A Utah Autumn...

A couple weekends ago, Gabe had a big career conference in California. I was planning on going with him, but after reading his insane schedule (up at 5 am... gone till past midnight...), I decided to pack up Tex and I and head to Utah. The two of us made the 11 1/2 hour drive, listening to old Tim Mcgraw and Faith Hill CD's and trying not to stop every 12 minutes to pee. Thank you baby in my belly :) It was worth the drive though! I got to spend a fun weekend with the fam! We jam packed the weekend full of yummy food, the new movie footloose, visiting in laws and grandparents, watching my cute cousin play little league football, and my dad was nice enough to babysit tex for the night while just us girls went to Park City. It was so fun to spend so much time with Laur. Usually she has a packed schedule full of friends and dates, but I told her she MUST clear her schedule for me. Ha, ha... It was so fun to have her all to myself! and Ah, It was so refreshing to see the leaves changing colors, one of the biggest things I miss living in the desert! The weekend went by way to fast! Thank you Mama and Dad and Laur for all the fun!

Here are a few pics from the trip. I am so sad... I can't find my camera charger. I seriously pride myself on always being able to find EVERYTHING! As my belly is growing bigger, I swear my mind is getting smaller. I can't remember ANYTHING!!!! So... here are some pics from the phone and stolen from my mom...

Our cute little matching cars!

The Beautiful leaves of Park City!

At Main Street Pizza and Noodles with the gals... such a fun night!

Cheering on cute Blake at his football game

And Tex... Not real super excited for the 11 hour drive ahead of him.

Such a fun trip!!! And Gabe's trip was a success! He rocked the career conference and set up a bunch of job interviews for post graduation. He's so awesome!

Phoenix FINALLY got the memo...

IT'S FALL!!!!! WAHOO!

We have been anticipating, waiting, counting down the days until Autumn! I hated the phone calls I would make to family and friends back in Utah, bragging about their boots and their sweaters. Hearing about the Utah leaves especially tugged at my little heart strings. Last year I didn't even decorate for fall. With the temperatures outside hitting 105, I figured it just wasn't even worth it. This year, I have been especially anxious and missing the fall weather. It was a long, hot summer here. So, a couple Saturdays ago, Gabe and I were sitting on the couch watching football, and I said, "I've had ENOUGH of this summer business!" I pulled out all my fall decorations, turned the a.c. really high, made some chili, and with the help of pinterest.... (which I love.... Thank you again ASH!)... I brought fall to phoenix. It was still 105 outside but it didn't matter. I can make this house cold fast with all my fans and a.c. cranked up!

Then finally! Yesterday!!!! Fall came for real! People are actually wearing jackets! Now I wouldn't go as far as to put on a jacket right now, we're still in the high 70's. But we're getting there! It came right in time for General Conference. What an amazing weekend. I melted my new pumpkin spice scentsy, painted a little pumpkin and heard the words of the prophet. We loved it.

And... speaking of that. Here in Phoenix, they are starting the mormon.org ads on t.v. We saw 5 of the commercials during Dancing with the Stars. It was awesome. To see some more inspiring stories, and learn more about the amazing church we belong to, go here: here. I will warn you though, have a box of tissues handy.

Anywho... here's to fall! Or at least how fall looks at our house.

An idea from Pinterest... Love that place.

Our little witch we brought home from Prague. We love her! I am so glad I got her. She cackles and shakes her legs and her hair and eyes light up when we clap. I get a total kick out of her.

The cute wreath I made from last year. I think it was my first craft... in my whole life... ever... that looked decent.

The leaves don't fall here in phoenix. Well unless they are palm tree leaves, blown off by a wind storm... Otherwise known as a Haboob.

Bad pic taken with my phone, but loving the fall colors in my house!!!

I found this little gem at the D.I. a couple weeks ago.

Added a little paint and spruced him up a bit. I had no idea what to use as a stem. Until I was "sitting" one day... Toilet paper roll... pure genius I am!

