my my time flies.

one year ago from monday night, this cute boy got down on one knee

and asked me to be his Mrs. for forever.

i said "of course!" and he's made me the happiest, luckiest girl

in the world ever since.

hubs wants to chime in! welcome willy. :)

Can't believe its been a year already! I will never forget last Christmas, I was so excited to propose to Kari and carried the ring with me everywhere I went until it came time to. I was anxiously awaiting her arrival all Christmas until finally she was here! Now we get to spend Christmas together for the first time and we are excited! I love you sweety, so glad I got you for Christmas last year and for every Christmas to come!!

recovering

Last Saturday, me, Will, and our buddy Mike, made our first trip of the season to the Canyons to snowboard. We had a blast and the boys were killin it, doing what they do best! It's gonna take me years of practice to get to their level.. it's tough stuff! But i plan on never giving up.

It's all fun and games until somebody breaks an arm..

Will snapped his arm on a handrail at the end of the day. I've never seen my hubs in so much pain.. poor guy has been on drugs all week and i've been playing his nurse. It's been both a trial and a blessing: the trial is that he's had to push back his finals and not get very much sleep; the blessing in it, however small it may be, is that we've been able to spend more time together and fallen even more in love with each other. Wishing you a swift recovery honey!

A break from the cold

Last weekend we drove down to Arizona for Thanksgiving.

It was a much needed trip and lots of fun to drive with my honey and jam out to Pandora (Well Will might not agree completely.. he drove about 15 hrs and me only 5 for the whole round-trip. So what. I needed my beauty rest.. the guy is already goRGEOUS!

Some big events that happened down there:

We finally got to meet my baby niece Violet, aka the cutest little squirt!

(Picture stolen from Afton's fb, mine didn't do her justice..

most adorable baby you've ever laid eyes on, right? )

I got to see my closest girlfriends and catchup.

Boy everyone's growing up so fast! I love them. :)

We got to master a few new games (my family is big on board games)

and Will discovered his new love.. "Ticket to Ride".

I think we played it a whopping 3 times that whole weekend!

Maybe it will magically appear in wrapping paper under our Christmas tree this month hmm.. :)

Look up there ^ aren't they adorable?

That's our girl Metzli and her boyfriend Ryan.

We like them alot.

Speaking of Christmas.. can you believe Santa comes in 21 days!?

I love the end of the year, filled with month after month holidays and parties to boot.

A girl's gotta have her nights to dress up and snarf down a few extra cookies..

am i right or am i right?

Merry December!

say cheese

Howdy strangers!

It's been a while since my last post,
but we have had one too many things on our To Do List!

I know.. excuses, excuses..

I could post about how exciting my work, and his school and job training were..

But i'd rather just post a bunch of pictures of the fun things we've done in between it all. :]

Will took me to my 2nd ever BYU game. Last time was fun, but everything is more fun with this boy.

We got some more Fall pictures taken by my sweet highschool cheer friend, Eryn! She needed models for a school project and I love pictures, so it was a win win!

We celebrated the 2nd annual Friendsgiving at Zach and Roxy's place. Will was so proud of his homemade Pilgrim hat.
I would be too.. boy's got crafty skills!

Everyone have a great short work week and a happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Mom and Dad, welcome to Utah!

My parents came to visit this week hip hip hooray!

We had as much fun as you could possibly pack into a couple of nights.

We played an intense game of Phase 10, Dad and Will won.

We went for a swim at their hotel with my brother, sis-in-law, nieces and nephew.

We all found out my brother's wife Letitia is 3 months pregnant, yippee for babies! This will be their 5th, holy cow! I keep telling Will we need to catch up.. my tactics don't work on him.

Dad's birthday dinner was at Pizza Hut, that's LeSueur style dining and boy was it de-LISH!

Richard and Letitia took us on a tour of their new house. It was nice!

Last but not least, we played in the snow! 2 weeks till the Canyons opens and we can snowboard yeeahh buddy!

deck the halls!

