The Year 2007

It's kind of sad to think that 2007 is gone. It was our first year as newlyweds! I was just thinking back over the year and all the things that we accomplished or did and it all seems like a blur. Here are some of the things I (some with Steven too!) did:
1. Got married (January 26th)
2. Went on a cruise for our honeymoon down to Mexico
3. Started another semester at ASU but did not finish--went to MCC instead
4. Took a little vacation to Las Vegas
5. Went to a Keith Urban, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller concert
6. Started a new job at UOP
7. Steven did a landscape job all on his own
8. Completed a full semester at MCC of music classes and still got good grades!
9. Took a vacation to California (beach, Palm Springs)
10. Established our little apartment
11. Learned to cook lots of new foods (thanks mom for all the help and recipes!)
12. Became the primary pianist in our ward
13. Went to Rocky Point, Mexico
14. Flew to Utah for Thanksgiving
15. Went to a few Diamondbacks and Suns games
16. First year I didn't carve a pumpkin :o(
17. First time going to the state fair
18. Became a tutor for Mesa School District
19. Welcomed a new brother-in-law and baby into the family (two separate people ;o)
20. In the past year i think I only spent a total of 3 or 4 whole days away from Steven! (of course he's gone at work all day but I still see him when he gets home!)

All in all, it's been a great year. I really can't think of where the time has gone. I've loved being married and hope next year is just as great...but how could it not be with a great guy like Steven?! Love you babe!

The family on Christmas morning...don't we look lovely? :o)

Our nephew Braden on his new toy

He's just too cute

Someone always has to have a mate in their hand!

Travis's dogs, Lucy and Rosie

Stockings

Christmas tree and presents

It's Finally Over

Well Christmas is come and gone...kind of sad but at the same time I'm relieved. We had a great Christmas and enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Sunday night we went and looked at Christmas lights and the Barney nativity (not the dinosaur, but Barney as in the last name of the people that set it up :o) Monday was filled with cooking goodies and getting ready for the traditional "Chili Dinner" that night. We had all of our family, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Michael and some of Uncle Mark's family. The carolers came by just like they do every year and we spent probably a good 3 hours (every day) playing speed scrabble. If you've never played, it's super fun so you should learn! Anyway, Santa was good to us this year and we've been having lots of fun with our new gifts (one of which I'm typing on right now! My new macbook :o) Anyway, it's back to the grind now. I was supposed to go to work today but unfortunately I came down with a nasty head cold so I've been out sick. No fun. Anyway, hope everyone had a great Christmas. I'll post some pictures once I get the hang of this new computer.

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Benson Here We Come!

After hours and hours of last minute Christmas shopping on Friday and some Christmas lights, we finally made it down to my parent's house in Benson at midnight. It felt so good to come home and see all the Christmas decorations, tree, and the fire! Finally we're somewhere cold enough to have a fire! We finally had everyone home for Christmas so we took advantage of it and got family pictures. That is our gift for Mom this year since it's been probably 10 years since we've had pictures. We drove into Tucson and Steven's sister-in-law took our pictures at Reid Park.
After pictures,we just stayed at the zoo and went to see zoo lights. Unfortunately, Steven had to take his sister-in-law back to Marana so he missed out on the lights. Here are some pictures that we took.

And I don't know why our pictures are all out of whack. Here's some more of my brother's new little puppy Diesel. He is the most adorable thing I've ever seen in my life and we're having so much fun spoiling him here! He's a little Beagle.

Update!

What an eventful week and weekend! Steven and I both finished school and I started my new job. It's going pretty good. I can't believe how busy it's been though for the holiday season! Let's just say I'm glad this time only comes once a year!
On Wednesday Steven had his weekly basketball game. He's on a city league and they play once a week. It's fun to go watch and see him out there playing. He does very well even though he doesn't think so! :o) On Friday, we all went to my brother Joshua's graduation at ASU. He graduated in construction management. It was a neat thing to see and he's such an inspiration to those of us who haven't graduated yet! I'll be excited when my time comes! Afterwards we went and had dinner at BJ's. We had an all-you-can-eat pizza and salad buffet and it was delicious. I have to admit i've never seen pizza like theirs. It was seriously 2 inches thick and quite delicious.
Then on Saturday I had to work...it was sooo busy but I was only there for a few hours because Steven and I drove out to Surprise for Joshua's graduation get-together. Trish did a chocolate fountain and had marshmallows, pound cake, bananas, creme puffs, and pretzels...it was delicious! I figured since I never ate any of that stuff at my wedding I'd have a bit!
While we were there we had some unexpected plans come up. My parents had tickets to the Mannheim Steamroller concert but at the last minute my mom got really sick and they needed someone to take their tickets so they offered them to Steven and I for my birthday present! It was hard to take them knowing how excited my parents were to go but we really enjoyed it. It sounded just like the cds. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was fun to finally see them perform since that's THE Christmas music I grew up on. Mom, we'll go the next time they come! Promise! Anyway, that's our update for now. No pictures though, our battery died at the graduation before we could even take our first picture!

