sue...

My mom's birthday was 2 days after christmas but I didn't get around to posting about her until now. Sue is such a gem and the best mom in the world. She is beautiful inside and out, and I think she pulls off the shaved Britney Spears 'do pretty well if I do say so myself! She's the toughest lady I know and taught us kids well. I always considered her to be a pretty cool mom, she choreographed ALL of our talent show performances in elementary school and all of my friends loved her in high school; anytime people were over, she'd run into the kitchen and bake us some goodies to eat. She has taught me so much over the years: it's never too early to have sweets (she sometimes let us eat ice cream in our Cream of Wheat for breakfast), how to use a sewing machine, how writing thank you cards is a MUST, always use moisturizer, make sure that your husband is your best friend, laughter is the best medicine; those are just to name a few. I could go on and on about what this lovely lady has taught me. She is a true hero in my life and I love her to death. I don't know what I would do without good ol' Sue:) I love you mom! Happy Birthday!!!

reay family christmas celebration...

Every year on Christmas day Eric's fam goes over to Grandma and Grandpa Reay's house for amazing food and fun family time. This year we decided to do a "green gift exchange"...all gifts had to be homemade. I was pleasantly surprised to see that everyone did such a great job at getting creative and putting a lot of thought into the gifts they gave.

eating our DELISH mexican food...

this was the funniest thing, Sammie tye-dyed a shirt for Jeff that was supposed to be red and green but turned out blue and pink...oh well, pink is his favorite color, right?...

Andrew made me a dehydrated fruit basket, topped off with a cute peacock ornament...my favorite, if you can't tell from my wedding:) p.s. the homemade dried fruit was super good, we ate most of it on our way back to Phoenix that night! Thanks Andrew!

Sammie and Eric...Sam is wearing her homemade headband from Kelly...I was obsessed with it! Great job Kel!

christmas 2008...

We spent Christmas with Eric's family in Tucson this year and had a great time with the Herbert clan. On Christmas eve we decided at around 1 am to get in our matching pajamas and open all of the sibling presents and then woke up Christmas day to open the rest of our gifts. We always have so much fun with the fam and wished we could've stayed longer because we love being able to spend quality family time, especially during the holiday season.

christmas eve in our matching p.j.s...

christmas morning...Eric was trying to make me believe that they all recreate the manger scene with that thing on his head...didn't work but he wore it anyways...

Nick with his 2009 pocket pal...Meghan gets them from her work for free so she gave those to us first acting like that's all she got us...

Meghan, Sammie and I have an inside joke that involves a made up girl named Denise that wears big hoop earrings, LOTS of lip liner and of course an airbrushed shirt with her name on it...so I got the girls airbrushed Denise shirts as a joke...

our cute and generous parents, Rod and Diane...

in the moment...

Anyone that knows Rod, knows that he is obsessed with taking pictures; which I love (even though we rarely ever see them again:)) Since I am so bad at remembering to take pictures, I am glad to have Rod there taking shots every second to capture the candid moments, so here are a few action pics that might help to re-create our fun family time.

matching p.j.s....Next years Christmas Card... What do you think Diane?

my first time hearing about the amazing art of Mod Podge...(my new favorite word by the way)

thanking Meg for the unique gift of the Lovitt and Touche monthly monitor...

this one is my favorite...Sammie just realized that those amazing bike streamers that we just opened were meant for Meghan, so this is an action shot of her jumping up and ripping them out of Eric's hands...

explaining our unique experience with the air brush guy at the ghetto mall...totally worth it for the shirts...

tis the season...

Even though we didn't celebrate Christmas at our apartment, Eric and I both felt that it just wouldn't feel the same without the smell of a christmas tree throughout the month of December, so we went out and found the perfect one. Since it is our first christmas together, we didn't really have any decorations, but we jazzed up the apartment with what we had and it worked out great!

Our tree...we got the ornaments from Costco and LOVE them!

We decided that since we have a fireplace that we NEVER use, we might as well make it useful for for once and get stockings (even though we didn't even put anything in them)

I have come to realize over the years that I have OCD when it comes to wrapping presents...I will sit there for hours perfecting the wrap, and in the end I get overly excited to see the finished product...Eric thinks I am crazy...I can't blame him

An Ode To Court...

My good friend Court's bday is today. Court and I met in our 9th grade p.e. class and have been great friends ever since. She is the most kind, loving and creative person. She always has a great attitude and I know if I ever need someone to laugh with, it's her. We always seem to laugh at the dumbest things, and continue laughing until most people don't find it funny anymore. Thanks for always being there for me Court. I hope that you have a fantastic birthday, you deserve it!!! I love you~ here are some old school pics, I think you might get a kick out of some of them. I didn't even know I had some of them:)


Court's hand got stuck in her pocket:)...

We were getting attacked by wild beasts!!! (Ok, they were harmless animals at a farm, but it was scary)...

lnkdup crew: Jess, Britt and Court...

Powell (in our handmade swimsuits)...

She's hot even 3 days before she gives birth...

mexico...

We headed down to Mexico after we ate our thanksgiving feast. The weather was great and we all had a very relaxing time.
The fam...we went out to eat lunch at Lucas...super delish burritos:)

The sisters...

Eric and Jess...we tried to take a pic with the sunset, but were a little late:(

We had the missionaries over for dinner on Saturday, one of them is a really good family friend from my parent's ward, Trevor Hatch, it was good to see him and I think he was happy to speak english, because all of the missionaries are from Mexico:)
We greeted them at the door, Elder Hatch is obviously the tall white kid in the back:)

Elder Hatch with his companion...

thanksgiving...

As usual, I forgot to take pics on Thanksgiving, but we managed to get 2 pics as we were leaving Eric's aunt and uncle's house.
Eric and Jess

Our little sisters...Sammie and Julie

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving and you remembered all that you are thankful for...I am most thankful for this dollface who I LOVE more than anything in this world...

julie...

My little sister Julie had a week off of school for thanksgiving so she decided that she wanted to come stay with us for the break. Anyone who knows Julie will agree that she is hysterical. We had a blast while she was here, we went to Twilight, she came a watched the kiddos with me, and she went down to mexico with us. The week flew by and before we knew it, she had to go back to California:( Here are some pics of Julie from the past couple of years. She is growing up so fast, I can't handle it! Ever since she was little, I've tried to make her into my mini-me, but ow that she's getting older, she has more of an opinion...dang it! :)

home project...

I inherited this mirror when my old company, PureOlogy was moving offices. It's pretty ugly, but I figured I might as well take it since it was free:) I've been meaning to paint it for the past year, but it was never a priority so I never got around to it...until a few weeks ago. I decided that since we have a lot of red accents in the house, we would paint the mirror red as well. It turned out a lot brighter than I intended, but hey, it's fun and looks a lot better:)

kristen wiig...

This lovely lady brightens my life. You can catch her on SNL and every single character she plays is soooo hilarious! I watch this clip all of the time and I still laugh:) Enjoy!

the kiddos...

So I don't have any new pics to post, but I was getting sick of seeing the halloween pics so I decided to show you the cute kids that I watch every day...
Justin...he says the funniest things, I love his fake smile in this pic, he's hysterical



Little Miss Tatum...she is sooo cute and has such an easy going personality

halloween 08!

My friend Lyndi, her husband Kevin, Eric and I decided to throw a Halloween party this year. We invited a bunch of the younger couples in our ward, and I was very glad to see that most of them came! Our cousins Jeff and Natalie even made it up from Tucson for the festivities!!! It was a great way to get to know everyone and make new friends. Lyndi and I spent tons of time baking delish food and treats while the boys decorated the apartment... We dressed up as Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife Beth:)