it's a tea party

Munster Mash

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:55:52 GMT

This year, due to my impending baby-laboring, we co-hosted our Halloween party with Angie & Joe at their house. It was much more of a small kickback than last year's epic blowout, but since we've been pretty distracted, that actually worked out well.

Steve happened to have a neon green lava lamp with perfectly fit in with our kitchen decor!

My hastily thrown together haunted-mansionie-scape

I'm more pleased with how this table came out than any of our past ones! I can't believe I never got any good pictures of my chocolate dipped pretzel sticks, I was very proud of them! My cupcakes sucked ... I had googled "best chocolate cupcake recipe" and something went terribly, terribly wrong when I made them. Ended up having to throw away my cupcake pans & run to the store last minute for a box mix. Total baking fail!

Joe & Angie! Party time, excellent!

Munstery Lamptons! I'm glad you can't tell how little time & effort went into these looks, they worked out well!

Our hilarious husbands

Wayne & belly-Lily

Totally by coincidence, Angie & Joe had been invited to a private Alice Cooper concert a few days prior. Cosmic! They got this funny mask & the rest is history.

Angie's friends from college were in town. Lauren was Rambo (or Ramba as Geoff dubbed her) and Wendy was a Mad Men type girl.

Elmo! Betty handmade this for Steve, as well as making her own costume.

The other members of the Sesame Street crew! Betty as Cookie Monster & Heather as the Count. Hahaha seriously amazing & so funny.

Ambiance

Brian & Rissi went the Danny & Sandy from Grease route

Keith & Jenn totally impressed with their Bill & Sookie True Blood getups! Jenn even committed to the gap in Anna Paquin's teeth, lolz.

Pregnant with a little Munster

ghoulish love

boys setting up the hookah

everyone bumming around in the backyard

Most likely rocking out to one of the 3 Ramones' songs on the playlist

Somehow we misplaced our ghost & pumpkin cookie cutters, so the cheese came costumed in the shapes of skulls & bats this year. However, the skulls looked more like snowmen & the bats more like moustaches!

moose-tache mania

Ali put in a quick appearance as a fallen angel

sisters & cousin

Stackhouse, Munster, & Campbell intermingling

Elmo says bye bye!

Showers of Love

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:34:29 GMT

On Saturday September 12, my mom came in town & held a wonderful baby shower for me at Angie's house!

Amanda secretly enlisted Geoff's friend (and our go-to baker) Leo to create these adorable & SO DELICIOUS pink pretties!

So many presents!

Ali presumably helping my mom make the way-yummy salads. Geoff made all the sandwiches before going to work because he is a total love.

Me & the supremely excited aunties

Future Gigi (Glamour Grandma, haha)! Please note my awesome sash & pink drink.

Posing with the cakey fabulousness

Anniebutt. We coincidentally dressed in pink & green, haha.

Bump buddies! The also-preggie Karli surprised me by attending when I thought she was out of town.

My mom made these HILARIOUS baby ice cubes for a game. Everyone put one in their drink & the first person whose 'water broke' (aka baby came out of the ice) was the winner.

Ali was so super determined to win

But Amanda was victorious!

Some of the guests post-food-nomming:

Geoff's mom, my cousins Bridgett & Rissi, Amanda

Aunt Laura, cousin Ralph's wife & newborn baby (Kate & Maci), stepmom Myken

house hostess Angie & Jenn

Anne & Joalena (they came out from California just for the day, so sweet!)

Shout out to Amanda for making my hair so straight! If only the same could be said for my posture.

We played another game where everyone had take a piece of string & cut it to the size they thought would wrap around my belly.

Ali apparently thinks I'm absolutely enormous!

Her string was big enough to accommodate all three of us! Aunt Laura was the winner & FYI she had one of the shortest strings!

Present opening time!

Ali gifted this really sweet fancy stuffed lambie

Geoff's mom crocheted this insanely awesome getup! I can't wait to see the little one in this!

She made some booties too

There were seriously SO MANY presents, but not many photos, so use your imagination!

The final game: everyone got one of those necklaces when they arrived, and if you heard someone say the word "baby", you got to take their necklace(s). Ali & Bridgett were head to head, but in the end it was Ali who got the Burts Bees prizes.

Little lambie

Ali took it upon herself to do some extra decorating:

Special baby themed candy hearts ♥

Just some proof that Betty was in attendance, she was just a little late.

Anne's paparazzi shot of my belly

Doing my best flamingo impression with the Drewbs

Grandma time

Mom & her three fabulous daughters!

Back at my house, going through all the gifts

Soooo much pink!

pink pink pink pink

"Hey, where are the presents for me??"

Big thanks to Angie for providing her beautiful house, my mom for putting all the wonderfulness together, & everyone for spoiling the little princess in my belly! Also kudos to my mom & Anne for all the photos!

Hey Baby, Hey Baby, Hey

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:30:06 GMT

I'm sure you all remember our amazing engagement & wedding pictures courtesy of our incomparable photographers Trish & Jared. When they found out that we were expecting, Trish offered to do a maternity session for us. She had a whole fun vision incorporating a bit of a Gwen/pin-up girl style influence and we were totally down for that! Since our other photos have all been so pretty & sweet, it was cool to do something a little more creative and rocking.

And the fun won't stop there! They will also be doing a newborn session with us once the little one arrives, so stay tuned for that. For now, here are my favorites from our maternity shoot, done in downtown Vegas.

all photos by studioatg.com

Baby Stuffs

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:22:07 GMT

Well even though we're not going to begin the nursery for at least another month, we've got plenty of ideas for it brewing. I thought I'd share some of the items we have in mind for the little girl's room, as well as some other neat baby things we hope to acquire.

Bassinet from Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It easily converts to a carrier, bedside sleeper, & changing table. Plus it has soothing noises & a nightlight. Perfect! We have a nice, hefty store credit to blow there & this is one of the things we'll definitely be getting with it. It will be to keep in our bedroom and/or living room, so we liked these colors to match those rooms. EDIT: ORDERED! :)

We're not about to pay over $100 for a total unnecessary item (the baby's room is already carpeted). But if we can find a rug like this BB&B one for cheap, we'd love to get it because it's totally the look we're going for.

Changing table from Target. I don't necessarily have my heart 100% set on this one, but it's very pretty and basically what I have in mind. Plus I like that it has drawers so things can be hidden away when not in use.

Convertible crib from Target. Again this isn't a definite choice, but it's the style we want plus it converts into a toddler bed!

Bedding collection from Target. I haven't found any bedding sets that I've been blown away by, but I'm leaning towards this one. It's really simple (hopefully not to a boring extent) but I think it's just so darling and classic.

Ridiculously expensive lamp from Pottery Barn Kids that we would never dream of buying, but I don't think we'll have any trouble finding one that looks similar for way less money. EDIT: FOUND & BOUGHT CLOSE MATCH AT TARGET!

Light switch plate from Etsy. I found this yesterday and fell in love mostly because it has a Xander and a Cordy on it, hehe. It's made from vintage wallpaper, so cute. We'll have to wait & see if it will work with whatever bedding we select though.

A few months ago, I saw these baby bathtubs featured on The Today Show. I guess they've been all the rage in Europe so some smart lady decided to sell them here in the US. They're kinda weird on first look, but the more I read about them, the greater they seem. The baby feels comforted because it puts them in a position similar to being in the womb. Plus it uses less water and seems so much safer than a lot of other bathing options. Of course I want the the pink sparkley one!

Also yesterday I came across gDiapers. I'm totally in love with the concept - the outside is a washable fabric (but no annoying safety pins, etc). The inside is disposable! You can flush it or even throw it away where it will decompose in about 90 days instead of 500 years. Geoff was allergic to plastic diapers as a baby, so if that is hereditarily passed down to our little one, this would avoid that. Just seems like the totally genius and perfect way to go!

drumroll please!

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:51:27 GMT

Well we had our ultrasound this morning! The tech was 100% certain that we are having a girl, hooray! We are so excited! I couldn't be happier about how everything went. Everything measured just right and was exactly where it should be. Our little one was checked for any abnormalities & we're happy to report that she is perfect!

We got a ton of pictures this time & they came out so well. Here are our favorites.

no little protuberance here, she's all girl!

she seems to have long legs, i think she got geoff's! she kept stretching them out. i love her little foot!

another view of her little froggie legs!

her profile looks a lot like mine does/did in my ultrasound photo. too neat!

"i'm #1!"

sweet little button nose

footprint! can't wait to tickle these baby feet

crazy alien skeleton face!

