Update on Elder Jimmy

James reached his 8 month mark yesterday. Wow, that has gone by fast. It seems like he just left. Before we know it, we will be heading to the airport to pick him up. He is still in the town of Ponce where he has been for the last few months. He just had a transfer and his companion Elder Secrist got transferred to a new area, leaving James in Ponce as the senior companion and training a new missionary. He was pretty sure he would be put with a native companion that didn't speak English. He was hoping for this. It would be a way for James to learn the language even better, and it would make training a bit easier, considering he wouldn't have to do much in the language area. Here is a bit from last weeks email.....

"This week has been a pretty busy/crazy one. Transfers happened on Tuesday. E. Secrist got his bags all packed and by about 10:00 in the morning he was out of the house. I was then left there until 1 (which was really weird being by myself haha) until my new companion showed up. When the van pulled up I went outside and started trying to guess which of the latin missionaries piling out of the car was my companion. After looking for a few seconds, another missionary pointed him out. As said last week, I thought that President Antivilo was going to place me with a spanish speaker so that I could improve my skills with the language, but I guess he thought differently. Elder Rohwer´s new companion is Elder.....(drum-roll please).....Campbell, from Salt Lake City, Utah. Needless to say I was scared right out of my socks when I realized that I would be training an American instead of a Spanish speaking missionary, but I suppose the Lord helps us rise to the callings we´re given :)"

His shoes after 8 months

This is a kitchen in one of the homes.

HA HA...

I love this picture, it looks like one you would see in the conference issue of the ensign.

2 Years... and many more to go

Josh and I have been married two years today, and what a wonderful two years it has been! There are many things that I love about being married to Josh, but I am just going to share a few of my favorites.
-I love to lay in bed at the end of the day and talk to Josh.
-I love that Josh and I can laugh together.
-I love that I can ask Josh any trivia question and he ALWAYS knows the answer.
-I love watching Josh eat ice cream. (This may be confusing to some, but if you were to see it, you would know what I mean)
-I love that Josh talks in his sleep.... especially when he tries to convince me that he wasn't.
-I love that Josh and I are Best Friends.


Happy Anniversary Josh. I love you!

Does Drake have his pajamas on?

Sunday night we were at my aunt and uncles house for dinner. The baby was moving like crazy and I thought it would be fun for my little cousins to feel him move. Boston loved it. Every time the baby moved Boston would laugh and get so excited. It was really cute! After sitting there for a while snuggled up to me with his hand on my belly, his dad told him it was time to go to bed and he needed to go and put his pajamas on. He sat there thinking for a bit and asked me...."Does Drake have his pajamas on?" Oh it was the sweetest thing. After a couple more minutes of sitting there touching my belly he then asked...."When are you going to be skinny again?" This wasn't so sweet, but very funny. I look forward to the days when my own kids will say funny things.

Wood Family Reunion 2009

Two weekends ago was the Wood Reunion in Bear Lake. It was a blast. We stayed in a cabin just above Pickleville Playhouse right on the golf course. The weather was perfect....(not too hot for this pregnant gal). Friday night we had dinner and cake and ice cream for Syd and Andi's birthdays, and Robin and Ted's anniversary. We stayed up late playing the famous Wood Family Game "Back Alley Bridge" seriously the best game ever invented, it is so fun and I look forward to playing this game every time we get together with the Wood's. When we went to bed that night, I made the mistake of trying to plug my phone charger in behind the nightstand..... there in front of my lie the one thing I hate the most (besides deer) and that is a mouse! This mouse was dead! I didn't know whether to scream, cry, throw up, pass out or start heading back to Logan? I did neither of those, but made Josh get it out of our room and check the entire room for another one. After about an hour of being freaked out I finally fell asleep, but only to wake up again and again to use the potty!

Saturday was a great day in Bear Lake. We all stayed in our Pj's till about 1:00 in the afternoon. It was awesome! We went to La Beau's for lunch and then the beach. The kids had fun in the sand, and the boys enjoyed playing water baseball. Thanks to Barb I had someone who just sat on the beach with me! That night the boys went golfing. It was our night for dinner and I did it pretty simple.... Pizza, salad, watermelon and veggies. Then for dessert some hot chocolate chip cookies! Again, we played games and just enjoyed hanging out and visiting with each other. Well... that night was going just great until Jonathan uttered a few simple words...."Oh there is a mouse". Yup.... one ran across the kitchen floor. Well again all of those emotions came about, but I was tough and made it through the night! It is amazing that such a small creature can scare me so bad... and that such a stupid creature like a deer can also scare me so bad! I have been afraid of them my whole life, and there is just no getting over it. When someone asks me what is more scary a deer or a mouse....They just don't compare, they are both scary. I am not scared about a deer running out from under my bed, and I am not scared to hit a mouse in my car. I guess it depends on where the animal is that makes it more scary!

Sunday was another great/fun day. We took a short drive and a small hike to Bloomington Lake. It was so pretty there! We packed a lunch and took family pictures. There was a rope swing that all of the boys went on, even Logan! It looked really fun and it made me wish I could do it, but at the same time, I was happy I had an excuse not too, cause I probably would have chickened out!

Well, this reunion was a hit. Thank you Brad for planning it, you did a great job. It was so fun to see family that we haven't seen for a little while. I really wish we all lived closer to each other. I feel so lucky to have such great in-laws who all care about me and I can have fun with. I love you all so much. Thanks for a great weekend!

