Our Little Family

Crazy Weather, Pass the Virus around, The Proper Way to Clean, & Classy Elegant Christmastime Decorating

2011-12-23T21:26:00.000-08:00

Recently we have had some Crazy weather! Right after Thanksgiving we got hit with some snow one night pretty heavily. Enough to where it laid so beautiful the next morning. I then said to Aaryn, “Let’s go get our Christmas Card pictures taken.” I have a new camera that is amazing and an old tripod my grandmother gave me before she passed away. So we set it up on the timer with a remote and went to the pretty graveyard next to us and took our family Christmas Card pictures.

There was a thick fog that was slowly dissipating and the snow had fallen so peacefully that it was holding to the branches heavily undisturbed.

It was beautiful. The only problem was that Vespa was in no mood to smile, let alone suffer the cold.

This is my favorite tree/road shot might just have to blow this one up sometime and frame it.

We finally were able to capture a couple of good shots and the trees of snow were gorgeous! As the next couple of weeks progressed this is some of the crazy foggy weather we got.

I soooooo loooooove fog!

Here I am messing around with some camera moves. Pretty cool huh! Almost looks like lightening but through the fog and if you move the camera just right the street light makes this cool look!

And Yes that’s the Moon!

Pass the Virus Around (But of course make sure that last person gets hit the hardest)

Well Vespa got sick a couple of weeks ago enough to where I was really worried for she would not settle down and we soon found out after we went to the Children’s Hospital that she had a 102 degree temperature! She had some kind of virus and finally the doctor gave her some medicine. Aaryn then got it. And I don’t know why I thought at the time… “I feel pretty good, I really don’t think I’m going to get this, whatever it is.” Yeeeeaaah, what a DUMB thought! So now that Aaryn is feeling better, Vespa is on the mend, I think I might have it the worst! Lost my voice yesterday, it hurt so bad to even try to speak. Today, I haven’t said anything over a whisper, for like yesterday if I tried to talk normally my voice would die out and I would have coughing spasms. So here I am taking medicine, cough lozenges, blogging, trying to stay away from sugar, and thinking boy, “I could use a nice soooddda pop right now. DP, RB, Cream Soda, Raspberry Ginger Ale, anything.” Lolol!!

The Proper Way to Clean

Yes people there is a proper way to clean! But more importantly a thorough and right way to clean. Let’s first start off with this amazing thing called the Mini-Vac. If you haven’t seen them they are located in your everyday Wal-Mart or Target and sometimes the Dollar Store will even have a deal on them. You see growing up we never seemed to have a vacuum cleaner that seemed to work for very long. Maybe because I always had long hair. Dad would say that our Vacuum kept getting tangled up, stop and burn out an important rubber piece in the Vacuum. If you didn’t know it and it still turned on, many times whoever was vacuuming would just keep on pushing that piece of junk around. So needless to say the Vacuum hardly ever worked or I should say never worked. Then people in my house would just run it thinking that it cleaned floors. But I noticed those floors never got cleaned. Mom would always have us kids going around the floors on our hands and knees pick’n up fuzzies. So when I was single and out on my own, I thought to myself, “Noooooo, people, I’m not wasting my money on a vacuum that doesn’t work just to vacuum up the one room that I rent out. I don’t think so.” And that’s when I found this amazing invention called, The “Mini Vac.” Soooooo much better than the vacuum. And People!! It gets everything! Fuzzies, micro hairs, giblets, you name it!

It GETS IT!

Right now you may be thinking that, “This looks a lot like a tape roller.” Well it may look like an ordinary tape roller but it’s Naaahhtt. “THE MINI-VAC,” “Cheaper than a broom, stronger than a Vacuum, cleans up the house for those surprising holiday guests in a “Snap!” Let me tell ya, when I was single I had one of these things everywhere, in the car, bedroom, at work, etc. Lifesavers!

Now sad to say the vacuum we have now is just like the one growing up. Every once in a while a part of the vacuum flies off, as you’re thinking, “What the heck?” While looking and analyzing the floor to find the part that’s missing, you realize that this da-- contraption is not picking anything up anyways.

So I say again, why waste your money and a dirty looking house on one of these, when you can save time and money by going to your local Wal-Mart and picking up one of these today!

Amazing little contraption isn't;)

LoLolol!

Classy~Elegant~Christmastime

After everything is freshly clean and the kiddies have all gone to bed.

I took a few pictures of our wonderful tree that this year Aaryn chose to do a themed tree of

our favorite color royal blue, silver,

and white which I continued the theme in our back family room. Although my favorite ornaments of all.....are these

Yvette got us this Silver looking E ornament this year and Aaryn and I love it! Very classy!

I actually had three themes going on this year.

The back family room royal blue, silver, and white,

The front door dining/sitting room Christmas red and gold,

And in the back family room a showcase of snowman’s.

Outside our front door even matched.

Aaryn even hung our Tree Star from the celling as if it were floating right above the tree top.

I love it! The sweet lights of Christmastime always seem to melt my heart.

Class is Oooooovvvvvver!! Ward Christmas Party & Santa;)

2011-12-16T14:33:00.000-08:00

Oooohhh my goodness people! My brain is frrrreeeeeeee! It has been a crazy stressful week. Vespa has been sick with a terrible bad cough and congestion. So much so that I have been very worried and to where she also wants to be constantly held. It’s been a stressful nightmare of crying, medicine, stress to get her the medicine, and no naps. On top of this I have been working all week to get a 20 page Final paper in by today, in order to finish this Medical Coding Class for my Master’s in Clinical Psychology! And I just finished it! Yeeeeeaaahhhhh!! I really wish I could get away with not having anything major to do from Thanksgiving to January you know like having a baby, a Master’s Degree class, etc;) For once I would like to decorate the house for Christmas taking my time with leisurely fun, get the Christmas cards done early without the stress of trying to make Vespa smile, getting them taken, printed, and sending them out in a rush. Go to all the holiday parties and cookie exchanges, without the stress of feeling like I left the house in a rush with barely my makeup on, and without any time to make any of the delicious goodies I sooooo love to make!;( So that’s why I need to tell you about a little place called...

Costco

And

Sam’s Club

They have the most amazing goodies and wonderful toys in a pinch! And I have decided that I’m starting Christmas in July from now on. And that is what we did this year! We started getting reasonably affordable Christmas presents bit by bit starting right after we visited Arizona this last June. And let me tell ya it was a life saver and definitely a money saver. We just got each family member one gift at a time. And let me tell ya people! I knew that the homework may be a problem time wise, so I got my delicious emergency goodie backup, as I did when I was single, which is the delicious pumpkin bread that comes in a four pack box from Costco.

(And boy does it make the most delicious homemade like pumpkin bread, I even like to change it up a bit and add banana’s, extra brown sugar in the mix, and a little cinnamon on top after it’s done, mmmmhmm!) Then of course for Christmastime I get the delicious tin of Belgium Chocolate Gourmet cookies.

Both Sam’s Club and Costco carry them and yes they taste as good as much as they are classy looking too! Some of the tins look like this and they carry quite a few cookies in them for around $10. Bucks. And to make them more your signature style you just take them out arrange them in your own tin with some nice tissue paper and Whalla! Of course if you have the time it is always nice to make some old family recipe that is soooo delicious that we all want to eat more. For example now that my class is over I am going to make my Aunt Sue’s recipe of Almond Rocha (trust me it’s to die for), some homemade marshmallow cream fudge, and maybe a cookie or too (or maybe I’ll just be sneaky and add some of my special gourmet cookies from you know who. Hehehe;)

A couple of weekends ago we had our ward Christmas party. Sometimes I really hate that work and church Christmas parties are so early. Now I love Christmas. If anyone knows that it’s Aaryn and my mom, cause it is funny how Aaryn will roll his eyes with a little twinkle when all of the sudden I get a good Christmas idea and I start jumping up and down and it’s June. But it’s almost as if right over your Thanksgiving Turkey, before you’ve even had a chance to get your holiday clothes out of storage, there’s a Christmas party.

Especially if you are consumed with real life like school and a baby, it almost seems as if you don’t have time for anything. It’s like my friend Jessica said, “Us girls need to make a little time for ourselves,” so we don’t go insane is what I say! And one thing I still haven’t gotten a chance to do is to visit my H&M! LoL!

But anyways, we still had a great time at our Church Ward’s Christmas party. The reason they call them ward’s is because there is so many people that they have to split them into groups of 2 to 300 hundred people per ward or no one would ever get a chance to know each other.

