Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We had our second annual Jones Cousin Cinco de Mayo party tonight, which consisted of cousin fun and tons of DELICIOUS food.

Sara and I dressed up. Obviously.

Yes yes, we are an endless source of class. Try not to be too hard on yourself, we know that we command attention. However, both Philip and Jason wondered tonight why their wives insist on being as ugly as possible. Because remember last year?

We kind of thrive on this kind of thing, and I'm not going to lie, I can't stop laughing when I get a good look at our faces in the first picture. We are serious cholos. We are already sharpening our eyebrow pencils for next year. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Things I love/am grateful for/am thinking about.

• Philip

I seriously can't get enough of him. Today when I visited him at work he said to me, "We need time off together." It made me so happy to know that he misses me like I do him when we work such different schedules. We then realized the next time we have off together is three weeks from now. Ugh, I'm tired of being busy.

• Work

We have jobs. Hallelujah. Over the past several months my employment has been uncertain and ever changing, which I kind of wasn't planning on. However, due to the fact that I have fantastic friends and family in the dental field, I have had people looking out for me and consequently, more work than I would have expected! Seriously, never have I been so grateful for my job and education, and especially my dad and sister, Sara, who both have been instrumental in me working so much. So I now work like a mad woman, and am grateful for every second of it.

• Our bikes.

We finally went on a bike ride recently and it was the highlight of my month. Arizona evenings in March and April provide the most delightful sunsets and perfect temperatures.

• That these two things are together on my counter.

Why wouldn't my pruning shears be next to a fancy punch bowl? This pretty much sums up recent events at my house though. Constant yard work and several fun parties. Both of which I have an endless love for.

• Salsa Cabana

I had dinner for uno tonight from my new favorite Mexican. If you haven't tried Salsa Cabana on Greenfield and Brown, try it. The above burrito was $4.70 (thanks to my 15% off preferred customer card), and it was heaven on earth. They are delicious and cheap and will bring you chips and salsa while you wait.

• Scraping my plate.

So after my burrito, I scraped what was left on my plate into the garbage. You probably wouldn't get why this was normal unless, like us, you grew up without a garbage disposal and a dishwasher. So after dinner my mom would tell us to "scrape our plate" into the trash (or if it was cereal or soup, you went and dumped it in the toilet), before putting it in the sink. Anyway, I did that tonight without thinking about it, and then it made me laugh.

• This outfit.

Nothin' says summer like my dude shorts and a groundhog shirt. And since Philip is working late, this is how I dress up for a Friday night.

• Classy candy.

My visiting teachers dropped this by. Apparently they know my love for all things fruity and chewy, bless them. And when you think sour candy, you automatically make a trip to See's right? My ward and neighborhood is classy, and I've got a long way to go.

• My green-ish thumb.

I'm pleased to announce that these little lovers are still alive, my roses are thriving, in fact they are blooming like crazy, I have two tomatoes on my plants and my zucchini are starting to get the yellow flower deals. I go outside to either water or just look lovingly at my plants at least twice a day. Just one more reason I love my house and being a home owner.

• My bugman.

DeRay of Harold's Exterminating came yesterday. Oh my word that man is the nicest on the planet, and always says nice things about our house, even though there is always at least one room that didn't quite get cleaned, and he's probably thinking that if we cleaned it we might not have bugs. He also calms my nerves about cockroaches and is more than willing to also spray our playhouse/swing set so that I feel good about letting kids play on it. And he's pretty dang cheap. Bonus.

• Alright, enough's enough. I need to work on my lesson for Sunday, especially since I didn't work on it last night because I took a nap in my bed at 7 pm, and woke up just minutes before Philip got home at 10:25. No regrets though, it was delightful. Happy almost May!

Party at our house - Part 2!

Are you ready for another party at our house?! When we were looking at houses, there were several that were really nice, that we really liked, that were similar sizes and whatnot, but when we saw ours, I loved that it had a huge family room. And I mean huge, like 17 x 33 feet, which just might be bigger than our condo. And thank goodness because have you met our families? Lots of us and we require a lot of space. And this is what it looked like when we saw it:

Yowza, that's a lot of red. No thanks.

And those curtains? It's not that they weren't done well, because everything in the house was impeccably made, but that dark red floral just wasn't doing anything for me. So before we even moved in, we took down all curtains and floral, and painted some light, airy, happy colors.

In comes the blue! It was an instant and welcome change. And then, I made the best decision that I've made since marrying Philip, and that is hiring Erica to decorate for me. Not even joking, she is heaven sent. She did such a fantastic job shopping for me and figuring out how to make our monster of a room not just look like an empty dance floor. And the poor thing, I pretty much wore her out and she might have sworn off designing for clients forever, but I couldn't be happier with the result. So here it is! Trying to give you a 360 degree view:

And this was taken from the fire place:

Erica and her mom, Michelle, were great at incorporating the things I already had with new finds and rearranging everything to fit perfectly together. And we owe almost all of the credit for new things to Home Goods and Ikea.

