My Wedding Dress

One of the best parts about my wedding dress is that my mother-in-law made it for me. I took her to the store to show her the one I loved, but that was ridiculously overpriced, and she started sketching on a scratch piece of paper. The next thing I knew we were shopping for material and she was creating a pattern out of wrapping paper.

I absolutely loved my dress - and what wasn't to love, since she let me design it. This year for Christmas, Elsa gave each of her granddaughters a Barbie wearing a wedding dress that she sewed for it. Much to my surprise, I also received a Barbie for Christmas. But it wasn't wearing just any wedding dress...it was wearing MY wedding dress!!! She recreated the dress for me and put it on this very special Barbie. I've been instructed that this Barbie belongs to my future daughter - but to tell you the truth, I'm not sure if I'll be able to part with it. I think I'm going to look for a stand this weekend so I can stand my new Barbie up in our entertainment center, right now, she has to lean against the side wall of the entertainment center.



I thought you would want to compare it to my actual wedding dress, but it's kind of hard to see the details of my dress in these pictures. If you click on the photo and make it bigger, you should be able to see it better.

Christmas Memories

I love Christmas. Almost more than Christmas itself, I love putting up Christmas decorations in our house. Each trinket, ornament and wall hanging comes with its very own memory, so opening up my box of decorations each year is like opening up a treasure chest.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is decorating the tree. We have a few traditions in my family that are associated with the Christmas tree. First, each year, each grandchild receives their very own Christmas ornament. It usually corresponds with what is going on in your life at the time or is an ornament that reminds my grandma of you. This year, Wil and I received a just married ornament from my grandma with a bride and groom on it. Second, it is a family tradition to get a Christmas ornament on each vacation. Hunting for the perfect ornament from each spot has become one of my favorite things to do - and keeps me from buying other vacation keepsakes that seem cool at the time, but have no usefulness once you return home and unpack them from your suitcase.

Because of these traditions, there's an anticipation that comes with unwrapping each ornament - which one will it be, which vacation or person or experience in my life will I get the joy of remembering when I open this ornament?

We're getting ready to take the tree down this week, and since I am a bit melancholy about it, I thought I would post photos of a few of my most special ornaments. It might even become a blogging tradition for me - posting a few ornaments each year. Someday, someone will wonder what makes each ornament so special or why I get so excited when I open a particular one. This way, that wondering person will know.

First, is one of my very favorite ornaments. We actually have two or three of these and you can see similar ornaments gracing the trees of immediate and extended family members. When I was a little girl, my mom and I would make a Christmas gift to hand out to all of our family members on Christmas Eve. One year she sewed and I stuffed pillow looking ornaments, one year I used Christmas tree shaped sponges to sponge paint a little picture and then we decorated them with paint and buttons. And one year, we made these ornaments.


I still remember how sticky the glue mixture felt on my fingers as we dipped each piece of fabric in it, ran it between our fingers to remove any excess glue and then placed the fabric on the styrofoam ball ornament. You have to be careful with this one...it still gets a bit sticky in the heat of the garage or attic. Toward the bottom, you will notice one of its run-ins with a particularly nasty paper towl. Ever since, I've tried to make sure this ornament lives at the top of the ornament box with plenty of distance between it and any paper towels!

Next, is an ornament from my great grandma's tree.


I don't know the significance of this ornament or why she loved it, but every time I unwrap it I am reminded of her and our family Christmas Eves at her house. This little bird attahces to our tree the same way he attached to my great grandma's tree - with a bobby pin.

My last ornament for you today is not really an ornament at all. But, it is the crown jewel of the Christmas tree - it is the angel that goes on top.


I'm not sure where or when I developed such strong opions about what should be on the top of my Christmas tree - but I have extremely strong opinions about what can be on top of my Christmas tree. I don't want a star on my tree - stars are great, I love stars and I think stars look wonderful on other people's trees, but I want an angel on my tree. And, not just any angel can grace the top of my tree. I want a beautiful but simple angel. No extra frilly dresses or huge skirts that you can practically hide presents under. No overdone makeup or wings that stretch into the next room, just a simple and beautiful angel.

This is the angel that has been on our family Christmas tree for as long as I can remember, and I love her! There is something completely perfect about her simplicity and the way she rules over the top of the tree without dominating it.

