Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Happy Birthday Jidge!!

Let's Get This Party Started!!!!
We started off JJ's birthday weekend with his mommy. We saw Harry Potter, I thought it was entertaining but all the changes, additions, eliminations the movie did to the book JJ was squirming in his seat - not his favorite Potter movie I guess. Then we went to Wingers for dinner. Excellent food, horrid waiter. JJ got fire sauce on his chicken and we had to flag down another waitress to get us drinks cuz we all ran out and my hubby was dying! We tipped the other waitress cuz she saw us more than our actual waiter!

Happy Birthday from JJ's mom! She asked what JJ wanted, so I told her to go to http://www.thinkgeek.com/ and pick something! I knew he wanted this shirt - if you look close enough you'll find that the pattern is very small numbers..... 3.14159....etc JJ was so excited!


I got up early on Saturday morning to decorate and get all his presents ready - I'm berry berry sneaky sir!!!


We made belgian waffles for breakfast - blueberries and/or chocolate chips, fruit and bacon!


Hahahah! I can't help but smile and laugh at my cute husband!! He has been wanting one of these pull up bars for a long time so I finally gave in. Bring on the muscles!


Happy Birthday To You! Happy Birthday To You! As is tradition my mom's family gathered at my uncle's house for a pool party/birthday party. Thank you Unlce for letting us take over your backyard!! He's trying to sell his home so it was kind of a last hurrah at the same time. Anyone want it for roughly $750,000? :)


Grab your favorite floatation device... or two... and let's have some fun!

Don't forget the goggles! This is my cousin, he takes great pleasure in making me laugh histerically and with the goggles and the pose, I could barely take the picture!!

And Jump In! This is my brother gettin' ready to make some waves!
Splash!!!! Loved the look of this picture! Not only do you get awesome spray action you also get scrunched up faces! Nooooo! Don't get me wet!!! :)

And last, but certainly not least, is the must have basketball game. This pretty much takes up the whole shallow end of the pool, got some girls in there braving it but not for long. Boys will be boys!!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Three Blogs In One!

First Event: Happy Birthday Daddy! My siblings and I spent the afternoon celebrating my dad's birthday. We went to see "Ice Age 3" - it was heeeelarious! I will definitely be purchasing that one when it hits DVD!

My daddy and his barb.


Me and my hubby!


After the movie we walked across the street and ate lunch at Red Robin. It was pure tastiness but they have GOT to do something about their air conditioning. My dad ordered some appetizers and they were stone cold before they were half gone... that's a bit ridiculous. I was wishing for a sweater before we got our drinks! That's just stupid - it's July! But it sure felt like December in there... fix it Red Robin!

Second Event: The next day we had dinner with my extended family on my dad's side. My cousin Scottie and his awesome wife Angie moved to Ohio so he could go to Medical School. Man oh man, do I miss these kids! Hurry up and be a doctor so you can come home!! Love you!

Quick story about both... Once upon a time a silly girl named Candace wore brand-spankin'-new shoes to Disneyland. After rides upon rides, walking the entire park, sweating in the sun, eating unhealthy food and all that magical stuff my feel were sore, covered in blisters and bleeding. And while others were telling me to suck it up, walk faster to keep up and to stop complaining, Scottie did everything he could to keep me smiling and laughing. We went on Indiana Jones for probably the 5th time that day and Scottie screamed like a school girl the Entire Time! I don't think I've ever laughed so hard!! I had tears streaming down my face and sore abs to go along with my bleeding feet when we were done. Thanks Cousin! (When we got home and my shoes finally came off the family realized how bad off I was and took great care of me the rest of the time).
As for Angie? My family was camping in Nephi and late one night these two showed up after most had gone to bed, it was Angie's first appearance to the fam so I took advantage and talked her up for awhile. The next morning I was walking with my dad and a few others down to my Grandparent's campsite and here comes Angie walking towards the bathroom. I yelled something like, "Hey! Don't fall in!" or "If you're not out in 5 minutes, we'll just wait longer" She laughed and my dad gave me that parental look - why are you talking to a stranger like that?! I smiled at him and said, "That's Angie, we go way back. We're tight." And we've been buds ever since.


Next Awesome cousin in the line up is Kelsey (with my little sis). She got back last night from a 9 week stay in Ghana, Africa. She's getting her degree in Deaf Studies and took this amazing opportunity to go there to help teachers and children learn Sign Language. Her emails were amazing, heart wrenching, hilarious and humbling. She and a few other girls had to get their water from a well, carry it back to the house, then stand in a bucket and use a cup to shower. Heat, bugs, no running water, trying work, but oh so worth it! She has very blonde hair so it threw us all for a loop to see these locks when she came over. I'm so proud of her and grateful that she made it home safe and sound!


