Progresso, Mexico!

We made it down to the Galveston port the next day and we set off on our cruise!

Ben had to go to security for a little bit......one of the bags had ammunition in it....
I had to go on the boat and find our room by myself....
Our two bags both had Ben's name on them.....
I got to the room and Ben's bag was in our room, oh crap i thought. My bag has the ammo in it.
Turns out there was a bullet in my bag that Ben gave me once (as a keepsake kind of thing?) and I had left it in the front pocket from when I moved (Rexburg to Vegas). Woops.
Anyways, Ben finally made it back and the bullet was confiscated.

Anyways. We spent a day on sea which consisted of sleep, wake up and eat, sleep, wake up and eat, sleep, wake up and eat, and so on.

Tuesday we woke up and got off the boat in Progresso, Mexico!
Here we are waiting for our bus!

We spent the day in Progresso playing on the beach in the sunshine. We also ate chips with guacamole and beans. Sadly, there was sand in them. So it was a little gritty.
And the last picture is of me and the tree behind me. Yes that is a palm tree with yellow coconuts! Apparently palm trees are all different and some produce yellow coconuts, orange coconuts, and the standard green/brown coconuts.
Crazy!

Driving to Texas

Hello all! I'm ready to blog about our vacation!
It took me a week to recover.
So here is the first post of many:

On our way to Texas we stopped at McDonalds.
And obviously we both had to pose as Mr. Monopoly...

And as we drove along....we saw zombies!!

It was eventful.
We drove the 14 hours to Amarillo the first day and stayed the night at this old fancy hotel, ate the included breakfast meal and then the next morning made it to Dallas around 1:30pm.
We had to get to Colleyville (where Ben is from, which is basically Dallas, TX) by 3pm because Ben had an eye doctor appointment.

Funny Story:
I was exhausted so while Ben went to his eye appointment, I took a nap.
I woke up to Ben sitting next to me on the Ben, staring at me.
The conversation went a little like this:
Jacquie: what are you doing?
Ben: I'm looking at you with my new eyes! I definitely benefited from this marriage.

(He's been blind since we started dating...eesh)

t.t.f.n.

we have safely made it to Dallas, TX!
we will be heading to Galveston tomorrow morning to
board our cruise for Mexico! woo!
so goodbye for about a week or so
ta ta for now :)

life.

it explains itself perfectly.

birthday celebrations!

Well, last night Ben and I headed to Walmart to buy some snacks for our big trip!

While there we bought totally unnecessary things such as:

Movies: Ever After, Signs, The Sixth Sense

Hand Sanitizer

Apple Juice (we won't even be able to drink it before tomorrow)

3 cans of diced tomatoes (Ben buys diced tomatoes like the world will run out of them, i don't get it)

and 4 cupcakes!

The cupcakes, however, are birthday celebration cupcakes! Since we will be on vacation for my birthdayy, we decided to celebrate at home by-

Watching a movie till 12:20am. 

Eating homemade guac and chips.

Drinking our flavored waters from walmart in champagne glasses.

and of course eating delicious cupcakes!

I may, or may not, have eaten one of these babies for breakfast...hey its my birthday (almost) I can do what I want!

On another note my mom sent me this picture yesterday:

HOW cute is she?! and fashionable! holy macaroni, i wish i could dress like this!
maybe i can since i just bought myself a cute chambray like that one (i may have two now)...
anyways, love it mama!

Cooking.

Ben and I have crazy work schedules.
For example: Yesterday we left for work at 6:30am and got home at 6:40pm.
HOW CAN I BE A GOOD WIFE AND COOK DINNER?!

well, pinterest has helped.

First I've made this:

Breakfast Casserole! It was delightful, I made it one night after work, we ate some that night with ice-cream (which is delicious). I just popped in pieces in the microwave in the morning and BAM we had breakfast (delicious and nutritious) for the whole week! I used strawberries and blueberries (fresh) and no chocolate chips or bananas. I recommend this one. It's delightful.

