Brightening up the January BLAHS

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Does anyone else feel like January is SERIOUSLY dragging on forever? I know we're at the home stretch now, but it has been such a dreary few days around here. It seems like January is always kind of lame - this year it's been much better thanks to fun road trips breaking up the monotony, but I've still been struggling. SO, what's been keeping my spirits up lately? My birthday and reality TV. That's right.
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I turned 25 on the 18th, yay! The birthday celebrations actually started a day early in Elko, where my awesome family-in-law surprised me with delicious 'monkey bread' (adorned with candles and accompanied by song) and some presents. Thanks again!! Monday morning I slept in (we had driven back to Nampa the night before) while Chuck wrangled the boys and took them grocery shopping so I could play on facebook and excitedly tally all of the birthday wishes I received :). That afternoon my mom watched the boys so that Chuck and I could go see a movie; I picked 'Sherlock Holmes' and I REALLY liked it. Then my mama had us over for a delicious dinner and made me a birthday cake, yay!
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For some reason, the milestone of 'TWENTY-FIVE' was freaking me out a little, so that day I included the following accessories in my attire to maintain the illusion of youth: my peace sign necklace, black fingernail polish, and capri leggings under my cute jean skirt. Nothing like aging gracefully. . . but I think I pulled it off.
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The Biggest Loser started again at the beginning of January, which has brightened my weeks considerably, especially since Chuck relented to watching it with me this season. First of all, I thought it was SO HORRIBLE that the yellow and blue teams had to leave immediately. I understand that they have the chance at returning, but still, they were so excited to have been selected and then they're punished for being out of shape and coming in last in the challenge? LAME! I understand that it's a competition, yadda yadda yadda, but still, let them hang out for a few days first!
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Sorry about that. Anyways, my other thoughts are: Just like everyone else, I hate the red team. The green team has some serious issues to deal with. The pink team kind of annoys me, and doesn't the daughter look EXACTLY like Shanon from the pink team two seasons ago? I love love LOVE the gray team. When Koli was talking about watching Filipe and his wife and how he wants that kind of love, I was seriously bawling.
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Next up, American Idol. For the purposes of full disclosure, I will admit that I haven't watched this show since I was a freshman at BYU and we would all crowd in my dorm room (I had a TV, which meant instant popularity) and cheer on the Mormon kid, Jon Peter something. Weren't those the days, Jaime? I think that was the season Fantasia won . . . Anyways, my complete devotion to Ellen DeGeneres brought me back, and I love it so far.
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So, being newly back on the Idol bandwagon, I don't get all the Kara-bashing - what's wrong with her? I like her! As far as guest judges, I was less than impressed with Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne. Could Katy have been more of a wench, and could Avril have been more immature? Thoughts?
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Next, I am recently slightly obsessed with wedding shows. It started with Platinum Weddings, which I mostly watched out of morbid curiosity - how is it possible to spend HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars on a wedding? Do you hand out wads of cash as favors? It turns out, it's definitely possible but also kind of annoying, so I moved on to better shows, like:
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Say Yes to the Dress! (And yes, I'm sure that some of these eventual weddings are as 'Platinum' as the other show, but I don't have to hear about how 'no expense was spared' on the tablecloths).
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My favorite consultant is Sarah. She is amazing at understanding exactly what a bride wants, even if the bride herself doesn't know! And I also love Randy, the fashion director. He cracks me up.
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Ugh, I actually just watched this episode the other day, this bride was SO ridiculous. She vetoed almost EVERY dress, and then just made fun of the ones she actually agreed to try on. Randy was getting sooooo ticked off, and finally at the end it came out that she already pretty much had a dress at home, but she just wanted to make sure she didn't like something else better. I had it when people waste the valuable time of both the consultants and ME as a viewer.
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Lastly, My Fair Wedding with David Tutera. LOVE it. He's this a-mazing wedding planner to the stars, and on this show he starts working with a normal, everyday bride three weeks before her wedding. David gets to know the bride's personality and vision and then seriously classes up the wedding a few notches with the financial resources and contacts that weren't accessible to the bride. He often replaces/improves dresses (bride's and/or bridesmaids'), centerpieces, decor, reception locations, and often entire wedding themes.
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I was a little wary during the first episode I watched when he announced that he was replacing the dress that the bride was going to wear. The new dress options were gorgeous, but you could tell that the bride was upset. He sat her down and talked about it later, and she explained that she and her mom had picked out her dress together and that her mom had paid for it, so she was worried about her mom's feelings if she didn't wear it. David proposed that the bride wear the original dress for the ceremony and then change into the new dress for the reception. The bride seriously looked SO happy at that compromise.
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I love this show, because the premise could lead to the wedding planner being condescending and rude, but David is so kind and friendly. He genuinely cares about each bride and wants to help her have the most amazing wedding day ever. He really listens and draws out of them how they want to feel that day, and if they're dead-set on a concept, he just works with it to make it better. David's definitely honest when something won't work - his pet peeves include fake flowers and finding a reception location online without visiting it in person - but he's so good at finding alternatives and making it all such a positive experience for the bride.
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AND, that's what's getting me through January. Is it spring yet??

