The Mr. and Mrs.

April

2009-07-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

First of all, and this did not happen in April- happened last week, I LOST MY PHONE AND THEREFORE ALL PHONE NUMBERS. Please text me your phone number, I'm going crazy.

Beginning April...
The Fam celebrated Good Friday with breakfast at the lake and a trip to Tortilla Flats.
Sneaky Twins...
Hayden devised a contraption to keep the milk cold, of course...
Testing out the water...
Makin' breakfast...
...prego Gini...
Eatin' breakfast...
Kenz and the Ladybug...
...she loved it...
Loungin'...
Tate decided on fishing...
...with a strawberry for bait...
...those curious to see if a fish would bite...
...no such luck...Beautiful Tortilla Flats. I'm certainly no photographer, I wish these pictures did it justice! Looking upon Tortilla Flats, I imagined historic stage coaches and teams of horses rustling down the winding roads all about the wild wild West...
Such imaginings frequent my mind when in old places... I love to be in old places, imagining old times!
The boys found a Horny Toad...
And into town for some ice cream...
...inside, the ice cream shoppe walls were covered with bills!
Man was that ice cream delicious...
...I love all the ice cream faces...
Us teachers at the old school house...
Found Hyrum playing on the old water tower, not sure that was allowed...
Just before leaving, we sat on these rocks and visited while watching the kids jump around and play in the water...
Good-brief-relaxing Get Away. Thanks mom and dad!

Easter
Easter was great this year. Before all festivities with the fam, I enjoyed Easter morn with Nathaniel... MoTab played loudly in the background. I followed a trail of chocolates to my Easter basket. Nathaniel's new tie matched my Easter dress. We sang in a quartet at church. It was peaceful and fulfilling to say the least...

The festivities were celebrated with my family this year.
Kenz in her Easter dress...

Delicious Easter dinner. Fed to the masses...
Hiding eggs for the hunt...
What?
Found eggs...
We dropped by the Allens on our way home to wish them a Happy Easter...
We found this...
After realizing we had no pictures at all -EVER- together, Rebecca and I decided on a photo shoot... right there on the floor... Easter night...
Rebecca makes me laugh so hard. I am so grateful to have a best friend for a sister in law...
Also in April...
I helped chaperone Sara's (or Mrs. Singleton's) highschool sign language trip to Disneyland...
It was a blast but Crazy at the same time.
Mom and Shauna came along to chaperone too...
Shauna described the event quite well... read her account here.

And that was April.

March

2009-05-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

March. March. What happened in March?
Myself and family celebrated our Irish blood on St. Patty's day!
Don't worry. Children were told that the mugs on shown festive banner were filled with Root Beer.
Badminton.
Eating green.
Green items on the menu included...
Green Potato Salad
Guacamole
Garden Salad
Seven Up
Green Veggies
Green Pigs in a Blanket
and...
My Key Lime Pies. So domestic.

Pin it on the Shamrock.
Hot potato to Irish tunes.
Winners were awarded chocolate gold.
Blue got a hold of that chocolate.
We finished out the night inside, viewing a Tuft family favorite... Far and Away.
"Me spoons Joseph, me spoons!"

Just a few fun things from February...

2009-04-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

February seems like forever ago. Time is just a whippin' past me lately. Nonetheless, I still feel a need to document some fun happenings...

At the start of February, adorable little niece Sara presented this work of art to myself. Sara wanted to showcase some recently learned Kindergarten skills.
This is the cover of Sara's book.
Rachel Frenzu = Rachel's Friends... Sara generously provided some translation.
I like yo Rachl = I like you Rachel.
Me and Rachel go to git ranoiscie = Me and Rachel got to get ice cream. I'm the one with the earrings.
I luvu Rachle = I love you Rachel.
Me ad Rachel like Capt incrunch = Me and Rachel like Captain Crunch.
How sweet is she? I love you so much Sara, this little book made my day.
I have the best nieces and Nephews.

