I'm excited to have her grow up with her cousins Kalli and Lily and LeAnne's little boy who is coming soon after. I'm excited to see how motherhood changes me, and Ben. I'm excited for the most challenging and rewarding adventure that we've ever had! See, getting emotional. Dang hormones. :)

Basically, I'm scared silly but excited. Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?

I'm a bad blogger

2011-12-29T13:01:00.007-07:00

Okay, so I know that I haven't blogged in a LONG time. Shame on me. But in all fairness, I've lost my camera cord, so I don't have any pictures of things that I've been wanting to blog about. (i.e Brigadoon ect) So all the pictures that I do have are from my phone. Sorry for the quality.

But here is an update on life in general right now. Beware... it's long.

Stay at Home Wife.
In November I stopped working at my job at Saber Transportation. It is the slow season right now for trucking and they wanted to get my replacement in and trained before it was so busy that it would completely overwhelm her.

Cheer leading
As many of you know I am one of the Cheer coaches at the local High School. Working with High Schoolers I'm used to, but 20+ girls, just girls, man DRAMA. Our football team went into playoffs which extended the season that much longer. Needless to say, we were all ready to be done when the boys lost in the semi-finals. I love those girls, but sometimes I just wanted to tell them to shut the heck up and stop complaining. Sometimes I did. :)
Here is two photos of them after we won and were going on the semi finals.

CLEANING!!
It has been nice not working but oh man, how much work I do at home. I cook, clean, mop and organize all the time. The first week I was home, I went a little crazy and over did it. I paid for that later. But it has been nice to actually move into the house. When we bought in May we moved in superficially and then suddenly I was pregnant, sick, working and do the show. Needless to say I didn't feel much like figuring out where to put the extra towels that we never use. But now that is the challenge. Every now and then when I organize a part of the house, I get so happy and I love it. I actually love my laundry room cause it's so organized.

Decorating
I am also decorating the house. We have much more space and I wanted to lighten up the look we had going on. My condo in Utah was very dark and Red, so we're adding some light tables and rugs and this beautiful blue color to brighten up the place. So far I love it.
This is the material for our curtain panels

The nursery... well, it's not done, or even started, but I'm not too worried about it. She won't be using it for a while, and lets be honest, she won't care if I paint it before she's born or when she's one. So, for now, we've got the crib and bedding set up and that's good enough for now.

Kalli
I also get to spend more time with this little monkey. I love her so much. I watch her for Melissa sometimes when she has to go to meetings for work, or just go over and visit. Just look at these pictures and you'll see why I just adore her.

In front of the Christmas tree

She was supposed to go down for at least an hour. She was asleep for 30 min. I was making the bed, this is the look I got. Makes me laugh. Little stinker.

Playing with Sadie on the bed. She was still working on sitting up, so the bed was nice so she didn't hurt herself when she fell over. It's also good for Sadie to learn if she goes near a baby, she will grab you and if you snap at her, you get BEAT. So hopefully she learns just to stay away from the baby.

She was supposed to be going to sleep, but she kept smiling at me. Stinker.

Pregnancy Stuff
Names. No one tells you how much pressure naming a human being can be. We have such a common last name, that we wanted something a little different than 'Jane'. But we're having a difficult time. So far the names that we like are Isabella, Avery, Fiona. We'll see what she looks like and what we feel is the right name for her. Being in the family I am, they are not shy about their opinions. Sometimes that is nice, but all I ask is if you don't like a name, TACTFULLY say that you don't like it. Don't just down right say, "Oh that is terrible! Why would you name your child that?" Cause knowing me, I'm going to name her that just to tick you off now. Yes, not a valid reason to name a child, but at least I know myself well enough to know that I would do it.

I hate insurance by the way. I think that it sucks. That's all I've got to say on the matter really. But there is a reason that I refuse to go see the doctor at all costs because they charge you $400 to draw some blood. Stupid.

The Belly.
No one prepares you, or really can, for how huge you feel. I look at old photos and think, "Man, I was so stupid to think I was big then" It feels like I've got this weight on the front of my body, constantly pulling me down. You can imagine how lovely that feels on my back. You never realize how much you use your abs until you can't use them anymore. The weirdest feeling I've had of late is when she is stretching and both sides of my belly go out. It's not a swift kick or a ripple. Just a stretching of the sides. I keep thinking that she's trying to claw her way out of me. I never should have read twilight. :) Every time she kicks me I say in my mind, "Good Girl" cause that means she's doing just fine.

I haven't gained much weight, about 12-15 pounds. I love, and I mean LOVE maternity jeans. Why I procrastinated buying those for as long as I did... stupid. They are so so comfy, I may never go back. :)

Feeling HUGE!

I have also decided that people just need to shut it when it comes to commenting on your pregnancy. "Oh you're carrying low, it's a boy" "You're carrying high, it's a girl" or "You're so tiny, I bet she's petite" "She's going to be big, look at that belly" "Oh you think you're big now, just wait" or my favorite, "It gets worse"

Seriously, everyone thinks something different. I'm low, I'm high, I'm big, I'm small. The discomfort I'm feeling now doesn't matter cause it just gets worse. My response to most of those are, yeah well BITE ME.

Throughout all of this Ben has been amazing. And that doesn't even cover it. When I was in my first and second trimester, I basically never had to cook or clean. He's been so supportive of me getting rest, taking it easy and just taking care of the baby. He nags me to eat more, but that's Ben's solution to everything. Food. :) I love him and am so excited to see him with our baby. He's going to be such a push over, it's funny.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try and do better. :)

Second Trimester Stats

2011-08-08T14:08:00.003-06:00

Stats:

Baby bump: Not really noticeable. If I eat a big meal then I look it, but since I've not been keeping anything down... normally it's not there.

Clothes: Still wearing the same ones. Jeans, everything. We'll see how long that lasts, but for now, I'm grateful.

Weight: Actually lower than when I got pregnant. By about ten pounds. Oops.

Feeling: Well this weekend ushered in my second trimester and the worst feeling I've had my whole pregnancy. Let's just hope it is a bug and not a sign of things to come.

Baby: We got to see the little stinker on Thursday. The baby was lounging, yes, I'm serious, LOUNGING in my belly. Arms up and behind it's head and ankles crossed. My baby is just cooling his/her little heels down there while mama is working hard. Can't say it didn't make me a little peeved. :)

That's pretty much it. I will post baby bump pictures when there is a bump to show. :)

How we found out...

2011-07-20T22:12:00.004-06:00

Be warned... this is mostly a wordy post. :)

As Many of you know.... I'm Pregnant.

As I look at that sentence, it kind of freaks me out a little bit. Since we kept it a secret for a little while, I will tell those of you who don't know, how we found out. :)

I knew on my birthday (or thereabouts) that I was supposed to be starting my "time of the month" the odd thing is, before I even got there, I thought about pregnancy a lot that month. My sister Melissa had given birth, I watched (whoa!), and people kept bringing it up. And most of all, Ben and I bought and moved into our home. We were ready to start our family. We had been trying for a little over a year and a half. But it seemed like life was finally in agreement.

So Tuesday the Seventh comes (my birthday is on the fifth for those of you who don't know)... and nothing. So I tell Ben I'm taking a pregnancy test. He's in the shower, watches me sit on the bathtub and just stare at it. It's a no. No biggie. I text my sisters who knew I was late. They're all sad. I'm just thinking, I'll take another one come Sunday.

They all want me to do another one right away. I say no, I'm gonna wait.

Sunday Morning rolls around... I get up, take the test. This time I can't stare at it. So I set it down, walk over to the bath tub, turn on my timer, and wait. Then I walk up to it and look down. All the while Ben is watching me from the bed.

"Well?" he asks.

I pick it up and walk over to him. At this point I'm in a state of shock. Later I think the term I used to Ben was, "a mind melt". It seemed to fit.

"For the look on your face I'd guess it's a no." He says.

I show him the test.

(Actual Test I took Below)

"What do you think that means?" I say.

He looks at it.

"I think it means you're pregnant." Ben says looking at me.

I stare at the test. "I think it does too."

Then we just look at each other.

I don't really remember what happened next. I know we didn't jump up and down for joy, we were both in too much shock for that to happen. It was kind of like; Okay... now what. Well, we had to get ready for church. So we did.

I get to church, my sister Melissa asks me if I took a test, I told her I forgot. We decide to tell my parents first, then the family at dinner.

We were all gathered around the kitchen/dining area waiting to pray, Amanda (my niece) and Michelle (her mom) are fighting. I say, "Well, to change the subject, I'm pregnant." Needless to say... that worked.

Ben and I are very happy and nervous and sick and excited. I will post more fun stuff later, but I just wanted to get this out while I had the energy to write it.

Harry Potter and Me

2011-07-14T13:25:00.014-06:00

Let's get one thing clear: Yes, I know I'm a nerd. Deal with it people.

It's interesting with all the talk about a decade passing since the first Harry Potter movie, I started thinking about where I was for each of these movies coming out, and how my life has changed and progressed from each one. Kind of weird to mark your life by Harry Potter, but it's also kind of convienent that all of these movies come out every few years. Yes, I am a Harry Potter fan, and yes, Ben makes fun of me for it, but I thought I hadn't posted a blog in a while, and this might be kind of fun.

So here goes, my life/ memory at the time of each Harry Potter movie release.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Being the book worm I was (and am) I introduced these books to my family. I'm sure that they would have found them eventually, but I enjoyed the journey of waiting for each book to come out year after year. It's just not the same when all of the books are out already. I was a Junior in High School, yet I still went and saw this with my parents. I remember the part where the face comes out of the book and screams, Mom got so startled, she spilled her big gulp all over me. I realized then and there, not to sit by Mom at movies any more.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. (2002)

Senior Year in High School. I can't remember if I had class or not. But I do remember that I went with my friend Veronica Miller (Pratt) during school hours and we played some sort of card game outside the theater while we waiting. We kept hearing these weird bangs coming from the movie playing inside, and couldn't figure out why. Turns out it was the snake trying to eat Harry. Go figure. :)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

I remember I saw this for my birthday, on June 5, in Florida. I was down there working for Disney and I saw it with my neighbor and friend Andrew Hill and two of my friends, Amanda and Willie Miller, who were dating at the time, just barely, and are now married. They flew all the way from Utah to see me at WDW. I remember Andrew and I were so mad at the way they did this movie and all of the stuff they left out. We kept saying, how are they going to explain that down the road!!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

I was living in a little yellow crappy house by BYU when the preview came out. I remember watching it on the computer. I was so excited.

This was one of the best trailers WB has ever put out, showing how the characters had grown over the years. I was also dating this guy, named Ben, who's friend said he could get us reserved seats at a theater. He asked me if I was interested. Oh boy, he had no idea! Well... about a lot of things actually. :)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix (2007)

I was married by this time and we were visiting my family in Oregon. We went to the 'new' theater in Independence, first movie I saw there, and went to the midnight showing. This is when I discovered Ben's hatred for midnight showings and lines. I saw it with Melissa. She liked the movie so much, she started reading the books. She of course started with the 6th one, and would call me in Utah to ask me what an Auror was. I told her to go back and read all of them! :)

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009)

I remember seeing this with Mom and Ben. Mom was visiting from Oregon. Dumbledore's death hit me really hard, even though I knew it was coming. Ben and I were talking about having children soon, and I remember the thought of death was prominent in my mind. I remember asking my mother when she thought the spirit entered the body, and if my Dad died while I was pregnant, that meant he wouldn't know my child in the pre-mortal life, or in the mortal one. I didn't like that. And yes, I worry about my father dying a lot.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010)

I was in Fiddler on the Roof. We had moved back to Oregon and I went with some friends from the show. It was so much fun, and I remember singing 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' with Jon on the way home. I was surprised how awake I was for that movie. I got a call the next morning at 8:30 a.m. from Melissa who wanted to go see it. I went with her, Mom, and Ben again. So in less than 12 hours, I saw it twice.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

I am really excited to see this movie. It's actually quite nerdy how exctied I am. I loved watching the premire footage from London and the things that JK Rowling said (see clip below).

