Aspen

We welcomed little Aspen into our family over a week ago. We just knew it was the right time to get a dog which we (mainly me) have been wanting for so long. She is a beautiful yellow labrador. We got her from a farm in Colorado from a man that breeds them for a hobby. She was the only yellow lab in an all chocolate litter. She has the greenest eyes and a little light brown nose like chocolates do. She is just great! Aspen likes to take naps, run around outside, chew on rocks (we are working on that), and playing with her brother Beetle. He wasn't so sure of her at first but now they are friends even though she plays with him a little too rough sometimes. She is all signed up with training class in January. Chris and I did get the "bad parents of the day" award when we took her to the dog park when we were not suppose to yet because she hasn't had all her shots. It makes sense but we didn't even think about it till after. Luckily no other dogs were there haha. She is doing great though getting use to the cold weather and going in her kennel at bed time. We love this little one and are so happy that she is a part of our family now!

Texas

Chris and I recently went back to Texas for my cousin's wedding. My home. I love it and hope to move back there some day. I got to show him places I went to as a child and spend time with all of my family, both my Dad's side and Mom's. We got to eat at my favorite restaurant, walk to to the playground I would play at with my grandmother, and see the sites that I am so use to seeing. It was great to get to show him around everywhere.

My cousin's wedding was beautiful. It was at a winery in Grapevine, TX. We got to help set everything up and you could tell there was a personal touch with everything. My mom has 4 sisters and all of their family was there so we got things done pretty quick. I loved helping get everything ready because all of them helped set up stuff for my wedding. The night was perfect. It was a warm Texas evening with candles all around and music playing in the background. We got to catch up with family, laugh a lot, and play fun games. It is one of those times you will always remember. It was such a nice trip and was great to just get out of town with my husband. I love him and all of my family. Can't wait for the next family "reunion".

Life-size Jenga!

Kristyn (bride) and my mom+aunts

Us and my Pops

My love and I :)

Update on our lives: Chris's busy season is starting to slow down and he is enojoying his work without a ton of people around (haha by May he will be ready for people to show back up). He has had more time to spend doing little household projects and I appreciate that. We try to spend as much time as we can together since I am working full time. I love my job and the people that work there. I have a far drive which sucks but it is worth it because I am learning so much. I work the night shift which I am use to now. I like the pace of the nightshift and less distractions but hopefully in a few months I will request to go into day shift which is crazy busy.

Our one year anniversary is coming up in January and we booked a 7 day cruise. We are super excited and can't wait!! We leave out of Tampa, FL which gives us some time to spend with my best friend Katelyn and her precious baby, Kenzie. I can't believe it has almost been a year. We have made such good memories and have had so much fun. We try to take trips when possible but save time for just Chris and I to sit, relax, and talk. I love it. After our cruise, Chris and I are going to hopefully add a new addition to our family (it has 4 legs and a long tongue.....baby steps :) ).

Oh little brothers....

My little brother, Shane, came up for a visit to see Chris and I recently. It was great to see him and to have him see everything up here. He came in on the 4th of July in the afternoon and we drove up to the house and waited for Chris to get home from work. Right when we got home Shane put his stuff down, played with our cat, and sat on the couch to fall asleep. I just laughed because we hadn't even been home an hour and he was out! He slept for a few hours and we let him because we figured he was just tired from traveling buttttttt later we found out that he had stayed up the night before till like 2am and had to get up at 6am. GEEZE! We woke him up to eat BBQ with us and watch fireworks and chat then back to sleep he went.
The next morning we woke him up to go the gym and Shane and Chris played racketball while I worked out. We then grabbed some lunch and headed out to go fish! We went to a pond that the camp owns and picniced then fished! Shane was the only one who caught a fish. We had plenty of nibbles though! We were glad that it was Shane catching the fish because he was getting really inpatient with not catching anything. We were 30 minutes in and he said, "I'm ready to go, I havent caught anything!" We were barely there! Sillly boy :)
We relaxed, played the wii, did some shopping, and watch movies. It was a good time! Sad to see him go but glad to see his trail of stuff around the house go. Oh little brothers....

