Drew, Nikki & Parker

Army Crawl

2011-12-22T12:22:00.001-05:00

So Parker is a crawler now! it's crazy! Its mostly an army crawl but he can get on his hands and knees.

7 months

2011-12-19T19:29:00.005-05:00

baby boy is 7 months! I don't know how that is possible!! We happened to go to the doctor the week he turned 7 months and he weighs 19 pounds 13 ounces, so he gained a pound this last month. Parker is very mobile now! He is starting to crawl, mostly army crawl but he can get up on his hands and knees. He's trying to push himself up into a seated position and will probably have that down before crawling on his hands and knees. He's just such a happy little guy!

He's been upgraded to sitting in a shopping cart! He loved it!

End of November

2011-12-06T22:49:00.009-05:00

I'm starting to slack again!! One day I'll be a good blogger.
Like I said a couple posts ago, we went to my sisters wedding in Nashville. They had this really cool photo booth. Here are some pictures of me and my lil sis paige. Note how that fake nose could totally pass as my own!

We left after the reception and made the 3.5 hour drive back to Louisville. Can I just say Parker was perfect the whole day! Didn't cry or fuss. He even took a nap on the husband of my mom's friend! he was great!!

The next week was thanksgiving and we headed down to my parents house the Tuesday night before. My brother and his family came in for the wedding from Ohio and were luckily enough to be able to stay for thanksgiving! again, someone had pictures of thanksgiving, but I don't. At one point over break, not sure when my mind is mush, we went bowling. I did horrible, but thats nothing new. It's so weird out here that places aren't smoke free. No one was at the bowling alley but us and the guy working. I'm pretty sure he smoked the entire time- INSIDE!!! yeah, gross!

This is what happens when Parker is at grandmas. hahah! I think this picture is too funny. He just gets so exhausted!

It was a great holiday and ended way too soon! But we will be back down there in a week and a half for christmas then off to Arizona!

Black eye update

2011-11-28T21:48:00.003-05:00

Here's Parker's eye a couple days after it happened. I only would remember to take a picture after he was asleep. but you couldnt tell as good when he was awake. This is the day after the really good coloring on his eye

Black eyed P

2011-11-22T09:30:00.004-05:00

so yesterday Parker got his first injury. ready for this.... he fell off our bed! You have no idea how horrible I feel! He usually takes a nap on our bed cause he likes me to lay down with him as he falls asleep. He took his nap like normal. I was in our bathroom and heard his stirring but thought hed be okay for a minute while I finished up, less than two seconds later...THUD! followed by crying of course. (washed my hands) then went to check on him and he was flat on his back, which didnt make sense to me how he could of fallen and landed that way because of how he was facing. So of course I picked him up and held him and he cried for a few minutes. Then he was great! I called my brother (ER doc) to see what signs I should watch for the something was wrong. He told me he should be okay but to watch for stuff out of the norm. Well as the night progressed, we figured out what part hit the ground first. He had a red spot on his forehead and around his left eye was starting to swell. He has a little bit of bruising but is completely okay. I'll post more pictures if it gets worse.

Shai's wedding

2011-11-21T22:23:00.003-05:00

This last weekend we headed down to Nashville for my older sister, Shai's wedding. We went down on Friday and stayed in a hotel in Franklin. That night, the girls went out to eat and saw breaking dawn in honor of Shai. The next day was the BIG day! We went to the Nashville temple in the morning, checked out of the hotel, then drove an hour to Clarksville for the reception. We had a family luncheon and decorated the reception hall. It was a super creative wedding! We had a lot of fun with lots of yummy food!

Parker playin in the tub at the hotel

Shai and Tyler exchanging their vows

Drew, Parker and I at the reception

Drew and Parker in their matching ties

Music Sunday

2011-11-15T22:08:00.003-05:00

Sunday morning Drew pulled out the guitar for fun. Parker was sooo entertained by it that drew let him try it out. You probably cant tell but he was smiling real big when he got to play it. He loved that sound came from touching the strings. Oh and don't worry, the head phones weren't hooked up to anything, we just wanted to see how he'd like them.

Croquet

2011-11-15T21:58:00.003-05:00

This last saturday we broke out the croquet set to enjoy one of the last warmer days of the year. Some dental school friends came to play too!

waiting on the gang to arrive

drew workin on his mad skills

little Parker fell asleep during the second game

the players (minus Chelsea)

Louisville Zoo

2011-11-15T21:54:00.002-05:00

Last week Parker and I went to the zoo with our friends Brigetta and Charlie Love. I felt like a little kid again! I seriously havent been to the zoo since I lived in Oklahoma, so atleast 6 years ago! But I loved it! We got to see some super cool animals and even got to watch the tiger being trained!

6 months!

2011-11-15T11:55:00.005-05:00

Parker turned 6 months yesterday! I can't even believe it!! He's so great, lets be serious! Here are his stats for 6 months. 18 pounds 13 ounces. 27 inches long. head is 17 inches. I checked percentiles on these stats and he's completely average (50-75%) his head on the other hand is only in the 20%, which seems crazy to me cause it seems large! oh well, we sure do LOVE this little guy!

Happy weekend!

2011-11-05T17:22:00.002-04:00

Grandma Deb

2011-11-03T17:40:00.003-04:00

My parents came to visit us for a couple days. My dad's headquarters are in Louisville and had to come up for some meetings. Which we are always okay with since we get to see them. Parker loves his grandma Deb! Grandpa too of course. I need to video them together, its too cute.

The plus side of big thighs

2011-10-29T15:29:00.002-04:00

So we've been practicing for awhile now on Parker sitting up. I would sit behind him with my legs on either side in case he fell over. On Sunday he was sitting at church for a long time (couple minutes) just focused on his want-to-be girlfriend Paisley. So I started sitting a little future back and let him do it on his own. This is the first time I was able to get pictures of him doing so good. (he'd always tumble over when I tried before) I'm just so proud of him!

looks just like daddy in this one!

Outback

2011-10-29T10:05:00.002-04:00

A couple weeks ago my parents came up for a temple day. They came up early so Drew and I could go to the temple then when we got out they went to a session. Because my parents spoil us everytime they come up, we went out to eat. This time we went to Outback Steakhouse. My alice springs chicken was amazing of course. We got a dessert which wasnt very good though. It did have a lot of whipped cream on top that my mom thought was a good idea to give to Parker. Well, needless to say, he LOVED it!

It must taste better

2011-10-29T10:02:00.002-04:00

This morning after waking up Parker decided he wanted to enjoy his pacifier in a new way. ha! I think it's too funny. He's done it before but usually only for a little bit. He was just laying on the floor for awhile with his pacifier like this.

Parker squills

2011-10-28T13:04:00.002-04:00

So after Parker woke up from his nap today he just started making this super high pitched squills! they were hilarious! Luckily I was able to catch a few of them on camera. It's all him I promise, even though it doesn't look like he's even moving his mouth.

just like removing a band-aide..??

2011-10-27T16:31:00.002-04:00

So as you can tell I'm a failure at blogging! I mean seriously! I do however update pictures of facebook, mostly of parker. But thats all that is really important right?

So lets make a quick list of lastest in the Solomon household so it will be easier to more regularly blog. (its hard to hit on day to day when things have happened that I havent shared yet)

back tracking: the end of april/ early may drew was diagnosed with a neurological condition, cervical distonia (his neck pulls to one side on its own). his treatment is botox injections every 3 months in his neck and daily medication. It has been a hard trial for all of us, and limits have been tested, but we are getting through. We are working together and trying to stay positive. Last months treatment was alot better than the first so we're hoping they will continue to get better. Through this we are really seeing what is most important in life and putting our priorities in line accordingly.

July:

Drew started dental school at U of L

Drews 25th birthday: we had his carpool buddies/wives come over for cake and ice-cream

Parker turned 2 months old: 13 lbs 10 oz, 23.5 in. He started sleeping in his own crib. Had 3 shots, only cried from his leg being pinned down.

August:

Parker rolled over for the first time.

Drew had his white coat ceremony, his mom and my parents came for it.

I had my gallbladder removed and was in the hospital for 3 days (helped me lose 5 lbs)

September:

My 24th birthday!: I went with my parents and parker to Ohio to see my brother and his family (one week post-op)

Parker turned 4 months: 17 lbs 0 oz, 25 in. He started on rice cereal and loves it! he had more shots, didnt cry. Had his first fever as a reaction to the shots. He went to his first birthday party for his friends, Lydia and Carson Christensen. Parker discovered Karabi and loves/laughs at him.

I got within 5 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight (lost 50 pounds)

October:

Parker is 5 months and weighs close to 20 pounds! He can sit up by himself for minutes at a time.

We went to my parents house for fall break

So thats all I can really think of. Other little stuff has happened like, weekly dental school girls nights, crafts, making lots of ginger snaps, walks, school/drilling for drew, visit to/from my parents, temple trip and probably other things I cant think of. Parker is a great baby and is VERY active and moves all the time!

please refer to my facebook for pictures of Parker up to this point. I'll try and do more regular (possibly daily) posts. Mostly of little things parker/the family are doing!

Come look how cute I am!

2011-07-14T08:05:00.008-04:00

So basically I'm a failure as a picture taking/ blogging mother. seriously, I'm horrible. I havent been keeping track of anything! I make mental notes but if you know me and my memories, they kind of go missing. so I'll try and recap some stuff.

Well first off, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky for all of you who weren't paying attention. Me and Parker came out about 10 days before Drew with my parents and rocked it at their house until he g0t here. Lets start there.

This is Parker the morning we left Arizona. Drew said its his 'Let's

go to Kentucky!" face

yep, thats right, Parker slept the ENTIRE flight! all 3 and a half hours!

we stopped at auntie Paige's so she could meet parker. he seriously looks tiny in his carseat here.

just chillin at grandma's

"I don't think so mama"

deep thinker while he sleeps

our happy boy!

PArker has recently discovered his tongue. haha! he likes to stick it out all the time and try and lick you. I was kissing his cheeks one day trying to get him to smile and he tried to french me. haha. it was too funny. Oh, and he's more socially smiling now. he's quite the talker too.

oh! and he's 2 months old today!!

Introducing....

2011-05-24T15:03:00.015-04:00

Parker Drew Solomon

Born May 14, 2011 @ 1:39pm

8 lbs, 0 oz

21 1/4 in.

So being how Parker will be 2 weeks old tomorrow, I figured I should finally post about his birth! I honestly don't know where to begin.

It was about 12:50 am Saturday the 14th, Karabi woke me up like he usually does to go outside. I get up and notice I was a little more "moist" than usual (sorry if TMI) I went to the restroom, didn't even have a chance to think about pee'ing before it just gushed. Didn't think too much of it, maybe I just really had to pee. So I take Karabi outside, all it good. Come back in, bend down to unhook his leash, more fluids. So I go to the restroom again. Lets just say it kept happening off and on for the next hour. I got online, found the number of the hospital (by this time thinking I could have broken my water) and called. For some reason I couldn't get through to anyone! I did some research online. Figured it could have been my water that broke but still not completely convinced. Drew is still sleeping through all of this. I didn't want to wake him up for nothing. I even considered driving down to the hospital to get checked by myself so I wouldn't have to bug him. I'm tellin ya, I was no convinced my water had broken. So I repacked my hospital bag just in case. The water situation kept happening. About an hour and a half of this going on I decided to wake Drew. I went in and told him I think we need to go get checked out. He wakes and I kinda tell him I think my water broke but wasn't sure. He calls his mom for me (she's a labor and delivery nurse) we come to the conclusion it probably has broken but I should go in to get checked either way. Then Drew went a little crazy. I was completely calm, in no rush. He asked me what had happened and like mid sentence, he turns, says "I need to pack a bag" and walked off. haha. I think he was still a little out of it. And of course, we had to stop for gas on the way. again, I'm not stressing. I'm not in pain or anything, just feeling awkward cause I'm leaking fluids!

So we get to the hospital. luckily I pre-registered so they just had to double check a few things. Put in a room in triage and they give me a gown to change into and get checked out. Well, lets just say I made a couple messes on the floor in the process. Totally embarrassed. Anyway they have to do a test to see if the bags of water have really broken. She does the test and then checks to see how far along I am. I'm still at 1.5ish cm. and really gushing fluids now. haha. Embarrassed again. Luckily the test agreed with the verdict that my water broke. then my IV was put in and I was moved into the Labor & Delivery room. We had a super nice nurse. I feel horrible cause I can't remember her name. She got me started on pitocin and my antibiotics for my GBS. It was about 4 am by this time. haha, I guess I was having contractions and had been the whole time I was at the hospital but couldn't feel a thing.

Shift change for the nurses happened and in walks Kate. Love her! I wasn't sure I was going to at first cause she was a little rough checking me. I think I was at maybe a 2 by then?? Drew and I were just hanging out.

