2007 Year in Review and wishes for a great 2008!

Happy New Year! Here are some highlights from 2007...

January: It started with the braces.

February: We surprised Granny Lucy with an 80th birthday party.


March: The Stehower girls got together for lunch at Olive Garden.

April: The LOML and I traveled to Omaha for Miss Murphy's First Holy Communion.

Here is Grandpa with Murphy and Nelson.

May: This month we celebrated birthday for my niece and nephew who turned 5 and my nephew Brycen who turned 7. The best moment of the month comes from my sister-in-law Linda who found out that when you buy a pinata that you must buy the candy otherwise the hitting of the pinata at the b-day party goes over like a fart in church (quoting my mom)!

June: We had a bridal shower for my cousin Michelle. Here is my niece Sophia looking very sweet with the bows from the presents in her hair.

July: This month found us in Vegas at my cousin Michelle's wedding. We also found out the LOML passed his CPHT test - Yay!!!

August: I traveled to Puerto Rico for work. Here I am standing on the beach just oustide my hotel. It was very beautiful!

September: I traveled to Dallas for work and got the opportunity to meet up with my childhood girlfriend and her family for dinner. It was great to see Laura and meet her husband and two beautiful girls!

October: This month we celebrated our two year dating anniversary. The LOML surpised me on our anniversary with a proposal of marriage. Of course I said yes! The wedding is on 1/25/09 in St. Thomas.

November: The LOML had Gastric Bypass two days before Thanksgiving. We are very thankful that the surgery went well and he is on his way to losing the weight.

To see his progress click here.


December: We were very blessed to have multiple Christmas celebrations. First with the Stehower clan in Prescott, AZ. It was a nice change from being in Phoenix and got to see a bit of snow on the ground. We also celebrated on Christmas day with my family coming over for Granny Lucy's tamales and Joe's chicken dish. We had a very nice day!

The LOML and I wish everyone a very Happy and Prosperious 2008. For us it will be busy planning our wedding, hoping the braces come off by the end of the year, and watching the LOML's weightloss. My family and friends can expect to see me in the same manner as the photo above...capturing our precious moments!

A VERY Merry Christmas!

We had a very nice time hanging out with family this Christmas. It started with Christmas Eve dinner at Dragon Palace with my family. The LOML and I went to midnight mass at St. Bernard of Clairvaux in Scottsdale (which was really at 11pm not midnight).

The beautifully decorated St. Bernard's

Christmas morning was spent with the LOML and I opening our presents to one another. He got me the Food Processor that I had wanted and the Alicia Keys & Celine Dion CDs along with The Bourne Ultimatium & The Kingdom DVDs.

I gave the LOML this Notre Dame sweatshirt. He was so excited that a 4x fit him and that it was a little too big!

He also got a Notre Dame calendar, socks, DiamondBacks baseball hat, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 DVD.

My family came over to our place for supper which consisted of Grammy Lucy's Tamales, rice, beans, the LOML's chicken dish, green bean casserole, corn casserole. To say the least we had plenty of food for everyone!

Granny Lucy's very yummy Tamales!

The kids got to open presents and mom gave the LOML, and my brothers money for socks and underwear. She surprised me and gave me this fabu picture.

We had a very blessed Christmas and hope the same was true for our family and friends. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

2007 Stehower Christmas in Prescott

December 15, 2007: Some sites from the Stehower Christmas. This year we changed it up a bit and met in Prescott, AZ at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Donna's house. There was one person missing from our celebration and that was our beloved Uncle Wally (a.k.a. Wall"ass") who passed away earlier this year. He is deeply missed and never forgotten.

The kids eyeing the presents!

Uncle Tom, Uncle Jeff and Daniel talking shop.

Look- snow!

Shane, Brycen and Piper having a snowball fight.

Jenny and Caitlin

Me and the LOML

Mom and Grandma Anne

Grandma & her kids

l to r: Uncle Tom, Aunt Mary, Mom, Mart, Grandma Anne, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Donna

The Grandkids

l to r: Me, David, Daniel, Grandma Anne, Mart, Caitlin, Ben, Jenny and Adam

The Great GrandKids

l to r: Sophia, Piper, Shane, Brycen and Catilyn

Grandma Debbie and her Grandkids

Debbie and her kids

(not sure what or who we were laughing at but have a feeling Uncle Jeff was the culprit!)

