Day 325, January 9th

Monday, it was business as usual.  We headed to the gym after work and then made some dinner.  Before we started planning our meals out and getting a bit fancier with our dinners, we had a nice little staple in chicken, salad and sweet potato.  Well since last month I bought seriously 20 sweet potatoes, we were closing in on time to eat them up!! So Ryan grilled up some chicken, while I tended to the salad and starch.
It was a nice relaxing evening after our sort of eventful weekend.

Day 324, January 8th

Sunday, Ryan and I hosted the AACC challenge.  This month was Chili, and being that I don't even really like chili, I knew that there was no chance I'd be victorious!!

We had seven different chilis, with white chili, chili with corn bread to more traditional, they were all pretty good for a gal who isn't a huge fan! It's very stressful voting for just one favorite.  They all had different things I liked but were all so different. 

In the end AJ was announced the winner and was given the traveling trophy for his amazing efforts!!  It was nice hosting, as stressful as the before is, it's nice to not have to drive home, instead just plop down on the couch.  Gus was his usual wonderful self, entertaining everyone, while Max hid, because he's a weirdo.

Day 323, January 7th

On Saturday, we hit the gym, the grocery store and then spent a good deal of time with household chores.  As the day was winding down Ryan suggested that since the weather was nice that we go grab a drink and some food on a patio somewhere.  He invited Brian to join us and I asked a few people if they'd like to come as well.  Lucky for me Elise's New Year resolution was to go out more, so she was basically forced to join us!!

We went to Z Tejas on Mill since it felt like decades since we had been there.  We had a fun evening of hanging out and chatting with friends.

Day 322, January 6th

The last day of Christmas! The Wise Men finally arrive.  Nothing bothers me more, besides decorating for Christmas before December, then taking Christmas down before Christmas actually ends! 12 days people!! Plus, if you have a Nativity Scene, it's not technically complete until today anyway!
Sadly,we had to take our tree down last week, as it was becoming a fire hazard, but we left the rest of Christmas up until this weekend. Since we were hosting a get together on Sunday, we figured we better get the house back to normal. Ryan was out for the evening, so I spent the night packing up all the joys of Christmas time and cleaning up!

Day 321, January 5th

I literally don't know what we did today!! This has never happened before! I think because usually the photos are a bit more representative, but this...I don't know what this is!
Obviously, whatever we did, I stopped at QT for a Diet Coke! I want to say I had a Kids Walk today, which isn't totally far fetch, so maybe I'll go with that! Either way, I'm sure another wonderful day in the life of us!!

Day 320, January 4th

Wednesday, Ryan had his Christmas party for work so I spent the night eating tamales and hanging out.  Ryan came home, looking dapper and with flowers!! I am pretty sure the flowers were for the time it was when he got home, and the obvious I've been drinking face!! Oh Ryan...

Day 319, January 3rd

Life went back to normal on Tuesday, went to work, came home...same ol thing! The best part of these few days after the Tamale Party is that I have tamales for every meal!!

After work, we got home, did our usual chat about our day, and then heated up some tamales and vegged out! After some time hanging out though, I told Ryan that as much as I liked his beard, I thought it may be getting a big out of control, so he shaved it down a bit!! Exciting stuff!

Day 318, January 2nd

Monday was our last day before we had to go back to work.  I really could get used to not working I think.  Maybe at least have one week of every month off, that would be awesome!
We hiked South Mountain in the afternoon, talked about what we wanted to do in 2012 and had a nice last day not doing too much of anything. 
Look how manly Ryan's beard is!!

Day 317, January 1st

After we caught up on some sleep, Ryan and I headed west to go to a Cardinals game.  We got tickets at JDRF for our staff and walk teams, so it was a nice little treat to kick off 2012.

The seats were terrible, literally we were the furthest away that any one person can be!!! But it was a fun time non the less. I can hardly pay attention to football in the first place, but when you can barely see the ball, it's even harder to care!!  We left a little early to beat the crowd but also since we had to head to Scottsdale to retrive my car. Once we got the car, Ryan headed home and I headed to Sunflower to pick up some groceries for the week. When I got home, Tommy was there, to steal back his dog, chatted with him a bit and then that was it! A nice first day to a new year!

Day 316, December 31st

I can't believe 2011 is almost over!! We've almost been married for a whole year!! We spent the day talking about our favorite moments of 2011...we didn't really do that, but now I wish we had!
Roger was playing at the Scottsdale Block Party so we had a group going, and then of course in the end, it was just Ryan and I...well and my sister and her friend Elaine, but friend-wise I mean.
Anyway, the four of us headed to Sauce for dinner and then got into party mode! haha.  We parked our car pretty far away, but Ryan was afraid we'd get towed, so we moved it closer and just paid to park.  We had a few hours before the concert, so we tried to make it to every bar and get a drink.  One bar, had a pretty dope dj, so we spent a little too much time there before realizing Roger had started!!

The concert was good.  We ran into the usual group we see all the time since first running into them in Mexico two years ago.  We're pretty much best friends with these people, we should probably just start planning concerts together!! Ryan and I are terrible about getting pictures together, then when we do, I make lame faces while he looks nice.  Typical Sarah!

