Katie Jo

New Blog Address!!!

2010-09-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hey so I am blogging again... for reals this time. Unfortunately, I had to start a new blog because I am getting rid of my old email address and google account. So.... my new blog, for those who would like to see it, is http://katedjo.blogspot.com/. There you have it. :)

2010-03-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

So it's been a loooong time since I've been on here and I doubt anyone even looks at this thing anymore.... but I think I want to start keeping up with this now. Since I last blogged, I have a new nephew (Jaxton Randall), a new niece (Sydnie Renee), a new job, and now a new apartment. All of which, I absolutely love! I need to get some pictures up of Jaxton and Sydnie... I'm afraid Zoe exhausted me on pictures and I have been horrible about it ever since. They sure are sweet little munchkins though. :) I'm just sad that I don't get to see Smash (Ashley) and Crew very often because they live far far far and away. I met Sydnie for the first time this Christmas and she totally scowled at me. It was so dang cute. haha Jaxton is already walking but he's still a sweet little cuddle bug... and very much a daredevil. Crazy boy. Zoe is still as cute as ever. She has got me so wrapped around her little finger it isn't even funny. She's old enough now that she's picking up on just how much of a sucker Aunt Katie is... or Aunt Tatey I should say. :) I honestly didn't think I could love that little girl as much I did the first time I held her but man, every time I see her I just melt a little more. She's such a sweet, funny little thing I can't help myself. And she just loves Dan too... or she likes talking to him on the phone anyway. haha Every time I have my phone out and he's not there, she asks me, "Where's Dan?" and if she gets on the phone with him, she will jabber away for five minutes at a time. I think she just likes to talk on the phone but it's cute anyway. :)

I started working as a Photographer for a real estate group in Scottsdale last August. I've been learning a ton and having a great time getting paid to do what I love to do! Not only is what I do fun, but the people I work with are awesome too. I wish I had been posting through the holidays so everyone could see pictures of the crazy work parties they throw. I have never seen an employer get so out of control with food and decorations for a work party... not to mention the prizes! I won $1000 in November for building a gingerbread house and winning the contest (which KaLee helped me build :) )... yeah, they just throw money in all directions during the holidays. It's crazy!

Anyway, I will try to be better about posting on here and keeping up with everyone else. :) The photo at the top was one that I took last Fall. A few of us ran up to Sedona on a Saturday and made it just barely in time to set up my camera and take a few shots. Turned out pretty good I think. I enlarged it and printed it for Mom and Dad for Christmas. Dan and his dad helped me make a frame and everything so it looked pretty cool. I think they were pretty surprised because I hadn't even told them that I took the picture.

Zoe Update

2009-02-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

So I went and hun gout with Nate and Amber the other night... I can't believe how much Zoe grows every time I see her. She just turned 1 year old and she's running all over the place. Not only that but she's starting to talk and say different words... or at least her version of those words so far. :) She says 'puh puh' for puppy, 'mmmm' (and points to the TV for movie, and I don't know how to spell it but she says her own version of 'Jesus' and 'pretty' too. Of course she says Mama and Dada, and baba for bottle, hi, bye bye... and I am sure lots more. Those are the ones I heard that night though and I just thought it was too cute that she looked right at his picture when Amber told to her to say 'Jesus'. It took her a minute to cooperate and say it too, but she knew exactly who he was!

This is the little munchkin just loungin on the couch and watching Little Einstein.

Still watching Little Einstein ... and the "Puh Puh" you hear is her saying puppy because she sees one on the movie.

She's being a little bit of a stinker here but I think it's just too cute not to post. haha - and I almost got in a lot of trouble for laughing when she was doing it.

Zoo!!!

2009-01-20T12:56:00.000-08:00

We went to the Zoo on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, with some friends from Dan and Jordan's ward.

Dan decided to rent a bicycle-buggy thing and it was way fun... but I don't think Dan anticipated how much work it was going to be to peddle that thing around. :) It was pretty much a free ride for me! I drove once and that turned out to be a bad idea.

Here's our first adventure on camera.

So I've always seen monkeys pick the bugs off of eachother and eat them on TV but this was pretty cool to catch them grooming right there in front of me. ... that sounded wierd.

This tiger was actually up in the tree. He seemed pretty intent on watching the other tree full of birds. Poor guy, I don't think he got any of them... unless he learned how to climb palm trees too.

We were so preoccupied with the tiger in the tree that we forgot to watch our buggy... :)

Bottoms up!

and noses...

