Christmas time.

For our first married Christmas together, we visited the magical land of Washington with it's miles of blue waters and endless green trees. In this mystical state resides my family - my mom, her husband, and my two little brothers. We were lacking in the Christmas spirit until we landed in the 20 degree chill, and suddenly we knew what it was like to feel like Christmas.

   

From walks in the rain to late night talks; from real Christmas trees to real white snow; from trips to Multnomah Falls to shopping in downtown Portland and watching Les Miserable in the best theater in the US; this had to be my absolute favorite Christmas of all time. We stayed through New Years and were able to bond so much with my beautiful family. And even though the snow didn't stick to the ground, I still consider this the perfect white Christmas.

Adoption.

I don't know if I've made this common knowledge or not, but I'm a huge dog lover. Like, my parents had to start putting restrictions on the amount of dogs I would "save" and bring home "just until we found their owners." It's a compulsion, I know, and I'm getting help for it (thank you, Animal Hoarders!). But seriously, I love dogs so much that when I moved out of my dad's house my Sophomore year of college, I bought a little dog, Sirius Black Lewis, to keep me company.

Well, once me and Kendall got married, it was inevitable that Sirius would come with me. Unfortunately, this also meant that Sirius had to leave his best friends at my dad's house. Womp womp. This lead to many discussions with Kendall about Sirius feeling like he had no friends in the world and that all the other dogs rejected him, making him the outcast of the puppy world. 

My drama seemed to win over Kendall's heart, and one morning in November I woke up to this four month old, adorable, wrinkly face.

Meet Beauford Maddog Clark, or as we like to call him, Biff. And prepare to die of cuteness, because I'm about to overload you with the most adorable pictures you've ever seen. Seriously. He's the bomb dot com of all puppy faces.

If you did not melt into a puddle of puppy love on the floor, I don't know what planet you live on, or if a soul resides within your body. THAT FACE. We are seriously obsessed with him. He runs amuck, pees and poops all over our house, bites us 'til we're raw, and all we can say is "aw, isn't that cute?"

Best Christmas present ever.

*Also...all of these pictures were taken with my iPhone. Why do I even own a real camera when I think my iPhone is better?

All hallows eve.

The ghosts and ghouls are roaming the streets tonight, ringing my doorbell every couple minutes bartering their cuteness for my prized sweets (more widely known as Reece's). This is my first Halloween EVER passing out candy, and so far it's pretty relaxing. It's so fun to see all the little kids costumes and think back to when I used to be allowed to stay up until 11 on Halloween. It was a big deal, guys. The only thing that would make this better is if Kendall wasn't at work.

I'll cheer myself up by enjoying a mug of hot cocoa, some yummy candy, my huge crush on Binx, and my Halloween decorations I threw together today.

I'm pretty proud of my craftiness this season. Not only was I decoration crafty, but Kendall and I were pretty costume crafty as well.

I'm so lucky to have a husband who fuels my unhealthy obsession with all things, specifically Once Upon A Time related. But that's a story for another day!

Happy Halloween!

Western Halloween.

Halloween around these parts, to me at least, means getting down and dirty with some local farm festivals. I have an unhealthy obsession with pumpkin patches, corn mazes, barbecues and pig races, and in October it is out of control. Like, those around me should be scared for their lives if they try to get in the way of me and my farm festivities -- I will take you down. Eventually Kendall had to cave and appease my compulsion, and willingly took me to my all time favorite farm, ever.

SCHNEPF FARMS.

I seriously used to go here every year as a kid, and then we became long-lost friends through my teenage years. Last year, our love affair was rekindled and now all I think about all year is the dusty manure filled air, the surprisingly scary roller coaster, the fluffy goats, and of course, the delicious farm fresh food. I just think that Schnepf embodies everything that I love about October, and brings me back to my roots.

The highlight of our night was sitting behind this boy and his dad on the roller coaster. After the first drop, Kendall exclaimed appropriately that it was a pretty rough ride. The little boy turned around, laughing, and said "that drop made my stomach feel funny!" After the third time around the track, Kendall turned to me and said, "what a great dad. I bet this ride is killing his body, but he's doing it to make his son happy."

Just another reason why I love Schnepf Farms, and will continue to wish every month is October until it comes back to me next year.

Punkin.

Probably the only tolerable part about Kendall's night job is that I get more girl time than I normally would during the week. Luckily, I have great girlfriends that want to spend time with an old married lady like me and try to make plans with me during their hectic weeks. Last week we got together for a Halloween themed pumpkin carving night. Kendall was kind enough to buy us pumpkins and left us some Martinelli's to add a little "sparkle" to our night (cue "awwwws" now).

Seriously, look how flippin' talented we are at the art of pumpkin carving. Those are some professional looking pumpkins. Halloween is my favorite time of year and stabbing the crap out of a pumpkin definitely satisfied my Halloween itch. These girls are so awesome and I'm so glad I was able to spend time with them. There were lots of secrets, gossip and giggles happening up in here. I recommend for all married women to get in some quality girl time -- like pumpkin soup for the soul.

Can you hear the people sing?

I'm not gonna lie, I'm one of those stereotypical musical theater nerds who grew up singing all the soprano solos for Les Miserables and dreamed of one day being able to sit in the front row while listening to real live singers belt those beautiful lyrics and tug my heart strings with those unbelievable chords. Not to mention that Jean Valjean is the musical man of my dreams, and Javert is the musical man of my nightmares. Not enough imagery for ya? Well here are some pictures of my amazing night seeing Les Mis with my wonderful family...before my camera died.

That last one is supposed to show the rest of our family...and that was the best I could do before my camera took it's last breath.

But on a serious note, Les Mis was the bomb dot com. I wanted to go every single night after that to watch it again. I'd probably rank it as my 6th best experience of my life, and I cried at least 53 times, but who's counting?

Highlight of my night: Kendall expressing confusion until I related the characters to Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Of course as soon as I related it to a movie a received a huge "OH!" and he was immediately interested. Instead of calling them their stage names, he continued to call them Hugh and Russell through the whole musical. I love my movie nerd of a husband.