My Trip to Thatcher

A picture of beautiful Mt. Graham. I sure do love this place and the cool weather. I never appreciated growing up with the mountain so close until I moved away.

A couple of weeks ago Lily and I went to Thatcher for a week while Matt was in southern Mexico. We really missed Matt and although he had a much more exciting vacation than we did, we had a REALLY great time in Thatcher. I am officially inviting Matt to get on here and tell you all about his trip to Mexico complete with pics (they are defiently more interesting than my pics-even without Lily!). He seemed to have a great time and he came home all safe and sound, which is all I wanted. In fact he came home with presents, which is even better! He even forked out a decent amount of cash to buy me a guitar and case and then carried it around the rest of the week and hauled it back home for me :) He got a picture with the guy who made it and I absolutley love it!! Now I just have to get used to playing again! Anyway, both of our trips were great. Although, I didn't bring any souvineers home for Matt because I didn't realize he'd be bringing stuff for Lily and I. Anyway, when I found out that he would be on this man trip for 7-8 days, I decided I should go home to visit Thatcher. And I am so glad I did. It was a nice laid back relaxing trip and I got to spend alot of time with my family. Usually when we go to Thatch we are trying to see about a dozen people (or more) in the course of 2 days, so it was nice to have a week, although I still didn't manage to see everyone I wanted to. I got to briefly see Mange before she left for Italy for 3 months, which I am glad I caught her, and I went to see Cindy and JJ one day. I got to hang out a couple days with my good friend Tavia, whom I stinking love and miss like crazy. And one night we went out to dinner with her husband Court and John Fav, which was fun. It was just so great to be in thatch and get to see the people at the college, especailly in the Fine Arts Department, although I did miss Timilee. I really forget how much I love it there and how much it is my home. The weather was SOOOO nice. We spent alot of time outside doing stuff, which was GREAT and it actually felt like fall. I feel like here in the valley, I don't know what to do and I spend all day everyday shut up in the house trying to keep Lily entertained, but in Thatch I know all the fun places to go, and I am comfortable just taking Lily by myself. Although I know so many people there that I rarely had to go anywhere with her by myself. But I felt so much more motivation to be active and to get out and do stuff, without the hesitation that I feel here in Phoenix. Anyway, we did lots of stuff, and also spent lots of time just hanging out with my family. It was great and I have really missed it since I came back home.

Just a random bathtub pic



Hanging out in GG's backyard with Benjamin and Lily

My neice Ava

Lily and her ball, she loves to throw and kick balls around

Lily and Ava fighting over the ball

Playing at the park, we went to the park several mornings on our walk and played around.

She is finally big enough to climb up and go down all by herself!

Feeding the ducks, which she LOVED! I think that she would have gotten in if we would have let her!

She wasn't scared of the ducks or geese at all she loved throwing the food to/at them.

We stopped at DQ on the way to the duck ponds, Lily hasn't had much, if any, experience with ice cream and Oh Boy! Once she discovered how yummy it was, we couldn't pull her away!

On the mountain, Lily really wanted to get right in the water.

She was so into everything on the mountain, she made it clear that she had NO time to take pictures and was rather annoyed with me as I was constantly trying to snap some shots where you could see her face (which took some manuevering on my part!)

Oh Boy, Grama showed me how to throw rocks into the stream!

Laughing because she made the rocks splash all over Grama.

So proud of herself

Ode to Matt

OK, so Matt and my anniversary is this week. Unfortunately he is working(12 hour days) and then leaving for Mexico and I will be going to thatch, so there won't be much in the way of celebrating. I am unfortunately not a low maintaince girl in the sense of birthdays and anniversaries, other than that I am pretty low key. So since celebrating our marriage is a big deal to me, I have to do something to reflect on our relationship this week. So please if you are easily nauseated by cheesiness, skip this post. It is going to be pretty much a long journal entry of me rambling about Matt. The fact of the matter is, I love my husband. I love him more than I ever knew it was possible to love another being. Even when we got married I had no idea how much my love and admiration for him would grow. He has become a part of every fiber of my being and I love him with my whole self. Something that 5 years ago would have really freaked me out :). Deciding to love him and completely commit my life to him was the best choice I ever made and I still marvel that I could make such a wise decision as an idiotic kid. I really honestly married the best friend I have ever had. Despite his flaws and mine I want to share everything with him. He still makes me laugh and surprises me with his sense of humor. Sometimes he says stuff that is just so quick and witty that it kills me! I love to laugh with him and we always seem to find lots of opportunities. Sometimes we get so busy and our time is spent hurrying to accomplish our responsibilities and I forget how funny he is, then with perfect timing out will come some comment that perfectly brings funniness to a situation (don't read too much into this not all your jokes are super funny :). Anyway, I am SO attracted to his sense of humor and that hasn't gone away. In fact it's gotten better. I guess something that I love so deeply about Matt is what a great father he is. It really moves me, more than I am comfortable expressing. Being a good father isn't just something he tries to do, it is simply who he is. It is part of his goodness and gentleness and kindness.

