Where for art thou Orangeade?

This drink has gone missing from our local stores. We are not sure what's up with this lack of stocking the Tropicana OrangeAde Light drink. This is the one drink that my hubby enjoys drinking that is sugar free and non carbonated. We've called the company that makes it and they said it is in a particular grocer in our area but alas the shelves are empty...*sigh*.

Congrats to my brother and new sis-in-law Keri on their marriage. We celebrated their wedding with tons of family and friends last Friday night. It was a bit warm for an outside party but fun was had by all. Here are some shots from the evening.

The newlyweds

Joe and Piper

Caitlyn wearing a new hat.

Brycen sporting two new hats....yes, they were food covers. Suppose it wasn't too sanitary having these on their heads. Oops.

The Stehower siblings...Mom, Uncle Tom and Uncle Jeff

Me and my beautiful niece Sophia.

12 of 12 IV: May 2009

It's the 12 of May which means you get 12 shots from my day. The concept brought to you by Chad Darnell, click here to see all the posts for this month.

7:00am - We didn't have to be at work until the afternoon since we were going to the Student of the Month celebration for our Niece Piper so I ventured out on a bike ride using Joe's bike. I wanted to try his out since it had gears. It as pretty challenging but fun.

9:30am - Joe waiting for the Student of the Month festivities to begin.

9:40am - Piper and a friend dancing to the cotton-eye-joe. The school staff was getting the kids all hyped up. It was alot of fun.

9:45am - Piper doing the SOTM run. They take a run around the room giving the students and parents high fives. They really make this a fun event for the kids & it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement. Congrats Miss Piperella!!!!

9:45am - My nephew Brycen apparantly not too happy to have his ole Auntie snapping his picture in front of his friends. He's just lucky I didn't call him "pumpkin". Lol.

10:45am - At our favorite place, AJ's for some tea before heading to the office.

5:15pm - We were at Fry's grocery looking for some OrangeAde but alas they were all out. Just our luck especially when it's a good deal.

5:30pm - Watching the Neely's cook up some goodies on the Food Network.

6:00pm - A few scrapbooks that will be put in the mail this week to one lucky buyer. I've been in cleaning out mode since we are moving in two months. It's nice to make a little money with some things that have been sitting in the closet.

6:30pm - What I'm currently reading...very addicting series of books. I never thought I'd enjoy reading about vampires and werewolves.

7:15pm - The Biggest Loser finale. Three hours is a bit much. They could've had this done in an hour and I wasted three hours of my time watching my least favorite person win it all. : (

9:00 pm - Our boxes waiting to be filled with our important belongings.

Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful mom

Happy Mother's Day mom! I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful, smart and beautiful mother.

Facebook is consuming my blog time...

I just realized this evening it has been quite some time since I've posted. So, here's a bit about what's been going on with us lately.

Some exciting news for us is that we are moving apartments. We found a great three bedroom apartment that has granite counter tops, wood flooring and a stove with two big burners (yes, our current place only had one big burner- very annoying) and it's less expensive than where we live now, go figure. The bummer part of it is we are moving July 10th- HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

My hubby got a great surprise in the mail today from our nephew Nelson. A Star Wars coloring book page that he colored with a Han Solo sticker. The best part is was signed by him. Priceless! It immediately went to the fridge hall of fame. We still have Murphy's wedding present to us on the fridge. It was a wonderful handmade book with drawings about our destination wedding.

Our Niece Sophia and Nephew Shane turned 7 on Cinco De Mayo. I want to wish them a blog belated Happy Birthday! I spoke with them that night and my Sister-in-Law was making sopapilla's for their b-day celebration with friends. Yummo! We will go over to my brother and sis-in-laws house to do the family celebration this Saturday. It will actually be one big bash as we will be including our Nephew Brycen and Niece Piper's birthday. I'm sure I'll have some fun photos to post.

Stay tuned for more updates from the AZ Cavanaugh's and look for May's 12 of 12. Happy odd day (05/07/09)!

Do-it-ourselves haircut

We purchased a shaver to use on Joe's hair. It was my first attempt to shave his hair and it didn't turn out too bad. I struggled a bit around the ear but it's not exactly the easiest place to shave. I'll get better as time goes by. I'm just glad I didn't have to trim the top because right now it's the perfect length. Using the scissors scares me a bit. I like the fact that the shaver has guards! Now he needs to get some sun!

