Pics of the New Digs!

Ok, so I think my computer ate some of the pictures I took of the house, or I'm completely incompetent. But, somehow, about half of my pictures were downloaded, and now I just can't find them. So, this post is the basic look of the new house... I don't even have a picture of the house from the outside because the computer ate it... so be patient, I'll work on it :) But, here are some pictures so you get an idea of what things look like!

So, when you walk into the front door, you enter in to the "Formal Dining Room" which I have turned into the "Library/Piano/Beautiful Room". It's also the only room in the entire house (minus my room) that has carpet.... one of the only things I don't LOVE about the house.

After the "Formal Dining Room" you walk down the hall to the "Great Room." This is where our kitchen, dining room, and living room is. So, here's the kitchen--- I'm in LOVE with it! We have a disposal, a dishwasher, a normal size oven, a normal size stove, and an ISLAND!! Talk about a serious upgrade from the kitchen we had before :)

Another favorite feature: Enough counter space that I have my spices in a place where the Bubster can't reach them... ahh, bliss!

Next stop in the "Great Room" is our dining room. Nothing too fancy, but here it is!

The final step in the "Great Room" our Living Room!!! (With our brand new couches/tables/rug) We got a great deal over Labor Day and are SUPER excited about our pretty new stuff!!

The backyard is right off of the Living Room... we LOVE it and can't wait until it's cool enough for us to actually enjoy it! Is it November yet??? We have a hot tub and a thing called a "barzebo" which is basically a wet bar with stools under a gazebo. We'll be using it to serve our "mocktails" and party food when it's nice weather!

We also have GRASS, a lemon, lime, and grapefruit tree, and a cactus in the backyard. The Bubs is scared of the cactus (thankfully), points to it and says, "Cactus, ouchie!!" We are blessed to have such a smart kid :)

So, if you leave the "Great Room" and go back into the "Formal Dining Room" there's a hallway to the left which leads to all of the rooms. This is where the computer eating my pictures starts to really stink. I had a picture of my laundry room (because this is the first laundry room I've had in my house since I left for college in 2003... I'm ECSTATIC about it!), and a picture of "new baby's" room, but they are no where to be found... So anyway, in the hall, the first room you come up to is the Bubster's. Again, nothing fancy, but it works!

Next would be "new baby's" room, but that picture has disappeared, along with my picture of the kids/guest bathroom. Our bedroom is at the end of the hall and it is seriously a master SUITE. We have a ridiculously large closet, a nice sized room, and a LOVELY bathroom all included. Again, the pictures of my closet are gone (so you won't be able to experience the ginormity of it... sorry!) But the rest of the room is present! There's even enough room for our desk/computer-- so I can blog while The Child is sleeping, amazing!!!

So, this is the only picture of my closet that made it. It's our food storage wall. Seriously, this is just ONE wall in my massive closet.... LOVE IT!

So, there is the basic tour of my beautiful new house. Maybe when Brett gets home, he'll be able to find my lost pictures... but if not, I guess you'll just have to come visit us to see the real thing!

Life is CRAZY... and GREAT!

Well, so much has happened in the past week (yes, it's only been a WEEK) that I can't even believe it! Here are the highlights:

* On Tuesday, Aug. 23, Brett got the call that he got the job at Page Family Practice in Tempe, AZ!!! We were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to get the call, and even more excited to know what path we were taking!

*That same day, I called Jerry, our real-estate man, and he got us into our house after only 24 hours!! Pretty unbelievable!

*On Wednesday, Aug. 24, we loaded up our U-Haul at 7:30am, drove down to Gilbert (where our beautiful house is...), and unpacked the U-Haul all by 12:00. Then we took our AMAZING friends who drove down to Gilbert with us to unpack out to lunch at In and Out... don't worry, it was only the hottest day of the entire summer that day. 115 degrees is ideal moving weather :)

*I went to my last "girl's night" and was surprised with an hour massage (HEAVEN!) and a house warming gift to buy something for our new house... we're getting new couches this weekend!!!!!!!

