New Piano

We finally got a new piano! Mike had been wanting to buy a new piano for a while now and I spotted this one on ebay. It was such a steal and it really is in great shape. We drove about an hour to pick it up ourselves from a kid leaving to college up north. Best $100 ever spent.

 

        After a little loving it looks great. We got it during conference weekend and I already feel like I can play a lot better. It's a nice incentive to practice every day. Hopefully one day I'll actually be able to play on the spot without needing practice.                       

                      

Graduation Day!

 

The party began when we picked up my mom from the airport the night before. It was so nice seeing them and I was so grateful that they took the time to come out and celebrate with me. We had a great time the night before just driving back from the airport that alone was enough to kick off the week.

The morning of graduation I woke up to my dogs barking like crazy in the garage. Turns out that my friend and her mom were busy decorating my house. Schyler is so sweet! I just realized I never got a picture with her, I'm such a bad friend. I can't believe she drove 45 minute to my house in the butt crack of dawn to surprise me. She sure made my special day extra special!

She got my the most gorgeous flower ever, she remembered I told Mike I wanted flower for graduation so she got me some too

I can't believe how incredibly thoughtful she was. She was the one that encouraged me to apply to the program. Thank goodness for sweet friends.

These flowers still look amazing in my kitchen.

So pretty!

I was supposed to be wearing a dress for graduation but my tights ripped last minute and we could not find white tights ANYWHERE. Thank goodness I just so happen to have an extra uniform in my car AND my nursing shoes. Thank goodness for my mom being there to help me calm my nerves before graduation because I was sure freaking out. The teachers went around making sure our shoes were polished and made me lick back the one hair I had hanging out on the back. Did I mention I'm glad I'm done with nursing school?

This was my FAVORITE part of the ceremony. We each went up and ripped our patches off and put them in the bowl. It signified that we were done and were no longer Chaffey College Nursing Students. It felt SOOOO good to rip it off.

The Nightingale Pledge. There were so many speakers all claiming they had seen us grow into wonderful nurses. I didn't recognize not one of them :)

 Almost done with the ceremony.

Yippy! I was so happy that my mom and sister were able to make it. Wish they could've stayed longer but I was thankful for the little time we had together.

My twinner. No one ever got our names right.

My nursing buddy

After the ceremony Marcia was so sweet to take us all out to dinner. It was her treat to me for graduating. We tried going to Spaghetti Factory but the college and high school BOTH had graduations going on at the same time so every thing was packed. We ended up going to Red Robin. I realized that with all of my stress of my ripped nylons I had forgotten to eat and my mom and sister hadn't eaten either. Needless to say our burgers were deeeelicous.

Thanks Marcia!!

Marcia was a big part of my success. I whined and whined to her about how awful school was and she always had words of encouragement. She was there for me when my mama couldn't. I felt like I could always vent to her since she went through the same type of rigorous program I went through. I sure have the sweetest mother in law!

Mike's grandparents drove down from Utah to celebrate with me. They are the sweetest ever and I felt so loved to have them both there. They are really amazing people.

The day after graduation it was time to take Priscilla and my mom back to the airport. We decided to stop by and grab some breakfast before and enjoy time together before they were off the Utah again. I'm so thankful for all of the people who were there for me on my big day. It feels so good not to have school anymore. I still wake up scared thinking that I need to be some where, hopefully that'll go away soon. Priscilla's high school graduation is coming up next. I can't believe it. Can't wait to see these two in a couple of weeks!

Graduation Practice

Can't believe graduation arrived. It still feels so unreal specially since I'm back to doing school again. I think it still hasn't hit me that I'm officially done. Nursing school was so awful I'm sure glad to be done with that. Seriously, why do people sign up to be belittled and felt stupid, voluntarily. At the beginning of school I made it a point to stay in the back ground and not be noticed by teachers. I seriously saw students being devoured alive, so sad. One girl had a new born and made it through the entire last semester only to be dropped 3 weeks before graduation, those teachers had NO mercy.

The girl on my left is my buddy Clarissa. She is all beauty and brains. Seriously the most hard working, humble, smart person I have ever met. She commuted all the way from her million dollar beach house to school and never even made anything of it. We were both LVN's in the program and I'm glad we had something in common so that we could be RN buddies. She's going to do amazing thing, I know it. The on the far right is my twin Samantha. I swear the teachers never got our names right up to graduation. But that's okay, cause she's a cutie and the sweetest girl ever.

I wasn't really close to many people in the program, they were all about getting wasted. I felt like an old lady around them because I was married and had a house. But anyways, they were a fun group. Here we are after graduation practice at our luncheon.

