Who Ya Gonna Call?

Doesn't Julie look great as Cleopatra? I'm balding and chunky, so I was Bill Murray from Ghostbusters.

When I was growing up, Halloween was a great time. My Mom used to get so excited for the holiday; she would get dressed up, decorate the entire house and just made the season fun. Every year, my Dad would help us carve out pumpkins. Then, Halloween night, we could go trick or treating. As Jerry Seinfeld points out, to a child Halloween is the greatest thing ever devised by humankind: you get as much candy as you can stand for no apparent reason! Finally, my brothers and I would all come home and enjoy passing our candy around (the old people always gave us nasty Good and Plenty which we would look to pawn off on each other, our parents or our dogs) while watching Ghostbusters with Mom and Dad. Then, we all started to get older. Trick or treating was no longer cool. With no trick or treating, we didn't dress up or get loads of candy for nothing, anymore. In other words, Halloween died for us.

   It died for me until this year. I married a beautiful woman who loves the holidays just as much as my Mom does. She went to all sorts of thrift stores to buy fun decoration for our house. We carved up pumpkins and put them on our front porch. We bought boatloads of candy. We even dressed up! She was stunning as Cleopatra and I got to fulfill a lifelong dream of being a Ghostbuster. My cousin and his wife, Danny and Becca, allowed us to take their kids out trick or treating with them. It brought back all sorts of memories of how much fun Halloween is and we had a blast with them. It was pouring rain outside so Danny drove us from door to door as we ran to the doorsteps to get our loot. It was wet, cold, and hilarious. In other words, Halloween is back. Maybe next year, I will be a Ninja Turtle or a Yankees baseball player. If I am either of those, my life just may be complete.

Walk like an Egyptian! Or whatever Julie is doing.

Carrying Peter in the rain as Danny sits in the dry car.

Peter, as Bob the Builder, acting crazy!

My girls here in Provo! Julie decided it would be fun to dress up as Brian Wilson (she didn't want to dress as Cleopatra in the rain). Fear the beard!

Some Random Thoughts

HEAD!!!! MOVE!!!!

    It has been a while since either me or my Baby Cakes has written, so I thought I would write today. I have a lot of random stuff and happenings running through my mind. First of all, on October 22nd, Julie and I had officially been dating for one year! Isn't that crazy? We have been married for 7 of those months. Dr. Laura would be so disappointed. But, we are happier now than ever so Dr. Laura can go suck on a lemon.  For our one year anniversary (kind of), I wrote Julie a poem. It was terrible. It was kind of like the poem Mike Myers writes in So I Married an Axe Murderer to win back his love. But, at least she liked it. 
    Second, my beloved Yankees didn't make the World Series. They were beat by the stupid Rangers. I would think of some awful curse to place upon them, but they already play in Arlington, Texas. I don't know if I could wish anything worse than that upon anyone. So, now I am a Giants fan (for this series, anyway). I even carved my pumpkin into an SF logo. At least now Julie and I won't be divided as we watch the World Series.

Don't worry, Jeter, I will still wear your cologne.

    Third, I am an old man. On Saturday, I got the brilliant idea to go play football with some friends. It was raining and everything. Well, my only goal was to play quarterback well enough to not have to run and play wide receiver. I succeeded for the most part, even having some sweet touchdown throws (if  my football coaches could see me now. I threw more touchdowns on Saturday then I did the whole season as West's QB). When I played defense, if the person got behind me, I would merely yell, "he got past me" to our safety and allow him to do the rest. The sad part? I'm still sore. And it's Wednesday. 

I think this is the only "sport" now that I can play without hurting myself.

    Well, that's all I've got for now. Hopefully Julie will update you, soon, too. Thank you for your time! You've been so much more than kind. You can keep the dime. 

He's Heating Up!!!

I know, I am a bit of a nerd. Ok, a pretty big one. But, when my friend, Richard, sent me a clip of how the Wii was making a new NBA Jam (he sent it about 6 months ago), I was pretty stoked. Floods of hilarious childhood memories came back. Not that we ever had a SEGA to play it on; we had to go over to other people's house to get our mind-numbing video gaming on. (We had a Nintendo when I was really little but my Dad became upset by how much we played it and "accidentally" broke it...with a sledgehammer.) When the game finally came out last week, I was all over it. And Julie was gracious enough to indulge me playing it. She even played one game with me. We got our butts kicked but had a great time playing. And all I can say to that is: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!

We're a little vain

I love having our own place to decorate. Dylan thinks I'm going a little crazy, but he also admits that it feels so much more like home, now that we have our own photos on the walls. I thought I'd take some pictures to show you some of the photo arrangements in our living room.

Right above our dining table

Canvas prints, courtesy of Pixel2Canvas - they did an AMAZING job printing them. I highly, highly recommend them. These are hung above our couches

Engagement photos, displayed on an awesome plate rack I got at a garage sale for 50 cents!

Oh yeah, we also believe in displaying inspiring images of Christ, right by our front door

And I kind of love this man. We have a kind of awkward peek-through from the kitchen to the living room. I like it, because it keeps the rooms more open, but it also is pretty low, so hard to see stuff through it much.

Our New Car!!

I finally found these photos I took of my new car, a few weeks ago. This is just after  getting it washed (black is SO HARD to keep clean!). I adore this car. It's reliable, I can transport more than just me and one other person, and my groceries don't have to be flying around in the bed of a truck anymore. Plus, 4-wheel drive will be just a TOUCH better in the snow than my truck was. But, it must be said, I am so grateful that my dad let me use his truck for all this time. Having a car, any car, made life so much easier. I could get to work. I could get groceries. I didn't have to rely on anyone else to get me places. I could be independent.

Look at all that trunk space! (That is the sunroof protector for the luggage rack on top. I'll put it on when the sun is no longer shining so beautifully)

Now I can be independent, in a more stylish and safe way :)