Mom's 60th Birthday

After months of planning, preparing, creating, worrying, stressing, collecting, calling and inviting, my mom's birthday party officially went off without a hitch (except the major haboob that hit Chandler right at about the moment she was supposed to walk through the door). 

We had about 35-40 people show up through the night to wish my mom a Happy Birthday and celebrate her 60 years of life.  She was touched and shocked to have so many people show they loved her, and she had a wonderful evening with all her friends and family. 

A Journey Down Lily's Memory Lane... we found this great company who actually took real live memories and turned it into a "Memory Lane"and printed it off in a frame and matted. It looked great and she loved it!

Oh No the Big Six-Oh! cake and pictures of her as a baby/toddler.

After months of work, we finally collected 60 memories for her 60 years of life from all her friends and family and put them together in air mail envelopes and tied them up for her to read, laugh and remember when she had the time. 

We hope she loved the party as much as we had fun planning it! We love you Mom!

Chronicles of dieting nightmares...

Being a bride is hard.  Not only is there an immense amount of pressure to look like absolutely perfection on your wedding day, but add that to an already insecure image of your body and a never-ending battle with your weight and you've got a nasty mixture.  Enter: Diet #23423.  (Slight exaggeration.)  I figure at this point, I'll give anything a shot.  Between P90X, spinning and a meal replacement shake or two a day, I'll certainly lose the 15 pounds I need to lose in less than three months, right? One can hope.  I'm just thankful Justin thinks I'm pretty no matter what, but it's hard not to compare yourself to the perfectly proportioned women in the magazines with bright smiles, manicured nails and waists as big as my arm.

I'm trying USANA for meal replacement shakes.  If nothing else, I'll be adding more calcium to my diet because I hate drinking milk by itself.  Everyone wish me luck as I make my way through the next 11 weeks.

If only I could look like the girl on the right after 90 days of this program..

My last resort.

Welcome Savannah Kate Fiedler!

On July 18, 2012, my niece, Emilee, was induced. After a long, painful labor process, she had a relatively smooth delivery and Savannah Kate entered the world!

7 lbs. 4.9 oz and 20 inches of perfect baby cuteness! See for yourself :)

The onesie I had made for her hospital stay!

First time she was held by her favorite Aunt :)

Thinking hard!

I love wrinkly baby skin!

As she grows, more pictures will be added. We are so blessed to have this sweet girl in our life now and can't wait to watch her change and grow over the years.

4th of July

While the rest of the world geared up to celebrate America's 236th birthday and their independence, the ladies of my office geared up for...well...Magic Mike.  Justin gave me his blessing to have a girls night out on Tuesday and so I did!

The invitation we printed and handed out :)

Ten of the girls got together and we had DELICIOUS food at the Brick in downtown Phoenix, accompanied by delicious drinks, shots and sangria! It was absolutely hysterical and perfect girl bonding time!  Some of the girls took a shot called the "Justin Bieber" which was fruity, pink and fantastic.

Some of my favorite ladies in the whole
world with our Justin Bieber shots!

Red cherry sangria.. yummy!

Eunice, Kara and I taking no-hand shots!

Eunice's first try :)

After dinner and drinks, we headed out to see Magic Mike.  The movie wasn't as great as we had hoped it would be, but the men were definitely pretty to look at!  Overall, it was a really fun evening and I'm so happy I got the chance to hang out with some of these girls outside of work.  I can't wait for our next girl's night out, whatever it may be.

On a different note, July 4th in Arizona this year officially sucked!  It hasn't rained here in, oh, 5 months.  Not even a single drop.  Today, we were overcast, cloudy and it rained on and off all day! Of course, the one day every American expects it to be hot, sunny and perfect for fireworks.  We barbecued anyway, made pasta salad and had Meghan and Christopher over to swim in the cloudy weather.  Aside from the fact that it was sorta chilly in the water, we had a really fun afternoon.  It was nice to have a break in the middle of the work week, but Justin and I are not excited to head back to work and the gym tomorrow.

