i absolutely love my crock pot. sundays just wouldn't be the same without it.

this girl loves water.

oh, guess what i get to do for 4 fun filled hours tonight?

one of my projects. can't wait till it's finished.

i'm a coupon girl. i don't go shopping without them.

ava is currently being certified to be a Tae Bo instructor.

we decided that we need to get out of our little shells and try to make friends. so we had a family from our ward over for dessert. it was a blast. i hope they enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed theirs.

i came home from a very long day at work to an almost clean walk-in closet. it's actually nice that we can now walk in it without stubbing our toe!

where does this girl get her cheese? she makes me laugh every day.

ava loves her boots and she loves the rain. what a perfect combination.

wasn't in the mood to make a big dinner tonight. just Ava and I. made her mac and cheese.

have been cooped up in the house all day. still raining. decided to make baked donuts. delicious. just what i needed.

i absolutely love rain. the smell. the sound. just love it. this is the first of many storms to come this week. makes me want to sit in front of a fireplace and read a good book.

i think our move to california would have been much more difficult if the jensen family (cousins) hadn't lived here. but they do! and we visit about every other sunday. at this point we were playing a very fun game of reverse charades (aka: sedarahc - - charades spelled backwards)

we woke up at 4:30 a.m. to an earthquake that shook our home. we were so intrigued to what the magnitude was, that we took out tommy's laptop right there and then and looked it up. the larger square in the southern part of california is the earthquake we felt. magnitude of 4.3 . all of the yellow squares represents earthquakes that had taken place that past week. welcome to california!

i love receiving roses from my hubby.

one of my favorite mirrors in our home. i just love to decorate.

this was a christmas present that I made for my little girl. she actually likes it.

my little munchkin. she makes me smile.

we visited a childhood friend and her two little boys. i'm jealous. she lives two blocks from this beautiful, new temple.

my mother's recipe box. love the recipes handwritten. it seems to be a lost art.

my little girl loves a good book. especially when it's read by her papa.

this little sister of mine has lived 20 minutes from the greatest snow on earth most of her life and has never skiied. while up in utah, we all decided we'd change that. can you see the excitement in her face. she turned out to be a pro though. oh . . . did I mention we went night skiing? she's a trooper.

there's nothing artistic about this photo. but it does contain my two favorite people in this world! we were in the plane getting ready to fly to utah.

we'd recently bought a gps. after using this for 1 day, I'd already forgotten how to find a place on my own. isn't that how it is. we were driving to vegas. couldn't wait to see family.

i need a pedicure. badly.

love sales. bought this cool, natural looking rug yesterday at one of my favorite home decor stores (i really can't afford to shop there, but since they were closing and everything was 40% off i couldn't pass it up). i love great deals!

i had a very long day at work today. although at times it may be tough, i love being a nurse. i couldn't have chosen a more perfect profession for myself.

what better way to spend the first day of a new year with family. tommy's brother and his family drove down from Vegas to celebrate the new year with us. no big plans. just enjoyed each other's company. nothing better than that.