josh & jen +3 pups ♥

Temple Lights (12/14/11)

2012-01-30T12:53:00.004-07:00

We are lucky enough to have one of Josh's sister's living fairly close to us. She is in Tucson going to UofA and every once in a while she makes a trip up here and we get to spend a little time with her.
On December 14th we all went to the Mesa Temple lights. We went and had dinner at Cafe Rio first which made me extremely happy!!

Zoo Lights (12/09/11)

2012-01-30T12:44:00.002-07:00

In December we went to the Zoo Lights with some of our friends. Presley wasn't really impressedso she slept through the whole thing.

We had a good time and got to wear our jackets and feel sort of like it was Christmas time.

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Here's just a silly picture of Presley. Apparently something I told her shocked her sweet little ears.

Sleepy Baby Video

2012-01-29T22:49:00.004-07:00

Here's a cute little video of Presley on 1/18/12. She was trying to stay awake, but having a hard time.

2011

2012-01-08T21:51:00.001-07:00

2011..... it's over!

2011-12-31T23:42:00.002-07:00

I can't believe this year has come to it's end already! This year has been a crazy one for us, but it's been full of so many amazing things too. We've been so blessed in so many ways, with protection and health and the sweetest blessing of all.... our little Presley Faye!!
It's crazy to think of how much our lives have changed in just a year. Last year at this time we were still getting used to the idea that I was pregnant. My morning sickness started on New Years Day of 2011 and then the pregnancy felt a whole lot more real to me lol.
One of my resolutions will be to do better at updating my blog. I never feel like I have the time to do it, but I need to do better.
Happy New Year to everyone, I hope that 2012 is great for all of us!!

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-21T17:25:00.002-07:00

Here is a little something to make you smile
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/eEWBA8hv4QRwX92ExoRQ
Merry Christmas!!!

Presley Faye Roper 8/25/11

2011-11-20T21:57:00.008-07:00

Well........ she's here!!

(I know I'm about 3 months late in posting this. Sorry, but it's been a crazy couple of months ;)
Presley Faye Roper was born on Augst 25th, 2011 at 3pm via c-section.

She weighed 7lbs 2oz (one ounce smaller than I guessed) and was 20 inches long.

Right before we went to the hospital....
I've been putting off updating our blog because there has just been SO MUCH going on that I think I've been a little overwhelmed at the thought of it.

The whole hospital experience was crazy, but totally worth the little angel we were able to bring home with us. I've tried typing out the story, but my first version was about 10 pages long, lol. I tried a second time with less details, but I still don't know if I'm going to post it.

Long story short..... I got induced because my fluid levels were low and they were worried about the baby. After a horrible night and 12 hours of the most intense pain

I've ever felt (and could've NEVER imagined) I was finally given an epidural. But then the baby wasn't tolerating things very well and her heart rate kept dropping. After trying lots of things and even getting dialated to a 9.5 they felt the need to get her out ASAP.

about to head in for the c-section.....
The c-section was a crazy thing to experience..... having your body being cut open while you're wide awake, and smelling your own burning flesh, EW!

I was so happy when they finally let Josh come in and sit by my head. He got to watch them actually pull Presley out of me too. It was a huge relief to hear her start screaming and then catch a glimpse of her as they walked her past me. They brought her to my face after a few minutes and I finally got to meet my baby girl!!

They then took her out and Josh got to spend the first 45minutes with her while I got put back together.I eventually got taken to recovery and was able to hold her and touch her and get some bonding time.

The next several days were spent in the hospital and they are all a little blurry to me. The lack of sleep and the pain meds make it all mush together in my head.

I was hardly able to move from the pain and Josh had to do almost everything for the baby. He was amazing (and still is). He loves his little girl and is such a good daddy!

When it came time for us to leave the hospital I was scared. I had wonderful nurses taking care of me for 4 days, and I was nervous about having to take care of myself and a brand new baby. We survived though, with a little help from my mom and then my mother inlaw.

I love being at home with my baby girl! She has been such a good baby, we are really blessed! (Plus she is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen :)

38 Weeks! & Soccer

2011-08-17T11:20:00.003-07:00

Well we have officially hit the 38 week mark in my pregnancy! It is still hard to believe that this baby will be here anytime now! I've been really lucky and have had a fairly easy pregnancy, and even these last weeks I've been feeling pretty good. I get sore from getting kicked in the ribs all day, but that's just part of it I guess (this little girl is VERY active!). I haven't had any food cravings, no swelling, no crazy emotions etc. I'm still working, but am now working from home at least 2 days a week. My work has been amazing and lets me do whatever I need to, and will let me work from home after the baby is born. I've run out of things to do to get ready for the baby, so now we just wait!

In other news..... Josh plays indoor soccer with a bunch of his friends (mostly from work). They have been playing for several seasons and their team has been getting better and better. Well they just won the championship a few weeks ago so that was fun! They were tied with only 14 seconds left to play and guess who scored the game winning shot?! Yep, my Joshua did! :)

Some of July.....

2011-08-12T12:16:00.004-07:00

Well we almost added a new doggy to our family..... (not really, but kinda). A guy that works with Josh found this puppy in a foreclosed housea couple of weeks ago. Josh brought her home for the night until one of his friends could take her the next day. I knew there was no WAY I wanted a puppy right now! I'm about to have a baby, I don't need to be cleaning up puppy poop and baby poop! It was hard to not fall for the little girl though because she was a sweety. She loved Josh and our other dogs and was extremely smart! She figured out the doggy door after watching our dogs use it ONE time! But after having her at our house for about 18 hours and having to constantly keep an eye on her I was even more sure that I didn't need that added burden right now (plus we already have 3 dogs!) So when Josh took her away the next evening I wasn't even sad, lol.

We had one final ultrasound of our baby girl a couple of weeks ago also. My belly was apparently measuring small so they wanted to check on her growth. Everything looked fine, and she was actually measuring about a week ahead. They guessed ther to be at about 6lbs 10oz a the time. They tried to get some 3D pics of her face, but she was all snuggled up into the placenta so this pic is all we got. (it's her nose and mouth)

Here are a couple of belly shots over the past several weeks as well.....

And then here is a comparison belly shot (same outfit). One taken at 27 weeks, and one at 37 weeks....

NKOTBSB Concert (June 30th)

2011-07-22T10:39:00.003-07:00

Ever since I can remember I have LOVED the Backstreet Boys! My older sister and I had all of their songs memorized and would make up dances etc to them.

I told Josh a couple of years ago that if the BSB ever came here in concert that I was going! Welllllllllllll late last year I got an email alert from tickmaster letting me know that the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys were coming to Phoenix in concert! The concert wouldn't be until the end of June 2011, but I didn't care! I got on there the second the pre-sale started and I bought the best tickets I could find.

Then I had to wait...... for 7 months..... for the day to come. But it was all worth it!!

I felt like a little teenage girl again! And so did all of the other fans there! The screaming in that place was crazy. I thought it might be a little weird for a 31 week pregnant girl to be going to the concert and swooning over the BSB, but I was not the only preggo there! There were a BUNCH of us, lol. I guess all of us that were fans back in the day are now in our "family mode".
The concert lasted for about 4 hours and we had to stand the whole time because everyone was just to excited to sit I guess. My poor preggo feet, legs and back had a hard time doing this, and I was having horrible charlie horses for the last hour or so. But it was Still worth it!
We ended up having amazing seats! We were only a couple of rows up from the floor, and right on an aisle. Which happened to be the aisle that a couple of the BSB walked down during a part of the concert! We screamed like little girls and were so excited that we got to touch the BSB!! lol

The New Kids on the Block were a little before my time so I wasn't as excited about seeing them. But oh my goodness, it was crazy seeing the "older" group of fans going crazy for them! These ladies were in their 30-40s and acting like 12 year olds, lol.
It was the best concert I have ever been to, and probably ever will go to! It might have to do with how much I love them, but it was still great!!
Don't be surprised if my baby comes out singing and dancing to the Backstreet Boys! She was moving the Whole time, I'm going to just assume it was because she loved the music so much. (and not because of mine, and everyone elses screaming) lol.

Baby Shower (June 18th)

2011-07-22T10:15:00.005-07:00

We had a great time for my baby shower! Josh's parents, brother and 2 of his sisters were able to come down for it and stay with us for several days. My whole family (minus Rebecca) were able to come down for the day as well.

(Roper family at The Cheesecake Factory)

(MacKay girls at my shower)

(Roper girls at my shower)

(My friend Amanda, she threw the wonderful shower for me. In this pic I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant and she is 36 weeks pregnant)

(with Heidi and Bernie)

(with EmmaLee, my youngest sister)

We had a swim/BBQ party at our house after the shower. Torque was in heaven getting loves from everyone. He especially loved to swim to Jordan in the pool and give him lots of kisses.

Melanie and Josh decided to have a cake fight at the end of the night. I think we can all guess who lost in the end..... :)

(Me and Melanie at the end of the night)

It was a great day and we had so much fun spending time with both of our families! We were also given a ton of wonderful stuff for our little baby girl! It's so nice to know how much love and support we have.

Washington DC Trip (May 4th-8th)

2011-07-22T09:43:00.006-07:00

For our vacation this year we decided to go to Washington DC and be tourists for a couple of days. Josh's parents came with us and were very good tour giudes :).
The night we flew in we stopped by the temple, it was amazing! I wish we could've seen the temple grounds in the daylight, but the temple lit up at night was beautiful!

We went to Gettysburg and did the full tour. It was SO much information, but it was really neat to see everything.

One of the days there we spent touring the Capital and places around it.

(with Brigham Young statue)

One of the stops we made was the Fallen Officer's Memorial. This was such a peaceful place.... and so beautiful!
All I can say is, I better never have to go there and see my Josh's name on that wall!!
We went out at night and saw the monuments all lit up as well. They are pretty impressive that way! We walked SO much and I was exhuasted, but it was all worth it! (this was at 23 weeks pregnant)
We also went on a boat tour that took us past the monuments from a different view. It stopped in Georgetown and we were able to spend a couple of hours there.