And it was a blast! We had a nice roast dinner and even though, (if there are any kids reading this I’m sorry for letting it out of the bag), there is No Santa and I don’t believe in telling my kids so, I still wanted Vespa to get the whole experience. Santa picture and all!

So here we are waiting in line to see Santa onstage.

Ever since she was born Vespa has never been afraid of people. Probably because I had to go back into the hospital right away and a bunch of strangers to her had to watch her. Because of this I knew she would care less who was holding her much less a big red fat jolly guy with tons of white hair hanging off his chin! We couldn’t get her to really smile but she was still very excited;)

Here we are with Vespa looking at Seth off Camera wondering what he’s doing trying to get her to smile. Babies are funny, sometimes they’ll smile for you and sometimes well they kinda just look at you like, “what the heck are you doing?!” LoL!

Here is a picture of us and our friends Jennifer, Seth, and little baby Dashell. Our babies are probably thinking, "Really mom, another picture."

These last two pictures are for the fun and irony of it. First off here I am wearing my new Christmas present jeans! Early I know! But I couldn't resist!

Especially for a Holiday Party!

Aren’t they soooooo SWEET! And yes I got them on Black Friday for a smoke’n deal with a coupon and a $10. Dollar door buster gift card! If you check out my butt ;) you can see they have wings made out of Rhinestones. They are somewhat like Miss Me’s but this new brand called Grace jeans. I also got a pair of Miss Me’s which ended up after all the discounts with these Grace jeans as two pair jeans for the price of one!

Next is Aaryn taking a very surprising “Aaaahhhhah!” picture with the camera remote behind our backs!

He’s soooooo funny! I love my hubby!

Caution All Mothers of Running Poo Tornado!!

2011-12-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

Attention all Mothers!!

Please beware if you put too much Prune Juice in your little baby’s formula bottle, out of fear from ending up in the hospital the night before, the Running Poo Tornado will come about an hour later! Yes, after seeing my baby hurt all day from grunting and having a high fever of 102 degrees, we then ended up in the Children’s Hospital while they ran HoRRific tests that should never have to be done on any sweet baby especially our little happiness. Only to eventually find out that she has constipation and probably a little virus. So this morning the Prune Juice came people!! And WENT People!!! Aaaaaaallll ooooooover!! The biggest mess I’ve ever had to clean up. All I can say with a sigh is, Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaah.

Thanksgiving Weekend Beaver Creek!!

2011-12-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

I have to say that we had a tired but AMAZING Thanksgiving weekend up at Beaver Creek!! Although on Thanksgiving Day, I cooked the whole Turkey...

and Yams...

and mashed potatoes…

and deviled eggs…

Stuffing (that I made the day before or I'd die from all the cooking and boy is it delisssshous!) and the list goes on and on...I don’t have any finished product pictures because by the time I was done I was wasted tired! Although, I do have a picture of the refrigerator we tried to cram! Hehehe!

Next time Aaryn mentioned if it's just us again for Thanksgiving that we'll just go to Boston Market. And I say sounds good to ME!

But here's pictures of my Vespa eating her first Thanksgiving dinner!

She does like to try out all the foods but there's just no guarantee that it will all be eaten;)

Even though I’m in the thick of projects, homework, and research papers; we took a break and went up to visit a new place we have never been to yet here in Colorado. Beaver Creek! And it was AMAZING! We absolutely loooooovvved it! It totally HITS my top 10 favorite places to visit in Colorado. But the greatest thing about it is that every activity was FREE!!

First we got an Amazing deal on a hotel with a FREE FULL Breakfast and shuttle service to the main part of town where all the activities were located.

The night after Thanksgiving there was a Free Tree Lighting Ceremony, were everyone gathers around the towns ice skating rink and the Mayor lights up the towns HUGE Christmas Tree.

There’s FREE Hot Chocolate while everyone gets FREE candles to sing carols with. Then Santa comes out onto the ICE and greets all the people.

And there were tons of people! Aaryn said if our family gets bigger, later on down the road another time we come he wants to play a game called, “Who can count the most fur coats.” LoL! I guess he noticed that quite a bit and I noticed that there were people visiting this place from all around the world. I heard Norwegian accents, German, Holland, Poland, Swedish, etc. It seems to be that there were a lot of cold weather people visiting Beaver Creek in the winter. You’d think since they live this all year round that they might want to go to the Bahamas instead;)

He got his candle but where’s his fire??

Let me tell ya, cause of the wind, keeping these things lighted was no easy task but it sure was fun. Because there were so many people walking and all with candles if one had fire they were always willing to share with those of us who's fire had poofed out;)

Following that there’s a firework show and afterwards you can choose to go Ice Skating for FREE including FREE ice skate rentals or you can go warm up inside the Hall’s Theatre and have FREE Hot Chocolate and Cookies while watching a FREE family film. Which this time is was “How to Train Your Dragon.”

Here’s us gone inside to get warmed up with Hot Chocolate and Cookies! The cookies the next day were even more delicious! They were giving out Free Hot from the oven Chocolate Chip cookies out on the bottom of the Ski slope. So Aaryn and I just parked right at the edge and they gave us 4 delicious goodnesses! I really wish we had gotten a picture with the Chef handing them out in his nice professional chef’s outfit. It looked pretty cool with his cool hat and all.

Here we are parked out at the bottom of the Ski Slope waiting for the delicious freshly baked Chocolate Chip Cookies;) Yes, I am a sucker for goodies!

And of course don’t forget the FREE Gingerbread House Exhibit and Contest where caters and bakery’s around the state come to compete in who can create the most elaborate, themed, or most creative Gingerbread House. They were pretty Spectacular!! As huuuuggge as Doll Houses!

Thought this one was pretty cool! Super Mario Bros. Kinda makes me want to play it;)

This one won first prize! Very articulate!

Makes me wanna just take a big bite of it! LoL!

Vespa was a little less impressed the first night for she was cold and tired. But we bundled her up good and trucked her along.

Here’s my tired little one smiling through the exhaustion.

The next day we went window shopping and of course there was absolutely nothing we could afford. Everything was outrageously priced! The only thing we wanted to get and eat and could afford was the Beaver Crepes but they were closed for some unknown ridiculous reason! But we did visit for fun

The Ski Store,

The Fur Store,

The Jewelry Store,

and The Artifact Museum Store (it’s not really called that but we couldn’t remember it’s real name, either way Aaryn first saw it and wanted to go in and it’s good he did because it was magnificent!

The beautiful leaves of artwork that Aaryn felt compelled to get pictures of.

These butterflies are gorgeous! Although I wish they were alive. It would be a beautiful picture to take in a field surrounded by them.

The Artifact Store and YES that is a real Carnivore Dinosaur Skull and of course the huge one behind me. Let me just say after seeing the price I forgot their names. For the skull is $300,000. and the large standing one is $900,000. My question is......"Who is really gonna put one of these in their living room?" LoL! (If you look in the Santa on the Ice picture above you can see the large Dinosaur displayed off to the right high above on the second floor.)

Petrified Wood!

Aaryn and I totally loved this table and could have taken it home.

Although I would have to change out the boring table legs! But of course the price was just pocket change, only $90,000. bucks. LoL!

We were really lucky that Vespa finally decided to drop off into dream land literally right before we went into this astounding store, for I seriously doubt that they would have appreciated a crying baby.

My sweet precious one.

Even though they were very professional in discussing each piece with us and its history, I’m sure they would have tried to escort us quickly out if Vespa had been crying. We have learned that we may have to wait a couple of years, when Vespa is at least 3 years old, before she can really enjoy more of the activities such as the ice skating and the family film. And for us it can sometimes be a nightmare working around her nap times especially in the middle of the day. For she now has to have a quiet and a completely dark room before she will take a nap;)

While she was still sleeping we also got some gorgeous scenic pictures of the two of us.

And some crazy pictures that day and the night before!

As Aaryn thinks, “What the heck is in this town!”

As I wonder the same thing…."Huh???"

What a great weekend!!!
And last here we are getting on the shuttle to leave. We should have got a family parting picture but we were too much in a hurry to catch the shuttle and didn't want to wait for the next one. Here you see the back of me with the stroller, as I go and save us a spot.
A very odd thing to see but really cool! Made me feel as if I were visiting Switzerland again!

OH MY GOSSSSSHHHHH!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

2011-11-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

OH MY GOOOOSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH!!

VESPA IS CRAWLING!!!!!!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY TO US!!!