I think the Giraffes are my favorite. They are just so funny looking... and they just look a little dumb, in an endearing sort of way. :)

Watching the Rhinos...

This elephant likes to do things the hard way, haha. :)

I just love this

Here's Dan just before he splashed nasty lake water all over my face. Thanks a lot :)

And, here's what we all felt like after a long day at the zoo...

The Hike

2009-01-13T07:45:00.000-08:00

Game Night

2009-01-13T07:42:00.001-08:00

For anyone who has not played the game 'Snorta'... I entreat you to just try it. It's a game of animal noises... and it's hilarious. Warning though: If you value normal brain function, do not attempt more than 2-3 rounds at a time.

Christmas 2008

2009-01-13T07:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning with the Fackrells. We all crashed at Dan's place after the Christmas Eve party at his Grandparent's house. They do things a little bit different than my family... for example, we didn't even get up until 9 or 10. Unheard of in my house! haha, ok more like it's unheard of for me. And then... we didn't open presents until after breakfast! Which took hours it seemed like. But actually it was a very nice and relaxing morning so I am not complaining. It was definitely a first for me though. I usually wake up around 3am on Christmas morning :) haha

Kalee, Sister Fackrell and I made breakfast while the boys played with the train set.

I didn't have enough wrapping paper for Dan's present... because he used it all for other presents. ;) so I improvised with my quilt. It was a lot prettier than that but then the boys moved it so they could set up the train.

Our lovely breakfast of flour-free pancakes, eggs and hot chocoloate. The pancakes actually weren't too bad - they tasted more like crepes once we topped them with peaches and whipped cream. This breakfast was totally thrown together with whatever Kalee and I could find in our kitchen and in Dan's kitchen... ok mostly our kitchen.

It started raining and then it turned into sleet or something a lot heavier... it was crazy cuz it kinda looked like snow at one point. And this other picture is of Jordy and Mazy. Mazy is the bridge for the train, just in case you were wondering.

Deliveries for Phoenix Children's Project

2009-01-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

Caroling For Cans

2009-01-13T07:15:00.000-08:00

About a week before Christmas, we had a party out at Dan's new house to go "Caroling for Cans" for St. Mary's Food Bank. It was a lot of fun ... and it was great to do something to help out the community at the same time. I feel I have started a new tradition for myself.

This cat came up to the door as we were singing... and I think we ended up singing only for the cat at that door. Not everyone wanted to answer their doors.

Massages after a hard night's caroling.

Pretty Christmas Trees. :)

And here we are watching Forest and Co. install Dan's dishwasher that they just got that day.

8 Things

2008-12-29T13:30:00.001-08:00

Tagged by Holli

8 Favorite TV Shows
1. The Office
2. House
3. Arrested Development
4. What Not to Wear
5. Heroes
6. Burn Notice
7. CSI
8. Flight of the Chonchords

8 Things I did Yesterday :
1. Went to church
2. Read scriptures
3. Edited photos
4. Talked with roommates
5. Watched House... a LOT of it.
6. Ate Jaris' yummy caramel candies... a LOT of them.
7. Slept in...
8. Went to bed way way way too late.

8 Things I look forward to (this week) :
1. Sleeping in!
2. Taking pictures for my friend Natasha
3. watching more House
4. spending time with family and friends
5. spending time with Dan
6. New Years!
7. Cooking something new
8. teaching sunday school

8 favorite restaurants:
1. Carolina's
2. Applebee's
3. Gecko Grill... this one is a new favorite
4. Outback
5. Cheesecake Factory
6. PF Chang's
7. Goodwood BBQ
8. Texas Roadhouse

2008-12-19T05:44:00.000-08:00

So I've been pretty lame about taking pictures lately... but I had to put something up that wasn't Halloween... since it's already Christmas. :) So here's a couple I took of Zoe the other day.

Halloween Fun!!!

2008-11-04T08:44:00.001-08:00

So, not only was Friday the best day of the year because it was Halloween... it was also Shannen's birthday! So we had double the fun with crazy costumes, Rob's fantastic skills as a Chef (he made the yummiest soup... mmmm) , and celebrating Shannen's Golden Birthday.

Dan and Jordan Robots from the distant future for Halloween. Those of you who have seen the HBO television show, Flight of the Chonchords, will appreciate this. HAHA! They look exactly like them!

This is Josh's impression of a robot. haha

And now... to the main event!

