My newest addiction: American Idol

I realize that this is something like American Idol season 10 or something, so I'm a little late jumping on the Idol bandwagon.This is the first season that I am legitimately interested and am watching consistently. I didn't watch the first round of audition episodes, as I find them exhausting, but ever since the top 24 were selected I have been a watcher.

First, I gotta discuss the judges. I really love the Steven-Jennifer-Randy mix. Yes, they're a little generous with their critiques, but they're really enjoyable. Steven says the most ridiculous things and he cracks me up. I'm not missing Simon, Paula, or Kara at all. I might be missing Ellen a little, but just because I love Ellen so much.

Anyway, here are my top 3 and bottom 3 at this point in the season:

Top Three

Pia

I think that she's absolutely fabulous and I wouldn't be surprised if she won the whole thing. She has definite star quality and seems like she's the professional showing the others how it's done.

Lauren

She's only 16 or so, and she's got such a great voice. She's fun and spunky and I think that she'll go far in the competition. Cute southern girl.

Stefano

Although he wasn't originally voted into the top 10, I think that he's just great. He has a darling look and I could see him fitting in with the Chris Brown-style music (not the girlfriend beating though).

Bottom Three:

Casey

Oh my gosh, the judges made such a big deal about using their save on Casey this week and were all, "You deserve to be here, you're wonderful, blah blah blah." I beg to differ. Yes, he has a unique sound and style, but that doesn't mean that I like it. And his beard grosses me out too.

Naima

This girl is very talented and very unique, however I just don't  love the reggae sound. I feel like she has a narrow appeal, which means that she'll get voted off in a few weeks. 

Thia

This girl has an amazing voice, but I just find her boring. She's very young- 16 I think- but she doesn't seem fun or spunky, just blah. 

Living up to his middle name.

This past weekend Ben, Dylan, and I loaded up the car and headed to Las Vegas to visit with a few of our favorite families- The Kowallis family! It had been over two years since we last visited Nathan, Taylor, Jordan, and Peyton and it was definitely time!

We arrived on Friday afternoon and had a great time from the go. We headed to dinner and then went back to the house to relax for the night. The kids were playing, all was well, and then bam, disaster struck. Dylan (who has been going down stairs for about 8 months now) fell down the stairs at the house.... like rolled alllllll the way down. I was at the top of the stairs and saw the whole thing. It was terrifying. Time went in slow motion as Dylan rolled and rolled and I said in a loud, yet very calm voice, "He's falling down the stairs. He's falling down the stairs."

Poor kid was hysterical when he finally hit the tile floor in the kitchen at the foot of the stairs. We determined that an immediate trip to the ER wasn't necessary, so we decided to stay put for a few minutes while Dylan calmed down. He was fine when he was being cuddled by Ben, but whenever he moved he would get hysterical again. After some trial and error we realized that the hysterics would begin whenever we would touch his collarbone.

Luckily, Nathan was good friends was a doctor in their ward and called him up to get his opinion. The doctor was out to dinner at TGI Fridays, but told Nathan to bring Dylan over to the restaurant and he would check it out. Ben and Nathan went to the restaurant while I stayed behind with the twins (Taylor was at a bachelorette party that night).

The doctor confirmed a broken collarbone, but unfortunately there wasn't much that could be done. They don't do collarbone braces for toddlers, but the doctor gave medication recommendations and let us know what we needed to look out for.

Dylan is definitely living up to his middle name of Danger, don't you think?

Luckily, Dylan is doing much better. He is still in pain, but is in good spirits. The weekend was still great- lots of quality time with Taylor and the kiddos, shopping at H&M, and waaaay too much restaurant food.

And as usual, I took about 4 pictures during the whole weekend. Grrrr for forgetting about my camera. Here are a few that I took:

Mohawk boy pre-accident.

Dylan playing in the backyard post-accident. 

Survivor cat.

Since you are all undoubtedly wondering, Oscar survived his dental appointment. 

I think Ben wishes that he died. 

Now Oscar is laying low and is enjoying the good life of eating soft food for a week. I think that he deserves a little pampering after getting 4 teeth pulled, followed by getting his ears and tail pulled by Dylan once we got home. 

Columbus lovies.

Last night I was able to have dinner with some of my very favorite girls- Melissa, Kaley, Hollie, and Andrea. Hollie was visiting from Indiana (and is looking absolutely stunning at 34 weeks pregnant), and the rest of us are Indiana girls living in Utah. 

