ohhhhhhh the Holidays.

Things have been crazy lately. Loving this holiday season. Our house is finally all decorated which is great. It finally feels like a home! Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. My sister came home for a week and we were able to go on our shopping trip that we always do within a few days before thanksgiving with my mom, brother and sister. We like to go downtown to Pioneer place (even though it doesn't have the largest amount of stores or best deals, it's got the best christmas spirit). We road the lightrail down (always), and spent a few hours shopping. We had a lot of fun minus the 10 hour walk downtown in the freezing cold to find the stupid Ducks store (which we NEVER found). I thought I was going to freeze to death. Ok it wasn't THAT bad but we were all pretty pooped after that. That night we all went and saw "A Christmas Carol" in 3D and that was pretty fun. Bobby had never seen A Christmas Carol before! Can you believe that? He really enjoyed it and the animation with 3D was pretty sweet.

We left the night before Thanksgiving to head up to Seattle and spend the rest of the holiday with Bobbys side of the family. We stayed at his Dad and step moms house and had Thanksgiving dinner with them. Bobby and I got to cut the turkey for our FIRST time ever and can I just say we did a pretty dang good job. Bobby just started attacking it until I got there and gave him some direction. Boys with electric knives... yikes. (PS excuse my terrible camera)

(Do you see the look on his face?)

(We ripped that bad boy to pieces. Got every last bit of meat we could find!)

Bobby's brother came over with his fiance Alli and daughter Brooke. Brooke is a doll. She's 2 and at the stage where she is INTO EVERYTHING. It's hard to keep track of her. Bobby's sister Coley also came over, as well as Bobby's step brothers. There was a good amount of people and it was REALLY great to spend a holiday with Bobby's Dad. That evening we went with his dad and sister to go see "The Blindside" = AMAZING. Had to keep my family tradition going of seeing a movie on Thanksgiving. Normally on Bobbys side-- Thanksgiving is spent at Bobby's Moms mom--but that wasn't the case this year. His dad and step mom are so sweet and kind and we loved spending a couple of days with them.

(Alli and cute Brookie)

(always into something)

(ohhh just a little car shot)

(Brotherly love)

We spent the day after Thanksgiving with Bobbys Mom (for Thanksgiving #2). All the siblings came to this Thanksgiving as well. This was quite an event (as ones with Bobby's mom always are). Their oven broke so instead of having dinner at 3:30 as planned we had it at 6! Nonetheless we had a really fun time hanging out. It's always wild and crazy over there, lots of pictures were taken (not with my terrible camera sadly) and let's just say the mashed potatoes were amazing. After dinner we drove home and rolled in around 10:30.

Last weekend we went to Seattle AGAIN due to a hair class I had to go to. We stayed at our good friends Sara & Jasons and it was so much fun. Sunday night I had to go to this big demo debut that the Art Director of Pureology was throwing, and then Monday there was a 3 hour class. It was a good time although we didn't learn a whole lot of new stuff. All in all it was a good weekend--though I'm getting sick of sitting in a car.

We had a good time getting our christmas tree the other day. The original plan was to go cut a tree down (afterall it IS our first christmas as a married couple)..... buuuttt we ended up at Fred Meyer getting our ghetto ugly tree of which Bobby named Gilbert I believe? His exact words were "But Kayleen if we don't pick him no one else will". So I gave in and got an ugly noble. It was fun. We enjoyed tying it on top of my car in which we roped it through our windows which made it not possible to get into our car.... we thought about crawling through the window.. but instead we just re-roped it. Don't hate--we're newbies. Sadly I didn't get pictures of this event.. but I did take pictures of our decorated place (which have been long over-due to put up... but here you go Cara).

(heres wall #1)

(We painted the walls ourself... don't look to closely haha ps you can see crooked gilbert)

(I've been wanting a clock like this for a LONG time. Thanks Khols)
(love our wedding pictures!)

(our wonderful Ikea bookshelf in which Bobby put together wrong. :) )

(Last but not least our cute kitchen!)

The next few weeks are going to be crazy. We have Christmas parties, last minute shopping, and a crazy work schedule! I'm so excited for Crystal to come home. I love love love this time of year!!!! Merry christmas everyone and Happy New year!!!

