It's been awhile...

Well, it's definitely been a long time since my last post. 15 weeks to be exact (it's easy to know that when you're pregnant). It seems like a lot has happened between now and my last post too, but Jared and I are still doing well, and we are anxious for our little girl to get here.

So I am at 35 weeks now, which means only about 5 left. I really just hope that I can make it till June 11 or 12 so that I can get through my first two summer classes. I'm done with my spring semester of school and am done working now too, so overall I'm feeling really good. Working with preschoolers was hard on my pregnant body, so it's nice to be able to be at home, especially because I'm able to spend time getting things ready for Julie. She really likes to move around a lot, and it is fun watching my belly roll and move around.

Both Jared and I ended the semester doing really well in our classes. We both got one B and the rest As. Jared got an academic award from the UW Chemistry Department too, so that's great! I am taking four summer classes (2 are the first two weeks in June, and 2 are the first 2 weeks in August), but I need them to be able to do my student teaching and to graduate in December. So even though it could be an interesting couple of weeks in June, and a hard couple of weeks in August, I'm just glad that I'll be done in December and get to stay at home with my little girl after that. Jared isn't taking any summer classes, and is pretty bored staying at home, so he's currently looking for a job. He's signed up for 16 credits in the fall though and is hoping to be a TA for some chemistry classes. I'm going to be doing my student teaching at Spring Creek Elementary School in 3rd grade, and I'm getting excited for that too.

In the last week we've also moved into a new apartment, which was a lot of work too. We really like our new place a lot, and almost everything is unpacked too. With my brother not living with us anymore, we found a smaller less expensive place. It is really close to our old place, but we are in a new ward. It made it pretty easy to move things, and luckily Jared had a lot of help from some great guys that we know. Both of our families also helped out a lot too.

My brother got his mission call and will be going to Anaheim, CA. He enters the MTC on July 7th, so we're excited that he'll still get to meet Julie. We go to the temple with him next weekend. I'm really excited for him and proud of him.

Well other than that, our life is pretty much just waiting for Julie to get here. We spent some time in Riverton this week and are having a birthday party for my brother this weekend in Laramie, so we're glad that we can spend a lot of time with family.

We hope you are all doing well and finally enjoying the springtime! I'm grateful for all the wonderful family and friends in my life and for all the blessings Heavenly Father continues to pour out to our family!

A Baby Girl!

So we had our latest doctors appointment this last Tuesday and we found out that we are having a little girl. Both of us are really excited and have already fallen in love with her. It was great to get newer pictures, and we got a DVD of the ultrasound too. We are pretty sure her name is going to be Julie. I will try to post pictures here soon of her and of my belly (that you can actually see now). Everything seems more real now and it is really nice to be able to call her by her name and say things like "she" and "her." She is already so sweet.

She also is definitely moving around now. Jared first got to feel her a couple weeks ago, and now I really know when she is moving. I am at 20 weeks today, so we are halfway there! I'm really excited to start buying stuff now, but I probably shouldn't go too crazy yet. I know both of her grandmas as well as her great aunts are excited to start looking too.

The semester has started now and we are 4 weeks into it. So far Jared and I are enjoying our classes. We are both taking 18 credits and working, so we stay busy, but it is definitely nice to have most nights together. We sent a deposit into the University of Nebraska for Jared to start dental school in the fall of 2011, so we are excited about that. I also turned in my application to student teach next fall. Another blessing that we have received lately is that Jared got an extra scholarship that we weren't expecting. It has been really nice to put most of it into savings and know that we have it when we need it.

We are grateful for all those of you who love and support us!

Katie

December

This is Katie again...we finally got a cute background for our blog (and I remembered to put a title this time too)! Jared would tell you that he hates the new background, but he said I could pick what I wanted, and I was mostly nice and picked one that was blue and white (his favorite colors).

It is the day after Christmas and we had a great day yesterday. We spent all last week in Casper with my family. I helped my mom with baking, some other projects, and went shopping. Jared spent most of the time playing on his computer, watching TV or reading. We went out to dinner with my family on the 23rd to a fun fancy restaurant, then watched Elf on Christmas Eve and a video about Christ's birth. Christmas morning was fun opening presents and we got some wonderful things from my family. We then had Christmas dinner, with homemade cherry pie, and then came over to Riverton.

Jared went to Thermop with his family today to go swimming and I stayed here and played Wii with my cousin, Becki. The missionaries came over tonight to eat dinner with Phil and Lori too. We're going to be going to Salt Lake on Monday with them to see the lights at Temple Square and to go shopping.

I stared to feel a little bit better last week. I am now 14 weeks along and the baby is still growing and is healthy. My belly is starting to grow a little, but I'm not showing quite yet. We wont know for another 7 weeks or so the gender of the baby, but we do have a couple names picked out.

We heard a bit of news from dental schools this last month too. Jared is accepted at the University of NE-Lincoln for the 2015 class, which means that he will start the fall of 2011. That also means that we will be in Laramie for another year. None of our family is too sad though because the baby will be a lot closer than if we were in Nebraska. Really it will be nice.