Hannah Montana and Lola Luftnagle!

haha - just kidding! But really, that's who Kalee and I dressed up as. Fun huh? I think we had more fun shopping for our costumes than actually wearing them. :) How do you like me as a blonde? I think Kalee has better pictures... at least I hope she does cuz these don't show off all my bling very well.

So this weekend, Amber and Nate had us over for dinner and to hang out for a bit. Unfortunately we had to run shortly after dinner... but we sure had fun while we were there!

Zoe munchkin getting into the ziploc baggies... Amber says this is one of her favorite toys. hahaha

She has the greatest faces don't you think? :)

For Holli Dolli... and whoever.

2008-10-24T15:28:00.000-07:00

A- Attached or single: attached ... but not married!
B- Best Friends: male-Dan/Nate-O female-Jules/Michelle
C- Cake or Pie: strawberry pie!
D- Day: Saturday, cuz I usually get to spend most the day with Dan. :)
E- Essential Item: um... my computer, as boring as that sounds.
F- Favorite Color: happle dreen! haha (green)
G- Gummy Bears or Worms: definitely the little wormies
H- Home town: Gilbert, AZ
I- Indulgences: McD's sausage egg mcmuffins mmmmmmm
J- January or July?: July - no cold please.
K- Kids: nope
L- Life is incomplete without: eggo waffles and Matchbox 20
M- Marriage Date: that's a negative
N-Number of Siblings: 4- Nate, Smash, Josh, Haley
O- Oranges or Apples: oranges I guess... but I like the clementines better
P- Phobias or Fears: being laughed at
Q- Quote: "This is an environment of welcoming, and you should just get the hell outta here." Michael Scott, Regional Manager, Dunder Mifflin Inc,.
R- Reason To Smile: I get to watch my niece, Zoe, tonight!
S- Season: Fall! Halloween... Thanksgiving... BYU Football... oh yeah.
T- Tag Three: um... uh oh. I don't know.
U- Unknown fact about me: I have two hamsters, Dwight and Buster... they're brand new.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Opressor of Animal I s'pose.
W- Worst Habit: Staying up way too late talking to people and watching movies. It's going to get me one of these days. Oh and so is shopping... that has been way too much of a temptation lately.
X- Rays or Ultrasounds: dumb question
Y- Your favorite food: Grandma Jo's cream peas and potatoes... and kettle corn... and edamame.
Z- Zodiac Sign: don't know, don't care.

Pumpkin Carving

2008-10-20T15:23:00.001-07:00

Hooray for October! We had fun the other night over at Dan and Kalee's aunt's house. Kalee made yummy Halloween treats and we carved a couple of pumpkins. Dan and I worked on one together... of course he can't ever just smile in the pictures. :) (And yes, I am actually wearing a pink sweater, believe it or not!)

Zoe's Photo Shoot

2008-10-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at taking pictures using my studio light set... and it turns out that I don't have enough lights! haha But that's ok, Zoe is still way cute so I will have to resort to photoshop to fix the light and color a little bit. These are just a few that I took.

Is she not the cutest little snail you've ever seen?

Tired Girl

2008-10-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

If all else fails, there are lots of fun things to play with in Aunt Katie's purse!

I can't remember what night this was... but we had dinner over at Nate and Amber's, and then we tried keeping Zoe entertained for a while until bedtime. She was really tired and couldn't decide if she was happy or cranky. :) As I recall, she was mostly cranky. haha But that is because she refused to go down for a nap that afternoon. Little stinker.

She's mobile!

2008-08-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

You'd think she was mine...

2008-08-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

Do you think I have enough of Zoe on here yet? Me neither.

Boating

2008-07-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

Amber and I

Dad takin' on the wake surf board :)

I had to get myself in here somehow!

Nate-O. He was such a good sport... he even let me drive!

My first attempt at wakesurfing. The video where I actually stay up is too long to put on the website. That figures.

This is my pathetic attempt at wake boarding. And yes, this is as good as it got... all 50 million times I tried to get up. Grrrrrr.

Nate

Nate and Amber - now you see why Zoe is so cute?

Almost time to go home ... a storm is rolling in and we are still messing around.

I can't remember what happened here... but it was funny :)

The storm clouds that were coming in fast.

My Bro and I

Weekend Family Fun!

2008-07-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

More cuteness from Zoe Mae!

Here's Dan kicking Mom's trash at boxing.