In the Summertime

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:04:33 GMT

Oops! I've been getting some nudges and requests to update my lj. I guess it has been awhile since I last posted & made our big baby announcement! There really isn't much to say at this time on the pregnancy front - I've been feeling really normal and mostly good. Just still tired/needing a lot of sleep, and my belly is growing bigger by the day! We've only had one appointment in this interim and it was a simple one where the doctor just used a doppler to hear the baby's heartbeat (and LOTS of moving around!).

I'm still not aware of the movements, which has been frustrating me, but I'm reading it can take up to 22 weeks and I'm just entering my 19th today. So I got to stop feeling discouraged about it. Our major exciting appointment is this Friday! We will have our ultrasound and be able to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. We've been really anxiously awaiting this, I'm so glad there's just couple more days to go.

Obviously I'll have great news/photos to share after the appointment. For now though, I thought I'd post some stuff from the past month as Geoff & I have been really busy and done a lot of fun things. (Photos of constantly varying quality since they came from my nice Nikon, my old Olympus, and my pretty-decent-iPhone. Sorry if you've already seen a lot of these on Facebook or Flickr!)

May 10 - our one year wedding anniversary

Geoff made a delicious breakfast AND dinner for us. We toasted with water in our wedding champagne flutes & had cake made by our friend Leo before heading off to The Mirage to see...

Cirque du Soleil's Beatles LOVE show! We've been dying to see this, so when we got a locals discount offer in the mail, we jumped on it as the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary. It was really & truly amazing, totally worth the wait & one of the coolest dates we've ever had.

We couldn't resist buying a little onesie at the gift shop! Also it happened to be Mother's Day on that same day. Geoff got me the sweetest card to celebrate both ♥

May 16 - NO freaking DOUBT in Las Vegas!

This was my first time seeing my favorite band in nearly 5 years! Seriously so exciting. Our seats were only ok, due to the fact that this show was a benefit event & all the front of the floor was reserved for contributing donors. But good enough, I was not about to complain! I seriously couldn't stop crying when Tom, Tony, Gwen, & Adrian finally hit the stage, lol.

May 23 - No Doubt in Phoenix!

My wonderful cousin Sarah works at a lovely resort in Scottsdale and totally hooked us up with a room so that we could come out for this show. I was able to score pit tickets (something that was near impossible for California shows) so we decided it would be worth the trip!

On the road, through the Hoover Dam, listening to lots of Beatles. Using my iPhone while mapping our itinary, I even noticed a little side street bearing our surname & was able to snap a photo:

We checked into the really sweet hotel, rested/got ready, & then met up with Sarah down at the bar where she works. She got us appetizers & drinks, again totally hooking us up with freebies & discounts!

Even though we ended up getting there after doors had opened, we totally lucked out. The pit wasn't very full yet, but even better than that! They blocked off the first row of seats for anyone in the pit to use! So my preggie butt was able to sit down from the moment we got there until ND took the stage! It seriously felt like a miracle. Plus we were still so close!

I couldn't resist posting a buttload of photos & videos of No Doubt, it was just too amazing not to! Enjoy:

Lucky lucky lucky! I was able to find this girl through the ND forum & send her the video

Stand & Deliver - sound isn't great but it's worth posting because the guys came right in front of us about 1/2 way through

Back to reality the next day :P Hanging out at the hotel in the morning, getting some complimentary delicious tea before meeting up with Sarah & her fiance Derek for breakfast. Then it was back on the road to head home!

my lucky number at a gas station

June 6 - party at our house for Clarice being in town

I made pink lemonade cupcakes, my first time baking since I got pregnant! Then of course my theme-crazy-mind had to get way too into decorating to match.

Jeff Oakley decided to pop in from California & make a cameo appearance. He & Jeff Craig were the last ones standing. I was cracking up at this Jeff/Geoff beer drinking club, they were discussing the different flavors, etc.

Lights out on my lj until sometime after Friday!

SURPRISE!

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:02:34 GMT

I have a confession to make! I've been keeping a very big secret from you :D On March 4, I took a pregnancy test and Geoff & I were shocked to see the above results! We even got another test (a completely different brand!) and tried again later that night just to make sure and the little plus sign came up before I even had a chance to put the cap back on! We were so surprised because we'd only been sorta-trying for less than 2 months and just didn't expect it to happen so quickly & easily. What a blessing!

So far it's been quite an experience. The 6th-10th weeks were absolutely awful. I felt so nauseous & fatigued all the time. Never a break. I was having horrible food aversions and the thought of trying to make myself dinner was almost enough to send me into tears! I never had any vomiting thank goodness, but I felt on the verge all the time! Luckily it started easing up recently. Today marks the first day of my 2nd trimester and I've been feeling SO much better, it's amazing!

my big ol' bump!

Geoff's been beyond incredible through this whole experience. He's so adorably proud & excited about being a daddy. He's been really helpful around the house (especially when the thought of getting off the couch was torture for me) and is just being so awesome about taking care of me. I'm really lucky to have such a perfect husband. I don't know HOW I'd be able to go through this without him!

Xander has also been really cute, he definitely sensed something even before we did. He's been much more affectionate than normal, and sleeps on my pillow or by my belly. Even when I'm on the couch, he often sits on it right above me! I've been calling him my Little Guardian, it's just so cute. Cordy is spastic & clueless however, haha.

We've had 3 doctor's appointments so far with Dr. Moss. We absolutely love her, she's been great & even saw us last minute on 2 of those 3 visits. I've had a couple transvaginal ultrasounds which have been nothing short of amazing. We've been able to hear and see the baby's heartbeat, and on the last visit (this past Thursday), we even saw the little one kicking and waving his/her arms around! Everything has been really positive, we have no problems at all and the baby is healthy and right where he/she should be. Hooray!

our little gummy bear two months into development! the head is on the left

We find out in 2 more months whether it's a boy or a girl! We both think it's going to be a girl, but plenty of people in my family see it going the other way. We'll see! I'll put a poll at the end of this post to see what you guys think.

My due date is November 9, which is hilarious because we already have SO many November birthdays among our friends/family (Geoff, Amanda, my dad, Anne, Joalena, Jenny, my aunt Jori, my cousin Sarah, etc etc etc). Maybe baby will come early & be a Halloween baby! Or even arrive on November 11th and be the ultimate lucky number experience of my life ;)

That's pretty much it for now! Just living life and trying to take good care of myself. I'll definitely be posting frequently with updates on our little one. I'm just happy to finally be far enough along to tell the world :D

View Poll: baby stuff

There's No Doubt in my Mind

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:20:33 GMT

In my excitement for the upcoming NO DOUBT tour, I made a countdown list back in December of their videos in order of my personal least to most favorite. I did all the caps & found the videos online and then totally forgot about it. I was going to do a write up on each one and why I ranked them where I did, but ... I'm getting lazy. And if I don't get this up now, I probably never will!

It's worth noting that I feel almost all of their videos are rather amazing, so even something I ranked low I still basically adore. Some things I took into account: funniness, prettiness, Gwen's look, band interaction, & how much I like the song itself. Also the top four were pretty hard & are basically interchangeable, I just love them all so much. All the videos are after the caps for your viewing enjoyment :)

Watch them all in my chosen order!

(logo before the cut swiped from nxdscrapbook.com)

A Very Merry (Un)Birthday!

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:00:34 GMT

Disneyland on my birthday, what could be better? You're going to have to bear with me, as I came away with over 600 photos. What?! I was able to file it down to less than 200, which is still a ridiculous amount, I know! I was going to split it up into two entries, but meh. I have all the pictures ready to go so I'm just doing it all now. Proceed with caution!

Geoff & I drove out to California on Saturday morning. This picture would've been a lot better if I'd rolled down my window all the way in time :P

entering George & Ryane's town

The four of us made some stops at two of our collectively favorite places: Target & In-N-Out.

Back at their house, just hanging out before leaving for an EPIC PARTY.

Clearly pleased by Geoff's photo taking.

Their dog Bowie is the sweetest puppy in the world (tied with Angie & Joe's Roddy)

Because Ryane is more awesome than you, she wrapped my Christmas/birthday gifts to look like old school L.A.M.B. bags!!!

Ok so the EPIC PARTY. It was for George's stepdad's retirement & we had to make an appearance. It was held at the Fontana Moose Lodge (as you can tell in the above photo!), one of the strangest places ever. Some of the fellow attendees as named by us were 'Stache, Raybans, & Crazy Rick (his actual name)

Ryane & I spent a good 20 minutes trying to determine what this pseudo-discoball hanging from the ceiling had painted on it. She finally realized it was a little boy praying by his bed...

some fabulous brick wall detailing

We capped off the night at El Torito for some Mexican yum, where Jeff & Monica met up with us.

