Happy Anniversary to Us!

Wow, it's already been four years! In some way's it feels as if we have been married forever but at the same time it seem's like just yesterday we were posing for wedding pics! What a wonderful four years it has been! We have been so blessed these last four years and have some amazing memories. And then there's the squirt! What an amazing kid we have! I'm pretty much in awe every day that Brian and I made such a cute kid! :) It's so funny to see little bit's of each of us in him.

I have been thinking a lot lately of our wedding day and I wanted to record some of the things that I remember about that day (while I can still remember some of it!)

• I remember getting my hair done at Ric Erickson's the morning of my wedding. The nail woman who worked there (and had just done my nails the day before) was fired that morning. Let's just say she didn't take it well and had to be escorted out by the police! In her defense it was like the week before Christmas and it was a pretty crappy time to let someone go! Don't get me started on that....
• I remember going to the bathroom in Burger King, veil and all, on the way to Mesa and a little girl called me a princess :)
• I remember being about a million pounds thinner :)
• I remember hiding out in the bathroom in the temple trying to get mascara out of my veil!
• I remember sitting in the room they make you wait in before you go into the sealing room scared to death. I was NEVER nervous about getting married at all until then. I think they stick you in that room to weed out all the one's who really aren't ready!
• I remember going into the sealing room crying. Then out of nowhere I started laughing uncontrollably. I also remember Brian's face of stone, showing no emotion which made me laugh harder.
• I remember a gunfight
• I remember my dad showing a REALLY humiliating slide show of me with about 50 different poses that I did while trying to get a good picture. I remember there being braces in the picture, not good!
• I remember stuffing cake in Brian's face, and him being the gentleman that he is stuffed it right back!
• I remember going to my grandma's house after the reception to open some wedding presents. While we were getting ready to leave I realized that I left my purse in my dad's car. It took him till around 1-2 in the morning to "find" my Grandma's house. Coincidence, I think not!
• I remember the AMAZING hotel room Brian got for that night, which we only stayed in for a few hours :)

What a great day that was! It was perfect! I couldn't have asked for a better and a better four years! I hope our year's to come are just as good!

John and Emily Memorial Auction

The other day my friend posted on facebook about an auction she was taking part in. I went to the blog and found out about John and Emily Jones. They were in Provo celebrating Thanksgiving, when John went with some friends and family to explore some caves. While John was exploring one he became stuck. He was stuck for about 24 hours before he tragically passed away. You can read the family's statement on what happened HERE. John left behind his wife Emily, their 14 month old daughter, and the couple had just recently found out they were expecting another baby. The auction that is being held is for Emily and their family. This whole situation left me totally heart-broken and wanting to help in any way, so I'm auctioning off a sling. The sling is the one pictured below, so if you or anyone you know want's to bid visit THIS site. Click on the A Daily Scoop banner at the top of the page to see other items up for auction. There are some really neat things and you could get a good deal on something and help out at the same time! Please spread the word about this auction so that it can raise as much money as possible! How stressful must money be for this young wife of a med student on top of her grief! If you don't want to bid on anything and just want to donate some money you can do so by going HERE.

Thank You, and please pass the word on!

Marie

Tiffany modeling the sling I'm auctioning off! THANK YOU Tiffany for getting this picture!

Hotel Rwanda

Do you ever find yourself worrying, stressing, and obsessing over things that seem so important to you only to have something happen that put's your mundane worries into perspective? That's exactly what happened to me. I have been stressing about something completely out of my control and finding myself sad and angry when it isn't happening the way I want it to. I was feeling extra sorry for myself this past weekend when I watched Hotel Rwanda. I had no idea what the movie was about and was just one I picked up from the library. What an amazing movie it was! I think things like this happen for a reason, we are given event's and situation's in our lives that help to put thing's in perspective. This movie made me remember how lucky I am to have the life that I have. How lucky am I to have a wonderful family, a nice place to live, and all the other wonderful things that I take for granted!

