Brett and Erica Paxman

2009-07-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

July 9-12, 2009
For the 2nd weekend in a row Erica and I found ourselves up in the White Mountains for the weekend. However this time our trip was actually planned. Erica and friends were throwing a baby shower for Katie at Erica’s parent’s house. My wife is amazing! (as i think these photos prove!)

We left Thursday evening and were able to spend Friday morning helping Erica’s dad install a new roof on their house. Truth is I am not sure we were very helpful, as it is a very large and labor intensive job. Friday evening I headed over to Pinetop to spend some time with my family while Erica and her mother began their baby show preparations. Saturday morning I understand that the shower went off without a hitch.

As for me, I helped my mother clean out the garage in Pinetop, did some tree trimming, and then headed up to the Sky High Cinder Pit to go shooting with my dad and brother Dallas. I finally got to fire off the AK-47 that my parents got me (truthfully I am sure my mother had no knowledge or part in buying me a gun) for Christmas. At Dallas’s request we also did some skeet shooting. He had spent a day with friends in Utah skeet shooting just before he moved back to AZ (about 2 weeks ago). Truthfully Dallas is a better skeet shooter than I am.

That evening Dallas and I played in the SHOW LOW ALUMNI SOCCER GAME 2009. Now most people reading probably know that Show Low is the cross town rival to Blue Ridge, the High School that my family attended. Well Show Low was putting on this game as a fund raiser and couldn’t quite fill two full teams. (11 players per team on the field at a time, thus they needed at least 22 players) Well it turns out there were actually 6 players (my brother and I included) from Blue Ridge to play in the game. Though the 6 of us were hoping that we would be allowed to play on the same team, they split us up 3 on one team, 3 on the other. As the age of players ranged from just graduated to this guy who was on Show Lows inaugural team of 1993, we played four 20 minute quarters (for those of you who do not know the beautiful, usually we play two 45 minute halves) just to give some of us older and out of shape guys a chance. The offense was on display, not so much the defense. Final score 10-6. My team lost, but the one bright spot. Of the 16 goals, 11 were by Blue Ridge players! GO BR!

4th of July in the Mtn's

2009-07-06T01:03:00.000-07:00

We were not planning on going up the Mtn for the 4th, but when my little brother woke up Thursday morning with what we then and still think was a kidney stone, we figured driving him up to see the family doctor in Pinetop (my dad) was as good of an excuse as any to escape the heat, and get some good family time in.
Friday morning Erica, my mother, my sister, and I drove out near Alpine Arizona (not to be confused with Pine Arizona) and went for a little hike up Escadilla. It was amazing up there, surrounded by Aspen Trees. We did however, only make it about half way up the Mtn before we turned back. I was wearing barrowed tennis shoes and was getting a mean blister on my big toe. Then, not wanting to pass up the opportunity, we drove over to Alpine, mostly just to say we did. Then on our way back to Pinetop we drove into Greer, again mostly so we could say we had been there. At the far side of Greer we got out and walked around the creek a little. Again it was a very pretty place, and I am told that it is a very “cute” little town.

We followed up our Friday morning hike with a Friday Night game of Ultimate Frisbee. Erica and I play almost weekly with a group of friends in Tempe on Wed nights, and thought it might be fun to get some of my little brothers friends together to try it out in Pinetop. Somewhat to our surprise, my good friend Tyler and his wife Careena saw a Facebook post I made about the game and decided to join us. Well us 4 played together on 1 team with 2 or 3 of my brothers friends, versus an even number of pure high school athletes who are used to running around at an elevation of 7k feet. Much to my surprise, we ended up killing all those young ones by a score of 21 to 11. The most difficult part of playing in Pinetop was the lighting. We always play at night with a Frisbee that lights up, but in Tempe the field has enough street lights around it that you can tell who is on your team and who is not. In Pinetop, the town of…..5 stop lights, there was next to no lights on the field, but luckily we anticipated this. Just as luckily we found 50 light up glow sticks that could be connected and turned into bracelets, anklets, necklaces, or even just loops hooked to belt loops. All in all, the game went well and I think my little brothers friends actually enjoyed themselves, despite the fact that most of them had their butts handed to them by 2 old married couples.
Saturday we headed over to Erica’s parents house, before ending up at her brother Nathans house for a 4th of July BBQ with lots of friends and family.
Sunday we obviously headed to church, and again to my surprise one of my good friends, Jaron Watson and his wife Bethany were blessing their baby in that very sacrament meeting. They live the valley as well, but Bethany’s dad is the Bishop of the ward that my in-laws attend (in fact they live on the same street, about 150 yards away from each others) It was neat to be able to be part of little Jaylee R. Watson’s baby blessing and to see Jaron and his whole family. After a good steak and potato dinner, a nice nap, and a short walk, Erica and I headed back down the mtn to good old Mesa.

