Bestie's Baby Shower

Since my best friend, Michelle, told me she was having a baby I knew I wanted to throw her a shower. She has always been such a great friend and I wanted to a part of this exciting time for her.  Since Michelle was due in April, we planned the shower for March 23rd.  The last thing I expected was 10 inches of snow the night before and the morning of the shower!!!  People were calling and texting asking if the shower was still going to happen, to which I said, "Yes, I came to town for this and it is happening!"  It was fun to have Michelle's mom come to town for the shower and to have extra time that weekend to spend together shopping and getting the nursery put together. 

TJ was such a good sport and shoveled the driveway so we could get out.  I cannot believe all the snow we woke up to.  Denver has some crazy weather.

 The decorations and the food turned out awesome.  I had some great help and I despite the crazy weather we still had a good turnout.  Doesn't Michelle look fabulous.

 Since Michelle's last name is Badger, everyone has been calling the baby Honey ever since they found out she was a girl.  (Honey Badger is the nickname for a LSU running back that TJ is obsessed with).  Well, Nick had the 'great' idea to get the baby some clothes with her 'name' on it.  It was a funny gift and both Michelle and TJ loved it.

 The weekend wasn't all fun though, we worked!  Michelle had ordered this vinyl and thought it would be nice to have some help putting it up.  Well 4 adults later and nearly 3-4 hours later this tree was up!  Talk about hard work.  I think I don't ever need to see vinyl again in my life.  I must say the finished product with everything in place looked so cute.

 Update: Little 6 lb 14oz, "honey" Scarlett Mckenzie Badger was born April 17th.  And she is adorable!

College Girls!

I'm surprised that the 4 weeks between March15-April 15th didn't get me checked into the hospital for exhaustion!!!  As February came to an end, I kept looking ahead and the calendar and would practically have mini panic attacks with all the stuff I had planned.  Luckily for me though it was all fun stuff, but none the less exhausting!

First up my BYU college girls reunion trip, and this year it was in Phoenix the weekend of March 15th!  A few friends live out of the country right now (Rochelle and Heather-we missed you dearly) and Julia was with her sister who just had a baby, so we still tried to have have fun in their absence-I think we accomplished that :)  

Night one: We had great catch up conversations at Oreganos for dinner.  It's crazy to think that fast forward 12 years how every one's life is so different!

 Saturday morning:  Jes and I left pregnant Lindsay to visit an old mission companion and we headed to Tonto National Forest to hike Lost Dutchman's Trail.  Oh, how the weather was perfect.  I couldn't get over how green everything was, but don't worry it is all brown and dead now from the heat.  We had such a great time.  Jes and I were roommates freshmen year in the dorms, and I'm glad to say we are still great friends.

 Saturday Night: We went to Scottsdale to meet up with yet another friend from BYU, Bethanie who lives in the area.  Despite Saddle Ranch having the loudest music blaring and horrible customer service we enjoyed our time together.  Leave it to Jesicah to complain to the manager, and he brought us the biggest cotton candy I have ever laid my eyes on!!!  Overall a great night.

Sunday: We did what ever person in AZ wants to do in the month of March-MLB Spring Training game.  We saw the Dodgers vs the Diamondbacks.  It was a perfect 85 degrees with the sun shining down us, but poor Lindsay's Alaskan blood and pregnant self could hardly take it!!  We cut the game short and went and did the next best thing-outlet shopping!!!  Anyone who knows Jes, knows how much she hates shopping, so it was hilarious to see her going crazy.

And just like that, the weekend was over.  Sad :( I sure do love these girls.  It's a big sacrifice for everyone to get together with their busy schedules and multiple kids, but it is nice to have an all girl weekend every  now and then.  Can't wait until the next one!

Running, yes you read correctly

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to prove to myself that "I can do hard things!"  This has turned out to kind of be my mantra that I keep saying in my head.  I don't know if this attitude has to do with turning 30 this year or what, but either way it's working!

One of the things I wanted to do this year was to actually give running an honest shot.  I hate it!  I hate hearing myself breath, I hate feeling my weight underneath me, I hate that it makes my lungs hurt, I hate that it reminds me how out of shape I am.  So for once I wanted to actually run-as in train, to see what I really thought of running.  I knew that I would need a reason to run or it was not going to last for long.  A few girls in NC and I decided we wanted to run a 5k aka 3.1 miles.  No big deal, right?  Well for me when the most I have ever ran was a mile and that was back in high school, the thought of running 3 miles was no easy task.  So I downloaded the Couch to 5k app and I must say that I was pretty discouraged after the first week had me realizing what a whimp I was.

With my "I can do hard things" on repeat in my head I finished the app and to my surprise 8 weeks later I could run a 5k.  Not to my surprise though was the fact that I still did not enjoy running.  People keep say, "oh, it will grow on you and you will be addicted in no time."  Well 4 months later, I still do not like running, but I proved that I can finish what I've started.  It feels really good to write this knowing that for once I put my mind to something and accomplished it. :)

So the NC girls and I decided the race to do was the first ever Race for the Cure in Wilmington on March 2nd.  The money goes towards breast cancer research and of course wearing pink was an added plus.  We decided we would be the "Tu-tu's for Ta-ta's" team and an added bonus was that Nick's work (TIC) decided to sponsor us, and even made shirts that read "T.I.C. Treasure Chests".  

Of course, we had a tu-tu making party!

And of course, our jet-setting friends, the Lambson's decided they would come to town to join in the fun.  The race was ran through the historic downtown and along the Cape Fear.  It was only 30 degrees the morning of the race!!!  Yes, it was cold!

Bet ya didn't know I could jump that high!  It must be all that running jk!

 Nick was so sick!  In fact after the race and posting a 27 minute time he went to the urgent care.  Poor guy, but he wanted to support me.  He's the best.

