Let it snow...

Well, we are nearing the end of our short trip to Utah for Aiden's baby blessing. It has been so much fun, and we're sad to have to leave our family. The day we left to fly to Utah we woke up to a nice (in my opinion) surprise: SNOW!

Miya and Memphis loved it, and we couldn't get them to come in. It's not every day that you get snow in the mid-south.

We've had a blast while we've been here. I was able to go snowboarding with Jared Dastrup on Friday. We went up to Snowbird (my favorite for boarding), and the weather was beautiful! There was a surprising amount of powder for not having snowed much in the 24 hours before we went. My favorites: the double blacks to south of the Little Cloud lift, and going through the mountain on the conveyor.

Yes, I was exhausted and a little sore afterward (I never understood why people complained about the elevation...now I know). Oh, and to the guy who took Jared's pack of Gushers...get your own next time!

On Saturday I went snowmobiling with Jeff, Josh, Justin, Frank, Brian, and a couple of other guys. We went up to Mill Hollow, and once again, we had beautiful weather! We were among the first on the mountain, and because of a fallen tree blocking the main path (which we laboriously moved; see the slideshow below), the upper mountain was almost completely untouched. The powder was deep, the sky clear, and the weather warm. In a nutshell, a perfect day snowmobiling.

It was fairly tiring, but oh-so-worth-it! Thanks to everyone who went and made it possible for us to go!

Reiko attended a baby shower on Saturday night thrown by Toshi and hosted and the Lucero's. Thank you to everyone who came, and for all the wonderful gifts! I have to admit that there is one I'm particularly excited about:
Since our daughter will probably only be able to wear this through the end of the next football season, I'm expecting great things out of my Broncos. Come on team, don't let us down!

We attended the baby blessing of Aiden Leigh Sandstrom on Sunday. He was blessed by his dad, and Justin did a wonderful job. It was such an honor to be part of that special occasion. P.S. The food was pretty fantastic, too!

Sunday night we went over to the Lewis' and watched the Super Bowl. We were fairly entertained, considering that most of us didn't really care who won. It was exciting, and it was wonderful to see the Lewis'!

We were able to attend the Draper Temple open house today with Jan, Paul, Nena, Mom Smith, Josh, and Christine. What a beautiful temple! I'm always amazed at the quality of the work and materials that go into constructing such beautiful and sacred places.
We Also got to see Jan and Paul's apartment. They have done such a great job with it! It is so adorable, and feels so comfortable! Thanks for having us over! You've inspired me to try a couple of projects around our home!

It's A Girl!!!

If you haven't figured it out yet we are having a girl. It was brought to my attention that during my absence from blogging I did not fill everyone in on what we are expecting. We are thrilled to be having a girl. I figured the nursery colors would give it away. I don't see Bryan allowing a little boy to sleep in a purple and green nursery.
Now that you know we are having a girl we need some help with a name. We have one so far, but it is not set in stone yet. If you have suggestions we would love to hear them. We like names with meaning. We have been looking at family and Japanese names, but haven't come up with anything.

Baby Update

Time for a Baby Update. I have made it to the third trimester and am I ever so glad. We only have ten weeks to go; crazy I know. I think Bryan and I have mixed emotions at times we are excited, but also nervous.
We went and took a birthing class that we both loved so much (I hope the sarcasm dripping from my remarks is apparent in my typing). Does it seriously have to be six hours long? Don't get me wrong, the information was great, just drawn out too long.
So we decided yesterday that we should start getting things ready for the baby. The nursery has been somewhat done, but needed furniture. Bryan was kind enough to spend his Thanksgiving weekend painting, putting up chair rail and crown molding in the room. Yes, he did give up his weekend, but he did get new tools for doing so.
Last week we picked out a crib and it came in yesterday so we picked it up along with a pack 'n play and mattress. Today we put together the crib, pack 'n play and the travel system my parents bought for us. We also picked out a crib bumper and a fitted sheet that goes along with the nursery colors and the quilt my Grandma Y made.
We have a few more furniture items to pick out and then hopefully the nursery will be complete. The next ten weeks are going to go by quickly.

Christmas 2008

Well, Christmas came and went. We had a really relaxing Christmas this past year. We didn't have to worry about being somewhere by a certain time. We were also able to start some of our own traditions.
Christmas started out by taking our good friends the Sullengers to the airport to catch their flight. When we returned home we decided to start breakfast. Our Christmas breakfast consists of Beignets and milk or hot chocolate in my case.
After breakfast we opened stocking with Miya Memphis (I their stockings had more than ours). Once we finished with stockings we dove right into gifts. As we were nearing the end there were still a few large presents left, which happened to be for me.
I have to tell you that I gave each of us a Christmas budget that we were to stick by. Leading up to Christmas Bryan kept teasing stating he had gone over the budget. When I saw the large gifts I knew he was not teasing.
I started with one package and realized Bryan had purchased the game Jamaica (which we had purchased back in October, but FedEx lost with the rest of our stuff when shipping from Utah to Mississippi). No big deal, but then I opened the next large item and it was the afghan given to us at our wedding.
You see Bryan kept it a secret from me that FedEx found our lost pallet of stuff the week before Christmas and he took it upon himself to wrap most of our lost items in Christmas wrap. I thought the pallet was long gone since it disappeared at the beginning of November. There were items that could not be replaced on the shipment.
Long story short, Bryan made me cry on Christmas.