Light Rail Adventure...
Danica, Brennon, Nathaniel, and I decided to have a light rail adventure. The light rail is very new and exciting for Arizonans.
We rode the Light Rail to a Suns Game! Danica and I sported purple to show our suns spirit. We were giddy with excitement to ride the light rail.
Here we are on the light rail (I'm showing my hair because I don't want to look bald). From this point on, everything said was referenced to being "on the light rail"...examples... "Life is fun on the light rail", "I'm Hungry on the light rail", "Time goes slow on the light rail"...
All of these pictures are awful but I don't even care, they make me laugh.

Danica and I could not keep a straight face on the light rail.
Our seats were in the nose bleeds, it was awesome.
Riding the light rail home was a little less exciting. There were so so so many people. We had no where to sit, so we stood up and couldn't move for five stops!!!

Valentines Day...
So fun at the Elementary level! The week of Valentines Day, I had a new couple getting married every Recess. By the end of the week, one little boy who just couldn't hack the lovey duvvy- ness anymore said... "Mrs. Allen! I just can't take this love stuff any more!!!".
Poor kid.

And then I flashed back to a time in highschool... (Side Story)

All of my friends had serious boyfriends. I was always single.

A group of us decided it would be fun to take a trip up north and have a Snow Day. I realized it would be me and twelve couples, so I invited Mariah to be my companion.
You can imagine high school couples in the snow. It was a day that felt like a million punches to the face. While Mariah and I had fun with each other and a few other girls whose boyfriends couldn't make it, we couldn't help but feel sorry for ourselves! Where were our lovers and why couldn't we just have boyfriends in the snow? Then, we had to cram our wounded selves into the back of a truck and watch young lovers "love" eachother all the way back home. As if watching wasn't enough... we had to listen to their C.D., a collection of love songs that detailed their relationship, the ENTIRE drive home. Also sitting in the front bench seat, was one of those girls whose boyfriend couldn't make it. We listened to her missing her boyfriend the ENTIRE drive home.
When Mariah and I got out of that cram packed truck, we'd never been happier. We ran around screaming and hugging eachother and laughing deleriously.

Moral of the story:
Yes, little boy. There are times in our life when we just can't take the "love stuff".

Here is my FIRST bulletin board. On display, we have sentences made with conversation hearts. This bulletin board was so cute until someone came by and picked off all of the conversation hearts... probably some loveless bitter sixth grader.

The night before our big Valentines Day party at school, Crystal helped me assemble valentines for all my kiddos. It was late at night. We were really tired. We got a little crazy.

The big Valentines party at school. We had an ice cream social.
Here is what I left with at the end of the day!
Partying with first graders is always good time :)

Mardi Gras...
The Tufts have fallen in love with New Orleans and it's rich culture. We can thank Helen (my sister in law) for that. So in memory of Heber, Helen, and that city we love, Shauna hosted the first annual Tuft Mardi Gras Party!
Pre-party Mingling.Beads hang all over the place year round in New Orleans.
This is the King cake. It had a little plastic "King Baby" inside of it. Traditionally, whomever gets the piece with the King Baby, is granted good luck.
Quinnelly and Brigham won the King babies this year. Crazy tradition, I love it!
Happy Mardi Gras!

Catch up Begininning with December... Finally

2009-03-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, so the beginning of December marked the end of an unforgettable chapter in my life- the end of being a full time student enrolled in full time classes...
These are some of my favorite girls. We have been in the education program together for the past two years and have spent A LOT of time together. To commemorate our last class ever, we decided to have a little photo-shoot outside the classroom, thanks Rosario for the suggestion to pose pyramid style. I've had so much fun with these girls and come graduation I will be posting more on them and our adventures together.

