Justin, Amy, and Kamryn

Kamryn's First Dance Recital

2011-06-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

Kamryn is 2. In every way.

2010-10-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

BEWARE THE TERRIBLE TWO YEAR OLD.

Seriously, that says it all. We have completely entered into the world of the sassy "NO!," the talking in her crib for 1-2 hours before falling asleep, the freaking out when she doesn't get something she wants, the shaking of all her extremities when in a moment of frustration, and my personal favorite- the arching of the back/throw herself onto the floor/screaming til her face turns purple tantrum. Oh yes, that usually happens in public. Oh the joys of having an emotional 2 year old.

On the other hand- Kamryn is talking a ton. She loves to sing along to her songs in the car. She is so obsessed with the playroom at the gym and nursery at church that she even waves and says "Bye Mom!" when I leave her there. She giggles like CRAZY when she is being tickled. She often runs up to me and hugs my legs for no reason at all. When she sees me getting into my exercise clothes, she asks if we are going to the gym. When I get into a skirt, she asks if we are going to church. And when I get in regular clothes she asks if we are going to the store or Chelsea's house. We lead very predictable lives:)

She's crazy. And even though I would like to give her back sometimes, I do love her to pieces.

Our little China Doll all dressed up for the ward trunk or treat
A request to call Papa before we can leave

Of course I have to include the token hair picture

Some fun times at one of the local pumpkin patches

The tantrum we got when it was time to leave...

But our little booger still has the cutest face I've ever seen!

Hairdos, Hampers, and Hangin Out

2010-07-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

HAIRDOS
I have been borderline obsessed with interesting ways to do Kamryn's hair lately. When I go to sleep at night... I think about different hair styles I can try on Kamryn's hair. Some work and some don't. Justin gets a tad annoyed at how much time I spend on it, but that hasn't really stopped me. The ladies at the gym playroom tell me they look forward to seeing how Kamryn's hair will look each time she comes in. So I can't disappoint, right? Hence the variety of hairstyles you will see on my child any given day.

Her Hawaiian themed look for church
Try to ignore the annoyed look on her face... focus on the hair:)
Hair experiment... Before-
Hair experiment... After-
More random hair styles... We have lots of fun trying new things

HAMPERS
Kamryn has been borderline obsessed with watching TV in her hamper. I don't know when it started or how it started. All I know is that every morning, like clockwork, she gets her hamper, puts it in front of the TV, and wants to watch her morning show. It's pretty amusing.

HANGIN OUT
It's rough being a 1 (almost 2) year old. Lots of cuddling with her blanket, lookin cute, getting loves from her dad, and finding random things around the house to entertain herself with.

This is the matting out of a frame I bought. I took the mat out and put it on the couch. Next thing I know, Kamryn is wearing it as a necklace.

Hangin out in my tennis shoes. It was hilarious watching her walk around in those big ole things. And she seriously got on the couch on her own while wearing the shoes. Very talented
Some Sunday afternoon cuddle time with Dad.
And Kamryn with her beloved "Night night" aka blanket

I can't believe she is going to be 2 in September. Yikes.

Overdue Update...

2010-05-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

Time flies, huh? I have become extremely lackadaisical in the blogging department and I know one day I will regret that. So I really will try to do better. The problem is, unlike my bro and sis in law and their little kids, the Vegas Grundy's don't really do anything exciting. So I just have to wait until I compile some random snapshots that I have taken over a period of time. Hence, the following blog.

Kamryn is now 20 months old and is just too fun. You never know what you are going to get on any given day which makes life very interesting. Her loves are airplanes, Little Einsteins, dogs that do not bark, her MOM, her Papa:), her cousins (Utah and Vegas ones), the park, singing songs, her dad (on most days), going outside, ROCKS, baby dolls, floating in the pool with her floaties, saying NO (that's a fun one), looking at pictures of family, her friends from playgroup, and climbing out of the grocery cart.

Her dislikes are being away from her mother, not being able to watch "a show", going to nursery, riding in the car, any type of food she has not seen before, animals that make any sort of noises, her mother doing her hair, someone taking something she has, being scolded or told what to do, being left in the bath tub unattended (even for a second), her mom taking a shower, and being bored in general. She is a hoot and has the cheesiest grin ever. We love her terribly, on good and bad days:)

We took Kam to see the water show at the Bellagio and she liked it much more than she did the last time we were there. So funny how things like that change.

We also took her to the Petting Zoo. Not exactly like we planned. She loves animals on cartoons and in books. Real life... not so much. The noises and moving scared her to death. It was a very short visit. However, she enjoyed sitting on the bench OUTSIDE the zoo and on the train:)

Hanging out with her buddy Clive

Having fun on the merry-go-round with dad

And Swimming! She loves boppin around in the deeper part of the pool. She just giggles and giggles.Check out those sweet love handles!I am absolutely in love with her swimsuit:)

Morning hair and smiles are the best.

Kamryn is almost in nursery...

2010-02-20T12:49:00.001-08:00

I know I have been a terrible blogger lately... but I have some good excuses. I won't bore you with all of them, but the biggest reason I never blog is because we don't really ever have anything exciting to blog about. Justin has been working like crazy, and Kamryn and I have just been keeping busy going to the gym, grocery store, occasional playgroups, and watching Backyardigans. I rarely get the camera out, and when I do, it is usually either because of a cute outfit or cute hairdo (on Kamryn, of course). So I finally gathered enough cute hairdos and cute outfits to post a blog.

Kamryn is hilarious and laughs all the time. But occasionally she will get in these moods where I cannot get her to smile for the life of me. Hence, this picture. It was supposed to be a cute hair picture... but she was having no part of that.

Pretty self-explanatory... definitely cute outfit picture. Thanks Grandma!

Grandma also got this shopping cart for Kamryn. She loves putting random things in it and pushing it around. However, this is her newest use for the cart. She will just sit on it and watch a show or something. It's too funny. P.S. Notice the adorable pink converse on her feet... courtesy of one Stan Grundy. Thanks Papa!

Starting early... already a fan.

Her biggest love in the world...her blanket. She has always slept with her blanket but has just recently become super attached to it. It's so cute when she cuddles up to it. I love it!

This was a new hairdo I tried. It takes forever but it's fun to try something different. Her hair is getting a bit longer every day.

Valentine's Day outfits. One for church, and one for the rest of the day.

A rare photo of Kam and her mama.

Her current TV stance... arms folded at the hands, and a cute little grin on her face.

This is what she normally does when she actually sees me pull out the camera...

I am totally serious. The only reason she is crying in either of these pictures is because she didn't want me to take a picture. Little stinker.

Ahhhh... love me a Kamryn smile:)
P.S. Less than a month until nursery! WooHoo!

Toddlerish...

2009-12-16T20:09:00.001-08:00

Lady in Red (and pig-tails)

Fun times at the park...

Winter-Wear...

Post Nap Hair-do...

Happy October

2009-11-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Fall has finally come. However the only way us folks down here in Vegas know that it has come is because we celebrated Halloween. With the exception of a few chilly days, the weather has mostly stayed in the eighties for the better part of October. Despite the VERY warm weather, we were still excited for the holiday. Kamryn was only a month old last Halloween, so this was basically her first, and we had lots of fun. We went to two trunk-or-treats and left with no candy. Kamryn was not too excited about walking around with a bag and getting candy from people. So she just roamed around. Usually pretty aimlessly. But she was the cutest little ladybug ever.

This was the practice run at home to see if she would keep her little hood on. It lasted about 10 seconds.

On the way to the trunk-or-treat. We had to have a back up plan in case she didn't wear her hood at the trunk-or-treat. The back up plan was the ladybug bow. Not quite as cute as the antennae, but it worked.

Checking out the church parking lot...

And she kept her hood on the entire time!

We also went to the pumpkin patch with the Mann clan. Kamryn had fun even though she was too young to ride any of the rides. She was in awe of the pumpkins that were the same size as she was.

Maybe next year she will be able to participate in some of the fall festivities a little more.

Happy Happy Birthday!

2009-09-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is a year old today! I just can't believe it. In some ways it has flown by. In other ways, I feel like it has been forever since we took her home from the hospital that very warm Las Vegas day one year ago. She has just grown up so much and has turned into a little toddler instead of a baby. She is walking all over the place and sometimes I just can't keep up with her.
Kamryn has definitely been the most amazing thing to happen to Justin and myself and we are thankful for her every day. She is a little booger in every sense of the word, but she entertains us daily and just makes the world a better place.
So we thought we would share some things about our little Kamryn that you may or may not know. Here she is in a nutshell...

1. She has the most beautiful blue eyes (she got them from her daddy)

2. She will stick any sort of object in her mouth to chew on (except food... she will only stick food in her mouth of her own free will if we are very lucky)

3. She hated her birthday cake (refer to #2 and her dislike of any sort of new food)

4. She grabs on to mommy's shirt for dear life when she feels she is threatened in any way (i.e. being fed birthday cake)

5. She has about a bazillion bows that she wears almost everyday and hardly ever pulls them off her head. This makes her mommy very happy.

6. She gets colds about once a month and they last for about 3-4 weeks. Yeah I know the math sounds like it doesn't make sense... but it's the truth. The runny nose has just become a staple for our baby girl.

7. Her smile is amazing and is rarely not on her face. She greets people in grocery stores with the most genuine "Hi!" you'll ever hear. She truly sounds like she is so happy to see you. The workers at the gym daycare call her "Happy Baby." That's seriously her name there.

8. She has already visited the Hoover Dam (it was her mommy's first time too)

9. She will be attending BYU when she is older. This may be an interesting task because as we know already, Kamryn does not do ANYTHING unless she wants to. So we will be enforcing this issue at a young age.

10. She loves her some daddy!

Happy Birthday Kamryn! We love you more than you know:)

Walking...or not

2009-07-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

(No children were harmed during the filming of this video)

July is the month for traveling...

2009-07-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah for the fourth of July this year and were able to spend lots of time with the whole Grundy clan. There were TONS of pictures taken throughout the weekend (seeing as how we had family pictures taken and lots of cute festive outfits) so Kamryn has pretty much perfected the cheesy picture taking smile. Here are a few examples:

It was hilarious trying to take pictures with Cooper and Kamryn. Let's just say there was a lot of singing involved on the other side of the camera. I don't know how many times we sang "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" to make the two little ones smile... or at the very least, just hold still.

And no... Cooper and Kamryn are not the same age. I know they look about the same size, but Cooper is six months older. I think my meaty little girl might be able to take him though:)

The following weekend we made our annual trip to see the Yankees play. This is the second year we have gone to Anaheim to see them play the Angels. We are going to try somewhere different next year. Somewhere that has a really bad baseball team. Out of the 4 games we have gone to, we haven't seen them win once. Nevertheless... we still love going to the games.

Unfortunately for Kamryn, we felt she was still a little young to appreciate a live Yankees game. So even though she looked like the cutest Yankees fan ever, she stayed at the hotel and had fun playing with Grammy:)

And finally... Look at me everyone! I am standing up all by myself!

She has taken a couple steps but still isn't comfortable moving her feet without holding on to something. We are working on it though:)

9 months and counting...

2009-06-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

It's been way too long since we have updated. I feel like Kamryn is a totally different little girl from the last time we blogged. Sheesh they change so fast... Here are some highlights:

1. Kamryn is nine and a half months old now. She crawls around like crazy and just hates to hold still. Church has been very challenging lately but since both Justin and I are primary teachers, it seems to be a little more manageable. Is it bad that I am already counting down the months until she can go into nursery?

2. Kamryn has been plagued with a cold that just won't go away and stay away. Doctors insist that it is normal for babies her age to catch several colds that last for weeks at a time, but I don't know how long to believe them. Since March, we have been on a 3 week sick, 2 week healthy rotation. It's so sad. I am getting pretty tired of hearing her cough all through the night. Hopefully one day, this never-ending cold will stay away.

3. Her word of choice (and her first official word) is "HI!" She started saying it at about 8 months and it just never gets old. She will move her whole arm up and down vigorously in a waving motion and say "Hi!" over and over. She will do it to friends and family, as well as grocery store clerks, random other children at the park, and sometimes just for the heck of it. It's so funny.

