oh, hello fall.

it's here, it's here! fall time, that is. it's been cloudy and overcast all day today and i don't think it's gotten above 65 degrees. zach is going to hate me for saying this, but i'm so glad summer is over! don't get me wrong, we had a freaking awesome summer and i loved every second of it. but, fun fact about me: i hate the heat. that's not to say that i hate summer, but since summer is hot, it's not exactly my favorite season. yes, you can go outside and go swimming and go hiking and all of that fancy stuff, but you can do all of that during the fall, too. and guess what? you can do it while wearing cardigans and boots and eating pumpkin bread and roasting s'mores and doing all of the fun fall things and not want to strip down to your birthday suit while you're at it. see? fall rocks.

zach and i have been trying really hard lately to get a babysitter each week and go out, just the two of us. but sometimes, we don't really want to have it be just the two of us. most nights we want addi with us, so yesterday we had a date night at the park, where we packed up the babelet, the dog, sandwiches in a picnic basket, and had ourselves a cute little dinner, right there on the grass.

it was lovely. as we were sitting there, it hit me how quickly fall has come and how quickly it will probably go, so we need to make a bucket list, fast. and that's why i've brought you here today. here is our fall bucket list and i'm so excited to do everything on it! let me know if i missed anything important.

averett fall bucket list:

-go to a pumpkin patch
-drink apple cider {advanced option: make it as well}
-carve our pumpkin {the one that we accidentally grew when zach threw last year's pumpkins into the backyard to "fertilize the dirt'.}
-make a fall wreath
-make pumpkin cream cheese bread
-pick apples
-go to a football game
-watch a scary movie {most likely, it will have mickey mouse or scooby doo in it, because i'm a lightweight when it comes to scary movies.}
-dip and eat caramel apples {emphasis on the 'eat'.}
-go to a corn maze
-read a book
-roast s'mores over a fire pit
-decorate for fall
-make a pumpkin pie
-watch hocus pocus
-make caramel popcorn
-go on a picnic
-make and decorate fall cookies
-go for a hike
-make an apple pie {advanced option: make it with a lattice top.}
-go on a hayride
-go for a drive to see the fall leaves
-find our halloween costumes {if anyone can point us in the direction of some epic star wars costumes, we'd appreciate it mucho.}

you can bet your bottom dollar, that every one of these things will be happening. happy falling, my friends!

-the mrs.

our cool family.

i opened up facebook yesterday and was welcomed by this video:



these are our brothers, jeff and derek.
yes, the same derek that i referred to as "special" in my last post, to which i was reprimanded for.
he is only special in the sense that he is freaking hilarious!
i'm pretty sure he could make lord voldemort laugh.
i just wanted to let the world know how awesome our family is.
that's all.

-the wife

p.s. for 'dude that's nothin-basketball style', click here.

the beehive state.

we just got back from a week long vacation in good ol' utah. we dropped off the plane and it was a whopping 80 degrees. that's a 25 degree difference from what we've been living in! it felt heavenly. we made it there just in time for the eaglewood fireworks on saturday:

 {sitting on the lawn, waiting for the fireworks to start with our special brother derek.}

    

{they were huge! 2nd time i've been able to go to these. definitely a tradition i want to keep up.}

on monday the fourth, we went boating with our pal vince and his familia:

then went to the the manti parade:

 {this picture made me laugh...only in sanpete.}

and we were lucky enough to be able to see double fireworks for the weekend:

 {it made for a really pretty view with the temple in the background!}

The rest of our week was spent fourwheeling,

playing in the snow up skyline drive,

eating snow cones and ice cream,

going on picnics,

having mallow roasts with the cousins,

going on walks,

playing bocce ball,

and croquet

and making tin foil dinners.

one of the biggest highlights of the week, was being able to go to my best friend's wedding!

she looked absolutely gorgeous! the entire day was beautiful. needless to say, i think we packed everything good about a vacation all in to one. it was so good to see our friends and family! besides getting sunburned multiple times, we couldn't have asked for a better trip. it will definitely go down as one of our top five favs.

-the wife

leaky faucet, coming through.

i've never cried in a movie before...until the other day, watching p.s. i love you.

i don't know what it was, but the thought of ever losing zachary seemed so unbearably awful that i couldn't keep myself together. {cheesy, i know}
but if you look at it that way, then it was a good cry. right?
wanna know what else can make me cry?
this video:

works every time.

being married and loving someone enough to know that your whole world would be a wreck without them has turned me in to one big bawl baby.

i sure do love that husband of mine!

