Josh's Birthday!

Josh turned 22 on January 5th. I don't like having birthdays during the week because we are so busy, it doesn't really feel like a birthday. I had IV certification from 8-5 Tuesday through Thursday and Josh had work 8-5. So since I wasn't going to see him all day, I got up really early to make him breakfast before I went to school. I made him one of our favorite's, pancake french toast. For those of you who haven't had it, it's AWESOME! I never really liked french toast because the eggs always made it "eggy" on the edges and it's a texture thing with me and would make me gag. Well if you make just normal pancake batter then you just dip the bread in the batter and fry it! Since pancake batter doesn't have eggs, it isn't eggy, and it has a thick outer coating like a pancake! Josh opened all of his presents after we ate breakfast. I love spoiling him! He got 8 2L bottles of pop  (since he will be starting school soon and will be staying up all night doing homework), a couple sweaters for work, a stainless steel clutch set for his car, interior detailing for his car (shampooing the seats and carpets to get all the nasty pop spills out he has accumulated and cleans all the air vents and dash and cupholders), and the main gift... Jazz tickets to watch the Kings play... Jimmer! He is so excited to get to see Jimmer play in person :) After work/school, we got ready and went down to the Gateway to Josh's favorite place of all time... Tucano's. It is meat heaven, which Josh loves because he doesn't get much meat at home since I hate it. Its like the Rodizio Grill, they have meat boys who bring around sticks of all different types of meat (like 25) and they slice you off a chunk of it. They bring out steak, chicken, all types of meat wrapped in bacon, buffalo flavored meat, grilled pineapple. It's all you can eat, so the perfect restaraunt for Josh. They also have an awesome salad bar with sushi, shrimp, salad, fruits, veggies, pastas, mashed potatoes, rolls,etc. After dinner we went and saw Sherlock Holmes at the Gateway theater. It was a fun filled night!

 "You are special today"

Tucanos! 

I forgot to say I made Josh these yummy Oreo chocolate chip cookies and took them to him and his co-workers :) YUM! 

New Years

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We are excited for 2012 and can't wait for what it brings for us! We went to Idaho for new years this year. Tawni was nice enough to let us stay with her all weekend because Stockton is allergic to Roxy :( we can't leave her home because we live in a basement and she would have no way of going potty. and we just love her too much to leave her! We got to Idaho Friday night and stayed until Monday. It was nice to sleep in and spend time with the family. On new years eve, some family and family friends came over and we just hung out and ate lots of food. A bunch of us started playing Phase 10 around 11 o'clock and we didn't get done until after 1 am. We love Phase 10, we seem to play it every time we get together. Josh, Tawni, and I had fun making food before the party at Tawni's house. Tawni made our favorite cupcakes (rainbow chip) while Josh and I made muddy buddies and my famous ranch dip with Doritos (OK my mom's famous dip... but still..we LOVE IT!). We are so glad the weather was good for us for the drive there and back.

Christmas... and lately

SCHOOL IS OVER! Well fall semester is over... my LPN program is over.. and Josh's first semester at UVU for his Bachelor degree. I am still unfortunately in school. I have one last class I need to be able to apply for an RN program. Pathophysiology... supposedly the "hardest class offered at Weber State"... is what they keep telling me. It is an independent study course, so I work on my own and have 6 months to complete everything BUT I need it all finished by the middle of February because I need a final grade on my transcript for my RN application which is due by March 1. I have 9 exams to finish in 9 weeks... so a test a week... with each test I have to do a pre-test, a paper, and watch about 6 hours of lecture, on top of teaching myself all the material I don't understand from the lectures. It takes up all of my time while I am also trying to study for the NCLEX (nursing test I have to pass to be a licensed nurse) and working full-time. I feel more busy and stressed out now than I did when I was in actual nursing school! I hate that I have to be so busy while Josh has a month off of school, I get distracted and procrastinate my studying and don't want to study because he isn't! Once I apply to RN programs in March I get to just work full time with no school whatsoever and wait to get into a program which could either be next August or not until spring of 2013. It will be very nice to have a long break and to work as a nurse and save money while Josh goes to school. 

Roxy got fixed a few days before Christmas :( It was so sad and she was hurting for a few days and crying and could barely move.. but she is 100% better now and it jumping around and being her crazy self again! She is 9.2 pounds now, she has gained 4 pounds since we got her in September. We hope she stays this size because she is perfect right now. Pure bred Shih Tzus average around 12-15 pounds (according to Google) so who knows what she could get to. She is learning how to sit and stay and is doing really good! She knows where the treat drawer is and always tries to open it. 

