'CRAE DAWGS

The big move

2011-09-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

Since my last update we have made a big change in our lives...we moved out of Maricopa! We bought our house 6 years ago with plans of staying just a few years till we made some money on it and could move back into the valley. Although we thought it might be a fun change to get away from family and friends and have a fresh start somewhere new, we knew it was going to be temporary and didn't really expect to love it. We honestly had no idea what we were in for.

First and foremost, Chris and I have grown so much closer than I could have imagined over 6 years ago! I think being just far away enough from family has made us have to rely on each other so much. We have truly become best of friends! We have also grown so much in the Gospel. We watched Maricopa grow from 2 wards to 6 plus a Spanish branch and now its own stake! We have had so many opportunities to serve including primary, young men/women, and most recently, serving in the Gila Bend branch. We made some amazing friends who we now consider family and I can't imagine what I would do without them. Even though I know I'm not saying goodbye to them, its so sad for me to know that we aren't going to be just a few minutes away from them anymore. We started our lives together there. Our home there saw so much laughter and smiles and happiness but also saw sadness in trials that I know have brought us closer to each other and the Lord. I have definitely learned to just have faith that everything will be better than ok in the end and to just be happy with what we have right now. We have been blessed far beyond what we deserve. I will forever remember our first home and the place we started our little family!

I have tried my hardest to find a picture of the house and can't seem to find one anywhere! How sad is that!?

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my primary kids from the bend....yes this is the whole primary minus just a few kids who weren't there that day! Aren't they cute? I already miss them.

While going through all of our stuff, I have found some great memories! There were a few things that seemed wrong to get rid of so I decided to just take pictures of them instead. Here is one of those things that made me laugh when I found. This is from when Chris broke his finger about a year and a half ago....and he didn't want to even go to urgent care! Its a good thing I pushed it!

With all of that said about Maricopa, we are very excited for the next chapter in our lives. We are back in the valley and civilization again! We are renting an apartment for the time being and couldn't be happier. Happy to have a place just big enough for the 2 of us and takes about an hour to clean and best of all NO YARD WORK! We had plans of going to our new ward and not talking to anyone so we could just lay low for a while....that's not going to happen. Its a smaller ward and our first Sunday there, we had so many people coming up to us and introducing themselves and telling us how happy they were to have us. We have felt so welcomed there already and are happy to be a part of this new ward now. It is definitely hard getting used to 3 hours again though. Gila bend was only 2 and we usually started around 15 minutes late because there was never anyone there on time!

A few weeks ago, our brother in law TJ turned 30! So his wife, Jen threw him an 80s themed bday party since he was born in the 80s! It was so fun to see everyone all dressed up in how they remember the 80s! Here's just a few pics from my phone from that night.

This was later that night after my make up was already off. I just had to try on the mullet wig!

And so did the puppies!

Its so hard having someone take pictures of you all day...Sometimes you just need a break!

This is a random picture, but I am so excited that the closest QT to me has diesel! Now I can go there more often! It seems so silly to love a gas station, but if you have been there, I know you understand. If you havent, GO!

I am back in school for the semester. I know its going to be a lot of work, but I am so excited for the teachers I have this block. So knowledgeable and great at teaching! Here I am right after my first IV start (yes its a fake arm and blood, but I got it!)

Here are my friends Jana and Daniela. These girls and so many others make having to be at school all day long so enjoyable!

Not really sure how this ended up in here! What is that creeper face I am making?

I had my eyes checked last week and had to take a picture of how scary my eyes looked all dilated. I promise I'm not on drugs!

I am back to doing lots of studying. The other day, Kona kept laying under the desk by my feet all day to keep me company!

How cute is that face?!

And Rogue was also close by to keep my company and make sure she wasn't missing out on any of the fun. I think it looks like she is smiling in this one.

I seriously just wanna snuggle up with her! Such a sweet little girl!

Anyway, that's about it for now! I hope you are all impressed that it has only been about a month since my last update...that's a small miracle for me!

2011-08-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

This year has been FLYING by! I can't believe we are already in August. So I am just going to do a quick recap of the year...and only the things that are on my memory card.

The end of last year, these crazy kids got married.

...and now they are expecting a baby boy in December!

This was Chris while I was assisting my friend the photographer.
These are the cute mini cupcakes I made for the reception.
Aren't we CUTE?!?

Then in January, this cute little guy was born.

Jen was seriously this happy almost the whole time!

I'm so glad all this swelling went down...he is much cuter now.

I got to be there for the whole thing! It was so neat to be there and I'm so glad that Jen and I are close enough that I was invited!

These are a few days after he was born. This is Chris's first time meeting and holding him.

And then things got a little weird between him and TJ...

I'm not at all sure what this event was, but here we are at my parents house for dinner.

In May, Chris turned the big 3-0! We went to Chompies to celebrate. Have you ever been there? You should go and get Jewish sliders...A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

After the end of my semester, Chris came home with these roses...how sweet is he?!?! He wrote me a card saying how proud of me he was and all sorts of good mushy stuff. I was so surprised! Love that guy! Aren't they so pretty?

Speaking of school, it is going great! My first semester was definitely tough, but I loved it. I have made some great new friends and love the class I am in. This semester focused on the elderly so we had our clinicals in a nursing home...bleh! I am so glad that part of it is over! I am starting back up in just a few weeks. I had such great intentions of reviewing a little bit every week during the summer and at this point, I haven't done a darn thing. Life just gets in the way...oh, and so does my laziness! Nonetheless, I am still so excited to start back up soon. Its time to get myself on a schedule again.

We also went to Utah (posts to follow) for my newest niece's baby blessing! Yep, I have a new niece and nephew and have one more niece and 2 more nephews due by the end of the year. If you did the math, that's 5 in just one year! Wow, our family is sure growing fast!

I also was able to go to girls camp a few weeks ago and had a blast! I of course forgot my camera so have no pictures other than the ones on other peoples cameras. We are still serving in the Gila Bend branch so went with them and the other branches, and Ajo ward as one tribe. We seriously had the best group of girls....and no drama! I definitely act more like a young woman than a leader...especially at girls camp.

Chris and I are still doing great...happy and healthy and blessed more than we deserve! We are so not where I thought we would be after 6 years of marriage but honestly couldn't be happier about it! I feel like the Lords plan is going to turn out so much better than the one I had for myself...I know that's always the way it is!

I will try to be better about posting on here every so often! I recently found all of my old journals. I know you wouldn't believe it, but there was a time that I wrote EVERY DAY! Shocking, I know! My goal is always to post every week, but that never happens. Maybe now that I'm caught up.....

Utah

2011-08-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

Just like last year, we went to Utah for the 4th of July. This year was extra special because we were also there for the blessing of our newest niece! All of us stayed at Stew and Robyn's house...7 adults and 6 kids under 10! We had so much fun spending time with our family and I'm so glad we were able to go! One thing I learned this trip is that I need to remember to ask people to take my camera so I can have pictures of myself. I have tons of everyone else and only about 6 of me. You would think I would like that!

Anyway, I am mostly going to let the pictures speak for themselves....there are a ton! I just hate only picking a few. And, because this is my journal, I get to do what I want!

My sweet sister, Robyn did this for us!

In this picture, Addy is sitting on my lap crying because she got caught sneaking a few of my M&Ms. She was definitely more upset than I was!

One day, we walked over to a park for playing and picnicking. It was so nice to be able to play outside in the middle of the summer.

Don't you just want to squeeze that cute face!

Don't you just love Ashley's gorgeous hair in this one?

Gotta make sure you get every drop of brownie batter!

We did some family pictures while we were there. These are just a few that I snapped while we were waiting around.

I think Mason is done!

And of couse, we had to go to fireworks. We spend most of the afternoon waiting so we could save our awesome spot.

This has nothing to do with Utah....The day that I got home, I had to take our dogs to the vet. I thought they looked so cute with their little pink bandaids!

Utah continued

2011-08-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

One of our last days in Utah, we picnicked again at cascade springs. We had some yummy food then walked around the trails a bit. So pretty!!!

Here is the whole group. Chris had to go home early, that's why he's not in the picture.

These girls are such posers!

2011-01-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

Once again, it has been way too long since I have posted. I have just a few minutes to play catch up so I will do that now while I have time. Chris and I had a great Christmas. We were able to spend lots of time with family. It was kind of a quiet one this year with my parents gone. And because Stew, Robyn and the girls were here for thanksgiving, we missed them too. So a little quiet but so nice nonetheless. We spent New Years Eve with our friends Katie and Jeff and family. we had a great time with them eating lots of yummy food and playing games till midnight.

I am starting nursing school in just a few days. I am so very excited about my new adventure but also nervous. I know my time is going to be very limited and wont have much time for fun anymore. It will be tough but so worth it in the end. It has been such a long time of waiting and now I can't believe its so close. I had my orientation on Thursday and bought all my books. They will last the whole 2 years but looking at the huge stack is very intimidating. There are like 10 or 12 of them. I even have work to do before class actually starts!

I just want to say real quick how lucky and grateful I am for my sweet husband. We are coming up on our 6 year anniversary next week. He is definitely my most favorite person and my best friend. He has always been so good to me and has supported me so much especially with my school. I know my crazy schedule is going to affect both of us but I know he will love me even when I have to ignore him in order to study. I am so grateful for all he does for me and I hope he knows how much I love him. I am so happy for the amazing 6 years we have had so far and I'm so excited for our future.

I'm also so grateful for the rest of my family and friends and the support they have given me. We are still serving in Gila Bend and absolutely love it. I know that we are growing so much closer to eachother and also to Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. it has been such a blessing to us. I feel like everything is falling into place right now, especially with starting school. I am definitely where I am supposed to be right now! I feel like I need to apologize in advance for not having as much time for my family and friends in the next few years...I'm sure there will be times when I'm not a very good friend. But I will be back as soon as I graduate :) This post is definitely centered around school but thats all my brain has been thinking about especially the last few weeks...its already consuming me and I haven't even started!! Hopefully I still have time to update the blog every now and then. I barely do now, but I have a feeling it will be even less frequent now...sorry! And hopefully next time I will have some pictures. My camera got left at my father in law's house at Christmas and I haven't been back to get it yet. hopefully that happens soon though. hope all is well with everyone for now and that everyone is having a great new year so far.

November Stuff

2010-11-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

November, as usual, has been a busy month. Unfortunately, I haven't had my camera out much...I don't know whats wrong with me!!

My beautiful sister-in-law, Jen's baby shower was this month. The shower was beautiful and we had lots of yummy food. I am so excited for her and TJ to be having a sweet little baby boy...my first nephew! I crocheted the cutest little baby blanket for him. I think this is my most favorite blanket I have made yet!And of course, Thanksgiving was this week. My bro-in-law and sister-in-law were in town to celebrate so I was able to spend lots of time with them this week. I love to be able to spend time with them and their 4 beautiful girls! For whatever reason, I never had my camera out the whole time they were here...sad day for me! But we had a great time with them and were able to enjoy 2 fabulous Thanksgiving feasts! (And yes, one more tomorrow!) I just love this time of year and being able to spend time with loved ones.

