said no one ever

sh- sh- sh- shark week!

it's my very favorite week of the entire year people...

IT'S SHARK WEEK!

the week that everyone around me has to put up with my endless ramblings of shark facts and obnoxious excitement!

sadly, i wasn't able to make a new shark shirt this year so today i put on an old favorite and, since we don't have cable, i sat myself down to watch some oldies but goodies on netflix.

then my brother and his wife were amazingly kind enough to let me commandeer their DVR and watch some of the new episodes that played tonight!

i told them i wouldn't be over at their house every single day this week watching more but let's be serious, i probably will!

shark week only comes around once a year, i gotta take advantage!

it's the greatest thing ever right?? 

RIGHT!!

high fives all around!

tomorrow

and my bday!

that is all.

stress free is the way to be

i stress way too much.

there, i said it.

i'm sure my levels of stress are about 25% due to the fact that i'm a girl and that's what we do but 75% due to the fact that i'm crazy in the head.

i make insane expectations for myself and am constantly adding thing after thing to my to-do list when i know i won't be able to finish it all.

and then when i don't finish it all i'm upset and frustrated and even more stressed.

so i decided i'd like to get all this under control. 

no need for excess amounts of stress in your life right?

life is for fun and happiness and eating delicious junk food and snuggling puppies and playing on slip and slides.

i think the biggest thing that could help with my stress is changing my being trapped indoors situation.

i work from home and since we only have one car that Matt takes to work well...here i am, stuck until he comes back at night and by that time it's late and we usually just stay in.

not having a car limits what i can do outside of the house but it is summer time and our neighborhood does have a pool so i thought to myself "self, you should at least get out of the house and lay around by the pool on the days you're in need of a stress relieving good time."

and that's what i started to do.

me and kindy have made a couple trips to the pool this week to relax and if during that time my skin decides to turn from pasty white to a more attractive color, i wouldn't mind that too much.

i'm trying really hard to see these little pool outings as something fun to do instead of just another thing to add to my to-do list.

at least once this week i felt myself starting to feel like it was a thing i had to do every single day and therefore i would have to make time for it and that would mean i wouldn't be able to get this and this done before this had to happen and blahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

again, loca en la cabeza.

this is just for fun!

and it's even more fun if Matt gets to do it with me.

this morning he went in to work a little late so we got to lay out and splash around in the pool and then eat breakfast together.

we NEVER get to do that and i loved it!

anyway...here's to the start of my stress free summer/life.

please send all kinds of stress reducing thoughts my way.

AC dilemma

as if arizona isn't bad enough during the summer we had the privilege of finding out what it would be like to not have AC at all in August.

what fun!

at around 2:00 AM i was feeling extra hot and miserable and i thought i might be sick.

ya know that feeling when you had a fever and it broke and you wake up all sweaty and sticky?

that's exactly how i felt.

and after an hour of feeling that way i finally decided this couldn't just be me feeling sick so i drag myself out of bed to check the thermostat and find it at 85 degrees.

yeah, awesome.

i woke Matt up and he checked the main vent and flipped the breakers and i got a big glass of ice water and grabbed another fan for our room to make it a little less horrible so we could get a couple more hours of sleep.

i was hoping that in the morning the AC would be magically fixed and all would be well but that didn't happen.

Matt went to work and i do what i always do when we have a big problem around our house, call my genius of a father.

he always knows what to do.

so i called him and told him what was going on and he told me he knew of a guy he trusted and would find his number for me.

long story short, the awesome AC repair guy was able to come out within just a few hours and find the problem which turned out to be super simple and cheap to fix.

*enter chorus of angels here*

i only had to deal with the ridiculous heat while i worked for a few hours and with a group of fans pointed at me during that time it really wasn't too terrible.

i even pointed one at Padme because i'm a good mama and i felt so bad for her with all that furriness.

plus Matt was nice enough to come pick me up for lunch so i could cool off for a bit.

he loves me!

now the house is cooling down again and it feels like a dreeeeeam.

so the moral of this story is...

arizona is unbearable during the summer but especially without AC and i'm so beyond glad that our prayers were answered and it was a problem that was easy to fix and didn't cost a katrillion dollars.

last one

last post about Utah i pinky promise.

just a few last pictures.

Matt driving like 2 hours of the 24 hour trip

snow still on the mountains in July

modeling the Indiana Jones hat Grandma gave us

stayed the night in Vegas again on the way home right as a huge storm blew through.

lucky we were so tired we didn't mind the storm keeping us away from the casinos.

we hit the nearby Denny's for dinner.

man i love this boy.

those last 5 hours of our drive felt like an eternity but listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on our ipod kept me awake while Matt slept.

we loved our trip but we're so glad to be home.

i missed my bed and my shower and my sharks and my couch and my tv and most of all my puppy!

she has been super needy ever since we got home but i don't mind it at all since i missed her just as much as she missed me.

puppy kisses!

wedding!

Lucia is married!!

i can't believe my little Lucia is all grown up and married and i got to attend!

after a slight bit of trouble (we couldn't figure out how to get into the temple. yes, we're idiots.) we saw her wed for time and all eternity to the lucky Michael!

so stinkin happy for them!

waiting for the couple to come out of the temple

hugging the gorgeous bride!

taking pics to keep ourselves entertained during wedding picture time.

and then the reception later on that night was so cool!

i love love loved the building they had it at!

here's me being a bloggy photographer girl. HA!

her dad making the cutest speech ever. totally love him!

cake!

throwing the bouquet

garter

totally love Lucia's face in this picture! oh boy!

dancing

blurry pic but i just love this!

they're going to be so happy together!

daddy hugs

when it was time for them to go everyone got sparklers and made a path for them to run through.

such a cute idea!

way better than the usual bubbles that boring people do. (cough ME cough)

so glad we were able to be part of their super duper special day!

little baby Henry

we got to meet the newest member of the Steagall family while we were living it up in Utah!

little Henry is the sweetest baby!

he slept and wiggled and stretched the whole time i was holding him and made the most adorable faces!

he is going to be a chick magnet one day!

fireworks

when we FINALLY got to Utah we made a quick pit stop at Lucia's to see her one last time as a beautiful single lady and give her a goody bag of dirty honeymoon gifts.

(ps. not to toot my own sexy horn but i'm totally the queen of dirty goody bags! seriously, i would've loved to get everything i put in hers! she's so dang lucky! ow ow!)

then we continued on to Grandma and Grandpa Wamsley's house.

i was super dead tired after a day of driving, a night of gambling, no sleeping because i'm a crazy insomniac and another day of driving but we had an amazing first night in Utah with my cousin Ashley and her hubsy!

something we learned about Utah last weekend, they are fireworks CRAZY!

i'm pretty sure i saw more fireworks during that weekend than i ever have in my entire life.

i guess Utah allows people to light fireworks a certain number of days before and after the 4th of July and everyone takes advantage of it.

so what could we do but join in the party??

Brent and Matt messed with their lighters so the flame would come out ginormous!

boys will be boys.

i probably shouldn't mention that i told Matt to do it in the first place.

pyro Nikki at her best.

Ashley was scared to even try to light one of the lighters.

for good reason i guess because when she finally lit it she dropped it and almost lit Grandpa's grass on fire!

i died laughing!

we loved hanging out with them so much!

it's such a bummer they don't live closer to us.

come visit us soon you guys!