Quinn & Anjuli

Catch-up Time!

2010-05-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

As of yesterday I am officially into the second trimester! My sickness is practically non-existent now, which is good because we are going up to Utah this weekend and I was a little worried about getting car sick. Anyway, I guess you could say I am "showing"...sort of. My pooch has doubled/tripled in size and it is hard to suck in, but it's definitely not the cute baby bump. I'm kind of at the stage where people pass by and I know they are thinking, "wow lay off the donuts!" I'm trying to wear shirts that cover me until the belly rounds out a little more :). Here are some pictures of the ultrasound I had at 11 weeks. It's cool to see that it actually looks like a baby now! It's little arms and legs were movin' all over the place and it was the most amazing thing. Can't wait until I start to feel it!

People keep asking me if I want a boy or a girl, and I honestly don't know, it's weird (however I did ask a magic 8 ball at Walmart the other day and it confirmed I am definitely having a girl). Before I got pregnant I knew all the names I wanted, how many girls and boys and the birth order (ok maybe not the birth order), I had it all figured out. Now that it's real, thinking of names is really difficult! I don't want to just pick a random name that I heard and thought was cute...I haven't even met the kid yet, how am I supposed to know what he/she should be named? I am probably just weird, but there is just a lot of pressure deciding what someone else is going to be called the rest of their life! Maybe we'll hold off on the naming business and give a name as the baby's first Christmas present or something...just kidding of course!

As I finished the first trimester, I also finished my junior year as an Arizona Sun Devil. This semester I kind of slacked off a little bit, I think I got a taste of senioritis. As some of you may know I decided to take a semester off, so I won't be going back to finish school until next Spring. I was really upset about this at first because I am so close to being finished! Only two semesters of student teaching left. However after talking it over with my advisor and the head of the department of my college, we decided my due date is at the most inconvenient time and that it would be better to hold off a semester. Maybe it will be good to have a little break (I don't really think so but I'm trying to stay positive). Anyway I am glad that this semester is done and that I can relax and have a really fun summer!!

I am sorry this is a very long post. A couple more things though. Quinn and I found out we are getting a house! We are super excited to have one, although the whole process of paperwork and inspections and repairs and money spending is pretty annoying. We should close by the end of May so it's coming up fast! We had been house hunting for the past several months and kept striking out. Everything we liked was sold like hours after we looked, and some even sold while we were at the house. There were a few we loved but were outbid, and then we kind of stumbled onto this one. It's cute and small, something definitely in our price range, and we both liked it. We weren't knocked off our feet by how much we loved it, but put an offer on it anyway. The next day we found out they accepted our offer, and the more we see it the more we love it!

Ok one more thing, I want to give a little shout out to my wonderful husband on his birthday! Talk about an all around great guy!! Quinn is amazing.

He is dang good looking

He's extremely smart and great working with his hands

He is a worthy priesthood holder and has a quiet but unwavering testimony

He tells me I am beautiful at least 20 times every single day

He is the ultimate gentleman

He's great with kids (the Norris' refer to him as the favorite uncle) and he is going to be the best dad!

Whenever I'm feeling bad about myself or feel like I've been wronged by someone and I want to vent/gossip he sets me straight and reminds me of our Savior and how He would think/act

Those are just a few things that are great about Quinn. Am I lucky or what! Happy birthday Sweetheart, I love you so much and always will!

2010-03-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

Well I debated waiting to blog about my exciting news, and it only took me a minute to realize that all the people who probably read my blog already know! So for anyone who happens to stumble over this who hasn't heard...I'M PREGNANT!! Quinn and I are both very excited! I am only 5 weeks along (I think) so my potential due date is November 9th. I have my first appointment with the doctor in about a month :). The best part is that my little baby will have so many friends! My cousin Sarah had a baby girl in February, and my sister Tiffany had twin girls just last week, my sister in law Lucia is having a little boy at the end of June, and my cousin Kelsey is pregnant, due about three weeks before me! So so exciting!! I don't have any actual pictures to post, but according to the week by week pregnancy chart my baby looks like this...

I think it looks like a little pea pod! I'm sure it's a cute little pea pod. Haha I mean when you look at the genes it's getting, how could it not be? :)

2010-03-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

I am sorry I forgot to mention another friend for our baby! I don't know how I didn't mention him because he is seriously one of the cutest babies I have ever seen...Stevie! Our friends Brennon and DeAwna in Payson had him in January. Again I can't describe how excited I am for all these little guys, especially for my own!

Camping!