Then Sunday night I surprised myself with a delicious meal:

Chicken Lo Mein. I never thought I could make "chinese" food and have it taste good. But BY GOLLY I did it! Oh it was so delicious. I had a bag of assorted frozen veggies then I added some fresh zucchini and celery. Oh, it was just so good. I wish I could eat some of that now. (see bottom of post).

And then I sadly made this one:

Okay, looks like nothing could go wrong. Throw it in the crockpot. Chicken, teriyaki sauce, pineapple juice, other things I can't remember, and come back from work at night, make some rice and dinner is done!
wrong.
We got home especially late, and it was burned to a crisp. The whole apartment smelt terrible. I think we might have gone to del taco. shoot.

Well, 2/3 not bad!

These are all recipes on my "What's cooking" Pinterest board, if you're wondering :)
Also, we never have leftovers in this family.
It has saddened me since Ben and I started dating. I guess I just need to get into the habit of making too much food ;) practice for those 12 kids that are coming along the road up ahead...tehe.

babies.

sometimes i just want to have a million babies.
and i want other people (ahem, cousins) to stop having them.
you know why? not because i don't like babies, because obviously from my first sentence, i do.
but because i don't want anyone to steal the names i already have planned for my first three children!
i know. i know. you are thinking, what on earth does she do all day?
i can't really answer that.
but everyone, don't steal my baby names.
and no, i can't tell you what they are.
but yes, i do have them written down and dated so if you do happen to steal one, i can show that i am not a copycat.


i need to go back to school.

Model?

Ben's brother sent out a massive family text one day and it included this picture:

"Woah, Ben has been doing some modeling work for Taco Bell!"

We had a good laugh, but for reals though. Ben is the face of Taco Bell!!!

NBFD

So apparently it was national boyfriend day the other day??
I found out via instagram.
I'm soo not in the "know" anymore, sigh.
that's what happens when you get married and become an old lady.

Here is the conversation that unfolded:

Jacquie: "Holy cow I didn't even know, it is national boyfriend day! I love you baby!"
Ben: *very serious* *somber even* "well, even though it isn't national girlfriend day I still like you."

thanks honey.

Speaking of boyfriends/girlfriends...kind of...here's Ben's celebrity crush:

Yep there she is! Sandra Bullock! Funny, 'cus my dad's celebrity crush is Sandra...weird. I'm pretty sure he just loves her because she was in the Blind Side and was a Texas woman and you know Ben, he sure does love his Texas.

And here is my celebrity crush:

Ahh, Chris Pine! I decided to show you my celebrity crush last because mostly girls read this blog...do I have to explain more?

So happy belated-NBFD or if you don't have one CCD (celebrity crush day).

Petland!

So two minutes from our apartment, right next to Walmart is this magical place called Petland!
They have puppies, kittens, hamsters, birds, bunnies, etc.
Our first time going we didn't hold any animals, oh but the second time was just joyous.
We held this little 10 week old yellow lab. She was precious and boy were her paws so big! She is gonna be a big girl when she grows up.
Anyways Benny and I got to sit in this little cubicle thing and play with her for about thirty minutes! It was wonderful, I could go play with a puppy every single day!
Here's some pictures:

Oh we just loved this little girl! Unfortunately, we both agree that having a puppy/dog in an apartment with no backyard is just cruel. So we made a pact we cannot get a puppy till we have a backyard. Also she was $1399. I about crapped my pants. We sold AKC labs just like her and that price was a total rip off. So we didn't get her. However, I think we made her life a wee bit more enjoyable by getting her out of her cage and playing with her :)

Funny story:
The next day Ben and I got home from work and I was laying on the bed reading and he laid down and mumbled ever so quietly, "Can we go see the puppy?" My heart was full of joy!!!
I told him sadly though, we couldn't see the puppy, or we would end up buying her and we would be even poorer and the puppy would be sad with no backyard to play in.
But Ben said maybe we will rent a house in Rexburg and we can get a puppy then!!!!!!
So cross your fingers people!

