The birthday cake that my visiting teacher made me full of brownies!!
This last Thursday was my birthday and I turned 23! Everyone asks me what my age is and I always have to think awhile.....I don't have alzheimers, its just that many of my peers are either just older or just younger than me and it seems like I should be their age. David's cousin Michael also shares my same birthday he is just a year older than me. So below are some pictures of us at Michaels house on our birthday. Michael's little sister and I got eaten alive by ants when we stepped on the edge of the grass and cement so we quickly jumped into the cooler of water balloons to save ourselves. I told Jen to give me her most painful looking face but it ended up looking like a smile!



My birthday present from David was a bike rack that attaches to the car....no more walking a mile plus to get to my car in the middle of summer at ASU!! Wohoo!
Friday was one of my really really good friend's-Heather-bridal showers. A bunch of us girls got together at Macayo's for some yummy food, games and opening presents. I was working diligently to win one of the games which was to come up with as many words as possible with the words "Christopher & Heather".....I even gave up some of my eating time and was sure I would win. However, Heathers sister had 120 words....I guess I wasn't working as diligent as I should have been. It was SO nice to hang out with a group of girls, some of which I haven't seen since I graduated high school 6 years ago!

Goofy Golfing and Friend Goodbyes

As usual, we had another very busy weekend. Last weekend, I had to do my defensive driving class which went well and was fairly quick and then rushed to my parents to do laundry and by 4p.m. we were on our way out to Canyon Lake to go fishing with my brother, his wife and kids, and then my husbands brother and his wife. I had forgotten just how nice and relaxing it is to be away from the city. The temperatures by the lake were very nice and cool suprisingly. I think we've decided that we need to go fishing more since it is so close and its a nice little retreat. My brother and Sarah (sister in law) caught one tiny blue gill each and then released them. Hope we have better luck next time :)

This weekend I got to buy some piano and vocal duet sheet music from Milano's. I have been wanting for quite some time to get new piano music and the duet book is something that David and I can sing in harmony to while I play the piano---we just have to practice....but shhhh don't tell anyone in the ward we are doing this (I have been successful so far in letting very few people know of my piano abilities---and I Love the calling I have so...)

David and I also went to see the Joseph Smith movie at the visitors center and if we didn't have friends with us I would have cried. This movie with its accompanying music just really brings to light all the things the early saints, most especially Joseph and Emma Smith went through to bring for the gospel, and even through the tarring and feathering, being driven from their homes, hundreds of family deaths...they still had the faith to cross the plains! We also said goodbye to the friends that went with us as they are moving back home to Missouri on Tuesday. Below is a picture of us with them at the visitors center.

Right after that, we went goofy golfing with some of David's high school friends, and outside of the terrible humidity, what a BLAST we had! Some of us lowered our numbers a little :/ because...well...on some holes we just didn't do so well. It was funny because by the end of the night, everyones numbers were just about the same :) I have had a really good time with David's friends. As time has passed, the majority (not all) of my high school friends have slipped into their routines and I have found more and more that we lack common ground. Shar, you are not one of those :)....So I am very thankful for the good friends David has. They have such strong morals, values, and drive to finish a college education. Below are some pictures of the fun evening!

Haircut and Primary

For a long time, I have desperately been needing to get my haircut. My dilemma was that my hairdresser's husband joined the military at the beginning of the year and so it was time back in May for him to transfer to a more stable area and his wife left to join him. I am not fond of hair cutting stores because I've never had a good experience. After searching for awhile, I remembered my friend Shaunna from high school cuts hair and I know several of my friends go to her. She did a GREAT job. I took some before and after shots and I am sorry my hair isn't down all the way in the after shots to show you just how great of a job she did......

BEFORE:

AFTER:

As mentioned before, David got called to be a primary teacher and here are the cute kids he gets to teach every Sunday!

On another note, school starts back this week which also means I begin working as a SLP-A in the gilbert school district. I am not sure I am ready to start back yet as I have been working 40+ hours the last month or so, so I really haven't had any summer....There is always so much to learn and classes at ASU will start up shortly. And so it is with life....

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

–Walt Disney

Birthdays

This month and last month have been FULL of birthdays...in the month of July was my brother, sisters, and father in laws. Tomorrow will be my oldest sister Stacey's birthday, the 19th is my moms birthday, and my birthday is the 27th!

For my Father in laws birthday, we went to organ stop pizza and celebrated. My littelest nieces were absolutely thrilled with the little kitten puppets that came out during the Alley Cat song, and were perplexed as to where they ran away to when the curtains went down :) Below are some pictures of the fun evening.

We have decided to hold off on looking for a house until december/january which will give us a little more time to save some money. We are just hoping and praying that the government extends the tax credit for first time homebuyers into the next year, or at least that interest rates stay down. If anyone has housing advice we'd be happy to hear it.

On another note, David started teaching primary today for the first time and it was so cute how hard he tried. I think he was pretty nervous as he seemed so serious the whole time. I tried to elaborate on what he was saying and get the kids excited with just my tone of voice. HOpefully they get David a co-teacher soon so that I can get back to relief society. I love the kids and they are so cute, but relief society is the only time I get to spend with the women and actually feel part of the ward as I teach sunday school to the 13-14 year olds.

Nieces and Nephew

Fawn, Aunt Jill, Uncle Loren

The birthday boy is in the center(gray/purple shirt)

The little girls dancing away to the organ's music