July

On July 5th, my sister Stacey was able to commander more Diamondbacks tickets and so the whole family got to watch one more game for the season.  I love the atmosphere at professional baseball games!

 

 

We spent July 25-30th vacationing in Utah and Idaho.  Easton was very sick most of the trip and had a fever for four out of the six days we were there.  On our way up, we briefly stopped in Vegas for lunch and found this creepy "Hello Kitty" on the strip.  Let's just say Easton was NOT a fan.  This was the first time that David had been to Vegas.  I promised him we'd go up another time to actually spend time to browse around and maybe try the slot machines ;)

 

David and I didn't get much sleep, especially the first two nights where we stayed at a KOA cabin in Utah.  I was grateful we had mattresses and a little "home" to stay in rather than a tent!  For breakfast one morning we made pancakes and bacon and my sister in law shared some of her eggs with us-YUM!  Some of the pancake mix spilled and Easton enjoyed "finger painting" in the tasty batter.

On Thursday the 26th of July, my family all went ziplining down Provo Canyon.  So much fun!  I was terrified at first because I am not a huge fan anymore of dropping at a rapid rate (I used to love roller coasters, but I have found that they don't agree with my very well these days!).  Although I flew down the ziplines, I felt very secure in my harness.  I am definitely looking forward to finding a new location to go ziplining-I hear there is a place in Colorado that is amazing.

 

 

On the trip, we also got to meet my sister Heather's first boyfriend.  He is also attending BYU. Later, our family enjoyed a picnic and fun evening at Bridal Veil falls.  The water was FREEZING and I had to borrow my sister in laws sandals to walk in the water up to the falls area where we took this picture.  It didn't help that the rocks were razor sharp. 

Friday we spent at Lagoon Amusement park and David's cousin Ben and his wife Megan were super sweet to watch Easton part of the day so that we could go on some rides together.  Saturday we spent at my mom's family reunion.  The Idaho Falls fire department/bagpipe brigade performed for us since our family is of Scottish descent.

Saturday evening we enjoyed visiting David's cousin Suzanne and her kids.  We went to the Splash Park in Rexburg for a short period and decided the water was too cold!  It was so fun to catch up with Suzanne.  We definitely miss the Rexburg cousins!

Sunday morning, we were fortunate to have David's cousin Kate (who also lives in Rexburg) take our pictures for us.  David and I stayed up until midnight chatting with Suzanne the night before and Kate was  at a wedding taking pictures until slightly after midnight.  We had to wake up around 4:30 (before sunrise) to take pictures, so we were all super tired.  Bless Kate for even being willing to take our pictures with having such little sleep!  Here are some pictures Kate took for us.

Sunday we spent driving home and visiting the Rexburg, Idaho Falls, and Salt Lake Temples.  We walked around Temple Square and took a tour of the Beehive House where Brigham Young used to live.  So fascinating seeing the way people lived in the 1800's.

 Sunday morning, (backtracking), David and I were sleeping and he woke asking what the buzzing noise in our cabin was.  I looked at my phone thinking it was vibrating, but it wasn't.  I pulled my fleece sleeping bag over my head, telling him it was nothing and tried to go back to sleep.  Well I started hearing the buzzing noise and it was right by my head.  By then, I had to go to the restroom and I figured I would just go shower. When we started packing our things up, David was like "I wonder what the buzzing noise was".  So he checked my fleece sleeping bag, and said "Oh my gosh, it's a live wasp".  I thank my lucky stars that neither of us were stung.  I think originally, the wasp was by David's head and eventually the thing made it's way into my sleeping bag-YIKES!

 Late Sunday afternoon, we arrived in Kanab and stopped for a delicious lunch at a smalle cafe called "The Three Bears". It was a small family owned cafe.  We stopped to take Easton's picture on top of the three bears pole.  We enjoyed a gigantic ice cream rocky road/mint chocolate chip ice cream cone from the cafe while we continued our journey home.

 All in all we had a great trip and got to enjoy the beauty that Utah, Idaho, and Northern Arizona holds with its vast farmlands and lush forests.  It got into the upper 90's everyday but cooled off at night.  We were happy to get home.

 

Family Pictures

Recently our family got pictures taken.  My sister Heather unfortunately was not able to make it to the photo session since she was in Utah going to school at BYU and we were using a groupon that expired not long after it was purchased. I am so luckily to have such a great family.  They bring so much joy!