Daniel and Keri

Congrats to Brycen for being the Student of the Month!

Today was a special day for my nephew Brycen. He was awarded Student of the Month. The kids were surprised with a visit from Santa Claus and when their name was called they got to run and high five Santa and the guests then go under a bridge of teachers to receive their award.

Congratulations Punkin! We are so proud of you!

(12 of 12) 2.0: December

It's the 12th of December so here are some photos from my day. My day started by getting up at 4:50am and heading to Boot Camp. I was so focused on surviving the camp that I forgot to take a picture of me and my friend Eileen. Oh well, there's always the Boot Camp on Jan. 12th!

7:50am: The LOML and I getting ready to leave for work.

4:30pm: Forgot to take some photos at work. Here is the LOML picking up some Hot Wood at Fry's grocery. It's been a bit chilly at night ever since we had the rain.

6:00pm: My friend Cristin stopped by to pick up a blouse to wear to her dad's upcoming B-Day party.

6:50pm: Checking the internet on how to keep homemade cookies fresh.

8:20pm: Watching Deal or No Deal while waiting for my cookies to finish baking.

8:45pm: Cornflake cookies...yum! (oops! I forgot to turn the flash back on the camera)

8:55pm: Puppy Chow mix and no it's not dog food. It's a clever little name for corn chex mixed with chocolate, peanut butter and powedered sugar. Very yummy!

9:00pm: Our lighted wreath on the outside of our door.

9:05pm: The Christmas cards that we've received to date.

9:12pm: Look! It's Ralphie and his family.

9:15pm: Our fireplace with the stockings hung by the chimney with care!

9:37 pm: The photo that my friend Cristin took of us that we used on our Christmas card.

If you'd like to know more about the 12 of 12, a concept by Chad Darnell, click here. I encourage you to participate in the New Year and share your day!

Hustle and bustle of the season

Hey family and friends- I know it's a while since I've posted but you know it is the busiest time of the year. The LOML had his Gastric Bypass right before Thanksgiving and I'm happy to report he is doing fabulous. Last Monday he had his first doctors appointment post surgery and lost 25lbs!

This past weekend mom and I made Christmas cookies. We started at 9am and didn't finish until 7:30pm- whew! We were sure exhausted but had a great time.

Mom called tonight and said she got a high five from Rachel Ray tonight. RR was in town to autograph her book and my mom yelled "YUMMO" to her and she high fived my mom. Pretty cool stuff kids! : ) (btw, I found online a RR drinking game click here to see more)

Here's a picture of our Christmas Tree and our fireplace with an actual fire burning. Yep, it's been raining and it brought cold weather upon us. A very nice change from 100 degrees temps!

Happy shopping and baking! Watch for my 12 of 12 in a couple of days and no, I won't forget to bring my camera with me this month. Ciao!

Meet Grizzly...

Grizzly is the newest member to my brother's family. He's a very cute chocolate Lab that is very playful and has an affection for attacking my camera.

Without further adeau, I give you Mr. Grizzly...

(12 of 12) 2.0 November coming up on Monday

It's almost time for the 12 of 12. Click here to find out how and when to join in the fun.

Trick or Treating fun

For the past two years we've gotten together at my brother Daniel's house for Halloween. We have so much fun in his neighborhood because it is alive with young and old dressing up. There's a neighborhood scarecrow that has the kids talking about him on the school bus weeks before the big night.

Some shots from the night...

Introducing our cast: Caitlyn and Piper as girl pirates, Sophia as our country's cheerleader, Shane as the black spiderman, Cody as Jack Sparrow and Brycen as the ninja.

David, Mom (lady bug), me and Daniel (nice job scaring the little boy down the street and making him cry)

All dressed for a night of trick or treating.

The neighborhood scarecrow!

Sorry the photos are a bit delayed but I shut my laptop screen on my mouse and ruined the LCD screen. That's the third issue with my computer so that is all that will happen, right?! After all they happen in three's.