This movie was SO good and I encourage anyone who hasn't seen it yet to watch it! It isn't very gruesome (the idea's of what happened are gruesome, but the movie doesn't have much blood and gore in it) at all, and is a time in history that everyone should know about (I had no clue that this had even happened!). This movie makes me realize how little I know about the world we live in today, and makes me want to learn more. What a great reminder this was to me, especially during this season, of what things are really important in life!

The Stage of Cheese

So we have officially entered the stage of cheese (or geese in Ayden's case). Ayden now say's geese whenever he see's a camera and pull's out an extra cheesy face. I suppose it's better than what the last 2 1/2 years have been, trying EXTRA hard to avoid the camera at all costs. It's pretty cute (for now :)) though, and I'm glad to get some easy shots of him! He sure has become spunky as of late and I'm really loving his funny personality. He sure can make us laugh! Can't wait to hear all the crazy things this kid has to say once he start's talking more!

*Don't know why the picture quality is so bad, their quality goes way down when I upload them on here! Sorry!

Some pretty cheesy faces!

Bad Luck Cluff's

So, many of you already know but Brian was in a motorcycle accident Thursday. He ended with a HUGE gash in his arm and got 25 stitches and 21 staples. He was pretty banged up all over and even had a broken toe! Poor guy! I know a lot of you don't like gross bloody pictures, but for those interested you can go here to read more about his accident and see some pics (I gave plenty of room before the pics if you just want to read about it).

http://briansgrossbloodyarm.blogspot.com/

So if that wasn't enough, we were going about our day today when I walked by our kitchen to see a TON of water! Our kitchen and laundry room had totally flooded and was about ankle deep with water! We realized it was coming from our washing machine and quickly shut it off and started throwing every towel and blanket we own down to try and soak it up (which didn't do much). We called the front office and they had someone come over with a wet/dry shop vac. (one of the REALLY good things about living in apartments!). But they weren't able to come for about a half an hour. In which time we were frantically trying to get rid of as much water as we could. It was a pretty stressful, messy situation but eventually we got it all cleaned up. Afterwards we checked out our washing machine (I was so scared it was broken and I'd have to use the quarter machines again!), and the knob that say's the load size was stuck between medium and large and we think it just couldn't sense when to stop adding water. So it seem's to be working fine now, which is good because I have about 10 loads of blankets and towels I need to do now!

So let's hope for a little bit of a calmer next week!

Halloween

I'm finally posting some Halloween pics! We spent Halloween with my family in Tucson. It was a lot of fun and Ayden enjoyed spending time with his cousin Sydney. Those 2 are so funny when they get together, both are so shy but always seem to end up having a blast and my family's poor ear drums will never be the same!

The whole weekend was pretty much a huge battle to keep Ayden away from the boys XBox area. This is where we could alway's find him, he wanted to be just like his daddy!

Ayden was Superman for Halloween! It wasn't very easy to get him to look at the camera!

Except for about 2 seconds where he randomly put his hands on his cheeks and said cheese! Don't know where that came from and have yet to see it since!

Here is my adorable nephew Easton as a skunk! He is SO cute and was so good while we were there (even though his mommy would probably disagree), I thought he was such a quiet, sweet little baby!

My beautiful niece Sydney as Belle, she is SO into Disney princesses and was so cute in her costume! She doesn't like all the scary stuff about Halloween, but getting to be Belle for a night was probably well worth all that!

Recipe Swap Blog

We have started a recipe swap blog! It's for all of us to share our favorite recipes that we have tried and love! There are already some REALLY good one's on there! The blog is for everyone who wants to participate, but want to keep it to just family and friends so that we know where the recipe's are coming from. If you are interested in participating let me know and I'll e-mail you all the information! Everyone has the username and password so you can just sign in whenever you want and post your recipe! Just remember to try and keep it to fairly simple recipes (something that everyone can do!), and we would like everyone to try to include a picture (just snap one the next time you make it). Anyway's it's been fun so far trying out new recipes and I hope some more of you want to join!

Go here to check out the blog!

