Halloween Traditions!

One of my most favorite holiday traditions with my family is carving pumpkins. My family is probably laughing right now, because although I love the tradition, I hate sticking my hand inside the pumpkin and pulling at the guts. Gross! Grossest thing ever!!! But I do like carving them, although I am not artistic in any way, shape, or form. I always have the most wonderful ideas in my head, but cannot ever get them to translate onto the pumpkin. This year Dalan got to join us for some carving for the first time ever, because we decided to start the activities in the early evening. Hooray!

As usual Cole carved the best free style pumpkin. He has also been the most artistic of the Carlson children, and every year makes some pretty cool designs in his pumpkins. McKay used a pattern, but made a very cool creepy guy peering out of some blinds. Patti also used a pattern and made a scary skeleton. Red and Dalan stuck with the traditional jack o' latern faces. I tried to make a pinwheel/flowery thing, but it ended up looking like the warning side for nuclear waste. So, that worked. I usually win the prize for worst pumpkin of the year. Seriously, mine are that bad. However, this year, Ali tried an experimental design that failed and just looked like a pacman sort of hole in the pumpkin. So, I am not saying whose pumpkin was the worst pumpkin, I am just saying I think mine was better than some other people's. Love you, Ali!

Everyone is hard at work.

Dalan getting the guts out of my pumpkin for me.

Glamour shot of Miss Ali.

Cole is very serious about his pumpkin carving.

Ali, McKay, and their pumpkins.

Best in Show...Cole's U of U pumpkin eating BYU.
I should have gotten a photo of it all lit up.

Dalan had left to go to work, but here is the rest of us "kids" with the pumpkins.
We were running low on camera batteries, so we only got one photo, and we forgot to turn out the lights.

Fall leaves and the wonky tree

Dalan and I both commented on how pretty the trees around our house looked this last week. The leaves were full of golden leaves, with hardly any leaves on the ground yet. It looked like big sunbursts of leaves were all around us. Neither of us remembered them being that pretty last year. Maybe, we had a shorter fall and the leaves did not stay on the trees for as long, or maybe we were in a wedding haze, and failed to notice the beauty all around us. Either way, this year they rocked, and we loved having the blinds on the windows open so we could admire the pure gorgeousness of fall in front of us.

Then.....

We noticed our tree. Our skinny little Charlie Brown tree. It had already dropped all of its leaves. It was bare, crooked, tiny, and pathetic. Luckily it is easy to look right past it to the other bigger, fuller, and prettier trees. Here are some fun fall photos.

The tree to the east of us.

The trees across the street.

The tree to the west of us, with our wonky tree in the front of it.
It is a sad little tree really.

My Favorite Shows

1. Glee
So funny, and so much singing and dancing.
All of my favorite things in one little show.
I have such a crush on Mr. Schuester.
When he sang and danced to both Bust a Move, and the Thong Song last week, I was hooked.
Watch it next Wednesday!

2. The Office
I used to not be able to watch it, because Michael Scott made me so uncomfortable.
I wanted to jump in the screen and teach him some social skills.
I now can't live without it.
I can now watch like four hours of it on TBS.
It sucks me in.

3. 30 Rock.
I love Tracy Morgan.
And the rest of the cast too.
But, Tracy steals the show every week in my eyes.

4. The Amazing Race
Still dream of Dalan and I racing around the world, and completing tasks.
Oh, and of meeting Phil.
I have such a crush on Phil.

5. Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The gang is wacky.
They are always up to some sort of debauchery.
And I love it.

6. Project Runway
Designers, make it work.
I love Tim Gunn.
This season has been pissing me off.
Can Christopher just go home already?????
Do I really have to hear some C-list actress judging the clothes??????
Maybe, I just miss it on Bravo, instead of Lifetime.
However, I do get to see the commercials for all the great new Lifetime movies.

7. How I Met Your Mother
I love NPH as Barney.
I also like a sitcom that is just a funny sitcom.
It amusing me.

Darn, I was hoping for an even 5 or an even 10. What are you watching right now? If it is on HBO or Showtime, I probably used to love it, but Dalan and I got thrifty and canceled all of our premium channels. Boo! So, as for Dexter, Entourage, Californication, Big Love, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc, it will have to wait until they are on DVD. Also, four of my favorite seven shows are on Thursday night. Thank goodness that we DVR most of our shows, and watch them at a later date, or I might be really angry!

Another sort of anniversary

Happy One Year Anniversary to The Whine Sellers' Blog!

It has been one helluva year, and here is to many more!

Annivesary Numero Uno

Dalan and I celebrated our first year of marriage this last weekend. It was so much fun, most of you have probably already heard me gushing all about it on facebook, but it really was that special.

It started on Friday night when Dalan suggested we go to Spaghetti Factory for dinner. This is not one of the usual places on our list, and it sounded so good. On our way there, I discovered that on that same Friday night the year before, but a different date, we had gone to Spaghetti Factory for our rehearsal dinner. So, by accident, it kicked off our anniversary weekend celebration. It was a fun coincidence.

On Saturday, Dalan and I headed up to Park City. First stop, the outlet mall. We had not been there forever, and the deals were great. As with most places, I have found the shops up there to be hit and miss, sometimes I can't get over the deals, and sometimes, I groan and think, these prices are not any cheaper than in Salt Lake at the non-outlet mall. I am glad this shopping trip was the first choice. I got my new shoes, both Dalan and I found new shirts, and new jackets. Luckily, we got hungry and lost some of our energy, otherwise the trip would have been very expensive.

