My Birthday

Hello again friends! As I said Monday was my birthday so today I thought I'd share my day with all of you. Like I mentioned, my friend, Jenny, and I both took the day off. She came over to help me get ready for our party later that night and then we headed to lunch. We went to BRIO for some extra yummy pasta! If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, I would totally pick pasta! After lunch we headed to FROST for gelato. I got mine for free, and they even decorated it to look like a birthday cake with candles on top!

That afternoon, we headed to Burst of Butterflies, a local art studio, for our first pottery class! We had so much fun!

I got much better as the class went on!

Jenny made four pieces she liked, and I have two closely matching bowls. In a couple weeks, we get to go back and paint our pottery!

That evening we had the neighbors over for pizza!

My mom got me a really cool platter and bowl that can be accented with attachments depending on the occasion. Jenny happens to have the same one so I borrowed her present attachment!

Little Abby was the life of the party!

We always have fun hanging out with our neighbors!

I made myself a Cookie Pie,

everyone sang and enjoyed cake!

It was a pretty fun day! Tuesday was back to the grind...We have a pretty low key weekend plan. Hope you all enjoy your weekend!

All About Matt

As I was writing this post, I realized it was pretty much all about Matt! So it should be entertaining!

For those of you that didn't get my snapchat,

And that is all you need to know! ;)

We finally bought a grill!! We decided to go big and get a Traeger. Someone was a little excited...

And what was the first thing we grilled on it????

You guessed it: a frozen pizza! Only because the meat wasn't thawed in time. Don't worry, we have also made steaks. I think it will be a great addition to our pool parties this summer.

Matt transitioned to his very own office at work a few weeks ago so we decided it was finally time to decorate.

Here is what we came up with!

The black rectangle is his new dry erase board! Cool, right!?

We also used our new Nebraska cutting board. This is Huskers N Arizona to the fullest!

We are just about all caught up back in real time. My grandpa and mom were in town for my birthday over the weekend so hopefully I will get that posted sometime this week. Have a great week!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Hello friends! I hope you are all adjusting to the changing weather. Ours went from really hot to real cold (for Phoenix), but we have had a few gorgeous days as of late. Well I was looking through my phone and noticed I took one picture in the last two weeks!! What have we been up to???? I will try to recapture it the best I can!

Two weekends ago we had another marathon hang out event with our neighbors across the street. Every time we hang out with them it seems like it turns into a marathon event! It's pretty fun! On Friday we headed over to their place for a bonfire and game night! Our Quelf game got pretty serious late into the night! Then on Sunday we had them over for supper and football. It is so awesome being friends with your next door neighbors! You really can't be late, and if you forget anything it is no big deal to run home and get it. 

That Saturday we did some more hiking at our go to place, South Mountain. I did not take any pictures since I figured you have all seen enough of those!

This past week was a busy week at work with early morning and late night appointments every single day. I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving for a little break! Friday we finally made it to a little pizza place several people had told us we needed to go. They were right, it was so good!! We filled up on appetizers and had enough for lunch the next day! Saturday we had some friends over for a bonfire. They had to leave early to pick up their daughter from the babysitter so we headed to Tempe to meet up with one of Matt's friends that was in town. We enjoyed a nice game of bags, and I am happy to admit I actually scored points this time!! 

I spent most of Sunday giddy with excitement of the holiday season approaching us. The Christmas cards are ordered, our Christmas party is planned, office parties are RSVP'd to, Christmas cookie ingredients are purchased, and a whole bunch of other holiday things are on the calendar. 

Our church is participating in an Angel Tree, and we were so excited to get involved! For those that have not heard of this program (me until last week), you pick a child to buy a present for who has been orphaned due to their parents being incarcerated. We chose to get a gift for a baby girl. 

I cannot wait for Thursday to enjoy some time with some dear friends but also to begin our Black Friday shopping and pull out the Christmas decorations!!! The holidays are near my friends, get ready!! 38 days and counting :)

Atlee gets confirmed

Well we are now behind, again.....So here we go, another blast from the past.

As many of you know, a couple weekends ago I was back in Nebraska to watch Atlee get confirmed. I decided since it was almost April I would be fine not bringing a coat. I did wear pants and long sleeves assuming I would be okay. Normally, I overdress, and of course I think this time it was the coldest weather yet. Probably not, but it sure seemed like it! That night my mom took me to a fundraiser for the town. It was dueling pianos!!

It was so much fun! The audience really got into it!!

Saturday we headed to a track meet to watch Jadyn compete!!

