Me and my Annie Girl

I got to watch Annie today while the rest of her family went tubing down the salt river. I was so excited to watch her- it has been so long!! Ok well prolly just a little over a month but to me that is way too long!!! So anyway I had a blast today with my Annie girl! We ran a bunch of errands and played, I just love having her with me, she is such a joy and brings so much happiness into my life! We went over to my brother's house to pick up some things I left there and while we were there my Sister-in-law Sarah snapped a few pics of me with Anners. Sarah is starting her own photography business and so she has been "practicing" on the family and I think these pictures turned out so cute!

She is so shy at first which just totally cracks me up!

She started to warm up a little bit

Then I gave her kisses

She LIKES kisses!!!!

Krispy Kremes

Grandma and Mom with our first dozen of Krispy Kremes in far too long!

We used to have Krispy Kremes all over Arizona, but then sadly they all went bankrupt and the state was left without a single place to buy good donuts!! Well as luck would have just a few months ago they reopened one of the Krispy Kremes here and all of us donut lovers are oh so happy!

Freak of Nature

Ok so anywhere but Arizona this might be considered "normal". In AZ this is anything but normal- it is CRAZY!! We have been having some pretty cool storms this summer and we thought we had the last of them two weeks ago, but now they are back with a vengeance!! Last night dad and I went to see a movie and when we came out of the theater it was raining and there was insane lightining. When we got home it started raining even harder and the lightning was continous- the whole sky was lit up and I almost felt like I was at Disneyland watching Fantasmic or something! My parents and I sat out on our back porch and enjoyed the show! ha ha


I recorded this last night while standing at my front door! I love how one of the flashes of lightning is so bright that you can see the car parked out in front of my house!! I love storms (as long as I am safe and sound while watching them)!!!

Courage

So, I don't talk about it much- but this period of my life, the waiting period, is the HARDEST thing I have ever gone through. Coming home from a mission and then waiting to get better so I can go back, man I never would of imagined how tough this would be. I have grown a lot during this time and I have learned to really turn to my Heavenly Father. It has been such a good thing for me, this whole coming home experience- but I would be lying if I said it wasn't REALLY hard. I have about 2 months left of waiting and preparing and getting better- than hopeful around November I will be back on my mission! As I have been waiting I have been keeping my mind focused on returning- I have a burning desire to serve a mission and I want to go back so bad! Everyone around me has been affected by this whole experience and they have all been helping me out so much.

This week my Grandma was so sweet and found this necklace for me. She bought this for me because she was thinking of me and all that I am going through. The necklace stands for courage and this is what it said on the box "Courage of the heart is courage to believe in your dreams... Never give up on your dreams". So now I wear this beautiful new necklace everyday, it reminds me of how loved I am and also that there are people behind me supporting me no matter what. My dream is to serve a mission and I will never give up on it and I know that I have many people who will never give up on me. I am so blessed. Thanks to all of you who have stood by me through thick and thin. Thanks Grandma for this beautiful reminder! I love you!!!

How to best describe last night?

Well honestly I would say the best way to describe last night would be "Peace and then Cat Killing" I know I know, I've got some 'splaining to do! Well first off Cristina and I went to Jamba Juice and then went over to the Mesa Temple to walk around the grounds and talk. We had a great time talking and I took some pictures, it was even nice temperature wise! It was great to just be able to talk with my best friend and also enjoy the amazing peace and comfort that comes from just being on the temple grounds. Well after we finished our Jamba we headed into the visitors center. I was so excited to see sister missionaries!! I talked with all of them and then I found one who had only been out 1 1/2 weeks! So we talked about the MTC and she even knew one of my teachers! It was really cool to be able to have someone to talk to that related to all of my feelings about the MTC and stuff. Cristina was a good sport while we spent a good ten minutes talking about things she had no clue about! It was overall a great experience at the temple (like always!)


So beautiful!!

C Squared

Lovin' my Jamba Juice!

The gorgeous Cristina

I love the temple!! Always such a great feeling there!

So after our fabulous and uplifting time at the temple Cristina drove us back towards home. Well on our way this white thing came out of the middle of nowhere, ran right in front of our truck! We both screamed seriously "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and Cristina slammed on the brakes, but to no avail we heard an eery thunk thud sound and Cristina made the mistake of looking in the rear view mirror and saw little fluffy flailing about as it breathed it's last breath! So ya after our peaceful time at the temple we cap off the evening by killing a cat! ha ha what next!

Let's get Creative!

My friend Jennie and I went to this place called "Creative Hands" last week and we painted ceramics. I made a pizza plate and was surprised that it didn't turn out too bad. I usually can come up with awesome creative ideas for any type of art project, but my execution of said idea is not always the best! lol :)

Painting my plate! Fun fun

The finished product- I went and picked it up yesterday once it had been fired and everything. Notice also that my hair a week ago was a total mop!! Ha ha yay for haircuts! lol

Sweet Apple Pie

So the other day I decided to do something for this family in my ward, I could tell they could use a little TLC. So I figured I would bake- but I couldn't do something plain and simple so I decided to learn how to make apple pie!!

My first apple pie- this one I cheated and used store bought filling and crust.

This one is from scratch- took way longer to make, but some how I had an insane sense of pride when it came out of the oven looking all awesome!!

The baker and the pie! he hee I was so proud of myself- I baked and didn't mess it up! lol


I gave both the pies away so I don't know how they tasted, but if they were as yummy as they looked then I think I did good! ha ha :)