Matt has more integrity than anyone I have ever met. He is a good, kind, and honest person. I think that with most people, as we get to know them we see bits of ugliness in them that we learn to deal with and love and overlook, but with Matt I have never found that. Sure there are things about him that may frustrate me or irritate me, but I have never found that ugliness underneath, that mean or selfish flaw. He is genuinely good and cares for other people and about doing good. I have more faith in who he is underneath, in his soul I guess you could say than I have in anything else besides the gospel of Jesus Christ. I trust who he is, I know his goodness. I also know that he isn't perfect, which is good because perfection would probably drive me more crazy than flaws! But our differences are things that are easily worked out...as long as I control my attitude :) We have kind of "grown up" together and gotten to watch each other learn and change and grow. And I really couldn't be more content and excited to share the rest of my experiences with anyone else. He is the right man for me and about that I have NO doubts. These are the major things I love about him. Here are some of the other ones.

• His face (I love the whole thing, when I think about it I want to name every aspect individually, his vibrant green eyes, deep dimples, perfect lips and teeth, and his bones- his brilliantly carved cheeks and jawline-it literally almost makes me sick how much I love is face)


• His willingness to get up in the morning. This has saved my life, and my happiness.


• The way he takes responsibility for the yard.


• That he watches my chick shows with me, because he knows I want him to.


• That he honors his priesthood and has a deep testimony.


• His willingness to do housework and to cook and to help with whatever I ask


• That he puts the heavy water bottles on the cooler


• His acceptance of my CRAZY and dysfunctional family. Being born into my family is a never ending roller coaster or drama and I can't imagine marrying into it. He is way better than I would probably be and it means ALOT to me. I know it isn't easy.


• His willingness to be silly.


• His singing in the shower.


• His love of music and theater and sports and all the things I love.


• His ever changing and on going personal debate of "should I cut my hair or let it grow"


• That he lets me hog the bed and even on occasion steal his pillow.


• Ticklefights.


• The way he plays with Lily.


• Listening to him teach Lily new things.


• What a hard worker he is.


• His willingness to sacrifice.


• His open mindedness and acceptance of all people.

OK, I know this post is long and Lily is crying in her bed for me to get her up, but here is to Matt and all the other good husbands and fathers out there. May you know how inexplicably you are loved.

October?? Seriously?

Yep. It is officially October, I cannot believe it. And it is going to be a crazy busy month, so I am sure that it will fly by and soon I will be saying "November? You're kidding me!". Since my last post we have had several people to stay, and let me tell you it sure has made all the extra space nice! We had one of my very best friends in the world, Mange and her boyfriend Luca for 3 nights and mange's sister april and her 2 kids for one of those nights. We went on a beautiful ward campout also. It was alot of fun even without any running water or toliet facilities. Luckily my wonderful in-laws have a super swank port-a-potty that goes in the tent. That saved my life. Even when I am not 6 months pregnant I can barely pee in the woods without an "accident", or make it through the night without peeing, but being 6 months pregnant, forget about it! Seriously, can't camp without the potty. Anyway, I managed to not get ANY pictures of Mange and Luca, or of the campout. What is wrong with me? My newest nephew carter was born to my sister emily and her boyfriend Mike, and I have yet to meet the little guy! He just turned 3 weeks old and I have never taken so long to meet a nephew! But we have had something EVERY weekend this month. This past weekend my sister Andrea and her 2 boys Kaleb and Benjamin came to stay with us while they were waiting for their husband/daddy's flight to come in to Sky Harbor. He is on an 18 day leave from Iraq. It is his 3rd Middle East tour in the past 6 years. It will be so nice for them to spend this time with him. I can't imagine being an Army wife. Josh (my brother-in-law) was supposed to be out of the army last year, but recieved a stop-loss and was deployed for 15 months in Sept. instead of being released. I am so glad for them that in just a few months this will all finally be over for them and they can try and have a "normal" civilian family life. Anyway, I am glad that she is getting to see him and that the boys are spending some time with their dad. And it was great to see them all.