I was checked again and I was at a 4. Pretty good progression being how it had only been like an hour and I jumped from a 2 to a 4. I was starting to feel the contractions a little bit but nothing too crazy. Just felt like internal pressure on my pubic bone. no big. I could do it. once it got a little bit later in the morning, maybe 7ish, Drew called my mom to update her. She got showered and headed down to the hospital. I think it was right before my mom got there the contractions started coming stronger and closer together. and worst of all in my back! I could not handle those!! I went through a couple rounds of contractions and told Kate I think I needed a visit from the "drug man" soon. No joke, like 5 minutes later he was in there and prepping me for my epidural. Drew couldn't handle seeing a huge needle going into my back (I dont blame him) and went for a breakfast burrito. So they got me all set up and I was shaking like crazy! I don't know if I was cold or nervous or what. Kate said it was just all the pregnancy hormones, who knows. So the 'drug man' walked me through the epidural as he was doing it. It definitely felt weird. Only one point kind of stung, but for like 2 seconds. It started working instantly. He hung around to make sure it was working for a few minutes, I thanked him for not paralyzing me and he was on his way.

I was worried an epidural would slow things down. Nope, they just kept progressing! At some point Dr. Beck came in and checked on me. Made sure everything was okay. He gave a guess of delivery around 3ish with how I was progressing but said it could be way later since this was my first delivery. Kate got me started with the peanut ball. Awesome invention! I was rolled on my side and the thing was put inbetween my knees. I guess its supposed to help put your pelvis in the right position for the baby to travel. That was my biggest problem. I was dilating by my cervix was just too far back. So every hour I would roll over and get the ball repositioned. I slept during this time a little bit. haha Drew always tells people I slept during labor. After about 3 hours, I was at a 10 and ready to go! This was about 1 pm. I did a couple of round of pushing (3 pushes per contraction) and he was just comin along. Kate was awesome during this too! she was a great coach. Very encouraging. Drew did awesome too feeding me ice. haha. I don't even remember what was on TV but that was keeping my mind off what was going on. Kate had me skip a couple of contractions just to give Dr. Beck time to get there. Once he got there he just sat back against the wall for about 3 contractions then I did one last push and hello Parker! So, 39 minutes of pushing, not too shabby for my first!

I was so convinced I didn't want a messes, gooey baby put on my chest, but Dr. Beck was a pro and cleaned him off real good before they gave him to me. THANK GOODNESS!! We did some chest to chest time before they took him to get all cleaned up. He was such a good baby! He has the best temperament. Totally chill. While drew and I were admiring our little man, I got all stitched up. I had a little tear. I wouldn't of known if I didnt see the string. I don;t know why people would ever give birth without an epidural!

Parker scored a 9 and 9 for his apgar score. How could he not, he's perfect!

Parker with daddy

After he got all cleaned up we were just able to spend some time with Parker before people came to see him. My mom was the first since she was already at the hospital. oh he's so loved! Kate helped clean me up and get me ready to move into post postpartum.

one day old, our first family picture

We stayed an extra day in the hospital so they could watch parker since I was positive with GBS. which was no big. The morning we left the hospital (Monday, the 16th) little Parker got circumcised. He was a pro! Not fussy after or anything. Luckily, we weren't even given the option of going for the surgery. But he healed perfectly! A couple hours later... it was time to go.

Parker in his carseat ready to go home. He didn't cry at all in his carseat.

Parker has been great at home! He's a pro pooper! haha. He loves to be cuddly and makes the cutest little faces. Here are some pictures since he's been home.

zoning out after eating

one morning I gave him a mohawk and Deb just happened to catch this face on camera. blue steel anyone?

parker is just too cute when he sleeps, open mouth and all.

we broke the rules and let parker sleep with us. aren't my boys so cute?

Karabi the protector dog looking over Parker

I love that he sleeps with his mouth open

he's just sooo dreamy!

All in all, I pretty much had a perfect pregnancy with no sickness and no pain. A perfect delivery with no complications for me or Parker. A perfect baby who doesn't cry excessively, sleeps long hours, and is just so darn cute and cuddly!

sorry for the massive post, I guess I should just update more often

Am I ready for this?

2011-04-29T16:05:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Drew and I finished our last childbirth class. I don't know if I feel more prepared or more freaked out now! This L & D stuff is tough! So many different things can go wrong. Every childbirth is different. Things usually don't go as planned! That doesn't work for me. I mean, how can I mentally prepare if I walk in the door and its nothing like I expected?

Right now I can't help but stress over timing and details. Will I know when my water breaks? How long should I really labor at home? What if I get there too late and can't get an epidural? Can I handle a natural birth? How far along should I be before getting an epidural? What if my pregnancy stops progressing after I get one? What if it doesn't work for me? What if Parker freaks out and I have to have a c-section? Is Parker going to be too loopy to breast feed right away? Will I be able to even do it? Are they really going to put him on me all gooey and bloody for an hour? (note: I'm SOO not a bodily fluids person!) Does the 48 hrs in the hospital covered by insurance start when I walk through the door or after the baby is born? How soon should I let people come in the room after delivery? What if I'm not up for visitors and just want time with Drew and Parker? Will I have time to change and 'freshen up' before people come in? Will I go into labor before my mom gets to Arizona?

Oh goodness. I realize I pretty much can't control any of this. I just don't know what to expect. Well, I do. We went over it in our childbirth class. All the "if this happens then..." "if this doesn't happen then you'll have to...." stuff like that. But still. This is crazy stuff! I'm trying really really hard to not stress, but I can't help it. Not to mention everything that will happen after.

I'm not so much in the nesting phase as far as getting the house ready cause the baby is coming. Its more.. my moms coming! I can't look like a slob! I really don't want her cleaning my shower! I'm not good at people doing things for me that I should be perfectly fine doing myself. But I don't know how I'll feel afterwards. Am I gunna be stuck on the couch for 2 weeks in my nightgown and not be able to get up and around? Not to mention have people over! Oh goodness. Then there's getting the house ready to move! packing and cleaning, packing and cleaning! I'm just not ready for this all to happen. I'm sure it will pass in a blur! Luckily, I will have my mom here, even if I don't want her cleaning my nasty shower, which I'm sure she would do.

I'm just in a worrying stage. Was the a contraction? Is Parker moving less? Is there something wrong? Should I call the doctor? My left ankle is massive, way better than my right, is something wrong? Should I call the doctor? No, I can wait until monday. I'm starting to get a headache, is it preeclampsia? Stupid stuff like that. I know its not. I'm just freaking over nothing.

am I really ready?

The final stretch

2011-04-22T09:48:00.006-04:00

I seriously can NOT believe I'm 9 months pregnant! You think I would have been expecting it but I've been SOOO spoiled with this pregnancy. But sure enough, 9 months is here. And in case you weren't closely following my pregnancy, I only have 2 weeks (plus a day or 2) left! SOOO CRAZY!!

^37 weeks + 4 days^

Last night Drew and I took our first child birthing class. It was interesting. Drew got pretty bored, which kinda of makes sense since most of what was talked about he won't be going through. He did like when we got up at the end of the class and practiced breathing/comforting techniques. He's such a goof. I couldn't stop laughing when he was doing his 'coaching'. Hopefully he'll be able to keep me happy the day of. We have another class next week, that one will be more info for me since I plan on havin me some drugs during labor. All the videos we watched last night were about women who went natural. Yeah, no thanks! I don't want to feel anything if I don't have to.

Also yesterday, we got Parkers 'lil swing! It's darling. I love it. Seriously, its too cute. Drew did a lovely job putting it together too.

We're still waiting on the travel system though. For some reason walmart is struggling with it even though it was ordered before the swing. Hopefully it comes in before Parker does!! Or Drew might be going to the store to pick of a random carseat so we can take parker home!

Parker is getting big. That kid is a mover! I think he's guna have attention issues like Drew. Not that Drew can't concentrate, he totally can. His mind just never shuts off. He always needs to be doing something! I think Parker is leaning that way already! At my last appointment he was estimated at 6.8 pounds. That was over a week ago too. He's going to have a big head too! The doctor didn't use those exact words but when he was doing an ultrasound to measure him I was like, is that his big 'ole head? Dr. Beck was like, "it is good sized" then kind of smiled. haha. A week before that I was at 1cm. I go in monday so we'll see how I've progressed. I'm not making my prediction on whether he'll be early/late/ on time until after this next appointment. But honestly, I'm still in no hurry at all! The most my doctor will let me go over is a week. so no later than 3 weeks from now, I'll have a kid! whoa!

Other than that... I made it through tax season and still going. I feel fine so I'm still working. I'll be here atleast until the end of the month, maybe a little longer depending on how I'm progressing. Drew took this last week off (even though he didn't want to) cause he jacked his neck up some how. We're talking crazy muscle spasms, enough that it pulls his head to the side. When he's fighting to keep it in place it looks like he has really bad twitches. But he's on the up side of it now. He went in to work today. He'll be fine, I'm not worried.

Welp, you've seen my MASSIVE belly, Parkers cute swing, and heard some updates. I guess thats all for now! I'll keep ya posted!

8 months... really?!

2011-03-28T21:15:00.005-04:00

Where to begin, where to being. Well, first off, I've struggled with updating this mess. Everytime I wanted to I thought, no I'll wait for a picture when my belly is bigger. So before I get into recent happenings, this is me at 30 weeks below.

Okay, now on to the big stuff. I don't think you're ready for this jelly, cause my body is BELLY-licous. haha. that version of Beyonces song was in my head yesterday. weird? oh yeah! so um... (looking down in embarrassment..)

I'm 8 months pregnant kids! I have 6 weeks left - assuming he comes on time. It's still insane to me. I know I always say that it hasn't clicked in my mind that we're having a kid, but its true. It is slightly starting to... maybe. I trying to kind of force reality on me, but to be honest, it freaks me out! I'm DREADING the big hospital visit. AGH! but to help with that a little bit.. I bought myself a gift.

yep, you guessed it, a blonde pregnant lady. hahaha. okay, I'm so not funny. But I bought myself a hospital gown. seem weird, probably. but I hear that the standard ones they give you don't really fit and sometimes you have to wear two just insure you aren't flashing anyone. Plus, having something from home is supposed to make you feel more comfortable with the whole experience... which I'm currently not. so I was telling Drew I bought this yesterday and he totally wasn't liking it and thought it was a stupid purchase, then I put it on for him. He thought it was pretty cute. haha. So if you're curious into getting one or what its all about check them out here... http://babybeminematernity.3dcartstores.com/ So here is my big reveal.. (not that big if you already saw it on facebook) This is me at 34 weeks! It still catches me off guard sometimes when I see my reflection.

Man I'm huge! face, belly, and all. But I guess thats what happens when you try and grow a baby inside your body. Things have been going good though. He is a little stinker and likes to be all up in my rib cage...all the time! he doesn't really push underneath them, but right on the bottom and pushes towards my head. its quite uncomfy. I've been having alot of heart burn too. I'm talkin just about everything gives it to me... apples, cereal, chocolate, water... everything. Another kind of weird thing that has been going on is Parker likes to push on my abdominal aorta which causes me to feel my heart beating really hard in my body accompanied by pain and tightening with every pulse all the way up my spine. its painful. but Dr Beck said its normal just because of the placement of the baby. lets see, what else? Sleeping has become un-enjoyable the last couple of weeks. I can't sleep on one side too long cause my serratus anterior starts to cramp up. That poor muscle has been struggling through this. But don't forget about the lower back, sacrum, pelvis pain too. Makes sleeping oh so amazing, even with a body pillow. joking kids.

but I really shouldn't complain. My pregnancy has kinda been cake. I just worry that because it has been so easy that delivery will be horrible. something will go wrong. something will be wrong with parker. It just doesn't seem like I can 'have it all'.

In other recent happenings in the family:

-We have been accepted into 'little Provo' of Louisville. It's the apartment complex all the young mormon dental students live in. So thats exciting we'll actually have a place to live, huge worry lifted. We're still trying to finalize how we want to transport our stuff across country. A feat I don't wish on anyone. It's sooooo annoying!

-Karabi got neutered. I was so worried for him. Not that I didn't trust the vet but I didn't want him to be in pain. But let me tell ya, that little guy sure can bounce back. The first day he was a little loopy from the anesthesia but by day two he was basically back to his normal self. He's still doing great and healing nicely.

-I have two baby showers this week. I'm excited to finally know for sure what WE need to get for parker. I've been holding off on buying anything because I didn't know what people were willing to give. But now I'll finally be able to start getting ready for the little guy.

-Paige, my little sister, is coming for a visit. My mom had a free flight through southwest that needed to be used pronto and since I'm still working and can't really take time off during tax season (I work for an accountant) it just made more sense for her to come to us. Drew and I are really excited to see her! She's too funny.

-Drew has become obsessed with mountain biking. He LOVES it. He tries to go on a ride a couple times a week. He's increased his number of times he plays racquetball a week too. He's got to get all practiced up for my dad. haha.

I think that is about everything... even if its not, this post is massive! pat yourself on the back for getting through it!

