A Christmas Outing Part 1

The other week we went down to Gilbert and Mesa to visit our Hughes cousins. We breakfast for dinner and it was delicious! Then it was off to the temple to see the lights.

My cousin Katie made this! I am determined to make this by next Christmas. Here we are in front of a HUGE lemon tree. We took a ton of pictures and this was pretty much the best one that turned out. I am debating on this to be our Christmas card this year.

It was the above picture or this. I think i've changed my mind. Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I love how this picture turned out. I just love temple Christmas lights. Way to go Mesa Temple!!

Our House

I wanted to get some things up on the wall before I posted some pictures, so here you go! It is still a work in progress, but this is what we have so far.

Here is our red kitchen. It is so cozy!

A view of our living room.

Here is the chair that we got recovered. There were some problems with it but we still love how it turned out.

My brother Tim made this shelf! He is so talented.

We don't have any room to hang our stocking so that candle stick is holding them up right now. I'll have to remember to take them down before Santa fills them!

Here is our office. We Love the color!

This isn't the best picture but here is the office again.

Here is the cabinet at the top of the stairs I got for a steel of a deal! I still don't know what to put on it. Any suggestions?

This is my new favorite Christmas decoration.

Here is our living room all decorated for Christmas. Do you like our tiny tiney tree?

Happy Thanksgiving

We had so much fun this year in Utah for Thanksgiving. WE had Donavon's 3 brothers, Grandma Wright, 1 Wright cousin (Alicia,) and 1 Shelley cousin (Daniel.) This was my first big Thanksgiving that I have done and I must say that it turned out pretty well. Thanks everyone for coming!

Here I am cooking up a storm!

Here is everyone (minus the picture taker)

Donavon domitaed everyone with arm wrestling after our feast.

Wrestling was a different story

Merrill Family Photo Shoot

I took pictures for the Merrill family on Saturday. Monica was my trusty assistant and she did a GREAT JOB! I'm so glad she was there to help me out and give me some moral support. They are such a cute family and we had a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy!

New Bikes

So we got some new bikes a couple months ago and we finally had some time this weekend to go get them from my parent's house. Donavon got a road bike so he could go long distances. Tonight we road to Tim and Monica's house and we all road to my parent's house for dinner. We felt like a biker gang riding through the neighborhood. It was so fun and we could eat as much as we wanted during dinner because we knew we were getting exercise! It's a win win.

Here is Donavon, he was just heading out on a bike ride here.
Go Donavon! You ride that bike!
And I got a beach cruiser...where is the beach you ask? No where in site but I couldn't resist how cute this was. I LOVE IT! It even has a bell that says "I love my bike" I ring it all the time.

Fun with nephews

When Amy was here we took all the boys to go play in the fountain at Desert Ridge. They LOVED it! Here are some pictures of my cute nephews.





This one wasn't at Desert Ridge but I thought it was cute

Happy Halloween!

Look at this scary picture! MONICA, YOU 'RE A GH...GH...GH...GHOST! Here is my Mom's halloween costume. She was one of the people who show dogs at those big dog shows. She even ran around in a circle with the dog dragging behind her. It was hilarious!
Here she is with my Dad, he was a newspaper printer man. His shirt said Times Mirror. Suzie (the dog) was just waiting for my Mom to drop that dog so she could get it!

And off she goes. Look at that dog's form. You can just tell that he is of good breed and his teeth are in immaculate condition. That dog is sure to win the Eukanuba best in show!


Here is Matthew...I mean spider man relaxing on the couch. I love this picture!
Here is the whole spider man family. James is the newspaper boss, Tim is Peter Parker, and Monica is the secretary (I forgot her name) They had great costumes!
So the plan was to have our traditional Halloween spook dinner on Monday night. On Friday night my Mom found out that my Dad was going to be out of town on Monday so we decided to have our dinner that night. We had to come up with costumes last minute so I am a scary bride (notice the machete...EEKS!) and Donavon is a Melaleuca customer. When I worked for Melaleuca they gave us all jump suits and I got one for D. Fancy!
That knife got old so I decided to be the run away bride instead.

Cute Colin!

My sister Amy and her little boy Colin came to AZ a few weeks ago. We were so excited to have them here! They live in San Diego, Ca and had to evacuate because of the fires but their house was just fine. We just wish that my brother in law Brien was able to come and join in on the fun too. One afternoon we went over to the Desert Ridge Marriott to take some pictures of Colin. He is such a cute kid! We had a fun photo shoot so have fun looking at the pictures!