Thanks.

<3 I am thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves me and is always there for me. For a Savior who died for me so that I could return to live with him--Which truly is the greatest gift of all.

<3 I am thankful for a wonderful family who loves me unconditionally. I am thankful for the relationships that I have with them and how as the years go by we get closer and closer.

<3 I am thankful for my husband. When I was 17 we would talk on the phone all day and all night and my mom just couldn't UNDERSTAND what was so great about this guy... It was all about the connection. I am so grateful for that connection that always brought us back to each other. He is my best friend, my soul-mate and the best husband I could ever ask for.

<3 I am thankful for my friends. Oh my friends. The ones that I always turned to, and always kept me hangin on even when I didn't want to. I have been so blessed with amazing friends throughout my life.

<3 I am thankful for good health. I've never had any serious illness, or even broken a bone.

<3 I am thankful that I have a job. And one that I enjoy. I love what I do and that makes things a lot easier and pleasant. I am thankful that Bobby has a good stable job as well.

These are just a few of the things I am so very thankful for. I love the holidays, and I love how it's a time we can reflect the past year and appreciate all the great things in our lives.

Dun dun dun......

Yes. We have the Swine flu in my home. And let me tell you. It's miserable.

I started to get sick a week and a half ago, but never got got a fever. It would come and go and I thought by the end of last week it was almost gone... well I was wrong! Saturday I worked all day and then took my niece Ellie out shopping and for dinner for her birthday and stayed out a little too late and ended up coughing all night. The next morning I woke up with a temp of 101.1. After taking Advil the temp went down and I thought I was good to go.. Bobby wasn't feeling sick so we ended up going over to my parents for dinner. I came home that night, went to bed and was up ALL night with a fever of 102. Nothing would make it go down. Oh I was beyond miserable. I finally woke bobby up around 5am and we called the ER at St. Vincent because I seriously thought I was dying. I talked to a nurse on the phone and she said it sounded like I had H1N1 and she told me to stay home and what I should do. Then I spoke to my primary doctor and she wanted me to come in. So we went in and I was feeling pretty freakin crappy and could barely breath. She made me breath into this thing that is supposed to open up your lungs.. didn't help too much. She prescribed me with tamiflu as well as a cough medicine with codeine that was supposed to knock me out since I hadn't slept in like 3 days.
After waiting in line at Rite aid for FAR too long I went home... tried to get some soup down although I hadn't eaten anything that day.. and took a warm bath for an hour. When I got out of the bath my body must have gone into shock because I started shaking really bad and turned blue. Bobby freaked out and didn't know what to do. I finally managed to get clothes on and crawl into bed in which I managed to make it to the bathroom in time to throw up the little soup i had eaten. At this point Bobby was downstairs while I was trying to sleep, he didn't know what to do so he said a prayer and his mom called him. After talking to his mom he got ahold of his Aunt who is a nurse in the ER and she told him to go get a humidifier, vapor rub, spray for my throat, crackers and gateraid. After all of this... I finally was able to breath and sleep.
I woke up at 4am so happy that I had slept 6 hours. I couldn't believe it! It had been so long since I'd really slept. Tuesday was quite a bit better. IB Profen seemed to be the only thing that kept the fever down... so i took that ever 6 hours. My visiting teacher brought us chicken noodle soup which was AWESOME and we had a 24 season 5 marathon. :) Sad to say, last night bobby was running a 100.5 temp. :(
So today we are both stuck at home. Sitting here... not doing much other than sleeping, and watching TV. I'm starting to feel better, the only problem is I can't breath very well. I feel like my oxygen level has been cut in half and nothing I do seems to make it better.
I'm really hoping I can be back at work by Friday... a good friend of mine is getting married and I'm supposed to be doing her hair!!!! aaahhhhhh!!!!
Amy our roomate has managed to stay healthy. She's pretty much stayed downstairs through all of this and when she does come upstairs she wears a mask. Smart move. I do not wish this flu on anyone! So everyone take lots and lots and lots of vitamin C and stay healthy!!!!!

I <3 Fall.

