30 on the 30th!

Today I am officially 30 weeks on the 30th of October. Time is flying by and I cannot believe I only have 10 weeks left to go until the little babes comes. We are so excited! In fact, we are so excited we have included him in our Halloween costumes for tonight (picture to come later).

Tonight is our ward Halloween party and originally John wanted to be Brian Wilson, the pitcher from the Giants, by wearing a baseball hat, jersey, and of course the famous beard. I ended up buying a beard the other day since I was in the mall and saw a Halloween store. Don't know why...but I paid 12 bucks for this Abraham Lincoln beard that I thought would pass for a similar beard Wilson has.





Yesterday John and I went to five or so sports/hat stores since John doesn't own a Giants hat. We could not find ONE hat that was his size...and some of the stores were completely sold out of Giants hats! Should I be surprised though considering we are the best baseball team in the country at the moment? We came home unsuccessful, even after asking several people if they had a Giants hat we could borrow. No one did. So with no hat and no jersey we decided John needed a new costume. The problem was that I had bought this useless beard which I noticed when I got home that the receipt said non-returnable.

Great! The store had never told me I wouldn't be able to return the $12 beard, but I told John I wanted to go back to the store and at least play dumb and try to return it. We went to the store late last night and after talking to the "manager" I made a deal with him. I told him there is no way I will ever use the beard and we agreed that I could trade the beard for something else in the store.

So the beard that was completely useless to us at this point somehow became one of the best things in the store. After walking back and forth through the store for half an hour we concluded there wasn't ONE thing in the ENTIRE store we wanted. Haha, it was hilarious to think we couldn't find one single item that we would rather have than the beard. In the end, we decided we had to get rid of the beard regardless of how hard it was to find something else and we finally walked out with a pumpkin bucket to put candy in and two "Winner" olympic medals that we thought maybe some day we can use for some primary activity, birthday party, or something...

It's funny how something so small can become such an ordeal. We concluded that the beard brought bad luck since the second I got home the other day after buying it, I broke one of our cups, and since then John stepped on a piece of glass from the cup. Also, John's football and my hair brush have mysteriously disappeared out of our car, our car breaks have started smelling bad, and we saw a couple of car accidents.

We are glad to have that thing out of our house, and now John has a better costume for tonight. We'll post pictures of Halloween later!

October

It's the start of a new month! I love the month of October and I am especially looking forward to cooler weather. We were hit with a huge rain storm today which was a good change from the 90 degree weather!

Things happening as of late:

Last week John and I went up the BYU bell tower since our home teacher is the organist that plays on Tuesdays after devotionals. It took us awhile to climb the 100-step, spiral staircase to the top. It was fun to see how the organ is attached to the bells and we watched our home teacher play a few songs.

The view from inside the tower.



You can see the pegs that he has to pound with his fists in order to rings the bells.



Some of the bells are too heavy and large to pound the pegs with his fist, so instead there are pegs at his feet that he presses on to sound the larger bells.



Other exciting things: I am officially 26 weeks pregnant! Only 14 weeks to go! I also started substitute teaching last week and have come home every day feeling productive yet exhausted. Today I substituted for a half day which was the perfect amount of time in my opinion. General Conference was this past weekend and we had Cory, Christian, Ashley, and Spencer over to watch as well as eat dinner. It was fun to spend time with them, watch conference, and play speed scrabble (which is one of my new favorite games-for some reason I love any game that has to do with words...scramble, boggle, etc.).

October has just started and it's already been a fun month! Can't wait for the rest of the month!

My Parking Spot

If you haven't heard the news or haven't seen me lately, then this picture will definitely let you know that I am expecting! I am having a baby boy in January! John and I are so excited for the baby and we can't wait until he is here with us. When we go to baby stores we take advantage of the parking spot reserved just for me. The "Expectant Mothers" spot! This was outside Babies "R" Us.



Besides getting ready for the baby, John and I have been keeping busy. John started the business program and he loves his classes. We moved into our new apartment and have been warmly welcomed into our new ward which we love. We've met a lot of new people and had the opportunity to go to three ward/stake activities this past weekend. Friday night we went to a dinner party at our bishop's house in Highland, and Saturday we went to two stake parties (a lunch picnic and a catered Chinese dinner). So far September has been a fun month!

A summer is never complete without the family trip to Lake Shasta...













