2 Year Anniversary

Steve and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary over a month and a half ago on June 5th. I love remembering our wedding day and I often wish I could do it all over again. I know it was a lot of work but it will always be remembered as the best day of my life!

This year we have another reason to remember our 2 year anniversary. It will always be the day that we FOUND OUT WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!

Yes it's true. We are expecting a little baby Murray! We already had our first doctors appointment and ultrasound and our little fetus is very healthy! It has a very fast heart beat and everything seems to be growing normally.

It seems very surreal at times because even though I have been pretty sick and extremely tired I don't really "feel" pregnant yet. We are 11 weeks today, due date is February 8th, 2012 and the baby is apparently the size of a lime this week. I am very excited our baby is getting into the bigger fruits. Blueberry and raspberry just weren't cutting it for me! Next week we will officially be in our 2nd trimester! I am looking forward to that and hopefully feeling a little better too.

Because I found out we where pregnant on our anniversary I got to surprise Steve by getting him a cute silver gift bag and a card. In the card I hinted that the present in the bag was going to be "the best present he could ever receive" and he was confused by that. He couldn't figure out that something so cool could come in a bag so small (after all... A new mountain bike can't fit in it)! So he opened the present and was so surprised to find 2 positive pregnancy tests! He was so cute and excited and i'm pretty sure I cried. Whats new?

So now you all know! I do want to get a little poll going on what everybody thinks the sex of the baby will be. Does anyone know how I can do that? So far I can say the majority of the people I have told think I am having a boy. I have NO idea yet but we will find out in 6 weeks. THAT'S SOON!!

Here are a few pictures of baby Murray to leave you with from our 9 week ultrasound.

Holy cow!!! So many pictures!!!!!

This year I have truly tried to take more pictures and have had some success! Now you get to catch up on our year through my picture book!

Zion Trip

Me and my mother outside the pig pen at best friends animal shelter in Kanab, UT.

The crew waiting for our tour to see all the cute animals! I loved all the animals but my favorite is always going to have to be the cute doggies. I totally wanted to adopt one but I knew Steve might not like that very much so I refrained...

Alli making delicious gourmet hamburgers for us for dinner one night at the cabin. They where AMAZING! They even brought us fresh slaughtered cow meat from (I think) Justin's grandpas farm. Doesn't it sound so appetizing when I put it that way:)

I had to throw this picture in here... Steve had JUST woken up and was not very happy that I wanted to take pictures of him. My husband is NOT a morning person in case you where wondering. I am the opposite... I live for the mornings and dread staying up late.

We played a lot of Just Dance at the cabin. Here is my mom and sister getting their dance on!

Proud papa:)

This picture is a win-win-win situation (office fans anyone?) Austin wins because he gets a ride down the hiking trail. Dave wins because he doesn't have to sit around and wait for Austin to finally get over the fact that his shoe got wet and refused to hike back down the trail and we all win because we get a picture of it! (Austin was of course laughing the whole way!)

End of Zions:(

Beginning of other stuff:)

We took Weston hiking a couple of times this spring and it turns out we DON'T have the laziest dog in all of Arizona! What a sport. He was always trying to run and climb up boulders and rocks 3 times the size of himself. He just loved every second of it! Too bad that now the problem isn't getting Weston to want to go on a hike but getting me to go:( I've been pretty lazy lately. In my defense it's really hot here!!!

*Favorite*

Utah trip to visit my new niece Hayden "Haddy" Joyce Barton

I know she was around 6 pounds. I don't remember the details people!!! Just how cute and tiny she was:)

Love cuddling with my niece!

I also love cuddling with Weston when he will let me...

Steve and I had the pleasure of being called to be a Ma and Pa on our stake trek. This was our cute family! I know I totally blend in with the kids...

Another short and sweet Utah trip to see my sisters family off to Philadelphia.

Haddy saying goodbye to Olli...

The Philadelphians

I got to see some of my friends for a short second and I'm so glad I did! I miss them:(

LOVE this picture!!!

I forced people to take lots of pictures of me holding Haddy. She is just so cute!

I miss them already:(

Congratulations!!! You made it to the end. Your reward is this post actually ending! Bye!!!

The last 6 months-Christmas

The last 6 months have not been that that busy, I don't know what my excuse is for not keeping this up but I will try to do better because I know how much I enjoy hearing about everybody else's lives!

