Labor day!

As a 21st Century girl I commit a certain "sin" that I really need to work on:

I am horrible at taking pictures.

I never have my camera on me. And I always forget that I can just use my phone.

With that said, I have no pictures of this weekend even though it was an absolute blast!

Steven's sister Kina and her husband Kyle came up from Houston to visit us for the weekend.

(It is so fun that they live relatively close to us now!)

We went to the rodeo Saturday night.

Went to church, played lots of games and ate yummy food on Sunday. (speaking of yummy food, I tried out a new recipe for chicken and dumplings for the crock pot and it was a huge hit! I shall post the recipe later!)

And on Monday we attempted to go to the waterpark, but ended up leaving after and hour and a half because it was FREEZING! Texas has been ridiculously hot this summer, and then we get this "cold front" the day we want to play in the water. Figures. Oh well, we came home and played Settlers of Catan out by our pool and then went to a yummy burger joint.

The weekend came and went too fast, but it was oh so fun. Now were back to the grind of homework and studying-hooray.

-Crew of Two

Chicken and Dumplings

3 cans of canned chicken (I actually didn't like this too much and I think I'm going to use chicken breasts next time and then shred it)

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

2 cans of chicken broth (or you can make your own with chicken bullion)

1 bag of frozen carrots (I used the little circle crinkle cut carrots because thats what I had in my freezer-it was great)

1 bag of frozen peas (I omitted this ingredient because Steven doesn't like peas)

1 and 1/2 tube of Grand's flakey biscuits. (I purchased a normal tube and one of those half-sized tubes.)

Throw all of the ingredients except the biscuits into a crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours. Cut the biscuits into fourths and throw them in. Cook for an additional 40 min on high.

So easy. So yummy. I think I might be making it next Sunday again! Enjoy!

New changes, new opportunities.

I start school tomorrow, and I'm trying not to freak out.

AHHHHHHH! Why am I so nervous?? And I don't even have chocolate ice cream in my freezer to ease the pain...sadness :(

It's going to be a long night.

***

On a totally different topic, Steven got a new calling today! He was set apart today as 1st counselor in the elder's quorum presidency. How exciting! I know he'll be awesome!

I'm loving my CTR 4 class. They are too dang cute. I think I learn more from them, than what they learn from me sometimes.

Happy Sunday!

-Crew of Two

Jitters

I'm 20 years old and I'm starting school on Monday.

Do back to school jitters ever go away?

Like, I'm having nightmares that I can't find a place to park and then I'm late to my first class.

But during the day I'm excited.

Oh help.

Some good friends of ours from BYU got married today in the San Diego temple, and Steven and I are way bummed that we weren't able to make it. I've been stalking their bridals and her blog to try to make myself feel like I was kinda there. Needless to say, I've been thinking about them ALL DAY, and it also made me a little sentimental (aka, me going through all of my wedding photos). It makes me so happy to see them happy. And...

I'm so happy I married my favorite boy too :)

Summer 2011

I could give you a million reasons why I haven't blogged in 6-7 weeks (yikes!), but in between the lost the camera charger and being in and out of town, the REAL reason just comes down to priorities. Sorry, I chose to do other things instead of blog. This summer was Steven's last summer of his life (minus the research every day from 9-5) so we took advantage and did lots of fun things!

July 4th (ok, I'm cringing, that was SO long ago)

Steven's parents drove into town to spend the Holiday weekend with us. Don't they look like so much fun!? I LOVE it when they come and visit. We always have a great time.

I'm also a little bit of a nerd about the 4th so it was filled with lots of activities and FOOD :)

While his parents were in town we saw two firework shows, goofed off at the Ft Worth Stock Yards, went to a rodeo and went shopping! I don't think a Texan 4th of July gets much better than that!

After the 4th of July, Steven and I went on a 5 night cruise the following weekend down to the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel! It was SUPER fun! Our first port of call was down in the Yucatan where we drove out and saw the Chichen Itza Mayan Ruins. (brace yourselves for lots of pictures)

Here is a pretty crappy picture of where the Mayans used to play their sacrificial games. The members of the losing team were sacrificed on their alter, and then a carving of a skull was added to their mural. Life could always be worse, folks...

^^^Look at those SKULLS! Pretty freaking cool!!!^^^

This pit, which now looks like a murky lagoon thing, was actually the burial place of over 30,000 human remains. At least, that's how many were discovered down there. Pretty creepy...

By the end of the Chichen Itza tour I almost passed out from dehydration and heat exhaustion. I have never craved so much water in my life! It was an AWESOME place to visit, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone!

While we were in Cozumel we decided to scuba dive because we heard that it's one of the best places in the world to dive. And the rumors were true! We saw sting rays, jelly fish, a beautiful purple lobster that was about 3 ft long (no exaggeration), a crab about the size of Steven's head and sea turtles! It was our best dive together yet! The only tiny downside was that we both got stung by these tiny jelly fish, which really didn't hurt that bad, and we got back to the ship with a bunch of tiny red spots all over our arms. Oh well, STILL WORTH IT!

Once we got home it was time to work again. But Steven was able to leave a few weeks later for a weekend in Utah with his family and my mom came to visit me in TX. Unfortunately, due to an MIA camera charger, I have no photos of my mom's visit. This summer was awesome, but has quickly come to a close already. Steven started school again this Monday, and I start up at TCU on the 22nd (which, btw, I am super excited!!!). For all of you Phoenicians, I will be in AZ next week to visit my family and to welcome a new nephew into the family. Sorry this blog was epically long, but it was more for myself than anyone else. Hopefully I will be blogging again soon!

-Neeley Crew of Two + kitters

Lately...

Here's a bunch of random pictures about what has been goin on lately with us!

This was before we moved. Scampi lays out like this all the time and it cracks us up!

This picture was taken during my visit to AZ in May. We were babysitting my niece, Lydia, while her parents took a little vaca for their anniversary. Quite the morning hair-do there uncle Jordan!

Steven and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get a few things and he decided to "test" the tempurpedic pillows haha.

The family that I nanny for got a "new, new, new" (as Bo would say) puppy!! Black Lab, SO ADORABLE!

His name is Dutch. I'm in love! :)

I was making brownies and I decided to be an idiot and leave our stick of butter on top of the stove while the oven was hot. Ya, not the smartest thing I've ever done.

Stay tuned for an exciting 4th of July post in a few days!!! I'M SO EXCITED!! :):):)

Eyes like an eagle!!

I would like to refer all of you to this blog post. Katie is a friend of mine here in Texas, and I seriously could not stop laughing after I read this a couple of weeks ago.

My experience today wasn't quite as bad because I didn't have my eyes dilated. (THANK THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS!!!) Yes, my prescription needs to be more powerful. Yes, I had to wait forever. Yes, they shined a light brighter than the sun in my eyes, but WHOA! I now have eagle vision folks!

It's funny, every time I go to the eye doctor I always think that my glasses are working perfect and how it's such a hassle to have an appointment just so I can refill my contact prescription. And then at the end, they give me the new contacts/glasses and it's like I'm looking at a whole new world. It's almost shocking how clear everything suddenly is!

Anyway, if you've never been to the eye doctor because you're like Steven and are SUPER BLESSED to have perfect vision, you probably won't understand what Katie or I are talking about. For the rest of us handicaps out there, I hope you enjoy her post as much as I did :)

-AN