I know we're jumping the gun alittle.. but this weekend consisted of making stockings, drinking far too many cups of cocoa, watching Home Alone, and ice skating. I think the first snowfall of the season may have had something to do with our little Christmas buzz. The grown-up in me says "geez at least wait until after Thanksgiving!" but the little kid in me screams out "SANTTTTAAAA'SSS COMMMIIINGGGG! I know him!!!!" So obviously i've been giving into my fun side more. Merry Christmas, enjoy some pics of another fabulous weekend at the Betenson home!

He makes a mean cup of cocoa.

When you get married, you no longer date another single.. (duh)

you date couples! This was a fun one with Mike and Erika. :]


Here's a flashback to Halloween at my work. These girls are awesome!

halloweening.

So last night me, my babe of a husband, and our buddy Mike went to Savers to hunt down the rest of our Halloween costumes. I love finding hidden treasures for super cheap prices, thrifting is a huge hobby of mine! So our buy consisted of teeny men's black work boots for me, old Levi's that we're gonna cut into shorts, and a flannel shirt for will (I already have one perfect for this).. can you guess what we'll be? :]

We're planning a THRILLER of a Halloween party at Mike's condo for this weekend. So far we've got bobbing for apples, carving pumpkins, donuts on a string game, spooky decorated cupcakes and goodies, dance party, Frankenstein movie, and costume contest on the agenda! This is going to be too much fun! Now I just gotta make it through this week at work without exploding..

A couple weeks ago, at Witches Night Out with Will's mom and sisters (Will and Chelsea's husband Derek came along for the yummy dinner @ Archibald's).

once upon a time..

once upon a time there lived a little blonde wife..

who for one reason or the other went to bed in a bad mood.

only to wake up to a spotless home, a cute work outfit already layed out, and a yummy pancake breakfast.

i love the man i fell in love with.

life is good.

p.s. we had a fun time today at Wingers with will's grandma, little cousin, and sister for hayley's goodbye lunch!

we were twins! in case you didn't know, i LOVE stripes.

carter kept laying his head on will's shoulder, it was too cute!

3 things

3 things I'm loving right now:

1. Will has been in a really big huggy kissy mood lately. I like that a LOT.

2. Banks has only missed his potty pad twice this week!

3. Business is good. I worked a 42 hr week at the lab, sold some Mary Kay and booked a party! Success!


What's your top 3?


This is a couple months old, but too cute not to share.

vroom vroom!

welp, you probably guessed it.

or saw it on my facebook..

we got a car!

We love it, it's so us. :]

drum roll please...

we made our first big purchase as husband and wife today.

we are SOOOO excited about it!

this smiley expresses me perfectly right now: :))))))))))))))))))

i wish i could share..

but i promised husband i wouldn't until we debut it to the family.

so until then,

drum roll please....


but in other news, we've both lost 5 pounds in the last few weeks! woohoo!
we've been eating really healthy and for the most part following our workout plan.
i'm so done with this whole "marriage layer" business.
we love our new-found energy and in a month we can put it towards snowboarding!
one happy girl right here.

munchkins.

Last Sunday we had fun visiting my brother Richard, his wife Letitia, and their little munchkins. They live in Tooele so about 30-45 min. away from us. Letitia made the best chicken enchiladas! (Next to my mom's). Me and Will brought the side (corn) and the drink (what else, Kool-aid!). The kids are always so excited and hyper when we come by. It makes us feel like celebrities. Will is so great with them, he lets them climb all over him and plays Rocketship with them. They love their Uncle Willy.

From left to right: Rebekah, Elizabeth, me, Matthew, Will, Hannah.
Aren't they the cutest?


They LOVE their silly face pictures!

sing me a song of a piano man.

i love my new baby!

and the best part is.. drum roll please..
it was free, zero deniro, nada!