And here comes Christmas.
Christmas in the Tuft family begins on Christmas eve at Sistah Sara's house where we enjoy the annual array of Asian food. My dad and two of the three brother in laws served their missions in Asia... hence the origins of this tradition. Here I am with Mariah just prior to the fine dining.
We were thankful this year to share Christmas Eve with the Abels, they were a delightful addition to our joyous celebrating!

...following the fine dining, a live nativity beginning with the prophesies of Samuel the Lamanite.

...the Star of Bethlehem.
...the Wisemen.
...the Sheep.
...Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus ...the sheep is a little restless.

...the angel (and yes THAT IS the flower girl dress I wore to my sister's wedding in '93).

...the big picture... narrated by none other than the stud himself, Nathaniel Allen.

...some mingling.
...Christmas Eve ended at our sadly undecorated home. We meant to watch a movie but forgot that our DVD player broke so we stayed up watching Man vs. Wild!

Christmas morning began with breakfast cooked by Nathaniel's Grandpa, Conrad. There- we enjoyed the company of the Allen family in it's entirety, homemade bread, fresh squeezed orange juice, and deep fired pastries. Following breakfast, we met up with my family at my parents house...

...This little guy was Christmas present enough for me. His name is Cutler, you might recognize him as baby Jesus featured in the above pictures. With all of the Christmas morning commotion, I was able to sneak away to a spot where no one made attempts to take him away from me. I laid in front of the piano and cuddled with him until Mariah found me and snapped a picture :)

...Some Christmas morning togetherness.

...Brigham is always so good to little cousins.

Post Christmas togtherness...

...Fun at the track.
...Nathaniel taught Cutler how to break dance.

...Zoolights!!!! A favorite tradition complete with homemade bread, hot chocolate, and doughnuts.

On to January...

Beginning with New Years Eve...
We hung out with the Taylor girls, had appetizers at the Allens, and then played Rockband with the fam at Sara's til morn.
...You might think Christmas is over come January, but we definitely experienced the Polar Express within the first week of the month!!! Thanks mom and dad, we will never forget it :)

...It was so cold waiting to board the train I could hardly bear it. I was shivering, pressed as tightly as i could to Nathaniel when I felt Hyrum put his arms around the both of us! The next thing I knew, all of my nieces and nephews were huddled around me trying to keep me warm. I love them.
...Just us girls.
...Boarding the train.

...On the train.

...Oh Nathaniel. He just had to entertain the entire train with his singing.

...We decided to enjoy the snow while we were up there.

I STARTED Student teaching...

...This is my desk, it says "Mrs. Allen". Can't even describe the joy I feel about this little desk, it's like a physical manifestation of all my hard work!

...This is the beautiful little classroom where I spend my days. The little ones had just packed up and left for home.

New York, New York...
A company that Nathaniel works for, out of New York, invited us to their Holiday party in New York! What an opportunity, of course we jumped on it. It was a first for both of us...

...This is Nathaniel's scared face on our first Taxi ride ever. I'm being completely honest: I thought I was going to die on this Taxi ride. New York Taxis are a dangerous thing.

...First of all, finding a modest cocktail-attire dress for the party was one of the hardest things I have ever done.

...A brief showcase my efforts.

...This belt is probably my most favorite accessory now.

...New York city is the coldest place I have ever been, it hurt to smile! Danica and I discovered that if you zoom in on my face, I look like a demon. Um it's hysterical.
...On our way to see the show, Chicago on Broadway.

...We decided to take our "We're so excited to see Chicago on Broadway, here are our tickets and the play bill" pictures once inside our warm hotel because it was way to stinkin' cold to take any kind of picture outside. I think these pictures are funny because I'm trying really hard not to have a double chin and Nathaniel is way over taking pictures.

...Another big city pic.
...A Sunday morning stroll in Central Park.

...Some lovin' in Central Park.
...Some friends in Central Park.
...Some hot chocolate in Central Park.
...Out and about in The Big Apple.

...Statue of Liberty.
...Ellis Island.

...Ice Skating at Rockefeller Plaza. Ice skating in the midst of sky scrapers was a completely surreal experience, I was staring upwards most of the time!

