my husband/boss

for those of you that don't know, i quit my job (last Wednesday was my last day) to be a stay-at-home wife and am sooo excited at all of the new windows of opportunity this will open up for me! first of all, i'm will's secretary now for his business since i've worked up skills with things like making customer phone calls, organizing, billing, and writing down lots of things. all of this i get to do in my pj's at home now, score!

^ my new desk ^

second, i can focus on getting through school quicker with better grades woohoo! (i'm already taking an English and a math class this semester. in the fall or possibly even summer, i plan to get back in with a full load. a big thank you to financial aid!) and third, i can make my own schedule which makes this new scenario just grand! will and i have for the last couple of days (not on the Sabbath of course) been hitting the gym around 8:30 or 9 each morning (instead of trying to work up the will-power to make it out the door at night) and it's given us energy we didn't know we had! we are counting our blessings that we are in the position where we can afford to have me be at home right now and lift some of the load off my husband and stress off myself. plus i've had the extra time to cook... so Mr. Betenson couldn't be happier. :]

p.s.

here's a snippet of our fun weekend:

mom and dad came to visit and mom made her traditional (and delicious!) corned beef and cabbage for St. Patty's Day, we went swimming in a heated pool (it was amazing!), and we spent lots of play time with these cute kiddos. it was a grand ol time!

one down, eternity to go!

our anniversary was last saturday. i can't believe how quickly a year has flown by, then again it feels like i've been head over heels in love with will for a decade. i'm so happy to say i still get lost in his eyes and get the butterflies whenever he takes me out on a date. seriously, how did i get so lucky?

this year, being the first one, we decided to start an anniversary tradition of going to The Roof, a fancy restaurant in downtown Salt Lake in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. besides the drinks, the whole thing is buffet style. it's one set essspensive price, but if you go on an empty stomach.. BELIEVE me you'll go back for fifths and defineatly get your money's worth. it's delicious! oh and just a side note, anyone who has ever seen the movie "The Singles Ward" where the main guy and girl are out on a date with a beautiful view of the Salt Lake temple and the live music.. this is the place!

i love to see the temple. :]

hubby surprised me with these bright beauties too! daisy love. :]

happy one year anniversary will! i love you for a million reasons and i'm so happy we'll have years and years to come of these celebrations!

birthday weekend!

friday night we had dinner (chicken enchiladas, yum!) and brownies with ice-cream. see those colorful oreos in front of me? apparently me and oreos share the same birthday month. they were a present from will's mom, oreos with funfetti cream.. a gift from the Heavens mmm.

saturday night will surprised me with a party at Airborne (its a gym full of trampolines, foam pits, and dodgeball). we were defineatly the oldest ones there, but it was my kind of party! will did good. :]

love this guy!

after sweating our buns off on the trampolines, we went to Tres Ombres for some fantastic burritos and fajitas. (2 nights in a row i know.. i love my Mexican food!)

then i made a wish and blew out my candles. :]

sunday night me and will's grandpa wade had a combined party (we share the same bday) at his uncle's house. i got to be a princess and wade was a cowboy. it was so fun!

here's my awesome funfetti cake, thanks to chelsea and liz! (will's sister and mom)

it was an unforgettable birthday! and i can honestly say i wouldn't mind waiting a-whole-nother year to eat another piece of cake. i am one stuffed girl over here!

L-O-V-E

my valentines post has finally made its way onto the blog!

on 2.14 i got up really early like i do every day for work.

little did husband know, i really spent 30 minutes

putting up these hearts

.. and was a tad late to work, oops!

so a couple hours later when he was headed out the door,

these made him very happy and i got a cute text

with lots of exclamation points. :]

blah blah blah..workin all day..blah blah blah

that night, i beat hubby home and tidied up a little

before he got home with beautiful hot pink roses

(he knows i'm not really a red roses kinda girl.. too overplayed.)

then he brought in our glorious dinner!

steak (cooked to perfection on the George Forman grill we got for our wedding, can't believe we haven't used it until now!),

sourdough bread with a yummy dip we copied from Johnny Carrino's,

a salad, martinelli's, chocolate covered strawberries, and cheesecake!

i was a very happy girl. :]

we set everything up in the front room and had a candle-lit dinner

..much more romantic to us than waiting in line at

some fancy, crowded restaurant.

we decided to make dinner at home a V-day tradition, starting last year.. see?

except this year we got a little fancier..

i ditched the t-shirt look and we upgraded from pizza to steak.

i'm not complaining tho,

i LOOOOVE my Little Caesar's pepperoni!

back to the story.. then we exchanged gifts:

a new wallet, favorite candy bar, and cool socks for hubby. a hand-made collage with a love note written on the back for me!

i seriously LOVED that he MADE me something,

and just look how cute it is!

too bad he won't let me show it off in our front room..

but it has a permanent spot in our bedroom. :]

i hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!

xoxo,

Kari, Will, and Banks

2011 flashback (part 2)

here are some of my favorites from the second half of last year..

sit back, sip some hot cocoa, and enjoy!

