Beware of the Bear!

Happy Halloween!

In honor of Halloween and the joy of scaring people on this wonderful holiday, I decided to post this video my friend John sent to me. It is hilarious!

Thankful Thursday

I was looking through my blog archives and I haven't done "Thankful Thursday" since July. July! How sad is that?! I was thinking today about a few specific things I have been really thankful for lately, and I wanted to share them with you.

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1. Tyson - I hate to break it to you, ladies, but I am marrying the greatest guy in the world!! He is amazing. It has been so hard not being able to see him as much as I've wanted to where he lives in Idaho and I'm in Utah. But I think this distance has been so good for our relationship. It has really made us appreciate each other, and it has made me realize how much I really do love him. If I had it my way I wouldn't do the long distance thing! But where this is the hand I've been dealt, I'm doing just fine with it. Tyson has been a dream come true. I can't even imagine my life without him. Heck, I don't even remember what life was like before we met! But I'm glad we were brought together. I am so blessed to be marrying such a wonderful guy.

2. The Bob & Penney Murri family - Speaking of living in Utah, these are the people who have so kindly brought me under their roof to live with them till my internship is finished in December. Bob is my mom's brother. I have had a blast living with these guys! Where they live in Farmington, I haven't ever been able to get to know them as well as my other family members in the Murri family. And living with them has totally changed that. I have had so much fun getting to know them so much better. I just love their family! They have four kids: Tyler (24 - lives in Bountiful), Miles (21 - going to BYU), Ashleigh (18 - living at home, working, and getting ready to go to school), and Kayleigh (10 - 5th grader and absolutely hilarious). I'm glad I've had the chance to live with these guys. They have also been nice enough to let Tyson stay with them when he comes to town to see me. For that I am extra extra grateful. It has saved so much money on fuel and hotel costs...I can't even say how grateful I am to them for that. This move to Utah has probably been the hardest thing I've ever had to do. And if I wasn't living with family I would be having the hardest time. Bob, Penney, and their family have made this big change in my life so much easier, and I can't thank them enough for that.

3. My family (O'Connor's) - They have been my #1 fan since I was born and I love them for that! They have been very supportive of my decision to move to Utah, making it that much easier to move. I miss them like crazy, but I know that they know I'm doing the right thing. My mom has been awesome helping me plan my wedding while I'm out of the state. It is hard enough planning a wedding, but try doing it away from both your familiy, your fiance', and out of the state everything is happening. HARD! But my mom has made things a lot easier for me by making phone calls and getting me appointments on weekends I'm in Idaho. Thanks, Mom! Another thing I love about my family is the fact that they love Tyson. They have liked him from the very beginning, they think he is awesome. And they are always asking about him and when he's coming over to their house next. :) I love you guys!

4. My friends at Richter7 - Again, this move to Utah has been so hard! And what a change! I've had to make changes with a lot of everyday things. Traffic, new city, new job, new people...It was very scary starting a new job in a new state. But I have made some great friends here at Richter7 that I am so grateful for! Megan, Amanda, and Abby are the girls in the PR department who I work with every day, and they are awesome! I love these girls. They have made starting a new job so much easier because of their welcoming and friendly personalities, and they're always willing to help out when it is needed. I have so much fun with these girls on a daily basis, and they make work that much better. The thought of having to leave here in six weeks makes me really sad to think about because of these three girls. They have definitely blessed my life, and I can' thank them enough for that. (Did I mention Abby is getting married in January too? January 15th!)

5. My family (Miller's) - I am so blessed to be marrying into such an awesome family! For those of you who don't know, Tyson's brother Clark and I were good friends in high school and our group of friends used to go over to his house to hang out. Since high school I have loved Milan and Julie (my future in-laws) and I always thought their family was so nice and fun. And now I get to be a part of it! Woo hoo! They have been so warm and welcoming, and I really appreciate it. Julie invited me to join the Miller Family Website this week and I was so excited! I have received so many friendly welcome notes from members of the Miller familiy - cousins, aunts... - and I have felt very much a part of it. I've already been able to get to know my future brothers and sisters in-law as well, and I just love them all! And my future neices and nephews...I love them so much! Thanks for everything!

