Tis' the Season, Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra!

Our first big storm hit today! It started real early and has not stopped once all day/night long. It is so pretty and peaceful, I love it! Except for the driving part! I held my breath the entire time going to and from work. The main roads weren't so bad, but my work is up towards Snow Bowl in the mountains so that was kinda scary! The schools here get a snow day today and tomorrow, and Brandon might have work off. Lucky! Anyone who wants to come sledding, our backyard has some great hills! ;-)

Pardon the blurriness of the pictures...

behind the apartment

Brandon and his truck

Completely full of snow!

Sledding in the back! The flash makes it look like nighttime but it wasn't

Got our first real tree! Smells yummy

Newly Weds First Christmas Ornament from last year :-)

Thanksgiving Week

Some happenings from Thanksgiving Week...
Didn't actually take any on Thanksgiving but it was a good day! And with the Jensen's that weekend too. The remainder of the weekend was spent helping my parents move to Fountain Hills.

We painted a wall in our dining room to spice it up a bit ;-)
(before)

After..tadaaa!

What would a guy do without his laptop computer and cellphone in hand? Caught this funny picture of Brandon and my brother Austin in the act

Chandler Mall at MIDNIGHT before Black Friday! I went with some friends just to see what the big deal was all about. There were sales in most stores, but nothing too amazing. It was just all the shopping hype, but it was fun! Before opening there were hundred of people outside all the entrances. The lines were way to long to want to even wait in them! Within 5 minutes of opening there were lines! People had it planned out what they wanted, then got it fast and went in another line in the middle of the mall to get a free $50 giftcard if they spent $100 shopping that night. Crazy people! :-)

Tempe APS Lights Parade

Lighting of the tree

just because i like this...

1 Timothy 12,15-16

"Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity....Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers."

:-)

Funny Video I forgot to Post :-)

Workin Hard For The Money

A family friend of mine makes very creative Halloween costumes every year and enters them in contests, and sometimes even goes to Vegas. So this year he asked if we'd like to join in on the fun and wear his costumes and if we win, we split the $ with him. The first night he wore his Obama mask he made, Brandon was the secret service, and I was the "healthcare" nurse. We had lots of fun with it, and it was like walking around with a celebrity!! We went to Martini Ranch that night in Scottsdale and EVERYONE got their picture with Obama. Sadly we didn't win but we made it pretty far. In my opinion it was the best group costume and very clever! The young kids love Obama. But the stupid bar people who voted were not accurate in their voting (even though when we saw people individually they all loooved it! ). It was right after a metal band played and they were just yelling for whoever. Didn't make sense. But some robot guy beat us. But he was a nice guy so its ok :-)

So then the next night we decided to dress differently. He has a Ghost Rider costume that has won a lot so we had Brandon dress up in it. It's basically an invisible cowboy that is super tall and does TONS of tricks!! He has strobe lights, smoke, he can spit water, and pee. :-) Brandon had sooo much fun walking around and dancing in it. Our first contest was at Toby Keiths in Tempe. Such a fun place!! It made me want to be a cowgirl (I was wearing a cowgirl outfit too, to match Brandon) haha. So that place was an EASY win because its a western place and there wasn't much competition. We got there and no ones on the dance floor yet because the band was on in like 30min so Brandon starts dancing by himself on the floor to play his costume so we win :-) haha it was soooooooo funny. I'll post the video if it lets me. Ok so we ended up winning $500 there and then headed straight over to McFaddens in Glendale. This place was much more packed and CRAZZZYY! Lots of good costumes but we definitely had the most creative and crazy one. So we waited about 3 hours until they actually announced the results and this whole time Brandon is dancing with like everyone in the whole club, giving them high fives, whatever. Again, so funny! Because he is like 7 feet tall in this and he is invisible. So it gets to be the end and they announce the final 3.... 1) the tall skeleton guy thats in the night before xmas 2) the ghost rider (brandon) and 3) a guy in a chicken costume holding a cage with a person in it. The crowd had the biggest cheer for Brandon!! So then they eliminate the skeleton guy and re-do it with Brandon and the chicken. Don't ask me why they did this!! I still think Brandons was louder but they were close and they completely turned down the music for the chicken and...the stupid chicken wins $1,000!! GRRR!! So not fare! Even the DJ said that Brandon had the best in his opinion. But at least we all had fun, just sad that we totally should have won that and poor Brandon worked so hard and was sore in it.

