The Pettit Family

Fancy Night 2012

2012-02-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't want to get dressed up all fancy and have a fancy dinner with fancy friends? I do! This is our second fancy night, and it was splendid! Our guests consisted of James and Carly Zamora, and Randy and Dev Day. We would have invited more but unfortunately my table only holds six. We started off the evening with a fancy photo shoot that I am sure I made a fool of myself trying to run back and forth setting the timer so that we could take some group shots.
Then we went back to our house for dinner and games. We had two delicious salads, rolls, garlic bread, gorgonzola crusted steaks, and pazookies for dessert.
We finished the evening with a ridiculous game called "Curses" which I'm pretty sure made everyone feel like idiots. Overall a phenomenal evening.

Family Pictures 2011

2012-02-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

I just love Still Life Studios. They never cease to amaze me how they can make us look better than we actually are (except for Calvin... he really is that cute). Here are some of our family pictures from 2011

Color Run 2012

2012-02-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

One of my New Years resolutions is at the end of 2012 I will run a half marathon (here's to hoping). I'm not a runner. I ran track in high school and got injured my sophomore year. So besides the few races I did compete in this is the first race I've ever done. Well, if you even want to call this a race, it wasn't timed and there were a lot of congestion points where pretty much everyone stopped. But, it was 5k and I'm proud of myself!

Before

At different times during the run we would go through a tunnel of colored cornstarch. I would forget to close my eyes, mouth, and nose and it would be very unpleasant, but they said it wouldn't do any harm, so what if I'm still blowing purple boogers out of my nose, that's okay... right?
The paint was really easy to get off, if you didn't sweat, or didn't try to wipe it off with a wet wipe first and end up staining it on your face/ body. Who does that anyways? I'm sure there was instructions somewhere that I didn't read. Instead I just looked like I was in an abusive relationship. Bruised from head to ankle. The blues and purples with the yellows and greens make the perfect combination for bruised looking skin.

After

I really did have a lot of fun and I am looking forward to the many races that I will run this year.

Grandma Tropple

2012-02-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

It's always sad when one of the good, normal people leave this world. On Friday my sweet grandma passed away. I love her and miss her so much. She was such a unique person. She lived a life of service. She wasn't one to complain or to ever put herself first. My childhood memories of grandma were of her serving my grandpas every need. "Beatrice where's my dinner?!" I would hear him call out. And grandma would call back "Just a minute Art!" and bring him his food or whatever else he was calling out for. When my grandpa passed away six years ago my grandma was devastated. I know she has been missing her sweetheart for a long time now and I'm grateful that she gets to be with him. Her family made her happy.
My grandma was hilarious she always had a witty remark and knew how to make you laugh even on the saddest of days. Jesse and I would take her grocery shopping. In the summer time when it got really hot she would get out of the car and comment "If hell is this hot, I'm going to change my ways!"
She loved "fat furries" Anything that looked fun to cuddle with. There was a tragedy in my ward where this lady got attacked and killed by a bear. When I told my grandma about the attack and tried to convince her that bears probably wouldn't be very fun to cuddle with, she just sighed and said "What a way to go..." like being attacked by a bear would be the PERFECT way to die. Fat furries made her happy.
My grandma LOVED food, she had boxes of recipes she had clipped out of magazines, but she hated to cook. So she would just look and imagine eating the picture perfect food. Her favorite was chocolate. When we would take her shopping I think most of the groceries she purchased were candy. I was amazed that she had eaten all the chocolate since the last time we took her shopping. Chocolate made her happy.
She adored her husband and child. She was a momma bear for sure. I never saw my grandma upset unless you were talking bad about someone she cared for (which was pretty much everyone). She loved her family and friends.
I heard the news when I was driving home from the grocery store and a silly country love song came on "Wrapped up in You" by Garth Brooks and I was so happy! I could just imagine my grandma giving my grandpa a huge hug, and my grandpa saying some snide comment like "Well, what took you so long!?" In his big, raspy grandpa voice. There was never any doubt that my grandma loved her family. I will miss her, but I know I'll see her again.

7 Months

2012-01-24T09:15:00.000-08:00

I was at church the other day and I held a teenie tiny newborn. She was so little! I thought for sure she had to be about 5 lbs. When I asked how much she weighed the mom said "oh she's about 8 lbs now." What?! 8 lbs!? I remember when Calvin was 8 lbs and I thought he was huge! I can't believe that he was that little once!
I love my little handsome. He is such a happy boy. He has been kinda sick this month, but even when he is sick he is still so happy. I feel so lucky to be his mom. He has gained a little bit of weight since last month (luckily) he weighed in at a whopping 15.3 lbs. Still somewhat underweight but he is in the 75% for height he is 28 inches long. He's my little string bean. This month has been a month of trying new food. So far he's tried: carrots, peas, bananas, avocados, apple sauce, and sweet potatoes. He has these sweet potato puffs that he goes nuts over. When I bring out the container his eyes light up and he puts his arms out to the side and starts shaking his hands, he gets so excited!

Calvin eating avocados

One of the super funny things about Calvin is that he loves to get scared. Jesse and I will hide and jump out at him and he will jump and then start laughing really hard. Or we will make a scary face and growl at him he thinks it's the funniest thing. He has also learned the "B" sound so everyday it's "ba bababa ba ba bababa". He looks straight into your eyes, lifts his eyebrows, and tilts his head like a grown-up would while trying to describe something. He has the most expressive eyes! His eyes smile before his mouth does. I love his sweet happy face. I could be in the saddest mood, but when I get him out of his crib and I see that sweet smile and hilarious chirp I can't help but be happy. I love my little boy.

Calvin and his best friend Stailey

This month we also went on Calvin's first hike. We went to Butcher Jones around Saguaro Lake with my mom and my nephews. He did so good, he loved being outside, but toward the end he got super tired so he slept the entire hike back to the car.

Here is Calvin's 7 month photo shoot:

I am the Luckiest

2012-01-23T13:14:00.000-08:00

I over heard someone say "I'll be happy when..." and I got to thinking, I don't really have any of those thoughts of "I'll be happy when..." I don't have the grass is greener on the other side complex. My life is pretty green. Greener than I ever could have imagined was possible. Let me back up for a moment. When I was young I thought that when you get married you just kind of deal with your spouse. I thought that you pick a mate that you could stand being around for a long time, someone that didn't annoy you too much. I didn't think that it was possible to have a life without yelling, arguing, criticizing, or depression of some sort.
When I got married to my amazing husband I thought that I just became the LUCKIEST woman in the world. I have absolutely no idea how I got such an amazing husband. I married up. I married a nerd. A nerd who is under the impression that he married up (silly boy). He has never raised his voice. He loves to serve in every opportunity available. He is the kindest person I have ever met. He doesn't hold grudges or think unkind things about people. He is smart, like really smart. Smart with computers, anything school related. He is one of those guys that knows a good amount about a lot of things. He likes to learn new things, which is a rare trait. He has an amazing voice and he plays the piano very well. He is hilarious and I love even his stupidest jokes. He makes me feel special. He likes my cooking. He is the most amazing dad to our sweet son Calvin. He plays with him and likes to read him stories. He jumps at the opportunity to feed him new things. He makes Calvin laugh. And what I love most, he loves me. I can be completely myself around him (the real me is kinda scary- stinky toots, a cackle for a laugh, sometimes questionable cooking, I'm super awkward). Anyway I hold nothing back from him and yet he still adores me. It baffles me how I got to be so lucky. I thought that I just couldn't be any happier. It wasn't possible. I just married the perfect guy for me my heart couldn't possibly hold more joy than that, and then we have our little baby boy Calvin.
Calvin melts my heart. I love how his eyes smile as he chirps with laughter. I love how he reaches for me, even when he's not hungry or tired. I love knowing that he is our son, we are a family and we always will be. I love knowing that he is going to be such a good big brother someday (not anytime soon that I know of). He seems like he is going to be so responsible. I love how smart he is, he is learning so much so fast! I'm so proud of my son already. He has such a special spirit and I know that the Lord has big plans for my little Calvin.
Yesterday we have been married for three years. My whole life changed when I married and got sealed to Jesse. I'm honestly the luckiest girl in the world. I have no idea what I did or how I did it, but I'm grateful.

Christmas in Utah 2011

2012-01-03T08:54:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year we took a trip to Utah to visit Jesse's family. We were able to take a plane but I was quite nervous about how our new little baby would handle the trip. We took a car trip to California in November and Calvin did pretty good then so I shouldn't have had anything to worry about but I did anyways. I'm not sure why I was so anxious about the flight, but everything went smoothly and Calvin was the same happy boy he always is.
The trip was lovely; full of family fun and games, cute traditions, and even a little mistletoe action. On Christmas Eve all of the aunts, uncles, and grand kids re-enacted the nativity. Calvin was the youngest baby there so he got to play the part of baby Jesus and did a fine job. I think he liked the little manger more than his own crib, despite his legs hanging off the side of it. He just laid there and smiled as all of the other grand kids were gathered around adoring him. I love my little angel son.
Jesse's sister Mirinda MADE us an awesome AT-AT for Christmas (AT-ATs are the big, four-legged walkers in The Empire Strikes Back). She is so ridiculously talented! We are trying to impress the importance of Star Wars on Calvin at an early age. The goal is to have a good collection of toys and memorabilia going for him the time he understands how awesome Star Wars is. Some parents set up college funds in order to help their kids to get a head start in life; we're making sure he has a good Star Wars collection. I think he'll have a leg up on everyone.
My favorite Christmas gift was visiting my mission president. He and his beautiful wife returned from the Chile, Osorno mission back in July and I swore I would go to their homecoming no matter what. However, I had a 3 week old baby and c-section and it just wasn't realistic to drive 11 hours so this was the first time I was able to visit them since I was a missionary. We visited with them and their adorable family. I just love them. They are such Christ-like people and make me want to do better just from being around them. I enjoyed reminiscing about old mission companions and it made me miss being a missionary and being so involved in the Lord's work. They are probably coming to Arizona in March so I am counting down the days
Such a wonderful Christmas! I'm so grateful for such loving family and friends that make life so sweet and full of joy.
Jesse, Calvin, and I did our own little Christmas a couple days after we got home from Utah. Calvin got a lot of new puff cereal and fruit mush to try out. It fun to see him try new things and how insistent he is about getting more of whatever food we introduce to him. Jesse got me a drawing tablet for Christmas. I am so excited to start researching and learning how to do digital paintings and whatnot. Digital paintings are cool but I'm most excited about the whatnot.
This Christmas couldn't have been any better. I love the Christmas season and I'm always a little sad when I have to take down all my glittery decorations.
Preface: There are a lot of pictures, I'm sorry. I just loved them all.