-the wife

weekend getaway.

zachary and i splurged a little this weekend. and by splurge, i mean we drove to san antonio and went to sea world!

i realized that most of the fun things we've done in the past couple months have to do with animals; going to the zoo, visiting the aquarium, and now this. not to mention, the animal safari in san antonio that i want to go to as well. i feel like we're five or something. i still loved it though. we were able to feed/pet dolphins:

their dolphin/whale show was pretty entertaining too. besides the fact that it smelt like throw up and the lady behind us squirted us both in the face with a water balloon, i'd say this was our favorite show.

and of course, what is sea world without shamu? honestly, this show was pretty lame. the only cool part was when shamu did a flip and soaked everyone. other than that, it was just a bunch of fluff about saving the planet. not my idea of a good time. it was still awesome to see live killer whales though!

considering we didn't have to pay to get in, {yay for military discounts!} i'd say it was worth it.

we also went to austin to visit my brother and sister-in-law. we haven't seen any of our family since march, so it was a nice little reunion! while we were there, my sister-in-law, carli, made us these delicious pumpkin pancakes for dinner. you have got to try them. i have been craving them since we left.

it was a great weekend minus all the driving! that's what we get for living in good ol' del rio i guess. we should know in the next month or two when we will be leaving this place! i'll be sure to let ya know.

-sarah

p.s. i ordered a burrito this weekend that was the size of my hand.  for the record...i have really big hands.

just thought you ought to know...

our humble abode.

remember when i made a goal to get my house clean and liveable?
well i am finally finished!
i know i said that i also wanted to paint and decorate, but considering we aren't going to be in this house for as long as we planned, i decided to hold off.
since everything looks decent though, i can now give you an official tour!
for starters, this is what it looks like from the front:

not exactly the prettiest thing you've ever seen, but it's good enough to call home.
our grass is actually a lot greener than that now, so that's one plus!
you walk in the front door and you will be planted right in our living room:

this is where most of our cuddling/watching-lost action goes on.

i love this room!

connected to it is our beautiful dining room:

...and by beautiful i mean bland, boring, and lifeless.

yes, we know that this is a sorry excuse for a table.

we've been married 5 months and still haven't bothered to buy one.

thank goodness we got this little beauty for our wedding or we would be eating on the floor!

next is our kitchen.

what looked like this when we first moved in:

now looks like this:

that calms my nerves just looking at the after pictures.

i think my favorite part about our kitchen is this bad boy:

it was a christmas gift from my mom and dad and i absolutely adore it!

it is beginning to become my very close friend.

and you can't forget the laundry room, right next to the kitchen:



small and quaint, but it gets the job done.

we love our washer and dryer.

it took us a while to take the plunge to buy them, but it has definitely been worth it.

they even sing us songs when a load is done!

just around the corner is this hallway:

have you ever been to young house love?

it is this incredible site that features a young couple that love to decorate and design.

they have so many cute ideas and i want to use one of them for my hallway someday.

this idea consists of a collage of white frames filled with anything as fancy as a wedding picture or as simple as a bird feather.

my favorite one will be a long horizontal frame with the words "you are my sunshine" sewn on white cardstock with thin yellow yarn.

i hear those words often in a day from my cute boy and i want to make
them a part of our home.

the first door on your right down that hallway is our office:

we found this sweet awesome desk at wal-mart for really cheap.

probably because the quality is really cheap...

it has worked well for us though.

other than that, we don't have much to put in here.

someday, i want a nice comfy couch. 

maybe red or yellow.

and a bookshelf or two with loads of good books!

this will definitely be the room to go to for peace and quiet.

the second door on your right down that hallway, is our guest bedroom:

considering we don't have any kids and we never have any guests, this room is nothing special.

it has become our ironing/store-our-junk-in room.

but, in case that makes any of you shy away from visiting us, i can promise you that we do have a nice queen size mattress and clean sheets that you wouldn't want to miss. :)

now back to the hallway, the second door on your left would be the bathroom:

if you go through that door on the back end of this picture, it also leads you to another bathroom that is connected to our bedroom.

we treat it kind of like a his and hers bathroom set-up.

i decided not to show you pictures of mine since it is the number one room in the house that i struggle the most with in keeping it clean.

curses to being a girl and needing a billion things to get ready with.

and last, but not least, here is our lovely bedroom:

loads different from the last time you saw it, eh?

see that little soccer ball piggy bank right there?

that's where we are saving up all of our change {literally} to go on a trip to disneyland!

we are making some major headway with a whopping $75.65.

only a few hundred more to go!

i can't even begin to tell you how great it feels to have a clean house!

i feel so blessed to be where we are right now.

life is good and seems to only get better with time.

