Merry Christmas

I found this to be hilarious...but if you haven't seen twilight or could care less about twilight..it may not have the same affect on you..

we're fabulous

So apparently Sarah Beth finds our blog fabulous. I'm flattered!

Here is how the "fabulous blog" award works...

The rules of this award are:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.

2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget. Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

my addictions:

1. Facebook: I won't lie it runs my life. I check it more than 5 times a day if not more.

2. Reading: I was never EVER reader until twilight. Even in high school with required readings..i went to sparks notes. i DETESTED it. Now i can't go more than a week without a book. I love being able to live through other characters and look at things threw different peoples perspectives.

3. Dr. Pepper: I was never much of a soda drinker til ryan had me try dr.pepper. i can't go to a fast food restaurant without drinking it. But sadly i can't drink it alone cuz the caffine makes me weak..haha..i always need it with food.

4. my tv shows: grey's, one tree hill, private practice, and samantha who..they run my life. sad, but SO true!

5. TWILIGHT: do i really even need to explain that? it goes without saying...

and the winners are:

1. Heidi: is my fabulous sister who encourages me to keeping writing. i love reading about her mommy moments with savannah. they truly are sweet and it makes me excited to be a mother.

2. Alix: is my fabulous old roommate/best friend. She's HILARIOUS and her blog shows it. Whenever i talk with her she brightens my day!

3. Holly: is another fabulous sister who introduced me into the blogging world. which i am very grateful for. she doesn't blog a ton, but when she does i love reading about it!

4. Sarah Beth: is my fabulous best friend. yes, you get two awards because it's true..i love reading your blog! Sarah Beth never ceases to amaze me. She's makes me want to be a better person. She says i'm the reason she is who she is today, but she has had just as much impact on me.

5. Whitni: is another one of my fabulous best friends. we pretty much have nothing in common, but we can talk to each other about anything and understand each other. She's one great listener!

red iguana is delish

so while we were in utah for thanksgiving we went to this hole in the wall place in salt lake called the red iguana. the best mexican food ever. mexican is my least favorite food, but if it wasn't so expensive and if we actually live in utah, ryan and i would eat there every week. Red iguana was featured on one of my favorite shows: diners, drive-ins and dives. So when you're in salt lake it's the place to stop and experience.

i love my family

while waiting for our food our family played a hilarious game, but since the rest of my fam isn't as shameless as i am i would get my bum kicked for posting the pics. haha..But i'll tell you how we played. i started playing this game 3 years ago with my roommates. so roomates that read our blog: you know this game well. one person makes a face and takes a picture, no one can watch them. the next person looks at the picture and tries to make that face. it's like telephone, but with a camera. by the end the faces only get worse and it makes for some good laughs.

nothing is worse than job hunting

After about 10 months the restaurant i worked at closed shop. It was kind of just thrown at me. I showed up to work and they said that was the last day we were open..i'm like sweet. thanks for the warning guys. so now i'm job hunting and it makes me hate life. i HATE rejection. and there really aren't a whole lot of choices. SO..if anyone knows of a place in rexburg that's hiring...throw it my way! it will be much appreciated.

tis the season

To kick off the season we went to wes and whit's to make graham cracker houses. we made some delicious frosting and decorated with m&m's...

my graham cracker house

whitni and i concentrating very hard..haha

ryan was very proud of his house

everyone's houses

thanksgiving break

ryan and i didn't think we were even going to be able to go home during thanksgiving break, but i do the schedules for my work and made it happen. a trip we thought was only going to be 2 days turned in 5, so it was really nice! i was especially excited to go down because the van wagenen girls bought twilight tickets for us all to go..haha..i had been dying to see it again. and it made me that much more excited that all the girls in our family love the books. so it turned into one fun girls night out.

april, mom, and eva me, burgandy and senja

we were so excited!

Thanksgiving day was nice and relaxing. It was a great for spending time with family. My aunt and uncle from finland came to spend thanksgiving with us and it's always a treat to have them around since we rarely see them. they are such pleasant people. We decided to do something different this year when going around the table saying what we were thankful for. We decided to each write on a piece of paper what we were thankful for and one person read them and we'd try and figure out who wrote what. we learned that ryan and jeremy are both grateful for pie and mountain dew..haha

