new calling

a couple of months ago, me and will got a new calling in our church.

we're the new sunday school teachers for the 12-13 year olds.

we were told we would start at the new year, but did yesterday.

i was a little nervous that the kids wouldn't listen or like me..

i've never worked with that age group, i mean they're technically teens.

but boy was i wrong.. the class went great!

granted we only had 2 girls who came.. 

but they participated and were awesome!

we had such a great experience with it!

after class, the sunday school president came to ask us how it went.

he gave us our new class list for 2013 (same age group) and..

we're upsizing to a class of 14. haha wish us luck!

i'm actually really excited for the challenge.

plus it will be nice to have the extra participation.

have a great new year's eve!

christmas 2012

we really enjoyed our Christmas in Mesa!

we played a lot of games and had fun catching up with family.

will and i even snuck away to some of our favorite places to eat there.

let me tell ya, there's no better mexican than arizona mexican!

(well technically mexico mexican is probably the best..)

we also got to skype my little bro who is serving a mission in TN.

my little brother and i have always been close,

and it makes me so happy to hear and see how happy HE is!

on jan. 4th he will hit his one year mark, then it's just one more to go!

he is busy serving and bringing so many people closer to Christ.

i love him so much. 

he's an inspiration to us all!

click here to enjoy the true spirit of Christmas.

have a happy New Year, friends!

gingerbread houses, past and present

every year since we started dating, we've done a gingerbread house date.

this year is no exception!

 thanks mike and bailee for letting us make a mess of your kitchen table!

 our masterpiece. 

notice the bears gettin cozy up top under the mistletoe. ;)

 teamwork, yeah!

here are some snapshots from our previous years' parties:

2010

 notice the cutie in the red hat. :)

 so hot right now.

i miss these babes!

 one of my favorites of us (a couple weeks before we got engaged)

the group! 

weird/fun fact: we're the only couple in this picture that stayed together.

and then we got married! go us! :)

2011

so there you have it folks, 

gingerbread houses are a big deal around these parts!

merry christmas to all, and to all a good night! 

takin' a spin downtown

after our morning errands today, 

me and the hubs visited a rad camera store downtown.

we took some pretty cool pictures while we were at it.

 we loved the vintage Coke sign on top.

how on earth did they get their car up there? 

candid. i was falling... but it kinda looks like i'm doing a little jig. i like!

 this guy can skip a rock a dozen times in a row. believe me, it's an art.

 we found this cool (and super random) graffiti mural downtown.

 the love of my life.

oh look an alley!

we had loads of fun switching between photographer and model.

i have a feeling saturday photo shoots will become a new tradition. 

and i'm not bummed about it... not one bit. :)