The day we flew home happened to be my Mother's Day and my Birthday. So we decided to run and get a piece of cake to celebrate.
We had a great time, it was a once in a lieftime trip and I'm so glad we were able to do it. The weather was even perfect!

I almost had a heart attack when we got home. I went to transfer all of the pictures I took from our trip onto the computer, but they all dissapeared! It said there was nothing on the memory card. After trying several more times and nothing working I freaked out and started bawling. I was so heartbroken that I had lost all of those pictures! I tried calling several computer repair type places and they all said the could "try" to recover the pictures, but the minimum cost would be $200ish, and that was even if they couldn't save my pics! I started googling and eventually found this site that offered recovery software, and would do a search before you had to pay for it to see if it would work. I did the free search and all of my pictures popped up on the screen!! I was so happy, I immediately paid the small price and got all of my pictures back! phew!!

Needless to say, I love our vacation pics even more now!

Nursery Progress

2011-05-27T10:29:00.005-07:00

Well we got started on the nursery walls last weekend. It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be, but in the end it turned out just how I wanted it!!

We put up wainscoting and a chair rail, and painted the top half of the wall a very light pink color. This picture is not very good, but I'll get a better one later when I have some more of the decor set up.

After getting the walls done Josh decided he wanted to get the crib and changing table set up too. I was exhausted and had been having braxton hicks contractions all weekend from being so busy, but we got it done anyways. It's still hard to comprehend that this baby furniture is for OUR baby and that in just a few short months that baby will be here!

I'm on the edge of entering my 3rd trimester now, the little girl moves ALL THE TIME, I've got a baby belly and a nursery and it still doesn't seem real to me.

I've been feeling great for the past several months which has been so nice! But ever since this past weekend I've been pretty worn out. I've also been having braxton hicks contractions since then too. I feel like I'm getting nice and fat, but as of my last Dr appointment I was only up 1lb of my pre-pregnancy weight. Seems weird since I have this belly now and my baby weighs about a pound and a half. I'm sure the scale will start going up, up, UP now.

Here is my most recent belly pic from earlier this week.

We are also now in the DOUBLE DIGITS!! Only 94 days left until my due date!!

Glider Chair Project

2011-05-13T16:22:00.002-07:00

I knew I wanted to have a white glider to go in our nursery, but there were none that had a material/pattern I liked on the cushions. So I decided to try out reupholstering on this glider.

I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! And I'm shocked that it looks as good as it does since this is my first time EVER trying something like this. So far my sewing experiments have been on a smaller scale, like blankets and nursing covers (things with lots of straight lines, lol)
Now I have one thing checked off my list of things to do before this baby comes! I can't wait to get the nursery painted and put together!

Spring Training

2011-05-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

Back in March we went to a spring training baseball game with our friends. It was perfect weather and we had a fun time. I think it was the Rockies and Dodgers playing...... honestly I didn't pay attention :) there was to much good food and fun.

(here's my belly at 17 weeks pregnant.)

Our Backyard

2011-05-03T10:50:00.010-07:00

Since we've moved in to this house back in 2008 we've had to replace so many trees in our backyard and we are sick of it! The trees were all dead when we moved in because they hadn't been watered in so long. So we ripped everything out and planted 5 new Queen Palms.

This was the yard when we moved in....
UGLY!!

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Here is right after we planted the 5 new trees....
They didn't last very long. Apparently we didn't water them enough.... or something dumb like that. lol. Only ONE survived. So we kept it and planted a little bush palm as well.
Then we added a mexican fan falm to the corner

Our dogs almost killed this tree one time when we were on vacation. They chewed up the bottom "bark" area pretty bad, but the tree survived. (We finally figured out how much water to give the trees)

Then this winter we had several hard freezes, and we lost several of our plant/trees. The queen palm (Which is not the original one anymore, it was replaced 2 more times because they all died) froze and wasn't coming back very good so we decided to give up on the queen palms for good!
Here it is before we pulled it out......

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And TA-DA!! now we have this pretty mexican fan palm in it's place.

We added some retaining wall planters and a couple of hibiscus trees and the yard looks really nice right now. Hopefully we won't have to be buying any more trees for a loooooooooooooong time!

And we got it all done just in time for pool season! :)

My "Mom Car"

2011-04-28T15:57:00.002-07:00

With me being pregnant, and the price of gas going up and up and up, we decided it would be a good idea to look into buying a "mom car" for me. We decided on getting an Equinox since they have a big back seat and get good gas mileage (and I like how they look). So back at the end of February we traded in the big blue Tacoma *sniff sniff* for my new Equinox.

We both LOVED the Tacoma, but not the gas mileage it was getting. Plus the back seat would be a pretty tight fit for a car seat. It was really sad to drive away from that truck and leave it at the dealer, but we were happy that we got what we wanted for it, and got a good deal on the Equinox.
I have to say I still love my new car! ♥

Insight Bowl & New Years Eve (Dec 2010)

2011-04-28T15:34:00.002-07:00

Okay, so I'm a little late on posting these pics. But better late than never :)

In Decemeber I was given 4 free tickets for the Insight Bowl football game in Tempe. We brought our friend cole and one of his friends. It was fun, and the seats were GREAT, but it was also really cold!
I was more than ready to go home when the game was over :)

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New Years Eve 2010!!

Josh and I wanted to just have a low key NYE and just relax. We went out to dinner and then went and saw a movie..... I can't even remember what movie we saw. We got out of the movie at about 11:30pm with missed phone calls and texts from our friend's asking why we weren't at their NYE party. We felt guilty and decided to try to make it out to their house before midnight. We got there with a little bit of time to spare and got to celebrate a little bit with our friends. It was a fun night, good way to start the new year.

The next night I went on a ride-along with Josh. It was freezing cold, and my morning sickness decided to start that evening as well. Ugh, not fun. Morning sickness lasted for about 6 weeks. I didn't throw up at all, but I felt nauseous ALL THE TIME! It was horrible! I'm so happy to be past that nastiness of never feeling good, and having to force bland crackers down your throat....... blah! Good thing I didn't know how crappy I would feel or I might have waited a loooooooong time to get pregnant. lol

Accident

2011-04-08T14:07:00.006-07:00

Back on March 13th Josh was in a pretty bad accident while at work. Both him and his partner were lucky to walk away with only some minor bumps and bruises, and lots of soreness. I got the scary phone call in the middle of the night that my husband was in an accident and was on his way to a hospital. I was told that someone was coming to get me and that I should get up and get dressed and grab my purse. One of our friends from our ward was there to pick me up before I even had the chance to get dressed. It's a long drive from where we live to the downtown hospital where they took him and I knew nothing about his condition other than "he has all of his limbs".

When we got to the hospital we were taken to a little room where I was greeted by some of Josh's squad/friends, and his partner's girlfriend. I found out a tiny bit more about the accident and that Josh was awake and alert, but hadn't been able to walk or stand after he had been dragged from the car. I was given a bag of his things including phone/wallet/boots/cut up clothing etc. I was amazed that his phone didn't have a scratch on it!

A Doctor came by to let us know that once they were done getting their CAT scans done that we would be allowed back to see them. (They had only barely beat me to the hospital) The Doctor also told us how lucky the guys were that they even survived that accident, and that it was a miracle the shape they were in! (He told us that they just had a guy come in that had fallen off of a mechanical bull and was hurt worse than our guys appeared to be)

A few minutes later we were escorted back to where they were in the triage area. The two guys were laid out and still strapped to the ambulance stretchers in neck braces, surrounded by Dr's/nurses, paramedics and other cops.. I went over to Josh and it was quite a shock to see him like that. I never think of him as a weak person, so to see him on a stretcher with a neck brace and blood on his face and hands and head...... VERY weird/scary. I got to his face and said hi to him and we both got tears in our eyes. It was such a relief to see him.

Neither him nor his partner had any broken bones. His partner did have a couple of cuts/gashes on his arm and was given some stitches. They had small nicks on their hands, faces and arms from the glass. They also had tiny pieces of glass, all over them and in their hair and eyebrows. They were eventually moved to room and we finally were able to confirm that Josh could walk. They were both very sore. We were discharged from the hospital the next day.

(This picture is when we left the hospital. They had had their clothes cut off of them so had to wear their hospital gowns home :) )

It was a very long and exhausting experience for all of us! But we are so grateful that they both were able to come home, and with nothing horribly wrong.

Here is a news video about it....

2 Officers, Driver of Pickup Hurt in Phoenix Wreck: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

It's a............................

2011-04-04T16:42:00.004-07:00

GIRL!!!! Last Wednesday (March 30th) we had our gender ultrasound and found out that we are having a little baby Girl!! We are SO excited! (The picture above is me on the u/s day. 18weeks 2days) I drank a bunch of water and orange juice before our appointment. Apparently the baby liked the OJ because she was moving around the whole time! The tech asked us if we wanted to find out the sex and we said YES! She asked us what we thought it would be. Josh said he didn't know and I said I thought it was a girl. I wasn't really surprised when she told us that it was indeed a Girl. Before we started the tech asked me if I had been feeling the baby move at all. I answered that I "thought" I was, but wasn't sure if it was really the baby or not. Well during the ultrasound the tech took the wand off of my belly to type something and I felt a big movement in my belly, stronger than anything I've felt before. I told her that I had just felt the baby move! When she put the wand back the baby had flipped completely over and was still wiggling around. It was SO cute to see her moving and kicking me! We laughed a lot and I wish we could have an ultrasound every day! She was so cute and feisty, I can't wait to meet her! (Here is a picture of her open eye) (She's kicking me in this one)

I don't know if I can wait another 5 months before seeing her again. I'm thinking we might have to go and get a 3d/4d ultrasound done in a couple of months! :)

First Comes Love.....

2011-01-24T11:11:00.003-07:00

Then Comes Marriage.......

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Then Comes THIS!!

A Baby in the Roper carriage....... :)

We are very happy to say that we are PREGNANT! I am due on August 29th, and so far this baby is kicking my BUTT!
I thought I had some idea what morning sickness would be like, but I had NO idea! lol.

We are both very excited about this pregnancy and all of the exciting changes coming our way!! ♥

Christmas 2010 / New Mexico

2010-12-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

We were able to be with my in-laws for Christmas this year. We had a great time with them, and played more board games in a couple of days than I think I have played in my whole life combined! lol.

