Early Retirement

For the past 3 1/2 years I have worked in special education as a instructional assistant in an autistic classroom working with kids ages 12-17 years old. My work streak has come to an end now so I can prepare for my next venture in life; being a Mommy. Chris teasingly says I have officially begun my early retirement.

I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to truly work amongst angels on earth. I moved down here in 2006 in the midst of one of the biggest trials of my life. Thankfully I was able to get that job right away and my life has been blessed because of it ever since. Working with those sweet kids each day who bravely face life's challenges with a smile on their face was an incredible example to me. Going to work helped me to forget myself and focus on making their day the best it can be. Any trials I have had the past 3 1/2 years were quickly put out of my mind as I spent time with them.

I'll take with me some of the sweetest memories of my life that I will always cherish. I feel so much more confident going into this next chapter of my life thanks to what they have taught me.

I love you kiddos!!! I can't wait til we meet on the other side and I can tell you how much you blessed my life on earth.

Idaho Trip | Day Four & Five

Day four of our trip was a Saturday so we were able to check out Moscow's farmers market. We had a good time walking around and checking out all the random fun things for sell. I have to say, either Moscow has more hippies or I forgot how many they had.

After that we went to NRS. It's a business that started up in the Palouse. They sell anything you could ever possibly need/want related to rafting and canoeing.

Later that day we walked over to Hordman's Pond. It's just right around the corner from my parents home. I have a lot of good memories of catching fish, snakes, frogs and turtles if you were really skilled. They have a little park there so we hung out and let the kids play, that includes Chris of course.

My Mom with John and Brian.

I think Chris is ready for this Dad stuff don't you?

Day Five
This was a sad day for me, I did NOT want to go back home to Arizona. Other than missing Skippy (our dog), there was really nothing I cared to come back home too. I cried before we even left the house. We drove on up to Spokane and off we went. Now we are back. . . here. . . and HOT.

Idaho Trip | Day Three

On day three of our trip we headed out to Elk River.

First stop was Huckleberry Heaven. They have some yummy huckleberry ice cream so we all grabbed a cone.


We drove around for awhile and found a great spot to play around and have a picnic. Chris had a great time playing with John and Brian.


We were pretty lucky to have gone up on one of the two coolest weekends Elk River has. One is the boat races, the other is their 'Elk River Days.' We were able to see people gearing up their race boats for the next day. It was a lot of fun to see how fast they could go.

We had a fun scenic drive home. I enjoyed every minute of seeing Idaho in all it's glory. . . Chris on the other hand fell asleep. Later that day Chris took some pictures of my brother's family. You may have seen them on his photography blog.

Idaho Trip | Day Two

Our second day in Idaho was just as great as the first. We woke up to the smell of bacon, eggs and yummy food! I'm sorta ashamed to say I could probably count on one hand how many times I've actually made Chris breakfast. That was a real treat for both of us.

After that we headed over to the University of Idaho campus to see my Dad hard at work. He gave us a great tour of the ins and outs of Computer Services at the U of I. It was fun to see how the campus has grown.


Then we met up with my brother and his family. They came up from Boise to visit Moscow too. We walked around one of the university's arboretums. They planted trees from all over the world, have three ponds and various other plants and wildlife.

Brad and Brian.

Marissa and John.

My one big request for going out to eat in Moscow was Zips. I've talked up Zips for the past three years so Chris was expecting some sort of French cuisine. It's really just a good ol' burger joint with the best fry sauce ever. I chowed down! I think my nephew John enjoyed it as much as I did.

You can't come to the Palouse area without seeing the bears at WSU.

If you look closely you can see the smile on this bears face.

This one was pretty cute, I think he smelled Zips on our breath.

Idaho Trip | Day One

Last week Chris and I went up to Idaho to visit my family. Every day was full of fun adventures! We took quite a few pictures so each day will have it's very own blog post.

Our first day we flew into Spokane Washington. We grabbed a great lunch at a place called Huckleberry's. Then we checked out a rose garden. The rose's weren't in bloom yet, but they had some other nice flowers to check out. Better than anything you'd see in Arizona, that's for sure!


After that we checked out a Japanese Meditation Garden. Very pretty!


Then we walked around some shops in Coeur d'Alene, checked Coeur d'Alene Lake out and had an incredible 16 inch long sundae, Yum!

We killed it!

Twenty Weeks

As of last Friday I am halfway through this pregnancy. Yahoo!

Trip to Pinetop...

Johnna says it's been too long since I (Chris), last posted on OUR blog.
We just got back this afternoon from a trip up to Pinetop. I don't think we had been since Christmas. I was honored to be hired to photograph one of my sister's best friend's wedding in Snowflake on Saturday. As we drove away from the valley on Thursday evening we watched the thermometer on the dashboard drop drop drop before our eyes starting at 106` and ending in the low 70's by the time we got to Pinetop- it was nice to get out of the heat.
On Friday we took Skippy with us on a walk with my mom and her dog:
pictured: Skippy (right) Johnna's foot (left)


Later on that day we met the lovely bride and groom at the temple for some portraits at the temple in Snowflake. I will have those up on my photography blog later today. Here is a lovely shot that Johnna took with my backup camera while I was shooting. Don't you think this angle of me COMPLETELY prone on the ground is lovely?




and me the next day with the groom:

Look what Chris got for his birthday. . .

This year our birthday present priorities seemed to have changed.

Chris got. . .

baby onesies?! What the!

If you can't tell from the choice of onesies, we're expecting and it's a BOY!

We are due the first week of October.

I am currently in my 18th week of pregnancy.


My 'bump' is looking a little muffin topish if you ask me. . . But we're getting there.

Paxman Fam Fun

Chris's parents recently purchased a condo down here in Mesa. It's been nice to see them more often. Yesterday we all got together for dinner and dessert.

First we had dinner at Pei Wei's. (Chris's fave.)

Then we had knock off Cold Stone ice cream. Yum!