4. Vegas is hot. Really hot.

5. Chewing on EVERYTHING is her favorite hobby. She has four top teeth and two bottom teeth right now, but the way she chews on things, you would think she was a getting a new tooth every day. Of course her favorite things to chew on are things she is not supposed to... any cord she can get her hands on, the remote, my keys, the bar on the carts she sits in at the store, and (my personal favorite) my shoulder. It hurts.

Kamryn's little play spot. Of course I was annoyed Justin was taking pictures without a bow in her hair, but what can you do? Just so you know, she did have a bow on while we were out earlier that day.

This is her little 4th of July dress (thanks Meagan!). I was so worried it wasn't going to fit her since she wears clothes a little bigger than her age (the way they size baby clothes is so annoying), but I squeezed her into it anyway. If you look close you can see her leg rolls while she is sitting down. She actually has little tan lines along those creases. Hilarious.

One of my favorite expressions of hers is this cheesy cheesy little grin.

And of course... you just can't post enough vidoes of her belly laugh. Justin and I have been hard at work entertaining her while we give her breathing treatments for her "cold." We will do anything to keep her still.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

This was my gift for Mother's Day. Kamryn saying her first word...

Crazy Cousins...

2009-04-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

Kamryn adores her cousin Cora and Cora loves how interactive Kamryn is becoming. They are hilarious together.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T17:37:00.000-07:00

There really isn't a reason for this blog entry other than to just post more pictures. Mostly based around cute outfits or cute expressions.

Bath time! Kamryn loves using her bath toys to chew on. We call them chew toys. I know that sounds more like a term used for pets, but it works for us.

Kamryn has definitely grown into the toddler style clothes. It's so fun to see her in so many of the cute outfits I got from my baby showers so long ago. I hope I get through them all before she grows out of them.

Tooth shot! If you enlarge the pic you can see her two bottom teeth are coming in pretty fast.

Chelsea likes to call this Kamryn's "Alice outfit." Since Cora loves any dress that resembles Alice in Wonderland, Chelsea has a very trained eye on such things.

Since Kamryn is well into her teething phase, she pulls some pretty funny faces while either her mouth is numb from the Oragel, or while she is trying to feel her gums.

She keeps us very entertained with her interesting expressions.

And finally... her first Easter dress! I have been dying to get her in this dress since I got it as a gift from my shower in Reno. Finally she fit into it and it made the perfect Easter dress.

Kamryn and Daddy... so adorable! Even after six weeks of being away from us, Kamryn still thinks her dad is the best thing in the world.

And this was Kamryn after a long day at church. She stayed awake through ALL of church, but the second she got in the car, she crashed.

Falling asleep anywhere but her bed is just very unlike her. Plus, if she happens to fall asleep in the car, the minute she is moved, she will wake up. That's why this was such a crazy event.

And I had to post this picture because it reminded me of a funny story. We saw Chad and Kelly and the kids a few weeks ago when they were in St. George. While we were visiting with them, Carson was eating a snow cone that was in the vicinity of Kamryn's very grabby hands. Naturally Kamryn went for it and stuck her hand right into Carson's snow cone, after which he immediately replied...
"Oh no! You big giant baby!"
It was hilarious. Seeing this picture made me realize she IS a big giant baby:)

And finally... enjoying the beautiful weather.

Springtime

2009-03-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

This is what I miss since I am gone all week. I come home one weekend, and Kamryn is sitting up. I come home another weekend, and Kamryn is almost crawling. I come home the next weekend, and she's got another tooth!

She is growing so fast it is crazy! And as much as it sucks being out of town all week, absence definitely does make the heart grow fonder. Both Kamryn and her mom grow more beautiful every week I don't see them.

One of Kamryn's favorite things is to be outside. Amy takes her on walks just about every day. Today's weather was amazing, so we took advantage of it and went hiking as a family.

We bought this hat for her to keep her head from getting burnt. It was a bit too big (she has her mama's head), but still a cute picture.

She loved riding in this little pack. Daddy loved it too, all 18.4 pounds of it :)

We love our baby girl!

The Single Mom and the Overworked Father

2009-03-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

Things at the Grundy household have been a bit different than what we're used to lately. I've been working through my busy season at work, which is almost over. That is the good news. The bad news is that the past 3 weeks I've been working in Minden, Nevada, which is near Carson City. So I've been flying into Reno on Sunday nights, driving to Carson City, staying in a hotel until Friday, then flying home Friday night to see Amy and Kamryn for two days, only to repeat the whole process again. Needless to say I think I've seen more of Carson City than I've ever wanted to, and missed more of Amy and Kamryn than I've ever wanted to. I have at least another week in Minden, possibly more. Amy and I keep telling ourselves at least I have a job, for which we are definitely grateful for. I feel bad that I have to leave Amy home alone all week. I'm sure she would rather not be a single mom during the week like she has been. But hopefully the end is in sight and I'll be able to come home and stay home for good.

Kamryn is doing much better than she was a couple weeks ago. After she got the croup she went about a week of having a really bad cough. So Amy took her into the doctor again and it turns out she has RSV. So she has been on some kind of a medicated vapor breathing device for the past three weeks. She's doing much better now, but her cough is still lingering. Baby coughs are probably the saddest things I've ever heard! Other than her cough, she has been doing great. She is eating carrots and squash now, and loves them! The video below is the first time we fed her carrots a couple weeks ago. Notice her nasty cough at the beginning. I love the face she gives when she gets a taste of the carrots.

Amy also discovered today that one of her bottom teeth is starting to come in. I can't believe how fast she is growing. She will be 6 months old on Sunday. The time has flown by so fast. I love being a dad. I love everything about Kamryn. I love her goofy laugh, her crazy legs that never stop moving, her chubby cheeks, her high pitched squeals, and especially her blue eyes.

I also love Kamryn's mom. Being away from home for so long really helps me realize how in love with Amy I am, and how I absolutely cannot live without her. She's everything I ever wanted in my life and I am so lucky to have her. Maybe some day I'll decide to come home from Carson City and actually start living full time with her.

2009-02-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

The past couple days have been kind of crazy in the Grundy household. I've been working 12-13 hour days for about two weeks. On Wednesday we found out that my schedule for work had me going to Reno for two months. Amy woke up Wednesday feeling too sick to get out of bed (even though she did because somebody has to take care of baby during the day). Late Thursday night we had to rush Kamryn to the hospital because she had the croup. We were all going on about four hours of sleep on Friday when we found out that I wasn't going to Reno for two months, but for two weeks. More doable, but still pretty depressing. So yeah, last week was pretty crazy. Yet, even with the bad, Kamryn has been able to laugh through it all.

There has also been a lot of good going on too, though. My mom and dad were able to come visit us for a couple of days. Kamryn loved having her Grammy and Ipkiss here. The best part of their visit, though, was the fact that they watched Kamryn for us on Valentine's Day while we went on a date! It was just dinner and a movie, but it has been a long time since we got to do that. So thanks mom and dad!

Kamryn is growing so fast, and we can tell she is going to be a little bugger once she starts crawling. She has mastered the art of rolling all around the house to get to the places she wants to go. In the picture below, she started off on the blanket, made her way around the couch, and ended up clear across the room (don't worry, Amy was watching her to make sure she didn't get too close to those stairs).

One thing we joke about a lot is that if we didn't put a bow on Kamryn every time we went out, she'd often get mistaken for a boy. When we were at the hospital, the doctor kept calling her a him, even with her pink pajamas! So, I figured I'd post a picture of what her hair might look like if she had been a boy.

And finally, to show that things really are starting to look up for us, I found out that I passed a portion of the CPA exam. 1 down, 3 to go!

*Amy's Note: Not only did he pass, but he got a 94% on the FINANCE portion! Isn't he amazing?!*

2009-02-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

Amy took this picture with her phone. It's not the best quality picture, but I freaking love how Kamryn looks in it. It only took her 5 months to master the "Blue Steel" look.

Roly Poly

2009-02-01T21:31:00.000-08:00

I can't pass an opportunity to post a video of a giggling baby. Notice how it takes her a minute to start laughing after I'm down blowing on her belly, and the awesome hip swinging motion she does in anticipation.

About a month ago Kamryn learned to roll from her back to her stomach. She has been rolling onto her stomach and then getting mad that she can't get back onto her back. As you can see from the video below, this is no longer a problem. Sorry it's kind of long.

More pics

2009-01-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

Days go by

2009-01-09T09:39:00.000-08:00

Things around the Grundy household have been pretty mellow lately. As we weren't able to go back to Utah for Christmas this year, Amy and I enjoyed a much less busy Christmas than what we're used to. We woke up around 8:30, fed Kamryn, and then just the three of us opened presents. It was fun, but we definitely missed being with my family. Although we were defintely happy to be able to spend Christmas in Vegas with the Mann's.

Our Christmas Elf

Just chillin...waiting for Santa

Christmas PJ's. Thanks mom. Although this is the ONLY time you will see me in a red shirt :)

Later Christmas night we made our very own Christmas dinner. We cooked a turkey for the fist time in our lives, thanks to a little over-the-phone help and support from Kelly. I was going to post a picture of the finished product, but it's a really bad picture and the turkey looks really gross. It turned out okay though and we enjoyed the leftovers for many days.

Anyways, things are going well for us. I start busy season next week, which means I'll be working 11-12 hour days for about six weeks. Amy tells me she knew what she was getting into when she married an accountant. I wonder if she knew she'd be a single mom for 2 months every year...

Kamryn is doing good. She is changing every day, and every day is different. One day she'll sleep like a champ, the next day she won't sleep at all. One day she'll eat like she's Takeru Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest, the next day she'll eat like she's a high school anorexic girl. There is one constant with her though...she is freaking cute! Her blue eyes are really starting to show. Here are some pictures that show how blue they are getting.

And a few more pictures for Grandma...

She's got her daddy's ears

Falling asleep while playing

Showing off how chubby she is

My Talented Sis

2008-12-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

Chelsea Lou took some adorable pictures of Kamryn and posted them on her photo blog. She is pretty amazing. And now we have some professional looking pictures of Kamryn. Yay! You can see them at...
http://chelseasphotoblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/kamryn.html

Kamryn's Many Faces

2008-12-01T16:07:00.000-08:00

Okay everyone who thinks I am the worst mom in the world for not posting a zillion pictures of my firstborn little girl... here they are:) Kamryn has been doing great and makes us laugh everyday. She is smiling so much and is putting on the pounds too. She weighed 13 pounds 4 ounces at her two month checkup. Impressive huh? She gained six pounds in 2 months! She is almost 3 months now and her cheeks just keep getting chubbier and chubbier. I love it! Here are the many faces that entertain us daily...

Happy Kamryn

"I am so full cause I just ate" Kamryn

Very sleepy Kamryn

Elvis Kamryn

"Do I have to go to church?" Kamryn

Gangsta Kamryn

Sporty (yet chubby) Kamryn

Intellectual Kamryn

"My mom is such a dork so I laugh at her" Kamryn

And this section I like to call "I love my daddy!"

Here I am sporting my daddy's favorite baseball player's jersey

My daddy's glasses are so funny looking!

Big kiss for my favorite dad in the world!

Nothing in Particular...

2008-11-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I figured I had better do a post since Justin has been kind of taking over that department lately. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to keep up on it because he has been working until 7:30 or 8:00 this past week and will probably work that late for another few weeks. Fun, fun, fun.

Not much new going on in our neck of the woods. Basically just watching Kamryn grow. She changes every single day, so there is a lot to observe. She has started to smile now which is definitely the highlight of my day (aside from when Justin gets home). We haven't captured a great smile on camera yet, but I'm sure we will get one soon.

Kamryn's blessing was last weekend, and she had many visitors come to be a part of it. My wonderful sister took some great pictures but I haven't put them on my computer yet. As soon as I get them, I will post.

Until then, here are some random pictures of our little girl:)

Hanging out with Dad...

Look at that chubby chubby cheek!

I have to take pictures of her cute Sunday dresses because no one at church gets to see them... she usually sleeps through most of church.

