Lots of Pics!

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. And, i have lots of photos to share! We went to the parade of lights a couple of weekends ago. It was a lot of fun and not as cold as I thought it was going to be! There were tons of lighted floats and marching bands.

A Christmas parade wouldn't be complete without Rudolph and Santa

Me, Ben, Abby, Shiloh, Mary, and Britt

A shot down the 16th street mall

Over Thanksgiving, my grandma wanted to take family pictures. And, since I just got engaged earlier that day, she snapped a few engagement photos of us. I think they turned out great.

My fam

All of us

I think this one is just kinda fun

These 2 are my favorites!

I'm ENGAGED!!!!!!

YAY!!! I'm engaged! And so excited!

I don't really know how to start this post....

Over Thanksgiving Ben asked me to marry him. I was completely shocked and so happy! I took Ben home to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving to meet all of the extended family. Ben is the first boy I have ever taken home. We had a great time with everyone and we ate tons of food.

Saturday morning we ran a little 5K race. After the race, Ben completely shocked me by getting on one knee and asking me to marry him. I don't remember much of anything he said. I started crying, he started tearing up, my sister was off to the side crying, and my brother in law was taking pictures. I absolutely love my ring...he picked it out all by himself!

Ben had asked my dad the night before for his permission and that meant so much to me. After the race, we went back to my grandparent's house where everyone was waiting for us. It was such an amazing day!

My grandma is a photographer. Later that day she snapped a few engagement photos of us, which i'm super excited about!

Let the planning begin!

I was so surprised!

It's so shiny and sparkly

It's the Little Things

It’s the little things that make REALLY make life…

*It's Saturday breakfast dates at the Handlebar

*It's walking home in the snow

*It's wrapping up in a blanket and watching a good movie

*It's homemade mac ‘n cheese

*It's getting through a work out, especially when you don’t feel like it

*It's debit card rewards being deposited into my account

*It's hearing your favorite song on the radio

*It's lazy weekends

*It's happy hour sushi dates

*It's encouraging text messages

*It's road trip planning

*It's looking forward to weekends with good friends

CU Game #2!

Yesterday we went to the CU-Texas A&M game.  After being sick for most of the week, I was pumped to get out and go watch the game in perfect weather.  CU ended up pulling out the win in the final 3 minutes!!  So exciting!  It was a much better game than last week.  GO BUFFS!

If you look close enough, the marching band is outlined as Ralphie with the CU logo in the middle.

I love her.

Here comes the team!  I love the smoke coming out of the tunnel!

Chip and the cheerleaders

Celebrating after scoring the winning touchdown!

I thought this was a really cool picture.  The CU student section getting ready for kick off

Final Score: CU-35, A&M- 34

Pumpkins and Leaves

So cute and absolutely delicious! 

CU Game!

Yesterday we went to the CU-Missouri game.  I had a lot of fun even though the game was pretty much a bust and CU lost 36-17.  My favorite part of the games is when Ralphie comes running out, leading the team onto the field.  She's by far the best school mascot ever.  

Here's Ralphie

Showing our support!  Ben is a huge Nebraska fan, so I'm just glad he was a good sport and went to the game.  He might have even cheered for CU a little bit!  

My mom is real bad at taking pictures.  

A little action shot.  

Things I love lately

Things I love lately:
*Snow Days- Is there anything better than getting paid to stay at home, take naps and work out?
*Peppermint hot chocolate
*Cinnamon and clove bud scented candles
*Football season. Sure, the buffs still suck, but the Broncos are doing awesome!
*Classic Halloween movies
*Wearing beanies and mittens
*Dinner dates with friends
*A super clean apartment
*Listening to good music
*My new running shoes. They’re red and make me feel super fast
*My kitchen aid and my cowboy boots
*Digging out sweaters
*Thanksgiving is only a month away! It’s my favorite holiday!

Crazy Busy Weekend

This weekend came and went so fast! I had a lot going on, but it was all really fun. I had a cake tasting this weekend! Friday night was spent mixing, baking, filling, and frosting! I used my new fabulous kitchen aid for the first time and it was like heaven! I can’t even describe how amazing it is! It makes things so much easier and faster. And, it’s red! My original plan was to bake the cakes on Friday and then finish them Saturday morning. Well, I ended up being wide awake around midnight so I decided to just finish everything that night. I didn’t crawl into bed until 4:30. But it was nice knowing they were done and I didn’t have to worry about them anymore.

