It's been a LOOOOOONG time!

So, I know it's been FOREVER since I have posted anything...so I'll just do a review of the second half of September (can you believe it's already October?!).

First of all...Bobby and I got a note that Kyndall was getting a student of the month award at school...and we attended the assembly they had for the 7th and 8th grade awards. She ended up getting the student of the month for art, which is awesome...especially the first month of the school year! Here are a couple pics...didn't get the best shots though!

The next big deal in September was that my parents came out to Phoenix for a trip on September 19th. We, of course, had a great time together...a little pool time, a trip up north to Prescott (a cute little "midwestern" town that's just fun to explore and walk around), great food, and we celebrated both my Mom's and my birthdays that weekend. The pictures below are mostly from the Prescott trip, but we have a couple from my birthday as well.

A shot down the street of Prescott from the town square.

Courthouse in Prescott in the town square

Cuties!

Look at that hot man! =)

Megan and Mimi spending some quality time together

Mimi-lovin'

Dad and Bobby eating some AMAZING carmel corn!

Kyndall finding some interesting stuff in an antique shop

Bobby's b-day cake that he made for me....YUM!

The girls and I on my birthday

Happy Birthday Megan!

Today is Megan's 11th birthday! And although Bobby and I won't see her today (she's with her mom)...we did PLENTY of celebrating on Saturday with her. She had plenty of friends and family around to help celebrate too. I think I have mentioned before that she wanted an M&M birthday theme...so that's what she got. It was really a cute idea...but bad for the waist line! We had the party at my apartment's cabana house, which is connected to one of the pools...and that worked out very nicely. The kiddos came around 4:30pm...started swimming immediately and having fun. You can see how Bobby got involved in their pool fun in a video below too! After lots of swimming, we had pizza, did a little more swimming and then dried off for games, cake and gifts. Sticking with the M&M theme...the games were 1) guess how many M&M's are in the jar - no one came close - there were 571 and the highest guess was 415! 2) pin the M on the M&M - the girls, Bobby, and I made a green M&M out of foam and poster board earlier that week...then cut out a bunch of foam M's for the sticking...it was a fun game - video and pictures below 3) hot bag of M&M's...otherwise known as "hot potato." =) After all the winners received their prizes, we sang happy birthday and had Megan blow out her candles on her M&M cake. Of course, we got waaay too much cake and ended up eating the rest of it the next day! Then, it was gifts...money, oragami, and gift cards seemed to be the trend. All in all, I think Megan had a great day...and we all did too. The party actually lasted throughout the night with five girls staying with Kyndall and Megan at Bobby's that night....thank goodness I got to go back to my apartment! =)

Bobby being a kid in the pool

Megan pinning the M on the M&M

Kyndall, Megan and Kyndall's two friends Lacee and Brooke pre-party in my apartment

Nate (cousin/nephew), Kyndall, Keely (cousin/neice), Ray (uncle/Bobby's bro), Brenda (aunt/ sister-in-law) and Stefan (cousin/nephew)

Megan's friend Ashley (or Brittany???) and Megan

Megan and her birthday button and crown

AJ, Megan, Brittany (I think), Ashley (I think or vice-versa!) and Courtney

Fun in the Pool

Post-pool fun...Megan and her daddy

Megan's birthday cake. Bobby and I couldn't find an M&M cake...so we ordered a "colorful" general birthday cake...and added our own M&M decor!

Unfortunately didn't get any pictures of her blowing out the candles...so this is as close as it gets!

Pin the M on the M&M Game - Courtney won!

Bobby's bro, Ray putting in his guess for the number of M&M's in the jar next to him. He was the winner!!!!!

Gift time!

Always have to have a musical birthday card nowadays!

More gifts!

All the birthday party friends - can you spot the twins? =)

Weekend Update

I PROMISE I will update soon on our busy weekend. I have some great pics and videos of Megan's birthday party. All went well....Bobby and I are just wiped out! I'll catch up soon, I promise!

