Finals...

Finals are officially in full swing (well not officially officially....they don't officially start till next week but I have final papers due this week so they are official for me). Two papers down, 1 paper due on Friday, 1 final next Tuesday and another the following Monday and then I will only have 1 more semester of school left WOOHOO. After all of that is said and done I will try to post some pictures and update on some things but really nothing exciting has been happening lately so until another time...

My new tattoo

So last night my friend Dani and I decided to go out and get a piercing for her and tattoo for me.

It means hope in hebrew

I really like it and while it hurt more than my last one it was totally worth it

Halloween!

Halloween wasn't all that exciting this year but I thought I would share some pictures of the boys and Nate and I. The boys actually didn't mind their costumes but part of that was because they spent the day at the groomers then went to the dog park so they were really tired!

First is Tonka in his wig being a pirate

Next is Tonka just in his wig

Guinness in his rooster costume without his hat on

Full Rooster attire. He actually wore his costume for hours and didn't mind it.

The hat was a little big on him so we had to take it off so he could see.

Tonka had issues with his moose antlers.

He wasn't really all that excited to be called a moose.

He was also a devil. A very sad looking devil.

The most depressed looking angel I have ever seen.

Nate and I. I was a slutty bunny and Nate was...well Nate changed costumes about as frequently as Tonka

Nate trying to be suave

Tonka was surprisingly unafraid of me in the mask. Guinness however hated it!

I was being Frank from Donnie Darko

Nate almost felt the wrath of the evil bunny!

So that was about it for halloween. We went to dinner with some friends then everyone came over and we watched Donnie Darko. It was a good night. Hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween!

Kitties and Puppies

When I arrived home from my second weekend in California I had a litter of kittens on our front porch. They were super cute but have since disappeared. We are still seeing the mommy cat so hopefully when the babies are bigger we see them again.




Here are some pictures of the boys just because I can't do all these posts without showing off my little guys.

ASU vs. USC and an appendectomy

While Kristen and I were in Arizona I get a call (well 3 actually) saying that Thomas was in the hospital and had his appendix out (only 15 years behind Ann and I). His scar is about half the size of mine and I am totally jealous. I had to drive Kristen back out to California the following weekend so I was trying to get tickets to the ASU vs. USC game. Unfortunately they were rather expensive to come by. Luckily my big brother has season tickets and was going to take me. With his recent surgery however Vanessa got substituted in for Tom and she was my date to the big game. We had a great time despite the devastating beating that ASU took (I am not going into the score...if you want to know look it up). I had my first bacon wrapped hot dog after the game which was a tasty treat.








P.S. Sorry there must have been a smudge on the lens that I didn't notice.

A trip to the zoo for Olivia's 2nd Birthday and a best friend visit

After Olivia and I made our trip to California my best friend Kristen came out for a visit in Arizona. We had so much fun hanging out and getting to spend time together. Kristen got to have a little bit of an experiance when we all took a trip to the zoo for Olivia's second birthday. I think everyone had a great time (even Mitchell who hates the zoo) and we got to have a nice upclose look at the monkeys. After the zoo we made a trip to Peter Piper Pizza for some lunch and games. It was a fun time for everyone and then we went and took a nap.



P.S. sorry for the picture overload. I have yet to edit these but wanted to get them up for everyone to see.

Paige's First Birthday Party

Here are pictures from Paige's Birthday Party! She was very cute and the party was huge. It was an all out affair for a first birthday. It had a carnival theme so there was face painting, snow cones, balloon animals, and lots of tasty food. Matt's sister, Anne, made a roller coaster cake and I made a carousel cake and it all looked really cute. I have never seen so many little kids contained in such a small area before. I think everyone had a great time and the present pile that Paige had was enormous.

Livi's trip to California

Olivia (the 2 year old I Nanny for) and I took a California to visit my mom for a few days. Olivia got to experience what it's like to have a little sister a few times when my niece Paige joined us for some fun. For the record only having Olivia during the 5 days we were in California was so easy comparatively I don't see how people with one kid are always complaining.



P.S. Olivia now asks where her Mimi is (what she calls my mom) and when she gets to visit her again.

oh so sorry....

So much has been going on the last few weeks I promise to update as soon as I can but for now just know that life is crazy but good and my boys are having a great time in Arizona.

A new blog I am reading....

This past weekend I was informed of this blog while talking cake with Ted and Adam. Basically it is cakes who have come from bakeries but are horribly done, have misspellings, or other things that you just can't believe they would expect you to pay for. A few of my favorites are the bride who had a life size replica of herself, the fireman with a penis hose, and the babies with mohawks riding carrots. I highly recommend you check it out if you have some time to kill


http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Camping

The last few weeks have been slightly crazy. School is back in full swing and has been a good source of distraction. While I am not a fan of all the homework I am enjoying my classes for the most part but am excited to be close to finishing. I have been busy looking for a new church to attend and Janelle and I have stumbled upon one we both like but can't find the right fit for our age group yet. The first week we went into the 20's and 30's singles group (Janelle isn't really single but we didn't know when we went in) and the following week we went to the college group which pretty much had only 18 year olds so Janelle and I felt really old. Hopefully we can find someplace we will fit in within the next few weeks. Other than that life has been fairly normal with school and work. This weekend I spent Friday night with my roommate and 2 other friends camping and playing on the quads. It was a lot of fun but I have definitely had my share of being dirty for awhile.