Recent Events

2009-05-28T10:48:00.001-07:00

Final month of baking?
Though we are not sure, it does look that way, at least for now. We had been baking anywhere between 1500-2000 cookies every month since September. The month of May might have been our last month. Erica’s boss, under budget pressure as asked up to take a break from the baking for the summer, though we both think it might extend longer. Though all the baking is extremely intense, the additional income was nice, and we were able to do the baking and packaging together so it wasn’t all too difficult.
For the month of May instead of dozens of cookies we made about 135 White Chocolate Bundt cakes with lemon icing. It wasn’t our best month, but overall they turned out good. It will be nice to get our house and refrigerator back as both are often consumed by ingredients and the final product.

Memorial Day Weekend
We needed to make a visit to Snowflake, so with Memorial Day Weekend upon us we decided it would be a good long weekend to get out of the heat. As it played out, the weather for the 3 day weekend was actually very pleasant here in the Phx Metro area, so our weekend turned out to be less of an escape than previously thought, but still enjoyable. Snowflake was cool and often wet as rain showers continually fell. Two of Erica’s siblings now live in Snowflake/Taylor, and another two had the same great weekend getaway idea as us, so 5 of the 6 Scott children were in town, making for some WILD and CRAZY moments with so many kids running around, but it is always fun to be around so much family!

Friday Date Night!

2009-05-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Erica is finally getting used to the idea that it often takes a couple of weeks worth of begging before a Date Night will actually take place. Well this last Friday was just one of those Date Night that was a few weeks in the making.

Venturing out we decided to try something new and take the LIGHT RAIL to Mill Ave in Tempe. Those who know where we live realize that this might seem a little ridiculous considering we are less than 5 miles from Mill. Well the truth is that for some odd reason, I am pretty obsessed with the LIGHT RAIL. Not sure why really, but I just get excited whenever I see one of those trains. So our taking the LIGHT RAIL for a short trip to Mill Ave was really an attempt to get it out of my system. Well it was kind of fun to try out but not that big of a deal, BUMMER!. It is unfortunate that Public Transit has such a bad reputation, but typically (I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings if they do use Public Transit, KUDOS in fact if you do.) Public Transit is full of the CRAZY CREW. We sat across from a guy who CLEARLY was talking to himself. and it was not a casual or polite conversation. (I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that he had a small BLUETOOTH device, but no such luck.)
So arriving on Mill Ave we went to RA for a little sushi. We are both big fans of the Sushi! That green Wasabi stuff! WOW, what a kick! As you will see in the pictures, though we enjoy Sushi, we often find our selves torn, FORK or CHOP STICK? Neither of us can use the CHOP STICK well, Erica actually tries everytime, i am too stuborn to even try! Give me the good old fashion WESTERN FORK!
We then had some sort of Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich from some place called COOKIEZ on Mill Ave. I don’t think either of us would recommend the place.
Then we went and watched a Movie. I am ashamed to say we actually sat through the movie GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST. Overall it ended on a good note, but it was chalk full of naughty raunchy language/discussion. Neither of us would in any way recommend this movie to anyone. (should have seen STAR TREK, bet you can guess who wanted to see which movie) Check out our pictures, Thanks!

Visit to the Mtn

2009-04-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

When ever we talk to people from around the Phx Valley area, and the topic of "Where are you from?" comes up, we both get asked the same question. " Do you visit often" in refernce to our parents living up in the White Mtns. Truth is.... No, we dont visit often, and before you judge us, let me explain. #1 Our parents, both her's and mine, come down to the valley at least monthly. So its not that we don't see our parents often. Seems we might make 3-5 trips up the mtn per year. So we don't visit our parents in their homes very often, but they visit us in our home frequently. #2 Though SNOWflake is not actually known for its SNOW, Pinetop (where my parents are from) is known for being COVERED with that wet, white, cold stuff. In fact, 4-6 months of the year Pinetop can be covered in snow. Erica and myself, we don't have a vehicle that can handle the wet, icy, dangerous roads in the winter, so when we do visit the Mtn in the winter, we have been known to get SNOWED IN. (as was the case this Christmas, as well the weekend we got engaged, in 2006 when 4 feet of snow fell in Pinetop in the month of MARCH.)

