dear santa,

I want these for Christmas.
Flying monkeys that scream?! With a parachute?!?!

oh. my. goodness.


*Ingenious.*


3.99 plus shipping. Still...$6.84 for hours of screeching monkey competitions...oh, let the games begin...

the chaos is over...

This past weekend/beginning of this week has been ridiculous! I can finally breathe!

day 1. We started out with a ward Christmas party which went fabulously, but I didn't even think to bring my camera!

day 2. I signed up to do a craft fair, that was ultimately not worth it. I did make my deposit back and then some, but Etsy is so much more worth it. Isn't my banner fabulous? I made that too.
After the bazaar thing ended we rushed home to shower and get all glammed up for the WSCC Gala (aka the Chiro prom). Seriously, some couples were matching, and there was an all over occurrence of too much cleavage hanging out.

The food was wonderful, but not quite enough. We ended up going to Shari's afterward. They wouldn't give us a kid's menu, so we left! haha. We cooked breakfast at home with Bethany and Brandon at 11 o'clock at night! Sooo good....

At the gala...

Bethany and Brandon, our awesome neighbors.Teresa and Jeff.

Dave and Debbie.The group.

day 3. AH!! Just a day of no-photos-to-show events that were back to back.

day 4. Happy Birthday, Michael! Michael isn't a fan of cake, so I made him caramel banana crepes (after the steak dinner he requested). Here he is with his birthday sweater on about to blow out his candle! Every year since we've been dating at least one of his gifts has been a sweater...
day 5. Congrats to the Kunz's and the Perkes'! They are the lucky ones graduating from WSCC this quarter! I am so jealous! I can't wait for this...it seems like a million years away, but before we know the time will be gone! Emali (hostess of grad party) asked me to make the cake. It took most of the day to make, but turned out pretty cool! So, here it is!
I can now relax...maybe...there is still laundry, mopping, cleaning of the fridge, Christmas shopping, etc. The list never ends...

you should come!

For those of you in Portland,


And more...including me! Oh yeah, and some pretty cute handmade books...which are not available on etsy! Tell everyone! haha, I have to at least make back the deposit for my booth!

Click here to see the the facebook event.


p.s. Thanks to my blogstalkers that admitted that I am totally stalkable. Don't worry, I stalk you too. =) However, the real culprits I was trying to call out never said anything....I should name names to make things awkward...but that would be awkward....

the poll majority said girl....

the doctor said...
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GIRL!

Isn't she hot? Having a head the size of your torso is so in right now.


spine
foot

dear blogstalkers,

I know you are out there...and surprise surprise, I know who most of you are. Just please leave a comment if you read my blog! Otherwise, you look like a big-o creep-o when someone tells me you've read my blog, and you know about whatever meaningless thing that is going on in my life, which I guess makes me pretty special since I am so interesting to stalk. =) Wow, that was an awesome run-on.

Just leave a comment at least once, so I know you're there! (and since I know already that you're there, you might as well fess up). This will keep me from going private--where you can no longer stalk me...

Sincerely a little creeped out & semi flattered,
Julie

one of five

With Michael's backpacking skills and my photoshop skills, we won a WSCC photo contest! 1 of 5 winners. (Congrats to you too Jeff!)


This isn't really photoshopped all that much--it was pretty dang awesome to begin with....

The theme was vacation/school break/weekend trips or something to that effect. You want to go vacation here? Well, it's in Wyoming (so pretty much in the middle of nowhere), on route to Gannett Peak. Oh, it's only like a 30 mile (?) hike, some of it above the tree line (which means no camp fire and oober windy...see any trees in that picture?), and you need an ice pick and cramp-ons (I hate that word) even if it is the end of summer.

I obviously opted out on this trip. I don't carry my body weight on my back up and down several mountains to then summit the tallest peak in Wyoming. I had to be crazy to even think about going on this trip, but good thing Michael was crazy enough to go and get a winning picture, plus this one that didn't make the final cut.


Here are the rest of the losers... =)


Periodic Springs, WY

Sundance, UT
Oswald West, OR

for the less observant

If you didn't realize what the full "effect" was in the last post--a little one has decided to grace us with it's presence (hence, Thing 3). We'll officially meet face to face April 20, 2010, or thereabouts. I'm 17 weeks, and we'll let you know in 2 weeks whether it's a boy or girl. Cast your guess on the right!

p.s. thanks for all the congrats!

happy halloween!

These are our awesome pumpkins! The one on the left I carved a week ago and is slowly starting to curl, mold, and slouch in the back. It was Jack Skellington with his boney hands up going "AH ha ha ha!"--you know, like in the movie. I bought 2 thinking Michael would carve one and I would carve one. No such luck. I carved both--just more fun for me!
Anyway, we were Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat. Yet another hand painted costume. We're cheap, what can I say? Our hair is blue...too bad you can't tell. And you might have to click on the picture to get the full "effect".
Oh, the background is our curtain with fish still on it from the fish pond game at our ward activity. Thanks Teresa for helping me with the fish!

Happy Halloween!

3 things thursday: 3 yummy AllRecipes

These are a few of the recipes I've tried from AllRecipes.com that I love. This website has practically every recipe you're looking for. Even strange Asian recipes like mochi, and it was awesome!

