New Blog Post...OH MY!!!!

So...I am working on a really great and detailed post of the last four months of our lives and it has been really hard! It will be done soon but I just thought I would say hi to all of you (even though I see most of you regularly) :)  But I also wanted to change my background and thought I should put a quick note in here...So as of right now- Forrest is hunting and I am staying at my dad's house because I am too big of a wimp to stay by myself and so let me tell you it has been a rough few days...not because of my family...they have been great, but it is hard moving out with a husband and living in your own cute little condo for nine months and then suddenly feel abandoned and have to go running back to dad....I miss Forrest...I am pathetic...IT HAS ONLY BEEN THREE DAYS! I know all of you are probably laughing at me but this is the longest that we have spent apart from each other and I am sad...This has been the subject of my facebook status and pretty much all I have been talking about to people...LAME I tell you! I just wish I was not such a big baby...I am sure my family wishes that of me too...But I know that Forrest is having a great time and is able to help out his brother on his hunt...I also knew going into this marriage that this was how it was going to be...so I just need to deal and get over myself and know that I will see him soon...I mean I went two years without seeing him right??? :) I can handle a week...So please don't think I am a total loser for writing this and thanks for letting me talk...this might be my new therapy...haha ya right...I need therapy more than once every four months! While I am at it...I guess I could talk about my job for a minute...I am working at a junior high with kids that have behavior problems and let me tell you it is by far the hardest thing I have ever done...but I am learning so much and starting to enjoy myself more and more. And my teacher is great...she really knows her stuff and helps me like crazy...so that I don't go crazy! But part of my job is to take notes about what goes on in the classroom and that has actually been very therapeutic for me...My teacher was actually the one that pointed that out after she read my notes...I write novels about everything that happens and she loves to read them because she has no idea that half of that stuff that I wrote about went on...If I am really having a hard time with something that a student said or did I write all about it and then I can go back later and I always end up laughing at what I wrote and what happened...Because it was usually pretty crazy and it always surprises me the things that I go through in this job...I don't really have much else to talk about right now...I am really tired and need to go to sleep...(in my little sister's bed no less) she is at my mom's and generously allowed me the pleasure or sleeping in her room. I love my family...both old and new...I have a really great relationship with my sisters and brother and parents and I am forming really neat bonds with my new leavitt family too! They are really neat people and I feel really lucky to know them and to be in their family now...Well I will write more later...I am seriously tired now...I am going to regret whatever I wrote when I read it tomorrow, because it will sound super stupid...haha oh well!!! :)

Arianna

Birthday Bash Weekend!!!!

Well my birthday was this weekend, Saturday July 24th and it was a fun one! It started out on Wednesday when we had my family dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (where else??) :) It was delicious as always and I had a good time with my family both old and new...

Isn't he so cute??? :)

My dad threw me a party on Friday night and it was a blast! He wouldn't tell me what we were doing until the day of and it ended up being really fun...We went to the Dbacks game and sat in the All You Can Eat Suite. It was way cool and everybody loved it!

Andi and I got matching shirts...

I had lots of my favorite people there...

They had hotdogs, chips, soda, popcorn...it was way cool...

My dad and Sharon came up with a fun competition for us...Whoever ate the most hotdogs, a boy and a girl, would win a subway 25 dollar giftcard...guess who won???

It was a very fantastic night...loved it!

The next day was my birthday and I had a great day...we went shopping at the mall with forrest, shalice, daylon and andi and then met my dad for lunch. Later that night we went to my friend Caitlin's birthday party...Her and I were born on the same day and this year she had her party the night of the 24th. We went to a restaurant with all of her family called Trader Vic's in Scottsdale. It was really fun and the atmosphere was so cool!

The next day was Sunday and we had family dinner at my grandma's house. I had the idea to celebrate my cousin Stephen's birthday because he is on his mission and his birthday is four days after mine. I had brought a tape recorder and I recorded family conversations, singing happy birthday to he and I, and we all gave our own personal message. It was really fun! We took some pictures to send to him...We are all really proud of him and we love him so much! You are the best Elder Chapman :)

My little sister Andi is obsessed with all of the cake shows on T.V. and loves to bake. She is so cute, well her and my mom made my birthday cake on Sunday and it was so yummy and totally adorable! This was seriously one of the best birthdays ever and I love that I got to spend it with so many special people. I am seriously lucky! :)

Dbacks game, fireworks and Vegas Baby!

So we went to the diamondbacks game on Saturday night with my fam and some friends and let me tell you it was a TERRIBLE game, but they had fireworks! But you had to stay for the entire game to see the fireworks, so we were pretty bummed because of all games that we would have left early from, this was the one we couldn't. These were the final stats for the game...not good...not good at all

The fireworks were really fun though...