All the grandkids

 My parents with all the grandkids

 Easton with cousing MaKenna

 Shortly after the two were put on the miniature couch, both leaned in to give each other a kiss.  So sweet and innocent.

About two weeks ago, we headed over to my inlaws home.  Grandpa Bunzell entertained Easton.  We had ice cream and played the card game "Oh Heck". 

 Little Makenna celebrated her first birthday earlier this month.  She enjoyed a rainbow colored mini-cake and ended up looking like cookie monster with face and hands smeared in blue frosting.  She wanted to share the love with Easton :)

June has had its highs and lows but we are looking forward to the next few months.  Yesterday David found out that he has been selected to interview at Philadelphia University for their Physician Assistant program.  The interview has been set for August 22nd.  I am so proud of him!  We are waiting to hear back from the other 6 schools he applied to and pray that year 3 of applying is the lucky one.  Keep your fingers crossed for us! 

Summer of 2012 has begun

Whew!  Summer has begun and boy has it been busy!  At the end of the school year, I opened up the curtains in front of our back door and was pleasantly surprised to see a mom and dad quail along with 10 or so of their brand new baby's following them in a straight line.  They were so adorable!  While David was trying to figure out a way to keep them in the back yard so they wouldn't run into the street,  a baby accidently ran into the house.  When David came back inside, he saw the poor baby running around with Easton eagerly chasing after it.

 In December, David and I purchased two nightstands off of craigslist.  It has taken us five months to refinish the dang things.  We rigorously tried sanding with a power sander, but after several nicks were taken out of the wood, we resorted to manually hand sanding and attempting to use stain remover.  I vowed to David that we would NEVER do such a laborious project again!  However, after David finished putting new stain on this week and we put on new handles, I have to say the final product is gorgeous.  I told David "Call me crazy, but I kind of want to refinish a dresser now".  The stain is a beautiful Mahogany color that perfectly matches our bed frame.

 Final Product

This week my sister Stacey was able to get several free tickets to the Diamondbacks vs. Rockies game so David and I seized the opportunity to spend some time watching good ol' baseball. The Diamondbacks won, 7-1 which made for a GREAT game. We even got to see a home run!

 I planned a playdate for several ladies in the ward (church) and we took our little ones to the San Tan Mall Splash Pads for some fun.

This past Friday, June 8th, David and I got to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.  We started the morning by going golfing at Golfland-Sunsplash.  The golfing was free, sponsored by a local radio station.  It was quite warm, but we had a GREAT time.

In the evening, my mom watched Easton while David and I went to eat and play games at Dave N' Busters.  One of our favorite games to play there is "Deal or No Deal".  Well, on our second round of playing the game, we picked suitcases wisely (or rather we were lucky and picked good ones by change) and ended up winning the 300 ticket Jackpot!  We were elated!

We then went to Tempe Town Lake and took a romantic hour long rowboat ride at sunset.  Poor David's hand were nearly blistered and his back hurting by the time we were done, but he wouldn't let me take the oars.  How fortunate I am to have this handsome of husband of mine.  He makes me life so fun and interesting and he is a constant source of strength to me.  He is bright and funny and makes me laugh!  Happy 5 years my love!

Another room change

As the school year came to a close, I packed up my Speech Room, again (third time in two years), and started hauling my things to my new and bigger classroom (we will now by in a huge Kindergarten room instead of the Janitor's old closet).  This left me with bitter sweet feelings.  This room had lots of memories.  When I first started working at Islands Elementary two years ago, we (two SLP's) were in a TINY office room.  Only one of us could fit in the room with a table for 3-4 children and there was only one desk between the two of us.  We put our everything we had into fighting for a larger room, and the psychologist was kind enough to offer to switch places with us.  So two months into the school year, we switched to the psychologist's room, AKA the "janitors closet".  About a month into being in the new room, the water heater in our room exploded, flooding our floor and many of the rooms next to ours.  Dead cockroaches were displaced out of the water heater closet and we were told that we would have to leave the room for several weeks while walls were ripped out and new carpeting put in-just to be sure mold did not grow anywhere.

So back to our old TINY room we went-thankfully our psychologist friend again let us borrow her room.  After our room was cleaned, walls put it, painted, and furniture back to normal, life resumed as normal.  Last summer I decided to pay a chunk of money to paint one of the walls in our room a beautiful royal blue.  You see, the entire Speech Room was WHITE-and I can't STAND all white walls.  Makes me feel like i'm living in a doctor's office or insane asylum.  I pleaded to get a white board installed, which we eventually recieved.  I loved our cozy office which we had turned into our home. AND there was room for bookshelves, storage cabinets and TWO desks.

