by the way...

do you have new years plans, because WE DON'T. wanna hang out??

happy new years to you!

with a little zooey for your viewing pleasure.

merry, merry christmas to you from florida this year.

love, the cutest mick and min ever!

and us, the helms:)

*better late than never, right?!

.the latest

First of all, let's all look at my cute niece, rubs. i just want to kiss those cheeks! jess sent us some pics of the kids and her subject line was, 'prepare to die of cuteness,' and now i will say the same to you. love these babes.

 Second, zach really got into the christmas spirit this year. you can come see our house if you want, it's lookin' good. kind of like candyland, if you ask me.

third, if you do come, make sure you come at night because we are missing four lovely trees and a strip of siding on the house. thanks windstorm.

 fourth, lace performed at the festival of trees and she was so good. she knew every move, it was so fun to watch her.
this girl loves to dance.

he only got this kind of attention because it was his big 18th bday. but this last pic is really cute.
i'll go through a couple of their conversations for you (lacey has like this low, raspy voice. it's the cutest thing ever... so you can read it in that voice)

conv 1.
lace: hi zach
b: no lacey, i'm tj - remember?
lace: oh, hi t-j

conv 2.
b: lace you did so good, you were the best one out there.
lace: i know t-j. hap birthday t-j.

aaaaand last but not least. ali and josh are ENGAGED.

ali's my girl, she always has been. and josh is perfect for her. and for us:) even zach approved (very much), he's protective of my friends, and not many men are quite good enough. but josh totally passed.

as for me, i've always been a josh fan.

i remember when he got home from his mission and ali was dating someone else and me and Kris, ali's mom, were talking about josh and i remember us saying, "but ali, he's gorgeous - i mean his EYES," and her response, "i know!! i know he's gorgeous stop talking about it!"

we're glad it happened. 'bout time.

(this was the night they got engaged. her ring is GORGEOUS.... good one josh).

.cute trucks for cute boys

i will now pay a tribute to zach's truck.
the truck has been sold. and i will take responsibility for complaining about the truck until he finally sold the thing. i had my reasons, and they were all $$ related.

but at least he got a photoshoot by larry his secret friend at work with the truck before it was sold to the hispanic family who invited him over for dinner and is going to teach him how to make mole? ya that happened.

BUT i will say that he has had that truck since he was 16 years old, and it knew him better than i'm sure a lot of people do. and they've been through a lot together. and he has had a lot of good memories in it and it has, for the most part, been there for him through a lot. and i will picture him in that little truck for many years to come, it suits him quite well, i know this because one of the first things he told me was that girls tell him his truck is cute. and he was cute. so they went together.
and i would have to agree with that even if i am remembering it a little tiny bit incorrect and he may not like how that came out....

goodbye truck. you will surely be missed. except for the dumping money into you part, we have enough car related things to take care of right now...

oh, and here is a preview of what our driveway looks like now:

i know, we're embarrassed for ourselves.

but GUYS you can't be picky when alex is finding you a car, if he says it's the one, it's the one. it's been a gem so far, and i'm sure it will be for yeeeeears to come. so trust me i know we look like dorks with our two white hondas in the driveway, but at least it has been one motivation for us to use our garage, so... you've just got to embrace it.

.a little advice for girls with car problems

so, after 2.5 years of marriage i've learned something.

tell the husband that you got a speeding ticket when he is WINNING his fantasy football game. 

guys, i'm getting smarter! 

minus the actually getting the ticket part... especially after thewrecklastmonth...

don't get the impression that i'm down playing the wreck. it kind of ruined my life for a day. maybe i'll tell you about it sometime. 

maybe it takes me 2.5 years to learn timing with the boy, but it only took him a month to learn exactly how to handle me in these situations. not that most people are tested twice in a month...
if you know zach, you know he twists his hair when he gets nervous or anxious. he was twisting like a mad man, but seriously only said, "it's been a rough month, huh."

yeah, it has. really rough.

timing may be something, but really, this boy wins the patient, understanding, loving husband award of the month. i might hang up a sign or something. or maybe a special parking place in the garage? or maybe just a big, fat kiss on the mouth.
ilovethisman.

.saturday mornings and youtube.com

this is what we do some lazy saturdays when we don't want to get up - waste time on facebook and youtube together! hey, at least it counts as family time right?

as you know, i am not an avid youtube fan. i know i look dumb saying that.
but you also know that if I am posting a vid, it is worth watching.
well, that is to say, if you care about things i care about (Nikki Menaj and Brandon Flowers I guess today?) then you will like it.
even if you aren't into those singers, i'm telling you, both videos are worth watching (if you haven't already seen them, i know they've been circulating).

Youtube vid 1.

that girl is freakin cute, am i right?
hilarious.

Youtube vid 2.

"there's still a fire burnin in there"
love it and love your face b flowers.

i've watched both videos several times now.
enjoy!

my favorite boy

we had a little surprise bday for z for his 27th birthday, i'm sorry did i say 27th? WHAAAA?!!

