Christmas Pageant!

Sunday was the annual Christmas Pageant at church & this was the first year Julian & Zach had both been in it. Zach was baby Jesus & Julian was a piggy! =) The teachers asked Julian, "Would you like to be a cow? No. Would you like to be a sheep? No. A Wiseman, a Shepard? No & No. Well what would you like to be?" A Piggy. So a piggy he was & THE CUTEST Piggy I have ever seen! I mean he seriously was so adorable! I didn't get a picture up close of his costume, but you can see what I mean! Zach, of course just the happiest thing in the world & smiled & stuck his tongue out to everyone. He is just the happiest & most well behaved baby!

Not so crazy about this laying down bit!
Can't wait to see the church all decorated up for Christmas, it's always so wonderful to see after the church has been stripped & has bare walls.

 Cutest Jesus!

Such a good group of kids! Missing Jules tho...

Pouty Pig =( He really got shy about going up!

 

My God-sister, Kira!

...and, he got brave!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Julian & I did a mighty fine job! (Mostly Jules ) He wanted to keep ornaments together & that's what we did. A bunch of pairs & groups of matching ornaments decorate our tree. I love Christmas.

He pretty much ruled this tree =)

I love this kid

A mighty fine job!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas fun has begun!

This past weekend was a fun-filled start to the holiday. Aunt Vicki had a WONDERFUL candle party on Saturday. Check Elaine out, nothing better then partylite! Austen & I got 3 more Christmas gifts knocked out, so we are almost done! YAY!

Sunday Uncle Jeff had the entire family over to decorate his BEAUTIFUL Christmas tree & to celebrate Erica Leigh's 25th birthday! I can't believe my sissy is 25 now! It was a wonderful day & a great surprise when we all got there, our cousin Matt was there! He & his family moved to Utah a few years ago for a job opportunity & he is now back in AZ & his family will be back down here by June. Afterward, Austen & I headed home for a fun family night with Austen's mom & she brought home a bottle of, Wintertraum Christkindles Culhwein (a German wine you drink slightly warmed) It was SOOOOOOO good, an absolute new favorite!

Yesterday Erica came over to work on her resume & brought the boys along. Austen's mom always make Reindeer Food & was waiting for Jules to come over & help her make it. They had an absolute blast & it was so fun to see his excitement! I can't believe Christmas is in just 11 days!

Hearing the story-I LOVE his face!

Starting to make it

Adding the glitter so the Reindeer can see!

The finished product

This was just so sweet!

ThAnKsGiViNg!

I am feeling a little down, so I figured, what better time to make myself happy & re-kindle my thoughts of a happier day, Turkey Day!

This year, Aunt Vicki had dinner at her Apartments' Clubhouse. It was a perfect Holiday setting, decorations & lights were up, big tables pushed together for dinner, football on the TV-of course, & TONS of food & fun!

This is was also the first year I made a Thanksgiving meal! Austen's mom had to work until 7pm & instead of bringing home leftovers, I decided to cook dinner & spend the Holiday with her when she got home. I was quite nervous to cook my first Turkey, but Mom (Melinda) helped me get the bird prepped & gave me some advice, so between she, my mom & recipes, I thought I could figure it out. AND I DID! This bird was juicy & heavenly & I am quite proud of myself. Oh, I might also add, I cooked the giblets in the turkey! LOL Austen cleaned the bird out for me-it grossed me out & he couldn't find them! I also made scratch pecan pie & almost scratch pumpkin-ugh canned pumpkin. The pecan pie was amazing & my entire family loved it & Austen's mom said it is now her favorite Pecan Pie! YAY! The pumpkin pie was good, meh alright. I don't like canned pumpkin pie & this was, well a canned pumpkin pie. You can definitely taste the difference, so next year, I am getting pumpkin from my mom!

