What's New?

(Here's the most recent belly shot at 19.4 wks...)

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and along with it our fun-filled, relaxing week in Utah. We had so much fun at Erin's wedding with Nathan's family and then at my sister's house with my family. I couldn't have asked for more. My parents came out from Virginia and we pretty much just ate good food and took turns playing with little Jake the entire week! It was awesome. Oh and I can't forget to mention--we did go see Twilight! We even managed to convince Dad, Nathan and Wes to come along! Jake liked it too... I think he especially liked being dressed in Twilight colors to match all the girls...sorry buddy...you'll have some say in life when you're older. Haha. It was a great week and I can't wait for the next time we all get together! Let's just say I was a little on the grumpy side the entire 9 hr drive back to Arizona. Sorry Nathan. I've made a New Year's Resolution to be more optimistic about Arizona though...so I'll do better...promise.

Thanksgiving Day...mmmmm

TWILIGHT!

Family picture at Thanksgiving

Another bit of news that we were blessed with the day before Thanksgiving was that Nathan had gotten the Air Force scholarship for Dental School. That basically means that he works as an Air Force Dentist for three years after he graduates and they pay for these next three years of school...plus we get a monthly stipend for living. I think it's a pretty good deal. And growing up in an Air Force family I'm used to the lifestyle. So we are excited about that. For some reason my desire to continue working part-time after the baby comes is constantly diminishing :). (who am I kidding...I never had a desire to keep working regardless!...hah!) But the Air Force is helping that be even more of a possibility right now and I'm ok with that.

Since Thanksgiving it's pretty much been back to school for Nathan and back to work for me. Nathan did very well his first quarter of school and is such a trooper...seeing him constantly studying definitely makes me so glad to be done with school. But he's always the positive one in our marriage...never worries about things like I do...just does what he has to do and rarely complains. He's an example to me and I'm so grateful for all of his hard work.

Last week Nathan had his White Coat Ceremony (all the health professions students are given white coats, make an oath, and prepare to enter their health fields). Apparently this is a pretty big deal, but of course Nathan was telling me for weeks not to switch my shifts to be there (don't worry I did it anyways)...he didn't even want to go himself. Typical. I told him to find out if all of his classmates were going...he comes home the day before the ceremony and tells me that people's parents are flying in for the thing! So of course, despite my nagging, he waits until the day of to call his sisters in Mesa and tell them about it (3 hrs before to be exact!). I felt so bad. Nobody was able to come at that point...and I know his mom would have come down from Vegas had she known. It was a lesson to me to take control in these situations in the future! Oh well...Nathan still could have cared less who was there...to him he felt like he hadn't really accomplished anything yet. But it was a nice ceremony and Nathan donned his white coat (the sleeves of which were up to his elbows! oops!). I'm very proud of him and to all of his family...don't worry you will know about his graduation in advance!

Nathan and a few of his buddies from Dental School

That same night we went and made gingerbread/winter wonderland creations at some friends house. Nathan created a pretty intense snowball fight scene between snowmen and gummi bears. We also went to this house in the area where this guy creates all of these christmas decorations and goes all out decorating his entire house (Christmas Vacation style!). He then opens his home to the public from Thanksgiving through Christmas. It was pretty cool.

This is us at the Christmas House

And here's Nathan with his Snowmen vs. Gummi Bears Snowball Fight

So that's what we've been up to. We're planning on going up to Oregon the day after Christmas to be with Nathan's family. I work Christmas Day-night. And we'll spend Christmas Eve and morning with Brooke and her family in Mesa. It should be good.

Baby update: nothing new. Still pluggin along. I'm coming up on 20 wks on Tuesday! Half-way there! And the belly is growing. My doctor said he was a little soccer player in there...moving around like crazy (I'm a little worried he's already got too much of his dad in him). I love feeling the little movements. It's such a fun thing. Nothing too elaborate yet...just little taps..."mom...am I done yet? tap, tap...can I come out?" haha...I know, I'm crazy.