My parents went out as well...my dad wore a grim reeper costume that does crazy effects too, and they ended up winning $1,500 total Lucky!!

Ok here's the pics!.........

Secret Service and Obama

One of the many pictures we took with people.

Metal Heads band

Obama and I

Ghost Rider! Bill is standing behind him in this one so those aren't Brandons legs (in the jeans).

Me on the first night

Look how tall he is!! Everyone couldnt figure out how tall he really is and where he sees.
Wheres his body??

chillin at Toby Keiths, yeehaw

on stage at Toby Keiths for the final 3 contests. What the heck is with the mammogram machine? hahah Brandon danced to Thriller up there!! Soo funny

Sweaty and sore on our way to the next place!

Brandon, my aunt Lisa, and I at Mcfaddens. My grandparents made it out too

Brandon and skeleton guy. Same height! Except skeleton is on stilts

My dad as the grimreeper. Much better looking in the dark and showing his tricks, but overall really creepy!! That head pops up and out...and the body guy can hide under his jacket

eeep!

First Snow

Last week was a crazy one! We were all rested from our anniversary trip, then I get really sick and then 1 day later brandons sick...we both are so nauseous and can't move around nor eat [this sucks when you don't have your momy to take care of you :-) ]...(and read on the next post about our crazy halloween weekend)....but the super crazy part is we both stayed home from work Wednesday and we were watching the movie Polar Express and I'm wishing it were Christmas, then it starts to snow outside! It was soooo cold in our apartment! I think the high outside was like 17 degrees. brrr. One of these days we'll have to use our heater. But despite the coldness, watching the snow fall is the most beautiful thing!! Especially when you see it fall from a distance and it looks slow motion. Besides being really sick, it was a fun day laying around the house watching the snow. Sadly it melted the next day, but now we are even more excited for a few more months! :-)

threw on our clothes real quick to get a first snow picture!

its really coming down now! :-) hehe

lightly dusted

One Year!

October 23rd was our ONE year anniversary!! Brandon surprised me with a song he recorded for me, flowers, earrings, and chocolates :-) I can't believe its already been a year!! I sure miss that day, it was the funnest and most memorable day of our lives. It was so nice to have our families and close friends together with us all at once. I don't think that happens again in this life, right? And I must say it really has been an easy year together. Maybe because we were already dating about 5 years?

Now that I'm out of school it's nice to have less stress at home always studying. Brandon's got it easy right now, he's doing online classes and sometimes I take his tests with him :-) In case you're wondering, these are his classes (kind of ridiculous!): 1) Geology 2) Elvis 3) The Beatles 4) The Beatles AFTER the Beatles. Not too shabby huh? He needs those for electives. Well next semester he will be going to NAU and taking more construction management classes so he will be more busy.

Here's some pictures of our little weekend anniversary trip we just took to Sedona...

haven't seen one of these plants in awhile!

red rocks

hiking

brandon trying to climb everything, as usual!

Safari ride at Out of Africa. this was the coolest part of the place because the bus rides through the habitat they live in and a lot of them live together

Giraffe! We fed him out the window

Zebras! Their enclosed areas are so big it looks like they are just roaming around our desert and seems strange!

meeoww. these guys are caged in.

almost stashed him in my purse!

found this when we were hiking!!

kissing his booboos. he crash landed

Oak Creek Canyon. prettiest place in AZ! never knew it existed...its the drive between Flag and Sedona. And who knew the drive was only 30 min? I didn't!

sittin' by the crick!

autumn est tres jolie!

Last weekend we decided to go out and hike and enjoy the beautiful fall scenery before it's gone. It sucks being inside working all day when it is lovely out! So we headed 20min up towards snow bowl and hiked a trail, walked around, and took photos. Up on the mountain they are bright yellow but when you drive around town they are all the colors..reds, oranges, etc. Well here was our weekend...Enjoy the pics! Maybe it will convince some of you to visit ;-)