Front Row Joe!

So, a few weekends ago we got to go to a Jazz game. But this wasn't just any Jazz game, my friends - we've been to Jazz games before, and loved every minute of them (even got on the Jumbo Tron once!), but this time the game felt a little different...okay, A LOT different! Let me take you through our night...

These are our tickets...the kind you get to wear around your neck...the kind that get you the best dinner you've ever had upstairs at ESA at a magnificent buffet that offers you chocolate eclairs, the likes of which you've never tasted before.

This is Adam. He's the real pal that hooked us up with the sweet tickets. He's sitting next to Richard, who is sitting about 15 feet away from Paul Milsap who is waiting to get a killer rebound. He later threw the ball inbounds, and Richard had to physically hold me back from trying to touch him just a little. I was so close!

This is Jerry Sloan, who is running up and down the sidelines screaming profanities at the refs...I love this guy!

This is the Jazz Bear - the greatest professional mascot there is...and that is me next to him too excited to make a normal face even for a very rare photo such as this...good one.


Here we are, during a Time-Out just relaxing with all the rich folk who are used to having these kinds of seats...luckily my face has gone back to normal, but don't worry I still felt like I was having a heart attack.

This is me, posing only feet away from my fave Jazz player Carlos Boozer (don't know if you noticed, but I'm wearing his jersey!)...don't judge me, I know he can be a spotty player! Don't judge him either - he's awesome! Want to know what else was awesome? When I kicked the Jazz Dancer sitting right in front of me...it was more like she sat back into my foot and it didn't even faze her, but I still really enjoyed it...Jazz Dancers are not awesome.

At half-time we got to go to this super special room with treats & drinks (the Secret Combinations of Jazz Season Ticket Holders are great - we want in!)...Rich chilled with Gene, reliving his Halloween Glory days.

Here we are after the game, really trying to take it all in because when will this ever happen again...seriously?! They won (actually killed the New Jersey Nets), but I'm sure we'd still have big stinkin' grins on our faces even if they lost...It was definitely a top night!

Thanks Adam!!!

HaNdS dOwN...FINALLY!

Let's take a little trip down Memory Lane, shall we...

It's almost 6 years ago (man, that makes me feel old!), and I'm just getting ready to graduate from high school. I was dating a kid, and all of my friends were dating people, too - which made things lots of fun, or lots of drama, depending on the day - and together we all made a big happy group of friends. I thought it would be SWEET if we all went to the Dashboard Confessional/Jimmy Eat World concert that was coming a week or two before graduation, and when I presented the idea to my friends (the boys) in our fave biology class I suggested that we all just pay for ourselves since the tickets were hella expensive. The boys, being the gentleman that they were wanted to pay for their girlfriends if they were going to go, but they didn't have the money, so they flat out said no. I tried to convince them, but had no luck. Not too long after that, at my Seminary Graduation, I was taking pictures with Joe (one of those boy-friends) and Katherine (Jake - another boy's girlfriend). Confused yet?! And she asked Joe if he was excited for the concert that weekend...It's all a blur after that because of the rage blackout I had, but needless to say I was furious. The dumb boys took their dumb girlfriends to the dumb concert (as a graduation gift from one of the dumb boys' sisters) and it was too late for me and my dumb boyfriend to get tickets. And I've held onto that grudge pretty tightly for the past five and a half years...

that is until I got to see Dashboard play for FREE on 25th Street in Ogden last weekend! They were here for the Dew Tour, which I couldn't care less about, and a local band opened for them, which I also didn't care about. Although it was FREEZING, and someone in front of us had killer gas aimed in our general direction, I had a blast!!!! My sisters came, which I loved, and we met up with some friends. I sang at the top of my lungs & then we went home for some hot chocolate. Hands down, it was the best day I can ever remember...ok, maybe not, but that line just seemed to fit! haha

So cold you can see our breath!!!

The friends we met up with...not the girl making the face...just the ones in the middle haha

Me and my baby, rocking out!

...a FESTIVUS for the rest of us...

I hope everyone's Christmas was as Merry as ours! I was thri-i-i-illed to be with my side of our family for the holiday this year! I love our Smith side, too, don't get me wrong, but I think that's the hardest part about being married and having our families live so far from each other, but such is life....ANYWAY, it was fun! Here are the highlights from that glorious holiday weekend:

Avatar...the weirdest movie I've ever seen! This is what we saw Christmas Eve. Was it entertaining? Yeah. Would I ever tell someone to watch it? Nope. Will I ever watch it again? Nope. Will I have nightmares about the creepy "love scene" for the rest of my life? Definitely. But it did leave us with a lot of awkard/funny quotes...I see you.

Mom got us all jammies for Christmas, and we opened them on Christmas Eve, just like the good old days!

Our little ghetto little tree. The white cord on the lights is a nice touch, don't you think?

I've got to be honest, I was expecting another gift dud from Richard (I'm not being rude, it would've fit right in with the other 3 Christmases, or any holiday calling for gifts, that we've spent together), but he blew me away. He did so well that we've decided to never do gifts again - it could only go downhill from here! My favorite present is my Celine Dion: A New Day dvd of her concert in Vegas. It's been on non-stop since I opened it as background music!

Aren't they cute? Chelsea definitely has her snowboarding goggles on over her glasses. Lovin' ya!


I love how my mom wraps the presents we pick out for ourselves!