Eclipse For Sale

Hey everyone! At our local library they have a little store that sells used books for really cheap. The other day I found a slightly used hardback Eclipse there for only $5! I wasn't sure if I had the hardback or not so I grabbed it because it was such a good deal. However, I DO have it in hardback so I was planning on selling it to Bookman's. I just wanted to see if anyone out there wants to buy it first. $5 dollars is about as cheap as you could find it for and it's only slightly used. So if anyone is interested let me know! Oh, and if anyone is in need of a vacuum let me know!

zoo fun

Yesterday there was a special day at the zoo where if you showed them your Fry's card you could get in free. I was so excited to go and spent all week trying to get Ayden hyped up for it! When we got there he could care less about the animals (they were too far away and most of them were asleep), but they had some really fun play area's that Ayden had a blast in. We also went on his first Merry-go-Round ride. It was so funny, when I first put him on he was so annoyed and tried to climb off, but as soon as it started moving he got this big smile on his face! He'd say wee and wow and just laugh his head off! It was so funny that I had to take him for a second ride! It was such a fun day, and just something different to do! I didn't get many pictures cause he was being a turkey about looking at the camera but I got this one which I thought was cute! Anyway's, it was such a fun trip and I'm so glad I decided to brave the heat and do it!

Update

So it's been forever since the last time I updated, so I'm just gonna give a few quick highlights.

(Sorry the pic is SO big!)

* Brian started selling these salt crystal lamps with his dad. His dad had tried them and found them to be really helpful, so they decided to try and give selling a shot. They are similar to ionizers but are all natural and have a lot of health benefits. They sold some at an event at Apple Annie's Orchard last weekend and I decided to tag along with Ayden. We had so much fun! Ayden loved picking the apples right from the tree and would just start munching on them right there. So funny! We were very glad we decided to come along.

*I found a scorpion in my kitchen about a week ago and was totally freaked out! I wouldn't let Brian leave for school until the scorpion was smooshed and the entire kitchen was spotless. It took a few day's before I started feeling comfortable in our house again (not having to wear tennis shoes indoors all day). Then a few day's ago I found a baby one in our bathroom. Yeah! I'm thinking babies! And I'm kinda thinking that they don't just have one baby (although I wish). So, I'm back to terrified of our house and am thinking a move would be a good thing (like tomorrow!).

*Brian is almost done with his CNA classes! He has worked hard the last couple of weeks and is looking forward to them being done. He is hoping to get a job soon after which will be GREAT!

So that's about all I have to report right now. Hopefully we will have some more exciting things happen in the near future for me to blog about! Here are a few pics from Apple Annie's Orchard. It was NOT easy getting Ayden to sit still for a pic, he was WAY too excited and hyper. And be prepared for some very goofy, but very Ayden, faces!

Summer is STUPID!

I feel so bad for Ayden during the summer! His life during summer month's has got to be so incredibly boring since he is pretty much always stuck in the house (or at a store with me :)). I wish there were more (free) things for kids to do in the summer months. We do go swimming, but it's even too hot for that any more. Life outside is just miserable! So I decided today to take him to this park I heard about and see if it was any good. It was WAY too hot and the playground wasn't covered, but it looks like it will be a lot of fun come fall! It has this pretty lake and even some little kid rides! But we still had fun, Ayden was determined to play on the jungle gym despite how hot it was! Then we had a little picnic by the lake under a big shady tree. It was so nice just to hang out with my little guy all afternoon. I need to take him out more, I feel like I'm SO much more interactive with him when we are out doing something than when we are home. Anyways, here are some pictures from our outing!

This was about the only spot on the jungle gym that was cool enough to play :)

I set up his picnic and the little stinker would NOT sit on his blanket! I guess that's just the rebel in him!

Poor Ayden was SO hot, so I took him to McDonalds and got him a mini ice cream cone! I don't think I really need to tell you if he liked it or not :) Isn't it such a cute little cone!

Some new New Moon clips

Here is a link to see some new New Moon clips from Comic-Con. The are just shown by someone videotaping them so they aren't the best quality, but even so the movie looks SO good! And the woman either videotaping or near the video taper is HILARIOUS!!!

Go here to see the clips

Mt. Graham and Tiffany's baby shower

Well, I know it's way past due but I thought I would post a few pictures from our Fourth of July trip to Mt. Graham!

