..january..

i think january is the worst month of the year...BY FAR! haha i mean seriously, the holiday cheer has passed, everyone is tired and stressed out over last months bills that they now have to pay. it is cold, and this january has been especially bad bc of the gross inversion, and there has hardly been any snow, so it is gray and ugly outside! and i swear this month just takes its sweet time to pass on by! ok enough of my complaining. besides all that, this month really hasn't been too terrible. now that i am done with school (hip hip hooray) all i do is work...and it is not a real job or anything, so i kind of feel a little worthless, haha! it is nice to have some spare time, but more often than not i sit there and think "what can i do that doesn't require spending money?!" so mostly i just cook and bake and play fetch with duke and pet little claus and watch tv...a lot of tv! these are the new friends i have made who help occupy my time:
monday: jake (the bachelor) and all of his girlfriends and their hilarious drama. also on monday, jack bauer. oh jack. i have never watched 24 from week to week, usually i just wait for it to come out on dvd...but i am going to give this weekly thing a shot.
tuesday: simon cowell (and soon ellen as a judge) and all the gang from american idol. i never used to watch american idol until it got down to the top 10 or so, but last year i decided i like starting from the beginning!
wednesday: another american idol day.
thursday: dr. mcdreamy and meredith grey. grey's anatomy has been my favorite for quite some time now, and i never miss a thursday!
well i guess all that tv watching makes me seem even more pathetic, which, i wont lie, i am! haha i have also enjoyed spending time with lance and getting together every now and then with friends. even though january is pretty gloomy and boring, i guess i should be grateful bc things could be so much worse!

..top 10 of this decade..

wow, isn't it crazy that this decade is almost over?! i still remember new year's eve 1999...i was with my b.f. elizabeth kilbourn, as always, and we were making music videos...haha oh to be young again! but who can forget all the hype over the turn of the century and all the y2k stuff...was the world going to come to an end when the clock struck 12?! etc, etc...! it is so weird to me that 10 years has gone by since that night! oh man. well a lot has certainly happened in the last 10 years...a lot! so mr. powell and i compiled a list of our top 10 of the 2000's (in no particular order):

1. graduating high school. lance graduated from billings west high (billings, mt) in 2000 (while i was just entering high school!) and i graduated from park city high (park city, ut) in 2004. wow, what an accomplishment!

2. becoming independent. this was mostly lance's! i still don't feel independent, haha. after he graduated high school he went to college at rick's for a year, then moved down to slc, started working and living on his own. what a grown up!

3. getting a bullet bike. also lance's. that would be one of my top 10 worst things, ever! ha

4. going to college. after i graduated h.s. in '04 i moved to logan to attend USU. lance started going to USU in '02...we met in '06 and made lots of memories and friends along the way.
5. graduating college. i graduated with my bachelor's in journalism and communication this december! woo hoo!

6. living in italy for a summer. this was another one on my list. in 2006 my good friend, jenny, and i did a study abroad in siena, italy. wow, what an adventure! it was so cool to be able to live in another country, even though it was for a short time, and experience a new culture and way of life. we also did a lot of travelling while we were there. it was an unforgettable experience!

7. travelling. both lance and i did a lot of travelling...together and apart. during the 2000's i went on 5 cruises, visited a bunch of different states - california, florida (2x), new york (2x), virginia, georgia, wyoming and more - went to europe, mexico and hawaii. lance visited a bunch of states, as well, and travelled outside the country (not including mexico and canada) for the first time! his south america trip was definitely a highlight of his whole life i think! together we went to canada, florida (disneyworld!), hawaii, and on a mexican riviera cruise! wow...lots and lots of travelling! 8. going to the temple. this was an amazing experience for both of us.

9. the birth of our two children, duke and claus! haha really though, they bring so much joy and happiness into our lives, i can't even imagine what it must be like to have real (human) children. i told lance the other day that duke makes me laugh every day and claus makes me smile every day. they really do light up my life! 10. getting married. obviously.
well there you have it, our top 10 of the 2000's. the past 10 years has been an adventure, and i can't wait to see what the next 10 brings!

..christmas 09..

we had a wonderful christmas this year! a couple days before christmas we drove down to slc to see the lights at temple square! beautiful! i haven't done that in a long time so i was glad we went...even though it was freezing cold! i also had fun making a gingerbread house...from scratch. i am not totally satisfied with how it turned out, i feel i could have done better, but oh well!christmas eve we stopped by my family's party and ate dinner, then headed over to lance's mom's house to spend the rest of the evening with her and his sister, tiffany. we helped wrap presents, played games, sat by the christmas tree and fire and just enjoyed one another's company. it was so nice to just relax and talk.
christmas mornin we awoke bright and early and opened some presents. santa brought us lots and lots of stocking stuffers! after digging through our stockings, we got ready (kind of) and went to open presents with grandma keller, and wendy and shaya. it was so much fun watching shaya open presents...she was havin' a grand ol' time! i think christmas is even more magical with kids around. then we headed to the hospital to exchange gifts with lance's dad, jeff, and his girlfriend, wendy. unfortunately wendy is very sick so she had to spend christmas in the hospital...no fun at all. jeff sure did spoil lance and me...just like always. we are very grateful for all he does for us!