WOW!!
MIRACLES OF LOVE AND THANKSGIVING!

Aaryn's Work Party & Vespa's Bedhead

2011-11-22T21:25:00.000-08:00

This last week was crazy busy, everyday was jam packed! Our days and nights always busy with something that by the weekend we were all extremely exhausted!

Recently we got a chance to have a date night and go to Aaryn’s annual Holiday work party. This is the 3rd one we’ve gone to since Aaryn started with the company here in Colorado.

And I have to say that this one was the coolest of them all yet. We got to go to Aurora’s Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. It was pretty AWESOME! Aaryn and I even got a picture with the Star Wars X-Wing Fighter Plane.

R2D2 was even in the plane. Preeeeeetty Aaawwesome!

Later we got to race in these little planes! They were soooooooooooo cool! Aaryn raced his co-worker Mike and beat him good! Sorry to my sad lack of recording skills on a phone that I pushed the wrong button while trying to record him. Sorry love.

Here I am racing for fun a co-worker of his. Karin is sooooo nice!

Buuuuuttt?!
I did get this really cool shot of him with one of the planes machine guns! I’m sure there is a specific name for it but you’d have to ask him;)

Vespa's Bedhead & Her Doggies

One morning this past week Aaryn woke up to change and feed Vespa and this is what she looked like.

Hehehe;)

Vespa is funny she has been used to the dogs since she was born so that’s probably why she pants with a “Hahhaah” sound like the doggies. And she has no fear of reaching out to touch them when she feels like it.

The only thing is the dogs know not to go around her because everytime they have come up to close to Vespa we say, “Nooooooo,” with a little inflection in our voice. So when they are allowed in they are cautious about her but very curious to be around her and see her.

Of course that calm “No” turns into a strong sharp and disobedient “NO,” when they go about eating and sneaking her food from her tray as she is in her walker.

It is interesting to note that Vespa is now 10 months old and is not yet crawling. She has decided that there are other ways to get around. As you can see below she has the roll, arch back and head to get a complete faster roll, and then quickly sit up with one foot tucked beneath her for other faster rolling and moving around times.

Funny Girl;)

Please Excuse the Mess...

2011-11-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

Because the next couple of weeks are a little crazy, please excuse the quick, non-picturefied, non-edited, or messy posts.

The Twelve Thoughts of November

1-Doctor’s I’m tired of them, sick of seeing them, some I can’t stand, in fact I’m sure my attitude portrays that every time I have to explain my situation over to a new one, get a new test done, have another blood draw, blood pressure checked, neuro-tested, another prescription, don’t forget the routine weigh ins especially when you could use a little less reminding of the baby fat you have to lose.

2-I hope Aaryn wins the contest at work;)

3-Our Romantic Ideas Windows App. Need to add more of the ideas so Aaryn can download them.

4-Wonder if Aaryn will try some of them?

5-Master Degree Class-research, essays, papers, deadlines, am I getting smarter? For I still hear Elmo in the background with Cookie Monster sing’n about Cookies;)

6-Vespa likes the Cookie Monster Toy that talks and eats cookies that we saw in the Target.

7-Christmas is coming

8-Thankgiving! GOOD FOODS!

9-CHRISTMAS DECORATING! WONDERFUL COLORFUL LIGHTS! MUSIC! SPARKLING AND GLITTERY FUN! SPECIAL, WARM, ROMANTIC.

10-VESPA’S FIRST CHRISTMAS

11-DID I SAY…..

CHRRRRRRRRISSSSSSSTMASSSSS!!;)

12-YES I LOVE IT!

Trunk or Treat, Halloween, and Snow?

2011-11-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

Here we are Cleopatra, Mark Anthony, and our little French Poodle;)

Trunk or Treat Time

So Halloween weekend was pretty good. It was a fun Halloween but it could have been a bit better. First up, the Saturday before Halloween we all got dressed up to go to our Wards Trunk or Treat. We barely got Aaryn’s costume done in time and we were still late showing up. If you’re wondering what Trunk or Treat is, it’s where everyone dresses up and decorates the back of their cars, trucks, and vans trunk to be a theme or character or just decorated really cool. Then there may be a contest on the best looking trunk including those who are dressed in the best looking costume. Anyways they also usually have a dinner and this case it is a chili cook off where those who wanted to sign up and bring their best chili and then everyone eats it.

Delissssshoussss!

Well back to Aaryn’s costume we barely got it finished and then were in a rush to eat the chili when we got there first because we were hungry and second cause they were about to do the trunks.

Totally my fault. If I had figured out how to work the sewing machine earlier, we would have finished Aaryn’s costume earlier without any stress. But I was intimidated by this amazing sewing machine we bought last year on sale around Christmas. For some reason when something comes with a large manual and a bunch of little parts and that something is supposed to produce great things, I start to get scared. I begin to ask myself, can I do this?

Am I capable of figuring this out and then afterwards creating amazing stylish outfits and not just some lame easy pillow or pajama bottoms that everyone does?

You see when your husband says, “This’ll be great! Now you can make me amazing costumes!” It becomes a little daunting when you are afraid you might not be able to live up to that high expectation. Even though you grew up with a grandmother and mother who taught you some things and who could make amazing clothes in satins and silks that look like they came right off the rack of Nordstrom’s or Dillard’s.

Well Aaryn was so sweet as to help me get started and once I did I was pretty proud of myself. Lol!

You see I was so amazed that I could just be able to get the thing started, by first threading the bobbin of this computerized contraption, that I was ecstatic!

Oh by the way, did I tell ya this thing is not like the sewing machine my grandmother and mother had growing up. Instead this thing is high tech, computerized, LCD Touch Screen, comes with its own DVD, with over a 100 stitches, 70 embroidery stitches, and 120 frame patterns. (Don’t know what this is yet but I’m sure it has something to do with the cool embroidery designs.) You now can see why I may be a little afraid, very afraid;)

So after threading the bobbin, I realized sewing leather like material, takes a lot of time especially if you want to get it right, straight, and look good. So I started on the satin material for the body of the costume which came out pretty good. Next was the leather girded piece around his waist.

Yeeeeeeahhh!

That’s when I became deflated and realized sewing leather takes a lot of tedious time, skill, and exactness. I say exactness because if you mess up you are SOL! You CANNOT take out that stitching without it looking horrible. The first time has to be the last time. So you better get it right the first time. After a few tries Aaryn had a go at it so I could get dressed in my Cleo costume and he pretty much had the same problem.

Leather is tough to sew!

But here he is! Isn’t he Smoke’n Hot!

After Trunk or Treat we were excited to see our friends Beverly and Rick to show them our costumes. So we called them up and asked to see if they were still up if we stopped by. Beverly and Kaylene from our ward were both so kind to help us when I ended back in the hospital for a week and half with the torn neck artery. I was constantly worried about my little newborn baby and if she was ok, getting enough food, warm enough, if she would remember me when I got out, and so much more that it was a relief knowing she was being taken care of and alright. And because we do not have any family here in Colorado, we are so blessed to have them in our lives.

Here is Vespa as a poodle laughing as Beverly plays with her legs;)

Later it was so cool, Rick showed her their new water fountain. I was surprised at how Vespa thought it was the neatest thing.

Here she is completely fascinated with the texture, look, and feel of this new fountain;)

It was so special that Rick too substituted in as family and joined the blessing circle when Vespa was blessed. Aaryn and I both appreciated and loved it.

Halloween

Was a hoot! I was sooo excited for Aaryn to come home from work but I was exhausted from the already long Monday.

The first thing Aaryn said when he got out of the car was, "I feel really sick." With a very pale look and grimace to his face, I thought, Oohhh nooo. We still have to go trick or treating and catch the Hay Ride at Kaylene's and then come back and give out candy here.

Yeah I was greedy. I didn't want him to be sick. I wanted to have fun. Well that was short lived. A few vomits later, one really cranky tired Vespa, and one Mánon trying to truck now 2 complaining kids around trick or treating didn't last even an hour. So home we went as Aaryn said he wanted to hand out candy. Of course that didn't last very long for the bathroom soon became his friend and yours truly was left downstairs with the job.

So what did we learn from this? Do not gorge ourselves on a ton of pot luck food at work before coming home to trick or treat. Lol! Sad thing is around 2am we both felt pretty horrible. Stomach flu has no mercy.

Snow before Halloween???

Yes, I was shocked! Here I am already for Fall and to take more pictures of the bright orange pumpkins and beautiful leaves of yellow and orange that have changed colors when all of the sudden.