-the wife

happy mother's day.

dear mom,

i know that you never {ever} read my blog, but i want to let the cyberworld in on a little secret about you. you are the best mom that a girl could ask for. thank you for all the things you have done for me, that at the time may have gone unappreciated. like ripping me out of bed every morning so that i didn't fail high school. or telling me to put on sunscreen before every soccer game so that i didn't get skin cancer. or making sure that i am dating the right boys, so that one day i could marry the right boy.

along with that, i want you to know the things that i have always appreciated about you. like all of the times that you gave me gas money, seeing that i was the worst money manager in the world! thank you for your thoughtfulness in bringing me treats from the grocery store, or from provo, or from anywhere you went really. thank you for making me breakfast all growing up, and still making zachary and i breakfast when we come to visit. thank you for cheering me up when i am sad. thank you for being my number one fan. thank you for being the prime example to me of what it is to be selfless. thank you for your positive attitude towards life. thank you for raising me in the church and never letting your testimony waver. and thank you for giving me comfort in knowing that you are going to spoil my kids rotten someday, as the best grandma in the world. if i could be half the mother you are, i will consider my life a success. i love you mama. happy mother's day.

love,
sarah

p.s. thank you also, for showing me how to be a hard worker. congrats on earning your masters degree!

in recent news...

we have had an eventful couple of weeks. so eventful, that this post is probably going
to be way too long to keep you entertained. in attempts to avoid boring you to death,
i will just tell you about the highlights of our experience!

you are welcome.

1. we were able to go to utah to attend alex and jodi's wedding! oh my goodness, this
wedding was so beautiful! don't ask me why, but i didn't take any pictures.
i am sure kickin' myself now! here are a few though, compliments of my sister-in-law...

don't they just look so in love! i am so happy for them!

our very large family!

 zachary, me, and arika at the luncheon.

my beautiful sister-in-law, arika, and her parade of boys...just kidding!

these are her brothers.

arent they so handsome?

2. all of the averett siblings got together to have a memorial night for their mom.

she passed away 6 years ago almost to this day. they shared stories and memories

about her and everyone made a dish for dinner that reminded them of her.

it was an incredible experience for those of us that never had the chance to know her!

back l to r: arika, alex, jodi, michelle, kelby, me, autumn, and deven.

front l to r: jayden, kloie, papa averett, triston, and brin.

{we skyped/called zachary}

3. i got to go to ephraim and spend time with my family and friends!

 i got to go to lunch with my wonderful parents!

 i helped my brother paint his house.

 and i was reunited with this girl!

 ...and ate way too much junk food. we are really good at that.

4. i was able to see my aunt and cousin when i got back to alabama.

i haven't seen them in almost ten years!

5. my cute boy graduated from asbc!

6. we made the long trek from montgomery to del rio. we stayed at air force bases along
the way and tried to make a vacation out of it. my favorite part was when we stayed in
mississippi. we went to the beach that night and just laid there, cuddling and talking,
while we listened to the ocean waves. i'm so glad i married such a romantacist.

{i could just eat him up!}

this was when we went to the back bay restaurant in gulf port, ms.

story time:

i look at the menu here and decide to get a chicken wrap.

i tell the waitress what i want and she stops and looks at me and says,

"honey, you are at a seafood restaurant.

you have to get some seafood."

{sidenote: i hate seafood.}

i kindly tell her that i am not a fan and i will stick with what i had in mind.

she was very adamant that i had to try some seafood though and wouldn't let it go.

zachary gets after me about being "close minded" when it comes to food.

so after all of her coaxing and persuading and a guarantee to be able to get

something else if i didn't like it, i ordered the special of the day:

mahi mahi topped with shrimp and vegetables.

one bite and i thought, "okay maybe seafood isn't all so bad."

two bites..."this is funny tastin'."

three bites..."i may just hurl."

i can honestly say that i gave it my best shot,

but i just couldn't stomach it.

i didn't want to be rude, so i thought i would just try to bear it.

that is until the lady next to us got up to leave with her husband.

she excused herself and told me almost sternly, that if i didn't like my meal,

i had darn well better get something different because that waitress talked

me into getting what i did.

i don't think i would have done anything about it if she hadn't said something.

zachary found someone and they kindly gave me a different meal.

needless to say, we didn't see our waitress much for the rest of the night.

moral of the story: don't let anyone talk you into getting something that you
know you don't like!

moral two of the story: don't be a push over! it gets you nowhere in life.

7. we are now official texans! we made it to laughlin afb yesterday and so far,

everything is going really well. we took some time to drive around town yesterday and it

is actually a lot better than we were expecting. it feels like we are living in a little mexico!

we can't move into our house for a couple of weeks, but we just found out that we

get a 3 bedroom/2 bath house. we are really excited about all of the room!!

as for now, we will spend our time gorging ourselves with these yummy mexican candies...

and seeing this every night...

-the wife

 p.s. we are looking at getting a puppy. so far, we are leaning most toward one of these

white german shepherds...

your thoughts??