Needless to say, I am so grateful for the life I have, the family & friends, my job-even tho that can always change. But for right now, in the here & now, I have a good life. I am grateful we can afford to have a Thanksgiving meal, let alone, two. It's nice to step back & let go of the stress & focus on nothing but Thanks & love.

Food fit for a King!

My loving family!

Thanks, Vicki, for the wonderful time!

The usual cousin photo op :)

And..the usual Papa passed out photo!

Austen & his mom

Before.....

After!! It was SOO good!!

 

Apparently Austen can't take a proper picture & Calie & Mouzer, as usual, are bickering :-)

Family photo after some champagne, wine & Baileys-it was a variety night!!

**My favorite**

Happy Thanksgiving to you all & hope the day was just as special for you.

A day with a bunch of great lookin' guys!

This pretty much sums up how I am feeling. :-) I had a FANTASTIC, most wonderful & perfect weekend. Friday got to stay home with a super hot guy & shnuggled in early. Saturday slept in ridiculously late & it felt like it was just 6 hours-but a perfect refreshing 6 hours. Then, the super hot guy & I shopped & got some REALLY great stuff, at no other than Savers-it's amazing the things you get there. After, went to dinner at Little Szechuan.
Neither one of us had ever been & it is the sweetest place! SUPER great food. We will definitely be going again! We ended the night with some Baileys. Mmmm!

Today we slept in again, super late, but we had stayed up pretty late last night. Got up & made our normal Sunday breakfast. Did a few chores, went to a couple more stores then went to my parents where I got to hang out with 3 more great lookin' guys!

I was so excited, Mr. Julian & Mr. Zach were spending the day with Auntie Vicki, Nana & Papa! So I had 4 of the greatest lookin' guys I know with me today & got spoiled with sugar from them all. My heart nearly melted when I saw Julian come up to me. I love him so much & it's been awhile since we got to spend some good time together & it was just one of the best smiles I got to see!! Then I got some good Zach time & my Lord, has that baby just gotten soooo cute! Ugh! His cheeks are just THE chubbiest things in the world, he's still just a little short thing & his smile is THE CUTEST & he now waves. There was nothing cuter than those chunky hands waving to me. Melted my heart again! It was so fun getting so see & play with him. He's gotten so big & so curious & just full of personality. He made me laugh ALL day.

I then got to spend some much missed quality time with Jules. He's just growing up so much & it's fun to see his personality turning into a really fun kid. He's so sweet, kind, funny, outgoing & of course, rotten as can be. :-) I can't help but smile & think, well, look at who his mom, aunts & uncles are...we were rotten too! I think it's just part of the personality. Sometimes, I just couldn't help myself & man, he is the same way. It's fun having nieces & nephews & to imagine what it's going to be like when we have children. I can't wait! I love being an Aunt, I swear I couldn't love them anymore unless I was their mother or grandmother. It just get's me excited for when we decide to try for our own.

Anywho, Julian & I were hangin' in the kitchen & I was so privileged to get some lovely art work. For your viewing pleasure:

Myself & Austen-Julian said, "The big one is Austen & the little one is you, Lulu."

He wrote my name =)

He wrote his name! No joke, made me choke up a little, I had never seen him write it & spell it on his own! 

=)

Brothers =)

He then put on his awesome new toboggan & put some "muscles" on....

I mean, SERIOUSLY, he is so cute!

My exact words, "Man, Julian, we are two good lookin' people!" LOL I love him so much!

I tried to get some pics. of handsome little Zach, but little man was GRUMPY & kept moving so everything was blurry. But, I will get some for sure on Thursday. I can't wait for Thanksgiving...I just can't wait. It was a great weekend & can't wait for the fun on Thursday, Zach's first Thanksgiving! YAY!!

Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come from a Store...

Sweet words to my ears in more ways than one. I was crawling into bed last night & was thinking about the Holidays approaching, I turned on the TV to hear Lovely ole Grinch chiming in that Christmas just possibly doesn't come from a store. I was so excited & I have to admit, a little annoyed! It's two weeks till Christmas & they are playing all of the wonderful Christmas Movies I look forward to, AFTER Thanksgiving. Either way, I had to watch as it is my favorite Christmas Movie & started to get the Christmas bug even more, maybe it wasn't so bad that it was on earlier than I anticipated.

