Happy Anniversary to Us!

Joseph and I celebrated our 4th anniversary in December. I can't believe it's been 4 years already. We've done so much together... we finished our undergraduate degrees, Joseph went to graduate school, and we started a new life in Arizona. It's so wonderful to share life with my best friend. I'm so happy to know we'll be together forever.

Our actual anniversary day was a little crazy, but we Joseph had the next two weeks off of work, so we got to have an extra long celebration. One day we went on a boat tour out in Canyon Lake. It is beautiful out there and we highly recommend the tour if you're in town.


Here we are on the boat with the desert scape behind us. Just a typical sunny December day in Phoenix.



This is a bald eagle's nest. The guides said the eagle was sitting in it when we took this picture, but from our angle you can't see it at all. Still, that's the closest I've ever been to a bald eagle... maybe we'll see one in person some day out here.


The rocky pillar on the right is the home of the eagle nest. It sits right on top.


This is a little pack of mountain goats. You can see the females really well against the mountains because of their white hind quarters... but the males blend into the rocks pretty well.

Mostly these pictures just show you how good the zoom is on our camera, but hopefully you get an idea of the beauty of the desert we live in.

Joseph is made a video of the highlights of the tour, but it's too big for blogger to upload... maybe we'll be able to post one soon. Either way, we had lots of fun!

Christmas

We spent Christmas in California this year with my family. We had lots of fun decorating my parents house (since I couldn't do much decorating here), watching BYU win their bowl game, and participating in my family's Christmas traditions. We even did something new on Christmas this year, we went to a movie. I know many families do this on Christmas day, but my family has never made that part of our celebration. Somehow Joseph convinced my family that we should all go see Avatar in IMAX 3-D. I was a bit skeptical thinking this would totally be a guy movie, and that maybe he and my dad should go and we girls should see a chick flick or something, but we all went and we all loved it. Here we are at the theater in our 3-D glasses... I guess they're getting a little bit more stylish as time goes by but they still have a lot to be desired in the fashion department.

Showered with Love

These are just a few pictures of the baby shower my mom-&-sisters-in-law threw for me while we were in Utah. I am so thankful to them for all of their work and planning to make it so much fun for me. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of all the girls together, we were having some camera troubles... but I'll always have my happy memories!

Here you see me opening a gift... and next to me is my dear friend Ashley and her beautiful baby girl Marenn. It was so fun to meet Marenn, she's even more adorable from the front than she is from the back!

This is my life long friend Kristine with her cute son Marty. He is going to be buddies with my baby boy someday. They even have a matching toy to increase the bond. Thanks Kristine!

This is a sister picture. Tracy, my newest sister is on the left. Her son is due just two months before mine. We're excited to have our boys be so close in age.
I'm sure they have lots of cousin fun ahead of them!