Justin and Linzi

Time in Oakland

2011-12-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

So as your know, we are currently living in Oakland. Oakland has been interesting to say the least! In the short time we have been here, we have had some crazy and some great experiences. This has definitely been the hardest place for me to live thus far. Oakland really isn't that friendly of a place and somewhat scary at times. Here is a short recap of our experiences so far. On black Friday there was man shot in the Walmart parking lot that I was shopping at (I actually saw his body laying on the ground), a random lady walked up to us and gave us a $100 bill for Christmas, and I left my purse on the floor of McDonald's (which had the $100 from the lady). However, even though there have been some crazy things, I am still very thankful to be here. Minus the shooting, the other two events that happened were good. The lady that gave us the money taught me and awesome lesson (see previous post) and the fact that my purse was in tact and everything was still there after carelessly leaving on the floor of McDonald's has restored my trust in humanity. It has also given me the assurance that not EVERYONE in Oakland is bad and scary.

I have decided that I need to have a better attitude about this place. So here are so positives of being here. #1 its warm! I hate the cold weather and this job is basically going to insure that we completely miss the Missouri winter. Who can complain about that? #2 My husband is working and making money to provide for our family (this should probably be #1). I am so grateful that he is such a hard worker and even though I dont get to see him near as much as I would like because he works long hours, I am so grateful that he has a job and that it pays well enough for me to be a stay at home mom to raise Rylee. #3 I am SO grateful that we are able to travel with Justin. I cant imagine what life would be like if he had to leave us for months at a time to work so the fact that we are able to travel with him is a blessing. #4 I am consider the other wives that we travel with to be my good friends. I enjoy their company and their children! I love watching the kids play while us women get our girl talk time. #5 there are some great places to shop here. Never thought I would say this, but I am OBSESSED with the $1 store. Who would have thought???? But there are tons of shopping places which keep me entertained during the day (however thats not always a good thing). #6 there are parks and walking trails that I actually feel safe going to around here! #7 there is a gym for me to work out! I dont have an excuse to not work out anymore so guess what...I am doing it! #8 We have a temple that is less then a 20 minute drive (its only like 10 miles away but takes longer to get there). #9 Did I mention the weather? :) Seriously I LOVE the weather. I hate the snow and cold and I am not sad to not have it! #10 No matter where I go, I still have the most important things to me. I have my family, the Gospel, and facebook...(ha ha). But in all honesty, I am grateful for facebook and my blog because I can use it to keep in touch with my family back at home. I am able to post pictures of Rylee and tell about all of our exciting adventures.
I will post some pictures of our time here so far!

Why don't I do this more often???

2011-12-07T00:17:00.000-08:00

Tonight really got me thinking...how come I dont work out more often? Why is it so hard for me to get dressed and just do it? I was thinking about all of the benefits to working out, and guess what, there are tons! So I decided to write them down that way when a day comes that I dont feel like doing it, I can read this and hopefully it will inspire me. So here is my future motivation...hopefully!

Reasons I love to work out:
1. It's healthy, plain and simple.
2. Once I start doing it, I actually enjoy it
3. I feel good after I do it. Not only do I feel a sense of pride, I also feel a sense of accomplishment.
4. It gives me bragging rights, I feel like a "cooler" person when I can say "yeah, I work out" (I know that one is kinda silly but hey, this is for me...right??) :)
5. It gives me a chance to burn off some stress. Even though my life isn't full of stress, I am still human and trust me, I am a much happier person when I am not stressed out.
6. It's one thing that I can do that I do just for me. It's not a mommy thing, or a wife thing, its a me thing.
7. My body looks a lot better which means I have more confidence in the way I look.
8. Because I have more confidence, I am more likely to get dressed up and put on makeup and try to look nice for my husband.
9. I have more energy
10. When I am actually working out, I don't get down on myself because I am not, not working out...if that makes sense! When I am not working out I get a lower self esteem because I know it's something that I should be doing and it is a heavy weight on my shoulders.
11. I tend to pay better attention to what and how much I am eating because I know whatever I eat, I have to burn off in the gym. Its takes me about an hour to burn about 400 calories. It takes me about 30 seconds to eat 400 calories, I definitely pay more attention!
12. My husband finds me more attractive. I know my husband will love me no matter what but he isn't blind. I want him to love me AND be attracted to me.
13. Let's face, I married a skinny guy who happens to be a bottomless pit. However, he is skinny none the less. I DO NOT want to be that fat girl with the skinny husband.
14. I married into a skinny family. No matter what I do I will always be bigger than my inlaws, I am just built bigger. However, I have control over how much bigger I will be!
15. I love compliments. I love people to tell me I am pretty or that I look great or whatever. I especially love it when people notice a change in me and it motivates me when someone notices that I have lost weight.
16. I am less lazy and more productive
17. I am just a happier person all around. When I am happy, my family is happy. This stems from the confidence thing and it affects every aspect of my life. If I set goals with my workouts it motivates me to set goals with other things in my life. It seems like when I start getting into a habit of working out, I also get into a habit of reading my scriptures and saying my prayers. I know that sounds weird but for me, the two things are connected somehow.

I know there are many many more benefits to it. I hope that this post will help me when I start slacking again. I know that time will come when I get tired of it, or burnt out but hopefully this will help me remember why I really do love doing it!

Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

Rylee's First Christmas

Justin's Ornament

Family Ornament

Family

Another Family

The ornament I made for Justin

All of the ornaments (minus one)

The year before last, I went to a Christmas party and they made these ornaments. They are cheap, simple, and fun to make! Today I invited the kids over to make them with me and we had tons of fun! I didn't pictures of the ones that the kids made, but I did take pictures of the ones that I made (and the ONE that I convinced Justin to make.) Here is how you make them:
You buy clear small plastic cups (I bought the Great Value Brand 5 oz. cups). You color them with permanent markers however you want. Then you put them on a cookie sheet (I put a piece of foil down just to protect my cookie sheet) and put them in the oven at 300 degrees. They are only in the oven for about 1 1/2 minutes or less. Watch them because they melt fast and if they melt too much then they curl up. Let them cool for a few minutes and then take a hot glue gun and melt a hole in the top and stick a ribbon through. Simple as that and this is the final result...so fun!

The only words that come to mind are Thank You!

2011-12-01T23:09:00.001-08:00

So today I had probably one of the most humbling experiences ever. I can hardly come up with the words to explain what this means to me, but I will try. This is definitely an experience I hope I will NEVER forget.

Tonight Justin, Rylee, and I took a trip to Walmart. This was just a normal food trip to the store. We were walking up and down each isle trying to remember what was on my list (I have a bad tendency to make a list and then forget it when we leave). Walking down one of the isles we passed a lady. I politely gave her a little smile as we passed her and apparently Justin did the same. Neither of us thought anything about it until we started down the next isle and I get a gentle tap on my shoulder. I noticed it was the lady from the isle before my first thought was "oh crap, did we do something to offend her?" So she proceeds to say this "I do not have any grandchildren near and I couldn't help but notice your beautiful daughter and I want you to have this. Please make sure to get her something nice with it." I was totally confused and looked at Justin and he had the same confused look on his face. I said to her "Thank you but I can't"....she cut me off and said "yes you can" as she slipped the $100 bill in my hand. I looked at her with tears rolling down my face and said "Thank you so much, can I at least give you a hug?" She said of course and we hugged. She walked away and I was just standing there frozen with tears running down my face. How could a woman who doesn't even know us be so kind towards us?

My Thoughts: This woman has taught me such a valuable lesson, whether its money or whatever, we should always be willing to help our neighbors. This woman didnt know me, she didn't know Justin, she has no clue if we will actually use that money to buy Rylee something nice but that didn't stop her from giving it to us. I will never get the chance to repay her or send her a thank your note, I probably wont ever see this woman again, but she has inspired me. The thoughts keep storming through my head "why us?" There were so many other people there with children, why did she pick us? Then it hit me, she was prompted by the spirit to be give us that money and she followed those promptings. Maybe its not for the money aspect of it (although that helps) but maybe it was to soften my heart. Now I feel it is my responsibility to pass on that random act of kindness. Her generosity towards me and my family makes me want to share that same generosity with someone else. Just think, if I pass on this act of kindness to someone, then they pass it on to someone else and so forth, how many lives will be affected by this one woman? The $100 is awesome, but the lesson she taught me of kindness and the pure love of Christ is way more valuable and for that I am forever grateful to this woman...whoever she is!

I'm Back!!!!

2011-11-14T13:52:00.001-08:00

So we are one the road again which means...I will BLOG AGAIN!!!! Its so much easier to blog when we are on the road because I actually have my own computer and internet! So here is a little of what has happened in the last 4 weeks. Rylee is constantly standing up on things, she LOVES standing so much. I really think that she will be walking very soon and thankfully because I am tired of her pants being worn on the knees! She has a few words already. I think she is going to be a talker like her mommy! She really likes to imitate noises and sounds. Her first word was Sadi. It sounds more like day-di but its definitely Sadi. She starts saying it over and over again as soon as Sadi walks in the room. She also says Mama, Dada, and kitty. I know this is going to sound unbelievable but I have also heard her say Lindsey (as in her aunt Lindsey). I have witnesses that heard it to! I asked her were Lindsey was and she said it almost clear as day. Of course she wont say it again but she did say it once! She also has an obsession with a certain DVD that we bought her and its a singing DVD. They sing do-re-me-fa-so-la-te-do and when they sing the last "do" she starts saying "do, do, do, do" its very funny!

