New Year, New Beginnings!

As you can tell from my previous post, last year definitely had it's ups and downs. I must say the ups were really good. My best friend Christie had her daughter Avery in March and I have enjoyed watching her grow throughout the year via picture messages and Facebook! I love technology.





My other best friend Avery, got married in Maui in June of this year and I was a bridesmaid in her beautiful wedding.







Aaron and I celebrated 4 wonderful years together in July and enjoy each other more and more as the years go on. With everything going on in our lives, he has been my rock and so supportive and I love him for that.



We have a lot to look forward to in 2012. Two of my good friends announced that they are expecting next Summer within a month of each other and our friends Chris and Katie Driving Hawk welcomed baby boy Bryson into the world on December 31, so we will have lots of babies around to play with.




As far as the downs go, my parents decided to split and both of my dad's parents had some health problems towards the end of the year, so that was a hard way to end the year. Overall though I'd say it was a decent year and I in spite of all the bad I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends. However, I am definitely welcoming 2012 with open arms. I really think 2012 will be a year for new beginnings and good things will happen this year. I am excited to see what it has to bring.


May you all have a blessed New Year!!

Merry Christmas

It has been a while since I posted anything on here, but there has been quite a bit going on in my life. In August of this year, my parents decided to divorce after 32 years of marriage. My dad moved out in October to an apartment in Phoenix and my mom, Aaron and I moved into a rental house in Chandler in November. Needless to say the holidays were very different this year, but our family was still able to get together to exchange gifts and that made Christmas feel less weird.

We have no clue what ups and downs 2012 will bring, but I am excited for some new beginnings.

I hope you and your loved ones had a Merry Christmas and here's to a Happy New Year and new beginnings for all!

Warriors!

A couple of weekends ago, Aaron and I competed in a 3.4 mile obstacle race called the Warrior Dash (http://www.warriordash.com/). I am always looking for fun activities for us to do together and this one seemed like it would keep Aaron's attention. The 3.4 mile race included 9 obstacles, typical of what you would see in a military type setting. We had to climb up a 30ft cargo net, jump over fire, run across balance beams, and finally crawl through a mud pit underneath barb wire to finish the race.

It was so much fun and I am glad that we got to do it together. Aaron wished he could have run a little faster, but he was stuck waiting for his lovely wife, who after the first obstacle was struggling quite a bit. But he helped me to finish the race and pushed me to try my hardest. Afterwards, there is a big party with beer, food, and tons of people watching (my favorite thing). People dress up in crazy costumes for the event, so the people watching is great.

Aaron is already gearing up for his next obstacle run, a 12 mile race called the Tough Mudder that promises to be the toughest obstacle race in the country. It's next January so we will see if Aaron decides to do it. Check it out here: http://toughmudder.com/

Before

After (We had already been hosed off in this picture, so you can imagine how muddy we were before!)

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday. This year we spent Easter with my parents and then went over to Aaron's grandparent's house for a lovely Easter lunch. I was responsible for dessert and after I made cake pops for the Super Bowl this year, it was suggested that I make them again for my Easter dessert. His grandpa Newman LOVES sweets! I couldn't be more proud of how they turned out and everyone loved them.

We had a blast hanging out with Aaron's grandparents and his aunt Holly and her two children, Jeff and Jocelyn. We are so lucky to have family near by to enjoy the holidays with. Unfortunately, Aaron's parents recently moved to Portland, so it is going to be more difficult to see them on a regular basis, but I am glad we still have my parents and some of his family near by.

After lunch, we came back to my parent's house for dinner. The weather was beautiful, so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening, preparing food and spending time together outside on the patio. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend Easter.

 Happy Easter! Love, the McCann's

It's January...really?