This was a belly shot at Thanksgiving...17 wks-ish

Can you guess what we're having?!

We were lucky enough to go in for an early ultrasound at our beloved Dr. Judd's office in Provo last week.  I was about 95% sure it would be a girl.  I think my entire family was about that sure we were having a girl as well.  In fact, I'm pretty sure my mom had already bought a couple of girl items.  But as you can see, we were definitely wrong!  There's no doubt about it...our little baby is a boy!  Nathan was very proud.  :)  I'm super excited.  Being with my nephew Jake all week is making me even more excited for a little boy.  And it'll be so fun to have Jake and our boy so close in age!  So now the fun begins.  Picking a name, buying boys stuff...I'm so excited to start!  I was totally set with girl names so now I've got a little bit of a challenge ahead of me...especially since Nathan and I seem to be butting heads on the name issue.  Oh well...I guess we've still got 5 more months to figure it out.  

As for other news...we've been having a blast here in Utah since last Wednesday.  Nathan's sister Erin got married on Friday so we had a fun and busy few days with his family...and now we're just chillin with my family at Kristie's house.  I'm already getting weepy when I think about leaving on Friday!  It's so great to be with family!  I'll post some pictures of the wedding and such as soon as I get my hands on some!    

cereal

So the other day I opened our storage closet (ignore the mess) only to find this...

I asked Nathan why there were stacks of Oh's cereal boxes piled in the closet. He responded with, "I'm just building up our food storage". So that's that. If the world comes to an end and anyone is hungry, we'll have plenty of Oh's. Thank you Nathan.

And here is me trying to show off my baby bump. Not much to brag about yet, but I figured it's about time I start documenting. This morning getting ready for church I realized I won't be able to wear a large majority of my skirts anymore...it took me a while to find one that fit right! Here we go...

For some reason this slight change in angle makes me look a lot bigger. Whatever. It is what it is :).

Picnics in November?

I've been feeling a lot better about life since the temperature dropped below 90. I can leave my windows wide open during the day and even go running outside now! Seriously people...I'm so excited about it. The only thing better at this point would be a little snow to help me feel truly christmasy... But don't worry...despite the sunshine and 80 degree weather, I have begun to play the Christmas tunes. I decided if I waited for the weather to feel right I would miss my chance...so here we go...Christmas is in the air! Tonight I decided that Nathan and I needed to go on a picnic for dinner. I made stuffed peppers and grabbed a bottle of sparkling cider to celebrate the change in seasons. We walked over to this pond by a park down the road and put down the jeans blanket. It was nearly dark by the time we actually got there but we had a great time...we even got a little chilly!

The last week of October we had a lot of fun with Nathan's family. They were all in town for his nephew Carter's baptism. And then Ashley and her kids stayed for Halloween as well. I was so excited to finally participate in some fall activities with all the kids. I drove over to Mesa one day to go to the pumpkin patch with everyone. Let me tell you, the pumpkin patch at 95 degrees is not my idea of fun. I don't think the kids enjoyed it either. They were all running around beet red in the face, sweaty, and grumpy by the time we left. I didn't blame them. Brooke and I agreed that our favorite activity that week was sitting in the shade by Uncle Glen's pool while the kids played happily in the water. Nothing to do with fall...but let's face it...it's hard to do traditional fall when you're sweating to death. Oh well...we had fun nonetheless. I had to work on Halloween but Nathan went trick-or-treating with the kids and had a good time. We were happy to spend some time with family. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me all week so no pictures....sorry.

One last thing. Two weeks from today I will be back in Utah! I seriously can't wait! It's all I think about anymore. The first exciting thing on the agenda will be finding out the gender of our little baby...that is if Baby Larson is willing to share. I will only be a little over 16 weeks so it's a bit on the early side but we're keeping our fingers crossed. Next fun event will be Erin's wedding. I love weddings. And then we have the premiere of Twilight. Who knows when we'll actually get tickets but we will definitely be seeing it sometime that week. And then it's a relaxing 5 days with my family at Kristie's house for Thanksgiving! I can hardly wait to see some snow and make yummy food and listen to Christmas music and play with Jake. Can't wait. That's all. Thanks for reading :).

