American Idol Junkies!!

As some of you may know, we are big American Idol fans at our house. We even vote multiple times for the artists we love...(should we be embarrassed?) This last season there was a contestant from Mesa who made it into the top 5. Her name is Brooke White. Since Steve is the Director of ..(the name is too long) suffice it to say PR for the city of Mesa he figured out a way to combine work and fun by organizing a "Welcome Home" party for Brooke this past weekend. Brooke's parents basically live across the street from us and are in the same Stake. Steve has enjoyed getting to know them and getting to know Brooke through e-mail and cell phone conversations. Last Saturday evening we had a gathering of over 1500 people at the Mesa Amphitheatre to congratulate Brooke on her accomplishments and hear her sing a few songs. As you can see, we got to be VIPs who had back stage passes for autographs and pictures. We are anxiously awaiting her new album to be released sometime in the next year.


Kinsey and Shay with Brooke White. A couple of star struck girls...Shay had Brooke sign her autograph for all of the Beehives in our ward....8 of them! (that was nice of her don't you think?)

Family is where it's at!!!

My sister Janette's baby shower. How many squares will it take?? She's one of my best friends and I can't wait for her to start this crazy job of motherhood. She'll make a great one!

O.K....I had to put this shot in because my DH Steve made this!! It was the hit of the party. My cousin Jill lovingly nicknamed him "Martha Steve." We love that guy:)

One of the.....ok the MAIN reason we moved back to AZ was to be close to family. We have had some experiences in the past year that have reminded us that it's in our families that we learn the important things in life. Like....love, service, forgiveness, and fun just to name a few.

The story of our house

Some of you have asked about us moving recently. Here's the story...we moved from Reno, NV in 12/06. Because we were selling our home in Reno we rented here in Mesa. Our home sold quickly, but we continued renting for 1 1/2 years waiting for the right opportunity to buy. That opportunity came about in May of 2008. We found a home in a beautiful area that was a "short sale." It was pretty much ready for move in. We are doing a few things here and there to get it just the way we want it Here are a few pics.



The laundry room... LOVE the counters and all the cupboard space. You can't see the counter and cupboards that are behind me! I spend a few hours a week in here folding laundry:)
Another selling point about this home was the HUGE backyard. This fun b-bque was a bonus. We are waiting for things to cool down a little before we have a backyard bash with friends.
This is just another angle. You can see where we had our above-ground pool. We just took it down last week. We would like to eventually do some nice landscaping back here.

Kitchen...I am liking the black appliances. I always had white before.
Great room. The kitchen, eating area, great room foyer, music room are all open to each other. It is a BIG space. We've had a group of 20 over and it seemed to accomodate fine.
dining area
I think this is my favorite room....the music room
office

Here's a view from the front. We aren't super fond of the color. We'd like to paint the outisde a darker color and add either brick or stone to the entry way. Hopefully in the next year or two we'll conquer that project.

I didn't take a picture of the master bedroom because I'm currently washing the sheets on my bed:)

Irrigation & turtles

The kids love to help open the "flood gates" when it's irrigation time

One of the most anticipated events at our new home is irrigation day. During the summer months our back yard is flood irrigated once every 2 weeks. To me it looks like a big

dirty swamp land, but to the kids....adventures galore!! This week they decided to teach our

new turtle, Encanto, how to boogie board. I'm not sure he was enjoying it as much as they were.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

My last patient of the day today was a 5 year old girl. She was cute as can be, not too scared and
quite teachable. In our pre-appointment chatter I asked her if she had any brothers and sisters. She answered that she had 3 sisters. I then asked if she had any brothers......she had a slight pause and then smiling said "yes, I have one brother.....his name is Jesus."

Ok, WOW...how profound and sweet. It made me feel all warm inside as I answered "you know what, I have a brother named Jesus too."

Labor Day Boogie

Here's our best temple picture...This is Amy's whole family (minus Mom & Dad on their mission)

We spent Labor Day weekend in La Jolla at the beach (courtesy of Dan & Louise)...thanks guys! We had a BLAST boogie boarding, playing in the sand, kayaking, visiting with family, and playing games. It was the kids first time boogie boarding and they caught on quickly. I couldn't help myself, everytime I caught a wave I would give a little yell and smile the whole way in. On Sunday we took a little stroll over to the San Diego temple and got some pics. Our first time seeing this beautiful temple and it was beautiful. The weather.....a nice mid 70's the whole trip. We need to do this more often. Any ideas for October break???