I didn't know these bodies were men's when I made the movie

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

I've been tagged by Monica (about 2 weeks ago!)

5 things I was doing 10 years ago. (I was 14!)
1. Going to church dances
2. Swimming in the ocean...ahh California!
3. Dreaming of JTT! Here is a fun little story for your reading pleasure...I can't believe I’m writing this!...
When I first moved to California my neighbor invited me to go to a taping of Home Improvement and I was so excited! When we go there I said to them, I heard that Zachary Thy Bryan lives in our town...and before I even finished my sentence they said, Oh, that's who we are coming to see! I froze! I couldn't believe my 14 year old ears. After the taping we went up to his dressing room and while they talked to Zach and his family I stood there with a big smile on my face not able to say a WORD! And the most wonderful thing happened, the one and only Jonathan Taylor Thomas walked by the door and said hi. I about died! It was a wonderful day!
4. Starting High School
5. Meeting new friends

5 things on my "to do list" today
1. Paint my house
2. Finish unpacking
3. Go to a baby shower for Jill
4. Organize my crazy house
5. Eat

5 things I would do if I had a million dollars
1. Pay for Donavon's school!!
2. Pay back school loans!!
3. Invest!!
4. Go to Europe with D and stay there for a month, or at least until we've had enough
5. Buy something cool...there are too many things

5 things I would never wear again.
1. Neon green plaid pants. (I'm even sorry to mention it)
2. Neon green plaid pants with clear jelly sandals!! I am a victim!
3. As you can see from the first two I went through a bad wardrobe time in my life and do not even want to finish 4 and 5

5 favorite toys
1. CAMERA!
2. Laptop
3. BIKE!!
4. Sewing Machine
5. Um...cars because they take us to cool places

5 People I'm tagging
1. Becky
2. Shelly
3. Mom
4. Jill Justman
5. Magen

Happy Birthday Mom!

We love you so much and hope you had a wonderful day!

Baseball Season

Midwestern had their intramural baseball games these past couple of weeks and the 2nd year podiatry students were the champions! It was so fun to go to the games and watch these guys play. Donavon is so good! He could wack that ball out of the park like you wouldn’t believe! Congratulations team, and I’m so proud of you honey!

Some of the other wives came with their kids and I couldn’t believe how dirty these kids could get. They were so funny to watch. The very last game one of the little girls came in her Cinderella PJs with mismatching dress up heals. Oh, I was laughing so hard…I can’t wait to have kids, they totally crack me up.

Update

Our house is DONE! Yes, that's right. We had the walk through on Friday and next Friday we move in! I already have a full weekend planned of painting! Some people think it's weird, but I love to paint and I can't wait to get started. We don't have any pictures of our finished house but i'll take some soon and post them.

I work for a company that liquidates hotel furniture and they have two showrooms here in AZ. You can get the furniture for pretty cheap but if you are an employee you can get if for a steal of a deal. I got a sleeper sofa and a chair and ottoman (all recovered with new foam, so they are like brand new) for...well lets put it this way...I also got a very cute new red cabinet from Pier 1 and used their designer discount plus some other things ALL UNDER $1,000.00!! I am so proud of myself. When everything is in the house and set up I'll post some pictures. Right now everything is crammed in the basement and the garage so the pictures wouldn't be so great.

Donavon is rocking it in school this year. I couldn't be more proud of him. He still studies like a mad man and on test days he gets up at 3AM and is at school by 4AM...that is AM people! I make fun of him because he is not even getting up in the early morning, it is still the middle of the night! He is crazy but his view is this, this is his last year of studying so he better make it count. And does he ever. The 3rd year is clinical rotations, and the 4th year is externships around the US.

Well, that is pretty much what we have been up to the past month. Happy fall everyone!

Photo Shoot

I took pictures of Matthew and James at the Desert Ridge Marriott last week. It was so much fun, and as you can see from some off the pictures below a funny face was a must. Check Tim and Monica's blog (timbloodfamily.blogspot.com) out for more pictures.

Facer Visit

Becky & Ryan Facer and their cute baby Oliver came to visit before they headed off the Utah for shool. We had fun hanging out and watching The Office and catching up on old times.