That being said, we realized that Easter weekend us upon us, and we had not been up the Mtn to visit since Christmas. (starting to feel like those UN-NAMED religous type that only attend church twice a year, Christmas and Easter) So up the Mtn for Easter we went.

We figured that it is now mid April, we shouldn't have to worry about getting snowed in again, for the 2nd time this year. Well.....we woke up Saturday morning in Pinetop to about 4-6 inches of snow. Granted, the roads are clear, and we didn't get snowed in..... but just a reminder that either A) we need to avoid the mtn during the 'Winter' season, or B) we need to get us an ALL WHEEL DRIVE car/truck/suv if we want to brave the Mtn during the winter.

Anyway.... thats my rant for now.... here are a couple pictures from the snowy Easter weekend.

A first time for everything. Even for Brett

2009-04-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

So this is the 1st time I am creating a blog post. This 1st blog post is about my 1st ONLINE video. I'm made a few little video/photo type things in the past.... but this is the 1st one that I've ever posted online. It's simple... and basic... but i really love this sort of thing. I spent the better part of a month last summer editing our Hawaii videos and photos, from about 7+ hours of vacation memories down to about 2 and a half.
After seeing the success of my older brothers photography efforts, a part of me would really like to get into the video/editing... world.... I really enjoy creating something.... ANYWAY. Who knows, right!? Well if you are interested, follow the link and check out the short video/commercial I made for my brother. Take Care All!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPKLgozY620

2000 cookies in 2 weeks

2009-02-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

Wow! Another month of baking done. I have to let everyone know that without my assistant Brett, there is no way on earth I would still be doing this crazy cookie biz! It is quite possible that he does more work than me now. The 1st month he mostly helped with the dishes, but now he pokes 'em, fills 'em, rotates 'em, cools 'em and does all the dishes. What a love!

Does this picture seem sacrilegious?

2009-01-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, I will never preach to you about blogging! Who am I do judge. This was taken at the Church Historical Museum (I made that up, I can't remember the name of it) across the street from the Salt Lake Temple. We were able to drive up with Bretts family and celebrate his Grandpa Paxmans 85th Birthday. It was great to see everyone! Bretts Aunt and Uncle are great and so funny! Love you Aunt Diane! Uncle Emil, I'll have to think about it... maybe when you come to a true understanding of how wonderful Snowflake is. Once you get past the wind factor. Anyway, we had a good time, driving around beautiful Salt Lake with the newly fallen snow, playing with family, eating with family, laughing with family, ice skating, shopping and everything else. One of our highlights was being able to visit a couple friends we haven't seen for a while. Kyle, Katie and Kelsey had us over for lunch. After lunch, Katie had to leave for work and Brett and Kyle had to go pick up his car, and here was when my favorite part came. I got to lay down on the couch and take a tiny nap with baby Kelsey asleep on my chest. It's always fun to see them and as straight as I'd like to believe Brett is, he and Kyle are quite fond of each other. They go way back and I'm pretty sure they suffer from seperation anxiety when apart from each other. WHATEVER! So we were also able to get together with Amy and a friend for dinner and had Sushi, YUM! I love Amy! She is so fun and still when I hear certain SNL skits I think of her! She looks fantastic and it was so fun to get to spend a little time with her. It's been way too long!

Just a few other pics...
I'm pretty sure I should have played professional hockey, anyone agree?

Merry Christmas Brett and Chris! The brothers got AK 47 from Daddy. Just a heads up, neither of them hunt, so it wouldn't be wise to play a prank and sneak in our house at night. Brett hasn't even had a chance to try it out yet, but he talks about it often. : )

Grandma and Grandpa Paxman, he is the sweetest man! Bretts dad takes after his mom. She's got plenty of spunk and I hear it's tamed down a bit ove the years. Love both!

I'm A BLOG LOSER!