Zach and Roxy found it for us on the KSL Free section of the classifieds and called dibs on it before it had even been online 2 minutes! Thanks pals! I'm forever indebted to you guys.


It's in really good condition, minus 2 keys that stick and the spot that holds the sheetmusic needs another screw to hold it up. But hey its nice for the price! ;)
It's a dream come true to have music in my home again.
Err well on the back porch at least..
It's awaiting a sanding and paint job from us before we move it in.
It will be a vision when its finished!

6 months!

Well it has been six months since we were in sunny AZ getting married! I feel like so much has happened since we got married, it's hard to believe that we have only been married for half a year. Kari is loving Utah more and more each day and we are super excited to get our snowboarding passes this year and be able to ride together! Winters have always been my favorite time of year up here, so I am excited for the snow. We had a really fun summer together, but now we are busy busy with school and work. We are still really young and have a lot ahead of us, but we are excited to get to share all these experiences together! Most of all during our six months of marriage we have learned so much together. It's crazy how much stress being married can be, but it's even more crazy how much happiness it brings. I am so excited to be able to share eternity with my wife, I love you Kari!

overlooked

skimming through our wedding pictures again brought some new favorites to my attention.

it's awesome what a second glance can do for you.

enjoy!

i love all of the gazing into eachother's eyes pictures. we're lovebirds!


i like this one because of my cute mom. she loved being there for pictures and she was a big help for me and my poofy dress. :]


the story behind this one is that i stink at the serious, sexy face in pictures. this was the closest i got and we both agreed it was a smokin shot of us.


what a pretty boy!

change is inevitable.. except from a vending machine.

As much as I love it here, holiday weekends are still tough being away from my family. This weekend i had a good cry thinking about how I would miss out on some important things that have been happening and are coming up soon. Will is the best at handling my teary-eyed moments. He gives me a big bear hug and tells me to let it all out so i can empty my bottle of stress and start brand new again. I'm glad he isn't a guy who is afraid of tears.

In light of this mini breakdown I thought I would make a Tribute blog to all the things I love about Mesa, then to stay positive of course, a list of what I love about Salt Lake. Ready or not, here it comes..

Mesa Love: At least half of my friends have swimming pools or boats. I could wear flip flops around all year long. Traditional LeSueur family breakfast at IHOP every Labor Day and Memorial Day. being tan, oh man! my crazy fun summers at the City pools. My best buddies and familia..

Salt Lake Love: I get to buy and WEAR lots of cute jackets, boots, and sweaters. Can snowboard half the year. the mountains here are everywhere and gorgeous! i can play outside during the summer.. and not just in a swim suit. Maggie Moo's and the real Dollar theatre. The ginormous Sugar House park right down the street. All of my new friends and family! Everyone motivates eachother to be active thus all of our neighbors either bike, run, or walk their dogs daily. a "White" Christmas. :]

Mesa was the best place in the world to be raised in, but Salt Lake is going to be a LOT of fun to finish growing up in. I love my life, my husband, and all of the challenges and blessings this move has given me. There is always a ray of sunshine to be found in everything thrown our way. I know the Lord will never give us anything we aren't able to overcome.

arts and crafts

We were on a decorating kick this week.

We're pretty proud of our creations.

Wanna see? :]

Got this shadow box at D.I. for 3 bucks. Add some paint and cute accessories and bah duh bing!


A yard of on-sale fabric at Joann's + an oober cheap frame from D.I.= perfection.

A little corner of bliss.

007 moment.