Before we left for California we had a chance to go up and see my family. While we were there, my mom had an early Christmas for Rylee and us. It was fun watching her open the presents. Since I know my mom never checks my blog, I can post this because I am very excited about it! We are surprising my mom with pictures of her kids and grandkids! I am so excited because Justin and I were able to get some family pictures done in the process! The kids were crazy while taking pictures but thankfully Hilary (the photographer) was able to get some good ones! I am so excited about them! This is the first time I have actually let loose of some money to have a professional take pictures for us!

Also, We were able to take a "mini vacation" to California. While there we were able to visit the city where Justin grew up. It was a great little get-away before Justin has to start working hard on this Hotel job. We had such a great time! I was able to see his old house, the schools that he went to, and able to meet some of his friends from high school. It was a great trip but I am glad to be done traveling for a while.

Now we are in Oakland, CA. So far so good. We are living in an extended stay hotel which is basically a hotel room with a small kitchen and sitting area. Its in a really nice area close to the airport and the place is actually pretty nice...small, but nice! Rylee is adjusting to sleeping in her pack N play which is always loads of fun...not!!! Its hard to just let her cry herself to sleep because I try to keep her quiet because there are other people staying here. When we are at home she is really good at letting me put her in her crib and then she just falls asleep but its definitely not that easy with her pack N play! Thats really about all for now! I have some pictures to post but I am going to do it in another post. I find that easier then trying to post them as I write!

Birthday

2011-10-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

Rylee standing up for the first time

My pillow case wrapping

Blowing out my birthday match!

The very handsome love of my life!

ice cream cake

Matthew at dinner

Jacob at dinner

my beautiful family

my favorite little girl showing off her teeth!

So the other day was my birthday. I must admit, getting older does not get me too excited! However, even though the day is not my favorite day, it was still a great day for me.
The day started off with going out to eat for lunch at Fiesta Fresh which is an awesome Mexican restaurant here in Hilton Head. It was really good and of course we went there with Josh and Jamie which is always a good time. After that, the boys went back to work and Jamie and I headed to the mall to let the kids play at the play place. The kids loved it! Later that day for dinner we went to Wild Wings, again with Josh and Jamie. We had a great time there and the food was really good!After Wild Wings, Justin and I went off island to get the traditional ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Josh and Jamie came over and had some cake with us and it was awesome! After eating ice cream cake Rylee surprised us all by pulling herself into the standing position while holding onto the couch. It was an awesome birthday present. Speaking of birthday presents, Justin got me a compact set of scriptures. Justin's mom is making me a church bag because I get tired of carrying around three bags at church and wanted something that I could just pick up every Sunday that strictly has church stuff in there. i am so excited about this gift and cant wait to start using it! The scriptures go right along with the gift. I will post pictures as soon as I get the bag from Lynn! Such an awesome birthday! So grateful that Josh and Jamie were here to help celebrate!

2011-10-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

Hilton Head with Rylee

Amanda's Wedding

My water baby

Rylee LOVED riding the Slip N Slide with daddy

Another Hilton Head picture

Easter with My family

Christmas In June with Justin's side of the family

Rylee's Blessing day!

6 month photo shoot with mommy!

Still 6 months!

Blessing day with daddy

About dang time!

2011-10-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

So if anyone actually reads my blog, you know that it has been a LONG time since I have posted anything. I do have an excuse, maybe not a good one but at least its an excuse! It it tons easier for me to update my blog when we are on the road because we typically have internet where we go but at home we do not. If I want to use the internet I have to go over to my inlaws house which ends up being a hassle because I have to find something to do with Rylee and then I have to use their computer. I am much more comfortable doing it from my own computer and its a lot fast because I know how to use mine! So here is a brief update on life!

So much has happend since New York. We came home on April 1st when Rylee was 6 weeks old. The first big thing that happened is that Rylee slept through the night the FIRST night we were home and she has been doing it every night since! I really think that all she wanted was to be in her own room and own crib. As far as Justin and I go, he went back to working at the lake house a lot and being away a lot with that. It was hard on both Rylee and me not having him home as much, however I am so THANKFUL that I have a husband who works so hard to support his family and gives me the opportunity to stay at home and raise our daughter. However, it was still hard having him away, but thankfully I was blessed with a pretty well natured baby so I didnt go too crazy doing the single mom thing. I was VERY grateful when the lake house job was over and I was able to have my husband back.

Rylee has grown so much and so fast. I cant seem to get over how fast this has all went. It seems like yesterday I delivered her and looked into her beautiful blue eyes for the first time and thought "well I guess there is no turning back now." My life has changed so much just because of her. I love everything about her...well almost everything, she does seem to have an attitude. Justin says she gets it from me but I dont agree with him. At exactly 4 months and 2 days she started rolling and from then on she rolls everywhere (including off my bed!) Somewhere after she hit 5 months she was sitting up. I dont have an exact date on this because I was so nervous about her falling over that I was constantly surrounding her with pillows. She was pretty unsteady at first but now she is a sitting pro. On October ninth she had the biggest day of her life so far. She started playing patty cake, and she signed the word "more" and "all done" and she pulled herself into the standing position for the first time. I think I have a very smart child but it was like she woke up one day and she was a little smarter :) Oh yeah, she crawls now too. She knows how to crawl the standard crawl however she prefers to army crawl everywhere and she is getting faster and faster at doing it. And she has also started recently going from laying, to sitting, back to laying and so forth. She is becoming so interactive and I just love it!

As for other things, we havent done anything too special. In August we were blessed with an opportunity to go out to Utah and see our best friends Joe and Jess. We had a blast there however the drive was LONG! It didnt help that a highway was closed for flooding so we had to detour which seemed to add hours onto the trip. However the 24 hours in the car was so worth it! We had such a great time just hanging out with them. Of course Rylee was able to meet her future husband Lincoln. But dont worry, the two were supervised the whole time. There was no hanky panky going on! :) It was so fun getting to see Lincoln again and introduce the Scott family to Rylee. We were there for Joey's birthday which seems to be a pattern for our vacations with them. Every time we plan a vacation it seems to be either mine or Joey's birthday. Also it seems like either me or Jess are pregnant at the time. One day, neither of us will be pregnant and Jess and I are going to leave the kids with their daddy's and we are going to go ride roller coasters or something that we cant do when we are pregnant, maybe even go to a "club" and get a groove on...maybe one day! On the way back from Utah we had the opportunity to stop through Maryville and see my dear friends Scott and Kelli. I was so thrilled to be able to stop through and introduce Rylee to them and to, well, just see them again! We tried to make it there a little earlier so we could go to church and see all my other Maryville friends but the drive took too long and we missed church by like 5 minutes! Oh well, gives us an excuse to go back up there for another visit!

Another fun thing that we did this summer was take Rylee to the lake for the first time. She first went when she was about 4 months old. It was so much fun and that is where we found out that she is a total water baby! This little girl is just like her momma. I have a DEEP love for the water and so does she! I hope she stays like that forever! We have taken her a few times since and the last time she went, Justin was able to go with us and the three of us road the tube together. It was a blast and she loved it!

Here are a few other things that are definitely worth mentioning. One of my best friends, Linsey, got married in August. I had the opportunity to be in the wedding with her and to share that special day with her. It was great to see and spend time with my friends from high school. That was also the first time EVER that I spent the night away from my baby. She went to stay with my mom while I did the wedding stuff. It was hard for me but it was good for me to get away for a bit! I also had the chance to go to Worlds of Fun with my husband, siblings, and cousin Shawn. It was so much fun. We had a blast there even though it rained for a few hours. And the best part is the tickets were free and we were even able to ride the rip cord for free. Thanks, Sara for knowing someone who has the authority to get us free tickets!

In June, Justin's sister came out with her family to visit for a week. It was so great getting to see my nieces and having them so close. I wish they could live closer so we could see them more! We had Christmas in June and the girls thought that was the coolest thing so I think this will be a tradition. While they were there we also had the opportunity to bless our little girl. I have always dreamed of the day when my husband would be able to bless our baby. To have a husband who is worthy to hold the priesthood to be able to perform this blessing meant the world to me. It was awesome to be surrounded by family and have so much family and friends there to witness this special day. In August, we took a trip to the river with Justin's parents and we took the dogs with us. Sadi is a GREAT camper. She did so good and Rylee did pretty good too! However the trip home would end up being one of the worst trips home EVER! We were about two hours away from home and Justin's truck break down. The rear end went out which happens to be a very expensive fix! He was without a truck for a little over a month which meant he had to drive my Jeep until we got the money to fix it. I am so happy that it is fixed now and he has his vehicle back and I have mine back!

