Haunted Basement/Maze!!!

Our Haunted House Success!

This year my family wanted to do something really fun for Halloween. My dad had the idea to do a haunted house in our basement, we all thought it would be a fun family project. We worked on it all month and our efforts finally paid off.

We had more people come than we thought! Lots of kids just kept coming back because they had so much fun. Each time they thought they knew what to expect, thinking they weren't going to get scared, but each time we pulled a different trick on them and got them each time!! Everyone told us how awesome everything looked and how fun it was. Word got around our neighborhood and small groups came one at a time.

We had some great decorations and a lot of thought put into it. In the front yard we had some tombstones with funny things written on them like: Ricky Mortis he died hard, and Terry Fide, etc. We had a few figures hanging on the house. We made a small coffin and put it partway into the ground, it looked real and creepy when someone was in it! We put a figure on the swing and cobwebs all over the front of the house. On the windows there were creepy faces or big scary eyes, and a wolf. We put our old fridge on the porch (the doors weren't on) and we had a big witch in it along with some fake eyes, hands, fingers, and jars of weird looking stuff!

Once you walked in you saw a bunch more cobwebs and you were guided down the stairs into the basement. You walk under a ladder and past a jail where someone is to scare you along with a figure that screams and yells for help. We had strobe lights on in some areas as well. You pass the bathroom that has screams of terror coming from the inside while a spider jumps down in front of you while someone in the play house is chained up and crying for help. You then enter the maze. You see some scary things as you walk along and randomly you get followed or someone pops their head out of the plastic wall and scares the crap out of you! The maze gets more narrow and you have to pass by certain creepy things and more scares from people wandering the maze. By the end you're just ready to get out! One friend we scared her so much she fell down from fright and the unexpected scare! It was sooo much fun.Ryan did a little walk through of the haunted maze with the video camera, I'll try to get the movie up here soon. You can't see much but you can get the idea. It was loads of fun! Our little cousins came up to help us, they were so excited to come. My cousins and siblings didn't care much about trick-0r-treating, though they did do a little bit of that later at night when Ryan volunteered to take them. He was dressed up too! We all had a blast tonight!!!

Good Ol' Times

So yesterday Jessica, Cherisse and I were looking at some old pictures. It was so fun to look at all those crazy pictures we took. My mom had just bought a digital camera for the first time, and we went crazy with the camera!! At the time we were living in an apartment in Bountiful.
At the time Ilez was 19, Mimi was 17, I was 15, Jessica was 14, Cherisse was 9, Luchito 6 and Michael was 3!!!!! We all still look pretty much the same though!! For the most part haha! It was fun to look back on these pictures and see how creative we'd get when we were bored, so we would take pictures. Mimi especially! I have more pictures with Mimi than with anyone else from back then. Enough to make an awesome slide show out of all the pictures! We would change shirts and take more pictures, wear hats (as you can tell) and obviously we had lots of fun!

A Tribute

A Tribute to Mia

A year ago today, I got some great news. Ryan and I were so happy, so excited.
A year ago today, I was preparing myself to grow, to learn, and to love.
A year ago today, was one of the happiest days of my life.

As I look back to that time and ponder, I have a hard time holding back,
A hard time holding back the tears that threaten to show my emotion.
As I look back to that time, I wonder why it had to be this way.
This way is not what I expected, not what I was prepared for in any way.

I know things happen for a reason, I believe that, or at least I try.
I know we weren't ready, it was for the best, we'll have the chance again.
I'm trying to hold onto those reasons, trying to pretend I believe them.
I'm trying to hold back my resentment, my pain, my sorrow.

It feels like every small reminder brings back a wave of grief.
It feels like I'm supposed to be okay by now, why can't I be?
It feels like I should have already let go and accepted reality.

I'm doing a lot better, but sometimes it is still so hard.
I'm trying a lot harder, but sometimes I just can't keep up.
I'm feeling a lot stronger, but sometimes I let the emotions break through.
I'm understanding a lot better, but sometimes I just wish things were different.

Is it crazy and unreasonable I'm still grieving her death?
Though I never got to meet her, she never saw this world?
Is it dumb that I hurt from the loss that we had?
Does it sound just insane that I'm feeling all this?

