New York Beaches and Family!!!

I'm finally back!! Tom and I had a very enjoyable week in NY. We enjoyed spending time with family and going to the beaches. We were too busy to go to the city, but it was still a blast!
The plane ride and bus ride home really sucked! I had no space...and after only 3 hours of sleep the night before, I was forced to fall asleep in a very weird position. I am paying for it now!!! I woke up yesterday and couldn't move my neck...I guess I pulled something. I decided JetBlue is the ONLY way to fly...or first class! JetBlue gives you so much room and you get your own personal TV with lots of channels to choose from. Wow, ok JetBlue should pay me for advertising. :)

Me and my funny hair


Our lighthouse....it's probably on this blog 100 times, but I couldn't resist!


Getting burnt to a crisp!


Tom and nephew Christopher


Me with brand new baby nephew, Anthony


Baby Nick...boy, he sure loves pizza!


Tom "sleeping" with nephew Anthony


Brand new baby Anthony with his mama, Denise :) Congrats!

What Happens in Vegas

Ok, so this movie, What Happens in Vegas, is pretty much the best movie ever! It was so funny! Plus, it made my night because it had our lighthouse in it. The same lighthouse that she goes to is the same lighthouse that I fell in love with Tom at...and it was 5 min. from our old house in NY. Ahhh...I miss it! Just thought I would share....go see it! You will love it....sooooooooo funny!!!

The best lighthouse in the world! (taken on the night of our first date :)

Out with the old and in with the new...

Well, we have officially moved! Yay! I don't have pictures yet because I am waiting until we paint next week. We have been so busy, but we love the new place! The stairs were killer when we were moving in...but I decided they will be nice for my butt! :)
We are VERY grateful to everyone who helped!

These pictures are of our old house that we were renting in Sunbrook (the old people golf community). I will have the other pictures after we paint.









I am REALLY going to miss this bathroom!

2 More Days....

Only 2 more days. It's now nap time for the kids so I actually have time to blog. While we are very excited to move, we are pretty much going crazy packing. I hate packing and have decided I never want to move again unless I am rich enough to just pay someone to move for me and to clean my house! Unfortunately, I know we will have to move again someday to house the 8-10 children that I would like to have someday. Ha! Yet another stress in my life--trying to conceive!
We started off the week with Tom having the stomach flu, or something of that nature which caused him to throw up for pretty much 24 hours straight...not fun! The packing, cleaning, and taking care of a sick husband (hard work), and watching all my little day care kiddos was all left to me. Then, I got a UTI and unfortunately I didn't get as much sympathy because Tom has to work every day...dang. I am still left packing, cleaning, watching the kiddos, and trying to remember everything that I need to remind Tom to do. He has much better things to do with his brain than remember the tedious day-to-day things. That's my job. Ha! So if any of you are wondering why I am not amazingly smart like Tom, just remember that the only reason he can be amazingly smart is because he has me ;) ha ha! Golly, I sure love him!
Anyway, I am a bit overwhelmed so I will be leaving the blogging world for the next week or two while we pack, clean, and move into our new place. When I come back there will be pictures and I'm sure I will be much happier :)

The Countdown Begins....

We move in 8 days!!!!! I am so excited to have the extra space and to finally be out of our "old people" neighborhood. Sorry, I still haven't taken pictures of it. I suppose I will do that after we move in : )

More of God's Beautiful Earth!!

So, I know everyone is seeing these pictures and would just love to come visit. One at a time...but you are all welcome! This week we have had Toms mom visiting which has been great! My little day care kidos just loved her to death. She left today and they were so sad. One of my best friends that I grew up with, Laura Brown, is also visiting this week. On Monday night we went hiking in the Red Cliffs Reserve. It is so beautiful there. I can't get over how beautiful it is. Southern Utah is the place to be. If any of you out there like hiking, you need to come here.
me

Laura and me

The gorgeous pools that we hiked to

I'm falling....jk

Tom climbing down...it's harder than it looks :)

kissy kissy!

Laura and I are holding up this rock from falling on us

stopping to smell the flowers

Tom is pushing me off the cliff....haha

Laura and I being really big weirdos...

Enjoying Gods Beautiful Earth...

Today we went to Zion to hike the Emerald Pools. It was a gorgeous day!

A cool rock...it kinda looked like it was about to fall on us.

us...

Tom and his mom, Maryann

one of the pools dripping down over the cliff...

Me!

Tom and I on the edge of a really high cliff...the sign said "DANGER" and Tom said "Danger is my middle name." ha!