I Share a House with Minnie Mouse

Well, not really. But my cousin Kayleigh is Minnie Mouse for Halloween and I live with her. So close enough! Penney made Kayleigh this costume for Halloween and she just looks adorable in it. I had to get a couple pictures with her. She has been able to get some good use out of it, too. For Achievement Days they went trick-or-treating for canned foods and had to wear costumes. And on Friday night she had a Halloween party across the street and she wore the costume. And of course, she'll wear it trick-or-treating Halloween night. I just love it! I can't get over how cute she looks in this costume. She makes a great Minnie!

Tyson came down this last weekend and it was wonderful! We had a great time together. He made it into town by 8 p.m. and we visited with Penney for a while. We decided that night to just relax and watch a movie. So we popped in "While You Were Sleeping" - Amber and my mom's all-time-favorite movie.

Saturday was a busy day for us. We woke up that morning and decided to finish up our registry list at Kohl's. I LOVE Kohl's kitchen stuff! I was in heaven telling Tyson to scan this and that and everything else. It was great. I love to bake and want to learn to be a better cook, so all the cooking products were the best sight ever. Later that day we went to Magna to spend time with Tyson's brother Dustin and his wife Erika. Their daughter Lillie was also there. Of course I brought my camera and forgot to take pictures, so I can't even show you what they look like. They have the cutest little family ever. I'm excited to be related to them. We had a great time on Saturday night. We went to Mulligan's off 106th and played mini golf. I took second - woo hoo! After that we went back to Magna and ordered pizza. Two hours later we finally got it after Pizza Hut lost our pizza then took a massive amount of time delivering the new pizza. In the mean time we kept ourselves entertained with games. Good times! We had a lot of fun with Dustin and Erika.

On Sunday, Tyson and I went to church with Bob, Penney, and their family. I love attending church with Tyson, it makes me very excited to go to church as a married couple. :) Sacrament meeting was the primary program so I was very excited once again. And of course, it made me cry. Tyson spent most of Sunday with me and didn't leave till 6:00 or so. It was great being able to spend the weekend with him. I can't wait till this weekend when I get to go to Idaho and see him again!

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The sunsets have been so pretty over the last couple of weeks so I thought I should take some pictures. This is the view from my bedroom window. So fun!

I've Got a Fever...Fall Fever

Five Little Pumpkins

a Halloween poem

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Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."

The second one said,"There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"

The fifth one said, "We're ready for some fun."

Then "OOOOOO" went the wind and out went the lights,

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

*Author Unknown

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I know Amber will remember that little Halloween poem! That one has been a favorite since I was a little girl. I didn't work today so I have been to various places in Farmington and Kaysville, taking in all the fun fall colors and looking at some very fun Halloween decorations. I love this time of year!

First off, for FHE this last Monday night we had a nice lesson given by my cousin Kayleigh (10), and for the activity Bob had the idea of painting a couple of pumpkins and giving them to neighbors. It was such a fun idea, and we had a good time painting those pumpkins.

Here are a few pictures of the pumpkin-painting fun:

Aunt Penney, my cousins Kayleigh and Ashleigh painting the pumpkins while Uncle Bob and Ashleigh's boyfriend Nathan watch.



Ashleigh and I worked on this one together.

This is the front.

And this is the back.

Ashleigh if she had a pumpkin head

The finished product!

We had a fun time with this FHE activity. It is a great idea to have some fun and also give service to somebody who needs a friend this Halloween.