We made a ruckus at my favorite pizza joint Pizzeria 712... Andrea got walked in on in the bathroom, Hollie got wax spilled on her cardigan, and Kaley cracked us up with crazy work stories. This was a sad dinner, though, because it's the last time we will be getting together before Melissa leaves us to move to southern Utah. 

The party continued where we terrorized a the poor male cashier at The Chocolate and then resumed creating a ruckus by re-hashing Indiana gossip and discussing Hollie's upcoming mommyness. The poor cashier kept walking past us whenever it seemed we were talking about something relating to bodily functions/unattractive words.

There's just something so wonderful about hanging out with people who have known you since childhood. There's no drama, no cattiness, and no bs. I love you girls!

I die.

Little friend was soooo sleepy yesterday afternoon. He crashed hard in his carseat, and didn't stir at all when I unbuckled him, took him into the house, and put him in his crib. Such a cute boy.

Why-oh-why.

When did my baby become a little boy?

Please just make it stop.

{Dylan riding the carousel @ Provo Beach Resort}

Oh dear, here we go.

Today is a momentous day in my life- I'm officially giving up my beloved DDP, along with all other soda. I'm not sure whether this will just be a temporary goodbye or a lasting decision, but one thing is for sure: My soda intake has got to go. 

It's not like I drink a horrendous amount of soda each day- usually 2 cans, but after talking to my favorite weight-loss diva Allison I have learned all about the negative effects of diet soda. 

It is with a heavy heart that I say adios to my favorite drink for at least 7 days. How sad it it that I'm feeling all sorts of apprehension about giving up a stupid drink for a week? 

Now I need something to take over the habit of drinking something fun... Crystal Light, here I come. 

Awkward + Awesome.

I've decided to copy a bit from The Daybook and do an "Awkward + Awesome" post. Hooray!

{There is something awkward about this photo. See the list.}

Awkward:
-Thinking that I was so fabulous for finding 540 thread count sheets for our California King Mattress for only $48 on Ebay. The sheets arrived and they feel more like 140 thread count. Scratchy, scratchy, scratchy. And you've got to love the seller's no return policy. Gaaaaah.
- Having a seriously disgusting, phlegm-rattling cough and getting into a coughing fit while on a phone call with a client
-Making a vet appointment for my cat Oscar to have a dental cleaning and tooth extractions. What 5 year old cat gets periodontal disease? My cat, that's the one.
-Spending 12 hours on an interview panel at work.... there are just so many things that I wish I could say. Darn you, work confidentiality. All I can say is this: If you're interviewing for a job, make sure that your breath doesn't reek. If I can smell it 6 feet away then there is a problem.
-Other that feeling awkward about taking self portraits, my pink t shirt makes me feel awkward. Why? Because a week after I bought it, I saw an elderly woman wearing the exact same shirt at church. Guess who doesn't really wear it for that reason? Yup, moi.

Awesome:
-Bachelor Brad picked Dolly Parton Barbie Emily. Y'all (in a southern accent, of course).... this girl is just so sweet. Bless her heart.
- Weather nice enough to let Dylan play outside
-Finding out that the two dresses I ordered from Target.com (and were briefly out of stock) are on their way
- Chobani yogurt. There are no words for the deliciousness. It also has like 38492 grams of protein per serving, which I like. Hopefully it'll sit like a rock in my stomach.
- Finalizing plans for a Vegas trip. Hooray!
-Dylan starting to say, "Amen" at the end of nighttime prayers. Too cute for words, that boy. He also says, "Si" for yes. That brings his Spanish word vocabulary to three words (agua, otro, si).

We've got ourselves a winner!

The winner of the amazing and fabulous $40 towards csnstores.com is.....

Congrats Taylor!!! I'll email you with the details!

Movie Week + last call for giveaway!

Almost every night after Ben and I put Dylan to bed, we return to the basement where we watch either a movie or catch up on our DVRed tv. This week we were pretty ambitious with our movie watching. Here are three that we watched this week, much to my pleasure. It's pretty easy to see who picked out all of these movies :)

 I had been waiting and waiting for it to come out on Netflix, but whadayaknow- the day it came out and was at the top of my queue, I received the nice notification that this movie had a very long wait on Netflix. Boo. I decided to bite the Blockbuster bullet and pick up a copy so that I wouldn't have to wait any longer.