Tonight we decided to be 15 again and we snuck into the Hampton hotel to go for a dip in the pool. We were sooo sneaky! We walked in casually like we were coming to visit a friend and headed back to the pool door. Smooth. Next part was tricky, we needed a room key to get in and nobody was in there so we couldn't just knock. I visited the little girls room while we waited for somebody to come down to the pool. When I came back out, Will was telling a spanish-speaking maintenance guy that happened to walk by that we forgot our room key. Vwala! He let us in and we were in business! It was nice to have some one on one relaxation time with my man before the stress of school starts. We could be secret agents, I swear. :]

Happy faces and Bob Marley

Have I failed to mention that Will is the sweetest guy on the planet? Okay so i'm a little biased.. but seriously. He blew my socks off on Friday with another one of his cute little surprises! It started like this:

I woke up at 5 am when nature called. There was no Will in my bed. I found him on the couch because he said I was breathing heavy and he couldn't sleep. My stuffy nose plus him being a light sleeper don't mix. I was lonely in bed but needed my sleep. Next time I woke up it was to the clacking of pans in the kitchen. I walk in to find Will making pancakes and syrup mm. Bob Marley's "Dont worry, be happy" was defineatly playing in the background on our laptop. I was a very happy woman! Only thing is I sorta ruined the surprise because he said he had planned on actually bringing me my breakfast in bed but oh well. It was still the sweetest start to a great day! Don't worry, be happy man. :]

It's unfair how cute he looks in pj's with sleepy eyes.

Boise isn't just for potatoes.

So a few weeks ago Will and I decided it was high time for a mini vacation. Lucky for us, we have some rad friends from Eagle, Idaho who suggested a trip up to their parents' places for the weekend. Evan and Chase, you're the bomb!

Highlights of our trip:

• Will got a speeding ticket when we were 10 minutes away. Boo!
  
• Hot tubbing in the wee hours of the morning.
• Ate KFC for the first time in years. (Chase's Dad owns aton of them. He knew the Colonel!)
• Ruled the hills on our quads and dirt bikes.. until mine played "Steamroller" on me. Ouch!
• 6 hours on the lake filled with wake surfing, wake boarding, and getting wicked tan lines.
• Got to sit in on the last Sacrament meeting for the Beacon Light ward. Sweet people!

Moral of the story is, Boise isn't just for potatoes. It's for lovebirds and buddies too. It was a weekend worth remembering. :]

the sandman skipped our house..

I think The Sandman missed our house this week.. There hasn't been a night so far that i've gotten a full 8 hours of sleep or been in bed before 11:30. I'm not bragging. I love my zzz's. But the good part is, the lack of sleep is due to excitement of so many new things! Rewinding back to Tuesday night.. I was exhausted after work so Will told me to nap while he went to the gym then he would come back and we'd cook some yummy dinner together. 2 and 1/2 hours later, snap. I woke up and our mac and cheese with steamed veggies dinner was made and eaten at 9. That threw our timetable off for the night. We watched Planet of the Apes and went for a run at midnight. Still not tired. Did some other fun married people stuff. ;) Still not tired. Then we got the grand idea to register for a 5K. Pause. This is where i catch you up to speed on our "30 for 30 Healthy Month".

At the end of July, we started to get sick of our late night fast food runs, hit or miss gym times, and shh little pudgy bellies. So here's the solution to the predicament that we came up with. NO fast food, NO soda, NO junk food, and my least favorite.. NO sweets for the next 30 days. Plus gym EVERYday. Sound tough? Yep I wasn't sure I'd make it out alive. But the results started showing fast, we've both lost a few pounds in just one week, have alot more energy, and are pushing eachother so much everyday to keep going. It's been an adventure!

Unpause. So this race isn't until September 10th, plenty of time for us to kick our rears in gear (don't laugh, yes we are training for a 5K!) But the cool thing is it's at the U and it's in honor of patients and doctors at the hospital there. So guess what we get to dress up as? Need I say more? Oh the fun of it! Now last night was a doozy.. We started out with plans to play baseball with a big group of friends. Will gets called on a job when we pulled up. Fail. (But good for my hard-working hubby! :] ) So after talking dirtbikes and hot girls with will's buddies for an hour, Cozette comes and rescues me and we make it a girls night. Ross and Walmart shopping. We found smokin deals and had loads of fun catching up! She dropped me off and I was pleasantly surprised to get to bed before midnight.. with still no Willy by my side. :( I wake up at 2:30AM to a Sleeping Beauty kiss from my babe of a husband. Did I mention I love him aLOT? We stayed up talking for an hour after that and I showed off my new clothes. And we slept happily ever after.. until I had to get up for work at 6:30. Oh wells.. happy blogging! :]

Kids here, kids there, kids everywhere!