I love that good books will always be there for me to read and read (and read) and that I can share them with my children. I would go see the midnight showing, but alas, I have a job now, I'm not a college student any more, and I want to see it with my husband first. See how much I've grown. :)

* Since writing this post, I have seen the movie. I loved it and I sobbed (yes sobbed) at the ending. I blame it on the hormones. But we all know, I'm just a nerd.

Happy Anniversary - To: Megan From: Ben

2011-04-29T12:34:00.004-06:00

30 Reasons why I love you, Megan!!!

1. First off, I love that you steal my ideas! (but make them better since I would have kept it private. The blog is much cooler!)

2. I love that you make everything I do and think better! as noted above, so you make me better!

3. I love how you make everything I do worth while. There's nobody better to enjoy life with, even all the work!

4. I love all your facial expressions! Especially, the many that make me laugh! (I'm even smiling as I Rolodex a few in my mind)

5. I love that it's not your birthday so I only need to list 5 things for our anniversary:)

6. I love your pity laughs for my dumb jokes!

7. I love that you'll be an excellent mother! (and your strength and patience as you wait for the privilege)

8. I love that you have so many different tastes and preferences than me! (even though they're wrong, especially baby names!)

9. I love your witty sense of humor! (I'm not the only person you make laugh)

10. I love how much you make me laugh! (I'm not always laughing at you, just when you're a stinker!)

11. I love your confidence and courage!

12. I love to hear you sing! You're so good. Some songs show off how truly extraordinary your talent is! (To the point that I'm mad at you like Gail!)

13. I love that you love working with high school kids in their plays.

14. I love how excited and happy you are when you get home from a rehearsal.

15. I love watching you teach in primary! And watching you gloat about later to your mother ;)

16. I love that you love hugs since I love your hugs so much, I get more!

17. I love how beautiful you are, no matter what you're wearing!

18. I love your willingness and effort to make my priorities yours!

19. I love how well you know and understand me, and still love and appreciate me.

20. I love that you keep me in check when I get imbalanced.

21. I love you method for getting rid of your gas! (this is one that I'd like to post a picture of, be thankful)

22. I love your cooking!

23. I love how you support and back me up.

24. I love how talented your are in writing! (and I look forward to the novel you're going to write!)

25. I love when you share your crazy dreams with me!

26. I love your passion for reading! (Even though you read the same books so often.)

27. I love that you're competitive.

28. I love looking into your eyes and knowing what your thinking.

29. I love that you love me even though I love you more than you love me;)

30. I love that five years is only the beginning!

Love, Ben

Happy Birthday/ Anniversary!!!

2011-04-21T15:33:00.018-06:00

So Ben is turning the big 2-9 Thursday! I can't belive he's almost 30. What an old man! I thought that I would type up 29 things that I love about my husband! Also, it's our 5 year anniversary on the 29th! So that goes along with it too...

Some of the pictures actually go along with the reason, the others are just fun pictures. Love you babe! Happy Birthday!

1. I love how handy he is and that he remodeled our condo!
Before

After!

2. This one might be TMI: But I love his KISSES!!
Disney World
Wedding
Silver Creek Falls
Engagement
Okay okay, you get the point! :)

3. I love that he somehow thinks that bugging me constantly about how I don't like all the nasty things that he puts on HIS burger is going to make me change my mind! YUCK!

4. I love that although he gives me crap for it, he supports my candy eating habits by bringing me my favorite candy from a store in Seattle every time he visits.

5. I love the way he looks when he plays with my niece Ella.

6. I love the way he looks at me when Ella and I are singing and dancing around.

7. I love that even though he drives WAY to fast and yet I still feel safe in the car with him!
Bear Lake 2009

8. I hate that he gets out of speeding tickets whenever he gets pulled over. But I LOVE that we don't have to pay for his speeding habits.
Central High School Football Game 2010

9. I love that he doesn't get mad at me when I get in a car accident.

At home with the Girls 2011

10. I love that he tells me that he loves me all the time!
Hawaii 2009

11. I love that we can communicate with out actually saying anything to each other.

Ben's Birthday 2009 (Hawaii)

12. I love that he is goal oriented and tries to get me to be too. (Even though I find it really annoying at the same time).

Duck Game (2010)

13. He made my dream of going to New York City come true.
Times Square (2009)

14. He took me to Disney World.
WDW 2006

15. Twice! :)
WDW 2010

16. I love that he asks me to explain Harry Potter in detail. AND he took me to Harry Potter World!
Universal Studios 2010

17. He took me to Hawaii.
Anniversary 2009

18. He encourages me to explore and be daring. Example: I don't think I would've ever jumped out of plane if it weren't for him.
Skydiving in Hawaii 2009

19. He tells me that he loves me multiple times a day!
Ben's Birthday 2010

20. I love that he loves hugs. I wasn't a big hugger, loved to kiss, but hugging... now I can't get enough. I love hugs!
Day we got engaged January 2006

21. I love when he smiles and his mouth is open and his chin is up in the air. I love that he knows that he does this. And that he knows it looks silly.
Broken down on Space Mountain WDW 2010

22. I love how he works so hard for our family.
Bear Lake 2009

23. I love how he has always encouraged me to pursue my dreams.
Fiddler on the Roof 2010

Savior of the World 2009

24. I love that he supports my weird coat/purse fetish!

December 2008 (Both coats are mine)

NYC Subway 2009

25. I love that he is a BYU Cougar fan! Just like my Daddy!
BYU v Utah Game 2006

26. I love that he thinks that I'm cute when he knows I'm lying to him
Las Vegas 2010

27. I love that he actually thinks he knows when I'm lying to him. :)

SLC Temple 2010

28. I love that he supported me getting my degree BEFORE we had kids!

BYU Graduation 2009

29. The BIGGEST reason I love you is...

I can't even say! I'm just so grateful that he had a lapse in judgment and married me! Or how he put it "You were hot!" Happy 5 year Anniversary on Friday!

Date Night

2011-04-14T14:05:00.004-06:00

I have the most wonderful husband. That goes with out saying. Not only does he love me, but he encourages me to embrace the things that I love.

So when I asked him if we could go see Billy Elliott which was coming to Portland, he said 'Of Course'. But to add to that, he said, "But only if we get good seats,"

See!! We are perfect for each other!!

Billy Elliot happened the Thursday before the baby shower. I was stressed, sick and Ben had been sick since Monday. So we piled into the car halfheartedly and off to Portland we went. We stopped by P.F. Changs for some dinner, but the wait was too long. So we ordered it to go.

We sat in the parking lot, in the back seat of our car, sharing Mongolian Beef and Lettuce Wraps.We sat laughing at each other and suddenly we both were feeling a little better. We got to the theater, went to the bathroom and had three minutes to spare.

The show was so fun. Great Dancing and touching. There is a lot of swearing in it, since it's an Irish Mining Town. But there were times where I laughed, I cried, and my mouth dropped open in shock. So overall a good experience.

Ben wasn't in the mood to take any pictures, but I insisted on documenting something.

I sure did miss my friend Kristi Hill at this moment cause she's willing to take crazy photos with me! This was taken at Legally Blonde The Musical in SLC

Melissa's Baby Shower

2011-04-10T19:38:00.006-06:00

This weekend was my sister Melissa's baby shower. And any of you that know me, or have been following the blog, know that I have been planning/working on this for a few weeks now. And I think that it turned out pretty good. :)

Melissa and I are the closest in age than we are to any of our other siblings. And since our family goes, Boy Girl Boy Girl, all the way until Melissa and I (Girl Girl) we are also the only two that have a sibiling of the same sex next to us. So to sum up... we're pretty close. :) She and her husband tried about 5 years for this precious gift of a baby, so I wanted her baby shower to be something that didn't disappoint and everything that she could ever think of.

Here are some pictures from the event for Melissa and Baby Kalli!

My Beautiful Sister (and Kalli)

The Banner says 'Kalli' and has Castles on the side flags. The colors all matched her bedding which was the theme for the shower. Princess. With pink, purple and green. Here is a picture of the pillars that I wrapped with white lights and tulle to look kind of like a castle.

The spread. The "K" for Kalli, chocolate fountain, fruit platter, raspberry napoleons, cupcakes with raspberries and crown tags, the "Sugar, Spice, Everything, Nice" candy jars, the diaper cake, flowers and butterfly sugar cookies, fruit platter, chicken salad croissant sandwiches, and raspberry slush punch. Mmmm!!

The napoleons. Raspberry and Lemon! These were a big hit. Gone before I knew it.

The cupcakes and the crown tags. So cute.

The Candy jars. Melt-a-way mints, Hershey kisses, Jordan Almonds, and Sweet Tart Jelly Beans

The Diaper cake. Made with the same ribbon as the banner. The bear on the top of the cake is the same bear that Melissa had as a baby. It was hidden away by Mom to give to her as a gift, but I pulled it out, stuck a crown on top of it, and Mom tied a bow around it. We thought it was the perfect cake topper. Brought the sentimental element, plus, it's darn cute.

Ah, the rose balls. Everyone kept asking how long these took me to make. When I answered that it probably averaged 5-6 hours a piece, I think they changed their mind about making some for their daughters. :) Ha ha.

The pillars again. I loved them so much. There were tulips (white, purple and pink) around too. You can see some of them on the pillars here. I didn't get any other pictures of them.

The gift table. Yeah, she got a lot. :)

Opening the blanket that I had my beautiful and talented friend Stacy make me... I mean her. :)
So that was it. It was fun and exhausting and I went out to Chinese food with my Aunt who came into town for the shower and my parents that night cause I refused to cook anything. My fortune cookie said, "Today is a good day to have some relaxation." Thank you Confucius. I know. :)

A BIG thanks to Mom who helped me with everything, sanity, food prep and money. And to LeAnne for hosting it at her place, and for making the cutest sugar cookies ever!

SO FAR...

2011-04-06T14:37:00.006-06:00

So this is what the rose balls ended up looking like, plus the "k" wreath I made for the front door. Let me know what you think.

The hanging rose Balls
The 'K' made out of cupcake Liners

Closer Look. I don't know how I feel about it. I keep wondering what I can do to improve it....

One of the rose balls with a filter on it. I love it cause I think that it looks like real roses. :)

What do you think? I made the slush stuff last night and I'll take pictures of what the shower ends up looking like. I hope it looks as good as I want it to. : )

What I've been doing with my spare time....

2011-03-30T13:58:00.007-06:00

This.

I'm making roses out of crepe paper that will go onto a ball and hung at Melissa's Baby Shower. Yes it takes FOREVER. And yes, I burn my fingers constantly. But she is going to have the best freaking baby shower ever.

It is supposed to end up looking like this...

We'll see... Hehe. It's the thought that counts right?

Her little girl is going to be so precious and I just can't wait. :)

Oh yeah. This is also what has been occupying my time...

Hanging out with the cutest little girl in the world. I love this kid. Seriously. LeAnne called when I had her and asked if she needed to come pick her up and I asked her if she was sure that this was her child and not mine. I think there was a mixup. We ate popcorn and watched Anastasia. Did I mention that we sang along with it. She quotes the movie and everything. Love love love.

I found her in bed with these when I was making popcorn. She had found some chocolate in our room. And just helped herself. Thieving little hands. Love her.

My excuse

2011-03-27T19:36:00.003-06:00

So, this is my lame excuse for NOT blogging lately.

1. I work. All day. Then I get home and have to try and talk my husband out of having me make him dinner.

2. That doesn't work, so I have to figure out what to make.

3. I'm busy trying to plan the most amazing baby shower the world has seen for my sister. Any idea? I'm a little bit of an over achiever, and highly competitive, so... keep that in mind.

