it's a wrap...

It's not even the new year yet...let alone spring...and I'm already anxious to do some housecleaning and organizing!!! (also because the Christmas dinner was at my house, so the kitchen's a mess). Really though, I want as little to worry about as possible before the baby arrives in April. But seriously, no matter how much you clean and organize, there's always more to be done, right? lol!

Two days before Christmas my sisters and mom came over for a girls night. We exchanged real gifts and elephant gifts which we all ended up with something with something we could actually use or applies to us. lol. And then we watched,"While you were Sleeping," which has always been a fav movie of ours. My sisters and I were laughing since our new LCD TV can show more details, the movie looked like a play or a reality show in a way...lol.

For Christmas my husband gave me a new LG Dare -touchscreen phone! I was such a pro-texter, now I have to get used to typing on a screen, lol, but I do love it! My parents came over for Christmas, as well as my brother and girlfriend. We had a delicious Christmas dinner. And watched "Christmas Vacation," (which there's always a few parts we have to self edit!) And of course drinking Martinelli's sparkling apple-cranberry and grape hit the spot!

My husband and I gave a copy of the church movie, "Testaments," to a good friend and neighbor, who we've talked to a lot about the gospel with. He's been talking with the missionaries a couple times. So I'm praying and praying his heart will be ready. We are giving him a Book of Mormon soon. We just felt the movie would be good first, so his family can also watch it too. I love doing missionary work! I love it, love it, LOVE IT!

*WARNING* After Christmas sales are sooo fun and dangerous! (but hey, we're saving money right?)

A few of my favorite things...

Vintage golds and reds to enrich,

fluffy feather birds, butterfly wings,

and when my Christmas kitty looks like a grinch,

'Christmas Vacation' and good ol' 'Charlie Brown',

Oh, what Christmas joys to be found!

Homer Simpson is my santa,
the air is crisp, just enough for some cider,

snuggling by the warm glow of our new 46' LCD TV ~whoa Momma!
the scrouges come out in every town,

Wait, Bah Humbug! they're always around!

singin' along to Christmas songs to drive your family insane!

making fresh cookies for the neighbor next door,

the smells of pine, gingerbread and holly berry make my day!

the angels that we meet,

reflect on the blessings this past year,

and most of all the reason for it all,

The birth of our Lord and Savior,

So infinite and dear.

P.S. I know this poem was really lame, I just wanted the pics to be more fun to look at. I honestly write way better poetry than this! If you want proof, I'll email one to ya! LOL!

drum roll please....

Today I had my ultrasound! the past month and a half I tried not to assume the gender since I knew that either one would be great news! Taylor and I are both excited. I can't wait to see our baby girl melt Taylor's ♥heart♥. It was soo fun to see her move she has the most perfect profile! I've heard many say the most manly-rough-tough-sporty of men, cherish and love having a daddy's girl. And Taylor is such a 'MAN-LY MAN'! he'll be wrapped around her finger! ha ha! I can't wait for her to be in our family! I've been giggly all the day long! My little baby bump!

Black Friday in Old Glendale

This is the first black Friday I didn't have to work on out of who knows how many years! It was odd not to be at a job selling SOMETHING! LOL! Anyway, Every year my mom and I count down til when we get to go crazy shopping in old Glendale. We go to these little adorable gift boutiques in old homes and antique stores. We find the cutest Christmas gifts and decor you can't find anywhere else. Oh, wait, maybe I shouldn't have told ya our secret. Hmm... oh well. We had my mother-in-law come with us which was so fun. We had a lovely time "oooh-ing" and "ahhh-ing" over cute nick nacks and deciding what to splurge on ourselves or others. We had fun trying on vintage hats, which I collect, and had to contain myself from buying! (I love how I found one that matched my mum's shirt!). You have to shop early in the day, since the shops close around 4-5 PM. So by that time, we are soo wiped out to enjoy the Glendale Glitters fun, so I'm going there at night really soon!!!! Anyway, It wasn't crazy there since everyone else is shopping at "hot spots," so I enjoyed having no crowds or traffic! neener neener!
(what a silly look on my face lol.)
I bought an adorable black shelf with drawers, adorable puffy snowman and vintage tree with bells. I can't wait to hang the shelf up and put things on it throughout the year!)
I found this quilt a couple weeks ago and got a killer $10 bucks off the original price and bought one for my mother-in-law for X-mas and one for me. It has slots to slide pictures into! how cute isn't it! I'm trying to collect Christmas keepsakes each year to have for my family to enjoy each year, and I simply adored this!