Jesse setting up the Lego train. Calvin is very interested.

Helping dad put up Christmas lights

Jesse and his a cappela boy band group were invited to sing at the temple for Christmas, they sang seven songs and it was beautiful! They also sang at the Higley Community Christmas Concert, but it was in a chapel so I didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures but it was so much fun. "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear" Elf

I was hoping for a white Christmas up in Utah, but it was just cold.

He didn't love the cold ground

Chirpy baby

The whole Pettit Family

My amazing mission president and his sweet wife

The Nativity

Everyone putting on costumes

Jesse bet Carissa she couldn't fit her head through a child sized tunic. As she proceeded to prove him wrong she got stuck and Jesse started tickling her. She didn't love that.

Jesse's role was the donkey that brought the Kings to the baby Jesus. Someone asked why all three kings were on one donkey. His brother said the three wise men were going green this year so they were sharing a donkey. Jesse said that he was an especially environmentally friendly donkey a "pre-ass" We all had a pretty good laugh at Jesse's silly jokes.

We came back into the room to find Calvin playing with the other cousins toys.

Calvin loves his new awesome AT-AT

Calvin 6 months

2012-01-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

Oh my sweet baby boy Calvin is 6 months old. I was about to publish the post and I looked away for a few seconds and with just a few pats on the keyboard and Calvin had erased my entire post. I guess he did not approve. I can't believe he is already 6 months! Isn't he supposed to still be a newborn? We took him to the doctor for his 6 month wellness check up and he had LOST weight! He is at 14.8 lbs. What a turd! I mean I tell him all the time that I want him to stay little but he is the same weight he was at 3 months old. So we are trying to fatten him up. I'm feeding him every hour and a half to two hours. He's starting to eat cheerios. He doesn't quite have the finger dexterity to feed himself yet but he's getting there. We have started feeding him carrot mush too. I'm personally hoping that the carotene from the carrots will give him a bit of color, because knowing who his parents are he is doomed to have pale white skin for all of his life.
He is starting to sit up on his own, well it's more of a balancing act, but he does it well. He is such a happy boy! He laughs and giggles all the time, he chirps like a Cockatiel. He will often grab my face and then let out a big happy chirp, it warms my heart. He loves playing peek-a-boo and gives a good deep stomached laugh whenever we "re-appear".
He has always been a really extra good sleeper. Ever since day one he has only wanted to wake up once in the night to nurse and that's it. As of late he is getting up about an hour after we put him down and he doesn't want to go back to sleep. He is also getting up 2 more times during the night to nurse. I know I'm pretty spoiled to be complaining about getting up 3 times during the night, but it's a big change! He get's really grumpy when we leave his room. He has the whole Trust verses Mistrust stage going on and so it's hard to find that median between comfort and helping him learn to sooth himself.
He's such a sweet baby, I'm grateful to be his mom and watch him learn so quickly. He makes me happy.

Sitting up all by himself

Here is Calvin's first taste of carrots

Apparently Calvin REALLY likes limes

Bachelors in Family and Human Development

2012-01-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

Yay for me!!! I finished school and now have a Bachelors degree in Family and Human Development! I am the first person in my immediate family (excluding in-laws) to get a Bachelors Degree. It's always been a goal of mine to get a degree. I remember growing up and not being able to imagine my perfect wedding but instead contemplating what my major would be in college. I settled on interior design when I was in grade school but then learned that I had to be good at math for that and I knew at a very early age math was not for me. In Junior high I really wanted to be a chef. I still like cooking a lot but it became more of a fun, personal thing rather than something I wanted to go to school for. In high school I wanted to become a psychologist. I wanted to help people through their problems and help them realize that they are worth more than they think. I wanted everyone to know that they are special. But during my junior year of high school one of my friends committed suicide and it really took hit me hard. For one reason or another it never occurred to me that if I chose to become a psychologist that it would be a possibility that one of my patients would take their own life and honestly I don't think that I could handle it. After high school I went to Mesa Community College and got an Associates degree in Art. I figured that was a safe bet - I liked art. Back then, I was working full time as a photographer and I was loving life. After graduating with my AA degree I went on a mission and when I got back, I took a semester off, got married, and dove right back into school. ASU was good to me: they accepted all my transfer credits and even allowed me to test out of a few Spanish classes. It was time to choose a real major. I love photography but I felt like I already had a wonderful education from working at Still Life Studios. The only other thing that I really really wanted to do in life was to become a mom and raise awesome babies so I chose Family and Human Development as my major. I did all my switching back and forth between majors when I was a kid so when it came time to really choose, I was ready. I loved the classes I took! I think one of my favorite classes was Child Development. It covered everything from conception to age two. I found the different stages that kids go through fascinating. I love being able to apply the things that I have learned to my own parenting style and it's fun to have my own little science experiment (CALVIN!!). I love looking back at my old textbooks to get a bit more insight into what to do at this stage of development. It's been such a blessing in my life and I can only imagine it will be more and more useful as my child(ren) get older and more plentiful.
I chose not to walk with my graduating class since earning a degree was more of a personal goal (although you may feel free to send me a graduation gift, *wink wink*). I'll do a little happy dance when it arrives in the mail and that will be it. Oh, and I'll probably convince Jesse that we need to celebrate and go have a yummy dinner someplace nice (like Applebees, haha, j/k, gross).

Brig's Baptism

2012-01-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

One of my oldest nephews (Brigham) turned eight in November and he got baptized over Thanksgiving weekend! Brig is such a wonderful example for his younger brother and sister. One of his cousins gave a talk about baptism and she recalled a conversation between some of the younger cousins about what it felt like to be baptized. Soon after that conversation one of those cousins got baptized and described her baptism as feeling warm. The other young cousin exclaimed, "I knew it!" I looked over at Brig and he had a big smile on his face and was nodding in agreement. It made me tear up. I love seeing him make such good choices in following God's plan for him. There was such a sweet spirit there and I'm grateful that I was able to be there to enjoy it.

Poop

2011-11-24T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well friends, it has finally happened. I feel that I'm FINALLY firmly entrenched in parenthood with our most recent baby adventure/learning experience. Poop has achieved rock-star status in our home. This is due to Calvin's recent lack of bowl movements. Has he pooped yet? What consistency was it? What color? How bad did it smell? You see, ever since we started feeding Calvin rice cereal he has been a little stopped up. I never thought I would want someone to poop so much! When I say a little stopped up, I mean that our baby hasn't had any sort of meaningful movement in about two weeks. It's obvious that he's uncomfortable and that makes us sad. Additionally, he's getting up 3x as many times a night as he normally does, which also makes us sad and tired. The other unsettling piece of this whole ordeal is that I KNOW when Calvin's little body finally finds the wherewithal to void itself of it's carefully collected and compacted waste, it will be terrible...and glorious. We'll have to have to do something symbolic and meaningful when it finally happens. If any of you drive by our house and see a little flag at half-mast or a brown ribbon tied around a tree, smile and know that we will sleep well that night.

5 Months

2011-11-24T09:43:00.000-08:00

Calvin is 5 months already? What happened to the tiny little infant baby boy we just met a few months ago? Calvin is already showing signs of being more precocious than we had prepared for. He's forming opinions on just about everything and lets us know when something is out of pattern. He especially has a favorite book he wants read to him for bed time and a particular blanket he wants to sleep with. Calvin also recently starting to laugh socially and it's hilarious. Jesse and I will be laughing about something and he'll start laughing too. He also laughs when we make scary faces at him which, if you're lucky, will turn into nervous cries. He will wrap his arms around my neck and give me a big hug, in the process however, he will also grab two big handfuls of my hair. It takes quite a bit of convincing to get him to let go. He LOVES his daddy. When Jesse gets home from work Calvin will get a big smile on his face and will watch him until Jesse comes and picks him up. Rolling has become a way of life for Calvin as well. The new-found mobility is a double-edged sword - I will hear him crying in the morning only to find he rolled over onto his tummy and got stuck against the side of his crib. I'm really, really hoping that he stays in this less-mobile stage for a bit longer as I'm not ready to baby proof the everything up to 3 ft in my house quite yet. :)

California

2011-11-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to California with one of our best friend couples. The have an adorable little boy about Calvin's age and John used to live there so he showed us around a bit as well. Our hotel was about two miles away from Disneyland (unfortunately we didn't go) but after we got settled in we went out to the best taco shop "Chronic Taco" to have dinner and we took a stroll down the pier at Huntington Beach. It was super dark out and there were about 10 surfers out. Surfing is already one of my biggest fears and in the dark... well that's just crazy. But there were some really big waves and it was fun to watch them not kill themselves.

We were all exhausted from the trip so we called it a night and crashed at the hotel. The next morning we woke up and went to the Newport Temple. I guess it's not a super busy temple like the Mesa Temple because they didn't have a lot of different sessions going a regular intervals so we initiatories instead. It was one of the smallest Temples I've been in, but it was so beautiful inside. I love going to the Temple, it is always so refreshing and peaceful. After I come out I feel like I can take on the world, like nothing could mess up my day. I needed that because the day was very very rainy and I was supposed to have a photo shoot for the family that we came with at the beach that day. It didn't work out to say the least. It was cold and rainy and kinda miserable to be outside. Later that evening the rain had stopped, well mostly so Jesse, the boy, and I decided to hit up Downtown Disney we had a little rain bubble to put over Calvin's stroller so he didn't get hit by any rain or wind. He was a pretty happy boy.

Us at the Lego store- our favorite Darth Vader

We went to the beach the next morning when it was nice and sunny to have a family photo shoot for our friends. We snagged a couple of our little family while we were there, the boy was angry most of the time. I guess I'm supposed to feed him. Oh yeah, that's my job. So he wasn't the happiest but I think he has a cute cry face anyways.