(ali made the invites... they were perfect. thanks lals - you are the best)

happy birthday sweet boy.
i like hanging out with you every day of my life. and watching shows with you. and carpooling to work with you. and doing projects in our little house with youuuuu.

did you know i love you? i do. i love you.

there is nothing that makes zach more happy than having all his family and friends around. so it was perfect. thanks all.

my brotherinlaw, who shall not be named (jon), said he almost accidentally ruined the surprise by saying something... but he was able to stop himself only because the repercussions of being featured on my blog came to his head. i think his exact words were, "OMG. my.brother.in.law. ruined the surprise!"

OMG JON. i dont sound like that ever. and thanks for not ruining the surprise. that goes for all of you.

.summer recap

helllllo. first of all... this new blogger interface is stressing me right out.
 i mean, don't get me wrong, it is much prettier and i'm sure it has every intention of being much more user friendly... but right now it is just making me angry. mainly because it's erased this post like 3 times. like, is it really even worth it?

Ness, i'm finishing this post for you girl.

we quite enjoyed this eventful summer of ours. i wish i had pics of candice's pool (oh, and dave's;)), but i don't. it's a lovely pool, and every minute there was time well spent, in our opinion. their backyard is a dream-yard, and you bet we took full advantage. and maybe wore out our welcome a little bit, but only expect them to do the same with our house this winter... starting with friday night lights, ok?

we've decided to make this winter a tv series-full winter. so if you have any other suggestions of must see series, we welcome them. (i haven't seen Lost... i hear this is something i would like... i guess we'll see?).

we will miss sitting on the back porch, which is zach's favorite part of our house.

this chick, we've been seeing quite a bit more of her and love it. she is one of our favorite little people, and she knows it. the other night she was over and zach was holding our niece, ruby, and izzy started crying, "no! MY zach-yyy!"
i guess she likes us too. or at least zachy. i'm pretty sure that made his night, she knows how to get the guys eating out of the palm of her hand already, watch out smoots! we love that sassy little baby.

her dad, marcus, was very instrumental in helping us get our house. pleasure doing business with you mr. smoot. he's a great friend to z and i'm glad we live so close now! (please dont move back to ogden ever you guys, it was just too far:)). And michelle (Izzy's mom) is the best, i swear she's fed my husband more times than i have. sometimes i think we overwhelm them, because we don't have that many people to hang out with most nights, but we're just glad they still let us come over.

oh and what would summer be without bees games? or mary and andrew? we quite like them. and who would have thought king's speech was better than red riding hood, certainly not me! (you guys, i think i made andrew feel bad this one night because he chose red riding hood at red box because he thought that's what me and mary would want to watch, and who would know that i have a strong opinion about, um, everything. i "boo-ed" his choice. and in the end they went back to red box and re-rented a movie. i'm mean you guys. and then later i heard mary and zach explaining the type of movies i like, because it's all about me some nights i guess, and this is what i hear, "she likes movies like bourne identity, high action, and like you've got mail."

in other words, i am inconsistent. and bossy. :)

So, i need you to know that although i'm sad to say goodbye to summer, i am quite pleased with fall this year! i think i'm mainly just loving this time of year because it's been, oh i don't know, maybe 17 years since i've been able to enjoy fall to it's fullest extent (meaning NO SCHOOL!!). so WELCOME FALL. as much as i love love love summer, you've never looked soooo good.

oh and did i tell you that zach boy ran the red rock relay last weekend? running all night long and not sleeping does not sound fun at all, does it? or am i crazy? someone the other day asked me if z was a runner, i didn't really know how to respond, so i said, well he has run a marathon, and he's running the red rock relay... and he runs sometimes. is he a runner? i guess he is. i'm proud of his running. he's good at it. and his team took first place! just kidding. that wasn't funny, i'm sorry. they really did do gooood though!

and i stayed home to do house projects and go to mary poppins with my mom and aunt and cousin. it was absolutely lovely. so many great songs. i think "you're practically perfect" is one of my favs. but there are so many good ones. spoonful of sugar, lets go fly a kite, it's a jolly holiday with mary... the list goes on.

and i got a lot of projects done.

i did a lot of painting and had grey's anatomy (go ahead and judge me) playing in the background (bless netflix, and alex's friend izzye for having netflix), and found myself crying during one of the episodes. you know, the one where denny dies, hopefully your not watching the 2nd season right now. anyways, does this make me emotionally unstable? i had to stop myself and turn on something great and trashy after that breakdown like reruns of the bachelor pad.

Also, i've been spending a lot alot of time at ikea lately. at zach's expense. BUT, our house is looking great, RIGHT ZACH?! (guys, tell him it looks worth every ikea penny spent:):)).

No it has been fun painting and putting things together and wiring, etc. and we've had some great helpers. Rob has been over many a night helping z paint, wire, hook up, clean wood floors, etc, etc. And zach, finally ready to learn all his dad's old tricks from his years of experience, has been soaking it all in (at least i hope he has...).