Nathaniel is a very cautious ice skater...

...Carriage ride around Times Square, ideal for people watching, taking in the sights, and a little bit of romance.
...Top of the Empire State Building at night. This was magical.

...Late at night we found this little Lady in the Tramp style Bistro. We were seated in the back corner of the restaurant and pretty much had the place to ourselves. I don't ever want to forget this little restaurant! It was a perfect ending to our Big Apple adventure.

And that, in a nut shell, was December and January.

November Highlights!

2008-12-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

November, a month dear to my heart...

Gilbert Days Parade... My family goes every year. It's always entertaining with my family. They yell things like, "Top O' the mornin' to yeh!" at the people on the Irish float and, "Ha Cha Cha!" at Mexican dancers... I won't mention what the sisters were saying about a certain cowboy :)

Midnight Twilight!!!! Whoop. Whoop. A long awaited night. I went to the midnight showing of Twilight with a couple of the sisters and some other fun ladies. Yes, Yes, we made T-shirts- they said "Edward I'm here my love". For me, this movie was an out of body experience... I seriously can't even call it a movie. I loved every second of it, cheese and all :) That night I took place among all squealing highschoolers in our theater... such vocal moments in the movie included... seeing Edward for the first time, when Edward- in all his sun glasses glory- stepped out of the Volvo with Bella, the meadow, the KISSING, ahhhh all of it!!!

November 21st... Nathaniel's 26th birthday and our 2 year anniversary!! Nathaniel. What can I say about him?... He is honestly the funniest being on earth. He is brilliantly business minded. He works hard every day. He is annoyingly persevering. He would do anything for me. I am truly blessed to have him in my life... What can I say about our first 2 years of marriage? Well... he must love me. I'm a bit of a handful. I have loved our time together and I look forward to our years to come.

Thanksgiving... My assignment was funeral potatoes. Here I am, before any festivities of the day, preping my delicious potatoes.

...Turkey Bowl!!!
...typical twins. Always off plotting somewhere.
...Dinner at the Allens!!

...Post-dinner walk. Following our feast, we strolled down the street and found a couple of lucky turkeys!

Okay, the sight and sound of a turkey gobble really makes me laugh... the only thing funnier than the turkey gobble, in this video, are the sounds everyone makes to try and get the turkey to gobble :)

...We finished out our Thanksgiving holiday at my parents house. We relaxed by the fire pit and watched Indiana Jones. Nathaniel played checkers, I swear he was playing for hours!

Christmas Lights... We picked out and purchased our first Christmas lights. Nathaniel hung our first Christmas lights on our first house!!! A lot of firsts!!!

October Highlights!

2008-11-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

I love October for many reasons! Here are some highlights of our October 08...

Brigham's Birthday.

Going to the Phoenix Zoo with the Mom, sisters, babies, and Q and Z.

Trying on my Mom's wedding dress... my parents got married in '72, groovy dress eh?

Planting flowers with my Mom... I was trying to follow Elder Uchtdorf's advise from the general women's broadcast and "create" beauty. So, I planted flowers for the first time in my life! They are still alive, hooray! Thanks Mom.

Going to Schnepf Farms with Dani, Brennon, and the Gutterys... so so so so much fun!

...This is Dani and I riding the really scary train at the farm, it's going really fast and we are really scared :)

...On this ride Nathaniel and Brennon powered us through a dirt track on a four passenger-two man bike! Danica and I were hysterical.

...Nathaniel and Brennon were really tired after all that pedaling... good work boys.
...They might have been mad at us after that because shortly after, they found girlfriends.

...We didn't mind.
...Thanks for the invite Dani and Brennon, we had a blast!

Going to Dani and Brennon's Halloween party as a 70's couple... my dress is completely vintage, it belongs to my Mom! She purchased it when she went away to BYU, she was a sass!