Her favorite postition is on our shoulder... she likes to see what's going on around her

Happy Halloween from our cute little kitty! (Thanks for the costume Aunt Tonya:))

For Grandma and Grandpa

2008-10-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

We promised Ma and Pa some new Kamryn pictures, so here they are. We miss you!

Life with Baby

2008-09-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Kamryn will be two weeks old this coming Monday and seriously looks different every day. Amy and I feel like we have a new baby to look at every morning. She changes so much and so fast. We have had a great couple of weeks. I've been able to take a couple weeks off of work, and it's been nice just to be able to hang out with our new family. My mom and dad stayed with us for a while, and we were so happy to have them. They were a huge help.

A few things I've learned while I've been a father:

1. Babies love to poop. And for some reason, our baby loves to poop when I am in the middle of changing her. I currently hold the record of going through 4 diapers in one changing.

2. Chubby cheeks are the best to kiss.

3. I love little girls!

Despite her balding daddy, Kamryn does have some hair :)

Kamryn Jamie Grundy

2008-09-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

Kamryn Jamie Grundy was born September 15 at 6:20 p.m. Amy went into the hospital Sunday night, and the baby came Monday evening. Amy did such an amazing job, and is doing great. Kamryn is as healthy as a newborn baby can be. From what I've experienced changing her diapers, her legs are wicked strong. They must have gotten so strong from kicking Amy all those months!

We'll update and put more pictures up when we get more time. You can go to Amy's sister's blog here for a few more pics. Thanks Chelsea for taking some amazing pictures!

Anxiously waiting

2008-09-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Well, no baby yet. Amy isn't due until the 20th, so technically there really shouldn't be a baby yet. However, there are a couple people we know who were due just a couple days before us, and they have all had their babies now. So Amy and I are getting quite anxious as we see all these babies born early. Knowing our luck the baby will probably wait until the 20th to actually come, even though we both want her to come early. Apparantly she has way too many friends in heaven, and isn't in any hurry to see her mom and dad.

In other news, I'm finally back from my 3 weeks away from home. I spent 1 week in Sacramento for work, then 2 weeks in Arizona for training. Amy and I were lucky enough to see each other for about 3 hours in the airport during that 3 week time period. Hopefully that will be the last time I'll have to leave my 9-month pregnant wife home by herself. I have a feeling that if I have to leave her home alone again for that long when she's 9 months pregnant, I may need to seek new employement :)

Again, not much to report on right now. We're just waiting for the baby to come. I've been reading up on all of our pregnancy books. I think Amy is more worried about how I'll do in the delivery room than anything else. Honestly, thinking of everything that Amy has to go through during labor makes me pretty queasy. I'm just glad I'll have Amy there to hold my hand through the whole process!

2008-08-11T14:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend Justin and I were able to go to LA for about a day and a half... just enough time to catch a Yankees game and to see the musical Wicked. Justin's parents made the trip down as well and spent the weekend with us. It was a great, but extremely short little vacation. Here are the highlights:

Here we are outside and inside Angels' Stadium. There were lots of Yankees' fans but still way more Angels' fans.
I did notice a big difference in the overall experience from our last Yankees game. The environment was not nearly as hostile as the Yankees/Red Sox game we went to last year in New York. I wasn't even afraid for my life at any point during the game:)
And here you all go... finally a side shot of my belly. This is me at almost 35 weeks. 35 weeks down, 5 more to go!
The game was amazing until the 8th inning. We won't talk about that inning. Needless to say, as we were leaving the stadium, Justin said, "I'm glad we are going to see Wicked tonight... at least no one can lose in Wicked." We are now 0-2 when going to Yankees games. Maybe we should give up... NAH! We'll have to make it an annual thing til they get a win.

So after the game, we went back to the hotel, got ready, and headed to see Wicked. It took us about an hour and half to get about 20 miles. Good thing we left in plenty of time. I love California traffic.

Wicked was amazing, of course. I think everyone should go see it at least once. My friends Gordon and Chrissy did... we actually ran into them right before the play! Isn't that crazy! It was awesome to see you guys:)

Well that does it for our weekend. On a different note... our nursery isn't completely done yet, but it is looking pretty cute so far. So I thought I'd give a little sneak peek at our little baby's room:

Notice the wonderful painting job done by Justin (with lots of help from Chelsea and Shawn). This is definitely my favorite room in our house:)

Still Getting Settled...

2008-07-28T14:45:00.001-07:00

I know it has taken a really long time to blog since we have moved to Vegas, but it is because we don't have the internet. I told Justin we can get it when our power bill is below $200 due to cooling our house. So we get to use Shawn and Chelsea's internet. And sorry everyone... no pictures for this post. We have been unpacking and such and just haven't taken any pictures. So this is purely informational. Hope it's not too boring:)

First of all, Vegas has been good so far. We are still getting settled in, but our condo is finally looking like our home. I have had fun taking Cora to the pool while her mommy and daddy are at work and I have even been working a bit. I have been substitute teaching for this Korean tutoring school that one of Chelsea's friends teaches at. It's been for a couple days a week for just a couple hours, but the extra cash has been pretty nice.

Justin has been slowly getting more comfortable at his job and is learning tons of new stuff every day. His day consists of working from 8 until about 6, coming home, eating dinner, and then studying for his CPA exam until about 9 or 10. Except for on Wednesdays when he takes a break from his studying to watch So You Think You Can Dance with me (speaking of... anyone else still crying because Will got kicked off?). It's been fun and busy and very hot. Thank goodness for the pool.

We have also been slowly setting up the baby's room. That has been the funnest part of getting settled in. We have beautiful furniture and bedding (thanks to Kathy and Stan) and are loving going through all of our cute clothes. One big thing is missing, however... the glider/rocker. See... here's the problem. I went to Babies R Us in search for a glider. Unfortunately, I did not look at price tags BEFORE sitting in the chairs and I, of course, completely fell in LOVE with the most expensive glider they have. So, I left Babies R Us with no glider because I couldn't decide what to do. I tried the other gliders, but every time I sat in one, all I could think of was the expensive glider. Since then, it has been an internal struggle. Do I splurge on my true love (well Glider true love), or do I get a less comfortable one for less money? I need some help people? All you mother's out there... will I really be in my glider a ton? Is it worth the little slice of heaven every time I sit in it? Help!!!

All our bags are packed...

2008-07-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

Well... it's been a crazy couple of weeks but we are almost ready to relocate from good ole Provo, Utah to Las Vegas. Justin started his new job in Vegas on the 23rd of June and is getting used to having a grown up job where he can't just "leave whenever he wants" (direct quote from Justin).

I had to finish up the school year before I could head down to Vegas with him. Our last day was yesterday and it is nice to finally be done. I did have an amazing class this year and I will really miss them. But I guess it's time for the next phase of our lives. I like to title this next phase "Incredibly scary and unkown" phase. It will be an adventure.

Our little baby girl is growing and kicking. She has recently started making her mom throw up again, which is not appreciated, but hey, what do you do? Justin and I are just so excited to see what our little girl is gonna look like. I am almost at 30 weeks, so only 10 weeks to go. Just everyone pray that this baby doesn't come early because Justin will be in training in Arizona for the last two weeks in August.

Justin flies back to Utah tonight (after having been gone for almost two weeks) and then the whole Grundy clan will accompany us to Las Vegas on the 5th of July.

Of course, we can't spend the 4th of July in Utah without seeing Miley Cyrus at Stadium of Fire! We are all looking forward to that. Justin has even been listening to the CD in the car trying to memorize the words for this special occasion:)

We have known we would be moving to Vegas for a while and we are looking forward to being around the Vegas clan of family and starting our own family. However, I didn't quite realize how hard it would be to leave Utah. After living here for 8 years now, it has become my home, and although I whine about the cold weather in the winter, I really do love it here. It is harder than I thought it would be to leave our amazing friends, coworkers, gym buddies:), and especially family. Las Vegas will be wonderful and exciting. But we will miss living in Utah.
But heck... here's to our new "incredibly scary and unknown" phase of life! Let the adventures begin:)

Magic

2008-06-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

We are finally blogging about our trip to Disneyworld...and just a few hours after Chad and Kelly did theirs as well. So lots of Florida pictures for all you Grundy fans! Of course, we had a blast. If you take out the unbelievable sore feet and shins, it would have been a perfect week. Regardless, it will be a vacation we will never forget. Lots of fun times and awesome memories. Thanks so much Kathy and Stan for making it all possible:)
Apparently at Disneyworld, they have a theme going called "Year of a million dreams." Sometimes they give away free passes, sometimes they let people stay the night in the castle, etc. We also were lucky enough to be recipients of this magic when we came off a ride and were given Mickey ear hats for free! We mostly think this was a dream come true for Stan because Kathy would have spent $10 a piece to buy each of us one of those hats. Thank you Epcot center!

After we hit Epcot for the day, we decided the next day would be devoted to Animal Kingdom. The picture of the tree is specifically for Devyn (And Dev, I took more if you want me to email them to you).
Animal Kingdom was so great, especially seeing Carson's reaction to all the animals. He was in awe after the Safari ride. However, when asked by a worker how he liked the ride when it was over, he simply stated with a slight pout, "We didn't see a Cheetah." It was very heartbreaking. I think he still enjoyed himself:)

After a day of rest at the house, we then hit up the Magic Kingdom. This was my favorite day, but definitely the most crazy, long, and tiring. A word of advice for all you Disneyland goers... when you leave, take the tram, not the ferry boat! It does NOT take the same amount of time. They lie.
This is why we call the other Grundy's "The Dorky Grundy's". Fits, doesn't it?

This is Carson keeping himself busy while he waits for all the tall people to go on rides. I felt badly for him at first, but he seemed to have just as much fun chillin with his double suckers as we did riding Space Mountain.

Evidence that the day really was tiring...

With a few days of Universal Studios mixed in, we finally finished our Disneyworld experience with Hollywood Studios. The funniest part of this day was the Incredibles drama. So the kids were SOOO looking forward to seeing them. We waited in line for about half an hour and knew that their time was winding down. Well, as soon as the kids got their picture with The Incredibles, their time was up, even though there was still a fairly large line behind us. The characters took off, and the family behind us proceeded to freak out. The child started bawling and the mother was yelling (in an English accent)at the workers something like..."You say this is the year of a million dreams!! You just shattered my sons dreams!!" I felt bad for the poor little kid. But hey, we got a picture with them:)

We also hit up Downtown Disney. While Kathy and Abby were in absolute heaven, some of us less inclined to spend money found ways to keep entertained...

And of course... THE rivalry between two brothers captured in a photo

I can't document our Florida trip without mentioning my little boyfriend:) Ethan decided on this trip that he needed to be with me 24/7. I think Justin even got a little jealous at times, which is unheard of. Ethan was my little Florida buddy and I loved every minute of it. However, he did get a little comfortable with the kissing. I would just be sitting there and all of a sudden, BAM! A big smooch from Ethan. Watch out for him in the future... he's gonna be quite the ladies man:)

Well, I think that wraps it up. It was so great to be in Disneyworld with the family, and although I was 24 weeks pregnant, I still had fun on the rides:) Don't worry... I checked it with my doctor first. Thanks again to Kathy and Stan for this family vacation. Our fridge is now covered with mementos to remind us of the trip!

And one more thing... the signs for the rides are NOT lying when they say "hold on to all your loose items." So if you are going to go on one of the rides with such a warning, do NOT give your sunglasses to your husband for him to hold. Even if you tell him several times he needs to put them in his pocket rather than just on his shirt... you may never see them again:(

Fashion Sense

2008-05-14T13:00:00.001-07:00

After we found out that we were having a girl, I told Amy that I was scared because I don't feel very confident in picking out clothes for little girls. I sometimes have a hard time matching things together. So lately I've been trying to look online and find clothes that I would be able to dress our girl in. I have been very happy in my efforts, and I'm getting some fantastic ideas on what I want to dress her in.

When I presented some of my ideas and findings to Amy, however, she pretty much shot down all the cute clothes I've found. Below are a couple examples of shirts we disagree on. I find the shirts to be very cute and fashionable, and I think our daughter would look awesome wearing them. Amy does not like them at all, and keeps telling me, over and over again, "I do not want skulls on my little girl."