I ended up loving this movie! Sure, Katherine Heigl's role as the work-obsessed, no time for a personal life, high strung single lady is a little old, but she plays it well. Josh Duhamel... well, what can I say. I'm a fan. The movie had some very, very real moments and some that were just ridiculous (hello, how do you not know that you have poop on your face) but overall I was a huge fan!

I really loved You Again. Ben thought that it was painful, but never mind him. Kristen Bell played such a good little reformed dork and it reminded me to be thankful that my high school experience wasn't deeply traumatizing. I think my favorite parts were when Betty White was in the scene, as she is hilarious. It also made me realize that I needed to think about what my child's initials would be prior to naming them. No one wants the initials MOO.

Warning: Do not see this movie in the theater and then post on facebook how you just saw the movie and thought that it was hilarious. Your 50-something parents will take that as a recommendation for them to see the movie. An angry phone call from your parents will result. True story.

Yes, this movie is hilarious, but I definitely wouldn't say, "Hey mom and dad, go see this movie!" I saw it in the theater in September and then again this weekend when it showed up with my Netflix movies. Emma Stone is just such a funny girl with great humor. Rent this if you are going to see this with peers- not your parents, not impressionable pre-teens. Mind you, it's PG13, but it's on the scandalous side.

Also, today is the last call for the super amazing fabulous stupendous giveaway for $40 to csnstores.com!!! Enter here!

Newlywed flashback.

Funny story for you all:

When Ben was turning 24 (which really seems like a lifetime ago, not 4 1/2 years) he wanted me to make him an apple pie rather than a birthday cake. I had never made a pie from scratch- face it, I could barely manage mac and cheese- so I was really nervous about how the pie would turn out. 

Amazingly, the pie turned out perfectly. So good, in fact, that Ben didn't want to wait until it had fully cooled before we ate it. Being that it was his birthday, I had to put candles in his birthday pie. 

Too bad I didn't factor in the possibility of the candles melting into the still-hot pie. By the time I finished singing "Happy Birthday" the cake had a ridiculous amount of blue wax all over and inside the pie. 

We still ate the pie- you know that I wasn't going to throw my crowning cooking achievement in the trash- but we had to spend a lot of time picking out blue wax. Joy.

This is just one of my "failure as a newlywed wife" moments, and there were many. I'll have to share another more of these moments in the future cause they were ridiculous.

Don't forget to enter in the best giveaway on the block- $40 to CSN stores! Click here to enter!

It's a giveaway! Hooray!

Hi friends! I'm so excited to host a giveaway for you! The nice people over at CSN Stores contacted me about doing a giveaway for my fabulous friends and blog readers!

I'm sure that you have all heard of CSN stores, but in case you haven't, check them out! They sell pretty much everything under the sun! You should especially check out their office desks- they have amazing selection and really good prices.

Why am I looking at office furniture online? Because my desk looks like this:

Wop, wop...
{Yep, Harry Potter is my screensaver}

All you need to do in order to enter is leave a comment on this post saying what you'd buy if you won. The winner gets a $40 credit to CSN stores to buy whatever your little heart desires!

The giveaway starts now and ends on March 13. The winner will be announced on the 14th via random.org

Yes, this really happened + a fun announcement!

First, please know that the announcement is not a pregnancy announcement. No prego.

(In case you were curious, we're planning on havinging baby #2 when Dylan is 3. Truth be told, I'm convinced that baby #2 will actually be twins, so maybe Dylan will be closer to 3 1/2. We'll see.)

The following sentence actually came out of my mouth last week:

"Honey, I think that Dylan may have downloaded a porn subscription onto my phone!"

Luckily, no pictures of nekkids have shown up on my phone (and no weirdo charges on our phone bill), but I was a little nervous. You see, I sometimes let Dylan play with my phone even though he broke my old phone a few months ago. He loves it and sometimes accidentally calls Ben. It's cute, I promise. Anyway, last week he was pushing all sorts of buttons and and I saw that he had pulled up the internet on my phone and a picture of a scantily clad woman was on my screen! I didn't take much time to see what he was doing, but I did see the word "subscribe." Eek! I just took the phone away and hit end, end, end until the normal screen came back. Whew.

Ok, on to the announement! I am hosting my first ever giveaway!

Even better, it's for something that you'd actually want! Not some janky craft that I threw together

Stay tuned, because I'll be announcing the giveaway details tomorrow!

Friday mashup.

