happy halloween

we had a fantastic halloween this year!

capes make everything epic.

and believing you're a super hero is pretty sweet too.

happy halloween!

we did it

casey and i registered for our last semester of classes at BYU a few days ago!

actually casey signed up for both our classes bc i wanted to go to bed early, ha.

you'd think being seniors we'd get all the classes we want, no problem?

WRONG.

our lives will go on but still, we wanted those classes at those times!

some tricks we have thrown in the bag for this semester:

i'm currently registered for a sewing class,

i hear it's pretty intense (8 hours a week!!) but hopefully it'll be fun.

  i'm also trying to get into the flexibility class bc i hear it's pretty good (that was the one that was full for me, insert mean word about someone else here)

casey, on the other hand doesn't have such fun ones.

20 credits of legit, hard classes, crazy guy!!!

but he does have an extra credit to "spend" so we're trying to find a fun class for him!

we hear there's a wood working class offered somewhere on campus?

if you happen to know what the class is, sharing would be greatly appreciated!

other than that we pretty normal over here.

have a fun weekend!

ps- don't forget when carving your pumpkin, use a canning jar lid to scrape out the insides, it's WAY easier!

the boys of fall.

if you know my husband at all, 

you'd know that football means a lot to him.

as you've noticed we go to all the BYU fooball games and love it.

he loves playing football,

talking football,

watching football,

reminiscing about football,

fantasy(ing) football,

everything football.

it's fun to hear him talk about his days back in football.

the team, the games, the championship, the experience, etc.

he genuinely loved it.

as we were listening to the radio in the other day, kenny chesney's new song "the boys of fall" came on.

i could tell how much he truly missed those days.

bright lights, friday nights, and all.

we looked back at the words and they just fit so perfectly with casey:

When I feel that chill, smell that fresh cut grass
I'm back in my helmet, cleats and shoulder pads
Standing in the huddle listening to the call
Fans going crazy for the boys of fall
They didn't let just anybody in that club
Took every ounce of heart and sweat and blood
To get to wear those game day jerseys down the hall
Kings of the school man, we're the boys of fall

(Chorus:)
Well it's turn and face the Stars and Stripes
It's fighting back them butterflies
It's call it in the air, alright yes sir we want the ball
And it's knocking heads and talking trash
It's slinging mud and dirt and grass
It's I got your number, I got your back when your back's against the wall
You mess with one man you got us all
The boys of fall

In little towns like mine that's all they got
Newspaper clippings fill the coffee shops
The old men will always think they know it all
Young girls will dream about the boys of fall

there's no doubt in my mind that our little boys will be out there playing football and throwing a ball around.

i want to see those little boys in BYU jerseys running around when they're 4.

i'm kinda excited for those days. 

so here's to football and my husband.

i'm learning to love the first a little bit more because i love the second so much. 

camping: iPhone pictures.

more camping, from the phone

 

provo utah bucket list: go real camping

we have officially crossed of another item off our bucket list.

this last weekend we went camping up diamond fork canyon near spanish fork,

and had a grand ol' time together.

we dusted off our sleeping bag and tent,

borrowed many an items from family, neighbors, and landlord,

and went on our way!

hot dogs for dinner and breakfast,
casey brought his finest whitetrashwyomingcowboy skills with us

after cuddling all night to stay warm,
we woke up to frost all over everything, and the rushing stream as our background noise.

we built one more fire for morning (for our hot dogs, jeeze)
warmed ourselves back up and packed up "camp."

 

dear camping,

you were more fun than i expected.

i'd love to go again.

love, the cutlers.

stories not to be forgotten:

-weston telling us at the last minute that "tomorrow" was the first day of hunting season for locals. DON'T SHOOT ME!

-the trouble with fires...

-waking up in the morning to a mysterious tent across the stream. no idea where that came from.

-casey having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the freezing night.

-the air mattress not blowing up all the way.