7 months & 3rd trimester

2011-02-10T11:30:00.002-05:00

27 weeks + 4 days

So the 3rd trimester has begun. Still SOO weird for me since I still don't really feel pregnant. Yes, I can feel him move. Yes, I see my belly getting bigger. But don't really feel pregnant. Weird I know, trust me.

I'm starting to get a little anxious about the 'hospital event'. I try not to think about it. One concern is that I won't be able to handle the pain leading up to it. Just the other day I had some discomfort and thought to myself, 'I feel miserable' which wasn't true of course. I just haven't had any pain or anything big for the last 27 weeks so it definitely a different experience. I'm just nervous. I'm having a kid!

Ha, I went to motherhood earlier this week to finally get some preggo shirts and while trying them on I finally realized how HUGE my belly is now. I swear like the day before it hasnt anywhere close to that big. It came out of no where! So I was standing in the dressing room, just staring at my belly. SOO WEIRD! The worker probably thought I was crazy. (I was the only person in the store so we were chatting through all this) Meh, oh well. It's only larger from here right? Its still funny to hear Drew say randomly, 'you're really starting to look pregnant'... um...yep. haha

man I'm large. and hungry. That is one thing I've noticed lately, I sure can eat now! holy smokes! I never was a huge eater, like it wasnt uncommon for me to not finish a meal if we went out to eat. ha, we went to Outback last week I think, yeah, I put it away. I had tons of bread while waiting for the food. Than ate ALL of a outback burger and all the fries with a little bit more bread after that. I couldn't even believe it! you'd think I'd feel stuffed, yeah no. haha. It seems like nothing completely fills me anymore. I guess Parker really needs to put on some weight or something.

But I deserve it more..

2011-02-04T10:39:00.003-05:00

So have you ever had a case like that, you feel like you 'deserve' something more than someone else. I don't know what's wrong with me but I've been feeling like that a little bit lately, and with the dumbest stuff ever. ha! dirty satan! I went from one day thinking of our super bright future and all that Drew is going to accomplish to later that day thinking I needed 'upgraded' things because someone else had it... because I thought I deserved it more that they did. Who thinks like that?! ungrateful selfish people, that's who. GUILTY!

in other news, I've just become a belly. well, a belly that is carrying Parker of course. That's all I am right now, Parker's carrier. I don't say that to sound mean or anything negative towards the people who feel that way, but hello... I'm up here! Its great people are excited for parker to join our lives, but don't push me out in the process. It makes me feel.... I don't know which word I want to use. But you get my drift right? So please don't call me and the first thing you say is... 'how's parker' sorry again if that's rude.

another wonderfully selfish thought of mine... there will be some events taking place after I have my little guy. Ones that I at occasion feel like will, well, take away from me. horrible I know guys. I know. and honestly, how much time and focus do I really need for popping out a baby. I'm sure it will just be like the above paragraph to the max anyway! But sometimes I just feel like I don't get the attention I want or, there's that word again, deserve. But it's hard to stand out when Drew's your husband I guess. I won't say anymore about that. Because I really like the person who I feel gets the attention and preferential treatment. So... I'm basically a horrible person.

large, oh so large, and horrible.

wo is me.

welcome to my pregnancy downs.

Gettin' on up there

2011-01-25T22:45:00.003-05:00

so, this is me at 25 weeks + 3 days. I dont think this picture even comes close to doing my belly justice. It's large, trust me.

it's crazy to think I'm 6 months pregnant and coming to the end of my 2nd trimester! holy smokes! Well, its like out of no where Parker decided he needed to put on some poundage (real word?) I'm sure looking like that anyway.

Last week I had a prenatal appointment. All is well. Little man is measuring on schedule and heart beat/ blood pressure is great. I finally broke down and asked how much I've gained so far..... you ready for this..... 14 pounds! AGH! SAD DAY! Dr. Beck even brought it up in the appointment, "you put on a bit of weight this month", me freaking out, "not like extreme though right?" "no, you've gained 14 pounds so far so you're still good. you haven't really gained up to this point so you're just making up for it now" STILL!! then later that day Drew and I were leaving walmart and I caught a glimpse of my reflection, I wanted to cry. I had looser fitting pants on so my thighs looked massive! and of course, my belly was bulging.

I get that you gain weight, thats fine. I've done so gradually so far. (no stretch marks yet) So I'm okay with this. But I seriously have the shortest upper body ever and the belly is getting large... there isnt much room. I swear I'm busting out over my pelvis on the sides because there is seriously like an inch max between my pelvis and rib cage. It looks a little funny to me.

Parker's movement has intensified. It's not painful, just big movements. Yesterday at work I was just sitting at my desk and my belly jumped! and again! a HUGE jump too. And he's been all over the place too. Before he would chill out on the left side and I could feel him around my belly button. Now, he's all over the place. Left side, top side, a little on the right, and he loves to stand on my bladder!

Oh joys of pregnancy. Ha!

In other news, I LOVE that Drew has this semester off before Dental school. I get to see him sooo much more! We get up around the same time. Get off work around the same time. I love having him to myself (most days) from 5pm until I go to bed. LOVE IT! I needed this time before things get crazy with the baby and moving and such. Oh, and we might have found a place to live in Louisville. We're on the waiting list so hopefully we'll get in. It's basically little Provo. Tons of LDS couples with little ones, all in dental school, all in the same ward. It'll be great. Atleast for the first year. Then we're gunna look for a better deal on a place to live. But still, it will be sooo nice to know where we'll be living, less stress for me.

Here's to.... getting through another week.

23 Weeks huge

2011-01-09T20:17:00.005-05:00

okay this last one isnt real. well, clearly its me, but I'm pushing my belly out as far as I could. so i'm not THAT big yet.

Well, I'm over half way and just now posted a picture. FAIL! Well, its the first one I've taken.

So like I was saying in my last post, we did a family baby shower over break while my parents and sisters were in town. I dont have any pictures from the shower itself, my mom took some but they've been moving so it'll be awhile until I get those. Here are some photos of some cute things I got:

a bad pictures, but my mom made this diaper cake for the shower. Notice the little guitar in the bears arms

'Daddy's rockstar'

'Mommy's little prince'

Parker also received:

a baby bath

lots of soaps, lotions, shampoos

socks

washclothes

burp rags

bigs

stocking hats- is that what they are called?

mittens

receiving blankets

a homemade blanket from grandma Geneva

baby book

his future baby blessing outfit

onesies, outfits, shirts, pants, etc

gift cards

baby monitors

diapers

and a few other things

Mommy got a pregnancy pillow!!

We have two more baby showers (yes, we're having 3 total) so hopefully we can get stocked up for Parker.

Thanks everyone who came and for all the awesome stuff for Parker!

Christmas '10

2011-01-09T19:49:00.002-05:00

So clearly I'm slow since I'm just now posting about christmas. But this year we were in Arizona for christmas. It went alot better than I though it would. I was stressing just a little bit about it. Just note though, I suck a pictures now a days and have like non. But I'll give you a run down of the holiday.

Dec 18- we went to the Solomon christmas party. This was my traditional christmas dinner, you know, ham, funeral potatoes and such. My family was in town at this time so they came too. Deb made her bomb cinnamon rolls and favorite dessert.

Dec 20- my family threw me a baby shower. but that will be more in the next post.

Dec 24- was Drews family christmas. We did the Solomon/Williams tradition christmas dinner = Mexican food. It was alright, haha. We made gingerbread houses before. We did presents after we ate. Drew's parents got us a sweet cisco Flip video camera. Ya know, to keep them up to date with happenings with Parker since he'll be across the country from them. It looks like this below

Dec 25- Drew, Clint, and I did stockings and presents at our house. We opened from eachother and from my family. We cleaned up, lemme tell ya! We got some super cool stuff.

Drew got:

a new, much needed pillow

croquet

new socks

Inception

the new Office season

Believing Christ book

Taken

and some other stuff I cant think of

Nikki:

3 super sweet cardigans

Mindy Gledhill cd

ASU shirt

new socks

signed Greg Olsen calendar

a large metal 'S'

temple book

makeup

and other stuff I cant think of

together:

a hand made christmas box from my dad- I need to take a picture of this

new pans for cinnamon rolls

homemade deer jerky

a collection of stories for the 24 days of christmas- passed down from my grandma

and other things i can't remember. we'll blame my blank in recalling info on being pregnant. but our main gift from my parents this year was a SWEET! glider for Parkers nursery. It's in our living room right now since he doesnt have a nursery yet.

that was pretty much our holiday. We did hang out with friends on New Year's Eve. Went to Red Robin and played alot of games. But apparently, I wasnt a good sport that night. Meh, what can ya go.

Here's to 2011

"My old Kentucky home"

2010-12-10T10:49:00.003-05:00

BIG NEWS! Our lives are changing! We've made our decision on which dental school to attend!

Lets see if you can guess...

So my dad was offered the job in Russell Springs, KY (its the one he's been tryin to get for the last month + or so.) IF you remember from a previous post, that would put them TWO HOURS from us if we went to Louisville. so Guess what.... we're going to LOUISVILLE!!

We're super pumped!

When my mom called Wednesday with the news about my dad, Drew did a little dance and said... "we're going to louisville!" It was decided. In days since we started receiving acceptances, his thoughts were starting to focus. Colorado was built up in his mind because of the closeness to the mountains = snowboarding. Well we didn't hear from Colorado. You know I had been pulling for Louisville for awhile, so the seed was planted in Drews mind. And he started realizing that it was actually his favorite school, "it's LEGIT"

So there ya go. I'm gunna pop out a baby and a month later we'll be on the rode to our cross country home. It still doesn't seem real. Any of it. But I feel so so so blessed. Mostly because everything I wanted, is happening ;).

^^our new home^^

18 weeks and Kentucky bound?

2010-12-06T11:45:00.003-05:00

Yes, that is a question mark. As some of you know from facebook, this last week was the real deal. December 1st was the long awaited day, beginning of Dental school acceptances! We got pretty lucky, I must say. Here's how we did.

-University of Louisville

-Case Western

-Oklahoma University

-Midwestern

Louisville started us off, Tuesday Nov 30 at exactly 12:01 am their time. In case any of you have forgotten, Louisville in my number one choice! So hearing from them first.. it was great!

Then I think the rest of the schools went in that order. Not too sure. UNLV didnt accept him on this round, but didn't reject him either. I could care less about that school, I dont want to live in Vegas.

But Drew did say, more than likely, we're going to LOUISVILLE! WAHOO! I dont know about him, but me and my family are pumped about that! Now we just need to get Davey in Kentucky too.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

So I am 18 weeks as of yesterday. Things are still going great. No sickness. I do have discomfort sleeping so hopefully santa brings me that quality prego pillow I've been asking for ;) I still haven't felt little Parker move yet, but I'm sure he's in there moving. He is Drew's son after all, so I'm sure he can't sit still. I have another doctors appointment in two weeks so hopefully everything is still according to plan!

Oh, and I think I'm getting my bump finally. ha! people say I'm not, but I take that as them calling me fat pre-pregnancy. I'm sorry, but I dont think my belly was stickin out like this before. haha. I need to get a belly picture taken. ha, we'll see how well that'll work out.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

FAMILY TO ARIZONA COUNTDOWN: 10 days!

Parker won the race!

2010-11-24T16:32:00.004-05:00

Monday I had my 16 week pre-natal appointment. Luckily the doctor let us find out what we are having! Drew's wish came true! It's a boy! Parker (no decided middle name) Solomon!

look at him getting so big! 5 inches now

this is kind of a scary picture. Dr. Beck said this is his halloween picture. ha! atleast he'll have my big eyes!

here's the proof. You're lookin at his bum. his legs are on either side with his 'goods' in the middle. hahaha, man, he'll hate me one day for posting that.

Either way, super pumped! as I said at the beginning, no middle name is decided on. But ya know, what's your opinion?

-Parker Aiden-

-Parker James-

-Parker Layne-

-Parker Cole-

I won't tell you which ones I like, just know, Drew does NOT like all of these. So just curious, which do you like the best.

November

2010-11-24T16:28:00.003-05:00

Well, this is my last cookie jar lid from my christmas present last year. I like getting monthly packages from my mom. Welp, heres to Thanskgiving.

today could be the day...

2010-11-16T10:17:00.002-05:00

That starts deciding our future. Well, thats how I see it anyway.

Today my dad has his second interview in Kentucky for a job. Why this will have an effect on us is that fact that if he gets the job, I'm sold on going to University of Louisville for dental school. Honestly, that's my number one pick either way because that would put me closer to my family. BUUTT, if he gets the job (and Drew gets accepted) we'll be TWO HOURS! from my parents. Um, can you say totally do-able! Two hours would be nothing for me compared to what were currently at of an all day flight or 3 day drive. So, two hours is awesome!

To also add to the closeness of family would be my two sisters 4 hours from us. They would live two hours from my parents on the other side. So, kinda perfect location for the parents being right in the middle. And that would even be closer to them then they are now. They are currently 3+ hours from eachother.