We are suckers for old books, so we already had all of those.

I love that she even added tiny sentimental details. One day I got a text from her asking what my anniversary was, reason being that she wanted the little balls in this bowl to have our anniversary date and AZ in it. How darling is that? Love love love it.

This might be one of my favorite parts of the room. I saw this temple picture and fell in love with it months ago but it had a hefty price tag of $300 and I didn't even have a house to put it in. Fast forward 9 months, I asked about it at Deseret Book, they had no idea what I was talking about, but then a miraculous chain of events took place and they found one for me! And better yet, it only cost $75 which included the frame! I was thrilled. But on a side note, Philip refers to it as, "The picture of the orange tree with the building behind it." Is that a Philip statement or what? Clearly he doesn't love it like I do.

And this darling little table was an Ikea find by Erica, in the As Is section, even though it is practically perfect! She was a warrior and practically fought off vultures while she waited for my text back giving her the okay.

Oh the art wall. Ohhhh, how I love this wall. When Erica first emailed me the mock up of this, I said something along the lines of, "I don't care how much that gray picture costs, I want it." To which she replied, "Hold on to your pants, because it is a sheet of wrapping paper, and it is $4.50." And that is why I love Erica, she's ridiculously resourceful. And I love the canvas of the tree, and the custom art with lyrics to our favorite song, and the frame and the green square...oh I love it all.

We had big plans of redoing the mantle and the sliding door, and even got a quote on it, but then our pool pump had to be replaced and rrrg, life just gets expensive, so that will have to wait a while longer. So we are making do for the time being.

I love that our tiny bird candle is perched on a book with a tree on it. Nerdy I know, but but still kinda cute, eh? Once again, she used almost all stuff that I already had, but got new filler for the jars and that lovely candle stick.

And another tiny but perfect detail, this tiny little nest in the jar! Absolute perfection!

And just a little something to spruce up the TV stand.

The whole thing came together so perfectly, I can't get enough of it. The only unfortunate thing is that I truly can't take credit for any of it! Erica was fantastic, and I cannot sing her praises enough! If it were up to me, the room would still be completely bare, and she was a champ at getting things done! I still need to make a few pillow covers to add more to the window seat and the couch, but based on how quickly I get things done, I'll show you the finished product in about 2012. Poor Erica, still waiting on me to follow through with the one assignment I was given. :) And that is it! She also helped with my kitchen, however, it was dirty when I was taking pictures, so we'll get to that another day. But have I said before how much I love our house? Because I do! It is so perfect for parties and showers (we've already hosted several!) and that is exactly what I wanted! It has tons of space in all the right places, which is perfect for us. Happy house guys! Come to a party at our house!

Louisiana 2011!

A couple weeks ago Philip and I went to Louisiana, because well why not? Philip's sister, Tammie, her husband Ryan, and their adorable family live in Lafayette, and we happen to really like Mardi Gras, so we decided to combine the two with a little vacation! Our first day/night there started with Po' Boys, then a concert put on by are adorable nephews. Ben was a little slow to warm up to us, but as soon as his clothes came off and the guitar went on, he was in his element.

Payton just started playing the trombone this year and is amazingly good so far.

And Jack, who is on the right in the picture, entertained us with his sweet dance moves.

Then Ben really warmed up to Philip and acted like a kitty crawling all over him.

It was pretty much the most adorable thing I've seen in my life.

And one more, because it is impossible not to fall in love with this child.

Our second day, we woke up early and went to a restaurant where they have an in house zydeco band and people get up and dance around and whatnot. Unfortunately, the line was crazy long with it being the weekend before Mardi Gras, so after 20 minutes of not moving and being starving, we went and picked up our King Cake and ate that instead. And if you haven't had King Cake before, your life is not yet complete.

And I'm glad that we were inside because the light rain that we had on our drive home turned into this ridiculous downpour. I was completely blown away by it all! Seriously, I think that in all my 26 years, I've never seen so much rain.

When the rain finally let up, we went to Lake Martin, which is surrounded by swampy marsh land, and they even have a rookery! Just like an owlery on Harry Potter!

There's a crocodile! See it's tiny head in the picture below? I was amazed that Ryan could spot that from the car!

Then they have a little board walk where you can walk out and get a closer look at everything, which was super cool.

And Ryan spotted another crocodile! This one was right beneath the walk way, so like three feet away from us! And then Ryan kind of liked to harass me and threw a stick at it while I imagined it jumping out of the water at me.

Swamp!

See the stick! That's the one Ryan threw, and though I was kind of freaking out, the crocodile didn't seem to mind.

More swampness!

That night had crawfish for dinner, because that's what you do in Louisiana! Raaaah! This one wants to eat you! Too bad we were eating it instead!

You just pull them apart, like so...