5 guys

so i mentioned that last thursday was scott's birthday.

the 3 of us families/siblings met up at 5 guys burgers to celebrate!

and boy, do we love those burger and FRIES.

oh, those fries are heavenly.

i only took pictures of the little kids because they're so cute.

i love my neices and nephews, love them.

(i'm stupid, and put the same pic of abby in twice)
oh and little mr. tristan is walking, walking people!
it's so fun to see them progress bit by bit.

and then of course the birthday boy (with tristan) so cute.

 

i love my family.
i love celebrating birthdays.
i love burgers.
i love life right now.

happy birthday to you.

yesterday was the mr. scott woodruff's birthday!

it was one of the few/only birthdays i actually got to celebrate with my brother this year!

so scotty, here is my tribute to you:
you're the middle child, and although you say that means you were the middle/hated/forgotten child,
it's the exact opposite.
you got the best of both worlds: you got to be with the "cool" older borthers,
and then you also got to have plenty of time with us younger ones, kirk and i

remember that 1 time you broke your leg when you were 2?
well i don't, but i know you certainly do.
you had some pretty dang cute pictures in your years.

remember how it's because of you our family has the pets we do.
zuka and tazz undoubtedly stem from you,
as well as a few of our family kitties.
for that i salute, and thank you :)

remember when you used to always sing "don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?"
literally you sang that all the time, and truly believed it too.
thank you for showing me what true confidence in one's self looks like

 

but overall, thanks for being my awesome brother, you're 6 years older than me,
but i've come to have so much fun with you here in provo.
i'm glad you're still here in provo and not in az yet,
bc we'd miss out on all out fun together (ie- go-peds, racing weenie dogs, cranium, settlers, and all our other games)

keep rockin it, and happy 1 day late blogger birthday to you!



ps- watch for his birthday pictures to come soon!

good news minute

i have secrets.

quite a few secrets to tell might i say.

today i will share with you one of the many!

i have 3 SILs on my woodruff side.

and guess what? all 3 are pregnant!

yay!

they're all due March, April, and May!

yay for babies! 2012 will be so much fun!!

i'd love to share with you a few more secrets...

but can't...

maybe in a few months i will.
me being pregnant is not one of those secrets, so stop pointing fingers people :)

actually i will say one more,

my SIL, kerri, on casey's side, is pregnant too!

wahoo!

our plans this weekend include:

camping,

football game,

work.

i also have a late birthday-brother post to share with you!

have a wonderful weekend!

lately.

lately it's been warm here in provo, WHAT!? yeah, i know, it's been fabulous.

it was so warm in fact that after coking our meal on sunday we couldn't bare to be in our place bc it was so hottttttttt!

so we ate in the front yard aka the lawn we share with the other tenants that a million people walk past on sunday, i swear.

only slightly awkward,

whatevs.

but the weather was wonderful so i'll stop my complaining.

best part: just lying on the blanket/grass after eating in the sun and light breeze without a care in the world for that 15 minutes.

lately, casey as been working on his puzzle a ton

and he finished it!

that's two hips and a hooray people,

i get my table back!
the puzzle had 1000 peices, but 2200 little pictures to put together, jeeze.

lately, i made copycat texas roadhouse rolls.

we liked them.

lately, we had a campfire/cookout up the canyon with the landscape management major.

it was quite enjoyable.

i love my major still. especially the people in it.

lately, we've had a few great sunsets.

lately, i made sun dried tomatoes in the oven. 

we didn't like them much.

moon lift ride.

this last week we drove up to sundance to go on their moon lift ride.

twas fun as usual.

out of our 4 years, here at BYU this was our third time going.

this moon lift ride was actually mine and casey's 2nd date together, crazy enough!

so there's a special place for it in our heart, ha.

this year we met up with my dear friend, brooke, and her dear, dear friend, chrisitian.

it's always fun to get together with other couples and we truly had a wonderful time.

they had us laughing the whole time.

it was cold as usual,

but we were kind of prepared this time luckily.

