Dean's List!!!

Okay so it has been a while since I have posted anything on our blog mostly because nothing too exciting has happened in our lives lately. Brandon started his second semester at ASU, i forgot to sign up for a class this semester ;) and thats about it.

BUT......

On saturday night brandon went a checked the mail and he recieved a letter from the office of the dean at ASU's business school. It read...

Dear Brandon,

It is my great pleasure to inform you that you have earned a place on the Dean's List in recognitin of your exemplary academic performance during the fall 2007 semester. You should be especially proud of this designation because it acknowledges your place among the top undergraduate scholars at one of the country's most highly acclaimed business schools.

The letter went on to say that the W.P Carey school of business is ranked in the top 25 of the nation. The accounting program is #18 in the nation.

I am so proud of Brandon. He is exceeding any expectations I ever had of him. I love him very much and can't wait to see what else he will accomplish in the years to come.

UofA vs. ASU

Okay so a little background.......

Brandon is an ASU fan b/c 1. he goes to ASU & 2. he has always been

Ashley is a U of A fan b/c 1. she was raised watching U of A basketball with Grandpa Clifford.

So we went to the Uof A vs. ASU game last night. Brandon gets discount tickets b/c he is a student but he has to sit in the ASU student section. So yes i sat in the ASU student section and wore an ASU shirt when they played U of A. not a proud moment for me. plus i paid for it because Uof A lost.

We had a lot of fun though. i just had to bite my lip a few times to catch myself from cheering for U of A while wearing an ASU shirt.

Christmas week

Bramdon and I had a wonderful Christmas. it was very busy. we first had the Clifford Christmas party on Friday the 21st. it was very fun. the whole party is a big tradition. we have dinner and we play the nut game. whoever finds the nut wins the rnament. Grandma hide's a nut somewhere in the food. i dont remember the last time i won. i guess i'm nt eating the right food. then we have our program. each family does a little part. it is fun. one family gets assighned to do the nativity each year. then we sing songs and santa comes and brings all the kids presents. then while the kids are all occupied with the toys they just got the adults play the elephant gift exchange game. there are usually about 80- 100 people(including all the kids) i dont think we had that many this year though. but it was great. then on saturday Brandon and i finnished up some last minute shopping. on sunday it was my Birthday(yes it stinks having it so close to X-mas but oh well). I was a big procastinator this year so sunday morning i was hurring to finnish making some gifts i was giving to my family. We had church at 11am then after church i wrapped gifts for Brandon's parents and for the Skousen family. then we went over to Brandon's parents house and gave them their gifts. Debbie loved the quilt i made. i was so happy she liked it. then we went over to Tracy and Diane's house for the Skousen Christmas party. this party is full of tradition also. we always eat Papito's french dip sandwiches, and Nannie always has a ton of jello ;) then we play throw the ping pong through santas mouth. it is really hard. and we tell the christmas story as we sing songs. then we all open gifts. and since christmas is so close to my birthday nannie always gets me a cake that says Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Ashley.

Brandon had to work on christmas eve so we left for prescott around 4pm after he was done and we finnished packing. we had christmas eve at brad & mindy's house it waqs fun my grandpa's brother and his family was able to come for dinner. we don't get to see them very often so it was a great treat. after dinner grandma and grandpa both told some stories aboout christmas. the kids were traking santa on the internet and they would come and tell us every so often where he was. it was so funny. anyway we all woke up on christmas morning around 7:30-8am santa came and brought all the kids some pretty col stuff. Dallas(my13yr old cousin) got a cell phone in his stocking, annie got an ipod shuffel. and Mckell got an Ariel kitchen. i dont think Mckell stopped playing with her kitchen until we went over to Randy & Lisa's for christmas dinner @ 12. so we had our christmas lunch/ dinner. then we opened all our gifts. there were a ton of presents uinder the tree. it was fun brandon and i got PS2 and guitar hero. it is alot of fun. so if anyone wants to come play just give us a call. i made the coolest necklace for my mom here is a pic of it:

So to make this long post a little shorter We had a great Chrsitmas and we hope everyone else did too.

Top Of Class

Okay so i have to brag about Brandon since i know he wont....
This afternoon Brandon recieved an email from his Accounting Professor, she asked Brandon if he would be interested in particiapating in a national auditing competition hosted by KPMG(one of the big 4 accouonting firms)(one f the firms brrandon is interested in wrking for). She said that she wanted to give him 1st choice because he was the TOP junior student in the accounting classes. This competition is between 44 colleges around the country. Brandon will be on the ASU team representing the Junior class(the teams are made up of 4 students one from each grade). the 44 teams will complete auditing problems/cases and the top 5 teams will get to go to New York for the final competition.(all expences paid)
I am so proud of Brandon he is such a hard worker. he has done so well this past semester. he got A's in all of his classes. he now has 3 semesters to go and he will have his bachelors degree completed. The Masters Program at ASU is 1 year after the bachelor degree. He will be going straight into the masters program after he graduates.
I will keep you updated on how he does in the competition

Day Spa!

okay so the Dentist i work for is AWESOME! on friday we had our work Christmas party.It was an all day thing. Friday morning the girls in the office had 9am appointments at the Pheonician Day Spa. this was the coolest experience. i had never been to a spa before. when we got there they showed us to the locker room and we changed into robes. after we changed we went back up front and they called my name. i went back and got a 1 hr massage. it was amazing. after that i went to the water atrium waiting room. the girls and i talked until we got called back to have our 1 hr facials. i have never had a facial and it was really cool. my skin felt so good and still does. after that we all went up to the salon and had chocolate pediures. they served us hot chocolate and chocolate candies. all of the scrubs they used smelt like chocolate it was really neat. when we were all done with that we went back to the water atrium and we ate lunch. when we were finnished we went back to the salon and got chocolate manicures. okay so this might be getting long but it isnt over sorry if you bored.... after our manicures we all went and took showers and then went back to the salon and got our make up done for the night.(sorry i dont have any pics my camera was dead). after we were all done with make up it was 5pm and we had dinner reservvations for 6 so we hurried to Connie's house(my office manager she just lives dwn the street from the spa) to finnish getting ready. then we went to dinner at City Hall Reasturant in scottsdale. Brandon was a little late to dinner because he had a finnal exam for school. he got there as we were being served our steaks. just in time for the main course. dinner was amazing and after we all went to Tempe Improve. i don't remember the last time i laughed that hard. we saw Alfonzo(he won last comic standing)
this was such a great work Christams party i never expected to get so much from an employer. if anyone is looking for a great dentist call me. the one i work for is great!;)