Lions and Tigers and Bears...OH MY

We went to the COOLEST zoo today!!!!!! Bright and early at eight this morning, Wil and I, along with my family, headed to Camp Verde to go to the Out of Africa park. I cannot say enough great things about this park. We were all majorly impressed and it is one of the coolest things I've done.

This Arizona attraction is now on the top of our list for a place to take visitors, and unbeknown to them, we are already planning a trip to Out of Africa with Wil's family. His nieces would LOVE it!

If you go...

• Make sure you get there when they open at 9:30 a.m. - you don't want to miss any of the shows.
• Plan to be there the entire day! We were skeptical when they said it would take about five hours - who goes to the zoo for five hours? But, we actually ended up wishing we could have been there even longer.
  
• Take a buy one get one free coupon. The park would have been expensive without our coupons - apparently they come in the mail - but was fine since we all had buy one get one free coupons.
  

And now, drum roll please...on to the pictures!!!

First, we took a safari ride on a bus. This is Wil and I on the bus. It was freezing cold, so I'm cracking up because Wil was trying to warm his hands under his armpits - only after I convinced him sticking his hands down his pants to warm them up was not an option! :)


When we loaded the bus, we each got a carrot or cucumber slice to feed the giraffe. He was the coolest giraffe and came right up to the bus - he must have known we would have food for him. He even stuck his head inside the bus a few times to get to his food. A few people put the carrot stick in their mouths to feed him, but no one in my family was quite brave enough.

My Grandma feeding the giraffe.

My Aunt feeding the giraffe.

Lynda feeding the giraffe - and winner for one of my favorite photos of the day.

The next animal we saw on the safari bus was the ostrich. You all know how I feel about birds, and this was one LARGE bird. I would have been ok, except he kept moving his head further into the bus with a curious glint in his eye that said, "I wonder what you taste like?"


Then came the zebras...very cool!


After the safari, we rode a tram to the top of the park. We went to a snake show and were even brave enough to go in and pet the very, very large snakes.

Andy with a python.

I had Wil get down by the snake's head to pose for this picture. I was trying to figure out how to position the camera to get the snake and all of Wil, when he started yelling at me to hurry...the snake was raising its head and getting a bit to close for comfort. I didn't get his eyes, but I love the smile on Wil's face in this picture!

We also got to pet this cool lizard. His name is Gaucho, but my uncle thought he bore an uncanny resemblance to Oscar.


One of the highlights of our trip was the tigers, and man, did this park have tigers!!!


Out of Africa even had a Tiger Splash show. This was by far one of the BEST parts of the day. The tigers are not trained, but instead are socialized with the tiger zoo keepers. Since the zoo keepers play with the tigers, they are considered friends, and the tigers are careful not to hurt the zoo keepers. This entire show was about playing with the tigers - did you know...play is a basic instinct in all animals that are able to produce their own body heat?

First, a tiger as it's jumping into the water after a shoe. Apparently, shoes are their favorite toys!


Next, this tiger just jumped onto the fence and is about to use it as a springboard toward the toy he wants.


Finally, we have a tiger mid jump as it goes after some balloons. Wil was the amazing photographer for these tiger shots, so please feel free to compliment him on his picture taking abilities. I still can't believe he got such impressive action shots of the tigers!


After Tiger Splash, we had a chance to feed the tigers...how many people can say they've actually fed a piece of meat to a tiger???



We also loved these playful, one-year-old bear cubs. They had a show with the bears, but we were too busy watching them play to get any amazing photos. Here's one of the cubs in her habitat area. She looks like she's posing for the camera.


Here are the cubs mid-run. They saw the zoo keepers coming with food - probably to entice them toward the area for the bear show.


One of the things I loved about this zoo was that all of the animals seemed to have ample room to run and play. They all seemed happy and like they enjoyed their habitats.

Here are a baby lion and a baby white tiger playing together in their cage. They are about seven months old.


And, the last photo of the day...just because I like it, and it's my blog so I can post whatever I want. This is Wil and me in front of one of the lion cages.