The next day we were off to Las Vegas! We got to our hotel (Planet Hollywood) pretty early and we weren't able to check in quite yet and so we looked around the mall in the hotel and then went and got some lunch at the famous hot dog place called Pink's. It was fun to go there and see all of the celebrity memorabilia and who likes to eat there...

Here is our hotel lobby...just like the movie...we loved it!

We also went to the M&M factory, Coke factory and saw a Beetle's tribute band show. It was pretty fun...we knew most of the songs and we even got moved up front row seats...

Here they are after the show...

Later that day we went to the Bellagio and saw the fountains, and then headed to Margaritaville for dinner. We were seated upstairs right next to the window and it was perfect because there were fireworks shot off on top of Caesars Palace.

The next day we went to Paris and had crepes for breakfast...Yummy!

We went shopping at Caesars Palace, hung out at the pool, and then went to Fremont Street...

We also made tye dye shirts prior to going to Vegas and thought they turned out pretty good :)

We wanted to get those gigantic cups that everyone always carries around Vegas but needed to find a place that would put soda in them instead of alcohol...We finally found a place and the guy laughed at us when we asked for sprite and coke in the cups...it was pretty funny...We liked carrying the drinks around and we had plenty to share! :)

I look like I had something besides coke in my cup...this is not a good picture of me...We found the coolest candy shop called the Sugar Factory. It has yummy shakes and ice cream and the coolest couture lolli pops. They are designed by celebrities and are so delicious and so blinged out.

We also hit up New York  New York to play at the arcade and eat lunch there. Later that night we went to the Venetian to see the Blue Man Group. They were so GOOD! They were hilarious and had some good skits and special effects. It was totally fun and we couldn't believe we hadn't seen it sooner.

The entire time that we were there, I wanted to go and get a frozen hot chocolate from the shop called Serendipity. It was so so so YUMMY but gigantic...I definately shared with everyone and we loved it!

We had to get the famous shot featured in the movie...

We had a really fun trip and did lots of awesome things...Thanks dad and sharon for inviting us and thanks for reading this EXTRA large blog post...haha I will post again soon!

VEGAS!

So this fourth of july weekend....my husband (hehe i have a husband!), sister, friend of my sister, dad and stepmom are going to the one place where you can step up and be a man....and no it is not community college but rather it is LAS VEGAS! Anyone seen "What Happens in Vegas"? It's like one of our fav movies and that was a quote from it...Anyway...we have lots and lots of plans and we can't wait to go...we are staying at Planet Hollywood and are super excited about that and all of our festivities...i will def update when we get back...oh and my baby sister andi just left this morning for washington d.c. for an entire week by herself! it was for a leadership conference called people to people and they get to tour washington d.c. and all of the famous landmarks and i am so jealous! My mom, shalice and i took her to the airport this morning...we told her she better bring us back  albert einstein bobbleheads from the smithsonian :)

Tim and Utah!!!

So the Tim Mcgraw concert was Amazing and we LOVED it! He sang all of our fav. songs and it was way fun!

We went to Utah this last Thursday with Calli and Richard and it was really fun. We went with them because Richard had a missionary companion come home and we went to listen to his homecoming talk. We drove up on Thursday and went to the dunes first off. The boys were super excited to go and lets just say that I wasn't the biggest fan of all of the jumps and hills and all that fun stuff...but I tried it and now I can say that I have been to the dunes.

We went to Salt Lake on Friday and went to the temple and toured temple square. I have been to Salt Lake before but I have never been able to go in the temple until this trip. That temple seriously lives up to everything that people say about it. It was absolutely beautiful inside and it is truly a work of some very special pioneers.

It is amazing to me that they were able to do what they did in that temple with what they had to work with. I have always been amazed with the pioneers and all that they had to endure and what they accomplished. They were some magnificent men and women that loved our Savior so much that they came so far to have religious freedom in Utah. I was born on July 24th and so I have always had a special place for Utah and pioneers and have loved learning about them. We went to the tabernacle and the beehive house and the conference center and the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was my favorite day of the trip and so fun to be there with my friends and husband. :)  While we were at the Joseph Smith memorial building we stopped by a pretty cool restaurant and decided to eat there...ever heard of The Roof Restaurant?!?!? SO DELICIOUS! It was a blast getting to eat there because I have always heard about it and seen it in movies but never been there...it was the best restaurant I have ever been to and it was so fun!

Our View from the table.....

On Saturday we went to the town where the elder was from and it was called Mount Pleasant. It was a very small but very adorable place and it was about 20 miles from the Manti Temple. We were able to go to the Manti Temple and do sealings and that was another wonderful experience. That temple was also very beautiful and we got to see the spiral staircases that they have there. There are two staircases, one that goes clockwise and one that goes counter-clockwise and they each make I think they said five complete circles leading up to the top of the temple. They were so tall and so beautiful! We loved this temple and had a great time in the town the rest of the weekend. We are grateful to Calli and Richard for inviting us and putting up with us :) We had a blast and loved Utah!