TOP 10 OF 2010

NUMBER 10
Fun Times with Mariah
We always look forward to our time with Mariah. We've loved watching her grow this year (and not just taller.) We've been to Bees games with her, had craft nights, worked on homework, been to the science fair, coached her softball team, went to the Christmas Carol play and and who can forget the Justin Bieber conecert! And so much more. We love this girl to pieces!





















NUMBER 9
Honeybee
This is was my 4th year being a honeybee. I love going to the ballpark and I love a good baseball game. And I get paid to go! This year was extra special because after getting married I didn't get to see Natalie as much so it was something that we could still do together.


NUMBER 8
Crafting
My crafting skills have definitely come a long way this year. I started an etsy store and crafting has become my new #1 hobby. I've started teaching demonstrations and doing craft nights with my family and friends. I hope 2011 is an even bigger craft year for me.














NUMBER 7
Vacations
We went to some fun places this year. The Hoover Dam, Vegas, Colorado, Bear Lake, Midway.












NUMBER 6
114th South
Codee has been working on the new 114th South interchange for the past couple years. And his segment was finally finished in October.












NUMBER 5
No More Math! Well math classes that is...
Codee took his LAST actual math class this last semester. Differential Equations. Although he'll have tons of math to do throughout his major he has finally reached the highest level of collegiate mathematics.



















NUMBER 4
Wood Connection
My job has been a been huge blessing in our life. I started the end of February and I absolutely love it. I love going to work everyday. I was so unhappy with my work situation until the Wood Connection came along. My overall career aspirations are a bit confusing now but I can honestly say I love my job and I'd rather be doing something I love than be doing something I went to school for and hate it.


NUMBER 3
Zola
Although Zola has become "the big bully" in our house, she instantly became part of our family when we brought her home. She makes us laugh everyday. Zola and Togo couldn't live without each other and our the best kids we could ask for.














NUMBER 2
Home Sweet Home
Apartment hunting was the biggest headache for the first half of the year. We looked at sooo many places! Our apartment now is perfect and has become our "Home Sweet Home". It's been so much fun having a place of our own.


NUMBER 1
Getting Married
I can't believe we've been married for 6 months already. Our wedding day has definitely been the best part of our year. The best decision I've ever made is making my best friend my husband.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. I have so many blessings in my life and so much to thankful for. I love taking the time to reflect on what I have in my life.

The number one blessing in my life is CODEE. He is seriously my best friend and I am so lucky to have him as my husband. I know I've said it before he honestly saved my life. He treats me so good. He works hard for us and the life we together. And I am so.. so thankful for him and for everything he does. I would truly be lost without him.

I am thankful for my JOB. I LOVE going to work everyday. How many people can say that? I love what I do. And I love the people I work with. Employment is still a hard thing to find these days. I was talking to the owner of a business we do work with and he just laid off one of his workers that had been with him for 17 years. I am so thankful I have a stable job and that it's something I love.

I am thankful for CODEE'S JOB. The benefits are awesome. The work is busy and I don't have to worry about him being laid off. Sometimes the hours he work aren't the greatest. But I'm just grateful we both have jobs.

I am thankful for our FREEDOM in this country. The troops who lose and risk their lives everyday for our country. God bless our troops and their families.

I am thankful for FAMILY. My parents, my seester Natalie. Codee's parents and siblings. Both of our grandparents. They are our support system, the ones who love us and are always on our side. I am thankful that we now have our own little family.

I am thankful for our APARTMENT. Yes... our apartment, our HOME. I love our little love nest. Half the time its a complete mess but I love that it is "our place". A place that we can call our own.

I am thankful for TOGO & ZOLA. These little monsters bring so much happiness into our lives. Yes they poo on the carpet and drag out all 30 of their toys everyday. And Togo never eats out of the dog bowl he wacks it out of the bowl and all over the floor and then eats it and leaves a mess. And they start a fight at 3 a.m. But these little terrors complete our little family.

I am thankful for MARIAH. We love this little girl so much. We have so much fun with her. We love doing things with her and helping her with her homework. She makes us laugh all the time. For instance...
Mariah: "How do you wake up Lady Gaga?"
Us: "How?"
Mariah: "You POKER face"
We LOVE her!

These are just a few of the things I am thinking of and grateful for this year. Always be sure to take the time to think of things that YOU are grateful for in your own lives.

And here are a few of my thanksgiving crafts...

FAMILY PHOTOS

Now that I am officially a "Raymond" I wanted to get family pictures done with my new family. Of course the fabulous Nathaniel Ray Photography took our photographs and he did an awesome job as always. Here's a few of my favorite...





Nykele, Darith, Daimyn & Londyn


Clint & Shoni


Us

I've been wanting to do this post for a while. I put my Halloween decoations up the first week of September, Halloween is my favorite holiday. I've been collecting Halloween decorations for years... just waiting to have a place of my own. And I wanted to have them up as long as possible. They finally came down today but here is how fun our little aparmtment has been the past couple months.

SPOT BOT

Potty training a puppy isn't easy... especially when there are 3 flights of stairs between the carpet and the grass. So we bought this.... Bissell Spot Bot

This little carpet cleaning machine is amazing! It takes all the back breaking work out of scrubbing carpets. And we found an screaming deal on KSL. $40 bucks instead of the regular $130. I love you Spot Bot!

And here are some pictures of the kids...

Swiss Days

I haven't been to Swiss Days since I was a little girl but this year I really wanted to go. Crafts have pretty much consumed all my spare time since graduating from college. And Swiss Days is a craft girls dream.
My mom, Natalie and I headed up first thing in the morning so we could get there and get all the good things before they got picked over. Dang... did I clean up good. I can't wait till next year to do it all over again.

