fall

pumpkin carving with our cousins

pumpkin cookies- recipe courtesy of kelsey tucker:)

how can we forget about duke! haha

halloween costumes level of difficulty = easy. haha, dallas literally came home from playing golf and put on a different golf shirt and his tiger woods golf hat. I put a pirate shirt on and tied a tshirt around my head! Still fun, we went to our ward's trunk or treat with our nephew Landon, who made the cutest little dinosaur ever!

told you, cutest little dinosaur ever!

State fair. No one has ever won anything for me before!  :)

just glad it was a cute teddy bear and not these...

such a beautiful day <3 We went with Dallas' mom and aunt and some of our cousins. Favorite ride- the ski lift one that took you from one end of the fair to the other, haha jk, but really I did love that one! We loved the bbq food, and hated the deep fried snickers bar, yuck, but we had to try it! 

I miss my family, and I love South Dakota. But I have to say I really, really love living in AZ when I see my friends and family post pictures like these... 

I think someone said this picture is actually from somewhere in ND, but it sure does look like a storm from home.  

So we go out to eat all the time, too much probably, but this was special, two years ago from this night was when I was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I love the church, the leaders, the gospel, and everything that goes along with them. It has brought me so much joy in these past two years, including my amazing husband! So, some of our friends, Dallas and I went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate! I had never been there so we ordered what my step dad said is his favorite/most unhealthy thing on the menu, can't go wrong there right?!
I am so bummed we didn't take pictures but we also, yesterday, had our first Thanksgiving dinner. I say first because because we have four planned this year that we will be attending, no big deal haha! This is the first year that I have been married and in charge of something for a holiday that didn't include just Dallas and our friends, so  I was nervous and made five pies! I wasn't the only one in charge of pies, there ended up being over twenty there! Yeah there were just as many pies as there were people, needles to say, we didn't run out :) It was so much fun. I miss my family in SD everyday but I absolutely love Dallas family and I am so thankful to have married into this family!
We have a ton of really exciting things coming up in the next few weeks so hopefully I'll find time to blog more frequently!

this is the way i blog...

 I really wish I was better about blogging... but I'm not. I realized today that this is what I always do... I wait until I have a handful of pictures or so and then I just throw them on here. If I don't have pictures, I don't even think about blogging! Oh well... every one loves pictures right?!

Anyways, the rest of our summer has gone pretty well. We went to SD and spent some time with my family. We've still just been working. We've also still been looking at houses. Dallas went and took his placement test to find out what classes at Chandler-Glibert he needs sign up for. I have to say I was very proud and excited for him. He is so smart! He did very well on the test, to say the least and he will be signing up for classes this evening at midnight (to get the teachers he wants, not because he is super excited (: haha)

 This pic will forever make me laugh. It only

two years of Dallas telling me he likes headbands

and that I should wear them like this, for me to

actually do it haha! I should have taken and

posted the after pic, of the indentation on 

my forehead because the head band was new

and super tight haha! We were out running 

errands and I couldn't even stand to keep

it on so I walked around target & bed bath

&beyond with a red marks across my forehead! 

The things I do for my lucky hubby haha!!! 

This is a pic of me with my youngest sister Mandy. Her, my oldest sister, my nephew, and I went to Story Book Island and we couldn't resist the fun mirrors!

My nephew Cole. We just made a morning of doing touristy things, pretending like we didn't all grow up in South Dakota haha!

A pic of alot of, but not nearly all of Dallas' cousins and one of his aunt's. His cousin Trevan wanted to go ice skating before he left for his mission. I have to say, it was fun & a nice break to be freezing cold in the middle of the AZ summer!

Like I said, we went to SD to visit my family. My brothers and sisters playing poker with Dallas outside the camper.

This is me with two of my cousins. It was such a fun day at the lake. My grandparents, and all of my aunts and uncles and all but one of my cousins (on my mom's side) all came, it was quite the crew! No one could remember when the last time was that we were all together. I would have posted more pics but I can't seem to recall where I left our camera :S. 

 & What would a day at the lake be with out some boating and tubing! Some of the guys got pretty crazy on the tube, I would have died if it would have been me! So I went with little Josslyn... look how dangerous we are.. no hands haha!

So I have this thing about baking lately, I love it! While I was home my (oldest) sister and I made desert, peach pie, (not the pic posted) and it turned out amazing. Then, one of my mom's good friends had this amazing farm where they grow all of their own organic fruits and veggies so my mom sent me home with some apples so I, still being in a baking mood, decided to make an apple pie. I finally got the whole lattuce top down!

I just had to post this, because I always am wanting to take pictures and this is always the smile I get.. I just can't help but love it.

<3

So there is how we spent most of the rest of our summer this year. I haven't been good about taking pics but we have gotten to spend time with some of our friends and cousins which is so fun. I seriously love Dallas family they are all so wonderful. And we really do have some of the most awesome friends!

I have been working on some stuff for work but I'll post more about that later (meaning when I get the pics ready, haha)! We have some really fun stuff planned already for this fall/winter. I can't wait! Hopefully that means there will be lots of pics = more frequent blog posts, I guess we'll see!

summer 2011... so far..

Alright so far this summer... well, we moved to AZ. Unfortunately we aren't done moving. We are staying with Dallas' dad while we search for a house, once we do that hopefully we'll be done moving for a while! The ward we've been going to since we have been here is wonderful. We are both still working at Apply KI, we seriously have the greatest boss who is letting us work from home, Dallas, for as long as he wants and me, until I am able to find a job down here. I finally got my AZ Esthetic license so let the job search begin. I have so enjoyed getting to spend time with and getting to know Dallas family even better. It's so nice being close to family. Although, it really does make me miss my family! Fortunately there is a little airport about 10 minutes from where we live that has fairly low (sometimes extremely low) plane tickets straight to Rapid City. In fact we will be leaving next Thursday to spend some time in SD with my family, I can't wait!

 June 14th- Dallas' 25th bday! This day always

guarantees flags everywhere and  german

chocolate cake :) My wonderful mom shared
her yummy recipe and it turned out AMAZING!

 so... now I've given proof that I am still a blogging newbie and don't know how to turn this picture right side so you can actually see it haha! Anyways, it's one of Dallas' score cards from this summer. His best round of golf ever... so far ;) He's gotten lots of practice in and he loves going with his dad and brother.

We've gotten to spend lots of time with Landon! Dallas' sister's little boy. He has quite the personality. He is starting to get more used to us, but probably still likes us most while he's asleep haha!

 It's probably a good thing that my job does not require me to work outside. I think I have adjusted pretty well to the heat but I'd be lying if I said I didn't notice it!

Here's a picture of the house we thought we were in love with. We were so set on it. Our realator found it by chance while we were out looking at other houses. It seemed so perfect. Long/stressful/confusing story short... it didn't turn out the way we had hoped so we are back at square one searching for our perfect dream 1st home! Who knows, in a few weeks this house might end up being ours afterall. Which would be kinda nice since we measured for new carpet and counter tops. Not to mention I already had so many great decorating ideas :)

I can't believe it's already August! I always think I won't wait so long to blog again so I guess we'll see :) Hope every one is having a wonderful summer!!!