Happy New Year!

It's been a bit, dear bloggy friends, hasn't it? Life's been crazy. And strange. And good.

First, let's talk about 2011. I can't say that it was a bad year because it brought be a beautiful, healthy baby boy, a marriage, some self realization and a new job that I actually enjoy. But, it also brought a lot of trials and trying times for us.
January was spent mostly in and out of the hospital. Trowa was born 3 weeks early (it could've been earlier because of that dang placental abruption.) But he was healthy and that's all that mattered to us.

February brought us back to the hospital to have our poor little newborn operated on. Pyloric stenosis. That was stressful.

March was calm. (My divorce was finalized)

April was hell. Rick was in Germany. We barely made it. Our relationship wasn't as solid as we thought it was. There was a lot of cracks and hurt feelings and being apart made them that much worse. But, we both did some soul searching and obviously things worked out since we're married now. ;)

May we got engaged. :)

June and July were both good months. We had birthdays and fun times outside with our friends.

August... oh moving in 24 hours. Stressful. (Rick's divorce was finalized)

September... I stepped out of my comfort zone and volunteered to be FRG leader. It's been stressful and fun and hopefully i'll make some friends out of it.

November. We got married. :D

December- I got my new job. We made some changes with Chanel's visitations. Regardless of what my negative family thinks, I think it's for the better.

And that brings us to today. I don't really do new years resolutions. I just hope that this year brings us good things (and of course that it the world doesn't end in December. ;) haha. )

Happy 2012 Everyone!

Conference

The way we planned our wedding we would be at Snowbird attending a conference for our honeymoon. This actually worked out great as A) the kidlets would be with my Aunt and B) it was a free hotel room. I know, it wasn't the most exciting honeymoon but we enjoyed ourselves. (We also may have skipped out on some of the conference to go sit at the bar and take shots of tequila... and it was nice.) Anyway, the point of me telling you this is that I am implementing something I learned from the conference into my everyday life and I encourage you to try it out with me. In fact, I challenge you to do it for 30 days  ---

I am a very negative person. It's something that I've been trying to work on. I hold grudges and most of the time I don't really like new situations or new people. And I always am able to see that bad side of situations.  But, the thing that I am going to start doing in my personal journal is this:

Everyday name three GOOD things that happened and your reaction/emotions from each good thing. 

I'll share with you my three good things from today- (I had a terrible day that was filled with lots of yelling at people and running around doing errands and kids screaming from being tired and not wanting to be in the car. Soooo stressful. So, I think this is a really good day to start this, eh?)

1- Playing with Trowa and making him smile and laugh. I absolutely love making him laugh. His smile is so big and I love his dimples. It makes me happy when he's happy. When Trowa and I have our one on one play time it reminds me all over again how much love I have for my children. He is such a good child, even on his bad days, he is amazingly good. His happiness is a reflection of my parenting. I must be doing a good job. 

2- Chanel saying "I like to play with you, Mommy." It's been a hard struggle getting Chanel to connect with me, especially after the divorce, and so for her to finally say something so simple as "I like to play with you" made me so so happy. There was also a sense of relief - after trying to get her to understand that just because I won't let her do something it isn't because I "don't like her" but because I want the best for her. It was nice and fun to sit with her and play for a little bit earlier today. 

3- Rick telling me I'm gorgeous. I'm a girl so of course I am insecure but Rick is wonderful and tells me every single day that he thinks I'm pretty. Even when I haven't done my hair, put make up on or even changed out of my pajamas. It is something that has definitely helped with my self esteem. I adore being told I'm pretty and it brightens my day when Rick randomly tells me that I am gorgeous. It is one of the many things I love about him.  

Your turn. :) 

Thankful

Today, I am thankful for my husband. He truly is my other half.
I am also thankful for my family, especially my Aunt, without her this weekend wouldn't have been possible.
And I am very thankful for my kids- even when they drive me crazy- I love them to death.
And last but not least, I am thankful for my friend Whitney who watched my socially awkward dog all weekend.


For those of you who don't know, Rick and I were married on November 4th, 2011. We had a simple courthouse wedding that was just us and two witnesses. It was perfect. We had a mini honeymoon at Snowbird Ski Resort (The Cliff Lodge). It snowed. And we enjoyed spending some alone time together.

We like to be matchy

We started dating about a month before Rick was suppose to deploy to Iraq. We spent every moment together and fell completely head over heels for each other. We might have been a little crazy but hey, it's worked out so far so I gonna count it as a win. Right before he left for pre-mobilization we got these in June of 2010:

It was kind of a "in case I dye in Iraq" type of thing. But also a "we are ridiculously awesome and totally perfect for each other. You're my other half" type thing. Which, btw, is so true. The other day we had a friend over and I walked into the kitchen and came out and said "I was just like, 'why is the stove on??' and then I remembered." Not even like 10 minutes later Rick did the exact same thing. To which Allie said, "You guys are SO alike... it's a little ridiculous."

Basically, we're awesome. He balances out my crazy perfectly... which is why he is my other half.

Anyway, then he got me this when he got home from Germany in April 2011:

Which was amazingly beautiful. But, rings irritate me. I'm not used to wearing them. Don't get me wrong, I would have worn the shit out of that diamond. It just bothered me to wear a ring after going so long without one. I'm sure I would have gotten used to it, eventually. So, since they were being dumb about getting us the GIA certification we decided that we wanted to have the power in the situation and got our money back. We told them that if they wanted to get it certified we would consider buying it again if they could do it in a timely manner. (PS we recently got a call from the jewelers and amazing now they have the cert. ... it only took them a couple more months than they said it would, no big deal. They asked if we were still interested. I laughed.) We both knew that you can't really top a pink diamond.

