Elder Schott's Refuel Box August.14.2011

So the mish has another month down today-woohoo :) So proud of him! And since its his first month out on his 2nd year of the mish my mom and I came up with the idea of a "refuel box" for him :) So we went out and got him some supplies he was probably running out of & then I went into the scriptures to find references for them :) (tried to make this a motivational boost box!)
So what did Elder Schott get do you ask??? Let me give you a tour inside his box :)

Alrighty-starting in the upper left hand corner and moving right you have: Captain Crunch cereal-time to gas up, refuel, and go out and preach :), Cars fruit snacks Psalms 3:13 "this has oft refreshed me" (to gas up with), a traffic light I made for him, a lint brush (no reference but inside joke cuz he wants a dog & I told him this is the closest thing he is getting to one lol), a sponge-Alma 13:12 to keep his apartment Pure and spotless before God, Floss (Finding LOSt Sheep). Next row: razors-Job 17:9 (He that hath *shaven* skin shall be made stronger and stronger), well then there is his box lol, then the inside of the box lol, far right is his sticky note sign I put around it (it said "get ready for your 2nd lap Elder Schott") Bottom row: His tie (to tie it all up "I love you"), a closer picture of it-i drew a missionary guy :), The bottom of the traffic light says finish strong, Colgate toothpaste Psalms 3:3 I changed the words up a bit and said "But thou O Colgate art a shield for my teeth & lifts my mouth to a smile" (cavity protection-a shield for your teeth), The sign at the end of his box that said "Now you're fueled!", fabric sheets (Ether 12:37 ), so the traffic light I made for him said "Elder Schott RESTART your engine and finish strong"

I hope he gets the Refuel theme! I loved making this box and coming up with ideas for it :) Happy 13th Month Elder Schott :)

Stepping into Eternity August.9.2011

I can't believe I am actually writing this post, I always "figured" my brother would get married one day...just didn't think that day would be in two weeks!
My big bro Brandon will be marrying his sweetheart Korrine in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on August 20, 2011.
I'm so proud of my brother, he has gone from the brother who I would always follow around (as little sisters tend to do ;p) with my barbies as his buddies played with G.I. Joe or army people to the guy I would ball it up with in our front yard to a worthy servant of the Lord who returned with honor from a mission in Mexico to a man who is working his butt off, buying his first place, and in two weeks will be worthy to enter into the temple to be married to Korrine for time and all eternity :)
I may be a few years older and trying to establish my own way, but I will always look up to you big bro. You've hit a few road blocks in our life but I've watched you not run in the wrong direction rather overcome them with the help of the Lord and support from family! You've been definitely a great example to me and now for you to get married in the temple it just adds one more thing that I aspire to follow :)
Your foot steps may be big and it might take me a while to follow with my small feet but the journey will be amazing so I don't mind making it a long adventure :)
I am so excited to make the "actual" wedding post so readers stay tuned and in less than two weeks (August 20) I'll be posting again about that day that is bound to be AWESOME :)

Schott getaway! August.7.2011

Sometimes you just need a quick escape from the hectic pace of life to help remind you of what matters most! I got to do that today with the Schotts-we took the day off and headed over to Port Townshend :) (I know so bad skipping church and all but it was a fun day!)

Its all because that boy in the corner-Landon is his name was attending a wood working class up there making boomerrangs :) He started them on Saturday and on Sunday he finished them up and I must say I'm impressed-they turned out really great & best part is that they actually work lol!

Next pictures (on the right side of the collage) is of the car ride...after we dropped Landon off at his class we headed into town and checked out the boutiques...some super cute stuff ( i found tons of those signs that had cute sayings) but BOY were they expensive (gotta get the tourist's money i suppose lol) but I was smart and just wrote them down and will make my own! But Mireya convinced her parents to get her a Hello Kitty notepad with a multi colored pen lol so that's when you get the pictures, the package the notepad came in had this "remove before use" sticker which she thought was hilarious so she put it on my arm...and I was like "i hope you don't remove my arm, I kinda need that"-she giggled :) then she put it on her forehead and her dad turns around and was like "ah man...just what we need, removing her brain lol" it was funny! In the car Landon and I played the license plate & slug bug game (basically an excuse to hit each other lol!) But I'm a beast at that game so I got to hit him a few dozen times lol, he was just lucky that I was hitting him with my left hand which is not my dominant one so it didn't hurt as bad ;)

We headed to the beach-Kitsap State Park to be exact :) can you say BRRR??? cuz I can't...I was too numb from the ice cold water to speak! But after about an hour of wading in and out trying to get up to my neck or at least to where I would have to swim, we got out to go walk up and down the coast line looking for seashells and crabs :) I found some pretty awesome looking seashells :)