Our Vegas Vacation

We had so much fun in Las Vegas last weekend! It was our very first road trip as a married couple, which was a lot of fun for us! We left Friday morning, Dec. 19, and we enjoyed driving and our time together. Wil and I even tried out some old car games we knew from when we were kids. They kept us awake and laughing most of the way home.

Wil and I met my college roommate Nancy and her husband Bryce and son Derek in Las Vegas and hung out with them most of the time we were there. Derek was fun to be around. He's walking and running and its fun to see his personality - he was determined to do things on his own and did not want help!

We stayed at South Point, which was a GREAT hotel that I would highly recommend to anyone going to Las Vegas. It had the CLEANEST showers I have ever seen!

Derek, Bryce and Nancy at the Las Vegas Pioneer Bowl

Friday night, we went to ESPN Zone, Bryce's favorite restaurant, for dinner and then explored the strip for a little while. We all had fun watching the Bellagio fountains.

Wil in front of the Bellagio fountains

Saturday morning, we went to the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It was a nice aquarium, but a little smaller than we were expecting it to be. They had tunnels that you could walk through to see the sharks, fish and turtles swimming above you and all around you. There was even one place with a glass floor where they would swim under you. Wil seemed to be the only one not totally creeped out by walking on the clear floor. Even Derek wasn't sure he liked the idea - he kept pulling up his legs when Bryce would try to put him down on the floor.

In one tunnel, they were feeding the fish what looked like zucchini. It was cool to see the fish swim up and feed. They would take a quick bite, swim away and then come back for more.

Wil and me in front of the feeding fish

They also had a place where you could touch the stingrays, which was fun! Wil and I couldn't figure out how to explain how the stingrays felt - gushy keeps coming to mind, but it's not quite the right word.

Wil touching a stingray

I think Wil liked the jelly fish the best, and I really liked the turtles...and these weird striped fish that looked like they had mohawks.

Just me and a fish

After the aquarium, we walked around the strip some more and toured M&M world which is always entertaining - It still amazes me that they make so much M&M merchandise... I mean, who buys an M&M tire cover for the back of their car?

We had fun everywhere we went, but the Las Vegas Pioneer Bowl football game was definitely the highlight of our trip (which is good, since that's why we went to Las Vegas in the first place)!!! My college roommate Alison's husband Travis plays on the offensive line for BYU. It's always been fun to watch him play and to know someone on the team. This is Travis's senior year, so the Pioneer Bowl was his last football game as a Cougar.

Travis helped us get the tickets, so we got to sit on the eighth row at the goal line!!! They were AMAZING seats!!

Wil at the Las Vegas Pioneer Bowl

Me in our seats at the Las Vegas Pioneer Bowl

Bode and me

This is me with Bode - Alison and Travis's little boy. He was SO cute. I hadn't seen him since our wedding and at that point, he was just a little guy - so it was fun to see him a bit bigger. Nancy said he's as tall as Derek, who is about a year older. He's going to be a giant when he grows up!

Wil and me at the game

Travis waving from the field - he's number 74

A win was not in the cards for us at the bowl game, but the score was close enough through most of the game that we had a blast anyway! I even thought we were getting ready to stage an impressive come from behind, against all odds win...but not so much!

Derek, Bryce, Nancy, Alison, Me and Wil after the game

My roommate Angela and her boyfriend Phil were at the game, too. We met them for breakfast Sunday morning. It was great to see her and she seemed SO happy! Phil is a very lucky man!

Derek, Bryce, Wil, Phil, Nancy, me and Angela after breakfast Sunday morning

I had so much fun in Las Vegas and it was WONDERFUL to see everyone! I miss them more than I realize sometimes. Wil was great, too. It would definitely be hard to go on vacation and hang out with a bunch of your wife's friends that you don't know very well. Luckily, he had fun!

We did a bit more sightseeing before heading home Sunday afternoon. We even looked for a buffet to go to...but alas, we were too cheap to pay $23 per person for a buffet (I mean isn't the point of a buffet to be cheap?).

We were especially amazed by the bridge going up at Hoover Dam - we were able to admire the bridge for a long time on our way home Sunday evening, as the traffic moving over Hoover Dam could barely be considered moving! I forgot to take a picture, but it looked like they've still got a long way to go before it's done. I'll just have to take a picture on our next trip...