Introducing...

BABY LARSON #1

That's right, folks. Nathan and I are happy to announce that we will be welcoming a little baby into our family on or around May 5, 2009! We have been waiting for this baby for some time now and we are so super excited that it's on its way! As far as pregnancy goes, I can't complain too much about the past 11 weeks (ok so the first 4 don't really count, I know). I've been very lucky. That doesn't mean I feel great...definitely nauseated, headachy, tired... But all in all it's been bearable. I'm still able to work, run, and occasionally make dinner so I consider that pretty successful :). Probably the hardest thing for me is knowing that I won't be going to my favorite doctor in Orem, or delivering at my favorite hospital in Orem. But I've had some great recommendations for an OB here...she's one that I work with and I'm thinking I'll be ok :). These past weeks I've been plagued with paranoid thoughts of what could go wrong or be wrong (the whole being an L&D nurse doesn't help the situation)...but this morning at our first ultrasound everything became a little brighter for me! I'm so excited that there's actually a baby in there and that it's where it should be and doing what it should be (even if it is still the size of a cinnamon bear). We're so excited for Baby Larson and I'm so excited to continue experiencing pregnancy...what an amazing thing. I work with it everyday but to experience it for yourself is truly miraculous. When we left the ultrasound room I was looking at the pictures and said to Nathan, "This one's actually mine!" We are so happy and so excited to finally share this news with all of our friends! Thanks for all of the love and support you all give us every day...we are so blessed.

Our Little Friend

So the other night we hear a knock on our door and it's our neighbor. He was standing kinda funny in a crouched position holding a shoe in his hand. Ok, I thought, this is odd. Then I turned to see what he was looking at. Don't worry...it was just a giant scorpion outside our front door! Alright so maybe it wasn't GIANT. Frankly I don't have much experience with those freaky little things so who knows how big they can really be. Either way...it was alive and about a foot away from me. Nathan came to see it and he and our neighbor had a little discussion about how to kill it and whether or not this meant that we were going to find more in our apartment. Apparently they had found one in their apartment a couple days ago and had the manager send someone to spray (and yes I made an appointment for this "sprayer guy" as soon as I could...we have to wait till Tuesday though). Dang it. I'm so paranoid now everytime I feel something on my foot or whatever...I keep thinking I'm gonna find more of those suckers around here. So far so good...but I'm keeping my eyes open! Anyways...just thought I'd share my little poisonous stinging bug adventure with you all. Just another fun Arizona experience. On the bright side...the weather has been in the 80s all weekend so I think we're on our way to some normalcy around here! Thank goodness.

I put the picture underneath my story just so that wouldn't be the first thing everyone sees when they pull up my blog...not a pretty sight.

Nathan wanted to have something to measure against so you could see how big it was...kinda hard to tell with the pen so far away but he wasn't getting any closer to it than that!

Missing Fall

Kind of a blast from the past...Kristie and I at the pumpkin patch...love those memories.

So we finally made it to Arizona. Hooray. We had planned on living with Nate's family until we could find a house to buy, but with family being at least 30-40 min away from the school and all...things just got too stressful for us and we weren't ready to buy. Sooo...we signed a 3-month lease on an apartment right next to the school so that we'd have time to get our heads on straight and make good decisions. I think it was a smart move. And now we're gonna need a lot of incentive to actually want to move again. We're loving being right by the school and, let's face it, moving stinks. So who knows...we may just extend that 3-month contract.

