Brent and Lexi

My Garden

2011-12-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

So I just started seeing some buds in my winter garden and I got so excited. I am a little worried about my sproutlings though because its so cold so tonight Brent and I covered them with a canvas sheet to keep them warm. My first attempt at a garden produce one single vegetable for me. It may have been one, but it was mine and I was sure proud. Here are some pictures of the veggies of my labors-zuccinni, my favorite.

Outfits for my Nieces

2011-10-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

I love sewing things for kids and since I have no kiddos, I spoil my nieces and nephews. Last year I had my nephews over for Halloween and we made monster shirts. This year I started by making my new niece Anna a cute summer outfit and then these super cute halloween outfits for all 8 of them! I love how they turned out. Thanks Etsy for the cute halloween outfit ideas. Anna's outfit came from my own brain:) For once I made something from my brian come to life

Halloween with the Young Women

2011-10-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

We had the best Halloween Party with the young women. We all dressed up, ate donuts off a string, bobbed for apples, fished for candy in whip cream, talked and ate, and laughed together, oh and got prizes for our awesome costumes. Take a look. Good times:)

Armoire Complete!

2011-07-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

I loved painting this blue. It has orange inside the drawers. I am so in a blue and orange phase right now. It was so drab and boring before.

Trek

2011-06-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

Our stake has planned a Trek for this week for the youth. I am very sad that I was not invited to participate all week and even more sad that I can't make it to the ONE day I was invited. Stupid surgery gets in the way of everything (at least its not the same time as my family vacation). Anyway, I'm super depressed I'm not able to go. I made these cards so I could feel a part of it. I'm going to have one of the other leaders give it to the girls. Just a way to feel like I was there for them. Check them out. I wanted them to look Treky (is that even a word), but girly at the same time.

Happy Birthday My Wonderful Husband

2011-06-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

My wonderful Husband turned 30 yesterday. We went out to dinner at Outback then went over to Gammage for Les Miserables. It was quite the fun little play. I even cried at the end of it. Here is his birthday card I made for him.

Cards

2011-06-12T18:02:00.001-07:00

I had my niece over for the week while her parents were helping out at girl's camp. She's 2 and likes a lot of attention. I was totally ok with that but needed something to do while she napped for 2 hours. So...I finally decided to sit down and take the time to make thank you cards. I have been way slacking on getting my thank you's down in writing for all those wonderful people that helped me out after my surgery. I think they turned out really cute and I need to work on some duplicates for my stock pile.

Surgery gone wrong

2011-04-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

March 18th I went in to have my endometriosis removed via laparoscopy. My doctor was going to make two small incisions for robot arms to get in there and take care of it. First he had to put a trocar in . A trocar is a tube for a camera. It has a sheath with a sharp end that penetrates the skin and linings of the body, then they pull it out and leave a tube in you so they can get cameras and other tools in there. Unfortunately the trocar was not getting through so the doctor got a longer one. This trocar penetrated but hit my iliac artery in the process. I began to bleed internally without anyone knowing. My vitals then dropped and they noticed the blood. The stopped, cut me open and found it. They waited an hour for a vascular surgeon. I'll spare you most of the gore, you can see some of it below though, and tell the main points. My artery is healed, I have a huge scar. I spent a week in the hospital with 2 days in ICU. It was very unexpected and scary. I can't imagine how my mom and husband felt when a nurse had to tell them they were fighting to save my life because of the accident. I feel very blessed that they could fix me up, that I had such wonderful people to help care for me and pray for me and that I am now well enough to go back to work. What a crazy, unpredictable world we live in.

Check out that triple chin!! So during the surgery they filled me with 4 units of blood and like 12 pounds of fluid. Oh and if you look at my arm you can see that they restrained me. They were afraid I would pull at my tubes and such. To be honest, I think I would have. I definitely wanted to pull that thing out of my mouth and the three IV's they had in me.

