Gina's Graduation!!! 4/25/09

My Mother in law Gina, can now officially say "I am a Phoenix!" On Saturday she officially graduated from the University of Phoenix. She has been working on her Bachelor of Science in Business/Accounting degree for the last four years. She has worked soooooo hard and we are all so proud of her. It was not an easy task. Here is a picture of Gina and her cute red shoes. Those shoes were not comfortable for her to wear by the end of the ceremony so we had to take a picture of them to make it worth it.





The ceremony was held at the San Diego Convention Center in the Sail Room. It was a beautiful room. The ceilings literally looked like sails. But the acoustics were awful! The whole ceremony sounded muffled. Every time someone would talk, the sound would bounce all over the room and muffle the next words out of the person's mouth. You would think the engineers who designed the room would have thought of a solution for that.

Anyways, if you look at the ceiling in this picture you can see the roof that looks like sails. Honestly it was basically like a canvas roof pieced together like a sail. It's a cool idea since the convention center is right next to the bay.





Gina and a few of her classmates:









This is Gina with her siblings and her Mom.



This is Gina and her boys.



Gina, her boys, and me!



We were ALL supposed to be making funny faces... When in reality I was left all by myself. :o(



This is Gina's sister Kristy and her family.



This is the WHOLE family!



And here we all are doing our Phoenix impressions. I AM a Phoenix!

La Jolla Temple 4/21/09

On Tuesday, my sister and I went to the temple to do a session. I was having an awful week that week and I had about a million excuses of why I shouldn't have gone and up until we went into the session, everything was going wrong. I just wanted to go home and start my day over again. It was just one of those days...

Being the good sister Marza is, she kept pushing. So I made it happen one way or another, and I am glad we went. I sure needed it. We try to go once a month, but it has been happening every few months. Hey, at least we are trying. After we got out of our session the sun was literally just setting so I grabbed my camera and got a few shots. These shots were taken just as the sun was almost gone from the sky. I love the brilliant blue the camera captures at this time of day. If you look in the lower left corner of the picture below, you can see just a little pink from where the sun is setting.

Easter 4/12/09

Today we spent Easter at Grandma Krafft's house and Shawn & Gigi's new house.

This is Grandma Krafft and myself.



This is Don and his brother Mike. Not really sure what they were doing, but I thought it was funny.



These pictures are at Shawn & Gigi's house. This one is Brandie, Don's cousin. I liked the lighting around her, so pretty.



Don was trying to take Anthony's Easter basket. He is such an antagonizer...



Easter Egg Hunt:

Dustin's Birthday 2/13/09

My cousin in law Dustin turned 15! He is so old! ;o) We went to Don's Aunt's house and ate a yummy dinner, a yummy cake and spent time with the family.





Molly thought she was being so sneaky when no one was looking... But I caught her!!!

Courtney's Birthday Party 1/31/09

After the baptism we went to Panda Garden and ate some yummy Chinese food! I think I made the waiter mad and he possibly spit in my drink, since that was the item I was questioning. It was highly suspect... You know you have a wonderful husband when he offers to drink something first that is in question. Now that is love! :o) The food was great, the waiters... well they were rude! Anyways... After dinner we went to my sisters house to have cake and open presents.



Yes, those are tea light candles because we are ghetto like that. :o) I love Kaylie's look on her face. Fire! Fire!!!

Courtney's Baptism 1/31/09

My niece Courtney turned 8 years old and was baptized on January 31st. It was so wonderful being a part of this special day for this little girl. These kids are growing up way too fast and I feel so blessed to live so close to them and be a part of their lives as they go through these milestones in their lives. Their Uncle Don and Aunt Mandi love them so much and we are so proud of them. Here are some pictures before the baptism and after.












Courtney & Uncle Don

Mormon Battalion

Today we went to the Mormon Battalion Commemoration in Old Town San Diego. That is what my niece wanted to do for the day for her birthday. It was actually a lot of fun. There were so many activities for family and children of all ages.

Here is Kaylie, Courtney and Craig panning for gold. I didn't have the heart to tell them it wasn't real gold.



Craig the wolf man. Just kidding! That is a fur skin over his face. That's kind of gross. Hehehe...





My Charlie's Angel girls!



Look, there I am again! I actually made into the pictures of this event! This house we are in was cool. It was an original house in Old Town and it has been recently restored.



There were people firing off rifles and cannons. That was kind of cool to watch.

Seaport Village 1/30/09

My parents came out to San Diego the last weekend in January for my niece Courtney's baptism. The day they got in we decided to go to the House of Blues down town for lunch. House of Blues was offering free lunch that day so we thought what a great idea. That was a dumb mistake, duh... The line was wrapped around the block, it was ridiculous! So we decided to go to Seaport Village and spend the afternoon there. The weather was great, the company was great and the atmosphere was stunning! All in all it is one of my most favorite afternoons with my parents. Plus I had fun taking random pictures with my Dad's Nikon camera. I personally like Canon's better. ;o) They are much more user friendly! When we got there I asked my Dad "Can I play with your camera!?!?!" I forgot mine, so I was grateful none the less to be able to use his even if it was a Nikon... Anyways here are some of my favorite pictures I took there.





Two of my most favorite people in the world!!!

Mike's Birthday 1/18/09

We celebrated my brother in law's 16th birthday party on January 18th. Of course this is a big birthday for him since he can drive now!!! He is actually a pretty good driver. I feel very safe and comfortable when I am in the car with him. Here are some pictures from his birthday party at Grandma Krafft's house.



Grandma Krafft and Mike







And last but not least, here is a picture to prove I was actually there. Being the photographer in the family, I rarely ever get to be in pictures. And look, you can kind of see my new hair cut. My hair is actually shorter than that now!