Nathan sacrificed his precious studying time to get us moved in the first weekend in September. The following weekend he, again, gave up that time to help us buy some furniture...a new couch, a dining room table, and a dresser! It felt so great to have something other than boxes to sit on! We feel very comfortable in our new little home, which is actually quite a lot bigger than Union Square was. Honestly, I don't know of an apartment that's not bigger than Union Square. Our new place has 2 bedrooms AND 2 bathrooms...we're livin' large, folks. Nathan has been doing pretty well in school so far, despite having to constantly be there for poor little me. He does a great job at juggling school and family. I'm so grateful for all that he is doing for our family...I would not want to be back in school for another 4 years, but he's such a good sport about it.

Our new dining room table...it barely fits in our dining room!

Our new sectional! It's super comfy. (We're still working on the wall space...turns out our big mirror doesn't look so big anymore compared to the couch)

Another bit of news, I got a job! Not sure if I should have exclamation marked that last sentence! As much as it'll be a good thing for me to work and actually be productive (I know our bank account will appreciate it)...I love being home. I love finding things to do at home and just being a good wife. And I'm a little nervous about this new job. I do feel like it's the closest that I'll get to finding a hospital like Orem or AF. It has a good reputation and I felt good about it. The other hospital I got offered a position at, however,...I left the interview in tears because it just was so far from being Orem that I just didn't want to work L&D anymore!! Haha...oh dear. I'm glad Nathan puts up with me. So I start my job on the 29th. I've got a few more days to be lazy...which is good. I've really enjoyed this past few weeks of not working. I could definitely get used to it. :)

Nathan's got a great group of friends in his dental class and their wives are all great too! They've always got stuff going on for me to join in on. I'm in a book club! Something I never thought I would be in...and it's fun so far. Pretty much an excuse to get together with a bunch of girls and talk and eat junk food. It helps to already have that friend network, because I'm not gonna lie, I've been pretty homesick. Homesick for all my family and friends that I left in Provo, homesick for my mom & dad, homesick for Orem, and homesick for SEASONS! It's a cruel world that doesn't allow the climate to blend into 4 distinct times of the year! It depresses me when I see the weather channel map and Phoenix is ALWAYS the hottest city in the States, by far! I am just such a holidays & seasons girl...I thrive on that change every 3-4 months. So right now as I'm thirsting to pull out the sweaters, make the pumpkin food, light the candles, watch the leaves change, and celebrate everything Fall...I find myself avoiding the outdoors and sweating to death in shorts and a t-shirt. Blah. Not my idea of fall. So that's pretty much the deciding factor for me...when Nathan's 4 years are up...we're outta here :). I know so many people love Arizona...but it's not for me. Granted, I've only been here 3 weeks. I know, I know...I'm going to try and be more positive and look for the wonderful things about this place. They say it actually starts cooling down around January :).

4-WHEELERS & CRAZY GERMANS

(Disclaimer—Please do not feel obligated to read all of the incessant rambling that follows. I had a lot to catch up on. But I did break it down into chapters for your reading ease.)

THE RANCH
It’s been a pretty crazy month for Nathan and I. We started off with our Larson Annual Week at the Ranch. The last week of July, all of Nathan’s immediate family migrated to Provo Canyon for a fun-filled week of R&R. I take that back….with 6 kids under the age of 8 and all 5 Larson siblings together at once, rest and relaxation may not be the best description of our week. I should say, a fast-paced week of water games, baseball, badminton, mini golf, shooting, eating, and let’s not forget—crafts. That’s right….thanks to our camp director, Ashley, and much to the dismay of every male species present, us girls had a blast making magnet boards and journals! The boys made sure to go on ‘extra manly’ 4-wheeling adventures to compensate for the excess of estrogen present in the house. Erin’s fiancée, Kasey, had the pleasure of experiencing his first Ranch Week with the Larson’s and, let’s just say, we’re a little surprised, and very glad, that he’s still with us. ☺ Then again, he’s sticking around for Erin and not for us, which probably makes it easier. In the end, the week was a great success and we all had a blast. I was mostly relieved that I didn’t end up having to be Brooke’s Labor & Delivery Nurse that week…although it would have been a good story.

Nathan & Kasey after their manly ride

My niece Marley and I have the same shirt!