And, you know my friend ali T? she has been over helping me figure out my life at my new home. shopping, planning, painting, planning, shopping, rearranging, etc. it has been great living near her again after about five years. we were just meant to be together. preferably across the street from each other for the rest of our lives, but down 4th north will work as well.

i'll show you my house sometime, when i actually complete something rather than doing two thirds of each room and then moving to the next because of something i like to call A-D-D.

but i love it. i love having projects around the house. i get so excited when i get some inspiration (or when ali does...).
and i ate a lot of peanut butter m&ms while z was running races, i bought the party pack you guys.
breakfast lunch and dinner people. but z said no more buying paint, i've bought a lot of paint. like, a lot of paint. it's not my fault i want to repaint every room in this house a different color!

someone buy paint for me please, k thanks.

sorry for the forever-long post. but did you watch the full hour of modern family tonight? if you didn't please record for next week so we can be friends. and add parks and rec to your dvr while your at it, it premiers tomorrow.

until next time!

Guess where we'll be watching the Bachelor Pad next Monday??!!!

AT OUR NEW HOUSE.

that we closed on yesterday.

and are moving into this weekend.

that's right people. me and zach boy are officially home owners/grown-ups/the-bank-owns-us-and-we-don't-even-care.

Sorry for the silence on the blog-town... this process has been a little crazy. lots of ups and downs. but it's good. and we've had some really, really great helpers. I'll tell you about them later.

But for now... i need to pack.

YAYYYYY!

We really are so excited.

so so so excited.

moab rocks & moab with the rocks

oh so clever i am.
haha.
come on, it's late.

first food stop- the classic burgers and fries.
my fav.
i would give this particular place, milts, an average though.
their fry sauce just didn't quite have it.


geez i know. road trips make me look like this. im sorry to share.

you cant see it well, but... my mom has a really pretty lip color.
just saying.
so you can check it out in another photo at another time.

and then there is tj.
whats up my brotha.
the one and only reason this kid is a cool cat is because GORDON HAYWARD wrote on his Fbook wall. The real Gordon Hayward! Is that not crazy?! We're taliking the NBA here. Sorry we're obsessed with him lately, but, come on, that's pretty awesome, right?

and ben and dad drove all the way from CO.
it's a worthy thing to make the trip for, moab.
hi benj.
he's been gone for a couple months.



he's a cute boy.
and i really like my new sweat pants.
and this was his first time to moab (what the... i know, who hasn't been to moab, right?).
and, i dont know if you noticed or anything, but he made that shirt.
as in picked out the design on the wall AND the tee-shirt he wanted it on.
the asian chick then ironed it right on for him. and also told us that "like sometimes people think im like mexican or something, but im not, im asian, like vietnamese."
please tell me this is not how i sound in real life, too?
ugh.

brothas
one of these things is not like the others.
please excuse the freaky eyes us rocks have.
not really sure if it's because we are super cool or something - but it must be because zach does not have this same super power (see pic of me and z above)... yep, just us.
i dont know.

when i was younger, we used to go jeeping in moab every year for the jeep safari.
it was a blast.
it was really fun getting back to moab and spending time with the fam.
but next time i go, im going jeeping.

are you in?
let's do it.

Newport: Round 3

oh how we love newport.

i know, they are to die for.

is she not the cutest ever?
best suit collection goes to this little chunky monkey.
so darling.

the guys and the gals.
as you can see, the played botch-ee (??) ball pretty much nonstop.


oh balboa- and ohhh balboa bars. yum.

great pic of pam and rob.
thanks for another great year in newport.

ira: "candice look at that fat kid"
candice: "ira, do you think he's a cute kid"
ira: "yes"
candice: "then let's just call him a cute kid"

this happened two feet away from the little chubby but cute boy and his dad.
that still makes me laugh - apparently us calling rubs fat girl has worn off on ira... haha.

this kid is growing up.
all of the sudden he's a kid, like a five year old boy, not a baby anymore.
little cutie.



jon made us go to this fancy restaurant that Jim Rome eats at (whoever that is:))
and, let me tell you, we ended up quite pleased.
me and zach had the best meal, in my opinion.
but i cant remember what we got now. ask candice. she'll remember.

in the bathrooms they have a person to squirt soap into your hands and give you a paper towel. i think this was the highlight of zach's night. i kid you not.
not to mention the chips and salsa were delish... and they were not about to let us run out of it either. so of course, like little kids, we filled up on that before our meals came:)
either way, it was a fun night out on the town- and drew the babysitter even had ruby walking by the time we got back. wowza.

direct quote from ira after asking zach to "come play with him" about five times "zachy's not going to help us, huh?"
how can you say no to the kid after that. you cant.



cool shorts z.
zach got sunburned. like really sunburned.
i feeeel your pain boy.


candice got really good at putting the rubs to sleep on the beach.
sweet baby.
sad day to come home.
alex and kels, you were missed.
until next year.