i am currently laying on our couch next to my darling husband, who is playing nazi zombies, saying ridulous things like, "oh mama, chimichanga!" and "come to papa..." i don't get this game, nor do i get the stupid catch phrases these boys come up with. and i doubt i ever will.

this past week was extremely tiring. came home from a long awaited, but more tiring than expected vacation around midnight on monday, then on top of my usual 8 hr work day, i had two 6 hour shifts at sprinkles. by friday night, i was exhuasted. but mat treated me to cheesecake factory for dinner, and let me snuggle him until i fell asleep on the couch. saturday, we got a new fan for our family room, talked about the upcoming upgrades we'd like to make to our house, then i got my sushi fix at mo's bachelorette party.

this upcoming week will most likely be just as tiring. i only have one shift at sprinkles, but i am subbing for two dance classes tomorrow evening. wednesday night we're doing facials at mutual (yes!). i have two photoshoots that i need to edit that i've been putting off, and i'd like to get our san francisco pictures together as well. i wish i had the time and/or energy and/or drive to work out regularly. i do miss that.

sometimes i look at how busy i am these days and wonder why the crap i decided to take a second job. 14 hour work days do NOT do the body good! then i come across pictures of my family back in the philippines and remember. i cannot wait to be reunited with them next year, but i'm not looking forward to the 17 hours of airplanes and airports, or the jet lag we'll be experiencing. but its all worth it. sometimes i wonder how in the world my mom manages to be on the opposite end of the earth from her family. the last time i was in the philippines i was 15 or 16, and i remember getting teary-eyed when we drove away from my lola's house to go to the airport. I am so excited to spend the week with my family, but it's bittersweet, because this could very well be the last time i get to see my lola. but i am so beyond grateful that we get to see her at all, and that mat will have the opportunity to meet her.

funny, i started this post to vent my exhaustion. but i'm ending it feeling so blessed. blessed with my family and mat's family that both live so close to us, blessed with my hilarious, loving, huge family in the phillipines, blessed with the many opportunities i had growing up to spend my summers with them, and blessed with the opportunity we have to go visit them again next year. sometimes i just need to say things out loud (or write them down) to get the right perspective.

a few months ago, we came home from work and went to the back door to let gracie in, only to find the sliding door open, and gracie excitedly coming down the hallway to greet us. what the heck? mat was quick to accuse me of leaving the door open when i put her outside that morning, and i was quick to deny any wrong doing. who the heck leaves the back door open and unlocked when leaving for the day? anyways, the next day mat put gracie outside, and again we came home to the back door open, and gracie inside. we were completely perplexed!

alright, i'll be the first to admit that blogging is not my strong point. since my excuse for not keeping a journal is that i have a blog to document my life, i should probably fix that. but things have been pa-retty hectic around here lately! here's a run down via pictures.

at the end of april, kacey gave birth to our first nephew (and grandchild) on the shaker side, rowe taylor reed. he has stolen the hearts of everyone! such a studly little man, and such a good babe (photo stolen from kacey's blog).

my april non-resolution was met by me getting a second job as a sprinklette! mat and i have the opportunity to go to the philippines for my grandma's 90th birthday in march, so this is to help pay for the cost of the trip (its expeeeeensive flying across the world!).i am officially a cupcake associate at sprinkles cupcakes in scottsdale. i'm there 1-2 nights per week, and i can honestly say that i have never loved a job more. everyone is so nice there, and the energy is fantastic. realistically though, how can being surrounded by amazing cupcakes not be a fantastic job?

may was filled to the brim with trips and events. first was murrieta's (mat's band) show at relay for life in thatcher. they were lucky enough (not) to play at midnight, when tired walkers were dragging their feet along the track. it ended up being a fun night, but having to work at sprinkles the next morning at 9 was not so much fun. the picture below was taken at about 2:30 am after they played their set. exhausted, but not sleepy because of the amounts of sugar and caffeine they had consumed.

