Random Happenings

Been too long again since my last post. Here's what we've been up to.

Daddy had a fabulous 31st birthday. We went out to dinner and a movie I think?? This is why I should write about it the day it happens :-) We also made him his favorite dinner on his birthday which was a Sunday, Eggrolls and Sweet and Sour Chicken, yummm. Glad we've made it through another year babe!


We also went to visit the Dunakey clan in Omaha in July. We had a great time, just me and the kids while Chris stayed home and did school. We went to the Omaha Zoo and to a fun waterpark, and just generally hung out and talked, ate good food, and had fun! Thanks for letting us stay guys, can't wait to do it again!

August brought lots of HEAT!! way worse than last summer here. But we've survived. We also got to go to Utah again for Joel's wedding! Chris and I ventured on our own since buying 2 tickets is much cheaper than buying 4. The kids stayed with our great friends the Kirkham's, thanks to Amy for being such a trooper, her 5 kids and my 2 with no husband because he was in India that week! They had a great time, and so did we! It was so fun to see Joel and Alicia so happy and ready to start their new life together. Great trip.
The old clan, we've known some of these people for 15 yrs!!, Chris has known them even longer.


Last but not least Chris took his Comprehensive Exams on the 21st. HUGE test, 6 hrs straight on 5 different subjects. He studied for a week straight after we got home from Utah. Stressed beyond comprehension!! But it went pretty well, he hopes to have passed 4 out of the 5 tests, he gets the results next week. The ones he doesn't pass he gets to retake orally on the 12th of Sept. So hopefully by the 13th we'll be DONE with Comps and not have to worry about it anymore!! His schedule has slowed down a bit from the summer which has been very nice. I believe this last summer has been our toughest section of school and that now we'll be on a downhill run, especially with not trying to juggle work and school. For now he's not going to work, and I think we'll be ok with that, it's been a huge blessing to us all for him not to have to worry about that. The Lord will provide!

The kids both started school, Maci's in 2nd grade and Gavin started preschool 3 days a week! They're both loving it and doing well so far. I'm enjoying 9 hrs a week of "free" time, which I get to fill up with work uninterrupted :-) until baby makes her arrival.

One other big announcement that came out recently is that my parents are going on their 3rd mission! To Hawaii no less! They will be teaching institute at the University of Hawaii, they leave on Sept. 7th and will hopefully be back next August. They are excited for the sudden change of plans, they were planning on leaving sometime in January to Southern Virginia University, but the Lord had other plans for them and they took this great opportunity to go serve in the islands again. We wish them well but they will be missed! Maybe somehow we'll be lucky enough to be able to visit.

I think that catches us up somewhat! 8 weeks to go before the baby comes, so much to do!!! Super Saturday season cannot get over fast enough.

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home

So Father's Day has come and gone, but I wanted to take a moment and write down my thoughts on my fabulous husband and daddy to my kids. They are SO glad when he gets home every day, running to the door and meeting him with hugs and smiles. He's always so willing to listen to their day, even when he's exhausted and starving and just wants to sit down. They love him so much, and want to spend every minute they can with him. He loves to play with them, their newest "thing" is playing tag in the yard with them. Gavin loves playing the Wii with him, and Maci loves snuggling with him watching a movie or playing in the yard with him.

Chris has been such a trooper through the last couple years. What he is doing is HARD, and he's been working part time as well, which only a fraction of the other students are doing. He's worked so hard at doing well in school so that he can further his career and provide for his family, while he's doing something he loves. I'm so proud of his accomplishments so far and know he's going to help a lot of people in his life.

Chris has been my best friend for a LONG time, long before we got married. I'm so glad that I get to go through my trials and hardships with him, as well as our happy times and joyous occasions. He makes my life so much better, and I'm so grateful that he's mine for eternity!

So, Happy LaTe Father's Day babe, I Love You!

And we're back. . .

Since being home, we've kept busy doing fun things for the summer. We've been to the Nixa pool several times, Table Rock Lake several times, playing in the hose A LOT!! and having friends over. Our good friends the Eckersley's moved last week :-( They will be missed! but we wish them well with their new endevours, wherever they may be. We hope to see them still as they're living with their parents in Branson for the next couple of months. Nixa won't be the same without them!!

