Gila Valley Temple!

The Gila Valley Temple is doing their open house, the temple is about 3 1/2 to 4 hours away, my parents decided they wanted to go with my brother and sister, so Marc and I tagged along. We left about 7am and were home about 6pm, it was a pretty quick trip! We have some good family friends that live in Thatcher, the city where the temple is, so we used their house to change into our Sunday clothes. These friends wrote, choreographed, and organized the Temple Cultural Celebration that will be held before the Temple Dedication. They had all day rehearsals and since we had to run get the key to their house, we got to watch some of it! It was amazing!

There were a lot of people going through that day so we didn't really get to stop and talk too much. We were in and out in about 10 minutes, not including the 12 minute video before and our pit stop for cookies after! It was so beautiful! It will be a huge blessing to the people in the area to have a temple so close to them! Here are a few pictures outside the Temple. My dad took some of the family, minus himself, I'll post some of those as soon as I get them! Sorry about our squinted eyes, the sun was so bright!

Return of my Malagasy Brother

My brother has been serving his mission in Madagascar for the last two years and came home on March 24th! We have been so excited for him to come home. The Sunday before he came home my sister and I made signs to have at the air port. He was scheduled to come in around 8pm, but a few days before he was supposed to come home British Airways went on strike. We were all a little worried about how that would effect his coming home. Well, they redid his flight plan and he came home about 8 hours earlier. Unfortunately, there were people that couldn't be at the airport with us, but our whole family was there. We have loved having him home and hearing about the life he lived with so many amazing people for the last two years! Here is the one picture I took at the airport, I was too excited and just wanted to hug him.

He has super white hair and has always been easy to spot, except when there were a ton of blondes getting off planes. We have so much fun with him! We will all be sad when he leaves to go back to school! I will post more pictures when I get them!

Christmas and New Years!

I have some time off from work so I can finally get caught up on our Holiday adventures! We had all our presents under the tree the week of Christmas. Marc and I both can admit to peeking at our presents growing up, so we have to find really good hiding spots and both make an effort to not even touch our presents or we will start speculating. We were doing so good until Christmas Eve when I wasn't looking and slid on one of my presents. Mar freaked out wanting to make sure it wasn't broken. I felt the top of the box and it all seemed fine. Then my mind started working and I began guessing. He never would tell me, but I did get it right! We spent Christmas Eve being lazy and hanging around the house since work had been crazy the week leading up to it. We woke up and made homemade cinnamon rolls. We got a little creative, we used our flour mill and had whole wheat cinnamon rolls. One batch we added macadamia nuts and carmel! YUM! We made a trip to the store for Egg Nog, and that turned out to be a mistake! We got home and made homemade tomato soup for dinner, we had Martinellis Cranberry Apple Cider to go with it and watched Christmas story. We had fun making food and spending the day together. I was so excited I wanted to go to sleep so I could wake up the next day! When we went to bed I had a hard time falling asleep and ended up waking up and waking Marc up at 7:30.

The night before we took turns filling each others stockings. Part of Marcs went on the tree, so he filled mine then hid it under a blanket. I filled his and did the same. When we woke up we came into our living room and peeked at our stockings. Then it was present time! We took turns picking the present the other had to open. I had to wait for the last one that I had guessed and open it last, and I was right! Marc got me some pretty sweet Converse All Stars! He also picked out some great clothes for me! He loved all his presents too! I was really excited that he even liked all his stocking stuff! After cleaning up we headed over to his parents house. We ate pillsbury turnovers, a Chase Christmas Morning Tradition, and opened presents! His parents gave us, among other things, a gift card to Ikea to buy a dining table. I will post pictures soon! After opening presents we played wii and spent time together until dinner. His parents made a delicious Beef Burgeon! After dinner we headed to my parents. They had been in Colorado and got home early Christmas morning. We opened presents with them, we got Sonicare Electric Toothbrushes, talk about dentist clean! We had been wanting them for awhile and were grateful to get them! Thanks mom and dad! After that, we headed out to Chandler to visit my grandma and cousins there. We opened more presents and snacked on lots of goodies. When we finally got home around 11 we were beat!