Rich hit the jackpot on sweaters this year.

I made this picture frame thing for my parents. If they didn't absolutely love it I was going to kill somebody because I'm not a crafty person, and this was a pain in my you-know-what! Luck for everyone in the basement, they did.

Bug's snowboarding gear...now let's hope she even likes snowboarding...at least it looks cool.



The present says "Beefcake" on it. It's an inside joke from our fave show Chuck. I'm pretty sure when he saw this under the tree he panicked and went out and bought me a lot more presents hahaha

It's a new guitar case. I think he thought it was a new guitar at first, and was maybe a little disappointed, but he really was happy for the case - his old one had duct tape all over it!

Boo Boo got a new TV!

Todd hates what she's doing to him, but loves her enough to let her do it. BFF's 4eva!

The first of many gift cards...thank you!

What cute cousins we have!

Scuzzin' ya!

Grandma singing Christmas tunes.

Grandpa/Santa singing tunes with Grandma.

Sarah front and center at the Porter Christmas Sing-Along.

Rich getting Toady - I mean Kody - all riled up.

Where's mom?

Grandpa Tony/Santa on his Christmas throne at the piano...I miss the big tree at the old house...

Here are the Shepherds. Where are the Wise Men?

Dad's goin' rogue! Santa/Mom wrapped this as a gag and gave it to my dad...he clearly loves her. Sarah Palin was the best Christmas gift any of us could have asked for hahaha God bless us, every one!

Awesome Snuggie! Way to go Shirl.

Toady, Dad, & Richard rockin' out to Christmas songs.

Say cheese...

What a beautiful family!

We stopped to see Grandpa at Aunt Sondra's on our way down to St. George for Austin's missionary farewell.

Aus-train, Richard, & friends singing at the farewell...Richard later told me I shouldn't have taken this picture in the chapel. And now that I look at it, I think Austin is looking right at me, thinking the exact same thing!

Family picture time! I'm totally bending down to try and even things out.

Brotherly love.

Ummmm....

Cuties.

24?!, KISS-KISS & JumboTron

Sooooo, I've obviously been a super-slacker on keeping up with this blog of ours - and it's a crying shame because I'm sure everyone's just been dying to know what we've been up to hahaha! No really, this is kind of like a journal for us, so I am going to try and be better. No promises, though. Anyway, today I'm playing catch-up on my birthday, Halloween, and the most recent Jazz game we went to. Here goes:


This year I turned a whopping 24 years old, folks. Sounds like an actual adult age, right? Well, if you agree with that then you couldn't be more wrong! I mean, yes, I am technically an "adult." But so is my sister Sarah, and no one's calling her a grown-up (hahaha love ya, but I'm trying to make a point!), so stop acting like I am. I guess it's not that bad to be a grown-up, but when that term comes to my mind, all I can think of are old people....like parents and grandparents and really serious people. I guess I just like the saying "you're only as old as you feel." Because as I was thinking about that on my birthday, I decided that I don't know what age number I feel, but I feel pretty dang youthful and happy these days, so just don't lump me in the same group as the boring grown-ups, ok. I'm starting the Totally Awesome Fun & Young Grown-Up Club. I'm President, and Rich is going to be Vice Pres. We still need the rest of our cabinet, though, so get in line you other fun-lovers!

Rich met me in SLC for my fave sushi dinner at the Happy Sumo after I got off work to celebrate.

I've been wanting to dress up like KISS for the past couple of years, but we were never able to find another couple to do it with us (you can't just dress up as half the band!). Our friends Rachel & Spencer came to the rescue this year, though! We were a big hit at our ward's Halloween Stomp...they even played "Rock & Roll All Night" while Richard and Spencer danced and sang and got everyone to sing and dance with them. It was hilarious!!! You may be thinking "how fun could a ward party really be?!" But can I just tell you that we have the greatest & most fun ward in the world! It's a married student ward, and we have the greatest activities. At this party we even had a Limbo contest & a Dance-off! Also note, this is the first time that Richard has willingly danced with me in public - literally danced the night away to every kind of music you can think of. So much fun!

Richard as Gene Simmons

I was Ace for the night.

His spandies came from the same Girl's department at Target that mine did hahaha

We did each others' make-up! Impressive, right?

At the end of November, right before Thanksgiving, our ward had a Turkey-Bowl football game (yes, I played, too!). After the game, someone in the ward gave our friends Todd & Lacey 4 tickets to that night's Jazz game, and they invited us to go...well, I overheard the whole thing go down and started freaking out, so they probably felt obligated to invite us, but whatever, we went with them! We ate dinner at Litza's Pizza downtown, and then headed to ESA for the game. Our tickets were in the upper bowl, but I say pretty much any seat at the game is a good one. That being said, we couldn't help but notice how many empty seats there were in the lower bowl...even entire rows! Richard and Todd were busy scouting out the seats, while Lacey and I watched the game, but it paid off because at half-time we moved on down to the 17th row without a hitch! The seats were great, and it was an awesome game. That's not even the best part, though. The best part is that we got on the jumbo-tron! It's pretty much a goal of mine at any sporting event I go to (happened once at a Ute football game, but I was totally unprepared). We were watching the camera guy, flagged him down, and then it happened...all I could see were the stripes on my shirt jumping up & down, Richard's red hair, & one of Lacey's bright yellow sleeves. Good times! Thanks Lacey & Todd! And thank you cameraman!