4. I'm trying to buy a house. With my husband. Which is... tiring.

5. I don't have any pictures. And I hate blogging with out pictures. (and yes I know that I'm being highly hypocritical right now cause this post has no picture)

6. I'll blog when I get something interesting to blog about.

So to sum up. No baby news. No house news. Nothing. Nada. Sorry.

Hum. Odd.

2011-03-03T16:33:00.003-07:00

You may ask, what is the difference between these two photos. Well one was taken by my friend Sian in 2004, the other was taken by Ben in 2007. Oddly, they both are at a 'special event' at Disneyworld. I say oddly because, having worked there and been there on vacation, it wasn't always a special event. But for some reason, this photo was taken at a special event.

Also, I happen to be wearing a headband in both photos. I don't wear headbands often. Odd.

My hands are in almost the exact same position. Odd.

My head and body are turned different though. Also my hair is longer in the first one.

I don't know. I thought that was odd. They also are very similar in my facial expression. I guess I just don't think you should smile in this particular pose.

Like I said. Odd.

That is my random rant for today.

My husband

2011-03-03T16:11:00.002-07:00

Sometimes I have conversations with Ben and I think,

"You are the only man in the world who would've married me"

You may think that is and odd thing to thing. But sometimes, I am so overcome with gratefulness for the man I married and that I can be completely my crazy and odd self with him. And he loves me the more for it.

Our 5 year wedding anniversary is coming up next month and I can hardly believe that it has been five years. That's longer than high school, almost as long as college! ;) But definately my longest relationship. I couldn't say that for a while. Even after we got married cause... well I had boyfriends for a long time.... That's another story. Or stories. Haha.

Anywho, love you babe!

Yes, I know I don't have a house.

2011-02-16T13:39:00.002-07:00

So as some of you who see my posts on facebook, or my last post on my blog, I am recently obsessed with decorating my house. Yes, I know I don't have a house. Hence, the title of this post. And YES, I know I just used the word 'hence'. Oh the cleverness of me! (Peter Pan quote for any of you who don't know. And no not the Disney animated version it's the one... oh never mind).

Back to the topic. Today I am obsessed with THIS.

I think that I'm going to have to do something for Ben that will get me the permission I need to go all 'creative' on him when I do have a new house. Maybe I can have a baby or something. Yeah... that might work...

So ANYWAY (Man I'm getting off topic today) This girl took this amazing stencil and stenciled (correct phraseology?) her ceiling. I think that Ben MIGHT go for something like that. As long as it's not Pink (not my style anyway) or purple (DANG IT!).

I am constantly amazed at the creativeness of the women of the world. My sister Michelle is one of those. She says she would gladly give that talent up if she could have mine (aka sing). I say, lets combine and create the perfect person! ;)

Take a look and enjoy. Maybe YOU have a house, or an apartment that you can decorate and use some of these totally creative things in your life.

As for me... I'll keep working on the baby thing so when I DO get my house, I can do whatever I want!! (insert evil laugh here!)

Love to you all. (Especially those who leave me comments! )

Obsessed

2011-02-08T15:42:00.004-07:00

I'm totally obsessed with this shower curtain!

Leanne, a girl that I know from my Freshman year at BYU is so creative and she made it. BY HAND! She copied the idea from Anthropologie, and like I said, I'M OBSESSED!

I looked at Urban Outfitters and there was some bed spreads and other shower curtains similar, but Ben said NO to those. Said that he didn't want to sleep in a bed that took all the testosterone out of his body. Psh. Whatever. BUT he liked the one Leanne made, so... either I have to buy the one from anthropologie which is SOOO expensive. OR, learn to sew. Seeing as neither of those things is going to happen.... I'll just admire Leanne's blog. :)

In the meantime, I'll continue to dream of my house where I can decorate whatever the heck I want and Ben doesn't interfere.

That is my rant for today. :)

Here is the link for Leanne's blog. If you can sew (not me) or love creativity (me), you should read it and love it like I do.

ELLE APPAREL

You Know you're married when...

2011-02-07T21:52:00.003-07:00

You have a conversation about stomach issues and bowel movements (IN DETAIL) and you wonder... 'How did we ever get comfortable talking about this?'

Ahhh..... LOVE.

**Note to husbands, 7 days until Valentines Day! (HINT HINT)

You know you're married when....

2011-02-01T13:45:00.001-07:00

You stay up until 11 o'clock sitting next to each other in bed playing Fruit Ninja on your iphones.

(Seriously, this happened last night)

That's LOVE baby.

Life in General.

2011-01-31T20:19:00.003-07:00

So, not much has been going on around here. Just life in general.

Ben just went to Utah for 5 days and I missed him like crazy. I've also never been so jealous of him in my life. Eating at our favorite restaurants, doing fun things, and seeing our best friends. I don't think that I've ever said I love you, I miss you, You suck, so much in one sentence. :)

I started working at Saber Transportation as the Administrative Manager, so far, I'm loving it.

I'm still helping the kids at the High School with their play Much Ado About Nothing. I'll take some pics and post some soon.

January marks the one year date that Ben and I have been trying to get pregnant, there are parts that make me sad that we're not, and at other times, grateful. I keep thinking, moving would've been awful if I was pregnant, I wouldn't have been able to do Fiddler, and now that my sister is pregnant and tiny to begin with, and has only gained 5 pounds, I'm grateful again that I'm not pregnant so that I don't compare myself with her. Haha. I know the Lord knows what he is doing and we'll just have to wait a little while longer for our little one to come. In the meantime, I'm enjoying being the favorite Aunt! :)

Time passes by...

2011-01-03T14:17:00.009-07:00

Gosh! So much time has passed, here are a few highlights.

Fiddler Ended.

This was seriously one of the best experiences I've had. It was so much fun to be in a show again, to laugh and sing and get to act. Also, the people that were in the show were just incredible and became so much like a family to me. I miss them all dearly.

Singing Matchmaker
Pouting that Papa said No I can't marry Perchik.

First time Perchik and I connect with eachother

Backstage. Yeah, he likes to make weird faces.

Singing 'Far From the Home I Love' with Fred (Tevye)
The Three Sisters. How much I love and miss these girls!

Went to Disney World AND Harry Potter World! Here are some picture highlights. All of them are posted on facebook. My friend Say Jay was AMAZING. She still works down there, and was able to get us in for free during our trip. Ben only had to pay for one day because he flew in during the middle of the day. :) WE LOVE HER!

Superhero pose!
Oregon Ducks Number One!
Trapped on a broken down space mountain. The second time it happened on our trip.
The whole crew! Becky & Adam, Mom, Ben & Me!
It was 29 degrees that day. So we all bought our Harry Potter scarves. Yup. I'm a Ravenclaw. No use pretending. I know its 'cool' to be Griffindor, but I cannot deny who I am. PERSONALLY, I think Mom has a little Slytherine in her... but that's just me. :)

Waiting for FANTASMIC to start. Can you tell by the look on his face he thinks I'm nuts. I can. :)

Adam and I in Pixie Hallow flying with the fairies. This is where Ben decided to start calling Adam Fairy Gary.

Ben's favorite part of Disney World. The FOOD. Here he is at like 10 am with a funnel cake.

Our picture with Vidia the newest girl fairy. She had lots of attitude. Basically, we loved her.

Me with Ollivander the wand maker at Harry Potter World.

Ben is working hard and I am still looking for work. I am working right now on trying to substitute for the High School and I am helping out after school with the High School's play 'Much Ado About Nothing' It's so much fun being their acting coach. :)

Live your life like a Disney Princess

2010-11-10T14:34:00.007-07:00

So, a friend of mine related some parts of my life to a Disney Princess. I thought, hey, that's not a bad way to live. So here's my goal for Living Like a Princess.

Pray daily.

Exercise

Take naps

Eat healthy

Clean up

Read

So that's my goal! :) Feel free to laugh at me. But I think it's excellent.

Mmmm.... candy!

2010-11-08T16:18:00.004-07:00

Don't ever go through the Candy Section when you AND your husband have the munchies.

Fall things

2010-11-03T11:32:00.004-06:00

Here's some photos of things that have been happening around here of late.

Jason and LeAnne came to visit. Isn't she so stinking cute?
We all went to the pumpkin patch

Ella fell asleep in the dog's bed. Hey, don't judge. It's nice. We bought it from Costco! ;)

I made Miley a Lion mane for Halloween. Yes, I know. We need to have a baby. But isn't she cute?

I was Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ, Sadie was Toto, and Miley the Cowardly Lion.

Ella ate ice cream.

Ben continues to torture Miley.

And that's our life around here. :) Love you all. Miss you like CRAZY!

Craziness

2010-10-25T11:37:00.003-06:00

All work and no play makes Fiddler people... CRAZY!

Jon and I (Perchik and Hodel)

Eliza and Karen (Chava and Tzietle)

The Orchestra
Darcie and I (Fruma Sarah, Hodel)

Fiddler tickets are on sale now! Opening weekend is sold out, and most shows have Very Limited seating now. Get them while you can. www.pentacletheatre.org

I see you

2010-10-19T23:33:00.001-06:00

I know you look at my blog, I know you either look at pictures and/or read it. And yet... comments are seriously lacking people.

I am disappointed...

(Except those of you who do... I love YOU)

CHS Benefit Event

2010-10-18T23:00:00.005-06:00

Brianne Thackery, Chris Owens, and Me!

My old high school recently had a makeover and a new auditorium built. So as a 'Grand Opening' they asked some alumni to come back and perform. I was asked to come and sing and my old friend Chris Owens sang with me.

Chris and I have been friends for a very long time and we went to see Phantom in Portland together when I was a Junior and Beauty and the Beast in Seattle when I was a Senior. We've always wanted to sing Phantom together, so here was our chance. We sang 'All I Ask of You'.

Ben got a little bit of the song recorded on our little camera. The sound is very low quality, but you'll get the gist of it. Ben is sitting next to me saying that we were phenomenal and that the sound quality is terrible on this. So, there you have it. I will try and get a better recording of it. :) The biggest bummer is that is stopped recording right as the end was coming! Curses!

Anyway, it was a great night, made even better by having my family there with me. Chris and I got many compliments, which is always nice for the ego. ;)

Leading Ladies 2002 (Brigadoon) and 2003 (OKLAHOMA!)

Some Fiddler Photos

2010-10-15T13:52:00.002-06:00

So I've been trying to take some photos of Fiddler rehearsal, some were taken with my iphone, so the quality isn't the greatest. But this is what I am up to every day, so I thought I would share.

The Rumor scene
Hodel and Perchik
My little sisters!
Eliza (Chava) and Me.
Our Musical Directors!

There are plenty more, and they're all on facebook if you want to look. I'm sure I'll upload more later!

Don't forget, if you want to see the show, tickets are on sale now at pentacletheatre.org and will see out quickly. Starts November 12 and ends December 4th.

Strange things are happening to me.

2010-09-29T16:42:00.005-06:00

So lots of stuff has been happening! Well, not really. :) I'm teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) at a local school here. It's part part time (like 10 hours a week) but it's good to get my feet wet and see if I like teaching and want to make it a full time thing. So far I love it.

Rehearsal is going well, I have been working up a sweat during our 'Wedding Dance' scene. It's going to kick butt. Who thought "Happy Walking" would be so tiring? Happy Walking is what my choreographer calls the little prancing around that we do. I prefer to call it prancing.

However, I have suddenly started getting bruises. (If you haven't noticed from my facebook page). Ben says I'm just a klutz, but as I told him, I've always been one and now I've got four on my left leg (one massive) one on my foot (caused by him, but blamed on me) one on my left hip, and one on my arm. I keep thinking of the song Sara Beth by Rascal Flatts. Yes, I'm dramatic. Yes I know "The bruise that just won't go away" turns into Cancer!