Nolan and I definitely had a good time!



A few days before I got there I was really craving Taco John's for some reason. My family doesn't really eat there, but I made them eat there anyway!!

That night we had a kids' night and headed to the lake to get pizza. We pulled to the restaurant at the perfect moment.

It was gorgeous!!

Then we headed over to Lexington to do one of our favorite things, walk through Walmart. haha!! Then we enjoyed some ice cream. Nolan thought it would be comical to flip the blizzards upside-down to make sure they stayed put. The cashier was not pleased. We all had a good laugh!!

Then the celebration arrived!

We had a little photo session before church!





The confirmand!





The group just kept growing!! :)

This is what my dad was doing the whole time.

Then we headed over to my aunt and uncle's for dinner.



The food was delicious, and it was fun to hang out with so many people!
As always, the trip went way too fast. I am so thankful they have a quick flight that allows me to get home so easily. I came back on Monday and headed to work right away. I ended up seeing twice as many people that day as I did the previous Monday. It was one busy week!!

Easter was spent in Colorado Springs which I hope to get posted soon! Until then, enjoy!!

Christmas Review

Welcome to 2015! I thought I catch you up on the end of our 2014. We had LOTS of Christmas celebrations.

The weekend before Christmas we flew up to Denver to see Matt's family. Saturday we stayed at his aunt and uncle's along with his family. Sunday we headed up to Greeley for his extended family Christmas. He told me there would about 50 people there. Even though I heard him say that, I think I was only expecting about 18 people. So it came as a shock when there were more than 50 people there! Santa even stopped by for a visit.

I haven't had a picture with Santa for a long time.

He came with lots of presents for the little ones!

Luckily it wasn't too cold while we were there. It was another short trip (that's kind of what we do these days). We headed for the airport on Sunday night to fly back to Phoenix with my parents. 

Monday was Matt's birthday. He chose to do lunch at Chik-fil-a.

We even got a nice glimpse of the cow.

After lunch the boys went to TopGolf and had a total blast. The girls stayed home to make Christmas cookies.

Someone maybe missed the baking gene...(just kidding...kind of)

As if we didn't have enough baked goods, we also went and got some cupcakes to celebrate Matt's birthday.

There's the birthday boy!

That night we took my family to A Christmas Carol at a local theater.

I really enjoyed it. As we were walking out they had fake snow falling with Christmas lights everywhere. I was really getting into the Christmas spirit.

We headed to dinner at Oregano's for some yummy pizza.

and even more delicious dessert for the birthday boy!

Tuesday Jadyn headed off to work with me while the rest of the family finished Christmas shopping.

Twinning!

My dad decided to take over as pool boy while he was here.

We met them for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed more dessert!

Christmas Eve morning I made a Christmas brunch.

We enjoyed punch, monkey bread, chocolate dipped fruit and a breakfast casserole.

Then we headed down the street for a quick little game of basketball.

Again, Jadyn and I dressed like twins!

We were hosting Christmas Eve that night so everyone got to work.

Whew! I was getting pretty tired by this point. But it was time for the celebration to start!

Always love our pew selfies!

We came back for appetizers and soup with my grandparents and great aunt and uncle.

I think I made enough appetizers for 50 people (there was 11 of us!). Matt and I have been filling up on leftovers, but I think everything from Christmas is now gone...We are still eating turkey from Thanksgiving!

After everyone left, we opened a few presents. Matt opened his birthday gift and everyone else got to open one gift.

We gave Nolan his favorite gift!!! ;)

He was pretty excited!

I think my dad liked his too!

Christmas morning we woke up for Santa gifts and finished opening the rest from everyone else. Remember when you used to take a picture of all your gifts you got for Christmas?? I don't think I should probably do that anymore, but I was really excited for all of mine! Christmas day we headed down to my grandma and grandpa's for lunch. Again we had our fill of yummy food!

The day after Christmas we headed to Maricopa for another meal with some more family members. After lunch us kids headed over for some more basketball.

We played a nice little round of "LLAMA" and "on the line."

These two enjoyed some quality time with aunt Daisy.

That night Matt built a nice fire for us to enjoy.

Saturday the boys took us over to their new favorite place, TopGolf. Apparently everyone else figured out it was their favorite place too-it was packed!. We didn't end up playing. Guess we know what we will be doing next time they come!

We still had time for pictures!

That afternoon we loaded up and took them back to the airport. 

We were a little squished!

We had a great time! Hopefully our first visitors come back and see us again soon!

P.S. Happy Bachelor Monday!!!