Friday night heidi and i decided twilight was a good idea again...holly didn't want to be left out, so the sisters and burgandy and senja decided we'd go on round 3 for twilight..pathetic? maybe, but quite frankly we really couldn't care. we bought the tickets ahead of time, but we left late and a jazz game had just let out so we got stuck in traffic! making us 20 minutes late for the movie..we parked in the first spots we saw and booked it across the gateway to get to the theaters. 5 girls running across an outdoor mall in pjs with blankets at 10 o'clock at night..it was a site to see, but maybe you had to be there...luckily we made it just in time for edward to show up on screen..haha

shooting

Look who's come out from under a rock! it's been weeks since i've blogged and i have a TON to blog about so here is the first of many...a couple weeks ago wes invited ryan to go shooting and for some reason the husbands wanted the wives there. i don't particularly like guns, but whit and i said..what the heck it'll give us something to blog about..haha..we went out into the middle of no where(not that rexburg isn't already in the middle of nowhere) for them to shoot some clay pidgens.

i didn't want to shoot the gun, but apparently i give into peer pressure easily

it really hurts your shoulder..not sure what's so fun about shooting a gun. maybe it just makes men feel manly.

whitni said it made her feel like sarah palin..haha

the word is out!

summit entertainment just signed on for NEW MOON!! YEAH BABY!

read about it here!

i can't get it off my mind!

so if you are sick of hearing about twilight stop now. but if you read our blog often you know twilight is a main topic, so you knew this was coming! I LOVED THE MOVIE!(girly squeals) yes..it had it's cheesy parts and some not so great effects, but i was expecting that. No movie can live up to the hype it gets. Whitni and i got to the theaters at 9 to wait in line for the premiere and it was so worth it! i felt like a huge geek, but what can i say..i probably am! I could not get the smile off of my face for the whole movie. Every time i saw edward my heart melted and i wanted to be bella!..not just bella, but kristen stewart. Robert pattison is so HOT! I was feeling a little sketchy when they first cast him as edward because he was not at all how i pictured him! But in the movie he truly gave the character justice! Although i did picture edward being more charismatic, it didn't matter..he stole my heart! i only wished we could have seen more of the cullens, but hopefully there will be more movies to come and they won't stop with twilight!

we figured if we're going to be here for 5 hours we're going to be cozy!

GirLS WeEkENd

Last weekend of few of my best friends came to visit. namely:anna and alix. We'd been wanting to get together for quite some time and seeings how rexburg was where our whole friendship started they came here. We were roomates for two years and weren't ready to stop, but plans change when you get married! On friday night they all showed up. Britt and kelly, alix, and ryan and i went to wingers for some sticky fingers. Once anna and colby arrived we headed back to britt and kelly's for some games and to chat and reminisce of course! Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. We woke up went to great harvest for some food then went back to britt and kelly's(there was place is the only place that could fit everyone) and lounged around for a bit. Colby was super tired and ryan wasn't feeling very well. he was up all night the night before:( the guys ended up playing xbox and us girls went and ran some errands-porters, walmart, payless, and down east-the only places there are in rexburg..haha. We then went to bajio for some dinner and then went our seperate ways. The husbands went to see 007 while us girls did silly girl things(video taped, danced around, made sugar cookies). Once the boys got back we all watched what happens in vegas-SO funny. The weekend went by all too fast. it was hard for me to hold the tears back when everyone had to leave. I love company-especially from these girls.

me and lanna-we've been best friends since 7th grade-we're basically like sisters

the whole gang in the car/brittanys cheek

little homemakers makin sugar cookies

britt and her sugar cookie man

haha...we were trying to make this silly face we used to make, but couldn't stop laughing

fourth tag

The fourth and fourth tag.....go to the fourth file in your pictures, then go to the fourth picture. Post that picture and explain! This is what I came up with!

so this is kind of lame..but it's what i came up with! i even tried using the files on our other computer, but the fourth file on the other comp didn't have a fourth picture..haha..so..i think i was putting some plastic wrap over cookies and heading to bed on our make shift bed on the couch...good times.

i now tag...holly, heidi, alix, and whitni

seriously...

does anyone else know the frustration of needing to run out at 10:00pm for last minute errands of necessities such as deodorant, popcorn and a humidifier(because husband has had way to many sleepless nights caused by sickness)..when the husband still needs to finish hours worth of homework, having to bundle up because it's freezing outside and walmart is at the farthest end of town. then getting everything you needed just to get to the cash register and find out neither of you have a wallet. then realizing you just lost your perfectly close parking spot for nothing and also don't have enough time to go home, get a wallet and go back because the store will be closed. it's awesome.

ryan 101

i feel lots of times i talk more about myself than i do ryan...SO. my friend brittany gave me an idea...it's long so be prepared. here's ryan 101:

1. i'm 25 years old
2. my favorite show is the office
3. i drink chocolate milk on a daily basis
4. my birthday is jan 14
5. i'll hopefully be graduating in july 2009
6. i prefer to keep my hair short, but mindy likes it better long and curly
7. i'm a very laid back person
8. some of my favorite movies are tommy boy, black sheep, and accepted.
9. i love double stuffed oreos..i stab a fork into the cream and dip it into the milk
10. speaking of double stuffed oreos-i've gained 20 pounds since i've been married
11. i once fell of the roof of my house when i was about 13 while sweeping of the pine needles. i landed straight on my back. my sister came over, starred and left.
12. i'm dying to go back to the place where i served my mission-mexico
13. i love chick-fil-a..the chicken sandwich with provolone and the waffle fries with LOTS of ketsup
14. i wish i could buy a house right now
15. i don't like giving talks in church...i could write everything i want to say in one paragraph and then i got nothing
16. i want to surf on the west coast someday
17. i love watching the discovery channel, animal planet, and the history channel
18. i was born and raised in South Carolina
19. i didn't play sports in high school
20. my favorite color is blue
21. i have the worst luck EVER.
22. i've been put in hand cuffs 3 times-once while making sure my dad's shop was locked up-i was checking cars and the cop thought i was trying to steal one, another time for saying "i lived on campus"..when i didn't-just approved housing and it sounded too suspicious to the cop, another when i was 15..the cop pulled me over for an expired license plate in the high school parking lot in front of everyone Because i was only 15 the cop thought i stole the car.
23. i LOVE jet skiing and surfing
24. my drink of choice is mountain dew
25. i have 3 sisters...i'm the only boy
26. the places i've lived: summerville, SC..north charleston, SC..provo, UT..rexburg, ID..monterrey, Mexico.
27. i'm a man of few words
28. the only nicknames i have ever had are goob(thanks to britt) and ryn(thanks to alix)
29. i never really ever got sick until i married mindy-other than the near death asthma attacks i would have every christmas as a kid because of the excitement - now i get sick all the time...she doesn't.
30. i'd prefer to live on the east coast, but we don't know where we will end up
31. i'll eat anything!...unlike my wife.
32. i can't sit still for very long-i may possibly have ADD.
33. i love snacking on ranch flavored corn nuts
34. i want to live closer to my niece and nephew
35. i have had several jobs including: trophy building and carpet cleaning
36. i want to finish rebuilding my 1972 SS Chevelle
37. i miss my miniature dauschund oscar
38. i'm constantly dry and itchy
39. i have to sleep with a fan at night..not for the air, but for the sound
40. i love playing around with electronics
41. i'm a senior in college
42. i drive a champagne 1997 accord
43. i snore when i sleep
44. i prefer not to lounge around and just take a shower and get ready for the day
45. my digital camera was stolen on my mission and my film was ruined so all i have is a few pictures from the last couple months.
46. right before my mission i was jet skiing with my best friend, tom. He threw me off and i hit an underwater sand bar and hyper extended my knee
47. and i re-emphasize..i have the WORST LUCK EVER.
48. someday i want to go into real estate, but i don't want it to be my full time career
49. i constantly pace back in forth in our apt because i hate sitting down for long periods of time.
50. i love everything about the south-collared greens, grits, the friendly people, seafood, warm water, boiled peanuts
51. i've been married to mindy for 1 year and 3 months
52. i once had a pot belly pig as a pet..he would steal 2 litre sodas and drink them all
53. i want to open up my own business and be my own boss when i graduate
54. i love shrimp-especially the ones on the east coast..boiled and seasoned with my dad's homemade spices.
55. i love finding new bands and music
56. my cousin mark and i started making our own t-shirts with the logo Last Fall...pretty much everyone of my shirts has an acorn, tree, leaf, or some kind of design with last fall labeled on it
57. i miss my family and wish we lived closer to them
58. i like taking things apart and putting them back together
59. i work as a paralegal for lexington law firm
60. i really despise my job...i get yelled at all day, by people with bad credit. but you do what you gotta do
61. my parents use to have chickens and we'd have fresh egg every day
62. i don't like watching chick flicks as much as my wife does
63. i love taking showers..i'd take them twice a day if it didn't make my skin so dry
64. my all time favorite candy bar is snickers
65. i LOVE milkshakes
66. one thing i would like to do someday is scuba dive
67. i'm majoring in business management and minoring in spanish with an emphasis in finance.
68. i have a girl friend and her name is jessica alba
69. i faint at the sight of lots of blood
70. i pretend that i can play the guitar.....(he doesn't pretend..he's really awesome!)
71. i sleep walk and it creeps mindy out..even though she doesn't know half the time that i do it.
72. french toast is my favorite breakfast
73. i don't like watching movies more than once..unless it's a comedy like dumb and dumber or tommy boy...unlike my wife who could watch notebook once a week
74. anything brownie is great by me
75. i love mindy's cooking
76. i would rather eat something sweet than salty
77. when i put gas in my car, i have to have it exactly on the dollar..if there is change i put more in to make it even.
78. flip flops are my shoe of choice. i'd wear them in the winter if mindy would let me
79. i've never broken a bone...except maybe a rib...but i'm not sure
80. i really like beef jerky
81. i love my beautiful wife
82. i want to own more than one classic car someday
83. when mindy and i start having kids-i want 4 or until we get a boy. someone has to carry on the hayes name!
84. mindy and i met through my old roommate
85. when we have a little more money i'd really like to go on a cruise to mexico
86. i tried going down the stairs in a wheel chair once and may have broken a rib
87. when it's actually warm in rexburg i automatically feel like i HAVE to be outside
88. nothing is every too spicy for me...the hotter the better
89. i have a horrible memory
90. i like to play with fire...i'm kind of a pyro
91. i love good thunder and lightening storms
92. i can never wear just one shirt. i always have to have an undershirt.
93. which brings me to my next fact. i hate floppy necks and wonged out sleeves. even if i'm wearing a long sleeve with a short sleeve over it-if the long sleeve has a floppy neck i will put on a third shirt to go over that.
94. rainy days are so much better in SC. i hate cold rain.
95. i wear contacts, but someday i want to have lasic eye surgery
96. i used to wear glasses as a kid and hated it
97. my favorite holiday is christmas, but i hate opening presents in front of people..even if it's a present i really like.
98. i really don't like reading...mindy tries to convince me that it's great, but i think she's lying
99. i would eat seafood everyday if i could..fish, mussels, lobster, crab, shrimp, calamari, oysters...i would die a happy man
100. i like watching diners, drive ins and dives with mindy...the food always looks so good
101. sometimes i get weird urges to open the car door of a moving vehicle and have to lock it just in case