My favorite purchase was this hat... I LOVE hats! I'm obsessed with hats! I'd wear one every day but then people would think I'm too lazy to do my hair.


Next, almost every booth had cute fabric flowers. These are a few I bought to interchange on my favorite hat.


This was my other favorite thing. I saw someone walking around with one and I immediately went on a mad hunt for one. It's a huge metal spider. I stuck Zola in front of it so you could see how giant the thing is.




This adorable pumpkin goes amazing with my Halloween decor.


Natalie and I both bought headbands from this booth.


And finally... I've always wanted a tile magnet board and I finally found one. I still just need to find a place for it.

ZOLA

We'd like you to meet the newest addition to the Raymond family....

ZOLA

Yesterday, on our way to the grocery store we ended up taking a different route than we normally do. No specific reason ... its just the way we ended up going. Strangely enough our topic of conversation was about when we first got Togo, something that we don't talk about too often. Then on the corner was a sign that said "puppies for sale". I told Codee to stop so we could look, we didn't have to get one I just wanted to look. Sure enough they were Brussels Griffon puppies, the same breed as Togo... and one that is very uncommon and hard to find.
While on the corner playing with the puppies Codee looks at me and says, "I think we should get one, pick one." We have always said we wanted another dog that was the same breed but were planning on waiting until next spring/summer to start looking.
We debated on whether to get the shy, timid girl or the rambunctious, playful boy. We left and told the people that we would call them shortly with a decision. We figured it'd be good to have a dog that balanced Togo out. He's wild and crazy and she's shy and calm.
And so... she was ours. We went back and picked her up. It just felt so right to get her. The fact that we had taken a different route to the store than we normally do. The fact that we were talking about Togo when he was a puppy and when we first picked him up. And then, there she was. She fits in perfect with our little family.

WELCOME ZOLA!

HONEYMOON IN THE ROCKIES

We really wanted to go to the Caribbean for our honeymoon... but who wants to go to the Caribbean in the middle of June? So maybe we'll save it for this fall/winter.

We didn't book our honeymoon until 2 weeks before the wedding... the wedding financial situation got a little complicated at the end. But I really think we went to one of the most beautiful places in the world.... "Little Switzerland" or Ouray Colorado.

The first day of our honeymoon got off to a bad start...
2 hours before the wedding, I was just finishing my hair and makeup when I stood out of the makeup chair and my fake nail ripped off... taking my real fingernail with it. Uh... ouch! I didn't have time to worry about it so we stopped the bleeding, glued it back on and went and got hitched. So the next day I knew I had to go to the doctor. After 3 shots that wiggled into my joints, the doctor detached the rest of my fingernail. We'll just say it hurt really bad. And in 6-8 months I'll have a new jacked up fingernail. So after the doctor we drove 6 hours to the beautiful Ouray Colorado. Our room was so sweet! It was a lodge/western theme. By the time we got there all that was open was an Irish pub with some yummy chicken strips.
Beautiful Ouray!

Our SWEET Honeymoon Suite!





Day 2 was a better day... we woke up and ate breakfast at a place called Bulow's Bistro... ammmmmaazzing! I had cinnamon roll french toast and Codee had a ranchero breakfast burrito. Then we walked all the shops in Ouray... which didn't take us very long. Ouray has a population of only 800. So we drove to another town near by called Telluride. (Tim McGraw has a song about Telluride) Well in Telluride they were holding a HUGE bluegrass festival. The had miles of tent cities before the town and they had sheriffs closing the town off. We told them it was our honeymoon and they let us in. Which by the way... the sheriff smelled like weed and when we got into the town we realized everyone smelled like weed. And I was the only girl in the entire town that was wearing a bra! So the place was basically a hippie fest. After grabbing some ice cream we left and headed back to Ouray.

The Hippies in Telluride

"Sweet Life" sweets in Telluride


Day 3 we went to a gold and silver mine for breakfast and after eating we took a tour into the mine. They took us 1800 feet into the mine and showed us the tools they used and exactly how they used mine out the metals. Sounds kinda boring but it was really fascinating. After the mine we drove 45 minutes to another time called Silverton. Silverton was a popular town for old time cowboys like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. It is 9300 feet in elevation... so it gets very cold in the winter and only about 100 people live in the town during winter. It is so high in the Rockies that the town is basically snowed in all winter. Several people had told us to eat dinner at a place called "Handlebars", a funky biker bar that was by far the best food we ate on the whole trip. Definitely worthy of a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episode on Food Network. Silverton is also one of the main stops for the "Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad". It was a train used to get mining metals out of the mining towns between Ouray and Silverton. Well we heard this train ride was pretty sweet so we booked our tickets for the next day...
Getting ready for the mine







Day 4
We woke up and headed back to Silverton to get ready for our train ride. We stopped in town to do some shopping have a funnel cake before our long ride. $200 bucks for two coach class tickets... and that took us on a 4 hour hour train ride through rocky mountain cliffs to the town of Durango (and a bus ride back to Silverton). The train was a coal running train so we were covered in soot by the time it was time. I can't even tell how GORGEOUS the ride was! I'll let the pictures do the talking.... And we had dinner in Durango at an fabulous little restaurant next to the tracks. Best burger we've had in a while...








Day 5 we hung out in Ouray for a few hours and did some window shopping then we took the long drive back to Salt Lake. My parents made dinner for us and Codee's mom and brother came down from Logan to meet us. We ate dinner and opened our wedding gifts. Can I please say that we got soooo much sweet stuff