A Baby!!!

Yes a baby! I am talking about my friend Brianna Saxer who just delivered her brand new baby boy!!! His name is A.J. and he is just a doll! If you're allowed to call a boy a doll! Dave and I went to meet him for the first time and he just mesmerized us the entire time. He is just the sweetest little bundle of joy! Here are some pictures of our first meeting with A.J. I can't wait to see him grow up!!

We both got a turn holding the baby, but of course as soon as it was Dave's turn the baby spit up all over him. Typical!

Dave's going to be a good father some day.......just not today :)

This is one of my favorite pictures! Look at how precious his little foot is!!

Here he is with his proud mommy!!

And of course with his proud grandma too!!

The Summer in a Nut Shell

Okay, so it's been a month since I blogged but to my defense my internet connection at home has just been TERRIBLE. SO...since it has been a while I will do my most memorable moments of the summer as a married person!!

1. Dave and I decided we would eat the top of our wedding cake for our 1 month anniversary! It was all great except for the fact that when we picked it up from my parent's house we left it in the car...in the HOT HOT Summer heat! So...needless to say the next day we had a nasty melted and very smelly cake. So much for that! At least we got some pictures!!

I'm very excited about this can you tell?

2. Some of our very favorite people got married this summer as well! Here they are:

The Bernthals!

The Udens

Kati Pessin

The Hannahs

3. This summer we had the honor of having Dave's friend Bashir visit form Sudan. So of course we had to take him to the Taste. This is a picture of Dave, my brother and Bashir on our way there. I think Bashir was a little uncomfortable with the amount of people he saw but at least the heat wasn't an issue!


4. A visit to the dunes with the Bernthals! The Lord has just continued to bless our friendship with Dave and Jenny! Every time we get together we leave feeling so encourage and thankful to have them in our lives and to be walking through this exciting time of our lives together! Here is a video of the Daves at the dunes. They truly are two peas in a pod!

5. I turned 24 this summer! I feel so old yet so young at the same time! Dave's parent's held a little get together at their place and Tunde came and took some great pictures. It was great having friends to celebrate with. This is a fun picture of Dave, JP, Brittany and me outside of the Chookaszian home in Glenview.



6. Dave has been traveling to Atlanta every week. It has been challenging for us to stay connected and invest fully into each other but the Lord has been gracious and has given us many special moments to strengthen our relationship. Because of his traveling, I was able to fly down and visit Dave in Atlanta. We had a great time visiting the Martinez family as well as spending some special time alone. We had quite the interesting experience when we went to visit a winery. The tour guy had definitely had a bit too much of his own wine that day! It led to some good laughs. Here are some pictures of the Chateau Elan!

This picture would be sooo much nicer if only I had a Nikon D300!!!! wink wink!!!

7. And last but not least, Dave and I got to spend some time in Aspen for the Chookaszian family reunion! We climbed up a giant mountain...which I fell down on the way back! We had a ton of fun spending time with the family and playing "Scattergories" which JP won like every single time. Here are some fun pics.

Things I've Learned About Dave

Well, I hope I don't embarrass him in this blog, although, I don't think he gets embarrassed easily. Here are a few things I'm learning about Dave!

1. I always knew Dave was a high in self motivation but after the first week of setting his alarm during summer break, I got a little annoyed. I think he's loosened up and is learning to enjoy more of the times that we have together.

2. Dave sometimes laughs really hard in his sleep....it creeps me out!

3. He likes his toilet paper to roll down like a waterfall not the other way around.

4. He is very good at filling up the dishwasher and emptying it!!!! I lucked out on this one!

5. Dave sometimes likes to take over most of the bed...even if he won't admit it! Although, he has improved in this area already!!

6. His mom always said he was kind of clumsy..."Dave WHOOPS Chookaszian" but now I think I know the full extent of it. Whenever he goes to play a sport he comes back with a new injury. When we were dating he went to go play basketball and came back with a chipped tooth and a bloody chin. After his nose surgery he got elbowed in the nose a few times! Recently he hurt his side...the best part is that I would gladly use that as an excuse to either never play the sport again or not work out for a while but Dave I think uses it as motivation because he just wants to do it more. I can't wait to see what the skiing season brings.