Our little entry table. Thank you again pinterest for the free subway art and for making me into a crafter that otherwise would not be. I love mooching off of others craftiness.

Our life as of late...

First....

And most importantly!!!!!

Announcing our baby girl!

Baby Girl Valenzuela

Due date: February 6, 2012.

We can't even wait!!!

Here she is! Our little gummy bear caught on camera! I am loving ultra sounds! And my doctor is so awesome! I begged him on an early appointment to let us find out the sex. He said, "Of course! Let's find out today!" There she was. Since, she has been a little camera shy and won't show us her little face, just her back and bum. I'm sure she'll grow out of that the second she makes her big debut!

Here's a little snapshot of my journey with the little gal. The pic in the middle is the day that Gabe and I found out. Such an awesome and crazy day. We were in Rome, Italy. We searched all day for a pharmacy, paid WAY to much for a pee stick, and then waited for two pink lines. They showed up right away and we went out for pizza. The morning sickness soon followed and my longing for home got greater. We didn't tell any of our friends on the trip. I had to keep it a secret for about 3 weeks until we could finally tell our fam. The pic in the top left is my first belly pic, Aug 27, 2011, week 16. Ok, so not much of a belly. I just look a little chubbed out. I blame her. She's just "cushioning her ride". The pic in the top right is Sept. 9, at week 18. That night I got asked for the first time if I was pregnant. SO Happy I was! The bottom right is the day we found out she was a gal. We decided we would have potatoes and eggs, a mountain man breakfast if it was a boy and crepes if it was a girl. Crepes it was. That was after I cried in the parking lot over the excitement of bows and easter dresses. We are so excited. And Gabe is so so cute when he talks about "his little girl". The bottom left was just a little scare at work. I passed out a couple of times at work. Gabe took me to the hospital and they ran a bunch of tests. They couldn't find anything wrong and the baby is just fine. They are going to do more blood work but everything should be good. It was crazy though. It was the first time I really felt like a mom, like she was mine and I worried about her. I cannot wait to meet her. To kiss her and rock her and sing to her. I can't wait to see what she looks like and to meet her little personality. Time can't pass fast enough!

And the rest of our happenings! Gabe started another trimester at Thunderbird. It has him busy busy busy ALL the time! Its good though. He is on the fast track to graduation. We are counting the days (and months)... We got a new little car! And I love it!!!! I retired the corollas in April after a minor accident. We searched for THE CAR and finally found it! So cute! A perfect little car for two Arizona gals to cruise around in! My mama also came down for a visit and to hook up the little gal with her first wardrobe! We got the cutest stuff!!! Thank you mama! We also went camping, just my boys and I. It was so nice to get out of the heat even for just 24 hours. Payson is so beautiful and we loved being up in the mountains. And last but not least... We watched our Utes crush BYU last week in that awesome game. What a fun night. We got to watch the game with Gabe's parents and celebrate after with pizza and some good facebook gloating. Go UTES!!!

I'm all up to date!!!!! Look at that, in just two posts! Now lets hope its not February before you hear from me again!!!

I'm back!!!

Yes, it is true, for the 2 people that may still check this thing... I am back!!!! To be honest, I've been completely overwhelmed by the thought of even trying to document our life for the last 6 months, let alone upload hundreds of pictures onto blogger. But with a lazy day off of work, I decided to tackle the task. Thank heavens for finally figuring out how to put my pics into collages too. Our life for the last 6 months has been CRAZY!!!! But, with the story in a nutshell....