We were sad because we found out that one of museums had a Star Wars exhibit starting a week after we left. If any of you know how big of a nerd my husband is, you would know that it would be a terrible loss to miss this. It's going on till April so it looks like we'll be heading back out there in March for Jesse's birthday. It was a fun short trip, but it is always nice to be home.

Halloween

2011-11-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

The holidays are so different when you have kids. We didn't go to a bunch of parties or stay out late every night, we went to our ward Trunk or Treat but I had an allergy attack about 30 min in and so we went home early. I feel like we are old people. Jesse and I are home by 8pm and hopefully in bed by 9pm. This mostly has to do because he has to get up at a ridiculous hour for work, but it means he's home in the early afternoon and he can spend more time with his family. So long story short we are old. But all the same Halloween was fun we did stay out till the ungodly hour of 11pm one night to go to one of our friends parties and we had so much fun. Calvin was a little pumpkin, I was dirt, and Jesse was pumpkin seeds. That's how it happened.

4 months

2011-11-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

My little handsome is 4 months! Seriously best baby ever. He is 15 lbs. and 27 inches long. He is really tall for his age and he just keeps growing! We've started putting him on rice cereal, he loves it. It was a bit awkward at first but now he likes it a lot. He tries to grab the spoon to feed himself and fusses when we are all finished. Since we started feeding him cereal he's stopped spitting up so much so that makes me happy. He has discovered his feet and he grabs them and puts them in his mouth at any given opportunity. He is social and loves to be around people. This month I introduced him to "mirror baby". He smiles and laughs at that cute little baby in the mirror it's a lot of fun to see him stare at himself for a good minute. He is also learning to grad for toys and putting them in his mouth, such a smartie! He is still sleeping through the night and he's just a perfect little boy!

3 Months

2011-10-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

Yep I'm late on the 3 month update too, Calvin is a super good baby, we moved him into his own room this month :( I actually really like being around him a lot, but he was getting too big for his bassinet and I am getting a better nights sleep now that he's in his own room. We took him to the doctor this month because he's just spitting up a ton after every feeding, seriously like 1 to 2 oz every time! The Dr. said he has reflux so that's why he's been a bit more grumpy with feedings and everything when normally he's such a happy boy. But the kid is still gaining a ton of weight, he weighed in at 14.8 lbs he's still in the 75% for weight. I must be producing half and half or something because that kid will spit up half of his meals and still gain weight. He is so much fun, he is laughing now and cooing up a storm.
Here Calvin is talking with Jesse:

He is usually a "happy cooer" but when I lay him on his back looking up at this little toy lion he starts yelling at it. It's hilarious, he furrows his eyebrows and seems super angry whenever he makes eye contact with it. I wonder what he's thinking...

He's a little stud muffin, almost every time we go out someone stops me to comment on how adorable he is. I feel lucky to be his mom.
Here are a few pictures from throughout the 3rd month

This is my absolute favorite!

He's in the middle of cooing, such funny faces

In his own crib

Calvin's nursery

2 Months

2011-10-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

Sooo awhile ago on August 16th Calvin turned 2 months old.... yeah I know I'm a slacker. I LOVE this kid! He is so much fun to hang out with! Before we had Calvin I thought that I would NEED a break from being a stay at home mom, from being around my kid all the time, or just to get away from everything for a bit. But really I absolutely LOVE being at home with Calvin, I think he's hilarious with his funny face expressions and it is amazing how fast he is leaving things. He is just starting to be able to put his hands to his mouth (he usually just hits himself in the face, but he is trying). This month he had a huge growth spurt and he's huge! He's 13 lbs he is in the 75% for height and weight. He is a healthy boy. He smiles a ton and Jesse even got a little giggle out of him. He is still sleeping in a bassinet in our room and I love seeing him first thing in the morning and he gives me a HUGE smile, it melts my heart! So here are some of my very favorite pictures so far.

Jesse's sister Mirinda is uber talented and she knitted Calvin a little tiger and a tiger hat to stick with the Calvin and Hobbes theme of which he was named.

nom nom

Hobbes attack!!!!

Soo cute! I love this little boy

Calvin's blessing

2011-08-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, August 7th, our little Calvin was blessed in church. All of Jesse's sibling came into town along with his parents. Our house was packed but it was soooo much fun! When Jesse and his brothers get together they are absolutely ridiculous. Between all of their old inside jokes and the new jokes that are made up as the evening goes on, it is side-splitting. I have a feeling that there are more than a few new stories that will go into the Pettit book of Folklore and Legend (which I will only share with those that ask me personally). My brother Jared was also in town to visit our grandma. My family had a pizza party at my parents house to get the Tropple clan together. It was good that we could all be together because Grandma Tropple was there and able to see all of her great grand kids. The next day, both families met up at the pool by our house and we had a big party/BBQ. That was lots of fun too! It was quite nerve-wracking because there were about 18 kids running around the pool but everything went perfectly and nobody drown. That night, we all stayed up late (Not just my current definition of late which is 9 PM, buy REALLY late) and played Balderdash with the Pettit family. By the end of the night we were all so slap happy that anything and everything was downright hilarious. Lucky for all of us, our church meetings had changed to 10 AM instead of 8 AM so we were able to sleep in and be coherent for our meetings.
The blessing was so beautiful, it made me cry. I love our sweet son and I just know that our Heavenly Father has such big plans for him. He is going to be a strong force for good in the world. After Jesse sat down from giving the blessing he leaned over to me and told me that he felt our Heavenly Father missed this little spirit. He also said that we have an important responsibility to help him accomplish the things that the Lord has asked him to do. YIKES! It makes me feel so inadequate to be the mother of such a perfect little spirit, but I know that the Lord will help me overcome my weaknesses. What a blessing to have our good friends and family in the blessing circle - we are so grateful that so many of them were able to come and share this special day with us! Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took over the weekend:

Calvitron, rocking the blessing tuxedo

That's right, baby loves to smile!

More smiles from our favorite little dude

Unhappy to be tucked in a drawer. NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER!

"I feel much better now that I'm being held, thank you."

Calvin often plots just before nap-time and falls asleep with his fingers intertwined.

GIMEEE!

Jesse getting dog-piled by nieces/nephew

Carissa Pettit putting some flowers in a vase - how elegant!

Xiri Pettit (Xiri bonk?) rocking the chlorine-filled diaper booty

Calvin didn't like the heat so much and decided to sleep instead of complain

Tropple grandkids!

Grandpa Tom and Jack-Jack sharing Cheetos

Pettit siblings playing lifegard

Brigham taking off of Jesse's shoulders

Lift-off!

Auntie Moo-moo (Mirinda) knit an awesome tiger hat that matches Calvin's tiger PJs

Moo-moo and grumpy Calvin!

Straight up representing

Pettit brothers and honorary brother John

Mirinda also knit a viking hat for John and Chantel Websters son Stailey, since he looks like a tiny viking. Calvin didn't want to model the hat.

One month

2011-08-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

So I did a photo shoot for Calvin's one month, I just haven't gotten around to blogging about it so here it is. He is an absolute angel of a child and is such a blessing to have in our home. At his one month check up, he is in the 50% in all aspects (yes my son is average) except for height, where he is in the 90%! Super tall baby?!? Whose kid is this? Heaven knows he doesn't get that from Jesse or I (well, I guess he did unless unless something Biblical went down). 25 inches and 10lbs of adorableness. This kid is seriously such a perfect baby. Eats like a monster, anywhere from 5 to 7oz per feeding, sleeps for 6 hours at a time, and when he does wake up he just grunts a bit to let me know he's hungry. I know it's cliche but his cry is even cute, not shrill or annoying. He snorts a lot of times at the end of a good holler, which melts my heart. In addition, he has super strength, holding his head up like a champ. While visiting the pediatricians office, we told the doctor that he rolls over, front to back/back to front, and she didn't really believe us. Then, while she was checking him out and he flipped onto her hand. She was stunned! Babies aren't supposed to do that until 4 months. I like to think our kid is advanced, but I'm pretty sure every parent feels that way about their kid. He seems to be aware of the things that are going on around him like when I talk and he starts flopping all around. I love this little boy! We are so blessed to have him in our home.

The photo session was a lot of fun while Calvin wasn't crying (life is hard for teeny tinies!). He most definitely didn't enjoy the bright lights, the cold, and being naked half of the time. Cosette at Still Life Studios did an amazing job despite his protestations. All I wanted in our first family photo was for us to have a mustache picture. Mission accomplished! Yes I know: I'm a nerd. I'm positive that I haven't always been this way. I blame Jesse because it seems he has rubbed off on me in our 2.5 years of marriage. :)
Below are some of my favorites. Calvin has already grown so he doesn't look like a newborn anymore. He's changing every day. It's exciting to see it happen but kind of sad at the same time. We love our little boy!

First scare as a new parent

2011-07-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

So I know most new parents kinda freak out over every little thing, and honestly I thought I was a level headed person. I figured well if there is an emergency I will act calm and I'll take care of the situation, boy was I wrong. Good thing I have a husband who doesn't freak out over things! So last night Calvin and I were just snuggling on the couch like normal, he'd eaten about 3 hours earlier so it was just about time for him to be hungry again and out of a sound sleep he starts bucking and kicking violently! I thought okay thats weird so I sat up and noticed he was frothing at the mouth and he wasn't breathing. I FREAKED out! I yelled for Jesse and my mind went blank, I know baby CPR, I know what I'm supposed to do when I baby isn't breathing but my mind was blank. I ran to Jesse and put the baby in his arms and I think I said something to the effect of "fix it". Jesse started patting his back and moving him from his tummy to his back, back and forth a few times and after about 20 seconds he gasped for air and cried out but then stopped breathing again. He was struggling a lot, his face was turning red/a hint of blue. 20 seconds later he gasped for air and started crying. He started to breath a bit more normally but I called the on call nurse, I was in such a panic I couldn't remember what his date of birth was, how to spell his name or my own phone number! After Calvin calmed down a bit Jesse gave him to me so he could talk to the nurse, because obviously I was not in my right mind. I cradled my new little boy and just started sobbing. I thought oh no did I not feed him soon enough? Is his blood sugar too low and he's having a seizure like what happens to his dad? Am I going to loose my new baby? Even though we've only had him a couple weeks I love him more than anything in this whole wide world. He's so tiny, and all of a sudden he let out the biggest toot I have ever heard from a tiny infant! It made both me and him jump! We talked to the doctor and he said that my sweet little boy was just grunting out a toot and sometimes they hold their breath as they struggle with their gas. Oh my gosh seriously?! I got so scared over gas? I have never been so scared in my whole life! Luckily he's fine, still absolutely adorable and as healthy as can be. We will just have to see what we can do about gas medicine or something :)

2 weeks

2011-06-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Calvin is already 2 weeks old... I know it's not that old but I feel like he's already changing a ton! He's still sleeping really well and eating like a champ. Here are a few of the pictures I took of him today.