Life his been really busy and it is still "go go go!" Matt will be leaving for Mexico in a week for a week on a boys trip with his dad, uncle, cousin and some other "dudes". I have never gone that long without seeing him, so it will be weird, but i will get the chance to spend some time in Thatcher with my family, which will be great.

Anyway, i will try not to pack too much info into this blog and call it quits for now. Here are a few of the pics that I managed to take this month.

Three cousins and their "cheese" smiles

Kaleb

Ben

Playing in Nana & Boopah's new sandbox

Daddy snuggles (quite frequent latley-this is how the hang out all the time)

Bath time! Everyday I am begged for a "bat, hot!"

Parties, Politics, Parks and more!

I never know how to start these little update blogs. They are always full of random events that have occured over the last few weeks. I am sure that it would be better to get on each time that I have something to write about and write some small little blurb, and that is always my intention, but who has the time to do that a couple times a week? For me it is mostly the laziness of having to upload the pictures to be honest. Anyway, I guess I'll go in chronological order :)

A couple of weeks ago I bought a bag of Hershey's extra creamy milk chocolate with almonds and toffee Nuggets. Big mistake. Huge. I love them. I saw them in the Fresh and Easy when I was buying produce and I couldn't resist them. I LOVE them. Alot. It is pathetic. Anyway, I have been SO good at NOT buying any junk this pregnancy. I crave it and I know that if I buy it I will eat it. I have yet to gain any weight, which I am extremely happy about, but that can not continue to be the case if I EVER stoop to buy these delicious treats again. I bring this up, because I am finishing off the bag as we speak, or as I type I suppose. I figured that I might as well just down the last 5 nuggets or so today and then they won't be here to tempt me tomorrow, then I can get back on track. Great logic right? Anyway, hershey's and I currently have a love/hate relationship right now. Along with Jello Pudding. Like my Grandpa always says, "I can resist anything...except temptaion"

2 weeks ago we decided to start the process of trying to revive the backyard. We have an HOA so the front has always been nice but the back yard has been in pretty rough shape, and I would love to let Lily play back there when it cools off, so we have been working on it. The first day we stripped her down and turned the sprinkler on to entertain her so we could both work. She loved it!

She loved the water, it didn't intimidate her at all!

yep, she ate mud...would she be my daughter if she didn't?

We went to the park last week, we are REALLY close to this great park that has peacocks and chickens and kitties running around the citrus and historical areas. Lily loved to see the animals and also to play on the sets like a big kid! She is growing up too fast!!

Matt loves the above picture because he thinks it looks like she is "letting one go"

We had a big Labor day family gathering at Nana and Boopah's house (matt's parents). It was fun and Lily got to play with her cousins which she loved. It is wonderful to be living so close to Matt's parents for the first time, we are really enjoying that. And so is Lily. Everytime we go anywhere in the car she starts saying "Nana", "Boopah"! Thinking that we are driving to their house. We usually go over on sundays and occasionally once during the week for a short visit, but she is convinced that everytime we get in the car we should be going to nana and boopah's.



We bought tickets for Disney's Lion King stage production. I am really excited! It should be great, although it is the first week of Febuary, so hopefully I won't be too nervous about leaving the new baby. I am sure that it will be a great first date for matt and I after the new addition though. If it was going to be a show that we were less excited about we probably wouldn't have gone since the dates aren't great, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity, we got great seats too. It will be fun!


I can't believe that it is already the first week of september! That means I am only 4 calendar months away from having this little girl! May doesn't seem like very long ago and the past 4 months have flown by, so when I think of all the holidays and how quickly the next 4 months will go I am blown away. I am barely starting to really feel like I am pregnant. Even with all the sickness it just hasn't really felt real to me. The only reason that it is starting to now is that this girl is ACTIVE and I am constantly feeling her squirm inside of me. a feeling I will never get over. Matt can feel her now too, which I love. Anyway, now I am just starting to really believe that I am indeed pregnant, but the thought of actually having another baby here, living with us is still a ways away for me. I just can't imagine the reality of it. I am excited for it, but it feels like we are "making-believe".