The water in the pools was so clear. We took a nice little dip in it...but it was pretty cold.

Me at the upper pool (there are 3...lower, middle, and upper)

These cliffs are so amazing...I love it!

Toms mommy, Maryann...

The view from above...

The view from below...

Tom liked this picture because of the red, white, and blue (red rock, white rock, and blue sky)

Happy Birthday Tom!

Saturday was Toms birthday...the big 29! His mom is visiting us here in St. George so she made him a chocolate ice cream cake. It was yummy!

Thanks Cathie...

After a day full of disappointments and heartache, I was delighted to have an email from my step mom Cathie with a link to this beautiful video. The pictures are beautiful and it helped remind me that Christ has felt everything that I feel and knows what I am going through. I hope you all like it too. Thank you Cathie.
If the link doesn't work just copy and paste this (click on the x to get it in full screen)
http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html

Going Private Update....

So I changed my mind about setting my blog to private. It's too much work for which I am far to lazy. So, enjoy my blog without the hassle of logging in...at least for now!

Conference Weekend

Tom and I went up to SLC this past weekend for the General Conference of our church. We had tickets to the Sunday morning session. We were able to go with our good friends James & Heidi Harper (James is a fellow New Mexican). It was wonderful to be there in the conference center and hear the words of the new Prophet of our church, Thomas S. Monson, and also of other leaders in our church. I can't remember who spoke, but I really enjoyed the talk on families. It was about the importance of keeping our families centered on Christ. He talked about how Satan is trying and succeeding at destroying families everywhere. As a result of decaying family units there are terrible effects on our society—increased crime, behavior disorders, poverty, drug abuse, and the list continues to grow and grow. I hope that Tom and I will always be able to keep our family centered on Christ and withstand Satans attempts to try and destroy us.

me, Tom, James, and Heidi after the Sunday morning session...

The view from inside. Not the best picture but it gives you an idea of how many people attend in the conference center--I think it fits somewhere around 21,000 people.

Tom and I in front of the SLC temple...

The conference center...

The newly refurbished tabranacle which used to be where General Conference was held...


Sunday evening we had dinner at our other good friends (Bonnie & Nathan) home. James and Heidi came, Matt Ball (my brothers old roommate in college) and his wife, and another couple that are friends of Bonnie and Nathan's also came. It was a most enjoyable weekend getaway!

Bonnie and Nathan slaving away in the kitchen...


most of the gang..

Changes...

So, Tom and I are just having the hardest time making up our mind about things. We both have been going back and forth about what house is right for us and if it's the right decision. After going back and forth for a while we opted for a cheaper house payment and an overall better deal. I really liked the Washington Fields house, but we have decided to get a townhouse in Santa Clara instead. By doing this we will save on pretty much everything--especially since Toms office is right down the street. No more expensive gas bill. We are very exctied to save our money for better things that are yet to come...stay tuned for more later : )

Going Private...

Hi everyone! I have decided to jump on the bandwaagon and set my blog to private. Let me know your email address so I can add you(send to sarah.gounaris@gmail.com or leave a comment). Don't be shy--even if you are a long lost friend or relative I would love to invite you to my blog. =)

PS: I think you might have to have gmail. If you don't have gmail just give me whatever your email is and I will still add you. If it doesn't work, let me know. :)

My children....

Well, since I don't have any kids, I often run out of things to blog about. I realize that this is incredibly weird but I am going to blog my cats...and I will add my day care kids for kicks and giggles. I am now going to be put in the category of people who dress their dogs up like they are their child...but hey, at least my fellow blogers get to read a new post right? So here you go people...these are the children in my life that I absolutley adore!

This is one of the rare moments when Bella is not being tortured by Jerry.

This is what they do all day. Bella lays on Toms pillow, and Jerry lays on mine...

This is Tyler...He is about 21 mo. and I would have to say he is pretty much the cutest and funiest kid ever. I love him.

This is Matthew...he is only 2...but I would say he looks like he is 4. He is sooo funny. I love his cute little personality. Every day when Tom leaves the house he says "Goodbye Tom, go make some money!" I have no idea where he got that from :)

This is Kaitlin...she is 18 mo. and is just so sweet.

This is Kaitlins older sister Kealani (4 yrs). She is such a good big sister. One time she was leaving the room and she said "Sarah, will you watch Kaitlin for me while I am gone?"

This is Cheznie (4 yrs). She is pretty much the most sylish 4 yr old I have ever met...


I don't have pictures of the other kids I watch...but they are cute too. :)