Also this month, my little bro and his fiancee went through the temple. It was so nice to be in the temple with my family and to be there with Sam and Robin. They are getting married in just 2 weeks! I'm so excited to have Robin be a part of my family.

Birthday and pumpkins

2010-11-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

Once again, I know I am overdue! Last month I celebrated my 26th birthday. Birthdays now seem to last for about a month because I get to celebrate with all of my family and it gets so spread out. Chris and I always go to Texas Roadhouse for my bday and for the last few years our friends Katie and Jeff have joined us with their 2 sweet kiddos. The food was delicious and I definitely over-indulged!

This is Chris and I in the car waiting for Katie and Jeff. Chris gets so annoyed with me and the camera! But I don't really mind :) Here is Trevor and his super cute "say cheese" smile!

And here he is pretending to not hear me saying, "say cheese!"
Here I am on the birthday saddle with the kids. They decided they needed a turn if I was getting a turn on it.

And me by myself. I think Chris's hand was in the way of the flash but you still get the idea. (I know these pictures are all out of order but I don't care enough to fix it.)

I'm making a totally goofy face but I was laughing pretty hard on the saddle.

Here's the whole gang! I can't get enough of that cheese face!

Me and my sexy hub!

Katie and Jeff

Me and the cutie, Bella!

The following Sunday I went to my parents house to celebrate. My oldest brother and I share a birthday and my sisters birthday is just 2 days after ours. Its almost a holiday in our family so we celebrate with turkey dinner and all the fixins! It was a super yummy dinner and of course a great time. I didn't get a ton of pictures that night but here are a few.

We were playing with the timer on my camera and got a few pretty funny ones. Here's a prime example!

This wasn't the timer but I have to say its one of my new all time favs!

This needs no words!

He doesn't always cooperate with the camera but he was on this day. I just love this guy!

I don't know why there aren't more of my fam, but I promise they were there! I uploaded these from a different computer about a week ago so I must have missed a few of them. Oops! Maybe I will add a few more later.

The next week we carved pumpkins with Chris's family and had a great time. Here they are all lit up.

Doesn't Jen have such a cute pregger belly?! Love it!

I also celebrated my birthday this past weekend with my mom-in-law, Laurie and Jen and TJ and didn't get any pictures. It was such a great time though and again, delicious food! Thank you everyone who made my birthday so great! I'm so lucky to have such amazing family and friends. I don't know what I would do without all of them. I love you all so much!

Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself

2010-10-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

I'm sure we have all heard that when we do something dumb or embarrassing that we should just laugh at ourselves......and that's exactly what I did this morning! For the last month or so, my good friend Katie and I have been riding bikes together. This morning we were riding and this stupid car was following right behind us and just wouldn't pass us! so I kept trying to get closer and closer to the edge of the curb until I was just maybe a few inches away. I looked back (ya, real smart to look back when you're on a bike) to see where the car was and where Katie was and then it happened! My bike wheel hit the edge of the curb just enough to totally knock me off my bike! Yep, and 25 years old, I still can't seem to ride a bike without falling! Luckily I just fell into some grass and the only thing hurt was my ego. To make things worse, I had just passed by a girl from my ward with her 3 kids, so they saw the whole thing. I definitely got a good laugh out of it though. Katie and I were laughing about it for almost the whole time after that. I'm so glad she was there to witness it. And I hope you all can get some sort of joy from my little mishap.

In other news, I finally got into a nursing program, YAY!!! I will be starting in January at Gateway Community College. I am so excited, nervous, scared, happy and overwhelmed all rolled into one. I know it is going to be so awesome but the next 2 years are going to be extremely busy for me....but totally worth it. I have been on a waiting list for a year and a half already and haven't even really taken any classes since last summer. So now I have to just jump right back in and hopefully I will get my school groove back quickly. So I apologize in advance.....if you thought I didn't update enough already, just wait and see how bad it gets once January hits!

Also, Chris and I were called to serve in the Gila Bend branch in our stake. Chris is the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency and I am the primary president. Even though we have only been out there for about a month, we already love it and are loving the members there. I have felt the spirit more strongly in my life and can feel Chris and I growing closer to each other and progressing more spiritually. I have felt both humbled and overwhelmed by this calling. We are both so grateful for this opportunity to serve!

Well, if you made it through all that wordiness, congrats! And sorry for the lack of pictures. Maybe I will get my camera out so next time you all will have something more interesting to look at.

Utah trip

2010-08-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July, my father in law took us and Jen and TJ to Utah to celebrate with Stew, Robyn and the girls. We had such a great time and it was so nice to get out of this heat and cool off for a few days. And, even nicer to be with family! We did some shopping, eating, watched and lit off FirEwOrKs and a little bit of relaxing. It was so fun to be with family and I wish it could have been a few days longer....maybe next year. Thanks to everyone who made it such a fun trip! My pictures got all out of order and I have no desire to fix it or label most of them so just enjoy and be grateful that there are so many. (And yes, be jealous of all the cute nieces I have!!!)

This has to be one of my favs...boys will be boys!!! (Notice the church manual in the corner.) Yep, they are trying to make one big rocket out of several small ones.

These next few are of Robyn drawing with sparklers. It took quite a few trys to get these but I think they are pretty cool!

How cute is my HUBBY?!?!?

And I will leave you with a video, but let me explain first. Several visits ago, I started rolling up my nieces in blankets not realizing how much they would love it. Now, every time I see them, they want me to roll them up and then they all act like babies. Its actually pretty funny. I try to roll them up so tight that they can't move, and they still LOVE IT!!

Where were you.....?

2010-05-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Where were you ten years ago?

Me? I was on the front page of the East Valley Tribune!

Yep, my cute 15-year old self was struttin' my stuff on the front page. I was a lifeguard at the time so that's me at the top of the slide showing off my cute body. Yes, for those of you who don't believe me, I used to be tan AND skinny....here's my proof! I know it doesn't look like it from the picture, but I actually was working. Without me telling those kids when they could go down the slide, who knows what would have happened to them! If they were anything like us lifeguards were, they probably would have gone in groups/chains and probably got hurt.....ahhhh, memories! Hope you all get to remember something fun from your own ten-years-ago!

PS, thanks to my raptuously beautiful sister, Theresa, for holding on to this and finding it a few weeks ago. It was so much fun to see and look back at! Love you tons!

Date Night!!!

2010-04-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

Mexico Continued......

2010-03-07T21:26:00.000-08:00

Our second stop was Mazatlan. We took a cab from our boat to the main part of town. Here is a picture of Chris sitting in the front of the cab. In the background, you can see the radio in the glove box that I'm pretty sure was stolen! The driver kept it locked even while he was driving and only unlocked it when he was changing the song!

I don't know why I always feel the need to make super excited smiles in all my pictures, I end up with pictures like this....
After we were dropped off, we found a place to rent ATVs and rode through the jungle and on the beach.

And I had to get a picture of this! Oh, Canada!!!

Here we are enjoying our lunch.......

.....and the coolest waiter EVER!

We planned on spending the rest of our time on the beach, then TJ started talking to a guy who sailed us to Deer Island. (I think the island he took us to is what you see in the background of this picture.)

I was so scared about my camera being out while we were on the sail boat, but it survived and we managed to get a few pictures.

I LOVE this picture of Chris swimming!!!

And I love how Jen always makes fun of TJ for trying to get in the background of other people's pictures, but it looks like he has rubbed off on her!

Here we are that night at dinner, with our awesome servers!

Our final stop was Puerto Vallarta. We split up from Jen and TJ and ended up at this beautiful resort. The first time I pulled out my camera to take a picture I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't turn on. Then I realized that my battery was still in our stateroom being charged. I was so sad that I had forgot to grab it! So the only picrures I got were later, when we met back up with Jen and TJ. So here is my one picture.

And now back to the ship. Here is dinner that night. I seriously don't know why I try to take funny face pictures. They always turn out hideous!

The last few days we pretty much just hung out and relaxed. The boat got pretty rocky and Chris even ended up sick one morning. It was pretty funny to watch everyone stumbling around though!

Here is Chris before he got sick, so still pretty happy.

We went out of the side of the boat to watch the waves but its really hard to tell in the picture.

Here we are before dinner on the night of our anniversary.

These last few are just a few random pictures that I liked.

Yes we are at the casino but I promise I didn't gamble at all!

And here we are back on dry land and SO SAD to be heading back to reality!

Isn't that face so sad looking?

So there you go! I know it took me over a month to finally finish all of this but at least its done now. I still can't believe Chris and I have been married for 5 years! I don't know how we made it here so fast and yet, I can hardly remember my life without him. I am so grateful for Chris and the amazing husband he is but more importantly for him being my very best friend in the whole world! As I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep last night, I was thinking about life and how truly lucky I am. I know I don't have the nicest house or car and I definitely don't have a money tree but I know that what we have is pretty special. Even with all the things he does that drive me crazy, and all the bickering we do back and forth, being sealed to Chris was the best thing I have ever done and I wouldn't trade that for anything! I hate to get all mushy but I think its important not only to say, but to write it down every now and then. Chris, I love you more than you know and thank you for all that you do!!!

2010-03-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

So lately I have been getting a lot of random comments on my blog from people I don't know. I tried changing my settings a few times but continued to get them. Last night, I went on my google analytics account to see if I could figure out where they were all coming from and I noticed that I had a huge number of "visitors" looking at my blog. I tried looking at a few things but nothing seemed to stand out, so I pretty much just thought it was weird but left it alone. Today, I was looking at my comments and a friend of mine, (thanks Niki) made a comment about my "ladies" and it finally clicked....on my last post, several people commented about my "nice cleavage". I logged back into google analytics and looked at a graph of the last 6 months and here is what I saw......

That huge peak started right after all the cleavage comments. That means that the only reason that so many people are looking at my blog is because they are looking to see some "nice cleavage"! I have a part of me that is relieved that I finally figured out why all the random comments and another, bigger part that is totally disgusted! Seriously, I can't believe how many disgusting perverts there are out there. Even more than that, I can't believe that those innocent (or maybe not so innocent) comments about my female anatomy has brought so many sick pigs to my happy little blog, it makes me so sick!!! I am truly considering going private now! So to all you perverts who may be reading this, GO AWAY! YOU ARE NOT, AND NEVER WERE, WELCOME HERE!!!!! To everyone else, thanks for stopping by and I'll see you next time!

PS. I'm not looking for any apologies AT ALL!!! I actually liked the comments and don't blame any one in the least. It just surprised me more than anything. So please, in the future, keep 'em coming!

Mexico Part Uno

2010-02-28T11:05:00.000-08:00

I realize that I promised more pictures and that was a month ago. I know it has taken a very long time but here they are. All of our pictures were on Jen's laptop so I had to wait till I had them all and then I had to sort through more than a thousand pictures to decide which I liked the best. And for those of you who really know me, you already know that I have such a hard time making decisions so sorting through was a huge task!