So then we got these done:

I love our anhks. I've been obsessed with Egypt since I was little. So, I think this is a perfect fit!

A couple of things that I love about these are:

1- We're matchy! I love being matchy with Rick.

2- Not many people have anhk tattoo rings. Or even know what anhks are.

3- No band to bug me.

4- It symbolizes "eternal life" and since we both have one it's eternal life together. :) Totally presh, right?

Anyway, I was just sitting here thinking about rings and weddings and being matchy so I thought I would give my lovely readers a random blog post.

Also, have I mentioned that I love this man to death?

He gets up and gets me a Mr. B's almost daily. He bought me another copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He spoils me constantly. He has been super supportive and patient through this "wtf is wrong with my body" issue I've been having. He works super hard for our family. Pretty much, he's just amazing.

Spoiled.

Rick bought me a dyson. I'm spoiled. And I love it. (Both the being spoiled and the vacuum) It's amazing. :)

Kinect

Rick bought me Kinect for my birthday. Let me tell you, it's AMAZING! I have been having so much fun playing dance central on it.

We threw together a last minute birthday party for me on Friday. I made salsa and this yummy salad and my dear friend Monica made me my delicious cupcakes and "number 7" cake. (I will post recipes later).

We played kinect all night and had dance battles. Nothing is better than seeing my brother and his wife make the freestyle dance dirty. Loved it. Here's some pictures.

Thank you guys for an amazing time!!!

What's new...

Life gets crazy sometimes:

Our A/C broke. It's being fixed as I type this. (it was a loooooong weekend.) and pretty sure they A/C guy keeps turning around to watch Sesame Street.

We had Chanel's birthday party with her little friend Skylynn.

Chanel

Skylynn

Which was crazy and stressful but lots of fun. :) Chanel made off like a bandit. She got a ton of new toys and bubbles.

And we got to see Ezra! It was so fun. He gets cuter everyday. He and Trowa look so much alike it is crazy! Plus, I got this adorable picture!

I am waiting for Christine to have her baby... I am dying to hold a newborn. (it goes back to the wanting another baby thing...)

Ummm...

My parent's are planning on coming back here for their home leave in September. I can't wait!

We went to lunch with Rick's dad. It was nice because Rick was able to catch up with his Dad. :) And Rick went to see his dad last Friday to help him run errands. I am so glad that he is able to have a relationship with his dad now.

I have an appointment Wednesday to find out whether I need to get braces put back on because my back teeth are screwing up the rest of my teeth. Really... awesome.

I think that pretty much sums up what we've been up to since my last post.

Happy Monday!

Ch-Ch-Changes

We've had a couple of changes over here.

First, Kahlua - although she was the sweetest dog ever we decided due to her illness that she wasn't a good fit for us. :( So, we are back to being a no pet family.

Next, thanks to being told that my pink diamond was GIA certified and finding out later that it wasn't and fighting with the company for weeks about getting it certified, we took my ring back. Sucky, right? However, I am getting excited about what we are getting instead of the pink diamond. :) It is a secret.

Lastly, we are moving. We don't know where we are moving just yet. However, we are staying in the Sugarhouse area - we are in love with this area!

Germans are Crazy.

My parents sent me a box. It had things for the kids in it. And Rick. Chanel got a skateboard and lots of clothes. Rick got a money clip. And they sent these to Trowa:

Yes, those are indeed tights. For boys. Apparently the Germans are totally down with putting their little baby boys in these manly tights.

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day!

We are all recovering from (what feels like..)a week long sickness over here. Chanel's been throwing up for 3 days now. Trowa had pink eye... and I think it's mostly gone now. Rick some kind of throwy-up sickness which is now a cough/no voicey sickness. And me... I've just been not-feel-goody for the past week. Oh and I had a TERRIBLE sunburn from sitting outside for about an hour on Friday. However, today was a good day. The kids let me sleep in until about 11 today... which NEVER happens. And Trowa slept for 7 straight hours last night. :) Chanel slept until 12:30 because she's been so sick. (and she's already asleep for the day.) We had a nice lazy day and I cooked a yummy sweet and sour chicken dinner complete with fried rice. Mmmm. Now I am blogging and watching Rick play a video game. These are my favorite kinds of days.

I want to quickly wish a very happy mothers day to my mom over in Germany! I miss her terribly. She always knows how to cheer me up and has the funniest stories ever. And she always gives me the best advice... whether it is the thing I want to hear or not. I love you Mom!

Engaged!

Rick and I are officially engaged!

We have not set a date. We will probably just run away to Vegas for the weekend and make it official one of these weekends. :) Isn't my ring BEAUTIFUL?? It's a halo style ring with a pink diamond as the center stone. I absolutely L-O-V-E it.

Rick's Trip to Germany

Rick just got back from Germany a couple of days ago. He was there for 3 weeks doing some awesome AT. (April was a loooonnnngggg month for all of us!) While he was there he got two achievements and a coin. He’s kind of a big deal. For those of you who don’t know about coins - they’re basically bragging rights in the army. Pretty fantastic. That is a picture of the coins Rick has gotten so far in his army career. The one on the left is from Grafenwoehr. (The center part spins around. It’s pretty blingin’) and then the center one he just got from Camp Williams and the last one is from the 67th BFSB.

He told me that he really liked Germany for the couple of hours he was off base. Flying in was pretty too (He was showing me some of the pictures he took… i’ll post those when i can get them off his phone.) and Rick was also telling me about how all the house there have solar panels. The kids and I missed him terribly while he was gone. (he missed Easter with us.) :( But! We got to talk to him almost everyday (er.. at least, I got to talk to him everyday) I’ve made him promise to take us there sometime in the near future. :-D