Then to the north my brother and his family would be 5 hours from us! again, totally do-able! Yeah, I could see everyone atleast once a month!! Might not seem like tons still, but we're currently at like once a year if that! I have seen my mom a little more this year only because my cousin got married in Sept and Drew graduates ASU in Dec so her, my dad, and sisters will be coming out. and I'll see her atleast twice next year in May- when the baby is due, and in Dec because its their year to have us for christmas!

But hopefully it'll be alot more inbetween because we'll be moving in that time too... hopefully to Kentucky and be so close!

I have admitted to a few people that if we dont go to Kentucky for school, especially if my parents move there, I'm not gunna make Drew's 4 years of dental school very fun. Horrible of me? Yeah, probably. But this might be my last chance to live by my family.

so again.... today could be the start of deciding our future. Send your prayers Davey's way (thats my dad, p.s.)

Goodbye October

2010-11-01T12:43:00.003-04:00

so I was a little delayed on posting my October cookie jar lid but there ya go. My only halloween decor. I just couldnt pull myself to go buy decorations for this holiday. One I did not participate in at all. I hung a sign on the door Saturday and Sunday saying " No candy tonight, sorry" and went to bed. Yeah, I'm a party pooper. But when you have a little dog who loves little kids and running away, it was just asking for trouble to actually pass out candy. So I passed.

Some recent happenings pregnancy wise, I did throw up for the first time last week. Seems weird to me since I was 12 weeks along before it happened. My family all thought it was a fluke since Ihadn't been sick at all. Well, today confirmed that all it was. Drew woke up with a lil funny feeling. Same one I had the day I got sick. Seems like its just been going around our house but with almost a week in between each of us. Drew's bro started it all almost two weeks ago. About five days later, it hit me. About the same amount of time passed and it hit drew. that poor thing. But we are relieved to know I didnt not get sick because of the pregnancy.

My next appointment is in 3 weeks, Nov 22nd. I'll be 16 weeks and hoping we might be able to figure out what we're having! I'm okay either way because I do want multiples of each at some point. Its more just that I was to be a name to this growing belly. So.. fingers crossed!

Upcoming events in November:

Dental school interviews in Colorado and Oklahoma!

Coming to a couple near you..

2010-10-19T20:04:00.002-04:00

May 8, 2011!

That's right, we're having a baby! We're pumped! I've been dying to just announce it to everyone but have been waiting until after my first prenatal appointment. Well, that was today! Everything is going great! I heard the heart beat and saw some little feet kickin. I thought I was 10 weeks but according to the ultrasound and the doctor, we're ahead of schedule! the little one is 4.4 cms so the doctor estimates the due date of May 8. Going into the appointment I was thinking it would be May 15. Hey, I'll take earlier for sure!

Here's some pictures of our little booger.

showing some muscles! (left arm, elbow, and hand)

a side shot of my big head baby ;)

during the foot kicking. notice the foot stickin up on the left side.

BoOmEr SoOnEr!

2010-10-08T18:31:00.003-04:00

Drew received another dental school invite yesterday. Yep, you guessed it.... OU!We kind of have mixed emotions about OU... We used to be super pumped about it before the whole interview process started. But now that it has.. we dont really see ourselves there. But hey, we'd be happy to go there too. It just depends on other things.

But either way... BOOMER SOONER!

OU- November 12th

5 & 6

2010-09-17T14:39:00.002-04:00

First off, Drew was disappointed with me for not putting the logo of AT Still up. so there you go!

AT Still interview Sept 23rd

And now for the latest invites! He got one for Louisville this last Wednesday, I think it was.

Louisville interview is October 22nd

Then on Thursday he got an interview invite to Colorado! His friend Ben also received an invite there so they are gunna travel together.

Colorado interview will be November 2nd.

I'm just so proud of Drew! Good thing I married a smart one ;)

Case interview and #4

2010-09-14T13:47:00.002-04:00

So Sept 3rd Drew had his Case Western interview in Cleveland, Ohio. It went great. Everyone was super chill and nice. He loved it! He loved everything, the school, the people, the staff, the city. Everything! He met a couple people from Mesa which was kinda cool, we know know a lot of the same people as them. One thing I think is cool is that like every other student is LDS. So that could be fun.

I dont know, I still think Ohio is where we'll end up. but we'll see.

Drew also recently received an interview invite to AT Still! He has the interview next week the 23rd. Um, no comment on that, but we'll see how it goes.

Either way, we're excited again that life is finally picking up and we're getting that much closer to our long term goals.

Birthday overview

2010-09-14T13:06:00.004-04:00

So about two weeks on Thursday the 2nd was my 23rd birthday. The week for me started off that Monday when I received a package from my family!

These are my goodies from that! My cookie jar lid, money, swedish fish, peanut butter m&ms, sandals and earrings from paige, heart shaped ice tray, egg slicer, colorful bag clips, gum... and i think thats it??

A day later I got a package from my brothers family. They sent a super sweet watch made of safety pins and a cool book to fill with family history as we prepare to start our own family.

Tuesday we went Oreganos with Drew's family.

On the morning of my birthday I took Drew to the airport for his dental school interview in Cleveland. Once I got back and started getting ready I found this little bugger on my bed!

I was nice to it, I drowned it. haha.

after dealing with that I treated myself to a pedicure and some shopping. I think I might have even cleaned the house. And just chilled out a little bit. Then my dear friends Kelly and Bobbie invited me out to dinner with them to Chili's.

Overall, it was an alright birthday, besides the fact that my husband wasnt here.

Cookie Jar Lid update

2010-09-14T13:00:00.003-04:00

I've been a little behind on blogging lately. Especially with my Deb-made cookie jar lids. Here are the most recent:

^July ^

^August^ (we brake for cookies)

September^ (Friends and Cookies make life bearable)

Our future

2010-08-27T13:30:00.002-04:00

could start next week! Drew has his first dental school interview a week from today (Sept 3rd) in Cleveland, Ohio at Case Western! I can't believe that we are finally at this stage in life. I swear it seemed like we would never reach it! And I kinda have a feeling this might be it. We're gunna end up in Ohio. Which wouldn't be horrible, my brother and his family would only be 2-3 hours away. So that could be super fun since we only see them once a year if that. We'll see.

I'm still a little sad I'll be spending my birthday alone... but maybe someone has some ideas or activities for that day or someone who would want to spend it with me...;) please please please.

I won't lie though, I'm totally one of those girls who feels entitled on my birthday. I've never worked on my birthday (and sure dont plan to start this year). To me, it's just a day to relax and get pampered! LOVE IT! I've already gotten two presents from my lovey. The 3rd book of the Hunger Games- Mockingjay. He also surprised me with a new laptop battery and charger. Might seem like a silly gift but my battery was short and it would only last like 3 minutes without being pulled in and my charger just died too. So I was excited to finally have both!

Welp, I'll keep you posted on school and life and all our what-nots.

Sick of this yet?

2010-08-17T13:40:00.003-04:00

WE GOT ANOTHER ONE!! Drew received another interview invite! This one is a little closer too!

October 1st is the interview date Drew set up. He will be flying to this one, but It would only save us $50 bucks to drive so, might as well fly. that way he doesnt have to take as much work off!

So something about UNLV we're not super pumped about is they recently spiked! tuition for out of state. I think it's over $200,000 now! Yeah, holy smokes!

Well, we're just super excited to be at this stage in life, FINALLY! We're very thankful for Drew's smarts and being able to give us options with our future!

Number 2 goes to..

2010-08-11T15:44:00.002-04:00

Midwestern University College of Dental Medicine! This last week we got another one!! We're kinda excited, can ya tell?! So this interview is set up for Sept 28th (earliest date available)

Nice to not have to shell out tons of money for this interview. Just the price of gas since it's only like an hour away from us.

Wow, it just still amazes me how life is finally starting to get going for us. It's only gunna get faster, so hold on tight!

And the first interview goes to....

2010-08-05T20:02:00.003-04:00

Yay!! Drew received his first interview invite two weeks ago to Case Western. For those of you who don't know... it's in Cleveland...OHIO! Mixed emotions on the location but super pumped for the interview! Just so you have an idea of the stats for this place, last entering class had almost 3,000 applicants! They only interviewed 125. And only except 61 of those for out of state seats!

So basically, Drew is starting off huge! Not to mention he as an AMAZING!! contact there. So good that this contact will be picking Drew up the morning of the interview from his Hotel, taking him to the interview, Interviewing him, and taking him to the airport after.

I don't know about you, but I don't know too many people who get rides to and from an interview by the person DOING the interview!

Needless to say, Case would be luck to have him! We'll keep you posted!

P.S. I forgot to mention something, Drew will be flying out Sept 2nd (my birthday) to go to his interview on the 3rd. Cleveland, you better be worth my husband missing my birthday!

Tennessee, the house, and clint

2010-07-16T23:34:00.009-04:00

So things have sure picked up! We went to Tennessee last week. Tons of fun!! the first night we went about 30+ miles away for a firework show. Seems kind of far but it was the closest place celebrating on the actual 4th, silly southern baptist.

The next day we went to Memphis. We went to Graceland (Elvis's home) checked out Beale Street and ate at BB King's BBQ, which was really good BBQ, btw. We also went to the Gibson Museum. We didn't get to tour it because we didnt have enough time. We had a schedule to be at the Peabody Hotel for a duck show. haha! silly I know. But this really yuppy hotel has these ducks that ride the elevator down stairs from their suite on the top floor, walk a red carpet, and hang out in a fountain all day. We caught the end where they climb out, walk the red carpet and head up to their rooms. Silly silly stuff. Maybe one day I'll be a duck master.

The next day, my parents anniversary, we set up a 100+ ft slip and slide out front of my parents house. It was awesome! We soaped it up, had a sprinkler going and headed down on a raft. I busted it pretty good before we got the raft out. I ended up getting whiplash on my side. Yeah, I'm smooth.
Wednesday I went with my mom into Jackson and we went looking for beads. A couple weeks ago when all the family was there, they made watches. Out in Utah/ Idaho these big beaded chunky watches are super popular so we wanted to try it out. I picked my beads and quickly created mine. I'll have to take a picture to show you. I think it turned out well. and it was super easy to make!

thursday we left early for Nashville and did a little touring. The night before we watched Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The lightning Thief. In part of the movie they go see the Parthenon in Nashville, so we did too. It was pretty cool. Then we had a very very long day of flying. Nashville to Atlanta to Phoenix.While we were in Tennessee we learned how to make homemade bread and cinnamon rolls. And I'm not talkin about using a bread maker or bosch, we're talkin all by hand, homemade. It was great! Now I just need to practice to see if I can do it on my own.

Right when we got home, I started packin up for the new house. For those of you who don't know, we are only renting a house, didnt buy. Its just around the corner and up the street from our old Apartment. It's pretty sweet. 2 bedrooms 2 bath and a den (office/music room). It comes with a full sized washer and dryer too! We love it here! I'll have to take some pictures. But luckily were were about to get everything over and unpacked in 2 days. I work fast what can I say. Plus, I had a time frame. Clint, Drew's brother, was getting home from his mission moving in with us. I just wanted to have the house all situated for him.But speaking of clint, he got home the 15th from his mission. Its so crazy! It seems like he just left and at the same time feels like he never left. He's a super cool kid. We'll have tons of fun! I just hope Drew doesnt ignore me too much.
Um, that's pretty much everything right now. Oh, Drew treated himself to a phone upgrade for his amazing job he did on his DAT. He just got a Droid X from Verizon. That and clint will be the end of our marriage. haha not really, but I'm sure it will make me left out. And speaking of Dental School, things are still going well. Initail applications are done to 14 schools. We are just finishing up the secondarys and soon it'll be September and hopefully tons of interviews!!

Welp, this is a huge post! Just wanted to keep you up to date! Happy Hot summer!

22 is how we do!

2010-07-03T13:33:00.002-04:00

I'm a little behind. Drew took his test a week ago yesterday. and scores are in!! He rocked a 22! For those of you who dont really know and are wondering 22 out of what, its out of 30. BUT! before you think its not that good, he's in the 96 percentile which is AMAZING! We're so proud!

Heres a list of some things we've done so far to celebrate:

Dinner and pizzookie at Oreganos
Birthday dinner for friend at Red Robin
Lake trip!
Toy story 3
lots and lots of swimmming
Tosh.O
... probably a lot more than i can remember

Upcoming celebrations:

Tennessee tomorrow!
fireworks
moving into our house
Clint comes home!
Thrice concert (and tons more in july)

Needless to say, we're pumped Summer is here finally for us! I'll post pictures once we get back from Tennessee!

Happy 4th!

FOUR DAYS!

2010-06-21T13:52:00.004-04:00

Thats right, the week has arrived. Drew takes the 'big one' Friday @ noon. I cant believe its been 6 weeks already. Luckily for both of us it went super fast! We're soooo ready for this test to be over! But don't worry, Drew will do amazing! But sending those positive vibes wouldn't hurt ;)

We're gunna celebrate this ordeal finally being over, where else but at Oreganos! Come party too, I'm not sure which location or what the exact time will be, but get at me as that day comes closer.