after that it was up to park city to open presents with my family. my mom has given me p.j.'s on christmas eve every year since i can remember, but since we were with lance's fam this year, she gave us our p.j.'s christmas day. christmas pajamas is one of my favorite traditions!
i feel so spoiled on christmas every year! i got ugg boots and clothes...and clothes...and clothes. lance got some headphones, clothes, and 3 video games. yes, my 27-year-old husband is still obsessed with video games! he also got the julia child cookbook...after seeing the movie "julie & julia" he told me he wanted to start cooking more. i told my mom that so she got him the cookbook, mostly as a joke! he was a little confused when he opened it...i think he thought it was for me! and of course we couldn't leave the pups out on christmas, so they got two stockings full of treats and toys...and they sure did love them!

last year we started a tradition of having both our families together for dinner on christmas night. lance's mom, sisters and shaya came up to my mom's house and we had a delicious prime rib dinner. after stuffing ourselves full, we watched one of my favorite movies, "p.s. i love you" and fell asleep.

it was a very merry christmas, indeed. i feel so blessed to have both of our families nearby so we can spend time with all of them during the holidays!

..merry christmas..

well it is almost here...3 days and counting! although i absolutely love christmas day, i always get a little sad a few days before bc it means this magical season is coming to an end. i really think i would have no problem living in a world that celebrated christmas throughout the whole year! and while i feel like there are a lot of people who do try to keep that christmas spirit alive and present throughout the whole year, there really just is something different about december - the lights, the colors, the smells, the treats, the everything...i just love it! wishing you and yours a very, very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

..my onesie..

one of the many reasons i L.O.V.E. christmas is because of all the fun christmas parties! i already missed one party (due to work, snowy weather and exhaustion) so i was so excited to go to my first christmas party of the season last night! i must admit i was a little apprehensive to go...bc of the theme. it was a onesie party. what is a onesie? well i had to "google" it, bc i always thought a onesie is what babies wear...with the little snappy buttons down there, but i figured that is not what i was supposed to wear to this party. my second guess was one of those snow outfits everyone wore back in the 80s and early 90s...the one piece suits that are like bibs you know. but then i found out that a onesie is pj's with feet! where the heck do you find one piece pj's with feet in my size, you might ask?! i, too, had the same question...i thought they only made those for little kids! i was wrong. they do make onesies in adult sizes...lots of them...at target. so my friend, shannon, and i hopped on over to target, bought ourselves some onesies and headed to the our first "onesie" party.

..one whole year..

it's been a year year filled with happiness and love, and i love that we have forever to go!

love you mr. lance powell! wish you were here!

love, b

..the most wonderful time of the year..

well hello! life has been crazy the past few weeks. #1 my husband is gone, #2 school is almost over which means lots of papers, tests, group projects, etc... so that has occupied much of my time! this past saturday was the first time in two weeks that i could just relax! not for long though bc it is finals week and i have to get back to the grind...i will be so happy come thursday at noon!

i wish i had some pictures to post of lance's trip, but you'll have to wait until he gets home! it sounds like he has having a blast, minus a few unfortuante occurances -- he got food poisoning so he was in bed throwing up ALL day one of the days. poor guy! as we speak, him and his sister are scuba diving in the galapagos islands...boy am i jealous!

i sure have missed him but it gets easier as the days go by. although looking back, it seems like a lot of things have gone wrong in his absense.

#1 - the day after he left our computer charger completely stopped working so i had to fork out $100 bucks to go buy a new one. thanks a lot for chewing through that chord duke! #2 - i went and bought our christmas tree bc i just couldn't wait to get it up and decorated. i did everything the guy told me to do...cut off a couple inches when i got home and put it in water right away. well guess what? the dang tree didn't drink any water! i gave it three days to see if it would change its mind, but nope...none! so i took it down and went and bought a fake one! haha if you asked me a week ago if i would ever buy a fake tree i would have said hands down, 100% certain, NEVER. i am just a real tree kind of girl and never pictured myself with a fake tree. never say never i guess! #3 - i went to my mom's house for part of the weekend so as i was getting ready to leave i took a load out to the car. included in that load was claus, so i started the car and turned the heat on so he wouldn't freeze and also so the car would be warm when i came back. well guess what? when i came back out, the doors were all locked! yes that is right, this little guy

stepped on the lock button and locked me out! long story short, 2 hours later and thanks to my wonderful family, AAA came to my rescue and unlocked it for me. thank goodness the heat was on so claus didn't freeze to death!

well that is all i guess...nothing too serious. these kinds of things make me appreciate having lance around - haha i guess i depend on him a lot more than i ever realized bc these things probably wouldn't have happened in the first place if lance were here, and if they did, he would be the one taking care of it! sure do love him.
i got my tree up and decorated and the rest of my house too. actually all the decorations (minus the tree) were up in the middle of november! haha what can i say, i absolutely LOVE this time of year! it is my absolute favorite. i have slept on the couch a few nights, just because i love the christmas atmosphere. until next time, happy holidays! hope everyone is doing well!