Dani and Brennon = 20's couple
Mike and Brooke = Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf
Kayla = Rad Volleyball Player

Annual Pumpkin Carving... Shauna and Boe, always the most competitive at this event.

...Their finished product.

...Hayden working dilligently.
... Kenz and I, we didn't have pumpkins to carve :(

...Tate and Jarom are really proud of their pumpkins, 'til next year boys!

Sara's infamous "Pumkin Pants".

...She gets a pair of Halloween stretchy pants every year and prefers to wear them for months until they're skin tight and thread bare.

Halloween!... Making caramel apples with Mom.

... Passing out candy.
...Costumes!
...Eating caramel apples.

Can't wait until next October!

Check out the new company I'm helping build called Tenshon

2008-10-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have been told by a good source that if I link my blog to the website we're building, it will help increase it's search engine ranking and if I can get other people to post about Tenshon it will help even more, so I need your help...if you get a chance please visit Tenshon.com, take a look around, and then post on your blog and link the post back to the website, and then tell your friends! I would really appreciate your help!

So You Think You Can Dance!

2008-10-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

Nathaniel and I have watched this show throughout our entire relationship, which is coming up on three years now! We (probably more so I) love it! This past Tuesday, we were able to see it live. We had a great time, it was incredibly entertaining!

This is us waiting for the show to start... we're really excited here :)

This is one of my favorite dances from the most recent season. It was so fun to watch live, people went crazy!! I heart Twitch.

Here is another favorite, a waltz. The choreographer has a daughter who is severely mentally and physically impaired, he dedicated this dance to her because the only time she reacts is when she sees people move. It is beautiful... the first time I saw it, I definitely teared up :)

One last fav... this one is for you Mariah!

Alo-------ha!

2008-08-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

Nathaniel has been dying to take me to Hawaii because it has always been one of my dream destinations. This summer, he made that dream come true! We got back about a week ago from our Hawaiian paradise. We had the time of our lives! Here are some pictures of our stay...

We stayed on Oahu in Waikiki at the Moana Surfrider, Westin Resort. This place opened in 1901! Nathaniel and I are suckers for old architecture, we can't get enough of it (many of you may remember that Nathaniel proposed to me at a gorgeous pre civil war plantation home in Louisiana). So, the second we saw this place, we knew it was where we wanted to have our stay. You can't really tell from this picture, but there are wooden rocking chairs lined up within the Veranda. We occasionally enjoyed sitting in these rocking chairs to relax and people watch, Waikiki is certainly home to some characters :)

Our mornings were filled with tourist attractions but our afternoons were spent on the beach located just outside the back coutyard of the hotel. That large green blob in the picture that looks like several trees is only one tree, the famous Moana Banyan tree to be exact.

We frequently dined (or just drank Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daqcuiris!!), and enjoyed live Hawaiian music beneath this tree. The atmosphere was magical!

Nathaniel and I each received a lei upon our entry into the hotel, it was very exciting.

We went to the Dole Plantation...

And had pineapple ice cream!

Nathaniel really likes pineapple.

I enjoyed the fish.
We rode the pineapple express and enjoyed beautiful views of the agriculture. Honestly, the Dole Plantation is on my most gorgeous sight seeing list. The views were breath taking!!

We toured the Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the United States. We love that old architecture!

We hiked to a few different waterfalls.

We visited the Laie temple (it's pretty far behind us in this picture), which really looked like something out of the Book of Mormon.

We went horseback riding up a mountain...

To here!

We were driving and happened upon this beautiful ocean view, which isn't hard to do in Hawaii, I couldn't resist the photo op!

We visited the USS Arizona memorial and Pearl Harbor, a very humbling experience.
We experienced the Polynesian Cultural Center!!! This turned out to be one of our most fun and entertaining events! The Polynesian people are absolutely hilarious, we were laughing the whole time. This is a photo of the canoe pageant. Each island of Polynesia had a canoe, I believe that this is Aoterroa's canoe. Aside from the canoe pageant, you could expeience each island of Polynesia within the park. Every island had their own area in which their villages were recreated, they would dance and sing and explain their culture. Following their presentation, you could taste their cooking, play thier games and such. Seriously, everyone was so funny!