Visit From Dad, Mom and Josh

I know I am a little behind, but Bryan and I were lucky enough to have my parents and my brother come and visit us the week before Christmas. We were unable to go home for Christmas this year due to us spending almost a whole month in Utah in October.
Unfortunately the weather was not too nice while they were visiting. We actually had freezing rain. We didn't let the weather stop us from seeing the sites around Memphis and also the surrounding area. We took them to some of our favorite restaurants such as Rendezvous, Neely's, Boiling Point, and Buffalo Wild Wings.


We actually hit some new sites. We went to the Pink Palace Museum and hit some Civil War sites in Franklin TN and Shiloh TN. We would love to go back to Shiloh when the weather is nicer and spend a whole day touring the grounds. It is amazing how close the Union and Confederate camps were.


It is always sad to see family and friends leave, but we are so grateful for the time we are able to spend with them and show them some of the things we enjoy by living in the South.

Memphis Juniors 16 Elite

From Memphis Juniors

Well, it has been a while and I thought I should let everyone know what we have been up to lately. As usual I couldn't stay away from coaching very long and this time I roped Bryan into helping. We are coaching a 16 Elite volleyball team for a local club.

We have 9 really sweet girls. We started practicing in December and they have made so much progress in such a short time. We played our first tournament on January 11 and placed second in the Gold Bracket. Last weekend we played the same team in the final and came out on top taking first in the Gold Bracket. We are enjoying seeing the girls improve as individual players as well as a whole team.

It is really nice coaching with Bryan. He is so calm and we are able to see things the other does not. Bryan is the offensive coach and I am the defensive coach. We will keep you posted as the season goes on.

BTW don't laugh too much at my pregnant belly. There is one good thing about being pregnant and coaching I can't get too excited because the baby starts kicking and I have to sit down on the bench. :0)

Fall has arrived in full color!

Last Saturday was our first one back in MS after our month long vacation. Things were so crazy at work this week for Bryan and our evenings consisted of club try-outs (that's right we are back coaching volleyball tell you more later). Bryan really wanted to take a drive and enjoy all the beautiful fall colors surrounding us. Our first thought was to drive the Natchez Trace Park Trail. After looking closer we realized it was too far for a day trip.

I remembered reading about a day trip our friends the Collins had taken. We called them and they just happened to be making a trip to the same area that day. We kind of invited ourselves along for their trip.

Our frist stop was to Holly Springs MS, it is about a half and hour South of where we live. We went to a hamburger joint called Phillips Grocery for lunch. I kind of forgot to fill Bryan in on where we were. He thought we were just looking at some old buildings by a run down railroad yard. Surprise we are eating at this place. We were informed the building was built in the 1800's and function as a saloon.


After lunch we went and took pictures and investigated the old abandoned box cars. I have to tell you I have officially fulfilled my "Boxcar Children" dream. I have always wanted to play inside an old boxcar.


After playing for a while we headed to Wall Doxey State Park to take some pictures. All the fall colors were amazing. We would like to go camping here some time in the future.


Our last destination was to Oxford, MS. It is the hometown of Ole Miss. Our friends showed us around downtown and we drove around campus before making our trip back home. It was a wonderful day. Thanks for letting us Tag along.

Body Worlds Exhibit

Bryan and I had the opportunity to go to the Leonardo Body Worlds Exhibit in Salt Lake. We have been wanting to go since hearing about it from Rayann and Justin. We lucked out it happened to be in Salt Lake when we were visiting. It was kind of a last minute decision to go (thanks Chris and Nikki for going). It is a little expensive, but so worth it. The exhibits were amazing,whole-body plastinates, organs and translucent body slices were available to view. It is amazing to see how intricate the human body is.

Volleyball, Volleyball, and more Volleyball

So if you don't already know Bryan and I love volleyball. We have missed it so much. I think we played more volleyball this trip than we have played in the last year and a half since we moved. We started out the trip with a coed sixes tournament. Bryan played in the A division while I played in the B division. Bryan's team ended up taking first without losing a set. I can be given the thanks for putting together such an awesome team. j/k I was sad not to be able to play with them. My team ended up taking third in the B division. I think we ran out of gas or at least I did. I hurt so bad after the tournament. It was not quite as bad as three a days, but close.

