Homesick

Steve and I have a lot to look forward to right now, especially going home to Utah to visit our families! I have to admit though, I've been a little homesick lately. Here is a list of things that I miss about home...

• I miss going to movies with my mom and sister.
• I miss long and spiritually girl talks with my mom and sister.
• I miss shopping with my best friends Ashley and Brittney.
• I miss hanging out with my other best friends Jessica & Shannon.
• I miss getting to know Steve's family better and spending more time with them. (They are awesome).
• I miss by brothers. They are sooooo cute! (even the 22 year old who thinks he is too cool).
• I miss my dad who is always so giving and perhaps even spoils me a little bit...
• I miss Gracie and Olli (my parents dogs). Gracie is just so smart, smarter than your average dog, I mean, she can open the front door for you!
• I miss crazy (and I mean CRAZY) dance parties with my cousin Lexi and sister Alli. We have some super sweet moves that just can't be done without each other (Michael Jackson techno dance).
• I miss training table cheese fries and Noodles & Company gluten free macaroni & cheese. Yum!
• I miss snowboarding during the winter.
• I miss the smell and beauty of Spring.
• I miss how pretty it is in Utah with the big beautiful mountains and soft green grass.
• I miss downtown Salt Lake with it's big city feel without the big city danger. (Phoenix is Ghetto!)
• I miss the Avenues with all there historic homes that just need someone like Steve & I to live in one and renovate it. I love that area.
• I miss Amy's gluten free bread... Only available in Utah. I have yet to find a bread comparable to it:(

There are so many things I miss about home but to not leave on such a negative note here are a few reasons I love Arizona...

• Don't feel too bad for me. I love that we have a pool in our back yard that I can lay out by any time I want too!
• I love our orange trees, lemon tree, apple tree, apricot tree, lime tree and banana plants.
• I love the way we have re-done our house. I feel like a queen living in a castle sometimes and think "how did we find such an awesome place".
• I love my friends out here! A lot of them where originally Steve's friends and their wives but have quickly became mine too and I love them! I love spending time with them, going to movies and dinner with them and of course... playing games with them. They are all so wonderful!
• I love my ward here.
• I love our calling (in nursery).
• It is hard to see past the heat of the summer but of course I love the winter here... It is so amazing! You can't beat it!
• Most of all, I love my husband and he is here! I would live anywhere for him and he makes everywhere the best place to live as long as we are together...

A little update

May has been a great month for us. Even though it's been getting warmer it has only hit 100 degrees one day so far this month (which is amazing for May!) We have been doing a lot of work on the house and planning our summer trips. We officially have plane tickets to come to Utah the weekend of the 24th of July, so we are looking forward to that. I am also looking forward to a fun girls trip with a couple of my friends from High school to San Diego the weekend of the 4th of July!

In a week and a half Steve and I celebrate our 1 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been a year, it just flew by! I love Steve so much and am so happy to have been able to marry him. He is truly perfect for me. I will probably elaborate more come next week. Steve is planning a surprise anniversary trip for me that weekend and I can't wait. I'm sure wherever we go it will be wonderful because we will be there together:) (Yes... I know that was super cheesy!)

We have been doing a lot of fun things lately. Last Saturday we went to dinner and a drive in movie with some friends and it was a blast. Earlier that day we went to a Gluten Free convention in downtown Phoenix. I was surprised to see the convention was packed full of people, we could barely move around without bumping into someone. I was a little disappointed in all of the booths that where set up. Pretty much all of the products or stores they where advertising I already new about. I was kind of hoping to go and learn of some new products available to me here in Arizona. That's okay though, it was a good and educational experience for Steve to learn more about Celiac disease and the gluten free diet because chances are half of our kids will have it.

The gluten free expo is not the end of my adventure though. I plan on visiting a new gluten free grocery store called the Gluten free country store. It opened a couple of months ago in Gilbert AZ and I am so excited to visit it this week. I will have to let you know how it is, I'm pretty excited about it.

