We Won!

Amazing! We've never really won much in our lives and we've won TWO things this year! We won tickets to a Bryan Adams concert earlier this year and today we won this red dresser from All Things Thrifty:

You should definitely check out the site. These ladies have some wonderful ideas! Thank you Brooke and Kallie!

Leelou Christmas Card Swag

I'm totally getting into this giveaway stuff! It works out great for both parties... I get a shot at winning some cool stuff and Leelou gets her blog's name out! You all should check this one out! If you're a slacker like me and haven't gotten Christmas cards, this might be the solution!

The giveaway can be found here at Leelou Swag!

Good luck!

All Things Thrifty CHRISTMAS letters!

I'm not a crafty person, but I LOVE crafty things! The ladies at All Things Thrifty are amazing! They've made these Christmas letters that they are giving away as a prize. In order for me to enter, I have to refer a new follower to their blog (from Facebook or through their blog). They have some fantastic ideas!

I would really like to have a shot at winning this particular prize, so if you guys don't mind... become a follower of their blog! This is prize giveaway # 4. All you have to do is become a follower of their blog by clicking on the left side of the page where it says "Become a follower today." Like I said, you can do it through Facebook or through the Blog.

Here's what you need to do to win the prize (because I would be just as happy with you winning too!): Leave a comment on the Giveaway post #4 leaving your name and telling the girls that I (Mandy Adams) referred you. Then leave me a comment on this post letting me know that you did that so I can enter and tell them that I referred you.

I hope you're all having a fabulous time getting ready for the Holidays! I can't believe it's already here!

All Things Thrifty Giveaway!

I'm at school right now. I should be prepping for my students to come, but I wanted to spread the word! All Things Thrifty is a site that one of Eli's friends started up. They talk about inexpensive crafts and fixer-uppers and cool stuff like that. AND... they're doing a 7 day prize giveaway right now and I want to win something!

These ladies truly are creative and make everything seem SUPER easy. I figured that I'd pass the word along to all of my more-creative-than-me friends out there so that you can maybe win something or at least get some good ideas!

3 weeks old!

Our puppies are now 3 weeks old and it's amazing to see them grow! They grow so much overnight that you can see the difference in the morning. Their ears are almost fully developed and they can hear now. Their eyes are wide open and they're taking in everything they see. All three of the puppies are walking now and even trying to run a little. They play with each other by pawing each other and trying to eat one another's ears. I cannot believe how sweet and cuddle-y they already are!

Because they are growing so much, it is now a lot harder for Lima to feed all of the puppies at once (which is how they prefer it). She also doesn't have enough milk for them, so we started them on wet puppy food yesterday. It's a big hit! 

We've had so much fun with them the past 3 weeks and we'll be sad when they are able to go. That time is only 3 weeks away and so we're going to start looking for good homes for them! If you or anyone you know might be interested in the puppies take a look at their page at chipinpuppies.blogspot.com. Or you can email us at chipinpuppies3@gmail.com. They've gotta go to a family that'll love them as much as we love them!

Katinka is the one who got the hang of puppy food first. You wouldn't be able to tell from all of her rolls that she LOVES to eat!

From top to bottom: Katinka, Baloo, Bruja, and The Puppy Trio

New Moon Party

I'm not going to lie, Eli and I both enjoy The Twilight Series and being movie buffs, when we were offered tickets to the midnight showing of New Moon, we took it. I needed a good excuse to get a substitute for my class on Friday anyway.

Along with the tickets came an invitation to attend a New Moon premiere party Thursday night. We heard it was going to be a lot of fun, so we decided to attend. We don't do things like this very often, so we figured if we were going to go, we might as well go all out. We dressed up, not die hard costumes like you'd think, but we dressed up. we were planning on going as Emmett and Rosalie, but I couldn't find a blond wig in time, so I went as Leah Clearwater (I've been told I look Native anway) and Eli went as Emmett.


As you can see, our costumes were pretty simple. I threw on some jewelry, quasi-straightened my hair, and threw on some earthy-colored plaid. Eli however, went as far as dying his hair brown. I think it looks pretty good. He even dyed his facial hair (although he wouldn't shave it off). We thought that there would be a ton of people dressed up and there were, but not enough to beat us out! Eli won the "Best Cullen" award while I won the "Best Quileute " award!Here are some other pictures from the party! All in all, it was a pretty fun night (except the standing in line part)! We were pleased with the movie and will most likely get it when it comes out!