Here is a picture of us at the Figi presentation.
Following the day festivities, the park held a massive luau. They gave us these leis upon our entry to the party!
More pineapple for Nathaniel! Dinner at the Luau.
Entertainment at the Luau. Following the Luau, we were led to the last of the festivities. We came to a theater with stadium seating where we viewed their production. Amazing.
This is Hanauma bay, where we snorkeled. You can see how shallow the water is and all of the coral reef beneath it. This was an experience! I had never been sorkeling before and so the first time I went under I thought I was going to suffocate!!... But I got used to it and we saw beautiful coral, fish, and even a (very poisonous) sea snake. Oh ya, that reminds me, Nathaniel saw a sea turtle in the ocean just outside our hotel when we were swimming. It was a foot away from him!
Us Snorkeling. The mask is falling off my face :) I can't figure out the face that Nathaniel is making!
More snorkel gear. We got fried at Hanauma bay, you can kinda see it on Nathaniel's feet. We are still peeling!!
We went to the sealife park. This place was gorgeous, it was not enclosed at all. The park is on the edge of the North shore, so the backdrops were natural- no walls. There were beautiful ocean views no matter where we were in the park. We saw fish, sea turtles, sea lions, and my favorite... Dolphins!
This is Nathaniel doing the dolphin swim! We both got to do this. The dolphin turned over on it's back, we held her fins, and she swam across the water! Dolphins are very fast, I had no idea.
Okay Dolphins have got to be one of the kindest animals in the world. They just seemed very happy and fun loving!
The more time Nathaniel and I are married, the more I see his love for animals. It was like being at the Sealife park with a child. The look in his eyes the whole time we were there was priceless.

Well that's it, I have highlighted our favorite memories of the trip! I am so grateful for the opportunity to have gone.

No new idols in my immediate family...

2008-07-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

Alright they both didn't make it, but hey at least they had the experience! Pictures of the event will be up soon!

NATHANIEL IS TRYING OUT FOR AMERICAN IDOL!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Okay so just for fun- (I know many of you already know this) Nathaniel decided to go try out, with his sister Rebecca, for American Idol! He left at five o'clock this morning!!! I just talked to him and he said that he is in a stadium with 3000 other hopefuls. Rebecca promised me that she would take a lot of pictures... so as soon as I know how to put pictures on my blog, they will be there and we all can see more of their adventure. We'll see what happens, though Nathaniel did make it on price is right. He won a life time supply of Peeps LOL!! C'mon that's got to mean something :)

My brain is dying.

2008-07-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, Nathaniel is gone on business and I have to take a break from my brain frying homework for a minute to vent... and what better way to vent than to blog?! So among various other assignments to be completed tonight, I have to write three papers. Yep it's nine o'clock, I've been doing homework since I got home AT SIX, and time is running out. Overwhelmed. Let's talk about what these three papers are on... teaching the acquisition of a second language, more specifically, "Language Pedagogy". All three papers are loosely related to that accursed word that I have so come to loathe... "Pedagogy". That word is so darned intimidating. Why do professors feel the need to complicate written instruction? I know why, to make themselves feel superior to their students and validated in their instruction. In short, to make themselves feel smarter. Mental Note: I will never be that educator. Well all, let's hope I make it through the night. I actually feel better already, but don't worry I won't let my rantings and ravings become a blogging habit.

I'm doing it!!!

2008-06-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's happening. I am posting on our blog. I don't even know how to scan in pictures or whatever it is you bloggers do, but dang it- I'm gonna learn! Blogging is one of my summer goals and you all will just have to help me accomplish this one. Where do I enter in all of the "about my husband and I" stuff? This is difficult.