I decided it would be way too hard to start blogging from where I left off, so here is a very brief update of what we have been up to for the past what, 8 months?...
MAY - we (ryan and i) went mushroom picking over in Oregon with a very dear friend of mine.
JUNE - we traveled pretty much all summer long. back and forth to star valley and to visit lots of my family in eastern Idaho. One of the visits was to my home of when i was a little girl.
JULY - visiting more family in eastern Idaho, and watched the firework show in Idaho Falls.
AUGUST - lousy huckleberry picking in the mountains.
SEPTEMBER - my birthday weekend ryan took me to the California and Oregon coast. We got to visit the redwoods. and we saw a bunch of lighthouses all the way up the coast. the ocean was breath taking. then we went up to Washington to visit my sister's family. always a good time.
OCTOBER - we found out we are EXPECTING! we are sooo excited and can't wait to meet baby coming this June. my sister in-law, her son and also her friend and i were also in the color run. It was soo cold! but we still had a good time.
NOVEMBER - was the start of our announcements. we told my family on Thanksgiving day. it was really fun to watch their reactions. both of my sisters cried. it was really sweet. we didn't announce to ryan's family until the 22nd of december... at the Van Leuven Christmas Party. it was really hard to keep it a secret for so long, but it was the perfect time, because the whole family was there together. we announced with a white elephant gift. we bought the movie momma mia and covered 'mia' with 'charly' and then under it we put June 2013, then we bought some pacifiers to add to it. the best part was that nobody got it at first. it took quite a while for anyone to catch on. hilarious!
DECEMBER - the 8th we went to Washington to be there for my nephew's special day. he turned 8 the 7th, so we got to be there to celebrate his birthday and then then next day we able to be there while he was baptized. he asked my mom, sister and i to sing at his baptism. it was so fun to be there all together for such a spiritual experience.
we cut down our tree only 2 weeks before Christmas because of all the traveling we had been doing. but that's ok, we got to enjoy it until the new year.
we got to spend a lot of time with family this month. traveled to Utah to visit my aunt and my dad spent the weekend there with us too. we saw the lights that weekend.
we spent Christmas Eve with my mom and her husband, and my sister, our new tradition to a japanese restaurant where they have a grill at your table and they cook up your food right in front of you with all kinds of tricks. then we spent some time with ryan's family at his sisters house. Christmas day we had lunch at his sisters house and then fondu at my mom's right after then back to his sisters where we celebrated his nephew's birthday who turned 8 the 27th! we are so excited to be a part of his big day at his baptism January 5th!
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
