Why Hello Mr. Strait

Ladies and Gentlemen....(probably just ladies) I share with you the greatest country singer of all time. It was our second time going to Mr George Strait's concert and he didnt disappoint. I love his concerts because he has soooo many songs and he gets right to the point and sings them! We had a great time on our Early Valentines Day! Reba was there also.

I got some beautiful flowers delivered by a little someone before we went to the concert :)
Oh I do love him.Its fun to get all done up every once in a while. At the concert...we wore our boots even. Well done George, well done. And I couldnt forget our old dancing cowboy friend. :)

Oh yesss, a new hobby

The men in my life wont ever say it...but secretly they love me more since i jumped on the bike. its so much harder than running! sheesh...we'll see if i am ever half as good as them. in case you didnt know my dad is pretty much a legend and justin is getting really good too.ps thank you amanda - the only time i ever get pictures is when she is in town!

the last Two Weeks.

It has been kinda craazy the last two weeks...Justin quit his job finally! I will now officially be the Sugar Mama haha. He starts ASU full time on Tuesday and we are so excited! Also I got my blood drawn for the First Time in MY LIFE (that i know of or can remember). I am the biggest baby about needles, but have greatly improved over the past few months...got my flu shot, and now my blood drawn! I dont think you understand what a big deal this is. "I can totally have a baby now if i want!" is what I told everyone at work! It didnt even hurt and was over before i knew it wahoo :) So those are the major things that happend over the past two weeks... now enjoy all the pictures of babies that i love - friends and fam.We went to dinner last night at Texas with the family.We have been switching off dinner everyweek with Britton & Diana and love seeing Evelyn all the time - she is so cute! I also had fun playing w/ Alicias girls when they came down for a night before heading back to Thatcher. I am pretty much the favorite b/c i paint their nails everytime. I cant believe my Kenzi is this big :( it makes me sad...but i am so in love with her. Seriously, look at her smile.Baby Sadie Bug is getting so big too - we went to Nate & Amys last night. It was funny, she would laugh and smile at us one minute and the next she would start to cry b/c she realized that we werent her mom or dad. So funny. These pictures make me melt. He is going to be such an awesome dad in a few years...i cant wait, well i can - but cant.
Happy Weekend! Here comes another week :)

Californ-ia

Justin did a WHOLE LOT of this over our holiday break....grand total of driving = 2,000 miles. whoo! It was a lot of sitting in the car, nasty gas station bathrooms, and talking for hours. It was so fun! We went to Thatcher for Christmas (i will post pictures later) and then headed up to Anaheim to go to Disneyland. Then we went to Garrett Broadbents wedding (one of Justins mission friends). Mind you...this was all in about 3 days. We had to wake up super early every morning to get to our next destination, but it all worked out. It was funny - the only way Justin could keep me from falling asleep was to talk about baby names. Its my favorite pass time.
The wedding was beautiful and it was so great to be able to see them sealed in the Sacramento Temple. It was freeeezing there! They had their luncheon at In-N-Out which was BOMB, why didnt we think of that?? We were definately blessed the whole way. We had a tire blow out on the highway...it couldnt have happend at a better place - there just happen to be a large shoulder to pull of on right when it happend. We were stuck behind a semi so we were going a lot slower than we would have been. And we were only about 15 miles outside where we were meeting the Mofatts (Justins other mission friend). We were traveling pretty late - it was around 7/8pm and we still had 6more hours to drive. We would have just stayed the night, but I had to be at work at 7:30 on New Years Eve. Luckily Heavenly Father was watching over us. We were able to put the spare on..when I say "we" I mean Justin :) Then we found a tire center that was only open another hour - lucky lucky. We were able to get two new back tires, go to eat dinner with the Mofatts, and be on our way again. We got home at 3:30am. Anyways, that is the trip...enjoy the pictures!

Justins first trip to Disneyland!
At our hotel. Splash Mountain is definately our favorite. Garrett and Callessa Broadbent.

Ode to Cute Nieces and Santa Cow.

We went to Chik fil A on Saturday and to my surprise...Santa Cow was there!! He is much cooler than regular santa...he will eat with you even. It made my day awesome pretty much. All the little kids in the place were yelling, "Santa Cow...hi, Santa Cow. Raise your hands if you think Santa Cow is cool!" It was hilarious! Santa Cow stole Justins spot when he got up...that smooth Santa COw hahah! But they were still friends in the end :)Now, on to to my "ode to cute nieces..." Here they are - Kennedy is 1 and Sadie is 4months. We love them and cant wait to spend Christmas with them!And saved the best for last. Isnt this picture awesome! They are so funny!

