Our friend Brian rocks. He took some pictures of us that we were originally going to send out as Christmas cards.
Well, the budget is tight this year and you're probably just going to throw out the card after the holidays anyway, so we thought we'd just post this instead. (If you REALLY want the picture, you can right click on the picture and save it... or print it out and THEN throw it out after the holidays!!)
Thanks Brian!!
This morning after swimming lessons, we decided that we should probably take Brynn to get her hair trimmed. We were going to take her one of those places for kids but then I remembered that today was "Nie Day" at Habit Salon, which was right down the street. All proceeds today from 7am to 7pm were donated to helping the Nielson's. We decided that because it was such a good cause, we should go. I wasn't planning to get mine done (as you can tell, I still had my sunglasses on my head while she was trimming Brynn's hair) but we figured what the heck, why not?
Here are some pictures from our fun morning (Chad even thought it was cool!), it was a neat salon and as long as our budget permits, they've got some returning customers in the West family. I'm sure they raised quite a bit of money, they were pretty packed when we were there. They were also selling some "Nie" gear and had some raffles. We bought a ticket and won some children's books (Chad was excited, he was hoping that we'd win those for Brynn)!!
She did really great while she was getting her trim, I wasn't sure how she'd do since she's only had one other hair cut and it was by Grampie Don last year!! For whatever reason, she was super cuddly... I think she was getting sleepy!!
I'm so excited that they did this special day for the Nielson's!! Like I'm said in my previous posts, I've never met them before, I've only read articles and blogs but I think that Stephanie would really like that salon. It seems to have her sense of style, antique-y and sophisticated. Super cute. Hopefully she'll be able to make it over there sometime to check it out. 
Chad has fun carving pumpkins, so we got an extra one this year and he carved "D3" into it. (His VW club.) We're hanging out with a few of the families from the club tomorrow night, doing a potluck and trick-or-treating!!
Chad's mom (Jody, a.k.a. Gramma!) sent Brynn some super cute Halloween hair things, so we had to take lots of pictures with them in while she played in the pumpkin goop!! Thanks Gramma!!
Here are some pictures that we took tonight:
Last Saturday morning, Chad and I met with a bunch of people that are in his car club and we all drove down to Tucson for a VW show. Not too long after we left the house, I realized that we forgot sunscreen. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal since we live in ARIZONA and you can GET SUNBURNT ON CHRISTMAS DAY here, they had to have some at Kmart (where we met). WRONG. I couldn't find any.
We had a lot of fun and we got to hang out with some of Chad's friends that I hadn't seen for a while. It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get there because there were 12 cars total that drove together. On the way there, a few of the cars broke down and we ended up stopping about four times so that they could get them running again. This is where the sunscreen would have came in handy. I looked like an idiot because I was only burnt on the right side of my neck and face. Oh well, it's feeling much better now.
The actual car show was on Sunday and several people from Chad's club got up SUPER EARLY and were there at 4:00AM!! I told Chad he was nuts if he wanted me to get up at early. We got there at 6:15 or so.
I was guessing that there were around 90 cars or so but we found out that at the last count, there were 176!! That is a lot of VW's!!
Our friend Zach brought his grill down with him, so of course, I took over collecting the money for food and Zach and I went shopping. He and Chad did the GRILLING.
They gave out a bunch of awards at the show and D3 (Chad's club) gave out a few as well. The members of D3 all gave Chad an award for this year's show because his car had gone through so much work in the last year! We thought that was pretty cool.
We had to hurry to get home because Chad's mom flew in for the weekend (she watched Brynn) and we had to get her back to the airport (I'll post on that soon!!). We felt bad because we weren't able to drive back with the rest of the group and were crossing our fingers that we didn't break down!! Luckily, we made it home ok.
Here are a few pictures from our quick trip (Jenn - Chad took a picture of the U of A Bug just for you!!):
Chad, you are the best husband (and Daddy!) ever. I love you so much and I don't know what I would do without you. Happy 2nd Anniversary Babe!! 
Click HERE to see pictures from last year!!
I kept my word (from a year ago). We ended up taking Brynn on her first hayride, decorating Brynn's baby pumpkin, picking out our own and showing her some farm animals!!
Here are some pictures we took today:
(They're bigger than last year...)
This week, it will be a year ago that Chad lost his job, I went back to work, and Brynn started daycare at the Caudill's house!! I can't believe how fast time has flown by and how completely different our lives are than they were a year ago.
If he wouldn't have lost his job, he wouldn't have found the company that gave him the opportunity to learn a different trade. That experience got him to the amazing company that he works for now.
For all of these crazy things that have happened in the last year, I am completely grateful.
So, yeah. I'm still annoyed with hyperlinking. Thanks for trying Heidi but I think I'm just a dumbass at this.
Anyway... Last night, Brynn stayed the night at the Caudill's house. Brenda watches Brynn during the day so we figured it would probably be easier for Brynn just to stay there. (Thanks for the offer though Jenn!!) Brenda said that she did pretty good, she woke up once in the middle of the night and got up at her usual time this morning. I think that was a little rough on Chad and I... it's only the second night that she's been away from us!! We weren't worried about her, it was just a weird feeling not having her at home with us!!
Back to the subject of this post... Maroon 5 ROCKS!! Chad bought perfect seats, Cricket was packed and it was a lot of fun!! Augustana opened up, Maroon 5 was the second band and then the Counting Crows closed the show. We didn't end up sticking around for the Counting Crows... Chad isn't a big fan, we were exhausted, and the Counting Crows WAY too long to set up.
Our friend Rosey was exactly two rows behind us!! (Um, yeah, I would hyperlink that but I can't figure it out... so you can click on her name on my blog list instead.) I knew she was going to be there but I didn't think she'd be so close to us!! How cool is that?!
Unfortunately, we didn't bring our camera. It was supposed to rain last night and we didn't want to deal with it, so we left it at home. Since we knew we weren't going to take the camera with us, we took a pre-concert picture!! Here is my Hottie Husband Who Buys Me Awesome Birthday Presents and I:
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