I've Been Tagged...

Okay, so I was tagged by my sister Michelle a few weeks ago. With hosting Thanksgiving and traveling out of the way I'm finally ready to reveal 5 Little Known Things About Myself.

1) I'm addicted to HGTV. I love watching home renovation and design shows. I have to laugh at how much time I spend watching others remodel, renovate, design... do, do, do as I sit, sit, sit and watch the shows. Hopefully, the inspiration will come out in our remodel.
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2) I love themes for everything. This obsession carries over to the kitchen. I love to cook. If I'm making something Italian or Thai or of that nature and Matt puts out chips and salsa, I promptly put the chips and salsa away. I can not mix "snacks" that don't fit with the dinner theme. I would rather spend extra time making a "Asian influenced salad" to go with an Asian cuisine than making a regular salad.

3) I hate carnations. I had them so much; for no other reason than they're ugly. I don't like the food coloring dye they add to them --they look fake. When Matt gets me flowers (rarely and usually because he's in trouble) I have to inspect the bouquet for carnations. One of our first Valentines, I took the bouquet and threw half the flowers in the trash immediately. I didn't realize how rude that looked until it all set in (in my defense, he had known I hated carnations).


4) I hate hard rock, but lately crave it when I exercise. This afternoon I couldn't wait to drop of Jax in the daycare and get to the treadmill and my IPOD. I was so excited to get pumped up to Matt's Tool Mix. I feel really energetic listening to it when I am running. However, the same songs disgust me if he tries to play them in the car.

5) I love all things spicy. I add jalapenos and hot sauce to everything.

Our New Home

Starting December 12th Matt and I will be in a new residence. Our new home is a spacious 4 bedroom, 3 bath home located in North Central Phoenix. We fell in love with the neighborhood, the neighbors and the home's potential. For those of you who have keeping up with our home search, this home was #1 from my previous post "House Hunters Phoenix."

These aren't the best pictures and definitely highlight the homes "Grammy" baby blue and yellow feel -- just use your imagination! A little carpet and paint and this place will be beautiful. Best of all plenty of room for visitors and a pool (hint, hint). Did I mention the weather here is beautiful right now?

Thanksgiving Feast

With all the rush of the day I never did get any great pics of the table or family and friends. Here are a couple pics of the festivities.

My Boys

Love These Two! Does it get any better? I am so thankful for both of them and all the joy they bring into my life.

November Is Here...Eek

I get excited when I have a lot to look forward to, but I also get a little overwhelmed. We have a busy month. All fun stuff. Zak, Matt's younger brother, is getting married in two weeks. Jax and I leave for Utah tomorrow. After the wedding, we fly home and Matt's family comes here for Thanksgiving. That's right Martha and I are hosting Thanksgiving! We should have at least 15 people join us. If the temps stay what they've been we will be eating turkey and stuffing pool side!

Grandma Nancy is the Best

For those of you who know my Mom she is awesome. I spoke to her earlier today and she was driving out to Sheree's house to see all of her kids on Halloween, then to Angela's to see all the Shaeffer kids and last to Mike's to see Charlie. She even dressed up for Halloween too! How fun - I wish we lived closer to her.

Halloween at the Hospital

Tonight, Halloween night, I sat without a thing to do. Our townhome community doesn't offer the best streets to trick-or-treat on and I didn't make plans soon enough to tag along with a friend. Let's face it Jax doesn't really trick-or-treat anyway. So, rather than staying home and curling up to a scary movie I got decked out in my costume "A Devil wears Prada" and got Jax dressed in his monkey costume and headed for the hospital where Matt works. We took candy to give to patients, nurses, DRs and other hospital personnel.

It was the BEST!!! Jax loved every minute of it. Not only did he get to spend time with Daddy, he got SOO much attention from all the nurses and patients. Who doesn't love a monkey with big blue eyes, a big smile and two new teeth. He was absolutely adorable!!! It was so fun for me to see all the hospital staff Matt works with. But most of all it was so fun to see Matt interact with his patients. He has awesome bedside manner and is so caring and respectful! He was really busy, but rather than pushing us aside he brought Jax in with him as he consulted patients. He was so proud of his little guy. And we are so proud of him. Thanks Matt for all your hard work!!! ...too bad we weren't there late enough to see the Halloween crazies.

Weekend Trip to Northern Arizona

This weekend was so much fun! We were together as a family and loving every minute of it. Jax kept looking at Matt and looking back at me, smiling at both of us. Matt and I thought for sure he was excited to have his family all together. We rented the cutest log cabin 17 miles out of Flagstaff. It was soooo much fun! We saw the leaves changing colors, visited a town called Mormon Lake and visited Flagstaff. I told Matt I want to move to Flagstaff someday. I loved it!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Who will be the first to wish me a happy 28th birthday? Ready, set, go....come on you nocturnal bloggers one of you has to be out blog stalking this fine evening.

Photo Shoot

Cutest pics of Jax around the club house of our town home community!

#1 Won!

