The One with the Proposal

Gotcha!!  This post is not about Justin asking me to marry him (although that is a good story and happened over 2 years ago, crazy!!) but about him checking off the last pre-req (the research proposal) to become a full PhD candidate.  We've been practicing (well, he's been practicing while I listened) his presentation all week and yesterday afternoon he passed!!  Yay!!  I took him to Red Rock, a restaurant we've been wanting to try out, to celebrate.  It's also a brewery where they brew their own root beer- alongside other beverages but we didn't try those.  I'm not a huge fan of root beer but Justin ordered some so I tried it.  Pretty strong stuff.  I only took a sip but then couldn't tell what my drink even was because the flavor lingered so long!  The food was good, not spectacular but not overpriced either.

We watched the Arizona game when we got home.  They didn't look great but they did look very promising.  And they won.  What a great day!!!

The One with Makayla's Imagination

My absolute favorite thing about Makayla is her imagination.  She has endless ideas for entertaining herself.  And usually everyone else around her. 

I wasn't present for this story but I think it's so funny it needs to be included.  One time Amy (you can correct me if I get something wrong) called me after being in the car with Makayla and said they had passed a bunch of chickens on the side of the road.  Apparently they did this quite often and so Makayla named one of them Brownie and he would sometimes "appear" in the car with them or back at home.  Yes, Makayla's imaginary friend was a chicken.  When they got home Makayla wanted a piece of cheese (Makayla eat cheese?  Of course.  It's probably her favorite food!).  She was probably only 3 at the time and so eventually the cheese got mangled and disgusting.  She tried to give it back to Amy and said "I don't want this anymore.  Brownie bokked on it!"  I'm not sure what a chicken's clucking does to a piece of cheese but apparently you can't eat it afterward.

Makayla is so loving.  Be it animals or cousins she is always there to help.

Since Kaden had the Milk song on his post I thought it only fair that my favorite Makayla song be posted.  When I went to Girls' State after junior year of high school we would sing "camp songs."  That is where I learned "The Moose Song" also known as "Way-Yo."  Eventually I taught Makayla and she loved it!  But she was too young to pronounce all the words so when she sang it, it went like this "way-o way-o way-o way-o way-o."  Not much of a tune and even more unfortunately no dance moves but you could randomly hear her sing this chorus while playing by herself in the other room.

This is one of my proudest pictures.  Makayla is so good at entertaining herself she sat still the whole time I was french braiding her hair!  Now if she would only let us touch her head now...

Makayla, you are such a sweetheart and we're so glad you're part of our family!!

The One with Pictures of Kaden

He's growing up!  Sniff.

I have soooo many funny pictures of Kaden!  And memories.  Probably because he's the oldest grandkid in the family.  Some of them are even from my first camera- which used film!  Since I don't always have exciting news to share I thought I'd post a few memories.  I'll apologize for the random order of this post now, I'm reminiscing!

On the houseboat at Lake Powell.
This must be where Makayla gets her posing from.

When Amy told us she was going to have a baby (obviously Kaden) I was sooo excited!  I was 13 and he was the first nephew.  And we can all say that Kaden was very entertaining to watch grow up.  He would repeat or do anything you told him to, literally anything.  Flied rice anyone?  -Sadly no pictures with the Japanese hat :(

Too cute!!

 For some reason Kaden loved these gloves of mine.  He's eating a slushy here but I also have a picture of him sleeping with them on.

 Wow do I look amazing in this picture.  This was the night before Amy and Kaden moved to North Carolina.  I'm sure Kaden wouldn't have smiled so big if he knew he was leaving his favorite aunt!

 I guess Kaden's always been a video game addict.  Proof.

Favorite Kaden Quotes:

"Pink Spiders"- said slowly and with a lisp.  Ha ha!!  Kaden said that once when my friend Aaron Burroughs came over and Aaron would repeat it all the time!  No idea where it came from.

Cindy- "Give me a big milk."

Kaden- "Chocolate!"

Cindy- "Give me a little milk."

Kaden- "skim."

I was driving home to Safford with Kaden in the backseat and taught him the milk song to keep him entertained.  He said skim in the tiniest little voice.  I almost had to pull over I laughed so hard.  Do we have that on tape?  We should!

"Good night Aunt Cindy, good night Aunt Grandma, good night Aunt Mommy, good night Aunt Uncle Dude. Good night good night good night good night good night."  -appropriately named "The Good Night Song"

Favorite Kaden Memories:

Just for proof that Kaden would do anything you asked.  Especially if you told him it would be funny.

Yep, that's a mylar balloon!!

