MOM's birthday

So my mom's birthday is 12/27. it's the big one! there are multiple big ones but this is one of the biggest or i mean bestest. We thought it was appropriate to list one reason why we love mom for every year she was born!


50 reasons why we love MOM
1. Generous in talents, gifts, and money
2. Faithful to family, friends, and to church
3. Excellent cook
4. Loving
5. A great example
6. The best IN-LAW
7. Happy and Fun
8. Forgiving of mistakes
9. Genuine
10. Amazing listener
11. Super funny
12. Killer Zumba instructor
13. Good friend—The best-est
14. A Leader
15. Great genetics (Danny thinks☺)
16. Smart
17. Amazing chocolateer
18. Patient
19. Supportive of her kids positive choices
20. Service oriented
21. Devout member of LDS church (and comes by it so naturally)
22. Good boulder-er- Go MOM!
23. Super fit—more fit than Erin and Danny
24. Erin’s own personal therapist
25. Loves her family
26. In style and hip
27. Great waker-uper- squirt gun was the least favorite
28. Fun movie buddy- game to see any and all kinds of movie
29. Great linguist- Stacey-ism!
30. Expert reader
31. The only morning person in the family
32. Super Inspiring- I wanna be like you
33. Great teacher
34. Very accepting
35. Hard worker
36. Independent- now as well as when she was a kid
37. Makes beautiful kids
38. Good looking
39. Out-doorsy
40. Good sand hill climber in Moab
41. Aggressive driver in time square- that was scary
42. Allows Erin to call every other day and answers her phone almost every time she calls
43. Excellent wedding cake maker/caterer/hostess
44. Great missionary
45. Sweet dinner bell ringer
46. Amazing soccer mom- literally
47. Active volunteer for her kids school classrooms- teaching chocolates, etc.
48. Feminists- specially for church oriented camping trips
49. Great father-son team for camping
50. Will be great grandma! (P.S. I’m not pregnant)







Hope you have an amazing birthday mom! Happy 5-0!

A New House For Christmas

e made it! The move was awful but now that we're in our house we couldn't be happier. We love the house, its a great Christmas present. Right after we moved in I started pulling up carpet and taking off wall paper. The house has so much character that is covered by lots of tacky 1960's remodeling. it's cool to see the different time periods that are in layers on the floors and walls. We have paint over paint over wall paper on the walls and 80's carpet covering traces of brown shag and beautiful wood floors that will need to be redone. in some places we have carpet over linoleum over wood floors. It's kind of exciting to see what we might find. Needless to say, we're in a bit of a mess. We have set up our living area in the basement until we can get the floors upstairs finished. Everyone is welcome to come and visit, just be warned we are in a mess but we would love to have some company to show off our house to. We will post some pictures of our mess when I can find the fire wire. We hope to see some of you soon. Merry Christmas

oly Cow! I still can't believe it but we bought a house! After looking online for the last year and walking through places for the past month and having two other houses taken from under us, we have finally put in an offer that was accepted. We just have the inspection and closing left. The house is a cute 1935 house in the historical part of Payson. It is right across the street from the old Payson Park witch is awsome! The park is where all of the Payson Onion Days festivities take place and the Payson Scottish Festival. Every sunday night in the summer they have free band concerts and the big Payson parade goes right in front of our house. Erin and my favorite restaurant is just a couple of blocks away. It's this really cool little Thai resaurant where the people don't speak English. The house itself is so amazing. It has a lot of character. Lots of custom built-ins, a cool fireplace, 4 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, a great backyard with mature trees which are perfect for a slackline. The Kitchen is a good size which excites Erin. The house is in good repair but outdated. We are going to be taking down wallpaper and pulling up carpet, which is covering beautiful wood floors. It will be a lot of work but we are so excited.

The front of the house.

Some of the custom built-ins

Some other exciting news is that Erin passed her LPN boards and started working as a nurse 2 weeks ago. The expectation of this is what solidified our descision to buy a house. Anyway, thats our news.

Halloween Fun!

ast week, Erin and I had the two kids that we mentor, over for a Halloween party! We had a blast. We started off by carving pumpkins, which was a super fun! The kids were so excited about it and did a really good job. After carving pumpkins we had dinner. we got a really good idea from my cousins Jeff and Suzie. Every year at Halloween they have a Monster Manners Meal with their girls. Its basically a meal where there are no manners. This was actually a lot of fun and the kids had such a good time eating messy spaghetti with their fingers.


After dinner we watched a scary movie and had carmel apples. Overall it was a fun night.