One, Two, Three, Four.

The holidays wouldnt be the same without you...

Christmas is almost here!

I have been doin' a whole lotta this lately - Listening to my ipod. Justin is studying hard core for finals so that leaves me in my own world. I organized almost everything in our little home...just a few things left. I finally finished wrapping all the christmas presents and decorating the tree :) ahh i love it! Too bad all my ornaments are green so its kind of hard to tell in pictures what it looks like. oh well.Justin keeps asking me what I want for Christmas. Honestly, it has taken me a while to think about it. There isnt anything I really cant live without. I am so happy right now with all that I have. So i did some brainstorming and some googling to see if I could find something for Christmas...we are going to Disneyland.
Justin has never been! Crazy I know...but Im so excited! My family went every December when I was growing up so it will bring back lots of memories I'm sure. Haha...Justins other options were :

A baby
A puppy or
A turtle

He said, No No and No - so Disneyland here we come! Speaking of babies...here are mine. I am absolutely in love with two of my best friends babies. Melissa had baby Stella and Amy had baby Rigden. They are adorable! We went out to Nate & Amys on Saturday and Justin and Nate put up a fan in Rigdens room. I think me & Amy could have watched 3 movies by the time they finished - good thing we got there in the afternoon. The fan turned out great though and his nursery is so cute!

Wedding and Tree Time!

Tonight was my cousin John's wedding. Here are some pictures from the reception... (If you are thinking - hey, something looks different...that's b/c justin got braces. wahoO! He tells me not to announce it to the whole world on my blog but oh well) I think he is soo cute still and it will be awesome when he gets them off, we are stoked! My parentals. Yes, they did dance. and yes all the kids said, "eww! why are they dancing!?" (as they had their hands all over eachother. kidding kidding. but seriously. ha

My favoritest Aunt Judy and her husband, Norm Tanner. They were just sealed not too long ago :)
Some of my brothers and sisters (minus me and alexa)L to R - Alli, Amanda, Aubry, Alexa, Grandma Anne, Johns new wife, Leilani, Maila, and NaniWe lOve GraNdMa!We also got our Christmas tree! YESSS! It isnt decorated yet, but it will be...heres what we got so far.The perfect size!LOVE this season!!! Hope all of your Christmas decorations are keeping you busy and you are having fun!

Thanksgiving Weekend.

We went to Thatcher for Thanksgiving. Its nice to have a slower paced life for a few days :) the weather was awesome too. This is Big Ben. He lovvvves to hug! Its so funny b.c he is HUGE!I was also able to enjoy some battles at Home Depot. Dont worry EVERY employee was on their "A Game..." We got asked if we needed help about a million times. It was Black Friday I suppose. Justin put up his parent's Christmas lights....and I took pictures and fell asleep w/ Jenny on the grass.Sadie is getting huge too! So cute :) She loves her grandpa!And on our way home we went to Nate and Amys. They had their baby!! yaaaayaya! He is seriously the cutest thing ever! His head is so perfect! Justin and I just kept saying, "his head is so round and perfect!" I love him already. He's another one of "my" babies. Here he is - cutest and most perfect baby Rigden. Im so glad that Amy and he are both happy and healthy. What an amazing Thanksgiving surprise and blessing!

Lets Talk.

Ahead of time (sorry for the length)


Where to start, where to start?! First things first...Amy and I discovered that my most favorite scent 3 Christmas's running changes. The first year it was in the squared bottle and the actual lotion was orange. Last year they switched to a round bottle and changed the lotion color to pink. And then this year...kept the round bottle, the cap is smaller though...and now the lotion is white. Who cares. Not me! Just thought it was funny. LOVE LOVE LOVE this smell. The lady at Bath and Body Works kept telling me, "you know, you can mix and match any of the scents on this wall and the ones up front..." Yeah yeah, i said, "this is all I came for...I wait for it to come out every year!" She couldnt blame me. With the lotion and their magnificent PERFECT Christmas Evergreen Candle, i am Lovin' this season already!