What do you think?

(Chelsea, you are banned from commenting on this post because I already know how you'll respond. I do, however, welcome your husband's comments).

Him or Her?

2008-05-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

Amy and I finally went in for an ultrasound yesterday. The doctor confirmed what we both expected...we are having a baby girl!!

Okay, so maybe Amy and I didn't expect a girl..AT ALL. Before the ultrasound we had tried every old-wives tale in the book to help us determine the baby's sex. We did Debbie's fool-proof, gender-determining, ring-above-the-belly-and-palm trick. We looked up online at all the symptoms pointing to whether you are having a girl or a boy. Every single symptom pointed to us having a boy. We both were positive we were having a boy.

Then we get into the ultrasound and the doctor kept calling the baby a him, but without actually telling us the sex. So again, we figured it was a boy. Finally, when the doctor specifically asked us if we'd like to know the gender, he drops the bombshell and says it's most likely (90% sure, as he put it) a little girl! Amy and I both started laughing. It was so funny. Totally opposite of what we were expecting to hear, but fantastic news nonetheless. Both baby and mom are very healthy, too.

This picture is of our little girl laying face down. You can see her spine very clearly up at the top.

Another picture of her, with her cute little bum sticking up in the air. This one is my favorite :)

So, there you have it. A little girl. Now, I've been getting a lot of questions, asking me if I'm happy; if I'm really okay with having a girl. For those of you who don't know, I've proclaimed for a long time that I'd be perfectly content with having all boys. So, to clear things up, I just want to say that I couldn't be happier. It's funny how quick my opinion on little girls has changed now that I'm having one. I can't wait for the tea parties, dance lessons, dress up, and the princesses. Hopefully there will also be some softball or something in there too :)

Graduation and Jazz Game!

2008-04-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

It was a very fun weekend in the Grundy household. We woke up on Friday morning with a phone call telling us that Devyn and Michael were going to have an addition to their family very soon. Well, later that night, baby Jane was born. DeEtte has already posted pictures. She is beautiful!
http://clanmcpherson.blogspot.com/2008/04/baby-jane-is-here.html
http://clanmcpherson.blogspot.com/2008/04/jane-watch-day-3.html
Congratulations to you guys!

Well, on the same day, Justin Thomas Grundy became a college graduate. Yes, very exciting. After setting out on this venture 8 years ago (well, he graduated high school 8 years ago. He didn't start college until 3 years later after a year of working and a two year mission... so I guess it's only been a 5 year venture, but that doesn't sound as fun), he finally received a degree in accounting from Brigham Young University. We are very proud:) Graduation day was very fun, filled with quality family time, yummy P.F. Changs, and a very lengthy graduation ceremony. Justin's family all made the trek down to Provo from Salt Lake to spend the day with us. The kids were very good at graduation until about the 2 hour mark... but hey, that's when I started getting antsy too. So we found ways to entertain ourselves.

After the 3 hour plus graduation, we headed out to take some pictures at some scenic spots on BYU campus. Justin wasn't really into his cap, so half of the pictures are of him just wearing his gown. In my opinion, that kind of defeats the purpose, but hey, it was his graduation day.

For his graduation, I got Justin tickets to Game 4 of the Jazz/Rockets playoff series. Luckily, I got to benefit from this gift as well. We had a blast! The Jazz won in a very tight game (which should not have been as tight as it was) which is the reason I am able to post about it in such a happy manner. If they had lost the game we attended, I wouldn't have even been able to mention it. Justin and I get way too emotionally involved for our own good. At one point Justin threw his clapper thing down on the ground, much like a 5 year old having a tantrum. The guy in front of us had to pick it up and hand it back to Justin. Quite embarrassing but what do ya do? I like to think I get just as emotionally upset as Justin, but I control it a tad bit better. It's very fun and exciting to be involved in such sporting events, but very stressful. As the movie Fever Pitch quotes about sports teams you love... "They'll break your heart." So true, but this game was definitely a highlight of our year. We loved being able to be at a playoff game and see how insanely loud it gets first hand. Hopefully we'll go to another game soon. Til then... GO JAZZ!

Our boys before the game getting all warmed up for the evil Tracy McGrady and the Houston Rockets.

I know Justin likes to make fun of me for my crushes on athletes but I can't deny it...I HEART DERON WILLIAMS:)

One day Justin and I are going to have season tickets to the Jazz games. That's our goal:)

Happy Spring!

2008-04-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a little while since Easter, but I figured I would wait until it felt more like Spring to post a couple of our Easter pictures. Well, it doesn't really FEEL like Spring, but it IS April, so I figure that's good enough:)
Our Easter festivities were much like everyone else's... we did the egg dying and then the hunt for the kids. The Easter Bunny even brought Justin a fun little basket which he quite enjoyed. As always, it was so fun to be with the family for some good times.

I can sometimes pretend Carson is mine because of our matching blonde hair so I had the wonderful honor of helping Carson with his egg dying. The bad things about this... he likes to stir the dye wildly while his egg is in the cup (resulting in both Carson and myself having green and purple fingers for a few days) and he likes to drop his egg in the cup a couple inches above the actual dye. The good things about this... his attention span doesn't last too long so the event is over quite quickly, and he is stinkin cute when he says "Thank you for helping me Amy" that it makes it all worth it.
After Carson is finished with the task at hand, he can be seen entertaining himself in a variety of ways...

Justin Finnerty, Kaitlyn, and Ethan were in town for Easter (which we always love), so they were able to join in the fun. Here are Justin and Colby trying to keep up with Kaitlyn's mad egg-dying skills. For the record, if Justin and Colby are ever in a picture together, they are making these faces. Luckily, Justin has broken that habit when he is in a picture with me.

Finnerty and Chad being very helpful little daddies!

And here are all the kids with the finished eggs. This picture was taken about .75 seconds before Kaitlyn dropped her thing of eggs and a tiny dose of chaos broke out trying to make sure Abby, Ethan, and Carson held on to theirs in the midst of the commotion.

We had a little contest with some judges and everything (judges meaning Kathy, Justin's mom). She was judging the "Best Egg" which includes a vast number of criteria. There was a little squabble with the final decision. But the judge made her decision... Justin's egg actually won this year. I believe it was based on level of difficulty and creativity. However, Colby was very upset by this. He thought MY egg should have won basically because it was so professional looking. I guess you guys can be the judge...

Thanks to Colby for standing up for my little egg. I appreciate your conviction:)

And I had to put this amazing picture of little Cooper in our Easter blog. Thanks to the stellar skills of Grandma, we have all been given a photography masterpiece! Isn't he adorable?!

We're Back from Paradise

2008-03-20T10:03:00.001-07:00

We are finally getting our cruise pictures posted! We've been back for a little over a week and we still miss it. The weather was beautiful. We did a lot of fun things and we just had a great time. Luckily, neither of us were sea sick at all either. So that's always a bonus.

The most amazing thing about the beaches in the Caribbean was how blue/green/turquoise the water was. It was crazy. Not only was the weather warm and nice, the beaches and the water were breathtaking. Everyone should go see these beaches.

Anyway, there were a lot of things we did besides lounge on the beach...

On our cruise, we stopped at three different ports. Our first stop was Samana, Domincan Republic. This is a picture of some the types of houses we passed as we took a tour through the island. It wasn't just any tour. We took a tour on four-wheelers.

Here I am trying to get mine started. I haven't had a lot of experience with these types of vehicles.

We rode all through the town to the other side of the island and stopped at a beach and took a little break.

This is Justin taking a little break with a pineapple specialty drink. Don't worry... we were always very careful to specify "no rum."

After the beach stop, we took a ride and hiked a little ways to a really pretty waterfall pool type thing.

You can't tell from the picture, but there were these huge trees on the sides of the waterfall and some of the native kids put on a little show by jumping off them into the 5-7 feet deep water. I was sure someone was going to injure themselves terribly, but everyone was safe.

Our next stop was in the British Virgin Islands. We took a little ferry to the famous Virgin Gorda Baths. Again, beautiful.

For this little trip we climbed through some rock caves and then just hung out on the beach for a little while. I had gotten a little too much sun the day before, so I was hanging out in the shade with my little friend...

Yep, it's a chicken. Little did I know, these guys were quite common in the islands. You just see them wandering in the streets all the time. Very different compared to what we are used to.

And check out these cacti! Random, right? They were right by the beach. I felt like I was back in Nevada again:)

Our last little glimpse of the Virgin Gorda Baths. So sad.

Our last port was to the amazing St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This last stop was our favorite. We did an excursion that combined Kayaking, hiking, and snorkling. There was a photographer on this excursion with us so she got some pretty cool pictures.

Here we are trying to get in sync with each other. As you can see, we were not quite there yet. I think I was shouting some command at Justin and he was having fun not listening to me:)

Aahh... much better. We were definitely working as a team in this one (I actually think we were trying to pass everyone by this point. I think a few other couples got annoyed with us:)).

Here we are snorkling. Justin was very natural and adventurous. He was one of the first people starting to snorkle, and one of the last people out. He was very fascinated by the whole thing. I am glad he was though. He had been looking forward to this part during our whole cruise.

I, on the other hand, was a little more reserved. Once I got passed the fear that my mask was going to leak and water was going to come rushing into my nose and my eyes and that people would splash water into my breathing tube, I did okay. However, I stayed extremely close to the top of the water and was ready to be done when our time was up. But it was fun:)
Here are some of the cool fish we saw...

This last picture from St. Thomas was at this really neat rocky place on the beach. The waves would come up and create this splash through the rocks.

It was a really pretty back drop. It kind of reminded me of the first scene in Grease when Danny and Sandy were playing by the ocean. Anyone know what I am talking about?
(And hopefully you notice how Justin and I were representing Utah on this day in a Utah Jazz shirt and BYU shirt. We were the ONLY people on the cruise from Utah.)

Back on the boat we had fun too.

Justin enjoyed eating his own weight in pineapple every night.

We both enjoyed the sunsets.

And we did NOT enjoy getting ready to fly home.
Well that about does it for our fun times. I really would recommend a cruise to everyone. It was a blast.

In other news... the day before we got home, Cooper Stanley Grundy decided he needed to come into the world. We are so sad we missed his arrival, but have been able to spend some time with him since we have been back. Talk about a cutie pie! To see amazing pictures of Cooper and the other Grundy clan go to http://chadandkellygrundy.blogspot.com/2008/03/cooper-stanley-grundy.html
Congrats you guys!

Something's in the oven...

2008-02-26T13:13:00.000-08:00

So, we're making it officially official. Amy is pregnant! You could say we are pretty excited, but that would be a big understatement. We are stoked. Amy is just about 12 weeks along now and is feeling the joys that come along with pregnancy like morning sickness and cravings. Everytime we talk about the baby I call it a him and Amy calls it a her. We can't wait to find out what it is. Anyways, we just wanted to tell everyone before we left for our cruise on Saturday.

We'll see you after we get back from the Caribbean!

Spring Is Here

2008-02-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, so maybe actual spring is not quite here yet, but spring training is! Next week players report to spring training, and to be honest I couldn't be any more excited. Since the Yankees early exit from the playoffs last fall, a lot has been going on. Here is what I'm most looking forward to this spring training.

1 - The young pitchers of the Yankees.
I am SO glad that that Santana was dealt to the Mets instead of the Yankees. It will be so much fun seeing Joba, Hughes, and Kennedy start making their way into the rotation.

2 - The new Skipper.
It will be interesting to see the direction Joe Girardi takes the team. I have all the faith in the world in this guy. He's going to be an awesome manager. I'll always miss Torre, but at least I'll still be able to see him in L.A.

3 - An injured Schilling.
Reports are that the fat pitcher from the team in bean town is having some arm trouble. I wouldn't mind seeing his career end. Immediately.

4 - Pettitte.
I'm anxious to see how Andy Pettitte handles all the steroid controversy he's engulfed in. My prediction is that he's going to have one of his best seasons this year.