Kids, and Tassles

rin had her semester break from school last week so we decided to go on a trip to Moab! Unfortunately our car broke down and it took all of our trip money to pay for it. Even though our weekend was seemingly destroyed, we decided to make the best of it. WE went on a tour of of the northern part of Utah and mooched off of family and friends. We started out in Spring City, which is one of our favorite weekend getaway spots. My sister Jamie lives there and my parents have a second home there, which is a free hotel for us. We spent the day with my sister and her family and my brother Nathan and his wife. It was really fun. Jamie's kids are the cutest things in the world. I spent a lot of time reading to and playing with them

Ollie, trying to wake up uncle Danny by strangling him. Notice that Ava's hair is wet. Actually it is dry, she just put an entire bottle of lotion on her head. Jamie had washed it 7 times before this picture was taken.

Such cute kids!

After we left spring city we drove to Layton where we spent the night at Erin's Grandma's. that night we went and had a fantastic time with some of my cousins who I have not seen in years. So, long story short, we had a great time and learned that we don't need to spend much to have a great time.

Erin Graduated with her LPN this week. I am so proud of her. She will be done with her RN in June but this is still a great accomplishment. She has worked so hard. I am just so lucky to be married to such an amazing girl.

Here she is getting her diploma, doesn;t she look pretty and smart? I was very excited for her.

She was also very excited!
A cute picture of all in attendance.
WAY TO GO ERIN!

handbag planet and free bags

handbag planet is giving away 24 free bags on 10/15/08. sign up and see if ya can win! or not to help my chances.... just kidding. go there right now and sign up...it's easy!

http://www.handbagplanet.com

Danny vs. Chuck

or those of you who don't know, I am currently working at the youth detention center in Provo. I work as a counselor with adjudicated youth who are in the states custody. Anyway, the other day while I was at work the kids started saying that I look like Chuck Norris. Over the last week it has become a big joke. I personally don't agree but I wanted to see what everyone else thought. So here it is. Whats the verdict? Place your vote to the left.

Just in case you can't tell I'm the one on the Left and Chuck is below. That cute girl poking her head up in the corner of the me picture is Erin.

LPN what!?!?

so i have now practically finished the LPN (licensed practical nurse) portion of my nursing program.  i just have to have my grades post and then take the 300 buck extremely intense state test!  little extremely nervous but i think everything will be fine!  the best part about finishing this portion of the program is the fact that i can start working as an LPN once i pass my boards/extreme state test!  this includes a new job title of a nurse with a couple dollar increase of raise.  i can work as a nurse with certain boundaries like i can't do IV stuff and i can't admit patients, etc.  i'll be working on the medical/surgical floor once this test is finished.  everything is based on this test and if i pass it!  i'm sure i will and everything will be just fine!  for my school in the LPN portion the pass rate is 90% or higher so that's good. 

anyway i just wanted everyone to know bc i am super excited and glad that i am now practically an LPN.      

the other exciting news is that my cousin Amy is leaving for a mission to NORWAY!  the exciting part of this news is that my ancestors are from norway!  my great-grandfather went on 3 missions to norway and is from norway.  Amy leaves on wednesday and i'm super excited for her.  good luck amy

t's been a while since I have added to the blog.  Erin and I have decided that we are both going to be better bloggers.  Erin posted once and did her part, so now it's my turn.  

Last weekend we had an amazing time in Zion National Park with some of our fabulous cousins, Leslie, Clay and Sam.  We went down on Friday and camped out next to the Virgin River.  In the morning we got up and headed into the park for our weekend highlight, Pine Creek Canyon.  Pine Creek is a slot canyon and one of the coolest in the park.  It was good exercise, really cold (swimming in ice cold water), a little scary (flashbacks of falling off a cliff while we were rappelling), but most of all it was tons of fun. 

                                                                                          

 

The following day we planned on going to church, however there was a problem.  We arrived at the church in Springdale, just outside of the park and it was locked up.  Apparently it was stake conference and we missed it.  So instead we went to a ghost town, and a ghost town cemetery which was very cool, and went on a hike.  Overall it was an awesome trip with cool people.  We sure are going to miss Leslie and Clay.  They are leaving for Thailand  on Wednesday.  Good luck guys! can't wait to do another canyon next year. 

pictures...hooray

hi there...so we got a new computer which can upload pictures, have wireless internet, and do all sorts of cool things.  so here i am saying hi again!

we had an amazing time last weekend with my fun cousins...leslie, clay, and sam.  we went down to zion national park and hike pine creek slot canyon.  bc we don't have a water camera...go to Like a Lion in Zion.  it's clay and leslie's blog!

i'm goign to update some other fun pictures from our past few months!  here we go!

it's official

so it's official! we stink at bloggin. ok it's me. i'll admit it! you see it's because i'm .....excuses excuses!



so how bout a good list of things that we have done this past oh....feb,march,april,may,june,july,august--8 months.
1. i celebrated my 24th birthday in march. danny threw a nice surprise birthday party where he borrowed guitar hero from some friends. totally addicted...read on it gets better.

