.

weekend!

2012-01-26T15:49:00.000-05:00

This weekend we wanted to something fun. We considered heading up towards Flagstaff, but the weather turned crazy so we stayed in town. We ended up going to the desert and testing out the trucks off roading abilities.

Anyways we had a great time!

You can see the north side of Surprise from here.

15 weeks here.

Also, Here is an official picture of me at 14 weeks .

A little bump is starting to come out!

New Years Eve

2012-01-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

We have had this problem lately where we cant figure out anything to do! Mainly its my problem, because it seems to take all my energy to even get ready, but at the same time all I want to do is get out of the house!
We made an actual decision on Saturday and headed up to the Salt River! It was a beautiful day, and almost 80 degrees outside! Believe it or not Colby and I both wore shorts!

We hiked down to the river, and Colby did some fly fishing. He caught one! It was a suckerfish and not the trout he was hoping for, but a fish is a fish to me! :)

This fish had the weirdest lips I have ever seen!

The rest of NYE was pretty uneventful, we had dinner at Dennys, and then went home watched a movie and were in bed by 10:30. I wanted to watch the ball drop in Times Square but they cut out right at midnight eastern time to the 10 oclock nightly news. I guess the news was more important!

2011

2012-01-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

2011 was kind of a crazy year! It was also the longest year ever! I am excited for what 2012 will bring!
Heres a rundown of what we did this year!

January

We went on a last minute trip to Washington DC! We made it there right after a snow storm and it was beautiful! Even though it was freezing outside there were no crowds and we were able to do everything we wanted to! I love DC and already miss being so close to so much history!

February
We were tormented this month with the news of the Greensboro Call Center closing and having to make a decision on whether Colby should find a new job, work from home, or transfer to a new place!
That pretty much sums up that month!

March

We made a trip out to Phoenix with AMEX where Colby was offered a promotion if we transferred. Looks like our decision was made for us!
It looked like our new scenery was going to change from heavily wooded area to this:

April
We enjoyed one of our last months in Greensboro by spending time with family and driving around Greensboro! Nothing too exciting!

May

We started to finish up our packing and then headed on a 7day 8 night cruise through the Western Caribbean! It was the perfect break from all the chaos!! We also experienced our first crash while we were mopeding in MExico! Definitely something we will never forget!!

June
I left my job of 3+ years! We packed up the Budget truck and made our way to Arizona! We miraculously made it in 2 days! We got all settled into our house and tried to gain our bearings! Oh and enjoyed our new pool!! My sister also graduated from High School and we were able to be there to celebrate! Colby also bought a new truck!

July
My family came down to celebrate the fourth of July with us!

August
I was able to spend a week in Las Vegas with my family and was also able to catch up with lots of friends!
We also went up to Slide Rock State Park in Sedona with the Coltons!

September
We took our first camping trip and went tubing down the salt river!

October
We went camping again, I endured a treachurous (sp?) hike straight up a mountain! We went to Vegas and went on a double date with my brother! And went to California to go to Disneyland and a quick stop at the beach! It was quite the busy month!

November
We found out that we were expecting! We went to Greensboro for 10 days! and we celebrated our first Thanksgiving in Arizona with my family!

December

Mike and Dalene came to visit us and we went to see the Mesa Temple Christmas lights! We relaxed! and we went to celebrate Christmas in Las Vegas!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Baby on Board!

2011-12-30T12:34:00.002-05:00

Im not sure if its possible to be in a state of continuous shock for months, but I think that is what I am in.
It started on Monday, November 7th. We had dinner plans with some friends that evening but had to run a few errands first. Colby had to convince me to buy the pregnancy test. I guess I was in denial! we headed home with a few minutes to spare before dinner to take the test. We were shocked by the almost instant positive sign! After a few tears of joy and shock and a questioning how (baby is definitely a surprise!), we headed to dinner! We feel so blessed for this opportunity to have a baby!
Im not sure how we kept it secret until Christmas! It was very hard after being in NC and finding out about my other sister in law and seeing my mom and family a handful of times!

So here the details!

Due Date: July 13th 2012

How far along am I? 12 weeks today!

Most exciting part so far? We heart the heartbeat on December 20th!

How have I been feeling? So far not too bad. Other than being extremely tired and even more picky with food than usual, oh and the occasional mood swing (sorry Colby)! Ive been lucky enough to only lose my meal 2x! Lets hope that number stays the same!

Weight Gain: +0 (not easy during the holidays!) I have been trying to do light excercises during the week and my weekly walks will resume back in January!

Food Cravings/Aversions? Ive really wanted salad, the good kind from restaurants or a salad buffet! I think I could eat it all day long!!! So if anyone wants to bring me a salad, especially a cafe rio one, Im down!!! :)No strong aversions, just different foods that dont sound good day to day!

Showing yet? By the end of the day I feel like my stomach is huge, its not really but it is definitely bigger than it was in the morning! Weekly photos will begin this week!

Christmas with a surprise!

2011-12-30T11:55:00.000-05:00

Christmas came way too fast this year, and now its already past!
We decorated with as soon as Thanksgiving was over, but it was still hard to get in the Christmas spirit. Something about palm trees and 70 degree weather just doesnt feel like Christmas!

We drove up to Vegas on the Friday before Christmas to celebrate! We had a great time and it actually started to feel like Christmas! The freezing temperature might have helped! :)
My parents house was decorated beautifully! We went to "Christmas Dinner" at the Boulder Station buffet for lunch on Saturday because mama had to work and we had to leave in the early afternoon on Christmas to get back for Colby to go to work on Monday.
We went to church early Sunday morning, and had the shortest Sacrament meeting ever. 45 minutes! We sang 5 songs and then headed back to the house to open our gifts!
We were spoiled with gifts! Colby stepped up into the digital world and we got an Ipod Touch! and my mom got be an external flash and diffuser for my camera! Colby and I were amazed at the difference it makes in inside flash pictures!
We of course saved the best presents for last! I went and got them out of our room while my brother and sister were opening their last presents. I set them on the ground in front of me while everyone was just talking. Karli spotted them and said, "why are mour presents by you?" I just played it off like it was an accident... I told them to go ahead and open them. Kenny opened his first, blank stare. What is this? He showed it around and everyone was kind of confused for a minute. Then it clicked! My mama was the first to shout it out, Does that mean you are pregnant?? Yes, Yes it does. I told Karli to open hers as well.

No one suspected it!
We were able to tell Colbys family the previous Thursday night when they were opening all of their gifts. Mike and Dalene received a family tree from all of the kids and we had Brittany put an ultrasound pic by us. They were a little bit confused and thought the pictures was in the wrong place, since my other sis in law Christal is also expecting, but they eventually got it with some prodding from Brittany! They were all very surprised since we were out there only a couple weeks before!
So it was a very merry Christmas! Im am so bleesed to have a wonderful family and to have married into an equally wonderful one!

Recently

2011-12-23T13:38:00.000-05:00

Well we have been busy most of December too! Colbys parents came to visit the first weekend in December, of course, it was the coldest weekedn we have had so far!
We took them to the Mesa Temple Christmas lights and to a Christmas festival in Peoria!

Yes we are both wearing our winter coats, thats how cold it was!!
It seems like we constantly have something going on, but everything has been poorly undocumented!!
We had a fire in the backyard the other day because the weather was so nice! We trimmed all of our trees and bushes and have enough wood to last us a while!!

One thing AZ does not lack of is beautiful sunsets! They always amaze me!!
Another thing that I love is all the fruit trees! Every where you go you will see trees filled with oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruits! They are so pretty!

Dont they look delicious!
Oh and for good measue and because they havent been on the blog in a while,
Krone - and his new sweater and really bad bed head!

Kazzi looking innocent as usual

We are so excited for Christmas! We are heading up to Vegas to celebrate! It will be nice to spend it with family!

November

2011-12-23T13:13:00.000-05:00

November was a crazy month for us! Crazy in a good way of course! We started off the month slow and then went out of town for 10 days back to North Carolina!
Colby had a 3 day fishing trip with one of his brothers and his dad planned , they had a blast! Of course no one took any pictures of their fantastic catches but it sounds like they caught a lot... They were even kind enough to bring a couple back to eat for dinner!
While he played I stayed back in Greensboro and worked and had some lunch dates! It was so much fun to be able to catch up with friends!
I am glad that we were able to take a trip back and spend time with everyone! We even got to see Brooke and Kent and most importantly Case for a full 24 hours! That beats the last time we saw them for 2 hours!
Here is one of our family pictures from our pre thanksgiving celebration -

Sadly these were the only pictures I took!! OOps! Then to top it off I left my camera in NC so I didnt take any pictures except for phone ones the rest of the month!

We got back just a few days before Thanksgiving, which we were hosting so we got everything ready for the big celebration!

It was so fun having my whole family here!

We baked up a storm, and did equally as much shopping!

One of the 2 big pumpkin cheesecakes Karli and I made!

We attempted at taking family pictures right before we ate dinner, but everyone was starving and ready to eat!

Well that pretty much sums up November! It was a crazy and busy month! I cant believe December is almost gone and over with now! 2011 Really flew by!

Hot Chocolate and Giant 'Mallows..

2011-11-07T17:24:00.001-05:00

Fall has finally arrived! I am so excited to be able to sweatshirts, boots and cardigans without sweating to death!
We took it easy this weekend! November is going to be a busy month so we decided to relax while we still can!
Friday night we enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate with one giant marshmallow!

We bought those GIGANTIC smores marshmallows for our camping trips and it was wonderful in the hot chocolate!!
Yumm!
Saturday I had a newborn photo session with Claire & Tyler! She is a doll! When I got home we went to enjoy the outdoors at the 41st annual Litchfield Park Festival of the Arts! There was so many neat crafts, arts, and miscellaneous things! We enjoyed some Native American music (pan flute & violin!) and walked around smelling all the delicious food!
Sunday we went to church, if I havent mentioned it before we were called to be nursery helpers. We enjoy playing with the kids for two hours and eating cheerios and other snacks! They are always doing something that makes us laugh!
After church we watched movies and cuddled under blankets for the rest of the day!
It was quite the relaxing weekend, now on to a busy week!!!

Quick Trip to California!

2011-10-31T14:20:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we headed to Anaheim to go to Disneyland with my family! We had never been during Halloween and thought it would be fun to experience it!
Colby and I drove down after he got off work on Friday and made it in in just 5 hours!
We had a blast at Disneyland and California adventure! The parks were packed, but we were able to ride all the rides we wanted to, some more than once!

We braved one of the most terrifying rides there.... The Ferris Wheel At California Adventure!
Here is Karli and Kennys Scared faces, these were not posed by the way...

before we started to slide.

and during...

haahah!

Colby and I looking normal during this!

Colby enjoying a HUGE turkey leg!

bugs life ride!

Waiting in line for tower of terror!

My parents fell asleep on the bench while we were waiting in line!

Colby and Kenny playing around!

On Sunday morning we decided to head to the beach before the drive home!

There were so many surfers out! I guess its the popular thing to do on a Sunday morning!

We had a great trip! We love my family and are grateful we are so close to them now!

Haunted!

2011-10-22T15:40:00.000-04:00

Halloween is almost here! It doesnt seem like we have lived here for 5 months, and I really cant believe that October is nearly over! Our heat wave definitely came back after one week of 80's it went back into the upper 90s and even low 100's! I am ready for fall food (yummy pumpkin) and fall weather but it just doesnt seem right since we can still go swimming!
There is a pretty big farm just around the corner from us and they set up a pumpkin patch, petting zoo, and corn mazes (one being haunted)! It was a blast! Its the weirdest thing being surrounded by fields in middle of a big city, especially in the desert!
This was my first haunted corn maze, and COlby & I's first haunted experience together! We went with some of our new friends Nathan and Kira (it was Kiras first time in a haunted anything!) and we all had a blast! There were several times that we just ran through it because we were so scared, which made it even more fun because then more people would just pop out of no where!
Obviously I couldnt take pictures of the corn maze, but here is us at the petting zoo! We found out Colby is the horse whisperer and that it really tickles when ducks try to eat from your hand (especially when you dont have any food in it!)

right after we had all been terrorized!