Then after turning off my common sense about wanting to stay warm rather than freeze my butt off I did it! i got in all the way into the FREEZING water :) landon and I went out for a swim, good news-the water was a bit warmer once you got out a bit (we may have been hallucinating lol) but still it was tons of fun, we were swimming against the current and sadly it won...we tried so hard to get back to where we had started to get back on land but failed lol. we ended up going a bit off and having to walk up to the parents :)

After we were done swimming we headed to Mongolian Grill-kind of a cool place, you pick out what you want to eat and then they grill it up! It was like BAM food :) I could get used to that ;) At dinner Landon ate a jalapeno, he is usually fantastic with them and it doesn't hurt at all but this one was a fresh one and BOY OH BOY did it BURN! His face got all red, his eyes watered and he couldn't talk...FUNNIEST thing of my life... it gave us a good laugh :)

After dinner we headed home :) I must say today was a fantastic day and I am so glad that the Schott's invited me to come along-I love them! So much fun :) It was fun hanging out at the ocean and in town acting like tourists (probably can't go back though-we got a little goofy lol!) Thank you SO much for inviting me to join on your getaway :)

wii would like to dance August.6.2011

Dancing, pizza, movies...total girls night right? ya buddy!!!

I had Natasha, Cassie, and Kelsey come over to the Phillips house-I was housesitting for them & yes they knew about it (I asked for permission lol)

The girls came over and we watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days!!!

total chick flick but hey we are chicks so its all good :)

After munching on pizza and chips during the movie we decided to burn off all those calories by playing Just Dance 1& 2 on the wii-I personally like #2 better, has more fast paced songs that are more fun to dance to!

Oh ya we totally rocked the dance floor!!!

I struck a few poses ;)
Natasha & I did "girlfriend" by Avril Lavinge which was hilarious!

Oh you better believe videos were taken ;) Enjoy!

Down we GO! August.5.2011

tonight I got to spend my evening with Heibert's-three cute blondes that are FULL of energy!

This one is Brooke-she is two

This is Gretchen-she is six

This is Kendra-she is four....

....and oh ya we slid down the stairs in the sleeping bag-better believe it! It was tons of fun-they loved flying down the staircase for me to catch them (seriously they loved it, we did it like 100 times lol!) Then we watched the Little Mermaid and after they went to bed I watched Tangled (getting my Disney on!)

Snorkling August.4.2011

This afternoon Nate's mom *michelle* called me up and asked if I wanted to go with them to American Lake to go swimming!
Off we went-we went to a different location that they had never been to so finding the entrance was quite an adventure lol :)
We dropped our bags, snapped on our goggles and snorkling gear and off we went into the water!
This was my first time and snorkling so it was interesting to get the hang of only breathing out of my mouth lol ;) But it didn't help much that Landon kept sticking things in the tube, or covering it with his hand-like what he was about to do in this photo up above..that little turd lol
Little Mireya and her rainbow colored swimsuit :) she loves snorkling to find rocks-she had a whole swimming suit full when she got done lol!
Landon is a pro snorkler-he ended up spotting fish for us which was pretty cool to see and try to catch :) He has had a few lessons so he taught me all his tricks-thanks bud!

Us after snorkling

Mireya and I

Landon and I...its really sad that we are the same height yet I'm like 7 years older :(

Date with the bestie August.4.2011

Don't freak out-no I'm not cheating on Nate lol...

it just happens to be that his best friend wanted to take me out (lol jk!)

This is Brandon...tall, skinny, smart alik-yup that about sums it all up-jk Brandon!

Brandon is the BESTEST friend in the whole world to my Nate and since the first day I met him he has been amazing to me as well (I am quite a lucky girl!)

Brandon and Nate grew up together so they are like this (crosses fingers) and boy do they have so many stories together lol.

Brandon goes to Central Washington University (Yuck...its all about UW lol)

and was headed back to college this week so he wanted to stop and have lunch with me to catch up before he headed out!

So this boy came to pick up this girl -oh ya that's me ;)

so Brandon being the gentlemen he is took me out to Apple Teriyaki -all of our favorite place :) At first it was odd being there without Nate because that's where we would all go for dinner but the food kinda distracted us and then we got talking about Nate and...well about two hours later our food was gone and we looked at the time and decided we didn't want him hitting traffic so he took me back home! Brandon is such a sweetheart and I can't believe how lucky I am to not only have Nate in my life but that his best bro likes me too lol!

Thanks Brandon for an awesome meal and great company :)

Good luck at college this year!

I'm sure I'll be talking to you soon :)

Waterfront August.3.2011

hmmm what to do on a sunny wednesday afternoon???