BAM!

Those leaves are heavily covered with snow and GONE!

‘A Rose by any other name would smell soooo snowy?’

Buuuuttt?

There’s always a but.

I still got some fun amazing pictures.

Hehehe…

The Jack O' Lanterns and My Cute Little Pumpkin!

2011-10-31T13:15:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh Aaryn and I did the most amazing Jack O’ Lanterns!! I haven’t done Jack O’ Lanterns in years and now I remember why! They’re a He-- of a lot of work!

This took us almost all night long. Well from about 5:30pm to 11pm! And man I am proud of myself!

Aaryn came up with the idea of making a Jack O’ Lantern eating another little mini Jack.

I picked out the pirate skull! Isn’t he Aaaawesome! I also picked out the witches brew one to do but because the pirate skulls teeth were sooo intricate, it took forrrrrrevvvver!

And so Aaryn began and finished our cool looking witches brew!

We are definitely proud of our artistic work;)

They even have cool LED Multicolored light in them!

Yeeeeeah, soooo way Cool!

I can see now why my mom and dad didn’t want to carve those pumpkins. Lol! I think we only did it twice growing up;)

Can You Believe it!

My Cute Little Pumpkin is getting soooo big!

And here she is! Taken with my new Cannon DSLR 18 mega pixel camera! Yeaaah!

A few months ago I had taken some amazing shots of Vespa in a variety of Tutu’s at 3 months old but was very disappointed in the picture quality for when I blew them up to frame them they were very grainy. So I pestered Aaryn for us to get a better quality camera before our little happiness grew up too quickly.

So we kept an eye out and a few weeks ago saw an amazing deal at Costco for almost the exact camera we needed.

And now we have the most amazing pictures ever!

And my photography training and some of my old equipment can now be of good use.

If you notice our main family Sunflower picture above, Yes I did do that one too. I picked the location, the exact shot, got the fam dressed up, and Aaryn helped got it set up.

Here she is wanting to try out the Hay;)

The hardest thing is getting Vespa to smile, looking at the camera, without someone entertaining her behind the camera.

Silly baby girl!

Extremely difficult!

HA!

P.S. And yes let's not forget who makes her hair bows!

Meeeeeee, hehe;)

Halloween Murder Mystery Party

2011-10-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

So you may wonder what have we been up too? Planning the most Awesomest Halloween Murder Mystery Party! Now for those of you that haven’t done a Murder Mystery Party it is where you come as a character with secrets to hide or to be told which may involve blackmail, thievery, and/or murder.

The object of the game and how to win is sometimes not necessarily finding out who the murderer is but obtaining the 3 to 4 goals you have. For example, Lucus who came to the party has a terrible Phobia of spiders so now one of his goals may be to rid the place of spiders or to seek out the Hypnotist who’s Hypnoses only works in 10 minute increments. So you see he could be in the middle of a conversation with some people and all sudden those 10 minutes are up! Can be quite funny;)

Here is Lucus and his wife April who was the detective next to Amanda the bishops wife.

Brie and Stephanie, Zara the now widow of Tom and Stephanie the director with secrets to hide. Hehe;)

Now I have planned quite a few parties and have done a few Murder Mystery Dinners when I was single but the cap was usually 8 to 10 people. So this was a bit different and the most fun yet! Aaryn so badly wanted to be the Host, secretly not only did he want to be in charge but I think it’s also because he wanted to know all the secrets on everybody. So we planned and decorated and then the party commenced!

Lisa and John dressed so fabulously!

Kaylene and I dressed to Kill?! Well one of us is…Kaaaylene! Lol!

There’s my cute hubby with the only one of a kind Halloween glass!

Now I couldn't get all the picture's on here cause there were just so many cool one's, so I made a short Smilebox below with a story and some of the pictures.

I also have 3 videos from the party that I will post in the next couple of days.

Fall Harvest & Halloween Time is Here!

2011-10-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

So I can’t believe Fall and Halloween is Here!!! Recently I went to this place called Miller Farms where you can pick all the root vegetables you can carry away for $12. Bucks. Well actually they take you around on a flatbed tractor and at each stop you take bags with you and you fill up as much as you want. Well since this was my first time I went a little nuts at our first stop and Yes people it was…

Onions!!

I had so many Onions that this shelf was completely packed at one point. I was hoping to make salsa but there was no Tomato picking stop so I have to wait for some amazing Tomato sale in the store. In fact there were so many onions that I cleaned them and gave 2 zip lock bags away so they wouldn’t go to waste. In the mean time I have been using the onions in everything from Meatloaf, Lasagna, Chicken Enchiladas, Baked Beans, and if you name it,

I put an Onion in it!

LoL!

Actually these onions are pretty delicious and especially the purple ones for some reason. I want to do it again next year.

But what’s even more amazing is one of the last stops we made that I got

THEEEESSSE!

Pummmpkins!!

We actually grew these two little guys from our garden!

And here are some delicious strawberries, a single okra, and a squash. The strawberries did really well but the rest of the garden didn’t do as well as last year. Going to have to really fertilize the soil this winter for next year’s garden.

Although we did get some pretty good melons, summer squash, and zucchini growing in our garden. But let me tell ya zucchini will almost grow anywhere. Didn’t want to plant that much this year and we still got a lot.

Yes I am proud of my pumpkins though. Aaryn said that these Pumpkins were worth the $12. Dollars alone. Even though I got 7 bags of onions, a cabbage, a melon, 15 stocks of corn, some carrots, and a bag of okra. But Yes when I saw the Pumpkins I went crazy for them. Now I had to go deep in the field for them because all of the rest had been harvested or gleaned from other pickers. But I found the hugest and nicest Pumpkins and I got bunch of little ones too. I only wish that we could have stayed a little longer because that was where the okra was and other fancy gourdes that I could have picked.

But even so I got 3 large pumpkins and a ton of little ones;)

Here’s our house decorated for Halloween. Although I haven’t figured out what to put on the door. We’ve been thinking about changing it into

Doctor Who’s Police Box!

Pretty Cool!

If you’re wondering where the cool looking green/orange ones came from, weeellll….I kinda took those.

You see there’s a squash/pumpkin farm field behind our house and they have finished picking the field and so Aaryn and I took a walk by the field the other night and saw a few piles of ones with a bunch of weed garbage that they were going to throw away.

So I gotta a few out of the pile of trash.

Pretty cool look’n huh!

8 Months Crazy!

2011-09-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

My horrific Ethics class is over till next month when I start a new class. And

I can't believe that Vespa is 8 months old!!

She is sometimes the funniest baby too. The other day we were watching a TV show while Vespa was sitting on my lap and in the middle of it Vespa started watching our dogs and chuckling. So we turned off the TV and started watching her.

As soon as I started calling out Coco's and Panda's name she would just laugh harder.

It was the funniest thing so Aaryn tried to record it as quick as he could onto his phone since that was the only thing around.

The question is really, "What was she thinking to find the dogs and me calling their names so funny?"

Babies!

I really wish we knew what they were thinking.

Work'n On the House

2011-09-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

So Aaryn has done some great work on the house this month before fall and winter set in. You see a few weeks ago we had some pretty bad hail damage. And our roof, house, and even fence took it pretty badly. So Aaryn’s been trying to it up by doing some of the work himself. And let me tell ya, when I first got married I didn’t know that not only did I get a Sweet Amazing Guy but that the package also came with an Awesome Fixit Guy!!

Here he is power washing the fence! It's amazing how a power washer can remove and strip all that old wood.

Since we’ve bought this house he can fix almost anything! Things I didn’t even know we’d be able to do before, he’s been able to figure them out and get done and very well.

You see growing up my dad was a very intelligent Accounting wiz, historian, politically informed, and with a strong testimony of obedience and love of God sort of Dad. And of course don’t forget the teasing sense of humor.

But in all this, fixing things was not his forte. It was very much my mom’s forte when something broke or had to get done around the house to scout out the cheapest price, best deal, and get multiple quotes.

So at first when Aaryn would figure out a plan and begin to do it himself, I was a little skeptical if it would get done right.

But now if we ever have to call anyone out to fix something, I am like, “Can’t you just fix that?”

Haha!

He also suprised me and painted our front door!

I have been wanting to paint our front door and have had the blue paint color mixed up ever since we got into this house but so much other inside work needed to be done first and then being pregnant was never able to get to it.

I love it!

He did such a good job, very smoothly put on and well done.

