Birthday Weekend

Another year, another birthday. I had a lot of fun yesterday with Joseph. We woke up and went to the temple. It was really nice because that was the first time Joseph and I went without anyone else since we've been married. We sat in the Celestial Room and talked about things that we learned and impressions we had. Bishop Mooney told us that going to the temple together will strengthen our marriage and love for each other. I truly believe that. I love Joseph more now than I did yesterday. :)

For dinner, we went out to eat with Joseph's family at the Macaroni Grill. I LOVE the Macaroni Grill! And I love their bread! We went with Kacey, Chris, Aiden (who slept the entire time!), Mawmaw, Pawpaw, and Jason. We all stuffed ourselves, and then came back to our place to eat the giant cookie cake that Joseph bought for me from Paradise Bakery. It was sooo good!

Mawmaw and Pawpaw were here for Aiden's baby blessing. We had that today at Church. I didn't have a chance to post about Aiden's birth but he is my new nephew who was born on March 13, 2010.

Earlier in the week, Mawmaw helped me with my genealogy. She is really good at researching. She found my grandfather's enlistment papers into the WWII. My dad is really excited!

My birthday is not really over either. We are going to Sea World in San Diego California on May 14th! I'll be sure to post the pictures when we get back. Thank you, Joseph for another great birthday! I love you!

The Never Ending Paint Project Part II

Yes, it's true! I finally decided on the color to paint the front of my island. As some of you know, I've been debating this color for quite some time now. The island was originally painted taupe like the rest of the kitchen. However, when we were done painting the walls, our counters are now a taupe/gray color instead of the gray color they were when the kitchen was pink. So, I decided to paint the front of my island an accent color. I started with a slate gray, then a yellow, then a lime green, then a sea foam green that did not look the same on the sample as it did when I was finished, and finally an olive green. I really love the olive green. It is a similar tone as the taupe and it just blends really well with the rest of the kitchen. We still have not replaced the microwave but it's not on the top of my list for things to get done.

Joseph's parents gave us their old kitchen table so we finally have a nice table! It's a great table and it saved us $1,000!

In case you do not remember my kitchen when it was pink, here's a reminder:

And here it is now!

The taupe really made the color of our oak cabinets calm down. They no longer look orange.

My phone didn't do a great job at capturing the actual color of the island. This makes it look a little more blue/green than it really is.

My friend Karina gave us this great vinyl stick on for our wedding. I want to get one more for over our pantry that will say.. "Pantry". You can get one like this for yourself at http://www.stickywords.net/ . They have a lot of great ideas on this site! So definitely check it out if you are interested in the vinyl words.

I bought this from IKEA. It is hanging on the wall to the right, so you can't see it in the picture of the entire kitchen. I really like it. The pictures came in a pack of 5 and then I just bought the frame to put the 3 I liked in. The whole thing cost about $20. Not too bad.

Joseph and I bought this vase at a Young Women's Camp Fundraiser at church. A woman in our ward made it! The flowers were in the center pieces at our wedding. Erin and Scott put all of the flowers in our fridge so when we got home from the honeymoon I hung them upside down in our closet. They dried really nicely!

The cookie jar was a wedding present from our last bishop's wife. It's really cute.

My mom gave us this picture. It's a picture of gourds and they match the kitchen. This picture will hang to the right of the french doors.

Now all I need to do is finish getting some more decorations and the kitchen will be done! I'm currently in class right now, but once this one is over, I'm going to take a few weeks off to hopefully finish painting the rest of my house... or at least the final room down stairs. We also finished painting our downstairs bathroom. It's a little... bright. But I'm not changing it. I'll post pictures of that soon.

I really love my kitchen!

The Zoo

Joseph and I had not been on a big date for a while, so we decided to go to the Phoenix Zoo. It was actually a lot of fun! Joseph really loves animals. Before we went to the zoo, I had to get some blood drawn for some more tests that my pain management doctor ordered. Then we grabbed some breakfast at Jack n' the Box and went out to the Zoo. I had no clue the zoo was that big! We walked around for about 3 and a half hours so we were pretty tired by the end. It was one of the hottest days we've had all year. It's getting up in the 90's now so 115 is not too far away.... There are a lot of great animals at the zoo. I took some pictures with my phone. I'm pretty impressed they came out this well. Enjoy :)

Towards the end of our day, we saw this little chipmunk/squirrel thing eating some popcorn. Joseph tried feeding it, but he would only take the food if Joseph dropped it on the ground.