I LOVE fall. It is my most FAVORITE season of ALL the seasons. Fall is my favorite for so many reasons. I especially love Oregon in the Fall. I love the leaves on the trees changing color, I love the smell in the air, I love pumpkins, I love scarves and boots, I love that it's the beginning of the Holiday season, I love that all my favorite bands come to Portland in the fall, and I love love love the rain. Can we say I am a true Oregonian? yes we can. The rain is my favorite part of Fall. Ok ok... so after many consecutive days of rain of course it can get a little old, and of course when you're having a bad day grey skies don't exactly help. But I love dark dreary days. I especially love going to a concert on a dark night where it's pouring down rain, and I love driving my car in the rain listening to William fitzsimmons or some other chill acoustic music. Gaaahhh I love this season. It's time for new beginnings. For years and years I especially disliked September. My dad died September 30th 16 years ago and it was always especailly a hard month for me. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that for many of those years I was in school and school always started in September. The last "hard" September I had was probably when I first moved to Utah though--where I didn't have many friends and everything was new. But the last few years I've tried to make it a good month and not let hard memories affect my mood.

Things have been so fun and so busy and lots has been going on! At the end of September my best friend (the one that moved to Germany) Cara's little sister Amy moved in with us! I love Amy. Amy is like a little sister to me. Our place is so big... now let me tell you... you might be thinking that we're a little weird for letting someone moved in with us mostly because we're newlyweds. And I wasn't crazy about the idea for a little while but I wouldn't do it if our place wasn't so big. On the bottom floor of our townhouse we have a bedroom, a full bathroom and the garage. Second floor we have a big kitchen, big living/dinning space, and a half bathroom. Top floor we have master bedroom with a full bathroom connected, another bedroom, another full bathroom, and a den. Yeah... can we say MORE ROOM than we needed? trust me the only reason why we got this place is because we got a BANGIN deal on it. It was so cheap and so great that it was too great to pass up. ALSO I wouldn't let just ANYONE move in. Amy is such a good kid and like family to me. She's in school full time and works part-time, cleans up after herself and we really don't see her all that much. All we do is share the kitchen. It's fun having her around since she's the only one who will watch America's Next Top Model with me. hehe :p It's been great having her, and the extra 350 a month isn't bad either! Isn't she just a doll? lol haha


I've gotten REALLY into running lately. I've been running for a few years now, but I never really pushed myself. When I first started running about 4ish years ago I couldn't run a mile. I would run 7 minutes on the treadmill and have to stop. Well I worked my way up and eventually started running 20 minutes on the treadmill a few times a week, but still for a couple years never would dare push myself to go further. Then a few months ago I started going further (but only like.. once every 2 or 3 weeks) and worked up to 3 or 4 miles. Then about a month ago I went to the gym and it was a leg day for me... (which meant a lot of leg weight training.. which is exhausting).. and I told myself that if I could run for an hour on the treadmill I wouldn't have to do legs that day. HA! I did it!!! I ran 6 miles and I was so stinkin proud of myself. After that I was thinking.. yeah I'll probably never be able to do that again... And then the next week I did it again! And then a couple days later I did it AGAIN! So then Yesterday morning it was my late day at work (didn't start till noon)... so I decided to attempt running outside.... which I haven't done in at least a year... I was very nervous about this. I was thinking I'd MAYBE be able to run 3 miles... because running outside is so much harder than the treadmill.. anyway, I went for it and I ran 7 MILESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! (CARA AREN'T YOU SO PROUD OF ME???) And I could have kept going except I had to hurry home and shower to get ready for work!!! I was so excited and I can't wait to do it again. After all this I decided I wanted to work my way up to run my first half-marathon... Well later that day my friend Sarah came in to get her haircut and she's been training to run a half marathon in 2 weeks and has only gotten up to 8 miles so far... a half marathon is 13.1 miles... She thinks I can do it and really wants me to do it with her. I am so nervous and haven't decided yet. I'm going to give it another week and we'll see... Her and I are going running next monday and if I can do at least 10 or 11 miles then I think I'll run it. If not I will definitely be doing one in the near future. Running outside is so exhilirating. Especially this time of year, when it's cool enough outside and everything is so beautiful. So we'll see how this goes... wish me luck!