I'm just lucky that I have his love on my side
I'm lucky that my husband adores me
I'm lucky that he understands all my pain
I'm lucky he's the antidote to the sorrow

He makes it easier for me to understand why.
He makes me stronger with each loving kiss.
He helps me see reason and to start to believe,
That she will come back to us, when the time is right.

Looking Back

So I've been thinking about things that were going on around this time last year.
Ryan asked my dad for permission to marry me October 31st, on Halloween. I remember we were all trick-or-treating and then Ryan said he was going to go to the bathroom and he was gone for a while. My dad hadn't known what to say, I think he was just surprised. They had gotten home from Disney Land the day before so he probably wasn't expecting it. Especially since my parents didn't think we were going to get married anytime soon.

The next day, November 1st, Ryan proposed. I knew he had asked my dad, although I don't think Ryan wanted me to know, I found out by accident. I wasn't expecting him to propose already, we had talked about marriage but hadn't really talked about a set date yet. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Totally unexpected yet perfect.

Then the next day Ryan and I gave my parents some more big news. We informed them that I was expecting. I hadn't known what to expect, since my parents weren't happy with me when they found out I was moving in with my boyfriend, although they readily accepted it. My dad told us that there was always room for more in the family, also looking in Ryan's direction.

And the wedding planning started there. We set the date for January 21st, 2008, which would be our 1 year anniversary. We only had three months to plan the wedding. I got lucky and got an opportunity to travel to Peru for free to get my wedding dress, wedding invitations, the cake topper and the little wedding tokens as well as the pillow for the rings, my shoes and my head band. I was gone for 5 days, the longest I had ever been away from Ryan. It was really hard on us.

The first wedding dress I tried on was the one I bought. It was handmade and it came with the veil, the detachable train, and the bouquet. It all cost me exactly $86. My invitations were about the same price for 200 invitations. My beautiful crystal headband cost me SEVEN dollars, and my shoes about ten!

When I got back my best friends mother did our engagement pictures. We took them up at Mueller Park in the winter! It was really cold that day but we had a lot of fun! We even got snow on us in one of the pictures! I put up some of my favorite pictures that she took. A few weeks later she did my bridal pictures, we took about 250 pictures!! Everything was coming together so nicely and beautifully.

The night before the wedding was nerve wrecking. I wasn't scared or nervous! It was all the anticipation building up! I was really excited, and it was so hard to believe the day was almost there! I hardly slept at all that night. I woke up at 5:00 am, too antsy to get going and get ready for the day. I was anxious to get to the church and when we finally got there I had huge butterflies in my stomach! As soon as I saw Ryan when I was walking down that aisle, I was calm and I had to bite my lip so I wouldn't start crying!!!
My actual wedding day was blissful and I'm grateful for my parents working so hard to make it perfect! Every morning I wake up happy because of the wonderful man I wake up next to each day and because every day is always an adventure and I wonder what each new day brings.

Newlyweds

This is my first blog! Lets see if I can manage to make it somewhat decent.
Here are some of our wedding reception pictures!

Next week we will have been married for 9 great months! I can't believe how time flies! It feels like just yesterday when it was January 21, 2008, our wedding day! When I was walking down the aisle with my daddy at my side, to where Ryan was waiting for me with that smile on his face that melts my heart. I'm so grateful to Bishop Chidester for marrying us, everything he said was perfect. It was short and sweet!

My Wedding Ceremony and Reception were just perfect, and I am so grateful for all the help we got so our special day could turn out beautiful! Our friend Stacey Chase's wedding present to us was making us our beautiful Wedding Cake! My friend's mom decorated the Stake Center's Gym and it didn't look like a gym when her and her crew were finished! It was just so pretty. I put up some pictures of what it looked like as well. My best friend's mom did all of our wedding pictures and she did a great job! We also had a Peruvian friend make the food for our buffet, it tasted great!
Soon it will be our one year anniversary and we get to eat our cake that is still sitting in our freezer!! It will be interesting to see how that cake tastes, it should be well preserved since it's wrapped in tin foil and plastic wrap 6 times each! One year married, two years together!