I have had quite a fun day! Penney and I went to Farmington Elementary with Penney's friend, Margaret, where my cousin Kayleigh is in the 5th grade. Her class has been reading a story about a boy who was in a talent show performing the song "La Bamba" and the music got stuck. And he was lip syncing, so he was mouthing the same words over and over again. (Too bad Ashley Simpson wasn't there to give him some pointers on what to do when that happens!) So Kayleigh's class decided to do lip sync performances in small groups, and they performed them today. It was so much fun! It took me back to the days of being in elementary school and how much fun we had. Kayleigh's group was at the very end, but I was so glad we got to watch all the other kids! It was so fun! Kayleigh and her friends Kate, Courtney, and Mary performed a lip sync to a song from Hairspray and they did an awesome job. I'm glad we went.

After the performance we went to lunch at a cute little shop in Kaysville. It was so good! I had sandwich on some delicous honey whole wheat bread. After lunch we went next door to a craft boutique where they had some really cute decorations for Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. I loved going through there, it made me so excited to decorate my house with holiday decor!
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Tyson is coming tonight and I'm so excited!!! We get to see each other on the weekends so I've been very happy with that. We tried going a weekend without seeing each other and it just wasn't a good idea. So...we're switching off the weekends in Utah and Idaho. I'll be in Idaho the next two weekends for Halloween, family events, and wedding appointments, so that should be fun.

Tag, You're It!

I was tagged by Mindy
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Seven Random/Weird Facts about Me:

1. I don't like baked potatoes. And I'm from Idaho. What's up with that?

2. My favorite movie has been Dirty Dancing since I was four years old.
3. I've never been to California.
4. I haven't read any of the Twilight series. (I know, where have I been?)
5. I have never seen a single James Bond movie. Not even the new ones.
6. I have watched all ten seasons of Friends from start to finish at least three times.
7. I hate Butterfingers candy bars.

Seven people I would like to tag:

1. Amber
2. Britney
3. Ashlee
4. Erika
5. Kristi
6. Kaelynn
7. Sha

One Year Older and Wiser Too

Amber and I celebrated our 24th birthday this weekend and it was so much fun! I was completely spoiled. From the moment I entered Idaho Falls on Thursday night I was busy busy busy. But it was yet another perfect weekend, I loved it.

On Friday I was able to get a couple things done with wedding plans so that was nice. That night Tyson and I went to dinner with Amber and Che' at Carino's. I love being able to spend time with my siblings. We have a great time together. And it was a lot of fun being able to see my old work friends. And normally Kathy doesn't work Friday nights but she was there working! I was so excited to see her! After dinner we went to DQ and got cherry-dipped cones (delcious) then back to Tyson's to play games and hang out. It was fun being able to relax for a bit.

Saturday (our birthday) was a very busy but awesome day! Amber, Mom, and I headed to Pocatello on Saturday morning to meet with the decorator. I was able to pick our colors for the reception and get all the decorations planned. What a relief! I ended up picking eggplant (dark purple), black, and silver for the colors. It is going to be so pretty! And very wintery. I love it. After visiting with the decorator the three of us went to lunch. Then back to Idaho Falls for more birthday fun!

Mom and Amber dropped me off at Tyson's when we got back into town. He decided to give me my birthday presents and boy did he spoil me! He got me movies (including "Sleeping Beauty" - yes!), Sarah McLachlan's new CD, everything Love Spell you can think of...and it keeps going! What a sweety. After ward we decided to start our registry. After taking inventory at his house and figuring out what we need we headed off to Target to start the registering process. We had a lot of fun, that's for sure! We started our Kohl's registry online but we'll go in and add to that later. After going to Target we drove out to Ucon to see Tyson's parents. They had gotten me some birthday presents and I just love them! One thing they got for me that I LOVE is this super cute jacket, only mine is white. It is so cute! They also got me a couple of shirts, some jewelry, and a couple of fall decorations. So fun! I just love my future in-laws, I'm so blessed to be marrying into such an awesome family.