MY BIRTHDAY!

Geoff used meditation to guide us to Disneyland.

We woke up eeeearly.

sunshine & friendly fingers

It was such perfect weather, couldn't have been more beautiful!

Thank you, I think I will.

The ticket booth was quite possibly the longest line we waited in all day for some reason.

And then we were in!

The very first ride we hit was the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. None of us had been on it before because it's new & the line is usually ridiculous. We waited maybe 2 minutes, woo! It was really cute.

Then off to Autopia. Check out the line & all the crowds! ;)

Geoff swears he wasn't looking through the viewfinder and this picture was an accident. But this guy certainly didn't think so!

what what!

We realized that none of the cars were going anymore. Turns out someone got hurt & the ride got shut down. Blah! However we got a front-of-the-line pass for any ride of our choice for up to 6 people, so it was worth it.

Did I mention it was gorgeous out?

Time for some Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. I thought I was doing all great because I was beating Geoff, but then his score suddenly went up like 50,000 points & I was a big loser again.

Subconsciously hiding my face in shame over my crappy score.

that's right!

Pretty crystal elephant in the Gibson Girl ice cream parlor, where Anne & Nik met up with us.

cutest candy apples ever

We made Pinocchio dance in the Crystal Arcade.

Dance you little monkey, dance!

Geoff took in a little nickelodeon feature.

I gave Anne my camera when I went into a bathroom & these two decided that would be a good time for them to walk by & I completely missed them :(

wormies in line for Space Mountain!! MY FAVORITE.

You can clearly see how much fun I have on that ride (and everyone else does too)!

Yeah we were still sporting our Just Married pin, what of it? We got a lot of congrats, haha. It's only been 8 months, we're still newlyweds!

Nik likes to make this special face in photos, much to Anne's chagrin.

I had to beg Geoff to sing his Stroller Parking song & he got all embarrased but finally he caved.

Two of my favorite sights in the world!

My fellow shutterbug as we wait to board the Jungle Cruise.

She caught me in action.

We turned it into the Loooove Boat, haha.

Another elephant in Disneyland & neither of them is Dumbo!

geeks!

For some reason I always seem to take a picture of this part of Pirates

In the Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas store.

He wanted to look like an English guard, haha.

Every day is Halloween!

Wat up booooy!

We figured maybe they don't take down holiday decor in New Orleans Square until after Mardi Gras?

piggyback

"Don't be sad George. One day you can buy as many crystal figurines as your heart desires."

I would want this crystal Tink, except I already have a virtually identical one! Oh snap!

I guess Indiana Jones was the longest line because it's where we took the most pictures.

adorable

Gotta stick together in the Temple of Doom!

George has eye-staying-open-in-pictures issues.

Jasmine & Aladdin having a private moment. Also this is totally the same Aladdin that wished us congrats on our honeymoon.

obligatory castle photo

The whole gang squinting in the sun.

It would've been cool to get a picture with Peter Pan, but I didn't feel like fending off the huge mass of groupies who were literally following him around.

the castle's backside

This hat shop is set up to look like the White Rabbit's house, ahhh love it.

I got myself some Mickey ears :D

Capt. Nik Sparrow

Anne got a hat too!

Ryane looking enviously at our ears (who wouldn't?), but don't worry, she picked up her own pair a little later on.

teacups time!

wonderful Wonderland

We got the cup with the pink & hearts of course.

the orangies

and the blues

Getting prepared to spin

Geoff & the tulip behind him are both screaming in terror.

Nik getting a little vommie.

Weeeeeee!

sufficiently wiped out

Everyone got some CHURROS while Ryane & I got a place in line for...

The Matterhorn!

I inadvertently got all 6 of us into this shot in one way or another.

hilarious

Mickey head shadows

Paparazzi shot after Anne's brothers Lee & Chris had joined us.

So dorky but I at least had to put this up for my family to laugh at because I look EXACTLY like I did when I was little. See? (I'm even wearing Mickey ears there, haha!)

I bet you wish you'd covered your face like Nik before seeing my prettiness here.

I don't remember posing for this, so good job to Anne for capturing this perfect shot of my Disney Couture bracelet.

soda sweetie

Round two with Autopia, this time we made it on!

These signs are everywhere, but you know people still bump each other.

go speedracers

sitting in traffic

looking at Lee

Anne & Geoff took cool pictures of the White Rabbit statue while I was in the bathroom (yes again!)

He's late, he's late!

Standing in for Alice.

We used our pass to enter through the exit for Peter Pan, which ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS has a wait of at least 1/2 an hour even though the ride itself literally lasts for maybe 1 minute!

But of course I love it anyway. I mean, you get to fly around Peter Pan's hood in a pirate ship, hello!

Total accident picture flying over Neverland, trippy!

merry-go-round

hi!

Anne had a saucy horse.

See?

the comedian of the carousel

teacup cuties!

Geoff started just randomly taking pictures without looking at what he was doing.

Which resulted in this loveliness. I have no knowledge of what exactly I was doing, which is pretty scary that maybe I look like this on a regular basis!

a more subdued me a couple minutes later

besties!

Storybook Land time! There are a lot of pictures from in line that I don't want to think up captions for:

heading for Monstro's mouth!

inside the whale

Alice's village & the rabbit hole :D

Hi Peter ♥

Fantastic positioning of the actual Matterhorn (well not the ACTUAL Matterhorn, but the one in Disneyland!) right behind some miniature mountains.

Geoff demonstrates that this Matterhorn isn't all that tough.

Ryane got her hat, with pinkish/purpleish thread! Ah!

This should be a postcard, am I right?

Gorgeous palms as we took a little ice cream snack break in Tomorrowland.

Anne's soft frozen lemonade, with no emphasis on the "soft".

sunshine & sweet snacks

We didn't know it, but we'd sat right by where a hilarious show was about to occur. We got to watch all these cute little kids do Jedi training & then individually take on Darth Vader! It was so cool.

Hidden Mickey? Heart? I don't know, but I like it.

We did Space Mountain again, why not?

Geoff got me this adorable Tinker Bell pin. I love the style she's drawn in!

I was already sporting my old-school Tink pendant, which I've probably had for 10 years or something.

Geoff & the Indian have made amends since their last altercation.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad suckas!!

I was willing a little girl to step off my lucky number with my mind so that I could take this picture.

"Why don't you take a photo of that cool mountain over these instead of my face?"

"OK then, I will"

G & I had to go on a secret mission to Downtown Disney to buy a replacement Christmas gift for George & Ryane after the one we bought in May got destroyed in the mail :P It was dusky at that point & Main Street looked so pretty.

Minnie being all cute.

There was a really short line to meet Mickey, so we had to stop & do that.

This made me really sad that Small World was closed, I haven't been on it in way too long.

Malificent arm

Ursula torso

By the time we were done, it was already dark

back inside the park

Awesome shot at the end of Main Street that G took.

The castle looks so lovely all lit up.

As does the carousel (for some reason spelled carrousel??)

I only wish I had a video of George singing Porcupine Pie, which he serenaded us with all day long.

Being all cute in line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

I would like some of these Wonderland lanterns please.

Plus this one.

And this one too. Thanks.

about to embark on Alice!

crazy shot taken during the outside segment of the ride

Don't worry Chesire cat, we will!

R&G in the backseat of our catepillar

the mushroom of course!!!

Anne & co. in their catepillar

Oh what's that, one more awesome lamppost? Ok I'll take this one too.

girls

Sigh, I want.

On our way out :(

Thanks, I did in fact.

Hi fiving with another gloved hand.

Taking the tram back to the parking garage:

Geoff wants you to know he wasn't mad at me here, even though it looks like it.

Thanks for getting this far in my fattest post ever, woohoo! Hope it was worth it :)

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:50:42 GMT

It's time for that much beloved Christmas post, put up in record time I might add. Go me!

Geoff & I loaded up the car and headed over to my dad's to get ready for dinner.

very wintery weather we're having

rocking out to Paul McCartney

primpin' pretties

Geoff was really bored so he just kept snapping away

Please note the presents with the awesome candy cane themed wrapping, ehem.

Our completed looks! The gloves were a miracle. I looked all over for some exactly like that. After I'd gotten ready that night, I was telling my dad how cool little cream gloves would've been and what do you know? My grandma had given Myken some of her old ones & there was a *perfect* pair among them! Fate.