Not even joking, they were alright. Tammie got a video of me eating it for the first time, which is about the most awkward looking thing on the planet, and kind of hilarious at the same time. And look at our dead and eaten friends. I was pleased with myself for eating several.

The next day we went to a couple of plantations, both of which were beautiful, and based on the picture below, I'll give you two guesses on whether or not it was cold. :)

This first one was Nottoway Plantation, and it was pretty, but the tour and tour guide was meh. The red beans and rice that they served us for lunch though was delicious.

This porch overlooks the Mississippi River, which I think would be quite a dreamy landscape to get to look out on.

We then ventured a little further to Oak Alley, which was incredible! These oak trees that lead up to the house are referred to as the "Baby Oaks" because they are only 150 years old. What the what?! It was breathtaking.

Out of all of Philip's 7 sisters, I think that he and Tammie look most alike with their adorable dimples and are very very similar personality wise. It was so much fun to hang out with her, and to get to see them interact together. They are twinners, for sure.

I was a little obsessed with these oak trees. These front ones were 300 years old! Remind me next time I travel back in time to plant oak trees in Arizona. The only thing we have here that are that old are saguaros, and it's not like you're ever all, "Wow, look at how many arms that saguaro has." Ugh, I would trade all our saguaros for just like three oak trees any day.

Look at us being all tiny on this huge tree! I was totally imagining the tree people on LOTR, because I'm super cool like that.

Excuse me while I look 5 months pregnant.

I love them.

Can you even believe this?! So pretty I wanted to die.

The next day, we started out with a trip to the Tobasco factory, which Jack had been talking about all week!

It was there that we first tried Boudan too. Basically it is sausage and rice in a casing, and is super super weird to eat. But look how classy I am, pinkies up and all.

Kinda weird, and the first ones we had at the Tobasco factory were kinda gross. But later, Ryan got us some boudan balls, which are the same ingredients, minus the casing but battered and deep fried. Way better that way.

We then went to the Rip van Winkle house and garden, and it was super cool and super pretty and had a really cool history to it.

Isn't Jack such a handsome boy?

And Payton too?

Lol, I know this next picture is awful, but we were laughing so hard because we had Jack take it, and as soon as he got the camera, he walked up like two inches in front of us, then we told him to scoot back and he instantly asked where the zoom was. So here we are, super close and laughing hard.

Oh these boys, could they be more adorable?

More oak tree love. And the moss hanging from it? Love love love.

Okay, it isn't a masterpiece, but you would not believe how impossible it is to get a good picture of the three of these boys, and I was thrilled with this picture.

While we were there, we decided to buy this house. Isn't it lovely? Would you like to come visit us? If you come, you have to mow the lawn.

And then we stumbled upon a peacock! Proud like a peacock baby! Very proud.

And another one! All in all we counted about 15 that were just sauntering about.

Ben was clearly concerned that the peacocks would be "houd".

I might have been thrilled with this shot, what with them flanking the fountain? I think I'll take two peacocks to go please.

And then that night the Mardi Gras festivities began! Now let me give the disclaimer that we were in Lafayette, which is the family friendly version of Mardi Gras. No shenanigans like in New Orleans, very kid friendly. Just so we're all on the same page now.

These high school bands and their dancers seriously get down. Yet another thing you just don't see in Arizona.

Beads!

Ben was pretty much a magnet for the bead throwers, and he also got all sorts of stuffed animals and prizes! Who could deny that face?

This picture is another that I know is kind of awful, thanks to my creepy hand and Ryan trying to have Ben look at the camera, but for the sake of having a group shot, here we are.

Philip was particular with his beads and only wanted certain colors. I, on the other hand, was a bead whore, and got as many as possible, and would wear whatever was thrown my way.

Mardi Gras day started out overcast and rainy, but that didn't keep us and everyone else in Louisiana from enjoying the parades.

Group shot once again. These were our winnings after the first parade, decent, but not fantastic.

Once again, Philip was picky and I was not. I did start to get specific though and yell to the floats, "Throw me the big ones!" At which point I got asked to shimmy, which rest assured, just did not happen.

Before the next parade would start, we would take off all our beads and start fresh, and then the cops would start the next parade off by doing tricks and giving the kids high fives.

Those dimples got him a lot of beads.

And you would not believe the arguments that would take place later over that stinkin' foam sword. Gotta love a house full of boys. :)

The second parade was a bust, and we were kinda pissed about it, but the third one was just a bunch of drunkards that played loud music and wanted us to dance. And dance we did.

And at the end of the day and after all of the festivities, we had an entire carry on luggage bag full of beads to bring home to Arizona, and enough to bury poor Payton alive.

And that is it! It was such a fun trip, I loved spending time with Tammie and Ryan and their boys and getting to relax and see such fun things. I mean, come on, how many people get to say they've been to Mardi Gras?! Or to the Tabasco Factory? I have been! It was absolutely fantastic, and I can't wait until we go again!