Ode to a great husband and father!

Today I have been married to my wonderful man for four years! In these four years, we have moved six times (making our seventh in December), even all the way from New Jersey. Between the two of us, we have held 11 different jobs and owned six different cars. Nathan has almost completed medical school, but I am still learning to be a mom :) So really, in all, we have done a lot of learning and growing in the past four years; tried to buy a house and failed, only to find out what a blessing that was when the market took a downfall in the next few months, and scheduled a cruise only to miss the boat but end up needing the money from the refund. Nathan helped me through two miscarriages and has put up with me through one and a half pregnancy's (which is a lot considering the mood swings and anxiety I get when I'm pregnant) The best part is he's done it with a smile and is always telling me how beautiful he thinks I am. I'm so glad that we've done it all together. It would have been nice if I could have instead put things like: In the past four years we have gone to Europe, China and Australia, ran a marathon together and swam with sharks, but I can't and that's ok. There will be a time for all that. But for now, I'm just glad I'm married to the man I am, the children he's given me and for the wonderful husband and father he is.

Just letting Julia decorate.


He loves to play with her. She loves this new idea "taking turns". So she jumps, does a trick, and then it's "your turn", she says.

Fourth of July in Pinetop

We spent this fourth of July weekend up in Pinetop. My friend Jenna invited us to stay with her and her family up there. We had so much fun! The weather was so beautiful! We were there Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. I wish we could have stayed longer! Nathan and I went on a run every morning when it was bright and sunny, and then by two it was usually raining. It would stop around early evening, though.

Julia really liked going out and climbing on the deer family they had in the back of their cabin. She also liked running on the golf course, playing with there dogs and just receiving so much attention! She was the only little one with six adults, so she soaked it up!

She said, "It doesn't work, Mom." It took her a second to figure out the elk was fake.

We watched fireworks Friday night. Julia liked them at first, but then fell asleep. We were all really tired from playing all day :)
Saturday night they had a party with all their friends in the neighborhood. It was a blast! We BBQ'd and then roasted marshmallows, yum!
I also want to mention Sunday was Jenna's fiance's, Phillip, birthday. So he got to spend his special day driving home with us. Happy birthday!


Thank you so much Jeff and Cher for sharing your fun cabin with us!!!

Great new blog!

Most of you know I used to work for a swim school in Phoenix called Hubbard Family Swim School. Well, I just recently received an email notifying me that the owner, Bob Hubbard, now has a blog! I'm so excited about this, because I really look up to him and his ideals. If you want any of his advice on parenting or swimming, check it out: http://swimschoolbob.blogspot.com/ I highly recommend it :)

Tagged Again!

I've been tagged again! I like this one b/c I just learned so much about my friend, Elisa, who tagged me, after reading hers. So here goes: How To Play This Game of Tag: Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, & 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!
Joys:
1. Julia & Nathan. I can't believe how much my priorities changed after Julia was born. I'm at the point were I think I need her more than she needs me. People always comment on how nice it must be living with my mom so that I have a built in babysitter, but the truth is, I don't usually leave Julia with her unless she's napping. I pretty much take Julia everywhere with me b/c I miss her so much when I'm gone. Even just for an hour. I am so happy to see her in the morning when she wakes up. I'll even wake her up sometimes! (I know, I'm crazy) I feel whole with her in my life :) Same with Nathan. He is a wonderful husband. He takes such good care of Julia and I, and does such a good job putting up with all the drama around him. (It's hard living with your wife's family). He is so bright, and I'm very proud of everything he has accomplished in school and life. He is a worthy priesthood holder and loves the Lord. I couldn't ask for anything more!
2. Disneyland! OK, this one will be short. You don't have to know me well to know I love Disneyland. I've been there over 20 times since I was one. So for me it is a magical place full of memories. And now that I'm older, I want to share those memories with my kids. Can't wait to move to LA!!!
3. My "BIG" family. I have a huge family. I'm the oldest of eight kids, my mom's the oldest of ten and my dad's the second oldest of seven! It is so fun! And even though we do not yet know how large we want our family to be, I find so much joy in being part of a large family!
Fears:
1. Death. The closest person to me that has died is my great grandmother Allen. She died the summer of 2003, and I still get really sad when I think about it. I'm afraid of what would happen to life if I lost someone even closer, like my Grandma, who's been sick for a while, one of my parents, or my child. I can't even think about it or I get horrible anxiety.
2. Scorpions. I never even thought about these little devils until we had an infestation at our apartment in Glendale. And then once Julia was born I couldn't sleep at night, worrying whether they would get to her or not. That's why we got our cat. But we just ended up moving anyway.
3. Ghosts, Aliens, the unknown... I know, I'm such a baby. I am terrified of these things, though, and that is one reason we are not living alone while Nathan is gone. I'm just a big Scaredy Cat!
Goals:
1. Potty training Julia before baby boy comes! We've already started. I figured it might take 4 months, so we started early. So far she has about a 20% chance of going in the toilet. Hopefully she will get better, b/c I can not afford to put two kids in diapers!
2. Get my bachelors degree. I was half way there when I dropped out to work full time when Nathan started Medical School. Hopefully when my kids are both in school, I'll go back and finish up. It might take me longer, though, b/c my major was Spanish and I've pretty much forgotten everything I'd learned.
3. Go on a mission with my husband. Nathan and I got married before he was able to serve a full time mission, so we would really like to serve together later in life.
Current Obsessions/ Collections:
1. Buying Julia clothes and shoes. I've actually done well lately, since we've been trying save for our move to California, but she has more clothes and shoes than both Nathan and I. I just love how cute she looks in everything!
2. Potty training Julia. I've been buying her so much stuff, princess panties, princess toys, and princess movies, to bribe her. I also make myself crazy asking her all the time if she has to "go".
3. Working out. Here's another one where you don't have to know me well to know I'm obsessed with working out. I wake up every morning at 5 to either go to spinning, weight lifting or go run 7 miles. It's my high. If I don't wake up early enough to go, I obsess about finding another time in my day to workout (which is hard with Julia).
Surprising Facts:
1. I like to watch the History and Discovery channels. There's just so much randomly interesting information out there!
2. I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was growing up. And I can't wait to live by the Ocean! Dolphins, whales, sharks, octopus, they all fascinate me (that's why I love that discovery channel!)
3. I can still do a back handspring, and a round off-back handspring. I know my cheerleader days are long gone, but I've still got the skills! :)