Say It Ain't So!

My favorite radio personality of all time - who I've mentioned previously on this blog - is Dave Pratt. Yesterday, the radio station he was on "parted ways with him." I'm pretty sure that's a nice way of saying they gave him the ax!

I am extremely disappointed, and I have no idea what I am going to listen to on my way to work. Hopefully, he will be signed by another radio station soon!

Wil and I are about to depart for our Vegas vacation (and we're only an hour behind schedule)! I can't wait!!! We'll be back Sunday, and I'll be sure to post some pictures of our trip!

HOORAY FOR VACATIONS!!!

my six quirks; finally!

So Jessica promised when she started this blog that I would be posting my quirks soon. Well, after much "encouragement" here they are, finally!

1. I can't start my day without pooping. I've tried and it's physically impossible. (I can't believe I'm actually posting this on our blog, so much for good wholesome reading.)

2. I don't like it when my pants touch my stomach. Let me explain. It bugs me when they touch my bare skin. I like when they are in order with the rest of my clothes. First my underwear then my undershirt, then my pants and then my shirt over. Everything has to be tucked in very neatly. Otherwise I have to readjust.

3. I tap my forehead vigorously with my fingertips when I get excited about something. (For example our Vegas trip this weekend.)

4. I am terrified of bees. I've never been stung and I think that's why I'm so scared of them. I don't run from many things, except bees or anything like a bee. That includes wasps, hornets, killer bees, and mutant bees.

5. If I were an animal I'd be a gorilla. I love gorillas.

6. The two nicknames I despise the most in this world - Willy and Bud! Free Willy, Big Willy Style or Willy Wonka- Well, you get the picture. My name is not William it's Wilfredo, that's all. Also only little kids should be called 'bud'. I'm not a little kid and probably bigger than you are.

There's a door there?

Last night, Wil and I went to my grandma's house to visit Elvis. My grandma and Wil's mom Elsa went to a Christmas concert at North Phoenix Baptist Church, so she wasn't home at the time. When we got there, we let Elvis out of his kennel and immediately took him and Oscar outside to relieve themselves.

Sometimes I feel a little guilty that this dog is intruding into Oscar's life, so I try to be extra nice to Oscar. Since Oscar was done first and Wil was out in the yard with Elvis, Oscar and I ran in the house and shut the sliding glass door behind us. We ran into the living room and I put Oscar on the couch to play with him.

All of a sudden, I heard the loudest thud as something hit the sliding glass door at full force.

Apparently, when my grandma lets Elvis out to use the restroom, she leaves the door open so he can come back in and without her having to go open the door - Oscar has a doggie door, so this has never been a problem in his life. Wil said Elvis finished peeing and took off at full speed; Wil wasn't sure what he was doing, but didn't think much of it...until we both heard him slam into the sliding glass door. Wil said it's the loudest yelp he's ever heard come out of a dog.

I'm sure it hurt, and I probably should feel bad for Elvis. But in reality - it's one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed! My grandma's going to have to stop keeping her sliding glass door so clean. My uncle suggested putting a dachshund sticker on the door so Elvis will know when it's closed!

Breaking Into Our Own House

This is an ordinary door. It connects our kitchen to our garage. I installed the door handle and deadbolt - look at that fine workmanship.


Today, at approximately 12:11 p.m., this ordinary door became the enemy!

I had to work this morning and came home as quickly as I could so Wil and I could leave for church - we start at noon. When I arrived home, I opened the garage door, walked inside, placed my keys on the table, changed my shoes and grabbed my scriptures. We then proceeded out of this seemingly innocent door on our way to the car. There was no need to grab my keys because I knew Wil was driving. Wil locked the door knob on his way out the front door and we were on our way...until we reached the car where Wil quickly discovered his keys were not in his pocket (you guessed it, they were inside). He asked if he could use my keys to unlock the door so he could go grab his. And, under any ordinary circumstance, he could have...except my keys were inside on the table. After several minutes of laughing at ourselves, we got to work trying to break into our own house.

First we tried this...

Here's a better look - there were screws on the outside of our sliding glass door that leads from the backyard to the living room. Odd...so we thought we would unscrew them and see if we could jimmy the door loose.