2010-02-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we went on a camping trip. We had been wanting to go for a while, but our schedules were a little crazy and it never worked out. Anyway we decided to go up to four peaks on Friday. We didn't go very far up because I didn't want to be cold :). It was so much fun! Just the two of us and our dog Abby.

Blogger is having issues and I can't seem to put these pictures in order. They're actually kind of backwards - oh well!

This is Saturday morning when Quinn made his specialty, eggs! He added some steak and onions too. They were really yummy!

I just thought Abby looked really funny in this picture, half asleep.

We warmed our feet by the fire while I read Harry Potter out loud. We were also eating some delicious foil dinners.

Obviously these pictures are going backwards! I made Quinn pose for everything. He looks pretty gangster here! Ha

Arizona sunsets are the best. So beautiful!

Call me gross, but I love puppy kisses! Abby loves to give them so we're pretty much perfect together :)

She loves to follow me around everywhere, so every time I sat down she would climb right up and sit like a lap dog. She's a little big for that so it was funny to watch.

I love this guy! Spending the weekend together just made me love him even more.

Camping. No mirrors, and no one cares!

Our little campsite. A big thanks to everyone who gave us all our camping gear for our wedding and for Christmas!

We shot some clay pigeons with Quinn's shot gun. I can't see very well with my right eye so it made it a little more tricky to shoot. I tried it left handed too, but I wasn't very successful either way. I think the ratio to pigeons I actually hit was maybe 1 in 5 haha.

Quinn looks pretty studly in my opinion :). His shooting was much better than mine.

While we were shooting, Abby didn't really want to be around so she went exploring. After we were done I went looking for but she didn't come when I called (which is very unusual for her!). Finally I found her, and when she was running over to me I saw her tongue was cut and blood was dripping everywhere. It seemed like she just cut the tip of it on a cactus or something, but then later Quinn checked her out again and we found some cactus needles stuck to the roof of her mouth. It looked like she had a huge spider sitting in her mouth. Quinn grabbed pliers and she was actually very cooperative while he took them out. She didn't mess with the cactus after that!

I can't wait till we go again because we had a blast. If you are a camper and want to join us, let us know! We realized we're kind of loners when we couldn't think of any friends we had to come with us haha.

Year One

2010-01-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

So we made it! Married one year as of last Friday. Looking back I wouldn't change a thing. Quinn and I have had so much fun together! I only wish I would have taken more pictures of all the cool stuff we did :).

Here are some things I have learned from Quinn in our first 365 days of eternity together...

- To always do things right the first time. It looks better, lasts longer, and saves time.

- Not to get offended so easily. Every time I tell Quinn about someone or something that really bugs/offends me, he is pretty good at helping me see the other side of things. Sometimes it gets annoying if I just want to vent, but in the end I'm glad he does it.

- Keep things clean and organized! Quinn keeps everything very neat. I wouldn't call myself a slob, but I've definitely been able to learn that taking extra time to make things neat is worth it!

- Laugh! Quinn can turn anything semi-funny to hilarious just by laughing. If you've heard his laugh you know what I'm talking about!

- To forgive and forget. Everybody has disagreements, but sometimes ya gotta swallow your pride, apologize, and let it go. Quinn is pretty dang good at it! I'm getting better too :)

Hopefully the coming year will be just as great as the last!

New Changes

2009-10-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

The past week has involved a couple big changes in our lives! First, we moved out of our apartment and in with my parents. I am going to miss our first home together, but I'm just glad I have a wonderful family that will let us move in with them (and that Quinn and I are both happy to live with!). I took a few pictures of our apartment before we left so I would remember it :).

We also got a new dog! I had been begging and begging Quinn to get a puppy, but he said he wouldn't let me until we were in a house. I found a dog I thought would be perfect for us, and the day we moved in with my parents we went and got her.

Her name is Abby, and she a Queensland Heeler. She's already a year and a half old, but when we got her she was already spayed, up to date on all of her shots, microchipped, and potty trained! Her previous owners had six dogs and couldn't handle all of them, so they gave Abby to us for free.

We are the third owners she's had, and we think her first owners beat her as a puppy, She's pretty skittish when it comes to new people, especially men (although she's already getting better). She warmed up to me really quickly, and is practically my shadow wherever we go. Of course I love it, it's always fun being the favorite! She is extremely obedient, and we've already had a lot of fun jogging together and playing ball.

This morning we went to a mock Race for the Cure run that Mesa High's volleyball coach organizes every year. Quinn and I took Abby and we had a lot of fun.

Here is Abby playing ball before the race

She did great in the race too. I'm so happy we found her!!