Here is a picture of the lovely tube down my throat. What a way to wake up. Brent says I really didn't react, but I remember gagging, panicking and thrashing around. It's hard to do that when you're still loaded up with drugs but thats how I remember it. Well after being scared out of my mind and not feeling like I could breath, Brent told me where I was and I fell back asleep. The second time I woke up I was more prepared and by the third time I got the hang of breathing and the fourth time I actually wrote down some questions and had conversations that way. Eventually they turned off my breathing machine and removed the tube. It didn't feel that great but I had worse as the days went on. By the way, can you see how huge my stomach is in this picture. Oh my goodness!

Ok, see those small red tubes?? Those are coming out of my stomach and draining blood and other fluids from my body. Those tiny holes are what I was originally supposed to leave the hospital with. Two tiny holes!!! instead I have these 48 staples and 2 drains. I got one drain taken out when I left the hospital. A doctor came and slowly pulled it out. I didn't feel a thing but i was nervous so I called my nurse, Strawberry, in to be with me for moral support. The doctor sewed up the hole without numbing me first. She was shoving that needle around and then she was yanking that string tight. I swear she lifted my body up off the bed she was pulling so hard. I was sweating and hurting. I never want to do that again. The second drain came out a week later so it had been in there for two weeks. The whole was crusty, pussy and scabby and the drain was clogged and barely draining. The doctor asked me to cough and she yanked it out but I couldn't and once again I almost flew off the table. It hurt so bad. Even now, 5 weeks later that part of my body gives me trouble.

Here is my tiny looking, yet huge IV hole. In the ICU I told my nurse that my neck was sore. He responded by telling me I had an IV there. Way to gross me out. Good thing I was drained off all emotions in the hospital. No freaking out or crying happened till my last day and when I returned home. The hole was as big around as a pencil and I now have a scar on my neck. I hope it eventually fades.

Here I am trying to wash my hair. Spending a week without washing would have been horrible. This is probably day 3 or 4 without clean hair, or body. Gross! My mother-in-law helped me this time. My friend Sharee helped me another. This stuff did not leave me feeling clean and fresh though. My aunt Kendra finally helped me wash with real soap. We used my water pitcher and a bucket and I sat in my bed and leaned forward. It actually worked out well and I finally had clean hair.

New Nieces

2011-04-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

I have had two beautiful nieces born this year. Am I Jealous?? Yes, but still excited. They are so cute and great additions to our growing family.

First up is Josie Drew McDowell. This is her recently. I helped watch her and Grandpa and Grandma's while her parents and sister went to Disney on ice. In this picture she is happy and smiling, but it didn't stay like that. This poor girl was in a a mood. She wanted to be rocked and held the whole time. She would throw a little fit if you didn't hold her. So we gave in and took turns rocking her.

Next up is Lyla Black. Not sure if they decided to give her a middle name or not. She was born on April Fools Day. We all thought my brother was joking when he announced the birth. My mom took me over to their house just to prove it really did happen. I need to get over there again and see that growing girl. I've heard she's quite the eater...she must take after her daddy.

Snow!!

2011-02-27T11:08:00.001-08:00

Last weekend there was some major rain and wind in the Valley. Brent and I missed most of it. Brent wanted to go camping since he had the weekend off. We headed up just past Payson with my parents and aunt and uncle. It rained for most of the trip but it was just a constant drizzle. Then on our last day the snow started and didn't stop until we left. The funny thing is that even though we knew it would snow we were not prepared and had to seriously improvise. My parents left on Friday night, so we headed into Payson with them and had dinner. When we headed back to our campsite we found the road covered in snow completelyand it was slicker than ever. We could not make it up one hill so we had to head back to Payson to get chains. We tried every store with no luck. Our tires are not a regular size. Dang truck tires...they look cool but so complicated. Anyway, we bought the biggest size and a bunch of bungee cords. We used the cords to make it work. We finally made it back to our campsite but it had been so long that our battery in our trailer had died. Once again, my genius husband and uncle and to rig the battery to make it work. Again we had heat and electricity!!! The next morning with the snow coming down we headed back home safe and sound. Thank goodness I have a handy husband with a brain. It was a fun trip.