Grateful Holiday

I'M GRATEFUL FOR: Rain, nature, antique shopping, electricity, washing machines, low gas prices, paying bills online, silly memories with my sibilings, old cartoons, and inside family jokes.

Well for Thanksgiving we had the gathering at Taylor's aunt's house here in Phoenix. Everyone brought a dish. I decided to make dessert, I love cranberry everything, so I decided to make a cranberry dessert. I fell in love with the name, "Cranberry Obsession Snow Cake," which I found in a magazine. Basically cake with a cranberry filling and very very VERY rich and unhealthy frosting...tee hee. But hey, that's what Thanksgiving food is all about, not counting calories, just plain lush indulgement! LOL! So I slaved over the cake. The frosting took the longest, it has lots of butter and white chocolate. If I make it again, I'm definitely putting way way less butter. It's always risk-ay making a recipe you've never made before and feeding it to a bunch of peeps, but luckily it turned out lovely and many people complimented the dessert, so I'm glad with the result. So after we all stuffed ourselves. Which I'm proud to say I didn't over eat, Hah! We all became couch potatoes in front of the tube watching football...of course! Then of course we took some family pictures...

Boundless Love

Today Taylor and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was so exciting to hear! I'm so grateful to the Lord for blessing me to have a good pregnancy so far. I've been blessed to not have any morning sickness and to have a job where I don't need to be on my feet constantly. I cannot imagine being pregnant and working my previous job, I could not stand for 8 hours straight! I'm also so grateful for my husband who has worked so hard for us and his insight to prepare us in the past years to provide for a family. He is so amazing. I love him so much. I know he will be an amazing father. I'm grateful for all of our many blessings.

"God commanded us to bear children but warned that the powers of procreation were to be employed only within the sacred bonds of marriage. God tells us through His prophet that we have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other as husband and wife and to rear our children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs."
("Come, Listen to a Prophet’s Voice” Virginia U. Jensen, Ensign-November 1998)

Natural Beauties

My friend Natalie Matkin (who used to be in my church ward, but still in my stake) asked me to do some fun makeup tips for her Miamaids (14 yr. olds) for their young women's activity. It was so fun to answer their beauty questions and show them simple techniques on how to enhance their beautiful features. I had so much fun talking and having fun with these great young women. I wrote up a step-by-step beauty tip sheet and also gave them this lovely quote by the one & only classy beautiful Audrey Hepburn:

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

And here are the gorgeous girls!

Since Rachael doesn't wear makeup often, I wanted to show her simple tips for a natural look. First I toned & moisturized her skin. Then applied a beige cream concealer (Coverblend-Exuviance brand) under her eyes & corners of the eye with a concealer brush. Then just used a face brush and applied a neutral pressed powder (Sally Hansen) all over her skin. Then applied a Buttercream (pearl white) and Cocoa Mousse (pinkish brown- Studio Gear brand) shadow in the crease. And a soft line of purple eye liner just on the top lash rim. Then applied black mascara just on the top lashes (Max mascara). Then applied bronzer (Pur Minerals-glow) on her forehead, cheeks, nose bridge, and chin for a healthy sun-kissed glow. To finish I applied a soft light pink lip gloss! (Studio Gear-Tickled Pink) She looked exquisite! She has killer eye lashes! Eat your heart out Celebs!

I knew golds would pop with Taylor's lovely locks, so I applied Moon (tanish/gold) all over the eye and Penny (Coppery brown) in the crease and as eyeliner on the bottom lash line. Some Rustic Rose blush (soft pink) on the cheeks. And Tenderness gloss (sparkly pink lip lacquer-Studio gear, the tackier and thicker the gloss, the longer it stays on and makes lips look fuller).

I had to do smoky eyes with Ciarra's dark lush eyes! I used Buttercream over the entire eye and we chose Peacock (Ulta brand-metallic blue) over the lid and bottom lash line! (same blush & gloss as Taylor).

True Colors Revealed

So I admit. I've never really been one to be involved in reading and keeping up with political things. But the past 2 months, I have be scouring articles and devouring information about the presidential candidates. And as I've been making my own observations, I've let my feelings and opinions be known about the facts I've read. I've shared those opinions with other friends of mine. And it's amazing to see that because they don't agree with me, they degrade my opinions and my decision of who I'm voting for. It's just sad to see this topic can cause "friends" to show their own character of who they are when you don't agree on something. Now, I'm not that super close to these friends, not like we're best friends, but I've worked with them and have been generally friends with them. It's sad that the respect I had once for them isn't the same. Okay...i'm done venting. And sorry "friends" I'm not changing my opinion or decision. Thank you.