Other than that, life is pretty normal. Or as normal as it gets for us Smiths. I miss my friends so much sometimes that I look at plan tickets for just the weekend I want to go to Utah so bad. ($78 one-way Southwest if anyone wants to come visit!) I'm just saying...

Here's some photos of life. And yes, I'm a little obsessive about my bruise.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Massive isn't it?

Love this dog's looks sometimes.

Isn't her hair cut cute? I love the bows!
So Cute!

This is typically what is on my bed when I got to get in it to go to sleep

Sadie hates it when she's left home alone with Me. She waits for Ben to come home...

And Just in case no one knows what I mean by Sarah Beth... Here is the music video. :)

What is a baby any way?

2010-09-24T13:11:00.003-06:00

I always think that in order to blog, I need to have some poignant thing or announcement to tell. I realized the other day when someone told me they read my blog often, that she read it more for the crazy insights and comments my personality makes, than really any thing else. So here goes...

So, many of you know that Ben and I are trying to get pregnant. Many of you also know that we have two dogs that we love and adore (most of the time) and this clip from Lady and the Tramp always makes me smile. Because I'm POSITIVE that the girls (Miley and Sadie) will feel like Lady's inner monologue during this song. Put together, they are so similar to Lady.

By the way, I am also planning on sinning the song that Darling sings to her baby to mine.

Check out the clips if you want. They may give you some insight to my personality, and hopefully it makes you smile the way that it does me.

Rehearsals for 'Fiddler' are going awesome, I am loving every second of it. Work is progressing very well for Ben. We are happy. :)

Love from Oregon!

Busy Busy Busy.

2010-09-01T19:34:00.003-06:00

A lot has been happening since our big move in August. Here is some of the highlights.

PACKING was a nightmare. Took forever! Packing with Ben is even worse. He doesn't want to throw anything away! I was so tempted to throw away a box that we had no idea what was inside and hadn't been opened in two years. But... I didn't. Thanks to Pierce and Stacy, we got the place clean and got furniture we bought for our renters build and put in place.

We are renting to singles now. We finally got a third girl into our apartment thanks to Stacy. She is the best sales women ever. We would've been out an extra $300 a month! We are so grateful for them and their continued friendship.

Cops. Police Officers. Pigs. Po-po. Insane People. Any way you say it, it's the same thing. I am typically one that doesn't break the law, but every time I see a cop car, my hear races and I freak out.

So imagine my terror, when last week I suddenly got pulled over. I frantically said to myself, why am I being pulled over, I wasn't speeding, what's going on. I was freaking out.

So why did I get pulled over you ask? Well... two pedestrians were crossing the street, right to left side of the road. I was on the right side lane. They were well into the left lane, almost to the sidewalk, and I didn't stop. So I got pulled over. But here's the really zinger. IT WAS A STING OPERATION! The two pedestrians were undercover cops, and they called in a cop to pull me over. Are you freaking kidding me. I had to go to court to plead on my $287 ticket. So as I watched as Monmouth/Independence low lifes and illegals got reduced fines for driving without a licence, insurance, with a child not buckled into their car seat, ect ect. So what does mine get? $230. Yup. Stupid it sucks. I hate it.

In other news...

Ben and I were supposed to move to my parents for 2 weeks and then up to a place in WA late August. However, Ben and I were having trouble finding renters, due to the fact that we had people back out twice. So we decided that we would try and live with Mom and Dad for a little while here in Monmouth to save up some money and hopefully buy another house. It of course comes with some... complications. :) Mom and Dad's house is always busy. With LOTS of people. Over the last 4 1/2 years, Ben and I are used to our silence. So this is an adjustment that is bound to get a little better now that school has started.

I got cast as Hodel in Fiddler on the roof. She is the main character's second daughter. Here is a video of one of the songs that I sing. The play opens November 14 and runs until December 4.

Ben's job is going well. He is really enjoying working from home and the supposed freedom that it offers. He actually works more than he used to! It is not uncommon for him to work 10 hour days at least. He is up every morning at 7 am and working. I admire his diligence so much.

My job is not going so well. As many of you know, when Ben got his job, it required us to move states. Something that my job did not allow me to do as well. So I went back to work for Red Robin. I thought that here in Oregon it would be great, minimum wage and tips. But as I told Ben yesterday, it is like having to slit my wrists every time I go in there. Maybe that's a little dramatic... but it's how I feel. I am currently looking for a new opportunity. Too bad I'm not pregnant and can get away with not having a job at all...

Today, my father sliced the tip of his finger off while using a chop saw. Ben took me to the Dr.'s office to drive my father home, and on his way back got pulled over for not wearing his seat belt. Needless to say, neither of us are not too please with the police around here. Small town stuff.

We miss all of our friends and our privacy, but it's so nice to be around family and be able to help my parents where I can. We are grateful for our blessing to be able to be here and save money.

I will post some pictures of our first DUCK game that we went to. 72-0! What a game to be at. Crazy!

Tom Cruise on Home Teaching

2010-08-25T15:56:00.000-06:00

This is awesome! :)

I know I know

2010-07-26T12:22:00.003-06:00

Okay, I know that I've been a terrible blogger lately, blame it on the stress of moving (more on that later) So here are some catch ups from the world of the smiths.

I made (with the help of my wonderful friend Brynn) sweats for Stacy for Graduation. I love the collegiate collection from Victoria's Secret, and I have U of Oregon sweats that I adore. However... they do not have them for BYU. Go figure right? So I thought that I would make my own for Stacy and me too of course. My co-worker Rebecca found out that I was making some for Stacy, and she wanted a sweatshirt too!

Stacy was so surprised and loved them!
The Sweats had little jewels on them to give them a little bling!

The back! Go Cougars!!
The arms said ALUMNI with your major on the end! Then you can see it says BYU and the grad year on it!

The next big news is that Ben got a job with Property Solutions! He is the Regional Vice President of the NorthWest. However, this job makes Ben and I move to Washington. We are excited about the move, even though I lose my job in the process, but we are anticipating our first big move in over four years of marriage. Outside of Utah.

We went to Bear Lake with the family for a week and then to Washington to try and find somewhere to live. Here are the few pictures I have of those two excursions.

Partaking in local customs. I had a Hazelnut Hot Chocolate!

Our new home. In July... cloudy. Really?

Best Part, my favorite candy store is in the North West. Mmmm... sour belts from the Sweet Factory. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

Ben enjoying some time with our niece and nephews. Ella, Ryan and Josh! Aren't they good looking kids?

Ben and his Ella girl! We love her so much!

This is the plan for now...
August 6th, pack up the moving truck.
August 7-9th, spend the weekend with Pierce and Stacy.
August 10-20th, Spend some time in Oregon with the family
August 20th, Move into our new place!

Love you all. And I will try and keep up with bloggin. I've just been so stressed because we don't have renters yet. :(

Help!

2010-07-25T10:27:00.001-06:00

After two renters backing out, Ben and I are in desperate need of renters for our place. Please send anyone you know that is looking for married housing our way. We are thinking in the 900-1000 range, so please send them our way!

Also, any prayers that we find someone said on our behalf would be nice.

Thanks and love you guys.

Baby Update

2010-05-14T17:32:00.002-06:00

So I've had a lot of people ask about how our baby thing is coming along. This is what I have to say on the subject....

We're working on it.

Love to you all! -Ben and Megan

4 years and going strong.

2010-05-04T18:30:00.005-06:00

It was a big week for us! Wednesday was Ben's birthday and then Thursday was our 4 year anniversary. I can't believe that time has flown by so fast. I love my husband more and more each day, which I didn't think was possible. He is a great blessing to me! On the night of our anniversary, we decided to stay in, get some Costa Vida and watch a movie. The reason for our low-key night was that we decided last minute to go to VEGAS with our favorite couple: Stacy and Pierce! We have been talking about going on a cruise later this summer/fall with them, and this was a good test run of how a longer vacation might go. Basically, it'll be a blast.

We decided to do a 7-buffet all you can eat thing in Vegas that covers 7 (duh) buffets at 7 different locations. Yes, we were aware we would not hit all 7, but it was much more cost efficient than trying to eat separate meals at different locations. Good food, lots of it, and at a very good price.

These are jellys that were at our breakfast at Ceaser's Palace. We wanted to steal them. Caesars was great because they made you an omlet, or eggs benedict (ben's fav) right there on the spot. They were amazing!
Full and happy! Pierce ate a whole bowl, and then some, of raspberries! His favorite.
We are so happy, and stuffed.
The pool at Casar's. So cool. Very rich people laying around.
Ben decided to go to this antique car show at the top of one of the hotels, so Pierce, Stacy and I decided to try out some different things. This is the AQUA MASSAGE, you stay dry and the water massages you. It was interesting to say the least.
Afterwards
Stacy ready to go!
Pierce's Turn!
Vibrating head scratcher, felt so nice. Stacy bought one for Pierce.
Ben joined up for the oxygen bar. Very interesting. Aroma therapy and oxygen to clear up headachs and such. There is so much smoke in Vegas, it was nice to get some clean air.
Our silly boys. We love them. And we love how well they get along with each other.
Love my hubby! Happy Anniversary!

Stacy and Pierce
Getting in the mood for Cirque De Solie~ We saw "O" which is the one with water. It was amazing!
These hung from the ceiling! Aren't they cool? Umbrellas. Idea for little girls room... check.
The Paris
Pierce and his buddy Harrison. Looks good for an old guy (Harrison, not Pierce)
Ah, the sunset in Paris.
Such a cool photo
Don't rain on my parade!
Mary Poppins, are you watching?
The Strip. Poor Stacy is cold!
Pierce said I got infront of Ben in pictures, so I hid behind him in this one.
The four of us! So much fun! We love you guys! Thanks for going with us!

Work, Fun and Birthdays

2010-04-29T18:05:00.008-06:00

There has been a lot of happening around here! Take a look. We are richly blessed with loved ones around us. As many of you know, we have been having trouble with neighbors around here, but the one thing that gets us through is knowing that we have the love and support of all our friends and family. We love you guys so much! You're the best.

I love my new job and the people there! Rebecca is the best!

Stacy and Becca get to sit by each other... lucky.

We had a BBQ and played volleyball at the Thiots with friends from our Ward. Doesn't Summer look like a natural?

Volleyball!!

It's been years since I played! I was... not as good.

Sharlene... she's the cutest preggo ever! Her legs... amazing is all I'm going to say.

Me and Stacy! I love her!

We made some cake balls for dessert one night. They are cake and cream cheese mixed together, then dipped in chocolate. Yup, they are good.

Mmm. They were so good.

More of them

Cleaning up... Stacy had a little fun with the foam.

Before they are dipped.

For Ben's birthday, we went out to Happy Sumo, Ben's favorite place to eat in Provo and took our bestest friends. Left to right are Dave and Thea, Ben and Me, Pierce and Stacy, Danny and Brynn and their little girl Morgan. Danny and Brynn are moving and we are going to miss them so much and playing with Morgan throughout Sacrament Meeting.

Ben's Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese frosting. Mmm. It is his favorite. Well, next to the one that his sister Jeni makes him.

Stacy got bored after dinner and started to doodle. Do you see anything weird?

Suddenly we noticed what Stacy wrote... Stacy loves... Ben? Wait, her husband is Pierce!!! She was quite embarrassed.

I forgave her for crushing on my husband. :)

Opening presents

Blowing out the candles.

Here it comes

Present from Dave and Thea

From Stacy and Pierce

You've got something in your teeth.

I love him so much!

We love them too!

Yeah, they have sushi in their mouth. Sorry... :)

Morgan, Dave and Thea (No, she's not their kid)

She's so cute!

Kisses for my sweetie. Love him so much.

Crazy Happenings

2010-04-10T15:59:00.003-06:00

Life around here can have it's ups and downs. Especially in the drama department. Hey, you know Ben and I met in a theater class right?