Weekend Update and Some Random Pics =)

I wanted to share a little from Bobby, the girls, and I's weekend. We actually had a busy weekend...the girls were here and there at friends and family. Yesterday, though we all went to church together and ate lunch.....Bobby and I started planning Megan's 11th birthday, with a pool party and she wanted an M&M theme too (Megan Marin...get it?!)...so we did some invitations and even started getting all the essentials - plates, silverware, napkins, etc. etc. Megan is going to have several friends come to my apartment's complex's pool and pool house to have her party. It's nice because I can rent out the place for free to have parties, etc....and then it is connected to one of the pools too. So, I will have my first experience planning a child's birthday party...we'll see how stressed out I get that day! =)

Last night, Bobby and I bought Dirty Dancing and watched it with the girls after having a yummy (and healthy!) dinner. As MANY girls reading this blog can relate (c'mon...admit it!)...after you watch Dirty Dancing, first of all....you can't help but be in an awesome mood. The best part though, is that for some reason, you then think you are the best mambo and meringue dancer in the world....and that Patrick Swayze is your partner and making you fly around like no one has ever done before. =) Needless to say, Kyndall and Megan felt the same fever after watching and we were all dancing around after the movie ended. I luckily got a little recorded....thought I would share. Reminds me of my sister and I in home videos!!!!!

Oh...yeah, and to sneak this in there too...kind of forgot to mention that Bobby got a little artwork on his arm as well...thought I would post a pic.

Here's a fun pic from karaoke last Thursday night of Bobby and I too.....

Also...here are a few pics of Megan and Kyndall with two other neighbor girls, Taylor and Brandi. You also get a look at their GANSTA poses too! =)

PEACE OUT!

Epiphany

If you know me, you know that every so often I have little thoughts/sayings that make a ton of sense to me and seem to piece together, slowly or quickly, and then I probably use these epiphanies every so often...especially if you have a issue or problem that you are talking to me about. Bobby's probably sick of my epiphanies by now. =) Anyway...here's something that I just thought through and thought I would share.

I stumbled on this verse and thought of myself, then thought of others in this world as well that deal with this same thought. Many times with humans, it is difficult for us to admit our weaknesses...or that we have them in general even. But, as this verse explains, we have them to bring glory to God, believe it or not. And I love that. God gave me weaknesses and pain for many reasons, 1) to show/make me admit that I need God - why would I come to God if he didn't prove my lowliness every so often? and 2) so that His Glory can be "advertised" through me. I LOVE that last one! I HAVE to have imperfections and pain in order to show the rest of the world that there is a God.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

For example...say that you have people that you hang around with that aren't Christ followers, but you hang out with and interact with them on a consistent basis. They get to know you, obviously, and get to know your character and really admire and respect you. Then one day you happen to be talking about a touchy subject. Defenses raise, you and others are all trying to prove your points, and it gets ugly. You yell, maybe even name call, and act completely out of character. In fact...you - the Christ follower - are the nastiest one of the bunch. Nobody likes to admit this, but even with the most Godly individuals, this happens. So..your friends think, where did this come from? I thought he/she was "perfect" in a sense...if I respect them so much other times, where'd this ugliness come from? How can they be just like me, yet the majority of times they seem so great and put together? This right here, this is a testimony to bring glory to God. God makes us the "great" and the "put together", we don't have anything to do with it....and God is truly the one they are respecting when they respect us and our actions, not us. Without God...we'd be nasty all of the time...and what a blessing it is for God to choose us for this! He made us great, we did nothing to deserve that...but He did anyway.

Many times people ask why there is pain, suffering, weakness...and I think I just had an epiphany why it's with us....believe it or not...it's to exalt GOD! All of this said, I wanted to send this along and post this, because at times I know we are all ashamed of your weakness. And as we should try to grow and learn from weaknesses and mistakes...I still think this is a lesson for us. We will never fully get rid of our nastiness....we must try to "better" what we can...and then leave the rest for the God to use for His glory. It's a great advertisement for what God can do, who He truly is, and this brings glory to God! Over the last year, I've realized that my purpose in this life is to affect others for God's glory. What's your purpose?

More Vegas Pics!

Enjoy!

At the Hard Rock....Britney's "Baby...One More Time" outfit

I guess Bobby preferred Christina Aguilera instead.....

Bobby with his two cousins - BJ and Andrew

There it is...the big slot machine with the big winning!

I just had to take a picture when they finally paid the winnings to Bobby!

There she is...isn't she pretty???? =)

Can you see the giddiness on our faces???

On our way to ride the gondolas with Bobby and his mom

Bobby and his mom, Frances

Walking to the Bellagio

Great show at the Bellagio, as always!

Bobby has a few more pictures of his family and us...once I copy those to my laptop, I'll post those too!

Amazing Weekend

Vegas Baby!!!!

