2015 Update #3

      October was a fun month.  I took Anna to pick out a pumpkin at a local pumpkin patch.  She loved seeing the tractors and I think she could have picked a hundred pumpkins out.  Instead of carving, we used felt stickers.  I think I'll be getting those for the next couple years.  It was so nice to avoid the mess and the work.  We did lots of fun Halloween activities for preschool.  It might have been my most favorite week.  The day before Halloween, Ty's office let's families come in and the kids can go around to everyone's desk and trick-or-treat.  Anna has been asking to go to Daddy's office every time we need to drop him off at work.  Unfortunately for her, this is the only time they ever allow us to do that.  So she was anxiously awaiting this day and had so much fun.  She came away with so much candy that I was seriously considering say that was it for Halloween.  We did go out for Halloween though, and seriously, her bucket was full for quite awhile.

      November was pretty low key.  We decided to stay in Utah for Thanksgiving since traveling while I was that pregnant didn't sound like a great idea.  We were able to have our Thanksgiving with Ty's brother's family and despite being in charge of the turkey (which I did in the Crockpot and it turned out perfect!), it actually was very relaxing day.  Plenty of delicious food! And great company!

      December, we only did one week of preschool and I'm afraid that I've completely slacked off.  I spent the entire month just focused on Christmas and really trying to relax when I could.  I don't remember feeling that tense when I was pregnant with Anna, but walking around in the cold made my belly tighten. We had fun though with our Ward Christmas Party, St. Nikolaus Tag, seeing Christmas lights, making a gingerbread house, playing in the snow, and visiting Santa.  On Christmas Day we got to Skype with my family and little brother Michael.  It was great to see and talk with everyone.  In a year we'll be able to spend Christmas together.

      Just after Christmas, Ty started getting hip and leg pain that we think is either Sciatica or Piriformis Syndrome.  It's been improving a little bit each week, but it's still giving him pain. He's been seeing a chiropractor and doing stretches everyday, but started physical therapy today and hopefully that will really make a difference.  I wish I could say that we've been up to fun things in January, but really it's been all about preparing for Baby Girl's arrival.  Nesting has definitely set in and our condo has probably never looked better.  It's great.  Our house is nice and clean and I'm no longer embarrassed by the state of our home.  Haha.  She'll be here in just a few weeks and I'm starting to feel more prepared. 

My First Bloggy Award.

I'm so proud!

A new-found friend, Tammy, from Tammy's Two Cents honored me with the Lemonade Award.
I won't lie to you, I'm kind of excited! : )

Now, I'd like to extend the award to 10 of my favorite bloggers.

De Wild, De Crazy, Despains!
You, the Robbins, and We
Randy, Capri, and Wyatt
Are You Really Reading This?
BIG GIRLS NEED LOVE TOO!
I have a family here on earth
It all started when two people fell in love
Katiedid
Mr. & Mrs. Potatohead
The Robbins Family

I love these ladies! And I love when they post.

To accept your award, post it on your blog, link back to me, then pass it on to at least 10 other bloggers that show great gratitude/attitude.

A Season of Thanks

This month we focus a lot of attention on being thankful. Well, Ty and I definitely have much to be thankful for. In church today, someone gave their talk on Gratitude and posed the question:

"How has my Heavenly Father blessed me today?"

It got me thinking and I've decided to make a post each day until the end of the month about something I'm thankful for.

Somethings are really important. Other things are silly, but I sure am thankful I've got 'em!

Today I'm thankful that we found a great new apartment that's within our budget. I searched high and low....and even lower...to find something that would be suitable.

I just have to say PRAYER WORKS!!!!!!

It was the last place of the day and I almost didn't call. The posting was up on craigslist (I adore that site with all my heart) the day before and for some reason I thought about not calling. I'm so glad I did. Out of everything I have seen so far, it was definitely the best. And the person we will be renting from is LDS as well, so that's cool.

When I walked in and saw the color on the walls, my heart did somersaults. I lurve this color and it will go really well with our decor.

Here's the Living Room from the door. Don't judge my chubbiness.
The entryway. They had just cleaned the carpets so we needed to take off our shoes.
The washer and dryer room next to the kitchen.
I was sad the kitchen was extremely smaller than my last one, but......
I have a pantry!!!!!! It will definitely make up for the lack of cupboard space. Though, I will miss the counter space.

And I get two...FULL...bathrooms!!!! Even though it's small, I'm so happy about the counter space in there.

This is why. My old bathroom.
Shower and toilet. You know you wanted to see.
Master Bedroom
Master Bathroom. Yay!
Hall leading to other bedrooms. I'm not sure if this was going to be a closet or not. That's my guess as to why the paint doesn't cover the whole wall.
Notice the spots on the floor. Apparently the people that moved out had one of Satan's spawn living with them.

Check out the cute little coat rack.
The other bedroom that we will probably use as the office.
Down the hall to the bathroom.
I'm not sure what the thought was going into this area, but I'm running with it like a wild crazy horse.
We felt it was important to include a shot of the Living Room with the steam cleaner in it.
Area right next to the door.
Isn't Suzette cute?
I loves her for coming with me to all these crazy places. I expect a lot of nights with her coming over and watching chick flicks nights.

With popcorn.

And probably chocolate.

I love chocolate.

I'm thankful for chocolate too. But that's a different post. :)

This is the part of the post where I cry, scream, beg, and gravel........

We are moving in on Saturday and need some assistance with the process. We'll be starting in Othello @ 9:00AM. Everything is boxed up and ready to go since we've basically been storing everything until we really move. We're thinking that it shouldn't take more than an hour to load up. In Kennewick, we plan to start @ 11:30AM. I'll be making homemade pizza and cookies for everyone that helps. (Sorry, Melissa. I stole your idea. :) ) Anyone that can be available to help will be greatly appreciated and greatly rewarded. So, please let me know if you can. Thanks all!

