Thanksgiving 2011

Originally we weren't going to go anywhere for Thanksgiving because traveling with 2 newborns did not sound like fun. But trying to take care of 2 newborns alone became too much for us to handle and we needed some help so we decided to make the drive to CA for Thanksgiving. It was the first time my family met the boys as well.

We had a great weekend full of help, good food and wonderful family.

 

 

 

In anticipation

The twins first birthday is five weeks away! Maybe it's fitting that as we lead up to it, I finally document the beginning of their lives. Hopefully by posting twice a week for the next five weeks I can re-capture all the important memories of their first 6 months.

To start it off right...

Our two perfect embryos

 

 

Our two boys at 20 weeks

A collage of my pregnancy

a trip to cali

We went to California a couple weekends ago and got to meet our newest nephew, Ryder. I thought my babies were still small until holding this little guy.

The boys loved playing at my parents house

We even took them down the pool slide for the first time!

Park City

A couple weeks ago we spent a fun and beautiful weekend at the Marriott Mountainside in Park City with my family. We spent a day at the park celebrating Mazie's 1st birthday, we spent a day at the Park City Mountain Resort, we swam and we also ate lots of yummy food!

 

family

one of the days we went bowling with the whole fam. it was fun. good times.

 our self-timer family photo from 2010 



the best gift

a little sampling of our christmas fun. it was very nice to be together and see everyone.

our homemade gift exchange is the best. everyone's gifts were very creative this year: pillow, memory book, fabric dry erase board, etched glass, christmas stocking, scarf, moccasins, cake balls and granola. but i think the gift i received was the greatest.

my brother, aaron, is an amazing pianist. not only can he just sit down and play anything you put in front of him... he can sit down and create amazing pieces from scratch. he composes beautiful music. it's an incredible gift... and he gave it to me. he made a CD of him playing some beautiful piano music. also included on the CD are a couple original pieces that he composed, they are amazing. like i said, the greatest gift.

12 thoughts before christmas

oh hello, here i am again.

we're busy and there's lots going on but just not anything that exciting to post on the blog. E has told me a couple times that i need to post something, but i've got nothing.

i would like to post some pictures of the house but i haven't taken any pictures of it yet. plus the kitchen hasn't got repainted and maybe it wont for a while. there are other rooms worth photographing but they're just not put together yet, like i want them to be.

i love having the rusty dog around. he is so funny. my favorite is how excited he gets when i get home from work and his little tail is wagging so fast that it makes his whole body move.

we didn't decorate for christmas and we didn't get a tree. so sad.

i'm really diggin this this this and this

we are going to CA for christmas. i am very excited to see my entire family. haven't seen them all together in a long time.

my favorite part about christmas with my fam... the homemade gifts. it is so much fun and i am very much looking forward to it.

i spoke in church last week. glad that's over with.

i love my job and my co workers, they are the best. like a second family, they are.

from one of my favorite books: "Mostly tonight I feel sort of lost and alone, like now I am up on a windy hill and looking toward a new direction where the wind never blew before. I am afraid to leave all that I know, nothing familiar will be nearby to keep me going. I will have to stand on the hill alone."

i got new contacts a couple weeks ago and now i can see. i also got a prescription for some glasses. i am deciding between these or these. thoughts?

not so much

i thought i'd be back to blogging after that last entry, but after nine days between posts, i guess i'm not. and my plate is full right now, so i doubt i'll be back again before another nine days pass.

last week i went to the enlighten: lite class by blue lily photography in scottsdale. it was fantastic. there were about 8 of us and wendy instructed us on all the basics. i finally feel like i internalized a lot of the photography lingo. i had an idea before of what everything was but i would always forget and then question myself. but now i feel like i truly understand it and how it works, which means i'm much more confident shooting in manual. it's very exciting because shooting in manual = better pictures. now i just need to practice.

my parents arrived (with rusty) on thursday night for a quick visit. friday started off fantastic. we went to the mesa farmers market and then to the riparian institute in gilbert for a little walk. after that we ate lunch at joe's farm grill {it was very tasty} and then headed back home and relaxed a little. in the late afternoon we decided to take rusty to a nearby dog park.