Lee & Leesh re-tie the knot!

A couple of weeks ago we had the chance to head back to Elko to party with [Chuck's younger brother] Lee and Aleesha as they celebrated their second wedding anniversary with a vow renewal ceremony!

Lee and Aleesha have a darling little daughter Bri who's just a couple of months younger than Will. Aren't they such a sweet family?

The whole ceremony and reception were so beautiful and fun - here's the sign-in table.

Aleesha's favorite colors are hot pink and black - can you tell? :)

The beautiful couple. Leesh is such a fun girl; I'm so glad we married brothers!

Pops and Bri enjoying the party :)

They had a DJ and a dance floor, which my boys took full advantage of. . .

as did I. We spent most of the evening rockin' out,
much to the general amusement of those in attendance, I'm sure.

We did vacate the dance floor long enough to let Lee and Aleesha have their special first dance though :)

Chuck scored major points by dancing with both his wife AND his mom at different points during the evening. Good job, babe!

Their cake was sooo pretty, and the personalized cake topper was HILARIOUS!

Will agreed that the cake tasted as good as it looked :)

My nieces and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful arch from the ceremony and pose for some pictures - here I am with Mallory . . .

and with Courtney!

Oh, and with my cute husband, of course.

Then it was time for - what else? More dancing! I took a spin around with my super cute nephew George.

Amanda and Mallory taking a quick picture break from all the dancin'!

Courtney and I had some pretty sweet moves.

So, Clyde and Will and I have frequent dance parties at home, and about a year ago Clyde started break dancing - without any instruction or prompting from me. It's absolutely hilarious - he's picked it up from our daily viewing of the Ellen DeGeneres show; she always has awesome dancers on and cast-offs from So You Think You Can Dance.

My cute boys! Chuck earned even more points by surprising me with a special request to the DJ for my favorite song - Forever by Chris Brown. First he told me that he requested 'Achy Breaky Heart' and I was like, "Ohh, that's nice . . . " and then the real song started playing :)

Oh, my cute Will. The little kids found a great hiding spot underneath the main table (it was up on a stage), so Clyde and Will both spent quite a bit of time under there, causing various moments of panic when I could no longer spot them dancing.

And that was the celebration! Thanks for inviting us to be a part of it, Lee and Aleesha :)

Stizzy ties the knot part 2: Elko edition

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The night after the Salt Lake reception, we got up early and piled in the cars for the drive to Elko for the reception there that night. For some silly reason, I decided I should drive. And then it got snowy. Real snowy.

We were seriously going between 20-25 mph. At times, all I could make out were the tailights of the moving van in front of us. And the silly windshield wipers kept getting ice chunks frozen on them. Chuck rolled down the passenger window, reached out, and 'flicked' the windshield wiper free of ice. He then instructed me to do the same on the driver's side. I have never 'flicked' a windshield wiper before, and I seriously doubt I'll ever do it again. On my first try I missed the wiper altogether, so when on my second try I got a hold of it, my excitement got the best of me and instead of flicking it, I just held on. And on. I know, right? Of course it snapped off, leaving Chuck and myself in a state of shock. We drove the next thirty miles with me awkwardly/unsafely leaned over so I could see out Chuck's half of the window. I kept nervously giggling and telling Chuck how funny the whole situation was, to which he responded, "It will be funny when we get out of this alive."

Which we did! We stopped in Wendover and Chuck replaced the wipers and then took over driving, thank goodness!

We also regrouped with the rest of the caravan (showing off in their four wheel drive rides). Luckily the weather cleared up and the rest of the drive was drama-free.

Clyde and Will and myself enjoyed fabulous naps in the afternoon while Chuck helped set up at the church, and then it was time to go!

The Elko reception happened to fall on our sister-in-law Aleesha's 22nd birthday, which meant that the whole family was together and able to celebrate! So we had a little surprise birthday party (complete with cake!) for her right before the reception. Love ya Leesh!

(Grandma Thomas chatting with Steve's sister Lisa, Steve's mom Kathryn, and Steve's sister-in-law Julie)

The reception was so fun! Everyone was so relaxed and we had lots of time to spend talking and enjoying the yummy hot chocolate - complete with every topping or mix-in you can imagine! Chuck and I sat at a table with Steve's parents, sister, and sister-in-law and had a great time getting to know them a little better. My seven-year-old niece Courtney and I also spent a good portion of the reception pretending we were distant cousins of the bride who made the trip over from England and using really dreadful British accents :).

Chuck's Uncle Bill and Aunt Gina and three of their kids came all the way from Pennsylvania, and it was really fun to meet them and hang out a bit. Here they are at the reception with my cute niece Mallory.

Courtney posing with the cake.