Oh yeah, last thing and then I swear I am done. So in June, Justin challenged me to a bet. I am a VERY competitive person so naturally I took him up on her challenge. The challenge was that I had to work out everyday for the next six weeks and my goal was to lose 16 pounds. Justin's end was that he had to bulk up and get ripped. Whoever won was able to spend $300 on whatever they wanted to. So I worked my butt off the whole time and lost a total of 10 pounds. Not my goal of 16 but I would take 10 any day! Justin quit about half way through so even though I didnt hit my 16 he still says I won...I am not going to argue! So this is how I spent my money. First, I decided that I wanted to feel pretty again so I went and got my hair done. This is the first time I have cut my hair short since Justin and I have been married so I was a little nervous but LOVE the results! I also got highlights put in it. Next, I went and threw away all of my makeup (most of it I had from when Justin and I got married which I know is NO GOOD) I replaced it with brand new makeup that I LOVE! then I went and bought some new jeans to go with my new hair, new make up, and new body! Thank you Justin for knowing how to get me to start something and stick with it, just wave a bet in my face and some money and I will stick to anything! I have an awesome husband for so many reason but I really love him for motivating to make changes that make me feel so much better about myself. I am still working on the rest of the 16 pounds. Slowly but surely I am getting there!
I will post pictures soon!

Daddy's little girl

2011-03-06T15:10:00.001-08:00

So I have come to the conclusion that Rylee is going to be a daddy's girl. However, on top of that she looks just like him. Its really not fair. I carried her for 9 months, gave birth to her, am her main source of food supply and yet I get NO say in what she looks like. Its just not fair. She should at least get my eyes or my mouth or SOMETHING! I have a feeling that the only thing this little girl is going to get from me is my attitude. However, that is the one thing I was really hoping she would get from her daddy (I was a brat!) I had Justin's mom send me some pictures from when he was a baby and here they are to compare to Rylee. Like I said....its just not fair!

Rylee

Justin

Being MOMMY and DADDY!

2011-02-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have to say, I LOVE being a mommy. This has been the most amazing experience so far and its only beginning. I always thought that I understood what it meant to be a mother. As you are growing up you hear about how you will never know the true feeling and meaning of love until you have a child of your own. I never understood what exactly that meant but now I do. I hold this little girl in my arms and I cant even begin to explain the amount of love that I have for her. She is so perfect in every way, I dont know how we lived without her. Being a mother is not easy by any means but it is definitely worth every minute of it. Nursing has been a bit of a struggle, however I am completely dedicated to making it work so I will just keep going. I love being able to nurse her. I love that it is something that only I can give her. Its our mommy daughter time and lucky for us we get to do it a lot!
I spent a lot of time preparing for the birth however I did not even think about what to expect afterwards. I had no clue what the body had to go through to repair itself after delivery. However I have not had to luxury of sitting around and just letting myself heal. The DAY AFTER they released me, they had me bring my 3 day old baby back to the pediatrician office to have her jaundice checked out. She barely has jaundice but they still want to check her. So on top of the lack of sleep I am trying to get my newborn baby and my sore self ready for a doctors appointment. Then the next day we had to go out to get some stuff and then on day 5 I was stuck taking my baby BACK again for another check up. Today is the first day that I have been able to sleep and relax. Its been a stressful week and I am pretty sure I have been the crabbiest person ever but finally I feel like I got a little bit of sleep. Now I just need to get over this soreness! Regardless I would do this all over again to have her. I just cant get over how much I love this little girl. My life is so blessed and I cant even begin to explain the feelings of gratitude that I have for this amazing blessing. I catch myself tearing up just from looking at her. I am just so overwhelmed with love. I also have to say how grateful I am to have the support of the members of the church and our extended family. We have been blessed to have dinners brought to us and I cant even explain how grateful I am for that. It is so nice to not have to think about what to make or going shopping for the groceries to make it! Especially since I cant drive for 2 weeks I am VERY grateful! So thanks to all who have helped! Here are so pics from home. I must say that I LOVE being able to dress this little girl up...its so much fun!

Our beautiful baby!

2011-02-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

So last Thursday I had my typical weekly doctors appointment (well I say typical but I was 4 days over due by this time so I didnt expect to still be having appointments!) So when I got to the doctors they did the normal listen to the babies heart rate and check to see if I was dilated. I of course was not dilated more than a 1 which was devastating because I have been having consistent contractions for a week and a half. So they doctor listened to the babies heart rate and it had lowered, it was not low enough to be extremely concerned but still lower. The previous night I had a little freak our moment because I hadnt felt her move for a quite a while so Justin and I both tried poking and pushing on my stomach to try to get her to move, I tried flipping to each side and was getting nothing. This lasted for about 15 minutes. Finally I asked Justin to say a prayer that we would know what to do. Within seconds of finishing the prayer I felt her move again. I was relieved and knew that things were ok. However I mentioned this to the doctor so she started feeling around on my stomach and determined that my fluids felt low so she immediately sent me to have another ultrasound. (I think that brings my total up to 6 ultrasounds throughout this pregnancy!) After having the ultrasound they said that I would need to go over to the hospital to be induced because my fluid levels were below where she would like. Since I was already overdue there was no need to monitor me any further.

I called Justin and told him to meet me at the hospital (made sure I stopped to get my last meal for a while too) So when I got to the hospital they made me start off in triage...I pretty much hate triage. I was waiting there for what felt like forever! I guess they were running low on birthing rooms and I overheard my nurse fighting for me to be the one that got the next available. I was really concerned about not getting a birthing room. One of the things that I like most about this hospital is that each patient gets their own room and they actually have the baby in that room. So I was glad she was standing up for me and it worked because I got the next one!

So we moved into the birthing room, however even though I was still having contractions I was not dilated. So the first part of induction is to insert a pill to soften the cervix. For some people this puts them into labor naturally and for others they have to do the IV medicine. I was really hoping for the pill to work because I really wanted to be able to do the whirl pool while having contractions just to see if I like it and because I have heard so many wonderful things about them. So they put the first pill in and I only dilated to about a two. So they put another one in (after 4 pills they start the IV) This one must have worked because my contractions got stronger and I was dilating. When I was dilated to about a 5-6 and they knew I wasnt going to need the IV they finally let me go into the whirl pool tub. I LOVED this. It was awesome and really helped me relax. They also gave me some Nuvane which didnt help at all with the pain, however it did put me to sleep between the contractions. When I got out of the tub I was dilated to almost an 8. So they asked me one last time if I wanted an epidural. I told them that since I had made it this far without one I was going to turn it down...again (they asked me like 20 times if I wanted one.)
However once I hit an 8 I was beginning to regret my decision. This is the point where I lost the "mind over matter" I was starting to freak out and wanted to cry. However lucky for me I went from an 8 to a 10 pretty quickly and was ready to start pushing. Pushing was so hard and they told me to try to get 3 good pushes within each contraction. I told them I wanted to get 4 in every time because I wanted this baby out! So every time I would have a contraction I would get 4 good pushes in. They asked if I wanted a mirror and I am glad that I had one to see but I wish they would have put it up right before the baby came out. The whole 2 steps forward and 1 step back part of labor was hard for me to see. I would start to see progress and then as the contraction ended she would slide right back up.
Eventually she did come! It was such an amazing feeling when they put her on my stomach (and the pushing was finally over) I looked over at Justin and he was tearing up, I was crying too. Well I was trying to cry but my body was too exhausted to push out any tears...it was pretty pathetic! I am very happy that I did it naturally, however I have learned that you do not get a reward for suffering through all the pain of a natural labor. They do not put your name on a plaque or anything like that. I would have gotten the same results if I would have had an epidural but not all the pain! I have to say, I loved the fact that I could get up and walk around within minutes of having her. I was able to sit up to see her get her measurements and weight. If I would have had an epidural I would not have been able to do that. I think next time I will be getting the epidural. I have done the natural thing and now I can say that I have done it. Who knows, I might prefer natural but I will definitely give it something to compare to! It was an amazing experience none the less!

A burnt blessing

2011-02-16T05:54:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, occasionally my mom would overcook something and tell us not to complain because it was simply a burnt blessing. Well I have been cooking this baby in my oven for my 40 weeks due time and now she has become a "burnt blessing." She has stayed in the oven a few days too long! However she is still a very special blessing in our lives. We are so excited to see her and hold her and just tell her how much we love her. I think of how long we had to wait to have her already so what is a few more days! I have to admit that I have had an overall good pregnancy. Its been long, and not always easy but I am sure it will be well worth it. The wait is almost over! Anyhow, I am really ready for our little "burnt blessing" to get here! I already love her so much and I dont even know what she looks like! AHHHHH....I cant wait!