Anjulicious

2009-07-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share a song with everyone that was written especially for me a couple years ago by my friend RJ Watson - it is hilarious! I will give a warning though, the song is about my booty! :)

Buster

2009-06-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I had to put my puppy Buster to sleep. He was ten years old, but he'll always be my puppy! It was a hard decision to put him down, but he had a lot of health issues and was in a lot of pain so it was for the best.

I got Buster on my 11th birthday, and he was the best present of all time! For years I had begged my parents for a puppy, and I even cut out pictures of dogs in magazines and wrote a little story about how much I wanted a dog. Finally I convinced my dad who convinced my mom into letting me have one.

I had a lot of fun with Buster over the years. He knew how to do a few tricks, and he was really smart (and sneaky, which I didn't like too much!). Although it was on accident, Buster became a father! Cute little Queensland Heeler / Beagle mix puppies!

He had his share of challenges too. When he was about two years old he had to have 34 stitches after playing a little too rough with our other dog Cinnamon. About a year later we found out he had epilepsy, and he had seizures pretty regularly the rest of his life. As if he didn't already have it tough, a couple years later he developed really bad allergies and a skin disorder. Poor puppy!

I'm glad that Buster is in a happier place and not suffering like he had to when he was alive. He really was a good dog and I loved him a lot!

Benson Family Reunion

2009-06-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we went with my family to

Newport Beach for a reunion. Here are some of the highlights! (There are a lot of pictures)

Hanging out around the beach house

Hanging out at the beach

The guys had a lot of fun burying each other. They got pretty creative!

Kevin...the woman

Richard Stradling...the crab

Quinn got nabbed by the crab!

Tiff kissin' her crab hubby :)

Richard Hale...the beautiful butterfly!

Quinn... the turtle

We hung out at Balboa Park for some rides and arcade games

I took Grant on the Carousel. This is during the first half of the ride...

The second half of the ride. I think he got a little dizzy...

The girls went to "the district" in LA, and Quinn & Richard were nice enough to come along :).

2009-06-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

We went to the Newport Beach temple, which was beautiful!

And of course we took family pictures on the beach!

Couldn't leave without a jumping picture :)

My family is the best!!!

GIRL'S CAMP!!

2009-06-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love girl's camp! So I was really sad when I realized that, because I was in a new ward, it would probably be the first time I would miss camp in eight years. Then surprisingly in April I was called to be my new ward's camp director! I was really excited!

The theme for camp was Believe In Me, and each day there was a focus on part of the overall theme. The first day focused on believing in yourself, the second day on believing in the Savior, and the third day was about living like you believe.

Throughout the week we went hiking, sang a million camp songs, played games, ate a lot, and also had some really good firesides and devotionals. I decided to tough it out and not use my one shower, but I don't think I smelled too bad! :) Anyway, here are a few of my favorite things about camp.

-Our stake camp song. A sister in our stake wrote a song called "Believe In Me" especially for girl's camp, and it is so cool! She shared her experience with us about how she was inspired while writing it, and it made the song even more special for everyone at camp.

-Being in nature. There is definitely a peace that comes from being in nature. I feel like I am closer to Heavenly Father when I am surrounded by all of His beautiful creations.

-The Young Women. I was extremely impressed with the way the young women treated each other. Our ward is pretty big (we had 40 young women from our ward at camp), and all of them made an effort to talk to and include everyone. It really was like they all saw each other the way Jesus Christ sees them.

Camp was a blast and I hope I have more opportunities to go in the future!

It's been a while...

2009-05-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted for a few reasons. One being that after I read about everyone else's interesting lives I feel like I have nothing to write about! Two, I don't own a camera at the moment so I don't have pictures :(. Hopefully this summer will bring some excitement!

This past weekend was really fun though...the club volleyball team I coach had our last tournament and we WON our FIRST GAME! It sounds really sad I know. It wasn't really our fault that we lost all the other games. All the girls I coached had no club experience, and by some mistake we were put into the championship division, where 98% of the other teams had at least 1-2 years of club experience. Not to mention we were playing some 16's teams when we are a 14 and under team. Anyway, the girls improved so much and we had a lot of fun regardless of losing.

The team we finally beat in the end was kind of our "rival" (we'd played them a few different times at different tournaments). We always came so close to winning but fell short. Our very last game of the season we got to play them again, and won 26-24. You would have thought by watching us that we'd won the state championship. We ran onto the court cheering, and one of the girls said she thought I jumped three feet in the air.

I get a two week break and then it's back to volleyball - open gym and other camps. It's a great sport, I love everything about playing and coaching! And in the fall I am going to be the assistant varsity coach for Mesa High, pretty dang exciting!