I am looking forward to the Holidays & am glad to be thinking of the True meaning...

Missing you...

Only a few people know that Erica & I haven't been speaking for the past few months. Life kind of get's crazy sometimes & we all have to step back & take our own paths...but we have always pulled through. I miss my sister & can't wait for things to clear up.

Sometimes stepping back & letting the ones you love do their own thing is hard, but is needed. I can't help but stress a little that things won't be better by the time Thanksgiving comes...Praying it does. But, I know we will be okay & if others would let JUST she & I work things out, I think they will be okay.

It will be Christmas before you know it, cookies, Christmas movies, Black Friday shopping....Ready for it to end already....

I miss you Erica & hope we can work this out sooner than later...I have always been here & will always be here-even when we don't see eye to eye...After all, we are different people...Just know, I am here for you when you are ready XOXOXO

Working form Home!

That's right! I am now a stay at home worker! I think I am the LUCKIEST lady & have a wonderful job that I really do love. Our office was shared with Kaplan & our lease ran out the last Friday of October. Our company shopped for rental spaces but just didn't find what was wanted for us so, they decided to pack us up & send us home! Our office has been given a lot of extra work & we all seem to pull through & exceed the expectaitons. This is the first time K12 has ever had an entire office work from home & we will be for the next 3-6 months until they build the office with everything customized to our needs/wants.

I feel so blessed & proud that I was kept. After a hire on of 20 of us, only 6 of the newly hired were kept & 4 employees of the "veteran" staff were let go. We went from an office of 30 to an office of 13 & I was only 1 out of the 2 new enrollment adviser's kept. I am proud of myself for working so hard, dedicating myself & showing what I can bring to our company. I absolutely love what I do & I feel so, SO blessed.

This past Friday was our first official day "back to work." I got up as normal, made coffee, showered, brushed my teeth, straightened my hair & sat at my desk in my bedroom with clean jammy pants & t-shirt on. It really surprised me how smooth this was & how easy it was to get in the work mindset. Monday will be the first day that things are back to "normal" & I am really looking forward to it. I am excited for this new chapter in my life & can't wait to see where this goes!

HAHAHA! Too funny! I however, LOVE my bosses! Just thought this was cute! =)

Happy Halloween!

This year, we decided our car problems & bills were just more precedent than getting costumes. So, instead of going to some of our friends parties costume less (which would have been fine) we decided to stay home, make homemade chili, have cornbread, pumpkin beer, watch scary movies, carve pumpkins, & celebrate just the two of us.

It was a really fun weekend & we made THE BEST, BEST, BBBBEEEEESSSSSTTTT chili-EVER. I swear, it was AMAZING! We were pretty proud of ourselves! We watched Puppet Master, Halloween-of course(1st & 20 year reunion) & quite a few others. We got a 12 pack of Blue Moon's Harvest Collection, we LOVE pumpkin beer & it was delicious!


Calie was even a princess! LOL She actually kept in on her head for like 20 seconds!! She's sooo cute!



Austen did a Mario themed pumpkin & I did an angry bird-it looked AMAZING till I had to put my hand through the eyes & knock out the line separating the beak, but I still think they look great! And, let me tell you! These were THE HARDEST pumpkins I have EVER had. I mean we are talking a quarter inch thick outside rind that was ridiculously hard to cut through. Austen gave up & just scraped the skin so you could still make it out, but when lit, you couldn't see it! LOL




See, it DOES still looke like an angry bird!



Hope everyone else had a FaNtAsTiC Halloween! Next year is gunna be a BIG one since we didn't do too much, looking forward to it already!

10 years...10 years....TEN YEARS!!!