Work Work Work

I have finally got my feet wet at work. After 2 long weeks of orientation, I started working on the floor. I have a GREAT mentor who is helping me get a routine down. The medical/telemetry floor I am on is super busy which is nice in a way because the morning flies by and then it's lunch and then so many things happen in the afternoon with doctors coming by or physical therapy working with the patients. The patients are interesting, some sweet and some not. There was a patient whose room I was walking by and he yelled out of his room and said "Get your FAT butt in here and let me go home!" I giggled for a second and then let him know that it was inappropriate and why he needed to stay. Later I found out that he was very very confused and grumpy. He has pulled his IV out and started walking out of the floor and so on. I LOVE my job though. Yes it is early mornings and late nights but its all good when you know that you enjoy what you are doing and make a difference in peoples' lives.
Chris and I am getting use to my new schedule though. I leave before he offically wakes up and comes home after dinner. It's not easy waking up so early but I am gettin use to it and before I know it, I will be working nights, which will be a different change. The extra pay will be nice with working nice so thats what I am looking forward to but not looking forward to not sleeping at the same time as my husband. Once I get going on nights and feel comfortable being on my own, I hope to find a place on days again.
Our life as a married couple is going great!!! I love being with him all the time, our walk/runs, our conversations, our jokes, out times at many rodeos, our shopping trips, and much more. I married such an amazing man and feel so lucky!

Here's to great adventures with the one you LOVE!!!

Every 6 months

I met a wonderful group of girls my first summer at camp. I am really proud to call them my friends. We all are so different and come from many states and yet mesh like we have been friends for years.
It just so happens that we get to see each other every 6 months. It started after Summer of '09, we met up in January and then again summer '10. These amazing ladies made it to my wedding and now we are meeting this weekend for another wedding! So that makes it every 6 months! How ironic! Talia and I didn't plan our weddings around our 6 month reunion. It just happens like that haha. I can't wait to see them!

Chicago watch out for Lower Chipeta Counselors '09!

Patience Pays Off

FINALLY! After 3 months of intense job searching, lots of networking, and tons of patience, I finally landed a hospital RN job! I have been working as a home health nurse but I really wanted to be in the hospital. The job is at Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, CO. It is a Banner facility which are huge in Arizona. I will be working on Medical (general patients)/Telemetry (people who need constant heart monitoring) unit. I am so excited to be working with a lot of different patients and a pretty awesome schedule. I work 3 days a week, 12 hr nights. At first I was a little unsure about working the night shift but when they told me that I would get paid a lot more, I said SIGN ME UP! I have prayed a lot and tried to stay positive when I knew I didn't want to. I had so much support from my loving husband and friends and family who helped me with connections and advice. Here is the hospital and some fast facts:
Northern Colorado Medical Center

Number of patient beds: 398
Number of inpatient visits: 16,234
Number of Emergency department visits: 54,038
Number of babies delivered: 2032
Number of employees: 2,200
Number of physicians on medical staff: 258 active staff physicians including primary care and specialty physicians
Number of volunteers: 435

The hospital is pretty big which is awesome because that means there will be tons of other opportunities down the road if I want to choose a different part of nursing. Geeze I am so excited. Sometimes it just hits me and I say wow, I got the job!!!!!

I am so excited to start this new chapter in life and all the other opportunities that it will bring for me and my hubby!

Next, on the list: donate my hair to locks of love :)

Someday :)

I love my little kitty, Beetle. He is so much fun, loves to cuddle, and loves to play. What more could you ask for??Well.....I really LOVE dogs. And SOMEDAY we will find the perfect one..It might not be for a little while because with the summer coming up and it is Chris's busy season. It would be hard to have to train a puppy with only one parent. But I have dreams that Beetle and our new puppy would look like this: HOW CUTE :)I have a few breeds in mind that would be perfect for our little family. Chris and I have watched this show on Animal planet called Dogs 101 and they go through a certain amount of dog breeds and tell you alot of information about them, along with positives and negatives about their breeds. Since we live on a ranch, there is so much space around here for a dog like this to run around and play!