The debate

2011-02-16T05:35:00.001-08:00

So recently I have debated deleting my facebook account. I read on a blog that a friend of mine did it because she was constantly on it. I unfortunately have the same addiction. I find myself checking it from my phone multiple times a day as well as on the lap top. I love facebook for the simple fact that I can be nosy without anyone knowing that I am being nosy! I love that I can stay updated on the lives of old friends, new friends, and people I dont even know very well. Also its a great way to stay in touch with my family, they are not great about checking my blog but they all check their facebook as well! Especially with the new arrival approaching and the family and friends being so far away, facebook is a great way for me to post pictures and update everyone on our progress as a family.
Now, the downside to facebook. First of all, it is an addiction. There is no other way to put it, I have an addiction to facebook. I check it when I am bored, I check it when I am tired, I check it every time I open the computer...its pathetic! Also I have been having a slight problem with getting offended with comments...this could be the out of control hormones that I am experiencing right now, or the simple fact that you are not able to sense sarcasm with words only. Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a very sarcastic person so while may be sarcastically venting on one of my status updates, some people my think that I am seriously upset or stressing out. This is turn leads to comments that I dont always like. I had an incident the other day where I made a sarcastic comment, where I was trying to be funny about the baby being late (I guess I am not a good comedian) and ended up getting my feelings hurt by a comment (dont worry, it wasnt anyone that checks out my blog). After being upset about this and venting to my husband about it, I realized that it was most likely a combination of hormones and miscommunication on both ends.
Justin and I have realized that facebook, while having so many great aspects to it also has many downfalls as well. I wish I could say that I could just knock my addiction without getting rid of it all together but in reality I doubt it. We are considering both deleting our accounts and just sticking to a blog. Opinions on this matter would be great!

First trip to the hospital

2011-02-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I was feeling a little weird all day. I had a sudden burst of energy and just wanted to deep clean our apartment. So, I turned on the Ipod and started dancing and cleaning (the dancing was my idea of trying to be active to induce labor) :). Anyhow, so Justin came home that night and I was feeling some slight contractions but I wasn't sure if they were Braxton Hicks or if they were the real deal so I didn't think much of them. At about 9:20 at night I decided to start timing them. They were pretty subtle so I wasn't sure if they were just pains or real contractions...eventually they started getting harder and harder so I was sure they were contractions. I told Justin to get some sleep (I knew I wouldnt be able to) so he went to bed around 10:30. I stayed up and kept timing them finally at about 1:00 in the morning I woke him up and told him that it was time to go. When we left for the hospital my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart. To make this story a little more interesting I will let you know that we hadnt filled up our tank in the Jeep and were running on fumes and of course there were no gas stations opened at 1:00 in the morning. I guess we are not in Missouri anymore! So we said a prayer before we left that we would be able to find a gas station and sure enough we found one on the way to the hospital. I know that the Lord helped us in finding one because if we hadnt found one we probably wouldnt have made it (yes it was that empty)! Anyhow, we made it to the hospital and checked in the Triage. My contractions were getting worse and I was really nervous so my blood pressure was a little high. They check me to see if I was dilated and of course I wasn't. The most pain that I had felt was when the doctor checked me. I have been checked by my doctor before and it never really hurt that bad, but when this doctor checked me I thought she stuck it up there so far that I was going to be able to choke on it. It was miserable. Anyhow since I wasn't dilated she told me to go walk around for a bit and they would check me again. As I walked around my contractions were getting stronger and stronger and coming about every two minutes. However, at about 3:30 she came in to check me again and nothing. I am probably only dilated to a one. So they told me to go home. I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to go home and relax with the contractions that I was having so they gave me some pills to take the edge off and put me to sleep. They worked, but I think they that slowed down my contractions. Because I woke up this morning and am back to were I can barely feel them now. I am pretty bummed about it but I guess that she will come when she is ready. I just hope that she decides she is ready pretty soon...I know we are ready for her to be here!

Words of Gratitude

2011-01-21T20:58:00.001-08:00

I am not sure what happened to me but I was laying in bed and I just started thinking of all of the many blessings that I have in my life. I am so grateful for so many things but particularly for the really important ones. The first blessing I have is an amazing husband whom I love dearly. He is always making me smile and he is constantly brightening my day. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful Eternal companion. Secondly I am grateful for this little life that I have growing inside of me. I know that she is truly of gift from our loving Heavenly Father. He has trusted her in our care and I just hope that we can do a good job of raising her! Its crazy the love that you can feel for someone you have never even seen before, but I already love her so much! Next, I am grateful for my wonderful family. My family is my some of my best friends. I know I don't tell them near enough how much they mean to me but I don't know where I would be without them! I am also grateful for my friends. I have many great friends who may as well be family. Lastly I am thankful to have the Gospel in my life. Where would I be without it? I know I would be so lost if I didn't know that I had a Heavenly Father who loved me so much that He would send His Son down to pay the ultimate price for my sins.
I am just so grateful for so many things. My life has truly been blessed. Not saying that I don't have hard times like everyone else, but in the end, I have the things that truly do matter to me and for that I am blessed.

Trip to Palmyra!

2011-01-19T14:56:00.001-08:00

So Justin and I had the opportunity to go to Palmyra last Sunday. It was an amazing and perfect Sunday activity for us. We had the opportunity to tour the Smith Farm, the Sacred Grove, and Hill Cumorah. It was such and awesome experience to be able to stand on the exact same ground where Joseph Smith stood and where he held the plates. It was so neat to be walk through the Sacred Grove where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came in a vision to Joseph Smith together, side by side. Also, to know and think that this is the land that is talked about in the Book of Mormon where Moroni hid the plates that stayed there for years upon years never being disturbed until Joseph Smith was commanded to translate them. Such and amazing experience for the both of us! However next time I think we will pick a warmer day to go. It was soooooo cold there. They told us that the temperature was about 7 degrees...before the sun went down. We went to Hill Cumorah after the sun was down and the temperature was so cold and the wind made it even colder, so we didnt get to enjoy that for very long! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

On top of Hill Cumorah and it was FREEZING! That is why we have such goofy looks on our faces.

Angel Moroni on Top of Hill Cumorah

This is how high the snow was on top of Hill Cumorah

In the Sacred Grove, such an awesome experience

Walking through the Sacred Grove...very cold and very spiritual however I am not acting very spiritual, but we were freezing so I had to lighten the mood a little!

The Smith Home

The bricks where Joseph Smith hid the plates from the mob

The kitchen in the Smith Home

The Palmyra Temple from the Smith farm

The Smith Cabin

The VERY narrow stairs in the cabin

Justin and I in the room where Angel Moroni came to Joseph Smith

Getting Impatient!

2011-01-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

So I am currently almost to the 36 week mark. I must say, I am getting extremely impatient. I want this little girl here so badly. I dream about her all the time and sometimes I wonder if she will look anything like what she looks like in my dreams! Although my last dream about her she had a really cute face but SUPER long and skinny arms and legs so I highly doubt that's what she will look like. We had an ultrasound at 35 weeks. I would post pictures of it but the only good pics that that could get of her were her girl parts and I didn't feel right "exposing" her like that. They even gave me a picture of her "girl parts" in 3D. When she handed it to me I was like "great thats exactly the part of her that I wanted to see" lol. But her head was too low for them to get a good profile picture or a even just a picture of her face in general so I guess the girl parts will have to do! Anyhow, I love not working anymore but the main purpose of me not working is so that I can be a stay at home mom, so until that happens, I am kind of bored during the days. Luckily I have Terriann, Jamie and Amy close by so if I get to bored I can just go play with their kids and of course have someone to talk to! I will also say that I cant wait for the baby come because once she does my mom and my sisters will come out here to see her. I was doing really good with not being homesick until my little sisters wedding. It was really hard for me to be here knowing that I was missing her big day and that I was the only sibling not there. However, with me being so close to my due date we figured it would be best if I stayed close by. Not to mention with Kevin being in the military they werent positive the day that they had planned would work out so it would have been hard for me to schedule a time to come out. So anyhow, I am really excited for the women in my family to come see the baby. So please...HURRY UP LITTLE GIRL, MAKE YOUR BIG ARRIVAL!!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T16:59:00.001-08:00

Ok so this my third post of the night and then I am done! Justin and I had such a wonderful Christmas. This is our first Christmas away from immediate family and even though we were sad to not have them for the holidays, we were super excited to spend the day with each other and start our own traditions as our own family. So for our first tradition we decided to have our Christmas Eve dinner be foil dinners. And let me just tell you...They were delicious! So Christmas night we opened one gift and that was it...even though my impatient husband tried to convince me that we should open all of them! Oh yeah, I should probably also tell you about our UGLY Christmas tree this year. We decided to go out and buy a real Christmas tree instead of packing our fake tree all the way to NY. So of course Justin gave me the job of picking one out...bad idea. In my defense though the guy at the tree place told me I was the last sale of the year. I only had 3 trees to choose from because thats all that he had left. The other ones were just as ugly. I asked the tree guy his opinion and he told me that the one I picked was the best even though the back side of it was flat (literally all of the fullness is on the front the back side is pretty flat). I decided that since the tree was going up in the corner it didnt matter how flat the backside was. Well I didnt think about the fact it would be top heavy and not stand up on its own, so we had to shove our side table up to hold it up. Its pretty ghetto! Also the tree is very fat...at least on the front side. So its a pretty ugly tree but we love it and it served its purpose!

