Healthy in the Twenty Twelve

Remember that little health challenge we did with Miss Alisa last year? I would link you to her fabulush blog, but its private, so just know...its great. :) So my sis in laws and I decided to do it again this year!! The only difference is that we are doing it for only a month at a time.

If you want to get in on the fun, click here. Oh and btw, there might be a word in the name of the blog that some may find offensive.....my apologies if your feelings get hurt, but then again you clicked on it of your own free will.

Happy New Year!!!

2012, doesn't it seem weird to type that? Its going to be 12 years since I graduated from high school...12 years??!!! That's as many years as you spend in grade school, well except for you smarty pants people who skipped grades. It makes me feel old, old and kind of freaked out. I worry that I'll blink my eyes and tomorrow I will be 88 years old and wonder where it all went.

Our day so far has been lovely and very restful. Here in Phoenix we enjoyed cloudless skies and 80 degree temperatures. My doors have been open all afternoon to let in the sounds of birds and the smell of oranges and lemons that are starting to come out on the trees. I am glad though that next week will bring cooler weather. I am definitely not ready to start that climb up to 110+.

I'm sure by now everyone knows about and loves Instagram, (hint I just wrote about it yesteryear). I'm not going to lie, I stalk Instagram like I would probably stalk Facebook if I had an account. Today I found a fabulous idea from Miss James @bluebirdvintage. It is 30 days of photos. Since I have lost my desire to take very many pictures in the past couple of months (too much work, worrying about dust in my lens, the sun goes down early etc) I think this just might be the ticket to make me decide to use my camera again, (yay!!!).

Should be simple enough, right? If you decide to do it on instagram, let me know!!!

My first pictoral below showcasing the bad lighting in my room and my starting-to-grow hair!!! holla!

Familia in Town

Brando and I have been very lucky to have family staying with us for a few days this week. It was perfect to have them here, it seemed super quiet around here after being with family over Christmas. Brando's aunt and uncle and their kids stayed with us after they had been in Nogales visiting an auntie who lives in the hills there.

We have had a fabulush time, they kept commenting on the lovely weather and we were able to get some quality time in the hot tub. Well, we were in the hot tub, the kids were going between the pool and the hot tub. I realize that I am far more acclimated to the Arizona heat, but there's no way you would get going back and forth between that frigid water and the heat of the hot tub.

They also came bearing tamales from Nogales. I have a weak spot for tamales, there's something about them that makes my heart happy. Now, Brando has brought up a few times that we should go visit his aunt in Nogales and each time I have informed him that I enjoy my head connected to my body, thank you very much. But our aunt and uncle assured us that they felt safe and comfortable there and so did their kiddies. After partaking of the divine tamales, I think that I might be persuaded to head down there. Sorry PHX, but you just don't have very good tamales!!!

BTW, Brando and I divorced ourselves from TMobile. Yep, we were willing to be seduced over to Verizon with my mom and little bro....Iphones were calling my name as well as a cellular service that actually works. I think Brandon is in shock, he can't look at an android without lamenting his skype and large screen. For the record, he could have gotten a droid...but homeboy was worried that I would just rave over the iphone and he would be left with his bulky, oversized droid.....the best part of the iphone you ask?? Could it be Siri? Nope. Could it be the sleep design? Nope. It would be Instagram. Holla!!! Come find me on there, my user name is Cancocom. I would love to see what pics you're taking!

Christmas in the UT

We had a lovely time in Utah the past week, I couldn't believe just how fast it went by. I was able to work in the office for a few days, gotta save that PTO yo, and we were able to hit up all sides of the family, whew.

I must say, good ol' Utah has some seriously divine food, we hit up:

*Takashi
*Sawadee
*Nielsen's Frozen Custard
*Piccolo Brothers
*Union Grill
*Ah Sushi
*Cher's (oh yes you can't forget that 2.95 sandwich mecca)

If you add the countless family dinners, well then you know what we spent our time doing....eating.

My two days that I worked I was able to walk around downtown. It was a bit chilly, but this time I came prepared, I had a coat, scarf, mittens and toasty boots. After I manned up it wasn't so bad.

I was able to reconnect with Sadie. Yep, the old gal still remembers me. She gave me her customary friendly morning greeting and subsequent ignoring for the rest of the day.