Cute litte kids!

No idea why its so fuzzy!

Weekend Fun

2011-10-13T13:57:00.000-04:00

We decided to head up to Vegas for the weekend to hang out with the family.
Even though there is a lack of pictures we did lots of fun stuff, although we really missed Karli and her constant entertainment:

Jenifer - got my hair done, had a photo session, went to the mall, drove around henderson, and hung out with my mom and brother.

Colby - went ot the swapmeet, went to Pawn Stars shop, tried to tour Ricks Restoration unsuccessfully, went to check out a cool Dune buggy, and hung out with my dad.

We - went on a double date with my brother to the CSI:Experience at the MGM (got free entertainment by watching all of the JOURNEY concert goers) and dinner at Buca de Peppa, ending the night at Coldstone!
I only got two pictures of the entire weekend... I really need to work on that!

We got to wear these cool official CSI vests during the experience!

Its so nice to be able to hang out with my family on a whim like that! We are looking forward to hanging out with them in a couple weeks (sister included) in SoCal!

We love the great outdoors!

2011-10-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

Well this past weekend was pretty much the last weekend before all the mountains here start to get snow, so we decided to take advantage and go on one last camping trip! We headed up to Chevelon Canyon Lake on the Mogollon Rim. It is what is called a primitive campsite, meaning no water, showers, bathrooms, and you have to hike down 3/4 a steep, very steep hill to get to the lake. We enjoyed watching the stars and eating our tinfoil dinners and went to bed early so we could head to the lake early the next morning.

We bought these awesome kayaks a couple weeks ago that turn into backpacks, which is cool because we can take them anywhere and Colby can fish from them, etc. The only negative is you are carrying 40lbs of extra weight on your back. We spent about four hours out on the lake and then we had to head back up to pack our things and get home before it started to rain.
I ~~thought ,~~ knew i was going to die! I felt like we were climbing straight up and that we were never going to get back to the campsite...Poor Colby, there wasnt much he could do (obviously he couldnt carry both kayaks!) except watch me huff and puff and wheeze all the way up this mountain, in my defense it was 7000+ feet and the air is a lot thinner than it is in Phoenix. We eventually made it...somehow! and I survived with only sore legs!
Anyways, other than the awful hike, it was a wonderful little camping trip!! Colby caught 10 fish, but didnt keep any.

The closest to fall I will see around here!

last weekend according to phone pics

2011-09-22T14:11:00.000-04:00

Colby left me for the weekend to go on a fishing trip with Tyler. They ended up coming back on Saturday night with their loot...

They caught 17 trout, but only one that was big enough to take home (they have a rule that they have to be over 14 inches). Colby prepared it and cooked it for dinner on Sunday, but thought that it didnt taste right. So he threw it away... oh well! Now he is ready to go back and catch some more!
While Colby was gone, Krone decided that he loves/is obsessed with the pool. He has jumped in like 3 or 4 times in the past week! Im hoping he gets over this soon....

Kazzi is really good at just looking cute...

Claire and I took a shopping day on saturday and went exploring Scottsdales Fashion Square. We ended the day with this special treat...

We went to Sprinkles cupcakes and I splurged on 3 cupcakes (@ 3.50 a piece, Colby was thrilled!) but they were absolutely delicious!!
So there you have it, this whole weekend in not so good pictures!

Camping Trip!

2011-09-14T20:44:00.000-04:00

Colby & I decided to take a quick camping trip! Colby took work off on Tuesday and we headed up Monday afternoon to a place called Crown Point, about a 3 hour drive. The last 30+ miles are on dirt roads climbing up a mountain to 6500+ feet! It was a little crazy and Im glad that we drove it during the day and not the night!
There was plenty of wildlife on the drive up...

There were cows just roaming the dirt roads on the way up! They definitely caught us off guard a couple of times!

But other than some birds, and an occasional squirrel we were the only ones at or around our campsite!

Before we set up camp Colby decided to cast out a couple of times and try out his fishing pants..

You might notice that its seems that Colby has changed his allegiance to Carolina to the Sundevils.. no worries. Kazzi just ate his favorite Carolina hat (bad dog) we found the same exact hat at marshalls, the only difference, it was Sundevils instead of Tarheels!

We were only at the lake maybe a total of 10 minutes because we could hear the thunder and wanted to set up our tent before the storm came in. We were able to get set up and start a fire just in time for it to start pouring down rain! Luckily there was a little shelter for us to sit in on our campsite!

After the rain was over we had to restart our fire. A couple wet branches and lots of gasoline later we had a nice fire to cook our delicious tin foil dinners in, and of course roast marshmallows!
We headed to bed and had planned to go hiking in the morning, but it was raining again and we decided to just start heading back! It of course decided to stop raining so we stopped at a couple places a long the way to tkae pictures and walk/climb around!

Colby's Truck

There was a wildfire a couple years ago that destroyed most of the forest. Alot of the trees ended up looking like this. Pretty cool!

Mountains for miles and miles! You can see one of the roads in this pictures, looks like the one that we had to take to get up there!!

We had a great time and cant wait to go camping again! The weather was a perfect 75 degrees and not to cold at night!!

The weather is finally becoming bearable here! It was 90* today! So much better than 110+!!

Dobbins Point

2011-09-14T19:57:00.000-04:00

Tyler & Claire had mentioned a cool spot that you could see the whole valley from called Dobbins point so we decided to check it out this past Saturday! it was pretty cool.
After you drive 5 miles or so up a windy mountain road you end up at the top where you can see all of the East and West valleys. I wish that it would have been a little clearer out and not so smoggy but it was still gorgeous and cool to see none the less! We were able to make it up just in time for the sunset!

A storm was rolling in! The storms here are awesome because of all the lighting! Its one of the only "free" forms of entertainment that we have found that AZ has to offer!! :)

Tubing

2011-09-06T12:27:00.001-04:00

This past weekend we went on another adventure! Its so hard to want to do anything outside here because it is so hot outside, so it seems like you have to drive a couple hours to somewhere cooler or sweat it out! But good news! It is supposed to be in the 90s/70's starting next week! We CANT wait!!!
We found a happy medium and drove about an hour to the Salt River to go tubing. It was still 110 outside but the water was cool enough that you didnt realize how hot it was!
The sucky part of doing things with water is that I cant bring my camera! So all the pics are from other websites.

It was so pretty, the river goes through a national forest with mountains surround you. We were also probably some of the only ones who werent intoxicated. We floated down the river for about 4 hours and saw about a dozen wild horses and even a bald eagle (my first one!)

just imagine Colby Tyler Claire and Me in this picture

The wild mustangs

some of the views, probably in the spring or winter

So we decided to invest in some inflatable kayaks! They should be here tomorrow and we cant wait for more adventures out on the lakes/rivers!

What have we been up to?

2011-08-29T16:16:00.000-04:00

**Sorry for crappy camera pics**
Well August has really flown by! We started it off by heading up to Vegas and hanging out with my family! We enjoyed going shooting out on the dry lake bed and going cosmic bowling.. among other things! Im glad that we are so close to them now!

I was able to stay for the week and hang out with friends that I haven seen in a couple of years! It was so great to catch up and see everyones babies/toddlers!! For some reason we didnt take any pictures together though!
Colby has been attempting to fish and finally was caught some catfish at a local pond. It wasnt what he wanted but it was better than not catching anything at all!!

I have been working from home since June and have been keeping busy! I usually have two stalkers surrounding my desk at any given time.

We've been enjoying our pool and trying to go out and explore! We went to a pretty cool car museum a couple of weekends ago and this past weekend we went up to Sedona with the Coltons to explore. We went to Sliding rock state park where we froze our butts off in the ice cold water! We did some cliff jumping (not claire), I surprised myself and jumped off without much hesitation, but was shocked by how cold the water was. We hadnt tested it out before hand! Colby & Tyler braved the 40 foot jump, but once off the 25 was good enough for me! We slid down the creek and went "hiking" upstream. It is absolutely gorgeous up there!

the cliffs we were jumping from.

The rock slide

We are planning on going camping sometime in the next couple weeks and cant wait to explore more of the AZ mountains and lakes! Colby cant wait to fish, I cant wait to take pictures.. :)

Well thats a quick little update! I cant get my SD drive to work or else I would post some other pictures, but I will just save them for next time!

Sleeping on the Floor, No More!

2011-07-28T20:16:00.000-04:00

I am happy to announce that we are no longer sleeping on the floor! You can all stop worrying about the scorpions attacking us in our sleep, I know it was keeping you up at night!

We ordered a bedroom suite back at the end of may so that it would arrive here by the middle/end of June. We kept getting the run around from the company and after over 6 weeks of not receiving our order we had to cancel... We were back to step one! Luckily we found a great discount furniture store here in Glendale and were able to get a fantastic deal on an even better set!

We still need to do some decorating but Im just happy to not be sleeping on the floor and living out of suit cases!!

Not much going on here!

2011-07-18T23:23:00.001-04:00

Well we have been here over a month now and are pretty much settled into the house! After a very long delay, we have a bedroom suite being delivered on Saturday and I seriously can't wait.
We have been sleeping on the floor (on a mattress of course) since we have moved in and with our nice friends the scorpions rapant around here...well Im sure you can see why I am excited! Yes I will still check underneath the covers and my pillow every night but atleast I wont be on the floor!!

Colby has discovered that there is a serious lack of home improvement projects for him to do and isnt quite sure what to do with all of his spare time! Dont worry, Im working on finding some for him! :) Work is going great for him and he has discovered a new talent of grilling. He has been creating some delicious dinners for us the past couple of weeks!

We have been having lots of "monsoons" they arent called thunderstorms around here and with the crazy wind and dust clouds I guess I can understand why! A couple weeks a go we had a crazy huge dust cloud called a haboob blanket the entire PHX valley (which is massive by the way) It was I think 70 miles wide and tall enough to cover the skyscrapers! Tonight we had another one! These are supposedly a very rare occurence so I guess we should be considered lucky to have witnessed two of them.. I went out to get pictures of this one.

Isnt that crazy??
This is the grand canal that runs across the street from us. It waters all of the crops throughout the west valley. I believe we also have it to thank for the many critters we have found by the house!

Speaking of animals...

I found this baby lizard the other day, I have never seen one so small!! Isnt it cute! I wanted to keep him but decided to let him go so he might actually have a chance to live!

I have been busy trying to keep up with house chores and working. I am currently temping at Conair (hairdryers/straigheners) for the week and working from home doing back end processing for the insurance company my mom works for. So I am staying pretty busy!

The dogs are starting to like it out here, as long as I take them across the street to the park (aka GRASS). Krone is protesting the rocks in the backyard and will only go if I take him across the street, I honestly dont blame him. Kazzi of course could care less...

We are trying to go out and explore the area, but its hard to be motivated to go outside when its 110....
I cant wait for the fall when we can enjoy the weather! We did go out one evening so I could take some pictures of the flower fields and saguaros..

Anyways, now you are up to date and informed of our lives!

Fourth of July Fun!

2011-07-04T13:02:00.000-04:00

My family was able to come down for a couple days and celebrate 4th of July! Since they have to leave on the actual fourth, I tried to find stuff to do for Sunday night.
We drove out to Lake Pleasant, about a45 minute drive, to watch the fireworks there! This was Colby & I's first time out there but I know we will definitely be back! It was gorgeous! They had some beaches, nice grass, and lots of boats and people to watch!
When we got there it was really windy and looked like a storm was coming. We were worried they were going to cancel the fireworks but around 730 the winds calmed down and the temperature dropped to the low 90s! It was so nice out! Around 8 we noticed storm clouds surrounding us and lighting in the distance! The lightning show was just as cool as the fireworks! Anyways, it started to sprinkle, then it would stop. So they started the fireworks about 30 minutes early! It was so cool to see the fireworks with the lightning behind it! At the very end of the fireworks show it started pouring down rain! We attempted to run back to the truck like everyone else, but were drenched by the time we got there!
Never thought I would have to worry about rain on the fourth of july here!!
Back in Las Vegas they had flash flooding, high winds and power outages so I guess we lucked out here!