Well here are some pictures of just every day life around here. We are so blessed.

Our Sadie Lady in her new bed. I love that she has all of her toys in bed with her.
Ben and Pierce on our new bed set! Yay! Well, to the new bed set, not to Ben and Pierce being on it together... :)
Watching the game (March Madness) While Stacy and I cook dinner. Typical. :)
Last but not least. Our crazy girl Miley. I found her here one morning. She is so odd. We love her.

I get by with a little help from my friends

2010-03-28T11:48:00.006-06:00

Lately life has been both challenging and rewarding. I am seriously thinking about hanging up the apron strings for good. It's been stressful trying to work two jobs, spending time with my husband, and also try to maintain a good lifestyle (i.e. keep the house clean, go to the gym ect.)

However, Ben and I have some great friends that help us manage our busy life and remind us that we need to relax and have some fun.

On Wednesday night, we went over to our friends and watched The Blind Side. Seriously a great movie. We'd never seen it, but are so glad our friend Chase bought it so we could watch it with him and the Thiot's. Stacy also made her amazing chicken alfredo, which just made the whole night even better!!

Friday night, as you know from the post below, we went to Legally Blonde with our friends Andrew and Kristi. I would have never known it was coming to SLC without them.

Saturday was especially fun. Melissa brought the kids down and we all went to festival of colors. Which, I think every knows what is. If you don't ask me. But since I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this blog does...

We met up with the Thiots (and Katie) but the chalk that you throw to celebrate spring, was all gone. They did the kindests thing imaginable and gave us and the kids some of their chalk. They are truly the greatest friends.

Here are some pics from our fun.

Me, Stacy and Ella

The Thiots. We love them.

Jake, Ry, and Zack, all dirty!

Ella Bella and her pink hair

I love this picture of Zack!

Friends. Awww...

PSI! All the way!

Chase. Technically my boss... but way to cool to act like it!

Katie, Stacy's sister.

Pierce and His crazy chalk job! I think he looked the coolest.

Me and my best gal Stacy.

Mel and El

Aww... the Looove eachother.

Zack, not sure what to make of it, Ryan being a goofball.

The Fam. All dirtied up. I thought Mel was going to have a heart attack about Ella's hair. She was pretty sure LeAnne (Ella's Mom) would kill her if Ella came back with bright pink hair.

Well that's all folks. Thanks again for being the greatest of friends! Love to you all and those of you who can't be around, but I feel your love anyways.

OH my Gosh, Oh my gosh you guys!

2010-03-27T10:53:00.003-06:00

Hey! On Friday Night I dragged Ben to Legally Blonde the Musical. No, it wasn't awe-inspiring, but I LOVED it. It was funny and cleaver, and just ENTERTAINING. That's all I request from a musical. We went with our two good friends, Andrew and Kristi. After wards, we took a couple pictures outside the Capital Theater.

Ben and I outside the Theater

Kristi and I making our "Oh my gosh" faces. It's a song from the movie.

Is there a baby in there? Hello baby?!? Oooo, I found him!

Needless to say we had a blast! We love spending time with Andrew and Kristi and love doing a different things. Most of all, I love my husband for being a good sport.

My Darling Irish Girl!

2010-03-16T23:20:00.001-06:00

I love this movie! Darby O'Gill and the little people. Such a classic. If you have never seen it, you should. It has a young Sean Connery and needless to say, I fell in love right then and there. I adore him.

Here is a little clip of him singing a song that I remember to this day my Daddy singing to me.

Love you Dad! And Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow EVERYONE!

New Job!

2010-03-09T17:50:00.002-07:00

So, in case you haven't been keeping up: I got a new job.

Almost the second that I started working for SHC, I had a horrible feeling. I took them two weeks to begin to train me, and by that point, I knew that they were a company I did not feel comfortable representing. This posed a problem seeing as I was their Public Relations person.

So, I went back to Red Robin.

It wasn't as awful as you think. Over the last 5 years, some of the people at RR have become like family to me. I missed them. I also missed how easily I made money there. I would have half the time at work, almost the same amount of money, PLUS I got to spend more time with my husband, friends and puppies.

However, I knew it was not a forever fix. My friend Stacy said that her job, Property Solutions, was interviewing people. I quickly applied, knowing that she and another friend from my ward, loved their job.

Unfortunately, they decided to let-go their HR person around the time that I was interviewing. So it took a little longer than expected. BUT, I was finally hired as an Account Manager!

Yesterday was my first day! Very briefly, an account manager receives an email from a sales representative. They sign up a client for our services, and then turn them over to us. The Account Managers build the clients a website for their property or properties as the case may be. Once we build the website, we teach the property manager(s) how to use the site and all of the applications. Currently I am working on a test website. When it is finished I will let you take a look at it. It's good fun.

So far... I love it! The people there are great, already becoming friends, and it's nice that I already have some friends there. Sometimes I think that I'm going to burst with all the new information, but I think I am handling it pretty well. It's very technology oriented, and although I am not technologically inclined, I pick it up pretty quickly. Repetition is the key with me!

So anyways, that is what is going on right now with me.

Ben is studying to take the GMAT on March 30th, keep him in your prayers. I think he will do really well, but he struggles with the grammer and reading comprehension parts. Just think, if we could only merge his math and science brain, with my english and history brain... We'd be so smart!

Much love to you all out there. If you would like to learn more about Property Solutions and what they do... click here!

Excited!

2010-03-06T10:26:00.002-07:00

So this week I purchased tickets to my first real concert! Daughtry! I will be going with my sister LeAnne, cause, let's face it... husbands just don't get it.

I think the first time I really liked him was way back on AI when he sang one of my favorite songs.

Mmmmm.... yup, that's why.

Correction

2010-02-18T14:00:00.003-07:00

It seems that I've caused mass confusion!

As Kyle so pointedly pointed out: it takes 9 months to make a baby. So, I should have called the last post baby CREATING time. Which means that after almost four years of marriage, Ben and I are going to go off of birth control. In an effort to control when my baby is born, I have mapped out ovulation dates and such. YES, I DO know that I cannot control when I get pregnant, or what I have, but I am hoping very much on both sides. :) I just found our yesterday that TWO of my good friends are pregnant and it would be so wonderful to have some little ones with them! Of couse, THIS lady needs to get on the bandwagon. ;)

Love to you all! Wish us luck. Ben is hoping that the creating part takes more time than anticipated, for obvious reasons.

Baby Making Time

2010-02-16T18:05:00.001-07:00

T minus 26 Days.

New

2010-02-08T08:42:00.002-07:00

Do you like the new layout? I was feeling very Valentinezy (is that a word? Probably not!). Anywho, when my friend Stacy decided to be a rockstar and change up my layout, she taught me how in the process using the HTML code instead of the pre-fabricated ones. Soooo cool! So I gave it a try with a new back ground and a new header (Picture at the top). Sooo..... what'd you think? Does it make you think Valentinezy thoughts?

Best Husband Ever

2010-01-20T14:26:00.003-07:00

Ben brought these home for me last night to celebrate my "release" from Red Robin. Isn't he sweet? I love him so much!

Christmas

2009-12-30T13:29:00.004-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas in Montana

Ben in front of his Dad's plane. Getting ready for a ride.

The Girl's Christmas dresses from Grandma and Grandpa. Everyone got a good kick out of it.

Kaden, Ben's nephew, that looks like a little mini double.

McKay and Kaden LOVED the dogs.

Hiding from Santa

A little nervous about taking off in the plane.

Ben ready to roll

Santa!!

McKay and Ben with the girls

Miley slept like this to and from Montana. The entire time! Crazy dog.

My first time snowboarding. I fell and hurt my neck and back pretty badly. The instructor is helping off the snow. Luckily, Uncle Scott was there to help me ease some pain and gave me a quick adjustment. It hurt like crazy, but I am positive it helped.

Can you find me on the ground?

We had a wonderful time and miss our family already. I will blog a little more about events, when I feel a little better.

For Your Entertainment

2009-12-17T19:51:00.003-07:00

Trust me. You're gonna wanna see this. Especially you Pierce and Stacy.

Thanksgiving.

2009-12-10T19:37:00.004-07:00

Thanksgiving was so great. My Mom and Dad, sister Melissa and husband Kirk came all the way from Oregon to spend it with us! They also went to see Savior of the World, which was very special for me.

LeAnne and Jason were gracious enough to host all of us at their house for the weekend. They really are the best! We love you guys! Here's some pictures from the weekend...

Ella loved the dogs. She walk around saying "My..." for Miley. Very cute!

They boys playing football. It was quite funny because it was a sunny day, but cold. All the Utah boys (i.e. Jason, John and Ben) had shirts on. Kirk came out to play, beanie, coat and all. We love our Oregon family! :)

Isn't this girl just the cutest! We sure do love her a whole lot!

Mama and LeAnne cooking dinner. OH MY was it amazing!

Ella giving loves to her Grandpa!

Jason cutting the Turkey like a Pro!

Ella and her mama. Oh my goodness, is a dog that close to LeAnne? Impossible.

Ella "playing" with Miley. We had to tell her to "be soft" a couple of times and this is the look we would get back. "Who me?"

I think there is someone hiding down there...

Come out or I'm gonna get you out!

Being nice with Uncle Ben and Miley.

I don't know.

2009-12-09T18:09:00.003-07:00

What is this you may ask? This is the surest sign that I have a new book. Yes, the line on my hand from holding a book. Right now I am reading the new Gereld Lund book: The Undaunted.

I'll let you know what I think when I'm done. I haven't enjoyed a book since... Well, the Hunger Games Sequel. :(

Thanksgiving pictures to come.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-04T15:53:00.002-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Fun Friend Night

2009-11-24T15:04:00.003-07:00

So, Ben and I decided that we wanted to have friends over and play games on Sat night. We invited some of the funnest, greatest people we know and had a blast. Love to you all!

Andrew and Luke. Luke was perfectly content to watch Monsters Inc on our iMac while we played upstairs. He is seriously the chillest child ever! We love him!

The boys (minus Andrew who was downstairs with Luke)
L to R: Pierce Thiot, Ben, Richard Hyde, Jeremy Koontz and Matt Apken

Rachel Koontz, Kim Hyde and Stacy Thiot

Kim and Stacy with Danielle Apken

Me and Kristi. Love this girl!

We had so much fun. Thanks to every one who came. You guys are the best friends we could ever ask for!

Fashion Show

2009-11-10T12:14:00.003-07:00

Yes, the statement from the below post still applies. I know we are crazy.
CAMO FOR OUR LITTLE TOM-BOY SADIE

SWEET AND FRILLY FOR OUR MILEY. THERE IS A BIG PUFFY PINK FRINGE AROUND HER NECK, YOU CAN'T REALLY SEE.

MORE CAMO

ARGYLE. SHE LOOKED LIKE A TOUGH GIRL, HAVING TO GO TO PREP SCHOOL!

DADDY FIXING THE CLOTHES

MILEY'S LEG WARMERS AND SCARF! SO SO CUTE.

DOGGIES

2009-11-09T17:28:00.002-07:00

Yes, we don't have children, and Yes, I know we need to. It's when we take pictures of our dogs playing in the leaves, that this become painfully clear to me. But hey, we were excited to see how they'd do.

THE NEIGHBOR'S DOG ALICE, DIGGING FOR SADIE

MILEY JUST CHILLING IN THE LEAVES. BEN PUT THE LEAF ON HER HEAD.

OUR GIRLS AND ALICE

I HAD TO GO BUY SOME WINTER SWEATERS SINCE IT'S BEEN GETTING SO COLD.
HERE IS SADIES. NOW EVERYONE WILL KNOW SHE IS A GIRL AND STOP CALLING HER A BOY!

