BAB.

Well my friends,

School is going to have to wait.

BAB is coming!!

BENNETT AARON BUTLER is on his way!!

I CAN'T WAIT. AHHHHH.

"If Life Were a Pizza, You'd be a Supreme."

I normally make titles for my posts that have nothing to do with what I am going to talk about. Today is no exception. 

So. Since I am officially the world's worst blogger (like anyone cares), here is a recap. 

I went to the Harvest Festival up in Sundance with Aaron and his family. We rode the ski lift, hiked around a little bit looking at the colorful leaves, ate yummy food, and walked around to the different vendors selling everything from spicy jam to elevated dog bowls. It was a blast. Also, the trees change colors in Utah. Who knew, right? Not used to that. I love Fall here! 

The next day was my friend Katie Webber's farewell, excuse me, talk in church before leaving on her mission. This shows how long it has been since I've updated seeing as Katie has been in the MTC for weeks. She is going to THE Ukraine :) So proud of her! We spent all day at the Webber's house eating and eating and visiting and eating and eating and taking pictures. 

Then we went back to the Colon to finish off the HSM marathon with number 3. It was my first time seeing it, besides the 4 times I saw it in theaters and the 50 times I've watched it on DVD. 

Monday:

-played curses while eating homemade pizza for FHE

Tuesday:

-supported the Highland Allstars Ultimate Frisbee Team

Wednesday:

Goodbye dinner for Katie at Chili's 

Friday: 

MY FAM BAM CAME! Ethan's birthday was September 30th so we did a little celebrating when he came up here. I bought him a BYU hoodie (REPRESENT) and Aubrie and Aaron bought him a knife and a mug with a deer's head on it...describes Ethan so perfectly. Ethan also killed an elk a couple weeks ago so....if anyone wants meat, we're you're people. 

I went to Kiwana's park before the Football game on Friday for a LIGHT reunion. It was so fun to see and catch up with people I hadn't seen in ages...or hours. Two of my good friends, Caleb Allred and Ben Nelson  were able to come! They just returned home from their missions...literally, JUST returned home from their missions. Ben had been home for about 17 hours before our party. That's what we call FRESH off the mish. So SO fun to see them. 

Then we headed over to the football game. I don't remember much about it. We were up in the nosebleeds and it was freezing. Aaron and I met up with E-man at half time and Aaron gave Ethan a game day t-shirt. What a guy. 

I drove up to the cabin with some of the extended family members after the game to spend the night. The next day we ate breakfast and gathered in the theater to watch General Conference. La da da da da, BAM. 19 year old girls can go on missions now?? WHAT?! So crazy. It's all the rage at BYU these days. 

My family was able to meet up with Aaron and go up to Salt Lake to watch Conference at the Conference Center on Saturday afternoon. What a cool experience :) 

Aaron was able to join us Sunday at the cabin for the next 2 sessions of Conference. It was a great day which ended in me smoking everyone's bacon in a game of 5 Crowns.

The following Wednesday, I went to the Carrie Underwood concert with Aaron, Rachel Ricks, and her friend Andrew. HOLY SMOKES. She was incredible!! Seriously, if she doesn't bust a vocal cord soon I'll be shocked. She was belting her little heart out the entire show. So. Good. There was even a part where she got on a platform that lifted her up and directly over the audience. Also, Hunter Hayes...So great.

THANKS, RACHEL!

Thursday I went up to the cabin again to join the Wray girls for the annual "Gingerbread House Making Weekend." All the ladies on my mom's side of the family and the older girls get to come. Gingerbread houses are a bit of a big deal in my family. We frown upon the people that make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and milk cartons ;) Each child in each family gets a different house which has a unique layout and is made of multiple pieces of homemade gingerbread. We even stainglass the windows. If anyone hears of a television gingerbread cooking competition show, please let me know. We have it down to a system. Someone is whipping out gingerbread dough, while some ladies are tracing the cutouts on to the dough, while others are cutting out the pieces from pans that have been cooked for precisely 9 minutes and 30 seconds (and if they are not cut immediately they harden and you have to start all over) and then someone is making sure each house has all the necessary pieces. Yeah. Say that 5 times fast. Eventually we stopped though to eat and play the famous ultimate charades game. I came away from the night with 2 holiday Bath and Body Works soaps and a pair of Halloween socks. Cha-ching.

Friday night, we surprised Ben Nelson with a little Welcome Home party. It's weird how you can not see someone for 2 years and within minutes feel like they never left. Afterwards, Rachel, Amanda, and Sandra and I girl talked for a long time. We needed this "catch-up" time. You better believe juicy secrets were revealed (cough cough, Rachel).

The next day was BYU Homecoming Game Day! EVERY DAY IS GAME DAY.
There are a few things in life that I absolutely love, even if I don't get to experience them often. One of these things? Parades. What part of waving frantically at strangers and fighting off children for taffy to shove in your pockets isn't fun?? We lined the street and watched the entire parade. I loved every single minute.







