Happy Halloween, Mateys!

For Halloween this year, Mya dressed as an adorable little pirate. She's almost 2 1/2, and this is the first year she kind of understood the idea of 'Halloween' and 'trick-or-treat'. We had lots of fun Halloween festivities.... We went to our Ward's Trunk-or-Treat, went to TWO different pumpkin patches, and had fun trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, and visiting relatives.

This is a really cool pumpkin that we didn't carve. Our talented sister-in-law carved this, and we thought it was the perfect centerpiece for our family picture--thanks for sharing your talent with us Heather!

This was the first pumpkin patch that we visited. It was fun running around and looking at the pumpkins, but it was super cold, and none of us lasted outside for very long!

This was the pumpkin patch we went to on Halloween day. The weather was gorgeous, and the only problem was the bright sunshine washing out some of our photos--a minimal price to pay for nice warm weather to play in!

There was an awesome pirate ship at this pumpkin patch, and obviously, it was PERFECT for our little pirate. She had so much fun climbing up and down the ladder, saying "aaaarrrrggg" to anyone that would humor her, and steering the big ship!

I thought all this pirate booty was cool, but apparently Mya just wanted to play on the ship (and we accidentally kept her there about 3 hours past her normal nap time so she was a little grumpy...)

And here's Mya, all ready to go trick-or-treating on Halloween night! She had fun saying trick-or-treat at all the houses and getting to pick out candies. I was very proud of how politely she would say "trick-or-treat please", and follow the receipt of candy with a very sweet "thank you". At a couple of houses, she would get some candy, then say "excuse me" to the homeowner and try to sneak her way past him/her to go inside their house! I think she was a little cold. It wasn't as weird when it was a friend's house, but when she did it to a stranger, we were a little embarrassed (especially when I actually had to go into their house to pull her out!). Good thing they were really nice!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Now I Can Rent a Car (as an Adult)!

Last week I turned 25--or as my parents both like to point out, I am now a quarter of a century old! I had the greatest birthday! Alex and I got to go on a wonderful date while my Mom babysat Mya for us. My Dad treated us to a delicious dinner at Cafe Trio, then we got to see one of our favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan.

This was our dessert at Trio. Can you guess what it is? Ice cream? Nope. Gelato? Nope. CHEESECAKE! It was the chef's special: peanut butter cheesecake with Venezuelan chocolate, and candied bananas on top. It was even more delicious than it looks!

And here we are with Mr. Gaffigan. You may have noticed that my hair is longer in this picture than in the first one (and Alex and I look a bit younger...). That's because this picture was taken 3 or 4 years ago when we first saw Jim Gaffigan perform. He doesn't do his 'meet and greets' anymore, so I thought I would at least put the picture up from when we did meet him! The show was even more hilarious than I had anticipated, and we had an awesome time!

This painting was given to me by my incredibly talented, super cool father-in-law. He painted it--and in case you couldn't tell, it's me! Pretty awesome, huh? If you want to see more of his artwork, visit http://laughing-guy-art.blogspot.com.

Alex's Grandma Nola is so thoughtful. She knew that I would have some birthday presents to open on my birthday, and Mya would want to open something too. So, she bought Mya a darling set of dress-up jewelry, with accompanying purse, high heels, and hair accessories. If you can't tell by the picture of Mya checking herself out in the mirror, she loved everything in the set!

My little prima donna. She did NOT like it when I made her take everything off for bedtime. She's only two years old... I somehow thought I would have more time before seeing my little girl in earings and high heels!

For my birthday dinner, my talented chef husband made my favorite Greek dinner. And for dessert, he made an incredible ice-cream cake. It was a chocolate cake, with homemade chocolate cake batter ice-cream (that's right, he put chocolate cake batter into the ice-cream. And yes, it was even more amazing than it sounds!), and a homemade chocolate ganache on top. YUM. At work, my co-workers bought me a wonderful cake from Schmidt's Bakery. And to top off the birthday festivities, my Dad, Step-Mom, and sisters sent me flowers! I don't think I've ever had flowers delivered to me at work before. It rocked. I am officially one year older and... uhh...a few pounds heavier (but all the yummy desserts were totally worth it)! Thank you to all my amazing family and friends for making my 25th birthday so memorable, and so wonderful!!!

