Anahi's Blessing

My Sister and Brother came to Utah to bless my sweet little neice over Memorial Day weekend. It was so fun to see her again and see how much she has grown already! It was Chris's first time to get to see her and I think he even got a few smiles out of her.
I have so many pictures I need to still put on here from their trip home, but that is for another day...

Wicked

May 3rd I got to go see the play WICKED. It was so awesome! I didn't really know to much about what the play was about before. I loved it! My whole family got to go with my Grandma and cousins. My cousins Melissa and Rachel and Aunt Becky were the ones that got us our tickets, it took them forever to get them. They got them before they went for sale on the public through Zions Bank but for some reason it wasn't letting them log on so they stayed up super late to get them for us! So thank you!
We ate at PF CHANGS... It was delicious. Then walked over the the theater. After the play we went to walk back to our car and it was pouring down rain. So my sweet brother had brought an umbrella and carried it the whole way to the car so I didn't get wet!

Graduation

On may 1st Chris graduated with his bachelors degree from Weber State. It was a very exciting day. I am so proud of him making it to this point. He has worked so hard for so long it doesn't seem real that he doesn't have homework right now to work on! It felt like it would never get here! Chris's mom Becky, and I had to convince Chris that he should walk... And doesn't he look cute!? I loved all of these pictures so there is bunch on here. He is so relieved to have all that hard work done. Even though most likely he will be applying for his masters in the fall.

Of course we had to get a picture by the wildcat.

Here we are with my Parents:

Here is Chris's Family:

After the graduation we had reservations at the Union Grill. So after we ate we decided to take a few pictures by the huge trains while we were all dressed nice.

Chris decided that he was going to drive the train..

Here we are at the Union Grill after we had just stuffed ourselves full with delicious food.

Later that night we had some cake. I was introduced to this costco sheet cake by my sister and have been craving it ever since. So amazingly we fit more food into our already stuffed stomach!

Congrats Chris... I am so proud of you for reaching this goal and for supporting our family.

3 yr Anniversary trip and Chris's Birthday

For lack of funds from getting a new house and then pouring in thousands to fix it up we decided to do a little bit smaller of a Anniversary trip this year:) We both were able to get some time off and debated whether we should stay and work on our house or go to Zions, Yellowstone or Arches. Arches won and I am so glad that we went. We took off early in the morning and then just kinda winged it.. Found a hotel right next to the park for pretty cheap. It was so fun not really having a plan and just going!

Here we are at the Delicate Arch. AWESOME!!! See those tiny people under there.. Ya that is us :) It was so amazing...

I was suprised at how easy this hike really was.. It was only 3 miles.. Which after the day before when we hiked about 8 and 1/2 miles 3 seemed like nothing...

Alright.. So 8 miles might not sound to bad to most people but for me that was a long hike.. And the sign even said it was a difficult trail so lets just say that I am a pretty hard core hiker.

The double O arch was awesome... I don't understand how on earth it stays up but pretty amazing if you ask me!

We hiked off the trail a little ways and found this really pretty look out. It is kinda crazy how you feel like you in totally in this desert but if you get up high you can see snowy mountains in the back ground..

Here is Chris being a brave guy... I had no idea that there was such a huge drop off behind him when I took this picture or else i would have been freaking out!

While we were out there it was Chris's 26th birthday! I feel kinda bad that we hardly ever get to do much for his birthday since it is 2 days before our anniversary... Atleast we are doing something fun I guess.. I don't think that he minds:) This year to celebrate on our way home we ate at Rodizios and it was delicious...

These pictures are from the first day we got there.. By the time we had made it there and had gotten into the park it was about sunset time so we went to the Windows since it is the easiest walk to get there... The sunset was so pretty and it made the Arches look even cooler..

Here is Chris jumping in the arch.. It looks like he is like jumping so high!

This was the only time I wore a jacket.. The wind was a little chilly that night..

Check out my sweet new shoes... We made it to our hotel that first night and we getting ready to just go and walk around for a bit and we then realized we didn't pack my hicking shoes!!! Hello that is all we came out here to do is hike! So we went into town and the first shop we went into had some cool ones and they were half off! So it worked out perfectly! Fastest shoe shopping I have ever done.. Chris said that it was only fitting that we got something for me cause we always seem to manage to get something cool for me on his birthday:) So happy birthday to me I guess...

