A Fun Week?

1. Carrie Underwood in concert. Floor Tickets.

2. Twilight Premiere.
(If you're wondering what I thought, I think it was very true to the book (as true as it can be for a 2 hour movie), a few cheesy parts, but overall WONDERFUL.)


You do the math.

Taking Care of Business

This post is a miss mash of things.

FIRST - a quick and easy TAG my sister-in-law tagged me on:
RULES:
1. Go to your pictures
2. Go to your 4th folder and upload your 4th picture
3.Post
Aww, how sweet. Haha, this is one of our engagements taken at the bottom of Tony Grove.
Now I tag... Kimi, Traci, Nahomi, and Alisha. It's ok, it's easy!

SECOND- some very late Halloween pics.

My friend Stacey hosted an "Amazing Race" Halloween party. It was very entertaining and also very creative. She did such a good job making clues and tasks. Way to go Stace!I'm sad, this picture doesn't show my steal-of-a-deal eBay poodle skirt, but as you can tell we were a rockin' 50's couple. We even found Nate some sweet black "chucks" shoes.


The second party was a Murder Mystery party our friends Jon and Anna hosted. If you've never attended/participated in one, I highly recommend trying them! Everyone is given a character before the party, and you dress up like them. A few people really got into character while trying to discover who the murderer was. There were lots of secrets, bribes, and accusations flying around but it made for a very fun night!I was Elizabeth Rochester, wealthy daughter of the murdered millionaire. Nate was Neal Worthers, my father's personal driver (hence the white gloves and little cap) and also my boyfriend who dumped my sister to be with me. As the night went on we learned that the reason our parents didn't approve of our scandalous relationship was because we were half brother and sister! Haha, and (dun...dun...dun) Neal/Nate was in fact the murderer!!!

Last but not least...for anyone wondering...
YAY! :)

Yes People...We're Still Alive

So why such a blogging drought?

I guess you could blame it on lack of wireless internet access, lack of excitement in our lives, or just pure lack of motivation on my part.
But seeing as how my last post was over a month ago (holy cow!!) I've been feeling a little pressure to update. I won't mention any names.
We've been home from Virginia for more than two months and after over-staying our welcome in my Dad's basement, we finally found a different basement to invade. Ok, it's actually a small apartment in Smithfield, but what can I say - I guess we're bound to be basement dwellers. We just unpacked our last box and we're slowly settling back into a routine.
So, without boring you too much, I'll attempt to catch up on our lives. (Kysha, if you read this I'm admitting to copying your style right now. I liked how it was to the point)

Nate has been:
- very busy with school (because he graduates this spring, a few of his classes are very demanding, and the rest are so undemanding (is that a word??) that he feels attendance isn't quite necessary a lot of the time)

- job hunting. for something part time that would work with his class schedule. he actually found a promising marketing company that is just getting it's start in Cache Valley and will hopefully start sometime next week (hooray! a job that deals with all this school we've been paying for).

- getting over a weird 24 hour flu/2 week cold.

- catching up on his college football dynasties (or whatever they're called) on the Playstation. In his words, "The Aggies may suck in real life, but I'm determined to make them good on here."

- and being very accommodating in the meal preparation area when almost any smell would make me gag.

Laci has been:
- cherishing the days I don't wake up nauseous. (I'm actually feeling 100% better lately, as long as I eat every 4 or so hours)

- enjoying the semester off school! I'll go back...someday.

- anticipating the start of the Jazz's new season. (just so I can watch Kyle Korver again!)

- keeping busy at work in the special needs/speech/behavioral preschool. Kids REALLY DO say the darndest things. Side note-funny story:

The other day it was my turn to take the kids to their bathroom break. When I went to help one little boy with his zipper after he'd done his business, I was shocked to see he wasn't wearing any underwear. "Uh...Gavin, what happened to your underwear???" I asked trying not to sound too alarmed. "Oh, (sigh) my mom didn't have any for me," he started, (moms usually get blamed for anything and everything, and most times -like in this case- you can tell the kids are trying to blame mom for a mistake on their part) "and I'm such a big boy now I didn't think I needed to wear any today." He said matter-of-factly. "Oh, well even big boys wear underwear ALL the time." I emphasized. Thankfully he's been wearing it since!

Baby has been:
- growing and growing! and is almost 17 weeks old.

