Visit to the Mtn

When ever we talk to people from around the Phx Valley area, and the topic of "Where are you from?" comes up, we both get asked the same question. " Do you visit often" in refernce to our parents living up in the White Mtns. Truth is.... No, we dont visit often, and before you judge us, let me explain. #1 Our parents, both her's and mine, come down to the valley at least monthly. So its not that we don't see our parents often. Seems we might make 3-5 trips up the mtn per year. So we don't visit our parents in their homes very often, but they visit us in our home frequently. #2 Though SNOWflake is not actually known for its SNOW, Pinetop (where my parents are from) is known for being COVERED with that wet, white, cold stuff. In fact, 4-6 months of the year Pinetop can be covered in snow. Erica and myself, we don't have a vehicle that can handle the wet, icy, dangerous roads in the winter, so when we do visit the Mtn in the winter, we have been known to get SNOWED IN. (as was the case this Christmas, as well the weekend we got engaged, in 2006 when 4 feet of snow fell in Pinetop in the month of MARCH.)

That being said, we realized that Easter weekend us upon us, and we had not been up the Mtn to visit since Christmas. (starting to feel like those UN-NAMED religous type that only attend church twice a year, Christmas and Easter) So up the Mtn for Easter we went.

We figured that it is now mid April, we shouldn't have to worry about getting snowed in again, for the 2nd time this year. Well.....we woke up Saturday morning in Pinetop to about 4-6 inches of snow. Granted, the roads are clear, and we didn't get snowed in..... but just a reminder that either A) we need to avoid the mtn during the 'Winter' season, or B) we need to get us an ALL WHEEL DRIVE car/truck/suv if we want to brave the Mtn during the winter.

Anyway.... thats my rant for now.... here are a couple pictures from the snowy Easter weekend.

A first time for everything. Even for Brett

So this is the 1st time I am creating a blog post. This 1st blog post is about my 1st ONLINE video. I'm made a few little video/photo type things in the past.... but this is the 1st one that I've ever posted online. It's simple... and basic... but i really love this sort of thing. I spent the better part of a month last summer editing our Hawaii videos and photos, from about 7+ hours of vacation memories down to about 2 and a half.
After seeing the success of my older brothers photography efforts, a part of me would really like to get into the video/editing... world.... I really enjoy creating something.... ANYWAY. Who knows, right!? Well if you are interested, follow the link and check out the short video/commercial I made for my brother. Take Care All!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPKLgozY620

2000 cookies in 2 weeks

Wow! Another month of baking done. I have to let everyone know that without my assistant Brett, there is no way on earth I would still be doing this crazy cookie biz! It is quite possible that he does more work than me now. The 1st month he mostly helped with the dishes, but now he pokes 'em, fills 'em, rotates 'em, cools 'em and does all the dishes. What a love!

Does this picture seem sacrilegious?

Don't worry, I will never preach to you about blogging! Who am I do judge. This was taken at the Church Historical Museum (I made that up, I can't remember the name of it) across the street from the Salt Lake Temple. We were able to drive up with Bretts family and celebrate his Grandpa Paxmans 85th Birthday. It was great to see everyone! Bretts Aunt and Uncle are great and so funny! Love you Aunt Diane! Uncle Emil, I'll have to think about it... maybe when you come to a true understanding of how wonderful Snowflake is. Once you get past the wind factor. Anyway, we had a good time, driving around beautiful Salt Lake with the newly fallen snow, playing with family, eating with family, laughing with family, ice skating, shopping and everything else. One of our highlights was being able to visit a couple friends we haven't seen for a while. Kyle, Katie and Kelsey had us over for lunch. After lunch, Katie had to leave for work and Brett and Kyle had to go pick up his car, and here was when my favorite part came. I got to lay down on the couch and take a tiny nap with baby Kelsey asleep on my chest. It's always fun to see them and as straight as I'd like to believe Brett is, he and Kyle are quite fond of each other. They go way back and I'm pretty sure they suffer from seperation anxiety when apart from each other. WHATEVER! So we were also able to get together with Amy and a friend for dinner and had Sushi, YUM! I love Amy! She is so fun and still when I hear certain SNL skits I think of her! She looks fantastic and it was so fun to get to spend a little time with her. It's been way too long!

Just a few other pics...
I'm pretty sure I should have played professional hockey, anyone agree?


Merry Christmas Brett and Chris! The brothers got AK 47 from Daddy. Just a heads up, neither of them hunt, so it wouldn't be wise to play a prank and sneak in our house at night. Brett hasn't even had a chance to try it out yet, but he talks about it often. : )


Grandma and Grandpa Paxman, he is the sweetest man! Bretts dad takes after his mom. She's got plenty of spunk and I hear it's tamed down a bit ove the years. Love both!

I'm A BLOG LOSER!

I am well aware of my blog issues! I am the kind of person that gets really excited about something and then once the initial excitement fades for me, I like to take a long break. I partly blame it on not having any kids yet. Most blogs seem to be mainly about your kids so that will be my excuse. Well, I am a Christmas lover! But this past few weeks have been so crazy busy for Brett and I, I feel like I am missing out on the whole Christmas spirit and fun things you do at Christmas time. Any one who knows me at all, knows that I am crazy about Christmas! Most people share this love with me, however, my very own husband is not one of them. I know, it's crazy, I guess I was just so in love with him when we were dating that it didn't seem to bother me much that he was a Scrooge. (spelling?) Pretty much he just doesn't like all the comercialism and how everyone seems to magically be nice and caring and happy for 1 month out of the year. For those of you who aren't aware, Brett can't smell or taste. He had a surgery on his back when he was younger and was told by the anesthesialogist that it might effect his senses for a few months. Well 10 years later he still can't smell or taste a thing. So Brett doesn't get to enjoy all the wonderful smells and tasty treats at Christmas time like the rest of us do, and that plays a big part for me! So when we were getting our Christmas decorations down so I could start putting everything up, Brett suggested we not put up a tree at all this year. Can you believe the nerve to say something that outragous to me, the Christmas lover herself?!?! I assured him I would be putting up a tree and he was crazy for suggesting otherwise! Well, now we have about a week before Christmasm which we will be out of town for and I just informed Brett that it is time to put the tree back where it came from because I'm not putting it up to enjoy it for 1 week. I suppose I will just make up for it by eating extra Christmas candy, listening to more Christmas music and be happy for the time I saved by not putting up and having to take it down.

Trick or Treat

Our Halloween tradition is going to my brother and sis-in-laws, having dinner and taking the kids around trick-or-treating. The reason being becuase in their neighborhood there is a fantastic show every halloween. A couple doors down, their friends put on a huge production that takes months and months to prepare. In the past there has been War of the Worlds, Star Wars (Brett and probably every boys fav.), Phantom of the Opera and this year was inspired by the opening Olympic ceremony. You wouldn't believe how many hours goes into what they do and the money! They had 20 cast members. Anyway, it was great! Unfortunatly we didn't get any pics of it, but here are a couple of Jordan and Harlee (neice and nephew).

My most creative sister Jill brought this as the centerpeice for our dinner. Darling! I still haven't quite figured our why she got all the talent?

GO SUNS!!!

Brett got 4 tickets to the Suns game on Thursday night (opening night) so Matt and Katie went with us. The game was embarrassing to watch with all the turnovers and everything else that was going on but the highlight, and pretty much why Brett got the tickets, was because Brian McKnight opened with the national anthem and did the half time show. He is fantastic! It was a fun night, we also went to the Saturday night game against the Portland Trail Blazers and it was a much better game! We really like Matt Barnes, he is a great player!