Our pathetic pooches, sleeping soundly
next to each other on the bed!

Until Justin and I decide to have kids, our dogs are our life
and we love our little Fergi so much!  She's our princess.

Look at this happy boy :)  Sweet man!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  Hope it was safe and that everywhere else in the US had great weather!

xoxoxo

wedding mania

This month of wedding planning has been fabulous, hard, wonderful, busy, stressful and fun.  Sometimes all at once, other times, all separately.  Right now, I'm mostly feeling stressed out and really, extremely overwhelmed.  I had no idea how much actually went into planning a wedding before I went and decided to plan my own.  Oh, what I would give to be able to afford a wedding planner... someone I can bounce an idea off and they know exactly how to run with it and make into something beautiful, creative and affordable.  Instead, I have Justin who stares this blank stare with absolutely no recognition on his face at all.  Almost comatose.  God knows I love him, though. 

This is what's on the agenda this month:

Invitations - we finally got them in and now I have to dedicate three consecutive nights of my life to addressing them in beautiful penmanship I just don't have.  Along the road somewhere, I lost my perfect teacher handwriting and it turned into chicken scratch.  Sorry in advance if your invitation looks as though a third grader wrote it!

Sneak peek of our invitations... they are absolutely beautiful, just what I (we) wanted.  Too bad they involve assembly!

Bridal party/groomsmen gifts - All the girls are taken care of and I got a little present for myself! I can't wait for this baby to be in pictures... they are going to be adorable.  I know our photographer, Annie, will take gorgeous pictures of us girls with these hangers...  Now, I need Justin to light a fire and buy his groomsmen gifts. Chop, chop!

I also have a special something for the plates at the reception that we need printed, we need to order our lanterns and twinkle lights, get the boys fitted for their tuxes, oh, and breathe.

Who would have known it would be this much work to become....

food creations

This week, I have ventured out of my comfort zone and right into PINTEREST zone! I absolutely love having this wonderful website to browse through anytime I want to create a yummy dinner or dessert!  Yesterday, I made Baked Sweet N' Sour Chicken with Brown Fried Rice (a really healthy, less greasy version of takeout).  It was DELICIOUS and Justin begged me to make the fried rice again any time I felt the need for Chinese food.

Yummy, delicious and HEALTHY baked sweet and sour chicken with brown fried rice! 

Tonight, I made Mexican stuffed shells and Mexican rice! Of course I found this recipe on Pinterest as well... and I'm pretty sure Justin is excited to try another real home cooked meal.  He despises Pinterest out loud but I think on the inside, he sort of loves it because it gives me wonderful ideas to cook and bake :)

This weekend, since it's Memorial Day, I am going to be doing some baking and trying out new recipes! I love when I have the time to actually bake and really put all my effort into making some delicious concoction.  Will update with more pictures later...

xoxo

Wiggles

We finally did it - we decided to foster a dog!  We worked with this amazing rescue organization in Phoenix called Arizona Cactus Corgi Rescue (of course we chose Corgis) and we met Geo, a 7 year old male Corgi with a variety of health issues.  He was brought in from down in Southern Arizona after being rescued from a high kill shelter.  He has bad hips, high liver and kidney values, a massive inguinal hernia, the beginning signs of cataracts and a broken tooth but oh my gosh, does he wiggle! He has the SWEETEST personality, loves belly scratches and will practically throw his body in your lap if you sit on the floor.  We have nicknamed him Wiggles (he actually only comes to Wiggles and not Geo at all) and we think it's sticking. It has been two nights since we brought him home and he's fitting in just fine.  He's quiet, sleeps through the night, for the most part gets along with Miles and Fergi (just asserting his domination and figuring out his place) and naps a lot! We just feel really good inside knowing this pup has a happy home while he gets better until he can be adopted out to a forever home, if that ever happens. 

the happy trio :)

as you can see, he clearly made himself right at home while the originals ate his toys!