Baby Gifts

2011-02-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law is due to have a baby next month. I got really into it and started crafting away. I made a diaper wipes case, pacifier holders, bows, a bow holder, and the cutest ever tutu skirt. I think they turned out pretty good. In fact I think I'll start crafting away for all those other babies I know in the world that are on their way.

By the way, sorry about the poor quality of pictures. They happened to be the only ones I took and I took them in order to show my mom. My next craft photos will be better.

Valentine Wreath

2011-02-27T10:55:00.000-08:00

This wreath was so easy to do. I bought a heart shaped wreath at Michael's on sale. Then I just bought some flowers I like and wove them around the wreath. I hot glued the flowers in place. Ta Da!! So easy.

Valentine Decorations

2011-02-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

I am working on a project for my personal progress in young women's. Its fun to work along side the young women and always be discussing and sharing how our pp is coming along. One of my projects is to learn to do something that beautifies my home and teach someone else how to do it. This is my first go at it. I will do some for almost every holiday. I think they turned out great. Good thing I have a cricut.

This is how I made them:

1. I asked my wonderful Popsie to cut out the blocks from some scraps my husband and I had left over from Christmas gifts we made. The wood isn't that thick but its thick enough to stand.

2. I painted the wood black on all sides until well coated and then sanded down the edges a little. Its not super obvious but thats how I like it.

3. I used spray adhesive to attach some darling pink paper to the blocks.

4. Using my cricut, and with a lot of trial and error, I cut out the letters, l, v, e and a cute heart. I almost used a flower for the "o" but didn't like the one I had. The heart is cute too.

Was pretty easy, but since I have no time in the world it took a few days. Onto ones for St. Patrick's Day next. I already have half the blocks painted.

I finally found I'm allergic to something!!!

2010-12-29T17:12:00.001-08:00

Ok so I always thought I was pretty amazing because I am not allergic to anything in the whole world. Pretty awesome, huh? Well...come to find out, there is one thing that I am allergic too. I am officially allergic to iodine. Know you might wonder how I came to find this out-It's kind of a long story. First of all I had surgery on my knee last week and a while after my leg broke out in a horrible rash. It itched and hurt so bad that Brent had to go buy medicine in the middle of the night to take care of it. Well, I thought it was a heat rash due to the horribly hot and itchy brace I had to wear 24/7. Well I had surgery last week and two days later my entire stomach was covered in red splotchiness and I itched like crazy. One trip to the doctor later and I can officially say that I am allergic to one thing in the world-Iodine!! and boy is it not fun...I can't seem to get rid of the reaction. Good thing I don't come in contact with iodine very often:)

Football

2010-11-22T17:21:00.000-08:00

My brother Jeffrey plays for the Bulldogs out here in Queen Creek, the same high school I went to. They have officially made it to the 3rd round of the state playoffs. My little bro is an amazing wide receiver. He just told me he made 1st team all region!! Way to go. Every game he gets within a foot of making a touch down. He fights and fights and even drags players with him to the goal line before they bring him down within inches of his goal. Poor guy. No matter what though he is my favorite player. I've been to all his games, but one and I love watching him play. Jeffrey is also an amazing defender. He plays on defense and gets to be the safety. When someone gets through the defensive line, he is the one to take them down. This week he even got to be on the kick off return team. He got two onside kicks. Good thing he has good hands. He's an all around american player. Go Bulldogs!! Go #5!!

Schnepf Farms

2010-11-21T10:47:00.000-08:00

Here is our trip to the farm. As you can see, I had one nephew that was a little scared of some of the attractions. He had the most hilarious expression on the roller coaster and he wouldn't go near the goats. We still had a great time though even though it was so warm. By the way, the boys shirts say, "Grr, I'm a scary monster." They're so cute. We loved spending time with our nephews. I love being an aunt.