We just got a new principal at the end of this school year and some changes were made with classrooms.  He presented us with the opportunity to moved into a full sized Kindergarten room, since the Kindergarten census has been so low that less rooms/teachers have been needed for that grade level.  It will be great to have more space, but I feel like so much work was put into our old room that I don't want to leave it.  Plus our now old room was connected to the Reading team's room and what fun those ladies are!

On to welcoming the new changes and hoping for the best!

Graduation

This past Thurday, May 24th, we got to celebrate David's little sister Sharilyn's high school graduation from Highland High School.  I got off work early that day, since I work in the Gilbert School District and it was the last day of school/early release, and we went to David's Aunt Julie's house.  Sharilyn and her two cousins Nathan Shaw and Brett Judy were also graduating from Highland so Brett's dad put together a slide show of the kids growing up years.  It brought up many laughs and good memories for several family members in the room.  All of David's siblings, their spouses, and children along with Brett and Nathan family members were there.  Afterwards, we got to eat a yummy Mexican dinner.  We then headed down to the high school to get seats.  Unfortunately we went to the high school later than I suggested and therefore many of the seats in the bleachers were already filled.  We were able to squeeze our way in and after a short time of wresting with Easton, the little guy fell asleep on me.  The weather was absolutely beautiful with a cool breeze blowing.  Early in the week we were experiencing 108 degree weather so this cool down into the 80's was a pleasant surprise.  About a million speeches were given and then students all walked and received their diplomas.  Sharilyn also graduated from EVIT earlier in the week and so she now has her Dental Assistant license. Smart girl.  We are so proud of her in putting forth so much hard work!

Summer is beginning and I only have one more week of work!  This summer I plan on doing mommy-infant swim lessons with Easton at a public pool close by, doing play dates with friends and their babies, dressing up as a cow again with Easton (for Chik Fil A day), going to Utah/Idaho for a family reunion/go zip lining in Provo/play at Lagoon amusement park/get pictures taken by David's amazing photograph cousin Kate, and making a stocking for Easton.  Let's hope that I can finish the stocking by the end of the summer rather than taking two years (like my mom's) to complete.

I will also get to spend a little more time with this guy (he's my most favorite person in the world):

What are your plans for the summer?

Heaven is here

Have you read this book?  Perhaps one my greatest "idols" that I look up to, secondary to my own mother, is Stephanie Nielsen.  I recently read her biography entitled "Heaven is Here", and I don't think I have ever sobbed as much while reading a book.  You see, around 2007 (not sure of the exact year) Stephanie was enjoying a beautiful life with her four young children and husband.  Her husband, Christian, was taking flight lessons in order to get his pilot license.  At the end of his training, he needed to complete a significant flight.  He decided to take a day trip to New Mexico with his instructor Doug and his wife Stephanie.  On the way back from New Mexico, Christian stopped to refuel the plane in St. Johns AZ, just 30 minutest (flight time) from their home in Mesa.  Shortly after the plane took off, their were complications with the plane and it crashed.

Stephanie recounts her experience coming to consciousness right after the plane crashed and being engulfed in flames.  She couldn't see a thing and could not get her seatbelt off.  It was her angelic grandmother that helped her get her seatbelt off and guided her to where the door to the plane was so that she could get out.  Stephanie saw the skin melting off her arms.  She was taken to the AZ burn center where she was placed in a medically induced coma for 3 months.  When she awoke, her life was forever changed. 

Her children were scared to see her.  Her daughter refused to look at her for months. Her youngest son who was about a year old at the time of the crash, didn't even know who she was.  He kept crying for his "mom" who was Stephanie's sister that took care of him while Stephanie was healing.  After a year of excruciating pain, surgery's, and difficult trials just trying to complete basic functions (bathing, toileting, eating), she was able to hike "Y" mountain in Provo Utah.  I can't even properly share all that Stephanie went through-go read the book! My heart ached for Stephanie.  She is a beacon of hope in my life.