There are a couple of pictures capturing her true nature, specifically the ones where she is glaring over her shoulder. That cat honestly somehow knows when someone is trying to take her picture and she would rather have none of it.

Christmas day was a whirlwind, but a good one. Christmas morning was with my family and then we went to the Ritchie's for a sausage and bacon-filled breakfast and gift opening. We didn't attend church with the familias, but instead hit up each other's family while the other one was in church.

We were able to do our customary turkey dinner with Grandpa Hatch. We missed Grandma terribly but were able to facetime with her...go Grandma!! I have to put a plug in for her, she knew Apple was da bomb back in the 90's when they had a mac computer. No wonder why she was able to adopt the Ipad and Iphone so easily.

After that dinner we went to the Tauki'uvea's for another dinner and present opening. We were super lucky this year that Brando's grandparents from Heber came down for the weekend. I got to play with our new niece, Olive. The last time I saw her she was a brand new baby and now she's a giggling machine who does Michael Jackson moves....see below.

I'm thinking that I will save this for her to use as blackmail against her father one day when she's a teenager. "Remember Dad when all I wanted to do was enjoy being a 4 month old and you wanted me to dance and entertain everyone?"

She is a super cute, smiley baby that I didn't want to put down while we were there.

The best part about our time in the UT was spending it with family. Technology allows me to feel pretty connected to my familia for the most part, but it was great to spend some face time with them. I was able to ride to work with my dad each morning and chit chat with him, hang out with my mom and catch up with her and also get some one on one time with my little bro's. I didn't get any pictures of Thor, but believe me, we spent a night chilling with him. Chilling with Thor entails running around the house chasing him, playing with his chew toys and escaping his farts...seriously, that dog may have a flatulence problem.


We miss everyone terribly already and are trying to bribe everyone to come down and go to Mexico with us in the new year.

Day of the Dead

For Halloween, the Desert Botanical Society had a Day of the Dead parade at the botanical gardens just outside of Scottsdale. I have been drooling to go, who wouldn't want to spend a day with natural flora and fauna in the desert?

The parade was a lot of fun, although it was a bit chaotic. People did not care if they walked right in front of you and your camera, darn it they were going to get their picture!!!

The parade lasted about 15 minutes and had people dressed up in masks and had their faces painted.

I thought these masked demons were the best part. They danced and danced and danced around everyone else in the parade.

I felt a bit sheepish once we got there and weren't dressed up like 90% of the people there.

After the parade we got to wander through the "garden", there were all sorts of cactus there. I could have stayed for hours, unfortunately the place closes at dark so I couldn't linger any longer.

We had a great time, it was a wonderful way to spend Halloween.

I am a little late in posting this, but I am finally getting around to some pics from our trip to Thriller. It was our 3rd year in a row and those crazy kids of Odyssey Dance Theater did not disappoint! Thriller is one of my favorite things, I look forward to it all year. Now that we live out of the state, it makes it even more exciting to me that we get to see family when we go. Its the perfect combination.

Most of these pics are of my little brother, the kid loves to pose.

A very thought provoking pose, I'm sure he was contemplating just how he was going to handle the ghouls not too far inside.

Yep, that's right.

This is Dad's "go-to" pose every time, an oldie but goodie.

Scarebear was a trooper, he spent the day golfing with Brando and my dad, who are serious golfers. I think he was super happy that Bill (my father in law) was there with us so the two of them could be the novices together.

My cute little mom and I, I think we are probably the most excited people about Thriller out of the group...we're the ones that keep the Halloween spirit alive.

I started getting a little bit nervous when the dancers weren't coming out before the show. Luckily they started showing up, a little late was better than never. Brando and I were so happy that his parents joined us this year, we were able to make it a big family trip.

We had a great time, as usual the weekend was over far too quickly. Brandon and I were extremely grateful to spend time with our family.

I promise to post very soon the pictures from our adventures at Thriller, however, the weather is too fabulous today. We're having "second Spring" aka Fall down here in Arizona. It is 83 degrees and I feel like I just came out of winter (except it was a winter where 110+ degree days were normal.)

Instead I will leave you with a picture of some cholla.

Have a wonderfully scary Halloween weekend! I will be enjoying myself at a play, called what else? Dracula. :)