Justin and I got all kinds of things for Christmas so I wont mention all of it but Justin got me a camera (which I REALLY wanted) and he got a watch. We got a lot of other things too but those were our bigger presents. After having our little Christmas we went to the Hotel where Justin is working and they provided us with a Christmas dinner. The dinner was awesome and we had lots of fun! So here are some pics of the day. They are not in order of how they happened and I am not going to rearrange them to make them...sorry

After lunch...I think I ate too much...do I look a little fat?? LOL

The boys going for a ride on the lifts

high in the air

Everyone getting ready for Lunch

The most important table of the day...the desert table

All of the food that was set up for us...mmmm it was good

My new MU hat

What can I say...I married a Levi Jeans model, those are his new ones

My gifts from My very own Santa

Justin's gifts

Ignore the ugliness of myself...its early thats all I can say

My handsome husband

Our UGLY Christmas tree that we loved!!!

My first baby shower

2010-12-25T16:42:00.001-08:00

On Dec. 4th my wonderful sisters and my awesome friends threw me a baby shower. It was so much fun and they did an awesome job with it. It was a lot of fun and I got a lot a great stuff. My sister in-law Lindsey was able to go with me and she took a lot of the pictures during the shower...it made her feel very important to take the pics. A bunch of my family got together to give me a pack and play. Since we are going to be living in New York when the baby is born a Pack N Play is much needed so my baby can have something to sleep in!

My high school friends

One of the gifts given to me

The cake

Playing a game where everyone had to guess my size...lets just say I must look bigger then I really am! However my friend Amanda guessed it perfectly!

The present table

Linsey and Sara did a great job on the decorations

and on the sweets!

Update and leaving Ariyan

2010-12-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

So it has been a long time since I have posted anything to my blog...I guess you could say I am way behind on it. So here is a little history of the past few months. First off the Pregnancy is going good, I am pretty ready to get this little girl out of my stomach and into my arms. I am pretty sure that holding her in my arms will be a l ittle more comfortable then in my belly. I felt really good with the pregnancy until about week 30, Now I am 33 weeks and feeling huge. It getting harder t o sleep comfortably at night especially when you have to get up every two hours to go to the bathroom! Anyhow, I guess the closer I get to the due date the more ready I am to get her out!
Next big thing in our life is that Justin and I made the HUGE decision to go to New York. There is a construction job in Rochester New York that will provide us wi th good pay and allow me to have the opportunity to be a stay at home wife. Now, the reason I say this is a HUGE decision is because it also required a lot of HUGE sacrifices. The first big sacrifice is that we have to pack up and move which means that I have to quit my job. Now quitting my job is not the sacrifice, I couldnt have been more happy about that, however it means that I have to take out cobra insurance and lose my cheap insurance with my job. It also means that I have to find a new doctor at 7 1/2 months pregnant in a place that I am completely unfamiliar with. The biggest sacrifice is the fact that we had to give up our foster parenting which means that they had to find a new placement for Ariyan. Now you may ask why we made this decision to go to New York the only answer I can give is that its what the Lord wanted us to do. Giving up Ariyan is the hardest thing I have had to do. But obviously the Lord has different plans for her and for us. So don't worry, the story gets better.

Luckily the family that they chose for Ariyan is AWESOME! They have been so wonderful with us and with her. They are from Marshfield as well and live close. They have been more then happy to let us come over and visit Ariyan and spend time with her. Right before we left they let us keep her for the night. Her life will be so blessed to be living with them and we have made some new great friends! Now that we are in New York they are sending us pictures and emails with updates of her. I am so happy that they are willing to let us be part of her life because she will always be a part of ours! I think that we have gotten the best happy ending to a worse case scenario. Like I said it hasn't been easy but I am happy with the results. So here are some pictures of our last visit with her before we came out to New York
She is getting so big...she can sit up all by herself!

So cute!

This is the Christmas gift we gave her...she loved it!

Justin holding her, I couldnt figure out how to get the pic to turn...sorry

Me and Ariyan

ITS A GIRL!!!!

2010-10-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

On the 22nd of September we finally found out what we are having...ITS A GIRL! We are so excited and now since we have Ariyan we have lots of little girl things! My due date is still February 13th however I am measuring a week further along (which is what I told them from the beginning). We have a couple of names picked out that we like but nothing that is set in stone yet. We think we might have it narrowed down to two names but are still looking for other options. We have decided that we dont want to decide on a name until we actually see her pretty little face! However I will let you in on the names that we have picked out so far....My #1 pick is Rylee Jo Schmidt and Justin's #1 pick is Brooklyn Elaine Schmidt. But like I said, neither of these names are set in stone and if anyone has any other suggestions we would love to hear them! I will try to post some sonogram pics and some 21 week pics soon!

Ariyan

2010-10-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a post before, Justin and I signed up to do foster care. Well we finally got our placement! Her name is Ariyan and she is 3 months old. We have had her for about 2 1/2 weeks and we just absolutely love her! She is such an easy baby! She smiles at us and she ooo's and cooo's at us. She has really taken well to having us as her parents and even though we arent perfect parents we have really taken well to being her mommy and daddy for the time! I can honestly say that I didnt know how much it took to be a mommy but I am loving every minute of it! She has made so much progress since she has been with us and she is becoming such a little chunker! We have loved the opportunity to help her out and we are crossing our fingers that maybe one day we can adopt her but for now, we love being her foster mommy and daddy

2010-08-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

This is my 12 weeks photo. Trust me, I am bigger now! I am currently 14 weeks however I am beginning to think I am going to give birth to a toddler! It seems like this is going so fast yet at the same time so slow!!! My first trimester was not bad, however there were definitely times when I wish I could have just thrown up. I mostly just had an upset stomach most of the time. However, right before week 12 began I started feeling great! When I went for my 12 week appointment we were able to hear the babies heart beat which was pretty awesome however I have to say that the 3D ultrasound was a little better. It is reassuring to hear the babies heart beat and I look forward to hearing it at the next appointment! This has been such a fun and exciting experience so for us so far...well Justin might not agree with the fun part since he has to deal with my attitude...but he has been doing great, and believe it or not, we are still married! ha ha! I am also posting my pic of the ultrasound that we had done at 10 weeks. I really wasnt expecting to get a 3D one but I am so glad she gave us one!

Pregnancy

2010-07-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

So in the beginning of June this year, Justin and I found out that we are expecting! This is such a huge blessing in our lives. We feel like we have waited forever for this to finally happen to us...and now we have to wait nine more months to finally get the baby! I am so excited to be experiencing pregnancy. Dont get me wrong...the first trimester hasnt exactly been the best 3 months of my life, but its well worth it! I knew before I took a pregnancy test that I was pregnant and I kept telling Justin that. I dont know if he really believed me because trust me, its not the first time I thought I was pregnant! However that morning that I took the test and it was positive I was so happy. I took a picture of it and sent it to him in a text. He was in the bedroom still asleep. I walked into the bedroom and told him I heard his phone going off and that he should probably check it because it might be important. He kinda blew me off and said he would check it later. I then became more persistent that he needed to check his phone message right then so he did. He was really excited! Since then the pregnancy so far hasnt been too bad. I have had some bad nights where I just feel blah and of course the nights when I cant decide if I want to laugh or cry, and the nights where Justin cant do anything right, but for the most part its been pretty good. Justin says he cant wait for me to get out of the first trimester so he can have his wife back. Unfortunately since I work I dont get to take little cat naps during the day so when I get home I pretty much eat dinner and crash! I am so tired! One thing I didnt expect about pregnancy is how much my appetite controls my life. As soon as someone talks about food I either want to throw up or I wont stop thinking about that food until I can eat some! Its crazy, and some foods that I use to love I cant even stand the thought of them anymore. I am really beginning to show as well. I am so surprised that I am showing so much because I feel like its too early to show. I guess I am just working up a 9 pound 8 oz baby like its daddy! Anyhow, its been a great experience so far and I am so excited to be stepping into the second trimester...I heard thats the best one! I am 10 weeks right now so that means I finally hit double digits!! YAY!!!!

Sadi

2010-06-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

So Sadi is getting so big, she has been alive for a whole year now! She is such a big part of our little family. We have gotten so attached to her! She is SUCH a good dog. Justin can do anything to her and she is so laid back she doesnt even care! The other day he picked her up and put her on his shoulders and she just sat there and enjoyed the ride! She is going to be GREAT with kids. However, about a month ago we noticed she started limping on her back legs. We figured that maybe she just pulled something or whatever and we figured it would go away. After about 2 weeks of her limping we decided to take her to the vet just to be sure. The vet looked at her and pulled on her legs and noticed that they were really tight. He looked up at us and said, "well its look like your dog has arthritis." Seriously??? She is still a puppy! A very big puppy, but a puppy none the less! So he gave us some pills to help her and they worked however they were expensive so they vet told us to give her childrens tylenol and it would do the same thing. So for the rest of her life, my poor dog will get cherry flavored childrens tylenol. Its so sad! Anyhow are still very happy to have her and even though I still dont like dogs a whole lot, I love my little Sadi! So here are some pictures of here.

Sometimes Justin uses her as a pillow and she is perfectly fine with it...however this is him after tackling her. She loves it!

she is really good at shaking but this is her latest trick you just say "Sadi give me a high five" and this is what she does!

This is her shaking

Standing on her hind legs

This one is hard to see what she is doing but she is standing up on her hind legs in this one. (I have such a talented dog!)