We both worked the next week and didn't really get to celebrate our 2 year anniversary, hopefully we will before our 3rd! We had to work New Years Eve but got home around 5:30. We changed then headed over to my parents. They had a huge party and invited a bunch of people from their ward. The party stared at 4 but we got there at 6 and there were cars lining the street! My mom made BBQ pulled pork, my dad smoked a turkey, and someone BBQ'd Brisket. It was DELICIOUS! There were so many people there and I didn't know most of them, but it was so fun! My Aunt and Uncle were visiting from San Francisco so we spent time with them and their kids. We were so full. We spent the rest of the evening with my family. It was a crazy night too and we were so glad to come home and sleep!

On New Years day we went to Marcs parents for a feast. They made a ton of food and had everyone over. We love spending so much time with our families and having a little vacation time here and there! We hope you all had a great Holiday too!

Thanksgiving and a Little Update!

I promise we are alive and well! We have been super busy. I have been working as a part time temporary artist for Marcs dad's company for the last little bit, but it is slow time now so I have this week off. I have been putting in about 50+ hours a week, hence the lack of blogging! So, here we go!

Thanksgiving was great! There was a bit of miscommunication in our Thanksgiving plans, so we ended up eating Dinner with Marcs family, and went for dessert with my family. There was SO much food! We were in charge of sweet potatoes and rolls and somehow we managed to mess them both up! The roll recipe was one my mom uses, it is the same bread they bring you at outback. You are supposed to use bread flour. I didn't have any and looked like crazy online, everything said it was ok to use all purpose flour, well, not if half of the flour is wheat flour! I have a wheat grinder and made my own, lets just say we ended up with very dense rolls. We stopped by the store on the way to pick up a few more just in case. As for the sweet potatoes, while I was working on the rolls Marc took care of them. We boiled, peeled, and cut them the night before, so I had marc make the marinade. The recipe is one his mom hand wrote when she was about 16, it took me a bit but I was able to decipher it. Marc on the other hand had a little bit of a hard time. I went to give it a stir and realized the sugar was really grainy. Our brown sugar got really hard when we moved, but I was able to get it soft again so I didn't know why it wouldn't dissolve. When I asked Marc he said he put in white sugar, well we needed brown. So we added that, then balanced it out with more orange juice. They were VERY orangey! We put them in the oven the put a few marshmallows on them, we decided to finish baking them at his parents. The pan was too hot to put the lid on, so we set them very level and steady in the back, not luck, when we took them out the marinade and warm marshmallow goo showed us how tricky it was and spilled all over the back! They still tasted wonderful, and the car smelled festive too!

After eating and playing boche ball we went to my parents to eat dessert! Let me first say, my mom is AMAZING! There were about 4 or 5 homemade pies! Lets start the list, Apple, Pumpkin, Chocolate Cream, White Chocolate Blueberry, and I know I am forgetting one...anyway, they were WONDERFUL! We spent a little bit over there and then came home. We both had to be at work the next day and were really full and tired. It didn't help that it got to 80 degrees that day, then cool off really quick! But can you explain to me how Thanksgiving was 80 then two days later it was 60?! Gotta love AZ!

Our apartment is coming along wonderfully. We have had some not so good things, but we got a great deal and are only locked in for a 12 month lease, so we know we can make it! We have almost everything unpacked. This apartment is bigger than our last one but a couple hundred feet, but has SO much less storage, I have a box of food in my dining area! We have a few ideas on things to do to organize a bit, but we may have to wait until the holidays! I promise I will get some pictures of our place up! We need to decorate for Christmas too, so maybe we will have two in one pictures!

This weekend is going to be super busy! Hopefully I will get some pictures of that too! We have our nieces 1st birthday, and the Chase Family Christmas party with Marcs extended family. We will be baking lots of yummy cookies this week, I can't wait for it to smell like the holidays! I am also making our Christmas Stockings, once I finish them I will have to post a picture! And, I promise we will be more fun!

My little brother is turning 21 tomorrow! He is in Madagascar on his mission and should be coming home in February or March. I slacked on getting him out a birthday and Christmas package, but since it takes 2 months didn't think there was time. We too this picture on our computer, but it reflects the image, so we wrote backwards. Here is proof too that we are alive and well!