Next, we tried this...yes, that's the big window into our bedroom. That didn't work.


I should mention that at this point I had to use the restroom nearly uncontrollably. I rang the doorbell at our next door neighbors - but they weren't home. The two families we know across the street were also not home. It was so bad I thought about walking to the park, which is relatively close, and using the restroom there, but I wasn't sure I would make it. Finally, I tried the neighbors across the street that we do NOT know! I was practically doing the potty dance on their front step as I listened to their dog bark and a little girl saying, "mommy, it's a girl...it's a girl mommy." Then there were muffled voices, the barking got further away and all sound ceased.

Let's take a small trip into my head at this exact moment in time. "They're not going to let me in...what if they don't answer the door...PLEASE ANSWER THE DOOR, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY AND YOU HAVE TO ANSER THE DOOR...WHAT AM I GOING TO DO IF THEY DON'T ANSWER THE DOOR!"

Finally, a man answered the door. I sheepishly (and quickly - I had to go really bad!) explained that I lived across the street and we had locked ourselves out of our house and no I didn't need to use their phone because we had our phones because we were leaving and had everything (including the camera, thanks to me taking it with me to work this morning) except the keys to our house that was currently locked and could I PLEASE use their restroom, PLEASE!!! This part of the story ends happily, as they let me use their restroom and I could go back to documenting the entire experience with our camera for this very blog!

Then, we tried the one of the small windows into our bedroom. This window is kind of tweaked so we thought it would be our best bet to get one of them to open. Nope!


Then Wil had a master stroke! The attic. We have TWO entrances to the attic - one in the garage and one in our hall. He could climb through the attic, get into our house through the hall attic and then unlock the door. He went up, he looked at the eight foot drop and decided that he would have a very difficult time unlocking the door if his body was broken.


Finally, we decided to focus our attention on the offending door!


We tried wires and pocket knives and bobby pins (I actually thought I might be able to pick the lock - it's not nearly as easy as it looks on TV!) and this little saw, ruler thing that Wil had in the garage - I'm still not sure what it was. After about twenty minutes focusing on the door - and more than an hour locked outside of our house, Wil opened the door! We happily closed the garage door and walked into our house through the now unlocked door. We are still laughing at ourselves!

Oscar Will NEVER Forgive Us!

One of the loves of my grandma's life is her pleasantly plump dachshund Oscar (like Oscar Mayer Weiner, get it?). He is glued to her side whenever she is home. When she eats, he eats...if she gets people food, he gets at least a little people food...when she sleeps in her bed, he sleeps in her bed...etc., etc., etc.

Last night, Wil and I broke Oscar's heart by bringing another dog to my grandma's house. That's right, Wil liked Elvis a lot! One of the funniest things about Elvis is that he balances on his back two legs and stands straight up. He seems to enjoy hanging out on only his back legs. It's funny to watch, but causes two main problems. 1. He is tall enough to put his front paws on the counter and 2. when you push him down, he doesn't fall. A normal dog would fall because it can't balance on its back legs, so if you pushed its front legs off the counter it would subsequently drop to all four legs. Not Elvis. He can balance on his back two legs, so you try to push him away and he just stands there front paws high in the air and waits until you move far enough away that he can safely place his paws back on the counter. URGH! Wil will have to read that puppy book again to find out how to train a dog to stay off of the counter!

Elvis is a Coon Hound. We read all about Coon Hounds last night on Wikipedia. One interesting fact...Coon Hounds are generally nervous around other dogs...and it's probably a good thing, at least for now! Elvis is downright scared of Oscar. When my grandma brought Elvis home from getting his shots today, she had to pick up his front legs to make him go in the house...Oscar was standing by the door, so he was scared to go in!

It's actually a good thing Elvis is scared of Oscar...or I am relatively certain there would be a war. Apparently the way it works now is that Oscar sits on the couch by my grandma, Elvis starts to head that direction, Oscar flashes his pearly whites in a menacing way and Elvis heads the other direction to sleep on the exact opposite side of the couch.

The vet told us that since Elvis got his shots today and we had a dog with parvo less than six months ago, we have to wait three weeks before we can bring Elvis home. THREE WEEKS! Poor Oscar...I don't think he will ever forgive us for ruining his happy home!