Slackin' on the job!

Wow!!!! I'm officially booted from the "I'm-diligent-with-keeping-up-with-my-blog" club. A month! I've been slacking for a MONTH! Can you even believe that it's now JUNE! I'm still trying to recover from April. There are still gifts that were double from the wedding that we are trying to get returned and never seem to have the time to do. (It will be done this week!) Why don't I just take a minute and try and recap the month a little. You might want to get comfy.

May had a lot going on and some is definitely worth blogging about. First off, Ty and I were given callings in our ward. He is the Sunday School teacher for the 13-14 year olds, which is already proving to be somewhat of a challenged with a couple of boys who are a little disrespectful. I was called to be the Relief Society Secretary and that takes up whatever time I do have left, which isn't much. Mother's Day we were sustained to our callings and we also finally gave those talks that had been postponed due to the lack of electricity in the building. Both of our parents were there and our Moms got to hear how much we love and appreciate all the wonderful things they do.

My migraines have been pretty bad lately and my teeth had, also, been giving me some trouble. So, I finally had to bite the bullet and decided to get my Wisdom Teeth removed (especially since I now have insurance). The doctor said they weren't posing any serious threat at the moment, and had the surgery. I had all four taken out and I WAS put under anesthesia. Thank goodness because I've heard plenty of horror stories about being awake for that surgery.......not exciting. I'm not exactly sure at what point I feel asleep, but I remember talking about Harry Potter and the fact that I'm a Massage Practitioner. Waking up was strange because I didn't remember falling alseep, but my eyes felt somewhat heavy and I was really groggy. However, it didn't take to long to figure out what went down after noticing the puffy cheeks. They had my lie down for a minute where they had a little yellow flower waiting for me. I thought that was pretty sweet of them. "Hey, we're gonna rip some of your teeth out, but we'll knock you out and give you a flower to make up for it." My mom told me later that she was kinda worried about how I was going to be since the girl that came out right before me had trouble even standing. However, I but were close enough that it wouldn't take to long before they would. The next week I went in was doing pretty dang good under the circumstances. Hooray for serious medication! The first day, my cheeks, tongue, and chin were numb. My mom watched over me until Ty came home from work. She really is pretty much one of the coolest moms around. Although, she did make me drink a thing of Slim-fast so I could take my meds. It's a lot harder than it sounds when you can't feel your face. I had to look in the mirror to make sure I was doing it right. Ty was amazing as well. He really took great care of me. He made food for me and did the dishes. Overall, I didn't do too bad, but seriously if you wanna trip, take some Hydrocodine. That stuff made me intensely loopy.

Our next fun event was Memorial Day weekend. Saturday, we went to the cemetery with Ty's family to visit Grandpa Amos Dodgen's grave. He was in the Air Force and I believe spent some time in Korea. Afterwards, Ty and I ran home quickly, so I could change. It was a lot hotter than expected. Then, we grabbed some food and headed over to the Blue Heron park and had a family picnic of sorts with everyone. It was pretty fun and we got to visit with some relatives. We went home, after a bit, to take a nap before the parade started. After talking with Mom and remembering past years of the parade, we decided to make our way over to Rite Aid about 5:30 to get a good spot. Since we were there so early we decided to walk down to the carnival area and see the booths that people put up. That's pretty much all we did was walk around and then headed back. It was good to get some exercise though. ;) After getting some food at Safeway, we busted out with our camping chair (which we got from the wedding) and hung out until the parade started. I took some pictures of us and I got some good shots of my dad's trucks and one of my brother Michael sorta looking for someone he knew in the crowd while playing his drum.


You have to kinda look close to see Michael, but (from the left) the second kid over, his head is right behind Michael's back. There were so many of these little drummers I had trouble finding him in the crowd. And since they were moving so fast, this was the best picture I could get.

Monday, we (again) went to the cemetery to visit my Grandpa Justesen's grave. He was in the Navy and served during WWII. We also saw my sister-in-law's brother, Troy's grave. It was a nice day, but we were out there for a little too long and Ty and I both got sunburned.




















That was pretty much May. Tiffany and her boyfriend Jeremy came to visit with both of their kids McKayla and Alexis. We got to use our BBQ grill for the first time! It was way exciting. I'm so excited to have it. It's going to make cooking dinners a breeze this summer.

This last Tuesday we had the missionaries and an investigator family came over. I'm really excited about that. I've never really been able to be apart of the process before and help someone find the gospel.Manuel and Molly are living together and will be having a baby really soon (like two or three weeks). Manuel found the church and joined when he was 16, but fell away. Then, he met Molly and now that the baby is on her way he wants to do the right thing for his family. About that time, the missionaries came to their door. AWESOME!!! Our missionaries are pretty cool. One has been out for 18 months and the other has only been here 2 months.The lesson went really well and Molly is definitely ready to be baptized, but they have to be married first and our lesson was on Chastity to help them understand why. I think they understood and it's so wonderful when we talked about feeling the spirit and you could tell that's what they were feeling. Thursday, we went and gave blood at the Nelson Rd. chapel. It's one of those things that Ty and I really like doing together. Plus, we usually try and see who can go the fastest. Saturday, we went to my parents house and cleaned their boat. It's a big Party Barge (14 people or 2000 lbs. capacity) and it's been in storage for quite awhile. Cats have been using it and let's just say it was kinda nasty. But we're pretty excited to use it for Ty's family reunion.

Alrighty! I think I'm officially back to being up to date. Hooray!!!! I hope you all enjoyed that massive amount of pictures and all the updating. Until next time.....