City Creek

We had a fun day at the City Creek food court and play area in Salt Lake City with some of my mission companions and their kids!  It's so fun to see us all as moms now and have our little ones play together.  Cora had a blast climbing on everything and going inside the shells.  We can't wait to go back!  

visit to NY

 We are enjoying our little visit to New York to see my family... Cora could not be having more of a blast with her cousins!  She has felt so comfortable here with everyone, and I love it!

 The Fall weather here is perfect!  Here we are about to go pick apples with Great Grandma Pat.

change is FUN!

I got a much needed haircut... and felt like changing things up a bit without chopping my hair all the way to my chin like I did over two years ago (i've been growing it ever since).  SO... I had the thought to get bangs, and when I asked the gal cutting my hair what she thought she was ALL about it and VERY excited.  She thought it would look really good, so I trusted her and I LOVE IT!

My grandpa Elmer would be proud because he always told me when I was younger that I have a big forehead and would look better with bangs.  He was so right!  I'm glad I finally listened and took his advice.  I like to think he is smiling down from Heaven at my new do!

The 4th

Happy 4th of July!

We spent it with family in Park City Utah.

Papa Steve, Grandma Nancy and all their Grandchildren
(expect for Stacie's 4 kids who were in Washington)

laying down to watch fireworks, and trying to get Cora to lay with us.  She was too busy though and did not want to sit still.  She mostly just wanted to sit with Grandma Nancy.

watching the fireworks with Grandma

 

a whirlwind

 May and June were a whirlwind of crazy and unexpected events happening all at once.  Here is a quick update of what went down.

Geoff's Grandma Georgia (his Mom's Mom) passed away at the age of 91.  We all went to California for the services.  Here is Cora with her two cousins Mason and Cade just before leaving for the funeral.

 Two days after Geoff's grandma died, my Grandpa Tony (my Dad's Dad) died unexpectedly at the age of 84.  He was happy and seemed to be healthy the day before, so we were all very shocked and sad.  His funeral was the day after Geoff's grandma's funeral, and there was no way I was going to miss either, so we went to Grandma Georgia's on Friday and flew to NY Friday night (a red eye), landed at 5:30 am and went to Grandpa Tony's that morning at 11 am.  Cora held up surprisingly well and it was very special to be able to be with family and be there for grandpa.  The next 7 pictures are of our time in NY.  We stayed for a week after the funeral and had so much fun with my family!

 

 

 

 

 I love when Cora gets to spend time with her cousins.. and she loves it too!

 

A week after I got back from NY my good friends from NY flew out to Arizona to visit us and see some of the cool things AZ has to offer.  They had actually planned to come to AZ the week of the funerals, but were able to re-schedule.  Here we are in Sedona.

 

We had to soak up the Arizona sun at the lake while we still could because we found out while we were in NY that Geoff's company needed to transfer us to Utah.  We were sad to see our time in AZ end so soon (we were only there just over 5 months) and VERY sad to be moving away from Geoff's parents, but also excited to be moving to a state where we know our way around and we have LOTS of family.

 

 

 Here we are on our road trip to Utah at Lake Powell.  We love stopping on this dam and looking at the beautiful sites.  We were quite the sight as Geoff was driving the 26 ft UHAUL and pulling one of our cars, and I was driving the other with Cora.  After 12 long hours we finally made it!

 

We have now been in Utah for a week and a half and we are settling in.  We love our townhouse we found in Lehi and Geoff has hit the ground running at the new hospital he is building.  Hopefully our lives calm down a little so we can catch our breaths!  So pretty much all of that is why I have been MIA on this blog, but I hope to keep it more updated now!

we did it!

                I have great memories of my time at BYU.  On and off for almost a decade now that has been my home, and being a student is what I have known.  It worked out that Geoff graduated a week after me (yesterday).  I'm so proud of him!  We were talking the other day of how bitter-sweet it is because Utah has been our home for as long as we have been together and we have been helping each other through class after class for a long time now.  Don't get me wrong though.. we are SO glad to be done and moving on to the next chapter of our lives with our sweet daughter Cora.  We had almost all of our family in town to celebrate with us.  Having my mom and dad there was so special and I know we created memories we will never forget!

  The proud parents

It was nice to graduate with my brother Matt and cousin Nate

Great-Grandma Dorothy and Cora

 It was so wonderful seeing my parents... my mom came to Arizona a few days before we went up to graduation in Utah.  She got to see where I served my mission in Mesa. 

Cora really took to her grammy and poppy, even though we only had a few days with them.

 

At our family BBQ on Saturday we celebrated 8 graduates.  Geoff and Jan (my cousin's wife) from Utah Valley University; Matt, Nate (my cousin) and I from Brigham Young University; and my cousins Davin, Taylor and Courtney from High School.  I guess 2012 was the year to finish!!

desert beauty

Cora and I went to the Desert Botanical Garden with Nancy and Grandma Gail for Gail's birthday. I think the desert is BEAUTIFUL, so I loved every minute of looking at the various types of Cactus and desert trees and plants. Cora was deep in thought the entire time.

Cora turns ONE

what a special day! our baby is 1...
we had a little family party for her with Grandma Nancy, Papa Steve, Great-Grandma Gail and Great-Papa Stan. here are some pictures from our day:

Cora was so glad that her buddy Cooper came. At one point he was out on the back porch and we found the two of them like this...

opening presents...Cora got some great new outfits for the summer (which she will be able to wear NOW because it is 80 degrees here these days!)

then it was on to cake and singing... i made regular and mini-cupcakes.
it was fun to watch Cora dive into her little cake and try it! she wasn't sure about it at first, but once she got a taste she LOVED it.

it is so great that we live near Geoff's mom and dad now. Cora cried when they left and was reaching for them to stay (so cute!!).

we had balloons all over the floor for when Cora woke up this morning and she played with them all day!

she was constantly on the go... we can really tell that she LOVES that she can crawl around and get to where she wants to go on her own.

the big gift Cora got from us was a new car seat... she wanted to climb right up in it and try it out! she sat in it for a long time and just played.

Cora Catherine is such a light in our lives.. we love her and have absolutely soaked up and cherished every minute of this year with her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!


p.s. tomorrow we celebrate Daddy's birthday.. February 11th and 12th will be a great two days in a row for the rest of our lives.