AND!! Our lovely friends will be providing us with a lake trip next Tuesday. Thats right, a full day of Drew not studying or working. Oh it will be glorious! (but I'm not inviting you to this. sorry. its not my place to invite people, since we were the ones invited in the first place. sorry)

AND!!!! We're going to Tennessee! 4th of July here we come. I havent seen fireworks since summer of '07 when I lived in Utah. Its been even longer for Drew since his last time was on his mission in the midwest. We're super excited. We'll be spending most of our time here (see below) at what I like to call the Rasmussen Plantation. Comes equiped with a large pond in front with a deck on 18 acres. And of course, amazing home cooking from non other than Deb. Oh man I'm so excited!

But the party wont stop once we get back. Nope, it'll be Drews 24th Birthday that week and the following week Clint comes home! Wahoo!!

Yay for summer finally finding the Solomons!

Maybe one day..

2010-06-18T00:17:00.005-04:00

..I'll have a two sided friendship. I love how once I stop putting forth effort in a friendship it just dies, like it never existed. I guess thats just how it rolls in my family. Until then, I have the two best guys by my side.Karabi, of course

and my lastest, Wentworth Miller aka Michael Scofield of Prison Break.

Yep, thats right. Thats all the interaction I get ladies and gentlemen. Drew is still bascially out of the picture for another week until he takes his test. Until then.... I'm enjoying the company I do have ;)

106 and rising

2010-06-05T13:20:00.004-04:00

So welcome to Arizona. The mercy of cooler weather is officially over. Well, it actually ended like a week ago. There are no more chances of crazy freak cold fronts from Utah. Not for a couple of months atleast.

One way to beat the heat, lay in a pool on a raft and watch TV of course!! Oh the life I live... (for a short time) I've been house/ dog sitting for a friend of a friend. Its a pretty sweet hookup and its all mine..until Wednesday. And I must say, the pay aint too shabby either ;) Man I'm spoiled with this extra curricular activity.

Drew has officially applied to Dental School. One if these could be a possible future:

Midwestern -Arizona
ASDOH (A.T. Still) - Arizona
OU- Oklahoma
Louisville - Kentucky
Case Western - Ohio
University of Colorado - Colorado
OHSU- Oregon
UoP- California
UNLV- Nevada
VCU- Virginia
UK- Kentucky

(yes, i did edit this list. I forgot some. and this is not in the order or preference either btw. AND! Drew told me he has not 'officially' applied. he's still working on the application.)

June brings me....

2010-06-02T22:21:00.003-04:00

....Cornelius the Cow! Isnt he a cutie?! So other June happenings include Drew applying for Dental school.... TOMORROW!! CRAZY! Also, Davey (my dad) has a job interview in Idaho tomorrow. Keep those good vibes headed our way!

Things have been pretty crazy at work. We were running a special and it got insane! like.. 18 i think last week. Which probably doesnt seem like that many to you guys but when the weeks before I averaged like 3-5 for the week, 18 is tonS!! But you can image how great my paycheck was ;)

Welp, thats about it in our lives right now. Oh yeah, D-Day is June 25th. send good vibes for that too! thanks!!

2 years down, eternity to go

2010-05-21T20:27:00.002-04:00

So I'm a little late on this post but our 2 year anniversary was May 16. Since it fell on a Sunday we went out on Saturday. To be honest, I didnt expect much was gunna happen. Drew isnt very creative when it comes to doin stuff like this. ha! but I guess lucky for me and him my good cousin Kelly was available to help out. haha. she gave him some ideas. she even picked up part of it.

dozen long stem roses and a gift certificate to get a pedicure!

drew doesnt really want anything but a wallet. hah. i guess this isnt really a good pic of it.

then we headed down to the metro station to hop on the lightrail and go to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Phoenix

we had this cute little table in the corner. had some really good food! then we came back to mesa and went to Oreganos for a pizzookie. I forgot to get a picture of that, the service wasnt very good so I was distracted.

all in all, it was a good night. here's to an eternity together, can't wait!

Amazing Inspiration

2010-05-04T13:32:00.002-04:00

I dont know if you guys have seen this yet, but a friend of mine posted it on her facebook. Its about Stephanie Nielson.
She is an amazing person and is so strong. What an example.

Meet Freddie

2010-04-28T21:41:00.004-04:00

Some of you might remember my mom's cookie jar. Sounds weird, but my mom had a cookie jar with custom, homemade cookie jar lids. She had, I'd say, atleast 20. So this last year I decided that would be a cool thing to start in our little family. so when I went to Tennessee for Christmas I asked my mom if she would help me paint one. There wasnt really time over the break but she decided to be clever with a present. She gave me package envelopes as a gift. ha! she had 11 of them. One for every month. (she did give me a lid for christmas) She let me pick out which lid I wanted to represent each month and told me she would paint it and send it to me! Super cool right! Her and my dad kind of tag team the preject. My dad cuts out the wood and my mom paints it. Here are the ones I've gotten so far.

December:

January:

February:
March:
April:
May:Meet Freddie the Frog^^

Isnt Deb just too crafty!! Be jealous! My mom is cooler than yours! ;)
I'll keep you up to date with the lids in the upcoming months.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

2010-03-31T23:58:00.003-04:00

So for those of you who know my mom, you've definitely have had her amazing strawberry jam! Well lately me and drew have been pretty trunky for it. So after finding the Superstition Ranch Market and the awesome deals on strawberries, I decided I would attempt making the jam.
All you need is strawberries, lots of sugar, and sure jell (you can get it at most grocery stores)

I used sure jell premium fruit pectin. They have other brands of versions of this sure jell, I got the one with the no sugar or less sugar recipes inside. I didnt use those recipes because I love me some sugar. haha. the fold out had all the recipes on it. I used the easy freezer one.

this is my bowl of rinsed strawberries. as you can see I took the tops of too.

then you have to mash them up one cup at a time. I only did one batch to start with so thats 4 cups of strawberries. I just used a potato masher. Next you just follow the recipe on the fold out paper and put it into containers to set up

These are just little reuseable containers I got at the dollar tree for, of course, a dollar! And a good thing about this jam is that you can freeze it up to a year and it tastes so darn good! I did end up making another batch today because we just have so many strawberries left. I'll probably make more to be honest, might as well with strawberries being so cheap right now.
I hope you'll try to make it sometime. It's really good, easy to make, and ends up being way cheaper than buying jam (that is if you find good priced strawberries)
Enjoy!

Solomon Latest

2010-03-31T23:28:00.004-04:00

So a couple of weeks ago I finally worked on a project I've been talking about to Drew for months! We had this dresser of Drews from before the marriage, it wasnt in the best condition, you know how boys are. I wish I would have thought to take a before picture.. but I didnt. Before it was a lighter brown wood but covered with this fake wood stuff,I dont know what its called, and goldish colored handles. But... after some primer and a couple coats of black pant and some silver spray pant, this is the finished product!

luckily the picture is small enough you cant see the "character" this dresser still has. But its a HUGE!! improvement from before. Just take my word for it, okay?

Another thing that has been going on is we finally got a bed upgrade!! Before we were on a full, which I had since I was 16ish and living at home. Refer to this post It was very cosy to put it nicely. haha, it just wasnt working for me anymore. So after hearing a sleep america ad while I was at work one day, I mentioned it to drew so we went down to look. Well, we walked away with a very very very!! comfortable queen sized bed! Love it! I sleep sooo good!

Karabi really likes it. It looks pretty plain right now yes, but still a work in progress. As you can see no head board. We have a couple ideas for cool head boards. Either out of soda cans or books. Just trust me, it'll look good. So.. pictures to come once we get it done.

other than that, Drew is still a slave to ASU and Express Scripts but...This semester is almost done!! Then only one semester left for Drew! YAY!! Then... only 7 more years of school.

Upcoming Events:
May-Drew finishes this semester
June- Drew takes the DAT (hopefully get pregnant this month)
July- Drews 24th bday, Clint gets home from mission, probably visit my parents, apply to dental school
August-Drew starts his last semester of ASU!
September- My 23rd birthday, hopefully some interviews for Dental School
October-hopefully Dental school interviews
November- hopefully Dental school interviews
December- hopefully being accepted to Dental school, my parents and sister come to Arizona for reunion!

So as you can see... things are about to get real exciting!! yay for life gettin' to gettin'. yes, I know that sounds totally country. ;)

Attention East Valley

2010-03-25T19:02:00.003-04:00

Everyone in Mesa and surround areas there is a place you need to check out if you havent already... Superstition Ranch Market. It is AWESOME!! My cousin's husband told us about it. and since I had some friends coming in to town, I thought maybe muffins and fruits for breakfast. Well my lovely husband drew reminded me of this place so I hit it up. Beware though, tons! of Snowbirds! But super sweet deals.

Deal of the day for me: 2 for $1 strawberries!!!

and everything is Delicious!! I got bananas, apples, grapes, oranges, strawberries, lettuce, cilantro and tons of each for $17. it would have been tons cheaper but I got some more expensive apples and alot of grapes! either way... good stuff!! and it all tastes sooo good!!

so let me tell ya how to get there... its about half a mile east of Greenfield on the southside of Main St. Look for big neon colored posters. I dont know it there actually was a sign with their name on it but look for bright signs with current sales!!

dude I'm so hyped about this place!! Go check it out friends!

I think I'll name her Lucy

2010-02-23T22:03:00.003-05:00

I got a new bike!! Isnt she SOO cute!! I've been talking about getting a bike for awhile with drew for fun and for exercise. Everything I try to do for exercise ends up hurting my knee or I hurt it doing other things and the exercise of choice just increases the pain. So we chose to try a bike! Its low impact and now drew doesnt have to slow his pace for me when he goes running. Plus, its cheaper than paying for a gym membership.

So this baby is a Huffy Cranbrook Cruiser. She's was only $84. Cant beat that!

I went to pick her up from Walmart today.. in my car. I didnt think itd be a problem because my back seats fold down. Well, she wasnt fitting. So the next thing I know, this latin guy comes walking over and offers to help. He tried putting her in a couple different ways. Yeah, it wasnt working. The handle bars just didnt want to be contained. So they stayed outside of the trunk. But he got some rope from his creepy van and made sure it was tied down nice and good. I wish I would have taken a picture of.. the secure job, the latin, and his creepy van. Either way, we got her in and home where she is hanging on our back patio.

Oh I cant wait to take her for a ride!!

In memory of..

2010-02-06T16:25:00.005-05:00

Carl K. Rasmussen

My grandpa rejoined my grandma January 29, 2010. My whole family flew up to idaho this last week for the funeral. It went really good. I kept saying it looked like my grandpa lost 30 years and he just needed to dye his hair to look my my dad's twin. ha! oh grandpa! At the funeral itself my dad spoke along with a few others. I actually learned alot about my grandpa this week that I didnt know. For instance, he held my grandma over a cliff and said he'd drop her if she didnt say yes to his proposal. hahaha. At the cemetry he was honored with a 21 gun salute for his service in the military.

As we started to go through thing at my grandpa's house I came across this super awesome sweater. It was his high school lettering sweater. We found three different ones. Mine was the simplest looking (it was his high school one). Zane is sporting his college lettering sweater below.

Even though it was FREEZING! In idaho, it was still really good to see my family. I know I saw my parents and siblings in december but most of my cousins I havent seen in like 12 years. Well that visit willjust have to hold me over until next christmas when my family comes to arizona.

what a surprise, I still dont look like my sisters.

my family with my grandpa Harris and Geneva

New Job!

2010-01-20T19:44:00.003-05:00

So after six month of a not so steady job I finally have something! Welcome to Simple Cure Massage Therapy. Let me tell you some perks, yah?

-Hourly pay...seems kinda lame but since I was only getting one massage a month basically this will be a nice pay bump.
-Great hours! most days I work 1pm-6pm. cant beat that. and even on my later days I only work until 8pm.
-I'm kind of the unofficial marketer. when I dont have a schedule massage, I'll be hitting up businesses doin chair massage.. you know, gettin the name out there
-I'll only work five days a week. no Sundays....EVER!! this is huge for me!
-I'm pretty sure the owner is mormon.
-the other therapist are kinda of in the same boat as me. same schooling and modality focus
-Drew wont hound me about getting a job anymore!!!

We're pretty stoked. This new job of mine will really help fill up our savings account... which was the biggest reason why drew wanted me to get a job. so maybe....I'll get my wish of a baby this year after all. ha! we'll see how it works out.

I'm workin through it

2010-01-18T20:16:00.002-05:00

so lately ive been feelin kind of weird.. not like sick or anything like that. but my emotions have been a little sensitive I guess you can say. I think satan is really just tryin to get at me! that dirty.