Thank you baby Jesus for giving me these gloves on your birthday.

line up

a chorus line

How darlingly dapper is my hubby in his vest?

no mistletoe required

Amanda's giant crazy hand

Holy red demon eyes, how did I not fix those in Photoshop?

Hopefully Amanda will never give up her long-time tradition of sneaking something ridiculous into 'nice' family portraits.

Also traditional 'Dad hurry up & take the picture already!' mad face picture.

hearts by the heat of the hearth

mugging ...

... and more mugging

sweet sisterly Silver Bells (or in this case, Belles, ha!)

Welcome Jonah

And another big welcome to Nick, Ali's "date" for the night.

blonde & blonder

riding in our party limo to the restaurant

This Minnie Mouse-esque bow could not have been more perfectly placed behind Jonah's head for this photo :D

They've got something they want to tell you.

The L.A.M.B. and the lion

Woo we got our own private room, complete with an unneccesary apostrophe!

Rissi & Brian, back in the day when they were just girlfriend & boyfriend.

a bunch of brownies

Little Bridg, my fellow keeper of blue eyes awash in a see of Italian browns.

goofs

Totally got caught by Grandpa while I was trying to be sneaky paparazzi.

Another tradition - cousins in the bathroom mirror. Don't mind my crazy eyes :P

Can we interest you in another superfluous apostrophe?

left my mark on my cappucino

After dinner, Brian proposed to Rissi! She said yes! Cheers! :D

The ring makes for a wonderful Christmas decoration.

After about 10 blurry attempts at this, Geoff grabbed an unused vase & I used it as a mock-tripod. Success!

girlies with Aunt Candee

We made a new wreath for the grandparents to hang on their door next year.

I think they liked that idea.

Some other peeps way down at the other end of the table

Crammed in the elevator leaving Maggiano's. What's that on your hand Rissi?

Bridgett's Ugliest Person She Can Be & the lion have their annual rendevoux.

Amazing capture of a rose-wielding Rissi.

Sister sister, back at Uncle Mark's house.

Their massive tree, which was surrounded by a similarly massive slew of presents.

the girls hanging on the stairs

Rudolph returns just in time for his Christmas Eve flight

pooheads

peeheads

serenading Santa

Blane put a bunch of packing air bags under his shirt, hahahha.

Back at Dad's, we all got the jammies we so subtley asked for!

I got this cute "50's dad" style pair of pajamas for Geoffie

blue & pink (and more of my creepy red eyes!)

a very special present

BUCA!

rolling on into Christmas day...

good morning sunshine

The present passing out ceremony. Please note the clever names we use on the gift tags.

Ali's largest gift (it was an art canvas).

My most exciting gift!!! :D Unfortunately it didn't come with a memory card (?!), so you have to continue suffering through photos taken with my old crap cam for one last time.

The family starts rolling in.

We had a lot of fun designating which reindeer plate everyone got. Bret's was punctuated by this lovely photo of him in a Blitzen-like state stuck in his place card holder.

congrating in the kitchen

tower of nerd

Time to make the pasta!

We've got this thing down to a science!

Rissi is the official noodle cutter.

cinematography by Bridgie:

More of slumbering Marco, because the video just wasn't enough.

Bridgett's duty is to take the rolled out pieces from Ali & I over to Rissi.

Anybody want something sweet?

Blane begrudgingly was the first person to receive the "I'm Bombed" necklace this year when he knocked a bunch of silverware on the ground.

What a wonderful photo.

I love this shot because you can so clearly see that there's a James Bond movie on tv.

spotted by Rissi

dinner time

Someone must've been making Amanda sick.

more reindeer (plate) games:

Rissi tried to pawn off the necklace to her dad.

But she was quickly branded with it again.

Grandpa & Colleen got spoiled! She's actually hidden behind this pile, no joke.

I don't really know the details of the Bret/lederhosen joke, but I don't need to in order to know it's funny.

I think you better make it through high school before you can claim this, Bridgett. Also this shirt wins the prize for squeezing the most fonts into one piece of apparel.

Let's end Christmas 2008 with a lovingly passive-aggressive note from Santa!

Not Only Green When Summer's Here

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:20:31 GMT

We got our family Christmas tree on Sunday the 7th! Geoff & I had already gotten our tree for our house earlier, but those pictures were fairly boring with the exception of Geoff hacking at the tree base with an old chef's knife. You know the really good stuff happens when my sisters & I are doing holiday celebrating.

At the nursery with Dad & Myken

Geoffrey was there for a little while too before he had to go to work.

A contender for THE TREE but I don't think it's the one we ended up choosing

Scarf attack!

Ali wanted me to get a picture of her jumping before the store employees came over to help us with our selected tree. That's them in the background probably wondering what is wrong with us.

Scared-face & snob-face now available in Christmas colors

Wouldn't be Christmas without the traditional poinsettia pothead picture!

backseat busters

lol

back at the house, Dad prepping the pretty

Amanda made herself this festive cup of cocoa

If you don't know by now that hanging these awesome Clauses has been my job for as long as I can remember, you haven't been paying much attention to my Christmas posts through the years.

We thought it would be nice to have Santa loom over the bar

These look awesome pink in the photo, but in person they looked like a bloody mess so luckily I convinced my dad not to use them on the tree

New spot for the groovy Santa moon

Christmas casualty

We brought some snow in so Buca would feel more at home! (Haha ok obviously not really but it strangely looks like it here)

Amanda was having way too much fun with her scarf:

So it inspired some sweet action shots:

Toro, toro!

The lights around the mirror stopped working about 10 minutes after this, but at least they looked pretty for a little while, haha.

Santa up to his usual antics:

G's officially in

Annual jumping photos commencing now:

More spazzy scarf action

Nom

Victory over the lights being up!

so atmospherical

Tink laughing at how poorly my camera takes nonflash shots

Dad putting all his really good ornies up top

Charlie Brown, yo!

Our very subtle hinting about what jammies we'd like this year (click for biggie to read some samples of our awesome maturity)

we're just three little angels

Snow doggie!

What, like you've never seen a Santaheadplant before?

Peace out from this pretty blursville!

OMGOMGOMG ND OMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:27:30 GMT

I'm seriously crying right now with excitement!!!!!! A TOUR?!?!?!?!

nodoubt.com

It's a Dead Man's Party

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:00:29 GMT

Our Halloween party finally happened (& is over, boooo)! Couldn't have been happier with the way everything turned out. That's hugely in part to all the help we had from George & Ryane who came out the day before. Thank you so much you guys, we couldn't have done it without you! Go inside the cut for some photos from that Friday's party preps, as well as an amazing amount of gorgeous photos that Anne's wonderfulness snapped at Saturday's shindig. So many kickass costumes, you won't believe it!

Friday October 24

Geoff & I both took the day off from work. We decided to check out this orchard/farm that we've been wanting to go to for awhile, but it's been hard since it closes at noon.

Dork city among the barren apple trees

Yeah turns out we basically just missed the growth season & the whole place was entirely wiped out. Not even one normal orange healthy pumpkin was left!

Geoff's fruitless (ha!) search

There were some cute eggplants growing, but they weren't ready for the pickin'

We did go home with this rad green guy though, so it was worth it! This, a tomato, & two jugs of delicious apple cider = less than $5!

George & Ryane got in not long after we got home. G&G with beer&Wii - that pretty much sums them up

My pretty orange roses were delivered for the centerpiece of our coffee table

We all went out to dinner & then headed to the patch to stock up on pumpkins for the party. We were all too full from dinner to get any of these treats :P

Love George's face here

Geoff is physically incapable of just taking a nice, normal photo with me

Wheeling the barrow

which we filled up rather quickly

Nothing says classy like gum hanging of your mouth

Back home, we started to get our carving on

George is a connoisseur on all things pumpkin flavored. I believe he approved of this beer fyi.

Ryane's showstopping jack-o-lantern was opened from the bottom

One of my creations, getting in character for the next night ;) George printed the stencil for me, yay George!

Saturday October 25

After much pleading, I finally convinced Geoff to just set up the graveyard already! It wasn't very visable at night, so here's a daytime look

Some last minute jacks

Kicking back while Amanda did my hair, creating the most perfectly cute bun ever!

My cupcakes which Ryane helped me decorate. The sprinkles were being jerks & would not stick to the frosting, so we kinda half-assed these. People still thought they were too cute to eat until I started forcing them down their throats though, awww thanks guys.

Finally! After months of costume preparation, it all comes together!

Miss Bell! This photo best exemplifies the amount of sparkles covering me from head to toe, thanks to Walmart for the surprisingly great $1.99 can of spray glitter!