2009-02-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

After the presidential election in November, I realized I knew almost nothing about current issues or politics. So I started listening to talk radio, and now I'm addicted! I don't listen to anything else in the car :). Anyway, a couple weeks ago I was listening to Glenn Beck, and he introduced something called "We Surround Them." The point of it is basically to show that even though we may not like the direction our government is taking our country, but feel like our voices aren't always heard, there are a lot of people who still believe in America and have good values. Glenn gives the following nine principles:

1. America is good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

He asks that if you agree with at least 7 of the 9 principles, send pictures of yourself and each family member to wesurroundthem@foxnews.com. There is going to be a special program on Fox News on March 13. I think this is a great thing and encourage anyone who agrees with these principles to participate!

You can go to the website http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/21018/ to read more about it, and also see the other 12 values that he posted along with the nine principles.

A few things I've learned and love

2009-02-25T12:55:00.000-08:00

I've learned that Quinn can be quite the romantic! He went quail hunting a couple weeks ago and on the way home stopped to buy me some flowers for no reason. I was so surprised - I loved them!

I don't know if I LOVE this one, but I have learned how to cut Quinn's hair. I cut it in the bathroom in front of the mirror so that he could watch and make sure I was doing everything right.

Before

After

I didn't do a perfect job by any means (luckily in this picture you can't really see around his ears!) but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!

I LOVE coaching these girls! All of them have their own crazy personalities and they make me laugh all the time. Volleyball is one of my loves, and being able to pass that on to these girls and watch them get better every week is so so cool!

Honeymoon in Cancun

2009-01-23T14:47:00.000-08:00

For our honeymoon we went to Cancun, Mexico. Thanks to Grandpa Benson for getting the hotel for us! We left on Saturday morning, but we didn't get to Cancun until that night because of time changes and our nice 5 hour layover in Miami. But once we got there it was really fun!

On Sunday we were going to go to church, and so before we left AZ we looked up the address for a ward and thought we were prepared. Sunday morning we took a little too long getting ready and didn't think we would be able to make it to the ward by 10, but we knew there was a different ward meeting at 12. So we got on the bus and tried to find the other building. Unfortunately, no bus driver or taxi driver knew where any Mormon churches were. So after two hours of riding the bus and asking around, we gave up and went back to the hotel. And actually the next day we were in a little shop and the cashier asked if we were lds, and when we told her about not being able to find a church she said there was only one that met in Cancun and it wasn't close to where we were looking. Oh well, maybe next time we can be a little bit better prepared :).

Most of the time we were there we just relaxed, shopped around, and hung out on the beach. But one of the days we decided to go on a tour of some Mayan ruins, Chichen Itza. It was so cool - it was basically a lamanite city, and a lot of the symbols and gods they had we recognized from the Book of Mormon.

Here are some other random pictures from the trip. We had a lot of fun, it was nice to have no responsibilities and nothing to worry about except for each other for a week!

Quinn loves Mexican Coca-Cola!

This was a mural on a wall inside one of the shopping malls. Just in case any of you were wondering about my stylin' outfit, I'm definitely wearing Quinn's clothes! Usually I tend to over-pack, but this time I definitely didn't bring enough!

2009-01-22T11:02:00.000-08:00

We did it! Exactly two weeks ago Quinn and I were married in the Mesa, AZ temple. Here's a little run-down of how the day went. The ceremony was at 10:30 am and it was so wonderful - our sealer actually was the same brother who gave Quinn his patriarchal blessing. Walking out the temple doors was so fun too, because all our family and some close friends were there supporting us. We stayed at the temple for a little while to get some family pictures and a few others - I don't have the photographer's pictures from the wedding day yet, but my Dad took a lot too so here are some of the ones he took.

Coming out of the temple

The Norris'

The Hale's

Hale girls

Studly Jackson and Grant

Spinning :)

2009-01-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

Ok well it was a pain trying to put all those pictures so I decided to start another post. After the temple there was the luncheon where we ate some delicious taco salad and cheesecake :). A few hours later we went over to Stonebridge for the reception. I was pretty disappointed when I got there to see that on the sign Stonebridge had put out front my name was spelled wrong! We asked them to change it, and first they tried scribbling out the extra E they added with a white permanent marker. That didn't work at all so they printed out a new one. Maybe I was being too picky but I thought my name should be spelled correctly at my own wedding reception! Haha but anyway the reception was so fun, and way better than I even expected it to be. The line was the fastest hour of my life, and I didn't even want to end it. I just loved seeing and being able to talk to, even if it was only for a few seconds, everyone who came to support us. After the line we did all the rest of the traditional stuff.

