weekend wonders

I don't like being sick. Last winter I swear I was sick for the ENTIRE season. I blame the little kids. School has only been in session for ONE WEEK and I'm already sick. I better start taking my vitamins again.

We had an eventful weekend, as always.

Friday night Daren, myself, Jody, and Lacey went on a road trip to Layton to watch my little bro play football. Cottonwood vs Layton. Word on the street was that it was going to be a good game and IT WAS!! The plan was to leave at 5 so we could stop at The Burger Bar in Roy. Daren and I saw it on Diner's, Drive-In's, and Dives. Well we didn't end up leaving until 6, partially because of me. So we decided to hit the Burger Bar on the way back. We made it to the just in time so watch Cottonwood score in the first 30 seconds of the game. :) WOOT! The game was SO good and SO intense! It literally came down to the last few seconds of the game. BUT don't worry! WE WON! 36-40. Shane played almost the entire game and did so amazing! WHAT A STUD! It's always so entertaining to watch a football game with my family. We always gets so into it! After the game we chatted with a few fellow Colts and headed back home. I was sad we couldn't talk to Shane. They had to get back on the bus really fast. My mom wandered off and she said she talked to him for a minute though. Anywho! We headed to Roy to test out this burger joint. It was pretty good. I didn't enjoy the fries but the onion rings were good. And the burgers were pretty good too. I've definitely had better. On our honeymoon Daren and I went to Hodad's, also featured on Diner's, Drive-In's, and Dives. That was by far the BEST burger I've ever had. Anyways! We ate, made some friends with current Clearfield students and were off to Logan! We had a ton of fun and can't wait for the next Cottonwood game! By the end of the night all my Colt cheers were perfected!





Shane is number 32. Doesn't he look so cute?!



Go Colts!



On Saturday Daren and I went over to his parents to clean out their garage. It may not seem like a big ordeal but it was. Their garage is FULL of stuff. His dad, bless his heart, has a really hard time getting rid of things. I do have to admit that he did REALLY well. I was very proud of him. We worked on it ALL day. After 2 trips to the D.I. and 1 to the dump...we're only half way finished. We had fun though. Daren's parents, James, Susi, and Andy were all there and we got a lot done. I didn't take any pictures except for one. I wish I had taken a before and after shot. We're going back over tomorrow so I'll get some shots in.

You know it's going to be a good day when you aren't wearing matching socks. This is the one picture I took during the whole garage cleaning process.

Daren and I headed home around 6 so start/finish writing our talks. But first! We had to feed the ponies! Daren's cousin has 2 ponies and asked us to feed them this weekend while he was out of town. I went over with him because I wanted to feed them an apple. It was SO scary! I don't know why but large animals really terrify me. I would hold my hand out with the apple on it but as soon as they got close I would drop it. Eventually I got brave and fed one of them. We took Bear over with us and he does NOT like horses. He barked and barked. We had him go in the pen and he would smell their butts and try and get up close but then run away. It was funny but I was worried he would irritate them and they would buck him. Luckily they didn't.







Today was the dreaded day. The day we had to speak in church. It actually went really well. We had a lot of people tell us we did good too. I wasn't nervous either. I think it's because I was more focused on the fact that I felt like crap than the fact that I had to speak in front of 200 people. After trying to bribe Daren into writing my talk and failing several times I give in and wrote it myself. Well I probably wrote like 90% of it, Daren helped with the other 10%. I'm glad it's over though.

I'm pretty excited for the long weekend. Yay for holidays! Happy Labor Day people!

computers, dogs, and fried bananas

It finally came people! Our new monitor for our computer is here! Yay! It's so pretty and SO big! So far Daren and I both love it. Our computer has been working so great too! And it's so quiet which is weird BUT definitely nice! Sometimes you can't even tell it's on. AND I can multi-task without it taking FOREVER!

Before
It looks like a bunch of computer nerds live in our house.

Look at all those cords! It's an anxiety attack waiting to happen!

After
There are still a lot of cords but they are under control now. Isn't it pretty?

Check this bad boy out! You can rotate the monitor and it will flip everything on the computer! Saweet! We never plan on using it. It makes everything squished.


I thought this was hilarious. This GINORMOUS poster came with our computer...in case we are BLIND and can't read regular sized print. No offense to those who are blind.

Daren and I decided that our dog is CRAZY. I swear he has brain damage. He has this HUGE rope bone toy and he just WHIPS it around and it HAS to hit his head.