Off to Never Never Land! Geoff made his entire costume [well, hats, shorts, & shoes anyway] himself, give him some props please.

Wasting time before people started showing up, including Anne with the far superior camera. You'll see a huge leap in photo quality in a second.

This represents about 5% of the actual amount of drinks we had & which were consumed

The Green Fairy & The Black Dahlia

Hooray for Miss Annie & better photos! I asked her to take snapshots of the decor without the flash since my camera is hopeless in those situations. Everything was really dark & dim, and you can't tell that at all in the flash photos. Wanted you guys to get a better feel for the ambiance :)

Second year in a row that I think hardly anyone noticed this, haha

Orange lights in the living room, which had a pumpkin theme

~~black~~ purple lights in the haunted house style bathroom

This looked a lot scarier in the dark!

Green lights in the kitchen, where everything was evil scientist lab style

Treat table. Barely anything had been touched yet and of course Geoff's sandwiches are already almost totally cleared out! They're always a big crowdpleaser. Don't mind my creepy clawhand, guh!

The graveyard in the dark

Our creations on display!

And again from the opposite angle!

Ok time to check out some guests & their wonderful costumes! I know that's what you're all here for! I tried to post everyone, but some people never had nice posed pictures taken of them showing off their stuff.

Ali as Janet Leigh in Psycho (my idea, her awesome execution)

Keith & Jenn as Ken & Barbie Dolls! Freaking adorable, Jenn looked JUST LIKE Barbie!

Steve, Angie, & Joe as the Pulp Fiction crew! The boys' costumes were a surprise and so amazing! It'd been a long time since I'd seen the movie, so I didn't remember these outfits right away, but holy crap they TOTALLY nailed it. Plus how awesome does Angie look? Ahhh.

Steampunk George. Wish you could see his pocketwatch better, it was so cool. And Ryane did this amazing makeup around his goggles, so when he took them off these was an outline of where they'd been.

(Jonah)Jack & (Amanda)Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Then they got fell, got totally beat up and all bloody & broken.

Betty as Sally, whaaaat! She made this entire thing by hand, including the wig! Almost inconceivable. I practically hyperventilated when I saw the incredibleness of it all. And somehow she had time to make my costume AND her boyfriend's as well?!

I finally got to meet Anne's Tibetan Monk boyfriend Nik! :D And there's little miss Amelie herself!

Twoheaded Lee, hahaha oh my gosh so good.

Andrea's incredibly detailed & creepy & awesome half woman-half man creation. Are you starting to understand the level of skill our friends were bringing?

Jeff's Nurse Joker completely made my life! No really, he was acting like he didn't know what he was going to do & I was so disappointed because he always has great costumes. All the way up until he was getting ready in our bathroom, we thought he was being lame. But really he was just messing with Geoff & emerged with this masterpiece!! Even better in person because he takes on the whole persona. Ahhh thanks Jeff, this was one of the highlights of my night!

Leo & Jeff as a pirate and Caesar. Leo had to come over after his work shift, at like midnight or something, so it was super cool of him to make the effort and still show up.

Who me? I'm just your pixie hostess!

This was when I realized our orange lights around the front window had crapped out, great timing!

Hey Ali, you spilled a little bit of red wine on yourself.

Geoff couldn't get over Andrea's masterpiece

Ali's poor friend Gage was a pimp, but in the lighting, his suit completely looked GREEN so we all thought he was a leprechaun! Oh & check out Betty's Steve in his Hugh Hefner getup, complete with sprayed gray hair!

A better glimpse of Hef (yeah she made that coat too!)

Cutiepie French girl about to crack her crème brûlée!

Four heads are better than one!

I really admire Jenn's dedication to posing Barbie-stiff for all photos!

The only sammies I got my hands on that night

You can imagine how many people I crashed into with my wings, hahaha

I hope this is how you wanted this to look Angie! I can send you the original if this wasn't your vision, but I think you look supercute!

Fans of fantasy!

Gotta love the gun on the table

gnome-loving

In fact, Amelie's gnome got in as much traveling & action that night as the one in the movie!

They drank out of their pails all night! LOVE IT.

pouty Tink & her bloodied sisters

Disney girls! I definitely think our Betty-made costumes are far superior the official licensed ones (and possibly even the ones they characters wear at Disneyland!)

Think Tink!

So so so good!!! You may remember that he was normal Joker last year, way before the hype. Go Jeff Go.

Angie disappeared for awhile & came back a little under the weather, uh oh!

Need a hand?

I was making George show Ali the different facets of his headgear

Very flattering shot I know, but I wanted to show my reaction to the smell of Geoff's beer. Guess I'm not a fan of Beck's, even when I'm already drunk!

Boogying to some of our groovilicious Halloween music

"Iz happier to check tings out from the saftey of the bedroom window"

The blondes being blonde icons

Our classic Halloween costume foursome, going 10 years strong!

Monica took G, G, & J on a beer run, I hope the fellow shoppers were amused/in awe of the boys in costumes!

Ali's friends know the whole Thriller dance, AND Nick was dressed as Michael Jackson. Win win.

Firepitting

Tink's switched drinks

Dancing to the Buffy theme song like we used to when it was still on the air. Actually, Ali & I would dance & sing it, while Amanda got annoyed with us, but this time she joined in the fun.

Brother!

Providing the other head with a tasty beverage

Profile of a steampunk

Me continuing to freak out over Jeff. Yes his hair was even green under the wig.

Ali's knife got a lot of play that night

Three best buddies

Jeff was making Geoff laugh so hard he choked on his beer & kinda gagged/puked, hahahah

Ryane looking flawless even well into the night!

wormies

Ali thought it would be hilarious to decorate my wings. Later on someone stuck a magnet on them too, haha thanks guys.

Getting some spiritual guidance on how to heal his wounds

The girlfriends of the prior photo's boyfriends

Oh man, seriously so so so good! Joe even had the book & Steve had a briefcase

If I had to guess, I would say this is him rocking out to "Who Are You" in the same style he does when we watch CSI.

"What do you mean this wig doesn't look good on me?"

At least it matched Nik's outfit

Goodnight gnomies!

The day after. I would say this is the sign of a pretty rocking party. Also, after I passed out, the people who were still standing formed an assembly line to get all of these bottles out to the garage! Are our friends the best or what?!

I have no idea how we're going to top this next year!

The 'weenietunes List

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:02:05 GMT

I want to thank everyone so much for being a HUGE help in creating our Halloween party playlist! You guys are all seriously amazing. We actually ended up having to take sounds out because we ended up with so many. As fun as I hope our party will be, I doubt we'll still have the music going until 3am, haha. Some of you requested that I post the list, so here it is in its finalized (for now, hehe) state. You can probably catch a couple stretches we made in order to include our favorite artists ;)

[ac/dc] hell's bells

[ac/dc] highway to hell

[adam sandler] werewolves of london

[april march] chick habit

[aqua] halloween

[bat for lashes] what's a girl to do

[beck] devil's haircut

[black sabbath] paranoid

[bloc party] hunting for witches

[blue oyster cult] don't fear the reaper

[bobby "boris" pickett] monster mash

[concrete blonde] bloodletting

[the cramps] goo goo muck

[daniel johns/paul mac] take her out

[david bowie] dead man walking

[david bowie] i'm deranged

[david bowie & nine inch nails] scary monsters (and super creeps) [live]

[deep purple] hush

[the dissociatives] horror with eyeballs

[dj jazzy jeff & the fresh prince] a nightmare on my street

[donovan] season of the witch

[the doors] people are strange

[the doors] strange days

[echo & the bunnymen] the killing moon

[electric six] danger! high voltage

[franz ferdinand] evil and a heathen

[garbage] as heaven is wide

[hole] gold dust woman

[incubus] zee deveel

[james marsters] rest in peace (from buffy: once more, with feeling)