On an unrelated note, I'm feeling like a big looser every time I log in on my blog and all my posts get "0 comments". If you read my blog, don't hold back on the comments! Then, maybe I'll blog more, if it looks like someone might be reading this thing. Or maybe not.... It'll just help me to not feel like a blog looser! I'm a blooser. So sad...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

What more can I say.... nothing, really, because the video says it all!

The Adventures of Mya & Mommy

Last weekend, Mya and I took a quick trip down to Arizona to surprise my sister for her birthday. It was a long drive, and a short time in Arizona, but it was a super fun trip! Alex had to stay home to work, and to take care of our diabetic cat. We missed him, but it was fun to have some Mya/Mommy time!

Apparently, poor little Mya has some car sickness issues. The drive down was pretty messy, because she kept throwing up. Here she is after one of our clean-ups.



And here's Mya enjoying some Jack In the Box in Mesquite, NV. (Unfortunately, it did come back up later...)



My Mom was visiting my sister, Kara, in Arizona. For her birthday present, I had gotten her a gift card to Dolce to have a nice pedicure, and a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory, so that they could have a fun birthday morning together. What Kara didn't know is that I had driven down the night before, and I showed up at the salon to join them!



It turned out to be the perfect surprise!



We got these chocolate pedicures that were SO great. Here's a picture of my foot getting a chocolate souffle mask. It was very decadent, to say the least!



Me with my beautiful Mom and sister at Dolce Salon.



And here we are enjoying a wonderful lunch at the Cheesecake Factory



While I was having a girls day with my mom and sister, Mya got to have a wonderful day with her Grandma Merla, Grandpa Brian, Aunt Kaiti, and Uncle Richard.



They had a very busy morning swimming and playing at the park



And here is Mya in the awesome tent that her aunt Kaiti made for her to take a nap in



She zonked out for over 3 1/2 hours.... she was pretty worn out from the exciting day!



Mya also had a wonderful time playing with Kara's adorable little boy, Liam



On the return drive, I gave Mya some dramamine and we made lots of stops to get some fresh air. Here's Mya enjoying a sucker in Wikiup AZ



Mmmmm.....water.....



Mya has never really eaten a cheeseburger before (she usually prefers chicken nuggets or something). So when we went to In-N-Out Burger, I wasn't sure if she would like a burger or not. As you can see in the picture, she went to town on the cheeseburger! She almost ate the whole thing, and thankfully, she never got sick on the drive home. I'm so proud that Mya enjoys the finer things in life, like this delicious In-N-Out burger!



We had a fun time looking around at the Hoover Dam



The trip was exhausting, but SO much fun, and totally worth it. Mya and I had so much fun together, and it was WONDERFUL to get to spend some time with my amazing family. I'm thankful it all worked out the way it did!

Birthdays, Diabetes, and Exercise

We have had an eventful couple of weeks! Last weekend, Alex turned 29, and we had a great time celebrating his birthday. I had fun planning some suprises for him--we went to a movie (Harry Potter, which was great by the way), then had a nice dinner at Market Street Grill, then spent the night at this great bed and breakfast called the Armstrong Mansion. Then after checking out the next morning, we decided to take advantage of having a babysitter (THANK YOU AGAIN MOM!), and we went to another movie at the dollar theater (we saw 17 Again, which was also good). Alex may be getting old, but he's as handsome and awesome as ever, and we had a super fun time!