the week after, we went to disneyland for a fuse performance. so fun! we did a mock disney audition with disney performing arts, then performed at california adventure. mat may have borrowed a wheelchair from work, and i may have been it in the whole time so that we could get to the front of the line. i'm not proud of myself, but not having to wait in line made the trip that much more fun! the week after the disneyland trip was talent explosion, and the week after, my birthday. we had work off the day before for memorial day, so mat and i spent the day together, and my actually birthday, i took the day off and spent it with one of my dearest friends kandyce. unfortunately, i was not so good at documenting my own birthday, and don't remember too many of the details, except that my darling husband booked me a massage, bought me a robe (i have been dying to get one! robes are the best things ever), and wrote me a cute love note in my hand written journal. love that man of mine!

june started off with my sister-in-law kate getting baptized. i cannot express how thrilled i was when she told us that she had decided to get baptized. they had been talking to the missionaries for months, so when she had finally made up her mind, we knew it wasn't a half-hearted decision. a couple weeks after kate's baptism was mat's big 2-5! and you can bet your bottom dollar i documented the crap out of it. mat's birthday was on a thursday, so he decided to just take the next friday off and have a long weekend to celebrate. i made him breakfast in bed, and managed to beat him home to set up a trail of balloons that led to his birthday present, a sodastream. we then went to dinner at his favorite place with some of his favorite friends, and the next day his family came over for cake and swimming.

at the end of june, i helped my sister with an interview for her magazine, green living az, and got to meet martha stewart! well, not really meet her, but i got to be with 5 feet of her, at least.

the 4th of july was spent in heber, az. tiny town, but they have got the most amazing 4th of july spirit ever. they start it off with shooting off an anvil like 6 different times around time at 5 am, then a parade, then all day festivities until the largest hand-lit firework showcase in arizona. i was able to put my camera to good use and make a video. don't mind the shaky shots or dirty car windows, i'm an amateur okay?



2012 doesn't seem all that different. exceeeept I've been feeling EXTRA motivated to make something of myself lately. I've compiled a handful of resolutions, and I've got a great feeling I'll be able to cross them off my list by the close of this year.

I plan on splitting up my resolutions each month to make them more achievable. but for this month, it'll just be to not fail any of them in the beginning, haha. so here it goes!

1. daily prayer and scripture study. always a good habit.

2. go to the temple once a month.

3. exercise a minimum of 3 days per week.

4. build up our savings again and cut out unecessary expenses.

5. never have more that 3 loads of landry at a time (this one will be the toughest for me... lame, I know)

6. develop my talents and share them.

now those ones are more like maintenance goals. I'll have to work at those constantly and there won't really be an end to them. but these next ones actually have an ending point.

7. get up and stay up on a wakeboard. (I am terrified of wakeboards... true story)

8. run 30 minutes straight without stopping

9. build up my photography skills until I'm able to run my own photoshoots

10. make our house a home. my favorite one :)

so, there you have it. 2012 has already pushed me out of my comfort zone. a friend of mine that recently started up her own dance company invited me to dance with her adult company, however, mat and I don't have the extra money to spare right now (all of our spare money is going towards our rental). so she offered me a teaching job that I can cover my tuition for the company. as much as I love dancing and as much as I've thought about teaching dance, I've always been to scared to try! being in charge of something that I've never done before before gives me anxiety, and looooots of it. like teaching our primary class, the first lesson I taught I thought I was going to pee my pants, and our kids are only 5! but now I love teaching and am so thankful that mat and I get to share that calling.

so this coming tuesday will be my first dance class I ever teach. it'll be a 45-minute ballet/jazz combo class for girls 3-6 years old. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but there's a possibility that I'll have a few little cousins from mat's side in there, so I'm getting excited. hopefully this will open the door for many more teaching opportunities, and build my confidence up in sharing my talents.

oh, and the other thing I'm doing to "develop my talents" is Project 366. this project entails taking one photo each day of 2012. thus far I've been on top of it, however I haven't gotten my tumblr account set up for it yet. but I will. just wait and see.

2012 is going to be crazy, fun, busy, amazing, all of the above, and I cannot wait to see everything it has in store :)