Funny, I was out garage selling and then wanted to surprise him by getting the car's oil changed.

So then I came home all excited to surprise him when all the sudden my breath caught as I drove up and saw the front door.

I was so excited, I was grinning from ear to ear.

Here’s panda peeking out from our new door!

A Very Happy Birthday;)

2011-09-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

So this month was my birthday and it was pretty great!

For weeks Aaryn had my gift and I had been pestering him by guessing what it could be. I know this because Amazon came by and he took the box and had hidden it somewhere until I came close to finding it in the garage! I had to reorganize the shelves in the garage and couldn’t reach some stuff high up on the highest shelf when I had to get Aaryn’s help. I then noticed the opened Amazon box high up on the top shelf but couldn’t reach or see inside it. He then re hid it while I was in another room;) You see I don’t really want to find out what the gift is exactly but I love teasing him and guessing what it might be.

So here I am!
And of course he wrapped it three times!
Love it!

And you'll never guess what I got!!!!!!!!!???

Yes I got the last of the series of "I Love Lucy" barbies called "The Diet" episode.

I have almost all the Lucy's except for about 4 or 5 of them such as Ricky dressed as Santa, Fred dressed as Santa, Ethel dressed as Santa, Lucy Tells the Truth, Lucy The Ballet, and of course I don't have any of the miniature Kelly dolls. But maybe over time we'll be able to get them all although the Santa ones are quite expensive.

I do have to admit that Aaryn did a pretty good job taking these pictures.

And lastly Aaryn got me beautiful mini red roses and took me out to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre in downtown Denver which was a lot of fun.

And guess who won on finding out who did it!?
Yes, I did!
And won a bottle of red wine, comedy club tickets, and a logo water canister!
Of course the red wine we gave to our table who helped us out.
What a fun night!

The Evil Dentist!

2011-09-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven’t updated in the last 3 weeks. I will have 3 postings to do this week to catch up to my average of 1 per week to reach my goal for this year.

It’s been a crazy few weeks! First I went to the dentist, Yeeeeah that was a trip! And I still have to go back. I went in 3 weeks ago and they let me know that I had 4 cavities and 3 filling totaling 7 filling to do just on my left side of my face and then 3 more, 2 cavities and 1 filling on the right side.

At that time the dentist said, “We could do it all right now.” Then saw my panicked look on my face as I said right away, “I’m going to have to have some time to think this over.” Seeing the distress look on my face he continued saying, “Ooorrr we could do half of it today and half of it another day.” I looked at him seriously and sighed and said, “Ok.” Thinking to myself, “I can do this. I can do half a face.” Laughing to myself, realizing I was trying to sike myself up to the idea. He then said, “We’ll do the worse half first. And then when you come back we’ll do the rest.”

So the pain began.

This is kinda what the Dentist looks like with his Evil Grin.

I gave him an extensive record of my medical history and the current blood thinners of aspirin I was currently on. I needed him to make sure I wasn’t going to end up back into the hospital. Because here he was now going to Novocain up half my face and I wasn’t sure I was ready for this. But I knew I had to go through with it because I had put it off too long. And ironically now that I was a little healthier, I was about to take on a lot more pain. So of course as he was jabbing the needle around in my gums, I went into a mild form of shock. Because I was shaking so badly, I had to be sat up for a break in the middle of the process. I started to feel like my whole body, especially my face, neck, and arms were going completely numb. I felt a terrible tingly sensation up and down half my arms and through my neck up through my left nasal cavity. Yeah, I started to panic some, with each needle poke I needed to be mentally prepped.

Because people…when they stab that needle in your gums it’s not like it’s over quickly, they take their time and with a single poke they jab that needle all around throughout your mouth. So I asked him with each stab of the needle how long the needle was going to be jabbed up into my gums. Basically I was mentally counting down the excruciatingly painful seconds, so I would be able to get through it.

Finally it was all done and they began the work. Of course I had to come back in again a couple of days later, not even for the other half of my face yet, but because my mouth was so numb that I couldn’t recognize when I bit down that my bite was completely off and caused serious headaches for the next 3 days. So more filing came and went on my seriously bruised gums. Yeah, did I not mention it but the dentist said I may have some bruising for the next 24 hours. But?!....really that was far from the truth. Because of still being on the blood thinners, my whole mouth was completely bruised up and so sore for the next 2 weeks. Yes, even eating food caused annoying headaches.

But even for all this, I would do it again for her. Cause you see having a baby does it to ya. All the vitamins plus more go into helping the baby grow and even when you take tons of prenatal vitamins and calcium that little baby will still need more and need to suck it from your teeth;)

It may be crazy for me to say, because all the pain and stress has been hard to handle, but I would do it all again if only to have our little Vespa in our life.

Here she is laughing so cutely!

She loves it when I make different sounds with my voice, especially when I add high pitch humanistic sounds and movements to different stuff animals of hers;)

And last hopefully soon, I will have the bravery to finish the other half of my face and then I should feel like this once again.

Random Days of Happiness

2011-08-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

Yes,

There have been random days of extreme happiness.

But…..always that but hehehe.

This last couple of weeks has been a little stressful with this Ethics class I’m taking in my Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology.

There have been times where I’d like to strangle the teacher when I have felt he has not been clear on his expectations and has graded by pulling percentage grades randomly out thin air. Seemingly as though, if I were to read between the lines, that he has too many classes and/or an overload of too many papers to grade.

So I am left with not wanting to offend the instructor

but

having to defend every assignment

to be able to get a detailed description of why he graded a certain way, so I may be able to figure out what he wants.

Sigh.

On a side note I am glad this dilemma keeps me from having to think or set the appointment up for me to see the Dentist;)

I am just so sick of doctors that I could barf!

To have to see just one more doctor to tell me that more things are wrong with me that I may have to have more shots, needles, and drugs to take (that who knows I MAY BE ALLERGIC too)

is more than I can take.

Just 5 more months of Aspirin and I should be done. Ironically I was horribly allergic to Coumadin but never bruised with it. Now the bruises are a little insane and can hurt pretty bad if they go deep into the muscle. Gotta watch running into even the smallest thing.

And now I am here journaling to you and reflecting over my random days of

Happiness;)

And especially Vespa, “My Little Happiness.”

Vespa eating good lunch with her first
two little teeth show'n through;)

My roses that have bloomed the middle red one is a Proud Rose, the orange/yellow mini is a Hopscotch, and the lavender yellow center one is an mini Incognito rose.

I have 4 other types a Blue Girl Rose which is a huge very fragrant lavender rose, a Sunita Rose which is a medium yellow with red tip rose, a Party Girl which is a very fragrant pale yellow/white mini rose, and a fragrant Candy Cane type rose called Peppermint because it comes out red and white stripe which is really cool!

I bought most of them on clearance online at the end of the buying season. They were shipped to me some as cuttings and 3 of them as roots. Aaryn received the roots while I was running errands and he got started on the directions right away. When I got home he had them all soaking in fish tanks full of water and I looked at them a little worried with questioning eyebrows and said to him, “Will those grow? They look dead already.” So I soon planted them and Aaryn put in an extra drip system. And I was surprised when they finally started growing leaves. It was really late in the season to plant about June and I have had to cut a lot of the buds off so that the roots may grow deeper before winter sets in. That way hopefully they won’t die and they can really bloom next summer.

Although Aaryn catches me, hehehe, sneak a few grown bulbs by. I haven’t been able to help myself and have let some of the bulbs grow just so I can see the beauty they will become.

Here’s us Pioneer Day July 24th with our Stake activity.

Vespa is a little hot and grumpy so getting her to smile was nearly impossible but even so she almost never complains.

This is her being quite and not smiling which is her way of complaining.

The Dogs!

Here they are needing a bath desperately! But let me tell ya they are nosey, greedy little hummers!

Greedy for love, attention, treats or forget that just any kind of food.

The other day I picked a bunch full of strawberries next I put them high up on the back porch deck ledge and turned my back to go rotate the melons.

Yup!

You can guess! When I came back and they were GONE!

Except for the evidence of one lonely berry fallen to the ground that that Greedy little hummer missed!

COCO!

The devious one.

Sorry to say but Panda is the dumb one, happy go lucky sensitive dog, but still learning.

Me and my little loving.

Here we are just having a happy little day.

Ok, ever since we took the hood off her car

SHE TOTALLY LOVES IT!

She’s been using her hands much more and has gotten really good at picking things up. Here she is picking up one of her favorite toys, her heart bracelet that Lisa gave her.