Did ya'll watch the Sara Palin speech at last nights RNC? I have to say, I loved her. Was it perfect? Of course not, but for the first time I felt really behind someone, I actually believed in her. I am not a huge McCain fan, or even an average sized McCain fan, so I was really pleasently suprised with how great she is. Of course I am really looking forward to her debate against Bidden on the 2nd of Oct to really see how she tackles the issues under pressure and on her feet. There were of course lots of issues that she didn't cover so it will be good to hear more from her. I am not crazy about the way that both sides attack and demean each other, but I guess that now a days that is unavoidable. I did REALLY love some of the things she said though. Like the importance of serving your COUNTRY and not your PARTY. I love that she has tackled corrupt republicans. I love that I actually believe that she is in politics for the right reasons and hasn't been tainted by washington politics or the greed, pride and ego stroking that come with being a prospective candidate for years. Anyway, I know that we are just getting to know her, and I am sure that there will be times that she sticks her foot in her mouth and I feel embarrassed for her. but as far as first impressions go, she made a great one. It is about time the republican party produced someone who was actually inspirational!



Anyway, life is good. Matt is supposed to take a class on-line this month, my sister is having a baby, we have a ward campout and a few other events so hopefully I will keep up on my blogging and there will not be any more of these randome HUGE posts! If you are still reading this, thanks, I am impressed! You must either love me or not have cable :)

It's a bird, It's a plane...

It's a ...

.

.

.

Girl! :)

That is right folks, we have having another girl. The image implanted in my mind right now is two little girls with matching dresses and bows in their hair...

I am sure that they won't let me dress them like that forever, but I will be able to squeeze a few years of cute little photo op's out of them.

Anyway, I REALLY thought it was going to be a boy, along with most people, but I was wrong. So much for mother's intuition right?? Although I have been readily willing to admit this whole time that I have no basis for the "gender guessing" and would probably be wrong. So much for the Chinease gender calander! :)

We are happy and the baby looked healthy! I will post the pics once we upload them, along with some pics of Lily playing in the backyard sprinkler.

Baking Bread

Today I officially made homemade bread for the first time! I have assisted in making bread and taken over for someone else halfway through the process several times in my life, but I have never attempted to make some solo. While I was in Thatcher last weekend I got my Grandma's (GG) bread recipe and today I tried it out. I must say on a side note that my GG is the best cook on the face of the planet and NOTHING I ever make will ever come close to the way that she could execute it. However, I am actually pretty dang proud of myself. It turned out GOOD. I don't have a bosch or any other kinds of fancy gadgets, it is all done by hand the old fashion way, but it is worth it, because it is dang good! Anyway, hooray for me for doing something house-wifey! I can't wait for Matt to come home and taste it, and I am sure that he will be urging me to repeat the process quite often! :)

Going Home

So this past weekend we packed up and went to Thatcher for Fri-Sun. It was great. Friday night we got a nice monsoon storm and Saturday morning Matt, Lily and I went to the park.

It is amazing how much cooler it is in Thatcher. It was actually like 9:30 before it started getting too warm. It was fun, but Lily hadn't slept pretty much AT ALL the night before, so we didn't stay too long, we headed back to put her down for a nap.

We went down because it was my sister Emily's baby shower, which I of course left her gift at home and then proceded to get really sick halfway through her shower. I was then sick until about 5:30 am, at which point I was finally able to crawl out of the bathroom and into bed for a couple hours until we had to pack up for the trip home.

Below is a picture of Lily playing with my straightening iron, she LOVES to play with all of my hair gadgets, she kept going up to the mirrors and pretending that she was using it on her hair.

We had made plans with several people and so we thought that we were going to have a really packed schedule while we were there, but every person cancelled on us! It was pretty crazy. In the end, it was nice though. I got to relax a little and also just hang out with my family, which was great.

All in all, if you just looked at the stats it would seem like a pretty crappy trip, but I actually really enjoyed it. I do love it there. As soon as we approached the Gila Valley and I could see the surrounding mountains and cotton fields, I felt at home.