2 Weeks

I know it's kind of silly to post about our puppies, but they're our babies for right now. And they've grown so much! In just two weeks their ears are almost developed, their eyes are open, and now they're trying to walk!

Bruja taking a few steps

Close up of Bruja's eyes

Bruja getting bigger

Baloo was the first to open his eyes

A little bigger

Katinka looks kind of drunk; she was the last to open her eyes

She's still pretty big though

They love each other

Puppies!

As some of you know we got our Chorizo neutered a few weeks ago. Well, before we got all of that business sorted out, it turns out that Chorizo and Lima had "relations." Apparently all the trying to keep them separated for 3 weeks was pointless because they just needed a few minutes to chew off each other's diapers.

We're happy with the outcome though! We've got 3 healthy "Chipin" puppies. I prefer calling them Pinschuahuas. We're glad Lima followed her natural instincts and she is being a wonderful mama! We'll get to enjoy them over the next little while before we need to find them good, loving homes!

This is Katinka Ingabagovinana. She was the first born and is the biggest. She came out bottom first, which was difficult, but she is WONDERFUL! She likes sleeping and eating. We call her Tinka for short.

This is Baloo. He's our only male and he's the runt. He's pretty calm compared to the other two, but he's super lovable. His color is pretty rare too.

And this is Bruja (spanish for witch). She is close to Tinka in size, but she looks just like her mama. She's hyperactive like Lima too; she cries, she moves, she's all over the place. 

Day of Fun

Today Eli and I went to an Adams Family Reunion in Sandy. It was awesome meeting so many different family members. Tomorrow we're heading down to Fillmore for our nephew's blessing. Since our family came up and we're going tomorrow, we decided to have a slumber party with our oldest nieces, Sabree and Gracie. We had such a blast today!

After we left the reunion we took the girls to Pirate Island in Orem. It's a new type of Chuck E. Cheese type place. We didn't stop for food, but we did hit up the arcade! The girls started out with a little air hockey and skee ball when Gracie decided to try her hand at the big bass fishing. It's basically a machine you pump tokens into for a chance to win a lot of tickets. Gracie put in her tokens, gave it a pull and landed on the huge bass bonus of 1000 tickets! She was nice enough to share it with Sabree.

We did a few more games like the merry-go-round, bopping the sharks, and popping the bubbles. After we finally got all our tickets together each girl ended up with almost 600 tickets each. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time at the prize counter.

On our way home we picked up some pizzas. We popped in Hannah Montana and chowed down! I'm not gonna lie, Miley has some good songs on that movie. Not to mention that the girls enhanced the movie's soundtrack with their own performance.

Now that the night is winding down, it's time to hop into out jam-jams and hit the sack. We've got an early morning. We love be auntie and uncle!

Being One with Nature

About a week and a half ago Eli and I decided to pack up and head out. We took the puppies up to Maple Grove to do a little camping. I have been trying to get Eli to go camping for like 2 years and we got all this great camping equipment for our wedding that we haven't used yet, so it was a perfect time.

We headed up Friday late afternoon and set up camp. Maple Grove isn't too far from Scipio, so E's parents came up and met us for dinner. I've never dutch ovened anything, so I thought my pizza and peach cobbler came out fabulous! After s'mores and a little visiting, we decided to turn in for the night. We got all nice and snug in our sleeping bags when we were serenaded by the mariachi music coming from the camp across the way. Amazing. It's also a good thing we put the shade up on the tent because it poured a good part of the night!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early with Lima and Chorizo. We made sausage and eggs and blueberry oranges for breakfast and then rounded up our stuff together to go fishing. We went down to "Bart's hole" where E lucked out and caught a decent sized trout. Lima was pretty excited about that thing flopping around in the air. We moved down the creek a little and I caught a deformed fish. Someone had caught it before, cut off the fins, and threw it back. Sad. Lima had a ton of fun swimming and splashing. We blame her for us not catching too many. After fishing it started raining again, so I spent a little time reading while Eli napped.

After the storm cleared up we had a quick lunch of fish (yuck!) and hot dogs and then went for a short hike (I had just rolled my ankle a few days before, so we took it easy) up near the mountain. We saw a few animals, including a deer, which we're pretty sure Chorizo is a distant relative of. Our camp was also invaded by wild turkeys. It started raining again, so we headed back to camp. We then made foil dinners and ate s'mores like there was no tomorrow. Delish!

We headed home Sunday. I love camping. It's just nice to be out in nature where you have zero time schedule and you can just take your time and really enjoy what the Lord gave us. It was wonderful spending time with Eli away from the stresses of life. I think we're going again in a few weekends, if anyone wants to join!