On our drive up to be with the Ropers we were able to stop by my parent's house. We spent the night there, dropped off their Christmas presents and got to spend a little bit of "Christmas time" together with them.

We had a really nice dinner on Christmas Eve! Then Christmas morning got woken up at 8am on the dot to go open presents :)

We all got lots great stuff, and it was fun to be with the Roper family since we've never been at their house for a holiday.

I remember now why I don't like board games very much...... because I always LOSE! But we had a lot of fun playing them.

Josh and his dad had a little tournament with the basketball game below....
Which ended in this...... I'm pretty sure one of them was cheating, but I'm not sure which. :)
Lots of yummy food being made.

It was a great Christmas and we are very happy we were able to be with people we love.

Our Early Christmas 12/21/10

2010-12-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Because we were planning on going to New Mexico for Christmas to spend it with my in-laws we decided to open all of our presents before Christmas. We didn't want to worry about lugging them all up, and then back with us. So the day before we left town we had our early Christmas celebration :)

We both got spoiled pretty badly! But it was lots of fun.

I finally allowed Josh to buy me some pink golf clubs..... they are pretty awesome!

Sedona AZ (Dec 17th-19th)

2010-12-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

My very sweet and loving husband planned a little romantic getaway with one of his good friends from work. They wanted to take their girls up to Sedona to see the Christmas lights and just have a nice relaxing weekend. We had a little bit of rainy weather, which ended up ruining the plans of seeing the lights. Apparently they aren't fond of plugging in thousands of extension cords in puddles of water...... lame.

But we had a great time anyways! We found out that Sedona closes WAYYYYYY early, even on Friday nights! We couldn't find anywhere open to eat dinner the night we got in there! We eventually found a little diner.... an alien diner.... LOL. The lighting was red neon lights inside and there were weird alien things hanging from the ceiling and everywhere. It was a silly little place, but the food tasted okay to us starving tourists.

The next day we went walking/shopping. We mostly bought food, lots and lots of yummy food! My favorite thing in Sedona is to get caramel apples from the chocolate store. Each time we go up there I make sure Josh buys me at least one! (When we were up there for Valentines Day I think we bought 3, lol.)

The scenery was still beautiful, with the big clouds all around.

We had dinner at a very nice place, and it was a very VERY nice dinner! We basically had our own private table for our group, next to this huge fire place. The whole place was decorated for Christmas and was so pretty!

It was such a nice weekend! I'm so glad I have such a sweet husband! ♥

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

We were able to go up to my parent's house for Thanksgiving this year. We were missing my sister Rebecca and her fiance Todd (they had just moved up to Utah) and my sister Kirstie, David and baby John (they were with his family).
We had TONS fo really yummy food and just spent lots of time together. ♥
We also took some pictures of the whole group together, as well as the "families".Here are the 2 grandsons together :)
(John & Kash) Lil baby John was such a cutie!
My parents and my sisters that are still at home...
And then my family, Me, Josh and our 3 doggies.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2010-12-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

Double Baptism ♥

2010-11-30T11:40:00.007-07:00

On September 11th my youngest sister and my newest Brother-in-law got baptized. It was really special to be able to be there to see them both make such a wonderful choice!! Josh wasn't able to get work off to go, so I tried to make it feel like he was there by adding him to the picture below. :)

See below...
Here is David after getting baptized and confirmed.
It was really neat to see him make the choice to be baptized. Hopefully in the near future we will be able to go to the temple to see him and Kirstie get sealed to eachother and little baby John so they can be together forever!

My parents and EmmaLee
John, Kirstie and David

My Family ♥

California Trip (Aug/Sept)

2010-11-30T11:25:00.003-07:00

We took a week long vacation to California at the end of August. We stayed in the Anaheim area and had a ton of fun! We had our friends Matt & Amanda, and Charlie and Amanda come with us. We went to the beach a couple of times, shopping, eating good food, 6 Flags, more shopping, more eating, swimming, relaxing, and the boys went golfing several times.

At Seal Beach Huntington Beach

The whole group eating some delicious food!

Seal Beach

2 Year Anniversary! ♥

2010-08-27T10:29:00.004-07:00

♥ August 1st ♥ I can't believe that it's been 2 years since I married this guy! The time has gone by so quick, and we've done so much since then. I'm so glad that I have Josh for eternity and I love him so much! I don't know what I'd do without him and I'm so greatful for everything he does for me! I couldn't have found someone that fits me better than him and he makes me so happy every single day! I love you Josh, Happy Anniversary!

Shooting

2010-08-27T10:15:00.002-07:00

Josh's parents and sister Bethany came to Arizona for a couple of days back in June. They were able to spend a little bit of time with us while they were here. We took them shooting so they could try out different types of hand guns.

Here are a few pictures we took.....I have to add a little story :)
Josh and his dad decided to have a shooting contest and take turns and see who could shoot a glass beer bottle they found. They kept trying and neither one of them could get it. I told them I wanted to try so I took my pink gun and hit the bottle on my FIRST SHOT! hehe
They were a little sad that I ruined their game by breaking the bottle, so they went and found another one to try for. After trying and failing to hit that one they gave me my gun to see if my first shot was a fluke. Well I hit this bottle on my third shot (it was windy, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ;) After that they ended the game and we went home. lol

Big & Little Torque

2010-08-27T09:56:00.004-07:00

Here are some pictures of Torque when he was a puppy and now, they were taken about one year apart......He loves to be held in the pool. He will swim over to you and let you grab him and he will hug you and give lots of kisses.He loved to hang out on the boogie board. This year he is to big and it sinks when he stands on it.

So instead he floats around on the floaties getting a nice tan :)

Jonah's Blessing Pics

2010-08-06T13:11:00.003-07:00

Here are some pictures from little Jonah's blessing day.....

Such a cute little guy! We are so glad that we were able to go up and meet him and be there for his blessing! I wish our families lived closer to us!!

Utah Trip - July

2010-08-05T16:18:00.008-07:00

Josh and I were able to drive up to Utah in the middle of July to spend some time with his family, and to see our new nephew Jonah be blessed. I took a bunch of pictures of my nephews while we were there and also got some of one our dinner we had.

(We decided to bring our dogs along with us and they LOVED playing with our nephews! You will see a few pics below showing that :)

(This picture below shows how sweet our Torque is! He would just sit there and let the kids pull on him and sit on him and love him :) He is seriously the Sweetest dog out there!)

I took over 400 pictures in just two days. I'll add a few more to a later post showing our new nephew and his proud parents ♥

My Nephew: John

2010-07-07T12:00:00.003-07:00

Here are some of the pictures I took of my nephew John. (My little sister Kirstie's baby)
Giving First-Time-Grandpa some kisses
And the proud new Grandma (weird! lol)

He was such a happy little guy for me :)

With his mommy & daddy

My Doggies

2010-07-07T11:35:00.004-07:00

These are my doggies. I just wanted to share some cute pics of them :)

My little sis...

2010-06-11T16:17:00.003-07:00

♥ This big, pretty belly belongs to my little sister Kirstie.....
She was nice enough to let me use her (and her hubby David) as my guinea pigs to try out my new camera. I probably had the most fun out of everyone :)

I took HUNDREDS of shots of them and I'm having a hard time picking just a few to go on here so I apologize for the overload of preggy sister pics. lol

(I love her smile in this one ^^)

It was a lot of fun to spend some time with these two, and I loved to see how much David cared for and loved my sister. These pictures really show that I think. ♥

I'll end this with one of my MANY favorite pics.

ps. i'm looking for my practice subjects so if you'd like some pics taken let me know :)

May Days

2010-06-08T15:22:00.004-07:00

I know it's been a long time since I've updated this, but I really haven't felt at all like blogging. Sorry lol. I will try to be better and at LEAST blog once a month..... hopefully more.

Hmmmm so lets see what I missed... Well My Brithday! That was back in May and lets just say that my Joshy spoiled me pretty good (even though i asked him not to) lol. He planned a surprise for me to have a "Girl's Night" the night before my B-Day with my good friend. He got us a really nice hotel room across town and then she took me out to dinner and we had a great time! The next day we spent most of the day shopping, then headed home to get ready to go out with our hubbies. We went to my favorite resturant, Abuelo's, and then we went country dancing. I also rode the electronic bull! I've been wanting to do that forEVER, but never have. I figured my Birthday would be a good time! I feel I did pretty good and stayed on for a while (even though I'm sure the operator took it easy on me for the first part). It was fun, but it's out of my system now and I don't feel the need to do it again lol. I seriously thought my arm was gonna break in half and rip out. ;)
I have been wanting a NICE camera for a long time and I finally broke down and let Josh spend the money on me to get it. I Love it! I wish I could find more great chances to use it!

What else happened in May...... oh my little sister Kirstie had her baby shower. And I also got to try out my new camera and take Maternity shots of her. I can't believe that my little sister is having a BABY! (Oh and as of Right Now she is currently in labor with him, three weeks early) I had so much fun helping her get baby stuff together and making stuff for her and him. I can't wait to meet the little guy! ♥

At the end of May my parents and some of my sisters came down to visit and go to my new brother-in-law's police academy graduation. It was nice to be able to spend some time with my family and let them break in the pool for this summer :). We got to spend lots of time making fun of my big pregnant sister and her water-swollen ankles and feet.

For Memorial Day we had some of our friends over for swimming and BBQ. It was really nice to be able to just relax and hang out with our good friends.

There are a few more things that I want to blog about, but I'll do those later. (Like our new bedroom furniture, pics of my sister, etc)

I will also be able to brag about my TWO new nephews pretty soon! Today my sister-in-law Shan had her first baby! And either today or tomorrow my sister Kirstie will be having her first baby, also a boy (which is also the first grandshild on my family's side). and THEN in a few more months my other sister Melanie will be having her baby, which is Another boy! Craziness!

4/12/10 Happy B-Day to Torque

2010-04-13T09:35:00.002-07:00

My little Torque is now a year old

He went from this at about 9-10 weeks

To this at about 10 months

These are his best friends....