Here are a couple pictures from our adventure!!

Cruise Continued-Underwater Camera

2011-06-24T11:27:00.001-04:00

Note for next time... Get the special waterproof bag that will fit any camera inside to take underwater pictures!

The pictures turned out alright, but they definitely dont capture half of how bright, colorful, and beautiful this coral reef was!!
**Again Sorry Colby for having my finger in front of the camera in every single underwater picture of you!! Guess thats why I like digital better!! :)

Colby Kissing a sting ray

Me not sure what to do with the stingray!

Crazy jellyfish in the lagoon in Roatan.

The nurse shark Colby & I spotted in Roatan.

School of Fish

Seriously??

2011-06-24T11:01:00.001-04:00

If I see one more creature, thats not a dog, i might pull my hair out.

We have had an abundance of SCORPIONS!!

See how little that thing is? maybe an inch and half!!

Every night we have to go around and check for these things. We have found 8 too many inside the house.... and went around with a black light outside and found way too many more!!

And just to top of them being scorpions, they are bark scorpions, the most poisonous kind in North America...

So needless to say it has been hard to fall asleep, our bed is currently on the floor, and for what seems like forever before I can fall asleep, all I can feel is scorpions crawling on me...

Then I come in from taking the dogs out, and there is a snake in my house!

It was just a little ground snake but still... why is it in my house??

He got stuck in packing tape (luckily), and unfortunately for him, died in the struggle of getting unstuck.

So, after that and several other things just not going right yesterday I was done...

On a more positive note, we only found one scorpion in the house last night and an exterminator is coming to do an inspection on the house to see where they are coming in from!

After Colby got home we decided to go get our underwater camera pictures developed and explore a little.

We went to the HUGE Cabelas thats right up the road. They have a really neat wildlife museum and small freshwater aquarium.

While we were walking around the museum looking at the mule deer, there was a part that had a hunter manequin and a tent set up. Colby walked in front of it and the manequin started talking in a really loud voice. Colby jumped back 5 feet!!! We both couldnt stop laughing! The best part was other people were around and saw it happen!! So it was a nice little comic relief for the day!

After Cabelas we headed over to the Westgate center, which is a huge shopping/eating center that attaches to Cardinals Stadium and Jobing arena. They were having a crazy bike night. There were atleast 1000 bikes there! They were having live music and they have a much smaller scale version of the bellagio fountains in the center.

Just a few of the many bikes. They had custom choppers, harleys, and speed bikes.

It turned out to be a pretty good night. We are excited to keep exploring and find new things to do.

THe one problem we have is when we ask people what to do around here, there answer is "Oh there is so much to do around here"......

Examples please???

Anyways..

There is just a little update from the Its Really Hot here front!!

We made it!!

2011-06-13T19:03:00.000-04:00

We made it to Phoenix (glendale) after a very long (35 hours) ride in the budget truck!! We did it in two days, which was a little crazy! The trip went pretty smoothly! The dogs were wonderful! They both laid on my lap almost the entire trip! The worst part was the last 4 hours of the trip! It is basically all coming down mountains. So it was dark, we were driving a budget truck, pulling a car, and running off very little sleep after waking up at 430 central time that morning! But I am here to blog about it today! :)

We love our house! We were a little crazy and bought it without ever seeing it in person. We trusted our realtor and he did a great job! Its in a pretty good neighborhood, across from a park, and is huge! It feels much bigger than our last house even though its only 200 more square feet! It has 4 beds/2 baths and a pool that is already getting lots of use!

It has fresh paint and brand new carpet in all the bedrooms! So no painting for us!! It does need some updates but nothing needs to be done right away! It was clean and ready for moving in!!

Here are a few pictures of the pretty much done rooms!

We do have one room that we are not quite sure what to do with. It is technically the Formal living & dining room but we have no need for either of those. Its a long room and is in the front of the house. Any suggestions??
We have all of our bookcases but since we already have two couches we dont really need another one..

So one thing I was worried about was the dogs and the pool. See Kazzi, poor thing, just isnt that smart. He is so sweet and cute, but no brains! I didnt think he could swim! Well he can!!! Its a good thing too because this morning he was running around the pool and slipped in! It scared him to death and I grabbed him out but I couldnt help but laugh!
Krone wont come near the pool.. but Kazzi has decided that he really like relaxing in it as long as someone will join him..

I mean does it get any cuter than that???

Dont worry Krone is adjusting well too! You can usually find him relaxing or chasing kazzi..

Well thats about it for now! It has been the longest week ever but we are adjusting to the changes and enjoying spending time together before work starts next week!

Life as we know it

2011-06-02T10:45:00.000-04:00

So this is our life right now!

We are so excited to move and so sad to leave! It is still surreal!
A part of me cant wait to pull into our driveway and run into the backyard and jump in the pool! The other part is sad to leave the slow pace of the south where Ive really grown to love everything (except the humidity, mosquitos, and other bugs)! The fireflys have just started to come out and play! I love watching them out the window!
One thing I am worried about is traffic. I know that sounds silly but for the past three years I have had basically a straight freeway shot to work with two stop lights and open road! It has been soo nice! I now get nervous around traffic, even though I learned how to drive in Las Vegas and have driven in some of the worst traffic there! Oh well! I will just have to get used to it!
My last day of work was last thursday and since then I have been so busy packing, painting, running errands and trying to get everything organized and figured out!
So only 6 days now until we head off to Phoenix, well actually Glendale since that is where we will be living!

Cruise Take 2

2011-06-02T08:08:00.000-04:00

We were lucky enough to go on our cruise before all the chaos of moving sets in! It was definitely a nice break after a very long and stressful April!
So we embarked on a 7 day cruise out of Tampa and went to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan (Honduras) and Grand Cayman! It was pretty much amazing!
After getting lost, twice, in the middle of the night somewhere in South Carolina ( I am not a fan of the roads in this state by the way), we made it to Tampa by mid morning and heading onto the ship.
By the time we got on the boat we just wanted to take a nap. So we did! This was the first of many!
The first day on the boat was fun we played some games and had a great table at dinner and made some new friends! The food was delicious, as expected!
The next day we were in Cozumel. We hadnt planned an excursion and had decided to just rent a scooter like last time and drive around stopping at beaches and ending at the Mayan ruins of San Gervasio. So we started out and went to a beach spent a couple hours and headed towards the Reggae bar on the tip of the island to eat lunch. We had eaten here last time and wanted to make another stop in!

After we left the Reggae Hut we started the ride to San Gervasio. FOr most of the ride you are right on the coast but then the road turns and goes through the middle of the island where its kind of a wasteland. There is a random house and cow but thats about it until you get back into Cozumel. So We finally get to The entrance for San Gervasio and there is another 10 minute drive to the ruins. The road is a long, dirt path, with lots of pot holes, and also a surprise 90 turn. When I say surprise I mean there are several signs that state in english and spanish, dangerous curve, slow down to 20 km.....
this is what happened there...

Ya so we totally crashed!! Not sure exactly what happened but we went to fast around the corner and the scooter hit a rock, I flew off the scooter stopped and fell over and 4 Jeeps full of people were there to witness it! It was pretty embarrassing!! They did give us free drinks and cleaned up my wounds though so that was nice of them! Other than the purple stuff didnt come off all week!!
So we still headed to the ruins and checked them out. They were cool but not as cool as the ones we saw the next day in Belize.

Here is a video of us cruising on the highway in Cozumel! It is so beautiful there! Just turn down the volume for this one!

The next day was spent in Belize! WOw, what wonderful people! Their way of life is so much different than ours and I know that they just look at americans as wasteful! Which we of course are! This is definitely a third world country. We took a bus tour of the city and then to the mayan ruins. We passed many houses (shacks) on stilts, side street restaurant tents, and tons of little kids in their school uniforms! We did not pass one single fast food restuarant (they had a subway but it closed because it was too expensive) and gas here was close to $6 a gallon, probably more now!
The ruins here were AMAZING! When I picture mayan ruins in my head, this is what I pictured!

You can tell how hot and humid it was by the nasty back sweat on Colby! :)

So after we walked around and heard stories of why the world is going to end 12/12 we went to the shops off the side of the road and bargained for a gorgeous hand carved wood bowl! Originally $150 sold for $40!
Then we went to find a magnet (we collect them) and the lady who sold one to us was telling us that she sees jaguars roaming across the road on her way home! Crazy!!

On the way back we toured more of the city and saw some of the parts that were destroyed by a hurricane this past year.
We also learned about cashews. Did you know that the cashews have a fruit attached? The juice is like bleach! ALmonds also come from a fruit which we learned in Roatan the next day!

All in all we really enjoyed Belize. We wish we could have gone out to the islands and seen more but maybe next time!

Day 5 - Roatan Honduras

By far our most favorite stop of the trip! We went to a private resort on a little island that had its own lagoon and beach! We were greeted by monkeys when we got off of the bus! They were adorable and right in your face!
We went snorkeling on the reef and it was so beautiful! The colors of the fish and coral were so bright! We saw a ton of fish and a pretty large nurse shark that Colby and I spotted! We were in the back of the group doing our own thing and I look down and swam back up really quick and started yelling shark!!! Colby started laughing and and the whole group came over to check it out! Since they are non threatening sharks! All of the snorkeling pictures are on an underwater camera that still needs to be developed!

After the snorkeling we kayaked in the lagoon, saw a jelly fish, and met some pretty nice people!

Day 6 - Grand Cayman

We weren't too impressed with GC the last cruise we took. We had a much better experience this time! We waited until we got to shore to choose an excursion and ended up going snorkeling and to sting ray city! Basically you go to this sand bar and a hundred sting rays stay there and swim all around you! It was kind of scary! But really exciting! The craziest thing is you would just be standing there and all the sudden this slimy thing would be going across your leg! You look down and its a HUGE ray! We held giant star fish and snorkeled here too but it wasnt anything in comparison to the day before!

Still can't get over the bright blue clear water!!

We were wiped out afterwards and headed straigt back to the boat to take a nap!

Ever night we had a great time kareoking, eating great food, trying to avoid crazy girl, and checking out the shows! Everyone we met was so much fun!

I am so glad that we were able to take this vacation! It was a life saver!

Now we are almost all packed up and leaving in exactly one week to Phoenix!!

p.s. So if you read all that then you are awesome!

It's her birthday!!

2011-04-28T10:36:00.000-04:00

Wow.. somehow my little sister has grown up and is turning 18 today!

She is so amazing and I love that I get to be her sister!

She has accomplished so much this past year, she is student body president at her high school, has great grades! Just landed her first job ever and will be life guarding this summer! Has an awesome personality that people just cant get enough of, is incredibly out going and awesome!

I wish you the best 18th birthday Karli Breanne!

I cant wait to see you for your GRADUATION!!!!!

LOVE YOU LITTLE SIS!

I'm a reading machine!

2011-04-28T10:25:00.000-04:00

I know that I have talked about my Nook on here and how much I love it. The truth is, I have never read so many books in such a short amount of time!
In the past 6 weeks I have read at least 6 books! It's been amazing! So heres a rundown on a couple that I have read...

The Giver -by Lois Lowry

This book is very interesting and is set in a society of sameness. The people in the book have no choices. Their schedules and lives are planned for them, even down to the clothes that they where and the jobs that they take on as adults.
As I read this, I realized how grateful I am to live in a country where we are free and also for Free Agency.
I remember reading this in school and not really fully understanding it. It was an assigned reading of course..
but as I went back to read I was able to really appreciate this novel.