*On Thursday, Aug. 25, Brett had his Graduation Luncheon at this spiffy Country Club. Even though the sound system was having SERIOUS issues, the main speaker rambled on for an ETERNITY, and we were the last table (literally, the very last table) to be served our food, it was still a fun time where Brett got to see a lot of his classmates and brag about his new job :)

*On Friday, Aug. 26, Brett GRADUATED!!! Best graduation I've ever been to! The speeches were concise and to the point, the hooding was SUPER cool, and I was SO proud that of everything that he accomplished! He's such a stud!

*Then we finished packing up our apartment, said goodbye to our friends and to Midwestern, and drove down to Gilbert to stay! Super bitter sweet moment for all of us! We will miss Glendale SOOOOOOO much, but we are so excited to be starting this new chapter in our lives.

*The past few days have consisted of Brett studying like a mad man for Boards (he's taking them on Sept. 12th.) and me feverishly unpacking my house. I'm happy to report that I have succeeded! (Well, I haven't put up any pictures yet), but I have unloaded every other box in the house-- HUZZAH!

So, needless to say, this past week has been a complete WHIRLWIND. I have never been so tired in all of my life, but we are SOOOOOOO happy. We have seen the Lord's hand in everything that has happened in the past week, and are so grateful for the way that things have turned out. We feel like it really was the plan that was meant for us!! So, now we just need Brett to pass this test... he starts work on the 14th, and we'd love to see him stay there :)

Oh, and we have the BIG ultrasound on the 13th to see what our sweet baby #2 is! So excited!

---I'll post pictures of the house soon....it' SO cute!----

Life is Hard...

This past week has been a rough one in our house.

It started off SO well, with the return of my best friend, Sarah, to Arizona. They had gone to Utah for the summer, so I was THRILLED to have them come back. I've also been starting to feel a little bit better the past couple of weeks. This baby seems very determined to keep me feeling sick for eternity... but things were finally starting to look up in that department. Then it hit:

*We found out that there was fraudulent activity on our credit card. A dude in CA had been spending our money on clothes, gas, pet food, and STARBUCKS... really? I could use a cool Vanilla Bean Creme Frapp. right now....

*Brett's cousin, Tyler, passed away after a 4 year battle with brain cancer. So, this was hard, but good at the same time because we know that Tyler is WAY happier where he is now. We'll miss him, but we are SO grateful for the opportunity we had to visit him when we were up in Washington a few weeks ago.

*We found out today that we didn't get the job in Pasco. We had kind of figured things weren't looking too great when they didn't contact us for 2 weeks, but it was still a blow to get the rejection e-mail. We're hanging in there, but are very disappointed... we wanted that job really bad. So, now it's back to square one-- we just need to keep plugging away, and doing our part, and we know that Heavenly Father's got our backs.

We're now less than a month away from graduation. On one hand, that is the coolest news EVER! On the other hand, we are scared out of our minds... I'm not sure we're quite ready to be in the "real world".

So even though it's been a pretty tough week, things will start looking up, I'm sure. I've always liked the phrase, "When God shuts a door, he opens a window" (is that how the phrase goes? Welp, I'm gonna say that's it, 'cause I like it that way...) Now we just need to find that window and keep going. Thank you for all of the love and support that you've given us-- keep sending it our way, we're in need of it more now than ever! At least we're going to Harry Potter tonight... something to get us out of our slump... we can always count on Harry :)

Expecting....

Expecting the Bubs to be a sweet angel today :)....



Expecting it to be 113 degrees today...




Expecting the air conditioning in my car to get fixed tonight....



Expecting Brett to have a fantastic first day of his LAST rotation!!...



Expecting to hear good news (we hope) from Pasco by the end of the week....



Expecting the house I fell in love with to still be available in Pasco....



Expecting to feel more like myself after this week...