Anyway, as you know already, Chris and I cruised to Mexico for our 5 year anniversary. Chris's sister, Jen, and her husband TJ joined us in the celebration. We had such an amazing time and we are still so sad to be home and ready to go on another vacation. Like I said, there are tons of pictures and I tried to narrow it down as much as I could but there are still tons.

This is Chris and I in line getting ready to get on the boat. We are so excited we can hardly stand it at this point!

Here we are right after we got on the boat and just trying to figure out where we were. Still too excited to even contain it!

Our first trip to the buffet, need I say more?

Here we are waving goodbye to all our cares!

Sneaking in a smooch before dinner.

Fruity drinks seemed to be in order!

We don't have many pictures of all four of us. This is us at the welcome aboard show.

The next day was a little overcast but so beautiful. I loved looking out and seeing the clouds and the ocean.

We took some time to explore the boat. It was so windy we could hardly walk. I just love this picture of Chris trying to walk in the wind.

Here is Jen and I soaking up some sun.

We decided to try our luck at Bingo but sadly we were unsuccessful :(

We just loved being out on the deck enjoying the beautiful views and weather.

And of course we had to get a picture at the bow.

And I couldn't resist.......

Just a cute one of Chris. I love that face!

We loved watching the sun set. So beautiful and relaxing.

Here we are dressed up for dinner.

Every night, our towels were folded up into animals so here was the swan for the first night.

Our first stop was in Cabo. We got off of the boat just to get on to a smaller boat and enjoyed a quick boat tour. They dropped us off at lovers beach where we did some snorkeling and of course soaking up some sun and laying in the sand. This was my favorite beach. The water was nice and it was so gorgeous.

I love this happy face!

Jen and I in our super cute matchy suits!

This was the view I enjoyed the most!

Smooch!

I know its cheezy but I just couldn't help myself.

"this is my boat!"

I love this picture of Chris playing in the water. He was loving life away from work!

After Lovers Beach, we had lunch and then wandered around the city and did some window shopping. We didn't buy anything but had fun looking.

And last but not least (for now) here I am at dinner that night after Cabo.

I will try to get the rest of the trip up in the next week or so but I'm not making any promises.

We're back!

2010-01-25T10:30:00.000-08:00

We're back from the BEST VACATION EVER! For our 5 year anniversary we went on a cruise to Mexico. We had such a blast and I'm so sad that its over. I have about 1,000 pictures so when I have more time, I will sort through and will post more. But for now, I will share just a few. Hope you enjoy!

Ya ya ya!!!

2010-01-07T08:41:00.001-08:00

I know it's been forever since I have posted anything and that I'm way overdue!!! Things just got so busy and the longer I waited, the longer I knew it was going to take me to catch up on everything so I just kept putting it off. This morning after Chris left, I couldn't sleep so I decided it was a perfect time to lounge around on the couch and catch up all of my fellow bloggers with whats been going on. Is it weird that I think there are people out there who actually care what goes on in my little life?

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great new years. 2009 was OK for me I guess but I'm hoping that 2010 is better. I want all of my family and friends to know how grateful I am for each of them and the example they are to me. I'm so glad I have the family that I have and even my in-laws are so amazing...I'm so lucky that I actually LIKE spending time with them. I'm so grateful for my amazing husband of almost 5 years and I can't wait to see what this year holds for us! Here's to a fantastic 2010!!!

PS. There are like 6 posts after this so be prepared for a picture overload!

Kierstens Wedding

2010-01-07T08:13:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Debbie's youngest daughter, Kiersten, got married. The reception was in Gary and Debbie's back yard and was gorgeous!!! There were lights and candles and flowers everywhere and of course, the thing I care about most, great food and even better company. It was a very busy day but worth it in the end. This was the last night I got to hang out with my nieces visiting from Utah. They are so sweet and I can't believe how big they are getting...it makes me sad! Unfortunately, the whole time they were here I kept forgetting my camera at home. Then, when I finally remembered to bring it, the battery was almost dead so I only got a few pictures. And because it was so dark, the lighting is a little weird in them....sad day for me! There's always next time, I guess!

Here's the happy couple, Eric and Kiersten!

My SEXY hubby with his cute smile and even cuter dimples!!!

Dang! We look good!

Here's Ashley! Hailey and Kaitlyn

What a creeper in the background!

Addison looking so sweet!

The camera focused on the candelabra on the table but I love how cute the girls drinking out of their fancy cups. I especially love how Kaitlyn is holding hers! They are so funny!And I just love Ashley's face in this one!

ChRiStMaS!!!

2010-01-07T07:09:00.001-08:00

I don't know how Christmas has already come and gone but it that's exactly what happened. I feel like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas went by in a flash. I love Christmas but it is always so busy and this year was no exception. Christmas Eve we always spend with my side of the family. We eat way too much food, get new jammies and even get to sit on Santa's lap! Our friends Katie and Jeff started coming a few years ago and bring their 2 adorable kids Bella and Trevor. It is always one of my favorite nights of the year...great food and family! This year, my little brother even brought his girlfriend, Robin, for us to get to know a little more. We stayed up late and then wake up in the morning to exchange gifts and eat breakfast.

After breakfast, we packed up all our stuff and went to Gary and Debbie's house where we ate more breakfast and exchanged more gifts. Then, we hung out with them, Jen and TJ and Debbie's kids for a little while before we went to Grandma's. We spent just a short time with Grandma then head over to Laurie's house for the rest of the day. Once we got to Laurie's, we all turned into little kids again. We open presents and then spent the rest of the day playing with our new toys and lounging around, all the while still in our new jammies. To me, it wouldn't be Christmas if I had to change into normal clothes. We somehow managed to eat dinner even though we were already full of candy but it was definitely worth it. Then we did it all over again a few days later when Stew and Robyn were here. They came up a few days after Christmas and were here for a whole week. I'm just barely starting to feel like life is normal again after all of that! Like I said, I love Christmas but it leaves me worn out!

Here's the big guy at his special visit with my family!

Bella wasn't too sure about having to sit on his lap!

And Robyn looking highly uncomfortable! ;) Now Santa doesn't look very comfortable!

We can't miss Theresa, although I think I missed my mom. Maybe she never did sit on his lap!

Trever wasn't happy either! Don't these kids know that Santa brings presents?

The whole Gamble gang once the kids opened their presents and realized maybe Santa is not so bad.

And one of Sam and his Lady friend!

My dad always seems to miss out on seeing Santa! Every year he goes missing right before Santa comes, poor guy!

Here is Chris modeling one of his Christmas presents...a do-rag! HAHAHA!

Now looking a little tougher!

and even more tough!

Here I amshowing off a present (thanks Clare!)!

Aren't we CUTE?

This is Jen looking either really happy or scared or maybe both, I don't really know!Me modeling my new jammies...

And here's the footies, aren't they so stinking cute!?!?!?!

By this point I think Chris was ready to go home!

Grand-dogs!

2010-01-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

Last year we started a tradition and framed a picture of all the dogs for my Mother-in-Law, Laurie. I thought it was going to be a one time thing but she actually mentioned it a few weeks before Christmas so I knew I had to continue doing it. So here are a few of my dogs that I thought were super cute! Hope you likey!

Rogue:

And, Kona

White Elephant Party!

2010-01-07T06:11:00.000-08:00

Our annual white elephant/karaoke party was a blast this year, as usual! I always look forward to this party and love seeing the funny presents that people come up with. I ended up with a snuggie and I'm a little ashamed to admit that I love it. Its so soft and cuddly and more importantly I can have my arms free to do whatever I need to do! (there is definitely both some truth and sarcasm there!) I was also very proud of one of our gifts that we gave....an autographed head shot of Chris. I was worried that Chris would think I was dumb but he totally played along with it and I got such a great picture of him! And even better, our friend Jeff opened it so now its on their piano on display. Katie told me that every time their little girl Bella walks by it she says "Chris?" and Katie tells her that yes it is Chris. So Bella then says, "Hi Chris". She is so sweet and loves Chris! Ok, I won't make you wait any longer, here is that great picture....of course you will just have to imagine the autograph!

This is my crazy dad singing away! (crazy in a good way though, dad)
And here we are, Chris hates these pictures but puts up with me very well (most of the time). Please excuse my fat face
Here's the "I refuse to karaoke" group very conveniently chilling out by the food.
Jen and TJ. I just love these faces!
And my beautiful sister who will only sing when its just family around...and then you can't get the mic from her!
Here's Jeff with his prize! And of course I have to include one of this handsome stud muffin!
And here is my amazing friend Katie belting it out! She has definitely become a part of my family!

And Katie again with her brother who said there was no way he would karaoke....they all say that but I think these pictures speak for themselves!

These are my friends Brian and Kristen trying to decide if they should join in...

And lastly one of Kristen. And yes she gave in and sang with us!

Thanksgiving

2010-01-07T05:50:00.001-08:00

I LOVE Thanksgiving! Whats not to like about a holiday centered around turkey dinner, right?But, of course, with so much food around, there were hardly any pictures taken so I can only share a few. We usually start out Thanksgiving day with the McRae's and then once we've stuffed ourselves, we celebrate again with the Sprickerhoff's! By the end of the day we are usually pretty sick but it's all in good fun! We spend the night with my fam so that Chris doesn't have to wake up early with me to go shopping. It was pure madness but again, all in good fun. It has kind of become tradition. Even though none of us usually buy anything big, we love fighting the crowds....Theresa, maybe not as much, but mom and I love it!

Here is me with Jen
We take the dogs with us and they absolutely love playing in Gary and Debbie's backyard! Its way better than ours and they have so much to explore! They don't usually sit still very long.

No need to explain this one!

And here is my beautiful sister! We were playing a game we had just bought during the Black Friday craziness!

Halloween!

2010-01-07T05:26:00.000-08:00

For Halloween we carved pumpkins with my MIL Laurie and SIL Jen and her husband TJ. Then on Halloween night, Chris was feeling very "bah-humbug" and didn't want to pass candy out to kids in our neighborhood so we went to Laurie's to pass out candy with her.

I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain these pictures so I will let them speak for themselves...

25....really?

2009-10-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, today I am 25 years old. I don't really know how it happened I feel like I was just 18 not that long ago. I really don't feel old it just seems weird that I'm already here. Time just keeps flying by faster and faster.

Chris and I met celebrating my bday so every year we celebrate the same way and I'm so excited...dinner at Texas Roadhouse! Its one of my favs and I can't wait. Its so weird to think that just 6 years ago I had just barely met Chris and had no idea that we would end up being married....what a fantastic birthday present! Here is a picture of us on that night. Its terrible quality but I still love it. I'm so happy that I have a picture of us the night that we met.

We did bday turkey dinner with my fam yesterday and it was so delish! We finished up the night with my new present from Chris...Rockband Beatles edition! It was so much fun singing with my fam and pretending to be a groupie!