So last weekend Bobby and I went with our friends Holly and Stephen to the Sauvie's Island SCCCAAARRRRRYYYY corn-maze. Let me tell you this was a BLAST. We get there and the parking lot is OUT of control packed.... We didn't know this going in.. but it ended up being a 2 HOUR WAIT!!! We almost decided to forfeit the 10 bucks a person and leave because it wa sso freakin cold outside and we were sick of standing in line... but once we got there... it was SO worth it.
Anyone that knows me husband knows he is ridiculous. He is HILLARIOUSSSSSSS. ESPECIALLY when he gets excited... the CHILD comes out. He's basically a big kid.. so much so that I can never get a normal picture out of him... hardly even a smile. This below is proof:



Anyway... Now that I got that out of the way... this scary corn-maze was a ball.. especially having my GOOFY husband by my side. I am the BIGGEST scardy cat. I'm a weeeeeny. And the scary people that jump out of you LOVE the scared ones... so I was followed QUITe a bit... Bobby just ate it up. Crystal I know you can picture him in this corn-maze... He screams like a girl, Like I'm not even kidding the octave of his pitch is out of control high and he gets all bouncy and giddy. We all had so much fun and it was worth every penny and every second of that long wait.

This is during our long crazy wait... Bobby is obviously not impressed.. and Holly and stephen... well it's self explanitory.

The end of the night.... SO FUN! (yikes! Where did my tan go? :( )



OH PS. I finally started decorating our place and I love it. Pictures to come soon. <3

Seattle trip.

This weekend we went to Seattle. My salon was going to a hairshow in Bellevue so we decided to make a trip of it. Every time we go to Seattle we like to stay with our friends Sara and Jason. Jason is a friend of Bobbys who he used to work with when he worked at the John L. Scott office up in Bellevue. We love these guys and wish they lived in Portland. It's like a big slumber party every time we stay and we love it!! They have the cutest little 3 year old Magnus, who I adore.

We also decided to do Saras hair while we were up which was way fun... and of course we decided to take some pictures.

Sara and Jay. :)

Welcome to my husband.
Her hot new do. :)

We want to make it to Seattle more. We don't get to spend enough time with Bobby's family which I think is important. Bobby took Monday off (which I always have off) and we went to dinner with his whole family to celebrate his sister Coley and niece Brookes birthdays. His family is wild and so much fun. Glad we got to spend some extra time up there.

Being a wife is hard work.

Ok so I KNOW what you're thinking. All you moms out there are like "yeah you think that's hard just WAIT till you have a few babies." And really... I can't wrap my head around that. Is that a problem that I can't? I mean you could throw a baby at me right now and I'd be happy as a clown but really... are you ever REALLY ready for children? All I know is I still have a ways of perfecting my "housewife" duties.. responsiblities... obligations.. whatever word makes you happy.

But I can tell you this. I am good at the following:

-Baking. I could bake all day and all night if someone allowed it. I'd also probably be 4593 pounds, but I'd be happy. This is not necessarily a good thing either, because even though I tend to go for the "healthy" baking--both Bobby and I are kind of healthy nuts-o's and my husband gets mad at me when there are treats around. Hmph. :(
-Cleaning WHEN guests are coming over. I never EVER knew I would be like this... I've always known I was on the "messy" side... but when people are coming over to my home I don't know what it is but I get a LITTLE crazy. I've never vaccuumed so much in my life. (literally... if you knew my last apartment I went a whole year without vaccuuming... don't judge me, i was rarely home so it really wasn't that dirty). Maybe it's that I like people coming over and thinking "wow she's not as bad as I thought she'd be". I don't know but it's a little OCD.
-Telling my husband when he is wrong. I'm KIND of opinionated and as my family likes to tell me I think I'm always right. But really don't we all? I'm SLOWLY learning that marriages can't really work like this. Yes Bobby lets me have my way 98% of the time, but it shouldn't be 98 it should probably be like 50%? Ya? I'll work on it. Either way I don't know how good of a thing this is, but I do know I'm good at it. :)
-Ok back to cleaning. I'm good at it when I do it. That goes with Laundry. I never realized how much more laundry I have to do when living with another person. Sheesh.