[joy division] she's lost control

[the killers] shadowplay

[kmfdm] looking for strange

[ladytron] soft power

[led zeppelin] immigrant song

[lynyrd skynyrd] that smell

[marilyn manson] dope hat

[marilyn manson] i put a spell on you

[marilyn manson] this is halloween

[matt costa] the ballad of miss kate

[mdfmk] witch hunt

[michael jackson] thriller

[the misfits] halloween

[muse] apocalypse please

[muse] knights of cydonia

[muse] supermassive black hole

[my life with the thrill kill kult] devil bunnies

[nick cave & the bad seeds] red right hand

[nine inch nails] 7 ghosts I

[nine inch nails] 24 ghosts III

[nine inch nails] dead souls

[nine inch nails] the perfect drug

[nirvana] you know you're right

[no doubt] spiderwebs

[ohgr] devil

[oingo boingo] dead man's party

[pendelum] the other side

[pendelum] propane nightmares

[peter gabriel] moribund the burgermeister

[phantom planet] raise the dead

[pop will eat itself] menofearthereaper

[prodigy] firestarter

[queen] another one bites the dust

[queen] i'm going slightly mad

[the ramones] gimme gimme shock treatment

[the ramones] pet sematary

[rasputina with marilyn manson] translyvanian concubine

[the raveonettes] attack of the ghost riders

[the reverend horton heat] the halloween dance

[rob zombie] living dead girl

[rockwell] somebody's watching me

[rolling stones] paint it black

[rolling stones] sympathy for the devil

[shivaree] goodnight moon

[silverchair] freak

[siouxsie and the banshees] halloween

[smashing pumpkins] bullet with butterfly wings

[smashing pumpkins] the end is the beginning is the end

[smashing pumpkins] eye

[smashing pumpkins] we only come out at night

[the specials] ghost town

[steppenwolf] magic carpet ride

[stevie wonder] superstition

[the stooges] gimme danger

[talking heads] psycho killer

[tim curry] anything can happen on halloween (from the worst witch)

[u2] hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me

[the white stripes] hypnotise

[the white stripes] icky thump

[the white stripes] walking with a ghost

[white zombie] i'm your boogie man

[the who] who are you

[the zombies] she's not there

[themes] the addams family

[themes] beetlejuice

[themes] buffy the vampire slayer

[themes] ghostbusters

[themes] grim grinning ghosts (disneyland's the haunted mansion)

[themes] this is halloween (the nightmare before christmas)

[themes] wings of steam remix (american mcgee's alice)

150 photos down!

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:19:15 GMT

For those of you still not in the loop ... I'm up to 150 photo-a-day posts over at asphalt_lemony! It's not too late to join up over there in case you didn't know about it :)

Seeking Spooky Songs

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:21:45 GMT

ATTENTION ALL MY MUSIC-FAN-FRIENDS
I need your creative minds to come up with some more Halloweenish music for our party. We've racked up about 4 1/2 hours worth of songs (around 60 or 70 I think), but we still could use some more. Anything with lyrics that are fitting, or that has a spooky sound, or is a theme to a creepy show or movie ... basically as long as you can justify it being on our mix, it'll probably make the cut!

Just please no rap/r&b/country and because it's a party, we're obviously looking for more uptempo songs. Alright guys, blow my mind with your clever ideas for tunes!

headphones pumpkin photo swiped from jenjen9846 on flickr

Kitty Kisses

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:17:24 GMT

Xander learned how to give us a tiny "kiss" (putting his nose up to ours) when he was little. Somehow over the years, that morphed into big nuzzles whenever a kiss is requested. He especially loves to get on our bathroom sink counter & dish out the affection. Geoff took a cute video the other night of the little lovemeister in action. Please ignore my lazy ugly pajamas & my highpitched baby-talk voice.

First Friday (& some Saturday)

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:49:05 GMT

Geoff & I went down to First Friday for the second month in a row for shopping, art, and music.

It wouldn't be a car ride without a Passenger Seat Selfportrait™ from me!

The Strat

We stopped into the vintage clothing store The Attic to get some ideas as to how easy our idea for NEXT Halloween's costumes will be (haha seriously).

They have so much fun & funky stuff

50s style

The dressing room curtains

I'm 99.9% sure this came from the old Wizard of Oz setup in the MGM Grand. It's the Wizard in his hot air balloon. Hilarious that they have it in the store modeling this lovely hat.

This gallery/store has amazing large printing machines they use to make gorgeous posters.

Like this one with lovely Jean ♥

Off to another store, the huge antique shop called The Funkhouse. I took this picture for all the Snow White fans on my friends list :)

A Metallica cover band, hahaha.

One of my Flickr friends Andrew had a booth set up selling some of his prints & taking photos of everyone. His little daughter was there charming everyone. He took 2 pics of Geoff & I which I was hoping to post here, but he hasn't sent them over just yet.

We watched most of the set for this band called Think who were pretty rad. Some of their songs had a vibe which reminded me of oooold Incubus & it was just fun to watch a local band again, I've missed doing that!

We briefly met up with Ali.

The window of another gallery window, I like the quote.

Off to In-N-out for a late dinner. This is the print Geoff bought for our office.

Finally a photo of my camera-shy love!

Straw wrapper monster

Time to nom.

Aaaand a couple quick pictures from the next day ...

We did some shopping at Williams Sonoma so Geoff could buy a new fancy chef knife. While we were there, I was cooing over the Halloween cupcake stuff & the sales lady there told me we should check out all the Halloween stuff Pottery Barn had just put out.

So of course we did & ended up buying a buttload of decorations, guhhh couldn't resist!

Just some of our loot, isn't all just too great?

Then off to Gordon Biersch for dinner with Jenn & Keith

Cheers!

Stevefest 2008

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:58:09 GMT

Steve's one of those guys who doesn't like anyone to know when his birthday is, but we all like him too much to pretend it doesn't exist. So yesterday we held Stevefest at the Red Rock. In attendance were myself & Geoff, Angie & Joe, Betty, and of course the Fest-master himself, birthday boy Steve.

We were starting out the day with Steve's activity of choice, seeing The Dark Knight in Imax. It was Betty's first time seeing the movie! :O I came up with the idea of making Jokerized cupcakes because I figured that wouldn't embarrass Steve too much & it would be awesome.

Well I had the vision & did the baking, but after I decorated 2 that were pretty crappy, I let Geoff take over and he whipped up this piece of awesomeness.

The full set (mine are the lame two at the top)

We also printed up this graphic some genius on lj made to use as a pseudo-card.

Pitstop at Williams Sonoma (and Pottery Barn) to finally use the $500 gift card we got for our wedding! Geoff got a discount of nearly $50 off for being a professional cheffer! We got so many goodies for the kitchen and home, woohoo!

After the movie, we had drinks & dinner in the bar of the mexican restaurant.

Then it was off to get our bowl on!

As Betty said, thanks for being born & letting us have this fun day Steve! (gotta love Geoff peeking through in the background here)

Whatever is being discussed here, Betty does not approve. By the way, that kid in the white shirt near Angie was all professional with his own ball & cleaning-rag & totally intimidated all of us.

Just another example in a long tradition of my hands looking totally weird in photos.

The gang - Joe is that blur on the right (or as he preferred to call it, "ethereal")

I'm the first "S" (Smash). I did alright the first game, and then I just completely sucked, booo.

We decided we weren't done playing games, so we headed over to Bingo!

Not the greatest shot of it, but please note Geoff's Elvis daubber.

None of us won ANYTHING! Angie was bitter so Betty made the sign on the right. Angie replied "false!" to which Betty replied with the sign on the left.

Perhaps none of us won because we were concentrating more on daubbing each other.

Goodnight from the weird random bear the cashier gave to Betty for no reason!

What Will I Be?

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:35:34 GMT

Halloween is exactly 3 months away. This might seem like quite awhile to a normal person, but for me it's just around the corner & I need to get crackin' on my costume. I just need help narrowing down my options! Geoff & I might do a couple thing, or we might not. So put that aside and just pick for me only. Oh & please note that none of these possibilities will end up being some crappy packaged generic storebought thing. I will make them all kickass.

View Poll: halloween costume '08

Love Supplies

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:16:55 GMT

Holy moly, Geoff & I were just about to go to bed when we saw an email saying a little video highlight from our wedding had been posted! Hooray! Check it out :D

Museum of Lovers

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:02:54 GMT

I've been wanting to stay on track with updating my lj frequently, but I don't have anything very intersting to share & won't until I get back from Mexico on Monday. So in the meantime, how about some hotties?

I've been boy crazy practically since birth and just because I'm married now doesn't mean I can't appreciate cuteness when I see it. Many moons ago, when I had an Open Diary, I used to do this thing called Ashley's Hot Date , where I featured one of my celeb crushes every week. And three years ago, I did a post here with a list of my 25 favorite fellows.

I figured it was time for an update, even if my lists have barely changed over the past 9 or so years. And besides, what's a better time waster than a bunch of yummy guys on parade? So here's my TOP TEN (and some runners-up) in no real order.