Calvin Henry Pettit 6-16-11

2011-06-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little boy, Calvin Henry Pettit, graced us with his presence on Thursday, June 16th, at 3:20 AM. I will start this story from the somewhat beginning (It's a long story):

I got this weird rash that spread over 90% of my body towards the end of my 3rd trimester. I looked like a burn victim and felt like I had bathed in a meadow of poison ivy. Oh how it itched! It was driving me (more?) CRAZY so I went in to see the doctor. He was shocked to see how bad it was and said he's never seen a rash that bad. Turns out, my body was having an allergic reaction to being pregnant. Really? Allergic to pregnancy?? Who had heard of such a thing? By this point, I had tried every off the shelf lotion, medication, and creme known to man as well as every home remedy the internet could muster. Nothing helped. Luckily (kind of), I also had too much amniotic fluid so the doctor thought it a good excuse to induce me the very next day. The news couldn't be better! I would be two weeks early but seriously I was going (more?) insane! The apppointment to induce was made for Tuesday at 3pm. The hospital called around 1 PM saying that there were no rooms available so we just had to sit and wait until something opened up. You can imagine our anxiety just sitting around checking our phones for missed calls. It was as if I was single again. I even got a little case of sick tummy from the nerves. By 2 AM we accepted the fact that we were eventually going to get called and we'd be better off not worrying about it. After getting into bed just before 3 AM, we got the call. All of our time invested in preparing for this moment began to pay out dividends in time saved. After cooking a quick meal, we headed off to the hospital. We checked in and got situated in a delivery room. A short hour later, the induction process commenced. The good news was that my body was already on it's way to get this boy out and the nurses hedged bets that 4 PM would be the birth time (Awesome!!!). The bad news was that they were really, really wrong. So the long process began. The doctor stopped by and broke my water at 8:30 AM. He had tickets to see the Diamondbacks play that night and after seeing my status, assumed he'd be able to make it. He also gave me the go ahead to ask for drugs. Bring them on! I got the epidural a few hours later when my contractions were really starting to do their job. On a side note, the epidural didn't hurt at all - I don't know why people freak out about them. It was fine. Everything was moving along just as planned until about 10:30 AM. I just stopped progressing. I won't go into detail but for those who have ever been involved in labor and delivery, I was about half way there. Halfway is pretty good for about 6 hours of labor but I stayed at that point for 7 hours. Ugh. They gave me more drugs throughout the afternoon to try to help move things along but nothing really worked. The doctor stopped back in at about 5 PM and realized that he would need to give his son the D-Backs tickets because this baby was going nowhere fast. He also noted that the baby had spun around into the posterior position (face up, head down) which could be problematic. The doctor said we'd try and flip him back around when we were closer to delivering. I got sleepy and took a nap around 5:30 PM and when I woke up 3 hours later, I was almost ready to start pushing!! I'm not sure I would have been so excited at that point if I knew what was about to happen. Another few hours of waiting and at 11 PM the pushing began. I pushed...and pushed...and pushed some more. Seriously, I was the best pusher that there ever was. So much so that the nurses were impressed and afraid of my powers at the same time. I pushed for over 3 hours and had made some great progress but appeared to be stuck in transition. Now, 3 hours of pushing is very tiring and, without the benefit of modern anesthetics, very painful. I didn't realize that second part until the last hour of pushing when the epidural wore off. As soon as this became apparent to me, I quickly let the nurses know but I don't think they believed me. My screams and pained facial expressions were not even enough to convince them. I'm still unsure as to why I seemed so untrustworthy but all the same, the last hour of pushing was not the most fun I've ever had (for the curious, the most fun I've ever had was on a cruise). My doctor, possibly using his spidey-sense, came in and also quickly realized that my epidural had worn off. He ordered the anesthesiologist to come in and give me more drugs. Wouldn't you know it, he was helping someone else right then so it took about 15 minutes more for him to administer sweet relief. My doctor (Dr. Russell M. Beck) is a superstar and tried everything to get this boy out but to no avail. After repeated attempts to physically move the child out of transition failed, surgery was our last option. After a liberal dosing of drugs to stop contractions, reduce nausea, and re-apply the blessed epidural, they wheeled me off to get a Cesarian. You may think that all of my problems were lost in a dreamy haze of partial cogniscence but unfortunately, the chemicals used in epidurals normally take 10-20 minutes to take effect. The surgery started sooner than that. So yes, although local anesthetic was administered so I couldn't feel the initial incision, I could feel them move things around inside me and it hurt. I was rather distressed at this point and told anyone within earshot that I could feel it and I was in so much pain! One of the older nurses tried to convince me that it was just a lot of pressure and didn't hurt that bad. Right. Let me move some of your internal organs around and see how that pressure feels. The anesthesiologist had his hands full trying to mix a compound that woudn't harm me and play nice with the 8 other drugs in my system. It's very possible that the wrong dosage or drug interaction could stop my heart so it took some time to do it right. As soon as I heard little Calvin cry, the cocktail was completed and put in my IV. That finally gave me relief! Usually a C-section takes 10-15 minutes but I had pushed so hard that my baby was literally stuck. It took the doctors a few extra minutes to coax him out. Jesse brought my sweet son over for me to see and then I promptly fell asleep. Jesse said that after initially crying a bit, Calvin stopped and just looked around, taking everything in. Even after all of the 22 hours of labor and delivery, Calvin's heart rate never faltered. It stayed steady and strong the entire time. He came out 7lbs 8oz, 21 inches long, and calm as a cat in a patch of sun.

Recovery time for c-sections is a day or two longer than "normal" delivery so we stayed in the hospital until Father's day (Jesse: you're welcome). I am continuing to recover slowly; every day I am able to move around a little bit more. Although the whole process was a bit of a nightmare that I would never EVER want to experience again, I would do it in a heartbeat if it meant getting another sweet angel like Calvin. It was all worth it. My sweet baby boy couldn't be more perfect. He is handsome, he has his daddy's mouth and chin, he has my eye brows, the cutest little upturned nose, and the most expressive eyes. He loves to cuddle and he smiles a lot (not just when he has gas). Calvin doesn't really cry often, mostly when he's cold or is pushing a grumpy out. We even have to wake him up for feedings because he is such a good sleeper. He has a hearty appetite and is gaining weight fast.

Calvin is such a blessing in our home. I keep asking myself, "how did I get so incredibly lucky?" I feel like I must be stealing someone elses' blessings, one single person shouldn't be THIS blessed. I have the most amazing husband who loves and supports me; he is so willing to help in any way possible and I never hear him complain (even when I forget to take my pain meds and I'm a bit difficult to deal with). He makes me want to be a better person. Before our son came into this world I thought life absolutely could not get any better, but now that our baby is here I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. Calvin is a perfect little baby, and we love him so much. I could just sit and look at him all day long and not get tired of it (which, for the record, I have). I love his little facial expressions and how when he starts to whimper all I have to do is hold him close and he calms right down. I had no idea that I could love someone so much.

Although we definitely don't sleep as much as we used to, and personal hygiene has become touch and go, I couldn't be happier. Life is good and we feel blessed to have this little angel in our home.

Calvin with the hiccups:

At the hospital waiting to be checked in

When I am FINALLY able to eat... I was a hungrysaurus

all clean!

first time home

he loves daddy kisses

I love his cute cry face

Swimming with Katie Jane

2011-06-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

Today we took my adorable little niece, Katie Jane, swimming at our pool. We had lots of fun hanging out with her she has the biggest imagination ever, I love it! Anyways I just thought I'd post a few of the pictures, plus it shows how huge I am at 36 weeks along.

Maternity Shoot by Still Life Studios

2011-06-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

I am seriously amazed at the raw talent that the photographers at Still Life Studios have. Dani did an absolutely amazing job on my maternity shoot. I always think yeah I'm definitely NOT a photogenic person, but by some miracle (or just a lot of talent) Still Life always makes me feel good about myself. I look at the pictures that they take and I think hmmmm I actually look pretty dang good, why can't every picture I take look like Still Life took them of me? I'm so so so grateful that I have phenomenal photographers to capture these precious moments in my life. We are expecting our little bundle of joy the 27th of June, and we are planning on naming him Calvin Henry Pettit. He's already a VERY active little boy....seriously this kid never sleeps, so we are excited to have our hands full when he comes. Here are just a few. . . (I could not narrow it down more than this) of my favorites.

lil' cottage in Young

2011-06-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, I absolutely LOVED this weekend! We just relaxed, nothing planned, nowhere to be, nothing pressing on my mind of "things to do before the baby comes" ..pretty much my only worry on this trip was . . . .will the baby come while I'm here? Luckily he didn't :) We spent Memorial Day weekend with Randy & Michelle Foster up in Young at their adorable little cottage (I'm sad I didn't grab any pictures of the house). It was a much needed get away, we just hung out, the boys went on quads as we went in the truck down to a little creek, the water was freezing which was perfect for my swollen feet. We played games, went to a fun little ward they have up there, and the boys played a few fun games of horse shoes. Randy, being awesome totally schooled Jesse even though he'd never played before. .. beginners luck?? Jesse likes to think so :) It was so much fun, I'm so happy we have such good friends that make life amazing.

Jesse's favorite game was to throw rocks over the edge

I am 36 weeks along and Michelle is 29 weeks

Diamondbacks game

2011-06-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

One of our besties John & Chantel invited us to a Diamondbacks game against the Minnesota Twins, it started off a little slow but got way more intense as the game went on. It was an amazing game! We ended up winning and had a blast, I even brought a throw pillow so my bum didn't get too tired from sitting :) I showed the world how lady like I am.... so I have noticed that being pregnant it is more and more difficult to cross my legs or keep my knees together - it's just not comfortable. Soo the people that were sitting in front of us had a huge Diamondbacks flag that they were waving around and I look up to see them on the jumbo tron, and what do you know there is me in the background with my wide open legs - so attractive I'm sure. I'm just glad I wasn't wearing a skirt that day.