I've kind of been comparing my self to others lately. bad idea I know. but just stuff like.. "oh they've only been married this long and are buying a house." or "they're pregnant" stuff like that. you know, people really starting their lives together. and then I feel like I'm missing out. ha! I laugh because I shouldnt feel that way and I'm not missing out. just my situation is different. thats all.

its hard to get settled when we'll be leaving for dental school next year. so it'd be silly to buy a house. and as far as the baby... i still kinda want one. I have for awhile. but I understand drew's concerns, so we're tryin to save a little more so we dont have to choose baby or dental school. we want both. so we're tryin to better prepare. but I still hope its when I was originally planning and getting pregnant this summer.

then ive been starting to feel a little depressed about silly things too. only having one sided friendships (most effort from me), not really having a job, missing out on the previously stated, and feeling like im not even noticed in my ward. silly things right? well I dont let myself get depressed. if I need a little "i feel sorry for myself" moment, I take it and move on. you're only depressed as long as you want to be depressed. or atleast thats how I see it... so i dont let myself be that way for very long.

tryin to stay positive...

some POSITIVE things going on right now:
-drew is starting his last spring semester of under-grad
-we're both healthy
-drew has a rockin job that is keepin us a float without problems
-we have the cutest little dog that keeps me company
-we get spoiled by the binghams (my relatives) every other sunday with dinner
-our pantry is full
-we're stocked with good movies
-we have family in arizona
-monthly packages from my mom
-i can make some bomb oatmeal choc. chip cookies
-theres a temple down the road from our apt
-clint (drew's brother) comes home in six months
-drew has amazing grades which will greatly help getting into dental school
-drew and i love eachother

and other things too. my mind is blanking. but see, there is stuff goin for us. I just gotta keep those negative thoughts away. and you just wait... in like ten years, we'll finally be caught up with everyone else on this whole thing people call life. haha.

A Rasmussen Christmas

2010-01-07T17:37:00.004-05:00

so these are a little out of order but it gives you a glimpse of christmas at dave and debs in good 'ole tennessee. i did forget to take a picture of their new plantation style home and didnt get any pictures of us playin games... that something my family really likes to do

two of our attempted family photos

the girls. I actually look like my sisters. i guess there is a first time for everything

Merry Christmas from the Rasmussens. I dont know which picture is better ^

showin off our matching christmas socks

watchin jayden open presents

we each got a square of a painting and we had to recreate it

christmas day with the elders

my favorites: Abi, Jayden, and Keaton

Christmas Preview

2010-01-02T21:32:00.003-05:00

so my camera died while I was in Tennessee over christmas break. so here are some of the pictures i did take. I'm still in the process of getting other ones from my momma. so these will just have to do for now.

some of the folks at our christmas eve dinner. deb and leandra look a lil silly..our version of the nativity. its kind of dark but the better lite one no one was lookin.
Shai was a wiseman, keaton a shepard, Abi was mary, Drew was joseph, and Paige the angel.

the grandkids on christmas eve. look at all those darn presents!

my family has a tradition of nerf gun wars with the missionaries on christmas. here are two of the contendors. haha. they were upstairs with my brother and sis-n-law and the elders and my dad were downstairs. it got pretty intense.

Family Pictures

2009-12-19T12:24:00.004-05:00

so on thursday we had some family pictures taken in hopes of sending out christmas cards. here are a few of them. We're totally hyped about them. Our friend Scott took them. If you like what you see, which im sure you do... check him out!
www.ssbphoto.com

Ten days 'til...

2009-12-12T18:27:00.003-05:00

... I get to see these cutie pies! I'm super excited to see my family. oh yes, meet Abi, Keaton, and little Jayden. They are my brothers kids and super cute dont you agree? Hopefully I can have kids this cute!

stay tuned for future pictures from our holiday adventures!

my new obsession

2009-12-06T23:52:00.002-05:00

So last week at church we had a combined 3rd block. In that class they talked of the new Family History search website. And for most of you my age youre probably thinking the same thing right now as I did when I heard it......"Family history..(eye roll)... I'm sure my families is done. And if its not, I wont have access to any information past 4 generation. Theres nothing I can do with it..(eye roll).." or something along those lines. It's like pioneer stories.. you appreciate the pioneers and what they did, you just dont want to hear about it every other second. Well.... LISTEN UP!!!

Family History work is AMAZING!!! And I'm gunna tell you why!

So in the class they kind of gave an over view of what can be done. I was like the above mentioned and figured mine was done. I seriously thought we'd only have info like 4 maybe 5 generations back. But the website looked easy so I atleast wanted to go look. And oh my lanta!! TONS AND TONS!!! I have some records that date back to the 1700s! Drew's goes back even further!

After I looked through and realized there was so much I could do I just turned into a green arrow junkie (green arrows mean work needs to be done). I became so excited when I submitted the information to be done. I'm not kidding. I was skipping around the house!!! I would get so into it.. I'd be up past midnight going through the information still. Drew would tell me to come to bed, and I would say.."I cant yet. they are waiting for me. They've been waiting so long for this"

It truly is amazing. I went to the temple early this week to do some work for some of the names I had submitted and what an experience! I helped seal 7 kids to their parents, 6 couples together, 2 inititories, 1 baptism, and 1 confirmation! I didnt have any super out of the ordinary experiences like some do when they take through family names, but it did just seem to mean more to me even though I had never even heard of the people I did work for. Just knowing they were my family made all the difference.

So, I challenge those of you who have not done so already... check out the new family history site. Even if its just to make sure your 4 generation chart is up to date. But we're the "clean up generation" and we need to make sure our family work has been done. It's blessed my life so much and I've only been doing it for a week! Try it out.

Below is kind of a sample starter. There is tons you can do on the site. If you have any questions let me know. you can email me at nikki.r.solomon@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let me tell ya how to get started. Well first off the website is new.familysearch.org
The website will have to register. For this you well need you member number (temple recommend holders.. you can find that number on your recommend) and also you confirmation number. They will have you set a user name and password to use each time you log on. Then it should take you to your information. The way I started my family predigree chart was to enter my parents names (if it doesnt come up already with your name)

On the welcome page go to add information. On the next page youre giving different choices.. for now select add family or individual that is connected to my family tree. The bottom portion of the screen will have the person you have selected and all their info. If your marriage was performed in the temple, your spouse should come up. Add parents names and birthdates. My whole ancestor line came up after entering my parents info. But for drews family I did have to add up to 3 generations. But it should all come up.. unless you are the only person in your family that is LDS then you might need to do a little more work.

But from there you should be able to see all of your relatives. There are a few symbols that lets you know the status of their temple work. If the relatives are still living there will be no box in the up right hand corner of their name. If a relative has died and all work as been completed there will be a temple picture with a check mark. If there is a temple with a yellow icon, temple work needs to be done, but someone has the information reserved. If there is a flashing green arrow, the work is available to do.

So select that green arrow and it might have you look over some possible dulpicates. Just look of the info and follow the prompts. Once that is complete (if the work does still need to be done) It will take you to the temple ordiances page. On that page any work you submit will automatically be assigned to you. You can chage it to the temple in the far right colum. Then you print off the page and take it to the temple for the to print the cards.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

just a little update

2009-11-30T18:23:00.004-05:00

I'll just pin point some recent happenings in our lives.

+ Drew and I volunteered at the Arizona IronMan triathlon last week... drew did it for extra credit in a class and I just went along for fun.

+ We had 3 thanksgiving dinners. One with our neighbor the day before, one with drew's family the day of, and one with my cousins that evening. Loved it! I made my "famous" chocolate pie

+ I hurt my knee somehow. My doctor uncle thinks I might have torn my meniscus. I'm gunna have an MRI done on it probably the first of the year for insurance reasons.. but it actually hasnt been hurting too bad lately. hopefully itll heal and no MRI and no surgery.

+ Drew starts finals this week. The end of the semester is in sight!

+ We spent some time with our visiting out of state friends.

+I continue to be HORRIBLE! at taking pictures. But we should be taking family pictures soon for christmas cards

Um.. I dont know what else. Probably nothing. But we are super pumped for the semester to be done and head to Tennessee to see my family for christmas! Sooo excited. Just think... this time next year... Drew will be graduating from ASU and finding out where he got into Dental School. Oh how 2010 will bring some happy times!

I tag.. everyone!!

2009-11-09T23:01:00.004-05:00

Copy and paste this into a new note. Replace with your answers.

1. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE?

Well, back in Oklahoma I dated Drews cousin off and on for a long! time. so we kinda became long distant friends

2. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST DATE?

Um... this is tough. He had just gotten home from his mission so everyone was all over him for like two weeks straight. I think the first time we actually got away to go do something is when we went to the cannery and worked a 4 hours shift together. haha... we packed ketchup.

3. HOW LONG DID YOU DATE BEFORE YOU GOT ENGAGED?

4 almost 5 months-- mind you we'd known eachother 7+ years

4. HOW DID YOUR FIANCE PROPOSE?

let me just say, i knew it was coming. Drew and I were supposed to fly into utah around the same time over christmas break and get engaged shortly thereafter. Well, because of weather I was stuck in Kansas City, Missouri an extra day because of a freak snowstorm. So I finally get into utah the next day. Drew;s off snowboarding with a mission friend, I had to work for somebody. Still hadnt seen drew in like.. almost a month. So finally... prolly 9 pm we finally meet up, I'm beat- tired and looking. I lay down half asleep from the day and he starts playin me a song he wrote. Towards the end I think it said something like.. will you be my princess and let me be your prince charming. When the song was over he said.. soo...??? and pulled out the ring. haha! I cried through the whole song.

5. WHAT JOBS DID YOU TWO HAVE WHILE YOU WERE ENGAGED?
I worked for horrible Sears and Drew worked for Safeway Pharmacy

6. HOW LONG WERE YOU ENGAGED?

a little under 5 months

7. HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU GOT MARRIED?
I was just months short of 21 and he was even closer to being 22

8. WHEN DID YOU GET MARRIED?

May 16, 2008

9. WHAT WERE YOUR COLORS ?

Pink and green

10. HOW MANY BRIDESMAIDS DID YOU HAVE?

zero!! too much drama for me

11. WHO WAS YOUR MAID OF HONOR?
no one! my best friend at the time was bein a butt!

12. WHERE WAS THE CEREMONY?

Mesa, AZ temple

13. DID YOU HAVE A DJ OR BAND?

neither. I think we ended up with an ipod dock?

14. DID YOU HAVE A SONG YOU DANCED TO AND WHAT WAS IT?

nope, no song, no dancing. sad huh

15. DID ANYTHING GO WRONG AT THE WEDDING OR RECEPTION?

The florist completely jacked my bouquet. I mean horrible!! They were supposed to be multiple colors of pink with the slightest bit of green. Instead it ended up green with the tiniest bit of light pink. and my sisters tried to tell them to change it and they refused! So I had to go a lil bridezilla on them before i left for the temple. haha

16.. WHAT CAR DID YOU LEAVE IN AND WHAT DID IT LOOK LIKE?
Drew's accord. It was clean. No one touched it.. I kinda wish they woulda. Would have made for better exit pictures.

17. WHERE DID YOU GO FOR YOUR HONEYMOON?

we stayed at the Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix for a couple of days then went on tour with our reception wagon to Oklahoma and Tennessee. Ha! we didnt really have time for a honeymoon

8. WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT?
um...looking at him across the alter in the temple during our sealing.

19. WOULD YOU HAVE CHANGED ANYTHING IF YOU COULD?

yes! a dj and dancing for sure. a different month even.. way too hot! and definately a lengthy non receptions involved honeymoon

20. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN MARRIED?
a year and 6 months

look who got a haircut!

2009-11-05T13:36:00.003-05:00

isnt he just a cutie!

halloween of champions

2009-11-05T13:06:00.003-05:00

Well not exactly. This year drew and I didnt really have a lot going on for halloween. we both just kinda through costume ideas together and this is how it turned out..

I was goin for the ipod commercial.. i just didnt black out my face

eric foreman, anyone?

Pumpkin carving

2009-10-25T17:02:00.002-04:00

preparing the pumpkins

serious faces..haha.. and kelly playin with a scalpel

our finished pumpkins. (L-R) Grandpa Fred, the headless horseman, and a bat

yesterday our friends kelly and spencer came over for some pizza and pumpkin carving. This was my first time believe it or not. I've cleaned pumpkins out before but my dad always did the carving. The one on the left is mine.. grandpa fred. Ha! it was supposed to be a witch but ended up lookin more like an old man so we named him Grandpa Fred. haha! it was lots of fun.
Good food, good fun, great company. Thanks for comin guys!

Kristen & Conrad's wedding

2009-10-19T11:11:00.004-04:00

So It finally happened! Kristen is married. this is the cute couple right after they were married.

