HAWAII

Hey people, guess where I'm going in 2.5 days ... see below and drool:

MELE KALIKIMAKA!

Thanksgiving '08

This year Thanksgiving was at our house. A large portion of the Henderson family joined us. Great times, great food, fine holiday fun!

Kate sitting on Ryan & Emily's pup Terra, yes she is Cleo's daughter, Terra not Kate.

Settlers of Catan i loathe you.

Heidi & Me on a hike at Zions.

The boys and their parents. Madison and Jordan playing nice.

My nieces and nephews are cuter than yours!

quit your whining

There has been some whining about me not updating my blog for a couple weeks. Well since I have nothing new to share with my loyal readers, here are some oldies but goodies. Just a few, maybe i'll add some more, if you're lucky!! Graduation from BYU, sister Lauren, Grandma & Grandpa Daines and me

Christmas Eve pajamas, 2005 edition.

My 20th birthday, look how short my hair is and how excited i am about that adorable cake!

Fall girls trip to Logan.

ha um another girls trip, i don't even know what to say. These girls are simply marvelous. My roomies/sisters from BYU, minus Buff, where were you Buff, oh wait maybe you were still in high school in Canada, yeah this may have been our freshman year, yes it was cause my face is different.

HELLOOOO KITTY!

My brother Paul's 30th birthday was on Monday. The friday before there was a fabulous party held in his NYC apartment in his honor. We lived in Japan a long time ago and in Japan, as many of you may know, this giant pink kitty is kind of a big deal. This is HELLO KITTY! Paul got way more hello kitty in his life than he bargained for mainly because of his 2 younger sisters, Lauren and I, who quite enjoyed the kitty of hello. There was an amusement park devoted to this feline, which we frequented back in the day, and basically everywhere you turned in Tokyo you see this kitty and her little friends.

There is the background, and if you knew Paul and the rest of my siblings it would be even funnier, but regardless this post should knock your socks off. So for this milestone of birthdays my siblings and I had all been racking our brains for a brilliant idea, he is very difficult to buy for, mostly because things he needs he just buys and beyond that he is not really interested. Oh men, you have it all wrong, but that is neither here nor there, but perhaps the topic of another post. WE SENT HIM A FREAKING HELLO KITTY BIRTHDAY TELEGRAM!!!! How amazing is that? How brilliant and hilarious?!?! And I guess what made it even funnier, I got the report from one of Paul's good friends, is that the guy in the Hello Kitty costume was this odd Nigerian guy, who didn't speak great English, and kept trying to get awkwardly close to Paul. Aahh birthdays and weird gifts, there is nothing better.

mmmm boots

um, can my secret sugar daddy santa somewhere out there buy these scrumptious boots for me for an early christmas present, and by early i mean so that I can wear them to Robyn's wedding 3 weeks from this Saturday?

Halloween

This year our neighborhood decided to have game houses during Halloween, I think there were about 10 houses that had little games the kids could play while trick or treating. We hosted one of the games - The Spooky Eyeball toss. It was so fun to sit out on our porch like old people in our Canada chairs (thanks buff) and interact with all the kids. Fine holiday fun! Me and Cleo, and Tori and her springer Birdie, who was a cowardly lion at work on Halloween.

Aint she the purdiest?!?!

Forgot to put these up around Steve's birthday. I held a gun for the first time. And can I just say, I think it's a little insane that they will just give you a real gun with real bullets and just let you out into their little range. Perhaps that's the city girl in me, but I find that slightly psycho. Regardless, this was wicked fun. We went to a shooting range in Mesquite and shot clay pigeons (side note: i was really hoping these "clay pigeons" would be in the form of cute little ya know clay pigeons, alas they were not). I super sucked while Steve rocked it. I'm a little more afraid of Steve now.

Steve was thrilled that he could wear his heinous construction orange hat.

BEEN TAGGED ... it stung a little at first

ABOUT MY SWEETHEART

*What is your husband’s name: Steven Jared Henderson (other aliases: Hendo, Estebe, Ststststeeven James-matt cope you better read that and laugh out loud)
*How long have you been married? 3.25 years
*How long did you date? 11 months including engagement
*How old is he? 29
*Who eats more sweets? me, steve eats the crappy candies that your ortho used to give you
*Who said I love you first? him
*Who is taller? him
*Who can sing best? obviously that's a tie
*Who is smarter? street smarts (and cred) me, book smart him
*Who does laundry? we each do our own, he is very particular about folding and so very early in our marriage i said something to the effect of "listen you crazy man with ocd, if you are going to be a folding nazi ..."
*Who pays bills? me
*Who sleeps on the right side? estebe
*Who mows the lawn? him, as if i would ever touch a lawn mower, i'm actually insulted by this question
*Who cooks dinner? me
*Who drives? him, unless we need less than 294 minutes to get somewhere
*Who is first to admit they are wrong? me, which is funny because I'm wicked stubborn but I would rather admit that I am wrong first so we can not be angry at each other
*Who kissed who first? steven james, he said connecticut then kissed me
*Who asked who out first? him
*Who wears the pants? it depends on the pants, red leopard stirrup stretch pants would be me, but high rise acid wash jeans would be him

i tag emily henderson, heidi, emily russon, christy, buff, fanny, mans, samwise yeah how do you like them apples

Dogs + Halloween = Wicked Sweet

prepare yourself

... for this sweatshirt in size XXL on Cleo in the near future.

Ode to Steven

Today is the 29th birthday of my dear hubby Steve. Here is a top 10 list of why i love him ever so much:

10)His ability to fall asleep in any position, any place, any time astounds me.