Special Olympics

2011-02-22T10:46:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday Jesse and I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Special Olympics for floor hockey. Let me start from the beginning of the day. At about 5am I was wide awake so I got up and got a drink and realized that the baby was flipping like crazy around in my tummy. I sat there for a bit and it was just ridiculously strong so I felt my tummy with my hand and realized that I could feel it from the outside, which means that Jesse could feel the baby too! I grabbed Jesses hand and I woke him up and said- you've gotta feel this! He woke up for a few minutes and he got really excited because he felt the baby kick a couple of times, then he promptly fell back asleep :) So I got up and made breakfast and woke Jesse up about an hour later to get up so we could go to floor hockey. We thought it would have taken a lot longer to get over to Avondale and it really only took about 30 minutes and we got there pretty much before all the the volunteers so we got to help out a lot and so we got the good jobs, we got to hand out the lunches for the athletes. We got to watch a couple of games and we made some cute friends.

Here is our friend Boyd - he helped us set up a lot of the tables

We got to sit and watch a few games

This is Deb, she was one of the volunteer coordinators

I even got to have my face painted- glitter everywhere!

Jesse was sad that he didn't get a metal :)

But happy that he could be there

We all had fun dancing, I got worn out pretty fast.

Thanks so much to Katie Hawkes, she let's us in on a ton of opportunities for service in the valley with Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, and Feed my Starving Children. Check out her service team facebook page HERE .

21 Weeks

2011-02-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hi all!

I just thought I would post a picture or two of me at 21 weeks pregers. I'm finally at that point in my pregnancy where I feel great! I love being pregnant right now because I'm far enough along that I actually look pregnant and I don't feel super sick all the time.
Love it! Also Jesse was able to feel the baby kick yesterday morning- so much fun!

Second Anniversary

2011-01-25T15:36:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that two years has passed by soo fast! I guess time flies when you're having fun. I have never been happier, I absolutely adore my husband and I am so grateful that I am the lucky girl that gets to spend the rest of my life with a man that treats me like a queen. He's amazing. Since I got pregnant Jesse has stepped up to clean, cook, and pamper me to no end. He does all of these things on top of working over 40 hours a week. He never complains or asks me to do more than I feel like I am capable of. I love him more than words can say. okay okay enough of me gushing about my perfect husband. Jesse planned such a fun date for our anniversary. We went bowling and I told Jesse that I was a terrible bowler, and to not expect much.

Our first round pretty much proved my point. No one really wanted to claim this round.

Second round however. . . .Turns out I can bowl a lot better than I thought. . . or maybe it was just luck. :) I think it's just because I have the strength of a grown woman and a small fetus to help me out.

Jesse doing a victory dance . .. yeah or trying to do so

My victory dance. . .

I win again!

Then i get worse. . . or maybe I just let Jesse win this time, the world will never know.

After bowling we went to Sekai Sushi in Mesa so get some of my favorite food. We got some deep fried and baked sushi and it was amazing. So delicious, and we just relaxed for the rest of the night. It was a perfect evening. Thanks for everything babe!

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-25T14:48:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was amazing! It was so stress free and fun! Jesse and I did our own little Christmas celebration and gift giving on Christmas eve. We made homemade pizza and wow it was delicious! after we were completely stuffed we gave eachother stocking presents. Jesse got me lots of little goodies and surprised me with a Costco membership card - which I have been wanting for awhile. I got him some fun goodies as well. Jess bought me an awesome Cuisinart Griddler. It's kind of an all in one panini press, grill, and griddle. I've loved it I use it pretty much everyday. I got Jesse a tool box, I'd been hiding it from him for about a month and a half and I was sooo excited to give it to him! Now he can have somewhere to put his tools besides a plastic bin. :)

One of the best part of Christmas is watching the little kids open up their presents. I love how excited they get and want to play with their new toys immediately. Jesse's brother and his cute family came into town so Christmas morning we went over to the Henry's to spend Christmas morning with them.

Later in the day we went over to my family's house for brunch but I was feeling pretty sick so I didn't take any pictures :( But it was a lot of fun! One of the sweetest moments was the present all of us kids got my dad. My dad went to Vietnam and served our country. He earned several metals including a purple heart for his service. Unfortunately these metals are pretty expensive to buy and since he didn't have money when he got home from the war he just had the certificates for them. So all of us kids decided that it was time he received his metals. We pulled together and presented him with 9 metals, pins and ribbons. I'm so proud of my dad and it was such a sweet experience give them to him.

Pretzel making

2011-01-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun date with Randy & Dev. We had homemade soft pretzels, on the downside it completely ruined all soft pretzels for me Alton Browns homemade Soft Pretzels changed my life. Soooo delicious! Here are a few fun pictures from the night.

The Hike

2011-01-25T14:17:00.000-08:00

So I had been bugging Jesse to go on a hike with me for awhile. I found out that I was pregnant a couple weeks prior but I still wanted to get out go on a hike. So Corey picked out a nice "easy" hike for us called weaver's needle in the superstition mountains. We got a group together Julie, from my work, and Kim ( who literally sparkles naturally) and we got up on Saturday morning to go out on this hike. I quickly learned that maybe hiking isn't the best idea while pregnant especially in the first trimester. I got super tired and wanted the throw up after every corner. Blek! But everyone was super patient with me and let me rest as much as I wanted. It was fun, but I probably won't be doing much more hiking for awhile.

Halloween 2010

2011-01-25T13:41:00.000-08:00

Yeah I know wasn't Halloween forever ago? Well yeah but I just now have motivation to play catch up :) Plus Halloween was amazing and so much fun! Jesse & I were Zim and Gir from the Nickelodeon cartoon Invader Zim. We had a big party over at the Dukes we had amazing food. . .well normal food along with some very interesting things Jesse and I brought and prepared chicken feet, fish heads, tiny octopus, dried fish (which by far was the worst smelling), and balut (fertilized duck egg). It was fun a lot of people dared to try the questionable food. We had lots of fun games duck hunt, rock band and some fun dance music. Here are some fun pics from the night.

Jesse's sister Miri and her new hubby Marc drove down from Utah for the event

Thank you for your appearance Randy and Dev - Yes Randy actually permed his hair- amazing!

Ashligh & Corey and little fetus Elli

So Andrew dressed up as Jesse for Halloween (what do you think?)

Carly & James

Bonstar was the first to try out some of the fear factor food- she tried out the chicken feet- they were actually quite tasty :)

Jess is teaching Shawn how to properly eat balut - he was a champ

I took my turn with the chicken feet. They were deep fried with a little bit of garlic pretty good :)

Jesse's takin his turn

Corey is eating a tiny octopus he said they were good - I trust him

With the smell of these fish - I had the same reaction.

Fish heads- YUM

Adam & Amber I think spent the most time with their costumes- pretty realistic.

Randy & Michelle I think spent the least time on their costumes. . .but still looked amazing!

Halloween was so much fun! Thanks for everyone that joined in!

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T14:48:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! We are so excited for this year it’s going to be full of fun changes. We are happily expecting our first little baby (aka Bubuit) – just the fetus name not actual name. We will be finding out if it’s a boy or a girl the end of January. Jesse started a new job this last year in May. He is a senior analyst in a health care management company. He is enjoying himself immensely. I am still working but looking forward to being a stay at home mom come June. I will be finishing up school this year with my Bachelors in Family and Human Development. Life is bliss for us in the Pettit home and we are looking forward to this new year.

Joe & Claire

2010-12-25T21:19:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that my "little" brother is all grown up and getting married! We all think that he is a lucky guy to get a beautiful girl like Claire. She's so sweet and amazingly beautiful! I loved how giddy they were throughout the shoot. The location was a fun discovery and a cute couple like Joe and Claire made the shoot perfect. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Service in September continued. . .

2010-10-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

So I totally planned on blogging every time I did a little project for my service in September, but it didn't really work out that way. So I am catching up on my blogging for my little projects.
Here's what I did . . .

I went through my closet and got rid of a ton of mine and my husbands clothes and donated them.

We bought a couple dozen Krispie Kreams and a gallon of milk and gave them to the nearest fire department. I love firefighters I have such a respect for them. They risk their lives to save ours.

There is this couple in my ward and her husband just got called into the bishopric and so they have very little time together now. They have this adorable newborn baby too, Noah. I took him for a good part of the morning so that they could go to the temple.

One of my good friends from work, Julie, got a flat tire while we were at work so I helped her change it .

We gave some ice cold Gatorade to the construction workers that are working on the road by my house. After it's finished my commute will be quite a bit faster. Yay!

I made about 30 little hair accessories and a bought a bunch of little toys to give to Andrea's Closet . After kids go through an extensive surgery they get to go pick out a toy from the closet. They have them in a few different hospitals but we gave our donations to the one at Gilbert Mercy.

Right when I got out of high school I worked at Guthrie Mainstream it's a really awesome company who takes care of mentally disabled people. One of my very favorite clients was this guy named David. I love David and I think of him so much! The last time I saw him was at my wedding. When I took care of him we used to go to Barnes and Noble and I would help teach him how to read. So on my birthday the one person I wanted to go see was David. So Jesse and I showed up to Olive Garden where he works and I brought him a gift card to Barnes and Noble so he could pick out a few of his favorite books. It really made my day to see him!

We took my grandma to the Temple. She hadn't been in over two years because of health issues and I really felt like now would be a good time to help her have those experiences. It was kind of cool because I had the feeling that we should do sealings that day instead of a session, but I thought a session might be easier on grandma so we got ready to do a session and they told us that the elevator just broke. Since grandma is in a wheelchair it would have been very difficult to manage her. So we decided to do sealings instead. The spirit was so sweet and we had a lot of fun doing the sealings. When we had finished the elevator was working again. I guess I should have listened in the first place, there were some people that really wanted to get sealed together that day. Thanks Gimmie for going to the temple with me!

