Yummy Cookies!

So I was invited to a cookie exchange party this year. It was so much fun! Here are the cookies I made. They are called Cinna-Swirls. They were so yummy! They look like cinnamon rolls and taste like snicker doodles. If you would like the recipe I would be more than happy to share it with you.


Here is me baking. It is a rare sight in my house. I know the picture is sideways, I am unable to get to the other computer to rotate it. Oh well, you get the idea!

Our Holidays!

I know it has been awhile since I have posted anything but we had a very busy holiday season and things are slowly getting back to normal.

We were able to go to California for Thanksgiving. I don't have any pictures of our yummy food but we did see a movie with some of Brian's family. Here we are after seeing the movie.


This was our first Christmas as a married couple and we had so much fun decorating for the holidays. Here is Brian hanging Christmas lights.


Brian really wanted a fake tree but I told him that was against my religion. So being the good husband he is he let me get a real one. It is just not Christmas without the smell of a fresh tree in your home.


Here is a shot of my decorating the tree. I love it!!!!


We were sad this year when we found out that Brian had to work the day before and the day after Christmas. But we had so much with just the two of us, creating out own traditions as a family. This is what we looked like Christmas morning opening our presents. We were both spoiled by Santa this year!




Brian made a lovely Christmas dinner. We even had honeybaked ham! Notice I am still in my pajamas?! I decided that was a good tradition. Hey, we had nowhere to go! Best day ever!


We were actually able to go to California for the weekend after Christmas. Here we are with Jessica and her kids outside of Wahoo's. We also met up with my Dad there who is not in the picture since he was the photographer. We just can not go home without eating there. Hopefully one day they will have one in Arizona. Or maybe we should just move back!

A Funny thing happened...

So last Saturday Brian and I decided to go to the Arizona State Fair for a romantic night out and enjoy the demolition derby for our 6 month anniversary. A guy that Brian works with was also one of the drivers so that was fun to watch.





The only ride that we went on was the ferris wheel but it was fun!



Then we just decided to walk around and people watch when we came upon this booth. Really?! Seriously, who would go to the fair to get diagnosed with ADHD and trust it? Its not like they are going to give a prescription for Ritalin on the spot. Really whats the point? Anyway, it was shortly after this point in the evening when I started to get really sharp pains. I little bit thought I was having a heart attack, but obviously that would not be the case. Well, these pains continued through the night. Sunday I did not have any pains but I did not feel right. Then Monday morning the pain returned with avengance. Since I work at a doctors office I just went into work. I already had a surgical follow up appointment with the surgeon set up for later that day and since the doctor I worked for thought nothing was wrong with me I decided to bump that appointment up to my lunch time. Next thing I know....



Yup, after seeing that the whites of my eyes were yellow and reviewing stat blood work I was directly admitted to the hospital. Yay for me! These pictures are terrible but they sure represent the amount of pain I was in before the Morphine!




I was there for about 4 days. It was so not fun. They would wake me up every few hours for blood work or to get my vitals and or give me more anti-biotic. Pretty much they believe there were gallstones left over in my common bile duct which is connected to my liver (I think). All that pain was me passing stones which in turn made my liver freak out. I am so glad I have a great co-worker and family who visited me regularly and a wonderful husband who had flowers delivered to me, visited me on his lunch break and spent every single night on the couch in my room! Once again I am feeling much better and hopefully there will be no return trips to the hospital.

Gallbladder Free!

So as some of you may or may not know I recently had surgery to remove my gallbladder. Here are some pictures from my big day. And in case you were all wondering, surgery was great and I am now having no more pain and slowly losing the weight I have gained over the past 6 months.

Here are some pictures from the big day. I figured it was only fair to post the good the bad and the ugly!




Here is the end result! Beautiful isn't it? Thank you to friends and family for your support and prayers during this whole ordeal!

Another Year Older!

Well, its official I am another year older and hopefully wiser too! The big 2-6! Wow, times flies when you are having fun and I can honestly say I have had the best year! I got married, moved into a beautiful home and got a new job that teaches me more and more everyday. I am so blessed.

We went to Benihana's for my birthday dinner. My amazing husband also got me tickets to see the musical Lion King again, I am sooo excited for that. Here we are anxiously awaiting for our food.




Watching them cook our food is always fun. Its a little bit funny that we were at a Japanese restaurant and all the cooks were Hispanic. Times are a changin' my friends! Haha!




Here we are finally enjoying are food, and totally stuffing our faces!




Here is the large group at my birthday dinner. This is pretty much the extent of the people I know and hang out with in AZ. Haha so sad, but still a really great birthday.

I know, I know! I am a slacker. Life is just so busy as I am sure you all know, or maybe I am just getting lazy, either way it has been awhile since my last blog. During Labor day weekend Brian and I went back home to see family. We had a blast and enjoyed an entire day at the beach that we miss sooooo much! There will be no pictures of that day because cameras are not allowed around me in my bathing suit at this time. And a special thanks to Julie and Scott for letting us invade your house for the millionth time! We love you guys!

Our first stop on our way to Huntington was to see Steve, Rebecca and family. We stopped at Steve's optometry practice where he was kind enough to check my vision and make sure I was not going too blind. We then went to their beautiful new home. Our entire house could fit into their master suite!



Next it was time to see Cody's new apartment and catch him bonding with Roark. We also hit up IHOP Cody's favorite restaurant.



And the main reason we went out there was to spend some time with Mark and Sophia and their adorable new baby Nigel.


Last but not least we stopped by my sisters to see her kids (Hailee, Blayke, Ashlynd and Luke). Luke calls us Yee Yee and Doe Doe. Haha makes me laugh every time. Man, they sure grow up fast.

Long Awaited Pictures!

Ok here are some of our honeymoon pictures. For those of you who don't know, we went to Tahiti and it was amazing! We stayed on the island or Moorea. This will be another post with a lot of pictures, sorry it is hard to narrow it down to a few, we did so many fun things and there were beautiful sights everywhere we went.


Here we are at our hotel near the over water bungalows.


Brian had such a great time swimming with the sting rays!


Fresh coconut is so delicious!


The smell of fresh vanilla bean was lovely!


The Belvedere is the the islands official lookout point! Gorgeous!


I think there is a law somewhere if you are on your honeymoon, and on the beach, you are required to write you name in the sand. I am not one to break rules!


The nights in Moorea are so stunning, I love sunsets by the water.


Not only was our last dinner yummy in our tummies and not a mosquito in sight, it was free since we were on our
honeymoon!


Brian was so excited to find a coconut the he could hear the water when he shook it. Oh the simple things in life that make us
so happy!


This is how I spent our last day in Tahiti. Does it get any better than this?!