With the Eckersley's moving, came the loss of Chris's job. EHN, their company, closed down. So, Chris is now jobless, but in a way this is a blessing. He's so busy with school, it was becoming increasingly clear that the work load at school, client load, and working part time was just too much. The last week Chris worked I literally could see his brains oozing out of his head. So, for now, he's not going to work. With his current school and client schedule, we're not sure what he could find in way of a job anyway. So we're praying hard and cutting back and hoping that somehow we'll make it through without that extra income. The last couple of weeks have been much better, although still stressful for Chris, but I think it's the right decision for now, at least until his thesis is done in Dec., that he focus on school. That job was such a blessing for the past 2 years though, we're so grateful for it!!

The pregnancy is still going great. I've felt terrific the last couple months, and am just now starting to feel like I'm getting bigger, maybe swelling a little bit?! which isn't fun, but could be worse! The baby is moving a lot and the kids love to feel her kick. I can't believe she'll be here in a little over 3 months! it's gonna be a huge adjustment, but we're excited and ready, kinda ;-)

We celebrated July 4th with some of Chris's friends from school, who were nice enough to invite us over. Thanks Mike, Katie, Kylie and Robbie! We had a great time, did some fun fireworks that actually shoot in the air, and saw a great show right out back of Mike's apartment in an adjacent golf course. It was a great show! Monday after the 4th, Chris had school and clinic off! So we headed down south to Eureka Springs, AR. It's a beautiful little artsy city, reminded me a lot of Park City. We explored the shops, got some fudge which I promptly ate pretty much by myself, saw the Crescent Hotel, and ate at a little Italian place, which we will NOT be frequenting, if you get my drift. But overall, it was a fun day of driving and discovering new places.


So far, it's been a spectacular summer, and we're going to enjoy the next month before school starts again for the kids!

Utah Trip 2010

We had such a great time in Utah this summer. We started out the drive at 6pm in the evening, and arrived in UT around 3 the next afternoon, driving straight through. The kids did great and Chris drove most of the way. We drove the trailer with his motorcycle on it for his big Moto Trip 2010 with Josh and Joel! I should make Chris do a whole post on that part of his journey. Needless to say they had a fantastic time!!

Highlights of our trip were as follows
*Mikayla's graduation, am I really old enough to have a niece graduated?! At least she's not MY daughter :-)
* Allysa's baptism
* Lots of outings, Boondocks w/Grandpa W., Pirate Island w/Grandma W, SLC Temple and lunch at the Church Office building w/Grandma and Grandpa B, Legacy Center, Thanskgiving Pt, and more I'm probably forgetting!
* TONS of cousin time. Anne's family was living at my mom and dad's while they found a house to buy, so we got to see them A LOT. The kids had such a ball, mostly playing out in the water, if it wasn't snowing that day ;-)
* Snow!! yes, about 3" of snow fell on May 24th, not completely unusual for UT weather, but definitely more snow than we'd seen in a while! This happened to be the day Chris was supposed to leave for his motorcycle trip. They waited out the storm a couple hours till after lunch, it cleared up and melted away, and they were off for their great adventure!
* Several outings with Mary, Maria, etc + kids, it's so good to catch up with old friends!
* IKEA need I say more.
* Relaxing evenings with both sides of the family, chatting and just hanging out.
* Boren Carnival, where we had a new event, an egg drop off the roof! Funnest event of the day, and both Maci and Ali's eggs survived the drop!
* Highland City Splash Park
* Lucky enough to meet Baby Elijah, Anne's newest addition, one day before we left!
* Having enough time to start and finish a rag quilt for new baby!

We had such a great time, and it was hard to leave. Katie drove back with me since Chris had to come back shortly after his motorcycle trip. She was a great help and kept the kids fed and entertained while I drove (she drove a little too :-) She got to stay a few days after we arrived back home so we could show her around the Ozarks. We had a great time at the Discovery Center, down in Branson, at Table Rock Lake, and of course had to take her to Andy's! Thanks Kate for making sure we got home safely!!

Catching up

So it's been months since I've posted, and a lot has happened! So I'll do my best to catch up. May flew by with the end of school and gearing up for our trip to Utah at the end of May. Maci had a fabulous last couple of weeks. She won 1st grade first place for her art piece of purple iris's that she made with the side of her hand, they're so cool! She also won 8-9 ribbons, various places, for a bunch of Language Arts pieces she had in the LAD fair for the District. Her teacher was very proud of her and her pieces are very thoughtful and interestingly written.