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas - by John Boyne

This book is set in Germany during WWII. The story follows young innocent Bruno as his fathers job as commandent takes them to a place called "Out-With". All Bruno know is that the Furor has sent them there and he has had to leave his lovely life in Berlin to come to a horrible place, just for his Fathers job.
This is a fictional story but is still very interesting to see the happenings through the eyes of innocent children.
I highly recommend watching this movie as well, but a fair warning, You will bawl your eyes out.

Water for Elephants - by Sara Gruen

I wanted to read this book because the movie was coming out and it looked like it was going to be pretty good. I was a little surprised when I first started reading the book for a couple reasons. First, I couldnt put it down. Jacob's story was so intriguing and had me wanting to know more. Second, The circus. I have never been to a circus but the way he describes it makes it sound so magical. Third, I am used to reading young adult novels and church books, and this book had a little more adult comtent than I am used to.
Anyways it was a fantastic book and I Highly suggest reading it!
Colby was sweet enough to take me to see the movie on opening day last Friday. We were surrounded by teenage girls and had to sit 2nd row but it was still a great movie. Another must see!

Well the next series I am going to read is the Girl with the Dragon tattoo. Has anyone read these? Are they any good?

Anyways, Kind of a boring update with no pictures! Sorry!

Big Big News!

2011-03-23T21:18:00.000-04:00

Colby & I have an exciting summer planned! We thought we would start it off with a bang and go on a 7 day cruise! We will be cruising with Brittany & Cade and have many fun adventures planned! Our cruise stops in Cozumel Mexico, Roatan, Honduras, Belize City, Belize, & Grand Cayman! We are so excited!
Then we will be continuing the summer by packing up a U-haul and the dogs for a cross country drive to ............

PHOENIX ARIZONA!!

As I talked about in my previous post, the American Express site here in Greensboro is closing down. We had the opportunity to fly out to Phoenix to check it out to see if it was an option to move. We went down there thinking that we would be staying in Greensboro, and left there with almost no doubt that we would be moving to Phoenix. What happened in between? Colby was offered a promotion to be a supervisor!

We were ecstatic and shocked!

The written offer came through and we accepted it!

We will be moving in the middle of June and will hopefully be making it in time for my sisters graduation! :)

So we have lots to do between now and then, like renting out our current home, packing, and selling lots of stuff but we are looking forward to our new adventure!

So thats are big big Big news! !

Last Minute Trip!

2011-01-31T20:58:00.000-05:00

Colby and I decided last minute to head out of town for an extra long weekend to celebrate my birthday!
Destination: Washington DC
I absolutely love that city! It is so clean and gorgeous! Most big cities have a grungy feel to them but DC doesnt. The metro stations are really clean (nothing like the NY subway stations that smell awful!) and the streets arent littered, and everyone is super friendly! If it wasnt for high rent/housing costs I would totally live there!
Anyways... So we headed out early Thursday. We luckily missed the huge snowstorm by a couple of hours and were greeted with 6-8 inches of snow!
Our plan for Thursday was to go to the temple but the power was out so we couldnt do that. Instead we took a nap and relaxed then headed over to Colbys old mission companion Joseph Harrisons place which just happened to be a few miles up the road!
We went and ate Thai with him and his Fiancee then went back to his place to play Monopoly Deal! It was a lot of fun!
Friday was the day I had a ton of stuff planned! We didnt get to do everything, but pretty close!
To start the morning off we toured the capitol building

Inside the dome "George Washington Rising to the Heavens"

Painting or Sculptures??

Its hard to tell, but it is a painting!

Some of the beautiful mosaic tile around the capitol

Inside the original House of Representatives meeting room

The statue of North Carolina.. can't remember who he was!

The Desks in the original H of R meeting room

After the wonderful tour of the capitol, we took the underground tunnel (to avoid the snow and because its cool!) to the Library of Congress! What a neat place! We started a tour here but were so hungry we couldnt finish! We asked the greeters where we should eat and he led us underground again (thank goodness, it was still snowing!) to the Madison building cafeteria so we could grab a bite to eat! This was the cheapest meal we ate besides the fast food, and it was delicious! Funny part, the guy that was leading us had a crippled foot and was on arm crutches, he was flying! Colby and I could not keep up with how fast he was going!!! We kept looking at each other in disbelief!

After we ate we headed over to the holocaust museum. What an amazing museum. We happened upon another tour going through the special exhibit "German Propoganda". It went through from the beginning to end of the Nazi era and how the propoganda affected the German people and what their mindset was. It was very insightful. I really enjoyed this museum, but for some reason I didnt take any pictures.. In fact my picture taking become pretty non existant the rest of the trip. It was too cold outside and too many "no Photography" signs inside!
So after all that we headed to the Washington Monument for the tour! We were able to go up inside the monument and look around!

The capito building and all the smithsonians "National Mall"

The White house and one of the ellipses, believe it or not there used to be several baseball fields in that huge circle!

The Lincoln Memorial and WWII memorial

The Jefferson Memorial

It was such a fun day! After the Washington Monument we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and go back to Josephs house where I was making pizza! We played life while we waited for the dough to rise and watched V for Vendetta (edited version)! Another fun night!

I did not have an itinerary for Saturday. I had some things that I wanted to see but nothing scheduled. So we headed out and went to the national archives to see all the old documents. I think one of the coolest was the magna carta and the cipher from John Wilkes Booths pocket the night he killed Abraham Lincoln! We decided to get lunch before we headed to the national gallery of art. We found this fancy mexican restaurant, checked out the prices and decided it was okay. Well it was just that, okay. If anyone know me they know that I am a plain food type of girl. Salad with just cheese and ranch, tacos, meat lettuce cheese, simple sandwiches... etc. Well none of this food was umm normal... I ended up settling for the smallest quesadilla I have ever seen in my life that had some part of a pig in it... Colby had 2 chicken tacos, that were filled with guacamole. The problem with that is that he is slightly allergic to avocados. SO the two whole avocados that were in his tacos did him no favors and he was miserable the rest of the day.....
We went to the Art museum for a little bit them headed to the zoo to check out the animals.

This was not at the zoo. THe squirrels are so tame and will come right up to you if they think you have food! THis one was basically climbing up his jacket to get his food! I almost caught one by holding my hand out but he figured out I didnt have any food...

Animals at the zoo... We sat and watched the gorillas for a while. They are very entertaining! THe brother and sister were swinging around and the silverback (pictured) just sat their. And thats the momma in the background.
We finally made it back to our car via longest ride ever on the metro! found a wendys, and headed back to the hotel where we layed around and did nothing the rest of the night! It was awesome!
I am so grateful that we were able to go on this last minute trip! We had a great time and made some great memories!
Once again I have written a book... Oops!!!

The best gift giver, life, and other things

2011-01-25T15:54:00.001-05:00

I am not a good gift giver. If you tell me too far in advance what you want then I will more than likely forget..and get you socks. It is just not my gift... haha
Colby on the other hand is the Best gift giver! Although he can never wait to give the gifts!
For Christmas/(beginning of November) see what I mean! He gave me a Nook! I had heard about the e-readers but never really thought twice about them. I love to read, but books are pricey, especially for a one time read! The nook solves those problems! Thousands of books are available FREE online and tons of newer books are available for a fraction of the cost of a real book!

I have read 6 maybe 7 book since I got the nook! I recently started The Hunger Games series.... seriously awesome! If you have not read them yet I suggest you do!

Then for my birthday Colby gave me an external hardrive! I have been asking for one for a while now to store my thousands of pics on and now I have one! And on top of it he is going to take me to DC for some fun! I am super excited because I booked a tour of the capitol building & the washington monument! They are too packed in the summer but not a lot of tourists in the dead of winter! :) Now if only we could tour the White house too! That would be awesome! What makes it even cooler is that I just finished Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (also so awesome, couldnt put it down!) and its all about the symbolism in DC, so I am excited to go and see it from a different perspective!
In other news... I was called to be the YW basketball coach! Woohoo! It is so much fun, the girls are great, there havent been any fights :), and I love it! I was also called back into the primary to teach the 9 year olds! THe first lesson I had to teach was on Mary & Joseph how Jesus is the Son of God. I of course am super awkward and find the most awkward things in the lessons. I never realized the Bible talks about "being together" so often. Hopefully I did it with more grace than I felt I did and they didnt go home and ask how babies are made...
Colby has been going through some changes at work! He is currently in a temporary role as a Coach for the training class. He loves it (He loves to tell people what to do :) haha ). Then we had a huge blow last week when we found out that the AMEX center here in Greensboro is closing down. They are being awesome and really don't want anyone to lose their jobs, so they are offering 3 options: 1. Relocate (Phoenix/Ft Lauderdale/or SLC) 2. Work from Home 3. Severance package
Colby is hoping that he is going to be able to work from home. He meets all the necessary requirements! He is hoping that this will give him more opportunities to eventually open his own business (whatever it may be)!
We feel incredibly blessed to have all of the options available to us, they could have just said everyones losing their jobs effective .... but they didnt.
I am also currently working a small part time job, after my full time one! Its fun and I enjoy it. Since Colby works until 130 in the morning my nights were being filled by laziness, but no longer! I feel incredibly blessed to have this opportunity!
So as you can see life is a little on the hectic side! Colby and I enjoy our weekends together (our only days together)! The house is still coming together, we havent done much since it has been so cold out but once it warms up we will hopefully get most of it finished! (especially the kitchen... right?? )
Well since I wrote a novel I will go ahead and leave it at that!!

It was a White Christmas

2010-12-28T23:38:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We were spoiled as usual and so blessed! We are so grateful for our wonderful families and all that they do for us!

What did we do for Christmas?

Christmas Eve
-Family Pictures
-Eat
-Sing at the retirement community
-Eat
-Stare in amazement how fast kids open presents and how loud the Howards are :)
-Open presents
-Eat
-Rockband 3

Christmas
-Eat
-Wii
-Attempt to take pictures
-Eat
-Play dolls with Kyrah
-Dont Break the Ice
-Rockband 3
-Eat :) haha
-Watch it snow
-Drive home in 3+ snow

Day after Christmas
-Church is cancelled because of the 7+ inches of snow
-let dogs run free in the snow for 5 minutes
-take pictures of snow and of previous
-give dogs baths to melt the "snow balls" **not what you think, see pic at bottom!!**
-Almost die in attempting to get to Brittany's
-Breathe
-Arrive at Brittanys
-Go Sledding
-Play games
-Head home and think of how blessed we are!

Well thats about it in a nutshell... here are some pics of the snow!

See Krone's legs? The boys get these "snow balls" that cling to their hair! it is pretty funny, but they are super hard to melt! We had to throw them in the tub to get them all melted, I know they didnt mind the warm water! :)

Ugly Sweater Party

2010-12-20T20:00:00.001-05:00

We hosted our first annual Ugly Sweater Party! It was so much fun! We had several couples from the stake and Brooke & Kent were able to make it in town just in time to join! Claire & Tyler were the only ones not in ugly sweaters but we figured we would let them join in the fun anyways! :) j/k guys I know you tried to find some!

We played some fun games, including Match Mate, which can be awkward at times! And several minute to win it games Christmas style! On top of all the fun and games we had some delicious Christmas Snacks!

We had such a good time and I am looking forward to the next get together!!

Now for the pictures... All of these were taken during our minute to win it games, you are always guaranteed to get some great pics while playing these!

See our new rug! We got it at Ikea and I love it and love Ikea!!!

We also had a small white elephant gift exchange! I had written it in the invite but had forgotten by Saturday! Oops! Claire & Tyler forgot too, so Colby ran down to Lowes with them to pick out some awesome presents, Carleton is holding the coolest one! A rubber blow up cat! haha! YOu can tell he is so happy to have it!

