Let's Recap....

I think I'll do this at the end of every month, because I am too antsy of a person to wait until the very end to do this....

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 3:

Week 4: Week 5:

Week 6:

I know there wasn't much change with our lot, but it's fun to see how everything around our lot has changed in the last 6 weeks.... Just imagine how cool next month is going to look :)

January 31, 2010: Week 6

I'm so happy to finally have some different pictures to show! They're definitely going to town on Ms. Amber :)

They have so much stuff in the yard... I almost squealed when I saw this.... yup, anything pink especially in a construction zone is wonderful :) I hope they keep that round thing in the middle pink!

Just because I thought it was cool to have John Deere flags all over the place...

Here is all the piping we were lucky to not have prior to the storm...

It was so exciting to walk around to find the layout of everything!

Here is our backyard... This is the first time we had really got to see the size of it. Our particular lot requires our house to be more towards the front, which makes our backyard bigger. It's still pretty small, but that just means less grass for Chris to mow :)

Hopefully we'll see framing soon!

January 24, 2010: Week 5

Oops! Forgot to post week five of Ms. Amber.... Because of all the rain we had, it felt like we took a step backwards, but luckily that wasn't the case. Chris just had a construction meeting and they had told him because they had not put in the piping yet, we would stay on schedule... The homes that did have their piping were ruined and they basically had to start from scratch. Lucky us!

May 21st is the tentative closing date.... As long as it's before the wedding, I don't care!!!

My Flower Girl

I was so excited today to finally be able to ask cute little Kayla to be my flower girl!! Just in case, I wanted to have something for her so she couldn't say no :)

Skittles, Starbursts, M&M's, Ring Pop, and some other fun stuff along with a rhinestoned basket... I think I'm good!

Thank goodness she said yes :) The fun thing is that my cousin Jessica (Kayla's mom) was my Mom's flower girl in her wedding, and now Jessica's daughter is my flower girl! Isn't that awesome! Hopefully we can keep the tradition alive!

Thank you Kayla! You are going to be the most wonderful flower girl :)

Flowers and Bridesmaids...

I was so happy to get some important wedding stuff done yesterday. The first stop was the florist in the morning with Chris. This lady was amazing! She had so many great ideas for the wedding and she had the prettiest shop. When we had finished, she had let us take some of the flowers home because she wanted us to bond with them :)

Then I had a date with all the girls. We all fit into my tiny car to go order bridesmaid dresses... We missed you Jess!

It was pretty fun trying to fit all five of us girls in the dressing room to try on different dresses :)

You definitely can't tell, but all the girls were holding each others dress's in the back because they were all at least a size 12....

Afterwards, we all went to Lindsey's house to have girl time and watch Miss America! This is Lindsey trying on my ring and taking a picture of it to put on Facebook... lol... I really hope she does it...

She also busted out a princess game that had rings for game pieces... I didn't need one because I already had one of my own :)

I love these girls and I am so grateful that they are just as excited about the big day as much as I am! I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone else :)

Rain, Rain, Rain.....

This post is coming a little late, but a couple of weeks ago, we had soooo much rain! I think we may have hit our rainfall goal for the year which typically doesn't happen in Arizona.

There was so much rain, they had to drain Tempe town Lake. The lake was designed to act as a pass-through for river water during storms. From what I read, they basically release water from lake down the Salt River Channel so new floodwater is allowed to flow through the lake. I live right on the lake, and it is one of the things I am going to miss the most when I move.... Seeing how they've only done this 3 times in the past 3 years, I had to go see it. So right after work I took my camera and went to take pictures...

You can see the water line on the wall where the water usually is... I had no idea that this lake is not very deep at all....

This storm was incredible.... Can you tell we don't get this much?

You can't really see it in the pictures that I took, but there were oil bins, crates, ice chests, tires, and so many other things hanging out at the bottom of this lake... But I was incredibly sad to see this... dead baby fish :(

but don't worry, some of them made it :)

There was a GINORMOUS (is this word in the dictionary? If not it needs to be....) fish that was caught in the part of the lake that must have had a really deep part. It didn't make it out so it was trapped... You can kind of see it in this picture.