Christmas Time Is Here

We've looked forward to this time all year and now are so excited it's here! Our apartment has been full of Christmas music, scents, and decorations. We went and splurged at Joanne's to get some Christmas decorations and finally got a tree on Thursday! I have to admit, it reminded me of the tree from a Charlie Brown Christmas and I was kind of disappointed...but we went and got lights and Steven's mom brought us his decorations as well as some extras so we were able to make it look decent. My grandma also made me some ornaments a while back that I've been excited to use. NOW it looks like Christmas in our humble abode. Steven even wrapped all his presents for me. He's so cute like that. We've been drinking hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies! It's so much better to be able to spend the holidays with the one you love! Now I can't wait to be with more family and friends for the holidays.
I finally finished school! Hooray! All piano is done as well so I don't have to stress over that anymore. Steven has his final on Tuesday so once he gets done with that then we'll be celebrating.
I got a new job tonight at Old Navy...not exactly my first choice but I'm going to be able to work early mornings which is what I want so that I can be home with Steven and it'll be a laid back job so I'm actually looking forward to it. I start on Monday...at 5 a.m.! Yikes! No sleeping in for the holidays, that's for sure! Anyway, hope everyone's enjoying this Christmas season! We sure are!

Utah and Thanksgiving!

Wow, where do I start?! Well, Steven and I were able to get buddy passes from Steven's friend so we could fly up to Utah to see Amy and we were planning on leaving the Wednesday before Thanksgiving but everything was full...so we decided to leave on Tuesday and even then we weren't sure if we'd get on a flight. Thankfully we did but when we got to Salt Lake City we had no one to pick us up (originally we were planning on flying in later that night but we got on the early flight) Amy couldn't leave work to come pick us up so...we made ourselves real comfortable. About 5 hours later, Amy came to pick us up.

The next day Steven and I were kind of trapped at Amy's house with no car so we watched movies, ordered pizza and played games. It was fun just to relax even though I know Steven was going crazy! Later that night my brother Jeremy flew in so we had a full house!
Thursday we got up and started cooking of course. Amy did most of the work and did fabulous but we all helped here and there. Our cousins Amanda, James, Tyler and Jenn came over to join us and it made it tons of fun. We didn't have pumpkin pie but we did have pumpkin cheesecake and key lime cheesecake which I'd take over pumpkin pie any day (yuck).
Friday I got talked in to going shopping even though I usually avoid it at all costs. However, we did not get up early. We slept in and left when we were ready. We didn't really do a whole lot of shopping but it was still fun...believe it or not. I just might go next year now! Later that night we saw the movie August Rush which was really really good. I recommend it to anyone interested in seeing it.
Saturday we got up and went to some village to take pictures for our Christmas card. Then we drove up to Park City and did some more shopping then went down to our cousin Curtis's house in Provo to have a barbecue. All the cousins were there again, plus some!
Sunday we went to church and then went over to our friend Wendy's house for dinner. Steven and I were planning on leaving on Monday morning but it wasn't showing any flights so we had to leave Sunday night. They dropped us off and then we found out the flights were either all full or overbooked (for those of you who don't know, buddy passes mean standby... I don't recommend it!at least not Thanksgiving weekend)Anyway, so we had Amy come pick us back up and we were going to attempt to leave Monday morning, after finding out that there WERE flights. So at 4:45 the next morning we got up and drove to the airport, yet again. The flight we were wanting was full but we hoped and waited anyway. While checking in, the lady at the counter said," don't run away just yet. You might get a seat. We had a flight last night that was overbooked and had 7 standby people and everyone ended up leaving and there were two open seats." Yeah, that was the one we were wanting! We couldn't believe it but anyway, about 10 minutes before the final boarding we got called up and even got to sit by each other.
So, this was really long but so was our trip. It was definitely an experience to remember. Most of the pictures are on Amy's blog as well since she got them off our camera but I'm putting them up anyway! Hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving as well!
This was major drama for Amy at first!

Yes, there is such a thing as too much football!!!!

My and my sister in the kitchen

After being around each other for a long period of time, we get kind of goofy :o)