Since Daniel is my current obsession I'm most crazed about, as well as my longest running with no breaks crush to date, I figured I would give him the top slot. Yeah I've had a thing for this guy ever since I first saw his little 15 year old self in Siverchair's video for Tomorrow way back in 1995. It has never gone away, but it was really after the release of Young Modern that I turned certifiable for him & everything he does. The infatuation keeps getting worse & worse by the day, I swear.

Oh Matthew ... this one has been going on since 1998 when I met him at a convention. His personality & energy are so adorable, but really all it takes is his voice to send me into a tizzy. I go especially lustful for him when I watch SLC Punk.

I remember seeing the video for Stellar before I was even into Incubus & going 'hmm he's cute!' With the release of Morning View, it didn't take much for me to fall completely head over heels for Brandon. He's so smart & talented and truly is one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen in person.

It's hard for me to pin down when this love affair began. I took note of him in early 1999 because he was such good friends with Drew & I know by the time I saw Fight Club it was all over. Recently I saw The Incredible Hulk and was reassured that Ed has only gotten more attractive, as improbable as that seems.

I don't really see how it's possible for any female to be a regular viewer of The Office & not have a major crush on John as a result. He is pretty much the embodiment of the word 'crush' come to think of it.

It pains me to have Ethan so low on the list, as he ranked as my #1 above all others all through high school. ~~He's sort of let himself go in recent years~~ [EDIT: photographic proof in the comments below show that Ethan's back to being adorable!! Hooray!], but that doesn't mean that I can't pop in Empire Records/That Thing You Do/Can't Hardly Wait and fall in love all over again.

Ok maybe on the surface, Seth doesn't quite fit in with my other boys. But he stole my heart as Oz on Buffy and continues setting it a-twitter with his unending funniness. I can't help but love the little guy who makes me laugh.

Oh ~~Greg Sanders~~ Eric. My favorite goofy geek on tv. I love CSI no matter what, but having him on it is such a nice bonus.

I went back & forth with whether or not to include Matt on this list, since "celebrity" really isn't the capacity I know him in. But then I figured 99% of people who know who he is would consider him to be one, so why not. Knowing him on a personal level makes me even more crushable anyway. He's been so overwhelmingly sweet to me over the years, I can even forgive him for ditching out on our wedding even though he emailed me two days before all gung-ho about going :P

I fell for Jimmy early in his stint on SNL. Freaking adorable to look at AND funny, what could be better? And he's so lovable in Fever Pitch too.

Sam Rockwell: his talent makes him sooo attractive. And yeah, that picture was taken the day I met him, that's right.

Ryan Gosling: I liked this guy years before you ever heard of him! I was a crazed fan of the Mickey Mouse Club and Ryan was my main mousketeer. It's been great to have him pop back into my life lately with his incredible acting chops.

Tom Dumont: How could I not include the sweetest member of No Doubt? Plus we share a birthday & he looks like my hubby!

Breckin Meyer: All it took was one viewing of Clueless and he had my heart forever

Bryan Dattilo: Haha ok you can't possibly understand this one unless you watch Days of our Lives. I know he looks like a cheesy soap hunk, but he is SO funny.

Max Crumm: Yeah I watched Grease: You're the One That I Want and immediately loved Max and voted for him all the time and almost cried when he won even though he's several years younger than me - what of it?

and I forgot to include Luke Wilson & David Arquette, but I promise I still dig them both

Min(n)i(e) Honeymoon

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:08:18 GMT

The day after the wedding, Geoff & I took a too-short but way-fun little honeymoon in Disneyland. You know that old joke where your neighbors make you sit through 100 slides of their vacation? Well now that's what I'm going to do to you.

cute antenna topper from Shaun & Ali

checking in at the hotel

I liked this snailie lamp at the front desk

the lobby is really lovely

This was the view from our room, weee! As much as I like looking at the rollercoaster & ferris wheel, I doubt I'll ever be able to conjure up the courage to ride them again (somehow I was brave enough to go on both the first time G & I went to California Adventure way back in 2004).

The first Tinker Bell appearance!

pretending to sleep, showing off his wedding ring & "just married" pin they gave us when we checked in.

waiting to eat at the Wine Country Trattoria, spot the hidden Mickey!

tired but happy!

my hubs the cutie

Right after we got seated. I guess we were too busy devouring our delicious food to remember to take any more pictures during dinner. I highly recommend this restaurant! Everything we ate was SO GOOD (wine, bread, dip, sandwiches), I'm still craving it weeks later. And it was totally normal priced too, unheard of for the Disneyland Resort! Plus our waiter loved us & gave us his 'coolest table of the day' award, which translated to 20% off our bill! Woohoo!

waiting for the Electrical Parade to begin!

We ran over to Disneyland to watch Fantasmic & caught a little of the fireworks during our trek.

We had one of the best spots I've ever had for Fantasmic! Yay! Love this show so much.

Whenever the Peter Pan ship comes in, I get so excited I almost cry, hahah seriously, how lame.

princess power

Alice!!

Speaking of Alice ... there's a whole section of the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney that is Alice themed, it's so awesome.

Ahhh love it.

When we got back to our room, this was waiting for us from the front desk as congrats on our wedding! Hell yes! Getting married is fun.

We bought bride/groom ears right before leaving the park that night.

It took a little convincing on my part, but come on, they look so cute. And they got us a lot of attention the next day!

And while we're on the subject of the next day ... We were spending that entirely in Disneyland, but before we went there, Geoff wanted to ride the Tower of Terror. I was supposed to ride it too. I even waited in line ... and then at the very last second chickened out. How sad is that?

Solo rider.

My new initials! Notice the wet ground by the way? Yeah it was a freakishly cold & rainy day, which was a bummer but kept crowds away.

Sadly there's no "G" in CALIFORNIA.

Newish Tink right inside the Disneyland gates

Seriousy, what a yucky day! I had to buy socks & shoes and Geoff had to get a hoodie.

These little ducks walked right over to Geoff, but I was too slow with the camera. They had to serve as a substitute for his traditional swans, which were nowhere to be seen :(

Our inside joke: stroller parking!

Pirates! I accidentally had my flash on, whoops.

A pretty good Captain Jack. Later in the day, he came up behind us from out of nowhere, stole Geoff's hat, and put it on some kid. It was so hilarious!

Haunted Mansion!

By the way, the only hoodie Geoff found that he liked was a girl's one, and if you looked really closely you could see it said "Pirate Princess" but he didn't care, hahaa.

Our ring bling!

We met another bride along the way, fancy that!

I like how this creepy shot of G was taken during that ride, spooooky!

Jasmine & Aladdin were among the near 100 people who said congrats to us, no joke!

We asked this old guy to take a picture of us in front of the castle ... he had really shaky hands & kept trying to take it, ugh it was so horrible & embarrasing, I felt so bad. So this awful picture had to suffice.

Alice & Hatter must've been ending their shift, I seriously ran after them but there was no stopping them. I was so bummed, I really wanted a picture with her!

daisies by the Matterhorn

My first Diet Coke of the day

Can you believe I've never been on this ride? How weird.

A really cute Ariel. That's gotta be the best character gig, you don't even have to stand or walk.

best bathroom sign ever?

The whole restroom is Alice themed, I had to be the weirdo creep taking pictures in there.

We chased down the White Rabbit!

We're all mad here.

Geoff putting the Matterhorn in its place

The teacups were being tested for awhile, so no ugly people were sitting in them messing up my pictures!

I even had to take a video

a very merry unbirthday

Hanging out in front of W. Rabbit's pad

You can't spell ALICE without A.L.!

Geoff entitled this photo "NOM"

The teacups were up & running again, so it was time to get my butt inside of one!

Geoff can really make it spin

I think that kid behind me envied our dizziness

Sorry to be the one to tell you this grandma, but you're wearing fake LAMB.

A much happier view of Peter Pan's Flight than we would be faced with later that night :( More on that soon.

Geoff didn't like this way this guy was looking at him, so he challenged him to fisticuffs.

I sneakily got another stroller parking sign in a picture with him, mwahaha.

We ate at the Blue Bayou, which was cool for the experience/atmosphere and the food was alright. But really expensive and not nearly as good as our Trattoria meal the night before!

I love Big Thunder! The rule is (I think Clarice may have started this) you have to keep your arms up for the entire ride.

I don't know how we did it, but we managed to snap photos of each other when the train was in the EXACT SAME spot.

I'm not joking, you can see that there's different people riding it.

Time to ride another mountain!

It left my bangs looking awesomely 80s

This was the first time I'd ridden this train & seen the dinosaurs, I found that 'exhibit' to be extremely weird & random!

Looking so fly in my shades.