Third Event: Unemployed.

This is my handsome hubby sporting a smile even though he lost his job last week. He was working for a company that had a policy that said: you don't sell - you don't have a job. So, unfortunately he's now looking for a part time job to have while he goes to school full time. It's hard times right now and we're praying and hoping something great will come along. I don't know what we would be doing about finances if we weren't blessed with the awesomeness of my mommy who lets us live in her basement rent free. If you hear of a part-time job you think JJ might be good at, please let us know. We'd appreciate any help, even if it's just prayers on our behalf, we know He's listening!!
Thanks! We love you all!

Monday, July 13, 2009

The Ute Stampede Rodeo!

Welcome to the Rodeo! Every year my dad's side of the family camp out for the weekend and then spend Saturday night at the Ute Stampede! Usually there is a guy that parachutes out of a plane and has an American Flag hanging from this straps, he glides himself into the arena while we're listening to the National Anthem, it's my favorite! However, this year there was an issue with the flag (torn) so they brought out this HUGE boot. There are 3 soldiers holding flags and the inside rotated as a little kid sang to us. Still brought a tear to my eye, job well done!

I love being an American!!


Me and my hubby! JJ is so awesome to put up with me during the rodeo. I always sit by my little sister so that every time there's music we can sing along and dance. And all the screaming and clapping while the cowboys do their thing... such a patient guy!


Ok, so it's kind of a crappy picture but the stadium lights on the other side of the arena were blazing into my camera so it wouldn't take a good shot after dark. This is of the clown hiding in his barel and of a serious cowboy riding a bull. I think only 2 cowboys were able to stay on for longer than a few seconds, sad night for the boys in tight pants.



We had good food and games!



My grandparents fill up paper bags with toys, treats, and "guess whats." Big glasses and styrofoam planes were amoung the best!


This is my daddy getting the heat started for our big Sunday morning breakfast :) "Dumb white man build fire, burn butt then burn face... Indian man build two fires, burn butt and face same time." lol that's one of my favorite sayings from my dad!


Caden, Candace and Jared. Jared is my "step brother" for all intents and purposes and I was sooooo excited that he showed up for this weekend. I haven't seen him in forever! He's a policeman in Elko, recently accepted into the SWAT program they have there and he's also going to be in training for the K9 unit soon, all of this after he served his country for 4 years. Yeesh! Awesome boys right here!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Debt Free Is The Way To Be!!

Honesty is always the best policy, or so they say, so let's just begin this by saying I've been a bit depressed lately. It's due to a bunch of different things that have combined to just bring me down. I'm fighting it, trust me, some days are just so hard to get through, you know? So having said that I wanted to post about something that I'm truly happy about, the little light I can see through all the dark crap surrounding me. JJ and I are officially Out Of Debt!!!! Can you believe it?! We actually did it!! We moved into my mom's the end of August of 2008 with a goal that we'd be out of debt in a year... a year and a few months by Mormon Standard Time. But we blew our goal out of the water by finishing 2 months early! Which means that we can start putting some dollars into savings and prepare ourselves for the big change ahead. For those that don't know, JJ has decided to change to a part time employee so he can go to school full time. So it'll take some getting used to when his pay check takes a hit. But we've felt that this is what we're supposed to do, so we're forging ahead. We are so very, very grateful to my mommy and Art for welcoming us into their home and seeing us through all our challenges, trials, ups and downs. We wouldn't have been able to accomplish that without them. Thank You!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day! JJ and I went to BBQ at his mom's house - I've never really had a tradition for July 4th and that really makes me sad because I love the holiday so very much. So I'm hoping we can make this happen every year!
Me and my pyro husband!

This is the newest addition to the Rockwell clan. He is the sweetest baby boy, he's always staring with those big eyes and just a totally chill kid. You know he's upset when he makes a little grunt noise and starts flapping his arms... that's it... no screaming. (That I've heard anyway, I'm sure his mom would say different) I told JJ that if I could have a kid like this, I'll have more than one! lol

The other sweetest baby! I was holding her when JJ walked up and she immediately leaned towards him with outstretched arms - guess we know who her favorite is!


Sparklers!!!


JJ was so very excited to be the lighter of all fireworks. His sister wanted to get her kids home and in bed so we started pretty early. I was bummed that you couldn't really see all the fun colors but I was happy to get whatever I could!


The finale! Not exactly stadium of fire but it's all my budget could afford.



The crowd! We pulled the backseat out of the van for extra seating :)


I just LOVE these kids!!! They are always so excited to see me and want to share stories of all their latest adventures. We recently went out to dinner with this family and Sarah just had to sit next to me so we could color on her menu. I felt so special and absolutely adore that time I got to spend with her! I'm so very blessed that they love me!