Gabe did a study abroad for his MBA program at Thunderbird School of Global Management. (For those of you who want to know where he lives during the day). He studied in Prague in the Czech Republic for 6 weeks. I was lucky enough to get to tag along for the journey. It started off with a two week cruise across the Atlantic Ocean. That was not part of the studying though. That was just an awesome (and cheaper might I add) way to get from AZ to Europe. LOVED IT!!!!!! I would venture to say it was my favorite part of the whole trip. But How do you compare to two weeks of sun, fun, crazy amounts of yummy food, sleeping in, and visiting the Carribean, spain, Portugal and the Canaries. It was awesome! We finally got to Prague and Gabe started school. It was intense, super long days and all nighters of studying and projects. But somehow we managed to squeeze in a trip to Czesky Crumlov, Rome, and Budapest. The whole experience over seas was amazing. I learned so much about other countries and cultures. I am so grateful we were able to do it together too. Because of some minor details... (aka... a new baby on the way....!!!!) I was so so excited to get back to the U.S. of A.!!!! Love America. We ended the trip with a lay over in New York..... LOVED it!!!!! We were only there for seriously, 12 hours so we rushed around the city like crazies and we were even able to see Wicked!!!! Cross it off my bucket list. Another amazing birthday present from my husband. We loved our adventure and are happy now to be back home in AZ.... cooking my little gummy bear inside me! More to come on that!

Here are a few pics from the trip : (seriously, the cream of the crop from thousands of pics)

Cruisin' the Atlantic

Prague

Rome

NYC

Happy Birthday Baby... 28!

Today...

This handsome guy

TURNS 28!!

Happy Birthday My Love!

In March, 3 years ago, I sat in a class room as the most handsome guy I'd ever seen walked through the door. 9 days later, He kissed me. And left for a cruise for his 25th birthday. I sat around giddy for 5 days, wondering if I'd ever hear from Mr. Dreamy again.

I did.

And then I married him.

I can honestly say that life with Gabe gets better and better everyday.

My life is happy because he is in it.

I love who Gabe is. I love that he makes me laugh. I love that he is my very best friend. I love that he is confident. I love that he makes me feel confident. I love how much he loves me. I love that when I leave in the morning, I can't wait to see him again.

Life is good with Gabe.

I sure love you!

HaPpY BiRtHdaY My LoVe!!!

I can't wait for all of our upcoming adventures this year with you!

Enjoy the Ride Sweetie Pie!

Sedona Marathon... I freakin' did it!!!!

I know, I know. It was a month ago. But I had to document. This may have been once in a lifetime. I sure hope it's not, but you never know. If you want to skip the text and go straight for the pics, feel free. Just want to write it our for the record...

I ran the Sedona 2011 Marathon! I did it! I still can't believe that I actually did it. It has been a goal of mine since I was in high school. When I finally created an actual bucket list in college, it went on. And that's where it stayed for six years. Until last August. While enjoying a big ice cold diet coke, relaxing next to the pool, I told my friend Megan about my little bucket list goal. To run a marathon. She said, "I'm in." And before you knew it we were "training". Our first "run" was 2 miles on the treadmill. Ok, one mile, stop for a break and water, and then another. I thought I was going to die. I don't know why we didn't just quit there, but we didn't. We had to run super early to beat the deathly AZ sunshine and to get to work on time. We ran long runs on our days off and spent hours and hours on the pavement, chatting away, sharing secrets and gossip. Meg became one of my best friends. Every run I always said, "I can't believe we are doing this" or "What the hell are we doing" (that one only came out on the twenty miler)... And we always said how excited we were for race day!!!!

We picked a good one. The Sedona Marathon. I lied. I've heard since that this marathon is one of the hardest in the U.S. With half of it up hill. They weren't lying. It was definitely UP! As we were training, everyone asked us what we were thinking. To be honest. I have no idea. I knew it would be hard, I knew it would be a beautiful run. I knew all I had to do was finish, no matter how long it took. It was so so so hard, but so worth it. When it finally came, we were so excited. Meg and I started talking right off the bat and by the time we hit the first hill, we couldn't talk and breath at the same time. And so we went silent. We stayed that way pretty much the rest of the run. With a few, "How ya doin' "s and "how many miles till the next aid station". We actually did awesome, the first half was a breeze. We were smiling the whole time. The second half got tough, but it was invigorating to know that I was actually getting closer to my goal. It was so so beautiful up there. It was actually a spiritual experience, seeing what Heavenly Father created for me, the beautiful mountains and red rock. The warm sunshine and the cool breeze. And a body that can actually run 26.2 miles. As we got closer to the finish, my quads started to cramp up and about mile 24 I thought they might cramp up and fall off. We pushed through... And... We finished!!! We did it!!!! As we rounded the corner and saw the finish line, with our cute hubby's and my awesome mom, tears ran down our cheeks. I have never accomplished something so hard, something that I put so much time and effort into. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. Addicting. I want to run another. We'll see. It was so so fun. I loved every second of it and I'm a little sad its over. A little. :)