What’s really funny is at night when she’s board and doesn’t want to go to sleep, many times she’ll just experiment with analyzing her pacifier looking very concentrated like it’s the most AMAZING thing ever and then puts it in her mouth really quick and then yanks it out again!

It’s hilarious!

Here she is traveling!

She has now gotten herself stuck under the computer desk;) Keys and the heart bracelet, her favorites.

Here you can see those cute two bottom teeth that started growing in at 5 and ½ months.

Can’t believe she is now 7 months and 5 days old!

I'm glad that I am here cause these are some of the most happy days of my life.

For the Anniversary…

2011-08-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

On August 1^st the day of our Anniversary we went together as a family out to get dinner at Fazoli’s Italian Eatery. Which is a relatively inexpensive family dinner place if you get their value meals that are $3.99, then you can have all the breadsticks you can eat.

Next we went to have dessert at Rocky Mountain Fudge Factory. And I got the Frozen Cheesecake dipped in chocolate while Aaryn got the peanut butter bomb dipped in chocolate.

Sad to say that it seems that everytime I get something, mine always taste better than his. So again he ends up wishing he got mine. Lol!

Vespa seems to think so too;) Here she is though wishing she could have some of the sweetness. A little blurry though;)

Later around the outdoor mall we saw a kid play area with water fountains and we didn’t realize how enthralled she was with watching the other kids till we took her away and she threw a fit and kept looking back trying to see the kids. It was nearly impossible to get her back into the stroller especially with her curling and arching her back so she wouldn’t have to be put down in it.

Here she is watching them;)

Lol! She is funny!

Later that weekend we went on a real date by ourselves to Rock Bottom. Which they have really huge portions for regular restaurant prices.

Here we are the waitress was very nice and offered to take our picture.

This was my first time since the hospital leaving Vespa with a baby sitter. A little nerve racking but we were able to be referred to a good sitter that was through our church and she lived not too far away.

After the restaurant we decided to walk around the mall area some and get ice cream cones. Yes I know ice cream I shouldn’t be having but I broke the rules on the ice cream this time in over a year and prayed that I wouldn’t have coughing spasms later that night.

Afterwards I was so excited to check out this Fair they had in town which seems to be kinda a big deal and since it was so close to where we live we had to check it out. Last year I wanted to go to it but I was sooo sick being pregnant and all but this time we got to ride the Farris Wheel!

Our main goal as we were taking the long walk from the car to the Fair was the huge lit up purple and green Farris Wheel in sight.

But you’ll never guess, once we got into the Fair what distracted me from our goal, hehe…

The Petting Zoo!!!

The goats are soooo cute and they even had a Lama too!

And here I am as two of them attack me for fooood!

Of course then they have eaten all my food for them and now we head over to the Farris Wheel.

Here is a view from the top,

we forgot to take one of the Farris Wheel itself.

And here we are looking exhausted!

Let me tell ya when you have a little baby that wakes up at the crack of dawn

9pm is way past our bedtime;)

And it has been the best two years yet.

I love you, my love.

Poetry has always been a Love of Mine

2011-08-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

A Cruel Way to Die

A Fly..

A pest

A disease ridden

Guest?

But isn’t a guest a welcomed pest?

Instead

A menace to society really

Trapped beneath rotating glass

How he got there no one knows

Suddenly the small black door opens

And now the owner has another desire

More than warming her breakfast on a stick

She wants the still trapped nuisance, fighting to get out,

Dead! And Gone!

It would be sooooo easy to close that small little door

Two seconds really

Is all it would take.

But Ooahhh what a Cruel Way to Die,

She sighs...

As she lifts the glass she steps back

Letting the prisoner escape

For now…

Her eyes follow with an evil gleam,

The unwanted guess,

To where he’ll rest.

She thinks with a wicked little grin

Soon, soon…

Splat!

By Mánon B.E.

Happy Anniversary Love...2 Sweet Years;)

2011-08-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

Aaryn & Mánon
August 1st, 2009

I wanted to make sure this got posted on Our Anniversary even though I couldn't finish it till today. Today I married the most sensitive sweetheart and loving guy there could be.

I can't believe it's been 2 years!

Wow! How time flies!

It seems that is was just yesterday that we got married!

So here's an update of what's happened to us in the past 2 years and 10 months!!!

~We first met randomly at a Singles Ward Family Home Evening Church Halloween 2008 activity. I was teaching drama to junior high kids and saw this guy from a distance with a really cool, what looked like to be a Storm Trooper Costume on and in fact was Master Chief from Halo. I wanted to know where he got it or how he made it.

I got the information I needed and found out how he made it

and then I went to flirt with Indiana Jones!;)

~Later we met again at a Comedy Club in Scottsdale and had no clue that we had met before. Although we kind of recognized each other from church.

What can I say people look different with a Halloween Costume on;)

~A couple of weeks later with lots of flirting at church and a FHE bonfire he asked me out. We dated and fell in love...and after many years of praying and searching "for the right one"...we finally found each other and got engaged!

~And if that seemed an amazingly fast miracle after the shock of dating so many people and never finding the right one, the next 2 years were even faster!!!

~We got married!!!

~And we moved to Colorado!!

~Aaryn started a new job!

~We searched frantically at the end of 2009 and then in February 2010

we bought our first HOUSE!

~Then we went about all on our own painting, taping, fixing, base boarding, replacing carpet, and much much more on our new house!

~Oh my gosh, we moved Again all by ourselves to our new house!

~We then were pregnant or I was for sure Haha! And we still had 2 rooms left to paint to be able to prepare for the nursery, morning sickness seemed to last forever, and before that was over

the worst nightmare ever at the time

I got Sciatica!

Which crippled me for about 2 months.

~January 2011~

We had a beautiful little baby girl!

We named her

~Vespa~

which is Italian.

~2 weeks after her birth I had to go back into the hospital...

For which I had a life threatening left artery tear in my neck called a Left Carotid Dissection

which happened during childbirth.

They kept me in ICU for over a week, poking me when needles, tests and more tests,

keeping me on blood thinners, and constantly monitoring me

concerned that I could have a blood clot

to the brain and die of a stroke.

After a lot of pain, shots, drugs, tests, blood draws, and other hospital trips

because of allergic reactions to medicines;

I am now recently, after 6 months, off coumadin and on daily aspirin therapy

for next 6 months and getting better everyday.

~Also, I am continuing my Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology

and taking care of our little

Vespa.

Yes a crazy 2 years and 10 months

but Oh so wonderful!

And Last a Letter to my Love~

Aaryn my love,

Aaryn, I love you so much. Thank you for being there for me. You helped me so many times up the stairs, one by one, inch by inch when I was in miserable pain with Sciatica and could not walk and so many other humbling things that I could not do. Thank you for preparing me meals when I could not prepare them. Thank you for getting me medicines and ice packs when the pain was so bad I could hardly stand it. Thank you for praying and blessing me for those crucial times when there was nothing else we could do and things were too scary. Thank you for being the Father and the Mother and finding good people to help take care of our little baby when you had to go back to work and I was in the hospital for an extended amount of time. Cause my heart was so worried about who would take care of our baby Vespa girl and scared when I came home that my little baby girl would not remember me anymore.

I love you so much Aaryn. You've been the most sensitive, caring, and best husband to me than I could ever have imagined and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with you. You are part of my heart and my soul and I could not have gotten through so much without you. Thank you for loving me and our sweet baby girl. I love you so dearly. Happy Anniversary my love.

Love,

Mánon

Camping at Grand Lake!

2011-07-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

So recently we went camping with the dogs and a baby. Ok yes this was a little crazy! Poor Aaryn had to unload all the heavy stuff and organize the back of the truck so everything would fit.

Most people don't realize that when you have a 6 month old baby and 2 dogs that need a whole lot more training that there's a LOT of stuff you have to take.

That's why most people say...

"Forget IT! We'll wait till the baby is older and you can forget those dogs!"

So we thought we'd be brave and try it.

I don't think we really comprehended what we were getting into....thinking "We'll have a relaxing time lounge'n by the lake."

Yup, think again.

Don't get me wrong there was a lot of fun but
we needed a little more relaxing.

It can be difficult when you go by yourself and there's no one there to help you put the tent up in the rain or feed, change, and love the baby while you figure out how to put together a dinner!

Now it could have been a whole lot worse if we hadn't said a prayer before we left that we'd communicate well and get there safely while driving.