So after the concert, and after midnight, so maybe I shouldn't talk about this until the next post...all of a sudden we heard a fuse like noise, there was a big flash, and all of Old Town Scottsdale went black! Can you imagine if you had an open tab at the bar? Hello free drinks!! :) Anyway, there was a generator for the stage lights, so that at least lit the way out.  We headed to where my car was parked, and low and behold it was trapped by the power lines that had fallen!! With our car trapped, and miles from home, on probably the busiest night for cabs, we stood on the corner and waited until a cab finally picked us up!! Then, because my car was in Scottsdale, I had to have my sister drive Ryan and I all the way home! We didn't even get home until after 3!! It was a crazy end to 2011, or actually a crazy start to 2012!!!

Day 315, December 30th

Friday morning, Ryan and I hiked Camelback Mountain.  I have never done it and was actually scared I couldn't make it!! Whenever Sam stays with us we like to hike with him, so to finish off 2011 we thought we'd do something big!!

It was super crowded, lots of people in for the bowl games, but overall, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! We had some many people in love with Sam, and he seriously acted like he hiked mountains on the regular!! Overall it took us about 2 hours to do, with lots of stops for Sam, we didn't need them of course!! There was a girl there who said it was her third time hiking and first time actually making it to the top, that made me feel good about myself, and good for her too!

After our day, Sam took a long nap and Ryan and I headed to my dad's house for the Tamale Party.  Last year's Tamale Party was hard since it was my first without Stephanie and my other friends weren't able to make it, but this year was much better! I spent the first half with Rachel and my man Asher.  Now that's he's getting older and bigger, he's not as scary to me.  Their family left early to get Asher to bed, and Amy and Mary entertained me the second half of the evening!! It was a fun night, there weren't as many tamales left over as I would have liked since I'm a pigola, but a good night non the less!

Day 314, December 29th

Since Ryan and I were out all yesterday, we felt bad for Sam (something his father never feels) so we spent the whole day with him!! After a morning of nothing, we headed down to the greenbelt with Sam to play fetch. 

We were very disheartened when he just started at the ball for 20 minutes, but finally, he got into the game.  We spent a wonderful afternoon in the sun enjoy the day with Sam!! After our afternoon of fun, Ryan headed to the gym for a bit and Mary came over for a quick evening hangout session.  It was a lovely day to say the least!

Day 313, December 28th

Wednesday, Amy and Heath invited us up north for a day of snowboarding.  This will be my third time snowboarding and I am no better today then I was the first time I tried it.  Ryan tried to teach me the first time we went together, and God love him, but he's not the world's best teacher.  So this time, I decided I would just take a lesson and see if this is something I should even continue to try!!

We got there in the morning and the three of them took off, I felt bad for Amy having to spend all day with the boys, but knew she could handle it.  I spent most of the morning in line waiting to rent my stuff, sign up, all that jazz. 

I met back up with everyone for lunch, everyone including Ryan's sister Valerie and niece Sofia who also were up for the day.  After lunch, I ventured off on my own for my lesson.  Of course I got the least skilled snowboard teacher, but after 2 hours, I actually felt like I was doing a little better then I started out.  I actually stopped on my own, which I hadn't done before! It was a fun day, I'd say with friends, but I really was alone for most of the day!! haha

We headed home that evening, spent some time with Sam, headed to Gallagher's for a quick dinner, then relaxed on the couch the rest of the night. Sad to think our week off is half over!

Day 312, December 27th

On Tuesday, Ryan and I hit the mall to utilize some of the gift cards we got for Christmas, and just to enjoy some of the after Christmas sales.  Fox Restaurant Concept opened a new place, North, which is confusing since there is already a North, but either way, as Fox lovers, Ryan and I had to try it.  We also got a gift card, so that only pushed our decision!
We went late afternoon, got a couple of drinks and enjoyed our Tuesday.  I loved the way North looks, it is all open, and I couldn't help but spend most of the meal watching the guy make pasta next to us! We split a salad, and it was the best salad ever, so yummy and the presenation was even better!!
After an early dinner, we headed home.  Tommy was headed up to Flagstaff for New Year and so we were getting Sam for a few days! We spent the night with our favorite pup and our kiddos!

Day 311, December 26th

Monday, we slowly got back to normal life.  We put some stuff away, cleaned a bit, then headed to Fleetwest so I could take care of some account stuff.  I thought this would be a quick day of work, but due to some computer issues, it actually ate up the whole afternoon!! Rick came into the office and then after I finally finished, Rick went to get my mom, and we all grabbed dinner together.  It was a nice transition day into our wonderful week off from work!

Day 310, December 25th

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas Day has always been crazy in my family.  Those people who go to the movies, or take down the Christmas tree later in the day, I never understood those families.  We basically leave in the morning and don't come home until almost the next day!!

Ryan and I woke up, put on a fire and had our first Christmas of many more together.  We purchased our tv after Thanksgiving and that was our gift to each other, so we put a limit on Christmas this year, and I am proud to say, we stuck to it!!

