Phoenix, AZ

David loves his job. So do I, actually. I love that he loves what he does and that he loves the people that he works with. However, as we head back into busy season - that means longer hours... and business trips. Because David works as an Auditor for a public accounting firm that means that he goes to his clients place of business and works with them to audit their financial statements. He gets to work with a lot of neat clients and most of them are fairly close by. Some of them are a little bit further, and he spends 4-7 weeks a year traveling to different clients to work on their audits. This last week he was in Phoenix, AZ, working hard. There were several days that we only got to talk for a couple of minutes and one day that we didn't get to talk at all because he was so busy. (We talked more when he was in Kazakhstan!) But one thing that is nice about the people/clients that he works with is that they all make an effort to make sure that they eat well and usually get to do one fun thing while they are there. David loves the Phoenix trip, because they get to go to a Diamondbacks baseball game. They try to time their trip for when the Diamondbacks play the Dodgers. Here are a couple pictures from his trip: 

Buffalo Wild Wings

Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers 

While David was busy playing/working hard, Lydia and I decided to pack up and head to Morgan to spend the week with my family. I'm not a huge fan of hanging out at our house alone, and I'm so grateful to have family so close that we are able to visit whenever David goes away. Lydia loved spending time with my parents and her Uncle Jacob. But I think everyone knows that her favorite part of every day was being able to "play" with Dante. Dante is my family's giant dog who would happily eat Lydia for a mid-morning snack. (Okay, I exaggerate. He isn't mean, he's just a really friendly dog. But when you are 4 times as big as your playmate, friendly is the equivalent of very scary.) Lydia loved Dante so much that she spent the entire day either staring at him out the window, whining/begging me to take her out to be with him, or convincing one of my parents/Jacob to take her outside. It was ridiculous how much she was obsessed with him. We spent a lot of time at the side of my parents house where there was a fence to the backyard that you could see Dante. This way she got to be close enough to him to make her happy and I didn't have to worry about him eating her. She would cry and cry until we took her out, and she would giggle and laugh as we took her out but as soon as he got too close or barked at her she would get scared/cry. These pictures are a great illustration of her relationship with Dante. 

Look at those eyelashes baby! 

I wish I could figure out how to upload videos. There is the most darling video of her teasing him by putting her foot right by the opening. She was playing with her cups and when he barked, it startled her and she dropped them right by the opening. He immediately grabs them and pulls them through the crack. She was so sad and it was SO funny. My favorite part was after she cried for a second she looks at the fence and in an indignant voice says "Dante!". (Sounds more like Dan-deh, but it's totally his name.) I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. 

When we weren't outside, we were usually by the back door looking through the window - but when we wanted to mix it up, we'd go to my parents room and look out their window. Seriously, I can't express enough the level of obsession that this girl has with that dog. 

If we got really crazy - we even let Dante inside. 

When I could finally distract her from Dante, she spent her time spinning the picture of her daddy in the corner and climbing on things. 

I am seriously exhausted. Looking at these pictures reminds me why. She has so. much. energy. Luckily for me there was a park by my parents house and Lydia has learned how to go up the steps and down the slide all by herself! All I have to do it sit at the bottom of the slide while she runs her energy out. (Until she gets distracted and starts running away.) Again, I have the sweetest video of her running around the playground and going down the slide. She is so fun. 

Most of all, we just missed this boy so much. I'm so glad that he is home with us instead of having to skype at night. Although, we make some pretty cute skypers. 

I'm so glad that David has such a good job and that we are blessed with modern technology to not only be able to talk - but to be able to see each other. I'm even more grateful that he is home now and I get to go cuddle with him on the couch while we watch the BYU vs. Utah game. 

p.s. Mom & Dad, I'm sorry that I didn't get a single picture of us together. We really are so grateful that you let us come and crash your house!

Come On Down!

I mentioned that David surprised me with an impromptu game of The Price is Right on Friday night. Here are the promised pictures. He was so cute and so funny. I wasn't sure what to expect (all I knew is that he wanted to open presents on Friday instead of Saturday and that he was inviting Melissa and Blake to come and join us). David had to work late that night so he didn't get home until after ten o'clock. However, as soon as he got home, he got right to work setting everything up. I was a little nervous because I had no clue what was happening - but as soon as he had us sit down at the table I heard the words (amid a realistic cheering crowd): 

"Shantel Peaden - Come on down!" 