So here's what we've learned..when you have a 6 month old and have to bring the playpen and bassinet, baby bouncer, car seat, extra blankets, extra warm clothes such as baby zip up warm suits, pj's, long sleeved one'sies and don't forget the needed accessories such as hats, socks, mittens...Oh did I forget the baby has to eat so here it goes, baby food, spoons, formula, bottles, extra water to fill the bottles...then there is of course changing the baby so bring on the diapers, wipes, rash ointment, baby powder...and oh by the way did I mention she's teething...Sooooo bring on the Oragel ointment and Baby Tylenol...and by the way she does get bored so don't forget books and a toy or two!
So how do these dogs fit in?

1.) THEY DON'T! LEAVE THE DOGS AT HOME!!
Especially if you have kids under 2 and no one else is camping with you.

They may look peaceful here but..

They are sneaky and disobedient little devils!

2.) If the dogs are left at home that frees up a whole lot of space...like those two huge dog crates, even bringing the dogs you didn't need them.

3.) If there are no dogs then you obviously don't need that huge gated kennel.

4.) Did I forget dog food, bowls, extra water, bones...yeah frees up a lot of extra room!

Hehehe...
Even with all this we had a blast of fun;)

The first night we were shocked to see this gorgeous Sunset! And soon realized that many other campers were coming up to us commenting on and
coveting our camp site.

We definitely had the best spot
right off a little cliff that lead directly to the lake
with not too many other camp site near us.
Since I was in charge of cooking us lunch and dinner for us the next day, here Aaryn is cooking steaks for us the first night and breakfast for us the next morning.

This view at our camp site every evening was incredible!

Here we are loving every minute of it;)

This is what we got to wake up to every morning!
Not only a gorgeous view with our camp site right off the lake but
a wonderful little baby, husband, and life;)

Here's the honey making good foods for breakfast!
Egg McMuffins home made!
Deeeeelisssshh!

"Mmmh, that sounds good Dada!" Says Vespa..
while lick'n her lips.

Later we decided to take a mini trip downtown from our camp site in Grand Lake. It was a very picturesque and beautiful.

Here we are take'n a break on the boardwalk in Grand Lake
with all it's quaint little shops.

And Vespa a little hot from us walking around, sucking down the cool

goodness of Soy formula.

"Let's go back to our tent Momma, I'm hot and bored."

Then we come back to our camp site and thank goodness Aaryn has closed and covered everything up because we realize that we have gotten poured on.

So I decide to cook a nice soup for lunch and start preparations for a delicious Lasagna dinner, when all of the sudden...

We got rained on! It was kinda cool, my soup was still

out there cooking, and my peach cobbler makings were in danger of accumulating more water;)

Not too much later Vespa is up from her nap, the sun is out again, everything is dry, waiting for the soup to be finished, and we're just chill'n!

Like my high waters;)

Oh by the way while we were waiting the rain out we started a game of SkipBo in the tent and almost finished it.

Of course I was only a couple of cards away from winning,

So we'll just say that

"I Won!"

Hehe.

A little later in between changing times...

All I can say is if you watch "Elmo's World all about Faces,"

there's 2 headed Monster on there

where they talk about blowing their noses.

It's pretty funny that she knows it and relates it to the show,

so we mimic it and she laughs so hard.

Trust me it's perfect for pictures.

The one taking the picture just mimics

the 2 headed Monster and she bursts out laughing.

Soooooo cute!

It's crazy how much she just loooooves Elmo!

Later that evening some friends from Aaryn's work joined us.

Brian and Suzi

Here are the guys the next morning cooking breakfast.

And Vespa making happy faces behind their backs;)

Here's Suzi waking up in time for breakfast;)

Here's Aaryn and Vespa looking in her direction thinking,

"It's about time.";)

Lol..Nah really,

I don't know what they're really looking at.

Here's Vespa just relax'n with the beautiful scenery waiting for Brian

to come and talk with her.

Then they hung out together for a bit.

Aaryn thought he'd get a picture in while we all are just

hang'n out chat'n till we begin

to play a card game.

There's a better picture of us.

And now Vespa's getting cranky

and needs her nap.

Just in time for us to play,

"Mille Bornes!"
A French driving game.
A Fun game just watch out for those accidents.

My sleeping beauty.

And last we are ready to head home.

So here are some nice family pics of us before we leave this

beautiful area.

P.S. Here is Panda trying to escape and not miss anything as we leave

on the trip home.

Crazy Dog!

Fireworks and More Fireworks!!!

2011-07-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

Sad to say but there are no pictures with this one!

We forgot the camera and then Aaryn's phone died just when we first got there.

My phone well that's a horse laugh!

Let me first start off that we came home from Arizona and at church a friend of ours Heather and Dalen invited us to come to their house and have a BBQ for the 4th of July with some other young couples from the ward. At the time Heather said that there were really good fireworks nearby or that's what I interpreted to be.

Little did I know that part of that firework show was their entire neighborhood including they themselves!!

Being from Arizona, where if you even got caught with a firework in your hand you could be arrested and have to pay a huge fine. Being that Arizona had such strict firework laws because of real fires starting, Aaryn and I had very little experience shooting off fireworks, with Aaryn having more experience than I, the fireworks in the past that he'd shot off you could say were for sissy babies!

Because when we got to Heather's house we didn't realize that they had the

mother load of fireworks!

Even the fireworks they had for their little girl were spectacular!

Everything from Neon sparklers to these things called Lady Bugs that shoot off into the air spinning real fast with bright pretty colors...to flowers that go crazy... to fireworks that let out a little parachute guy...

to crazy fireworks that really should be up in the air but decide to have their own show right there on the ground 10 feet in front of you!

Geez run or make sure you cover your face!

Aaahhhhh!

And of course people we can't forget the big gorgeous ones that go up into the air with all the beautiful colors.

Yes, I have never seen Aaryn get this boyishly excited.

It was so fun to hold real huge neon sparklers, light other fireworks off, and

watch him trap out to the street

with Heather's husband, a huge smile on his face, and set those

mega fireworks off!

P.S. You might think that was the end but it wasn't...

Close to the end of everyone leaving and the boys and everyone in the neighborhood still shooting off fireworks, Heather's backyard caught on fire.

Yes I said FIRE!

All the people in the neighborhood that live in that neighborhood have about 1 to 2 acres of land, most with no real fencing and since everyone in the neighborhood was shooting off fireworks we don't know whose firework actually started it.

All we know is that Terri, another married girl, yelled Fire! And I standing right next to her looked back and the backyard hill was quickly spreading and then everyone was rushing to get the hoses and then when they said the hoses wouldn't reach, someone called 911 and the guys did some fancy maneuvering unhooking and rehooking some hoses from another location nearer to the fire.

I helped with the hoses in the beginning and then I ran to get Vespa sleeping.

By then they had just got the fire squelched and you could here the fire truck sirens coming.

It all happened pretty fast!

And Heather almost lost her cat, escaping from the house in all the commotion.

But all in all, Heather sure makes it real exciting to come to her house!

Lol!

Last Month was Nuts!

2011-07-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a crazy last month! Last month was nuts. It was pretty miserable HOT down in AZ and I was always going to school in Scottsdale 9 hours a day with an hour and half commute back to East Mesa where Ryan my brother in law lives and eventually Maricopa where my parents live

which totaled about 11 to 12 hours per day.

Poor Vespa got some heat rash there and was more crankier than ever. Ryan's AC went out the day we got there. He felt really bad and we know it was just a bad coincidence. He's a sweetheart for letting us stay with him, borrow his car, feed us, and all when he was sick with a terrible cold. Sorry to those of you we didn't get to see or visit with...trust me this was not a vaca! LoL!

We will hopefully drive down for two weeks at Christmas and New Years

if gas prices don't hike up,

if not there is always next Christmas;)

Here are some pictures of family and those we got to see the last couple of days.

Here's Ryan's cute smile and sick with a cold.

Here's Aunt Yvette and Aunt Tiffany getting cute sleepy pictures of Vespa. She's soooo tired here but she still loves to be held. But without them realizing I got them recorded too! Hehe..

Here is Vespa and her very cute and only Aunts!

Oh but where is Aunt Tawnya???

Vespa has such a happy spirit that I know that the heat was hard for her with Arizona being an average of 110 degrees everyday while we were there!

Here she is with Yvette still trying to smile through her hot tiredness.

My sweet baby!

Here is one of her and Daddy watching the Incredibles on TV.

Here Aaryn took some random pictures of some of us at Maylee's birthday party!
Happy 2nd Birthday!!!
We love you Maylee!

