Tuesday, July 3, 2012

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!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

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!!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

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.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

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.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

here's to a great year

can you even handle this face she is making? this was taken Christmas morning after Cora got a panda blanket from Grandma Liza. many have told us that we need to submit this photo to the company that makes these blankets, with Geoff's arm possibly cropped out ;)!

every day this girl of ours makes us smile. both Geoff and I agree that this has been the best year ever...

-we had our first baby
-we bought our first car on our own
-Geoff finished school
-i'm VERY close to finishing school
-Geoff got an awesome job
-we moved out of our college town
that has been home for 7 years

we are so taken care of and are grateful for the bounteous blessings the Lord continues to pour down on us.

Monday, February 6, 2012

birthday week

this is the week leading up to Cora's FIRST birthday and Geoff's 26th..
Can't wait to celebrate with these two!!