July:

tubing down the river in az with my parents.

crafting up a storm.

August:

dog pile!boating in idaho, yippee!

September:

setting the table with mickey mouse.. errr will.

my sweet friend Angela stopped by for a visit

and we had a fun time catching up at Red Mango.

October:

family pictures with Will's side.lumberjack and lumberjill at our friends' Halloween party.

November:

at the 2nd annual "Friendsgiving".. costume required.
ice skating double date.

December:

had a little catchup night with some of my girlfriends in az.
making gingerbread houses with friends.

so there you have it! 2011, the best year of my life so far. i'm looking forward to all of the new adventures 2012 will bring, and am so excited for another year with that sweet husband of mine!

2011 flashback (part 1)

i can't believe i haven't done a recap on last year yet.. i mean come on i only married my best friend, moved away from home, got a new job, and filled my heart up with tons of new friendships and family. it was the best year of my life so far! so month by month i thought i'd share some of my favorite photos of the year, here's to you 2011!

January:

taking our engagement pictures

i couldn't resist this one..

February:

after our Valentines dinner in my parents' backyard. me modeling the new red toms from willy and him wearing the purple hoodie i got him. :]

sunday night temple walks

March:

dancing at our reception.. aww love :]

honeymoon in hawaii. i miss it so much!

willy the starfish!

April:

Easter at will's grandparents' house in Bountiful.

May:

at will's big sister's wedding

getting the Cinco De Mayo piñata ready

June:

double date to the movies with cozette and travis

swinging life away!

2012 you've got big shoes to fill. :]

my weekend gets 5 stars.

once again i've slipped into the abyss of being too busy (cough cough and lazy) to blog. but this weekend was far too awesome to not write a post about! friday night i threw a little girls night at our place. i stole all of will's buddies' girls away from them for the night.. their revenge? going out for sushi and playing halo without us. boo hoo... (p.s. i don't even like sushi) we painted nails and chatted the entire night! you'd think we'd run out of things to say after 3 and a 1/2 hours.. nope! these girls are so fun, i think i speak for us all when i say it was a blast. after a couple of girls who lived farther away left, roxy, alya, bailee, and i realized we kinda missed our newly independent men so we decided to sneak into the house (zach and roxy's) and surprise them with our left over dessert from the party. plan well played, we ended the night with a little couples party and went home with empty dishes. this girl LOVES not having dessert leftovers that she knows hubby won't touch (healthy eating New Years goal) and will leave her forced to

finish and add 10 pounds to her hips. sweets are my biggest weakness.

love these girls, plus alya (the photographer)

we started today off right with getting the gang together for a big snowboarding day at the Canyons. it was fun having more girls along this time, no offense boys. i feel like i've been improving a lot this season with each time i go and will always reassures me that i am. whew! i don't know how much longer i could have lasted with knocking little kids in the head when i tumble off the ski lift and always throwing myself on the ground to stop from running into a skier. I'm sure will appreciates that too..

we squished 8 people into the gondola! (Bailee is hidden, and zach is taking the picture.)

after a fun filled day of snowboarding we hurried home to get ready for our date to La Caille, a fancy shmancy french restaurant in Holladay. don't get any ideas.. we aren't rollin in the dough. will's parents found and gave us a $50 gift card to there that was expiring this coming

Monday so we thought "what the hey! let's live the lifestyle of the rich and famous for one night!" we dressed up all snazzy, will in a suit and me in a dress and heels. after a week of work and a

long day of beanie hair, i think we were quite impressed with each other. La Caille is amazing! from the super nice and friendly waitresses and hostesses, to all of the complimentary in-betweener food, to the "coat room", to the valet parking attendant that would sprint to the cars so us ladies in dresses didn't have to freeze our buns off outside waiting. i even tried duck for the first time tonight! the. best. thing. ever! i would defineatly recommend this place for any millionaire in search of some good eatin. welp, for once in a billion years, husband is in bed before me so i'm off to go enjoy a warm bed. i'm so grateful for that boy's body heat. Happy weekend everyone!