Expecting our second, sweet, baby on January 27, 2012!!!

Triathlon #2 and Some Other Gems...

I feel like I start every blog post with this statement.... "Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated this blog!" Well, my feelings remain the same. I have the best intentions to be more constistent with blogging, and yet always falter in my achievement of it. So, let's play catch up, yet again, for the past couple of months.

April 30th, 2011

*First things first... some friends and I put together a little traithlon. We swam in our pool on campus, biked on the Skunk Creek Trail (which is practically our backyard), and ran a sweet route back to campus. There were several things that I loved about this race:

1. You could take it at your own pace. We had girls that just biked and ran, we had girls that biked for 8 miles and some that biked for 12, etc. So there wasn't really any pressure, and it was just FUN.

2. There were only 4 people in the pool at the same time :) As opposed to the 12 people in one lane at a time during my 1st Tri. I was able to have my fastest swim time EVER (up until that point) at 9:56. (Because I'm the best swimmer ever now [tee hee], and actually like to swim, I've cut that time down to 8:26 and am trying to get even faster!!!)

3. Amanda and Chris set up a rotation station that had gatorade and fresh fruit for us. They timed us, figured out our splits, made a sweet poster for us, and took pictures of us throughout the entire event. It wouldn't have been NEARLY as awesome without them-- they were the stars of the day!

Needless to say, it was a really good day and I was so proud of the girls that went through with it. We all trained together, and it was awesome to see everyone crossing that finish line. What an accomplishment! I felt really good about the race personally. My goals were to beat my first Tri time (2 hrs. and 4 minutes), and to run the whole 5k. In my first Tri, I got a serious cramp in my quad and had to walk a majority of the 5k, so I really wanted to run the whole thing this time. Happy to report that I accomplished both goals. I finished the race at 1 hr. 33 minutes!! I was also able to run the whole 5k. My only disappointment was that I felt I should have pushed myself a little harder in the 5k. But, I was so worried about pushing too hard at the beginning and then not being able to finish strong, that I just took things slowly all around. Next time, I think I'll push just a little harder :)

Here are some pics from the event!

Me racing towards the finish line. Did I mention that it was SOOOOOO windy the day of the race? We were going against the wind for most of the bike and most of the run, so that made things pretty hard core.... what a challenge!

Woot Woot!! I did it!

My sweet support team! Love my boys!

All the lovely ladies involved: Maria, Rayna, Sarah, Me, Camille, Anslin's MIL, Flo, and Linsey... and that's Amanda's hand (nice photography, Brett :))

Whew! Ok, onto other gems:

Uhh... struggling to remember ANYTHING exciting that happened last month. Maybe this is why I don't update the blog very often....

So, here's a fun picture just for kicks. Brett and I went to PF Changs for our anniversary and got the delicious Mongolian Beef. We had leftovers for lunch the next day and innocently threw the container in the recycle bin. Little did we know that our little scavenger (aka The Bubs) had gotten into the recycling bin, until this sweet little face greeted us:

No, that's not leprosy, folks... it's the Mongolian Beef sauce remnants. He had gotten the old container out and was sampling some of it for himself-- rude that we didn't offer any to him, huh? You gotta do, what you gotta do... I mean, it was MONGOLIAN BEEF!

Last but not least, we are still in limbo waiting for a miracle-- a job offer :) Brett got a call last week from Pasco, WA which is looking promising (MAYBE... and now I'm knocking on wood, frantically.) We should know by the end of the week if we get to go for a personal interview. Other than that, there have been no takers, but we have not hit complete panic mode yet (other than the mental break downs that I have almost every other day) and are hopeful that things will work out, and work out in our best interest. Keep those prayers coming, peeps! Welp, someday, when I get around to it, I'll post pictures from our trip to Prescott. Kind of a disaster of a trip, but some silly pictures and memories to ease the throbbing pain of one night in a hotel room with my son...so stay tuned for that :)

Our Crazy Month!!

