Happy Birthday to Me!

Last weekend we celebrated one of my favorite times of the year... my birthday! I turned 24 on September 1st. Friday night we had our friends over for a pizza party and game night. As always, I had a lot of fun hanging out with all my favorite people. Then Monday came around and Ryan had a nice little day planned for me. First things first, Ryan woke up and made us omelets. (I must say, Ryan has become quite the breakfast king in our house. Monday's dish was another delicious and perfect way to start off the morning.) Then Ryan told me he was sending me off to the day spa for a few hours. He dropped me off and I got a very relaxing massage and fabulous facial. Little did I know, while I was off getting pampered, Ryan was home cooking up another little surprise. I have been trying to finish decorating the bedroom before we focus all of our energy on the nursery. So Ryan thought he'd help make things nice and fancy in the room by having crown molding put up. (I thought it was sweet because he was excited to help me out with my whole nesting kick I'm on right now.) Anyway, I was quite surprised and it looks great! Then later that evening Ryan and I went to a nice dinner, got some ice cream and came home to watch a movie. Oh yah, and he gave me a very cute watch too. He was very excited to give me this gift as well. He said, "I think this is the coolest women's watch I have ever seen! I had to get it for you." Lol, what a cutie pie! As always, he did a great job at making me feel like a birthday princess on my special day!

Also, thanks to all my family and friends who helped to make my birthday special!!

Dinner for two at Firebirds.

Fun & funky Betsy Johnson watch!

Our new crown molding.

The breakfast chef hard at work.

Breakfast perfection... yum!

The birthday girl and her prince charming!

Laura and me! (We're both pregnant :)

Ladies dining on pizza while the boys watched football.

Our big news!

Ryan and I are very excited to announce that we are expecting our first baby!! After three pregnancy test, it was confirmed that I have a precious little bun in the oven! I am 12 1/2 weeks (gotta count that half :) with a due date of Feb. 26, 2009! Ryan and I could not be more excited for our baby on the way!

And can I add, after many many weeks of my insane tiredness and horrible nausea, Ryan is officially the best husband ever! Ryan has taken care of me completely, including cooking, cleaning and everything I haven't been so great at lately. There were days I'd really feel bad for not being a good wife and Ryan would always say, "You just worry about taking care of our baby, let me take care of everything else!" He has been a wonderful husband and I have no doubt he will be an amazing dad! (Love you babe!)

After two tests with lines that look blurred, Ryan ran to the store for a test that would read loud and clear. And boy did it, there was no doubt this was was positive and I was pregnant!

Oh goodness, Ryan loves to be a comedian in serious pictures!

Very excited parents to be!

Lauren & Mark!

Last week we traveled to Fresno, California for the wedding of Ryan's little sister, Lauren, to her new hubby, Mark Ensign. The two lovebirds tied the knot on 8-8-08! They were married in the Fresno Temple. Congratulations to the newlyweds!!

Stepping out of the Fresno Temple and sealing it with a kiss!

What a beautiful blushing bride!

The Landes Brothers, never a dull moment!

Another pair of lovebirds!!

Big brother, little sister!


Landes kids!

The whole Landes crew!

Special Delivery!

Girlfriends are the best! The last few years have been such a blast. We went from growning up together, to seeing eachother get married and now anxiously watching precious little babies join the group! Cassie was the latest to join the hot mama club! Camryn Jeanne Vennard was born July 31st, 2008. She is a tiny little girl, weighing in at 5 lbs 8 oz. and is absolutely adorable. Congratulations Cassie and Luke!

Flashback to 2005! We got married just a month apart!

Just a month ago at Cassie's baby shower!

The little princess herself, Camryn Jeanne Vennard!

Birthday Man!

So in the midst of my non-blogging month, the love my life, Mr. Ryan Landes Turned the Big 25! Ryan is such an amazing husband and I'm so happy I get to spend the rest of my life growing old with him!!

Stay tuned...

So we've been out of commission for a few weeks. Our computer got a virus and I was unable to blog for a bit. Everything is fixed now and I will get plenty of updates posted right away! Stay tuned...

Favorite Friends!

One of my favorite things to do is spend time with my girl friends. So when one of my favorite friends, Holly, told us she was in town from Texas, I was so excited to get to do dinner with her. Laura and I joined Holly, along with her two daughters, Remly and London. And of course, we took her to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Nandos! What a perfect night of favorites! Thanks for the dinner date ladies!

Holly-Laura-Me!

Picture perfect

My new best friend, Remly! (In my sunglasses)

Three Years Baby!!

June 25th, 2008… three years married!! I can hardly believe how quickly times flies, especially when you’re so in love and get to spend every day with your very best friend. To celebrate our special day we headed up to Payson Tuesday night. We ordered our favorite pizza and relaxed watching TV. Wednesday morning Ryan made my favorite, chocolate chip and banana pancakes!! Then we took a hike, watched a movie, played card games and just enjoyed some relaxation up at the cabin. We headed back late afternoon and went to dinner later that evening. It was a very nice day and reminder of how lucky we are to have each other forever!

Money shots at dinner!

Hiking on love day!

My big sexy man cooking for me!

Chocolate chip and banana pancakes.

Mmm, my favorite breakfast!

I had a very special delivery Tuesday at work. Three dozen special somethings to be exact!

San Franciso... Final Post!

Our San Francisco trip was an activity packed week. It is such a fun city and there is so much to do. Literally, we kept busy every day, all day and could have still stayed another week. There's been plenty to post, but finally, here's the last few things we did…


In case anyone didn’t know, Ryan is a true San Francisco Giant’s fan. Part of the excitement of visiting SF was going to a Giant’s game! We went to a Friday night game at the AT&T Park right on the water. Ryan’s good friends, Dave and Daniel were able to join us. Seriously, being at the ballpark with those boys was like seeing kids on Christmas morning. Ryan was in his true element and loved the atmosphere of watching a baseball game at Giant’s home field. Besides the fun of watching the game, it was FREEZING there on the bay. Once the sun started to go down it felt like zero degrees! I couldn't believe it gets that cold in June in California. Bitter coldness aside, it was such a fun night!

Dave, Ryan, Alicia & Daniel

Munching on the famous garlic fries. There were delicious!

Desperately trying to stay warm!

One thing we loved about SF was all the different neighboorhoods. In one day, we visited China Town, Fisherman's Dwarf, Pier 39 and Ghirardelli's Square!

China Town



Fisherman's Wharf


Ghirardelli's Square!

(Yes, a whole square devoted to SF's hometown chocolate)

Pier 39 is an area full of restaurants, shops, and activities, but one of the main attractions are the seals. There is a natural seal habitat that lives there at the pier. There are hundreds of them and they are characters. They sumo wrestle each other off the barge and keep captivated audiences for hours at a time.

San Francisco... Date night!

So besides driving, most of our 9 day trip consisted of family and friends. We were thrilled to get to spend time with some of favorite people, but we decided to plan one evening just for the two of us. Upon much recommendation, we had dinner at Scoma’s. Now we are not much of seafood fans, but we decided to do it up since we were in San Francisco. We had fresh cracked crab as our appetizer, which was a very fun experience. Nothing like watching Ryan accidentally shoot crab shell at an old lady in a very fancy restaurant. :) For the main dish Ryan dined on swordfish while I had a shrimp dish. Everything was very good! For our date night activity, upon rave review, we went to the famous Beach Blanket Babylon. It was a very campy, very funny cabernet show. The show is based on a love story, with a current events and celebrity news twist. It was very entertaining and very fun! Topped off with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in our hotel room, it was an absolutely amazing night!