F-A-M-I-L-Y Night!

Yay- Tommy is almost finished with the fire academy! I'm so proud of you Tommy Boy! Last Friday, they held a family night so we could all come and see what Tommy has been learning about for the past 17 weeks.

Tommy has such a supportive family- you guys are awesome!

We even got to check out the inside of the trucks!


Tommy's crew was responsible for putting out the car fire.

Isn't this silhouette cool? I can't imagine having to go in that building. It was really neat to go and see what Tommy has been telling me about first-hand, but it made me kind of worried about him!

The kids loved seeing Uncle Tommy...

...make that most of the kids, anyway.

Ahhh...so good!

I finally convinced Tommy Boy to go see Twilight. I've read all the books and loved them, so I wasn't too sure what to expect from the movies. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews, but- it was awesome! I LOVE the boy who played Edward, he was so perfect for the part. And, although it missed some minor story elements you get in the book, it felt so much more action-packed as it jumped from one major plot event to the next- so good! Here is a picture-Make that 2 pictures- Edward looks really cute in the second one (not as cute as Tommy Boy, of course!)It took a little while for me to get used to how the characters looked in the movie versus how they looked in my head, but once I got over that it was great! Well, this post has successfully helped me procrastinate studying for finals long enough...I'm out!

'Tis the Season- Wedding Season!

My cousin Kason and his lovely wife Kali got married last weekend. The reception was beautiful! Here are some pics from outside the temple, of them and the 'McKinnon' girls. I couldn't resist putting a few in there- you guys are so cute!





Tommy's cousin Billy just got married to the lovely Kim 2 weeks back in Hawaii, so this past weekend they had a fancy brunch to celebrate the occasion. Tommy and I hit the road on Saturday afternoon, and arrived at his aunt's house in Fullerton around 9 pm. The next morning we had a ton of fun at the brunch- it was at a gorgeous, fancy golf course. Here are some pictures from the brunch:

Tommy and I chillin'

Maggie-Moo and Missy

Dan and cheesy Chucky

It's a smooch sandwich!

Group Shot

This is a nice shot up Tommy's nostrils- and can you see Chucky's crazy eye??

Our Zoey baby displaying her true skunky colors

Ok, so I have been somewhat of a blog-slacker for a while, and here is my attempt at redeeming myself! Prepare yourself for a random and hopefully entertaining look at the past month :)


The 'So You Think You Can Dance' performance was awesome! Here are some pics from some of my favorite dances-
This song totally made me cry!

Me and Em went for her birthday. It was expensive, but so worth it!

Tommy and I went to a pumpkin patch and picked out a monster! I could not stop cracking up when Tommy safety-belted it into the car. No worries- it made it home safely.


My old co-worker from Wells Fargo finally got married! Congrats James and Gretchen. Everything was SO beautiful- just check out that sunset! It was great to see everyone and have a work reunion :)

Emily and Marcela look so cute here!

Here is our lovely backyard (aka- the wilderness). Jason is awesome and helped us put in a sprinkler system. We will have some all-finished pictures up soon!

Van and Landon had a blast making 'dirt angels' in the soft dirt- so gross!!

Vinyl lettering is awesome! I dressed up our bathroom a little bit with this cute saying, and I'm afraid it's started a new addiction- I already have words up on my front door and in the bedroom- Yikes!

COmpletely random, I know- but hope you enjoyed it!

Get out of Here!

Tommy and I decided a change of scenery would be great, so we took the freeway out of town and chilled in Show Low for the weekend! Here are some pics from the trip...look close, you can see Van standing happily moments before Zoey thiefed his Pop-Tart Ah, here is the rare Tommy-Boy monkey attempting to hop up onto the second floor of the cabin! We sort of got locked out, and had to climb up to the top floor. Unfortunately, this tactic wasn't quite successful, so I got back in touch with my cheerleader roots, and Tommy partner-lifted me up- yikes!!
Did you know horny-toads bleed out of their eyes when they get frightened? Me neither, but this poor guy did after we were through with him...
And, I had to steal this picture from Brie's blog because I LOVE it! Her and Jason were awesome, and helped get Zoey up to the cabin, even though she can be a bit of a handful. Thanks guys!!

