Hello alll!

Hello all!!! My poor blog.... time to dust it off and update it with some pictures and whats been going on with us. I changed the template on here... and hate it. I don't know how to get back to my old one. So if anyone knows how.... please let me know. This new one is weird and don't like it. Anyways tho.....

Well.... the semester just ended....(seems like I only find time to update this in between semesters). It was a pretty hectic semester. Josh was once again taking over 20 credits... which makes for a very over welmed husband. Poor guy.... he did great tho... and is always so good about staying positive and motivated. He made it through....and rocked his classes! And he is soooo glad its over!

This was my first semester in my masters program..... and besides a few stressful moments.... it actually went pretty good! I got all A's which is fabulous! I have about a 3 week break til I start summer classes back up in June. I am definitely soaking up my time off for the next few weeks.

Normally about this time is when Josh and I packing up our things and moving to San Diego.... like we've done for the past two summers. Well.... the plan for this summer was Josh was going go to Cali as usual... but I was going to stay here because of my summer classes. Not the best plan... but that's what we were going to do. (I was going to visit on weekends by the way). Well... awhile back those plans changed because they decided to open a branch here.... right here in Phoenix!! It was a great day when we found that out... that meant we weren't going to have to be apart for the summer! Wahoo! We were a little sad to say farewell to our summers in San Diego... We had the best time over there.... and met some great people! But we are soooo excited to be staying here!! Below are some fun and random pictures!! Enjoy!!!



                          Back in January two of our best friends got married. It was a great day and we were sooo                               happy for them!!!        
     
                                                Me and my besty Bobbie. She looked beautiful!

                              Josh and I at the wedding. Such a fun night!!

                                       The happy couple..... sooo sweet!

                                                        All the guys!

My little sister Ciera was down from BYU Idaho this last semester... but she went back up in April. This was the night she left. We all went to BJ's for some dessert. We miss her!

This is at my older sister Shasta's baby shower. That was fun night and she got so much cute stuff!

                                                     
                                          At my nephews baseball game...

 My younger sister Molly went to prom! We found her dress for only $6.50. No joke. We went to the Dilliards in Fiesta mall...(it's now the discount store). The zipper had to be replaced... but other than that it was perfect for her. We added the purple ribbon... and she had purple high heels to match.. and a purple flower in her hair. Soooo cute!!!! They looked fabulous together!!!

 One day that Josh came home from volunteering at a dental event..... he was so exhausted. It was funny when he woke up tho... because the left side of his body/face was alseep. So he woke up all disoriented. I must say I laughed pretty hard.... When I showed him this picture he laughed pretty hard too...

 This was back on Valentines Day.... I had just got my hair done... and it was alot darker than I usually have it. It doesn't look like this now... because I'm due for a cut and color. But that's what it looked like when I first cut it.

 This was a notebook that I had for 1 class this semester..... 1 class! Luckily not every class I took was like this... but still.. I think it weighed like 5 pounds. It was a pain carrying it around towards the end.

                               We took some family pictures back around the holidays. 

Here are some things to come this year:


1.. Josh will be preparing to take the DAT in the fall. This is the big dental school exam that he takes before he applies.... it's pretty big deal.
2. I will start teaching Kindergarten in the fall.... which I am sooo excited for!
3. We will be welcoming a new little niece in June.... "Hadley Kay".
4. So.... probably come the fall.... we might just be getting a dog. Josh really wants one.... and I've put it off since we got married. You see I never grew up having a dog... and am not a huge dog/animal person... but..... I'm definitely getting better... and am excited to see what it's like! We will see what happens.

                                        Hope all is well with everyone!

Updates are here!

Yes yes......we are still alive! I know I've been slacking big time with updating this, but just so you know.... we are still around. Well, I just wanted to do some updates of what has been going on with us. When Josh got back from Cali and we moved into our new place. We have decided that moving really really really sucks! We feel like we are constantly moving.... (which if you look at the past few months.... it's kind of true.) Well anyways- we got moved in.... and are liking the new place. There are a few little things that I'm not loving.....but it's what you get when living in an apartment I guess. And besides still having things in boxes..... we are trying to settle in. Overall it's going good!!

About a week before I came home from Cali Josh's family came out there and we went to Disneyland/Cali Adventure. We had a great time!

At Cali Adventure



In front of Disneyland..... Happiest place on earth!


Waiting in line at the white water rapids.



In other news....Thanks to craigslist..... we got hooked up with some new things.... we got a new dining table...which I absolutely love! And we also got a new office desk.... which we also love. We didn't have a dining table in our last place because there wasn't really a place for it... so now that our new place does... we started looking on craigslist and after searching for awhile.... i finally found one that i love!




The week that we got moved in.... we also went to the John Mayor concert. Josh surprised me with the tickets a few days before. I was way excited! The concert was awesome! John Mayor is pretty much amazing on the guitar..... he was doing all sorts of crazy things on it.... and it sounded awesome! We were very impressed with the whole concert and had a great time!

At the John Mayor concert......










