A month of discoveries....

Well, we started off the month discovering something so fun, you just can't help but touch it

EVERY TIME you see the open door:

The infamous toilet paper roll.

Chris and I then discovered that we may be a doctor and doctors wife, but we have NO IDEA how to dress and act like one. We were invited to the surgery holiday party and we knew as soon as we saw people getting out of their cars dressed in suits and short/sequenced dresses that our nice jeans and sweaters were NOT going to cut it for the proper attire. We went inside the country club to discuss our options and decided to high tail it out of there. Just as we were turning to leave, we ran into one of the attending physicians that Chris works with. After discussing with he and his wife how embarrassed we were for how we were dressed, the woman replied, "oh well, you live and learn".

We had plenty of time to mull that comment over as we stood at a table sipping our sprites for the entire cocktail hour.

At least we got a fancy dinner and ornament out of it.

We also discovered that a stay-cation is awesome! Chris had the week off and were were able to just hang out. I am pretty sure Samantha was more sad to see him go back to work than I was. They were such little pals all week long. We hiked at Sabino Canyon, went to the zoo, and went up to Mesa to go to the Temple. We found out that there was a hotel in Phoenix that was displaying Who-Ville.

Soon after coming home, we were inspired to do some building of our own. Chris had started drawing out gingerbread templates like a week before until I dashed his dreams and told him we were going to use one I found online. We baked some real gingerbread the night before and had a hard time getting it un-stuck from the counter after rolling it out which resulted in many pieces that were not the same size as the wall it countered.

It wasn't until we began assembling the houses that we discovered that you need to have exact dimensions and that your roof should not weigh more than the house. We knew things were not looking good when the blow dryer came out and we were threatening to use a glue gun.

This was taken moments before the entire thing came crashing down.

Dave and Megan had a great strategy in the beginning, and I thought for sure theirs would pull though, but soon enough theirs came crumbling down too. Hopefully next time goes more smoothly.

Most families have a tradition of fancy dinners on Christmas Eve, I grew up roasting hot dogs in my grandparents fireplace. In honor of that tradition, we decided to use one of our Christmas presents early, a fire pit. We grilled some burgers and then roasted marshmallows, made smores and listened to Christmas music under the stars.

Samantha discovered that the glow of a fire is memorizing....

She also discovered that Ute pjs bottoms are awesome. She looks like she is crying but it was just a super sized smile going on here!

Thanks to my mom, we discovered that snow from a can is the way to go. No shoveling or salting, just pure snowmen building fun.

Our final discovery came during bath time

Now isn't that a great way to end Christmas Day?!

Santa Clause, Santa Clause you are much too skinny...

After 13 days straight of working, Chris finally had the day off on Friday so we made the most of it. We went for a run, ate lunch at Chick-fil-a, and took Samantha to meet Santa Clause. As you can see, she thought he was pretty swell. Part of me was sad that we didn't get a great hilarious picture of her freaking out. (that is why I am such a great mother...) Maybe next year!

As we left the mall, Chris had to rate Santa. He gave him points for having a real beard but took more away because his beard had grey in it and that he was too skinny. We have high expectations apparently.

Winter Street Fair....

I was looking online to see what things there are to do in Tucson in December and found out

that they have an annual winter street fair downtown. I found a couple friends who were adventurous enough to join me with their cute children. After a very eventful time finding a parking spot, we found the fair. It was mostly just tented vendors selling all sorts of fine art (including turquoise jewelry, painted pictures of naked women, and all sorts of interesting yard ornaments) but they did have a children's station and music and lots of food. They introduced me to frybread, a little piece of heaven. After about 1 1/2 the kids were all asleep or crying and people were calling us the stroller brigade. Even though it was a bit crazy, it was so much fun.

Don't you love how on December 9th we were actually hot and had to take off our jackets?

Cutie season has begun....

I was so excited when I saw the Albertson's ad a few weeks ago because they had Cuties on the cover, I may have gone over board and bought two bags full, but they are so small and delicious, you have to eat at least 4 a day right?

Samantha has discovered that she loves sucking the juice out of them

I wasn't going to buy a hat for her, since we live in Tucson, but this one was on sale and it turns out some days are cool enough that you need a hat. Do you like the irony of a naked baby with a hat and mitten's on? She told me only her head and hands were cold.

Samantha is now :

*crawling although she still prefers to just hang out by my side

*pulling herself up with anything she can get her hands on, including our glass shower door. (Ever tried shaving your legs while trying to keep a baby from sliding the glass door open?- so much fun right?)