snaps for kimber and casey.

we listened to the same music we did on our first date up there, presh, i know.

we laughed about the silliest of things.

we talked about how this was our last year here in provo.

we talked about numerous stories of us dating,

and funny moments we had dating.

it's so funny to look back at it all, goodness!

clockwise starting at top left:
1) brooke and christian being super cool ghost looking people getting off the lift
2) we are all awesome together. a little contrast between the two couples: brooke and christian looking all cutesy cute together. casey and kimber: bundled up like we're going to the north pole bc we've experienced being cold way too much up at sundance
3)the full moon!
4) on the ski lift. flash=really bright.

provo utah bucket list: feeding the ducks at the duck pond

#1 reason i love tuesday and wednesdays: we don't work.

those 2 nights are pretty much the only nights casey and i don't work and don't have plans.

those days feel marvelous.

so today we kinda just chilled.

worked on the puzzle.

organized our little place.

made chocolate chip waffles.

and randomly decided to take a walk because the weather was just splendid.

on our way out i thought "let's go feed the ducks while we're at it!"

new found pleasure: feeding the ducks at the duck pond.

i was pleasantly surprised at how fun it was.

it was like being a kid all over again and being thrilled that all these ducks would come so close to you!

the challenge: trying to get the bread to the duck you want it to go to

the comedy: casey chasing away the mean ducks (i'm chuckling right now just thinking about it).

he'd just chase the mean one around the walking area til it flew back into the pond, calling it names.

too funny.

i was amazed at how close the ducks got to us! we could feed them straight from our hand! 

(i didn't because, eww, that's gross).

but they were no stranger to strangers for sure.

we will undoubtedly be going back again soon bc we had such a hoot doing it!

ps- top left picture, on our walk to the pond, this HUGE duck was randomly on the street and started chasing us!
(imagaine a duck like the duck joey and chandler have on friends)
it was literally about to bite casey!
i don't know if it was someone's pet or what but it was blocks away from the pond.
it freaked me out and bc i freaked out while casey was on the phone he freaked out,
needless to say, we took a different street home.

 

people of provo: go feed the ducks.
you'll have a blast.

provo utah bucket list: stewart falls/canyon drive in the fall

so our original plan was to drive up the canyon,
back in all the pretty leaves,
and drive home.
but on our way back down we suddenly thought, why not hike stewart falls right now since it is on our bucket list?
and, oh, what joys we did have!

luckily we went last tuesday, the day before it turned rigid, cold, rainy/snowy here in provo.

the drive was utterly gorgeous.
we saw the mountain sides were alive with colors bursting out in flames.
the smell was incredible, it made me want to go camping right that minute and live out in the wilderness all autumn long.
i honestly couldn't take big enough breaths in. it was so wonderful.
we listened to our beloved country music the whole way driving (did i tell you i converted casey to country music? for all you country haters, it makes us happy and we love it it so don't judge.)
and of course the company was wonderful, i don't remember what we talked about but i remember being happy.


we turned up the canyon and enjoyed every mile.
casey was driving slow,
my head was stuck out the window like a dog taking in the smells and sights.
we'd go back and forth saying "oh look over, there, that's so pretty!"
we saw a huge moose cross the road when we got up to aspen grove.
it looked so majestic with the fall leaves on all sides of it.

after driving through all the aspens after aspen grove,
we turned around and that's when we decided to hike stewart falls!
to say it was pretty is the most boring word i could use.
i'm not much of a writer so i won't try to convey what it was like except that it was so glorious.
seriously.
all the leaves around us were changing colors.
little chipmunks squeaked and crawled up all the trees around us.
leaves littered the trail and looked like millions of little girls had gone before us and dropped their flower baskets.

we ran (on the flats and downhills) to make the hike faster.
it felt like we were in a movie, being chased, jumping over stumps, roots, and boulders in the fall time
it was so cool.


the falls were exquisite too with bright reds, oranges, and yellows trailing on all sides.
the air was perfectly crisp with a slight chill.
and we were out there all alone in God's beautiful creation.
we passed maybe 8 other people.
it was like our own, personal, intimate experience with nature,
one i will never forget.