We spent one evening up at Dan's parents eating yummy biscuit bubble and playing Wii with Josh and Riley. Riley kicked my trash at bowling. And then Josh got a Turkey and he was quite proud of himself. Too bad the video file is too large to put on here. :( He was cracking us up.

Dan and Zoe... she's wearing the Cubs hat that Dan just got for me.

Cute little stinker. She looks better in that hat than I do!

Zoe's fake laugh... she's into imitating these days. So funny!

4th of July

2008-07-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Dan and I, by the stream on an Apache Indian Reservation near ShowLow that we camped at for the 4th of July.

On our way!

We stopped at this gas station in the middle of who knows where and there were probably 10 to 15 of these Shelby's parked there...until we were ready to leave of course and then they all decided to leave at the same time... in a nice long line in front of us. I really didn't mind watching them all drive away though. Beautiful! I want one!

Trevor brought his game down all the way from Utah... but I'm not going to write down what he calls it. :) We've played it at our family reunions before too but I can't remember what we called it. Anyway, Dan and I took on Trevor and Jordan and beat them twice in a row - oh yeah! I'm afraid that's all I got to play though. :) The boys were having so much fun!

Besides, I was having fun with my camera ...

Kalee and I explored the stream while the boys played with their game.

These videos are of Dan getting payback for all the scars Jordan gave him when they were little. :) He was having a little too much fun trying to kill his brother though. haha

So the whole point of going up to ShowLow that weekend was to pick up Jordan, Dan's older brother. He caught a ride down from Utah with our friend Michael, and it was actually a surprise for Dan's parents. We were actually supposed to make it all the way to Eagar to get him but... the parentals were making that difficult so Michael was a sweetheart and brought him and Trevor to ShowLow for us. We met up at the Walmart and Jordan casually "bumped" into his mom in the store. It was great! They were so surprised!

We camped... played games... went exploring... it was fun!

The End.

More Zoe

2008-07-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Dan and Zoe

Tickle Me Zoe

Dad's are great for all sorts of things... hugs, kisses, money, armrests...

Zoe and Amber came to visit me on Sunday for a little but while they waited for my brother Nate. And we had so much fun! I kicked Amber's trash at SkipBo and then Zoe entertained us for the rest of the afternoon. The cute little stinker is sitting up on her own now, and chewing on everything. :) She was getting quite a kick out of her mom throwing her up in the air and tickling her too. Crazy girl loves to be thrown around. I think she enjoyed flirting with Dan the most though. Haha.

Later that night, I got to babysit for a little while so Nate and Amber could go pick up my parents from the airport. I was kinda bummed when Amber said she would probably be in bed already by the time I would get there... but she wasn't! She was still having too much fun in the bath when I showed up, so I got to feed her a bottle and put her to bed. This was the first time I've had the opportunity to babysit Zoe, so I was really excited. That sweet little girl was so good for me too. She was all cuddly and smily the whole time.... even when she spit up all over me. :) She started falling asleep in my arms after she was done with her bottle, so I decided I wasn't in a hurry to put her in her crib just yet. Most of the time she doesn't like to sit still so it's hard to catch her in a cuddly mood - expecially if you aren't mom or dad - so I just ate it up. So much fun! That little girl has me completely wrapped around her little finger. She is so stinkin cute!

Team Punishment

2008-06-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

We had a "team building excersize" for work today. Our team has been doing really well lately and to reward ourselves, we took half a day off and had a BBQ/swim party over at my coworkers house. She has this massive dog, a Great Dane... and it is like 3 times my size. He's a really sweet dog but he scared the crap out of me when I first saw him. I guess he's really great with people but he doesn't like other dogs much. He can put his paws up and peek over their 7 ft tall fence... and he ripped the face off their neighbors dog that jumped up on something and got too close to him. Yikes!

Anyway, here are some pictures and video of our fun day. Not everyone got in the pool... just the crazy ones and they played basketball the whole time. One of the girls tried to stay dry but our manager picked her up and jumped in the pool with her. She should have known better. :) And it is also Brian's birthday on Sunday - Happy Birthday Brian! So we had a yummy cake for him too.

It was really hot and I got too much sun... but not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon! I had fun getting to know some of the crazy people I work with a little better. I seriously have the coolest team!

Here's a clip of everyone that was there.

JJ's backflip off of Kort's shoulders

Amy takes a swim....