Anyway, here's another craft I just finished that I totally love! My friend Ema just had a baby so I made her a few onsies and socks. I used that webbing stuff that you iron onto fabric and then cut out the shapes I wanted, ironed it onto the onsies and stitched around it. The stitching was terrible but hopefully Ema doesn't look too closely at it. And the socks are something my sister taught me how to do a long time ago after she taught me how to crochet and I think they are so stinking cute!

I decided that this one needed a bright pink bow so here's that.

2009-10-16T23:24:00.001-07:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

2009-10-16T08:28:00.001-07:00

My sister in law Jen sent this to me and I was laughing so hard and wanted to share. For those of you who don't know, these are my brothers and sisters in law. Enjoy!!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Halloween Jars

2009-10-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

As requested by my sister in law, Jen, I wanted to post these super cute Halloween Jars that I made. Using recycled jars, tissue paper, mod podge and some black fabric, I made these darling halloween decorations.

I found the idea at http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2891451856960229262 You can find the instructions there. Now I just need to put some Christmas lights in mine. Hope you all have a great day!

Frame makeovers

2009-10-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

So lately I have totally been into crafting. And by crafting, I really mean looking at all those crafting blogs out there and wishing I could be friends with some of those crafters out there. I look at the things they do and think, "I could do that" and wonder how they come up with these fabulous ideas. A few weeks ago I bought a few picture frame ledges and bought a bunch of black and white frames to put on them. I got home and arranged them and realized I needed a few more. So the crafter hiding inside of me decided to look and see what old frames I had that might be in desperate need of a makeover and I found these guys...

They aren't horrible but definitely not in the theme of black and white. I wanted all of the frames to be different but still coordinate with each other. I went to Joann's and picked up some scrapbook paper, spray adhesive and paint and was able to transform them into these...

Not too bad for a non-crafter! Now I just need to put pictures in them (and the rest of my new frames for that matter). I will post a picture of all my frames together when I finish putting photos in them.

Has it really been 3 months!?

2009-10-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it has been since I've updated this. I wish I had a great excuse, but I don't...just being lazy and a little busy. But I will make up for lost time now. I pretty much just went through all the pictures on my computer from the last time I posted till now and picked a few to share to catch you up with whats been going on.

It seems like forever ago, but in July we got to go and see Wicked. It was SO AMAZING! I had been listening to the soundtrack for a long time and already loved the music but the show was even better than I expected. My brother in law and sister in law Stew and Robyn came down from Utah and went with us, and my sister in law Jen. We of course had dinner first at Oregano's. Here are a few pictures from dinner...

And here's Chris doing what he does best...

Me and Jen before the show.
Here's the stage

This is Robyn so excited for it to start

And me and Chris

Lately I have been really into trying to get my food storage. There is a new store in Chandler that has so much stuff. Its right down the street from my salon so I go when I have a break and need to kill time. I think my favorite thing I have tried from there is their taco "meat"...its a vegetable protein flavored to taste like ground taco meat, and it really does. I've also done a little bit of canning too. Here is some spaghetti sauce and salsa.

We also sold our truck this summer. We bought it when Chris was working in construction and he needed it. Since then, we decided that it was too big and expensive so we wanted to sell it. Chris posted it on Craigslist on a Saturday and sold it on the following Monday. I thought I would be so happy, but I was actually sad to see it go. I still kinda miss it but I know we will have another truck one day.

In August we helped with our wards youth conference. Here is Chris helping with one of the activities. The kids had to jump over the beam that Chris was helping to control.

This is me and my friend Kim at the service project.

Our group was in charge of doing a deep clean of a dance studio owned by a family in our ward. It was so great to see the kids not only willing to clean, but happy to be serving too.

Later in August, I went to Seattle with my sister to visit my brothers. We had so much fun spending time with them and their families. Our trip also overlapped with my parents trip there so we were able to have most of our family together for some of the trip. I took tons of pictures but can't find any of them right now except this one...

We went to the beach one day to take some family pictures together and walked by this wedding. I saw these two standing by each other and whispered to my brother that I hoped this was the father...then they started kissing so I knew it was the groom. We walked far enough away to sneak a picture. It wasn't till I got to blow it up that I noticed her shoes...great for your wedding day or a day of fishing! I laughed pretty hard over it.

This past weekend we went to my parents for conference. We had a great day listening to conference and spending time together. In the late afternoon, we went out and threw a football around and tried to fly a kite (I think it was broken cuz we couldn't get it up at all!). The weather has been so beautiful and it was so nice to be able to go out and play and get some fresh air. I'm so glad that we can enjoy the outdoors again.

Anyway, I will try to post more pictures from Seattle if and when I find them. And I'll try to be better about posting more than once every three months this time. Hope everyone has a fun weekend planned. BYE!!

Are you kidding me?!?!?!?

2009-08-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

I was watching TV just now and saw this commercial! I thought it was a joke but there is a website and everything. I just can't get over how ridiculous this is. Hope you enjoy!

Long Time, No BLOG!!

2009-07-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

It has been a very long time since I've updated this. I've been so busy with school that I haven't had time to do much of anything. Yes we are alive and well, just busy. Chris just started back at school this month too...a job benefit for him. So today I had a few extra hours so I'm updating you all with whats been going on. This is going to be a very long post so make sure you make it all the way to the bottom. Hope you enjoy.

Christine

2009-07-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

I always tease Chris about wanting to put make up on him but of course, he never lets me. So on Sunday, I took advantage while he was napping. Hope you enjoy!!

I would like to introduce you all to Christine!

Produce

2009-07-02T18:54:00.001-07:00

Jen told me about this farmers market in Mesa that is SO AWESOME! Its on Main between Greenfield and Higley, I think. I've only gone once and I'm sad that its so far away. I got all of this....

.....for only $20!!

Utah

2009-07-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we went to Utah for one of our cousins wedding. We had so much fun! Because of Chris's new job, he can't take time off for a few more months. So I went up a day earlier than he did with his sister and her husband, Jen and TJ. I was cracking up with them the whole time..a little too much. So much, in fact, we missed our flight! It wasn't totally our fault though. Our flight was supposed to leave at 4. When we got there, we were told it had been delayed till 5. So we went to go eat but stayed close by. We went back to the gate before 5 and waited for a while. I eventually asked the guy what was going on with Salt Lake and he said it would be just a min. So we continued waiting. Eventually the plane started leaving and again asked the guy what was going on and he basically told us not to worry and pointed at the plane so we figured they had to move it for some reason. We again, we continued to wait. After a while he started to walk away so again questioned the status and he told us it had left! I don't understand why he didn't tell us it had already boarded when I asked him about it the first time! He said they called our names but none of us ever heard them. Long story short; they put us on another flight and we made it safe and sound. We had tons of fun being away. Jen and TJ were so good at taking care of us...knowing all that we had to spend on fixing our cars. Jen even bought me a new purse and I totally love it. It was a very early bday present. The coach outlet was having way too good of a sale to pass up. She was WAY TOO GENEROUS but I am so grateful and love it. The wedding was beautiful and I love being able to go to the Salt Lake temple. It was great to spend some time with the fam, especially our nieces. They are too cute and so funny. I love that they let me take so many pictures of them. If I get my camera out, they pose over and over again saying, "do a picture of me doing this!" over and over again. I got so many pictures of them, it was hard picking my favorites to post. So, be prepared for a total picture overload. Jen and I both get really camera happy...especially when we are together! They kinda got out of order when I uploaded them, so bare with me.

Ashley eating dinner Kaitlyn and Hailey posing

Kaitlyn eating dinner...I have a lot of dinner pics, but they are pretty cute!

Hailey

I KNOW Laurie is going to hate me for posting this one but its too funny to pass up. This is us showing off our "Utard" hair. I'm so good at ratting!This is us at the Lion House after the sealing. Jen went to the bathroom and practically came running out saying she had found the greatest spot to take pictures.... We got a little carried away and I swear we took probably 30 pictures here. Thank goodness for timers on cameras! The happy couple! doesn't her hair look great?

Here's my sexy man!

Me and Robyn!

The boys getting tired of pictures.

Us at the Temple

Love you, Jen!!!

Kaitlyn

Hailey

Addy, I love this face...

Ashley on the swings

TJ loved this sign so we had to get a picture of it.

Me and my Utard hair

and the front...

Here we are sad about our plane.

Another dinner one. (don't worry, there are only a few more pictures...you're almost there)

Here we are on the chairlift at the Apline slides.And getting ready to go on the coaster

And last but not least, Chris and I after the coaster.

I apologize for the lengthy post, I didn't realize how many pictures this was.

Swimming

2009-07-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

We have gone to Jen and TJs a few times to go swimming and have so much fun with them. I took several pictures, but my camera was taking weird pictures and this was the best I could get. I'm so lucky to have great in-laws and especially lucky that they have a pool!

SAD DAY!!!!

2009-07-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

We have had so many car problems this year. And not just one car but all three at the same time. I'm not gonna go into all the details but just know that it has sucked bad. Just so you get an idea....

After spending about 7 hours at the mechanic, I spent some time with my good friend, Lauren, who tortured me. She does laser hair removal and skin care treatments. I love her to pieces but its never a pleasant time in her salon!!! (Totally worth itthough!)

Show Low

2009-07-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day weekend, we got to head up to Show Low to stay with some friends at their cabin. It was a great escape from the heat and went by way too quickly. We tried going fishing but had no luck. The best part of that was stoping for fry bread...twice! What can I say, I'm just a fat girl who loves to eat!

Here's Chris playing pool and acting like a pro.

Since I'm SO not good at pool, I did what I know best...

Your truck might be TOO BIG if.....

2009-05-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

...you need a step ladder to work on the engine!!!

Chris's Birthday!

2009-05-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Chris's birthday was just over a week ago and I'm finally getting around to posting about it. We had a gift card to the Melting Pot so we went there to celebrate and it was SO GOOD! I remembered to bring our camera but what I didn't realize is that the battery was at home charging. So the only pictures are on my phone and not so great. But we still had a great time. Then Sunday we had Dinner with Chris's mom, Monday with Chris's dad and then yesterday with my family. Its so fun getting to celebrate so many times, it makes birthdays last a long time. Yesterday was also Mother's day so He had to share his day....actually, both my dad and little brothers have birthdays coming up so we were celebrating all of them yesterday. I made the most beautiful and delicious chocolate cheesecake for it. You should all be jealous that you weren't there, but there are some leftovers for whoever wants some. It's very rich so I can't eat it all but wont waste it. So let me know if you want it :)

Anyway, school is basically done now and I'm so glad to get a little break. I just have one class over the summer so I only get a few weeks off, but it will be so nice! Hopefully I will have the motivation to get my house cleaned...it has been totally neglected all semester I feel like. I've been so busy and have probably neglected my family and friends too. But I think it will all pay off, I think I am going to be happy with my grades. Anyways, I gotta run for now. I'm going to try to work on the house work before work today. Have a great week!

YUCK!!!!

2009-05-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight we came home to two of the ugliest visitors we have ever had at our front door....