And, for the McPherson's and Mann's, (DeEtte, Connor, Lily, and Devyn), I am glad that your main man, KHA-LIIIIIIL Greene, will be around for another two years :)

Life in Utah County

2008-01-22T11:47:00.001-08:00

This past week Amy and I have had our share of laughs at the wacky people that live in Utah County. For those of you who aren't familiar with Utah County, it is probably one of the most conservative counties in the country. Along with that, Utah county is home to BYU. So, as you can imagine, there are just tons of very ultra-conservative people around here.

What has got Amy and I laughing lately is a protest put on by some BYU students against Gold's Gym. What are they protesting? Well, these students are protesting the "pornography" that Gold's Gym shows at its facilities. That's right, pornography. You can read the full story here.

Now I have been a member of said gym for just about five years. I'll be honest, I've never seen any type of pornography at the gym. I'm pretty sure if they showed porn at the gym, Amy would be the first person to make me stop going. The people protesting claim that the music videos and some of the movies they show at the gym are inappropriate, and should be categorized as porn. From my experience, Gold's Gym does not show any type of programming on their t.v.'s that you cannot find on your television at home.

These protesting individuals are just absolutely insane. First of all, what they show at the gym is not porn. Sure, I may see a bare midriff on the t.v. every now and then. But I certainly wouldn't consider that to be pornography. Heck, if bare midriffs were classified as porn, I'd have to change my entire wardrobe:) Second of all, give me a break people. If you see something on a t.v. that you consider offensive, turn away and don't watch it. There are like 30 t.v.'s at the gym. How hard is it to turn away to another screen if something comes on that you don't like?

As you all know, Amy is an aerobics fiend. She goes to an aerobics class every day at the gym, and has been going for years. The best part of this whole debacle is that this group of people are also calling for Gold's Gym to "install blinds on the aerobics room to block the dancing, which is very provocative." Yep, that would be my wife's aerobics class. Apparently her aerobic moves are very provocative and just too "pornographic" for some BYU boys to handle.

What do you think? Does this look pornographic to you?
** Amy's Note: I do not wear leotards like that to my aerobics class.**

Post-Christmas Pictures

2007-12-26T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, now that it is finally the day after Christmas, I figured it was time to update our blog. Me deciding to do this right now has absolutely nothing to do with the disaster that is our apartment at this time. We have been gone for basically a week. Clothes are everywhere, Christmas presents are sitting in a pile in the living room, and I have absolutely zero desire to remedy that situation. But updating our blog is a priority too, right? So organzing our apartment can wait:)

We have had a very fun week. Cora and Chelsea came to visit up here in Salt Lake and that is always so great. Justin had finals while they were here, so it was mostly quality girl time. Then, right after she left, Justin and I went to Vegas to hang out with the Mann's down there. We were also able to make it to the Las Vegas Bowl.. the game in which BYU pulled of a win just by the hair on their chinny chin chin. After that, we drove back up to Salt Lake and had Christmas with the Grundy's. It was a busy week, but we made it... and had a ton of fun in the process. Here are some pictures to highlight the good times:)

Smiley Cora hanging out on our couch

Justin and Cora playing and bonding a bit

I watched Abby and Carson one of the days Cora and Chelsea were here so Abby and Carson were able to play with Cora for the day. Abby LOVED having Cora around. Carson enjoyed it, but didn't like the attention his big sister was giving to Cora. All in all, they had a great time together.

This is Cora and Carson playing a fishing game while Abby was at school.

Post-bath position for Cora... It's hilarious!

Auntie Amy getting a little cuddling time with Cora while we watched the Backyardigans (one of the 500 times I watched Super Spy throughout the week:))

When we went to Vegas, Chelsea was kind enough to let Shawn open one of his Christmas presents a couple days early. It was Rock Band. For those of you familiar with Guitar Hero, it's the same kind of thing, but with a whole band. That's right... drums, bass, guitar, and even a singer. You have to sing on key, using the right words and everything! It's harder than it sounds. The highlight for me was trying to sing Enter Sandman by Metallica. Classic.

This is the Rawberries during one of their many jam sessions. My favorite is Elijah right in the middle with the yellow recorder. He fit right in!

Michael showing a natural talent for the drums.

The mommy-to-be rockin it on the bass assisted by the vocal prowess of none other than Jeremy Perkowski.

Then Cora took over...

As much as we were being so entertained by the Rawberries, Justin and I took a little break and went to the Las Vegas Bowl with the Grundy boys. We had a blast, as we always do at the BYU football games. We had great seats and BYU even pulled off a win.

Of course we had to get Cora into the BYU spirit, so we got her a BYU shirt for Christmas.

Yes... this is us after the game in LAS VEGAS! I was freezing the whole game! Whoever said it doesn't get cold in Vegas does NOT know what they are talking about.

Finally, we made it back up to Salt Lake for Christmas at the Grundy home. Kaitlyn, Ethan, and Justin Finnerty were able to make it up as well so the whole fam was there for Christmas. It was wonderful!

Cute kids in their new Christmas jammies!

Climbing on Uncle Justin

Reading Christmas stories with Grandma and Grandpa

The kids playing with their Boppers Uncle Colby gave them... it was crazy watching them all go at it with each other using those big boppers! Luckily... there were no injuries:)

Group shot... Notice the matching pajamas for everyone:) We looked so festive!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and we can't wait to see everyone else's holiday pictures:) Love you all!

On-goings, or Going-ons

2007-12-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of you are going to be disappointed that I've done a new post. As for me, I have absolutely loved clicking on the Justin and Amy blog and seeing the fantastic pictures of the awesome BYU victory over Utah. However people, it is time to move on. So, I've decided to make a list of some upcoming events for which we are very excited for.

1. Little Women, the Musical!!

Yes, this weekend I am taking Amy to see the BYU musical production of Little Women. I know what you're thinking: "Sheesh, Justin really does sacrifice alot for his wife!" I do, but she's worth it ;)

2. A Christmas Carol

The very next night after we see Little Women, we're going to see A Christmas Carol with my family. That's two plays in two nights. Yikes!

3. Sacrament talks

Okay, we're not really looking forward to this, but I thought I'd put it down anyways. We have to give talks in sacrament on Sunday. The last time I spoke in church was when I got back from my mission, five years ago! Hopefully we don't put everyone to sleep.

4. The Las Vegas Bowl

To compensate for all the musicals, we are going to go to BYU's bowl game in Las Vegas! They play UCLA. It sucks we play a team that we've already played this year, but it will be our first bowl game together as a married couple :)

5. Visiting Shawn, Chelsea, and Cora

The main reason we're going to Vegas isn't for the bowl game. We're going to visit the Mann's for a few days. It's been a while since we last saw them since they didn't get to come to Utah for Thanksgiving, so we are very excited!

6. Cruise to the Eastern Carribbean!!

Yep, we're going on a cruise! We decided we needed to do something fun for my graduation, so we decided on a cruise. It's not until March, but we just booked it and we are so excited! It will be nice to have something to look forward to as we suffer through a stupid, cold, snowy, Utah winter.

In other news, I have finally accepted a job offer. I will be taking a job with Deloitte, which is what we thought I would do from the beginning. That means that we are definitely moving to Vegas late next summer. I hope the Manns and the Perkowskis are prepared to have those crazy Grundys as neighbors! And even though we will be living near you guys, and seeing a lot of you guys, I am still not going to learn how to play Magic. We'll have to find some other ways for Shawn, Jeremy and I to bond :)

Fourth-And-Eighteen...

2007-11-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

As most of you all know, the BYU-Utah football game was this past weekend. Anyone who knows us, or Utah football, knows that this rivalry is one of the most intense, emotional rivalries around here. Well, Justin and I had the opportunity to be present at this historical event.
"Backed up at his own 12-yard line, BYU quarterback Max Hall found Austin Collie for a 49-yard reception on fourth-and- 18 with just over a minute remaining to keep the game-winning touchdown drive alive..."
And after that amazing 4th down miracle, BYU did it. Two years in a row... they stole the win away from Utah with only seconds left on the clock.It really was amazing. As much as everyone said they "didn't lose hope," we grabbed our stuff and were ready to head out as Hall almost gave up a fumble on 3rd down on our own 11 yard line with only a little over a minute left on the clock. We thought we lost. 4-and-18 is never something you want to pin your hopes on. But then we watched in awe as Hall made that fourth down play and kept BYU in it through the very end. You can't really describe in words the vibe in the stadium throughout the entire game, especially those last few minutes in the fourth quarter. Everyone knew as we got to the other side of the field that we were just playing for a field goal. So you can imagine our excitement as Harvey Unga ran it into the end zone for a touchdown with less than a minute on the clock. Unbelievable.
This was before the game... we were all very excited, extremely nervous, but still relatively calm... compared to what we were in for for the next 3 hours!

BYU quarterback Max Hall scrambles on 4th down.

The crowd's reaction after Unga runs in for a touchdown which ended up finishing off the game.

Adrienne and me after the game winning touchdown (note the unfortunate Ute fan standing behind us... I would feel sorry for him under normal circumstances but in this case not so much. First- because he is a Ute fan. Second- because he dogged on our coaching several times throughout the game and us Grundy's love Bronco. And third- because I think my ear drum has some permanent damage from his constant screaming in the 4th quarter.)

Crazy cougar fans rushing the field after the game.

Where's Waldo... I mean Justin? Yes, Justin was one of the crazies to rush the field. Can you see him??

A very sad Ute fan after his team just lost... AGAIN. Everyone around him had just rushed the field in celebration, but he stayed behind and was a little mopey. I just thought it was funny. Is that mean?

A very happy couple after the BYU win over Utah:)
I know all the hype may seem foreign to some. After telling Chelsea Lou how tired we were later that night (I believe my exact words were "mentally and physically exhausted") she just laughed at me. But it was intense. Crazy, fun, unbelievable- yes. But very intense. And now we have a whole year to gloat after beating Utah AGAIN:)

We've Been Tagged!

2007-11-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

So we have recently been tagged by our good friend Erin to post 6 things about ourselves on the blog. We had a hard time coming up with our own six things so we decided to do 6 things for each other. Therefore, 6 things about Amy were written by Justin, and 6 things about Justin were written by Amy. Here it goes...

JUSTIN...
1. He is a die hard Yankees fan and BYU football fan. Not much can get in between Justin and those two teams. As a result of this passion, he has a STRONG dislike for ANYTHING Red Sox and University of Utah. Don’t get him started on Manny Ramirez (Red Sox outfielder) or Kyle Whittingham (Utah’s football coach). If one of those two names are involved, it will not be a pleasant conversation.

2. He’s really good at pouting. Don’t let the apathetic, manly exterior fool you. Justin can pout WAY better than I can. Before we got married, I thought I controlled the pouting department. I was wrong. He is a VERY talented pouter.

3. He absolutely LOVES eggnog. His new big thing is the Pumpkin Pie Eggnog (it is quite delicious if you like pumpkin pie and eggnog). He can drink eggnog with anything. It’s quite amazing.

4. He’s kind of obssessed with weird food shows. Not cooking shows... the kind of shows on the travel channel where people go to different countries and try crazy things. He gets so excited when those shows are on. Even if it’s 11:00 at night and his wife is tired and wants to go to sleep... he will stay up to finish the entire episode:)

5. He’s a reader. He really enjoys reading. His favorite things to read are Harry Potter (of course) and he has a passion for any kind of baseball history books. On the other hand, he does NOT enjoy reading his textbooks for homework. He despises it actually. Reading textbooks are right up there with Utah football and the Red Sox.

6. He is happiest when his head is shaved. And although I am a fan of him actually having normal hair, he does not cease to remind me-DAILY-how much he loves his head when it is shaved. I have been very nice and have actually even shaved his head for him... just because it makes him so dang happy:)

AMY...
1 - Amy knows more about sports than most girls. She actually knows more about sports than most guys. She does an excellent job at following all the sports. She is most knowlegable about baseball and all the different teams and players (especially the Yankees).

2 - Amy tends to develop crushes on men of different races. I don't know why this is. I myself am Caucasian. But anytime Amy has a crush on somebody famous, the person is Hispanic or African American or something other than Caucasian. Her biggest crushes are Dwayne Wade, Tiger Woods, and Robinson Cano. She used to have a big crush on A-Rod, but ever since he left the Yankees he is looking uglier and uglier.