My O'Connor family birthday party was great. We had so much fun! I love spending time with my family. There were ten of us there, but Amber and I still wanted everybody to sit around the kitchen table together. It was nice and cozy with all ten of us at a table that fits 6-8. But it was great having everybody so close! It was fun being with everybody. We received some really fun things for our birthdays. And thanks to Amber and Britney for these pictures taken at the party! I can share my birthday with everybody so thanks a lot, sisters!!

I received so many fun things for my birthday! A couple others were "Grey's Anatomy" season 4 from Aaron, Britney, Che', and Amber, and a new manicure set from Mom and Dad. I needed one so bad!

After dinner and presents we went to a 50th birthday party where Bill Bush (a friend of our family's) and his high school band were playing. If you look closely at the picture below you can see Aaron, Britney, Che', and Amber doing the chicken dance at the party. So fun!

Tyson, Che', Amy, and Amber enjoying the party

After a couple days of partying it was time to wind down. Sunday was the perfect day to do that. I went to church with Tyson that morning at 9:00 and it was a really nice meeting. My awesome weekend ended perfectly when Tyson and I went to his sister Angie and her husband Steve's ward to watch my future nephews Easton (6) and Cooper (4) participate in their primary program. The picture above is of them a couple of years ago. I borrowed it from Tyson. (Thanks Tys!) I'm going to take a minute to brag about my future nephews! These kids are so dang cute, I just loved watching them up on the stand. Cooper is a sun beam so he stood on the front row with the other 20 sun beams. He recited one of the Articles of Faith and sang "I Am a Child of God" so well! He was so cute. Easton had a speaking part and he did such a good job. He sang a lot of songs with the rest of the kids and recited Articles of Faith that I can't even remember! I was impressed. He even sang a song and did some sign language to it. It was so neat! Just sitting there watching these two made me so excited to be their aunt. I just love these kids, they're so much fun. I feel like I've been part of this family forever and it feels so good. When Tyson and I get married I will also be gaining two neices, Kate (5 months old, Cooper and Easton's sister) and Lillie (14 months old). I love these kids so much! I can't wait to be their aunt!

When I got back to Utah on Sunday night my aunt, uncle, and their kids threw me a little birthday party. We had brownies and ice cream (mine got a candle and everything!), and they had bought me a couple of presents. So nice! I had recently been telling Penney how I was out of Love Spell so she got me some lotion and body spray. I'm all stocked up now! They also got me this really great cookbook of award-winning recipes. Awesome! She has been giving me some great tips about cooking and some easy ways to cook things, so a cookbook was a perfect gift from her. Thanks, guys!!

That concludes my birthday weekend. It was awesome, I loved it! Thanks to everyone who helped make this birthday so special! Mom and Dad, Tyson, my siblings...I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. And thanks to all of you who have sent me birthday wishes, that has been so sweet! I have the most amazing family (O'Connor's and Miller's!) and I'm so blessed to have them all in my life. I'm so glad I have had a twin to share all my birthdays with over the last 24 years. I wouldn't want it any other way.

I love you, Am!

Proposal Flowers and More Weekend Fun

The night Tyson and I got engaged he brought me the most beautiful flowers. I don't know why I didn't post any pictures of them before! They were gorgeous.

I love the view in the background! I definitely don't get sick of seeing that every day. So fun!

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While Tyson, Che', and Amber were on their way to Utah on Friday night I went to Britney's sister's wedding reception at The Bungalow in Pleasant Grove. It was a really fun reception hall hidden behind a bunch of trees. It was really nice.

This was their book table. So cute! Karissa is such a cute girl, I love the picture of her.

The reception hall

I loved their cake! I liked that it was square and not the traditional round.
And I really liked their colors. These were the center pieces on their tables. I always wanted a fall wedding because I wanted to use the fun fall colors. But now I'm really excited to be having a winter wedding!