It was so disgusting and I keep feeling like they are crawling on me. Needless to say, Chris is going to be spraying tomorrow morning. I'm trying to make this post look cute and it just doesn't seem right.

Watch out!!!

2009-04-27T12:28:00.001-07:00

I hope none of you need your cars jumped around me, cuz I wont do it anymore...now that I'm the owner of a BENZ. Yep, never in my lifetime did I think I would own such a luxury vehicle, but I guess I was wrong. I guess when a car is as old as I am, it becomes affordable. Me on the other hand, I just get better with age!

I know I have been totally MIA for a while now, but I've been so busy with school, work and Chris that I just haven't had time to do much. I only have a few more weeks of the semester though and then I get just a little break before summer school starts. So just so you all know, I'm alive and well.

Surprise, surprise!!

2009-03-22T20:56:00.001-07:00

Thank you everyone for your prayers in our behalf with Chris's job situation. He has finally found a new job and we are so excited. He is going to be starting on the 30th, so I think he's sad that he only has one more week off, but he is so happy to have a job again. So thanks again!

Now that its all over, I can tell everyone about Chris's surprise trip. Before he started working again, I wanted to go on a trip. So I called his dad and he agreed to fly us to VEGAS. I had his dad call him to invite us to go flying, so Chris just thought we were going to go up north and have lunch. I packed all our stuff and was able to sneak it on the plane without him noticing.

After we landed, a guy from the airport came to help us get all our stuff out and loaded it up in a van. He asked how long we would be there and Gary told him that it would be overnight. Chris was just totally just going with the flow and never questioned anything, even though his dad had said we would be there over night and we were unpacking luggage. I had to finally tell him that I was in on the whole thing; he still almost didn't believe me. He was totally surprised!

While we were there, we ate TONS of food! We had a buffet dinner at the Belagio and it was so good. I think my favorite thing that I ate was chocolate mousse, SO TASTY!! We also were able to see a show, Le Reve. Its one of the cirque du soleil shows. It was so cool but also kinda weird. We only did a little gambling, $11, and lost all of it. On Friday we did some shopping at the outlet mall but didn't really buy anything exciting. It was so great to get away and even better to be able to surprise Chris like that. Thank you so much, Gary and Debbie, for such a fun trip, we both had a fabulous time!!!

Then the day after we got home, Chris surprised me! I guess we got a coupon in the mail for new phones. We both got new blackberry storms for a smokin deal! They are so cool and I feel like all we have done since we got them is played with them. I still don't know how to even use a lot of the functions, its too fancy for my blood! I'm sure I am going to waste a lot of time with my new toy. Thanks BABY!!

This is what we have looked like since we got our new phones

And here's the phone, doesn't it look cool!?!?!

Not in my Benz

2009-03-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

After leaving the store today, my car wouldn't start! I tried a few times but nothing would work (its definitely time for a new battery but haven't really had time to get one). There was a guy that walked right by me while I was trying to start it and didn't even stop to make sure I was ok. I finally got out to see if there was anyone in the parking lot that could jump it and the only person I saw was the jerk who didn't offer help. So I asked him if he wouldn't mind helping me jump my car and what does he say? "Not in my benz!" Can you freaking believe that?! Unwilling to help a woman in distress because it might hurt his precious benz! It wasn't even a really nice one, Get over yourself! Don't worry though, I was able to find someone else who was more than willing to help me out. I'm so glad that I don't have to deal with people like that all the time!

A good thing gone bad...

2009-03-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I decided it would be funny if we TP-ed Chris's sister Jen's house. We were out in the area and thought about how fun it used to be so we wanted to do it again. We did a drive by and the house was dark and Jen's car was gone, so we figured they were out. So we bought the cheapest toilet paper we could find and went to town. We were being so sneaky and were so proud of ourselves. We really didn't do all that much, plus it was windy so the toilet paper kept blowing away! We got in the car to make our get-away...only the car wouldn't start! Are you kidding me?!?!? Chris was feeling so mad but all I could do was laugh. We decided to call them to see how long they were going to be gone, only to find out that TJ was home sick. He had been home the whole time and had no idea we were there, and neither did the dog. We stayed and hung out for a while and Jen was nice enough to help us jump start our car. Needless to say we had to clean up the yard first. Although it was not the way we planned to end the evening, it was great to spend some time with them!

Here we are sad about our car

Now that I'm looking at the pictures, it really looks pathetic, but I promise it looked better than it does here. The wind really did keep blowing it away.

Romantic dinner by the fire

2009-02-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after I got home from school, Chris all of a sudden wanted to go CAMPING. We decided to go and packed up a tent, sleeping bags and some food to cook for dinner, as quickly as we could. We headed out toward Gila Bend, just about a half hour from our house. We didn't get there till after dark so started our fire as soon as we got there. We cooked up a yummy dinner of steak and potatoes. While we were sitting by the fire, we decided that setting up a tent would be too much work for such a short amount of time. We had done the most important parts of camping so after a few hours of ENJOYING the fire, we packed up and went home to our own bed. It was so fun to get away from the norm and do something different together.

MY SWEETIE CHRIS!!!

2009-02-15T22:01:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a bit late with my VALENTINES wishes but I hope you all had a great v-day! Chris and I went to a dinner party with a bunch of people from our ward hosted by the Dulgarians. We met up and were split up...the girls stayed back and made dinner and the boys left to go on a secret mission. Once dinner was done, we left to meet up with the boys. We ate a delicious dinner and then were entertained by the boys. They had all gone to Walmart with $5 and had to buy a drink to go with our dinner, something that reminded them of their wife and something they wanted to see their wife wear that night. It was so entertaining to see what everyone came up with. Chris bought me a bag of my fav candy (Reece's peanut butter eggs...WAY better than the cups. I'm always sad when Easter is over!) and a Marti Gras hat to wear. Here I am showing off my presents. After clean up, a few of us stayed behind and were chair racing. It sounds so WEIRD but it was so fun. We were in a corporate meeting room with lots of rolling chairs, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

This is Chris ready to race!This is the Jobs and Dulgarians racing, I wasn't able to get many good pics of racing, I was too afraid of being run over!

April, Raylene and IAfter that, we went to the Jaegers house for some games. We stayed till about 2am and had such a great time. We were all hurting from laughing so hard. It was such a great way to spend our Valentines Day. It was so great to get to know more people from our ward and we were so grateful for the invite. This morning I slept in till noon, I felt like I was 18 again...It was AWESOME!

To go along with my Valentines post, I wanted to share some pictures of my darling hubby! He is my bestest friend and I don't know what I would do without him. I've been going through some old pictures and found these. Hope you ENJOY!

What a cute little boy!

I just love these pictures of him. This trip down memory lane wouldn't be complete without a football picture.
My handsome hubby right before his mission. Doesn't he look so skinny and so stinkin cute!?!?
And of course the happy couple. Dang we look good!Snowboarding! We went snowboarding on our honeymoon. I was horrible at it. On my last run of the day, I was heading down the hill and started to fall. My boot didn't click into the board all the way so when I lost my ballance, one foot came out and the other when with the board and twisted. It hurt so bad and I was crying on the side of the mountain. Chris was so sweet to stay with me, even when I told him I was ok and just wanted him to finnish the run and then come back for me. It was a confirmation of what I already knew, that I had made the best decision of my life! This picture isn't from that trip but I still like it!
This is probably where our passion for karaoke started. This was after my brothers wedding in Seattle last year.

I have found TONS of pictures that bring back great memories and would love to post them all, but I'm sure that would bore all of you. I guess I'll save it for another day. Have a great week!

Steaks!

2009-02-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

Check out the awesome deal we got on steaks! Bashas has top sirloin steaks for $1.99 a pound (normally $7.99). So of course we stocked up on them. We like to do a lot of grilling anyway, plus I've been wanting to freeze some cut into strips, already seasoned for quick fajitas or nachos. We spent about $54 and SAVED $162! Look how good these look. Make sure you go to Bashas before the sale is over!

More Pics!

2009-02-05T21:02:00.000-08:00

I PROMISED that I would post more pictures from our family photo shoot so here you go. I have MORE to post about but don't have much time so this will have to do for now.

Welcome back Stevie!!!

2009-01-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

As you all know from my LAST POST, things have not been going our way lately. I come to you today bearing GOOD NEWS! Our day started out with a delivery of this...

LATER in the day, Chris got a phone call that THIS......

...was ready for pick up (and just in time for LOST, as you can see)! We're very happy to have our TOYZ back, our home was feeling very LONELY without them. We are especially excited that they both made it home in the same day; I don't think things could get any BETTER. But, they do. Chris also got a call about an INTERVIEW. We're both feeling pretty excited that so many of our crisis's have been RESOLVED today. So I ask you to please keep Chris in your PRAYERS that the interview will go well, if this is the road he is supposed to be taking.

Catch up

2009-01-23T17:43:00.000-08:00

Once again, I have to apologize for the lack of posting. I feel like there has been lots going on, but nothing exciting. So far our new year has been good. For those of you who don't know, Chris lost his job in December so we have been able to enjoy some extra time together, it has been so great! Since that happened, our TV broke, our laptop died, our truck needs repairs. Whoever said "when it rains, it pours" really knew what they were talking about. All in all, I still feel that we are so blessed!

This week I started back at school. I think it's going to be a tough semester, but hopefully it will go by fast. And I don't know when it happened, but all of a sudden I'm old! I seriously think I'm the oldest person in a couple of my classes. One guy I met graduated 5 years after I did, that means he was not even in high school when I graduated! In all honesty I know I'm still young, but I'm just not feeling as young as I used to. I feel like I was always one of the youngest in my classes because of my late birthday. All of a sudden, I'm not anymore. Its very sad for me.

Yesterday was our 4 year anniversary! I just can't believe it has been that long. I remember shortly after we were married, my obnoxious boss at the time would tell me that after years of marriage, things would be different. When I was so excited to go home and see Chris, she would say things like, "just wait till you have been married for 20 years!" implying that we wouldn't be as happy as we were at the time. Although we still have a long time to go, I feel like she couldn't be more wrong! I love Chris more and more every day! Especially with all this extra time we have had together since the job loss, Chris and I are happier than ever!

We were also able to go see Lion King yesterday. It was AMAZING. I just love how creative they were when they designed all of the costumes and the singing was incredible. I would totally watch in all over again right now if I could! I love going to see musicals and I hope one day Chris will love it as much as I do!

I apologize for the lack of pictures today. Once my laptop is fixed I'll post some more. So until that happens, be patient! If I can do it, so can you!

Plane Ride

2009-01-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

On NEW YEARS EVE Day, Chris's dad Gary took us out for BREAKFAST. It doesn't sound too EXCITING till you know that he FLEW us to SEDONA and we ate there. It was such a FUNway to do breakfast. I took lots of pictures, but this one is so AMAZING. I don't know how I was able to CAPTURE such a BEAUTIFUL IMAGE! Hope you enjoy...

What a cute little FAMILY

2008-12-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

We did some family pictures on Monday. Here's my FAVORITE one. What do you THINK?