We love our big snuggly pup! He is the sweetest dog ever :)

Running Free

2010-04-06T11:17:00.003-07:00

Last year we had the opportunity to plant a garden on some land that some people in our church own. Well this year they gave us that option again! We planted our stuff several weeks ago and have been going each saturday since to check on the plants and see if any weeding needs to be done.

One time we decided to take the dogs out with us. There were no other families around so we let them out of the truck to run in the big open space. They had a lot of fun chasing eachother.... and Josh.

(Torque trying to turn really fast to catch Bentley) (Torque decided that it was to far to run after Josh)
(having a fun time)

Poor Torque

2010-04-06T10:57:00.005-07:00

Poor Torque has a reason for this sad face......

Ouchy!!

We found out that the dogs like to chase Josh up and down the street on his dirt bike. It gets them good and tired and lets them use some energy, without wearing us out. Well apparently Torque's pads on his feet are still pretty soft because after doing this one morning he came into the house limping with his feet bleeding :(

I felt so bad for him, he had to walk on the very outside toes of his front feet and hobbled around whining. I had to clean them out and bandage them for him because they wouldn't stay clean.

(See the bandages on him....)
Poor guy...... after these FINALLY healed he had another problem pop up....

It looks like he had some sort of allergic reaction to something. We still have no idea what did it! It looked like he had a bunch of grapes under his fur. They were itching him like crazy and he looked kinda gross with those lumps all over. I gave him some benadryl and that helped them go down a lot.

Poor Torque just can't seem to catch a break. :(

Handyman Josh

2010-03-03T15:44:00.002-07:00

Josh built this arbor a couple of weeks ago and I think it turned out Great! I was really impressed by how good it looks and how handy my husband is :)

My parents were in town for a couple of days and my dad got to spend time helping josh get it all put together while I went shopping with my mom and sister Kirstie.

The only part I helped with was staining it. Which took a lot longer than we thought it would because of all the lattice on it, but it was worth it.

New TOYota

2010-02-24T15:55:00.002-07:00

Introducing the newest addition to our household.....

This is Josh's new baby. He has been needing/wanting a truck for a long time now and we were finally able to get him one. The seats in his old car were irritating his already bad back and he needed something with a bigger seat and higher up. We were also always borrowing our neighbor's truck to make our runs to home depot etc, so we figured a truck would be a good thing to have around.

We spent a lot of time looking for the right truck, with the right price. And then on Saturday morning we drove around to several dealerships to see what they had to offer. Ughhhh car sales men/managers are some of my least favorite people out there. (I know there are a few good ones out there, but not very many!) We ended up finding this truck and went into price negotiations with them for it.

Out of Josh and I, I'm the outspoken one when it comes to price negotiations. And so I was the one telling the managers what we were Not going to pay, and what we were going to. After several hours of them going back and forth and talking to me like I was a stupid little girl, I had had enough. I told the big annoying 3rd manager they had sent out, to stop calling me "Darling" and that we were going to pay our price or nothing. I got up to leave, put my jacket on and was ready to get the heck out of there..... that's when they finally decided to give us what we wanted.

Geeesh!

I guess it was all worth it because we walked out of there with the keys to this truck and a happy hubby.

Valentine's Day ♥

2010-02-24T15:22:00.004-07:00

For Valentine's Day Josh and I went to Sedona for the long weekend. It was Perfect weather and we had a great time just relaxing and eating lots of delicious food! We went and saw a movie, drove up the canyon, ate yummy caramel apples, hung out in the hot tub at our hotel, sun bathed, ate, walked along the pretty river, ate some more....... etc.

It really was a perfect weekend!

Here are some pictures from our little vacation :)

At our V-Day brunch, soooooo yummy!

My hot joshua

feeding the ducks my v-day cookie

Tiling Adventure

2010-02-02T12:10:00.005-07:00

When we bought our house back 15 months ago, we knew that eventually we would have to replace our two upstairs bathroom's floors. They were both linoleum, and in our master bath it was ripped and coming up right in the middle of the floor. Well we finally got the point of replacing it (Josh made sure that we actually HAD to do it. He grabbed the ripped part and yanked it up so it was a big hazard to keep stepping over)

We were going to hire someone to tile for us since neither one of us has ever done it. We had a couple of quotes and picked a guy to come out. The day before he was supposed to come out he called to tell us that his tile saw had been stolen, and that if we wanted him to do it we would have to pay to rent one for him to use. .......Ummm....... what!? I told Josh "No way!" and we decided to do it ourselves. (we had gone through a lot of dumb crap with these tile guys and were just so sick of all the bologna they were saying and doing that we were done dealing with it)

So we found a great deal on a tile saw, got a pretty good deal on the tile, and took the next weekend to get it all done. I had no idea how much work was involved in tiling, pulling off the base boards, ripping up linoleum, laying down backerboard, screwing hundreds of screws to hold it down, laying out design of tile, cutting all the tile, running out of stuff, letting it all set, not having a toilet or shower, grouting, washing the grout off, over and over and over again, sealing the grout, putting new base boards down etc. Plus it made a huge mess!

We got extremely dirty, sore and tired, but the end result turned out pretty dang nice :)

(before)notice the base boards....

(After ripping up linoleum)

(trying to figure out design)

(josh's dirty back. I should've got more pictures because he got hilarious looking)

(waiting for it to set so we can grout)

(TaDa! All done!) Notice our beautiful new 6 1/2" base boards :)
(we re-painted our bathroom a light gray color as well)
It's been so nice to walk through our bathroom now and not have to worry about tripping on ripped linoleum! I still catch myself lifting my feet higher in that spot out of instinct lol.

We love our new floors and are SOOOO happy we did it ourselves!

(I just realized I didn't take any after pics of our other bathroom we tiled. Oh well, the master bath is the more important one :)

Insight Bowl 12/28/10

2010-01-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

I was lucky and scored some free football tickets from my work for the Insight Bowl in Tempe. I think people thought they were horrible seats, which is why they made their way to me. It turned out that they were awesome seats and we were only 7 rows up, in the end zone.

It was cool to be that close to all the action and see everything that was going on. It was a pretty cold night though and I was more than ready to get out of there by the time the game was over.

We had 4 tickets so we invited Josh's friend from work, Cole, and one of his friends.

I don't think I've ever been to a football game, and neither had Josh so it was a fun experience for both of us.

And people at work were a little jealous the next day when they found out how awesome our seats were ;)

All Grown Up

2010-01-20T14:32:00.002-07:00

I can't believe that this sweet little puppy is all grown up now....

(He's even learning how to drive ;)

100th Post!

2009-12-31T12:54:00.002-07:00

I think it's kind of appropriate that my 100th posting on this blog will also be my last one of this year/decade.

We've had a great year and are so happy to be married to eachother. We were lucky enough to be sealed together this August and I am so thankful that I'm able to be stuck with Josh for Forever! He is my best friend and I love him so much!

We've had a fun time this year, going on lots of vacations together and with friends. I lost my very special friend (Tinkerbell), and we added a sweet teddy-bear-of-shrek puppy to our family (Torque). Bentley is still running around like the crazy mutt that she has always been.

We've enjoyed our new house and took advantage of having a pool in our backyard during the very hot summer/fall weather.

Josh has switched his shift to a night shift, which he Loves! He has seen a lot more action (three foot pursuits in the first three weeks!) and loves not having to wake up at 4:30am anymore. I'm still getting used to not having to make dinner anymore, and to not seeing him when I get home from work. I'm lucky enough to be able to see him almost every day for an hour so at lunch time before he heads off to work.

We just had our 3rd Thanksgiving and Christmas together and I can't remember what life was like without having Josh around!

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-31T11:54:00.006-07:00

Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday! Josh and I had a good time putting up decorations, getting a REAL Christmas tree, baking goodies, buying presents and hanging lights. (Hanging lights wasn't really "fun" but you know how those things go)We spoiled ourselves and got everything we could ever want ;)

Josh got his dirt bike, a couple days early but still counts, an xbox 360, a bunch of games and controllers for it and a bunch of other stuff. I got a very pretty pink & silver CHI hair straightener that I Love! I also got a pink xbox controller so I can play with josh, and wii fit, some fun wii games, three pairs of amazing shoes (surprisingly all of them are sneakers) and a bunch more fun stuff!

Josh originally had to work on Christmas Eve until midnight, but because his knee was so messed up and he had a hard time walking, they sent him home after only one hour. So we both got off work early and packed up our dogs, presents and other crap and made the drive up to my parents. They weren't expecting us until Christmas day sometime and I decided to surprise them. They seemed pretty happy when we showed up at the door that evening :)

All of my sisters were there along with husbands/boyfriends. Melanie and Keats left their dogs at home, but without theirs we had 8 dogs running around plus the new pet cats. It was a crazy time, but we had a lot of fun. There were new board games to play and wii games to try out. I think the most popular one was the Cabela's Hunting one on the wii that comes with a rifle to use. The boys had a fun time trading off hunting different animals.

We ate a LOT of food, went to a crazy walmart the day after Christmas to buy cheap Christmas decorations, played games, froze our butts off and took a family picture. It was the first time since my wedding that we were all together.
My mom gave us no warning of wanting to take a picture, so this is how we look after a bunch of lounging around :)
And then this is how it is normally around the house. hehe

It's funny because it really represents how the weekend went lol

Here are a few pictures from mine and Josh's house....
police nutcrackers and a bagpipe playing one.... (Josh plays the bagpipes in case you didn't know)

Our tree

Josh making me nervous while he walked around on our roof to hang up lights.

I tried to take a picture of our lights because I thought it looked really good.... but the pics didn't work to well :(

We missed seeing Josh's family this year and hope they missed us too ;)

Hopefully everyone else had a great Christmas and will have a safe and fun New Years Eve!

Josh and His Toy

2009-12-31T11:16:00.004-07:00

Years ago Josh had a dirt bike when he lived at home with his parents, but had to sell it when he wanted to buy some bag bipes to learn how to play.

Apparently he has been wanting one ever since then and.... well, he finally convinced his wife to let him get one......