Also, if you are in Phoenix and want an AMAZING FREE haircut let me know! I found a coupon for a free shampoo, cut, and style at a new Paul Mitchell Salon in Scottsdale. My sister in law and I went the other day, and I want to go again, I just can't justify spending $45! They gave me coupons for a free cut to give away, and for every 3 people I refer I get another free cut! The lather lounge is a dark room with soft music playing and a tv playing the aquarium thing, the chairs have back massagers in them and they give you a wonderful hand and arm massage while washing your hair! I had water with cucumber brought to me too! The guy that did my hair was awesome! If you want a great stylist, I highly recommend him! Let me know if you want to try it out! Check back soon for more fun stuff!

Marc's Little Friend!

Everyday when Marc comes home from work, our nephew gets so excited and had to be attached to him. At first we thought that maybe he thought Marc was his dad, now I think it is that he is excited to have a guy to play with after being stuck with girls all day! He loves when his dad comes home and will drop everything to run to him. The other day Marc came home and sat down on the couch. Tyler climbed up all on his own and ended up like this...

He sat like this for quite awhile. He loves doing what we all do, sometimes we think that he thinks he is in his 20's! After he realized I had the camera out, he crawled up to it smiling, this is with no zoom, but too cute not to share!

We love having this little guy to play with and then give back to mom and dad when we are done!

Lunch with the Girls and Watermelon Cookies

Saturday my mom, sister, grandma, aunts, and cousins got together for a "girls day". We met up at Tempe Market Place and ate lunch at Paradise Bakery. After a delicious lunch, the little girls and their mom left and the rest of us went to see "Julia & Julie". So cute! But like my mom says, for a Saturday matinee, my 13 year old sister and I were the youngest two in the theater. The average age was about 60, and there were maybe 15 guys! The movie was so cute, I would see it again! After the movie, my mom, sister and I walked around and spent some good mom and daughter time together! After lunch we took a group picture, this is all the girls on my moms side, minus my moms sister and her cute 4 year old. It was so much fun to have a girls day!

Yesterday my sister in law was having an open house for the preschool she is starting. She needed cookies, so in the mist of cleaning and getting the preschool room ready, I made these cute summer cookies!


I will admit I was blog stalking and found them on someone's blog, but they were so fun I had to try. We made sugar cookie dough and dyed it green. I rolled them out and used a cup to cut them since we didn't have a circle cookie cutter. Then I cut each circle in half before baking them. We frosted them with pink frosting and used mini chocolate chips for the seeds. I hear they were a hit, but I have eaten a few and they a were tasty! I forgot to take pictures before they were served, so some of the seeds are missing, but you get the idea! I am glad I got to try them before summer comes to an end!

Happy Birthday Marc!!

Yesterday was Marc's 23 birthday. He claims he doesn't like them, but I think secretly he LOVES them! Marc has two classes on Monday with a 3 1/2 hour break in between. That meant that if I wanted to do anything big, I had to get is done while he was gone. He tried get me to tell him he could stay home from school, but that wasn't going to happen.
I started getting ready Sunday night by putting a dry rub on the ribs we were having for his birthday dinner and baking the cake so it would be cool and ready to decorate Monday morning. When he came home at 11:30, I had only put the cookies and creme mousse in between the layers of his cake! I was pretty behind, I wanted the cake to be completely done. When he came home, we ate lunch and finished polishing his resume so he could get it sent out. Then I had him help me make the frosting for the cake. I used a box for the cake, but made the frosting from scratch. it was a chocolate butter cream frosting. We didn't have bakers chocolate, so when we bought it at the store this weekend I let Marc pick it out. If you know his love of dark chocolate, it wouldn't surprise you that he picked one with 100% Cacao! We made the frosting and it was delicious! Marc left for class, and that is when things got crazy. I had to frost and decorate the cake, put up decorations, wrap his present, write in his card, and get dinner started all in an hour! I had ordered his presents online and only one had come. I was a little stressed, but it worked out. I worked right up until he opened the door! Here is what he came home to!