House updates again!

2010-12-14T22:46:00.001-05:00

Maybe some day I will take a picture of the master bathroom but until then here is the living room and office!
While my dad was here he installed two recessed lights in the living room and wired for a fan. So we went from having Zero lights to having two recessed lights and two fans with lights! I love it! I can see the floor at night and if you know my dog thats a good thing! :)

Before:

I know its from a different angle but you get it...

Living room with Lights! and decorated for Christmas!

Before Office:

Wow I dont miss anything about that room at all!

I have the letters to go under the clocks I just havent put them up yet!

Our lovely fireplace decorated for Christmas! We are going to cover up the wires and get a tiny box receiver instead of bunny ears... hopefully sooner than later! :) The lovely stockings my mom and mama made for me! and the itty bitty ones for the pups!

At out ward christmas party, a sister brought some poinsettas and I was able to bring one home! It is gorgeous! Something that is not gorgeous....

Haha I think we need an upgrade! Actually we did not have a microwave since we moved in (May) but with my family coming in town I thought it would be nice to have since we would be eating leftovers, instead of going and buying one we borrowed this lovely from Colbys parents. It is a dinosaur! But it did its job! I am ready to give it back and live microwave free again! (Never thought I would say that....)

Colby started a new schedule last week. He got a job as a training coach for Amex and loves it so far! Pros and cons for me?

His schedule is 5pm to 130 am

His days off are Friday & Saturday

I am so glad that he finally as the weekend off but sad that I will only see him on the weekends! This schedule lasts until the end of March and then we will see what happens after that!

Well thats the update for now!

Family Pictures!

2010-12-14T22:28:00.000-05:00

We had a great time with my family while they were here! It went by way too fast! I am looking forward to going out to visit in June and to see Karli graduate from High School!! So crazy! Anyways I have such a beautiful family! I had my sister in law Brittany take the pictures and then I edited them! I miss them already!!!

Ikea & Cats

2010-12-09T13:39:00.000-05:00

So Ikea released 100 cats into their store in London and this is what they got!

This is how they did it! Amazing!

I'm a winner...

2010-11-27T09:32:00.002-05:00

SO I love checking out other blogs and once in a while I come across a giveaway! If it's for something good I will enter and I my hard efforts have now rewarded me! Twice!
The first giveaway I won was for a free print from a fabulous local (Raleigh) photographer, Julia Wade . She had done a 52 week project and I chose a picture from one of the weeks and she sent me a print! Colby and I chose a boat on a dock and put the 8X 10 in our downstairs bathroom. Looking back I should have gotten a bigger print but hindsight is always 20/20!
Then yesterday much to my surprise I won a giveaway yesterday on one of my favorite cooking blogs Just Cook Already! They were hosting a giveaway from JO TOTES Fabulous camera bag store for a free camera bag of MY choice!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! I have been wanting a fancy camera bag for quite a while but I wasnt ready to shell out the $$ for it! Now I dont have to!!

The bag I chose! I cant wait until it gets here!!!
Speaking of giveaways, Check out the giveaway on my Photoblog HERE !!!!

Wow!

2010-11-12T08:55:00.001-05:00

I know I brag a lot, bug Colby never ceases to amaze me with his talents!
We decided to tile around the fire place and went and searched for tile at our 2nd home (Home Depot)!
We found the perfect tile and the perfect accent tile! Although the H.D. we were at only had 3 of the ones we wanted and 2 of them were broken. So we headed off to another store which was definitely in the ghetto. (I didnt even know it existed!) They had 13 tiles and we needed 11. The guy told us we should go ahead and buy all 13 just in case because these certain tile sell like hot cakes! We decided not to but regretted it the next day! How did that guy know!!
Here is the little suckers that sent us on a scavenger hunt!

We got the rest of the tile at the store and then headed home!

Accent corners

Marazzi Montagna Belluna if you were wondering the color :)

Colby started working on it yesterday morning around 9 and didnt finish until 2! It normally takes just a couple hours to tile an entire bathroom to put it into perspective. He soon realized that he needed one more 6 X 6 piece and 1 more little bronze accent piece..
He headed back to the original home depot that had that 1 good piece and found it hidden under some boxes! Lucky! When he went to the register to check out the cashier couldnt get the 6 X 6 tile to scan into the system and her nails were preventing her from typing in the numbers. Colby then attempted to type in the numbers but she pressed the wrong button and cleared everything out. Oops! She got impatient and told Colby to just leave with the tile. He was confused and tried to tell her no but she said to go ahead. I told him it was a little kickback for buying so much stuff from there!!
Anyways after hours of hardwork, blood, sweat, and maybe tears (just kidding) Colby finished the tile work and now just has to grout it! I can't believe how beautiful it is!

After he grouts it we will put threshold aroudn the edges to make it look finished but anyways, I am just so impressed with it!!

Thats all for now, I will post more when it is completely done, I just couldnt wait to show it off!!

Yummy Recipe

2010-11-09T20:40:00.001-05:00

So I tried a new recipe today and it was delicious! It was a crockpot chicken. I got the recipe from my friend Shannon but now I can't remember the right name for it!

4-5 Chicken tenders
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 gracious cup of sour cream
1 cup of chicken broth
1 packet Lipton onion soup

I let it sit for 9 hours on low with the chicken frozen and it was more than done. Once cooked completly shred chicken inside crockpot and service over rice. I might have thrown a sprinkle of cheese on top just for fun! :)

The next recipe I am going to try is this one:

via Tasty Kitchen

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/2010/11/a-tasty-recipe-thai-honey-peanut-chicken/

Yumm Yumm!!

Funny Commercials!

2010-11-09T20:22:00.002-05:00

Colby hates it when I sit in the movie theatre and can't stop laughing at the commercials before the previews! I think he just is embarrassed that I am cracking up and no one else is! I know he thinks these commercials are just as funny as i do though!! Take a look at some of my favorites that make me laugh everytime!

They are driving in toasters and washing machines! oh and they are hamsters! hilarious!!!
Oh and the mayhem ones are really funny!

I hope that was yellow cake or something because thats just nasty!!!

These are just a couple that keep me rolling!!

Tis the season...

2010-11-09T20:17:00.001-05:00

...to be grateful! I have just been feeling so incredibly blessed lately. There isn't one particular reason and I am not going to post 1 reason I am grateful a day (we all know how that will turn out! :) )

I love my husband!
I love my family!
I love the gospel!
I love my life!

I posted them on facebook but just in case you havent seen how cute Colby and I are together.. :)

Isnt he gorgeous!

look a post with no pictures of the pups!

Next post I will put pictures up of the master bath and the re-decorated living room and office!! yay! It's amazing what a little paint can do!

well that wasn't right...

2010-10-29T21:03:00.001-04:00

SO we are going to a halloween party tomorrow night and everyone is supposed to bring a "spooky treat" you know like mummy hot dogs and graveyard brownies, etc... SO I go to Kraft recipes to find something cute to make (it's a contest afterall) and I find this..

via Kraft Recipes

Isn't it beautiful??? oh and spooky??? anyways so I picked up the stuff to make it when I was at the grocery store, come home and get to work since I am going to be too busy to make it tomorrow.

ya....................
besides getting cocoa powder EVERYWHERE.... this is what I got! DO you think I did something wrong?

Guess it's mummy dogs with cute little mustard dot eyes....

busy busy!

2010-10-23T22:02:00.001-04:00

Colby has been busy!

He finished our floors! All of them! The only floor related item left to do is to put the quarter round molding around the edges! They are gorgeous!!

He finished our tile! He tiled both the upstairs bathrooms and the downstairs laundry room! The dogs were "helping" me with the laundry...

We got new knobs for all of our cabinets! It makes a world of difference but it still doesnt make our "pinkish" cabinets look any better! :) I can't wait until we paint those suckers!

and because he is cute!

I get to teach the relief society lesson tomorrow. That is my new calling and it is my first official week teaching and I am a little nervous. It was a talk from the Ensign which means I had to make up my own questions! Those lesson manuals are good for something! :)

In other news, My photography business has really been picking up! and I am so excited about it!! I have tried to revamp my photo blog page to make it look more professional! And I learned how to make my own logo using photoshop! Woohoo! I am hoping that it keeps getting busier! My goal is one photo session a week!

Grandfather Mountain

2010-10-12T21:02:00.001-04:00

Besides sucking at follow through life has been pretty busy. It seems like I have been going non stop doing stuff for the past month! I'm not complaining! I love being busy and have missed it terribly!! This past Sunday we headed up to Grandfather Mountain which is right next to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The colors were beautiful! The colors would probably have been better this coming weekend but oh well!
We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country! This is something you can't experience in Las Vegas! :)

Movie Night!

2010-09-23T17:00:00.001-04:00

Day 31- Well we had our weekly movie night tonight. Our night started off with some interesting information that left us pondering the rest of the evening. Right when you think there are no BIG decisions to be made in the near future bam. decision time..
we then headed over to the Verizon store to activate Colbys new phone, then to Target to eat a fabulous dinner (see picture below!)!
Then we headed off to Colby softball game that got rain delayed/suspended and they have to finish the last 17 minutes at a later time..even though they were winning 16-2!
After the almost finished game we headed off to the movies and saw Easy A. I thought it was funny, Colby thought it was alright. If I had a choice to see it again I would wait until it came out at redbox..
Then it was midnight when we got home and the dogs were angry monsters!

I know you are jealous of our very own personal pan pizza hut pizza from the target food court!

there was a fire at the day spa next to the movie theatre.. too many candles i guess!

if...

2010-09-21T22:04:00.001-04:00

Day 30-Well this post is going to be lame. I was feeling pretty blah today so I went to the grocery store made a salad and caught up on some shows that I am already behind on.
Thats all.

So if I could take a picture of my very uninspiring day it would be of my tv. which i am not going to take by the way!

The end.

busy day

2010-09-20T22:46:00.002-04:00

Day 29-Today was a very busy day. Work was pretty busy but then when I got home I got even busier. I video chatted with Brooke, started these garlic cheese rolls, left to go visiting teaching, came back and went on a walk, then I finished baking the bread and started looking at some college info for my sister.

whew. I am ready for bed.

This bread was delicious! It's basically a simple pizza dough, put cheese in the middle and make a butter/italian seasoning sauce and bake for 15. Yumm definitely a new staple recipe!

the master is at it again!

2010-09-19T18:43:00.001-04:00

Colby finished the tiling of the master bathroom floor yesterday. It had been done minus the sealing so we finished that part together! Finally something I can do! :)

It makes it look like a completely different bathroom! There are still a lot of things to be accomplished in here but its a huge start!

our neighbor is getting ready for halloween!

2010-09-19T18:33:00.001-04:00

I was cleaning out my car and noticed this huge spider web! It is in between our fence and his house!

It might be better than...

2010-09-19T18:27:00.001-04:00

Day 28- I made the "Better than Sex" cake that Brooke was talking about. We are heading over to a group family home evening at some friends and they said bring dessert so I am bringing this. Crossing my fingers it is as delicious as it looks! I couldnt get the frosting to look normal so I decided to be "creative" haha.

Day 27

2010-09-19T18:21:00.001-04:00

Day 27- Today I went with Shannon Kirk and Lydia to the Apple Fest, Honeybee Festival, and Greek Festival! Yes it was a day of festivals! I took my camera but realized when we got there that I was missing my SD card so I couldnt take any pictures! :( I did take a picture of this cool hawk and awesome owl that the animal rehab center had on display!

Best food of the day would have to be the Loukoumathes-Deep-fried balls of sweet batter, dipped in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon. ( A Greek version of a Donut Hole) They were divine! They Chicken Pita wasnt bad either! It was a fun day!

Also I would like to note that I have not take a Saturday afternoon nap in the past month! Believe me thats amazing! :)

I won!

