Mmmm... Burgers...

I have to say, I had quite the birthday extravaganza. I turned the ripe old age of 24. Gabe was so sweet and made my birthday really into a birthday season. I couldn't have picked a better way to spend my birthday night than with my cute husband and a burger. I would honestly eat a hamburger everyday for the rest of my life. Problem is that I prefer not to weigh 400 lbs. But oh boy... we found quite the burger joint for my birthday. The Counter, my new favorite "Posh hamburger". Yes, I have different kinds of favorite hamburgers, ie: "Favorite fast food burger": Apollo, "Favorite restaurant burger": Fuddruckers, "Favorite classic burger": Hires, and "Favorite native to Cali burger": In 'n Out... Just to name a few. Anywho... Check out this burger... Happy Birthday to me!

Loving it...

My cutie pie.... and check out his burger... about the size of a small teenager's head.

Thank you to all who made my birthday so special. The cards, the phone calls, the FB posts, and the gifts. Wow. I felt like a rock star! Thank you, Thank you.

I'm going to continue growing old now...

DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

Warning.... another long one.... but pretty cool stuff.

Wow. This post has been a long time coming. At this point, I still can't believe this is all really happening. This is for those of you who don't know... I'm pretty sure all of you that actually read our blog already know... Now I'm rambling... I'm just going to cut to the chase.... 2 things most super duper exciting...

1. In just 4 short years this handsome guy....

will be known as

Dr. Gabriel Valenzuela

That's right... Gabe got into Med School!!!! Which leads me to #2 on the list...

2. We bought a house and we are moving!

That is right! We are moving to Phoenix Arizona!

And here goes the Story:

When I first met Gabe, he was just finishing up his two degrees at the University of Utah. He had taken the MCAT and started to apply to Medical Schools. In the midst of all that, he was offered and awesome job for Anvil Intl. And we decided to jump on it. We moved our bum cheeks to California and have been loving life. Except that Gabe knew his passion was else where. About last September Gabe starting playing around with the idea of going back to school. One night he called me from an out of town business trip and said, "I'm going to apply to podiatry school." So we got to work. What a project that was. Thank heavens he had already started on the applications a year before... or we would still be filling things out. But alas the application was done and off. And then began the waiting game. Many of you know exactly what I am talking about. Well luckily it didn't last too long before we started to hear from schools. He was offered interviews to every podiatry school. Everyone wanted to meet and interview Gabe... (What a stud I married!) Off to interviews he went...

He visited New York (where he got us those awesome shirts), Pennsylvania, Pomona California, Oakland California and got accepted to every school! (Again... Stud right?) But Arizona was very first on our list. First and foremost, AZ has an awesome podiatry program. It is also pretty close to family, and you can't beat the heat. We are definitely sun bums. But Arizona hadn't called yet. We kept waiting and waiting (impatiently, might I add...) When finally, it CAME!!! The letter came to congratulate Gabe on being accepted to Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona!

We were ecstatic! We only told our family and friends because we were both still working and wanted to keep our jobs until we moved. That was a long time to not talk about all of our adventurous plans! And I was just bursting at the seams to tell everyone about my amazing husband. But we kept working... and on the weekends we began visiting Arizona to look for a place to live... We had been saving every penny in California, thinking that if we were ever going to get into a house in Cali (which seems impossible with the outrageous prices here...) we would need to save, save, save. Well, it paid off. The home prices in Arizona are so awesome right now that we decided to try and buy. And so our house hunting began. Yes, our many random trips to Arizona actually had some purpose behind them. But along the way... We had some fun.

We saw the Mesa Temple lights with Gabe's friend Kreig and his cute wife Britany. Kreig is also going to Podiatry school... only in California (Darn it, we're switching places! I would have loved it if we could have been in the same place!) They then introduced us to his Dad... Our trusty realtor for the next 6 months.

We spent Valentine's Day looking at houses and enjoy a LOVEly weekend together...