He was surprised I had decorated so much! He wasn't expecting anything!
Here is a before dinner shot, he was ready for those ribs!

Here is the after dinner shot, he was so full, I had to take another picture and make him smile so he didn't look sick. I wish there was some sauce on his face though!

After dinner we were so full! We went and rented a movie, then came home and ate cake. Here is what the cake looked like. I crushed Oreos in a food processor and used them for the decoration.


Here is Marc with the cake. I wanted to use candles, but forgot. Marc didn't care, he didn't want them anyway!

Marc says he had a good birthday, so I will believe him! We can't wait for to be with our families on our next birthdays!

Mother's Day and a LONG Distance Phone Call

Last year before Mother's Day I starting hinting to Marc things I would like. When he didn't do anything I asked him why. His only reason, "We don't have kids yet"! Not an excuse in my book. I will be the mother to his future kids, isn't that worth honoring. I lovingly teased him about it for a whole year. I expected the same for this year, but he surprised me. I had mentioned that I needed some new clothes since summer is coming quick, and neither of us has lived in Arizona for a summer in almost 5 years and since we are moving in during the summer I figured it was a valid excuse! He kept hinting to something on Friday about "When we go out tomorrow", so I knew he was planning something, I just didn't know what. We woke up on Saturday and I had a pretty good idea we were going to go to Idaho Falls and go shopping. I was right! We stopped in at Target first just to look around and I found tons of cute stuff! We didn't even need to go to the mall because I found exactly what I wanted. We walked around the mall just to use up time, we went into Bath and Body Works, which Marc claimed was a planned stop. I picked out a few hand soaps, theirs are my favorite! Then he told me I had to decide where we were going for lunch. Ever since the Red Robin opened I have had a hard time passing it up. It was packed, but then again, not many people go out on Sundays in Idaho! We shared a Whisky River BBQ Wrap and Mozzarella sticks and were super full. We got in the car to come home and I almost fell asleep! We got home and rested while watching T.V. Later that night we were feeling pretty lazy so we invited some friends over. They have been wanting to teach us a game, so they brought over Killer Bunnies, silly name, really fun game! We played two games and they left around 11:30. We had such a fun day!

Sunday Marc really wanted to make me breakfast, but we have 9 o'clock church and didn't have much time to eat. When we got home we watched a movie, rested, and ate roast and potatoes. That is about when I started getting antsy! My brother is serving a mission for our church in Madagascar. Every Mother's Day and Christmas he gets to call and talk to us.

Thanks to modern technology, we were all able to be on our cell phones through Skype. My dad had us all ready to go and tried calling my brother, once, call failed, twice, call failed, third times a charm right, call failed. My dad ended up calling his last area and getting the right number from the missionaries there. It worked. It was 10:30 pm in Idaho, 9:30 pm in Arizona, and 7 am Monday in Madagascar. It is also winter there! We had so much fun talking to him. We called my grandma in Arizona and my Grandpa in Colorado and had 8 people all on at once without any problems! Once we had all asked our questions Elder Livingston's mini companion (he is preparing to serve his mission, so he serves a 3 month mini mission to help him prepare), wanted to talk. He is from Madagascar and has learned English from my brother. He was excited to try speaking to Americans. I think that the 6 other people and the delay scared him because he said hello, then again in Malagasy, then gave the phone back! It was so fun to talk to him. We talked for about 2 hours at christmas and it cost less than $1! I love my family so much! We realized that next Mother's day will be a great one, my first home in 5 years, Caleb will be home from his mission, Marc and I will be living there, and my youngest brother will be getting ready to graduate high school, and my sister will be finishing middle school! It will be so nice to have our family all together again! We can't wait!

Gotta love Mom!

Growing up my family celebrated the "Easter Bunny" part of Easter on Saturday. Marc and I decided not to do anything big this year. My sister sent me a text on Saturday after looking at her loot to see what I got from Marc. I told her we were too poor for Easter, and we didn't need candy. It wasn't all true, but she told my mom and they came to the rescue! We got this package in the mail today from The Swiss Colony. My mom sent us these delicious truffles...