After a quick trip to Wendy's for a snack we checked into our hotel, Hotel Park City. It was beautiful, and by far the fanciest hotel I have ever stayed in. They called us Mr. and Mrs. Sellers the whole weekend (although when I hear that I expect the whining of a ten year old to follow), and made our dinner reservation for us. They also gave us a tour of our room, which was spectacular. It had a fabulous bathroom that was huge, and made me what to remodel our upstairs bathrooms ASAP. It had a big king size bed, and then a big ol' sitting room with a fire place. It also had a wonderful balcony overlooking a golf course and the mountains.

Dalan in the fancy bathroom.

Me next to the moose.

We debated getting massages, but they could not do them at the same time, and we did not want to spend two hours apart on our anniversary weekend, so we went swimming instead. It was perfect, and sos relaxing. The pool was heated, and the mountain backdrop was just perfect. We returned to the hotel room, and got ready for our dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Dalan also watched some of the Yankees' game. Dinner was nice. It was a very fancy restaurant, and Dalan and I shared our different cuts of meat with each other.

In our fancy bathrobes, getting ready to go swimming. My mirror pictures did not work as well as hoped.

After swimming, on the balcony.

Ready for dinner.

Another failed mirror picture.

After dinner, we returned to our room to discover the Yankees' games was still on, but decided to go swimming again before the pool closed. It was perfect. The heated pool was so nice even at night, and it was romantic to swim under the stars in the mountains with Dalan. When we returned to our room, the game was still on, and Dalan got to see his Yankees win after many extra innings. He did have to miss the Utah game, but I don't think he minded too much. We also ate the cupcakes from our wedding that my mother had preserved for us. We were a little leery, but they were actually really pretty good.

Yummy cupcakes, and we are not naked in these pictures as others have assumed. We had just gotten back from swimming.

Dalan and his cupcake.

The next morning was our actual anniversary. We slept in and checked out. We went to Squatters in Park City for some brunch. We were going to order room service, but totally forgot. Oh well, next time. We stopped at McDonalds and got some strawberry shakes, and I promptly spilled one all over the car while trying to show off how many things I could balance and drive. Dalan was a sweet husband, and cleaned up the mess for me. The rest of the day was spent relaxing. Overall, I would have to rate our anniversary as the best one EVER!

Dalan is super psyched it is our anniversary.

Sucker punching an elk before heading to brunch.

Dalan got in on the action too!

I am on a roll!

Dalan and I went shopping at the outlet mall in Park City as part of our anniversary weekend extravaganza (more details on that to come), and found wonderful deals. It was one of those fun, but expensive shopping trips when every store you walk in to, you find things that you have to buy. We went into the Nine West* store, and they had a lot of their shoes on clearance, plus they were buy one get one free. So, I got two more new pair of shoes. That puts me up to four in the last few weeks. LOVE IT! While these are not slippers/shoes, they are slip on shoes. Still flat, and totally comfortable, but just not as casual as the Roxy* ones.

*Again, I am receiving no financial compensation for advertising the Roxy or Nine West brands, but if they would like to throw some money or schwag my way, I would happily accept.

One year later....the highlight reel.

One year ago, Dalan and I got hitched. Hooray for one year of blissful marriage. I really, really loved my wedding day, and would get married over and over again each year if I could. I have talked about our wedding in detail on my blog, so I have decided to just highlight our favorite movements, and show some little/never seen photos.


1. Taking pictures before the ceremony. Dalan and I didn't mind seeing each other before the ceremony, and taking all our pictures before the ceremony gave us a chance to get it out of the way and enjoy our reception and visiting with of friends and family. It was also a lot of fun and relaxing. It got our minds off the big event that was to come.

Dalan was suppose to dip me, but for whatever reason we couldn't do it. Here is one of our attempts.

2. The ceremony. I always thought I would be a crying mess during my ceremony, but I wasn't....I was so calm. I knew marrying Dalan was what I wanted more than anything in the world, and I was just so happy. I just couldn't stop smiling. Also, I could not repeat simple sentences. The Rev. Nghia had to restate my vows for me, because I was totally on cloud nine, and could not remember what he had just said.


3. The drawings. I loved Becca's suggestion of having our guests draw each other and putting together a giant portrait of all of our loved ones. We still have it hanging up in our house, and I look at it all the time.



4. The toasts. I did get teary eyed during the toasts made to us. It was so moving to have such wonderful things said about Dalan and me as we were about to start our married lives together.



5. The dancing. I had such a fun time dancing with Dalan and the rest of the gang all night long. I am so glad we went with a live band. It made the night feel so alive and fun. I also loved all the kids getting into the dancing. So fun.


6. The cupcakes. I love cupcakes, and also wanted a way around the cake cutting fee we were going to be charged per guest, so we did cupcakes instead of a cake. It was perfect. They were so yummy, and held up. Dalan and I ate two frozen ones last night, and they were as delicious as they were in 2008.


7. The bouquet getting stuck in the cubby hole in the ceiling. Who knew I was powerful enough the throw a bouquet of flowers into a small open slot in the ceiling, and have them land in an upright position? But I did, and it was awesome.


8. The car. Our bridal party and others did an excellent job of decorating a most tastefully disgusting car. It was something special, and beyond my wildest imagination.


9. Our friends. They traveled far and they spent a lot of time and effort making our wedding day perfect. There are too many pictures to post them here. Look for a special friends addition coming soon!

10. Our families. The fact that both of our mothers left us voice mails today singing "Happy Anniversary" to us. So freaking cute and thoughtful!