One thing that wasn't so fun over Alex's birthday weekend was our trip to the vet. Our beloved cat, Moki, has been losing a lot of weight lately. We took him to a vet in May, who assured us that nothing was wrong with him and sent us on our way.... But Moki started losing more weight, and actually acting quite sick, so we took him to a more competent vet, only to find out that Moki is diabetic. Our once large and spunky cat of 15 lbs had lost over half of his body weight, and was very lethargic. We started giving him special food and insulin shots twice a day. I'm happy and relieved to report that he is already getting better, after only a few days of insulin. This morning he was more bright-eyed, and was even running around wanting to play! It's a bit of an adjustment taking care of his new ailment, but we're grateful that he'll at least be okay!



This was Moki a couple of days ago, all 7 pounds of him. And there I was, preparing to give him his insulin shot. The picture below shows him happy and plump a few years ago, at a whopping 15 pounds (with his little 'sister' Rudy of course)

So, my doctor has been telling me for a little while now that I need to exercise (yeah, right, like exercising ever did anything good for anybody). The only problem is, I hate exercising. I really don't even like moving for the most part. And I hate sweating. And I'm really awful at getting up in the morning just to start the day, let alone get up an hour earlier to work out--yuck. Anyway, Alex has decided to help motivate me to work out in the mornings. We've actually been doing it too--we're in our second week... I kind of feel like I want to die, but it's mostly going well. He's decided to do P90X, while I run next to him on my elliptical. I'm not sure how or why he is so motivated to do this stuff.... but it's a really good thing, and I'm grateful for it, so I guess I won't question him too much! I think he might start making us eat healthier too. I went to Arctic Circle today to get a nice, greasy lunch of fried chicken strips, french fries, and a milkshake--I wanted to have one last hoorah before I turn 'healthy'. But now my stomach hurts. So maybe eating healthier is a good idea... Wish us luck!

Mya Is Two Years Old!

I put pictures from Mya's 2nd birthday on Facebook, and totally forgot to put some on my blog! It was a fun time. Mya's cousins and friends came over, and we all had fun eating pizza and cake and playing outside. I still can't believe that she's already two years old--it's been a wonderful two years, without any dull moments!!

Alex is usually the one who gets all the credit for stuff in the kitchen, so I am particularly proud to say that I made Mya's birthday cake! It was really fun, and I was really proud of how it turned out--and best of all, Mya loved it!

PRESENTS!!! Thank you to all of our friends and family who celebrated Mya's birthday with us!

A couple weeks ago, my dad and step-mom and sister came to visit from Yemen. Mya had so much fun with Grandpa Cozzens and Grandma Erl (which sounded more like Grandma Oatmeal). We all had a great time together!

Mya LOVED spending time with her Aunt Aiko!

While my dad was in town, we had a family/friend reunion at Lagoon. Little Miss Independent wanted to hold the umbrella herself : ). It was such a fun day, although the rain did eventually get the best of us.

Yay for carousels!

Mya being a goofball before church

Happy 4th of July!!!

My little 'All American Girl' with the American flag (thank you for the cute patriotic outfit Grandma Cozzens!)

Mya looks at my painted toenails sometimes and tries to color on her toes with crayons.... The other day she actually saw me painting them, and was just dying for me to paint hers too. I love having a girly little girl!

And Mya loves her 'pretty toes' (and is more than happy to show anyone that will look at them)!

And here is Mya enjoying an afternoon popsickle on this glorious Independance Day.

Another fun event that happened lately was mine and Alex's anniversary--6 YEARS! It makes me feel old to say that I've been married for six years... I guess I did get married just a tad young though, didn't I : ). I don't have any pictures from our big day, but we had lots of fun. Our actual anniversary was on a Wednesday, and Alex and Mya surprised me at work for an Arctic Circle lunch (romantic, I know) and some beautiful flowers! Then on Friday, we didn't have any work or school during the day, so we went on a day date. We saw The Proposal (which I thought was great--I would definitely recommend it), did some Costco shopping, and had a super yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!! Thank you for being so amazing and reminding me all the time why I'm grateful I married you 6 years ago. I LOVE YOU!!!