Take this video for example (I hope it works). He does this ALL the time! Doesn't he look like a wild horse?!


At night Bear will come and sleep at the end of our bed for about 20 minutes and then get off and get under it. Daren and I usually talk about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness before we go to bed. Well sometimes Bear will make these crazy angry noises. I imagine it is him saying, "Mommy. Daddy. I am trying to sleep. Will you PLEASE SHUT UP!" Like we are imposing on his rest. It's not like he doesn't do the same. I have to CONTORT my body around him when I'm trying to go to sleep.

Has anyone ever tried fried bananas? Oh man! They are SO good! We had them last night with our fish for Seafood Wednesday. Very tasty! Here is a picture of our dinner. I decided I take a lot of pictures of food. I promise we do more than just eat around our house.

It was a peanut crusted fish with fried bananas on top, rice, and veggies..oh and rolls. VERY DELISH! Anyone that wants to come to Seafood Wednesday is more than welcome by the way. :) Just holla!

Last picture for the evening. The girl that took our picture at Blackstone on my birthday e-mailed me the picture. I forgot about it! I'm glad she didn't! Thanks again Blackstone lady! I can't remember her name. Eh.


Until next time...

KINDERGARTEN

I started kindergarten today. I was nervous this morning. What if the other little children didn't like me? Or my little man? What if something awful happens and I freeze? UGH!

Don't worry! Everything went fine! I think my little man and I are going to be the hit of the classroom! It was pretty boring today though. My boss gave all of our toys to someone else....so we just hung out all day. Hopefully things will start to pick up within the next week or so.

I found out today that our nurse is only going to be with us until the end of the week and then we get a new one. BOO! I like the nurse we have now.

I do miss the preschool though. My little man's preschool teacher came in to see how things were going so it was nice to chat with her for a moment.

A bonus for going to school all day? NAP TIME! All 3 of us enjoyed that today!

As my loving husband put it tonight, one day down...4 more to go until the weekend! AND! It's a long one! Woot!

P.S. Our new computer works SO wonderful!! The E.T.A. for our monitor is Wednesday so I'll post of pictures of it as soon as we get our office cleaned up!

The last of BIRTHDAY WEEK!

Oh man this is going to be a LONG post! We have days 5, 6, and 7 to talk about and they were BIG days!

Here goes!

Day 5(Thursday): Thursday I didn't really do much during the day except work on our wedding book (which is looking so AWESOME!). The day all started when our computer just randomly decided to restart and lost the last 5 pages that I had been working! I was so annoyed! I was talking to Daren online when it was happening and we decided it was time to start looking for a new computer. Daren has had this computer since BEFORE he went on his mission, so like 8 or 9 years. OLD! And we had some recent "events" happen to it that have made it run so much slower! So the rest of the afternoon Daren was looking online at some new ones, just the brain part of it. Our monitor was pretty new. ANYWAYS! Daren found a few that he liked so we went into Best Buy after work to look around and see what they had. An hour later we walked out with a BRAND SPANKING NEW COMPUTER! It's so pretty! We got a new monitor, the brain part, and a printer! Oh man I was so excited! The geek squad kept it over night so they could clean it up and load the Microsoft programs as well as a virus program. Our new monitor won't be to us until Wednesday, hopefully. Here's a picture of it in the store. I'll take a real one when we get our monitor and everything cleaned. Our computer room is kind of messy right now. We have one million computers in it, at least it seems like it.



After we got home Daren fixed the MOST delicious meal, BREAKFAST! We had french toast, eggs, and bacon. He even poured me a big glass of O.J. and a little glass of milk. I LOVE HIM!





Day 6: THE DAY OF BIRTH! Can I just say I really had the most wonderful birthday and I owe it all to my husband! He has completely gone out of his way to make it PERFECT! I woke up when Daren woke up on Friday, around 7. As I was laying in bed I was listening to the radio and they were doing the birthdays for the day and all of a sudden I heard, "Happy birthday to Ashlee Tibbitts!" WAIT! THAT'S ME!! I was famous for like 7 seconds! It felt SO good! It was all because of my husband. After we had a quick breakfast and Daren was out the door! Bear and I went back to bed for a few more hours. Later that morning I got my MANI AND PEDI and it was so AMAZING! Thanks again to my hubby!



After my morning at the salon I went SHOPPING! I got such a steal on things! I bought 2 pairs of jeans, 3 shirts, and a skirt for less than $100! I was pretty proud of myself! I was pretty pooped after the morning and afternoon adventures so I headed home to the pup and for a little rest.