An oldie but a goodie

This post is a little late, but better late than never! Here is a photo of Tommy and Zoey at QC's first home football game. I was so proud of my little family running out on the field, and I may be a tad partial, but I really think Zoey stole the show!

Old...but lucky!

Another birthday has rolled around, and it was great! Tommy surprised me by decorating the house and having a snazzy cake waiting for me when I got home from work, and then we went out to dinner with our friends Emily and Jack at one of the best restaurants of all time- BJ's!!

And, I know it's not quite Halloween yet, but I have been itching to put up the fun/scary decorations for like a month now- but I have been prohibited to until today!! My sister-in-law Erin might be even more excited than me- she put hers up two weeks ago, and she made this sweet Halloween decoration that I absolutely love- I had to show it here:

I don't think the picture does it full justice, but trust me, it's adorable! Thanks Erin! You can check out her other Glitzy creations here- http://glitzdesignerin.blogspot.com/.

Tommy Got Stoned...Kidney-Stoned!

So, Tommy Boy woke me up at 1 o'clock (that's right- AM!) on Saturday, the beginning to our holiday weekend, and tells me his side hurts and he needs to go to the doctor. He had gone through all of his medical books, and decided he had kidney stones. Now, I half-way open my eyes, and in my head I'm drifting back a few years to when my sister had kidney stones. She's got a massively high tolerance for pain, but I remember her not looking so hot when she was passing the stones...so I proceed to tell Tommy that he needs to be sicker than that if I'm going to believe he's got kidney stones, and to go back to sleep (did I mention waking me up is NEVER a good idea if you want sympathy?? lol, poor guy!) . So anyway, he spends a sleepless night and finally wakes me up again at 5 in the morning to request another doctor visit. This time I give in, and...

Uh-huh, that's his hospital bracelet! The CT scan confirmed that Tommy did, in fact, have kidney stones, and actually finished passing them before we made it to the hospital to get him some pain drugs! Now I officially know that I am married to one tough guy ;)

Photo Shoots & First Days

So, who would have thought it would be so hard to get a few good pictures of a little puppy? Our little bulldog is going to be the mascot for the Queen Creek High School, and they asked for a few pics of her. Here are some attempts...

Anyway... today was Tommy's first official day of academy for the fire department! So, of course, I made him take a picture with his backpack before he left for class-

*FireWorks*

For the 4th of July weekend, Tommy and I went to California and had a great time with his family. We hung out at the beach and got trampled by some killer waves, headed to Wild Rivers, the water park where Tommy used to work as their mascot, the otter! And, on the 4th we watched an Angels game and checked out the fireworks afterwards. Here is Tommy and little Olivia, his brother Lawrence and Aubrey's adorable little girl decked out in her patriotic best!

Honeymoon(s)!

Tommy and I were super lucky, and got to go to Sedona for our honeymoon, and then to Hawaii a few months later! Both were really fun.

In Sedona, we went on a short (yet grueling!) hike up this gorgeous mountain. We also went on a jeep tour that took us up on this hill overlooking the entire city. I think our guide, a retired army gentleman, missed all the army adventures from his past, and wanted to make up for it by going mach speed up the bumpity mountain! A little scary, but way fun.

Here is the view from the super windy top of the mountain!

We found some sweet authentic petroglyphs too!

H a W a I i

We stayed in a beautiful resort that was situated around a sea-turtle filled bay. One of the coolest parts though, was how vacationers would get travel the mile from the front lobby to their room- by monorail! Yep, just like at Disneyland. It sounds really cool, but they only travel about 3 mph, which was kind of disappointing to me! Here's a pic of me and Tommy looking cheesy inside of one of the cabs.

There is so much beautiful scenery to see on the island, and it helped Tommy and I discover our Tarzan and Jane roots!

There is an active volcano on the island that emits constant steam into the air as the lava meets the cold ocean. The volcanic rock is really cool, and we wanted to sneak some home. But, we heard about the 'Curse of Pele', and decided that would not be a good way to start off a marriage...so we took a picture instead and threw it out the window.

Just thought I'd throw in a picture of my handsome Tommy...and here is the view from the top of the volcano- sort of looks like the Land Before Time huh? I kept thinking we'd see some dinosaurs...

And last but not least, here is our honeymoon baby! Her name is Zoey, and (scandalous!)- she was actually born about 2 weeks before our wedding-yikes!