2008-12-14T15:21:00.000-08:00

I am well aware of my blog issues! I am the kind of person that gets really excited about something and then once the initial excitement fades for me, I like to take a long break. I partly blame it on not having any kids yet. Most blogs seem to be mainly about your kids so that will be my excuse. Well, I am a Christmas lover! But this past few weeks have been so crazy busy for Brett and I, I feel like I am missing out on the whole Christmas spirit and fun things you do at Christmas time. Any one who knows me at all, knows that I am crazy about Christmas! Most people share this love with me, however, my very own husband is not one of them. I know, it's crazy, I guess I was just so in love with him when we were dating that it didn't seem to bother me much that he was a Scrooge. (spelling?) Pretty much he just doesn't like all the comercialism and how everyone seems to magically be nice and caring and happy for 1 month out of the year. For those of you who aren't aware, Brett can't smell or taste. He had a surgery on his back when he was younger and was told by the anesthesialogist that it might effect his senses for a few months. Well 10 years later he still can't smell or taste a thing. So Brett doesn't get to enjoy all the wonderful smells and tasty treats at Christmas time like the rest of us do, and that plays a big part for me! So when we were getting our Christmas decorations down so I could start putting everything up, Brett suggested we not put up a tree at all this year. Can you believe the nerve to say something that outragous to me, the Christmas lover herself?!?! I assured him I would be putting up a tree and he was crazy for suggesting otherwise! Well, now we have about a week before Christmasm which we will be out of town for and I just informed Brett that it is time to put the tree back where it came from because I'm not putting it up to enjoy it for 1 week. I suppose I will just make up for it by eating extra Christmas candy, listening to more Christmas music and be happy for the time I saved by not putting up and having to take it down.

Trick or Treat

2008-11-02T20:26:00.000-08:00

Our Halloween tradition is going to my brother and sis-in-laws, having dinner and taking the kids around trick-or-treating. The reason being becuase in their neighborhood there is a fantastic show every halloween. A couple doors down, their friends put on a huge production that takes months and months to prepare. In the past there has been War of the Worlds, Star Wars (Brett and probably every boys fav.), Phantom of the Opera and this year was inspired by the opening Olympic ceremony. You wouldn't believe how many hours goes into what they do and the money! They had 20 cast members. Anyway, it was great! Unfortunatly we didn't get any pics of it, but here are a couple of Jordan and Harlee (neice and nephew).

My most creative sister Jill brought this as the centerpeice for our dinner. Darling! I still haven't quite figured our why she got all the talent?

GO SUNS!!!

2008-11-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

Brett got 4 tickets to the Suns game on Thursday night (opening night) so Matt and Katie went with us. The game was embarrassing to watch with all the turnovers and everything else that was going on but the highlight, and pretty much why Brett got the tickets, was because Brian McKnight opened with the national anthem and did the half time show. He is fantastic! It was a fun night, we also went to the Saturday night game against the Portland Trail Blazers and it was a much better game! We really like Matt Barnes, he is a great player!

Long Time, No See!

2008-10-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening I got a call from a long lost freind. Heidi Bingham (Farnsworth) one of my best friends from Snowflake. We were able to get toether for breakfast at Terras house Sunday morning. It was great to see her and her two little boys (and 1 in the oven). And also an excuse to see Katie and Terra who I don't see nearly enough of!

If you know me at all, me and my friends can't be together and resist taking one of these. Only problem is Terras "ugly face" is a kissing face. Since when is that ugly? And truth be told, we needed Amy Langston in the mix!

Flavor of the Month

2008-10-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well, October is here and almost gone. This months treat is Truffles.
That's a lot of truffles! 1/4 of the months total!

People might not like spiders decorating what they are going to eat but oh well.

2008-10-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Hola Senoritas and Senors. This is pretty much the extent of my spanish and I can't even spell it right. I just went to Rocky Pointe, Mexico last weekend with my sister, a couple of friends and some kids. I can pretty much say that if we hadn't stayed where we did, I would have no desire to ever return. This is partly why... Here is the view out our front door, which is pure Mexico...

And this is the reason why I would like to go back. This is the view from off our balcony at Belle Sirena...
Crazy the differnce of scenery from one side of the building to the other! Here are a few more pics of me and Jaci, me and Jill and all the girls, and the sunset of course.
Pina Colada anyone?
I know this is silly of me but pretty much when I looked in the mirror after getting ready this day I told Jill I felt like I was one of James Bonds girls undercover and should be doing something adventurous. Let's be honest, we all know I wouldn't last a day, I'm a really bad liar! And have far too much clothing on.
Shout out to my Lover!
Gotta love a great Sunset! That's probably one of my favorite things about Arizona is the sunsets.