I worked on Christmas Eve, but I was lucky enough to have Christmas day off and I took Monday off because Josh had it off as well. We enjoyed sleeping all day long and doing nothing but lay around. We went out on Monday night to Mission Impossible and then out to eat at Iggys. We were going to go downtown but it was already 8:00 and I had to work in the morning and it was freezing cold! I was glad we didn't go because I heard there were a billion people there that night :) We had a great Christmas. I love decorating for Christmas and putting out all of my penguin decor and the stockings and the presents. My favorite part of Christmas has always been opening PJ's on Christmas eve that my parents gave to all the kids. Josh and I don't wear PJs now though so all the PJs we get just get all piled up and never used... I just gave about 10 pairs to DI because I couldnt even open the dresser drawers we had so many. I am excited to have my own kids so I can be the one who finally gets to pick out and buy the PJs and give them to our kids on Christmas eve for them to wear to bed :) I will get them the best PJs ever! Maybe like the ones on A Christmas Story... but penguin style instead of bunny. Haha JK.

We are very excited to start a fresh, new year and can't wait for the years to come where we don't have anymore school! 

 Family Picture <3

 Stocking are probably my favorite "gift" ever because it involves candy! 

Our candy bowl is finally replenished! 

 Our hot new watches we got eachother! 

 WATERBOTTLES! WITH STRAWS!! 

 Roxy was sooo excited to eat this bear...

New bling collar! 

Daddy's Little Girl

Roxy loves Josh... She follows him around everywhere and he lets her get away with everything! He loves her and is so sweet to her and plays with her and she just loves it! This picture is my favorite of Roxy and daddy snuggling :)

Amber's 21st Birthday!

For my birthday this year Josh and I (and Roxy of course!) went down to the condo in St George. We left Friday afternoon and came home late on my birthday (Monday). It was nice to have a long 4-day weekend, spent down in the warmth and sunshine. We mostly just watched TV shows on the iPad and slept in til noon everyday... but that is what we like! On Saturday, Josh surprised me by dropping me off at the St George Day Spa and I got an hour long facial! I have never had a facial before and it was wonderful and so relaxing! Sunday night we went and got Wendy's frosties and stayed up til 12:58 am to celebrate when I was born :) At midnight I was so antsy, Josh let me go look for my present. I am like a little kid... if Josh brings my presents in the house, I will look, and I don't deny it. So he hid my present really good this year in his car. It was an iPod Nano, lime green, the new touch screen ones! Since it is small, he hid it in the front of his car behing this big plastic part.. hard to explain but I would have never thought to look for it there. I am so excited and have wanted a Nano since they came out! It has the Nike plus thing so I can do a workout, go walking/running and it'll tell me how many calories I burned and how many steps I took and when I plug it into my computer, it will pull up a map of where I ran outside! I used to always workout with my big classic iPod which I would put in an armband. So it is huge and would give me a tan line! This little bugger has a built in clip and I can just clip it on my shorts or shirt or anything and go running or workout! It's awesome!!! I stayed up til 2 am messing with it and putting songs on it :) On Monday (my birthday) we went to Ihop for breakfast.. mmmm their gingerbread hot chocolate is awesome!!! We then went back to the condo and I took a nap because we had stayed up til 2 playing with my nano. Josh was awesome and cleaned the whole condo (vacuumed, did the dishes, swept the floors, cleaned the bathrooms,etc) so when I woke up we were ready to leave! We ended up taking a ride on the golf cart... which Roxy LOVED! And then we went and hit a bucket of balls down at the golf course. We decided to just drive home and eat dinner by our house, since we didn't want to get home too late and I didn't want ot eat dinner at 4:00 before we left St George. We went to one of our new favorite places in Riverton called Salsa Leedos. It was so yummy! Best of all... its cheap! Our whole meal (pop, chips and salsa, enchiladas, rice, and beans) was only $15 (plus tip).. we went to Wendy's in St George and it was $17!!! And we were still hungry! Wendy's is a joke! Ahhh it was a perfect birthday and I am very grateful that we were able to go on a vacation and get away!

 Roxy digging for rocks and trying to retrieve them... 

 Nano!