April has turned out to be quite the month for our family! We've been incredibly busy, and doing such fun things... here's a recap for you!

Just for kicks, Brett and I decided to go the Stanley Cup Playoffs!! We were in attendance for the 4th game in the series between the Coyotes and the Red Wings. Now, obviously, we were rooting for the Coyotes (because I have an intense hatred for the Red Wings and because they're our home town team.... for now) but we were surprised by how many Red Wings fans there were. We were SURROUNDED by them! I thought the guys behind us were going to be a problem... they were loud, crass, and drunk-- but as the Red Wings kept getting better throughout the game, their attitudes got better too, so we were able to have fun anyway. We did end up losing (6-3, and they got swept in the series...) but it was nice to be able to be rooting for the home team. The only other times we've gone to a Coyotes game is when the Av's are here and we're cheering for MY team... so it was nice to celebrate when the big buzzer is going off for once :) Even though we lost, we still had a great time, and now I can say that I've been to a Playoffs game :) (Check that off the bucket list!)

My first Playoff game! Go Coyotes!

Next up, is Easter! The Bubs unfortunately got pretty sick the Thursday before Easter. By Saturday, he was doing a lot better, but wasn't quite up to par. So, he missed the Midwestern Easter Egg hunt. (It's a pretty big deal up here, kind of like a carnival...) So, we decided that we had to make our own egg hunt for him. We colored the eggs and then I went and hid them on the lawn out by our pool, and Brett brought the Bubster with his Easter basket to collect the goods. Then the Easter Bunny came while we were gone and brought us fun new books, toys, and a frisbee for Brett and I :) We had a great Easter Sunday and had a fantastic meal with our best buds, Sarah, Greg and Macy! What a perfect way to end such a wonderful day!

Man, are we talented egg colorists, or what??

My child has been obsessed with placing things on his head and walking around while he can't see. Case in point: In the pictures below is the box that his Alphabet blocks go in. He put this on his head and started walking around the house with the box covering his eyes. That means he was running into walls, chairs, and anything else that got in his way. He would fall over, start laughing, bring the box up and say "peek-a-boo" and then would put the box back over his eyes and start walking around again. Greatest. Game. Ever. He repeated this fun game when we were at the playground yesterday. He found a massive bucket, stuck it on his head and continued to walk around and run into the fence, the playground equipment, etc. What a nut!

Uhh... excuse his nakedness-- I don't remember why his shirt was off, but I'm sure there's a very good reason :)

Happy Easter! Here we are in our Easter best. Thanks to Mama Rae for the sweet vest, and I was excited to wear a dress that I haven't fit into for about 2 years :)

Bubs and Macy playing the piano! (They are incredibly skilled....)

Brett and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary yesterday! We went to PF Changs, ate a TON of good food, and then watched the Proposal (because... it has to do with getting married....)

So, there's the end of the month for us! I have my Tri on Saturday, and then life (luckily) is going to slow down a little bit! The last couple of weeks have been a little hectic and I'm ready for a break!!

"B" Week

I put together an Alphabet Learning program while the Bubs was immobile (gosh, weren't those the days??) We started it a little while ago-- and he's ROCKIN' it! He can say the sounds for all of the letters of the alphabet (well, except for 'n', he usually just makes the 'm' sound for that one too...) and he recognizes most of the letters and can name a few. My favorite is when I wear t-shirts with writing on them and all of a sudden he'll just start pointing and yelling, "wah-wah-wah" (That's what the 'W' says.) I was wearing a Colorado Avalanche shirt the other day and he was going CRAZY pointing at all of the letters...

Anyway, just wanted to post a pic of adorableness from our "B" week. It was "Baker" day. We learned what a baker was, colored a picture of a baker, made a baker hat, read "The Little Red Hen", and of course... baked! We made chocolate banana bread and then tasted our creation.... here was the result:

Before partaking:

My Little Baker!

Dang, I love this kid! Happy baking!