Baby bugs

I just found this little guy in my garden. I have no idea how I saw him - he's about as big as the tip of my pinky nail. Crazy, huh?

How does your garden grow?

Mine apparently grows fast. I'm loving having a garden so much! I'm out there watering it every day. When we had a "garden" in queen creek, we had it on a drip system, and I would forget to go out there to weed it or pay attention to it at all, and it...um...died.

But now I go out there at least once a day and pull a few weeds and make sure each plant has enough water and is still looking good.

Yeah, a few have died - this is my first attempt at a garden - but look at all the success I've had!

Tribute to the love of my life!

My sexy man turned 27 today! He's not to thrilled about it (and neither am I...because it means that in just a few short weeks I will be 25, and no longer able to say I'm in my "early twenties"...) but we had fun just the same.

Anthony got his major present last month, but I did manage to find a couple little things I knew he would just love:

Yep, Oakley's and an Anchorman t-shirt. Can life get any better? Well, for Anthony, it would be wearing the shirt and glasses while driving his truck. That's utopia right there.

And to celebrate, we went to BJ's Pizza so he could get his free Pazookie. And he ate about 90% of it all by himself. He was like a little kid! Well, until he got to the end, and then he was like a sick little kid...

But as a tribute to Anthony, here are 27 random reasons why I love him so much!

1. He can cook. I mean, what other men can do that, and love doing it, and do it so ridiculously well? I'm dang lucky, I tell you!

2. He lets me be me. I don't have to act cool around him (even though he's the jock and I'm the band geek...). We can just be goofy and crazy and do whatever and just have fun!

3. His hands are like a freaking gorilla. And this is a good thing for various reasons - he can massage or scratch my entire back without hardly moving, he can open anything, he could probably kill any intruder with a single hit, and he can take things out of the oven without oven mitts. It's amazing.

4. He is skilled at pretty much everything he does. He cooks (as mentioned above), he has an eye for design and color, he works out in the yard, can build just about anything, fixes cars...I mean, I think I've got him figured out, and then he says, "well I'm going to try this now" and by golly, he's already an expert at it!

5. I think it is hilarious to watch movies with him because he always gets so involved - telling people what they should or shouldn't do, etc - and then if its an action flick (ie. Jason Bourne, Taken, 24), it's pretty much a guarantee that he'll dream about being the star assassin that night. We're convinced he was an assassin in another life. It is the only logical explanation.

6. On the other hand, he loves chick flicks too. And he'll be the one to suggest a chick flick to watch. And he'll even cry during them. We just watched Marley & Me - yeah, we both were a mess.

7. He can make me laugh whenever, wherever, no matter what. Wait, was this the list of things I hate about him? That might go there too. This is a dreadful talent for him to have whenever I'm mad at him.

8. He is very stubborn. Sometimes this is a bad thing, but I know that once he makes up his mind to do the right thing, there's no persuading him otherwise. Besides, I like to debate, and if he only did the right thing all of the time, there would be no need to argue. Boring!

9. There have been several times that we have been together 24 hours a day for several days on end, and we never get sick of eachother. I just crave being around him even more!

10. How he just loves to cuddle before going to bed, and he sometimes tries to wake up just a few minutes earlier than he needs to so he can cuddle me for a few minutes before getting out of bed. How can you have a bad day after that?

11. He puts up with me. Enough said.

12. He's always the first person to apologize. Yeah, he's probably the first person to be upset too, but he certainly knows how to say "I'm sorry." And he does it sincerely.

13. Even going grocery shopping together can be an adventure. Whether he is ballroom dancing with me down the aisles or we make the whole experience into a competition to see who can get everything the fastest, we always have fun.

14. He never hides anything from me - we talk about everything all the time. He probably talks more than I do! I'm actually pretty sure of it!

15. Yeah, he's dang hot. I love his sexy body!

16. I put him through a lot during our first year of marriage when I was traveling for work all of the time, and we made it through. He's amazing just for that! I don't think I would have been able to be home alone all those nights.

17. He can fall asleep in about 10 seconds - and I think it is so cute how I can tell the exact moment he falls asleep, because his body will relax, but twitch ever so slightly, and then he'll start to snore just a little bit, and then he'll reach over to make sure I'm still there. (Or he'll have an assassin dream and he'll reach over to hit me in the head, and never remember a thing in the morning...).

18. He sees more potential in me than I think I ever could.

19. I love catching him describing me or something I did (photos, home renovations, etc) to his friends - he always makes it sound so much better than it really is, but I feel great inside just the same.

20. Sometimes he'll try to impress me by using a really big word and it just won't be quite the right word and it makes me smile. I always know what he means anyway!

