Lately.

Lately....we've been studying a lot. I mean, a lot. Christian is knee deep in infectious disease and pharmacology is - well - it's winning. We BOTH can't wait to be past these exams.

My view. All day every day.

Saturday night.

Jalapeño Mac & Cheese at one of our favorite study spot, Lux.

And I found a minute to get a haircut! I went from a shaggy beast to a less shaggy beast. I got this new 'do from Ellie at Urban Hair.

Before

After

I can't wait for this semester to be ooooovvvvvvveerrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Love,

Ash, Chris, & Vies

Be mine.

We've never really made a huge deal out of valentine's day. I think it's just a desire to avoid four hour waits times and overpriced v-day specials...and my husband can cook!!! I sent him a google chat while he was at school to make sure we were on for the night...

I had to work and taught a class until 6:30. My girls looked cute and I forgot what a crazy day valentine's day was in high school...lots of teddy bears, flowers, and chocolate (fyi: pregnant women love chocolate). Nothing like talking cervical dilation on the day of love.

Then I came home for some quality Christian and Viesa time. And stir fry time!

As school gets crazier and busier for both of us, we've learned to really value time we can be together without having our faces shoved in a textbook or laptop. This was one of those times. :)

Thanks for being the my one and only, Christian. Viesa and I love you very much.

Janiecs + kids (that's plural!)

That's right, people. My sister-in-law's family is now a party of four and they were wonderful enough to schedule a trip to Arizona so our side of the family could meet the new addition. Lillian Harper was born in December (in Seattle) and Christian and I have been dying to meet her and see our favorite boy and new big brother, Reese. This trip was special because Toby was able to join Lindsay and the kids! Toby is an incredibly hard worker and is often unable to make it to Arizona when Lindsay comes, so we were so happy to have some time with him!

Living in Phoenix we often have the privilege of snatching up Arizona visitors for a few private days before they can manage to make it down to Tucson for the rest of their visit (we live 15 minutes from the airport!). Because they flew in and out of Sky Harbor, we got the them all to ourselves for three days before we all headed down to Tucson for the rest of their stay. We played, shopped, ate lots of Mexican food, and snuggled SO MUCH.

In Tucson, we were able to spend tons of quality time. We got to babysit while Mom and Dad got a few hours to themselves. We also got to spend a lot of wonderful time with the Chris' family, including a birthday party for Reese!!! They were flying back a few days short of his 2nd birthday so we threw him a Tucson party before they left.  It was so much fun! Lindsay and Savannah picked out the decorations and Grandma Lori got some neighbors and friends to bring their kiddos...it wound up being quite the shindig!

With our schedules, it is incredibly hard for us to coordinate time for travel and money is tight, so we are incredibly grateful that they took time out of their busy schedules to come and see us. We fell even deeper in love with miss Lilly and enjoyed letting Reese wear us out. He is so active and sweet and is talking (and signing!) up a storm.

If all goes to plan, I may be able to use my Christmas present from the Chris' parents (a plane ticket to Seattle!) to go see them in April during my school break. I wish Christian could join me, but Step 1 is rapidly approaching and I think he'll be buried in books.

Lindsay, Toby, Reese, and Lilly: We love you all so much and are so grateful you were able to come to Arizona. Hopefully we'll be seeing you soon. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Orange slice.

Hello people! Sorry for the absence. Things have been nuts around here. Seriously. I have a lot to share, including a wonderful visit from the sweetest niece and nephew a guy and gal could ask for, but right now I'll stick with my impromptu home improvement project. Am I the only one who chooses the absolutely worst possible moments to start new projects??

The timing was bad, but I've actually been wanting to do something to spruce up the kitchen for a while. It is a beautifully bright space (yellow walls with a bright blue paint on the wall above the sink) but I thought it desperately needed a backsplash. In our last place our landlord beautifully restored the apartment and was very serious about what we did to the walls (3M Command Strips are AMAZING). Although this house is nice, it's nothing like the cleanly restored look of our old place and the property management company left us with "do whatever you want as long as we can't tell when you move out." Great...don't mind if we do!

I decided it the kitchen needed just a little pop and started combing the internet. My favorite bold walls were created with paint as a way cheaper alternative to wallpaper. I love geometric patterns decided to hop on the chevron bandwagon - I love the clean lines...like stripes on crack! I picked some inspiration walls:

Via

Via

Then I went to Home Depot. I'm not sure what I was thinking because I've never really taken on a project like this before, but the people there are so nice. The lady at the paint counter helped me find everything I needed. I picked an orange (surprise surprise, right?!) based on the beautiful blue/orange combo in the curtains my grandma made me for the old house (that happen to work nicely in the new one) - plus with our funky blue diner booth and our orange teapot, it all seemed to work together nicely. 

The paint is Glidden semi-gloss - Orange Slice. How delightful. :)

Then came the most tedious part....taping. And measuring. And more taping. And more measuring. I had the fabulous (albeit completely sexist) Don Draper to keep me company (I'm gearing up for the season premier, March 25th!). I am totally weird and crazy about things being even and nicely done. When I read some tutorials for how to paint this pattern, all the good ones involved measuring so I went ahead and put the extra time in at the beginning so they'd turn out nicely. After the grids were taped, I used a super sharp knife (Exacto would work best...I used a sharp kitchen knife) to cut the tape ends to form my chevron pattern. And voilà! 

Once I had my pattern, on came the paint. The nice Home Depot lady warned me I'd need at least two layers for such a bright color. I ended up doing three. Then off came the tape! It actually turned out better than I was anticipating. The lines weren't exactly as crisp as possible, but for the size of the chevrons you really can't notice unless you look super close.

Layer uno.

Layer dos or tres. I don't remember. 

I put all the counter stuff back and finished up with some retro sign letters I bought at an antique store last weekend. I stared at it for so long while doing it that by the time I was finished I really didn't know if I liked it! Christian assured me that it was awesome and I've really grown to love it. I think it adds an extra pop of color that brightens up the kitchen nicely (please ignore my sink of dirty dishes).

Next post: all about the wonderful babies!!!! (And their parents!) Being an aunt/uncle is the very best. I don't think we've ever had more fun in our lives. :)

Gimme a break.

Please. Really...give me one. I love breaks. They are way too few and far between. Luckily this weekend we've had one and we're really enjoying it so far. My sister and Kyle decided to come up for the weekend to continue to celebrate his birthday. Christian has been front loading his studying for this block (infectious disease!) so we could spend time with them and with his sister, her husband, and our niece and nephew who will be here from Seattle on Wednesday! I feel bad for him. This is a rough block (the second to last block EVER) and there are only two exams. Then hematology/oncology then Step 1, then clinical rotations!! I cannot believe how fast this is flying by. 

Onto our break!

Birthday boy!

Then shopping at Last Chance (this was right before they opened...people are cray-zeee!)

Then thrifting! Our favorite! (Little sister loves herself some vintage Pyrex.)

Ending the night with movies on the Apple TV and all of us crammed onto the tiny sofa bed. 

[Bonus game: can you spot the shiba?]

I'm glad we get them for part of tomorrow. We love it when they come and visit (especially Viesa!). Then it's back to serious business and a low key Super Bowl viewing. What about you...is this a busy time for you? School/work bogging you down? How do you find time to take a break? 

I guaruntee the next few posts will be filled to the brim with photos of our darling niece and nephew. This will be our first time meeting our niece Lilly (she's almost two months old) and we are dying to get our hands on her!

Hope you all enjoy Super Bowl Sunday. May either team win (we don't really care...we're college football people).