Such A Sight to See!

Yay! my first Ultrasound! I've been meaning to post these sooner! It was soo neat to see the heart beat and see the tiny baby! I was finally convinced it was real, I was driving my husband insane, asking him all the time, "do you think I really am?" regardless of all the obvious symptoms and positive tests! LOL! I was so happy my husband was also there and he of course said said, "I told ya so, now you can stop asking me, and I'll bug you and ask, are you really pregnant?" he loves to tease me. LOL! (the first one the head is on the left and you see the tiny closed eyelids, and the little arms! it's harder to see since I took a picture of my copies of the ultrasound.)
(The head is on the right on these last two! you can see the little leg joints!)

Campin' at the Dunes

This past weekend we drove up to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes just past Kenab, UT. We went with my husbands family. We didn't really rough it too much, considering we stayed in my father-in-laws nice camping trailor and the camp grounds had showers. So I definitely could survive 4 nights of camping. It rained a bit here and there, but I LOVED it of course, since we hardly get rain in AZ. So I savored every drop of it and enjoyed the great breeze too. I was able to ride with my husband on the utility Polaris, we just took easy trails, it was so fun. We had dutch oven cherry cobbler and smores...Mmmm. It was fun to get together and just relax. Taylor's family is great. I couldn't ask for better in-laws. I admit I wasn't as organized for the trip as I usually am, since I'm preggo, I forgot some little things and didn't take as many pics as I wanted to. I'll have to get more pics from the others. This lovely trip really made me anxious for real fall weather in Arizona ~sigh~...

(((B E C K)))

ON MONDAY NIGHT I SAW BECK WITH MY BROTHER AND MOM. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN! IT WAS MY SECOND TIME SEEING HIM IN CONCERT! MY BRO HAS ALWAYS BEEN A BIG FAN, HE CAN KINDA SOUND LIKE HIM AND LOOKS LIKE HIM, IT'S KINDA CRAZY! THE DODGE THEATRE SOUND QUALITY IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! BUT BECK STILL ROCKED. I'M SUCH A CONCERT JUNKIE IF YA'LL CAN'T TELL. ENJOY SOME TUNES IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!
Beck - Clap Hands (Live)



Beck Lost Cause

MEET THE MAKEUP GURU

Well, for those of you that don't know. I do makeup artistry as a side job/hobbie. I've done many weddings/proms. I am still building my makeup kit. As it takes very long to get ALL my needed supplies and is VERY expensive. But I eventually want to promote myself more and I have a friend who also would be kind of a partner with me, doing mostly weddings. I also love doing theatre/photography makeup, which I am still wanting more practice doing. So, I am compiling various looks for my portfolio. Here is my "Smokey Vixen" subdued look. I love authentic real vintage clothing, especially hats, I collect them. So you will see many props in my work also. My name for my makeup artistry is called, ViXEN DiViSiON© (copyright). So check often to see more of my work soon. MAKEUP USED: LORAC FOUNDATION, REDEARTH SECRET POTION 4 SHINE, NYC BLACK PENCIL, URBAN DECAY PRIMER POTION, BARRY M. LIPSTICK #132, SMASHBOX CHEEK CREME BLUSH BELLA, STUDIO GEAR EYESHADOW BUTTERCREAM. BRUSHES: Blending brush, crease shadow brush, foundation brush.

B I G NEWS!

We are excited to announce.....
I'M PREGNANT! I just found out on Labor Day! How funny is that! We just barely started trying! We are so grateful for this blessing & miracle! I think I'm 5 weeks along. My mind still hasn't grasped the fact that I am. I'll keep you all posted! In the past years I had about 5 of the exact same dreams of having a baby boy and every time I had the dream, it was more in detail and I could see the face and the baby had dimples just like Taylor's! It was crazy! It'll be fun to see what we have! So far no morning sickness...yay! For my husband and I we didn't get a normal first year of marriage so it was important for us to have the time together we had and to both feel ready. I've had many answers to my prayers in the past year about starting a family, and I felt stagnant, like my spiritual progression and purpose in life was not fulfilled, I've always known my purpose and desire was and is to be a mother, I'm so excited!