 She loves when I do this... just like a baby does haha 

 Salsa Leedos

 Gangsta! 

 Our little family &hearts;

 The wind blew her bangs back so she actually could see! 

 My baby

Super Puppy! 

OUR LITTLE FAMILY <3

Halloween!

Halloween was fun this year! I always love Halloween :) We didn't carve pumpkins this year, which I'm super bummed about, but we were so busy and didn't even think about it til the day before Halloween. Since we are in a basement apartment, nobody would see our pumpkins anyways, I just want my pumpkin seeds! Since Josh is a manager, he had to "set a good example" and dress up for work. They have little kids come trick-or-treat to anyone who has a desk. Josh had the creative idea to dress up as the old grandpa from the movie UP. He got all the clothes from the DI and we handmade everything else. He looked SO good and everyone at work loved it! He won most original costume at work. I didn't dress up because I had school from 8-330 and Josh was supposed to have school and not be home until 830, so I was just planning on hanging out at home. I talked him into not going to class though :) I came home from school and decided to make all of our parents (& siblings) a plate of homemade sugar cookies. I shaped them all as pumpkins and frosted them with orange frosting. When Josh got home from work we took Roxy and went and handed out our cookies. We went to my dads, my moms, Josh's dads, our old landlords, and also gave cookies to our current landlords. Everyone loved Josh's and Roxy's outfits... they were so cute! We got home around 8:30 and we just cuddled (refused to do homework) and watched a movie.
GREAT HALLOWEEN!

 Sharon's "witches fingers" (breadsticks)... awesome! 

Roxy's cute outfit!! 

Life lately.....

I haven't posted in sooo long! Life has been crazy busy! November is finally here and it is going to be a great month!! I have NO clinicals in November, going from two 12 hour shift clinicals a week, on top of school 3x/week and work 2x/week it was getting ridiculous! Having no clinicals is going to be heaven! My birthday is in 13 days! We are headed down to St George for my birthday weekend and I am super excited for a long 4-day weekend with my hubby in a "warmer" place. Just getting away with Josh is the best birthday present ever. (Plus I get to miss 2 days of school!) The week before by birthday (next week) is going to be awful though, I have an exam in all 4 of my classes. So I will be studying my butt off this weekend and taking tests up to Friday next week. I am going to take my last exam on Friday and then we are off to St George!

Roxy is doing so good in her training. She is mostly potty trained, she still has some accidents but hardly any. She sleeps in a kennel all night and has never gone potty in her kennel and when we are gone all day and she is in her play pen, there is a potty pad, but the past couple of weeks I come home after 6+ hours and it is dry! She can play fetch now and she we are working on "sit". The only noddy thing she does is goes through the doggy door to our landlords upstairs! She is getting calmer and more cuddly and she loves her mom and dad :)

Josh is doing well in school and is super busy. He is taking 13 credits (full time is 12) and he works 40+ hours a week. He goes to work from 8-5 M-F and school MW from 6-8. Then he has 3 online classes. He is up til at least midnight every night doing homework and I am so proud of him! I don't know how he juggles everything and still finds time to spend with me, but lets just say he is AMAZING and I am so grateful for all the hard work he does so I don't have to work while I am in nursing school.

Some bad news :(  LPN-RN programs have changed and SLCC is already full for 2012, so I most likely will not be able to start until spring 2013. Weber I can't apply til next fall and they don't have many seats available, so I can't guarantee I will get in that at the first try either. So I probably will not even be starting my RN program until 2013... which sucks because that means I have all of 2012 with no school. It'll be nice to work as an LPN and save lots of money, but I don't want to take a year off and have to go back to school for a year, that's horrible! It will be nice to be able to support Josh though while he is finishing out his Bachelor degree at UVU (he should be done Spring 2013).

But what happens is meant to happen and I know that just trust that everything will workout :)

Here are some pics we have taken recently....

Josh got glasses! He looks so handsome with them and he loves them! He can see!

 I love this picture of Roxy, she is just like a little baby :)

 She always loses her toys under the couch haha

 Brad & Susie gave us ticket to the REAL game! Followed by a concert from OneRepublic! 

 This is hard to see, but she can't see cause her bangs are over her eyes, this is why I put bows in her hair! 

She looks really big in this picture, I think because she is leaning forward, she is definetly bigger than when we bought her, but she still is "supposed" to double in size. She is only 7 pounds and they average around 12-15 full grown.