Oh yeah. I'm cool :)


This peacock was really funny! He was talking the whole time we were there. Then he flew over Joseph's head. Maybe he just didn't like Joseph??

Back Tracking

Here are some pictures of Sammy and Calamity. Our neighbor Keith, helped up put a doggie door in for Sammy. He's a contractor and Joseph's a computer guy... so you can decide who would have done the better job :)

Having Calamity here was really good while we were trying to train Sammy. We originally started teaching Sammy how to come in and out. Calamity picked it up from watching him. The next day, Sammy forgot what to do so Calamity helped him out.

We put the dog crate up to the doggie door one day while we were cleaning the house. They both climbed into the crate together. Sammy started freaking out and chewing on the blanket. It was kind of funny.

Funny or Gross Story... You Decide

So last weekend we were asked to dog sit for our friend's chocolate lab, Calamity (her name fits part of the experience). She is a really sweet dog. She and Sammy had a ton of fun together. They were always tired when they came in at night because they played so hard during the day.

Well, the first night we had her, we figured she isn't kenneled at home when she goes to bed, so it should be ok if we leave her out. WRONG! She pooped (and I mean nasty runny poop) upstairs in our loft. It covered one side of the room. Needless to say we had to get the carpet cleaned. It wasn't that big of a deal though.

So, they came to pick up Calamity on Tuesday after work. She and Sammy are best friends by this point. Well, the mom brought her 2 year old granddaughter with her. We were sitting at the table talking about the weekend and all of a sudden the little girl was in the other room and crying. She was crying because she peed her pants and it went all over our carpet! At this point I just had to laugh. It was an accident. I think the mom was more embarrassed than we were upset. We cleaned it up pretty good and let it be. They brought us cookies the next day.

Overall, we were glad to have Calamity stay with her... even both of the messes. :)

Young Womens Fund Raiser

Last Saturday, Joseph and I went to the Young Women's Girls Camp Auction. It was a lot of fun,. We even met 2 other couples who we will be hanging out with soon. People in our ward were asked to donate goods and services that others would bid on. All of the proceeds went to pay for Girls Camp. Joseph donated his time to fix someone's computer. His was the first item on the bidding list, so his service only raised $10. He was pretty sad about that, but I think the only reason it went for so cheap is because it was the first item and people weren't warmed up yet.

We ended up bidding on two things. One was a really pretty green glass vase that a sister in our ward made. I love it! And the second thing, which Joseph said we should bid on, was DANCE LESSONS! I was so shocked! If you know my husband, you know he does not like to dance. We bid on them, and won 2, 1/2 hour dance lessons from a sister in our ward. She teaches ballroom dance classes at her home. I'm really excited to go. I think Joseph is too :)

Valentine's Day Weekend

Joseph and I had a fantastic Valentine's Day weekend!

Well, first before the weekend started, I went to a TMJ specialist, and he was able to diagnosis me with arthritis in my jaw. He said that is what's causing all of my TMJ pain. Fortunately, there is a treatment! He gave me 12 shots on the right side of my face/neck/scalp. One of those shots put a liquid in my jaw which acted as a cushion for my jaw joint. This made the right side feel so much better! It was amazing! I went back this week, but instead of giving me the shots for my left side, he gave me my night time splint. This is basically a huge hard plastic night guard that snaps onto my upper teeth. This splint will help move my jaw into where it is supposed to fit. For now it is somewhat painful, but I know it's going to help and make it so this pain is manageable :)

On Saturday (the day before Valentine's Day), Joseph and I went to the Renaissance Festival. It was so much fun! We got there around 10:30am and left around 4:30 pm. There was tons of stuff to do and see, lots of fun shows, and amazing food! We saw this one act called Barely Balanced. They were really talented and funny. Here are some pictures:




They also had a petting zoo with some fun animals. The cow was my favorite.






On Sunday we went to church like always and taught our Sunday School class. I made Joseph chicken pillows for dinner and he gave me these really pretty red roses. Kacey and Chris were given 2 nights free at the Wild Horse Pass Hotel, but they weren't able to go, so we went in their place. It was nice to be away from home for a night and feel like we were on vacation.

On Monday our good friend's Brenda and Orson had their little girl, Brooklynn, so we went to visit them in the hospital. She was only 5 pounds 10 oz but full term! She is so small and beautiful!

Overall, we had such a great weekend together. Hope you all had great Valentine's Day weekends as well!