Romantic dinner by the fire

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!!!

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!

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!

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!!!

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

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

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

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

....MORE to come :)

Fun with the GIRLS

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!!

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

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

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!!!

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

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!

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

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 :)