* Balancing while standing up and will even take a step or two before falling on her face

Backyardagains...

We finally got our wanna be real grass a couple weeks ago. We are enjoying it, especially because the weather has been so pleasant. Nothing like spending Thanksgiving morning reading the Black Friday shopping ads outside. Now we, and by we, I really mean Chris, is just finishing up the drip irrigation system. Man, it sure has come along way since the dirt/gravel yard it was 6 months ago.

I am Thankful....

You can't help but really contemplate how blessed you are at this time of year. Here are a few of the things that I am most thankful for:

#1 This guy, need I say more?

This is as we were preparing to brine the bird

#2 This girl, could she be any sweeter?

She is enjoying cruising around in this bad boy

This is how we found her yesterday after her nap
Apparently it's time to raise the rail

Thanks to Auntie Jackie for the cute bracelet and shoes

#3 Knowing that I get to be with these two forever

#4 Great new friends, food, and laughter

Here's our Turkey.... Chris dressed it pretty well didn't he. Don't mind the fact that the drumsticks and wings all fell off during the transfer from the roaster to the platter so we had to use skewers to hook everything back on!

These were the place cards I put together

Here's our delicious spread of bounteous goodness.

Thanks Curtiss and Miller's. After all our eating we sat down to play some games and at one point during Balderdash almost the entire table was crying from laughing so hard. It was awesome!

Not tonight.....

When we found out that we were moving to Arizona at the beginning of this year, one of the first things Chris said was, "now I can see the Utes play again."

So when the game was approaching this last week and he found out that he had the day off, we talked about going, but decided not too because the tickets were so much. The rest of the week I could just see in his eyes how devastated he was and decided to see what I could find. I got on Craigslist and sure enough, there was a guy selling some tickets for much less. I decided to get them and surprise him.

The night turned out to be a huge success. Not only did the Utes win 34-21, but the entertainment from the crowd was endless. You gotta love the college football atmosphere!

The man sitting to my right was by himself and he just kept mumbling to himself, maybe he was talking to me and I just didn't know it. He also worked on the same hot dog for 3 hours. Mmmm, nothing like a soggy bun.

There was also a man behind us that kept yelling, "NOT TONIGHT UTAH, NOT TONIGHT" and "LOOK ALIVE ZONER'S, LOOK ALIVE". Keep in mind that he kind of had a surfer accent. It wasn't until about half way through the game that Chris turned around and whispered in my ear, "seeing him makes it all the better". I turned to see this handsome fellow:

okay, so it wasn't this exact guy, but you get the picture. Go Utes!

Will it ever end?

First it was crickets. Then it was ants. Then it was a wind scorpion. Well, folks, now it is one of these:
Can we say heebie jeebie? We got home the other night and I saw this crawling on our tile in our living room. I of course did what any rational person would do, jumped up on the couch and started screaming like a girl. Luckily Chris was home and quickly got a jar and a piece of paper and captured this bad boy. Upon investigation, we found that it is called a giant desert centipede and that while it is venomous, it is not deadly, just extremely painful. Is that reassuring to anyone?
It is currently on my front porch in the jar suffocating to death, but if it isn't dead by tonight, the shovel is coming out!

Creepy, Scary....

To start our Halloween celebration right, we found this in our garage. Can anyone identify what in the world it is? GROSS.

In good form Chris carved a pumpkin, the drill even came out for this one

Can you tell what it is? Or I should say who it is? If you guessed Captain Moroni you would be correct. We were talking it to our ward trick or treat so he thought it might sway the judges. It did, he even won a bag of pixie sticks and a cool cup!

We decided very last minute to transform ourselves into characters from Phineas and Ferb. Here we are as Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, Candance, and Perry the Platypus.

Seriously, does it get any cuter? This costume was revised a couple of times because after I first made the shirt it wouldn't even go over her head so I had to turn it into a jacket. After lots of unpicking, this was the finished product. We went to the YMCA trunk or treat on Saturday night and Sam and Eliza got to go fishing for the first time.

And of course, one costume isn't enough so Sam transformed into a cat for Halloween night. She even got to sleep as a cat.Our neighborhood seems really Halloween friendly. It reminded me of when I was a kid, except the weather was so nice that people make their yards look like haunted houses and open their garages and sit out on their lawn chairs to watch all the trick or treaters. It was really fun, I look forward to next year when we can be more a part of it!