Besides being busy with school we have found some time to spend with family. Josh's brother Jarret is playing football this year so we have enjoyed going to his games every week. And they are undefeated too. So that's way awesome! We have also been seeing our nephews play at their soccer games, so that's fun to watch!

Nephew's soccer game....


Josh and Jarret at his football game



Well the semester is going good. It has been soooo incredibly busy for both Josh and I. Josh is at ASU and loving it. Although taking 21 credits is quite the full load... and he's been insanely busy with his classes. I'm taking 4 online classes and 1 down on campus. So with that many classes online = extremely busy and overwhelming at times. But we are getting through it. I am constantly counting down the weeks we have left. We are about half-way through.... so that's great! I am also very excited for the semester to be done because I will be graduating in December!!! I am so excited! I will have a BS in Family and Human Development with a minor in Sociology. So come December it will be farewell to ASU........



But come January it will be hello....... NAU!



I recently got accepted to the Master's program at NAU. It is right here in Mesa too, and I will be starting that in January. I will be getting my Master's in Education. I still can't believe I'm doing it.... but I'm really excited for it!

Well that about wraps up what's been going on with us. We are looking forward to the holidays coming up! I looove this time of the year. So I can't wait! Hope all is well! Much love to everyone!!

CALIFORNIA & UPDATES!!

Well our summer has just been flying by out here in Cali.... I can't believe it's going to be coming to an end soon. We have been way busy with work out here..... but it's been a blast. In between our time off of work.... we have been hanging out with friends.... visiting the beach and having BBQs. The weather over here has been gorgeous!! And up until this past week.... it has been pretty dang chilly over here. It's starting to warm up alot this week though- It's been nice tho being able to wear alot of my sweatshirts over here.


Our apartment out here is a little smaller than last year... but we are like 1 min away from our office for work so that's amazing.

Here is our living/family room...


Our kitchen.... we have a gas stove.... not sure if I am a fan


Our balcony over looking the street.... and a church is straight across the street.... so we get to hear the church bells.... every morning.... they never miss a morning.... didn't think churchs still rang bells..... but they DEFINITELY do!


I had to stack our movies.... there was no place to put them...haha!


Anyways- so in other news over here.... we sold Josh's truck about a month ago..... farewell to the giant blue beast... and hello to our new mustang. We thought it was a good idea to "downsize". Now we have cheaper tires and better gas mileage with the stang. It was a little sad for Josh when we said goodbye to his truck... he loved it so much.... but he is loving his new stang.

Farewell to the truck.....


Hello new stang.....


He has been pulled over twice over here acually...... but it was not for speeding..... Cali has a law that you are not allowed to talk on your cell phone while you are driving.... which is fine I guess....(safer drivers.... fewer accidents) but.... when you are not used to having that law...... when your phone rings...... your first instinct is to pick up. The first time was when he was driving over here to Cali- and the the 2nd time happened about 2 weeks and he luckily got out of it the 2nd time. Still kinda lame tho!

We did have some visitors for the 4th of the July. My two sisters Savanna and Ciera came over with our Friends Brad and Forrest. They stayed the weekend with us and we went to the beach and saw fireworks. It was great to spend the weekend with them.

We spent a day at the beach..... I got so sunburned....


Me with Savanna and Ciera....... and Ciera had a lovely tan on her legs...haha!


We played some beach volleyball... good times!


We bought the volleyball when we first got out here.... it is just like the one from Cast Away... with the bloody hand print.... and yes....... we refer to it as Wilson. Josh takes him everywhere.....haah! ok not really.... but he does keep it in his car so he always has it....haha!


We got this pizza here last year..... so we had to get it again when our visitors were here.... it's the biggest pizza I have ever seen.... and soooo good! The little one is just a normal size pizza..... that's how big it was.... it was awesome!



Josh works some long hours out here... He starts at 8:30 and doesn't get home til about 10pm at night sometimes.... So when he gets home.... he's pretty exhausted.... this is what happened one night.............




On Friday nights a few of us wives have been getting together and having cooking nights. The guys get home so late that we make lots for them when they get home. We have a good time! Aleece, Me and Chandee.....


The first time we made our own homemade pizza.... even the dough....(Chandee made it and it was amazing)



The pizzas were def a success!!




We have had lots of visits to the beach this summer.....

Chandee and Dawna with sweet Aiden..... relaxing in the sun.


Me Chandee and Aiden...



There was one night where a bunch of us went out to the beach when the guys got off work... so like 10 oclock.... and a bunch of them were acutally boogie boarding.... the beach was awesome at night..... a little scary but still way sweet. I was ofcourse freezing...... but Josh was having a ball with the boogie board....




Dawna me and Aleece.... staying close to keep warm.....




Well I think this may be the longest post I have ever done.....But there are some pics of our summer.... we have been having a blast! I can't believe it's almost over. Josh will be here another month....but I am actually coming home to AZ in about 2 weeks. The summer has seriously flown by.... I can't believe we'll be starting back up at school about a month. Crazy!! Anyways- farewell for now....... hope everyone has been having a great summer!

Finals... Packing... Moving....