:::R A D I O H E A D:::

YES, THIS PAST WEEKEND....I GOT TO SEE THE BAND I'VE BEEN ABSOLUTELY DYING TO SEE!
R A D I O H E A D ! THEY WERE SO AMAZING! MY BROTHER AND I BOUGHT VERY EXPENSIVE TICKETS...(which will be my x-mas/b-day gift). THE SHOW WAS IN LOS ANGELES, CA AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL (I'M NEVER IMPRESSED WITH HOLLYWOOD, IT'S SO DINGY, DIRTY, & OVERRATED. IT'S NOT APPEALING AT ALL. BUT HEY, I JUST WENT FOR THE SHOW OF COURSE.) MY GOODNESS IF YOU HAVEN'T TAKEN THE TIME TO LISTEN TO RADIOHEAD. PLEASE. DO INDULGE AND GET LOST IN THIS INCREDIBLE GENIOUS MUSIC. EVERY ALBUM OF THEIRS IS SOLID, & ENGULFS YOU INTO A TRANCE. YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE WITH ONE THEIR ALBUMS INDEFINITELY.

SATAN LOST! HA HA!

SO...... my brother was meeting up at the temple with me and my parents yesterday. And right when we had parked. My brother called and said something was wrong with the car...one of his back tires blew out. So we went to rescue him. He luckily made it just off an exit off the freeway. I'm so thankful he wasn't hurt! Besides the blazing sun and parched mouth, my brother had just bought a used car and the socket wrench that came with his car wasn 't the correct size! so we had to find a place to buy one. It was so sad watchin' my brother and dad in their church clothes putting the spare tire on...hoping not to get dirty. A nice man pulled over and had some nice handy electric tools and finished the job faster. He was so kind and refused any money we offered. It is so wonderful to realize that there are kind Christ-like people around. And the Lord truly blessed us. We were determined NOT to let anything stop us from going to the temple. Sadly when we finally drove to the temple, there was another car with problems and someone helping them, and THEY were all in church clothes! probably on their way to the temple! Sheesh! Satan really wants to stop the saints from going to the temple! lol.

It was so nice to do temple work & be with my family. I am so grateful and honored to do work for those who've passed on. The person I did work for didn't show a birth or place. Who knows how long she waited for this day! I truly cannot wait to meet all the people I did work for and tell them how glad I was to be part of their eternal progression. I admire those who don't live close to the temple that sacrifice a lot just to go. What amazing testimonies they have. I cherish the temple so much. I can't imagine my life without it. It is such a beautiful sacred place. It is worth everything just to go and learn of the greatness of our Lord.

VeGaS Get-Away

So Taylor and I decided we should have a weekend get-away. I'd never been to Las Vegas, nor had a desire to ever go, since it's "SIN CITY" and all. But my hubby said I'd still have fun. And I did! We stayed at the Planet Hollywood Resort/Casino. Our room was not as good as we expected for how much we paid, but they are supposedly "remodeling" and it was a weekend. So anyway, we walked around the resort, ate yummy food and shopped. Then walked along the strip. Taylor bought some nice Michael Jordan shoes, he's always wanted some, plus it's so hard to find size 13 shoes in AZ! lol. And I bought some adorable Bebe sweat pants, shirt, and flip-flops. Then we ate an expensive restaurant called the "Strip House," we spent a nice $hundred-digit$ number...it was fun to ~splurge~. We didn't get to see any shows, but we did see the Mandalay Bay Shark/fish exhibit which was amazing. Unfortunately we didn't get to the Vegas temple, but we plan to go there next time and do some temple work.

((i LOVE TAYLOR))
It was so wonderful spending time together. Getting away from home & work was so fun. I just really cherish being with him so much. We've gone through a lot because of his work. But we have been so blessed, especially since he's been home way more this year, we've been able to strengthen our relationship and just simply be there for each other. I'm in love with him more & more everyday. He is so good to me. I am so grateful to be with him. I love him!
((eeks, he hates it when i get all gushy & tell about how wonderful he is, he thinks i make him look like a soft pansy man! lol. so don't mention this to him...))

This is one of the coolest couches ever, it was at one of the fancy shmancy stores at our resort. I love the Brits & British flag shtuff!

New York New York Resort was pretty neat lookin'

I loved the Bellagio fountains!

i liked the hotel elevators...

He only did slots twice. I did once, I warned him we might go to hell...lol. Plus, I told him I could have used that money to do more shopping! "Strip House" the restaurant @ Planet Hollywood

Salmon with basil foam with potatoes...he had fillet mignon...~drool~
Key lime pie charred with berries ~mmm!~Mandalay Bay Resort - Shark Exhibit (i tried to get a shark photo, but my camera was retarded)

Hoover Dam...Amazing. (my poor guy has crossed this a dozen times for work in his fuel truck and had to have police escort him across it every time. All the tourists gawking at him. D*** terrorists)