Just January

We were only in Arizona for just January :( 

January 3 we packed everything up and said goodbye to this sad face.

We left the house at 6:20 am and drove for 17 hours! We arrived safely at our good friends the Edwards' house, our new home for the next month while they are living in Utah for med school rotations. Thanks Chad & Nicole!

January 4 we slept in and went to our old ward, the Arrowhead Ranch ward for church. Then, shame on us, we went grocery shopping at Sprouts and only bought healthy food! We took a nice long walk in the gorgeous 70 degree weather!

January 5 I started my first day of classes for my last semester ever! Piper and I kept sending Snap chats. I miss her tons!

January 6-7 consisted of homework, exercising, laying out by the Edwards' pool, failing at spaghetti squash, watching House, and playing Five Crowns. P.S. we watched the first 2 seasons of House during the month we were here and played Five Crowns every day. We're that cool.

Since it's almost Valentine's Day I liked this photo of House.

Gift idea...

January 8 we visited my old work to see all my amazing friends at Chase. I was SO happy to see them. I love them so much and miss working with them! Afterwards James and I went to the Phoenix temple and did an endowment session. The Phoenix temple is gorgeous and we loved feeling the peace and the Spirit of the Lord from the temple blessings as we were there.

 January 9 we visited our storage unit and went to Roberto's Authentic Mexican Food in Anthem. This restaurant was, of course, featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Then we went to Petco to spy on everyone's cute pups that were there for their pet immunizations. Then we went to Barnes and Noble and looked through an I Spy book together. This is our second time doing that for a date night and it is really fun and satisfying to find all the objects in those books! We went to Yogurtology for frozen yogurt. We also watched the movie Paranoia on Netflix. I gave it 3 stars. 

Beef Chimichanga

El Pastor

January 10, James' younger brother Steven was in town for reffing soccer, so we took him to hike Thunderbird with us! After a long day of reffing for Steven, we went to...Yogurtology. Haha we just can't get enough.

Cute brothers

January 11 we went to the Bellair ward and sat next to our good friends the Battys. After church we picked up Steven and ate yummy turkey burgers with homemade sweet potato fries. We went on a walk down Skunk Creek trail. We watched America's Funniest Videos and laughed lots. We took Steven to the airport then headed over to the Batty's house to watch some football and catch up!

January 12, I got a haircut. This was no trim my friends. She cut 5 inches off! I got my bangs back too. That night we went over to the Batty's again to watch more football and catch up!

Before and After

January 13-Although I was already missing my lost 5 inches of hair, I had a blast catching up with the Batty's again over lunch at my favorite place, Paradise Bakery Cafe. Claire and Emma are just too cute, I can't get enough. Later that evening I went to Bellair ward's Relief Society meeting with Whitney and Jenna. The theme was "This Little Piggy," and they even brought in a real pig as a mascot, Petunia! The first little "piggy" went to market and taught us about saving money while shopping. The second little "piggy" went home and taught us about how to create a happy home. The third little "piggy" had none and talked about service. For dinner they served roast beef, since this little "piggy" had roast beef. Yum!

Claire bear!

January 14-I visited with the lovely Mary, my dear friend whom I worked with at Chase, and we went to lunch at Ricardo's Mexican (not to be confused with Roberto's from earlier). We talked for 2 hours! I love that woman. It was SO good to see her. Afterwards I took a long walk with James down Skunk Creek and we made sweet potato pizza. James went to soccer while I went over to Jenna's house and played with her cute kiddos Eliza and Issac. They are getting so big!

Banderita burrito from Ricardo's

January 15- I met up with my sweet sisters, my med school wives bffs at the train park in Scottsdale. I absolutely loved seeing these ladies and catching up. It's so crazy talking about where our hubbies will match for residency in just a short period of time! The babies are so big too. It's crazy how time goes by! When I got home to James we got more Yogurtology then watched House (told you, 2 full seasons!). 

Ixchel & Rex, Me, Emery & Carly, Emma & Oak, and Kelsey

January 16- Did some damage at Last Chance with my bff Ixchel! She and I shopped till we dropped...that is, dropped $100 on clothes/shoes for James and me. I do not regret it for one bit! Afterwards I checked Nordstrom and realized that after my purchases at Last Chance I saved $633! Amazing! We were starving by the time we got outta there, so we met up with Than & James and ate at Republica Empanada in Mesa. These empanadas were soo good and we realized it's right down the street from the Mesa Temple! We loved catching up with these bffs of ours!

Found these amazing Frye boots for Mom. Originally $370, bought them for $100 for her!

I love her. And these empanadas.

Than just loves the empanadas. Ok and he loves James too.

In the car outside of Republica Empanada, and there's the temple! So close!

January 17-Hiked Thunderbird with James! We are so lucky to have it nearby. We also saw The Imitation Game. SUPER good movie, you gotta go see it! It's based on a true story. Love those.

Thunderbird 2011 when we first moved to AZ. Babies. Newly Weds. First Year Med Student.

Thunderbird 2015. Old Married Couple. Fourth Year Med Student.

We miss the cacti here

Go see it!

January 18-Church. Oatmeal. House. Cauliflower Lasagna. Five Crowns. Downton Abbey. Football. Long Walk. Chocolate Banana Shake.