The Great Dissapointment... aka BYU Football

2009-11-09T11:39:00.004-07:00

Ben got awesome tickets from his work to go to the game against TCU. We had a pretty good idea that we were going to lose, but had no idea it was going to be THAT badly. However, the Legacy seats that we sad it made up for the bad game. We got mini coolers with blue kettle corn and water in it, and also coupons for free drinks and cougar tails! The seats were the fourth row on the 40 yard line! AMAZING!! Here are some pictures. It had poured the whole day, but let up for the game.

OUR GREAT SEATS!

HOW CLOSE WE WERE

BLUE TONGES FROM COUGAR BLUE KETTLE CORN (WE ACTUALLY HAD SOME ON OUR FIRST DATE)

HAD TO GET SOME HOT CHOCOLATE~ MMMM!

COUGARS LINING UP

WAITING FOR THE GAME TO START AT OUR SEATS

WARMING UP!

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN AND IT IS A TRADITION WE WILL KEEP DOING, ALTHOUGH WE MAY NOT GET LEGACY SEATS NEXT TIME... BUT HOPEFULLY WE'LL WIN!

Happy Anniversary

2009-11-09T11:28:00.003-07:00

Ben and I always celebrate our first date on Homecoming weekend. This is because, although the date isn't the same, our first date was the homecoming game. Every year we have gone to the game, and this year, we went to a dinner and show at BYU with some friends. Thanks Brynn and Stacy for the awesome idea!
Ben and I in the car!

At the dinner

The girls

Happy 4 years BABE!

The whole group: The Lounsburys, The Snyders, The Thiots, The Smiths

A Big shout out to Sian and Jeanette for helping get ready!

The Football game is still to come! Stay tuned!

Andrea's Baby Shower

2009-11-09T10:51:00.005-07:00

My friend Andrea is having her second baby, a GIRL finally, and we are all so excited about it. She works at Red Robin with me, and although she had a "ward" baby shower, we decided that wasn't good enough, and that she needed a "work" baby shower. So me and Emily threw together around 80 sugar cookies, 75 cupcakes, grasshopper cookies, rice krispie treats, punch, and garden pizzas (all home made mind you) and had all the Red Robin girls, past and present come.

It was so much fun and we loved hanging out and talking, (without getting into trouble for ignoring our tables)

Most of all we are so excited for Andrea's new little one, and can't wait for her to come! Just one more week!!

All the Girls Being Silly

SMILE!

Emily and Miley

The Shirt says, "I'm a hoot, just like my mom" SO CUTE!!

More fun Girlie clothes

AND MORE!

Vo Alicia and Andrea

add on Kady, Vanisha and Jenny

Jenny's little girl and Miley

Saying Hi to old friends and enjoying the food.

We are sad that Andrea will be gone for a little while, but we're happy for her at the same time! Who wouldn't want a 3 month break from Red Robin?

Missonary

2009-11-09T10:45:00.003-07:00

Ben and I were fortunate enough to be the ones with his brother Eric his last few days before he went on his mission to Argentina.

Eric came down and we all went out to dinner, Ben and I said "ANYWHERE" thinking more Tocanos, but Eric wanted to go to Los Hermanos (a local Mexican restaurant) so since he was the boss... we went.

The next day we ran errands in Salt Lake, getting shoes and stuff for the mission, but we first went to the Salt Lake Temple for a session, which I had never done. It was such a beautiful temple, and even more so knowing all the effort it took the Pioneers to make it extra special.

Although they were dragging their feet, I did get a few pictures at the temple. I had my camera out when I dropped Eric off at the MTC, especially for Mom Louise, but he grabbed his bags and said, "See ya!" before he took off up the hill. I guess he was a little anxious. :)

It's weird to think about two years going by and how life could be different. Ben will be almost 30! ha ha! What an old man. :)

Honestly

2009-10-24T21:40:00.002-06:00

I know my family reads my blog, but people, you honestly SUCK at leaving comments!

That's all I'm gonna say.

(Actually its not. Someone from Brenzikofen, Bern searched google for "Meghan Smith provo facebook" and looked at my page. Who is this person?)

Payback

2009-10-22T09:50:00.001-06:00

Ben wasn't too please that I posted the pictures of him and the dogs. So I told him that I would post a picture of me doing the exact same thing. EXCEPT I send them to him at work to make him smile. But apparently that doesn't matter. So here it is...

Study Time?

2009-10-21T10:45:00.002-06:00

So I was browsing our pictures and I found these...

This is the office (for now) where Ben shuts himself in to do homework. I think I know what he is really doing now...

Just for Fun

2009-10-17T23:17:00.002-06:00

Ben and I were walking around Provo the other night, just enjoying being together on a beautiful autumn evening when we stumbled upon this little star.

Ben, knowing that I have always lamented how incredibly boring our last name is, thought: Maybe it's time for a name change....

The funny thing is it made me think of a merge between my sister Melissa SAXman and my name Megan SMITH.

Thus Sexsmith was born. Do you ever wonder how people got their last names? You know, it used to be said it was like an occupation, or owner or something of that nature. Like you would be Ben Blacksmith if you were a blacksmith, which got shortened to Black or Smith after centuries.

So where do you think Sexsmith came from...

Just food for thought.

Boo for being sick.

2009-10-05T15:49:00.008-06:00

This is what has been happening lately...

Thursday...
Went to my rehearsal in Bountiful for the Conference Center's Savior of the World production. For those of you that I have not talk to about this (i.e. Mom or Ben) I am in the ensamble for most of the play, an angle and such, but for two scenes I am Hannah. I am among the small group (I think there is six of us) who see the resurrected Savior. Besides Mary Magdaline, we are the first. We rush in to tell Mary the mother of Christ the news. The other scene is we are picking oranges to prepare for our trip back to Galilee, as we were told to do by the Savior. The children are confused about the resurrection, and ask questions. Mary tells them the story of Jesus being lost in Jerusalem for 3 days to explain it.

Friday...
Met up with some Friends, Derek and Tania, to have dinner (peach chicken, thank you LeAnne) and go to the BYU football game. We initially intended to go see a movie, but an old professor of mine posted on facebook that he had four extra tickets. We were a little late to the game, but had so much fun. I also saw my brother John who was not seated too far from us. GO COUGS!

Sat...
General Conference. Rehearsal was canceled and Ben and I went out to lunch... sushi

and a movie... the invention of lying.

I do want to know why every comedy lately that looks like it has potential has to talk about religion and god and how it's all a bunch of crap. I hate that. Just let me believe what I believe and let it be. You don't see me mocking athiests and people who "find Jesus" Was he ever missing? No. You found your testimony of Jesus, not him.

Sat night... started to feel a little sick. Thinking maybe it was the sushi...

Sunday...
REALLY SICK. Sore throught and sneezing. LOTS and LOTS of sneezing. Not fun. Still going to try and go to work.

Monday....
Go to work.
Garrett asks me if I'm okay. I reply yes, but I don't want to get other employees sick, since that is how I got sick. Apparently it's going around. Garrett sends me home. Ben tells me to go work out, maybe I'll feel better. I laugh at him. Good luck with that hun.

Hopefully I get better soon. I could use some ice cream if any one is out there...

LOVE,

Meg

Babies and Boredom

2009-09-29T17:27:00.001-06:00

I'm so jealous! One of my friends is having a girl. ANOTHER GIRL! That make 4 friends that are preggers with baby girls. I want one too! It's that actually getting pregnant part that I have to work on. Curses!

Motherhood

2009-09-11T15:10:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine posted this article on how Motherhood is undervalued in today's society. I couldn't agree more. However, something interesting, is that this article appeared on the Forbes website. FORBES! The money people. They are the ones that compile the most powerful people in the world, the most wealthy... basically everything. The most powerful people in the world in MY opinion? Mothers. The most wealthy... well, monetary wealth, not usually. But they sure do get a lot of love. Even if it isn't from the world.

Cooking... or rather... Baking!

2009-09-09T17:25:00.003-06:00

I've been on a cooking kick lately and since cooking can be a bust with me, I also make dessert. For some reason I can bake like a champ, but cooking... I'm working on it.

I have found the greatest site to use. It's called the pioneer women, and here are some of the things I have been baking! Hope you can too, and that you enjoy them.

Click on them to get the link:

Individual Raspberry Cobblers

Shortbread Cookies

Up next: An old family recipe. Stay tuned! And for those of you who are friends... you are so lucky! :)

Change

2009-08-31T18:15:00.005-06:00

Change is the Essence of life Be willing to surrender what you are, for what you could become.

* Disclaimer: We are not pregnant and I'm not hinting at anything

Change

Do you ever have something truly unexpected happen in your life?

You aren't sure you're happy about it or not? Well, something like that happened recently to Ben and I and I'm determined to make it positive! My friend Stacy has inspired me and I too have been wanting to have a more positive outlook! On work and home life especially and reach out to new/old friends.

It's so hard sometimes to make an effort with people. Especially here in Provo. You never know if people are going to be around for a year, or more, or less. So do you really want to be emotionally invested and then have that friend leave? But I'm determined to. I told myself that I would start to get to know people in the ward better, not just my friends, and invite people over more or to hang out. I get really self-conscious about friends. I worry that we aren't fun enough, or spiritual enough, or cool enough. Basically, enough. But no more!

I really want to surround myself with people that I feel have the same values in life and are positive role-models. An old neighbor just moved back into our complex and we are so excited about it! We really want to reach out and become good friends with them because they are the nicest people and have the cutest little girl.

We also have friends that schedules always seem to conflict with ours, so planning is going to be a new goal. If we plan to hang out, then we will!

I am so excited for this new semester of school. Although I am not starting school like many others around me (very odd feeling, by the way) it is like an un-official new years. A new school year, and a great time to make changes.

On a completely different note, while looking for "change" pictures, I found this one. Thought it was funny. Please, it's just a joke.

Bear Lake!

2009-08-25T11:57:00.005-06:00

Bear Lake 2009
We sure did love our vacation to Bear lake with LeAnne and Jason's family, Brent and Jen's family, Mel and Kirk and John! Here are some of our favorite pictures!

We LOVED the wave runners! So much fun!

I got to drive and throw Ben off the back!!

He's gonna be such a good Daddy. Those girls just love him!

The view from our balcony. A golf course! Ben's dream home location!

On the 4-wheelers! Lots of fun, even though I was scared for my life half the time!

Someone who's not afraid... Ryan! Jason and LeAnne's second child. He is no fear!

At the top of the mountain!

Our sweet face Ella! She loved the crushed Ice machine. A true WATKINS girl!

Zack sure does love his uncle Ben!

Out on the Lake

Our stud Ryan!

So that's pretty much it! We stayed in a beautiful home that I just don't have time/patience to put pictures up of, but it was incredible. The best part was spending time with my family, who I don't see very often. We loved this vacation!

Our babies

2009-08-13T15:50:00.004-06:00

These are our babies for now. We love them, and they love us. Especially their daddy.

This is Sadie. She make a sqeaking noise when we hug her!

This is Miley, our pretty dog.
Sadie again, all personality.
This is my favorite picture. When I'm getting into bed (Ben is usually already there) Miley walks right over me and steaks her claim on her daddy. It's cute in an annoying sort of way.

So there is a little glimps of our every day life around here. We're still remodeling and stuff. So I'll post those pictures later as well as our Bear Lake trip.

Burgers, Bleach, Vomit and Angel Fishes

2009-08-02T22:07:00.003-06:00

This week has been... not fun. At work Monday, it was one of the slowest nights that I have experienced in a long time. It is hard to spend time away from Ben, but especially when I don't feel like it is worth it.

Then I got a call. And a text. LeAnne needed help. Ella needed to go for a chemo treatment and it was her six week checkup, so x-rays too, and someone needed to take the kids to swim and tennis lessons. But she had a warning: My niece Amanda is visiting them from Oregon, helping out with the kids, was throwing up. I said, "So you're asking me to drive 2 1/2 hours to Logan, get work off, to potentially get sick?" She said, "Yup." So I got someone to cover my shift on Tuesday night, and drove up to Logan on Tuesday afternoon.