3 - Amy's new hobby is baking. The last time she was off track, she baked a different dessert every day. She is always paranoid that her cooking isn't going to be very good. She is so shy when it comes to letting other people try her desserts, because she is always worried they won't like them. Trust me though, she has nothing to worry about. They always turn out very tasty.

4 - Amy is very, very patriotic. She loves teaching her class about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Every year she is in charge of a program that the whole fifth grade participates in. Every year the theme is something patriotic. One time I told her that our national anthem should be a different song, and she got very defensive.

5 - Her favorite types of movies are, of course, romance movies, but more surprisingly, war movies. She loves most movies that deal with war, soldiers, patriotism, etc.

6 - She is a workout fiend. She loves going to aerobics class at Gold's Gym. She's absolutely addicted. She used to drive clear from Midvale to Provo every day just to go to her class. She will plan events and things around her aerobics class. Sometimes she will even go to two classes a day. She'll even work out on Thanksgiving! I'm not complaining though. I am able to enjoy the benefits of her working out.

Well now you know us both a little bit better. Wasn't that fun? Now we get to tag people (and our feelings will be very hurt if those people don't participate!). So we tag Chelsea AND Shawn and Chad AND Kelly. Good luck sisters and brothers:)

Our very near future...

2007-10-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well the past week or so, Justin has been interviewing for accounting positions following his graduation in April of next year. He has interviewed in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Of course, I am a little partial to Vegas because my wonderful sister resides there. This past week (about an hour following his interviews) he received a job offer from Deloitte and Touche, one of the big four accounting firms.

The best part of this is... They offered him a position in Vegas! He has not decided for sure if this is the one he will take, since he still has a few interviews, but it is a very big possibility. Time will tell... but I think at this time next year, we might be residents of Las Vegas, Nevada.

It's not as crazy for me, seeing as how I grew up in Reno and have grown up visiting various family members who have lived there at one time or another. But Justin has lived in Utah his whole life (with the exception of his two missionary years in Hong Kong), so I think it might be a bit of an adjustment for him:). It will be an interesting adventure for both of us, but we are looking forward to it. However, we will both miss Utah (and our family here) like CRAZY!

We will be sure to let you know when plans are finalized...

Thanks, Joe

2007-10-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

Torre is one reason I'm proud to be a Yankees fan. Couldn't ask for a better coach or a classier guy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

2007-09-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 26TH BIRTHDAY JUSTIN!! I LOVE YOU:)

Remembering - 1 year later

2007-09-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do a blog about my sister, Jamie, and my niece, Alexis for some time now. I've been putting it off because I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it. This month (September 5, actually) marks the one year mark since Jamie and Alexis passed away as a result of a car accident. It has definitely been a tough year for the whole family. However, our faith in Christ and the promises of the gospel have provided great peace and comfort to everyone.

I miss seeing my sister's smile. I miss how much fun we had whenever she came back to Utah to visit. I miss Alexis' hugs and her laugh. She had the best laugh. I am so grateful to have had such an amazing big sister and neice and so blessed to have been a part of their lives.

Jamie was an amazing mom

With her three kids - Alexis, Kaitlyn, and Ethan

We love you Jamie and Alexis!

St. George and Cora's Birthday Party

2007-09-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got all my pictures on my computer from our last few weekends out of town. Justin and I were in St. George the weekend before last and then we went down to Vegas for Labor Day. Lots and lots of festivities= Lots and lots of PICTURES!

ST. GEORGE

Kelly and I squeezing through one of the narrows in St. George. Let me tell ya... we had to suck it in!

Justin and I with beautiful St. George in the background. You can even see the temple... thanks to Kelly's photography skills.

Abby and Carson trying to get out of the hot sun. Look at their rosey cheeks!

The whole Grundy clan! (Except Stan who was taking the picture)

CORA'S BIRTHDAY

Although she may not look it... Cora was very excited to get the party started!

Cora playing with Uncle Jeremy

Here's Lily, showcasing the birthday balloons out front.

Lily and her Auntie Devyn... Lily spent most of the weekend right there by Auntie's side!

Elizabeth and her mommy telling secrets:)

Uncle Michael...uh... I think he's... playing with Elijah.

Cora opening her new grocery store food... Elijah was very excited!

Cora getting her "Poochy Bag" from Aunt Linda... as spectators look on... or as spectators do their own thing:)

Elizabeth spending some quality time with Gramma

Cora soooo excited about her Pablo!

Cora sporting her SWEET Backyardigans shirt from Ben and Fiona

The twins playin in the tunnel!

Cora chillin with Pablo while she eats some imaginary food out of her new cup

Cora and the girls in her new kitchen! She got lots of food and an awesome grocery cart from Auntie Sarah and Uncle Jeremy!

Cora and Pablo on her beautiful rocking chair from Aunt Lori and Papa!

Cora's first car!! Thanks Auntie Devyn and Uncle Michael!

Not too sure about that cupcake...

Reading with Uncle Justin

Laughing with Auntie A-mi-mi

Cutie Pie Cora Bee!

SEPTEMBER 1st

2007-08-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

I know this is a little early, but I won't be at my computer tomorrow, so here it is one day early. September 1st is my mom's birthday. If she were here, she would have been 51 years old. This is a picture we took of ourselves (after many tries with the timer on my camera:)) on the day I went through the temple for the first time. Of course, being mom, she was there for that wonderful moment in my life, just like she has been every step of the way. She lived for 51 amazing years and I wanted to say Happy Birthday! I love her more than anything in the world and miss her every minute of every day. She was the best mom a girl could ever wish for!

My Birthday Weekend

2007-08-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

For my golden birthday (turned 25 on the 25th- for those of you who don't know what "golden birthday" means), Justin's family took us down to St. George for the weekend. We went to Tuacahn and saw their production of Cinderella. It was a fun experience, besides the fact that it was a little hot, even at 9:00pm. We also did some shopping, hung out at the pool, and explored the St. George version of the narrows. I need to get a new battery charger for my camera before I can put those pictures on our blog. However, Chelsea Lou and Shawn brought Cora to St. George on Saturday to hang out with us for my birthday. Chelsea, of course, had her camera so she loaned me a few to post on the blog (so I could post something besides that hideous American Galdiators picture- sorry Justin). It was so much fun to hang out with Justin's family AND my sister's family for my birthday. It was just perfect!

Justin and I loved making Cora laugh as we threw her back and forth to each other. Cora has definitely become quite fond of "shish shish," as she calls him.

My two cute nieces! Abby and Carson loved having Cora around... although they are not used to sharing Aunt Amy's attention:)

Cora and I had a blast hanging out in the pool. Apparently, the whole ride home (and the next day) Cora kept repeating my name followed by "swimming." Shawn said I can never take her swimming again:) I wish I lived closer... but I can't wait to see them next weekend!
P.S. IT'S CORA'S BIRTHDAY TODAY! SHE IS TWO YEARS OLD! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORA LEE!

It's back!!

2007-08-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

We were watching TV last night and saw a preview for a new American Gladiators. I don't know about you, but I'm wicked excited. This show was definitely one of my favorites as a kid. I would watch it every weekend with my little brother, and we'd often put on our own American Gladiator competitions in our basement with bean bags and pillows. I can't wait to see if this is as good as the old one. You can read about it at the following link: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117970702.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

blog filler

2007-07-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

So, we don't really have too much to blog about these days. I thought I'd just write down some random thoughts so we can fill some blog space until something exciting happens in our lives. (Our lives really aren't that boring. They aren't...really!)

We taught our first Sunday school lesson this past Sunday. For those of you who don't know, Amy and I were called to be Sunday school teachers. I was STOKED when they called us to this calling. There's nothing I like more than interpreting the scriptures for a bunch of return missionary, BYU student brainiacs. I seriously almost said no when they extended the calling to us. Luckily Amy was there to smile and graciously accept the calling for us.

The lesson actually didn't go too badly. I definitely over-prepared. The way the leeson goes is I'm supposed to teach half the lesson (20 minutes) and Amy's supposed to teach the other half. I spent way more than 20 minutes on my half of the lesson. Consequently, I ended up taking 35 of our 40 minute lesson. Although I'll have to say Amy's 5 minutes of teaching were the best 5 minutes of the whole lesson.

Moving on, does anyone else hope that Barry Bonds never hits another home run in his career and stays one shy of Aaron? I sure do. Sorry all you Giant fans out there, but I do not like Barry Bonds. At all. I really hope baseball can finally clean up and seriously get steroids out of it's sport.

On the other hand, I just want to say how lucky we are to be able to witness a player like Alex Rodriguez. He's about to become the youngest player to reach 500 homeruns. He's in the midst of one of the greatest single seasons by a player. I don't particularly like A-Rod as a person, but you've got to admit he is something special.

And in a related note, the Yankees are having a great second half of the season. Is it going to be enough to overtake the Sox? I'm not so sure. We're still 8 games back. The wild card is definitely do-able, though. I seriously don't know what I'm going to do if the Yankees don't make the playoffs. October just won't be October without the Yankees. Although I will get a lot more homework done, so that's a plus.

Anyways, that's it for now. We're heading out to Bear Lake this weekend for Raspberry days. I'm really looking forward to eating one of their famous raspberry shakes. I'm thinking about buying Amy a new bikini for the trip. Do you think she'll wear it? Yeah, me either.

San Diego

2007-07-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Justin and I went to San Diego to be with Shawn and Chelsea as they went through the temple. Then we were able to see Shawn, Chelsea, and Cora be sealed in the temple the next day. It was amazing! We are so so happy for them! Not to mention they picked one of the prettiest temples in the world to do so in. I had only driven by the San Diego temple before. But it is amazing inside. Breathtaking, really. It was a great weekend. We were able to spend time with our cousins down there and we even went to the beach for a little bit.

Cora and I were able to spend a little more quality time together and that was so fun. She is hilarious. I love to hear her say A-mi-mi (instead of Amy she says this... sometimes with more than two "mi's" at the end). I felt special to be on the very small list of "people Cora can be with without mommy and daddy." The workers at the temple were not on that list. As we were sitting in the sealing room, we could hear Cora screaming in the hall. The poor temple worker. She was so relieved to get Cora back to someone on Cora's "special people" list. They told us she cried the entire hour she was in the nursery. So sad! But she survived:)

Anyway, congratulations to Chelsea Lou, her hubby, and her pumpkin! We are so happy for them! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

The happy family before the big day!

My cute sister as she is coming out of the temple

Our little pumpkin playing outside the temple. She had a blast playing outside with "Papa" (Uncle Jim) and "A-mi-mi."

She had so much fun playing that this is what she did when we wanted her to actually stop playing and take a picture.

Such a pretty temple!

2007-07-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

I want to tell a funny story about my wife. She is probably not going to be too happy about this post, but I figure the story is good enough that I can take whatever punishment she might give me.

So we live in an apartment building. It's a lovely place. Since we live in an aparment building, we have to take our garbage to the dumpster outside when it's full. This dumpster that everyone in our aparment shares just happens to be right next to the mailboxes. So often we kill two birds with one stone - we take out the garbage and get the mail at the same time.

You know all those annoying adds you get in the mail? We get a ton of them. So it's actually very convenient that our dumpster is right next to the mailboxes. We can just take all the junkmail we receive and throw in right in the dumpster. This, however, has caused us a couple little problems.

One of our first nights in our new apartment, we decided to go out for ice cream. Before we did, we checked the mail, which of course was full of ads and junk mail. Amy took the mail out, and proceeded to the dumpster to throw it all away. While she was throwing the mail away, she accidentally dropped her keys into the dumpster with all the mail! She looked at me like, "oh crap!" and we both just started laughing hysterically. Being the husband that I am, I proceeded to climb into the smelly dumpster, and fetch the keys, which had fallen clear to the bottom, underneath all the garbage.

So we got a good laugh out of that experience. Just one of those silly things that happens. Well, as I was driving home from work yesterday, Amy sent me a text message telling me she dropped her phone in the dumpster! Yep, she did it again, only this time it was her phone, and I wasn't there to climb in for her. So my wonderful wife, bless her heart, had to climb into the dumpster to retrive her phone. Picture it in your head. It's pretty funny.