Lunch date with Rasler??? Heck YES!!! Today Rasler took me out to lunch at this cute little chinese place up by my house called the Tea Leaf-I had never been but I am so going back

-it was delicious :)

it was SO nice to catch up with her and chit chat about life

and enjoy some sun in the Northwest :)

After lunch we headed to downtown Tacoma to the waterfront where we walked and soaked up some sun :) It was so pretty out! We got to walk alongside this (look down at picture)

Jealous much? its alright you can be because it was gorgeous :)

Thank you so much Rasler for an awesome afternoon :)

Fun times are always had when I'm with you!

Picnic in the Park August.2.2011

Today i got to take Landon & Mireya to Gonyea park to meet up with Ember and her awesome kids for a picnic :)

the sun was out and we laid out a blanket on the picnic tables and pulled out our pb&j sandwiches and ate up :)

After that we headed over to the playground to waste some of our energy lol

we played tag around the toy set

i pushed kenzie on the swings

kenzie got out and pushed the swings with nothing in it lol-its her favorite thing

Playing in the park was tons of fun :)

This video is of miss Kenzie-she giggles so much when she is swinging-its SO cute!

This one is of me asking kenzie if she wanted to slow down and her response to me..it was adorable :) Sorry its tilted :/



Landon is such a sweetheart-he plays with kenzie whenever he is around her, its so cute! She loved him playing with her :)

Hello August! August.1.2011

I can't believe another month has come and gone by us-adios July :) and hola August, it definitely feels like summer has hit us here in the great NorthWest :) Weather hit up in the 70's-80's everyday, I LOVE seeing the sun everyday!
With August here comes many important things...1) the countdown for my brother's wedding is ON (well it always was on but now its within this month)...19 more days till he gets married to his love of his life for time and all eternity-woohoo!!! 2) I get to go down to visit Utah for a few weeks-par-ty time :) can't wait to spend some time with the fam! 3) (and this one is more of a personal thing but hey I'll share it with you!) With July over with and August here I am finally in the months where I can say "its my last (insert month) without nate" the next august I see I'll have Nate back here with me (ha I'm a poet and didn't know it ;p) But I'm excited to say goodbye to July and will be excited to say hello to it again next year b/c you all know Nate will be heading home!!
So here is to an awesome month filled with lots of memorable moments, family time, and love :)

Happy August Everyone :)

Sunday Best July.31.2011

Saturday is a special day its the day we get ready for Sunday, we comb our hair and brush our teeth all to get ready for sunday! Oh and I also got a new dress :) we went to Kohl's and JcPenny's and found dressed on sale and I got this one :) I really love it! Makes me think of summer for sure!
Sunday is one of my favorite days (definitely in compeition with thursday or whenever I get my letters from Nate lol) But I really do love Sundays, life just seems to stop for a second and I feel like I can breath! I love going to church and feeling the spirit that comes from attending church too! I get to be blessed with substituting for the four year olds, it gives me the chance to teach the gospel to these young minds which I love :) Its so awesome to watch them absorb all the gospel and its principles! I hope you all had a fantastic Sunday :)

Alec's turns 8! July.30.2011

Alecsander Joseph Marini

Eight years ago today you were brought into this world to two loving parents who have raised you along with your other three siblings with loving hearts and a wonderful family :)
Today you chose to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Eight years old is such a special time, baptism is such an amazing thing and I'm so proud of him.
I feel so old to be watching Alec take this step, I remember moving into this ward and him being just a little tyke-now he is all grown up :)
After his baptism at the church we headed over to his house where the party began :)

yummy food-hamburgers, fruit, and pasta salads and great company made for one awesome afternoon! Oh! Ya the sun was out too which was fantastic :)

Next Alec opened his gifts-so in our family my mom gives cards to kids for their birthday with money in it according to their age (if you can't figure it out that means Alec got 8 crisp $1 bills! ;p)

Oh and some awesome glow in the dark bouncy balls...thought the boys in the house would enjoy those :)

But my favorite gift to him from us was these awesome Mariners (Washington's baseball game that the Marini's love) baseball gloves for next years baseball season-Alec loves playing baseball so I'm excited to watch him wear those at next season's game :)

Miss Kenzie is super adorable...and you have Jeremiah & Scotty in the background watching as Alec opened his gifts..they were totally focused lol!

Zach and I :) He is my little buddie!

Grandma "is" (kids can't really say Lis lol) Soaking up some sun at the party :)

I wasn't lying when I said the Alec is a basball fanatic-even his cake was baseball themed lol!

Happy Birthday to you Alec, I wish you the best this year! Being 8 is great, it comes with lots of joy but also a lot of responsibility but I know you are prepared and tough and will be able to tackle anything that comes your way :) I love you Alec :)

Date with Emily July.29.2011

Tonight I got to spend a night out with my bestest childhood friend Emily :)

we've known each other since...well before we were born to be exact- our mommies worked together back in the day and have been friends ever since!

We've grown up together and since we are home for the summer after our first year of college done we had to meet up and catch up!

We went to dinner at Red Robins (both of our favs!)