I will catch up slowly... This is my belated 2010 Christmas post. So much has changed since then but it's fun to look back:)

Christmas at the Cook's

Christmas at the Murray's

Weston is one tough pup...

This one is Alli's baby shower while we where in Utah for Christmas (these pics are out of order)

Steve was our Christmas elf. He makes a pretty cute elf I think.

I got to hold baby Lincoln and I loved every minute of it!! ( He has probably grown so much since this pic).

Weston sniffing up Lincoln... Weston loves babies. Whenever I babysit my friends kids he is always trying to be as close as possible to them.

Weston and Rona found a friend in each other. They where great playmates! I loved watching them wrestle together.

We had an amazing Christmas (again), and always love spending time with family. Now hopefully I can force myself to do another post soon but first I have to go to work:(

Word jumbalaya (lots of info put together that normally wouldn't go together but does in this one case but could still possibly not unless it does)

I will update this blog someday I keep thinking... It seems like time is getting away from me! I can't believe the last time I updated this was almost 6 months ago. I owe you all (meaning the 1 person that reads this) lots of updating. Not that so much has happened in the last 6 months, just work, Christmas, baby's being born, vacations, an ulcer scare, a funeral, more house remodeling, people visiting us, us visiting people, church callings, yard work, hanging out with friends here in Mesa land and reading books. Lots of reading. Okay, maybe we have been busy but thats NO excuse. We have a fan to please! (Ps. I don't recommend reading Water for Elephants, It's kind of like an "R" rated book and it was recommended to me by a lady in my ward)... What?!? Not even that great of a story. I will, however, recommend The Hunger Games series. Steve and I both finished those 3 books in record time. I really liked them but this is probably old news to most people. They have been out for a while and recommended to me about 10 times before I actually picked them up to start reading them. Maybe even by you...

I just ordered 5 more books from Amazon and i'm waiting patiently for them to arrive. I'm excited and always looking for more book suggestions so if you have any please, please, pretty please tell me! Whisper it in my comments section. Maybe we could even start a VBBC (virtual blogger book club)... Any interest?

Back to the point of this post... I hope that everyone knows we are doing great, and miss all of you that don't live in Arizona and hope that you are doing great too. (I kind of already know that you are since most of you update your blogs on a regular basis). More posts to come soon once I can decide what to post about first... Here is a belated Christmas picture to leave you with.

Merry Christmapril from Weston!

Jenna's Birthday!

My birthday post will be short and sweet. I turned 26 on November 9th and I had a wonderful birthday thanks to Steve. It was just what I wanted, dinner and a movie! He brought me those wonderful flowers below to my work (makes me feel special)! And for my birthday present he got me 2 tickets to see Dr. Seuss's "The Grinch that stole Christmas" the musical tickets! We went last night and it was amazing! We had great seats right in the middle and I loved the show. It was cute and funny and highly entertaining. I totally recommend it when it gets to you wherever you are! All in all I had a great birthday! Thanks babe!

Steve's day of birth, Zions and the Grand Canyon! (Long post)

Steven Michael Murray is 31!

So much to tell about in so little time... Stevens birthday week was CRAZY! We had a lot going on but it was a lot of fun too so we definitely can't complain. It started off on Tuesday October 26th when I planned a surprise dinner party for him that night. It was so much fun! We had a total of 12 people that came which was plenty (I had to make dinner for all of them!!!) It was a huge challenge but totally worth it in the end! Steve and our friends had a great time which is all that matters to me.

For part of Steve's birthday present I got him a few new games to play and after dinner we played one of them. It was a fun game (Liars dice if you have ever heard of it)? It is an easy game to play with a big group of people and super fun! Below are some pictures of the day.

This was Steve's birthday cake that I put together in a hurry. I think it turned out perfect though! Steve loved the mountain bike theme (of course)!

We ate at the ping pong table (Steve's idea) because it was the only thing that would fit all of us!

The birthday boy!

We sang happy birthday to Steve and he blew out his candles, but as soon as they were out they lit themselves back up again! I did't realize it before, but I had bought the trick candles instead of the normal ones and trust me... I did NOT do it on purpose. I was worrying

about the fake little wood trees catching on fire! Luckily they did not.