Camping!

Ben and I had Wednesday off of work so Tuesday night we loaded up the car and headed up to the mountains to camp!
We went up to Mt. Charleston, it's about an hour from Vegas and it is actually a forest with mountains!  I was so happy!

Ben convinced me that we should keep the fly off of our tent because we could look at the stars through the night. I though, cool, yeah! ...no. terribly cold. never again.

Also, around 2am Ben and I woke up to the sound of animals outside. So of course we laid there and listened, and listened. We thought they were eating our leftover Jiffy Pop that we had eaten that night (which may I add I have never eaten Jiffy Pop that isn't burned. Except for tonight! Ben cooked it like a PRO!) Anyways, so we finally sit up and we look out the (open) windows and BAM!
There's horses all around!! We both were not expecting that. I counted six horses around our tent. They were just grazing around, it was crazy! We don't know if they were wild or not, but I've never been camping in a place where horses roam around at night!
And I promise this story is true because around 6am I had to get up and go to the bathroom and there was horse poop everywhere! Luckily I decided to not take a picture of that. You're welcome.

Here are some pictures:

Our tent!

Captain packing the car this morning

Our matching campfire chairs!

The hair I woke up to...

Benji eating our wonderful breakfast of POPTARTS!

Back to Bako

Ben and I headed back to Bakersfield two weeks after the wedding to pick up our marriage license! It was so dumb, I had to be there "in person" to pick it up. Geesh.

We relaxed in Bakersfield and played in the cool weather (compared to Vegas).

Ben played with Noel:

Isn't he a cute cat person?!

And later that night we went to Riley's football game! Here's us after the game:

We left Bakersfield on Sunday with all the gifts loaded in our car and headed back to Henderson.

One Week Anniversary

For our one week anniversary (which may have been over 5 weeks ago)....I made some BBQ chicken pizza with avocado
and a delicious green salad.
We also enjoyed some Martinelli's and peanut butter bars.
Happy one week to us!

I'm so excited!!

So for our honeymoon we are going on a cruise from Oct 13-18th!
I AM SO EXCITED!
We are going to----

Merida (Progreso), Mexico

and.....

Cozumel, Mexico

I can't wait till these are pictures of us there! (I hereby promise I will take many pictures on our vacation.)

But for now, I'll continue to day dream of my hot new tan, white sandy beaches, all you can eat all the time (eesh..), swimming, snorkeling, and reading books on the beach :)

**You can donate to the "Jacquie Wants To Swim With Dolphins But It's Expensive Fund"**

just text me your credit card info ;)

Abigail Dawn McKee

That's right folks!

Ben and I got a new niece on Friday morning! (September 28, 2012).

Abigail Dawn McKee

And may I just say, she is the most precious baby I have ever seen!

She may also be one of the "chillest" babies I've ever held!

After spending a few hours with her on Sunday, I still haven't heard her cry!

Here she is:

Check out that BLONDE hair! I love it!

I could hold her all day long...

Maybe I should have one of my own...

But maybe we shouldn't give Ben a heart-attack

:)

Tips

As a carpet cleaner Ben gets tips, sometimes it's a fish.

yes.

Ben got a fish--
and a tank.
and tons of fish food.

His official name is Gomez, he is a catfish, he only eats allege. We don't know how he is still alive, but he's made it! We both don't really like fish, but we don't have the heart to flush him. However we might feed it to our nephews and nieces turtle. We just forget to bring Gomez along whenever we go over to their house.
So consequently, Gomez is part of the McKee family.
His other nicknames are: Kitty, Johnston, nasty fish, and Jesus (like the Mexican way, but I only call him that on Sundays).
I hope that soon enough I can post about his passing....is that morbid?

...Yes.

............Does anyone want this fish?