So I'm sitting here trying to think of more things I'm good at but... I think it's always easier seeing the things we're bad at. So the list goes as follows...

-Deep cleaning every week. I didn't think about this when we signed up to live in a place that has 4 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, a den, and a garage and is 3 levels.
-Organizing. We've been married for almost 2 months now and I still haven't gone through my boxes of "stuff" (non-clothing related) from moving. Yikes.
-I'm bad at taking advantage of my only REAL day off (monday). Instead I'd rather.... go hiking, go shopping, go to the gym, sleep... you know. All the selfish things I get to do. For some weird reason running those erands, grocery shopping, and scrubbing those toilets doesn't sound as appealing as the others. dang.
-Reading my scriptures every day. We're AWESOME at saying our night-time prayers together but shoot that scripture study can be hard sometimes. This is one I am sad about and we are CONSTANTLY trying to do better. We see great things in our relationship when we are studying together.

So I guess I shouldn't go on more. This whole marriage thing is such an adventure. I'm not gonna lie... I thought this newlywed thing was going to be a sinch. Afterall... we've known eachother basically our whole lives... loved eachother for what feels like an eternity.. and dated longer than the average lds couple. I knew his flaws, he knew mine... but I am learning EVERY day things I need to be better at. At the end of the day I love it. I love him, I love us, I love our not so always clean house, and I love that we are always happy to see each other.

Yay for marriage.

And she's gone.

SO this is Cara Jeanne Eisenbach. And I'm pretty sure it's safe to say she is my bestest friend in the whole wide world. We've been best friends since 4th grade, back when she called me pee hair and I called her poop hair (we didn't like each other at first). We were actually ROYAL enemies. Once our 4th grade teacher Mrs. Wilhelms got us to sit down and talk out our differences we've been bff ever since. She's a strong mix between a sister and a best friend. We are brutally honest with each other (she likes to tell me when I'm orange and I like to tell her when her hair looks like crap). She is my traveler. We couldn't be any different. She doesn't want to settle down, if she could she would spend her money on traveling for the rest of her life. Me on the other hand, big dreams were getting married and raising a family. But no matter where we are, we always talk and are ALWAYS close.

And today, (her birthday) I am so very sad. :( She moved to Germany yesterday for at LEAST a year and won't be back in that year at all. She's going to be an Au pair, and REALLY I'm SO excited for her. She's wanted to do this for a while, but I'm just sad to have her leave me. I don't think I've ever gone this long without seeing her.

Besides Bobby, she is the bestest friend I've ever had. She's gone through everything with me. And I will miss her so very much. Love you Cara. :)

Husband.

THIS ONE IS ALL MINE.

Sorry ladies. :)

-------->

I could not be any luckier. I possibly have the best husband ummm EVER. He puts up with so much, LET ME TELL YOU. I am a handful. I can be needy, I can be bossy, I can be VERY emotional, and I can be a BIG brat. He is so humble whenever I tell him things he should work on and I'm not always so willing to listen. He's great at calling me out when I'm gossiping and I never hear him speak negatively of people. He's always willing to be someones friend or give them a chance even if they won't give him one. That's always amazed me about him.

He tells me what I need to hear and he means it. Not a day goes by where he's not complimenting me or telling me how cute my outfit is, or how pretty I look.

He cooks for me... all the time. I LOVE how healthy it is because it is THAT much easier for me to be healthy. He loves to cook me food and try new things. I'm learning it's his way of showing me love.

He's the funniest person I know. I've never met anyone as RANDOM and SILLY as this boy. We are always playing and goofing around. He has made me laugh so hard I have almost peed my pants. I am so happy to be with someone who gets my humor and I get his--it's ALWAYS a big laughing fest in our house.

He can't stay mad at me for more than 2 minutes... and it's RARE when he is mad at me... AND when he is it's for good reason. I have to be a real brat for this to happen, but it's always an easy fix. He hates to fight he is SUCH a lover.