It was such a fun trip... Even if it wasn't very big.. It was so great to have him all to myself and not have to share with school work or house work.

Our 3 year Anniversary!

How is it even possible that we have been married for 3 years!? Time sure does fly... This year has been a very exciting one for us. We went on our first cruise, became an Aunt and Uncle, moved out of our first home, and bought our first house! We have had so many great experiences together already and it has only been 3 yrs! I am so greatful for Chris for being such a hard working husband. He has been a extremely busy guy with trying to toss work, school, and working on our house and of course time with me. He has done a wonderul job

with all 4 things. I would be so lost without him...

When I look back at our wedding pictures I see us so in love. But the love that we had then has just grown so much stronger in the last 3 years. I have loved every minute of being married to Chris and look forward to the many years to come and then eternity!

Jazz Playoff Game

We were lucky enough to get to go to one of the Playoff games with the Deamers. It was so awesome and so fun! We we on like the 8th row in the middle of the court... Couldn't have had more perfect seats!

I have only been to one other Jazz game so I don't have to much to compare it to. But it was LOUD! The whole game it was crazy.. They seemed to keep it together for a while but then they lost it after half time. They started getting their butts kicked and some people started to leave! We didn't give up on them... But obviously it didn't help:)

Our beautiful niece is here!

Anahi Hope

Born April 9, 2009

7 lb 7 oz

This last week has been so much fun with welcoming my sweet little niece. She is truly precious. Everything about her is just perfect! Last Thursday me, my mom, and dad started to drive out to Washington at 4 am. It usually takes us about 12 hrs to get to Washington. Amanda went into the hospital at 6:30 am and ended up not having her till right after we arrived at the hospital! It was crazy, we didn't think there was no way we would make it! It was so sad for me to come home and leave the little lady. She is so fun. I can't wait to see her again! And poor Chris had to stay and work so he hasn't even gotten to meet her yet.

Ana we love you so so much! We are so proud to be your Aunt and Uncle!

What we have been up to..

(Our pile of "who knows what" out on our porch)

More like what Chris as been up to:)  We have been keeping very busy with working on our home.  Especially Chris.  He goes from school to work to the house and then starts all over again the next day.  Poor guy.  He has already done all of the demolition, all new plumbing, and is almost finished with re-doing all of the electric in the whole house!  He is doing such a great job and I really appreciate all that he is sacrificing for our family.

Here is Chris's Valentines present from me.  I knew he needed one and what better thing to get for Valentines day:)  That wheelbarrow has already come very handy to have.

Down in our basement we have a lovely sump pump..  It is going to have to be moved but that is for another day.  That should be very interesting.  I am amazed how much water is under our house.  I hadn't ever seen one before we got this house and it kinda makes me nervous, but it seems to do it's job good enough.

Here is Chris working on the plumbing!  It went very smoothly. Thanks to my Dad for helping Chris get going on it.

This is part of our family room. It had wall paper on half of the wall which wouldn't have been to big of a deal, get it wet and peel it off right? No, it was painted over.  So Chris decided it would just be easier to rip it out and then put new sheet rock there.  What you can't see in this room is that half of the ceiling ended up getting torn out too, so that he could do the electric work easier. 

Our beautiful stairs:)  If you look really close you can see the lovely flooring that was underneath our quality green and pink carpet. 

These three pictures are from the living room upstairs.  This is looking out into our backyard.  The big window in the middle is going to be replaced because there is moisture in it.  

Here is the fire place upstairs.  It took Chris FOREVER to get all of the plaster off of it.  In this room there was paneling on all of the walls, which we would have kept, but it was bubbling up so we took it off and then found some interesting wall paper... We were laughing so hard when Chris took it off this wall.  There was a "lovely" wall paper picture that was put on above the fireplace.  We thought about keeping it but then Chris ripped it out ..:)

This is the wall between the kitchen and front entryway.  Before, it had this huge piece of glass right where you can see there is no wall built.  It was pretty ugly.  So with the help of my Dad and brother, they got it out safely. Since then Chris has rebuilt that wall.  

Here is our poor torn apart kitchen.  There use to be a pinkish looking tile in here.  

It has definitely been a learning process with all we have done already.  We still have so much to do!  It is crazy how fast time has gone by.  It might not look like much has been done, but trust me, it looks better now than when we got it:) Demolition was fun and exciting but it feels great to  finally be starting to put it back together instead of tearing it apart:)