9) His patience with my daughter Cleo. Even when she dug up a hole* in our brand new backyard, the ink on the check still fresh, he didn't even kill her. (*by hole i mean large crater,)

8) His awesome hair ringlets and fine behind

7) In order for him to go from a stand still to running he must move like a locomotive, he get his arms going in motion, soon after his legs start chugging, it's pretty sweet, if you haven't seen him run you should ask him to next time you see him

6) He is an exceptional listener. When we very first started dating it was one of the first things that really hooked me. All the other millions of boys I had dated (ha) weren't nearly as good of listeners, but he listens so intently and asks such thoughtful questions.

5) He eats everything I make for him with a smile on his face.

4) He doesn't whine when I pick up and skip the country, even when my whole Stowell family is at our house and I leave, he still doesn't even whine, that really happened, and it probably will happen again some time.

3) He is hot

2) He works real hard for the money. But really, he does work hard to provide for me and my habits.

1) He puts up with me and HE LOVES ME!

... AND I HIM!

Happy birthday bubbahz. I love you and look forward to many more fantastic celebrations in the years to come.

best song EVAH

Have you even heard the new song by T.I. and the fabulous Rihanna "Live your life" because it's going to blow your mind! If you are not prepared for a life altering moment do not go here, but if you are, join the club.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnM7WdLihKE

JEALOUS!?!??!

Here is a list for you all:
1) 2 cousins hitched
2) porcupine attack
3) new calling - Beehive Adviser (so thrilled btw)
4) temps cooling (also so thrilled)
5) long road trip
6) puppy on extended visit
7) NASCAR
8) Rise and Shout

JEALOUS?!?!??! that's for you Juice, and you too Jason.

I took a leave of absence for the month of August, it was lovely. Juice, Lauren, Mother, Odette and I hopped in the car and drove to Santa Barbara and met up with my brothers and Dad. We had a stupendous vacay and look forward to many many more trips there. About 6 years ago my parents bought a house in Santa Barbara, which thrilled all of the Stowell clan. Santa Barbara is a totally amazing city, it's charming, extremely dog friendly, and beautiful. There are tons of great restaurants and splendid shopping. I'm infatuated with this city!



Elephant seals, very fat and weird, and I love them.Funny huh?Shabu shabu ... mmm in my belly.Juice and I at Will and Rachel's reception.The happy couple! Married in the Oakland temple.My best cousin, Marjolaine. I have so many hilarious memories with this mischevious girl, she's wonderful.We drove from Santa Barbara up to Oakland for Will's wedding then drove from Oakland to Salt Lake. It was quite the loop. We made it to Bear Lake finally and had a great Stowell reunion week. Here we are playing deadly spoons. THAT GAME WAS TOO FUNNY. Here is a glimpse: Mother said to Father "Come on David, put your big girl pants on!" OH MY GOSH FUNNY!Then Jason and Steve got the weirdness fever too. I was just taking the above picture and right after I did Jason got all wicked cozy and close to Steve and put on this huge grin, then Steve felt awkward and we all laughed because it was funny. Then we went to Park City and enjoyed some Rocky Mtn. Chocolate Factory, apparently the owner of this company lives in Promontory where my parents are building. P.F. Changs guy and Rocky Mtn. Choc guy watch out, Audrey Henderson is about to be your bestie at Promontory!Emeri and Jason got married. Check out the amazingness that is her dress. I expected nothing less of her by the way. Then we had an unexpected puppy stay at our house for a bit. This is Ryan and Emily's pup Terra, formerly Helga from Cleo's litter. Look at her tongue, I mean really.
Cleo was all like relaxed and what not and then ...Terra attack. Cleo loved to hate her. They got along really well but sometimes Cleo was so over it.Then Cleo v. porcupine. I'll let you determine who the winner was. So sad. I had left work early a couple weeks ago and decided to take the creatures to the river. Cleo and Terra and I were having a marvelous time when they found this burrow. It was up on the side of the bank and there was a tree and like shrubbery or some crap in front of it so I couldn't see what they were doing. They kept coming in and out so I figured they were fine. Then after a couple minutes Cleo was not coming out. I peer through the shrubbery to see porcupine cleo face!! eekk! I had to coax her out of the burrow, she thought she was in trouble because I was whigging. When I finally got her out she just froze, thus I had to carry all 95 lbs (yes she gained 10 lbs, freaking puppy food) as far up the river as I could. After I couldn't carry/drag her up the river any more I had to poke her bum with a stick to keep her moving. Mean while Terra is trying to bite at Cleo's quill face the entire time. It was not awesome. Fanny - remember when we were on the phone and I was like I've gotta go Cleo's being weird, yeah that was right before I looked in to find QUILL FACE! Anyway I took her to my clinic, we sedated her and pulled out over 200 quills. Poor Cle.

That entire night she was down for the count, enjoying her drugs. As soon as I got her home Terra cuddled up right next to her bed and stayed there. It was so darling I almost teared up.
Last weekend we went up to the BYU/UCLA game. My dad was in town for the weekend. We dropped Terra off with Ryan and Emily last weekend too. P.S. THE GAME ROCKED, BYU RULES!

Last night Steve and I went down to Vegas to play with Mike and Heidi and the girls. They moved to Vegas in July and we are thrilled to have them so close to us. Mike got tickets to this NASCAR race. The people watching was my favorite part, yeah the cars went really fast, but I much preferred to eye all the high quality peeps around me. It was fun, pretty much everything we do with Mike & Heidi is fun.Check out two of my adorably neices, Madison on the right, their friend in the middle and Mckelle on the left.
Fast cars, fabulous fans!This was taken last week. Steve and Cleo always keep me laughing.