2010-09-19T18:17:00.001-04:00

Day 26-A couple of weeks a go I won a contest that I entered on a blog! It was for photographer that was giving away a print of a few select pictures. Colby and I had a hard time deciding which picture to choose but eventually chose this one.

It is called East Coast Pier. We love it and it goes perfectly in our half bath downstairs!

Thank You Julia Wade!!

hair hair hair

2010-09-16T20:11:00.001-04:00

DAY 25-With only looking at my hair and not my love handles and unmade bed and mismatched ugly blinds...
My hair is unbelievable long. I love it long but right now its at the point of what do I do with this mop? I want to get it cut but I cant decide how much I want to get cut off and if I really want to change it up too much... Opinions much needed :) ?

Take me out to the ball game...

2010-09-15T20:42:00.002-04:00

Day 24-I went to watch Colby's softball game tonight. They ended with a tie 9-9, but they should have won! They came up from 4 in the last ending!

12-23

2010-09-14T22:38:00.001-04:00

Day 12-Colby killed our friend.. and was brave enough to get close enough to get this picture...

Day 13-watching me get ready so he can go down stairs.

Day 14-The sky was so blue today. This picture doesnt do it any justice. It was gorgeous!

Day 15- Colby and I refinished the desk I bought. We tried to paint the knobs but I dont like how they turned out... Ideas appreciated!

Day 16- I thought the one of Kazzi was hilarious and Kroners is just a handsome dog. He had just got a bath before this picture was taken!

Day 17-Colby and I went fishing but ended up catching the turtles instead.

Day 18-The Geico Skytypers wrote a message across the whole sky advertising for the air show and to salute the 9-11 heroes!

Day 19-Love my V-Dub <3

Day 20- Baked a Pizza after church. It was delicious and soo easy to make!

Day 21- Colby has been working on the tile in the master bath.. Almost done!

Day 22- Went to the Spring Garden Bakery to try cupcakes... they didnt have any so I bought some Vegan muffins instead. I loved the Blueberry!

Day 23- The Sunset on my drive home today.

So I will be better at posting each day. Its too hard to play catch up.

I know I have a problem..

2010-09-14T10:16:00.001-04:00

it's called follow through...

So I have been taking pictures every day. I promise..

I havent however been blogging them... (if you hadnt noticed)

i will blog them tonight....

...and then I will get back on track. I keep writing things down I want to blog about and then by the time I get home and think I can sit down to blog I have to do something else.

So look forward to seeing all the pictures of my sometimes exciting adventures later on today!

You learn something every day..

2010-09-03T13:13:00.002-04:00

So I went walking around the Old Time Pottery during my lunch break and when I walked back out to my car I noticed an interesting license plate on the car parked in front of me.

It was on the front and back so it I figured it had to be an official license plate of somewhere...

So I wikipedia'ed (is that a word) it.

Check it out..

Tama-Re Egypt of the West

It's a little crazy.

Anyway, Theres your who-knew-knowledge for the day! Oh and Picture #11!

Dreaming of.....

2010-09-03T10:01:00.002-04:00

For months I have been wanting a new comforter for our bed. I have looked at several places but they never have exactly what I am looking for. However the other day I was looking online at West Elm and Pottery Barn and both places had basically exactly what I was looking for. Better yet both are on sale!
While I am not any closer to being able to buy either, atleast now I know exactly where to find what I am looking for!!

Now I cant decide it I want the clean crisp lines of the Hotel Style Duvet or the fun rich texture of the quilt! If I was choosing the quilt I would probably stick with the cream color and get fun colored pillows to accent. But if I was choosing the hotel style then I couldnt really do the funky pillows because they don't really go together?

What do YOU think? Would you go for the more homey feel of the quilt? or the modern sleek lines of the hotel style? or do you prefer bright patterns??

The pillow however is a given and could go pretty much anywhere in the house. I wonder how easy it would be to re-create that pillow?? Anyone want to give it a try with me??

10 down to the PF Changs.

2010-09-02T20:48:00.002-04:00

Tonight Colby and I went to dinner to celebrate our anniversary! We went to PF Changs and it was delicious, Colby had never been there before!!
Colby bet me that our server worked on cars and the bet was that if he didnt that we could go back in two weeks. I gathered up the courage and asked him and I was, unfortunately, wrong... kind of.. he used to work on his old car but not anymore?? Does anyone else think that I should win??

Spicy chicken and Mongolian Beef! Yumm!

My scruffy but oh so handsome husband

Lucky fortunes!

Tomorrow is Friday! Even better it is the Friday before a beautiful 3 day weekend!

Day 8 & 9

2010-09-01T22:00:00.001-04:00

I meant to post yesterday but got side-tracked by the show "Selling New York" and then it was bedtime! That show is amazing. I would like to make 100K for selling something. I also would never by a 5+ million dollar home so I guess thats why I like to watch it??
So yesterday I found this desk on craigslist that I wanted to buy. It was only $20 so I went and picked it up. It's a little rough around the edges it is probably about 30 years old, but it has good bones and I can't wait to refinish it!

Then today Colby took my picture of the day. He had let the dogs out and after about 5 minutes he saw Kazzi staring at the door (which isnt weird) but he was like 5 feet away which is weird. Colby opened up the door and Kazzi just stood there. COlby looked down and saw this

Lovely, I know. Again our backyard is actually a zoo! Colby couldnt catch it to release it back into the forest and he slithered off under the house somewhere. Now I am paranoid he is going to come up through the toilets! You know you have the same fear!!

5 words:

I'm glad it wasn't me!

Lucky Number 7 and 2 amazing years

2010-08-30T20:59:00.003-04:00

Today is day number 7 of my little project! Yay!

I just got back from my evening walk/run. It was still hot out and I am now drenched in sweat. Gross.

I call this tree and light pole

ON a much better note...
Today is Colby and I's two year anniversary. It's unbelievable to me really that I have been married that long. It feels like just yesterday!
I learn something new about him everyday and love him oh so much! He is my world and I am so grateful for everything he does for me!
Happy TWO years Colby!

Day 6 and an afternoon in the Backyard

2010-08-29T18:42:00.000-04:00

well... more like 30 minutes.

I went outside to stop kazzi from digging, which he continued to do anyways, and I saw this ginormous mushroom! We do have a lot of mushrooms growing in the backyard but mostly the smaller ones, this one trumped them all!
Anyways, so I decided to just take a couple pictures of the backyard. It is an interesting place.

Day 5

2010-08-29T17:49:00.000-04:00

A little late but as you can see by the picture I was a little overwhelmed with the laundry yesterday...

A couple of things...

2010-08-28T12:49:00.000-04:00

Does anyone watch Design Star on HGTV? This season was my first of watching this show and I loved it! Well the other day I found the design blog of the winner Emily Henderson! It's called The Brass Petal and it is simply lovely! She was raised Mormon but no longer follows. She did a comical post though about why there are so many Mormon Blogs, and especially Design Blogs. Anyway I love her style. I am so ready to decorate my house. However... it's not there yet...

Speaking of that. I just wanted to let you know that there is only one... ONE.... completed room in our entire house. Can anyone take a guess what room that could be?
The 2nd bathroom.
Here's a secret.
I like to go in there and just sit because it is the nicest room in the house. Okay.. maybe not for a long time but when all the other rooms are half done..half painted.. half floored (that will get finished...ONE DAY!) half unpacked... it's nice to use a room that isnt halfed.

Everytime Colby goes back to the Condo to change the air filter or something for our tenant he always calls me and says wow.. our condo was like some luxury place. Everything is so nice and new and (finished) and clean! (Our house is clean too... just the paint on the walls makes it feel dirty or something. It will feel like nice too once we are done with it hahah.. )

Today is laundry day. As of right now It doesnt look like much else is going to get accomplished.
Maybe if my laundry room looked like this

I would be more inclined to take care of what now looks feels like this

*minus there is not cute baby in my pile of laundry. Just dogs that drag it around the house. *

Happy Saturday!

Day 4

2010-08-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

After a long day I love to come home and just cuddle with the dogs. Mainly Kazzi because Krone prefers the floor or the top of the couch. However anytime I sit down I know Kazzi will be in my lap or right next to me within a minute. I love having such a little lap dog!

Here he is giving me kisses. the little stinker.

Dear Self...

2010-08-27T12:35:00.001-04:00

Dear Self,

       Do NOT hold the alarm in your hand after you have pressed the snooze button. You will continue to press the snooze until it is 7:20.
    Yes, You have to leave at 7:40. This doesn't leave much time for all of the getting ready, lunch packing, dog herding, and clothes finding you have to do.

      Also, please make sure you double check that you are wearing matching shoes. Hopefully noticed last night as you walked around with a Brown flip flop and a Black flip flop....
Not to mention they were different sizes...

Your embarrassed self,

Day 3

2010-08-26T23:51:00.000-04:00

Today was busy! After work the missionaries came for dinner instead of the usual 2 there were 4 of them. I made enchiladas and a new mexican rice recipe i found on Plain Chicken. Dinner was delicious!
I then made chocolate chip cookies and burnt half of them... oh well less for me to eat! :)

Anyone have any tricks on not burning baked goods in a gas oven? Its completely different than our old electric one. I cant seem to get it just right.

Colby and I headed to Garden Ridge got a mirror for our half bath! YAY! and then went to see The Switch!
I thought it was really cute! Maybe not worth $16 cute but still good.

Here is my Day 3 picture.
Colby at the Dollar Store (Our most frequented store...sadly)

He always take the best pictures!

Day 2

2010-08-25T19:54:00.000-04:00

Day 2

Some of the coral we found while swimming in Cozumel. It's so beautiful and great to decorate bathrooms living rooms basically anything with!

365 days-365 pictures-Day 1

2010-08-24T21:25:00.000-04:00

Rules: A picture a day for 1 whole year
It can be of anything that inspires you or makes you happy, etc..

Here I go with a new challenge. Want to join in the fun? If every day seems like to much try a picture a week for 52 weeks!

This dog makes my day. Every day when I get home from work I can count on Krone to be waiting in the window for me. Its so sweet!

Cruisin'!

2010-08-24T21:10:00.003-04:00

**THIS IS REALLY LONG**

Well we just got back from our wonderful cruise the other day! It was the BEST and most Relaxing vacation I have ever been on! I am ready to book another one for next year!

We headed down on Friday night after Colby got off of work and made it there around 9 in the morning. We couldnt start boarding the ship until 1230 so we decided to get some breakfast and headed back to the port so we could get in line to get on the boat.

It didnt take as long as we thought to get on board and we started to explore! The cruise ship was massive and I know we still didnt get to see everything there was to see on it!

We played a round of mini golf and went to a game show they held on board and I made a fool of myself by going to be a contestant! I did win a ship on a stick though so it was worth it. (a plastic gold ship trophy) We then ate dinner and then went to bed since Colby had been up since 9am the previous day!

The next day was a full day at sea, we had lots of fun just relaxing by the pool, walking around the boat, eating..., and going down the waterslide! This was the formal night so I had to go in and try to completely towel dry my hair since there wasnt a blowdryer in the room ( I later found out that all I had to do was call guest services and they would bring me one..oops!) We went to dinner and found out they had switched the group from the day before and brought over 2 new couples! We are so glad they did! We had the funnest table! We all became quick friends and hung out everyday after that.

ice sculpture in 15 minutes

Monday we arrived in Grand Cayman. The water on the side we docked on was beautiful and clear! Colby, Tyler, Claire, and I walked through the shops and walked a little ways to find a beach we could hang out at until our snorkeling session started! We eventually found one after being honked at 10,389,430 times by taxi drivers offering to drive us to a beach. We didnt want to get all the way wet so we just walked around in the shallow waters. Since we were in the bay there were no big waves.