I can only imagine what our neighbors in our building think of us when they see us climbing in and out of the dumpster :)

I love you honey!!!

Forgetful or Not Forgetful?

2007-06-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

In the short time I have been married, I have witnessed how incredibly forgetful my husband can be. I love him dearly, but he never ceases to amaze me at his capacity to forget. Whether it be forgetting to turn down the air conditioner before he leaves for work, forgetting his ipod on the counter after leaving for the gym (which he left right next to his keys so he could remember to grab it, yet still somehow managed to leave it sitting there), or forgetting to make a phone call to the insurance guy day after day after repeated nagging from me, I often find myself wondering how Justin remembered anything before we got married.

However, two days ago was the 19th of June. Our one month anniversary. I completely did not realize it had been one month since we got married. This is very out of character for me. However, when Justin got home from work, he had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me. He came up and said "Happy 1 Month Anniversary!" I was in shock. After all of the things he so casually forgets, he remembers a 1 month anniversary! I guess I can forgive him for his other moments of forgetfulness:)

Here are the flowers. Lillies are my favorite! One month down... and we are still happy:)

awesomeness

2007-06-20T12:24:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately, I had to delete my last post about the soccer game because some person named "Bob" left some nasty comments. Anyways, I'm posting the pictures back up for those who want to see them. Again, we had a great night. The game was a lot of fun. It was so nice of my company to sponsor this game for us. Thanks XanGo!

The whole family (we're kind of weird, huh?)

The most entertaining person at the game

Can you tell who is NOT photogenic in my family?

I love shoulder rides

Newspaper musings

2007-06-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of the newspaper. My family has subscribed the the Salt Lake Tribune for as long as I can remember. I love to start my morning off right with a good bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the newspaper. When I was younger I would only read the sports section and the comics.

But now I am offically an old man. I say this because my daily reading of the newspaper now includes reading the obituaries. I can't go a day without reading them. If I miss a day, I always check the database online for previous obituaries. I know, I've turned into my father.

Another part of my daily newspaper reading is reading a columnist from the Tribune named Robert Kirby. Kirby is a very sarcastic person, and his articles are always so funny. He's a Mormon, and often writes funny columns on the nuances of Mormonism religion, and living in Utah in general. Anytime you want a good laugh, I encourage you to read one of his articles.

One reason I bring up newspapers is because BYU puts out a newspaper for the students, called the Daily Universe. Some reading this blog may have attended BYU and were once loyal readers of the publication. To those who have never read the Daily Universe, I encourage you to go to their website (http://newsnet.byu.edu/section.cfm/home). When you get to the webpage, click on the Opinion link and read the "Letters to the DU editor". These are opinions sent in mostly from students. I encourage you to read these for two reasons: 1 - you will see that many people at BYU are as crazy as you think, 2 - you will definitely get a good laugh at the crazy weird opinions some people have.

Now don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed being a student at BYU. My schooling has been a great experience. But when I read some of these letters to the editor, I seriously don't know how I ended up in a place like Provo!

New York, New York

2007-06-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

We had a blast in New York! There are lots of things to see, but I think we pretty much got it all covered. Because we did so much, we thought we would rank our experiences from okay to best. Everything we did was fun, so there weren't any bad things on the list. But we did enjoy some things more than others. So here is our honeymoon to New York in a nutshell:)

10. The many catholic churches

We decided to go into a few of the historic Cathlic churches around New York. It was very interesting. We even witnessed a mass going on. The windows and architecture were amazing. We went into this church right across the street from the world trade center. Apparently, on 9/11, as debris was falling from the towers, something hit a tree that was in front of the church. It knocked this enormous tree down so that the tree covered and protected several historic graves that were in front of the church. This tree also acted as a shield for the church. The church survived that day without ANY harm done to it. Isn't that amazing?

9. Our Hotel- The Warwick

We stayed at a very nice hotel that was in the best location ever. It's kind of an older hotel, but it was very pretty and was close to everything we needed.

8. Bubba Gumps Restaurant

I had been craving shrimp our whole stay in New York. Finally, on our last day, we decided to eat at Bubba Gumps. It is a mostly shrimp restauraunt based on the movie Forrest Gump. It was on the second floor of a building right in the middle of Times Square. You looked out the windows to see everything going on in the heart of NYC. It was so cool. Plus, the shrimp was divine!

7. Grand Central Station

This is just a site you have to see in New York. It is so beautiful.

We were playing with the settings on my camera for this picture and came up with a masterpiece... well we thought so anyway. The way we took it, everything around me was in motion while I was in focus because I was standing still. We thought it was pretty cool.

6. Central Park

I have never seen anything quite like it. Just a HUGE green area in the middle of the city. There is one area that is this huge grassy knoll. Lots of people having picnics, playing catch, sleeping, and lounging in very little clothing. It was interesting, but very fun to see.

5. Empire State Building

Yes, the quintessential New York City site.

4. Harbor Tour

We took a harbor tour around the whole island. There were many beautiful views of the city skyline and we got really close to the Statue of Liberty. It was a really nice tour. I would highly recommend it next time you go to New York:)

We even sailed right under the Brooklyn Bridge

3. World Trade Center

This was a very somber place, but it was so incredible to see. They have a visitor's center that includes all of the names of the people whose lives were lost that day and several items that were recovered from the buildings that day. They have done so much work on the area and they have big plans for what will be there in the future. They have already re-built tower number 7. It will be interesting to see how much this area changes in the next few years.

2. Wicked

Wicked is a musical on Broadway. It is the story of what happened BEFORE Dorothy came to Oz. I had already seen it, but Justin hadn't. I wasn't sure if we would love it like I do, but he has been singing the songs pretty much non-stop. He even asked me if he could borrow my Wicked soundtrack to listen to on his way home from work last week. It made me very happy:)

1. The Yankees Game

Of course, the best we thing we did in New York had to be the Yankees game. Although it was the only game out of the three game series they lost to the Red Sox, It was still incredible. We got there a bit early and were able to watch batting practice. It was crazy. We were both incredibly star-struck. So here are a few of the many great monents we had at Yankee Stadium...

This was us in front of the Red Sox players. They were warming up in right field and we were able to get very close.

Getting ready for the big game!

Jeter in action before the game

A-Rod getting ready for his turn during batting practice

A-Rod smiling for my picture... well not really. But it kind of looks like it:)

This was at the end of the game... still enjoying the experience!

Well, that's our trip. Sorry if there were a TON of pictures but it was hard to narrow it down. We did have so much fun though and hopefully we will be able to go back... one day!

We're Back!

2007-05-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Justin and I got back from New York late last night and we had an amazing time. We took lots of pictures but the connecting cable for my camera is at my school so I will have pictures from the honeymoon posted this week sometime. We just wanted everyone to know we are home safe and it was a blast.
Thanks so much to everyone who came to the wedding and made the day so perfect for us. It really was so much better than we could have even imagined. I loved having my good friends and family there with me. It would not have been the same without any one of them.
I miss everyone so much and wish we could all be together more. Again, thanks so much to everyone. It was such a great day:) And there will be New York pictures soon... Stay tuned...

Reno fun

2007-05-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

Amy and I were able to take a road trip to Reno this past weekend. Amy's friend BreAnn had a wedding reception that we were able to attend. It was nice for me to meet everyone in Reno that Amy has told me so much about. I finally met most of the people who comment on our blog, which is nice. It was nice to finally meet Meagan and Todd, BreAnn and Nate, and everyone else. Plus it was nice to be able to spend some time with Amy's family. Some of the highlights of my Reno experience were:

1. The cupcakes at the wedding. They were really good...especially the yellow ones!

2. Watching the fireworks from the Lund's house. What an amazing view!

3. Watching how excited Todd was that he caught the frog, then watching everyone's disappointment when he told them he let the frog go (it was a loud frog, which had been causing sleeping problems at the Lund house)

4. Watching the funniest Everybody Loves Raymond episode with Debbie.

5. Driving Val's Nissan 350Z.

6. Eating at In and Out.

Anyways, the trip was fun. We're excited to see everyone again at our wedding. Only five more days!!

Yankees Paraphernalia

2007-05-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

First of all, I had no idea how to spell the word paraphernalia. When I put it in a word document and did the spell check, this is the spelling they showed me. I wasn't quite sure that was the correct word, so I looked it up on dictionary.com. These were the definitions...
1. equipment, apparatus, or furnishing used in or necessary for a particular activity
2. personal belongings
3. the personal articles, apart from dower, reserved by law to a married woman
The last definition was hilarious given the personal article we are discussing here. I just thought the actual definitions were very appropriate. Anyway... now to the subject

I had another shower the other night with my friends and teachers from my school. I, again, received some very very nice gifts. My favorite, however, was the gift I received from my VERY soon to be sister-in-law Kelly. It was so hilarious. All of you, by now, must know what a huge Yankees fan Justin is. Well, that's what makes this gift so funny. A Yankees garter. Plus, I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but there is a little button in the middle of the bow that is a baseball. It's classic! Who'd have thought these things are out there? This goes to show you can find ANYTHING on Ebay:)

Only 2 more weeks to go...:)

Busy Busy Biztown!

2007-05-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

So it seems that lately a lot of people ask the very normal question, "Are you getting stressed out?" My immediate response is, "Yes!" but then I realize they are referring to the upcoming wedding (which is in 18 days, by the way). So I have to correct myself. No, I'm actually totally NOT stressed out about the wedding in the least bit. I'm not apathetic or anything, I just think everything will be fine. The stress I do feel, however, is directly related to my work. I know you are probably thinking, "How stressful can it get to be a 5th grade teacher?"
Well, my friends... it can be very stressful. We have lots and lots going on. Just last week we had a field trip that we had been working toward for the most part of the year. We have had to prepare our students for "Biztown." It's a little town that has 20 different businesses in it. During the day, they work, the get 2 paychecks (which have taxes taken out of course), then they get breaks where they can spend their earned money at the businesses. Sounds simple right? Not so much. We had to teach them about gross and net income, how to fill out deposit slips (including getting some cash at the same time), how to fill out checks, and how to accurately keep track of their check register so they don't spend money they don't have. We also had to make sure they knew how to do the job in which they were employed. It was a LOT of preparation, and was not easy. But the end was result was sooo fun! The kids were so cute with their little checkbooks walking around making purchases and working soo hard. It's so funny when you hear them talking to their friends on their breaks saying, "I can't go there yet because I need to go to the bank first..." One of the CFO's of one of the businesses never even left his office. I saw him eating his lunch at his desk and when I asked him why he wasn't eating lunch at the restaurant (which was also one of the businesses) he sighed and said, "There is just too much work to get done. I don't have any time!" It was hilarious. So, I wanted to share some of these pictures with you to show off MY cute kids... well, students.

These are the kids working at Zion's Bank. The other kids were so cute waiting patiently in line to get their checks deposited so they could go spend!

Here they are in the insurance office. Select Health Insurance employees worked hard to get employees of other businesses to be smart and invest in health insurance!

This is Mallarie my little DJ of the town. She, of course, took requests and dedications throughout the day. She played Fergilicious like 10 times. I had to tell her to stop playing that one:)

This is the town treasure and IRS agent, government employees:) Junior, the bottom one in the picture is my student. The day before our trip I was SOOO close to not letting him come because of his behavior. I did end up letting him come.. and get this- he won the best employee award out of the whole town! That's 90 kids! It was very exciting.

This is Christina in her little business suit looking very official:)

Little Trent... he was our salesman at the car dealership. He wanted to look the part!

All in all, the kids really did learn so much and they did so well as hard working citizens of a real community. All the stress and hard work paid off. Wish you all could have seen it. It was a blast! But I am glad that is one more thing crossed off the list. Only about ten more to go until I can start thinking about the wedding:)

football and turtles

2007-04-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Amy went to California with her friend Adrienne, so I was once again left all alone in Utah :( Usually when Amy is out of town I mope around the house, counting the hours until she comes back. This time I actually went out and did something for a change. My buddy had tickets to a Utah Blaze game. They are an Arena Football League team that has been in Utah for two years now. I had mixed feelings about the game. I still haven't caught on to the idea of arena football. I mean, the score at half time was 48 - 48. There is only so much scoring in a football game I can take. Call me old fashion, but I love to watch defenses step up and make a big stop in a game. This is rarely heard of in arena football. I'm pretty sure both teams scored on all of their possessions in the first half. Needless to say, by halftime we were about arena footballed out, so we took off.