Yeah, we know we all look alike
Girls definantly don't got ups! You win some and you lose some
Come on ride the train, ra a ride it, CHU CHU!

The Birthday Boy!

2008-09-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

We just celebrated Bretts 26th Birthday. Can't you tell how

"happy" he is from his picture? Yeah, he was just being a stinker. Brett isn't so big on celebrating any holiday at all, which is odd but oh well. Anyway, he just wanted to stay home for dinner but I refused because, well pretty much I think it is a great excuse to go out. It turned into a fun night, at least I think it was and tomorrow is actually his Birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE BOY!

Erica's Bakery

2008-09-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

I am crazy! Always coming up with some grand idea of something new I can do. Work at the airport (for free flights of course), work at a hotel (again, cheap travel), peir 1 (for Christmas decorations) etc...etc...etc... Well one of my ideas was to start baking treats for dental offices. I was pretty much considering quitting my dental assisting job and starting up the baking company. (Good thing no one from work has my blog address!) Well, I got over my day dreaming and decided to stick with my great job. Long story short, I am now making treats for the marketing rep of my company to take to all the offices. I thought I was going to be doing like 20-22 doz a month but I am now realizing it is more like 50-75 a month. I can't complain, but it sure is a lot of work. Pretty much a part time job. Anyway, here are a few pics of my first day on the new job...

Snug as A Bug in A Rug

2008-09-15T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well, Brett and I just spent this past weekend in Heber in a cabin my family goes to every couple years. We had a lot of fun as usual. It's always interesting when you get 32 family members in one home for a weekend. As my sister Jill said, it definantly wasn't a relaxing vacation but what do you expect with that many kids running around?

2008-09-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

Of course there is an obnoxious story to go along with this incident! So, Brett noticed one day that we had a couple of these fun holes in our bedroom window. We didn't know where they came from but a coulpe days later the truth revealed itself. We had just sat down to have a nice little romantic dinner together and we hear something hitting the side of our house. We went to the window and discovered two little hoodlems on the other side of the wall from us with sling shots and rocks! Well, Brett went ahead and wooped out the video camera so we would have some evidence. Eventually the boys saw us and we came to the quick conclusion that they weren't the most intelligent kids we have ever come across. They just kept right on with thier routine, knowing that we were taping them. They flipped us off a few times, put on some halloween masks and even broke another window. In the meantime, I am on the phone with the police and they showed up in no time. Yeah, I know, it might be lame that I called the cops instead of going over and saying something. But lets just say the fellow outside (who ended up being the babysitter) was a little sketchy looking and let's be honest, you never know who the crazies are. Long story short, the two 9 year old boys came over and apologized and their parents are paying for both windows to be repaiered. Keepin it real in the hood!

Our Fantastic Hawaii Trip!

2008-09-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

Brett and I went on a two week trip to Hawaii this past May/June. We had so much fun except for the issue of me getting a fever blister the day we got there, no, not a coldsore, a huge fever blister that took over half of my lip and Brett always wanted me to be aware that he could see the water sloshing in it. Too much info? Sorry, it's what I do best. Anyway, Brett loved playing in the water with the Sea Turtles, while I kept my distance and my eyes wide open for any predators that might come my way.

South Mtn. Hike

2008-02-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

Jan. 26th, I took the blazer scout group (11-12 years old) to complete their 5 mile hike requirement, up South Mtn. Well 5 miles was exactly to the top, and the scouts were DONE hiking so we turned around. I hate being that close and turing back, so....

Feb. 2nd, Erica and I hiked up South Mtn. (Thats the one with all the red tower lights) It was 2.5-3 miles each way, about 6 miles round trip. The weather was great, the view was fantastic (if you can get beyond all the smog) and it was alot of fun. We took some Video from the top as well.... but I am working on getting that posted here as well. Brett A. Paxman

Brett and Erica Paxman

2008-02-06T19:30:00.000-08:00

After a 4 month engagment, 7 months of dating, and years of friendship, Brett Paxman and Erica Scott were married in the evening of June 2nd of 2006 in the Snowflake AZ Temple.