Happy Day!

Life happens fast. Steven will be graduating soon and we wondered what we would do for income while he studied for the bar. We prayed to be financially independent and in October I applied for what seemed to be a bazillion nursing positions. Well, about 2 and a half weeks ago I got a job offer to work as a cardiac catheterization nurse in West Phoenix. They offered to pack the apartment, take care of the shipment, ship one of our cars, and even top it all off with a bonus. We were thrilled to be so blessed! So I booked a flight and flew home with my parents to AZ after Thanksgiving at my brother's in Grand Rapids.

Thanks giving was awesome. We had the best oven baked turkey I had ever tasted, thanks to Tamara, the tastiest yams, thanks to Steven, and the most scrumptious stuffing, thanks to me (okay, okay the receipt came from Diana Charles)! Bummer I don't have the pictures to post, but it was great.

The night that I flew out we all went to the little Michigan famous diner, Steak and Shake.

Great shakes and meals for a great price. Can't you tell my brothers and sister liked it too!

So my dad is pretty amazing. We flew into the airport around 11pm, and waited for luggage for another hour or so, and then my dad drove the 3 hours homes that night. Wow! how does he stay awake like that. He is super Dad!

The next day when arriving in Heber, Callie and I went Christmas tree hunting with the Trujillos. Not a bad looking batch of tree choppers, huh!

Then we met up with Gramps and Gran. This was the first time that Callie met them, they were thrilled. Poor Callie is missing from the picture because she was out cold napping.

So while being here in AZ we have been visiting family. We stayed with Nonny and Poppy Trujillo a few days, the Crandells, and now the Adams. Everyone has been so helpfull and generous. Thanks guys for taking care of me and little Callie. Its been nice hanging out with family and letting Callie get to know her cousins before I start working.

Our normal day

Bath time is a blast after eating yummy baby food!

After wards mom gets me all dressed up and sometimes even curls my hair!

I especially love to get out of the apartment and go for a walk around the block.

Growing Like a Weed

Callie is growing like a weed. She sits up all by herself.

She like to play sweet beautiful music on the piano.

And she loves hanging upside down! Oh the fun things babies love!

Uncle Johns Cider Mill

Since being in Michigan we have always wanted to go do a corn maze. Well recently, Steven took Callie and I to Uncle John's Cider Mill in St. Johns. While there we took a tractor ride down to the corn maze, hit the pumkin patch, and then topped it off with cider and donuts. We had a blast. Thanks Hun!

Good ol' Second Hand

Halloween is fast approaching and we found the perfect costume for Callie. It's either a duck or chick, whatever you want it to be, but we got it for $8 at a mom to mom sale. The lady said that it was originally $50!

Jumper, $5 off Craig's list. Callie absolutely loves it!

And doesn't Callie show off her beautiful pig tales while modeling in her Bumbo. I got it off Craig's list for $15.

Ya, what can I say...I'm a pretty good deal finder. ;)

Hair Cut

Callie got her very first hair cut a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, she was just unable to see through her amazon jungle of hair.

She did so well and did not fuss once. She absolutely loved the attention.

Hurray, Callie can see!

Hanging at the Crandell's

So after posting last Saturday I realized I did not post any pictures of Callie! Oh no! I hope this makes up for it. Callie loves to be bundled like a little burrito. Here is my little bean burrito!Last Saturday Steven tried feeding Callie, but she was getting fussy as he held the bottle. Finally, Steven just let go and she contently held the bottle all by herself! Good job Callie. You are growing up so fast.

I came to Grand Rapids last Friday to help out when Tamara delivered little Brice. Paige and Callie are becoming great buds. They take baths together everyday and Paige tries to help out with Callie and Brice as much as she can.

Welcome home baby Brice!

New Baby in Town

Casey is a Daddy....again! Tamara just delivered a little baby boy. Congrats guys!

Cake

I have been taking a Wilton cake decorating class and have been having lots of fun. Below is my first Wilton cake. I brought it to a church activity and the kids just loved it!

Below is my 3rd cake. I forgot to take a picture of the 2nd (it had a giant sunflower on it).


So I only made 3 cakes in the class, but became inspired to try some others when I fell in love with a fondant cake at a bakery in the mall. Below is Brice's (my brand new baby cousin) birthday cake.

Steven's birthday cake below is actually the first fondant cake I made. The cake at the bakery was a "Topsy Turvy" cake, where it looks like it is tipping. I just loved it and decided that Steven needed a cake as cool as that for his birthday. I looked up a recipe on-line for marshmallow fondant and about 10 hours of hard manual labor later, whala! Steven has a Topsy Turvy Cake.

Birthday

We celebrated Steven's 27th birthday this week. Casey and Tamara came into town and we went to Red Robin for their amazing mouth-watering burgers and then went home for some yummy birthday cake! I am so lucky to be married to such a intelligent, fun, good-looking guy. Happy Birthday Baby! Hope we have a whole lot more to grow old through. :)

Meijer Gardens

About a week ago we went to the Meijer Gardens with Casey and his family. It is a good size park with various plants, statues, ans sites. Lovely Tamara found a way to get us in for free! Thanks Tamara!

The Trojan Horse is three stories tall. I think it was my favorite of all.

"Angry Mom," the name of the statue. We sure do make a couple of great angry moms!

They even had a kids zone! We are hanging out in the kids zone tree house. I'm sure I will just love it when Callie is old enough to love this kind of stuff!

Just Living Life

I made my first Wilton Cake, the classic rainbow. I 'm loving the class and can't wait to see what else I create.

Yesterday Steven, being the sweety he is, cooked me dinner, turkey burgers with all of the fixings. Great burgers hun. Thanks a ton!

Callie's hair is just getting longer and longer! The poor girl can't even see unless I pull her hair back, and she's only five months old!

Hair

At less than 5 months old Callie is wearing curlers in her hair!

Isn't she so pretty!

2009 Summer Arizona Trip

We just got back from our trip in Arizona. Boy did we have a blast with the family. We did so many things. A good amount of time was spent in Casa Grande hanging out in Nonny and Poppy's pool, eating out, getting spoiled silly, and loving every minute of it.

During the weekend we drove up to the Trujillo Family Cabin. The Ponderosa Forest of the Mogollon Rim is absolutely beautiful. I had missed the climbing mountains and rugged rocks. It was refreshing to breath in the crisp, cool, clean air. While there we managed to take a hike around Willow Springs Lake with Steven's parent's, camp by Patrick's Pond with the Crandell Clan, shuck and bag fresh corn with Grandpa and Grandma Brewer, and spend lots of time laughing and living up these precious moments with family.

When back up to CG we enjoyed spending time celebrating Sarah's B-day at Red Robin, touring the Titan II Missile museum and relaxing. We just loved our trip and can't wait until we can move back and be with family. We have such amazing families. I think this trip just made me love and appreciate them even more.

Check out the slide show of all of our fun. :)