I am so lucky to live in a place where in late January I can be outside in shorts and a t-shirt enjoying the beautiful weather. It was an especially nice weekend here in Arizona and my mom and I decided to get outside and enjoy it. We took our two dogs, Muley and Snoops, for a hike out at Usery Mountain. I have never hiked Usery and I really enjoyed the trail and scenery once we made it to the wind caves towards the top of the mountain. What a wonderful Sunday afternoon, I wish the weather stayed this way year round (but we all know that's not the case). Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

The most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas is finally upon us and I must admit this is my favorite holiday!! I just love the spirit of the season. I love giving gifts to my friends and family and I love receiving Christmas cards in the mail to see what everyone has been up to the past year.

This year we are lucky enough to have family coming out to enjoy Christmas with us. My grandpa "Papa" Andy is coming, along with my Uncle Rusty and Aunt Sileide and their two boys, TJ and Dane. I haven't seen them in at least 5 years, so I can not wait to see everyone!! We are also lucky enough to have my brother coming home from Germany for the holidays. I am so thankful that we will be surrounded by family to celebrate Christmas.

I also really enjoy all of the Christmas events leading up to the holiday. Looking at lights, Christmas parties, etc. Since lately I have been trying to transform myself into a runner, I decided to take part in one of the many "fun" runs that they have around the holidays. So last weekend, I ran a 6k race at the 12k's of Christmas held at a local park here in Gilbert, AZ. It was one of the few races around town that you can do with your pet and I just had to sign up Muley and myself. My mom, dad and Snoops came out to support me and we all had a really good time. There were Christmas carolers at different spots along the course and everyone dressed themselves and their pets up in holiday clothing. I really enjoyed seeing all of the costumes on not just the people, but the pets too. Some people are so creative! It ended up being a whopping 80 degrees that day, so the race was a little hot, but we did it and Muley did a great job!

This year for Thanksgiving the Nelson clan from California came and visited us here in Arizona. It was so nice to have them out here with us. I still cannot believe that it had been a year since I had seen them last. Time seems to be flying by these days! My two little cousins, Nic and Natalie, have grown up so much this past year. We had so much fun with them and can not wait to see them again!

Natalie showing off on the playground (I can not do this anymore...does this mean I'm starting to get old?).

 

Nic (our little spinner) He tries to spin everything he possibly can find. He loved mommy's new pinwheel app on her iphone and wouldn't stop asking for it the entire weekend. Of course when he wasn't on the iphone he was going into every single room and turning the ceiling fans off and on. He is just the sweetest little boy!

Mom, Dad, Dean-o and Suzi

Ok, so let me explain this picture. Thanksgiving morning we decided to make this recipe for sticky buns that looked simply amazing! It calls for the sticky buns to be assembled and placed into a muffin tin instead of your usual cookie sheet for baking these. However, half way through the baking process my mom realized that she had missed a step in the instructions and the butter, sugar, etc. from the muffin tin was spilling over onto the bottom of the oven. Apparently, she missed the step in the instructions where it tells you to place a cookie sheet below so to catch everything spilling over the edges of the muffin tin. Our first mistake was that we decided to continue baking the buns. All of a sudden the oven began smoking very heavily and we had to run open all of the windows and turn on all of the fans. It is a really good thing that we live where we do, because otherwise we may have had problems letting a bunch of cold air into the house. To make a long story short, the oven caught on fire eventually and my mom came running to the rescue with the fire extingusher to put out the flames. Luckily no one got hurt and once the fire was out our cleanup crew (Mark and Dean) were able to get the oven looking as good as new.

It was quite the story and really made our Thanksgiving memorable. We will never forget the year Ronee set the oven on fire!

Somehow dogs always manage to know who is going to be dropping the most food ;) Snoops and Muley really enjoyed having the kids around. I think they both gained a few pounds over the weekend.

Nic and Natalie really enjoyed playing ball with our dog Muley. She was so patient with them and it was so cute to see them throw the ball for her and really interact with her.

Miss D came by for a visit and Natalie couldn't get enough. This little girl loves her animals! 

The whole family - Take 1 (Please forgive us, these are horrible pictures)

Take 2

Take 3- ehh...maybe we can get some better pictures next year! 

I hope everyone had a truly blessed Thanksgiving holiday and were able to take time out to be thankful for everything that they have! I know I am so thankful for my friends and family.