Scorpions and water heaters

Living in Arizona has a lot of wonderful things going for it. The nice winter weather, the palm trees, the way the streets are all on a grid system and make it so easy to get around and even how pretty it is (in a desert'y' kind of way). Let me just be the first to admit though that we have a few negative things going for us too, like hot summers, all bland tan stucco houses and of coarse SCORPIONS.

About two weeks ago our dog had an encounter with one of these scorpions. Weston loves to play with bugs, I think it is a gross dog thing. We always catch him chasing mosquitoes, flies and even spiders. He often tries to catch them in his mouth, it's like a game to him. Steve and I always figured Weston may eventually have a run in with a scorpion seeing that we live in orange groves which is where they apparently like to hang out. What we didn't know is what to do if he did.

Around 9:30 at night Steve went outside to take the trash from the back yard to the street and Weston was playing around the trash area. Steve noticed that Weston looked like he was trying to play with some type of bug but didn't know what kind so he went to the front to drop of the trash can. He came back to find Weston sneezing like crazy and kind of having some sort of breathing attack. Sure enough Steve looked around him and saw a scorpion right next to him. That scorpion was quickly smooshed and I thought my dog was going to die! (I overreact sometimes:)

We think Weston was stung on the nose and mouth area, maybe even inside his mouth because he just would not stop sneezing. We tried to look at the area where we thought he was stung and he wouldn't let us near it. Right after it happened we immediately looked online for some advice. Every website we saw suggested taking him to the vet so we looked up emergency animal hospitals that where open that late. We called one place and the lady told us that we did NOT have to bring him in unless he was experiencing hives, or swelling or throwing up. She told us to just keep an eye on him for a couple of hours and try to get him to relax.

After the call it made me feel better because I knew that Weston would most likely be okay. We laid him down on the bed and just petted him a lot and eventually he just relaxed and was not sneezing or breathing funny anymore. He slept pretty much through the night and the next day he was back to his normal, goofy self!

The reason I tell this story is because it made us realize we really should be checking our house and yard for scorpions every week. We have found a few since we bought the house but nothing to abnormal. Yesterday I bought a scorpion flashlight which is basically a black light. They spot scorpions because when you shine a black light on one it glows. So last night we put the scorpion flash light to work looking all over our house and yard. I am pleased to announce that we did not fin any scorpions inside our house. But... We did find OVER 20 SCORPIONS outside in our back yard!!! A little more than I thought.

Even though we found a lot we managed to kill all of them and realized they where all mostly on the back wall fence. None of them where in the actual grass area which is nice. Below are a couple pictures of the scorpions we found last night... Enjoy!

After we mass murdered all the scorpions in our back yard Steve went to work fixing our water heater which was disgusting, and probably originally purchased in the ice ages. It started leaking the other night and had this weird, gross build up of some kind lining the top of it. I posted a picture of that below so you know what I mean. I am soooooo glad I have a husband willing to take on the challenge of replacing the old water heater. We bought a new one yesterday and Steve is working on installing it as I speak! Hopefully by the time I get home from work today I will have a new working water heater!

Steve getting ready to rip out the old water heater.

The gross water heater... Yuck.

Ciao!

Visits and Visitors

Steve and I have been very busy lately with vacations, planning vacations and hosting other peoples vacations. Pretty much, life is GREAT when your on permanent vacation! We have a lot to be thankful for right now and we are so happy when we get to spend time with our friends and family.

The Zion Trip

This was a blast! I think our driving time to time spent with the Family ratio was a little off because we only got to spend one full day at the cabin, but it was worth it. We went on an amazing hike through part of the canyon which I really enjoyed. We also spent lots of time playing games (of coarse).

Yes... Steve's dad convinced Keona to crawl into this hole in a tree. She loved it! She kept trying to fit herself all the way inside, pretty cute.