This is the position you would most find Ayden in up on the mountain, in time out. He got into lots of trouble up there!

After unsuccessfuly trying to take a picture of Ayden, Becky offered to get her picture taken. I think she was feeling sorry for me! Isn't she just beautiful!?!

The cutest little frenemies ever!

We also went up to Pima this past weekend for Tiffany's baby shower. It was so much fun being able to hang out with the girls! Here are a few of the pictures I took of Keahi, she is such a beautiful little girl!

Here is one of everyone minus Stephanie!

Life lessons you pick up with a curious 2 year old!

So, today has been quite the day with Ayden. Without much success, I tried to clean our house today. It was pretty much impossible with a 2 year old that is one step behind you, not only messing up what you just did but making newer even worse messes on top of everything else! So, I very stupidly left out a container of Dawn dish soap, and sure enough found it's way into Ayden's hands. I walked in on him chugging the bottle and immediately freaked out and screamed for Brian to call poison control. After talking to the lady on the phone we found out that he should be just fine (he threw up alot of it). We did however find out that Dishwasher Detergent is extremely toxic and very dangerous if swallowed. I never knew this and am going out to buy a lock for our cabinets under the sink. So fyi, don't let your kids ever even come close to dishwasher detergent! Oh, the things you learn when your the mother of a 2 year old like Ayden. Other advise you may learn from our experiences include; Prunes are very effective for trying to flush a penny out of a toddlers system, a baby USUALLY only needs to fall down a flight of stairs once before they no longer try to fly down, and if your baby falls into a fire and singes their hair, spraying it with water and combing it gets the singed ends off :)

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanna wish a happy father's Day to some special dad's in my life!

To my daddy, thanks for being the greatest dad in the world! You are so sweet, kind, and and understanding. I have always felt loved by you unconditionally, even though there are many times I don't deserve it :). I hope you have a great Father's Day, and I want you to know that I love you!

To my baby daddy, I want you to know what a great daddy I think you are! I think Ayden's very obvious preference for his daddy should show you what an amazing job you are doing :) You have a little boy who thinks the world of you, and I know that all our kids will adore you. I love you!

And of course to Brian's dad (Sorry, I couldn't find a pic!), thank you for being such a great dad and grandpa. Ayden loves you so much (and loves untying your shoes! sorry!), and we do too!

Going Dot Com Birthday Bash

Here is site offering WAY cute giveaways!

Ayden's 2nd birthday

It has been so long since I have posted so I thought I'd put a few photos on. Ayden's 2nd birthday was last week on the 1oth. We were having a party for him in Pima (which I have absolutly NO pics of :(), so on his actual birthday we had an Ayden fun day! We had lunch together, went to the Williamsfield Mall and played at the playground and at thier water playground. The whole idea of the day was to do all things that Ayden would love, and I vowed not to yell or get mad at him the whole day. It was so fun spending time with him, and it definitly paid off. By the end of the day I was getting lots of hugs and kisses :) So here are some pics of Ayden's fun Day!

This is how Ayden's day was started, by getting stuck in his high chair! He gets into these situations alot!

He had some BBQ wings, chips, and soda! He LOVED his special lunch!

Playing at the Williamsfield Mall, they have the cutest playground there!

He's two and he's cool!

They have a water playground at the Williamsfield Mall, which he LOVED! He was hillarious playing in the water! Definitly need to go back there often this summer!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to Ayden's party, it was alot of fun! And thanks for all his cool presents, definitly a spoiled 2 year old :)

Shame, shame, shame...

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted anything! Life has been a little crazy the last month and blogging seems to be one of the many things that has been neglected. So I am gonna try and make it up by posting lots and lots of pictures! I'll post a little later about some of the things that have gone on in the past month, but for now here are some pics! :)

Here is a cute one of my mom and the grandkids on Easter

Ayden getting into trouble on Easter :)

Ayden and Sydney hanging out. They were so cute playing together! He sure LOVED playing with his cousin sydney!

In Pima, after I gave him a haircut (sniff, sniff...). No more curls!