I remember when I was on my mission I had a few companions that never got any letters, any care packages, and not so much as an email from their families while they were out. It broke my heart but it also gave me strength to see their example and holding fast with such faith even though they didn't have a lot of support from home. So for one of my service projects I put together two care packages to send off to some of the sisters that haven't received many things from their families. I included a ton of little hand warmers ( they saved my life while I was over there) candies, brownies ( they envy our brownies), blueberry muffins ( they don't have blueberries over there) and a bunch of church stuff. I miss my mission extremely so I hope these sweet sisters enjoy a little treat.

I also took care of a couple little girls for the morning. Their mom is going through a terrible pregnancy and it's really hard on her health so I took her kids off her hands for a bit so she could rest.

I volunteered at a Paz de Cristo soup kitchen. It was a lot of fun! I got to use my Spanish a little, a learned how to make Italian dressing and I really enjoyed talking with the people. It was really easy too, you just call them to put your name on the roster and then just show up. They will have a job ready for you when you get there. I actually ran into a few people that I knew from my old ward that were volunteering too.

It was my sisters birthday on the 24th ( happy birthday sis!) and her husband Kris wanted to surprise her with a day out full of shopping, bowling and whatever else she wanted to do. So Jesse and I took a shift watching the kids.

Lastly I cut 14 inches off my hair!!! This was kind of a last minute thing. On my birthday we were supposed to go to the humanitarian service center located right by the temple. It's nice because they have a bunch of different projects that you can do and you can just show up and work. I asked Jesse to call ahead to make sure but he assured me that we could just show up. He did a report on it for school last year so he knew what he was talking about. Well. . . when we showed up it was closed. They are in the middle of switching locations :( So we had a couple of extra hours of open time so I called my sister Emily (who is an amazing beautician ever!) and asked her if I could come over so she could cut my hair. I was kinda nervous about it because last time I cut my hair short the people at the salon gave me a bowl cut ( not a time in my life I like to remember) Anyways but hair is hair and I figured it's okay, it will grow back. After Emily worked her magic I looked in the mirror and I LOVE it!!! Who knew that I would like my short hair more than my long hair! Emily cut 14 inches and I sent it in to Locks of Love.

This really was the best birthday ever. I had so much fun looking for opportunities to serve. Instead of getting presents for me I asked my family to go out and do service for others. My parents went to the soup kitchen and served for two days last month and my sister Alicia cut her hair too. She cut 12 inches and donated it to Locks of Love. My sweet husband also went with me and helped me with a lot of the services of last month. It was refreshing to see how easy it is to do little bits of service here and there. Anyways my birthday month was memorable and thanks to all those who helped me find opportunities to serve.

Feed My Starving Children

2010-09-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

Very conveniently our friend Katie Hawkes invited us to a service project with Feed my Starving Children it's a super cool organization that works solely off of volunteer work. What they do is they get a group of people together around 50 people per session and they pack meals that contain soy, rice, veggies, and chicken seasoning. This has helped tons and tons of families in over 70 countries around the world. This night there were 58 of us and we were there for about an hour and a half and we packed over 10,000 meals! It was a lot of fun and it really wasn't hard work at all. It was easy! You can actually call them and make appointments for just you or a whole group. So anyways go - have fun, there are a lot of people that need your help.

Little bits of service

2010-09-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

So just so you know I haven't forgotten about the whole service in September thing. I want to say that I have been preparing projects little by little but the truth is a Should be doing more and actually delivering. But, last week I cooked dinner for a family that just had a new baby (by the way it was delicious) an awesome concoction of spinach filled raviolis, with breaded chicken breasts, topped with fresh seasoned tomatoes, and with a bunch of mozzarella cheese broiled on top. This morning I babysat a new born baby so his parents could take the day together to go to the temple. The husband just got called into the bishopric so I doubt that they have much time together anymore. This evening Jesse and I delivered a pie from our favorite pie place Crowshaw's Gourmet Pies to one of the families in our ward that we really admire with a little thank you note. So that's in for now - stay tuned because I have some big plans for some fun service projects coming up!

a few more for the service in September

2010-09-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

So I know these aren't things really out of the ordinary but I feel like I should blog them anyways just to keep them service blog going. This last week I took some cake to some of my co-workers, fixed dinner for my brother and his cute family, and a took family pictures for my entire family. Although not big projects or huge acts of kindness, I guess it doesn't need to be anything huge or amazing but as long as long as I can contribute to the happiness and welfare to the people around me that's what I want to make this month all about

#1 Home made hot fudge for the neighbors

2010-09-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

We moved into this neighborhood a little over a year ago and we only know just a few of our neighbors. So for my first act of service in September I made some home made fudge and gave a jar to each one of my neighbors. A lot more people live on my street than I thought because five batches and 18 jars later I finally got to everyone. It turns out that not a lot of people are home during the day so I still haven't met most of our neighbors. :) But at least they got a little treat on their doorstep.

September Service

2010-09-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

So I was reading Becki Crosby's latest post 26 Reasons I Feel Happy and I felt inspired. Basically for her birthday instead of gifts she just wanted people to do random acts of kindness for others. Since it was her 26th birthday she spent her birthday doing 26 random acts of kindness all day ( I can imagine that was a very long day) Anyways so I decided to copy her idea. But I'm just going to spread it out in the whole month of September. I'll let you know as I go along the fun stuff that I run into. Also if you have any ideas let me know! It's going to be a fun month.

The Randy Day Band

2010-06-06T14:25:00.001-07:00

At the start of the summer my sweet husband decided to join the Randy Day band for the summer. He loves music and misses performing so since he has a little extra time in the summer he thought it'd be fun to play for a while. He plays the keyboard, a backup singer, and he plays a mean tambourine. Here are a few pictures of their last show a the underground.

Here's the band

Jesse and his tambourine

Jeff normally plays the drums but he did a little dance for us while they were having some technical difficulties

Brandon on the bass guitar

Adam on the guitar

Of course Randy Day of the Randy Day band main singer and guitar

My hubby playin the keyboard

Cabin Trip

2010-05-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

Randy, Corey, Desi, Jesse and I all went up to Desi's cabin for the weekend it was such a blast!!!! And was very needed given the stressful semester. We played horse shoes, relaxed, played a lot of uno, and even fit in a little nature hike. Seriously one of my favorite weekends with some of my favorite people!

Here we are playing horse shoes

I think Corey won :)

Dance Randy Dance!!

Desi and me! I'm gonna miss her when she goes on her mission - but I'm super jealous!

007

I guess we are bacon here. . . Jesse told us to, this was our best impression.

Extreme concentration. . .

Also extreme concentration

Desi was a lot better than me

This was my normal throw, not even close to the goal

My hubby tries to lick my eye every now and then. . . kinda scary

yummy cookies - we stayed up till about 3 in the morning talking. . .well Jesse fell asleep around 12 but I made sure everyone else stayed up talking with me :)

So much fun! Thanks Desi!!!!

Our Garden!

2010-05-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

So we were on our way home one evening and our neighbors had a bunch of plants they were giving away for free in their front yard. I have never been much of a gardener but I jumped at the opportunity to try something new. We picked up some hot peppers, parsley, basil, tomatoes, and my favorite, rhubarb. The parsley and one of the peppers have died already but the rest are alive and doing well. It's a lot of fun and I'm super excited to get some fruit and herbs out of it!

Cruise

2010-04-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

So for our honeymoon we were supposed to go on a cruise to Mexico, unfortunately this was around the same time of the swine flu outbreak and all planes/ boats to Mexico were canceled. They gave us a cruise credit to use sometime within the next year. So for spring break this year we decided to use our credit before we lost it. We went with Carnival cruise lines down to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada Mexico. It was sooo much fun! I didn't have to cook, clean, or think about homework. I didn't have to plan anything and there was always something to do. Unfortunately I did get a little sea sick, and my sweet husband did get a little too much sun one day but other than that it was bliss! So I know it's a ton of pictures but we had so much fun I couldn't leave anything out.

We started the trip out right by getting a good wholesome breakfast from

Here we are leaving the dock- it was a bit cold

Meal time was the best- it could be mean time whenever you wanted and you could get as much as you wanted.

We basically walked all around Cabo San Lucas all day exploring the inner city it was lots of fun but we got a tiny too much sun.

We decided that our activity for the day would be to go Parasailing. They were trying to make us pay about $50 more than we actually did but I used my mad Spanish skills to convince them to give us a deal.

I was pretty scared at first, but once you lifted off the boat it wasn't scary at all! It was so much fun! There was a little bit of wind that day so it made it all the more exciting.

It was a long day but we had a blast. They had these little water taxis that would take you back and forth from the ship to land, I even thought that those were fun, maybe I'm easily entertained.

Here is the center of the ship- I thought it looked pretty snazzy

When we had full days at sea we had to get pretty creative to have fun, this day we couldn't hang out in the sun anymore because Jesse would get super sick so we had fun inside.
This was a surfing game in the arcade, I think it was only made for one, but we managed to fit both of us on, just after this picture was taken we fell, it was pretty funny.

Hide and go seek . . . our cabin was pretty small so it didn't take Jesse long to find me.

This night there was SUPER strong winds, you could feel the boat crash down on the waves. The boat would be jerking around so much I would be walking down the hall and I literally couldn't walk in a straight line to save my life.

Jesse made me do karaoke for the first time in my life.

Just waiting for the hypnotist show to come. . .it turned out it was one of the best shows- super funny!

While we waited we played war. War is a funny card game and as it is in life. .. war NEVER ends. Seriously I would be five card away from winning and then the game would turn and he would be super close to winning and it went on like that for a very long time until I got sick of it and gave up.

So funny story, we get to Ensenada and the tour guide starts to tell us our options for the day. He told us that we could go to a place on bus that was beautiful! It has over 500 shops with authentic purses, jewelery, and mexican vanilla. He said that there is a natural phenomenon that only happens four other places in the world but here is the biggest. This sounded great! I was pretty excited so we chose to go there. As we got in the bus to go the next tour guide says "alright. . . are you guys ready to go to the flea market and the blow hole?" I was like WHAT?? The other guy made it sound sooo much cooler! Granted it still was cool, but I mean it was a flea market and a blow hole. . . I asked Jesse if he knew that's that is was and he said well yeah what did you expect? I just imagined something huge and phenomenal! I guess I am the perfect sucker for Spanish tours and infomercials.