Grabbed our freckled lemonades-we went through three that night lol!

After eating our food (burger for me and chicken wrap for her!)

We headed to Target to shop-its kinda our thing ;)

We found some sweet hats that we couldn't pass up trying on!

Emily fell in love with that white one and I had to peel her away from it lol!

We went to her house after (which is like five mins away-pretty sweet!)

We got there & guess what happened? Her dogs attacked me (not in a brutal way or anything) but sniffed and licked me and for all you readers who don't know me very well, I'm not too much of a dog or any pet to be honest lover (unless its a fish-then its for me!)

We whipped out the wii and I then proceeded to whip Emily's butt-well in baseball at least.

She got me in bowling (I don't sit and practice it like she does ;p)

oh and maybe tennis too, she is "pro" status so my above statement isn't a joke!

But I got her in baseball! Which is a talent if I do say so myself, each swing she changed it up making it hard (for beginners) to be able to hit it but I'm legit so ya I hit that ball right out of the park! I ended up winning 3-2, sure it was close but hey I still won ;)

Tonight was fantastic, Emily I love you my dear!

Thank you so much for going out with me tonight-it felt awesome to get out and have a girls night! You are always so awesome to hang with and I can't wait for our next adventure :)

Playground time July.28.2011

So with my mom having the car today I got to ride my bike (cough her bike cough) over to the Schott's house to visit with them & take them out on a bike ride over to Christensen Elementary School so we could play on the playground and hang out for a bit.
ok so apparently when I was in elementary school was FOREVER ago because everything I did that I thought was "cool" is now totally NOT :( twisting on the swings like Landon is doing here in this photo has now been trumped by school kids everywhere!

One thing that stays the same however is going down the slides on the playground-I love the "zoom" sensation you get..sadly it goes too quick :(

This school has hills which made it fun to take our bikes to the top then ride down, Landon biffing it was kinda funny too-don't worry no one got hurt!


Landon joined the break dancing club at his middle school and got pretty good before school let out for summer-he showed off his moves! He even did the cricket pause (thats the move he is doing) on my back..I challenged him to it so ya him being a Schott + a man couldn't let that pass ;p

Then he showed me a few moves which I failed at all of them, yup break dancing is NOT MY THING lol but its super impressive! I can do a headstand though (thats what we did when I was a kid!) So we made the "nike" pose while Mireya snapped a photo :)

After playing for a bit we headed back to their house and Michelle (their mom) asked if I wanted to stay for dinner -can you say I was happy? Cuz that would be a lie..I was stoked :) I chatted with her as she made dinner, it was nice to catch up :) The missionaries came over for dinner too which was nice, the one is heading home soon coincidentally home is Texas so that made for some good dinner talk over tacos! Elders had to head up to the church so they left and after some dishes and cleaning up we moved to the deck and chatted for a bit-it was a great day and an amazing night :) I rode home one happy girl that evening! thank you Schott's for not only letting my hang with your awesome kids but inviting me to dinner :)

This video is of Landon showing me up :( Its alright-he is awesome so its all good I'll let him!

Swimming time! July.27.2011

Today I got to splish splash like I was taking a bath & dunk like MJ ;) ok more so I was being dunked by Mireya & Landon and getting splashed in the face with water!
I took Mireya & Landon to the 56th pool ( or stewart heights if you want to get technical lol)
Its an outdoor pool in Tacoma that has a lazy river, toys, and a water slide :)

Mireya & Landon waiting to go in-the swimming didn't open up till 2:30 so we had to chill for a bit-Landon really doesn't like his photo being taken but Mireya is so photogenic lol

inside the pool-they have an awesome shallow end which is great for kids to play in :)

Ya I ended up putting my camera in my bag and got in the water-just in time to get dunked a few times by those two stinkers lol!

He looks all innoncent but let me tell you-he is the complete opposite, i caught him in action here headed to the water toys to spray me! Good thing I was over on the grass in safety! :)

Miss Mireya waiting for her turn to go down the slide :) Landon positioned himself nicely behind the bar so he can't be seen very well lol! I had an awesome afternoon with these kids :) I love them even when they dunk me lol!

Miss Savannah July.26.2011

this afternoon this little girls daddy went and got a haircut so I got to watch her again :) She is precious...she was ready for her afternoon nap so i put on her lullaby, baby of mine by Allison Krauss-check it out its a good one! She fell asleep in my arms (don't worry I'm not baby hungry-quite yet ;p) but she is super adorable.
Sadly I had to wake her up a little bit later to go pick up this lady (my mommie) from work! I got to drive for the first time with an infant in the car & I didn't forget the kid..just the diaper bag...But i remembered the kid lol!

Watch these videos of this little girl :) She is so cute! Wait for the ending in the first one-her face is priceless & the second one had us really giggling :)