We love this lake! Let's go back!

Aloha!

During the week in Hawaii we were able to see some amazing places as well as relax! Here is an outline of our week.

Tuesday

Pearl Harbor-I had always wanted to visit Pearl Harbor not only because of the history that the harbor holds but also because I feel like I have somewhat of a connection to the event since my grandpa was there the day the Japanese bombed it.





U.S.S. Arizona Memorial





The oil that still leaks up from the U.S.S. Arizona to the ocean's surface after all these years. They estimate oil will continue to leak for another 40 years.














Wednesday

We made a visit to the famous Dole pineapple plantation. We went on a train ride to tour the plantation, ate dole whips (pineapple ice cream), and part of the group walked through the pineapple maze. We even watched a demonstration on how to properly clean and cut a pineapple...who would have known that you need to wash off the acid on the inside of a pineapple before eating it!














Thursday


We woke up early and headed out to Hanauma Bay which is the most popular snorkeling place in Oahu. The bay is a remaining volcanic crater filled with reefs, tropical fish, and sea turtles.





After snorkeling we explored the south east corner of the island where the famous Halona blowhole is located. It was really windy at this part of the island which is why our hair and clothes look crazy in the pictures.











Friday

We spent a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center where we went on a canoe ride, walked around the villages, and ended the day with a laua dinner and show. I had always wanted to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center and was happy to spend the day there with my family.




















Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday


Saturday and Monday we went to North shore beaches (Sunset beach where we met Kona, a dog that adopted us as its family for the day). We also went swimming and played games such as "Snake-in-the-water".










On Sunday we went to church where we actually ran into a former Saratoga ward missionary who is now living in Oahu with his wife and children. After church we made dinner, sang "Happy Father's Day to You!" to all the dads, and took family pictures.







Tuesday was a sad day when we left the island. Oahu will definitely be missed, but we created lots of fun memories that will last forever! Thanks mom and dad for planning such a great family trip!

One more week!

I have one more week of school...ever! This coming week is the last week of student teaching, and then graduation is just around the corner. It seems strange to think I'll actually be done, but when I think about it a little longer I realize I have definitely put in my time and I deserve to be done! I felt like a graduating senior when John and I attended the BYU Senior Grad Night on Friday. We went for free food and entertainment! I just can't wait until next week when I get my diploma. My parents and little brother are coming into town, as well as John's parents and little brother to help us celebrate. It's going to be really fun to have everyone here! Until then...one more week of teaching and John's going to be busy taking finals.

Wedding

We were married on December 26th, 2009 in the Oakland, California LDS Temple. The day was absolutely perfect.





After we came out of the temple, we took all of the traditional family photos.



























That night was the reception and it was beautiful! After searching and searching for a perfect place for a reception during winter, I believe we had found it. We had so much fun talking to friends, dancing, and laughing. Everything was perfect!





Beautiful flower decorations!



The cake!



My family at the reception.



John's family at the reception.




The night was also filled with lots of friends. The "Saratoga Girls" go back as far as we can remember and we love sharing special days with each other.



John and I had our first dance as a married couple. We had planned to dance to "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?" by Rod Stewart, but earlier that day my sister, Ashley, and John decided it would be fun to surprise me by turning on "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias, which was the dance John asked me out to at a stake dance back in 2004 when we were sixteen years old. I couldn't stop laughing when I first heard "Hero" over the loud speakers.



I got my very own daddy-daughter dance, and we ended up dancing to "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You".



I also got to dance with my cute grandpa!



I loved watching the little flowergirls run around all night and they loved dancing as well. I couldn't have asked for cuter flowergirls!



The reception was absolutely beautiful and I have my mom and my sister, Stephanie, to thank for it. They planned the whole thing for me while I was out at BYU. I am so grateful for them for the time and energy they put into making my wedding day special and the reception very memorable. Everyone had so much fun, and after a fun day and exciting reception, there were some who just needed to rest!




We spent a few days down in Huntington Beach for our honeymoon. We had perfect weather!



We spent a day at Disneyland and California Adventure!

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After our honeymoon we drove back to Saratoga for New Years and welcomed in 2010. We drove back to Utah and now are in the middle of our winter semester. The semester is going good so far, with John working hard at school while I am teaching a third grade class for my student teaching! We are enjoying every moment of our lives together!