Since this weekend was the hottest it has been since the year started (over 105 degrees each day), Justin and I decided to take full advantage and get in our pool! Since our backyard is still such a disaster (a temporary/permanent work in progress), the pool is our little sanctuary.

my new bikini!

taking pictures inside before heading out to enjoy the sun

hope everyone has an incredible week! xoxoxoxo

emilee's baby shower

We had Emilee's baby shower on Sunday, May 6, 2012.  My mom (Emilee's grandma) worked hard to put together a cute pink and green themed shower for Emilee and baby Savannah.  Some of Emilee's friends from high school came all the way down from Heber to help her celebrate, and I know Emilee was really grateful.  Overall, she had a really great day!  She received lots of gifts and adorable clothes for baby S, including that adorable onesie I had personalized just for her! I hope Emilee puts Savannah in it on the way home from the hospital :) The following weekend, we went to Emilee's house to see Savannah's nursery and Emilee has it all put together!  It looks like she has everything she needs.  Now we just need to wait til July for Savannah banana to make her appearance!

Cute onesie I had made for Emilee and baby S!

Pictures by Becca Young Photography.

Adorable view of some of the onesies/gifts my mom had lined up on the clothesline for Emilee as decorations!

The whole picture!

A week's worth of adventures!

I haven't updated in a little over a week because things have been so busy! Where do I even begin?

How about with some pictures of my favorite pooches in the whole world? Yeah, I'm a tad obsessed but if you had faces like that to come home to every day, you'd be o

bsessed, too.  I love my Miles and Fergi!  We got Fergi a t-shirt (she absolutely LOVES wearing clothes and refuses to have her pajamas taken off when we put them on) that says "high maintenance" and it fits her so perfectly.  She's a brat!

Anyway, time to move on...

Last weekend, my mom and I spent the day together finalizing the wedding invitations order.  I ended up being really happy with the end product and we got the proof this week! I can't wait to see how they look on paper with our names on it.  I can't believe it's getting so close already! Less than 6 months! 6 months from today, we'll be on our way to Mexico for our honeymoon! Pure bliss!

This past weekend, my friend Teresa and I drove together to celebrate our friend Tera's birthday.  We went to the Vig Uptown (a really contemporary, "cool kid" bar in Phoenix) and we had a fun time meeting all her friends and celebrating her birthday.  Teresa tried really hard to convince me to stop at a psychic on the way home so I finally gave in but it turned out, the psychic had closed her doors for the evening.  Saved by the CLOSED sign!

This is the lady who believes a psychic has all the answers :) I love her.

Saturday, Justin and I went over our budget (never fun or exciting) and did our grocery shopping.  I decided to start stealing some meal ideas from Pinterest (my favorite website EVER) and do freezer crockpot meals with fresh vegetables and meat.  All the reviews say they are absolutely delicious so here's to hoping my freezer bag meals turn out as delicious as they smelled. 

Saturday night, Justin and I went to Amy and HR's birthday party (their birthdays are a week apart) to help them celebrate as well.  We played corn hole and caught up with everyone while munching on yummy food!  HR made a Battleship drinking game called "BattleShots"... you can imagine what that looked like.  It was a fun night!  Here's a quick pic of Brittney laughing so hard she couldn't control herself anymore and me laughing at her hysterically! 

Today, Justin went golfing to continue HR's birthday festivities and I slept in as late as the dogs would allow me.  I haven't been feeling really amazing the past few days so I'm going to try and keep taking vitamins and eating healthy and hope whatever I have goes away soon!  Kherington is coming over tonight while Britt goes to the hockey game so please send me strength to get through the night with a temperamental three year old! 