The following Tuesday Bryan was able to play with my sister's husband in a Coed A league tournament and they came from the losers bracket to win the league. For the record it was legal because he played in the league the last time we were in town.

The following couple of days we were able to go and play volleyball at some churches. Bryan's friend Katy from High School invited us to go and play at her church. It wasn't the greatest volleyball, but everyone was so nice and I actually knew a couple of the girls at the church. Nessa invited us to go and play at her church the next night for some stronger volleyball. Again everyone was so nice and I saw so many girls I played with at Hunter High. I feel so old, many of my friends have three or four kids. Crazy to think I am old enough to have that many kids.

Bryan played our last weekend in a triples tournament and ended up taking second. He said he had a lot of fun and was so sore after playing. I think he forgot how much harder you have to work in triples.

Thanks to everyone for inviting us to play or playing with us and to our family for understanding our need to play this trip. It will be my last until after the baby.

Babysitting

While Bryan and I were in Utah we got the opportunity to babysit our nieces and nephew. Bryan and I were a little nervous at first because our last babysitting job didn't go so well. The first day we were in town we went and stayed with my sister to help with Taija while Justin was in FL for an interview. Everything went so nice. Taija is such a good little girl. We watched a few times throughout our stay and the only thing she did that upset me was when she spit up her bottle all over me. It made me gag. I guess I better learn to get over it. It was so hard to leave knowing that she will have grown so much by the time we return next

Our next babysitting job was with our niece Kylie and our nephew Jackson. I was a little nervous because it takes a while for them to warm up to us. Things actually went well. They are so much, we get to play pretend with them. The things they come with are so crazy. We had a puppy spider, read books, played with dolls, and colored. I think this was the best visit with them because we actually got to spend more than a week. Miss you guys.

Paul and Jan's Wedding

Bryan's little sister was married on October 21, 2008 to Paul Matheson. The wedding was beautiful and everything turned out so nice. We are excited to have Paul as an addition to the family. He is such a great guy and has a wonderful family. We know Paul and Jan will be happy. We have already been able to see the influence Paul is in Jan's life. There wedding is one that would be hard to top. Paul is a helicopter pilot and he had a helicopter land at the reception center and fly them to Little America. They are such a cute couple. Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day.

Haunted Corn Maize

Last weekend a group of us decided to go to the haunted corn maize in Germantown. Besides the smokers and the high school kids it was a lot of fun. It took us about an hour to get through the maize. It was nice because they had questions with answers to choose from. Each answer would give you a direction to go. Sometimes we made the wrong choice, but were able to find our way. They had scary creatures lurking through out the maize. The scariest part was at the end with the chainsaw people. I really, really do not like them. It was a lot of fun, 100 times better than our haunted house experience last year.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

My Eating Habits

So, since I have been pregnant I have been the worst eater ever. Bryan would say that I am always the worst eater, mainly because I like pizza for breakfast. I feel like I am back in college. The things I like are the things you buy when you are a poor college student. I like the card board pizzas, ramen noodles, potatoes, rice, bananas, apples, yogurt, popsicles, doritos, grilled cheese sandwiches, burritos, chocolate milk, and fruit smoothies. Oh, don't worry I am getting my vegetables by cheating. I now drink the V8 Juice.

Everyone should feel bad for Bryan I think I have cooked dinner maybe a total of five times in the past three months. He has been really great about dealing with my eating habits and letting me buy what I want to eat (even though he wants me to eat better). I know Bryan is excited to go visit our family because he might actually get to eat real food for a couple of weeks. :o)

We're Alive...

So I know it has been almost two months, but most of you may know that I have a good reason for not blogging. I have been extremely sick for the last two months and it seems that it may not end for another seven months. If you guessed that I am pregnant you are right. I am 14 weeks pregnant and other than being sick all the time things are going well. We will find out in November what the sex of the baby is. Here is our first picture of our baby.



To catch everyone up on the last two months we have been very busy. In August we got a visit from Dad, Mom, and Jenneca. We were able to do lots of fun things. it was really nice of them to come and visit us. We love having visitors.



For Labor Day we went to St. Louis with some friends and had a blast. If you are thinking about visiting St. Louis I highly recommend going. There are plenty of places to visit and the weather was great. Check out our pictures by clicking on the one below.



The end of September we were able to go to Utah and visit our family and friends. It was a short trip, but very enjoyable. We were able to get some camping in along with some volleyball. We also ate at places we don't have here in the South. We are excited because we get to return in a couple of weeks to attend Paul and Jan's wedding and also bless Taija.



Some of you may be wondering who Taija is. Well, Taija is our newest family member. My little sister Toshi delivered Taija on October 2. Just four days after we returned to MS.



I know this is a ton and I hope to do better about blogging.