Lexi & Macie

Just two weekends ago my wonderful cousin and her six month old baby Macie came to stay with us for a bit. Macie is sooooo cute, I got to hold her as much as I wanted over the weekend and she played and laughed and especially loved our dog. She would always try to reach out and touch Weston whenever he was around her. It was adorable.

One of the best parts about the weekend was getting to brake out the swim-wear and get into our pool for the first time since we bought our house. The water was still a little cold but once you got in it was nice. One day we went to a resort in Scottsdale to swim, that was fun because not only did we get to lay out by a fancy pool in a fancy place but we also got to sip fancy strawberry pina' colada drinks which were delicious. Yum!

We have an ally way behind our house that lead to various things but one of the things it lead's to is our neighbors back yard where they have horses, pony's, Geese, dogs and other random animals which makes it sort of awesome to walk by. The horses are super friendly and they loved Macie!

Last weekend We had the pleasure of hanging out with Steve's friend Tim from High School. He drove up for the weekend to go watch a couple Phillies games with Steve. Steve is very proud that at the Saturday game when the Phillies hit a home run he could be seen on ESPN highlights in the crowd cheering for his teem. I watched it several times and can honestly not see him, but he assures me it's very obvious.

While Steve was off becoming famous on ESPN highlights, I was off feeling famous by being pampered at an all inclusive day spa on Saturday. It was amazing, can I just say I love facials!

I spent a total of 6 hours at Dolce' Salon and spa getting a facial, Swedish massage, pedicure and they also did my hair and make-up before I left so I could look as good as I felt. I know that this does not get to happen very often so I soaked it up. It was a wonderful day!

We where sad to see Tim go but now it's back to real life I guess. It has been getting very hot here (which I'm not too excited about) it reached 94 degrees yesterday making it the hottest day of the year so far. We have a lot to be thankful for so I shouldn't complain, but I'm not looking forward to the 100's... On a more positive note, Weston still loves laying out in the sun. Here are a couple cute pictures of him.

Soaking up the rays poolside (what a lucky guy!)

Lately he has had an obsession with golf balls. He has a collection of 2 or 3 he caries around in his mouth and spends hours trying to figure out how to carry all 3 in his mouth at the same time. Steve's a proud papa right now. He always wanted to raise his dog to be a golfer!

Steve and I are in the process of trying to plan a trip down to Utah, so anyone living there we look forward to seeing you soon! We are also in the process of trying to plan our anniversary/ get away from the hot summer heat vacation so if you have any ideas or suggestions for us that would be great... Also, if everyone wants to call Steve to try to convince him that Thailand would be the logical place to go I would also appreciate that!

Slackin'

I decided today that I am so far behind in blogging that I am just going to catch you up on what's been going on in list format... (I heart lists).

Christmas time:

For Christmas Steve and I went to the great state of Utah as many of you know already. We thought our first Christmas would be a breeze because both our families live somewhat nearby. The whole Christmas experience was wonderful, but we did struggle with trying to be fair with each family and divide our time equally between the two. We both wanted to be in two places at once!

We spent Christmas Eve and morning with my side of the family, and Christmas day with Steve's side. It would have been fun to see all the little kids at Steve's parents house opening up there presents Christmas morning, but we did love being at my parents house too.

That was a really fun trip for us but we are glad to be back in the nice, warm weather here in AZ!

New Years:

For New Years Eve we hosted a little get together where we played games, ate random assortments of food and finally... watched a movie and paused it at midnight to say happy New Years!

January:

In this wonderful Arizona month we had some of my family come to visit us. It was so nice to have my Mom (A.K.A. clean-aholic), Dad (A.K.A. Speed racer), Allison (A.K.A. Mrs. Barton (in a French accent)), Bradley (A.K.A. stud muffin) and Olli Mar (A.K.A. dog) come to visit us. I wish I had taken some pictures but I have been totally slacking in this area for a while now.

While my family was here they really helped us get motivated again to work on our house. My mom was soooooo wonderful. While everybody (except for my mom) went four wheeling she stayed behind at my house and painted the entire back wall of the house in the porch area and part of the front trim! Really! She is the best. Thank's mom!