Til next week :)  xoxoxox

Pinterest

Last week, we went to Meghan and Christopher's house for dinner and we came up with a plan.  Every week, one of us would host a Pinterest inspired dinner and invite the other one over.  Last week, we had crock pot chicken tacos at their house and tonight, we had a balsamic vinaigrette pork tenderloin with roasted red potatoes and fresh green beans! It was pretty yummy for my very first time ever making a pork tenderloin and I have to say, I'm proud of myself :) We spent the evening watching the hockey playoffs and eating, while I held their baby Chase and loved on him for a little while! It was a perfect, relaxing evening.

Chase's two month old picture (just a quick idea of how adorable he is)! 

Our pork tenderloin, cut in half, marinated in balsamic vinaigrette, fresh thyme, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper.

Searing the tenderloins on each side for 1.5 minutes before sticking in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Delicious roasted vegetables... I love red potatoes!

The finished product and it's pretty presentation! It was a definite success!

Overall, we had a fantastic weekend.  We worked on home projects including painting all the trim in the loft and bedroom and refinishing the doors in the master bedroom.  It feels so good to be productive and accomplished!

Easter weekend

 This year, I decided to make an Easter egg hunt for Justin... I know, I know, super cheesy! Buuuut, I filled each plastic egg with random dates (restaurant of his choice, movie of his choice, etc.) or things that he has wanted (a Sunday golf outing with his friends, uninterrupted video game time, etc.) I sent him on a hunt through the house and he happily collected all of the eggs.  I think he thought it was thoughtful on my part that I put it together for him, so he decided to return the favor.  I am patiently waiting for the eggs to be hidden for me to search for at the moment :) I can't wait to start using our little "date cards"!

 The night before Easter, our friends Aimee and Jon invited us out for a drink and to celebrate the LA Lakers loss against the Suns! Yeaaaaaah! Go Suns!  We spent the night playing pool and shuffleboard, and Aimee even got me to karaoke! Crazy, I know, but still pretty fun! It was nice to get out of my shell a little bit.

 Jon and Justin enjoying a drink (or 5)...

 Justin and I, celebrating on Easter Eve :)

 On Easter Sunday, we went to my mom's house and had dinner with the entire family!  Yummy smoked ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans and delicious desserts! Our friend Kara and her little baby Mia came to spend Easter with us as well since her family lives out of town in Oregon! All the ladies LOVED fussing over her sweet little girl, and it was extra practice for my niece since she'll be having her own here very shortly...

 Another picture of Justin and I on Easter Sunday!

The star of the whole weekend: Mia! She's such a sweet baby...so good, mild mannered, quiet and giggly! We loved getting to spend the day with her!

Hopefully everyone else had as good of a weekend as Justin and I did! Happy Easter!

xoxo

but I want to live with the baboons!

The night after Justin's birthday party, we woke up bright and early to hang with Kherington while her mama went on a fundraiser walk with some friends from work.  We decided it was a beautiful day and why stay cooped up inside if we didn't have to?  We headed to the Phoenix Zoo where apparently every other Phoenician had our exact same thoughts - it was PACKED! Not exactly the best day to take a three year old to the zoo but nonethless, it was still fun.  Between the renting of the stroller, the "I want out of the stroller!" "I want in the stroller!" "Pick me up!" "Put me down!" "Let me see the animals!" "I'm hungry!" "I need to go potty...RIGHT NOW!" and "I want to live with the baboons!"... it was a very long day.  I love this little girl to pieces but man, oh man, was I exhausted after this little adventure.  She completely wore her Uncle Justin and Aunt Nenna out! 

 

 Kherington looking at the zebras..

 Beautiful purple blooms near the monkeys!

Kherington's little hand, looking at the baboons! They were her favorite!

 She wanted to pick the nose of every single fake animal she saw... so she did.

 Double the picking, double the fun!

This is Kherington, riding the reindeer... she told me "it was a REINDEER, not an a sheep." (Apparently, it was some weird type of large horned sheep.) Hello, stupid me.. why didn't I get the memo?