Let me preface this post with a nope we are NOT pregnant.

So last week, Brother Taylor calls us into a room and gives us our first calling in the ward..
Nursery teachers.
I know the norm reaction to this calling might not be the greatest..
But it's a challenge we're excited to meet!
Sacrament meeting, then 2 hours of playing dolls, tying shoes, and handing out snacks?
Sounds like a grand ol time to me.
Plus we'd get to stick together for all of church, which we don't mind one bit :]

Today was our first day in there..
We heard tales from sister's broken piggy bank to imaginary farms to dinosaurs saying "moo".
Will was an all-star with the kids, he got beat at a basketball shootout by a 3 year old boy named Luke and made a few little girlfriends. :] They're tough competition, those darn cuties.
It was a treat, let me tell ya.
These kids are adorable, we can't wait until next sunday!

How we met.. His and Hers

Her version:

It was a hot sabbath day in June in Mesa. I was running late to church and had to drive our Altima with the windows down (the air conditioning is broken.. and by that time of summer it was 100 degrees yikes!). I rolled in to the parking lot, kinda embarrased about my wind-blown messy hair and found the furthest parking spot so i could fix my hair before anybody saw me. I walked in to the building just as the Sacrament was being passed so I sat down on a couch in the foyer. A minute later, a cute boy walked in the door late too. He sat down on the same couch as me. I checked him out through the corner of my eye, wowza he was good looking! I'd grown up in that stake and knew most of the people in our singles ward through school or my siblings, so i knew this stud had to be a new comer.. I took it upon myself to be our ward's welcoming committee and asked him alittle about himself then offered to give him a tour of the building. (Which he later told me that he thought was so funny because most LDS churches are the same design.) He must have been intrigued because he followed me around for 10 minutes while I pointed out where the Bishop's office, Sunday school classes, and bathrooms were. Then I helped him find a friend (Ben Garns) that he knew in the ward and left him for my own group of friends for the rest of church.

Later that day..

When church was over, I headed out to the parking lot to leave and just guess who i ran into! Will and I were walking in the same direction in the parking lot so I yelled "Hey Will!" and he waited for me to catchup so we could walk together. Again.. he looked so cute that day! Now remember.. I had parked in the far end of the lot and was thinking he was just being a gentleman and walking me to my car when he pulled out his keys and unlocked his truck, in the parking spot next to mine! We had a good laugh at the coincidences of that day.. we were both late, both parked next to eachother, both knew the same friend.. at that point we just thought it was such a small world! God had other things in mind from these events.. :] He then asked for my number so we could maybe "hangout" before he went back home to Utah for the rest of the summer. Although we didnt hang out until 2 months later.. he made a lasting impression on me.



His Version:

So it was another scorching day in the blazing hot desert of Arizona and I was looking forward to the cool air that the church so dearly provides. I pulled into the parking lot and took the only spot I could see with a small tree providing a patch of shade. I was a little nervous to attend the new ward, because I barely knew anyone in Mesa. I was trying to hurry up because I had been running late and I stumbled into the foyer during the sacrament. I looked around as I entered and everyone was giving me a weird look except for a smiley blonde girl on the couch. I decided to take empty seat on the couch next to her. I kept checking her out as I sat there, and I wanted to do something to catch her attention, so I pulled out my scriptures and started reading them to try and impress her. She looked over at me and I gave her a friendly smile, (probably creepy like). She asked me if I was new and I told her where I was from and a little about myself. She asked me if I would like a tour of the church, of course I said yes even though everything is pretty much the same in all LDS churches and there is signs on everything. I tried to look as impressed and amazed as I could as she showed me the bathrooms, classrooms and bishops office. We flirted quite a bit and I could tell she was enjoying herself. We parted ways the remainder of the meetings and on my way out I saw her again. I thought she was the prettiest girl in the ward and wanted to somehow get her number before she left, thinking it could be the last time I would ever see her again. Coinsidently we had parked right next to each other, and as I was going towards my truck I started fumbling for me keys to give me a little more time. I looked over and noticed that she was just getting into her car and didn't seem to be trying to add time onto the clock, so I got really nervous and said something really weird and then asked her for her number. She looked a little confused, but gave it to me and I got into my truck, figuring I would never see her again. She had a certain glow about her and thought about her time to time the next two months in Utah, though we never spoke during that time.

