WAITING FOR MAY....

Well, to my mass of blog followers, it's time to announce : WE ARE HAVING A BABY! Our baby is due May 4, so we are now 4 months along and I have the pooch to prove it :) We're 50% sure it's a girl....aka, we don't know what it is. We've decided to wait and be surprised, so we'll see how that plan goes! Any guesses? Girl? Boy?
We feel so blessed to be having this new angel joining our family. The Lord has really been watching over us during the pregnancy, and there is no denying His hand in how everything has been turning out. This is what the Lord has prepared us for our whole lives (which isn't at all nerve-wracking, haha) and we are just so excited to have a fresh spirit from Heaven to come into our home.
Well, just wanted to put the world out there! We'll try to keep this updated :)

Life is a daring adventure...

Well, it's about time I posted something new! And John and I have plenty to update. The past few months have really kept us on our toes. Besides work and school, in May my younger sister got married! A week after the wedding the whole family - all 8 of us now including the two sons-in-laws - packed our backpacks, drove to the airport, and flew to EUROPE!!! We were there 5 weeks and saw 10 different countries - Spain, Turkey, Greece, Monocco, Liktenstien, Austria, the Vatican (yes, we counted it), Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. We spent most of our time in those last three. It was the trip of a lifetime and we LOVED IT!!! We made memories that we will look back on for years to come. Thank you Mom and Dad!

Now that we are back in the good ol' US of A things have slowed down a bit - but not much. We visited John's family for the 4th of July - and got to go kayaking!-, jumped back into work, and we;re having John's brother Jared stay with us for a couple of weeks.

We are so grateful to our earthly and heavenly parents for all that they have given us this summer. My parents sacrificed so much to take the family on this adventure, and there will never be enough that we can do to thank them. It was touching to see all the beautiful buildings and paintings that Europe had to offer as a way of showing their devotion to Christ, and beyond that the beauties Heavenly Father showed us of this miraculous earth and good people touched our lives. We met so many people who were instruments in the hands of God, and helped us whenever we were in sticky situations. These are the type of people that restore your faith in humanity. It was obvious that from the people we met, to the people who took us, to the places we saw, that God's hand was and is in our lives.

And now it's good to be home, starting the next adventure. 'To live shall be an awfully big adventure.' -Peter Pan

Signing out! Til next time!

One more time, from the top...

I've been reading everyone's blogs about many travels, or babies, or life changing experiences, and I gotta admit, it made me feel really itchy for a change and to be able to talk about something totally new on here! Then I decided to focus on the adventures we are having, big or small, and share that with you.

Every Valentines Day our stake puts on a huge dance, which has turned out to be a yearly highlight. We have so much fun dancing, but as a marriage couple your options for going dancing are pretty much limited to the kitchen floor. It was great to get to strut our stuff together :)

Another fun adventure was having my sister Lauren and her almost-fiance down for president's day! It was wonderful having them here, and we were able to get out and enjoy Red Cliffs (the place that john proposed almost 2 years ago). If you are up north with over a foot of snow, please note the blue sky, vegetation, & sunshine in this picture...jealous? Yep, I know.

Other fun adventures are those to come in the near-ish future! Such as going to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and possibly Scotland with my family this summer! My dad has been saving up for over a decade for this, it's one of his life dreams! Thank you Daddeo! Then John and I are going to stay in Europe for a week after my family leaves and spend it on our second honeymoon in IRELAND!!! We are only going to go to a couple of places in Ireland, but intended to thoroughly enjoy those places. Are plan for getting around all the little quaint towns? Biking! Is the so picturesque? I can hardly wait.

A little more long term plan that we have decided to pursue is John getting his masters at Colorado State University when he graduates spring of 2011! One year away! AH! As we've been looking into CSU I think we both feel really good about it, for a lot of reasons. It is the 8th best school in the country for Occupational Therapy, it's only 7 hours from Riverdale and 8 hours from Smithfield so we could still come home for the holidays! And it is completely BREATHTAKING! Money magazine actually rated the town that CSU is in as the #1 place in America to live! I would love the chance to be in the minority for a while and learn what it is like to be out of my comfort zone, and yet still close enough to see our family on special occasions. Of course, we still have to apply and get accepted, and visit, and pray some more, so I probably shouldn't be making this public yet, but hey, how many people really read this blog anyways? So that is the more long term plan, cross your fingers for us!

We are just so happy and grateful to the Lord for bringing us together and giving us this beautiful life. It is such a beautiful thing to feel the Lord's love in our relationship and all the blessing that have been poured down upon us, from close uplifting friends to such a lovely place to live to jobs we both get to enjoy going to, to a wonderful marriage to get to come home to. We're love our hectic, adventurous, romantic life!