I was quickly followed by Melissa and Blake and the three of us contestants sat on the couch and were given the chance to bid on our first items, which were a garden trowel and gardening gloves (both of which I asked for, for my birthday). David was speaking in the best game show host voice, complete with written script, and it was awesome. He had prepped Melissa and Blake with dollar amount answers so that I was sure to come close to the actual retail price. Because I "won" I got to come up "on stage" to compete in The Grocery Game.

(At this point, I realized that this was going to be awesome and so I grabbed my camera and handed it to Melissa. Pictures start from here on.) 

David instructed me that there were five grocery items (five of my favorite treats) and I had to organize them using as many as I needed of each item in order to hit between $19 and $21. I masterfully gave my answer (with only a little help) and won a prize! (Blake was the tally keeper for how much I spent.) It helped that these are my favorite treats that I always ogle while I'm grocery shopping and after looking at the price, usually end up passing on. So I knew pretty close to exactly how much everything was. David knew that so he bought tortilla chips that I never buy and he bought the large can of Salsa Con Queso.

We were all having so much fun. It was so well put together. My prize for winning The Grocery Game? New Yellow dish towels! 

Yay! Lets also take a moment to admire my pretty yellow cardigan. I found it while shopping the other day and knew that I needed it. I called my mom right after I left the store and told her about the pretty purchase that I had just made, followed by the question "Do you want to give it to me for my birthday?" Haha. I just loved it so much. (You can also see the new yellow pillow on our chaise. Unpictured are our new yellow-striped curtains. Update on that later this week.) I think it's safe to say yellow is my new favorite color. 

After I won my prize, Melissa and Blake competed for a box of Mike and Ike's (also complete with clever game-show-host introduction). Melissa was closer to the actual retail price and so she got to compete for... A NEW CAR! (Which apparently was one of our cars - so I'm sure glad that she didn't win.) She had to organize four digits to get closest to the actual retail price of our car. 

We used dice to "Spin the Wheel" and whoever was closest to 12 without going over got to go to the showcase showdown! Melissa and I came out on top - and David explained: "Each of you will have a beautiful showcase to bid on. Whoever is the closest without going over will win their showcase. If you come within $5 of the actual retail price of your showcase, you will win both showcases." I was first up and got to unwrap four presents to discover my showcase. 

My showcase consisted of a beautiful mirror, a pretty navy shirt, yellow earrings (that just happened to match my cardigan perfectly... I may or may not have pointed them out at the store with the statement "I have a birthday coming up" and hoped he picked up the hint), and a day-trip to historic Logan, UT - complete with Aggie Ice Cream, Mini Gold at Willow Creek, and dinner at the restaurant of my choice (probably Formosa - it's my favorite!).  I was so surprised and excited! I guessed $80.58 (which in of itself is significantly more than our birthday budget.)  

Melissa learned about her showcase package - A close-to-home party extravaganza complete with mini-golf, dinner, and tickets to Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters at the Megaplex theatre. David prepped Melissa to bid over $80 - so under the pressure, she also bid $80.58. 

Because Melissa went over, I was closest to the actual retail price - which meant that I won my showcase. Even though I was $25 off (actual retail value is significantly different than how much we would spend), David informed me that I had performed so well that I won both showcases and that I could choose which one I wanted to do the following day.

It was such a creative and fun thing for my birthday. I'm so grateful for David and how much he cares about me and my birthday. I can't believe the preparation that went into making this special adventure/game. Funny story: the night before I was sitting at the computer and he was sitting on the couch "watching sports" on his computer. At one point I turned and asked him if he was watching the Price is Right. He looked at me like I was crazy and said that no, he was listening to a sports podcast. I laughed and told him that it sounded like the price is right and thought about how funny it was that my brain interpreted the small amount of noise coming from his headphones as the Price is Right music. Clever boy. 

The next day, I decided to select the Lehi Prize Package because it was Stake Conference and we wanted to be able to attend the Adult session that night. We got up and headed to Ihop for breakfast. (Thank you Ihop for the free birthday entree!) Ihop is located right across from the Les Shwab in American Fork and they just happened to have a giant blow up polar bear outside of their store. Lydia loved it. She saw it as we walked up, and then all during breakfast she kept pointing to it out of the window (which was slightly awkward as the people sitting by the window thought she was pointing at them). When we left, we decided to snap a picture. The picture doesn't do the size justice. It was huge.