The happy, happy couple eating some cake. It was goooooood. I know, I ate some the next day for lunch.

Will systematically attached himself to each member of the Thomas family, but it was especially fun to see how much he connected with Uncle Bill since they happen to be named after the same person, Chuck's late Grandpa Thomas (Bill's dad). So here's our picture of the two Williams!

Stizzy ties the knot!

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A few days before Christmas, we were delighted to be able to attend the Salt Lake City wedding of Chuck's absolutely darling sister Amanda and the equally awesome Steve:

. (photo courtesy of Wings of Blue photography)

.Aren't they beautiful? But first we had to get to Utah, which meant leaving Idaho SUPER early on Saturday, the day after my graduation. I may have grumbled the tiniest bit about how early we all piled in the car but luckily Chuck agreed to drive so I could snuggle up with a blanket and pillow in the front seat and sleep peacefully. Until THIS woke me up:
. Oh yeah, we blew a tire! It worked out so well, though, because A) Chuck was driving, and calmly pulled off onto the shoulder (whereas I would have probably panicked and caused an accident) and B) we were rockin' a caravan with Chuck's parents, so together Chuck and Pops made quick work of changing the tire and C) thanks to leaving so early, we had enough wiggle room in the schedule that the stop in Jerome for a new tire didn't stress us all out!

Les Schwab was so great; we were in and out in about twenty minutes, just enough time for the boys to run around a bit. Then it was back into the car, where I slept a bit more, the boys watched movies, and we had way too much fun talking to Chuck's parents back and forth with two-way radios :).

We arrived in Salt Lake safe and sound and got all checked into our excellent hotel (more on how five days of hotel living spoiled us for regular life in a future post).

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That evening Amanda went through the Bountiful LDS temple, and Chuck and I felt so blessed to be there and be a part of it. Mucho gracias to Sam and Terri, who not only watched Clyde and Will that evening but also took them overnight. Chuck and I drove to Orem to retrieve them the next day and spent some time hanging out and eating yummy food. We also managed to find a sacrament meeting in Orem to crash, although since our timing was a bit off we couldn't stay for the whole thing - who starts church at 11:30 instead of 11 o'clock anyways?

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Sunday night all of Chuck's family gathered at Aunt Sue's house for dinner, except for Uncle Bill and Aunt Gina's family, as they were snowed in at an airport somewhere (Detroit?).

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Visiting in the kitchen . . .
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little bit o' Guitar Hero downstairs . . .
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and storytime upstairs!
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The next day was the big day! Amanda stayed in our room Sunday night, so Chuck showered and dressed early and then headed down to watch ESPN in the lobby to give Amanda some space. He also left this on our door:
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He's such a cute, overprotective big brother!
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The beautiful bride was actually up and getting gorgeous, but the note did help let these two boys sleep in a bit longer:
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Okay, it might be because Will is wearing Clyde's sweatshirt, but if I glance quickly at this picture I can't tell who's who.
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Amanda had to be at the temple early, so I waited until after she left to start getting ready. And that's when my fabulous personal hair and make-up guru Heidi showed up and did her magic:
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Heidi, me, and Desirie (Heidi's BFF who is now, by extension, my BFF also).

Not only did they come to get me all dolled up, they also took care of Clyde and Will while Chuck and I were at the sealing (wedding) ceremony. It took so much stress off of me to know that the boys were happy and safely accompanied over to meet us at the temple, thanks again girlies!
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We had a little downtime before Steve and Amanda came out of the temple, so I let the little boys run around. The Salt Lake temple is so pretty - and I loved the cool trees.
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Stephen and Amanda Lindsay, yay! Steve is now officially the last 'joiner' in the Izatt family and we couldn't be happier :)
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It was FREEZING outside; the little boys (plus cousin George) ran around and around to stay warm. Luckily we were only needed for the first couple 'big group' pictures, so then we warmed up at the hotel before the luncheon and took wonderfully long, much needed naps before the reception that night.
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Their decor was perfect; I wish I'd taken more pictures.
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Beautiful quilts! I don't know the story with all of them, but Steve made the blue one in the middle a few years ago (Steve's mom is an a-mazing quilter) with the intention of someday giving it to his future wife! Isn't that so sweet?

Sam and Terri were able to come to the reception, so here's our effort at a nice picture. As always, note my tight grasp on Will to stop him from wiggling out of my arms. Also, isn't Terri so cute pregnant?.
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Pretty soon the reception was over and it was time to (quickly) pack everything up in preparation for the Elko reception the next night.
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As always, I volunteered my husband to help on my behalf while I chased Will around and took pictures :)
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The cutest thing was how intent Clyde was on helping - luckily Chuck found a job that Clyde could do. He kept excitedly telling me how 'Daddy carries the big trees, and I carry the little ones!'

. And that was our Salt Lake City adventure; more to come on the exciting Elko reception adventure, including a birthday party and a very blizzard-y drive during which I snapped off the driver's side windshield wiper. Stay tuned!