 The ladies of Wilmington

 we got lots of shout-outs on our tutu's

 Thank you TIC for these fabulous shirts

 Jess and Emily have been such great supports to me on days when I didn't want to run!  They did so awesome in the race, and I'm glad we could train together.  No more couch potatoes for us

 At the finish line.  I had two goals: 1) to run the whole thing without stopping 2) to run it under 35 minutes.  Both of these goals I accomplished!

I'm happy to say that despite my hatred (even still) for running, I have kept it up.  I haven't gone longer than the 3.1 miles at a time, and I haven't really try to do it any faster.  But it feels good to know I've checked a goal off the list!

New Year, Just as Busy!

Times just keeps flying by and I the fact that life isn't slowing down just keeps me on my toes!

As when any New Years, resolutions were made!  In hopes of not totally jinxing myself I won't say what they are, but of course working out always has something to do with it.  Nick got me this shirt, that has kept me pretty motivated this year!  If only I didn't have to sweat, ugh.

In January I was on the phone with my best friend, Michelle, and she mentioned that she needed help decorating her nursery (baby girl due in April).  One nice thing about me living in Phoenix and she in Denver, is that you can always find cheap tickets on Southwest.  So sure enough, I looked and for $59 I was on my way the next day!  Can't beat that!  We shopped for baby girl and us of course (oops, that wasn't supposed to happen).  Always love spending time with her.

The biggest change came mid-month when I decided to chop my hair!  I was just sick of it.  It was dull and I felt too weighed down.  When I went in for my hair appointment and told her I wanted to cut it off, she didn't even hesitate (which I'm grateful for or I know I would have second guessed myself).  She took this before picture and I could not believe how long my hair was!!!!  How did that happen? All seeing that picture did was make me want to cut it even more.  So off it went, and even though I was in utter shock at the end, a few months later I'm loving it short.

 Sadly, a round brush has become my essential hair tool--and I still don't have it mastered!

As usual I was off to North Carolina for my visit in January.  I spend about half of the week just cooking, seriously.  The man has zero food whenever I get to town and then three stores later I can get it looking like this!  I try to cook about twenty freezer meals to get him by for a little while until my next visit.  Gotta keep him eating well, and we all know how he can eat :)

 Date night!  It is always fun to go to North Carolina and visit new places.  On the weekends when Nick has off we have really enjoyed exploring the area.  This time we went to Fort Fisher which is a site of a Civil War Battleground and visited the aquarium.

 Albino Alligator, don't see one of those everyday

Fort Fisher-so pretty

 I can't talk about the beginning of 2013 without talking about the Superbowl.  Oh Beyonce, how I love you!!  Seriously the reunion of Destiny's Child was all a girl like me needed!  It was great.  Loved spending the night talking with these two ladies and trying to do our own dance to the music!

Christmas 2012 to New Years 2013

This year we decided to meet in Kentucky for Christmas.  We both had the week off between Christmas and New Years (which never happens) so off to KY we went.  We had such a relaxing time.  It was great!  We ate well, shopped the sales, went to the movies, spent time with friends, and even had some snow!

My mom loves a decorated table

 A little Christmas Eve shopping at the Zappos Outlet.  Katherine was the winner with the best deals.  Nick was such a good sport because 2+ hours is a long time in one store :)

 Christmas morning is the time to go to the movies.  While everyone else is at home opening gifts we had the theater to ourselves.  I'm still not a fan of the 3D glasses.

 Nick was in charge of passing out the gifts

 Katherine modeling one of her gifts--cute scarf!

 The best ornament on the tree in my opinion

 Perfect ending to a great meal

With the Christmas holiday over, it was on to playing with some friends.  It is no secret how much we love our Louisville basketball (more on that in another post) so we had to all get together to watch the Louisville vs Kentucky basketball game.  We always have so much time getting friends together at my parents-it is just like old times!  And we beat KY to lots to smile about.

Matt and I--he is probably my favorite Louisville fan

THE ladies!  I love these two so much.  Tasha is moving to Missouri this summer and Becca lives in Florida.  Both places are too far away from me in AZ!  I'm thankfully we all call KY home so I can see these two when we are all visiting.

Date night to the temple--and we came out to snow!

 Loving all the white out the back window

 Burrr...it was cold!

 By the time New Year's eve rolled around Nick and I were the only two left in town.  A long tradition in our family is to go out for Chinese food on New Year's Eve, so of course we joined my parents.  It was such a funny night!  My parents both upgraded to the Iphone 5, so it was very comical to see them both playing on their phones at the dinner table.  I leaned over to Nick and said, wow-I feel like I'm the parent and my kids won't put their toys down!!  Who knows, maybe they were texting each other.  Just love those two!

 Happy 2013!

Off the Clock

For obvious reason my co-workers are my second family.  I spend more time with them than anyone else.  And thankfully for me, I love them all.  This year for our AFDC Christmas party we were spoiled royally with a night out to The Keg.  We had a lovely steak dinner and of course enjoy a hilarious gift exchange and a gift from our bosses to pamper ourselves with!  

'Tis the Season!

The AFDC Team

Seriously, these two keep me sane!  Best hygiene team around :)

Such a great gift from the docs!

And, nothing like a good ole' Pinterest craft night with the girls to get you in the holiday spirit!

The OFFICIAL Family Photo

So I'm back to blogging, finally!  I have to keep reminding myself that I will be glad I did this one day!

When we were in KY for Thanksgiving we took a family picture with all of my family.  My mom had a guy from their ward do them who is a nature photographer!  Well, lesson learned--he did not know how to take pictures of people.  Seriously, this is the only decent one and no one likes it.  Not sure, why I need it for memory sake if no one likes it buy none the less here we all are!