- growing so much in fact that only one of my pairs of pants now fits. (I've just recently tried some maternity pants (heaven) but still don't feel big enough to wear them too often.)

- accumulating furniture to be painted, and even a cute new diaper bag! (the first thing I've dared to buy before we find out what it is)

- preparing to be identified as male or female on November 3rd!!

And in other family news:
- My sister Bekka finished her varsity tennis season as a junior playing 2nd doubles. She and her partner went undefeated in region play and went on to place 2nd at state!! Way to go Booie!

-Elder Cade completed his two months in the MTC and arrived in Vina del Mar, Chile 2 weeks ago. For all the extended family out there (or anyone interested) - I'm starting a blog to share Cade's emails, pictures, etc. As of right now it's just a website but check back and I promise I will try and update it regularly. eldertcwinchile.blogspot.com

- Allie, my littlest sis, is enjoying her 5th grade year so far and especially playing softball at recess. She informed us the other day that she hopes our baby is a boy so she can "teach it to play catch".

- Dad has been missing his #1 farmhand and dare I say realizing how much he took Cade for granted. Nate, however, has volunteered to "cowboy up" and is excited for winter so he can learn how to feed the cows. It might be a long 2 years :)

Hopefully that wasn't an overload of boring information! Now that we're moved in and settled I'll have to dig out my camera charger so I can be ready to take Halloween pics to post. It won't be another month, I promise. So until then...

As Cade says when he finishes his letters-
"Paz!"
Spanish to English translation = "Peace"

Pity Party for Laci

I just want to say:

I now have a new found respect for all you moms out there. Meaning, if you are a mom, chances are you had horrible cases of the dreaded "morning sickness". (which in fact for me is morning, mid-morning, lunchtime, afternoon, evening, and all night sickness) You all deserve an award.It SUCKS. (speaking of moms, my mom would have shot me a disapproving glare for using SUCKS, but that is pretty much the best word to describe the wretched retching)

However, like my sister-in-law reminds me, being sick is a good sign that everything is still progressing "normally". And I do want that...I also want the nausea to cease after the 12 week mark.

Here's to wishful thinking. And sorry to be a complainer. (a little sorry)

Guess What??

Our little "kumquat" (that's supposedly the size right now...but who even knows how big a kumquat is?) is 10 weeks old.
We had our Dr.'s appointment last week and he said everything looks great, and we also got to hear the heartbeat! I know it's still a bit early, but since the Dr. said everything is "normal" we're crossing our fingers. So if all goes well, April 6, 2009 will be the special day! (or sometime around there)

Family Pictures

Before Cade left we were able to squeeze in a family photo session. Eileen Workman was the amazing photographer and she did such a great job! She keeps a fun photo blog I had seen a few times, and her daughter and son-in-law are some of Nate and my closest friends.


She was even willing to come up to the farm where my dad keeps all his cows and horses! The "canyon" as my family calls it, has been Cade's home away from home for many years; so we knew it would be the perfect location to take pictures before he left. Anyways, they turned out AWESOME.


You can check out a few of them on Eileen's blog, HERE. Make sure you tell her how talented she is!

A Sad Day at the Wallentine House

Elder Wallentine has packed up and left us...for 2 years! Last Sunday Cade gave his farewell talk and Wednesday, August 13th, we took him to the MTC. That was my first MTC experience and I hope it was my last! I'm sure everyone is semi-familiar with the whole routine. (Sitting through a short welcome, attemtping to sing "Called to Serve", and saying the ever dreaded goodbyes) Not fun for anyone!
Lucky for me, I was blessed with a comforting calm feeling throughout the day. Meaning, I still bawled, but I was also very excited for Cade to begin his missionary experience. I have no doubt he will work hard while he is teaching and serving the people in Chile.
Our family will miss him lots but we know he is serving a greater cause!
This nice old guy could tell we needed help.
Trying to hold back the tears. :'(
For anyone wondering, Nate wanted to be there, but I'm a ditz and booked his flight back to Virginia right before we had to be at the MTC. (my fault, my fault)
A guy there asked me what mission my son was going to...seriously? Do I look 40?
My favorite picture. It still makes me tear up a bit... :)
Still no word from the greenie Elder W... a preview of the next 2 years I'm afraid. Ha. We'll miss you Cade!