I am not a huge fan of motorcycles in general, and dirt bikes fall into that category. The only time I've been on one was a long time ago when my younger cousin had a little tiny one to ride. I got on it and twisted the handle a little to hard because it shot off (and when it took off it made my hand twist the gas even more!)and then crashed me into a bush and a wall, landing me on my butt.

So obviously I don't have a very fond memory of that dirt bike.

I was worried about Josh getting himself hurt if he got a dirt bike, but he reassured me that he would be careful and that even if he broke his leg or something he would still be able to work. So I gave in and found a great deal on an almost brand new bike on craigslist.

His friend/our neighbor has a dirt bike as well and they were super excited to take it out to the desert for their first ride. I was working when I got the following picture....

***WARNING*** YUCKY PICS BELOW***

Followed a little bit later by this picture....

YUCKY! It hurts my stomach to look at it!

Surprise Suprise, on his FIRST time riding the stupid thing he crashes hard! Trying to do a wheely he falls over, flipping the bike and landing his knee on the wheel spoke, following that up with running over himself.

Tire marks go up his side and he has a nice big rasberry/burn on the underside of his arm.

Here he is all proud of his war wounds. His knee got hurt pretty bad, he needed to go get stitches but decided to play nurse on himself instead. It's healing up pretty nicely after a week of care, but he will have a nice scar after this.

We went out and bought him some knee/shin gaurds yesterday so hopefully this won't happen again. He told me he was nervous I would get mad that he got hurt, because he knew I was worried about it and he messed himself up good the first ride, but I told him I was just glad he didn't break anything. He then informed me that he would have sold the bike that day if he had broken something on his first time out. lol (maybe that would've been a good idea..... ;)

Time to Catch Up!!

2009-12-30T14:34:00.007-07:00

I think this has been my longest blogging break ever! I apologize to my little sister Amanda, as I know she's been wanting me to update for a while.

Nothing to crazy has happened in our lives, but I feel like I have a lot to catch up on. So if there are a bunch of posts in the next day or two that's why.

THANKSGIVING

We were lucky enough to have Josh's parents and sister come to our house for Thanksgiving this year! Josh had to work so there was no way for us to go somewhere else. I had an interesting time trying out baking pies, making pie crust, stuffing, rolls, sweet potatoes and TURKEY etc. I made Josh's mom pull the guts out of the turkey as I just couldn't do it (yucky!).

Bethany (Josh's youngest sister) went on a ride-along with him on Thanksgiving Day. And when they got off and got home dinner was ready to eat! Josh's dad rode along with him the day after Thanksgiving while me, Bethany and my mother in law (Ila) went Black Friday Shopping! We spent tons of time in lines waiting to buy our awesome deals that day, but we had a good time. (And I think I convinced Ila that she can KINDA like Walmart ;) )

On Saturday we spent the day shopping again (with everyone there), had In-&-Out burgers for lunch, went to the Mesa Temple lights and then had Cheesecake Factory for dinner. yum yum!

We are so glad that his family was able to come and be with us for a couple of days! I got to spend more time with them than Josh as he had to work most of the time, but I had a good time with them and our dogs LOVED having them around! :)

Here are some pictures.... I couldn't move them around as blogger is being weird lately with pictures so they are a little random.

The doggies loved Josh's dad!

My very first pie/pie crust :)

Torque hanging out with Josh's dad

Socialism in America

2009-11-19T10:43:00.003-07:00

I know when other people post youtube videos on their blogs I hardly ever watch them. I hope you take a minute and actually watch the two videos below. They contain words from a couple of the Prophets of our church and are really interesting to hear.

This first one has words from President Monson, President Hinkley and President Benson....

This second one is a clip from Radio Talk show host Glenn Beck. He is a convert to the LDS church and is very interesting to listen to. He has the 3rd most listened to radio show in the nation and a very popular news show on Fox News. In this clip he plays some audio from President Ezra Taft Benson that talks about socialism in America.....

Vegas Vacation cont...

2009-11-05T11:33:00.004-07:00

While we were in Vegas we got the chance to spend the evening with Josh's aunt and uncle. It was great meeting them and we all had a fun time! We even got to eat dinner at my favorite place EVER! CAFE RIO!! mmmmm it was sooooo yummy!Here are a couple more random pictures from our trip....

While we were gone we had some of our neighbors taking care of the dogs for us.....

This is some of what we came home to at 11pm on Sunday night

These pictures don't do justice to the awful mess that was made in our house!

We walked in the door and were greeted by Torque, our puppy that HAS to be locked up when nobody is there watching him. Apparently they had forgotten to lock him up (But they had locked Bentley up, and she is the one that can be out and be okay) and they had also locked the doggy door so the puppy was locked INSIDE the house for who knows how long. *sigh*

It took us about an hour to get it all cleaned up, it had seriously looked like a tornado had gone through our front room and living room, pooping and peeing all along it's path. :P
I guess we can say there is a silver lining... we had been thinking about changing up our decorations, and Torque had done us the favor of pulling them down and eating the ones he thought we didn't need anymore.

Looks like we need to find some new dog sitters, anyone interested?? lol

Halloween Night/Vegas Vacation

2009-11-05T11:25:00.003-07:00

We went to Las Vegas for Halloween weekend with our friends Billy & Kristen. We wanted to dress up and we came up with the idea to go as the The Flintstones.....(Fred & Wilma)

(They were Pebbles & BamBam)

Kirsten & I with the Stratosphere in the back

The men in the elevator.... hehe

We walked around the strip and inside some casinos (It was coooold outside) We kept getting stopped by people that wanted to take pictures of us, or get in a picture with us. At first we thought it was pretty funny, but by the end of the night it was getting a little old ;)

We had a good time, but I personally think Vegas is a little over-rated.

ONE YEAR in MARICOPA!!!

2009-11-01T08:42:00.001-07:00

Today marks the one year mark from when we moved into our house in Maricopa! That year has FLOWN by! I can't believe we've been here a year already......

I Love our house and am so glad that we were able to get it and make it our own. It looks different from back when we moved in (the pics above are from a year ago, and then now)

As part of our celebration we bought a new patio set for our back yard. (okay so it wasn't to "celebrate", but we really needed/wanted one) :)

I'm excited for the years to come in this house! :):)

Halloween!

2009-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Right now Josh and I are out of town and having a blast for our Halloween!

(We had to make up for missing it last year because of preparing to move the next day)

We should have some fun pictures to post in the next couple of days!

Hope everyone has a great Halloween!!

EwUH!

2009-10-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

This lovely guy almost got made into mush the other day....

Josh & I were about to unload the patio set we had just gotten and Josh called me to the gate to show me this slimy yucky thing just chilling right in our path. (It was dark and I would've stepped right on him. EW!)

Josh got a broom and tried to scare him away, but he wouldn't budge. He had to be pushed with the broom .... blah! he was all squishy and yucky!

I was directed to hold the gate open so josh could push/scare him out. That's when mr toad decided he would start hopping and hopped right at me. I screamed and dropped the gate and ran away. Which was sucessful at scaring our little visitor into the bushes.

A couple of days later my dad came to visit and when I walked out to help him inside there was another toad (or the same one), hanging out in our front yard.

A few days after that Torque was in the backyard barking like a crazy dog, which he never does, so we went out to see what he was doing. He was standing barking at our new tree/bush. We thought he was crazy so we yelled at him to come inside, but a couple of minutes later he was barking again. Josh went out to find ANOTHER toad hiding back there that Torque had cornered.

We think they might be attracted to our swimming pool.... I hope not because I don't want to see anymore, and don't want them swimming around our pool!

Yuck!

Haunted Houses

2009-10-28T12:17:00.002-07:00

A few weekends ago Josh & I went to a haunted corn maze / haunted houses thing out in Glendale. We went with 4 of our friends and had a great time! It was fun because one of the guys had never been to a haunted house before and he was nervous about going in them.

It was one of the best haunted houses I've been to, it actually scare me multiple times! We only got one picture from that night, and it was with this scary clown guy that was walking around out in front.....

It's that time of year....

2009-10-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

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Birthday Boy

2009-10-13T16:37:00.002-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Joshua!

He had his birthday this on the 11th and we celebrated by going out with some of our friends to the Cheesecake Factory, and then going Cosmic Bowling.

(We also went and got a couple of new palm trees for our back yard, and a new patio set :):)

Josh with his two best buddiesJosh with the girls

I love you Joshy Pooh!! Happy Birthday!

Florida Trip

2009-10-13T16:04:00.006-07:00

Here are some pictures from our week long trip to Florida. We had a TON of fun and made lots of good memories. (I can't get the photos organized on here so they are all mixed together.)

(Josh & I @ Epcot)

The group of us at Epcot

On the Tram to Disney World!! Doesn't Josh look SOOOO excited

The Boys at Magic Kingdom

Joel&Carrie / Jen&Josh @ Epcot

on the way there in the plane

the beach right in front of our hotel (the water was over 80 degrees!)

at Animal Kingdom (3D bug show)

SPLASH MOUNTAIN - On the way up the hill

Deep Sea Fishing

Epcot at Night
It was SO pretty!

Magic Kingdom "Main Street"

the Castle!

Animal Kingdom - He did not like us

on the way back after deep sea fishing. We were all exhausted and fell asleep.

Fishing... I got so sunburned that today, two weeks later, I am still peeling. ewww
We all caught a ton of fish, but nothing really much bigger than 12". It was lots of fun and we were out there for 8 hours!

The view from our window/door

White Rhinos & Elephants

Mamma and baby giraffe

The End!

Summer Daze....

2009-09-25T14:27:00.003-07:00

Okay so technically it's not really summer anymore.....

But my logic is that if nobody in your house is in school anymore and the temp is still 105-110 degrees outside, it's still SUMMER!

Our summer has been pretty busy, and we're nearing the end of our adventures now. Tomorrow morning (at 5AM Blah!) we are flying to Orlando FL to spend a week out there! It's going to be soooooo much fun!

Last weekend we drove out to California to be at some of our best friend's wedding. We drove out saturday morning, got there at 11am, the wedding was at 4pm, then the reception until about 1am. We went to sleep and got up and drove home the next morning. It was a short trip, but the wedding was beautiful (it was on the beach) and the reception was SO much fun! I'm so glad we were able to be there with our friends!