After the game my buddy and I decided we wanted to bring back fond memories of our childhood days so we went and saw TMNT. I'll have to admit I was really excited when I heard they were making a new turtles movie. I saw all three turtle movies in the theater when I was younger, and currently own TMNT 1 & 2 (the third one was just stupid). The movie was okay. I was pretty disappointed in the storyline and most of the dialogue. They could have made the movie so much better. But I did enjoy myself. There were bright spots in the movie, the brightest spot being Michelangelo. He's definitely the funniest turtle, and had a couple pretty funny lines in the movie.

So that's how my weekend has gone. Probably not as exciting as the California getaway that Amy is having. I talked to her yesterday and they went to six flags. She said it was pretty fun, but they had to stand in line most of the day and their feet hurt by the time they left.

As far as wedding news, there really isn't much to report. I think Debbie sent the invitations out already. So if Amy wanted to back out, it's too late now. We're just counting down until the big day. I finish my finals on Wednesday and then we'll start packing all of our stuff for the move into the new apartment. I can't wait!

Mangosteen, anyone?

2007-04-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you, thanks to Amy's mom Debbie, have heard of XanGo. Debbie loves the stuff, and I'm sure she'll tell you how amazing it has been for her health. And I believe her. I think the stuff is really good and works really well. The reason I bring this up is because I just got an internship offer from XanGo. They are based out here in Utah and I will be working in the accounting department. I'm pretty excited. It will be a good job that will give me some good experience. I am sure Debbie is extra excited, especially if she's able to get special discounts on XanGo :)

Here's the thing I never knew, though. XanGo is made from the fruit mangosteen, as seen below.
I ate mangosteen all the time on my mission in Hong Kong. It is the most amazingly sweet, yummy tasting fruit I've ever had. I had no idea that this is where XanGo came from. I hope you all get a chance to try the fruit some day. Needless to say, I am very excited to start my job with XanGo. I'm sure Amy is also excited for me to start making more money! She's probably sick of being my sugar momma.

My American Idol

2007-03-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

I have really gotten into American Idol this year. I've watched it every now and then in the past, but I've never taken the time to actually call in and vote. This year I've been able to watch from the first episode, and I'm addicted. I just wanted to write this post and pledge my adoration, support, and votes to none other than Melinda Doolittle!

Amy and I disagree on Melinda. Amy thinks she's plain and not very original. Amy knows her voice is good, but claims Melinda is no American Idol. I disagree. I LOVE Melinda. She is just so kind and humble, which is not what you see a lot of these days. And her voice is incredible. Even if she doesn't end up winning, I really hope that she makes it big. A girl like that, who has worked as hard and sounds as good as she does, deserves it.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have that freaking Sanjaya kid. Holy crap! I'd rather listen to the sound of moose mating calls than listen to him sing. It's down right awful. I really hope he gets voted off soon.

So, if you are an American Idol fan, I ask all you to please cast your vote for sweet little Melinda. I think next year I'm going to try out for American Idol. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the best singers I've ever heard. My specialty is rap, but I'm also pretty good at classic country and ska.

Adorable Nieces and Nephew...

2007-03-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

I absolutely LOVE looking at the amazing adorable children that are posted on all the blogs I visit often. Because of this, I have wanted to contribute to this fad in blogging. Having kids on your blog is obviously the cool thing to do. Therefore, because Justin and I have no children of our own to post adorable pictures of, I am going to showcase our adorable nieces and nephew.

Chelsea and Shawn keep their blog pretty up-to-date with pictures of Cora. She's my amazing 19 month old niece whom I adore. If only she lived closer so I didn't have to re-introduce myself to her every time I see her... (Shawn if you could work on making that happen I'd be very appreciative:)) Anyway, even though most of you are very familiar with my little Cora, I had to include some pictures of her from my visit with her in Reno this past week. She is hilarious. Her favorite thing to do is to run around and say "Boo!" to everyone she sees. When she is being very cooperative, she can point out many parts of her body, including, but not limited to jabbing her fingers into her eyes when asked where her eyes are. If she is feeling VERY cooperative, you might even hear her say letters A-E all by herself! My favorite thing that she does is to imitate a witch laugh that is inside one of her Halloween books. It is unbelievable. She's a cutie pie. I can't get enough of her!

Looking very cool in her mom's sunglasses and a freshly done hairdo that lasted about 5 minutes, much to her mother's dismay

Being very smiley at Red Robin (her Auntie's favorite restaurant)

Having fun with Auntie Am!

I used to only be able to claim one niece and no nephews. Not anymore! Although they will officially be my niece and nephew on May 19th, I have thought of them as such for quite some time now. They are not only my niece and nephew, but they are my roomates! I am living with Justin's brother and sister-in-law (who also set me up with Justin) and their two very energetic kids Abby and Carson.

Abby is 4 and smarter than me, I think. She talks like an adult and surprises us with what she knows more and more every day. She loves anything girly and is very often quite dramatic. She also likes to make it very clear that she likes me more than her Uncle Justin, which I highly enjoy. One day Abby's mom was trying to take a picture of Abby and her little brother as many immediate and extended family members looked on. As everyone was trying to get them both to smile, Justin, thinking he was so clever, instead of saying "Say cheese!" said "Say I Love Justin the best!" Abby quickly retorted "I love Amy the best!" It was so funny. She's a clever little thing:)

Abby getting ready for some fun outside with her favorite babysitter (that would be me)

Carson is Abby's little brother. He just turned two in January and is ALL boy... well, with the exception of his small fettish with dressing up in Abby's princess dress outfits. His favorite is a pretty blue dress that resembles Cinderella. When he is not playing dress up with Abby, he is falling off things, running into things, biting, pushing and growling. He has started talking a ton. My favorite thing he does is when I leave in the morning. If I don't say goodbye he runs over to me at the door, with his arms wide open and says "Amy, what about my hug and kiss?" It always makes my day start off with a smile. I guess I should probably include that Justin is definitely Carson's favorite. Whenever I tend them by myself, he asks when Justin will be there at least 5 times.

Carson looking cute in the bathtub

They really are so much fun to be around. The can keep going and going and going... There is never a dull moment with these two. I will miss them so much when I move out:(

Playing outside together

Abby smiling for the camera in the bathtub... and Carson moments before he spit out the bath water in his mouth at his favorite target... Justin.

So until Justin and I have our own kids to update everyone about... I get to give Cora a second spotlight, and keep everyone up-to-date on my tiny roomates! So much fun:)

Patience is a virtue

2007-03-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Amy and I would like to deeply apologize to all you who read our blog. As Debbie said, Amy has been off track and I had a butt load of tests last week that kept me away from doing anything fun. So we haven't been able to blog in some time. But tests are now over and I can have fun again, so here is another blog for y'all.

Amy took off for Reno today. She'll be there until Thursday. She has both a shower and a dentist appointment. I'm excited she gets to go and see all of her Reno family and friends. I'll admit, I'm a little jealous that I don't get to go. I would love to see everyone again...especially little Cora and Naomi. I've only seen Naomi twice, so she probably doesn't remember me. Cora should remember me because Shawn and Chelsea show her (or should be showing her) a picture of me every night. They are two of the cutest little girls out there. I'm sure Amy will have a fun few days.

Wedding plans are coming along quite nicely. Today marks our "two-months-until-we're-married" day. We celebrated by ordering Carl's Jr. before Amy went to the airport. This past weekend we went and took our engagement pictures with my sister-in-law. There were a few that turned out pretty cute that we'll use for our engagement pictures. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open because the sun was so bright. I think I'm closing my eyes in half of the pictures we took. But they turned out good, and Amy looks hot in all of them!

We were also able to go to Disney on Ice last weekend with my family. Boy was that awesome! Actually, we had a good time. The show was kind of corny, and the tickets were way over priced. But it was fun to go with Abby and Carson (my brother's kids) and watch how excited they got. I'm sure Amy would agree that seeing the looks on the kids' faces was well worth the overpriced tickets.

Anyways, I hope this blog was long enough to make up for our lack of blogging. I promise we'll do better at updating this thing. Here are a few pics of us at Disney on Ice with the kids.

Almost the most wonderful time of the year

2007-02-28T20:59:00.000-08:00

I was watching a basketball game on t.v. today and as the scores from other games were rolling across the bottom, I noticed a category that had been missing for a few months from the scoreboard was back: MLB. Yep, spring training has officially started. The awfulness of winter and nothing but basketball to watch is almost over, and the blessed season of baseball is just about upon us. I am so excited. A new season. New expectations. Will the Yankees return to championship form? Or will they dwindle in the playoffs again? Will their pitching finally come together? Will A-Rod finally get an RBI in the postseason? There are so many questions and so many unknowns right now. It's going to be exciting to see what will happen.

In related news, I want to make a pre-apology to my soon-to-be wife for any grumpiness and/or neglecting that the baseball season may cause. We haven't spent a baseball season together yet. So this season is really going to be a trial run for us. I think having her around will help when I go on a post-Yankees-loss depression. I love you, hun!

On a scale of 1 to 10...

2007-02-19T22:39:00.000-08:00

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone. For those of you who don't know me too well, Valentine's Day has traditionally been my least favorite holiday...BY FAR. This Valentine's Day was pretty good though. I'll have to admit, ever since meeting Amy I'm turning into quite the romantic person. The other day I had her judge how romantic I am on a scale of 1 to 10. I see myself has a low 7. Amy, on the other hand, sees me as somewhere around a 2 (I know, crazy!). So this past Valenine's I decided to to show Amy that I really am a romantic person. So Valentine's night, after her workout, I surprised her with a homemade candlelit dinner, complete with romantic music and everything. I'll have to be honest, if that didn't put me at a high 9 on the romantic scale, I don't know what will. It turned out to be a very nice night. Maybe I was wrong about Valentine's. Maybe it isn't such a bad holiday after all.

RITL Reunion

2007-02-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

Well after an amazing RITL weekend, I was trying to figure out a way to compile our best moments into one blog entry. Michele did a great job with her quotes from the weekend, but I wanted to add a little with a TOP 10 List of the top 10 best parts about the 1st annual RITL Reunion. So here it goes...
10. Making it safely to every destination in California (yes even San Francisco)! Great Job driving BreAnn... even if we were able to see "Mean BreAnn" every now and then.
9. Listening to a lady talk to herself in the PRE-bathroom of a San Francisco hotel.
8. Figuring out how crazily similar Nate and Justin are.
7. Giving BreAnn and Michele my "sickness"
6. Leaving my taffy behind TWICE, but being lucky enough to have BreAnn there to get it back for me:)
5. Seeing Meagan wear a piece of clothing from everyone else's wardrobe
4. My amazing bridal shower... complete with my red face... and other red things:)
3. Taking our "butt" pictures
2. Our late night chats (ah, who am I kidding? Our late night, early morning, late morning, afternoon, early evening, car ride, dinner, and invitation making chats!)
1. Having my 3 RITL girls there waiting for me when I got off the plane (even if it means I missed stuff)!
I was sad to see the weekend come to an end. But I am already looking forward to our 2nd annual RITL Reunion in Texas next February. Only 12 months to go!
P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!

The girls ready to head out for a day in San Fransisco

BreAnn actually stopping to pose for a picture... this did not happen often!

Michele and Meagan looking cute in Santa Cruz!

The RITL girls after some fun times:)

Last but not least...

2007-02-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

So I was planning on waiting until we were actually married to start this blog. However, after discussing the matter with several people (specifically Meagan, Michele, and BreAnn), I was told that I should wait no longer... hence the beginning of Justin and Amy's blog. I think I am offically the last person I know to create a blog. I tried to make the web address just justinandamy.blogspot, but that was not available. Apparently there is another couple somewhere in the world with our names who has already secured that address. Instead of making it something that was terribly complicated, I added Justin's last name (my soon to be last name). I really should have waited until we were married, but oh well! Now I can join in the fun with everyone else!