Saturday was Olivia's second birthday party so I spent the day after coming home from camping celebrating with them. Next weekend is Paige's first birthday party so I will be spending next weekend in California with the fam and picking up my boys. The next few weeks are going to be filled with lots of travel and visitors but I will try to keep everyone updated with pictures and everything that's going on.

Wedding Fun!

Last weekend was Janelle and Jesse's wedding up in Sedona, AZ. The wedding was a ton of fun other than the fact that the weather didn't want to cooperate with us and it rained.


The pictures are the best part so I went ahead and loaded all the ones I have for your viewing pleasure. I had the joy of puppy sitting for Janelle and Jesse's goldendoodle Hayden while they went on their honeymoon to Maine. I can't wait to get my boys back from California.

Friday my parents divorce was final so now as far as I am concerned I have no father other than the one in Heaven. If that wasn't enough for one day my boyfriend and I broke up Friday also. That's about it for the time being. School and work are what consume my days and hopefully I will find a second job soon enough so that I don't have quite so much free time.

ASU football season started last week and so far we are 2-0 Go Devils!

Back to school and more traveling (because being home is overrated)

So when I last left you I thought my traveling days were over. Little did I know that just 3 days after my return from Colorado I would be jumping on a plane to Louisiana (via Philadelphia). Thursday morning I received word that my Papa was in the hospital after having a stroke and decided that it would be a good idea to fly out to see him. I left Thursday night and arrived into New Orleans Friday morning. He is doing better now but they are still unsure what really is going on with his health. Hopefully soon they will be able to get him better. I was able to stay out there for a few days and visit with my extended family. It was really nice to see everyone since it had been a few months since I had been out there. I arrived back in Phoenix Wednesday morning (after missing my Tuesday afternoon flight). I spent the rest of Wednesday working and then went with my friend Janelle to the mall to pick up a few things for her wedding. Thursday I spent the day doing some much needed cleaning around my house. I also took my truck to have the damage appraised after her little accident a month ago. My battery decided it was going to die so I then had to take her to get a new battery. It seems like something is always going wrong with my poor girl. My friend Jonathan moved back to Arizona so Friday night we ended up having a bunch of people over at my house for a welcome back for him. It was really good to see all my friends again who I haven't seen lately since I have been gone so much. Saturday Lauren, my roommate Nate, his girlfriend Jen, and some of Jen's friends all went tubing down the Salt River. It was a lot of fun but the water was really yucky and by the end of the day I was so tired. The sun completely drained me of all energy even more than spending a day at the beach so Sunday I spent the day doing basically nothing. I read my book (Breaking Dawn the forth book in the Twilight saga) and laid around in anticipation for black Monday. Why is Monday black you may ask, well for me it meant another Semester at school. I spent Monday during the day working and then had class Monday night. Unfortunately for me Monday night I had a migraine and had to sit though a 3 hour lecture on the history of social thought while trying not to puke on the person sitting next to me. My professor is probably in her 80's and originally from Denmark so even had I not had a migraine I don't know how much I would have gotten from her lecture because her accent is so thick. My other classes are Hinduism, Justice Studies, and the sociology of Religion. My latter 3 are all online classes so we will have to wait and see how they go. This next weekend is Janelle and Jesse's wedding up in Sedona so my next post should be full of pictures but alas I don't really have any for this post. I am off to do some homework but I hope all is well with your world <3

My Travels...

The last month has been filled with nonstop traveling for me. As my last post indicated I spent the beginning of July in California. Four days after my return from California I took a road trip with Chrissy and the babies and their golden retreiver to Chicago. We drove straight through and it took about 30 hours each way. The road trip was quite the experience and I can say without a doubt that I will never take a roadtrip with a child who doesn't understand the concept of time (10 minutes into the trip Mitchell was asking if we were there yet).


After we finally arrived in Chicago we had a lot of sleepless nights but overall I had a good time. The food was amazing and it was a totally different world up there. I wish I had been able to see more of the city but that wasn't really possible with 3 kids and a dog. We did visit the Museum of Science and Industry and spent one night walking around and shopping downtown.





The babies had a great time except for little Olivia who was in the process of getting 4 teeth during the trip. I was definitely ready to get home by the end and get some much needed sleep. After arriving back in Arizona I was able to spend a little time relaxing and getting things done but I was also working and trying to get my truck fixed (it was in an accident while my friends were borrowing it). I also had to face something that I had hoped I would never have to face again, another break in. My condo was broken into for the second time. They smashed through my sliding glass door and stole a bunch of my roommates things and a few of my DVD's. I was just happy that I wasn't home this time when it happened.


After about a week of being home I left once again and headed up to Flagstaff with my boyfriend. He was working up there so I went with him and we had a great time. I got to look at the NAU campus and go to the Lowell Observatory. We also drove around the mountains and it was beautiful. It rained every day we were up there which was a nice change from the heat in Phoenix.








From Flagstaff we drove up to Colorado to Lauren's parents cabin. It was amazing up there. Never could I have imagined how beautiful it could be with all the sunflowers growing wild. The cabin was built by his dad and grandfather and is on the Conejos river and I loved it up there. Other than a few mosquito bites it was absolutely perfect. We went rafting down the river, hiking up to a waterfall, and spent a day at a spa.