....MORE to come :)

Fun with the GIRLS

2008-12-30T20:45:00.000-08:00

Chris's brother, Stewart, is in town with his wife Robyn and their 4 beautiful girls. We've been having A BLAST with them. They are getting so big and say the FUNNIEST things. Here's a conversation I had with Ashley ON Sunday.

me: Ashley, your hair looks so BEAUTIFUL today! (being a little sarcastic, she was looking like a RAGAMUFFIN---in case you don't know what a ragamuffin is, like my darling husband, please notice the picture :))

Ashley: I know, I take-ted a nap!!!

**I don't know how she picked up on my SARSASM. She is a big girl TRAPPED in a little girls body! Her hair really doesn't look as messy in the picture but you get the idea. I know she is going to HATE me for when she's older, but this picture was TOO FUNNY to resist!

These pictures are from my father-in-law Gary's house. The girls put on a show for us. They practiced The Wizard of Oz for me but then decided to just PERFORM singing for everyone else. The oldest, KAITLYN started by welcoming all the "ladies and gentlemen" and asking everyone to please turn off their cell phone. I don't know where she came up with that at 7 years old, but I just LOVED it! I could WRITE A WHOLE BOOK on the funny things I have heard them say just this weekend!

This is them during the show

Here's Chris with Addy after the show. They looked SO CUTE the way they were sitting and talking.Gary was kind enough to let Ashley put some GLITTER in his hair. It was so pretty!

Big Day for Chris!!

2008-12-27T10:10:00.001-08:00

So one of our CHRISTMAS GIFTS was wii fit. I'm so excited about it! Its been so fun to PLAY and hopefully it will motivate me to want to do more working out. I know it can't be the only thing I do, but a very good SUPPLEMENT. Anyway, here's my BEEF. Yesterday, Chris and I got on for the first time. It weighs you and has you do some BALANCE tests and calculates your wii fit age. Its no surprise that both Chris and I are OVERWEIGHT and out of shape, so our ages were 40 and 38. It weighed me exactly what I thought but for whatever reason, Chris was being weighed about 30 lbs LIGHTER than he really is. Today, we got on again and its weighing me the same but its getting Chris's weight right now. So according to the wii, he GAINED almost 30 lbs! It calculated my age at 34 so I was very happy to loose 4 years. Then Chris did his...You're probably thinking his age went up, but that's where you're WRONG!! He is now 25. How does he gain 30 lbs and drop 15 YEARS. That's just not right!!! All of a sudden, I'm a 34 year old COUGAR married to some little 25 year old CHUMP!

Christmas Fun

2008-12-26T21:40:00.001-08:00

Another CHRISTMAS has come and gone...way too fast!! We have had so much fun though. The season started with the annual WHITE ELEPHANT/KARAOKE party. Thanks to all who came, it was a BLAST! I don't know why I didn't take pictures, I didn't think about it till the next day. So those of you who weren't able to come can just imagine...

Next was the GINGERBREAD competition. Chris and I decided to shake it up a bit, and we made a gingerbread NATIVITY. It turned out so cute. Here's a few pictures so you can see how talented we are :)

Here are some pictures from the events from Christmas Eve and Day. It was such a busy few days, but so much fun. We feel so BLESSED to have so much family to be able to CELEBRATE with. THANKS to everyone who made our Christmas so awesome! We are so lucky to have so many people who love us.

Here's the dogs with their Christmas presents. Chris got them some yummy treats for being such good girls. This is Rogue. And Kona....

Now that all of the FESTIVITIES are over, we are just doing some relaxing. Its been so nice to have some extra time with Chris. We have been reflecting on all of the blessings we have in our lives and feel overwhelmed with the blessings the LORD has given us. Life has thrown us a few curve balls, but I know that we will be blessed for our hard work and endurance. Thank you all for all the support you give us, we LOVE you all!!!

Youth Conference

2008-12-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry to all my fellow bloggers for once again being MIA. I've had so much going on that I just haven't had much time to blog so here we go. For those of you who don't know, Chris and I were called by our stake to be in charge of youth conference. It was a total shock and definitely overwhelming but we accepted. With the help of all the stake leaders and an incredible youth committee it all turned out amazing! We had such a great time working with everyone and planning this huge event. Our testimonies were greatly strengthened! Here's just a few of my fav pics. You might get lucky and get to see more but that's it for now. These are mostly of Chris and I and our youth committee.

I want to give a BIG thanks to my friend Kim. I've wanted to start scrapbooking for some time now but was so overwhelmed by the thought until recently. I decided it wouldn't be so bad if I could do it all digitally but once again just didn't really know how to start. Luckily I have a great friend who could show me how to do it. I'm not super creative so hopefully these will get better and better with time but for now, bear with me.

I also need to say thanks to BJ for his contribution. He hooked me up with photoshop and its AWESOME! I couldn't be doing all of the things I wanna do without it. So thanks!

Maybe I'll be a better blogger one day but until then, just be patient and I'll try to post some more pictures soon. LOVES!

Chemistry is the best, and so am I!!!

2008-11-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in my chemistry lab, we had to do yet another stupid experiment. You know the kind where you heat stuff up for 7 minutes in order to clean it and then have to wait for "at least 10 minutes" to let it cool off. Then you weigh it and heat it up with a tiny piece of metal in it and heat it over a bunson burner for another 20+ min waiting for a reaction to occur. Then you let it cool for another 10 minutes so you can weigh it again. All for nothing...nothing ever happened! You're probably thinking "what a waste!" but that's where you're wrong. All that time waiting around for results to NOT happen gave us time for a photo shoot. Here's a few of my favorites. This is me with my new friend Danielle. I think we look very attractive, don't you? Those goggles are just so stunning!

Then and Now

2008-11-02T21:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe how much time I've let go by without blogging. I've been a busy girl I guess. Anyway, I keep saying that I need to blog about my birthday. For those of you who don't know, Chris and I were introduced when I was out celebrating my birthday with friends. I didn't want to meet him but couldn't find a way to nicely say no. The night we met, we were at Texas Roadhouse so its been our tradition every year since to go there to celebrate my birthday and our meeting. Time has really flown by. I don't know where the last five years have gone.

When that picture was taken of me five years ago, Chris just happened to be in it, and I'm so glad I have it to document that day. Here's another picture that was just supposed to be of me holding up my cake and Chris just happened to be in. I thought it was a funny coincidence and very appropriate to share.

Back to my original point. I had a great birthday. I took the Saturday before off so Chris and I could hang out. We went to Texas Roadhouse and ordered way to much food and took a ton of it home, which is always a great thing. Sunday, we celebrated with my fam with a turkey dinner...Theresa's fav. The next day, Jen slaved in the kitchen to make this beautiful and delicious cake for me. I'm still not used to getting to having a cake all for me but I definitely like having my own. (For those of you who don't know, I share my birthday with my big brother, Nathan, and my sister Theresa is just 2 days after ours. So growing up, we all shared the same birthday cake) Thank you so much to everyone who helped make it such a fun day. I hope I never get too old to celebrate my birthday!

Other than that not too much exciting news with us. Youth conference is coming up pretty quick so we are getting everything all ready for that. I don't know how we got put in charge of it, but I think its coming together finally. It will be lots of fun but I will be glad when its all over and I don't have to think about it anymore! School is still going well, only about 6 more weeks till the end of the semester...how crazy is that?! That's about it though. I'll try to not be so much of a slacker with blogging. Hopefully I wont let another 3 weeks go by this time! Have a great week!

Our Day at the ZOO...and other happenings!

2008-10-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

Chris and I had such a fun Saturday! One of my most favorite clients, Debbie, invited me to her son's first birthday party at the zoo. Its been such a long time since I've been so it was so much fun for me...although I did feel a little weird being one of the only ones without kids. I swear, we were surrounded! I guess its the thing to do when you have kids...go figure. I told Chris that when he is a stay at home dad that we will probably have memberships and he can go with all the other moms. He didn't mean to mind that idea too much :)

When we got to the zoo we had lunch with the birthday boy, and of course some cake. My friend Nicole, who I used to work with, was also there. I haven't seen her in over a year so it was so great to catch up with her. Hopefully it wont be so long till the next time. After that we walked all over the zoo looking at the animals. We were so excited to see them, but they didn't seem to want to reciprocate the excitement. There were quite a few that we couldn't see because they were either in hiding or so far away. It was a little disappointing, but all in all, still a great time. We even ran into my friend from school...what are the chances?! It was probably the most exercise either of us has done in a while.

Later that night, we went to a free Lifehouse concert in celebration of Founders Day in Maricopa. Maricopa rarely has anything exciting going on, so we were especially excited! After we got there, I ran in to my friend Kim from girls camp. This chick is crazy fun so I was so excited to see her. There were also a bunch of girls from church there. Most of them were too cool to hang out with us....all but Rimini!!

Trying to take self portraits is not always successful, but I still like these pictures, especially the one of Chris picking his nose. I hope he doesn't get too mad that I posted all of these. The one on the top with my face cut off has fireworks in the background. I wanted a better one but Chris was tired of me trying so I had to settle for having my face cut off.

Here is me with Rimini (who by the way would not be very happy to see this picture but I just couldn't resist) and then one with Kim. This is Kim with her family minus one. Her boys were so sweet and even though they don't know me, they were still willing to snuggle up with me, probably just to keep warm, but I don't care...I'll take what I can get!

PS. Aren't you all so excited about this cool weather?! I'm totally loving it and being able to sleep with the windows open once again! Hope you all have a great week, later skater!!

Catch Up

2008-10-05T15:27:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while so I guess I need to catch you all up. This week started out as normal...work, school... you know the routine. There are 2 girls in both of my classes at Chandler-Gilbert. As I started studying during my long break, they invited me to go home with them. So I took the opportunity to get away from school for a bit to hang out with them. It was so much better than what I had planned. It was so great to get to know both of them a little better and meet their families. They are sisters and both live on the same street. They are also planning on applying for the nursing program. I'm so excited to have 2 new friends to be able to go through school with!

On Friday night, we went to the Beecrofts (a family in our ward) for a young men's leadership dinner. They invited all of the young men's leaders, bishopric and spouses over for dinner, dessert and games. We had a great time and learned some pretty funny things about everyone who was there. I made cheesecake to share and I think I finally have it almost perfect. I think one more minor change till its just right.

Yesterday morning, my friend Katie gave birth to a tiny old man...at least that's what he looks like. After work, I was able to go to the hospital for a few hours to meet him. I always forget how small newborns are! He is so sweet and seems to have a great temperament...he didn't really cry at all the whole time I was there. We are so happy for you guys and can't wait to spoil Trevor!

After the hospital, I met up with my sister Theresa and we had Cafe Rio. It was such a delicious way to spend time with my sis! I think because we stayed to talk so long and my food was sitting right in front of me, I ate the whole thing and was so stuffed...totally worth it though!!