Perfect Sesame Chicken
It calls for different kinds of soy sauce--I used what I had. A little time consuming, but way cheaper than take-out!


No-Noodle Zucchini Lasagna
I thought when I was making this that Michael would never eat it. He's not one for the veggies, but he liked it and even ate all the left overs! I would highly recommend salting and draining the zucchini and maybe even drying them a little with paper towels--they let out a lot of water!

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake
Oh my goodness. I haven't actually made this one myself--had it at Bethany's. All I can say is... YUMMM!
What's your favorite recipe(s)?

life just can't get any better

Yes, that is the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. And yes, that is me in front of it. It was right here in Portland, Oregon! {squeal!}

p.s. Sorry for the crappy quality. My camera phone was my only means of capturing this insanely awesome moment. And taking a picture of my cell phone was the only way to get this picture from my phone to you.

p.p.s. Did you know that the dashboard is mini hotdogs! Cool huh!

Break between 4th and 5th quarter

We visited Star Valley so Michael could visit his family and change the clutch in his car--it truly pays to have a handy husband! We haven't ever paid for maintenance on either of our cars!

While we were there we went fishing on the Snake twice. First trip--windy and far too many stops. I like floating and fishing, not stopping a billion times. Plus, Michael and I both bought licenses and caught nothing (except tiny guys and a nasty white fish, all of which we through back).

Second trip--very nice and not windy. We actually had to throw back fish, not because they were tiny, but because we had our quota per license--and we only got one license instead of two. Oh the irony...

Then, the day after our nice float....

It snowed.

And a shirt froze solid on the front lawn. And Michael forgot that he was wearing two hats.

help, please

I have been working on designing a baby book for my etsy store, which I have highly neglected for the last couple of months--yikes! I have had several requests/suggestions to make them and would like to finally get this done.

I have most of the pages laid out, but I would like your input since I have obviously never filled one of these things out! Child-ful and child-free people alike, what have been your favorite baby book pages, what would you think would be good that wasn't in yours, or what good ideas have you seen? Any ideas welcome!

So we went on a hike....

It was supposed to be over 2 miles one way. We saw this pretty waterfall on the way.


We had only gone what we thought was only a mile and got to this waterfall.
We went with these people, the Barnette's.
But then the trail just looped back around. We were going to Punchbowl falls. This was not Punchbowl falls. We hiked 2 miles on the wrong tail. Turns out we took the wrong exit off the freeway.

We found the right exit. Eventually.

And began to hike again. After 2 miles, we made it to the right spot.


This is Punchbowl Falls.

We wore our bathing suits, but the water was icy cold. Michael and Jeff were the only ones to brave the cold and jump the lower falls (no picture...just imagine). Oh yeah, Jeff and Teresa met us at the falls.


We hiked back over the treacherous cliffs. If you fell, you wouldn't stop for a looooong ways....
It's pictures like these that remind me how short I really am. After 6 total miles of hiking in a bathing suit, I was done for the day. But what a good day it was...

new thing

I have noticed that I haven't been as regular as I'd like to be--at blogging that is. I am going to try a themed day of the week in attempt to revive me from my blogging hiatus. No matter how boring and uneventful my week may be, there is still hope for Thursday.

Attempt #1
Three Things Thursday: Things I love

one. How much sugar there is in grape soda.

two. The powder stuck to your fingers after eating Cheetos.

three. How sick you feel after polishing off a bag of Dove chocolates.

Heart,
Julie's inner fat kid

p.s. And you're always welcome to add to the list!

Oo OOo OOOO AH AH!

That's the sound an ape makes, if you were wondering.

This past weekend was very eventful--too bad I only had my camera for one out of the three events!

Friday I went with a friend from Provo to the Japanese gardens. Gorgeous. It's impressive how organizing rocks and plants in a certain way can make you feel so calm. I didn't take any pictures on Monday either. We went with the Barnette's to pick huckleberries. Mmmmm. Huckleberries....

Saturday we hiked the entire 4.5 miles of Ape cave! Actually 1.5 miles of that wasn't in a cave. Usually hiking on a rainy day is sort of a bummer...but when you're underground, it doesn't matter! It's a constant 42 degrees in the caves, no matter what time of year, or the weather outside. We climbed over many many boulder fields, an 8 foot wall, and crawled ourselves into a corner.

The lower cave was .75 miles (1.5 round trip because...you'll see).

Dave and Debbie ventured with us.


Notice the cave getting a little smaller....
And smaller... 0.74 miles of this cave has 20 foot ceilings or higher...
Except when you reach the dead end and you have to walk back, but you have no idea it is a dead end. We army crawled until we noticed it was getting a little hard to breathe...then the ceiling slime started to drip down my back and I was done. That's actually rock forming into stalactites--but they were covered in slimy stuff and dripped stuff...down my back...


The upper caves were considered a difficult hike (lower was easy). Half of it was climbing over boulders...it was fun! The ceilings still dripped right on my head, but that's what I get for not being a hat person.



One of three sky lights. The other two were the entry and exit.
Having fun, since I couldn't see the picture until the flash went off. At one point we tried to make our way without our head lamps on--yeah, you couldn't see your hand if it was in front of your face.


Yes, that's the man I married on the right...ooh yeah...

That's enough updating for one night. Goodbye.