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

Mayo 2017

Cannot believe May is over already. Time is going so fast!
We had a eventful month...
Started out the month joining some friends at Lego Land here at the AZ mills mall. It was fun, and the kids loved it. We went with a group, but I'm not good about taking pictures of Lily with other kids, always afraid their parents will think I'm a weirdo. Anyways, I think Jacob enjoyed it the most. Especially the Car Building station. He loves cars and building things. It's fun to see him finding his 'thing'.

Lily finished yet another season of Little Gym. I'm impressed more and more every day by her. Not so much what she can do, but who she is becoming. She's always the first to welcome a new friend, check on others when they are feeling sad and making sure everyone is happy. She is also doing a great job of listening to Mr. Ralph and the other teachers, which is giving me hope for Kindergarten (two more months :(...). Love that girl so freaking much it makes my heart hurt!

Then we spent a few weekends in Tucson this month. Weekend One was for both Tinas birthday, and Mothers day. I had a wonderful mothers day, as usual. We went to both Tinas and my Mom's ward for church, Mark got us all little corsages (including Lily, so cute) to wear for church. Lily got to sing to me twice with primary, she was so freaking adorable! Then we had an awesome dinner made by Mark and Lily. It was cute to see them working together to make dinner. Lily and Jacob got me some beautiful new earings and tina also gave me some beautiful jewelry as well. It was a very nice day. The second weekend we went to spend some time with my mom, who we did not get to spend as much time with mothers day weekend. It's always nice to visit Tucson, and see old friends, but I'm sure glad I live where I am. I don't think I want to move back to Tucson unless we absolutely have to. Trying to convince the mothers to move up here, but we'll see. We'll be back in Tucson for the Temple open house, excited to see it!

Lily and I enjoying my moms garden and Jacob is learning to golf. He loves it!

My beautiful babes. Man o' man do I love them!

I took these two out to get some updated pictures for our place. Such cuties

For gifts for the grandmas, we took these pictures and put them into a frame decorated with puzzle pieces. Pinterest for the win!

This is how I wanted to celebrate mothers day. 'Mom hour of power' is what I like to call it. Marks gift for mothers day (celebrated the following weekend) Time at the pool to swim and lay out in the sun. SO relaxing.

Memorial day weekend we got to participate in a fun workout at CFST. It's called Murph, and it honors a fallen soldier who loved this specific workout. 1 mile run, 300 squats, 200 push ups, 100 pull ups and finish with another mile. It's a hard one when you do the full thing, but luckily we were able to split the workout, both had to run the two miles, but split the other sets. We did it in about 62 minutes, it was fun to participate and honor those who live and die for our freedoms. Next year we are doing the full.

The kids and I have spent a lot of time at the pool, taking advantage of it while we can. Jacob is awesome in the water, no fear and holding his breath. definitely going to put him in swimming once lily starts school. Lily's swimming is getting better, she's still afraid to swim with her face in the water, but she'll get it eventually.

Can't believe Jacob is turning two this month. He's such a goof. And talking more and more every day! Yesterday he said toilet paper, he struggles with his 's' but I'm able to make out the things that he says. He's a picky little eater, like his uncles, but has SO much energy! He is go go go 24/7, leaves me really tired at the end of the day, but as soon as I put him to bed, he falls asleep quick. He is the BEST little cuddler and so loving. Love my boy!

Can you spot the Stinker? Boy climbs everything!

Lily...my sweet wonderful Lily. She's just perfection. She's excited to start school in a few months, I'm slowly dying inside thinking about her not being with me every moment of the day. She's so ready for school though. I went to a school orientation for her, and she was grinning ear to ear the whole time. The teachers approached me to tell me how cute she was, and all I could think is 'I'M NOT READY!' I just pray she has an awesome teacher who will appreciate her, and help her to excel. I love her so very much! My babies are my heart and soul!

Some updates on our life: Mark resigned from BDO and moved on to a new company! We are excited about his new Job which he started the 31st. It is with a company called Avnet, Inc. They are #108 on the Forbes fortune 500 list and the largest HQ based company in all of Arizona. They are a pretty big deal ;) He works now in Internal Audit, which will give him a glimpse into all aspects of the company. It was a hard decision to leave BDO, Mark enjoyed his time there (not the hours) but now he gets to have a higher salary and more time to spend with us! He goes to Chicago in a few weeks and will travel a few more times in the year, but overall it seems like a great opportunity for him. We are hopeful.
We have also made an offer on a house in San Tan Valley! They have accepted our offer and we are just going through the loan process. Hopefully we will close on the house by the end of the month. This whole house buying stuff has been really stressful. I've been looking at houses for the past two months, went through two relators, scoped out seven homes and finally found the best one for our family. I really wanted to find one in Gilbert, found one but it had 20 offers made by the time we got to it, it was really discouraging. I gave up on Gilbert/Chandler/Mesa areas, WAY too expensive. We want our mortgage payments to be low, but did not want to compromise what we wanted, so we had to shop carefully. We decided despite the distance from Marks work, we would try looking in Queen Creek/San Tan Valley. And we found an awesome one level, 1800 SQFT home in San Tan Valley. There is a park three houses down from us, with a second larger park within walking distance. The elementary school is a 10 minute walk (but I may put her in a different school) and we are really close to the church, shops and splash pad. There is also a cool farm close by that is known for its big fall festival. And Found out yesterday that a neighborhood within walking distance is also part of a 'Winterhaven' like festival that's pretty well known for the Southeast area, so that'll be a fun Christmas Tradition. I just pray that all the financing goes through on time and we can be in the house by July. I'm such a pessimist sometimes, and always have a feeling that something is going to happen that will cause us not to be able to get the house. Hard for me to be hopeful. I'll just keep on swimming and enjoying our current place until keys are in hand for our new home.