We are 23!

23 is an interesting age. You know how they say people like numbers that end in 2 and 7? Retail wise? Because 22 feels way cheaper than 24.99? And 37 cheaper than 39? .... I think that's how we're feeling about being 23. It's way older than 22. Not way old. It just didn't feel like a little step.

BUT is was FUN!!! For Nathan's birthday I took the day off work, and we went and saw

BODIES
THE EXHIBITION

Which is basically a museum full of real bodies, preserved and cut up into different ways so one can see the amazing amount of detail and complexities of the body.

Nathan was stoked.
And I enjoyed it too! Very interesting. And I got an in depth tour (from Nathan) on how our bodies work. Unfortunately, it's all copyrighted, so we're weren't allowed to take any pictures. I think I'd have felt weird about that anyways.

We then proceeded to the mall to get some birthday outfits, but as soon as we entered, we ran into something sweet. 

A  H U R R I C A N E   S I M U L A T O R 

And guess who got to experience the 78mph windforce of a hurricane because it wasn't her birthday? Hahaha, me. It was very very windy. 

We then ate some lunch at the Panda Express. 

Found out what our destinies were. Similar theme. 

THEN our friends helped me throw a surprise party for Nathan.
The Caldwell familia hosted at their casa. They did all the decorating and everything. Aw.

Reminiscent of his 16 year old party a friend and I threw for him. Although he was less suspicious as a 16-year-old.

To the right is a picture of him dressed in the happy birthday banner. 23 is the super hero age.

Below is him and his birthday cake!
... pie... thing.

The candles say happy birthday.

FOR MY BIRTHDAY....

Nathan and I took me to Ross to shop for some new work clothes (a PrOfEssIoNaL stylist always has to be stylish. It's true)

And then we went out to eat with our good friends, Matt and Amanda :)

Red Robin.... YUM!

To the right I am modeling one of my new shirts. Ha.

That weekend, our good friend was getting married in Denver, so Nathan drove me down to Salt Lake, we spent a day together walking around in the snow before I flew out to Colorado. Cool picture, no? 

Got some birthday jeggings (jean leggings) at that very mall. 

So now we are old. And enjoying it :) 

Happy birthday to us!! 

More updates... soonish... 

Valentines Day?

Short. Shorter than we planned. But sweet. :D

Love Valentines Day,

so even though it's a month later, you're still getting an update.

It was great! Ha.

We spent the night before planning on what we were going to do for dinner

(I had to work during the day)

Rexburg doesn't believe in more than one sit down restaurant so we planned to drive south to enjoy our night.

The next day...

Nathan made me breakfast in bed! (heart shaped waffles - CUTE)

Brought me flowers and a chocolate frosty to work (a box of chocolates is not appealing to me... you never know what you're going to get... in a bad way.)

BUT!

I had a client that night who's hair took... more hours than I thought it would.

No Texas Roadhouse. SAD!

But it was okay.... cause we got indigestion from another cheaper, closer restaurant...

Stupid fake Tacos.

We still haven't used our own rain check for Texas Roadhouse. Ha.

We will soon!

This was posted by Shaleena... on Nathan's gmail account ha.

The Last of the Holiday Updates

Our holidays were awesome, thank you for asking. If you don't mind, can we ask why you asked so far after the holidays are over?

... Mhmmm... Mhmmm...

No, you're right. We DID drop off the face of the blog planet as soon as November hit... Yes we can see why you'd be concerned... No don't worry, we'll still keep you posted... Sorry about the lack of updatage.

We couldn't have had a better break from school!

Thanksgiving was amazing! We went out to my grandparents' house in Utah to help them celebrate 50 years of marriage. A thanksgiving feast one day, the anniversary party the next, and on the last day, the beautiful sealing ceremony of my aunt and uncle. Celebrationness and happiness all week! Unfortunately, not very well documented... But my sisters and I got a pic....

Christmas was amazing, too!

We went to a few parties before leaving Rexburg. 

Like the Ugly Sweater party:

And we made gingerbread houses!

We didn't actually eat it. ... After sitting around for a month it seemed a little 

.... sketch.

We went to Colorado and stayed for two awesome weeks. 

