A tribute to Mothers...

Mothers Day, once a day where I would make cards from construction paper, flowers from tissue paper and pipe cleaners, and give gifts of homemade jewelry and IOU's, a day where I would thank my mommy for cleaning my room, cooking my meals and driving me around, has come to mean so much more to me.

As I have grown and started my own adult life I have realized just how much my mom and all mothers in my life have affected me and influenced the person I have become. I know I owe a part of every accomplishment, every success, every triumph in my life to those women who worked so selflessly to raise me, who helped to shape and mold my personality. I am so blessed to be surrounded by incredible examples of strong confident independent women, who take care of their families, friends, co-workers and everyone around them.

I am so grateful for my Mother, Mother-In-Law, Grandmothers, Aunts, Sisters and Friends who have supported me, loved me, laughed and cried with me and have been there for me throughout my life. I know a construction paper card or a sincere IOU would make your day, but I could never, ever, thank you enough for the life lessons you have taught me, the wisdom you have shared with me and the guidance you have so willingly given me. I love you, so very much. I truly owe you everything.

Thank you, to all the women in my life! You are incredible!



May is the best month EVER

If I make it through this month alive, or even half-awake, it will be an accomplishment! SO MUCH is happening! My sweet sister Tricia was here for about a week, and left today :( I love her and we had such a great time, I hate that she won't just move here, no matter how hard I beg ;) We spent an evening at my school auction, road tripped to Lubbock (see below), spent a couple days camping and even got caught in a MASSIVE storm!

Ya this picture is nasty, we were completely soaked from running into WalMart. Luckily we reached the car to leave right as the quarter-sized hail started to fall. However we did not leave unscathed. Poor Dish took a hail stone to the back from an open window (oops my bad) that left quite a welt! All in all it was a wonderful visit. Miss you sister!



This month I was also accepted to college at ENMU. Yep, back to the grind. The excitement of opening up an acceptance letter does not dim with age... just sayin. I can't wait to get back on track on finish up my degree. It looks like Speech Language Pathology and I have a long road ahead of us, but I'm ready, bring it on :)

Next on the agenda for May? BOSTON!!!! In one short week Ken and I will be boarding our plane to MA! I'm beside myself I'm so excited. I've never been to the East Coast. It will be an adventure for sure. Levi and Jiyoung will be getting MARRIED on Saturday and Graduating on Monday and I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of these sweet moments in their life! Plus almost all of Ken's family will be there, REUNION TIME! I just can't get enough of family!

Once we return home from Boston I will have 3 DAYS LEFT OF SCHOOL! (Technically I work for 2 weeks after the kids are out, but that's cake) I just cannot believe how fast this year has come and gone, and how INCREDIBLY BLESSED I am to work at Stone! Honestly I'm just glad I made it through the year, I will admit there were times when I didn't think I would! I love my job, but seriously, bring on summer vacation!

And last but CERTAINLY not least, the biggest reason MAY is the BEST MONTH EVER..... My Birthday. :) Granted with all of the happenings this month I don't expect anything special, in fact Ken will be away at work, but it is my golden year... 24 on the 24th. Yay me :)

I hope everyone has a beautiful month of May, or at least a month HALF as AWESOME as mine... Just trickin...

Loves!

My sister's coming! My sister's coming!!

In just 3 days my sister TRICIA will arrive in Lubbock Texas.... YAY!!!!!!! I can't wait for her to get here! Just thought you would all like to know. Pictures from our Epic Family Outing will be coming soon! Booya

Family

Lately FAMILY has been weighing heavily on my mind. FAMILY is the MOST important thing in my life. FAMILIES come in all different shapes and sizes (mine consists of more dogs than people :), all with distinctly different personalities, opinions and ideas. Many FAMILIES are not even related by blood, but by something much stronger... love, kindness, caring, friendship, respect etc...

I have so many wonderful people in my life that I can call FAMILY. We do not always see eye to eye, we do not always agree and get along, in fact sometimes we really tick each other off, but it doesn't matter because after all is said and done we are still FAMILY.

I have been blessed beyond measure to be a part of incredible FAMILIES. Whether we are 10 minutes or 1000 miles apart, I am thankful every single day to have incredible people in my life. And hopefully someday will be blessed to expand my own FAMILY and bring incredible people into my life.

To all of my FAMILY members, whether related by blood or bond, I am sincerely grateful for you, for your impact on my life, and for helping me to become the person I one day hope to be. I love you, unconditionally, and I always will.

Hello Again

Every Year I KNOW I will be better at being more consistent on here, and every year I am not... SO SORRY! However a handfull of posts each year is better than none I think. Today I will be introducing you to the newest member of our family. Rig.



Rig is a purebred American Bulldog, like Harley. It really took some convincing from Ken for me to get on board with bringing ANOTHER dog into my home (which is already hard to keep clean with 2!) let alone a boy, but I just melted when we met him. Some friends of ours were having AB puppies and we just couldn't resist. We met him the day he was born and just knew he was ours.



He is such a sweet boy, and a momma's boy at that! Which in our house is unheard of. NO animal perfers me over Ken, ever. But for some reason this little man has chosen me :)

He is definitely all boy and has the attitude and personality to prove it! Our girls were definitely playful energetic puppies, but this Rig baby has more energy than they both had combined! Thank goodness for Maddie and Harley being great big sisters and wearing him out for me most days! I just can't keep up.

The weather here has finally turned nice and we have started camping again. Baby Rig has been twice now and LOVES IT! He is still a little bit unsure about water, but I don't think it will be long before he is right there with Harley ready to swim ALL DAY! (Camping pictures coming soon!)

As a family we are doing so well, loving the nice spring weather and looking forward to my summer break! A few fun things we will be keeping busy with this summer:

1. We are taking a week long trip to BOSTON MA! Ken's brother is getting married and they are both graduating from Boston University, we are SO EXCITED

2. CAMPING!!! We plan to spend as much time outdoors as possible!

3. Buying a home. We have been in the works with this for a few months, but just can't seem to find the place for us. But we are hoping and crossing our fingers that we will find the place and FINALLY have our own home by the end of the summer!

4. Seeing family! We hope to make it north at least once to see everyone!

MANY fun and exciting things are coming for us and we feel so blessed! We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend and that you all get to spend it with the ones you love. We will be thinking of you!

Ken~Allie~Maddie~Harley~Rig <3

FALL

I am SO wishing for some FALL weather... I have been reminiscing for the last few days about Fall in Idaho. Especially in Pocatello. September and October were my MOST FAVORITE months when I lived there. It was cool, like sweater or long sleeve shirt cool, and I LOVE THAT! Its my favorite time of year, and I miss it so much. Lately it has been cooling down a bit here in NM, but that only means it gets into the upper 80's or lower 90's instead of the 100's. Whoopie... C'mon, PLEASE send me some Fall weather!!

SUMMER

I can't believe summer is OVER! Well technically atleast. Summer weather doesn't end until like December here :) However School has started and our lives have gotten BUSY! GOODBYE to summer laziness.

Now in honor of the end of summer, here are photos (LONG OVERDUE) that sum up most of our summer festivities :)

Enjoy!






















We had a GREAT summer! It took us a while to find the water, and good camping spots, but once we did we definitely made the most of it! Getting to go camping and swimming with the dogs was so fun. Harley really impressed us this year with her intense love for water! She LOVED jumping off the dock! We didn't even have to throw a stick for her, she would just do it for fun! Maddie has never been a HUGE fan of the water, but she likes to swim a little and watch from the shore :) All in all we had some good times!

Now we are looking forward to some cooler temps and exciting new adventures with our Jobs!

Welcome Fall!