STRETCH ARMSTRONG!

Ryan and i happened to be in Utah for Halloween, but the REAL reason why we went was for my brother Scotty's Stretch Armstrong reunion! Scotty started this SKA band in 1990. NO DOUBT once opened up for Scotty's band and another time Stretch opened for NO DOUBT. For those that don't know who NO DOUBT is(which you should!)...NO DOUBT was how Gwen Stefani got her start. Anyway, Scott's concert was AWESOME!!! I'd never gotten the chance to see him in concert before so this was especially cool for me. I was such a PROUD little sis!

For your listening pleasure..

rockin out!

ryan enjoyed himself, but refused to dance with me..haha...go figure.

Best show of the night!

sisters with cousins nicole and natalie.

HaLLowEeN!

For halloween we went home to utah for the annual family halloween party. We had delicious food(as always) and a costume contest. Ryan won first place and i shared 3rd with Jeremy. Ryan's costume was hilarious!..they called him the "mullet man". It was a fun relaxing night!-aside from getting up every five minutes for trick-or-treaters...

ryan won first place...haha

bell and alice and wonderland

bunny and mullet man

50's gal and "dude" as christopher called himself..he refused to dress up

"war and peace"

witch and danny zuco(?)

SCREAM!

So on opening night...no let's start with Whitni...my best friend whitni LOVES high school musical. LOVES it! So ever since she found out high school musical 3 was coming out she has been dying to see it. ME-on the other hand-really couldn't care. But because i'm such a great friend..haha..i went with her and LOVED it! haha..i was getting into every song..except the troy and gabriella songs...gag me. i can't stand that brunette...i even came home and bought the soundtrack on zune(we pay $15 a month for unlimited downloading..otherwise i probably wouldn't have.) It was SO cute! i loved sharpay(ashley tisdale for those of you that don't speak high school musical..i didn't.) I have found my new squeeze...zac efron is a babe!

i'm very original

so i'm way behind on posts and i know this...so we are going to start from a couple weeks ago with pumpkin carving...whitni and i went to broulims and picked out the pumpkins..weston didn't feel like carving that night..he wanted some inspiration first. so...whitni carved a star and a moon..ryan carved a sweet scene with a wolf howling at the full moon. and i was very original with carving 3 stars...haha. i don't normally carve and i'm pretty sure that this was the first pumpkin i have EVER carved...so i was still very proud of my work!

yes...i gutted my own pumpkin..proud of me?

my precious pumpkin

ryan's masterpiece

sorry family..no more free back adjustments

Ryan has officially decided he no longer wants to go into chiropractics. He's majoring in business management so who knows what he will do now, but he wants to be an entrepreneur. Hopefully he'll be done by the end of July. I'm feeling a little lost though now. We had everything planned out before and now we have nothing. But then again it is kind of nice because we can now start from scratch and live anywhere. Who know where the road will lead us. We just need to keep praying and hopefully we will get some answers:)