The day of graduation my friend drove 45 minutes to pimp out my house with graduation signs. The house looked amazing! Her and her mom left flowers, champain glasses, apple cider, and these cute signs and balloons. She sure made my day extra special. I can't believe I'm done. I'll be so excited to be done with the BSN program, I feel like I'll really be able to celebrate then. For now, gotta study for boards!

Vanellope's Birthday

 

 

A couple of weeks ago we were able to go to Vanellope's first birthday party. I can't believe she is one. Time goes so fast when you get old. I love being able to hop in the car and head to all of the parties. We made it just in the crack of time to help them serve food. They really went ALL out. They must've had like 100 guests.

 

We were lucky enough that the day after the party, my cousin went through the temple for the first time. Can't believe she's going on a mission, I'm getting so old.

After the temple we went back home to Tati's house to hang out with them. We were craving elotes and Mexican food and Alex suggested going to the swap meet. They had all kinds of delicious food. We ate, and ate, and ate.

I asked the girl to get me a soft coconut and she was a pro! I was so impressed. I hate hard coconuts, and she just touched it a little, smelled it, and BAM! the softest most delicious coconut ever! So, so good.

After our delicious treats at the swap meet we headed to the Mexican ice cream store and ate some delicious popsicles and ice cream.

 

Like I said, we ate and ate and ate. After we had eaten dessert we headed over for carne Asada fries. Las Vegas sure has the best eats.

Here's Vanellope at her party with Tio Mike.

 

We love this cutie! Happy first birthday Vane!

Moving Day

On Febuary 27th we closed escrow. It took us longer than we had expected but now looking back it was for the best. Funny how that happens. We moved into the neighborhood we wanted and into the ward we wanted. We really love this little neighborhood of ours.

All of our neighbors are younger couples, which I love. We live about a block away from an elementary school and in the afternoon the neighborhood is lively and full of little kids. We live down the street from a park and you can see all the kids playing baseball and soccer, I love it. You see everyone walking their dogs in the afternoon too, which is pretty great. We also live about 5 minutes from the dog park. I'm telling you, when it's meant to be, it's meant to be.

There's so many projects that I would love to do. Some day this kitchen will get a little loving and actually get painted. If I can ever get around to it :) Oh and every single window in the house has shutters. I didn't really know much about shutters. Now all I know is that I'm in love with them.

I still haven't gotten around to painting any of the house. I am thankful that the previous owners left it white though. It's easier to live with than pink or neon green walls. Mike put in that new fan. They have palm tree fans through out the house. Those are going to slowly be replaced. I love the new fan though, looks much better.  

This is as far as I got with arranging furniture. This is the only room that has gotten painted. It's a light grey, I was really nervous about it but I loved the way it came out.

One day this room will have wood floors, one day

One day we will buy a couch for this room too, and the chimney will also get some loving.

I love this space. It's perfect for all of my books and for doing home work.

Down stairs bathroom

I would really love a white bathroom for the guest bathroom, I found some great diy's on Pinterest. Pinterest is gonna be the death of mike, hehe 

This is what you walk to when you come in through the garage, I think a mud room would be awesome here.

This is one of the downstairs rooms. I have no idea what this room will be. Mike says the gym, it's a nothing room right now.

This is our bed room. It's such a nice upgrade from our last room.

I still have to figure out what color I want our bedroom to be. If you've ever watched the show "Blackish" I would love my house to look exactly like that.

Nice closet space. The previous owners took out all of the shelving with them so we still have to build some more shelves in here.

Nice bathtub that we have yet to use.

Our bathroom. Even though we have two sinks, sometimes I find us both huddled around the same sink. I guess we still have to get used to the space

This is the room right next to ours, I'm thinking nursery some day. For now it just sits empty.

Stairs. I'm finally done painting this wall but I have yet to put any pictures up.

This is the upstairs guest room.

I love that I can have one girly room in the house.

I'm thinking this room would look nice with a light grey color.

Upstairs bathroom.

This room we call the game room. It's so big, it would be fun to put a projector here one day.

This room will be fun to paint.

Upstairs hall.

Upstairs hall.

There's so many projects to be done. I'm thankful that the house was move in ready because life has been a little busy. I thought that because I was done with school things would slow down but it sure doesn't seem that way. I started the BSN program already and took on 2 classes and the 3rd one starts in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to study for my boards on top of that. I should be studying 3-6 hours a day. I also have a job interview coming up and have been trying to practice questions. Oh and did I mention my back yard desperately needs to be weeded. Life just seems to keep going. I'm excited for this next little chapter in our lives. I feel like I'm at the top of a roller coaster again and don't know what's ahead. It's a little scary, but I'm excited for the future.