Okay so #1 for Now,,,

Matt loved it! We loved the neighbors, the feel, the potential. As I mentioned earlier, this house has been beautifully maintained. Which, means less costs associated with deferred maintance. Although, it still needs some updating, it allows me to design the kitchen, pick out carpet, paint, exterior updates...etc.

Matt and I agreed #2, while it is totally remodeled, it's small and you can't change that. Also, it has already realized any possible appreciation with all the upgrades the last owners completed. The third, is too big of a project. At the end of the day, it needs 50K of work and the neighborhood and school district won't sustain a property value much higher than what it's listed for.

We still have more houses to see and more neighborhoods to expore. We'll keep you posted on how the house hunting goes.

Check out these before and after pics of mine and Matt's first home in Sugar House.

House Hunters Phoenix

For those of you who watch HGTV (bless your heart) you know the drill. Matt and I are going house hunting tomorrow. We haven't narrowed down the location we want to live in, we're still exploring Desert Ridge, Scottsdale and the North-Central Corridor area. Tomorrow, I am taking Matt to see my 3 favorites in North-Central Phoenix. By the way, North-Central is an awesome area it looks like you're in a totally different city with nice big trees...and I don't mean cacti. It's like a sugar house neighborhood plopped into the desert. And it's right around the corner from Matt's work.

House 1:
Classic 50's rambler on a nice size irrigated lot with a large pool. This is a very well maintained house. The outside of the house needs a nice coat of paint and the powder blue carpet would need to be replaced. The neighborhood is incredible with houses well over 1 mill just around the corner. This neighborhood also boasts the best schools in Phoenix.


House 2:
Beautiful Remodel! I mean beautiful. Hardwood floors, awesome kitchen, incredible master bath. The backyard is the size of a park - without a pool. The neighborhood is also beautiful. The only downside is the size. It has one less bedroom than the other 2 and less living space.



House 3:
ALOT of Potential. This house would be a project. This needs new kitchen, new floors, new everything. The price is $50,000 under the other 2 and in this market we could probably get it for well under asking. Location is still good, but not as good as the other 2. Great curb appeal and awesome square footage. Even a separate entrance for the guest bedroom (hint, hint).


If you have any thoughts or would like to add your experiences to this process please feel free to post comments.

New Fun Blog: CrabMommy

I blogged yesterday of my troubled day. I'm still working on the attitude of gratitude. In the meantime, I uncovered this awesome "whinny" mom's blog: http://www.cookiemag.com/magazine/blogs/crabmommy and http://crabmommy.blogspot.com/. Unlike her, I do love Motherhood, but it is fun to hear her vent about Motherhood woes. I especially love the piece about the The Martyrmeter.™ I would be the 1st to own one - as my sisters all know I love to compete.

Every new set of parents plays the martyr game. Which of you is doing more? Is it the breadwinner slogging through a deadly job to provide the dough? Is it the stay-at-homer, dealing in tantrums, playdates, and interminable wiping of orifices?
Don't argue. Get a MartryMeter™!
A two-pack handset (one per parent) and docking station combo, the MartyrMeter™ takes the guesswork and arguing out of the competition for the title, Most Put-Upon Parent. Simply log your activities into the handset (see attached sheet of coded chores); at day's end, plug the handset into the docking station, where the MartyrMeter™ will compute your daily miseries and stack them against your spouse's. Rest assured, our computational device has been programmed for complete accuracy. Winners may rest their case!
Note: the MartyrMeter™ Deluxe Edition® comes with a built-in lie detector. Do you suspect your spouse of fudging numbers and fibbing about times? Does parent-on-duty say the baby woke at 5am but you think it was probably closer to 6am? Just grab that Meter, and let our patented motion and heat sensing technology track your spouse's blood pressure while he or she holds the handset. If he's lying, we've got his number! Game Over!!

Michelle Saves the Day

So I've been having one of those feel sorry for myself days. Matt's been at a conference all week and weekend. My normal "weekend" breaks consists of Matt taking over and giving me a few extra hours of sleep or a few hours in the afternoon to run errands without a baby - I live for those breaks! During this year of residency "the intern year" on average Matt is home twice a week before 9 or 10PM. Today I woke up with a positive attitude and was doing pretty good all day. Then tonight Jax had an enormous breakdown and I just starting feeling sorry for myself. I was just on my sister Michelle's blog and saw her most recent post titled "Half Empty or Half Full?" She talks all about teaching her children an attitude of gratitude (I wish I still lived by her so she could teach me that lesson again today). Anyway, she also posted the poem below. It's pretty uplifting and to say the least saved my day. I am blessed to have a husband that works sooo hard. When does he get his "break?" I'm grateful for a wonderful baby who seldom has enormous breakdowns. Enjoy and hopefully you won't need this as much as I did...

BE THANKFUL
Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire. If you did, what would there be to look forward to? Be thankful when you don't know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn. Be thankful for the difficult times, during those times you grow. Be thankful for your limitations, because they give you opportunities for improvement. Be thankful for each new challenge, because it will build your strength and character. Be thankful for your mistakes, they will teach you valuable lessons. Be thankful when you're tired and weary, because it means you've made a difference. It's easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfillment come to those who are also thankful for the setbacks. Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings. - Author Unknown

Check out my Slide Show!