He is the kind of guy that sets his mind to something and he ACHIEVES it. It's one of his most impressive qualities. A couple years ago he got a gym membership and made the decision to get fit. You see those big muscley body builders? Ya that was his goal. He did a lot of research on dieting, and nutrition and has lost 100 pounds! I've never seen anyone with as much dedication as him. It's incredible. I love that we enjoy working out and being active together, I don't think it's something that we'll ever lose.

My family loves him and for this I love him more. I'm so glad that they see the amazing person that I see. They've been able to get to know him so well and I love how close they are with him.

He would do anything for me. And he does. He calms me down. I don't freak out as much as I used to, I'm not as emotional as I used to be and I love him for allllllllllllll of this and so much more! I am so grateful to have him as my partner.

Girls of 239!

I love being married. Married life is amazing. Living and waking up next to my best friend is the most wonderful thing EVER. I don't get sick of it... at least not yet. We've been having so much fun getting our house together and learning all the WONDERFUL things that you learn about your spouse when you are first married (like him leaving the toilet seat up. UGH.) But even though my life has had so many changes and life has been so crazy busy, I've still had time to think about all of the important people I've had in my life that have gotten me through it.

Today was one of those days where I was just missing Utah. Specifically I was missing my old roomates, Suz, Camille, and Robin. They were the first roomates I had when I moved away from home for the first time. Poor girls putting up with my naive 18 year old boy crazy self. But I cannot tell you how much these girls mean to me. I cry when I think about them because I miss them so much. We were like a family. We went out during the day, lived our life, and came home and sat and talked and cried together. I went through the HARDEST times in my life with these girls and I don't know if I will ever be able to thank them enough or have them understand how much they've done for me.

I came home one particular night, probably the worst night of my life and they just knew me better than anyone at that time and knew something was wrong. They made me sit down and talk to them, and all they did was listen and love me.

Sometimes I would come home at night and feel so lost and so confused and at such a low point in my life and suz would come in and cry with me. So many people in my life didn't understand me, or why I made the decisions I did, or just thought I was going nowhere and Suz always saw so much more in me. She was such an example and had such an amazingly strong testimony and it was hard to not feel Heavenly Fathers love when you were around her. She never judged me even though I was "rough around the edges" as she would say. Often times I've gone back to those low low days and think about how much she saved me. I needed someone to believe I was worth something and she always gave me that hope.

We always loved doing little things for each other. Whether it was just leaving a note for one another or decorating each others rooms, or throwing surprise parties. One year those girls threw me a surprise birthday party and I swear our whole ward was there. I knew maybe 10 of the people but our place was PACT and I loved every second of it. Another time Robin called our moms (around christmas time) and got our favorite recipes and made us a big dinner with all of our favorite food. We would have nights where we would sit in the dark in a circle and listen to "home" by Michael buble and talk about our future husbands.

These are the memories I will always cherish. I get homesick for them and the life we had in that little 239 apartment. I loved coming home and having my best friends there. Having Camille sitting on the couch with Eddie getting math help from him, Robin always on the phone with your family back home, and Suz going EVERY WHICH way (let me tell you she is one BUSY girl. And back then she didn't have a cell phone. IMAGINE).

I don't know if I would have gotten through those years without them. My home away from home. I love you girls with all of my heart.

Here's some old pics. thrrrooowwww back:

Robin, me, and Camille all squished (I have no idea how to spell that) in the bathroom at 4am. I think it was even easter maybe? Don't ask me why we were doing this but ohhh how we laughed.

Suuzzz! Where's suuzzz! This picture makes me pee my pants!

Michelle is in this picture with us!!!! I love Michelle (suz's sister). This was at Camilles wedding (Robin was either back home or on her mission) and that was the last time before I moved that we were together. Oh how I LOVE these girls.

And then this is the most recent pic of the 4 of us. I went back to Utah in March and we all got together and had dinner. We could have sat and talked there for hours. I loved every minute of it.

WEDDING!!!

Finally some wedding pictures up! These aren't the pros but here's a few (except for the one up top. Taken by my wonderful photographyer Ashleigh Thornock. More to come soon!)! I loved this day! By far the best day of my life and I wish I could go back and do it all over again!