8 Years of Marriage

Mark and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary this past weekend in Las Vegas. It's been 6 yrs since we've been there, which is crazy to think I was pregnant with Lily at the time. Feels like just yesterday. Time really does fly when your having fun!
We had a wonderful time together. I always enjoy spending alone time with Mark. Though I did shed some tears cause I missed the kids, I will always appreciate the few times we get to be kid free. I was pretty happy to hug my babies when I got home though, I love them more then life.
I love my Mark so much. He is such a patient, loving and thoughtful spouse. I really got lucky having my perfect match. Our friendship is still strong, but I love him more and more everyday as I see the kind of Man he is becoming. I'm often told marriage isn't easy, and is hard work. But I think it's easy with Mark. (maybe he feels differently with me...not sure how he does it!) Here's to our Forever!

 Sometimes we like to pretend we are fashionable and get all dolled up. Lily did not recognize me in the photo. 'you never wear lipstick!' lol

 Why yes, yes we did gamble in Vegas. Mark did a Sports book, lost $10, every team he picked lost their game..suck! We also spent 3.5 hrs at the Westgate Superbook, it was pretty cool. Our favorite is Roulette, which combined we made about $40!

 We were asked by friends 'what do Mormons do in Vegas?!' Well, we EAT! So many good buffets, I definitely shot my diet...but sooo worth it. Mark got to go to Wahlburgers, which was delicious. But Mark Walburg did not show...dang it.

 All the many fun things to see in Vegas. We love Coca Cola world, trying all the flavored sodas from all over the world. Then, I found Doner Kabab! I was so happy and it was delicious! Then there was the poster of Vince Neal we passed daily...he's the man. lol

 Bottom right photo is our first taste of a Macaroon. They are heaven.

 All the many selfies. Cause I'm too shy to ask anyone to take our picture!

 On our Anniversary, we did a dinner and a show package. We went to see Mystere by Cirque dis Ole. It was amazing. I am always in awe by these artists abilities. My favorite were the two strong men balancing off one another, SO STRONG!

The Bellagio is always my favorite to visit. they had it decorated for fall and it smelled amazing in there. So beautiful.

Student of the Month!

Look who got Student of the Month for September! Lily is obviously loving school and doing really well. She had one day on Orange (which is a warning color) and that changed everything for her. She made it a goal to be above Green everyday and has kept to that. She has been on Pink (which is the best color). We are very proud of our Lily.

And now other random stuff that happened this month and last month...

 He's so dreamy

 Lily and Jacob love playing together. This particular day, Lily had been gone golfing with Mark all day. When she got home, they were inseparable.

 We went to Tucson for the U of A game and Marks birthday. This gave us a chance to go on a date to the Tucson Temple. It's bee awhile since we've gone together. It was so nice.

 Mark is now the old age of 31. The other day he thought he was only 30...silly man.

 I reached 285 lbs on my deadlift...inching closer to the 300 club.

 I got a new haircut, It's funky and I like it. I even got on instagram!

 Lily and her friends. They are so cute!

Student of the Month celebration at Rodizio, love this girl!

Lily's First day of Kindergarten!

The day I've been dreading for months finally arrived. Lily started her first day of Kindergarten. I'm not as destroyed as I thought I'd be. Shed a few tears, get chocked up still when I think about it, but overall I'm excited she is going to school. I was lucky that the school she's attending has half days! That has helped me to be okay with her leaving me everyday.
She had a great first day, short, but she enjoyed it. She picked out her outfit to wear for day one. She said, ' the kids are going to see me and think, wow, who is that cool girl, I'd like to be her friend!' lol. Grammy came and Mark came along to see her off on her first day of school. I promised her I would not cry, but I chocked back tears several times. And after we picked her up, we celebrated with some Fogo.

I created the board last minute, cause I completely spaced it. Had Tina and Mark look it over and they did not notice anything wrong with it. Then post it on facebook and of course, someone points out the misspelling. Can't win with these things...FIRST, not Fist. One dang letter! lol, oh well, at least she looks cute :)

Bottom left pic is when she woke up in the morning for her first day. How crazy is that hair! Crazy hair the whole day! lol
I love my girl so much!

July 2017

 We started out the month packing and moving into our new home. We  are all settled in, and love our home. We also celebrated July 4th in Chandler, took a break from packing to enjoy some fire works and Bahama Bucks.

 Lily had her last day of The Little Gym. Since she is starting school and we live 45 min away, thought it was time to find a new place to play. She will miss her friends and her teacher Mr. Ralph who gave the best high fives.

 We've been enjoying the crazy weather, which also created a lake at the park down from our house. Lily was dying to go into the water...but yuck. the playground was totally flooded! luckily this is AZ and it dried up within days.

 Now that we are moved into the house, I can focus again on personal goals. We've started Macro counting, and have met with a trainer for body fat measurements so we can get an accurate count on our Macros. My goal is to reduce body fat percentage to 20%. At start of the month I was at 26%, four weeks later at 24%, so I'm losing about 2% every 4 weeks which is great for me! The biggest difference I've seen is my performance when I'm keeping to my Macros. I'm a lot faster and definitely stronger! I finally got my 120 lb clean and jerk, 285 lb deadlift and a 130 clean. The difficult park is not getting caught in a food rutt. We've been meal prepping every sunday, but this week I've not wanted to eat anything I've prepped! Need to focus on the goal and keep in mind it's helping.