The Newest Dragon

I am (almost) officially a member of the staff at Snow Springs Elementary School in Lehi. I was offered the position today and I accepted. I will be teaching sixth grade. It's a grade I've never taught before, so it'll be very new and I'll have to do a lot of learning, but I am EXCITED!

P.S. I'll be official as soon as I sign my contract.

Since Being Back in Utah...

...we've had SO much fun spending time with our families! Here's a few things we've been up to the past month:

• Attended a Roger K. Young conference with Jeremy
• Visited family in Fillmore & helped plant grass
• Been to Miranda's State Gymnastics meet
• Watched Dad's band play at Snowbird at "The Big Grill on the Hill"
• Spent Father's Day in Smithfield with the grandparents

Not to mention:

• Eli started working with an old buddy at The Keyword Academy and
• I have been applying and interviewing for teaching positions like crazy! I think I'm close!
  

Family, Friends, & Fireworks

Eli and I went down to Scipio the weekend of the Fourth to spend time with the family.

We went down to Fillmore on the Friday the third to watch the nieces in the Children's Parade (and to see our new nephew Branson). After the parade we attended Eli's 10 year high school reunion. It was fun meeting all of Eli's friends from high school. We had a big BBQ at Roper's Barn and got to watch a fun slide show. Interesting people in a small town (Eli went to Millard High, which was fed by six different towns). It's amazing how well everyone knows each other.

Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with Eli's friends and their wives. Awesome people! It was nice not to have awkward conversations, it's like we've known each other forever. You'll have to ask Eli about the ERJJ the next time you see him though. We just met at the Paradise in Fillmore, not too much restaurant choices there. ;0)

Later on we attended the Parade which Eli informed me was the best he's seen. I was surprised that it was so much fun, I guess I wasn't expecting much for small town life, but I was impressed!

We then went to the fair and enjoyed some entertainment and food. We had Deano's pizza and funnel cakes. We also heard about 15 different renditions of "Love Story" and some song by Miley Cyrus. We also saw a Frozen T-shirt contest and saw a woman almost moonwalk off the stage for a free shirt.

I could go on forever, but I'll just say that the fireworks were awesome. We spent that night at the baseball fields with Loyal and Tonia, Bart and the Girls. We had a few footraces (Gracie and Ellie ALWAYS won...they're so fast!), we saw some cheers, and we saw fireworks through these really cool 3D-like glasses. I haven't seen fireworks that great in a LONG time.

Branson, the newest addition to the Adams Family

Ellie & Gracie at the Children's Parade, MHS reunion, ERJJ, Parade Highligh, I Got One, Ellie, Addie telling the fire engine to "Shhh," me and E, Gracie, Fillmore, me and Grace, Grace and Eli, E, Ellie taking a pic of Gracie, the girls, Crazy Fireworks

A LONG Drive Home

So, I figured it was time to update our blog. We've been so busy these past few weeks, but I'm going to do my best. It all started when Eli and I came to Cedar Hills to be at Jake's (my brother) farewell. It was SO nice to see him before he entered the MTC. Not to mention it just felt nice to be back home around our family and friends.

Eli and I began discussing the possiblility of moving back to Utah. There wasn't really too much going on for us down in New Mexico. Eli decided to take a break from his business and preschool was over for the summer. We were kind of in a tough place too in our living situation. We talked to my parents about possibly moving in with them until we got our situation under control. After going back to New Mexico and some praying, we decided to move back. After we made that decision, things fell into place.

Just about a week later we packed and packed and packed. We rented our U-haul (I can't believe we got a 17 footer!), packed it up, and left! Just like that. It was so fast! It seemed insane for us to just get up and go, but it was the right thing for us to do.

We were planning on leaving at around 10 am, but we left about an hour later. Who leaves on time anyway?! Eli and I figured our regular ten hour trip would maybe take twelve hours in a huge truck and towing my car. No way! Of course not! And you wouldn't believe the reason...our dogs. I know, it sounds kind of silly, but our puppies are our little family right now. So every 90 minutes we made a pit stop. Ridiculous, right? Right. I understand.

Chorizo, our chihuaua, LOVES being in the car. He got all comfy in the blankets we had out for the puppies. He walked back and forth between us. He enjoyed the view from the windows. And he slept. He slept for HOURS. He was loving the trip.