Oh and I did something I've wanted to do for a loooong time, but have never done..... Ride the electronic Bull. LOL

(josh enjoying his cupcake! hehe)

This is the look that Torque gave us when we told him we were leaving him for a week......

Big Monster

2009-09-11T14:20:00.005-07:00

Our little puppy Torque is not so little anymore (and he thinks he is a lap dog)

Here he is at 9 weeks & then almost 5 months old

I love this guy

2009-09-11T13:42:00.004-07:00

I was just looking through my thousands of pictures I have stored up and came across this one.... This was one of the first times that I hung out with Josh. It was at his apartment and I think we were watching some scary movie or something. My sister Melanie was there and decided to start a wrestling match of some kind and this is what happened. You see that blonde head on the bottom? Yep that's me all smushed under Josh and Melanie. (and josh also has a nice gash on his leg from playing softball.)

This pic above is of our first New Years Eve together. I am so glad that I have him as mine forever! I can't imagine where I would be right now or how my life would be without him!

Awesome Bikes!

2009-09-08T10:28:00.002-07:00

They're giving away one of these each WEEK! Click on the picture for more info

Lemon Sesame Chicken

2009-08-21T09:21:00.007-07:00

I tried a new recipe for dinner last night and Josh and I LOVED it! I thought I would share in case anyone is looking for something a little new to try. It's fairly easy to make too!