And of course I cant forget about Roxy, she is a talented dog to!

Preparing to be foster/adopt parents

2010-06-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

In November of last year, after trying for almost a year ourselves to get pregnant, Justin and I decided to consider other options. We did this not simply because we thought we wouldnt be able to have kids but because we just felt like this was the right thing to do. So we starting to do some research and found that there are plenty of kids out there that need a good home to grow up in so that is how we found foster care.

The foster care process is such a long process. We had NO IDEA!!! First we had to do the initial application and back ground check. Once you pass that then they have to do the first walk-thru of your house. This is where they tell you everything you need to do to make your house safe. For example, you have to have hand railings, fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors, locked medicine cabinets etc... (all stuff that we hadnt even thought of!) The next part was getting referrals. Each person we put as a reference had to fill out a questionnaire about us. So once those were in your start a 9 weeks process of classes. They were 3 hours every Monday night and they were an hour away! Justin and I missed one of the classes so now we have to wait till July to make it up! Anyhow, along with the classes you have homework and question papers to fill out. Plus you have to have physicals and get your fingerprints done...its crazy! After classes end you have to have 3 home visits with a counselor/worker which last about 2 hours a visit! Anyhow, Justin and I are finally in the ending stages of this long process. We still have to get our physicals and make up our one class and one more home visit. We are getting so excited that this LONG process is almost over. Assuming we get things done we will be officially certified by July 21st!

Anyhow, before we can take in any kids we have to show that we have things like a bed, car seat and so on. Which since Justin and I dont have any kids we really dont have ANY of it! So I went on a craigslist shopping spree and here is what I found!

This is the car seat that I found its only been used twice by its previous owner!

I also bought a convertible crib. It can be a crib, a toddler bed or a full size bed! (i didnt take any pics of the bed because its in like 10 pieces right now since we havent set it up!

This is the fabric I picked out for the room we tried to go with a gender neutral color with the baby green but there is a little bit of blue in one of the fabrics but it looks great in the room!

I also bought some toys and an extra car seat that is pretty ghetto right now but we are going to recover it with some really cute fabric. I am so excited about all of this stuff!

Our new addition to the family!

2009-07-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Justin and I have decided that we needed to add a "little one" to our little family. However, since having babies hasn't seemed to work for us, we decided a puppy would satisfy us for the time being. Meet our new dog...(sorry she doesn't have a name yet). My parents were lucky enough to have 14 puppies so of course they were more than happy to get rid of a few, so we took one and Justin's parents took one that they named Roxy. There is the black one and ours is the VERY cute butterscotch one. They have been so much fun to play with!

We have had some trouble trying to figure out a name. Justin and I have went back and forth on SOOO many names. We finally decided to take our favorite 6 and put them in a hat and draw out the official name. We drew out the name Claire. However after calling the dog Claire a few times it just didn't sound right, so we are back to square one. Any suggestions?

Our House...FINALLY!!!

2009-07-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

After a LONG process and a lot of work, Justin and I are finally in our house! We have been working on this since the end of March and the time has come for us to finally move in. There is still plenty more work to be done, however the downstairs is complete. We moved in on Tuesday of this past week and it feels wonderful! Here are a few pictures of the house.

2009-06-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

Okay its been since March since I have posted anything...I swear I have wanted to but just haven't found the time. So I am going to cram about 3 months of life into on blog post. Justin and I are home from Hilton Head and now the construction work really begins! Justin and I have started working on our house. For those of you who dont know, we are turning an old barn into a 2 bedroom house. Sounds simple enough...right? WRONG!!!! It has been crazy! I originally predicted it would take 3-4 weeks to finish this and now we are into our 3rd month and it still has a ways to go! From the end of March till about middle of May we worked on it constantly because Justins work was slow and I was home because I was being a stay at home wife. However, thanks to my BF Desiree I got a job working at the bank with her. Also at about that same time Justins work started picking up again and now he is working everyday. So needless to say, not much has changed in the house since then. It makes me really sad because it seems like we are so close yet so far! And of course as some of you may know, Justin and I are living in his parents basement until this is done...(I do not recommend this for any couple at any time in you life!) Living with his parents hasnt been too bad, however I just dream of the day when it can go back to just being us. I mean this with absolutely no offense to his parents because they have been wonderful to let us stay with them but I just cant wait till we have our house done...if that ever happens! Maybe I am selfish but I just want my handsom husband all to myself again!
Anyhow, Did take some pictures of the progress of our house, however I do not have them with me right now but I will post them as soon as I get a chance!

The next big thing in our life together is that we had our 1 year anniversary!!!!! I cannot believe that I have been married to the most incredible husband ever for a whole year!!! This has been the best year of my life and I look forward to the eternity that we will be spending together.

As I mentioned before, I am now working. I work at Empire Bank in Springfield and I actually really enjoy the job. Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed staying home and working on my house and being a wife a lot better, but its not that bad. I am glad that I work with Desiree, however I am sure that the people we work with probably get tired of hearing us talk about the good ol' days in Sweet Springs. The reason for me going back to work is because Justin is starting school this summer. Because he went on a mission and came back and was engaged to me after 3 months...he did not have the opportunity to start school. We now feel that the time is right so he is working part time and taking classes part time. Its worked out pretty good so far, however I get a little jelous of his homework. I guess I should just be thankful he is a MUCH better student then I ever was and he actually does his homework!

Justin and I had an addition to our nieces and nephews count. Justin's sister Shanacy had a baby girl at the end of March. Her name is Rebecca Lynn Critchfield. I havent seen her in person but from the pictures I have seen of her, I am a pretty proud aunt...she is definately cute! Justin and I are experiencing our first time apart for more than a day...he left on Friday to fly out to Utah for Rebecca's blessing. He will get back on Monday. I wanted to go out there so bad but because I am an employed woman now, it was not possible. :( I told Justin to take pictures of everything so that I could feel like I was there...I really miss my nieces...they are so much fun!

Dont worry, I am almost done with all of the updates, however my next big event is that my sister moved :( I am really sad about this. My nephew Egan is starting to stand up and tries to take steps and Blake is at that really fun age where you never know what is going to come out of his mouth. The other day he was playing in the back of PaPa's truck and I climbed up there with him and he said "no A-YAY (thats aunt Linzi to Blake) go get in your white car" It was pretty funny. Anyhow they have moved to Arkansas so that Tony can do his externship. Hopefully they will only be there a year! Speaking of my sisters, my little sister Jodie came up here this weekend since Justin was gone. Her and I played in a softball tournament which was a lot of fun. I am definately feeling it today though...But I was very happy when someone asked me if we were twins...that means that I still look 17!!! Its funny how when you are younger you always want to look older and then when you start getting older you want to look younger! When I told the team how old I was they were saying that they thought I was 19 or so...made my day!

Justin and I have been playing a TON of softball this year. Justin and I play on a coed team and then Justin plays on a men's team. It is a blast...when we win! Our teams are actually pretty good! I have also been picked up by a few other teams. Just this last week I played on Thursday, Friday and a tournament on Saturday so I was exhausted! I played a total of 6 games in 3 days and I hit my first tripple of the year (probably my only one to)! Anyhow, its been a great few months and hopefully in a few more weeks I will be able to get on here and write about how much I love our new house! Until then I will just work on doing better just writing something!

Visit these sites!!!!!

2009-03-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

I am trying to post this link to my blog I hope you will all watch them and feel the spirit that they bring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySyv1I2e9RE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVNYhcYEwIE

I especially love the "Come what may, & love it. How awesome is it to remember these things when we are going through hard times. There are plenty more of these on YouTube and they are all so uplifting!

HELP!

2009-03-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am trying to figure out how to add music to my blog and I cant do it! (I guess you could call me blogger stupid) Anyhow, if anyone has any advice that will help me out, let me know! Thanks!

On a different note to update you on Justin and I, well we are still here in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This has been a crazy week I originally thought we were going to be finished and head home on Tuesday...that didnt happen. Then we thought Wednesday, then Thursday, then Friday and now it is Saturday and we are STILL HERE! I love it here but I have had it in my head for the past 4 days that we are going home, so now I am ready to head home! I guess I shouldnt be too upset that we arent home yet because from what it sounds, Missouri is having some pretty nasty weather...dont worry its still in the 70's here! Anyhow, Justin and I have had such a great time here, this place truly is beautiful and the weather here just makes a person happy! But I am still ready to get home because that means that we get to start working on our apartment!!!! I am so excited for us to have a little place to call home that is NOT in his parents basement! Anyhow, I will update you on our progress of getting home and fixing up our place! Have a good day!

Lost and Found!

2009-03-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

So I was looking through some old pictures and found some pictures of my bachelorette party! I know these pictures are almost a year old, however I couldn't help but want to post them! I am so excited that I found these pictures. It was such a FUN night. It consisted of my girl cousins, my little sister, and one of my best friends! We went to Chucky Cheese's and it was AWESOME!!!! Who would have thought that 7 grown girls would have so much fun at a kids place. It was definately one of the best times of my life! We probably spent $50 dollars and walked out of there with a $2 Chucky Cheese shirt just for me! We even danced in front of the big blue screen however we had to sit on our knees because it was not tall enough for us! Now that I have found the pictures, I will never forget what a great night that was! If you click on the photos in the collage they will get bigger so you can see the pictures better.

