Wedding Bells...

My brother, Jason, married Jacey yesterday in the Salt Lake Temple. (I love this picture, by the way! I love the individual reactions) It was a beautiful (and very cold) day and a wonderful ceremony, performed by my Grandpa Brent Goates. The bride and groom looked wonderful and very happy. :) Our whole family was able to be together for it.
Before the ceremony we stopped by Rio (where else?!) for some lunch. It was the first time in several months that the Ohio extension of our family was able to go (Ben and Amanda) and here is a pic of them enjoying their first chicken salad in awhile!

We took a few pics outside the Temple while we waited to go inside. Here is a picture of my sisters and I.


The big game started at 4 pm and the reception was starting around 7:30. We set up a computer and projector in order to watch the game on the wall of the church where the reception was held. Even as people started showing up we were still watching the game - Thank you Ben for getting that figured out! We had a nice little set up in the middle of the fairy-tale decorations of the reception. The majority of our family members were very happy that we KICKED BYU'S BUTT!! ;) (sorry Ry...)


Pics of the reception...




I'm still trying to add more pics but some of them aren't loading right. Hopefully I'll have a few more up soon!!

Seriously So Blessed blog

My friend at work just showed me this blog which is supposed to be a spoof on typical LDS wives' blogs. Let me just say that whoever is writing this stuff has it down TO THE T! It is so funny I about peed my pants here at work. This "character" writing the blog is supposed to be this girl who is married, pregnant with twins, and her husband is at medical/dental/business school (covering most the LDS population, according to the writer).
The best post I've read so far was about the wives of the other students at this medical/dental/business school that got together one night for a "craft night". Haha Let me just say that whoever is writing this stuff knows our lives REALLY well.
Another hilarious one is her post on the personality color code haha!! It's too good.

Please check it out - you won't regret it!

http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

Tagged!

Eight shows I like to watch:
-Eli Stone
-House
-CSI
-Today Show
-Jon & Kate Plus 8 (I miss cable...)
-Take Home Chef (another cable show I can't watch anymore)
-Rachel Ray
-Friends

Eight restaurants I like to eat at:
-CAFE RIO, of course, can't get enough
-Chili's (but only the one in Salt Lake)
-Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ (most amazing, non-chain place we found in Henderson!)

-Rumbi's
-Olive Garden
-Applebee's (again, I only like the ones in Salt Lake for some reason)
-Sweet Tomatoes
-TGI Friday

Eight things I've done today:
-Ate a piece of homemade wheat bread
-Finished all the laundry! woohoo!
-Changed outfits a couple times... I'm such a female
-Checked facebook and email and blogs about 80 times
-Went to work
-Learned more about the filing system
-Got asked out on a Cafe Rio date by my husband :)
-Watched the new Carrie Underwood video on youtube

Eight things I'm looking forward to:
-Salt Lake in 7 more days!
-Seeing TWILIGHT the day after Thanksgiving

-The outcome of the 'Holy War'

-Playing games with the family
-Christmas
-A real paycheck with Ryan's name on it
-Being a mom one day
-Traveling

Eight things on my wish list:
-A piano
-Not having to work anymore
-Cost of living to go down
-A grill
-A trip to Hawaii, or just about anywhere tropical
-Tickets to Phantom of the Opera
-For our pool to be heated
-For it to be 5:00 and I can start my weekend!

Will it ever end?!

One of our fire alarms has been chirping on and off EVERY MORNING over the weekend. It started at 4:30 this morning and continued to chirp every minute or two through the morning... and is still going! I just got back from complaining to maintenance about it and hopefully they will come over soon. If they don't I may just end up reenacting the scene from Friends when Phoebe pulls it off the wall, wraps it in a blanket, and throws it into a dumpster!

In light of all the stresses involved with proposition 8 and the Church and the protests... I wanted to share something I read in the Book of Mormon a few minutes ago.
First, I believe that our Prophet is the Lord's mouthpiece. He does those things and says those things which God commands and reveals to him. The fact that our Prophet decided to give money to the campaign to define marriage says to me that the Lord told him to do so. The people on the other side of the issue are saying that it is against the statutes that apply to tax-exempt organizations. Whether that is true or not, I still believe that it is what the Lord wanted. The scripture that helps to put my heart at ease is 2 Nephi 26:24 which says: "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him."
If our Church organization does lose it's tax status or whatever else may come because there are groups of people targeting it, then I at least know that the Lord meant for those consequences to come because the decision was so immensely important. It was for the benefit of the world. And like our sunday school teacher pointed out yesterday in class: If the Church has to be in the news and on everyone's mind for one reason then we should be proud that it is for standing up for marriage!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween here in Nevada is very very different from what we're used to. First, it means a DAY OFF for most state or local businesses and most schools! That included me... but did not include Ryan unfortunately. But it also meant 90 degree temperatures and the sun going down at 5:30 pm. (Sorry to bring THAT one up again - it still bugs me...) Since I had the day off I decided to do my saturday work on friday so I could have saturday off of cleaning and grocery shopping. However, everyone else in Henderson had the same exact idea and the stores and roads were packed!

Around 3:00 we helped set up our ward cultural hall for the ward party later that night. Having a chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat in the parking lot is a tradition. It was very successful with plenty of donated chili and lots of fun costumes to see. Here are some highlights...



Ryan and some of our buddies eatin' chili. By the way, I tried to convince our activities committee to do a "Fire and Ice" type of dinner like the CH2 ward used to do but they didn't want to add the ice cream to the mix. I guess everyone is set on their own traditions. :)


I made these "golden spoon" awards for the best pots of chili. Not my idea - and I thought they'd be WAY too cheezy - but it ended up being a cute idea.


Some of these people went all out on decorating their trunks. Look how cool! This is just one of many pretty clever trunks.


This was by far the best costume... literally there is a child kneeling down inside this truck! He's a transformer! It was the neatest thing... and it was even homemade!


We didn't have much to our trunk... just a garland! haha. Doesn't it look awesome? Anyway we should have known to bring more candy! Our three bags were gone in about 5 minutes.


And next is Thanksgiving in just a few more weeks! I just love the holidays. :)