I made it with mashed potatoes on the side and we even put the lemon sauce on our potatoes.

~~~~~~~

Light Lemon Sesame Chicken

Try an Asian twist with chicken tonight, and do it all in just 30 minutes.
Prep Time: 30 min
Total Time: 30 min
Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:

Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lb) (I used 1 large breast and cut in half for Josh & I to share. After tasting it later we wish I had made one breast each)
1 egg
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup Bisquick Heart Smart® mix (I used regular Bisquick)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seed
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

Sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel (I didn't have a lemon so I skipped this one)
2 medium green onions, sliced (2 tablespoons) (I forgot about these until the food was ready so I just skipped these as well)

Directions:
1. Between pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper, place each chicken breast smooth side down; gently pound with flat side of meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick.

2. In small bowl, beat egg product and 2 tablespoons lemon juice with fork or wire whisk. In 1-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag, mix Bisquick mix, paprika and sesame seed.

3. Dip chicken into egg mixture, then place in mixture in bag. Shake until chicken breasts are well coated.

4. In 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 6 to 8 minutes, turning once, until chicken is no longer pink in center. (I cooked mine on medium heat so I wouldn't burn the outside and so the chicken would have enough time to fully cook)

5. Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, heat all sauce ingredients except onions over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened and bubbly. Spoon sauce over chicken before serving; sprinkle with onions. (You might want to double the sauce ingredients if making this for more than 2 people. We used all of the sauce between the 2 of us and even put it on our potatos!)

Here is where I got the recipe from, Betty Crocker <-- click

Growing Boy

2009-08-12T12:10:00.002-07:00

At 5 months old our little puppy Torque

is not so little anymore.....

He is now taller than Bentley and almost weighs as much as her.

(this pic makes me laugh. Bentley ALWAYS closes her eyes when I take pics of her.)

Bentley weighs 39 pounds, and Torque weighs 33 pounds.

The vet thinks that he'll probably be around 70 pounds when full grown.
He looooooooves swimming in the pool and uses it more than Josh and I do.
He will just jump in and swim laps all day long.

He still has his puppy face and puppy breath :)

He has the sweetest personality and loves to be loved.
He does not like getting in trouble at all and will pout for a long time if he does.

Him and Bentley are best friends and will play non-stop

(he can swim almost twice as fast as her)

It's Official...

2009-08-06T11:11:00.004-07:00

We're now married.... for good! ;)

On August 1st (8/01/09) we were sealed in the Salt Lake temple. It was a great experience and I'm SO grateful to our wonderful family that came and supported us! It is a wonderful feeling to know that I am stuck with Josh for forever, no matter what!

It's a good thing I love him so much :)
This is most of my family, after the temple and lunch.

I feel bad we didn't take more pictures of everyone there, and of my in-laws. Thank you for coming, we love you all!!

This is my beautiful momma! I love her a lot a lot!
♥ ♥

After the lunch on our way to our (third) honeymoon :)

We parted ways with our families after we went to lunch with everyone. Then Josh and I headed off to the Gateway mall to do some mall walking/shopping. I got spoiled with lots of new clothes, for some reason we never buy anything for Josh...

Then we headed to Anniversary Inn where we stayed the night in a beautiful Log Cabin Room! It was a very fun room and we had a great time there.

We went to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant called Rodizio's. Josh has been wanting to take me here for a while because he loves the food. (That's where he served his mission)

The food was delicious and we got very very full! I have to say that my favorite part was the fried bananas!! :)

Then we got to spend our last evening with the Jensens (my in-laws). We played Wii and watched Bolt and got to spend time with my newest Nephew, baby Brooks.

We even pierced Josh's NOSE!!
Okay, not really..... but our nephew Kayden decided to throw a fork from the top of the stairs at Josh, who was at the bottom of the stairs. The fork hit Josh full speed in the face, right on the side of his nose! He came back upstairs with tissue on his face, wiping up the blood from the three punctures from the fork prongs.
Poor little Kayden felt horrible and had to apologize several times. lol
After I knew Josh was gonna be fine I had a hard time not laughing at the very nice holes in his nose.

The Cabin

2009-08-06T10:32:00.003-07:00

The MacKay Family Cabin

(7/29/09)

This is where we spent the first couple of days of our Utah trip. Up at the cabin! When we lived in Utah we used to come up here all of the time. I think it has been several years since I've been able to make it there and I missed it so much! I'm so glad that I was able to bring Josh and show him the fort that we built in the trees when I was little, and the chipmunks that eat out of your hands, and the trails we always ride the 4-wheelers on etc.

We had a really nice time up there and I hope we can go again soon! My dad talking to joshy pooh

April is ready to go

Amanda is too

Me and my sweet hubby ♥

My dad & I at the river

EmmaLee & Amanda throwing rocks in the river

April & Melanie----------Me & Josh

Getting ready to go out looking for deer at dusk

We found some.....

but my camera didn't work to great lol.

We saw lots of deer that night, inlcuding a momma deer with a little baby! It was so cute!

Riding, riding, riding

2009-08-06T10:09:00.004-07:00

MUD FLAT RIDE

(7/30/09)

While we were up at our cabin we decided to take a ride up to "Mud Flat". It's a place where my dad and uncles used to go hunting and riding a lot. It's really pretty this time of year and there are all sorts of wild flowers!

Josh and I were in the back of the 4-wheeler train, which is not the most ideal place to be while on dusty trails. Before we were even half way to the top I was covered in dirt and my eyes were full of mud. (Don't worry, there will be pictures below)

Josh loved the trail because there were lots of 'jumps' and bumps on it. He would hit the gas and send us flying. I am not a big fan of this type of driving and was hanging on for dear life, but because of the dust cloud we were following I had to keep my mouth shut, but that didn't stop me from screaming.

At the begining of the ride

My dad telling us all about how the hunting was at this particular spot on the trail ;)

If I was a deer, I would choose to live here!

Taking a break on the flat...

My sister Amanda with my dad

All of us except for Melanie, she was our photographer

Pretty wild flowers

More flowers

A deer that we came across

that's my josh

Amanda, dad and April

AND FINALLY...

THE ONES YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR...

(yikes)

After the ride...

Me and Melanie

EW-UH!

(my poor eyes full of dirt)

We rode for several hours and had lots of fun! But let me tell you, the best part was going back to the cabin and taking a shower!!

For Time & All Eternity!

2009-08-01T08:00:00.001-07:00

Today......At 11:00am......

Me & this handsome man.....

Are getting sealed to eachother!!

YAY!

This man will be mine FOREVER!!

You're stuck with me forever Joshy Pooh! ;)

Utah here we come!

2009-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

For the next couple of days, we will be spending our time here.....

(Try not to be to jealous ;)

And then we will be here!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥

One Year ALREADY?!

2009-07-28T10:12:00.004-07:00

I can't believe it has almost been a year already! It feels like just yesterday that I got married to my sweet sweet Josh! The time has really flown by, and I'm very excited that this saturday, on our One YEAR anniversary, Josh and I will be sealed to eachother for all of eternity!!

I'm really happy with the way things turned out, and even though we were not able to be sealed to eachother a year ago, I'm not one bit dissapointed. We had a wonderful wedding and reception and we were able to go through the temple for me to receive my endowments and share that with eachother.

We knew from the beginning that we were going to be sealed to eachother, and I think waiting this year has made me realize a little more how lucky we are that we CAN be sealed. I feel so bad for people that think that life ends after this, and are only married for Life to the person that they love. I couldn't imagine knowing that after dying I would lose my Josh.

With Josh having the job that he does, I am even more grateful for this blessing. I know that if something were to ever happen to him, we will still be together forever!

I'm so glad that I have such wonderful parents that always set such a great example for me. I have never questioned the fact that I wanted to be sealed to my husband. And I'm thankful for all of their love and support last year when we were going through the dissapointment at times of knowing that we couldn't get married in the temple at that time, even though we were worthy. That's a hard pill to swallow when that has been your dream for your whole life.
I'm also grateful for Josh's parents (and family)! They are such amazing people and I have come to love them so much! I'm so glad that we are family.

(After going through the Salt Lake temple for my endowments last year)

I'm so glad that our day is finally here! We have been through a lot of things in this past year.... but it has been great and I love Josh even more. I look forward to spending the rest of forever with him, and our wonderful families!

Girls Camp 2009

2009-07-28T09:53:00.004-07:00

I just got back from 5 days of girls camp!

I think it's been about 7 years or so since I have been, and I'm so glad I got the chance to go again. (This time as a YCL leader)

I forgot how nice it is to get away from the world for a week... to not have to worry about distractions, or work, or money or anything. The spirit is always so strong and I really enjoyed my time up there. It was exhausting! Going to sleep at 12 or 1am and then waking up at 5:30 and 4:30am .... yucky! It took me a couple of days to recover. :)

This was the first time I've been away from Josh since we've been married (which will be ONE YEAR on this coming saturday!) We both survived and are now preparing for our trip to Utah to be sealed to eachother!

(My wonderful YCLs!!)
(On the ski lift on Mt Lemmon)

(Amberlee & Sydney my YCLs)

(Everything was so beautiful & green!)

(On the 3rd year hike, at the top of the mountain)

(My fellow YCL leaders... missing one)

It was great to be around the girls up there and see how they would change. Some started the week off with really bad additudes and "hated" everything, but by the last couple of days of camp they were like new girls and even apologized for their behaviors.

I was very ready to come home and see my Joshy, and my dogs, and sleep in my bed, and just get away from teenage girls for a while :) lol

Pool Time

2009-07-17T09:47:00.004-07:00

Summer Days...

Josh plays a game where he goes under water and then jumps up and scares the dogs.

Bentley loves it!

(Bentley looks like a kangaroo in this top pic)

Battle of the Refrigerators

2009-07-16T13:34:00.003-07:00

It's been a long time coming....

Ok maybe not that long, seeing as how the stupid thing has died TWICE in 6 months!!

When it comes to kitchen appliances you would think your fridge would last longer than 2 years :P

ANYWAYS... here is the faceoff

Old on the left, New on the right

(& Bentley's rear end in the middle)

We are happy about our new fridge (not so happy about having to BUY a new one, but oh well)
We gained about 5 cubic feet more space inside, and now have the ice & water dispenser on the door.
And hopefully we have a fridge that won't be dying on us every 6 months (or at All!)

Growing pup

2009-07-09T15:38:00.004-07:00

Look at how cute this lil guy is ^^

Him & Bentley are bestest friends and play ALL the time!

Bentley makes ugly faces, but she is just pretending

Josh with lil Torque

What a Stud!! :)

Joys of Home Ownership

2009-07-08T11:40:00.005-07:00

Our fridge has decided to break, AGAIN. This is the second time in 7 months that it has decided to die on us. Back in January the Compressor died somehow, it was covered under warranty so they had some company come out and replace it. The guy that replaced it put in an old dusty one from the back of his van. And now, 6.5 months later that old dusty one breaks!!!

We decided that we've had enough of this fridge and it's problems (even though it's not even 3 years old yet). So last night we went out and got a new fridge to replace it.

All of our friends in maricopa were out of town last night, but we were able to find a truck to borrow to pick up our new fridge. (But we weren't able to find man power to help Move the dang thing!) We got the fridge loaded into the truck with help from the guy we bought it from, but we knew that when we got to our house it would only be Josh and me to get it down from the truck.

DUN DUN DUN!!!!

I was scared! That thing weighed a ton and I am no help when it comes to lifting huge heavy items. I kept hoping one of our neighbors would drive by and see us and offer to help, but it was almost 11pm by then and no such help came. Josh kept saying that "we have no choice, we will just have to do it" and I did NOT want to end up dropping this huge new fridge and breaking it!

I tried to have faith in Josh..... We wiggled the thing to the very edge of the tail gate and Josh got on the bottom to "lift" it off, with me in the truck bed to help balance it. ha! Well the fridge doesn't exactly "lift" very easily, and when the last corner slipped off the end of the tail gate, it fell back (Towards me) and down, FAST. It came down right on my chest and knocked the crap out of me! It bounced off and then got to the ground, right side up. Apparently when it hit me I let out a loud noise like "Uggghhhh!" and josh thought he had just killed me with the fridge (or at least smashed my body with it). He rushed to me as I was doubled over and was asking if I was alright, I knew he would think something horrible happened and I didn't want him to be scared so I tried to get words out to tell him I was okay. All I managed was "wind.... gasp.....knocked... gasp!.... out". lol. I knew I was okay, but it's kinda scary not being able to breath or see straight. Josh sat and patted my back and told me I was okay until I could breath again. I then sat up and laughed and said "wow, i haven't had That happen to me in a Loooong time!"

Don't worry, this story has a happy ending! We both lived AND we now we have a new fridge and we won't loose our food.

The amazing thing is that the fridge made it without a scratch on it! I like to think that my chest saved it :)

under construction...

2009-06-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of updating my blog. So if things like a little messy for a couple of days, that would be why.
(Grrrr I hate having to re-enter all of my friends and other info!!)

Monday Morning "snip snip"

2009-06-19T15:39:00.002-07:00

This lil guy has an appointment Monday morning to get himself "fixed" .....poor guy doesn't know what's coming his way :(

CPK home made version

2009-06-19T10:04:00.003-07:00

Several weeks ago Josh and I went to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) for dinner. I had the bbq chicken pizza and loved it! I found a recipe online that is supposed to be the restuarant's actual recipe. I don't know if that's true or not, but it sure tasted pretty darn close! Josh loved it too and asked me to make it again a couple of days later (After he had eaten all of the left overs).

I thought I would share the recipe since we think it's delicious, and it was pretty easy to make. I made two pizzas, and they were probably about 12" each.

California Pizza Kitchen Original BBQ Pizza Recipe

the pics are of the pizzas that I made

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon honey (I used more like 2Tb)

1 cup warm water

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

10 ounces chicken breast - boned and skinned

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons barbecue sauce

1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I used a spicy version and added some brown sugar to it as well)

2 cups Gouda cheese (I used mozzerella cheese)

1/4 small red onion - sliced into rings

2 tablespoons cilantro

Directions:
To make the dough-- In a small bowl, dissolve the honey in the warm water. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and stir until it dissolves. Let the yeast mixture stand for 5 minutes, until a layer of foam forms on the surface.