I wouldn't normally say this, but hopefully we don't get much more rain for the next few months. I would like to move in to a nice brand new house without any delays :)

January 17, 2010: Week 4

Rip and Soak!!

Yes! We finally have some action going on at Amber Lane!

This part of the construction is called the "Rip and Soak" Phase.... hey, it's better than nothing!

Our neighbor's house is to the left, and we are on the right... looks like they are about a week ahead of us.

They had piles and piles of wood next to our lot... so I'm just going to say that it's ours!

This means in the next few weeks we should see some framing going up! It's crazy to think that in just a couple of weeks, this dirt is never going to see the light of day again...

Bridal Party

When we went to the grocery store this morning, the headlines on the Arizona Republic read "All Saints Day".... yes, our Cardinals suffered a horrible defeat. This is one of the most painful games I've ever been forced to watch, but the good news was that all of our "couples" friends were with us to share the pain :)

Because it can be a bit hard to get everyone together, Chris and I wanted to take full advantage of the gathering to ask our friends to be in our bridal party. I spent the past week making these super cute cards for everyone... I refuse to buy something (like a card) when I know I can make it look 10 times better. Nope, I don't think Hallmark carries these cards...

As a side note, I sent off a couple of the cards already to Georgia for two very special people :)

Since the Cards were doing terrible, and I was beyond anxious anyways, I decided to ask the girls at half time... and thank goodness they were super excited and said yes!

I may be biased, but I have the prettiest bridesmaids!!

I was too scared to ask the guys for a picture (they were not happy), but I did get one of Chris's "Co" best man, Nick

Here is a picture of the entire group when we volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House

From left to right is Nicole, Aaron, Lindsey, Anthony, Nick (Chris's "Co" Best man), Jessica, Chris, and me. In addition, I will have my sister Monique (who will be my Maid of Honor), and Chris's Sister, Jessica (who I haven't gotten a official yes from yet because her card is still in the mail, but I'm not too worried :) ). Chris will have his brother Mike (who is Chris's other "Co" Best Man), and my brother AJ.

We're very honored and excited to have this group with us on our special day :)

Januray 10, 2010: Week 3

So, we were almost excited when driving around the corner to see our house... but it turns out they had broken ground on our neighbors house, and not ours :( She still looks good though :)

Looks like the house behind us got a nice new coat of paint too :)

Hopefully next week we'll see something.... In other news, I've been a busy bee putting together save the dates.

They've been a lot of fun to make.. So much fun in fact, that Mr.Fiance tends to do this sometimes:

Yes, he takes naps on the floor because I have everything layed out on the couch :) More updates to come soon!

Arizona Bridal Expo

Today, Chris, my mom, sister and I went to the Arizona Bridal Expo. It started out with a fashion show, then we went and visited all the vendors. It was crazy busy full of brides, but it was nice to know I was in good company! I actually ran in to a childhood friend who I haven't seen in years, and she and her sister are getting married :)

It was really a great day for all of us. Chris got a great deal on tuxes for himself and his brides men, we were able to set up appointments with local florists and caterers, and overall just got a lot of wonderful ideas..... everything was so pretty!

I am pretty much determined to have my bouquet look like this....

This is my sister practicing her maid of honor smile :)

This is some random person not practicing her maid of honor smile....

us with our mamma....

My lovely fiance.... he was so wonderful and helpful by holding all the heavy stuff in a bag....


Us in 5 months....


It was so much fun, and I was so happy to be with my little group :)

January 3, 2010: Week 2

Last Sunday we went to go see our house and sign off on all of our upgrades. Chris and I decided we will be stopping by the house every Sunday from now until the time she is done to take pictures. This is mostly for journaling purposes, but one day when we put a big book together, it will be fund to remember her progress. Still no foundation (and that probably won't happen for another week and a half to two weeks), but we now have a sign saying "Sold" :)

Also, here is a picture of the lot.... again... no changes, but notice the house in the background that had no framing the week before and now it has suddenly appeared.... that was fast!

I can't even imagine how excited we're going to be when we actually see something but dirt :)