After the parade we went home to channel the inner gothic inside all of us. That's right. BLACKOUT day for the Football game. We showed up to the game pretty early and scored some free t-shirts! They were XL's but a free shirt is a free shirt. Such a fun game!

That night I went out with my mom, Aubrie, and A-Butler to do some birthday shopping. Let me tell you, picking out clothes for your mom and watching her model them in the dressing room is WAY more fun than doing it for yourself. We had a blast. She's going to be a hot mama in her new clothes. 

The next day was her actual birthday! I'm so glad she was able to be here to celebrate her Provo children. 

I posted this picture on facebook and it got 3 million likes. Around there. 

We went to the Butler's house for a yummy dinner and skyped our boys back home who had just returned from a successful elk hunt! Go, BIG E! 

And then we arm wrestled...and my mom kicked my trash.

The first few days of the next week were crazy with tests and assignments. My brain almost dissolved while studying for my Stats test, but it all paid off! It also helps to study with your best friends and have people in footie pajamas entertain you...or maybe not, but it's fun. 

AARON'S 22nd BIRTHDAY WAS ON THURSDAY!! So old! I'm beating myself up over not taking any pictures of the day. He was super busy on his birthday between school and work, but I was able to meet up with him on campus for lunch, trash...I mean decorate...his car at work, make him dinner, and join the whole gang for cake and ice cream :) Happy birthday, A-Bush! 

Friday afternoon, Cole, Jordan, Madi and I went to Sammy's to try their pumpkin shake. You just have to in October. 

Friday I went to the BYU girl's soccer game with the whole gang. Brought me back to the good old days of soccer. 

There was also an inflatable Y that Jordan and Dex had a little too much fun with. 

THEN we went to Keenan's house for some soup and treats his mom made for a Halloween party :) 

Phew. Never ending. 

Saturday afternoon, Mad and I supported the home boyz in another shut-out frisbee game. 

That night we went to Lo's cabin up in Midway for a Halloween party where I was reunited with my Nintendo 64 friend from Pennsylvania. The world is too small of a place sometimes. Then we headed back to the Colony for a night of Disney "name that tune." 

Yesterday I spent the day with the Bush family celebrating Aaron's birthday. We ate a delicious homemade Cafe Rio meal and I got to meet more of the cute Bush grandchildren. 

So fun!

Wow. Finally caught up...ish. I'll have to do another "catch-up" post. 

Also, February 5th can't come soon enough. Baby Bennett needs to be born...like yesterday. 

Another thing, I'm currently accepting friend applications. A good chunk of my friends are leaving on missions including all 3 of my roommates. More on that later. 

Happy November! 

Hello. Is it me you're looking for?

This is the weekend of reuniting.

Later today I get to see these people...

And most of these people...

And a good portion of these people...

I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. 

LIGHT reunion. BYU Football Game. General Conference. Family.
4 of my favorite things.
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Also, all my homies are getting home from their missions. 3 came home this week alone! WHAT!? WHERE DID THE TIME GO?!

Here's to the weekend. YOLO. 

Here I am. Rock you like a hurricane.

Winter is coming.
I can tell by the smell of the tuna fish trees.
They're making a comeback.

Let's catch up.

Starting with the K-dawg's birthday. My dear friend Keenan turned the big 22! Woot woot!
We bought him a present to open almost every hour of the day. It was great. His mom made us all a yummy dinner and we enjoyed desserts and just the Keenster himself. What a guy.

Thursday was one of the greatest days. EVER. 

Aaron and I decided last minute to go to the Andy Grammer/Train/Mat Kearney concert in Salt Lake.

Best decision I've ever made. 

I have had a bit of an obsession lately with Andy.

We were stoked. Clearly. 

When Andy Grammer came on stage I thought I was going to pee my pants.

 Dying. Just dying. 

HE WAS SO GOOD LIVE!!! 

Starting off with "The Pocket?" Great choice, Andy. We were probably the biggest Gramm man fans there. We knew all his songs unlike the impostor fans that just knew "Fine By Me" and "Keep Your Head Up."

  During his song "Slow" he started to walk out into the audience and HE WALKED RIGHT NEXT TO US!!

Next was Mat Kearney! I only knew a couple of his songs but holy cow!! He was incredible! He walked into the crowd at one point and walked right by us too! This time my brain was actually functioning so I reached out and touched him. Yeah. I went there. 

Train was awesome! The fans were going nuts for them. They were way better live than I expected. I'm now on the Train train. Choo Choo.

Towards the end of the concert we were getting a little tired and had more fun watching the crazy people around us than Train. The variety of people at this concert was....incredible. 50 year old men in running shoes who knew every word. Grandmothers with sweaters tied around their waist and beers in their hands. Teenage girls in colored skinny jeans. You name it. They were all represented.