A little later in the day I went and helped Kourt's little sister, Kirsten buy her books for the upcoming school year. We had quite the adventure! We first headed over to Beat the Bookstore. I will NEVER buy from them. First, they didn't really have anything. Second, the guy there was SO rude. We bought her math book there because it was the only one they had. After we went up to Aggie Books and found a few more of them, including her math book and it was $30 cheaper so we bought it. We took the first math book back and the guy was so RUDE about it. He kept saying that he didn't believe us and kept playing 20 question about where we got it and how much it was. Finally I said, "Listen I don't really care, we bought a cheaper one and we want to return it!" So we returned it and left laughing! Our final stop was the actual USU Bookstore. We got there when they were closing, like those little gates were shut except for a TINY bit so we hurry and snuck in and ran to the back. We had like 4 people helping us. I think they really wanted us to hurry and get out so they could go home. But we got all her books! VICTORY! P.S. The math book was cheaper at the USU Bookstore than is was at Beat the Books. What a loser!

I finished just in time to pick up Daren from work, grab our computer from Best Buy, and head to dinner! We had reservations at Blackstone at 7 but we were both pretty hungry at 6 so I called them and they said to come on it! So we did! It's pretty nice in there and the food was DELICIOUS! I had the Pesto Chicken and Broccoli and Daren had the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo. I could only eat part of pasta. I knew I wanted dessert so I had to make sure I had enough room. The dessert was so YUMMY! They knew it was my birthday so they gave us a free cheesecake and then we also got the Triple Layer Chocolate Cake. Oh man it was so rich BUT so good!



It's a little chocolate thing that says "Happy Birthday"

My camera was dead and I didn't realize it until it was too late so all the pictures are from my phone. One of the girls up front offered to take a picture of us with her camera and she's going to e-mail to me...I haven't received that photo yet.

Onward we went back to our house. Oh by the who, I totally forgot my leftovers and I was sad about it! Eh. ANYWAYS! We stopped at the local Redbox for a little flick. There wasn't anything really good there, except for P.S. I Love You. I've been wanting to watch it again for the past few weeks. So since it was my birthday and I have such a great husband, we got it! But first we had to open the last present Daren got for me! Daren had me close my eyes while he got it. He put it on my leg, which I didn't even realize it was there! When I opened my eyes I was a little confused at what it was. Papers? I started reading them and he bought me SEASON 4 OF THE OFFICE! I was SO excited! I still am actually! It doesn't come out until September 2nd but I have a copy already waiting for me! I can hardly wait!

I was laying down for the whole process because I was so full from dinner...I think I had my pants unbuttoned too..


My reaction to the news!

This is my YES!!!!! face!

YAY!

Day 7(Saturday): Yes the birthday celebration still continued AFTER my birthday. Saturday morning Daren and I went up to the temple with James and Susi, which is ALWAYS AMAZING! After the temple I went to lunch with Kourt and her little sisters. I love the Kemp girls, well Kourt is a Taylor now. I wish we took pictures. Kourt why didn't we take any pictures?!

After lunch I ran over to Macey's to see if they had any Rainbow Chip frosting since they didn't have any the other night. THEY STILL DIDN'T HAVE ANY! They were completely out! I even made so girl check in the back for me. So I headed over to Smith's. Smith's always comes through for me. Rainbow Chip frosting? CHECK!

Home I went. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and hanging out with James and Susi. James was so nice to help us set up the new comp. They spent the majority of the afternoon and evening trying to figure out how to transfer our pictures and ITunes over to the new one.

My wonderful parents came up for the evening and we had some friends and family come over for ice cream and cake. Daren made the cakes and they were SO good! After cake and ice cream, we went to dinner with my parents and James and Susi and Andy. We all had a good time! It's always so good to see my parents! I'm really grateful that Daren's family and my family get along really well! It was the perfect end to a picture week!


It took me 3 blows to blow all the candles out!

My parents always give us the cutest things to decorate with!

I'm REALLY excited to put this up. It's hard to explain how it works so I'll just take a picture of it when it's up, hopefully this week!

The ENTIRE week was so WONDERFUL! I owe a HUGE thanks to my AMAZING husband, everyone who called me or sent me birthday wishes, my parents, and Daren's parents. THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL!

Day 4

Day 4 started and ending most magically. There were some touch and go moments though. Allow me to explain.