2. april.....um...i continue to be in school. nursing school that is. i started last october and will graduate with an associates degree in science as a registered nurse in late may...that as of today is in (today is aug 31) 6 months!! i'm am super excited and really can not wait. this semester ends in the begining of october and then i can take my LPN! this is exciting news bc once i past i can move on up in the world at the hospital from being a lowly CNA/ Secretary to an amazing awesome LPN!



danny graduated! danny has a bacholors degree in bahavior science with an effisaisa in social work. i'm so proud of him! high five to him! we had a little gathering with danny's family and my aunt shelley came. we made pizza and had yummy truffle cake!


3. May... i am the activities chair in my ward, thus meaning i am in charge of allll the activities in my family ward. i haven't really even been in a family ward...well not for a long time. i was totally grateful for the calling and then totally overwhelmed. danny and i do a great job at being the commity. that's right...either i stink at delagating or i just need to put time aside to put people on the commity.

so may...may was my first activity. i had a ward fiesta in the ward pavillion. it went great (looking back)! i was a stress case and cried an hour or so before i got to the pavillion to set up. but it went great and it's over. the main dilema was the food which was great bc, oh yeah..my mom, sister, and brother were in town the week before for 2 of my cousins wedding. so mom helped out with the food but left the day before the fiesta. i am now a pro at activites now.


4. june... still in school, danny is working and i am working as well. danny does a fabulous job at his work. he works at slate canyon youth detention--the long term unit. my husbands works with huge islander guys (that doesn't sound politicially correct....). the kids are sentenced through the court to live there for months. these kids have done multiply things to get them in trouble with the law. danny does great things there like hold group (where people can express them self and have a little therapy as a group). he holds them to the rules and does great.


danny and i flew to delaware were we visited my family! we stayed there for a week on my break of school. we went up to massacheustis and stayed at a nice time share resort there. we saw the norman rockwell muesuem up there. we also went to new york city were we walked around and showed off the city to danny. we saw a broadway play there...what was it call..the myty python one. it was a good laugh. we traveled with haley and christian and mom! daddy was stuck doing work at home. the trip was so much fun. danny and christian got to know each other more. they first meet in may when christian, mom, and haley came out for the weddings. christian was on his mission when we got married.

5. july. july danny turned...26! we had a little sushi party with friends and family. for danny's birthday, danny's brother decided to give us his XBOX and then...the great news...danny's family got him GUITAR HERO AEROSMITH! danny's brother nathan decided that he needed to give it away to be able to concentrate on schooling. guitar hero is the only game that we have. but it's so fun and we are getting so good. if only we spend the time on a real guitar as appose to guitar hero...we'd be excellent! oh well.


also, in july we celebrated our mentors' birthday. she turned 12 a day after danny. we got her some fun stuff and did a bbq/campfire. they had a blast! kirsten and kalob (they're siblings -9 and 12). we've been mentoring them since we've been married. i've mentor kirsten since september 2 years ago. kindof crazy how times past.


we had a blast with leslie and clay on the 4th. we tubed down the provo river and had a great bbq afterwards. we then had some troubles with my car. but $500 later...it is all fixed!

danny and i went on a fabulous pre 1st year anneversary trip! we did it early bc of our crazy insane shedule! it was awesome. danny surprised me with everything and plan it all too. we stayed in hotels in st. george utah. we went to angles landing in zions along with short hikes there too. we saw the big zions imax film, walked around town, had funs to eat, went to TUACAHN and saw LES MESIRABLE (way fun surprise), and went to brigham youngs winter house, cove fort, big rock candy mountian, and dinasour foot print fossils measum. we had a blast. i'm so lucky to be married to this amazing guy!

6. august! we celebrated our 1 year anneversiary! i just can't believe that it has been one year! it has flown by which is a good sign i think. meaning that i've just has such a blast. i've laughed and giggled most of this year i think.


danny's brother nathan got married in the begining of august. aubrey and nathan got married in manti temple. it was a beautiful wedding. they are now living in ephriam and going to snow college.
this month we had a little caldwell weekend gettaway. we went up to sanpete county to spring city. this county is where manti is. it's so beautiful up there. danny's sister lives up there with her family and danny's parents have a house up there as well. we rocked climb up there and

 hiked. it was fun to be with all the family.

we also had another ward activity. it went better this month...or at least i did better. we had a ward campout in spanish fork river park. they said the numbers double this year so i think it went well. kirsten and kalob went with us. we took danny's parents 1980s VW camper. totally awesome. we want one so badly.


christian officially moved out to utah. i've had a blast with him already! he's going to utah valley state university.


danny started grad school! danny is getting his LPC...licinced couselor. (i forgot what the P stands for). it's at the university of phenoix based in murry and pleasant grove. danny will go once a week to class for 3 years. it;s pretty intense...so it seems. its one class for 6 weeks at a time. i'm so proud of him for starting grad school! this option works so well with our schedule and i'm so excited for him that it has started and that he decided to do it. go danny go!

so what have we been up to along with all this....
rock climbin outside and inside
school
work
chilling with some fabulous cousins and friends
and church.

i will try to be better at bloggin!

love erin

ok i'm done looking up picture...enjoy