So after the concert we lingered for a bit and saw a security guard blocking off a fence. This lady asked him if they could get through because they wanted to get to their car. He was hesitant but then said that he could let people through so we went in with a little group. Then we saw a trailer. Then we saw a small group crowded around this trailer. Then we saw him. ANDY GRAMMER. We rushed over to him and the small group of people trying to take pictures with him. I whipped out my camera and we asked some kids to take a picture of us with him. I walked up to Andy first and he put his arm around me. Let me say that again, HE PUT HIS ARM AROUND ME. That's basically a side hug! What what!! Aaron stood on the other side of him and we took the best picture to ever be taken.

 We talked to him for a little bit. Here's how it went down...

Carlie: We basically came to the concert just for you. 

Aaron: We love your song "The Pocket." 

Andy: Oh yeah? That's like my favorite one! 

Carlie and Aaron: Yeah! Us too.

Carlie: I was a little sad you didn't sing "Biggest Man in Los Angeles."

Andy: Oh yeah. That's a good one. Next time!

Carlie: Yeah next time! I love you. Marry me, please? Please, Andy. 

Andy: Sure, yeah why not? Let's get married in the morning. Also, I want to become a Mormon. 

Something like that. 

If you want to know how I reacted, watch this from 1:10 on. 

Exactly how I reacted. 

So happy. I had to warn Aaron a couple times on the car ride home that I was going to scream...and scream I did. We got frosty's  and talked for a good hour about our Andy encounter. What. A. Day.

So. Friday I was wasted. I'm not sure what a hangover feels like, but pretty sure it was pretty similar to the way I was feeling. Andy Grammer had drained all my energy. 

The whole day I studied and studied and studied and studied for my stats test. I went in to take my test around 7:45 that night. I am the slowest test taker to ever hit BYU campus so it took me a long time. I had made multiple plans for Friday night....and missed all of them. Thanks, Stats 121. It had been a bit of a rough day and by the end of my test my brain was fried. I walked down the stairs of the testing center to find a note with my name on it attached to some candy. I literally started crying. I found out later that night that it was from my good friend Trevor Smith. Then I walked out the door and saw my score on the screen.......drum roll please....98%!!! WHAT'S GOOD. I was so happy. I immediately went home, put my sweats on, and was welcomed with a chocolate chip cookie from Aaron. People are too good to me. Then I spent some quality late night roommate time with Mad. Enough said. 

Saturday morning---afternoon---Madi and I made a Wal-Mart run.You know those funny pictures of the crazy types of people you see at Wal-Mart? Pretty sure we were those people. 

That night I went to Aaron's BYU Men's Chorus concert with his family. The concert was so good! It brought me back to the high school choir days. I'm convinced that one of the choir directors called up Disney channel and asked if she could borrow Lizzie McGuire's dress from the Lizzie McGuire movie. I was just waiting for her to rip off her skirt and have the purplish blue sparkly pants underneath. Didn't happen. Maybe next concert. 

Afterwards we went out to get some frozen yogurt with Aaron's family. So fun! 

Sunday we got to go to the Brigham City temple dedication broadcast. I can only remember going to one of these before so it was a really cool experience. I had never heard the Marriott center so quiet! 

Afterwards we had a little indexing party and then the gang all went over to Keenan's house in Highland for dinner with his family. It was a blast. Dinner was delicious and we had so much fun talking and playing games with his family. Thanks, Larsen Fam!

Then off to dinner number 2 with the Wray Clan. The Story's are nice enough to have the cousins over almost monthly for dinner. All the Provo/Highland kids came. The theme this time was "harvest foods," so I made a mean sweet potato dish. Yum. We played the "Who's in your family?" game multiple times. I love Wray get together's. 

Then back to the Colon where we continued our marathon with HSM 2. I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Monday. School. Work. Then FHE where we made weird goop stuff and played with it and somehow related it to the gospel.

And then practiced giving each other piggy back rides.

I went to Madi's house with her to watch their favorite show. Mostly I just wanted to play with her dog. I miss Toby. 

Tuesday. I got a call from my friend Celeste Ripley from AZ saying that she was in Utah and was stopping in Provo! What a great surprise! It was so fun to get the Arizona girls back together. I missed them so much. 

Wednesday. I got to go to Aubrie's ultrasound! Little nephew Butler was being naughty and not wanting to cooperate with the doctor but he just looked so cute. I CAN'T WAIT to meet him. That baby is going to see so much of me that he will probably think I'm his mom. February 5th needs to come fast! 

When I got home, Aaron had made me dinner. What?! How lucky am I?? It was so good.

Then we went to the library to study. And by study I mean Aaron studied while I skyped Rachel and pretended to be productive. Don't worry. My grades are rockin this semester. 

Thursday was National Chocolate Milk day! You KNOW Mads and I celebrated that. Beverage of choice right there. 

Friday night I accompanied Aaron to a mission get-together out in the middle of nowhere. But really. We  had dinner and visited with a couple of his old mission buddies and a senior couple that served too and then watched a John Wayne movie all together :) 

Saturday and Sunday were so great. I don't want a novel right now though so we'll save that for a later date. 

Happy Monday and Happy October!!!