We headed back to the docks to meet with our snorkeling group and got honked at another 23,058,235 times offering to drive us to the beach... We even stopped at a gas station to get some drinks and a taxi driver followed us inside to offer us a ride! They are pretty pushy over there!

We had to take a van ride to the boat that would take us to the reefs and to where the sting rays were. The driver of our van was singing gospel songs with a really thick cayman accent. We tipped him he was so good! Once we got to the boat it was a 40 minute boat ride to the reefs. We saw tons of Mangrove trees and Iguanas! The Mangrove trees were neat but make the water a greenish color and leave it semi murky. It wasnt as pretty as the other side of the island, and definitely not as pretty as Cozumel the next day! Snorkeling was awesome I got a little sea sick with all the action from the waves though but it was still neat to see all the little and big fish, a barracuda, and 2 stingrays! There was apparently a shark in the water that bit one of the stingrays earlier in the day so the rest of the stingrays were hiding and wouldnt come out to eat.

They boat captain told us how the Native Island People would go fishing and stop in the shallower water to clean and gut their fish. They have done it for hundreds of years and now the sting rays associate the sound of an anchor for meal time. So they all come up to eat! Pretty cool I thought!

How many can you see??

Anyways after waiting in a ridiculously long line to get back on the tenders to take us back to the boat we went in took a nap and got ready for another delicious dinner! I think we went to some show or something afterwards but I cant remember...

Cozumel was Tuesday. It was AMAZING! We rented a scooter from a sketchy mexican man and drove around the main freeway on the island. It goes in a big circle and follows the coastline for the most part. We stopped at a small beach and did our own snorkeling and collected shells and dead coral. I almost found a fully in tact Bonka?sp Shell but it had a whole in the very top so we didnt keep it! We kept driving and stopped to eat at a little Reggae Hut that sold mexican food...The tacos and chips and salsa were delicious! We watched to ocean waves for awhile and headed back on the scooter. We checked out some deserted turtle nests that had recently hatched, saw a cool black iguana, a bald eagle, countless lizards, and a dead crab. We tried to go see they Mayan ruins however we only had $6 cash on us at this point and it was going ot be $13 so we werent able to go in. We saw some smaller ones on our way to San Gervasio though which was cool. We headed back tried to bargain with a old man for a blanket, since we only had $6 and the blanket was $23 we didnt get very far. We kept on and ended up getting one for $5 from a lady down the road. It wasnt cool and hand woven but it is still nice! We got lost once we got back into the city which was a little crazy. So. Many. Scooters. There was even a family of 4 on 1 scooter! craziness! We eventually found our way to the main road and hung out at the shops before heading back towards the ship.

We decided we wanted to get back in the water before so we stopped on the side of the road and went down to the water. This was a rocky, squishy beach.. not a sandy one. So we got in with who knows what squishing between my toes and started to swim. It didnt last long. The water started to get really deep really fast and I got nervous a shark was going to get us and we were going to be lost forever!! ok not really but there were some really big bright blue fish and i was worried about a shark (Colby was too but he wont admit it ) so we headed back, turned in our scooter, and walked back on the ship. We were the only ones at dinner that night because the return time from the island wasnt until 730. After that we went to take a nap that turned into me sleeping the entire night and colby going to hang out with everyone by himself!
**My camera wasnt working this day unfortunately...)

The last day on the boat was fun. We got to sleep in, lounge around, Colby won the ping pong tournament, played a few games on board, and then played farkle and monopoly deal with Caleb and Lauren. I actually won a game for the first time ever! we relaxed some more, went to dinner, then decided we had to kareoke! Which was a blast! We went to the comedy show afterwards which was alright and then went to bed because we had a long drive the next morning!

Playing games

Colby being intense at the ping pong table

Katie, Trent, Lauren, Caleb, Jacob, Kathry, Me, Colby, Tyler, & Claire on the last night!

The dessert I had every night.. Im sure it was really good for me too.

Colby and Jacob singing My Sharona!

Disembarking was even easier than embarking! We were off in less than 15 minutes. We had a pretty good drive back minus no air conditioning and having a blowout on the freeway.. We survived though!

I cannot wait to go on another cruise! It was by far the best vacation I have ever been on and So relaxing!! Im not going to lie... I started to look up cruises for next year the day after we got home... haha!

I have some funny videos but blogger wasnt behaving. Plus this post was probably long enough!! haha!!

Bathroom Remodel

2010-08-08T20:49:00.002-04:00

Well Colby's been at it again... just wanted to keep you updated on the house. Here's the pics of the second bathroom.

So I don't have a good picture of this bathroom before but here is what we did:

Tore out the linoleum, replaced it with tile; Painted all of the baseboards, walls, and cabinet; replaced the toilet; replaced the light fixture; replaced the mirror; and replaced the sink fixture and showerhead.

The only thing left is to paint the ceiling because it started to peel off when we tore off the wallpaper, so thats why it looks the way it does in some of the pictures.

Up next: Hopefully finishing our downstairs floors and tiling the master bath and laundry room... oh and PAINTING!

There and back and round again...

2010-08-03T11:08:00.000-04:00

Wow...this is a ridiculously long post... just a warning!

Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to fly up to Buffalo, NY to meet my Mama, Mom, sister and brother to have a quick vacation! I started off by flying up to Buffalo after work on Friday and after a delay in Philadelphia and partaking of my first "real" Philly Cheesesteak and embarrasing myself I made it to Buffalo around 945 that night. We went back to the hotel (Mama and Karli had been there since Wednesday) and went to bed because we had to be back at the airport by 730 in the morning to pick up Mom and Kenneth!

After we picked up mom and Kenneth we ate at the place yo ualways have to go to while on vacation, Denny's, and headed out to Niagara Falls! We were able to go on the Maid of the Mist! It was amazing! The falls are so majestic and beautiful! After the Maid of the Mist we walked around the park for a little while, bought some souvenirs and headed out to Palmyra!

Unfortunately we missed the pageant by a week but we were still able to go and do all of the church history sites. Palmyra was beautiful! My favorite was the fields of flowers near the Smith Homes and Sacred Grove.

An intersting fact was that the original Smith home is in one county and the Newer Smith home is in another county and the fire codes are different. So we were able to go up into the 2nd floor of the smaller house but not of the much larger one. Anyways...

After spending time at the sites there we headed off towards New York City! On our way there we got stuck in a huge rainstorm. You couldnt see the car in front of you it was raining so hard! We saw several accidents on the other side of the road and we were so thankful that wasnt us! We finally made it out of the storm an hour or so later! That one hour had everyones nerves tight as could be though and it took us all a while to wind down!

We finally made it to our hotel at abot 1 in the morning. That was of course after the 30 minutes we spent driving past our hotel because there was a concrete barrier dividing the road! So we had to go and find somewhere to turn around and somehow the crazy rain caught up with us again! There was a ton of traffic and we were on a state highway so there wasnt really a place to turn around! We were so glad to finally have made it there!

Sunday was also crazy! We started the day off early (530am) because we had to get to Liberty park to take the Ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty by 8:30 and there were 5 of us and 1 shower and 1 mirror.. 4 of us were girls by the way! We left the hotel and made it to Liberty park...only getting ~~lost~~ misguided a couple of times... Ellis Island was amazing! it is unbelievable the amount of history and the people that went through that one building. Also it was crazy all of the "tests" and exams they had to pass in order to stay in the US. From 3 piece puzzles to other strange things. Then we took the Ferry to the Statue of Liberty! She is miraculous! I would have love to have been able to go up to the top and take the Crown tour but it is extremely hard to get tickets for it.

We took the Ferry back to New Jersey and headed back to our hotel! We had to be back by 11:15 in order to make the shuttle to get to Manhattan. We got back at 11:15. The bus was getting ready to leave and we made it just in time! I didnt have enought time to change my shoes which was unfortunate but I survived! We went throught the Lincoln Tunnel and were right in the middle of Manhattan. we passed Bryant Park, and some other cool buildings. The driver of the shuttle bus...was insane! I am still not sure how we did not crash or topple over! We were dropped off in the center of Times Square! Thats where the fun started!

We walked up Times Square, saw the Naked Cowboy, ate Pizza, got Dad a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co T-shirt, bought sunglasses from a street vendor, and found the subway! We took the subway to the Natural History of Museum, it was fantastic and huge! It might be bigger than some of the Smithsonian museums in DC, and those are also huge! We spent a couple of hours there. It was packed. They had lots of cool exhibits and it was cool seeing some of the things from the movie Night in the Museum.
Dum Dum me want gum gum....
anyways...

We got a fantastic custard shake from the shake shack and I drooled over there burgers but the line was out the door for the burgers and I was quite hungry yet. They smelled and looked so good though! Karli, Kenny, and I walked through Central Park and saw a crazy turtle lady.. usually in movies yo usee the crazy pigeon lady.. well this lady had probably 20-30 turtles surrounding her and she was feeding them leftover shrimp and chicken. It was a little insane. She had the funniest accent and kept telling the turtle "I a good girl, dont bite me" (in some eastern european accent). Central park is beautiful. it was so serene and crazy to think you are in the middle of a bustling city. You wouldnt know it while you were in the park. Except for the 1 rat I saw... they dont live in normal parks...

We headed back towards Times Square and had a little trouble figuring out the subway since the train we needed to take was closed and no one seemed to be able to give us a straight answer. After 30 minutes in the hot subway we got to a shopping center in Lincoln Center that was about 10 minutes away from closing. It was Sunday afterall and even in NYC things close early I guess. We took the subway again and made it back to Times Square where Mama hung out in red lobster while we searched for Rockefeller Center... which we never found! We did get to buy some classic I <3 NY T-shirts though.

At 9 we got back on the shuttle bus and headed back to our hotel. Ate Wendys for dinner, since it was right next door, and buoght donuts for the next morning. We did not get lost that time...

We got up even earlier Monday morning. We had to head to DC and left at 530 so we didnt get stuck in any traffic. Traffic was clear until we got onto the 495 or was it the 295... who knows... We were heading to visit the DC temple. There were power outages and trees down everywhere because of an awful storm they had the night before. We made it to the temple and I was glad we did. We were able to walk to grounds and they were just beautiful.

After the temple we headed towards downtown. We drove around the national mall, ran about 5 stoplights, and took some quick pics of the monuments. I still want to go to the Jefferson Memorial, I was atleast able to see it this time! We then headed to the National Zoo. Ran a couple more red lights... We had to hurry to see those cute panda bears you know! We walked around the zoo for about an hour and a half. It was the hottest day and very humid outside. Which I am used to now but no one else was.

After we left the zoo we had a little extra time before we had to hit the road so we went to go find Georgetown Cupcake.. We found it.. We passed it.. There was a line down the street... I did not need a cupcake that bad! We got lost again trying to find the highway and took a 30 minute detour through Arlington accidentally of course. We did eventually find our way again and started the journey home!

We made it back safely and Mama told us stories of her childhood on the way back down which was fun.

It was such a fun, whirlwind of a trip! I love spending time with my family and my brother and sister. They grow up so much each time I see them! I am so grateful for mama for planning this trip. It was so much fun!

what month is it?

2010-07-16T16:58:00.001-04:00

Wow this year has really flown by! It is already the middle of July! That is unbelievable! But also Unbelievably Great! Why??

Next week I am heading out to Buffalo, NY to go to Niagra Falls and the Hill Cumorah pageant with my Mama, Mom, Karli, and Kenny! Then we are all driving back and here so they can see the new house and hang out! I can't wait! Colby has been working hard on getting the 2nd bath ready (we maybe took one step in there before we knew they were coming)!

Then a couple weeks after that Colby and I head out on our cruise with the Coltons! It is giong to be so much fun and I am sure that I will come back with a million new freckles.. and hopefully an awesome tan! Even little kids are starting to notice my newly freckled face!

Then it will soon be our 2nd anniversary! Can't believe that either! I have a mix of emotion between didnt I just get married and I feel like we have been married forever!