This is Dave after busting his lip freshmen year in college on a ski trip!

7. Dave is an unbelievable patient and selfless guy!! He is always letting people go ahead of him, he always gives up the closest parking spot because he believes someone else might really need it, AND he always lets other cars/people cut in front of him in line...(that is something I need to work on!)

8. Dave LOVES learning. I knew this one before but it's just fun to see Dave whip through a book...like I could never do! When ever he learns something new he likes to share it with everyone!

9. Dave asks A LOT of questions!!! I'm learning to be patient with this one. His favorite is to ask the waiter or waitress what dish they recommend and why. That can take a few minutes...not that much fun for me when I'm hungry! haha. If someone is explaining something to him, he asks questions that I thought he knew the answer to, but he says he does it for clarification.

10. The best thing that I have learned about Dave is that I really truly know that he is the right guy for me. I was laying in bed the other day and just thinking about how well he compliments me! I guess the Lord really knows what he's doing! :)

Well, that's it for now...I gotta go work out because Dave challenged me to work out at least 3 times a week for a month. He claims this could help me in many ways....not that I want to prove him wrong but...We'll SEE about that!!!

The Name Change

The name change thing hasn't been too difficult for me. I was able to change my last name pretty quickly. However, the day I decided to go get my new driver's license was a bit emotional. I was very excited and after spending an hour at the DMV and my picture turned out rather nice, I went straight to my parent's house to show them. Then I came home and showed Dave the license ....then that's when it hit. Tears all of a sudden streamed down my face. Dave was a bit confused, he thought I was excited! And I was...but I think at that moment I finally realized that I would no longer legally be a "Sanchez" any more. No more Ms. Sanchez! I think I've finally adjusted to the name change and I'm fully ready to be Mrs. Chooks now but I had no idea that changing my last name would be such an adventure and so emotional. The only problem now is that I have TWO names that no one can either pronounce or spell. ComEd for example wrote KAREN on my bill. I wrote them asking them to change the spelling and then they wrote "Keren Chookasizan"....CHOOKASIZAN!!!!!!!! You would think if I asked you to spell my name correctly that you would pay closer attention the second time...but no. Sigh. I suppose those are the new trials I have as a Chooky!

Soccer!

Yesterday Dave and I went to see FC Barcelona vs. Chivas with my brother, parents, Danny and Tass. We had a lot of fun, it was crazy to see so many fans blowing horns, dancing, chanting and cheering on their favorite team. Best moment: When I got a lemon chill!!! (I know it has nothing to do with the actual game...but I like lemons!) Worst moment: Getting beer spilled all over me because of crazy fans! It was great getting to spend time with my parents before my dad heads down to Houston.

Here's the crew before we headed out!

FC Barcelona!

He's pretty intense when it comes to sports...I just wanted a lemon chill!

I'm not quite sure what my dad is doing here, but at least he looks really happy! haha

Los Tres AMIGOS!
Shar, Danny and Tass

This guy #14 is supposed to be famous or something, "Henry". A french player.

Soldier Field: 40,000 in attendance!

Wedding Bliss

Finally, inspired by my friend's wonderful blogs...I've decided to keep a blog. I hope to be able to look back at my first year of marriage and see how much I have learned!

Let's start with the wedding!

I have to say, my wedding day was one of the most wonderful days of my life. It was more than I could have ever planned or wished for myself. Thank you Jesus, 'ppreciate it! We were overwhelmed by the amount of love and happiness that we experienced that day. It was so amazing to see all of our friends and family gathered in one spot to celebrate that day with us. It was just perfect. I could go on forever about our wedding but here are some of my favorite pictures from that day! (Thank you Keith, Becca, and Jared for taking these) If you're getting married I def. recommend them. Check out their site at www.lizpowerphotography.com


I love the way he was looking at me! :)


(ABOVE: My beautiful singing friends: The KDAWGS! You guys did an amazing job!)

Party TIME!!

Thank you to all of you who made our day so amazing!!!