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I also participated in CFST july competition. We were randomly partnered with another participant. I had a lot of fun working with my partner, she did great. I love doing completions cause it's further motivation for me to improve my performance. Three workouts, I met my PR for clean and jerk, which was awesome. I love crossfit.

June and More

We have been busy little bees this month!


First off, I can't remember everything that happened in June. BUT I'll do my best...
We went to Utah to visit family. We love to visit Utah in the summer to escape from the desert heat. We had lots of fun visiting with cousins, Aunts and Uncles and going to Lagoon and eating lots of fry sauce. Every time we visit we want to move to Utah. but then we remember the winters and quickly change our minds. Who knows, maybe we will decide to endure the winters to have some amazing summers.

Visiting temple square with our eternal family, standing on the Balcony of Aunt Michelle's (they have an amazing view) and Lily just being Lily

Spending time with cousins is the best! We got to hang out a lot with my sisters kids while Mark golfed with his uncle. I love being with them. Lots of fun at the rec center where Sarah works as a lifeguard...such a hottie!

We (as in I) wanted to spend some time in nature. I've always wanted to go to Bridal Veil falls, but always thought it was further up the Canyon. It was so easy to get to! and we had such a blast wadding in the water. Love when I can take the kids out doors to see this beautiful world.

Funny note on the bottom left pic, Mark was trying so hard not to get his shoes wet...it was entertaining to watch.

Happy 33rd Birthday to me! I love to escape to someplace we can all enjoy on my birthday. No birthday cakes, singing or 'what does mommy want'. I love to just see everyone have fun! So, we all went to Lagoon to enjoy some rides. Funny story: rafting ride was closed most of the day till the end of the night, we all (including Jacob) rode it about 6 times so we were SOAKED! after it closed, Tina and I ran to ride Cannibal, which I guess is the scariest ride there. I was terrified I was going to slip right out of the ride cause I was so wet. Well, the ride was so terrifying, when it finished, all I could say was 'what the hell was that!' Loved it/hated it. lol WELL, when I got off the ride, my seat was all wet from the rafting ride and it looked like I'd peed the seat! When I saw the next person get on, it was some cutesy teenage girl on a date, she saw the seat and said 'ew' haha! she totally thought it was pee, so did her boyfriend and the guy controlling the ride so they had to wait to clean it. I yelled walking out that it was not pee, but they couldn't hear me. It was so hilarious Tina and I had a good laugh. Though, with how scary the ride was, it could have been a little pee too. lol'

Then we came home to some awful heat and wished we could go back to Utah. 

My little Jacob-boo boo turned 2! Goodness I love this boy so much! He is getting to be such a big boy, and tall! 78th percentile for height. He is saying more and more words everyday, I can understand most of what he is saying. He loves to laugh, people are always commenting on how happy he is, and he truly is a happy kid! He love Ninja Turtles, Batman, Race cars and singing 'Try everything' by Shakira from Zootopia. He is afraid of Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol. He loves to play Ninja with his sister and is SUCH a cuddler. He loves to sing, his favorite book is 'I love Slop' by Mo Willems and he is a total Mamas Boy. He is a picky eater, and has a lot of Horton boy qualities. He has a high pitch scream that makes your ears bleed when he is upset, but we still love him. He loves to swim and play in the splash pad, and is just the bestest boy in the whole dang world! Love Love Love him!

We got to celebrate his birthday in Utah with Family and again in Phoenix, except Mark had a business trip on his birthday, so it was just a day of fun for Jacob instead of a full on birthday celebration.

We had Donuts for his cake, since those are his favorite. And then went to the park to play with Cousins. I love how much they love their cousins. So wish we could live close.



On his birthday we went to Toys R Us for him to pick his birthday present. Anything he pointed to I placed in the cart. When we were done I showed him each thing he had picked and he said yes to the one he wanted. Out of all of them, he wanted a Golf set, saying 'Gof Bow! He loves to play golf. Mark takes him to the Range with Lily and he never wants to leave. So, Mark is a happy dad. Then it was too hot to bake a cake so we decided to go to Bahama Bucks for Snow.

We went to Tucson the week following Utah for the Tucson Temple open house. Exciting to see a Temple in Tucson. It'll be great to do a session when it is all finished.

We went to Stray Dogs in Tucson after the temple, they have a ridiculous Milk Shake, Jacob enjoyed the Donut.

 Love my Eternal Family

 Lily is so funny

Then the big event...WE ARE NOW HOME OWNERS!!
After lots of searching, lots of paperwork, we finally closed on the house June 30th, 2017. We are now moved in to the house and just looking forward to putting everything in its proper place. We love our cute little home. It's perfect for our little family and we are happy to finally be done with renting (hopefully indefinitely). It has two cute little trees, a patio and porch in the front. Three Bedrooms plus a den and it's located in a great neighborhood next to a park and Lily's Elementary school which are within walking distance. We paid the price we wanted, got all appliances included and closed within a month of offer. The process was actually not as bad as I'd anticipated, so we are happy campers. I'll post more pics of the house once it's done, but we are very happy.

Closing day 

We celebrated at the splash pad

The kids and I enjoying our new space.

Lily's pink princess room