Kaden is such a smart kid.  My sophomore year of college I took Kaden and Makayla to our annual Chemistry "Magic Show."  It was interactive as well as educational so we (the demonstrators) asked the audience questions.  I was surprised myself when Kaden would shout out correct answers.  He must have been 6 years old and my friends all thought we were cheating and I was telling him what to say until he got the question right that I asked the audience.  Then everyone said "child genius." 

 Again, so cute!!  And you can definitely tell he lives in AZ.  Brightest sun ever!!

I took this picture one night before going to look at the temple lights during Christmas.  I always wanted to put it in a photo contest because Kaden's expression is so classically funny!  And look at what a sweet sister Makayla is.

LOVE it!!  This may be my favorite picture ever!!

And finally, I LOVE that Kaden wants to be a scientist.  It's a great goal :)  You're going to have to put in some hard work, but it will totally be worth it.  I know you can do it Buddy!  Love you Kaden!!!

   

The One with the Ring!

No, Justin hasn't been pretending to be Gollum again- last night I lost my engagement ring!  After school we went to the gym like usual and then realized we could make the last Captain America showing at the dollar theater.  We've been wanting to see that movie since it came out last summer but somehow never seem to be quite able to work it out.  Or it gets sold out, like last week (we saw Cowboys & Aliens instead- way better than I thought it would be!).

Anyway, I always take my ring off to work out and was putting it back on in the car on the way to the movie when... it fell.  I heard it bounce around under my seat (the passenger side) and figured once we stopped I could just look under the seat and pick it up.  No such luck.  I actually dropped Justin off at the front of the theater to buy tickets and went looking for a parking spot.  This meant that I didn't actually have to open the passenger side door and hopefully could prevent my ring falling out of the car.  I stuck my hand under the seat from both the front and back, slid the seat as far as it would go either direction, rummaged around, used a flashlight and didn't find anything.  I did earn a few cuts on my fingertips.  Apparently my car is pretty clean but sadly, no ring.  Finally, I did get out (very carefully) and repeated the procedure from a better angle.  Again, no luck.  However, I did find a slit in the carpet underneath the seat where the final bolts were attached during assembly.  I found two pennies in there (both of which faked me out thinking I'd found my ring) and finally decided to run to the theater.

I told Justin I hadn't found my ring but I thought I knew where it was.  We still had a few minutes before the movie actually started which was good because I was quite distracted trying to think of the best way to find my ring in that hole underneath the seat.  By the way, Captain America is really good!  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Although I will admit that all of my favorite movies this year have been based on comic books.  This may further solidify my "nerd" status but I've never actually read any graphic novels so I'm nowhere near Sheldon Cooper.

After the movie Justin helped me search again, but we came up empty-handed.  By now I was starting to feel a little distraught, as you can imagine.  We decided to drive home and see if we could remove the passenger seat.  That was the slowest, most careful, least-amount-of-road-rage drive I have ever taken with Justin :)  When we got home we unbolted the seat (which was much easier than I thought it would be, thankfully) and I immediately saw a shiny diamond.  My ring had fallen around one of the bolts!  Yay!!  Just after I found it, I saw two people slowly approaching us.  Our landlords had seen some lights around our truck and thought it was getting stolen or something.  How nice of them to come check for us!  I would have been terrified to go check out what I thought was a burglary in progress.  What good neighbors!

I'm so glad to have my ring back!  And this was a reminder that now is a good time to get my engagement and wedding rings soldered together.  Oh, and probably that we've been married long enough I should change my last name :)

The One with Halloween!

I am so excited about our costumes this year!!  We went to our first Halloween party last night and I took some pictures just so I could post them for you all!  I love using our interracial marriage as a basis for costumes and this may have been my best idea yet!

Funniest Couple Costume- Cindy & Justin

Border Patrol Agent & Illegal Immigrant

Scariest Costume (playing off Cindy's own ridiculous fear of sharks)- Erin & Jack

Great White Shark & Attack Victim

Honorable Mention to Jack for wearing tights!

Funniest Individual Costume- Thayne (center)

Human Cannonball

Thayne cracks me up!  He honestly has a costume box and pulled some items out.  Between the water polo cap & the goggles he decided he would be a human cannonball.

Most Romantic Costume- Kristie & Jarvis

Wesley & Buttercup

Jarvis is probably the best Wesley I've ever seen (other than Cary Elwes) but no honorable mention- those aren't actually tights.

 

Best Foreign Costume- Brad

Brazilian Mailman

Brad served his mission in Sao Paolo & Justin served in Rio so I think Justin was the only one who was able to recognize this costume right off.  I guessed Bob the Builder :)

I had to throw this picture in too!

 And some extra pictures of Justin's full costume :)  This was all I dreamed of and more!

And yes, he is holding a bag of beans.

Thank you Justin for being such a good sport!

Happy Halloween!!!!