Little Lima on the other hand did not enjoy the trip so much. If you remember Eli and I were in a car accident back in January. Lima was in the car with us and she got thrown against the airbag and around the cab of the car. Ever since, she's had a really hard time riding in the car. She shakes a little bit, but usually it isn't too bad. Well, on our trip, it was bad. She couldn't relax. She was shaking the WHOLE time (no exagerration). She wouldn't eat. She couldn't sleep or even lay down. She was the reason we had to stop so often. It worried us.

We also got off our trek a little bit. We thought we knew a faster way to get to Utah, but it turns out it took us a little longer. It was a really nice drive through Colorado though. Nice and green and an easy drive. To make a story short though, we ended up making it to Moab by 9:30 that night. We couldn't stand to go on any longer, so Eli used his excellent negotiator skills and got us a motel at a cheap price that let our puppies stay.

After a good night sleep, we packed up and continued on our journey. Lima wasn't any better and Chorizo just slept. I don't see how people with kids take long trips on the road. They must stop ever half hour or so. That would take FOREVER! Anyway, as we were dricing Ifigured I'd call my mom to make sure we had room to put our stuff. Turns out she didn't realize we were coming so early and that there wasn't a place to store all of our CRAP. So, we had to do some calling and found a nice storage unit in Highland, not too far from Cedar Hills.

So, instead of heading to my parents house, we drove to Highland Hideaway. They were really great about letting us come right on over with our huge truck. We were met there by one of my favorite friends, Kerri Brown. I LOVE her! We basically had to unload the truck, pack up the storage unit, load the truck again, and then drive it to my parents' house. THEN, we had to unpack there again.

All in all, it was a long trip. It was a lot of stopping. It was a lot of packing and unpacking. It was a lot of rain. BUT, it was all worth it. We're home and it feels great to be back!

P.S. Eli recommends this book to EVERYBODY! It's the one he listened to while I slept the drive!

We're Leaving...

...in a moving van. We're not gonna make a huge post about it or anything, but we'd though we'd let y'all know that we're heading back up to Utah (Cedar Hills for the time being). It's something we've put a lot of thought and prayer into and we really feel like right now is the time to be close to our family and friends. So, this is what we get to look forward to on Wednesday.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

I LOVE...

talented people and laughter! This brings a smile to my face. You have to watch the WHOLE video and then watch the next video to fully appreciate it.



The Original Parody



Eli and I decided that we could be friends with Chuck Wicks and Julianne, and Justin Timberlake. If you guys ever need friends in Albuquerque, look us up!

P.S. I don't know how all the copyright stuff works, but I don't intend to infringe on copyright laws. Just want to make people HAPPY!

Kolob is Near

Listen to the BYU Choir sing "If You Could Hie to Kolob," read the words, and continue on.

Eli and I went on a day date yesterday. It was amazing. Any little bit of time I get to spend with him is special and yesterday was no exception. He surprised me with a trip to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. I know, a museum? We love it. We haven't had a chance to go since we moved here. We had some other plans for the day and decided to go to the show at the Planetarium.

If you've ever been to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake, you'll know what the NM Planetarium is like. It's a little smaller, but still similar. In the dome they played a show called "Enchanted Skies: The Digital Universe." It wasn't quite what we expected, but it was still amazing. There is a woman that narrated the whole show and she shared interesting facts. She showed us where some of the more famous constellations are located and how to find the North Star. She taught us a lot about our solar system and the space around our planet.

Then we moved farther out in space. We were able to see other galaxies and this is where I shed a few tears. It's crazy to me to think that some people believe that we living is an accident, just coincidence. It's unbelievable what people have discovered in space. I'll share some interesting things with you that I learned.

Earth is located in a very special place called that Habitating Zone (or something like that). If we were 5% closer to the Sun, we'd burn because of the heat. If we were 10% farther from the Sun, we'd freeze. Technically speaking, Earth is located in the prime position for life. Mars has an irregular orbit, so it dips in and out of the Habitating Zone, but it does contain some of the elements necessary to sustain life. Scientists are looking for algae and fungus on Mars because that would be "life" on another planet.

Every week scientists are finding more galaxies than they ever thought existed. They are also finding more and more planets. That's INCREDIBLE! I wonder where those planets are coming from. Scientists looks for stars similar to our Sun and find other planets orbiting those stars. Eventually they'd like to explore those plaents within the habitating zone of those "suns," there may be other life there.

Scientists are also taking pictures of our galaxy and trying to figure the structure of our galaxy. They know that it's spiral, but not too much more. They have found something called "dark matter" and "dark energy" that suggests that there is something there, but they don't quite know what it is. I wonder what that is.