Our lovely 10 year High School Reunion was this past weekend, and man, it's making me feel old! It was SUCH a great time, lot's of memories brought back to life, lot's of new memories made, lot's of laughs, lot's of drinks, and just a TON of fun! I can't believe it has been so long since I have seen so many people who were so involved in my life way back when. One of my two LONGEST friends (28 years of friendship!) did a fun photo booth, so of course we took full advantage!

Best Friends Forever! Jesse & I =)


Good times, Great friends!

Pretty fine looking group if I do say so myself! We age gracefully!!












SHOT, shot, SHOT, SHOT SHOT! LOL


I still can't believe it's been this long. High School was such a wonderful time for me, something I am so grateful for! Our reunion was just perfectly "us" & our friends planned one hell of a party for us. I can't wait for our 20th (well yah, I can...let's not get ahead of ourselves!)

Ears shortened by 8 inches!!

That's right! I did it, I chopped 8 inches off my hair & dyed it a little bit lighter. I really like the cut & can wear it in all the ways I like still! The past few months-try 5 months!, have been pretty busy & I am going to sit down & try to get some entries in to get this blog up-to-date! Just wanted to post a couple pics. real quick-Julian is callin' me to watch some tv show with him. But will fill in more in the near future!



I can still wear it in a pony & cute pigtails-Austen's favorite! haha I love the cut & am super excited like I said. OH! New glasses as well! hahaha I need to get this thing updated ASAP! Love to you all!! xoxo

Chocolate Fever!

Hello, all! Time for another Lulu update, aren't we excited?? =) I just have to say, 2011 has been good! The past month was a great one with a lot of family time & February has been no different.

The Chocolate Festival in Glendale was last weekend (2/4-2/6) & how I wish I was there all 3 days! I guess it's a good thing we live in Tempe or it would have been on-crap it was free to go! There were tons of booths with cool crafts & what not like you would see at any street carnival or fair & one booth, Wonderful Wacky Women, was particularly awesome. I had looked away & came back to a surprise from my love!

It is a really sweet poem title, "She who is my sunshine." It's really sweet & I may do a post with the poem! His mom was fidgeting around & popped up with another one for me, "She who is my daughter in law." It about near made me tear up! Definitely a cool thing for any lady you may know! You should definitely check out her work-Suzy Toronto, here is a link to her site http://www.suzytoronto.com/wonderful-wacky-women.html

Saturday was when we went & it was such a good time. Austen's mom, Melinda called & invited us, so Austen & I spent the day at her house catching up on some laundry & when she got off work, she, Austen, a co-worker of hers, & I headed on out. I swear there was chocolate everywhere. Now, this is a little too much TMI, I know, but it was the week before Miss Nature came for a visit & let me tell you, it was soooo hard not to want to eat everything in sight! Chocolate strawberries, bananas, the biggest & fanciest peanut-butter cups I had seen, cheesecake on a stick-yes, cheesecake on a stick! OHHH! There was even CHOCOLATE BACON!! HAHA Yes, BACON! Melinda bought a bar for all of us to try, but we forgot to grab a bite before we left her house-hopefully she saved some for us! Unfortunately my batteries were dead so we only got a few pictures, but it was a great time & something I DEFINITELY want to do again!

Another fun booth was the tie-dye booth, super cute things surprisingly! LOL I couldn't believe the prices though-$19 for a onesie!!! Melinda loved these boxers, I told her we will make a date & make our own!

Not the clearest shot, but Austen wanted us to take this picture for Julian. Mr. Man has been having a rough few days & was going to come to the festival with us, unfortunately that tude of his took over & he lost it. This was Austen's idea to show him how fun it was & to start working on earning fun activities. When we got there, Austen totally was wishing Julian could have been there, so Julian, next time, we are going to be a big boy & come with! =)

All in all, a great day! LOL I don't like this pic. of me, but it was the only one of the two of us! Thanks Chocolate Festival for such a fun night!