No good documentation of that either! 

Except of how tired all the college kids had gotten this semester...

Spending time with family is more than enough of a Christmas present. We were just so dang excited to be home, we didn't even care about getting presents. But, just as the sky is blue, parents are the BEST at helping their kids out. ;D (someday we'll be strong enough to stop them)

I remember as a kid watching my parents get gifts that were... practical. And boring, I thought. A new drill? A new pancake griddle? Those were not toys. ...

Turns out they were. And great ones too! Toys! A mixer! And food storage! And a sewing machine! And our friends and family spoiled us with other sensible things we can use at work and home and school. Toys! Never thought I'd see it that way. And so grateful and happy and excited to have and be able to USE all of it!

We miss that time of year so much already. 

The food was great, the fun was great, but the family?

So.

Great.

Relaxing. Comforting. Fun to see our wonderful parents and siblings and cute little nephew! Even when Christmas starts at 4am in the Bennion house. Even when I realized my brothers are all too quickly turning into adults. 

It is the best.

We hope your holiday was just as glorious :)

And now you have the last of your holiday updates. 

Ghost Post

The witch is

My poor husband recently came home to an overwhelming smell of
Pumpkin Spice Scentsy 

(I may have put a leeeettle too much in).

I then bombarded him with the Halloween themed cookie cutters I bought.
I was stoked.
I sat next to him on the couch and watched him pull each of them out.
"What this one supposed to be?" ... "Why are there two different leaf shapes?"

My poor husband. This is what happened...

I came to a realization the other day.

I'm going to get old.

It wasn't a really fun realization, but I don't feel like I'm old now.
I might start to in six months when I turn 23.

I think that's why I love Halloween. 

Costumes, candy, cookies, pumpkin carving, parties.
... it's my childhood all over again.

Last year, being very newly married, we didn't really do a ton for Halloween.
We did get to dress up for the trunk-or-treat, and I think one night I stuck in my vampire fangs from a previous Halloween and worried Nathan.

I think that was it though.

So this year, I decided to celebrate Halloween right.
Mostly because of my getting older-phobia.

So celebrate we have.

I'm so lucky I married a man whose as much of a child at heart as I am.
 He was all for my ideas.

We started by carving a pumpkin!

Luckily, our friends the Brantingham's invited us over for dinner and pumpkin carving.
More fun with friends!
(we stole this pic from their page, to see more check out their post http://mrandmrsbrantingham.blogspot.com/2010/10/dont-you-just-love-halloween.html)

I drew the face, but Nathan did most of the carving. 

(Though I like being festive, I don't necessarily like being sticky)

Thanks, Elyse, for letting us use your lipstick!

Fitting for a hairdresser's pumpkin no?

Next year we'll have to make her a boy pumpkin... 

Next, we decided we wanted to dress up for the ward costume party. 

Guess what we were?

I'll give you a clue ...

Yes, that's right.
We convinced two other couples in our ward to dress up with us.

We came to the ward party late, so it was funny to watch people watch our big ridiculous group shuffle in...

chuck our weapons on the table, and go get some food. 

Ms. Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Ms. White, and Colonel Mustard.

We all got together a couple hours before, so I could do the girls' hair. Fun!

So after winning a prize in the costume contest, which was fun 

(a $5 gift card to Twizzleberry!) 

We went to Twizzleberry for some frozen yogurt, and then went bowling!

Don't our shoes look great?

The most fun triple date I've been on in a looong time.

They were a blast!

Saturday, I brought some Halloween music to the Salon. 

Not as much Halloween variety as there is Christmas.. 

so songs like Thriller, Superstition, Werewolves of London... 

I'll just upload part of the playlist for you.

We ended our weekend by going to the temple, ha. 

And then stopping by the SpOoK aLLeY set up by the owners of my Salon! 

Theme: Hannibal the Cannibal. 

Used mannequin heads for hairdressers helped a lot with that.

It was awesome.

So now, 

I'm waiting for the cookies we made to cool down enough to decorate, 

.....though Nathan was right. 

We can't really tell what some of them are. 

And we may not get to decorating tonight...

We're kind of tired.

Happy Halloween!