Strike!

My poor hubby is in bed sick.. So i got to play nurse this morning.

My Rx was freshly squeezed orange juice, rest, and TLC.

I hope he recooperates fast.. i need my best buddy by my side. :]

Last night we went bowling with some of the gang.
We got to see Robert and Morgan for the first time since they got engaged!
(So adorable to see people at that stage.. can't believe me and Will were there just a few months ago! Wow time flies!)
TK and his brother "Pants" came along too.
(Funny story, Will and all of his buddies have nicknames for eachother since highschool. Will= Fresh, Zach= Kazz, Mike= Landfill, and on and on. I think it's rad.)

Throwing the famous "curve ball".

The playback:
Morgan won first, me 2nd, and the boys came in a few dozen points behind us.. Girls rule, boys drool!

The Tale of Two Cities: from Mesa to Salt Lake

Temperature drop off 40 degrees, pairing a cardigan with EVERY outfit, Daylight Savings Time.. welcome to Utah! Don't get me wrong, i'm loving the wardrobe change and hot cocoa feasts and of course being with my darling dumpling hubby all of the time. :]

We've been SO blessed since we made this move. Will was able to get his first job for his newly started business in less than a week (you go baby!), I got a job at a dental lab and am loving being busy again and making new friends, and his Grandma was kind enough to let us live for Free.99 rent in her basement apartment. It's exciting starting from scratch, because i know no matter what as long as we stick together that everything will work out for the best. :] It's nice having that sense of security. Will is the absolute best!

wakey wakey, eggs n bacey..

..Well actually milk n crepes. :] As I wiped the eye boogers out of my eyes at 5:30 AM, the first thought that popped in my mind was bReAkFaSt! Yessss the most important meal of the day. Despite what most people say, there are some perks with having to get up early for work: A. You have an entirrreee day ahead of you! Even when you get off work, the sun is still shining and there's plenty of room for adventures. B. $$$ ..need i say more? C. You have time to cook up a healthy (ish) masterpiece! I need all the practice i can get in my hopes to be the best wifey. :] Here's to a great day for us all!

The candy man makes the world taste good.

I'm a desert girl; born and raised in Mesa, Arizona. So of course it came as a big shock to me that the guy who would give me that can't eat, can't sleep, reach for the stars, world series kinda feeling would come from Woods Cross, Utah. When i say "shock", i don't mean the lick your finger and stick it into an electrical outlet kinda "shock".. more like the yummy, bright "Shock"tarts candies i can't seem to go without eating 3 bags at a time of. That's how I feel about this boy.. i just can't get enough! Will Betenson is my other half, he's better than any amazing thing i could dream of. Let me spell that out for you.. Willy > Russell Crowe. Willy > fudge brownies. Willy > cuddly Beagle pups. I'm SO excited to marry my best friend. This thought makes me the happiest and luckiest girl in the world! We will be getting hitched in the Mesa, Arizona temple on March 10, 2011, partying like rockstars at the reception that night, honeymooning in the enchanted land of Oahu, Hawaii :] , then shortly after will be moving up to Sugarhouse, UT to start our new life together. Talk about a wonderful mouthful.. which again ties this back into Shocktarts, mm heading to the candy aisle!