One of the things that I found most amazing though is the information I heard about the Andromeda Galaxy. Eli has a book called "The Kolob Theorem" that suggests the Andromeda Galaxy is where Kolob exists. As the woman at the Planetarium was talking about this Galaxy, she informed us that is was the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way. She said that the way our galaxies were moving, they were on a collision course for each other. Now galaxies collide sometimes and they create a new galaxy. They combine and become part of each other. Our galaxy is set to combine with the Andromeda Galaxy in a billion years or so. They showed an enactment of what that might look like and it was stunning.

The Andromeda Galaxy

The Milky Way

Draw your own conclusions, even if the theories aren't correct, you cannot help but look into the starry sky and not know that EVERYTHING out there is not an accident. I KNOW that my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ love me and created this AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, and STUNNING world for us. Science and religion have a place, next to each other, hand in hand. I believe that they both help each other. It's just unbelieveable what is out there. I am so blessed and am so thankful. I don't know how to express my gratitude for my life.

Happy Easter!

Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy

This is Lous CK on Conan O'Brien. I just wanted to add an AMEN and say that I have SO much to be grateful for.

Video belongs to NBC

Simpy Mad About the Mouse

Childhood memories. I have so many and I found a TON on youtube tonight. The internet is truly an AMAZING tool. So here, for your enjoyment, are a few clips from Simply Mad about the Mouse.

Just as a side note: I do not own the songs or videos. I do not intend to step on any copyright toes. I just LOVE SMATM.

Harry Connick Jr. - The Bare Necessities

LL Cool J - The Big Bad Wolf (rated PG for SCANDALOUS women! ha ha!)




And as I was trying to find more video, I've learned that the video codes were disabled. This person does not want to share the love. Here are the links. They're still really good.

Soul II Soul : Kiss the Girl
Billy Joel: When You Wish Upon a Star
Ric Ocasek: Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah
The Gypsy Kings: I've Got No Strings
Bobby McFerrin: The Siamese Cat Song
Michael Bolton: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

This isn't the video from Simply Mad, but it is the song. It wouldn't be complete without it!

En Vogue: Someday My Prince Will Come

I've Got Music...I've Got My Man...

Who could ask for anything more? Eli and I had a special treat this past weekend. The BYU Young Ambassadors are on a regional tour right now and they came through Albuquerque. Of course, I was SUPER excited because I love the YA! I watched 'em a lot while I was at school. I was kind of surprised that Eli was excited about it too, but then I remembered he was in a similar show choir while he was at Snow College.

We made a fun double date night of it with our friends Todd and Bonnie. It wasn't anything complicated, pizza and a performance. The time was well spent. We really like our friends. We showed up to the RRHS Performing Arts building 20 minutes early and it was PACKED. It was a great show from the beginning. The YA Show Band was awesome ( and made Eli drool because he wanted the drum set they had). There was SO MUCH stinkin' talent in that room. The voice range on some of those kids was outstanding!

At many points during the show Eli and I made decisions. Eli decided that he wanted to take drum lessons. I'm going to learn to tap dance and play the sax. I also decided that I would be okay if our future kids wanted to tap dance, even the boys. It's an extremely athletic thing. Eli said they could as long as they did a MANLY sport along with it.

It was a perfect date. I really couldn't have asked for anything more that night. And if you have the chance to see the Young Ambassadors, you should!

Driving Away from the Wreck of the Day

So we didn't really end up driving away. The car got towed and some friends came to pick us up. It all happened so fast, I don't really know what was going on. We were driving home from Lima's vet appointment (she might be pregnant, but that's another story), I was texting our friend B when I heard Eli shout, I heard a loud popping noise, my head hit something as I was shoved forward and then that was followed by my head swinging back. I really oouldn't register what was happening. Lima was crying and looked like she was flying and Eli was asking if I was ok and then to get out of the car. Eli came and checked on me and Lima and then checked on the lady in front of us while the lady behind us cursed at us. There were 5 cars, 8 people, and 1 dog involved. It was miraculous that no one was injured. I sustained a broken off thumbnail (which hurts a lot more than you'd think), Eli got pinched by his watch (which is in excellent condition Pop), and Lima got air bag dust in her eye. We're all quite a bit sore and tired, but we're alive.
We're so thankful that everyone made it out ok. Of course our car didn't (it's that "champagne" colored Ford Escape), but who cares? We made sure to thank our Heavenly Father for our safety and our friends. They missed their kid's basketball game to pick us up. I know it sounds crazy, but we're blessed.

the silver thing is the exhaust pipe; it made its way on top of our tires...?