Karli & I at the outdoor county music concerts when I was in Vegas back in April!

Basically one of the only pics I got the whole time I was there... FAIL!

Well thats all for now! I will have to post some of the redo of the 2nd bath soon though!!

why.. good morning!

2010-07-15T07:41:00.004-04:00

So I got up this morning, took the dogs out, went back in, walked into the bathroom, looked out the window. Wait.. what is that in the window? A leaf? junk from the gutters? I got a little closer... those are definitely ears... OH. look for youself what greeted me on this lovely morning!

Can you tell what it is?? A Bat! He squeezed himself in between the two screens because they were open!

Needles to say I woke Colby up so that he could see it too! His response "Thats freakin awesome!" I'm not sure how awesome it is that we now house a flying creature of the night, along with a family of chipmunks, several squirrels, a fat cat that I've seen jumping the back fence, and several lizards.. Maybe we should have bought a farm! :)

House Updates

2010-07-11T18:57:00.000-04:00

Well we have been in our new house now for a little over two months and it is starting to come along! Colby has been busy getting everything into tip top shape and has basically done all of the changes by himself with a little help from me of course!

I'm so bad

2010-06-10T13:38:00.000-04:00

Yes this post is about a dog. I of course am not bad! :)

Kazzi is constantly keeping us on our toes. (Krone continues to be perfect) Like I have mentioned before we have 2 very large beautiful bay windows in the front of the house. This is the dogs favorite place to be because they can see EVERYTHING! There is also a large window in the back of the house that allows them to keep surveillance of the backyard. This is a very important duty for them because there is a family of chipmunks and squirrels that might attack the house at any time. Krone is content sitting and watching everything without a peep. Kazzi however...will bark like he is the size of a Mastiff and is going to scare whatever it may be away... He also like to bark at his reflection that is in the windows at night... Yes.. I cant wait until we get blinds. I cannot stand the barking!

Here is is looking all cute like...

On Sunday we let the dogs into the back yard to chase the wildlife and when Colby checked on the 15 minutes later he noticed something was wrong with kazzi. We opened the door and he ran inside (rare) and tried to get water but he couldnt stop pawing his face. He was flipping out and wouldnt calm down. Colby wrapped him up in a blanket and we tried to figure out what had happened.
Silly dog had chipped one of his front teeth and it was bleeding. We flipped him on his back I poured water down his mouth and we put him in a calm bath and finally got him to calm down. I of course was ready to take him to the doggy hospital if he didnt start acting normal! I went outside and found the other half of his tooth but it is still to be determined how he chipped it in the first place...
He hasnt been allowed back there since.

passport photos

2010-06-10T13:27:00.001-04:00

One reason we decided to go on a cruise was because you didnt need a passport, however we just found out that you do infact need one becasue they are once again changing the laws (thank you Haiti), anyways since we have just over 2 months left before our cruise (Yay!) we decided we better hurry up and get them! I went this past Saturday and was able to sneak in between appointments, they charge an extra $15 to take your picture! Isnt that crazy! Anyways because I was already there and didnt have a picture I paid the fee and was done. Colby was left needing one however. So, on Sunday night I take a couple pictures of him so that I could get them printed out Monday. He informs me on Monday that he decided he needed to shave first and so he did and then HE took some pictures of himself for me to get printed out.

He couldnt find the timer button so he took them himself.

He is always making me laugh! Love Him!

*I retook the pictures and he went and turned in the paperwork today!

Dinner

2010-05-21T08:25:00.003-04:00

I love it when dinner is a success! It doesnt happen all the time. For example.. the other day I made a lemon pasta. I found it on not one but TWO recipe blogs and both RAVED about how delicious and light it was. The perfect summertime meal. Well... that was not the case. It ended up being a complete fail and I took it straight out of the recipe binder and into the trash.. as well as all the leftovers..
Last night though was a good cooking night! I decided to make chicken enchiladas and mexican rice and then make monkey bread for dessert/breakfast. All three turned out great, I would only make a couple of changes to the monkey bread.

I wish I had taken my own pictures but I didnt so I used some from other sites.

Here's the recipes:

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

*Photo via Kevin & Amanda*

3 oz cream cheese
1 can green chile enchilada sauce
1 tbs lime juice
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion salt
1 cup shredded cheese (I used the mexican mix you buy at Costco)
1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 cups chicken broth
4-6 chicken tenders (about 3 large chicken breasts)

tortillas (I used the large flour tortillas and cut them in half)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease 8 X 8 pan with cooking spray.

Boil chicken in chicken broth until fully cooked throughout. Drain chicken broth and shred Chicken using forks or your fingers or your teeth... j/k! Once shredded, add the can of green chile enchilada sauce, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion salt, and cream cheese. Turn heat on low until cream cheese has melted, then stir in the 1 cup of shredded cheese.

Place 2-3 tbs in each tortilla, roll tightly, and place in pan seam down. Sprinkle 1/2 cup cheese on top and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and cheese has melted.

You can serve with salsa, sour cream, or guacamole, but ours were flavorful enough without!

Mexican Rice

1 cup long grain rice
2 tbs olive oil
1 small can tomato juice*
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cumin

Heat oil in skillet and saute rice until a light tan color. Add cumin garlic, tomato juice and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce hear, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

*I could not find a can of just tomato juice so i opted for a can of diced tomatoes and drained the juice into the rice mixture instead. I can use the tomatoes for something else.

Monkey Bread *from Pioneer Women Cooks*

*photo via Pioneer Women*

3 can buttermilk buscuits ( non flaky )
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 sticks butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

preaheat oven to 350 degrees and grease bundt pan

open up all three cans biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters
combine white sugar and cinnamon into 1 gallon ziploc and shake to mix evenly
put all the biscuit quarters into the sugar mix, seal it, and shake until all quarters are covered in mixture.
drop all biscuit quarters into the bundt pan and arrange evenly*
melt two sticks of butter over low heat and mix in brown sugar until the two become one color. Pour over biscuits.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until dark brown on top. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes or so before turning it over on a plate!

Eat and enjoy!

*not all of my biscuit quarters got the buttery goodness so instead of dumping all the biscuit quarter I would do half, pour half the butter mix over, and then put in the rest of the biscuits and mixture.

So, that was my succesful cooking night, as you can tell, I was/am quite proud that ALL of the recipes turned out great! Until next time...

THis boy is Amazing!

2010-05-13T16:24:00.002-04:00

I saw him on youtube the other night and was amazed by his talent! It Really make me want to play the piano!

bay windows, happy dogs, new floors

2010-05-11T20:30:00.003-04:00

So the floors in the house now are pretty awful. Colby started installing the new flooring today! It looks amazing!

The bay window is quickly becoming everyones favorite window. The dogs sit and stare out it all day! We have one in the dining room too but that is currently occupied with all our furniture that should be in the living room!

THey LOVE their backyard!!

Our new home!!

2010-05-03T20:22:00.007-04:00

Yes, we finally closed on our new home! It has been quite the adventure! Everything was going so smoothly until this past week when we found out there were several liens on the house that the owners wanted us to pay! It took a whole week but we finally were able to get it figured all out! Of course we were then homeless for the weekend because we had rented out our condo starting on Friday! Luckily we have wonderful friends who allowed us to stay at their home with them for the weekend! So now we can both take a big breath before we start the next process, remodeling!!

Here are some pictures!!

front
entrance
living room
dining room/den/office
kitchen
breakfast nook
laundry room
half bath
master bedroom
master bath view 1
mater bath view 2
master closet
2nd bathroom
2nd bedroom

It is perfect, 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath with a huge backyard that is fenced in! The dogs are going to be so thrilled! No more leashes!

Isnt this gorgeous?

2010-04-22T16:07:00.003-04:00

I came across this bathroom at Young House Love and fell in love with it!

The stripes are simple and make the bathroom look so elegant!

Perfect for a half bath!

via Young House Love

Date Night!

2010-04-13T11:01:00.003-04:00

I look forward to Colby & I's date night every week!

We usually just wander around stores like Big Lots and Home Depot and eat Japanese but on occasion we will go see a movie or do something special!

Our typical date night is Wednesday because of Colby's work schedule, however I am leaving for Las Vegas this Wednesday and won't be back until next Tuesday!

Last night as I was getting ready to go to the gym around 9pm Colby called me and told me to change because we were going to see "Date Night"! It was such a nice surprise!

The movie was hilarious and we laughed throughout the entire thing! I am so lucky to have such a thoughtful husband!

Spring

2010-03-27T18:33:00.004-04:00

I took these 2 weeks ago! I am so excited that spring is here! The weather has been beautiful and I can't get enough of those carolina blue skies!

*These are straight out of camera, no editing at all!

Cruise!

2010-03-18T20:18:00.003-04:00

I am so excited! We booked our first cruise this week! We are going in August with Claire and Tyler! We embark on our journey from Tampa and go to Grand Cayman and Cozumel Mexico! It is going to be 5 nights of pure fun! :)

Time to get back into bathing suit shape!

ACC Championship Game

2010-03-18T20:13:00.003-04:00

We had the opportunity to go to the ACC Championship game! It was Duke vs Georgia Tech! It was a great game and was super close at the end! DUke ended up winning though! I felt bad for GT because there were so many Duke fans and hardly any GT fans!
I can't wait to go to my next ACC game!

Excited for Eclipse!

2010-03-11T09:31:00.000-05:00

Sisters

2010-03-07T18:44:00.000-05:00

Sisters are the best! Mine is especially cool!

I love you Karli!

it's that time of year

2010-03-07T18:39:00.003-05:00

For college basketball! Colby won tickets to the Womens ACC Championship at work this week! It was alot of fun and I am looking forward to the men's ACC Championship next weekend! We had awesome seats, 5th row! They do this thing where they shoot out shirts with a airgun, we were too close to get a shirt so when the guy went by me i gave him a great big smile and asked him for one, Colby didnt think I would do it but I did and I got a XXL ACC shirt! Awesome!

They had a BMX halftime show that was pretty neat, I couldnt believe some of those guys didnt wipe out!

inside out and backwards

2010-03-03T14:42:00.002-05:00

Wow.
ON Monday I came to work did my thing went out to my car for lunch took my sweater off because it was getting a little warm and noticed that I had been wearing my shirt on inside out all day long!
Today after being at work for a couple hours I noticed my undershirt was up to my neck and thought it was weird. I went to check and sure enough... it was backwards!
Last night I saw Colby' s shirt was on inside out and that was the second time in a week for him too!!
We need a vacation.. or just pay more attention when we are getting dressed!

The Last Song

2010-02-26T09:40:00.002-05:00

This is a fantastic book! If you havent read it you should! I can't wait for the movie to come out in April!

Thanks mom for getting it for me!

Date Night

2010-02-26T09:28:00.002-05:00

Colby and I had a fun date night last night! Since he works the weekends we usually try and go and do something on wednesday or thursday since those are his days off!

So we started our date off by going to look at the puppies at the pet store. Yes, i do know that we already own two crazy dogs, but we still enjoy looking and playing with at all the cute puppies! They had some adorable morkie girl pups that we played with! They were so TINY!!

Then we headed to Bonsai to get dinner! As always dinner was delicious and quick!

We then went to Garden Ridge to loook around! It's always fun to look at the stuff in there! We saw some nice rugs and some interesting decor! We ended up buying the dogs a bed since they (kazzi) destroyed their old one a while back!

As we were going down the long checkout isle we saw all the candy and decided we wanted to go to a movie!

We headed to the Palladium and saw Avatar in 3-D. It is a great movie and the 3-d was pretty cool!

Then we headed back home and got back just in time to watch the womens long free style figure skating. Almost all of them gave flawless shows and exceeded their personal best scores!

I am so glad that we can always have a good time no matter what we are doing together! Thanks for a fun night Colby!

Here's us in our awesome 3-d glasses at the movie!