...And then there were three...

We had our first doctor appointment yesterday, and all went well. So it's safe to announce that Neil and I are expecting our first child!! We can't even BEGIN to describe how excited we are! It's a huge step in our lives, and it comes with a lot of responsibility, but the time feels so right! We can't wait to be parents and hope that in the next 6 months we can learn as much as possible to hopefully not be completely caught off guard by the changes that will take place.

I am about 11 1/2 weeks along - my due date is October 14th. We were able to hear the heartbeat yesterday - WOW! What an amazing experience!! I've been incredibly fortunate to have not been very sick. Besides the occasional 'queeziness' if I don't snack often enough, and the overwhelming feeling of tiredness, I've felt GREAT! Hopefully that will continue the entire time.

As this whole experience is new to us, we are suckers for information. I've spent countless hours online reading and researching anything I can get my hands on. I love to hear stories, experiences, or advise, so anything anyone wants to share would be wonderful!

We'll keep eveyone updated as we hit some of the major milestones along the way. It's such an amazing journey and we are so excited and feel so blessed to be able to experience it!!

(This is not OUR baby - but one at 11 weeks)

Europe #1 - Part III

...

After our day in Montreux, we stayed in a city called Sion. We didn’t do much touring there, but it’s a cool little city with two big hills that have castles on them, and then the city surrounds them. We did get some cool pictures. Unfortunately, as we were leaving the city, our car bumped another persons in the parking garage. Luckily, he came out of the mall we were parked at pretty soon after it happened, and was VERY cool about the whole situation. Little scary as it was a BRAND new rental car, and now had some scratches on it. Luckily again, the rental company didn’t charge us for it and we ended up being just fine in the end! My brother snapped this photo as we were trying to speak to the guy about the situation - in French of course. Luckily my brother and his wife are fluent!

We drove to this town in the Alps where you could take a train up to Zermatt. It’s a ski resort town with a really neat view of the Matterhorn. Because it’s mostly a ski town, only permanent residents are allowed on the road that takes you there – but the train ride was beautiful. There was a really neat cemetery there for people that had died trying to climb the Matterhorn and a few other surrounding giant mountains. It was kind of sad because a lot of them were in their late teens, early twenties.

We spent some more time in the cities that surround Lake Geneva. This castle was in a town called Nyon. The courtyard in front of the castle had these strange face sculptures – Weird! We also went to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. They mostly had a bunch of statues and things commemorating all of the places where the Olympics had been.

Our last stop in Switzerland was Geneva. It was a pretty rainy day, so we didn’t get a whole lot of pictures. We mostly shopped for souvenirs in the market places. The Jet d’eau was shut off when we were there – it’s a big water fountain that Geneva is famous for. I put a picture of what it’s SUPPOSE to look like, even though we didn’t take it.

After bidding my brother and his family farewell, we made the drive over the Swiss Alps into Italy to continue the rest of our trip on our own. We encountered quite the storm as we were nearing the peak of the mountain we drove over. It was a little scary, but made for a cool picture.

...To Be Continued…

Europe #1 - Part II

So…I need to post more often. Life gets so busy – what can I say?

So after Luxembourg, we spent a day touring around the city of Metz – that’s where my brother was going to school. They have a really cool cathedral, and the oldest church in France (Built in 380 A.D.)

The next day, we went to a castle in the Alsace region of France called Haut-Koenigsberg. It was definitely an awesome choice for our first castle to visit. It had been remodeled to look like it would have ages ago – it was really neat. Here are some of the favorite pics…

On our way to Switzerland, we drove through the Black Forrest in Germany, but it was getting late, so we didn’t get any really good photos. That night we ended up in Zollikofen , Switzerland and got some cool shots of the Bern Temple at night.

The next morning we were able to do a session in the Bern Temple – really cool! Then it was off to a city called Montreux that is right on Lake Geneva. The setting there was BEAUTIFUL with the Swiss Alps in the background – breath taking! We went to one of our favorite castles called Chateau de Chillon that is right out on the lake. There’s a train that you can take around the lake that stops at all of the towns along the way. We had fun smashing coins on the tracks – just like little kids! :) This was definitely one of my favorite places in ALL of Europe.