January 19- I layed out by the pool and did homework. I made delicious healthy meatloaf muffins for dinner!

Recipe here

January 20- We moved everything out of the storage unit and into the Edwards' garage to save on money. To reward ourselves for the hard work, we ate lunch at Chili's. We went on a walk, played Five Crowns, and James got an email from one of his favorite programs in Rhode Island saying they are ranking him in their top 6 for residency! That means that if we don't match anywhere else, we're 99.9999% sure we will match there!

January 21- I was a good wife and watched James play soccer in an outdoor league. I missed our dog Paxton because of this cutie dog watching the soccer game too:

January 22-We hiked Camelback! This was my first time and I was a little nervous about sliding down the rocks or twisting my ankle, but James was very encouraging and it was so rewarding to make it up to the top! The view was spectacular! I could see the whole valley! After we hiked back down we spent some time at Half Price Books and then went to Magic Mushroom Burger.

So happy we made it!

Perfect view of Phoenix

Handsome hubby hiked this four times!

First timer! AZ bucket list  ✓

I know it's tiny but you can see it!

Best fish tacos in Phoenix! Seriously though. Oh and all this plus a drink for $5.

January 23- I hosted brunch at Nicole's house, thank you Nicole for letting me use your house while you are gone! We missed her and Ixchel, but it was great to have Jenna & baby Isaac and Whitney & baby Emma there with their breakfast casserole and chocolate chip banana bread and fresh fruit! Afterwards I drove to Scottsdale and met up with Carly & Kelsey and we chatted over doing our own gel nail manicures! I drove back to Glendale where James was babysitting the Batty girls, then we had Korean BBQ with them, ate ice cream & watched a movie. Amazing day full of friends!

Jenna, Issac, Me, Emma, Whitney

Me, Kelsey, Carly, baby Emery

James, Emma, Whitney, Trevor, Claire. Don't mind the panoramic distortion.

January 24-James and I were invited to have dinner at my old boss's house! I absolutely love Jodi and her cute family! She made us the best lasagna and we had angel food cake with berries and whip cream for dessert! We had a blast laughing and catching up. She is so sweet to have us over to her lovely home in Anthem!

I love her!

January 25-Awesome day at church. We had Family Home Evening at the Killpack's and roasted marshmallows for s'mores with our best friends! It was SO.FUN!

It felt like the end of summer. All nostalgic-like. Except in January.

Look at that s'more! With peanut butter too. Mmm.

Luke & Jenna Killpack. Eliza & Isaac were off playing.

Whitney & Trevor Batty with baby Emma! Claire was off playing.

James and I loving our last few memories with our best friends. Missing the Edwards and Fairbanks.

January 26-I visited my friend Sue and her darling baby girl Bela! Sue and I worked together at Chase and bonded over our love for sweets! I loved catching up with her for 2 hours and seeing how Bela has grown! She had made me chicken enchiladas and served me cookies with ice cream. She knows me so well! I have the best Chase friends. Then James and I met up with my dance bff Sara at Yogurtology just kidding, Yogurtini! We love frozen yogurt, can you tell? It was great to see her and to meet her boyfriend Jon. We talked for 2 hours and reminisced about our dancing days. I love her!

Bela is so cute! She turns 1 this week!

Sara!!! XOXO

January 27-29, I did lots of schoolwork, watched House, James went to soccer, I did pilates, James and I babysat Claire & Emma, played Five Crowns, did Yoga, and MORE schoolwork.

January 30- I finished my schoolwork for the week, thank goodness, then I packed and cleaned the house to get ready to leave. While I did this James went with Trevor and Than to the Phoenix Open golf tournament to see Tiger Woods play (he was 10 feet away from him)! He said it was awesome even though it rained. We all went to Barro's pizza for lunch. Then James helped me finish cleaning and Mom & Dad Chapman arrived to help us move all our stuff up to Utah. We loaded up the trailer and ate Paradise Bakery Cafe for dinner.

Bubba Watson

January 31-Happy Birthday Grandpa Lewis! 

Mom & Dad Chapman drove the trailer of all our stuff up to Utah and James and I drove in our car. We got to Orem around 6:30 and it felt so good to just get there and be with family! We are so appreciative to Mom & Dad Chapman for helping us move and store our stuff in their garage before we get ready to move wherever we end up for residency! Peter came over too and helped us unload, and it was great to see him! Utah will be our home for the next 2 months while James does an ICU rotation and an Allergy Immunology rotation.

Quick update on our real lives outside of this blog:

James completed an anesthesia rotation in Peoria, AZ. He got off at noon every day, worked Monday-Friday, and the last week of his rotation he didn't have to go because his preceptor was leaving the practice and going on vacation! It was WONDERFUL to have him all to myself for a whole month playing in AZ with all our friends!

I started winter semester classes, I'm taking my last 17 credits, 6 classes. I am swamped with schoolwork, but I managed to play lots while we were in AZ!

We are now living in Orem, UT with James' family and will be there for 2 months while James completes those two rotations I mentioned above. I start my internship with Happy Wives Club and continue online school. Thank goodness for BYU-Idaho online so I can do all this travelling with my hubby!

In 7 days we find out where we will be living for the next four years and where James will match for emergency medicine residency! We can't believe it's almost here and we are SO excited!!!