Britney, Aaron, and I at the reception

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Steve and Karissa's reception was so nice! It was fun being able to get ideas for our wedding reception in January. I can't wait! Woo hoo!

Track Jackets and Cherry-Dipped Cones

I had such an awesome weekend! Amber, Che', and Tyson drove down here on Friday night for a weekend sure to be filled with some good times. It was so good to see them when they drove up! I've really missed them. Our original plan was to meet up with Aaron and Britney for Frightmares at Lagoon. But that changed when the weather forecast predicted 40-degree weather and a 60% chance of snow. So we decided to play it by ear and find other things to do.

When they arrived at the house I took Tyson aside and gave him a little present I had gotten for him this week. He is always so sweet and surprises me with flowers and other things. Not to mention the diamond ring on my left hand! So I decided to go shopping for a new track jacket for him. He loves track jackets and had mentioned he wanted another navy blue one. (Yes, that's right. I said ANOTHER. He loves them!) I gave him the track jacket along with some pumpkin candy corns and a couple "mixed tapes" I had made for him. He loved the jacket and he looks great in it. He's wearing it in some of the pictures so feel free to check him out! He looks hot! ha ha

After they settled in on Friday night, Amber, Che', and Tyson played cards with my cousin Ashleigh, her boyfriend Nate, and I. We had a great time. We stayed up late talking to Bob and Penney (my aunt and uncle) and it was so much fun.

The next morning we got ready and had a nice breakfast with Bob and Penney's family. After discussing new plans with Aaron and Britney, we decided to spend the day shopping and visiting Grandma O'Connor. We started out at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake where we also met up with Billy and Tonya Bush. They are good friends of ours. In fact, Billy has been a friend of mine since I was two years old so we go way back. Our parents have been best friends for the same amount of time. We had a great day shopping and spending time together, eating lunch at Costa Vida...It was fun.

After parting ways with Billy and Tonya, the rest of us drove down to Midvale to see Grandma O'Connor. It was so fun being able to visit with her. I hadn't seen her for a few weeks so it was fun visiting her again. She got to meet Tyson for the first time, and she just loved having us there. She's great.

We were able to get a picture with all of us and Grandma:

That evening Aaron and Britney spent time with Britney's family in Cedar Hills. So Amber, Che', Tyson, and I decided to head over to P.F. Chang's for dinner. It was so good! We ordered a few different dishes and shared them, which I highly recommend. It was fun being able to try a few different things. We had a great time. I love spending time with my twin sister! I miss her so much, and I'm just glad we were able to spend this weekend together. After dinner we had a very eventful drive home, thanks to Tyson. :) Let's just say I couldn't stop laughing. We decided to go to Centerville to hit up the local DQ for a cherry-dipped cone. Delicious! We love those things.

We were able to get a few shots at P.F. Chang's as well:

We woke up on this morning to six inches of snow. Seriously?! It felt like Christmas! We went to church and enjoyed a really nice fast and testimony meeting in Bob and Penney's ward. I love fast and testimony meeting. Bob bore his testimony and it was really nice.
After church I had Amber take a few pictures of Tyson and me. Can you see the snow on the mountain in the background? Crazy!

I once again had a perfect weekend. Our family gets along so well, it was so fun being able to hang out with my brother, sister, and in-laws. And I love being engaged! Tyson is the man of my dreams, and I feel so blessed to have him in my life. January 10 isn't coming fast enough! The next time I see Tyson will be on Thursday night, and I'm already excited for that day to come. I will be in Idaho for mine and Amber's birthday on Saturday. So just a friendly reminder that the holidays officially start Saturday, I love it! I loved the last few days, they were so fun!

What a great weekend!

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The picture below is from when I met up with Kaylie and Stacy in Lehi to go to dinner. It was so much fun!! I loved being able to see friends I haven't seen in a while. We reminisced about some fun high school memories. We had a great time. It is nice having friends so close that I can hang out with every now and then. I love these girls!