Drew and I at the reception.. this is such a bad angle on our faces

the bride and groom with there awesome exit (rockin a 4 wheeler)

haha! this is too funny. you cant tell but we were dancing and Drew dancing.. you just have to see it. He was getting really in to it. I couldnt stop laughing

Our wedding crew: Jill, me looking prego (which i'm not!), Drew, and cousin Niklas (he even caught the garter)

Falling for Fall

2009-10-12T21:37:00.005-04:00

so I've really been trying to get into the fall season. Its a little difficult here in Arizona because the weather hasnt quite changed yet. Dont get me wrong, I'm much enjoying the 80 degree weather over the 100+ we had weeks ago. But it just hasnt hit me yet. I love the fall smells of spices, pumpkin, campfires outside...aaaggghhh.

I've gotten some seasonal candles to start it off. Well, its not exactly fall frangrance but it sure is yummy! Then today I made some pumpkin bread. first time ever! I came across the recipe last night and thought it just might be the ticket!

I had a little bit of a hard time finding mini bread pans so I settled for the disposable ones (Deb said it was okay). But they sure are cute! Deb also said you can make them in soup cans for a different look, she actually prefered that way because she said you could wrap them up cuter. who knows. haha
I did have some difficulty getting the time down. My oven (which usually works great) was struggling today stayin hot. So I think the first batch (3 loaves) were in for almost 40 minutes as opposed to the 20 they are supposed to be in. But I got it figured out and they are fine. Non of them burned so dont worry.

the finished product. Sorry I started eating this loaf before I decided to take a picture of it. haha. but it sure is yummy. It'll be a nice 'welcome home from a long day' for drew. In case anyone wants Deb's recipe its as follows:

2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
2 cups pumpkin
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 boxes vanilla pudding (not instant)

Mix sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. Add flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add 2 boxes of vanilla pudding. Add nuts if desired.

Use soup cans or small loaf pans.
Spray with Pam and fill 3/4 full.

Bake at 350:
soup cans- 40 mins
tomato sauce cans- 20-25 mins
mini loaf pans- 20-25 mins

NOTE: one thing I learned, the middle should be firm to touch before removing from oven ;)

enjoy!

bye bye belly fat

2009-09-30T16:47:00.003-04:00

so Ive turned a lil crazy against my belly. I'm just super sick of it. Drew and I were talkin the other day about an older family pic of mine and he said my cheeks were filled out more then..which I didnt completely understand since I was atleast 25 lbs lighter. So the more I thought about it, the worse I felt about it. Now I highly doubt I can lose 25 lbs. but I'm tryin for somethin! I always thought I wouldnt so much care if I had a belly as long as I didnt have love handles.. well, I have both! haha.

so my approach to fixing the problem is actually working out! huge for me! To start, I weigh myself before anything on my trusty wii fit then start some zumba. I take a class on saturday but figured I should prolly hit it up during the week as well. I found some good ones on youtube and do that for about an hour.

after that I hit up my quality workout dvds. I'll do one or two of the '10 min abs' then I'll change gears and do 30 mins of pilates (id do more but thats all there is on the dvd)

then lastly, I do free step on the wii fit (under the aerobics portion) for 30 mins.

I will take breaks occasionally and maybe have a healthy snack. So working out like crazy, eating better, and a lot less of it... hopefully I'll see some results!

the New Tooth project

2009-09-15T13:43:00.004-04:00

Well as i have been saying for awhile, I got a new tooth, in a non-oklahoma country white trash way. haha! thats how i feel when I talk about it. but yep, I had some work done on my problematic front tooth. I hadnt been to the dentist in almost 3 years and I've gone in over that in the last one and a half. I guess I had to catch up or something.

But anyway.. the process: the big thing (besides the horrible color) was I had excess gum tissue on my bad tooth. so they did some shock stuff on it to kill the tissue then cut it away. After that they filed down my tooth to this ugly little stub that I refused to look at but accidentally saw today. (Thats when I felt way white trash) After that they made me this temp tooth outta this plastic stuff I guess. Idk. Looked kinda legit. I had that for roughly 2 and a half weeks. But today I got to go in and get the real deal. And its porcelain baby! Haha. The shape isnt as perfect as I'd like it to be but you probably cant really tell

BEFORE: note the coloring/ gum line

AFTER: the finished product

quite the improvement wouldnt you say? they look more.. adult like I guess

no pictures

2009-09-12T20:09:00.004-04:00

I really dont like updating without posting pictures to go along with it. I have no pictures. But I knew if I didnt say a lil somethin somethin it would never happen again. So some highlights..

My birthday was last week. (no pics were taken, Im horrible i know) Didnt do alot. Drew was busy with school and work. But dont worry, he took me to dinner and Oreganos the weekend before to get it in. And I told him all I wanted for my birthday from him were flowers. He did a great job with those. My mom sent me a package that came the morning of my birthday. She sent me two tops (which I surprisingly like alot), a brownie mix, and money! You can never go wrong with money. But I should take a pic of the tops, I think you'd like 'em. After taking my time gettin ready, I went to lunch with my Aunt Karen, cousins: Jamie and her daughter, Kristen, Kelly and her two girls. It was fun and I felt pretty cool that they invited me to lunch. I've always wanted to "fit" in with them. haha. they're great! Oh and Drew left me his card to go buy the second book of the hunger games: catching fire. If you havent read the series, get after it. They are A-MAZ-ING! Thanks Cami for getting us all hooked

What else has happened? Institute is going great. I really like my teacher and learning new things about the book of mormon. Drew is full blown into school now. He'll be starting his 4 week on monday and has a lot of tests that week. He's also been checkin out some styles of dentistry. I'm pretty sure he still wants to do oral but who knows. He changes his mind every other hour with that stuff.

Speaking of denistry, I get my new tooth on tuesday! wahoo! dont freak I'm not walkin around missing a tooth. I had the starting stages of a crown done on my front tooth. See previous post. I've had a temp for the last two weeks. Its grown on me, but I really hope the new one just blows me away. I want it to look amazing! I will forsure post before and after pictures.

Nothing really happening other than that... yup!

Institute

2009-08-26T00:16:00.002-04:00

so tonight was my first night of my book of mormon institute class. I really like the teacher. Theres a girl in there that might cause some problems but the teacher is real chill so itll work out. I like bein able to leave with stuff I didnt know before I went. Thats my favorite. So after class they had pizza and such. At first I was debating on whether I wanted to stay or not. I did end up staying and inviting myself to a table. I just didnt really felt like I belonged. they are all college students, single college students. I had announced that I was married and it was like a red flag went up. I dont regret being married, I just feel out of place at institute. But you know, I'm there to learn. Increase my spirituality. Not "fit in" I guess I'm right back in to the fellowshipping circle. ha! thats the only way I can meet people I swear. No one reaches out to me.

Also today I got a crown put on my front tooth. That tooth has been giving me problems for years. so it was about time. And since we finally have dental insurance I took advantage. I dont really like the temperary tooth, but what can you do. the color looks tons better. He also trimmed back the gums on that tooth. I had some excess, but thats what is makin it look so bad right now. I'll do a before and after pic later. Once my gums are so red and swollen.

But yep! thats what's up.

Utah Highlights

2009-08-13T12:41:00.007-04:00

here are some of my favorite parts of our current trip to utah! Above: we were able to go to the SLC temple for a live session. It was awesome to be able to go for the first time in awhile. We were also able to go to the Timpanogos Temple for our friends sealing. See below.

The man and lady of the weekend! Drews trainer Briant got married to this cutie, Camille on tuesday. The whole reason for the trip. congrats you guys

Drew's companion, Kyle, came to visit us. He brought his cruiser! So right when he walked in the door I told him he was gunna be giving me a ride on it later. It was soo much fun. I havent riden on one since summer '07. thanks Kyle!

while hanging out with another one of drews companions, we hit up Juice Press (only the best smoothie place ever) and Ernies Sports Deli for some rockin sandwiches.

We got to go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory (twice actually) for their AAMMMAAAZZZING carmel apples. The one I have here has carmel, chocolate, white chocolate, tiger butter, marshmellows, and rice krispys. its my favorite ever!

As you can see, we had a pretty good time. We stayed with drews high school friends, Alex and Karina in West Jordan. It was fun hangin out with them. We saw a couple more mission friends, even both mission presidents. i was able to see Jana. And Kyle from above took us out for breakfast to One Man Band. Anyone that goes to utah, I would recommend it. Cheaper breakfast but definately not lacking in quality. Oh, and drew actually admitted to liking utah. thats HUGE!

Old photos

2009-08-06T16:13:00.005-04:00

so like I said in my last post, I've been organizing things. During such I came across some older pictures. Mind you, they are only from the last couple years. All others are at my parents house. But here are a couple I found that I thought were kinda fun.After my family moved to Tennessee we would visit our old lives. this particular visit was right before my friend Cameron was to head off on his mission. So my mom, paige, and myself took him out to lunch. Here we are reenacting the airport scene from Saturdays Warriors.

this picture is of me and Kira. I dont really remember how old we are. But I'm pretty sure it was taken on the campus of Pitt-State in Kansas. We had a Bi-Stake youth conference there one year. Its actually a pretty classic photo. We both look pretty good, too.

Yes, that is one lovely oldsmobile I'm sitting on. One week senior year, my parents went out of town or something leaving me and paige home alone. No big. Except the week they decided to go, my car, Cavi, decided she was gunna freak out and start smoking! big problems! and for some reason both of my parents cars were gone too leaving us without transportation during the school semester. so we got in touch with our family mechanic and he gave us this beauty as a longer. Let me tell ya, we looked pretty rockin rollin up in the thing to school.

Memory Lane

2009-08-03T19:28:00.002-04:00

so after a weekend of thrift store shopping, I decided I would go through my closet and see if there was anything I could donate to D.I. Well I got a good sized box of clothes/shoes. Then I started organizing this cabinet deal I have in my closet that has school books, pictures from the years and just stuff. So I have tons and tons of pictures. Alot were junk ones of people I dont even remember from college years. But I did make a pile that I'll eventually make a post with. I just wanted to share a message from my dad on my 19th birthday card.

"We have lost count of the number of boys who have come in and out of your life... keep learning from them and you will someday find the keeper."

I just think its too funny. I did go through quite alot of boys that summer, but that was only the beginning.. hahaha. But you know, I did learn alot. And it was so many mostly because I bounced back very fast. Ha! But the important thing is I found my keeper, Drew.

Haha. Just a little random update from me. I'll post some pictures soon.

Dave and Deb

2009-07-29T11:07:00.003-04:00

So as some of you know, my mom came to Arizona last week. I had a cousin getting married so she came to help, but hung out that whole week. She's pretty rockin. Pictures from the trip are to come later. But here's a slide show my sister did for my parents 30th anniversary. Look for me, I'm the cute one ;)

A glimpse of Drew's 23rd

2009-07-15T15:51:00.007-04:00

We went to famous Dave's on drew's bday with his fam. Wilbur was there so we snapped up a pic with him

Then we went back to the apt for some cake and ice cream.

The next day we went bowling with his posse. Alisha brought mustaches in honor of the birthday boy

Drew looking hard- core with a few of his things Check the handle bar mustache

happy-weekend-getaway

2009-07-06T15:42:00.008-04:00

so this weekend we went to New Mexico. We didnt do too
much just kinda hung out with some homies, got soaked in
rain, eat some super hot mexican food, saw some people
smoke pot, lots of booze (we didnt drink, no worries), and
we watched a crazy A roman candle war. that was our
weekend. Happy 4th everybody!

goin' on 30 years

2009-06-26T14:41:00.003-04:00

Dave and Deb's 30th anniversary is comin up July 6th. Shai is putting together a scrapbook for 'em from our family trip this year and has some extra room. she's thinkin of doing kind of what we did for my wedding one. Your memories, well wishes, congratulations, love notes, etc..

If you guys would like to help, you henryetta ward family, I'm talkin to you, send 'em on over. you can do it on here, facebook, email me* or shai**. maybe have them done by Sunday? they dont have to be anything long.

*nikki.r.solomon@gmail.com
** shairasmussen@hotmail.com

but c'mon, arent they just presh?! oh man, i just love them!

New hair!

2009-06-21T15:16:00.002-04:00

well, same hair. only shorter. ha. this is kind of a bad pic, oh well. we actually took this to send to my dad this morning with a voice recording. so this is us, at church, rocking our calling in the library. Drews hair is almost as long as mine now.

Night Night

2009-06-12T17:54:00.002-04:00

Isnt he precious?! I dont know what it is about bed time that Karabi just loves. He has to sleep with us. If he doesn't, he'll whine until you give in. Last night when we were getting ready for bed, Karabi hopped up and started settling in to go to sleep. Well Drew thought it was only appropiate to tuck him in. Hahah!

Don't worry, Karabi did finally surrender Drew's spot in bed and went to the foot of the bed. Thats his favorite, right in front of the fan.

I dont know what it is about chris..

2009-06-06T00:38:00.002-04:00

so after a long sucky day of work, I was unwinding to some dashboard on my way home. And I could help but get a flood of memories. Mostly ones of friends I've lost. no not died. just lost. most of the ones that came to mind were because of my stupid hormones that led to late night, regrettable kisses. haha. others because of stupid girls. but it really makes me sad that i lost those friendships. and sad that I'll probably never be able to regain on with those individuals.

but heres to chris carraba, for helping me remember.