Chris finished off his Spring semester with straight A's again, and in some very challenging classes. He's doing fabulously in school and if we can get through this summer, with some more very tough classes, thesis work, and Comps at the end of the Summer, I think we'll have made it through the most difficult part of our time here.

I've been working lots and trying to sell as much as I can to keep things afloat here. It's slowed down a bit in May/June but is picking up again hopefully for the Fall season. It was so nice to take a break for about a month though when we went to UT. It was much needed!

Our biggest news in May came on the 17th. I went to a specialist at 17 wks since I've had High Blood Pressure with my past pregnancies. I haven't had any problems yet but they wanted a baseline to see where I was at "normally" so if it goes up they'll know how much, etc. So, I didn't know this appt. included a full ultrasound! I asked the nurse if they'd be able to tell the sex of the baby yet, and she said they probably would be able to. I hadn't arranged for Chris to be with me because I thought it would be a pretty routine exam, so I wasn't sure if I should find out on my own or not?! I called Chris and he said I could find out, but I really didn't want to without him there, so I asked the nurse if she could write it on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. She said that'd be fine, so did the whole ultrasound thing, met with the Dr. who said everything looked great with the baby and he wasn't too concerned about the BP thing, as long as it didn't turn into pre eclampsia, which hasn't happened with me in the past. I'm headed home where I know Chris is there, but he has to leave soon to get to class. This envelope is burning a hole in my hand!! Gavin was at a friends being babysat, but Chris picked up Maci from school for me because I was running late. Anyway, I had to go home to get Maci so Chris could get to class, before I went and got Gavin! Chris said he didn't feel good about opening it without Gavin there, and after a little pouting from me, I agreed. So I had to wait the agonizing 3 hrs. more till Chris got back from his class so we could all open it together.

I tried not to tackle him when he got in the door, but shortly thereafter we opened the envelope. There on a big piece of paper was written "It's a Girl!!" We were so excited. I had a feeling it was a girl, but staring at the ultrasound pictures from that day I had thought it was a boy. I obviously can't read ultrasounds very well :-) We're all very excited that we're having another little girl. Gavin's even excited because he'll be moving into his own room, which I was kind of suprised about. I thought he might have reservations about being on his own, but he seems excited about it, as long as we can put some cool posters up that he chooses. I'm cool with that.

So we're working on getting the rooms rearranged, haven't done much yet but the plans are in the works. We'll talk names at a later date.

I think I'll leave this post on that happy note! Here's a few pics from our happenings, I'll try and catch up on the UT trip next post.

Easter Happenings

We had a terrific Easter this year. We had a full weekend with Chris's dad in town. Unfortunately it seemed I forgot my camera every place we went! So no pics to chronicle the fun, but we went to the Animal Safari in Stafford where you get to feed wild animals out of the windows of your car. It was pretty crazy actually! Camels, Zebras, Emus, and some very aggressive Donkeys all got a taste of our food, as well as several other varieties of animals. It was fun, but slobbery. We also went to the kids soccer games, and to the Chinese Acrobat show down in Branson. We had a great time and we hope Chris's dad did too!

We also got to spend Easter with him. We colored eggs the night before, and did a little hunt Easter morning. Conference was that weekend so we just hung out and listened to conference during the day, Chris smoked a pork butt, which was delicious! and I made about 10 qts. of strawberry freezer jam. It was a great relaxing weekend. Hope your Easter was the same!

Soccer Peaps

The kids are playing spring soccer this year and having a blast. Here's some shots from our game a week ago, where it was FREEZING cold, windy to chill the bone, and just plain miserable. But both kids played great and had fun despite the weather. Our game yesterday was perfect weather and much more enjoyable for both players and spectators. 4 games left, I'm sure we'll enjoy it while it lasts! Maci's team are the Wolves and Gavin's team are the Sharks.




We also built a little fire pit in our backyard last weekend. It was Spring Break and we had done nothing fun and Chris has been wanting to build one for a while, so we went to the local brick store and got some pavers, and built one ourselves. It turned out pretty good, nothing spectacular or fancy, but much cheaper than the fancy 260$ kit at the brick store. We christened it that night with some friends of Maci's and it was a big hit. It's a fun novelty to break up a monotonous week.

Other than that, we really didn't do much for Spring Break. Chris still had to work, we didn't have much money to go on a big trip, so we just hung around mostly. We played with friends lots, played the Wii too much, etc. Maybe next year we'll do something exciting.