A Welcome Addition

Unfortunately our blog posts are going to be a little less visually pleasing for a while since our camera died and is on it's way to the Canon repair facility. We probably won't see it for quite a while, so please bear with our plain text posts for a while.

Joseph and I are excited to announce that we now own two cars with air conditioning. We've been living with only one, and Joseph was kind enough to use the non-A/C car for his commutes, since it is only about 10 minutes each way, and he let me keep the A/C car for running errands. Well, on Friday we found a deal we couldn't pass up, and now we are the proud owners of a 2002 Toyota Corolla. It's shiny and black, and looks fifty times better than our Honda did. It is a bit of a down grade in some aspects: no cruise control, no automatic locks or windows, and a tape deck rather than a CD player. However, the air conditioning and the fact that it is 11 years younger than our last car and the low mileage on it makes it worth it to us. Yay for two reliable cars, and not having to live through a full summer in Phoenix with the car without A/C! There is a part of us that misses that old Honda though, it took Joseph half way across the country twice, and it's the car he picked me up for our first date in. It lived a long and happy life. Here's hoping our new Toyota will do the same.

Easier To Be...

... without my husband for the weekend. So, Joseph was away at scout camp last night. I thought that was really bad timing because earlier in the week I heard an ad on the radio that after Saturday night's baseball game Lifehouse (my favorite band since high school) was putting on a free concert in the stadium for anyone who went to the game. I was sad when I realized this was the same night as Joseph's night at scout camp, and thought I might have to miss this incredible event. Fortunately, I'm making friends in my ward, and 3 other girls thought it would be fun for us to go as a "Girls Night Out"... two of the girls even left their husbands to hang out with each other while we went out on the town. We had such a great time and the concert was AMAZING. The only thing missing was my sister. She loves Lifehouse almost as much as I do. The only other time I've seen them in concert was with her six years ago to celebrate her high school graduation. She almost made it here in time for the concert too... but her trip to Phoenix is this coming weekend... so close! Too bad BYU couldn't have worked it out to have Spring Finals the weekend before the Phoenix Lifehouse concert or something. :) Anyway, it was the best ever and I'm so glad I got to go. It really did make it easier to be without Joseph for the night.





Oh, and the title of this post is the title of one of their songs from their most recent album, Who We Are... and it's probably one of my favorites. You should check it out. And don't be fooled by the close up pictures, they were pictures of the big screen. (We were only a few rows behind home plate) but the stage was in the middle of the diamond. Thanks for coming with me girls! I had a great time with you all!

Hooray for the Newlyweds!

My brother and his previously mentioned fiancée, Tracy were married on May 30th in the Redlands California temple. It was so fun to be there and share their day with them. It was particularly neat that they were not only married at the same temple I was, but also in the same room and by the same sealer. In a way it was a little flashback to my own wedding day. I am so grateful for eternal marriage and families.

Here are a few pictures I took on the big day. Congratulations Davey & Tracy. And Tracy, Welcome to the family!

We love you, Grandma

Joseph's grandmother passed away a couple of weeks ago and he got to go up to Washington for the funeral and to spend time with family. Unfortunately I could not attend because my brother got married on the same weekend. I didn't know Grandma Willis very well, but she came to our wedding three and a half years ago and I got to meet her.


One of my favorite things about Grandma Willis is that she had a Christmas Village collection (which was actually quite large). I remember seeing a piece that she gave to Joseph on fireplace mantle back when we were dating. I love Christmas and I think it is so neat that she was able to share that part of herself with her grandchildren, even while she was living.

Although it is always hard to lose a loved one we find great peace and comfort in the knowledge we have of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and eternal families.

Birthdays and Babies

Okay, so we've got a lot of catching up to do. I'll break this into a few posts so it's not just one long post...

Three weeks ago Joseph and I went to California for Memorial Day weekend. We drove to San Diego Thursday night after Joseph got home from work,and spent the day with our friends at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which neither Joseph nor I had been to before.

It was cool to see the animals out in open space where they could run around and play.

Ryan tried to show off with a little bit of trivia about an Okapi (not shown). Unfortunately for him, my 3 year old cousin taught me the answer to his question, so his vast animal knowledge wasn't as impressive as he had hoped. (Sorry, Ryan.)

Sunday was full of family and friends as we celebrated two events: The blessing of our friends' baby Kate, and Joseph's birthday. We had a small birthday party with my parents, brother, and his fiance (at the time). There were presents, and candles, and there was supposed to be a Strawberry Rhubarb pie, but I don't think they exist in Southern California. I settled for the next best thing... Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake. Fortunately Sam's Club sells a box of their cheesecake with 3 flavors, including their Godiva Chocolate (which is one of our favorites), so we still had delicious dessert. We did stop and purchase a Strawberry Rhubarb pie in Phoenix on our way home the next day because that was the intended dessert. A week of cheesecake and pie probably isn't the best thing for us, but we sure enjoyed it!