Jungle Cruise

For some reason the thought of falling in the water by these fake animals really terrifies me. I even had a dream about it a little while after this. There were real ducks swimming near these hippos and I was scared for them. LOL.

Hardly anyone ever seems to walk over to Snow White's little fountain area. A little girl dropped her pin in Snow White's wishing well & Geoff's long arms got it out for her, it was really cute.

The Goofster hanging in Toon Town.

Mickey's House was closed, boo. So we only went through Minnie's, which is way smaller & less cool.

She does have a racy Jessica's Secret catalogue on her armchair though.

Is it lame that we didn't get any pictures WITH characters? Oh well.

Featherless Peter Pan hat

Locked up for being too cute. He had some pretty dangerous cellmates.

The line to meet Mickey was way too long, so here's another us-less character photo.

That's his "mad" face. Glasses needed to be removed to fully get across his crazy eyes.

Alice ride, Alice ride. The catepiller's shoes are such a cool detail.

We did not get to ride in this pretty pink one. No we got the ugly yellow brown one that I was hoping we wouldn't get!

Hey if you've never been on the wonderful Alice ride, I took a video of the whole thing for you. It's a little dizzying. Your favorite newlywed couple makes a cameo about half way through! (it may take a little while to load, so be patient)

At the end of our Wonderland adventure.

The Parade of Dreams! So awesome! Mary Poppins & Bert, yesss!

This was my first time seeing a Tinker Bell besides the one that flies down from the Matterhorn. I don't know, I think they could do better. She has a cute pixie face, but whatever happened to Tink's curvy pin-up image? I'm sure I'm the only one who cares about these things though.

Ariel seriously pointed at us & said "Congratulations!" in a perfect Disney Princess voice during the parade, haha, so cool.

The Wonderland float was retardedly amazing!!! And it stopped right in front of us, how perfect!

Cute Alice.

I'm considering having this installed into our backyard, what do you think?

Geoff thought Toad's head looked cold, so he lent him his cap.

Oh yeah so the Peter Pan story. It's always the last ride we go on, but the line is really long no matter when you go. So we waited forever, and then finally we're soaring over Neverland in our pirate ship when - the ride stops. We're sitting there swaying & then voices start coming over the speaker just telling us to wait (like we're going to go anywhere) and then the LIGHTS TURN ON & it looks so ugly & warehousey in there when it's not dark. And we were just stuck up there for five minutes or so with me convinced we were going to fall. Finally they got it working again but they just shuttled everyone through real quick with the lights on the whole time. IT SUCKED!!!!

Here's some prettier stuff to take our minds off that sad experience:

And that's the end!

So Let Us Be Married

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:33:31 GMT

Ok this is it! The final wedding photos! The last batch I will ever post. Just so happens to be the hugest too. Very very image heavy, enter at your own risk! Now it's time to party!

I even went so far as to provide you with a soundtrack for the reception! All songs were actually played that evening, so you can listen & look and pretend you were cool enough to be there. Most of the songs were selected in advance by us, although the dj ended up throwing in his own stuff too. No big, the dance floor was still packed the entire night.

Track notes:
01. wedding party entrance
02. me & G entrance
03. our first dance
04. cake cutting
09. father/daughter dance
10. garter belt removal & toss
11. bouquet toss
the rest is just random dance music

Now on with the biggest picspam EVER!

We had bubbles at all the table settings. Lee & Andrea got the atmosphere popping while we were still out taking portraits.

Most of my cousins somehow avoided the cameras the whole time, so I had to post this cute one of them all with Colleen.

The bridal party entrance
(play track 1)

The bride & groom entrance!
(play track 2)

Whoops, cat's out of the bag that I didn't wear my gorgeous huge LAMB heels the whole time. Sometimes a girl's gotta opt for comfort.

All of us! Including poor George who's hidden behind Geoff's tallness.

While everyone was taking pictures of us, Jennifer ran up & blew bubbles, haha.

Awww, what a group

Our first dance! Ahhh it was so perfect.
(play track 3)

Time for the best man & maid of honor speeches/toast!

George & Anne both made us laugh ...

... and cry

Then everyone ate dinner, during which the photobooth was going on. So no boring eating pictures, yay!

Major major major props to Leo for creating this cupcake heaven!

Cake cutting time!
(play track 4)

Of course I had to do some smooshing!

and he got his revenge!

One last look, because you can never see too many cupcakes!

Get on the floor, let's dance some more!
(play tracks 5-8)

Six-feet-plus Steve & Geoff got on their knees to dance with the little ones.

I know this was during "Hella Good". No Doubt is of course very serious business to me!

"Keep on dancing!"

I can't even tell you how happy it made me that Geoff danced so much! And he was busting out some crazy moves too!

Father/daughter dance!
(play track 9)

MONEY DANCE TIME! Actually it ended up being money dances, we had so many people lined up for us that it went through 3 or 4 songs!

Geoff got to be a big player & dance with several lovely ladies, starting with Jen

then Angie

other Jenn

Ryane

Rissi (who must've ditched her heels too at that point)

Bridgett

Ali

Amanda

Joalena

Anne had to yell at Steve for (1) cutting the line and (2) not being a girl

But he got his dance anyway

little Catherine

and Morgie

Betty

my Auntie Jori & mom. I know there were even more than that too, like Clarice, Jenny, Jana, Brenda, and Georgie. He was a popular guy! But meanwhile, I was getting around too!

Jen's husband Kevin

Angie's husband Joe

my work friend Tommy - check out my amazing money bag that Anne's mom MADE! :D

aww Rocko

We'd never danced together before this, how weird is that?

Frisk!

Jamie's husband Lance (noticing a trend here? haha)

Jeff

Jenn's man Keith

Steve got around to both of us

Shaunie

Clarice's husband Joe

Karli rebelled and danced with me instead of Geoff! I had plenty of others I danced with too, but let's move on!

Ok boys, time to line up and try to catch my garter belt!
(play track 10)

Surrounded by a bunch of studs, woohoo!

The dj surprised us by having Geoff wear a blindfold, oh geez.

And yeah, and use only his teeth!

The little bow came off in his mouth, haha.

Success!

Guess who caught it?

Haha yep.

It's the girls' turn!
(play track 11)

Who wants it?

lucky girl Joalena was the catch-ee!

Girls are crazy, this is what they did to the dj's equipment in their scramble for the bouquet!

So then the dj announces that Rocko will have to put the garter onto Joalena, the same way Geoff took it off of me. But once he's blindfolded, Geoff takes her place. OMG. haha.

This is a pretty heartwarming image to me, especially considering the last time they shook hands, it resulted in milkshake being poured all over my windshield! Glad we've all grown up in the past 5 years!

Marco & Rissi did their brother-sister showstopping traditional swingdance routine

back to open dancing!
(you can play tracks 12 & on from here)

I can't even tell you how hard I laughed at these ones of Ali hamming it up

My dad, his bro, and his two oldest friends Marc & Bob playing tough

Little John took a little walk down to the golf course!

My girls!

Our whole crew, minus Betty who was MIA & with the addition of Annie

Calling over Amanda for a bridesmaids with the B&G picture

Mission accomplished! Look at all that pink, swoon.

Some groomsmen action too, except Leo who had already left, awww.

Last song! (play the last track)

Thank you & goodnight! I hope you enjoyed this epic monster of a post! Next up: Disneyland honeymoon!

For one last time, all photos by studioatg.com

Hey You With the Wedding Dress On

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:46:45 GMT

Alright we've got one more quick stop to make before we can head on to the reception. We must take the obligatory posed portraits. Some classic style with family & some awesome unique shots too.

just married, woohoo!

with Grandma Marilyn & Papa

with Colleen & Grandpa

with Grandma June & Smut

with Geoff's folks

with my mom

with my dad & Myken

with the littles of the wedding party: Morgan, Jake, Bridgett, & Madison

jumpin' Jake!

The entire lovely party, what a good looking crew!

The wedding mafia yo, look out

"everyone look at something different... and GO!"

"Wooooooooooooo!" (Saved by the Bell audience style)

Ok, time for just the newlyweds

Oooh check out that guy over there

I really hate these ones of me (holy double chin) but the rest is too cool to leave out.

Awww. Side story: last week when I got home on a day Geoff was off work, he met me in the garage, made me walk around with him to the front door & then picked me up and brought me inside because he hadn't properly brought me over the treshold yet. Awwww again!

I don't like these ones either, but the flowers & G look cool

Ok for reals this time, that's it and next will be the amazing reception! Then I'll be officially done with this whole wedding business & can start posting Disneyland pictures, woohoo!

all photos by studioatg.com