 

if you live in provo you need to take your canyon drive asap before it's all gone!

ps- the picture above the bottom left picture, is the road we went and took our engagements in,
it was just as beautiful as we remember!!
it's this secret little road up the canyon, you pass a kinda bigger open horse field on your left and it's behind there.
my ultimate dream would be to have a quaint little cabin on the itty bitty road!

after conference

after conference was over, 

all us siblings got together for sunday evening.

it was quite fun, indeed, with 4 of siblings together.

it just is so fun to be with family.

we played in the park.

played on the swings.

played on the slides.

played kickball.

played games.

and played with the 2 cute little kids we've got running around here in utah.

 

this last picture has some of the games we played together (phase 10, cover your aces, taboo, etc)
plus 2 radom ones from my phone: i bowled a 150 this week with a turkey in there, go kimber!
and secondly, our football team. we've won 3 of 3, it's quite enjoyable.

conference weekend.

wow, it's thursday.

mwf went so fast for me, they always do.

my thursday and fridays are so easy, i just look forward to getting over my wednesday!

general conference was wonderful this year, as always.

we woke up at 9:56 to prepare ourselves for the 10 am session, we're awesome.

casey and i snuggled on the couch while we watched.

and then i fell asleep between sessions.

sadly, i can't remember one particular talk from those sessions, i just remember feeling good and happy the whole time.

every once and awhile, i say to casey "this is such a good talk!"

i'll be happy to see november's conference issue of the talks come out.

but for conference,

my brother, kirk, and his most dear, dear friend, whitney, came up from mesa!

i got to pick them up from the airport late saturday night

i was late picking them up and took the wrong way home.

we shared some great memories on that drive home.

the 4 of us got to go to the (very early) sunday morning session of conference.

sadly, we only had 3 tickets to that session.

so casey and i stood on the corner as he held up his finger begging for a ticket.

most embarrassing and funniest thing ever.

oh my word, i was dying of laughter and wanted to give up asap.

our attitudes weren't making it any better either, ha.

an old man in an electric wheel chair came up to us and said he was meeting his grand daughter on the other side of the conference center and that she might have an extra ticket.

(our countenance may have brightened up a little bit).

but his elderly wife (with a walker) needed help getting there.

so for about 5 minutes we helped this cute, old couple get to the other side of the building.

once up there, we began waiting around for his granddaughter.

not sure if she was really going to have a ticket or not, casey began holding up that very embarrassing finger, notifying to all others we were begging for 1 more ticket.

within 30 seconds, a couple tapped casey on the shoulder, and handed him a ticket.

ah, the sweet joy of relief (of embarrassment!).
what a tender mercy from the Lord.

after another little embarrassing scene with getting through security,

we made it inside.

casey finally looked at the ticket and realized the ticket we received was for the very bottom level!

yes people, the bottom level closest to the apostles etc.

umm, so cool.

way worth the embarrassment of holding up that one little finger.

my favorite part of the session was hearing the mormon tabernacle choir sing "I Believe in Christ."

it's my absolute most favorite hymn and it brought to me a reconfirmation of my testimony of this gospel.
top left picture is me with the wilford woodruff statue, "oh hey grandpa! we have the same chin!"

we met kirk and whitney outside where we walked around temple square a little.

it was a gorgeous day outside and the very first conference session i had ever been to where the weather wasn't cold!

so glad we got to go with these 2.
it'll be a great memory we'll all have together!

ps- this last weekend we had our first date 3 years ago and did the same activities together these 3 years later:
BYU v Utah State game + conference.
precious.
i remember after the date staring at this top picture SO much! i thought casey was so cute, and couldn't wait to see more of him! 
i also thought we were so cute together!