We are loving the weekends and hanging out with friends when we get the chance...which isnt too often. We are definately stoked to head up to Thatcher for Thanksgiving. We are leaving Thursday morning to Justins parents and then are going camping on the mountain YES! Fresh air and no work til Monday!! Can't wait for this movie to come out!Recently, I started making our Christmas cards. I always feel weird giving out Christmas cards b/c its just the two of us. I debated it this year...but then thought, it is going to be just us for a while, Im making cute cards for our family/friends. Its been a few days and our table still looks like this. (ps i put up our only christmas decoration for right now..this SWEET find! the Christmas tree on the wall we found at a thrift store last Saturday. Trust me, it rocks.)I also found this at the thrift store and cant figure out what to do with it. Its pretty heavy so i dont know that i want to hang it up on the wall. We'll see...it could maybe use some spray paint though?Found these at Hobby Lobby - I think Im going to put different paper on them. In time. They were half off of course.
I always seem to need a new little project. Something new to switch up things a bit. I found this shelf in my moms garage and painted it green. Yummy. My friend Jess brought me the plant for my bday and it hasnt died yet :) The wall wanted me to paint it. I dont know why. But yellow it is. I love it. Still working on arranging stuff.And last but not least, I have been sick the last few days. I blame Justin. BUTTTTT it is true, i sometimes love to be lazy, especially when i dont feel so guilty b/c i feel like crap. Last night I watched Jon and Kate Plus 8 for....i know, its sick....possibly 5 hours?? Justin watched some with me, but then went to class. And then watched some after class, til he went to bad. Terrible I know. But i did cry a tear. I have watched the show since the beginning and its all very sad to me. I know there are a lot of mixed feelings about exploiding the kids, Kate being a Nazi, yada yada, but I feel for her. I think any mom that has 8 kids is a little crazy, she has to be to keep from going insane. My feelings on them are this : people do the best they can with what they have. She had an amazing opportunity to make a living while staying home with her children. Were they on camera all the time. Yes, most of the time. But they knew nothing else and I dont think it hurt them. It provided a lot a lot of opportunities for them that they may have never had the chance to experience otherwise. Jon i dont care too much for. I just wish he could realize what he has in front of him. Is she rude, yes. Is she the mother of your children, YES! Did you say "I do" YES. Then work through your problems please. Thats all my opinion on that. I promise myself and vow to my blogging buddies that I will never watch a marathon that long again. I just had to.

I love these little kids. They steal my heart.I also watched "SAY YES TO THE DRESS." Kind of want to be addicted to it. But not so much. I love the idea of the show, but sometimes too much drama. Does anyone else want to just go try on dresses again for fun?? The sales people would Hate US!PS. Is this on anyones Christmas Wish List? Bahhh! Not only do they have these...

But you can not leave out the puppy dog! speechless. come on people. While Im on a roll of randomness..does anyone want to just decorate baby rooms?? I dont necessarily want the baby, just the room right now. :) oh that will be so fuN!Last little thought. I am a Pepsi Girl myself. But I think this would be a BOMB Gift (as either bracelets or necklaces) for my sister in laws/mother in law. They love love diet coke. We will see if i get to making them!

Hope everyone has an AWESOME Thanksgiving weekend - wish us luck camping! Peace.

Deep Thought. Doesnt happen too Often..

all my life my dad has said, "you need balance."

like i wanted "balance."

all i wanted to do is be with friends. (or boyfriends)

or listen to music. or play soccer nonstop.

or whatever else a teenager does.

i remember having it in my head that what i wanted to do is what i should be able to be doing. who needs balance? just live your life, right?

well within the last week or so i have realized how much we ALL need balance in our lives.

everyone.

It seems to me that to be truly happy, you must master being well balanced.

Today I googled "how to be happy." It is an interesting thing to research. There are TONS of different approaches and "solutions." This is a short paragraph that was on about.com -

While people have many and varied goals that they pursue, there is an almost
universal underlying goal to virtually all pursuits: the goal to be happy.
People who spend a lot of time making money generally do so because they
believe that the money itself will make them happy, or will guard them
against things that will make them unhappy. If the focus isn’t on the money,
but on the jobs that bring the money, those jobs are generally thought to
make people happy. People strive for that perfect relationship, the perfect
house, the beautiful body, the approval of others, all in an attempt to be
happy. Sometimes these things make us happy; other times, we stress over not
having reached our goals, or we reach them and find that we’re still not happy.
Other times, we focus so intensely on one goal that’s thought to bring happiness that we don’t have time for other things in our life that will make us truly happy. This can all be confusing, and begs the question: how does one reach the goal of being happy?

I like how it said (in reference to goals) , "we reach them and find that we're still not happy." It does seem that when we are finished with school and have money and a home/family things will be great! But i know we need to be happy in every single stage of this life. I am happy for right now. For being married to my best friend and getting to be with only him. Until we have babies..which will be different, but just another stage we will be happy in. I think that if we have balance in our lives and live the way we should, we will truly be happy. Some things i have been trying to do better lately to make me better "balanced" : reading scriptures more/prayer, eating right, running more, less computer/tv time, more time with family and friends, cleaner house, writing in my journal, service, being happy at work (even when snowbirds are cranky), and on and on...