1. This is what I was wearing to court a few weeks ago. I snapped the picture because I wanted your opinons on whether it was ok for court or not. Take a look:

Is a sequined shirt considered too flashy for court? I felt like the black pants and purple cardigan toned things down a bit.

2. Ben bought Dylan this little car on ksl.com a few days ago and the boy is absolutely obsessed. The first thing that he said yesterday morning was "Car? Car?" When it was time to go into the office, I literally had to drag Dylan out of the car kicking and screaming.

3. Has anyone else tried these things? They are amaaaaaaazing. Like, you can't stop yourself from eating 20 in one sitting because they're so good. Consider yourself warned.

4. My friend Stacey and I are going to Nicole Hill's (A Little Sussy) party and book signing at Alice Lane tonight. I'm way excited to geek out and meet a blogger that I admire and hopefully pick up a copy of her photoshop 101 book, as I have photoshop and I don't have any idea how to use it. 

Proud Cougar.

This week has been a big one for BYU sports- the men's basketball team was ranked #3 in the nation. That's amazing! I'm a very proud BYU alum and I love seeing their programs do well. Another biggie for BYU is the news of starter Brandon Davies getting booted from the team due to honor code violations. Ouch.

In case you aren't familiar with the honor code, take a look here.

I know all about the honor code- as does any BYU student, as it is absolutely drilled into your head from the moment you start the process of applying to BYU. You cannot be accepted to BYU without an ecclesiastical endorsement, and you cannot even register for classes each year until you have an updated endorsement from your bishop. Every class syllabus I received had references to the honor code, and it was posted all over the place. Basically, if you go to BYU, you know exactly what you're signing up for. Yes, it's very, very strict, but if you don't like what you see there are thousands of other schools you can attend. One of the reasons that I busted my tail to get into BYU was because of the honor code. I loved attending a school where the students lived by the same standards as me.

I do feel sad that Brandon Davies' honor code violations are posted all over the internet, as no one wants their private matters turned into a public spectacle. I also feel sad that he's probably feeling like he's let down his team, school, and community.

Anyway, I guess the reason for this post is to say that I'm super proud of the BYU men's basketball team for being so great this year (even though I silently curse you on game days when University Parkway becomes a joke to drive down) and that while the loss of a starter is never good, I still think my Cougs can finish the season on top.

Hello there.

I've updated Dylan's blog a bit. Check it out here!

Check in of the resolutions.

Alrighty friends, remember when I posted about all my New Year's resolutions? They were featured on this post.  I had some lofty goals and I think that I can say that I've done alright so far. I was a rockstar in January,and  so-so at best in February. Put those together and you've got alright. Here's a check in of my progress:


1. Work out four times each week.
 In January I gymmed 3-4 times each week and was feeling really good. February....ehhh. I think that I went 1-2 times each week. I'm already off on a good foot for March, as I worked out this morning to the sweet sounds of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.

2. Cook dinner four times each week.
Again, I was a rockstar in January. I had my menu and I was 16 for 16 meals in January. February I never got around to making the menu, so I was quite ill-prepared in the kitchen. I think that I cooked twice each week. I'm making the March menu tonight (tonight is a burger and salad for me, burgers and tater tots for Ben and Dylan... look, I never said that the meals were impressive). 

3. Eat more fruits and vegetables.
I really am doing better at this- I try to have at least one veggie each day, and at least one fruit. I don't know how people eat 15 million servings of fruits and veggies each day... probably cause they aren't having cereal for breakfast and lunch or aren't eating granola bars and goldfish for snacks. I still have a ways to go though. I always have a snack around 10 am, and my goal is for that to always be a fruit or vegetable. 

4. Read to Dylan for at least 15 minutes each day. 
This goal is pretty hard, as Dylan is a Tasmanian devil who doesn't sit still, but I would say that we read for about 10-15 minutes each day. This consists of him saying, "Book!" and then bringing me something for him to read. Sometimes one of his books, other times my Better Home & Garden Magazine.  

5. Work on being content with my life. 
I'm feeling pretty good about this one. I still love me my pretties, but I think that I spend less time each day thinking about what I want, want, want. 

6. Work goal: Complete my documentation within one working day.
Ummmm yeah. How about that one. The documentation is getting done, but probably not as quickly as it should. 

7. Church goal: Plan my Relief Society Lessons more than 48 hours in advance. 
Doing great with this one! Teaching RS is going great from my perspective, as I always have something prepared and I don't notice any sleepers in the audience. Wahoo!