I stopped in Draper and had lunch with Ben, a new sushi place, and we loved it. I drove up there and LeAnne had the bug too. The next morning I woke up to take kids to lessons, and LeAnne said, "Uh, they're not going anywhere." Jake and Ryan were both throwing up. Yum. Amanda was feeling better, but LeAnne still needed me to stick around as long as possible. I had to be to work that afternoon/evening. So around 1 o'clock, I finally left.

We've been having Brand Equity Review this week at Red Robin, which basically means that we have to detail clean every single inch of the restaurant. I hate bleach. I worked a Wednesday night shift and then stayed until 12:30-ish cleaning. Then I had to go to work Thursday with corporate there and pretend that I was a perky upbeat server who loved my job. Yeah Right. That night, I had to pull gum off the bottom of chair and tables. I hated my job.

Then we found out about our Ella. He treatment is not working and that is news we weren't prepared for.

Here is a little piece of LeAnne's blog that explains what is going on:

"We had to go early today to do a skeletal survey--basically they did x-rays of every bone in her body. Then we headed up for our regular appointment which started off extremely well. When it came time to take her vitals, Ella walked right over the scale and stood on it then walked over to the wall to get measured (which is certainly not typical). In fact, she didn't even shed a tear when we did the blood pressure...which is always a major point of anxiety for her. She just did awesome! The nurse then came in to do the Chemo and take blood work. Just before she gave the Chemo the doctor came in and said to hold off. Well, we knew right then something was not right. So we waited...and waited, and when the doctors finally came back they told us that her skeletal survey showed that two of the original legions on her head have actually increased in size and that she has developed another new legion. The large lump behind her ear has stabilized, but not really gotten smaller. That is not what anyone, especially the doctors, wanted to see after six weeks of treatment.

So now what you ask? Well, our Oncology doctors now need to consult with a couple of the "premier" LCH experts in the world, since only one in ten kids with LCH don't show improvement after the first six weeks of treatment (Ella is bound and determined to be a stand-out statistic from everyone else!). There are a couple of possible options for treatment going forward, that obviously will be somewhat more intensive than this initial regiment. We are consigned to wait, for now, for a direction until the doctors make a decision. We are pretty certain it will either be a repeat of the 6-week regiment we just underwent, with an additional drug...or we will go to a more aggressive treatment that involves five consecutive days of 2-hour treatments, repeated every four weeks."

They are a very strong family and we love them very much. We are all confident that this is just a bump in the road and we'll just keep moving forward.

To cap off the week, Friday I drove John to the airport, but on the way I hit a HUGE piece of metal in the middle of 215 and blew my tire out causing a four hour pain in the butt experience that ending in hitting stop and go traffic on the way home and me not being able to make it into work. SUCK!

Saturday Ben and i kept paining the house. I hate painting, but it's going to look amazing when it's done. Much better than the yucky buttercup yellow that it was. I mean, come on, seriously? Oak furniture, brass hardware, green and grey carpet, baby pink and blue backsplash and yellow walls. WHAT WERE THOSE PEOPLE THINKING!!

So tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully a better week a head. Bear Lake is this weekend with LeAnne and Jay's brood, Brent and Jennifer and family are coming from Oregon, and Mel and Kirk. Wa hoo!

I got nothing

2009-07-16T14:52:00.002-06:00

So, just in case people think that I've fallen off the blog world, I haven't. Nothing is going on right now, nothing to report. So nothing to blog.

Sorry.

Listen up

2009-07-09T10:20:00.001-06:00

Ok, because of the tracker on my blog, I can pretty much figure out who has been looking at it. HOWEVER... I would like people to make a comment so that I know for sure, and what they are thinking! Pleeease! Drives me crazy...

New York New York... A Wonderful Town!

2009-07-07T12:37:00.034-06:00

New York was AMAZING! To be frank, that doesn't even begin to describe it. We loved it so much and were sad to leave to go back to normal life. We saw 6 plays, seven if you count that we saw Wicked twice. We went to the Statue of Liberty, got lost on Staten Island, marveled at Times Square, ate at Little Italy, and tried to get out of China town as fast as we could (the smell... yuck).

Here are some of our pictures. Hope you enjoy them!

The night we flew in: about 4 blocks away from our hotel was Times Square. You just don't know how cool it is until you are standing in the middle of it!
Me with all the Broadway shows behind me! Waa hoo... can't wait to see some!
Where they drop the ball at New Years. Can you see it?
More Times Square
So much to look at!
Day time
Our first venture onto the subway! 42nd street (aka Times Square and Broadway)
Our first pasta in Little Italy! Sooo good! The best that we had!
The fish market in China town. Yuck! Some of them were still moving cause they were still alive! Smelled awful!
My first purse that I bought~ Coach!!

A light fixture inside Mary Poppins' theater. That show, by far, was the coolest theater! So ornate and beautiful!
The exit sign in Poppins theater (New Amersterdam Theater)
The stage before the play... our first Broadway play! So excited!
An awesome number!
The Theater!
So happy!
Can you read the sign? No? It says: CHURCH and underneath Bar~Diner~Cafe. Something wrong with that to anyone else?
Avenue Q. Interesting play. Naughty play. Very Naughty puppets.
Times Square view from Lion King theater before the show.
Ben with the original costume for Scar!
That's a giant Mufasa head. One very similar appears on stage.
At night. Our first picture together! Ben doesn't really like to take the pictures where I'm holding the camera trying to get a shot of us two, but he didn't trust anyone with the camera either...
Finally, he DID trust someone!
Me with RAFIKI!
Outside Lion King
I LOVE this picture! If you can't figure it out... well just look harder.
The Statue of Liberty. Seems small when dwarfed by the tall buildings of Manhattan.
On the ferry going to Staten Island
New York in the Background
The day we went downtown to World Trade Center, it rained and we had to buy an umbrella and ate at the pizza joint behind us.
There are churches like this mixed in with all the modern buildings. It's very cool and Ben loved it!
Rockefeller Center
Radio City
This amazing bakery that we got cookies and cupcakes from. We went back 3 more times!
"Turn and Pull" - Bolt (If you don't get it, you need to watch more Disney movies)
I wanted to take a picture of him infront of the sign, but he got on the escalator. Can you see how proud of himself he is while he is escaping? (AT WICKED THEATER)
Emerald City!
The set. Such an amazing show!
No! I refuse!
Bomb square by our hotel. As my Mom put it "your in terrorists territory now"
This hole in the wall place that you could NOT find unless you knew it was there. Ate there on a recommendation that it had the best burgers ever. We'd had better! :)
Our favorite bakery, trip #2!
Little Italy food, second time.
I LOVE pasta, hence, I LOVE Little Italy
So did Ben!

We saw Angela Lansbury (who one a Tony for her role in this) Rupert Everett (My best friends Wedding) and Jayne Atkinson (24 lady) in this straight play. They usually aren't my favorite, I love music and dancing, but this was funny and had FAMOUS people in it!

Naked Cowboy!!!
Oh my!
My favorite pizza place! So good!
Saw all those famous people in the play Waiting for Godot. Not my favorite play, but it was cool to see Nathan Lane and John Goodman.

We ate at this pasta place in times square Camines, so good, but the portions were HUGE! One order of past could feed four, easily. Five, if one of those people were my sister Melissa.
We loved it!
Fireworks: pictures suck when you try to get a picture of them. So I stopped trying.
The people went on for miles and blocks.
Empire State building (red white and blue for the 4th)
WICKED for the 2nd time! I have the best husband! He even insisted that I buy something. he was going to buy me a Mary poppins umbrella with the parrott on the end, but since we had the unexpected rain, we had already bought one. So I got a WICKED sweatshirt!
The Empire State building. I thought it was alright, but Ben LOVED it. He loves looking at all the buildings and stuff!
Us together.
Times Square
The TKTS booth where we bought all of our tickets (almost all) at 50 % off!
Natural History. Pretty cool.
Well that was mostly our trip! It was, of course, so much more, but you can't take pictures of everything! Most of all, it was a dream come true for me and I am so thankful for my wonderful hubby for taking me there and letting me see 4 musicals and WICKED TWICE!!

New Floors!!

2009-06-28T22:02:00.011-06:00

As stated in a post below, we decided to put wood flooring down. Our neighbors had put theirs down the month before, so they helped us out tremendously, having just finished their own floor.

Ben woke up early Saturday morning and began pulling up everything. Derek came over that afternoon to help and I left for work. I got home around 5 o'clock, and almost everything was ready to put floors down. We started laying that night. Around 11, we stopped.

The next day, Derek and Ben worked on the hard corners and grooves, while Tania and I laid out the hallway and the kitchen. We only left the small dining area undone that night, and on Monday morning, Ben finished it.

I am so glad that we got it done so quickly. I hate having a house under construction! The next day I dusted like crazy and I don't think the house has ever been this clean! The photos don't really do it justice, but the wood is a lighter color than the kitchen, but the grooves are dark, and it all blends very nicely.

All that is left is to do the trim pieces and then we'll pain the chairs and tables to match! We are also going to re-carpet the stairs and upstairs, it is still the original carpet from when the apartments were built. The greatest part of having wood floors is that it make cleaning up dog mess SOOO much easier. It's still annoying to clean up, but less so than it was with carpet!

Laying out the first pieces...
Kitchen in the dining room. Wasn't it just last year that the kitchen was in the living room? Will the madness never end?
Measuring to get it just right....

Finished!

Pierce and Stacy's cameo in our pictures! We are so glad they are back from Puerto Rico! We missed them so much!
Pierce again...
And again! Thanks for the awesome pose!

Well, we're off to New York for the week and couldn't be more excited. Big thanks to Jeremy and Rachel and Tania and Derek for watching our babies!

Ella Update

2009-06-25T16:04:00.002-06:00

So, LeAnne's blog is now private, so I thought that I would update everyone as to what is going on with our Angel Fish. She started her first round of Chemo on Wednesday, but had to have a surgery first. The surgery put a stint in her chest that they can administer the chemo through because her veins are just too little. She also had a tube put into her ear because she is prone to ear infections and what could be worse that a 1 1/2 year old on chemo? A 1 1/2 year old on chemo with an ear infection.

The surgery was first, went very well, and then the chemo. Apparently the surgery cause our poor girl to throw up ALOT. The chemo, I am sure, did not help. When they got home, My Mom gave her a little dish set that she absolutley loved and played with all night. They also got some food in her and that improved her mood. The thing that really sucks is that they don't allow these little kids to eat before things like surgery, so they are starving, and that does not help.

But our little girl is doing well. She will survive this, and for that we are eternally grateful!

Thanks for all your help and your prayers!

Doggy Fun

2009-06-25T15:57:00.003-06:00

Here is a video of the dogs playing. YES, the are playing. They just like to wrestle. :) We love them.

New York

2009-06-25T10:21:00.001-06:00

Had a dream about walking through Central Park last night. Do you think I'm a little excited? Monday can't come soon enough!!

When I'll get pregnant

2009-06-21T10:53:00.003-06:00

According to a quiz that a friend sent me on facebook, I will get pregnant on.....

October 3, 2011.*

So there you have it. It's completely out of my control.

(*this post was just for fun, please don't get all depressed and think that I am finding yet another reason to procrastinate child birth)

Today is the day

2009-06-17T12:34:00.003-06:00

Our sweet Ella is going into Oncology today to find out what her course of treatment will be for her disease (LCH). We are praying that it is going to be swift and simple, and that life can get back to normal as soon as possible.

Ella is doing great, still the happy-go-lucky little spitfire that we all adore. It is difficult to remember that she is sick sometimes and has, as LeAnne says, A disease eating her from the inside out. Not the best phrase I know, but that's the way it is. I think the hardest thing is watching my sister. She is so strong and a wonderful mother, but you can tell that this is hard for her. Who wouldn't it be hard for. But, we are all confident that Ella will be just fine and we are so grateful for that reassurance.