For another one of Steve's birthday presents I got this picture framed for him. It was a painting he had purchased from the artist directly a few years back that he really liked but had not ever gotten around to getting it framed. It's really neat in real life because you can really see the texture. It's very bumpy and rough.

ZIONS NATIONAL PARK CABIN TRIP!

These are always so much fun and this time it was really special because we got to celebrate Steve's birthday again with his family. The picture below is his birthday cake there that I made. Steve's mom had told me before hand that this was Steve's favorite birthday cake as a kid because the eyes of the ghost were on fire and he thought it was so cool! I tried to re-create it, I'm sure the original was much cooler!

(Boy and girl ghost per Taylyn's request)!

During this trip we played a lot of board games as usual. It was so much fun to just be able to relax after a crazy week and have fun. The board game that we played most this trip was killer bunnies, and boy did we have fun killing some bunnies!

The costume Halloween party at the barn was fun too! We had a great time dancing and playing. (I especially enjoyed the dancing)! I love to dance and I don't get the opportunity to do it very often.

Don't worry, Steve lost! But he sure did put up a good fight, it was a close game!

The Grand Canyon

On the drive home from Zions, Steve and I randomly decided that we wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. It would add about 3 extra hours to our drive home but we decided it was worth it!

I am so glad that we went there. It was so beautiful and such nice weather. We went on a little hike and took a bunch of pictures. I loved breathing in the fresh air and I can't believe how big the grand canyon really was! It was 11 miles across rim to rim. No wonder they can't build a bridge over it! (But it sure would cut our drive time down when we go back and forth to Utah if they could)!

The end!

Circle K moment again

I guess I have only posted 1 of these so far... I suppose I'll let you have another. Don't get too excited nothing beats watching a beer robbery in action and then riding of into the sunset straddling handlebars on a bike. I have already told you I work in the ghetto. A few weeks ago I was walking over to circle K to get yet another Dr. Pepper and noticed there was about 4 cop cars in the parking lot. I looked around naturally curious what the heck was going on and I noticed a man sitting on the curb being questioned by the police. The man was very sweaty and dirty and as I walked past them into the gas station I realized I had seen him before. One day earlier this same man had come into the office where I worked and asked for a glass of water and an air conditioned room to sit in for a while. I'm pretty sure he was homeless. We felt bad for him so we did what he asked and he stayed sitting in the lobby for almost an hour after that. I have no idea what he did to get the cops called on him but the store clerk that day told me they had found him sleeping behind the dumpster there at Circle K a couple of times before.

That same visit as I was waiting to check out in line the guy in front of me was with his son that looked to be about 11 years old. When it was their turn to pay for the items the father asked the son if he could borrow some money to pay for his cigarettes that he couldn't afford apparently. The little boy took out some cash and sadly handed it to his dad. Then the boy paid for his own candy and they left. I can't help but feel incredibly bad for all of these people who are struggling right now. My heart goes out to the homeless man, I have no idea how he came to be without a home and most likely family as well. I have no idea why the cops were questioning him or what he did. I feel so bad for that boy with that kind of a father as an example to him and can't help but feel incredibly grateful for my loving supportive husband and family. I am so lucky to be at the place I am at now, I think I am too happy. Something is going to go wrong just because nobody can be this happy!

So that was my somewhat depressing circle K moment for today. Just so I don't leave you on such a negative note let me quickly tell you about a crazy pill popping patient that has been scamming doctors, pharmacies and her insurance company lately including the doctors I work for! The funny part isn't that she is crazy, or a compulsive liar or even addicted to pain killers. It's the lie she told us the other day that had me laughing. She told us first that her husband flushed her pills down the toilet so she needed to fill them early. Then when we where not giving in and filling her prescription she told us that she had "just forgotten" but she is actually leaving town tonight at 5:30 to go to a wedding in Utah! (how do you forget something like that)? She told us she is going be out of town for a few weeks and they do NOT have pharmacies in Utah so she can't fill her prescription there. "In order to find a pharmacy in Utah" she said "you have to drive more than and hour and a half." I laughed since I know Utah very well and asked her what city she was going to. She said Ogden. Has anyone ever been to Ogden? It's like the 2nd or 3rd largest city in Utah. That made me laugh. Sorry Ogdeners, no prescriptions for you I guess?!?!