Is The Third Time A Charm?

Wil and I have wanted a dog for months! However, we haven't had the best luck with dogs...

We've even found a dog and brought it home - TWICE. But how many dogs reside in our house (or backyard) currently - ZERO. This is a post dedicated to the unluckiness we have had so far, and hoping that the third try for a dog is about to be the charm!

First, dog number one...we called him Buster (that is, we called him Buster for the less than 24 hours we owned him). Sydney Bosen named him for us...she and Kendall were spending the night the night we got him. We got Buster at the Humane Society.

We went to the Humane Society wanting a dog. We looked, and looked, and looked some more. When we were about to leave dogless, I walked by a cage and one of the dogs went running (well, as much as you can run in a Humane Society cage) to get his toy and came back squeaking it like crazy.

Dog #1: Buster

"This must be the one," I announced. So we took him out and played with him. He was a puppy - about 7 months old, but he was already big. We asked what kind of a dog he was and we were told he was a black lab mix. He was cheaper because he had been at the Humane Society so long...suspicious - we asked why a 7 month old puppy had been at the Humane Society so long. We were told people don't like black dogs, they think they look mean. OK, we don't have a problem with black dogs - we're good so far.

Also, some people think he looks like a pit bull and people don't want pit bulls - to which I responded, is he a pit bull (we had made the agreement that pit bulls freak me out and that we would not get a pit bull)? Well, there could be some pit bull in him or some boxer, it's really hard to tell but his tag says black lab, so he's mostly black lab. OK, we can live with that. We took him happily home, excited about the new addition to our family. We picked up Sydney and Kendall on our way home to spend the night and while I had fun painting with the girls and playing with our new puppy, Wil went to get dinner. That's when it happened - Buster growled and barked at me weird.

Wil and Buster

If you know me, you know I'm not scared of dogs. I've grown up around dogs, my aunt and uncle have big dogs and I've never been scared of them. But something in the way he barked/growled at me scared me - and I mean, I was afraid to be left alone in the house with him type of scared me. After that all I could see when I looked at him was pit bull ready to attack. So after discussing and feeling super guilty for returning a dog that we had had for less than a day for no apparent reason other than it scared me, we took Buster back to the Humane Society.

A couple of weeks later, we decided to try the pound. We fell in love with a small black lab puppy - he was adorable! As the pound worker pulled him out of his cage she said - "what a little bruiser." That's all it took - we had to have him and we HAD to name him Bruiser. He was all puppy - and young puppy at that! He would drive me crazy when Wil was at work - it was almost like having a child. Anytime I wasn't watching, he was peeing or chewing...but he was so cute, so it was alright.

Bruiser sleeping on my lap.

I took him on walks nearly every night - I thought they were long walks for a puppy, but we would walk into our house and he would go bounding across the room to pounce on his toys and chew and pee some more! One night I couldn't take it anymore so I took him on a LONG walk - and I kept walking and walking and walking until he finally laid down on the grass and wouldn't move. That's how I knew I could safely take him home.

Bruiser with my aunt and her neighbor's horse Goldie.

Unfortunately, this puppy came to us with parvo. He had lived with us less than a week when we first noticed the signs - but we didn't know what was wrong. We took him to the vet, but it would have been much to expensive to treat him, especially when they couldn't guarantee he would get better. We, and by we I mean Wil, took him back to the pound to have him put to sleep.

Ever since we've been bleaching everything - trying to get the parvo out of our house so we could try again.

We've been told by friends that we're just not meant to have a dog. One recommended downsizing to a gold fish and another recommended a child as an alternative. But our hearts really are set on a dog.

Yesterday, my uncle's co-worker brought a dog to work that he had found abandoned in the desert. It's part hounddog, part doberman. He's a super cute and well behaved dog - according to my uncle. My uncle even affectionately named the dog Elvis (ain't nothing but a hounddog, crying all the time) because its a hounddog. Wil is going to look at this dog tonight, to see if he's a keeper. And while he's looking, and I'm waiting for my visiting teachers to arrive, I thought I would write a post about our dogs.

The picture of Elvis my uncle sent yesterday to convince us we needed him!

If Wil decides Elvis is a keeper, I'll be sure to let you know...