well, the dog park didn't go so well. rusty got attacked by a pit bull and E's finger got bit as he was trying to save rusty from death's grip. we ended up taking rusty to the emergency animal hospital and E to urgent care. E's finger is alright but sore and very bruised. rusty is one lucky little dog... he could've easily died. but the bite by-passed all major organs. they bandaged rusty up for the night and we took him home.

on saturday morning we took rusty to a non emergency vet and they checked him out again, decided to put a drain in the wound and stitched him up. while all that was going on {pretty much the whole day}, we went to the gilbert temple ground breaking, which was very nice {i drive by the site to/from work everyday, it's so fun to see the progress}. my parents left in the afternoon and we picked up cute little rusty dog from the vet. he gets the drain taken out today and the stitches out in another 10 days.

i am anxiously waiting for this week to end. I worked late monday and wednesday night and i can't wait to do absolutely nothing over the weekend. and then it's thanksgiving, which will hopefully be anxiety and stress free break from everything.

back in action

I miss blogging but it's just so crazy right now. There are million other things I should be doing besides blogging but I decided I had to get some of these thoughts posted.

Work has been really busy but it is sooo good. I love it. I feel extremely blessed.

I've lost all my confidence in picking paint colors. Will someone come do it and make sure we like the end result too.

There's a costco a couple miles from our house, we got a membership over the weekend but with only the two of us, we can't decide if it will be worth it or not. So far the $1.50 hot dog & drink is weighing heavily on the pro side.

We bought trees! We got 2 acacia trees for the backyard, a mesquite and a pygmy palm for the front. E put in winter seed and we have nice green grass coming up in front and back yards. We are waiting to plant an orange tree because it's better to plant in February.

We also have rose bushes in the front yard. They need some love but I am excited for the pretty roses they will produce.

I can't neglect the Vitamix, I've been meaning to blog about it. E got a vitamix for his birthday in October. It's AMAZING. We love it and use it everyday. We are eating way more greens than we ever have before.

The Gilbert Temple ground breaking ceremony is this weekend. The new temple in Gilbert is like 1 mile from our house... it is so awesome.

We made 2 batches of no bake cookies this weekend. oh man they are so good.

My parents are coming to visit this weekend. My goal was to have the house all put together before they arrive Thursday night. But I don't think it's gonna happen (Sorry Mom & Dad). It'll be mostly done but I think it might be impossible to have it completely put together in the next couple days.

Oh and my parents are bringing Rusty with them... and we are gonna take a stab at keeping him! I am really excited... even though it means change and more work. I'm happy to have my friend with me again.

the weekend

the weekend in huntington was great {E came with me but kind of did his own thing the whole weekend}.

friday my mom, sis and i went shopping. which was lots of fun and i bought this dress at Anthro. it is so comfortable and super cute {plus it has pockets}. we made a great dinner that night and an awesome peach cobbler.

saturday morning, mom left and ali and i hung out and got pedicures and then in the late afternoon took off for the lilith fair at irvine meadows. it was awesome! we had GA tickets so we sat on the lawn for the first couple hours. but right before Sarah McLachlan came on they were offering free upgrades for seats in the terrace. so we jumped on that and moved to our new seats which were much better. which was awesome cause sarah was awesome. we saw brandi carlile, miranda lambert and sarah machlachlan {there were about 5 other artists but we didn't really know who they were or like their music}. but it was so great! i've wanted to see Sarah McLachlan for years and she didn't disappoint. she only played for about an hour but i would've listened for a lot longer. it was all worth it just to see sarah, she sounded amazing. loved it and thanks for coming with me ali.

our first seats on the grass

the view

our upgraded seats

Miranda Lambert and Brandi Carlile

SARAH

these are some official lilith pics that i did not take. but love.

sunday E and i stopped at the beach, watched the world cup and then drove home. it was a great weekend {thanks ali and ryan}.