I am working hard to be well rounded and know that even more happiness will come into our lives because of it.

Suns

Last night I put on one of these. Picked up some of these...

Arrived here.And had an amazingly wonderful evening watching the suns kill the hornets. go suns. (i think my voice is going from yelling) Crossin' my fingers for them to beat the lakers tonite.
everyone should have a suns date night! cheapest tickets are usually around 15 bucks. so, 30 bucks plus a few to park - its pretty much the same as going to a movie.

Ta Da

So our life is this exciting. We both got glasses. Dont be alarmed, its still us. Just a little more square. Some other random things we've been upto... going to soccer games...

Justin is in another art class this semester - thank goodness its his last! He is an amazing artist, but it takes up so much time! Here are 2 of the sketches he did towards the beginning.And this is one of my little projects. I went to Goodwill (on half off Saturday of course) and found two fabulous chairs. Not bad - two chairs for EIGHT BUCKS. One i painted green and the other a light blue. I bought some cute green fabric that is going to be on the seat...now all i need to do is find some better batting and a stapler.

Drews Wedding

Yesterday my cousin Drew and his sweet new wife Chloe were sealed in the Mesa Temple. We love them and are so happy to have her in our family! She was gorgeous!!Here are some pictures of their big day.. My friend Melissa and I.Chillin with the Crandells. Amanda came down from Thatcher.My hott husband - dont ask....this van was parked outside the temple. Pretty sweet ha!Family Picture.

November 6, 2009

Happy birthday to me. What more could I want on my day. An awesome husband who got me flowers the night before b/c he leaves too early for work... and a night ahead full of friends at dinner. Thank you for all the birthday wishes!!

This Weekend

We went to Snowflake this weekend. The weather was perfect. My cousin Drew is getting married this coming Saturday and his cutest soon to be wife, Chloe went through the temple there. It was awesome. We then got to visit Justin's grandma Marzell who lives in Snowflake. It was great to be able to just be with her and listen to sooo many great stories. It's amazing to me how you start to realize things when you grow up. You learn that your parents, your grandparents, and everyone else all goes through the same things. Not exactly all in the same way or at the same time...but everyone goes through life. We go through childhood and deal with the struggles that go along with friends and fitting in. We pass through junior high and high school, just trying to survive the peer pressure and again, "fitting in." We all seem to strive to be somewhat normal and live a "normal and happy" life. Most have great and fond memories...we also go through sad times, depression, and feeling let down. We learn and grow. Our testimonies change everyday. Everyone knows what its like to be newly married. You know what its like to struggle on various levels. You also know what it's like to be so happy and in love. Justin's grandma said, "You are struggling together, and that is all that matters. You get to be doing it together." She had so many stories of her testimony, love, family, and all of the things that truly matter. I am grateful to have been able to visit her and feel of her love. It is always good to hear and record the stories of our parents and grandparents...it's their life's story. Someday I know our kids will love to hear some of them.

That's my little thought for the night.

Dad's Birthday

Yesterday my dad turned........a year older :) Happy Birthday to him! I love him more than anything.Justin took some pictures of my brothers and sisters that we printed out for my dad. I think they turned out cute. Its weird that all of them are the same size or taller than me now. You would think my mom would be a little crazy after 6 kids in 8 years!

Pumpkin Party

We had our second annual pumpkin carving party w/ our friends last night. I havent been too good at blogging in the sense of writing lately. Just take too many pictures. They tell the stories I suppose :) We had a lot of fun! The Rohners.The Stenquists.The Goodmans.The Sorensens.The Nyes.The Crandells.Cute cute Babies!And the mess begins! I was surprised at how empty my pumpkin was...there was hardly anything in it. Mostly just the gunky stringy things - not too many seeds.Some of the Finished Pumpkins!

Aww - cute. The little love pumkins haha!

It was a fun pumpkin carving night!

Birthday Babes

Last night we celebrated our little niece's FiRsT BiRtHdAy! Too many pictures to choose from..but Kennedy is too cute! :) With Aunt Jenny!She loves her grandma!And unlce Justin!"Why do I have a bow on my head and why is everyone singing to me with fire?? I love the presents and cake though!!"My favorite picture of her!Of course, among her guests was little cousin Sadie.We also celebrated RYDEN'S second Birthday!! We went to Chuckee Cheese.

Happy Birthday Babes! We love ya!

Our Awesome Trip!