Coming in Feb 2011...

Doug the dad.and

Tricia the mom.

..........

if you can believe it.

it has taken me 10 weeks to fully believe it myself.

and then to actually announce it, because then it's really real.

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A couple months ago a huge surprise happened. I wasn't feeling great and you will never guess what the cause was? I was pregnant. Definitely not planned. Doug was woken up very abruptly at 4:00 am to a very distraught wife.

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But we are so happy and feel blessed to be so lucky. I was reading in a maternity/obstetrics book at work tonight and I came upon this quote talking about finding out that you are pregnant: "No other life experience can evoke such absolute joy or else such pains of profound despair." Sadly I have to admit that each of those emotions were felt when we found out. The first was felt by Doug. He is such a happy, optimistic, and smart boy. He knew this would be a wonderful thing and he was excited and immediately happy.

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The second by me. I was so sad at first. It wasn't the right timing, it wasn't what we had planned for, and on and on. Slowly I have come to see that this will be great and I am excited now and very happy. I feel so lucky in my life right now. I have a great husband who is doing good in school. I have a good job, a wonderful family, and we are going to really be starting our family now. Life is good.

Happy Birthday Nate

I am working tonight so I am taking this time to update all that I have been slacking on...hence the large amount of blogging after such a drought. Today my nephew Nate had a birthday party for his 16th birthday...if you can believe that I have nephews that old. It is crazy for me to think of Nate dating and driving, but the ladies in Salem, UT sure are lucky to have a handsome boy like him around. Anyway, for his party they had a giant slip and slide and it was so fun. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

Doug and I decided that Bow needed a little more excitement in his life, so Doug gave him some fun. We don't know if he enjoyed it or hated it. The boy gave us no reaction.

Doug, RN

Great news! Doug got accepted into UVU's nursing program, starting this fall! He has worked so hard to get good grades because their program is pretty competitive and I so proud that he got in. Doug will make the 3rd nurse in my family (me, my sister Aly, then Doug). I know he will be a great nurse for the time that he does nursing. After he works a year or two as a registered nurse, then we will head off to school for nurse anesthetist or CRNA for short. A CRNA does basically the same thing that an anesthesiologist does. It's like a PA compared to a MD.

So watch out all you female nurses, the male nurse is coming!

Salmon River 2010

Doug and I had the most wonderful vacation ever last week. We went on a whitewater rafting trip for 5 days on the Salmon River, in the great state of Idaho. My friend Alison and her husband Vance worked a few trips this summer as guides, so we decided to join them for the fun and good company. I have been down the river two times before, but this was Doug's first time and he had a great time. We spent each day floating down the river and at night we camped on beaches along the river. Ali and Vance have some serious skills. They knew all the rapids and were legit river guides. It was fun to see them in action. Ali must have some serious arm muscles from rowing each day down the river. We traveled around 80-90 miles total and went through some pretty fun rapids.

These wonderfully dressed men washed all the guests hair. They spoke in great Russian accents and were pretty funny to listen to. After a few days on the river it really feels nice to get your hair washed.

There is a great activity called body womping that we tried out...well Doug tried it out. You run from the beach and jump on the upside down raft into the water. As you jump on the raft, the people on the side pull it up so you are launched into the river. I attempted my very first video on the blog, so if it works you can view one of Doug's runs.

The last night we all dressed up for dinner and then had a variety show. Doug surprisingly enough picked this outfit out all by himself and proudly wore it all night long. Below is our tent that Vance so kindly wrote our name in cursive on...making us feel oh so special.

The group that went was pretty fun. There were only 8 official guests and the rest included friends like Doug and I, other guides, guides in training and so on. A good group for sure.