BUSINESS CLASS SNOBS
On July 29th, at 1 o’ clock in the morning, Nathan and I boarded our flight from Vegas to Dulles. Arriving in Dulles at 11 that morning, feeling a little short of mildly rested, we prepared to make our first attempt at flying on a stand-by ticket to Frankfurt, Germany. We were told at the gate that we were listed on Business Class and that things looked good for us getting on the first flight out. We were ecstatic. We could not think of anything better than a reclining seat with plenty of leg room on an 8 hour flight. But our jubilation was quickly put to an end as the employee at the gate said , in a rather disgusted tone, “you’re not wearing jeans are you?”. WHAT?!!! Since when does it matter what you wear when you travel? I most certainly was wearing jeans because if you expect me to dress nice on a redeye flight and a connecting international flight, you’ve got another thing coming. And I, by the way, did not look grungy. Nathan was slightly more dressed down than I was…but holy cow. So our much looked forward to flight in business class turned into the most tortuous flight of our lives. As we struggled to get comfortable in the front row of economy, it was all we could do to stare at the empty business class seats just behind the curtain. We imagined we would feel pretty similar had we been just shy of making it into heaven. So note to all of you…if you ever fly stand-by on a buddy pass and are hoping to be upgraded…make sure to check out that dress code before you fly. Ugh. And as a side note, if anyone ever actually pays for a Business Class ticket…wear a pair of jeans for us!! Needless to say we were grateful to arrive in the “motherland”…as Nathan calls it, thus beginning our 3-week sabbatical in Europe. We figured things had to go up from there.

THE ADVENTURE

GERMANY
The next 3 weeks were a bit of a whirlwind. We spent the first 2 weeks staying with various German family members. Nathan was such a good sport about sitting around for extremely long meal sessions while not understanding a word. As I’m sure most of you can imagine—at least those of you who know Nathan even a little bit—he had no problem turning each situation into something oddly hilarious…he even had the Germans laughing at him! I will say he made more of an attempt to learn what he could of the German language than I would have in his place. I was really proud of him. He can even identify the names and pictures of my entire German family…down to Great Uncles, Aunts, and second cousins! I think his most shocking German discovery was that a wiener schnitzel is not actually a hot dog! That one threw him for a loop! I asked Nathan to give me a list of his top 10 favorite German experiences and here is what he came up with:
1. Tante Gabi’s cooking
2. Eating Rouladin and catching bees in his glass at the top of a mountain overlooking Anaberg, East Germany (where my ancestors have all come from)
3. Exploring the deep silver mines in East Germany (wearing a very attractive yellow hard hat and blue poncho)
4. Neuschwanstein and all of the beautiful castles throughout Germany
5. Showing off his wheelchair skills for my Omi in the hospital
6. The Autobahn (need I say more?)
7. German breakfast…all 4 hours of it
8. Spending time with Ralph and Sabiner
9. The Rhein River cruise
10. All of the German names…personal favorites included: Ute, Helmut (whom Nate refers to as Helmet), Wolfgang, Boris
So that pretty much sums up Germany for you ☺. We had a blast and I loved introducing all of my family to my husband. The best part is—we didn’t pay a dime for the first 2 weeks of our trip!

Spaghetti Ice Cream in the town where my mom grew up

Neuschwanstein

The little town of Strasbourg right over the French border about 30 min from my Omi's house.

Picnic in Strasbourg

Giant German Pretzels--my favorite!

Can we say, elephant?  Nathan dressed up in medieval armor

German Names...gotta love em

The usual German breakfast.  I love it!

Baden-Baden (cloudy day...sad cause you can't see how beautful it is)

Goofing around

Cuckoo Clock, anyone?