Crown King

We took a little trip to Crown King, AZ on Saturday 4/11 to attend my brother Dan and Keri's wedding. It's quite a rough road up and is about 2 1/2 hours north of the Valley of the Sun. We got a big surprise when our final climb to Crown King brought snow falling on our SUV. It was pretty cold and we ended up having a mix of rain and snow falling down upon us. It sure made driving up and down the mountain challenging but was sure a beautiful site!

The cherry blossom tree covered in snow.

The beautiful scenery

Joe standing outside one of the cabins.

Proof that I was actually in the snow. My nephews got a kick out of throwing small snowballs at me. I would've gotten them back but they were in their wedding attire - lucky fellas!

Joe and I in front of the snow covered pine tree. It was so beautiful.

12 of 12 IV - April 2009

Happy Easter! This weekend was busy and fun. My brother Dan got married yesterday up in Crown King and to give them some private time for their honeymoon we took the kids back to valley with us. It was a beautiful ceremony despite the rain and snow (yes, snow!). I'll post some pics from the wedding later but here are pics from Easter for April's 12 of 12.

9:00am - My nephew Brycen with his bacon and cheese omelette made by yours truly!

9:30am - One of the five omelette's that I made for Easter breakfast.


10:15pm - Brycen, Caitlyn and Piper right before we leave for Easter service.

1:15pm - Joe chillin' out in Granny's backyard.

1:30pm - Caitlyn, Piper, Brycen, Cody and JR

This was after hunting for eggs.

1:45pm - Brycen and Cody smashing the confetti eggs on eat others heads.

2:30pm - I snapped a pic of Brycen as he took a breather from throwing the football around the back yard.

3:00pm - Brycen, Piper and Cody watching the neighbors play badmitton and hunt for their easter eggs.

3:10pm - Caitlyn hanging out in Granny's grapefruit tree.

3:10pm - Piperella also chillin' in the grapefruit tree.

3:30pm - Piper using my camera to snap her own picture.

3:45pm - Joe with Piper's rabbit ears. Easter is now complete!

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter day!

What's going on?

It's been a rough few weeks for us. We both battled sinus infections, and I found out I have tendonitis in my left foot which requires some physical therapy. This past week we also had some car repairs that couldn't be avoided. We had to buy a new radiator, new belts and new tires along with an alignment. When it rains it pours however we had great help with my SUV from Uncle Ruben who was able to replace the radiator and belts. My mom was great in getting us connected for a good rate on tires. Thanks to both of them!!!!

Today it was such a beautiful day with less wind than the past few days. We took a bike ride this afternoon and it was great to get out into the sunshine. Joe is still getting use to his bike and was able to make it a bit further than previous bike rides - yay! This is his sporty bike.

Here's my bike. I love it. It's a cruiser which is great starter bike as it has been many, many years since I've ridden or even owned a bike. Eventually I'll upgrade to sport bike but for now this is my new two wheeler.

Last Saturday we had a wedding reception with family and friends at Uncle Ruben's house. It was a lot of fun! Uncle Ruben and Kathy really made it a special day. We can't thank them enough.

Here's our very yummy cake. It was a strawberry mousse cake and was too pretty to even cut and eat. The cupcakes on the table were for the kiddies. They were very colorful and the way the kids devoured them they must have been super yummy as well.

2 Summits in one day- yay for me!

Today was the Boot Camp Chicks 4 Summit Challenge. We were to do Piestwa Peak, Lookout Mountain, North Mountain and Shaw Butte in one day in any order. I opted to do 2 Summit's since hiking is brand new to me. Kim, my Boot Camp instructor suggested N. Mtn and Shaw Butte and hiked along with me. Here are some photos from the morning hikes. A big thanks to Kim for all the support!!!!

6:00am: the rough part of the N. Mtn hike and the start of our day.

6:30am: Sunrise, the start of a beautiful day!

Adriane (a fellow Boot Camper) and me at the top of Summit 1

The most driven person I've met in a long time. You rock Kim!

Here we are at the top of Summit 2 - Shaw Butte

Ecstatic that I made it to the top of the 2nd summit!