Hello all! I know I have been terrible with updating my blog lately...but now that I'm out of school.... I'm hoping that will change. So a little update of what's been going on... Josh and I survived our finals. I will say barely survived because the week before finals... Josh pulled about 3 all nighters throughout the week. I felt like I barely saw him that week. He studied his face off for his 2 Chemistry classes. Apparently when we apply for dental schools... it's really important to have really good grades in all of the science classes... ESPECIALLY Chemistry. So Josh had lots of pressure to make sure and get his A's. After the hardest semester of his life... (so far) he spent hours and hours and hours studying for Chemistry and doing the labs. After all the stress and tears(the tears which were mine..haha!) All of his hard work paid off.... He did it... He got his A's! It was a joyous day when his grades finally posted. Now no more Chemistry..... he's done with MCC and moving onto ASU in the fall. Which he is very excited about. He decided to walk at MCC's graduation (mainly because his mom and I wanted him too...but he was glad he did) He got 2 associates degrees... an AA in Arts and an AA in General Studies. Here are some pics....

My side of the family. They were all so sweet to come!


Josh and his sweet little sister Jaycee


Josh's Dad and little bro!


Josh and his parents.... I took the pic a little late..


So proud of him! He's about 1/4 of the way done with school.... still got a ways to go... But he's ready for it and he def kicked butt this semester!



During the week of finals.... we also had to start packing up our apartment. It was not a pleasant experience either. Last summer we kept our apartment here... while we were in Cali... but this year we decided to pack it all up and just put everything in a storage unit for the summer. It was a bigger project than we thought.... We moved out all of our big stuff.... like bookshelf.. bed.. coffee table, end tables, ect.. at the beginning of the week... And we have some awesome friends that saved us last minute in moving all that stuff out. Thanks again!!

This is what our apartment looked like this past week.... Our TV looked pretty weird on our card table...



At one point... we were packing and after awhile... we both looked around and said I think that it's gotten worse.... packing was miserable.... and I still have to go back over and finish things up...ugh!! Like I said....."Never ending process"




My wonderful mother in law was a huge help in packing up our decorations.. dishes and all of the "fragile" stuff. She was such a great help with everything! I couldn't have done it without her. Thanks again Mom!

So our adventure to Cali has "kind of" began.... Mainly for Josh right now..... He drove over there this past weekend... made it safe and sound. I'm still in AZ right now... and I'll be joining him in about a week in a half.....looking forward to getting over to gorgeous San Diego. He was gone not even a day and I was already missing him like crazy..... So I'm a little nervous for this next week in a half. Since our apartment is pretty much all packed up I'm staying with my lovely sister and her husband, Shasta and Tanner til I leave. It was so nice of them to let me stay with them.

And Josh started work over there today and is already doing awesome! I can't wait to get over there. We are really looking forward to the summer! (and ditching the AZ summer heat here)
So I am planning on doing more updates a lot more often while we are over there.... hopefully with pictures too....but right now my charger for my camera won't charge the battery... so I have no camera(I had to borrow my sister Molly's camera this past weekend.. thanks molls!)
Anyways.... that will be it for now... but more updates to come... soon from Cali! Hope everyone has a great week!

Updates!!

Ya..... I know it's been so long since I've posted anything. My poor blog..... So I thought I would post some updates of what's been going on around here.....

January:
We got our first niece...Megan Ruth Stradling... and she is soooo precious!
We sold my car to my sister and got me a new...... 2008 Hyndia Sonata. And seriously love it!
(I never want to go through the process of buying a new car again...... I hate car salesmen)

February:
Niece Megan spent a few days in the hospital because she had RSV. She's doing great now, but still really scary!
Josh and I got terribly sick with a miserable cold/congestion thing. Terrible! Tissues were overflowing in our apartment. (ok not really... but almost)
My family discovered the game "Just Dance" for the wii.... and it is AMAZING! (Highly recommend it if you have never played it.) We've played it with friends and it is awesome!!
I got to go the Mary Poppins play at Gammage with Josh's family and it was soo fun! Practically Perfect in every way!

March: Spring Break
We finally made it to Spring Break! This semester has been insanely busy with school. With Josh taking 2 Chemistry classes... (that includes 2 labs) and me taking 18 credits... school has taken over our lives.....haha! But we made it to Spring Break which we were so happy for. Josh went to Mexico to go fishing with his dad, bro, grandpa and a few of his dad's buddies. He caught a 9lb fish (which is really really big) so he was soooo excited about that. Before he left on his trip he said that if he catches a big one he wants to mount it on our wall.... and I agreed to this. So... prob at the end of the year(cuz it takes a long time for them to put the fish together to mount) We will be mounting a fish on our wall......we'll see how that goes.haha! Anyways-It's been a relaxing week and I'm hoping I will get back into "school mode" by next week.

And then we have only like 6 more weeks til summer.... til we get to leave for sweet San Diego!! We move there for the summer for Josh's job and we cannot wait to see our sweet friends again over there!

I will try and be better about posting... the past few months have been so busy I haven't had time... but for now that's what has been going on. Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying their Spring Break!