All dressed up for the Silver Mines in East Germany

At the hospital with my Omi

ITALY

How to sum up a week long excursion through the beautiful land of Italy. My parents flew back home on the 11th and we took off for Venice with nothing but our car and camping supplies—oh and let’s not forget our GPS unit…without it we would still be there, desperately trying to find our way home and possibly on the brink of divorce. Let’s just say, Italy was not the most planned trip we’ve ever taken. Frankly, we were flying by the seat of our pants. We knew only that we wanted to see Venice, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, and possibly some other cities along that route. As far as where to stay and what specifically to see…we had no idea. We arrived in Venice late one evening and began searching for campgrounds. We had sort of been given an idea of where to find these campgrounds so we weren’t completely lost that night. But a killer headache made finding a pharmacy a bigger priority for me, which, in Italy late at night is near impossible. Luckily I got my hands on some good old ibuprofen and I was a happy camper—literally. We set up our tent for the first time, which, we discovered was quite the old-fashioned tent. By that I mean it was seriously a ‘tent shape’, with poles inside the tent and all. Nathan made the comment that, “if you lived in 1953, we may have your tent.” But we didn’t care at that point. All that mattered was that we had something to sleep inside of. One thing I will say is that European campgrounds are much better than American camp grounds. The bathroom/shower facilities were surprisingly tolerable. Don’t get me wrong, I still bathed my hands in hand sanitizer about every 10 minutes, but I could handle it. The following morning we ventured out and found a ferry boat to take us into Venice. We discovered that Venice’s Subway system was a ferry boat. In fact, they had taxi boats and lanes marked out on the water of where you could and couldn’t drive your boat…the water was their highway. Pretty cool, actually. We spent the day visiting museums, window shopping, eating gelato, and taking a boat around the grand canal. I loved Venice. The next morning we packed up camp and set off for our next adventure—Florence. Now the first hour we spent in Florence I think we should probably not talk about. In fact, I think we’re both trying to suppress that memory. Let’s just say that two Americans in a busy and large Italian city with no plans of where to go resulted in frustration, panic, homesickness…it even got to the point where I questioned Nathan’s manhood. That’s right, I needed him to be the rock…to figure things out…and I blatantly told him to buck up and be a man. Ouch. It was at that moment that our desire to turn around and go home became a focused effort to find an internet café, search for camp grounds, and punch the address into our trusty GPS. 30 minutes later we found ourselves at the perfect campsite, overlooking the entire city of Florence and the beautiful landscape of Tuscany. We couldn’t have done it any better had we planned it ahead of time. It was a fifteen minute walk down the hill into the city. Perfect. The next day and a half was wonderful. We loved Florence. What a romantic place. And seeing Michelangelo’s David was actually more amazing than I had expected. I definitely recommend Florence to anyone visiting Italy. Despite the fact that our campground bathrooms were getting progressively worse, we were starting to figure things out and enjoy ourselves. Before leaving we found an internet café and planned out the rest of our trip…we needed to avoid any more situations like our arrival to Florence…for the sake of our marriage ☺. Pisa, what can I say about Pisa? There really is a leaning tower. It was awesome. We pretty much drove through, parked, looked at the tower in awe for a few minutes, bought some pasta, and continued on our way. Next was Cinque Terra, which actually means Five Lands. The city we specifically went to was called, Levanto. We set up camp there and went exploring. Of course we were unprepared for the massive rainstorm that came that evening, and found ourselves running frantically back to our tent. That evening we shared a humble meal of sandwhiches and tomatoes in our little tent. It was kind of nice to relax for a night…we had been on the run every day and we were pretty tired. The next day we drove to another city of Cinque Terra called Vernazza. These cities are literally built up on the cliffs of the coast of Italy. It’s a breathtaking scene—quaint little villages right on the coast, with nothing but mountains of greenery surrounding them. We spent the day relaxing on the beach there. Well I relaxed anyway. Nathan decided he wanted to blend in with the locals. There were young local kids, girls and boys, jumping off on a dock into the ocean where they would wait for a big wave to come and swell up so high that it brought them back up onto the dock—often in standing position. They did this over and over again…making it look rather easy. So Nathan jumped in. I watched as occasionally his head came bobbing up into sight. He was so close several times but just could not pull himself back up. After about 15 minutes of trying, he swam around to the ladder and crawled out of the water. He’ll be the first to admit that it was about the closest he’d ever come to drowning. He was exhausted, had cut his feet up, and had lost his wedding ring in the Mediterranean. Good thing we only buy Nathan cheap wedding rings cause this will be the 3rd one I’ll have to buy him, and we’ve only been married a year and a half. Maybe I should order them in bulk this time. It was a fun day in Cinque Terra. The next day we made our way up to Switzerland, where we stayed with my mom’s best friend. I will admit I was grateful to finally be able to shower without my flip flops on and not have to set up a tent again. It was quite the adventurous week and as we drove back to Germany the following morning we felt very accomplished and very tired. From there we returned our rental car and found ourselves, once again, sitting at our gate at the airport, praying to be allowed on the flight. And for the record, we were in our church clothes and flew in style the whole way home! Business class was possibly one of the best experiences we’ve had this past month. Definitely the first time in our lives that we didn’t want the flight to end. So now it’s back to reality. A long cross-country drive back to Utah and a bitter-sweet move to Arizona. What will life hold for us there? I guess I’ll have to go to find out ☺.

