Nine

Tomorrow will mark the 9 year mark in our marriage. I can't believe all we have been through in our nine years together, and I am grateful for it all.

Pictures from our wedding
Dan, Ryleigh & I on our "honeymoon" in Seattle.

Picnic in the Park

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to have the day off of work so we decided to take the kids to the park for a picnic lunch. We had SO much fun. I love watching the kids play with each other and I love watching Olivia explore new things. She was totally enjoying the sand - she was eating it! I also was lucky enough to sneak in an updated family picture! You gotta take them when you can - those dang kids change so quick! I had to through this picture in (even though it is not so flattering of my excess chins) because this is typical Olivia. If there is hair in her reach - watch out!

Pizza Party

This last August my parents pizzaria, Slices, closed it's doors for the last time. Yes, the pizzaria is gone. It has been really sad for all of us because we loved it so much. The students around campus are starting to come back from Summer vacation and I think they are going to be equally bummed. The students LOVED it! The tragedy here is that business was good but the location was rough. The restaurant was only conveniently accessible to the students during the school day or if they lived in the dorms, which meant that in the evenings, weekends and Summer & Winter breaks business was DEAD. Unfortunately Summer was just too much this year. Slices couldn't hold on anymore. We are very sad to see it go. It will be missed mucho!!

Before, our pizza parties were held in the restaurant and they usually involved taste testing new ingredients or new things to put on the menu. Now, we met at my parents kitchen, trying to use up the 200 lbs of pizza flour, yeast, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese..... that they have.


Even though we are so sad to see Slices go it was really fun to have a pizza party at home with the family again, because that is where the Slices dream began - a long time ago.


Plus! It was fun for Dan to get in and throw some dough around again.


Ryleigh is a DIPPER! She is always wanting to dip her food in stuff, here she is dipping her cheese pizza in Frank's Red Hot Sauce. When she was a baby she would dip her goldfish crackers in her water in Nursery. I kept thinking she would grow out of it, but no.
Spencer is a simple kid! Pepperoni pizza! Yummmm
Ethan likes to do and say and eat whatever Spencer does, so of course he had some pepperoni too.
My brother Justin and his girlfriend Kaitlyn brought over their kittens (they rescued a mama cat and these are her kittens). Olivia loved them! They were super cute little black fluffs!

Livy really had fun with Justin. They don't see each other much, so I thought this was a cute picture of the two of them!

AZ- Randomness

This is my final Arizona vacation post. aah - sad.. that means we really are home. So these first couple pictures are of Ammon (Dan's little brother), Ryleigh & Ethan building a cup tower! It was quite impressive. Before it all came crashing down.

Livy had her first experience with Cream of Wheat cereal when I ran out of food one morning. She was NOT a fan.

If we were EVER wondering where the boys were - we could find them here - glued to the WII! You would think they had never seen one before. That is Garrett on the left.

My gramma suey and my mom on our last night!
Little Gramma and Livy. I was so thankful that Livy took to all her "new" family that she had never met before so well (of course, she did meet little gramma when she was 2 weeks old). She was lovey and snugly with everyone. It was like she just knew.
My gramma and me! I love you gramma!

AZ- Girl's day... or afternoon

Our last Saturday in Arizona was spent with our friends. I enjoyed every moment. The day started off EARLY! Dan, and his brother Adam, and brother-in-law Travis, my brother Chad and Dan's buddies Spencer & Ethan and some of their friends took a little trip to the desert to play paintball. They had a LOT of fun! Dan came home with battle wounds all over his body. It looked like hickeys all over him! Anyways, the not-so-fun part of all their fun is that us wives have to stay at home with the children by our lonesome. So when our men got home Jen (Ethan's wife) and Celinda (Spencer's wife) and I went and got a pedicure. It was SO fun to go out with the girls. We needed it. I miss having such great friends near by - I miss you guys. After our pedicures we came back to Ethan and Jen's house where the men and kids were in the pool! It was just a great day. Thanks ladies.

Tayler & Kylie in the pool (Ethan & Jen's girls) They are the same ages as my boys and they are IN LOVE with these girls - who can blame them - they are cute girls.

Celinda and Jen getting a pedi.

AZ- Bronco's Game!

Yeah, yeah - I know what you are thinking. Broncos? Is Denver in Arizona?? hah - no no silly. The Cardinals play football for Arizona, but who goes to a Cardinals game to watch the Cardinals? Not us! We went to the Cardinals game to watch the BRONCOS!!

* Just a heads up - this story could get confusing*

Can I just say - first of all - that this game was SO much fun! We really had a lot of fun with all of our friends.

This was a day that we spent with Dan's two best friends from High School (Ethan & Spencer - no that is not a typo - and no our kids are not named after them!)and their families and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

This game was actually very special for Ethan's family because his little brother Spencer (not the same as the best friend from high school) got drafted to the Bronco's out of college. He got to play the whole game and he did AWESOME! He is #46 in the first picture - can you see him?


Spencer (the best friend again) and his wife Celinda brought their daughter (she is 1) Abbie to the game - at first she was a little freaked out with all the loud noise and crazy fans but after like 4 licorices she was good to go! She was such a dang cutie.

Dan and I - Enjoying the game in our BLUE!!
Here is Celinda and Abbie. So pretty.

This is Ethan in the orange hat and Jen right next to him. It looks like the game was pretty intense at this point!
Here is the NEW stadium for the Cardinals - out in Glendale. It was HUGE! I was totally blown away at the size of this thing! I took this picture from the freeway! Next to it on the left is the arena for the Phoenix Coyotes Hockey team - if you can even see it!

This is the inside of the stadium from our seats, to the left of us.
This is from our seats - straight ahead

From our seats - to the right. That is where the field rolls outside for watering and lawn mowing!

AZ - Elmer's Taco's

Hold on - let me mop up my drool while I think of eating at Elmer's.

okay - So Elmer's is a family favorite - of my little family and my BIG family. If you live in Arizona and have never eaten at Elmer's then I am sorry for you. You are missing out. For the last 6 years we have lived out of the state of Arizona and I have tried to find comparable burritos but I am always left disappointed. Therefore, EVERYTIME we go to Arizona we make a special trip to Elmer's. I am serious - go - eat - enjoy. Except don't go on a weekday between 12:00-1:30pm - they are located right across the street from Chandler High School and it gets a little busy! Here's the address: 355 N Arizona Ave Chandler, AZ 85225

My yummy bean burrito & rice.....

The kids, enjoying the food!

AZ - Joe's Farm Grill

One of the weeknights we were in Arizona my grandma insisted that we eat at Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert for dinner. "We get to eat outside on picnic benches!" she was telling us. Those of us with any common sense were thinking - oh gee let me tell you how fun eating grilled hamburgers in 110* outdoors sounds! But I must admit, and apologize for my negativity and lack of trust in my grandmother. Joe's is very strategically placed in the middle of a huge canopy of trees and has very little pavement throughout the facility so it was surprisingly cool and enjoyable. Not to mention - the food was awesome. I guess they grow their ingredients and raise their beef and everything. It was a lot of fun. Thanks gramma!


Chad and Ethan strolling around the complex!


Ryleigh Climbing the tree that we were sitting under.
-Olivia enjoying the delicious French Fries.


-My beautiful Aunt Cori and cousin Amalie. I love them so much and miss them terribly already.