Sunday fun!

2009-03-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

On Sundays after going to church and of course taking our Sunday nap, Justin and I always try to go outside and do something together. This normally involves either going on a bike ride or throwing the softball around on the beach or just going on a walk. This Sunday Justin and I decided we would find a park and go throw the softball around. We went to this park about 5 miles down the road and threw the softball around (we are playing in a coed league when we get back to Missouri so we are trying to throw it around every now and then so we dont totally blow at it!) After throwing the softball around we went for a walk around the park and of course we found the playground. Even though we are clearly too big for the playground we still played anyways. I mean seriously, who doesn't like to play on play grounds? So here are some pictures of our fun time together! If you look at the pictures you have to promise not to laugh at my orange hair! As I mentioned in a previous note, the orange was NOT PLANNED!!!! I am waiting to redo my hair professionally when I get back to Missouri! Also, the quality of these picutres is not very good. Justin was using the camera for some work things and turned the resolution down so the lowest so that he could upload the work pictures faster. I didnt realize what was wrong until AFTER I took all the pictures! OOPS!

On our way to the park...the shadow in this picture is really bad!

Justin catching a pop fly

Is it just me or does Justin look scared or something in this picture? He is probably already tired of me taking pictures!

I am not sure why he has the ball next to my head like that!

This is probably my favorite face...the first picture I took of him going across the monkey bars came out blurry so I told him he had to do it again and this is the face he gave me!

I am not sure why he wanted to try to get on the roof here. He climbed up there and then realized that the roof probably wasn't strong enough to hold him up!

I married a California boy...what can I say? Yes, my husband is surfing on the back of a plastic alligator!

We didnt have a basketball so he is dunking the camera case...good job Justin!

Yeah, thats right...I bet you didnt know that my name is high school was Linzi "air" Harris! Okay so maybe thats a lie, I might have just had Justin put me on his shoulders so that I could hang there till he took the pictures! I tried to look like I had just done an amazing dunk, however I look more like I am holding on for dear life and just about to fall!

Photo's on the GO!!!!

2009-03-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

Running the 5K has made me realize that I can do it. So now I have a new goal, I want to run a 10K. So this week I have started training for this so that I can hopefully do it when we get back to Missouri. I like to run outside because I find it more interesting then running on a treadmill. So everyday I get to run outside and see all the of the beauties that this world has to offer so I thought I would share them with you as well. I decided to take my camera with me on my run and take pictures of anything that I found interesting or pretty and here is how it turned out.

This is from the balcony in my room (I know, its not on the run but its where I begin the journey!)

I saw this bird at the pond. he was perched up right in front of me. I snapped the picture right as he was leaving to swoop down and catch a fish and he caught it! The picture below is where he ended up.

This is the hammack I plan to lounge in when I get back!

This is a fountain in one of the ponds and those are real birds!

I thought of my dear friend Kelli Holman when I took this picture. She always takes pictures of flowers!

This is just a little river the runs under the path

Hilton Head, South Carolina is ALL about golfing. There are probably 50 golf courses just on the island! This is the one that I pass everyday here is the Shipyard Plantation.
This is pretty much what the whole trail looks like. There are trees everywhere which is great for running because you dont have the sun beaming down on you!

Another Kelli picture!

This is the round-about. Its seems like they have a lot of these instead of 4-way stops...its still pretty though!

What kind of run would this be if I didnt see the turtle family? I just love those little guys!

Every time I pass this pond, it makes me want to jump and and go swimming. It totally reminds me of the lake, the smell, the sun reflecting off the water, and the fish jumping! However, with the fear of aligators in there, I think I will just stick to running by it!

If I would have known about this bridge when I was taking my engagement pictures or my senior pictures, I SOOO would have taken them there. Its such a pretty and old looking bridge. I love it!

And last but not least, my absolute favorite part of the run is seeing the aligators. This is the pond next to where I turn around and I swer this alligator is the biggest one here! He is HUGE! I think he head is bigger then 1/2 of my body! I wish you could see him from the front. Sometimes he is facing the road but today he wasn't so this will have to do!

This is the point where I turn around in my run so everything I see from then on is the same as before. I just love the beauty of this place. I hope you enjoyed your tour of my run!

5K and alligators!!!!!!

2009-03-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Justin and I ran our first 5K together. I was worried about running this because I hadn't trained hard enough and I hadnt ever ran 3.1 miles straight through without stopping. I wasnt going to run but changed my mind at the last minute. Of course, I didnt want to run all by myself so I asked Justin to do it with me. Being the good husband that he is, he agreed. So we woke up at 7:15 on Saturday morning and got ready to run! I set one goal for myself...I was NOT going to stop or walk till I crossed the finish line. I am proud to say that I accomplished this goal! Justin ran with me the whole way! We were so exhausted at the end but we did it! I am not going to lie, I was pretty upset that Justin could run it without stopping and not having any training! I work my butt of in the gym to work up to this and he can do it without any effort...its not fair----men!!!! Anyhow, it was awesome to cross the finish line with him. He helped me so much! He kept pushing me to go harder and faster and we ran it in 30 minutes and 20 seconds! I know that is not great because it means we averaged about 10 minutes per mile, but we still did it and we had so much fun doing it!

Being here in South Carolina has been such a great experience. While being here, I have learned that I have a facination for alligators! I love them (and stay far away from them)! On the road to get to the hotel, there are a few ponds and there are always alligators out sun bathing. I always forget my camera when I go on a walk but on the way home from church today I realized I had my camera in my purse! I was so excited when we passed the alligators and I FINALLY got a picture of one! I am posting the picture of the alligator and one of us after the 5K. Dont ask me why you can see people so close the alligator in the back ground. I was watching the alligator as the people got closer and closer and he kept slowly turning his head toward them and he was perched in the attack position. I was ready to flip my camera to the video recorder when he decided to attack! (just joking). I see the alligator every day and they are normally all calm and relaxed and just laying there with there head on the ground but not today! I dont know if people think that because they are in a pond close to the road that they are tamed or something? I dont get it...anyhow here are the pictures...enjoy!

Bad idea...and other random stuff

2009-03-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

So I am writing this blog to discuss a serious issue with my hair. I decided to be a little "crazy" and dye my hair black. Well actually I picked a color that said "Brown/Black." I had heard that black hair was hard to get rid of so I was smart and made sure I didnt get a pure black color...at least I thought I was being smart! Anyhow, I loved my black hair for about the first two or three weeks but then my blondish/brown roots started growing in. So, naturally I did not want to have hair that was two toned so I decided that I had my fun with black hair and wanted to go back to my normal color. My first action was to dye it a dark brown and slowly work my way up getting lighter and lighter each time. I tried to color it a dark brown and absolutely nothing happened! The thought crossed my mind to go get it done professionally but I thought, "No, I want to save some money." So I went to the store and looked throught the bottles and found one that said "made for black hair." I was sure this time it was going to work. So I had Justin color it for me and guess what, it didnt work again!!!! I am a very determined person when it comes to things likes my hair, it has to be just right. So of course I thought I would try something else. I went to the store this time and decided to get a hair stripper. So I had Justin try this. This time it really did get rid of my black hair, however it left it ORANGE!!!!! So now that I had orange hair I was NOT going to give up. So I went to the store and picked out the most expensive kind of hair dye I could find and I bought a dark blonde color. So I had Terriann color it for me. She did a great job, but my hair is now blonde with a big hint of orange! On top of all of this, my hair is not looking very healthy anymore. So, moral of this store....DO NOT DIE YOUR HAIR BLACK! Also, my advice is that if you do something crazy to your hair, just go get it taken care of professionally. I am pretty sure I have spent about $50 on hair stuff over the past month and now I am going to have to spend at least another $50 to get it fixed.

On a happier note things here in Hilton Head are going great! Yesterday, Justin and I attended Stake Conference in Savannah, Georgia. After conference we were able to go to downtown Savannah and look at all the beautiful sites. It was SO PRETTY! Since it was Sunday all we were able to do was look but that was enough for us! We hope to make it back down there before we leave here. When we got home from church, we went on a bike ride down the trails, played softball on the beach, and cuddled on the hammack. It was an amazing day. If I could describe the perfect day, it would be yesterday! Also, I think I am going to be running my first 5K this weekend. I am really excited/nervous about it. My goal is to run the whole way and finish the race. I know I will not win it or anything but accomplishing my goal will be good enough for me! When I get my hair completely fixed, I will post some new pictures of us. I have been avoiding the camera for about the past month so that is why there arent any new pictures!

Homeless :(

2009-02-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

Our First Place Together

About 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday, Justin and I found out that we needed to leave for Hilton Head, South Carolina. We were told that we needed to leave by Saturday. We were both excited until it hit us that we would have to pack up our beloved apartment and move out. Our lease for this apartment is up as of March 1st, and to save a little money so that we can buy our own house, Justin's parents have agreed to let us turn a barn that they have on their property into an apartment where we will be able to live for pretty cheap. This works out perfectly for us because we are hardly home anyways and it was pointless to pay rent to a place that we are hardly living at.