We finished up the semester before we went to Casper too with good grades and were glad for the break. We haven't thought about next semester too much yet, but hopefully we'll be ready when school starts again on the 11th. I actually have to be in Casper for a class on the 6th for three days, so I guess I have to be ready by then. I will be doing my student teaching next fall if everything goes well, and will graduate next December.

This past week I've really reflected on how blessed I am and how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me. I am grateful for my wonderful husband, our great families, and all the other many wonderful people in my life!

Life is good

So it's been almost a month since I've added a post but I think I have more than enough to write about now. So Katie is pregnant!!!! That's really the big news right now. We have already been able to get two free sonograms and have been able to see the baby. Katie is just 8 weeks along which puts her due date around June 23rd which is going to be really close to the day that my brother Zack gets home from his mission. We've pretty much decided on a name if it is a girl, and there is still a lot of debate for the name if it is a boy. Katie and I are both really excited about the baby. Katie is so excited that she has already devoted a portion of her time to shopping online for it. The only thing that we've really gotten so far is a stroller, which is technically going to be a Christmas present form my parents. But Katie looked online and found the perfect one so when we went down to Denver over the weekend we stopped at a Babies "R" Us and were lucky to find the exact stroller Katie wanted. Seven months to go and we already have a stroller.

School is going pretty well, I have 3 tests this week. I have a Spanish test tomorrow and on Wednesday I have both a Calc and Biochem test. The Calc test shouldn't be too bad but I'm not looking forward to the Biochem test. I'm actually on a break from studying for that test right now.

The waiting game is continuing for dental school. I won't hear anything from the schools until at least December 1st, so I keep counting down the days. I could actually hear from Nebraska as early as 11:00 pm November 30th because they send out most acceptance e-mails at midnight in Nebraska, so thanks to the time change I could hear an hour before December 1st. November 30th is two weeks from today, but I'm only counting 6 days of that because weekends and Thanksgiving break don't really count.

Well I need to get back to studying Biochem. Wish me luck.

So it's my turn to write this time. Jared has been hogging all the posting...and by the way, not even mentioning it to me. It's Thursday night and Jared is out tutoring. I just got back from a meeting with some parents who's son I'm going to hang out with after school in November and doing some Visiting Teaching. We're headed to Casper tomorrow to surprise my dad for his birthday, and I'm really excited about it. I still have a lot to do before we go though, both homework and housework. School is still going well. Jared did great on his Calculus midterm, and has a Psychology test tomorrow. I did an assignment yesterday and today and found out that it's not due till next week, but I still have several more things to do. Work is going well, but I'm definitely ready for the weekend. I'm not sure if Jared has told anyone that this blog exists, but if he has, I wish everyone a happy Friday and a great weekend!!!

About to start another week

Me and Katie had a pretty good weekend, we were able to go Fort Collins on Saturday to do a little shopping, and mostly relaxed today. There is a Five Guys in Fort Collins and I was pretty excited to be able to get lunch there. I think me and Katie might open up in Five Guys and a Panera Bread in Casper at some point in the future, it's at least a good thought. I have a psychology test this week and I'll find out how I did on my Calc mid-term by at least Tuesday. Katie will hopefully find out about her mid-term paper for history too, she wrote it on Emma Lazarus, who wrote the poem "The New Colossus" which is on the base of the statue of liberty. I bought some jeans from Hollister in Fort Collins and really like them, I was quite surprised. They are cheaper than Abercrombie ones and I like them better too. Well that was the weekend I hope it didn't come off too scattered.

Calc mid-term last night

So I didn't post anything last night but I have a few minutes before Biochemistry begins, so I thought I would give a quick update. I had a Calc midterm last night then tutored for a couple hours. I was really pleased with how the Calc midterm went, I think I will get a good grade but I guess we'll see. Then after tutoring I came home and helped Katie with some homework because she had a lot and was kinda overwhelmed. My TA is doing the lecture for Biochem today, and he drinks coffee just like a real professor would during lecture, guess he's on the right track. Lecture has started so I guess that's it for now.

Another day down

So I seem to find myself thinking and waiting for December 1st (the day the first set of dental school acceptance letters get sent out). I don't like just waiting around now, I'd rather be doing something. December 1st could become a new personal holiday if all goes well. I didn't have much homework today, just tutored a couple hours. Katie was the lucky one with homework tonight.

Finished all the Homework

Well it's four past midnight and I just finished all the homework. Calculus was pretty tough for awhile, I couldn't figure out why I was getting the questions wrong but figured out I was just entering my answers in wrong. Then I did 20 pages in my spanish workbook. Katie went to go get ready for bed about a half hour ago, I think she's reading the last twilight book.... again.

Back from Lincoln

Me and Katie just drove back 7 hours from Lincoln, NE for a dental school interview. We were able to visit both University of Nebraska and Creighton University. The interview went really well and me and Katie both really liked Lincoln. Now all I can really do is wait till December to find out if I'm in. The drive back took forever.