Calaigh's Baby Shower and Baby Brightyn!

A couple weeks ago, we threw Calaigh a baby shower. I am so excited to have a little neice and am so happy for Calaigh and Sterling! We made the shower all girly and it looked so good! I am grateful for all of the family we have that were able to come out and support Calaigh :) The best part was watching her open up all of the cute girl clothes, those are the best! I made Calaigh a diaper cake and it turned out just how I wanted it too! I loved it! And I'm sure she is going to be loving those free 96 diapers ;)

 Baby Rattle balloon! 

 The candy table

 Couture cupcakes

 The advice book I got for everyone to sign and the diaper cake :)

Love it! 

Baby Brightyn Hart Clark was born on 2/12/12. She was born a little more than 2 weeks early, but she was healthy and the perfect size! Calaigh gave birth at the Jordan Valley Hospital, which I could literally walk to from my house, so I was excited to go see her everyday! She is such a snuggler and I am in love with my little niece! I went to Calaigh and Sterling's house today for the first time and snuggled Brightyn some more and got a tour of their beautiful house in Lehi. I love you guys! Congratulations!! :)

 So little and perfect! 

 At the hospital, day 2

 I love her snuggles :)

Look at those cheeks!! I love her! 

Valentine's Day!

Most of you know that Josh and I celebrate Valentine's Day on February 7th every year. This is because he left on his mission a few years ago on Feb 11, so we had to make Vday early that year, and we have kept it on the 7th ever since then. It is so nice to have it on a different day, it really is a holiday about love, so why do we HAVE to celebrate it on the 14th? We get to go out to eat wherever we want and not have to wait in line for 3 hours and sit shoulder to shoulder in a packed restaurant. We also get first pick of all the candy before it is gone! I worked on Monday, the 6th, and got a surprise delivery from my honey. A big thing of flowers that was beautiful! This year I wanted to do something really special since we are both so busy and don't get much time with each other. I booked us a room at  a bed and breakfast in Sandy called Castle Creek Inn. It is like the Anniversary Inn, but not as expensive and they do a 3 course breakfast! They have 10 themed rooms, such as Romeo and Juliet Suite, Garden Suite, King's Lodge... etc. We stayed in Ivanhoe. Not sure what that means, but it was awesome and I loved it. Josh woke up early and made me the best breakfast ever! Heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes, extra crispy bacon, hashbrowns, and eggs! He is the best! I wanted to surprise Josh and not tell him that we were staying anywhere so I just told him that after we went to dinner, I had a surprise. I didn't work at all that day, so I made heart shaped brownies and frosted them and took them to Josh at work. Cutting shapes out of brownies was a lot harder than I thought it would be! But they were delicious and everyone at his work loved them. All of his guys in the warehouse always ask when I am going to bring cookies, I bring them in randomly and they all love them, so every time they see me they expect some haha. We decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, which is always delicious! I then had him follow my directions as we drove to the inn, and told him not to pay attention to signs and just pull in where I tell him. He was so surprised when he came in and saw the room. They even have a whole cupboard of movies and offer free popcorn, candy, brownies, and soda! This place was awesome and we will definitely go back!

 Special delivery! 

A few days later when they bloomed.. so pretty! 

My delicious breakfast in bed! 

 Castle Creek Inn

 Our sweet room! 

 Big tub with mood lighting and the silver thing on the wall is where the water comes out like a waterfall!! 

Happy Valentines Day! 

Nurse Amber!

I am officially a nurse in the state of Utah! I took the NCLEX (nursing state boards) on Tuesday the 17th and found out on DOPL's website on Wednesday night at midnight that I passed and was a nurse! I was so excited! I started training at my job, still Draper Rehab where I have been a CNA for 4 years, on Friday 6-6 and Saturday 6-6. It is a whole different job and so much stuff to learn! My brain is fried and on information overload right now trying to remember all of the things I have to do in a 12 hour shift. It feels good to finally be a nurse and to do what I have been always wanting to do!

LPN Graduation!

Nursing school officially ended December 15th, but graduation didn't happen until January 6th. I am so happy to be done with this chapter in my life! Now I get to take the NCLEX (state boards that determine if I get my licensure as a nurse) and then I get to apply to RN schools! I am halfway done with my online class... I have taken an exam a week since I graduated and am now on week 5 and exam 5 out of 9 :) It feels good to take a test a week and do well on them, I am getting better grades on these exams than I did in nursing school... and I am teaching myself all of the material! Graduation was much better than expected. The class presidents made awards for each individual... I got "always crosses her t's and dots her i's" because I was the most organized and always prepared. HECK YA! Then the teachers did the pinning (a nurses pin that represents welcoming into the medical field) and then we did the traditional lighting of the lamps. It has something to do with Florence Nightingale... but we all got a lamp and passed it down to the end of line line. Then we read the Florence Nightingale prayer together. I was lucky to have my dad and my mom both there and g&g maxwell... and of course my hubby! 

Passing the lamp

Saying the prayer

 My cute cap :)

 Calendar my mom got me! 

Flowers from my mom & KC

Flowers from my hubby

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!