February:

Just this last weekend we had the pleasure of having more visitors! Scott, Rachel, Mason and Brynn just left Monday (sad face), but we were so happy to be able to spend time with them this last weekend and have them stay with us a short while. It was so much fun to watch Mason chase Weston (or "Reston" as he says it) around the house and the yard, and then Weston chase Mason. They had so much fun with each-other. I don't know about Mason but I know Weston is experiencing withdrawals at the moment.

Steve and I really loved spending time with Scott and Rachel last weekend and meeting Brandon, Whitney and Rachel Fay. We also really enjoyed having small children around. It was so much fun and it makes me excited to have kids in the future!

Today:

So now you are officially 'caught up', and I feel like I contributed something else besides house pictures to our blog:)

House Update

So it's been a while since we had any sort of an update because we did not have Internet the last few months, but now we have returned to cyber space to share with you some updated pictures of the house. As you can see we have come a long way. Our house actually feels livable now and we really love having all the extra space to put all of our stuff. We still have lots of stuff to do but mostly small things that we will be working on during our weekends for the next 30 years, or as long as we live here.

I feel incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful home and place for our cute Weston to run around in. He loves the backyard and insists on laying out in the sun EVERY-DAY! (I smell doggy skin cancer in our future). Good thing he has like 25 inches of hair to protect his skin or else I really would worry about something like that.

So here are some pictures and hopefully now that we can offer a place to stay for people we can get more visitors!

The TV room. We now have a full set of couches in here so it looks even better and we get our Cantera fireplace installed this coming Monday so once we hang the TV on the wall over the new fireplace this room will be complete!

The kitchen. (The back-splash in the background we decided not to use because it just didn't match all that well). I think we will probably end up more of a natural sandstone tile.

View from the front door looking in.

View from the kitchen looking at where the kitchen used to be. F.Y.I. We actually took down our Christmas tree before New Years just so you know. We are not crazy people that leave it up till the end of January! Now Steve has his ping pong table and dart board in here. Sort of temporary until we win the lottery and buy a living room set.

Master bath... Still needs a counter top, sink and hung mirror.

Master bedroom. Not a lot of furniture but what else do you need?

Hall bath

Lastly... Your bedroom when you come and visit us!

My birthday

I just celebrated my 25th birthday a little over a week ago and I don't feel much different. I think that's kinda how it goes though. Steve made it a very special day for me by doing exactly what I would have planned for myself on my birthday... Dinner and a movie!

Steve has always loved to be around as many people as possible, especially on occasions like a birthday. I, however, am the complete opposite. Though I love spending time with friends, what I enjoy most is good food and entertainment. Not a big crowd. Quality time with my amazing husband is the best!

My birthday fell on a Monday this year and I took the day of work to celebrate. Steve took me out to lunch at a breakfast spot because that is what I was craving and it was yummy. He also gave me these amazing flowers that I loved. They lasted a long time too because I just threw them away today (Sunday the 22nd of November), and my birthday was on the ninth.

After lunch I went shopping, and who doesn't like shopping! I bought a couple things for the house and then that night when Steve got home from dinner he gave me a nice card and in the card he said that my present was in his pants. I was a little confused by that and I am sorry if that surprises you, but that is just Steve's funny way of getting a laugh out of me. After I read the card I laughed a little and said "okay, where is my real present?" Steve say's "No really... It's in my pants"

and he pulls this out from his pocket

It's hard to see in this picture but it's a little piece of paper torn out from a magazine. I was confused at first. I was like "thanks for the fishies?" because thats what it looked like the picture was of. Eventually he told me it was a new tv. So I was excited. Now we have a new tv to play our Wii on.

After that we just went to dinner and a movie, it was a perfect night. Thank you Steve for knowing what I like and treating me so well. I always hoped I would marry someone great but you have exceeded my expectations so far and I know you will continue to do so in our future.