Blow Hole
When the water rises to this hole it acts as a pump and blows the water back out.

Overall our cruise was a success we had lots of fun but we were ready to come back to our home.

Rae Yazzie's Baptism

2010-04-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

A few months ago my husband and I were missing our missions quite a bit. So we started to pray for missionary experiences. A few days later my co-worker Rae Dean Yazzie started asking me questions about the gospel. Nothing really big but just little things here and there. But I was overwhelmingly happy that I could just "plant the seed". The next week we had the missionaries over for dinner and they challenged us to give the Book of Mormon to someone we know, Jesse and I immediately knew that it was Rae that needed it. Although I went on a mission, I still get a little nervous talking about the gospel with my friends. So Jesse and I prayed that I would be able to say the things I needed to say and that she would feel the spirit. So the next day was SUPER slow at work and there was a lot of down time and once again Rae brings up the gospel with more questions. Of course it was just that easy :) We talked for over two hours straight about bishops, prophets, Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel, and her favorite part was about the marriage how we can be sealed for time and all eternity. I got choked up a few times in the conversation and at the end of the evening we got on the subject of the Book of Mormon. She really sounded really excited about it and so I tell her oh well. . .I just so happen to have an extra one if you want it. (hahaha not telling her then that the extra one that I had already had her name on it ) She was so excited I told her I would bring it to her the next day I was at work. So I brought it with me the next day and I didn't have time to write in it the night before so I took it in with me and I was going to write in it on one of my breaks. So on my first break I started to write and this boy at work that I didn't know came up to me and asked what I was writing in and what the book was about, ( I get teary just thinking about how awesome prayer is, you just pray and ask, and Heavenly Father will help you) So I explained a little bit about the book and I invited him to go to church, and he accepted. Later he went and loved it and I directed him to Mormon.org, he has friends that he went to church with. Well to say the least I didn't get to write even a few sentences before my first break was finished so I would have to wait until the next break to finish. The next break came around and I guess I write super slow because I marked a few scriptures I liked and I was almost done writing my testimony and my second break was over. Unfortunately Rae got off work before I did so she would have to wait a few days to get her book because I didn't work the next day. So she had the amazing idea of giving it to our other friend, Melissa, to give to her the next day, because me and Melissa both ended at the same time. So by the end of the day I had finished writing in the book, marking a few of my favorite sections and asked Melissa if she would give it to Rae the next day. Melissa was super happy to do it and she even asked if she could take it home to read what I had written, and the sections I marked out. Of course I did not oppose. (once again prayer is amazing) Rae got the book and read the things I had marked for her and I asked her if she wanted to go to church. She said she did, but didn't want to go alone. I told her Jesse and I would GLADLY go with her. We went to church the next Sunday and I don't think she has missed a Sunday since. . . maybe once. When we got to church she immediately told the missionaries that she was an "investigator" (she thought the term was rather humorous) so the missionaries asked if they could go to her house and she accepted. Her mom had been baptized when she was in her youth but had been inactive for a very long time. After a few visits with the missionaries they challenged her to baptism, it seemed a little soon but she said she'd think about it. It wasn't on the date that they originally proposed but on February 14, 2010 my sweet friend was baptized. It was such a wonderful day, the best Valentines day I have ever had. Her parents and sister were able to make it to the baptism, traveling from New Mexico. We were all in tears the whole time and her mom told me after the baptism that she feels that she needs to start going back to church. The Spirit was so strong! It has been amazing to see her grow and her countenance change. She is happier. She looks different. Talking to her and to hear her testimony has made my testimony grow. I am soo grateful that I could have this experience, to know that my Father in heaven listens to my prayers and answers them. I love it. Although I miss my mission everyday of my life, I know that I have a different mission now and it can definitely have a lot of the same qualities, it just takes work and a lot of prayer.

Lasik Eye Surgery

2010-04-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

So I have been wanting Lasik eye surgery ever since I heard of it. It has always been such an inconvenience wearing glasses and contacts. My glasses were always falling off and got quite beat up while I was on the mish. And when I would wear contacts there was always some piece of dust that would get caught in them. So my sweet husband decided to research the matter and we found Horizon Lasik Eye Center. I got one of the best surgeons in the world, Dr. Christian. I went in on February 10th they took lots and lots of tests, gave me a nice "happy pill" that gave me a bad taste in my mouth, waited about 20 minutes for it to go into effect and then I was off to the surgery. They laid me down and put a nice cozy blanket on me and I'm pretty sure they even gave me a teddy bear. . .I was pretty out of it. All I had to do was focus on the red light that was above me they opened my eye and made a small incision- which by they way I could see that it was happening but I couldn't feel a thing! After that I heard a loud thumping sound and a smelt a little burning and after about two minutes I was finished with that eye and it was on to the next. My left eye was a little bit more difficult to keep focused on the red light, my eyes kept wanting to roll in the back of my head, but I fought through it and after another two minutes I was done with that eye too. I was SUPER sleepy I could hardly walk! Luckily my hubby was there to tow me along. Right after the surgery I could immediately see better than I could before! It was still foggy but after a few checkups we were on our way home. I slept that entire day long I had to wear these funny bug eye shields over my eyes every time I would go to sleep for the next week. The ONLY thing that gave me a slight discomfort was a slight headache in the back of my eyes. It felt similar to having allergies. I took an Advil and it went away. When I woke up the next morning I could see almost perfectly! Good enough to drive to school and everything! My eyes were a little bloodshot because in the surgery they needed to suction cut my eyes so they wouldn't move. After about three weeks my eyes were better than normal 20/15 vision in both eyes! I love it! I know I sound silly but it feels like a miracle! I CAN SEE!!! I can see when I wake up in the middle of the night and need to go potty. I can see my sweet husband in the morning. I just love it! It was the best thing ever! If your ever considering eye surgery check it out. It doesn't hurt at all. BUT you have to do your research. In the state of Arizona and most other states for that matter you don't have to be a certified eye surgeon to do Lasik eye surgery. That mean you can't just go with the cheapest guys out there or you might mess up your eyes for forever or at least have to go back and get it done again. But overall a way good experience I would definitely suggest getting it done I absolutely love it!

Our First Anniversary

2010-04-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

So I'm posting it a little late, but I'm still excited about it! On January 22, 2010 we celebrated our one year anniversary. I can't believe it's been a year already. It's been a crazy year, but we are blissfully happy! Marriage is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I get to spend everyday with the love of my life, with my best friend. I know I sound super cheesy but it's true. We had a wonderful anniversary I woke up to the smell of delicious waffles and we enjoyed a beautiful breakfast and just spent the day relaxing went to a movie and shopping a bit and then we went to this fancy french restaurant "Coup Des Tartes" It was absolutely delicious I decided I love french food. I love the cheeses and how when you put them with different fruit it just tastes even better. I love it! I honestly don't remember what I ate, but it was good. Overall it was a perfect day to spend with my husband. I love him more and more everyday - soooo happy he settled for me :)

Snowboarding!

2010-01-23T13:54:00.000-08:00

When we were in Utah we decided to take a trip snowboarding, So it was my first time ever snowboarding and my sweet husband promised that he would teach me this year. I was a little nervous at first but . . .well I guess that never went away :) My first run down it took me about an hour to get to the bottom. I fell more times than I would like to admit but after many falls and one good superman that completely knocked the air out of me, I started to get the hang of it. I think the scariest part was getting off the lift every time. I don't think there was even one time that I didn't fall and make others fall with me. One of the funniest times was I was in the middle between Jesse and his sister Carissa ( both of who were super helpful in teaching me how to snowboard) and as we were getting off the lift I'm not sure how it happened but it seemed like we were in one of those cartoons and after one person falls the other people fall and we were one big ball going down the hill it was hilarious to say the least. Overall the snowboarding trip was a success and I loved it!

Yeah it's been awhile

2010-01-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

Yeah I know it's been awhile since I have blogged, but even with being on a break from school it still doesn't seem like there is lots of time. Well here is what has been happening in our lives since Halloween. Well we had a nice quiet Thanksgiving here at home, we put up Christmas decorations and after making Jesse go up and down the ladder at least five times I finally settled on how I wanted the Christmas lights to be. He's such a sweetheart he didn't even complain. We got out tree and our wreath and all of our Christmas do dads up and our house really did look like a little Christmas home I loved it!
We went up to Utah with to spend Christmas with Jesse's family and it was so much fun! I got to see my brother and his sweet family - I can't believe how big my nephews and nieces are getting! We had a fun marshmallow shoot out in which my nephews completely destroyed us. We had fun staying up late nights learning new board games and playing Mario World and over all was a very successful trip. The weather was beautiful and for the first time in a very long time I had a white Christmas. I think my favorite present was my new bread maker - oh I love it! When I was in Chile we would have homemade bread everyday! Everyone knew how to make bread and it was delicious! Unfortunately my arm muscles never got the hang of the kneading part of making bread so I just haven't made it a lot since I have gotten home. So now. . . I have made break at least twice a week since Christmas! So much fun!
New Years was also a good one, we rang in the new year playing Settlers of Catan Seafarers version with our good friends John and Chantel Webster- it was really our "friendversary" we met them last new years and have been best friends ever since.
Work is going good and we are happy! We are coming up on our first year anniversary! Can you believe it! Time has flown but what a wonderful year it has been! More on that later. . .

Also I've created a new blog for my photography! Check it out at KendraPettitPhotography.blogspot.com

Halloween

2009-12-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

Yes I realize that Halloween is long gone, but now that I have a little break from school I am finally able to get a post in. Anyways we had a super fun Halloween! We had a little get together at our house. Here are a few pictures from our exciting night.

ASU Season Opener

2009-09-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday some of our friends offered us their ASU tickets for the season opener, and since I have never been to a football game before I was really excited! We had so much fun! Not only did we almost loose both of our voices from yelling so much - but we annihilated Idaho State 50 to 3. Not only that but the adventure shoes that Mirinda made for us saw their first big event. My first football game was a blast - just another amazing memory with my sweetheart.

All moved in!