We went down on Easter weekend and enjoyed the amazing Easter Pageant at the temple.

(A new Valenzuela Family tradition)

After a few hours of looking at houses, we soaked up the sun next to the pool...

And we looked at house after house after house to try and find our home. We thought there were a couple that were "ours" but turned out not to be... But then we found it!

And we bought it!

And I absolutely love it and cannot wait to get there!

Here it is... Our new home!

Isn't it darling?! I love it! And I love the palm trees!

This was the first night we looked at it.. Funny story. (maybe on another marathon post) But our realtor showed it to us at 10:45 at night. We knew we had to have it.

Some pics of our home's scenery. Like I said, I love the palm trees. A little piece of Cali.
I've already fallen in love with my flowers. I am a terrible gardener though. Lets hope they stay alive.

And here is a picture of Gabe's new second home:

Midwestern University!

I cannot wait for our new and upcoming adventures. And I cannot say enough how proud I am of my husband. He is such an amazing example to me of hard work and perseverance. I know he is going to do awesome in school and will be an amazing Doctor someday!

Wish us luck!

On June 30th, the sun will rise for us here in California,

And set in Arizona!

We are so excited!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! from the valenzuela's!

Beware: This is a long one, but full of pictures, so go on...

Happy Memorial Day! It was quite a full weekend here at the Valenzuela home. It was one event after another. Wes Graduated from Dental School, My parents and Grandparents came into town, we headed to the beach, and ate some yummy yummy food! And yes, I picture documented the entire thing....

For the memorial day occasion, Gabe brought home some Memorial day flowers. It made my whole week... What a sweetheart!

On the Sunday before Memorial Day, My (Really cool) older brother Wes graduated from Dental School. What an awesome accomplishment. We headed up to Loma Linda for the graduation extravaganza.... We had to fill up on Diet Pepsi to sustain us...

My cute Grammy and Grampa Yates made the trek to Cali for the Event. My Grandpa Yates is also a dentist. He is still practising today and is an amazing dentist. My brother pulled some strings and was able to get my Grandpa in the Cap and Gown to award my brother with his Diploma. I love this picture. Following in his footsteps...

Dental Hands at work...

While saving seats for hours... I was able to snap some good shots with the men of the day.

Doctor Yates D.D.S and Doctor Spencer D.D.S

Wes took on the awesome roll of Class President all 4 years of school. His reward? He spoke at graduation and gave an awesome talk.

I absolutely love this picture! It was right after Weston's name was called and My Grandpa gave him his diploma. I didn't even know I captured such an awesome moment. I was too busy being white trash and screaming Weston's name at the top of my lungs...

During the rest of the two hours of name calling, I entertained myself by snapping photos...

Papa Steve...

Gabby...

My cute grammy and mom...

Colty and Gabe...

Gabe was put in charge of entertaining Colton. I'm glad Colty was there to entertain Gabe.

Hays entertained herself as well...

Congrats Dr. Spencer! You did it!

And of course the awesome family shots after the ceremony...

We're so proud of you Wes! And you too Ash! What a cute family you have! Can't wait to hear about all your upcoming adventures! (Hailey looks so happy in this one. Good thing Mckenna is there to liven things up a bit)

For Memorial Day, My parents headed down to Orange County to spend the day with us. We took them to our favorite part of our backyard...

The Beach!

We spent the day relaxing, throwing the football, reading magazines and people watching the other hundreds of people that had the same awesome beach idea as us. It was such a fun day. We are so lucky to have the beach so close!

Afterwards, we freshened up and took them to our favorite restaurant, Tortilla Flats. You really can't beat it. Eating chips and Salsa and looking out from the patio to beautiful Mission Viejo Lake.

We ate good food and enjoyed good company. We even celebrated my birthday a little early with fried ice cream. My favorite...

Thank you Mom and Dad for coming to visit us! It was so fun! (And too short!) We loved having you down!!!!

And I love this guy!

A lot!

Happy Memorial Day Ya'll!