thanksgiving weekend

Well, to start off... Harry thought Christmas came early this year. That's why he brought a present for me and Dan into the house. A little mini gator! This lizard was huge, and it scared the crap out of me (Christine can attest to that... she heard me scream while I was on the phone with her!). GROSS!

Pre-Thanksgiving at Cameron & Jenny's house

This is baby Levi, who grows up so much every time I see him! I love babies!

We almost got the whole William's fam in this picture...

... and here's Luke. What a cutie!

Dapper Dan, my favorite person EVER!

Our first house guest was Dan's little brother, Ben. He recently got back from his mission in Uruguay. It was fun having him stay with us... and it was cute to watch Dan be 'big brother'. Too much video game playing for my taste, but I had time to blog!

We inherited my Dad's dinner table for a while that seats like 12! We call it our 'feasting table'... it's so rustic and HUGE. We've decided that next year, if we're in town, we are going to have Thanksgiving where we will have a huge feast. Complete with no utensils, renaissance music, lots of velvet... perhaps a jester? Goblets, and raucous laughter... maybe some ale or mead? Haha! How about some wassail?!?

I made us some bananas foster... mmmmMM!

I got this game that is actually pretty fun to play. It's called Hi-Bol... and it's a lot like ski ball. I'm not very good at it, but I will practice when Dan is at work. Haha!

Connie and the kids came over, and of course we had to play hi-bol with them!

Abbey got a 50 all by herself! This is her posing by the board. I'm not sure what she is doing with her hand! Some kind of claw, apparently: ) I love my princess Ab.

We went shopping at San Tan mall the day after Thanksgiving (Dan's bro had never seen an outdoor mall!) They had a snow machine...oooh!

It's snow! Not really, it was bubble foam: )

We didn't actually take pictures on Thanksgiving day... we were having so much fun, we forgot to! Dad and Mickey came over and ate with us on our feasting table... and then we went to see 'Old Dogs', and I laughed pretty hard in some parts.

Right now I'm downloading a TON of Christmas music... I hope I don't get noticed by the government and get arrested for downloading 'free' music! I'm so excited to decorate and get a tree!! We watched Elf tonight to start the holiday spirit: )

CHRISTMAS!!!

Halloween!

I only have one picture of Halloween on my computer: ( I've been a 'blooser' lately... and I take full responsibility. The problem is that my camera broke, and Dan lost his USB cord, so I can't get any pictures from his camera either! It's very frustrating... you all know how much I love to blog! I still have ton's of pictures to post... from our trip to Utah for Dan's friend's wedding and his little bro coming home from his mission. I also have a ton of pictures that were taken on Christine and Connie's camera... I want those! Buuuut, unfortunately this will have to do for now!

Oh, I do have one picture from our Utah trip! This was taken at Bridal Veil Falls... a very beautiful natural waterfall that isn't actually in the picture: )

Jewel... How could I forget??

A few weeks ago Connie and I saw Jewel in acoustic concert at the Mesa Arts Center... I bought the cheap seats and when we got there I almost wished we took binoculars with us!  We were happy to be there though... and I was excited to see Jewel!  I had seen one of her concerts on TV one time, and I knew she put on a good show singing all her songs and talking to the audience a lot.  The last concert Connie had been to was the Dixie Chicks like 10 years ago... so I made her go with me!  PLUS, I told Dan I didn't want him to come with because he might fall in love with Jewel; )  I think he felt like he dodged a bullet!

As we were waiting for Jewel during the intermission, a woman came up to us and told us she was from Camel Country and that she had 2 seats down in the front and asked us if we wanted to go with her!  YES!  She took 2 other people, a husband and wife, and we got 90 dollar seats for 30 dollars!

Here we are, happy to be there in our cheap seats... 

...and here we are in our front row seats!!  I think you can see our excitement!

These pictures were taken in our amazing seats... our cheap seats were all the way up top where that man in the red shirt is standing.

Look how close we were to the stage!  Connie said when she put my glasses on, she could see Jewel's eye sparkle!  Haha!  Side note:  That guy in front of us with the hat on and his girlfriend were slightly annoying (to say the least)... the curly haired woman to the left asked them to keep it down (him and his girlfriend/wife were arguing), and I couldn't hear what he said to her... but he gave her a hard time.  Even Gwen from Camel Country apologized to us because she took us down to sit behind annoying people.  How did white trash people afford 90 dollar seats? 

Jewel was amazing... at one point (or maybe several), Connie and I got a little choked up!  I'd say she's right up there with Celine Dion as far as vocal range and sound.  I LOVE JEWEL!

Married Life!