Today I was thinking about how many bridges I've burned with friends and family I love.  How much pain  I have caused.  I also thought of how much others have hurt me and hurt my husband.  I started feeling sorry for myself.  I thought if the opportunity presented itself to move out of state for schooling, maybe I should look forward to the chance to start over.  Then I thought, life is much too short to dwell in self pity.  I can ask forgiveness of those I have hurt or offended.  I can not make them forgive me.  I can't ask them to change their ways so as to stop hurting me or my family members.  And to me that is the hardest part-watching family get continually hurt.  I look at Stephanie and see all that she has suffered.  All that her whole family has suffered.  How much her siblings and extended family members have reached out to support and carry her.  How incredibly loving her husband is, no matter how depressed she has gotten, no matter the tattered scars on her body.  In her book, Stephanie closes by saying how her scars are a continuous reminder of how much God loves her and how precious life is.  They are a reminder that each day is a gift, not to be wasted.  And so with that thought, I resolve to try a little harder, to do a little better.  To be grateful for what I have, and to share my love and service with others.  To make the wrongs I have committed, right.  I am grateful for my life and all I have been given. Heavenly truly is here on earth.

Brinkley's blessing

This past Sunday 5/6/2012, our family got to see the newest addition to the family receive a precious blessing by her father.  Cody gave the sweetest blessing to little Brinkley and it was neat to see the tears in his eyes after giving the blessing-a sign of a father's true love and best hopes for his daughter.  I also had some tears in my eyes, thinking of all the blessings our Heavenly Father has in store for each of his children.  It was only two short months ago that Brinkley decided to leave the presence of her Heavenly Father to join her mortal family.  How greatful I am to be her aunt!  Here are some pictures of Brinkley's special day, courtesy of Brinkley's mommy Rosalee.

Mommy and daughter

All of Brinkley's family  

12 of the 13 grandkids

It's April!

Time to do my once a month blog posting :)  At the beginning of this month, our family enjoyed watching General Conference at my brother Chris' home.  The week after, my two brothers and David loaded up our small Corolla and headed to California.  My littlest brother Kyle was turning the big "10" and had never been on a roller coaster before.  My oldest brother Chris decided to suprise him with a trip to Six Flags.  The boys enjoyed the cool California air.  Kyle initially was freaked out by the roller coasters and by the end of the day, decided they weren't so bad after all.  Upon returning to the parking lot, the boys discovered that some jerk had backed into our car, leaving a nice dent on the side of the car and a shattered side view mirror on the ground.  Did I mention he also left a scratch?  As soon as the boys returned to AZ, it was time to rush to Grandma and Grandpa Bunzell's house for our Sunday Easter festivities.  While backing out of the garage, David refused to tell me what was on his mind.  He just said "don't look in any mirrors"-which naturally I did anyways.  I saw that the car he took to California was not my beautiful black Corolla anymore.  We took it to a nearby auto body shop and they estimated repair costs to be 1400$.  We have to pay 750$ as our deductible if we want insurance to pick up the extra fees. Ouch!

Strawberry season is now in full swing and I decided to take advantage of the 2/1.00 packages at the farmers market.  I also picked up some squash, apples, and a HUGE bag of tomatoes.  Total cost=7.20$  I was quite pleased with my purchase.  I ended up making baby food for Easton, 11 jars of strawberry freezer jam, salsa, and will be using the rest of the tomatoes for pasta salad and hamburgers this week.  Yum!

David's dad has been working on promoting his Jackalopes Archery Tag business.  As such, David's cousin Kristi was so kind and generous and came over this past week to take pictures of "the boys" in their camo outfits. Thank you Kristi! I think I've got a good lookin' group of boys in my family.  What do you think?

This week, David started trying to gather letters of recommendation, typing a letter of intent, and trying to decide which Physician Assistant programs to apply to again this year.  Last year he had no patient contact hours, which I think is the reason he did not get accepted.  Since January of this year, however, he has accumulated several hundred hours working as a Certified Nursing Assistant.  I just pray that this will be the final thing he needed to get in.  Arizona only has two PA schools and I am terrified of going out of state. More so for having to put Easton with some stranger while I work to support our family.  We have been so incredibly blessed to have mine and David's mothers watching him for us.  In the end, we will go where David gets accepted-otherwise, we don't move forward with career goals.  May the odds be ever in our favor this year.  Wish us luck this round!

As the school year comes to a close (can you believe it??? Only 5 more weeks!), there are many events we are looking forward to.  Two of my best friends are graduating with their doctorates!  Yes, the soon to be Dr. Melissa Galbraith, Au.D and Dr. Julie Pena M.D. will be graduating this May.

David's little sister Sharilyn will be graduating high school (the last graduate in his family).....Gorgeous isn't she?

......and my great Aunt Karen is getting remarried!  Hopefully more pictures to come.  Congrats to my wonderful family and friends for their accomplishments!