It was extremely hard to leave our apartment. We loved that place! Justin and I had painted it all cute and really made it a home. Packing in two days wasn't easy either. Thanks to the help of Terriann and Justin's parents we got it all done. Here is where it all gets hard...the barn has yet to be converted, so we packed all of our stuff up and now it is in storage at his parents. I dont even know where half of it is!

I am going to make it very clear that I am SOOOO thankful for Justin's parents for letting us live in their basement till the apartment is finished and even more grateful that they are providing us with the apartment, however I am so sad to be leaving our "home." After Justin and I set up our bed in their basement I cried for a few minutes because I am really going to miss our apartment. It was the first place Justin and I lived in as a married couple. I am even going to miss the old lady below us that would pound on the ceiling if we were walking to heavy. Anyhow, I cant wait for apartment to be finished and hopefully we will be able to make it home for us and create many new memories, but for now, we are homeless.

2009-02-16T10:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2008!!!!

Now that it is already February I have finally taken the time to tel l you about our Christmas. We had such a great time for Christmas this year. Justin had 2 weeks off of work which was awesome! It all started at my parents house. Its always an interesting time when Justin and I go to my parents. Its a very full house so there is always something going on. I cant imagine what it will be like when all of us kids are grown up with kids...it will be crazy!

Of course this was a fun time since we get to spend it with family....especially the nephews!!! As you can tell, Justin and I have the cutest nephews around. Blake is 2 and VERY active. He loves saying Justin's name but wont say my name, we are pretty sure its just too hard for him to say. Every time Sara is talking to me she tells Blake "I am talking to aunt Linzi" and then Blake will say "Justin!" but never my name. Occasionally he will call me "a-yay" I think that is Aunt Linzi in Blake terms. Anyhow, as tradition stands, we do Christmas at my parents house and then we go to my Grandma and Grandpa Harris' house for Christmas. Going to G-ma and G-pa Harris house gets harder and harder every year. I swear there living room is like 15' by 15' and they get the fattest (ugliest) tree, so when you cram at least 50 people in there it gets interesting, but we love doing it. I could probably talk a lot more about my parents house but then this would get rather lengthy, so I think thats good enough.

So after a week at my parents Justin and I went out to Utah for Christmas with his family. Justin's sister Shanacy lives in Orem with her husband Matt and their 3 kids and one on the way! We had a great time! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we have the cutest nieces as well. Shan has 3 girls and the bun in her oven is a girl as well! It was great being able to see them and play with them since we dont get to see them much. Kylee is the oldest, she is kind of shy but thats because she doesn't know us very well....yet! Then there is Brittany and she is the most out-goin

g girl I know. She is full of life as I am sure you can tell in the picture of me, Brittany, and Justin's sister Lindsey. Next is Emily and she is a doll! Instead of saying the word "yes" she says "nes." It always throws you off because she makes the "n" sound and you think she is going to say no but then she changes it up by saying Yes.

While we were in Utah we had to opportunity of going to Justin's best friend (brother) Joe's wedding. Joe and his now wife Jessica were married in the Salt Lake temple and December 27th. It was my first experience in the Salt Lake Temple. I loved it! Not to mention I am so dang happy for Joe and Jess, they make a great couple! One day, when Joe and Jess decide that Missouri is better then Utah and move here, Justin and I will finally have a couple to hang out with! Also while we were in Utah my cousin Shawn was heading to the MTC. He is serving in the San Fransisco Mission. I am SOOOO proud of him!!! It was awesome getting to watch him walk into the MTC. I was the last girl he can hug for the next two years...I bet he wishes it could have been some other girl then his cousin! :) It was awesome being there to see him especially since his parents couldn't be there.

After Justin and I got back from Utah we had the opportunity to go to Nauvoo and watch my cousin Alicia be sealed to her husband Eric. It was and awesome experience especially since that is where Justin and I were married. It was our first opportunity to go back to the place where our life together began! Between going to the temple in Salt Lake (and getting our own set of temple clothes) and seeing my cousin Shawn at the MTC and being there for Alicia and Eric's sealing, I would say that week of Christmas was one of the most spiritual/amazing weeks ever. That is our whole Christmas in a nutshell!

2009-02-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

I tried to post this a while back but for some reason it didn't go through so I am posting it again!

I cant believe we have been together a year!

2009-01-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

Justin and I just hit our 8 month anniversary but we also hit our 1 year anniversary of being together! Justin and I met a year ago at a singles dance here is Springfield. Justin and I didn't actually talk that day but we were making some serious eye contact. He said that he was kept walking up to me to ask me to dance but I always had a guy at my side which is probably true. I went to that dance to meet up with 3 other guys instead of Justin. Anyhow that Sunday at church is when we officially met. Of course I was the one that initiated conversation. His best friend Joe was actually the one who was hitting on me first. He got my number and then that same night, Justin got it as well. Justin and I have been together since and it has been the best year of our lives (at least I hope he would say it was the best!) Anyhow, I am just so thankful for the relationship that Justin and I have. I dont think that the Lord could have picked a better person for me. I am going to post a collage that I made of our time together in 2008. Some of these pictures are from our honeymoon and there are some from Puerto Rico and just a few different events in our life together. If the pictures are too small you can click on them and they will get bigger. Enjoy!

2008-12-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

Justin and I finally got our new computer and we found this neat thing called Picasa. So we were playing around with some of our wedding pictures and this is what we came up with!

2008-10-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was my birthday weekend and it was great! Justin and I rented a car for three days which is wonderful because we were able to go where we wanted to for 3 days! You don't realize how much you rely on a car until you don't have one! Anyhow, on Saturday Justin and I went to the outlet malls which are awesome! We found some really good deals on some things that we probably dont even really need. After the outlet mall we went to Costco and got a few things for the week and then we went to Borders where I got my first copy of Twilight. Yes, you heard me, I am going to read! After all the basic shopping the real fun began. Justin and I went on our first alone date here is Puerto Rico. He took me to this Japanese steak house which was awesome. I was a little disappointed because they did not flip shrimp in my mouth! So after the very expensive dinner (everything is more expensive here) we went to the movies and saw the movie Eagle Eye. I recommend it if you like movies that are suspensful. Then came the big 23 on Sunday, thats right, I am now 23! So on Sunday we did our usual get up and go to church then when we got home Justin gave me his present. I got the Wii game that I have been wanting and some pink Wii remote covers and an IOU for a Wii fit! The reason I got an IOU instead of the real thing is because we wont have a cheap way to get it home. Then my wonderful husband had an afternoon planned for me. We went to this really nice beach where we were going to sit and watch the sun set, however when we got there, there was a huge dark cloud in the way! it was ok because we were at a beach that had a lighthouse so we just went and took some silly pictures around that. Then when we were done we drove home where Terriann had made me a fun fetti birhtday cake (my favorite) and a few people came over to celebrate. It sure beats my birthday last year when I was Sick! All in all I had a great birthday! I will try to get some pictures up from our trip to the beach!

2008-10-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

So here are some pictures from our stay at Puerto Rico. There are a few of them from the beach across the street. I have also put some in here of Old San Juan. The pictures where we have on street clothes are mostly from old San Juan. If you look in the background there is a HUGE fort that was used during the war. Old San Juan is really pretty and there are TONS of shopping places inside the fort. I swear that walking through the fort is one of the most miserable things to do because it is literally up hill both ways. However I have learned to like walking because since we do not have transportation walking is really my only option....the goal is to come back dark and skinny! The other day I had the chance to go visit the rainforest. My cousin's husband is in the navy and he is out on deployment and one of their stops happened to be Puerto Rico. So he had a few days here and a little time to do what he wanted. So him and I went rainforest together. I felt really bad that Justin didn't get to go because he was working, but it was still pretty fun. We hiked up the side of a mountain through the rainforest and we were able to swim under a huge water fall. Unfortunately I forgot my camera (I swear I remember putting it in my purse) however when Justin and I go back, I will make sure to take plenty of pictures!

2008-10-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

OUR ADVENTURE IN PUERTO RICO

2008-10-03T16:35:00.000-07:00

So Justin and I have been in Puerto Rico for about 2 weeks. Things have been pretty CRAZY!!! It's extremely hot and humid here! It has been a fun adventure for the both of us, well actually I am the one having most of the fun because he is working all day. We share and apartment with Justin's cousin Todd, and his wife Terriann and their son Wes. It has been a lot of fun having them around. I am pretty sure I would be bored out of my mind if they were not here. We live right across the street from the ocean which is pretty nice but I have to admit that I swim more at the pool then I do the ocean. Puerto Rico is so cluttered! Everything is very close together and everything is built up! We live on the 9th of 22 floors and unfortunately we dont have an ocean side view from our balcony. Most of the people here are nice, or at least I think they are nice, I cant understand what they are saying so I just translate it in my head as nice things! There are a lot of people here that do not like Americans, I even had a guy try to run me over! But for the most part things aren't too bad and the people are good people. I am going to try to post some pictures of where we live and what we are doing.