Isn’t she beautiful? I thought it was fun the batter matches!

Saturday Ben and I went Rock Creek Pumpkin Patch up in Broomfield. When I was out in San Diego I went to a pumpkin patch with my sister and brother-in-law and had a lot of fun! Let me just say pumpkin patches in Colorado are A LOT different than patches in California. In Cali, the “patch” was a little square plot with only a few pumpkins in it but most of the pumpkins were inside the barn displayed in bins and hay bales. At this pumpkin patch they had fields and fields of pumpkins! Some were still on the vines. They had a corn maze and a hay bale maze for little kids.

One of the patches

Self portrait

That night we met up with my parents to go to dinner to celebrate my mom’s birthday. We went to Bennihanas. It was delicious!

My camera has started taking blurry pictures, but here we are!

Sunday was my cake tasting! We had 3 different cakes, all chosen by the bride to be. I had them pre-sliced and ready to go!

Marble cake with key lime frosting; devil’s food with apricot filling and cream cheese frosting; and red velvet cake with white chocolate mousse and whipped chocolate frosting

That night Ben and I carved our pumpkins. I love carving pumpkins! It brings back such good childhood memories. And, I even like digging out the guts. Weird, I know.

Ben just getting started

My little monster

All ready for Halloween!

Just a Rant

Normally my blog is pretty light and upbeat and more of a life update than anything. But, today it’s more of a rant.

I think it’s so sad how desensitized our society has become. Yesterday there was a fatal shooting at a restaurant across the street from my office building. You can read about it here. Today at the office, people are cracking jokes about how he was probably the health inspector or how we better not go eat at “bullets and sushi”.

Really?? Someone died yesterday. Someone who has a family and friends. Someone who still had life to live.

What happened to respect? Since when did it become acceptable to turn a murder into a laughing matter?

Thanks for listening to me vent.

Father-Daughter Date

I am incredibly blessed with a dad who likes to spend time with us. Growing up he used to take me and my sister on dates. Last night we had one of our father-daughter dates. It was a blast!!
My friend Dez told me about a great little place called Canvas and Cocktails. Basically you enjoy a glass of wine while you paint! You take your own bottle of wine and they provide the rest; canvases, paints, brushes, aprons, and instructions on how to actually do it. I had been once before with my friend Mary. I really enjoyed it, but was a little disappointed with how my first one came out. I had convinced my dad to come join me for another class. First of all, let me say that my dad is such a trooper. In a class of 35, my dad was the only guy. Such a ladies man!
But, it was great night. We had so much fun!! And I had no idea my dad was so artsy. Great bonding time with my dad, for sure.

All aproned up and ready to get started

Who knew my dad was such the artist?

Our works in progress

Our finished paintings.  Isn't it crazy how different they are?

I'm sending my finished product to my sister. She loves sunflowers.

The Beach!

I love the beach. There's something so powerful, yet calming about it. My last full day in Cali we spent the morning there. It was gorgeous!! My sister and I took a stroll along the beach while Casey surfed.
I had such a great trip with my sister and Casey and was so sad to come back to reality. Move back home already!

Pumpkins, Pies, and Goats!

I've completely been slacking with updating.  Sorry!  But, here's some more on my wonderful California trip.  We headed off to a pumpkin patch and there were so many pumpkins to chose from.  

After the pumpkin patch, we headed up to Julian.  Julian is famous for their apples, and they have a great little apple pie shop, Moms.  We ate a slice there and took a pie home.  Its though to beat apple pie for breakfast!

My brother in law has a friend from college who owns the Julian Mining Company.  They give historic tours about the town.  At their place you can pan for gold, press apple cider, and make your own old time candle.  We had stopped by to say hey but ended up joining in a tour.  

Getting ready to go on a hay ride.

That night we carved pumpkins.  Pumpkin carving has been a tradition in our house for as long as I can remember.  It was fun to get to do it with my sister again.  

It took Casey a little while to really get into the carving spirit.  He finally came around though.