Boy's Night

2010-11-21T10:34:00.000-08:00

During my October break I invited some of my nephews to come and have a boy's night with me. I know I'm not a boy but I like having the boys over. I picked all the cute boys up and we went and saw their uncle Brent at work first. We headed home and stopped for a treat at Walmart. For dinner we had mini pizzas disguised as mummies. My nephew Max didn't understand what a mummy was. He totally thought I was talking about Mommies. He's so cute. We watched Little Nemo that night and then the boys went to bed. It was a good time. My plan for morning was to have Brent and I take them to Schnepf farms.

Prayers really are answered!!

2010-10-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

Brent and I recently bought this amazing truck. It's a little big, but its got it all. I drive it once in a while but its still a little large for me so I continue to walk to school. This week we had conferences at school so I would be coming home late and didn't want to walk home alone in the dark so I drove the truck. At lunch I wanted to head home and get something to eat so I'd be able to make it through the conferences, but couldn't find my keys. I looked everywhere, as did Brent and one of the other teachers. I was so frustrated. I ended up having to leave the truck there over night, which freaked me out. I was so nervous about it. I prayed that night until I passed out. At school today my kids searched for those keys and it was announced to the whole school but still no sign of them. I was beginning to doubt and lo and behold they appeared. I was also looking for some papers I should've been handing out at conferences and when I finally found them in my files I found the keys too.

After I thought about it I realized that I had gotten the papers that morning and put my keys on top of the pile. I then proceeded to get things ready for the day. I was trying to find an old paper in my files so I pulled out a bunch of papers and accidentally put them on top of the keys and other important papers. When I put the files back I grabbed everything. How dorky am I?

I was so excited and thankful that my prayers were answered. I must admit that I was starting to think I would never find them. I was so excited when I found them that I started jumping and dancing around my classroom. Sometimes your prayers are not answered how and when you want and sometimes you don't ever get what you wanted, but you always get whats best for you.

Nerd Night

2010-09-04T12:42:00.001-07:00

I wish I had photos of this night but I don't:( They young women in my ward are so amazing and love mutual...or so they've said once. I love it too and it makes me so happy that they participate. We had a daddy-daughter nerd night this month. All the girls and their dads dressed up like nerds. We had so many nerdy activities. Here are the activities we did together:

-The close shave: The girls were blindfolded as they shaved their dad's face with cool whip and a popsicle stick.

-Hair dressers: The dad's used combs and hair ties to give their daughter the nerdiest hair-do.

-Brain teasers: We gave the dads and girls nerdy riddles and math problems to test their brain power.

-Tie tying contest: The dad's taught the girls how to tie a tie then we had a race for the quickest tied tie.

-Fabulous feet: The girls stuck their feet under a sheet and the dads had to identify their daughter's feet.

-Noses: Dad's stuck their noses through a sheet and daughters identified their dad's nose.

We had a pudding bar for dessert and handed out cool dollar store prizes. We had nerds, smarties, glasses and brain bender games. It was so much fun. I couldn't believe how incredibly nerdy every dressed. It was such a blast!

Bird Houses

2010-07-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Some friends of ours came over and we had a bird house decorating contest. I know its cheesy but I wanted a date night like we use to do when we were younger. It was actually pretty fun. Here are the finished products. It was a contest so of course we need a winner. Vote to the right of this post and let us know which one you think is the best!

Spring House

Owl City

Cocoa

2010-07-10T10:06:00.001-07:00

We got a puppy in April. It was a tough choice since our last puppy died of Parvo in October. She was such a cute smart dog. Here is Tipsy our former puppy.

We had a lot of fun with her. It was hard when she died. I was home all alone. The vet we went to was not very helpful and I woke up to a dead dog. I told Brent that if we got another one that we had to be better about how we took care of her so we could avoid what happened to Tipsy.

So...we got our sweet Cocoa. She is full of puppy energy!! She was sitting the first week we got her. I can't believe how smart she is. Especially since she's so hard to train. Beating her doesn't work as Brent found out, she just thinks he's playing. We had a shock collar on the highest setting and she didn't react. We really have our work cut out for us.