Here's a little about the Sedona Marathon:

Race	Distance	Graded Dirt Road	Paved Road	Total Elevation Gain
Full Marathon	42.195 Km	40%	60%	1800 feet

This graph is an approximate depiction of the elevation gain/loss of the overall race course as planned. It cuts off on my blog but its a turn around. You get the idea.

Here's the map of the course:Well, half of it, again, cut off by the blog40% was on a rocky, dirt road. It was just the two of us and the desert. I felt like I was in Fivel Goes West and I was going to see a mirage at any second with the tumble weed rolling through...

Here are some pics from the weekend:

My mom flew into Phoenix on Friday morning. The two of us drove straight up to Sedona while Gabe finished up at school. We had to get our shopping and ice cream eating in. It was fun to be up in Sedona and talk with a few of the other runners. One lady asked if I was running the 5k. I told her no, that I was running the full marathon. She asked how many I had run. I told her this was my first. She said, "You picked THIS as your first marathon?!!! Wow! You're brave!!" Thank you. And so the butterflies began.

We learned about our native neighbors and become one with the Sedonians.

We actually stayed up in Flagstaff for free with our Marriott points, but had to drive into Sedona on Saturday for the race. We woke up BUM CHEEK early to make sure we got there on time. Its a good thing too. I of course forgot a sports bra. Of all the things. And had to find a Walmart at 5 in the morning. Thank you Walmart. For saving me the aches and pains that would have entailed.

After our Wally run. Happy once again and excited for race day!!!

This is why we love Sedona. Yes my friends. That is an Suburu outback. And for one day and one day only, these were my people.

Trying to stay warm in the freezing cold 33 degree weather. At the starting line!

Don't they look freezing and counting down the seconds till they get back in their nice warm car? I love you both! Thank you for supporting me!

See what I mean by beautiful?!!! Such a gorgeous place for a run! 26.2 you ask? I think I might!

With my beautiful mom. I was so grateful she came!

The pre-race stretch. Gotta make sure those legs and bum cheeks are happy.

My private massage guy I hired for the occasion. Just kiddin'. He was passin' out free massages like candy. And of course I never pass up free.

And here we are. Just crossed the starting line. Of course we were dinkin' around and didn't hear them call for the marathoners so when we heard the gun shot we had to push through everyone to get to the start. We're so awesome. We were the last marathoners to start. But not the last to finish. And thats really what matters to me ;)

Here we are. The last shot of our bum cheeks for 5 hours and 57 minutes. They only photos we have on the course are memories.

Running for the finish line. My eyes were so full of tears, I could hardly see it. It was awesome!

Amazing.

My cute husband, waiting for me at the finish. I was so glad to see him.

And my mamma. Thank you for being there!

I was so lucky to have such awesome fans!

Meg. Couldn't have done it without you. Thank you for helping me cross it off the bucket list. Such a fun 6 months.

The beautiful flowers from my fans.

The Marathon Run Down

Months of Training: 6

Approximate miles run with Megan in training: over 250

Approximate miles run on my own: over 70

Amount spent on running shoes: $100

Amount spent on my second pair of running shoes: $77 (half off! Wahoo!)

Amount spent on gu chomps: $50

Amount spent to run the race: $100

Amount of carbs eatin' before each run: tons. I loved it

Amount of In-n-Out double doubles during training: at least 4

Hours spent running the hills of Sedona: 5 hours 57 minutes and 23 seconds

Amount of tears lost when seeing the finish line: who even knows

The feeling I felt when I crossed the finish line:

Priceless, can't explain it. It was amazing.