Jax is 7 Months Today!

I can't believe Jax is already 7 months old. Where has the time gone? I just can't believe all of the milestones over the last 7 months. He started out a little peanut that ate, slept and pooped. Now, he is sitting up, flirting, grabbing like crazy (mostly my hair and food), concentrating on toys, shifting toys from one hand to the other, wanting anything that mommy has. Still no rolling over -we've decided that the weight of his head makes it too difficult to gain momentum.

Above are some of my favorite pics over the last 7 months.

Tribute to Aunt Marge

For those of you who know the Adair family, you know Aunt Marge. Aunt Marge lives in Northern California and just recently retired from a 35 yr+ career teaching school.

I have many special memories of Aunt Marge. I thought I would share a few as a tribute on her birthday.

Aunt Marge has such a passion for math and geophraphy. We took a month long road trip around the US (which is in itself a very entertaining story that I can share another time), Aunt Marge would spend countless hours with Rachel, Sheree, Mike and I reviewing state capitals and times tables. She would use visual mnemonics; creating elaborate stories to help us remember whatever she was teaching us. I still am awesome at times tables and know most of the state capitals.



Next was Christmas, Aunt Marge was Christmas! She would finish teaching school, pack up her rust orange 1970s Buick Skylar and head to Salt Lake. When I say pack up I mean her car would be filled with Christmas gifts for all six of us Adair kids. She would shop weeks before Christmas and find all sorts of gismos, socks, underwear, videos and her classic gift of a case of ramon noodles and macaroni and cheese for each of us. We would each get a special day to wrap presents with Aunt Marge. When Christmas day came she was just as excited as all of us. My parents did a wonderful job of Christmas every year, but Aunt Marge was such an added bonus!

More recently, shortly before Matt and I were married we entertained the idea of buying a "fixer-upper" in the foothill/sugarhouse area. We knew with my Mom's expertise in real estate and remodeling and Matt's "can do" attitude we could have a fun project. Aunt Marge helped us with the financing and expenses of the remodel. Thanks to her and my Mom, Matt and I had a beautiful first home!!

From the "BOOM BOOMs" (her name for the loud thunder), to Aunt Marge's summer school to rationing cheese portions to family vacations - Aunt Marge has been an integral part of our lives.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT MARGE! WE LOVE YOU!!!!

California Dream'n

Jax, Matt and I just got back from California to visit Aunt Rach in LA and Katie and Ty in Newport Beach. Matt and I took off from Phoenix late Friday afternoon. Of course - those of you who know him - Jax was a perfect angel the entire 6 hour drive. Saturday morning we coveted our best friends Katie and Ty for living minutes from the beach, in one of the most beautiful oceanside cities, Corona Del Mar. We sat in their living room and envied their hurricane vases filled with freshly gathered seashells, wetsuits, beach towels and surfboards strewn over the back patio and the eculyptus trees. Ohhhhh the eculyptus trees. Well needless to say, Matt felt bad that I didn't show the same kind of enthusiasm for Phoenix upon first arrival. I do love Southern California. Next stop LA. We traveled up the coast, well actually the 405 to LA. Matt left on Sunday and we spent the rest of the week chillin' (is that still a hip word?) with the ladies. Rachel's friend Heather and her 1-year-old Berkleigh were also visiting from SLC. We had such a fun time lunching in West Hollywood, sunning in the eclectic Venice Beach, shopping at the Grove and we met up with my two pregnant best friends from Chicago, Wendy and Reagan for a night out in Beverly Hills.

Did we see any stars you ask? Of course! I have included the photos of all 3.

First, I made a fool out of myself trying to spark up a conversation with "Kube." Does anybody recognize that name? Well if not, than you did not get hooked on my favorite Santo Domingo High School student of the 1990's hit TV show Parker Lewis Can't Lose. Okay so it only ran for 13 episodes - but I did still faithfully watch all 13. He is also known as "Jerry" on ER.

Next, we dinned at The Farm in Beverly Hills next to the cute and stylish Rachel McAdams. And I guess I am partial to our Rachel - next to one another our's is cuter.
Last but not least, (okay so probably least) we saw the ex-beau of Halle Berry. You know the cute guy with dreads.
He was shopping at Forever 21, so I don't think he is doing to good financially without the help of Halle..but hey I was shopping there too.

I would have to say the highlight of my trip was excusing myself from the fabulous Beverly Hills cafe, The Farm, to escape to a dark door stoop and sing my baby to sleep. I reflected on where I was in my life back in 2000 when I moved to LA and looked at my life today and I felt so incredibly blessed - It is exactly what I always wanted.

The Nugent Family Blog Gets a Face Lift

Wow! So obviously I am a horrible blogger. I first could not figure out how to log in. Three weeks later I've decided to update the whole look. I tried to create a custom header and that has now taken me all night - I am not a graphic designer. I guess that will have to come later. So before I stay up through another night feeding I thought I would decide on a generic template.

Like Father, Like Son

Several of you commented on how much Matt and Jax look alike. I couldn't help but share this photo of Matt at about 6 months...we can rule out the mailman.

Jax