Cocoa attacking Brent

However, Cocoa can also be a fun, sweet dog and we enjoy having her around. We've taken good care of her, but she also caught Parvo. I was so upset!! We did everything right and I did not want another dead dog. Luckily we got her into the vet on the first day she showed signs of it. The vet gave us detailed instructions and three different medicines. The Queen Creek Vet is amazing!! We kept Cocoa in our extra bathroom for a week, we fed her by mouth and cleaned up her yucky messes. At the end of that week she started escaping from the bathroom and we knew that she was finally better. I was so happy that Cocoa made it through. Now we have our fun puppy to play with, take swimming and go camping with. She's becoming a part of our family:)

Babysitting

2010-07-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

How do you say your brother-in-law and sister-in-law together- Brother and sister-in-law?? Anyway they went to girl's camp and left their cute little girl with us for a few days. I had so much fun with Joslyn. She is such an easy going happy girl. She cried a few times the first day, like when I gave her a bath and put her down for bedtime, but after that she did it all happily. I told my sister-in-law Marie that I hope our kids are as good as Joslyn.

Here is our cute niece eating lunch. Isn't she so cute?

We had a blast with this sweet girl. When Brent wou

ld come home she would either laugh and try to out crawl him or crawl right up to him. She likes him. I can't imagine why:) While Joslyn and I were playing here at home she crawled up into the bottom of the chair. She got stuck and couldn't get out. I think I should tell her parents that I kept her in a cage while she was here:) Again...isn't she so cute.

Gila Valley Temple

2010-06-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

We had the chance to go to the open house, and later thededication, of the Gila Valley temple. It was so neat to see another temple built and dedicated in Arizona. The gospel seems to be growing so fast. I remember going to the Snowflake temple when it had its open house. Can you believe we have three temples and more on the way? I still can't believe that my little Queen Creek went from 2 wards to 5 stakes.

We went to the open house with my sister-in-law Ariel and Brent and I's ward. It was a great day trip. It was really neat to see the kids from our ward going through the temple and the reverence they showed and the questions they asked. I love the primary kids.

It's snowing!!

2010-06-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of May my Aunt and Uncle decided they wanted to spend their anniversary up at my family's cabin. When you're older I guess you like company on your anniversary so we joined them. We couldn't believe that everything was covered in snow when we got there!! It had melted by morning. Brent woke up early enough to enjoy it, but I sure didn't. However, lucky for me it snowed throughout the weekend. It was never cold enough to keep it there but every time it melted it came back. I even got to drive home in it. Now I can officially say that i've driven in the snow. I'm sure I'm a pro by now.

A Wedding!

2010-06-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

So one year after Brent and I started our married bliss, my brother decided to join the club. Him and Ariel got married one year and one week after us exactly. We all joined them at the Mesa temple. It was a fun time. She has a big family and we got together with them a few times to help celebrate the occasion. They live pretty close to us out here in Queen Creek. Now Jeffrey is the baby, home all alone with the parents. I think he loves the attention.

New Year's

2010-06-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Ok so I haven't updated this blog in forever!!! I cannot understand why its taken me so long, but it has. Here is the start of my update on our year. For New Year's we went to Vegas with some friends of ours. They live in Oklahoma. We visited the Hoover Dam. It was like nothing I've ever seen. It's one of those amazing things that you can't express the way it makes you feel but it's overwhelming and makes you feel itchy inside. It reminds me of the way I feel when I think of the ocean. It's so amazing and hard to grasp that you feel all funny inside-it's just incomprehensible. The dam is so huge. We were actually able to go down inside it. They explained how it was built and I just am amazed.

We stayed in Vegas till new year's day. We waited around for the firework's. Drunks surrounded us on all sides while we waited. I was a little freaked out and cried a few times because I was scared. Our friends Matt and Christie loved it though. After the awesome fireworks and the start of a new year we headed out to go home. We were packed in like cattle as we were herded out. Since we were practically the only sober people there we push through the crowds and led the way out. There were a few people who latched on and followed us out. We drove all night to get home. Overall it was a great trip, but I sure could do without the crowds and the smoking.

I've turned into a Hobbit!!!