Okay...so Bobby and I started out the journey to Vegas on Friday afternoon...after about the first two hours is was a gorgeous drive (4-4.5 hrs total drive), including the Hoover Dam too - which was totally incredible. Here are some pics!

On the road...ready for Vegas!

Can't wait to get there!

Hoover Dam

Right before you crossed into Nevada, at the base of the Hoover Dam

Right after you crossed into Nevada

So...after we got there, we got freshened up and headed to the Hard Rock Hotel for the Jonny Lang concert. We found out that the concert got postponed for some reason...and Bobby and I were pretty disappointed about that. So...we walked around the Hard Rock a bit, ate some dinner...and I think were up by $10 when we left. =)

Before we headed out for the night

After we found out the concert was cancelled, we decided to go back to our favorite casino/hotel - The Riviera. We were there last year for my 30th birthday...and even though it's more of the "old school" casino/hotel....it's one of our favs! Well...not only was it a good thing that Jonny Lang decided to cancel...but it's a good thing we went to this casino! After playing a stupid little slot machine that I loved last year, titled, "Mad Money Martian"...(yes, that IS the name)...Bobby hit it big! His machine landed on a "10 times pay" icon, then the 7, then another "10 times pay" icon....so...that technically means he got a 7-7-7...times TEN, times TEN! It ended up being 5000 credits, or $1250 since it was a quarter machine. Needless to say, we were a big boggled at first, not sure if we should believe it or not! We had to get an attendant, it wouldn't pay out any other way even! We were giddy with excitement! Of course, I had to capture the moment with some pictures!

For some reason my site is not letting me upload any more pictures, dang it! I'll post them in the next few days hopefully instead. But, the picture at the top of the blog is Bobby and I after the big winning!

So...we had a pretty fabulous Friday night in the end! = ) Saturday morning we woke up and met his brother Ray and wife Brenda (that live in Phoenix) and they had his other brother, Kenny with them. We drove to the condo that Kenny had gotten for us...and it was a great spot. It was a few miles south of the strip...but it was right on Las Vegas Blvd. still....and it worked out really well in the end. After that, the rest of his family was supposed to be flying in late-afternoon, early-even....so the five of us ate some dinner and then headed to downton Vegas , Freemont St. to meet the rest of the family waiting there (by the way, don't ever take the Deuce bus from the Vegas strip to Freemont...it may only cost you $2, but it takes a good hour!) there I met his three sisters, their husbands, nephews and his mom! There were 16 of us total. We were introduced and talked for a bit and enjoyed the whole experience on Freemont St. (which was a lot cooler than I remembered it!). After that, we went back to Harrah's, which is where many of them were staying and hung around for a bit more and that was the night!

The next day, we met Bobby's mom and Erma and Eddie (sister and brother-in-law) for lunch and took them to Cafe Babareeba's. This is the restaurant that Bobby and I love from Chicago (and where we got engaged too!). The only other city with this restaurant is in Vegas and found that out the last time we were there, so we wanted to take his mom there this time around. We had a great lunch with a little sangria and tapas, and then headed to the Venetian and took his mom on a gondola ride. We had a pretty authentic "driver" who sang his mom "happy birthday" in Italian and some other wonderful songs as he steered the boat. Even though his mom is turning 75, she really kept up well with all the walking!

That night, we went to a restaurant in Harrah's for Bobby's mom's birthday dinner and everyone ate together there. After dinner, we all walked to the Bellagio and checked out the fountain show...after that...we all split and went our separate ways...so Bobby and I headed back to our old stomping grounds at The Riviera, just in case we had a little more luck left there! Actually, those silly martian slot games are just fun and a $20 bill can last an hour or so...which is what ended up happening....I think I was up by $100 at one point, but I had won money earlier, so I just kept going...and what do you know...I eventually lost it all! But, all in all, we had a couple more hours of fun and excitement.

Bobby and I left the next morning and made the four hour trip back. Bobby and I always have such a great time in Vegas...gambling or not...we just always have a blast with each other even just walking the strip. It's so nice that it is close to us...and pricelining hotels (since we don't really care where we stay there since we aren't in our rooms that much at all!) makes the stay pretty cheap too! Plus, this time around with meeting his family (finally!) I am so happy to know them and click with them a bit even. They are a fun family...there's always something happening with them. They really did make me feel welcome in the family...and I truly appreciate that!

I'll try and get the pics up as soon as my blog lets me!