Merry Christmas Card!

Merry Christmas from all of us current and future Sun Devils! We will potentially have family members there until 2024! (You can click on the image to read the sidebar text)

Happy Halloween!

So despite the fact that Halloween is a pretty pointless holiday, I do admit that I love to dress up and I love all of the fun decorations! Note my emphasis on fun: if it's creepy, drippy, gorey or otherwise gross, it's not my thing. But I do have some fun figures up around the apartment :) Yes, I "borrowed" them from my mom. She has wonderful taste :)

I grew up with these guys around my house and now I'm happy to have them in my own!

This cute project is another idea of my moms and in a rare crafty moment I actually made something for us (besides food)!

Although our actual Halloween weekend was taken over by MOUNDS (no joke) of homework, we went to a costume party a couple weeks ago and dressed up as some of our favorite characters. I chose Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter and Austin chose Sheldon Cooper from the show Big Bang Theory. The budget is tight and we had a lot of fun figuring out these costumes on a dime!

Can you see the resemblance?

At the party, our friend Chelsey put in hours of work and made some delicious treats for us! I especially loved this plate full of chocolate and carmel dipped items. Used Q-tips anyone? ;)

She is so creative!

Sailing Adventures

Last week we had the chance to go sailing with my dad and 2 brothers. It was a blast! We left out of Long Beach, CA on Friday and sailed to Catalina Island. We have had the chance to sail with my dad a few times since he has been certified and it is always a treat :) but this was the first time we sailed on a monohull, as opposed to a catamaran. The cat' that we usually take has two hulls, which provides more stability and balance. A mono, on the other hand, has just a single hull and while it is totally stable, it does rock a whole lot more. We hit some really high winds on Saturday sailing back to shore and oh man we were really rocking back and forth! It was an adventure. But lucky for us we had sturdy helmsman Quinton at the wheel!

What a tough face.

But the rest of the trip was spent scuba diving, rowing around in the little dingy, exploring Two Harbors (a tiny little town on Catalina Island) and of course fishing for Austin.

We found the coolest little bookstore in downtown Long Beach: a $1 bookstore! It was fantastic, we found lots of favorites. Austin got a few Jurassic Park books, I found a John Grisham and a some chapter/picture books for my classroom. I love used bookstores :) They are some of my favorite places in the world.

Oh, and by the way, we found out when we tried to leave early morning Sunday, that every year on the second weekend in October the Long Beach Marathon occurs. It's apparently been going on for 26 years and just fyi, it shuts down ALL traffic, in and out. We were stuck for a good four hours, just waiting for the event to be over. The city of Long Beach really needs a new media campaign manager because we had no idea we wouldn't be able to move. But oh well. Now we know!

Can you tell I'm on break?

What? Two posts not six months apart? Yep, it's true! One of the big perks of working for the Chandler School District is getting a two week fall break like the kiddos :) so I actually have some time to post.
Anyways, this weekend after Conference, my brother Kyle was ordained an Elder in preparation for his mission next year. We were so thrilled to have so many family members there :)

It just blows me away how old my family is getting. I don't dare post how old my dad will be this year :) I went with Austin to ASU institute this week and I was surprised to see both my brother and sister's cars there.

This is what we used to look like...

But not anymore!
Just look how tall everyone is! I'm cheating because I'm wearing heels, but Quinton is actually just as tall as me! (If not taller!) I just love these people :) even if they make me look like a dwarf.

Time flies...

Good grief, I know I'm almost two months late but Austin and I have been married for a year! We can hardly believe it :) some days it feels like we just met - other days we feel like we've known each other forever. And we can't get enough of it :)
To celebrate, we took a slightly early trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain before school got started again. It was very short (3 days) but very nice :) We got to go on our favorite thrill rides - Superman for Austin, of course! And Tatsu for me.

It's difficult to tell from this picture, but Tatsu holds you parallel to the ground so you feel like you are flying over the park! So incredible!
It's remarkable how loud this ride is. You can hear the cars thundering to 100 miles an hour all over the park.

Since our anniversary, life has been flying at it's usual high speed. Austin got started at ASU this fall and is class a few days a week, in addition to working full time. Since he got all his non-design classes done at MCC, all he has are architecture studios and lectures. They are filled with projects, but fortunately aren't too hard. Here's a picture of a chair he had to make solely out of cardboard that could support 200 pounds:

And things in my work/school camp are the same as ever. But this is my last semester of weekly classes! I student teach starting in January and then I'm done :) Then it's on to the job hunt.

Here's to another wonderful year!

Doggie Doritos?

So apparently Indy likes Doritos...

I caught him stealing a bag off our bottom shelf and running away to hide under our bed :) I got a big kick out of that one!

I love my family!

We made loaded pancakes for Sunday dinner last week and Quinton got really excited over spray cool whip. But, as we are ever the teasing household, Kyle got a huge pile of whip cream in Q's face :)

But the real kicker? My dad tricked Quinton into shoving the whipped cream in his own face a second time!
Even though he was named the salutatorian in his 8th grade class, Q can be a little slow sometimes. But that's why we love him :)

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July :) May your day be filled with swimming pools, bbqs and NO WORK! We are sure enjoying that part.