The last day on the river was a shorter day, so I thought it would be fun to go on the 2 person inflatable kayak with Doug. We got going down the river and I soon realized that we had 3 big rapids to get through. Doug was thrilled and I was too, but a little nervous as well. So we got through #1 perfectly, but #2 and #3 were another story. On rapid #2, "chittum" we went over the rapid and Doug fell out of the kayak. I had no idea he had fallen out and no idea he was below the kayak getting recirculated by the rapid. Once I realized that I was the lone person in the kayak and started paddling out of the rapids trying to see him and then he popped right up! That was a big relief. I thought of a good shirt idea to sell after the rapid "chittum". It would say " I shit 'em in chittum" Doug thinks he did actually do that.

Then rapid #3 came along and we went a little too far right and hit a good set of rapid that knocked us both out the kayak. Doug kept coming up right under me and then he would try and push me out of the way to he could get some air. This was all while we are going through a bunch of other smaller whitewater. It was pretty exciting, cold, and enough for me for the day!

Some fun home remodeling

A few weeks ago Doug and I tore up our house. It was fun, kind of. But now that we are done, I love the end result. We got our windows replaced, our outside doors replaced, painted our kitchen and living room and the biggest improvement was our new flooring.

Doug being as thoughtful as ever...


These were a few gross things we found while pulling up our linoleum floor. A dried cucumber and disgusting band aid. I want to know who just lays linoleum over things like this.

We had ugly linoleum already in our kitchen and to our surprise there was another layer below of even uglier flooring! It was a lot of work getting it up, but definitely worth it.

I am so happy that summer is here and vacations are lining up! My sweet sister Alyson graduated from nursing school last week, so our family traveled down to Arizona for her graduation. I must state that I am quite impressed with all that she has done the past couple years. She has gone through a lot and done a wonderful job.

All the kids fell asleep while playing Risk, I thought Gavin's sleeping arrangement was the best.

For Mother's Day we gave all the mom's the day off. So my brother Steven, his kids, Aly and I made a delicious dinner. Eliza loved helping with the brownies, mainly the cleanup.

Aly and my sister-in-law Kristy did a triathlon on Saturday and both did a great job. It was really fun to watch them transition from swimming to biking to running. They made me realize that it is time to get back into exercising. Doug and I both have not run at all since our half marathon. We will be changing that soon though.

Before getting to Mesa I stopped by my sister Shannon's house in Eager, AZ. She lives 30 min. away from my Grandpa Hall and it was so nice to visit with her and my grandpa. Her son Kade is such a boy and we caught him playing in the mud one day. He was so pleased with himself, until Shannon stripped him down and hosed him off.

Of course, we had to stop by the famous El Camino in St. Johns, AZ. St. Johns is a small town and just about every time I have gone to visit my grandpa we have stopped by to eat at this Mexican restaurant. My Aunt Laura also lives there and it was so nice to visit with her.

Here are some pictures from our first Sommers girls retreat. Doug's mom, sister Brooke, sister-in-law Becca, and I all went down to St. George for the weekend. We hiked in Zion's, went shopping, ate delicious food, and watched the iron man competition. The iron man triathlon was amazing to see. What a motivation and inspiration these people were.

As many of you may know, my dear husband does in fact like Pokemon. You may wonder why...I have asked myself the same question. But he does enjoy it quite a lot. A few weeks ago he had a Pokemon party at our house, so I decided to support his cause with poke-cake. I am taking a cake decorating class in June, so this was my first attempt without proper schooling. Bow sure wanted a bite of it, but he didn't get it.

Well that's about all the excitement going on in our lives. Our next bit of excitement is some home remodeling. So look forward to pictures of the newly improved house. We are getting new doors, windows, floors, and of course painting. Oh the fun that lies ahead!

All the children that we need

When Doug and I are gone for extended hours in the day, we just barricade Bow in the kitchen because there isn't much he can ruin. Plus, he loves to sit on the window seal and watch people walk or drive by. After Easter I made the mistake off leaving a grocery bag full of eggs on the kitchen floor while bow was being held captive. Despite it being tied, he managed to get all the eggs out and spread amongst the kitchen. I guess it was his way of celebrating Easter with us.

Don't judge what I am wearing, it was early in the morning and a bit cold outside. This picture shows that Doug and I have found our perfect child. I didn't even have to strap him in the stroller, he was so obedient.