After we opened presents, we got ready, Ann came over, and we all headed to my mom's house.  We had breakfast, chambord and champagne and opened presents, our usual Christmas tradition.  The only tradition missing was my Christmas nap!

Despite how tired I was, I could not fall asleep!! Disaapointing to say the least! I tried, and failed...oh well, everyone else will suffer listening to me complain all day!!

After my mom's house, we packed up our stuff and headed over to Merrilee and Patrick's for Christmas with my dad's family. 

We ate a wonderful meal, opened presents and had a jolly good time as usual.

We left that Christmas celebration, and as my first year not living with Mike and Mary, we decided to continue our Christmas tradition, so we headed over there to finish up the night. Always a wonderful time with my froomies, and the perfect close to a excellent Christmas Day.

It was a great Christmas!! I got a Cooking with Coolio Cookbook, a Dutch Oven, some Pinterest inspired gifts and so much more!!

Day 309, December 24th

Happy Christmas Eve all!! Ryan and I really did luck out that his family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve and mine celebrates on Christmas Day, it's no fun having to cut celebrations short!! We had a bunch of stuff to do Saturday to prepare to basically be gone for the the next day or so, so once that was all handled, we got ready and headed up to Ryan's parents to celebrate Christmas.

We had a wonderful meal, watched the kids open presents and all in all, had a wonderful first Christmas Eve as a married couple! After family time, we headed to Church for Midnight Mass and then headed home to our kids and prepared for our first Christmas morning as a family.

Day 308, December 23rd

On Friday, I had a very important phone call in the morning, and then spent the rest of the day preparing for Christmas!! We worked a half day from home, and then didn't have to return to work until 2012!! You can imagine how nice that is!!

Every year my sister and I spend crazy amounts of time baking cookies for gifts for our family as well as for our Annual Tamale Party.  So Friday afternoon, Ann headed over to my house to get into cookie mode.  We usually bake at my dad and Sara's house, but since the refuse to get a double oven for us to utilize this time of year, we decided it was all the same to be at our own pad.  We made 6 different cookies, and even brought back the green trees which haven't been around in some time.  It was a long but lovely night!

Day 307, December 22nd

After work on Thursday I headed over to Ann's house to finish up our Christmas shopping.  Since we started early this year we had falsly thought we were ahead of the game, only to find the week before Christmas, we still had much to do. We grabbed some dinner then headed to the mall to conquer our list.  After a full night of shopping, we were finished...I even bought a birthday present for Ryan!!

Day 306, December 21st

Wednesday was pretty much the worst day ever at work.  I was overly annoyed to say the least when I left that day, so it was a good thing that Ryan and I were volunteering at The Salvation Army with their Angel Tree program.   We volunteered last year, helping Ryan's sister Valerie and her staff with sorting all the gifts.  This year, since it's the week before Christmas, we spent the evening sorting all the bags to be sent out the following day to the families in need.

We spent the whole night ensuring we got the right presents into the right area so the families could come tomorrow during their designated time to pick up their presents. It is truly amazing how many people this program helps, it's heartwarming and sad all at the same time.  To think that many people are in such need, but nice that someone is there to assist.  If you haven't done the Angel Tree program before, I suggest you do it this Christmas time!!

Day 305, December 20th

On Tuesday, Ryan headed out to get some shopping done, so I spent the evening wrapping all the Christmas presents.  I really love to wrap presents.  It's so fun, unless it's 2 a.m. Christmas morning and you've just gotten home from Church, then it's less exciting.
As I wrapped, Gus of course helped because he's a gentleman... And that was about it! Ryan came home, we chatted, then chilled out!

Day 304, December 19th

After making Pop Overs yesterday, I made an even bigger mess of our oven then before.  I decided it was finally time to clean it.  So I set the cleaning button, and much to Ryan's fear of the house burning down, let it go.  Well you wouldn't believe how beautiful the oven looked, well you can because that's what I took a picture of, but if you'd seen the before you'd be even more impressed!! It looks brand new!! So anyway, after the excitement of the oven wore off, we didn't do much, ate dinner and relaxed! 6 days until Christmas!!

Day 303, December 18th

On Sunday, we invited Ryan's parents, Grandma and Uncle up to the house since his Grandma hadn't seen the house since we have been married and I took over the place!! I am always nervous to cook for Ryan's parents, with his dad being a chef and all, so it's always a stressful event for me.  I made the popovers from BLT that we had for our anniversary dinner last month, and was beyond nervous that they wouldn't turn out.  Well luckily they did, and they were delicious! Also on my last trip to Costco I got a basically endless supply of sweet potatoes, so we made mashed sweet potatoes with stuffed pork chops, which we made for my dad and Sara when they came over.
Dinner was good, the company was good.  We got to use all the various wine glasses we got for our wedding as well as some of the serving plates, so that added to my excitement of course.  Really the highlight for me was everyone bonding with our children.  I know that Ryan's family thinks I'm a bit kooky for my deep love for my cats, but after tonight, I could see that they all too understood why I loved them so!