After breakfast we headed to Orem to try out their mini-golf course. (The only thing that I told David that I really wanted to do for my birthday was to go mini-golfing.) It was probably the most fun time minigolfing that we've ever had. David got several holes-in-one and I made a couple of cool trick shots (like the one below where I hit from the grass straight into the hole. Lydia was a champ and hung out in her stroller. She was pretty content to play with her golf ball and eat her cheerios. I'm sad that I didn't get a picture of David, we were just having too much fun that I forgot until it was too late.  

We came home to put Lydia down for her nap, cleaned out my car (I had been case-lot shopping the day before and the car was full of cans of corn, tomatoes, beans, and peaches), and did a few other things on my "to-do" list before dropping Lydia off at David's parents house and heading to dinner. We decided to try out the new Thai place by our house Thai Drift Swift. I got a chicken curry and David got a chicken pad thai. They were both... fine. But, it was our first time having Thai food and neither of us loved it. (Which was fine because we were doing it for the experience and it was actually super-cheap.) We dumped our trays on the way out and headed over to the Del Taco to pick up a few 50 cent tacos. It was perfect. We ate them in the parking lot of our Stake Center and made it into the adult session with a good 3 minutes to spare. After Stake conference we headed to the movie theater (with a quick pit stop at home to change out of our Sunday clothes and then another quick pit stop home after we bought our tickets so I could put in my contacts.) I read a summary of the first movie on our way over because it had been so long since we'd seen it. (We watched Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.) It ended up being really good. It may just have been that we haven't been to a real theatre in over a year (16 months - that's how old Lydia is), it had been some time since we'd had a sans-baby date, and we were still on a happy-high from having such a great day - but I had a seriously great time. (Whoever invented reclining seats and arm rests that pull up so you can cuddle is a genius!)

It was a fabulous birthday celebration. The only thing that could have made it even a tiny bit better would be to have been able to go to the temple together. It was the perfect birthday for me and I feel so lucky to have been able to share it with this man. I love him. 

My Birthday

Today is my birthday.

I love my birthday, and I'm grateful for such a wonderful husband who makes such a huge effort to make the day special for me. We spent the whole weekend celebrating. Friday night, David invited Melissa and Blake up for a little surprise birthday party for me. He had prepared a big production of Price is Right where Melissa and Blake were my fellow contestants and I was able to "win" all of my presents. It was SO so fun. (I have pictures and am going to post more details about that later.) Then on Saturday we went to breakfast at iHop, went mini-golfing at Trafalga, went out to dinner at Thai Drift Swift, went to the adult session of Stake Conference, and finished out the night by going to Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters at the Megaplex in Thanksgiving Point. It was a wonderful day.

I was able to spend today with my parents, my sister Melissa (and Blake), and my brother Jacob. It was so nice and I was spoiled by the very thoughtful gifts and kind expressions. (I also got cards in the mail from my Walker grandparents, my Knowles grandparents, and my brother Elder Matthew Walker. I love getting mail!)

I've been thinking a lot about where I am in life right now and where I want to be in the next year. Here are some of the goals that I want to accomplish in the next year.

- Read my scriptures every night, both personal scriptures and with David.

-Go to the temple every month. No more excuses.

-Have another baby. (We've been ready for a little brother or sister for Lydia for quite some time now, but are learning the lesson of patience and God's timing all over again.)

-Vacuum my house more often.

-Be more active with Lydia. Finding things to do outside of our house and making an effort to expose her to those things.

Here are some other goals that I've been working on: (Taken from my 2013 new years resolutions.)

-Focus on seeing the needs of people around me and then working to fill those needs. This goes hand in hand with continuing to develop an attitude of Charity.

- Work hard to meet new people in our new ward/neighborhood. Be friendly, social, inviting, and inclusive. (Along with this: Strive to fulfill my calling the the very fullest.)

- Continue to grow as a mother and wife. Focus on Lydia and David and finding the things I can do to bless their lives the most. Three things that go under this category: -More quality time (Stop letting other distractions get in the way.), -Healthier eating options , and -Maintain a positive attitude about myself and others.

I know that there are a ton of goals in this list. But I see a bright future in this coming year. I think that 26 is going to be great. In fact, it may just be my best year yet!