Josh and me on the beach at Bear Lake

This is Brad and Emmy's doing... I think Emmy enjoyed Logan being in the sand where there wasn't much he could do but just lay there.

Uncle Brad with the kids.

Syd and Barb

The Karren Family

Jonathan and Andi

The Wood Family

Ted and Cooper

My cute sister in-law Robin

Josh gettin ready to go on the rope swing

Josh

Ted

Jonathan

Logan was so brave! Once he did it the first time he did it over and over again.

Logan

I love this boy. I hope Drake is as sweet as he is!

What a great picture to end with. We all spent a lot of time doing this!

I am so grateful I am not an elephant!

All I can say is, I am so grateful I am not an Elephant! I complain that 9 months is way to long, well....being pregnant for 9 months is a piece of cake. An elephant is pregnant for 22 months. Labor is usually at the most 24 hours. An elephant is in labor for 3 days. I will most likely give birth to a baby that weighs 7-9 lbs. The birth weight of a baby elephant is 250 lbs. YIKES! The average time for nursing a baby is 1 year. An elephant nurses for 3 years. A newborn baby eats 2-4 oz. of milk per day. A baby elephant eats 3 gallons of milk per day. When you bathe a newborn baby, they are clean and smell good. When a baby elephant bathes, he will spray dirt on himself to get the parasites off, and sometimes even bathe in mud. And last but not least a baby elephant poops 80 lbs. per day. These are great things to remember when a complaint about pregnancy, labor or dirty diapers come my way.

Drake and Josh

If you have kids, you know who these two are. If not, let me tell you a little bit about them. They are Drake and Josh, or in the Nickelodeon world commonly known as "Drosh". Drake & Josh is an American sitcom that premiered on the Nickelodeon television network on January 11, 2004, that follows the lives of two step brothers Drake Parker and Josh Nichols. Drake is described as an easygoing, simple, lucky, lazy, popular, and attractive teenage boy who plays guitar and easily gets girls while Josh is a diligent, unlucky, dorky, sarcastic, teenager who constantly has to deal with Drake's mischievous behavior.

My reasoning for sharing this information is to announce the name of our baby. All of you know that my husband's name is Josh, so I bet you can all guess what the baby's name is....... yep you got it..... Drake! It wasn't until after we picked the name that I was informed there is a show on Nickelodeon called "Drake and Josh". I knew if it was on Nickelodeon it couldn't be a bad show, so I just put it behind me. Well little did I know, a lot of people know about this show, and I am at the top of the list with all of the kids I know for being the coolest person ever! This show must be pretty awesome!

So.... there is going to be another "Drosh" in this world, and I am going to have my own version of "Drake and Josh" right in my own home. But I do have to say I think my Drake and Josh are way more handsome! I love you both!

"That's what you get for waking up in Vegas..."

Ok... so that song doesn't necessarily go with our trip. But it does say "Vegas" in it, and it happened to be the song that was playing in our mini van when we left the car rental place, and again when we returned. A great song to start, and end our girl's trip. There were six of us that went. Three of us are pregnant and the other three all have toddlers the same age. It was a well deserved trip for all 6 of us.

We stayed at the Bellagio. A beautiful hotel where a glass of orange juice only costs $7.50.

One of the highlights of the trip for me, was the shopping. And my favorite place we went was H&M. I love that store, it has everything! We had fun buying stuff for ourselves, and the three of us that were pregnant enjoyed buying baby clothes. It was extra fun, because we are all having boys!

We went out to eat at a mexican restaurant at Mandalay Bay.

Hayley and Whitney

Me and Julie

Karly and Chauri

We went to the "Lion King" at Mandalay Bay. It was amazing. The music and dancing were great, and the costumes were unbelievable. I really enjoyed seeing this show.

One of the reasons we love Hayley: She shows much enthusiasm when riding an elevator, and lets us know when she is done with shopping!

In front of the Bellagio, where we later watched the fountains. You might not be able to tell, but in this picture we are all dripping with sweat. It was 114 degrees! Also, all of us wearing purple was not planned.... and this was the day that we took most of our pictures. So in every picture there is a lot of PURPLE!

We went to the "Cheesecake Factory" for dinner. The dinner was good, but lets be honest the best part was the cheesecake. And thank you Whitney for introducing me to my new favorite kind.

And.... with three pregnant girls we didn't miss meals. Before shopping we made a stop at "In & Out"

Karly and Me in our hotel with a cute little frog.

Julie apparently thinks she is a gangster. Oh I love this picture of you Julie!

This picture is the closest thing you are going to get of me pregnant in a swimming suit. The pool was so nice. This part of the trip was delightful, and humorous. The three of us pregnant gals got picked up on in the pool.... the look on the guys face when he found out, not only are we married but all three pregnant, was priceless! His mind was quickly changed when he saw all three of us struggling to get out of the pool. While at the pool we treated ourselves to some "virgin" pina coladas. A man that was also ordering a drink said to me, "Oh come on, live a little get one with some boos!" Apparently he didn't see the big bump protruding from me. I guess that's how they do it in Vegas.

As you can see, we had so much fun! The shopping, eating out, Lion King and the pool were all a great part of the trip. But..... the best part was getting to know all of these girls better, and laughing so hard. It always feels good to get a good laugh in.... and we did this for three days straight. Thanks for being such great friends, I am a lucky girl. Also, a big thanks to Josh for encouraging and paying for me to go! I am already counting down the days for our next girls trip!