Well, I need to wrap it up. I'm sure I already lost Chris, and if he is still reading, then I'm very impressed, GOOD JOB BABY! Be sure to check out the Dogg Blogg to see the newest post. It has been so neglected with me being so busy now :( Sorry for the lack of pictures, but here's some of Chris and I being goofy before going to the leadership dinner to satisfy you a bit.

I love this one of Chris trying to be sneaking about peeking at me. His face is so stinking cute!!! See Jen, Chris can be pretty goofy!
Here we are with our HAPPY face.
And my favorite of them all....Chris was done!!

Don't you like the sock on the back of the couch?!?!? I promise its a clean one :)

Crabs!

2008-09-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted in a while. I keep saying I'm going to but just haven't done it. I've been staying pretty busy with school and work but I'm still loving it. Lucky for me, though, I had today off of work. We didn't really have major plans but it was so nice to just be able to hang out with Chris for the day.

We started the day out just being lazy and watching tv. We got a notice from our HOA that we have a dead tree in our front yard that needs to be taken care of (actually I think we've gotten 2). This tree has been replaced at least 2 or 3 times already. I don't know why, but they just wont grow. I know it gets watered but that particular spot is cursed. So today was finally the day to get it taken out. I went out to help Chris and he asked me to get something from the back yard. So I went out and the girls were SO EXCITED to see me! They were jumping all over the place and I couldn't calm them down. Finally, one of them somehow broke a bottle of lighter fluid that ended up on the ground and it ended up everywhere! So not only was I worried about the stupid dogs licking it up and getting sick, but I'm seeing visions of our house burning down. So of course my focus turned towards that. I could totally smell it on them so they both ended up getting baths...something that has not happened in a very long time. Even though I hate doing it, I love how nice they look and smell after that happens. I can even pet them without ending up with caked on dirt all over my hands...go figure!

After all of that got finished up we had a meeting to work on youth conference stuff. For those of you who don't know, Chris and I are in charge of organizing our stakes youth conference. Its going to be a lot of work but in about 7 weeks it will all be over. We are actually very excited about it. We love the youth and being able to spend time with them.

When we left the meeting, we decided we wanted crab legs! So we went to Harrahs for their seafood buffet. It was so yummy and of course we ended up eating way too much and making ourselves sick! But I did end up with a few cute pictures.

Here's Chris playing with his food. We don't have very good manners!

We ended up with a diseased crab. I have no idea what is all over it, but it totally grossed me out! I couldn't help but take a picture of it for all of you. :) And of course we couldn't leave without my name tag. I seem to drop it everywhere we go to eat. But Chris always finds it for me...my hero!!
Here we are on the way home. Chris is just too funny sometimes. Some of you may not know this side of Chris, but its my favorite! I love it when he is good and goofy like this!

Well, I think that's all for now. I'll try to be better about posting. And for all you Dogg Blogg fans, I'm sorry that it has been neglected for so long. I promise it has not been forgotten and will hopefully be updated soon!

First Anatomy Test

2008-09-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited. Last Tuesday, I had my first anatomy test. I studied my booty off and was still feeling a little nervous about some of the questions. I've been checking online to see if my teacher had posted the grades yet several times a day since then. Well finally today they are up. I got a 96%!!! I'm so excited as this is the class that has been stressing me out the most. I guess all of my hard work has paid off. The average was about 74% so that makes me feel even better. I hate to sound boastful but I am just so happy! I hope the rest of the semester goes as well for me. Thanks again to everyone who has been so supportive to me in my decision to go back to school. I'm still totally loving it and am now even more excited to be moving forward!!

Cake Wrecks

2008-09-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

I was doing some blog surfing just now and my friend Kim Wresh had a link to this blog so I decided to check it out. It was totally hilarious and I couldn't get enough. This blog is devoted to "cake wrecks" and cakes that are just plain and simply funny. I spent quite a bit of time looking at all of them. I think this one was my favorite! The story that went along with it was pretty funny too. So you will have to check it out. Hope you enjoy!!

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Dad

2008-09-14T09:48:00.001-07:00

Last week my brakes started making weird noises. I was feeling worried about having to take the car in and how much it was going to end up costing me but knew it needed to get done. We've put our extra money into me going back to school so we really don't have much right now. So I called my dad and he was more than happy to help. So be went over Friday night with pizzas and now I'm not afraid to drive anymore.

Here's what my old brake pads looked like compared to the new ones. I know its hard to see but I basically wore them down about as much as posssible without causing more dammage...thank goodnessChris was "Daddy's little helper"
My dad even stayed pleasant the whole time, he didn't even swear once!
So thanks again, Dad. We really appreciate you helping us out and saving us some mulah.

I Heart School!

2008-09-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

I don't care if you all think I am a geek but I just have to say that I love learning! Although I have WAY less free time on my hands these days, I totally feel re-energized. I think I was feeling kind of "blah-ish" if you know what I mean; like I've just been coasting through life not really doing anything important. But now I'm feeling so pumped up again. No my classes are not easy, but it just feels great trying to figure it all out and putting it all together in my head.

I totally love learning about the human body and how it all works together. We're not learning about the most exciting part right now but it still is so amazing. I can't even begin to imagine how it would have been trying to create it. It is such a huge testimony builder to me. Every single little thing has a purpose and without it, our bodies would not function exactly right. I guess that is the way the gospel works too. Each one of us has a divine roll and if we don't do it, something will not function right. (I was totally not planning on taking this route when I started writing, but I guess this is where my thoughts have taken me.) I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know there is more that I need to be doing so that everything can run smoothly. I can think of several things right off the top of my head. I'm sure you have all heard someone say that if we just knew of the happiness and glory of the after life, that we would live our lives in such a way that nothing would get in the way of that happiness. I wish I had a better concept of all of that.

My challenge to all of you is to find something in your life that you are not happy with or that you know could be improved, and fix it. I'm not asking you to tell me what it is... just do it and wait to see the blessings that come out of it for you. I know the Lord has so much that he wants to give to us, we just need to do our part and live more worthy to be able to receive them.

New Glasses

2008-09-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

In all honesty, I think it has been at least 5 years since I've had an eye exam. Now that I am in school and I actually have to read things at a distance I'm realizing that my old glasses are a bit mediocre. I've been wearing them and they were doing ok, but still it was a bit hard to read. I finally decided it was time to get new glasses. So this morning I went into Eye Masters and I can see again!! Its so nice to be able to see things so clearly. Of course it had to get worse before it got better. I had my pupils dilated so of course the sunlight was blinding. When I started, it was cloudy so I thought it wouldn't be so bad. But of course, I wasn't so lucky, by the time I was finished it was bright and sunny so I had to wear those AWESOME sunglasses that they give you. Luckily I didn't have to go too far. Anyway, the whole point of the story it I can see again and I have new sassy glasses.

Here is a picture of my eyes while they were still dilated...don't they look creepy?!?!?

And here I am showing them off. Don't mind that piece of hair going across my forehead, it's totally bugging my but I didn't feel like doing another one.

What do you guys think...How do I look?

Sunday Dinner

2008-08-31T16:37:00.001-07:00

Ingredients for family dinner...$7.00

Large mixing bowl...$8.00

Large wooden serving spoon...$2.00

Watching my husband eat to his contentment......PRICELESS!!!

The Game

2008-08-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

The company Chris works for has season tickets for all the major Phoenix sports teams. So every now and then, we get lucky enough to get our hands on these tickets and get to go to the games. On Friday we went to the Cardinals game. We had 2 extra tickets so our friends James and Janae went with us. It was so fun to hang out with them; its been a while since we've seen them. I'm not a big sports fan, in fact I was more interested in the belligerently drunken fool in the section next to ours. Everytime a song came on, he would get up turn around and dance and was so ridiculously abnoxious. He kept trying to give high 5's to everyone around him as if they were actually enjoying his company. I felt so bad for the sweet looking family sitting behind him...I would not want my kids to be subjected to such an inebriated man, let alone give him "knucks". He kept leaving the game and coming back with 2 beers at a time, one just isn't enough I guess. He had security guards talk to him several times. Finally he hit rock bottom in the last quarter and fell backwards onto the row in front of his. After that he finally got kicked out. We knew it was just a matter of time and I kept saying that we should cheer when they take him out. I ended up being so caught up with trying to get a pic of him being escorted out that we totally forgot to cheer. But at least I got a pic of it! The Cardinals of course lost. The game wasn't too bad until the last quarter when they pulled out the starters (it was just a pre-season game). All in all though it was a great time.

Here we are enjoying the game.Here's James and Janae I tried to get a picture of the fall, but its really hard to see but I think you get the idea
Here he is getting escorted out...YEAH!!!

One more of us overlooking the field.Then on Saturday, some friends of ours in the ward were sealed. It was such a beautiful sealing. The sealer was so awesome and talked about some pretty interesting and informative things. Their 2 boys are some of my favorite kids in primary and they were so stinking cute. I wish I would have gotten a picture of them but I suck and didn't. But here is one of us getting back into the car. I wanted to get on of us with the temple in the background. The only problem was that the sun was SO bright. So its not the cutest picture of us, but at least you can see the temple. I'm so glad we were able to go. I'm so happy for the Jaegers and know they will be so blessed for going to the temple to be sealed together. I love to be in the temple and feel the peaceful spirit that is inside. Maybe one of these days I'll be better about going more often. After the temple we went to Seranos with Laurie (Chris's mom). Since we were so close by her house, we thought it would be fun to take her with us to eat. We had a great time with her and were happy to be able to spend some time with her. I of course forgot to get a picture but I at least think I'm getting better about remembering to get more of them. Don't worry, Laurie, I'll get you next time!!!

Whats been going on with me

2008-08-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

I've had a pretty busy week so I haven't posted anything new in a while. So I guess I need to catch everyone up to speed with whats been going on. Last weekend, Chris and I met up with my family to go eat at the Chinese cultural center. There is a pretty yummy buffet there where we stuffed ourselves with all sorts of good stuff. Here are a few pics of us goofing around...

Here is Chris and my dad. Isn't Chris so cute making his "ouchie" face?!?!Here's the 2 of us. I don't know why I didn't get a group picture, I know my mom did so I don't know how I didn't.
After we ate, I was so stuffed. I wanted to take a picture that looked like I was throwing up. And of course it took me a few tries...

But I finally think I got a good one. Sorry its kinda gross, but what did you expect from me?
After dinner, Chris and I went to go see the new Batman movie. It was done so well and Heath Ledger was AMAZING. I would have never known it was him by just listening to his voice. It seriously didn't sound like him at all. Even to look at him, it would have taken me a while to figure out it was him. It was very fun to go out on a date with Chris.

I don't have any more pictures, but lots of stuff to share with you, so sorry for wordiness...Chris said that I can be too wordy on here and I need to stick to pictures so I don't bore everyone. But I guess you will have to deal with it today.