Europe #1

So - it's about time for a new post, but I don't have any exciting 'day-to-day' stuff to report, so I thought I'd go reminiscing and tell you a bit about when we went to Europe last February. My brother Bret and his family (Wife-Laura and kids-Max & Maddie) were living in Metz, France while my brother finished graduate school. We saw it as the perfect opportunity to take advantage of having family there and go on the trip of a lifetime!! We were able to take enough time off work to spend almost a month there!

We flew into London and took the chunnel over to a city called Lille, FR where we picked up our rental car. We then made the 3 hour drive (after already being up for over 24 hrs) to Bret's appartment in Metz. It was a wonderful reunion, as we hadn't seen them in almost 7 months. (Which was a long time since we were used to seeing them at LEAST once a week - they were our best friends and we hung out a lot!)

The following day was Sunday (thank heaven!) so we were able to relax and try to get over the jet lag of being in an almost opposite time zone. The sister missionaries came for dinner that night, and Bret & Laura fed us their favorite Swiss meal called Raclette - which was quickly adopted into a favorite of Neil and I (so much so, that we brought an entire wheel - 13 lbs. - of it home the second go round. That was an interesting experience getting through security!). It's a type of cheese that you heat in little fry pans until it bubbles, and you eat it over salt potatoes. Mmmmm....sounds strange but it is SOOOO good!!

For our first day of sight-seeing, we went to the 'old city' in Luxembourg. It was beautiful! It was set in this little valley, and all along the top were new buildings, and it was very modern. Then down in the valley, was this old fortress, and this big rock wall that was a giant crypt. It was our first experience seeing structures that were that old! It was so beautiful - even for being in February.

Since this post is already so long, I'll break the trip up into sections so that I can post more pictures without having to make this the longest post of the century. So for now I shall say...

To be continued...

Tagging

Forgot I'm supposed to Tag 4 other people

1. Debbie
2. Lindsey
3. Kristin
4. Leah

Have FUN!! :)

Tagged

This is first time being tagged. It's usually hard for me to come up with answers for stuff like this, but here goes nothing...

1. Best thing you cooked last week

• Either thai coconut soup or spicey chicken enchiladas

2. If money, time, and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with whom?

• A cruise, with either JUST Neil, or all of our family. (His side OR Mine)

3. When was the last time you cried?

• Listening to President Hinckley's funeral.

4. Five things you were doing 10 years ago?

• Going through puberty
• Crushing on boys
• Writing "notes" to girlfriends at school
• Figuring out who I was
• Hanging out with friends

5. Five things you were doing 5 years ago?

• Dating Neil
• Going to SLCC
• Living in my own apartment
• Working at Macey's in produce
• Country dancing every Thursday night

6. Five things you were doing 1 year ago?

• Getting ready for our Europe trip
• Working
• Finishing building our house
• Teaching Primary
• Working (what can I say - gotta pay the bills)

7. Seven of your favorite hobbies?

• Camping
• Fishing
• Hiking
• Scubadiving
• Scrapbooking/Cardmaking
• Quilting
• Reading

8. Five favorite foods?

• Fondue
• Raclette
• Fettuchini
• Steak
• Cafe Rio Salads

9. Five places you've been?

• Switzerland
• Italy
• France
• England
• Belgium

10. Five favorite memories?

• Wedding/Honeymoon
• Living in my apartment
• Family trip to Hawaii
• Trip to Europe #1
• Trip to Europe #2

New Job

So I just started a new job in the finance department at Stampin' Up! It's doing the same general thing that I'm used to doing - accounting - but the atmosphere here is SOOO much different than what I'm used to! Everyone is HAPPY!! The people are so pleasant and positive, it's incredible! There's a reason this company has been around as long as it has! I'm really excited about working here (not to mention stocking up on some fun products!!) :) Nothing much has changed other than this. I'll try to post more often - even if it's boring. :)