Venice!

Our lovely tent (with my feet sticking out)

The Ponte Vecchio in Florence--our favorite evening!

My favorite activity--window shopping

The view from our camping ground in Florence--beautiful!

Our arrival in Venice

Cinque Terra--beautiful coastal cities in Italy, on the Mediterranean side.

Cinque Terra, again.  We loved it here.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa--it really does lean!!

Bitter Sweet

It finally happened. We packed up our little one bedroom apartment--our first place as a married couple--and moved out. We're actually still in Utah, though. We moved in with my cousin Jerai and her husband Phil. They have been so great to put us up for 3 weeks and we're going to miss them so much when we leave! This past month has been pretty busy for us. My cousin Jade's wife had her first baby and I was lucky enough to be able to go in and be Ashton's nurse. It is so fun for me to be a part of these special moments with my family members. Don't get me wrong, being a labor & delivery nurse is always a very cool job...but after you've seen over a dozen babies born every week for almost 2 years, the excitement of it all is definitely diminished. But when it's my family or friend that's having the baby it's just so much more fun for me!! I loved being a part of Peyton's delivery and she was such a cute little peanut of a baby...so tiny! Now getting up here for Jerai's baby in October is going to be a little more difficult seeing as how I'll be in Arizona...but I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to help Jerai bring Baby Boyd into the world! (Just minutes after Ashton's delivery--Peyton Coy Thelin)
The same week that Ashton delivered, Nathan and I got to go spend a couple days with Kristie, Wes, and Jake in Salem. I love that kid. He's the cutest thing you'll ever see. We're going to miss them so much! (at a little park in Salem with Kristie & Wes)
Yesterday Kristie and I threw a baby shower for Jerai. I felt like it was a success. We did it in her mother-in-law's garden, which, by the way, is amazing. Great food, outside under the shade of a giant tree with a pond and beautiful flowers all around....doesn't get much better than that. Oh and I forgot to add--holding my nephew--it does get better when you add that factor :). I tried my hand at quilting again and gave Jerai a little quilt for Boyd. It was a fun shower.

(holding Jake at Jerai's Baby Shower)
(The quilt I made for Baby Boyd)
So now we've been living with Jerai for 2 weeks and pretty much just working hard to get in all the hours and extra cash we can before the big trip to Europe and our lives as poor dental students begins. I am feeling so torn about all of the adventures coming up. I try not to think too much about leaving my job at Orem... Don't get me wrong, I'm totally ready for a month off of work! But I would love to come back from vacation and keep working at Orem again. I'm terrified to find another hospital...I just don't believe anything as good as OCH exists anywhere else. I hate that I have to get comfortable ALL over again...new doctors, new charting, new ways of doing everything. UGH. I know it will all work out but it's scary. I'm so excited for Nathan to start school and for him to get going with all of that...and I'm excited to be able to see Brooke and her family more often...but that's about the extent of my excitement. I am SOOO going to miss all of our friends and family here in Utah. I've been here for 6 years now and I NEVER thought I would hear myself say it, but, I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE UTAH. There. I said it. All of you that I'm leaving behind...you better believe I'll be back to visit. Alot.