Married life has been GREAT!  Dan is such a good husband, and my best friend... and he's a saint for putting up with a demanding and slightly spoiled wife... spoiled with love; )

Dan is from Washington and Utah, so the heat is not his favorite!!  But he's a trouper.  Here he is at a pool party with a grilled steak in-hand (his favorite!).  I am slowly breaking him of his habit of sticking out his tongue in all pictures... but he still looks cute!

Now because Dan and I got married so quickly, we didn't have much time to get a home.  So, we stayed in my roommates house in my room for about a month (haha!), and while we were waiting for our house to close (we put offers in before we were married), Connie and Tim let us live with them!  I'm not so sure it was fun for them... but it was sure fun for us (Laura Croft, Lego Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Star Wars marathon)!  They moved Mike's crib into Abbey's room to let us sleep in Mike's room on an air mattress.  We had a blast playing video games and playing with the kids... and now, Abbey and Mike love Dan more than me!!  Mike said Dan's name before mine!!

Here we are having fun on my computer.  I love how this computer brings families together!  What a good investment; )

Dan's in the background playing the famous video game (Lego Star Wars is the BEST!!!! I miss it!)

Abbey and Mike with their favorite uncle!  It's true!

Because Dan and I were living with the Merrills... the kids schedule and normalcy was askew.  Abbey was very naughty!!  Haha! (Sorry Connie!)  Here she is in the 'time out' chair.

Dan on the air mattress


One night Dan and I made a gourmet dinner for everyone (Tim did the grilling though)... Dan is so helpful!

Yum! Shishkabobs!!

Oh, this was cute!  Abbey and Uncle Dan were dancing... and Abbey was calling Dan 'my prince'!  Look how happy she looks!

Our New Home!   

I love our home!  It was quite dirty when we moved in (we ripped out the carpet the first day), but we've been so busy cleaning, painting, scrubbing, bleaching, etc...

Here I am with incense our first night in our house... it was the only thing that cut the smell of yucky carpet.  My dad came over and cleaned the hallway and bedroom carpet for us while Connie and Mickey helped me DEEP clean everything.  Thank you guys!

Napping... in my house!!  See the book beside me?  Me and Dan have been reading 'The Eye of the World' series.  On the way to and from California Dan read for us (we are on the same book... there's 11).  Dan had me drive the whole time on our trip because he has bad luck with the law enforcement!  We are obsessed with these books: ) NERDY!  Haha!

This was taken before we saw Harry Potter 6!!  Dan read the first book... and we bought the movie set and had a Harry Potter marathon.  We love Harry Potter... NERDY 2X!!  Hey, we haven't had TV OR the internet!  

So, we have no fridge yet (except for a mini one that keeps turning our milk sour in 1 week)... can you say 5 dollar Little Caesars?!?

My cute husband playing the guitar... he's so good!!

House work!!  We are in the process of scraping up the carpet glue on the concrete in our family room so we can stain it... and make it look cool!!  It's a lot of work!

My marriage involves 4 people... Me, Dan, Harry... and Laura Croft.  Damn Laura.

I have my Harry boy now!!  Thank you Connie and Tim for putting up with my boy for over a year!  Now, he's the king of the house... and already making friends in the neighborhood.  Dan's not a cat person... but he loves Harry.  He's been VERY cuddly... and the other day he snuggled in Dan's neck!  He only does that with me!  He loves Dan!!  Look... he's smiling.

4th of July

Dan and I went up to Pinetop and Heber to enjoy the mountain air and cool breeze with my dad and his new wife Mickey for the 4th.  Usually the firework show in Heber is phenominal... but this year it wasn't quite up to par!!  20 bucks to park for a less than 10 minute show:(  It was nice to have a little get away and spend time with my dad and Mickey though.  We stopped on the way to Pinetop to look over the Mogollon Rim... it was beautiful!

Isn't this little chipmunk so cute?!?

Lookin' all rustic... that's my brawny man

Doesn't nature suit him??

Huntington/Newport Beach Getaway

We drove to California early Saturday morning (3am!) so we could relax a little on the beach!  The Hurley U.S. Open surf competition was going on, so we wanted to catch some of that on Sunday.  We left Sunday afternoon after a fun little vacay!

This picture is on the Newport Beach pier... we ate at SUCH a good restaurant called Rockin' Baja Lobster.  YUM!  It was hard for me to not eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory like tradition demands, but it was worth it!

On the Huntington Pier watching Brett Simpson win the U.S. Open.  It was so crowded!  There was so much traffic, and nowhere to park... we ended up parking 10 blocks away from the pier.  Good thing it was nice weather and cute houses to look at walking to the pier... I even got to see Plumeria bushes in lucky peoples yard!!  

Our best modeling poses; )

Walking along the Newport boulevard at night

Newport pier

 

Well, I am all updated!  Yay!