We got her that super cool puppet book that Aaryn picked out! It had the most wildest bright orange Fur!

What can I say Costco it's the best!

Here I am giving up on getting Vespa to look at the camera for Aaryn.

Aaah...sigh.

Here is Tawnya, Maylee, Brandon, and Aaryn.

Brandon and Maylee now have a new cousin!

Vespa! Yeeeeaaaahh!

Next we decided to go swimming...

Although it's too Hot for Vespa to go swimming and she ends up

taking a nap inside the house.

Honey I'm sorry but this is not a face that wants to go swimming...

More like a face that says "Dad this heat is miserable let's go home were I'm not getting fried and dehydrated. And how do these other kids stand it. Maybe they're already dead ...swim ghosts?!"

Tiff and I

We're Hot and the Heat seams to drag on and on but we're still having good foods and fun times at Maylee's B-Day Party! Can you believe she is 2 years old!

That means Aaryn and I have been almost married 2 whole years August 1st!

Wow!!

This picture was just too dang cute I had to put it up!

This one is of Clint and Madison, my brother in law and his oldest little girl.

A very good clear picture too;)

Later I caught all the cousins lounge'n in the Hot Tub!

Brandon you are funny!

Cute smile!

While I was in school all day long, Chris and Leah came all the way out to Maricopa where my parents live to see Aaryn and Vespa, before they took a flight out to Alaska to see Aspen.

Here is Miciah sharing a pacifier with Vespa.

Soooo cute!

This video is my last day of my 1st internship in Scottsdale for my Master's Degree and was the 1st of my 3 internships. Aaryn was sneaky and surprised me by recording with his phone here sneakily and having Vespa all dressed up ready to pick me up.

This is what she looked like;)

Ironically out of the 100 people he could have ran into, he ran into my particular class of 15 students which by the end were now my friends. During this time, I was going in a different direction trying to find him;)

When I was finally done for the week and we had 2 days left we met up with Mama Marley, Molly and little Ben Marley.

Here we all are at Gecko Grill in Gilbert.....Yum!

Here I am keeping Vespa from getting too bored and hot.

Later we all decided to go to Costco! Here Molly, Ben, Vespa, and Me are take'n pictures while Aaryn and Mama Marley are shopping.

Here we are again play'n around with the kids while we are stroll'n the Costco;)

Here is Aaryn playing with us. He's pretending to get hurt while little Benjamin gets him.

Cute kids!

This picture I took of Molly and little Ben and I took it so quickly. I wanted a natural picture. I don't even think they realized I took it. They were smiling so big.

I loved it!

And last getting this picture was classic!

I don't even think Benjamin knew he kinda made the piece sign right as I took the picture!

Looooooove It!:)

At my parents house everyone got a little Vespa Time!

Momma, Gyver, & Roger~Wes where are you? Always gone...

Rog was the funniest with her. Every so often if she was out of his sight taking a nap, in the other room with other people…wherever she was he’d come and check up on her or peek in on her if she was taking a nap. It was really cute.

And Granddaddy!
This one I thought was one of the cutest pics;)

Finally we took our flight home to cooler weather and for me to get better and face the endless dreaded doctor appointments.
Lets just hope that please, please they'll let me get off the Blood Thinners.
The End:)

P.S. Dawna we forgot to take some pics of us:(

My Brain is Strrrrrretching!!!

2011-06-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd post a quick break post. My brain is killing me! I have been working on this 15 page 10 source minimum final for the past week and a half and for hours Saturday, Sunday, Mon. was a dud since Vespa was cranky all day and no nap was possible, and now Today has been a lot better. I've been working on it for 6 to 7 hours in between feeding and keeping Vespa entertained. She finally decided to take a NAP!

Hurraay for Naps!

And so now I'm here with 3 paragraphs and 2 pages left to do and praying that I get it done in time and before we go to Arizona for me to do a Master's Internship in Scottsdale. Why I ask are they doing a internship in Scottsdale in the middle of the dead summer? Aaryn said probably because most people will be staying in the hotel and hotels are cheaper in the summer in AZ. That sounds about right. We just get lucky that I can save some money and stay with our fams and see our friends!;) YeAAAH! So I'm going back to this forevvvver long paper and can't wait to see you all soon!

Love ya lots!

Summer is Here!

2011-06-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

Summer is Here and so are Roses!

I have been so busy with homework and Vespa that I barely had time to put in the roses in my small flower bed. Last year if you remember I tried to plant cheap Walmart Gladiolus. Yeeeeah that was a laugh. They came up these long green stems but hardly any flowers and when the flowers did come the sun wilted them right away they didn't even have a chance. They looked crappy. But this time I ordered some online and Vespa and I put them in. We had to follow some interesting directions. I guess when you order them online that they come bare root and so Aaryn got them at the door before I did and he followed the first step where it says that you need to completely soak the roots overnight. He got them soaking in the garage and then surprised me and asked me to come out and to the garage and see something. There were the two rose bushes that were just roots that I ordered.

Below here is Vespa and I planting. Along with the Gladiolus last year, I also planted two Walmart rose bushes but only one barely survived. As you can see here the yellow one made it.

Here are two of the others that I planted. Ironically the middle one is supposedly a flowering plant and then I got another Bluegirl rose bush discounted from Home Depot cause it was not watered very good and at the time it looked like it was going to die. It's looking pretty good now but the trick is if it will make it over the winter.

And here is Vespa just lounge'n while I garden!;)

My smile'n girl;)

This last couple of weeks we also have been enjoying our strawberries. If it's cool enough in the morning Vespa and I go out and pick the goodness. She loves the outdoors and I show her all the trees and garden plants.

Here we are in the Strawberry plants.

We ate this deliciousness right then and there! Washing couldn't wait;)

There we are!

This was a cooler day where Vespa is all bundled up and Daddy were going out to water the garden and fruit trees.

Here's Vespa and I trying out new foods. Seems like she loves Sweet Potatoes the best. Applesauce and Yogurt are yucks, spits it all out but bananas are ok.

Lol. Funny girl.

But more than that she loves her rice cereal with bananas mixed with her soy formula.

But she tends to fight the bottle especially when her and Daddy are exhausted!

End of May but not the End of My Class

2011-05-31T10:16:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to get one last posting in here before the end of May. My New Year's resolution was to get in 4 postings per month at least 1 per week but as resolutions go many times they tend to fade about now. But I still haven't given up. I WILL catch up! This month has been crazy and especially with Vespa sometimes napping and other times NOT! And it seems that Master's Classes think they have to kill you with research, interviews, and homework the last 4 weeks, wish they'd be kind and spread it out a little bit more.

Well this Memorial Day weekend was busy. Aaryn and I did a lot of things. And I'm sure Aaryn might want me to omit some of what we had to do Saturday. Well all week I had been working on a paper that I finally turned in Friday evening, sad thing is now I have another one due this week that is almost exactly the same in requirements. These papers are Case Studies of patients with psychological issues or family problems that I have to diagnose in a long research type result, which ends up to be about 7 pages each. Of course that's small compared to my final of 15-20 pages.

So anyways back to Saturday. Saturday we went to go get Colonics. If you people are wondering what that's all about...weeell...think of it this way, the first part of that word...yeeeeaaah, colon. Have you got it yet? Well, yes it's like one big Enema! And with my liver getting so bad being on blood thinners and with all the problems with constipation during pregnancy, I knew I needed a good clean out. Of course people since I was getting one, I figured Aaryn would loooooovvve one too;) This type of colonics was terrible! You did all the work...not the original vacuum sort of one where there was no work involved. Well it ended up being a good clean out for both of us, although Aaryn said he could have "Ate a whole lot of jalapenos, drank a ton of water and had the same effect!" I laughed pretty hard at that. But needless to say later that evening and next day I didn't feel very good and decided I wouldn't go back to that particular place again.

Sunday came and went! Ha!

Monday. Our church had a Memorial Day breakfast with the Scouts leading the flag ceremony. Since Aaryn is one of the Scout leaders we had to be there early. Afterwards we took a jaunt down to Home Depot and Aaryn got all the parts he needed to create a drip line for our garden and fruit trees, (big mistake Home Depot is one of the most expensive places.) So we popped on over to Lowes much better prices. Then we came home and in the rainy hail and whipping wind, (or wait maybe that was our stomachs), Aaryn went to town on the yard with his drip line.

Every little girl needs her keys...

Momma feed me...

I'm hungry.