So the biggest thing that is new it that I have decided to go back to school. I have always thought that I wanted to, but for a long time I felt that it was too late for me and that it would be too hard to go to school and work to be able to pay our bills. Until a few weeks ago, my friend Kristen's mom came in to get a haircut. She is a nursing teacher at MCC (I think). Anyway, I got talking to her and totally felt like it was something I could do. So I thought about it for a few days, and the more I thought, the more excited I got about it. I finally talked to Chris about it, and I think he thought I was crazy at first...he is always so jealous that I get to make my own schedule and that I have so much control over myself and job. But of course, he is a great husband and has been so supportive of my decision since I told him. Its not that I don't love doing hair, because I do, but I'm just feeling like I have more talents to offer.

So on Tuesday, I went to Chandler-Gilbert CC to see what I needed to do to get started. I met with an advisor who told me that I need 3 of the 4 prerequisites classes that I needed to apply for the nursing program. He also told me that there was very limited seating in all of the classes and went on to tell me that I will need to come very early to register for classes for the next semester as they fill up very quickly. So feeling very discouraged, I got on a computer to see if I could at least do 1 class to get going, and miraculously, all the classes I needed were open and were on my days off. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I knew right away that the Lord was opening a door for me. It truly amazes me how easily things have fallen right into place, even though this was such a last minute decision. I know this will be a tough semester for me, but I know that its what I am supposed to be doing. Heavenly Father definitely opened the door so I have decided to jump right in. I haven't decided if I am more nervous or excited, it kind of comes in waves. But I know that with the Lords help, I can do anything. I also want to thank all of you who have already shown me so much love and support. I'm so grateful for all you guys do for me. I truly have the best family and friends cheering me on! Expecially Chris, who has been so supportive and has helped me get the ball rolling on this whole thing. I can't even tell you how many times he has told me how proud of me that he is in the last week or so. I am so grateful to have him in my life and hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him.

Sorry for all the mushiness, I think its all out now. On to lighter things. After I got registration all done, I went over to Jen and TJ's house to celebrate TJ's bday. Jen made some delicious chocolate fondue and I ate till I was stuffed. We got to take some leftovers home and it is so good! I keep going in the fridge and dipping my finger in it. Its more like fudge when its cold. I am seriously considering going downstairs right now for some more!

I took yesterday (Saturday) off to celebrate my last weekend of freedom before school starts. Chris and I went to MCC so I could register for my last class because it wouldn't let me do it online. So we were there for a while waiting in line to get everything done. Then we went to eat at Chili's and then went to see Hancock. We used to go to movies all the time but very rarely do anymore, so it was fun to do it 2 weeks in a row. It was lots of fun to spend the day together even though we ran lots of errands while we were out. While we were in the movie, my friend Angee called to see if we wanted to come over to watch some movies with them. So we did and had a great time with them. We watched Vacancy, which was very creepy and both Chris and I were pretty freaked out. And then watched Fight club. We were both so exhausted when we got home.

Today we went to Jen and TJ's ward to go hear them talk. They both did a such a great job. After that we went to Laurie's for dinner to celebrate TJ's bday. It was so yummy, especially since I didn't have to cook it. I guess I did make a tomato and cucumber salad. I bought an avocado to go with it, but it mysteriously disappeared. I seriously can't find it anywhere. It must have gotten left at the store. After we ate, we played a few games and ended the night playing with sparklers that we found in Chris's old room. What a fun way to finish up the night.

We came home and I tried to figure out my internet class and now here I am blogging. I hope I didn't bore you too much with my lack of pictures. I'll try to be better about that in the future. I'm sure you wont be hearing from me much in the next few months though so just be grateful!! I think I'm going to be pretty busy, so please bear with me. Hope you all have a great week and I'll blog ya later!!

More Youth Conference

2008-08-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

As you probably already know, Chris and I helped out with youth conference with our ward last week. I have been meaning to post more pictures from it all week and just haven't done it yet. I do have to apologize for the overload of pics. I have a TON of them and there are so many cute ones but I tried to just pick out my favs. I didn't have my camera the whole time so I know there were some great pictures that I don't have, like Chris sword fighting. He totally kicked butt. But it's probably a good thing for all of you though, just fewer that you have to go through.

I just have to say I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I had to go to youth conference. I seriously had such a great time and enjoyed spending time with the youth. They are just so amazing and have such strong spirits. I felt their testimonies the whole time I was there. I see so many kids who are already getting themselves into so much trouble, so it is so refreshing to hang out with such a great group of kids. It makes me think that maybe I can have kids of my own someday! I'm totally looking forward to going to the stake youth conference in November. Chris and I are the chairpersons so we will have a big part of it, and I can't wait!

Here we are eating our "bad breakfast" for loosing. It was just plain oatmeal. It really wasn't too bad, I actually enjoyed it.
Here we are getting ready to go ice skating.
The girl in the red sweatshirt is Hillary. This is about what she looked like the whole time. She just couldn't stay on her feet. She had a great attitude, especially with everyone enjoying her falls as much as we did. :)
This is me with Collette and Kourtney showing off our sweet moves.
This is me and Allie right after falling. Allie has a sweet video of this fall. I'll try to get it from her to show all of you. Here are our sweet moves once again.

This was the next morning at the service project. You can see how excited everyone is!

This is Candice really straining over a tough weed.Here's my sexy hubby workin' away.

This is Sam and Savannah. They just moved into our ward from my mom's ward in Tolleson. What a small world!
Here is Chris with his new buddy. This scarecrow had actually fallen down and I helped to repair it. Here's a few of the girls in front of the pile of weeds that were pulled. It was a pretty amazing accomplishment, as you can see.
Right after the service project. We went over to play mud football. There was too much water though, so the football didn't last very long. We spent more time just playing in the mud. I had fun but I was so happy to get it all off of me.Here is Chris looking o so tough!

The rest of us who didn't want to play football.
After that, we went to the Bremmer's house to go swimming in their beautiful pool. I don't have many pictures of this because I was in the pool the most of the time. But here are a few from the game they were playing. Its kinda like limbo but you had to jump over the rope without hitting it. Here's what its supposed to look like...
...but not so much like this.
Here's a few who didn't want to join in on the game

That's all for now. I hope I didn't bore you too much with so many pictures. I just can't choose only a few, I'd much rather share lots of them.

The Whole Fam Damily

2008-08-05T00:12:00.000-07:00

Chris and I spent the past weekend in Pinedale at the McRae Family Reunion. It was so nice to get out of the heat and get to know the family better. There was quite a bit of family that came from the east coast that I had never met before. We had a lot of fun just hangin' out and being goofy. Chris told me that I can be a little "too wordy" in my posting so this time I'll try to just stick to the pictures. There are kind of a lot so I hope you enjoy.

We left on Friday afternoon after I got done with work. After we got there, we ate dinner and hung out for a bit. The fire was built and we made smores. They were so tasty! I decided to make them in foil so the chocolate would melt.

I made some to share but I just wanted to hog it all to myself!!Here is Chris and I around the campfire.After the yummy treats, Chris's cousin's kids, Curtis and Jackson put on a little show for us. They picked 2 people from the audience to join in and of course they picked the fun-est ones, myself and my brother in law TJ. Why is it that the in-laws are the most fun? We spent the rest of the evening playing games and laughing, "YEAH MORMONS"...I guess you had to be there to get that. But trust me, it was pretty funny. After that, we went into Showlow to find a hotel for the night.

The next day, Chris was helping TJ install some granite so I had to drive the orange machine back to the cabin. That thing is so big and hard to maneuver, but I somehow managed...not too bad for my first time. This is me unable to take my eyes off of the road out of total fear of crashing the orange monster.

I spent the morning with Jen. Here we are riding horses. This was my first time, so I got the more gentle one named Rocky. The only reason I remember his name is because its Jen and TJ's dogs name too.

After a few hours, we went back to Showlow to pick up Chris. He was getting pretty bored of watching TJ. After we got back, I lounged around while Chris got the paintball guns cleaned and ready to go. I was the only girl brave enough to go. I was really not wanting to go because I was just too tired but I ended up having a great time!! Thanks, Chris, for guilting me into going.

After dinner that night, we had a Hawaiian themed party. Each of the families were supposed to prepare a skit/talent to share with everyone. I had no idea till just a few hours before hand. Lucky for me, it had already been planned. The McRae boys presented a Hula dance for us. They did such a great job. I was so surprised by Chris's willingness to participate. He hates to dance, but kept a smile on his face the whole time. Here are a few pictures of them. I promise to post the video as soon as I have it.

This is Chris, Uncle Kenny, TJ and Gary.

Me and my studly hula-hubby

Gary can't seem to get enough of grabbing every one's "boobies"

After all of the skits were over, we spent the rest of the night dancing. These are cousins Rustin and Alisa dancing with each other.

While they were dancing, I looked over at Jen, and saw her totally mesmerized by them! I couldn't resist capturing this look of amazement on her face.

And, it would be totally unlike me to not tease her about it. Here's Debbie and I watching in amazement. We couldn't decide if we should be speechless......astounded...

...or just plain and simple disgusted by the dance. HAHAHA!! All in all, it was very amusing.
After all of Chris's Hula Dancing, he didn't want to dance with me, so I had to dance with Jen.

Here is me doing the Limbo. That's about as low as I can go. I guess I'm not as bendy as I used to be.
Here is Chris and I doing what Chris was wanting to do...just sit back and watch. And of course TJ in the background being a goober!!
Tj seems to love trying to be in the background of all our pictures!!

The next morning, we had church. Both Chris and Jen were asked to talk. They both did such a great job and brought tears to my eyes. Even Chris was chocking up, which never happens. I love to see the softer side of him sometimes. He is such an amazing husband and I'm so grateful for the amazing spirit that he brings into our home. We also watched a slide show that Grandma McRae put together about our family history. It was so interesting to see the old pictures and to learn more about the fam. She did such a fabulous job putting it all together .

Here is Uncle Kenny and his son Devin all dressed up for church. Way to wear a tie, Kenny!!
Later that day, we went quading for a bit. Here is Chris waiting for me to hop on. He was so patient with me all weekend and letting me take so many pictures. I just love this one of him, he just has the cutest smile on his face.
Here we are together.

And of course a close up. Chris hates these pictures that we take ourselves, but I always love them!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around. I really wanna get a hammock for my backyard, if it ever gets landscaped!! Its so nice to lay in as long as there are no little boys trying to jump on and ruin my relaxation. Curtis and Jackson don't quite understand the word NO.This is me with Devin's girlfriend, Lena (I hope I spelled that right.) Lena is very sweet and I'm so glad we got to meet her. Hopefully we will get to see her again soon. Chris and TJ are enjoying the best nap either of them have ever had. They were both ready to go home, I think. I think that's finally about it. I hope I didn't bore you too much...I'm still that little girl in the candy store who can't decide which candy she wants. Except now I just can't choose which pictures I want to post. So rather than sacrifice any of them, I'll just post them all. Hope you have a great day!!

YOU WIN!!!

2008-08-03T23:25:00.001-07:00

Ok all you DOGGBLOGG HATERS, you got your way now. Here is where I will do all of my real pics of Chris and I. I will still keep the doggblogg going but just for fun. I hope you are happy now!!!