2009-08-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

Yay the move was successful! Nothing broken, nothing missing. . .. besides a few unmatched socks so that solves that mystery :) But everything went great! We had lots of helping hands and way too many doughnuts left over. We are so happy to be in our new home. It is perfect. Tonight we finished putting the kitchen in order. One room down and a couple more to go. We love it and it is so much fun finding out where the new things go. Thanks so much to everyone that helped! More pictures to come. . .

Camping at Big Lake

2009-08-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun camping with John and Chantel Webster. The long relaxing weekend was defiantly needed, in that with my training schedule I hardly get to see my husband anymore. Anyways it was a 5 hour drive but I loved every minute of it. It was beautiful! It didn't even look like Arizona it was so plush and green. The wild flowers were all in bloom there were bright red and yellow flowers covering a good part of the medows. We played "forrest golf" . . .way more fun than normal golf because luck is a good part of the game. We played and I didn't end up keeping score of my points. . .I kinda lost track. . . it's probably a good thing :) I think my favorite part of the trip wsa going fishing. I loved it. At one point John got his hook caught on something not too far out in the lake, and it was his favorite loore, so thinking that I wouldn't get too wet I decided to go in and get it for him :) yeah I was pretty much all soaked by the time I got out. . .I guess it looked a lot more shallow than it really was. But I had fun witting in the back of the truck with my sweetheart, trying to dry off, as we headed back to the camp site. We sang all of our favorite silly songs like "oh Johnnery Beck" to songs from "My Fair Lady" as loud as we could . . . yeah we're nerds but I love it. It was a great weekend and we look forward to next time.

Rock, Paper, or Scissors??

2009-07-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

So my parents, and Jesse and I all went out to eat the other night to a place called Buffalo Wings and Rings. And to our surprise every Saturday night there is a Rock, Paper Scissors competition with the people in the restaurant. So we decided to play. My mom and I got out in the first or second round and Jesse and my dad got out in the 3rd. But because there was a odd number of people they had to "resurrect" someone who had already lost. And that person just so happened to be me. I was excited. So I beat the guy in the 4th round as I jogged up the the front . . .I was pumped. It was the last round. I was up against the guy who beat my Dad and Jesse. . . . it was intense. This time it wasn't 2 out of 3 . . . it was 3 out of 5 rounds declares the winner. the first round I beat him. . . paper covers rock. . . . I let out a ooooooooooooo and get the whole bar to start in with me. . . . . we go for a second round and I am pounding my fist into my hand as we call out rock paper scissors. . . .. ( I guess I got a little too into it b/c my hands hurt afterwards) He beats me twice and I beat him one more time. . .we are neck and neck 2 to 2 . .. the first place prize is a $40 gift certificate and the second is a $20 gift certificate. . .. no matter what happens at this point I'm going home with something. As the last rock, paper, scissors is called . . . I throw down a rock, and he. . . my competitor throws down scissors. . .

The New House!!!

2009-07-23T11:01:00.001-07:00

We are soooo excited! We are getting a house!!!! The close date is Aug 10th so in about 2 1/2 weeks! It's coming up quick! But we are so excited to have a place of our own. We checked out the ward on Sunday and it was the most friendly ward I've ever been to. It just seemed right- that's is where we are supposed to be. So here are a few pictures of the house. . . most will come when we are moving in :) It is in Gilbert off Recker and Williams Field. It is great we are just a half a block away from the community pool and the playground. It's a great area and we are excited to move.

The Kitchen is pretty- I love the dark wood, and it will be nice to have a dishwasher. . . it hasn't been as bad as I thought living without one . . . but it will be nice all the same.

Here is Jesse's citrus tree. . . the selling point of the house.

This is the front room. When we walked into the house we could just picture where everything went. . . .not just because it was outlined in the carpet of where the previous owners put there stuff :)

We are way excited to move in, we love it and we hope that you come visit us soon! And . . . we are about 3 miles away from out best friends . . .(see Filipino culture night for more details)

4th of July '09

2009-07-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

This 4th of July we made a trip up to Utah for the Pettit Family Reunion. We decided to bring the kitten along for the ride, Jesse's parents have two rather larger cats that would rough Oopsie up a little, and since Oopsie basically dominates all of the other kittens we have put him with we thought it would be a good experience for him.
The ride up was beautiful! There was rain on both sides of us but we seemed to be right in the middle without a drop coming down on us.
When we finally got to Orem we had so much fun with the family- I love our nieces and nephew- absolutely adorable! I'm so happy I married into this family!
We had fun at Trafalga playing miniature golf, go cart racing and a few fun games.
Later that day we had a fun program introducing every month of the year and having a little skit for each one. My cute husband and his brother and sister had the skit for October- it was hilarious to say the least.

On the 4th we had a BBQ at Grandma Betty's with we watched a beautiful display of fireworks while having fun playing with glow sticks and long exposures on my new camera. We made it home safely with lots of fun memories with the Pettit Families.

Culture Night - Filipino

2009-06-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

So we have started a tradition that we are going to have a "culture night" once a month in which we go to a different restaurant that has a different cultures food. . . such as Greek, Indian, Ethiopian ( amazing by the way!) So this last month we paid tribute to Jesse's mission and we went to a Filipino restaurant "Barrio Fiesta of Manila" We went with our best friends John and Chantel Webster (also amazing :)) The food was like a flavor explosion in my mouth! I loved it! Before my mission I didn't enjoy it that much. . .but I guess things change after living in a 3rd world country for awhile. But it really was amazing my favorite was Sinigon (excuse my spelling) but it was a bitter soup that had this flavor I've never tried before. My husbands favorite was this seafood dish. . . defiantly interesting and I surprisingly enjoyed it as well .. . I even tried a tiny squid with tentacles and all. . . not bad at all if you don't imagine what you are putting in your mouth. But anyways this months culture night was so much fun we can't wait to go back.
Here is John eating a tiny squid. . . gross

Scout Hike

2009-06-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

So our first calling in our new ward is webelo scout leaders! I love it! They are so much fun and we are learning a lot from them. For one of our latest scout activities we went on a hike in the superstition mountains - we had a really good turn out. We thought only one or two boys were going to make it but we had a lot more come. We had a great time we went to the hieroglyphic canyon, there were no injuries and everyone had a lot of fun, so I would call it a success.

Flat Iron Hike

2009-06-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't gone on a hike since I was about 12 yrs. old. But after walking for a year and half in Chile - I was up to the challenge :) My co-workers from Still Life Studios were already planning to go to Flat Iron that Saturday and they didn't mind if we tagged along. It was a rough hike - in some places you literally had to rock climb your way up but we made it and it was totally worth it! We had so much fun. . . and just a teensy sore for the days to come.

The Air Show

2009-06-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

A little while back there was an air show at Luke Air Force Base. Although it was way hot that day we took my nephews to see the "Really Loud" air planes. From F-22s to Apaches to big AWACS we saw it all explaining along the way the different functions of each part of the airplane.

Brig and Logan were so brave - they even sat in a real helicopter and walked around in a medivac.

OOPSIE. . .

2009-06-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

About a month ago my boss and his wife found 5 kittens in a near by storm drain. I don't like cats. . . but I'm a sucker for kittens. They are so curious and fearless. They can do anything and they are excited about doing it! So there was this particular kitten - Darla (which then was named angel once they figured out it was not a girl) this kitten always recognized me and would come to me every time i would come into work.

My husband LOVES animals so I knew if I asked him he would be more than excited to have an addition to the family. So after about a week of debating I finally gave in and we took our new kitten home and named him Oopsie. (If anyone has ever seen the marvelous misadventures of Flap Jack then you would understand the origins of the name) We love having him in our house. He LOVES to play but we get a chance every so often that he will treat us and give us a little cuddle time.

Honeymoon part 2

2009-06-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

We got married in January and we decided to take a mini-honeymoon to Scottsdale to relax and have fun as a newly married couple. We planned a few months later to go on a cruise to Mexico so that I could speak my Spanish and have a blast on a second honeymoon with my husband :) About a week before the cruise they called and informed us that it was cancelled due to the swine flu :( (way over rated) So as a last minute decision we made plans to hit up California. It was way better than anything I ever expected we had a blast relaxing on the beach.

We went at the perfect time of the year when there were literally NO lines at 6 flags magic mountain- we could literally hop off one ride and if we wanted to go again- just get right back on :)

Although running into a tiny bit of car trouble, it just made the trip all the more memorable.

Then to finish the perfect vacation we were off to shoot a wedding in San Diego.

The Pettit Family

2009-05-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

I guess we need to start from the beginning. . . where Jesse and I met. We met through friends but as I moved to Arizona and transitioned through groups of friends I always heard of the name Jesse Pettit. His name always seemed to come up when talking about childhood memories with my guy friends. So in June of 2006 just a week after Jesse got back from his mission we met. He was on a trip down from Utah and was meeting up with a few of his friends that i was hanging out with. I finally got to meet "The all and famous Jesse Pettit" . .. and so it began. After flirting all night and most of the morning it was time to leave and Jesse asked for my number. Being the flirt that I was I told him no. . .. and him being the recent returned missionary wouldn't take no for an answer. He told me that he would just have to get my number from a friend, Shaun. He called me a few weeks later and from then on I stopped wanting to go out on weekends and preferred staying home to talk to Jesse. He was a nerd - big time. . . and I loved it! Well after a couple months things started to look a bit more serious, but I had the desire to serve a mission. . . and also a desire to be with this "nerd" for forever. So we had to make a choice. . .. after consulting with Jesse he said hands down serve a mission. . . I didn't really know what to think of his response :) I was called to serve in the Chile, Osorno mission. . . .wow it brings tears to my eyes even thinking back on my mission. . . to say the least I loved it! Each and every area and companion that I had I loved. I learned from them and I am more than grateful that I served a full-time mission. As my mission came to an end Jesse was the farthest thing from my mind. . . I thought for sure I wouldn't marry him . . . . but i would give him a few pity dates :) I knew he was a wonderful boy but. . . I just didn't feel anything for him anymore.

It took him about 5 days to change my mind. He let me know about two days after I came home that his intentions were to chase me and marry me. And that's exactly what he did. Less than a month from being home Jesse asked me to be his wife- and me . . . being speechless for the first time in my life nodded in agreement to be his wife. We were married 3 months later and this is how our happily ever after begins. We are the Pettit Family