2009-07-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

My knee underwent surgery on July 14th. My leg had been doing well. However, after a really long day my foot swelled up to ginormous size. The swelling has gone down a little bit. It was actually bigger than the picture shows it to be. The morning after it swelled Brent and I were getting ready for church in the bathroom and he blurted out that I look like a hobbit with that foot. He of course expected me to give him a scowl for calling me names, but I burst out laughing instead. He's so right. My foot is so incredibly fat that it truly looks like a hobbit's foot. If we could have found some fake hair or something that resembled it, we would have glued it on to make it truly like a hobbit foot.The surgery was the second ACL reconstruction I've had. The first time seemed to have fixed my ACL problem but just last October I started having problems again. I saw a different doctor and he said my ACL was still letting my knee twist and shift in ways it shouldn't. We can't quite figure out if the ACL was put in wrong or if the cadaver tendon was failing. Whatever the reason, my new doctor fixed me up. He took part of my hamstring tendon and put it in place of my ACL. He also plugged up some holes that were in my bones with other parts of my bones and tightened another ligament in order to keep my knee from shifting and twisting the wrong ways. This better be my last surgery to fix this problem. I hate being limited on my movement.

Wicked

2009-07-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

If you have never seen "Wicked" you definitely need to see it! It was so fun. "Wicked" tells the story of the wicked witch from birth to melting. It has a totally different twist that changes your perspective on The Wizard of OZ. The play is also hilarious. At least I thought so-I laugh at almost everything. Our parents-both sets-went to an earlier showing then we all met up for pizza before Brent and I headed to our showing. We all thoroughly enjoyed it:)

2009-07-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite of our engagement photos. They were taken sometime in February. We got engaged on January 26th, 2009 on the way to my parents house for FHE. To make the story short I asked him when he wanted to get married, gave him a date and he said yes. I spilled the beans to my popsie (dad) before he could talk to him, but he did it anyway:) He knew he wanted to marry me, but was waiting on me so it was totally ok that I did the asking.

Disney Land

2009-06-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

The first week of June Brent and I went to Disney Land with my entire extended family. We went on every ride we could and the ones we liked even more we went on a few times. One of the rides we liked was the Buzz Light Year Astro Blaster ride. This is a picture of the first time we rode the ride. After that we decided to take Grandma with us. She was in a wheelchair so they would have to stop the ride to help get her on. We would go ahead so that when the ride stopped we would be in a prime spot for shooting targets. It brought our scores way up. I think I even made it to high level three, or maybe it was four. I don't remember I just know it was higher than I have ever scored. Brent hadn't been to Disney Land in forever so it was a fun time for him. We enjoyed our time very much!

Bren'ts Birthday

2009-06-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Brent turned 28! We kept it real low key and invited some friends over to play games and eat cake and pie. I made Brent a cherry pie. It was my first time making a pie by myself. It turned out ok, but it was uqite the hastle to make. I had to run to the store twice just to get filling and that was after I already make the crust. It was kind of frustrating. We had a fun time. Thanks for celebrating with us Ryan, Amber, Jason, Amber and Seth.

Caves

2009-05-17T10:08:00.001-07:00

While staying at a friends cabin for our honeymoon (thanks Seth and Mama C) we went and explored some caves. I was quite scared at first but it was second nature to Brent. There were some young girls there with their dad and they let us borrow a flashlight since we forgot ours. We had to squeeze and climb on our hands and knees just to get in. After a while I got used to it. However, when I had to give up my flashlight and get out just by the sound of Brent's voice it got a little freaky. Good thing I had another little girl come to my rescue with a light:)

2 weeks

2009-03-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks now since we tied the knot! Life is crazy as usual. We haven't moved in all of Brent's things yet but maybe that's a good thing. He says I'll be amazed at all the crap he has. I think its a great blessing though that we both have so much crap as opposed to no crap at all:) It's great that we haven't found any super weird habits that either of us has yet. I wonder if it'll stay that way. Most likely not. It'll be a matter of time before Brent realizes how crazy and weird i truly am!