Catching Up

So I've been a major slacker. There has been so much to write about these past couple months but I just haven't gotten around to doing it. It's one of those things where the task at hand seems so great that I just keep putting it off a little longer....all the while the pile continues to grow. So here's my attempt to catch everyone up! After we got back from our amazing trip to Hawaii...I was fully ready for the next event--Kristie's baby. Thanks to my connections with Dr. Judd, we got him to induce Kristie at 39 weeks exactly...pretty much the earliest that we could possibly do it! It was a Saturday and we (Wes, Kristie, and I) went into the hospital just after midnight that morning to start her induction...(Dr. Judd wanted to ensure that she would be delivered before his Saturday night Mass--haha). So I got to be her nurse and none of us managed to get any sleep before we went in because we were all so dang excited! After a great and painless labor (thank you, epidural!) she had a healthy baby boy at 2:06 pm. Weighing in at a whopping 8 lb 7 0z, Jacob Rulon Hurst is the cutest thing you'll ever see (of course, I'm biased...but really, he's cute...)! He's about 7wks old now and steadily gaining weight, crying a good share of the time, and occasionally giving us an adorable smile! It's been so fun to have him around...it's not very often that I get to see babies past day 4 of life. I'm loving it! Unfortunately (for us), Kristie and Wes moved out of their apartment next door to us and into a beautiful home out in Salem, UT. Now I've got to make a little drive in order to see my nephew...sad...but totally worth it!Next on the calendar was a visit from Mom & Dad (or should I say, Grandma & Grandpa!). They flew out from VA a week after Jake was born and stayed for 7 days. It was so much fun! We went up to the ranch for a few days to enjoy the peace and quiet and beautiful weather. We wish they lived closer and that we could see them more often...hopefully one day that will happen. But it was a great visit and I can't wait to see them again!At the end of May we had a 60th Anniversary party for Nathan's grandparents here in Provo. It was a quite the production, to say the least, and they loved it! It was a fun reason to get all the family together. Everyone was able to be there except for Brooke and her family (we missed you guys!). After the big program, Ashley, Andrea, Erin, Nathan, and I all drove down to Zion's National Park for three fun days of camping and hiking. We hiked two pretty sweet hikes--Angel's Landing & Observation Point. I won't ramble on too much about the hikes...but I will say that it definitely involved clutching onto chains along a trail that had about an 1100 ft drop on either side! Craziness. Literally. The other hike was actually an even higher elevation but the path was not quite as treacherous. I'm glad to report that we all returned safe and injury-free. So you can see the huge drop-off on either side!
Nathan's experiment of boiling water over a fire in a plastic bottle.

The last thing that I'll tell you about is Karen's Wedding. It happened. Karen and Brandon tied the knot on June 5, 2008 in the Salt Lake Temple. She was a beautiful bride and we were happy to share that special day with them. We're so excited for them to enjoy married life like we have this past year and a half. What a blessing it is to be married in the temple and sealed to your best friend for time and all eternity. I'm so grateful for that. We are so happy. And as for us right now...we're just making plans to move down to Arizona for dental school. I'm so sad to leave my wonderful job and all of the family I have here in Provo now...but we're excited to start the next phase of our lives. The plan for now is to move out of our apartment by the end of June and move in with Jerai and Phil for a few weeks in July until we go to Germany to visit family. After Germany it's down to Arizona! I have a feeling this next couple months will fly by!
Towards the end of the reception
Kristie's birthday cake which I experimentally decorated with blueberry-almond flowers! Pretty cute, eh?