I got up and did some things around the house. I had a meeting for work at 3:30 so I left my house around 3 so I could run some errands before. I ran my errands and headed over to the school. My meeting went good. I feel a lot better about things now...that could all change next week though. ANYWHO! My meeting lasted longer than I thought, whatev. I got home around 4:45. I walked in my door and WHAT DID I FIND?!?! My loving and wonderful dog had COMPLETELY torn open the fish we were suppose to have for dinner that night! I found the packaging in one corner of the room and the 2 fillets spread out around the living room. STRIKE 1! I was NOT happy!! I quickly hung up the phone (Sorry mom!) I yelled for Bear in my "I'm so angry at you" voice. Oh boy did he know he was in trouble! He would NOT come out from behind the couch! Eventually I grabbed him and pulled him over to the fish and scolded him. His tail was between his legs and he was hoovering by me for a good 30 minutes.

Here's the thing with Bear. Whenever he has done something wrong, like this or getting into our garbage can or my craft bin and destroyed things, he always knows he's in trouble. Even if we walk in and see it, and he knows that we see it but haven't said anything yet, he'll walk over to us with his tail between his legs and hoovering. I don't know understand. If he knows he's going to get in trouble, why does he do it?!

Anyways, sorry about the side note. So, NOW WHAT? Seafood Wednesday is in a few short hours and we are certainly not using these. I picked them up and there was dog hair on them and I'm sure he had licked every square inch of them. I got a hold of Daren and gave him the low down. He was already having a CRAPTASTIC day at work so I'm sure that news just made everything better. I called Macey's so see if they had any in. He nice man said they did and it was even the "Catch of the Week" so it was super cheap. Brilliant! He asked if I wanted him to pull some aside for me. Nah! I'll be in in about an hour!

SO! I lock Bear up in the back and head out to get Daren from work. He's in a bad mood, I let him vent and give him a big smooch, they always make things better! We walk into Macey's and head over to the seafood department. I tell the guy we need 2 fillets of Orange Roughy. Before he even has the chance to walk 2 steps, another fella comes up and asks if I was the one that called him early. I reply in the affirmative. APPARENTLY! Right after I got off the phone with him some lady bought EVERYTHING they had! ARE YOU F'ING KIDDING ME?! WHY DIDN'T I HAVE YOU SET 2 ASIDE!?! He tells us they have these frozen pre-packaged ones that are smaller and have a lesser quality. STRIKE 2! Alright we'll take them. We had no other choice, Seafood Wednesday was happening in a mere 30 minutes. They guy was really nice about it and felt really bad!

We decided to pick up a few other things we needed. Some good french toast bread, ice cream for Saturday, Extra Virgin Olive oil, and some Rainbow Chip frosting for my cake (MY FAV!) We pick everything up and head to the frosting isle. THERE IS NO RAINBOW CHIP FROSTING! ARE YOU SERIOUS? How could they be out of that frosting? COMPLETELY OUT! They have one million of every other frosting! It was probably the same lady that bought all of the Orange Roughy. STRIKE 3! We decided to just leave. Lets try again tomorrow.

After that all was well! Daren was happy! We had our fish! Our BFF's were coming over for some delicious food! It couldn't get much better!

Daren made the BEST fish! Oh man! This week he fried it and then made a citrus sauce to put over it. It was so good! Thanks baby! We ate, had some good conversation, and ate some more. Some reason after we got all cleaned up we were SO tired! So we went to bed!

A few pics from the evening!


The fish AFTER Bear got a hold of it. Sick, huh?!

Our delicious meal. I never took pictures of food until I started blogging.

Or empty plates....

BFF's!

My wonderful husband and I.

PS. I still love my dog! Also, please note that I wasn't angry about the whole fish and frosting thing. It was more of a "are you kidding me? and I'm really irritated by the entire situation" type of thing. :)

Day 2 and 3 of BIRTHDAY WEEK

So far my birthday week has been amazing! Daren has taken such good care of me! Well, he always done but this week he has been SUPER amazing!

Monday (Day 2), when he got home from work he made me dinner. Pasta shells with this white sauce and seared tuna! SO good! One of my favs! He even sang to Happy Birthday to me but changed the words so it fit the occasion of a birthday week. I really love when Daren sings to me because he ALWAYS changes the words, even in church!