In a large bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the olive oil and the yeast mixture. Stir the flour into the wet ingredients, until all the flour is incorporated. If its too dry, add more water. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for 15 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball and put in in a well-oiled bowl. Cover with a moist towel and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk (about 1 1/2 hours). (I just turn my oven on for a few min and then let it rise in the oven with the door cracked. It only takes about 30 min or so)

One hour before baking the pizzas, start preheating the oven with pizza stones inside at 500degrees F. (I just start the oven after I remove the dough from rising)

For the Chicken-- In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil on medium high heat. add chicken pieces. saute until cooked (6 minutes). (I used precooked chicken from the store) Chill. Coat chicken with 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce (I added brown sugar to this as well). Set aside in the refrigerator.

For the Pizza-- Punch the dough down, and divide into 2 equal portions. Roll out each portion into a flat circle. Spread 1/2 cup barbecue sauce over the surface of the dough. Distribute 1/2 of the cheese over the sauce. Distribute 1/2 of the chicken over the cheese. Place half of the onion rings over the chicken pieces. Place the pizza in the oven (on top of pizza stones). Bake until crust is crispy and cheese is bubbling (8-10 minutes). Remove pizzas from the oven and sprinkle each with 1/2 of the cilantro.

(I prepared the pizzas on butcher paper. that made it easy to move them to the pizza stone that was already in the oven. I also didn't sprinkle cilantro on the pizza, but I did add peices of bacon to the top before cooking)

Josh and I ate one pizza between the two of us for dinner. The other one was great for left overs!

Here is where I got the recipe from

Torque

2009-06-15T12:20:00.003-07:00

Meet the newest member of the Roper family....
TORQUE

He is a Boxer/Pitbull mix and the cutest little dude!
Bentley is pretty excited about her new play buddy.
He is almost half her size right now and he's only 9 weeks old! He's gonna be a BIG boy!
This is his sad face ^^^ lol

(I know I posted a lot of pics of him, but I can't help it, he's just SO CUTE!)

Wild PEAcocks?!

2009-06-12T16:36:00.008-07:00

The other day I got home from work and after I said hi to my hubby, he decided he was going to go get the mail. He opens the front door and starts yelling for me to "Come here FAST!!"

I ran over to the front door and see these big crazy birds on our front lawn! They were wild Peacocks!! I guess they had been on the front porch (eating my flowers) when Josh opened the door, and then they ran out to the lawn.

Josh always takes Bentley with him to get the mail and never has her on a leash. I was surprised because she wasn't chasing them, she just stood next to Josh and looked at them like "what the crap is THAT"

I grabbed my camera and tried to grab a few pics. We then tried to get Bentley to go chase them (Even though they were the same size as her) She started towards them and they started running, and then she took off full speed after them through the neighbors front yards. All of the sudden Bentley does a flip through the air. She ran into some wires that were holding a tree up that she didn't see and it made her do a flip. lol! It was pretty darn funny looking. Right when she did that, the Peacocks (or PeaHENS i guess), took off and flew! One flew across the street and onto the roof of a house, the other just flew up to the roof of the house we were in front of. Weird, I didn't know they could fly like that.

Well a couple of days later we notice that Bentley has battle wounds from running into the wires at full speed, they don't look very fun!

Her back leg

Scabby ew!

Poor girl, I feel bad because we didn't even notice that she got hurt until a couple days after it happened :(

luvin' summer

2009-06-09T15:25:00.003-07:00

Our Summer..... Is consisting of some of this ^^

(A little dog surfing)
Some more of it (With a big smile) :D
silly Miki

Lots of this ^^

For some reason the pool water is much yummier then the water in the bowls...

Lots of these ^^ lots & lots & lots & lots....

Some dog sitting/wrestling

(Bentley always won)

And a whole bunch of this! ^^^

Don't be too jealous ;)
♥ ♥ ♥

New Moon!!

2009-06-02T09:53:00.003-07:00

New Moon Preview!
yay, I can't wait! :):)

10 Months

2009-06-01T11:57:00.011-07:00

Today is our 10 Month mark of being married! That's so crazy to me! The time has gone by so fast, it's hard to think that soon we will have been married for a year.

A lot of things have gone on in the last 10 months, here are a few of the bigger ones....

We got a Bentley (Josh's baby doggy)...

My baby (Tinkerbell) passed away :(

We moved into a new house...And did a LOT of changes to it including all new landscaping, drip systems, sprinklers systems, grass, trees, painting the house, new blinds etc.

My sister Melanie got married.

We tried to add a new dog to our family, and it failed... twice. lol

Planted our garden.

Made some awesome new friends!

Found out what it's like to be the only one in your ward without a baby ;)

Josh got a medal of life saving award at work!

Had pool parties at our house to break in the pool.

And we've planned a summer full of vacations:

-New Mexico for Josh's brother's homecoming

-Girls camp (I just got a calling as YCL leader)

-Utah for our one year anniversary and sealing!

-Vegas sometime in there

-California for our friend's beach wedding!

-Florida for tons of fun!

-------------------------------

Happy 10 Months to my Joshy Pooh!

Doggy Door

2009-05-28T16:44:00.003-07:00

This is the doggy door our dogs have been using since we moved in.... and in our house before too....

See how much space it DOESN'T leave for you to walk through?? We had to turn sideways to walk through the sliding door, very annoying! Josh finally got fed up with it and announced that he was going to put a doggy door in the wall. We figured since we're planning on staying in the house for a while we might as well!

I was a little worried about knocking a hole in our wall, but Josh did an amazing job!!

This picture is before he re-painted the wall next to it, but you can get the idea. The dogs love it and we love being able to use our back door!

New Table!!

2009-05-28T16:37:00.002-07:00

We have been wanting a new kitchen table for a while now and Finally got one!! The one we've been using is the one I bought about 5 years ago when I moved out of my parents house. It seats 4 people, but was barely big enough for Josh and I to eat dinner at. And the few times we've had family visit us, we have had to seat people at the couch with a tv tray because there just isn't space. (sorry family ;)

So a couple of weeks ago we decided it was about time to get a grown up table.... and I'm REALLY glad we did! I love our new table!

The pictures really don't do it justice! It looks great in there!

Garden Update

2009-05-28T16:28:00.003-07:00

Our garden is producing veggies now and growing like crazy!!
We have had radishes, peas, cucumber, squash and strawberries so far.
The ones we're still waiting on are the red tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, corn, red peppers, watermelon and cantelope.
I didn't think that we would be getting melons because no plants grew where I planted the seeds, but now we have them growing all over the entire garden, climbing up my tomato plants and pea plants and making it Very hard to manuever my way through. I have to pick up vines and move them so I can take a single step.

Here is a baby watermelon...

Peas...

Soon to be Red, Pepper...

Radishes...

Squash and zuchini!!

Josh and I have been eating zuchini for dinner almost every night for the past couple of weeks. Right now we are loving grilling them, but I'm sure pretty soon we will be sick of them. lol

I have made zuchini bread too, just need to figure out some more good recipes to use these things up.....

What Can I Say??

2009-05-07T16:11:00.004-07:00

This pic makes me laugh EvErY time I see it.

Hike from Heck!

2009-05-07T15:12:00.003-07:00

I got a phone call one Thursday night from someone in our ward that I didn't know, asking if I could go on a young women's hike/campout the next day. Apparently all of their leaders had to back out and nobody else could go short notice because they have kids. I said I would go, I hadn't been hiking in a long time and camping is something I enjoy (as long as there is a toilet).

I showed up at the church the next afternoon and got a couple of teenage girls shoved in my car, along with Tons of luggage.... for our ONE night trip. None of the girls wanted to sit in the front with "sister roper" so I felt like a chueffer. I tried talking to them but only got one word answers so gave up and turned the music up.

Turns out they listen to the same radio stations as me, I have the same music tastes as 14 year olds?! Oh no! Time to branch out I guess :P

They sat in the back seat and gossiped about freshman year in high school for the full 2 hours. After that car ride I decided that if I have a daughter, I do NOT want her to be 14! And I do NOT want to ever let her near a high school! Geeeesh!

Anyways.... we got there and set up camp. I didn't know a soul there. The other adults thought I was one of the girls. (For the record, all of the girls were 14 and personally don't think I look like a 14 year old)

We went on this rediculously hard hike the next day. Out of the 7 girls that started, only 3 made it the whole way. I was not expecting such a tough experience, and I'm very proud that I survived it lol. First off, who thinks it's a good idea to hike in the Arizona DESERT?? I don't care if it is still April, it's still freaking hot out there in the beating sun! The hike was about 5-6miles long, and parts of it were straight up the side of a sheer rock. There were these cables you have to pull yourself up to get there. You have to scale along the side of a cliff with just one cable in front of you to cling to. And something they don't tell you, is that once you reach the very tip top of this Huge peak, you have to go back down the same way you came up. Going down backwards, hanging onto this cable for dear life, trying to reach for somewhere to place your toe so you don't just slip and smack your face all the way down the mountain. Blah! lol. I barely made it. I am scared of heights, and there were a few times where I could feel myself start panicking, but I had to keep going. I missed my Josh, I knew if he had been there he would make sure nothing happened to me. ♥

We did make it to the top, and then back down to the bottom again. 3 girls and 3 adults. The other 4 girls had to quit 5 and 30 minutes in to the hike because of being diabetic, and/or out of shape.

It took us about 5 hours I think, and on the last stretch I thought my legs were going to give out from under me. I was sore for the next three days! My arms and shoulders hurt from pulling myself up cables, my legs were gone! I kept telling myself I would never do that hike again, but now that I've fully recovered I think I might try it again some day, but bring my Josh to protect me :)

Here are some pictures (I didn't take them, I was to busy not falling)

We went to the very top of this peak:

These pictures don't come close to how steep or scary this was

The view from the very tip top!

Growing Garden

2009-04-28T15:21:00.009-07:00

It's now been about 7 weeks since we planted our garden. I was over excited at first and would get sad when I'd go out to the garden and not really see any progress.

But NOW every time I go there I am amazed at how much my little plants have grown :)

Here are some pictures that show some of the changes:

This is the day we planted. Josh and I are in the green shirts in the middle.Just dirt... for now... ^^

(below: I went out and spent 15min watering all of our plants, by hand. After finally finishing I stood back to take a look, and picture, and I stepped into water... Someone had turned the irrigation on and it got to our rows right after I had finished watering them by hand! Lame!)
Look at all that green!I planted some red pepper plants and they just popped these lil guys out! They more than doubled in size in a week!

Our crazy tomato plants! in about a week or so we are going to have tomato Overload! Seriously!

Squash & Zuchini plants are getting huge

And lastly we have the strawberries..... sad news is that only 2 of my 12 strawberry plants survived :( Apparently they can't handle so much sunlight. But the 2 that are alive are popping out little tiny berries that taste delicious!

My pea plants are growing like crazy, but for some reason I can't upload the pic of them. I also have radishes and cucumber, but no pics of them either.

Our watermelon and cantelope plants never surfaced so looks like no melon for us this year. Oh well, we can just pretend our tomatoes are melon??

Chi WOW wa

2009-04-27T13:36:00.003-07:00

Josh worked off duty last night from 7pm until 4am this morning. So to keep me company he rented me this movie to watch....

It was a cute little corny Disney movie that made me cry.... and miss this little girl!!...

Good thing Josh wasn't there to see me lose it ...

MY real lap dog!

l♥ved to snuggle with me all the time

cutest little face ever!

miss you tinky girl!! ♥♥♥

Summer Already!

2009-04-22T15:35:00.004-07:00

It's been hitting the 100's the last couple of days out here! Crazy crazy! Our pool went from 70 degrees to 78 degrees in just a few days time!
We will be breaking it in this weekend and we are VERY excited to finally be able to use it!

To welcome summer we decided to get our little dog Miki a haircut. She loves to swim in the pool and with all of her long thick hair it's not a very safe or comfortable thing for her in the summer time. Last time we cut her hair we did it ourselves to save the money and it turned out pretty dang good. This time though, we decided to take her to a professional so she could look great for summer......... *sigh* now I wish we would have done it ourselves. lol

Before

and After

Lol! I was in shock when I went to pick her up and not very happy. She was supposed to have a lion cut done, leaving her head poofy looking. Now she looks like a cat. Josh and I are trying to get used to it and find ourselves laughing at her a LOT now. She seems to love it though and that's what really matters... Right?! lol

Double Date

2009-04-22T15:07:00.003-07:00

When my little sister Melanie was dating her now husband (Keats), Josh and I would go out on double dates with them all of the time. But after they got married they moved to NM and the double dates ended.

Last weekend they were in town and we got to go out with them for the first time in a Looooong time. It was nice to see them again, and to beat them at bowling! ;)

It was 'cosmic bowling' with the black lights etc. which i think is why the pic above turned out like it did...

Melanie and Keats ^^^ (Keats is a weirdo ;)

Josh and I in our very bright colored outfits

Take a Looksy

2009-04-10T13:48:00.003-07:00

http://stixNstone.etsy.com

April Showers

2009-04-06T16:10:00.003-07:00

I meant to post something last week, on April Fools Day, but I just never got around to it.

Notice how I made the font all dark and yucky for "april fools day"?? Yeah I did that for a reason. Stupid holiday! What even makes that a holiday anyways?? Who decided that there should be a day to try and make people look or feel like Fools anyways?

Okay so I'm not a huge fan of this day. In fact, the biggest prank I have ever pulled was to put a rubber band around the kitchen sink sprayer (You know, this one...).

If you do this, whoever turns on the kitchen faucet ends up getting sprayed either right in the gut, or right in the face. I used to do this every year and I would end up getting my mom most of the time. Silly lady forgot about it each year.

This year I didn't do anything. I was going to warn Josh that I didn't like this day and tell him not to try to trick me. For example, calling me from work saying he shot someone, or that he got shot or something NOT funny. I decided not to tell him to Not do this as it probably would have just put the idea in his head and he would do it anyways. (for the record he didn't try to trick me at all:)

Even though I didn't pull any tricks of my own on him, he THOUGHT that I did.

We had a company meeting at my work that day where it was announced that Everyone in the company is taking a 10% pay CUT! I'm not even going to go into how upset this makes me, that's a whole other post! Well after this meeting I texted Josh and told him what they announced, not even thinking that it was april fools day. His response to me was "haha, yeah right punk. april fools". Oh geesh! I was already super upset and my own husband didn't believe me because of this stupid day. Even after I told him how one lady at my work left crying after the meeting, he still didn't believe me. lol. I think he really didn't believe me 100% until I got home that evening. (No, it wasn't a joke. My bosses just made the not-so-smart decision to make this announcement on April 1st)