-Nikki

Hey, atleast I'm trying

2009-06-05T12:21:00.004-04:00

Meet Allison, she's my daily pilates instructor. yep, thats right, I'm actually working out. i only do it at home, cause i dont really have time or money for anything else. It says guaranteed results in ten workouts. im at that point and dont really see it. But I feel smaller, I just dont know if I really look like it.

But hey, its makin me feel good and again, atleast I'm tryin.
Check her out, The Firm's Sculpt and Tone Pilates.

-Nikki

And it begins.

2009-06-02T15:37:00.003-04:00

Summers in arizona are anything but pleasant. triple digits everyday. lots of work. not so much time with the husband. I miss my utah summers. boating, pool parties, floatin the provo, motorcycle rides... let me just day dream a minute about that....
.....
.....
.....
.....

okay. sadly it wont happen again. but here's whats been going on. Drew started his summer job, door to door pest control. Ha! He only did it a week and made like 5 sales. pretty darn good I'd say. but it wasnt really working out for us. Sure there was a potiental of getting decent money, eventually. But I seriously never saw him until sunday. so he started looking for a new job. And sure enough, he got one. He's gunna work for a insurance company filling scripts. Its gunna be a nice hook up. Pretty good pay, 40 hrs a week, and medical and dental insurance! finally! im excited.

as for me, sears is still gay. im still there. arizona is in a crazy hiring freeze for everyone but drew solomon. oh, and massage is super slow because im at sears. but you gotta go where you'll for sure get money. what can ya do.

So all an all, I might actually do something this summer since we'll have money and ill actually be able to see drew. he talks of a trip, california, maybe a cruise? who knows. but i think we'll hit utah in august for his buddy's wedding. oh! and Deb is coming out next month. you just cant get enough of her. hahaha. i really do like her guys.

Nauvoo

2009-05-26T21:57:00.003-04:00

the family + 2

Oxen Rides

Our Pioneer family

We would have looked pretty good as pioneers, huh?

The trip went well. the weather was perfect. I loved the green and lightning bugs at night. We just toured and hung out together at the condos. Nimit, Paige's bf, brought his wii and that kept us very entertained when we werent touring. The family went to the temple on Friday. I didnt go sadly, I wasnt feeling too well. so I spent the morning with the kids.
All and all, it was pretty fun. These are just a few of the pictures from the trip. If you want more check out my facebook or get with shai. she took alot.

um, yep.

One year down, eternity to go...

2009-05-12T22:28:00.002-04:00

Thats right, Drew and I are coming up on our one year anniversary. Crazy huh. I cant believe its gone that fast!!

School is down for drew, finally. no worries, he's still a genius. He thinks his gpa might have slipped to a 3.94. oh no! heaven forbid. haha. he;s great. And with school being done and summer right next door, it's Rasmussen family vaca time. Yep, the Rasmussen clan (plus me and drew-we're solomons remember) are heading to Nauvoo next Wednesday. I've been before as you Ft Smith stake kids remember, we went for youth conference a couple years ago. But it'll be exciting. I'll be able to actually do a session in the Nauvoo temple. Drew has never been before so that'll be fun. Also, Paige's recently baptized boyfriend, Nimit, is coming too. so that'll be awesome to watch him recomfirm what he was just taught. So be ready for tons of pictures of the trip in future posts.

Welp, We're over to Famous Daves. yum yum

-Nikki

It's official...

2009-05-01T01:47:00.002-04:00

I, Nikki Solomon, am a failure at life.

I didnt get the job. I guess I'm no better than sears. and there i'll stay for the rest of my life. yay... seriously. talk about a self esteem buster. I dont know what ill do now.

i just need some time to breathe

2009-04-28T14:46:00.003-04:00

Here goes some updates on life in the Drew Solomon family...

'll start with last week, the longest week ever! Massage has finally picked up and it has picked up a lot!! I had 8 last week alone. Doesn;t seem like tons for you massage therapist, but for me when I usually only had one a week, 8 is huge! Plus, on top of that, I had a ton more hours at sears becuase the shoe lead recently retired and they have yet to find a replacement. very exhausting week. and again, it probably would be a normal day for anyone else, but i lead a very chillaxed lifestyle. very rarely do I work both jobs in a day. I did both every day this last week. wow.

to give you an example of how out of it I was... I tried to walk out of sears with the money bags. yeah. who does that. not me! When a buddy from LP said something to me during my walk to the door, I was in such shock! I could have sworn I turned them in. haha. yeah it was rough. I dont need to steal!

then I got offered the lead position for the shoe department at sears. just thought, no way! but the store manager wanted me to think about, i did. turned him down. then he started trying to talk me into it. crazy fool! he was willing to work with my massage schedule, which was nice. but neither of us were willing to cave on Sundays. I didnt want to work them, he wanted me to. so that settled it without any arguement. Drew told me something better would come along because i did what was right.

Well a couple weeks ago I applied at a credit union because Clifton (the singer in drews band) said they would be having an opening soon (he also works there). So I applied no big. So a couple days after i turned down sears on the promotion, I heard from the bank. I had the interview today and I'll find out either way by the end of the week. I'm kind of excited. it's a huge pay jump! so hopefully it'll go well. fingers crossed!

Drew is still doing good. just finishing up school like everyone else. then he's off to sell pest control for Moxie. We kinda have mixed emotions about that, but we'll see how it goes.

Karabi is still being crazy. haha. man i love that dog! he's my lil friend.

I want to try and get a 'family photo' taken and put up so you guys can see all is well. haha, if you even care. but thats life for right now. its definately going. Luckily I'm getting a much needed massage today. thank goodness for that! welp, thats about it.

-Nikki

My life's mixtape

2009-04-25T11:21:00.006-04:00

- Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
- Put it on shuffle
- Press play
- For every question, type the song that's playing
- When you go to a new question, press the next button
- Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool either.

1. Opening Credits: Franklin, Paramore

2. Waking Up: Send me an angel, Thrice

3. First Day At School: All down hill from here, New Found Glory

4. Falling In Love: Hundred, The Fray

5. Fight Song: Hysteria, Muse

6. Breaking Up: Tune out, the Format

7. Prom: Say goodbye, The Click Five

8. Life: Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the year, Fall Out Boy

9. Mental Breakdown: Super Duper Love (are you diggin on on), Joss Stone

10. Driving: Allison Knause, The Stills

11. Flashback: I believe I can fly, Me first and the gimme gimmes

12. Getting back together: Panis Angelicus, Josh Groban

13. Losing your virginity: You to thank, Ben folds

14. Wedding: Reflections, From Autum to Ashes

15. Birth of Child: Wretched Boy, donots (hahaha!!)

16. Final Battle: Throw your body in the air, MXPX

17. Funeral Song: Rocket, Mae

18. The end credits: Over my head (Better off dead), Sum 41

I'm happy with that. I probably wouldnt have picked them myself but I think it'd make for a good mixtape. Matter of fact, I'm guna burn a CD with them all on it right now. Enjoy

-Nikki

where'd he come from?!

2009-04-15T22:45:00.005-04:00

So I was just catching up on the Dancing with the stars week 6 result show and rascal flatts were the guest musicians. Well, I like their stuff sure, but I had no idea they had such a hot guitar player. When I saw him I didnt even know he was 'in the band'. I'm not a really big country person so I didnt even know what the other two guys of the band looked like. Anyway... he's a hottie. I looked really hard for good pics and this is the best i can come up with.

Joe Don Rooney (silly name, hot man)

On heavy rotation

2009-03-31T23:40:00.002-04:00

..Fear and Love by We shot the moon. This CD has been rockin in the neon for the last month or so. Ever since City Knights (Drew's band) played with them in concert. So this song is my favorite. Like, of all songs out and about, this one is whats up for me. If you havent checked 'em out yet, do so. I think you'll like 'em.

Enjoy

Is the end coming?

2009-03-30T13:23:00.002-04:00

Well we were informed on Sunday that our road through nursery might be coming to an end. I must say, even though i wasnt stoked to have the nursery calling, its kind of spoiled me in not having to do too much. Its very low key.

Where will this next calling take us......
the library. oh boy. haha! but like i said before, this is just a chance. they still need to find our replacements.

On the bright side, after being in the ward almost a year, maybe i'll finally be able to meet some people in it!

Our little Karabi

2009-03-22T15:30:00.007-04:00

So We finally got a dog!! YAY! We named him Karabi after Dashboard confessional's Chris Carrabba. He's a lil yorkie mix. I think he's part shih tzu. Karabi is just so prescious! He's under a year and we're currently trying to potty train him. He's actually picking it up, but that is probably due to an incident of running into the sliding glass door. Let me explain so you dont think I abused him or something...

We have a little yard behind our aparment that we share with the neighbors. Anyway, the grass was a little long and Karabi was still jsut getting used to the place. I took him out to go potty but didnt really want to go because the grass was a little longer. So I figured he didnt need to go and we came in. Like seconds later, he decided he was guna try and pee on the carpet. Bad move. I caught him in the act, clapped real loud to get his attention and he jump and ran around me towards the back door. Well the blinds were currently open about a foot or so exposing the glass door. I guess to him it looked open and he was getting outside as fast as he could. and BAM! head first right in to it. I felt so bad for him. But on the bright side, he hasnt peed inside since. Ha!

But he's a great little guy. I just love him. He just wants to be close all the time. He doesnt bark, well, he currently does at himself in the mirror. We just got him groomed and he still doesnt recognize himself. Silly kid. Aw, he's just so great. You'd love him. I couldn't have asked for a better dog. If you want to meet him, let me know. He'd love it

-Nikki

sorry cara in advance

2009-03-15T23:54:00.003-04:00

Chocolate is my alcohol.

I had a rough time at sears this weekend. So I decided I needed a little something. Luckily, red lobster was just across the street from the mall. The Chocolate Wave. Oh man is it amazing! Drew's converted. Well worth the 6 bucks per slice. Hey, I told you, rough weekend at sears.

-Nikki

Crispy Ranch Chicken

2009-02-24T19:47:00.004-05:00

1 1/2 cups of cornflake crumbs
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups ranch salad dressing
3 pounds chicken pieces (breasts, legs, thighs)
(i only used a pound and just chicken breasts)

*Preheat oven to 375. combine cornflakes, rosemary, salt and pepper in medium bowl.
*Pour salad dressing in separate medium bowl. Dip chicken pieces in salad dressing, coating well. Dredge coated chicken in crumb mixture.
* Place in 13x9-inch baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake 50-55 minutes or until juices run clear. Serve with desired side dishes.
Makes 6 servings (ours made 2-4 since we only used a pound)

There ya go. Yet another recipes from Nikki's kitchen. Its pretty simple. Not sure how it tastes yet, ha! its still cooking. I'll be sure you let you know. it sure does smell good though.

Enjoy!
-Nikki

Edward Cullen @ Sears

2009-02-22T23:11:00.002-05:00

Yep you heard me right, Edward Cullen. Okay so not the actual Robert Pattison but i swear they could be twins. this guy I work with, Ross, just has the look. You know how in the movie, Edward just kinda hung out by his car with that look. Serious but super sexy? Thats all this Ross kid does! Ha, I'm such a goof for even posting this.

This was really on my mind because I started to read twilight again. And it's everything twilight right now. I even dream in twilight. ha, you know where I experience similar things. So of course I cant help but stare at this kid from across the store.

I'm not gunna lie, I have this desire to just go kiss him. Not because he's Ross, but because my mind is thinking in Twilight and I would totally kiss Edward. Now come on ladies, married or not, you know you totally would too.

Don't worry. I won't. haha. Just wanted to tell ya... the edward cullen look alike is totally in sears.

-Nikki

chocolate cookie pudding

2009-02-17T23:13:00.003-05:00

sounds good, right? man it is. and super easy too. i know like forever ago i was gunna do a once a week recipe. ha! that lasted how long, a week?! I suck at life i know. ha! so i decided to give you guys (my whole two readers) the recipe for a new dessert. Drew and I kinda considered it our belated valentines dessert. you should try it out!

1 (5.9) package of chocolate instant pudding mix
2 cups of milk
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened (i used 1/3 less cream cheese)
1 (8-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
16 double-stuffed cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed (about 2 cups)(we used double stuffed oreos)
3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

*whisk together pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes. Cover and chill 5 minutes.
*stir together cream cheese and whipped topping, blending well
*place 1 cup crushed cookies evenly on bottom of an 8-cup bowl. Spread half of cream cheese mixture over crushed cookies; sprinkle with half of pecans. spread all of pudding evenly over top; spread remaining cream cheese mixture evenly over pudding. Sprinkle remaining cookies and pecans. chill until ready to serve
Yield: 6-8 servings

enjoy some good eatin'!
-Nikki