I found out earlier that day that kindergarten doesn't start until Monday (my boss is pretty scatter brained) so I wouldn't have to work on my birthday AND I have 3 more days of summer vacay! WOOT! ANYWAYS! Since I don't have to work on my birthday Daren wanted to give me one of my presents so I could use it ON my birthday! OKAY!! So he sat me down and had me close my eyes while he went and got it from his "special hiding place." It was a MANICURE AND PEDICURE! 2 of my FAVORITE things! I'm so excited! I called them the next day and I have an appointment at 11:00 in the morning. And after that I'm going SHOPPING! WOOT!

After opening up my first present. I look pretty homely.

Tuesday (Day 3), was pretty low key on the birthday celebrating since we got to fulfill our callings. Unfortunately for Daren, he got out of work a little later than planned and missed out on the Young Men's activity. There is always next week! And maybe the Young Men will have a set plan too! The Young Women went swimming at a SWEET pool in Brigham City. Nothing says awkward like going swimming with a bunch of people you don't know. It was fun though. I just sat back and watched most of the evening. Believe it or not but I'm pretty shy when it comes to new, BIG groups. Those girls are intimating. Now I know what the leaders I had growing felt like. But I'm really excited to get to know them, they seem like a really tight group. They remind me of the good old 13th ward when I was growing up.

ANYWAYS! I got home around 9 and was feeling kind of munchie, munchie for McDonalds. I didn't want to go get it because it was so late and I DEFINITELY don't need it! But since it is my birthday week Daren made me go. He said if I wanted it, I was going to get it. So we went! And it was so delish. It totally hit the spot. Thanks baby! I really have the BEST husband and I could not ask for anyone better!

Drinking my delicious Root Beer. Again sorry about the homeliness. I just got back from swimming and my swimming suit was bothering me.

On a side note. When we first got Bear he was so little that he could fit under Daren's bed and sleep. Well obviously he got a lot bigger and soon couldn't fit. Now that we got this new bed frame, it has raised the bed and now Bear has been sleeping under the bed. It quite cute actually. It's like his own little den/hiding spot. He loves it!

See?

The Beginning of a MAGICAL week....

....started out with a DOUBLE WHAMMY!

Yesterday morning Daren and I got a lovely surprise at our door, THE BISHOP! He wanted to come in and have a little "chat" with us. Fortunately, I had just got out of the shower so Daren told him it wasn't a good time. Daren agreed that we would meet him in his office at 12:45pm (church starts at 1pm). We got ready, slightly faster than usual, and headed over there. All morning I was SO nervous. I knew he either going to give us a calling or ask us to speak. PLEASE DON'T LET IT BE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS! PLEASE LET US BE OUT OF TOWN THE WEEK HE WANTS US TO SPEAK! PLEASE DON'T COMMENT ABOUT MY BIRTH CANAL AGAIN!

NO GO PEOPLE!

He gave us both a calling AND asked us to speak in 2 weeks. Yes we were planning on being IN town that weekend. The funny thing about us speaking though is that he told us we were the "youth speakers." How old does he think we are?! Anyways, he told us since we are the "youth speakers" we would only have to talk for 5-7 minutes. I can handle that. Plus, it's over Labor Day so I'm hoping a lot of people will be out of town. I asked Daren if he would write my talk for me. I believe his exact words were "You're a married woman now, I think you can write your own talks now." Boo. I'll ask my dad...or maybe Jace. I bet Jace will do it...

What are our callings you may ask? Well. Daren is a Priest Advisor and a Scout Leader for the Explorers. And I am a Beehive Advisor. We are actually both REALLY excited about it. Daren has had several callings in the Young Men's and Scouts so he's really looking forward to getting back in with them, plus he doesn't have to go to Elders Quorum now. I'm really excited to be in Young Women's. I LOVED my Young Women's experience. I only hope my little Beehives will too!

After a HUGE sigh of relief and another 3+ hours of church, we came home and got ready to head over to Daren's parents for Sunday dinner. This Sunday dinner was going to be EXTRA special! WHY?! We were celebrating MY BIRTHDAY!! WAHOO!

This week is my birthday WEEK. Daren informed me last week that we were going to be celebrating EVERY DAY this week! And I didn't even tell him to say that! Isn't he SO perfect for me?!

SO PEOPLE! Start shopping now and avoid the lines! The big day is on FRIDAY! I personally can NOT wait!

Enjoy the pictures from my FIRST of SEVERAL celebrations!

wedding pictures!

I know I posted the link for our wedding pictures. But for those of you who don't have the time or patience to look at all 700 pictures, I'm going to post some of my favs. There will be a lot of pictures, just FYI. Trying to narrow down 700 pictures to only a handful is pretty difficult.

Here goes...
















That took forever! Enjoy!