They were so cute I just had to take a picture! She also sent us a strawberry coffee cake! Marc LOVES coffee cake, last year for his birthday I had to make him two cakes because he "needed" coffee cake. The picture didn't turn out so great. The cake is in the shape of a star, and since we plan to eat some from breakfast in the morning, it is still wrapped up!

Thanks mom!
If anyone needs ideas for gifts, this is a good place! So good and so fun!

Crossbow Park

My grandfather passed away in April of last year. It was extremely unexpected and still sometimes hard to think about. But he had accomplished many great things before he left this earth. One of his biggest projects was helping to pass no smoking bans in Arizona, he was extremely successful in doing this! Thanks to him, none of his 12 grandchildren will have to go into a restaurant and smell cigarette smoke, he really wanted to make things better for everyone!

He was very loving and kind, but he did it in his own way. He would do anything he could to serve, but he never let anyone know what he was doing. He loved planes and even had a license. He would take friends and family to breakfast at small local airports. He chose his houses based on the fact that there were airports close by.

My entire life, he did what he could to share his love with us. One of his favorite things to do as we got in the car after family parties was to throw money in the car. For the most part it was the change he grabbed off his dresser, occasionally there would be a $1 or $5 that would get tossed in. I am not sure what caused this, but he always did it!

This past Saturday one of his biggest projects was completed. A few years ago, my grandparents moved into a newly developed area. Shortly after moving there a park was put into construction. The Home Owners Association announced that it would be named Canal Park. My grandpa didn't think this was a good name for a park, so he got to work. He petitioned for the name to be changed to Crossbow Park. After trying for months, and talking to people in the community about changing the name, the HOA decided they would agree. Unfortunately, he had already passed when the made the final decisions. My grandmother received a call asking what they could do in the park to remember him. My grandma told them a plane would be good, he didn't like a lot of attention. They put a toy plane, and a plaque in the park just for him. Saturday as the park was dedicated, they unveiled the plane. My grandmother was given roses, and had all the family, there to support her. Here are a few pictures to show what a great man he was!

Here is the plaque remembering him


Here is my grandma and her sister with grandpa's plane


This is the family in Maine, the cabin is my dad's grandparent's, but he love spending time with us here!


All the grandkids sang Families Can Be Together Forever, here we are practicing before, we were missing Caleb who was on his was to Madagascar, and Asa who was 6 months and just wanted mom

Thanks Becky, I took the picture from your blog!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be at the park with everyone, but I heard it was a great time, one grandpa would have loved!

Early Christmas, Christmas in Colorado, Late Christmas, 1st Anniversary, Apartment Hunting and 2009

My Grandpa lives in Colorado and was going to be all alone for Christmas, my family decided they were going to spend Christmas there to keep him company. Marc had never met him so we decided we would go with them. We had Christmas with my family a few days before, my parents got my brother and sister Guitar Hero World Tour and wanted them to be able to play a little before we left, and they didn't want to haul all our presents up. We were very happy! We got a Kitchen Aid mixer for a Christmas/Anniversary present from my parents, my little brother and sister got us a Nerf Gun set, we each got some clothes. It was fun to get stuff early, especially since Marc hid my present so I couldn't even guess!
Here we are playing Guitar Hero!

That night we came back to his parents house and all his dad's siblings and their families came over for the annual Chase Family Party. We had yummy mexican food, and took family pictures. We also sang Christmas songs, and talked with the grandparents about their Christmas traditions as children. It was fun to see everyone, especially since that is the only time we see some of them! Then after everyone left, Marc siblings and their families stayed, we had fun playing with our niece and nephew, Tyler our 6 month old nephew even fell asleep in my arms! He is such a cutie! Our niece Teagan is almost a month old, and she slept the whole time, but she was super cuddly! We are so happy they have kids for us to play with!