My mom put together this table setting for Father's Day and I loved it, but didn't post it in time. But I think it still works for the Fourth. My dad is an avid sailor and Mom found some great nautical items.

And, if you're ever looking for a fun date idea, on Friday we went with my sister and cousin to the Science Center (FREE on the first Friday of the month), followed by $5 desserts at the Compass Room after 9 pm. The Compass Room is on the top of the Hyatt Hotel in DT Phx; it's the really neat restaurant that rotates and gives you a beautiful, ever-changing view of the Valley. Highly Recommended!



(By the way, we did the math, and.... A restaurant that has been open since 1976 and only rotates once an hour can't have an estimated 1 million revolutions... But it's still fun!)

Ok, I'm a slacker...

Wow, I have really neglected posting for the past 2 months! We have been busy, as usual, but good busy.

First order of business, we got a dog! Indy, an extremely cute mini-schnauzer (who is trying to atype with me right now), joined our home on May 6. He is a super good dog, which I'm very relieved about, as he's the first big pet I've ever had. The Macdonalds are bird people, and just all around not-big-pet people :) (not that we have anything against animals, we just never really had them) But the Baxters sure do love pets! So hence 1 very sweet dog, 5 frogs who love to hide and scare us and a few non-interesting fish :) Makes life fun! I admit, I'm converted on whole the dog thing. So long as they stay small and cute.

Jeez, what else has happened... Well, Kyle graduated from Perry High! My parents now have more children at ASU than anywhere else! I'm working on my MA, Janie's in nursing school, and Austin and Kyle will be there in the fall studying Architecture and Pre-Med :) Everyone's growing up! And check out our most recent family picture. We are getting old. It's a neat transition for us all :)

I am out of school for the summer! Sort of... Humphey Elementary's last day was June 1 and Thankfully I was offered a postition in my same ED classroom for next year :) I love my class, and especially love my co-teacher Denise, so I'm thrilled to be back! But while work-school is over, school-school is far from it. My Master's program runs year round until next May, so I'm in class nights twice a week for the month of June and four times a week for the month of July. But fortunately, I'm not working full time and having to be in class so much. I'm taking a few hours part time for the day care, leaving me plenty of time to catch up on all the projects at home.

What other adventures... Oh! We got go camping over Memorial Day with the Eagars and Acedos in our ward. It was suuuuuper windy while we were there, but worth it. It was a very relaxing weekend, we just played lots of games, read and hunted for crawdads at the lake. An overall great time!

Welcome to Chez Baxter

I was watching America's Test Kitchen (a FANTASTIC cooking show if you've never seen it) last weekend and they shared their recipe for the perfect fish fillet. I love love love fish but have never had luck preparing it. The past few times have turned out dry, overdone and honestly pretty gross. But I saw this simple recipe and had to try it! So Austin and I bought a few cod fillets and I gave it a shot. They turned out better than I'd hoped! I am pretty proud of myself :) It wasn't exactly a 5 star meal, but by george we felt pretty fancy eating good fish and drinking from our stem glasses.

You can find the link for skillet-roasted fish fillets here at AmericasTestKitchen.com

A room with a view

I found these pictures on my camera and they were too cute not to post! This is our niece Bou... and my mother-in-law's dog Story :)

What a perfect fit!

Amococo

Last Friday, Austin and I popped over to the Mesa Arts Center to see their Amococo exhibit. We weren't sure what to expect but it turned out to be really neat! The piece is a huge display set up in a parking lot. It was created by a British artist who calls himself an architect of air.
I would say so! Huge, vinyl pieces were shaped to make a fancy looking bounce house. But inside, it's a maze and prismacolor luminarium. It was so fun! We loved it.

Afterwards we toured through the Museum of Contemporary Art and saw a few more fun pieces.

Spring Break

Spring Break is here! And while poor Austin only gets a break from classes, I have both work and school off. It's nice :) And although I'm going a little stir crazy from being at home all day, I am getting alot done. Taxes - check! FAFSAs - check! Spring cleaning and organizing - check!
I had hoped to be working at Kids Express for the break, but so far they have had very few kids attending, so no hours for me.
But I have kept busy looking for little projects. I found some bruised flowers for really cheap and filled a gift from Austin's grandma

And I started working again on a long time project - a tshirt quilt that I began probably 2 years ago.

Well, that's our thrilling plan for Spring Break. Nothing out of the ordinary - heaven knows we can't afford it. Although, we did have a little adventure early this morning.

Yesterday, Austin brought home 2 new frogs making our grand total of amphibians a whopping 7. We've got 4 African dwarf frogs, which are water dwellers, and live with our 15 fish.

Then, last weekend, we took home Rufio, the fire-belly toad that previously resided in Cole's (Ausin's brother) room.
And then these two guys, whom I believe we are calling Thud Butt

and Pockets (only if you've seen Hook, will these names make sense).

But anyways, at 3:30 this morning we both hear this strange noise, like a combination of a quack and those wooden, ribbed stick instrument. Austin sits strait up and asks me if I heard that and if I know what the noise is. Very groggily I answer that I think it was the frog. Turns out, I was right, and a very flustered Austin, whose adrenaline was pumping, got up and proceded to move the whole frog tank out of our room and set it back up by the front door. He continued the noise for the rest of the night, and I've heard it many times today.

That's all the adventure we have to report in the Baxter house today!