21. He is very polite and always grateful for everything. He makes sure all of our friends know how much he appreciates everything they do for us and how much we love them. He is never afraid to share his emotions.

22. He can walk into any room with anyone in it at any time and by the time he walks out, he's made at least 3 new best friends. I don't know how he does it. It is incredible.

23. His rule is that nobody leaves until an argument is resolved, the problem is fixed, and everyone is all better. Sometimes I want to strangle him for this, because I just need my space, but in the end, I'm relieved to not be angry anymore.

24. Just feeling him next to me comforts me in so many ways. With his arms around me, I feel like nothing could ever hurt me. I know he'll protect me. (Sometimes he expresses this very violently - "If anyone ever hurt you I would....[very graphic details]....and then kill them!!!").

25. When he gets excited about something, he's just contagious. You can't help but be excited too!

26. He knows exactly how he can embarrass me, and from being around him, I've learned to really expand my comfort zone. I wouldn't have tried half the things I've done in the last few years if it weren't for him!

27. We're going to be together for eternity and I'm beyond thrilled to be able to spend my life with him!

So cute...they get their own post!

Ok, now my main goal in life is to have kids as cute as these. I mean seriously, can there be cuter kids?!

Meet Easton and Nelyana.

They are the adorable little boy and girl of some of Anthony's friends in St. George. I just fell madly in love with both of them!

Nelyana is just to die for. She's this amazing little oreo cookie baby! I can't get over how entertaining she is - so happy, so excited about everything. We all sat and watched her play with bubbles and easter eggs for probably an hour before we left on Sunday. Ambre has her heart set on having a little brown baby now. If I could produce one, I'd probably try it too...but alas! There's only white in me. :(

And then Easton is a complete crack-up. He calls his dad by his first name, but really only when he's mad at him. It is downright hilarious. Levi will pick him up to throw him around and he'll be all, "Levi, no. Don't do it Levi!" I really hope my kids aren't that funny, or I'm going to have a very hard time punishing them...ever.

Fun in STG!

Well, our trip to Utah wasn't all about love and marriage - we did have some fun in there too! LOL! We actually had a great time! It was a whirlwind trip, but we packed a lot into those few days.

We made sure to stop at the Hoover Dam...and see the dam water and dam tourists and some ridiculous dam traffic on the way back home (seriously, it took almost 2 hours to drive through the dam on the way back! I cannot wait until the new bridge is done...I think I read it was sometime in 2010?!)

Here's a picture from the way up. It was about 2:00 in the morning...I was tired.

Then after sleeping from about 4:00AM to 9:00AM, we met up with Grandpa for breakfast. He's actually Anthony's great-grandfather. The Mauros breed young and live long. Anth even knew his great-great grandparents. I hope our family will take after his side on that.

Look how absolutely adorable Grandpa is in this picture! He's thrilled! Anthony was kinda jealous that he didn't get that excited about him being in the picture. LOL!

And we also got a chance to meet up with some of Anthony's friends from growing up. We've been to St. George together 3 times now, but I hadn't had the opportunity to meet everyone just yet. So it was a blast! I loved them all! We're trying to convince everyone to move down to Gilbert...

Viewer Discretion is Advised

The following post has been rated PC for pornographic candy.

Well, Quinn was none to happy with us, but everyone else seemed to absolutely love our pre-honeymoon work of art.

See, Quinn is a bit of an OCD neat freak, and from what I heard, he went straight to the car wash after he left the reception.

But I mean, hey, they were going to Vegas for the night...they would have fit right in!

Anyway, Lacy, Autumn, Ambre and I had a little bit of fun...perhaps too much fun...in decorating the newlywed's car:

Quinn made this big scene about not wanting to be seen driving around town with the twinkies on the car how they were, so he went around taking them all off and smashing them on the ground.

But he didn't notice the ones on the headlights....hehe!

Wuv...twoo wuv....

So this last weekend we made the trek up to St. George, Utah to see the wedding of one of Anthony's best friends.

Up until this time I had only driven past the temple in St. George, so I was very excited to be able to walk around the temple grounds, and of course, go inside! I hadn't been to a sealing (other than my own) so it was a new experience, but it was absolutley beautiful!

I've always known Quinn was a great guy, so I'm so glad he found Candice. Although I wasn't able to spend long with her, and most of that time was setting up for the reception, she's awesome. Anthony and I are really hoping they move here, because they would be great friends to have nearby!

Here's Mr. and Mrs. Fowler!

See, I like Candice and know we would be perfect friends regardless of anything else, just because she can wear hot pink shoes.

Aren't they so cute together?!

Candice and the boys...

Quinn and the boys....um....yeah....that's hot....

Marriage is great. And I'm so glad that Quinn and Candice just joined the best club on Earth! Congratulations you two!!!