The Monday before Christmas we drove to Colorado with my family! It took us about 14 hours, we did have to stop to let the dog run and play, and it did snow on us pretty hard, but we made it! The next morning we went to my grandpa's and spent some time with him. I also took Marc on a tour of town, all 10 minutes of it! We also went out and bought some sleds and went sledding. I had not been since I was little, but it was so fun! The dog would chase us down the hill, jump in front of us, then jump out of our way just in time to get away! The next day was Christmas Eve. We went to my Great-grandparents ranch, they have passed on, but their kids now own the property. My dads uncle and his wife live there. The house is really old, but it does have some fun memories! We also got to play in the Snow Cat, it is like an off-road golf cart with tank treds for tires, it was a bumpy ride, but had a cover and was heated inside! That night we had a feast of Honey baked ham, cheesey potatos, rolls and broccoli. Then we watched A Christmas Story, a family tradition! Christmas morning we got to talk to my brother in Madagascar. It was so fun! My dad used Skype, and called all our phones, we each had 5 minnutes to ask questions, but we all stayed on the phone to hear what others asked! It was so nice to hear his voice, and we got a good laugh when he called my grandpa and when my grandpa asked who was on the phone, he forgot his name! Then we went back to my grandpas and gave him our presents. The boys all wanted to go shooting, so I decided to tag along. We went to some land near the family ranch. A good chunk of the land used to belong to my grandparents, they sold it to fish and game a long time ago! We found a spot perfect for shooting, just at targets, and set up. We built a fire and set up a nice spot. We had fun trampling around in the 2 foot deep snow, so did the dog! When we were all frozen to the bone, we packed up and left! We got home and realized that we had eaten far more the night before than we thought and had no food for dinner. There was a Chinese restaurant open, and we found it fitting since we had just watched A Christmas story the night before. On the was we passed a taxidermist that even had a leg lamp in the window! The next morning we packed up and headed home. In Blanding, Utah it was snowing lightly, but there was quite a bit of snow! Some people were really snowed in their homes!
Here are some pictures of us sledding:



At the ranch...

With Grandpa:



Shooting Trip...




Snowed in... Glad I don't live here!


Saturday after we got back we got to open presents with my moms side of the family, then made a mad dash to Marcs to open our presents and give our out. We got fun stuff then too! We got a cast iron casserole pot, a cookbook, monopoly, and a few other fun presents! We had fun playing and visiting with them too! We love our family so much! We are so happy to be moving home!

Monday was our one year anniversary! We can't believe how fast time went! It really feels like it has been just a few months! I guess that's a good thing! We got married a day after my cousins birthday, this year she had a build-a-bear party on our special day! I decided I would got meet my family out in Chandler and celebrate her 4th birthday. It was fun to watch all the little girls make their bears! Little girls are very creative with their bears, really who would think of a Cinderella Koala with glass slippers, a wig, and hello kitty undies? Not me! As we were leaving we spotted the Hickory Farms cart in the mall, everything was 75% off! Marc LOVES summer sausage and cheese, especially Havarti, which is hard to find, so I bought him a little present! We then went to Famous Daves, which is the best BBQ ever! If you have never been, you are missing out! It was so delicious and I was stuffed! I came back and Marc had been hanging out with his little brother. We played some games, then Marc and I went out to celebrate out happy day! We went to California Pizza Kitchen which is one of our favorite places! Then we went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I was so proud of myself! I tend to fall asleep in movies, but I managed to stay awake for all 167 minutes of it! It was pretty good too! It was really late when it got out and all the shops were closed, but I did get to pick out a new book at the bookstore!

Tuesday we took Marcs little brother and looked for apartments! We will not be back until July, but we wanted to get some ideas. We had fun thinking about when we live here again! We don't like just visiting! We went to FatBurger for lunch, and were too tired to look at more places! We came home and all took naps! It was so nice!

Wednesday we went to my parents to eat the top of our wedding cake that they saved, and we forgot! Good thing we have a few more days here! We also went to visit Marcs grandparents, we love listening to their stories. His grandpa was the US Marshall in AZ and has lots of good stories! Then we played Mario Kart with my brother to help him unlock all the fun things! Then we headed to Ben and Danielle's, Marcs brother and his wife, for a New Year's Party. We decided we are getting old because Marc was tired at 11! We played some games and chatted, and had a lot of fun! We got home around 1 am and went to bed! We did have fun remembering we were in Hawaii last New Years...maybe we should make that a tradition?!

That is what has been going on with us! Happy 2009!