I tag Arabeth, Heather, Kara, my mom, and Jennifer.

IT'S A BOY!!!

Nathan and I found out yesterday that we are going to have a son! I wish I could have captured the look on Nathan's face when he found out. He was beaming with pride. Not that he doesn't love his daughter, but he is so excited to have a boy. The doctor said everything looked great on the ultra sound, so no worries there. We got some pictures of the face, body and his parts :) but our scanner isn't working, so that would make it difficult to post. I don't know how well it would turn out anyway, since my loving daughter has already taken her chance at crumpling up the picture! I handed it to her b/c she wanted to see the baby, and then when she was done looking at it, she started crumpling it into a ball as if it were trash! Is this a sign of things to come? She's already picking on her little brother, and he's still in the womb!

Purse Tag

My friend, Arabeth, tagged me. I am to disclose the contents of my purse. For those of you who have ever seen the inside of my purse, this is very scary. In fact, Nathan calls it "the abyss", if that helps you understand what we're dealing with. I told Arabeth I would still do it, though, so here goes: wallet, diapers, wipes, fruit snacks, crackers, hard candy, gum, mints, granola bar, chocolate, taffy, smarties, easy mac, pens, crayons, reciepts, keys, purell, lotion, perfume, Julia's play phone, hair tie, hair clip, chapstick, spare change, perscription painkillres, little tot books, camera, checkbook, tylenol, planner, kleenexes, nail file, Julia's hair bows, visine, Julia's play make-up, nailpolish, Tide to go pen, cough drops, paycheck stubs, shopping list and my phone.
I think I might need to clean out my purse.
I tag Kara and Catherine

Nathan's Rotation Rollercoaster

Most of you know that Nathan was leaving in July for rotations for school, and then coming back in November when we will then move to Flagstaff until he graduates. Well, he received a phone call Thursday that left him a little stressed and upset. Apparently the program he was super excited to attend in Tuba City (just outside Flagstaff) is dropping it's student program. So this left Nathan with nowhere to go the month of July as well as November through April. After working on his case for a little while, the school informed him that the program he got accepted to at Yale would still take him, or he could go to the Phoenix VA. Neither of those options sounded good to us since Yale is all the way on the east coast and I'm due the month we would need to leave, and he's been at the Phoenix VA a few months all ready, so he wanted to go somewhere new. Nathan went ahead and asked them if there was anyway he could get in somewhere on the west coast (San Diego, LA, SF, Portland or Seattle). Turns out UCLA had an opening, and we won't have to go until December. We just need to wait for the director to look over his transcripts and accept him. I'm not too worried though, seeing that Nathan is ranked third in his class (sorry, I'm bragging). So now Nathan is just going to a local doctor office for the month of July, Salt Lake in August, Denver in Sept, Virginia in October, and hopefully somewhere local in November before we move to LA December to May. I am so excited about this new schedule for two reasons: A) he's now going to be here for July, and B) we will live in California for at least 5 months! It's going to be expensive, but so much fun! We can go to the beach and Disneyland all we want! I think I'm a little more excited than Nathan :)