When it was time to throw the bouquet, I remember thinking about how at every reception I'd been to, I always stood in the back and the bride always threw the bouquet to the girls in the front. So I decided I was going to let the girls in the back catch mine. Needless to say I underestimated my own strength. I launched the bouquet and was able to turn around to see it still flying through the air. It cleared the group of girls, and someone else standing behind them caught and threw it back into the crowd.

The dancing was definitely a highlight of the night for me. I love my Dad so much and the song I picked for us to dance to (You'll Be in My Heart) has always been a song that is special to me because it reminds me of him. It was also sweet to look over and see Quinn dancing with his mom because I know she is so special to him too.

Dancing with Quinn was one of my favorite parts of the whole day too. I don't want to get all cheesy or anything but I know it's something I will always remember - I love him so much!

As we were leaving the reception our car was filled with balloons, chocolate kisses, and a farting machine :). I wish the night could have lasted longer because it was so much fun!

Thanks to everyone who was there in person or just in spirit :). We love you all!

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-05T07:15:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't posted anything for a while because I haven't had any pictures and that's what makes blogging more fun! But I just stole this one from Lucia's blog, thanks Lucia :). We spent New Year's Eve at David and Lucia's house, and just hung out with the family, ate and played games - my perfect party. I am very excited for the new year, because it means the start of my new life with Quinn. Only a few more days until the wedding and I can't wait for it to come!!

Thanksgiving with my new family

2008-12-01T06:42:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was a little different for me this year, because I spent it up in Minersville, Utah with all of Quinn's (and soon to be mine too) family. I got to meet my new brothers and sisters, and a whole lot of new nieces and nephews! I had so much fun and felt right at home with all of them.

The siblings had a fun idea to make up some questions to ask Quinn and me, just so everyone could get to know me, how we met, etc. Lucia videotaped the interrogation :). It was kind of funny that Quinn and I both didn't know what each other's favorite sports were! Pretty ironic since we both love sports so much and play together a lot. All the other questions I thought we did a pretty good job of answering though (yes, even Anita's!). I really enjoyed the game and I think when Michael's fiancee Taylor comes down for the wedding we'll have to something similar.

Even though I still missed the Hale family while I was in Utah, I had such a great time with the Norris family. The whole time I was up there I kept thinking how grateful I am that Heavenly Father, who already blessed me with such a wonderful family growing up, would bless me even more by letting me become a part of another wonderful family! Thanks to everyone I spent time with this weekend, I love you all and can't wait to see you again!

Wisdom teeth...

2008-11-24T06:28:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I went in to see the oral surgeon about my wisdom teeth. Even though my dentist told me I wouldn't really need to get them out for another 15 years, getting them out on my parents' insurance now sounded better than getting them out later when I'd be paying (I know, I am just a moocher! ha).

I got to have my first experience with laughing gas, it was pretty funny! I didn't think it was working at first, but then all the sudden I thought, "what if this doesn't work and I have to be in pain through all this?" And that just sounded hilarious and I could not stop laughing. I had to stop finally so that they could put the IV in my arm, but I don't remember anything else until waking up after it was all done.

The doctor told me he gave me extra novicane so that I wouldn't have to feel pain for a long time. Well when he said extra he really meant EXTRA! I had the surgery at 8:00 am on Thursday, and I couldn't fully feel my face until I woke up the next morning. It was extremely annoying. And of course, even though he told me to stay away from pizza for a week, I just couldn't resist trying to eat a piece that night. And since I couldn't feel my lip, I started chewing on it without knowing! It was pretty disgusting and hurt a lot once I got the feeling back :(.

I have a blog!!

2008-11-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

So I finally decided to make a blog! I never made one before because I always figured I'd just make one when I got married. Well, it turns out I'm getting married in two months! So I decided to get a head start and make it now before things get more crazy in January. But it's actually been pretty fun making one, except for the fact that it is pretty time consuming. But hey, it's all good. I've finally joined the ranks of the bloggers - Woohoo!

Engagement Pictures

2008-11-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

So last Saturday we went and had our engagement pictures taken. I am not always great at looking "good" for the camera, especially when it involves posing, so I was a little nervous. We went to Freestone park, and walked around doin' our thing while my Dad (an awesome photographer!) took over 700 pictures of us! Ha I think his finger must have been sore from clicking that button so many times. But we ended up getting a lot of really good shots and it was surprisingly fun for me! Thanks Dad!

Here are some of my favorite pictures...if anyone has an opinion about which one we should use for our announcement I would love to know!

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