Zoe Mae

2008-06-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

I figured it was about time I posted some pictures of my niece on here. Zoe Mae Waters is over 5 months old now and she is just getting cuter and cuter. We can't believe how fast she is growing. Just last night we had dinner over at Nate and Amber's for Fathers Day, and guess who was the entertainment for the evening? I think we sat there and watched her for over an hour. She can sit up now on her own and she seems pretty determined to figure out how to get mobile. She'll be crawling everywhere before they know it. These are just pictures from her baby blessing back in Feb. I need to collect some more and put some on here... but it's a start!

California

2008-06-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

So one of my good friends and roommate from college, Michelle Condie, recently came home from serving a mission in Rancagua, Chile. Yay! I have missed that girl so! I got to go visit her this last weekend before she moves away to Colorado... :( All of my good friends live so far away. Or maybe I live so far away from all of my good friends? Hmmm.

We had a great time this weekend though! On Friday night Dan , Kalee and I drove down to Fullerton, CA and stayed the night with our friend John Mark Geiss and his family. They were so nice to let us come and stay with them last minute like that.

Saturday was a crazy day, even though we started it as lazy as lazy bums can be. It felt so good to sleep in. Michelle and another friend of ours, Luke Hanzon, joined us for the Cubs vs. Dodgers game that afternoon... damn those Dodgers. We lost. But it was fun anyway! We sat up in the nosebleed seats on the visitors side next to a bunch of crazy (and drunk, I might add) Cubs fans. I think they drink more in CA or something because I have never seen that many cups of beer sloshing around an AZ D-backs game. One guy was so drunk, he almost spilled himself down the stairs along with his beer. He had to sit down a couple times before he made it to his seat. Oh wow. But it was sunny, and warm, and a beautiful day for a baseball game!

Michelle's brother Scott had just returned home from his mission the week before so some of their family and friends met at Huntington beach for a BBQ. We had the yummiest shishkabobs (how do you spell that anyway?) and potato salad, yummmmm. Thanks Sister/Lisa Condie! I can never decide on what to call your mom, Michelle. :)

As soon as we got to the beach, Dan and I jumped in on a game of football with Michelle's fam... yeah, I've never really played football before so... that was fun. :) Actually Dan pretty much dragged me into it but I'm glad he did. And! There was another girl on our team that was as clueless as I was! So when we got into our first team huddle and Matt started throwing out different ideas and strategies... we could look to each other for that reassurance in knowing that we were not entirely alone even though we had no idea what he was talking about. Matt then asked me if I wanted to be the one to rush the QB... (at this point I still hadn't figured out that it was 2 hand touch and not tackle football) and I just looked at him like he was crazy. But all I had to do was hold my position for 5 alligators (counting 1 alligator, 2 alligator...etc) and then run as fast as I could at the QB and tag him. I liked that position except that I had to count the alligators out loud. I am not sure if anyone noticed, but most times I was concentrating so hard on the guy with the ball, that my alligators came out as algilator, agillator or even atilgator. Maybe that's how I managed to tag Michelle's dad when he was in as QB... he must have been distracted by all my atilgatoring and didn't know where to throw the ball. I will have to remember that strategy for future football adventures.

It was a good thing we played football before we attempted the waves because if I wasn't so hot and sweaty, it would have taken Dan throwing me in the water to get me all the way in. It was so cold!!!! I went numb after a minute or so and then I couldn't feel anything... which didn't help much as I was getting washed out to sea and trying to stay afloat. It was really fun but those waves beat the crap out of me. I survived for a while... and even enjoyed getting the crap beat out of me until the cold made it past my thick layers of fat and I couldn't control the shaking anymore. It was pretty much freezing the rest of the night until we got in the hot tub at John Mark's house later. We had a campfire and that helped long enough to make s'mores and have fun talking with everyone for a while. I wish I wasn't such a wuss when it comes to being cold. I hate being cold. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

As cold as it was though, it was so fun to spend time with Michelle, Luke and all of her fam while we had the chance. I was really excited for Dan and Kalee to meet everyone and we had a great time! I was happy that we got to see as much of Michelle as we did. I wasn't expecting her to take that much time away from her family and I really appreciated that. :) I just wish we could have been down there longer! We went to church on Sunday with John Mark and then drove back to AZ in time for bed. Quick trip, but it was just what I needed!

Just a few pictures....

2008-02-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

Not too bad...

2008-02-12T22:23:00.001-08:00

k so I think this could be fun... but will it really be worth all the effort... do people actually read these things? :)

I have no idea what I am doing

2008-02-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

Joycelyn asked me the other day if I was ever going to start a blog... so here I am. But I have no idea what I am doing!