We visited her in the hospital and she was so happy to see us, and NOT the nurses. Every time they came in to flush her IV or take her blood pressure, she was not pleased. But the cute part was that she would yell at them (in gibberish) when they would try and talk to LeAnne afterwards. It was adorable. We were so sad to leave but knew that she would not go to sleep with us in the room. She waved goodbye and we closed the door only to her her crying in protest. We both wanted to turn around and go back, but knew it was better to let them all sleep.

Mom and Dad are both in town right now, up in Logan with the boys. We were so lucky to spend time with them yesterday and sign Mom up for BYU Independent Study. Dad and I liked to tease her and say, Oh, our little girl is growing up. She didn't like that so much. But all in all, we are all so proud of Mom going back and getting her degree. We are all confident that she will do wonderful!

Since this blog is titled Ben and Megan Smith, I thought maybe I should say what is going on in our lives right now. (Go figure). So, we bought the flooring for the apartment, at a nice heafty price, but the cheapest I think that we would find for what we want to do. Ben is looking at buying a table saw and I am trying to be supportive in that purchase. He is officially a TD Ameritrade employee now, Woo Hoo, and we are talking about him going back to get his MBA in finance. Hopefully soon. I would not want him to put it off any longer. I am still looking for a job in some area of journalism and working at Red Robin in the meantime. It is kind of draining on me physically and on my soul. Waiting on people every day does not make me much of a charitable person at home. I often want to tell Ben to "get it yourself" because that is what I want to tell customers all the time. He remains a very understanding and wonderful husband.

Thanks for reading the blog, and please leave a comment!
Love to you all!

Kid at Heart

2009-06-12T17:35:00.001-06:00

I'm so excited (insert evil laugh)

The Hunger Games

2009-06-11T15:18:00.002-06:00

A BIG thank you to Pierce and Stacy who sent me this awesome book called The Hunger Games. It was amazing. I read it in two days, having to put it down to do things around the house and go to work. I normally make Ben go to sleep with out me when I am this into a book, but he's been having such a hard time sleeping, I just would put it down. But I would dream about it and it was great. You want a good read, READ THIS!

--Sequel comes out in September. Another series that I have to wait for. I like that I have something to look forward to!

DNA

2009-06-09T16:10:00.004-06:00

Sometimes I wonder wonder what our kids are going to look like. Someone once said that Ella could never be mistaken for my child. I saw this picture and thought, well... that's not entirely true. Lets examine the hair color in our families...

My family, we have a mixture of brunette and blond
Ben's family, 3 blond siblings, one dark haired, and Ben, who is in between. Dad is red, and nephew is a carrot top. Humm...

Eyes on both sides range from me having the only brown eyes in the family, Green and very blue. Ben's family (as far as I know, are blue). Ben has the EXACT same color eyes as Ella. This brownish green color.

So look at the pictures below, and it'll show you that we both have the famous "Watkins mouth", similar noses and she has Ben's eye color.

So yes, my child could potentially look like that. Blond hair and all.

How weird would that be?

Future Daddy

2009-06-08T16:04:00.006-06:00

Our Ella

Sometimes as I watch Ben play with little ones I just know how great a father he is going to be. I don't know why, but I love this picture (above). Although you can't see Ben's face, you can tell that he and Ella just adore each other and playing.

Dancing Queen

Fun with Sunglasses

Ella Bella

2009-06-07T22:19:00.010-06:00

I will blog more about our crazy weekend a little later, but here is a brief update.

Friday was my birthday and I was at work when Mom called to tell me that the MRI on Ella was not good. She has LCH, a child-cancer. Needless to say, I left work, Ben met me at home, and we took off to Logan, birthday forgotten. Sad thing is, it was Jason (Ella's Dad's bday also) Not the news you want to hear as a father EVER, but especially on your birthday. Mom flew in that night and arrived at 11:30. LeAnne said it was good to have us there, just to hold Ella and give LeAnne a break. I can't imagine the stress that type of day has on a Mother.

Wednesday will be the big day, with hopefully more answers. Ella will have surgery to remove the bump behind her ear, hopefully all of it and biopsey it. Then we'll go from there. For now, here are a few pictures from our trip up this weekend.

Boys with the candy I brought up for them. They, and Ella, LOVED it.

Look at that football face. She's ready to face the Utes!

Loves with Mom

Playing with make-up.

What every Watkins woman needs after a long stressful day. Diet Pepsi.

Loves with Uncle Ben.

Who says boys only like Power Wheels? If I stopped for a second, even to turn around, she screamed at me!

Teaching Ella to say my name. She's going to be getting Grandma coaching for the next couple weeks, so I had to get my turn in.

Wicked

2009-06-04T14:03:00.003-06:00

Guess what arrived today? Our WICKED tickets. Orchestra Level, Row J. Woo hoo. Apparently they were supposed to be given to me on my birthday. Ooops. When will Ben learn that even if it has his name on it, if it is delivered to the house when I am home. I will OPEN it! Duh!

I'm so excited!

Say No to Bleach

2009-06-02T11:19:00.005-06:00

Ben and I have been thinking for some time that we need to replace the floors in our house. Ben talked for a long time about putting some hard wood down, and then our neighbors did it in their apartment. We liked it, but weren't sure if it was what we wanted to do after all.

Last week, the decision to do SOMETHING was made for us. As I was being a good little wife and doing laundry I heard a big crash. Our washer and dryer and in a closet in the hallway (perfect place for it right? Insert eye roll) and I walked out of the bedroom and froze in shock. On the spin cycle, the washer had shimmed the gallon bottle of bleach to fall and crash onto our green hallway carpet. It was EVERYWHERE.

I kind of just stood in shock. My friend Sian was there, and grabbed a towel and started soaking it up. I grabbed the carpet cleaner vac and started to suck it all up. I knew my efforts were in vain, and called Ben about a million times to help me think of something else I could do to help minimize the damage. He did not answer. (Now of course I thought 'What if I was being attacked and you didn't answer your phone? That would teach him' but of course I let it go)

So now the search is on for what we are doing on the floors. Hard Wood, a laminate hard wood, new carpet, tile or a laminate tile. My vote is for the laminate wood, or the real tile. However, I am looking for any experienced opinion on the choices.

Moral of the story: Bleach Sucks.

And before you ask, Yes, there was a lid on the bleach and yes, it was screwed on tight. The impact from the fall made it shoot off.

The spot on the carpet. Not to bad for a gallon of bleach being dumped on it

How we cover it up for the time being.

Candyland Memorial Day

2009-05-29T17:36:00.007-06:00

For Memorial Day weekend, Ben and I traveled up to Logan to visit Jay, LeAnne and the kids. We came up on Saturday and stayed through Monday. We were sad to leave, we had so much fun. On Saturday night, Ben and I went on a date with Jay and LeAnne. We went to this Mexican restaurant that way really good, and then to see Star Trek. Okay, it was basically awesome.

Sunday was a quite day, full of poor Ryan being sick. We didn't catch anything, which is fortunate because apparently it's highly contagious. ;) But we're great.

Monday, I went to Old Navy with LeAnne and bought some cloths for Ella while Ben with Jason and the boys to Sportsman's Wearhouse. So fun for all. We had a great BBQ full of skewers and pinnapple. Me and Ben were playing Candy Land with the kids and I thought, "Hey, I don't have any pictures of this weekend!" So I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures. I wish that I would have gotten Ben playing football with Jake, running around with Ella on his shoulders and just the fun we had!

But here's a few of the one's that I got before the weekend was over.
Everyone having fun
The cutie WATCHING like she's supposed to
Zack's turn. He laid all his cards out in order. It was so cute. He always copied what Ben said, "One Blue, Two yellow" so funny.
Uncle Ben's turn
Ella deciding that it's her turn. Look at that face. She knows that she's not supposed to be playing... but she wants to so bad. :)

Thanks for all the fun you guys! We miss you already!

New Moon

2009-05-29T07:28:00.001-06:00

So right up front, I am going to say it: I like the Twilight Series. Bash me all you want, call me crazy, I do. Given, the first movie was a little... well, not what I had in mind, but still enjoyable to watch. The second movie, New Moon, will be far better for many reasons. To name a few: Bigger budget, better makeup and hopefully better acting. I found on line pictures that are linked together to form sort of video-like footage of one of the most climatic scenes in the movie. If you don't want to have it spoiled for you, DON'T WATCH! But, if like me, you have read the book.... enjoy.

4th of July

2009-05-28T11:35:00.006-06:00

So I am a little crazy and thought that I would look around for dresses for my little niece Ella to wear on the 4th of July. Trust me, its a big deal! Since I won't be there, she has to represent.
Here are some options that I've found that I really like.

This is my favorite Dress. You could put a little shirt under it if it is warm and a little white sweater if it gets cold. You never know what the weather may be like in Oregon. It could be both in fact.

The next option is fire works dress. Same basic principle applies, sweater or shirt acceptable.

I just love this little warm up outfit. Regardless if this is the dress for the 4th, it should be worn at some point over the holiday. SO CUTE!

This is just adorable. Sailors have to do with the 4th right? Kind of. So cute!!

Yes, I am crazy. Point taken.

FUNNY STORY

2009-05-20T11:20:00.003-06:00

So, I was so surprised by the New York thing, that I blogged about it, obviously, and sent a text to my Mom saying, "read my blog, read my blog" .

She calls me about an hour later, and says she can't look at the blog, she's at work. What's going on? I whined, and said "But Moooommmm!!"

She point blank said, "Well, either your pregnant or you got a job. Which is it.?" After I stopped laughing, I told her the dissapointing news. No grandchild on the way, just going to New York.

Needless to say, she was a little underwhelmed. Nothing like thinking your getting a baby from your baby and then having your hope crushed to make your day.

Made me laugh, hopefully it will make you laugh too.

A Early Birthday Surprise!!

2009-05-19T10:16:00.007-06:00

OK, let's just start right off the bat and say that I have the best FREAKING husband in the whole world. Many of you know that we changed our New York trip (the one that we've been planning since we got married) to go to Hawaii with Mel and Kirk.

Ben has been dropping hints around lately that he wanted to tell me my bday present now, so we could plan. Now my bday is not until June 5th. Not too far away, so I told him to stuff it and keep the surprise to himself (I love surprises). But today he finally just told me.

WE'RE GOING TO NEW YORK!

Not just for a weekend, but for week and for the forth of July to boot. This means that we get to watch fireworks over the statue of liberty. He he he. I am giddy just thinking about it. He he he. See I just can't stop.

This morning Ben was saying that we need to buy tickets for some shows (like Wicked) now because they are so popular. He said, "We could see one a day, or even one in the afternoon and one at night, unless you think that is overboard." I laughed and said, "I think I'll manage!" I mean, come on, does he honestly think that I would get sick of MUSICALS. PU-LEASE!

So anyways, I just had to spread the AWESOME news and ask any New York pros out there, I know you're there, to give me any advice on hotels, shows, tickets and places that we must go and eat! Woo hoo!

He he he (See, still excited!)

Here are some of the ones that we Might See...

Wicked because... Well, It's Wicked.
I've seen Lion King in LA, but Ben REALLY wants to, so we just might.
Hello? Do you know me? Mary Poppins is my IDOL!The MOST beautiful music I have ever heard. I HAVE to see this one. Ben has already, but too dang bad!

Any others that YOU recommend?

My Graduation Gift

2009-05-18T13:21:00.004-06:00

My wonderful parents not only came to Utah for graduation, but bought me this BEAUTIFUL photo. What do you think?

Now, to go along with this picture, I'm thinking that maybe I want this one...
It is a beautiful picture of the Portland Temple, where Ben and I got married. I think it will make a beautiful addition to our home. Now just to get Ben on board...