I can't wait to take him/her on walks, hikes, and to the dog park. Estes Park has a pretty sweet dog park..It backs up to a lake so the dogs can go swimming and they have tons of obstacles like what you see at a dog show (like a tunnel and etc.). It is going to be so fun and we can't wait!!!

Cat...then dog....then baby?????

We shall SEE!( we are taking baby steps)

The Big DAY!

I was finally able to get some wedding pictures back and it brings back so many great memories of our big day. I love looking at pictures and really looking at them. You can really tell a lot about a picture if you just look at it for a second. Look at all the people in the picture, their faces, the background, or the lighting. I have enjoyed looking at them and really appreciate all the hardwork my photographer did. She was actually my matron of honor's mother who I have known since I was 5 and has been taking pictures for as long as I can remember. She was there all weekend taking pictures of my family and bridesmaids at the nail salon, rehersal, rehersal dinner, wedding (of course), and the day after when we had family and close friends over for a brunch. I cant even remember how many pictures she took but it is in the thousands. Here is a few I love:

Life as a married couple is great! I love being with my best friend every day. Everything (well mostly everything) is put away and unpacked. The house was such a mess when I moved with boxes everywhere. So we are glad that we got all of that taken care of. We adpoted a kitten about a month ago named Beetle and we love him so much. He is SO playful and super energetic. He also loves to cuddle and be held and I love that. We decided that we were going to start small (cat) then move up to bigger things (dog, etc.). Chris and I have a lot of exciting things coming our way! Life is good and this year is going to be great! We have a few weddings to go to this year out of state so we are excited for many trips and my matron of honor is having her baby in May so we will be going to visit her out there in Florida. Florida beach in the summer time??? YES please! We are so looking forward to our new life and all that is has in store. I couldn't have found a better man to share this journey with. Being a newlywed is so fun!

Hey 2011! So glad you are here!

Today is such a great day! We just said goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011! This past year was wonderful and so many great things happened. Just a brief summary of what happened:

2010-

-got engaged!!!!

-graduated from Nursing school, YAY!

-spent a whole summer riding horses and making new friends

-planned a wedding while still in school

-spent a lot of time with family

In 2011:

-I will be getting married in January!!

-Going to the Bahamas for our honeymoon

-Looking for a job in a hospital

-Moving to Colorado! (in the middle of their winter)

-Road trip around Colorado

-Meeting a ton of new people/friends

I am really excited for what this year has to offer and can't wait to spend it with my soon-to-be-husband!

On a different note, here is my new year's eve story....

So Chris, his friend in town, and I were going to hang out at the house and then head over to this restaurant for some live music and dinner. BUT the power went out twice and stayed off the second time. It wouldn't of been that bad if it wasn't their coldest night of the whole winter so far!!!! It was -17 degrees out side, yes NEGATIVE and we had no heat. WHEW! I was a little nervous and my Arizona skin was not prepared for this. We just stayed at the house for a little bit and bundled up. We did not want to start a fire until we got home from the restaurant but even the restaurant was out of power. Luckily they had a little genereator.

Chris's friend works for the town's power company so his boss called him and told him that he needed his help. Poor guy had to go out in that cold weather and work. He later told us that half the town was out of power and it wasn't an easy fix. So Chris and I went into town to get out of the cold house for a little bit and then went to the place to wait for him friend to get done. We waited for a while and he still wasnt done and it was like 930. So we left and got pizza and headed home because the power was back on. His friend did not get to our house until 1130!!!! He was working for about 6 hours outside. We were very thankful though that he got the power back on so our pipes wouldnt freeze!!!

It ended up being a great, fun, and WARM New Years! Thank goodness :)